[Music] Hi everyone and welcome to the fifth edition of Breaks and Greens. Today I’m at the amazing venue um which I was fortunate enough to be a member for a couple of years which is the Whizzley and I’m joined by a person that I feel like I know but I’ve actually only met in the flesh the first time today. Um he’s just because everybody says what a nice guy he is. Yeah. Everybody doesn’t have a bad word with about him. Um, he’s really recognized on tour as a great player. He’s a winner. He’s a Ryder Cup player, but more importantly, you know, from a from a family perspective and just a a veteran of the European tour, I’d like to introduce Ollie Wilson. Thank you, N. Um, you’re clearly not talking to the right people, but um, yeah, it’s it’s great to meet you. Obviously, we’ve had some exchanges and touch, so it’s nice to bring this all together and meet up. Yeah. So, as you know, um, we talk about wine first. We get that out of the way. Um, you’ve brought a really interesting one because it has a connection with the Whizzley. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously local um, and as I’ve said, you know, I’m not a massive wine drinker. I have drank quite a bit in the past, but um, I’m not massively into my wines, but the stuff that I do drink, I kind of stick with. Um, and I’ve uh stuck with the Albury. Um, the rosé that’s that we have here at the Whizzley. Um, very refreshing, kind of enjoyable after a round of golf. Um, and light is how I would describe it. Probably not the right term, but that’s how I kind of feel about it. Um, so yeah, that’s that’s one that I would enjoy. And Nick, the the producer, is actually a member here as well. He is. Yes. Yeah. So there’s a lot of local aspects to it supporting the local area um at my home club and yeah just a very enjoyable wine really. Yeah I agree. I think I’m not sure if it’s this particular one but I know that in the Queen’s Jubilee on the barge it was certainly the rosé at the time was served on the Queen’s barge of the Jubilee clearly has good taste. Um I’ve brought along a a wine from Oregon. Um, it’s biodnamic. Um, I seem to be choosing a lot of American wines. I don’t know why, but I just really into American wines at the moment. And, um, it’s a 100% pino. Um, they it’s called Authentic. Authentic. Um, and they’re known for their Pon Noir and their Chardonnese. Um, this particular Pon Noir is kind of black orange, uh, a little bit of cherry. Um, see what you think. Yeah, I like that. There’s no smooth. It’s very smooth. There’s no tang there. It’s uh you could definitely enjoy this. You could definitely enjoy it. And that that’s that was the beauty of working at Wine and Earth. So, we’ve got we’re just down the road in Guilford and we have 320 wines to choose from. So, I’ve just popped in. This literally came in. The pallet came in and our wine buyer was like enthusiasm about, you know, authentic. It’s in. It’s fantastic. So, I grabbed one of these. And it How long have you had this? So, literally, I think this is like couple of months that it’s come in. Um, just grab one. We’re selling it at Wine on Earth. It’s £59. So, in a restaurant, you know, it’s getting up there. But I think if you’re looking for a really amazing New World wine at £59, I think it’s really really classic. That’s that’s definitely the type of red that I would like. Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s enjoyable. Sometimes for me, um I like a Malbeck, uh an Argentinian, but sometimes they’re just a little bit be heavy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Whereas that’s not Yeah. You can drink that on its own, you know, on the terrace after. Well, it’s 9:00 in the morning. Well, I know start early. You could drink 5:00 somewhere in the world. Exactly. So, um yeah, that’s nice. I like it. But you you’ve got a really interesting story about you won some wine for a hole in one. Yeah. So, um Leopard Creek, which is one of my favorite golf courses in the world. Yo, I’ve been lucky enough to be there. He is amazing. In South Africa, so we always have the Dunil uh championship there at the end of the year. Um and Yoan Rert obviously people would know who’s got vineyards down in South Africa where I’ve just come back from actually down in Cape Town and Stalenbos Franchuk area. Um but one of his wines is a Pterodel Kappa. Yeah. Um and on the 16th hole, which is a beautiful par three island green. Um it was back in I think it was 2007 six or seven maybe seven. Um Sunday flag back right the green sticking out in the water. Water. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Quite a terrifying um shot. And this is before it was redone. um winding off the right and I’ve cut a three iron into the flag. Maybe a little bit more aggressive than I was planning and it’s gone in and I’ve hold it. So it was 198 yards. So it’s quite a long time ago. The ball didn’t go for that that time. Um but 198 yards. So I won 198 cases of Pterodel Kappa. Wow. You still got any? No. No, I haven’t. So I actually I split it up um into half red, half white. Um, I actually had to give some to pay for the shipping duties. So, I I didn’t actually get 198 cases, but I got aboutund 10 120 cases. That’s a lot of wine, though. Yeah. So, I was living just down the road in Waybridge in a flat. Um, so I had all these cases of wine. So, I had to then send some up to mom and dad’s, which didn’t seem to last very long. The cases that went up to my home in Mansfield, yeah, seemed to every time wine went up there, it didn’t really come back. Don’t know what happened there. Um, but yeah, it was great. So, we had this line of of wine for years really. Yeah. I mean, I’m I travel, you know, 25 30 weeks a year. So, I’m not really in town that much and I’m not drinking wine every night when I’m at home and my wife wasn’t either. So, um, but yeah, it was awesome. One of my first sort of wins prizes of winning for a hole in one. Um, but I’ll always remember that. It’s a great hole, too. Yeah, it is. Great place and great wine. Yeah. Yeah. A cool story. So career-wise, I saw that through Wikipedia, you know, get this right or wrong, whatever. World number one. Um, you started your professional career 2003, 2005. Uh, 2003. So I I played college golf 2000 to 2003. I played Walker Cup in September of 2003 and then turned pro the day after the Walker Cup. Okay. And you went to Augusta? Augusta State as it was called there. Augusta State University. It’s now Augusta University. Managed to peep on to Yeah, it was amazing. Um they used to take us on once a year right at the end of April or the first week in sorry right at the end of March or the first week in April. So like couple of weeks before the masters. So the course was getting in pure condition. And they’d give us like six to eight weeks notice. And as soon as we got that message, we were online looking at the forecast, the long-term forecast and planning and, you know, it was something that as a college kid is pretty exciting. So, I used to live on the back of the 13th green, which