Episode 47: Austin Eckroat

Shane and Marty welcome PING Pro and PGA Tour winner Austin Eckroat to the Tour Truck. They discuss his long relationship with PING, which started when he was a junior golfer, his victory at the 2024 Cognizant Classic, and his shot-shaping abilities with the Blueprint T irons.

the guys from ping they’ve kind of shown me how much the equipment matters I just love that I can hit any shot I kind of want we’re going to be able to tell some fun stories about what goes on here to help golfers play better golf welcome back to the Ping Proving Grounds podcast I’m Shane bacon that is Marty JZ and Marty got an exciting guest today Yeah Austin it’s uh awesome to have you have you on the Pod get to know you a little bit uh and all of our listeners kind of uh want to hear hear your story hear what you’re up to all right well thanks for having me on yeah well let’s start with cognizant because obviously getting a win this season on the PJ tour I was reading a little bit about you know what you said after and you said I’ve been dreaming about this moment my whole life um kind of a weird finish if you will just the way it ended up obviously being on a Monday finish but can you kind of walk us through the week walk us through that final round yeah I mean obviously it was a from the start you know the game was in a good spot and that’s always a promising sign but you never know until you teed up and um you know I played well the first day and just you know continued throughout the whole time but then to have the rain delays and the you know I played Seven holes Sunday evening then the randlay happened and I was I was happy I finished out on the seventh hole even though it was a you know long Putt in the dark but to come back and have a te ball you know make it feel as real and normal as I could and I had you know 11 holes the next morning and uh you know and it could have helped me you know the fact that with the Rand delay so it just it was really fun week and I’ll take a Monday finish every time if it ends up that way when you wake up on Monday because You’ kind of gone through it Saturday night right Saturday night into Sunday you’re you’re thinking about it you’re trying to get your rest trying to go to sleep is it almost easier Sunday into Monday considering you’d already kind of gone through those emotions or is it tougher because you’re like I got to go through this whole thing I just went through again I think it was a little tougher just cuz I had to do it was the same thing it wasn’t like I you know it wasn’t like it was just another tournament it was the exact same experience you know but this time I actually had the lead versus where the night before I was tied for the lead so I had kind of separated myself so it was you know I guess a little bit more comforting in that way that golf course I mean we we put together for on the fitting side um some like Strokes gain driving scores and we use capalo as the easiest driving course on tour and that and PJ National is the hardest driving course on tour how did you know your ball striking stats are quite impressive TAA green uh what was your confidence level uh going into that course and and did things really match up with you you know the way you drive the golf ball off the tea that week yeah for sure that you know that Golf Course really well I mean I feel like for the most part it’s a drawing golf course off the tea uh but I actually made an equipment change on Tuesday evening through an different shaft in my driver and uh it was ended up being the right one what what initiated that change what what were you looking for yeah so it was funny I was actually driving it fine is the funny part too and um I was finished up my practice round on Tuesday and uh Sam Stevens another ping staffer was on the 10 T and I walk over there and um I just grabbed his driver I was like man this feels pretty good I didn’t hit a ball with it or anything I was just like it looks good it feels good and I was like Hey kitten can you make me Sam’s driver and he’s like yeah you’re going to want a little bit more Loft but yeah I’ll make it for you and then I didn’t hit it until the Wednesday proam and hit it great played the tournament and drove it probably the best I’ve ever drove it so it was funny still in my bag now very amazing Marty I’m always I’m always impressed shocked surprised that tour players will Tinker as much as they Tinker but then we’ll be confident enough to throw something in the bag and be successful with it go out there and win it it’s just the you know I think regular golfers amate players High handicap players they’re more fearful of changing stuff in their bag and I think when you hear from the tour players it’s like no man if like if you’re missing it left or you’re missing right like lean on the equipment if you can for sure I mean a lot of time it’s funny you’ll be hitting drivers on the driving range and um you know testing stuff and you know you have a left Miss with a shaft and then all a sudden you throw in a different shaft and that Miss goes away it’s it’s really is incredible what equipment can do I think it’s pretty yeah the shaft side of thing is really amazing because all you need is just this tiny little twe to the face to path