Smylie is joined by special guest Harris English as he joins to discuss his journey to the PGA, his process when he practices, and what is next for him in his career.
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Joaquin Niemann wins for the fifth time on the Liv golf Tour. And I don’t know how many starts they’ve had. Is it nine at this point? Probably maybe ten. So he’s won half the time virtually. He’s he has. And this is a stat Shaun Lowry is our guy who sends me live stats every week. He’s I love that you get live stats every week from. It’s so good. The smiley show only on Sports Grid. Sidibé came off the bench. Alvarado missed a lot of time. Jordan Hawkins has had his moment, his moments. So. And remember, they picked up even a guy like Kevon Looney off the bench. So to me they could be there. I you know what. And it’s crazy because last year was so big on them and now off of them. But I’m going to say it fly. 7 to 1. Fly 7 to 1. That’s crazy. Here’s why G is great because sometimes sometimes I almost it’s tough when I when I sell G because now what will happen is right I mean listen, it’s the middle of the summer, you know what I mean. And what’s going to happen in two months from n? Jared’s going to go. Now, listen, me and Caleb love these pelicans I’m like oh what did I say that what did I know I don’t remember that one. Betting above the rim only on Sports Grid. As I drafted Aaron Jones in my dynasty league. But he’s like my fourth running back to let you know that people don’t really believe in him. And by the way, you’re playing a dynasty league. I always play to win this year. I don’t worry about next year. I want to win now. Flags fly forever. I’ll worry about next year, next year. So but I got Aaron Jones last year 1138. So he’s going to go. He’s going to drop that down by almost 50% not to get this total here. Yeah I think I think he gets I’ll take the over fantasy sports today only on sports grid. Hang in there it is smiley Kaufman for 61. Wow I’m Smiley Kaufman and this is the smiley show. All right, guys, welcome back. We got an incredible guest today. Harris English from Sea Island, Georgia. Harris. Buddy, thank you for coming on. And I really always want to start for interviews we haven’t done with PGA tour players back at the beginning as much as we can. Because Harris, you grew up in a small town in South Georgia, played a lot on the stage, and I just want to kind of talk about you just junior background and as much as you can recall. Yeah, yeah, I grew up. I was kind of I was born in Valdosta, lived there for a little bit, lived in Quitman, Georgia, for until I was like five years old and then moved to Moultrie, which I’m not sure anybody knows. I do know I do know where Moultrie is. Yeah, good little country club there. Sunset Country Club host the Pot of Gold Pro-Am, which is big around the southeast. Just a fun tournament I used to play in it with, with a head pro down in Thomasville. Hudson Swafford used to play on on our team as well. And just a good is like a pro scratch tournament. Lots of beer drinking going on. Obviously I was too young to okay. I was about to say in high school it was fun, just a good a good country club to grow up at. They’re really good to the juniors. It’s one of those courses, like real small pushed up greens that sure, I couldn’t tell you the square footage of these greens, but they were tiny. So you’re you’re you gotta get good at iron to. Yeah. You had to 52 degree to eight iron had to be dead on the money. If not you’re missing the greens. And it was rolling off and you had to flop it or bump it into the hill to get it up on the, on the green. But it was it was a great country club to grow up at. Had a lot of a good group of kids that I grew up with that all loved golf that I played basketball with, that I played football with, I played soccer with. And in the summers our parents would just drop us off at the club at eight in the morning. We’d practice and play, go to the pool for a little bit, eat some chicken fingers and go back out and play again. And she’d pick me up at 5 p.m. And that’s what we all did. That’s kind of what what you did in the summers. And it was an awesome place to grow up. And as you alluded to, playing the tour was was awesome. Todd Thompson, who now runs the RSM. Yep, did a great job with that tour. I mean, we all I mean, that’s how I met you. Obviously you’re a good bit younger than me, but just a great tour to play on. We had a lot of good kids that are now on the PGA tour, have had PGA tour success and been able to travel those 2 to 3 hours to go play in these really good golf tournaments was, was was awesome. And every summer we had that that big tournament over in Dothan, Alabama, the future Masters. Oh yeah was kind of my major every summer. And that’s kind of where you met kids from all over the country and kids coming in from Mexico. So yeah, we it was a good place to grow up and a lot of really good junior golf around those parts. Yeah, there definitely wasn’t a junior tour event or junior golf event where I didn’t pack a bathing suit. I was always making sure that I packed a bathing suit, whether we were swimming at the country club that week, whether it was at the future Masters, or if it was in Greenville, Mississippi, where I met Justin Thomas. I’m not sure if he ever played that event in Greenville, but there’s so many events where, you know, our childhood was was met with so many great relationships, fun golf courses. But to your point, talking about traveling just 2 to 3 hours away, going to a golf tournament, you know, I think I get I get asked this question a lot from parents. On if they have a junior that’s good enough to maybe play college golf or has aspirations of playing at the next level. They’re like, what do we need to be playing in? And, you know, I think a lot of people feel like to get noticed. They have to play Ajga or the national events just to kind of get noticed for you. Do you feel like would you recommend a good junior golfer has to play national stuff, or do you feel like playing their local stuff is good enough? If you can compete at the highest level there? Yeah, I mean, I, I love playing the local stuff and how I, I’d say this is like if, if just beat people at a different level and I feel like growing up, we had such a good level locally with Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, North Florida, South Carolina. There’s so many good players playing in those events. I think I played maybe 5 or 6 Ajga in my career. Is that it? Just 5 or 6? Yeah, because I so I went to high school in Chattanooga at Baylor School. We had a really good team up there, but really good academic