Smylie Kaufman is a golf professional and former winner on the PGA TOUR and the Korn Ferry Tour. After battling injury and a dip in form he has stepped away from competitive golf to become an on-course announcer and a golf analyst for NBC Sports and Golf Channel.
Now one of the leading voices in golf, he joins #OntheMark to talk about his life in golf – from his days as a junior through to his rise up the PGA TOUR ranks to the Winner’s Circle.
As he takes us through his life in golf, Smylie shares many insights and lessons that are sure to help you understand the nature of golf, and get the most out of your game.
Among other topics, he specifically addresses:
Having a plan for improvement Commitment to the task and consistency of effort Building confidence Decision-making for the future in comparison to a short-term outlook Being true to your Golf DNA Expectation management Mindset and mental strength Dealing with criticism and social media Understanding yourself and your tendencies Breaking out of a bad cycle The psychology of golf goals Patience and developing that attitude and skill, and Temper and emotion and how to channel them for success. As Smylie weaves a fun and interesting story of his career and the lessons he has learned along the way, he references PGA TOUR stars like Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler, and Rory McIlroy. He also talks about things that he watched Bryson DeChambeau do well en route to his US Open victory at Pinehurst #2.
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STREAMING: On the Mark is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts.
ABOUT ON THE MARK: Mark’s knowledge, insight and experience have made him a sought-after mind on the PGA and European tours. Through his career, he has taught and/or consulted to various Major Champions, PGA Tour winners and global Tour professionals such as: Larry Mize, Loren Roberts, Louis Oosthuizen, Patton Kizzire, Trevor Immelman, Charl Schwartzel, Scott Brown, Andrew Georgiou and Rourke can der Spuy. His golf teaching experience and anecdotal storytelling broadcasting style makes him a popular host for golf outings.
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WEBSITE: Read top-notch golf content from Mark at https://markimmelman.com
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[Music] so here’s a question I’m going to ask our guest here uh there he is he’s smiley kman smiley with a name like that are you allowed not to smile at any stage in your lifetime or is it like mandatory that’s a great question I mean it’s a family name Smiley so it’s something that uh I’m very proud to have the name uh had a chance to meet my name’s sake as a kid he passed away when I was about 9 or 10 years old so once I got past all of the kids in first and second grade calling me frowny in the playground uh I I quickly was uh very very proud to always have my name Smiley and it’s one that uh most people don’t forget yeah I guess it’s Carter Smiley Kaufman there he is um yep you know what I think it’s super cool just to mind this a little longer um your brother’s name’s lucky guys you like movie stars man no totally it’s luy’s a family name as well uh we got a crazy family family apparently to have have names like these right so uh we we both uh you know I think wear our names proudly uh my brother actually uh when he was a little kid uh was in the pool and had a close to a drowning episode so it’s kind of one of those Wild yeah your family name’s lucky but you were lucky to be alive so it’s it’s kind of crazy with that and then and then luckily my my name kind of fits my personality as well if I was an introvert and and didn’t like coming on podcast or having my own podcast and I think uh the name wouldn’t be quite as fitting yeah if you’re watching this on YouTube you will see Smiley’s in his Studio he’s got a podcast as well and um you know as I’ve watched you come into to broadcast from your career on tour PGA Tour Winer uh you shine and you do the job so well so folks I asked him to join us I’m glad you would Smiley now for who don’t know you so well um put yourself into context a little bit you know grew up in golf just talk to us about how you got to where you are right now well I would say that golf always really just Sports in general were always very natural to me I always had really good hand ey coordination any team that I was ever on I was always the best player um not to just brag but that just always seemed to be the case of any team I was on growing up as a kid um just super competitive hated to lose if I ever did lose I was one to cry about it as a as a kid so I think naturally my my my first instinct to losing has always been frustration and I always wanted to win and I felt like I should win in just about everything that I do and um or excuse me that I did um and with golf uh had a ton of success at an early age basically won just about everything in the area for a long time uh then I started to get to more Regional National stuff realized okay there’s other people like me and that I had to continue to get better and better uh took my took my hits and lumps uh from time to time in the game but I I played basketball all the way through high school as well so I I was a two sport athlete um once I settled in on on basketball being the second Sport and I think that was really good