Join Smash GC’s Graeme McDowell for a walk-and-talk on the course with Andrew Santino on No Bad Lies! G-Mac opens up about The Open in Ireland, his worst golf purchases, and tricky situations on the course, sharing insights, laughs, and candid moments along the way.
Get a front-row look at Graeme McDowell’s golf insights and mindset as one of the game’s most experienced players. Don’t miss the on-course banter, shot talk, and fun that only happens behind the ropes.
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[Music] No bad lies. Welcome back to No Bad Lies. We are here with GMAC, the man, Grant McDow, at the beautiful Trent Jones, Robert Trent Jones, right? Robert Trent Jones golf course here uh for live in Virginia. I don’t even know what town this is. You know what town this is? Negative. No, negative. It’s negative Virginia. That’s what it’s called. No, we’ll be positive today. This is a deep hole. Thank you for coming on the show. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Northern a Northern Ireland boy. I’m an Irish kid by my grandmother’s side, but I don’t know where they’re from. Wherever Wherever the troublemakers are from, where are they from? You’re Irish redhead. Those are always the troublemakers. Yeah. When you see Did you make a wish when you saw me? It might come true. It just might. Uh we’re going to play this hole and then we’re going to play nine. This is eight and nine. This is a deep par five. This one’s 583 yards. Uh we have someone out there, but you you’ll hit. I’ll hit, man. I’ll give you some bad lies here on No Bad Les. They give you a bunch of bad lies. You tell me a time where life gave you a bad lie. Take time to think about it. You’ve had some good some good life. So, not a lot of bad lies your way, right? I mean, you know, listen, I guess bad lies come to us all, right? But, um, it’s been a fun 20 years, happily married and few kids at home and, you know, listen, golf’s been good and it’s been kind to me. When you have to think hard about the bad lies, that’s when you know that you’re very fortunate and yes, you know, someone’s taking care of me. So, that’s right. Someone’s looking out for you. Yeah, but I mean it’s all relative, right? So, you know, right? We all have our troubles. We all go through some stuff. All right. Right on. So, let’s see you tee off. You’re up first. I don’t think they’re reachable. He might be 355 down there. I think I think he’s a long way out there. I I haven’t got that. I don’t think you don’t. You might. 583. 583. We have a little bit of wind at our butt, which is good. All we want. Spanked. Hanging down the right. He said down the right hand side. That’s where he wanted it. Yeah. I can’t tell you where this is going to go, but it’s not going to be whatever you just did. That’s in the right rough. What’s your What What’s your swing thought, Graham? As you’re setting up, do you have like a particular swing thought? How long is this video? Do we have enough time to talk you through them all? Yeah, talk me through it. Chat me through what goes through when you tee up when you’re lay when you’re coming up to the tea and you’re placing tea down. What What does go through your head first? Well, I mean, first of all, I’m asking myself, you know, what what does this shot want me to do? You know, the wind’s a little right left. Do you want to send one with a bit of a draw? Am I wanting to hold it? looking at a good target out there, right? And then just, you know, it’s like it’s like the visuals telling the body, the brain, you know, the brain body connection kind of going there. There it is. You see it? I I see it. And then that tells tells my body what to do. I’m blind whenever I So when I’m when I tee up, I’m blind. So I have no idea where this is going to go. I like it. But so we’re going to find out. I do love how you went wide and then closed your stance. So you started really wide and then closed in. That’s Do you do that every time? You’re you’re Yeah. very observant. How was that? I mean, you did an unbelievably good job at lowering the expectation levels there and then overd delivering. Yes, that’s what I love. You could be a you could be a tour catty. I mean, that’s See, that’s that’s him right there. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I don’t want to I just met him. I don’t want to piss him off. This he he he always underpromises and overdelivers. Well, that’s his that’s his job. All right, let me grab my bag and we’ll walk. So, tell me this. We have one thing already off the jump in common. Besides the fact that we’re both extremely good-looking men, uh, who every both good-looking Irish fellas fell and everybody does say that. Um, you’re you own a whiskey company. Uh, and the name of it is Gray Coast Coast. Gay Coast. The Grey Coast. The Grey Coast. So, it was named after the coast of Ireland where I grew up, which is Port Rush is my hometown. And it’s funny, we were storytelling about what we’re going to call this whiskey. And I was explaining to the guys, I’m like, it’s one of the most spectacular coastlines in the world, but I would never describe it as blue. No, it’s not. The the skies are not often blue. And I was they were talking about the colors and eventually we ended up with the gray coast because the dark