Podcast Ep. 105: PGA Tour Player Adam Schenk Reflects on Purdue Golf Career, Playing Professionally and His First Invite to the Masters

Adam Schenk:

This is Adam Schenck and you are listening to This Is Purdue.

Kate Young:

Hi, I’m Kate Young and you’re listening to This Is Purdue: The official podcast for Purdue University. As a Purdue alum and Indiana native, I know firsthand about the family of students and professors who are in it together, persistently pursuing and relentlessly rethinking.

Who are the next game changers, difference makers, ceiling breakers, innovators? Who are these Boilermakers? Join me as we feature students, faculty and alumni taking small steps toward their giant leaps and inspiring others to do the same.

Adam Schenk:

This proud alumni base and on the golf course, on the PGA Tour, all the time I’ll see Purdue hats, Purdue sweatshirts, “Boiler Up,” all over the place. It’s really cool to be a part of that spirit and to embody it; work hard, never give up, the Boilermaker way, that’s something that I try and do every day.

Kate Young:

In this episode of This Is Purdue, we’re talking to PGA Tour golfer, Adam Schenck. Adam is a Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business alumni and former first-team All-Big Ten Purdue men’s golfer who has spent nearly a decade dedicated to his full-time professional career on the golf course. During this time, he secured his PGA Tour card and rapidly ascended the leaderboard, often competing alongside some of the world’s top-ranked golfers.

The 2023 season took him to new heights and during this 2024 season, Adam will be playing at the Masters for the first time in his career. You’ll hear Adam reflect on his time playing for the Purdue men’s golf team, recounting his first collegiate tournament and what it felt like winning for a team, not just himself.

He also shares how he prepares to play with iconic golf legends, like Rory McIlroy on some of the most famous courses across the country. Plus, Purdue men’s golf coach, Rob Bradley, joins the podcast to discuss his journey with Adam as his coach, mentor, and friend.

From Purdue to the pros, Adam is a Boilermaker who is taking giant leaps in the world of professional golf. Here’s our conversation.

Adam, thank you so much for joining us on This Is Purdue. When did you first hear about Purdue? Let’s kick it off with your Purdue journey. What made you want to come here?

Adam Schenk:

So my family has always been Purdue fans. My dad has a sod farm and a grain farm, so with Purdue having a big agriculture tie, that was always a big portion of it for me. And the golf courses here are phenomenal, and I was recruited to play golf here, so that’s a big reason that I came here as well. Close to home, but far enough away, we’re still flying, I got a good college experience, so had a great experience, but overall just a great university and it just made sense for me.

Kate Young:

Adam grew up in Vincennes, Indiana, and he majored in business management within the Daniels School of Business. Going into his golf career at Purdue, he was named to the IHSAA All-State in 2007 and 2009 and earned Indiana Junior Golf Player of the Year honors in 2006 and 2008.

As a freshman, Adam became the second Purdue player ever honored as Big Ten Freshman of the Year.

Adam reflects on his favorite memory as part of the Purdue men’s golf team, which also happens to align with his very first tournament as a Boilermaker.

Adam Schenk:

The first tournament we played in was Turning Stone in New York and I made the squad went and we were in the hunt the final day and we ended up winning. But during the final round, I remember playing for more than myself. It was the first time that I wasn’t playing as an individual. I was playing for the team, for the university. And we had the block P-logo on our golf ball and I always, every time I would tee up a shot on the tee, I would always put the Purdue logo on top that way I kind of remember that I was playing for something bigger than myself. And we ended up winning the tournament and the van ride back, the flight back, it was really fun to celebrate it with teammates because I’d never won anything before as a team, so that was very exciting for me.

Kate Young:

Adam also shares what he’s most proud of during his Purdue golf journey.

Adam Schenk:

Ultimately, the golfer that I became, the person that I became, the teammates that I have lifelong friendships with now, just the journey so much more than the destination. So many good things have come from Purdue and it’s better me in so many ways. So I owe a lot of that to my time at Purdue and just the different experiences that I was able to have here.

