The Golf Grind From Topeka To The US Open Championship | Andrew Beckler

If you make the cut on the All-Pro Tour, like you got to finish top 20 to get your money back. If you're not breaking 70 almost every round, better start getting on LinkedIn looking for jobs Cheers bro.

Who's Andrew Beckler? Awesome, Andrew. Thank you for joining us on the Topeka Insider. Thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. What's going on, bro? Well, this is exciting. This is a good one. Walk us through a little bit about.

We'll see if it's a good one. Yeah, we'll see if it's a good one. Pressure song, prove yourself. Pressure song, prove my word. No, I up here.

I went to Washburn Rule, ended up going to Kansas State out of high school, spent a few years there. Did the big school. Thing Didn't like it. Came back to Washburn, turned out to be a great fit for me and then graduated from Washburn.

Took me six years, but I graduated with a master's degree and I decided Tommy Boy would say a lot of people go to college for six years, usually they call them doctors. That's right.

Then I decided not to use it. I turned professional in golf and have been playing professionally for three years now. So just chasing my dreams, what I've always wanted to do, and I'm doing it.

That's pretty awesome. That's sick dude. How'd you first get into golf? My dad, that's pretty awesome.

That's sick dude.

How'd you first get into golf, my dad?

My dad loves the game. I was born on the day Tiger Woods won his first Masters. Wow, no way, I told my dad.

he held me up to the TV In the hospital or something, yeah, because he was focused on that.

Yeah, yeah, I mean being born.

Honey, stop with the screaming, just let me watch the game.

I so, honey, stop with the screaming, just let me watch. I don't know if it's a coincidence I mean, I haven't won a masters or anything, but uh, yeah, I mean since birth I've been into golf, yet we're we're trying, uh, but he got me into the game and that's been a great way for us to stay close and have a great relationship. So you guys play a lot together. Yeah, we play a ton together. That's sick.

Yeah, it's awesome, it's great at what point you playing at Washburn? Wow was the plan. At what point did it shift from? Hey, you know I'm playing collegially. This is great to.

I think I'm gonna try and turn pro um, I really wasn't thinking about it until Jack Nicklaus told me I was a good golfer when I won his award. Um, yeah, I really didn't play that great in college. That's kind of why I went from K-State to Washburn. I was not playing K-State wasn't playing good, Came to Washburn so at least I could play and get my degree. And then my last year I was in my fifth year when COVID happened. Covid happens to think I'm done, they give me that bonus year. And I went and won five of ten tournaments and I was like well, never walk away from a heater. So, and I was like well, never walk away from a heater. So that was kind of the moment that I was like I should probably give this a go, if it's always been my dream. But until then I was looking at jobs and trying to figure out what I was going to do the rest of my life.

And yeah, what was your degree? In Marketing and finance, and I got my MBA business administration.

I'm a fellow Washburn marketing major.

Come on, that's a productive six years. I mean you have an MBA. Yeah, they call it the Harvard of the Midwest so that's what all my professors told me who calls?

it that? Do people call it that, dr Stoica? Dr, Stoica, david Price.

That's my guy, the Harvard of the Midwest. I love it, bro. Yes, sir.

That money? That's awesome. So how often are you playing in tournaments? Um this time of year it's, it's every week. I try and book my schedule as full as I possibly can, just trying to get as many opportunities and reps in as possible.

You said this time of year, what's a golfer season look like?

um, my season really starts in, I'd say, like march. I'd say my off season is like december through february, and then march is when, uh, the tours like the mini tours and like PGA sanctioned tours, really start to kick up and they play almost every week. You can find something to travel to and play in every week.

Mini tours, pga tour, walk us through. For those who don't know the different levels of that's me. That would be John.

And me, quite frankly.

The different levels on the's me that would be john and me, quite frankly the different levels on the pga tour, where you're at where you're trying to go.

What's the end goal? So pj tour is like I mean, a good way to put is like major league baseball. So pj tours, mlb corn for a tour is triple a. And then, like pj latin america, pj canada are like double a and I'd even throw in all pro tour where I play as as double a single aid. Yeah, the canada and latin america tour, like the level of play on that tour in all pro tours, pretty similar. Yeah, it's just way more expensive to travel to latin america, right? So I've just stuck with the all pro tour.

You're on the all pro tour yes, yep, and the advantage to the latin america and canada is you have uh, if you play well, you can get on to the corn free tour from there. All pro tour has no affiliation with the tour, so it's just play well, make money, give you a place to to prove yourself, and yeah hopefully get better recognized from there some somehow right. Yeah, a little recognition, but it's really just a place to play. They have four day events there's.

There's really no other mini tour that I found that has four day tournaments, two day cuts and so are there certain scores you need to be shooting, or consistency to get you to the next stage, or is it kind of just waiting for the call up and I mean it's week to week, but if you're not shooting, you know, if you're not breaking 70 almost every round.

Um, better start. Better start getting on linkedin looking for job. That's just how it is. It's cut there. There's so many guys who are so good and like monday qualifiers is a perfect example. They have monday qualifiers every monday before pj tour events and corn furry tour events and if you don't shoot six under, you might as well just 30 clubs in the trunk and leave because it's for four, four to spots, wow. And if you don't shoot six, seven, eight under, you're automatically just gone. You're out, wow, good luck next week. Thanks for your $500. Oh, you had to pay $500 just to $500 for Monday qualifiers. Mini tour events are like $1,000 entry fees Wow. So on top of all the travel and the stress and stuff, it's not a cheap endeavor.

But you're making money somehow from it.

Yeah, I have been this year.

Let's go, come on.