for me because I didn’t get burned out by the game of golf in an early age you know having two seasons being able to play basketball uh and and now on what all we talk about is trying to hit the ball further you know I think I had the quick twitch muscles from playing basketball and and in other sports that naturally I was always a really good athlete so you just I just needed a to tell me hey like this is how you this is how you do it and I could be able to do it most of the time um so I would say that golf for me was really good though U right from the get-go it it taught me a lot of things about um just life in general and and as soon as I got to college I realized that um I got to put a lot of work into this yeah hey you made a statement there I want to I I want to dig on um you said as I went from the area to the region I suddenly whoa there’s a bunch more Talent just like me and and I had to get better and better and it reminds me of my mom who’s always said to us new level new Devil and so I want you to advise folks because you’ve been through all the levels to the top of the game winner on the PGA tour that next step because it can be frustrating uh is it just pure work I mean as you move from level to level what did you feel like you had to get better at or was it all encompassing you know back back when I was 14 15 years old we’re talking about 16 17 years ago it was a lot different back then right it was just you know who can shoot the lowest score and it’s always been that who can shoot the lowest score but now there’s just so much more that goes to it there’s so much more exposure at every single level now um with with social media being the main culprit of that when we were playing we we went and played golf if you if you play great um if you didn’t didn’t matter we were going to go to the pool after so that was kind either right that was that was life on the road in junior golf uh probably it started getting a little bit more serious when I got to high school but seventh eth grade we were still going to go to the pool after the round uh but yeah I think uh yeah new new level new Devil that’s that’s a good point I think I realized that just playing with with Talent that’s the same age of mind that uh instantly I knew that these guys were better than me at the time um and I hadn’t had play players that were outside of Bobby Wyatt be anywhere near close to as good as I was at the time and Bobby was uh he was a number one Amer in the in the in the world at one point so at an earliest age I realized what really good talent was and how it drove me to to want to get better and I would spend hours and hours um chipping around the greens I wasn’t much of like a guy that go hit a ton of balls I was one that played a ton and I always feel like I the better I got uh was the more I played the more I made birdies I just felt like the golf course that I grew up on uh vavia Country Club was one that that taught you how to to just go play golf uh you go hit it hard go be good with your wedges and and learn how to make pots and that was kind of my formula for not only just junior golf but as a pro too it’s kind of uh how I were in the game and how I played the game you know what’s what you say there is so wise because we live in this era of information right and you’re like you know it’s just kind of the nuts and bolts of it is just going to play golf I almost feel like people trying to ascend or improve wherever their levels are there’s all this info that maybe we’re making too big a deal of it do you think I’m kind of crazy here are you feeling me uh yeah it’s it’s a game that sometimes the harder you work at it the worse you get right and i’ I’ve felt that uh as a you know as a professional PJ Tour player I felt that as a junior golfer but in other aspects of my life too sometimes the harder the harder you work the worse you get and I’ve really figured out that over the years the more that I have a plan and and things that I do the better the better the results eventually become I’ve some of the best advice I got was from my short game coach James sikman and he sat me down I think I was kind of coming off of a a stretch where I wasn’t putting as good and and he’s always been somebody to always give me confidence and say hey man like you’re a one putter like you’re a really good putter but the work that we’re doing now on your short game and your putting you’re chipping we’re going to continue to work on this day after day after day like stay committed to the process stay committed to what we’re trying to do don’t skip any steps and then a month from now that’s where we’re working to we’re not working towards the results tomorrow we’re working for results a month from now yeah and and really you see that on the PGA tour now too um even if you’re not caught up in what with what everybody’s working on but you see confidence build week over week over week with guys that they finally get over the hump they make the cut and then they finish in the top 10 and then you start to see they build good weeks after good weeks and I think for me that was something that I always always believed in was having a plan working the plan and trusting the process and knowing that a month from now we’re going to be better than we were a month ago takes a lot of discipline not to look over your shoulder and am I right well