Fairways of Life is joined by Daniel Chopra, a winner on the PGA Tour who graciously shares his experiences at iconic tournaments like the WM Phoenix Open and with legends of the game like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Fellow PGA Tour winner Mark Wilson also stops by.
Daniel Chopra is the Gent that I had the pleasure of co-hosting the coverage on PJ Tour live in ESPN plus last week of the AT&T Pebble Beach proam he has 14 professional wins to his credit he’s won multiple times on the PGA tour he’s won multiple times on the corn fery tour
439 tour starts to his credit along the way he had 36 top 10 he himself is a classic he introduced me to a a YouTube a YouTube channel but they’re actually shows that they put together the why files and now I’m hooked in these things I’m I’m watching you know why Files
About alien bases at the bottom of the sea and all kinds of different things he’s joining us right now Daniel how are you good to see you my friend I well good morning to you Matt how are you I’m doing very very well all right so Tiger
Woods sends out that post yesterday on X and go ahead Andrew you could pull it up so so he can see it on his on his return feed and he says the Vision Remains the Same 21224 we’re trying to figure out what this means does this mean the tiger
Saying hey I’m playing at the Genesis and that’s it is this about maybe a new apparel alignment or brand that Tiger’s associated with what’s the take of Daniel choa a veteran campaigner I think he’s gonna play uh why wouldn’t he it’s his golf tournament uh he’s the one that’s turned this thing
Around it’s now a signature event uh he really it really needs his presence in order for it to be of the stature that it is uh you know the only real active player of the three Signature Events along with the memorial and the Arnold Palmer Invitational uh I believe he’ll
Play why do you think 53% early in a survey would say it doesn’t matter when we’re talking about Tiger Woods well I think it’s in the point of uh they just want to see him there uh whether he plays or not is probably immaterial to some of the fans they
Obviously believe that he’s probably not going to be in contention but they’re the ones that are always surprised when he makes makes those incredible comebacks we’ve written him off in the past before several times and he’s proven us wrong every single time so I’d like to see him come back on a golf
Course he’s never had much success at which might take some of that pressure off as well he can just go Freewheel it a little bit and and have fun with the fans you are the same age as Tiger Woods so there were many occasions no doubt
Where you were in events where you were competing against Tiger Woods at the height of his prowess what was that like for you was it true that back in the day if you guys saw Tiger Woods creeping up a leaderboard if you were say Inc contention or in the lead that it would
Intimidate players in fact it certainly would but it was very seldom that he would creep up that leaderboard uh for the most part he’d be out there after round one he’d drop a 65 on them he’d be up in that top three players and then he’d kind of slowly
Pull away from the rest of the field but you’re absolutely right uh if you saw him two or three shots back there early in that Sunday final round uh it definitely somebody you’d be keeping an eye on perhaps even more than your own game and that would always be a bit like
The whole Jack Nicholas scenario where he says I would just hit greens and farway try to make pars the odd birdie in the final round people would see me on the leaderboard and then the choke Factor would come in and then’ come back to me and he inherited a lot of golf
Tournaments just because of that but tiger never needed to do it because he was so good he always had a lead were you intimidated by Tiger Woods everybody was uh anybody that says that they weren’t was probably lying a little bit uh might be a few players that weren’t necessarily intimidated Michelson J
Singh retif hon Ernie Els they were not necessarily intimidated but they were aware of him and they really wanted to beat him because it was just a the extra feather in your cap if you could take down Tiger Woods and VJ sing was really probably the only player to have ever
Really done that to Dethrone him with that nine- win season uh in 2004 I was I believe and then took the one number one ranking away from him as well so VJ is really the only player to have really taken him down over a course of a season
That was during that time when VJ said he convinced himself that he was the greatest putter in the world by constantly reaffirming I’m the greatest putter in the world to himself when you talk about players that are built for Majors kind I’m going down this road because you mentioned specifically Jack
Nicholas and we’re here we are talking about Tiger Woods stumbling down this road which I’m enjoying that we are Daniel is there anybody currently when you look at a major championship and we’ve got the likes of John Rah who’s going to be defending we’ve got the
Likes of Brooks Kea that’s going to be defending Etc is there anybody out there today that you think that other players may get intimidated by when that player whoever it is that you that you think is in the mix I think Rory maroy is probably comes
To the top of your mind straight away uh Scotty Sheffer even though he’s not been on the scene for that long his reputation precedes himself just with his Relentless consistency and and his ball striking which is what you require particularly these uh at the major and these harder golf courses where you just
