Do you think there's part of your journey that actually, like there's a benefit to you kind of starting so late?

Yeah, I mean, like, those guy- those young guys you mentioned are so impressive.

I haven't played with Jackson, but I played with the other two, and like, I wasn't ...

I could barely break par in a tournament it felt like at that point.

I certainly wouldn't have been ready to, to play professional golf.

Like, I worked my way up.

You know, I f- first played the Aussie tour at 25.

How different is it out here versus where you've played in the past?

How have you, uh, coped with that side of things on your return?

Um, it's been, it's been good.

Um, you know, obviously there's a lot more to do.

Earlier in the weeks I've had media every Tuesday morning on tour since I've come back out, which is, I reckon I've probably done that once or twice this year before this week, and I think one of them was defending in Canada, so, you know, you, you kind of expect it to do those kind of things.

But outside of that, you know, I've, Tuesday mornings have been pretty relaxed until the last three weeks.

Um, you know, there's obviously a lot more people watching, um, our groups.

But, you know, last week at Bellerive, it was amazing.

Um, finally, mate, uh, you know, just are you looking forward to, to maybe downing tools after this weekend? [laughs] I know we don't wanna get too far ahead, but, you know, to, to have a proper deep breath out.

How have you, uh, coped with that side of things on your return?

Um, it's been, it's been good.

Um, you know, obviously there's a lot more to do.

Earlier in the weeks I've had media every Tuesday morning on tour since I've come back out, which is, I reckon I've probably done that once or twice this year before this week, and I think one of them was defending in Canada, so you know, you, you kind of expected to do those kind of things.

But outside of that, you know, I've, Tuesday mornings have been pretty relaxed until the last three weeks.

Um, you know, there's obviously a lot more people watching, um- Our groups.

But, you know, last week at Bellerive, it was amazing.

[laughs]

So-

So we had some, um, we had some cricketing pedigree and I played a year of, uh, premier cricket after I left school.

Well, sort of half a season.

I c- I started after I finished school over summer and then, you know, played the rest of the season, um, you know, early, what would that have been? 2005, I think.

Um, and to be honest, the, the transition for me from, like, ma- playing with mates the whole time to playing men's cricket, I probably didn't enjoy that much.

It had nothing to do...

Like, the team I was in, I was at Papatoetoe, they were a really nice bunch of guys, but it just, it just wasn't for me, to be honest.

Plenty of pros would too.

No doubt you've had many stories like that and a time to reflect and just get a bit more of an understanding of what you've done.

A little bit.

I mean, I think the thing that resonates with me with it is I was 18 years old when Michael Campbell won the US Open.

I was just kind of starting my golf journey there.

And I remember how big that was.

He held off Tiger down the stretch at one of the hardest golf courses anywhere.

And that was huge.

How is it set up and is it a set up that suits your game?

No doubt you've had many stories like that and a time to reflect and just get a bit more of an understanding of what you've done.

A little bit.

I mean, I think the thing that resonates with me with it is I was 18 years old when Michael Campbell won the US Open.

I was just kind of starting my golf journey there.

And I remember how big that was.

He held off Tiger down the stretch at one of the hardest golf courses anywhere.

And that was huge.

It's

How nervous were you out there, or were you not at all?

I was nervous.

I, I did say to my caddy early on on Sunday, "I, I don't feel as bad as I thought I would." Um, and then I felt pretty good the last six holes.

Everything was kind of going where I wanted to.

There was obviously nerves, but I felt like I was in control of it.

And then where the nerves were really there was on the 18th, the putt on the 18th.

Um, you know, it, it kinda hit me that, wow, this putt's to win The Open.

Yeah

Tell me about that.

Yeah, I mean, I was also nervous going in, but I did say to my caddie through about five or six holes that I don't feel as bad as what I thought I would be.

You know, you kind of put yourself in that scenario and you expect to just lock up almost and having not been in that scenario before, but I felt okay.

you know hit two good shots on the first it was a nice two putt from 50 or 60 feet I think that kind of settled the nerves a little bit just it's you know hitting a long putt it's pretty easy to get that wrong speed wise and I rolled that up almost dead and you know that just yeah just calmed everything down I hit two good shots down two hold a 15 footer and then on three I didn't have a great tee shot I went against my instinct which was I'd like to take that shot back obviously it doesn't matter now but that second shot everything out of the rough all week came out quite soft and spinny it was so dry and quite a lot of time was so tight that the ground just kind of exploded and the ball didn't go anywhere and I had a number that felt like gap wedge or looked like gap wedge but every time I looked at the shot I was like I don't think I can get gap wedge there and it just ended up it was I had 122 meters to the front which is a full gap because if it comes up just short that's fine and I hit gap wedge and I actually felt like I hit it okay and it just it really spun up and ended up way short of where I thought it was going to be And then I ended up, I thought I had a good chip.

