Golf With Jay Delsing - - John Wood

Jay Delsing spent 25 years on the PGA Tour and is a lifetime member of the PGA Tour and PGA of America. Now he provides his unique perspective as a golfer and network broadcaster. It's time to go On The Range with Jay Delsing.

On The Range is brought to you by Vehicle Assurance. Hey, good morning. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. I'm your host, Jay Perley. What are you looking at me like that for? Deja vu all over again. Here we are ready to talk golf.

Yeah, well, so we formatted the show like a round of golf and the opening segment is called the On The Range segment. It's brought to you by Vehicle Assurance. If you need coverage for your car, they've got it for you.

Any sort of coverage you need, call them at 866-341-9255. Pearl, we had such a good week last week leaving off our social media outlets. Let's do it again, baby. No social media outlets because we don't care. But we do want to care. They are popping though. And we do think they are. We do think Bob and Kathy Donahue at Donahue Painting and Refinishing.

If you need any sort of refreshing for your home inside or outside, call Bob and Kathy at 314-805-2132. All right, Pearl. We got an interview with John Wood today. Such a fun interview. John Wood has been a caddy on the PGA Tour for 20 years for Kutcher, for Kalk, for what has he done?

Eight Ryder Cups I think or so. Just a really fun, interesting, interesting guy. I wish we could hear the unedited stories of Kalk. Yeah.

Because that guy is a character of all characters. I've got a few. But yeah, so we're going to, I wanted to tell a couple of our own personal caddy stories, okay? How about the time that I flew to Detroit and caddied for you in the U.S.

Amateur? Do you remember that? No, I don't. Yeah, we stayed with the, we stayed on Lower Long Lake up in Detroit. Where did we play though? Why do I not remember this? You said this earlier.

Yeah. Oh man, what was the name of the golf course? Oh, now I do remember it. I don't remember the name of the golf course, but I couldn't get it in playoffs at T. No, you do remember that. I do remember that too. I remember having a lot of stickers in my shoes at the end of the day. You had such a great attitude. Twice you caddied for me, if you happen to remember, the other time was up in Central Illinois, up at U of I area.

And I think I had the same issue. No, they actually drove it well and couldn't hit the green. Right, we didn't hit a lot of greens that day. And for 36 holes, you toted that thing with a great attitude.

And that had to be hard because that 25-pound bag had to weigh one and a quarter. It wasn't. It wasn't. It was fun to see it. You know, look, when you compete out there, look, there's nothing that you did that I haven't done 15 times over again. But Jan, there's this one story I'll never forget when we worked, when we'd caddy at Norwood.

I used to love taking the caddy shortcuts, right? So I'd go, oh, here's your driver. Here's your putter.

You know, they walked down to the green, they putt out, walked to the next tee that's really close at Norwood. And so I'd get up on the hill and purl. I would look for balls. You know, when I'm in the woods looking for their balls, and I'd find balls and put them in my pocket. And then when they go down there, I'd hit balls.

I'd be firing balls off to where I could. That doesn't surprise you. It was so much fun. Were you chewing, were you eating M&M's at the same time too? Oh, I don't think, I don't know. I probably had them in my pocket. They were probably melted or something. But the one thing that was so much fun was, you know, one guy said to me, hey, I thought I heard a bunch of balls hitting the woods over there.

I'm like, I don't know how. But I probably hit them in a spot where I knew I could go find them again. So as soon as I got finished with that. So you're using your client's club, which was so cool because they all had great equipment. I had my mom's clubs and stuff at the time. I was like, I wanted to hit their driver, but I'd given them their drivers on the tee.

Oh my gosh. Yeah, it was, it was fun. I can remember a time when we were caddying and some guy hit into us, our group, and it was a long hit, right?

And the guy that I was caddying for, I'll never forget, his name was John Gammons. He said, he was pissed. So-and-so, I can't believe he hit into us. And I said, do you want me to hit it back at him? And he goes, can you hit it that far? I go, oh yeah. And he goes, go ahead. So I teed it up and hit it backwards.

I'm like, I never said I could do it, but how much trouble could I get in? But those are fond memories for you. That was a, that was a huge piece of your golf life. Tremendous. Tremendous. The fact that the people that introduced me, Pearl, the class of, of, of, I don't want to say better people, but just, it was an uptick for me from the way that I grew up. But there was a lot of good people. Absolutely. Absolutely. I, I just don't want to think that it was, you know, that was anyway, it was fun.