school and a really good golf program. But it was hard for me to miss school. It was hard for me to I think we got three unexcused absences this semester and playing in the AG event, playing an event didn’t wasn’t excused, so I had to pick and choose carefully of when I was going school and that event. You drive Friday after school and get to somewhere and play Saturday, Sunday and then come back. Some of those days were more three day events, have to leave on Thursday. Some of them I played the one in Rome. I think I finished third in the Ajga in Rome, Georgia. Yeah, that’s not too far away. You can make that played played in the one in Hilton Head. I remember I think that was my the biggest tournament was the Rolex. I somehow qualified for the Rolex, I think I shot 86 the first round. And my mom is like the biggest positive, like she’s she’s like the most positive person and supporter of me. And she would always mostly drive me to this golf tournament. So I remember it was like hole number 13 or 14. She came up to me and she was like, I don’t think you should hit driver anymore because I can’t, I kept spraying, I know mom. Yeah, like, okay mom, like thank you. I’m 14 over par. Like I’m gonna need to make some birdies. I think I can one up you there? I think because I played in the Rolex event at Victoria National, which I’m sure you’ve been around that golf course and we were playing, you know, it’s kind of a golf course to let you know how good you are at a young age. And I realized I wasn’t that good, apparently because I shot, I think 83, 82 missed the cut at the Rolex. It was a four day, two day cut. And it was funny. So I my first win professionally was at Victoria National at the United Leasing. And at one point on the back nine I had an eight shot lead. So for all those kids that that get wore out at golf courses thinking you can’t compete at the highest level, keep working at it because you could have a story like mine at the from the Rolex to winning on the Korn Ferry Tour. Yeah. And you’ve won. You won at Hilton Head. No, I haven’t won. You’ve been you’ve been close though, right? Yeah. That course was the Rolex was at Long Cove, which. Oh okay. I’m all right. I’m not looking to go that to play that place anytime soon. But yeah, I mean junior golf. You think it’s such a big deal at the time. And like, you get so bent out of shape when you don’t play well and it’s like, just use it as a learning experience. Like, I mean, I know you went through the same thing as, like probably from my eighth to ninth grade year or ninth to 10th grade year, like, I grew like 5 or 6in totally. And your swing gets out of whack. You’re I mean, it’s just hard to still compete in golf tournaments and you’re growing that much. And I got so flat, I was just as soon as I started growing, the club just went like this behind me. It just makes it really tough. And then then I finally regained it, like my sophomore or junior year in high school. But yeah, you go through so much and you think it’s such a big deal at the time, but it’s all about getting better and learning how to play the game and going through some of those rough patches of like digging yourself out and getting through it. How did you end up at the Baylor Academy in Chattanooga? We just talked about, of course, you’re from Georgia and you know Chattanooga. It’s not exactly too close to South Georgia. Who was the first person that got you guys to hear about Baylor Academy? And at first, were you hesitant about going up there? Who was the one that kind of convinced you to make that jump? Yeah, that’s a good question. Yeah. Like I said in Moultrie, I grew up with so many good kids and a great country club there. And one of the head pros in Thomasville, Georgia, which is about 25 minutes away, a really good course called Glenarvon. His name was Rob riddle, and I got a lot of lessons from him growing up. And he had he had recently moved up to Chattanooga and was at a course called Black Creek, okay. Which is a really good course up there. And he started talking to my dad about this really good kid named Luke List, who was maybe a junior or senior at Baylor at the time. And he was like, my dad’s name is Ben, but he was like, Ben, you got to come check this out. This kid is really good. He’s going to Vandy. He’s one of the top kids in the country, and the school that he goes to is incredible. The head coach, King Emig is all about golf. They practice at a really good golf course named Black Creek, and it was just a different level of prep prep. Five to think long and hard about whether or not you’re a Hall of Famer. You’re not a Hall of Famer. I don’t need to argue stats. I don’t need to argue whether or not you are great. If Ichiro Suzuki is not a Hall of Famer, we don’t need to have a baseball Hall of Fame. Like just just just pack itp and shut it down because that guy was as good of a hitter as we’ve ever seen. And he was unbelievable from the first time he stepped onto the field for the Mariners until the end in game live only on Sports Grid. It’s edge rushers. That’s where it is right now. And I think Myles Garrett is in a class of his own. I think TJ Watt’s right there. I think Micah Parsons is right there. Certainly those guys are very very good. Myles Garrett is in a class of his own. He just absolutely is. When the advanced stats about the double team rate, his quarterback pressure rate, all of that, it just he just stands a notch. I don’t want to say a big gap but he stands a notch ahead of those guys. Game time decisions only on sports grid. He’ll be your reserve. You know your extra guy here, which we all need that I say this all the time about outfielders. Most leagues. I don’t know about your league, but we start five outfielders in a ten team league. That’s 50 outfielders. Plus, you got some guys that utility, plus you got some guys on reserve, 70 outfielders, a guy. All right. So these are extremely valuable here. And Moniak if he’s available is a nice guy to pick up right now. Fantasy sports today only on sports grid. I feel they’re all completely justified. You know the numbers. They’re nearly identical. And speaking of identical, I don’t know if you saw that one. Craig. That was pretty wild. From winning their first major to winning their fourth major, both Tiger Woods and Scottie Scheffler completed that task in exactly 1197 days, both of them in the exact amount of days won. Their fourth major. Newswire only on Sports grid. So yeah, I was not even thinking in that realm. And I guess my, my dad, my parents were kind of looking ahead of like, okay, if he really wants to go take to take this to the next level, go play big time Division one golf like I always