Dive into the untold stories of resilience and faith as PGA Tour standouts Scottie Scheffler, Russell Henley, Sam Burns, and Stewart Cink share their personal journeys on and off the golf course. Join us for an inspiring conversation filled with life lessons, triumphs over hardships, and the role of Christian faith in their remarkable careers. 🏌️♂️✨ Don’t miss this exclusive peek into the lives of these incredible athletes and discover the powerful stories that drive them forward!
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So we’re excited to be back with you it’s a privilege for me to be over here uh each year for the last I don’t know maybe 2016 and Uh something’s been going around I don’t know a bug of some sort so we weren’t able to do it last year uh
And we were disappointed to see that but we’re back in action and uh this is as good a a lineup as we’ve had all these guys and and girls too remember Jarina pillar came up and you guys if you can even get close to Jarina she she was
Amazing uh and by that this is not a performance it’s just we want to get inside your heads and so over these last few years uh from 20 to 21 I was just kind of going money list and doing some study and different things and I noticed
That we have an older States an elder Statesman here that took from 2020 to 2021 increased his uh take-home pay that year by a factor of seven at age 47 and steuart that was unbelievable now Sam so we’ll call that a Resurgence right and then we got Sam Burns to my
Immediate right and Sam also by about a factor of seven from 2020 to 2021 uh you increased your uh was beautiful uh take-home pay by about a factor of seven and and the other two guys Scotty’s just getting started and uh both these guys are 25 years old
Scotty just getting started double it from 2020 to 2021 same with you Russ factor of two so all of you have been surging nobody’s going backwards in terms of what’s been going on so there’s been a lot in in your and again you guys are in the paper you’re always judged by
Your scores you’re judged by those things but I want to get beyond that and say what maybe is a played a role in that so for you guys it’s just you know you’re learning the ropes you’re learning the courses I get that but is there anything maybe in your golf off
Swing in your mental approach uh in your family life and anything that maybe it led to led to this Resurgence in some cases maybe for you guys that have been out there for a while or maybe just now just kind of learning the ropes Ross I
Mean how do as you look back over the last few years I mean you played well and you had that great tournament almost won uh this year so what’s what’s going on give us a little bit of insight we we’re Golf Digest readers so give us a
Free Golf Digest article please yeah um I mean I it I think it goes back to 2020 the start of 2020 for me um I basically feel like I think I was one of the worst Putters on tour and kind of felt like I had The Yips a lot of the
Time and uh my wife um teal she said look you know I was feeling really guilty because I was practicing a lot and she said you know you can just pray about it and you can go putt and work at it and so I just remember her saying
Like I got the kids do I trust you do what you need to do work as much as you need to work and I just kind of started really working on it trying to figure out um why I was putting so bad well I knew why I had no confidence and a lot
Of reasons but that was kind of the start and I just kind of let that bleed into the rest of my game and I feel like this hasn’t been one thing for me exactly as much as just um spending a lot of time working on everything so
Well I mean you you’re consistently te green up in I mean even top 10 I it’s just been amazing your ball striking is there anything in your putting particularly I mean mechanically or just in your head or mentally or was there something was there like an epiphany was
There a moment or it’s kind of like this is this is really going to take me to the next level or was just practice Yeah practice and I did some research um uh actually this last fall I did a lot of research with my putting coach uh Ramone
Banza um and went down to Jacksonville and we put a lot of different Putters on this um I guess it’s a device called capto it’s similar to a Sam’s putting lab if you’ve ever heard of that and with my regular grip my git pressure was changing throughout the stroke and I had
A decent am face rotation and my path was a little off so a lot of bad factors when I tried the claw uh Claw on my right hand my grip pressure didn’t change my path got better and there’s very little face rotation so since I’ve made that change it’s been a lot better
And at first I wasn’t going to do it but actually my brother-in-law who’s my best friend was like look like you’re not going to putt any worse so and I was like you know what I appreciate that so much you’re right and I’m going to try it and so I tried it
And it works better you know there’s a there’s a spiritual story in that but sometimes when it can’t get any worse all right I’ll look up you know that’s awesome brother Stuart I mean this has been an this has been crazy I mean we were talking backstage last time we were
Together was it San Diego open I don’t know we couldn’t even figure out how long ago it was and we were talking if that was eight or nine years ago I don’t know what it was we were talking about this is you know getting towards the latter part of your career who could
Have IM I mean could you have even fathomed You’ve Won eight times on the tour and a quarter of those came has have come after the age of 46 that’s been done a few other times by you know the VJs of the world and things but could you have imagined and what would
You tri that to I mean just anything anywhere you want to take that I mean that’s just awesome well I think for me it goes back to 2019 where I had an injury and surprisingly you know like an injury led to something good but like so
Many times in our lives you think you’re in the weeds and it turns out looking back that it’s like one of the best things ever happened for you too right Romans 8:28 I think says something about that so um in 19 I had an injury and I
Had to miss time first time in my career I ever had to miss any significant time because of an injury and uh I worked hard with my trainer to try to figure out what was going on and part of that was the strengthen areas that need
To be strengthened and the net result of that was that I was more ready to make a change in my golf game where I could be a little bit more efficient especially off the te and I’m a tall person big body and I have a big Arc but I wasn’t
Really utilizing that to my advantage and so uh my coach and I kind of saw that and I wasn’t bad I was just you know in golf talking like fractions fractions so I was able to get my my club path going a little bit more favorable towards delivering energy into
The ball instead of somewhere else it didn’t matter and I picked up about 10 or 12 yards okay now was that was that you talking about your trainer so is this strength is this stretching is combination of both to change your path it’s a little bit of both with the
Trainer you know you it was really mostly about getting stronger to prevent the next injury if it was ever going to happen and what happened was I gave myself a physical platform to make a technical change and to be able to get a little bit more