is weird because you’d never think there’s any housing. No. Back there, but like I would say 70 yards from the 13th green, we’d have we’re in an apartment complex with four there was four of us in our apartment. Um, we’d we’d have sliding glass doors, so we’d open that. We’d watch the TV coverage and about it was like a two- second delay. So you’d hear when someone made Eagle, which happened quite a lot before the changes, the crowds would go mental and then it would come on TV and we’d watch it. So it was pretty cool. I mean, we had tickets so we’d go, but generally we’d watch in the morning and come back and watch the afternoon on TV. So it was um it was a special place, Augusta. Um it was uh you know it gets some stick from people that visit for the masters and but it was my second home and it’s by far the best thing that ever happened to me. Um it was it’s an amazing place full of amazing people and if I hadn’t have gone to university I certainly wouldn’t be sat here right now and wouldn’t have had the career I’ve had. So I was lucky to have great teammates um a couple of amazing coaches um and yeah some lifelong friends from Augustus. It’s always nice going back. Who who any anybody famous on that team that you were in with? Yeah. So, well, not having great career as you. Yeah. So, on my team was Scott Jameson who plays on tour now. Um, we had Jamie Ellson who was my roommate. Yeah. I know Martin Norris well. So, yeah. Yep. So, Martin looked after Jamie. Um, we had Jay Hass Jr. which is Jay Hass’s son. Yeah. He was he was my roommate and he was awesome. Like so naturally talented, better than his brother Bill in terms of talent. Okay. But you know it’s golf so that doesn’t make that’s not the whole thing. Um and then there was probably not anyone that was going to know any of the other guys. Um and then there various times, you know, Vaughn Taylor was um there a couple years before me, Patrick Reed after that. Okay. Henrik Norlander after me. So, yeah, it’s had a lot of good players. Um, couple of national championships, you know, the team that I was on, we did really well. We were ranked number two in the country. Um, and top 10 a couple of years. So, it was it’s it’s got some pedigree. Um, and because of the town is golf, there isn’t an American football team. There’s no they had a baseball, but it was division two. We were the only division one sport at the university. It was all golf. So, it was like very a unique experience. And from an English kid going over to Augusta, you know, I I did a press conference the first day I got there and it was like I didn’t know what to do. Like I’ve got this suddenly a camera in my face. It was just something that you never experienced over here. Um it was a very different vibe over there and how everything, you know, you go to the supermarket and people would recognize you because you played on the golf team. That’s crazy. Wow. Um, but all that stuff kind of helps build you up for turning pro. I think that’s one of the great things about the college system. Um, but yeah, it was fun. It was a it’s a great time and and one I fondly look back on and wish I could go back. Yeah. Yeah. That that is great. I realized it was so close and you could get on and all that kind of stuff. That’s a great story. Is um, like I said, a special place. You played in the Masters twice. Is that right? I did. Yeah. which was again was cool because it was Vaughn Taylor had played I think Vaughn was the first Augusta State former Augusta State player to play in the Masters. He did it a few years before me and then I was the second one. So there was so much local support. Yeah. Um made it even better. Yeah. So I mean it kind of messed me up because I had so much going on the first year I did it. I there was a lot of media and I I kind of just Yeah. I’ll do that, do that. And my prep wasn’t great. So, I didn’t play very well, which was very disappointing. Um, but yeah, it was it was just really nice to kind of go home when you on the world stage, you know, go from college to going back to playing the Masters. Um, just down the road from where I spent four years of my life. And I actually own I owned a house in Augusta that I lived with my now wife. Okay. For a few years, too. So, yeah, there was a lot of there’s a lot of special memories from Augusta. Yeah. Yeah. Um any master stories that you can tell us? Um uh the one that’s that would spring to mind was so my first year which was 09 I think it was before they’d redone the short game and the practice area and moved it all around. It’s I mean from back then to what it is now is incredible to see the change. Um, but I was in the bunker. Um, beautiful white sand, glaring white sand. It’s a big two-tier green. Got my hat on. So, you know, hitting away and I’m looking down and I suddenly see some toes like in shoes obviously come into the bunker and there was just a bit of an aura like I was a bit uncomfortable. I’m like, who’s this? Um, and he’s just stood right in front of me. So I look up, it’s Gary Player. Never met the guy. Never met him at all. Um, and I’m like suddenly get nervous. I’m hearing these bunker shots. I’m like suddenly think, “Don’t knife it. Don’t duff it.” So I carry on and he’s looking at me. I say, “Oh, hi Mr. players. Nice to meet you.” He’s like, “Don’t let me stop you. Just watching just admiring your bunker technique.” I’m like, now I’m like under pressure. So I’m thinking, so I clip in a few more and I’m playing them nicely. He’s like, “You know what? It’s so nice to see someone playing bunker bunker shots properly. Not not all this modern stuff. That’s that’s how you play them. Keep doing it. I’m like, okay. So, I look back and my caddy Rich is there and he’s just got a big grin on his face and he watches me hit a few more. He hits a couple and walks off and I I look at Rich, I’m like, well, that was cool. You know, it’s stuff like that. It’s it’s um again, Augusta Masters, it’s because you go back and play majors there year after year. you have so many um well I guess they’re not memories but thoughts of watching on TV what you’ve seen in the past and then you go and live it for a week and and interactions with the legends of the game. It’s it’s a cool place. I was lucky enough to go I’ve been to the Masters twice obviously nowhere near as a player. There was actually a Nick Flanigan who was an amateur from Australia. Yeah, he was good. And um he led the masters y for like three holes on day one and I taugh that and I sent it around to all my mates just like yeah and flan and flanigan he’s leading the masters which is quite cool but I was like a kid at Christmas I mean I funny enough Gary player invited me to go to Augusta because it was the 50th anniversary of him winning all four majors and we’ done some work with him when I was at Loman and he said like would you like to come over and I was like uh yes yeah let me see let me think so my first time ever. And um I was like a kid at Christmas. I couldn’t wait. And got on the first bus at like 6:00 in the