skies and if it hasn’t rained, it’s probably just about to rain. But I love it. I love when it’s gray. I mean, I was blessed enough to go play uh all over. I mean, I got to play in Ireland. I played Scotland. Uh, it I it does something for you though that I love. I mean, for me, for for this, I really like the gray. Overcast is my favorite. I should just move over there. But tell me, how did you get involved in the whiskey? Cuz I’m a whiskey boy. I love I like American bourbon is my favorite. I’m the same way. You do? Okay. Uh, so, but then, you know, with my with my Irish background, got approached by some friends of mine who came to me via RBC, one of my one of my old partners. So some Canadian guys are in the beverage industry said hey you know let’s do an Irish whiskey together together it’s a category which is getting you know getting bigger 10 15% you know you know how American bourbons have just exploded oh my god yeah Irish whiskey category 10 to 15% growth peranom let’s let’s make an Irish whiskey you know obviously Conor McGregor just killed it with proper 12 sure did he’s just one of those guys that you know everything he touches I know he’s got that might he’s just a marketing machine but you know so we we we made an Irish whiskey made in just north of Dublin, but then we finished it in American oak because I’m the same as you. I I really enjoy Yeah, bourbon. Those char those charred American oak barrels. It does something to the coloration of it. The flavoring I really love. So like a Blancon’s four roses Mtor stuff, you know, some of that stuff. Eagle Rare. Eagle Rare is amazing. Some of my favorite sauce. Now, how do you take it? Because I’ve spoken to a bunch of distillers. A lot of guys say, I spoke to actually the head distiller at at Buffalo Trace and he said to me, I said, “Oh, I’ve heard that it’s you do this, you do that.” He goes, “How do you like it?” I said, “Well, I prefer with one big cube.” He goes, “Then that’s how you’re supposed to drink it.” He said, “There’s no rules.” There was an old law, old rule was like you put a dash of water or you just straight up or no ice. How do you take it? I’m straight up. Straight up. Straight up. I man’s I don’t I don’t like messing with it. Um, unless I’m going to have like an oldfashioned style. They say the Poppy Von Winkle way is big cube slice orange peel. Ah, that’s the Poppy Von Winkle way. So, I figure he knew what he was doing. I think that guy knew a little bit of what he was doing out there. Yeah. So, I So, I do like it like that as well. To me, it’s like a It’s like a skinny oldfashioned. Yes. A skinny oldfashioned. Something we need to keep in our mind as we get older and fatter. Correct. Get me the skinny old fashioned. Well, I Well, I know I hate to put you on the spot, but you’re definitely going to have to give me a bottle or two or a case or a crate on this. Done. I like the way the bottle became a case became a crate there. Well, you always level up. You You start small and then you go big, right? And you guys are down in Florida and do you you have a restaurant down in Florida, too. Does that take up uh a lot of your time or is that something you invest in and then you kind of let it flow? Yeah, you know, got some really good business partners who know the restaurant game, which is obviously a very, very complicated, tough game. Big time. These guys are good at what they do. So, doesn’t require much of my energy at all. That’s good. You need to focus all on golf. I like to go in there and kind of, you know, feels nice to kind of walk into something I’m part of, have a steak and a glass of wine, maybe a wee whiskey. H I think we need to hang out after this. We We have a similar interest. You You’re about You seem like you’re about a plus five in the bar. Uh plus six or seven maybe. Yeah, I can go deep. Yeah, on the course I’m not that bad. I mean, you’ve just split the fairway here. I split the fairway because I was taking notes from you and I’m not going to lie. I was extremely nervous. I’m going to I’m going to take the walk of shame into the right rough. Well, we’re going to go over to the right rough together. I’m going to go over there with you. I may have a bad lie just to get me going. So, speaking of home, uh coming up soon is the open in your home. Yeah. Uh how do you feel about that? Is that kind of like a a beautiful moment by a point of pride in your life and you know, being from there and having the open there? Yeah, very much so. I mean, 2019 was the first time the Open had been back in Northern Ireland since 1951, I believe. Hope my math’s right there. But uh so it was a really important time for the whole the whole island of Ireland. Everything we’ve been through with the troubles and everything, you know, everything we’ve been through. It was really a kind of poignant moment and and kind of one of those moments when sport brings people back together. Yeah. You know, golf was always a all Ireland sport. I you know, when I was uh didn’t matter what side of the border you were on, you grew up, you played golf for Ireland, you wore the green jacket, you were proud, didn’t really care. It was it wasn’t about religion, wasn’t about politics. It was about sport. The game of golf being so special in Ireland, you know. So