Kate Young:

I asked Adam about his Purdue experience outside of playing golf, which involved living with several members from his close-knit team.

Adam Schenk:

So we all lived together. We had a ping pong table, so during the winter we would study a little bit on it and then we played a lot of ping pong, so one of my best friends, Stuart Macdonald, we played so much, a couple of hours a day at least. We’d go to Mollenkopf and throw the frisbee around.

The team workouts, which were really hard and struggling through those together, feeling like they were never going to end. Looking back on those, they weren’t always fun in the moment, but very fond memories of just hanging out with teammates.

And the fraternity for me without being in a fraternity, was just the other athletes that we were able to make friends with and we’d go over to the tennis house, the baseball house, the volleyball house, and just those more friendships that you make and I still talk to several of those people still today.

Kate Young:

What else did you like to do at Purdue? Did you have certain study places you liked, certain restaurants that kind of bring you back that nostalgia?

Adam Schenk:

So Triple XXX, obviously a staple. We’d study at Krannert Rawls Hall at the Bree Center. That’s where we received our tutoring, which I needed a lot of help, but that was so helpful to be able to have tutors help us out in athletics.

I didn’t drink coffee in college, which is a huge mistake. I probably would’ve been a better student. I didn’t find out about that until afterwords or I didn’t like it. I like a lot of cream and sugar.

Kate Young:

Adam discusses his academic journey while at Purdue and how he balanced Purdue’s rigorous academics and athletics excellence.

Adam Schenk:

It was hard. We missed not a lot of school but a good amount and scheduling with your professors, “I’m going to miss this quiz, this test, can I take it early, take it later.” And a lot of times they were helpful, but you’d have to take it a week earlier or four days early and that was something that a little bit of adversity you had to face and get through.

And I wasn’t a bad student. I had a 3.1, but just how hard I had to work at some point to even get a B in a class was pretty eye-opening. Teachers were great at helping us. The tutors we received the Brees Center. Drew Brees has done a hell of a lot for this university. Great football player, even better person and very supported. Anything you needed, the resources were there. To get help, you just had to seek them out and put in some effort and you were likely to succeed.

Kate Young:

In 2014, Adam graduated from Purdue and by 2017 he secured his PGA Tour card for the 2018 season. Today he’s playing with pro golf stars in some of the most famous golf tournaments in the world.

Adam shares more about his PGA Tour career.

So getting into your pro career, you’re traveling a ton, people are asking for autographs and photos. Have you gotten used to that yet?

Adam Schenk:

A little bit. I have to deal with it a whole lot less than Rory McIlroy for instance, and that’s a bad word to say “deal with it”. It’s a great thing to do to inspire a lot of young fans, sign autographs and generally just being a good person. If there’s a hundred people there, just sign the autographs, take the 10 minutes. Most everybody on the PGA Tour, almost everybody if not all do it and it’s a very small, easy way to give back to the game that’s given so much to me.

Kate Young:

When you’re in these big tournaments and you’re more and more successful every year, do you ever notice the crowds and the cameras and all the people around you and how do you deal with that? Because golf is such a mental game, right?

Adam Schenk:

It is. I got a two part answer. I used to hate playing and practicing by myself. I hated it. I love when there’s a crowd. When there’s people to entertain like the buzz, there’s an excitement, that’s fun. But I’ve learned to love practicing by myself and going and competing at our golf course at home, Cypress Hills with my dog, Bunker, every time I go I take him out, every time. He doesn’t miss one time.

Kate Young:

Does he rides in the cart with you?

Adam Schenk:

He rides in the cart with me, chase the squirrels, he does all the stuff, runs amok, loves it.

I try and make everything a tournament. I have consequences for every shot. I’m just never hitting a shot and not thinking about the result or thinking where I’m going to miss it. I’m always trying to prepare myself for the tournament. So in doing that, I try and make myself as ready when I can when the bright lights come on. When I’m playing with a big name and made the tour championship this year, playing with Rory McIlroy on Sunday was really cool.

