Scott Stallings on Golf, Fatherhood, and Running the Boston Marathon | TWOSOME Ep. 009
What’s harder: dunking a basketball or running a marathon? 🤔 PGA Tour pro Scott Stallings joins us to break that down—and a whole lot more.
In this episode of TWOSOME, Scott gets real about the struggles of being a dad on Tour, balancing family with a demanding golf career, and how his Boston Marathon experience gave him a whole new outlook on life.
We cover:
✅ Life on the PGA Tour as a husband and father
✅ The mental and physical grind of professional golf
✅ Training for and running the Boston Marathon
✅ His personal transformation story
✅ The ultimate debate: Dunk or Marathon?
If you’re a golf dad, a fan of Scott Stallings, or just someone trying to do hard things and grow in the process—this one’s for you.
🎧 Listen, like, comment, and subscribe for more unfiltered conversations about golf, fatherhood, and life.
👇 Drop your thoughts in the comments:
Would you rather train to dunk or run a marathon?
#ScottStallings #GolfPodcast #PGATour #BostonMarathon #GolfDad #TwosomePodcast #GolfLife #GolfFitness #DadLife #MarathonTraining #GolfContent
What’s up? You’re listening to the Tusome podcast. I’m Blair Wheeler. DJ Thma is here as well. I’m doing this little intro situation to see how it goes. But today’s guest is Scott Stalins, close friend of mine, fitness guru, dad, husband, and obviously three-time PJ Tour winner. We get into a lot of different topics in this episode, including what it’s like being a dad on the PJ tour, how he’s juggling the different things that life’s throwing at him while he’s traveling, and how he’s juggling being a dad while it’s going on. fitness, food, and obviously, is it easier for a PGA Tour player to run a marathon or dunk a basketball? We’ll find out all of this in this episode of the Tusome Podcast. So, hope you enjoy. Thanks for listening. What’s up? Welcome back to the show. You’re listening to the Tusome podcast. I’m your host Blair Wheeler with my co-host DJ Thma. And we have a special guest today. Three-time PGA Tour winner, Scott Stallings, husband, dad, fitness guru, obviously a golfer. Welcome to the show, man. I appreciate youall having me. Yeah, of course. So, we’re going to get right into it. We were kind of talking about it off air. There was a comment made at the Myrtle Beach Classic this weekend uh from Harry Higs saying that if he trained for two years, he could either dunk a basketball or maybe run a marathon. You just ran a marathon. So look, what do you think? Dunk a basketball, run a marathon, which is going to be easier for Mr. Higs. Dan Raffaort told me he had bet his trainer that by the end of the year he could dunk a basketball for and I think it was I don’t know, it was a,000 bucks. I don’t know, 500, 10, I don’t know what it was, but and then Dan turned it into could he run what do you think Harry has a better chance of doing dunking a basketball or running a marathon? And I think I would take Harry dunking a basketball before running a marathon. I don’t I think Harry could run a marathon. I just don’t think Harry would want to run a marathon. Wouldn’t want to run a marathon, dude. No, that’s something that is not on my bucket list by any means, but you just you just ran one. So, give us like a little background on on your your mindset going into that and and the the training aspect of like, you know, obviously you said dunking a basketball for Harry, but what is uh what is that main difference going to consist of to to get in that level? Yeah, I think uh I mean I had shoulder surgery in June, had elbow surgery in November, and I think once I had the elbow, I think it would really put things in perspective of like, man, I’m really like not super close to playing on tour again. And then there was a lot of time that came into like just being patient and kind of letting they had to kind of rebuild this thing where your owner nerve kind of slides in uh right inside the kind of the funny bone of your elbow. And it was more just like man we got to give it some time. You can’t, you know, start swinging. You can’t really do a bunch of lifting. Um, man, I got to find something to do. And a buddy of mine gave me Steve Magnus’ book, Do Hard Things. And you know, a guy told me, he said, “Read the first chapter.” Every time Steve references himself about sort of a kind of a weird injury he had when he was running. Um, and he said, “Put yourself in that, you know, you know, just imagine yourself being in that fairway bunker at the players and how, you know, now you’re, you know, 14 months away from that.” And, you know, we still hadn’t played it on tour again. And, you know, freak injuries happen. And I woke up the next day and I told my wife I was going to run the Boston Marathon. Didn’t really know what all that looked into and how the process of what all that was. Thankfully the people from Golf Fights Cancer gave me an awesome opportunity to be able to run and raise some money for them. But uh I mean it was a great distraction. My arm didn’t work really like I wanted to, but my legs work great. And um so it was a cool thing. I was born in New England. and I turned 40 uh in March and so kind of a a long uh birthday party celebration with you know the best city in the world with I don’t know how many people were there but it was a lot so it was definitely a surreal experience I think you cut out there Scott that’s but that’s awesome man I I mean you know, I’m super into fitness. It’s a huge part of my life. And, you know, we’ve we’ve connected, we’ve worked out, we’ve played golf. Um, tell us for the listeners that aren’t familiar with your story about like how we got from a PJ tour player running the marathon, right? Like that’s not something that you’re going to see Rory or JT or any of the guys do. Um, but you, I mean, you’re objectively maybe one of the fittest guys on tour. How did you get to that point from, you know, normal PJ tour player Scott Stallings in 201 what 13? Yeah, this is my 14th year on tour. I got my tour card in uh 2000 December 2010. Mhm. So, um yeah, a lot’s changed since then. Um yeah, you wouldn’t even recognize the the guy in the picture. If you Google Scott Stalins, you’re like, who’s the big guy? Yeah, definitely. Um, it was a lot different. Um, you know, it was no one’s fault to my other than my own. Just sort of a lot of negligence. Um, you know, I thought if I made birdies, I could kind of do whatever I wanted. I mean, it wasn’t even like, you know, drinking, partying, anything like that. It was just a lot. you know, play golf all the time, sleep very little and, you know, travel too much probably and all the different