Efficiency uh hitting up on the ball is a big thing now we’ve learned over the last 10 or so years since the big time yeah so I was able to increase my attack angle and take a little bit of off off the driver and I just I picked up about
Uh I picked up about 12 yards of carry which is huge I makes a difference lines and bunkers and all that and it it took me from like around number 100 in driving distance up to about number 30 which is it’s a big deal if you equate
You know Strokes gain is a big thing and I know it’s a real boring topic to most everybody here but every 10 yards is basically about half a stroke you’re a half a stroke better golfer per round if you can hit it 10 yards further and that
Basic did you Leng your driver or anything or was it just did you change equipment like lengthening the driver at all did you go down that road at all or just so was it bigger wind up yeah I would say a little bit bigger just a little bit more of everything I was
Already doing but my body the key was I was ready to before I wasn’t ready to and I got ready to be able to do that so I was able to to do it and and to sustain it for a long time so was it was
It a quick jump was it kind of linear was it just a little bit 2 miles an hour mile an hour and then few months or Happ I’d say it happened over the span of about 30 seconds really not no seriously no really my my coach identified like you’re just not really
Very efficient right now look at this club head Direction the angle The Loft the spin the shape of the shot you don’t have to have a launch monitor to figure some of that stuff out and he said try this and so um I want you to he told me
Basically two things to do I want you to move the ball position forward and I literally felt like a clown as far as the ball position was forward CU I’d been real cozy with it back right and uh I kept saying like this far he’s like no
More this far more this far and I felt like a clown so you felt like it was way out here yeah and of course he took a picture and showed it and said here’s what it looks like and it looks like every good golfer that I know like him and him and
Him and so um and so that’s one thing and the other thing was it to load more into my right side like I was going to throw a medicine ball through a wall and really load into my right side and so both of those things just help me keep
The club face Square longer and travel faster and catch the ball at a better place in the arc and the ball just started going like a lot farther so I played a couple days ago with Steve Lowry and he is teeing the ball like I
Think the max length on a te is 4 in this is relevant for you at home because most of you hit down on it and what did you get were you did you get two up or what you in terms of your angle of attack did it change by how many degrees
Yeah it changed from back in when I first was well the beginning of that 30 seconds before that I was probably about like 1 and a half to 2° down down okay so what’s that mean is you’re catching the ball on the downswing imparting more spin launching it lower which means it
Goes a lot shorter yeah and you need if you if your driver is moving down when you make impact with the ball you need Loft to help it go in the air and if my hand was a golf ball this right here is not very efficient for Speed but that
Right there is right and so you can decrease the Loft on the driver and you can send the ball more out instead of up right but with your iron B you don’t want to do that because what you do is you hit a guy in the forehead in third
Row right Scotty so when you hit up on an iron you hit a guy in the forehead well I I know he signed his waiver right did it at least get to keep the ball and the trophy I mean you should keep the ball can we get another chair
Up here for him I want him up here we’re just glad you’re here sir and we’re glad you’re alive so uh so Scotty I mean you’ve been out now for just a few years and and I mean incredible last year getting chosen for the rider cup
Which was a bit just huge deal I mean that had to be amazing thing tell us about you’re just kind of your first few years on tour just what anything that’s what’s your what are you learning what are you learning I mean sorry I feel
Like I’m learning a lot I get to bounce a lot of stuff off these guys I’m very blessed to have you know older people in my life that have done this before you know so what I want to know is your dad younger or older than the guy Old Stuart
Okay he’s older than Stuart and I can’t make fun of him too much because I think the first time we played together he was hitting it by me and I was man um but for me like I said it’s just really it’s really good to have these guys to bounce off off bounce
Stuff off of and um getting started on tour playing professional golf I didn’t really know what to expect um I just kind of went about it and just trus in the Lord and having faith and working as hard as I could and and um for me I’m
Just I feel like I’m learning constantly I feel like I’m just getting a little bit better each day and I I wouldn’t say I made too many drastic changes in my golf swing or game since I was maybe you know in middle school I think I’ve kind
Of had a coach who really just kind of helped me get a little bit better over time and like I think Stuart touched on a little bit being healthy and people don’t realize how significant that is I mean you’re playing with an injury it’s almost impossible yeah and I played
Through injuries for a couple years in college and it was awful and I spent I’ve spent a lot of time in the gym over the last four or five years getting healthy into where I feel really good and I think that’s something most amateurs don’t realize either they go
Out and just expect to go on the Range and just hit balls and hit it far and swing hard and do all these things but most amateur golfers that struggle with their swing it’s not because they lack coordination it’s because their bodies physically can’t move the way that
You’re supposed to to hit a golf I’ve seen some that really do lack coordination but still so let me ask you a question so again okay a lot of people say well we’re not going to be traveling to it we’re not going to be trying to hit the
Ball 300 in the air we’re not we just want to enjoy it but what do you give give the give everybody a sense of what you do physically in the gym or whatever that kind of sustains you through not only travel but through you know all the
Balls you hit and everything else yeah I so for me pretty much every day I have the same stretching routine whether or not I’m playing golf or not um does that happen early like right when you get up kind of thing or uh depending on the day
But if I’m at home after a week on the road definitely not first thing in the morning this mornings are a little bit slower but I I have a routine it probably takes 20ish minutes to do every morning and then I mean we spend a lot
Of time in the gym probably working out four or five days a week and just kind of trying to stay in shape for a golfer and but not yeah you guys are fit all right so curs huh that’s all he’s just show Muscle right okay so thanks Scotty that’s so so
Sam this has been a big it’s been a big last 12 months for you I mean it’s incredible I mean you had Valar you had Sanderson Farms two big wins congrats man that is awesome uh I had never met you I was pulling hard for you I really was pulling hard
