Two Peas in a Podcast

Episode 95 - Christian Heavens

Christian Heavens is a professional golf player who started out on PGA Tour Canada. During his time on tour, Christian won 22 professional events and started breaking into the ranks of some of the best in the world. In addition, Christian has participated in some high-profile events on television including Golf Channel's Big Break Myrtle Beach and ABC's Season 2 of Holey Moley.

Christian is an Assistant Golf Coach at McKendree University and has recently launched the first non-profit event called Golf Slaps that was sponsored by Top Golf.

To connect with Christian directly please reach out at:

https://www.instagram.com/iamcheavens/?hl=en

Duration:: 43m
Broadcast on:: 04 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Christian Havens. First and foremost, I always find myself in these rooms talking to people who are just way better athletes than me and way more accomplished. So at the end of the day, thank you so much for making time for us and sharing your story with our platform because we really appreciate you, brother. Yeah, no, absolutely, man. It's a pleasure to be on the platform. Like what you're doing so far, just getting started. So I think we can help each other and hopefully we have somebody else out today too. I love that. Tell us who you are. Tell us about some of the success that you've had in your career because, brother, what a career it has been so far. Yeah, I appreciate that. Like you said, my name is Christian Evans from the Hat, which I wear all the time. I'm from the St. Louis area. And you know, I like to think of myself as a golfer, pernour, like pretty much anything in the golf industry. I've made money off what I've done. I've, you know, consider myself an expert in whether it's playing golf, teaching golf, consulting, all that stuff. Right. So I've been creating my own training golf training gate at one point. It was called tour line. I'm doing podcasting and content creating. So just anything in golf, I've been a grew up in the game of golf in this area. My grandfather introduced me before I could walk to, you know, get my first set of golf clubs for my first Christmas. And then I just always had a passion for it and worked hard. Golf has taken me around the world, playing on TV and from the millions, impacting hundreds of, hopefully hundreds of thousands of kids around the country and world. So it's really giving me a platform and opportunity to shine light on, you know, my thing is, want everybody to play golf. I think golf can enhance everybody's career, no matter what they decide to do. But my main mission is just chase your dreams, like chase your passion. Golf is my passion. I'm from an area where opportunities are lacking and resources are lacking for people to play golf. But I still, you know, I didn't, that they deter me. I did get help from the right people. And I've just always found a way to chase my dream. So that's really the ultimate goal out of this. Chase your dream and then play some golf. And hopefully it also enhances that too. That's that dream and career as well. Dude, I love you so much because you're a man of so many talents. And what you usually see with professional athletes is either they are really good athletes or they get the business side of it. What's so awesome about talking to you is you try to combine the two and make the best out of the two. Let's talk about being an athlete first and foremost. Now you've been playing golf your entire life, just like a hell of a lot of people. Not everyone ends up climbing the ranks and being as successful as you. At what point did you realize that you're really, really good and exceptional at the game? I don't know, you know, I started winning tournaments early and I knew that that was kind of a rare thing. Winning at a younger age, you know, I talked to one big coach at the University of Illinois, Mike Small, and he talks about what he looks for when he sees, looks for, you know, recruits. You know, you get a lot of players playing at the national level, but he's like, man, I'd rather have a guy that's winning at the local level because that winning aspect, it takes something mentally, something mental to overcome in a certain type of mental fortitude to actually be a winner. So I just knew that I was always a winner. I knew I could, whatever level I got to, if I worked hard, I can get to that next level and eventually win. And then coming, you know, in high school, I played basketball as well. I didn't grow up to be six, six or anything like that. So it came a point at that time where I needed to decide what sport I was going to take serious, whether it's going to be basketball, because now everything's so competitive or golf. And I just always knew that golf was it. I knew I can compete in golf. I knew I could play with the best. It was something more internal that just said, this is it for you. And like just a self-belief and like, whether maybe it's a compass that I had to just say, like, go this direction. Golf is your way. You're going to make a great career. You're going to make the impact. This is your purpose. So I wish I could answer like, there was a certain moment that I knew that I was good. But just along the way, I just kept, as long as I kept getting better and better, I knew I was going to just keep playing golf. Yeah. And what's crazy about the game of golf is the consistency that you have to have in every aspect of your life, as far as training, as far as injury