Steve Wheatcroft, Author and Former PGA Tour Pro
This podcast episode features a profound discourse on the intricacies of a professional golfing career, as encapsulated in the experiences of Steve Wheatcroft, a former PGA Tour player and author. Wheatcroft elucidates the often misconstrued lifestyle of tour players, delving into the harsh realities that accompany the perceived glamour and success of professional golf. He candidly shares his personal journey, including the challenges of mental health and substance use, highlighting the critical need for support within the golfing community. The episode also unveils Wheatcroft's initiative, the Mulligan Foundation, aimed at addressing mental health issues in the sport, thereby fostering a supportive environment for current and aspiring golfers. Through this dialogue, we gain invaluable insights into the often hidden struggles of athletes, emphasizing the importance of compassion and understanding in overcoming adversity.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Korn Ferry Tour
- Golf News Network
- Live
- Northwestern Mutual
- Mulligan Foundation
- Byron Nelson
- CJ Cup
- Momentous Institute
- First T
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcript
It's time for Grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:Join Jeff Tracy as he explores a golfing lifestyle and tries to keep it in the short grass for the hackers, new sweepers and turf spankers.
Speaker A:Here's Jeff.
Speaker B:Hey, everybody.
Speaker B:Welcome to Grilling at the green.
Speaker B:I'm J.T.
Speaker B:Of course, we're based in Portland here, but we're also a large part of the Golf News Network and multiple, multiple platforms.
Speaker B:You can grab this show on anywhere in the world, actually.
Speaker B:Steve Wheatcroft, he's a former PGA Tour player, played on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Speaker B:Played on, I think, probably every tour available and imaginable to him during his career.
Speaker B:And he's also an author now.
Speaker B:I'm going to hold this up, see if you can see it.
Speaker B:Not get the light, funky cocktails and range balls.
Speaker B:I recommend the book.
Speaker B:It gives you a great insight on Tour.
Speaker B:Life is always not what it's cracked up to be.
Speaker B:It's good for a lot of people, but sometimes there's a.
Speaker B:A dark side to it, if you will.
Speaker B:Anyway, Steve, welcome.
Speaker C:Thank you, Jeff.
Speaker C:Appreciate you having me on.
Speaker C:And yeah, thanks for the, the nice comments on the book.
Speaker C:It was obviously, I never thought in a million years I'd be an author.
Speaker C:I'd never, never thought I'd write anything, so.
Speaker C:But here we are.
Speaker B:Yeah, no, I thought it was, it was great.
Speaker B:I think one of the things to kind of give an overview, people see tour players, doesn't matter if it's men or women on the big screen in their living room, and they see all these great things and now they hear all about this fantastic money and so on and so forth.
Speaker B:It's, as the old AC DC song says, it's a long way to the top and it's a bumpy road.
Speaker B:And, you know, there's that 2%, 5% that make it at the top and every lot of other people can make a good living, I think.
Speaker B:But then there's the, the ones that battle.
Speaker B:Like you had your battles.
Speaker C:Yeah, I couldn't agree more.
Speaker C:I was funny you say that.
Speaker C:I was interviewing another PGA Tour player, former PGA Tour player, and yesterday, and we were talking about that, I said, what's the most misunderstood thing the PGA Tour?
Speaker C:And he said the same thing, that life on the PGA Tour is just the most glamorous thing that you can see.
Speaker C:You know, you watch these, you know, the full swing documentary.
Speaker C:I'm not for the Netflix or you turn on a CBS broadcast every week and it's, you know, the, the guy's making millions of Dollars on, you know, making an eight footer on the last hole for $4 million or something ridiculous.
Speaker C:And it looks so glamorous and, but they don't see the guy who's missed, you know, four weeks or four cuts in a row.
Speaker C:He spent five grand a week to do his job and he doesn't get paid a dollar at the end of the week.
Speaker C:And then he's been away from his family for four straight weeks and he's trying to catch a Southwest flight home, but he got bumped and has to stay the night in Chicago or Atlanta.
Speaker C:And, you know, that's real life.
Speaker C:That's.
Speaker C:It's not, you know, getting off your, you're getting onto your private jet Sunday night with a trophy and a bottle of champagne and, you know, jet setting to your home.
Speaker C:And it's, it's just, it's a very misunderstood lifestyle.
Speaker C:Don't get me wrong, it's a great lifestyle.
Speaker C:It can be as good as you want it to be.
Speaker C:But yeah, for the top, you know, 30, 40, 50 players in the world, it's, it's absolutely amazing.
Speaker C:But for the rest of the world trying to, you know, or for the rest of the group trying to compete at that level, it's, it's a very different lifestyle.
Speaker B:Do you think that with the.
Speaker B:I'm glad to see the purses go up.
Speaker B:I'm glad to see bigger television ratings again on both men's and women's tours.
Speaker B:I had a friend tell me years ago, Steve, that we were playing golf one day and I was complaining that I wasn't hitting it far enough or some silly thing that, you know, Saturday golf, right?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:And he looked at me and he put his hand on my shoulder and he said, Jeffrey, he goes, there's a lot of guys out there on tour that make a very good living hitting at that distance.