Got to a really nice start, pulled a shot from 115 yards on 3, super bonus, made a long put on one. Didn’t quite finish it off like I’d like to. Rory came back and beat me by four or five. But to know that I can get in those moments and play well, it’s just something to continually improve upon.

But I do a pretty good job of focusing on myself and the bright lights are there, the cameras are there, but if you don’t take care of your own business and play good golf and worry about yourself, you’re most likely not going to play well and the bright lights aren’t going to be there for very long.

So it’s cool. Fans are awesome. They make it so much fun, but it’s important to… You can use that stuff, just enjoy it, but you need to take care of yourself and take care of business in the moment and the cameras, the lights, all the stuff will be there afterwards if that’s what you’re into.

Kate Young:

This question kind of goes along with that, but what is it like playing with these absolute golf legends? At first, were you starstruck or was it just like you were saying where you kind of have to ignore all that and play for yourself?

Adam Schenk:

A little bit. I’d met Rory before and he’s such a nice guy. He’s not overly intimidating, but he’s obviously so good at golf and he had a little back injury on the Wednesday before, so he wasn’t able to hit shots he normally hits his driver quite as far as he does, but he was still hitting it 20 yards behind me and just to see how he handled himself with getting off to a pretty poor start for his standards, I’m always learning something from him or another big name that I might be playing with. But it’s cool.

My first round tour, a little more starstruck and it’s very cool when you’re around the big names, but you want to become one of those big names. They’re your colleagues, you’re with them all the time, so you do get more of a normalcy being around a lot of the stars in the game, but your goal is to become one of them to beat them. So at the same time it is cool, but I wanted to beat Rory on Sunday and that was my goal, and golfed a great start and thought I was going to do it and then he got me by a lot in the end, so something to push me to be a little better.

Kate Young:

You’ve called 2023 a “life-changing year”. What do you mean by that? How has everything changed for you?

Adam Schenk:

Well, I have two full years exempt on tour. Next year I’m in all the majors, all the signature events I think they call them. So that’s nice to be able to set my schedule. I get to go to Augusta National and play the Masters, so I’m very excited about that. That’s going to be really cool. I don’t know if it’s sunk in yet, but once you start seeing the Masters commercials this spring, it’ll start to get more real.

Just to see a lot of hard work come together for five or six years, that process that I’ve been building with Coach and my caddy, it’s been a long time coming and it’s just nice. It’s nice when a plan comes together because in golf I feel like it doesn’t. Every week I play, I try and win and I’ve never won. So in a sense, every week’s been a failure, but it’s hard to look at it like that in golf. But next year I would love to not get the monkey off my back. If I never win, that’s okay. But that’s my number one goal going for, is to win next year and to perform better in the Majors. Very much so looking forward to as well.

Kate Young:

What would you say your most memorable experience was with the 2023 season?

Adam Schenk:

Two come to mind, the Valspar where I finished second being in a playoff at Charles Schwab, got extremely close to winning again, didn’t quite get it done. Miliano got me, I made a putt maybe 20 feet for par on 18 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis. And that was to ultimately get me in East Lake, and if I wouldn’t have made that putt and then I don’t know what I would’ve needed to finish in the BMW the next week, but to make that putt, it might be the most timely putt of my career to have fallen in.

So that was very fond memories of that looking back. I knew it was a big deal to make it. I didn’t know how big a deal, but it turns out it was everything. So that could have been the putt that got me in the Masters. It was like winning without winning.

Kate Young:

Adam says he loves seeing plenty of spectators in Purdue clothing and often hears a few “Boiler ups” from the bustling crowds at PGA Tournaments. He shares more about what the Boilermaker spirit means to him.