prevention, as far as nutrition, sleep. I mean, getting the perfect swing every single time out. Talk to me about some of the training patterns that you had from your childhood that in the moments of doubt, carry you to this amazing career, because we both know that talent only takes you so far. Right, right. And you know golf, you talk about consistency, like golf is so hard, right? So the very small changes can make a big drastic difference of where the golf ball goes and things of that nature. Your body changes daily, you're growing, the weather changes constantly. So it's learning, I got better once I kind of gave up trying to be perfect, trying to find that perfect swing. That was really a big thing for me was kind of giving up, trying to be consistently perfect, because that's all drive yourself crazy. But for me, like practicing, I didn't really know how to practice early on, really not until I got into college and then turned professional and was around other professionals and saw like how they, you know, to be consistent, you got to practice consistent, right? You got to have your drills, you got to have your schedule set up, you got to stick to it, no matter if you don't feel good, you got to wake up at 5.35 o'clock in the morning, every day or five days a week, and stick to the consistent schedule and just practice discipline, and that bleeds into the rest of your, rest of your life really, definitely your golf game as well. So for me, like I said, I didn't pick that up until college, and that's when my game started going to another level, where I started to come in or an all-American MVP for the conference, sorry, competing at the national level. And that was really important to me. And then once you find that consistency, you'll find when there's days that you're down, when there's days that you're kind of in a rut, you're not feeling good, you haven't been playing well, you don't have to stay be motivated, you just got to stay consistent, you just got to stay disciplined. So that'll keep you going. Like, when you don't want to go, you're like, oh, your body's telling you and your mind's telling you, well, this time you're already in a routine and happy. So that just keeps you going. And eventually, after the times of doing that, and you'll get experience in the game knowing that, okay, it's going to turn around. Just stick with it, this sucks, you're playing bad, you don't feel good, you're not motivated. This is the, this is the grind that we, you learn the love from, but this is the grind part, you stick it a payoff, and then you just kind of keep it going. Eventually, it does. Sometimes it takes six months, sometimes it takes two weeks, sometimes it may take a year and a half, but eventually it, you got to hold on to it and just know that it's going to turn around. Yeah, I love that message so much because I find that consistently across professional athletes, across business owners and across successful people. It's this idea that every single morning I wake up and I know the work that needs to get done. The reward comes at a distant time in the future. And who knows if it's going to come? But I know that I'm going to put my best foot forward each and every morning, knowing that here are the things that will put me in the best position possible. What was that process like switching from a college player and being the superstar on a team to going pro and finding yourself among the ranks of the best in the world? Yeah, you know, for me, I didn't go to a big college. I went to an AI school. I was always the number one player on the team, said records there, then I was always competing. Like I talked about earlier, I was always winning and I injured your golf and then high school and I continued in college and to help me to get comfortable in competition. And what I learned is that translated pretty well at the professional level. It's on the mini tour level. It translated pretty well where I was out there and I would get in the hunt and I would feel the nerves. But I was like, this isn't any different than what I've been feeling before, the energy, the mind racing. You feel the same in competition, whether you're shooting 90s and you're playing at your club championship, you're at a high school junior nine hole match or playing in the Masters. It's the same feelings and nerves that you have to learn and battle. And I felt comfortable in that situation. So, it took me maybe about seven months or so and then I started going down to Florida and started winning some tournaments and then I tried to play with better and better players. Got my butt kicked a little bit, but that helps me out a lot. Like, if I, you learn more from your losses, right? So, I got, I took those as lessons. I took those as opportunities to see like how to get better at the game of golf. I didn't let myself get down and think that I'm not good enough. So, okay, well, I got to figure this part out. That's cool. That's good. These guys are really good at this. I need to get better at this. And there's a lot of good players down in Florida. I live down there with Willie Back, who's who's been on the national stage of live playing well. We roamed together. We've motivated and pushed each other. We would have years where he'd win three or four tournaments on the tour. I played. I'd win three or four the next year. And then we'll just keep all his names. Sometimes we'll play good at the same time, but we really just motivated each other. But it was fun. You just got to learn