Life & Content on the Korn Ferry Tour with James Nicholas

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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 ball.

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Speaker 2: In a fried egg Friday egg, the dreaded Frida Egg Friday fridagg Bride egg.

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Speaker 1: Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the hump. Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Golf Podcast. I am your host, Andy Johnson. Today I am excited to release an interview. We've had this in the camp for a while, we just haven't had a spot to put it. It was a great interview. Really enjoyed chatting with James Nicholas, a up and coming player who won on the Corn Ferry Tour earlier this year and is if he continues to play good golf, likely to earn his PGA Tour card for twenty twenty six. James is also a pretty big content creator. He's very popular on Instagram and TikTok. He really does an amazing job of kind of documenting life as a professional golfer and the pursuit of a PGA Tour card. One of the things I really respect about James is that he kind of talks about the highs and the lows. You don't just hear from him when he's had a good round, you hear from him all the time. He is a very very talented videographer. I remember seeing a lot of his work that he would do when he was in college at Yale, and I would think, Oh, that's somebody that I would want to hire to make videos. So it was really great to have Jame on. I'm really happy that he's playing some really good golf this year and hope that continues for the rest of the year. So I hope you guys enjoy this. It was really fun to chat with James. And as a reminder, we recorded this I think about five weeks ago, so it's I don't think there's any dated information in it, to be completely honest. But before we get to James, let's talk about our friends over at Shady Rays. So. Shady Rays is a sunglass company. They make wonderful sunglasses that aren't aren't super expensive, but just as premium as the expensive brands that I've owned. If you're serious about your golf game, your vision on the course matters, and that's where Shady Ray's golf collection comes in. They are built for the course in their color Rush lens tech enhances contrast that helps you track the ball in the air, read greens better, and cut the harsh glare. With lightweight frames that stay put through your swing, there's no slipping when lining up a putt. I use these the other day. I found them fantastic. I you know, the contrast is a thing that works. I found it easier to track the ball. I don't know about reading greens. I putt it well, but I don't, you know. I feel like I always read greens well. But I think on a bright day, they probably help you read the greens better. And one of the things is if they're lost or broken, Shady Rais will send you a new pair with their loss and Broken protection program. If you drop them in the lake, they replace them, if you knock them off on the carpath, they replace them, and if you stood on one day, they replace them. Go to Shady rays dot com and check out their golf collection. So Shady rays dot Com and use the promo code fried just fried, no egg, just fried for forty two plus pair of polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself. The shades are rated over five or at five stars by over three hundred thousand people. All right, let's get to James Nicholas. All right, James, we've seen in recent weeks Jacob Bridgman talk about, Hey, I couldn't feel my hands coming down the stretch. We talked about we saw Lowry just this weekend. You know, you had kind of a collapse at the Cognizant in Palm Beach, and he talked about like not being able to feel the club all of a sudden out of nowhere. I'm curious for you. You won a couple of weeks ago on the corn Ferry Tour. What were the nerves like for you coming down the stretch?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think I had the similar feelings. Actually I could feel the club, I could feel my hands, but it was more so like just like out of body experience for me. I don't know. I just felt like my mind was ump and all over the place. I needed to stay really present and do a lot of work to stay present. I will say on that final putt, I did feel something in my body that I never felt before. I don't know if it was like not feeling my hands or what it was, but it just felt weird, right, like the anxiety not the anxiety, but the excitement of Okay, hey like this puts to win and if I win, what's what's gonna happen? And then once like that putt went in, then I just lost all feeling and I was like, I don't even know what's going on anymore.

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Speaker 1: I you talked about the present, stay in the present. I do think what's interesting you came to the seventy second hole. I believe you were tied. You made the eagle to go to win by two. Yeah, a great way to close out a tournament eagle. But the you know, for you, is it harder to stay in the present if you have a lead like those guys had where Bridgeman's I think they both were actually up three three shots coming down the ste Do you think it's harder to stay in the present when you've when you've carved out a big lead and you know, if I don't screw this up, I'm going to win.

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Speaker 2: No, it's a great question. Most people don't really realize that. It's like when you have a four or five six shot lead. For me, at least this is my experience. I go into this fear of failure mindset where I have nothing to gain and everything to lose because people are expecting me to win versus if I'm one shot back, two shots back or all you know tied. Me and my mental coach work on work on this, doctor Joe parent. You know, it's like this mindset that I go into is like watch this, like look what I can do. You know, like I'm gonna come for you. And I kind of had this mindset and hockey and football growing up of you know, if we're one goal down with a minute to play, it's like, put me on the ice and give me the puck or give me the ball. You know, I want that situation. Versus if you've got a three goal lead, you kind of get a little bit lazy, little Laci days a goal and you maybe let a little say some something slip because that focus laps. So when you do have that three shot lead, you know, I didn't have that, but I have had it in the past, and I've let it slip a little bit because I get way less thorough than I would be if I was one shot back, two shots back. And that's sort of the mantra for the week for me every week going forward, is let's be thorough in every situation, no matter what. And because of that, I don't look at leaderboards anymore. Even if I have a ten shot lead a ten shot deficit, I don't want to know. I just pretend that I'm two back all the time.

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Speaker 1: Do you active actively, like when you try not to look at leader boards? I mean they're big and sometimes they are almost unavoidable. Do you just like look away at well? How do you avoid doing that? And if you catch it, if you catch it out of the corner of your eye, how do you process that?

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Speaker 2: So yeah, again with my mental coach, I think these are all like mental parts of the game where I work on and during practice rounds, I figure out where they are and I know where they are, so when I get to home, I'm like, Okay, I'm not looking in that direction. But there are times when I just like, you know, we'll look at somebody's put and I'll see in the background and be like, oh, James, like let's tee three whatever whatever it might be, And I'm not going to pretend I didn't see it. At that point. It's like, Okay, let's digest the information. How does that make me feel? How do I want to feel and move on, so I'm sixteen t in the final round and Bogata. I actually looked at the leader board on purpose because I had such an urge to look, and I realized, you know, if I had this urge to look and I'm hindering that urge, then I'm just like increasing anxiety. So if I look and I see that I'm four shots up or two shots back, whatever, it is, like, hopefully that will express some of that which it did. I saw that I was one back with three to play, and then I was like, okay, reset, I need to make a birdy to get to and to get into a playoff, two birdies to win. And in that moment it worked for me. But on Thursday Friday, it does not matter where you are, Like, you know, whether you're four back or ten back or two it's so much golf we played. And I think that I got so anxious early in the weeks because I was like, oh at a one shot lead after Thursday, like, does not matter. If you don't go Bertie twenty more holes, you're not gonna win.

