0:00

This is PGA TOUR COUNTDOWN

0:03

. Whoa

0:18

, welcome in everybody . Frank Bassett joining you

0:20

for this edition of PGA TOUR COUNTDOWN

0:22

. It's Teams

0:24

Week on the PGA Tour . This

0:27

is the only team event on

0:29

the PGA Tour , unlike the Live

0:31

Tour , which are all team events

0:33

. So it's in

0:35

a place that some

0:38

of you people know it as New Orleans

0:40

, some of you know it as New

0:42

Orleans . Those of us in the

0:44

South call it Nolans

0:46

N-A-W-L-A-N-S

0:48

Nolans . So there you go

0:50

. We are going to be from TPC

0:53

Louisiana , where it's Billy

0:55

Horschel fits in down there because there are a lot of Gators down

0:57

there . Of course , horschel is a Florida University

1:00

of Florida graduate and he is playing

1:02

this week and

1:05

we're going to hear from him today on PGA Tour Countdown and his playing partner before

1:07

their first round . Then we're going to get to play

1:10

the interviews after their rounds

1:12

up against that to see a before

1:14

and after . We're going to do the same thing for

1:16

Roy McIlroy's group with Shane Lowry . So

1:18

let's get right into it and let's listen

1:21

to some interviews from TPC

1:23

Louisiana in New Orleans

1:25

.

1:27

Welcome Billy Horschel and Tyson Alexander

1:29

into the interview room here

1:31

at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans

1:34

. Billy is

1:36

our 2013 and 2018

1:38

champion . At this event , billy

1:41

, we'll start with you . We can talk a little

1:43

bit about being back here and also

1:45

playing with Tyson this week . It's

1:47

always great to come back here .

1:48

As I said , it's been numerous years . This

1:53

is Larry's second home for me now .

2:00

It's not quiet .

2:01

Put one down

2:03

. No , I've gotten to know a lot of people

2:06

that

2:08

have become good friends and family , being

2:12

an ambassador of Reserve for the last 10 or 11 years

2:14

. A lot of the same customers and clients I see over time

2:16

. So it really is like a second

2:18

home . I have a routine of where I go , eat where

2:21

I go and the people I see and everything

2:23

, so it's just a great place to

2:25

come . I mean , we go to so many places around the

2:28

US and around the world to play golf and

2:31

very few times we get to go to a place that

2:33

we can consider a home . I'm

2:35

lucky that we got the Players' Championship where I live and

2:38

I'm lucky that a place like TPC Louisiana I can

2:40

call home as well , and playing

2:42

with this guy this week is going to be awesome Louisiana

2:45

, I can call home as well , and playing with this guy this week is going

2:47

to be awesome . I've

2:49

known him since we were , you know , young guys at the University of Florida and he's worked really hard

2:51

to get himself out here and he's had some success

2:54

and hopefully we can have the ultimate

2:56

success this week and get him

2:58

to raise a trophy finally out here .

3:00

Yeah , Tyson , talk a little bit about the partnership

3:02

with Billy and how excited you are for this week .

3:05

Yeah , obviously he's

3:07

normally with Sam Burns and I think Sam's having

3:09

a kid this week or soon . So

3:11

I got the call and obviously

3:14

we have a great relationship . We went to college together

3:16

and we practiced together at TBC

3:19

. We work out together at home and

3:21

it's an easy fit .

3:26

We get along well and looking forward to it . Tyson , talk a little bit about

3:28

the state of your game T14 at Valero recently and then T55

3:31

last week in Punta Cana . Just talk a little bit about

3:33

your form coming into the week .

3:35

Yeah , I've been trending lately

3:37

. Last week

3:39

I didn't play very good on the weekend , but

3:42

I feel good about where it's headed and I'm working

3:44

on the right things , and I think

3:46

that's very important in this game to have just

3:50

a clear picture of where you're headed and I'm

3:52

excited for the future .