So I mean to profit on the mini tours is tough, because I mean the typical week $1,000 entry fee, you know, think $400 to stay for the week because you're staying five nights, just about, and then if you count food, gas, um, and then just like buying the yardage books, 25 bucks and all you know if you want to go see a movie, that's 50 bucks now. But right, exactly but you're in for like 1500 1800 a week and so if you miss the cut, you get nothing.

If you make the cut on the all pro tour like you gotta finish top 20 to get your money back. Okay, so fortunately I've played well enough. I can heck yeah, say I've profited this year, which is good.

Oh yeah, so not bad yeah, I saw you had some minus sevens and I've been good rounds.

I've been putting together some good rounds this year it's been rolling nice, so, uh, I'm happy about that. I've, you know, seen some good rounds this year. Come on, man, it's been rolling nice, so I'm happy about that. I've seen some good improvement built on what I did last year, when I played pretty well, so we'll just try and keep that ball rolling.

Do you think the three years you've been on pro this might be a dumb question. Have you gotten better? Like year three you are better or are you on a heater right now?

I've definitely improved. My game overall has improved, my health has improved and I made so like I made the us open in 2022 and people say like why don't we? You know where's that, why we made that. I'm probably a 10 to 15 better golfer than I was really, let's say so. I've improved since then. It's just golf so fickle and you got to have the right things, click at the right time and then you can take off. But you just got to keep chipping away and giving yourself those opportunities.

Yeah, heck yeah, so can we go there? Let's go yeah how did that happen? Man, you made that us us open 2022 2022 how'd that happen.

Let's hear about it. I mean your own. Everybody in the world is only 54 holes away from playing in the us open wow, 54 holes.

That's it 54 holes, three rounds, three rounds.

So you, your first stage is your local qualifier and they have a bunch like a bunch of them. So I did mine in kansas city. Uh, played solid, hit my first t, shot out of bounds, really on my way to us open. So snipe it left out of bounds, shot even that day, got through. Then you go to your national qualifier and that was in Maryland for me, and that's 36 holes. There were, I think, like 75 guys low four. Move on to the US Open. And I was like T3, didn't want to overachieve, so I just snuck in and just a week later I was in Boston at the US Open. Wow, that's wild.

How nerve wracking is that it was terrifying, but I mean just so many emotions. Fortunately I played. So I played my practice rounds with Gary Woodland and Dustin Johnson. Yeah, monday, tuesday. Wednesday Wow and those were the biggest crowds I saw all week. I mean we tee up Monday and I'm like, oh, it's Monday, like there won't be anybody there and it is 300 yards of just a wall of people and I was like I better hit this one and not sideways, let alone just playing with your idols.

I mean those dudes.

I looked up to those, Obviously Gary, and then DJ being former world number one.

Wow, heck. Yeah, that helped me settle in. I was less thursday when I teed off for real than I was when I played with those guys. So, no, I bet gary's invite there really helped me what was it like playing with gary?

uh, for I've played with him a few times so I mean I'm I'm used to that. Playing with djs, you know, was new, right. Uh, I mean the first few holes were surreal. And then after that, like you just start having conversations with the guys and you realize they're just normal dudes who love golf. They're just exceptional at it, right. So it's fun to just chat with them and then really just I could just learn so much just from watching them and seeing how they interact and what they're doing on the course to prepare what their caddies are doing. My caddy, ronnie, I'm sure, learned a ton from their caddies. So it's just there's a lot going on and I tried to soak every bit of it in that week so I guess you only got to play with.

I mean, you played with a handful of guys throughout the two days. The thursday, friday were a lot of guys like all business, don't talk, or is there some?

you're socializing with them as you're playing I was pretty social with, uh, lukeannon, so he's from Wichita originally, so I played I mean, we played too much in junior golf together but I knew Luke, so it was a comfortable pairing. At least I had somebody who was in same shoes as me. First US Open, same age. We're both just kind of pooing our pants a little bit, so it was fun to have somebody that I could relate to out there for those two days and we just got brutalized by that golf course. It was really hard first day I played well.

The second day, but that first day it was what'd you shoot? Thursday, friday 78 71, so eight over one over. So yeah, left with a good taste in my mouth.

There you go I think, uh, you 2022 when you're playing the us open. It was the first time a lot of my friends started watching because we're like, hey, we want to see what andrew's doing. You know, to peak a guy and watching golf, when you're trying to watch one particular person, it's horrible because they have, like, you know the corners where there's, you know you get to watch the holes three, four, five, or you get to watch, you know, the select groups, and so it's like, well, I'll watch andrew when he gets to hole seven.

You know we'll see him hit, you know, for one hole right it's not really ideal for watching one person golf is not the best spectator sport yet I think, uh, I mean, they're working on it, they're trying to do the mic'd up stuff I think has been helpful so you can kind of hear what's going on through their heads. Oh, yeah, and walking holes with the guys, but yeah, it's still just, it's the best sport for putting on when you're trying to take a nap it's exactly the stereotype, is so true?

yeah, whose dad didn't fall asleep on Sunday afternoon watching golf? Every dad has.

Every person has. It's true. Yeah, absolutely.

So one of my favorite parts, just you know, is he's obviously he's a big fan and I'm new to golf in general. You know I'm starting my career. You could say starting my career. You could say Uh, uh and uh, but man watching, like you did your own kind of mic'd up stuff like um between holes and you did some videos, but you have kind of your own podcast, kind of right. Yeah.

Uh, podcast is being very generous, but it's uh, yeah, I don't. It's just a little post round recap. I call it beverages Beckler and got it on my on mug. That's one of my logos right there.

