Taylor Pendrith discusses his preparation for the upcoming Presidents Cup, reflecting on the significance of the event for Canadian golf and the impact of Mike Weir. He shares insights on team dynamics, the importance of camaraderie, and the unique atmosphere of playing in front of a home crowd. Pendrith also opens up about his personal journey, overcoming injuries, and the excitement of competing at a high level.
Talk of the TOUR Golf Podcast
2024 THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson winner Taylor Pendrith on being selected to his second International Presidents Cup team
And we'll see you next week. Welcome to the talk of the Jure Podcast and welcome to President's Cup Week. I'm Paul Hodewanik, a staff writer here at pjtour.com. We'll have plenty of coverage for you this week on the podcast and we kick it off today with the chat with international team member Taylor Pendreth, winner earlier this year at the CJ Cup by Renelson and now a two-time President's Cup participant. He was great on a number of topics as he preps for the President's Cup in his home country before we get there. A reminder that this podcast is available anywhere that you get your podcasts and interviews like this one and also be seen on pjtour.com and the pjtour YouTube so you can see Taylor and I's beautiful faces if you prefer to watch us. All right, let's jump in. I'm chatting with Taylor Pendreth just a few days before he's getting ready to head up to Montreal. Taylor, I'm sure it's an exciting week for you guys but thanks for taking a little bit of time out of your prep to join me. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Yeah, of course. You didn't play in Napa last week and some guys have so how have you kind of used the time? I'm sure to rest but also make sure you're ready for this. Yeah, you know, it was a long year the last three weeks of the season where we're long and stressful and put a lot of emphasis on your mental game. So I was a little bit worn out and took the week off and rest and we've been back here in Florida. I was in Canada for a few days between that but took a full week off to rest and relax and then I've been at it pretty hard the last week and this week as well. The students in prep work and getting back into the fields of things and I'm pumped to get back to Canada and we'll be back later in a few days and have some prep up there and it used to be grass and all that good stuff and then head over to Montreal Sunday night. So yeah, I'm really excited for the week. I was talking to Wyndham Clark last week and he was saying it took him almost just a few holes into his first match at the Ryder Cup last year to feel like he had gotten back into tournament form. It was one of the reasons he wanted to play last week. You obviously taken the time off which helps you rest. Are you doing anything particular to kind of make sure you are sharp when things kind of finally start to ramp up here? Yeah, I feel like this year I've taken two weeks off at a time and yeah, it's a rest from competition but I feel like resting my body and my mind for a week off is really helpful for me. I think just getting to row Montreal on Monday will kind of kick me back into that competitive mode and going through my routines in the practice days and but yeah Thursday will be, you know, it's always a or last time at least it was a different feeling. It's a team event and you want to do well for your team and do everything you can but yeah, it would be three weeks off for me but I feel like I've used it well and I'm feeling ready so yeah, I'll have a few more days of prep here and then we'll get to the course and do the normal routine for the week and get going Thursday but feeling good and feeling ready. For Americans that have the President's Cup every couple years in America and then have a Ryder Cup here as often like I don't think there's the anticipation for a home President's Cup or Ryder Cup say compared to how you guys are feeling in Canada about having this event that only rotates into Canada every decade maybe longer. I remember talking to some guys like spring of last year and they're already thinking well I got to play well to get it up in the points and try to make that event. Can you put into context just how long you've been anticipating this and possibly playing on this team? I mean it seems like it's had to have almost since quite a hollow two years ago. It was a huge goal of mine at the beginning of this year especially, you know, to make this team and do everything I can to prove that I'm worthy of a pick or qualify on points but I think just with Mike being the captain he's got a ton of history of that course. I played my first PGA tour event ever as an amateur at that course and having the home crowd is going to be huge and it was, you know, a massive goal of mine to get back on that team and be a part of it and it was looking like there could be a ton of Canadians on the team mid-year and so the three of us I think it'll be a super memorable week for us especially doing it under Mike. It's going to be fantastic. I think the fans are going to be are going to be really loud and it's going to feel like a real home game for all the international guys. The fans up there are crazy. They're super passionate. They get the Canadian open once a year and then a huge event like this. Yeah, like you said every decade or more. So they've held one there before obviously and I think they're super pumped to get it going and the course looks awesome. The weather's been great up there. I think it's going to be an awesome venue and hopefully feel like a real home game for us which I think it will. One of the intriguing things for me like I've never been on site at Royal Montreal. It's not a stop we make on the tour a lot. Like Quail you kind of knew exactly what that course was like. You could remember shots. You could remember the types of players that have played well there. I'm sure you don't want to give too many secrets away but when you think about the course is there courses on tour you'd compare it to things that makes you feel like things for people that haven't been there or we don't have data to look at like what is the course reminds you of. It's just your traditional classic old school course. It reminds me a lot of most courses in Canada honestly. I hear old school I think like tight, treeline, maybe not prioritizing distance as much. Yeah, I mean there's definitely some holes there. It's a good mix. There's a lot