like so hard because you lose so much more than you win compared to other sport. Like Tiger one at his peak, he won like 20 percent of his tournaments, right? If you're doing that in the NBA or NFL, you're not making the playoffs. You get the first round draft pick next year because you're the worst team in the league. So going home, losing a lot more than winning is tough. But as golfers, we become resilient to that. So, it's cool. You got to just take it as lessons and you just try to see got the best players and learn from them. I love that. I love that. And let's take a minute to humble Bragg. Tell us about some of these achievements at the highest level and some of the tournaments that you want. Yeah, I mean, again, golf's really hard to win. You got 100 140 guys playing in tournaments. Only one guy's going to win. You're playing against the top point. 5% of the golfers in the world. And out of that point, 5%, only like 5% of those guys actually win. I've been able to win over 26 professional events around the country. I played, you know, like I said, I played on golf channels, big break. I've been on TV shows and commercials. And just really had an opportunity to build a good brand based off of my successes and my, and also my story and perseverance where I've come from. So it's been an honor. I've been playing golf for a long time getting older and older. I'm for sure, but I like to think that I'm reaching my peak and my best and still yet to come to where I'll be able to play on the PGA Tour regularly. But for now, you know, like you said, I got it. I have to celebrate my successes and know that I am a winner on various tours around the country. I played against the top players in the country and be nomenced, competed for sure. So I just got to keep going. So games definitely there. I love that. I love that. And before we take a deep dive into kind of a little bit more of your background and the things that you're doing for the community, talk to me about the mindset challenges specifically playing golf and knowing that, hey, a lot of sports, you get to be a winner, a lot more than a loser. And here, I mean, it's just a given that you're going to lose a lot more that you're going to win. And we both know that at the end of the day, that doesn't make a feeling of having a shitty round, the feeling of not living up to your own expectations any easier to swallow. Yeah, you know, and I had to change, you have to change your perspective of what winning isn't golf. Like, you can play great golf. You can write down some goals. You can work, execute shots that you've been working on. You can do some mental training aspects and things that on the golf course and accomplish all the things you wanted to do and still not lose. Somebody, I mean, still not win. Somebody else could play really great. Like, did you win? Not really, but you did, saying to how you accomplished your goal. So you got to celebrate your small wins, for sure. Like, and make it the things that you can control. So if I want to go out there and say, hey, I'm going to go out there and play free today. I'm going to be aggressive. I'm going to commit to every shot, do my routine, and just let the shot go and react to without, you know, any negative emotions. If I do that, and I shoot 64, and somebody shoots 63 or 62, and they win, I didn't lose. Like, it sucks. See, I'm going to look back and think of some stuff and be mad, which I could do something better. But then I got to come back in and say, look, I did what I went out there. I did my job, kudos to them. I'll get them next time. And even if you shoot like 75 and you play horrible doing all those things, that's going to things think a little bit longer and more, but, you're like, right, I went out there and see what I once do, what went wrong. Okay. And then just try to move on from that. So you just can't get down on yourself. And you got to have like a long term vision and goal. Understand there's going to be pitfalls and obstacles and ups and downs. And you just got to hold on to the long revision. Like, look, I keep, as long as I keep doing this, I know I'm a good player. I'm a great player. And we got to keep going. I love that so much because you are this positive guy who is so, so talented, who's such an incredibly hard worker. And at the same time, you understand the process, the process of getting good, the process of staying positive, and knowing that all you can do is your best. Talk to me about growing up and your experience within the community outside of the sport of golf. Yeah. So I'm in the St. Louis area for those that are familiar with it. St. Louis is kind of right on the borderline of Missouri. And then there's the Mississippi River, then there's Illinois, and then East St. Louis area, and then the surrounding area. So I grew up in that born in St. Louis grew up in Illinois. And the area I'm from, you wouldn't think there to be great golfers. Like, we got great athletes. There's great basketball teams, track teams, footballers, I'm Jackie Joy on the Courses from here. I grew up right around the street from my mom, great Olympian, several NBA players. And that's really what this area is known for, outside of the net, for the positive light. There's a lot of obstacles and things that distract you and you too, kind of caught off guard, such as drugs and gangs and violence and things like that. And golf, you know, at the golf course, really, one, I was blessed with a really good family that works hard. They're