[MUSIC PLAYING] Dude, that smiley coffin for 61. Wow. I'm smiley coffin, and this is the smiley show. All right. Welcome back to another episode of the smiley show. Super pumped to have Johnson Wagger joining the smiley show. This is a long time coming. I'm having Johnson come on. Guys, absolutely just crushing the media game as we speak. Johnson, where are you joining us from, and what's your kind of week look like this week? Yeah, I'm home week off after the US Open, which is a very, very welcome. I worked eight weeks, and I am playing a lot of golf with my son. And we're headed down to Yaman's Hall for the weekend, going to play some golf down there in Charleston, and hanging out with a couple of other families. And yeah, just really excited to not be working this week's smiley. Eight weeks in a row, I guess I didn't put that together. I mean, what weeks did you not have off? I'm just trying to think, did you just go do some studio work? I started in New Orleans, and I've been Booth in New Orleans, Booth in Dallas, Walking in Charlotte, PGA Championship. Where was I after that? Studio for Colonial. It's just been constant through the US Open. Which I love. I mean, I love working. It's been great. But at the same time, I think my marriage has been strained to the point where I needed to wake off. And it's been very welcome. Very welcome, come on. Oh, gosh. Well, Johnson, you were at the set of the happy hour. And you were about to be with me on Happy Hour. Thank you for being such a good friend, as we could not find anybody to join from a player perspective. Bryson came in late, Seb came in late. But as you were standing there, you were speaking with my father-in-law. You were speaking with Francie. You were speaking with a bunch of other people. And somehow, it always comes up with you. Bands. Like, you're just a huge bands guy. And I wanted to do an MFK. And I've got a couple different ones that I want to do with you. And you've already answered one, but I want to hear the reason why this is before we came on. And the first one is-- and we've already answered this. But I want you to tell everybody the reasons why, because I don't even know who these bands are. And people are going to be upset with me about this. It's Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Alice in the Chains. Yeah, and just a little backstory on this. You and I shared a house in Inclined Village for the Beara Cuda a few years ago. And Francie, your wife and I found ourselves on the deck. It was just the two of us in the house. And I was jamming some tunes. And I was playing "Sultans of Swing" by the Dire Straits. And Francie says, she's like, oh, this is a great song. And I'm like, do you know who this is? And she said, no. I said, well, it's the Dire Straits. And she had never heard of the band. So on the set for your Fridays with Smiley at the US Open, I finally got to meet her dad and was like, how have you not exposed your daughter to more music from your generation? Like Dire Straits are my parents' band. But I do love music. I'm going to kill Alice in Chains because I don't really love their stuff. I'm going to marry Pearl Jam because I absolutely love their stuff. And I feel like I could snuggle up next to Eddie Vetter any night of the week. And I'm going to F, Nirvana. I mean, Kurt Cobain's, may he rest in peace? He's dead, but I think that's where I'm going with those. OK, good answers, good answers. All right, next one I got. These are blues musicians that influence many bands. How about Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, and Stevie Ray Vaughan? Stevie Ray Vaughan, one of the greatest guitarists of all time. I'm going to marry him because I want to, again, cuddle up next to him every night and dad. Muddy Waters, I'm going to do the F word with them. And then what was that? I'm going to kill the other one because I'm not-- Buddy Guy, not probably going to get some grief. I know I know his stuff, but I'm not that familiar. So I'm going to kill him. OK, last one. Fish, widespread panic, DMB. Seen them all many times live. Fish doesn't do it for me. I mean, some other-- Fish doesn't do it for me, so I'm killing fish. Love widespread, I'm going to F widespread. I've seen them ton. I love them. One night stand, that's my jam of widespread. And Dave Matthews, like, are you kidding me? I mean, I have a couple of make-out sessions in high school at Dave Matthews concert with some random tricks, so I'm definitely marrying Dave. Did you have that mustache in high school? [LAUGHTER] No, no, I couldn't grow facial hair until I was 30. [LAUGHTER] I mean, what did the mustache make a appearance? Was this something right before you got into TV? Because I don't remember you with a mustache until you showed up, like, on set, on studio at Gomshade. I was like, you've got to keep it now. Like, you can't go away. Does your wife like the mustache? Or is she all about it now? She hates it, and it was Thanksgiving 2011. We spent the week with my wife Katie's family in Virginia. And I didn't shave for the week, and we get home. It's first of December, and I shave everything off, but the mustache, just trying to get a reaction out of her. And she hated it so much. She was like, you've got to go back and shave that thing off. And so I kept it. And then I fast-forward to January. I played Kapalua, played well. I won the Sony Open with a mustache in 2012. And I was like, well, I'm going to keep it now. And then so I've had it off and on for about 12 years. I used to say, any time I like to try to piss Katie off, I would grow it. And then once I got the trial with Gop channel, she actually said, you better grow your mustache back, because it's built for TV. So it was her idea, so she's going to live with it now. - Well, give me the pros and the cons of having a mustache. Pros, if you get like a Guinness or a really heady beer, and you take a sip, it really sticks in there, which is great, cons are exactly. The cons are eating a bagel with cream cheese. It's just all over you. Kissing is tough. Like my wife doesn't like to kiss me with a mustache, which could be a pro or a con. It's, I'm not going to go too into detail. - It's