June 7, 2020 • 48 mins
We are talking to PGA superstar Paul Azinger about what he's been doing during the COVID-19 quarantine and get his thoughts on the PGA Tour returning later this month. He gives us some awesome stories that are truly unbelievable about his years on the PGA Tour. We are Playing Through...this time with Paul Azinger.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another edition of the Playing Through Podcasts. You know,
it's kind of crazy. We're all still stuck in our
houses here and we are in three different parts of
Florida as we do this podcast. We're on Instagram at
Playing Through Podcast. You can get us. Yes, Whacker is
in Miami. He's a Canes fan. We're gonna forgive him
for that. I'm a Gator fan. And our host, paul
(00:21):
A Singer is a Florida State graduated, so we have
got the state of Florida covered. I didn't graduate, but
I appreciate that. I gonna know at least you went there.
That's more than you've got on me going to Florida.
So and I think your wife went to Florida State. Correct, Yeah,
I did. I met my wife there actually, and we
love Kyle Hashie. I don't go back there very often.
I don't go to games very often. Quite honestly, going
(00:43):
to a game in Gamesville actually is quite intense and
actually quite a bit better. I love going there and
watch football in Gamesville, even though I don't pull for
the Gators. It is rough. You can get us on
Instagram once again at Playing Through Podcast at Brian Whacker
one and at Froggy Radio. So Azinger Zinger, Paul Azinger,
(01:04):
thank you so much forgiving us your time. And uh so,
what have you been doing quarantine other than just staying home? Yeah,
I think I figured out I know how to clean
a little bit finally. I mean I started cleaning around
the house and cleaning the garage up a little bit
and found some things I didn't know over there that
need to get tossed. But we're pretty lucky here in Florida. Um.
Brian and I talked about this before. I mean, he
(01:25):
lives in the apartment complex. When I opened my front door,
I'm not in a hallway. And you know, it's been
really pretty easy for us in Florida for the most part.
I think the Santa is really focused on the nursing
homes and trying to keep them safe as much as anything.
And he kept the golf open, which has been a
real blessing for most of us that love golf. We've
been able to stay outside and do that. The boat
(01:47):
ramps got closed, that was tough, but I have a
boat on the lift, so I got lucky there too.
And all in all, it hasn't been too bad. But
I sure do feel for the focus that have suffered
through this thing, and hopefully it can come to an end.
You know, at this point in the bottom line, as
we quarantine healthy people, that's hard to do as all
of us at risk and I'm at risk. Let's facing
(02:09):
on sixty. I had an issue before with cancer, so
imagine my immune system was compromised at some point. But
I'm not gonna stop. I want to go do an
event as soon as possible. And you know, you just
gotta mind your German take if you're one of those
people at risk, I think, and let's just try to
get on with it. Yeah, we were all there. I
was there as a fan and watching on the Whacker
(02:30):
was working, and you were working as well at TPC
saw Grass, and I was very surprised on that Thursday
when when they did have round one and then there
was the beginning of we weren't gonna have fans for
round two. And then that night Thursday evening, I believe
Whacker was one of the first people to break it
on Twitter that we were canceling the Players Championship and
(02:51):
our world changed drastically from Thursday to Sunday. Things really
took a just a strange turn of events. Yeah, when
that weird. I'll never forget that as long as I live.
I don't, thank god, my kids will ever forget it.
And you know, the whole golf crowd really was really
we were ramped up and ready to go for the players.
(03:12):
It looks spectacular and what an effort was was put
in all the events really with the amount of infrastructure
that they have to build in the players championship, people
there from all over the world, and I think me
and the more you look at it, you start to
realize sports was what shut down the whole world, really
the globe, because you couldn't really play sports if it
(03:32):
was this contagious, if you could be asymptomatic and spread
this virus unknowingly or unwinningly, And it just scared us
all to death. I remember telling one of the young
girls in the compound, I think, I said, I think
our life is about to get interrupted in a major way.
Um so, just you know, get ready. I didn't realize
it was gonna be like this, but you knew something
(03:53):
terrible what's going to happen here? And it has happened
a lot of loss of life, economically good us uh
so sports wise, it looks like golf is going to
try to take a swing at being the first sport back,
and you know, it'll be good for the general public.
I think, to get a little sniff of normalcy if
if playing the Skins game before those players as normal.
(04:15):
So we'll see how it plays out. Rich Learner is
going to be there because Dan Hicks isn't allowed to
cross state lines and come to Florida to do this
event that we're gonna end up doing in Jupiter. Um.
But all in all, golf is gonna start back up again.
But the moment it closed down at the players was
it was a shock to the system. And I kept
looking at my wife and saying, is this real? Is
this really happening? And suddenly every one of us was
(04:38):
looking like, well, are we two weeks from our mortality?
We didn't. Nobody knows that. We still don't know, so
we still don't know. I just don't think I want
to live like that. I wanna just mind my Germany
and take and see, you know, we can just move
onf Yeah, probably mentioned that obviously they'll start back up
sort of slowly with these um of course, got the
(04:59):
tailor made event friending program of ours worse with h
Rory and Ricky and uh and Dustin and Matt Wolfe,
and then of course the big match with Tiger and
Phil and Brady and Manning involved as well week after that,
and then of course we get the tour which their
plans are to start June eleven at Colonial. What's I'm
(05:22):
curious to hear your take on that from the standpoint
of um, A, do you think they'll still be able
to do that given um we've heard the commissioner talk about,
you know, there has to be widespread testing. We haven't
seen that just yet. And secondly, do you think, um,
it's a good idea to start off in June, in
mid June at at Colonial without fans. Well, I think
(05:44):
it's a great idea to actually, um, try to start
at some point in time. I mean, we're better off
starting too early than starting too late, because if you
start too late, come not in the economy we start
in the New Commy too, it's too late. So you've
got a risk starting too early. And whether it happens
(06:05):
or not, I believe it's going to depend on the
situation in the region that the tour is going to
go to first in Fort Worth, Texas. If if that
COVID is rising, I doubt they'll play the idea of
playing without fans O'Brien, I think it's ben't bother me.
It's kind of cool really. Um, maybe they'll play without
caddies a week or two, we'll find out who who
the slow players really are there. Uh, they'll all be identified.
(06:27):
I think they should all go out by themselves, no caddy,
and then we'll find out who the players are, let
them take their caddy, even find out who the slow
guys are in that. But all in all, I mean
if it's not if there's no fans, it's still pressured
to It was pressured to win a college event, so
they no fans in college. Hopefully it'll happen. I'm rooting
for the tour to to be able to start in June.
(06:49):
I think it's a little optimistic, but I'm pulling for
that to happen. You gonna have a lot of things happen.
A lot of the players are gonna want to have
to take the chance. Someon won't be able to travel globally,
just like and Hank can't come to Florida. I called
him today and teased him that he was banned from
Florida for a while. But yeah, hopefully, hopefully everybody will
(07:10):
be able to come to the colonial that wants to come.
That's another thing that's consider now, Paul, you have fan
these these TV matches. You've got the you know, the
Tom Brady Peyton Manning with Phil and Tiger, and then
you've got the Tailor Made Match where they are. You know,
there's a lot of charity money being driven, which is great.
And the Tailor Made Match with Rory and DJ versus
(07:31):
Ricky and Matt Wolf. Are you a fan of these?
And from what I understand, they're gonna play without caddies
at least Rory and DJ are there. They're they're supposedly
gonna tope their own bags. Or are you a fan
of these? I think it's a great way to start.
You know, you gotta start somewhere. And I think every sport,
really you guys know this baseball or football or basketball, hockey,
(07:54):
they all if they want to raise money for charity,
they have the golf tournament. Well, golfers have golf tournaments
to to raise money for charity. And uh, you know,
you hear all the time about good conditions and how
bad they are. And then then the average guy would say, well, gosh,
I go play on an airport runway if they go
to hole in it for that kind of money, or
I go play in the ditch. Well, these guys would
go anywhere to try to raise money for this cost.
(08:15):
But fortunately for them, they landed its seminal, which is
no ditch as we know, it is revered and respected.
Actually just a spectacular place. Uh you know, I heard
also today it's quite possible that uh that Palm Beach
County is only going to give them a twenty minute
long time that's been allowed for public courses. Um, symonel
(08:36):
is not a public place, but it's still gonna have
to go by the same guidelines. Twenty minute warm up
and then off they go for this made for TV event.
I wonder at what point they'll get nervous and realize,
oh my gosh, there could be a lot of people
watching this. At some point it will get them sometimes.
You know, it's not often you play golf when you
realize that this was really made for TV. The first
(08:58):
time that hit me was in the PGA Championship and
I was leading the tournament and It was the third round,
last group on Saturday, and they went to introduce me
and they counted down to the cameraman ten nine eight
and it went down to about three and he goes, oh,
oh wait, wait wait, they're doing one more commercial. And
I'm on the first t last group, leading the p
(09:19):
g A and it hit me that we had to
wait another thirty seconds or a minute. This was a
this is made for TV. We're entertainers here in some respect,
And it actually took a little pressure off me because
I don't put me in kind of a show off mode.
Even though I didn't win. This is this is badass.
I'm gonna get playing. Let's get after this. When it
really struck me was it's going to hit these guys eventually,
(09:42):
that camera staring in their face. I don't think Matt
Wills used to it, but the other three are pretty
used to. It would be cool. Are you a fan
of playing about fans, because that's been the talk. The
talk is we would possibly have a Ryder Cup and
not have fans. Isn't that what a Ryder Cup is?
Oh yeah, it won't happen without fans. I don't even
know if the network wants to do that without fans. Remember,
(10:04):
I mean, I just heard Padreck say that we might
have to take one for the team and go with
no fans, And I'm like, all right, sure, Padrick, I'm
sure you'd love to go to Europe and play with
no Europeans fans over there. There's no way that the
U S team is going to play with no fans.
I just feel like that we delayed it at nine eleven,
we should delay it again, get it back on the
odd number years. And with the Ryder Cup in the
(10:26):
the President's Cup flip flop, that just I haven't talked
to anybody. I haven't talked to Seth law Uh with
a commissioner about it, but it just seems to make
the most sense. Ryder Cup and no fans. It defeats
the purpose. Well, we're gonna we're gonna get to some
Rider Cup questions, but um, I kind of wanted to
start at the beginning of your career, Paul, And um
(10:48):
you know a lot of people see the tour today,
the glamour, the glitz, private jets, all of that. I mean,
we've even seeing college programs where they're where they're flying
privately and and when you first started. You started in
an RV in the early eighties, driving around the country.
I mean, what was that like, Uh, compared to what
(11:10):
today's tours like. It's easier to get started if you
get there. It's harder to get to the tour now,
I think than it ever has been. There's so many
players trying to make it on tour. Now you can
get your web card. You have to get your web
card first. It's just harder to get on tour. But
if you do make it, you generally have sponsors lined
(11:30):
up and you're pretty flushed and you can fly probably
first class or coach, depending on the size of your
travel crew, family, what have you. But well we did it. Now.