I was bad about it too for a bit because I was I was uh I don’t think anybody’s ever been putting the like if if you’re listening if you’ve been on the PJ tour great but if you haven’t I’ll tell you that when you’re in a contract year and PJ tour players can be in a one-year contract year if you do not have uh full status of whether it’s the winning um the the prior year and you have an exempt status for a couple years that’s the best place to be because you can go work on your game without any repercussions because you know you have a job the following year but when you’re in that one-ear contract uh it’s you can sometimes make decisions that are too shortsighted and I was victim of making some shortsighted decisions and probably wouldn’t have made changes if I felt like I needed to fix now and not have a much more indepth look at what my career would look like and I think it led me down to some pass I had injuries as well uh that I can blame but I also know that I was a very simple dude didn’t like hitting a ton of balls just like playing golf and as we talked about at the beginning that’s kind of my DNA I never was somebody that was a a technical dude but once you turn that brain on um it’s it’s sometimes tough to turn off hey okay yeah you you’ve sort of led me to something I wanted to talk about so so you’re great amateur Junior golfer amateur to college LSU where your parents went successful L turnpro web.com tour miss a few Cuts then have a win or second whatever earn your PGA Tour card and you win in your first year um shooting 61 in the final round in Vegas I remember watching that on TV going dang this kid can go um then all of a sudden you thrust into the limelights and the following year you are in the final group at Augusta National alongside one dude called Jordan spe yeah man welcome to the world let’s let’s revisit that because I don’t think the golfer at large listening to this or watching you guys on TV realizes how hard it is even you know when you’re at the highest level yeah I golf was easy at that time it really was I I didn’t have too many days where I walked off the golf course where I could find too many shots that I miss you know it was just not a complicated game to me at the time I was making most of the cuts I I played in you know I was finishing top 25 more often than not didn’t have too many questions about my game able to just kind of work on just the basic it’s it’s a it’s where I assume where guys like Scotty and Xander always live which is just maintenance and and then be able to just go play golf and you’re lucky to have I was lucky to have stretches um of of a good length like that in my career there’s many players that find it for just one week I I found it for an extended period of time where I was able to play some really high um Quality golf on the PJ tour uh it’s the games though it’s it’s man um it’s wild because I’ve had multiple ups and downs like I’ve hardly ever just been like a flatliner I wish I was a guy that just went and and had 17 Pars in a birdie that’s never been me I’ve always had I was either always like down the leaderboard in college or I was at near the top and that’s kind of how golf has always been for me it’s either been really really easy or it’s been really hard I can’t I wish it was somewhere in the middle sometimes hey I want to ask you this um because you know you were in the final group there at the MERS had the Bad final I think it was the final day maybe yeah it was Sunday yeah um but but but then I got to ask this you know you’re hanging out with Jordan and JT and Ricky your buddies anyway you know and then you got become the sb2k guys um I mean it was wherever you turned the spotlight was kind of on you you know everyone watching this wants to be famous and you know have Fame and Fortune um help people navigate that because the brighter the light is the more pressure it almost puts on one am I crazy no I don’t think you are and I think I think we can kind of look at certain guys as examples I’ll talk about myself first and I’ll kind of pivot to another couple guys that come to mind in this this generation but uh I I think that I look back now and and realiz that my expectations were really high they always were high though when you were playing as good as I was why wouldn’t your expectations be um extremely high and whenever my stuff got started to get off and those those quick fixes and the maintenance issues that I could easily fix on the golf course became much more difficult game became more difficult and that’s when that’s when your mind really starts to think um and this is right around the same time where social media’s starting to become a thing and it did affect me for probably a year or two I I really think that I wish uh I wish social media wasn’t a thing and I always wonder if hey if if I never had social media and it and it never existed where would I be now because it it it led me to places that I didn’t know my my mind could go to just the the the defeat feeling of of leaving the golf course and feeling like you’re not getting better and then taking it to the next tournament to try to instantly get results if you don’t you know start off the tournament well it’s over and I I kept on just having that cycle of of just trying trying to not only prove myself how good I was but proved everybody else as well um I