things that go along with it and next thing you know, you’re a mess and, you know, no, you know, diet or training or, you know, anything behind it. And then slowly but surely, you look at yourself like, man, how do I get myself in this spot? And thankfully, I had a lot of people come alongside me and help me understand what like health and wellness look like. and you know able to kind of be a you know cool opportunity to tell some stories along the way. I never really did it for golf. I did it for my life for my wife and my kids and all the things that kind of go along with that. Um you know golf kind of felt like a second chance and so I’m thankful for for that opportunity. Um but I don’t think it’s possible for a active PGA Tour player to safely train for a marathon. I just don’t think there’s enough time um to do I mean if you went up on the range and you went up there and started talking trash to a bunch of tour guys and like I bet y’all can’t do this. A bunch of guys would do it just cuz that’s how they’re built. I mean they’re just different. I mean they probably wouldn’t do it fast but they would finish. Like I think a shocking number of guys would finish more than they wouldn’t just for the mental aspect of hey this guy told me I couldn’t do this. I’m gonna go out there and show him I can. And you know some guys would quit or some guys just wouldn’t be interested or for whatever. But you know you really put it to a guy and say hey you can’t do this. You better you better you would be shocked at the number of tour guys especially people that play individual sports. Like I think the number of people that do those kind of things would it would be surprising the number of people that would finish. Who do you think has the fastest marathon on tour other than you obviously? I don’t know. I found out I was the first active PJ tour player to run the Boston Marathon. They told me that after. I was like I’m sort of I’m sort of glad they they told me that. I was like man if I I knew I was going to finish man like I didn’t want it to end. I I my Garmin I ran more than the marathon. Like I ran upwards and backwards and like I got to Boston, you know, because only the only last two miles were actually in the city and I was like crap. Like that was fast. And like I just I would run up the right and down the left and my Garmin was like all these like weaves in and out of here. But um I have no idea who the fastest, but it would probably be some like a person like like built like Colum Wara. There’s a bunch of those guys. Yeah. Um I uh I qualified in the Clydesdale division. Um which means you weigh over 200 lb. Normally that’s like a like a compliment like man that guy’s like a Clydesdale. But in running, it’s sort of kind of like a dig, like you’re a big guy. That that would be that would be what I would qualify in as well. I’m I’m just a hair over 200 lb. But that’s also crazy that you say like after that marathon, you’re like you didn’t want it to end, which is just which is crazy. That’s awesome. But like could you have done it if it was another four miles? Oh, for sure. I would have gone all day. Like Jesus, I would just just the fact of like like the I called my wife at the halfway point cuz she was tracking um me kind of along the way. I ran a 150 half which is like I don’t know 8:15 820 miles which is fine. And I called her. I was like, “Hey, I’m going to slow down.” Pretty significant, but cuz I want cuz once you get past Welssley, which is the halfway point. I mean, every town it just progressively gets more and more and more and more aggressive, like in a great way. I mean, it’s like a Super Bowl parade for four hours. And that’s kind of the only way to describe it. And like I didn’t want to be the guy like looking at my watch like, “Oh, I’m trying to hold the paces like, “Oh, these kids are running through the sprinklers and giving out candy. I’m going to go run with them and you know all the different I got on a rower uh at one point like I was anything that there was to participate to do I did. Um so it was a really really cool thing and and honestly I didn’t want it to end but those last two miles like I did 11 minute miles the last two minute the last two miles and honestly I just went just fast enough to keep my legs moving without walking just cuz I wanted to take it all in. because you run right in front of Finway Park and you see like the best parts of the city like all coming into one and it was like man I was I want I took it all in for sure. That’s awesome. How does how does that like natural running high and that experience compared to a tour win? It’s totally different cuz like I actually know what I’m doing in golf and running. I’m just like I have no idea. Um I was telling y’all before we you’re like Yeah. Oh my gosh. So my the guy that sort of helped me when I decided I was going to do this was like, “Hey man, you need to run some races before because like it’s different.” And I was like, “Ah man, it’s just like show up and go, right?” I was like, “No, it’s not like that.” And so I uh like when I got into it, I ran three halves and I did a 30k like big like hilly run like a a kind of it’s supposed to be a trail run and we end up running on these up and down these hills in Tennessee. But like every time I made every mistake that you could make like the I never had run where they had stuff to drink on a course. Yeah. And I thought it was like a requirement. So, I’m like feeling good and the very first half half marathon I did, they had Gatorade and water. I was like, “Man, this is great. I’m just like killing it.” I mean, like 10 miles in, I’m like, “Man, my stomach feels horrible.” And and they were like, “Oh, it’s just there if you need it.” Cuz I saw all these people other stop and I’m like, “Oh, these people are doing it. I’m going to do it.” And cuz any person that I thought looked like they knew what they were doing, I was like, “I’m going to do what that guy’s doing.” And um I joined a run club on Tuesday nights with some people uh a guy owns a running store here. And every time we’d run, I would just be like, “All right, this is what I I’m going to figure this out.” And but in the world of golf, like I can kind of stay in my own lane, like I know what I need to do to play and practice and, you know, be my best, but when it comes to something like that I’ve never done, it’s like, please help me. All right, that guy looks like he he’s doing good. I’m going to do that and all the different things like that. So that’s kind of what I did for sure. That’s awesome. So now that you’re you’re kind of getting towards the end of your injury time frame, right? You said