3:54

All right , and Billy obviously congratulations

3:56

on winning last week . If we can talk a

3:58

little bit about what that week meant to you and

4:00

then also going into this week

4:02

and what your expectations are , yeah

4:07

, last week was great to finally get

4:09

back in the winner's circle .

4:10

I mean , everyone knows the story of me at Memorial

4:12

and breaking down in front of the media afterwards

4:14

. So you know , come

4:16

from there to where I was last week . It's been

4:19

a process , a lot longer process than

4:22

I would like . I'm not the most

4:24

patient guy but I've had

4:26

to work my way into playing

4:28

better golf and I knew good golf was

4:31

coming or I'd been playing good golf

4:33

leading up to that . I made a decision

4:35

to go down to Corrales for one reason

4:37

, and one reason only , is to go win . I didn't want

4:39

to sit home and take another week off . I

4:41

felt the game was really good . I wanted to come and

4:44

continue to build that momentum for

4:46

not only at the Crowless but for this week

4:48

and for the continuation

4:51

of the year . And it just worked out

4:53

perfectly to get the victory and

4:55

the game , like I said , is in a great spot . And

4:57

I think Tyson's game is in a very similar spot

4:59

that my game was in a couple weeks ago . He's

5:01

really close to playing some really good , consistent

5:04

golf and hopefully this

5:06

is his breakthrough this week for him . So

5:08

it's going to be a fun week out there

5:10

and we'll see what has to store .

5:13

And Billy , before we open up to questions

5:15

, you're currently number one in the Aon Swing

5:17

5 . I know the Aon Swing , or Next

5:19

10 , is also on the horizon for you

5:21

, something you're paying a lot of attention to to

5:23

try to get into Wells Fargo .

5:24

Just talk a little bit about that , yeah , the Aon

5:27

5 and the Aon Swing 5

5:29

and the Aon 10 has been , I

5:31

think , massively

5:35

successful this year with the signature events and understanding that the top 50

5:37

guys , based off last year's FedEx Cup , were guaranteed

5:39

in those events and everyone else who was

5:41

not in were going to have to play

5:43

well and

5:49

Aon and the PGA Tour gave us an opportunity to possibly play our way in . Like I said , it's been

5:51

massively successful . I think

5:53

, with the way you play and the

5:55

way you pick decisions , some

6:02

better decisions have to be made to figure out your schedule so you get that opportunity to play

6:04

your way into those events . And that's why I went to Corrales , because

6:07

I can't play next week in Dallas , so I wanted

6:10

to give myself another event to possibly play my

6:12

way into the Wells Fargo . So with

6:14

that , you know , you change your schedules

6:16

, you make some better decisions throughout the year . You

6:19

change to give yourself

6:21

opportunities to play in their signature events

6:23

, to give yourself opportunities to play in their signature

6:25

events which , as we know right now , are vital because of the points

6:27

that they offer compared

6:29

to regular events .

6:30

All right , we'll open it up to questions . Yep

6:33

, let's start over here , Sheldon .

6:36

Billy , when did you find out about Sam's

6:39

situation and how long did it take you to

6:41

call Tyson ?

6:43

So I talked

6:45

to Sam last November . We

6:47

were chatting on the phone and he

6:49

mentioned to me that him and Caroline

6:51

were pregnant . I was really excited for them and

6:54

it wasn't until the beginning of this year , when

6:56

I was talking to him . I said , hey

6:58

, when do you guys do ? And he said April and

7:01

I was like , oh , and maybe

7:03

I'm not sure if I mentioned it there maybe a couple days

7:05

later I was like when , exactly in April

7:07

, and where do we stand ? And he

7:09

told me you know , it

7:11

was going to be around the Zurich Classic time and I said

7:13

no worries , and and

7:16

to be honest with you , after that conversation , I think

7:18

in early January , I wasn't , I was

7:20

still so focused on my game , I wasn't really

7:22

worried about the Zurich classic and

7:24

finding a partner . And then Tyson

7:26

and I were talking , I think probably in late

7:29

February , early March , and we just said , hey , he's

7:31

like , do you have a partner ? And I said , actually I don't , I

7:34

honestly haven't even thought about it and let's just

7:36

play together Because it was

7:38

the easiest thing

7:40

to do . I want to play with people

7:43

. I like . I

7:45

want to play with people I like . I want to play with people I enjoy , and Tyson's obviously one of