It was, it was an absolutely great experience for me. And we've had these experiences on tour and we've had these funny experiences. And I thought, man, with John Wood, you know, we should go ahead and honor him with a couple of our own guys. You know what, Pearl, this is a long John Wood interview, so that's going to wrap up the, the front nine, but don't go anywhere. We'll come back with the front nine and our interview with John Wood. This is golf with Jay Delsing.

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And welcome back. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. I'm your host Jay. Pearly is with me and Brad Barnes. Meat is taking great care of us here at the ESPN Studios. And we're on the front nine brought to you by the Ascension Charity Classic.

But you know what? Fans might get tired of hearing me say it probably. I'm just so excited about this thing. The weather's starting to get good.

We can get out and start practicing in September. Norwood Hills and the Champions Tour in St. Louis is going to be the center of the golf world. Man, there's not another PGA Tour event that week. Really?

I didn't know that. Yeah, it's really going to be special. And it's two weeks before the Ryder Cup. Wow. The big buildup. Yep.

Absolutely. So that's going to be great. So thanks for the Ascension folks for the support on the show.

I'm going to do the tip of the cap segment now. And it's brought to you by Dean team of Kirkwood 314-966-0303. And the tip of the cap goes to Carol Fromuth. Carol is the head golf coach over at St. Joseph's Academy. She has been a long time golf coach there. She won another state championship this last year. I can't even count how many state championships she's won.

But here's what I'm telling you. When I played junior golf here, she was running it. And her son Mike and I played against each other.

And he's a pro now playing the game. Her daughter Susan is a great girl and has dedicated her life to the game and is teaching and stuff. And so just a thank you to her for growing the game and everything you've done. Carol, keep up the good work.

Keep winning championships. And my buddy Colin Berndt is your man over at the Dean team of Kirkwood. He brought to you the tip of the cap segment. And Pearly. I want to shout out to Brandy and Colin over at the Dean team. They took care of me.

Appreciate it very much. And Jay, is that place humming? They are making deals. They are making things happen.

There's a boatload going out there. But I'll tell you what, it was smooth. It was smooth. Yeah, Brandy's there to help.

She's a great girl. And they do. You know, any kind of car you want.

It's not only Volkswagen. I think you bought a big truck or something. And yeah, fantastic. So, okay, enough of this. We got to go to this John Wood interview.

He's been a caddy on the PGA Tour for 20 years and multiple Ryder cups and President's Cups. Enjoy this interview. Is it this time? There it is.

Can you believe it? I am sitting down this morning with my buddy John Wood. John, how you doing, man? Jay, I'm doing great.

How are you? Thanks for having me on first of all. Oh, it's my pleasure. I I'm so glad that we were able to finally connect. I mean, 19 years as a caddy, but just you're such an interesting human being and such a good human being. You have so many cool interests and things to say.

So let's just kind of jump in. But I know you started playing golf at an early age. Take us through your early life with golf.

Yeah, you know, it's funny, I kind of fluked into it, to be honest with you. I, you know, I loved baseball. Baseball was my true love as a kid. And, you know, in between my freshman and sophomore years in high school, that's all I played pretty much. And up to that point, and then I was out hitting some balls taking a lesson from somebody at the local Muni. And the person who's taking the lesson behind me had some connections at a, at a local private school, Catholic school that had a really good golf program. And, and they asked the teacher after I had left if I'd be interested in going there and playing golf for them. And, and I had never even thought of it because it was literally something I didn't play very much, but I got fairly good fairly quickly and ended up going to Jesuit high school and playing golf there for three years. And that's how I got started.

So it was kind of a fluke thing. I just kind of fell into it. It wasn't a plan or, or it wasn't something I played forever. I just started playing around 1314 years old. And, and I figured at being slow and about five, seven, I had no real baseball career. So maybe I tried golf and it's worked out okay. Yeah, I'll say so. So then you went on to Cal Berkeley.

That's not an easy joint to get into there, john. I did I like I like I tell everybody had a cup of coffee at Cal Berkeley. I was there for only a year.

I played golf for him and had a good time. But it was just it. It was I'd other stuff going on at the time and it just wasn't for me at the time. And I wish I could go back and, and have finished out but you know, life works out how it's supposed to so. But yeah, I did.

I did enjoy it there for a year. And then I think you began on the PGA Tour working for Kevin Sutherland in 1997. You're exactly right.

Yeah. I'd known Kevin and his brother David for a long time and their coach Don Baucom and was Kevin's second year on tour and he did never really settled on a caddy his first year. So we were just out hitting balls one day and he and his coach Don asked if I'd be interested in coming out and trying it.