wanted to go to University of Georgia. Like, how are we going to get this? Like looking back, it’s like they wanted me to get around the best competition that that I could be in and turned out that way. I mean, looking back, I think on my starting five my freshman year, I think we had four guys go play Division one golf out of the starting five. And who was it? Seth Brandon went to Indiana, Don Franklin went to Stanford, and then and then guys behind me, like Stephen Yeager, came in my senior year from Germany. Keith Mitchell lived in Chattanooga. He was a freshman when I was a senior. Oh, gosh. What was your hold on? What was your first memories of Keith and Yeager when they came in? So I knew Keith when he was like in sixth, sixth grade. So, I mean, he’s he was the exact same person. Just on the, on the range talking to everybody, having fun. He was always he always had a lot of talent. Like we knew how good Keith was. He just probably didn’t dedicate himself to golf that like he should have back then. And obviously he figured that out. So I’ve known Keith for a long time. And then Yeager coming in my senior year, I mean, this was his, I think one of his first times to the United States. His parents found found the school online. I guess he saw, like, how good this golf team was. And I remember him coming in. Our coach picked him up at the airport, took him like Hardee’s, got him like a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit. Never had that before. Welcome to the States. I’m sure his stomach was in shambles. He went out to the honors course, never played it in his life and shot 68. And I was like, oh my God, this this guy’s the real deal. Because our coach, we would get kids coming in from kind of all over and he would always pump them up like we had this kid from Mexico come in and he was pumping them up, and I think he wanted to qualify and shot like 95. We’re like, all right, coach, like this. This kid is not it. But Yeager. Yeager was different and he was really good. And he ended up staying at Baylor for two years. And he graduated and went to University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, stayed in Chattanooga, still lives there. So I, I think he liked his his experience. All right. So you said you always wanted to go to Georgia. You end up going there and committing and you get on campus. And of course, like we know how many great players have come out of the University of Georgia. When you show up as a freshman, what did that team look like as far as as actually qualifying inside the top five and making that team? I know Chris Haak, the way he does things there is a little different. You know, if you want to be great, you got to go out and put the work in. It’s not some structured system that that hacker has at Georgia. You got to go and earn your keep. And it seemed like this is what he told me on my recruiting trip. Now you tell me if this is wrong. Harris. He said that every week there was a qualifier for the tournament. Nobody ever got exempt. Is that actually true? Yeah. The only way you could get exempt is you. You top ten the week before. So he structured it like the PGA tour. So if you if you finish top ten, it didn’t matter if you were a first team All-American the year before. It didn’t matter if you won five times didn’t matter. Nothing mattered if you didn’t. Top ten the week before in the college event, you weren’t exempt. So it it was the most fair system that you could possibly have. And rolling in there as a freshman, it was myself, Russell Henley and Larry Thomas from Auburn, Alabama. Lowery. Yeah. Hudson. Hudson Swafford was a sophomore. Rob Bennett was a sophomore. Michael Green was a junior. Brian Harman was a junior. Adam Mitchell was a junior. So that was our team. I think we had eight guys. And it’s a pretty stout like coming in as a freshman All-Americans the previous year. And it was kind of like, all right, we’re going to go up to the farm up in Dalton. And we had like a three day qualifier. We played around Athens a good bit. And I mean I like that structure. I mean he didn’t I think we had maybe one structured practice a week and he would he would set up the gantlet. I remember the gantlet a short, I remember it, I did it on my recruiting trip. You did? Yeah. It’s awesome. So it’s a nine hole chipping and putting game where you kind of spray paint some certain holes and give you a couple bunker shots, a couple flop shots, couple bump and runs, and I think you had to shoot two over and nine holes to complete the drill. If you didn’t, you had to go over to the putting green and do you had to make 44 footers in a row to then have the chance to go back and go through the gantlet again. And sometimes it would take guys all afternoon, sometimes into the night, to complete it. Sometimes you could go through once or twice and complete it, but that was really the only structure we had. I mean, he was massive on short game. Yeah, obviously hacker had been around a lot of really good players, including guys like Ryuji Yamada, who had one of the best short games. And he would always tell us, like, y’all need to spend most of your time 80% of your time chipping and putting and figuring out the play. And he would encourage us to go play golf a lot. I mean, that was the biggest thing of going to Georgia is we had the university course in our backyard and could go play a lot, and we had a lot of qualifying, and that’s kind of where you learn to get better instead of just getting up on the range and beating balls all day. Sure. And it prepares you for life after college. You know, if you’re one who feels entitled to be wanting to be in the lineup week in, week out feeling like you earned a spot, I can tell you, most of the time those players don’t pan out quite as good at the next level, or it takes them a little while to kind of mature, to realize, okay, to make it out on the PGA tour, it takes a lot of mental toughness and every week you got to bring your lunch pail. There’s no gimmes out there in the PGA tour. And so Georgia golf, before we go to this next subject I got to get your opinion here. And you can keep your yourself in this list or not depending on how you feel. But I want you to give me the Georgia Golf Mount Rushmore top four for you. So if you’re creating this Mount Rushmore for you, Georgia golf, who makes who makes the stone wall? I mean, you got to put Bubba Watson up there. What does he won two masters. Yeah. And this it can be a career at Georgia. It can be their overall career. It it can be a multitude of things you know because some guys had great college careers that I would probably lean you know, a mix of, you know guys that had really