think those expectations hampered me down but I I also look at other players too that maybe is in a good example that um we’ve seen kind of the the limelights shined on them a little bit and Joel Damon’s one that comes to mind uh a player that was really good at just kind of you know keeping his card every single year um having really solid results probably did better not having the Limelight on him with his game and then Netflix comes out now he’s a superstar everybody we all love Joel uh anybody that’s been on the PJ tour has always loved him now the world loves him and now he’s got to find a way to play some really you know the same golf that he’s been playing but now expectations get higher and I think Netflix did a really that was probably their best episode they’ve had in the series was was Joel’s and and WAMS just the correlation of of how difficult wife in golf can be and you could see that Joel was going through um some Spurt of that as well um and another example too I think is uh the PJ tour is really good about identifying great personalities that they want to promote and really likable guys similar to Joel and the same guy that was playing with him in that group in Phoenix Harry higs yeah I mean this guy is uh the man the big rig uh he came on our show the other day and just speaks so well the most likable guy in the world and unfortunately the PJ tour can guarantee you that you’re going to have a job and for Harry I think whether it was expectations um you know trying too hard loses his card and we’ve been seeing I don’t know if you read much from Harry over the years just his trying too hard seemed to be the theme of everything he always talked about and for Harry I think he’s finally gotten over the hump of I’m I’m a good player just the way I am I’m I’m Harry higs this is who I am I think you’ve start started to see that The Talented Harry higs of hey I’m I’m comfortable in my own skin I I I don’t have to be you know playing Scotty Sheffer golf let me just play Harry Hicks Golf and what do you know he’s uh second on the corn fairy tour points race this year and and has a PJ tour card for next year you bring up such a good point because it’s weird right I think this is the life thing we’re getting a bit deep here you and me where everyone’s striving for better but when you’re out there playing you you you got to sort of work hard and then go out there and play like you almost don’t care you’re walking this tide rad between not caring enough and caring too much and somewhere in the middle of that you guys are walking this thing to go okay I got to work hard but when I hit shots I just got to hit them and let my talent come out but that’s so hard when things aren going your way totally and I I see that a little bit uh from time to time with Jordan spe I I think that he kind of walks that line a little bit when he’s over the hump with that and just allows his brain just to hit shots and play golf and not be in too much technical mode there’s nobody that that plays the game with more Artistry than he does and it’s so fun to watch um I I I I’m with you it’s I think that we kind of saw it in the full swing thing with Brooks right before he went to live just talking about how he couldn’t get away from the game when he left the golf course and I think any player in any sport will tell you if they’re able to get away from their sport away from their their court or field is it makes the game that much more easy because you’re going to have the mental strength to be able to get through the day if you’re if you’re thinking about whether it’s a shot from the day before just like what you’re working on your swing and then as soon as things get off the railroad track you’re burning so much mental energy and you got no chance over 72 holes uh to be competitive and I think that that to me is what what it seems like Scotty doesn’t have a worry in the world right like when I watch him he’s just he’s just kind of hanging out I don’t think he’s thinking about a whole lot yeah that’s that’s you’ve sort of led me to this too you’re doing a great job of segueing me um podcast guy man um I want you first off and then I’m gonna lead you I want you first off to tell everyone watching and listening to this that even you guys have Spurs or times within the round when things are just not there you know it’s kind of like on again off again on again off again and then you talk about Scotty he’s always sort of seems on again but he wasn’t winning because during that off ball striking period he’d miss a put or two and all of a sudden few over right right I don’t think the golfer at large realizes that even you guys some stage during the round you you don’t really have it and you’re cobbling together some something and you’re doing it with good chipping and putting and course management it’s a great point and Tiger Woods was the best at it finding a way to shoot 200 par 70 when he just doesn’t have anything that day and that’s the difference of good and great on the PJ tour is the players that that turn the two over 74 rounds into two under 70s because you’re gonna have stretches of of a 72 hold tournament where you just don’t have it but like I I’ve noticed this with Xander a bunch is that I constantly watch him now and there are times I’m like man he just doesn’t have it today and then end of the day he shoots