And gosh, I'd never even thought about it. So I never, you know, I asked Kevin, I said, Can you can you guarantee me a full year? Because I don't want to get too weak in and get fired and having left my other job. You already knew the gig before you even started job. So Kevin was on I mean, what a great I mean, you know, Kevin, such a good guy, so patient and he was great because I, you know, you can think you know, golf and you can play in some pretty good amateur tournaments.

But when you get out there on the PGA Tour, it is on such another level. And there's so much you have to learn to be a good caddy out there. And Kevin was extremely patient and, and in letting me take my time and learn things and talk to other guys and watch other guys caddy and how they did it. So it I couldn't have had a better person to start out with because he was just he was so patient with me and it was great. He's a terrific person. So So john, how long in that first year or was it even in the first year before you said, Oh, man, I really dig this.

And I gotta I've got to set some goals. You know, I liked it right away. I didn't really know what I was doing in hindsight. But I think we got to I can't remember the dates at this point because the schedule has changed so much. But you know, we had a decent West Coast and then we got into a little bit of a slow patch.

And then in Houston at all the woodlands, we got into a playoff with Phil Blackmore lost the playoff. But that was when I really said, wow, this might this might really be for me. And I'm not just a year or two thing, which I originally thought maybe I'll do it for a year or two and then get back to the real world. But once I got a taste of being in the hunt on a Sunday and getting into a playoff and, and everything that went with it, I just loved it, you know, and it's, you know, growing up playing sports, you love the competition, you love being in the heat. And if you can't be a player, you know, this was the next best thing because you're there, you're part of it. And, you know, once we got once I got a taste of that contention on Sunday, I thought this is something I want to do for a long time. Hey, john, you mentioned something earlier, we have so much to cover here.

But I wanted to touch on this because I think people will be interested. What would you say is one or the two main things that jumped out about you and how good tour players are? Because you're a good player. You've seen good golf, but tour stuff is a completely different level. Completely different. It's the detail.

It's so it's so forward thinking. It's so detailed, you know, there's growing up, you know, since before rangefinders or anything, I think you'd probably the same era where you kind of you glanced at the 150 stake and kind of go, Okay, I know I got about this and I'll hit it. But you get out on tour and it's, you know, front edge 138 downhill four yards, wind is left to right, maybe a couple yards of help. I hit my nine iron 143, I can get it up to 148. And, and that's every single shot. And you've got to be on and forward thinking and knowing that when Kevin's playing well, he will hit a nine iron 143.

That's it. I mean, it's not like it's 145 or 141. You guys get that good and the level of detail and knowing where the misses are learning the courses out there, my gosh, it was just a lot to take in the first year. But the level of detail is what people don't realize.

And I think Bryson takes you through some of that now when he's on the air. But, you know, everybody out there is doing the same thing, maybe just, you know, not using as big a words, but every single caddie and player out there on every shot, every putt, the level of detail they go into to come up with the right play just just blew me away. Yeah, it's really, you know, everybody's mind different, isn't it, john? Some people, you know, you'll get a guy like Fred, who Fred couples will say, Yeah, you know, I could hit three clubs at distance. You know, and that's just the way they play.

And you get other guys that go, No, this goes 107 yards, it's going to take as, you know, a two step bounce forward and come back to, you know, 106 and a half. I mean, it's, it's that deep. It's funny, I talked to I was talking to Ken and Baba, and we were playing a practice round somewhere and Ted gave him a number for a wedge and Baba goes, I don't really listen to his wedge numbers. I just kind of hit what I see at my seat.

I feel what it's going to be and I hit it. I you know, he says a number but I don't really listen. I cracked up at that one. Oh, john, we had Ted Scott on and it was gently as you know, Ted is another terrific human being and a really good, good person and and he's very, he's a very astute guy like you when he's out there taking in everything every bit of information and when you play caddie for Baba. I mean, there's computers that can't take in all the stuff that Bubba's computing.

No, it's amazing. There's there's times you're playing with Bubba and you're going, Where's he aiming? No, like what line is he taking? I can remember working in the US Open and I was on the ground with Bubba's group at Oakmont and we're on number eight. There's 313 yard par three and I see him pull out his driver and I'm down the fairway as the players right side. So I know Bubba's gonna peel off a big slice and I'm thinking, everybody better get down because it's gonna start off low and he's gonna hit that little riser and he just shrimp one right over our heads and put it right on the green, you know, 313 yards away.

