John Daly
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Summary
John Daly is one of the most famous golfers in the history of the game, but he doesn t look or act like pretty much anyone else who plays the game. And so we thought it would be interesting to sit down with him and find out what he's like. John Daly has been a professional golfer for more than 40 years, and he s played on the PGA Tour, Champions Tour, and PGA Champions Tour. He s also played in the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup, and is a World Golf Hall of Fame member. And we wanted to find out more about who he is, how he grew up, and how he got to where he is today. We talk about growing up in the late 60s and early 70s in Darnell, Arkanas, Arkansas, and what it s like to grow up in a country club in the early days of golf. He also talks about how he ended up playing on the Champions Tour and why he thinks golf is the one sport you should play all your life. John Daly is a great person to talk to, and we hope you enjoy listening to this episode of Behind the Scenes with John Daly! Thanks to John Daly for coming on the show and for being a part of the podcast, and for sharing his story with us. We appreciate you, John Daly. We really appreciate you. We love you, we really do. . Thank you for being here, John. -Your support is so appreciated, we appreciate you and we look forward to seeing you on the golf tour in the next episode of Golf Channel and all the golf courses you play in the future. -- we hope it s a little bit more like this one. We hope you have a great week! -Merry Christmas!! -SORRY FOR ALL THE PODCAST! -J.J. DYALY Music: -Jon Sorrentino -John Daly -PODCAST WEEKLY! -MARCY CHEESE -ROBERT MEYER -DANCHOR -RUNNERDS -RADIO -JOSH MILLER -JOSEPH SONGSETTER -RICKY RYAN -BEN JAMES WELCOME -SCHEESE -JORDER -ROSCO -SOLVED -SALAN OCHTER -JACOB SONDSETTER
Transcript
00:00:00.000
One of the great ironies of living in a world that fetishizes diversity is how similar everybody is.
00:00:17.520
They have the same opinions, they wear the same clothes, they even look the same physically.
00:00:23.360
So when you see somebody in the public eye who doesn't look the same,
00:00:27.380
it tends to kind of stick out and you don't forget it.
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If you've watched professional golf any time in the last 35 years,
00:00:33.580
you may have noticed golfer, golfer, golfer, golfer, guy smoking Marlboro Red, golfer, golfer, who is that guy?
00:00:39.600
And that, of course, is one of the most famous golfers in the history of golf, John Daly,
00:00:44.280
who doesn't look or act or think like pretty much anyone else who plays the game.
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And so we thought it would be really interesting to sit down with him and find out what he's like.
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So you've played, you said you started at Arkansas like 40 years ago.
00:01:08.120
I'm older, but to play the Champions Tour, we have a blast.
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It's, you know, it's one sport you can play all your life.
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Do you ever think of yourself as like the one guy who doesn't seem like everybody else on tour?
00:01:24.260
You know, I didn't have really a pot to piss in when I grew up.
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We had nine holes and I'd weigh the ponds in the first hole and sell the good balls to the club and take the old balls.
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Some of the members would let me play with them.
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But I learned how to play on a baseball field just right down from my house.
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My dad played a little bit, but it wasn't his A-game sport.
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But, you know, I just fell in love with it watching it on TV.
00:02:06.880
Jack Liffus came out with these Golf Digest lesson tees, how to grip it, how to hit a cut, how to hit a hook.
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And so when I learned I'd sit on home plate, I'd grip it and I'd hit a cut to right field.
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I mean, I just learned it from a cartoon that he did back in the early 70s.
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That's how I learned the interlocking grip, everything, from Jack Liffus.
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So you didn't grow up in a country club is what you're saying?
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And then as I got older, I played there, and we lived there for a long time.
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As I grew up, I just fell in love with the place.
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I just played, you know, football, basketball, baseball, everything.
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But the one thing I loved about golf, you didn't have to run in it.
00:03:07.560
Trying to play football as a field goal kicker, and I could throw it a mile.