7:47

those . I hope he still likes me after this week

7:50

. But no , it's great . I mean

7:52

I'm fortunate enough to have , you know

7:54

, quite a few great relationships

7:56

out here , but to have one of my friends that I've known

7:58

longer than anyone out here on the PGA Tour

8:01

makes it easy .

8:05

Along those same lines , tyson . We

8:07

joked with Billy the last couple of years

8:09

about him running hot and

8:11

Sam running cool . Have

8:13

you gotten any pointers from

8:15

Sam ? I mean

8:17

, I know you know him from Florida , but

8:20

how

8:22

excited are you to play with him .

8:23

He's seen me more at my worst than anyone

8:26

out here on the PGA Tour . So let's just say

8:28

it's simple as that .

8:29

Billy's matured a lot since college , to

8:32

say the least , but

8:34

I'm probably more like the Sam . I'm

8:36

probably a little more even keel . I mean I can get mad

8:38

too , but I

8:41

think Billy will be just fine . I think Billy's

8:43

doing just fine . I think he'll take care of himself

8:46

and I'll take care of myself . So but

8:48

yeah , I'm excited . I'm excited to play with him . I think I

8:50

bugged him . Actually . I was like , hey , what's the deal

8:52

? I uh , I had some other people

8:54

asking , but I wanted to play with him . So it

8:57

worked out .

8:58

Hey , uh , Garland Gillen Fox eight here in new Orleans . Uh , this

9:01

is for you . Do you get

9:03

superstitious with the restaurants you eat at , Because I

9:05

know it's kind of well-documented ? You're really close with Desi Vega

9:07

. Do you make sure that you eat at Mr John's

9:10

Steakhouse every single year ? How is that going

9:12

to your restaurants per week there

9:14

?

9:14

Yeah , I go to Desi's at least

9:16

once , if not twice , throughout

9:19

the week . I went

9:21

to Galliano's on Monday night . We've gone

9:23

there the last three or four years and

9:25

they have an unbelievable bone and pork shop that

9:28

I absolutely love . And then I got to do some dinner

9:30

on Tuesday for Zurich . But

9:33

yeah , I have a few of the restaurants that we hit up

9:35

. Acme Oyster House on the Playwright Night

9:37

is fabulous . What Mike Rodriguez

9:39

and his team does for us . So

9:42

I would say this is probably the one place I'm not

9:44

superstitious with my food . Other

9:46

weeks throughout the year , yes , uh

9:49

, but this week , because there's so many options , you

9:51

got to make sure you hit up all the different options and

9:53

you and you leave here um full

9:57

following up with that bill .

9:58

I know you're not from here , but you've almost been like

10:01

a native son here . You had so much success here . Are

10:03

you become like a tour guide for all the other players on

10:05

the tour , people that are new ? Do they

10:07

ask you where to go or do you kind of guide them

10:09

in the right direction ?

10:11

I give them some options . If they ask me some restaurants

10:13

to go to , I give them some options . Desi's

10:16

very well known . Throughout the PGA Tour

10:18

. He has a lot of the PGA Tour guys

10:20

come into his restaurants and

10:23

dine there . Like I said

10:25

, mike Rodriguez and his group do an unbelievable job of

10:27

taking care of us at Acme Orchard House . But listen

10:30

, there's a lot of options in this town and

10:32

you can't go wrong . So

10:34

yeah , I've given some pointers to a few people over time

10:36

and I'm just not the only player doing

10:38

the same . So yeah , some of the young guys come up and

10:40

ask us a little bit .

10:42

So , speaking of food Tyson anywhere

10:44

in particular , you'll go this week . You're looking forward

10:46

to .