Each one to watch. Yeah, he really is. So. So john, you've you work for Chris Riley, you work for calc, who's one of my favorites, Hunter, man for nine years. That was your longest stint with Hunter and a very successful nine years at that. It was we had a lot of success together. I was working for calc at the time when I hooked up with Hunter, actually, we played together in Milwaukee, and this was Hunter's second year on tour, and he was really struggling. And, you know, I watched him play that day and I go, How is this guy struggling because he striped every shot he hit. And I happened to mention to the ping rep at the time, Matt Rollins, if Hunter was ever available, you know, let me know because I think I think we'd be really good together.

And Hunter ended up actually losing his card that year. And I went to took him went to tour school with him and we got through tour school and that was a start of a problem. My most successful, you know, relationship on tour in terms of caddying and having a lot of success. I think Connor and I went six or seven times together and made a bunch of Ryder cups and presidents cups and, you know, just made I think we made the tour championship seven years in a row and it was a it was probably the peak of my caddy career and I've had a lot of great things happen with other players, but that stretch was probably my most successful and we had a great run together. Oh gosh, Jan, you got 10 wins, including Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone, the Phoenix Open, which is so much fun, and Barclays and but the team events I know those are special to seven Ryder Cup teams and seven presidents Cup teams.

Let's talk about that a little bit. Yeah, that those once I, my first one was with calc in 2002. And calc at the time had kind of a rotation of caddies.

He didn't have one, one guy he'd pick up, you know, me on one week when Kevin wasn't playing and cubby when he wasn't working one week or, or bones when he wasn't working. So he had this kind of rotation in the stable of guys and we were out to dinner one night at in New Orleans and calc just very casually says to me, Oh, by the way, whether you're in for the Ryder Cup, and I just about choked on my food when he said it, because that was my dream was to work one Ryder Cup and to have been able to, you know, once you get a taste of that one and get in the team room and get in that get out there. You know, with everybody pulling on the same rope once you never want to miss one again, because they are just the funnest things we ever get to do, you know, to be in those rooms and, and, you know, talking over strategy with the best caddies and the best players in the world. And, and, you know, being in the matches is great. But one of the one of the funnest, most amazing things is when you are in the middle of a match and let's say, you know, Phil Mickelson or Tiger Woods, two of the greatest players of all times, maybe sitting out that session, they are out there slapping you on the butt, you know, look getting in your face encouraging you. And just to have like, you know, growing up playing baseball, I love being on teams. I love that feeling. And nothing, nothing got me going like those teams. I saw my circled every year at the beginning of the year, where are we?

What do we need to do to get on this team? And, you know, when I'm 90 years old in a in a retirement home, those team events will be the things I remember most for sure. And you probably won't stop talking about him.

And I'll probably be the only guy that wants to listen to him if I'm still alive. But I said, Tell me that story again, please. So very true. You got to experience a couple winning teams, right? Yeah, to one in oh eight on with Captain Azinger and one at Hazel team with Davis.

And I was working for Hunter and oh eight and teacher and Hazel team. And then, you know, seven and one seven been on the team for seven winning presidents cups, which has been great. So I wish we'd won more Ryder cups. But, you know, I wouldn't trade even the bad experiences for anything, because it's just it's such an experience to be a part of those teams, even when they don't, you know, even when you end up on the losing end, they're still special.

So I cannot if you've never been to a Ryder cup, and you're a sports fan, even if you're not a huge golf fan, put it on your bucket list, because there's just there's nothing like a Ryder cup. Oh my gosh, I'll say I've been to several john take us into the caddy room a little bit. We've talked to some players and talked about the players room where, you know, there's kind of almost a natural hierarchy isn't there were certain when certain guys speak, you pay a little bit more attention. Tell us what that's like in the caddy room and what your experiences were like and what stands out for you. I think that's a great point.

It's very similar. You know, when I started making these teams and the bones and Joe the cava and cubby would, you know, been there many, many times before. You always listen to them and, and, you know, approach them with questions you had, hey, I'm having an issue with this or, you know, not necessarily strategic stuff, but, you know, those weeks are just different and to have those guys to bounce ideas often. And, you know, when I first started caddy and irrespective of the teams, you know, if if I wasn't in the middle of deciding something for Kevin or getting a yardage, I always tried to eavesdrop on guys like, like bones and Joe and cubby Mike Hicks other Paul Kasuri, because you just learn a lot.