Speaker B:I said, okay.
Speaker B:That gave me a little perspective.
Speaker B:Not that I was ever that good of a golfer, but those were in the days where the total purse was maybe a million dollars, okay, for the, for the entire tournament.
Speaker B:So the winner got 120 or whatever, and it was distributed likewise like that.
Speaker B:Now with the, the prize money going up so much, there's a lot of people making, can make good livings on the respective tours.
Speaker B:But the ancillary costs, they've got a, they got a posse that goes with them.
Speaker B:You know, they got a, a swing coach, a nutritionist, a therapist, a financial advisor who knows they're all different.
Speaker B:That wasn't relevant when you were playing a lot, was It.
Speaker B:Well, towards the end, probably.
Speaker B:But when you were starting.
Speaker C:Yeah, it was when I was starting.
Speaker C: w, my first year as a Pro was: Speaker C:It was definitely not like that back then.
Speaker C:It was, you know, you had your caddy out there with you.
Speaker C:Maybe you had a trainer or maybe there was a trainer that would travel with the tour and a bunch of guys would work with him when he was out there, but you didn't, you know, travel with the whole group like they are now.
Speaker C:It's definitely gotten very, very different.
Speaker C:And yes, the PJ Tour purses have gone up exponentially.
Speaker C:Live kind of forced their hand a little bit here, and those guys are making some insane amounts of money now.
Speaker C:And, And I do think it's.
Speaker C:It's worth it.
Speaker C:I think that those guys deserve to be making that kind of money.
Speaker C:When you compare it to what Major League Baseball guys or NBA guys or hockey or anything else, you know, they should be making more than what they were making.
Speaker C:And especially for traveling, you know, 200 days a year, if you're going to be on the road competing at, you know, a high level in that sport, you should be getting paid accordingly.
Speaker C:But at the same time, the.
Speaker C:The guys on, like, the Korn Ferry Tour, which they always preach and say it's the second best or third best tour in the world, I mean, those guys are making pennies.
Speaker C: story of my last year was in: Speaker C:And it probably cost me about $108,000 to go out there, pay for my caddies, my hotels, my, you know, rental cars, whatever it might be.
Speaker C:So that's a.
Speaker C:That's a break even for me.
Speaker C:And then I haven't paid a bill at home yet, and I've got a wife and two kids and a mortgage, and you name it.
Speaker C:So, I mean, I probably lost $150,000 that year by doing my job, being.
Speaker C:Being away from my family for 25 weeks that year, and I don't know too many guys that would sign up for that.
Speaker C:And it just.
Speaker C:It's one of those, you know, if you're 22 years old and don't have a whole lot of responsibilities and don't have a family to.
Speaker C:To feed and bills to pay, then, yeah, it's a lot easier to go out and play on that Tour.
Speaker C:But when you're 42 years old and you have all the responsibilities at home, not making any money on the golf course or, you know, breaking even on the golf course doesn't pay the bills at home.
Speaker B:Not much.
Speaker B:I will tell you this.
Speaker B:You know, there was a Korn Ferry event for years.
Speaker B:Well, Nike, Hogan, whatever you wanted to call it, it was here for a long time.
Speaker B:It's not here anymore in Portland.
Speaker B:Yeah, you could always tell the guys that, the younger guys that were moving upward or that was their aspiration versus the guys that were backed from the big tour, trying to get back to the big tour.
Speaker B:You could just see it in their faces and their expressions and it's like, what am I doing out here at Pumpkin Ridge in Portland in July when I should be, you know, in St. Andrews or whatever?
Speaker B:You know what I mean?
Speaker B:It was, it was that type of look there.
Speaker B:You could always discern them.
Speaker C:I was one of those guys, believe me, because the last thing you, you know, it's my first year on the Quarter Ferry.
Speaker C:I was so excited to be out there and just excited to have a spot, excited to play for those kind of purses because to me, I hadn't seen anything like that before.
Speaker C:But then once you go to the PGA Tour and you get the purses that are, you know, 10 times that, I always tell people this way, when you go from the PJ Tour back to the Corn Ferry Tour, everybody just looks at it.
Speaker C:You know, my friends and family like, ah, it's fine.
Speaker C:He had to go back to the Corn Ferry this year.
Speaker C:He'll be fine.
Speaker C:He'll make it back.
Speaker C:Well, it's a 94 pay cut to do the exact same job.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So imagine your boss walks into your office and says, hey, look, I want you to go do the exact same job you've been doing this year.
Speaker C:But we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna give you a 94% pay cut.
Speaker C:You're now gonna of the money you've been making.
Speaker C:But I need you to work just as hard.
Speaker C:I need you to just keep doing the same thing you're doing.
Speaker C:I mean, nobody would take that, right?
Speaker C:And that's what the, that's what it is to go down to the Korn Ferry Tour.
Speaker C:And yeah, but yeah, it's, it's hard when you go back down there to be that excited and that go, you know, gung ho about it.
Speaker C:But there's, you know, there's some 22 year old kid who's fresh out of college, you can't wait to get out there and play on the Corn Ferry Tour.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And by the way, tomorrow you need to be in Cleveland, so good luck.