debatable. - There's a lot, there's a lot of pros. It brings, I feel like it allows me to sort of live my best self, like my filter is sort of off, because I think a mustache says, "Hey, I don't take myself too seriously, "so I can say whatever I want." (laughs) - I just love it so much. The mustache is such a, it's like who you are. It's your personality, it's your media thing, but it's like the best bit of all time. You have like a bit that you get to wake up every day with, and that's, I'm super jealous of that. I wish I could grow a mustache. - So sometimes I wake up and I sleep on it wrong, and it's like up in the air, and it requires a little bit of maintenance. One time I waxed it and twirled it, but that's too high maintenance. - So that's how you style it. You'd have to wax it to get the little pearl thing up if you wanted that. - And if the wind's blowing, if I'm out playing golf and the wind's blowing, it's not a good thing with, you never know if it's up or down. So yeah, I like it just like this. (laughs) Oh gosh, well I gotta go back and watch your highlights now from the Sony Open with you in the mustache. I didn't remember that, but now I gotta go check it out. But as we're speaking about the Sony Open, you've won three times on the PGA Tour, and I think there's a lot of people that don't know that, but a lot of people that have forgotten that. I had it, I know how good of a golf you are, and I know how challenging this game is. But I wanna talk about your three wins, because I think it's important to, 'cause I remember watching the Houston Open just how you played with every bit of emotion on your shoulders, and it seemed like you were a type of guy when you got around the lead. You weren't scared to not go win that golf tournament. Yeah, I mean, smiley, I mean, I think all of us that played professional golf, we love being in that position. That's why we play, is to have a chance to win. I just unfortunately couldn't get myself there more, but I felt like once I got into the position on a Sunday with a chance to win, it's where I really shined. I was just leading up to it. I wasn't good enough to get there, get there a very tough brother. I mean, there's nothing, there's no greater feeling than the nervous energy, and I've always said nerves allow you to do things that you're not capable of, either both positive or negative, and I felt like when I was playing decent and I got in contention, I was capable of stuff that I couldn't normally do, hitting the ball further, making long putts. I just relished that opportunity to contend, and I mean, I had some close calls. I finished second of bunch too, but it was, if you had told me, when I was in college that I would win three times on the PGA Tour, I would have happily taken that. (laughs) That makes a ton of sense, 'cause that Houston was epic just the way you celebrated on the 18th hole, and yeah, I'm just kind of curious too, because now I think you're a persona from TV side. It's like, you go out and you hit all these shots from live from which I wanna get into how that all started, but just talking about where you are now in your game. You know, it's funny how this game, it's for, especially for you and I, who don't get to play as much as we used to. We don't touch the clubs, we don't get to practice, but we go out and either have it or you don't. And right now, you and I both go through these periods of, I'm sure, where you have these mental blocks of like, how do I get through this? What did I used to do? And unfortunately, you just have to do it on live TV. (laughs) I mean, like I said, I just worked eight straight weeks, so yesterday my son and I went and played Quail Hollow shut down right now, 'cause we're aerating and kind of ripping up the course, getting it back to summer conditions after the Wells Fargo, so we went and played this place Carolina Golf Club. It's an old Donald Ross. I hate that I just said old Donald Ross, all Donald Ross golf courses are old. And it's wide open off the tee, thank God. I've got this like two-way miss. I can hit it literally a hundred yards right of a fairway and I can hit it a hundred yards left, so it's very challenging for me to play right now. Everybody sees me duffing and sculling chips, but my short game's actually pretty spot on at the moment because it has to be, and I was playing with my son. He's 15, just won the state championship a few weeks ago as a freshman in high school, their team won. He was the low freshman in the state of North Carolina, and I'm really proud of him. He's killing it and he's kept me very active playing golf, 'cause I don't want him to beat me. He's beating me twice already. And yesterday we had a killer match. He eagles the first hole and is just thumping me, and it just brought out this inner competitor to where, it didn't matter where I hit it off the tee. I was getting it in the hole. I only hit like five greens, maybe four fairways, and I was just getting it up and down from everywhere. And he's looking at me like, he's like, I hate you, how are you doing this? Is he's piping it down the middle of a very fairway, hitting every green, lipping out for birdie, and I somehow keep tying him on holes, but I beat him yesterday, shot 73. Let's go. It's like a 74.8 course rating. I'm a plus one and a half, and it's been nice in the last couple, I would say in the last year, I finally gotten rid of the desire to go shoot 65 every time, and I'm just happy to play golf, and content with whatever comes out. Sure, I still get mad, but I'm not breaking clubs or anything. I'm just happy to be competing, happy to be playing golf. And like I love playing a match. Like I'm not going to go out and just play a four hour round of golf where I don't have something on the line. I want to beat you or I want to lose, and that's what gets me going. Yeah, I know. Welcome to the right side of history with golf, and the fact that you don't have to go out and shoot 65, and it doesn't matter where you hit it, and you can actually have fun and enjoy listening to some good tunes and enjoy some good camaraderie with some good people. And that's what I've found in golf now that I love, and I