Issue No. 163 | March 2, 2025

You have heard the phrase that you should always interview the backup QB and not the starting QB to get the actual story. Cody McBride is no backup QB, but he’s also not the face of No Laying Up (he calls himself their Chief Security Officer and can be found doing pretty much anything that needs doing at NLU). I find that when I speak with him, ask him questions and listen to him that I learn a lot about the world we’re both in — golf media — the world in general and even about myself.

My path and Cody’s path don’t cross as much as you would think two golf media people who live in DFW — The ‘Plex, as it has been dubbed — would cross paths. We have a lot of #dadlife to attend to and he travels a lot for NLU. But I can call to mind specific scenes — a Ryder Cup, the Match Play in Austin — where we got to spend some time together, and I walked away thankful for it.

Cody is a unique person in the golf media space. There are not a lot of “I have done things for our government in other countries that I cannot talk about, but I’m happy to speak on Collin Morikawa’s fade bias if you’d like” people in our industry. That unique nature is among the reasons I find him to be interesting, and I recently called him to ask him a bunch of questions about his life, his career and what working at No Laying Up is actually like.

Here’s some good prep info for the Q&A below.

I hope you enjoy.

But first!

Thank you to OGIO for presenting today’s newsletter.

Cody and I talk a lot below about the places we travel to and the things we get to see and experience (more him than me, but also me a little bit).

Enter OGIO. I recently snagged one of their travel covers, which I’m excited to test out next time I take a trip. I love the way they state how they think about this: If it’s something that carries stuff you really care about, OGIO makes a premium version of it. 

This is true!

P.S. 36 days until The Masters

My previous travel cover lasted nearly a decade despite getting beat up all over the world (this sounds, startlingly, like how every International team captain for the Presidents Cup could be described as well).

Anyway, check out OGIO. We love it when our readers support the businesses that are supporting us, and OGIO is a dream partner for us as our own personal 2025 golf season begins to come into view.

OK, onto the Q&A.

KP: Cody McBride. What did you want to be when you were 14 years old?

Cody: 14-year-old Cody was very weird. At that time in my life, I was getting ready to go into high school, was super into golf, wanted to be around golf, knew that I wasn't going to be able to play golf.

My earliest mentors in life outside of my dad and my uncles were the golf professionals around me. I already knew at 14 that I wanted to go be a golf pro. I didn't think or envision that I would be the type that is folding polos and handling the tee sheet.

But teaching, being at a nice club, trying to get out of northern Montana, that's what I wanted to do.

KP: What influence did the pros that were around you have in your life compared to your dad or your other family?

Cody: What I picked up from the four or five different golf professionals was them truly trying to get to know their members and their juniors and trying to figure out how at that time, a 35-year-old dude can relate to 10 and 11-year-old boys and girls and get them to fall in love with the game. That's through a lot of passion, but also putting yourself at their level without insulting them. It taught me a lot about communication and really a lot about people. That's what got me into it.

KP: Now that you're that person, that 35-year-old, what do you emulate from those golf pros that you're around? You are in a different world, but do you still emulate some of the things that they imparted upon you?

Cody: Yeah, absolutely. I think I try my best with every interaction. I know that I am extremely fortunate to work for the company that I work for. I don't really know how I ended up here, to be honest, because I had a whole other career before this, and I was very happy.

I was in the military for almost 20 years. And I started at the very, very bottom and worked my way all the way up, not only in experience and exposure, but also growing and being promoted and rank and responsibilities. And now I'm at NLU and I get to meet new people, experience new places and share this gift of golf that we get to experience with through a bunch of incredible listeners and people that support us.

I try to relate to them because I think in this weird world of social media and really interesting parasocial relationships, that gets lost a lot of times. And I do my best at every step that I can to just be the relatable guy because that's who I am. I'm not comfortable or familiar with any of this so I'm not going to, at all or at any point in time, be the guy that tries to hot dog anyone.