Speaker B:Steve and I are going to take a break here on grilling at the Green.
Speaker B:We'll be back with Steve Wheatcroft right after this.
Speaker B:Don't go with us.
Speaker B:Or don't go away.
Speaker B:Stay with us.
Speaker B:Whatever.
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Speaker B:Welcome back to grilling at the Green.
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Speaker B:We're talking with Steve Wecroft today, former PGA Tour player, former corn fairy tour player, and an author of cocktails and range balls.
Speaker B:I don't want to give away the whole book, Steve, but when you kind of hit the wall and, and several things happened, you, you thought that, you know, you couldn't, you couldn't do what you wanted to do on the, on the PGA Tour anymore, you didn't want to go back to Korn Ferry.
Speaker B:I'm, I'm thumbnailing this because I want people to buy your book.
Speaker B:But, and then you, you got into a different business, things were going, you thought pretty well, etc.
Speaker B:Etc.
Speaker B:All right, And I will premise this that on any type of top level sporting tour, event, league, whatever you want to call it, there's a lifestyle.
Speaker B:We talked a little bit about it in the first segment, but there's a lifestyle that involves cocktail parties and everything that goes with that.
Speaker B:And I'm not opposed to those at all because, you know, I, I certainly went to my share of them, but there's that kind of, that other side of the athletic part of it that pretty soon you, I think maybe, like, in my case, I was looking more forward to those at the end of the day than I was to doing what I was supposed to be doing.
Speaker B:Right, so.
Speaker B:And when you finally decided that, what, first of all, what pulled the trigger for you to say, I got to get out of golf as a touring pro.
Speaker B:And then you went into the financial world and then something happened there.
Speaker C:Yeah, I just, you know, when I, I played the PGA Tour in 20, 15, 16, 17, 18, I had to go back to the Corn ferry tour in 19.
Speaker C:And then when I didn't get my PGA Tour card back, I just said enough was enough.
Speaker C:I was, honestly, I was just tired.
Speaker C:I was burned out.
Speaker C:I wanted to be a dad.
Speaker C:I, I had a 2 year old and a 4 year old at home, and I got tired of missing birthday parties and, you know, big things in their life, so I wanted to be home.
Speaker C:And so honestly, I walked away from the game.
Speaker C:I had full status on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Speaker C:I, I didn't, I didn't miss golf, which is kind of weird.
Speaker C:I thought I was really gonna miss it and be.
Speaker C:Miss being out there, and I, I really didn't.
Speaker C:I threw myself into my next job.
Speaker C:I was a financial advisor with Northwestern Mutual and was doing well with the job.
Speaker C:It's not like the job was terrible and I hated it or something like that.
Speaker C:But yeah, about two years into that job, I just started waking up feeling funny.
Speaker C:I didn't know what was going on, but I was feeling depressed all the time, and I'd never been depressed in my life.
Speaker C:I didn't know the first thing about depression, but I just fe.
Speaker C:Just woke up and felt like there was a dark cloud waiting for me every morning and couldn't figure out why.
Speaker C:And then, you know, a day turned into a week turned into a month and just wouldn't go away.
Speaker C:And I had a big case.
Speaker C:It was supposed to go through one morning and the guy text me at 7:15 in the morning, just said, hey, we're gonna hold off about a year to implement a lot of this stuff.
Speaker C:And I mean, that stuff happens all the time in that profession and it shouldn't have taken me back by any means.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:But for some reason that one set me off and I had like a little mini panic attack that morning and I was the only one here in the house And I walked over and poured a big old glass of vodka with a little splash orange juice.
Speaker C:I sat down, I turned on SportsCenter, and I just tried to get myself relaxed and, and I definitely did that.
Speaker C:And enough so that I got up and I poured another one.
Speaker C:And I'd had two big old glasses of vodka by the time 8am hit.
Speaker C:And I realized quickly that I didn't really care about anything at that point and.
Speaker C:And I liked the way it felt.
Speaker C:And that, that, as I tell people, that's that drink is where part of me died because I started to go down a really nasty road of using alcohol to, to numb everything inside of me.
Speaker C:And I used it as a weapon for the first time in my life.
Speaker C:And I'd been a social drinker my entire career.
Speaker C:I never had a problem with it.
Speaker C:I could handle my alcohol, no issues whatsoever.
Speaker C:I never did it for a.
Speaker C:A bad reason, but I definitely used it for a bad reason at that point.
Speaker C:And I started drinking excessively morning, noon, night.
Speaker C:I was a full blown functioning alcoholic.
Speaker C:Nobody knew.
Speaker C:My wife, my own wife didn't even know I was hiding it that well.
Speaker C:And yeah, I just went down a really bad road of kind of.
Speaker C:I look, you know, looking back now, I knew exactly at the time, I didn't know what it was.
Speaker C:I just knew that I was dealing with depression and I didn't want to feel anything anymore.
Speaker C:So I just drank it away until it would just numb everything inside of me.
Speaker B:It does, it does numb the senses, yes.