So uh but yeah, I had enough people just kind of asking me what's been going. You know, how are you playing, and I just I didn't really know how to sum it up because I play so much. Yeah, I'm playing. I didn't want to give just a very generic answer, so I just tell people straight up how I'm playing. After every single round I give a. You know, I try and give a little feedback on what was going on out there, because the scorecard doesn't necessarily tell the entire story of your round or what's going on, and it's a good thing for me personally to just recap the round. So I have to think about it and then, after the beverage of Beckler is done, that's my time where I'm done thinking about golf for the day, and then I can rest and relax and move on for, uh, next round or move past the tournament wow, well, speaking of that, I thought we could have our own beverage with beckler, is that, uh, absolutely I think, uh, we may even have picked up what appears to be your drink of choice.

Is it blue?

yes, sir, let's go when it's cold. It's blue, that's right, that's right, awesome, thank you post round beverage thank you, cheers bro.

Oh yeah, that tastes like we're playing golf right now.

It does I wish I was playing golf right now. 650 in cypress tonight, though, boys see I'm as you're talking about nerves I'm trying to think through. Would I be more nervous teeing it up at the US Open or teeing it up on Cyprus hole one with steady traffic going on Urish?

I don't know. I think the steady traffic because the US Open you got the galleries right they're going to find you.

You're never going to lose a ball.

If you lose a ball on tour, like you hit one way sideways.

Right.

Or you hit it in the water Right. But that was definitely an advantage and I used it a couple times at the US Open and at corn furry events. It's like you know a couple holes where long is not the end of the world, because you can just bang it off the grandstands and get a free drop. So it's helpful. It's like playing bowling with the bumpers on a little bit dude.

So what's the best part? I mean, obviously you love golf itself, but like what? What gets you going every day? You're on. You know this circuit right now, is it? You know how are you finding the joy in what you're doing now?

I mean, I obviously have the big goals that I want. I want to be on the PGA Tour, I want to be number one player in the world, but top 50 would be pretty sweet.

Number one player in the world.

Say it, I love it. Yeah, that'd be great, but it's just a lot of. I'm cool with the Charles Howell third career. You make a ton of money but you can go to olive garden and nobody knows who you are. Yeah, and so I'm fun.

I just I want to play golf for a living and live comfortably right now. Yeah, it's, it's not the most comfortable living, but I've I mean, I found the joy in just the day-to-day grind, just uh, the steady improvement. I've always loved golf, so I've just I found a way to to kind of embrace like the inner child where I just love beating balls, playing all the, and I just have kind of just banked on that and let the results just kind of go and see what happens. Right, the big goals obviously are what get me up in the morning, keep me going, and then I've had a taste of it at the US Open, a couple corn for events, and I've seen my game stack up against some like guys who played golf at the very highest level and I truly believe I can do it. So that's what keeps me rolling, thank you wow.

What would you say is the best part of your game?

I mean feel free to brag on yourself it. It rotates like college. It was my short game and my short game is still like is very solid. Um, but right now I'd say my driving's been kind of sweet. I've been hitting the driver nice um, I just I tend to keep it in play. Yeah, quite a bit. I'm not the longest guy, I'm not the straightest guy, but, uh, I just find a way to keep the golf ball on the golf course and keep moving forward and not just not make very many mistakes. I think that's what's helped me a ton. Um, I don't know if I'm playing too conservatively, but it's been working all right. I'm just kind of waiting around for the win is what it feels like right now. What are you swinging? I got the Callaway AI Smoke Shout out Callaway. Sponsor me Absolutely.

Let's go man.

And I play TaylorMade Irons. I used to play the Callaway irons. I didn't like them so much I switched back to the Tannamades.

Do we have to cut?

that. Part out Callaway. Figure out your irons. One of the things I love about golf is I feel like there's so many random phrases and slang terms for just random stuff. What are some of your favorite golf?

terms. Golf lingo is fantastic, gosh, I'm trying to think of some good ones it has to just, it almost has to be in the moment right, you just happened. Yeah, yeah, just I mean, there's appropriate one, there's, there's inappropriate ones, there's some four-letter words that are said out there by me sometimes, um, but yeah, our lingo is great. It's trying to. I might have to come back to that.

No, yeah, you're good Putting you on the spot, man, that's wild.

All right. As a certified golf professional, someone who's trying to get into golf has never played. What would you recommend? How to get into golf, you know, are there certain things someone should do, whether it's going to the range, playing certain courses, clubs what would you suggest?

I would suggest start on the green and work backwards so learn how to score it. So, uh like, start at 30 feet from the hole and can you get it in the hole in two strokes, 18 times in a row. So you're trying to shoot 36 and then scoot back to 50 feet, scoot back to 30 yards, 40 yards and just learn how to score it. Because I mean, you'll learn how to hit it if you can learn how to score it. But I would say wow. To put it short, you know, start from work backwards, start the whole work backwards don't try and down myself Don't go to the golf course and just expect to start playing 18 holes and being decent.

It's really really hard. The ball does not tend to like to go straight.

Golf is one of the most humbling sports in the world. It really is. It is.

And seek advice. Go find a golf professional. Go see Scott Wimpe professional. Go see scott wimpy up at firekeeper. That's my guy. That's who I still use as my coach. But he works with, he works with everybody. Um same davis atterbury, he's my trainer. He work, he still helps people with golf, with golf swinging stuff. So and and your body, if you want to get your body right and move correctly so I guess on that how many different coaches do you have?

what do they all do? How often are you training?

I have two so. So Scott is my swing coach and just like golf coach in general, we talk strategy and stuff I see when I'm home. I played with him today, we just went up, played firekeeper. So I see him at least once or twice when I'm home. If I'm home for a week, davis I see two or three times a week, and that's if I'm home or on the road. We do Zoom calls and stuff and and that's if I'm home or on the road we do Zoom calls and stuff and some of the time it's movement and we do a ton of just mobility and strength training stuff. And then we also do like mental training things and word practice. Just what kind of words am I saying to myself on the course, off the course? Wow, really.

