Cameron Percy on playing St. Andrews w/Tom Watson, competing on the Champions Tour & more

All right, Garrett Thompson here with Cameron Percy and wow, you're coming off an injury. This is a very rare injury. Seven week break. You're playing really good golf. And how are you feeling now? Um, I'm better, a lot better than I was. Uh, I ended up having a three centimeter tear on my stomach lining. So everything was pushing out of my stomach. So, uh, the breach opened and happened on the Saturday. Then I played Portugal and I had like a golf ball sticking out of my stomach. And I'm like, that's, that shouldn't be happening. So I got home and, um, had surgery like a few days later. And I've been sitting on the couch for a couple of weeks and I'm, I'm back now. I can actually hit a golf ball again. So it's good. Body. I mean, how do you come back from that? I'm sure you're a little skirt crazy sitting on the couch. That's pretty much why I'm going crazy doing nothing. But, um, yeah, you just, the doctor said, it's just going to be a pain tolerance now. So, um, like my ball speed, my drive is only 150 miles an hour. So that's not very hard, but where I was, I was at 170 before I got hurt. So, um, that's, yeah, I just can't hit it very hard right now. Well, you've played, I mean, I'm the PGA tour champion last year and some of this year, it's a really good golf. I'm just wondering like what has worked, um, to, to get to that point? Just, uh, I've been driving the ball really, really well. It truly helps. So, um, you're doing, taking care of the Popeye's and drive holes where some guys might need a freeway or something. I'll hit and drive or, and at here you get a bit of an advantage and stuff like that. I was getting a real role until I got hurt. When you get out here on the tour champions, the last few years, like what is, what's the most rewarding part about being on this tour? There's a ton of Aussies, but there's just a lot of beers, I'd imagine. What's, what's really cool. Well, the very first week I got out here, um, I was like Paul Broadhurst. So I really didn't know that well. Walked 40 hours across the range, shook my hand to hey, I'm Paul Broadhurst. Um, happy to have you out here. You know, really enjoy yourself if you need anything. And on, and all the guys, like I was chipping somewhere with Ernie Owls and Ratif Goosen and they give me lessons. Chipping on like that, like it's never happened. And I'll, I'll say to my caddy, I'm like, can you film? This is unbelievable. Like just stuff like that. You'll be, I'll become friends with guys that, you know, on the PGA tour, I might have had a practice round with or something like that and I said hello to them and that was about it. Whereas now I feel like I'm friends with these guys. Um, so that's been the major difference. What do you attribute that to? Like whether they're so giving on their time? I think, I mean, we're at the end of our careers and very lucky to be out here still playing golf, uh, for a living. Uh, and it's just, I don't know, maybe everyone's like, you know, everyone's way more relaxed, everyone's ultra competitive, which is shocking how competitive they are. Um, but it's just, you know, we're all at the end of our level, you know, we've got kids, we've all had our careers and stuff like that. We're just happy to, happy to be still doing this, I guess. You made some deep runs. I think even last year when I saw your congressional at that senior PGA, it's really deep runs in this career so far. But what have you learned about yourself in pressure situations? Um, just, I think it's just, I think out here, if you play really good, you're going to be at the top of it more. Just cause, uh, on the PGA tour I played really good, you know, I led a few events here and there, but it was like very far and few between, but if I played that level out here, you can complete the win. So, um, it's sort of, you go from on the PGA tour, you can do it two or three times a year to like out here, if you play good, you could be in contention 10 times. So, um, it's a lot more fun for sure. And you just gotta, you just gotta deal with the pressures and all that sort of stuff. Speaking of pressures, I know you're a countryman, something that you've played a lot of amateur golf with. Jeff Ogilvie was there with the international team, um, at the President's Cup recently. They didn't get it done, but what was your takeaway from watching on TV? It was, I mean, Jeff speaks so well. It was really cool to sit there and watch him answer questions and that we played together as 19 year olds and competed against each other. I'll just think back to like, we played the Victorian amateur together and we, then we traveled on Australian teams around the world and the funny things we did. Um, and just to think that we came from where we came from and I'm sitting here in America watching him captain of the President's Cup playing, like it was like a really surreal moment. Like, wow, this is really cool. Like my friend's doing this and he's doing, he did a great job. I thought, um, I was gutted on Sunday that I lost, like, you know, I wasn't, you know, I was hoping they'd win for him and for Camilo and for Trevor and all that, you know, all my, all, all people I've become friends with and for, you know, Scotty and stuff like that were doing pretty cool, but the Americans just got on a roll and played too good, unfortunately. It was just one of those things where like, it seemed like the team aspect, they had it down. Yeah. Jeff had some formula that was working for them team-wise, right? Yeah. I think a few years ago, maybe Ernie set something up and then Trevor and Mike and all those guys have set something up in motion to try and like, a bit like the Europeans have done and, um, because we only get to do it every two years, whereas the Americans do it every single year. So they've got a huge advantage doing it every two years. You're like, oh, that didn't quite work. Oh, we've got to wait for two years with Americans. That didn't quite work. Oh, we'll play next year. We'll get it right. And then, you know, that sort of stuff. So I think it's a lot harder for the internationals to get it right. Cause I only do it once every two years. Well, you mentioned Ogilvy just a few minutes ago, just about how you guys were 19, you play against each other at amateur events. There was a time you turned pro, um, gosh, 1999, I want to say, and you travel before the iPhone, how did you travel, get the hotels late at night? What was that like? Incredible. Well, we, we joke about it. When we came over to America, we would, the night before, get on a computer, work out where we had to go and you had to write down on that, you go on MapQuest and write it down, and if you didn't put the