the open coming back to Ireland uh in Northern Ireland was uh was a big deal. So it was obviously very successful and now we’re back again here in 25. I’m not currently exempt. So I go to qualifying here in a few weeks. So wow, it’s going to be a big day, you know, because obviously I want to be Yeah, I’d imagine I will go under some premise if I don’t qualify, but obviously qualifying is the 100% goal. And I remember I remember hitting my first t-shot there in 19. There was a wheat sear in the eye. Yeah, there should be. Well, let me ask you this. It’s funny because as I do standup and as a standup, people always say, “Oh, where do you love to perform when you you know, I’m from Chicago. Do you love Chicago?” Said, “No, it’s nerve-wracking because I’m at home and everyone’s like, “Hey, can I get tickets? Can Can my brother’s best friend’s neighbors plumber come?” And I’m like, “Oh my god.” I mean, do you have to do that when you’re at home? Is it chaos? It could be chaotic. Yeah, for sure. You know, my my mom’s always get, you know, lots of people lined up and give this little lad your ball and your glove and meet this person and tickets for these people. She does my hair. Give it to her. Yeah, you have to hand out everything. You know, my my mom’s a special a special little lady. Let’s do uh let’s grab yourself. You’re over here in this rough. Your caddy is read off how deep we’ve got. Uh this right rough’s not great. This right rough is actually This right rough, it’s its own bad lie in and of itself. This is made for your podcast. Yeah, 100%. Where uh where’s your ball? Here, Kenny. Oh, right here. Got it. On. I got it. All right. Good fine. Uh good find under. So, look, you’re a pro golfer. You know, for you, this is just this is a thing. This is not that big of a deal. Is this a terrible lie or how would you dictate this? This is a pretty bad lie. It’s a pretty bad lie. I think on its own, I’d call the rough out here uh pretty healthy. Healthy rough, right? You know, you know, sometimes you get a lie like that, but the but the grass is not particularly tough and you go ahead and kind of move something, but it’s got a real thick blade to it up here up north here. And uh you know, the rough is a real deal this and and the fairways are pretty narrow. I mean, that you just split the fairway there. What did he say? What? How far did you say I drove it? 330. 320. 320. Thank you, sir. Beautiful. That’s for Ireland, by the way. That’s for Ireland. So, so on this on this shot coming out of this, what’s the thought? I mean, what’s the move on this? How much club is too much? You know, so I’m thinking seven iron looks like it might be too much as far as what the lie dictates. Yeah. So I’m thinking it’s eight max, you know. That’s kind of how I’ll describe it to Kenny. I’m like I like eight max, you know. Now, does he ever do you ever argue? Do you go that’s not an eight. He does. He argues all the time. Every now and again I just want him to say yes boss. Yes, boss. He won’t do that. That’s not why you hired him, though. Yes. Yes. And that was a good out. All right, give me a bad line. Let me try. Let me just try. I know I can’t replicate that, but I’ll take the eight as well, right? Cuz that’s the move. It’s not bad. Let me listen to my caddy here. Do you think the eight’s the move here, Kenny? Absolutely it is. Yes, boss. What’s the target that I’m picking here? Far left there. Yeah. I like you just 20 yards left of the camera tower there. That is, you know, ball below your feet a little bit. So, you just kind of She’s healthy. This is a healthy rough. And now, what’s your, by the way, do you put the ball in the back of your stance for a little further back? Starting to get a little steeper. Right. Just a little bit further back. A little bit below your feet. So, you just really want to make sure you stay down. Get down there after it. I mean, that is so hard to get out of. Yeah, it’s thick. Good shot, though. Thank you. Good shot. God, is that hard to get out of? Yeah. Know, it’s it’s the fairways are narrow. Key fairways this week. You know what I’ve heard is we just looked down at 12 with your caddy and they said they’re moving it from a four to a five and shifting it. Going to go forward with a T and add a shot. Sounds Sounds like an easy hole. Sounds like an easy easy hole. Have you played this course before? No, first time here. First time here. So, you’re catching me sort of on my first look here. What do you What’s your What’s your uh what’s your first couple of comments about how this plays? How this feels? I like it a lot. It’s a beautiful track. It’s obviously in phenomenal condition, you Yeah, it is really, you know, some of the fairways are pretty narrow in places like, you know, for this one, I’m looking at it, it’s, you know, it’s got quite a hard left right tilt, you know, as we look our right to left, but definitely want to kind of bring something down the left side there. Um, I’m not sure I can get there in two anyway, you know. So, it’s uh again, when you know, when I look up top here, it’s kind of like how much room is there up there? Would I want to hit the aggressive layup? You know, really take the T- ball on and then try and get the second shot up by the green. Now, do you do you ever do you ever do you ever voice that first to the caddy or do you hear his opinion first? Well, if he if he’s, you know, been professional enough to get here and walk the golf course, him and I’ll have that conversation, but uh sleeps in off. No, we were actually at US Open qualifying on Monday and then it ran into Tuesday morning. We got we got stormed out down in Florida, so we got here late last night. The longest day in golf as it were. The longest day in golf got a little longer for us. I missed out by a few shots unfortunately, but uh you know, in a funny way, good preparation to come here this week. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, this is going to be a good testament. I I did say and I want your professional opinion. What do you think the lows are going to be coming in to wrap up the weekend here? Uh the low score. Um looking at it, obviously real quick first look. Um I think it’s pretty long. Big greens. Tough to get it close. I think I’m thinking 12 to 14. 1214. 1214. That’s pretty good. You know, live always surprises me though because sprint format, right? Everyone puts the pedal down on Friday morning, right? Hit the gase. The scoring is always a few shots better than you think it’s going to be in this tour. Of course. Well, there’s there’s so many dogs on this tour that really really can play. A little bit of a blind. You can see a lot of divots here. A lot of balls filtering into this area, right? This is where a lot of idiots hit. In fact, I think we might as well put it in a divot. Okay. Bad lies. Bad lies or bad lies. Give me his ball. I’m going to put it in a divot here. He’s walking. Um, and as I see this, for people at home, amateur golfers don’t know this is immediate panic. Immediate panic when you’re in a divot. And how far does it have? Right. There’s 128. So, we’re about 130. 130. 130 in a divot. Now, that’s not a terrible lie. No, it’s it’s, you know, it’s it’s sort of okay. It’s clean at the back of it. Yeah. You know, it’s kind of like you nearly treat it like a Oh, that’s even that’s even nicer. That’s even nice. I shouldn’t make it nicer. Make it hard. Maybe that. Uh, maybe. Oh, behave yourself. There you go. Now, now it’s a different shot. That’s not so nice. Now it’s a different golf shot. That’s right. Now, what what changed there for you? What changed there for me is how steeply I’m going to attempt to play this shot. You know, I was going to pick it off the top with a little bit of a draw feel the first time. Now it’s down there. Now I’m gonna have to hit like a a controlled knife. A cut. A little cutting shot. Controlled thin. Okay. Basic. Okay. Wait. What’s the number, Kenny? 30. 14. 30. A little uphill. Yeah. I mean, so I mean, it’s obviously very, very hard to get into the back of the ball where I want to strike it here. So, I really have to kind of hit down on top of it. back of the stance, you know, really trying to just sort of pick it off the top ball first. Oh, sit. Man, did I give you a bad lie? That was a good one. Do it to me here. Do it to me. And 130. You said it was bad lie podcast. Not really, really bad. No, it is really bad lie. But here’s why. It’s only for very good golfers. For very good golfers. Cuz we don’t, you know, there’s a lot of You’re such a good golfer. I think you can do it. But so you’re so you’re telling me back of the stance. Back of the stance and kind of you’re playing like a little draw shot here. Okay. Kind of just clipping a ball first. Clip ball first. Yep. Oh no. I lifted up. You did. I lifted way up. I got nervous about the divot. That was a tough shot. That was terrible shot. All right. Hey, we all know budgeting is very, very important and a lot of times it is hard to do. Well, thanks to Rocket Money, you don’t have to worry anymore. Today’s sponsor, Rocket Money, is here to help you out. Rocket Money is an all-in-one personal finance app that helps you cancel subscriptions, lower your bills, and manage your money better. You’ve all heard of Rocket Money at this point. I know you have. You have a lot of subscriptions, and you don’t even know which ones you’re still using, which ones are still charging you. Well, that’s where Rocket Money comes in. It’s an easy to use app that helps you save more and manage your money better than ever. You can cancel all of your unwanted subscriptions. You connect your bank account. Rocket Money identifies all your subscriptions in one single list. You can see everything. You can lower your bills. They scan to find savings for you with a couple of taps. Save money. By the way, customers who use Rocket Money, they can save up to $740 a year when you use all the apps premium features. They’ve also helped customers save over $500 million in canceled subscriptions. You can see everything right there with Rocket Money. Get rid of all that unnecessary stuff that you don’t need anymore and you’re paying for. Take control of your finances today. Hey, go to rocketmoney.com/badlies to get started for free. Is there a time in your life you can think of where life gave you a pretty bad lie? Yeah, like we talked about, I mean, you know, I’ve been very fortunate my life and uh you know, my parents are still youngish. Um, you know, I guess my mom being diagnosed with uh MS about 20 years ago, you know, it was