Brendan Steele joined Garrett during LIV Virginia in June 2025 and talked about Sunday pressure on LIV Golf, how his caddie works well with him & more.
All right, Garrett Johnson here at RTJ with Brendan Steel. You know, we go back, wow, 2011, I think. I remember your first win there in San Antonio and um you know, for you when you look back on your career now, PJ tour and live. What are you grateful for as you kind of look at it? Yeah, I mean, I’m grateful for a ton. Um had a lot of people help me along the way to get to where I am, coaches, family, uh friends, you know, all that kind of stuff. So, always thankful to those people. um thankful to the opportunity that both the PGA Tour and Liv have provided me to to play the game that I love at a high level and for a living. Uh I mean pretty incredible job to be able to do this and to do it for so long. One thing that really resonated with me when we’ve interviewed like going into your first open championship 2014. I remember you said that your dad Kent made some huge sacrifices. He wanted to climb I think it was was it Mount Kilimanjaro? Is that what it was? he had to put that on the shelf as a dad to let you have your dream, you know, in that case. Like what do you make of kind of the selfless sacrifices? Yeah. I mean, at the time, you know, it seems normal when you’re a kid, but uh now that I’m a father and looking back on it, you know, like realizing all the stuff that my parents did for me, uh to be able to play the game, um you know, we didn’t have a golf course in our town. So, the closest one was about 35 minutes away. So, Hemtt area, right? In Hemet area. Yeah. So like driving me down there, picking me up from high school and driving me over there and then coming back and picking me up and stuff and driving back up and down the the mountain where we lived uh uh every day. So like they they did a ton of stuff for me and then yeah, obviously that trip uh he wanted to go to Kiljaro and we went to Scotland instead and played golf. So it made a big change. Wow. And and was that it was your first introduction to Scottish golf at that point, right? How old were you at the time and what did you make of that? Yeah. Yeah, I was 16 and uh just fell in love with it. We went to Turnberry was the first stop and was just completely blown away by by how cool it was and how different it was and uh it was a great trip. We were there for two weeks and played like eight different courses I think something like that for the two weeks and uh just had a great time. Well, I think about your upbringing you know 45minute bus ride it would be for you to go to school and go to Hemet and I think about resilience like what kinds of things has that helped you with? Like did it build a resilience that you could get all the way to the PJ tour and now to live? You know what I mean? Like how how has that manifested itself? Yeah. I mean, I think with with golf, like I just loved it and so I found any way to to put a club in my hands. So, um, you know, my dad put a net in the backyard and and we put a little artificial putting green back there and it just kind of worked there and that’s that’s how I kind of learned how to play. And then, um, you know, obviously them just like being as supportive as they were, they they got me to courses and got me coaching and stuff like that. And, um, I I just always loved it, so I wanted to make it work. So, that that’s always the story that I like to share with people is like whatever you have to do to make it work. I know some people live in places where they can’t play golf or the weather’s not good enough to play golf or whatever the challenges are and you just you just find a way to to get a club in your hands and and make some swings, hit some putts, hit some chips around the house, try not to break anything. Well, I think about your win in Adelaide in Australia. What did that teach you about yourself and how rewarding was it to get that win? Yeah, I mean um one of the older guys now, so uh to be able to still compete with the top players in the world um that was incredible. It’s the best field I’ve ever beat. um you know, really top players that I had to go headto-head with. So that was uh that was awesome to be able to be one of the older guys and still be able to do it. Uh proved a lot to myself and uh I think I still got a little more in the tank. What do you make of golf in Australia now that you get down there? You see the crowds, but you I mean you’ve seen some of the really good courses over overall. Yeah, I Australia is awesome. I mean I I love it there. I love the golf there. I love the people. They they were so supportive of me during that tournament. um really more supportive than I’ I’ve ever had anywhere in the world, which was really incredible. Um so I I just feel right at home when I get there. It has a very kind of Southern California type vibe, you know, so it feels very comfortable for me. And um yeah, I just I can’t say enough good things about the experience there. And when you get out to these final rounds on live golf and you feel the Sunday pressure, what how do you take that on? How do you relish those kind of opportunities? Yeah, I mean I it’s it’s difficult. Um, when I’m going well, I take it on with a lot of freedom and and a lot of like I can accept whatever happens as long as I play freely and and uh let my best stuff kind of come out. And when they’re it’s not going as well, I’m a little bit more worried about the result and not messing up, you know. So, there’s every week’s a little different. It brings different challenges, but um you have to just keep reminding yourself of what what you want to do and how your best can come out. I just want to wrap up with a couple things about the way you practice. And I was curious when you have wind and you’re warming up on the range and you’re getting ready for for the round, like how does that affect you and like are there certain little tweaks you can make in your swing or how do you look at that? Yeah, I mean I try to just work on more flights and shapes at that point because sometimes you want to ride the wind, sometimes you want to hold it up against the wind. So you got to make sure you can hit it, you know, low fade and a high draw and hit all these different shapes in order to to work with the wind. Um I feel a lot more free when it is windy just because I don’t feel like I have to be perfect. I feel like you kind of aim it in a spot, use the wind, try to hold it against the wind, do whatever you’re doing, but you don’t need to just aim exactly where you’re going and and hit the perfect shot. So, it frees me up a little bit. Yeah. Well, a lot of players are going to play the US Open at Oakmont next next week. And I was just curious like for rough when you get crazy rough around the greens, you know, for you and your caddy, like what what do you guys what do you guys tend to do typically to get ready for thick rough uh when you do face it in general? Yeah, the stuff around the greens is really tricky. You have to be able to read the lie. Sometimes it sits up a little higher, in which case a lot of people go underneath it. So then you have to be a little more level, have to almost kind of hit up on the ball. And then sometimes it sits way down in the the lie that you like can’t really get it out. So you got to get weight way forward and get a lot steeper and use a lot of acceleration, almost throw the club head a little bit under it and try to get it to pop up. So reading the lie, number one, and then understanding what that lie means and how how you have to kind of distribute your setup, your weight, and then deliver the club. So it’s there’s a lot of tricks to it. There’s a lot of different lies out there. So, next week’s going to be really tricky. Yeah. Well, I was going to wrap up on your caddy like there’s I’m just curious under pressure of a Sunday trying to win. What kinds of things do you expect out of him? Like, you know, is it more about reading you? Is it reading the situation? Like, what overall things do you want? Yeah, it’s a little bit of both. When I’m doing my best, I’m not asking a ton of questions. And when I’m playing poorly, I’m asking him a lot more questions. So, um, usually if we’re late on a Sunday and things are going well, I’m not asking a ton of questions. He’s just there to make sure that I don’t do anything silly. And then like in Adelaide, for example, we were struggling with the 17th hole there all week. And I didn’t really like the club that I had to hit off the tea. And he was like, “Remember that shot that we worked on where you put a a big slice on the ball just to make sure you know which direction it’s moving.” And I was like, “Yeah, I do actually. That’s a perfect time to pull that out.” And I hit that shot, made a par, and won the tournament. And it was just it’s interjecting at those little moments that is the most important. Great call back there on his part. Yeah. Awesome. like just like worth his weight in gold right there in that moment. Well, Brandon, always appreciate the time and great to see you again out here this week. Thanks, Gary. Appreciate it. Thanks, man.