religious. They're just really big in the community. So they tell me out of trouble as well. But, you know, it was easier for them by having me out on the golf course. I felt safe on the golf course, the golf course called Grand Mariah. And I was just out there a lot, whether it's there or my grandparents' house playing golf in the backyard. That was my thing. And like, that kept me out of trouble where I had cousins that went and best friends that went different routes. Just because they didn't have that savior, that solitude and, you know, rescue from the inner city and streets. So it was good. And I always knew that that was my thing. And then it's news and, you know, I started being in newspapers and on the news. And they started seeing me on national TV. A lot of the troubles and obstacles that kind of attract younger kids my age. It really repelled it. Like a lot of them say, "Oh, that's Christian Heaven." That's when he, you know, that's the type of woods. Leave him alone. You don't want to smoke that or he doesn't want to, he's not joining this, you know, don't put him around the gang stuff. Don't do anything like that. That's what he got. So he's got a future. And so that, actually, that's how it really kind of saved me from, you know, a lot of the obstacles and trouble in the area. Knowing that I'm fortunate, you know, my grandfather grew up playing golf. I know that that was a big part of it. Having somebody in my family that knew how to play golf, that understood the game of golf, how much practice I needed. I needed new golf clubs. It worked really hard for that. I was blessed and fortunate. And I want to, and I understand, like, the situation I was in was very fortunate and beneficial for me to play in this area. Yeah. And what I value so much about you talking about it, that specific way is that the St. Louis area is not specifically known for having a lot of money, and golf, on the other hand, has this perspective of being a rich man's game. And I think it's amazing when an athlete is able to accomplish as much as you going through, I mean, knowing that there have been so many challenges along the way. Now, as you started getting a little bit of fame and you were a superstar, how hard was it for you to keep your mind right and know that, hey, you still have to get out on the course and do all the things while putting aside the parties and all of the glamour that came with being known and being talked about. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. Maybe part of this is that I wouldn't see myself as, you know, super famous or super strong. So like, I think there's always, we're just goal setters. Like, we always set goals and we try to knock them down. So if I'm not going to go here, I'm looking at the next one, I'm not happy until I get the next one. I've never, we never really think that we've made it. If you look at Sky's Sheffield, who's the number one player in the world, he just won $62 million this year, $25 million last week. And I know for a fact he's going to take a little break. He's writing down goals for the next year. He sees things that he can get better with. Like, there's no, there's just no stopping us. No stopping us. I think golf's different too, because we don't have those big guaranteed contracts like other athletes, right, where you get this $500 million contract or $200 million contract. And you know, you got this amount of money coming guaranteed. Golf, if you don't keep progressing, like you can go back into, I mean, you can make $0 next year, right? I put the most part. So I don't know, that's just how golfers are. We just continue to keep pressing goals. Not to say that we don't enjoy the parties and like we have parties and stuff. That's fine. You can enjoy that. But you got to realize like our goals are more important to us for sure. Golfers are kind of selfish as well. So that's kind of a big thing for us. Like we're very egocentric. We try to work, we have to fight that as well in different aspects of our lives, as far as relationships and things go. But we set our goals and we're really focused on everything that helps us achieve those. Yeah, I'm part of it. I love that that's exactly where you went with us because that was going to be my next question. One of the biggest things that happens when a person becomes a really successful and a pro athlete is a lot of the time their ego just gets in the way. It's like you just set up traps for yourself that you have to step over rather than staying consistent with the things that got you there. What are some of the things that you do to keep yourself in check knowing that you're good and not great yet and you're not where you want to finish your career? Yeah, I think golf has a great way of being that like the humbling. If you're not putting in the work, it lets you know you'll find out eventually. So if I'm not I set my goals down and I'm not seeing progress or getting the results that I want, I think that humbling that lets me know right there like something's not right. Like you're going to have those periods where it's hard and tough, but then you keep losing. There's a reason that you're losing. So golf has a way of kind of letting you know because it's solely on you, right? You can't blame your teammate, you can't blame your quarterback for having a bat, not throwing the ball until you can't blame your point guard for having too many turnovers. Like it's all on me. And as we talked about earlier, as you brought up, it's not just about the