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Speaker 1: So that's why, you know, I always say this on our other pun shotcuts start. You know, we do a Friday recording, and it's like, you know, you want to talk about results. It's like nobody talks about basketball game at the end of the first quarter, right yeah, and golf because I think there's that day break, you know, we we don't think about it like other sports. You're you're a great athlete. You are a great, great athlete. You know, I don't want to diminish what you're doing now, Like professional golf at a high level, you are a great athlete, but you had a you know, you played hockey at extremely high level football in college. The the idea of golf, the four rounds are effectively quarters, but nobody talks about them in that context. And I think what the difference in it versus every sport is is the marathon of of the breaks, you know, where it's one quarter. You know, imagine a basketball game where you took a break between a day break between each quarter, or a hockey game where between periods we just said, hey, everybody goes sleep, we'll reconvene tomorrow.

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Speaker 2: I mean, if the only way you would be similar is if you're playing a one B one match, right and you played day one, then a reset, day two, day three. But that's not the case when you play, you know, golf, it's okay, the implications of Thursday, the results of Thursday, I have implications for Friday, implications for Saturday and Sunday. So like they all kind of connect and you've got to build versus if you lose game one, game two, game you can still win. Even if you lost by you know, one hundred points on game one, two and three, you win, the next four you win. So for me, it's like, okay, how do we just like calm down, reset, make decisions that not won't throw us out of the tournament, right because you're not thinking about the negatives. But it's like, okay, how can we be so present in this moment knowing that we have seventy holes left, you know, we're talking about the second hole of the tournament, seventy holes left to make great decisions to make up for maybe a small mistake here there. So I mean, that's one of the reasons why I love golf. It's a mental battle for four days versus just, you know, two hours.

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Speaker 1: In my experience, I always enjoyed the seventy two holes where I struggled, And I know you played like the minor league tour, which are these just straight sprints. I always struggled with the idea of like this is one round, and I think it might be like I have ADHD. I'm a procrastinator. The idea of having seventy two holes was like always soothing to me, where I could be like, oh, you know, if I make a bogie, it's not a big deal. I can just keep, you know, like I've got millions of holes left to you know, effectively procrastinate. I can procrastinate away a slow start, but in a eighteen hole sprint or qualifier, this is you know, I have to I have to be pedal of the metal right from the gate. How how do you approach you know, I guess like you probably aren't going to have many of these outside of like the US Open qualifying. How do you approach the kind of sprint tournaments versus these these long seventy two hole tournaments.

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Speaker 2: I actually prefer them, and I need to get into a mindset, like like take the mindset from those one dayers to the seventy two hole events. Because I play really well in my backs against the wall and when I have, you know, like not nothing to lose, but when I have to do it right. There's eighteen aal event and it's a Monday qualifier. My first ever Monday shot eleven under broke a course record by four and one won the qualifier by five, and I was like, like, I wonder why, like what did I learn from that? And it was because every single shot I had like made to be so important, like this is the shot. I need to hit this shot well versus seventy two holes, I kind of get a little lazy and I'm like, oh, I'm just gonna punch this out and I'll punch it out through through the fairway into a bunker and I'm not like laser focused on it. So the mindset for me actually on seven two hole days is how can we be as thorough on each shot as we can as if it were an eighteen whole event. So I'm actually the opposite, right, Like I think the mindset of having like oh if I'm if I make a bogie here, like I'll get it back is what gets me in trouble because I almost like lose focus. I'm like, ah, that's okay to make these silly mistakes because it only matters on Sunday. But if you do that too often, you don't make it to Sunday, So it's finding like the happy medium.

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Speaker 1: I guess being two, that must be why you know. And I'm just curious if this is this was true your your college coach college she and told me your backup plan was that you're going to be a doctor. That must be the difference between a doctor and a podcaster is you're you're on top of things from right from the jump versus me, who's always tried to put things off.

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Speaker 2: I'm trying to trying to, that's for sure.

00:14:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know one thing you mentioned about about the fear, You know that that creeps in when you have a bigger lead. It's embarra like the embarrassment anxiety. You know what's interesting. I never really pick up magazines. This is the second time I've referenced this, but I was reading an article I can't remember the mental coach's name in uh the recent golf digest, I believe, and they talked about that's the same fee, the same kind of mental block that overcomes you when you that most people feel on short putts because there's an expect you're afraid of being embarrassed that you missed a short putt because of the same anxiety. So for you the the same. It's just to be thorough and go through the whole routine.

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Speaker 2: Right, yeah, No, it's exactly if I have an eight footer, right, it's okay, I'm expecting to make this. I know it's fifty percent on tour whatever. But it's if I'm an eight footer for Birdie, I'm like, oh wow, like this is a great opportunity. If I miss it, I have failed. Not Oh if I make it, I have succeeded. And I talk about the fifty to fifty put because it is fifty to fifty. They should be waited equally. Even though you're sitting there and being like, if I miss this, I'm a failure. You know, if you rewind there, pull that back to fifteen, eighteen, twenty feet now, it's like, oh, if I miss it, I'm supposed to miss it. It's not that big a deal. If it goes in, awesome, like let's go. And I tend to make those more often than not because you let go of that anxiety, let go of that expectation, and then if you even get creeper, you know, if you creep closer to the whole five feet four feet now it's like I have to make it otherwise you know, I'm really screwed, or like I've lost a full stroke, right, and as you close to the hole, that's when people start getting you know, we'll not use the word, but you know mental blocks with putting. And I've done a good job at like be like, whatever happens happens. That's the last thing I say when I'm over a putt. I'm gonna make my read. I'm gonna make my stroke and then whatever happens. You know, if I miss it, it's the green's fault, not mine, you know, or knowing if I push it a pull it and then I gotta go to the rain, go to the putting green. In practice, it's.

