Rory McIlroy Gets Honest on New Career Goals, a Ryder Cup Captaincy, and His Future in Golf

00:00:00
Speaker 1: I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. And when I find my.

00:00:05
Speaker 2: Ball in a brid egg Friday egg, the dreaded Frida egg Friday, Frida egg Egg, Frida egg bride egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the up course.

00:00:37
Speaker 3: Welcome back to a special episode of the Friday E Golf Podcast. I know you're probably not expecting a new podcast and your feed, but we felt like we should drop this into the podcast feed. We had a great opportunity to sit down with Rory McElroy a couple of weeks ago at Riviera. We had Kevin van Valkenberg inter you Rory for about a half hour and it was sensational. Kevin did a great job and Rory gave a lot of really thoughtful answers to a wide range of topics. So we decided it would be a great thing to just drop into the podcast feed. It's also available on YouTube if you'd like to go watch it there. If you have already listened to this, just move on. But we figured for those that don't watch YouTube, this would be a nice thing to put into your feed. So before we get to the interview. This is Player's Week. Players Week is brought to you by Optum. Optim is making the healthcare simpler, smarter, and more conducted. Optim is a proud partner of the Players and also Rory McElroy is an optim Health Ambassador. Thanks to optim for their support of our players coverage and I hope you enjoy this sit down interview with Rory McElroy. Thanks to Kevin for doing this and thanks to Rory for the time.

00:02:11
Speaker 2: Rory, thanks for joining us. It's like the old ESPN Sunday conversations. You know, I'm Roy Firestone, Roy McElroy. Fun to have you here, just for a few kind of questions. It was not very serious. What motivates you at age thirty six?

00:02:25
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, Like I think I have needed to ask myself that question, especially after what happened last year in the Grand Slam, because that was really what motivated me for the last decade, and not just that.

00:02:45
Speaker 1: Obviously there's other things you want to achieve in the game, but I.

00:02:48
Speaker 4: Guess the guiding light was that, and it's probably taken me a while to figure out where I wanted to go from here and what my priorities were, and but I think as time goes on, I do I want to leave a legacy in the game. And I and I don't know if this is ego or if this is just like you know, I think sometimes I give myself goals or I give myself these motivations, and I think to myself, well, are these my goals or are these goals that like people have made for me. So, but you know, I've thought long and hard about it, and I actually I had a chance to have dinner with Roger Fetter a few weeks ago, and he framed the question a little differently to me, and it just made me think about it a little bit differently. And I was asking him, like, when he got to a point in his career when he achieved everything he really wanted to what was the motivation to keep going? And his answer was, you know, it was great and I had to do with Pete Sampras. And then you know, when he got to fifteen, which was past Pete's fourteen, He's like, well, twenty didn't seem that far away, you know. So and it's the same thing for me, Like I've got to five majors, you know, I don't think it's out of the realms of possibility that I could win every major twice, which would be a really cool thing. To win the ground Slam twice, it'd be a really cool thing to you know. I think I've always been very hesitant to put a number on it because if you don't get to that number, does that mean you're a failure? Does that mean that you haven't done what you set out to achieve? But then at the same time, if you if you if you put a number out there. I'm not saying that I'm going to put a number on it, but internally, if I have something I want to do and I don't quite get there by it, but I at least finish a little further ahead than where I do right now, then it was worth trying to get there. So I think that's where I'm at, you know. I, Yeah, are there a certain number of majors I'd like to win?

00:05:05
Speaker 1: Yes? Am I going to put that number right into the world.

00:05:08
Speaker 4: Probably not, because I don't need my goal to become other people's goal a bit, a little bit like what the Masters really became for me over these.

00:05:17
Speaker 1: Last ten years. But yeah, there are there.

00:05:21
Speaker 4: I want to leave a legacy in the game, and I've I've talked about being wanting to be the the best European that I've you know, that's ever played the game, and you know, people have different barometers about what that is, but it's really like Faldo and Savvy and you know, I feel like in the game I've been able to pass a lot of the things that they did, but then there's probably other things that I.

00:05:44
Speaker 1: Need to do to to cement my place and that spot.

00:05:49
Speaker 2: When in your life did you sit down at tables with people like Roger Federer and be like, Yeah, I deserve to be here, I've earned this spot.

00:05:59
Speaker 1: I probably I still don't.

