Lance Yates is a golfer for the LSU Men’s golf team from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After being homeschooled to focus on his golf career, Yates began his collegiate run at Southeastern before transferring to North Florida after just a semester. After his senior year, he bet on himself and called LSU, telling them that the team needed him. Now, he’s finishing his collegiate golf career playing on the same course he grew up practicing on in University Club. In this exclusive interview with Abby Alonzo, Yates shares how he switched from baseball to golf, how much mental toughness the sport requires, his father’s impact on his career, the coaching styles he best responds to and more…. all while Abby Alonzo and Anthony Ranaudo how to swing a golf club. Tune into Valley Vision to learn who Lance Yates is on and OFF the course!
#LanceYates #LSUGolf #LSU
Yeah the Ball oh he actually touched the ball though played baseball my whole life played golf when I was really young like 5 to 9 years old um look at that see wasn’t good the bestl was it wasn’t that good and uh I didn’t really like it like it was
Boring no golf golf like I played when I was like 5 to n but I played baseball too but golf was boring you know like I wasn’t with my friends I was a young kid golf was stupid like nobody wanted to play golf I’m being honest like nobody
Wanted to play golf I just started playing baseball stuck with that played in high school tore up my elbow pretty bad couldn’t really do that anymore or at least get offers um so I was like I’m just going to pick up golf try and play in college and I
Decided to homeschool got a scholarship super late to play at Southeastern like so late and uh went there for a semester played okay but I was like I don’t really think this is where I want to be right so I like took the leap of faith and entered the transfer portal after
One semester of my freshman year and then my coach at North Florida picked me up played pretty well toward the end had a good summer and I was like I want to come home like I want to see if I can play at LSU like this is where I want to
Be how did that happen well I entered the transfer portal and I reached out oh really I reached out to the coach here and I was like look I want to play for you this is where I want to be and uh so it was like LSU or die it was like LSU
Or I’m done with college and um I ended up picking up some offers from other schools like Liberty Louisville and I was like okay like I’ll go visit these schools visited Liberty I was like I like this and I had Louisville in like a couple weeks and I was like you know
What like I don’t want to do this and I called the coach I was like cancel my visit called Andrew Nelson here and I was like this is where I want to be I think you need me I want to be here and then they offered me so where does that
Confidence come from that you need me confidence uh want to hit well I feel like I’ve gotten better in such a short period of time to be honest with you so wait time out he’s having he’s answering a serious question and I don’t know what
Club to use to hit the ball you can hit any Club it doesn’t matter see there we go yeah just what club is that let me see I don’t know should I use a different one I mean what you use whatever one you want whatever one you want you just got to
Hit the ball yeah the objective there’s no guarantee that I touch this ball I’m I’m letting you know one it’s a shorter one I’m going be honest the reason I walked away was because I was actually really happy with my results yeah I mean I was I was watching you out the corner
Of my eye it look nice okay so as I embarrass myself trying to touch this continue talking about where that conf confidence comes from confidence wasn’t always there like you know it was when I was at UNF it was a lot of like you know am I made for this like
Can I actually do this you know not playing like they red shirted me my sophomore year um and that kind of Hit me hard and I was like you know am I like is this really what I can do like or are my expectations way too high and
My senior year I I think I played really well and that kind of gave me that boost of confidence that was like okay like I feel like I’m made for this I think I can do this so let’s see let’s see just swing first it’s okay there’s no there’s
No you want to talk about confidence it takes a lot to swing in front of an ELO golfer when you know you suck at golf all right whatever it’s going to be really bad yep I okay stop cuz rewind the tape did I not say two minutes ago I wasn’t going
To touch the ball fix it set up to it again and just try and feel a little more narrow and you want the ball in line with the middle of your of your feet okay okay so clearly I played softball he played baseball you played baseball how did you shift like they’re very
Different swings like how are you able so the baseball swing um makes you want to do this like you said it goes right every time like it curves right it makes you want to just swing across it cuz in baseball you’re always kind of swinging across it from the top