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Speaker 1: An interesting way you described it with the percentages, right, and where my head immediately went when you did that is weather right, And if you're if you're five feet away, and I don't know what the exact percentage is, but let's just call it seventy thirty or seventy five, twenty five, whatever it is from five feet and this is probably the zone where people are like, oh, I missed a shorty I should have shot one lower than I did, but I didn't make that putt on this hole. But if you think about it in terms of weather, if it said twenty five percent chance rain and rain, you wouldn't be like.

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Speaker 2: So no, not all. It's interesting you say that. I think it's like it's in our control. We feel like the putting, whether it's not really so it just like whatever. But when I think about yeah, and when I think about putting, like you said it there, you said should have like I should have been one under. But what I work on with my mental coach is I could have been one under or one better. So if I could have shot eight under today, it's phrasing a positive way. If I say I should have shot eight under, it's oh, I failed to do something that I should have done. That's a failure. So it's like shifting all of these little words, these little phrases into a positive way. That way you trick your brain to be like, oh, this is like even though it might have been a failure, it actually was positive, Like, oh, I really could have shot nine under today. You know, got to go clean a couple of things up, and I'm gonna be there versus you know, I should have shot nine under today, Like I can't believe I hit that shot. Like that was bad. This was bad. And that slight little switch is what's like the difference between people who build their mental strength on the golf course and actually use it as like a detchment of the game.

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Speaker 1: I mean, this is this isn't just golf too, this is absolutely life everything I I often I, you know, one of my you know, I get to go travel and do amazing things like from the casual onlooker, my life's amazing. But travel is hard for me because I'm away from my family a lot, and you know, there's anxiety about missing you know, what's going on at home and you know, having my wife have to pick up the load a lot for what I what I'm gone And I often say I, I, you know, I have to go do this. And like what's helped me recently is the shift of saying, like, you know, I get to go do this and like that just that slight switch in in terms of changing my mental approach. I saw it this weekend. I was playing a golf tournament and you know, I hold I hold out in the final round of this tournament for eagle, you know, from one hundred and fifteen yards. But I found myself at one point being like, man, I miss missed the short putt. I should have shot you know this. But then but it's like we mask. It's like, okay, like I hooped one from one hundreds ten yards, like I missed a shorty, but like I made that shot. And it's it's like golfers wash away the positives so often, and I think it's, as you said, you're not building your mental approach what you're doing when you're talking to yourself like I should have shot this because I missed the shorty. It's opposed to to being like I, you know I did this. This was this was amazing what I did? You know?

00:19:51
Speaker 2: It's so funny. My wife actually, in one of my rounds last year, I was complaining about a bad balance. I was like, gosh, I can't believe it like bounced like this or whatever. And she goes James, like, do you realize the whole before you hit it in the dead center of the woods and a bounced down the middle of the fairway and I was like, yeah, but like, you know, it's supposed to happen. And she's like, why don't you ever talk about like the good bounces and like the good breaks and like the good luck that you get. And I'm like, yeah, it's true, Like I did have a bunch of good breaks, but I'm just focusing on one bad one because you know, if that one bounce in the fairway, it's we always go to the negative. We always go to the bad. And that's something that I'm trying to, you know, obviously, keep working on.

00:20:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's like a common refrain from like a pro golfers. It's like you anybody that plays golf, it's like you always I I had a similar thing happened with my wife, you know, who doesn't know anything about golf. She's like, why why do you keep saying like I should have this could have happened when I was talking about around She's like, and it's like it's refreshing to get that kind of like outside perspective sometimes.

00:20:53
Speaker 2: Definitely.

00:20:54
Speaker 1: So you played a wide array of sports growing up up your I think your whole family, I don't be you know, it characterized great athletes. I believe you have some brothers that are playing high level. I feel like I'm losing track of time. I've followed you for so long. Maybe like college hockey.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I got my Our youngest youngest sibling is playing college hockey right now.

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Speaker 1: Brown. Yeah, and you know you played hockey football at Yale before focusing on golf, I believe your sophomore year. Do you ever think about what would have happened if you had played if you had focused on golf from the start.

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Speaker 2: No, A lot of people ask me that question, right if I had, you know, specialized early. But my dad has wrote tons of research papers actually on this, and specialization early in life doesn't really doesn't tend to lead to excellence later in life. You see some guys do it, right, but that's, you know, good for them. For me, I think that playing football, hockey, lacrosse, basketball, baseball, swim team, dive team, all those different things taught me body control, developed different muscles that would not have otherwise been developed and have led me to my current state right now. Which again, if I look back and said, oh, if I started playing golf full time at age nine, where would I be? I probably working a desk job, using my degree at Yale for something better than golf, because I would have been burnt out hated the game, and you know, maybe in a position where I was like, I'm over it. But since I really didn't pick it up, not pick it up, but really started focusing on it until I was twenty seven, eight years ago, I'm like still fresh, I'm still young. I feel like an eighteen year old kid just going out and trying to compute with these other guys. So my golf age is very young, but I'm definitely getting older and been called a VET this year, so you know, we'll see going forward. But to answer your question, I think that playing as many sports as possible is only only good for your game.

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Speaker 1: The good news you you know, you get to progress if you you keep playing good golf, you progress to the next next level of golf, and you'll be right back to being the young guy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, exactly. You know.