Have to strike the golf ball to death and just hit Fairways and greens and Scotty Sheffer is really nobody better in World Golf than him right now at doing that so those are the two names that come to mind at the Forefront of intimidation process for some of the
Other guys uh but there’s a few players right behind them the Strategic Sports Group invested a massive amount of money in the new entity PGA Tour Enterprises and their pledge is upwards to $3 billion uh at at the risk of asking this question as a celebration of the obvious
How important is this and is this good for the game uh well yes and no I would say that of course it’s good for the game it’s going to heighten the interest I’ve made this analogy in the past at some of the greatest game shows uh like Who Wants To
Be A Millionaire or uh Jeopardy where there’s a big cash sum at the end of the rainbow for the Wom winners it it’s intriguing for the viewers uh there is a little bit of that if you over Finance uh the players they’re not necessarily used to it uh it’s great to dangle the
Carrot but if you just throw a truckload of carrots in front of everybody um the incentive to then go chase after it may perhaps uh wean just a little bit that’s always the danger but then also you’re creating this scenario a little bit of uh a two or three different tier system
Out on tour where the rich get richer and the guys that are slightly outside have a hard time squeezing into that Elite group um on tour so then the turnover becomes less and less now we have those five spots every single week but then again to get five spots not
Every week but for every signature event the leading five players not already exempt get in that’s not a huge turn turnover and doesn’t necessarily encourage some of the best players still in the world of golf to really go after it because it’s just so difficult to squeeze in because all the best players
Keep playing amongst themselves in those Elite events uh and the guys just outside on the fringes can’t get in and they have to play amongst themselves in the second tier uh events I don’t necessarily think that that’s a great G way for the game of golf to go now
Daniel you’re already looking down the road at the PGA Tour Champions is what you’re saying a little bit of the old guy yell and get off my grass I mean you’re you’re suggesting that a you know a dump truck load of carrots are dumped in front of these guys golf yes has
Always been you eat what you kill but in this case golfers may be starting to get paid based upon what their actual value is in the marketplace I don’t see how that’s not a good thing for for all players well I agree uh there’s no question that the the value of these
Players is exponentially better than it was say 20 years ago uh the popularity of this game is second to none really uh when you come to the Integrity of the of the sport and you know uh it it it’s such a honorable profession in which you know everybody the whole cliche you call
Your own penalties on you nobody’s trying to cheat out there it’s really the only sport where you’re not trying to fool your fellow competitor or the referee and try to get away with something um so yes it it has that great aspect to it I just feel like you need
To create great avenues for turnover to allow so for instance me myself uh in my own experience I believed I could get on to the PGA Tour even coming having grown up in India because I knew that there was going to be 50 odd cards that I
Could go play on whatever the name of the Corn free tour back in those days was and or Q school and then climb the rungs of the ladder perhaps go to Asia then went L ranking points then through to Europe and then onwards I always felt that there was an Avenue for entrance
Into the highest level which was P pretty much one level and then you had some of the majors uh that were slightly above it but now the tour has become more of like a three or even a four tier system where you got the Signature Events then the majors then you have
Your Elite normal PGA Tour events and then you have your secondary opposite field events and then you have the corn fairy tour so there’s several different tiers and it’s just difficult to get from the second well the the middle one up into the elite and that’s what I
Think they need to find a way out of know how to just make better access when you were playing alongside of Phil mikkelson at 16 can you share that story of what happened that day yeah sure uh it was a fun Story I mean uh first off
You have to talk about the 16th hole at TPC at Scottdale just the arena around it and it it is uh the pressure unlike any other shot you’ll hit in golf it’s almost like a little bit of the throwback days of a big break where you have one shot uh and just no
Takebackspace like a mini tournament within itself that one shot and the pressure you feel is unlike anything else now to set the stage here a little bit in the scene it was the year of the Super Bowl which was going to be in Scottdale so there was something of 225
250,000 people there that week and I played with Phil Mickelson at Scottsdale in the third round the Saturday before the Super Bowl which is going to be the next day which is the most highly attended there must have been at some point over 100,000 people watching us
Play golf and it it was just absolutely incredible atmosphere so we get to 16 and mikkelson’s first to go and obviously a lefty trying to rope hook in a n99 or a pitching wge who’s kind of in between clubs and he hits the biggest flare block out to the left literally
