Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
From the fairways to the headlines. It's Inside the Ropes
driven by the BMW Charity Program presented by td sin X.
You're all access pass to golf's biggest names and best moments.
And it is time that we continue our weekly golf
segment Inside the Ropes driven by the BMW Charity Proram
(00:25):
presented by tdcin X. And why not go in and
have the champion of this past year back in June,
mister Alston Smotherman, as he was the winner of the
twenty twenty five BMW Charity pro Am presented by TDCINX.
And so, Alson, I know you're busy. You've also coming
off another victory on the corn Ferry Tour, so you've
(00:46):
got to be flying high. But I need to know
where is that trophy from the BMW Charity Program presented
by td CNX. That steering wheel. Where do you keep
that thing? Right now?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I love it? I love it. Thanks for having me, Richmond.
That staring wheel is still on my dining room table
right in the middle square is a nice little centerpiece
that I don't know if my wife would approve any
much for too much longer, but it's a it's a
worthy piece right there.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Oh, no question about it. And I saw some videos
with your daughters playing with it, so it's got to be.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
It's got to be on that table. If not, it's
probably gonna get too much play with it and spend it,
spin it off of its mount or something. Who knows
that my two girls that.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Play with it a good bit, yes, and walk us
through though. Just that putt that you had. I mean
it's like fifty feet for that opportunity of winning a
second Corn Ferry Tour this season, but just the put itself.
And maybe I wouldn't necessarily say, you know, being aggressive,
but you had the one shot lead, so you didn't
(01:50):
necessarily have to make that put But I guess maybe
you inspired JJ spawn goes a few weeks later, he
does that at the US Open. But just walk us
through that put and the feeling seeing that go in.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
He JJ made his on a pretty big stage, but
you know, the BMW charity program out there is a
big stage as well for us, and that week was
unforgettable to cap it off with that putt. I mean
my thought process going through it was really just, I mean,
good speed. Unfortunately I had kind of a similar field
put on seventeen right to left, kind of breaking down
(02:24):
to just lag it up there close and just knew
I could trust my feels as far as speed goes,
and there wasn't any kind of overthinking. I mean, my
process as far as reading the putt was very very
average time as far as spent to get comfortable over it,
and by that time just let it rip.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah. And I would have to say too that there's
something about having that type of confidence where you just
mentioned not overthinking things and not having that paralysis by analysis,
so to speak. But when did you know it was
going in how far back? As far as you know,
as it's getting close to me, when did you say,
all right, that looks good.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I mean I pretty much blacked out, I think from
the whole whole moment. But as far as as far
as getting getting that ball online the last maybe four
feet he kind of I actually raised my putter up unconsciously,
and the replay of the video I started, I left
it back. I was like, what was I think in
a putt to blip out? Putt could not even be close.
(03:23):
It's still got ways to go, and you know, I
can barely see it from my angle down the hill
and next thing you know, it goes and it disappears
and it's like tournaments over unconscious reaction. Fist pump, got
my caddy and I still got a walk and go
get my ball. And then I'm like, gosh, this is
a long wait.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
I really just did this exactly in front of the
big crowd also there on Sunday, And so there is
that moment of being able to showcase your talent and
the ability and obviously closing out of the big putt
right there to win the twenty twenty five BMW charity
program presented by TD sin Eggs. Austin Smotherman is our
(04:01):
guest here on Inside the Ropes on this edition of
the Richmond Weavers Show, presented by our good friends at
Ingles Markets, and so Austin, I know also the video
that is out there showing your mom being able to
watch it, and your wife and the family and all
of that. So how special was that also that they
got to see it on TV.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Oh, it's so special. I mean to have those memories
as much as as they would have been if it
wasn't televised, to have had them live it live. I mean,
there's a huge thanks to the whole tournament, and you know,
everybody there to want to televise and showcase, you know,
thorn Blade that whole week and all the celebrities and
(04:41):
professionals that don't get to be on TV too much
at this level. And you know, that's what we all
kind of want to get comfortable with, you know, having
cameras around you. As far as going to the PGA Tour,
you know, you can't can't avoid.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
It out there, that's right.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
And how different is it though in a tournament like
the BMW Charity Pro Am, because it's very unique that
you are paired up with amateurs and their celebrities that
are also involved. So how is that as a tour
pro and just that this is a little bit of
a different tournament that current type of tournament.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
For me, I think it's it's a bonus that I
had a member from my home course wanting to play
with me, and so I was able to bring along
my own am and I I talked up the tournament
to him and he knew that there was an opportunity
to play in an event like this, you know, similar
to the AT and T Pro Am on the PGA Tour,
and he wanted to. He wanted to jump in be
(05:32):
my partner. And I mean, I played so much golf
at home with other members and whatnot that are still
pretty good players. It just felt like any other day
out there playing all week. And you know, I threw
and threw in a little bit of the wrinkle, which
I'm sure we were going to talk to, but I'll
bring it up sooner than later. Is is my my
original caddy bowing out for a couple of days as
we started leading the golf tournament And I got Evan
(05:53):
EVANSSA on my bag.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
And talk about Evan say and just how he was
able to fill in local product obviously and a golfer
there at Belmont Abbey and a great story. But isn't
there something though about golfers. You want to have routine.
You don't want any interruptions regarding that routine, especially starting
in a tournament. So how how did that play out?