good college careers and maybe didn’t have great pro careers, but they still were unbeatable in college. That’s a good point, man. Russell Henley won a ton in college. I mean, he was probably one of the most winningest players at Georgia. I think he won 9 or 10 times at Georgia. I put him up there and obviously Russell, he’s had a hell of a career as well. Sure got to throw Harmon in there. He would probably say this, that he didn’t have the college career that he wanted. He was All-American at least three times. I mean played really well, but probably not up to Brian Harmon standards. But thrown in that Open Championship would would have to put him up there. That nurse Kahleah Copper, aka the Walking bucket. I actually think I gave her the nickname The Walking Bucket. I don’t know if anybody gave it to her before that, but I know I did, and she’s done it in the playoffs. With the Chicago Sky winning the WNBA title. It’s about matchups. They have played the Liberty three times. They beat them two out of three, betting above the rim only on sports Grid. Want to hear a crazy stat guys with this Pittsburgh Pirates team? I brought this up yesterday. Out of 106 games they have been involved in 27 shutouts, 13 for 14 againstr one out of every four Pittsburgh Pirate games, ends in a shutout. How crazy is that? Total is eight tonight in game live only on Sports Grid. One big problem for NBC. Too many on air cooks for the coverage, particularly on the weekends. Having four on air teams separate time divide. The time was really outrageous. You had Mike Tirico and his partner, you had Dan Hicks, NBC sports lead golf commentator, and his partner. You had Steve Sampson, Golf Channel and his partner, and you had Terry Gant, who, by the way, if you don’t know, is going to become an NBA play by play Voice Newswire only on Sports Grid. Talk to any player. Hey, you used to get 18 sacks, got seven last year. Maybe it’s a defensive scheme. I don’t like it at the end of the season. Oh, he’s got to earn his trust back. No, he doesn’t just show up at camp the next year and start to dominate once again and everybody will forget. You’re telling me in game number one the Miami Dolphins going deep. Tyreek Hill six catches 144 yards and two touchdowns. Oh man we’re still working process. No you’re not. The minute you get back on the field dap it up get after it and have a good season. The early line only on sports grid. Man we have so many good players and I feel like I mean a lot of us don’t have majors yet, but I mean you got Chris Kirk, you got Brendon Todd, Big HUD. Any of those guys stand out for their college careers? Like were they just unbeatable? I would say Kirk, like Kirk was there before I was. He had just him and Todd had just graduated when I was coming in. But I think Kirk, I think he might have won the Ben Hogan Award. He had a really, really good college career. And then you got guys that that came before me, like the Nick Cassini, the Eric Compton. Ryuji Yamada, Big Ned, Michael Morrison. So we could be here all day, is what you’re saying? To try to figure out how to how to condense this to the four best guys. I mean, I would say the major championships would have to stand out. And even a kid, I was there with Bryden Macpherson. I don’t know if you remember him. He won from Australia. Yeah, he won the British am when, when we were there. So we’ve had a lot of success at Georgia and even kids coming out now, like you got Davis Thompson, Grayson SIG CEP has has really killed it in the pro ranks. I wouldn’t say he didn’t have the best college career, but he’s really found something these last few years, and he’s turned himself into one of the best players in the world. Well, we’re going to have to have people comment this. If you’re familiar with the Georgia golf program, make sure you comment your Mount Rushmore, because Harris might be doing this the rest of the day to try to figure out who makes his top four. And just so you know, you make my top four. So we’re going to include I appreciate that as a as a four time All-American at Georgia, which probably is not happened very often would be my guess. I’m going to throw you on that list. So I appreciate that. Well, you know what’s cool too is that a lot of players had success right out of college from your class. And we talk about yourself, talk about Hudson Swafford, Russell Henley, you know, you you all you won the Nationwide Children’s Hospital event as an amateur Hudson won the Georgia event on the Korn Ferry right after he graduated from college. And then you have Russell Henley that as soon as he got to the to the Korn Ferry Tour, he won twice in his rookie year. And I remember this vividly because it was right around the time one of my teammates, John Peterson, had said, I think the best college players can compete with the best players on the PGA tour, and he was chastised for it. But you guys come out and win immediately and then get to the PGA tour and win quickly. Do you remember that time and just the kind of how that was being talked about as as the hotshot amateurs coming up and winning quickly the professional ranks? I do, I do I think Peterson got a lot of flack for that. For real. No reason. Like, I don’t understand why people just chose to. Like, he was kind of the bad boy of golf or he wasn’t wrong either. He wasn’t wrong. He wasn’t wrong. There was just kind of a new era of and you look at guys that came after me of Spieth, what he did right when he turned pro and Justin and Bud Cauley got his card through those seven starts. I think he got seven starts on tour and got his card right. And Rickie Fowler was my grade. But he left I think his after his sophomore year at Oklahoma State. So you had guys doing that pretty much every year of coming out and making making their way on the PGA tour. And Peterson wasn’t wrong. And I think if somebody said that now, they’d be like, yeah, we get it. Like you got Ludwig, you got yeah. All these guys coming up and now these guys are coming right out on the PGA tour and you see how good they are. But what helped. Like I was I was totally fine with with kind of taking each step as it comes like I was I was fine with coming out of college trying to make it on the Korn Ferry Tour, like we didn’t have these, the PGA tour, you we didn’t have, like you had all Americans going to Q school and missing first or second stage. Like it wasn’t easy to get out even on the Korn Ferry Tour, then going to Q school and having the six round tournament, all that, it was just it was just way different back then. But what really helped us at Georgia is it started my junior year is they they had the Korn Ferry event at Athens, they had it at our