00:23:14
Speaker 1: It's it's funny. I have a kid that's like starting athletics. I have neighbors that have kids in full and athletic flight, and I think about my childhood and I grew up playing like every single sport imaginable, and you know, like the house league, local house league, baseball league. We had, you know, a obscene amount of division, I athletes that were just from my little five thousand person towns, you know, house league. But one of the things was we all played sports against each other all the time. You know, whether it was the All American wrestler who ended up going on to be an All American wrestler, was also playing basketball and baseball against you know, the guys that went and played on baseball. And I think, like it's fascinating for me now as I sit as a parent talking to other parents about like we're driving four hours for my nine year old's baseball, you know, to go play one game against you know, some town, some far flung town, and I'm like, why why don't you just play at the baseball field in town against other kids? And it's like, well, this is the travel league. We have to do the travel league, you know, so on and so forth. And it forces these kids, like in parents more so with like just the sheer cost to like be like you have to play one sport. And I think you hit on something like the muscle development that you get from playing multiple sports. How do you think some of your athletic backgrounds in terms of like playing all these sports at high level kind of show up in your golf game. What about your golf game do you thin I think represents your experience playing football and hockey at an extremely high level.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, first things, versus speed, Right, I cruise around one eighty five ball speed, and that's from hockey. You know, I got pretty big legs, and they've definitely shrunk over the years as I've not played hockey. But that base of you know, hockey player legs, hockey player hips has given me that speed that I can work off of in terms of you know football, Right, Like we're in the gym doing power cleans and hang cleans and squats and bench and deadlift, and those might not translate directly to golf, but it gives you that base, that foundation where okay, these big muscle groups are targeted. Now, how do we work off of that and use golf to get those small muscle groups. And then you've got both versus just doing rotation stuff and whatnot. In terms of the travel schedule between hockey travel hockey and football and lacrosse and the swim team, you got to work on your time management. So then when you get to college and you play college sports, now you know how to balance the academic life, with the social life, with the athletic life, and it's not just right like the muscle groups, but it's everything about it. Now. If I think about swimming, swimming is like the best workout you can possibly do. And when I was on the swim team, just swimming like all day. When I go on the golf course and I walk a golf course, it's like a walk in the park versus you get these guys in Panama who it's ninety five degrees and you're walking up this hill. They're huffing and puffing, And I'm like, since I've continued that you know, workout regime, I'm able to lower my heart rate, keep it lower for longer, and also when I'm done with the round, be ready for the next day. So the combination of all those things, all those experiences that I've had in the past, have helped me in today's world and today's you know, corn Ferry Tour season and will help me as I go forward. For sure.

00:26:50
Speaker 1: I think the other thing that you hit on, like doing all those you know, the hockey the football workouts, what I like about that, And I think like there's like I'm not you know, I think a lot of people have done really successful stuff with with like the speed training with like speed sticks and such like that. But like, the thing that I don't like about speed sticks is like, Okay, I'm swinging like one hundred and twenty percent on a stick, and it's I think it's going to infiltrate into my golf swing because it's the same motion versus the idea of of you know, you're building big muscles that enhance speed without having any impact on my swing, you know, and the fundamentals and getting into bad habits. It's like kind of keeping church and state. I think, like you hit on stuff, and I always urge people. It's like go do if you want speed, like go do other things. Like my best my best year of amateur golf came after I played I didn't touch a club all winter. I play basketball three times a week. And what I noticed was I came back I was just like I had I picked up fifteen or twenty yards just from sheer explosion, you know, and it was like I spent the whole winter, you know, basketball centric workouts, basketball, you know it, and it was like it's just like amazing to me what you can do with this cross with cross training, not to mention like the competitive level like when you're playing you know those athletics that are are very very competitive, like the hyper competitive level and the mentality that you bring. And you know, I do think the other thing you hit on with with the with swimming is just like the sheer endurance of of golf when you like people laugh about it, but like eighteen holes over four straight days in competitive setting is exhausting.

00:28:52
Speaker 2: And combine that with Monday, you know, practice, Tuesday practice, Wednesday practice and pro am like it's not and then also, this is your face week in a row doing it seventies a week. So that's the difference. When people watch on TV, they say they see Thursday, Thursday to Sunday, like, oh, this is easy, but some guys are on there six week in a row doing this every single day. You know, you're in your forty second day of walking seven miles a day with your heart rate at one forty for the whole day. Look at your string, you know it's gonna be pretty high.

00:29:22
Speaker 1: M h. Yeah. It's the mental stress too, like the mental exhaustion that you go through. How do you balance that on the corn ferry tour where it I mean, I think like this. Nobody really talks about this, but it's like you guys are in such a tough position because you have the schedule that's set, and if you take a week off, you feel you have to feel like you're just losing ground because it's like there is no middle ground. It's it's unlike the PGA Tour, where it's like, Okay, if I finish forty fortieth or forty eighth, it's not a big felt corn fairy tour. It is top twenty or bus.

00:30:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, pretty much. I mean I wouldn't say top twenty or bus, but it's top twenty, top seventy five or bust. Right. If you if you lose your job and you gotta go back to Q school, that's tough. But if you keep your Cornferry Tour card, solid year and not what you wanted, but the goal is to get to the PGA Tour. So, like you said, if you take a week off, other guys just jumping in the points, you feel like you're losing ground. The schedule is much better this year. I think my first year, we had eleven week in a row stretch and I played all of them this year. I think the longest is five, maybe six, so you don't really have to take a week off. I'm gonna take a week off in the middle of the summer. I've got my best friend's wedding that I got to go to, and I've started to realize, like, you can't everything you get to go, I get to go exactly. And no, it's true. It's like and I want, I want to go, you know. That's more what I wanted to say is I want to go and I don't have to skip it. I guess it's like there's there's like this like you know, oh, you have to play every single event. It's like no, like you can make decisions and you can, you know, maybe take that week off, work on your mental fatigue, exploit like do different things, go to the wedding and enjoy time with friends, and that'll recharge your batteries for when you get back. You play exponentially better than you would have if you had played all of them.

00:31:27
Speaker 1: So you went to Yale obviously a little bit different than most of your peers in terms of college experience workload. When you talk to your friends on the corn Ferry tour, what do you think, how do you think your college experience helped you in the profession of playing golf.