(06:17):
And how did you get settled in with a new.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Key all all of that week and kind of that
whole format. It was the back end of my fourth
week in a row, you know, playing playing good golf,
but the the monotonous and the mundane kind of things
just you know, four weeks in a row doing the
same thing every single day. I mean I could tell
you my schedule from you know, nine to seven pm
(06:41):
basically like a day. I could tell you what I'm doing,
no matter what video I'm in, and those kinds of
those kinds of things could maybe you know, trying to
keep them too perfect and maybe lead a little bit
that anxiety and so having this kind of wrinkle as
far as you know, my usual caddie drop in, you know,
I just their expectations dropped my my there was there
was what the pressure, kind of pressure to play well
(07:01):
was maybe kind of dropped, and it was I'm just
going to go enjoy my time with this kid who
I just met forty five minutes ago, and I'm going
to embrace it because there's no way around it. Right now.
I got I got at least eighteen holes with them,
and it was fortunate to not have to play Carolina
Country Club in the rain that morning and have the
afternoon tea time. So definitely the wave split kind of
(07:21):
helped as well.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Again going back to that you didn't have to overthink
things and just allow it to play out, because there
is something about there's certain things you can't control. But
as a golfer, are there so many times, though, Alston,
that you want to control because you're wanting to control
this shot, You're wanting to control your putt, you know, respond,
(07:43):
But how again, at some point you just got to
let it go because you can't control everything.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, yeah, And that's that's what we're all out here
trying to trying to, you know, at every level, trying
to refine as far as what's your process and how
to how to do that? More and more frequently are
there weeks where you know, maybe you're not so good
at it, but still have a good week. Absolutely, I mean,
so we all work so hard to kind of, you know,
eliminate that variance from week to week if things are different,
(08:09):
because invariably, you know, our bodies are different every single day,
and we work to try and keep them, keep them
feeling the same. But inherently, just you know, by nature,
you could just sleep wrong on your pillow, wake up
with a peak neck, and now you got to figure
out how to rotate and get the ball around, you know,
for the next five hours.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
That's right, all right? So you talked about you would
know you could recite your schedule from you know, nine
am to seven pm each and every day. All right,
So tomorrow, we know you're going to be out in
the Denver area TELUS. What do you want to be
doing at ten am tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Ten am tomorrow? So this is this is a little
bit of a wrinkle. But I wasn't expecting my pro
am time to be at six thirty am tomorrow. But
it is, I guess the blessing, the blessing and the
curse of being high on the points list and going
down the list as far as tea times go, is
I'm first off at six thirty here at tp SE,
(09:00):
Colorado tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
By ten o'clock, I'll have already had my second breakfast
and I will definitely be wrapping up probably some practice
by eleven and shutting it down for at least, you know,
at least the next twenty four hours if I have
an afternoon tea time, which I'll get tea times here
in the next next thirty forty minutes or so.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Wow, Yes, that's early, my friend.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
But tip tip typically any any Wednesday pro am time,
I mean I've been early most of this season, and
I'll finish up my nine holes a little bit of
light practice as far as whatever we got to address,
and then always finish up my Wednesdays with some lag
speed putting before I go go shut it down before
a first round.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
There you go. Austin Smotherman is our guest right here
inside the Ropes on the Richmond Weavers Show presented by
Ingles Markets, on one of four nine Fox Sports Upstate.
All right, so, Austin, I do need to just jump
back in a little bit of history with you. I
love history, and I love kind of hearing the genesis
and the beginnings, and especially in sports, because there's so
(09:58):
many things that we can learn from sports, life lessons,
et cetera. I can go through the list of cliches
and I know you've heard them all. When did you
first fall in love with golf?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I would say really fell in love with it when
I was twelve thirteen. As far as seeing myself grow
as a player, playing in more playing in more tournaments,
and also having a really kind of hurt to heart
conversation with my mom, dad, both sides, both grandparents, you know,
everybody just kind of making sure that it was by
(10:29):
my own doing, how much I was doing it, and
I didn't feel that outside pressure to keep doing it
because I I played every sport under the sun growing up,
and then played basketball and golf in high school my
freshman year. So a little bit after that kind of
phase where I knew I had loved, I fell in
love with the game and wanted to keep doing it.
But still, you know, one to have that team sport,
you know, wanted to do with my buddy who's playing
(10:49):
golf or playing basketball, I mean, and but we were
pretty realistic about it and knew, you know, I had
had a good opportunity to continue to play and you know,
do this thing called college golf, which nobody in my area,
a small town northern California called Loomis, had sent any
golfers from there out of my high school to to
go play college off anywhere and at any any division.
(11:11):
And so it was just that unknown territory that I
kind of paved the way. But you know, as far
as expectations go, again, it was very low. I mean,
I didn't know what to expect and started qualifying for
some US Junior Amateurs, which I was fortunate enough to
get paired up with Jordan's Speth in my very first
one at Trump Bedminster in New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Okay, Yeah, that's that's an interesting pairing right out of
the gates.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
And right out of the gates my biggest first national tournament,
which my dad had always communicated me too, just you know, I,
if I was going to pursue this, you know, we
we were going to I had I had to play,
play and win tournaments and prove I was so good
player and one of the better players locally before I
start traveling around California and before I start traveling around
the West Coast, and then especially before I had any
consideration of going to play national tournaments. I mean, if
(11:58):
I was going to show up just to play, wasn't
going to be the case. It was, you know, feeling
like I was ready and prepared and kind of having
that mentality still amongst my professional career.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Yeah. How much did that help you though? From your
dad having that type of push And again, I know
you mentioned that, Hey, everybody was checking in to make
sure that you wanted it, and it wasn't just your
dad or your parents or other family members pushing you,
but you still had to have those you know, checkpoints,
and yeah, I had to have that, you know, intentionalism
(12:29):
to go out there and try to accomplish these.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Goals, especially when you know, was a lot of time,
time spent and still having a focus on my studies
to even be able to get into colleges and you know,
have a this decent sat act and then you know,
graduating college feeling prepared enough to pursue it professionally, which
was something that our coaches in college we were very
(12:55):
adamant about. You know, hey, you know we're going to
take care of our studies, but when you guys graduate SMU,
you know you're going to be ready to play professional golf.