three under and just I’m just man he just he made that look way better than what it was and I think that’s uh there’s no better compliment if you’re able to to find a way to make it not look pretty but still con confuse the people out there watching that and Scotty’s the the all-tim at that um it’s uh yeah it’s uh it’s it’s not easy to do that and I’m uh I’m jealous of them I’m jealous of Xander and Scotty being able to do uh exactly that well you had some of what they do because you were a good putter I mean I shouldn’t this it’s a podcast it’s the week after The Travelers championship in 24 and I had Xander on Saturday and he had the worst warmup man he barely squared one up there were spinny off into the wind to the right shows up on the first te fizzes one down the middle gets a little pin point but then when he hit a poor shot lag puts from four ft we’re up there to like a couple feet away somehow even with the poor ball striking he looked like it was stress free D I say because of the short game we saved it yeah no that’s it’s funny how sometimes my best rounds have been after a poor warmup I think that was a something that a player has just has to just trust what they have and sometimes you just body isn’t moving good enough early in the morning and maybe there’s some some de on on the ground and in your in the golf ball has got some moisture on it it’s just you just got to find ways to make excuses um and not point at yourself I I I still feel like the best players in the world whether you like it or not they they find a way to blame other things they don’t ever really look at themselves um they’ll find you know they’ll say wow the grain how does it move it that much Scotty said that all the time just so confused how does the ball do that it’s it’s never big one how the down how does it bounce that way but there’s there’s a psychological element to that because I think that any athlete has to believe that no matter the circumstances that they’re they’re the best in the world of what they do and you don’t want to fill fill yourself Nativity on a misot you don’t want to blame yourself oh man my technique is crap oh man I I I no chance I think that one of the most important things any player can do after a Miss shot or a bad putt a bad Drive is to just instantly come up with this solution of okay what what happened there just a quick reaction of what went wrong and for the next shot be able to go and try to make that correction and you kind of referenced that a minute ago how you know being able to have your best stuff and shoot good scores that to me is probably just as about as the most important thing because all these coaches and all this technolog out on the Range but as soon as the gun goes off you’ve got to be able to run through a checklist of a couple different things to be able to make adjustments on the Fly and whether that’s shot shape moving the ball back in or up in your stance shortening your golf swing aiming a little bit more left or right you’ve got to be able to know what your fixes are and I think that that when I was playing my best I would I would try to shorten my golf swing put the ball further up in my stance I would aim for the right and I would make sure that I got the club shaft to tilt the correct way on the downswing and I would play with that the rest of the day and I would just try to play a pull straight shot and I would go away from trying to hit draws and Fades and after the round I’d go to the range and I would go work on hitting Fades and draws because I was always better in creative mode and when I didn’t have it that day I was like all right let’s just go to what we know we can do and just get done with the round trust your short game and know you can get make birdies on par fives and and then go try to figure it out for the next day man this is good stuff it reminds me of a story Gary play told me and he’s like I’m a young kid coming over from South Africa and I Jack Nicholas best golfer in the world he goes and I get grouped with him in the first HS is Daniel Hall trouble down the left Jack with driver hooks it into the woods goes with iron on the next one double bogey doesn’t hit driver for the rest of the day and shoots th one under mhm and then they go to lunch and Gary says I go up to him and I’m like Jack you only had driver one time and Jack was like yeah you think uh I was going to try hit driver again after that first snaper off the first tea then he went to the range and fixed it after and I think what you share there for the the aspirant golfer is crucial to to like you say be creative and find find a way to get this thing in the house as good as possible yeah and I I’ve been pretty bad about that over the years I wish I was better because I I don’t I don’t have to like be so results oriented like I used to be you know now I just try to do everything and and I think it’s probably been for the worst because I don’t have to sign a score card anymore and it’s it’s a beautiful thing I get to enjoy the game but I also know that it’s not the right way to really improve uh and to shoot the lowest score possible CU I think for the longest time a score defined who I was and how I the rest of my day went and I felt the less I kept score the better I just want to enjoy the game that I love and I it I think now that I I keep score for the most part most