PGA Tour Winner Nate Lashley Interview

Nate Lashley’s path to the PGA Tour has been incredible, grinding out 15 victories over multiple tours to reach the summit. Nate shares his perspective from a journeyman to a PGA Tour pro, and his thoughts on the current state of the PGA Tour.

Nate Lashley had an incredible journey
to success and obviously everyone’s path
is different but his was truly won about
grinding his way to the top turn pro in
2005 played several years on Mini tours
he even spent time as a real estate
agent to make ends meet along the way
eventually though he collected four wins
in the Gateway tour led to three wins PJ
tour Latino America which led to wins on
the corn fairy tour and then securing a
PGA Tour card in Victory as the third
alternate to get in but he wins the
event the 2019 rocket mortgage
incredible story and throughout he’s
amassed 15 professional wins to his
credit in its entirety he currently
finds himself sitting 71st in FedEx Cup
standings coming into the week of the
Zurich will partner with Rafa compos and
he’s had solid finishes this year
already tied for third at the farmers uh
Tory Pines tied for 13th at the Players
he just at a top 25 at the Houston open
great to have him joining us this
morning and Nate I can see you’re
joining us from your hotel room I
noticed you made your bed behind you is
that common for you do you make your bed
or did you just do that for
TV well probably mostly for
TV we appreciate that there’s no doubt
how are you doing how are you
feeling oh well you know I’m 41 years
old now so every morning I wake up now
it’s you know you get a a little stiffer
you get a little more uh you know from
all the travel that we do out here and
uh it’s it’s not easy but uh obviously
playing on the PJ tour has always been a
dream so it’s something you get up for
every morning and and go out and have
some fun how about your just overall
life perspective of resiliency because
as I was just recounting just some
touchstones some highlights of your
career Nate each step of the way you
have grinded it out to secure your
particular accomplishments your
victories and going to the next stage is
that just something that you just say
that’s who I am I’m a guy that I could
do it I know I can do it but it may take
me a little bit longer or I may have to
work a little bit harder but I’m not
giving up tenacity is the
key yeah I mean it took me you know 12
years before I got out on the PGA tour I
played kind of all over the place played
a lot of mini tour events um went down
and played the Latin American tour from
I think it was 15 2015 2016 and that was
a great experience I think PJ tour has
done a nice job with that tour uh and
and and that’s really what um got me to
the corn fairy tour I won the money list
and Latin American tour that got my uh
full status card on the corn fairy tour
and then that um you know that year on
the corn fairy tour I won in punana and
that basically along with some other
good finishes got me onto the PJ tour so
yeah it’s been a it’s been a long Hall
it’s um but you know it’s kind of like I
always felt like I was getting better
and I felt like you know i’ had played
with a lot of these guys on the PJ tour
from college to other tournaments and I
felt like I could compete so I just you
know kept kept grinding like you said
and and kept trying to get better and
and that’s kind of what I did and
eventually it paid off for me yeah to
that point as you noted you’re 41 years
young now and at a time where
historically players tend to go into
kind of a down period in their career
more of the valleys than the Peaks but
that’s not the case with you in fact you
seem to be going the opposite direction
with really solid performances to what
would you account that to and how has
the game particularly the long game
stacked up to everybody else at this
point uh well you know some of these
guys that are in their 40s have been out
here for 20 years and just the the grind
of playing 20 years and doing the travel
the schedule is I think probably uh a
lot of the reason why some of those guys
you know kind of fade off really it’s uh
you know I mean this is my seventh year
and it’s uh it’s it’s a lot it’s um like
I said the travel is is uh it it can be
brutal at times really I mean just
traveling here this week we had a flight
delay and we were stuck in the airport
till almost two in the morning so it was
um it can be tough but uh you know I
mean I guess from my credit I just you
know I try my best to stay healthy um do
whatever I can to uh keep my body you
know in shape and and loose but uh uh
mainly just uh you know keep the keep
like I said keep grinding and and you
know I want to stay out here for two
three more years if possible and and um
finish my career on the PJ tour and and
then right off into the sunset okay Nate
Lashley what do you lie about and now
here’s where I’m coming with this you’re
on the plane you’ve been waiting it’s
2:00 in the morning you sit on the plane
you sit next to this guy this guy wants
to be chatty and he says you know uh
where you from so what do you do what do
you tell
them uh I usually you know say I’m Nate
I uh I you know it depends I mean
sometimes I will say I play golf for a
living but no way yeah I mean it it just
depends obviously you don’t you don’t
don’t get a ton of you just don’t get a
whole lot of Chatty people it seems like
anymore on planes occasionally you do
but um yeah it’s happened a handful of
times but I have you know I have alsha
said too that I you know just do real
estate if you know if I’m in the
mood sit back sit back and relax and and
listen to some music or or a movie or
something like that I have I I have said
that before also yeah I actually do
think In fairness to you that that
nowadays because everybody’s got the
airpods that that kind of shuts down a
lot of communication Lee trino used to
say he’d get he’d curl up into the
corner of the seat and pull his hat down
everybody left him alone the people are
now saying officially uh the answer to
that question is
42% no that’s a very large number of
people who are claiming they would not
jump into that pond I got to ask you
Nate would you jump into that murky
water there well just this week to zurk
you’re going to jump in when you win
this week right Nate
yeah I don’t think you can do it here at
the Zurich there’s some Gators lurking
in the water here
but Nelly Corda winning five tournaments
in a row if if if that was me I’d jump
into about anything because that’s
pretty amazing it is absolutely
