There was no jumping or screaming, no hooting or hollering. There weren't tears. Those would come later.
I had just told my wife I had been offered the hosting job for Big Break: Meet the Players, and the phone call was mostly stunned silence. I said the words in a monotone voice, still not convinced they were real.
"No way. No way," she said.
Then there was silence. A lot of it.
A few minutes earlier I had been standing with the show's producers just outside the bathrooms at the PGA Show. The meeting rooms in Golf Channel's booth were full, so we gathered off to the side near the men's restroom while tens of thousands of people streamed past us.
If you had walked by, you never would have guessed that a dream I didn't even know I had was coming true.
Seven years after starting a social media account with absolutely no intention of it ever becoming a career, I had just been offered the chance to host the Meet the Players segments for a show I had watched religiously for years before it ended in 2015.
I never dreamed of hosting part of Big Break because it never crossed my mind that someone like me could. Yet somehow, in the middle of the busiest week in golf, standing next to a bathroom at a trade show, that's exactly what had happened.
It all started with an email from Kevin Schultz, GolfPass VP and Big Break Executive Producer , asking if I had any player stories that might be a good fit for the show.
I was excited Big Break was coming back. I was even more excited they had thought to ask me. But it never crossed my mind that I might be involved beyond hitting reply.
I sent back a list of around 20 names. Narrowing it down was almost impossible.
A few more emails followed. They asked for contact information, background on a few players, and more details on their stories. It felt like what I had always hoped Monday Q could be: a place people turned when they needed to know the stories behind the names.
A few weeks later we were on a phone call when Kevin said, "We might have you involved in the show in some way. We'll stay in touch."
I did my best to sound calm.
"Sounds good," I said.
I'm sure the shake in my voice gave me away.
Then, in January, standing next to the bathrooms at the Orange County Convention Center during the PGA Show, Kevin looked at me and said he wanted me to host Big Break: Meet the Players.
The only instruction they gave me was not to tell anyone besides my immediate family. As I walked back toward the Dunning booth, I tried to collect myself.
I failed.
The first person I saw was AnnMarie Dodd, the person who gave me my first Big Break (pun intended) when I had left Firepit and went on my own. I told her immediately. Within five minutes of getting the job, I had already broken the only rule they had given me.
For the most part, I kept it quiet.
In April I flew to Durant, Oklahoma, the hometown of Jesse Rouse, for the first of what would become 12 stops filming Big Break: Meet the Players.
I had written about Jesse before—his tragic upbringing and the resilience it took to overcome it all. I couldn't have been happier that he had been selected for the show.
Despite all the excitement, there was one problem. I had never hosted a show, my experience of interviewing players was limited to our tiny little podcast that 1,000 people a week listen to.
I'd appeared on a few shows over the years, but I'd never been responsible for carrying an interview, let alone a full day of shooting for a Golf Channel production. When I pulled into Jesse's apartment complex, my stomach dropped.
There were box trucks, lights, cameras, C-stands, audio equipment, producers, camera operators—people everywhere. Until that moment, this had all felt like an incredible opportunity.
Suddenly, it felt very real. And I wasn't sure I was ready.
The crew was incredible, and once I got over the awkwardness of sitting inches away from someone I'd just met and asking them about the most personal moments of their lives, it wasn't nearly as intimidating as I had imagined.
At the end of the day, I was just a golf nerd talking to another golfer, trying to understand their story.
I hope that's how it comes across on television, because that's exactly what it was.
From there it was 11 more cities across the country. The trips became a blur.
In one stretch I took a red-eye from the West Coast to the East Coast, interviewed a player that afternoon, then caught another flight that night back to the West Coast to film with someone else the next morning.
I was exhausted. I loved every second of it.
(Side note: I apparently have the greatest—or worst—credit card company in the world. Three cities in 48 hours. Three rental cars. Two hotels. Countless meals. Not one fraud alert.)
And now the episodes are finally here.
Beginning August 3, Big Break: Meet the Players will be available, and I genuinely hope you'll watch. There are incredible stories, remarkable people, and I can't wait for everyone to meet them.
If you had told the version of me sitting on the couch watching Big Break years ago that one day I'd be introducing those players, I never would have believed you.
I'm still not sure I do.
Each day starting August 3rd, three episodes of Big Break Meet the Players will roll out.
LINK FOR THE EPISODES
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