00:06:00
Speaker 4: I probably still have a little bit of imposter syndrome that wow, this is this is my life and this is what I do and this is you know so, But I think as well having a conversation like that with someone that's done at all, Okay, it's in a different sport, but he's lived it, he's been through it, he played the game to a very high level for a very very long period of time, and just to get his thoughts on how he thought about the the last fears of his career, you know, that's a you know, it's such a wonderful opportunity that I get to do that, and I.

00:06:38
Speaker 1: Feel incredibly fortunate that I that I do get to do it.

00:06:41
Speaker 2: What do you feel like you've learned about yourself in the last few years.

00:06:46
Speaker 4: Ah, that I'm more like my dad than I thought I was. I'm an eternal optimist. I try to see the good and everything. I try to find silver linings out anywhere that I look. And that's definitely an attribute I get from my dad.

00:07:09
Speaker 1: And I think to.

00:07:13
Speaker 4: Have the longevity that I've had in this game, I think you have to be that way because people, you know, people frame it as resilience, but I don't really think it is.

00:07:23
Speaker 1: It is resilience and.

00:07:25
Speaker 4: In terms of bouncing back from setbacks and coming again and performing, but honestly, it's about It's about having hope and about seeing the good and things.

00:07:36
Speaker 1: That's what That's where my resilience comes from.

00:07:39
Speaker 4: It's not from this grit and determination and like this macho alpha side of myself.

00:07:47
Speaker 1: It's just more that I believe good things are going to happen.

00:07:49
Speaker 4: And I don't know if that's a good sort of naivity to live live life with or not.

00:07:55
Speaker 1: But yeah, all I can say is I'm more like my dad than I thought I was.

00:08:01
Speaker 2: Did he seem wiser and smarter as you got older?

00:08:03
Speaker 1: Oh?

00:08:04
Speaker 4: Absolutely, my parents have, I think ever since I've become a father and had to be a parent. I not that I didn't appreciate my parents, but like you just appreciate them so much more.

00:08:18
Speaker 2: What do you think that they gave you that you wanted to pass on to Poppy?

00:08:21
Speaker 4: Like as a dad, Her independence, I think is the big thing I want to I want her to make her own mistakes. I want her to learn from her own mistakes. I don't want I don't want to have her go through life, or especially the early years of her life, being.

00:08:40
Speaker 1: So sheltered and so.

00:08:43
Speaker 4: You know, sort of hovered over that she doesn't get to make mistakes and she doesn't get to, you know, learn from those and grow from those.

00:08:51
Speaker 1: You know that that to me is a is a big deal.

00:08:54
Speaker 2: Does any of us seem like it went by faster than you thought it would? Yeah?

00:08:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, Wait. I was telling a story.

00:09:06
Speaker 4: The other week where I remember when I just turned pro and I got my very first European term money clip, and like I remember, you know, remember looking at it, and you know, remember European Tour two thousand and seven, and you know, nearly twenty years later, here we are like it's honestly, it's went by in a blink of an eye.

00:09:27
Speaker 1: It's crazy.

00:09:28
Speaker 2: Yeah. I often think about that story you told Paul Kimmage about sitting in Tokyo or wherever, eating pringles and like tearing up and being like, I'm very lonely and I don't know what this life is like what I thought.

00:09:40
Speaker 1: Jayju Island, South Korea.

00:09:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, what do you think you'd tell that twenty one year old version of yourself? Now?

00:09:47
Speaker 1: I think I lived.

00:09:50
Speaker 4: Look, I think all twenty I was sorry, I was, I was two, it was I was eighteen. I think all young people live their life way too much, just like moment to moment, instead of taking a longer view and and and looking at the bigger picture. And I would say, just take the long view, take the long view of it. Like that to me is the you know, I I lived and died by every round of golf that I played, by every decision that I needed. And as you get older, you learn you learn that you know not everything is life and death in this certain moment you know it can be. You know you can you can relax a little bit and and and know that you have time and be okay with feeling as long as you're trying your hardest and just keep going.

00:10:52
Speaker 2: What kind of relationship do you think you want your daughter to have to the game of golf.

00:11:01
Speaker 4: I don't want. I think it's easier for me to say what the relationship is. I don't want her to have with the game rather than one that I do. But I wanted I certainly don't want it to be something where that's the only way she feels like she can spend time with me. So there's that part of it. But then I'd like her to enjoy the game. I would like her to get joy from playing, whatever that means. She has taken a bit of an interest in the game. She's got a nice little swing, and she likes going out there and hitting balls and.

00:11:37
Speaker 1: Loves tgl as we were saying before we did this interview.

00:11:41
Speaker 4: So but I just want I want golf to be one part of her life.