For you I loved the way that you talked about King your king uh at the end was powerful uh some things you’ve learned I mean over these last few years you had you had a good career on corn faery you got out there you’ve made it give us
Give me a sense of maybe what exceeded your expectations that you know on the Big Show and maybe some things that you didn’t expect yeah I think um you know Scotty and I grew up playing a bunch together we’re the same age um so we played a lot of junior golf
Together and kind of like he said you know when I first got out here I didn’t really know what to expect um and it all just kind of seemed it just kind of a blur I mean everything just you know you’re living by weeks and it’s you know
You go to the West Coast and florid to swing and then you’re just kind of all over the place and most of these course you’ve never played yeah I don’t know you know I show up and I’m asking you know Russell Hey where’s registration Russell’s like is that way duh
Like no Russell would be a lot nicer than that but uh you know it’s just little things like that you get to places now where I’ve been you know three or four times and I know where to go and it just kind of everything just settle in a little bit easier
Um what was the second part of your question no what’s honestly anywhere you want to go but what are some things that you’ve over the last few year how did you go from ok I’m out there you had your first time by the way I I did a
Little reconnaissance on this you played with Tiger Woods you guys were was it third round was the first time you played with tiger Sunday it was Sunday excuse me it was Sunday and there were 8 million people as there always are and Sam gets up there and if he was nervous
He didn’t show it because you know what he said he turns to tiger and I have this on good information he turns to tiger and he says my my gosh I cannot believe this many people have come out to watch me play well I mean in all honesty I just
Wanted to make him laugh like I was just I was so nervous I was like I just got to say something even if it’s stupid like I don’t really care so uh yeah I did say that um so but yeah that’s uh you know that was also tell what was
That like I mean I mean you’ve grown up watching him play yeah I think you know for you know guys like us that’s you know the the guy we watch um was Tiger and and Stuart of course um we did we did thank you uh thank you
Um yeah um no but I mean so you know you get an opportunity to play with uh you know your your golf Idol as a kid and um you’re just there’s so many different things that go through your head and I just remember how nervous I was and I
Saw him in like you know in the locker room before I was in there washing my hands probably Mak making sure I wasn’t about to pass out and I knew he was standing next to me I could just feel it and I was like yeah do I say something
Like you he doesn’t know who I am but obviously I know who he is and he’s like hey uh Hey tiger uh I’m Sam he’s like oh yeah yeah yeah we’re playing together I’m like mhm and uh it’s like we have a mutual friend like David Toms grew up in
Triport where I’m from and so they knew each other and so I told him that whatever and I remember walking out there I was like oh my gosh this this is going to be rough U so what anyways we go play and I just you know thank the
Lord he he blessed me with a great round that day cuz he beat tiger by the way that day he beat tiger um yeah and honestly that was a you know a great moment for me um you know I didn’t have any status at that point I was playing on sponsor
Exemptions and so you know top 10 to get into the following week which was big and yeah I think you know like Scotty said still you know first few years out here just trying to learn as much as I can and um you know I’m incredibly
Thankful for for these guys uh know not only you know to go to with golf stuff but um to know that they’re strong Believers and you know hey man I’m struggling with something in my marriage or I’m struggling with something in my faith like can we talk about it and
They’re always willing so brother thanks that was awesome I Russell you talked about this a little bit a few years ago when when you were here with us and you talked about how significant it was in terms of I mean because you’ve been kind of this spiritual journey of yours has
Been of shorter duration than some of these guys and how significant it was to find guys because it’s a lonely deal out there and now all of a sudden you have this fraternity of sorts always inclusive of anybody that’s not part of the fraternity but still guys like Sam’s
Talking about that you know show you where the registration is but much more than that tell us a little bit about who are some of those guys that have played a big role in your life and what did that look like go on tour and yeah um yeah I think the
First um guy I started hanging out with a lot once I uh the Lord saved me was web um Simpson and Webb’s been somebody I just in in terms of golf or life or marriage like Sam was was talking about all those things I mean he’s somebody I
Always try to bounce ideas off of um and so he was kind of the first guy but Brad Payne who’s the you know president of cgfs college golf Fellowship great great organization he officiated our wedding he’s kind of walked with me throughout and just kind of you know at first it
Was like hey come to tour Fellowship on Tuesday nights and then it’s like hey we’re going to be reading a book you know Cameron Trang is going to be there and you know you know Stewart or or who or Jonathan B so there’s Ryan Blom
There’s just a lot of a lot of guys who are already kind of doing this thing on top of the tour fellowship and then trying to go to their local church and I just realized this isn’t you know this is isn’t just like a Tuesday night like
Um snack time this is like we’re we’re trying to get to know the Lord and just like be in communion with one another and so so Russ did did that give you when you started that Journey did that free you up in ways that maybe not I
Mean because you used to talk I think you talked a little bit about was so identity so hard not to get your identity out of this game because it will I don’t care how good you are it will beat you up at some point things will turn down you’re going to miss Some
Cuts you know status all that kind of stuff did that free you up I mean Jesus talked about Abundant Life and freedom and peace and my peace I leave with you have you found that to be true is that maybe part of the Resurgence in some
Ways I think I think so in some ways I think I’ve just um just kind of started to put more time into every part of my my job and I think a lot of that is just you know becoming a dad and and just kind of kind of just feeling like I need
To be a grownup a little bit I feel like when I was their age I really didn’t work as hard um my life was much more about me it was really just kind of a train wreck and thankfully I was good at golf but other other than that it was
Not going well and um I think it’s just wanting to kind of check all the boxes of um you know being a good dad being a good husband and leading my family well and you know working hard at my job is kind of one of those things yeah thank
You for that thanks buddy yeah so Stuart I I want to ask you I’ve kind of thought about this I want to ask you so you got two guys to your left they’re in their 20s you got a guy to your right in his 30s what would you
