Fairways of Life is joined by PGA Tour Winner Austin Eckroat as he prepares for the Travelers Championship
[Music] you’re looking at TPC River Highlands that is the stage this week that will be hosting the best players in the world for this signature event at the Travelers Championship and one of those players is sitting beside me Austin Ecro who is now a multipletime winner on the PGA Tour it’s good to see you my man how’s life oh it’s been great yeah can’t complain play getting to do my dream so it’s pretty good that’s the part I want to start with can you believe that i know you had the dream because I talked to you about it in the past about winning on the PGA Tour now you’re a multiple time winner on the PGA Tour did it take you any time to kind of process everything that you’re accomplishing right now yeah i mean especially after the first win in um in Florida the Cogs Classic it was um I went straight into playing the next week you know and you just kind of get in the in the routine of it i was I qualified for the Masters and just you know first year of playing all four majors so I didn’t really get to let the first one sink in but the second one at the end of the season last year was you know I had a break after that and it really got to the first one was stressful where the second one was kind of the first one was more of a relief and the second one was you know just a ton of fun you know that what and that’s I’m curious about that and you kind of explained it with that but when it’s hard to win the PGA Tour we we’ve heard it we know it was it harder to win that first time or was it harder to actually put yourself in a position to win the second time or were you just flying high on the magic carpet of confidence yeah I mean throughout the the whole year last year it was um it was interesting i think I fell into a trap of when I won the first time I what I was working on that week worked so I tried to keep doing it throughout the year but just that’s not golf you know you always have to make adjustments and you know I just kept trying to do the same thing and um you know kind of struggled a little bit after that but then you know I knew that I could win out here at that time and um you know once I was able to to go back to what I normally do and you know be constantly making adjustments and improving my game you know I think that was towards the end of last season and got another win so um yeah I mean obviously it was the first one was was probably the most difficult one just because the the belief level might not have been there yet to that point uh are you a player that you’re comfortable with pressure i mean even going back to your college days are are you comfortable with feeling uncomfortable yeah I mean I think that’s a a big thing that even going back to Oklahoma State playing golf there it’s um that’s something that they kind of force into us be comfortable you know being uncomfortable and um that’s just uh something that I I mean that’s why we practice you know get in those stressful situations and um and perform i mean that’s just the the best part of it to that point to try to get yourself into a stressful situation through practice can you ever really achieve it or when you were on the threshold of breaking through again particularly that first time did you did you feel things like you’ve never felt before yeah for sure but I mean whenever you come on to the PJ tour like when I look back to my first year playing on sponsor exemptions and battling a cut line it’s stressful it’s a similar situation to where um you know you’re just trying to perform your best in a stressful situation and that’s kind of I mean you can draw on a lot of past experiences whether it’s winning at junior levels or college levels or you know trying to make a cut on the PJ tour when you’re when you’re 22 years old fresh out of college so there’s a lot of moments I think you know I could draw back to on that where did you draw from to find your rock to find your stability after breaking through on the PGA tour as a young guy so that you had some semblance of I guess call it normaly in your life yes so I got married young i mean my wife Sally uh we got married at 23 um it’s been great she travels with me most of the time and uh I’m really close to my family my whole team’s close to me uh my caddy’s my best friend from high school and uh my dad’s my swim coach so it’s just uh you know I think I’ve got a good foundation i still live in Oklahoma um live 10 minutes from where I grew up and um you know I just try to keep it simple outside of the the PJ tour lifestyle when you’re back home how are the people do they kind of leave you to your thing or did you instantly become like an even bigger celebrity i think with I play the same club I grew up playing uh so you know I’m close with everybody out there they’re used to seeing you around already so yeah exactly and then you know Victor Hofflin’s a member out there and you know I’m just a a lowlevel PJ tour player it’s incredible though i mean yeah but I mean you’re you break through the first time and for the rest of your life you’re a winner on the PJ tour you break through a second time now that’s a validation and you kind of touched on that that all of a sudden you’re in the position you know you can do it right let me ask you that just use that phraseology how much was it a validation to you’re like you know I’ve been here done this I can do this again yeah I mean obviously you know this season hasn’t quite gone how I wanted it to but you know there’s I know I can do it you know I know the game’s there um when I’m playing good I can I can compete at the highest level out here and there’s a a huge validation to the second win the first one obviously you know it shows you can win on PJ tour it’s special but the second time