you can go fulltime back in the fall, I think you said when we saw when I saw you in January. Um how does the Yeah, that’s kind of that’s hopefully the goal. We’ll see how that goes. How’s the training going to change? Obviously, you’ve been running. You’ve trained for the marathon. Like what’s the training look like now going into, you know, back to golf? Yeah, I mean it’s I’m still running quite a bit. It’s still the only part of my day I don’t have to think about. Um like even in practice like I I can’t just go hit as many balls as I want. Like I mean my arm still gets pretty sore. Uh and I do not want that elbow surgery again. I would do my shoulder surgery every day before they touch my elbow again. So just trying to I’m trying to find the part of fatigue where you know you know it doesn’t hurt. it just gets sore kind of like a muscle that hadn’t been used in a while. Um, and it’s my left arm, so that’s the one that kind of takes all the brunt of hitting the ground. Um, so start to, you know, build back some explosiveness. My swing speed’s very slow. Um, but I’ve done a really good job. Kept my range of motion, uh, you know, done really, really good with that. So, just like the hitting, man, uh, you know, time and just a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. I started being able to hang off a bar about a month ago. Um, still no real pull-ups, but just to be able to like get my arms over my head and kind of support my body weight, all the different things. But, you know, still in the gym too, like I can’t really go in there and just do what I want to do. I have to be very cognizant about how, you know, I move, you know, not trying to do too much too fast and, you know, really put myself in a good position to, you know, not have do anything to reinjure myself. So the running component of hack and do a make a workout on my watch knock it out and go. It doesn’t involve a whole lot of thinking. So I’ve enjoyed that a lot. This this seems like a little a little weird of a question, but like when you are, you know, essentially like working out or or you have those limits that you can do on your on your elbow, are you ever scared that you’re going to like reinjure it? Are you scared to like take that first step to like do that first pull-up? Yeah. The I remember the first day I actually like put my arms over my head to like hang was freeze on you. Froze it like I Did I freeze up? Yeah, you froze. Sorry about that. No, you’re good. You’re good now. Yeah. So, are you scared? The first day I did like I did Yeah, I did like a like a seated hang and it was like just like letting my ar it was like and then my arms would go a little bit straighter, a little bit straighter and then it was like, “Oh, it’s okay. It’s okay.” So, same thing like doing a push-up for the first time was bizarre. I kind of started off my knees and you know then progressed to my toes and you know everything is just sort of a reminder of like man this is sort of what this is going to be for the next little bit and you know you follow on the process you know everything kind of has a time and a place and not trying to do too much too fast but for the most part I haven’t had any like real scary moments um just more like mind over matter but the first time hitting off grass was a little weird uh the first time like feeling the toe kind of turn over And you know, I’ve kind of made a living out of the middle of the bag. You know, you know, kind of that 150 yard range, you know, from, you know, wedge to probably seven iron. And, you know, seeing a couple of those clubs like go in and out of the turf was a little bit odd. Um, you know, definitely make sure the ball’s sitting up for the next few months, but, uh, you know, seeing one like down into the grain. I haven’t quite done that yet. So, I would just if I was playing, I would just move it and uh just make sure I didn’t, you know, do anything to reinjure myself. For sure. So, you mentioned, you know, your strength before your injury was your, you know, 150 yard shot. I was telling DJ before you jumped on the call um that you know we played together in Kiwa uh 2021ish and you kind of messed around had a hoham round but ended up with the course record down there. That’s crazy. I think I was too distracted because we were looking for your ball on every hole so I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. True story. We got 17 and you were like man I’ve made a lot of birdies. I was like, “Yeah, you you did you did a lot of birdie Scott.” Yeah, that’s that’s that’s pretty awesome, though, too, cuz it’s like you almost in a way I mean, maybe you did know what you were shooting. I mean, it’s probably always in the back of your mind, but sometimes it’s almost easier when you do, if that was the case, have that little bit of distraction where you can kind of not think about it as much. Say that last part again. I just making sure I had the full context of your question. Yeah, just like when you are distracted, let’s say, with looking for Blair’s ball the whole time. Um, obviously you someone that’s playing on tour, like you know what you’re shooting. You you know what you’re capable of, but at the same time, is it easier when you have like, let’s say, that little bit of distraction where it it takes your mind off it a little bit or or does it not really even matter? No, I think it there’s a time and a place for everything like we had a great day. you know, we worked out, we, you know, chat and, you know, had an opportunity to just sort of, you know, see what each other were about and the different things like that. But, you know, those days are kind of unique in the fact of like I think I did some chip in from nowhere where I probably should have made a bogey and, you know, we we had never seen the course either. So, we were just sort of like I think this is kind of what we’re supposed to do and you know how we did all that stuff. But, you know, on tour it’s a little bit easier, you know, to kind of lock in. I mean, that’s, you know, it’s kind of me verse me out there. And, you know, in that environment, also, I’d say that it’s the opposite sometimes. Like, I could go out with some of my buddies and look incredibly average. Um, you know, just sort of, hey, if I’m out there just enjoying the day, you know, it just kind sort of kind of depends. It’s not always. That was definitely a unique scenario and kind of, you know, the the world collided a little bit and a couple went in and, you know, that’s sort of how that happened. That’s awesome. It’s too good. Yeah. And we want we wanted to talk about like fatherhood, traveling, kids, like because you guys are