Tell the 20-some Stuart sink that now that you’re 48 what would you tell your 20-some Stewart sink and what would you maybe have told also your 30-some year old Stewart sink I probably learned my best lesson on the golf course right here at the Phoenix in my rookie year
All right we’re anxious to hear this and I was probably about their age I might have been a little bit younger my rookie year I was 20 three so I was a little younger than them and I played my first tournament at linta oh yeah yeah well
Back then it was Indian Wells so it was more in Palm whatever that is yeah Palm Desert or Indian Wells yeah Indian Wells and I finished Tai I finished like top 10 in my first tournament as a tour member it wasn’t my first tournament
Ever but it was my first as a member as a m finished ninth and I was big shot and I come here to the second Tournament of the year and I got pair paired with Jeff sluman who’s at the time probably maybe not quite as old as I am but maybe
Like 42 or three a veteran golfer for a long time yeah PGA CH PGA Championship winner yeah and I’m just getting to know everybody and figuring out where registration is and stuff like that and so I go out there the first day and I’m about to set the world on fire just
Finished top 10 in my first tournament I was rookie of the year on the uh what used to be the Nike tour corner fairy tour or player the year the year before and I go out there and throw about a 76 at him and I acted like the biggest
Goober out there like got mad and like threw not in throw clubs but slammed stuff and just acted like a baby Jeff sluman pulled me aside and I didn’t know him very well now you got to realize this is David Goliath because Jeff is half your size he literally is half of
My size he’s half of your size he probably your size I mean and he pulls me aside after the round and and said Stewie don’t sweat it you’re going to make a gazillion dollars playing golf out here and that’s all he said don’t sweat it and I think that’s the advice I would
Tell them and to a certain extent Russ and by the way I don’t think Russ is a real train wreck your life doesn’t look like a train wreck I’ve seen a few train wrecks no before before I knew you before too no no no we’ve seen train wrecks this is
One so um but basically Jeff sluman just kind of told me like relax dude and so um ever since then I stopped acting that way and I and I I basically learned the lesson to put my heart in the right place and that served me really well
Later in my career when focus is an issue and uh you know things in your life just start to expand and and flourish in different ways where golf isn’t really the number one Focus as much I mean still a priority for me for sure but I’ve learned how to get my
Heart in the right place before I go play golf before I hit shots where I realize that I’ve got a lot more that brings me peace and joy in my life than where this next golf ball is going to go and what score I’m going to write down
On this hole and you can you can feel that when you’re around guys and you know they don’t have that peace I mean you just I mean you just know it I don’t care if you’re playing in a proam and you’ve got some Fortune 500 guy and you
Go he just he just not have that kind of Peace it’s hard to describe isn’t it I mean really it’s hard to describe well it’s it it’s hard to describe except all you have to do is get out the New Testament and show the Gospel of Jesus
Christ and at that point it’s really not hard to describe because that is where we get our peace and our joy and where the the golf ball is not going to go where we want it to every time but the the the golf ball may not
Won’t go where we want to every time but we know that Christ is going to be who he is every time and he’s never going to change so now things I mean okay he did make a gazillion dollars by the way he’s made over $43 million in his career uh I
Did look that up uh but as you look back over that things were tough I mean Lisa got a diagnosis a number of years back right and talk us through that uh and the you know that peace that surpasses understanding what was that time like well the piece that
Surpasses understanding is the is probably one of the core verses that Lisa and I leaned on and still do but especially right at the beginning when she was being diagnosed Lisa by the way is here I don’t know where she’s Lisa are you here I didn’t know that so my
Wife and my my son Reagan who is also my C he’s caddy first son second most of the time they’re out here somewhere they’re both here so um but yeah Lisa um she she got diagnosed with breast cancer stage four at age 43 stage four and that
Was uh 2016 and um you know it came as a uh I mean to say that was a surprise in our family would be like the biggest understatement of my life and so um but the the lean not on your understanding the verse was one of our core verses
That we constantly went to and we you know we I just learned I learned a ton just being near her and seeing how she navigated through uh that part of her life at that time and it’s no by no means over at all she’s in the middle of
It so um it’s it evolves but yeah she’s uh she’s taught me a whole lot just by being a a bystander and experiencing her going through everything since then and that’s been now now uh this will be this is the she’ll be six years down from Her diagnosis now in April
Awesome so Scotty I mean you know new to the tour get selected for the Ryder Cup we know the buildup to the Ryder Cup these last well really since the falo and Bernard longers and all that and and Stuart’s been on the wrong end of a few
Rider cups uh uh what was that like getting selected and take us through any maybe Insight or story at Ryder Cup experience what that meant to you and then give us a little inside scoop yeah I mean playing on the rder Cup team was you know something I’ve
Dreamed about since I was a kid as long as I so for five years right yeah yeah um yeah I really don’t know exactly what to say about it I mean it still hasn’t really sunk in that that’s something something that you know I’ve done I
Guess I I think it’s kind of weird like always dreaming of playing on the PJ tour and playing in these tournaments and accomplishing these things and me now having a small taste of what it is like to be on tour like life doesn’t feel any different that that that makes
Sense it’s people don’t understand that out here I I mean it’s hard for me to understand life doesn’t feel that different how so I mean like if if for instance if I went home and my wife didn’t like me you know Meredith right Meredith she’s around somewhere too but
Hey Meredith I hope she still likes me but if when you go home at the end of the day you still got to look yourself in the mirror you still got to live your life and being out on tour is almost a lot it’s significantly different than my
Friends at home because I live basically two different lives and I spend half of my time here on the road and half of our time at home and it’s kind of strange because you just have these two totally separate different worlds and finding Community out on the road was extremely
Important to me right as I got out on tour and just finding a good group of people to spend our time with and just to be in community with and get to know the Lord and um you know I’ve had you know some of my best friends Sam being
