June 28, 2025 • 11 mins
Professional Golfer and San Antonio native talks about his rise on the Tour.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome back to the Ticket seven sixty Golf Show. My
name is Dacon moun In for Andy Everett. Andy. We'll
be back here next Saturday morning. If you've got a
question comment about golf, give us a call at two
one zero seven three six nine seven sixty. We're very
happy to have this fine young man on the air
with us right now. He made his debut on the
PGA Tour a couple of weeks ago at the US Open,
which we'll talk about momentarily. He's from San Antonio, originally
(00:27):
went to Baylor University. His name is Johnny Keefer. Johnny,
good morning, Welcome to the Ticket seven sixty Golf Show.
How are you, young man?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Good morning, I'm good.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
How are you? I'm doing fine? Thank you. Now, when
I talk with you briefly before we start talking about golf,
you are engaged because you mentioned your fiance and when
will you be getting married? Is it going to be
this year? Next year?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
We haven't figured that, you know, It's all happened so
fast with the scheduling and everything, and she's actually in
med school right now, so we're both trying to figure
out a nice time to do that.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Okay, one word of car here. You ever notice how
the words fiance and finance or are so close together.
Keep that in mind, Okay for future reference.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Okay, yeah, all.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Right, Johnny Keepers, I guess you're from San Antonio Originally.
Where'd you go to high school?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I went to San Antonio Johnson, you know, right around
the corner from TPC San Antonio, which is where I
grew up playing.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Okay, now you have been under the instruction of the
great Brian Gathright, how how did the two of you
hook up?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
You know, Brian's coached a lot of great players. You know,
I've heard of him. I actually I had going to
him in Oak Hills. I wasn't quite mature enough for that,
you know, I wanted to he wanted to change a
few things, and I wasn't down for change quite yet.
But then a few years later, you know, when Mac
Meizer kind of hit the ground running and Mitchell Meisner
(01:50):
hit the ground running, I kind of looked over and
I was like, yeah, he's probably probably still the right guy.
So I ended up going back to see him, probably
when I was closer around sixteen or seventeen, and have
him looked back since my coach and you know, very
loyal to Brian and what he's done, and he's kind
of received the same thing. It's his loyalty and you know,
(02:15):
his hard work has proven to be really nice for me.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
If you're just joining us, we're talking with PGA Tour
golfer who was a number one rank on the corn
Ferry Tour as well. His name is Johnny Keiefer. Johnny,
you had some great success on the last ten events
of last summer as well up in Canada. From what
I understand, you finished nineteenth, ninth, sixth, fifth, fourth, third, fourth,
second place finishes and then a win to finish first
(02:42):
last year which got you onto the tour. You've got
your full exemption right now for this year on the
corn Ferry Tour, as well as an exemption into next
year as well. But tell us about your experience when
you were arriving at the US Open two weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah, it was unlike anything else that i'd experienced. You know,
the US Open is probably one of the biggest tournaments
in all of golf. I don't think that there's a
second to I don't think it's second to really any
It's an unbelievable, unbelievable experience. Oakmont was one of the
(03:19):
toughest tests that I'd ever seen, And I would say
it's only second to the US Open at Oakmont or
the U s am at Oakmont a few years earlier,
So you know, yeah, the US Open. It's a completely
different animals, a lot a lot of different people from
(03:40):
all over the world trying to kind of compete, and
obviously the best players in the world are trying to
compete and win a major. So I was really really
fortunate to qualify and really fortunate to play the weekend
there and play against some of the best players in
the world.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Now, who were you basically paired up with and did
you have these nerves going through your b anything? Okay,
I wonder who I'm going to be playing with. Am
I going to be nervous? What am I going to do?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Obviously I was a little bit more nervous for maybe
the first t shot than I would be in you know,
most other events. But I think for the most part,
I usually try and just play my own game, go
out there, you know, play the course, because that's really
what it's about about you versus the course, not really
any other player and how they're playing or you know,
(04:27):
Oakmont's a tough course, so regardless, I don't really know
if anyone else really figured it out. JJ Spond obviously
was the only person who shot under par. But you know,
it's it was an it was an opportunity to learn.