And if you just go out there in a bubble and think, I know it all you don't, and you're not going to be a very successful caddy because so many guys have different ideas and you know, you pick them up and you steal them. You know, it's just, I love like being out with Joe or bones. I keep saying those guys were Steve Williams, you know you'd hear them how they reacted to us to a certain situation, how they spoke to their player and you you'd you'd filed it away and go, that was, that's perfect. That's the perfect thing to say in that situation. I need to file that away when I'm there. So it's just very similar to those, you know, the, the really good caddies, you've been there out for a long time, do their homework. We're very diligent. You gotta, no matter how long you're out there, you got to learn from them because it's there.

That's, that's the only way to learn to be honest with you. Okay, that's going to wrap up the front nine. Don't go anywhere. We got more John wood coming up on the back nine. This is golf with Jay delsing. Hey, everybody. It's been skill.

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How you doing today? Great Joe. Thanks so much for the support. We really enjoy it.

Thank you. We look forward to the show every Sunday morning. We love all the information and all the great tips and we all sit around the radio on in the morning. I'd love to listen to your show.

The good old days. Yeah, I get the wife and the kids and the dog and we wait for whack and chase to come on. It's our favorite part of the show. Which one are you? Are you whack or chase? Oh no, I'm whack because I'll hit it and then because probably is also a caddy. He's got to go chase it, which he's the chaser.

He's got the worst end of the stick. Well, we really enjoy it and thank you so much for having us on the show. Don't miss the hottest rookie class in PGA Tour Champions history. Stars like Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Jim Furyk and more compete at Norwood Hills Country Club September 6th through the 12th. Join legends Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Hale Irwin to celebrate the PGA Tour Champions newest event. Professional golf returning to St. Louis in 2021. The Ascension Charity Classic presented by Emerson. Tickets, clubhouse prices and more.