What am I?

thinking, breathing techniques to try and get like heart rate to settle down.

We were just talking about that before you got yeah, we were yeah you want to dive into that oh, I'm just, I'm getting into running and, uh, it's kind of been a surprising fun. Part of it is kind of um, as the gen zers say, raw dogging a run uh, no headphones, yep. Uh, no phone, no music, you know whatever. And it's just the like, the mental game of it has been surprisingly fun. So we were talking just before this about you know what that's been like. You're kind of David Goggins, you know on yourself. You know, come on man, you got this.

You're just going to share the boats and the logs? Yeah, that's exactly what you said, so exactly.

So yeah, I'm curious like what, how is a coach helping you with that? Like what does that process look like?

And what does that look like in golf?

Especially over, if it's over a Zoom call and he's not like walking the course with you. I mean, how does that work?

Yeah, I mean, a lot of it is we. We write a bunch of stuff, so like journaling, and we'll do it over a word doc so he can see it, I can see it and I I'll write about how I'm feeling on a certain thing. Sometimes it's I'm not feeling good about my putting and he'll ask okay, well then write about how you feel when you're putting your best, or just write how you're feeling right now about your putting. I'll write it. We'll read it through Next time around. I'll read it 30% slower Next time around. I'm reading it at that 70% pace, but with a breath after each period and just breaking it down until it just it clears things up in my head quite a bit. Wow, wow, working through it, breathing through it, and then it just doesn't feel as overwhelming and it feels more organized and you have, you can have a plan of attack on how to break it down and improve from it.

Wow, yeah why is it? When I think about my putting, I just envision myself snapping my putter. Is that part of the training?

Is that part of self-talking. It happens I saw a guy punt his putter on Sunday in an event Like 30 yards.

What do you do if you have no positive feelings in regards to your putting?

Go home.

Just go home with your wedge.

I've been there, just try and get in the hole too.

Get out of there. Oh man, that's amazing. Do you find that like, uh, you know, I mean everybody's pretty good like there's a baseline level skill, everybody's like pretty good, pretty skilled. Do you find that like the mental game is more of like a limiting factor for guys than maybe other things like?

skill, absolutely. I mean they say golf's 90, mental and right, and once you get to like a certain level, it is like that makes the difference between the good and the great, and just like being out there and I mean I've had to work on it, I've had to work on the words. I'm telling myself the thoughts, I'm thinking my breath. Like you, I can tell. Now I can watch somebody. I can tell when they're gonna hit a bad shot because their breath's real high and tight and they're nervous or I can tell when they're around.

You know, I can even tell when my round's gonna go to crap, because I start telling myself I'm awful and I suck, and this is. You know, I start becoming the victim of my circumstance. Yeah.

You're gonna get bad breaks in golf, like you, just before you tee off, you kind of just have to accept it if you hit, you can hit a perfect tee shot right down the middle and they can end up in a divot or you can, you know, barely pull it off the fairway and it could be right behind the tree, like that's just stuff, that's gonna happen and it doesn't make you a bad golfer or anything like that. So just being able to you move on from things like that and and just I've, I've really found davis and I've worked on it, just accepting the challenge and and finding the fun in it. You're behind a tree.

Okay, this is gonna be a fun par when I chip it out and hit a wedge close and make the putt wow and then you build momentum, and then you have that domino of come on yeah, good, positive energy rolling instead of I hit it behind the tree, I hack it out, I hit a bad wedge, I make bogey right and then you're.

You know your dominoes start going and when the ball lands behind the tree, oh I suck. I knew this was gonna happen. I'm the worst you know. But just like, no, no, this one's gonna be a fun win. Like it's gonna be a creative way to get this whole right.

Yeah, it's a great parallel for just life, though in general right just treating it head-on. Obstacles you're gonna face, you know right looking at it as an opportunity not a victim of your circumstances it really.

I yeah, I mean there's. I think there's a lot we could say about that, you know, just like seeing it as an opportunity, you know, and not like yeah letting it kick your, your can around, you know a lot of parallels between golf and life.

Golf, you're gonna hit bad shots like it's part of the deal. Life, you're gonna have bad stuff happen right.

Welcome to life.

Right, yeah, welcome welcome to earth maybe just we'll go to public courses in topeka. What's your go-to? What's your favorite, why, or a particular hole? What?

do you? What do you like about some of the public courses around town? We, low-key, have awesome public golf and really I I think so For a town our size our golf is good. Cypress and the Lake fantastic. My favorite, village Greens yeah, I'm a big Village Greens guy. I haven't been up there in a while but I love that golf course. I think it's fun. I love just how it's run. It's very chill laid back. I think golf needs more of that chill laid back. I think. Uh, I think golf needs needs more of that. Yeah, uh, it's, I mean, more inclusive, I guess, invites people to and it's not intimidating. If you right, you know you go out to big country club's my favorite course obviously, probably in the world. But if your first time golfing is it to be country club, probably you're not gonna love it.

You know it's just, it's. It's a hard golf course, it's intimidating and you know it's traditional, it's classic. But uh, it's just, it's a hard golf course, it's intimidating and it's traditional, it's classic, but it'll just beat you up and spit you out, right?

Do you think it's harder than Firekeeper?

Depends on your style of play. I played.

Firekeeper for the first time. The other day I probably I probably lost nine golf balls all off the tee.

Oh, that golf course eats golf balls. I played there this morning and I'm not a good golfer, but I play enough right 15 handicap and losing nine balls off the tee, that's defeating. Yeah, it's one of those let's get out of here unforgiving, off off the tee out there, but uh, it's still fun. It's a beautiful track, it is a really it's one of our better. It's one of our better ones, yeah worst golf course. Oh man world. Oh man, Don't make me do that. Are you allowed to?

say you don't have to say if you don't want.