Speaker B:The flip side of that is it wears off, you know, only if you let it.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:You just gotta keep going 24 hours a day.
Speaker C:And that's basically what I did, was I was drinking morning, noon and night to make sure I made sure that it didn't wear off.
Speaker C:Because when it wore off, I had to start feeling things again.
Speaker C:And I didn't want to feel anything, so I had to, I had to make sure I was on top of it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So when did you realize that what you were doing, I mean, it didn't.
Speaker C:Take me too long.
Speaker C:I mean, I knew about a.
Speaker C:A few months in, I was like, wow, this is becoming a normal thing, right?
Speaker C:I'm just waking up in the morning and sneaking drinks and taking them to work in the morning or doing whatever.
Speaker C:And I knew it wasn't right, but I just justified it, you know, a hundred different ways, you know, still, you know, doing well at the job and I still had a wife and kids.
Speaker C:And it's not like my life was bl.
Speaker C:Up And.
Speaker C:But then it just kept getting worse and worse and worse.
Speaker C:And then, you know, the more you drink, the more you need more to.
Speaker C:To achieve the same feelings.
Speaker C:And I just.
Speaker C:I kept going and going and going.
Speaker C:I was in and out of the hospital because my body started to give out.
Speaker C:I was gaining a ton of weight, and my liver numbers were through the roof.
Speaker C:Every time I'd go in for any kind of blood work, they would come in and start going through the liver numbers.
Speaker C:And I was like.
Speaker C:I couldn't tell them that, hey, I'm actually drunk while you're.
Speaker C:I'm giving blood.
Speaker C:So that's probably why.
Speaker C:Yeah, I mean, I was in bad shape.
Speaker C:So I.
Speaker C:It finally, at the end of it, after about two and a half years of going down this road, I was in the hospital for one last time.
Speaker C:And I just said, I can't do this anymore, and I need to.
Speaker C:I need to get help.
Speaker C:So I did.
Speaker C:I found.
Speaker C:I checked myself into a treatment center because I knew that I'd tried quitting a few times on my own, and every time something bad would happen or I'd get under stress again, I'd run right back to the bottle.
Speaker C:And so it was time for.
Speaker C:Time for me to kind of let go of the reins and let somebody else help me.
Speaker B:I think that's super commendable, though, that you did it on your own volition.
Speaker B:I've known a lot of guys that.
Speaker B:And I had members of my own family that, like, actually would say, I don't have a problem.
Speaker B:I don't have a problem, you know, in denial.
Speaker B:And a couple people in my family, distant, you know, satellite members of my family, they're not here anymore because they always.
Speaker B:I'm.
Speaker B:I'm fine, you know, like this.
Speaker B:And then one day, they woke up on the street, face down.
Speaker B:They didn't wake up.
Speaker B:But I think that's really commendable because I think something inside of you said, listen, wheat, pay attention here.
Speaker B:Your liver can only do so much, but your brain's got to jump in there too, man.
Speaker C:Yeah, I.
Speaker C:You know, I don't want to.
Speaker C:I don't want to say it was 100 me, because it was definitely.
Speaker C:My wife was involved.
Speaker C:My parents were involved.
Speaker C:And they're like, look, you need to.
Speaker C:You need help here.
Speaker C:And I was like, no, no, I'm fine.
Speaker C:I can quit on my own.
Speaker C:And then the more I just thought about.
Speaker C:I was like, look, I've tried quitting on my own.
Speaker C:This isn't working.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And if it makes them happier, if it makes my wife feel better about this and, like, I'll go.
Speaker C:And did I enjoy it?
Speaker C:God, no.
Speaker C:Like, I felt terrible about myself.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:That I'd come to that point.
Speaker C:I felt horrible that my kids had to see me in that way.
Speaker C:And, you know, but at the same time, it's like, you got to suck it up for.
Speaker C:I was in there for 35 days, and it's like, you got to suck it up for 35 days to be able to live the rest of your life again.
Speaker C:I think that's well worth it.
Speaker C:And that 35 days, looking back on it now, you know, for the first week, it seemed like I'd been in there for seven years.
Speaker C:And then, you know, once you get out, it's like, oh, it seems like such a long time ago.
Speaker C:But, I mean, obviously it was worth every.
Speaker C:Every hour, every minute, what, not to be able to live my life now and to be able to be here for, you know, because I had had a doctor tell me at one point when I was in the hospital, he's like, look, if you go home and have a drink tonight, it very well could be the last drink you ever have.
Speaker C:You're that bad right now.
Speaker C:So it's not a matter of if I would have been dead.
Speaker C:I. I would have been dead by now if I'd kept going down that road.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker B:Steve and I are going to take a break.
Speaker B:We'll be back with more grilling at the Greens.
Speaker B:Steve Wheatcroft in his new book, Cocktails and Range Balls.
Speaker B:Don't tell me you're not familiar with the topic, folks.
Speaker B:I'm not going to buy that.
Speaker B:Anyway, Steve and I'll be right back after this.
Speaker E:Hey, everybody, it's J.T.
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Speaker B:Welcome back to Grilling at the Green.
Speaker B:I'm jt.