I had nine guys give me three thousand dollars a piece,
and I got my parents like nineteen seventy nine Cadillac
or something. It was about football field long and me
(11:50):
and my buddy from my golf team in high school,
Tom Jannis. He ended up caddying for a bunch of
good players. He won with Curtis Strain. You want with
a munch players. But Tom James and I drove all
the way out to Phoenix. It took us three days
at snow Go. When we were in Houston. My credit
card ran out of money. When I got to UH,
I didn't make it the Phoenix before my credit card
(12:12):
it ran out of money. I think the limit on
the credit card was fifty bucks or a hundred bucks.
At the time, I don't know what my parents were thinking,
and it was just different. After a few months, my
wife finished college and graduated and we traded that car
and and got a twenty four ft mini motor home
where you drive like a truck and you sleep over top.
(12:32):
It was awesome. I mean, we saw the whole United States,
and it was really a great time. I remember going
through a toll booth one time where the motor home
didn't fit. You know, we weren't supposed to be in
that booth, and my wife, she she drove it. She
ripped hole on and off the side of the thing.
Another time in New Jersey somewhere I got on an
interstate someone that where no no motor homes allowed, and
(12:53):
I literally had to go backwards down the interstate to
get out of there because the thing wouldn't fit through
the toll. We had all times of eight stories. We
had a cat. We had a cat in the motor home.
I remember the mini tours, the Mini tours in Orlando.
I would cook, you know, fish I'd catch out of
the lakes. No wonder I got cancer in my shoulder
when I started to reculy catch fish in the lakes
(13:15):
and could me and Black Marred be eating them with
the wife. It was just a great time back now.
Many tours were really good back then because the money
was good. You could win a three day event and
win six thousand bucks in three a two day event
was fifty for a two day event. The j C.
Goosey Mini Tour. J C. Ucy played the tour a
(13:37):
long time ago and it was a good player. But yeah,
the money was big now. I mean many tour events
a thousand dollars for first place. It's ridiculous. It's terrible
feel for those guys. So yeah, the Mini tour, the
motor home life was great. And then once we got
out of that, you know, Brian started making a little
money and kept my card and gotten the majors. You know,
(13:57):
I had my I saw one of your questions to
it was gonna be about nine eight seven British shown.
I had to crack a winning and obviously and let
that thing slip through my fingertips. And that was still
motor home days. But once I started playing like that,
it was time to get out of the motor home.
Uh So, how do you look back at that eight
(14:17):
seven Open now? Um? You know, you certainly had a
different viewpoint of it, uh, in the in the aftermath,
and and probably I was actually right at the beginning
of a really great run for you when you you
want to think eleven times from eighty seven and ninety three. Um,
you know, but two bogies on the last of holes,
and of course you win the p GA ninety three,
(14:38):
so you do get a major. Um, how do you
view that now, I guess compared to you know, thirty
years ago. Well, I was heartbroken. I mean I cried
after that that it really crushed me. And you know,
you recover from it or you never recovered from it,
either learned from it or never recover from it. And
I tried to learn from it. And I now that
(14:59):
I look back, you know, I been forced to call
the Open Championship with ESPN and ABC for all these years,
and I sat my foul doing it for a while.
And he's the one that I kind of gave it
to very much. He was in the right spot, so
that was hard for me. But you know, I think
we've grown people. We swallow your pride. I love hearing
these guys nowadays when the pressure gets amped up, and uh,
(15:23):
it's like a race to see who can pretend to
be the most comfortable or have it mean the least.
At the end of the day, I still got this
and that let me tell you something. Thirty years later,
I still think about the British Open. So you may
have your safe room and you may uh, you know,
at the end of the day still have your money
and your riches and all that stuff. But I can
tell you what a player is invested with his heart,
(15:46):
soul and mind in these golf tournaments and and in
this this game. And when you lose, you may be
okay at the end of the day, but it hurts, buddy,
and it's lacks And that's part of the thrill of sport,
you know, in the agony of defeat, hadn't it but
the agonea defeats real. I've had thrilling moments that have
off set that British Open. But if that was the
(16:07):
last thing it had ever happened to me. Oh, you know,
a lot of guys are a lot of people watching
on television don't realize how difficult it is, the pressure
that they are under. There's a huge difference in a
guy standing on the first tea box on on Thursday
than there is a guy that's standing with the lead
to hit an approach into the seventy second hole on Sunday.
(16:30):
Do you have you seen guys, whether it be when
you're playing or now that you're been doing commentating for
so many years, have you seen guys that do they
things change? They changed their either they changed their pre
shot routine or and I hate to use the word,
but have you seen guys choke? Have you seen just
things change? And you know from being in that position before,
(16:54):
what it feels like to not do what you normally do. Yeah,
you've seen guys changed. I've changed personally, you know, sometimes
it's a simple talking to me. Is in your mind?
Uh not generally in your fingertips, you know, or in
your hands. I don't think good players at this point
in your life, I don't believe their hands shake. But
they didn't get to this point. You might you might
(17:15):
get in a situation you get this adrenaline boost and
all of a sudden you realize your hands are in
a quiver. But uh yeah, I mean you just you're
so prepared to do this, but at the same time,
you know, the pressure and the significance of what you're
trying to accomplish can overwhelm you, I'm sure, and you
go through exercises and techniques. These guys all have techniques
(17:37):
how to control their heart rate and slow down their breathing.
You know, this stuff has been around a while. These
Germans were the first really to get into it. Progressive
relaxation is something these guys get into but don't talk
about much. And I don't know if you've seen it
or not, but you know the stuff that Rory's doing,
these these planks where his elbows to push up, elbow
to push up, and all that stuff. It is making
(17:57):
these guys fit to where they think it's gonna make
them better. You know, I don't know how that makes
you make a five footer, but if you think being
that fit makes you better, then it does make you better,
and it helps prevent you from choking. You know. The
way to prevent all that choking thing is to be
fully prepared to talk yourself through it. It's kind of
like choking to go to the dentist a little bit.
(18:18):
I mean, I hate the dentist, but I've gotten to
wear mentally. I can get in there and literally just
play golf in my head or get to go to
another place. Of course, I always tell the dentist no
matter what you see in there, just say, oh, this
will be a piece of cake. So once he's like
that said, it's a mind trick. And um, I don't
think choking is physical. Sometimes, Like I remember a couple
(18:38):
of times having a chance to win the players and
on Sunday I couldn't see the line. I couldn't make
a pot. I lost my feel. You know, like if
you were lawn bowling, you that a nice heavy ball
and you could roll a fifty footer and roll it
along the hills and all that. It seems like it
would be pretty much a challenge to roll that. They're
really close, but you have to stick and apparatus to
to that equation of lag and speed and then some
(18:59):
pressure and it does change. And sometimes I think when
I lost the line that I was choking because I
was hard on myself when I missed Putts, and I
always felt I was choking when I missed Puts. That's
just how I felt. You would never say it or
admit it because you don't want anyone, you know, you
don't want any want to hear you ever think that
about yourself. But it's in there they're thinking. You mean,
(19:19):
they're all lying about how they feel generally. I mean,
they'll tell the truth about what's really going on. They
battle what's going on there in the mental battle. And
until you get to be about my age probably six,
do you start fessing up what this was all about?
Is there any truth to getting over the hump like
that first win, once you experience and you learn how
to win that first time? And then that had been
(19:42):
said about Tiger after he had gone through the long
time of not winning, and then it was if he
could just win that one time again, and then he won,
you know, in Atlanta at the Tour Championship, and then
he was able to get that major at at the
Master's in Augusta. Is there truth to once you get
that one? It's he's you to do it again because
you know how to do it and you know what
it feels like. Yeah, there's no doubt about that, you know,
(20:06):
and what it ends up coming down to his self
belief and confidence. And you know, Tiger for he didn't
really have to get over a hump. He had to
just kind of, you know, see if he could just
do it again. I didn't know for sure if he
could do it again. I'm one of those guys that
never poop poop Tiger's chances. I felt that he replaced
his knee, he could still do it. But you know,
(20:29):
he he surprises us all the time. But for a
rookie or somebody like him, let sat Matt Wolf. He's
in the Skins game. He's a tremendous player. He already
came right out of the gate and one, and you know,
is he going to be is he's being compared to
calling Moore Kala, being compared to the victor Hobland, And
(20:50):
you know he's getting over the hump winning your second time,
proving that the first one was in a flute, because
that's what I went through. I remember winning once and
was it a flute? Not going well? I thought I
got over the hump by won, But you gotta do
it twice to prove that, you you know, so you're
really you know, it's way you can get over the
hump in your own mind and then just let everybody
think what they want about you. But self belief. Those
(21:13):
guys get self belief and they're making go off the chart.
You mentioned, Um, you know, pressure in the mental end
of it, and there's probably no greater pressure cooker really
engulfed in the Ryder Cup, and you've been a part
of a few of those, both as a player and
a captain. Obviously, what were those I guess I would
ask you how would you describe particularly you go back
(21:36):
to eight nine, and obviously everyone knows backstory. There's a
lot of tension. There, a lot of rivalry between you
and Sevey, the Europeans and the Americans. It tied in
eighty nine. You guys win at Kio ninety one in
the war by the shore with the tremendous uh, you know,
(21:57):
pressure on longer and and everybody else. So see it
with that, Um, how do you how do you view
those Ryder Cups now? Looking back? Um, you know again
thirt you know, thirty years later, I'm a lot more
mellow about it, the competitive nature. But you know, I
was backing about eighties seven, eighty five and then eighties seven.
(22:19):
I would have made the team in eighty seven, but
I had not attended the sleater folding class or whatever
it was that the PJA of America required at the time,
so I missed the eight seventeam. But it was eight
seven that the Ryder Cup became something that I really
cared about, knowing not really not knowing much about it,
to be honest, but watching Jose celebrate on on a
(22:41):
team at dance, first I thinking, man, I wish I
could move like that, And then I said, he's rubbing
her notice And there was a bunch of us that
didn't understand what the Ryder Cup meant to them. And
it was like me and Calk and Freddie and Ken
Green and John Cook and guys like chipped back and
we all took it personally. And then we were the
guys that got kind of on this next Ryder Cup
(23:02):
team at Kilwa Steve Pay, Corey Paven, we took that
whole thing personal, and that patriotism really kicked in. Well,
they already had, you know, the Ryder Cups in their blood.
You know, it's in our head we want to win it,
but it's in their blood. But believe me, you know
that you've been there, Brian, and you know what the
energy is like. It's something to behold over there, especially
in Europe, and then they elevate to try to beat
the jogger Americans. Um so, but it is it's a
(23:26):
great event. It is a pressure cooker and but you know,
once you get through a Ryder Cup, I always felt
like Ryder Cups came before majors for guys. Um. You know,
it's hard to say that about Australians and South Africans,
but for most players that will play a Ryder Cup
before they win a major championship, it very rarely goes
the other way, but it does on occasion. It's something
(23:48):
to notice, but it's it's awesome. We had Raymond Floyd.