Almost flies into the grand stands left of this green and of course the whole stadium starts to boo and even though he’s a hero there they don’t care they booed him as hard as you could possibly ever boo anybody and I have never felt more relief in my life after seeing that shot
It just made that shot seem so much easier to me because I feel like no matter what I do barring laying the saw over it or shanking one into the grand stands I will not hit a worse shot than that and uh I was fortunate enough to
Just dump it up on the green and nobody booed me and I made my par and then of course Michelson hits a super flop shot and gets it up and down and uh he’s a big hero all over again but that was uh a memory I’ll
Never forget that is Phil I love Daniel choer love him having a that behind you Daniel is that is is that like a really bad impressionist painting or is that a curtain in front of a of like a view of a lake or something H yeah that’s a lake
Behind my house here and it’s just a it’s just a curtain yeah I got a beautiful view here at the back of my house yeah I love the SpaceX hoodie you got on too just to me a favor lift that lift that the the blind there so we can
See the beauty that’s that’s hiding behind that okay yeah sure why not I want to see it oh now that’s quality right there now this is going to become like an FBI silhouette when he sits back down again I don’t know let’s see let’s see what I look
Like it’s not bad it makes you seem makes you seem a little little more dangerous okay also joining us today Mark Wilson who is an analyst for the same PGA Tour live as well as PGA Tour radio although this week Mark who’s a five-time winner on the PGA tour 392 PGA
Tour starts in 32 top 10 also a winner at the WM Phoenix Open he is actually playing golf this week on the corn fairy tour the Astra Golf Championship in Bogata Colombia mark thank you for joining us my friend it’s great to have your company how are things going down
There you bet Matt thanks for having me and uh Daniel good to see you too what a bonus things are great in bogat it’s a great spot I know you’ve been here Daniel and uh we’ve had a lot of rain the last few days uh so we’re just
Hoping to get the golf tournament in but as the PJ tour usually does we find a way to get 72 72 holes in by Sunday night awesome I’m I’m going to jump in here with you for a couple of minutes that we’re going to say goodbye
To Daniel and keep you for our final segment if you don’t mind Marcus as we continue but let me just ask you this first question and I know that your your passion in this is going to be unique as a past champion of the WM Phoenix Open but why is that event so
Special well it’s a it’s a unique atmosphere uh no doubt and something us golfers don’t get to to experience the feel of being a a football player coming into the stadium and having all these people cheering or booing for you uh Daniel talked about it being such a
Nerve-wracking shot and it’s a shot that on 16 there that uh you think about way in advance I remember getting there my first time I ever played I think it was 2008 and I walk in the locker room on Tuesday morning there’s Chris DeMarco a pass Champion talking about how he’s got these
Oakley sunglasses that have earbuds that go into his ears and he’s going to be able to turn that on to play that hole so he can drown out all the noise and I’m like wait a second he’s a past champion and he’s already thinking about that hole on Tuesday so that just gives
You kind of an idea of it and it’s just exploded over the years in terms of how many people show up uh it’s the place to be I mean when you walk around Scottdale on other weeks they talk about the open the open and I I got confused thinking
They’re talking about the British Open no they’re talking about the Phoenix Open are you going to go to uh that golf tournament and watch uh the spectacle there it’s the place to be this week for sure Daniel I haven’t had a chance to ask you that that same question straight
Up why do you think the greater Phoenix area Scottdale in particular have embraced this event the way they had and how has it become so distinctive so unique I think part of it has to do with the Thunderbirds uh they have created this uh the greatest party in Scotsdale
You know uh and golf is just the backdrop 90% of the spectators that will come or the patrons that come to this event 70% of them don’t even care about golf uh they’re there for the party and the golf is just the backdrop you know and then the 30% that are there perhaps
Walking around uh 90% of those will be on the back nine alone and it’s almost like a tale of two different golf tournaments at front nine you feel so lonely there’s an odd person here or there walking around perhaps with one of the big groups you might get a couple
Thousand people perhaps but then you get on to that 10th hole and you get to number 11 then all of a sudden that’s where the buzz starts and that that’s it really is incredible there’s no tournament in the world that’s like it uh where you have such a disparity
Between the front nine and the back nine as far as the patronage is concerned between the spectators and the players uh regardless of who’s playing Daniel you know that I love you I know you’re doing PJ tour radio this week we’re going to be giving everybody the air
Times coming up in just a second but as we say goodbye I am going to ask you to step out of the frame again so we can see that beautiful Lake shot behind you because you you caused it to look like a a cloud of of fog has rolled in all
Right there it is that’s how beautiful it is more the fairways of Life show coming up we we come back more with Mark Wilson after this