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So I'm fortunate to kick football at Elias High School,
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where I kind of finished my, well, two and a half years of kick football
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and then finished up in Arkansas to get in-state tuition in Arkansas,
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How was it different then for professional golfers, like before?
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And my first tournament was Missouri State Open.
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I borrowed $300 from my mom, paid the entry fee, won the tournament,
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She says, you take it and do what you got to do with it.
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No, I had to clean carts and stuff and pick range balls.
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No, I mean, as an adult, once you left college.
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But when you hurt and things, you know, you just can't play this game hurt.
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And basically the last seven years, I've had both knees done, both feet done.
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And, you know, I got diagnosed with bladder cancer four years ago.
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But, you know, you just, it's part of getting old.
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And, you know, when I can't, you know, everybody knows me saying this.
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I'm more of a, I like to go out and hit 500 wedges.
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But when you can't do that to your ability, it's tough to compete because these guys on
00:05:00.120
this Champions Tour and all over the world are so good.
00:05:04.100
I think one of the reasons people are mesmerized by you and have always been is because clearly
00:05:14.400
I mean, it's not like, like, what are we looking at here?
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So this is what you would consume over 18 holes.
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I can't drink it while I play, but I drink a lot of them now.
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But you still have, like, played at the highest level.
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I'm still in that until I'm 60, in the PGA until I'm 65, the regular ones.
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I guess what I mean, you see some athletes and you feel like they were trained from birth,
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almost like the Soviet bloc used to do in the Olympics.
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I mean, I remember we played at the beautiful Nimicola Woodlands, you know, Joe Hardy's place.
00:06:06.120
And I was fortunate enough when she came out, everybody said how long she was.
00:06:09.780
And Maggie set it up where I could play nine holes with her.
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But she hit balls seven hours before she played nine holes with me.
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I would have hit that many balls for seven hours.
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And all of them have teachers and psychiatrists and, you know, they're food guy, food girl, whatever.
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I just never, I grew up taking golf serious, but not taking it that serious.
00:06:43.900
You know, when we, Fuzzy Zeller, Tom Watson, Arnie, Jack, and all of us, you know, we'd go play a practice round.
00:06:54.760
Well, we'd hit some balls, but maybe hit some puss.
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But then we'd go to the bar and have a drink, go to dinner.
00:07:00.040
He wasn't going to work out and all this stuff.
00:07:07.320
There's something kind of cool and old-fashioned about the man who doesn't do that, who doesn't have a problem pausing for a cigarette mid-game, and still wins.
00:07:16.460
Well, it's been a while, but, you know, I still compete.
00:07:20.860
Was there ever a point when you thought, I'm getting out, I can't do this anymore?
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I mean, these last seven years have been tough.
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I really have not played one Champions Tour 100%, and I was fortunate to win Houston, I think, in 2016.
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But, you know, just trying to be healthy, giving yourself a chance to compete really well is what you want.
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But, you know, I finally got to have both knees done, full replacements,
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and this will be the first year I've actually been able to have two good knees.
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You know, so hopefully 24 without any other stupid crap.
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Maybe I could actually get through a year without limping.
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But I just want to compete the way I know I can compete.
00:08:11.140
So when you're playing on tour, do you, like, go to dinner with the other players at night?
00:08:26.440
Do you think you've got the majority view among golfers?
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I think all of us on the tours and everything, we all want Daddy Trump back.
00:08:40.460
Once you get to know him, I've known him since the early 90s.
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And when he stood up, he says, mark my words, I'll be president of the United States one
00:09:06.320
He's an unbelievable, smart individual that people have got to get behind him.
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So, but among professional golfers, that's like a pretty common view.
00:09:20.500
I've got to work with his chipping a little bit.
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He just, I keep telling you, you've got to move the ball up.
00:09:30.320
Everybody thinks when you chip, you've got to move it back.
