"Scott Stallings is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He quit all sports at the age of 12 except golf after going to the 1997 Masters and watching Tiger Woods dominate the field. In his 2022 season, he advanced to the TOUR Championship for the first time in his 12th season, finishing No. 29. He is involved in the Wounded Warrior project, and his biggest thrill in golf was teaching the sport to wounded veterans in the Army."



https://youtu.be/hl5yYFkb2fk

Brett Gilliland
Welcome to the Circuit of Success. I'm your host, Brett Gilland, and today I, you know, I'm pretty fired up when I'm on these things, but today as the golfer that I'm, I get to interview PGA guy Scott Stallings. What's up, uh, PGA Guy? What's up, Scott? How are you?

Scott Stallings
Good, man. How are you? Thank you for having me.

Brett Gilliland
Oh, thanks for being here. It's, uh, it's been, uh, it's been a great year for Scott Stallings, hasn't it? It's been a pretty good year.

Scott Stallings
Yeah. And I would, to your listeners, uh, they need to understand your persistence and patience, uh, with my schedule and, uh.. You know, I, I was not trying to be elusive by any means, but my schedule is definitely, uh, very unique in my, I try to put all these things in, you know, one kind of timeframe.

So appreciate you bearing with me and..

Brett Gilliland
Absolutely.

Scott Stallings
To anyone, to anyone that listens. Like he's definitely putting in the effort to try to get people on here. So, and I can definitely app-, I can definitely appreciate that.

Brett Gilliland
Yeah, absolutely. I, I call it pleasantly persistent. I've done that for 21 years, you know, building a business and, uh, spending two decades of, uh, you know, early on, especially man, when you're calling people, you gotta stay pleasantly persistent in life, don't you?

I think that American flag behind you says effort and attitude. So you don't have the right attitude. You don't put in the effort. And whether you're on the PGA tour, you're in wealth management, you're making bourbon, whatever it is, uh, which we'll talk about, you gotta put in the effort. I appreciate it, man. I appreciate you staying with us, but if you could just, you know, for our listeners, give us a little lay of the land, what, what Scott Stallings is about. What's made you the man you are today?

Scott Stallings
Well, a lot of things have made me who I am today. Uh, probably, uh, my wife, my kids. Um, I've wifed Jennifer, we just celebrated our 15th year wedding. Yeah, that's right, 15th uh, anniversary. Um, I have a, uh, six-year-old daughter, Millie and a nine year old son, Finn. Um, so, you know, as a, as a husband and a father kind of gives perspective on, you know, kind of keeping you grounded and, um, I, I have one of the best stories I have from, I mean, I just finished, I play on the P G A tour.

I know you're just mentioned that, but I just had the best season of my career and one of my favorite stories of the, of the season is I played at the tour championship and my son came and he decided he was gonna watch every day, which is super weird for him. He's like a nine hole kid, and like, I'm gonna go have some snacks. I'm outta here. Like, and so for whatever reason, he watched and I shot, I shot three over one day. I shot 73. And it was like real sketchy. Like it sh-, it could have easily been 80, but I mean, it was just kind of everywhere.

Brett Gilliland
One of those days.

Scott Stallings
And, and we had one of these pictures, we had a buddy of ours that does some social media and pictures for us. I like Finn, comes and gives me a hug, and it looks like this super, super sweet moment between a father and a son. And he said, you played so bad today.

Brett Gilliland
. . That's awesome. You're ready to snap your driver in half and he's talking about how bad you're playing.

Scott Stallings
Yeah. Nothing like a nine year old perspective to keep you grounded and understanding that, you know. Well, you know, while I am playing in one of the hardest tournaments in the world to qualify for and the fact that, well, there's only 29 of us, and just kind of how we start, but, uh, a nice perspective to kind of understand that, you know, hey, I'm still dad. Uh, you know, and, you know, kind of what I do on the grass isn't necessarily define me as soon as I walk out, but I was definitely one of my favorite stories from the season.

Brett Gilliland
That's great. That's great. Can you, I mean, I'm gonna dive in on some questions, just stuff that, you know, if I ever have an opportunity to talk to somebody like you, I just, I find that the, what I would call me, the, the pinch me moments, right? That you, you grow up. You were a, you know, Tennessee Tech, we talked about that before we started recording.