I don't know. I want to buy it someday, but it's one of my favorites, but I'm going to trash it. Western Hills. I love my golf course, but I'd love to buy it. You see the potential, it's got potential. It's got potential. It's not there right now.

It's like the 80s movie with the girl who's actually really attractive, but she's got glasses and weird hair and they just give her a makeover and boom, she's the prom queen.

That's exactly it. That's the golf course. So I'm trying to ruin their stock so I can go there. You go. So.

Western Hills. Is that because of the condition it's in right now, or or are there certain holes and layouts that you don't care for?

There's just some certain holes. The condition has gotten so much better in the last four or five years. There's just some holes that need to be redesigned and some trees that need to go down. Some length can be added in places. I have some ideas. I've played enough.

Do you have drawings? You've mapped it out In my head I haven't put that down.

I'm a horrible drawer it looks way better.

You're like this is what I'm thinking. What is that? What does that mean?

in crayon. But I have ideas and it's close, close to the house so I go out there and chip and putt and practice a bunch, because nobody's ever out there practicing. So I just have it all to myself and I love, I love western hills. Wow, I, uh, I'm I'm just betraying how little I know about golf but we're out there practicing so I just have it all to myself.

I love Western Hills. Wow, I'm just betraying how little I know about golf, but I know there's the really famous course in Scotland. That's super hard or whatever St.

Andrews, have you ever played that Home of golf? I haven't. I've never been to Europe. Okay, no I haven't made it over there yet. Yeah, going to Women's Open Championships there this weekend so you can see it on TV. There you go. Yeah, I'll have to watch it.

There you go, you can watch the Women's US Open.

There you go, man.

Open Championship.

It's awesome.

Maybe shifting a little bit to your relationship with Topeka. You said you travel all over and then you joke that you come home on your vacation in Topeka. Walk us through maybe your relationship with Topeka. You've been here your whole life and uh, yeah, a little bit about that yeah, uh, yeah.

I've never really left Topeka except for my three years in Manhattan. So, uh, this is home and it will remain that way. I mean, even if I make the PGA tour, I've always thought, I've always said Topeka will be my home and it will be. Wow, it's tough to do the winters here. So, like last winter, I did the winter in Tucson, arizona, so I did six months there and six months here.

Just so you could keep playing, keep playing. That's the only reason I went down there Hard to play in three inches of snow. Simulators aren't good for you.

Not quite. You can't simulate the real deal, but I love Topeka man. It's perfect size for me, my it's perfect size for me, my team's here. I just love life here. I love the people.

So I'd never leave Topeka, wow.

Why I just love the way of life here. It's simple, there's no traffic, I get my work done, but it's really for the people, honestly.

I've been to a ton of places.

I've never met people kinder and more genuine than the people in Topeka and they've helped me out a ton. That's a huge reason why I can keep doing what I'm doing, because it's obviously financially difficult. Topeka Country Club has been great to me. They give me a place to practice. Scott, my coach, really cuts me a nice deal and we get to work together. And Scott, my coach, really cuts me a nice deal and we get to work together. Davis has been great for me, so it just makes the most sense for what I'm trying to do and I just have so much support. I mean, I meet so many new people.

You guys who are encouraging of what I'm doing. We were actually going to try to convince you to quit. This is it, bro Quit? Did my parents put you up? Yeah, and you're still gonna cut us the check after this, right? Uh, yeah, we really think you should go the nba route. Uh, yeah, find a desk job. No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. No, man, we love it, we're pumped man. There's like people from topeka doing great things out there. You know, man, it's awesome.

We're trying and I I love representing Topeka. I mean Washburn's a big part of my life and couldn't be more proud to be a Washburn alum. So I rep their stuff on my golf bag and I wear their shirts from time to time. Ronnie keeps hooking me up with the gear every year. Nice, nice. I keep rocking the bods out there.

Heck yeah.

That's probably some good recruiting for him as well. I I hope so. I'm trying to get the cabot out there. It always gets a question like what's that logo? What's go bods? I have go bods on my uh yardage book cover like what's a bod right?

and they just uh, this is their first year for their girls team, right?

first year for girls team, so watch for golf on the come up. Let's go, man that's awesome dude.

It's gonna be. They're gonna be good.

I think wow, yeah, I I would be willing to bet, whether you know it or not, you probably have so many more people supporting you behind the scenes just from your post-run recap stuff that you do. I mean, those are, that's big. Now. I've been watching those for probably a year and I met you 15 minutes ago. So I mean, yeah, I mean I've been watching those forever and I was holding a conversation with someone like, yeah, it looks like Andrew's playing well this year.

Hadn't talked to him, but I'm following the instagram. Yeah, that's awesome. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Yeah, that's really where I've seen a ton of support. I mean to peak in beyond is just people who have never, never met or didn't know. They're watching and and they, that's like the first thing they bring up. Like when I first started doing it, I didn't know how many people were watching it. Now I feel like, okay, that's some traction. It's not reaching, you know, crazy amounts of people.

But, it's reaching the people who care, and that's really who I care to see it Right yeah.

And here's the real question we want to know Are you in fact sponsored by Coors Light?

No, Not yet. Not yet. I tag them in every post. Post, I haven't heard the word. I'm looking for a beverage sponsor for beverage with beckler. So okay, words out there, I'm open.

I'm open to open his fielding offers every day.

I am wow, sending my dm tens of dollars speaking to that what kind of sponsors do you have?

what does that work? Look like you have one just for the beverage with beckler's. You know that you're tell us a little bit about that side of it.