One of them um just out here on tour and if I was out here traveling by myself like I was when I played the corn FR tour and you know just kind of messing around life would be you know you know a lot different and um having you know
Worldly success doesn’t really change you know how you know we view ourselves or view different people it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day and I think sometimes when you get like a little taste of some success I think you realize that it just doesn’t really
Matter that much yeah well I got to be honest just as a as an interested spectator you were out of the gates at the writer cup it didn’t appear like you were out of your element it didn’t appear like you were nervous it didn’t I mean you came right out of the gate
I mean you had to be having some nerves and I think even maybe steart can even speak to this too maybe as a selection it’s got to even be maybe you feel maybe a little added weight or no were you just free I mean I I don’t know I’m not
Trying to put words in your mouth no I Sam and I can talk about this this is you know something that’s pretty cool in our friendship is it’s was towards the end of last season Sam and I were kind of going for what it looked like was
There was four guys for two spots basically on the last two spots on the right Cup team and Sam and I basically stay together more than half the time on the road our wives are very close we’re very close and so you know we were both
Going after that together and it was um you know it definitely weighed on both of us at the end of the year it was pretty difficult just there’s so much emphasis and pressure and you’ve dreamed of this stuff for so long um you know it’s really weird and to have a friend
To go through that with was great but then the way that the selection process worked out you know that’s something that could become really weird between us it could be you know very different and Sam’s extremely gracious and he’s a great friend and extremely supportive of
Me and you know I think he just gets that peace and that comfort from knowing the Lord so well and so to have a friend out there on tour that you know really has my best interest and I have his as well I mean it’s it’s really cool
Because if you know if it was somebody else on tour that maybe didn’t know the Lord as well and didn’t know me as well it would be kind of weird going after something like that together but when we’re such great friends um I think it really spoke a lot to our friendship and
Relationship with the Lord you know Scotty I mean and you maybe you can speak to this too so I mean we’ve had perer up here I’ve done this I don’t know for two decades in different places and some of the old school guys they saying we didn’t we didn’t you just didn’t really
Have that many friends out on tour I mean you know it was competitive it was Dogg eat dog and they all they’ve sometimes they’ve called it soft some of these young guys waiting around on the green 10 guys waiting for a guy to win and all that
Kind of thing I’m talking about in the last 20 I’m talking old school old school guys and it’s different but it’s not really a sign of weakness it’s a sign of it seems like a profound strength and contentment out there Sam have you felt that I mean I can assure
You whenever we’re playing we want to beat each other no no I’m not I’m not saying that whether it’s Tuesday morning or Sunday afternoon but more fun to beat your friends yeah I do understand that I know we’re not singing Kumbaya out there but uh but you got a there guys that you
Know that love seeing you win I mean you won twice you had guys that that were out there that you beat that loved seeing you win I know I think that’s the you know like Scotty was saying the interesting thing is you know in this in our you know hopefully God willing gives
Us you know careers like Stewarts that are you know you’re out here for a long time but you know throughout that we’re both going to have different things in our career that maybe one of us does and one of us doesn’t and so that’s just the nature of our friendship and that’s the
Nature of our job and so just being able to share in that success we in the hard times together and just you know work through it with each other and like you said our our wives are really close which is which is awesome and so just knowing that yeah was that really hard
For me of course um but at the same time we were so excited for Scotty like I know what you know that was a dream of mine too and I know it was a dream of his and so just able to share in that
And just be like man this is so cool for him and Meredith and you know for them to have this experience and hopefully one day we get to experience it together so good that’s so good so Stuart I I’m not skipping your rest I’ll come back but I
There when I think about Stuart sink I think about a lot of things and the first things I think about are not the British Open uh but I think a I think of a godly man I think of a guy that loves his family I think of a guy that’s just
Been a really a paragon for a lot of guys out on tour it’s just amazing but I do often off I think about the British Open I think about the extraordinary tournament you had and that other than maybe Lisa and Reagan and was too young but I mean everybody
Was pulling for Watson I mean we’ve talked about this a little bit but that is crazy I mean you had a you had a 15 9y old man that you were in a playoff with for the British Open and you knew you had to know that the world was
Pulling for this this is the ultimate Rudy this is hooers this is this is everybody combined and you’re the villain in a way uh you’re you’re the only thing that can hold us back from this fantasy of this you know this Watson winning at 59 describe what that
Was like but then also the I mean the the beauty of it and just can you talk take us through that a little bit well I never really thought of it like that so sorry well on behalf of the world this is how we felt I mean I loved you I was
Pulling for you right up into the time I was like but how can you not be pulling for a 59y old guy cuz I’m 58 now and I’m thinking I couldn’t imagine playing you in a playoff right well I remember that day on the back
Nine Tom Watson being up at the top or near the top of the leaderboard that day helped me a lot because it my mind was also focused on that and it kept me distracted from what I was doing in between sh your mind was focused on the
Well it’s easy when you when you’re in contention of any tournament but especially a major you you get wrapped up in what’s going on towards the end of the tournament and the the person who handles that the best usually wins and uh everybody everybody handles it differently that day Tom Watson being
Involved helped me handle it in a way that I was able to kind of stay relaxed and I was focused on something else besides making a bogey here and there I made I think I made three Bogies on the back nine that we played hard I shot 200
Under par for the tournament it played hard but I made three bogeys on the back nine usually that doesn’t happen to the winner but I made some birdies too and yes you did and be because none of those Bogies crushed me because I was watching I was paying attention to Tom Watson I’d