right like you can just change that face to path delivery like two t0 of a degree and that’s all it’s going to take so you know was it was it a shaft field transition thing no I mean it and what I’ve heard it’s a similar shaft to the one I I played before yeah it it had a similar feel similar you know kick point and all that stuff but it was just it was different and I needed that and uh but I think on the tinkering side we were joking like a lot of times with Dylan I’ll grab a different putter just to mess around with with and end up throwing in my normal putter just cuz I need a different look for 3 days you know or whatever so just to just to remind the other putter by the way that there’s there is other ones out there they should be fearful of in golf I mean outside of really the caddy there’s not really teams you stick with throughout your career you think about somebody like Steph Curry you know playing with the Warriors throughout their career you’re somebody that’s been with ping since you were very very young how did that relationship start yeah so I was playing in the um it was a junior Allstar vent in Norman Oklahoma um and Jeff Brown came out and watched me we had no idea who he was and he watched all all my rounds and by the end of it my dad was like Hey like I’m Steve Arro like who the hell are who are you who the hell are you watching my son and um he was like well you know introduce himself and then after that I started working with uh through that ping Junior program and I’ve been it’s been what is that now 13 years with ping and I’m 25 years old that’s pretty cool what what were some of like the irons and woods you played at the very beginning so the first driver I got was the answer driver in Three Wood the S did you put did you remember wasn’t that the one that they you kind of you could color in you could really custom it would you do to yours yeah mine was all orange obviously even the grooves are orange um and then uh I think it was s56 maybe irons or maybe s55 I can’t remember what that and then um Glide 2.0’s and then the Redwood putter I still use now the d66 still in the bag right in the bag exactly yep um and then uh likewise I think your your your dad he’s still he’s been your golf coach is he a golf Pro uh or in and what what is that relationship like like from a mechanics and coaching standpoint yeah so my dad played uh professionally for a little bit he played college golf and um he’s only my swing coach that’s his thing he doesn’t want to coach anybody else he wants to coach me so he uh it’s more kind of I bounce ideas off of him and that’s how we like to do it more so than you know dissecting the golf swing he’d make sure the alignment’s good the ball position’s good and then you know if I want a swing key or a swing feeli I’m like hey what do you think about this feeling and he’s like I hate it or or I like it you know so that’s kind of how we we do it I love that I I always talk about steps with players I mean you kind of like take these steps in junior golf into Collegiate Golf and something happens you win a golf tournament you play well against somebody that maybe you’re intimidated by and your confidence grows the way you played at the US Open last year I mean you you had a great nine-hole stretch you know tied the the low score I think ever at the US Open you shot 29 right is that what you did at LC what did that do for you the rest of the season into this year yeah I mean I think that week especially just because I didn’t feel like I had a great game that week and I was able to compete and still finish top 10 you know I was struggling with the golf game most of last season um especially the ball striking side of it and to you know I was able to find little Keys here and there and you know and I was still able to compete so that was confidence you know a confidence booster for me just knowing that you know without my best stuff last year I was still able to you know almost win a golf tournament and and then finish top 10 in a ma in a major and then you know stuff like that even whenever I didn’t have my best stuff was encouraging you you hear from players a lot I mean we as golf fans typically if you’re not watching PJ Tour live or ESN plus coverage you’re watching the players that are playing the best each and every week and they’re typically dialed I mean they’re not missing a lot of Fairways not missing a lot of iron shots pro golfers Miss Fairways they miss iron shots they hit bad golf shots there is something to seeing your maybe your b game be competitive against the best of the world and when you say oh my b game is successful here imagine what happens when I have my aame right yeah exactly and um yeah that’s a good point you we’ll miss a lot I mean it happens all the time and I think it’s kind of funny we were talking about like last week in the Signature Events where we you know I played terrible after the first two rounds it’s like well shoot I still got to go play two more rounds sometimes it’s nice to go home and go figure some things out but um obviously it’s great having those you know no cut events and stuff but it’s uh it’s funny sometimes so so if you’re at an event like that and in the Signature Events without cuts right when you aren’t playing