morning. Uh I’d missed uh ProAm day. Um but there was like a gathering the night before and there was you know who’s who in in this this garden party and they’re all going, “Oh, you’ll love it. It’s fant. I just want to go. I just I just want to go.” And I got on the bus and I got in through the gate and I I was like first there and it was just coming dawn basically and stood there and I watched Palmer Nicholas and player tea up and then tea off the first and I just walked 18 holes. Yeah. And just all those memories that you remember on a Sunday night watching Masters. It was it was amazing. It’s cool when you walk through from I guess depending on what gate you came but when you walk through from the clubhouse past the shop you know it’s all enclosed. Yeah. Building trees, car park, and you go through and suddenly this just expanse of green hits you. Got the the uh the oak tree and the the rolling hills. Um but when you go there without any stands, it’s like a completely different course cuz you can see everywhere. Whereas when you go with all the fans, you know, the stands, it’s it’s quite a different view. But it is um Yeah, it’s a special place. Um there’s no doubt. I was lucky to go the next year as well, and that was with Bergman, the hospitality. Yeah. Oh my god, that I don’t know if you ever you probably didn’t have a chance to go in there because you’re too busy playing, but that is amazing. That the hospitality I went with um Textron um and Chris May who chief exec at Dubai Golf. We both and we both said like you know we’ve been to some nice gigs before this is meant to be amazing. So he said like I’ll go in one and then you go in one bus I’ll go in another and we’ll meet up at lunch and you go through and I remember special gate and cond Condisa Rice is there to welcome you and you kind of go like well that’s different. Um then you walk through and you got a merchandise shop that is only for Bergman’s um patrons. It’s incredible. You walk all the way through and they’ve got these practice greens and you’ve got your own caddy and you can it’s the replicas of I think the 10th and the 14th. Oh, really? Unbelievable. And it’s So, what year was that? I went 2015 and 2016. Yeah. Okay. So, that would have been all new. That’s all new. So, I think I think Bergman was built in 2014, right? So, it’s just a couple of times, but that is amazing as well. So, that’s I mean, I think this this edition is going to go out for Augustus. So, it’s kind of it’s some operation they run over there. Unbelievable. And each year you go back and something’s changed. Like I was there uh 3 or 4 weeks ago and just driving around like past where I used to live like half of that complex is gone and it’s just been absorbed into parking and well don’t know what else but all tunnels under the Yeah. It’s just incredible. I always remember where I lived when I turned pro. I was looking to buy a house um across the road and I was thinking if I’d have bought that it was where the car park now is. But there’s one house that hasn’t sold in the car park and the house that I was looking at was right next to it. So I was like, I wonder what I would have made out off of that. That would have been a good investment. But um it is Yeah. Yeah. They’ve what they do for the community as well. It’s I mean going through the other the week the see there was big hurricane that just came through. So if you see the destruction and the amount of trees, we’re talking like monstrous size trees all cut up on the sides of the road. You just drive through a lot of the roads and it’s just lined with trunks cut up waiting to be taken away. Loads of the houses have all got their roofs taken off. Um they’re still trying to figure out who’s going to pay for it between FEMA and the insurance. Like it’s they got hit pretty hard. Um but I think you know as far as the golf goes, I think they’ll they’ll be ready to go. Certainly some of the town is still still struggling. We’ve actually in a later edition we’ve got um a gentleman called Kevin Bazarda and he heads up the club and hospitality operations at Augusta and he’s got his own well he he and his family have got their own vineyard in Oregon just down the road from this particular one. So really looking forward to to having a conversation with him as well getting behind the scenes truly. But he he was brought in to build Bergman’s right which is quite interesting. Yeah. So Oh that will yeah that’ll be interesting to find out. will be very interesting. I think we’ll get a few few listeners and a few viewers for that one. This should be great. Um, so 2008 and you’re kind of what 35th in the world. Um, it depends. Wikipedia was 45th. You’re telling me? Yeah. I’m not very good at blowing my own trumpet, but I was 35th. Very good. Yeah, that’s really good. That’s correct. Wikipedia top 50 is pretty pretty amazing. Yeah, I was top 50 for uh two two and a half years. Um, which was, you know, which is nice and I’d like to get back there. Yeah. But it’s a nice place to be when you’re playing professionally. You know, your schedule’s a little bit more. Well, it’s very nice. Nice schedule. I was lucky enough when I was at Lman to play with Charles Schwarz in the pro. Yeah. Um, and I said to him, “How do you set your schedule up?” He goes, “Points. As long as I can stay in the top 50, sweet.” Yeah. So, lotman look at the field. You know, we’ve got 27 of the best players coming here all day. you know, just I want to keep in that top 50 because if I’m in that Yeah. It’s a big difference between being in the top 50 and not. Yeah. So, um it does make a big difference throughout for various reasons, but essentially top 50 is the line that we’ve built in golf to be where it where it’s at. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously, you want to be as high as you can, but if you’re in the top 50 out of all the people that play golf, you’re pretty good. Yeah. Um, and you know, as as rightly so, you get to play the majors, the world events when they when they existed. Um, but now you’d be elevated events and yeah, it’s um it’s a pretty good place to be. You’ve obviously earned it to be there, but what you get from that and the tournaments you get to play in is is special. So, Ryder Cup 2008, automatic pick or captain’s pick? I definitely wasn’t a captain’s pick. Um, I qualified I was last man to qualify. Um, which was looking back was a fun period. You saw that last month leading into it. Um, exciting, stressful. Um, but I managed to get it get over the line and in Glenn Eagles. Um, had a bad first round and then played awesome the second round to make the cut. I think I shot like 67 or something back nine. I was maybe 500 on the back n to make the cut on the mark and then couple of 66ers to finish over the weekend to to solidify it and and get it all done. So that was a special week that I’ll always remember. Um and then two weeks off to kind of mentally prepare and then you’re off to Valhalla on the plane. So it was uh it was in all honesty it was never something