times I play and if things are just not it’s not a good day I just got stop keeping score I’m just like I’m not I’m not gonna get into a bad mood because of a bad golf round I did enough of that over the years okay but I’ll build on that when you shot that final round 61 I hesitate to put this out there but I would guess that you know going up the last hole you didn’t really know what your score was you were just going yes yeah just going just going because I was I think start of the day in the 20s so I I was in the lead at the at the time and I knew I just needed probably to post something and it’s that beautiful place where you’re you’re playing you’re playing golf where your subconscious is just taking over you’re not thinking you’re just in that trance of of blacking out if you will and you just don’t really know what happened but it’s just that ability to get in the zone um I’ve never been able to struggle with that when I’ve gotten it going just being able to walk in and get into the Zone um and I think a lot of people too if if you watch me play on the PJ tour back in the day if you watched me long enough I had a temper I was not Smiley out there like the the guy that that you know in the broadcast the guy that you know from my pod just the upbeat personality I was very like much more of a John ROM type super ultra competitive would wear my emotions on my sleeve and really was not necessarily like a flatliner like a con Mora orander I when I hit bad shots I was frustrated I was mad anytime I could find anything to just just I just like wanted 12 rubber bands on my on my um on my wrist just to be able to pop them just to to be able to yell as loud as I could in a bubble to where I could just get all of that that energy out and I think part of it is is great when you have you know I wouldn’t ever tell John Ram to change who he is and I never wanted to change that competitive side from me and I think when I started playing poorly I I really noticed a difference in my competitive levels because I stopped getting mad as much I I was much Kinder with myself and I if I if I was more frustrated and negative with myself I probably would have been in a really bad place but I think I understood where I was and that I needed to be kind with myself because I I was struggling so much but the uh God there’s nothing better than when when the fire starts to light back inside of me when when I’m playing golf now and and I make a mistake and I have it going it’s it’s fun to kind of get that juice back where I’m like go man this is how I used to be this is this is the ultra competitive fun side that’s coming out well I think kind of to summarize that all we know we are human beings who play golf we’re not golfers who happen to be human beings yeah and we got emotions mess with the stuff um just along those lines you’ve played in countless prams if you had to sort of gloss through the memories in your head after watching golfers of all skill levels first off when I’ve watched them they all try so hard when they’re playing alongside you guys and then they suck but if you had to look at um golfers and proam players and and Club golfers if there was like a common mistake that they make is there such a thing in your memory for the most part they don’t take enough Club um I would say that’s probably the biggest thing not not taking enough club with their irons I would say that bunker the bunker game is what makes me like the most annoyed of just like people that don’t understand bunker technique when I see a guy get in there with the square Club face I I immediately stop him I’m like what are we doing here let’s let’s let me tell you how to use the balance let’s open the face here and let’s splash the sand so I would say that would be the two biggest things is just B bunker technique which I think is a very coachable um part of the game that that may seem daunting to a lot of people but but really it’s it’s so like take a golf ball out of the bunker draw a line in the sand and just work on just striking A Line in the Sand consistently with some speed with some with an open face and that that’s all you really need to do in a bunker and just hit an inch or two behind it I would say that probably mark would be the bunker game and then just guys just not taking enough Club you uh you’re tickling the coach inside of me um you talk about the bunker game and I’m yearing somewhere in the back of my head most golfers who want to get better they’re not prepared to go and practice things like that because they suck out of the bunkers so they don’t want to be exposed yeah you yeah you guys I mean when you watch a professional prepare you guys it’s like preparing for an examination you touch on every of the game well you want to have all the answers to the test before you get out there to where you could just go and play so you just want to have the technique all the question marks on what do I do with an uphill downhill lie or what if it’s a really green blue thick grass rough that we’ll have or Dow grain what how much off do I take with it from there so there’s all these different elements that we have to prepare for but yeah I I have some buddies that that don’t do a whole lot of practice and they uh I’ll tell them hey this is what you need to go work on and it’s fine I mean I I’m for somebody like myself who doesn’t I haven’t