also, on the PGA Tour, I feel like this is always a fun question to ask for somebody that played on the PGA Tour as long as you did. I want to know who were some of your favorite people to play with, and on the back half of that, I kind of want you to answer. If you could tell me what player that came up that you were like (beep) I either got to get a whole lot better, or something's got to happen, or I need to do something else, because if there's more of these type of guys coming up, I got problems. Yeah, I'm going to answer that one first. It was Joaquin Neiman. First time I played with him, I believe it was at the Greenbrier. Maybe the last year we played there, and I-- Were you paired with him Thursday Friday? Wouldn't have been paired with him Thursday Friday 'cause he was in a different category. I was playing with it. Yeah. And it was like, how do I-- He hits it forever. He puts it good. I just knew he was like the first one that was so much younger than me that I was like, I don't know how I can compete with him on a weekend, week out basis. He was just that good. I like walking Neiman blew my mind. And there was plenty of guys. Even you, you and I played together Sanderson Farms the week after you won Vegas. It was hard to, it's seeing people come out and win immediately on the PGA Tour. It was very, very hard to see myself competing at that level with guys like you over the course of a year. Then I learned that you couldn't hit a driver in play, so I felt a lot better about it. (laughing) I mean, well-- (laughing) But that's the best thing about playing Sanderson, baby. You just go find that thing and hit it again. Exactly, I need, you and I both need places that have, you know, in no out of bounds on the golf course and there's always a miss that you can hit it on another hole. Yes, it's sometimes even a better angle. (laughing) I get a Lucas Glover, Lucas Glover to me, has always been a guy that I love playing with. We're kind of close to each other in college and played the nationwide Tour Corn Fairy Tour together for a year or two and I always love playing with him. He's so well read, he's so smart. He's not afraid of a conversation on the golf course and it's not necessarily about golf. I love playing with Lucas and Carl Peterson. Man, did you ever play with Carl? Yeah, yeah, I did. (laughing) Carl is like the funniest dude. He's just like, you're constantly laughing. You don't really care how you're playing. All of a sudden, you're upset that the round is over because Carl Peterson is so much fun to play with. And you know, Brendan Deong, my teammate in college, whenever we got here together, it was a blast. Yeah, y'all go check out the wagoo in full age show. Y'all two are crushing it over there. And so who did Carl Peterson? Who did he always play practice rounds with? 'Cause remind me, I can't remember. Okay, he would play with Jason Bone, George McNeil. That's right. It was like Tom Gillis and Tim Herron were kind of, you know, the fourth or the, you know, a revolving door, but it was always Bone, McNeil, and Carl. And they always had this game where they would play a, you know, if you don't make a bogey in a practice round, they'd go out and play 18 holes. If you don't make a bogey in a practice round, it was a hundred bucks from each person. And then after their practice round, they would sit in the player, in player dining and just like they were at a country club, they were just shit. They would have a cocktail. They were always there. They were always there. Always. The BJ Tour has changed so much since those four guys were playing. But they would, they loved it. They would have, it was like they were going out for their regular Saturday game at their home club. They would come in, eat, drink, and just hold court for hours. And it was kind of like that playing with Carl on a regular event on a Thursday or Friday. He would come in and you would sit down and eat lunch. And next thing you knew, your caddy's texting you, "Hey, you said you were gonna be out to practice in an hour." And, you know, you gotta say, well, practice is over for the day. I'm hanging out. It's over. Did you have a group you played with, practice rounds? - For a while, it was me, Brendan Snedeker, and Ryan Armor. Kevin Stadler, I used to play a lot with Brendan as well. But yeah, you used to like to play with those guys. We had a running game every Tuesday for a while. And I'll tell you, Ryan Armor is the toughest Tuesday money to take. - Really? - If he could somehow capture how intense he is on a Tuesday taking my money, if he could capture that on Thursday through Sunday, he'd be a top 10 player in the world. - You know who else is exactly than that same boat? Pat Gizire. You wanna talk about some tough money on a Tuesday. Pat Gizire, Ben Cole's. These two, I mean, they would much rather take your money on a Tuesday than make the cut. It feels like there's something not quite right there. But I mean, I get it, like you're more free. It's more fun. It's not the pressure. But yeah, Patton, I played a couple of practice rounds with him as my partner. And Patton is a beast on the Tuesday. - 'Cause they play the umbrella game. You know what game we're talking about? - We're talking about. - The one like, if you hit it inside of a pen, it's like you have an opportunity to like get all the points, you get the green closest to the pen. And it's like all these different categories. If you are the closest to the pen, you could sweep them all. And Patton would always, in the Tuesday game, hit it closest for the most part throughout the day. And so he just keeps sweeping and sweeping. So then he's like, are you gonna impress? Are you gonna impress? He just wants you to press so bad. 