00:11:51
Speaker 1: But I don't want I don't want her to.

00:11:56
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't want her to have to think that she has to play golf to appease me, or spend time with me, or the only way to get close to me, because that I've done a horrible job as a father.

00:12:06
Speaker 1: If that's what she thinks.

00:12:08
Speaker 2: What kind of questions does she ask you about the game?

00:12:13
Speaker 4: She's very observant, so she can she can take a conversation with Erica and I had just between us three weeks ago that she's overheard and say, remember when you said that, what does that mean? And then it just completely catches you off guard.

00:12:28
Speaker 1: And so.

00:12:33
Speaker 4: But no, she's pretty like, she's very she's observant of the world around her, and I think we've done a really good job of cultivating that in her because we don't we don't really let her have screen time and we you know, we're very big on like no iPads in the house, not like my wife more so, Erica more so than me, but like it's it's I can see the benefits as she gets older.

00:13:02
Speaker 1: So I think.

00:13:05
Speaker 4: Being really curious in the of the world around her and asking questions around that, I think is like one of her one of the things that we've been able to cultivate, which is really cool.

00:13:17
Speaker 2: What is some advice that someone has given you that you've tried to kind of adopt in your life in recents, I.

00:13:35
Speaker 4: Would say, and this is sort of cliche, but but go with your go with your instinct. I I and sometimes I do that a little too much, or like a bit too much on gut feel like on the golf course for example, where a little and I would say, my my general disposition is probably a little more impulsive, so I sometimes have to rem myself back in.

00:14:00
Speaker 1: But I've never.

00:14:04
Speaker 4: I feel like I've never made a terrible decision when it's been on gut instinct. I've made bad decisions when I've overthought things.

00:14:13
Speaker 2: I know acknowledge, like to be from Northern Ireland and to be Irish are very different things or complicated things. But what do you think it'll mean to Ireland to have a Ryder Cup in a couple of years.

00:14:23
Speaker 4: I think it'll be a big deal. It'll be twenty years since we had it last. I remember going to that with my dad and watching the Sunday singles. I hope it means a lot for Look, I think Ireland has done an unbelievable job in developing players and you see some of these players come through, you know, back from say potterck Harrington, Darren Clark, Paul McKinley.

00:14:56
Speaker 1: You know, you had great McDowell myself, shean.

00:15:00
Speaker 4: Say, Tom McKibbin nooy for example, and hopefully it continues. But we've done a really good job of being able to inspire the next generation and hopefully what the Ryder Cup does is inspire the next generation of Irish golfers. I think that that would be a great outcome, you know from the event.

00:15:20
Speaker 2: People have pressed you, oh indeed, you know, would you be a captain as and I you've obviously said no thing could do that? What do you think kind of captain you want to be when that call comes someday from you.

00:15:33
Speaker 4: I've been very fortunate to play under a lot of different captains, a lot of great captains, and I'd like to think that I would take a little bit from each of their captaincies. You know, watching Look turn into the leader that he has become over the last four years has been absolutely incredible, and I've been very close with him on that journey, you know, to see you know what a leader Paul McGinley was and Glen Eagles in twenty fourteen.

00:16:06
Speaker 1: You know, Thomas bjorn In twentyth.

00:16:08
Speaker 4: Like they've all been, They've all had their attributes, and I'd like to think I could take a little a leaf out of every one of their books and and try to put it into my captaincy. But I've always said, like in the Ryder Cup, I've a I've always tried to lead by example from a player perspective. So just because I may be the most senior on the team or the one of the most accolades, that doesn't mean that I don't show up first for team meetings or I don't you know, I want to, you know, and I've always said this, but I want Rasmus Hoguard or Bob McIntyre to look along, look at me and.

00:16:53
Speaker 1: Think that they're on the same level for the week.

00:16:55
Speaker 4: I don't want I had that there, So to me, to try to create a culture where there's no hierarchy within the team is something that would be really important to me. And then, you know, golfers are individual people and individual sports people, so you know, let them be who they need to be to get.

00:17:14
Speaker 1: The best out of themselves. I don't want to.

00:17:19
Speaker 4: Put so much structure in that people don't feel like they can be themselves or get the best out of themselves.

00:17:24
Speaker 1: So definitely try to be a little more like.

00:17:28
Speaker 4: One of the things McGinley was so good at is you know, he had to treat me very differently than he had to treat Victor.

00:17:33
Speaker 1: Debuisson, for example.

00:17:35
Speaker 4: So but to see him do that and some of the things he did for Victor to make him feel comfortable in that environment, you know, that's something that I that I'd want to do as well.