00:09:34.580
If I don't see him for a while, it goes back to that bad habit again.
00:09:48.120
I don't think he has the time to play that much golf.
00:10:00.260
We could have an eights in with him and we're done in three hours.
00:10:09.000
I mean, Bill would, he would take the club back and say, oh shit, give me another ball.
00:10:12.920
Before he even hit the first one, he'd throw another one down.
00:10:40.100
I mean, hey, there's a lot of people that never get it.
00:10:46.020
If it's something you love to do and go out and do it, it's a great game.
00:10:50.160
But, you know, these guys, they don't have the time to really work on their game and do
00:10:55.680
A lot of them are running the country, you know.
00:11:09.760
Just for the satisfaction of bringing our country back together, get some common sense
00:11:16.720
The four years, how great was our country in the four years he was in office.
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I mean, I was loving the four years that Daddy Trump was in.
00:11:34.980
In two years, three years, it's just, what happened?
00:11:45.160
A lot of our corporate people that were around all the time, launch our tournaments, they all
00:11:59.740
Well, because in every, I mean, if you're in the NBA, you can't have your opinions.
00:12:08.060
They, you know, when they were kneeling national anthems and all that, that was kind of telling
00:12:15.000
us to, you know, telling America to kiss our ass.
00:12:25.920
Our football players were kneeling national anthem, and, you know, I'll never forget one
00:12:31.500
game in the NFL, there was the Steeler guy that served, was the only one that came out
00:12:42.680
I think it was obvious that certain people wanted Americans to hate their own country,
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and so they used sports figures to send that message.
00:13:03.340
I don't know if it's that left or just that stupid.
00:13:08.120
But then they're the ones who are looking like idiots doing it.
00:13:21.180
We believe in our freedoms, and we believe in what, you know, we travel probably more than
00:13:27.080
any athlete on the universe, and we have to show our passport, we have to get visas, and
00:13:35.380
We're just coming in, truckloads, and the Biden administration's done nothing.
00:13:43.280
Just seven million people whose identities we don't know living here.
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And what they say in his term, there's over, I don't know how many of that they found that
00:13:51.260
were felons or they were terrorists or whatever, more than any other president.
00:14:02.180
So you think they're going to make the illegals into voters?
00:14:05.520
I heard they're giving them voter cards and anything anyway.
00:14:09.600
I don't know if it's true, but that's what I've heard.
00:14:14.920
What is the reason Democrats want all these people to come in free?
00:14:20.900
And I got a guy that plays our senior tour, I don't miss his name, been here forever, won
00:14:30.160
But yet, you're letting all these illegals come in, giving them whatever they want, makes
00:14:48.840
And that happened, like, instantly, the second Biden got there.
00:14:55.040
I feel bad for Arizonians, the good Californians.
00:15:03.040
I mean, I feel bad for the farmers and everybody.
00:15:06.760
I mean, the stories that these cut their fences, raiding their homes.
00:15:12.320
I mean, why would the President of the United States let these people do that to our own
00:15:19.440
Maybe if you hated the country and wanted to destroy it, you would do that.
00:15:23.520
Well, apparently, what we've got up there right now, they must hate our country.
00:15:27.160
Do you think there's a chance Trump could win with a system like the one we have?
00:15:38.300
I'm looking at some of these states that are changing, that are kind of wanting to vote
00:15:49.000
He's one of the greatest human beings I've ever met.
00:15:51.500
Once you get to know him, they're just good-hearted people.
00:15:58.460
And he wants to protect our country, which I think Putin never would have invaded Ukraine
00:16:04.880
And I don't think Thomas would attack Israel like they did if Trump was in office.
00:16:32.820
I mean, that's kind of your signature on the course, is a Marlboro?
00:16:36.400
Well, it takes us a while to play, so it's usually a pack around.
00:16:41.240
Have you ever been under pressure not to do it on the course?