He put a lot of pressure on us. Um. He
introduced us as the twelve best players in the world,
and then he just looked at every one of us
and we stood up for a second. It was I
was first, I think Hazinger back in Calcabecia, and we
stood up and they were kind of booing in this
(24:10):
big gale of dinner that he had introduced us as
the twelve best players in the world. He'd taken that
line from Hogan, I think from years earlier in the
Ryder Cup when he just after the European captain had
introduced all his players, he just said, ladies and gentlemen,
the twelve best players in the world, and he stood
up and sat. Now, Raymond used it and it wasn't
quite as true. So Tony Jacklin's response was, well, I
(24:33):
guess that makes Sevy number thirteen. And it was on then, buddy,
and we had a hell of match and it came
down to the wire and somehow we ended up tying,
which was a loss for us because they retained the Cup.
But by the time ninety one rolled around, we were
ready for action and we took it personal and it
got ugly at times, and it was awesome now that
(24:54):
I looked back, but at the time, you know, if
I look at myself then and now, it's like a
completely different person. M hmm. Yeah. And then you you know,
of course, you go to two thousand eight, speaking of
the twelve best players in the world, you're the captain. Uh,
Europe had won five of the last six I think
Ryder Cups. Um, you know, you come in there there's
(25:15):
a lot of expectation. Uh there's about the pod system
ends up working out. You have an unbelievable team. Of course, Um,
you know Anthony Kim part of that, part of that team,
which we'll get to. But what was it like, I
guess being captain in that position and and you know,
(25:36):
basically having to win. Yeah, it was a weird you know,
I mean it was a pressure pack time. I mean
it was weird for me because I was actually promised
to be the captain in OH six when it should
have been Paining, but it ended up being Tom Lane.
And I didn't want to do it overseas. I wanted
to do it in America, and so I waited and
then so I figured I get it in no all,
(25:57):
I end up having the lobby for it. But I
had a concept that I lobbied with. I didn't just lobby, Hey,
I'm alwaysinger. I played good at the Ryder Cup and
one the p G a I should be the captain.
I lobbied with a concept um and the guy was
Roger Warren, was the president PGA, a former basketball coach,
and I lobbied with this Navy Seals concept of team building.
(26:18):
When you take that large group and break them into
small groups. And I wanted to take twelve and break
them into three groups of four and then sell them
out within their groups and get them to sold out
for each other in the whole nine yards. He loved it.
So being a basketball coach, he knew what that was
all about. Team building was my whole goal. And I
took this outside a box approach. But if you can sit,
you think about what our players go through a Ryder Cup,
(26:40):
in the thrashings that they've taken, they've gotten to where
they dread the Ryder Cup. Bryan, and I was in
a position as a captain to have to deal with
Tiger and Phil. Tiger didn't get on our team because
of his knee blew his leg out or whatever's broken
bone there. But um, you know I had to deal
with with guys like Nicholson and fear of guys who
got handed to him over and over, you know, and
(27:00):
you know what this whole this concept of the team building,
um really got him intrigued and engaged and it changed
the way they felt about this Ryder Cup and our
Ryder Cup was was these guys were in their small groups,
not based on light games or anything to do with
golf based on business principles that that it are used
in corporate America. The Myers Bridge we used Myers Bridge
(27:22):
caution like green Light red light personality types. We tried
to find all the green light personality types based on
four personality types. And it was just worked. We got
green Lights together and I just let them do their
thing and pretty what much stayed out of the way
and they bonded in their small groups. They sold out
for each other. Actually had nine players I had. I
(27:44):
picked stricter. I got four picks instead of two. I
wanted four picks, and I picked stricter, which gave me
nine or three three man teams, and I players three
three man teams. I ended up calling every player on
each little pod. I remember calling Michelston, Justin Leonard, and
Anthony Kim saying, Hey, you three guys are a pod,
but I'm gonna give you a chance to pick one
(28:04):
more player to fill out your group. I got six
names that didn't make the team. I see it our
green light personalities for your pod. You three guys get
together and decide which one of those six you want.
If you choose outside the six names, I give you.
I'll explain to you why you were wrong, and so
they all called each other in. About an hour later,
Michelson called me and so we want Hunter Magian. I said,
(28:26):
I'll give you Hunter Magian. So I called Hunter and
then sold him on the whole process. These guys would
have run for through a wall for each other. This
is the most bonded Rider Cup team ever by far.
And that's how he did it. And they just went
out and performed their asses off because nobody wanted to
let anybody else down and fear it came out with
(28:46):
my favorite line of the whole thing, he says, the
first Rider Cup I ever went to where he said
it was the first time that I wasn't so obsessed
with my game, but how I could make the players
around me better. And I was like, wow, how good
is that? What do you think of when you look
at at today's Ryder Cup from the standpoint of you
know it was it was a much different environment back
(29:09):
in eight and ninety one Europeans lived in Europe. There's
much more of there's less of a camaraderie between guys now,
a lot of a lot of international guys Americans all
live in Florida. Um, they know each other. They most
of them play the PGA Tour. Do you think it's
different now than it was? Even even go back to
(29:32):
Oha it was? It is it different than than than
Oa in terms of that dynamic. I think social media
changed it. You know, we we didn't congratulate each other
to the whole world. You know. I mean if I
sometimes I didn't like a guy, I wasn't even that
interested in saying congratulations. I mean, this is so different.
(29:54):
It's so different. Back man, you get jealous of a
guy that was beating your brains out. Now they congratulate
each other. So it is a different dynamic. I think
it's much more difficult to be a good player today.
I really feel for a guy like Roy McElroy. If
he lets the tournament get away and he deals in
social media, then all the you know, anybody with two
(30:15):
thumbs can take a shot at you. And imagine what
Poulter must here and go through. When Dustin Johnson lost
the US Open, you know, all the people that called
him a choker, probably none of them texting congratulations. When
the very next year he came back in one the
US of which I think was one of the greatest
wins in all the sports that's never even considered as such.
(30:38):
Imagine losing the US Open the way he lost it,
and then coming back and win in the next year
at Omont. And a great story I heard about that
was his his brother Austin went in there early to
go check out Oakmont and he looked at the whole course.
I don't know if he played it or just walked
her or whateverybody walked into the pro shop he wanted.
Somebody in the pro shop asked him if he needed
(30:58):
something like another yardage book or greens book or whatever.
He goes. Now, you know what he says, I'm not
gonna worry about it. Deston's got no chance here anyway,
so I'll just get it when I get here. You
have winning the golf tournament. So it's a funny story
around oak and the way he won. Would would the
penalty that they told him to you know, they talked
to him in the middle of the the play out. I mean,
(31:19):
everything about that was really truly unbelievable. Yeah, it was.
That was. That was a dramatic time. That was my
first year with Fox actually, I think, and uh boy,
that was It was a real eye opener that you know,
that type of a snaffoo and this type of in
this time when he has a ruling like that, and
then with the social media crying out and we were
(31:43):
seeing it while we were in the booth and realizing
that the players didn't know that there might be a penalty,
would they played differently, and that the whole thing got
so complicated. But I felt like as a network, for
a first time effort for us, they were at Chambers
May of the year before, but for a first time
effort for Fox, we were all over that and we
couldn't you know, pussy foot around that or you know,
(32:05):
kind of necessarily um count out to the U s J.
In that situation, we had to be canned and we
had to be reporters where we've gotten shredded. So we
just thought thought journalistically we handled that pretty well. You know.
Before I get to I want to ask you a
couple of questions about Tiger Woods. Are you a fan
of fans being able to call penalties in and saying hey,
(32:27):
I saw this or I saw that. Are you are
you okay with that? Or do you think that's because
we don't do that in any other sport. That's complicated
in golf though, because they call penalties on themselves. So yeah,
I would say if there's an infraction, it should be
brought to the attention of the ruling bodies before the
conclusion of the event. After the conclusion, that's it. But
if you do something on Thursday that you you know
(32:48):
it was a mistake. Usually I meant nine percent of
the time it's totally unintentional. But if you did it
on a Thursday, I always felt like it was fair
to get qut on Sunday for something you did on Thursday.
I just thought, Wow, you don't want to have everybody
know that you made a mistake and then you you
got you know, you've got the benefit of the doubter,
(33:09):
or you should be two shots higher. But because you
already signed a card. Now I believe they change the rules.
I think I don't want to speak to exactly what
they are, but I just feel like now you can
make a mistakes, certain mistakes, you know, just change your
score cards for you. So it's different. It's a lot easier. Right.
Speaking of Tiger, and I know that you've played with
Tiger and you've seen a lot of Tiger Woods, and
(33:30):
and I'm sure you've been asked a hundred times what's
your favorite Tiger Woods story? And I'm sure you've got
a hundred What's the most impressive thing about Tiger Woods
to you? Because as a fan, I mean, I mean,
there's a lot of things about him that impressed me,
But as somebody who's played the game and been in
the situations and and probably stood next to him on
the same tea box at the same putting green and
(33:51):
seen some shots that you're like, well, how the how
the hell did you pull that off? Like, what's the
most impressive thing about him to you? I've seen all
of I mean so many shots. The way he hits
a long irons, like you've never seen anybody do that
before or since. And there's been some guys that can
hit some nice long irons. Jack hit great long irons.
Uh Wise Cough could hit great long irons. Greg Norman
(34:16):
had beautiful long irons, but nothing like what Tiger could do,
and he could do it out of a fairway bunker.
But I think over all of the thing about Tiger
that I just don't know that anyone of us could
have ever imagined was sustainability. That the repeatability that he
could win once and not have a letdown, and then
win again the next week and not have a letdown,
(34:36):
you know, or take two weeks off and then come
back out and win again and not have a letdown.
You know. It's a mountaintop experience to win a golf tournament,
and he just got so used to it. Um. But
another thing too about this guy, the fact that he
had that repeatability, that sustainability goes down to his ball striking,
his butter and the way he hit his short irons.
(34:58):
He drove it nice. You know, they act like you
drove it a while, but he didn't. He drove the clutch.
But but if you listen to him, had short irons,
short clubs, that's the scoring club. That's where you butter
your bread at short club and on the greens, and
that's where Tiger Woods did all his damage. If you
consider think about always great memories, they aren't off the tee.
(35:21):
All his dramatic moments are on and around the greens.
And or he hit his whole out wedges or something
like he did at Pebble Beach. And I remember hitting
balls next him one time at Merefield Village. I was
within my caddy. I wasn't swinging great or anything, and
he was only a few years old he won the masters.
I think it was a couple of years after one
of the Masters, and I want you know, we got
(35:41):
down where we could hit into the wind, and we're
both hitting nine irons, and I mean, I just was
hearing something over there I've never heard before. And when
I watched the ball leave, it looked like it looked
like the ball was attached to a string and it
um end up at the end it was a kite.
And once he got up to the top, you know
how you get that soft kind of line that goes
on the on the kite line, That's what his flight
(36:03):
looked like. And it came down like a butterfly with
sore feet. And I just knew I couldn't do that.