performance on the golf course and it has to do with other aspects of your life. It's a holistic thing. I have to look and see what am I not doing that hold myself accountable, right? So what I'm not doing or what's changing or what am I not being this one to on all aspects of my life. And then I have to just direct it, right? I have to get straight to it, figure it out and address it. I love your mindset. Your mindset just speaks to a lot of the things that you were able to accomplish and just shows why you are an extraordinary human being. Let's talk about one more big thing that is a pattern across all sports. For whatever reason, when people start seeing decline in a lot of golfers, they tend to overlook injuries as part of the game. Like they talk about people taking the eye off the ball, but not necessarily the back tweaks, the hamstring injuries, all of the things that are really, really common. How do you keep your body and top shape to make sure that most importantly, you are recovering properly and keeping your body ready to go each time that you're out on the course? Yeah, and as I'm getting older, I've learned that the hard way. Like golf is why my body has taken me out of playing for almost two to three years of struggling with back injuries. And that was just a part of me being young and thinking I'm invincible and don't need to do the recovery and stretch and warm up early on. But you know, my grandfather always used to tell me to take care of yourself and take care of your body because that's your number one tool. Like that's my number one golf club, my body. If I don't have that going for me, it's not going to work. And I found that out the tough way. Like I was playing golf, wasn't playing good because I was having pain in my back. Then I'll have moments where it feels good, right? I don't feel the pain, but in my mind, I'm still kind of hesitant, right? So I took a break. I was forced to take a break. Your body hasn't weird way of doing that for you. But now my second go around. I mean, you got it. It's again, it's holistic. You got to get the rest. You got to sleep, get the right amount of sleep. I'm stretching more. That's really big. Working out with the trainer, I'm switching. Going through the season, I switched the types of workouts, right? Throughout the year, throughout this winter time, like getting ready the next month or so, I'll start lifting heavier, putting a little more strain on my body, where I was doing it all throughout the year, trying to get bigger and faster throughout the season. But I can't do that during the year where I'm just playing off seven days, six days a week, swinging 500 times a day and trying to bench press to the max, right? During the season, it's a lot more resistance training, light work, light weights. I'm not the biggest like enduring runner. I hate jogging and running. They're not for me, but I'll try to do that a little bit more as well. But then recovery as well too. You think as a kid, you need to stretch before. Now, after I practice it, you got to stretch, you'll go and do the start and do the ice bath. That's tough. But I started doing that a little bit more. And just getting more massaged, you just got to take care of this regular maintenance of your body. And a big part of that too, I'm learning this food. As a young kid, I used to love. Honestly, I thought I played better when I ate McDonald's in the morning, had a sausage meat griddle and a hash brown, golfers are so superstitious. I did that. Like, I feel like every day I did that, I shot in the 60s. And then, of course, as I get older, it's not sitting right and it's not healthy. No, it's again, it's a holistic aspect. You got to take care of your body or you don't have anything. I love that. I love that because you view your body as a tool to let you do this amazing thing, which is playing golf. It's awesome that you brought up diet already because that was the direction that I was going to drag you in next. Yeah. Tell me about the feeling of being on the course after a good meal when you know that you've taken the things and the steps needed during the week to make sure that the nutrition you're getting is enough. The nutrition you're getting is the right nutrition and you really feel in that flow of having a good performance. Yeah. It's just more about confidence for... I can't tell you the feel that it gives me of like knowing that it just... I'll say more. It's a feel of knowing that I don't have to worry about that. Like, that's covered. I can focus on other things. Instead of trying to focus on other things and my stomach's a little like, it's starting a little hungry. I'm feeling a little weak. Now I'm focused on that. Like, gosh, I get some food at the turn or let me find a snack here and they're like, it just takes away an extra worry or a concern. It's just one more less thing that to worry about. You know, you just check everything beforehand and you're just confident knowing that that's taken care of. That's not going to come up on you. You're not going to be bothered. So, yeah, that's what you feel for me. And I don't want to be here and say that I'm perfect at that stuff. Like, I'm working on it. That's a working progress still. The diet is a... I like things that taste good to me. I feel like that's what life's about. So, I'm working on... You know, I talked to my buddy, Lonzo Griffin, who's on the PGA tour once out there. And he's just like, man, you got to think of it as fuel. Like, you're putting gas in the