Obviously, it's pretty hard to judge when you're landing it on those fairways how firm it's going to be.

And it went 25 foot past or 30 foot past.

And obviously, yeah, I felt it was a putter all weekend.

What's your thought process?

Set some standards

...

the producers had to stamp the box with what it was made of, and there were some rules that they came up with about the size and how much weight it could bear and all that.

So, and, uh, this is where our early forms of packaging come out.

Like, we, we talk about, uh, 200-pound Mullen or a Mullen-grade board versus now we use ECTs.

ECTs were not even a thing back in that early 1900s.

It was all Mullen.

Yeah

Has it been overwhelming? Talk to us about the last week.

It's just been crazy.

Overwhelming, yes, but just the amount that's gone on in the last week.

Obviously, you know Sunday's life-changing, and I've still got to figure out what that means.

But I've won some decent stuff around the world.

and there's always a bit of a buzz around and it normally takes a couple of days to get my head straight, clear the messages.

Um, like I'm still not close to that point yet.

Well, you know, I just want to know, like, has it surprised you to see the emotional load that people have responded to you with?

Well, I just want to know, has it surprised you to see the emotional load that people have responded to you with?

Yeah, look, I feel like I might be the only one that hasn't cried about it, weirdly.

I've had a lot of people, and I don't mean that in a bad way.

It's just like, it obviously means a lot to me in that sense, but I don't, it doesn't, in my head, it doesn't make me cry.

It makes me proud.

It makes me happy.

And I've never been one for tears of joy, but it's obviously made a lot of other people happy and they feel it in a different way.

Has Grant now accepted that he is the father of a major winner?

If you know what I mean?

No. N- no, but it's like, it, it's almost, like, obviously you got a bigger miss with a full shot, right? Like, disaster can happen, but it's a whole lot easier to control your big muscles when it's...

like, when you're nervous.

Like, it becomes, like, a, a full swing, especially when you're playing well.

Like, you just, uh, it feels more routine almost.

Like, you just go pick a target, hit it, and just let the body do what it's supposed to do.

Like, chipping and putting, when it's like that, like, it's small movements.

Yeah

It, does it make your golf easier to play 'cause you get the exemptions?

It makes it easier to plan.

I don't know if it makes it easier to play.

I mean, i- in a sense, I guess I'm playing on house money.

You know, I've achieved something awesome.

Um, and you know, I know I've got guaranteed status going forward.

I'm in, you know, I'm in a really good place on tour in terms of getting in events, so that's very helpful.

Mm.

It, does it make your golf easier to play 'cause you get the exemptions?

It makes it easier to plan.

I don't know if it makes it easier to play.

I mean, I, in, in a sense, I guess I'm playing on house money.

You know, I've achieved something awesome.

Um, and you know, I know I've got guaranteed status going forward.

I'm in, you know, I'm in a really good place on tour in terms of getting in events, so that's very helpful.

Mm.

So if we think about, you know, post-pandemic for a minute and, you know, the corrections, normalizations, how would you characterize the market today as compared to, say, 2021, 2022? Are you seeing leveling off? Are you seeing a bit of an increase or what else?

Well.

last year was a very flat year as far as demand went and this year um we think it's going to look somewhat similar maybe on a little bit on the downside we've had we've had some kind of shocks to the system not just with the pandemic but last year tariffs created a lot of uncertainty and you think well wait a second you're a u.s manufacturer of fill in the blank why would tariffs have anything to do with you well well it's not always the tariff itself.

Sometimes it was, sometimes you're buying parts from another country, but sometimes the product you're making, you're selling into those other countries.

And sometimes those tariff creates trade disruptions.

And we did see that.

We saw a lot of that last year.

They are starting to come together

Mm

...

it was, So the closest we've got is probably a golf course called Paraparaumu Beach, which is down in Wellington.

That place is amazing.

Like, that's a proper links course.

And, like, you know, we don't have anything necessarily quite with the turf that you have in the UK.

Like, there's just something different about that links turf.

Mm

I thought you had a, a great point talking about this, Kiz, of like what time did you tee off on Saturday morning, and what, what were your goals with the-- or what were your thoughts with the tournament? Were, was, was anything close to a Claret Jug even on your mind when you teed off pretty early, I would imagine, on Saturday morning?

Yeah, I think I was like 10:30.

I was playing with Xander, so there was like a bunch of interest around our group.

We were one of the like feature groups.

Um, so I, I had a bit of nerves going into Saturday, like I'm playing with a two-time major champion.