'Cause he knows exactly what happens when you press is he's gonna keep on going up. That's incredible. I never played that game with him. That's a good one. - Really? Okay. Yeah. Don't go. Don't go. Don't go now, at least. - No, definitely not now. I'd like you to hit a green, much less be close to the pen. All right, so we made the transition into media. Who was the first person to say, hey, you know, you might wanna try this out. Was it something you were thinking about? And the first time you did it, did you like it? - Yeah, I mean, Peter Jacobson told me back in maybe 2012 at the Deutsche Bank, I did a Jake's take with him. And we were having fun just shooting it on a Tuesday or Wednesday when he came up to me. And he said, hey, keep winning golf tournaments. But when you're done, you'll have a future in TV. And so it was kind of always in the back of my mind. Our agent, I'm gonna throw him under the bus. Jimmy Johnston never really did anything for me from the TV perspective when I was interested. And it was a researcher from Golf Channel. His name's Kevin Ryan, who I played high school golf against. He's been with a golf channel, studio side for 12 years or so. He called me right after the President's Cup at Quail Hollow in the fall of 22 and said, hey, your name came up in a production meeting and they wanna know if you're willing to come up and do a trial week of golf central in studio. And I jumped on it. I was so excited. I played my last tournament was the Bermuda Championship in October, the very next week, the Houston Open. I was in studio and I never looked back. I had an absolute blast doing the studio side, just watching golf and being able to talk about it at a high level. I loved all the people that I got to work with from the researchers to the graphics, to the producers. It was just so different than anything I had done, but it allowed me to talk about golf and still be involved with the PGA2 or so. I never looked back. They kept asking me to come back for a week, come back for a week. And then I got to start calling golf in some opposite field or alternate events, like Puerto Rico, Dominican last season. And I've just kind of said yes to everything. And I've loved every single week I've worked. I hope that never goes away, Smiley, 'cause I'm having such a ball doing it, man. - Yeah, you and I both. And you've gotten to have so many different roles from being in studio to being on the course, being in the booth, doing studio work. And I want to just kind of get your ear on what's been your favorite role of the ones that you've done. And are there certain ones that you feel like that were not natural to you that you've had to work on a little bit? - Smiley, it's so funny 'cause I think when all of us as players get into this media role, we think we're gonna be great walkers, right? We're like, oh, I'd love to walk with groups. That sounds like the best. And I've actually found that to be the most challenging. And walking is most similar to playing golf. And I feel like if you have a good group and you're getting to talk a lot, it's great. It's like you've had a great round. But if you have a group that's not playing well and you don't get on the call, it's like you're shooting 80. And so I've found it, I've found walking, like I think you're incredible at it. And I find it to be the hardest thing to do because if you're coming in live or if you're calling stuff on tape and the way Tommy Roy produces as opposed to, I know what you're doing this week at The Travelers, it's not an NBC production team. So it's very challenging. And I have the utmost respect because I think you are killing it on that front. The studio is wildly, of course, smiley, you're the best, man. The studio is so fun. Like I, especially like the live froms or if we have a road show that I can still be at a golf tournament but do the studio side because you really have the time to make a point. You have the time to make an impact on what you're saying. So I didn't think I would enjoy studio work, but I love it. But I mean, the ultimate, and I don't know how you feel about it. I know you've done a couple, Fortinet and a couple others, like being in that lead analyst chair, there's nothing better than that. I love being in that chair. Whether or not, you know, it's used to have to be a major champion to get that seat. And now I think times are changing to where the guys that have won major championships, they don't need to work anymore. There's, they don't need that time. They better want to do TV. They got plenty of cash. So I think like you and I are in such a cool position where we love it, we want to work, we're hungry. And I think the opportunities are there. But next week at the Rocket Mortgage, I have my first crack at hole announcing, I believe, based on that that she just saw. So I'm very scared. It's going to be the first, it's the first time I've done it. It's like being a host and an analyst in one taking it to commercial. So I'm a little bit leery of that. But throwing it to commercial is a, it's once you do it one time, then it's after that, you're like, all right, I think I know how to do it. There's, I got a couple of really good tips. Kurt Byron's a really good person to talk to, talk to, to Rika might be up there next week 'cause he's actually knows. Next week John Deere, is that where you're doing it? Next week's Rocket Mortgage. Next week is Rocket Mortgage, you don't say, okay. I don't know why I was thinking next week was John Deere. Anyways, I can't wait to listen 'cause that first commercial break, 'cause everybody like claps and the first time you do it, it's hilarious. I've done a little bit of radio. And so I've been the host with Brendan and I've taken it to commercial on radio a couple times. And I mean, what I'm really looking forward to is, is this is, as we watch our track man tracer technology brought to you by T-Mobile for business. - Dude, you already got that, like that is, that is perfect. You're already in full swing season mode. That is amazing. I can't wait for that. - Brought to you by Laker Tilly. - Exactly. I'm really looking forward to doing the track man tracer read. Whatever it is. Oh goodness, that's amazing. I can't wait, I can't wait to listen. The, but I think what everybody's here for is, dude, the live from reenactment to Ben, just some of the best television that that golf has found in a long time. I mean, seriously, it's a credit to you. It's a credit to your team because it really has been amazing. Just like seeing what you guys are gonna scheme up. Like love, Solly and those boys have just like leaned in to just like you coming out on stage in that video that Solly created, it's like here comes wags. And it's just like, oh, let's go. 