kind of that moment where, you know, I felt like life was switching where I was financially kind of start to able to look after my parents. That’s great. After they’d looked after me and then, you know, my mom kind of like we’re very fortunate. She has a very kind of low form of MS, but still, you know, you think the worst and, you know, you do everything you can. And the great thing in the game of golf is we get a chance to meet people and I met a great doctor who was an RNA member guy called Dr. Omar Malik and he was an MS specialist and I was able to get my mom connected with him and really help her treatment along and he’s been amazing. That’s amazing. Really keeping her at the cutting edge of kind of what the drugs where the drugs are going and she’s uh she’s really doing amazing. So what do you what do you think helped you get through that the easiest? I mean, mentally that does something to your life and your golf game and your family and what what helped you through that? Yeah, I mean, I think I think my mom helped me through it really. I think it was it was probably the switch in life where I think you grow up looking at your dad thinking your dad’s like, you know, superhero, strong guy, right? Then I realized at that point that my mom was the real superhero. Yeah. that she was just so tough and her mental her mental strength and ability to kind of be positive in the face of you know an illness like MS um sort of made me realize maybe where I got some of my mental toughness from to be able to play this game at a high level. Yes. I mean this is a true mental checkdown for sure. So that was a moment in my life where I was like you know what my mom’s pretty cool. She’s pretty special woman. She very much so is very much. All right. You gave yourself a little uh not a bad lie here but a sand lie. Sand lie. Give me the guts. All right. Give me the story. Give me the story about the sandals. We heard from your caddy who walked up and told the truth. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, Kenny’s been with me nearly 20 years, so he knows all my secrets, but when you’re asking me about bad breaks in life, he thought I was going to tell you the story about the time I bought a pair of St. Laurent sneakers. Probably cost me a,000 bucks or whatever, you know. Sure. One of those crazy purchase, but I wore them to the golf course. What course were we at? Can you remember? I think it was Madina. Madina. But I wore them into the locker room, but they kind of had this scuffed up look. You know, you pay a lot of money for them to be kind of dirty and scuffed up, right? Some people do. So, I take them off and I put them beside my locker and I put my golf shoes on. I come back about 6 hours later after practice or whatever and I can’t find them anywhere. I’m looking around looking around. I see some white sneakers, but I’m like, “No, it’s not mine.” Eventually, I pull the a pair of sneakers out and I look at them and they’re like, they’re like fresh white, brand new looking fresh white. And I’m like St. Lauron. I’m like, “Oh my god.” So, I take him to the locker room guy and he said, “Yeah, I cleaned those up for you. They were looking a bit dirty.” And I’m like, “I just bought these two days ago.” And he’s cleaned all all the distress that he’s cleaned it all off. Never ruined. Well, yeah, they were ruined. He fixed them to ruin them. He fixed them to ruin. And this was at Madan in Chicago. So, do you have a strong Chicago? I’m not sure I ever wore them. Cleaned off your shoes over there, Mr. McDow. I took care of them fire them things for you. Yeah, I took care of those shoes. I put a hot dog in your left shoe. That’s pretty great, though. Well, the $1,000 shoe purchase, it show it goes to show you don’t buy $1,000 shoes. You don’t need them. It’s bought. Save your money. Save your money. Save your Well, okay. What’s beyond that? What’s the dumbest purchase you’ve made when you know it’s dumb, but who cares? It’s great. You got it in there. I know. Or I can ask your caddy cuz he seems to know. Uh, did you say purses? Yeah. No. No. Well, I’m sure purses are up there. Definitely. Yeah. We probably have to call the wife for that one, honestly. She probably makes most of the dumb purchases. She does, huh? Yeah, she does. See, I feel like I You know what? You know, we’re actually putting a we’re putting a gym in the garage right now. And she wasn’t okay with just regular kind of dumb dumbbells. Sure. She had to buy these $30,000 ones out of Germany because they looked zan. Yeah. Well, the balance of the zen of weights is what you need. Yeah. I’m like, I I had a set of Rogue ones, you know, just like good old dirty rogue hardcore ones, man. No. Not okay. $30,000 dumbbells. She want Do they talk to you? Do they coach you a little bit? I hope they do something good. Little German dumbbells. You’re not lifting hard enough, Graham. Put your back into it. You can do it. No. And for the fans at home, garage is garage. It’s where we park our garage. The garage. Ah, the garage. I got to get it in the garage. But they’re really, really nice. Is your wife Is your wife American? Yes, she is. Oh, what are you doing? Don’t marry an American. That’s all they want is material stuff. All right. So, this is not a bad lie. But it’s