10:47

Well , I got Billy the tour guide to show

10:49

me where to go , he just points

10:51

me in the right direction .

10:53

Okay , right over

10:55

here , Brett .

11:00

Hey there , brett Martell with AP . It's

11:02

funny . We get a lot of fans golf

11:05

fans asking us about who's coming to

11:07

play this year and I said , well , of course Billy's

11:09

going to be there . And the fans said , oh , I love

11:11

watching him out there . He's such a madman . It

11:14

sounds like you touched a little bit

11:16

on that that

11:18

. That characterization doesn't exactly catch you by surprise

11:21

. But how do you take that

11:23

and what can you add ?

11:28

exactly catch you by surprise . But , um , how do you take that ? And what

11:30

, what can you add ? Listen , I , I , I fully accept those characterizations because obviously there's

11:32

been times throughout my career that

11:37

I say I'm not fond of . But they happen

11:39

. But I think if you watch

11:41

me over 72 holes , you watched me throughout

11:43

the year . There's very few year

11:45

. There's very few of them . The

11:48

cameras happen to catch me at those moments and

11:51

it gets blown up and it's fine . I'm okay

11:53

with it . But I think you watch

11:55

me now , like I said , it's very few , far

11:57

between . I more

12:00

or less would like to be

12:03

characterized that people

12:05

see I'm enjoying myself out there . I'm

12:08

very respectful to my playing partners and I

12:10

cheer them on . I'm a golf fan . Not only

12:12

am I competing with the players I'm

12:14

playing with , but everyone else in the field . But I'm

12:16

a golf fan at heart . I love to see quality golf

12:18

shots and great golf shots and I'm not afraid

12:20

to congratulate my fellow players when

12:23

they do something I thought was pretty special . So

12:26

, listen , that characterization

12:28

is part of me and

12:30

it's going to be part of me until I leave this world . I

12:32

can't do anything about it and

12:34

, yeah , like I said , I've had those moments . I'll probably

12:37

still have some of those moments , but they're not nearly

12:39

as prevalent as I would say , early

12:41

in my career .

12:43

It sounds like you've had a complimentary way

12:45

of enjoying it . You've

12:47

prepared your emotions .

12:49

Oh listen , I don't . I'm

12:51

not afraid to wear my emotions on my sleeve . I've

12:53

said it from the very beginning when

12:56

I came out here . I think you know there's

12:58

too many . Maybe not now , but

13:00

in the past there's way too many robots on the PGA

13:02

Tour . I think fans love to

13:04

see someone that's like them . Fans

13:07

love to see someone wear their heart on their sleeve

13:09

, show their emotion , like that's a great thing . It's

13:12

different , and I think you

13:14

go to your local club , you go to your local municipal

13:17

golf course , you're going to see guys doing

13:19

the same exact thing , and

13:22

so I think for me it's I'm okay with that . Like I said's , I'm

13:24

okay with that . Like I said , I'm okay with wearing my heart

13:26

, my sleeve , showing my emotion when I hit a great

13:28

shot , when I hit a bad shot , how frustrated

13:30

I am when that does happen . So it's

13:33

not a bad thing at all and I don't . I don't take it as a

13:35

bad thing , I just sometimes I wish I'm . Just

13:37

. There is other character , asian characterizations

13:40

added on to that sometimes all

13:44

right .

13:44

Anything else okay , tyson

13:46

, billy , we appreciate your time .

13:48

Best of luck this week , thank you okay

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right , everyone

16:07

we'll go ahead and get started .

16:08

We'd like to welcome Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry

16:10

to the Media Center here at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans

16:12

. Guys , if we could just get some opening

16:14

comments on being paired up together this week Obviously

16:16

, rory your first time here and Shane

16:18

making your fifth appearance , but just

16:20

some opening thoughts on being in New Orleans .

