PGA Tour: Rapper Macklemore on the upcoming AT&T PEBBLE BEACH PRO-AM

Read the Press Conference transcript below:

JACK RYAN (HOST): We would like to welcome Grammy Award winning rapper and song writer Macklemore at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Macklemore, thank you for joining us.

First off, could you just recap your experience playing in the pro-am last year at this tournament.

MACKLEMORE: It was incredible. It was a phenomenal experience, bucket list, completely terrifying. I had no idea how to hit an iron all of a sudden. Shooting in the high 80s at home with some mild cheating with friends. Get down here, can’t improve your lie, you got to play it how it lands, man. That’s just a whole different sport. All of a sudden I’m coming over the top. I’m slicing the ball. Jason Day’s trying to give me lessons on how to come from the inside. I don’t even speak that language. It was crazy. But it was literally Disneyland for a golfer like myself. I felt like I was a child and this was the oasis and that’s exactly how it feels this year.

JACK RYAN: So we won’t have that pro-am format this year, obviously, but you’ll be playing in tomorrow’s AT&T Every Shot Counts Charity Challenge alongside a number of other celebrities. How much are you looking forward to that in light of the tournament format change this year.

MACKLEMORE: I’m excited. Last year I think I was on TV three or four times. Every shot counting and being televised is slightly nerve wracking. But we’re playing for some great causes and that’s what it’s all about, so we’re going to have fun. A great group of celebrities to be out there with, some really good golfers. I’m not putting myself even close to that category and we’re just going to have fun.

JACK RYAN: Last question before we open it up to media. Could you provide us with a little bit of background on your history in the sport? We understand you’ve only started playing relatively recently.

MACKLEMORE: Yeah, I’ve been playing for just over two years now and randomly played one day after Thanksgiving in 2018 and hit a 5-iron out of the sand and I hit it pure and I have been very addicted ever since. I just want that feeling. I play as much as I possibly can, which with two kids is not that often, but that often is at least two to three times a week. So I’ll take it.

JACK RYAN: We’ll take our first question here.

Q. Just curious, what do you like most about it and what has caused you to get addicted?

MACKLEMORE: I love that feeling of hitting a great shot. I love hitting a green in regular, piping a drive. I love even just the ups and downs, the humility that the game brings, the swing of emotion, the mental fortitude that it takes, the patience, the spiritual practice of accepting whatever you just did and letting it go, the exercise, the camaraderie. I truly love everything about the sport.

Q. Did you have — how much experience with golf or exposure did you have before that round after Thanksgiving that you talked about?

MACKLEMORE: After Thanksgiving?

Q. How much had you been around the game before that?

MACKLEMORE: When Tiger — I think when I was in about 8th grade and Tiger was, I don’t know, it was ’97, ’98 or whatever it was and Tiger was having his moment, as a sports fan I was absolutely paying attention to what Tiger was doing. But that was really about it. But I always really liked the old school golf fashion. That was something that I always really respected. Besides that, I didn’t really follow the sport at all. Every once in a while we would like go to a pitch-and-putt and I would hit a couple cars and we would go home, but besides that very limited.

Q. What do you tell people who might not be into golf of that appeal that you found? Do you turn other people onto the game? How do you do that?

MACKLEMORE: I think that the game is amazing. It’s not one of those sports that you can just pick up right away. It takes a little bit before you get that first dopamine hit of a great shot. But I think that in general we need more people playing this sport. We need more accessibility. We need to really just open up the floodgates of kind of the old guard of what golf is and the exclusivity and make sure that all people can play, that courses are affordable, that equipment is readily available to those that need it, and we get youth out there enjoying this amazing sport.

JACK RYAN: One last one before we let you go. You mentioned you are into the golf fashion. Is there anything we can expect from you tomorrow in the Every Shot Counts Charity Challenge? You got something special planned for that?

MACKLEMORE: You know, I don’t normally lay my clothes out before I get dressed. I don’t normally put them out the night before. But tomorrow I’ll wake up to a freshly pressed outfit laid out in front of me that I will do tonight. The reveal will be tomorrow.

JACK RYAN: Perfect. We look forward to seeing that and thank you for joining us today and best of luck tomorrow.

MACKLEMORE: Thanks, man, appreciate it.