university course and I that’s the one that HUD won. Right. So HUD. HUD won won it I guess after he turned pro. But yeah, I think I think my senior year Russell Henley won it as an amateur. This is like in May like we hadn’t even graduated sparked it. All right. Like this was the sparking of okay, wait, maybe these college guys can compete. Yeah. Yeah. And it was it was massive. It was a massive confidence boost for us. I know Russell would say the same thing as having a Korn Ferry event on a on kind of your home course, and it’s a big deal. I think I finished like 35th maybe my junior year and then like 22nd my senior year, but it gave me confidence of like, I can play with these guys like this. This isn’t that much different than college golf. Like the depth is a lot better. Like you got 144 or 156 guys playing, and all of them are really, really good. And in college you might have 40 guys that are really, really good in one tournament. That’s true. But it just gave us gave us confidence. To casinos and not sure what to play. Well, try blackjack first. It has a lower house advantage compared to other table games, making it especially player friendly. Now go get lucky. See you in Las Vegas. Let’s get lucky. Her and Howard at the two three are extremely dangerous. But it’s playoffs and it’s defense and it’s rebounding. You know the game is exciting. You know defense wins games rebounding wins championships. Well they got BG Brionna Jones at that 4 or 5 combination. Betting above the rim only on sports grid. Tiger used to really annoy me because all he did was win. And I was like, gosh, I just want to see some drama. I want to see Phil challenge him. I want to I want to see some magicn the stretch and have Tiger pull it out and miracle like fashion, like Rory just did at the Masters. You know, when something is really compelling like that, Scotty sucks the drama right out of the golf tournament as well. He just doesn’t do it with all the panache, game time decisions only on Sports Grid. I like painting, I like Jeremy Paint. I think he’s a nice player. But really look at this, look at this offense. You’re shocked that they win games 21I mean they’re an under machine solid pitching. Even though Hector starts on the injured list still the bullpen solid and they can’t hit a lick. They average like I mean it seems like they average like three runs a game, but somehow they run off, what, ten in a row? They’re they’re ten games under and then they’re 20 games over 500. Like how does this team do it. That’s just venom though. In game live only on Sports Grid. And that’s kind of the summer that I played really well. Like I think I won the Southern Am at Innisbrook the week before that Korn Ferry event at in Ohio in Columbus, Ohio. And I was playing really well and I think, I think the first, the first two days of the Columbus Nationwide event, I played with Peter Uihlein and Bank Von Vonage. I can’t say his last name that well, but played in Florida, I think throughout the whole tournament. I played with one professional golfer and then I ended up playing with Peterson the last couple of days, and it just felt like a college event because I was playing with all all the college guys that I’d played with for four years and had a good battle with Peterson. Oh, wait, was it John? It was you and John that were competitive. It was you two that were going at it. Yeah, I birdied 18. That’s right 18 and won by one. He so you know that course 18 is kind of a par four. Yeah. Gotta sling one right to left. Yeah I don’t think John could hit it quite far enough to like take it all over the trees and go on the left side. He had an awesome drive right down the middle, a little tight draw that John always hits. And it rolled like just through the fairway right behind this tree. And he had to like chip out, hit it on the green somewhere and ended up making bogey. And I kind of like high hook one over the trees and the left rough or left fairway. Hit it up there to 12ft and then all of a sudden I have like a putt to win the tournament. And John had like been leading all day. So you’re telling me the guy that finished third place won first place money that week? Because y’all were I think it was, I think it was Kyle Reifers. And that was like one of the biggest purses on the Korn Ferry Tour at the time. It was like 144 grand. That’s a good trivia question right there. Yeah. And that like got him his PGA tour card. And here John and I are first and second and we basically get nothing. But luckily for me, like I was turning pro I was kind of waiting for the Walker Cup. That was kind of my goal for that summer is make the 2011 Walker Cup. But I had 60 days to turn pro after I won to like claim my tour status. So I was lucky enough to do that right after the Walker Cup and 4 or 5 events on the on the Nationwide Tour. But like, John didn’t get anything like he didn’t get money, he didn’t get exempt status. Like, I mean, that that’s so massive when you’re that young is just having a place to play. Oh gosh. Yeah, yeah. And 100% I got, I got pretty lucky and you got to just kind of play good at the right time. So I assume that. Did that earn you enough point or I guess you take up status and then the next year, did you make it through to the PGA tour basically. So I didn’t get any. So I you got the no points. You just got status. I had no points. If I would have gotten points from that tournament, I’ve gotten my PGA tour card because I turned pro, claimed the nationwide status, played like 4 or 5 events. I think I lost to Danny Lee in a playoff in Midland, which is like my second professional start. I think I got third at the Miami tournament over there by the casino, I can’t remember. Okay, that’s of course that’s already right. So I hear a first, second and a third, I don’t care, I don’t need to hear the rest. That should have been enough for a PGA tour card the following season. It wasn’t. It wasn’t. I made it to the finals at TPC Sawgrass. I don’t think I made the cut, but I had to go through Q school, so it exempted me to second stage. I did second stage and oh, you didn’t have enough to get to get like fully like full status on the Korn Ferry Tour the following year, you had to go to Q school. I had to go to Q school. So, so winning the tournament gave me no points. So basically when I turned pro, I was starting from zero. Oh my gosh, it’s that is so wrong, right? I don’t know like what’s the point of Q school. It’s to decide like I just don’t get that one. That one’s okay. But you obviously got through. You obviously got through Q school I got through, I got through I did the second stage in Brooksville, Florida like near Tampa. Yep. Been there. Final