16:23

Yeah , it's good to be here . It's

16:30

you know , I was saying that to one of our pro and partners out there

16:33

today . It's professional golf and year in year out it's

16:35

a bit of a grind sometimes when you're on your own a lot

16:37

. So it's nice to have something different this weekend , especially to

16:39

be here with a really good friend and enjoy

16:42

New Orleans and hopefully

16:44

go out and play some good golf and give ourselves a chance to win

16:46

on Sunday , hopefully go out and

16:48

play some good golf and give ourselves a chance to win on Sunday

16:50

.

16:50

Yeah , same sentiments . Obviously , this is my

16:53

first time here in New Orleans . I'm excited to be

16:55

here . It's a tournament that

16:57

I've watched on TV for quite a few years

16:59

, especially

17:02

since they went to the team format . Shane

17:05

and I have played in a couple of

17:07

Ryder Cup teams together . We

17:11

thought it would be fun to team up together again

17:13

and something like this and you know , shane said like this is my 17th

17:16

year as a professional golfer and to be able to

17:18

do still do things for the first time like

17:21

playing this event and an experience

17:23

, something like this , is pretty cool and , yeah

17:26

, just really excited to spend the week with

17:28

Shane and , you know , hopefully I don't put

17:30

him in too many bad spots and we can play

17:32

some good golf .

17:34

And then just just quickly how this , how this partnership

17:36

, came together when you guys first started talking about it . I

17:38

know we discussed a little

17:40

bit , but yeah , I

17:42

was the one that mentioned it .

17:47

I basically I didn't want to ask Rory

17:49

because I didn't think that he would want to come and

17:51

play um and then he was the one

17:53

that said it to me and I was like , absolutely , um

17:55

, so , uh , yeah

17:57

, we talked about it . I remember , you know rory talked

17:59

about the wednesday after writer cup . We had a

18:01

nice few drinks together , we talked

18:03

about it that day and then he sent me a

18:05

text around christmas time and , yeah , it was a

18:07

nice little christmas present for me to get . So , uh

18:10

, yeah , happy to be here with him . You

18:12

know , um , I I

18:15

like playing golf in the middle of the fairway , so I'm looking forward

18:17

to this week . No pressure

18:19

all right , thanks guys .

18:21

We'll open up the questions . If you have a question , just raise your hand

18:23

. We'll get a mic over to you .

18:24

We'll just start here with brody roy

18:28

, are you able to confirm whether or

18:30

not you have a potential return to the policy ?

18:32

board

18:35

Not as of yet . No .

18:37

Are we able to speak in hypotheticals ? Maybe

18:40

I guess , when you

18:42

go back to a year ago or eight months ago , when you

18:44

decided to step away , you talked about wanting

18:47

to focus more inside the ropes and things like that

18:49

. I guess what has changed in the

18:51

last eight months and kind of , how do you look back now

18:53

on that decision to walk away and why ? You

18:56

know it might be interesting now .

18:58

Uh , I think I can be helpful . Um

19:01

, I don't think there's been much progress made

19:03

in the last eight months and I was hopeful that there would

19:05

be , and know I think I I

19:07

could be helpful to the process , but only

19:11

only if

19:13

, if people want me involved , I guess . So

19:15

, you know , when web , you know

19:19

, and I talked and he talked about it potentially

19:21

, you know , coming

19:23

off the board , I said , look , if it was something that other

19:25

people wanted I would , I would gladly

19:27

take that seat and that

19:30

was the conversation that we had . But

19:34

, yeah , I think that's the whole reason . I

19:36

feel like I can be helpful , I feel like I

19:38

, you know , I care a lot and I have

19:40

some pretty good experience

19:43

and good connections within

19:46

the game and sort of around the wider

19:48

sort of ecosystem and everything that's

19:50

going on . But

19:54

at the end of the day , it's not quite up

19:56

to me to just come back on the board . There's a process

19:59

that has to be followed . But

20:01

I'm willing to do it if that's what , uh

20:04

, if that's what people um , want

20:07

, I guess , and unification has been

20:09

your , your big thing the last few months .

