Roger Sloan played 154 events on the PGA Tour and currently sits in 112th on the Korn Ferry Tour Order of Merit. Sloan got some help from a veteran PGA Tour player recently and is finding his way back to form. Sloan and Monday Q Info also now have the same sponsor: Dad Water. Ryan French and Sloan talk about their mutual sponsor, Sloan’s season, what he’s working on, an explosive recent trip to Mexico and what the second half of his season looks like.
Welcome back to Any Given Monday, a special Any Given Monday, we are announcing a new sponsor. You can probably see it if you’re watching uh over my right shoulder. Um Dadwater, we’ll get into what Dadwater is. Roger Sloan is here. He is also sponsored by Dad Water. Mom Water originally uh went back and found the tweet from a couple years ago when he signed this deal because I love obscure uh sponsorships and here we are. Roger, welcome to Any Given Monday. Thanks for being here. Yeah, thanks for having me on. This is great. So, uh let’s start with mom water, which you originally had on your hat. Now it’s on your uh on your shirt as dad water. How did the relationship come to be? Did you know anything about Mom Water prior to them reaching out to you? I had no idea about Mom Water. No. Um I guess the the the the real story was that my wife’s she’s um uh Casey, she’s the president of the wives association on the PGA tour. Yeah. And so she’s works in close uh proximity to you know a lot of the people there at the tour. Um and they the the the one um the one lady Jennifer who was kind of the liaison for the PJ tour with the wives association. She got uh forwarded to a new task force with which was called player partnerships. I guess it was an endeavor with the PGA tour. uh you know the commissioner Jay said you know we turn away so many sponsors so many people come to us and say we want to sponsor a golf tournament and then they give them the number and they go oh we didn’t realize it was that much and so we’re just turning all these people away and like well we got this membership here why don’t we start turning these potential people that want to be in the golf market towards the players and start introducing some of those relationships so sure enough they start player partnerships Uh Bryce and Mom Water, they started having a little success. They love golf. What do they do? They call up the tour. We want to sponsor a golf tournament. Yeah. Well, this is the mount. Whoa. Okay. Yeah. Never mind. And so before they hung up the phone, uh you know, I guess Jennifer and her team like, “Hey, well, you know, we got uh we got a lot of players and and the top of mind was myself.” and they did an introduction and it from that moment on it was just kind of like a harmonious relationship. Uh our golf game was kind of at the same stage where where they were as as a brand uh you know looking to break through. Um you know on the verge of of of breaking through but still having to put in a lot of work, time and effort. Um you know they’re kind of getting into an industry that has a lot of big dogs, right? You talk about the alcohol industry. So there’s they’re a small player and at the time when I was on the PJ tour, you could kind of say that I was kind of in the same boat, you know, with your likes of Roy Moy and Jordan Speeds at the time and, you know, Scotty Sheffler coming through it. It was just like, all right, you know, kind of the smaller guy against the big dog. So it was just it was a really good relationship, good fit, family oriented. family is a huge part of our uh you know my wife and I uh and obviously mom water you know they they hire so many of their family to go through it they’re they’re now growing at a pace where they got to go outside their family but you know it was just something that you that that was important to them and um I think that’s what really fostered a really good relationship from the get-go and uh you know we’re just proud to be uh a part of Mom Water and where it’s gone off and then um you know a little spin-off off became uh became dad water. Obviously, mom water, for those that don’t don’t know, mom water was a was a flavored or is a flavored va uh vodka drink. And so they got the bread idea of let’s go to the dad water and make it tequilab based, you know, cuz you know, the boys have more fun, right? So, uh uh here here we are and uh you know, trying to push a great product, especially in the golf market. Uh and uh just my wife and I were super thrilled to to continue our relationship with Mom and Dad Water. It’s a It’s a great company and great people running the show. Yeah. So, I mean, uh Chris and I who from Deadwater and Bryce uh have talked about like we’re all kind of in the same boat in different industries, right? Like you’re a player obviously. I’m in the media industry. There’s a lot of big dogs that I have no business going up against. And uh so, and Roger, as far as I know, doesn’t have an agent, which is unusual. Uh, you know, I talked to Bryce from his home office. I surely don’t have an