And that was kind of the expectation and we all
had that same kind of joint mindset.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah. Austin Smotherman is our guest here on the Richmond
Weavers Show presented by Ingles Markets. Two times Corn Ferry
Tour winner this season in twenty twenty five, so absolutely
fantastic season so far, sitting number one in the points
list on the corn Ferry Tour and that quest for
getting the PGA Tour card for next year. All right,
(13:27):
So I do have to go back though to that
US junior though, but Jordia speak, please, yes, do you
give me the scoop the first tea box. What do
you remember about that?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
I remember seeing Jordan hit two back to back drives
and fairway bunkers off the first two holes, and he
was two under three two And I was like, my mom,
who was who took me to the tournament? We traveled
across country and whatnot, and you know, unbelievable lead up
to the tournament. Here we are playing and I get
paired with him. I learned all about it. You know,
(13:58):
obviously had followed him in his high you know, good
enough frank junior golfer that I knew who the number
one junior in the country was being himself, and proceeded that.
My mom had you know, conversations with his dad on
the cart path and she helped almost you know, some
questions here or there, and he was basically just introducing
her to college coaches and understanding what this this journey
(14:18):
of playing college golf was even going to look like.
So we kind of are very very thankful to them.
And then also that week I ended up I ended
up being an eight for one playoff for the sixty
fourth seed to play the number one seed, who is
Jordan's speed?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (14:32):
And I made it to the second hole with three
guys still after there was a couple of bogies on
the first one, and proceeded to have a twelve footer
to play him to force another hole and missed it.
Another guy had made birdie. He goes on to lose
to speak, probably seven and six or something like that.
And nowadays I'm actually, you know, work with the same
(14:52):
coach as Jordan, play out of the same course in Dallas.
See him all the time, and I still kind of
joke every now and again, you know, telling him, Hey,
I could I could have changed your whole career. I could.
I could have changed your whole career. Man, if I
won that playoff, take you out in the first round,
you don't win two US juniors. Who knows what happened.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Exactly, that's right, Or you might have given him the
motivation because he's at hell, I got to beat this
guy because he's coming after me right now.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Right exactly after after having played the previous two days together.
But yeah, that was that was an experience for sure,
and definitely kind of opened my eyes to to just
wanting to even you know, continue to improve and get better.
I mean, that was when I was sixteen, I think
fifteen or sixteen.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
So did that give you the confidence that, okay, I
can compete at this level.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yeah, definitely having college coaches be interested and see my
score stuck up on a course of you know USGA
caliber that I had never really seen before. Just that
kind of setup, that kind of competition left and right,
you look up and down the range and it's it's
just a stripe show, and we're all we're all junior golfers.
I mean I had, you know, some other good players
(15:59):
in my area. I grew up with Cameron Champ, John Katlan,
a couple others in the Sacramento area that have gone on.
And you know, Norcow produces a number of number of
golfers every year. There's kind of a good contingency out
here on the corn ferry right now with some guys
maybe in there first three years as a pro. So
here I am at thirty one years old, and I'm
the old guy.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
That's right, exactly, the real old guy. And I would
have to say that, you know, doing my research or
aka stalking as we got ready for this conversation, I
did see that your birthday is May nineteenth, So I'm
a May nineteenth celebratory birthday person as well. So let's
go Taurus.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Incredible right there, thank you? Yeah, I love it, great,
great birthday. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Austin Smotherman is our guest inside the Ropes right here
on the Richmond Weavers Show, presented by Ingles Markets. All right,
So the other question that I do have in reference
to your journey, hy smu though, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
You know, I got recruited by some other UC schools,
University California schools out you know, not too far from me,
U C. Davis, Sacramarul State. I wanted to go to
u C.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
L A.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
I wanted to go to USC. I wanted to go
to Stanford. Kind of all these big name schools, bastball
schools that I grew up always watching. They just they
recruited a little bit internationally and I really wasn't on
their radar somehow, you know, had these conversations. But also
just the way college golf works, you know, only four
and a half scholarships, and you know, I kind of
(17:35):
our family family needs, you know, we needed something substantial
to be able to go do it at the level
we wanted to and end up playing another junior tournament
in California. The week after Bryson had committed to play
college golf at SMU, our head coach Josh Gregory comes
out to watch him. We get paired together at the
cal State Junior Am and I proceeded to win win
(17:58):
that week over Bryson, who was who was trying to
go back to back. And Bryce and I had grown
up playing junior golf together since we were about twelve,
and here we are now seventeen, you know, trading off
tournament wins and kind of elevating our games. And he
the whole time had told me all about SMU for
that whole time, being on the cart path, you know,
one of my dad's best friends, who took me to
(18:19):
that tournament, and Josh we're chatting, and five a month
later or so, I was there on an official visit
and had this incredible opportunity in front of me to
go play college golf at SMU kind of with the
California contingency. Bryson was a part of my freshman class
as well as another my roommate in college, Ryan Burgess,
(18:39):
who was from Torrey Pines High School down in San Diego,
so we kind of had this trio of Californians coming
into SMU, because SMU had recruited California pretty lightly in
the past and kind of folk tried to get Texas
and had a little bit of international and some East
Coast kids, and yeah, Josh came in, taken over the
program that he had played college golf at and kind
(18:59):
of just took it to another level.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Yeah, and I would have to say, just what a
great feeling to be able to see not only what
you've been able to do so far with your career,
but the other individuals that you just mentioned, and obviously Bryson,
and the impact that these golfers are having both on
the PGA Tour and even live golf.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Yeah. Live. I mean you look at you know, there's
a there's a photo out there of our sophomore here
winning my sophomore year winning conference championship at the time
Conference USA at innisbrook Down in Tampa where they play
the Dallas Bar Tournament, and it's me, Harry and Bryce
is in the middle holding the trophy. And all three
of us were on tour together at the same time.