engine, right? It doesn't have to taste good. It's not what it's for. It's, you know, we're trying to get this engine to run as top peak performance, right? And once I started thinking that, like, man, just get what you need to do. Don't worry about this. You're not here to your athlete. You're not here to say donuts and monkeys and stuff, right? Even though I had a honey bun, that's long ago, actually. I love that. I exercise consistently and I'm pretty big into the crossfit space of the world. So, I do functional bodybuilding. I, I mean, exercise intensely. And the feeling that you get once you get your diet right, it's just exactly what you talked about. It's fuel inside of your car and your vehicle that, I mean, just drives you to do great things, pushes you to keep going, and you just feel in shape. Now, the other benefit. I can do crossfit, man. I think there are those people that do crossfit are so mentally tough and obviously physically in shape. But, gosh, they put such a wear on the body. I don't know if I could actually ever, every golfer I've talked to that started it, they ended up getting injured right away. So, I was just like that. When you are done golfing, I promise, we will get you on a path on that bed of the world. But the other thing that I found from a really, really clean diet is a sense of mental clarity. Like understanding my goals, understanding exactly what I need to do to achieve them without getting bogged down. Have you had some of those benefits after you starting at least getting your diet on a better path? Yeah. I mean, exactly what you're talking about like clarity, right? If I had, you know, a glass of water and you can see through this clear, that's the clarity we're talking about. But if you add other doubts like worry about your stomach and worry about your food and your diet and your energy is low, that adds to the falls up the clarity and distractions. So, just what I was saying, like knowing that that's taken care of, you don't have any feelings and moments where it pops up where you're like, "Oh, man, I'm feeling weak," or your stomach's just, you don't feel the energy that you need. That falls up that clarity, right? So, definitely, that's part of everything you can check off to where now you can just focus on performing and not have to worry about anything else. You know, the few amount of things you have to worry about outside of your target and hitting the shot, then that brings that clarity that we're talking about. Love that. Hey, before I drag you in the direction of talking about giving back to the community and the coaching, let's hit one more topic and that is this. How awesome is it watching yourself play on TV and being involved with some of the things that you've done on the media side? Yeah, it's cool. It's cool. It's cool when you have people like, say, they saw this and saw you here and good job. I've found this with a lot of people that are on TV. They don't really like watching it fit that much. It's kind of awkward just sitting there looking at yourself. You feel like this is a weird feeling. It's very awkward just sitting at a bar watching yourself, not a bar, but just sitting anywhere just watching yourself on TV screen. Like, I don't know how to explain it. I'm not a big fan of it, actually. Kind of nervous as to how I look or what I'm doing. Very critical, self-critical. But it is cool that you're on there. I was just on a disc sporting good commercial and it's fun. It's fun when you see it begin self-critical, for sure. And I appreciate that so much, because it feels like to a person who has never done that, like, it's the best experience in the world. And the feedback that I keep getting is like, when you see it, you're like, "Hey, first time was awesome. Second time was too much. 10th, 15th time is like, I'm just the biggest shit-docker about myself there is." And you feel like you're fooling yourself, like, "Hey, this me on TV or something like that. That's just not, I don't know, it's kind of weird." I love that. I love that. Now, outside of the game and outside of being an athlete, what I think makes you so, so special is that you spend so much of your energy giving back about the community of golf, as well as the community of St. Louis. Talk to me first and foremost about coaching aspect and what it feels like to have all of these accomplishments already and come in and help the next generation learn the game and learn some of the lessons that you have. Yeah, I'll probably go back to this or maybe repeat this again, but I heard a quote from another coach, Courtland, where I don't know where he got it from, but it resonated so heavily with me that he said, "You're best equipped to help the person that you once were." And it just hit me because we were working on a project to kind of give back to the community, and we'll talk about that in the future as well. But for my experience, me playing college golf, me working to get better, me wanting to get better, me wanting to play at the higher level, I've learned so much about the things, the pitfalls, the things that doesn't work, the things that do the does work. And I just know I can actually help those people that are kind of going down the path that I already went through. And that's what I feel like with coaching. And you know, especially when I was coaching at a college, that was so fun because I was with kids that were exactly like me. They work hard, they want to get better, they can see themselves playing on the PGA