well and let’s say you’re down towards the bottom of the leaderboard what do you do in terms of a Saturday and Sunday to either work on your game or try to find something head into another big week right yeah the mentality changes for sure it’s not so much obviously you want to play well and Finish Well in that event but you’re more looking into the future especially like last week coming into a major um I was just trying to find something you know trying to find the right swing key trying to find the right feels and um did you find anything I did yeah definitely what you find U just figure out how to get the golf ball straight that that was the key it’s a simple thing to find and I was really strug I had tweaked my wrist early in last week so I didn’t get to practice before the event and um the chipping really kind of struggled because of that that’s the first thing to go and um you know I was just trying to get the feeling back in that area and it seems to be back uh grown up in Oklahoma what what were uh some of your favorite memories you know in terms of you know speaking of majors and the major uh the majors head to Southern Hills they’ve headed to Southern Hills a few times um in your childhood do you have any any memories from uh from when the PJ was there at Southern Hills yeah some me and my dad actually went out to that and um to we I remember vividly I was I was young I was like seven years old and uh Tiger Woods was walking up the the walkway Alpha 18th green and I’m I can’t remember if he high-fived me I definitely told people he high five me you know but it was just a cool experience and like I remember him being like way bigger than I imagined and you know all that stuff and uh it was just a cool experience and um then they had it back into 20 was it 20 was it last year couple years ago two years ago yeah two years I wasn’t I was on the corn fairy tour and I wasn’t able to play but uh we had the us or the Senior PGA at Oak Tree National where I play now I think that was in 2014 and went out there and watched some of the the Legends it was you know lot of good golf in Oklahoma Austin what is it like thinking back to being a kid seeing tiger was you know him may or may not high five in year fist pump in your whatever I’m not sure I still can’t remember I told the story so many times I think he did listen we all go fishing that fish grows every time you tell that story but what is it like playing in major championships now that tigers in the field that was cool this morning I was hitting I was hitting range bows and he was two spots down and it’s just cool I mean were you peeking oh yeah oh yeah I remember I so in 2019 I was a sophomore in college and I qualified for the uh Us open at Pebble Beach and I was on the putting green the one by the first tea it’s you know by itself nothing else is around and I walk out there and the putting green is just packed you can’t see it when I’m walking up and tiger is the only guy on the green so it’s just me and tiger on the fting Green and I I had my uh coach in College Academy for me I was like is it bad if I take a picture right now and he’s like yeah I’ll take plenty of pictures you just go putt so it’s cool your well you know he has the yardage book out and he hits the one handed maybe you had the phone out your one yeah I mean so he definitely took a bunch of pictures so that was a cool was he who you looked up to I mean there’s so many great players that went through Oklahoma State I’m imagine you’re looking up some of those players but he was the guy you looked up too oh yeah I mean whenever I was a kid I remember in uh that Us open at Tory Pines I when he had that putt on 18 I had my head tucked in the couch cushion like I couldn’t watch the putt you know he was he was the guy he was the guy yeah Austin uh let’s talk a little bit about your iron you play blueprint T’s right and then blueprint s in the three iron um on tour we have we have players in the I 230s we have players playing mostly blueprint S’s and then a lot of mix sets you know you’re you play The Blueprint T down to the three iron right so blueprint uh t or blueprint S three iron tells tell us what uh attracts you to that blueprint tea iron what characteristics and and um yeah why you like it yeah I remember in when I was in college the blueprint came out yeah and it was the coolest thing ever you know and it was I was just drawn to the the forge blade look you know and um I tinkered with some stuff last season before the te’s came out and um you know once the those came out they’re so clean looking on the back and that’s part of the game too is you have to like what you look the look has a huge thing to do with it and um they just kind of match my game well you know I think contact wise I catch the ball pretty clean most of the time and um obviously I could probably use a little forgiveness every once well go for the more game improvement but um I love them and they’re they’re clean looking and uh they do what I want it to do most of the time growing up in Oklahoma obviously going to college in Oklahoma there’s so many and you still live in Oklahoma there’s so many great players that live out there and play and practice who in that world did you look up to who in that world did you