That insight because all of us got there at different
(19:39):
times and you know, all kind of holding each other's
hands just enough, because you know, that little bit, that
little bit of that edge, little something that they might
be able to share, can be the make or break difference,
you know, no question.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
As we're wrapping up with Austin Somemotherman Corn Ferry Tour
Pro and also two wins this season in twenty twenty
five the BMW Charity Pro and present by TD sent
X as you know back in June, and then also
just coming off of a victory at the Memorial Health
Championship presented by l RS there in Illinois. And so
(20:12):
also I do have to ask you though with you
talking about SMU, and of course we know it's still
golf season, we get that. Right around the corner is
college football season. And knowing that SMU they made.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Me talk about right now, they'll make me talk about
Clemson right now.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
That's right. You don't want to hear that. I'm a
Clemson grad. I get it, I understand, and that ACC championship.
But how are you in terms of following SMU and
their re emergence right now in college football?
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah? Super fun? You know the fall of the fall,
we get to as many games as we can schedule
permitting which this year we're actually down a little bit
sooner than than we haven't been in the past, and
so I'm hoping to make it to a few more games.
The atmosphere's changed, you know, the boulevard and that's to
us kind of tailgate before games. When I was in school,
(21:05):
you know, wasn't necessarily I mean, it was the tailgate
was the thing, but the game maybe was a bit
on the back burner. And nowadays. I mean, I was
fortunate enough to be on the field for the Pittsburgh
game this year when they was a ranked matchup, yes,
and that was awesome, And we had Bryce and Bryson
there too on the side, and he had the US
Open Trophy with them. They presented, they did a little
(21:26):
thing in the middle of the field, and then Bryson
took the trophy up into the student section and there's
a video of him running through it just with all
I mean, it was just wild. It was so fun.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
And that's the beauty of sports, just how it brings
people together and all of those things that can happen.
And obviously, as we talked about, college football is so
big here in the state of South Carolina, and we
won't mention Clemson. We won't say anything about Clemson.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Well my well, my my caddie Zach Williamson lived there
in Simpsonville and he's he's been there for thirteen fourteen
years now. But he's originally from Soccermento area and previously
caddy for Doc edmondrat So there's there's no avoiding it
for me. I'm gonna hear. I'm going to hear it
the rest of my career back on the bag, that's
for sure.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
That's right. Well, Altin hopefully we can get you to
the Clemson SMU game this year. It's here in Death Valley,
so you need to come participate in attendance there.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
That's that's a buck bucket list spot. That's a that's
a stadium that I don't know if I I might
be needing to roll a few few other golfers deep
to be able to make sure we don't get we
get ran out of there.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
I don't know about that. I think smut Lashley's doing
some positive things there on the football side.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
When when I when I when I was in when
I was in school, quick story for you. I remember
we were hitting wedges on the football field one time,
just off of a mat and we were had you know,
baseball gloves out there and we were catching them on
twenty thirty forty fifty yard lines. And Courtland Sutton was
in school and I had a couple couple classes with
them in the nice sports marketing degree, and he he
(22:58):
wanted to hit some shots one time, but I was
only fair because if we got as if we got
to throw touchdown passes to him. So so there's there.
We had a fun afternoon one time. We were all
hitting wedges and trying to teach him how to play
a little bit, and then we were throwing fade routes
to him in the end zones, trying to you know,
trying to score touchdowns is pretty often. I love it.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
So how many touchdown passes did you throw to him?
Come on, give us the numbers.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
I mean, he caught every single one of them. It
wasn't on the back end of my good throws. But
you know, we were all we were all rotating one
to throw a couple to him, you know, maybe three
or four each, just to not throw out our shoulders,
trying to do too much considering he'd touch a pass
from any NFL QB, you know, I love it.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Austin Smotherman is our guest, and Austin can't thank you
enough for taking the time out of your busy schedule
on the corn Ferry tour. And obviously i'd love to say, hey,
we got to get you back in the Upstate next
year for the BMW charity program presented by TD sin X.
But my goodness, my friend, you're number one on the
points list, so you're on that quest to get your
(23:57):
PGA tour card.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
I was actually poor enough to be surprised this morning
with the uh the so to solidify my spot and
the two on being tour bound and earning my PGA
tour card for next year. So they told me this
morning that it's locked up no matter what I do,
so I thought it was a pretty good feeling.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
So we just had some breaking news right here. Yeah,
on the show live. It's official. Let's go, my friend,
short tour bounds. I love it. Congratulations Austin, well deserved,
and I can't thank you enough for spending some time
here on the show today and definitely looking forward to
(24:38):
watching the rest of your career. And again, it's okay
you you can come back here to the Upstate and
you can come see some games at Clemson and we'll
we'll be okay, because hey, we're both we both have
May nineteenth birthdays, so we have to stay in touch.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
We we have to have to. Well, we'll follow up
each season and do a nice little recaptain hopefully. Yes,
you went, totals keep going up there.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
We go compete for those ACC championships and you go
get some wins on corn Ferry Tour and the PGA Tour.
I appreciate it. Thanks so much, Austin.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Thanks man.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
All Right, that is Austin Smotherman, Corn Ferry Tour pro
on his way to the PGA Tour next season, as
you heard it right here. And we'll continue the Richmond
Weavers Show presented by Ingles Markets right after this
From the fairways to the headlines. It's Inside the Ropes
driven by the BMW Charity Program presented by td sin X.
