On an early summer's whim, proud golf sicko (and Los Angeles Lakers guard) Austin Reaves “hopped in the truck” to play a Korn Ferry Tour qualifier — his first foray into truly competitive golf.

Reaves spoke with ClutchPoints about his eye-opening Korn Ferry experience, his growing role in the YouTube golf space, LeBron James' PGA Tour investment, why mental toughness on the basketball court absolutely does not translate to the golf course, and much more.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

ClutchPoints: How much golf are you playing over the summer?

Austin Reaves: As much as I can. I haven't played the last couple days, but before that I've basically played every day.

CP: Can you take me through your Korn Ferry round?

AR: It was 100 percent a last-second thing. I was sitting there on my couch, bored, and I texted my best friend Trent and was like, ‘Find me some golf event I can go play in.’ And he sent me a screenshot and was like, ‘Well, we could go try this.’ And I was like, ‘Screw it, let's go do it!’ So we hopped in the truck. It was on a Monday, and it was Saturday. Drove down there, stayed the night. Played a practice round on Sunday, and then played the round and drove back the next day. It was a lot of fun.

I started on the back and it was a par 5. I was super nervous on the first tee and ended up birdieing that hole, which was a dream start. I was thinking at that point, ‘This could be one of those days.’

And then went: birdie, par, lipped out a par putt on 3 from six, seven feet, and then missed a birdie putt on 4 from about six-to-seven feet. And the putter started getting in my head a little bit and I putted it atrocious after that. I think I had probably four holes in a row where I three-putted. Just couldn't get the speed of the greens.

And then I had the triple on the par 3. It was like 218. I hit a six iron, and I flared one right, kind of in some taller grass, like a mud area, and couldn't really get to it right-handed.

CP: Oh no.

AR: I think I was four over at the time and I was like, score isn't that great, I'm going to try something. So I tried flipping around and hitting it left-handed. And let's just say it didn't work out good. It went two feet in front of me. I was still in the tall stuff, then had to hack one out. And then got it to the fringe, chipped up, and two-putted.

So at that point I knew it was over. But it was a lot of fun.

CP: Did you enjoy the heat of a competitive golf tournament?

AR: It was so cool. I wanted to see what that competitive itch felt like. I was nervous as crap on the first tee.

With basketball, we practice so much, you kind of get what you put in. I over-prepare in that aspect. In game situations, everything's natural to me. Golf, I never hit the range. I've never had a lesson. I kind of just self-taught myself and just go play. And that's basically my practice. So when it got down to it, I was a little nervous.

CP: I feel like you would say mental toughness is a strength of your basketball game.

AR: Yeah.

CP: I was wondering how that translated to golf.

AR: I'm going to say my mental toughness is not as good on the golf course. I've asked a couple of people that I met during the practice round — the kid that ended up winning it (Caleb Hicks) and a kid that played at Georgia — and I was just like, ‘I don't know how y'all mentally stay into this.’

Obviously this isn't my job, but every time I play I'm ready to snap a club, throw a club. I get super frustrated. So to do it for a living, I don't know how they do that. So the mental side is not on par with my basketball.

CP: Did you play in the Hillbilly Bogeys?

AR: No, I had my regular TravisMathew golf shoes on. But the one time I did wear the AR1s, I shot a 67. Five birdies. No bogeys.

CP: Maybe you can release a golf shoe.

That's the plan.

CP: What is your vision for the Hillbilly Bogey channel? Maybe a ManningCast?

AR: I haven't really put too much into it. Last summer, Trent and I were sitting around and he was like, ‘You know what?’ He was like, ‘We golf all the time anyway. We should just make something out of this.’ And I was like, ‘I'm cool with it.’

Really the plan is just what the Good Good guys do. Try to make it not as serious, more fun, and really just grow the game of golf just because I enjoy it so much.

We just had Albert Pujols on. Get those type of people on just to dive more into what they're doing on the court, off the court, whatever they play, and try to just do fun stuff like that.

CP: Bryson DeChambeau is using YouTube well to grow the game.

AR: For sure. He has that trying to break 50 from the reds, which is super cool. I think his popularity in the game has grown so much since he started that YouTube stuff. I think more so now than ever, people are actually cheering for him. You see the tournaments that he's been playing, the crowds are big around him.