agent. I’m doing everything myself. So, we’re kind of like all scrapping to like figure this out. And so, now we’re all a group trying to figure this out. So, um, but yeah, to kind of talk about what we’re going to do, Roger, is we’re going to do big pod. We’ll talk about your career here. We’ll do a pod like maybe middle couple, you know, couple of months and then one towards the end of the season and kind of give people some behind the scenes of like what life looks like and the emotions that go with it. You’ve kind of been through all of them. Uh, and so, you know, we’ll talk a little bit about it today. Does that do you ever get used to that? Do you ever get used to the highs and the lows? Do they not as high and not as low or does it feel the same as it does? So Rogers played 150 events. Is that what is it 154 on the PJ tour? How many have you played? You would you would know. I I have no idea. I don’t keep track of that stuff, but I played I’ve played six full seasons on the PJ tour. Yeah. Yeah. And then uh 157 I think on the Cornferry Tour has two wins. Um, so I mean exactly what I cover is um, uh, you know, the ups and downs of pro golf and um, and then we’ll check in weekly. We’re going to do some stuff. Uh, so we got a bunch of fun things that will give and serious things too. It’s like, you know, that’s the point of all this is like it’s not pro golf is not as it’s not all fun in games. And uh, so let’s just start with this season, Roger. like you’ve made a lot of cuts, seven of nine, either just playing mediocre or struggling on one round or the weekends kind of what is your assessment up up to this point? You’re I think 112th or something in points, but you’ve made a lot of cuts. Does that encourage you, discourage you, or somewhere in the middle? Um, one, it it’s very encouraging to make a lot of cuts. I mean, uh, you know, to have that consistency on Thursday, Friday is something that I think every pro golfer wants to see. I have over the years had a, you know, a little bit of a roller coaster ride. You know, making I I don’t know what my cut percentage is. It’s, you know, it’s probably in the 40 to 50% range on the PJ tour and it’s probably in the 60% range on on the Cornfair Tour over the years. So, I think one of my goals was to make every cut. I missed two of them down in South America. Um, but I have shown a level of consistency that um that that is uh that I’m it’s encouraging. Um, I think when it comes to the results, I haven’t had very many results, but I think what that does is that shows that I’m prime for um a spot in Liv that only plays three rounds. Or maybe this is just my um this my prep work for the Champions Tour where we only play three rounds. So be dying like Yeah, exactly. Yeah, three rounds. I mean, I’m your I’m your guy. Uh so just I’m just struggling to put two two solid rounds on the weekend together right now. Um at the end of last year, uh you know, I just my golf game, you know, I’m just grinding away. I’m grinding so much to to get what I could out of my game. And I was just like it’s it’s just it doesn’t feel flowy. I’m not pointing I always call it point and shoot, you know, where you just kind of you look at your target and you send you send it there, you know. Um, and I had another player came up to me, Scott Piery. Um, great guy, been around a long time. I played with him in in Cabo in the Mexico event. And he came up to me and he’s like, “Dude, you’re too good of a player to be struggling like this. I can just tell you are grinding over it.” And he just kind of gave me a couple quick tips on what to do. And it was just it clicked. It was like a light bulb went off. It was like, “Wow, I have gotten way off track over the last couple years.” And just these are fundamental setup things that he was pointing out. It had nothing to do with the mechanics of the swing or the arm motion. It just had to do with setup. So, I kind of was like, I I can get on board with that, but it’s going to take me a little bit of time to make those adjustments back. Um, again, I I think a lot of those adjustments have have kind of worked its way into to being part of who I am now. I’m starting to swing the golf club like I did 8 n 10 years ago. A little bit more natural, a little bit more fluid. Um, but I’m still grinding a little bit thinking about it because it’s not like automatic. It’s not that point and shoot yet. Um, but what is encouraging is that I’m putting together good rounds on Thursday, Friday. So, as the tournament goes on, as the pressure goes on, it’s pretty easy for me to start thinking about a little bit too much. Uh, you know, it’s that fear. It’s that fear of screwing up. It’s like, hey, you’ve done some good work now. um don’t screw it up. And you know, that engages your brain. Then your brain’s thinking about everything. Well, okay, now what do I got to do with this seven iron to make sure that it goes towards your target and uh that stuff will all start to to die down as as I get more reps and get a little bit more comfortable with