Um, that's it. That's been an interesting deal. I don't. I have one main sponsor, uh, phoenix marketing, seth Stevens shout out him. Uh, I met him through my old job before I quit my job. Um, we've been friends ever since, but, uh, he's been super supportive, giving me, you know, financial resources to try and cover expenses. Like that's, my biggest thing is, if I can cover expenses, I, my golf, will take care of the rest. Uh, so is that a topeka guy? He's a topeka guy. I've had uh other family friends. Uh, just, you know, chip in here and there I'll get venmos from people, which has been just the biggest blessing ever. So what's?

your venmo I don't think it's like abeckler 13 there we go, so there you go yeah, we'll get our tens of followers.

Uh, on that, come on perfect.

But uh, I mean all my he's topeka based. My spine, all my sponsors are basically topeka based and my family's been a huge help to me. Give you know one who just like supporting me to do what I'm trying to do. It ain't easy. And then, uh mean, give me a roof over my head. I just, I just live at home. I I'm never home. So when I'm vacationing in Topeka I just stay with my folks and kick it for a few days and hit the road again. Mom gives me some some homemade meals, which I don't get very many of, and then does laundry. Then I turned the car around and head to the next small town.

Wow, what awesome wow, what would be. Uh, what are some things you know as you think about the city of topeka. What are some things that you'd like to see happening here? You know, maybe it relates to golf, but just generally too.

Oh, that's a good question. Um, I mean, with golf I've already seen a huge uh improvement with you know what jared goring does. He was my high school coach. He, he runs to be a junior golf and there's hundreds of kids who are in that now. That's so much bigger than what it was when I was in junior golf. Uh, first tee, uh, mark just runs the first tee and it's grown so much. Um, so, golf wise, there's that. Um gosh, I mean, honestly, I'd love to see a restaurant that has a little bit healthier food. We have a great sports bar scene in Topeka Bullfrogs, jeffersons, glazed Goose, the Spot's my favorite bar. But I've tried to change the way I eat and I just feel like I don't go out to eat very much in Topeka. Yeah, it's difficult. It's tough if you're trying to be on a diet and cautious of what you're putting in your body. So if somebody could come up with a restaurant that had really healthy options but delicious I don't want to keep going out and getting a salad.

Right.

I want a good dish that doesn't kill me.

What diet are you on or what's your nutrition plan right now?

You said you've gotten really healthy the last couple years yeah, I've probably dropped 30 to 40 pounds in like a year. Wow. So, come on, bro, good job man. So, uh, I just realized there weren't a whole lot of dad bods out on tour anymore, so I'm trying to fit in with those guys.

they're actual athletes now it's crazy. Oh, yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, but the big thing for me was just protein intake. I just try and take in as much protein, cut out sugar no sugar as little as I can. I have a sweet tooth, so I found some alternatives. I'll make a dessert with protein powder instead of eating a cookie.

It's a protein cookie, but I find my you know some sweet stuff cut back on my Coors lights. Oh, sorry man, it's all good.

I still enjoy, you know, obviously enjoy them. I haven't completely cut drinking out of my life but yeah, just tons of protein. I go on walks every day. That's huge for me, like outside of just walking on the golf course, just going for a walk, like low intensity but some cardio and then lifting weights. But davis, my trainer, has been a huge uh resource for me with, like, my nutrition and like he's really helped turn the page for me on what I need to do. Stop going out to eat so much. I learned how to cook for myself a little bit it's simple stuff.

Yeah, that's a big milestone, you know. Yeah, what are your upper 20s? Or something, yeah 27 come on, bro, it's a big milestone I better figure that out.

But yeah, I've enjoyed it, it's fun, uh, but just like that mental shift of food for fuel, not for enjoyment. I'm a foodie, I love food, but right when I started to think about, okay, this is, or food for fuel versus food for emotional comfort.

Right, that's more food yeah, exactly yeah.

So that's been huge. And I've seen the effects on the golf course. Wow, really, yeah, tons, just like, instead of kind of petering out around three and four. That's when I start to feel like I'm starting to come on strong, I'm starting to get in the rhythm and, wow, you know, two, three, four weeks in a row on the road if you're not fueled properly or out of shape, it definitely makes a difference. Being somebody who was overweight and unhealthy on the road versus how I am now. It's made the world of difference, wow.

That makes sense. I'm not a nutritionist by any means, but I found, like I've gone through, you know, seasons where I'm, like, more intentional about what I eat or, you know, cutting out certain things are unhealthy, and I found, when I have a higher protein diet, like I won't hit the afternoon slump. It's just like I don't need coffee at 2 pm. I just feel great. Right, I'm just keeping the day going. The energy.

The mental clarity, yeah, the mental clarity. Yeah, man, it's unmatched. When, yeah, when my diet, I can tell when my diet's on and when it's off right.

So that's been huge for me. Probably gonna pay for this one, uh, later this afternoon.

That's all right, all right. I got a golf theory of mine that I want to run by you, okay, would you? Would you agree that, since I want to know if this is just my stage of life or if you see this uh across. You know all the people you're talking to. You think golf has gotten more popular in the last three, four years, five years since covid oh, yeah, it's totally boomed.

Covid changed golf forever really. Yes, oh, I think well, at least for for now. But yeah, I like during COVID, the golf course was the busiest place in the world.

Nobody was working, everybody was golfing and then it just kind of stuck. I think it's really changed for, like, the playing of golf, which is like increased in, you know, viewership of professional golf. But really I think it's mostly people just love to play more than watch. When we watch, we fall asleep. I mean it's so much fun. Mostly people just love to play more than watch. When we watch, we fall asleep, Right, I mean it's so much fun. And people are starting to see how addicting it can really be. Okay. So here's my theory.

