THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome Gordon Sargent into the interview room here at the RBC Canadian Open in 2025. You're making your debut on Tour as a full-time member, gaining that through PGA TOUR University Accelerated. I know you've played half a dozen events already on Tour as an amateur, but explain your feelings coming in here for your first event as a professional.
GORDON SARGENT: Definitely a lot of different feelings. Excited, nervous for a new journey. Yeah, just can't wait for what the future holds. I've been waiting for this moment for a while. I tried to prepare myself as best as possible, but yeah, it's a different animal.
Trying to take it step by step, learn as I go, and just see how good I can get.
Q. You win the access a season ago, chose to go back for your senior year at Vanderbilt. What went into your decision, and how happy are you with that decision?
GORDON SARGENT: Yeah, Vanderbilt is obviously a place that's been special to me when I committed there it seems like forever ago. Close to seven years ago, I committed to play four years of golf there. That's what I wanted to do. I wanted to get my degree, spend time with some teammates and try to get better at golf.
It was definitely kind of a roller coaster year. Didn't go exactly how I planned or expected it to, but I feel like it prepared me for the future. Yeah, just going to lean on those experiences, whether good or bad, and see how I can learn from them.
Q. What's your preparation in the last few weeks been like leading up to this week?
GORDON SARGENT: Trying to get the game ready, most importantly, kind of the mental side and the body side too. It's definitely going to be a busy week. Not used to multiple practice rounds, usually just 18 holes the day before and three rounds of stroke play.
Yeah, trying to figure out kind of the logistical side too. Yeah, just trying to get everything in order honestly, have fun with it. Not put too much pressure on yourself, but just try and learn as much as you can and see what ends up happening.
Q. I'm wondering, in terms of your preparation and mentally dialing in what it's going to be like in your plan for being a pro, is there any Tour players or mentors or people that you kind of have some conversations with about how to adjust to life as a pro that have helped you along the way?
GORDON SARGENT: There's been a lot of pros that have reached out. Obviously, as you know, it's kind of a big brotherhood out here. You're competing against each other, but you want to see other guys succeed as well.
Justin Thomas has been really good to me, kind of taking me under his wing. If I reach out to him, he's always got a lot of advice. Billy Horschel is another guy that's reached out. Just guys that there's obviously going to be plenty of ups and downs. Just trying to figure out where your feet are really.
I wish I could say it's going to be smooth sailing, but I know it's not going to be, just take it one step at a time. Everyone has had their ups and downs. Just kind of figuring it out this week, taking it one step at a time, and just seeing how good I can get.
Q. I guess in previous years a college player will turn pro and go to Monday qualifiers or PGA TOUR's Q-School or Korn Ferry Tour now, but getting to know you're a PGA TOUR pro for the next year and a half -- not that there's pressure off because you want to play well every week, but what does it do for your mindset and maybe not needing to press as much knowing that you have that card for the next year and a half?
GORDON SARGENT: Obviously you want to show up each week and play as well as you can, but yeah, it definitely takes a little pressure off knowing that I can use this summer to try and learn as much as I can and figure out what I'm going to do on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, kind of how I'm going to handle that day.
Yeah, it's definitely a lot of learning. So you have that kind of freedom a little bit to experiment with some things and know that it's not life or death if you miss a cut or whatever that may be.
It's nice, but yeah, also trying to not put too much pressure on yourself to feel like you've got to go out there and perform to impress other people, whatever that may be. We all kind of deal with it.
You definitely have your rough moments, but trying to use every experience as a learning curve and get my game sharp for every single week, but also, yeah, I feel like it's nice feeling like I can learn some stuff and learn from those failures and be better prepared for next year too.
Q. What was your degree in?
GORDON SARGENT: I did economics.
Q. What was the -- I guess what inspired to you do that as a major and why economics?
GORDON SARGENT: It's always been one of those that's kind of made sense to me. I definitely like when things have a right and wrong answer. There were a few classes that I took that were kind of more theorem-based, and I hated it. I definitely like kind of being able to circle an answer and know whether it's wrong or right. That was probably my favorite. There's some interesting classes that are definitely applicable to the real world.
Yeah, I kind of had my mind set on it and would rather do math problems than write papers.
Q. You referenced that a lot of things here it's like a different animal. What off the golf course is going to be different or most different for you now as a professional?
GORDON SARGENT: Obviously it's a lot more travel. I'm not used to -- like a college event, you play one week, have a week off, two weeks off, and play another event. So, yeah, back-to-back weeks, getting a handle of how you want to do that. It's not like I can go out to the golf course and practice all day.