00:16:45.440
I mean, there's been places that we go when there's a drought or whatever,
00:16:59.180
I've got some new ones, but it's what the fire department wear.
00:17:02.480
And you just stick it in there, throw it in there, put it in your pocket,
00:17:07.200
When you own a golf course and you see cigars and cigarettes on your greens,
00:17:10.720
and they get in the green mowers, it kind of tends to piss you off.
00:17:16.300
You think Tiger Woods would be better if he smoked?
00:17:26.280
I was still drunk, actually, but yeah, that was a funny story.
00:17:31.340
That was at Sherwood, I don't know, the early 2000s.
00:17:44.740
One is Chris Legu, who's been a sponsor of mine since then,
00:17:56.020
and I got my ball with Jack Dano's then, and all our guys.
00:18:01.680
Chris Legu is a car dealer in Ontario, California.
00:18:09.840
Tiger came in, and I go, T, come have a drink with us, man.
00:18:22.260
And this is going on for about five or six hours,
00:18:24.420
and we're still there just pounding, getting drunk,
00:18:26.980
I got a sponsorship out of it, which I was happy.
00:18:34.480
He goes, well, I got a guitar on stage for you.
00:19:00.360
So the ballroom wasn't very far, so I stumbled over there.
00:19:04.540
but it had nylon strings like Willie plays, right?
00:19:08.900
You get your phone and you can, a little guitar tuner, tune it up.
00:19:23.460
So there's only two times I've ever drank on a golf course.
00:19:35.640
And there's like four groups where you tee off on the front.
00:19:39.080
I downed those, shoot four or five under on that side and make the cut.
00:19:44.740
But the funny thing about Tiger was when I got on the tee,
00:19:47.880
I had my caddy bring me a crown or a jack and Coke,
00:19:53.640
If you've never played Sherwood, the first hole,
00:19:56.460
he's walking and walking through all the cactuses and stuff going down this hill
00:19:59.860
not to spill my drink, I grabbed my three-iron and go on the tee.
00:20:04.420
Make a long story short, I shoot like 65, Tiger shot like 71,
00:20:14.400
So wasn't the lesson you should drink more on the golf course?
00:20:17.640
Well, I'm not saying you should, but I've only done it twice.
00:20:26.160
I think the statute of limitations are out for finding me right now.
00:20:33.200
Like the Pro-Ams on our Champions Tour, you can have a few in the Pro-Ams.
00:20:38.080
But no, you can't drink them during the tournament.
00:20:46.320
Do you play, like, in your private life with a beer?
00:20:51.720
Yeah, I drink a little bit of – I drink our good boy vodka.
00:20:53.900
I like to drink it straight with a little Diet Coke on the side.
00:20:56.440
You drink the vodka straight with Diet Coke, like a Diet Coke chaser?
00:21:01.560
I drink good boy vodka and now chase it with this.
00:21:08.720
We've got a lot of great friends and investors, and we're really – we're in a lot of stores
00:21:20.880
We're Key West all the way to Jacksonville with Circle K.
00:21:31.080
Yeah, this is going to be my true retirement for my kids.
00:21:46.520
Your agent keeps track of the paternity claims?
00:21:49.260
No, I got three beautiful kids' blood, and then I got Anna's child, Caritza, that she's
00:22:00.580
Little John plays for the University of Arkansas.
00:22:11.800
Does it surprise you that Arkansas, which was always kind of insecure, let me in Arkansas,
00:22:17.160
And your property values are dramatically higher, and people are moving to Arkansas?
00:22:22.920
I mean, Fayetteville is one of the, probably is one of the, Darnell, Fayetteville, a lot
00:22:30.140
And that population, number one, number two, safest places to live.
00:22:35.160
You know, Fayetteville, Arkansas is just, you come see our campus.
00:22:39.540
Our sports stuff is, bar none, just football is just as big as NFL.
00:22:44.860
The stuff that we have for these kids are basketball, musclemen, coach form, baseball.