00:31:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I played with I'm not going to name names, but I played with a player at Oklahoma State and we were talking about our college experiences and I was like, what'd you major in? He was like communications, and I was like, he's like when I major? I was like biology. I was like, how is your you know, workload, Like what was it like just to get like an understanding what other people's situations were, like what their experiences were like. And he was like, dude, I went to the range in the morning and like coach would make us sit down and do work for like thirty minutes or an hour, fair what it was. And then that was really it. I was like, did you go to class? He's like, oh no, Like we never went to class. I was like, what do you mean, So you just like went to school and you like just played golf every day and he's like yeah, And I was like, okay, Like nice, he obviously got his work in, like, you know, did well enough to stay on the team. And I was like, well, we had guys in our team that didn't want to play in the event. That weekend because they had a test coming up that next Monday. It was just a complete different mindset right for me. That was not me. I always wanted to play like I was, like coach put me in the lineup, I'm playing, I'm working. But on top of that, I maintained I think a three point seventy nine or three something around that GPA the last two years I had a four point zero. Took me a little bit time. I think I got three point one my first year and then got really good at studying, got really good at test taking towards the end of my four years. But I was really proud of that, and that's something that I can brag about because like I earned it right, and I would put in my time on the course, and I would put in my time in the library, and I had a study buddy who we would study close to one hundred hours for every single exam. So starting two weeks before the test started, we would study multiple multipliple multiple hours a day to make sure that we were in the best you know, like I've been talking about five you know, five hours a night two weeks before to make sure that we were in the best possible shape to take the test, and this helping my golf game because I was managing my time. So if I knew I need to study from say seven pm to midnight, and that includes p sets and homework and stuff, then I would need to do all my golf practice from two to six, have dinner from six to seven, maybe you know, hang out with friends as a study break, you know, a half hour and there somewhere or so. To sum that all up, I would always plan tomorrow the night before, so sitting in my room at midnight whatever, I'd go into my notes, SAP on my phone schedule, you know, four am, wake up, four to thirty lift, five thirty shower change, six am, we're hit balls in the team room until eight thirty, eight thirty at breakfast. Nine o'clock starts class. Class ends at about twelve, get to the course abound twelve thirty one, practice from one to six, dinner from six to seven, started from seven to midnight, wind down, and then do the whole thing over again. So you know, that was my typical day when I was in college, especially with football, we'd have four am lifts, so it was a pretty early wake up. But uh, you know, that's kind of the thing I had to do to a guitar. Where I was today, I guess.

00:34:45
Speaker 1: I mean from watching your content. I mean this, this structure, the schedule type stuff has has carried over into your professional career now like it took me. Yeah, like I I'm not a planner. I look at it. I'm like, I can't believe he plans us out and he sticks to it.

00:35:03
Speaker 2: Let's see this. This is the next two days, right, So like I've got essentially I got all of today. Obviously I've got most of tomorrow because Tomorrow is around one. So I have a five forty wake up tomorrow and it's ten am on Wednesday. But I'd like to know what time I'm waking up for my turnaround so that I can plan on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday waking up earlier so that way when I wake up at five forty am on Thursday, it's not a shock. You're I'm gonna go get a workout in so my body. So I plan everything based on the Thursday to Sunday and then I work backwards.

00:35:33
Speaker 1: I think the other thing, you know, the way you're describing your college experience, it kind of reminds me of when I started working and tried to play golf. But like the the idea of of golf not feeling like your entire world is a huge advantage.

00:35:53
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean that's like I got married in August, and my wife and I obviously in my vows it's like my vow to hers, I'm putting her first, right, she comes away before golf, and that needs to be the case. And I also need to put other things before golf. So I guess when I was in college, my only focus was let's get see as good as I can get and how good you know school and grades, like, let's just hammer those two and see where I can get. And then you get a little bit older and you realize, well, life's not really about well one golf, two like your career, like how much money you make it that's all like vanity. It doesn't really matter whatsoever when you boil it down to it's the people that you have in your in your inner circles what I call it. At my wedding, I gave a little speech about my inner circle, and it's the people who I can rely on, I can count on, and I can call up at any point in the day and they'd be there for me. And you know, I've my wife and I have created our own little inner circle, and that inner circle is everything to me. When I made the US Open, they all flew out to Oakmont and came and watched me, and like that was what it was about, sharing that moment with them, not oh, how did I play and what did I finish? It was like the experience that I had with them, and playing golf gives me that opportunity to share those moments with them and really create memories and moments with the people that I love and to care about. And you know, on top of that, it's doing vacations or trips or experiences with those people and enjoying it. And then obviously, you know, golf is my career and it's something I care deeply about and also making sure that I put enough time into my schedule that you know, I'm the best version of myself on the golf course I can be.

00:37:40
Speaker 1: All right, let's take a quick break. Today's episode is also brought to you by the Golf Course Superintendent's Association of America. Rounds for Research is a national online auction where golfers can bit on rounds and exclusive courses around the country and the globe and support of the GCSAA. This is an awesome auction. Anecdotally, I always look at this auction and be like, oh, I would love to play all these places. So it's a great way for you guys to go see somewhere there's always good values. Maybe I'll hop in there and give you a couple of good values. But the problem is then they won't be good values if I tell you they're good values. So you know, a good place to go would be for the Frida egg dot com and check out some courses that we've rated highly that maybe don't have a lot of high bits. The auction is live now and it runs through this Friday, April twenty six. Golfers can bid on private, top rated and hidden gem courses at great values. These range from stay in Place at Pinehirst Number two and French Lick, a beachside force at Nanea, and browns at iconic spots like TPC, Sawgrass and Aaron Hills. Proceeds support golf Course Superintendent's research, advocacy and educations that keep the game playable and system able. Every every bid benefits the g c SaaS Foundation's work supporting golf's future from the ground up. Think of your foursome and visit rounds for Rounds for the number research dot com to explore rounds at place your bids today. Just as a reminder, that's Rounds the number for research dot Com. All right, thanks to the g C S A A. And let's get back to James Nicholas. When you turn pro, Uh, you were really, I would say, the first Uh, you know, maybe not the first, but you're you're an og of what we see a lot of now of documenting your life as a pro. I feel like most pro golfers you know, in the history of golf have have kind of like kept what they're doing doing silent, out of out of public view. You use, you know, Instagram, TikTok to really show people in a modern way the journey, the good, the good and the bad of it. Was there ever a point where you thought about, like, I can't do both. I can't just let people into my life like this because I think this is just my personal stance, Like I think it's like it would be very hard for me to just allow people and give people the raw view that you allow people in on with your with your you know, social media content.