00:17:44
Speaker 2: Does the writer have been a good place after what happened in New York?

00:17:49
Speaker 1: It'll be in a yeah, it is.

00:17:50
Speaker 4: I think it From a competition standpoint, it's amusing, you know, it's the biggest rivalry we have in our game. Yeah, I think the the spirit in which the game is played could change, and that's something that we're going to hopefully address in Ireland next time around, because the Ryder Cup was was created to be played in a certain spirit and I don't think it was played in that in the right spirit in in New York.

00:18:24
Speaker 1: But I mean between the players it probably was.

00:18:27
Speaker 4: But you know, obviously what what happened with the fans was it you know, it went over the line in some places, and just trying to pull that side of it, you know that that part of it back a little bit, and and and just sort of have people understand that our game is a little different than than other sports. And I think that's what makes it so great and and and that's a good thing.

00:18:52
Speaker 1: It doesn't Golf doesn't need to be like these other sports.

00:18:55
Speaker 4: You know, It's got enough great attributes to to stand on its own.

00:18:58
Speaker 2: I talked a little aboutlast ye about the cathedrals of the game that had some importance and meaning to you, and you checked off a few of them, you know, with pebble, and I guess, so, what what's left? What cathedrals still matter to you? You know, you got to play in Australia. But what else is out.

00:19:13
Speaker 4: There that Andrews st Andrews is the you know, obvious one.

00:19:20
Speaker 1: You know. I've really.

00:19:23
Speaker 4: Started to relish like these old school US Open tests over the last few years.

00:19:27
Speaker 1: I'm excited to go to Shannacock this year.

00:19:31
Speaker 4: I think that the the Scheduler Rota of courses that the US Open is going to go to for the next few years.

00:19:38
Speaker 1: It really excites me.

00:19:40
Speaker 4: I'd love to win another US Open on one of those iconic traditional US Open golf courses somewhere like a Marion. You know, it's got so much history, so yeah, there, there's there's so many. I mean we're going back to Berkdale this year. It's one of the best courses in the UK. But yeah, just the where some iconic moments in our game have happened. But then also where some of the best players in the in and over the course of the generations have have played and one out as well.

00:20:14
Speaker 2: One two players. What does that mean to you?

00:20:21
Speaker 1: You know, I think what it means.

00:20:22
Speaker 4: It the probably the thing that I'm proudest of about winning a couple of players championships is my My first few experiences around TPC Sawgrass were awful.

00:20:35
Speaker 1: Hated the golf course.

00:20:37
Speaker 4: Like just didn't know what to make of it, cursed Pete Dye every single time I played it, and I finally started to figure it out. I think the move from May back to March helped me tremendously as well, even though I had started to play a little better in May. But I think going back to the overseed on the slightly softer condition, which makes the course play a bit longer, plays into my hands. But you still have to be strategic in your in your game plan around there, and I think that I'm proudesst of just figuring out that golf course.

00:21:12
Speaker 1: A little bit more.

00:21:14
Speaker 4: But the players is it's an iconic tournament obviously, you know, all of the best, most relevant players in the world in history have pretty much won. The players, I would say, and it only it seems like it only gets bigger each and every year. You know, its presence in the golf calendar, and yeah, just it's a you know, I think the one thing that really helps with TPC is the fact we go back to the same golf course all the time, a little bit like Augusta, that people know the holes. They you know, when people turn on the TV, they know what to expect, they know what holes are coming up, like they sort of feel like they're playing the golf course with you.

00:21:57
Speaker 1: So I think that helps a lot.

00:22:00
Speaker 4: But yeah, from my I started playing there in two thousand and nine, and I would if you would have asked me from nine through like twenty twelve, if I thought I'd ever win there, I would have said absolutely not. So the fact that I've went through my career and I've won a couple of them, you know, I'm proud of that.

00:22:17
Speaker 2: Is there a shot there that you particularly proud of or you think of sometimes when you're like, I wouldn't have been able to do that in two thousand and nine.

00:22:28
Speaker 4: I'd say that little chip nine iron into seventeen last year in the playoff, like super windy, gusting to thirty thirty five. You know, I it's taken me a few years to learn how to hit that shot and control that shot.

00:22:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, I doubt you know.

00:22:47
Speaker 4: I'd say for the first you know, at least half a dozen years of my career at Sawgrass, I definitely wouldn't have been able to hit that shot.