So it’s so hard to fix I’m not going to lie it is so hard takes a lot of practice but um basically if you play baseball softball you come from that background ultimately you’re probably going to slice it I don’t it feel it’s not he’s laughing at me y’all go CU I’m looking
At you and you’re over there like right there that’s 13t away yeah that one was mine you touched it straight just wait before I swing though all right I got the I got the bottom part how do I this okay so your left hand you want
Your left hand on the top right and then I overlap so somebody told me to lock my fing interlock I don’t interlock I don’t like it um so I put my pinky in between my index finger and my middle finger okay um and then both my thumbs are down
The middle of the shaft okay middle of the grip and then from there I just swing but you want this this toe like even with your back foot yeah and am I you’re good you’re good and just go just go from there but let the golf club like let the golf club
Pull your body through like what I saw before is you’re right here like on the way down I pulled my head yeah you’re looking at the sky all right this arm stays straight though yeah where where is this going back to just think of a softball swing just think you’re swing right the
Think of anything like from the from the like a softball swing or like if you’re swinging a bat or anything like you’re starting from here right right so are you swaying back to get there no you got me overthinking everything you’re rotating through it right you want to rotate around it like around
Your spine just kind of feel like this upper body rotates where it’ll go with you don’t worry about what your arms are doing don’t worry about what your arms are doing I promise all right I’m just going to you got to trust me so like so
If I’m not moving my arms and you rotate it’s going to take it back in general okay here yeah just trying to feel that oh my Lord just keep your head still lock in lock dude stop I’m facing a fear right now okay hey hey there you go dude contact
Contact yeah like let’s be real I still suck sometimes if I’m being honest like it’s it’s like it’s like any sport you can you can slump it for sure earlier you said that you played golf when you were younger yeah and it was just so boring yeah so you switched to baseball
Yeah but now you’re playing golf again yeah so how did you get over the boring part of golf um I think as I got older I really didn’t care whether I was around people or not to be honest when it when it comes to like this stuff I didn’t
Feel the need to be around so many people I hit it again cuz you don’t have to you don’t have to rely on anyone else to be honest obviously in college golf you have a team right yeah everybody has to play well in order for the team to do
Well but at the end of the day the team can’t do well if you don’t play well so it start it starts with yourself you’re in control of every single shot like you’re in control of your ball and nobody else can do it for you so that’s
That’s what I kind of like about it that comes with a lot of pressure though because you can’t rely on anybody else but I mean the pressure comes with the practice and the work you put in like you get more comfortable hitting shots the more you work um it’s just like like
Any other sport you know if you don’t hit for three weeks are you going to go out there and rake no it’s just I mean it’s it’s like the best players in the world at every in every sport grind people always asked me like when y’all
Work out like do y’all live anything and I’m like yeah we we actually do it’s a lot a lot of Mobility work and stuff like that hey I’m doing this I’m not supposed to do that yeah got it got in the air that time we’re making
Progress oh yeah I made it you see it get in on it right there make sure you zoom in right there proof what would you say the biggest lesson you’ve learned in your golf career is uh mental toughness is everything yeah um in any sport I never really looked at
It that way when I was playing other sports but golf kind of made me realize you can lose your head so fast you know you can let the pressure get to you and everybody sometimes lets the pressure get to them I mean it happens to us all
You know it happens to the best in the world but it’s if you can control that and just try and find things that you know make you I guess I don’t know how to put it forget about all the pressure that’s on you you have something like
When I’m walking down the Fairway and I have a 10 footer coming up on the green that and I have to make this putt like how can I get my mind off of that as I’m walking up to it you know you don’t want to overthink it too much because you get
Up there and your heart’s pounding it’s going to beat fast anyway you know you just find ways like you breathe you breathe you breathe like I’ll count my breaths in the Fairway say what your I’ll think of literally anything but that putt you know I don’t I don’t want