Tour. That's what I like. You know, when I'm coaching some players, they're just, I really do enjoy coaching like beginners and adults as well. But the only thing is when they see them one week, and then you see them another month from that, and you're just like, "All right, so you've been practicing?" It's like, "Not since I saw you last month, well, we'll have to get back to it." Like, that's cool. That's fun. You know, but I like the guys that are going to do put in the work, because that's who I was. So that's fun. I just enjoy that. I enjoy seeing the progress with them. I enjoy sharing the goals with them and the successes and even the failures of them. Just sitting them down, telling them like, "I've been here before. I know it's frustrating, but this is how you need to see this as an opportunity to get better." And so you don't really get too far down on yourself and it really hurts yourself more than the actual quote on quote on quote failure did, right? You make no worse than what it really is. So that's really it with coaching. Sure, I love coaching. What are some of the characteristics that you look for in young athletes where you go, "Hey, this one might actually have an opportunity of one day playing on the tour based on these combination of factors?" Yeah, so now, like I talked about earlier with Coach Mike Small from University of Illinois, I do look for winners now at any level. If they're able to win just a small, local, nine-old tournament with 20 kids, that's really impressive because I just know how hard it is to win this. And nowadays, you know, these kids are hitting the ball so far, the fitness and everything is so much better than it was when I was coming up. I did. I love it that you talk about yourself as this old guy who came up a long time ago because honestly, like what's crazy to me is I'm still, I would consider to be young. And when I see some of these people who are 17 and 18, the advances that they made in physical fitness and training and understanding nutrition and the impact of sleep is like, did a lot of these sports just look different today than they did when we were growing up? Yeah, and I think that's part of the tiger effect that, you know, they call it, they used to think that a tiger effect would be bringing more diversity to the game, which it has, it hasn't quite translated to the PGA Tour and major championships. But I think the tiger effect is more so that he's made the game more competitive and more of an athletic sport, right? He left no stone unturned with physical training with mental therapy, mental coaching with the swing coaches and all the things that it takes in nutritionists, all the things that it takes to be an athlete and golfer, 10 to 12 year olds have that nowadays, right? Because that's what it takes to be really good and competitive at this level. And so almost what you need is required. But you know, going back to your question too. So now college coaches are looking for kids that hit the ball super far. Ball speed is going like 180 miles per hour. It's crazy. I look more for the motivation of the kid, right? Where does it come from? Is it self motivation? Or are they being forced to do this by their parents or, you know, something else? You know, how much they're out there just practicing on their own, they're sending their own goals or they're doing the work on their own. Because that's what golf is a lot of times you want to be out of your own. You want to have your team, but when it comes down to it, it's felt kind of the work that you're putting in on your own. So that's what I look forward for guys. I also just want to see them putting in the work. Yeah, I love that because the value of doing good work consistently just speaks to this whole, I mean, story of Christian heavens that you are painting. Tell me about some of the work that you're doing in the St. Louis community. Yeah, it's big. I mean, this last past year has been really big for me and realizing the impact I could have in the St. Louis area. And I talked about noticing realizing how much of an advantage it was for me to have my grandfather that already knew how to play the game of golf, knew the importance of it, knew like how to take me to a golf course and how much work it took and money it took to play at a good level. A lot of the kids admired, they're not going to have that opportunity. So I've worked really hard to try to put together aspects to bring one, inspire kids to play golf and introduce them to the game of golf in the St. Louis and the St. Louis area in a way that makes it fun, attainable, and just piques their interests, right? So we had our first event. It's called golf slaps at a top golf in last August. The top golf was a presenting sponsor. So thanks to them for sure for for that. And we had over a hundred about 70 kids, 110 people in attendance, introducing them to the golf through top golf, where they're able to just continue to see the game. We had seven, we had about five to seven professional golfers out there hitting shots in front of them that looked like them. These were minorities from Detroit, from Compton, California, from Jacksonville, Florida, and who else we had? Chase Johnson's really good players will out there. But I don't want to say names because I don't want to get anybody. But the high elite players that played on major championships, PGA Tour level golf and got to see them hands on, you know, hit shots at top golf. And then we went around and let them hit shots and we gave them