Speaker B:Today we are talking with Steve Wecroft, former tour player, all the tours, two main tours, Korn Ferry and the PGA Tour, and an author.
Speaker B:And now he's got something that I find very cool because you've heard me talk about stuff like this on the show.
Speaker B:He's got the Mulligan foundation, and they, they're helping a lot of people.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's fairly new and I'm gonna let Steve tell us about it here, but I think that's very admirable of what you're doing.
Speaker B:I support a lot of veterans causes up here, and we do this thing called the North Valley Challenge, which I work with some of, like the local chambers that have these scrambles, and then I bring some veterans teams in and get some sponsors to pay for it, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker B:I think what you're doing is a bit bigger than that.
Speaker B:But what prompted you to say, you know, I think we should start a foundation?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Well, when I got out of the treatment center, I spent about two months trying to make sure that my life was in order.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:I wanted to make sure that my bubble around me was good so that I was in a safe place going forward.
Speaker C:And after those two months got done and I felt like I was in a really good place, I've just had this weird over this feeling that came over me that just.
Speaker C:I feel like I needed to help somebody because I know how bad I needed help and how hard I was looking for help at the time.
Speaker C:And we had had three suicides on the PGA Tour in about a four month stretch.
Speaker C:So I knew that there was a problem growing out there and that there were people struggling just like I was.
Speaker C:And luckily, you know, God managed to kick me back out into the world so that I was there to, to help other people.
Speaker C:So I was, I talked to some friends on the tour and I just said, hey, look man, here's what I've been going through.
Speaker C:Is this a, has this been a problem out on tour?
Speaker C:And they're like, you have no idea how bad it's gotten out here.
Speaker C:So I wrote this letter that I was just going to send to 200 PGA Tour players, basically just saying, hey, look boys, I know we've had some struggles out here with mental health and some.
Speaker C:Some substance abuse issues, but, you know, here's what I've been going through for the last two years, two and a half years.
Speaker C:I just want to be here for you guys because I know I was looking for help from other tour players like Grayson Murray and Chris Kirk and guys like that who had been outspoken about battle depression and alcoholism in the past.
Speaker C:And you know, unfortunately, Grayson was one of the guys that took his own life.
Speaker C:But, you know, I wanted to be a resource for some of those guys if they were going through the dark times that I was going through secretly.
Speaker C:And so at the very last second, instead of sending that to 200 tour players, I put it on Twitter, put it on social media, and just thinking that more people needed to read it than just 200 tour guys.
Speaker C:And the letter, I was not expecting it to go viral by any means, but it exploded quickly.
Speaker C:And I think in the, you know, in the first hour it was out there, over 100,000 people had read it and over 5 million people ended up reading the, the letter.
Speaker C:And the strangest part to me was that Twitter, which is one of the most toxic places on social media in the world, I didn't get one negative piece of feedback from anybody.
Speaker C:Not one guy saying, hey, I'm looking for attention.
Speaker C:Not one person saying, oh boy, poor you, or anything like that.
Speaker C:Everybody was the exact opposite.
Speaker C:I was getting these heartfelt letters from random people across the country that I'd never heard of, but just saying how much my letter had meant to them.
Speaker C:And, you know, after a few weeks of, you know, getting hundreds of these letters, I realized, man, if we can, if we could do this much work with a, you know, stupid little five minute letter, imagine what we could do if we put some resources behind this and really tried to make a difference instead of, you know, all these other corporations and companies that are using all the, you know, checking the boxes and they have to go through all the corporate red tape.
Speaker C:It's like, no, let's, let's find a better way to help people because I know how badly I needed it.
Speaker C:I know there's other people out there struggling, so let's see if we can't put something together.
Speaker C:And luckily, you know, I started the Mulligan foundation and just trying to find a better way to attack mental health in the game of golf.
Speaker C:And I found some wonderful partners.
Speaker C:I'm partnered up with the, the Byron Nelson tournament that's coming up next week on the PGA Tour, the CJ Cup, Byron Nelson.
Speaker C:And then the Momentous Institute's a big mental health institute in, in Dallas.
Speaker C:And we've, we've partnered up to, to start this brand new initiative that we're going to announce next Tuesday.
Speaker C:But it's called the well Played Initiative, but it's the first of its kind, all encompassing pipeline in the game of golf for, for mental health awareness.
Speaker C:And so we're going to be working with kids by the, you know, when they start in the game of golf at age 5, all the way through, you know, in the first T program, all the way through the American Junior Golf association, through the NCAA programs, through the PGA Tour, the LPGA Tour and even transitioning out of the game.
Speaker C:So basically, if you're anywhere from five years old to.
Speaker C:Until you retire from professional golf, we've got a spot for you in this pipeline.
Speaker C:And we're working with, with some of the best mental health providers in the country, with, you know, the Kevin Love Foundation, Jed on Rise, Mind flow, all the.
Speaker C:All we did was basically just try to find the best of the best as far as mental health experts in the country and bring them all together to work underneath one golf umbrella.
Speaker C:So it's been, it's been a really cool project.
Speaker C:I'm very proud of it.