'Cause you're watching the golf and you just know that's where we're heading that evening. And before we like you comment on it, I just wanna know how did it start? Whose idea was it? And were you hesitant to do it? - So no, I was not hesitant to do it at all. It started, you know, Frank Knobolo used to do these T to green segments. And Trevor M.woman did it for a while. They would go two weeks ahead and hit chip shots around the green. And it was all taped. And I remember telling Matt Hagerty, who's the kind of studio boss, I said, hey man, I wanna be part of the live from team if it's ever possible. And my favorite things were the Frank Knobolo and Trevor M.woman T to green, where they're hitting pitch shots and showing the golf course, I love golf courses. So they had me go out to LA last year for the US Open. And on Tuesday, Wednesday, they started me out with walk-and-talks and it was incredible. - That's right, that's right. - It was like like a great start. Yeah, yeah, I got Rory, got Ricky Fowler. I felt like it was easy for me to, you know, as, you know, playing with all these guys smiley, like you have, that's why you have so much success with your Fridays with smiley, is that players respect you, like you, know that you're not gonna put them in a tough position. So it kind of started there. And then at the players' championship, it was about two weeks before. And it was Matt Hagerty, Alan Robison, who's also a big studio guy. He's the morning live from producer. He said, we're gonna put you out on the golf course, hitting chip shots. And we think we have approval to where at night, you can go out and recreate shots of the day or whatever you want. And I was like, that sounds awesome. I'd love to do that. And it just kinda, you know, and the players, you know, I've got this field producer, Andrew Bradley, who is the first one. Is that the first? Yeah. So all right, players was the first one. Andrew Bradley's great. And the players was fantastic. This is wearing like the game. This is where Nolan Ryan came out at the players. And so it was Thursday and Jeff Fabians, like the onsite night live from producer. And he's a grumpy little Philadelphia Eagles fan. And he's just got this resting like grouch face. And I've gotten to just love this dude. And I had my family there. It was spring break and I come in for a break. And he's like, hey, did you see this drop where he took on seven? And I said, no, but I saw the one he took on 18. He was making the turn to the front side. And so where he's pulled up on his board, he pulls up the shot and he said, what do you think you could do with that? And I was like, well, you know, Roy's character is never in question with me. He's certainly not gonna take a bad drop. I said, what if I get some golf balls and I go throw them. Into the ground and try to recreate the height in which it bounces. We can put a camera right where this camera is. And I can just like show how he had to have taken a good drop. Because if it landed inside the hazard line, it certainly wouldn't be seen. And, you know, I was out there just ripping balls into the ground and I didn't realize how ridiculous it looked until I rewatched it and I rewatched it and it got. It just looked, it looked ridiculous, just rifling golf balls. As hard as I could five feet in front of me straight into the ground. But it was the role of Chapman over here at the, at the seventh hole, just hurling golf balls at the ground. And the best is like your grunt. You could just hear how hard it was for you to throw a ball 100 miles an hour. But it was so good. Because you're like, I mean, yeah, I mean, you can make a case. That's, that's maybe it's like a wrong job or maybe so good, man. And then the next night there, I drilled one into a tree on the same hole when Rory had hit this incredible escape shot. And like, you know, it's funny 'cause people are like, you shank that. Well, I had my son's clubs, which are very flat. I didn't have my clubs and I've been standing out there. I hadn't hit a ball in a week. I've been standing out there for an hour ready to go live. And it's just, it's really hard to sit out there for that long. Do you don't hit practice shots? Where am I going to hit practice shots? Did he get to go find the golf balls? What was the punch shot Rory hit? It was on seven again. He was way right. Okay. And he hit the shot that like he covered this little pond, landed in a bunker, skipped up the face and had like 20 feet for eagle and I just, I just drilled this tree. Lucky it didn't come back into my face. But I mean, you know, it's been so fun. Like, and I chunked a couple at the PGA, shanked a couple at the PGA. And I kind of built this sort of narrative that I can't chip, which I really can't, I had takes a lot of mental strength for me to get a good pitch shot, especially the easier they are, the worse I am out of. But man, it culminated at the US Open. I had no idea Bryson was going to come out on 18, and I'm trying to hit his 55 yard bunker shot. He had been at the set. I thought I was going to get bumped like you bumped me from the Fridays with Smiley a couple of days before. And I was going to be fine with it. And he, I scold over the green, so worried I'm going to hit the windows. He comes out and it was, it was like, it was the, I think I should stop doing the reenactments because I don't know how they're going to get any better than hit it, you know, to 18 inches in front of the champ. And I was, give me that trophy, Bryson, let me hold that thing. When I saw the video, I was, I was just smiling ear to ear. I was so happy where the ball ended up. And then Brice, you could have never prepared me for how I spit out whatever was in my mouth, laughing for when you got that US Open trophy. Just like you said, just right. It just was like, until if we're for the golf viewers, man, it was, it was like a culmination of, of just, we've been through so much to get to this point. And then we finally hold on. Not only did we just pull off the shot, we did better than, than the