that was on my radar really. I didn’t think I was ever good enough. Wow. Um, when I turned pro, I didn’t think I was good enough to to do a whole lot. I know I needed to work on my game a lot. Um, and I thought maybe Journeyman Pro was kind of where it would be at. And funny enough, you just keep working, ticking away, one foot in front of the other. And working with good people and doing the right things, working pretty hard. And things happened and suddenly I found myself top 50 in the world. Um, qualified for the RDER Cup team. And as soon as you get a couple of results and you it starts to get on your radar, then you can’t not think about it. It’s just everything. Yeah. So, it’s it’s uh one of those things that’s quite a mentally tough thing to just keep playing and because it takes over all of it. The the short term of this this tournament and that tournament is gone. It’s nothing about that. It’s just this big picture. I’ve got to make the Ryder Cup. So, to make it was special. Um, and a lot of the guys that were on the team are guys that I’d looked up to in college that they were the best players in college. They were set in this the on that team. Uh, Paul Casey um I think Luke was injured at the time. Um, but um yeah, Westy, Gimenez, Harrington um you know, just guys that I’ve grown up watching on TV. Open champion then. He would have been open champ. Yeah. Yeah. Uh uh. So yeah, he won in 09. Did he win? No, maybe didn’t know. Yeah, but he obviously but yeah, just like legends of European golf. Faldo was a captain, someone I looked up to growing up. Um Ollie was the, you know, one of the vice captains. Like yeah, it was what you dream of being part of, but I never really thought I could get to that level. So when I did, it was it was special. Um obviously we didn’t get the result we wanted. Um but even who did you play against? Who who did you play? Were you left out or would you Yeah. So the I I wasn’t playing great in practice which was a familiar thing for me. Like in practice I was terrible usually and then something would happen and I’d kind of switch things on on a Thursday. Probably the right thing to do though, isn’t it? It’s definitely better than the other way around. Exactly. Um, but I think Nick um Nick didn’t know me um as well as some of the other players. So, he would read into that and going, “Well, he’s not going to play.” Um, but it obviously the first day didn’t go well. and Henrik fortunately um Henrik said stood in and said look me and Ollie are gonna play Forsomes tomorrow which I was very pleased about. Um so we were I was very excited and I was I’ve been and spent the first day practicing so I was kind of ready to go. Um and we played Mickelson and Kim the first day or the the second day sorry in Forsoms. Um, so I was all excited my first day and and we’ve talked through strategy and um I got the first te- shot. So, you know, walk down on the tea and the the hair on my arms is stood up like I’ve been building this first tea up for two weeks in my head like trying to trying to make it so I can be as calm and ready to go as possible. Um, but you can’t even prepare yourself for it. And bearing in mind now it’s I mean it’s even bigger. Back then there was stands around two sides and then ropes on around one side coliseum now. Now it’s like up here and all around like it’s incredible. But the energy that was there was insane. Especially at Valhalla. So the clubhouse sits up top and you kind of come down to the range down to the putting green then down to the first te. So you kind of work your way down. So you you’re seeing and feeling this atmosphere all the way for like two hours before your tea time because the other guys are playing and the crowd’s all in place. Um, and uh I I hit I can still feel the first T-OT off the face of my driver. Like it was so solid. I hit it down the middle of the fairway. So I loved that experience. I mean I can imagine if you hit a tow hook it would be different but um it was good. Um and then we were four down through six. I’m like uh this is not what I had in mind. Maybe Nick was right. Um but you know we we hung in there and turned it around and we won really well. So it was Wow. That’s amazing. That was one of my career highlights. Obviously, I’d like to have played more Ryder Cups and have more highlights, but it’s definitely one thing that I managed to It was great having Henrik as a partner because he put me at ease. And I think the reason one of the reasons why so the golf the quality of golf is so good in the Ryder Cup is because you have such faith in your playing partner. like whilst you’re competing against each other all the other time, if you suddenly say Henrik’s your partner or Rory’s your partner, it’s like, huh, well, he’s awesome. I haven’t even got to do anything. It’s going to be fine. So, I think you like you find this ease. Um, and that’s why the pairings are so important to have that confidence in your partner and if some if they do something wrong, it’s like, well, it’s fine. It’s it’s Henrik. Yeah, it’s fine. Um whereas when you get the partnership wrong there can be a bit of what are you doing? You can’t that’s terrible. You know you kind of lose that um partnership. So I think um that really helped and and I played great and Henrik played pretty solid. Um and I managed to hold a little 20footer on the last left to right up the hill to beat Mickelson and Kim and and Anthony at the time was amazing. Um and obviously Phil was great. So to to pull that As I hold it, I just got very excited obviously as you can imagine. And I’d looked up and I was looking straight at Phil in the eyes accidentally like completely like and he was just his face dropped. I think I don’t think he could believe that I’d hold it on him. Um so yeah, it was it was special. Uh it was a fun week and then I played the the singles um against Boo Weekly. Oh, right. So if you can remember people who remember that watching that Buu rode his driver off the first T Well, that was against me. Um, I never knew cuz I walked off in front of him. He did it behind me and I never Everyone’s cheering. I’m like just cheering for Boo. And then on Monday when I got home, I had loads of messages saying, um, I can’t believe he did that. I don’t know what you’re talking about. So, I found it and yeah, I found it quite funny. But he, you know, he was doing it because he’s a great guy. Like, he’s a character. He’s awesome. Yeah. Such a good guy. We did an interview with him at Llman, Scottish Open. Okay. And I was sat We did it in the locker room at Loman. Yeah. And I was just we were all just killing ourselves after he’s brilliant. Now he’s got some stories. He has got some stories. I do like his or Rangit Tang story. Well, you could go public with a lot of them. Yeah. But he’s a great guy. Um and I I know him reasonably well and we’ve worked with the same coach. So, it’s been nice to catch up with him a couple of times since then and just to discuss because he beat me. He um I played great and there was no way I was