stage was the six rounder out in Palm Springs. And that’s just brutal. Like it’s brutal. These guys got it good. Now Harris they got it pretty good. These guys coming up they it’s different I mean it’s how it should be of like the best college players should have a bit of a pathway or a head start or get their foot in the door on a place to play. And that’s what we didn’t have. And you had a guy like Brian Harman, who was a world beater as a junior, had a played a couple Walker Cups, probably the youngest ever to make a Walker Cup team, three time all American, yada yada yada and college. And then he has he struggles getting through Q school because it’s so hard. Like missing first stage. Missing second stage like it’s not easy and but it’s not easy to have that one time throughout the year where you have to play really good golf. Like you can go one, 4 or 5 tournaments on the mini tours, and if you don’t play good one week in the fall for Q school, you’re out and you have to try it again next year. And it’s brutal, man. It’s insane. And of course you you eventually got through. And in 2012 you had a good season, 47th on the Fedex Cup for rookie season. That’s a really, really good start to your PGA tour career. But the next two years I found pretty interesting. And in 2013 and 14, you were Mr. Bubble Boy and actually 2015 two, you were Bubble Boy for the Tour Championship, both 13 and 14. You were the guy that was right there to have a chance to make it in that top 30 kind of had some, I would say, lackluster performances in the playoffs in 13 and 14. Did you do you remember that time? Did you feel like you put too much pressure on yourself to try to make it to Eastlake? Yeah, I mean, kind of my first time going through it. And you want to make it for me, making it to Atlanta, making it to Eastlake. Of course. I’ve played a number of times close to Athens, but it kind of becomes a tournament within a tournament. Like you’re you’re not. I put I put too much emphasis on like, I have to do this. I have to finish top 15 to guarantee myself moving on. And you end up losing yourself in the round of like, I’m just going to play the best I can. And with every stay in the present, with, with every opportunity, I’m going to do something with it. And you’re constantly thinking about other stuff and other things that you don’t need to be thinking about. And I’ve done it plenty of times and it’s just it’s tough. And that’s what those guys go through when you’re keeping your card. Like, I’ve been on trying to keep my card and having to two putt at the Wyndham for from 45ft to stay in the top 125. Like it? It doesn’t get easy because you know how big some of those those metrics are like right now top 50 is massive. Like if you finish top 50, you get an extra eight elevated events and that’s massive for the points. So it it makes golf a little tougher when you’re when you’re having to worry about things outside of kind of what you can control. Well, I imagine in 2015, when you did make it to Eastlake, the sigh of relief you probably felt when you actually qualified for the Tour Championship probably was a your first, you know, probably big moment for you, because when you make it to Eastlake, you’re one of only 30 guys and it just it any guy that you’re standing next to the range, you know the consistency they had to show to be at that place probably was a very satisfying feeling at that point of your career. Yeah, yeah, it’s really big. And getting into Eastlake gets you in all the majors, which which was massive for me because that’s that’s what you want to do in golf. Like every year you want to play in the biggest tournaments out there. And that’s kind of the majors. And now the elevated events are massive. And I remember I think I made like a 15 foot putt for birdie. I think it was in Chicago. And Justin Thomas I think was the last man out like he was. It was like decimal points wasn’t it. Yeah. And again like you think of all the shots throughout the year that you either gave away or you didn’t convert on an easy up and down or stuff like that. And it all comes down to that one putt or one shot at that tournament. That means so much. And I got the better of him that day and ended up moving on. But he had an awesome year for that might have been his rookie year or second year out, but I’m sure it gave him a lot of fire to get back to the Tour Championship next year. Well, and if you know many PGA tour players, veterans that I talked to always say when you look at your career, always look at it with a long term view, because if you play this game long enough, you’re going to go through ups, you’re going to go through downs, and you don’t really know when they’re going to come. You don’t know how long the ups are going to be. You don’t know how long the downs are going to be. And when I look at your career, the biggest, I guess road bump I could see is in 2017 through 2019, you go from being the Bubble boy for the Tour Championship for three straight years. So all of a sudden in 17 through 19, you’re the bubble boy just to keep your tour card. What do you remember about that specific time through that stretch of golf, where in 2018 you had 20 missed cuts, but you still end up getting top 125? But still, I imagine that point of your career was probably something you never experienced before. Just more and more smoke, you know, leading to the fire that is Keegan Bradley being on this team as a player. Yeah, I think we’re all expecting it at this point. And you know Keegan, he knows he can’t play poorly in the playoffs like he knows he needs to keep momentum going. And if he continues to play well he’s he’s going to be on this team. The Smiley Show only on Sports grid. Christopher Sanchez of the Philadelphia Phillies is one of three Major League Baseball pitchers to have a seven start span, featuring an undefeated record, a sub one five ERA, 50 or more innings pitched, 50 or more strikeouts, fewer than five walks, no more than one home run allowed. Fantasy sports today only on Sports Grid. The game is on. The stakes are high, but the action isn’t just on the field. Rearranging that room. Get it inside. Sports grids in game live. Your ultimate second screen experience. A couple of 13.5 point lifeline. Every prop, every play, every day. Anything can happen. It’s complete chaos. Ha ha. It’s smarter to be on sports grid. Playing online blackjack and want to try upping your odds. Well, here’s a tip cheat cards tell you statistics for whether you hit or stand on every move. If you’re into stats, this could be your ticket to winning and it is totally legal. Now go get lucky. See you in Las Vegas. Let’s get lucky. Yeah. When you’re