Adam Schenk:

I love it. Love the university. Purdue people are just really proud. There’s a really proud alumni base and on the golf course, on the PGA Tour. All the time I’ll see Purdue hats, Purdue sweatshirts, Boiler Up all over the place. It’s really cool to be a part of that spirit and do embody it, work hard, never give up, the Boilermaker way. That’s something that I try and do every day and I don’t succeed at it every day, but if I try and put three or four or five good days together, then that’s how you can hopefully build something that can last.

Kate Young:

In 2023, Adam told a PGA Tour reporter that he had been to the coveted course, Augusta National, one time in his life, and it was as a spectator. He was sick and he lost his wallet, so he didn’t have the best time. Now in 2024, he’s going back to this famous course as a player.

Adam will play in the Masters, one of the world’s premier golf tournaments for the first time in his career. He shares more about his excitement for this PGA Tour signature event.

What is something you’re looking forward to the most? The Masters?

Adam Schenk:

The Masters, yeah. Hands down.

Kate Young:

What does that mean to you to play at Augusta?

Adam Schenk:

Just all the memories of seeing it on TV and finally getting to go there and play the par 3 course. And my wife will caddy for me. My son, AJ, will hopefully be walking by then, maybe. If he’s not great, he’ll be crawling around. But to see all the different golfers before me that have had those experiences, and then you have the lifelong pictures and memories. So that’ll be something that I will cherish forever and to go compete in the Majors.

I’m there to win the Masters, to compete. I might not win, who knows? I think there’s been one or two first time winners. Fuzzy Zoeller comes to mind, but it’s very cool to have a set schedule, to be in the Signatures, to be in the Majors. But now it’s time… What’s next? It’s time to go compete and try and get up in the mix in a Major, which I’ve never done before. So that’s what I’m very much still looking forward to as well.

Kate Young:

I know our Boilermaker community will certainly be cheering on Adam to win that coveted green jacket. Now, we had the opportunity to interview Adam in the indoor putting green facility right next to the Kampen-Cosler course on Purdue’s campus. And Purdue men’s golf coach, Rob Bradley, was able to join this interview as well.

Coach Bradley, thank you so much for joining us. What has it been like for you watching Adam play here at Purdue and then go on to this incredible professional career?

Rob Bradley:

Yeah, it’s been awesome. Obviously, it’s like a goal of mine to help our players get to the PGA Tour. I find a ton of enjoyment being part of their journey, whether it’s mini tours or Canadian Tour or whatever it might be. But then obviously when guys can make it to the PGA Tour, it’s pretty special. It’s pretty special for Purdue, it’s special for our program, for me as a coach, it’s been really fun.

Kate Young:

Did you know right away when you met Adam that he had the potential to go on and have this pro career?

Rob Bradley:

He does a lot of things. He has a lot of characteristics of a PGA Tour player. He hits it really far. He putts really well. So I think when you have guys kind of with those characteristics, you always know there’s a chance, but it’s obviously kind of a long shot to make it to the PGA Tour.

There’s not very many players out there, so I think going in it’s hard to really say if somebody is a can’t-miss player for the PGA Tour, unless you know that they’re just winning all the time when they play in college, things like that. But I knew with Adam, with his length, the way he putts it, he generally plays well when he is in contention, things like that. Those are all really good starting points for sure.

Kate Young:

Adam was back on campus to catch up with coach and play around with the Purdue men’s golf team. I asked Adam what it means to him to be able to come back and play with these younger Boilermakers.

Adam Schenk:

It means a lot. I don’t know as many of the guys as well as I would like to, but it’s fun to come back and help them with different things they might be struggling with or talk through them. Freshmen, sophomore, junior, seniors, because I’ve been through everything they’re most likely going through. So if there’s any little advice I can give them, I’m happy to help or just to be a friend of them and just to play golf and coming out and be with the boys. So it’s like being back on the college team without all the other stuff that goes on.

But it’s something that I cherish and it’s three hours from home, so I can up five or six times a year at least, and it’s very special getting back and playing these golf courses that helps me to get ready to compete. For example, last year I came up for the US Open for two or three days and played and then ended up going and playing well at Brookline. So I would attribute the Purdue facilities a lot to allowing me to be able to be prepared.