how I’m swinging the golf club. So, in the short term, is it frustrating? Yeah. To make seven to nine cuts, to be 114th on the list out here, knowing that I’m good enough to to beat a lot of these guys and get back to the PJ tour. Yeah. I mean, wholeheartedly, but it’s a long season and I’m encouraged by the progress I’ve made, especially my Thursday, Friday rounds, and it’ll start to seep into the weekend rounds. So, you just got to stay committed. Um, you know, it’s cliche. You hear so many guys talk about this process, right? And it is. It’s a process. and I’ve been around the block long enough to know that out here on the cornfairy tour, the guys that play well the last half of the year usually set themselves up to have the most amount of success going going into um you know the PJ tour the next season. So my my goal all along has been to just get a lot more comfortable with how I’m swinging the golf club again. A lot of shots are coming back I haven’t hit in years. And uh with the idea that you know come July, August, September, which has usually been my bread and butter over the career, we’re going to be uh blowing and going and showing these guys who uh Roger Sloan and Dadwater are. Well, there we go. Um I think Roger, that’s what people don’t see, right? Like you could be 112th points or 80th in points and be completely lost and have no confidence and you can be 112th in points and be like, “Okay, I’m on the right path. It’s just going to take some time.” So, and again, I know you’ve been through this in your career. So, do you even care about points or are you just very processoriented? Like maybe would you care more about points if you didn’t feel like you’re on the right path? Right. So you’re like 112th but you feel like you’re making progress versus 112th and you’re like I’m not sure you know I’m on the right path. I’m still struggling here. I think early in my career I was definitely concerned about the points where I was what it meant. You know the cornfairy tour is unique from the PJ tour because it’s a constant reshuffle tour. Every four events it reshuffles. And so, uh, you know, based on your ranking, that means what am I going to, you know, what tournaments am I going to get into? I’m under the luxury I won two years ago. And so, that I’m in a winners category where I’m not subject to that reshuffle. Very, very select few individuals don’t have to worry about the reshuffle on this tour. Um, which is a huge luxury. Um, but as I’ve gotten older, you start realizing that, you know, you start worrying about the points and the list and all of that. It just it distracts you from what your goal is. And you, you know, you never you never step up to a tea on Thursday wanting to finish eighth in the FedEx Cup standings or 12th. You know, it’s like, no, you wanted to play that particular hole as good as you can. you know, it’s it’s to to put your best foot forward and and hopefully win the golf tournament. And so, you start worrying about things that are kind of out of your control, you know, it’s it’s as the older I get and and it’s not it’s not easy to do that. It is like it, you know, it’s so easy. I mean, I’ve spent many years on the PJ tour where I’ve done the wrong thing and gotten off to a slow start and then you’re like, “Oh my gosh, I’m not getting into this invitational, not getting into this invitational. now I gotta play really good at these events just to kind of keep my card and it’s like why does that have like you shouldn’t be thinking about that. You need to be preparing yourself for the next tournament. Um so the luxury of experience right now is a little bit on my side. Um and it’s unique being out here on the cornfair tour with all the younger guys because you can see where where they are is where I was you know 15 years ago just you know worrying about all these uncontrollable things. um you go take care of your business, you go prepare, get yourself ready to go play. It’s it’s it’s it’s crazy how how the results kind of take care of themselves, if you will. Yeah. So, let’s talk a little bit financial and kind of really speaks to Dadwater and how important it is like they’ve stuck with, you know, PJ tour. They’re on the corn ferry tour. I mean, again, you’re a veteran, Roger, but the Cornferry tour is not conducive to a family of of three kids and a wife, uh, and bills and all of those things. Yeah. Do you you kind of the veteran Tom Whitney says like I used to just take the middle aisle in the in the airplane because it saved me $40, you know, and now I have to put some investment into like I know if I, you know, get a good seat and sleep an extra hour that helps me in two strokes actually makes me money. So all of those things I assume, Roger, are just part of the advantage you have of being a veteran is like you know how to take care of your body. you know when you should take a week off, you know, all of those things, right? Yeah. I think one of the best pieces of advice I got was my college coach, Rick Todd. He um he used to play all over the