You're all access pass to golf's biggest names and best moments.
And it is time that we continue our weekly golf
segment Inside the Ropes driven by the BMW Charity Proram
(00:25):
presented by tdcin X. And why not go in and
have the champion of this past year back in June,
mister Alston Smotherman, as he was the winner of the
twenty twenty five BMW Charity pro Am presented by TDCINX.
And so, Alson, I know you're busy. You've also coming
off another victory on the corn Ferry Tour, so you've
(00:46):
got to be flying high. But I need to know
where is that trophy from the BMW Charity Program presented
by td CNX. That steering wheel. Where do you keep
that thing? Right now?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I love it? I love it. Thanks for having me, Richmond.
That staring wheel is still on my dining room table
right in the middle square is a nice little centerpiece
that I don't know if my wife would approve any
much for too much longer, but it's a it's a
worthy piece right there.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Oh, no question about it. And I saw some videos
with your daughters playing with it, so it's got to be.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
It's got to be on that table. If not, it's
probably gonna get too much play with it and spend it,
spin it off of its mount or something. Who knows
that my two girls that.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Play with it a good bit, yes, and walk us
through though. Just that putt that you had. I mean
it's like fifty feet for that opportunity of winning a
second Corn Ferry Tour this season, but just the put itself.
And maybe I wouldn't necessarily say, you know, being aggressive,
but you had the one shot lead, so you didn't
(01:50):
necessarily have to make that put But I guess maybe
you inspired JJ spawn goes a few weeks later, he
does that at the US Open. But just walk us
through that put and the feeling seeing that go in.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
He JJ made his on a pretty big stage, but
you know, the BMW charity program out there is a
big stage as well for us, and that week was
unforgettable to cap it off with that putt. I mean
my thought process going through it was really just, I mean,
good speed. Unfortunately I had kind of a similar field
put on seventeen right to left, kind of breaking down
(02:24):
to just lag it up there close and just knew
I could trust my feels as far as speed goes,
and there wasn't any kind of overthinking. I mean, my
process as far as reading the putt was very very
average time as far as spent to get comfortable over it,
and by that time just let it rip.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah. And I would have to say too that there's
something about having that type of confidence where you just
mentioned not overthinking things and not having that paralysis by analysis,
so to speak. But when did you know it was
going in how far back? As far as you know,
as it's getting close to me, when did you say,
all right, that looks good.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I mean I pretty much blacked out, I think from
the whole whole moment. But as far as as far
as getting getting that ball online the last maybe four
feet he kind of I actually raised my putter up unconsciously,
and the replay of the video I started, I left
it back. I was like, what was I think in
a putt to blip out? Putt could not even be close.
(03:23):
It's still got ways to go, and you know, I
can barely see it from my angle down the hill
and next thing you know, it goes and it disappears
and it's like tournaments over unconscious reaction. Fist pump, got
my caddy and I still got a walk and go
get my ball. And then I'm like, gosh, this is
a long wait.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
I really just did this exactly in front of the
big crowd also there on Sunday, And so there is
that moment of being able to showcase your talent and
the ability and obviously closing out of the big putt
right there to win the twenty twenty five BMW charity
program presented by TD sin Eggs. Austin Smotherman is our
(04:01):
guest here on Inside the Ropes on this edition of
the Richmond Weavers Show, presented by our good friends at
Ingles Markets, and so Austin, I know also the video
that is out there showing your mom being able to
watch it, and your wife and the family and all
of that. So how special was that also that they
got to see it on TV.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Oh, it's so special. I mean to have those memories
as much as as they would have been if it
wasn't televised, to have had them live it live. I mean,
there's a huge thanks to the whole tournament, and you know,
everybody there to want to televise and showcase, you know,
thorn Blade that whole week and all the celebrities and
(04:41):
professionals that don't get to be on TV too much
at this level. And you know, that's what we all
kind of want to get comfortable with, you know, having
cameras around you. As far as going to the PGA Tour,
you know, you can't can't avoid.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
It out there, that's right.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
And how different is it though in a tournament like
the BMW Charity Pro Am, because it's very unique that
you are paired up with amateurs and their celebrities that
are also involved. So how is that as a tour
pro and just that this is a little bit of
a different tournament that current type of tournament.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
For me, I think it's it's a bonus that I
had a member from my home course wanting to play
with me, and so I was able to bring along
my own am and I I talked up the tournament
to him and he knew that there was an opportunity
to play in an event like this, you know, similar
to the AT and T Pro Am on the PGA Tour,
and he wanted to. He wanted to jump in be
(05:32):
my partner. And I mean, I played so much golf
at home with other members and whatnot that are still
pretty good players. It just felt like any other day
out there playing all week. And you know, I threw
and threw in a little bit of the wrinkle, which
I'm sure we were going to talk to, but I'll
bring it up sooner than later. Is is my my
original caddy bowing out for a couple of days as
we started leading the golf tournament And I got Evan
(05:53):
EVANSSA on my bag.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
And talk about Evan say and just how he was
able to fill in local product obviously and a golfer
there at Belmont Abbey and a great story. But isn't
there something though about golfers. You want to have routine.
You don't want any interruptions regarding that routine, especially starting
in a tournament. So how how did that play out?