You get out here and see a perfect range, brand new range balls, you want to be out here all day and practice. Having to limit yourself a little bit, and, yeah, manage that off the course time too. I've got an early tee time tomorrow, so it will be an early day. How I'm going to spend my afternoon, the next morning, just kind of stuff like that.
Usually college events, you've got morning tee times every single day, and pace of play is brutal. So you kind of waste your whole day at the golf course.
Yeah, kind of being by yourself. Obviously you're used to having four or five other teammates with you on the road that are rooting for you too. We're obviously competing against each other, but yeah, it's like figuring out -- obviously you want to see other people play well, but it's kind of just you and your caddie out there, a little bit of an island.
Off the golf course, it's definitely tough. You're playing against 155 of the best players in the world each week, so not to beat yourself up too much. I feel like you have to have it figured out each week because obviously it's kind of a never-ending problem, I say.
Yeah, just not being too hard on yourself, knowing that this game's going to have its ups and downs and not feeling like you have to be someone different when you make a change in your life. Going from college to Tour, it's not like you have to change anything. Still the same person. Still going to try to do the same things.
Q. This is a big event obviously on the PGA TOUR schedule. It's 100-plus years old. It's a National Open. What did you maybe know about the Canadian Open before this week? Have you ever been to Canada before? What would it mean maybe if you were able to win this National Championship?
GORDON SARGENT: First time in Canada.
Q. Welcome.
GORDON SARGENT: It's a pretty big state. I had to look on the map and figure out where we were going exactly. Yeah, it's definitely cool to play in a country's Open. We've got the U.S. Open, the British Open, all those different events.
I know the support will be pretty crazy. I definitely like all the hockey themes and all that stuff on the course. It's definitely getting adapted to it a little bit.
International travel is a little different animal. I walked into a grocery store yesterday and expected to see some American brands, and I was just caught off guard the whole time. Thankfully, it was in English, but some of the brands I was just lost by. It's just getting used to different things.
Yeah, it would be really cool to be in contention this week. I know it's going to be a cool fan base. Obviously rooting on their Canadians, but also I think they're big golf fans too just in general.
It's exciting to be here. I feel like it's been a long time coming. Yeah, just excited for this week and hopefully learn from it and take it into next week too.
Q. Just want to ask you a little bit about the adjustment. As I mentioned, you played half a dozen events on the PGA TOUR as an amateur. A majority of those were majors, which were really difficult golf courses. How is the adjustment playing college golf on venues that you play and trying to adapt to those venues? Was it shocking? How did you manage it?
GORDON SARGENT: I think, like you said, 4 of those 6 events were majors. So you kind of have this mindset that you've got to be playing perfect golf or got to do something different to go compete there. Yeah, it's definitely a different animal out there. You do have to have your best stuff if you want to play well.
You really don't have to prepare that much different. Like it's easy to want to go out there and play 18 holes Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, just to feel like you know what's going on. Yeah, I think just learning from those six events, I'm excited to go back to some of those venues this summer because I'll at least know where registration is, know how to pick up my courtesy car and all that stuff.
Just kind of knowing that I've been here before, it's a different animal, like I said, but it's nothing that I haven't seen. Yeah, just trying to not stay in my own bubble, but also just try and figure out who you are as a person, as a golfer, and just go execute your plan as best as you can.
Q. You could have turned pro last summer and done this through Accelerated but chose to go back to school. Was that a tough decision in any way? Did you have a pro-con list and wrestle with it and consult people, or was it a no brainer from the jump?
GORDON SARGENT: I've always been a person that likes to kind of have things planned out. I guess that would have been fall of 2023 that I got the Accelerated, so I could have left in June of 2024. I just remember like January, February, I wanted to have my mind made up. I was kind of tired of going back and forth. I kind of just wanted to know what I was going to be doing that summer.
Yeah, I definitely sat down with people that I trusted. I was kind of asking all different questions. It was tough because I felt like I had -- I still had seven months to prepare from when I knew that I could turn pro in June of last year.
Yeah, I remember playing college events that spring. I was kind of not ready to give that up if I could have one more go round. It's like you ask anybody that's played college golf, they wish they had five more years to play college golf, especially when you've then played pro golf and then look back on it.
