In Part 1 of our conversation with Olympic Club instructor Nic Noya, we start with Nic’s own golf story: growing up as one of the top junior players in Northern California, competing against future PGA Tour names like Bryson DeChambeau, Austin Smotherman, and Kurt Kitayama, and trying to understand what truly separated the best from everyone else.

Nic reflects on the players who became his measuring sticks, why his college career at UC Davis didn't go as planned, how his game evolved during his mini-tour years, and why succeeding in high-level golf often has less to do with obvious talent than people think.

This is a conversation about junior golf, unrealized potential, competitive disappointment, and the lessons Nic now carries with him as a coach.

In this episode:

• What Nic saw in Bryson DeChambeau as a junior
• Why college golf at UC-Davis didn’t go the way he expected
• What mini-tour golf taught him about scoring
• Why the gap at high levels is not always raw talent
• What it means to “play your best at the right time”

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Design by: Austin Wooldridge
Music provided by: ⁠https://www.classicals.de/mozart-figaro