Kate Young:

Here’s Coach Bradley on what it means to the team when Adam comes back to Purdue.

Rob Bradley:

Obviously, their goal was to play on the PGA Tour. It’s special for them to be able to know, okay, we can do this. We’ve got two guys right now that have had a lot of success on tour. It’s a bit of a fight on who’s going to play with Adam when he comes back, and they’re all trying to decide who’s going to get to be in the group. And it’s so much fun for them. They follow just like I do or the other coaches do when Adam’s playing well and in contention, we’re always obviously watching very closely. So for him to be able to come back and talk to the guys and kind of let them know like, “Hey guys, you can do this too.” So it’s pretty special for sure.

Kate Young:

And as Coach just mentioned there, Adam isn’t the only Boilermaker taking giant leaps in the world of professional golf. Former Purdue golfer, academic, All-Big Ten Honoree and Indiana Amateur winner, Tyler Duncan, is also a PGA Tour player. He won his first PGA Tour title at the RSM Classic in 2019. Adam shares more about Tyler, who is also a Daniels School of Business graduate, and their long-standing friendship.

Adam Schenk:

We got a lot of stories, took [inaudible 00:17:55] he was great to me. So we just hung out all the time and obviously we’re with each other on the golf course, off the golf course, living together. So that’s how that friendship struck up and we’ve been good friends ever since.

We’ve both played the PGA Tour for six years in a row, so that’s been extremely fortunate for, I’m assuming me and him, to have a great friend for six years because he could have played three and I could have played three and we could have maybe overlapped for a couple of years, but he’s played the Masters. So hopefully he can give me some tips.

Kate Young:

And what does it mean to coach Bradley to have two former Purdue golfers on the PGA Tour?

Rob Bradley:

Yeah, it’s great. Obviously that’s a goal. Being at Purdue, we’re lucky the athletic department gives us tons of resources to be able to get things done. And my goal as a coach is to go, “Hey, how can I get these guys to the PGA Tour?” We’ve added a strength coach that works specifically with them and we have phenomenal facilities, and Purdue has just been great about giving us the resources to be able to help those players get to the PGA Tour. So we’re really lucky. Our athletes are really lucky.

I’m sure if you took the people that Adam was paying or that other tour players were paying, whether it’s strength coaches and instructors, nutritionists, all these different things, I think you’re putting a lot of your time and money into these resources and Purdue is doing that for you when you’re here. It’s definitely a great situation to be in, for sure.

Kate Young:

Some additional background here, coach Bradley is more than just a former coach for Adam. See, in the midst of Adam’s PGA Tour season in 2021, he reached out to coach and enlisted his help. Now, the PGA Tour is a grind for dozens of players trying to make it big, and Adam felt his game was just slightly off. He was in a rut and he needed a mental boost at the time. Adam said Coach Bradley had been so influential in his golf career at Purdue and that he truly knew his game.

So Coach served as Adam’s caddy, coach, and sports psychologist all-in-one during that summer of 2021, and he continues to be Adam’s instructor on tour.

You and Coach Bradley have a really unique relationship. You played under him at Purdue here, but now he’s also your professional instructor when you go on tour. Tell us about that relationship and what that means to you.

Adam Schenk:

Yeah, it’s grown. I remember the first time we met was in the back range. I was getting ready to go to the USM and he helped me with a few things before I took off, but we talk probably every day, probably two or three times a day, one my best friends. So it helps in my golf game a lot.

And I talk to him a lot about golf course management, but more so we’re probably better friends and just a really good person to have in my life that keeps me on straight and narrow. He tells me the truth about something if I need to hear it. I’ll tell him the truth about something if he needs to hear it. He may not like it, I may not like it, but someone that can help hold you accountable I think is a pretty good friend and a unique relationship to have, because I can tell him something that he doesn’t want to hear and I might be wrong, and he can tell me a lot of things that I don’t want to hear, and he’s generally always right, but sometimes I’m too, and sometimes he needs to hear something.