going to beat him really. He was he played great and he’s openly admitted it that it was one of his best rounds. just throw that out there, but um yeah, it was a great week. We obviously lost, but I look back at it very fondly, but it would be nice to get back on another on a team and experience winning cuz I mean the losing team being part of that was amazing really. So to be on a winning team, I can’t imagine. And I I did some commentary on I did five live in Paris. Okay. Um and was right there when they won. got caught up in all the crowd and to be if you’re on that team to experience that on home soil would be very special. Yeah. Yeah, I can imagine. And obviously this year Ryder Cup um Long Island Beth Pays Black that’s like one of the toughest golf course I have ever seen. I worked at it as a when I worked at St. Andrews we we had to get ready for the 2005 Open. So we we were going to different majors to do on different things and Beth Paige uh was 2002 so it was part of my leading to it and I was switching fairways like half past 4 in the morning and um literally the setup is like did you play in that? I played um the US Open at to um at Beth Page in ’09. Yeah. Would be next year. Um and yeah, I mean what a course. Yeah, the course is amazing, but the crowd’s amazing, too. Um, it’s it’s rockers, isn’t it? And and the thing is they feed off it. Like, they know it. So, they it it escalates every time you have a tournament there. And I think now as people start talking about the Ryder Cup and the crowd, it’s just going to get worse because people are, you know, they’re going to be, “Oh, we’re going to bring it.” Yeah. Um especially around that area where you’ve got 15T, 16 green, 17T. Yeah. And that’s a cauldron. Yeah, it was when I was there and I just because it was Tiger, Sergio, Phil Mickelson. You can imagine the whole of New York coming out and like the eyes were on you. So I I can’t remember if that was the one where Monty got hassled for being called Mr. Mr. Might cuz I got So I wore pink pants. Okay. Pink trousers. So um and was probably not a wise decision back then. It was a little bit naivity on my behalf, but wore pink trousers. And this guy followed me for seven holes just giving me abuse about my trousers. Yeah. I’m like whatever, dude. Like it’s fine. But I kind of found it funny. But I think Monty was a couple of groups ahead of me and I remember him getting loads of abuse. I think he was on the path 17. Was it 17? 17. He was get absolute abuse. Yeah. And so yeah, like that’s just in that individual snapshot, but as a Ryder Cup team, it’s going to be brutal. But, you know, the guys, you can’t say they’re going to be used to it, but they’ll be ready for it. And it’s just noise. And that’s what I found interesting at Valhalla. You got the entire crowd cheering against you and booing. I was playing boo so they’re booing. Yeah. But it’s all it’s just noise really because it’s not personal. Okay. But if it gets personal, I can see that’s how it would be. Could be quite hard. But, you know, the guys the guys are going to be as prepared for it as they can. Yeah. Um I think and hopefully they can feed off that energy cuz it’s just energy. So, if you can turn it into a positive energy for you to feed off, hopefully that’s what they can do. But hopefully it doesn’t cross the line. I do worry. Yeah, I do worry as well cuz it I mean from what I saw in 2002, I mean a few people said, “Oh, I really want to go.” And I was like, “I’m not sure I’d want to go.” Yeah, I’m really not sure. I I I I’d like to think that it’ll be just an amazing week. But yeah, I I think it could be I think there’ll be there’ll be definitely places where people cross the line. They just get carried away. But yeah, hopefully hopefully we’ll just keep them more quiet with the quality of golf. Yeah, hopefully keep them very very quiet would be nice. But they’ll be up for it. That’s for sure. Especially home. And I think Rory’s always highlighted it’s probably one of the hardest things now to do is go away and win the RDER Cup. Yeah, doesn’t seem to be what either team can do. So interesting. So great great stories about a rider cup and then of course you get to 2014 and you get to my old stomping ground at the old course and Dunhill links championship and yeah your first win on tour after all those runnerups and yeah hard work and all those years of dedication um at the home of golf. Um who who was your partner? Who who the amateur partner? Who who did you uh play with? Didn’t know you were gonna ask me that. Um Ian, I forgot his I forgot his last name. Great guy. Um so I thought it was Tim Henley. No, no, Tim was my Tim was Tommy’s partner. Oh, gotcha. Okay. So my partner um was a great guy um from Royal Count It Down. Ian, if you’re listening. My uh my my name I will I will think of it shortly. Forgot. I always forget his last name. great guy. Um, and I played with him for three years actually after that. Um, but yeah, we we had a great time. Um, it was a weird week. Like there’s a bit of leadup to it was I was I was struggling. Um, I’d had a bad year. I lost my card in 2012. Played challenge tour in 13. I was pretty bad. That was definitely the low point in my career. 2014 was a little better, but not great. and I’d been to Kazakhstan and which is like the challenge tour major and found a little secret. I’d started working did a bit of video work with Robert Rock. Um, a lot of people know that story, but I basically played well in Kazakhstan, but I was really getting ready for Q school in in a month’s time. And um, Guy Sandon from Dunhill um, and and Yan Roupert had extended an invite to me and I genuinely wasn’t going to take it because I was playing so bad. But then I decided three rounds guaranteed at the Dunhill. It’s better than two in going to a charge store event in Spain. So I thought I’ll go go for that cuz it’ll be fun. Stayed with David Howell in an apartment. He’d won the year before. So some little good vibes rubbing off on me. And I played amazing. I played so good. Ter Green didn’t put amazing but like I was very nervous all week but just got off to a great start. Played great. Cari shot course record. So once you kind of get off to that start, you relax a little bit but I was still pretty stressed through through the week. Um and yeah, found myself with a three-shot lead going into Sunday. Um and at that point, again, genuinely like I wanted to win for sure, but I had no game. Like I was just trying to hang in there and try and get my card back. And as the day went on, the things changed. Yeah, I I played really well the front nine and missed a couple of short puts and three puttered the uh the fifth, I think. Um, so I was a couple back going the wrong way, but it was quite tough conditions and uh yeah, getting I got round to the the 10th and Rory was the group in front of me. Had a little exchange with him. Um, which I think I’d just given myself a little pep talk. I’m like, okay, well, I’m too back. Like, if I can do this, I can birdie the par five, maybe