00:40:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I still think that that question every single day, Like I just want to take a break. I want to give this up, Like let's just focus on golf. It'll be way easier. But the amount of opportunities that social media has given me on top of that, like that you would not trade it. Sure there's negatives, but there's also a lot of positives. Like I did this giveaway a couple of weeks ago where I gave sixty of my followers a couple of my shirts and towels and headcovers and stuff, and the overwhelming response of positive feedback that I got made it worth it. Sure, I sat in my garage for like three hours folding packages and finding addresses and whatnot, but it was worth it. It's like, I'm in this opportunity where I get to share this and try to show people what it's like, and it's amazing, you know, I get to do this right, Like, this is something that I get to do, and when I look back on it, I was the first I don't know of anybody who was documenting themselves as a pro golfer, and.

00:41:37
Speaker 1: I didn't I didn't want anybody to come out of the woodwork. I believe you were the first two. Yeah, because like I'd never see anything like it.

00:41:44
Speaker 2: And I write the day of term pro I posted on Instagram. I'm like, hey, guys, like I had a travel Instagram and it was like I want to be j Alvarez type deal, you know. And now I was like, you know, the data term pro. This is my focus and I'm going to make a golf Instagram and I'm going to showcase the journey. I'm gonna showcase the ups the downs that the qualifiers, the first stage of Q school. And it's easy to look at it now and be like, oh, like yeah, you know you're showcasing the corn Ferry tour. It's like, yeah, rewind five years. I was practicing ten hours a day, every single day, no matter what rainshine, it does not matter. I was putting in the work and I was showcasing that. You know, you don't make much money when you don't have any status on any tour. But hopefully the goal is to be doing this when I'm more number one. And you know, obviously, as I've got, as I've grown, Like right now, i think I'm two sixty in the world and it's the highest I ever been ranked. But as you climb the world rankings, you get a lot more things thrown at you. You know, people want your time, people want your attention, and it gets a lot harder to then go back and balance the social media stuff. So, you know, I built out a team for my YouTube channel and they've helped take over that. So it's also finding time to let other people help you and being okay with that. And that's something in the past that haven't been okay with. I've wanted to control everything and make sure that it's up to my standards. But to also let go of control and let people help you has been a big thing for me, and it's been it's been great. And you know, Gary and the whole YouTube team Nick, they've absolutely crushed it and they've helped me immensely. But I'm still doing all the Instagram TikTok short form stuff because you know, it's just like a part of my identity now.

00:43:16
Speaker 1: I guess I mean full disclosure for the audience when you turn pro I think I reached out to you about like doing maybe some video contract work. I was like, yeah, we could pay you somebody your travel stuff. I would look at it and I'm like, Jesus, this guy is so good at at making you know, video content, and I think like it that talent U, it's extraordinary. I think you could have gone on to have a great career making appreciated video content. The I it's what you hit on, I think is a fascinating life thing, and I think it most people notice. It's most with like bands. But you have this killer album, the first album that you pour your life into. And if you think about the setup is like nobody knows who a band is before their first album, so they have all the time in the world to devote to this album. But then the album comes out is to smash success, and everybody floods in and wants the time. And what happens is then what is eroded is that creative time, that creative space that you spend to create these works of art, and you are doing all these other things, corporate appearances that how are you attempting to balance As you said, more and more things cover your way, less time to spend on YouTube, but how are you trying to balance that with life? Knowing that as you continue to succeed, this is just going to be more and more of a hurle.

00:44:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, you need to learn to say no, you know, like especially even with podcasts like I I've had like eighty not eighty, probably forty requests in the last two weeks. But like I message you guys like hey, guys, this time works for me, and you were like boom done. I'm like, and that's when I'll do things. You know, if it works on my time, then it's like, hey, I'm in. But if you know I went back and you're like hey, like this is this time only works and it's the middle of a practice around day and I have to shift things around. It's like, sorry, no, I can't do it. Now. I've in the past maybe have not said no ever, but now it's really learning to say no, respecting my time and doing things that I want to do when I want to do it. So when I go home, I have a lot of people asking me, hey, do you want to play? Do you want to do this? Like maybe we can do like and I have to say no. So when I get home, I just leave my weeks for me and I say, if you want to schedule something, you can message me the night before and I'll let you know, once I make my daily schedule, if I can fit it into that schedule, and people might say like no, I think it's it's you gotta respect your you gotta respect your time. Like there's like this week, I did a shoot for Delta. I've done two podcasts already, like this is my third, and it's like that's okay. Though I'm on the road and I'm managing my time. It's like I have a pro am in about four hours after this ends, I'm gonna go work out. Then I'm gonna practice for two hours and then I'm ready to go. But I'm not gonna be doing anything else this morning. Like this is Wednesday. This is my relaxed day, so like this fits in perfectly. So it's finding the times to do things. It's respecting my own time, my own schedule, and then also knowing when to say no even when it's hard. Yeah, Like I got invited to play some epic golf courses and travel to some cool places and I was like, I can't do it. I I you know, I want to be home. I want to I want to just be home and be with my wife and enjoy our time together because I can't be traveling twenty four to seven.

00:46:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's hard too because sometimes people don't understand that it just, you know, you have to do all this. I often have people that come that will occasionally accompany me on a trip and they're like, WHOA, I didn't realize how much goes into like being on the road. And it's you know that people just see the the the cool stuff you do. I play golf for a living and often don't realize like how much work it is to to do that.

00:47:14
Speaker 2: Mm hmmm. Yeah, there's so much bend the scenes for everything. It's like it's you know, when when you're traveling and your flight gets delayed, it's another two hours of the day Washington. You got to pick up the time somewhere else. There's so many things that go on and you only see when you're coming down the church on Sunday, who is winning the tournament and the big check that they get. They don't see everything else.