It’s just a really beneficial relationship to have for me and him, I think.

Kate Young:

It’s like having a really honest friend when you need it.

Adam Schenk:

It is, yeah. They’re not scared to tell you the truth.

Kate Young:

Coach Bradley shares more about their unique bond and what it means to him to serve as Adam’s instructor.

Rob Bradley:

I was thinking about that a little bit the last few days. For me, it’s not really different than how it is with our players. Ultimately, at the end of the day, I just want him to be successful and I want to be able to help him in any way that I can. So whether it is with our players, whether they have an instructor or whether I help them, it’s my job just to come alongside them and maybe talk through things with their golf swing, talk through ideas that they have, talk through ideas that their instructors have, and be able to help them process those things, help them put them into play. And that’s basically what I do with Adam.

I think, day in and day out on tour, it’s not like I’m standing on the range with him saying, “Hey, do this and do that.” It’s much more of he’ll say to me, “Hey, I’ve been thinking about this with my grip. I’ve been thinking about this with my golf swing. What do you think that’s going to produce?” And we’ll just talk through those things.

But Adam’s on the PGA Tour because of Adam. He’s a hard-working guy that knows what he wants to do with his game, that has had a great progression where he is getting better every year and learning the golf courses and doing all that. I’m just there to help him in any way that I can to kind of improve upon what he’s doing.

Kate Young:

And speaking of hard-working, Coach Bradley touches on this special Boilermaker spirit here at Purdue.

And you’ve been coaching at Purdue for over a decade. What does this Boilermaker spirit between athletics, the fans, the education that you can get at Purdue, what does that mean to you?

Rob Bradley:

It’s really a special place. I generally think of Boilermakers as hard-working and gritty and just people that are willing to roll their sleeves up and get to work. And I love it about this place.

I think that Adam is a true Boilermaker. He is always gotten a ton out of his ability. He’s always worked really hard, grew up on a farm in Indiana, always been that type of kid.

If you said to me, what’s a model produced student athlete? I think the guy is it. You don’t really necessarily see that in somebody when they’re playing golf at a high level, like he’s playing, battling to win the tour championship or whatever that might be, but he’s no different than the guys on our team or our coaching staff or whatever. He can come back here and blend right in just like anybody else. Or going to a Purdue football game and sitting out in the crowd with everybody and having a great time, I think is kind of what he’s all about and it’s kind of what we’re all about as a program too.

Kate Young:

I loved getting to see Coach Bradley and Adam’s relationship in real life, and it was really a testament to who Adam is as a person. So throughout Adam’s collegiate and professional golf journeys, he’s embodied the Boilermaker spirit and also that Purdue persistence. Here’s Adam.

When you talk about your professional career, your career here at Purdue, you’ve gone through a lot. You’ve had to show a lot of persistence. What does that word persistence mean to you as a professional athlete now?

Adam Schenk:

Persistence, it’s similar to a Boilermaker. It’s not giving up always working hard, putting your best foot forward. I think where I’ve learned a little bit with persistence is you’re always trying to continually improve yourself. And the saying, “If you’ve always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” And sometimes you do just need to keep working hard and putting one foot in front of the other.

But in my profession and the way I see my golf game, I’m always looking for ways to improve, small little ways. It doesn’t have to be a complete wheel reinvention, but persistence to me is understanding that failure is okay and it’s thinks, pain hurts, but pain is a great teacher. And when you’re continually trying to learn better yourself at home, in your professional life on the course, that is a tenacity and something that you can attribute to most people’s success.

Rather than most people think of persistence, just keep going forward and keep trying. And it is. But failure is a great teacher and understanding that sometimes good and great isn’t enough and you’re going to fail. Pain is a great teacher, like I said, and that’s okay, but when you’re continually improving yourself, you’re going to get to where you need to go.

Kate Young:

As a very amateur golfer in the beginning stages of learning the game, I asked Adam about the best golf advice he’s ever received.

