00:00A lot of players had success right out of college from your class.
00:05And we talk about yourself, talk about Hudson Swofford, Russell Henley.
00:09You know, you y'all you won the nationwide Children's Hospital event as an amateur.
00:15Hudson won the Georgia event on the Corn Ferry right after he graduated from college.
00:20And then you have Russell Henley that as soon as he got to the to the Corn Ferry Tour, he won twice in his rookie year.
00:25And I remember this vividly because it was right around the time one of my teammates, John Peterson, had said,
00:33I think the best college players can compete with the best players in the PGA Tour.
00:37And he was chastised for it.
00:39But you guys come out and win immediately and then get to the PGA Tour and win quickly.
00:45Do you remember that time and just the kind of how that was being talked about as as the hotshot amateurs coming up and winning quickly the professional ranks?
00:55I do. I do. I think Peterson got a lot of flack for that.
01:01For real, no reason. Like, I don't understand why people just chose to like he was kind of the bad boy of golf or he wasn't wrong either.
01:11He wasn't wrong. He wasn't wrong.
01:13There was just kind of a new era of and you look at guys that came after me of Spieth, what he did right when he turned pro and Justin and Bud Cawley got his card through those seven starts.
01:29I think he got seven starts on tour and got his card.
01:31And Ricky Fowler was my grade, but he left, I think, is after his sophomore year at Oklahoma State.
01:39So you had guys doing that pretty much every year of coming out and making making their way on the PGA Tour.
01:46And Peterson wasn't wrong.
01:48And I think if somebody said that now, they'd be like, yeah, we get it.
01:52Like, you got Ludwig, you got all these guys coming up and now these guys are coming right out on the PGA Tour and you see how good they are.
02:01But what helped, like, I was totally fine with kind of taking each step as it comes.
02:11Like, I was fine with coming out of college, trying to make it on the Corn Free Tour.
02:16Like, we didn't have these, the PGA Tour U.
02:20We didn't have, like, you had all Americans going to Q School and missing first or second stage.
02:26Like, it wasn't easy to get out, even on the Corn Free Tour, than going to Q School and having the six-round tournament, all that.
02:33It was just, it was just way different back then.
02:34But what really helped us at Georgia is it started my junior year is they, they had the Corn Free event at Athens.
02:42They had it at our university course.
02:44That's the one that HUD won, right?
02:46So, HUD won it, I guess, after he turned pro.
02:50But, yeah, I think, I think my senior year, Russell Henley won it as an amateur.
02:55This was, like, in May.
02:56Like, we hadn't even graduated college yet.
02:57That sparked it all, right?
02:58Like, this was the sparking of, okay, wait, maybe these college guys can compete.
03:03Yeah, yeah.
03:04And it was, it was massive.
03:05It was a massive confidence boost for us.
03:07I know Russell would say the same thing is having a Corn Free event on a, on kind of your home course.
03:14And, and it's a big deal.
03:16Um, I think I finished, like, 35th, maybe my junior year, and then, like, 22nd my senior year.
03:22But it gave me confidence of, like, I, I, I can play with these guys.
03:27Like, this, this isn't that much different than college golf.
03:29Like, the depth is a lot better.
03:31Like, you got 144, 156 guys playing, and all of them are, are really, really good.
03:37And, and in college you might have 40 guys that are really, really good in, in one tournament.
03:43All right.
03:43Bye.
03:43Bye.
03:43Bye.
03:43Bye.
03:59Bye.
04:00Bye.
04:01Bye.
04:02Bye.
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