And I looked at my caddy and I said, I
gotta tell you truth, this is hurting my confidence. We
need to get out of here. And we scooped up
all my stuff and moved on because I didn't want
to hear any more of that. That he was on
another level. That's unbelievable. It wasn't It took a minute
(36:24):
to impress me. Now, I promise you that exactly show me,
and he didn't, but you knew that was something different.
We've got a quick thing we do here. It's called
a quick nine. If we let you go, let's get
a quick nine holes in real quick. So we'll ask
you nine quick easy questions, and I'm gonna wha whacker
you go first. Here we go one last round. Where
(36:46):
are you playing? Of course? Oh gosh, last round of
my life. I'm gonna play a golf course built nineteen
twenty six. It's in my hometown at Gradening Country Club,
built by Donald Ross. Comes you get a chance, come
see it if you had a chance. Number two, What
three players complete Paul Easinger's ultimate forsom? Well, if I'm
(37:10):
gonna go with the greatest players that I never saw,
I would love to see Bobby Jones, I would love
to see Hogan, and I would love to see what
Bayern Nelson did. I've got a good dose of what
Travino could do, and wise cough and I saw Speed
hit balls, more Norman hit balls, the Golden Bear and
right up next to Tiger. But give me those three,
(37:31):
I'd like to see what they had, all right, Your
life is on the line. You who you picking to
win this matchup? Rory or Brooks. H I gotta go
to Rory. I'm gonna take talent over just full up guts.
I've never seen anything quite like Rory McElroy either, you
(37:52):
know now, not sense Tiger. Um. It was really for me.
For us, we caught Watson in the eighties and we started.
Then we we caught after Wasston Norman and that was
pretty nice. That was a sight to behold. And then
you know, maybe some Foaldo and Nick Price mixed in there.
But when Tiger showed up, I was like, oh, well,
Roy's like that to me. I stand there and watched Roy.
(38:13):
That's why I'm hard on him when he when he
doesn't win, because I just don't know how he doesn't win.
Uh So, I just think Roy's gonna beat him and
he'll you know, my man went to Florida State to
Brooks went to Florida State Hill trashing for that. But
I just think Roy's outstanding. All right, fourth hole, You're
stuck on a deserted island and you got one PGA
(38:36):
tour player to play with. Who is it. I'm gonna
play with Stadler because he's gonna throw a club on
the first hole if he didn't like it, and he's
never gonna blame anybody but himself. That's I love playing
with that guy. You watched every shot I'm playing with standard.
All right, here we go. We we saw recently we
heard his story of course Brooks telling a story about
(38:58):
how he trashed talked to Michael Jorge and when the
two were playing golf together, sewere comes back of course,
wins the last two goals to win the match. We
all know trash talk golfers are not good trash talkers,
But who's the who's the better? Were the best trash talker?
Tiger or the field? Is there? The field? The field? Now,
(39:21):
Tigers got goats status, so he can. He can, But
there's so many guys out there that can trash talk.
You have no idea. I remember O pardon b J
saying the final group at Jack's tournament at Merefield Village
on on a Sunday or Saturday. I guess, and uh anyway,
he I looked at him. We called I called him
(39:41):
show pony. He called me show pony because we're playing
good back then, and we were win place or show
every week. So we called each other show funny, So
I said, I looked at DJ on the first t
I said, hey, my last group, it's a good luck today.
By he looks at me, he ges he I'm gonna
get your ass today, Is that right? That's let me
tell you something, show pony, all you're gonna see around
(40:02):
my buddy was a big cloud of dust and you're
gonna be trapped in. And that's how we talked to
each other. Well, we played back then. I'm not kidding you.
Guys would snap off the trash talk right on the
first team, keep up if you can't keep up, if
he can paint with trashed ho. I snapped off some
stuff on pain, Hey Paine, if I get going bad today,
I used to do this. I do this, hey paint
(40:22):
if I get playing bad today. And now, don't you
worry about me, all right? You just mind your own business,
keep your own you know, Like I was a good
guy and and but really, deep down inside, I just
wanted to think I was a better guy than I
really was. I really wanted to know I was fixing
to rip his heart out. But I wanted to think
if I played that, don't worry about it. So but Payne.
I said that one time to pain. He just looked
at me and goes, He just laughed at me. He
(40:43):
just said, I don't care about what do you do today?
And I believe him, and so awfully went. But we
we trash talked on the first team a little bit.
That's fun. I know you've had dinner with Whacker before,
so that's one dinner guest. So if he told me
that BJ story about the way over dinner was great.
So if you had to have dinner with either Whacker
(41:06):
again or Patrick Reid, who you choosing? Oh, Patrick Green?
By my Patrick Reed. I love Patigree. You know, I
don't know if I've been too hard on him or
giving him the benefit of the doubt, but sometimes I
wonder what goes through his head. But he's he's actually
when you get up close to him, and if you
(41:28):
can get in that veneer, you know, well he's got
a bad reputation. He can't make any more mistakes, but
kind of root for him. I love his swing, loved
the way he plays the game. All right, Speaking of
guys to love. Two thousand eight Ryder Cup team, you
had Boo Weekly and Anthony Kim on the team, who
(41:50):
was more fun. At the after party, Oh my god,
they tied. They absolutely tied. When when a K got it,
he set up shots for everybody, twenty four shots, wives, players,
wives assistance, twenties nine shots, however many shots there was,
and we all had to do shots with a K.
(42:12):
Then the European team came up, you know, because that's
a tradition. But Boo was good. Westwood came up to
the room and he was hammered, and he we had
this long wall full of memorabilia, and guys, you know,
we had to sign all the memorabilia. And Westwood had
slipped over there to our memorabilia and started putting his
(42:32):
name on it. And Boo had approached him and and hey,
he gat him tap on the shoulders. That's our stuff.
You need to get out of here, you know, I
see you over here again. I'm with your ass. And
so Westwood mosey darn out. And then a couple of
minutes later, Westwood he's he's pretty hammered. He sneaks over
there and he's kind of chuckling. He's signing our stuff.
(42:54):
So Boo goes over there and it was like, this
is just gonna get ugly. Because you don't know he's
good's gonna fix in a snap off. But Boo got
on the chair and he literally he's whistled and shut
the whole room down because anybody want to sign anything
in here. He just pulled his shirt up with big
old Boo Balley and he just signing right here, and
we just brought brought the house down. He also told
(43:16):
to see Rangutang story that week when he got not
gotten a ring with an orangutang, which is just brilliant stuff.
Got knocked out buying orangtang. He's never heard him telling
he was he was. Those two were the team leaders really,
Boo Weekly and A K was the youngest player on
the team. He just wanted to beat Sergio. It's all
he cared about. And then he drew Sergio and singles. Wow,
(43:38):
that's awesome. PG former PGA Tour commissioner, current PGA Tour commissioners,
Attention Monahan, who wins that match? Hey, look, they're both
going to be great. I mean, I feels for Monahan
now what he's got to deal with, but I believe
he can handle it. I hope we're talking about them
playing golf. Paul uh commissioner. Wiyes are golf, who wins
(44:03):
that match? See how I was doing? I was all serious.
I don't know. I've never seen any of them play.
Patient can't hit it more than a hundred forty in
the air. He's a little he's a little dude. He
can't hit it that far. So I'm gonna take I'm
gonna give the nod to Monican. I never even him
fair enough. And here we go it speaking of guys
(44:26):
who can't swing clubs, but they all love to do it.
I remember this in college. We get when I played basketball,
we get guys from other sports coming over on to
play on the court. And you see it in golf
all the time with with you know, we see Tom
Brady and Peyton Manning and uh and we see Tony Romo.
Of course Steph Curry, who is the best guy from
(44:47):
another sport that you've ever seen play golf. Gosh, Johnny
Bench was good. I know that. The worst I've ever
seen was Dr J. Barkley. You know, I'm gonna give
him a thumbs neutral on both. But Barkley was a
(45:08):
single digit one time in his life, and then he
somehow someone told him about trying to pause at the top,
and that pausing at the top started body hit high
on the way down and that wrecked. You'll never get
over that, I don't think. I just have to say, Oh,
you know who was really good was Jerry West? Played
with Jerry West way back in the day in Portland
(45:30):
at one of Peter Jacobson's events and he was a
phenomenal player. Wow. I mean he's got a logo after him.
I'm not surprised. Yeah, no, kid, he was amazing. He
did real quick. I want to ask you one more
question then I need a tip from you. One more
Have you watched and get the Tiger King? No? And no?
And I think it was right here. We have a
(45:50):
big cat haptat right here in Brandon's inner Yeah. I
know those people were crazy at money. I'm I'm playing
to our morning at TPC saw Grass with Billy Horsell.
You got any tips for me to help me get
in his waal inder? Now? Hey, anything you need to
beat Billy Horshall. You know that that whole thing when
I jumped on that European tour, uh comment was really
(46:14):
meant to you know. I mean, we're part of charged
with the task of trying to draw you who are
in a little bit and make some drama. But Billy's
gotta win in America. He knows that. And I used
some bad grammar. But the only American that really was
hard on me about it was Horsell. But he was
hard in a way that was kind of like walking
away from me. Hard, like forty four women to disrespect
(46:34):
him forty You know, he's kind of like that too.
So just go beat him. Just go beat him. Uh,
I don't know. I don't know. When he gets stories
on him, I wish I ask him if if he's
gonna let Roy continue to pound him in that peloton.
He really is pounding him on. I can't believe they
can do that. Those guys are fit. Well, I'll tell
(46:55):
you it's different. You know, the guys that had before us,
and twenty years before us, we're drinking vodka, and then
maybe ten years after them was vodka orange juice, And
then my guys we started drinking orange juice. Now these
guys are on protein drinks and doing this kind of stuff,
planking and all that. It's a whole another level of
speed and power and I love it. Just read where
(47:18):
follow Us and eliminate the tea box, and I'm like,
it's just so wrong. Let those guys hit that ball
ten seconds in the air and let's see where that
thing ends up. I love it. Let them just blast away.
You can hide any pin from a player, right, Paul,
Thank you so much for your time, and we really
appreciate and enjoyed it immensely. Thanks guys are said, man,
(47:40):
stay safe and we will see you back out on
the tour once it gets started. I'm getting started in
a few days. I'm gonna get my COVID tests. They're
coming to the house to test me for the COVID
before I go do the tournament. Um, We're going to St.
Augustine at the tour headquarters to cover the tournament in Jupiter.
I wonder if I'm gonna do tournaments from my house
on that they just set me up a citric a
(48:03):
setup like this? Why not? Yeah, you could really could.
If if that's the safest thing to do to keep
you safe and and keep up there safe. If yeah,
if that's the way we're gonna live. You know what
that country song, I'd rather live while I'm dying than
dieing exactly. Ain't that the truth? You said it earlier.
Quick Quarantining well people is not easy. You can't quarantine
(48:26):
healthy people, can't you. I guess so they did it.
They're starting to get they're starting to get anty. Yeah.