pro. And so that for, for all the golf fans that have, that have watched the struggles, we've, we've been through you through thick and thin. And then we get to the 18th hole at the US Open and by golly shot of the year, baby. It was, it was unbelievable. And then the response from people at Pinehurst last week, like, I'm driving around in my cart and just doing my thing. And people are thanking me. And I have no idea why I'm like, why are you thanking me? I'm having a blast doing this. And like, you've made it so relatable. And, you know, it's just, it's been, it's been overwhelming. Like the response I've gotten from golf fans. Like I just, I wish they had liked me shanking, chunking and duffing chips. Cause that's all I did my whole career. What, uh, what was the most nervous you were over a shot this, through this entire season of live from shots? One where you're just like, Oh my gosh, it was Saturday at the players championship, Wyndham Clark chunked one in the water on 17. So he decided he decided to replay it, you know, and he hit the shot. And I, I, it was, my idea was to go out and show you why it was a good idea for him to replay it. And so I walk up, I take the walk from the T box to the drop zone, which I've never, I, this is my only claim to fame on the PGA tour. I've got like the career low scoring average on 17 at sawgrass. I never hit it in the water. I compliment either. Yeah. You mean, boom. It was a gap wedge. I keep you guys, guys, I hit it on the green every time seriously. So I walked up and I was like, you know, this drop zone to this whole location. It's 72 yards. It's an awkward distance. And, and I just completely laid the, I was, my heart was pounding. The whole walk up, drop it. And I just slipped and chunked it right into the lake and air pond. And, and that hands down the most nervous I've been over a shot. I remember you slipping. You were lucky to hit the golf ball. I've never seen somebody slip so bad from 70 yards. It was, I'm wearing these like, uh, basically pro shop shoes. There's no tread. The do had just settled on the fair on the T box and my foot works. Not great. Smiley. Okay. So after you shank a chip shot at the PGA, actually, let's go before the day before when you're in the middle of the fairway. Perfect Zoysia on the fourth hole, just hitting a pitch shot and a chilly chunk one, the next chip. But what are you thinking? Like don't chilly chocolate. Like what, like, what is your swing thought on a, on a, on just a simple pitch like that at four after you just almost double hit one. Uh, was don't, don't chunk it and get it over with as quickly as possible. So that's when I scolded across the grid. The best after you do that, you look up and you said back to like, it's like a back to you type of thing and Brandon is always falling out of his chair. That's why it's just like the silence that the live from set has. And those moments, it's just, it's killer, man. It's killer. It's been, it's been so fun to, to loosen that show up a little bit. I mean, I'm not trying to be out there being funny. I'm trying to hit good shots and highlight what guys have done. But that, I feel like sometimes that show can be a little stiff and too many words and a lot of talking. And so to give it a little bit of, uh, to just change it up a little bit has been so much fun and Paul McGinley, we worked together at Pebble Beach for the first time and I didn't know what to think of him. I thought he hated me. And now Paul is like one of my favorite people. I just like, I love hanging out with Paul McGinley. He is, he is the absolute best dude ever. Yes, he is. And you make a good point on how it's a little, a chatty show, real stiff, you know, always criticizing, which is, you know, part of what you, their jobs are to do is to, to analyze and criticize what the players did out at the golf course that day, which I, I'm, I'm wondering too, have you kind of struggled with that at all? Like criticizing players. That's one thing that people ask me about is, is making the transition into media, have you, have you found that to be easier or difficult at times? It's definitely hard, but at the same time, I take it from a lens where, you know, if they hit a bad shot or make a poor decision, if I can look them in the eye after what I've said and be able to justify it, then I believe I don't think I've said anything yet that, that would really make a player all that mad that they wouldn't agree with the closest I came was I was in the booth in Punta Cona last year and Wyndham Clark had a chance to win. And I was just completely dogging his putting style and how his toe was up in the air, you know, a couple of weeks later, he wins the Wells Fargo than the US Open. So it's kind of a moot point and he putted great. But I felt like that was the closest I came. And I've done it with Tony Finau too with his putting and now he's got a different grip and is he's sold in the putter better like mechanics matter. And I'm getting more and more comfortable criticizing players. And if they have a problem with it, I'm happy to have a conversation of why I said something. But I mean, it's our job, right? Smiley, you got to, yeah, you have to, you have to have an opinion and you have to be able to tell it like it is. And if if players have a problem with it, you know, come talk to me and I'll explain myself, but that hadn't happened yet. Good. As we kind of tie a bow on the live from stuff, is do we have anything in the cooker for the rest of the year? Is it, is it the open and then playoffs? Is that kind of what we're thinking? I'm going to be on site. I believe our road shows for the playoffs are fed. I'm doing FedEx cup and tour. I mean, excuse me, FedEx, St. Jude and tour championship and obviously true and the RNA has already approved all the recreations, which is incredible. I'll see you at number seven at the post and stamp that. Well, that's, that's, that's, I think that's going to be a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday night thing. My studio boss after talking about the US Open, he's like, man, I can't wait to see you take a crack at the post and stamp. And I'm looking forward to getting out there. High winds, tiny green. I haven't hit a ball all day. I don't know if it's going to be an eight iron or a wedge or what it's going to be, but just, I mean, I, I don't know if the camera is going to be able to follow the trajectory of my shot because it could go anywhere. That hole is so hard. The, uh, that was the only open championship I played was true. And I was in the bad wave. I hit seven iron in the morning and then I turned on the TV later that afternoon and sunny out and Phil Mickelson's hitting gap wedge into the hole. I'm like, this is ridiculous. And one like one, it's, that hole with the seven iron versus a wedge is, it's, it's not even comparable. Is it, is it longer than seven at Pebble? Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. It's, it's probably in that 150 range. I think. Yeah. All right. But the, the, the coolest thing about that hole is the first six holes played down off the right. And then the seven told you switch, you switch back around. And so it's in off the left. So you're the, all of the first six holes, you're just trying, you're holding the face off, you're holding the face off. And then seven, you're trying to figure out if I hold the face off, it's going to go that way. So you have to find a way to release it a little bit better. And you can't go left. And you really can't go right either. So good luck. Where'd you hit it with, where'd you hit it with the seven iron? When you, I miss the cup by, I think one shot and I think I made a six or seven on this, on the seventh hole. Tough. Okay. Yeah. Out. That's the ouchies. It's okay. It's okay. Well, I look forward to watching it. The potion stamp and the last topic I want to get to Johnson is somebody that's in media, somebody that was on the PGA tour board, the policy board, I should say, is, you know, having opinions on the PGA tour live stuff. And what's been rumored is that, you know, the piff is going to get back into this thing somehow and there's going to be an agreement. Just kind of want to hear from your perspective, where you stand now and has your opinions changed at all with Bryce and winning. Is there been anything over the last month or so that has led you to a point where maybe you've kind of seen the writing on the wall and figure out, how do we get these guys back together? We definitely need to get them back together. I don't like, I've heard from a couple of live guys. Like, why, I can't believe it's taking so long for us to get back together. And I hate that narrative because they're the ones that cause the fray anyway. And so the fact that they, they're pushing for us to get back together is really bothering me. Me too, Bryson, Bryson at the PGA and at the US Open made me really want to see us come back. I want to see John Rom play. I want to see Bryson. I want to see Brooks. I want to see these, I want to see Cam Smith. I did a walk and talk with him last week. And I forgot about how much I love Cam Smith. The dude is a legend. He's so much fun. He's incredible to watch play golf. I want these guys back. It's just, I don't know. It's going to be so hard. Like, you can't just go take a hundred million dollars. And come waltzing back into the PGA tour. And now we have purses, 20 million dollar purses. Like there has to be some sort of, I don't want to call it a penalty, but there has to be something like they have to, I don't know what it is. And I think that's what's causing, I think the getting the money from PIF would be great. Now that we're in this role as a nonprofit with PGA tour enterprises, I think that's going to happen. But how do you bring the guys back? And I think that is what's the biggest discussion and what is taking so long is that like, can you just welcome them back with open arms? And then all of a sudden, the PGA tour has given equity shares now to players, right? And so maybe these guys have no ability, no matter what, how long they're back on the PGA tour, they lose their ability to get equity shares. I don't know what it looks like, but I know that those conversations have to be difficult because you can't just burn the house down, get paid to do it, and then come back in and rebuild it. Like that's not, that's not that life is fair, but that's not going to sit well with anybody on the PGA tour if these guys come back in with no punishment. And let's say live golf exists for the next five years. Let's say it's around and is, you know, maybe the schedule can be worked out to where players can kind of work their way on a boat because I don't personally see live golf going anywhere as of right now, just based on my people I've talked to. And it seems like the players too over there like it. I think there are some players that enjoy the concept, even though I don't think it's the best type of atmosphere for competitive golf. I don't like the shotgun. I don't like the 54 holes thing you can maybe sell me on. I think I wish there was sometimes some Thursday Fridays that on some weeks out here with that, that started on a Friday, but I just, I just feel like to your point kind of talking about how these guys have been the first to complain and say, hey, it's, it's, why aren't we playing? It's like, if this isn't the whole consequences of my own actions type of guy, it just has been frustrating to hear, hear some of the players say it's, and I know it's got to be so annoying for the other players on the PGA tour that didn't take the money that that did stay. And the way I see a Johnson is that live is going to be around. It's going to be finding a way to make both of these things mesh. Yeah. And I mean, you're talking, you're only talking about, so you're talking about like six, seven, maybe eight players max. I mean, who I feel bad for when I don't really feel bad for any of them. But if live goes away, like what happens to a Cameron Tringale, a Harold Varner, these guys that Hudson Swafford, I mean, they have no status when they come back and they'd have to go to Q school. Someone said something to me that made so much sense that, that we could, they all come back and they have no status on the PGA tour. You can get seven sponsor exemptions as a non member and like make