point in the right spot, you might miss, it was 0.5 miles and you drive five miles and you realize, Oh God, sorry. And there's a point there. Oh, I'm going to go back and find that street that was supposed to turn left on. But it's dark and all kinds of things. Well, we, one time we would go into Chicago, ended up in the South side of Chicago and there's some bad areas in South side of Chicago. We knew, all right, this doesn't, this had a bad feeling about it. We just turned around and got on the freeway and just guessed our way to where we had to get, but we'd go call in a gas station, buy maps, every state you went to, like, that's what it was like when we first come over here. You had no idea where you were going. Yeah. These, these days it's so much easier. You just get your phone out and away you go and off you go. Well, I remember you beat Jack Ogilvie in that Malaysian amateur. I did. You got home by six shots, you were wearing that thing. Like how, how cool is it to look back on that now? I know you said it was like the hottest course you'd ever played on in your life at that point, right? Yeah. I remember we'd play in it. You'd be down in a valley and your brain was exploding. It was so hot. Um, I mean, looking back on stuff like that, like it was cool. I got to beat him. And then when we turned pro, he really took off and had an incredible career and all that sort of stuff. But, um, I wish I had his professional career as well. I could beat him as an amateur. I mean, we turned pro for some reason. He just did a lot better for me. So, um, I've, I've done okay, but nowhere near as good as what Jack did. Obviously there's, there's so much when I think about, um, different events that you've played in over the years. I mean, you were close there. Jonathan Bird beat you in that playoff, that hole in one. Yeah. I mean, what do you remember about being so close? Oh, I remember that was my first year on tour and I'm like, ah, this is all right. I'll be back here. I'll win. Cause everyone's like, you're playing too good. You'll win, you'll win, you'll win. And I haven't, and I never did. And same with the Champions Tour, you're playing so good. Your time will come. It's really hard to win. Like, um, you know, you need a bit of luck. You've got to hold parts and all that sort of stuff. So that was in 2010 and I never won in my whole career on the PGA Tour. So I went close a few times, but never did. And it's just, you just realize how hard it is to actually win. Like these guys that do it week in, week out. It's, it's mind-boggling to me. When, what do you tell yourself? I'd imagine it's going to be frustrating, you know, cause you have the score to win, but what do you tell yourself as a competitor? What's the right self-talk to have, um, for the future? Um, I think just, you've just got to work on the right things, I guess. You know, sometimes I might be a bit lazy with my putting practice and stuff like that. Like I've got these drills that Horsey gave me. You just got to keep doing them and doing them. And some weeks I do them and some weeks I might be a bit lazy. So still got to just, there's a formula there to do it. You just got to, you got to do it. And it's just a, I suppose it's just a discipline to actually do the work. Can you glean some wisdom at all from your fellow countrymen or from people who've gotten wins out here on this? Um, well we, Stevie Allen won three times last year and he won, and it'll become a joke, every Saturday we go out for Indian and he would, he'd win. So we had to go out to dinner at the Indian and then at St. Louis, I was five behind say. And that was nowhere. We've got to go out for Indian and we'll shoot 64 or something tomorrow and win. And because we went out for Indian, well I shot 64 and lost in a playoff. So that was sort of, we, every Saturday we'd try and find an Indian place wherever we're staying. And Jeff, um, Greg, Stevie and I will go out for dinner on an Indian on a Saturday night. That's our, we think that's the key. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? Yeah, of course it does. Are there any other superstitions for you as a golfer that, that you subscribe to? Um, not really. Nah, I'm not that really that superstitious at all. Nah. No, I can't. There's no yellow tees. For some reason, I can't use yellow tees. That's probably the only superstition I've got. Wrapping up, um, I know that you played your first Open and you had your wife caddying for you that time. How cool was that? That was, that was unbelievable. And that actually looked like this year I only won the British, senior British Open and that would have got me in the British Open at St. Andrews next year. So that was, it was disappointing to not win, but that was the big motivation was like, if I win this, I get to play the British Open at St. Andrews. I could have taken my kids and family to that. That was, that would have been a massive motivation as well. My wife wouldn't have caddied that for sure, but she could have gone there and hung out at St. Andrews. But speaking of St. Andrews, you did play, I think, your second Open Championship at St. Andrews. That was a family affair. Your dad came out for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How cool was that experience? That was the best. Um, to play British Open is cool. To play it at St. Andrews is even cooler. My dad had the inside the rope thing and I played a practice round with Tom Watson and he got to hang out with him. And it was like, we still look at photos and that of that time. And it was incredible. How was it with Tom Watson? Mr. Five-time winner. Yeah. And I think the year before he lost to Stuart maybe, and a friend of mine manages Tom, he's like, yeah, no worries. Tom's playing at 8.20 in the morning. I'll put your name down with him. I'm like, really? He's like, yeah. And we, I'll play with Tom Watson and he was incredible. That was like, yeah, it was a dream come true for sure. Do you learn much watching somebody like that? Oh yeah. It was, I was trying to ask him all these questions, but he was so into his golf and I was shocked that he was into chipping from here, chipping to there, putting from, he was like, like he still thought he could win because he wasn't interested in just having a, you know, a chinwag with me. He was, it was fascinating to watch him at like whatever age he was at that stage, um, in sixth year. Yeah. How dedicated he was to practice. Like he was chipping from all the right spots and all right, Cam, you don't want to hit it here. Because this pin, because of the bunker or the slope or something like that. And it was fascinating just to watch him work his way around St. Andrew. I think so. Yeah. Cameron Percy, appreciate the time. No worries. Catch you down the line.