To walk up to that green just sweating over it right you know um you you honestly want to lock in for like a minute a minute 30 seconds when it comes to any shot you hit or that’s me personally like when it comes down to it
When I get to the golf ball I figure out what shot I want to hit and it’s that next minute 30 or it can be 30 seconds of okay laser Focus lock in this is what I’m doing commit to this and once I hit the shot it’s over because I’m not in
Control of anything else until I get to the next shot so that’s that’s the big thing for me and it’s the mental toughness and that’s anything in life whether you’re a business owner whether you’re working at Chick-fil-A whether you’re playing a sport anything like you
Still have to get up in the morning and you have to make yourself do it nobody’s going to do it for you yeah and I you’ve had what five years of a college golf career right so you’ve probably faced your fair share of adversity especially transfering almost seems like everything
Was adversity right like adversity will never leave and I guess that’s why you have that outlook on the sport and mental toughness kind of thing yeah I mean the adversity is never going to leave right you’re always going to face things that you wouldn’t necessarily want to face you know things are going
To happen that you wouldn’t necessarily want to happen like I played in a tournament uh a little over a week ago and I missed a five foot putt to qualify for the tournament that I was going for and I lost in the playoff oh damn so and
You think about it you work on him so much I mean it’s from here to there right and I missed it and it was just like what the heck right like why why like why does that have to happen I’ve made them all day why now um so that’s
Adversity like how do you kind of bounce back from that do you look at that as oh God like the pressure got to me I can’t handle it it have got to me but there’s nothing I can do about it now I just have to learn from it and get better at
That so yeah absolutely who would you say is your biggest influence in your golf career it could be somebody famous it could be a family member I know tough this is hard you know there’s been you can have more than one answer I’ll give you more than one answer there’s been a
Bunch there’s been a bunch of people you know um but mostly I’d have to say my dad even though he’s not a golfer really yeah like he played a little when I was younger but once I started playing he was just laser focused on me he all he
Wanted to do was fool with me I love that like he didn’t worry about anything he wanted to do oh my God I hav’t heard it shoot shoot he’s not going to let it go he’s not going to let it go never again I’m not gonna do that he’s not going to let
It go that was good good about that was nice oh now I have to now I have to launch one we’re going to sit here I don’t care if it takes 5 hours I’m going to launch onead yeah you go ahead and keep talking about your dad I know I’m so sorry
That’s something to scream about inflence yeah here you know what while I’m trying to launch the ball may you up and you guys like my dad was a baseball guy my dad loves baseball like he’s a baseball guy that was his thing when I was playing baseball he was the happiest
Manan in the world but he always told me like even when I nice I mean that’s two in a row for YouTube let go let’s get it straight now um but I honestly think he loves me playing golf more than anything and he’s constantly motivating me he’s my biggest
Critic but he’s also always there to help me so um he doesn’t know everything and a ton about the game but it’s funny he can go out here and help me um versus a swing coach because we just kind of simple it like make everything simple
You know we just go back to the basics and nice some things he says just kind of resonates and clicks for me and to the right and um anytime he’s coming home from work or whatever he always makes an effort to get out here as early as possible awesome or it’s on the
Weekend he comes out here with me so he he he never leaves my side when it comes to this sport like he caddied for me at the last event um I made it to US Open final qualifying and he CD for me um in the first stage and the second stage of
That so that’s awesome so that was super fun um and yeah he’s just he’s always been there he keeps me calm yeah we get at it a little on the course I won’t lie like if he if I miss a pot he’s like like what was going on there like shut up
Dude relax I’ll figure it out yeah but he knows you best too that’s the thing that I think I relate to when you say that is like my dad he was really good at letting me go at a certain point to be like hey these coaches know way more
But after the game I would still seek him out hey what did you see what did you notice you know he’s like well I didn’t notice I didn’t know what you were doing with your curveball I noticed that you weren’t throw it as much but your demeanor was this every time you