on the road a lot on the tour, right? Like 30, 40 weeks a year, some guys. Um, some guys more. What’s the hardest part, you know, as a dad when you’re traveling week in week out on tour? I think now as my kids have gotten older, I have a 12-year-old, a sixth grader, and a 9-year-old, third grader daughter. My son’s uh sixth grade. And I think trying not to be two places at once. Um, you know, golf kind of lends itself to the compartmentalization role. Like once they call your name, it’s, you know, you’re either going to do it or you’re not. you know, you’re not doing yourself any favors. You’re not doing your caddy, your team, your family, anything. Trying to be somewhere that you’re not. And you know, I’ve not always been the best at that. Um, you know, like I want to be at on the lacrosse field with my son. I want to be, you know, what whatever it is my daughter decides to do on that day. She she’s like she loves nothing but likes everything. She’s kind of one of those. Um, and I think that’s just one of those, you know, situations of, you know, it kind of goes without saying like I I want to be with my wife and my kids, but also like this is my job and this is something that I also love to do. And I think it’s a balance. It’s not a perfect scenario. Um, but you know, if if you imagine like the juggler, the juggler doesn’t look at the two in his hand. He looks at the one in the air. And I think that that’s a perfect example like when you’re with your family, you’re with your family. When you’re at your job, you’re at your job and it’s, you know, I’m not at my job when the ball’s up in the air and I’m looking at my wife and my kids and that that obviously that ball that’s in the air is going to hit the ground. And you know, I’ve had a lot of older guys really help me with that. Um, you know, I had a really good mentor right when I first got on tour, Kenny Perry. I mean, he was in I mean, he definitely went over and above his way as a dad. and sort of made it where like this is the it’s this a priority to me. Like golf’s given me the opportunity to do a lot of things to my family that I wouldn’t had a chance to do otherwise, but it’s also not going to take away from what my family has a chance to do amongst ourselves. And I’ve kind of taken that to heart. It’s been a unique scenario this past year because I’ve been home more than I’ve probably been in my entire career. So, I mean, I I go to school, I pick up. I think I my first when I got hurt in March, I think I signed up for every something at my kids’ school every day. I I think I got signed up for kids grades that I don’t even have kids in those grades. And um but I just think, you know, just trying to be be where you’re at. um try to and be real mindful of those kind of things cuz I think it’s really easy to sit there and sort of wander off in the wilderness and next thing you look it’s like man I had a year at home with my wife and my kids like you know and all I did was wish it away that I was back on tour back at this and that and I you know think I have done a really good job of of that and understanding the opportunity that that time away kind of will you know make it sweeter to go back. Um, I think it’ll look a little different when I do. I don’t think I’ll necessarily be able to stack all those tournaments in a row like I used to. Just try to be who knows and just kind of see how it feels once I really start hitting a ton of balls. Um, but you know, we’ll kind of piece it together as we figure it out. Yeah. I mean, even I can’t imagine having that whole like tour schedule too cuz even you know Blair and I will travel randomly whether it’s for work, whether it’s for golf, whatever it is. And uh I mean I miss my family like crazy when I’m gone. So to have it be stacked like you are and and actually have you know a lot of money on the line each week as well um puts a whole another level of pressure on it. So good for you. Yeah, it’s definitely a learned sign. There’s there’s not a there’s not a book for this. There’s no manual. It’s kind of what works for me that may not work for someone else and and vice versa. I mean, if Sunjm ever has kids, I don’t know. I don’t know what what he may never see his mail. Yeah. I’m always like shocked by people like Sunj and Adam Scott. Like, and Adam lives like I think he has a home in Switzerland, may have a home in Florida. Like, I don’t really know where he lives, but he he it seems like he plays every freaking week. Um, and I look at guys like that and you know, us being friends, I look at you and I’m like, man, DJ and I travel a lot and I got a few like instances of it this year where I went back to backtoback weeks and at one point I was like, man, I I need to get home and be dad. Um, and I I can’t imagine what it’s like for the tour guys. Yeah, I think the like you have a little bit of a distraction, you know, Thursday through Sunday, but man, those Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, you know, like a Tuesday evening soccer game or a lacrosse game or whatever it is, and you’re sitting in your hotel or Airbnb and you’re like, man, I know it’s kind of the rest of my family’s doing or this and that. And I think it makes you enjoy it. Um, you know, my family doesn’t travel near as much as they used to. Um, but I think, you know, when when they do come out, it’s, you know, cuz you don’t get it very often. And I think it’s, you know, those are special weeks for sure. What are your, I guess, your family’s favorite weeks on tour to come see you. My son would tell you the players because that’s what sent me home for a year. Um, and um, I think it’s different, you know, that it’s not always, you know, sunshine and rainbows. I think a lot of people’s perspective of, you know, like I’ve had buddies, you know, come out for weeks on end and be like, “Man, how do you do this 30 weeks a year?” And, you know, I we’ve Memorial’s probably our favorite event. Um, that’s kind of always been special uh in Ohio. And then, you know, we lived in Arizona for a long time. We live five minutes from TPC. Even though that’s a wild event and sort of reminds us of the time, maybe not the most kid-friendly event either, but it’s a it reminds us of the time we lived out there where it was just the four of us. We didn’t really know anyone. We made some great friends while we were out there, but when we moved out there, we we just did it for golf and opportunity to to, you know, kind of learn what our family needed and what we didn’t need and, you know, what that looked like. So those are special events to us for sure. Yeah. So So why is the memorial so special? I mean, obviously the waste management is what it is. You live there for a little bit. Like, we’ve been and worked out there together. Um, you typically play well at TPC. Uh, but what’s what’s so special about the memorial? I think just the event in what it is. Jack was great to me my rookie year. um had some great weeks there and and the event in itself and the and the way that the the course and and the different things the way the families are treated are pretty incredible and you know definitely a step above you know every event’s great and they sort of there’s a lot of great things you say a lot of different things and I’ll also say that I’m gonna get an email or something from Bessie UD Doll but travelers is like all the different things they do for families throughout the week and different things like that is is super special as well. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean when I asked chat GPT about you know Scott Stallings and give and give me a give I use AI a lot because I’m busy and I’m like hey just like AI is going to do this for me. I asked you to spit me out a description. It the number one thing it said was PJ tour player. Second thing it said was health advocate and fitness guru. Uh the memorial is known for their milkshakes. Do you dive into the milkshakes of the memorial? Uh always at the end of the tournament because they’re kind of like day enders like especially when you don’t have them very often. Like you always like if you’re going to you know go travel to the the next event you’ll have one like on the way to the airport or something like that. But and then you’re like, you just need to have somewhere to sit for just a little bit. Like the guys that have them. I mean, I’m sure my rookie year I had two or three a day, but th those days are over. I I have a I have a question since we’re talking about food a little bit. Number one, uh it it’s non-food related. Number two, it kind of will work into it depending upon your answer, but number one, do you prefer hotel or Airbnb when you travel? Airbnb. Is that because you can cook? Um, yes. I travel with a eightle like a mattress cover for like temperature thing and they’re just way easier to deal with in an Airbnb than a hotel. Okay. And hotel like room service. You see something attached to your bed and the people come in and it’s like what what is this? So, it’s like a science project for sure. I’m I’m a big uh at home cook and and love, you know, eating healthy, attempting to eat healthy. Um so that’s kind of like if I was on the road, I I would prefer something like that uh Airbnb just to be able to eat at home, eat healthier, not constantly getting takeout. Um if do you eat do you sorry, do you cook when you’re in the Airbnb quite a bit or is it still takeout? Uh, a little bit of both. Um, I think the back end of CO changed a lot of that. You know, when we first went back, we were the first sport to go. And I think just sort of navigating that landscape of, you know, we were in a bubble. That was the big key word. And I think people just, you know, you got more opportunity to be, you know, you had a couple buddies you travel with. you stay in a house and you know two or three guys would cook you know kind of changing it each and every night and so I think that kind of carried over where guys enjoyed that a lot for sure and if you you know you’re cooking what’s your favorite meal to cook uh I’m a steak guy kind of always San Diego has a meat market um and they have some skirt steak called Cardiff crack and that’s always a I’ve rented the same house for quite a a few years and card of crack on Tuesdays always sticks out quite a bit. Gotcha. That’s No, that’s that’s too good. And then usually are you when you’re doing Airbnbs, are you having um let’s say Caddy stay with you as well? Like are you filling that spot up or is it like your own little pad for say the week? I think every week is different. Um, I think just knowing, you know, this the situation, you know, whether it’s a real expensive week for a lot of guys or it’s cheaper week or my family’s coming or, you know, whatever. I mean, there’s sort of a a combination or a a wide array of scenarios where who knows who could stay what and I’m pretty open, pretty laid-back, and I don’t really get too caught up in whatever. Just some, you know, I don’t love to sit there and just talk about golf over and over and over again. Um, I’ve done this for a really long time and I don’t really want to talk necessarily about what I’ve done all day, let alone to what the other guys in my house have done all day. So, um, we’ve definitely had a few conversations with a couple guys that they just need to like get it off their chest and like this is not the place to do that. Like, you need to have checked that at the door and you know, we’re just going to be just normal dudes. Uh, they’re just sort of hanging out and uh, you know, that’s what we’re going to do. So, yeah. Other other than that, we’re pretty pretty low maintenance. So, when you’re in those houses with those guys, what what is it? Is it, you know, you’re talking SEC football and telling them how the Gamecooxs are going to win the national championship this year? Like, what’s the what’s the conversation on tap usually? Oh man. Yeah, the Gamecocks don’t come up very much unless Smith unless Matt Newmith’s changed a couple time stay with me a couple times. And uh I’m actually going to he’s playing in Knoxville uh next week, so I’m going to have dinner with him on Monday. I’ll make sure to that we talk about the national championship Gamecocks. Um I’m sure I’m sure that’ll come up a lot. Um but man, it’s sort of whatever. I mean, there’s no rhyme or reason. It’s mostly nonsense. um you know where most of the guys I stay with all have families and so it’s whatever our wives or kids or you know whatever someone else is dealing with or you know trying to figure out and it’s very rarely about anything related to golf and you know sort of you do something 8 10 hours a day the last thing I want to do is go sit you know with around a meal and talk about what I just did all day you know if there’s something that needs to be addressed or whatever I’ll try to deal that with the people that help me do that and not necessarily, you know, vent to the people that do the same thing I do for a living. So, I just think that’s sort of how I’m wired as well. Yeah, definitely. And then when you’re, you know, when you’re back at home, I’m going to stay on this cooking trail cuz um Blair needs to to have some some insight on this and and get a little better in the kitchen, too. But are you the cook or is your wife the cook? She she would definitely probably