playing really good, you don’t know when you don’t think it’s ever going to stop. And when you’re playing bad, you’re like, I don’t know how I’m going to shoot under par. I don’t know. I don’t know how, like watching guys on TV like they may look at, they make it look so easy. Like, I don’t know how to do that. But I went through a big searching phase of too much technique, too much golf swing technique. And I looking back, I guess it was good because I know I can’t do that. And that’s not that’s not how I play good golf. That’s that’s kind of not how I’ve ever been. And once you get to some of these pinnacles in the game of playing in a lot of last groups, playing in a lot of big tournaments, you can look around pretty easy and like, that guy drives it better than me. That guy hits his long irons better than me. That guy hits his wedges better than me. You can. You can pick apart your game for many for many perspective. And I was doing that too much and thought I needed to make my swing perfect and was going through a lot of swing coaches. And I mean, there were many rounds where I’d probably have 5 or 6 different swing thoughts. I’d start with one on the first three holes, then I’d hit a bad shot, then I’d go to another one for three holes and ride it until I do something wrong. And then it was just a constant battle cycle of trying and trying a bunch of. And yeah, it doesn’t work. Like what works in this game is doing the same thing every single day. The boring, monotonous stuff that breeds consistency to where you’re under pressure. You’re in these big moments, and you don’t even have to think about your technique like you’ve you’ve done it so much. And practice the consistency and the rhythm and the reps that you just kind of happens. And I mean, saw a lot of great swing coaches and. They just didn’t didn’t work for me. I don’t know what it was. I don’t know if I was hard headed. I don’t know if I was doing all the things they wanted me to do. But what really changed was when Justin Parsons moved moved to Sea Island, I think in 2018 or 19, and my agent, Jeremy Elliott, had had already sent him some swings. From, from those kind of those few years that you were talking about, I guess when he had found out that he was coming over, he was going to be the next guy to replace Ty Anderson, who moved on to TPC Sawgrass. And so he had a little bit of an idea of this is what Harris looked like in 2012, 2013, 2014, when he was playing some really good golf. And this is what it looks like now. And he did a great job of kind of starting from from the bottom up of like your, my, my practices were too sloppy, I was not focus was the wrong word. It was just the rhythm of my practice. I was hitting balls too fast. I wasn’t focusing on what I needed to be focused on, which is like, now I. I’ve just started using Trackman in the past, probably 4 or 5 months. Probably not how other guys use it, but I treat every shot that I hit like it’s a shot. In tournament. I go through my full routine, I pick a spot in front of the ball. I visualize what I’m trying to do, and I hit it. And I do this thing on the Trackman where it gives me a game like, I would love playing Madden and college football. NCAA like that’s all we did in college. And I still sneak off and do that a little bit at home. But to me it’s like playing playing a video game like the Trackman. The iPad will pop up a green complex and we’ll put a pin on the right and it’ll be 174 yards, and it’ll give you the circle around the pin where like, that’s where you need to hit it to gain shots. So I that’s all I do is just practice those certain scenarios of shots. Like I, I rarely go hit ball. Like I don’t really enjoy practicing on the range because I get bored so easily. But this keeps keeps me zoned in of like it’s like I’m out there playing golf, so I’m hitting certain shots. I’m going through my full routine and I can’t tell you, like how much that’s helped me stay engaged. I don’t go out and hit 300 balls like my. My practices are so much more efficient now. From working with Justin and working on all of that stuff, of him working with Louis Hayes and him working with Charl Schwartzel, a lot of seeing Rory grow up like he knew what a good practice session was, and we just went back to the basics of my grip wasn’t great, my grip wasn’t consistent enough. Sometimes it would be a little too strong, sometimes would be a little too weaker. He’s like, you have to grip it the same every single time. I don’t care what club you’re hitting, it has to look the same. My aim was all over the place, just the consistency of what I was doing was not breeding consistency on the course. And now it’s like I got to practice as consistent as I can to be the most consistent. I can be out on the course where the pressure ramps up on those. Man, that was fascinating. And I think my takeaways from that is that you’re much more intentional in how you practice would be probably the word that comes to mind. And then also engaging yourself in a competitive space, one in which it’s not a blank board phase. Like every shot, you can visualize a shot on the PGA tour from 170 yards to a right pin. That could be one that you’re hitting that week. So it’s always, you know, looking ahead to what you’re preparing for, but also getting your mind in a place that makes you really start to visualize what’s what’s ahead for either that day or maybe weeks ahead. But that’s the type of practice that is next level. And I’m honestly surprised that when I look down here at our our Riverside app, that Charlie Holm, the producer and co-host of the show, is still here because I’m surprised he’s not already heading to the range to figure himself out for him because this is like, that was all such great information and gold for people that need to hear it. Yeah, and I’m like everybody else, I’m I would think like call it 7 or 8 years ago. Like, okay, I need to I’m not playing good right now. I need to go practice. And I would literally go hit balls for 5 or 6 hours until I don’t know what my goal was, because you can work yourself into bad habits and it’s like you’re going to hit bad golf shots. And I used to do these practice sessions and hit a bunch of seven irons, and I’d pull one and be like, why did I just pull one? And then I’d work for another 30 minutes figuring out why I pulled that one shot. And you just dig yourself and then you’re tired, you’re frustrated, and it’s like, what? I’d leave the course and like, I just practiced for seven hours and I have no idea what I just did like, I didn’t I’m not any more confident when I finish than when I started. So it’s like that. That’s not that’s not working. Did you know sportsbooks