00:23:03.440
That's something that, you know, I was hoping that Fenton would say, okay, look, guys, you
00:23:10.660
You know, we have to play 15 on the regular tour, and I think 11 and 12 on the Champions
00:23:16.220
Once you do that, then let us go play wherever we want.
00:23:19.680
You know, I think golf's a growing game, and, you know, I'm not going to sit here and
00:23:25.320
I got paid a lot of money to go play European events.
00:23:28.560
You know, there's no difference, but, you know, I think golf's a growing game.
00:23:40.940
They can wear shorts, you know, and the pro-ams like we can now.
00:23:45.480
I mean, it's almost like playing the Champions Tour.
00:23:48.940
Three days of golf, no cut, but we'll say that Liv's got a little bigger purses than we
00:23:56.500
I mean, to win $4 million, $4 million for playing 54 holes, that's pretty good.
00:24:11.640
Someone once told me that guys on the PGA Tour can actually wind up in the red at the
00:24:25.300
I think if you got your tour card, you're guaranteed to get $500,000, I think, bud.
00:24:34.060
Yeah, I think they give you $500,000, no matter what.
00:24:37.640
You get your card, I think now you get $500,000, which can pay your expenses easily for a year.
00:24:43.720
But some of the people are not making big money.
00:24:49.960
But after $150,000, you're kind of on your own.
00:25:09.160
So I'm glad they did, because I quit blackjack.
00:25:22.760
Probably lost over $90 million, probably won over $57 million.
00:25:45.400
You know, I had such great contracts, good marketing, a million here, a million there,
00:26:12.720
I mean, $20,000, that's $140,000 up right there.
00:26:24.480
A lot of times, if you've got a feeling you're on a roll, sometimes I would hit a hard 12.
00:26:29.500
Yeah, I would not hit it because, you know, you see a bunch of pictures on there, and I'm
00:26:35.000
thinking, there's got to be, just give me anything less than a 10.
00:26:38.920
I don't care if it's a two, and most of the time the dealer would break.
00:26:44.600
If a six or less is showing, unless it's an ace.
00:26:51.500
And do you think that worked better or not as well?
00:27:01.920
You do a six-deck shoot and you get on a run, oh, that's a home run.
00:27:11.400
I won $3.2 million, $3.3 million on slots, valleys one night.
00:27:20.240
I was sitting with a buddy of mine that was repping, you know, mate, or Tyler's that time,
00:27:24.280
Mata, and it was when me and Sherry got married, and I went to a $25 machine.
00:27:29.700
It was a 10-time machine, and I hit two 10s and a red 7.
00:27:36.720
And he immediately went to the $500,000 and kept hitting $80,000, $100,000,
00:27:41.880
and it was the greatest night I've ever had in slot.
00:27:50.400
Actually, I took it and paid off markers and other casinos.
00:27:55.600
That's like signing up for a new credit card to pay off the other ones.
00:28:07.660
You know, if you come off the road three or four weeks, you're just tired.
00:28:10.120
I just want to sit there in front of a machine, smoke cigarettes, drink John Daly's,
00:28:18.720
Hit my machine $240,000 twice in the last week.
00:28:53.200
But hey, it's the bad habit that I can get my adrenaline going again.
00:28:59.620
Have you thought about skydiving or anything like that?
00:29:03.320
The only diving I do is like, I'll belly flop in a pool.
00:29:13.740
So even though you know the odds are stacked against you, and in the end you'll lose,
00:29:32.740
What happens, I've always wondered, if you're a whale in a casino and you start losing big
00:29:48.500
As long as you pay something, they're fine with it back in the day.
00:29:54.280
If you don't pay anything, you don't know who's going to come be knocking on your door.
00:30:05.140
You know people have gotten in trouble in gambling?
00:30:11.480
Well, most of them, they go to the legal department, they get lawyers now.
00:30:14.400
But can you imagine back in the day what they'd probably done?
