Working hard or hardly working? | Cameron Meeks

This is the I want to play college golf podcast. We talk to those who coached and those who have played college golf so you can learn what it takes to be a college golfer. Are you ready to tee off? Let's go.

Junior golfer at Loyola Marymount University

how'd you get into golf?

My whole family was into golf my dad and uncle both play professionally and in college. My grandpa was a really big really big amateur golfer kind of felt like I was kind of destined to play because my dad really did so yeah, I learned everything I know my dad and certainly in tournaments

Oh, that's cool.

I tried playing other sports like baseball and soccer but baseball always under the ball wasn't very good sport so stuck with golf.

They're interesting and what is your mindset about golf

like just overall Yeah, just like overall Yeah.

I mean it's it's all for me but people say that I like being outdoors a lot that I really like to do the job but I really have a lot of fun with it.

And during your high school years since you did an excellent job how'd you feel about playing ajga tournaments

I was never like a really high ranked player so I never advice did find a lot of like remember having to qualify for a lot for a lot of days and like really battling their stars it's kind of a system kind of tough it's kind of hard to get into if you're not playing in the battle a lot and

I had some pretty good finishes from what I remember no life stand out like wins or anything like that. I did what kind of a study Fair has really battled

that's an interesting journey. And just to clarify, did you play in the US Junior

Junior 27 USM and

how was that experience?

Yes Jr was of course called the saw Kansas that was really eye opening experience. And I thought it was like this is the real deal like right when I got there. I've never seen a range of your course so here so set up so difficult. It really opened my eyes like what like real golf is like high level golf. It was a really fun experience for me I played pretty well the first time I struggled second round but it was really good experience for me and I learned I really learned a lot

that's nice. That's totally different from little Vegas experience really different

and um, do you ever pre shot routine

Sorry, what did you say?

I try to do the same thing every time the various like what I'm doing but I've different teams or different shots but I definitely try to stick the same. Oh,

that's nice. How's your experience at Loyola?

I love it because of matching our friends for life and my brothers right now there's like these are my brothers. Puppet is all said and done if I just say that, you know, whether now two great things or not but we're gonna we're looking towards tournaments coming up here where we can really do some damage and put out a really great tournament just last couple of weeks

kind of an off week last week but overall this year was looking really good but overall I mean the memories like I'm a senior now I mean some of the memories just like sitting around with the boys are pretty crazy whatever it is pretty good about it

oh, that sounds good. And do you work well more on full swing or your short game?

I focus more what was that?

Do you focus more on your short game or falsely?

Definitely I heard was that I think that's that kind of stuff to be I'm not I'm not a big range rat. I feel like I've done most of my time but I do like to do a lot of hunting as well. Yeah, definitely definitely way more short Okay,

thank you for your information and what do you do to prep for your tournaments

maybe looking at the maps google maps look at the layout the numbers like in my head just think about the plan for the website and really figure out the numbers coming in and really dial in to the shots I think it's really just like specify what exactly that week and then practice

and you played so well throughout your years in college How do you manage to do so

I've always seen myself as really consistent player compared to some of the other guys golfers I was like not really long but I really just I myself like centigrades to myself whether they fall or not but never too far in one direction but sometimes you know very consistent

Oh yes, that's great advice. And last year you played the US amateur how's that oh

that was like very highlight of my golf career so far that was so much fun and the practice round I played with I played with a really good player from Ole Miss It was like number two in the country and I played with Tom Moore and I was just like really eye opening for me because it was just seeing their their games firsthand. You know it made me think like you know this guy is pretty consistent like they're not hitting it any better than me. It really gave me a boost of confidence like you know I can I can compete with these guys obviously you know, Tom's gone off and done his thing but does is this a really really cool weekend. That was pretty close to making the cut for match play but kind of choked it down the stretch. Pebble Pebble is my all time favorite golf course. And I got to play it a few times. That was I played at once when I was 15 but just going out there to play like three days in a row was super core two days in a row. And Spyglass was probably the hardest course ever play my life. But the battle out there and I really think I learned a lot about my

Oh my this sounds like such a great experience. And obviously you're playing love amateur tournaments right now. What are those?

Well I haven't played a lot because we're in season right now but during the summer I've played a lot of like California stuff and then like just like different random amateur events. I played this one called the amateur hour or something amateur events Oh my ranking and get the rest in before season because a lot of the college guys will be out there playing those amateur events as a pretty solid finishes to pick up and get the reference was the main focus.

That's very cool. Well, what are some of your favorite tournaments over there?

What is my favorite tournament like in college?

Or overall

like this, this this here

are just like, like overall

Well, definitely us course. That was like special really special especially that they've been like the year before a USL and at the same place. Watching our USL was was pretty cool to watch because I could like kind of compare how I played it versus how everyone else played it. But yeah, you're saying that was by far the best.

Oh, that's so cool. And do you plan on turning perot? Yes.

I'm gonna do but after that. Oh, okay. Good luck in that. And

if you were to give us your one secret sauce piece of advice, what would that be?

A secret?

Yeah, like,

my secret golf advice? I would say my secret It is no secret. Everyone's gonna do it their own way. And you just got to work hard. I mean, basically, the person who works hard and everyone else, and sticks with whatever they're doing and really knows their own game. Masters, what they do is going to be a better player. There's really no secret out there. Oh, okay.

Thank you for that. What is your advice for parents and junior golfers?

For parents, like my kids looking to go to college, or

like parents of junior golfers of competitive junior golfers

definitely play a good schedule to get exposure. But I mean, if you're not shooting the scores, then it really doesn't matter. So you can play the best you play the best schedule, but But yeah, definitely get exposure. But you know, probably work on your game first and make sure you're getting the scores and then take your game on the road to the exposure. That's what I would say.

What's your advice for junior golfers?

Oh, for like the actual juniors. Don't be too hard on yourself. I mean, golf is probably the hardest sport out there. If you just keep your head down and work hard, good things won't happen. But there's gonna be you're gonna go through slumps. There's a lot of ups and downs. But if you believe in yourself and what you do, you can get out of anything and be a better player because of it.

Thank you so much. Sorry, I'm tired of going saying the questions on the border. But what do you think a player has to do to stand out from the rest of their competitors?

To lower

and what do you think college coaches look for in the player?

scores, but I know they do look at rankings a lot. So if you're ranked high, you're gonna go somewhere. However, they, you know, what are their algorithm is for rankings, which I mean, that ties back to the tournament schedule. But you know, and then a third piece I'd say is just don't keep a good attitude either. But, you know, if you have a bad attitude, you're shooting low. I mean, they're not going well

for that, before we end, is there anything else you would like to add? No. Well, we're planning like next year. We're just trying to get all the interviews in and then we'll like fundraise it. What's it going to cost us We don't have like a title yet, but we have like, yeah, we have, we have several options. But yeah, we'll send you a copy once we actually publish it. And then we're gonna be writing your chapters within the next two weeks. So when we actually finish it, we'll send you like a copy of it for your approval and stuff like that. Yeah, and if we have any more questions is okay if we shoot you like an email or text, yeah, text me. Okay, thank you so much, then have a nice day.