00:00And I know your relationship with Jordan dates back to a very early age, similar to you and I.
00:05I remember seeing you on the Greenville, Mississippi putting green back when we were like 12 years old.
00:10JT's wearing pants. I'm like, who is this kid?
00:12He must be a bit of a know-it-all, if you will, on here with this professional golfer junior
00:17event.
00:18But I want to ask, what was your first memory of meeting Jordan Spieth?
00:23Did you know him and the first round that y'all played together?
00:27The first time we met was in AJGA at Walnut Creek, actually.
00:33It was like a junior.
00:35We played the same one.
00:36Junior All-Star, I think it was.
00:37I played with Jordan that first round, and I will never forget the shot he hit on the second hole.
00:43We started on 10. Matt Cervallo, me and Jordan were paired together.
00:48And it was a par three, about 200 yards, and Jordan hit this flighted, like, draw hook form to three
00:55feet.
00:55And I didn't know who he was.
00:57And after that shot, I was like, I don't even know how to do that.
01:02I was like, is this guy good?
01:03I never heard of him.
01:05And we finished around.
01:07I think he shot 67 or something.
01:09And I go to probably you on the putting green after some other guys around.
01:12I was like, that guy blacked out.
01:14He's definitely not doing that tomorrow.
01:16I think he shot two less the following day and won by, like, six.
01:19Yeah, we played together in the final round.
01:22There you go.
01:22Okay.
01:24And, I mean, I was like a couple back or something going into the last round.
01:27But he came up and introduced himself on the range.
01:29He was actually really nice.
01:30I hate to give him credit.
01:30Like, he was very professional.
01:32It's actually weird because I've never seen him do anything like that before.
01:37So, I don't know what that situation was.
01:39But, yeah, he came up and said, hey.
01:42And then we played that round.
01:43And, yeah, he got me the first time that we played quite handily.
01:49And I would say a healthy junior golf rivalry began over the next 10 years.
01:56For you, how would you kind of describe y'all's relationship before y'all got into collegiate golf
02:01and just competing against one another, you know, trading blows at different events?
02:07Yeah, it definitely was a rivalry.
02:10At least I think when you're at that age, you're not mature enough to, like, grasp and understand
02:18maybe being happy for the person but just handling it better, I'm sure.
02:24Yeah, it was one of those things that if he had a chance to win, like, I didn't really want
02:28him to win.
02:29If I'm being honest, and I'm sure he would say the same thing about me.
02:32But, yeah, it was because you want to be the best of your age group.
02:39At that time, you know, it was graduation class.
02:41And it was like, you know, I wanted to be the best of the 2011 graduating class.
02:44And then especially, you know, throughout junior golf.
02:48And then, you know, he was getting into the amateur events when I wasn't getting into amateur events.
02:51Or, like, he made the Walker Cup team when I was hoping to make the Walker Cup team.
02:55So, there was things that he was doing before I was doing and accomplishing them.
03:00That actually makes you jealous.
03:00Yes, for sure, for sure.
03:01So, I mean, my freshman year winning, you know, the player of the year winning freshman of the year over
03:06him
03:06was nice, although it was awful losing to him in singles of the match play, the finals against Texas.
03:16Because, you know, there's a lot of matches and things that end up termining to where it wasn't the deciding
03:22factor, if you will.
03:23But, I mean, we lost 3-2, and I lost to Jordan.
03:25So, if I win that match, you know, we win a national championship that day.
03:29So, there's a part of me that will never forgive myself for that.
03:32But I got the better of him throughout the course of that season, at least.
03:37Oh, and so let's go back to PGA Tour start.
03:41So, one of your first ones was at the Wyndham Championship.
03:44We used to always play the foot joy there.
03:46So, it's a golf course, at least, that we were familiar with as juniors, that they just happened to play
03:50a PGA Tour event.
03:51I know Jordan also had a good event at the Byron Nelson.
03:55I remember all of his boys were out there watching him on the 18th.
03:58But I feel like that was a year or two later after you had played the Wyndham.
04:02Is that correct, that timeline?
04:04What's that?
04:04Like when Jordan played the Byron Nelson versus when you played the Wyndham.
04:08Yeah.
04:08So, like you had the first, like, big PGA Tour moment as a kid versus Jordan didn't.
04:14For sure.
04:14For sure.
04:15Yeah, I was 16 because, yeah, the winner of the foot joy boys got into the Wyndham.
04:24So, I won the foot joy and, yeah, 16 years old.
04:27Missed my first week of school, which was incredible, obviously.
04:31So, yeah, I got to go play in a PGA Tour event as a 16-year-old.
04:35And on the Jordan topic, it is funny.
04:40I remember very vividly shot bogey-free 65 the first round.
04:46I mean, you want to talk about blacking out.
04:48Dude, you're 120 pounds and it's soaking wet.
04:51Soaking wet.
04:52That video that on the 18th hole they come back and show you in that orange shirt, black pants.
04:56Yeah.
04:56I mean, just the tiniest human.
04:59Yeah.
04:59But shooting 500 par in a PGA Tour event.
05:01My arms are, yeah.
05:02It's like you could just full hula hoop through a Cheerio kind of thinness.
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