say that I was the cook. I’m definitely the griller. anything outside. Um my my wife and kids got me a Oonie for my birthday. Yeah, that is a is very awesome, but it’s definitely learned. You defin got to do some tri like the you you got to buy the cheap things and and mess up a bunch and then figure out exactly how to like hone that thing in, especially when you’re breaking it all the way in there. So, just like anything, like right when I got a smoker, like I had to kind of learn, you know, screw up a bunch and, you know, no one becomes great at anything just automatically being good at it. They mess up a bunch, right? So, also having something that gets to a thousand degrees is just in my mind is is like kind of uncomfortable. It’s like like I I need these all to like work. And so I think I have gloves that like I could go into like a nuclear reactor with and be okay. But like these gloves like I can barely hold on to anything. They’re so thick. But it’s also like keeping me from burning my fingers off when I’m in there. So but that thing is is is pretty awesome. We do the oni uh all the time at home and it’s like yeah everyone come over for pizza night and it’s like you always think it’s going to be super fun and super like interact with everyone and it’s just kind of chaos and no one can kind of eat together. It kind of turns into a hassle more than like fun and then at the end you’re like okay now this thing has to cool down before I can even put it away. So half the time I just like let it sit outside overnight cuz I mean it’s like you said it’s 1,000° it’s crazy. Um, so what is I don’t even I’ve never even heard of a Ooni. Yeah, it’s a it’s like a personal pizza oven, which like your your kids are small, so like it would be perfect. But like if the three of us were sitting around, it would be like, “All right, cool. Blair’s going to eat and then DJ’s going to eat and then I’m going to eat.” But like we’re all going to kind of watch each other. Yeah. Cuz it’s like especially for dudes like if you got a bunch of kids it is awesome cuz you can just make a bunch of small ones and knock them out. But if you’re thinking like you’re going to have like one yourself like brother it ain’t happening. These these pizzas cook Blair in like 90 seconds like super super quick. Um but the problem is that it can only be so big right. So, like you said, it it’s fantastic for kids. But then, like, if you’re having a guys night, you better throw something on the smoker and do some meat instead of the the whole the whole pizza bits. But I’m a meat guy anyways. But what it sounds like is we’re available for sponsorship if Oonie is listening. And we the three of us should all just get upgraded on whatever the newest and best. I I have all like the um cast iron like grates for potatoes and like have you ever done a steak or anything in there? I mean, you can you can do anything. Yeah. Maverick me got me a beefer. You know what? Yeah. Yeah. He he had stayed with me a couple times and um he’s like, “Man, I just appreciate like you always doing the house and you know, just organizing everything like I got something coming.” And then next thing you know, I’m getting some like DHL from Europe. And I’m like, “What the heck is this thing?” and he got me. And that thing is sweet. Like, but it’ll definitely You want a hard sear, that is definitely the way to do it. Like a like a sousie or like a super low like just high, man. We just turned into a cooking podcast pretty fast. Um, for sure. So, I don’t have one of those, but you’re saying I got to get one. Yes. You should definitely tell your wife. Be like, “Hey, this guy told me it came from Germany. It’s real nice.” But it was like Mav got that for me a couple years ago and man it’s it’s pretty cool to see it work. But it’s also something crazy that it something that small can get that hot and you just like I could literally burn my entire house down with this thing. And so uh definitely tread lightly for sure. I’m googling beefers right now just for the name alone. Like it’s it’s amaz it’s an amazing name. Like I want a beefer right here. Yeah. if if you go around saying that in uh in you know the wrong circle they’ll definitely give you some odd looks but any meat guys like you know it’s pretty awesome. There’s another there’s a couple other companies that that come out with it, but um it’s pretty much like all the high will use some variation of you know those infrared sear burners that get you know 1,200° and same thing like you s a steak and you want a hard sear man it’s done in two or three minutes and you’re pulling it out like I mean you need 90 seconds max in one of those things and it’s ready to roll. There you go Blair that’s your sign to get proficient in cooking now. Well, dude, I did steaks last night and my wife made a pasta. Like, she does this like fetuccini pasta with uh pjudo and no, it’s a ham and beet and pea pasta. It was really good. But I was in charge of the steaks and I’m getting good at steaks and I can, you know, getting better. Um, I started kind of tinkering around with a reverse sear sort of situation, but like like Scott said, meat stuff I’m pretty pretty good with. And that could be taken off a different direction, too. But like, uh, like when it comes to cooking meat, I’m decent. But anything else, like when it comes to pasta or baking, like I’m out. I’m out. Yeah. We’re trying to, uh, we’re we have developed a baker. Our nine-year-old has that’s what she’s taken upon herself. Um, you know, probably to the detriment of me and my wife’s own health cuz every day she’s like, I’m going to make something and it’s normally really good. So, is she the sourdough cake at all? Uh, no. She That’s the next thing for the Oonie. She wants to make She’s like, I want to make my own. I was like, and I said, I think you’d be really sad if you spent all this time making this like pizza dough and I just burnt the crap out of it. So, let me let me just get a little more comfortable before I You spend all the time to be able to make this piece of dough and I just absolutely ruin it. So, you’re talking bacon, cookies, cupcakes, all the things you shouldn’t be eating. Absolutely. Absolutely. I’m I’m moving to my charger. I just realized my iPad’s about to die. So, I’m going to keep us from that. So, follow with me as as I walk. No, you’re good. We get to see a tour of the gym via Right. Is that Is that a house gym or what? Y Yeah. DJ doesn’t know anything about your your gym situation, Scott. Here, I’ll turn it around. Y’all just get looking up my nose. I don’t do that. Oh, here it is. I’ll turn it around. That’s sort of it. Yeah. That’s sick. Was that in your garage then? No. Is I built a like a barn in my backyard? Love that. Yep. It’s raining, too. So, I’m about to run into my house. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s raining here in North Carolina, too. I was just talking with um Matt O’Keeffe about doing stuff some something with uh HWPO golf, and I was like, man, I should just come to Knoxville. We go play uh Holston Hills when Scott gets better. get some workouts in in the garage, in the barn, just get it all just get it all dialed in. But that that gym that he built, DJ, is like my goal. Like whenever, you know, when my crypto investments blew up or I got a big podcast deal or or Instagram deal because I’m going to have a barn like Scott’s in my backyard, right? We we converted the old fifth bedroom in the basement to a uh full-on like workout room. Um, so it’s been nice to have, but you know, probably should use it a little bit more often than we do. Yeah. So DJ, I know you’re not huge into fitness or working out. Like you you do a little bit, right? Just maintenance. I I’m I’m a yo-yo workouter, so like I hit my like if I hit 205, I’m like, “Ah [ __ ] I got to get back into shape.” And then I’ll like work out a little hard. 195 and you’re like, “I’m back.” And then Yep. 190 195 I’m like all right we’re good I’m good for two months and then I like jump back into it. Um maybe because of the the food situation. Um but you know what a little bit of uh regularity in the gym. Little you know what little flexibility would help too. We need to we need to not be so stiff on the course. Yeah. Scott, when you get a second I I might send you a video of DJ swing. you’re going to see one of the stiffest like slapshotty hockey swings you ever seen in your life. Um but it works. I mean he hits fairways and whatever. Oh yeah. Um so but yeah, I wanted to talk about fitness um and health and and and stuff because when we first met Scott, you said something to me about getting like how you got into fitness. You went to a doctor. You you know got all your blood work done. I think you said that your doctor said you had a lower testosterone level than your wife. Um, come to find out that same thing happened to me. I went and got my blood work done right before we had our third kid and my testosterone level was like 295 and my doctor was like, “Dude, you your wife probably has higher testosterone than you do. You got to fix something.” So like kind of give us the like condensed version of your story so you know DJ can have some background and the listeners can too. I mean it was it was a mess to be honest. uh just sort of basically I was like the best way to describe it especially to dudes like man if the alternator in your car is about to go out like that like grind like road trip you or like stop and go traffic like in and out like in a traffic jam. I mean that’s like the worst thing that that could happen and that’s kind of how I lived. But if I needed to like get on the interstate and I jam the gas, that thing is going to work. Like that’s when it was thriving. But as soon as you let off the gas and that car starts like that was like me. And um you know there was a lot of habitual stuff. I mean mostly related to sleep. I had obstructive sleep apnnea. I didn’t know. I broke my nose. I got hit in the face when I was a kid with a baseball and I just never really got it fixed. Had a bunch of sinus infections. um same you know a few allergies you know like seasonal stuff and this this thing you know but nothing like that was like daunting but all these things sort of like manifested in the course of a person that travels you know I spend more time on the road than I did at home like I didn’t know what you know type of like health and wellness routine I didn’t really know anything and sort of just threw my hands up and was like man if I’m making birdies all this stuff will take care of itself and you know that’s not really the plan for success. And so I started incrementally figuring out find ways to kind of change habits and you know make you know one better decision and build off. But just like anybody any like I mean I was a high achiever a guy that played on tour. I was like well I can do it all at once and that’s not a recipe for success either. And I think it’s just a reminder of that, you know, surround yourself with people that are smarter further down the road and you can start to be able to ask some questions and start to build habits and, you know, next thing you know, one starts, you know, leading to the next and you realize like, man, when I do this, like this is how much better I feel and this is sort of what leads to what and, you know, I can come out and be a better version of what I was the day before. Yeah, that’s one of the bigger things that I’ve found since getting, you know, my blood work done and figuring out the health side. Like obviously physically you’re going to be stronger and faster and all the stuff like my swing speed increased just fixing my testosterone and getting on TRT which I don’t I don’t think you can do as a professional athlete. Um I think we talked about it like you can’t you can’t do that. You have to fix it naturally or you know sleep and all the things. Uh, but I I’ve told every one of my friends as soon as they hit 30, go get your blood work done and just see where you’re at to get to get an idea like, hey, like, you know, things are good, things are bad. Figure it out. Um, and so, thank you for being the, you know, the impetus for me to like say, hey, maybe something is wrong because I’m kind of getting moody and I’m cranky and I can’t lose weight. And so, yeah, it’s it’s an interesting time for men who uh, you know, don’t know what’s going on, can’t figure out why you’re sleeping bad, can’t figure out anything. Yeah. I mean, the biggest thing is I just had so many I mean, I just made so many excuses as far as like I mean, then you start really going down the road of like, oh, well, maybe I can figure it out on my own. And, you know, a few Google searches and next thing you know, it’s like, well, this is it. I’m dead. Like, I’m going to die. And I did the same thing. I googled it. I was like, undying death immediate. So, um, and and then I had turned myself into like my own character in house, you know, like someone’s like I come in with cough and I’ve got like something not even related. So, don’t do that. There’s a lot of great doctors out there. There’s a lot of great, you know, things to come out. And for the most part, everything’s fixable and preventable or, you know, just by just, you know, pretty simple, you know, taskbased things. It’s not going to happen