Know this happened you did this and you’re like oh all right maybe he’s right maybe that’s why this happened you know and stuff like that so that’s the thing I think about parents yeah that’s like four in a row that you’ve been pretty solid yeah I counted four cuz I mean one went
Kind of far that way but but yeah know that’s that’s the thing I love about parents too like again they might not know the X’s and O’s but they know you and and that’s big like he can he can he can tell if I’m five under over from a
Mile away knows how I look who are you now you want it I got really competitive as soon as he launched that ball and I don’t know I got some skills out of somewhere got some skills I don’t know where they came from just retired
Now though aside from golf did a lot of golf talk um The Homeschool thing yeah can you explain what that experience is like and how like it’s so boring I’m not GNA lie uh I think I thought it was so dumb I I what was the reason so I could
Travel more and give everything I have to golf wow I mean it was you do school for two hours in the morning and you finish your stuff and you come out here till dark holy and that’s what I did every single day I would getting a golf
Cart over there because I wasn’t allowed to practice here obviously I was a part of this team um and I’d go hit on the Range I’d go chip on that chipping green we have four practice holes I’d live on those holes and I just I was out here all day every single day
And he got that in the background I was out here every single day so in order to be able to travel and travel during the week go to big events and stuff like that and probably not big events what I thought was big events I wasn’t good enough to get in the big
Events um they were big events for me and and uh I needed to have I needed to go to those in order to get recruited oh my I mean that’s like gymnastics too that’s yeah but I already had my friends though so it wasn’t like I was
Homeschooled my whole life and so I got here and I actually made a bunch of friends out here cuz I already had a few in bat and they introduced me to their friends and I made a bunch of new friends out here so it’s nice so it wasn’t like detrimental to your social
Life or anything no no and they all understand like what I do right so like they understand like what I’m trying to do what my dream is and and they respect that so if I can’t come hang out with them they’re not going to ditch me be
Like oh Lance never hang out with us why do we even ask them you know they’re always checking on me asking how everything is and so it’s it’s super nice I think there’s something poetic about the fact that you just said you were homeschooled and you would come on
This course and practice and now you’re kind of finishing your college career yeah like I love LSU I love all my all my teammates at UNF used to make fun of me because when LSU football came on dude I was locked in they have videos of
Me at our facility last year when LSU women’s was in the national championship and I was just going nuts and um awes so I love LSU I grew up an LSU fan I had baby pictures of me and LSU gear so it really meant a lot to me
To be able to come here and like finish off my college career at the place I love so and I live in here like I live in this neighborhood I’m I’m I’m actually living with my parents right now because we live like in the the neighborhood so I can just kind of get
My car dve two minutes and the ideal Ario yeah for sure so where were you you were in the facility watching the basketball game yeah I was at UNF in our golf facility watching the basketball game I mean I would bring my teammates here uh once a year for football games
Like we went to the Bama game last year I bought three of my teammates here and um did you ever they won’t admit it but they fell in love with it too did you ever think that when you were watching you know the national championship or you’re at football games that you’d ever
Be be kind of like in that crowd you’re an lso athlete it crosses it crossed my mind uhhuh like multiple times because I was like God like I think I can I can play here like I love it here I love when I come home like yeah Florida’s
Great not going to lie probably we end up back there one day but like I love it here like this is home for me so um anytime I anytime I’d go to an LSU game or something I’d always kind of you would it’s always in the back of your
Head at least it was in the back of mine and I was like I want to come here so bad I want to play here so badly but it was you know will I get the chance to you know cuz there’s so many variables right I mean they didn’t have to take me
There’s plenty of good players here um they didn’t have to pick me up and add another guy on the roster that was the biggest to make it the biggest team they’ve ever had they technically could have said they didn’t need me but um I thought they did and you told him that
He he let him know I love that okay so I saw something your teammates like to say that you have the best style on the team explain that well I’m what’s your style like I always dress like presentable I’d say okay like I’m always like in a nice