world professionally. And when I decided to turn pro after college, he said, “If there’s one thing you do, make sure you stay in a nice hotel. Get yourself a good night’s sleep.” You know, and at that time, I didn’t have any money and I’m about to go play on the Canadian tour. So, he’s not encouraging me to go stay at the rits by any means. But he’s just saying like, don’t don’t go get the $45 a night hotel where you got to worry about what, you know, critters and crawlers coming in through your door. Yeah. Um, you know, funny story. I had a caddy, one of my first caddies on the corner tour. You know, the caddies, I mean, the players on the corny tour don’t make money, so you can imagine what the caddies are like. Yeah. You want to talk about a full swing episode? Cornfairy caddies need a a Oh, man. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean this this cat, he’s he’s a really good friend of mine. Um you know, he’s he’s been having some success on the PJ tour lately, but at the time he you know, he’s a Corbin fairy tour and and he was like, “Yeah, no. I I stay at the cheapest hotel I can and I know the trick.” So like he’s staying at motel. He’s like, “You got to put a towel underneath the door so no bugs crawl in.” He’s like, “You don’t you don’t leave your suitcase on the ground. You got to put it elevated up on the table.” You know, and I’m just like like jaw-dropped at like these are the things that you got to avoid. But that’s that’s what my college coach was trying to get me is like that’s just that exhausts energy and that’s not going to allow yourself to have a peaceful night’s sleep. So, um yeah, over the years you got to you got to understand that it you know, you’ve heard it a million times, you got to spend money to make money. I don’t think anybody out here, like I said, is staying at the Ritz, but you know, the difference between a $12 meal and $25 meal can just, you know, what that does for your health, what that does for your sleep, uh, eating the right things. Um, you know, you can do the right things in a cost-effective manner, and you really learn that on this tour, to be honest with you. Um, so while it would be nice to make a lot of money, it’s it is nice to to to live a little bit more simple life. Um, and uh, and make sure you’re doing the the right things to to get the most out of your out of your game. Roger. And again, we’re talking about experience and how even like you’ve been on and off the PJ tour a few times. When you come back, you know, I think I mean, I can’t speak to it obviously. I’ll never be able to, but like that first time coming back to the Cornferry tours got to be like, man, this sucks. I you know I was just on the best tour in the world and this I I assume there’s a mental side of it of like trying to just come back down and do it. Whereas maybe the second time or the next time you do it like you’re like okay I have to I know I can get back there. I know I can play there. So now I got to just suck it up again. Back to that experience I assume of like you know it just comes with time. Like you don’t know what it’s going to feel like to drop down until the first time you drop down. Yeah. And then the second and third it comes. I don’t know if is it easier or is it kind of a mental struggle those first few events to get back motivated? When I was playing on the cornfair tour between 13 and 2018, I would notice a lot of guys come down and play from the PJ tour. They lost their card. They’re good players. Like good players. Names that we would recognize that have won before. Yeah. and they would come down and they would complain about everything. The food is garbage, the golf course is garbage, the city is garbage, you know, and and it’s easy to do that because the PGA Tour is all about luxury. You are playing the best condition golf courses. Player dining is incredible. You’re getting courtesy cars. Like they just it’s it’s luxury and it’s very easy to get caught in this uh that that normal, right? And what I noticed was these players were coming down. They’re so negative. I’m meanwhile trying to grind and get my way to the PJ tour. So, I’m super thankful for all of the food sucks. This is great. Yeah. I mean, I get free I get free food at the golf course. Like, that’s great. I love it. You know, and so you could contrast the two different perspectives on the same item. And I noticed that these guys would come down here and they would play like poop. And I’m like, you’re so much better than that. Like, you were just on the PJ tour. you’ve had so much success. Like it’s pretty easy to determine that because your attitude is the reason that you’re not playing well here. You should wax these guys out here. So I knew in my head you got to have a good attitude. So yeah, two years ago when I came back onto this tour, I was very much aware that that was going to be a huge factor and uh and so for me I I had to take the steps. It was like I I I’m not going to use the locker room. Yeah. I’m not going to use the player dining