(06:17):
And how did you get settled in with a new.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Key all all of that week and kind of that
whole format. It was the back end of my fourth
week in a row, you know, playing playing good golf,
but the the monotonous and the mundane kind of things
just you know, four weeks in a row doing the
same thing every single day. I mean I could tell
you my schedule from you know, nine to seven pm
(06:41):
basically like a day. I could tell you what I'm doing,
no matter what video I'm in, and those kinds of
those kinds of things could maybe you know, trying to
keep them too perfect and maybe lead a little bit
that anxiety and so having this kind of wrinkle as
far as you know, my usual caddie drop in, you know,
I just their expectations dropped my my there was there
was what the pressure, kind of pressure to play well
(07:01):
was maybe kind of dropped, and it was I'm just
going to go enjoy my time with this kid who
I just met forty five minutes ago, and I'm going
to embrace it because there's no way around it. Right now.
I got I got at least eighteen holes with them,
and it was fortunate to not have to play Carolina
Country Club in the rain that morning and have the
afternoon tea time. So definitely the wave split kind of
(07:21):
helped as well.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Again going back to that you didn't have to overthink
things and just allow it to play out, because there
is something about there's certain things you can't control. But
as a golfer, are there so many times, though, Alston,
that you want to control because you're wanting to control
this shot, You're wanting to control your putt, you know, respond,
(07:43):
But how again, at some point you just got to
let it go because you can't control everything.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, yeah, And that's that's what we're all out here
trying to trying to, you know, at every level, trying
to refine as far as what's your process and how
to how to do that? More and more frequently are
there weeks where you know, maybe you're not so good
at it, but still have a good week. Absolutely, I mean,
so we all work so hard to kind of, you know,
eliminate that variance from week to week if things are different,
(08:09):
because invariably, you know, our bodies are different every single day,
and we work to try and keep them, keep them
feeling the same. But inherently, just you know, by nature,
you could just sleep wrong on your pillow, wake up
with a peak neck, and now you got to figure
out how to rotate and get the ball around, you know,
for the next five hours.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
That's right, all right? So you talked about you would
know you could recite your schedule from you know, nine
am to seven pm each and every day. All right,
So tomorrow, we know you're going to be out in
the Denver area TELUS. What do you want to be
doing at ten am tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Ten am tomorrow? So this is this is a little
bit of a wrinkle. But I wasn't expecting my pro
am time to be at six thirty am tomorrow. But
it is, I guess the blessing, the blessing and the
curse of being high on the points list and going
down the list as far as tea times go, is
I'm first off at six thirty here at tp SE,
(09:00):
Colorado tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
By ten o'clock, I'll have already had my second breakfast
and I will definitely be wrapping up probably some practice
by eleven and shutting it down for at least, you know,
at least the next twenty four hours if I have
an afternoon tea time, which I'll get tea times here
in the next next thirty forty minutes or so.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Wow, Yes, that's early, my friend.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
But tip tip typically any any Wednesday pro am time,
I mean I've been early most of this season, and
I'll finish up my nine holes a little bit of
light practice as far as whatever we got to address,
and then always finish up my Wednesdays with some lag
speed putting before I go go shut it down before
a first round.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
There you go. Austin Smotherman is our guest right here
inside the Ropes on the Richmond Weavers Show presented by
Ingles Markets, on one of four nine Fox Sports Upstate.
All right, so, Austin, I do need to just jump
back in a little bit of history with you. I
love history, and I love kind of hearing the genesis
and the beginnings, and especially in sports, because there's so
(09:58):
many things that we can learn from sports, life lessons,
et cetera. I can go through the list of cliches
and I know you've heard them all. When did you
first fall in love with golf?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I would say really fell in love with it when
I was twelve thirteen. As far as seeing myself grow
as a player, playing in more playing in more tournaments,
and also having a really kind of hurt to heart
conversation with my mom, dad, both sides, both grandparents, you know,
everybody just kind of making sure that it was by
(10:29):
my own doing, how much I was doing it, and
I didn't feel that outside pressure to keep doing it
because I I played every sport under the sun growing up,
and then played basketball and golf in high school my
freshman year. So a little bit after that kind of
phase where I knew I had loved, I fell in
love with the game and wanted to keep doing it.
But still, you know, one to have that team sport,
you know, wanted to do with my buddy who's playing
(10:49):
golf or playing basketball, I mean, and but we were
pretty realistic about it and knew, you know, I had
had a good opportunity to continue to play and you know,
do this thing called college golf, which nobody in my area,
a small town northern California called Loomis, had sent any
golfers from there out of my high school to to
go play college off anywhere and at any any division.
(11:11):
And so it was just that unknown territory that I
kind of paved the way. But you know, as far
as expectations go, again, it was very low. I mean,
I didn't know what to expect and started qualifying for
some US Junior Amateurs, which I was fortunate enough to
get paired up with Jordan's Speth in my very first
one at Trump Bedminster in New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Okay, Yeah, that's that's an interesting pairing right out of
the gates.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
And right out of the gates my biggest first national tournament,
which my dad had always communicated me too, just you know, I,
if I was going to pursue this, you know, we
we were going to I had I had to play,
play and win tournaments and prove I was so good
player and one of the better players locally before I
start traveling around California and before I start traveling around
the West Coast, and then especially before I had any
consideration of going to play national tournaments. I mean, if
(11:58):
I was going to show up just to play, wasn't
going to be the case. It was, you know, feeling
like I was ready and prepared and kind of having
that mentality still amongst my professional career.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Yeah. How much did that help you though? From your
dad having that type of push And again, I know
you mentioned that, Hey, everybody was checking in to make
sure that you wanted it, and it wasn't just your
dad or your parents or other family members pushing you,
but you still had to have those you know, checkpoints,
and yeah, I had to have that, you know, intentionalism
(12:29):
to go out there and try to accomplish these.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Goals, especially when you know, was a lot of time,
time spent and still having a focus on my studies
to even be able to get into colleges and you know,
have a this decent sat act and then you know,
graduating college feeling prepared enough to pursue it professionally, which
was something that our coaches in college we were very
(12:55):
adamant about. You know, hey, you know we're going to
take care of our studies, but when you guys graduate SMU,
you know you're going to be ready to play professional golf.