clinics. We had music going, we had food going. And then, you know, along with the initiation and introducing them to the game, we want to make sure they continue to have access to it's youth on course. We want to thank them. They offer free membership to these kids to their youth on course program that allows them to play golf. Ceremon is probably about a dozen participating courses in the area for five, just five dollars, which we're going to raise money to eventually pay for that. That's a goal of mine. And just get these kids so they don't have to worry about anything. They just show up and just practice and hit balls. That'd be big. That'd be a big star from transportation. There's other obstacles. Transportation, I know, playing, you know, internships, the coaching aspect. I'm going to help them out with that as well. But we're trying to just buy and just pick different parts and issues and buy solutions. Eventually, I got a big goal to renovate and make it, you know, develop a elite training and practice area that's going to kind of rival or be very similar to what the top D1 colleges have out here at their facility. So, and that will give kids and community access. And they'll be able to work on weight room, do meditations, work on their mental game, they'll be able to do the recovery, be able to hit balls indoors and outdoors and all throughout, you know, in the winter and summer. And it's just going to be such a it's a big project that I'm just starting to take on. It's going to take some time. We're at the very starting phases of this where I'm just writing down the ideas, but I'm putting it out there in the universe. And I think we're going to we'll probably want the better and bigger state-of-the-art practice facilities in the East St. Louis that be in probably one of the best spots in the Midwest. Yeah, I love that because one of the things that I truly admire about you as a man is this ability to give back on such big proportions and understand that the impact that you have is nationwide is worldwide. It's not just in your community. Talk to me about the value of fun while still preaching the habits of doing good work and making sure that you show up every day, but for these kids to know that at the end of the day, they should be having fun with the story. Yeah, absolutely. And that goes back to chasing your passion. I think you're passionate if you're doing it, you're having fun. I think for me, it's where I had to develop this, I think, but I just I love I think the hard work is fun. I feel that in them, but the reap in the rewards, like they'll have to understand that this is the part that, you know, I know like Muhammad Ali talks about like every moment of training, but life just seems so much more rewarding just like knowing that you're progressing, you're striving towards something. I think that is the goal. Your pursuit of happiness, right? And that pursuit is it's going to be fun at times, but sometimes it's going to suck, it's going to be hard for you. But that pursuit is what you take joy in. And that's that's your right. I guess you're God, even right now here, right? Your pursuit of happiness. That's an interesting question. I don't think I fully answered that right. I never really thought of it. Maybe I have because with golf slaps, you know, I wanted that introduction of golf to be fun, having the music going and I wanted to have those endorphins and, you know, the memories and impactful memories. So I had to think a little bit more. It's definitely important. I just don't know how how to ask. I love that because sometimes going through the process is a fun of it. It seems like that was a fun for you growing up. And that's exactly why you're so good today. Now, let me hit you with a final question of today. And it's this one. Before you step away and you're ready to call it quits with the game, what are some of the things that you want to accomplish? And how would you want to be remembered long term? Yeah, I've been thinking about this a little bit more lately, especially when I was injured and stopped playing for a while. I want to I want to get this facility done. I want to back and reach back to the kids. Again, like I said, you're best equipped to help the person you want to work. And I want to help those kids that grew up has grown up in East St. Louis or St. Louis in the city. It's around areas that are in the area that's like where it's like golf. What the heck is that? Like, how are you going to play golf? And I want to just want to give them access and provide opportunities for them to just just to see what happens. See if you like it and just work hard. If you do like it, be able to have everything you need right there in your area to to be successful. If you make it on the PGA tour, whatever. If you go to college, great, make the high school seem wonderful. If not, it just I want you. I don't want your environment to to be the reason that you didn't have opportunity in this game. Yeah. I love that so much. I love that so much because not only do you understand the significance of the impact that you have, but you also take it seriously and you want to make sure that you're having a positive impact on the next generation. Absolutely. Christian, you're an absolutely great human being. It's been such a pleasure talking to you today and thank you for sharing your valuable time with me and our audience. I appreciate it. Thanks for letting me on the platform. Thank you so much and we will see you guys next time.