You know, I played at Eastern, you played at Tennessee Tech, same conference. Uh, obviously your outcome was a little different than mine on the golf. And, uh, but that's okay. But anyway, we, you know, just those pinch me moments, man, when I get to go play a nice golf course. But you're doing that, you know, every week that you choose to play on tour.

My question is that drive in down Magnolia Lane, man, for those golfers that know what I'm talking about, that masters, you make that turn in there, can you tell me what that's like.

Scott Stallings
I mean, it's definitely very surreal. Um, I had an opportunity to play, I graduated Tech in '07 and I had an opportunity to go play in 2009, and I turned it down and everyone's like, I, you know, you're big time in Augusta. Like, no, like I think as a professional golfer, like that's something that's earned and not something that's ever taken for granted. And who, who knew? I mean, I, I, I never knew if I was ever gonna have a chance to go and I ended up having a chance to go to the tournament, not play at the, the course, but you know, just kind of being there and kind of, I remember taking pictures of the golf course and, and kind of just in my mind, just imagine like watching guys prepare and different things like that.

And so 2011, I win my rookie year and I have an opportunity to go and Tennessee's unique in the fact of like the starter on number one, toby Wilt is, is a, lives in Nashville and so they do a pretty cool, uh, trip for first time Nashville's participants where they bring you and they give you a chance to like, I mean the whole experience. You stay overnight, you do everything and, and just sort of get you comfortable with just everything that is Augusta National. And you know, you earn the opportunity to play and participate in the tournament, but also, you know, if you don't go and do all that other stuff, you're, it's hard to do both at the same time.

Enjoy the chorus, enjoy the tournament, but then you're trying to play and prepare too. So it's kind of hard to do both at one time. So they kind of do something to kind of help you get through that, which is amazing. And I remember the first time we got and got there at night, had dinner. Uh, kind of did our thing and then we were gonna play first thing in the morning.

And if, if people want to, you talk about your pinch me moment, one of the hardest prayers I've ever said in my entire life was in the back of the clubhouse the next day. And it was like a three hour frost delay. So you're finally getting a chance to play, you know, get a, we're gonna be there for two days. And I walk out and I'mlike we're not playing today. I mean, like, you could just see the frost, like an inch thick and like, man, what's gonna happen? So thankfully, you know, the frost burned off. We ended up having a beautiful day. But at the time, uh, you know, they, they were sending just cuz there's so many people, they were sending people off one in 10.

Uh, which is kind of rare there, but I was, I wanted to play from number one all the way to 18 and kind of just get it over with. And as far as like my first round and then I was gonna go to work. Lauren Roberts, uh, was my playing host, you know, kind of show you around as far as, hey, you need to pay attention to this, which is incredible cuz I've had the chance to go and now a couple times with some different guys on their first time.

More just man, enjoy the course for the first time. Don't think about playing the tournament. Just think about all you did to kinda get in in the opportunity that what it took for you to get to this moment. And then it's like, all right, then we can kind of go to work and start thinking about all the different, all the other stuff that kinda goes into it.

But Lauren was with me, we get ready to hit and then there was this voice that was pretty recognizable that was behind me. Um, so this is December of 2011. And this guy said, son, here, it's your first time. Let's see what you have. And it was Arne.

Brett Gilliland
Oh, no way.

Scott Stallings
And I mean it was, there was four dudes on a tee box, me, Lauren Roberts, Arne, and this random person who I have no idea who it was cuz all I saw was him. And like I always joke that with a lot of guys, especially when they start struggling and stuff, the voices got real loud, real quick.

Brett Gilliland
Yeah.

Scott Stallings
And the world started going fast. But I hit a good drive and um, uh, ended up having an opportunity to spend some time with him that night. Uh, he kind of held court and like the, you know, kind of up above and the top of the clubhouse that night before. Had a few drinks with him, got to hear some really, really funny stories. Um, and then, uh, then showing around playing April, playing the tournament. I go and Toby, who was the starter, he said, you're more nervous in December or April.

I was like way more nervous in December. I said, I'm used..

Brett Gilliland
Yeah. Guess Arne.

Scott Stallings
Yeah. I mean,

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