Speaker C:I know we're, we're already helping a ton of people and we haven't even really initially, you know, announced the initiative yet, but it's only going to get bigger and better.
Speaker B:I want to step back for a second, Steve, to something you said earlier.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:You were talking about social media.
Speaker B:It's big part of our lives now.
Speaker B:If you do what I do, you, you know, it's there, but part.
Speaker B:Would you guess or even from your own personal experience and observations.
Speaker B:Social media does not help depression.
Speaker B:And if you're playing at a tour level, any sport, but we're talking golf here.
Speaker B:If you're talking at playing at that high level.
Speaker B:Excuse me.
Speaker B:And then you get the comments about, Steve hit the ball like crap today.
Speaker B:You know, his head's up his butt.
Speaker B:What, whatever.
Speaker B:I'm being nice because this does air on public radio.
Speaker B:Part of it, but you know what I mean?
Speaker B:I mean, even people say, well, I never look at that.
Speaker B:Somebody looks at it for you.
Speaker B:Somebody does.
Speaker B:If you're playing at that level, you got somebody who's managing it or posting it for you.
Speaker B:Somebody knows.
Speaker B:And you're gonna find out that, that toxicity.
Speaker B:And I will.
Speaker B:I used to be a big Twitter fan and I am not anymore.
Speaker B:From your own personal experience.
Speaker B:And then you're like Grayson, you think, how big of an effect do you think that has?
Speaker B:I know it would be individual, but how, how big of an effect?
Speaker C:I. I know it has a.
Speaker C:A huge effect and it's a.
Speaker C:It is such a toxic place.
Speaker C:And trying to be an athlete in today's world, if you're on social media is.
Speaker C:I mean, you almost have to be off of social media now if you're going to try to be the best athlete you can be, because it is just nothing positive comes out of it.
Speaker C:If you read a hundred comments and 99 of them are positive and one's negative, you don't remember the 99 positive ones, you're going to remember the 1 negative one, right?
Speaker C:So, so why even be there if 99 of the messages are positive and you're still going to be, you know, down in the dumps about it?
Speaker C:So there's a reason why Scotty Scheffler's not on social media, right?
Speaker C:There's a reason why Tiger wasn't on social media.
Speaker C:Like they don't need to see it, they don't need to read it, they don't need to be a part of it.
Speaker C:But at the same time, we also know that the next generation of kids, they're all on it.
Speaker C:They're, you know, they're all over the place.
Speaker C:And that's why, you know, when we announced this, there's a lot of this work that we're doing, my phone started blowing up with all these agents on the PGA Tour calling me going, hey, look, we have this 22 or 23 year old kid who's was on the PGA Tour and he was a great player and now all of a sudden he stinks.
Speaker C:And he's going down a brutal rabbit hole of mental health right now because he, you know, we got onto the PGA Tour and it's not what he thought it was going to be.
Speaker C:And you know, but he's reading social media and he's reading about how bad he is all the time and it's just a brutal spiral, right?
Speaker C:But again, these kids are all on social media.
Speaker C:They're all reading their Instagram, they're all reading their Twitter comments about how bad they stink now.
Speaker C:And it's just there, there's nothing positive that comes out of it.
Speaker C:So it's, it, it is leading to a lot of mental health struggles in, in athletes of all, you know, of all sports.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker B:Well, and you look at somebody like Bryson, he's making a fortune off social media, right.
Speaker B:YouTube and all this other stuff.
Speaker B:Again, go back to the numbers.
Speaker B:That's a 1% deal up there that he's doing.
Speaker B:And I don't know, I, I, I just think that overall, in our whole society, in the world, it's created this kind of false reality and it, it's, it's devastating to some people.
Speaker B:It really is.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I mean, just all you do is compare yourself to other people and you know, everybody lives this perfect life on Instagram or on Twitter and they post all their pictures of their best times.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:But I can promise you it's the, it's, they're all living fake lives like nobody's life is perfect.
Speaker C:And if they tell you that there is, I guarantee you they got more skeletons in the closet than anybody else.
Speaker C:And it's just that, that's the thing.
Speaker C:When you go on there, all you do is compare yourself to other people and it's one of the worst things you can do because you're never going to find happiness when you're comparing yourself to others.
Speaker B:That's why I watch cat videos.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:I like kitten videos.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker C:Yep, those are safe.
Speaker C:Those are safe.
Speaker C:You're not gonna.
Speaker C:Those are pretty safe.
Speaker B:They're pretty funny sometimes.
Speaker B:We got about a minute and a half left here for this segment.
Speaker B:Steve, how does your wife think of all this that you've done this?
Speaker B:She.
Speaker B:I know how important she is to you and yeah, just like mine is to mine.
Speaker B:But the drinking aside, but the creation of the foundation and I'm sure she had a hand in it and other things.
Speaker B:How did she give you little pats on the head once in a while?
Speaker B:That a boy.
Speaker C:Yeah, I mean it's, it's, she's been wonderful.
Speaker C:I mean my whole, my whole support system around me has been incredible.