them work their way back to status that way, which made sense. But yeah, a lot of them seem very happy over there to your point, smiley. And I just don't know, just piff, if piff invest in the PGA tour, they can continue to throw money at a product that's not great. You really think that it could be around for five years. I'm just what I'm hearing, man. I'm hearing it's, it's all systems go right now. So it's, it's concerning when I hear that because I keep thinking that, you know, seeing that these two sides might come together in my head, I'm thinking that live golf's going away, but I don't think I've, I don't think it is going anywhere. And that's, that's a scary thought. And the fact that maybe live golf exists in the fall and you have PGA tour and live guys being able to do that. But in my head, I don't think these PGA tour guys want to play in the fall. I don't think any of these guys want to play all year around. I think that this entire calendar season and the way the fall was structured last year, I think the guys liked having a fall off. I don't think they want to go travel to play live golf events in, in Singapore or wherever they are at. I just don't think they care enough to, I mean, maybe you can make a bunch more money doing it, but I think the years will get really quick when you start playing fall golf as well. Yeah. And they're like, you just said, man, they're making so much money. They don't need to go play in Saudi Arabia or Singapore. They don't, having an off season was the main goal for a lot of these guys, like your buddies, Jordan, JT, that have influence. They wanted that fall off without consequence of being behind the eight ball come January. So I think the new system, the new season of the PGA tours a very good thing. And I, I just don't see if Piff invest in the PGA tour. I don't see why they would continue to fund something that is, that is harmful to their new investment. You would think so, but we'll see. And, and you know this too, but when we were playing, all you just needed to get top 125, right? Get the top 125 year, you're in everything. I think that we're seeing now is that these top players, they, you know, they, they wanted smaller. They want it tighter. And now with top 50 being into signature events, they've kind of made themselves have to play really well every year. Like you can't have a bad year. You know, in the past like top 125, like these guys would breeze through that, but top 50 is a different animal. Yeah. And in top 70, look at Justin Thomas, the way he had to finish and played, he kind of stacked his schedule at the end because he was trying to make those playoffs ended up just finishing outside of last year. I would like to see these signature events have no sponsor exemptions to where you, if you miss, you miss and sorry, JT, but you didn't have a very good year. You got to play your way back in. I mean, I think that would be the ultimate. And he's top 30 in the world. So his, he's into those, but where do you, where do you cut whatever? Where do you cut the number at? Like for like, I know you're a guy that wants more players, but do you cut a number of like a signature vet or do you think one 44? Where do you, where do you live on the side of the boat as we finish up at the travelers this week? I think it's been nice. I think, you know, I talked to Brian Harmon at the players and he loves the signature events. Practice rounds don't take forever. There's no crowd and player dining like these top players love the smaller field. And I would just look at the best golf tournament in the world. And that's the masters. It's what roughly 88 to 95 players every year. I think the numbers should be in the 90s. And I think you cut to 50 and ties every signature event. I think 120 is too much. You could say 100. It's a nice, it's a nice clean number. But I think just take the model of the masters for signature events, have 90 something guys, cut it to 45. And I mean, because it's, it's really doing damage to the Monday Pro Am. It's doing damage to the Wednesday Pro Am. It's doing damage to the tournament being able to have hospitality all day for four straight days and make money to ultimately give back to local charity. So I think the harm that they're causing is unseen this year. But you know, I played the Monday Pro Am at the Wells Fargo. I shot 78. Who wants to pay that kind of money to go play a pro with me and watch me play that kind of golf? And the answer is nobody. Oh, what are you talking about? I'm paying money to play with Johnson Wagner. That sounds like a hell of a time. And I want to play with I want to play with Johnson Wagner soon. You me, Brendan Deong, we got to recreate our our shallow dive and Jimmy's pool. There's a lot. There's a lot that we got to got to do coming up Johnson. And one number one is is watch you continue to crush it in the media business and live from and hopefully have some some stuff we're working on together in the future, whether it's on or off the golf course and always a fan of yours. Keep doing you Johnson and thank you so much for joining the Smiley Show. Thank you, Smiley man. I think you're crushing it to always fun chatting with you back. Bye bye. [BLANK_AUDIO]
Join Smylie Kaufman and Johnson Wagner on this exciting episode of the Smylie Show as they dive deep into the secrets of winning on the PGA Tour! Smylie and Johnson discuss all things golf, including Johnson's recent media ventures and his transition from PGA Tour player to golf analyst.
Key Highlights:
- **Johnson Wagner's Transition to Media:** Insightful discussion on how Johnson made his way from the course to the commentator's booth.
- **Winning on Tour:** Johnson shares his experiences and career that included three PGA Tour victories.
- **Inside the Life of a Pro Golfer:** Get a behind-the-scenes look at the life and challenges faced by pro golfers, including the balance between personal life and the rigors of the Tour.
Smylie and Johnson also preview the upcoming tournaments and share their thoughts on who might dominate the leaderboard. To close the show, they reveal some hilarious and heartwarming moments from their time on and off the course.
