I became a golfer because my dad took me to the golf course.
That's how it all started.
I loved all sports and golf was just one of them.
I had a little chop down five iron that my cousin made for me when I was about five years
old.
That was my only club.
I'd play from the ladies' tees.
I'd go there with my dad, some of his buddies sometimes, 5 a.m. up here at Ledview and then
let me just plug along, hitting it 50 yards at a time, maybe just dunk, dunk, dunk, and
I'd meet them at the green and looking back on it now, they probably didn't want me out
there, but they all facilitated it and it's what kind of started me off in the golf.
I've always been on the smaller side, especially when I was young.
I didn't grow until I was 16 or so, so I'm playing tournaments against guys that are
six foot three and hitting it almost twice as far as I could, so I had to find a way to
beat them.
A lot of that was just thinking my way on the course and my short game and an accuracy
with my irons really helped, but I think even when I got older, what really helped me was
my ability to think the game, and it probably comes from just being up at Ledview.
I wasn't on the driving range thinking about my positions.
I was thinking about how can I get the ball in the hole and the shortest amount of strokes
from this position or this position or this position, and by doing that all the time when
you go into a tournament round, there's no real situation that you haven't been in or
rehearsed before, and same thing with the NCAAs that I won.
It was something that I found on the driving range the practice round day, and it rolled
through the whole tournament.
In men's golf, the individual crowd was decided by a three-hole playoff between Washington's
James, Lepp and White.
We were playing with the best teams during that tournament, the first three rounds.
We played with Georgia the first two rounds, and they ended up winning the tournament by
quite a few.
I remember playing with them thinking, these guys hit it so good.
I mean, I have spurts where I do hit it good, but I remember playing with them, these guys
hit it so good.
I was hanging in there.
I was top 10 through the first three rounds or so, and then walking up to the course that
morning coming from the team van, my coach looks at me and he's like, you got a shot
of this.
Already in my mind, I was like, yeah, I know.
I know I got a shot.
There was only maybe five players in between the leader and myself, so with a good round
and with the leader having a decent round, I had a chance, and that ended up being what
happened.
That opened the door for Lepp, who made his part but to claim a championship.
That was a very cool experience and one that I'll definitely never forget.
I wasn't necessarily thinking of the end goal.
I was still in the mindset of just trying to get as good as I could from practicing,
being on the course and playing, and essentially, I think I might be unique in this.
I had my greatest thrills, being on the course by myself and discovering something new,
and then that would be validated in a tournament the next week or that week or the next day.
I suppose one thing that I've learned even going forward in business side of things is
it comes back to what I did as a kid.
You just do, because that is really what's going to make you improve and make you master
a skill, is through experience, and that's what I did when I was golfing out here.
It was experimenting.
Going out here trying different shots, trying different stances, being a goof sometimes,
but through all of that, just like a kid playing in a playground to develop coordination,
to develop skills, and no different now or when I'm older, it's just a matter of experimenting
in the business side of things, and from doing that, you actually master a skill.