kind of pick their brain and then when you started to have success right kind of like rot off the jump in college who did you talk to about navigating that world not just collegiately but what you’re going to do Post Oklahoma State I thought it was pretty cool there area I grew up in um oak tree was a kind of a there was a bunch of us golfers yeah I me it’s like it’s like it’s a pro golf Haven go and I remember there was like three three guys older than me they were seniors when I was a freshman so whatever age difference that is three years and um whenever I was like 10 years old I wanted to be like them you know it was like Nick H and Hayden wood like I wanted to be like them and then Kevin TW and Robert strb were 5 years older than them they wanted to be like them and then there’s a group age you know a little bit below me that probably wants to be like me and it’s I think that what that’s what makes that area so good at golf is just that that area and obviously Ricky fer whenever I was in school was kind of he was always close he came back all the time and wanted to help out the team as much as he could so it it feels like there’s like a fraternity there I mean you know it’s such a great system it’s such a great you know college it’s such a great University it’s produced so many great players and it feels like you guys aren’t just close when you’re there it feels like when you get out on tour you stay relatively close you play practice rounds together you talk to them and we were talking before we got going SC planks out there kind of helping you um during the Masters your first Masters there as well I mean that has to feel so cool because not every College not every university has what you guys have yeah it’s incredible to think about how many guys we have out on you know PJ tour and other tours it’s it’s incredible and when I first came out here especially on the sponsor exemptions you don’t you don’t you don’t really have any friends out here and um you know guys like Ricky guys like Victor um you know they were really nice to me I’d played practice rounds with them and then uh now I got teammates of mine with Victor obviously but then Sam Stevens as well another guy and um you know it’s just fun you know have someone that you had that shared experience with and guys that shared the similar experience a couple years before you will you ever move away from Oklahoma nope no I mean I I plan on doing stuff in Arizona in the future but it’ll never be fulltime I I love Oklahoma okay okay yeah all right we’ll see you in Arizona yeah in winter time in the winter time our win December way easier to tweak the driver if you’re in Phoenix but’ll scrape up a lot more wedges in the in the desert we do Austin tell us a little bit about how you uh like approach a week like what is your what is your Monday Tuesday Wednesday look like how do you kind of ramp you know get yourself ready for tournament week I think it’s there’s kind of two different tournament preps there’s the you know a week off coming into a tournament and then you fly in Sunday night and then you have a full week versus where you’re coming from a different event and that Monday is kind of more of a a rest and Recovery kind of day um typically I like to just play nine whole days um when I first got out here I played a little bit more I played 18 on Tuesday but I wasn’t in the prams on Wednesday so it a you know now that I’m in the prams on on Wednesday it makes it really easy I just play nine on Tuesday nine on Wednesday and I and I go out um typically I’m spending a little bit of time on the Range just trying to make sure I find the right swing keys right feels for the week and um I just like to keep it simple I mean just make sure my the main areas that I’m you know my alignment my ball position like I was saying earlier and then swing path is somewhere within a realm that I can play with I don’t try to make it too perfect you know just kind of keep it easy are you a technology guy are you are you you trackman foresight are you looking at those numbers yeah I use a trackman but I really only look at four numbers the ones I really care about our carry distances and then um the swing path attack angle and then uh I like to see how fast I’m swinging it obviously who’s not looking at let’s not lie I gotta know how fast I’m swinging it that’s really those are the that’s really all I really care about are you a stats guy you looking at Strokes gain stuff putting stats you guys get into that or do you feel like you more just have a feel and a sense where things are at in your game I definitely like look at it just to get an idea of what the rest of the field is doing or you know cuz sometimes you you’ll trick yourself like you feel like you’re hitting your iron’s good and then you look at the stats and you’re losing Strokes on the field and um you kind of wonder how but then you kind of really dissect it and you see see where you lost you know when you miss the green with a wedge that kills you and stuff like that yeah um but for the most part it’s if I feel like I’m swinging it well I don’t too too much worry about the you know the statistics on the Tea Green um in short games where where it gets a little finicky I think sometimes cuz not all six-footers