actually, you know, pin position wise, it’s actually a nasty angle. It’s a nasty shot cuz you have to land it right on. Right. We got to we got to sort of like dead weight it out to the left there and just sort of let her slope down. God, is that perfect. And then go right. All right, give me that same shot. Come on, baby. God, come back. Yeah. So, let me say it’s not a tough shot. It’s more the pin position makes this quite difficult. I mean, it looked it looked uh it looks tough just cuz for people at home they can’t see. It’s down in a way. Yeah. Kind of down and away to the left. You got to go up down and you keep it pretty wide open. Pretty wide open. And you you like to take a big chunk of sand. You don’t pick it. Yeah. You’re kind of trying to take like a dependent on your, you know, Yeah. The dollar. That was the one of the first things I learned was pick a dollar off below it. Just say depending on how much cash you got in your wallets, a dollar 100 or, you know, I don’t have a lot of cash. I was going to actually ask you if I could borrow a little bit of money when this is over. No. Hit it low. Low. Yeah. Just don’t don’t get like so much weight left. No. No. No. Not that much weight on my front foot. You know, we it’s more balanced. You know, if you get too much weight leftided, you kind of way the the go backwards, right? You know, I like a little bit more neutral and then feel like I can kind of stay there and keep moving, you know? Right. Just a thought. Like I like the thought. I need it. I need all the tip. I’m getting, you know, I started this show just so I could get free tips. That was the only reason I did it. Let’s watch this. Let’s check this rake job out. See this Going lefty on the rake job. That’s at least a $100 fine right there. $500. Yeah, I’m getting it. That’s a No, it’s it’s now going up to a $1,000 fine. I mean, you got to come see this rake job. It’s really good. That putt’s a little too easy for you. Let’s see. Let’s get a tough one. Like you say, back right corner there. I think over here is real hard. All right. So, here on No Bad Lies, the deal is whoever uh gets it closer Yeah. wins and has and the other person has to buy lunch. Okay. Lunch or dinner. And does the pro normally lead off? The pro always leads off. Understood. Yeah. The pro always leads. Understood. All right. You know, I think just top of the crest should be breaking pretty good to the left once it gets over the top. Oh boy. Oh boy. Settle. Settle. Pretty perfect. I don’t know. Okay. I think I think that can be bettered. You think so? With a with a touch that you have. The touch of touch of an iron smith here. Yeah, this is good. Was that juicy? This is very, very saucy. What do you want for lunch? Uh, steak. What if it goes in? How much is that going to cost me? 100 bucks. Nice. That was pretty good. I say, no, but I learned from you. That’s what it was. I watched you. Well, it still required really nice touch, though. Well, the the hand it must have been the purple shaft. The purple shaft always does it. Have you ever uh Have you ever puted with a non- putter? Have you ever done this? With a what putter? Well, with not a putter. Have you ever hit with like a wedge or something like that? You see guys do this a lot. Yeah. I mean, it’s like the old question. If you ever broke your putter, what would you putt with? I’d putt with my lob wedge. Your lob wedge. I’d put my lob wedge. What degree is your lob? 58. 58. Yeah. Yeah. That would be the one you’d go to. Yeah. All right. Let’s go play one more. Yes, sir. And you I am going to keep lunch in the front of my mind. Got you. Cuz I’m pretty hungry. Well, I mean, we can do it with our creative whiskey scale cover. Oh, god. Yeah. I’m thirsty, too. Okay. This is a par three, which is uh a literal joke to call this a par three. This is rightfully a par4. 200 210 215. Christo Marco. Oh, Chris Marco. But what did he do here on Friday, September 23rd, fourball match, presence cup, DeMarco made a hole in one by hitting an 8 iron from this tee. It was 187 8 iron. Now, is this for them to brag? Is that a Demarco brag? Is that what that is? It’s a It’s a subtle flex for sure. It’s a little bit of a subtle flex. I’m trying to work out how he hit how he hit an eight iron over. How many hole in ones do you have? Uh like in tournament play, maybe four or five. Like lifetime like 15. 15. How many do you think I have? I’m going to go with one goose egg. Goose egg, you know, and I’ve come close so many times and it’s every time. I bet you the percentage on goose eggs and world golf’s probably 90%. Yeah, cuz I’m an okay golfer. I’m not a bad, you know, I’m like a five or a six. And so they always say, you know, like the some sports, you know, like a 144 a 147 snooker. You know what snooker is? Snooker. Yeah, snooker. Like, you know, so 147 is the perfect break. It’s 15 reds, 15 blacks, yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, black in sequence. It’s the perfect frame of snooker and they’re like hole in one or like the perfect, you know, the hole in one requires a huge amount of luck. Oh my god. Yeah. You know, and a huge amount of skill though. Whereas a 147 and snooker, for example, is pure skill. Pure skill. Every shot. You might get the odd little break to kind of do