Hit a shot and be like what’ Tom do hit it make a bogey what’ Tom do hit it tight make a birdie what’s Tom doing you know I was focused on something else and so um it actually kind of ironically helped me a lot that day and then when
It became the playoff and it was just the two of us I had to also recognize that the world was going to be pulling for Tom and I knew that and it actually helped me to just to be ready for it in fact when I was out there on uh they played
Number five six 17 and 18 in the playoff and in the crowd that day I saw my very good friend one of my best friends just Justin Leonard and my very good friend and mentor and uh Ridder Cup Captain Tom layman in the crowd out there watching
Our playoff you think he was out there those guys were out there with their families watching me they were out there because they wanted to say I was there the day Tom Watson won the playoff and won the British Open so but I was ready for all
That and I knew and I chuckled a little bit and I still think it’s hilarious and I talked to those guys about it but that’s that’s the mentality I had like it wasn’t me versus the world I just felt like I got to be ready for
Everybody to want Tom to win just be prepared because I’m going to hear yeah polite golf fans especially in the UK they know their stuff they’re going to applaud for my shots they’re going to respectfully you know give me what I am du for good shots but for Tom they were
Roaring I mean they were sumers salts for Tom Watson well I mean he’s a fixture he’s a British Open how was he won five times won already won five British op and was going to add one at 59 I mean uh to some degree my heart still goes out for you
But you seem like you’ve handled it well don’t do not feel sorry for me do not feel sorry for do not I never let that bother me one second and the next day the newspaper headlines was Shrek of the links that was my nickname because I had a green shirt
On and a green hat I got to tell you Nike could have done something a little bit better for you on that day but anyway that I was I was just Overjoyed that I won the British Open won the British Open that is awesome thanks see none of them were roting for Tom
[Laughter] Watson oh man that was just Lisa applauding it was nobody else so so Russ you had a little playoff earlier this year right uh the Sony you’ve had some good Sony right what is it about the course you like and take us through the playoff a little bit if you don’t mind
Yeah um I guess going from I lived in Charleston for seven years so I played a uh Seth rer course down their Country Club of Charleston and um so when I would go to the Sony it just kind of felt like I was playing a very similar
Course all all berm grass and um it was just a little bit better weather so uh I I always love going there um the course is really fun and um and i’ I’ve had some success there obviously and so um yeah the the playoff was was cool I
Really thought I’d actually won the tournament um because halfway there on the a put on 18 I thought it was in and and I LIF it out and so I was kind of like man like tough to keep the momentum going I guess um but you know Hideki hit
Two of maybe the well probably the one of the best shots if not the best shot in playoff one of the best shots I’ve ever seen for sure um which was tough to be on the other side of but I I’m just really thankful to be playing
Well and um to have a chance to win on the 18th hole and lip it out you know I feel like that’s that’s a really great week on the PJ tour it’s really hard to do and so I’m just thankful for that and there was
I okay hang on for a second we got a good Russell story from Mr Burns uh about a playoff story for Russ well it’s really just Russ would never say this because he’s such a humble guy but um so Last Summer Russ was leading the US Open through maybe 36 or 54
Holes and uh I had departed that Friday I did was not leading the golf tournament um and so I I was you know paying attention and watching and I remember they did an interview with them on I think it was Saturday Friday or Saturday I can’t
Remember and they asked them uh you know what why do you feel like you have an advantage or what advantage do you feel like you have if any um going into the weekend or going into Sunday because you know Tory pond it’s a long golf course it’s you know a bomber’s
Paradise type place and Russ doesn’t necessarily bomb it um he gets it out there but he doesn’t bomb it um but they asked rest the question and he answers he said well I and I’m paraphrasing I don’t know exactly what you said but he said well I don’t really necessarily
Need to win and you know I think I you know I understood what he meant by it um I I think a lot of people probably didn’t really understand um but I remember you know later maybe two months later I uh was we were in Memphis for
The WGC and um Sunday afternoon didn’t think I had a chance to be in playoff ended up getting into a playoff uh ultimately lost in the playoff but I remember you know just thinking about that interview that Russell did like over and over my head while we’re in the
Playoff like you know thankfully like I don’t you know I don’t need this to you know validate who I am or we don’t need this to validate who we are as people you know ultimately we’re sons of Jesus sons of you know the Christ and so just
A really cool story and something that I’ve always looked up to for us say so Sam have you uh I was talking to Randy Wolf uh LSU Alam went on played the tour he’s watching here tonight from Texas with Bill Rogers another British Open Champion they’re watching together and
He said said that your coach at LSU said Sam talking about your faith infected the whole team infected the whole team I don’t know about that in college well I um no I mean none of us are Saints in college but I mean you get the
Point I mean he he was making a statement that your faith was at least you were vocal about your faith even in college probably could have been putting on a front um I you know if I could go back there’s a lot of things I would do differently um but I I
I would say you know really you know I grew up in a Christian home and um would have said that I was a Believer um but I I don’t think I really knew like what that meant um I probably knew you know the right things to say or the right way to
Act in front of certain people but um you know thankfully you know a lot of that sin was revealed to me and um okay well let’s talk about that so there’s people out here there’s people watching they’re like what is he talking about I have no idea what he’s talking about I
Mean they may feel religious they may feel completely irreligious what was that moment was there a moment like Stewart’s you know hitting it two up and you know getting different launch angle and was there a moment yeah that occur talk to talk to us yeah so you know
Russell was talking about Brad Payne um you know travels with the tour a lot and kind of our you know mentor and somebody that you know I’ve walked through my faith with and you know me and my wife he married a us um yeah I remember it
Was maybe 3 years ago or yeah 3 years ago we were in we were in La next week um and I just texted Brad I’m like hey man you know I need to talk to you so he comes out on you know like 11th hole and
On like a Tuesday morning and you know I’m kind of walking him through like what’s been going on and what’s been going on in my life and I just said you know I don’t really understand you know why I do these things like I don’t understand why you know I would hurt