20:11

If , hypothetically , you were back is , is that

20:13

something you would then even have a stronger

20:15

stance on on the board ?

20:16

absolutely , yeah , yeah , I think it's the .

20:18

It's the only way forward for the , for the , for

20:20

the game of golf I mean you've you

20:24

, you've said before , I think , that maybe

20:26

you didn't always see eye-to-eye with some people before

20:28

on matters .

20:29

How do you manage that , I guess , if you're

20:32

back in terms of trying to kind of steer

20:34

things a certain way Compromise

20:36

, but also try

20:40

to articulate your points as well

20:42

as you can and try to help

20:45

your

20:47

points as well as you can and try to , you

20:54

know , help people see the benefits of what

20:56

unification could do for the game and what it could do for this tour in

20:58

particular . We obviously realize the game is not unified right now for a reason

21:00

, and you know there's still , you

21:02

know , some hard

21:05

feelings and things that need to be be addressed . But I

21:08

think at this point you know

21:10

, for the good of the game , we all need to put those feelings aside

21:13

and all move forward together almost

21:15

like a

21:19

physical sense of relief or a

21:21

burden in

21:23

the way you originally left .

21:25

You talked about not being able to

21:27

spend or split your time with

21:30

the demands of that job and then also trying to be the best golfer

21:32

you can possibly be

21:34

.

21:34

Yeah , I feel you know

21:36

. Yes , I know

21:38

I would say that I played

21:40

some of my best golf while being a PGA

21:43

Tour board member , so I don't think it really hindered

21:45

me , but it was maybe

21:47

just taking away some time from me

21:50

pursuing things or spending time doing things

21:52

that I wanted to do at home . And , you know , having to

21:54

hop on calls , you know , two

21:56

, three times a week and just the whole , you

21:58

know the whole thing started to take a toll

22:00

, as it has on a lot of the players

22:02

. Right , like we're golfers . At the end of the

22:05

day , we don't need to be trying to run

22:07

a 15 billion dollar business .

22:09

We need to go out there and play golf and let the

22:11

the business people do the business

22:13

things on the matters of golf shane , I

22:15

saw that you and rory were out in the practice area yesterday

22:17

playing together , hitting practice

22:19

shots and things like that around . How often in

22:21

a tournament other than this would you

22:24

guys do that ? Is that something that just is

22:26

unique to this venue or

22:28

is that something that you guys might ever do outside

22:30

of , say , ryder Cup ?

22:32

well , it just kind of happened yesterday . We were going to go and play

22:34

the course but the course was quite busy and we didn't

22:36

want to spend too long doing that . So

22:38

we said we'd do some chipping around , chipping green . Yeah

22:41

, I mean I used to do historically for years

22:43

. I've done it with Porter Carrington over the years , but he's , you

22:46

know , a lot of time in Champions Tour . Now you

22:48

know we don't typically do it . Rory

22:50

likes to play and practice early in the mornings and I

22:52

don't , so

22:54

we don't really play that many practice rounds

22:56

together . You know , throughout the year we play a few , but

22:58

not that many . So yeah

23:01

, it just kind of happened yesterday and it's good fun

23:03

and I think it's a good way to practice and I think for

23:05

kids , if they want to practice , get a friend or

23:07

a person , anybody who wants to practice

23:10

, get a person to play against and go and

23:12

chip around the green , because I think that's a good

23:14

way to get better .

23:18

Rory , with this being your first trip to New Orleans

23:20

, what is your initial take ? And then

23:22

, shane , did you

23:24

kind of prep ? Him for what this week's vibe was

23:26

about .