it, but um a whole one requires a huge amount of luck. Oh yeah. Are you a big snooker guy? I used to be well back when I used to have a table in my house and then I had kids and then I got thrown out of the game room and that was the end of that one. It’s their game room now. That’s their game. What about darts? I love darts. Darts. And I was going to say darts. So that’s one of my favorite things about the nine darter. Yeah. Have you seen any? Oh, I love it. And when it’s on ESPN, I crack a beer and I cannot wait to watch. It’s like Kenny and I went to the world championships about 15 years ago. Come here, Ken Dog. Get over here, Ken. Kenny Kenny took me He takes me to pup sports like that. That’s what he does. It’s my You love that. We went to the World Championship uh and we had we had like these great seats, but it was literally like watching two guys throwing darts into a beer mat. Like you couldn’t see anything. It’s just not a spectator, but there was probably 20,000 people in the arena just going just going ballistic. I love when they get the triples and they lose their mind. It’s insane. And they throw and they throw beer in the air and everything. So then so then one of our friends that was with us was was a you know smoker and he pops out for a little cigarette break and whilst he’s out there Raymond van Barnav who was one of the top players at the time through the nine door and he came back in and we’re like we’re jumping around like it’s New Year’s Eve and he’s like what did I miss? And we’re like, you’re like, you know what? Go back outside again. Actually, you miss me every It’s a fun sport. They’ve done a great job with this. I I absolutely love it. Is there any tick going on? Yeah. What What’s all these little ticks everywhere? I just I think I got one on my neck. So, if I get Lyme disease, I’m blaming blaming this course. Um what what uh what at home? What like what things do you miss that you can’t just get now? Cuz you’re in Florida, right? Yes. What do you miss? You know what I miss the most, honestly, is like breakfast. A good a good breakfast. Fry up. You know what I mean? Like like when I go to Kenny’s house, he’ll throw the rashers on and the sausage on. Like a really good It’s like It’s why they build us a certain shape, you know, from that part of the world. Yeah. Well, you got to take the weather on. I think it’s probably just the just the breakfast. I don’t really miss too much else. I don’t miss the weather. Do you make it at your house for your kids ever? If I can get hold of the right ingredients, right, but you got to find the spot. You need you need the right sausages and the right kind of bacon. Well, Ken Kenny sounds like he’s got all that stuff stored up. He’s got a freezer filled with that, huh? Yeah. Florida’s not a bad place to get it. There’s There’s UK places to get stuff, but it’s not the same as home. Of course not. It’ll never be. Well, I’m excited for my invite to come have whiskey and a and a proper fry up with you guys. It’s the whiskey the night before, then the fry up in the morning. You don’t have whiskey with the fry up. I feel like you’re supposed to. That’s a good shot. It’s good luck, Magnus. That’s apple. Yeah, that’s apple juice. Sweeter. All right, so this is one. What did we say? This is one 2011 into the wind. 2011. I mean, it said Chris Demarco hold an eight iron here. How’s he hold an eight iron here? I’m going to hit the same club as you, even though that’s not going to be a good move for me, but doesn’t matter. I’m going to try and This is a rip five. So, I need to turn on a four then is what I what you’re saying. I’m going to try and hit a little sizzly five. I should try to rip a four then. I’m not doing that. blistered. Stop moving. Stay. So, you hit the five long. Did she go long? Not that long. No, it is long, but it’s not long. Just Just back left French. I’d rather be shy. If I If I If I do something stupid, maybe I’d rather be shy. What’s the So, okay. Hey, look, for an amateur golfer, this is obviously such a daunting, insanely scary hole because you’ve got water all along this thing and you got to get to the front of the green. It’s got to be 175 to the front, something like that, give or take. So, do you think for an amateur golfer is the thought, hey, man, just take out your 180 club. Don’t try to go for Right. Isn’t that what most guys should do? Not a bad shout. I mean, sometimes there’s definitely an argument to play it to the safe part of the green and try and get down in two, right? I think about that all the time. I’m like, is that just what we should be doing as amateurs? Harder than the average bear, though. Well, I’m not that bright, but uh my mom didn’t raise no dummy, but I’m not that bright. Ah, I pushed it bad. And that’s going to be either in the sand or in the in the water. I don’t think it’ll get to the Hope not the water. It should be okay. Okay, we should be just shy. Bad push. It’s scare. It’s just such a visually daunting hole. Beautiful hole. Scares you. Yeah. So, what? Okay. the season. Now we’re we’re just over the crest of of halfway through the season. We’ve got six events left if I’m not wrong, I believe. So, yes. Six individual, then a team champ. Then team champ, right? What does the offseason look like for you? Is