KP: When you meet new people, if you guys are on a trip or on the road, what is a tell that you're going to connect with them? What's something that they say or do that you're like, ‘Okay, we're going to be boys. We're going to we're going to be able to hang?’

Cody: I think the earliest tell is that you'll get a second look, usually. Usually, when they make eye contact twice, they're trying to ... It's interesting to watch the brain process and them trying to figure out who you actually are.

And majority of the time we're wearing something that is telling the world, hey, this is who I am or what I belong to or what I represent. And usually it's an NLU hat or shirt or something like that. And it doesn't take them too long.

If they're quoting lines, jokes and locations from Strapped or Tourist Sauce, we know that they're in deep. We know that we're meeting an equal somewhere because if they're really into it, we're super into it. It's going to be a great conversation.

KP: What do your parents think of your job now?

Cody: I don't think they know what my job is, honestly. Like I said, I was in the military for a long time and got to a lot of really cool stuff, and they didn't know what I did in the military either.

Not saying that I was the greatest thing in the world. It was just there's certain sensitivities that go with what my previous career was.

And when I moved over to this, they're like, oh, yeah, Cody is getting back into golf because I was a PGM (Professional Golf Management) kid at college. They expected me to be in the golf industry. Being in the military is a big part of my family, but they didn't expect me to be in as long as I ended up doing it.

They know I'm back in golf. They honestly have no clue. Obviously, they support us and they follow all of our stuff on social media. But if I ask my mom, the last podcast she listened to, she's not going to have a clue. And outside of things that somehow end up on Facebook, I don't think my dad's aware of much They're just really happy and supportive and whatever it is.

They're more interested in talking about their grandkids, my three little girls or my wife than anything I'm doing golf-wise.

KP: What's something that you took from your time in the military that applies to the way that you do your job now?

Cody: I am a self-starter through and through in this world, not only of content creation, but content creation in a remote environment. If you're not a self-starter, if you don't have the drive to get up each day and make something, you're not going to be successful.

Half the people in No Laying Up view us as a team, and I think the other half like to view No Laying Up as a band. It's a very weird dichotomy because everybody who thinks of No Laying Up as a band are truly the more creative. That's the DJs, the KVVs, the TCs. They truly, they get everything. If you look at people and say, hey, who views it as a team, that is Randy, that's Neil, that's me, that's Soly.

And it's because we are “write down the checklist” of problem solvers and thinkers, because we don't live in the hearsay world. And in the military, that's exactly what my job was. I was a problem solver. It didn't matter what it was. I knew, ‘Hey, this is the problem. I'm going to come up with a plan. I'm going to present the plan. We're going to brainstorm with it as a team and figure out. Hey, is there anything that we should do differently?”

Once everybody's on the same page, we're going to go execute that plan. And the number one thing that carries over from military to what we're doing now is that.

I can't remember the quote, but [it’s about how] every single plan eventually falls apart. And you have to have natural contingencies built in that are muscle memory to you. So in the military, as soon as, I know this is extreme, but as soon as a shot went off or an IED blew up, we knew exactly, “Hey, this is the actions that we need to go through to not only protect ourselves, but realistically, protect our team to keep fighting towards what mission success will be.”

It's the same thing in this silly little podcast world. I always say it all the time because when we're together doing live shows or on the road, filming whatever video series it is, sometimes somebody will ask me a question or they'll come to me and I'll just be like, “Yeah, man, nothing's going to go perfect.”

You just got to work the problem. It's just my saying is that we don't need to sit there and dwell on it and overanalyze it. Just react. Just work the problem because doing something is a lot better than just sitting there with your hands up wondering “Oh, my goodness, what happened?” No, just keep going. Everything's going to be okay.

KP: Do you ever miss the military?

Cody: Every single day, Kyle.

KP: Why?

Cody: From an outsider's perspective, I understand that that sounds very weird to a lot of people. But when you dedicate your life, and not just time, but time away, commitments away from your loved ones, and really commitments to the men that you have on your team, you form one of the deepest bonds that you're ever going to have in your life.