23:28

Uh no , you didn't really prep me , I guess

23:30

. Uh yeah , so we got in yesterday

23:33

, uh , sort of around

23:35

midday . We came straight here , uh

23:38

, so we didn't really I , you know , I didn't get a sense

23:40

really of the city last night Got to the hotel

23:42

and didn't really do much , but

23:45

we've got some good restaurant reservations

23:47

the next few nights and sort

23:49

of going to hit all the sort of staples

23:52

that you should , and I'll maybe

23:54

venture down to Bourbon Street at

23:56

some point and spend

23:58

half an hour and sort of say I've

24:00

been there and I've got the T-shirt and then

24:03

move on . I don't think I want to spend too much time down there

24:05

. Get some beats , yeah

24:07

, but yeah

24:10

, I'm excited to be in a new place

24:12

. As I said before , we

24:14

spend our whole lives going back

24:16

to the same cities , the same golf courses and

24:18

the same routines , so to do something a little different

24:21

is nice All

24:23

right , just go right here in the front .

24:24

I wanted to ask about golf

24:29

at the Olympics . I know , growing up , obviously

24:31

you all never had that opportunity . Just

24:34

how great was it to take part ?

24:36

A little different because of COVID , but potentially

24:38

the excitement of doing it for real this year , having

24:40

it as an Olympic sport and looking forward

24:42

to that this summer doing it

24:45

for real this year , having it as an olympic sport and looking

24:47

forward to that this summer , yeah , yeah , um , obviously , growing up , growing

24:49

up playing golf , you never dreamed of an olympic champion

24:51

. So when golf came to the olympics it was kind of a strange

24:54

kind of feeling to have . But during

24:56

the last olympics we're already together in

24:58

japan , albeit it was a covert

25:00

olympic , so it was a little bit different . Um

25:02

, you know , we both know

25:05

, we both realised what it meant to

25:07

go out and try and win an Olympic medal for your country

25:09

and I think you

25:11

know that's something that excites me and excites

25:13

both of us . To go back to Paris this year and

25:15

try and do that , I think you

25:18

know . For

25:20

me personally , anyway , I know to go back to Ireland

25:22

and win an Olympic medal would be like a dream . So

25:25

, yeah , something that is high on my

25:27

bucket list for this year .

25:30

Yeah , same thing . I

25:33

was in a seven-way playoff in Tokyo

25:35

for a bronze medal , and I've never

25:37

tried so hard to finish third in my life . So

25:40

yeah look , we didn't

25:42

grow up dreaming of winning

25:45

an Olympic medal because that just wasn't something that was

25:47

on our radar . You know , major championships have always

25:49

been what you know has been the greatest achievement

25:51

in the game of golf . But once you're

25:53

there and you get into that Olympic spirit

25:55

, you know it really , you

25:58

know it's sort of you know , I don't

26:00

know that something happens inside of you and

26:02

you know , you really , you really get a sense

26:05

for what it means to so many people . And you

26:07

know , as Sheehan said , you

26:09

know , even to just be able to call yourself an Olympian

26:11

but then to , if you weren't able to

26:14

win a medal , that would be , you know , incredibly

26:16

special .

26:18

Rory , I guess you're not too

26:21

happy about the way the early part of the season

26:23

has gone , and after the meat

26:25

grinder of the last two and a half weeks is

26:27

this you said no pressure . Is

26:29

this a week where you could just relax and kind

26:32

of let things , maybe fix some things

26:34

?

26:34

Yeah , yeah , a

26:37

little bit . I don't think there's things

26:39

that need to be fixed , but I think a week like this

26:41

to , yeah

26:44

, to sort of relax and play under yeah

26:47

not , you know , maybe not the amount

26:50

of pressure or the stress that we've both

26:52

been under the last couple of weeks . I

26:54

think is a nice thing , so , and

26:57

it's nice to be able to rely

26:59

on a team mate every now and again and bail

27:01

you out of trouble or know that you

27:04

know you don't have to , you know , play perfect

27:07

golf because you've got someone , um , right there

27:09

beside you . So , yeah , it's a , it's

27:11

a nice week for that . You know there's still a lot of fedex

27:13

cup points on offer and you know we , we know if

27:15

we have a good week this week , you know that'll

27:17

get us both up the you know

27:19

, the fedex cup list and and put us

27:21

in a really good spot going into the summer

27:24

. Question right

27:26

here .