And that was kind of the expectation and we all
had that same kind of joint mindset.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah. Austin Smotherman is our guest here on the Richmond
Weavers Show presented by Ingles Markets. Two times Corn Ferry
Tour winner this season in twenty twenty five, so absolutely
fantastic season so far, sitting number one in the points
list on the corn Ferry Tour and that quest for
getting the PGA Tour card for next year. All right,
(13:27):
So I do have to go back though to that
US junior though, but Jordia speak, please, yes, do you
give me the scoop the first tea box. What do
you remember about that?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
I remember seeing Jordan hit two back to back drives
and fairway bunkers off the first two holes, and he
was two under three two And I was like, my mom,
who was who took me to the tournament? We traveled
across country and whatnot, and you know, unbelievable lead up
to the tournament. Here we are playing and I get
paired with him. I learned all about it. You know,
(13:58):
obviously had followed him in his high you know, good
enough frank junior golfer that I knew who the number
one junior in the country was being himself, and proceeded that.
My mom had you know, conversations with his dad on
the cart path and she helped almost you know, some
questions here or there, and he was basically just introducing
her to college coaches and understanding what this this journey
(14:18):
of playing college golf was even going to look like.
So we kind of are very very thankful to them.
And then also that week I ended up I ended
up being an eight for one playoff for the sixty
fourth seed to play the number one seed, who is
Jordan's speed?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (14:32):
And I made it to the second hole with three
guys still after there was a couple of bogies on
the first one, and proceeded to have a twelve footer
to play him to force another hole and missed it.
Another guy had made birdie. He goes on to lose
to speak, probably seven and six or something like that.
And nowadays I'm actually, you know, work with the same
(14:52):
coach as Jordan, play out of the same course in Dallas.
See him all the time, and I still kind of
joke every now and again, you know, telling him, Hey,
I could I could have changed your whole career. I could.
I could have changed your whole career. Man, if I
won that playoff, take you out in the first round,
you don't win two US juniors. Who knows what happened.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Exactly, that's right, Or you might have given him the
motivation because he's at hell, I got to beat this
guy because he's coming after me right now.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Right exactly after after having played the previous two days together.
But yeah, that was that was an experience for sure,
and definitely kind of opened my eyes to to just
wanting to even you know, continue to improve and get better.
I mean, that was when I was sixteen, I think
fifteen or sixteen.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
So did that give you the confidence that, okay, I
can compete at this level.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yeah, definitely having college coaches be interested and see my
score stuck up on a course of you know USGA
caliber that I had never really seen before. Just that
kind of setup, that kind of competition left and right,
you look up and down the range and it's it's
just a stripe show, and we're all we're all junior golfers.
I mean I had, you know, some other good players
(15:59):
in my area. I grew up with Cameron Champ, John Katlan,
a couple others in the Sacramento area that have gone on.
And you know, Norcow produces a number of number of
golfers every year. There's kind of a good contingency out
here on the corn ferry right now with some guys
maybe in there first three years as a pro. So
here I am at thirty one years old, and I'm
the old guy.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
That's right, exactly, the real old guy. And I would
have to say that, you know, doing my research or
aka stalking as we got ready for this conversation, I
did see that your birthday is May nineteenth, So I'm
a May nineteenth celebratory birthday person as well. So let's
go Taurus.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Incredible right there, thank you? Yeah, I love it, great,
great birthday. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Austin Smotherman is our guest inside the Ropes right here
on the Richmond Weavers Show, presented by Ingles Markets. All right,
So the other question that I do have in reference
to your journey, hy smu though, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
You know, I got recruited by some other UC schools,
University California schools out you know, not too far from me,
U C. Davis, Sacramarul State. I wanted to go to
u C.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
L A.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
I wanted to go to USC. I wanted to go
to Stanford. Kind of all these big name schools, bastball
schools that I grew up always watching. They just they
recruited a little bit internationally and I really wasn't on
their radar somehow, you know, had these conversations. But also
just the way college golf works, you know, only four
and a half scholarships, and you know, I kind of
(17:35):
our family family needs, you know, we needed something substantial
to be able to go do it at the level
we wanted to and end up playing another junior tournament
in California. The week after Bryson had committed to play
college golf at SMU, our head coach Josh Gregory comes
out to watch him. We get paired together at the
cal State Junior Am and I proceeded to win win
(17:58):
that week over Bryson, who was who was trying to
go back to back. And Bryce and I had grown
up playing junior golf together since we were about twelve,
and here we are now seventeen, you know, trading off
tournament wins and kind of elevating our games. And he
the whole time had told me all about SMU for
that whole time, being on the cart path, you know,
one of my dad's best friends, who took me to
(18:19):
that tournament, and Josh we're chatting, and five a month
later or so, I was there on an official visit
and had this incredible opportunity in front of me to
go play college golf at SMU kind of with the
California contingency. Bryson was a part of my freshman class
as well as another my roommate in college, Ryan Burgess,
(18:39):
who was from Torrey Pines High School down in San Diego,
so we kind of had this trio of Californians coming
into SMU, because SMU had recruited California pretty lightly in
the past and kind of folk tried to get Texas
and had a little bit of international and some East
Coast kids, and yeah, Josh came in, taken over the
program that he had played college golf at and kind
(18:59):
of just took it to another level.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Yeah, and I would have to say, just what a
great feeling to be able to see not only what
you've been able to do so far with your career,
but the other individuals that you just mentioned, and obviously Bryson,
and the impact that these golfers are having both on
the PGA Tour and even live golf.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Yeah. Live. I mean you look at you know, there's
a there's a photo out there of our sophomore here
winning my sophomore year winning conference championship at the time
Conference USA at innisbrook Down in Tampa where they play
the Dallas Bar Tournament, and it's me, Harry and Bryce
is in the middle holding the trophy. And all three
of us were on tour together at the same time.