of holes where you can have a wedge and there's a lot of par fours that are really strong holes where you know there are 490, 500 yard par fours that you're requiring a long iron to come into the green. So fairways are tight and you know they're pretty slopey so they are difficult to hit the fairways. I think it's going to play firm and the rough is going to be long so hitting the fairways is going to be premium but yeah it's just a good solid golf course. The front line is kind of carved through the trees and then the back nine you get kind of mid back nine and there's water in play on pretty much every hole in the back nine. It's a good mix. I think it's a perfect notch play course. You don't necessarily need driver depending on how it's playing but getting the ball in the fairways is going to be huge and I think you know around the greens it'll be that thick right bent mix grass. So having a good short game will be good but I'm trying to think of a course that it reminds me of on tour like I would say rocket mortgage but different a little bit. It's just like an old school vibe. It's sweet. It's really good. We played well rocket mortgage that could be good then. Talk to me a little bit about like we're in just the impact he's had on Canadian golf when I think back again to American golf. There's so many guys that have been on the tour a long time. I think I heard somewhere like the two most impactful people in your golf life might have been Tiger and then Mike Weir is on that level in terms of for Canadians just like getting people into the game and kind of fostering the professional game there. Totally 100%. When he won the Masters I was just kind of getting into golf. So you know it was obviously a huge inspiration to me you know seeing a Canadian win and then throughout my pro career he's been great. I feel like you see it in the numbers of Canadians on tour now on the Cornbury tour on the mini tours rising up. We were all about my age or slightly younger and that's a huge impact of Mike Weir. I mean he's a legend up there and has been the best Canadian golfer you know in history. So we all look up to him and to be on this team under him is going to be really special and like I said at the beginning of your huge goal of mine to make it and to do it in Canada with him there is going to be really cool but he's been great to lean on and he's been really good to all the young Canadian players and he wants us to succeed and follow in his footsteps and we all want to follow in his footsteps and have a career similar to his. It's been awesome to follow him as a friend. Do you remember like where you were when Mike won the Masters? Is that like a vivid thing? I was at my house you know I was a young kid and I wasn't really in the golf at that time but it was really cool. It was a cool moment. I didn't really know anything about golf honestly when I was that age but I was just getting into it and to see him win was unbelievable and obviously as I got further into golf you look back on that and realize how cool it was and how special that moment was for him and the whole country and he's just been an idol of mine and a legend in Canada. You've played in a Presidents Cup before. I know that exactly didn't go the way you hoped it to 0 and 4 but you had some close matches that kind of took you down to the wire. Was that something that ate at you a little bit? How that played out? How that finished? Like what were your lasting takeaways that you took from that week? I feel like personally I played some pretty solid golf and most of those matches they could have gone either way and yeah it sucks to have people let you know that you went 0 and 4 but I felt like I played pretty good that week. Thursday went to 18 close match on Friday went to 18 and Sunday I played Tony who I think birdied 6 of the last 9 holes but I learned a lot. I mean I learned a ton that week. It was the biggest stage I'd played on at that point in my career and hit a lot of really good shots that I remember when I'm out there playing on the PGA Tour that I can kind of draw back on and yeah I'm looking forward to getting another chance at it and obviously I want to put points on the board for my team and help our team win but I'm going to do my best and maybe being slightly more comfortable this time around got to know some of the guys a little bit better. That was my rookie year on tour. I didn't really know many of the players at all so that'll help a little bit but yeah I feel like my game is in a good spot this year and it'll be really fun to do it in Canada and hopefully yeah put some points up for the boys. Trevor kind of in his past captainships have talked about kind of having the full team kind of unite together bond together. That's obviously been a big priority over the years. Is that something that you feel like can then translate to how the golf goes on the course like is it that tangible? Absolutely I think our team is unique in where we have a lot of different cultures you know different languages, different food, different everything so getting us together and getting more comfortable with each other I think really helps and really will help. We were all up in Montreal right after Eastlake for two days and had some great dinners with everybody played the golf course a couple times and just kind of hung out and try to get to know each other a little bit better and the American team they're one country. A lot of the guys grew up playing junior golf together they've known each other for years and I think our team especially combining all the cultures if we get more comfortable with each other and have a good team culture then that can definitely translate onto the golf course. I heard you mention food which made me think like it just had my brain start spinning a little bit in the team room is there like a bunch of different types of food are we picking like hey today's Canada night we're going to figure out the protein situation we're going to do that and then maybe Hideki's got some Japanese night plan maybe Trevor's got some South African delicacies like what's what's the food situation in the team remember day? The food's unreal yeah last time of Charlotte it was great they had a mixture of whatever you wanted you know keep the Koreans happy keep the Canadians happy we pretty much eat anything but we had a little bit of everything we had a South African night one night which was unbelievable so they do a very very good job with making sure everybody's