Shirt or nice pants you never bum yeah like I’m never buming around I mean I’ll wear is there a reason behind that or you just like to I just like to dress okay good like I like shoes I like I like my Jordans I like I like everything
I like my dunks I like I even like the on clouds like I’ll wear anything even the on clouds I’ll wear anything you know and like they always mess with me cuz I play with a watch on I’ve heard about the watch actually just I noticed it
When you were saying there I was like wait is that not is that not like a thing no people don’t play with watches on they don’t but I feel naked without a watch so I have to why don’t people play with watches on I don’t know they just think it’s uncomfortable when like
Effects are swing do you feel it or you’re so used they liar oh I think they’re Liars yeah I mean I love it I have to I have to have something on my wrist like you can see like my wrist the watch t feel weird I don’t have yeah and I
Have like two bracelets on this R I have to have something on my wrist yeah so I don’t they always give me crap for that but no I I think you should own it what’s your ideal like nil deal it will give me some watch deals oh that’s what
It it would be a watch deal say yeah you’re just Paving the way to yeah I need some I need some deals you got to start posting up I know with the with the watch yeah see if they’ll sponsor you but I mean I I God I can I’ve wore
Watch from ever since I started playing I just can’t remember last time I didn’t work I went a day without wearing a watch you know I feel weird without it I feel like I would feel like it’s in my way too oh no I don’t feel this one yeah
I was about to say wait I have an A I’m like I feel like I would think it’s in the way no it’s not okay outside of golf who are you uh and three words that’s a really good question I think I’m pretty outgoing outgoing okay um I use the word outdoorsy
Outdoorsy outdoorsy okay yeah it is I would count it it might not be in the dictionary but we’ll count it um pretty outgoing outdoorsy what else what else what else I think caring person a caring person like I like to help people out okay I like to help
Others I like to be there for others you know that’s a good quality to have a family person big okay so talk to me about your family yeah that’s another thing that Drew me back home just to be at my grandparents and everything so oh
I lost it y’all no I should have left it let it go I’m I’ll get it back I’ll get it back that was your first coming back you got cold I did I iced myself wait we’re talking about coaches and lessons we’ve learned from coaches what
Do you like give me some some golf lessons that you’ve learned from coaches or even baseball well I’m about to find out I’ll go I’ll start with baseball Leo McLure oh we’re name dropping toughest coach ever just a beast he did not play like tough as in like like he did not
Play if your shirt wasn’t tucked in oh okay if you had La tiger shirt on it wasn’t tucked in trouble um anywhere out in public I was fishing um in Greystone in Denim and I had an LA tiger shirt on and a guy walked up or drove in a golf
Cart next to me he’s like what’s coach always tell you I was like no way I was like 12 like play hard he said tuck that tiger shirt in I was like in next practice he knew he knew I had to run next practice and it was you could never
Yeah you could never wear slides once you got in uh like when you walk in the gates of Cypress mountains you cannot have slides on you had turfs and you walk in a line with your team um so tiger shirt never untucked under any circumstance no slides is we practice hit runnels that’s
Where we used to practice and as soon as you step foot in that gate if you were walking you were in trouble you had to run or jog everywhere you went and um it was always those big fundamental practices when you’re a young kid you’re
Like this is dumb like I want to take hacks you know like I want to swing hard I want to see how far I can throw it I wanna I want to get on the clock and see how fast I can throw and why am I
Hitting off a tea with a little baby bat like this like why am I doing this stuff but um he was such a good coach are you the type to I know people respond to like tough coaches differently yeah I respond to tough coaching better I think
Someone can yell at me and I won’t like but that’s what I was around like I feel like if you play baseball your coach isn’t going to Pat you on the back and be like it’s okay buddy I can’t stand that yeah so I would rather you get in
My face and like I can take the tough coaching but when it comes to golf I I’ll take it differently because you know a coach gets in your face you’re pissed off like you want to prove them wrong this and that when you’re playing golf it’s hard to play good when you’re
Really mad or you’re super fired up you just kind of have to stay level so like Nelson does a great job um for me at least he knows me pretty well in the short time we’ve been around each other he knows all the right things to say to