pick one else up. If I shoot under par from here on in, that should get me my card. which was the majority. That was the main goal. Okay. Um and I birded 10, birded 11. Um I made a great par at the par five and then birded 16 to take the lead. So really honest honestly like probably the last three or four holes was like when like actually you know what you don’t get a chance to win many tournaments. No, I’ve had 11 or at that time nine runners up, right? you don’t in in however many years as a pro, 10 years as a pro, that’s not a lot. So, you have to take every opportunity you get. So, I kind of dug in there and hung in there and managed to get over the line on 18. Um, it would have been nice to enjoy 17 and 18 in that arena, like walking up the old course and enjoying knowing that you were going to win because Dunhill do such a good job of that 17th because they have the party and all the all the hospitality. around the green and everyone’s watching. Um, and the, you know, it was, it was cold and windy, but it was nice. So, everybody’s out, massive crowds. Made a good up and down on 17. Um, that’s not easy. I mean, 17 is like one of the hardest holes to make par. Yeah. Well, I mean, I I got to about here on my down swing and gave it a bit of right hand action cuz there was no way it was going right. Take double out of play and I managed to lay it up just short and get it up and down. And then, yeah, on 18, this is where my head was at. Um, you know, you got obviously you’ve got the world in front of you. Yeah. Guarded by two out of bounds fences, which you can’t really hit. I hit three wood, so I didn’t hit it out of bounds. Left myself a full shot in. Um, and I I missed from 10 12 feet and Tommy had a chance to win. And I genuinely at that stage in my career, I’d never had anything go well for me in the stretch trying to win a tournament. Everybody made birdie or did something to to pip to pip me to get ahead of me. So I I said to my caddy like look he’s going to hold this let’s get onto it ready and he missed um so it was the first time something went right in that situation and uh it was incredible like instantly I couldn’t speak I was very emotional because it was literally my career had been saved so absolutely to go there in that field to play like I did to play like I did down the stretch at an all-time low gave me a lot of confidence to know what I’ve got inside me to to achieve um and kind to get to where I want to get to. Um, but it was cool. One of the other things my wife my wife was at home, my mother-in-law was over from America. Um, and she’d mentioned earlier in the week, oh, I’ll come up and like, you know, as a golfer, you know, you don’t want any bad juju going around, you know? It’s like, no, stay at home. Probably not going to win anyway. Just stay at home. I’ll see you Sunday. Well, she’d flown up with her mother-in-law, uh, with with her mother. um and watched the whole day without me knowing. Um and so when I hauled out on 18, Tommy missed, walked off, suddenly she appeared. So it was like such an amazing moment to be able to share that with her. Um that, you know, we’ve got photos of it and it’s something that I’ll always enjoy looking back on. Um but yeah, to win at St. Andrews, the home of golf is, you know, not that many people do it. And you got you got so I remember this because kind of followed your career a little bit and and also you know Dunnh Hill is special to me as well having you know being involved with it and I think it’s a great tournament what what Dunnh Hill do for I think it was great for the town and I think it’s great for for golf and the and the DP World Tour as well. I think it’s a great event. Um, and to win it is like amazing. But you got so many uh plaudits after winning from some really I mean I remember one from from Luke Donald. It was it was really gushing. It was like you know really from the heart which I thought was really nice. Yeah, it was it it meant a lot to me. Obviously the win was incredible. But then what the amount of people that got in touch after that to congratulate me and and people that maybe I didn’t know that well um maybe not some people I’d never even met that I really respected in in in the world of golf that all took the effort to get in touch and send messages. Um yeah, it meant a lot. It was um it was definitely a very special week for me with a lot of things that that made it that way. I always remember when I in the um after winning and you stand on the actual steps looking back down the first and the 18th and all the spectators are there for the speeches. Something that you don’t see on TV. Didn’t even know it really happened. Um, but you stood on top of it just looking back down the old course with your trophy in hand and you’re introduced and the the the team winners. It’s like, yeah, it’s it’s just an incredible place. And they always have the shot of the you and the trophy on the SWAN bridge as well. Yeah, it’s pretty cool. Which is uh it’s got a nice place in my house that I look back on. But yeah, it’s it’s a special place and um definitely a highlight. Does that did that kind of make up for all the near misses because it was at at St. Andrews? Then you and you kind of went, I’ve got that monkey off the back and and whatever. I’m I’m sure you would have liked to have won nine times. Yeah, I guess. I mean, that’s the funny thing is I I probably wouldn’t change my story and how things have played out. Like obviously I wanted to do better. Like I I I haven’t I don’t feel like I’ve achieved anywhere near what I should have done. Um but I don’t think I’d change it because it’s shaped me as a person and I’m, you know, I’m I’m the way I am, which I’m happy with. Not everyone might be, but I I’m happy with it. Um, so it’s it’s that stuff is going through the the turmoil of playing professional golf to hit the real lows to the highs to, you know, it’s golf is amazing for bridging that gap between teaching your life lessons on and off course and it, you know, it makes you pretty strong to deal with that kind of stuff and figure out and you you learn what you’re capable of. So I I’ve got a lot to thank golf for. Yeah. Um, and that was one of the the highlights that make it all worthwhile. Fantastic. And something that I didn’t realize is that you were on the DP World Players Committee. Is that that right? Yeah. And that’s obviously been an interesting time. Yeah. Um, you know, obviously with Liv um with the PGA Tour and and the the kind of merger between DP World and and the PGA Tour and where you sit as kind of a you know, a veteran pro. We’ve just gone through all those experiences and then you know the votes that you know you got new up and cominging players that you’ve got to think of for the future of the tour and that type of thing. What are your thoughts for the next couple of years? How do you we’re hearing press today that certainly an agreement between maybe Liv and the PGA Tour is coming closer and closer together. You know what what are your thoughts about the