Somebody that I love so much or that I would make that decision he just kind of looks at me and goes well you’re a sinner and I was like huh yeah never really thought about it you know I guess you’re right um so we just kind of walked through that like you
Know as Believers we’re all broken people in need of a savior and that’s what I was I needed a savior and I would have said that I was a Believer and I would have said that you know like I said earlier I you know knew what that
Meant but I wasn’t living it um and so that was just really a wake up call the wake up call for me and um I’m thankfully you know thank thankful that that that day happened and that’s a hard ho Rivier 11 po Scotty you want to add anything to
That I mean is there been a moment for you like a particular moment that stands out to you that was kind of like that shifted You from One Direction to another because it’s a it’s a directional shift it’s not like hey you know we go to church kind of thing yeah
Um I would say for me I never had one of those moments where like the Lord just took my heart all at once I kind of for me when I got to college it was really my first time being all alone and Meredith my wife we started dating in
High school and we actually broke up because we went to different schools and so then you know I’m in Austin she’s in College Station and all of a sudden I’m truly feel alone like I don’t really know many people at College it’s a big school school you know trying to learn
How to play golf and take these classes and do all these different things and for me I just felt truly alone and didn’t know what to do and one of Merida’s friends actually started taking me to church and I kind of did this thing where I was like all
Right Lord I’ll give you this little piece it’s like all right I’ll give you a little piece here little piece here and just gradually with time he just started taking over my heart and um I can just start feeling that peace and that comfort and you know really
Changing me from within and and now every Sunday when I’m in church I’m like please please take it over like I suck you know the whole deal um I suck in Jesus name I yes that’s I mean that’s really what it feels like you sit there
And you know I need a savior and I think that’s probably one of the the coolest things about our faith is recognizing your need for a savior I mean so would you guys I’ll never forget and maybe I’ve even brought it up here at tals before but and Tom leman’s been uh been
With us a number of times and done a number of things with Tom but Tom made told a story and but he concluded it with the reason I follow Jesus is because I find myself being a hypocrite I don’t follow Jesus because I’m a great
Guy I follow him because I and what he was saying I think if I can put words in his mouth is that I’m aspiring to be this and I find myself even as a follower coming up so short so often and and that and that Jesus makes up
That difference is that fair to say Russ I mean have you because you talked about I mean you talked about train wreck and of course steuart’s saying no I’ve seen train wrecks but well he doesn’t know how I treated uh or had yeah treated a bunch of people in college and when I
Was younger but um yeah I mean I think that the longer you are a Christian or the longer I’ve been a Christian the more you see your sin and and I think the more you realize your need for a savior you’re you’re in need of a relationship with Jesus and I think
The more you have success for us on the golf course and the more you have failure on the golf course that you know the different ways sin tries to to grab you and persuade you the more you realize you need Jesus you need a savior and you are sinful you’re a sinner Sam
You know we’re all Sinners but that’s the great thing about Christianity it puts us all in the same you know the same boat and we’re all in need whether you know it or not and um yeah I think that’s that’s a really freeing place to
Be and that’s what I found is yes I see my more of my sin and the nasty you know side of me the longer I understand you know what this gospel means but the more grace I receive so it’s it’s a cool picture thanks Russ so Stuart I mean uh somebody
Watching somebody out here in the audience tonight and you’re thinking they’re thinking you know you know what I I just don’t know if I can believe but maybe the reason I’ve chosen not to believe is because I thought if this power this God this Creator this Divine
Mind out there if he’s real and I admit it then he’s certainly not going to like me what would you say to that person who’s watching tonight what would you say to that person who’s saying I just think this I’ve just gone way too far you just
You don’t know the trials I’ve through right well the first thing I would tell that person is to put the measuring stick away because there’s no reason for us to measure ourselves because to what end all we’re going to do is find out that we don’t measure up if we measure
And that’s all we really do I mean am I alone that I and I’m talking to everybody out here am I the only one in this room right now that constantly feels like I don’t measure up can I show can get a show of hands out there thank you
Okay well that’s what I would say to that person and Christ offers a free gift to us through no goodness of our own because we don’t have a lot of it a free gift to us to come to a place where we do measure up because he measures up
For us and to me that just gives me the ultimate the ultimate peace the ultimate contentment and it goes back to what Sam said about not needing to win you don’t need to perform better than your co-workers you don’t need to even outperform your your fellow students or
Your uh live up to what your parents want for you if you have Jesus you’ve already been given everything that you need to do to measure up CU he is your measuring stick now and so that that to me just I it happened like a you know
Like I describe to you my 30 seconds the journey from 30 seconds uh to a better launch angle okay that I know that’s just a bunch of boring I can just tell you you and I can go into business 30 seconds I changed and gained 15 yards we
Can sell that brother 6 minutes Minute Abs 30 seconds for 15 yards may try that well I’ve already played with everybody here in this room up here on the stage anyway and they don’t need extra yards I do brother yeah we do well Russ man could use maybe about
Six but for me I remember um I I didn’t really grow up in a Christian home like like Scotty said he did I grew up in a church going home sometimes we hit the highlights you know Easter Christmas CEO Christians right yeah you know Christmas
And Easter I didn’t uh I don’t think I really knew where there was a Bible in my house growing up but uh when I got married to my wife Lisa we got married pretty young and we had our first child in college really young and so we got an
Early start to our adulthood like it or not at 20 we started and uh she did grow up in in a Christian home and I promise you she knew where her Bible was and so um for me just that sort of seeing what that life looked like and experiencing
Um you know somebody who understood a little bit of obedience that that changed me along with Jesus pulling on me and until it was just it wasn’t a 30 second Journey for me it only took me from 20 to about 26 only about six years to get to this