I learned a lot from you know, a bunch of
different players, uh, in the practice rounds between Colin Moore
(04:48):
Kawa and Maverick McNeely, both you know, top players in
the world. And then you know, during the tournament, I
got paired with Michael cam who's he's a great golfer
good as well, and then you know, it's just kind
of you know, yeah, just played with a decent amount
(05:08):
of good players, which is a great opportunity to learn
and hope, I hope I can keep doing that in
the future.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Johnny Keeper is our guest team, made his appearance at
the US Open two weeks ago. He was currently ranked
number eighty one on the official World Golf rankings. Johnny,
how does that feel to be number eighty one? And
I'm sure you're going to go up higher? How do
you feel about everything right now where you are? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
No, I feel great, But just like anything else, obviously,
I'd hope to be a little bit higher. You know,
being eighty one on the corn Ferries is really really
hard to do, and I'm really proud of myself for it.
But at the same time, every week is a new
opportunity to learn, to grow and obviously try and try
(05:51):
and climb that ranking as much as possible. So I'm
going to try and continue to do what I've been
doing on the corn Ferry for the rest of this year,
and then next year on the PJ Tour hope to
hope to improve upon that and continue to, you know,
learn and try and be successful.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
When you were at the US Open, did you find
yourself being so much starstruck by seeing these great names
that you've seen maybe only on TV in certain cases.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yeah, no, I mean I definitely was a little bit starstruck.
I kind of gave myself one or two days to
kind of look at everyone else and see it. But
you know, thankfully I played the PGA Championship just a
few weeks before that, and I got to see some
of the same players, you know, arguably arguably one of
(06:42):
the best fields in call it in per professional golf
as well, So I wasn't necessarily quite as starstruck the
second time around. Obviously it's so great to see and
I was more, you know, I was more struck by
the course. You know. It's just it's such an incredible
course that we got to play, and such a you know,
(07:03):
such an awesome course just to go out and try
and see where my game was. So, you know, I
think the more that I play these events, and the
more that opportunities that I get like that, I'm gonna
get less and less starstruck and more and more focused
on my game. So hopefully the more more opportunities that
I get, you know, maybe I can perform and play
(07:25):
how I would like.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Johnny keepers our guess, Johnny, before we get off the
topic of the US Open, we've all heard what they
do to the chorus with the rough and so forth.
So what was it like for you when you hit
off the fairway and into the rough of the first time.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I think I was playing a Saturday practice round, just
just just to play a little bit. I missed the
first hole and just I mean maybe maybe a yard
off of my mark, and I'd gone in and we
were probably looking for my ball for three four minutes.
(08:05):
There were no spotters out there. We had no idea
where the ball was, and at the end of the
day we just ended up dropping a lot of golf
balls in the rough because we couldn't find it off
the tee.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
It's it's seriously thick, and there's not a lot that
you can do. There were a lot of times where
maybe if you drew a really good lie you could
try and run something up with be like a nine iron,
but everything else was pretty much a wedge or or
sixty degree trying to just spling as hard as we
(08:36):
can to get it forty yards out. You know, it's
it's it's the real deal. It's really sick. And as
professional golfers, we have a lot of speed too, so
it's for us to you know, only imagine a sixty
degree for forty yards out in front of you. Is,
you know, a little bit different than what we what
we play every day.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
So on a scale of one to ten, would you
rate the rough at the US Open to be in
terms of most difficult ten or even higher?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Possibly probably even higher. There's not many places, if any place,
that I'd ever played quite as thick as that, you know,
there were not very many places that you lose a
golf ball just off a fairway with no one else around,
So I'm really thankful that they had spotters out there.