done a CH I haven’t put down a chalk line in three years but I I just show up now just like you know what nobody can po better than me that’s I just show up with that attitude that I don’t need the training like I used to have and it’s funny that I probably didn’t ever really need as much maintenance with my putting like I would do every single day uh because I think it’s just naturally something that I’m very good at but the the other stuff the full swing does that gets a little bit more off from day today yeah the smiley I know there’s a smile on his face but he is a competitor and I guarantee those buddies one of them who doesn’t putt very well and they’ve got five feet to win the hole you’re giving that thing to them I mean you’re like I want to see oh heck no yeah heck no no we’re I I I like to have something on the line in every in any time I play whether it’s it could be for a dollar just a match just something to keep me motivated because it’s it is fun to go out and play with your buddies and have a good time but also like I want to be competitive too I want to enjoy the the element of competition and and just being able to you know pull shots off and and hit hit shots like I know I can so it’s it’s always fun to and especially when I bird 18 always keeps me back coming wanting to play more right uh speaking of answers to Tess um a few weeks ago at the US Open at pineur number two um on Saturday correct me if I’m wrong you had Bryson eventual winner on Sunday Rory yes see I had Bryson on Thursday I know that you had brys Saturday I had I had cany at drie on Saturday so that was a slower day but I I had Bryson Thursday Rory on Sunday so basically you saw the eventual winner and runner up playing yeah on a golf course that was mean it was difficult there was no letup it felt like I wasn’t there it looked like every shot was kind of on the knife edge a little bit revisit that with us because I think there’s so much to learn because you watch these two guys play Under off difficult conditions had somehow find a white way to thrive yet at the same time they weren’t always at their best they were recovering and sort of hanging around so I’d just love you to to to just just wax a little bit well it’s funny that you you do say that they yeah they did finish one two and watching Bryson on Thursday and just keeping an eye on Rory the rest of the week and then seeing him on Sunday I just felt like who was going to beat these two guys especially I didn’t I didn’t know who was going to be Bryson uh after watching him play golf on Thursday it was one of the most impressive driving rounds I’ve I’ve ever seen and just his ability to hit it 330 340 yards on repeat right down the middle this High beautiful draw just is a different game um and he’s playing with some of the best players in the world and he made whoever he was playing with just look like they were playing a different game it just that ability to me um and maybe he could have been a little bit more penalized in some on some drives on where they ended up but you got to give them all the credit in the world because he didn’t have his ball shreking the entire week and like we’ve talked about before his ability to get up and down and be resilient and have the patience to not aim down at flag sticks of the US Open especially at Piner which is uh the greens that are just Dome shape that that as soon as you start getting aggressive that’s when Bogies start to come in punches mhm because I asked Bryson after the r on Thursday because I felt like there was a really low score for him out there that day if he wanted to because I thought the greens were just soft enough that he could maybe hit some iron shots a little bit closer to the pin yeah and I asked him after the round and he answered saying that you know it’s a US Open I know this golf course I know my game plan sticking with hitting it towards the middle of the green the fat sides of the green and giving myself 20 Footers is the formula for for the race over 72 holes here and I thought that showed a lot of maturity in his game um to be able to show up even though you’re having the the driving round of your life to not aim at flags with wedges like he just he there wasn’t a hole he didn’t have a wedge or nine iron in um besides some par 3s which were probably still close to a nineiron let’s be real um I just thought that was really impressive with Bryson’s game and then you know you mentioned Rory and um I thought his short game was just fantastic throughout the entire week his best putting round of the week was on Sunday outside of two two really short putts that we’ll never forget and we’ll never stop talking about but I I I want Rory to win a major as bad as anybody else uh he’s he’s so good for the game and it’s so fun to watch him play the game uh but still it’s God it’s got to be still has to be so difficult for him to swallow yeah you talk about br and Rory if I had to summarize your Bryson observation I would use that word that all you Pros use when I interview guys like you and you’re like patience I got to trust the process stick to my routines you know and it’s trite but it’s true um and then with Rory early in the round you know I was watching you I love to listen to you on the course and I remember after about the seventh eighth maybe ninth hole I tweeted I’m like Rory’s short game