And I think, honest to God, I think you know,
the starting too early is better than starting too late,
because if it's too late, it's too late. You know,
too late, too late. Better to start early. Appreciate it, Paul,
(48:47):
have a good one betting. Thanks guys, anything all right,
See you guys.
Welcome to another edition of the Playing Through Podcasts. You know,
it's kind of crazy. We're all still stuck in our
houses here and we are in three different parts of
Florida as we do this podcast. We're on Instagram at
Playing Through Podcast. You can get us. Yes, Whacker is
in Miami. He's a Canes fan. We're gonna forgive him
for that. I'm a Gator fan. And our host, paul
(00:21):
A Singer is a Florida State graduated, so we have
got the state of Florida covered. I didn't graduate, but
I appreciate that. I gonna know at least you went there.
That's more than you've got on me going to Florida.
So and I think your wife went to Florida State. Correct, Yeah,
I did. I met my wife there actually, and we
love Kyle Hashie. I don't go back there very often.
I don't go to games very often. Quite honestly, going
(00:43):
to a game in Gamesville actually is quite intense and
actually quite a bit better. I love going there and
watch football in Gamesville, even though I don't pull for
the Gators. It is rough. You can get us on
Instagram once again at Playing Through Podcast at Brian Whacker
one and at Froggy Radio. So Azinger Zinger, Paul Azinger,
(01:04):
thank you so much forgiving us your time. And uh so,
what have you been doing quarantine other than just staying home? Yeah,
I think I figured out I know how to clean
a little bit finally. I mean I started cleaning around
the house and cleaning the garage up a little bit
and found some things I didn't know over there that
need to get tossed. But we're pretty lucky here in Florida. Um.
Brian and I talked about this before. I mean, he
(01:25):
lives in the apartment complex. When I opened my front door,
I'm not in a hallway. And you know, it's been
really pretty easy for us in Florida for the most part.
I think the Santa is really focused on the nursing
homes and trying to keep them safe as much as anything.
And he kept the golf open, which has been a
real blessing for most of us that love golf. We've
been able to stay outside and do that. The boat
(01:47):
ramps got closed, that was tough, but I have a
boat on the lift, so I got lucky there too.
And all in all, it hasn't been too bad. But
I sure do feel for the focus that have suffered
through this thing, and hopefully it can come to an end.
You know, at this point in the bottom line, as
we quarantine healthy people, that's hard to do as all
of us at risk and I'm at risk. Let's facing
(02:09):
on sixty. I had an issue before with cancer, so
imagine my immune system was compromised at some point. But
I'm not gonna stop. I want to go do an
event as soon as possible. And you know, you just
gotta mind your German take if you're one of those
people at risk, I think, and let's just try to
get on with it. Yeah, we were all there. I
was there as a fan and watching on the Whacker
(02:30):
was working, and you were working as well at TPC
saw Grass, and I was very surprised on that Thursday
when when they did have round one and then there
was the beginning of we weren't gonna have fans for
round two. And then that night Thursday evening, I believe
Whacker was one of the first people to break it
on Twitter that we were canceling the Players Championship and
(02:51):
our world changed drastically from Thursday to Sunday. Things really
took a just a strange turn of events. Yeah, when
that weird. I'll never forget that as long as I live.
I don't, thank god, my kids will ever forget it.
And you know, the whole golf crowd really was really
we were ramped up and ready to go for the players.
(03:12):
It looks spectacular and what an effort was was put
in all the events really with the amount of infrastructure
that they have to build in the players championship, people
there from all over the world, and I think me
and the more you look at it, you start to
realize sports was what shut down the whole world, really
the globe, because you couldn't really play sports if it
(03:32):
was this contagious, if you could be asymptomatic and spread
this virus unknowingly or unwinningly, And it just scared us
all to death. I remember telling one of the young
girls in the compound, I think, I said, I think
our life is about to get interrupted in a major way.
Um so, just you know, get ready. I didn't realize
it was gonna be like this, but you knew something
(03:53):
terrible what's going to happen here? And it has happened
a lot of loss of life, economically good us uh
so sports wise, it looks like golf is going to
try to take a swing at being the first sport back,
and you know, it'll be good for the general public.
I think, to get a little sniff of normalcy if
if playing the Skins game before those players as normal.
(04:15):
So we'll see how it plays out. Rich Learner is
going to be there because Dan Hicks isn't allowed to
cross state lines and come to Florida to do this
event that we're gonna end up doing in Jupiter. Um.
But all in all, golf is gonna start back up again.
But the moment it closed down at the players was
it was a shock to the system. And I kept
looking at my wife and saying, is this real? Is
this really happening? And suddenly every one of us was
(04:38):
looking like, well, are we two weeks from our mortality?
We didn't. Nobody knows that. We still don't know, so
we still don't know. I just don't think I want
to live like that. I wanna just mind my Germany
and take and see, you know, we can just move
onf Yeah, probably mentioned that obviously they'll start back up
sort of slowly with these um of course, got the
(04:59):
tailor made event friending program of ours worse with h
Rory and Ricky and uh and Dustin and Matt Wolfe,
and then of course the big match with Tiger and
Phil and Brady and Manning involved as well week after that,
and then of course we get the tour which their
plans are to start June eleven at Colonial. What's I'm
(05:22):
curious to hear your take on that from the standpoint
of um, A, do you think they'll still be able
to do that given um we've heard the commissioner talk about,
you know, there has to be widespread testing. We haven't
seen that just yet. And secondly, do you think, um,
it's a good idea to start off in June, in
mid June at at Colonial without fans. Well, I think
(05:44):
it's a great idea to actually, um, try to start
at some point in time. I mean, we're better off
starting too early than starting too late, because if you
start too late, come not in the economy we start
in the New Commy too, it's too late. So you've
got a risk starting too early. And whether it happens
(06:05):
or not, I believe it's going to depend on the
situation in the region that the tour is going to
go to first in Fort Worth, Texas. If if that
COVID is rising, I doubt they'll play the idea of
playing without fans O'Brien, I think it's ben't bother me.
It's kind of cool really. Um, maybe they'll play without
caddies a week or two, we'll find out who who
the slow players really are there. Uh, they'll all be identified.
(06:27):
I think they should all go out by themselves, no caddy,
and then we'll find out who the players are, let
them take their caddy, even find out who the slow
guys are in that. But all in all, I mean
if it's not if there's no fans, it's still pressured
to It was pressured to win a college event, so
they no fans in college. Hopefully it'll happen. I'm rooting
for the tour to to be able to start in June.
(06:49):
I think it's a little optimistic, but I'm pulling for
that to happen. You gonna have a lot of things happen.
A lot of the players are gonna want to have
to take the chance. Someon won't be able to travel globally,
just like and Hank can't come to Florida. I called
him today and teased him that he was banned from
Florida for a while. But yeah, hopefully, hopefully everybody will
(07:10):
be able to come to the colonial that wants to come.
That's another thing that's consider now, Paul, you have fan
these these TV matches. You've got the you know, the
Tom Brady Peyton Manning with Phil and Tiger, and then
you've got the Tailor Made Match where they are. You know,
there's a lot of charity money being driven, which is great.
And the Tailor Made Match with Rory and DJ versus
(07:31):
Ricky and Matt Wolf. Are you a fan of these?
And from what I understand, they're gonna play without caddies
at least Rory and DJ are there. They're they're supposedly
gonna tope their own bags. Or are you a fan
of these? I think it's a great way to start.
You know, you gotta start somewhere. And I think every sport,
really you guys know this baseball or football or basketball, hockey,
(07:54):
they all if they want to raise money for charity,
they have the golf tournament. Well, golfers have golf tournaments
to to raise money for charity. And uh, you know,
you hear all the time about good conditions and how
bad they are. And then then the average guy would say, well, gosh,
I go play on an airport runway if they go
to hole in it for that kind of money, or
I go play in the ditch. Well, these guys would
go anywhere to try to raise money for this cost.
(08:15):
But fortunately for them, they landed its seminal, which is
no ditch as we know, it is revered and respected.
Actually just a spectacular place. Uh you know, I heard
also today it's quite possible that uh that Palm Beach
County is only going to give them a twenty minute
long time that's been allowed for public courses. Um, symonel
(08:36):
is not a public place, but it's still gonna have
to go by the same guidelines. Twenty minute warm up
and then off they go for this made for TV event.
I wonder at what point they'll get nervous and realize,
oh my gosh, there could be a lot of people
watching this. At some point it will get them sometimes.
You know, it's not often you play golf when you
realize that this was really made for TV. The first
(08:58):
time that hit me was in the PGA Championship and
I was leading the tournament and It was the third round,
last group on Saturday, and they went to introduce me
and they counted down to the cameraman ten nine eight
and it went down to about three and he goes, oh,
oh wait, wait wait, they're doing one more commercial. And
I'm on the first t last group, leading the p
(09:19):
g A and it hit me that we had to
wait another thirty seconds or a minute. This was a
this is made for TV. We're entertainers here in some respect,
And it actually took a little pressure off me because
I don't put me in kind of a show off mode.
Even though I didn't win. This is this is badass.
I'm gonna get playing. Let's get after this. When it
really struck me was it's going to hit these guys eventually,
(09:42):
that camera staring in their face. I don't think Matt
Wills used to it, but the other three are pretty
used to. It would be cool. Are you a fan
of playing about fans, because that's been the talk. The
talk is we would possibly have a Ryder Cup and
not have fans. Isn't that what a Ryder Cup is?
Oh yeah, it won't happen without fans. I don't even
know if the network wants to do that without fans. Remember,
(10:04):
I mean, I just heard Padreck say that we might
have to take one for the team and go with
no fans, And I'm like, all right, sure, Padrick, I'm
sure you'd love to go to Europe and play with
no Europeans fans over there. There's no way that the
U S team is going to play with no fans.
I just feel like that we delayed it at nine eleven,
we should delay it again, get it back on the
odd number years. And with the Ryder Cup in the
(10:26):
the President's Cup flip flop, that just I haven't talked
to anybody. I haven't talked to Seth law Uh with
a commissioner about it, but it just seems to make
the most sense. Ryder Cup and no fans. It defeats
the purpose. Well, we're gonna we're gonna get to some
Rider Cup questions, but um, I kind of wanted to
start at the beginning of your career, Paul, And um
(10:48):
you know a lot of people see the tour today,
the glamour, the glitz, private jets, all of that. I mean,
we've even seeing college programs where they're where they're flying
privately and and when you first started. You started in
an RV in the early eighties, driving around the country.
I mean, what was that like, Uh, compared to what
(11:10):
today's tours like. It's easier to get started if you
get there. It's harder to get to the tour now,
I think than it ever has been. There's so many
players trying to make it on tour. Now you can
get your web card. You have to get your web
card first. It's just harder to get on tour. But
if you do make it, you generally have sponsors lined
(11:30):
up and you're pretty flushed and you can fly probably
first class or coach, depending on the size of your
travel crew, family, what have you. But well we did it. Now.