(09:27):
And yeah, I would just I would just rate it
as very very hard, by the hardest I'd ever played
in my entire life.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Johnny Keepers, I guess Johnny was starting to wind down.
You've got two majors under your belt, of course, the
PGA and the US Open. Will you be going to
play the British Opening here very soon?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Probably not. You know, I'm going to focus on trying
to play the corn fur as much as possible, try
and get as many points as possible. I'm actually taking
a week off this week, and because I had just
played nine weeks for the last ten weeks, so I'm
gonna to try and take two weeks off, get a
little bit refreshed, get the body back to where it
(10:03):
should be, and then uh hit the ground running and
try and finish these last ten events off with uh,
you know, my best efforts.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
I understand that you also are the only three time
Big twelve Men's Golf Scholar Athlete of the Year in conferences. Great,
and so obviously you've got quite a bit going and
going on in between your ears up up there. You
obviously got some great uh some great grades in your
in your college, your career at Baylor.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, no, I had a you know, I had a
good uh you know, academic career. I finished with two major,
two majors in accounting and business management. You know, I
think that's really important for me, and I like to
see myself as more of a more than a golfer.
So to be able to you know, complete my academic
(10:55):
career at Baylor and also be successful golf course, I
think is really I think an important balance for me.
And I had a lot of good advice, you know,
between coaches and my family kind of pushing me towards that.
So I'm really proud of myself and proud of you know,
(11:16):
my team around me to kind of help me out
with that.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Well, Johnny Keifer, I thank you very much for taking
time out of your schedule. Nothing but the best to
you going forward, and hopefully we'll meet you next year
if you come to San Antonio for the Valero Texas Open.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Thank you. Yeah, thanks for having me on. I really
appreciate and look forward to it.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
All right, Johnny, thank you so much. You'd be safe
and congrats again on your engagement as well. Nothing but
the best to you. Thank you. All right, it is
a ticket seven sixty golf show. Next we're going to
be chatting with a gentleman who is a superintendent. I
wanted San Antonio's find golf courses right here in the
Alamo City.
Welcome back to the Ticket seven sixty Golf Show. My
name is Dacon moun In for Andy Everett. Andy. We'll
be back here next Saturday morning. If you've got a
question comment about golf, give us a call at two
one zero seven three six nine seven sixty. We're very
happy to have this fine young man on the air
with us right now. He made his debut on the
PGA Tour a couple of weeks ago at the US Open,
which we'll talk about momentarily. He's from San Antonio, originally
(00:27):
went to Baylor University. His name is Johnny Keefer. Johnny,
good morning, Welcome to the Ticket seven sixty Golf Show.
How are you, young man?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Good morning, I'm good.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
How are you? I'm doing fine? Thank you. Now, when
I talk with you briefly before we start talking about golf,
you are engaged because you mentioned your fiance and when
will you be getting married? Is it going to be
this year? Next year?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
We haven't figured that, you know, It's all happened so
fast with the scheduling and everything, and she's actually in
med school right now, so we're both trying to figure
out a nice time to do that.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Okay, one word of car here. You ever notice how
the words fiance and finance or are so close together.
Keep that in mind, Okay for future reference.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Okay, yeah, all.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Right, Johnny Keepers, I guess you're from San Antonio Originally.
Where'd you go to high school?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I went to San Antonio Johnson, you know, right around
the corner from TPC San Antonio, which is where I
grew up playing.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Okay, now you have been under the instruction of the
great Brian Gathright, how how did the two of you
hook up?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
You know, Brian's coached a lot of great players. You know,
I've heard of him. I actually I had going to
him in Oak Hills. I wasn't quite mature enough for that,
you know, I wanted to he wanted to change a
few things, and I wasn't down for change quite yet.
But then a few years later, you know, when Mac
Meizer kind of hit the ground running and Mitchell Meisner
(01:50):
hit the ground running, I kind of looked over and
I was like, yeah, he's probably probably still the right guy.
