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i wasn’t a country club kid and so to me I I just think about like the times growing up where I’m you know spending hours and hours practicing and while it may not have been the greatest most perfect condition golf course it made me the golfer that I am [Music] most of our good golfers come from exclusive clubs the country clubs but uh every once in a while you get a guy from the municipal links and the one thing Oklahoma’s got is a pretty good municipal golf system john Conrad in Midwest City is a very good one
there’s not peanut M&M’s and jelly beans in locker room at at public courses you know maybe a cracker on the floor that you could pick up or a beef jerky all the local people around here know of Taylor Gu because he started playing here oh we’re really proud of him he’s really kind of put the course on the map I guess for Midwest City
i want to beat Tiger Woods
someday Taylor just might do that as the 10-year-old phenom recently won the US Kids World Championships by one stroke
i knew when I went in I was going to have a chance to win i knew it was going to be a tough tournament but I wasn’t for sure and there were some really good players there they hardly made any mistakes
john Conrad this joke the first TE has always been a big program out here and the kids would come out there’s no charge for it you can look out that window and you can see the practice green you can see the chipping green the sand traps that they practice in and what was really great is to watch the kids as they grow each year it was absolutely amazing and Taylor was one of them he was one of those that had a dream and he made it come true [Music] conrad holds a special place in my heart so much so that our son his middle name is Conrad when the people there from when I was eight 10 years old were so supportive and so proud of me i remember watching him years and years ago out there practicing his dad be sitting in a lawn chair he’d be chipping to the chipping green for hours 6 eight hours a day and he spent a lot of time at it a lot of hard work and it’s paid off good for him i mean we’re proud of him here junior golfers here have gotten so good and so strong cuz they’ve had to you know you go out and play in 30 mph wind and you don’t have any grind in you you’re going to get embarrassed it probably makes the kids more mentally tough great place to to grow up and I’m I’m proud to say I’m from Midwest City already a champion at the right age of 10 a prodigy like Tiger maybe and maybe a winner of numerous majors also time will only tell
first on the tea from Oklahoma State University Taylor Gu [Applause] well I wanted to play at Oklahoma State because it is the you know it’s the mecca of college golf most you know national championships most all-Americans we’re right up there at the top of turning out the most pros and just it’s a historic place that for since the ‘ 50s,60s has been great at golf i think by the time I graduated I was the best junior golfer in the states i try to be skeptical of of projecting on on kids when they’re 17 but when when I saw that he went to OSU I knew he had a shot not any noviceses going to Oklahoma State those guys can all play so I I didn’t get through Q school immediately and I went and played what was called PJ Tour Canada paying your dues isn’t a bad thing and he did that between the mini tours Canada Q school like I had to learn to become a professional golfer i learned how to manage my time i learned how to travel well i learned like more about my game and myself what felt like a lifetime because I saw these dudes I grew up playing with in junior golf and college golf like Jordan Spe you know I saw these guys having such success so quickly there was definitely moments you know when you’re staying in motel sixes and just trying to survive there’s moments where you’re like dude like am I cut out for this but you just you have to overcome those moments back home we have two rules one bet on yourself two double down and that’s what I did
it’s an absolute master class from Taylor Gu here in Adelaide being the first year in Adelaide we didn’t know what to expect i’ll forever remember walking down the 18 fairway and all of a sudden there was a swarm of a thousand people around me right the crowds are crazy it’s electric he’s a live gold winner for the very first time but to win that week was super super special especially considering my caddy who is from Perth from Australia
in the home box the next week was incredible i beat Sergio in a playoff everybody my age knows Sergio
Taylor history maker the first man to win backto back live golf titles
and then to make a birdie on the last hole in Spain to beat Bryson by a shot and
oh goodness Taylor Gu is the Live Golf Leagues road warrior make some noise one more time from Rage Goats GC Taylor Goose we are fortunate to get to travel the world and go to these incredible places but I want the the values of Oklahomaans to be instilled into my children and so that’s why you know I want to raise my family in Oklahoma i just love the people here i love the culture i love the values no you don’t what crazy bro you can’t replicate that in Jupiter or Scottsdale you can visit those places but when you come back home and it’s the people you’ve seen for 30 years you know there’s something special about that oklahoma is a vibrant sports market starting with the uh you know the college football tradition this is a place that loves its sports you
ready let’s do it
we’re not a huge state so we don’t have a bunch of different pro sports so you know when the Thunder came in 2008 everyone just fell in love me included there’s nothing better in my opinion than being courtside at a basketball game and
ironically the same year Liv happened 2022 PBR decided to create a team series the PBR Team Series is an elite new league that is revolutionizing the sport the world’s best bull riders will go from individual athletes to teammates the same thing that’s happening in our world of like a traditionally individual sport being kind of taken in a different direction with adding a team concept the only difference is like those dudes might die i just might hit one in the water long story short we end up acquiring a franchise called the Oklahoma Wildcaters liv has figured out how to create a team’s concept and crown an individual champion inside of the the team’s competition pbr has figured out how to create the team’s competition and have home market bases i was able to bring Brooks last year to uh one of the events in Nashville
this is where all the bulls are kept under here
it was cool but I know he he loved it get it up close and personal is wild it’s uh these guys uh they’re crazy yeah that was a that was a good weekend oklahoma is in the lead immediately so how’d you guys first meet i’m helping with a junior clinic and I’m standing behind this bunker with probably four or five 10 year olds in the bunker and I hear the sound which you know what that means i hear it again so whoever the guy was I was talking with I said man who’s this chubby kid down here that might have a you know might have a chance he’s got some good hands on him it was him
he’s been like my big brother or mentor since I was 10 years old we’ve been blessed to be able to start a foundation and my wife and I and we’ve basically entrusted Kelsey to run it for us uh here we are you know 20 plus years later and he’s living his dream job and I am as well and always thought my path was to play but my path was to help and we don’t have to do any of this we get to we’ve partnered with a school here called Positive Tomorrows and it’s a school that is comprised of homeless kids um and they they clothe them they feed them they help if the parents are still involved they help the parents get on their feet and get job opportunities give them resources to try to get housing
the Oklahoma Junior Golf Tour which is what Taylor grew up on the foundation we help them every year with with funds to make it bigger and nicer
i wouldn’t be the golfer I am without the OJGT and so to be able to give back and and be present and kind of give kids hope and inspiration it’s a blessing kids that are going to go through that system and are going to be playing professional golf at the highest level we can give them that little seed of hope that you can be us like you can be me you can beat me you can come and do this i hope someone is better and more successful than Taylor i just hope it’s when he’s done you know give it give it 10 or 15 years what what do you remember about the range at Conrad versus this one
i remember there was a specific spot where you would put a token in just next to that there was a specific spot if I hit it hard enough balls would come out so I stole way too many golf balls from uh Conrad over the years sorry guys
i think it’s pretty cool that Taylor Gu at the age of three or four or whenever he picked up the club said “I like this.” And here 27 years later he still likes it just sensational from Taylor Guing all unfold the last you know four years with live i was able to go to London the first event it’s a great memory to be there at the first one and whenever the time comes hopefully I’m at the last one hopefully that’s 10 or 15 years down the road but I try to smile through all of it just like that
advantage Taylor Gu winning is always the goal plain and simple we need to win as a team i need to win pretty simple nothing replaces hard work that’s what we’re doing right now we’re putting the time in and that’s what I’m going to continue to do until this game is done but Taylor it’s been a road trip he will never forget [Music]
1 Comment
Blood money!