I had nine guys give me three thousand dollars a piece,
and I got my parents like nineteen seventy nine Cadillac
or something. It was about football field long and me
(11:50):
and my buddy from my golf team in high school,
Tom Jannis. He ended up caddying for a bunch of
good players. He won with Curtis Strain. You want with
a munch players. But Tom James and I drove all
the way out to Phoenix. It took us three days
at snow Go. When we were in Houston. My credit
card ran out of money. When I got to UH,
I didn't make it the Phoenix before my credit card
(12:12):
it ran out of money. I think the limit on
the credit card was fifty bucks or a hundred bucks.
At the time, I don't know what my parents were thinking,
and it was just different. After a few months, my
wife finished college and graduated and we traded that car
and and got a twenty four ft mini motor home
where you drive like a truck and you sleep over top.
(12:32):
It was awesome. I mean, we saw the whole United States,
and it was really a great time. I remember going
through a toll booth one time where the motor home
didn't fit. You know, we weren't supposed to be in
that booth, and my wife, she she drove it. She
ripped hole on and off the side of the thing.
Another time in New Jersey somewhere I got on an
interstate someone that where no no motor homes allowed, and
(12:53):
I literally had to go backwards down the interstate to
get out of there because the thing wouldn't fit through
the toll. We had all times of eight stories. We
had a cat. We had a cat in the motor home.
I remember the mini tours, the Mini tours in Orlando.
I would cook, you know, fish I'd catch out of
the lakes. No wonder I got cancer in my shoulder
when I started to reculy catch fish in the lakes
(13:15):
and could me and Black Marred be eating them with
the wife. It was just a great time back now.
Many tours were really good back then because the money
was good. You could win a three day event and
win six thousand bucks in three a two day event
was fifty for a two day event. The j C.
Goosey Mini Tour. J C. Ucy played the tour a
(13:37):
long time ago and it was a good player. But yeah,
the money was big now. I mean many tour events
a thousand dollars for first place. It's ridiculous. It's terrible
feel for those guys. So yeah, the Mini tour, the
motor home life was great. And then once we got
out of that, you know, Brian started making a little
money and kept my card and gotten the majors. You know,
(13:57):
I had my I saw one of your questions to
it was gonna be about nine eight seven British shown.
I had to crack a winning and obviously and let
that thing slip through my fingertips. And that was still
motor home days. But once I started playing like that,
it was time to get out of the motor home.
Uh So, how do you look back at that eight
(14:17):
seven Open now? Um? You know, you certainly had a
different viewpoint of it, uh, in the in the aftermath,
and and probably I was actually right at the beginning
of a really great run for you when you you
want to think eleven times from eighty seven and ninety three. Um,
you know, but two bogies on the last of holes,
and of course you win the p GA ninety three,
(14:38):
so you do get a major. Um, how do you
view that now, I guess compared to you know, thirty
years ago. Well, I was heartbroken. I mean I cried
after that that it really crushed me. And you know,
you recover from it or you never recovered from it,
either learned from it or never recover from it. And
I tried to learn from it. And I now that
(14:59):
I look back, you know, I been forced to call
the Open Championship with ESPN and ABC for all these years,
and I sat my foul doing it for a while.
And he's the one that I kind of gave it
to very much. He was in the right spot, so
that was hard for me. But you know, I think
we've grown people. We swallow your pride. I love hearing
these guys nowadays when the pressure gets amped up, and uh,
(15:23):
it's like a race to see who can pretend to
be the most comfortable or have it mean the least.
At the end of the day, I still got this
and that let me tell you something. Thirty years later,
I still think about the British Open. So you may
have your safe room and you may uh, you know,
at the end of the day still have your money
and your riches and all that stuff. But I can
tell you what a player is invested with his heart,
(15:46):
soul and mind in these golf tournaments and and in
this this game. And when you lose, you may be
okay at the end of the day, but it hurts, buddy,
and it's lacks And that's part of the thrill of sport,
you know, in the agony of defeat, hadn't it but
the agonea defeats real. I've had thrilling moments that have
off set that British Open. But if that was the
(16:07):
last thing it had ever happened to me. Oh, you know,
a lot of guys are a lot of people watching
on television don't realize how difficult it is, the pressure
that they are under. There's a huge difference in a
guy standing on the first tea box on on Thursday
than there is a guy that's standing with the lead
to hit an approach into the seventy second hole on Sunday.
(16:30):
Do you have you seen guys, whether it be when
you're playing or now that you're been doing commentating for
so many years, have you seen guys that do they
things change? They changed their either they changed their pre
shot routine or and I hate to use the word,
but have you seen guys choke? Have you seen just
things change? And you know from being in that position before,
(16:54):
what it feels like to not do what you normally do. Yeah,
you've seen guys changed. I've changed personally, you know, sometimes
it's a simple talking to me. Is in your mind?
Uh not generally in your fingertips, you know, or in
your hands. I don't think good players at this point
in your life, I don't believe their hands shake. But
they didn't get to this point. You might you might
(17:15):
get in a situation you get this adrenaline boost and
all of a sudden you realize your hands are in
a quiver. But uh yeah, I mean you just you're
so prepared to do this, but at the same time,
you know, the pressure and the significance of what you're
trying to accomplish can overwhelm you, I'm sure, and you
go through exercises and techniques. These guys all have techniques
(17:37):
how to control their heart rate and slow down their breathing.
You know, this stuff has been around a while. These
Germans were the first really to get into it. Progressive
relaxation is something these guys get into but don't talk
about much. And I don't know if you've seen it
or not, but you know the stuff that Rory's doing,
these these planks where his elbows to push up, elbow
to push up, and all that stuff. It is making
(17:57):
these guys fit to where they think it's gonna make
them better. You know, I don't know how that makes
you make a five footer, but if you think being
that fit makes you better, then it does make you better,
and it helps prevent you from choking. You know. The
way to prevent all that choking thing is to be
fully prepared to talk yourself through it. It's kind of
like choking to go to the dentist a little bit.
(18:18):
I mean, I hate the dentist, but I've gotten to
wear mentally. I can get in there and literally just
play golf in my head or get to go to
another place. Of course, I always tell the dentist no
matter what you see in there, just say, oh, this
will be a piece of cake. So once he's like
that said, it's a mind trick. And um, I don't
think choking is physical. Sometimes, Like I remember a couple
(18:38):
of times having a chance to win the players and
on Sunday I couldn't see the line. I couldn't make
a pot. I lost my feel. You know, like if
you were lawn bowling, you that a nice heavy ball
and you could roll a fifty footer and roll it
along the hills and all that. It seems like it
would be pretty much a challenge to roll that. They're
really close, but you have to stick and apparatus to
to that equation of lag and speed and then some
(18:59):
pressure and it does change. And sometimes I think when
I lost the line that I was choking because I
was hard on myself when I missed Putts, and I
always felt I was choking when I missed Puts. That's
just how I felt. You would never say it or
admit it because you don't want anyone, you know, you
don't want any want to hear you ever think that
about yourself. But it's in there they're thinking. You mean,
(19:19):
they're all lying about how they feel generally. I mean,
they'll tell the truth about what's really going on. They
battle what's going on there in the mental battle. And
until you get to be about my age probably six,
do you start fessing up what this was all about?
Is there any truth to getting over the hump like
that first win, once you experience and you learn how
to win that first time? And then that had been
(19:42):
said about Tiger after he had gone through the long
time of not winning, and then it was if he
could just win that one time again, and then he won,
you know, in Atlanta at the Tour Championship, and then
he was able to get that major at at the
Master's in Augusta. Is there truth to once you get
that one? It's he's you to do it again because
you know how to do it and you know what
it feels like. Yeah, there's no doubt about that, you know,
(20:06):
and what it ends up coming down to his self
belief and confidence. And you know, Tiger for he didn't
really have to get over a hump. He had to
just kind of, you know, see if he could just
do it again. I didn't know for sure if he
could do it again. I'm one of those guys that
never poop poop Tiger's chances. I felt that he replaced
his knee, he could still do it. But you know,
(20:29):
he he surprises us all the time. But for a
rookie or somebody like him, let sat Matt Wolf. He's
in the Skins game. He's a tremendous player. He already
came right out of the gate and one, and you know,
is he going to be is he's being compared to
calling Moore Kala, being compared to the victor Hobland, And
(20:50):
you know he's getting over the hump winning your second time,
proving that the first one was in a flute, because
that's what I went through. I remember winning once and
was it a flute? Not going well? I thought I
got over the hump by won, But you gotta do
it twice to prove that, you you know, so you're
really you know, it's way you can get over the
hump in your own mind and then just let everybody
think what they want about you. But self belief. Those
(21:13):
guys get self belief and they're making go off the chart.
You mentioned, Um, you know, pressure in the mental end
of it, and there's probably no greater pressure cooker really
engulfed in the Ryder Cup, and you've been a part
of a few of those, both as a player and
a captain. Obviously, what were those I guess I would
ask you how would you describe particularly you go back
(21:36):
to eight nine, and obviously everyone knows backstory. There's a
lot of tension. There, a lot of rivalry between you
and Sevey, the Europeans and the Americans. It tied in
eighty nine. You guys win at Kio ninety one in
the war by the shore with the tremendous uh, you know,
(21:57):
pressure on longer and and everybody else. So see it
with that, Um, how do you how do you view
those Ryder Cups now? Looking back? Um, you know again
thirt you know, thirty years later, I'm a lot more
mellow about it, the competitive nature. But you know, I
was backing about eighties seven, eighty five and then eighties seven.
(22:19):
I would have made the team in eighty seven, but
I had not attended the sleater folding class or whatever
it was that the PJA of America required at the time,
so I missed the eight seventeam. But it was eight
seven that the Ryder Cup became something that I really
cared about, knowing not really not knowing much about it,
to be honest, but watching Jose celebrate on on a
(22:41):
team at dance, first I thinking, man, I wish I
could move like that, And then I said, he's rubbing
her notice And there was a bunch of us that
didn't understand what the Ryder Cup meant to them. And
it was like me and Calk and Freddie and Ken
Green and John Cook and guys like chipped back and
we all took it personally. And then we were the
guys that got kind of on this next Ryder Cup
(23:02):
team at Kilwa Steve Pay, Corey Paven, we took that
whole thing personal, and that patriotism really kicked in. Well,
they already had, you know, the Ryder Cups in their blood.
You know, it's in our head we want to win it,
but it's in their blood. But believe me, you know
that you've been there, Brian, and you know what the
energy is like. It's something to behold over there, especially
in Europe, and then they elevate to try to beat
the jogger Americans. Um so, but it is it's a
(23:26):
great event. It is a pressure cooker and but you know,
once you get through a Ryder Cup, I always felt
like Ryder Cups came before majors for guys. Um. You know,
it's hard to say that about Australians and South Africans,
but for most players that will play a Ryder Cup
before they win a major championship, it very rarely goes
the other way, but it does on occasion. It's something
(23:48):
to notice, but it's it's awesome. We had Raymond Floyd.