Adam Schenk:

It was probably when I was growing up. I used to take some lessons from Nick Bianco in Indianapolis somewhere. We went to much courses, but he told me, “You’ve got a canvas, you got a blank white canvas. It’s your picture to paint and you do it your way and don’t do anybody else’s. That way when you look back, if you fail, if you succeed, whatever, take all the advice you want, pick and choose, but make it your own. This is your canvas, this is your golf career. Do with it how you want to do with it, what you want to do and build it how you want to build it. That way there’s never any regrets and any excuses, you’re taking full accountability in your golf game, in your life.” So that’s kind of how I looked at a lot of things.

I’m a little more hard-headed than most, which is a blessing and a curse in golf, very stubborn in my ways, and Coach knows that and knows how to coach me, knowing that’s one of my, I don’t want to say it’s a shortcoming, but knowing that that’s the way I am.

Kate Young:

And for all of our listeners out there who are golf fans or are maybe trying to step up your game, hey, I know I am. I asked Adam for some advice for all of us recreational golfers out there.

So there’s a lot of, I’m sure, Monday morning quarterback going on when people are watching golf, what should the recreational golfer know about what it takes to be a pro golfer? What would you say?

Adam Schenk:

I would say that it’s all relative, but for the amount of work and effort we put in, we still play really, really bad golf sometimes too. So our bad golf might be 72 to 73, 74 or 75, or sometimes it’s 80, and understanding that it’s just a hard game and they don’t get to play it all the time. So when they go shoot a 70 or a 75 or an 80, whatever a great score might be for them, it’s just probably not going to happen all the time.

So if you shoot a 75 and that’s pretty good for you and you shoot an 80 the next day, why is this happening? I don’t know why I can’t play good every time. Well, there’s a reason I can’t shoot 66 every time or else I would be the Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus. So just as a guy I follow on Twitter, Lou, I forget his last name, but his hashtag is always manage your expectations. So I would say manage your expectations.

Kate Young:

I love that.

With his golden retriever, Bunker, by his side on the golf course, Adam continues to persistently pursue his next giant leap of winning a PGA Tour event, but he’s also leaning into the time he gets to spend with his wife, Kourtney, and their son, AJ, while on tour.

Adam Schenk:

It means a lot just to be able to travel together. And my wife is such a rock star and she makes it so easy on me and AJ, and to be fair, AJ makes it really easy on us. He’s been such a good baby. He’s been sleeping through the night, and I shouldn’t say it’s out loud for all the parents out there that don’t have such great luck with sleeping babies, but he’s slept through the night since he’s five weeks old. Having them with me, being able to share those experiences, the pictures we take, looking back even from two months ago, just saying, “Oh, we did this this week. I can’t believe how little AJ was.” Being able to share that with them makes the entire experience.

Kate Young:

By the way, if you want to see Bunker in action at Purdue’s Kampen-Cosler course, trust me, you do, and he looks great with the “This Is Purdue” hat on too. Be sure to check out some of our YouTube video clips with Adam and Bunker on our podcast YouTube page, youtube.com/@thisispurdue.

I asked Adam what role Purdue University has played in his life.

Adam Schenk:

A lot. It’s given me all the experience that I’ve had for four years to better develop my golfing career, helped me grow up from coming in as a young boy, starting to turn into a man and competition. We played against the courses, the phenomenal schedule, also as well as the academics, which were pretty strenuous for me. I kind of had a pretty well-rounded experience, and whether golf wouldn’t have worked out, I still had a great education to fall back on. And that’s one thing that I will always be thankful for Purdue.

And a little bit harder in golf in the winter, but you get the four seasons. You still travel south a lot in the winter, which is helpful. There’s a beautiful facility here that the golf team gets to use and all those things. It really allowed me to just become the person I am today.

Kate Young:

And why are Adam and Coach Bradley proud to be part of the Boilermaker community?