Me he knows how to keep me calm he knows how to keep keep me in the right space and that’s huge yeah that’s huge because there’s not truly a coach can only do so much for you on course M um he can’t hit the shot
For you he can’t hit the putt for you he can’t hit the chip for you like can’t do any of it for you you know he can give you a number and tell you what he thinks But ultimately it’s up to you but a lot of coaches you know they know the right
Things to say and and that helps tremendously for sure I never even thought about that about how like a lot of athletes respond well to tough coaches that get in your face because it fires you up and like then you you’re able to kind of but golf is
Totally different yeah I’m not saying like people can’t play good Matt but I never thought about how like you have it’s probably more beneficial to be levelheaded and golf than it is to be like ready to run a freaking wall and like you know prove him wrong kind of
Exactly like baseball you could get fired up golf get fired up and then 30 seconds later you have to yeah right chill out right no I think that the glove made me worse I’m blaming the glove oh my gosh what that thing was time what does
That feel like does it feel like feels like nothing D oh my god oh you’re not supposed to yell like that no you’re good we’re on the r the best I’ve ever hit a golf ball ever in my whole life in my whole life on on camera too on camera
Yeah we got it that’s frame oh no okay what am I knot supposed to do oh God focus on that my gosh give it a practice swing is that good it was good yeah it was perfect all right let’s see keep the eye on the ball you just let your body pull your
Head up oh my gosh I slice everything that was better I want it to go that way let me try one more time time nice you saw it the pressure was on yeah let’s go it’s really pretty I don’t know anything about it but it looks really nice I have like 20 different
Putters this how you do it when you play putt putt you have to line it up all right I got this no I don’t oh oh my God I hit it too hard and to the left let’s go five holes all right taking it easy heard you had a career low a couple
Uh weeks ago yeah like in college so far so like yeah obviously your rounds for fun don’t count but um I shot five under at Steven scup in the first round and then in the next event at Arkansas I shot five under in the first round that was super fun yeah
I bet it was oh my gosh oh no bang so Anthony and I are tied right now A man so we’re both even the pressure’s on no pressure you want to stay even through one please God oh a little nervous you know what’s sad they’re like com I got a putt
Wow Abby Abby made it oh no okay scratch that it doesn’t break right it’s just dead straight that was good nice oh you got that in the bag don’t say that dude yeah oh God I was like that you got to go harder than that so that is what you don’t do
Because it’s hammered get blocked by the flag could be worse wait it’s kind of good that’s really good o yeah I’ll do it on oh my gosh stop don’t get cocky don’t get cocky good go and miss so y’all are NY I was like I cannot miss this cuz he’s not he can’t
Win so I think I’m going to try to go a little bit up to the right yeah yeah that yeah Anthony thinks he’s a a golf pro now he’s a pro he’s got every excuse in the book don’t worry about it oh I just did the same thing
Stop stop rolling stop rolling stop rolling that is unbelievably good that was so good oh no oh No [Laughter] oh no I missed nah I’m just going to wait it up I knew it I literally called it did you get that on camera I literally said it’s going to go that way karma’s a man oh I didn’t mean to throw your
Club I’d be lying if I said I knew what this was doing hustle wow that broke a lot that was good speed though wait hit it oh my gosh Anthony get on oh my God it didn’t turn I don’t know where this is going whatever hustle I didn’t hit it hard enough go
Folks all right this is my it’s not too it’s not you don’t need to you don’t need to record it oh my gosh dude I’m so bad at this I love the line there oh pushed it I don’t know why either of us expected to win that I use this as my
Mic this is the put off for the no longer Collegiate athletes AKA second place behind me of Course no I hit it too hard oh I’m going to break a club no it’s comeback season though oh no break break it break it oh my over I literally put so much that that was a good all right Anthony to to close out the match please in bushes
Oh my God what do I do with this no y’all are good aka the favorite lines it up oh my gosh it looks good no just short great putt though I’m going to help Abby out here you need to aim a little more right thanks I got you I feel like you’re
Going to hit this though I I don’t know how I feel about this oh no it’s too hard shoot darn I’m a little Nervous this could seal the deal my gosh a heartbreaker on the 18th you hear that sound that’s the sound of Victory sweet sweet victory thank you this was awesome it feels good to be a champion it does
