JM: Virtually none. The only person that switched from calling me Bones to Jim is my wife. She couldn’t wrap her head around being married to a guy and calling him that. So even though she knew me as Bones to begin with, she had to switch Jim at some point. So she’s the only exception to the rule.

JM: So it started out because they were going to shoot a show with Jon Rahm. Jon Rahm lives in Scottsdale, as do I, and whoever was going to host that show wasn’t able to make it. So I was doing TV at the time, and they gave me a shot and said, do you have time to do this? Would you be interested? I said, sure, I’d love to give it a shot. I was pretty horrible. I mean, you saw me do three or four takes of things today. That day, when I tried to introduce the show, I bet you we did close to 20 takes. So my level of comfort was really, really low. But we had so much fun. And you know, it’s like a little family out here. We have this crew of the same folks that do virtually every show, and it’s fun. We put the band back together, and we go here, and we go there. But that Jon Rahm experience was something that took me a little while to get over because I had a lot to learn.

JM: No, it was just, I had a week. I like to do TV one or two weeks a year just to see my friends that do TV. I’m close friends with Tommy Roy and have a great relationship with him. But that was just more, let’s stick a caddie in there and see what goes right or wrong. 

That was a fun experience. I’d never done broadcasting that involved air-conditioning before, so I like that, especially because we were in a place that was quite warm. And it was cool to sit next to Dan Hicks. I mean, that’s a pretty cool chair to get to sit in there for a couple of days. So to do that with Dan was just something that I’ll remember for a long time. 

JM: It was tough that week, because it was on a golf course I didn’t know at all, I’ve never seen before. If it had been at Bay Hill, The Players, you know, any one of a number of courses, you feel like you can recite, you know, so many things about what goes on out there. So that was the toughest part about Vidanta there in Mexico. But I went out there and I tried to learn it as a caddie early in the week. And then I did TV on the ground on the Thursday of the broadcast week and tried to learn it that way. That was my prep. And then, of course, it all became about you know Jake Knapp out there, se were kind of learning as we were going as he kind of stole the show there on the weekend.

JM: I won’t say I’m surprised. What I will say is I’m impressed. I mean, you were out here today. Celine hit really good shots, right? And she hit them right from the get-go. When we put her in that fairway bunker from 115 yards, she was like incredulous, like, I would never hit it here. This show is you know, the 25 handicappers and me at home, we do, and please help us here in terms of how to escape. And she, you know, just solids one up there 7 feet from the hole or whatever she did. It reinforces what I already knew from doing TV. And that is, you know, these women are elite. 

You could hear from the way she talks. I’m not surprised at all that she’s one of the best players out there because I loved her answer about when she’s on the back nine of a major are you walking down the fairway talking to your caddie about dinner the night before because you’re trying to distract yourself? And she said, ‘No, I’m someone that is in control of my own emotions. I want to be in my own head space and I know that I can handle this.’ You know, her physical game, obviously, you know, was shining through today. And that, to me, showed me so much about how obviously mentally tough she is.

JM: I mean, I was a kid that grew up with very little money that lived in a town in the east coast of Central Florida, New Smyrna Beach, that had a municipal golf course that I could play for free after 3 p.m. So, you know, that was my entree in the game. That was the reason I’m sitting you here today is because I fell in love with golf and I went out there 360 days a year.You swing at it, and after finding clubs in the garage or in someone’s garage, you find balls in the lake and things along those lines, and certainly I got lessons here and there. But I was I was pretty much self-taught, and my game showed it, because I wasn’t a very good ball-striker, but I could always chip and putt. That was the only thing that kind of got me to college in terms of playing collegiately and things along those lines.

JM: I love to play. I love it as much or more now, as I did. I’m more of a practice player now because I’m at an age where it’s getting away from me, it doesn’t come naturally at all anymore. And so I love to go and hit balls and just try and hit two or three shots like I used to. I mean, I can get it around, but you’re more likely to find me on the range than on the golf course.

JM: Oh, 100 percent. Patty Tavatanakit, hit we did with one with her Lake Nona a couple of years ago. And you know, just picking her brain on what she sees when she gets into trouble. And just, you know, I kind of liken it to, you know, standing in front of a hotel, you know, and you’re like, OK, to hit this shot and recover here, I need to hit it to that sixth-story window, which ultimately on the golf course, would be through the trees or the whatnot.

So, definitely have and I’ve learned a lot. I just love how in control the women are, you know. There’s no length being sacrificed here. But whether it’s in playing lessons, or I remember doing TV at the Women’s PGA Championship at Aronimink, and Jennifer Kupcho hit 18 greens in regulation one round. I remember thinking to myself, if the men were playing out here today from the same tees, how many guys would be able to hit 18 greens in regulation, and it wasn’t going to be many. I just remember just being blown away by that ball-striking feat and how good everybody is.

JM: Well, I’d say Ted Scott, but his banker wouldn’t have that (laughs). There’s a bunch of guys that can do it. All I know about this business is they told me that they’re not really sure how you’re going to do until they push you out there, and they send it to you on the 16^th hole.

I know that when I did it, you know, the amount of nerves that I had, which I hopefully quickly got over, but there was such a learning process in doing it.

JM: That’s a good question. I think I get the feeling that, you know, in an era of, you know, kind of bomb-and-gouge play a little bit on the men’s game, they’re not quite as interested in coming out of their shoes and just advancing the ball as far as they possibly can. There’s a little bit more strategy involved. 

I get asked all the time, who’s got the best swing in golf? And I think the answer is Nelly Korda. I say that all the time, and people go, well you know, Adam Scott and all these amazing swings on the PGA Tour. Certainly Celine today, my goodness gracious, I mean, she hit it exactly where she was looking. And I it almost seems to me that a big part of the women’s game is just being patient because they’re giving themselves so many looks, you know what I mean? 

That I would think that you almost have to tell yourself OK, I’m not going to make every 15-footer I stand over and if I missed two or three in a row, I’m going to have to kind of you know, come to grips with that because my gosh, I might have 14 15-footers this round. They’re just so talented from a ball-striking standpoint.