Rob Bradley:

I just think there’s so many things that Purdue has going for it. The administration here has been awesome, and the facilities, the spirit, the different teams, love going to football games, basketball games. There’s just so many different things about Purdue that I love.

I heard Tim House say it to some recruits this morning, “It’s really easy to sell something that you believe in.” And that’s probably the easiest thing for me about being at Purdue is being able to talk to recruits and believing so much about what we’re doing here and the resources that they have available to them. It’s just such an easy sell.

Adam Schenk:

Exactly what he said. There’s just so much opportunity and there was a lot of opportunity when I was here. I would say there’s even more opportunity now, and I think Coach was a big part of that. And I wish that I could come back and do it all over again, to be honest, so I could go back to 17 or 18-year-old Adam. I would do the experience again.

Maybe I’d do a couple of things a little differently, but I had such a good time with the golf team. That was my fraternity. We had so much fun.

And as I mentioned, it’s so much more about the journey as opposed to the destination. Once you get to a destination, it feels good to maybe they win a Big Ten Championship. Awesome, it’s been too long. They’re going to get it done. And once you get there, it’s like, okay, what do we do next? Well, the fun and the enjoyment was in the process of getting there and then ultimately getting there is really fun. But the most enjoyment that you’ll take out of that is enjoying the process, not necessarily the final destination.

Just a great place to learn to grow and just very thankful that I have came here and get to come back.

Kate Young:

We ended our conversation with this dynamic duo’s goals for their next giant leaps.

Rob Bradley:

I think for me, professionally, winning a Big Ten Championship at Purdue, it’s been way too long since we’ve done that. And I feel like our team is continuing to get better and better and continuing to learn as a coach. So that’s something that’s super important to me, competing to win a national championship. I really feel like that we have the resources and courses here to be able to continue to get better and compete at that level. And it’s something that is super important to me. Obviously, continuing to be a part of our players’ lives after college is important to me. And being part of Adam’s journey has been really awesome.

Adam Schenk:

For me would just be winning, personally, would be my next step on the PGA Tour. And also helping Coach win a Big Ten Championship, win a national championship, compete for a national championship, make match play. There’s steps through a progression that a golf program makes. And he’s had a lot of good teams and he is getting closer and like Coach said, always continuing to learn and how to make his players better. And I think that’s something Coach does really well. And if I can play a small part in helping the team win a Big Ten Championship, that’s what I want to do.

I like helping people more than I like playing golf, and I don’t always get the opportunity to do that because golf is the most selfish sport in the world. It’s team event once a year, the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup. So that for me is one thing that I want to help make happen soon.

Kate Young:

Well, we can’t thank you enough for your time and we’ll be rooting for you.

Rob Bradley:

Thank you very much.

Adam Schenk:

Thank you.

Kate Young:

Which golf legend is Adam most starstruck by and what’s his favorite course to play? And by the way, does he prefer a hat or a visor while playing on tour? Be sure to check out our rapid fire questions with Adam on our podcast YouTube page to find out these answers and more.

Head over to youtube.com/@thisispurdue and hit that subscribe button while you’re there. And as always, be sure to follow us on Apple Podcast, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

This Is Purdue is hosted and written by me, Kate Young. At this special podcast shoot, our podcast videography was led by Ted Schellenberger in collaboration with Jon Garcia, Thad Boone and Matt Kerkhoff. Our social media marketing is led by Maria Welch. Our podcast distribution strategy is led by Teresa Walker and Carly Eastman. Our podcast photography is led by John Underwood. Our podcast design is led by Caitlin Freville. Our podcast team, project manager is Rain Gu. Our podcast YouTube promotion is managed by Megan Hoskins and Kierstin Bauman. Additional writing assistance is led by Sophie Ritz. And our This Is Purdue intern is Caroline Kime.

Thanks for listening to This Is Purdue. For more information on this episode, visit our website at purdue.edu/podcasts. There you can head over to your favorite podcast app to subscribe and leave us a review. And as always, Boiler Up.