00:30:25.800
It's all stacked to the house, to the casino itself.
00:30:38.660
Yeah, when I was bored, I bet nine for some reason all the time on craps.
00:30:53.180
Well, we all do stupid things, but that's part of life.
00:30:59.760
I might regret on some of that stuff I might have done.
00:31:04.680
I mean, you know, I think everything, it's just part of life, what we go through.
00:31:12.460
But one thing I've always done is I've owned up to mine.
00:31:21.760
Because if I screw up, I'm going to admit I screwed up.
00:31:27.760
Because sooner or later, it's going to get out.
00:31:32.380
That's pretty much what the administration is right now.
00:31:35.540
Is that why you're still around after all these years and all the drama?
00:31:47.400
And, you know, it's been disappointing these few years because I've been hurt.
00:31:51.400
And I haven't been able to play to my potential.
00:31:56.280
And one thing, an athlete, if golfers are athletes, I guess they are now because they work out.
00:32:10.880
I mean, the hand-eye coordination required to hit a small ball downrange, doesn't that qualify you as an athlete?
00:32:21.540
I'm not a guy that's going to go work out after a round or anything like that.
00:32:26.140
There's been that talk if golfers are athletes.
00:32:29.040
I guess I am because all the swings that we've taken.
00:32:41.240
I think it's a part five at the TPC course there.
00:32:51.440
So he looked at me and says, man, I'd rather have a 350-pound lineman come at me right now than doing this shit.
00:33:04.080
We're always playing in different places that the weather's good or bad.
00:33:11.860
And the swings, the poles that you take on the – your body takes on the swings that we do.
00:33:21.280
I'm kind of favored – well, Augusta's one of them, of course.
00:33:32.080
I think it's just a good classic, long, hard golf course.
00:33:47.300
Yeah, there's a ton of them, but those are my three favorites.
00:33:52.100
I'd always love going to Bay Hill and play his tournament.
00:34:00.460
He took me under his wing when I didn't even have my card.
00:34:09.440
We became great friends, and he was a true friend.
00:34:13.440
You know, these guys out on tour now, they don't seem to do that as much as they used to.
00:34:21.800
No, just like, you know, like they talk about who their idols were, but a lot of them didn't hang out with them.
00:34:33.280
Just the stories, you know, Bay Hill locker room.
00:34:36.600
You know, there was a time with Stadler, Mahaffey, me, Fuzzy, Tom Watson, Jack, which was just sitting there.
00:34:42.580
You know, some of us were having a cocktail, some were drinking sodas, but they'd sit and tell the stories.
00:34:47.260
So, when famous golfers get together over a drink to tell stories, they tell stories about women or golf?
00:35:01.900
Some of the stories were amazing, but I can't tell them.
00:35:06.520
But just to be a part of looking at legends like that, idolizing these guys, to me, it was the greatest time.
00:35:14.000
And that's probably not just because Bay Hill is such a great golf course, but just sitting with these guys in Arnie's bar in the locker room.
00:35:22.260
And just, it's just, to me, that was the ultimate.
00:35:32.580
You know, they took away, can't play cards in the locker rooms anymore.
00:35:36.720
So, a lot of guys don't hang out in the locker rooms anymore.
00:35:40.300
I don't know, the tour just doesn't like us playing cards.
00:35:44.380
Might have been a little gambling going on there.
00:35:51.560
That's kind of, probably when I first came out, I think that they had stopped it.
00:36:05.520
I mean, it's, it's got to be your best friend out there.
00:36:09.180
You got to, you know, you got to know the wind.
00:36:11.300
They got to know how far you hit this each and every club.
00:36:14.100
How, you know, they got a line, you know, your putting.
00:36:22.700
Well, some are great and some are friends that don't help.
00:36:34.240
But other than that, I'm pretty much, whoever carries it, I don't really need a lot of help.
00:36:39.680
So you're not taking strategic advice from your caddy?