Q: How have your fellow players reacted to you?
WAGNER: Most have been positive. When I’m out there talking to guys, like, Sam Burns said to me at the Open Championship last year, he said, I don’t even need to play a practice round out here. I’m just going to watch you at night and learn every place I don’t need to hit it. So I think they’ve enjoyed messing with me. Xander Schlauffle took a couple digs at me last year, which was great, and I can handle it.
Q: Did you worry at the beginning about what the players might think?
WAGNER: No. I mean, basically the whole goal is to show how good these players are, and these conditions are so tough, and folks back home sitting on the couch, they’re like, well, I could have hit a better shot than that. And then I get out there and basically prove that they couldn’t.
Q: Do you ever get texts from other pros kidding you about the shot recreations? And do you remember any of them in particular?
WAGNER: There was one at THE PLAYERS. I was highlighting hole locations on 17, and I said something to the effect of, this is a sneaky fast putt to the Sunday pin on that right side. And Danny McCarthy’s, like, I was just watching your sneaky fast putt. He’s like, that’s the fastest putt on the golf course. There’s nothing sneaky about it. It’s little stuff like that. As far as shots in particular, well … Beau Hossler, at the PGA at Valhalla, I think I shanked a couple of chip shots, and he chimed in via text shortly thereafter.
Q: Do you ever worry about being critical?
WAGNER: I think that’s one of the things you learn; that I’m paid for my opinion and my goal, if I’m being critical of a player is for them to be like, you know what, I don’t appreciate that but he’s not completely wrong. I don’t want to say anything that’s going to burn a bridge with a player, but if I see something and I’ve got to call it out, then I certainly will.
Q: What does your family think of this second part of your career?
WAGNER: My son Graham is 16 and he’s a better golfer (a plus-2 handicap) than I am now. So, I think he digs it. He’s gotten to travel to a bunch of majors with me the last couple of years … and he just absolutely loves watching me humiliate myself. It was Wednesday night at Royal Portrush, and I sculled a ball from this hillside on 16 into the middle of a crowded grandstand. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen my son laugh and smile for as long as he did.
Q: Do you ever miss the competition?
WAGNER: Yes, I do. I do. And I think about the Champions Tour a little bit. I’m 45 now. I definitely think about it. The PGA TOUR has passed me by. I didn’t stay in good enough shape to compete with these guys, so I will start thinking about Champions Tour here in a couple years and if that’s something that I want to pursue. Yes, of course I miss the competition, but I feel like the last couple years I played nerves really, really got me, and I was not having fun. I was kind of overcome by nerves, especially on the first tee on a Thursday that it just was like, okay, let’s find something else.
Right now, I think (PGA TOUR Champions) sounds like it would be fun, but if TV’s still going great and I’m enjoying it, then I don’t know. It’s tough. You look at guys like Carl Pettersson who are about to turn 50 that have been away from the game for eight, nine years. It’s going to be hard to be competitive when you haven’t played high level tournaments. For me, it’ll be eight years as well, and we’ll see, it’s probably going to take at least a year and a half of me preparing to feel like I can get out there and do something.
Q: Are you surprised at how all this happened and the success you’ve had?
WAGNER: I am a little bit surprised. … I just feel like the role, the position I’ve been put into having a lot of face time, I feel so grateful. I think there’s a lot of people that could go out and do the stuff I’m doing, but I just feel honored that the powers that be at Golf Channel trusted me enough to go out with this role and to build it into what I have. So, I’m honored, proud of that. Yes, very surprised that when I go through an airport now, it’s not even close to when I was playing my best golf. People are like, oh, you’re the guy that hit the Bryson shot at Pinehurst, can I take a picture? Yes, of course. It’s been shocking. …
I tell people a lot I wish when I was playing golf, people used to get as much enjoyment out of watching me chunk, shank and scull chip shots because they would’ve seen the same guy out there then, too.