00:22:57
Speaker 2: Do you have any courses where you're like, I have never played there and I want to do that. Besides the one in India with Gary Player designed obviously d l F.

00:23:05
Speaker 4: The LF is still on the bucket list.

00:23:11
Speaker 1: New South Wales in Australia, I haven't been there. That looks really cool. I haven't been to Bandon. I'd love to go to Bandon and do.

00:23:20
Speaker 2: That to put you in the lottery. I'm sorry, you know.

00:23:23
Speaker 4: That's fine. I'm trying to think of anywhere sort of knocked off most Fisher's Islands. Another one I think I'd love to go to and and.

00:23:39
Speaker 1: Yeah there are others.

00:23:40
Speaker 4: There's so many in the States that I haven't Chicago Golf Club is a really cool it looks really cool.

00:23:46
Speaker 1: I haven't been there.

00:23:48
Speaker 4: Passa tiempo for talking West Coast.

00:23:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's there's there's something.

00:23:55
Speaker 4: There's so much amazing golf in the United States in general, and you know, I feel like I have got into half of those. Waterville and Ireland I haven't played, love to play there. Yeah, there's so many. There's Like I mean, I don't you know, when the time comes where I have a little more free time and I'm just playing golf for fun, I'd love to go and do that stuff.

00:24:16
Speaker 1: But right now I just don't. I just don't have the time to. You know.

00:24:20
Speaker 4: I took that golf trip to Tara Edie in New Zealand a couple of years ago, which was absolutely amazing, and you know, I'd love to do, you know, one of those a year and do something like that because that was so much fun.

00:24:33
Speaker 2: When you play golf for joy and fun as opposed to tournament, do you have to like turn on a different part of your brain, is it?

00:24:39
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, I have to forget about the score. And I sometimes still catch myself being like.

00:24:45
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm like six under or whatever.

00:24:47
Speaker 4: You know, I have to just completely forget about the score and forget about yeah, Like I gotta turn off that tournament golfer side of my brain and just say, I'm I want to enjoy this for the company and the scenery and the feel of a good strike and the laughs and everything else.

00:25:09
Speaker 1: And that's easier said than done.

00:25:14
Speaker 2: How do you handle doubt?

00:25:25
Speaker 1: Probably with action, with.

00:25:31
Speaker 4: Practice and dedication, and yeah, trying to put the work in so that that dot slowly goes away.

00:25:40
Speaker 1: I think you're always going to have doubts. You're always gonna.

00:25:45
Speaker 4: Like, you know, over important golf shots you're going to have, but you just have to you know, sometimes I just think to myself, well, what's the worst that can happen?

00:25:53
Speaker 1: Yeah?

00:25:53
Speaker 4: I got that to me is you know, I try to you know, I still get first tea nerves, especially in big tournaments or big rhymes, and sometimes I'll just think to myself, all right, what is what is the worst t shot you could hit? Where would it end up? And then you think about it and you're like, well, it's okay. I mean, I could probably go on, try to find a gap in a tree or play it or you know, get an up.

00:26:17
Speaker 1: And done it for par and we move on.

00:26:18
Speaker 4: It's you know, it's contrituitive, but if I think to myself, what's the worst that can happen, it sort of relaxes me a little bit.

00:26:27
Speaker 2: When we had you on your interview, you joked about hoping that Scotty you didn't have to have Scotty signed the gift that Harry gave you too if he won the US of this ship. What do you make of what Scotty has done just the last few years. Why is he been able to do this and sort of draw these comparisons to Tiger and some of the all time grades.

00:26:47
Speaker 1: I think it's a I don't think it's just one thing is the reason why.

00:26:52
Speaker 4: But I think he he has no ego when he plays golf, doesn't really care if he's the longest, if he's the straightest, if he's the best iron player, if he's the best putter. He just he competes and he gets it done. And sometimes it's not always pretty. But when you add up a score at the end of the day, you're like, oh, it was his sixty seven again. You know, it just he and I think as well. He he doesn't have many distractions. You know, he lives a relatively simple life where he could live a very you know, he has got access to everything and everyone in the world if he wants it, but he chooses, actively chooses not to go that way, and I think that works in his favor. And he has people around him to keep him incredibly grinded.

00:27:48
Speaker 1: I think his faith is a big part of that as well. And he just.

00:27:55
Speaker 4: It just doesn't you know. He seems to just be in this mindset where you know, whatever happens on the golf course happens, and you know it doesn't make him any more any less of a man. And you know, he goes home when he's happy with his family, and he shows up the next day he plays golf again, and just you know he I admire him so much for that, because I've experienced in this world where you can be pulled in so many different directions. You have all these other opportunities that you can that you can go and chis and I've quite a curious mind, so I do go and Chis loose. But then sometimes I do look at Scottie and be like, you know, maybe I wish I didn't have so much going on because you know, it works for him so well.