 

CP: How do you feel about the LIV Golf, PGA Tour situation? 

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AR: I follow the PGA Tour really close. I think for the betterment of the game, you always want to see the best players in the world competing against each other in every tournament. Jon Rahm was talking about that. There's more than just the majors he wants to play in.

I could understand from the players' standpoint on the PGA Tour, with the kind of money that was thrown around with LIV. As a fan of good golf, I would love to see all of the best players back in the same category of tournaments.

CP: LeBron invested in the PGA Tour. Did you bring that up? 

AR: I was driving to the gym when I had seen it. And first thing I said when I seen him, I was like, ‘Oh, you're joining the good sport', obviously joking. And he was like, ‘Yeah, we're basically just trying to grow the game.’

He was like, ‘However I could be in assistance of helping the PGA Tour.’ I think what he said was the problem was not all the good players were playing in the big tournaments, and that was kind of the focal point of everything.

CP: He doesn't play, right?

AR: No. I've been trying to get him on a golf course for three years. He said he would go out there, but I haven't seen it yet.

CP: Are there any NBA players you'd like to give some flowers to for their golf?

AR: I've heard Corey Kispert is good. If I know someone plays golf during a game, I'll jokingly ask him how they're hitting them or what their handicap is or whatever. I think Doug McDermott said he was at a four,  which, middle of the season, that's really good. (Chris Paul), Kyle Lowry, always joke with them about their handicap and how they've been playing.

Someone that's actually just recently taken up golf is DeAndre Jordan. I just don't know how, being that tall and that strong, you really can control anything. But he's saying his game's getting better. He asked me to go play in a tournament, but me and my brother have our camps.

I just enjoy seeing the game of golf grow so much in the NBA. I try to get all my teammates to play. I love the game so much and I think that it's a great getaway from basketball, even during season.

CP: Do you have plans for any qualifiers or pro-ams?

AR: I don't think I'm playing in any more Korn Ferry qualifiers. I'm playing (the Good Good Midwest Open) in Indiana with Garrett Clark. It's going to be a lot of fun.

And then I'm playing in the American Century. The tournament that (Stephen Curry) won last year.

CP: You once told me Jordan Spieth is your favorite player. Did you ever play with him?

AR: I haven't, but if that opportunity ever presented itself, I would love to do that.

When he was really on his tear is when I started to actually really play golf and enjoy it. He was winning everything. That's how I grew to like his game. His driving accuracy lately has been a lot better than it ever was, but before that, he kind of hit it a little bit of everywhere and would scramble to make birdie, scramble to make par.

And it was kind of that similarity of hitting bad shots — but his second shot to a bad shot was much better than everybody else's. You could get that feel of, ‘I could hit that ball, but I couldn't do what he did after that.' So that's what I enjoyed about his game.

CP: Sahith Theegala has that.

AR: Yep. I love how aggressive he is putting the ball. He don't care to putt one by the hole four or five feet to make a comeback par four or five feet. He don't ever really leave too many putts short.

I've talked to Max Homa, him being an LA kid. I've talked to Tom Kim. He seems like a funny kid. He's young and still trying to figure his way out there. I watched the Full Swing episode of him and I just DM'd him and was like, ‘You're amazing. Keep doing what you're doing’. And he responded. He's super cool.

I talked with Collin Morikawa the other day. He told me whenever I'm in Vegas, just let him know, we'll go out and play. And he's been playing some really good golf. He hasn't got a win recently, but he's been top five, top 10.

CP: How about one golf tip for the people?

AR: It's a lot coming from me, because I literally just talked about being so mad on the golf course. Don't get too frustrated. Trent, he's got a prettier swing than me, everything looks better. He hasn't been playing long, so he’ll go three, four holes, par, par, par, birdie, par, par. Good start to a round. And then he'll have a double bogey and his brain will just explode. And it's never good from there.

So really just, stay with it. You're going to make mistakes. Bear with it. My thing is, hit one really good shot a hole. If it's your approach shot that hits the green, then all you got to do is two-putt for par. Or you miss the green, you hit a really good chip. Or if you don't hit a good chip, you just make one really good putt. Par is always in place. So that's kind of my philosophy.