facilities. Yeah. Yeah, I’m going to get into the golf course. I’m going to do my job and I’m going to get out of there. And I was able to have a lot of success. I was able to cuz yeah, when when you play on the best golf courses, when when you when you have great practice facilities and you have great greens, um, and then you go to a tour that that that standard isn’t quite there, I don’t care who you are, like you’re going to notice that the re it’s a reality. But I understood two years ago I have to limit the amount of exposure I have to those certain things. Yeah. And then I’ll be all right. And so like that was my trick. It was my rental car was my locker room for the week. I decided to eat at Chipotle and grab breakfast before or get an Airbnb and I cook my own breakfast so I’m not subject to the powdered eggs, which by the way is a huge discussion on this tour and we can get into that later. Um, but you know, I think those little tricks just now it just comes down to to to re really what are you trying to accomplish? And it’s to go play the best round of golf. It doesn’t matter what what food is being served. It doesn’t matter what the greens are like. It doesn’t matter what this golf course is compared to this tour, and it doesn’t matter the caliber of player, the age of player. What matters is it comes down to you and the golf course, and you need to put yourself in the best situation. So, I had that experience two years ago. I was able to be successful and and get my PJ tour card again. And here we are finding myself back in that boat again. So, I know the routine doing the same routine out here again this year. Um, and and and through that, too, you just become a little bit more appreciative of the things that you do have. And out here, I it’s enjoyable being out on the cornfair tour because you have guy you don’t have as much ego. You have a lot of guys that are in the same boat as I was, you know, eight, 10 years ago. They’re they want to have a career on the PJ tour. They want to do the things that I have been fortunate enough to to accomplish just in a short six-year career. And so they’re hungry and thirsty and everybody hangs out on the range and everybody is just it’s a little bit more of a brotherhood and and um it’s refreshing and it’s it’s nice uh to to to be around a lot of young and eager kids that just, you know, want to just get to the PJ tour and and experience that. Um and so it it’s fun and I think when you start looking at at it through that lens, it makes what you’re doing a lot easier. Um, and again, I’ve done it before. I’ve done it three times. So, um, I know how to get back to the PGA Tour, and we got a plan in place to to to go do it again. Roger, are you like a a set goals, meaning like obviously the the main goal is to get back to PJ tour, but are you like, I want to do A, B, C, or D, or you’re just like, work on your game and and those goals are going to take care of itself. Obviously the main goal being you want to get back, but are you like a write down one to five type goals? No, I don’t really do a lot of check marks. Um I don’t know why it’s just neither resonated with me. I can understand why some people do it and it keep gets them really focused. Um I think for me um I I mean ultimately it’s you know what the goal is. Yeah. It’s like when you’re on the Cornferry tour, you know, you’re not sitting there with a goal of being top 50 in the world rankings or get to the Masters or anything like that. Like there’s you’re only on this tour for one reason. Yeah. And it’s to get to the next one. So um you know for me this particular year it’s kind of and I guess and I don’t write it down but for yeah I guess there are in some sense a goal. It’s like hey you know we’re working on those swing changes and I want to make that I want to groove that back in so that I’m swinging the club a little bit more natural and freeing like I used to let like how my body naturally moves. Um, you know, my body naturally doesn’t move the same way it does when I was 22, but I want it to naturally move. I don’t want to have any restrictive patterns anymore. And um, so I guess in some way that is a particular goal, but it’s not something that you put a check mark in. It’s just something that I’m continually working towards. And so once you accomplish that, well, what’s the next thing you want to work on, you know? Um and and you and you got to you got to take what’s going on. I mean, you can have a really good short game and all of a sudden you’re not chipping it good for a couple weeks. Well, okay, now what’s our what’s our plan? Okay, we got to go work on specific either tech what’s you know, you got to identify the problem, create a solution for the problem, work on that problem. So, in a sense, that’s kind of like goal orientated, but it’s it’s a lot more shortterm than it for me than it is long term. It’s like kind of an assessment of what what’s going on right now. How do we change it and move forward? Let’s talk about Scott Pierce seeing some some swing uh lineman or