Q&A: Justin Leonard

STORY BY MIKE BAILEY

If you want to catch Justin Leonard on the Golf Channel or NBC Sports, you’re way more likely these days to see him on the course with a club in his hand, not a microphone.

The 1997 Open champion and Ryder Cup hero has worked the last seven years for the Golf Channel and NBC Sports as a commentator on golf telecasts. But there have been changes for him, both on the broadcasting front, and on the competitive side. Leonard turned 50 last June, so he decided to take a dip into playing last July at the Senior Players Championship at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. He tied for 61st, and it started to get his competitive juices flowing again. Now, his TV duties are pretty much behind him.

Another change is that he and his family have moved from Aspen, Colo., where they had lived since 2016, to Jupiter, Fla., where he can work on his game year-round, as he prepares to play his first full season on the PGA Tour Champions.

So far, so good. Leonard got 2023 off to a solid start as he finished tied for 10th at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai in Hawaii. Then after spending a few days at the PGA Merchandise Show on behalf of a company he’s involved with -- GolfForever -he competed in the Chubb Classic at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Fla., and finished 10th again.

As for his involvement with GolfForev - er, that came about during his years in Aspen, when he met up with founder Jeremy James. As a doctor of chiropractic (DC) as well as a certified strength and condition specialist (CGSCS), James has been helping professional and Olympic athletes as well as recreational athletes train to avoid injuries, overcome pain, and play their best for years. GolfForever, which started in late 2020, also counts PGA Tour players Scottie Scheffler and Ryan Palmer among its ambassadors. More recently, GolfForever has added its GolfForever Swing Trainer, a 44.5-inch training bar with a resistance cord to take the workouts to a new level. Leonard, of course, has been using GolfForever in his training regime to get back into playing shape. We recently sat down with Leonard, who grew up in Dallas, played at the University of Texas, and of course, made the dramatic clinching putt for the United States Ryder Cup team in 1999 at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.

OTL: When you were playing on the PGA Tour, did you figure at age 50 you’d play PGA Tour Champions?

JL: No, that decision was more recent. When I stepped away from playing and started doing TV with Golf Channel and NBC Sports, I really thought that would be my path for the next 30 years. And it really wasn’t until maybe just before I turned 49 that one of my sons started playing more and then I realized that if I want to consider playing again, I was going to have to get back into it. So yeah, it’s been pretty recent. And stepping away from TV for now, I decided if I was going to play, I needed to do it now and not wait two or three years.

OTL: Of course, the broadcasting scene has changed, too. Did that have anything to do with your decision to start playing again?

JL: I loved being part of a team with NBC and Golf Channel, but yeah, that landscape is changing quickly. I wouldn’t be completely honest if I said that didn’t have something to do with it, but I also feel like getting back into playing and trying to apply the things I’ve observed over the last five or six years into my own game has been a lot of fun.

OTL: You played four events in between telecasts last year, but at the end of the year, you really started to work in preparation for your first event of 2023, the Mitsubishi Elec- tric. What was that experience like for you preparing for high-level competition?

JL: I really enjoyed that week a lot because the prior three months I was really able to dive into my own game without having to step away and do TV. In fact, if anything I think I kind of overworked. I enjoyed (the week of the PGA Show) of not touching a club. I felt like I was behind having not competed in six years. I probably had five or six days over those three months when I didn’t touch a club, and I was pretty tired that week. I’m kind of still learning about what I need to do to be ready and prepared and rested, but it’s been fun getting back into it, and I’m starting to see some better results. So that’s exciting.

OTL: How did you get involved with GolfForever?

JL: So Jeremy (James) started out as just wanting to help people with their back issues. He had a clinic in Aspen for a number of years (Leonard used to live in Aspen before moving to Florida in June 2022). He realized the vast majority of his clients played golf. And so we had lunch a couple of times, and he wanted to pick my brain, how to get more into the golf space and market it more towards golfers. I had some time to devote to it, and so I became a partner in this. He probably wouldn’t say it happened quickly, but it happened quickly. And now it’s getting so much traction with PGA Tour and trainers, understanding it’s not just tour players, but everybody needs this. I’ve had access to the best trainers in the golf space. But now everybody has access through GolfForever.