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Let's go right back to the second half of the John Wood interview. Sorry but what's interesting you know John it's it's let me rephrase this what do you think the hardest thing about about caddying on the tour is because you really have to pick your spots don't you yeah you've got to know your player that's that's a huge thing even more than getting the right yardages and you've got to know your players personality when you know it's almost like a it's almost like a coach out there you're the only guy that can talk to your player during around his coach can't his psychologist can't his trainer can't you are it so you've got to know when does my player need a kick in the butt when does he need to be lifted up when do I need to just get him off of golf for a couple holes and talk about his kids and talk about basketball and talk about a book I'm reading or a movie he saw those are you got to read your player and know because every player is different you know there's some players I wouldn't say anything when things are going bad and other guys I would I would get in their face a little bit other guys I would pump up and remind them how good they are so it's a it's a really I think it's an art figuring out what your player needs at the time I think the best caddies can do it very well and a lot of it's not something that public sees you know you get into a big situation coming down the stretch of the major and you're in contention and you can kind of feel your guy clamming up a little bit and maybe walking faster and and you know it's nothing the public would ever know but a good caddy in that situation would would start walking slower and engaging in conversation maybe not related to the golf to get his mind off it for a minute because you know you can't concentrate for four and a half five hours straight it's impossible so you got to pick those points to pull them off of all and other times when you look at him and you think he's got it right now it's almost because it almost becomes like a pitcher throwing a perfect game I'm not gonna say a word I'm gonna give him a number and I'm gonna get out of the way I said it on the air and one of my first events I think the only the only thing a caddy can do to a 62 is turn it into a 67 so you've got to know when your players got it you know and he's in that rhythm just don't overly involved don't feel like I got to be part of the show here you know get out of the way until he really needs it and asks you so it's just it's a real study in knowing the personalities and obviously I think the easiest thing is learning how far your guys hit clubs and what shots they learned they like to hit most but the personalities and what they need to hear I think is way more important you know john for for my generation there's so much more player caddy banter that goes on now over shots I mean when we played you know and it was lousy ball you know it's a ballata ball and all the other nonsense we played with but there were you know I never asked a caddy what shot he thought I should hit I don't think I've ever asked any caddy that before but that really goes on nowadays doesn't it it does it's changed so much even from from when I started to now and I'm not sure I think there's a lot more information available to us I think we probably spend a lot more time with our players than than back in the day you know we're there when they're taking lessons from their coach so we know what they're working on we watch them hit every practice ball they hit and we know when they're struggling with hitting the cut and they know we know if if he's hitting you know little shots better than big shots you know so if we get in between out there that little seven or big eight and I know he's been struggling with little little shots you know you've got to talk him into big eight but I'm not completely sure what what the reason is but I think I think it's changed in that guys now instead of coming out on tour and getting a tour caddy who might know the courses but might not know you at all that used to be the way it was done now guys are bringing out college teammates and guys they played golf with a lot and brothers and and then just so they they know the personality already they know how to talk to you they just got to learn the caddy part of it so I think that's a big change that's happened in the last 20 years or so you know that then that's a really really fair point I don't want to shortchange your bronze Olympic medal I I can't believe you know that the Olympics were last held in St. Louis in 1804 and you got to go down to Brazil that had to be just a thrill to be in Rio on coaches back down there Oh Jay I cannot it exceeded all my expectations by million miles I was you know what I think Jordan decided he wasn't going and we were 15th in the world at the time so we were the next on the list and coach was right away going no questions asked and you know to be honest a lot of people had pulled out I was I was even wondering it's a smart thing to do in the middle of the summer playoffs are coming up you know we got a Ryder Cup coming up do we is this something but coach was a hundred percent in and and the second we landed and and saw what it really was I was so thankful that that he had no doubts about going because it was such a singular experience it was so much bigger than a golf tournament you felt like I'm part of a huge team here with USA on my hat and USA on my chest and you know we're just one small part of something that's so much bigger than ourselves and you know you get caught up sometimes and just you and your player out there week in week out but when you get on Olympic team and you get those feelings I'll tell you the funnest thing was that it was getting dark at like five o'clock 530 every day so you know we were done with our practice rounds or our rounds by two or three and that was when the excitement started like where we going we're going to basketball we're going to tennis we're going to ping-pong we go into badminton it didn't matter they were all the Olympics and to be on that team and then to have pooch do did what he do what he did on Sunday you know we were warming up and we were just kind of casually chatting I think we're in 10th or 12th and I go could you know what the great thing about today is I said fourth is the same as 65th so we can go for every pin we can go for every shot because it's only they're only paying out the top three here this week and he kind of laughed he goes you're right and he just played flawlessly all day and once we even an eagle on 10 and that's when we really thought okay we got something here and you know we played a great back nine actually let a couple go but you know to to know when we finished we had a medal locked up was I'm a huge team guy I love the Olympics forever and I cried a few times that afternoon after we after we secured it so that was I hope everybody goes this time in Japan I know a lot of guys were wary of it with the Zika virus and being the first time it's happened in so long but I'm hoping everybody goes this year because I think they heard from Henrik and from Justin and from coach how great the experience was so if you would have told me at the beginning of my career I would be in the Olympics at some time I wouldn't have believed you you know and to have been there to have gone through it one of my fondest memories I'll ever have this is