In 2009, I turned pro and made it through the Q school. It was for the PGA Tour at that point. So I'm going into Q school thinking--

I'm going to get in.

I'm going to get-- yeah. First year, I'm going straight to the PGA Tour. And I played well for a couple of rounds, and then just tailed way off. And ended up on the [INAUDIBLE], or it was the nationwide tour then. And only got in a few tournaments. It was a struggle. I wasn't really ready for it. Game wasn't ready.

When you say ready, you think you're ready.

Yeah, I wasn't a professional. And I'm still working on being a professional. But I definitely went right out of college and got in a few events, and then had to go back to the mini tour. And that's where I feel like the dues were paid. I spent six years on the mini tour.

Just down here in this part of the country, or you went overseas? Did you go overseas?

I didn't go overseas. I traveled the Southeast, sometimes the Midwest. But there was a lot of [INAUDIBLE].

Did you learn, you think?

A lot of time behind the wheel. Yeah, I learned a lot. I learned how to compete, and learned how to travel, learned how to handle a lot of situations that golf throws at you. I think that was-- battling the pressure. There's a lot of pressures on any tour.

Pressure everything. It's not just the shots. There's pressure all week on you about different things, whether the bank account's low, or your girlfriend or your wife's coming to town. There's all kind of pressures, right?

Yeah, the wolf.

Mom and dad want to see you. The wolf.

The wolf was at my door, like you said. Playing with other people's money, asking people for money.

That's tough.

I'm so thankful for the people that had helped me, and they gave me an opportunity to kind of grind it out and get to where I am. That was the toughest part.

And it's not cheap either, when you're doing that. You're almost, in a mini tour situation, you're almost spending the same amount of money, because you're staying in a hotel for the week, and you're having a caddy for the week. Same deal as it is on the regular tour basically.

You have to put up-- [INAUDIBLE] about a $1,200 entry fee each week.

Essentially, you're playing for a piece of that.

I like to put it on the line. So I tried to kind of-- I think later in my mini tour career, I was able to act as if it was a gamble. I'm gambling. I'm out here. I'm going to throw up my money. You throw up yours, and let's go play. So that was kind of--

Sounds like somewhere in there, you clicked over a cog that got you thinking like a pro.

Exactly.