With that established, golf has gotten more popular over the last three years.

What is he disagreeing with your premise? Well, I wasn't going to ask why.

Here we are, so golf has gotten more popular over the past three to five years since COVID. My theory is that in the next 20 years the golf game and the level of competition is going to explode through the roof Because all of these young 20s and 30-year-olds who are now getting into golf because it's boomed are going to try and get their kids into golf Because now it's cool. And so you're going to get all these people that would you know would have played football or basketball or whatever they're playing golf and so you're going to get a lot of these higher quality athletes getting into the sport young. Do you back that theory or am I full of it?

Absolutely. It's already happening. You can see these kids coming onto the scene, like in college who just murdered the golf ball and like that's a huge part of the game now. It's just like natural athletes. Yeah, like the guy who could probably be an all state quarterback is playing golf and just nuking the golf ball. So yeah, it's, it's going to happen, it's happening right now, but still got to get the golf ball in the hole, man.

Like yeah it's it's a whole.

That's a whole different story than just murdering the ball. But gotta get the golf ball in the hole, man, like, yeah, it's, it's a whole, that's a whole different story than just murdering the ball. But yeah, as the game's just, the guys are going to continue to get better. We'll see what happens when they roll the golf ball back and change equipment and stuff like that. Like that, that's coming down down the pipe soon so do what?

what's that walk us through that yeah?

so last year they decided they're gonna roll the golf ball back. I think it's like 10 percent distance wise. So the golf if you hit, you know 100 yard shot, now it's going to go 90, like just in the design of the ball. Yes, so, like they, they have limitations on like compression and spin and what the golf ball can do, and they're going to roll back its abilities in the next year now, that's just for professionals, right just for the professionals, but it's going to have to.

They're gonna have to change it across the board because, like, the coolest thing about golf is, you know, if you want to go play tpc scottsdale, where you know all the pros play, you're playing. You can, right now you can go to the same club and same ball and see what you can do versus what they do. Yeah, absolutely. You know, in a year or two you go and they're playing a ball that's rolled back. You're still playing the normal ball. It's not like. The comparison is not there, right?

I completely agree. I think that's the coolest part about golf is I can, on any given day, play the exact same course, ball equipment, conditions that tiger woods played, and I can straight up compare how good am I compared to tiger woods today? Right, you know nfl, nba, any of these others, but you can't do that. You know I have no idea what it's like to be a quarterback. You know behind the Chiefs O-line.

Right Down by three, like five from the touchdown.

I will never know, but I know exactly what it's like to be 100 out on that particular hole, and I see Tigers 100 out there too, so it really puts it in perspective.

Yeah, it's like the most relatable sport ever, like across the board. But if you roll the pros back you, you have to roll everybody back, otherwise it loses that part of the game golf is already so hard? It's already so hard.

Making it harder, dang I thought you were about to drop, like some wild conspiracy theory on us about golf, or something. No wild conspiracy theories for me do you have any conspiracy theories about golf?

oh, um superstitions maybe too.

I definitely have some superstitions. We'll go conspiracy theories first Conspiracy theories.

Gosh, I have some thoughts about the live PJ Tour stuff. Definitely Spill it. I think Jay Monahan was definitely paid and already knew that he was going to take that Saudi deal and he screwed up a lot of lives. Like a PGA Tour guy, I feel bad for Gary Woodland. The guy gets offered from Liv. I mean I played with him in practice rounds when Dustin Johnson was already on Liv. Gary was one of the guys in question. It was 100% a recruiting deal there. I wish he would have recruited me, but I knew Gary had an offer and I mean those dudes got anytime.

You get guaranteed money in golf, you kind of have to take it. I mean it is just such a wild game. You can lose your game or, like in Gary's case, he's had some health issues in the last couple years and he missed out on a bunch of you know, generational wealth and it all could have been different if he would have been able to know that Jay Monahan and the PGA Tour were going to go behind their backs and basically kind of screw him over. But I think the PGA Tour has been not acting in the best interest of his players for a very long time and unfortunately it took live golf to kind of make them think about it and shake things up. Uh, we'll see what happens.

It was a good thing it kind of is making progress for golf I think it in the long term will be right now.

I think it's pretty detrimental to the game when you don't have the best players in the world playing together every single week and there's a separation.

But, uh, and it sucks. The guys like gary were in the, you know, in the cross fire of of the changing of the game. But I think in the future it's it's gonna look a lot like, uh, premier league soccer with, like, with the tears and right. Yeah, I think that's how they're gonna kind of mesh it back together. But it's gonna be messy when, uh, when they come together and they will they're owned by the same people.

Now, like it, it's all it would be nice if it was more organized like Premier League. Premier League is a great like model with the levels. And hey, if you're the top of one level, you move up, if you're at the bottom of one level, you move down. Yeah, that could be a great model, it's awesome and they they have that somewhat.

Top guys from the corn move up to the pga and vice versa. But I mean, with how popular golf is now, they could probably do three to four tiers and you know that grows their brand even more. And just I mean, how exciting is it to watch guys playing for their career? Yeah right, you know big money on the lot, like big money on the line and lives cool or and on the pga tour, like watching scotty sheffler win four million dollars every week, is really awesome for him. But I mean, as somebody who's you know in the shoes of you know the fine line of making it and not I think it's fun watching guys battle for for those moments and you know it's life-changing stuff. When guys went on the pj tour for the first year and you don't get that on live, you still get that on the pj tour. I hope that they highlight that even more and that fans embrace that.