00:47:33
Speaker 1: Back to the content a little bit, was what was like the toughest day to make content if you think just off the top of the head, like it was the toughest day to be like, Okay, I gotta turn the camera on and talk about this and what has been your been your favorite day to turn on on the camera and talk about it.

00:47:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think they might have both happened this year at second stage of Q School, I was trying to make my way to finals then to have a chance at one of those top five spots. And through round three I was one shot out at advancing the finals, and I get to round four. End up, I was six hunderd through twelve, so cruising, I was like five clear the number playing grey golf, and then a storm rolled through and canceled round four. So the tour made a decision to cancel round four, go back to round three, and I went on Instagram and I just talked about it. You go, hey, it's like, it's this is what it says in the bylaws. It's not the rules of Visual's fault. They're following the laws. Should I think like the rules and the laws should be changed. Yes, one hundred percent. That means I'm gonna be missing my chance at getting a pgtcord by one shot and I have to, you know, now, just get ready for next year. So that was in November, and then fast forward to Boguita. A couple weeks ago, through three rounds, I sorted through two rounds. They sent out out a little notice and they was like, hey, guys, you know round four might be canceled because there's a storm coming. So during round three, I told myself, I'm not gonna let this happen again. I'm gonna try to get the lead by the end of round three, and I did so round four got canceled. I actually had the win, but round four was played and I got the win, And obviously that day was just full of you for it, and that was like the best day to go on there. Make some content post that little meme I did of the Wesley Bryan and Brad Dalkey thing and you know, all the all these these cool videos that it had from the wind. But you know, over the years the win was great. But I have some really cool posts about Q School where you know, I made an eight foot and last hole of advanced to second stage, and like, there's been so many moments and I think Q School tops it. Like the pure elation and overwhelming just relief that you get when you make it through Q School is almost greater than the satisfaction of winning. And I know that that's a hard thing to maybe grasp, but Q schools make it or break it. If you miss a Q school, you've got no job next year, if you had no chance to win. When you win, it's great, but it's almost like, Okay, I still have a chance to win again next week and the week after and the week after, and then we after and the week after and twenty more times. Q school is one and done. So whenever I get through Q school and I'm able to post those successes, it's amazing. But on the other hand, if you miss a Q school, that's the tough pill to swallow because you realize you have no job for next year.

00:50:16
Speaker 1: Did any part of you feel you know what Scottie Shuffler talked about last year where he's like, you win, You've you've thought about, dreamed about winning, and you kind of get done with it, and you're like, all right, I.

00:50:29
Speaker 2: Had so I actually used that speech. I remember him talking about it. And after I was done with interviews, after done with sunny autographs, taking pictures, all the things I had to do for the sponsors, I grabbed my wife and I said, let's go sit in the grand stands and we walked to the top of the grand stands and it was completely empty, and we sat there for about half an hour and just looked over eighteen and I said like, this is like look how cool. This is Like let's just take it in. Let's enjoy the moment. Then after sitting there and talking for a little bit, took her hand. We walked down eighteen. We walked hand in hand down eighteen to our hit my appro shot, and we just really we were so present, we enjoy the moment. And I think that was really really special and really important for us, because if you just left the course and went to dinner and that was it, there's no real like realization of what you've accomplished together. And we took as much time as possible and just walked around and I took I took I took the signs off of every single building. I was like, there was like a member's only sign, I took it. There was a range like range limited to two hundred yards, I took it. There was another one that said players and caddies only. I took that one. So in my garage, I got a bunch of these signs and I was like, I just want to remember this moment you know, you never know we're gonna have it again, and I tried. And I also had two weeks off after, so I did a celebration dinner with my friends in Florida, you know, spend some time with my family, and I really got to soak it in and enjoy it. So I would say, no, I actually did get, you know, two weeks of just like pure elation, pure enjoyment and really just realizing what we had done. And called my wife last night and I was like, I still can't believe we won, and she was like, me neither. So yeah, we're still living on a high.

00:52:04
Speaker 1: That's that's awesome. That's uh, that's cool. I love that you admitted to some petty theft on the pod too.

00:52:09
Speaker 2: Of course, of course, I think it was for the takings. I probably would have found the trash.

00:52:13
Speaker 1: Anyway outside of kind of status. Buddy, the things that you know, the obvious things that come on the PGA tour. What excites you the most about the prospect of playing on tour?

00:52:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's easy to look ahead. I'm focused on the in the present right this this usually is just a good start, you know, I've got a long ways to go, got to keep the pedal down. The PJ Tours, that the greatest tour in the world. Winning on the PJ Tours in my life, you know, not lifelong dream because I was dreaming winning Olympic gold in the hockey team. But that's that's you know, when I since I've been twenty, since I quit football, you know, winning a PJ Tour event is everything you dream about and playing against the best players in the world, seeing where your talent level stacks up. And I've played a few events PGA Tour, played Pisco Championship, the Bermuda Championship twice, the Zurich Classic, the Rock and Mortgage, and these guys are true professionals. There's nothing like it, Like every single one of them is the best at their craft and the pinnacle of golf. So I want to try to put my name up there and compete with them and see where that lands myself and see what all my hard work has really not proven, but see where it stacks up against the best.

00:53:31
Speaker 1: What's your favorite memory you grew up in the New York area. What's your favorite memory growing up playing in the Mets section.