So I ended up going back to see him, probably
when I was closer around sixteen or seventeen, and have
him looked back since my coach and you know, very
loyal to Brian and what he's done, and he's kind
of received the same thing. It's his loyalty and you know,
(02:15):
his hard work has proven to be really nice for me.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
If you're just joining us, we're talking with PGA Tour
golfer who was a number one rank on the corn
Ferry Tour as well. His name is Johnny Keiefer. Johnny,
you had some great success on the last ten events
of last summer as well up in Canada. From what
I understand, you finished nineteenth, ninth, sixth, fifth, fourth, third, fourth,
second place finishes and then a win to finish first
(02:42):
last year which got you onto the tour. You've got
your full exemption right now for this year on the
corn Ferry Tour, as well as an exemption into next
year as well. But tell us about your experience when
you were arriving at the US Open two weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah, it was unlike anything else that i'd experienced. You know,
the US Open is probably one of the biggest tournaments
in all of golf. I don't think that there's a
second to I don't think it's second to really any
It's an unbelievable, unbelievable experience. Oakmont was one of the
(03:19):
toughest tests that I'd ever seen, And I would say
it's only second to the US Open at Oakmont or
the U s am at Oakmont a few years earlier,
So you know, yeah, the US Open. It's a completely
different animals, a lot a lot of different people from
(03:40):
all over the world trying to kind of compete, and
obviously the best players in the world are trying to
compete and win a major. So I was really really
fortunate to qualify and really fortunate to play the weekend
there and play against some of the best players in
the world.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Now, who were you basically paired up with and did
you have these nerves going through your b anything? Okay,
I wonder who I'm going to be playing with. Am
I going to be nervous? What am I going to do?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Obviously I was a little bit more nervous for maybe
the first t shot than I would be in you know,
most other events. But I think for the most part,
I usually try and just play my own game, go
out there, you know, play the course, because that's really
what it's about about you versus the course, not really
any other player and how they're playing or you know,
(04:27):
Oakmont's a tough course, so regardless, I don't really know
if anyone else really figured it out. JJ Spond obviously
was the only person who shot under par. But you know,
it's it was an it was an opportunity to learn.
I learned a lot from you know, a bunch of
different players, uh, in the practice rounds between Colin Moore
(04:48):
Kawa and Maverick McNeely, both you know, top players in
the world. And then you know, during the tournament, I
got paired with Michael cam who's he's a great golfer
good as well, and then you know, it's just kind
of you know, yeah, just played with a decent amount
(05:08):
of good players, which is a great opportunity to learn
and hope, I hope I can keep doing that in
the future.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Johnny Keeper is our guest team, made his appearance at
the US Open two weeks ago. He was currently ranked
number eighty one on the official World Golf rankings. Johnny,
how does that feel to be number eighty one? And
I'm sure you're going to go up higher? How do
you feel about everything right now where you are? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
No, I feel great, But just like anything else, obviously,
I'd hope to be a little bit higher. You know,
being eighty one on the corn Ferries is really really
hard to do, and I'm really proud of myself for it.
But at the same time, every week is a new
opportunity to learn, to grow and obviously try and try
(05:51):
and climb that ranking as much as possible. So I'm
going to try and continue to do what I've been
doing on the corn Ferry for the rest of this year,
and then next year on the PJ Tour hope to
hope to improve upon that and continue to, you know,
learn and try and be successful.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
When you were at the US Open, did you find
yourself being so much starstruck by seeing these great names
that you've seen maybe only on TV in certain cases.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yeah, no, I mean I definitely was a little bit starstruck.