But what do you think about golf in the olympics this year? Did you watch any of it and you like that for the sport?

yeah, I loved it. It's. I think it's fantastic. I mean anytime golf can be on a global stage like that and I mean you saw how much it meant to scotty to win a gold medal. The dudes won everything else in the world and he never cried, yeah, and he gets on the podium at the olympics and he's bawling his eyes out. So it was cool to see it mean so much to him. And even you know the guys who finished silver and bronze like it still means the world to just be on that podium.

So there's something about an olympic medal. Just it's the olympics, it's definitely you're a top athlete right ever I mean, that's your sport so I think it's fantastic that it's.

I thought it was the funniest thing ever.

So I saw a picture of Scotty Rory and a bunch of other players at the Olympics. They were holding like this first day of school poster basically saying hey, this is my nickname, you know, this is the best part of my game what is your goal for the Olympics? And they all put in what their goal was. Naturally, you know all these athletes their goal for the Olympics is to win gold right. Not Scotty Scheffler. Scotty Scheffler writes in there his goal for the Olympics is to have fun.

And he goes out there and just kills.

Everybody shoots. Nine under on the day ties the course record for the fourth day. Wow, insane.

But that's crazy. I was curious and tell me you know if I'm off on this, but it seems like generally in most competitive, some guys are real clutch guys by nature, so the pressure is good. But it seems like for most people in competition, if you can have the attitude, hey, I want to be loose, I just want to have fun, let the outcome be what it is, you generally do better. Do you find that that's the case? Absolutely? Then how? How do you navigate the tension of I play better when I'm loose and I'm just there to have fun, but also I can't survive unless I do well and make money?

You know, I mean that's, that's like.

those are the opposites, those are the exact opposite. So how do you navigate that? You know?

Yeah, it's uh, that's a, it's a practice Like I've. It's taken me time to figure that out. I wasn't as good as it when I first started and I'm much better at separating the two Now. Um, a lot of it just goes back to just thinking, like your preparation, the day-to-day. If you put in the work day-to-day, uh, you know you just got to trust in your preparation that good things are going to happen. Um, I always say like if, if I chase my dreams, good things will happen. That's kind of what that's. A big way I get out of bed is if I, if I give it a hundred percent, I chase my dreams, good things will happen, regardless if it's golf, if it's not, um, so I can rest my head easy at night with that.

But, uh, yeah, fine, like being able to when you're at Q school, when your job's on the line, and being able to, you know, swing as freely as you do when you're third beer deep with your buddies. That's when I play my best. So, like, that's a swing thought my dad gave me. He's like swing, like you've had three course lights, because he knows that's when I play my best. So just being able to recall that's the preparation. Just, yeah, it takes practice. If you play tons of tournaments, it starts to just come naturally. You don't really think about the outcome, you don't think about your check. You're just trying to get the ball in the hole as fast as you can. If you do, great. If you don't, you've got a tournament next week. Keep going.

Who's your favorite pro golfer?

right now. Right now, it's Max Homa, that guy's awesome, great personality. Yeah, have you met him? I have. I met him at the US Open, nice, at a Red Sox game. That's the first time.

I met him. That's awesome. Yeah, it was sweet. Was that like a weird, hey, I'm a big fan? Or it's hey, I'm your competitor.

I had a friend who kind of knew him and introduced me to him. It was just to shake his hand, yeah, and say what's up?

it was really neat. That's awesome. Uh favorite restaurant in topeka uh, jong's okay, let's go places fire love going.

What about it? Uh, I mean, the food is awesome service. I love them in there. They're so nice to me every time I go and it's byob so I can take a six-pack cooters light. Are you serious? Yeah, promise you just gotta call and get a reservation, like so far no, it's so true.

They're so busy, which is great. I love them. That's awesome, man, yeah, uh favorite coffee shop oh, good question.

Um, let's go circle.

I like circle, okay circle a lot lately that's a popular thing, that's a favorite what would you say is the most frustrating part of living in topeka?

road conditions yeah, the just potholes, and then roads being closed, just all. It seems like every time I come back home there's something else well, that was a perfect segue.

Then, how many potholes did you hit on your way here today? Uh, like eight, probably. Did you? Were you able to get here without hitting construction? Uh, yes, I was come on, let's go come on, man, uh, do we hit, we hit your favorite golf course right no, we have.

Well, yeah, we did.

Yeah, or you said favorite golf course to peak a country club. I grew up out there that's my place the renovation job is fantastic. I love it. Yeah, I love it. It's been fun. Do you have a favorite gym? Favorite gym? Oh, davis, atterbury's garage. That's where I work out that's my homie.

Shout out, davis, how do we get a subscription to that?

oh, you just need to dm him, bro.

He's open, he's taking clients. That's awesome, uh, if you have, you had to do any, like you know, building projects, home projects um very, I'm not very handy, admittedly, if you were to have to go to home depot, lows or menards, which one would you go to? Bra, home depot, come on, let's go bro. Uh, shunga Trail or Burnett's Mount? Uh, burnett's, yeah, come on, that's right. Uh, last last one. If you were to, you know, take somebody on a date, what would? What would the go-to date night spot be?

oh, I think I gotta go Jong, so that's a, it's a nice, you know yeah, a little quiet spot and then gosh after that for a drink, maybe the Knox and then the T-Box. Get a few swings in late night. Shout out my boy, jake, I love the T-Box. Yeah, that's probably a little three-stop date.

Where's?

the Knox? I don't think I've been there. It's in the same building as White Linen.

Oh yeah, so you're connected. Just cool, cool, cool, sweet cocktails. Nice, okay, my boy phil in there. He used to be to be a country club. Now he's mixologist there. Tcc wasn't letting him cook like he needs to. Hey, bro, that is stuff, his cocktails are so good oh man.

Well, dude bro, thanks so much for your time. Cheers guys, thanks for the honor absolutely appreciate it, appreciate you.

Yeah, thanks so much.