incredible okay so Nate I want to talk
to you about as we mentioned you’re now
71st you’re knocking on the door for all
the Privileges that come with Elite
play the PGA tour right now seems to be
structured where there’s clearly a
halves and then there’s those that have
some and I’m not saying the have sums
are bad but I’m curious from your
perspective because you’ve been
outspoken on this is the balance right
in the World of Golf and the PGA tour
right
now uh you know Pro I me in my opinion
obviously I don’t think so it is but um
I kind of believe that these elevated
Signature Events should be just kind of
what they were before in in the um you
know like the memorial and and ARL
Palmer you know Invitational events
where you know the top 120 to 130
players get to play in them uh I think
it’s somewhat clear now and you only
have you know they’re supposed to have
72 events most of them are only getting
68 69 players because there is still
guys that will have to skip tournaments
for some reasons um and and Scotty
obviously has been playing unbelievable
and kind of turned some of these events
into almost blowouts but he’s just he’s
playing so well that you know that’s
inevitable but I think with larger
fields that might not happen you know
when you’re when you add an extra 50
players to these to these events that
just makes them more competitive and in
my opinion and a lot of and a lot of
guys on the PJ tour their opinions the
same is that makes the the fields
stronger where they keep talking about
they want the strongest Fields but our
strongest field is the players
championship and it’s 144 players so it
just it doesn’t make a whole lot of
sense that they’re playing 70 man Fields
anymore that’s a good point because you
finished tied for 13th at that players
to would you talk about Scotty
sheffler would you first of all Define
Scotty sheffler as a dominating
player yeah for sure I mean I played
with him the final round at uh the
players and he made it look so easy I
mean he shot eight under and he really
didn’t make any putts he hit a lot of
good putts and you know a couple fell
but I mean he hits every single shot
right at the pin he is by far right now
the best ball Striker the best player in
the world and I don’t even think it’s
close um so it was it was fun watching
him play um I kind of realized just how
good he was because that’s the first
time I played with him but uh I mean
yeah I mean he is dominating right now
when when you have a dominating player
when we think back to the last truly
dominating player right Tiger Woods uh
by by all measure there was an
intimidation factor that accompanied
with tiger when he was climbing up the
leaderboard if you’re looking back over
your shoulder and you see Tiger Woods
coming at you is that the case now or
are we at a yet maybe situation with
Scotty sheffler where if he’s in the
hunt people start to notice and people
start to think to themselves uh
oh I mean yeah I think probably somewhat
I think you know you see some of the
guys uh you know just this week you know
he was tied for the lead and then all of
a sudden he’s three four shots ahead you
know I don’t know I mean when I like I
said when I played with him he just it
was just on cruise control he just
birdie after birdie and and you know
shot eight under and he had a chance to
pretty easily shoot 10 11 under if just
a few putts fall but uh yeah I mean I
think somewhat I think somewhat when the
players see him at the top of the
leaderboard I think they know that oh
hey Scotty’s up here we’re gonna have to
play pretty much Flawless Golf and
thinking that way it’s not easy to do so
yeah that definitely Ely would be the uh
yeah somewhat of an intimidation factor
from Scotty Nate what about your
sponsors who have you aligned yourself
with uh well I’ve always been a a ping
guy ping player um you know I played
their clubs for since college and
they’ve been great to me can’t ask anym
of ping they’re a great company I think
they make the best golf clubs in the
world they are been fabulous um rock and
mortgage has always been uh a great
sponsor for me with winning the rocket
mortgage classic back five years ago
they’ve
been absolutely great to work with uh
you know they run a a great tournament
in Detroit and you know I couldn’t ask
for more from them um and then obviously
I have some some other sponsors with
Titleist foot Joy play the ball shoe
glove do that um one of my other good
sponsors that I that I use is uh it’s
symmetry companies in in Scottsdale
Arizona they uh own a couple golf
courses and do devel Land Development
out in the Arizona area and they do some
some over um across the US and and other
places as well but uh they’ve been a
great sponsor for me they own Pine
Canyon um Country Club up in Flagstaff
Arizona so that’s been an area that
we’ve got to kind of explore over the
last uh two three years we go up there
during the summer and we love it it’s
beautiful place beautiful golf course
and couldn’t ask much more either of of
symmetry companies about a minute and a
half left here in the show so Nate again
given your life’s experience in
particular do you feel that between the
ropes that golf can be a place of call
it what meditation uh healing therapy a
peacefulness has it always been that for
you uh well no definitely I mean I think
when you’re just out playing casual golf
yeah it can be a place of you know
relaxation and stuff like that but when
you’re playing you know PJ tour and
competitive events it’s it’s uh it can
be stressful it can you know it can wear
on you you know because we don’t have
guaranteed contracts out here you know
it’s it’s basically what you play you
know how you play is what you get and
maintaining your status every year can
be um you know extremely stressful and
you know it comes with the game it comes
with uh playing golf for a living but uh
it’s it’s you know something I’ve always
enjoyed the competitiveness um
but uh you know and like I said I
wouldn’t trade it for anything be
playing on the PJ tour is a is a
privilege and and it’s great to be out
here and it’s always been a dream of
mine so making that happen has has been
awesome Nate we wish you the very very
best uh with your career with the path
that you’re on particularly this week
we’re looking forward to you jumping
into the pond D zerk he committed to
that didn’t I if I remember correctly
but we very much appreciate your time uh
and hanging out with us so we could all
get get to know you even better so good
luck and thanks once more oh thanks Matt
thanks for having me on