Speaker C:My, my, my parents, my wife, my kids, my friends, they've all loved what we're doing because this obviously isn't a world that I was ever, that I ever thought I was going to be into.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:I never thought I'd be an author.
Speaker C:I never thought I'd be an alcoholic, for God's sakes.
Speaker C:I never thought I'd be, you know, the CEO of a, of a, you know, non profit.
Speaker C:Like there's so many different things that, you know, my world has taken a complete turn here in the last two years.
Speaker C:But I've also never been happier.
Speaker C:I've never been more comfortable with who I am as a person.
Speaker C:And it just, it's, it's nice to be clear headed again for the first time in a long time where I don't have to worry about, you know, lying to other people.
Speaker C:People or living a life that I'm not proud of.
Speaker C:Like, I'm very proud of what we, what I've managed to accomplish and what I'm putting together here and how it's going to help other people.
Speaker C:So to be able to come full circle from how dark my world was, you know, two and a half, three years ago.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:It, it's just, it's, I am very proud of that.
Speaker C:I'm more proud of that than I am anything I ever did on a golf course.
Speaker B:Yeah, well, you should be.
Speaker B:You should be.
Speaker B:You still get out and swing the clubs.
Speaker C:I do.
Speaker C:I do.
Speaker C:I'm, I'm back to where, you know, when I went through all the dark times there, I stopped playing for a while.
Speaker C:And then when I did play, I hated it.
Speaker C:I didn't want anything to do with golf.
Speaker C:I was just miserable out there because, you know, I used to be the guy that could shoot 64, 65, and then because I was either drunk or hungover or something, I was shooting 80, 81, 82, and I just, I hated the spiral I was on.
Speaker C:And I finally, about a year ago, started to really get the love of the game back and just enjoy playing again for what it is.
Speaker B:Good for you.
Speaker B:Steve and I are going to take a break here on Grilling at the Green.
Speaker B:We'll be back in just a few minutes.
Speaker B:Don't forget you're listening to us on Golf News Network, among other platforms.
Speaker B:We'll be right back.
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Speaker B:Welcome back to Grilling it the Green.
Speaker B:I'm JT Today.
Speaker B:We've been very fortunate to talk to you.
Speaker B:Steve Wheatcroft, former tour player, author again and cocktails and range balls.
Speaker B:Yeah, you can see that.
Speaker B:You can get it on Amazon.
Speaker B:It it's not a hard read, but it will make you think.
Speaker B:And that's why I think Steve wrote it.
Speaker B:I'm going to let him tell you that in a minute.
Speaker B:But that's why I think he wrote it and he did a great job with it and to be very commended.
Speaker B:And now he does the Mulligan Foundation.
Speaker B:When you get up in the morning and you just said it in the last segment, you got a clear head and you can do that.
Speaker B:But is when you were battling this stuff and even your last days on the tour, when you said when you got up in the morning, you probably thought I need to go, well, maybe have a pop first or something.
Speaker B:But then I need to go work out and then I need to go to the driving range.
Speaker B:And then I need, you know, there was this ch.
Speaker B:Checklist.
Speaker B:How is it now when you get up?
Speaker B:And I mean, I know you probably got your own mental checklist with your, with business and the foundation, but is it easier to, to kind of make your own schedule and check your own box?
Speaker B:It's not something that's required for you?
Speaker C:Yeah, it's a good question.
Speaker C:I.
Speaker C:It's very different than what it used to be, right?
Speaker C:It just.
Speaker C:When you're, when you play on the tour, you're very regimented in your schedule.
Speaker C:You're, you know, you know exactly when you're going to be there to practice, warm up, when you hit the fitness trailer, when you, you know, it was just such a routine all the time.
Speaker C:Even when I would come home, it was a very similar routine where I'd take the, you know, the Monday, Tuesday off after a tournament and then I would go out and practice Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and I would do the same things over and over.
Speaker C:But now it's very different.
Speaker C:You know, I'm doing a lot of travel with the, the initiative, with the, you know, the foundation now.
Speaker C:So I'm traveling, you know, at least a week every month, maybe a little bit more.
Speaker C:And, you know, I've got phone calls lined up all the time.
Speaker C:I'm doing different things.
Speaker C:I mean, I'm, I'm building websites, I am handle.
Speaker C:I mean, I'm doing all kinds of random things that I never thought I'd do in a million years.
Speaker C:So it, it's a very different schedule, that's for sure.
Speaker C:I have to, you know, kind of put it all together and map it all together.
Speaker C:But it's, there's something to be said for enjoying what you're doing and having some passion behind it.
Speaker C:And that's, that's one of the things I learned through all this is just find something that gets you out of bed in the morning, gets you excited and, and, you know, I Woke up at 5 o' clock this morning and rolled over and then all of a sudden I started thinking about work and some of the things I needed to do and I couldn't go back to sleep, right?
Speaker C:So I just grabbed a laptop and started working.
Speaker C:Because once my brain gets going, I can't shut it off, but in a good way, right?
Speaker C:Any other time, you know, I would have just rolled over and been like, God, let me sleep for another 10 hours, right?