are the same you know you’ll have a six-footer that’s breaking you know three feet and then it’s statistically the same as a dead straight six-footer but and it’s really not yeah so Austin when did you realize that this was going to be your thing because we’ve mentioned your success I mean collegiately you were great obviously you’ve now won on the PJ tour when did you realize I might have a future in this game I think at a young age I was I played everything growing up sportswise and um I was always where you best at outside of golf football was probably what I was second best at um but I was just teeny I my freshman year physical I of high school I was 41199 lbs W come on yeah I don’t think a football coach is like getting you in line here no so that’s whenever I I gave up football after uh middle school but you know I think I always felt like I was good at golf and you know I had my dad tell me I was good enough you know all this stuff and um I was winning all the junior events locally and then you get to high school and kind of do the same thing and I don’t know if you ever really get the moment of like I’m good enough to play on the PJ tour until you actually win on the PJ tour then you’re like okay you know what I am I am good enough but you know I always felt like I I had a chance um and then to go play at the best program in golf and all that stuff it just it kind of helped build my confidence in thinking I could play out here did you play in the Texas Oklahoma back in the day the junior event oh yeah played that a little better than me you know the Air Force Base event would the golf course would always kill me it blew like 30 that’ be that’d be the one that would always get me D kills is is that where you guys put it yeah it sweet it’s a good golf course a little older than you but yeah that was a great it’s a great golf course but was below 50 and I grew up in East Texas where there was no wind and I was like I was like this is not my game yeah also what what adjustments have you made going from corn fairy tour to PJ tour you know either courses competition routine uh and how are in you know what other what what other changes do you think you’re going to have to make in the future to continue uh with your success here yeah I think something that I didn’t realize when I was playing the corn Fair T I was still you know fresh out of college was how much it wears down on your body playing that much golf I mean growing up even in a college schedule you’re not playing that much competitive golf um you’ll play once every 3 weeks once every two weeks and then you get on the corn fairy tours you play every week I mean and you have to because you’re trying to get on PJ tour right and it really kind of wears down your body and um I think that was the biggest adjustment I made on the PJ tour was putting a focus on recovery and rest and um you know the maintenance in the in the weight room and stuff like that just CU I mean it wears you down yeah what does that look like for your Fitness routine couple couple days in the weight room type of thing or yeah I try to get um I just really started building a team around me to where I have guys traveling with me now and um you know we try to get at least three or four days in the gym during a week which it’s hard sometimes with early tea times and late tea times just trying to find the right time but um that’s kind of what I needed someone for cuz if it’s on me I won’t do it that’s something that I figured out when it comes to the gym on the road is it’s easy for me to say I’ll do it tomorrow you know kind of thing but to have someone there telling me no we need to get this done it’s really helped a lot are you like a chef at the house guy or you like an Uber Eats chickf Uber Eats Uber Eats what do we go what are we going with like week to week the the bad thing is Taco Bell is Uber Eats Taco Bell yeah it’s sad show I have yeah and typically I have a a courtesy car with me that I could easily drive to the Taco Bell but it’s so easy it’s so easy to press for you to deliver it to I know I know what’s what’s the Taco Bell order what are we getting it changes I’m everything on the menu I talk about is one of my things so you’re Democratic you’ll just get whatever double decker I’m dialed Mexican piz I’m into at all of it let me tell you about 2:30 in the morning if it’s been a heavy night out I’ll I’ll go like $35 deep and talk which is a really really hard that’s hard to do you almost have to order everything on the menu you do I don’t consume it all but I’ll definitely want to have a little bit of a taste that’s very interesting I like the Taco Bell thing um what about the the tattoo the the world you have a tattoo the world it’s the worst tattoo on the seriously you don’t like it I’ve actually been to two sessions now of the removal oh all right so when did you get it my I was 18 I was uh what was the reason it’s a it’s a funny story actually so this is why I’m going to Arizona in the winter time because there was nothing to do in the middle in Oklahoma in the winter time so it was a it was a snowing day in December and me and my buddy had just gotten done working out and uh we were at kudoba and he was like would you ever get a tattoo I was like I probably would