I kind of gave myself one or two days to
kind of look at everyone else and see it. But
you know, thankfully I played the PGA Championship just a
few weeks before that, and I got to see some
of the same players, you know, arguably arguably one of
(06:42):
the best fields in call it in per professional golf
as well, So I wasn't necessarily quite as starstruck the
second time around. Obviously it's so great to see and
I was more, you know, I was more struck by
the course. You know. It's just it's such an incredible
course that we got to play, and such a you know,
(07:03):
such an awesome course just to go out and try
and see where my game was. So, you know, I
think the more that I play these events, and the
more that opportunities that I get like that, I'm gonna
get less and less starstruck and more and more focused
on my game. So hopefully the more more opportunities that
I get, you know, maybe I can perform and play
(07:25):
how I would like.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Johnny keepers our guess, Johnny, before we get off the
topic of the US Open, we've all heard what they
do to the chorus with the rough and so forth.
So what was it like for you when you hit
off the fairway and into the rough of the first time.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I think I was playing a Saturday practice round, just
just just to play a little bit. I missed the
first hole and just I mean maybe maybe a yard
off of my mark, and I'd gone in and we
were probably looking for my ball for three four minutes.
(08:05):
There were no spotters out there. We had no idea
where the ball was, and at the end of the
day we just ended up dropping a lot of golf
balls in the rough because we couldn't find it off
the tee.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
It's it's seriously thick, and there's not a lot that
you can do. There were a lot of times where
maybe if you drew a really good lie you could
try and run something up with be like a nine iron,
but everything else was pretty much a wedge or or
sixty degree trying to just spling as hard as we
(08:36):
can to get it forty yards out. You know, it's
it's it's the real deal. It's really sick. And as
professional golfers, we have a lot of speed too, so
it's for us to you know, only imagine a sixty
degree for forty yards out in front of you. Is,
you know, a little bit different than what we what
we play every day.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
So on a scale of one to ten, would you
rate the rough at the US Open to be in
terms of most difficult ten or even higher?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Possibly probably even higher. There's not many places, if any place,
that I'd ever played quite as thick as that, you know,
there were not very many places that you lose a
golf ball just off a fairway with no one else around,
So I'm really thankful that they had spotters out there.
(09:27):
And yeah, I would just I would just rate it
as very very hard, by the hardest I'd ever played
in my entire life.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Johnny Keepers, I guess Johnny was starting to wind down.
You've got two majors under your belt, of course, the
PGA and the US Open. Will you be going to
play the British Opening here very soon?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Probably not. You know, I'm going to focus on trying
to play the corn fur as much as possible, try
and get as many points as possible. I'm actually taking
a week off this week, and because I had just
played nine weeks for the last ten weeks, so I'm
gonna to try and take two weeks off, get a
little bit refreshed, get the body back to where it
(10:03):
should be, and then uh hit the ground running and
try and finish these last ten events off with uh,
you know, my best efforts.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
I understand that you also are the only three time
Big twelve Men's Golf Scholar Athlete of the Year in conferences. Great,
and so obviously you've got quite a bit going and
going on in between your ears up up there. You
obviously got some great uh some great grades in your
in your college, your career at Baylor.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, no, I had a you know, I had a
good uh you know, academic career. I finished with two major,
two majors in accounting and business management. You know, I
think that's really important for me, and I like to
see myself as more of a more than a golfer.
So to be able to you know, complete my academic
(10:55):
career at Baylor and also be successful golf course, I
think is really I think an important balance for me.
And I had a lot of good advice, you know,
between coaches and my family kind of pushing me towards that.
So I'm really proud of myself and proud of you know,
(11:16):
my team around me to kind of help me out
with that.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Well, Johnny Keifer, I thank you very much for taking
time out of your schedule. Nothing but the best to
you going forward, and hopefully we'll meet you next year
if you come to San Antonio for the Valero Texas Open.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Thank you. Yeah, thanks for having me on. I really
appreciate and look forward to it.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
All right, Johnny, thank you so much. You'd be safe
and congrats again on your engagement as well. Nothing but
the best to you. Thank you. All right, it is
a ticket seven sixty golf show. Next we're going to
be chatting with a gentleman who is a superintendent. I
wanted San Antonio's find golf courses right here in the
Alamo City.
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