Um, and like we had perfect conditions Saturday morning.

Like there was no wind.

Uh, what else do you remember from, from that putt? 'Cause that is the defining moment of that championship.

If you know what I mean.

No. N- no, but it's like, it, it's almost like obviously you got a bigger miss with a full shot, right? Like, disaster can happen, but it's a whole lot easier to control your big muscles when it's...

Like when you're nervous.

Like, it becomes, like a, a full swing, especially when you're playing well, like you just, uh, it feels more routine almost.

Like, you just go pick a target, hit it, and just let the body do what it's supposed to do.

Like chipping and putting when it's like that, like it's small movements.

Yeah

...

If you know what I mean?

No. N- no, but it's like, it, it's almost, like, obviously you got a bigger miss with a full shot, right? Like, disaster can happen, but it's a whole lot easier to control your big muscles when it's, like, when you're nervous.

Like, it becomes, like, a, a full swing, especially when you're playing well.

Like, you just, uh, it feels more routine almost.

Like, you just go pick a target, hit it, and just let the body do what it's supposed to do.

Like, chipping and putting, when it's like that, like, it's small movements.

Yeah

... won the US Open in 2005.

What was it like, the walk down 18? When you're, when you're walking up onto the green, like, were you thinking about the putt you're about to hit? Were you taking it in? What was that like?

That was, that was the first time I kind of let, let me get out of my bubble.

Like, I'd tried really hard those last five or six holes.

Like, there was a lot of people out there.

I could hear, "Fox, go Foxy," or, "Foxy lad." They seem to like that, that call a lot in, in, uh, in Birkdale.

And like, I, I tried to almost ignore as much of it as I could.

Like, just a lot of deep breathing in between holes.

Yeah, b- as Big Cat was saying, like you, you've never been this close to a major championship before, but you obviously did things to prepare yourself mentally for the moment should it ever arise, right? So like looking back over, you know, the last few years of your life, you, you did do some mental training to get to this point, and then you just fell back on that? Or did it, did it match up in your head with what you had prepared for?

I bet, though, you had that first glass of champagne.

No, I'm actually not a champagne fan at all.

And there's no way I could have stomached one at that point.

We finished up about 3 a.m. We had a couple of casualties.

Not me.

George Harper Hinton.

A couple of people passed out on couches.

just can't believe what's

Well, was there a moment where you thought of giving up Ryan where, you know, the travel and the, you know, the finances and the results were all kind of weighing you down?

It was, yeah, my second year as a pro, I was playing on the Aussie tour.

Um, it wasn't necessarily the finances.

It was just, I was playing badly.

Um, especially in tournaments, you know, they've got a pro-am circuit and I played quite well in the pro-ams to, to make a little bit of money, but to, Yeah, I was well out of keeping my card that year.

We had a couple of events left in the season, though, the big events.

I'd missed one of the cuts really badly at the Australian PGA.

That was as quick decisions I would think that normally people would just spend a million minutes on, right?

Why is it so hard to, to follow up a historically great round with another good round on Sunday, and how were you able to, to kind of keep the momentum going after such a good round on Saturday?

Well, it's like, I guess, in general, like, I think your expectations are there, and then when you feel like you're playing really good, you maybe take some stuff on that you, you shouldn't do otherwise.

And, like, I think in general that's why, like, it's hard to back up a really low score.

You just kind of expect it to be the same.

It's not, and you make a couple of mistakes, and you just kind of, you don't have the same feelings.

And, like, I, to be fair, I was a little bit like that early on Sunday.

Um, you know, I, I scrapped my way around kind of those first six or seven holes.

Is there a moment on Sunday, bes- is, is it the drive on 13, or is there another moment that you just feel like that was the, the point that y- that enabled you to win the tournament?

Yeah

...

so well deserved." And then he actually goes, "No, that was so well earned." And that meant a lot coming from him at the time.

Like, I know he's, he'll be absolutely gutted.

Um, and again, like, same thing for Cam.

Like, Sam has played so well for the last year, two years.

He's given himself a bunch of chances, like, his time will come.

Okay

Was that awkward at all putting the Claret Jug-

No, it, it wasn't.

I actually, I walked in to check in at, like, time of day had been, like, 5:30 in the morning, obviously not in a, in a very good way.

And I walked straight to the, straight to the line for BA flying from, well, Manchester to London, then London to Miami, and Cam's in front of me on the line and I'm, yeah, walking in with the Claret Jug and its replica and my golf bag and everything else.

And M- uh, Min Woo Lee and Dan Halier were there as well.

They were on the sa- same flight.

So, um, yeah, Cam was awesome about it.

Like, is that by design?