whatever it was and I don’t want to talk specifics. I want to talk about how does that conversation come about Roger like is that someone you have a because there will be there’s I assume a certain set of players who don’t want to be talked about their swing. They don’t want to talk about alignment or something like that. So, is that a relationship you have with Scott? Is that a veteran, a couple of veterans, and he knows that like you’re going to be open to some pointers? How does that conversation start? And how do you take conversations like that? I think it would be interesting to get his perspective on on that whole interaction. My take on it was I was grinding on the range and he just came up to me. So, we had played Thursday, Friday. We both missed the cut and we were waiting for the charter flight from Cabo to Bermuda that took off Sunday night or maybe Monday morning. So, we’re on the range on Sunday and we’re just kind of casually getting some reps in and he just came up to me and he’s like, “Hey, you got it all figured out?” And I’m like, you know, just jokingly being, “Oh, yeah, yeah, got it all figured out.” And he looked at me, he’s like, “You don’t have a swing problem, you have an alignment problem.” And it kind of took me by surprise and and when I look back at it, I could tell he was a little bit cautious about it to to to your point, like some people don’t want other players mentioning anything about their swing, right? But I think Scott and I, you know, we’re not the best of friends, but when we’ve played together, I think we get along really well. Um, I think he’s, you know, he’s obviously had a very good career on the PGA Tour. Um he’s a tremendous ball striker and anytime a guy that’s that’s been around that long and knows as much as he does and is willing to take the time to share some knowledge with you, I think you have to you have to take it and you have to be appreciative of it. So I was a little bit taken back by it because that for me that doesn’t happen. So, it was kind of an interesting interaction because I think he was a little bit cautious going into it and I was a little bit surprised being like, “Whoa, another player is actually like taking the time to like help me.” Like that doesn’t happen on the PJ tour, right? And so, we probably sat there for about 45 minutes to an hour and I was just so thankful that he just was willing to share that time. And I think what that did was it just it gave me a little bit of confidence because it showed that there was another player out there that saw what I can do and he’s like, “Dude, if I could chip and putt like you, I would win seven times a year.” And like that that to me was just um it was very encouraging. I’m very thankful that he took that time to say that because it it helped give me a lot of confidence like wow here’s another one of my players or there’s another player that I’m playing against and he’s noticing that I have potential and he can kind like he’s almost he almost was like taking pity on me. He’s like dude like you should be way better than what you are and you’re like it’s just fix a couple of these things and it was just like an eye openening moment and uh so I’m very thankful for that interaction. Um, again, not to take anything away from my coaches or anything like that because you can you can go down a path and kind of forget some of the fundamental things and I think we had just gotten to that point, but back to the Scott. Um, so that’s kind of how that all came to be. Um, and Roger, when you’re on the range, is that, and I don’t mean immediately click like you just start hitting the ball well again or you like it’s automatic mean what I say by did it click immediately. Did you go like, “Oh this is what you know, like I have been lined up wrong.” Yeah, that was more what it was. It was like the way he presented it, the way he started talking about how I should swing was like that’s how I used to swing. That’s how I used to hit shots. That’s how I used to practice. That’s what I used to be able to do and I haven’t been able to do that in years. And he kind of put me in a couple positions and he said, “Okay, swing it.” And boom. I was like, “Whoa, I haven’t felt like that.” Mhm. I felt like I was 18 again. It was just it was awesome and I had speed and the ball flight was going out the window that I wanted and I was like, “Wow.” But I mean, it felt like I was like trying to swing a golf club carrying a refrigerator on my back. Like it was awkward. Like super awkward. And so I understood I was like, man, I got three tournaments left to try to keep my card. I can continue to go down this path. I kind of knew what was the writing was kind of on the wall. I was like, I’m probably going to be losing my card and going to the cornfair tour. So, if I can get a jump start on this, I’m going to get a jump start on it. So, you know, I had a session with my coach. We talked about it. He’s like, yeah, I mean, let’s let’s do it. Let’s go down that. So, I started that right away, you know, and