overnight. Um, it’s not the easiest thing in the world. There’s a lot of, you know, ways to kind of circumvent, you know, for faster results, but true lasting, you know, stuff comes from habits. And, you know, finding what the best version of that looks like for you because it’s a little bit different for everyone. And you know, I was thankful that I was able to, you know, find some people to come alongside me and help me figure out what that looked like. Yeah. I gota I got to I got to create a new habit instead of this whole yo-yo thing cuz it’s even like when I get in those those months where I’m like, I’m on it. I’m eating good. I’m working out a lot. It’s in it’s insane how much better you do feel and and how much just the you can think clearer. you’re just all around feeling better. Um, so that’s gonna be my little thing going forward. I’m just gonna stop the yo-yo and uh and start good habits. Yeah, there you go. I’m I’m surprised y’all Most of the time, every podcast I do, someone especially when you start talking about health and wellness and habits will ask me about my styrofoam cup. It’s like I mean that’s definitely from a gas station. Um, y’all don’t have Wiggles where you live, but Waggles is big in Knoxville, but the styrofoam will save you in the sauna. Okay. Any person that’s ever been in a sauna that has taken a Yeti and has peeled their lips off of the Yeti, yet hurt will hurt you. Even like like a shaker bottle, like a you know, just a simple shaker. You take it in there and leave it in there, you know, 190, 195, even hotter than that, and you put your lips against it, and then next thing you know, you see the whole outline of the top layer of skin on there, it’s like I said, I got to figure something out. So, one guy I was randomly with in the sauna. I was like, man, what do you He’s like, man, I take crushed ice and uh styrofoam in the sauna. And that’s I’ve done it ever since. So I was doing one health they were it was like a round table and all these people are drinking like water and this and that and I’m over there like true redneck. So but that’s what normally where it comes from. Love that. Uh so are you a true redneck? Do you like hunting and fishing? No I don’t I like shooting guns. I do not like hunting. I don’t like fishing. Uh I think I’d be good at bird hunting. Um, just cuz I mean our job takes so much patience that it’s the complete opposite of my personality. Um, so I don’t want to go like there’s a lot of things I’d rather do than wake up at 4 in the morning and go like sit in the woods and be quiet. Yeah. I’d rather I’d rather go shoot like I mean like sporting clays, stuff like that. Like that’s very interesting. But like being slow and soft and you know like not making noise like I’m out like I do that you know with the best people in the world. I don’t really want to. So I just realized why I don’t do my most of my podcast in my house because my dog is trying to make an appearance. So she is this I remembered why I don’t come up here when I’m on here cuz she is all over me right now. Sorry. No, you’re good. All good, dude. Yeah. So, I mean, we we’re we try to keep these right around an hour, so let’s let’s we can try to wrap it up and give you a break because your dog’s trying to say hello. Um, I wanted to talk, we talked about the injury, we talked about everything, but you’re going back to tour hopefully in the fall, and we can’t wait to see you back, but what are you most looking forward to going back to, you know, the PJ tour and getting back to playing? I think just, you know, I I don’t think I’ve ever taken golf for granted. Um I’m thankful for my opportunity to play as long as I have on tour and, you know, I’m proud of the things that I’ve done. Um but I think that any time you get to a chance to play and compete against the best in anything. Um the marathon was a unique situation cuz you know, everyone’s like, “Ah, did you care about your time or your you know, it was the complete opposite of that.” like I didn’t care about any of that which was very refreshing in the fact of pretty much every part of my life is you know measured by something you know hey this guy’s club head speed is this guy’s strokes gain is this you know whatever and you know the only thing I cared about was just not ending up in the ambulance or having some type of bathroom emergency that was really if if neither one of those happened that was a successful day and so I think that was something I really look forward to getting back to Um, I’m not a ultra competitive person, I would say, for the most part, but when it comes to being in that environment, it definitely brings it out. And the opportunity to go and compete against the best players in the world is obviously something that’s very exciting. Awesome. Well, we look forward to getting seeing you back out on tour and, you know, maybe maybe DJ can go back out to one of your maiden events and absolutely follow along. Bring the podcast on the road, say hello. The fall kind of, you know, settles down for us. So, not not as busy, but man, I I can’t thank you enough for your time. You’ve been so gracious, so generous, uh, and over the years for me, just being a good friend. So, appreciate everything. Appreciate you coming on here. And, uh, yeah, can’t wait to see you again. The the fall you’ll be busy w with the Gamecocks, you know, their championship run. We’re getting Shane Beamer is our our savior. Yeah. So, like, you can’t really make a lot of plans. You know, they’re going to need you. As long as I can see it on TV on Saturdays, I’m good. You know, I can go to one game a year and I get my fix. I’m take I am taking my kids to a Carolina game this year, which I’m super excited about. Uh, and they are super Carolina game. You’re not going to watch Bill? No, South Carolina. Bill, Bill, Bill Bich, and Jordan, whatever her name is, have have their own problems. I saw she got I saw she got like banned from there. Or was that a bit? I saw a crazy uh I I guess it was news I found out today her mom owns a sex toy store in Massachusetts in outside of Boston. And I was like that checks out. That’s that’s the reason why Bill Bichc’s involved. Yeah, I get it. I get it now. But no, to answer your question, I’m not going to a North Carolina game to support Bill Bich, Shane Beamer in South Carolina. That’s where we’re going. That’s where we’ll be at. Nice. Well, I appreciate y’all having me. Go balls. Go balls. Coming from the assistant coach of the the Tennessee Volunteers golf team. Uh very I’m very very very distant. Well, dude, I I thank you again for the time and we’ll we’ll catch you next time. Appreciate it. Thanks, man.