Point where I was in church one day with her parents out in a little town in Alabama and the pastor was telling the story of the Gospel about Jesus dying on the cross for us and for our sins and taking our sins on to him and basically
Removing the barrier between us and God through sin that the barrier that sin represents and I heard that story my whole life but I never heard it like that and it never got inside my heart and I never understood it and all of a sudden I had this clarity about it and I
Don’t know why I don’t think it was that I was more mature I don’t think that having our kids early helped me understand it better I just think that God spoke to me and just was telling me like this is the story that I’ve been telling you the whole time all you got
To do is listen and accept well look as we wind this down I give these guys a chance to say any closing remarks people that have been around me know the Hubble telescope is was amazing right and now that we sent up the web telescope that’s going to give us a 100
Times more clarity into the cosmos some I was meeting with a guy the other day and he said you know it our universe is so large we are so insignificant that there’s this God and this and the creator of all that I mean can think about it I mean you cannot
Wrap your mind around again let me go through it light travels 186,000 m a second light will travel 6.2 trillion miles 186,000 miles a second in one year and to get across our known universe would take light 93 billion years to get across our known universe I mean you cannot wrap your
Head around that right a 100,000 light years just to get across our galaxy The Milky Way and there are over now two trillion galaxies and heaven knows what we’re going to find somehow when you go to bed tonight you’ve still got to factor in that is
That Cosmic chance or is there is there a Divine mind and I think the farther science moves along the closer we get to understanding design then you’ve got to say what’s what began it it it cannot be Cosmic chance and what these men up here are saying is that they’ve met that Divine
Mind through the person of Jesus it answers the question of first cause something had to be outside of time and space to get this whole bang started right I mean we’re sitting here talking about chasing a white ball around relative to that it really doesn’t mean
A whole lot you put the Earth on that Spectrum this is pretty small right I was thinking of James and the he’s writing in the Bible and he says you know the grass withers and the flower Fades and a rich man will do the same in the midst of his
Pursuits we’re we’re all pursuing something right and yet it’s gone you know I Frank beard 11 times on the PGA tour you walk up and down anybody under probably 40 years old they don’t have any idea who Frank beard is 11 times he won on the tour litty Money winner one
Year he won $168,000 or something it was crazy isn’t it’s true 11 times so when when you guys say and I’ll just make a closing remark when you say that you know God spoke to me or you know I’m Jesus or you know it’s not some people might I don’t want people to
Leave going Community or it just helps some it’s it’s like their crutch on the tour you’ve met a person right Sam I mean that moment you met a person Brad’s helped you helped you walk and learn about that is that fair to say anything you want to add to that
Um what we got guys yeah go ahead yeah I’m sorry I didn’t mean to put it on you brother no you think about it a little bit on that um for me when I was growing up I always thought God was this like far away thing
Or yeah thing that just was there and was kind of like the over Watcher like he just kind of watched over and was controlling little things here and there and that’s good he might be real might not be real you know and in college that’s when I really felt like Stuart
Says like you feel a change when he kind of takes hold of you and there’s so much peace there’s so much comfort and he’s real and he’s there he loves us he cares about us and he has our best interests and you know he’s always reaching out
For us I always think we that book we read uh gentle and lowly I always think there was an analogy in that book that it was imagining a father and son walking into the ocean the son being like a one-year-old baby and you know the dad being my age or whatever and
You’re walking into the ocean and we’re the the baby holding the hand of our father and as the baby we’re holding on to the father as hard as we possibly can and in my mind I’m like yeah we’re just holding on for dear life like whatever
We can do just to hold on to him but in reality he’s the one just holding on to us and he’s always right there and he’s always present and he’s always hanging on to us and he never goes away and for me that was you know really all I needed
To hear about Jesus that he’s not he not going and Scotty that that is for you that is an experience it’s not a concept it’s an experience I mean when you were in Texas and you were feeling lonely he F filled that Gap right yeah he said I’m
I’m here I’m real and I have a plan for you and I mean that’s really all I needed to hear basically yeah anybody else want to add anything to that yeah I think you know when whenever we you know we often all of us tend to put you know
We put our hope in you know things that we do whether it’s golf or being a good husband or business or whatever it is um you like Stuart was saying earlier we try to measure up to to those things and put our you know our trust in ourselves
Or what we’re capable of you know those things always let us down golf you know always lets me down you know it’s never good enough or I can never strive enough um so I think when I realized that like you know putting our hope in Jesus um
You he never lets us down he’s he’s constant he’s he loves us unconditionally um and like that picture of Scotty was talking about him just you know he’s present and he’s there he’s holding us up um because without that you know we’re dead in our sin um so I
Think it’s just a really cool thing and like Scotty was saying you know whenever you feel that he just grabs you it’s it’s a piece that it’s hard to even put in words powerful powerful Russ anything to add to that well said guys um yeah but it was relational for you
Right I mean Russ I mean you sense something was different you train wreck and then it wasn’t just a concept right yeah I think just for me um seeing um how I was so far away from peace and learning that just the state I was in of
Sin and seeing seeing uh that Jesus was not a a rule book you know Christianity wasn’t a rule book and seeing that it’s a relationship and seeing how Jesus treated people and just really understanding the full picture by going through the gospels and reading good you
Know good books and stuff like that have made me have a clear understanding of um just the gospel and I think no matter who you are or what you’re doing or where you are in your life I think deep down you know I think a lot of people
Today they always talk about how they just they just want to be happy I think everybody just wants peace and I can tell you that I don’t care where you are I don’t think you’re going to find peace with anything like from anything in in this world and like anything Earthly I
Think you’re going to find it through through knowing Jesus and so that’d be what I would that’s so good brother you proud of you