was working on it. Went to Q school. I knew I wasn’t going to play well at Q school, but hoping for lightning in a bottle. Didn’t get it. It was still super foreign. Put up some really bad numbers. But then as the season But then as the offseason progressed, got some reps, took the first two Bahamas events off just to kind of get some more fluidity. And then I was, you know, and as the season now has progressed, it’s, you know, just every week seems a little bit better. It’s just a little bit better. I’m hitting more shots. Some old swings still creep in, but I’m hitting more consistent shots like I used to. And that’s just again, like I said, it’s super encouraging. So very, very thankful for that time spent with Scott. What’s the what’s the conversation with how long is the conversation with your coach once you bring it back? Is that like a five minute conversation like yeah I get it and you guys both agree? Is that multiple days with little conversations or it’s like let’s sit down look at it on film or whatever for an hour and then yes here it is. Yeah. My my swing coach uh Jeff Barton he’s out of Dallas. Um you know we’ve been together for well my whole career since 2009 when I turned pro. So, we have a unique relationship in the sense that like there’s no there’s no one way to answer that question. Mhm. Sometimes it’s a video session and we sit down, we got to do some work and sometimes it’s a quick five-minute conversation. Um, I sent him some videos and pictures that, you know, Scott and my caddy helped take in that one little session and he’s like, “Yeah, I can see that now. Let’s let’s try that.” Mhm. Um so you know my there’s again I think every player has their their tendencies and they will for the rest of their life. I remember um you know Sean Foley happens to be a good friend you know Canadian counterpart um you know we’re talking on the range one day and he’s like I’ve been working with Justin Rose for x amount of years since he was 16 or whatever it was and he’s like if you know and this guy’s won the US Open he’s d and he’s like and if we don’t work on the same thing that we’ve been working on since he was 18 years he’s got this little head d and we work on it and it’s and it just kind of goes to show like everybody has their tendencies as to you know what they do and you can you just work on it for years and years and years. So I think my coach and I got a little bit too hyperfocused on those and we started missing a little bit of some of the other um and when you’re on the PJ tour and my family like the time that I spend with my coach has definitely gone down. Yeah. Um you know family is a priority for me. So when I’m home I want to spend time with my family. It’s not like I’m getting on an airplane to go up to Dallas or jumping in my car to go do a two-day road trip up to see see him when I can be home with my family and getting some rest. You know, the season is very long. I don’t have the luxuries of some of the, you know, we referenced the big dogs on the tour. You know, I I was in a category on the PJ tour where you just you got to play almost every week. You got to you it’s you got to accumulate points. Um, and until you accumulate enough, you don’t have the luxury of spending three or four weeks off prepping for this particular tournament. Um, so that’s, you know, it’s it’s an interesting schedule when you’re on the PGA tour. So, I just haven’t been able to work with my coach as consistently as I did maybe earlier in my career. All right, we’re going to do uh we’re going to do more another Pod Miller season. We get to do some videos with Roger. I’m gonna Are you playing the BMW, Roger? No, actually, um I got a invite into the Canadian Open that week. So Oh, nice. Yeah. North north of the border, eh, with all the Ozers. Yeah. Um I was just with the Ontario boys. I mean, I all I do is hang out with Canadians now. It’s like I’m threequarters Canadian. I’m pretty close to Canada. I’m just across the the lake. Uh yeah. Well, if you want to have fun, hang out with a Canadian. Yeah, for sure. The Ontario boys were great. Um, let’s talk quickly about So, Roger and I had a phone conversation. I had called him, his wife answered and was like, “Yeah, he doesn’t feel good. He can’t answer the phone.” So, then we we connected a couple days later and tell quickly the uh the Mexico story. You’re playing in Mexico and the corn ferry event. No problem. So, well, let’s let’s start with the phone call. We scheduled that phone call for like 2:00. My wife and I go we’re in we’re in Costco, right? And we’re in there and I’m like, “Oh my gosh.” Like the plan was like to go to Costco and then I was going to take the phone call like in the car. We’re in Costco and I look at my wife. I was like, “We got to get out of here.” What? I’m like, “We got to get out of here.” So we get in the car, we’re driving and it’s like a seven minute drive down the freeway and I look at my wife and I’m like, “You got to pull over.” So she pulls, she right now. I’m like, “Yeah, right now pull