It was kind of one of those things that it's like I knew it was the right decision, like I knew it wasn't going to be a perfect answer. I knew, if I stayed, there were going to be times where I wish I would have left, and if I had left, there were going to be times I wish I had stayed. I knew that, if I stayed, there were ways I could get better on the golf course, off the golf course, and hopefully that pays dividends down the road.
Q. What will you miss most, I guess, about college at Vanderbilt?
GORDON SARGENT: Probably just hanging out with the guys. We had nine guys on the team every single year. My last two years we lived in a townhouse and that's kind of where everybody hung out. I'd walk in the door half the time, and nobody would be home except people who don't even live there.
So, yeah, always having someone to talk to, someone to relate to. Yeah, just kind of the whole camaraderie of it. We obviously had a really nice facility. Kind of just got to do what we wanted. Everything was kind of planned out for us. We had 6:00 a.m. workouts, but if I had to go workout at 6:00 a.m. by myself, it would be miserable. By the time you got there with a bunch of teammates, it was fun.
Yeah, I would say just the teammates and being able to go through good and bad times with them together.
Q. In terms of being a PGA TOUR member effective this week, is there an element of a lifelong dream achieved? When would you say, if at all, this became a dream, doing what you're about to do starting this week?
GORDON SARGENT: Absolutely. There are pictures of me on the golf course, not playing, but with my dad when I was 6 months old. Yeah, I would say -- I don't know exactly when it became a dream, but I've always been the type that, if I'm going to do something, I'm going to kind of do it as best as I can.
I remember I played baseball through when I was 13, and I just remember every single year come May I was excited for baseball to end so I could go play golf. I kind of knew that golf was what I wanted to do.
Ever since I started playing tournaments, I kind of had this competitive, I wanted to get better each and every day, enjoyed that about golf. Obviously when you play golf as a 14-year-old, you see the PGA TOUR, and especially when you see guys that are -- when I was 14, you've got guys like Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth that are out there that aren't that much older than you. So you kind of pictured yourself being that guy in 10 years or so.
Definitely a lifelong dream. I'm excited to live it out and just see where it takes me.
Q. From the standpoint you mentioned having days when you have your best stuff. What about the days when you don't? Are you good on those particular days at grinding out some pars and some birdies and cashing in a score?
GORDON SARGENT: I wish I could say I was. It's definitely tough. I feel like, when you're playing well, you don't let those days necessarily rattle you too much. Then when you've kind of -- if we want to call it a valley or whatever that may be, you're kind of struggling a little bit. You have those bad days, it's easy to cash it in and think that your world's ending, you're never going to figure it out.
I think just trying to find the right balance in that and just always expecting good around the corner. I think that goes back to what you were saying. Even when you have a couple of rough holes and you expect something good is going to happen, then you're not going to mail it in. Yeah, as golfers, we've all had days where we feel like the world is ending on the golf course and you get off the golf course and it's completely fine.
So having that mindset a little bit more, trying to have a little bit more fun even when it's not necessarily going your way. Yeah, times like that definitely make you appreciate the good times more. I think that's something that my first couple years of college, you come in and it's a change. I had immediate success there. Then you kind of just start to expect it.
I've always been pretty humble, but you just kind of expect the golf to happen. I feel like right when you get that is when golf will kick you in the face a little bit. I think I'm starting to appreciate those days a little bit more, not mail it in as fast. Yeah, just try and grind it out and see the positives in it.
Q. Just a follow-up to that. Off the golf course, in terms of all of the things that are coming at you from a business level and all of that, I understand you have a team around you and that's great. Are you the type of guy that likes to be involved, though? Do you like to have a say in the decisions being about about your business affairs going forward?
GORDON SARGENT: Exactly. I kind of know what I want my brand to be and making sure I stay consistent with that. If I want to be the best, I want to partner with the best companies and act the best way on the golf course and just continue to represent myself in the best way possible.
I feel like, if I have other people around me doing that for me without my input, then it might not be the best way possible. So I definitely like being in control. I feel like I know what's going on at least. Like booking my own Airbnb, having a say in what time I play up there.
Yeah, I would say off the golf course I like -- I complain about having to do some things, but I also like doing it at the same time. I don't want to do my taxes, but I want to know that I'm flying up at a certain time that I want to. I feel like having a say in those is definitely important because obviously at the end of the day, like we're our own business and we're the boss.
Not looking at it as a job, but feeling like I'm in control is definitely a nice feeling versus -- sometimes I want people to just tell me where to go if I don't know what I'm doing, but yeah, definitely I feel like I'm in control, and having a say in that is important.
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