it’s like you know maybe I can do this a ton of times you know and that’s Yeah why not think that why not think that because you you have to have that mentality you you mentioned your teammates and with OSU winning of course the national championship the NCAA’s again this year how much fun was that for you how soon were you able to get in touch with coach yeah uh I was keeping up with coach the whole week and uh I actually got to know the guys really well this season um Carsten Creek was closed down for renovations so uh my home course is 45 minutes from campus so they’d come down all the time and um I try to stay as connected as I can with being so close and um yeah just got to know those guys really well and I mean I immediately texted coach after the round but it’s kind of funny we were at Memorial and um our hotel room didn’t have Golf Channel so we are uh Victor and I are watching my hotel room on my iPad because we we tried to go to a restaurant down the street and he was just getting bombarded so we went to we were just watching on my iPad in the hotel room it’s pretty funny it’s it’s so cool so when you get a chance to practice with these college kids well and I have all due respect to them when I ask you this question how badly do they want to beat you oh I mean I I think that’s when I play with them I think that’s their sole goal even if they’re qualifi I’ll join them in qualifying every now and then and um I remember one time I they went out to oak tree and it’s a hard golf course and um I think a lot of them it was their first time playing I think I shot 65 or something like that and just smoked them and I think for the rest of the year their whole goal is to when we got you know together was to to beat me but uh they’re good players I mean the college kids I mean even whenever I was in school and now they just keep getting better and they hit it so far um there’s a couple guys on team that are mid 180 ball speeds and you know I mean That’s long and um you know obviously PJ tour is a different game you got to hit in the fairway but you know very talented group of kids on the team what advice would you give to those young golfers what advice would you give to to perhaps young golfers anywhere in terms of breaking through and reaching your goals you know there’s there’s tons of things um I think something that they need to understand is whenever they turn professional it’s a new game it’s a new ball game um you travel a lot more there’s just you got to learn time management i think that’s a great thing when it comes to college golf because you start to learn that i think it’d be really hard and then I look back at at my career you know I was a really good junior player but the idea of me turning pro out of high school like there’s no way I could have done it with without going to college just the you know now especially with the PJ Tour University program too as well because I was the first class of that um it gives you a pathway into tour golf and it also teaches you how to how to grow up and and learn time management um I think it’s just very important very very cool part of that learning process is learning who you want to be associated with you’ve got some some logos on your shirt we always make sure that we ask you guys who your sponsors are it’s our way of saying thank you for taking the time to come to see us so you can say thank you to people to help you do your thing so you want to talk to us about who you’re associated with yeah so probably the longest sponsor that I’ve had or I know it is is uh is Ping you know they’ve been with me since shoot I started their junior program when I was 13 I think uh so I’ve been playing 14 clubs of their equipment for the last what is that now 13 years half my life wow that’s pretty pretty crazy um and they’ve been a great relationship um a lot of family friends now through the company and um with them being associated with with Oklahoma State Golf and all sorts of stuff I’ve just gotten super close with them over the years and I think they make great equipment and um next up would be Michael Kors um I’ve been with them for now two years i think this is it this will be my third year with them um and and they’ve been a great company i got to know John Idol really well he’s kind of um you know big boss I guess what you’d call him there and uh actually last year I went and played Shinikok with them and hung out with him so I’ve got to know them really well and then um last year at um I’d been with them for over a year at this time but Worldwide Technology I actually the COB event that I won was their was their event yeah so that they were the you know the title sponsor so that was just a really really cool experience and another company I’ve gotten really close with and um I Bailey as well is a a accounting firm based out in Denver I think but we uh they have a Tulsa firm as well you know so some local connection there um and I’ve gotten to do a lot of fun stuff with them as well but that side of the the business I do not understand so I’m just they uh but it’s been fun and then couple I got one on my bag as well it’s Trans Impact it’s a logistics company so there’s um it’s really cool the sport you know that you get throughout the PJ tour and um you know these guys just love golf and um it’s just a fun you know endeavor for them and but it’s meaningful for us you know this is you know it helps us especially when you’re young um getting these sponsors and you know helping you know pay for your dream yeah and he’s living his dream every day as we mentioned a multiple time winner on the PJ tour really proud of you it’s awesome to see you doing so well we wish you the very very best thank you for the time that you gave us today as well we’ll be back folks with more uh from the Travelers Championship stay with us