golf with Jay delsing and I'm talking with my buddy professional tour Katie and now voice on NBC golf coverage John would John tell us a little bit one of my you've got to accomplish a tremendous amount of accomplishments all over the pages that I've prepped for but one of my favorites I've got three stars by this tell the folks about what happened in Hartford when you were caddying for Hunter and he's going low and he hits a shot his second shot on 18 and you pulled David Finn out of the crowd tell us about this is talking about wanting to cry this is an unbelievable story yeah I got to know David first met him in Hartford actually I think he and his dad were standing off the 80 and I just Hunter is taking a ball out of play and I went over and handed it to him and no David has a very severe muscular issue he can't really speak and he's in a wheelchair all the time but there is not a bigger golf fan in the world he watches every second of every tournament he knows the players he knows the caddies and whenever the tournaments are in the Northeast he he comes out and everybody knows him and everybody loves him to death so that that week I talked to his dad and his mom a lot and and you know I knew what we were kind of one of those positions where we're first off you know we weren't playing very well but I talked to his dad the day before and his mom and said hey on 18 just be right there by the fairway on the left side of the rope and if the situation works out okay you know I was gonna you know wheel David up the fairway and let him have that feeling so I talked to the rules officials about it and I said is this is this a problem is this breaking any rules they said no absolutely if you want to do it go ahead who knew Connor was going to shoot 61 that day and just go off so you know we moved up from about 60th to about you know 10th at the time and he had a beautiful shot in their second shot and I saw David and his parents over on the side and walked over and lifted the rope up and brought David in his wheelchair underneath the ropes and just pushed him up the up the fairway and the crowd started going crazy and clapping for him and he had the biggest smile on his face and he was holding his hand up and waving and then we sat there on the side of the green and Hunter rolled in about an 18 footer to finish the round shoot 61 and came over and gave David a big hug and gave him the ball and it was just a really special moment and he's a really really special person yeah not only did you have to carry Hunter's luggage up there but you pushed David up there as well and it's a little bit uphill but I bet you had so much adrenaline you probably could have sprinted up that fairway you're exactly right and regardless of David you know whenever anybody asks how much the bag weighs I say it depends on how many birdies my guys make and he was making a bunch that day so it was uh I didn't even feel the bag that's going to do it for the back nine but we're going to wrap up this John Wood interview at the beginning of the 19th hole so don't go anywhere this is golf with Jay Delsing. 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hole on golf with Jay Delcine the 19th hole is brought to you by Michelob Ultra hey thanks for hanging around with the sisters golf with Jay Delcine I'm your host Jay and Pearly is with me we are headed to the 19th hole that is brought to you by mic Ultra mmm couldn't have a better sponsor for the 19th hole in mic Ultra we're going straight to the conclusion of the John Wood interview I hope you enjoy it do you have a favorite golf course on tour and tell the folks in your opinion because you've traveled the world now Olympics Ryder Cups you've you've gone to the top courses in so many different countries what makes a course great for you ooh that's a great question I like courses where you have to you have choices and you have to make those choices you just said it I think 90% of the time these guys hit a bad shot it's because of indecision you are not sure what if this is the right shot if it's the right club what's the wind doing but I think you look at a course well I love cutting Augusta for many reasons but even if it wasn't you know my favorite term in the world we were just chatting on that course in a week that it's got firm greens and some wind whipping around there is just it's a such a fine point between a good shot and a bad shot you know if you're going for a 15 and 2 let's say and you're not 100% sure the wind but you think it's doing this and you're hoping it doesn't switch a little bit you're out there you know trying to hit a hybrid or a five iron or four iron you you basically got you know three or four yards to land it in that's it it's not like a regular tour course we can leak out when there's some softness to it and you know if you land something 30 feet it's going to end up 30 feet or 20 feet or 40 feet but places like Augusta or you know most open championship courses it's such a fine line between the right shot and the wrong shot that's what I love Riviera this week is a great example of that it's a course that's held up so well technology they haven't tweaked it much over the years but it's so hard to get balls close to the hole there for some reason and I love places I love open championships because like I said there are so many choices and players and caddies and you're thinking so far ahead because of the wind and the firmness and the bounces you get yeah if you land it five yards short of the green it's going to bounce left but if I land it 10 yards short of the green it's going to bounce right so that kind of complication and so many things going on with the shot is what I love most about caddying and about courses you know when you get a week where it's pretty soft and there's not a lot of wind I don't care how long the course is guys are going to tear it apart period so I love I love courses with a lot of strategy I like wind I like firm greens and firm fairways and and flier lies out of the rough and when you've really got to you know it really separates the best players those weeks I think from from guys who maybe not be playing so well so Riviere is one of my favorites I love Augusta Portrush blew me away Carnoustie I love so those are some of my favorites on tour but I also like you know some old school ones like colonial and Hilton head which you look at the scorecard and you go there's no reason these guys shouldn't shoot 30 under but every year nobody does because the wind and the strategy and the firmness so I think those are some of my favorites yeah those that is terrific so so john you make this transition from caddy and you're going out to work for NBC you've just done a great job people can hear in this interview how well-spoken you are you're thoughtful and the insights that you can bring to these specific shots or circumstances is it's got to be fun for you it's a lot of fun I tell you you know you go with your caddy career as you know week in week out you're preparing for one guy and one style of golf you kind of you're walking the course and think okay coach is going to want to hit three wood here he's going to want to driver here but now I have to kind of redo all my homework and know how every kind of player is going to play the holes so you've got guys like like Bryson and Cameron Champ and Brooks Koepka and Dustin who can you know carry at 330 and you still got guys like Zach Johnson and and coach who you know