He put a lot of pressure on us. Um. He
introduced us as the twelve best players in the world,
and then he just looked at every one of us
and we stood up for a second. It was I
was first, I think Hazinger back in Calcabecia, and we
stood up and they were kind of booing in this
(24:10):
big gale of dinner that he had introduced us as
the twelve best players in the world. He'd taken that
line from Hogan, I think from years earlier in the
Ryder Cup when he just after the European captain had
introduced all his players, he just said, ladies and gentlemen,
the twelve best players in the world, and he stood
up and sat. Now, Raymond used it and it wasn't
quite as true. So Tony Jacklin's response was, well, I
(24:33):
guess that makes Sevy number thirteen. And it was on then, buddy,
and we had a hell of match and it came
down to the wire and somehow we ended up tying,
which was a loss for us because they retained the Cup.
But by the time ninety one rolled around, we were
ready for action and we took it personal and it
got ugly at times, and it was awesome now that
(24:54):
I looked back, but at the time, you know, if
I look at myself then and now, it's like a
completely different person. M hmm. Yeah. And then you you know,
of course, you go to two thousand eight, speaking of
the twelve best players in the world, you're the captain. Uh,
Europe had won five of the last six I think
Ryder Cups. Um, you know, you come in there there's
(25:15):
a lot of expectation. Uh there's about the pod system
ends up working out. You have an unbelievable team. Of course, Um,
you know Anthony Kim part of that, part of that team,
which we'll get to. But what was it like, I
guess being captain in that position and and you know,
(25:36):
basically having to win. Yeah, it was a weird you know,
I mean it was a pressure pack time. I mean
it was weird for me because I was actually promised
to be the captain in OH six when it should
have been Paining, but it ended up being Tom Lane.
And I didn't want to do it overseas. I wanted
to do it in America, and so I waited and
then so I figured I get it in no all,
(25:57):
I end up having the lobby for it. But I
had a concept that I lobbied with. I didn't just lobby, Hey,
I'm alwaysinger. I played good at the Ryder Cup and
one the p G a I should be the captain.
I lobbied with a concept um and the guy was
Roger Warren, was the president PGA, a former basketball coach,
and I lobbied with this Navy Seals concept of team building.
(26:18):
When you take that large group and break them into
small groups. And I wanted to take twelve and break
them into three groups of four and then sell them
out within their groups and get them to sold out
for each other in the whole nine yards. He loved it.
So being a basketball coach, he knew what that was
all about. Team building was my whole goal. And I
took this outside a box approach. But if you can sit,
you think about what our players go through a Ryder Cup,
(26:40):
in the thrashings that they've taken, they've gotten to where
they dread the Ryder Cup. Bryan, and I was in
a position as a captain to have to deal with
Tiger and Phil. Tiger didn't get on our team because
of his knee blew his leg out or whatever's broken
bone there. But um, you know I had to deal
with with guys like Nicholson and fear of guys who
got handed to him over and over, you know, and
(27:00):
you know what this whole this concept of the team building,
um really got him intrigued and engaged and it changed
the way they felt about this Ryder Cup and our
Ryder Cup was was these guys were in their small groups,
not based on light games or anything to do with
golf based on business principles that that it are used
in corporate America. The Myers Bridge we used Myers Bridge
(27:22):
caution like green Light red light personality types. We tried
to find all the green light personality types based on
four personality types. And it was just worked. We got
green Lights together and I just let them do their
thing and pretty what much stayed out of the way
and they bonded in their small groups. They sold out
for each other. Actually had nine players I had. I
(27:44):
picked stricter. I got four picks instead of two. I
wanted four picks, and I picked stricter, which gave me
nine or three three man teams, and I players three
three man teams. I ended up calling every player on
each little pod. I remember calling Michelston, Justin Leonard, and
Anthony Kim saying, Hey, you three guys are a pod,
but I'm gonna give you a chance to pick one
(28:04):
more player to fill out your group. I got six
names that didn't make the team. I see it our
green light personalities for your pod. You three guys get
together and decide which one of those six you want.
If you choose outside the six names, I give you.
I'll explain to you why you were wrong, and so
they all called each other in. About an hour later,
Michelson called me and so we want Hunter Magian. I said,
(28:26):
I'll give you Hunter Magian. So I called Hunter and
then sold him on the whole process. These guys would
have run for through a wall for each other. This
is the most bonded Rider Cup team ever by far.
And that's how he did it. And they just went
out and performed their asses off because nobody wanted to
let anybody else down and fear it came out with
(28:46):
my favorite line of the whole thing, he says, the
first Rider Cup I ever went to where he said
it was the first time that I wasn't so obsessed
with my game, but how I could make the players
around me better. And I was like, wow, how good
is that? What do you think of when you look
at at today's Ryder Cup from the standpoint of you
know it was it was a much different environment back
(29:09):
in eight and ninety one Europeans lived in Europe. There's
much more of there's less of a camaraderie between guys now,
a lot of a lot of international guys Americans all
live in Florida. Um, they know each other. They most
of them play the PGA Tour. Do you think it's
different now than it was? Even even go back to
(29:32):
Oha it was? It is it different than than than
Oa in terms of that dynamic. I think social media
changed it. You know, we we didn't congratulate each other
to the whole world. You know. I mean if I
sometimes I didn't like a guy, I wasn't even that
interested in saying congratulations. I mean, this is so different.
(29:54):
It's so different. Back man, you get jealous of a
guy that was beating your brains out. Now they congratulate
each other. So it is a different dynamic. I think
it's much more difficult to be a good player today.
I really feel for a guy like Roy McElroy. If
he lets the tournament get away and he deals in
social media, then all the you know, anybody with two
(30:15):
thumbs can take a shot at you. And imagine what
Poulter must here and go through. When Dustin Johnson lost
the US Open, you know, all the people that called
him a choker, probably none of them texting congratulations. When
the very next year he came back in one the
US of which I think was one of the greatest
wins in all the sports that's never even considered as such.
(30:38):
Imagine losing the US Open the way he lost it,
and then coming back and win in the next year
at Omont. And a great story I heard about that
was his his brother Austin went in there early to
go check out Oakmont and he looked at the whole course.
I don't know if he played it or just walked
her or whateverybody walked into the pro shop he wanted.
Somebody in the pro shop asked him if he needed
(30:58):
something like another yardage book or greens book or whatever.
He goes. Now, you know what he says, I'm not
gonna worry about it. Deston's got no chance here anyway,
so I'll just get it when I get here. You
have winning the golf tournament. So it's a funny story
around oak and the way he won. Would would the
penalty that they told him to you know, they talked
to him in the middle of the the play out. I mean,
(31:19):
everything about that was really truly unbelievable. Yeah, it was.
That was. That was a dramatic time. That was my
first year with Fox actually, I think, and uh boy,
that was It was a real eye opener that you know,
that type of a snaffoo and this type of in
this time when he has a ruling like that, and
then with the social media crying out and we were
(31:43):
seeing it while we were in the booth and realizing
that the players didn't know that there might be a penalty,
would they played differently, and that the whole thing got
so complicated. But I felt like as a network, for
a first time effort for us, they were at Chambers
May of the year before, but for a first time
effort for Fox, we were all over that and we
couldn't you know, pussy foot around that or you know,
(32:05):
kind of necessarily um count out to the U s J.
In that situation, we had to be canned and we
had to be reporters where we've gotten shredded. So we
just thought thought journalistically we handled that pretty well. You know.
Before I get to I want to ask you a
couple of questions about Tiger Woods. Are you a fan
of fans being able to call penalties in and saying hey,
(32:27):
I saw this or I saw that. Are you are
you okay with that? Or do you think that's because
we don't do that in any other sport. That's complicated
in golf though, because they call penalties on themselves. So yeah,
I would say if there's an infraction, it should be
brought to the attention of the ruling bodies before the
conclusion of the event. After the conclusion, that's it. But
if you do something on Thursday that you you know
(32:48):
it was a mistake. Usually I meant nine percent of
the time it's totally unintentional. But if you did it
on a Thursday, I always felt like it was fair
to get qut on Sunday for something you did on Thursday.
I just thought, Wow, you don't want to have everybody
know that you made a mistake and then you you
got you know, you've got the benefit of the doubter,
(33:09):
or you should be two shots higher. But because you
already signed a card. Now I believe they change the rules.
I think I don't want to speak to exactly what
they are, but I just feel like now you can
make a mistakes, certain mistakes, you know, just change your
score cards for you. So it's different. It's a lot easier. Right.
Speaking of Tiger, and I know that you've played with
Tiger and you've seen a lot of Tiger Woods, and
(33:30):
and I'm sure you've been asked a hundred times what's
your favorite Tiger Woods story? And I'm sure you've got
a hundred What's the most impressive thing about Tiger Woods
to you? Because as a fan, I mean, I mean,
there's a lot of things about him that impressed me,
But as somebody who's played the game and been in
the situations and and probably stood next to him on
the same tea box at the same putting green and
(33:51):
seen some shots that you're like, well, how the how
the hell did you pull that off? Like, what's the
most impressive thing about him to you? I've seen all
of I mean so many shots. The way he hits
a long irons, like you've never seen anybody do that
before or since. And there's been some guys that can
hit some nice long irons. Jack hit great long irons.
Uh Wise Cough could hit great long irons. Greg Norman
(34:16):
had beautiful long irons, but nothing like what Tiger could do,
and he could do it out of a fairway bunker.
But I think over all of the thing about Tiger
that I just don't know that anyone of us could
have ever imagined was sustainability. That the repeatability that he
could win once and not have a letdown, and then
win again the next week and not have a letdown,
(34:36):
you know, or take two weeks off and then come
back out and win again and not have a letdown.
You know. It's a mountaintop experience to win a golf tournament,
and he just got so used to it. Um. But
another thing too about this guy, the fact that he
had that repeatability, that sustainability goes down to his ball striking,
his butter and the way he hit his short irons.
(34:58):
He drove it nice. You know, they act like you
drove it a while, but he didn't. He drove the clutch.
But but if you listen to him, had short irons,
short clubs, that's the scoring club. That's where you butter
your bread at short club and on the greens, and
that's where Tiger Woods did all his damage. If you
consider think about always great memories, they aren't off the tee.
(35:21):
All his dramatic moments are on and around the greens.
And or he hit his whole out wedges or something
like he did at Pebble Beach. And I remember hitting
balls next him one time at Merefield Village. I was
within my caddy. I wasn't swinging great or anything, and
he was only a few years old he won the masters.
I think it was a couple of years after one
of the Masters, and I want you know, we got
(35:41):
down where we could hit into the wind, and we're
both hitting nine irons, and I mean, I just was
hearing something over there I've never heard before. And when
I watched the ball leave, it looked like it looked
like the ball was attached to a string and it
um end up at the end it was a kite.
And once he got up to the top, you know
how you get that soft kind of line that goes
on the on the kite line, That's what his flight
(36:03):
looked like. And it came down like a butterfly with
sore feet. And I just knew I couldn't do that.
And I looked at my caddy and I said, I
gotta tell you truth, this is hurting my confidence. We
need to get out of here. And we scooped up
all my stuff and moved on because I didn't want
to hear any more of that. That he was on
another level. That's unbelievable. It wasn't It took a minute
(36:24):
to impress me. Now, I promise you that exactly show me,
and he didn't, but you knew that was something different.