future for for professional golf going forward? Um, I have my thoughts of where I want it to go. Yeah. What I’d really like to know is what the guys that are making the decisions, what they think is where it needs to go. Okay. So, I’m pretty hopeful. I know they’re talking. I think everybody’s now motivated to get to an agreement and I think that will happen pretty quickly. But in terms of shaping that agreement and and the how it’s going to play out globally, I think that’s going to take some time. Um, and because of the negotiations, because of um so many parties involved, it’s like how how do they all see it? Like to me, we’ve got this opportunity to rewrite World Golf and make it easier for the players, less travel, less expensive for players to play, but try and have like one system essentially a world ranking or whatever ranking we use, but one ranking where everyone’s on it. Oh, the amateur ranking. Yeah. and you play in your territories and you can play anywhere if you’ve qualified for it, but essentially you stay in your territories until you kind of earn the right to play in these big elevated events and the world event top 50 or whatever it might be or a live team event. But it’s all the great thing that we have to protect in golf is the meritocracy of earning it. So, I love the fact that there’s no politics in, you know, I could be the worst human being in the world, but nobody can stop me becoming world number one because no one’s giving me a contract. No one’s helping me along the way or stopping me putting anything in the in my um in my way. And that has to be protected. So, I can go from turning pro as an amateur to world number one just through sheer hard work and talent. And we’re at kind of that place at the moment where it’s the live. I don’t really have an issue with live the team, you know, do whatever. If you want to go play there, great. But it’s too political. It’s team, you know, if it’s what you bring to the team. Are you bringing any sponsorship to the team? Are you bringing um just your golf, just your personality? Are you going to bring a a monetary value to that team? for you to get a space on in live. Well, that’s not golf. So, to me, you should be able to earn it. And I think they’ll come around to that and they’ll figure out how that works and how it can play a part into world golf. But essentially, yeah, I I would love to see one system where everyone just competes. And if you are at a challenge tour level and you win four times, suddenly you’re in a position to go, “Oh, I might be able to qualify here to get into the top 50 or you know that whatever that number is for the top events, what we’re deciding on which probably won’t be a full field as we know it right now.” Um, but it’s, you know, people are going to have to give and take and I don’t know, there’s a lot of egos, there’s a lot of money in place. Um, so that’s why I think that’s going to be the hard thing. But I think from a European tour DP World point of view, I think we’re in a really strong place. Good. Um, and they’ve done very well. And, you know, there’s a lot of people with different opinions, but from what I understand and the information I have, they’ve done a really good job. Um, and you might say I’m bound to say that, but I’m not just saying that. I think they have I think um they’ve navigated this whole circus quite well and we’ve come out of it or coming out of it in a strong position where whichever route we want to take we can. Um and they’ve protected the players. The deals that people think the tour have turned down is not really what the truth is. Okay. So they definitely took the best safest option with partnering with the PJ tour. Um but in terms of moving forward I think um yeah we’re in a strong position really. Well well certainly one thing I think that Liv has done is is price funds have gone up massively for you know you look at PGA tour I think I think Rory said the other day you know one thing that has come out of live he might not have supported it but they’re playing for a hell of a lot more money and winning a lot more money at the the highest level. Yeah. and and and that’s everyone’s going to have an opinion on that. I mean, they’re playing for a lot of money. Yeah, I’m jealous. I’d love to be playing for that amount of money. Um it would it would be very different. It’s it’s life-changing kind of money. Um and whether that’s right or wrong, I’m not sure. It feels like probably too much the way the world of golf is structured at the moment. Um, but I think golf is in actually in a really good position because even though it’s not smooth and everyone’s got different opinions of where it needs to go and it definitely needs a restructure. Well, people are talking about it. Yeah. And people I know viewing figures are not where they want to be or not at their highest, but I think it’s increased the amount of people that are just playing golf and interested in golf. as long as you don’t use the viewing figures as the only metric, I think it is in a a pretty good place. Um, I just hope that they can do what I want to see happen and bring world golf together so that you can always I want to be able to go and qualify for if I want to go and play live on a on a team, I want to be able to qualify for that and no one stopped me. Whereas at the moment, I can’t. Okay. I could go to Q school, don’t get me wrong. Yeah. But there’s one spot. Yeah. Um and then the way you know people lose their card on live but then they’re back on a team because like what’s that? That’s not how it should be. Yeah. Um but the you know my my issue at the moment would be guys in the US that I think they feel like they are owed money for turning down live and that’s one of the stumbling blocks cuz all this could have been taken care of a couple of years ago but the players are basically holding the tour ransom and in my opinion we are players whilst it’s a players tour we’re only on tour for a given amount of time. Well, I don’t feel like we should be paid additionally for that. It’s like business. Like if you turn down a deal and it ends up or you invest in something or you choose not to invest in something and it goes through the roof. Well, they don’t go, “Oh, well, I was going to do that. So, here’s that money.” It doesn’t work like that. You make the decision and you live with it. And there, you know, I’m sure managers are playing a part in that. There’s a lot lot of stuff to figure out. Um, but I do believe it’s going the right direction and I think like I said, I think an agreement will be in place pretty soon, but the structure of what that agreement is, I think that’s going to take some time. It’s complex. That’s a really interesting insight to because I think a lot of people don’t understand, you know, as you say, more and more people playing golf and sometimes you think that professional golf is slightly detached. It’s all about money and it’s like, well, how does that work? But I think generally people at the, you know, I was talking to to Mike