That insight because all of us got there at different
(19:39):
times and you know, all kind of holding each other's
hands just enough, because you know, that little bit, that
little bit of that edge, little something that they might
be able to share, can be the make or break difference,
you know, no question.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
As we're wrapping up with Austin Somemotherman Corn Ferry Tour
Pro and also two wins this season in twenty twenty
five the BMW Charity Pro and present by TD sent
X as you know back in June, and then also
just coming off of a victory at the Memorial Health
Championship presented by l RS there in Illinois. And so
(20:12):
also I do have to ask you though with you
talking about SMU, and of course we know it's still
golf season, we get that. Right around the corner is
college football season. And knowing that SMU they made.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Me talk about right now, they'll make me talk about
Clemson right now.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
That's right. You don't want to hear that. I'm a
Clemson grad. I get it, I understand, and that ACC championship.
But how are you in terms of following SMU and
their re emergence right now in college football?
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah? Super fun? You know the fall of the fall,
we get to as many games as we can schedule
permitting which this year we're actually down a little bit
sooner than than we haven't been in the past, and
so I'm hoping to make it to a few more games.
The atmosphere's changed, you know, the boulevard and that's to
us kind of tailgate before games. When I was in school,
(21:05):
you know, wasn't necessarily I mean, it was the tailgate
was the thing, but the game maybe was a bit
on the back burner. And nowadays. I mean, I was
fortunate enough to be on the field for the Pittsburgh
game this year when they was a ranked matchup, yes,
and that was awesome, And we had Bryce and Bryson
there too on the side, and he had the US
Open Trophy with them. They presented, they did a little
(21:26):
thing in the middle of the field, and then Bryson
took the trophy up into the student section and there's
a video of him running through it just with all
I mean, it was just wild. It was so fun.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
And that's the beauty of sports, just how it brings
people together and all of those things that can happen.
And obviously, as we talked about, college football is so
big here in the state of South Carolina, and we
won't mention Clemson. We won't say anything about Clemson.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Well my well, my my caddie Zach Williamson lived there
in Simpsonville and he's he's been there for thirteen fourteen
years now. But he's originally from Soccermento area and previously
caddy for Doc edmondrat So there's there's no avoiding it
for me. I'm gonna hear. I'm going to hear it
the rest of my career back on the bag, that's
for sure.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
That's right. Well, Altin hopefully we can get you to
the Clemson SMU game this year. It's here in Death Valley,
so you need to come participate in attendance there.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
That's that's a buck bucket list spot. That's a that's
a stadium that I don't know if I I might
be needing to roll a few few other golfers deep
to be able to make sure we don't get we
get ran out of there.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
I don't know about that. I think smut Lashley's doing
some positive things there on the football side.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
When when I when I when I was in when
I was in school, quick story for you. I remember
we were hitting wedges on the football field one time,
just off of a mat and we were had you know,
baseball gloves out there and we were catching them on
twenty thirty forty fifty yard lines. And Courtland Sutton was
in school and I had a couple couple classes with
them in the nice sports marketing degree, and he he
(22:58):
wanted to hit some shots one time, but I was
only fair because if we got as if we got
to throw touchdown passes to him. So so there's there.
We had a fun afternoon one time. We were all
hitting wedges and trying to teach him how to play
a little bit, and then we were throwing fade routes
to him in the end zones, trying to you know,
trying to score touchdowns is pretty often. I love it.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
So how many touchdown passes did you throw to him?
Come on, give us the numbers.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
I mean, he caught every single one of them. It
wasn't on the back end of my good throws. But
you know, we were all we were all rotating one
to throw a couple to him, you know, maybe three
or four each, just to not throw out our shoulders,
trying to do too much considering he'd touch a pass
from any NFL QB, you know, I love it.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Austin Smotherman is our guest, and Austin can't thank you
enough for taking the time out of your busy schedule
on the corn Ferry tour. And obviously i'd love to say, hey,
we got to get you back in the Upstate next
year for the BMW charity program presented by TD sin X.
But my goodness, my friend, you're number one on the
points list, so you're on that quest to get your
(23:57):
PGA tour card.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
I was actually poor enough to be surprised this morning
with the uh the so to solidify my spot and
the two on being tour bound and earning my PGA
tour card for next year. So they told me this
morning that it's locked up no matter what I do,
so I thought it was a pretty good feeling.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
So we just had some breaking news right here. Yeah,
on the show live. It's official. Let's go, my friend,
short tour bounds. I love it. Congratulations Austin, well deserved,
and I can't thank you enough for spending some time
here on the show today and definitely looking forward to
(24:38):
watching the rest of your career. And again, it's okay
you you can come back here to the Upstate and
you can come see some games at Clemson and we'll
we'll be okay, because hey, we're both we both have
May nineteenth birthdays, so we have to stay in touch.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
We we have to have to. Well, we'll follow up
each season and do a nice little recaptain hopefully. Yes,
you went, totals keep going up there.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
We go compete for those ACC championships and you go
get some wins on corn Ferry Tour and the PGA Tour.
I appreciate it. Thanks so much, Austin.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Thanks man.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
All Right, that is Austin Smotherman, Corn Ferry Tour pro
on his way to the PGA Tour next season, as
you heard it right here. And we'll continue the Richmond
Weavers Show presented by Ingles Markets right after this
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