27:26

Hey there , brett Martel

27:28

with AP . So , rory , you mentioned that

27:30

you thought it would be fun to play here and you mentioned the novelty

27:33

aspect . Is there some practical

27:35

professional application too , in terms

27:37

of maybe you guys will be teammates again in the future

27:40

, or just more

27:42

team golf ?

27:44

I think it's just . I

27:48

just thought it would be fun to do Going

27:50

and playing here with a friend and enjoying

27:53

a week in New Orleans , and going to eat

27:55

some good food at night and try to play some good golf

27:57

during the day . I thought it would be a fun week

27:59

.

28:00

Okay , ready . Finish up here .

28:02

Are we allowed to know any of the reservations I

28:05

?

28:06

don't know them , I just go where I'm told

28:08

.

28:08

Fair enough .

28:09

I just go where I'm told this week and I just do what I'm told

28:11

. So Rory's the captain . Team captain .

28:16

And then , for both of you , a report came out

28:18

today that equity numbers might

28:20

be released to you guys today . I

28:22

guess the question is what's enough

28:24

? You know what's a number that will make you guys

28:26

feel validated for staying ? You know , considering

28:29

the live payouts .

28:31

I think the one thing we've learned in golf over

28:33

the last two years is there's never enough .

28:37

Rory , just curious , had

28:40

you been close to coming here before or playing

28:42

in this tournament before ?

28:44

Yeah , a few people have asked me over the years . Bubba

28:49

Watson haunted me for years to come play this with

28:51

him and I politely declined every time .

28:53

Rory's probably number one on people's

28:55

list to come play here with when

28:58

you're out there playing with him .

29:01

But no , it was never part of , you know

29:04

, I guess it never lined

29:06

up with with my schedule and

29:08

just wasn't . And then you know what this is . You

29:11

know , this is my fourth week in a row and it's not

29:13

, you know , it's not as if I haven't played four

29:15

weeks in a row before , but

29:17

for a fourth tournament in a row , something like this

29:19

, that is a little more relaxed , not as not as

29:22

much pressure , you know

29:24

, I thought it would be a good thing to do , just

29:27

one last one here , I'm good .

29:28

Shane , you just mentioned that he's on a lot

29:30

of guys list to play as a team , so

29:32

why are you really excited

29:34

that he picked you ?

29:37

why am I excited that he picked me ? He obviously thinks

29:40

I'm I'm good enough to be

29:42

a teammate and come out here and compete with

29:44

. I think we're good for each other . I

29:49

think we'll be good for each other

29:51

on the course . We'll

29:54

enjoy doing it , which is a big part of it as well

29:56

. Whatever about going out there and competing

29:58

, you want to enjoy it as well , but at the end of the day , when it comes to it , we are competitors . I

30:00

think we're two very competitive people . When

30:02

we get to the first tee on Thursday , we're there for one

30:04

reason and , yes , it'll be to enjoy

30:07

it , but

30:09

it'll be to give ourselves a chance to win the tournament .

30:10

All right , gentlemen . Thank you for the time . Best of luck this week , thank

30:13

you .

30:16

So there you go . You've heard from

30:18

a couple of the teams and

30:24

play is underway at TPC Louisiana

30:27

. There's an event at the University of Florida I should digress

30:29

here called Gator Growl and

30:32

on number 17, . The

30:34

other day a couple of gators

30:36

decided just to walk across . Players

30:42

didn't seem to mind it at all , but I didn't see any player approach and grab the tail of a gator

30:44

like Kevin Kistner did one time . So there you go

30:47

. Anyway , there you have it . Play

30:49

is underway and we will see how this team

30:51

event on the PGA Tour plays out . Hopefully

30:54

you'll watch it and hopefully

30:56

we'll hear from you on social media about

31:00

what you thought For the

31:02

PGA Tour Countdown team . I'm Frank

31:04

Bassett saying thanks for listening and enjoy

31:07

the tournament . Thank you .