There\u2019ll be windows of your life where you need to gut it out just to see what you\u2019re really made of. I turned pro in 2007, but I didn\u2019t get onto the PGA Tour until 2013, so there was a six-year period where I had to tough it out on the Mini-Tour life and learn how to play the game, travel and take the small wins where I could. On the Mini-Tour, you\u2019re fighting for every dollar, your literal livelihood. There were plenty of nights I slept in my car and I went without eating just so I could scrape by. Those were some of the hardest years of my life, but also some of the greatest, because I learned what I can become with a little bit of sacrifice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Individual sports demand a certain kind of passion. In a sport like golf, you don\u2019t have any teammates to lean on. It\u2019s just you out there. Some people have a hard time without that team component, but when I started golfing at a young age, I found I really enjoyed the game\u2019s individual aspects. It was on me to figure it out, to piece together the ways I could improve. When I got on the golf course, it was a matter of locking in and learning how to focus.<\/p>\n
Composure has nothing to do with your athletic skill but has everything to do with the life of an athlete. My brother and I went on The Big Break, a reality TV competition on the Golf Channel, in 2009. I was 20 years old at the time. We were around the camera 24\/7. Everywhere we went, they were recording us. It was crazy, and it took some getting used to, but I remember leaving that experience and telling myself, \u201cYou\u2019re going to be a great golfer. This media exposure is how it\u2019s going to be if you turn pro.\u201d Being on the show got me to the point where it didn\u2019t really matter who was watching me. I just needed to stay focused and play my game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sport was only part of my family\u2019s background. Being Polynesian, my mom had a luau show as I was growing up, so I learned how to play a lot of different instruments as a performer in her show. One of the first instruments I learned was the to\u2019ere, which is like a Tahitian drum. I also did traditional Polynesian fire dancing as a kid. Music and dancing were as core to my identity as sport was.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to be an on- and off-switch person. But greatness means being your best at all times of the day, not just when it\u2019s convenient. My mom used to tell me, \u201cThe way you do one thing is the way you do all things.\u201d Golf is just one example. Trying to be great at a game that\u2019s impossibly hard, a game you can\u2019t perfect, doesn\u2019t mean that you stop trying. You keep trying to reach for more out of yourself. I\u2019m trying to be great in all aspects of my life, whether that\u2019s on the course, in the gym, being a husband, being a father. I\u2019m trying to push past my own limits in all aspects of my life.\u00a0
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