00:53:39
Speaker 2: Wow, the Mets section, I have so many I remember when I played my first MGA event at Fire's Head. It was the IKE. I think I was fourteen years old and I qualified and my coach asked me, Gary Weir as my coach at the time, He goes, what's your goal for this week? And I said, my goal is to win? What do you mean? And it was a little bit a naive statement because I was just this fourteen year old kid who was a very good at hockey and football and other sports. And if you lost the game, that was a failure. You either won or your lost. There was no one between. With golf, there's a lot in between between first and one hundred and twenty fifth whatever it was. And I ended up shooting like eighty seven in the first round, missed the cut, didn't eve get a chance to play a second round or whatever it was. And I was like, well, there's my introduction to met section golf. It's a very talented group of guys and you know, playing in things like the Carry Cup and taking down gu and I Great Britain or GB and I or sorry, the Carry Cup is just Ireland the golfing guy, Golfing Union of Ireland taking them down with a huge comeback on the last day was amazing and representing the MGA and the entire section was incredible. Qualifying in the met section for the US Open last year one of the coolest experiences of my life. Having everybody who's watched me grow up, you know, the rules officials, the volunteers like Chris Gaffney and Brian Mahoney and Charles and all these guys that watched me as a junior. Then realized the stream of playing my first major championship is just like this. They've been there since the beginning, since the Williamson Cup days, since the Carry Cup days, since that first Ike, and then to cap it off with that major championship qualification last year was just incredible. So a lot of good memories in that section.

00:55:17
Speaker 1: Yeah. I was with a couple buddies who have played in the met section and I mentioned last week. I was like, I think I have James On in the near future, and they were like, oh god, I remember the first time we saw him at the Anderson and he hit a teacher and we like turned to each other and we're like, WHOA like that? That came off different.

00:55:40
Speaker 2: I The Anderson was one of the most special championships that I've ever won, and I still wish that I could play in it. I love team events, but I'll never forget it. On whole number one two three four east, I hit driver up the left and then I hit this two iron around the corner to this for a tap an eagle. And as we're walking up there, the fifty is you can kind of just take a shortcut, and the guys are playing with just go yeah, that's good, and they just walked to the fifteen. I had to walk like one hundred and fifty yards to the green, pick up my ball, and walk to the next and all the members were like what just happened? And like I guess like word had spread that like I had a two iron from like two ninety to this, and like that story just like still lives on and people like come up to me like, oh do you remember when you I'm like, yes, I remember. It was it was a combination of luck and a great golf shop. But you know, we'll take it. So Anderson is a special event.

00:56:34
Speaker 1: I you know, I as I grew up in Chicago, you know, and I think like I think I always looked at the met with envy. I think just they they're such a class amateur golf organization in terms of like the the venues and the events, and there's there's so much his obviously history, but the the the events are such a high tier level between the golf courses and the competition. Do you think that the met you know, would say was a fundamental part of where you've gotten to today.

00:57:14
Speaker 2: Oh, one thousand percent to be able to play in these championships as a kid and play like this Cup, played Ridgewood, Arcola, which hosted a US Amateur, played wing Foot, which is hoping hosted US Opens, and Shinnecock and Bethpage Black which has hosted Ryder Cups, and all these courses are just like your run of the mill MGA events. This year they have the Meta Amateur at Deepdale, which is of course I grew up playing at for high school golf. Our home courses were Fenway, Metropolis, quaker Ridge, Like these are top one hundred golf courses in the world and we're just playing them on an average Tuesday for a high school match. So to be able to get this experience of playing the METS section and yeah, one hundred percent spoiled little you know country club kids is what my football coach used to call us. Yeah, it definitely led to this ability on the golf course because I didn't grow up grinding every single I just wouldn't go out and play golf. I would go out and play Quakeerage or wing Foot or Westchester Country Club or you know, Deepdale and take it for granted because that's all I knew. But now looking back on it, I'm like I got to play the best golf courses in the world every single day, and not that it was, you know, like nothing, but yeah, I almost treated as if it was just like an average day at the golf course, you know, and my my buddies would would host me at their club and then I would host them at theirs, and it just felt like we could play tilling Hast, you know, golf courses like McKenzie not maybe not McKenzie, but like McDonald Rainers. You know, you play some just incredible designed golf courses in the met section like it was nothing and to be able to be exposed so that design and that caliber golf course day in and day out, and then win tournaments at places like Arcola and you know where else have I played really well at Hudson National and Hollywood and you know all the banks courses like like pop piping rock, and so it's just it's definitely added to my development as a golfer.

00:59:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I you know, I just like appreciate how they are able to get these clubs to say yes, and I appreciate the commitment throughout the entire section. As a kid, I remember I grew up at Ammuni and like I remember the first time I played a tournament at a country club and like the green speeds were just overwhelming to me, Like I didn't know what to do. And it's like those things. I remember qualifying for an event at Olympia Fields and it would being like this huge, like I was so just excited about, like yes, I get to go play a tournament at Olympia Fie like the you know, this is where I watched Tiger play US Open. You know like that. But for the met their ability to just like it, obviously they have like a surplus of courses, but their ability to cultivate like it. It is such a great shaping for young golfers, aspiring golfers because you're playing, as you said, Wingfoot or you know, Friar's Head or Ridgewood, and then you qualify for a us USGA event or whatever. It may be a big event, and you go there and it's not something you haven't experienced. There's no shell shock because you've played them in these regular events. Yeah.

01:00:44
Speaker 2: I played the US Open this ye at Oakmont, and you hear everybody talking about how hard it is, and it honestly felt like another day playing wingfoot, just you know from the obviously from the back tees and the green speeds were just like I experienced a deep tail and you know these the bunkers were just as deep as you know this course. So it just feels like the METS section prepares you for everything in golf, whether it's a USGA event or a high level college event or a high level amateur event. Growing up playing these tournaments, the MET Open, the metam the Ike, the Met Junior, the Met Boys like they're major championships. The greens are fourteen plus, the rough is long, and you got hit the ball straight, So there's nothing else to it other than that.

01:01:30
Speaker 1: James, thank you so much for your time. Well, I hope you know you get some new fans. From this, but looking forward to watching you continue the stellar start to the corn Ferry Tour season and hopefully we'll see you at some events here soon. But thank you so much for the time and and we'll be rooting for you of course.

01:01:54
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

01:02:07
Speaker 1: All right, Big thanks for listening to another edition of Friday Podcast, and big thanks to PJ Clark for editing and producing this. I'm back in the country. I'm a little jet lagged, but excited to pump out sport episodes here in the coming weeks, so we'll be back next week. Thanks as always for the support.