and so we we had nothing else to do so we drove to this um tattoo are they called tattoo parlor the name of I idea still the way we say yeah and uh so we drove there and we were just like kind of looking through their booklets and what they had and they were like we have an opening for two and like in an hour and an hour and a half if you guys want to you guys want to get them today we’re like sure why not and I mean it’s this is it’s 12:00 in the it’s noon on a Tuesday afternoon there was no drinking involved it was completely sober decision sober and bored so sober and bored and ended up with the worst tattoo ever so what did your buddy get I can’t remember it was on his it was on his arm it was a verse of some sort but it was I can’t remember which he he’s not taking that one off he likes you’re getting yours off yeah and it hurts and you hurt I heard it’s worse than the tattoo it’s getting how many sessions does it take to get it out of there they said probably 10 okay but it’s who knows how many a good this is just a good reminder exactly take a day when you’re 18 years old you p on buying a car on marrying someone and on getting a tattoo that’s very think about it before you do it yeah also what what’s the what do you think what what would you consider the strength of your golf game strongest part of your golf game I’ll would say my driving you know I think I drive the golf ball consistently well um and but I think that’s the area to where if I’m struggling that’s when you’ll see the score struggling CU um you know that’s the first thing that I really make sure it’s you know in a good spot because that’s where I I think you know is my strength it’s where I score from and um I think statistically I am one of the better drivers out here I’m not like I said I’m not huge statistical guy but I think the the stats say so one of the things we’ve noticed about your driving is that you don’t curve it a lot right you play a little draw I kind of if I’m just setting up square and I just swing it’s going to draw a little bit but I like to work it both ways most of the time little bit both ways with the driver but in general I think one of the things we’ve seen with your with your data is that you don’t you don’t have a big spin access like you don’t curve it a ton that helps unlock a little bit of extra distance or I think that’s one of those things that makes players sneaky long yeah you know is that that you don’t curve it a lot straight yeah yeah typically I keep I like to keep the ball within the margins of the Fairway not start it outside the Fairway yeah and then what about your iron plate do you Curve Your irons a lot into different pins and growing up in Oklahoma it’s windy you know is that how what’s your strategy on shot shaping yeah I kind of I play with flights a lot I’m bringing them down bringing them up curving them um I think that was something I struggled with when I got on tour was you see a lot of guys just hit one ball flight yes and it was like I I was thinking do I need to change my Approach on how I play golf just because that’s what everybody else was doing and um you know I tinkered with that and then realized I I hit the iron better if I’m playing playing with ball fights because it gives me something to focus on I think that’s something that helps me is a you know I pick a number how far I’m trying to hit it the ball flat I want which way I want it working and um it kind of helps me zero in on the flag so I think for the listeners Shane that’s another good example Austin talking about shot shaping the blueprint is like that’s like your sports car like you can just dial it in in terms of your face to path things of that nature do you curve it based on pin location winds distances or all the above all the above I think and and a lot of times it probably doesn’t make sense the way I curved it you know I mean it’s the back left pin and the winds off the right and I’m going to cut it into it you know so it doesn’t matter you walk up and see the shot is that what happens exactly yeah and I a lot of times when I walk a fairway or like when I get up to the te you know I just kind of vision visualize the hole working a certain way you know that’s just kind of how I’ve played it and trusted yeah exactly yeah have you had to change your goals this year after the win do you write down goals are you a goal guy my cat’s a goal guy so he always makes me throw a couple goals at the beginning of the season and U order Taco Bell win on the PJ tour yeah what but what what else what else you looking at for the rest of the year well now I feel like you know I think the main goal would be make making East Lake I think that’s kind of you know I’m in a good spot for that and that’s kind of if you can do that that means you had a great year you know and that’s really where I’m the main goal but then also somehow making the the President’s Cup I think that’d be super cool yeah it’d be fun and I mean I’m sure people love to hit his t- shots he hit dead straight around the middle I’ll go into this one Austin we appreciate the time man great chatting with you uh good luck the rest of the season hopefully we see you on the president Cup team thanks so much hopefully so this is The Proving Grounds podcast [Applause]