happy and there's food that they like and they're familiar with and so this year we've got a wonderful chef who we went to his restaurant a couple weeks ago and he'll be preparing all the meals and gonna be great. One thing I've thought about is three Canadians on the team you Corey and Mackenzie and I'm kind of wondering how Mike's going to deploy everyone would they go full Canadian super group almost and have like just a raucous atmosphere there do you try to spread it out you obviously played with Corey you played with other guys do you have a preference like would it be cool to play with another Canadian in a president's cup where like you're fully at home you have like the full scene just kind of like immersed around you yeah absolutely I mean I'm not going to give away any pairings but we will do whatever the captains want of us obviously I'm speaking for myself but I can speak for them too this was a huge event on the both of their radars all the Canadians radars of the you know when it was announced and to do it in Canada it's going to be super special and the crowd's going to be wild but you could definitely see you know me playing with Corey or Mack or Mack and Corey playing together not sure if it was going to be with you but I think you'll see two Canadians paired up. I was looking up because all you guys all three of you went to Kent State and so I was ready to make some small talk about the football team they're not playing well so I decided to go against that but just what's the delineation in terms of ages where you guys all same year how what was kind of the relationship there we closer to one or the other kind of in college and how has that evolved. We had two years with Mack so me and Corey were the same year we came in in 2010 and that we had all four years together we were roommates for four years and we had two years with Mack. What's Corey like as a roommate? He's very clean, cleaner than me. We had a blast in colleges it was a really fun time yeah and then I actually lived with him in Florida for a couple years afterwards so yeah he's been a good roommate to me for sure. You mentioned earlier the 2022 Quail Hollow but like maybe the biggest stage you've been on you've obviously played in majors you've been now around the tour for a while but heading back to a home president's cup does this now kind of feel like a similar situation where this is probably the biggest stage you'll have been on just given it being in Canada. For sure everybody on that property or the majority is wanting our team to win and especially wanting the Canadians to play well in perform and you see it at the Canadian Open every year that Canadian fans love it they get it once a year and they come out in full force and really root the Canadians on it's a big moment for sure and I'm really looking forward to it and yeah embracing it I mean might never get this opportunity again to play a president's cup in front of your home people and it's going to be a wild week and yeah just try and embrace it it's obviously there's pressure for sure but there's pressure you know any president's cup it's the highest level you can play as an international player and it's like you Japan and you want to do well and you want to do well for your team and I just think doing it at home is going to be such a cool moment and one that I'll remember you know forever and embrace the crowd and I want to perform for them and they're all rooting me on so hopefully that helps I remember chatting to you it was the first round of the CJ cups so before you know you go on to win and we were just talking about getting over injuries you know figuring out getting trying to get your ball speed back and everything and you've dealt with numerous injuries over the last few years is it even kind of jarring for you for where you were maybe even at the start of the year still going through that pain to I mean I could ask you now if you're pain free but how things kind of flipped for you I'm sure that week was a big one but just going from just trying to swing a club without pain to now hitting this career mile marker that you really wanted to make. Yeah it's been awesome it's been honestly you know my three years on tour have been interesting the first time I made the president's cup team I was out for four months with a broken rib that year and came back and played great and got a call and you know the beginning of this year I wouldn't have guessed I'd be in this position and had such a great second half to the year but yeah I'm feeling good I've been feeling really good since probably like March-ish and ball speeds back all you know my my distances are good with all my irons and it was a frustrating time for you know the beginning of the season and I had a couple good finishes just kind of plotting my way around the course but it wasn't how I wanted to play golf and you know there was a time in January and February where I didn't know if I was going to play the rest of the year or I'm still young-ish and want to have a longer career out here and didn't know what the right thing to do was but just mentally too it's nice knowing that he but want to swing hard at something that there's not going to be pain and so I'm happy that it's worked out happy to be feeling good and can't wait for the next week to come it's going to be awesome. Let's do like a few quick superlatives of the team and then I get you out of here just quick couple word answers about some of the guys best driver on the team who is it? Minwoo bombs it, I'll say that. Bezain how it hits it pretty damn straight, Corey hits it really straight, a lot of good drivers on the team. Swing you're the most envious of. Adam Scott for sure. All right, best potter. Mac. Funniest guy on the team. Tom Kim's pretty funny I like Tom. Best wedge in all your player on the team. I mean Hadecki's pretty damn good. Tom Kim's wedges are great, Stung J is a great ball striker, there's a lot, one of those three. And then best dressed that was finishing. Best dressed. It's not me for sure. Probably Adam Scott. All right Taylor thank you so much enjoy the week out in Montreal I'll be out there looking forward to seeing you and good luck to the international team. Awesome, thanks Paul I appreciate it. Thanks again to Taylor Pendreth for joining the podcast in the midst of his President's Cup prep. We'll talk to you in a few days for a full President's Cup preview. Until then, I'm Paul Hodlonek, thanks for listening everyone. (upbeat music)