who hit it 280 290 and it's fun to figure out wind directions and and how every kind every style of player will play these courses it's fun figuring all that out and it's kind of something somebody asked me the other day about how how it feels talking on the air and describing the shots and describing the decision-making and honestly it's something that like bones and I have done for 25 years it's just always been one person now you're kind of explaining the shots that you feel are the right shots and decision-making the things that go in the decisions to everybody so we're used to we're used to talking about the shots and the decision-making in the process now it's just on a much bigger scale yeah and just continue to be yourself be authentic and I love that the energy and the passion that you have so last couple things John just to kind of round out your the guy that you are I know you're a gigantic music lover you're a huge sports lover you and I have so much in common our first love in our whole life was baseball and it's the same way for me but you mentioned something on the road that is so funny that you mentioned Michael's to Kyrie over in Pacific Grove and I didn't think anybody else had known about that joint before oh my god Jay I unfortunately I didn't go to the AT&T this year but you know I've never missed it in 23 years of caddy and and I swear four times out of the six nights I was there every year I was at Michael's Popperia you know getting takeout or it's just it is the best little tiny hole-in-the-wall Mexican food and man I I wore that place out I must have eaten hundreds of meals there over the years love Michael's Popperia it's one of the funny you knew it too it's one of the fun things you know John about when you go to not only do you look forward to golf courses maybe have a favorite place to stay but every once in a while you know you'll find a place like Michael's and you'll go oh damn you know now I know where I'm going to be eating you know half of my meals so true it's so true finding those little hole-in-the-wall places and you know when you play the pro-ams asking the volunteers or the kids holding the sign hey what's the best so-and-so restaurant around here where do you go for this and I always love finding the local spots you know because you can eat you know chain restaurants anywhere so it's a blast going to a new city and find the local haunts so John tell our listeners how they can follow you tell them now you've actually written some music you've actually you play more than you you you're learning the drums I think I know you play the guitar tell tell the folks how they can listen to some of your stuff they can follow you on social if they like just become a fan okay uh well I've got a bunch of songs that I've written on uh and just recorded myself in my own little uh little side room here with my computer and a microphone but uh I've got a bunch of songs up on soundcloud and just type in john wood and and uh those are there um twitter handle is john wood but uh spelled w-o-u-l-d um and those are that's kind of yeah I don't have a facebook I do have instagram same thing john wood w-o-u-l-d um but uh yeah that's uh the songs are on soundcloud and those are my social media handles buddy thank you so much for jumping on with me it was a pleasure anytime jay okay so john so much content I talked about the writer cups talked about the president's cup but one of the things it's that strikes me as um so many different personalities you know and as a caddy you've got to you know you've got to know when to say something when not to that is not easy that's that is a learned habit especially with the cast of characters he had it's not it's not like it's not like he had the same type of personalities uh that he was told in the background is there anybody more different than kevin southernland and kelk no i mean that is a great guy but he is he plays so fast you know his information that he wants is is sporadic and um yeah and kevin southernland is much more of a i'm gonna take a whole lot of time i'm gonna plod my way around and a hell of a player i mean for sure he's he's doing just great but um um man the um the stuff that john's doing now what he's bringing to nbc is just fantastic he and bones really really add a lot to that telecast he he's john wood is smooth he knows his stuff confident and boy does he love what he's doing yeah he really does and he's a baseball junkie he loves music he gave us some some spots where we can listen to some of his music and for a guy that didn't know that he wanted to do this didn't plan to do it was doing it and still didn't plan to do it he ended up in a pretty dang good spot so much for setting goals and planning out your life right and to his credit he's got this personality i don't know have you ever had a chance to meet him no no i do not know he's got this personality that is just it just sets off calmness you know it's just kind of one of these guys you can tell is not going to get rattled and uh he's going to be strong under fire and one of my favorite lines with him is he says you know the only thing a caddy can do to a 62 is turning in and then 67 yeah that is such a great line when your guys going get out of the way and keep a peripheral feel for the golf course to keep everybody else out of the way right officials fans you do a phenomenal job absolutely when i've been when i mean you couldn't get secret service in the touch just when when my rounds were going well it's uh it was it was like in a bubble it's a special time and you have to protect that because you don't know when it's coming and even the best players it doesn't happen that often right right so um it's one of the things i wanted and i think it's so kind of enlightening about this interview is the counties don't get interviewed that much you know and so i'm pushing out reaching out to to try to open some of those doors because that well they have the best stories for sure they have the best and he has such a great attitude you can tell he really wanted to do this this guy's just loving all aspects when a guy loves in between the rounds the way he does obviously they're going i hated hanging out with you that kind of stuff but as a player yeah i hated the in between yeah sometimes as a caddy but he that guy loves every aspect of it you can just tell the way he's talking about it which is a huge deal i gotta tell you this funny story uh we won't name the players because i promised him he wouldn't but he was a top top player and they're on the first tee and he happens to be playing the same type of ball is um is uh who john was caddying for at the time i think it was it was either kuch or calc but anyway it doesn't matter so john goes over to this top player's caddy and says hey man you know we're playing this ball what number and here we got a a two what number are you playing and he says you know because this guy's had a tough stretch and he said well we're going to start off with the with the threes but our provisionals are gonna be oh boy i've never heard that before oh my gosh i oh my gosh it was so good but um you know that's gonna do it for another show that's gonna wrap up the 19th hole but one of your best interview jay really enjoyed that i hope everybody else did too yeah thanks bro so come back next week we're gonna have billy andre on the show and another episode of whack and chase this is golfer jay delsing hit him straight st louis