there ever downtime or are you one of these guys that’s never stopped? You never stop. Uh there’ll be a little downtime. A little bit. Yeah. You take a vacation. It depends. It really depends. You know, my contract’s up for, you know, renegotiation end of the season. you know, if I if I get the call up, you know, to play again for Smash next year, my season my off seasonason will look more like an offseason. Rest, train, get ready for a big year. If for some reason, you know, I’m done on live at the end of the season, which which I don’t think is going to happen, but uh that would that would make my off seasonason look a little different. I need to think about kind of where I’m going to play next and kind of maybe go back to Asia, Europe, play a little golf. it. So, you know, all being well, playing for Smash again next season. I will take a bit of a break for a couple of months, spend a bit of time with the kids, train, and just not play much golf and then get fired back up kind of end of November, end of December. What kicks you off? What What’s like the wake up call for like now the season is back, what what what do you do or what happens in life that you’re like, “Okay, I need to like make a snap.” Do you have a date that you set or is it a schedule? I would say probably six to eight weeks before kind of the first competitive event. It’s just cranking up the intensity a little bit. Really thinking about, you know, playing some more competitive golf and and really trying to just just just kind of dial back and visualize kind, you know, goal set and, you know, switch from switch from kind of more stuff in the gym to kind of more stuff on the range and golf course, right? Okay, good. This is a beautiful, beautiful hole. I’m going to see how bad of a spectacular a shot I had. You might have to play from my bad shot. Let’s do it. I don’t know where it is. I think it’s over here, but I don’t see a ball. Right there. We got it. Perfect. This isn’t bad. Lovely. This isn’t bad at all. Um, you have another ball that you can just throw down. Teach me the secret sauce for this kind of a shot. Now, this isn’t too crazy of a lie. Not too bad, but what’s the secret sauce for this? secret sauce is really um kind of understanding like the best way to like cut this grass, you know, and the best way to cut it is to use the kind of heel of the club. There’s a little less bounce in my heel. Sure. A little less bounce than your heel as well. So, so you kind of lower the shaft a little bit and then really focus on kind of, you know, we we want we want to get through the grass. We have to cut it, snap down on it a little bit. So, again, a little bit like the bunker shot. I’m kind of opening the face a little bit. But I’m really going to focus on chopping. That came out like a missile. That came out hot. But you chop down at it. That’s why. Right. Chop it. Right. So, same kind of thing. I’m going to chop down at it. I mean, that’s thick. So, my fear is you chop down too much at it and it jumps. Yeah. Similar. Yeah. It came out so hot and hard. The problem is, you know, when the grass is this thick and you got to play it with this much speed, it’s that’s when you really have to play it with a lot of loft, you know, cuz the worst thing you can do is del. You just want to keep your hands going short. Now, that was much much better. Please go in. That’s a great ball. That’s a great ball. Let’s go have one more little putt off. And by the way, we can double or nothing. It can be lunch and dinner depending on uh who makes this next putt. I don’t know if you can afford it after that $30,000. That was She’s going to kill me. The weight. I know. My wife’s going to see this. She’s going to kill me. That’s all right. It’s been a good run. Well, you know, we’re 12 years this year. I mean, it’s been a good run. That is a great run. All right. Where did your first ball go? I think it’s just on the left fringe over here. I love uh where where is she? She’s Oh, right there. All right. So, we’re going to putt. That was a little deep, wasn’t she? She was a little Yeah, you’re strong. A little too strong. We’re going to putt from this. Perfect. We’re putting it. We’re putting it from here. I like it. Yeah, we’re going to putt from there. Okay, I’ll show you the way. Yeah, you have to show me the way. Looks pretty quick once it gets past halfway. All right. Double quits. Yep. Steak dinner. Steak dinner. Steak lunch. Steak dinner. I want two. Done. Hopped pretty good. That was pretty darn good. Got I got the pace better this time. Yeah, it was way better. I kind of wanted to lose because I get to eat steak, too. Yeah, that’s also true. You’re going to regardless. They uh I just got a bonus. So, tell you what. Oh, he got a little low. Too low. That’s way low. All right, I owe you. Pace was good, though. Again, nearly nearly good. Nearly good. I appreciate you coming out and doing this with me. No, really. Truly, you owe me You owe me a fry up and a crate of that whiskey. Done deal. That’s what I would love. Good putt there. Thank you. Just a one-handed two putt. I appreciate you. That’s it for No Bad Lies here from Robert Trent Jones out in beautiful Virginia with GMAC, the man. We’ll see you next time. No Bad Lies. No bad lies. No bad lies. No bad lies.