Speaker C:But when you, when you actually get fired up to go to, you know, to get up and go to your office or go work and that that's a sign you're doing the right things in life.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I think it's great that you made that transition and doing that.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And to be clear, I. I don't oppose drinking or anything like that.
Speaker B:I have.
Speaker B:I'll tell you, I have three drinks a year.
Speaker B:You know, that used to just get me warmed up.
Speaker B:But I have three drinks a year.
Speaker B:I wanna.
Speaker B:I have one on Christmas, one on New Year's, and my birthday's in January, and sometimes I. I take a rain check on that and have one on the Fourth of July.
Speaker B:That's it.
Speaker C:And that's.
Speaker B:I don't.
Speaker B:I don't have a problem with anybody that does or anything like that.
Speaker B:I want to be clear about that.
Speaker B:And a lot of times when the guys I play golf with, you know, they'll have a couple of beers on the course and they'll have some at the, you know, the grill afterwards.
Speaker E:Good.
Speaker B:You know, and every once in a while I'll have a beer.
Speaker B:But I think I just.
Speaker B:There was an old comedian said, I think I got full.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker C:No, I tell people all the time because I do a lot of keynote speaking now.
Speaker C:And, you know, to your point earlier about the military stuff, my story resonates with a lot of different people because it wasn't the alcohol that was the problem.
Speaker C:It was the identity issue.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:I didn't know who I was when.
Speaker C:When I wasn't Steve the golfer anymore.
Speaker C:And whatever notoriety or fame or importance that I felt like I had from playing golf, I guess I needed that a lot more than I.
Speaker C:Than I.
Speaker C:Than I thought I did.
Speaker C:But, you know, that's.
Speaker C:That's the whole thing.
Speaker C:Like, I.
Speaker C:Alcohol was never the problem.
Speaker C:It's just what I used to fix the problem and.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:I don't have a problem with anybody ever drinking.
Speaker C:And I.
Speaker C:When people, you know, question like, oh, do you think I should be drinking?
Speaker C:Do you think I should?
Speaker C:And I said, look, it's real easy.
Speaker C:I can simplify this for you.
Speaker C:If you're drinking alcohol for the wrong reasons, then, yes, stop, because you need help.
Speaker C:If you're drinking because you enjoy it, if you're drinking for the right reasons and you're not doing it in a wrong way, go out.
Speaker C:It doesn't matter.
Speaker C:You're allowed to go get drunk with your friends.
Speaker C:You're allowed to go celebrate a graduation.
Speaker C:You're allowed to celebrate your team winning a Super Bowl.
Speaker C:Most people do this stuff.
Speaker C:And as long as you're handling yourself and doing it, responsibly that's totally fine.
Speaker C:You can drink as much as you want.
Speaker C:Doesn't bother me in the least.
Speaker C:But.
Speaker C:But, you know, that wasn't my problem.
Speaker C:My problem was more the mental health and identity piece of it than.
Speaker C:And alcohol was just what I used to fix it.
Speaker B:Yeah, I get that.
Speaker B:Steve Wecroft has got the book out.
Speaker B:Oh, cocktails, range balls.
Speaker B:I'm sorry, I was looking at myself in the screen there.
Speaker B:Couldn't figure out what the hell I was doing.
Speaker B:Steve, that.
Speaker B:And how can people find out more about the Mulligan Foundation?
Speaker B:How can you get websites and URLs and stuff?
Speaker C:The website is up@theMulliganFoundation.org we're actually in the process of revamping it right now.
Speaker C:We're hopefully going to be launching the new updated version next week.
Speaker C:But there is a website up now.
Speaker C:It's got a bunch of information on there, but we're going to have a ton more here when we launch the initiative on Tuesday.
Speaker C:And a brand new updated website.
Speaker C:But yep, all the information's on there.
Speaker C:There's a contact info on there as well.
Speaker C:You can get a hold of us.
Speaker C:Yeah, we're in the midst of doing like, we're already working with the LPGA Tour, with the PGA Tour.
Speaker C:We're working with eight of the top 15, you know, men's college teams in the country already.
Speaker C:We're, we're already working with the First T initiatives or with the First T program.
Speaker C:So we're doing a lot of work already.
Speaker C:We just haven't announced the program yet.
Speaker C:But we're, we're excited for where we're headed once we launch it.
Speaker B:Well, I'm excited, too, for you, Steve.
Speaker B:And whether you agree to it or not, you're going to be a semi frequent guest on this show going forward because I love this story.
Speaker C:I love it.
Speaker B:The work you guys are doing, I appreciate it.
Speaker B:I love being on no Problem Again, the book, Cocktails and Range Balls, the Mulligan Foundation, Steve Wheatcroft, he gave you all the information.
Speaker B:Steve's gonna stick around for after hours, so I'm gonna abuse him there.
Speaker B:He has no idea.
Speaker B:And we will be back next week with another edition of Grilling at the Green.
Speaker B:So what we'd always say at the end of the show, go out, play some golf, have some fun.
Speaker B:But most of all, be kind.
Speaker B:Take care, everybody.
Speaker A:Grilling at the Green is produced by JTSD Productions, LLC in association with Salem Media Group.
Speaker A:All rights reserved.