We've got a quick thing we do here. It's called
a quick nine. If we let you go, let's get
a quick nine holes in real quick. So we'll ask
you nine quick easy questions, and I'm gonna wha whacker
you go first. Here we go one last round. Where
(36:46):
are you playing? Of course? Oh gosh, last round of
my life. I'm gonna play a golf course built nineteen
twenty six. It's in my hometown at Gradening Country Club,
built by Donald Ross. Comes you get a chance, come
see it if you had a chance. Number two, What
three players complete Paul Easinger's ultimate forsom? Well, if I'm
(37:10):
gonna go with the greatest players that I never saw,
I would love to see Bobby Jones, I would love
to see Hogan, and I would love to see what
Bayern Nelson did. I've got a good dose of what
Travino could do, and wise cough and I saw Speed
hit balls, more Norman hit balls, the Golden Bear and
right up next to Tiger. But give me those three,
(37:31):
I'd like to see what they had, all right, Your
life is on the line. You who you picking to
win this matchup? Rory or Brooks. H I gotta go
to Rory. I'm gonna take talent over just full up guts.
I've never seen anything quite like Rory McElroy either, you
(37:52):
know now, not sense Tiger. Um. It was really for me.
For us, we caught Watson in the eighties and we started.
Then we we caught after Wasston Norman and that was
pretty nice. That was a sight to behold. And then
you know, maybe some Foaldo and Nick Price mixed in there.
But when Tiger showed up, I was like, oh, well,
Roy's like that to me. I stand there and watched Roy.
(38:13):
That's why I'm hard on him when he when he
doesn't win, because I just don't know how he doesn't win.
Uh So, I just think Roy's gonna beat him and
he'll you know, my man went to Florida State to
Brooks went to Florida State Hill trashing for that. But
I just think Roy's outstanding. All right, fourth hole, You're
stuck on a deserted island and you got one PGA
(38:36):
tour player to play with. Who is it. I'm gonna
play with Stadler because he's gonna throw a club on
the first hole if he didn't like it, and he's
never gonna blame anybody but himself. That's I love playing
with that guy. You watched every shot I'm playing with standard.
All right, here we go. We we saw recently we
heard his story of course Brooks telling a story about
(38:58):
how he trashed talked to Michael Jorge and when the
two were playing golf together, sewere comes back of course,
wins the last two goals to win the match. We
all know trash talk golfers are not good trash talkers,
But who's the who's the better? Were the best trash talker?
Tiger or the field? Is there? The field? The field? Now,
(39:21):
Tigers got goats status, so he can. He can, But
there's so many guys out there that can trash talk.
You have no idea. I remember O pardon b J
saying the final group at Jack's tournament at Merefield Village
on on a Sunday or Saturday. I guess, and uh anyway,
he I looked at him. We called I called him
(39:41):
show pony. He called me show pony because we're playing
good back then, and we were win place or show
every week. So we called each other show funny, So
I said, I looked at DJ on the first t
I said, hey, my last group, it's a good luck today.
By he looks at me, he ges he I'm gonna
get your ass today, Is that right? That's let me
tell you something, show pony, all you're gonna see around
(40:02):
my buddy was a big cloud of dust and you're
gonna be trapped in. And that's how we talked to
each other. Well, we played back then. I'm not kidding you.
Guys would snap off the trash talk right on the
first team, keep up if you can't keep up, if
he can paint with trashed ho. I snapped off some
stuff on pain, Hey Paine, if I get going bad today,
I used to do this. I do this, hey paint
(40:22):
if I get playing bad today. And now, don't you
worry about me, all right? You just mind your own business,
keep your own you know, Like I was a good
guy and and but really, deep down inside, I just
wanted to think I was a better guy than I
really was. I really wanted to know I was fixing
to rip his heart out. But I wanted to think
if I played that, don't worry about it. So but Payne.
I said that one time to pain. He just looked
at me and goes, He just laughed at me. He
(40:43):
just said, I don't care about what do you do today?
And I believe him, and so awfully went. But we
we trash talked on the first team a little bit.
That's fun. I know you've had dinner with Whacker before,
so that's one dinner guest. So if he told me
that BJ story about the way over dinner was great.
So if you had to have dinner with either Whacker
(41:06):
again or Patrick Reid, who you choosing? Oh, Patrick Green?
By my Patrick Reed. I love Patigree. You know, I
don't know if I've been too hard on him or
giving him the benefit of the doubt, but sometimes I
wonder what goes through his head. But he's he's actually
when you get up close to him, and if you
(41:28):
can get in that veneer, you know, well he's got
a bad reputation. He can't make any more mistakes, but
kind of root for him. I love his swing, loved
the way he plays the game. All right, Speaking of
guys to love. Two thousand eight Ryder Cup team, you
had Boo Weekly and Anthony Kim on the team, who
(41:50):
was more fun. At the after party, Oh my god,
they tied. They absolutely tied. When when a K got it,
he set up shots for everybody, twenty four shots, wives, players,
wives assistance, twenties nine shots, however many shots there was,
and we all had to do shots with a K.
(42:12):
Then the European team came up, you know, because that's
a tradition. But Boo was good. Westwood came up to
the room and he was hammered, and he we had
this long wall full of memorabilia, and guys, you know,
we had to sign all the memorabilia. And Westwood had
slipped over there to our memorabilia and started putting his
(42:32):
name on it. And Boo had approached him and and hey,
he gat him tap on the shoulders. That's our stuff.
You need to get out of here, you know, I
see you over here again. I'm with your ass. And
so Westwood mosey darn out. And then a couple of
minutes later, Westwood he's he's pretty hammered. He sneaks over
there and he's kind of chuckling. He's signing our stuff.
(42:54):
So Boo goes over there and it was like, this
is just gonna get ugly. Because you don't know he's
good's gonna fix in a snap off. But Boo got
on the chair and he literally he's whistled and shut
the whole room down because anybody want to sign anything
in here. He just pulled his shirt up with big
old Boo Balley and he just signing right here, and
we just brought brought the house down. He also told
(43:16):
to see Rangutang story that week when he got not
gotten a ring with an orangutang, which is just brilliant stuff.
Got knocked out buying orangtang. He's never heard him telling
he was he was. Those two were the team leaders really,
Boo Weekly and A K was the youngest player on
the team. He just wanted to beat Sergio. It's all
he cared about. And then he drew Sergio and singles. Wow,
(43:38):
that's awesome. PG former PGA Tour commissioner, current PGA Tour commissioners,
Attention Monahan, who wins that match? Hey, look, they're both
going to be great. I mean, I feels for Monahan
now what he's got to deal with, but I believe
he can handle it. I hope we're talking about them
playing golf. Paul uh commissioner. Wiyes are golf, who wins
(44:03):
that match? See how I was doing? I was all serious.
I don't know. I've never seen any of them play.
Patient can't hit it more than a hundred forty in
the air. He's a little he's a little dude. He
can't hit it that far. So I'm gonna take I'm
gonna give the nod to Monican. I never even him
fair enough. And here we go it speaking of guys
(44:26):
who can't swing clubs, but they all love to do it.
I remember this in college. We get when I played basketball,
we get guys from other sports coming over on to
play on the court. And you see it in golf
all the time with with you know, we see Tom
Brady and Peyton Manning and uh and we see Tony Romo.
Of course Steph Curry, who is the best guy from
(44:47):
another sport that you've ever seen play golf. Gosh, Johnny
Bench was good. I know that. The worst I've ever
seen was Dr J. Barkley. You know, I'm gonna give
him a thumbs neutral on both. But Barkley was a
(45:08):
single digit one time in his life, and then he
somehow someone told him about trying to pause at the top,
and that pausing at the top started body hit high
on the way down and that wrecked. You'll never get
over that, I don't think. I just have to say, Oh,
you know who was really good was Jerry West? Played
with Jerry West way back in the day in Portland
(45:30):
at one of Peter Jacobson's events and he was a
phenomenal player. Wow. I mean he's got a logo after him.
I'm not surprised. Yeah, no, kid, he was amazing. He
did real quick. I want to ask you one more
question then I need a tip from you. One more
Have you watched and get the Tiger King? No? And no?
And I think it was right here. We have a
(45:50):
big cat haptat right here in Brandon's inner Yeah. I
know those people were crazy at money. I'm I'm playing
to our morning at TPC saw Grass with Billy Horsell.
You got any tips for me to help me get
in his waal inder? Now? Hey, anything you need to
beat Billy Horshall. You know that that whole thing when
I jumped on that European tour, uh comment was really
(46:14):
meant to you know. I mean, we're part of charged
with the task of trying to draw you who are
in a little bit and make some drama. But Billy's
gotta win in America. He knows that. And I used
some bad grammar. But the only American that really was
hard on me about it was Horsell. But he was
hard in a way that was kind of like walking
away from me. Hard, like forty four women to disrespect
(46:34):
him forty You know, he's kind of like that too.
So just go beat him. Just go beat him. Uh,
I don't know. I don't know. When he gets stories
on him, I wish I ask him if if he's
gonna let Roy continue to pound him in that peloton.
He really is pounding him on. I can't believe they
can do that. Those guys are fit. Well, I'll tell
(46:55):
you it's different. You know, the guys that had before us,
and twenty years before us, we're drinking vodka, and then
maybe ten years after them was vodka orange juice, And
then my guys we started drinking orange juice. Now these
guys are on protein drinks and doing this kind of stuff,
planking and all that. It's a whole another level of
speed and power and I love it. Just read where
(47:18):
follow Us and eliminate the tea box, and I'm like,
it's just so wrong. Let those guys hit that ball
ten seconds in the air and let's see where that
thing ends up. I love it. Let them just blast away.
You can hide any pin from a player, right, Paul,
Thank you so much for your time, and we really
appreciate and enjoyed it immensely. Thanks guys are said, man,
(47:40):
stay safe and we will see you back out on
the tour once it gets started. I'm getting started in
a few days. I'm gonna get my COVID tests. They're
coming to the house to test me for the COVID
before I go do the tournament. Um, We're going to St.
Augustine at the tour headquarters to cover the tournament in Jupiter.
I wonder if I'm gonna do tournaments from my house
on that they just set me up a citric a
(48:03):
setup like this? Why not? Yeah, you could really could.
If if that's the safest thing to do to keep
you safe and and keep up there safe. If yeah,
if that's the way we're gonna live. You know what
that country song, I'd rather live while I'm dying than
dieing exactly. Ain't that the truth? You said it earlier.
Quick Quarantining well people is not easy. You can't quarantine
(48:26):
healthy people, can't you. I guess so they did it.
They're starting to get they're starting to get anty. Yeah.
And I think, honest to God, I think you know,
the starting too early is better than starting too late,
because if it's too late, it's too late. You know,
too late, too late. Better to start early. Appreciate it, Paul,
(48:47):
have a good one betting. Thanks guys, anything all right,
See you guys.
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