00:28:44
Speaker 2: What did you think when his when he made those comments at Port Rush last year about you know, I realized, like, this shouldn't define me. This is you know, what is it all worth? What is it all for? Like you're you're a curious person. Did it make you think about man like it's so rare for an athlete of his caliber to sort of step outside of himself and see themselves at you know, from ten thousand feet. I wondered if you sort of took anything away from that, like, huh.

00:29:08
Speaker 4: I understood it. I empathized with it, and it's it's true. You get that amazing feeling for you know, yeah he said two minutes. I mean it probably lasts a little bit longer than that. But life goes on and it goes back to normal, and you know, I had a little dose of it early in my career, which I was lucky to. You know, I I set a goal in twenty twelve that by the end of the year I wanted to get to world number one, and I achieved it by the end of February, and I, you know, cam really quick and I played well and I got there and I woke up the next morning and I was like, this is it. I still have to go and brush my teeth like everyone else.

00:29:56
Speaker 1: I still have to go. And you know, it just it.

00:29:59
Speaker 4: You think it's going to change your life, and then it doesn't, and then that you know, life goes on. It's like, okay, well, what's the next thing you want to do? And I'd say that that experience in twenty twelve is the closest thing I've had to what I experienced after the Masters last year of like okay, where do I go from?

00:30:21
Speaker 1: Though you know that was but.

00:30:24
Speaker 4: You you realize that, you know, you're still a relatively young person, and there's still more that you want to achieve, and you know, you just have to.

00:30:34
Speaker 1: Have to be very grateful and very.

00:30:37
Speaker 4: Proud of the accomplishments that you've been able to, like what you've been able to win and what you've been able to do, but then you also have to almost forget about it a little bit and move on to whatever's next.

00:30:53
Speaker 2: You've done some stuff over the years to sort of help stay sane, whether it's juggling, reading books, philosophers, this and that. What are you doing these days to I guess take your mind away from golf when you would like to be off of golf.

00:31:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think having a daughter helps.

00:31:10
Speaker 4: I think that takes your mind off it a lot. So I think when I'm at home, you know, I have my certain block during the day of like nine to three where she's in school, so you know, you're doing your thing and you're you know, fitting in practice and business stuff you got going on or whatever else. But then it's it's a very easy way to forget about all that when you're at home, when you're doing other things. So and I could still, like I could still do a better job of that and switch off even more, but I think that definitely makes it easier.

00:31:47
Speaker 1: And then from a like to get away from just purely golf.

00:31:52
Speaker 4: I mean, I've a lot of different business interests now and things that I'm working on and again, like I'm intellectually curious, so I I if anything like, I feel like sometimes I take on too much at times where I need to pair it back. But I think I'll always do that just because that's that's in my nature.

00:32:15
Speaker 2: Said a few times like I don't see myself doing this at forty six that you know, I don't want to go be on the Champions Tour, and some of those guys sort of like, you know, we'll see he'll he'll get a chance to sort of reassess when you hear Ernie say like, you know you'll want this when you get to this age, what do you think that Do you think you'll be sort of steadfast in that opinion or we reevaluate as times?

00:32:39
Speaker 1: No, I think I will.

00:32:40
Speaker 4: Look, I've said, I've said a lot of absolutes in my time that I've had to walk back, which I will totally admit. But I think this one is that's one I've I've I've long held that that view I I will enjoy. You know, I have the incredible privilege of being in three of the four majors until i'm whatever age I want to be, you know, fifty five, so whatever however long I want to play. You know, so if that, if those become the highlight of my golfing year from a tournament perspective, I am that I will be so okay with.

00:33:21
Speaker 1: But I don't want to.

00:33:23
Speaker 4: I don't want to be a touring professional golfer.

00:33:28
Speaker 1: For the rest of my life. You know, I want to. I want to do other things.

00:33:31
Speaker 4: I want to I want to see the world, and I don't want to see the world just through the lends of golf courses and hotels.

00:33:36
Speaker 1: I want to actually.

00:33:37
Speaker 4: See the world, and I want to, you know, I you know, being a professional golfer is an amazing life and I'm incredibly lucky. But at the same time, you know, there's things that I haven't done that I would like to do, and I'd say I'll spend a lot of my time doing those things.