CHUBB CLASSIC PRESENTED BY SERVPRO

February 17, 2022

Rob Labritz

Tiburón Golf Club

Press Conference

Q. What is this friend's name?

ROB LABRITZ: Jim Brown. He's from -- I met him at the national club pro at Belfair, at South Carolina. He was standing on one of the tee boxes, and I just walked up and he was watching all the players go through. I like to talk to people, so I struck up a conversation and I said, What's your name? He said, James Brown. I said, Like the singer, right?

He followed me for a few holes, qualified for the PGA, we went to dinner that night, and we've been friends ever since. It's been amazing. He's just a good dude.

Q. He retired from what?

ROB LABRITZ: He was a judge in Chicago.

Q. Oh, okay, I see.

ROB LABRITZ: Yeah, yeah. He just retired and when he found out that I got my -- that's what the 64 is, the final round of my qualifying.

Q. That's amazing.

ROB LABRITZ: Yeah, so he said he's going to follow me from tour space to tour space.

Q. Okay, I'm going to have Brett find you guys definitely tomorrow, if not today. That's awesome. Oh, my God, I love it.

ROB LABRITZ: Yeah, yeah, that's so cool. He's just a great dude.

JAMES BROWN: And I followed you to Bethpage, too.

ROB LABRITZ: He did. He came up to Bethpage during the PGA Championship. Just showed up on Sunday just for like a couple hours.

JAMES BROWN: Now, I walked the whole course.

ROB LABRITZ: Did you really? There was a lot of people there that day.

JAMES BROWN: A lot.

ROB LABRITZ: But it was so cool.

Q. Oh, my gosh. I love it.

ROB LABRITZ: That's awesome.

Q. What's it like to be on this ride? Was half joking, but you haven't really tee'd up a ball officially on the tour yet.

ROB LABRITZ: It's just amazing. I get to play golf every day, see things like this, reach more people, and just play golf. It's a really cool thing.

Hopefully we can inspire some people to do this. I've got a lot of messages just from people saying I'm an inspiration. To me, my life is totally fulfilled now. If I can inspire people to do things, holy moly. So bust man, 100%.

Q. How did you separate that with, okay, now I'm going on the golf course and I have to go shoot a score and maybe think about that stuff and it helps you or maybe not think about that stuff and detach and focus on what's in front of you, what everybody else is also trying to do here this week?

ROB LABRITZ: Yeah, when I grew up playing golf my dad was a pretty good drinker, so I didn't want to be in the house with him. Golf was always my solace. When I get out there and I step and peg it, I can just kind of flick everything off. It just turns into me hitting shots on the golf course.

And now having crowds and everything around, it's kind of cool because every once in a while you look over and see someone pointing at you and you give them a wave. You can take yourself in and out of just really focusing.

That's what I do.

Q. I think I saw where you said you have to hire like an assistant pro.

ROB LABRITZ: Yeah.

Q. How is that part going? How are your responsibilities of your other job or...

ROB LABRITZ: Wow, I got another job, you're right. I got two jobs. I'm doing dual density. You know, I've played in a lot of tournaments, a lot of different clubs, so got some reach to some other assistants. A lot of guys are interested in the position we've to offer. It's a great place to work, so been making phone calls and doing phone interviews on my rides and in the morning when I get up, in between workouts and coming out here.

So it's golf, you know, and then you come out here and now you just get the ball in the hole. I can compartmentalize pretty well.

Q. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm guessing media attention is not like it has been here you were in Q-School. You mention compartmentalizing. That's a different entity. How is that part working for you? And I know you were on Golf Channel yesterday. They did a piece on you. Made you watch your thing.

ROB LABRITZ: Yeah, that was the hardest part, watching that thing again. Always gets me choked up, so I try not to watch it because it just kind of gets me choked up.

But how is it? It's a dream come true. It is a dream come true. Any time media wants to talk, I'm here. I'll tell the story, I'll talk. Unless I got to rush to the tee box, I got plenty of time to do this. This is a pro-am, so we're out here having fun. I mean, if you can talk to you guys, heck yeah, I'm in.