over.” And I open the door because I’m about to toss my cookies. Yeah. And at the same time, you’re calling me. I’m like, “Oh, great.” So, I hand the phone to her. So, uh, obviously, we couldn’t talk at that time, but that was a direct that was because of we had just I just gotten back from Mexico. So, we played this new event in in the down in Tulum on the corner tour. Great golf course. I got Roger, let me tell a quick part of this story about the phone call itself. So I call and he goes immediately to voicemail and I was like, “Oh, maybe he’s calling me because we had set like 2:00.” So I was like, “Oh, Roger probably called me. I’ll call him right back.” Then once I learned the story, I’m like, “Oh my god, this poor guy is puking his guts out on the side of the road.” And I’ve now called twice like he had watching her husband puke his guts out and is like, “Hey, on the side of the freeway.” Yeah. So um so we were at the new event in Tulum. beautiful golf course, wonderful. Well, Saturday, probably around 4:00, the power goes out. So, it’s a cool place. There’s a nice resort there, but then there’s a lot of residential development part of the whole um development. And so, I got an Airbnb at one of the residential places. And um it was great, fabulous, totally recommend it. But the power goes out at 4:00, whatever, on Saturday. Like, okay, well, it’ll eventually come on. It doesn’t. It’ll eventually come on. It doesn’t. Then you start realizing we’re in Mexico. It might not come on. It might might not come on tonight. It might come on tomorrow morning, you know. So, we got to eat in the dark and there’s no way to pay because all the stuff goes down. Um, and we go to sleep. It’s like, I’m not kidding you. It’s like 85 degrees in my room because the air conditioning is not working. I’m like laying on top of the bed trying to go to sleep. Of course, I got an early tea time in the morning. I don’t I don’t really remember why they went early, but we were going early and uh just sweating the whole night. So, I wake up early in the morning drenched in sweat. Gross. Just feeling gross. And of course, usually you can at least, you know, the water’s running. Well, the water doesn’t run when the power goes out down in this place because I guess it goes through their like little treatment facility that also has no power. You’re like, “Oh, great.” Well, the clubhouse is a nice clubhouse. They got generators. All right, I’ll go easy fix. I’ll go take a shower at the clubhouse before my tea time. So, it’s an hour and 15 minutes before my tea time. Uh, I get there. I’m going to take a quick shower and then go warm up. So, they got a nice gym. I go up to the gym. There’s got nice showers. I go in there and they’re like, “No water. No water.” I’m like, “What? No water?” I’m like, “You got to be kidding me.” So, I’m going down. I go find another shower and no water. I’m like, “You got to be kidding me.” Well, I had sweat the whole night and it’s just gross and sticky, right? I got to do something. So, I freaking grab my swim trunks and I go jump in the pool and there I am just like just soaping myself up, rinsing off. And then I look around and there’s a hundred towels like dispersed there. I’m like, I’m not the only one that’s done that. You’re not the first guy with this. I’m not the first guy. Yeah. And so, um, you know, just there I am an hour before my tea time bathing in the pool. Yes. Again, and five people have withdrawn with food poisoning and may or may not have known they had food poisoning prior to jumping in the pool. I mean, yeah, exactly. So, I’m sharing all these bodily like whatever fluids in this pool. Poor pool. I mean, it was just gross. Yeah. But at least I got some of the sweat off and I play golf, whatever. And then when I got home the next day, um, call it what you will, Montazumo’s revenge or whatever, it hit me right when you called and, uh, I was at a commission for about 24 hours. Uh, it’s awesome. Um, all right, we’re going to get into more of this, uh, quickly. So, here’s Deadwater. I got four, uh, different kinds here. Uh, this is Gary, Steve. There’s a couple more. They’re awesome. Uh, so Raptor and I will be doing this throughout the year, uh, throughout the season. We’ll be at French Lick. I’ll be down there live. Uh, Deadwater is a sponsor of that event. Uh, so I look forward to it. Roger. Thanks for giving everyone. I mean, Mexico, as we talked on the phone privately, Mexico is a great example of what people do not see on TV. Uh, no, they don’t. And those are the little things that happen uh that you got to yeah you got to make adjustments for. So it was it’s a it’s a fun story. It’s not fun to do it at the time but I mean it’s pretty funny now but yeah it’s a funny story. I mean you got in this is great. Yeah. Yeah. Uh thanks to Deadwater. Go get some. Uh thanks to Roger for giving us this insight kind of throughout the rest of the season. Uh Roger, I appreciate it. I look forward to what to what is to come. Yeah, thank you. Uh can’t wait for the next one.