OTL: Was GolfForever a big part of your preparation coming back to playing?

JL: Absolutely, amongst some other things. But I like to do a lot of different things, like Peloton, and Orange Theory. I love to do cardio, after living in Colorado for so long. But this is my real golf-specific workout that I do, and it absolutely helps.

OTL: Do you play pickleball or anything else to cross train?

JL: Yeah, a little bit. Mostly when we’re on vacation.

OTL: Let’s talk a little bit about the game of golf today vs. when you turned professional.

JL: It’s much more of a power game now. The way golf courses are built and set up, it just lends itself more to that. If you look at the top of the world rankings, the vast majority of those players hit the ball a long way. It’s been going that way for the last 10-15 years. When I first started playing on the tour, it was great if you hit it a long way, but you had to hit it in the fairway. Now I think because of the mainte- nance practices on golf courses, it’s opened up more to where all the data that’s available just shows you’re better off just pushing the ball down as far as you can. Some of that is technology, but some of that is just the type of athlete that now plays golf.

OTL: You had an incredible knack for getting up and down. You were very creative. You definitely approached the game differently than a lot of players today. So If you were starting out today would you approach it differently than you did way back when?

JL: I would work on hitting the ball much farther than I do. At 50, I do some speed training, but not what a lot of the guys do now. A, because I’m not playing 7,600 yards. But B, because my golf DNA is kind of set, and I’m not going to change that too much.

OTL: Take us back to that scene at The Country Club in 1999. The 45-foot putt on 17 in your singles match with Jose Maria Olazabal that essentially cinched the U.S. comeback in the 1999 Ryder Cup. How do you recall that moment?

JL: My memories are very vivid. I got to relive it once every couple of years by doing TV around Ryder Cups. Especially with NBC broadcasting the Ryder Cups. I’ve done three Ryder Cups, and then being at Brookline this summer for the U.S. Open. So I get to relive that quite often.

OTL: What a lot of people forget is that after you made that putt, Olazabal still had a putt (which he missed) to tie the hole, but there was this mass hysteria. Did you try to quiet down the fans?

JL: I certainly did, but that (atmosphere) was throughout the week that especially boiled over on Sunday.

OTL: Have you and Olazabal talked about that moment?

JL: We had a good talk, and actually we got paired together a few weeks later in Valderrama (site of the 1997 Ryder Cup in Spain, where Leonard also competed) in a WGC event. And he was great, and gracious. It’s probably a good thing I don’t understand Spanish because he told quite a few people to lay off a bit (at Valderrama).

OTL: The 1999 Ryder Cup, of course, is remembered for the U.S. team’s incredible comeback on Sunday. U.S. Captain Ben Crenshaw told the press the night before “I’m a big believer in fate. I have a good feeling about this. That’s all I’m going to tell you.”

Tell us about what transpired on Saturday evening.

JL: The night before was pretty quiet until we got the pairings, and I thought it actually looked feasible with the way we front-loaded our lineup vs. the Europeans, who had three rookies playing very early. That was actually going to be their first Ryder Cup match (they didn’t play the previous two days). President Bush came in and spoke. It was a good night because we still had a glimmer of hope.

OTL: What else stands out as most memorable in your playing career? The Open Championship at Royal Troon in 1997 must have been a proud moment.

JL: Yeah, The Open, winning there early in my career and getting to go back so many times was great. The Players Championship (1988), too. I really cherish the Texas Open and winning that three times. And the (92) U.S Amateur (at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Ohio). I also got to play in the ‘93 Masters as an amateur, which was very special. And I played with Tom Kite and Nick Faldo the first two days of the 1993 U.S. Open as an amateur (Baltusrol Golf Club in New Jersey). I really enjoyed my time at (The University of) Texas, too. I got to do a lot of fun things.

OTL: What’s next for you besides playing the PGA Tour Champions?

JL: I don’t know. I’m just getting my game ready, watching my kids (Reese Ella,19; Avery Kate 17; Luke Garrett, 16, Skylar Charles, 12) grow and mature, and spending time with my wife (Amanda). We did our first college-parents weekend last fall, and our other daughter is headed to college next fall. Our oldest is at UVA (University of Virginia), and our next is going to SMU in the fall. The family dynamic now that they are leaving the house is constantly shifting.