is keeping him in this thing right now cu was hitting some unreal chip and pit shots and then making the four and five Footers and isn’t it crazy how what was what kept Him in it let him down when the chips were down and that that to me you know everyone will talk about the misses but I’m like it’s kind of sometimes just our game in the worst way where it’s you’re doing the right thing and then when it means something it’s not there but all what you guys do I think is what the key to the you said the difference between good and greats is the greats will get knocked over and they’ll gather themselves and revisit the thing and learn from it and then pick themselves back up and just go out there again yeah thank thank you for the compliment I appreciate it Mark you as well uh fun to listen to over the CVS team and I I I’ve had some time to kind of think about this and I I feel like with Rory the it’s not his we we know he knows how to win he’s won so many times and wins multiple times a year uh over the last 10 years winning and closing the deal was not been an issue so I think that was the biggest surprise to me was down the stretch he’s always been able to just close events out by just you know playing just the Rory golf that he knows how to play so it surprised me that that he had done everything up until 15 perfectly just exactly the way he drew drew it up uh besides a really poor break at the fifth hole no the part five yeah yes poor break there at the fifth hole but the Tactical are at the tactical error at 15 choosing the wrong Club um hitting a eight excuse me a seven iron at seven and eight ending up in the worst possible place you give away a bogey there and then 16 that one to me was a the only way that Rory mroy misses that putt is if he loses his concentration and focus okay so he so in some way he was either looking ahead thinking about something else or just not being able to just lock in and and knock that Putt in because Roy is a really good putter inside of 3 feet I’ve never really hardly seen him miss those putts especially on a day in which he’s made everything so chalk that up for that gets up and down at 17 and then 18 everybody talks about the putt but the chip to me was the big mistake not leaving that below the hole I just I didn’t think it was a very difficult chip um I know it’s the 72nd hole of a US Open in a major and who am I to say that I know exactly what that feels like but I’ve watched the entire golf round to that point and I felt like it was probably one of the the easier pitches that he has had to that point and I just felt like if you’re gonna if you know you have to make par give yourself the best look which is to that pin we all know it’s underneath that hole okay I’m armchair quarterbacking because I wasn’t there and at this stage um you know we’re living the thing all the fans are I was curious because for let me backtrack I heard Scotty Sheffer I heard the report that Scotty sheffler said what he felt uncomfortable there was the design of the golf course with a wire grass on either sides of the Fairway in the native areas he goes it didn’t really give you a side to miss I mean that’s brilliant in itself because Scotty looks at a Target and he goes okay it’s safe to miss there so he gives himself a bit of an out so there you got 18 Rory has the lead there I’m surprised he didn’t go with some sort of Fairway finder because still then he’ have some sort of short Club in there just yeah I I I thought about this because he had hit three-wood another day I think it had everything to do with it being a back hole location I felt like if he hit driver he hits it up in the stuff he’s gonna have something that he can land on the front of the green and Chase it back driver didn’t bother me at all the days that he had hit three-wood off that t it was for the front pins so we’d have a fuller Club in I mean this this 18th to Pinehurst compared to back when it was in 99 or 2005 where players are hitting sevens and six irons and I think to a back pin on Sunday Rory if I recall had somewhere around 117 yeah so I mean it’s just a different game these guys are playing now got you hey Smiley this has been just loaded with insights that would help people to play better golf so I’m I’m thinking that folks want to hear from you more so tell them where they can find your podcast tell them where they find you website social media and such please oh absolutely thank you uh it’s been it’s been a lot of fun to come on here and talk I know you and I have been wanting to do this for a while now so it’s been uh very very fun and uh yeah every week we we drop a couple episodes on the smiley show it’s on the sports grid Network it’s on YouTube you can find it wherever you watch or listen uh find your podcast so it’s that’s been we’ve been doing that for a little over a year now it’s been a lot of fun and uh we we’re keeping it uh reel over on social media as well Smiley call 10 on everything so uh it’s been a lot of fun oh man it was a lot of fun it truly was I appreciate being able to feature you and I’m thankful that you would come on and be so honest because you know the best way for everyone around the world who watched this or listen to this is to learn from honesty and you’ve been so candid so I appreciate you thank you of course Mark anytime and look forward to seeing you soon was