tend to draw up tighter bet lines for events that get even more bettors, like championship games or major matchups? My tip try betting on less popular sports. You might have a better shot at beating those odds. Now go get lucky. See you in Las Vegas. Let’s get lucky to be able to get in the College Football Playoff are the three games I mentioned. If they win at least one of those, guess what? They’ll finish ten and two and they’ll be in the College Football Playoff without fail. So I think when it all comes down to it, that’s really what this is about. Team success as much as it is individual success. And if arch has this team playing well and winning ten games, I think the Heisman numbers are going to be there to back that up just based off of the offense that they play and how they how they move the football. The early line only on sports grid. Over a full season is going to be Mike Piazza. No, of course not. But I think he’s going to be a guy who can help your team here. My only problem really with Alvarez is this, as Craig and I have talked about so many times, catcher is deep. If you’re into catcher league. By the way, please, for the love of God, I never play with two catcher, but one catcher. League. Who’s the catcher? Dropping fantasy sports today? Only on sports grid. Yeah. And I guess I want to ask you this because we’re still in this in this period of time and from 2017 to 2019. So you already mentioned it before. In 2018, you finished 11th and you squeaked by finishing 120 125th on the Fedex Cup. So you keep your card the following year and then you say Justin Parsons and you all start working together, but then you look at your results in 2019 and you see where you finish at the end of the year and you finish 149th. So all of a sudden, I imagine that your mind could go one of two places. You could either go and start searching again for a new coach, or you stick to your guns and say, you know what, I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing. I can go play in the fall, get in in the 126 to 150 category, get some starts and go try to play my way back on the PGA tour. And I’m going to go ahead and finish the narration here on this. Because guess what? That’s what exactly what you did in the fall. You had four top six finishes in the fall. I mean what was that fall like knowing that you’re going into the most pivotal point in your career where you could be playing on the Korn Ferry, you could be going and playing out of a category that’s really difficult to get. Starts at. 126 150 I mean, come on, how good was that? Yeah, that’s that’s a good that’s a good point. I mean that’s where I played Victoria Nationals. So I went back to the Korn Ferry finals, those 3 or 4 tournaments to try to get my card that way. And yeah, I didn’t I didn’t do it. I didn’t finish top 25 in those finals. But was it 26th? Is that where you finished was 26th I can’t remember. It was it was decently close. I remember I didn’t finish very well at Victoria National. But I’m telling you, like I had had some really good practice sessions with Justin and I was so close to playing really, really good golf and I it was so like disappointing. I think we drove I think my wife and I drove from wherever Victoria is at in Indiana. Evansville, Indiana. Yeah. Evansville, Indiana. That’s right. I think we so I miss I can’t remember what I finished 28th or something in the finals. Didn’t didn’t get top 25. We drove from Evansville to Chattanooga, stayed with the Yeagers. And then I drove back home. And it was it was a pretty disappointing drive of like, yeah, I don’t know. I’ve got to really go chase it down now. My back’s up against the wall and that’s where my agent, Jeremy Justin was awesome of like, hey man, you do great in these situations when your back’s up against the wall, like, use the fall to get back in it and go try to win some golf tournaments. And I remember going out to I was in Athens or something, I don’t know, a wedding or, and I remember going to hit balls with Justin, my coach, and then Jim Douglas, the legendary assistant coach at Georgia, came out and watched me hit balls, and he left there like Harry, like you’re you’re back. Like you’re you’re that’s the best I’ve seen you swinging in a long time. Like your total command of the ball. And I think the next week I went to the Greenbrier and finished like third or fourth and the PGA tour event, and you just sometimes you think you’re so far away, and then you then you have something click or you remember something from a lesson, or you just have one of those practice sessions where you are in total control and command, and then it’s like, all right, light bulb goes off and then you can go compete. And that fall I played unbelievable. Almost won a couple times and I can’t remember what I did in 2020. Like, well how did it work with status. Because if you had you were obviously way up there on the Fedex Cup, but you were still playing out of the 126 to 150. So you could really only shuffle up in that category. Right. So how did it work for you to be able? I wasn’t getting in a whole lot of tournaments. I kind of get into the non big golf tournaments on the PGA tour, so I guess I’d either have to get a sponsor exemption to get in like Bay Hill. Get into like players, players, they they filled their field based off of Fedex Cup. So like you would get into players but the other ones like you’re talking about you’re just basically playing the ones that that maybe not always the big guys are playing in. Yeah. And I kind of framed that as like, well, I’m not going to get into every tournament I want to, but the schedule’s kind of set for me of what tournaments I know. And I’m like, well, I might have 2 or 3 weeks off and then I’m going to be the most prepared, the most well rested, hydrated guy in the field ready to go for that when I get that start. And that was kind of my mantra for that year, and it really worked out and played good in 2020 as well. Like I think I was in second place at the players before they shut it, shut it down on the second round. So I was I was kind of I was starting to peak at the right times and man, I think you had to have set a record. Harris because I don’t think anybody has ever finished as high in the Fedex Cup from the 126 to 150 category. Did you finish 12th from that category? That record is going to be in the PGA Tour Hall of Fame forever. Nobody’s ever going to touch that from that category. Yeah, and I mean, props to my team for kind of helping me frame that season of using it as an opportunity to go try to win golf tournaments. It’s like it really can’t get any worse. Like go go balls to the wall, go, go, try to knock it down.