Harris uh last week and you sort of he loves this, you know, this surge of grassroots golf in America that was right trendy and casual and people just loving the game of golf and then where grapes and greens are going and kind of that aspirational and like where do you want to play? You know, would you ever like to play this golf course or this club and you know behind the scenes of some of the you know the courses that you’ve played on tour and that type of thing. I think like what you touched on there like America, America do golf incredibly well. Yeah. Throughout all the levels, but the reason there is so much money in golf in America is because they do it’s more relaxed. Like it’s appealing. It’s a cool sport. It’s appealing to everyone. Yeah. The amount of people I know over there that they just play a little bit, but they love it cuz they go and jump in a golf cart, they put some music on, they have a few beers, they have a great time. Yeah. Well, that’s not something that can happen in the UK. Yeah, it’s not. And and I’m not saying, you know, there’s the purists that would argue that that’s not golf. Well, that’s fine. You don’t have to play golf like that. But we’re opening it up. And the reason there’s so much money and there’s so much amazing golf in America is because of that because it appeals to a much wider audience and then you bring the kids in and it’s fun and you it’s just it just appeals to way more people. Yeah, I totally agree. And I enjoy playing golf over there more. You know, I I obviously I play a lot of golf walking. So for me to have the opportunity to jump in a cart and if I want to, I can go play 18 holes in hour and a half. Yeah. Whiz round and I’ve played 18 holes. And for me music on at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. It’s nice. We play we we have music on all the time. Yeah. And I wouldn’t do that at Augusta. No. But when I’m practicing in a certain mode, it’s nice. And if I was taking it a bit more serious, I wouldn’t do that. And I’d walk and do it properly. But you can play golf in a various different ways. Yeah. However you want. You don’t have to do it the same way. Yeah. Sometimes you would walk, sometimes ride in a cart, sometimes you go and jump in and and play 36 holes in a day on a golf cart. Well, you can’t do that over here. And it’s and I think you still got the mirror fields and where you know you you really want to go and really involve that and and and really find that uh tradition and that sense of playing forsomes, you know, two hours playing in the morning, two hours for lunch and then two hours and all that is great, but you don’t want that at every golf course. You want to open it up so you can go and choose where you want to do it and how you want to play golf. And that’s what’s great about it. um it covers a lot of ground and they do it really well in America and I think if if other countries were able to adapt I mean in Europe you need a license to play golf like what is that all about like you just it’s just a stumbling block um we got to grow the game making it fun at all levels especially the junior level and I I certainly from my understanding when I I was very lucky to have great junior organizers now I see I don’t see as many you know great junior organizers that really enhance and have, you know, 40 or 50 juniors at clubs. Clubs have to get on board and and do that and that’s really important and I don’t see that as much. I know there’s a lot of people that do have that, a lot of clubs, but it’s something that all clubs should be pushing to try and create a great junior program for longevity of the club. Yeah, that’s I’d love to see more of that. Yeah, I totally agree. Um, so the future for Ollie, what we, you know, we we’ve got together over true footwear. Um, tell us a little bit more about that. Yeah, so um I’m a partner with True Links Wear. Um, I started wearing their shoes seven seven years ago. I was having foot problems. Um, couldn’t wait to take my shoes off on the golf course. Started investigating through partly through my swing, trying to get my swing better, understand ground forces, how feet work. off course I went with a more minimalist uh more minimalist shoe and then I experienced the benefit of that and what that gave me from an athletic point of view and training and I was like well why do we not have this in golf I found true wore the shoes and was blown away by like the difference and seven years later well or five years we’ve been going a couple years now I was an opportunity to bring it over to the UK, right? And I just feel so strongly about the shoes and understanding once you understand and know how a foot should work, what the shoe should do and allow you to do and you’ve got a there’s a health perspective from walking and there’s a performance perspective from golf. And there’s no other golf shoe on the market that does it that merges the two together like Trudo. And that’s the only reason I’m involved because, you know, I had no interest in getting involved in the shoe company. You know, I would play golf, do other stuff. When golf finishes, I would, you know, who knows what I do, teach or something, keep playing. That’s a great thing about golf. You can continue to play. But I feel so strongly about everybody should be wearing a true shoe, okay? For the health, forget performance. From a health perspective, you’re walking many miles a week, depending on how much you play. And every time you wear a shoe that doesn’t allow your foot to work correctly, it’s it’s affecting you negatively. And this reason so many people have plantto fasciitis or bunions or ankle, knee, hip, back problems. And a lot of it can be traced back to your shoes because it doesn’t allow the foot to work. When your when your foot works properly as you press your toes should spllay and most shoes don’t allow that to happen. Okay? and true do and fortunately got great apparel to go with the shoes. So it’s a company that I um I’m very passionate about. Um so I partnered with them to bring it over to the UK and um that’s something that I’m very much enjoying alongside playing and spreading the word and trying to grow the the brand over here. They’re very successful in America and Australia and and globally now and UK’s a market that I’m trying to help and grow with too. We’re delighted to have him on board as you know from grapes and greens perspective and you know throughout our auditions. We’ll be running competitions and really spreading the word of of True because um it fits our aspiration. You know, I think it fits perfectly into the segment that we’re we’re looking at and I think you’ve got good shoes and you got good wine place goes well. Sounds like a combination. Been a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Cheers. Thank you very much for watching another episode of Grapes and Greens. If you’d like to watch further editions, please click here. If you’d like to subscribe, please click here. Thank you.
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