If anything ever happened to me, they would be the first people there, not just to help pick me up, but heaven forbid, if I died or anything, they be there for my wife and the girls. It truly is a brotherhood, and I miss the brotherhood sometimes.

But ultimately, that's what I love about No Laying Up, too, because we have such a tight bond across the entire group that it's never going to be to that extreme. But there's no other people in this second group of life that I would rather walk through it with than the squad at No Laying Up.

KP: You mentioned earlier, it's a silly little podcast world. It's so different than the previous world that you were in. How do you find meaning in, I think what we would all call first world things? How do you find meaning in that work even though it's so vastly different than your previous life?

Cody: If we're talking about the world of professional golf, there's obviously times that I have a unique ability based off of previous lived experiences that I can provide context to. I remember when LIV and everything else started popping up, I have been to Riyadh on three different deployments. I spent a ton of time in Saudi Arabia. I've met MBS. I've interacted with a ton of people from the Saudi government. I am very comfortable with talking about it and talking through it, which normal Westerners don't really understand.

But I understand that those are extremes. And just because that used to be super important to me, that doesn't mean that somebody jacking up the tee sheet at Bethpage Black isn't important to me either.

I care about the people that enjoy this game. I care about the people who are trying to get to pick up the game. It doesn't matter if it's the little girls that are in my kids' weekend golf lessons or any of the old folks that we see when we roll up to any club around the world. Everybody just loves golf.

And there seems to be people that are in golf that either forgot about that or have their own self interest so far moved up the priority list that they've completely dumped the people that make this game great.

So that's where I find my meaning because I want everybody to have the same level of enjoyment that I have. Obviously, opportunities are going to be a lot different. I understand that, but I think that's still something to fight for.

KP: What's been the most surprising thing about working at NLU, just based on maybe what people's perceptions are versus what your reality is?

Cody: I think everybody has each person in NLU pegged to be something that they're really not. And I wish people understood that Soly processes information through data. He loves numbers because that's based off of his not only previous experiences, but his education. He's a numbers guy. But that does not mean that Soly is the stiff that people think that he is sometimes. He's an awesome dude that is just the same as everyone else.

The same thing with Randy. A lot of people think that Randy is asleep at the wheel sometimes. We wouldn't be paid if it wasn't for him. It was a massive amount of responsibility on his shoulders that people do not see.

Neil, who people think is the party boy, goofball, runs the business and meets with every single one of our partners, CEOs and everything. [He] runs and manages those relationships. And I know that we're very protective of the business side of NLU as anybody else in business is. But it's just really cool to get to know people to see the other side of it because the majority of people online get it so wrong.

I don't have an example for TC because literally TC is the exact same person.

KP: I was going to say I actually do have an example for him because … it's not that he's different. It's just a side of him that I don't think he shows a lot. He will send me deep and detailed edits on stuff that I write. I think people just see him as this take artist, which he is, but ... he thinks deeply about the things that he puts out there and that other people put out there. He's a great editor. He's a tremendous editor. I've been the beneficiary of that a handful of times, and I'm grateful for it.

KP: When does golf feel the most joyful for you?

Cody: I used to say before the kids came around, I would say those late afternoon rounds out there with your friends just enjoying a walk while the sun's going down. Life obviously changes with children. And when I do get the opportunity to go out and golf, it's usually super early in the morning. And I love being part of the dew sweep crew that can go out, get their golf done, have a quick hang afterwards, and then get back and really finish the rest of your day. And I'm home while the kids come home from school because I love spending time with my kids.

Now, I say that because we're on the road a lot, and we're going to go to some truly incredible places. When you ask that question, there's key memories that popped into the front of my mind right away. And a couple of weeks ago, we just got back from Argentina. I never in my life would have expected that we would go on a golf trip to Argentina. It was unbelievable. The people, the places, the food, Jockey Club, 10 out of 10 trip.

And I'll never forget that final round at Jockey Club with TC and Ben and our host in Buenos Aires and Michael Wolf, Wolfie, there with us and just having an awesome time.

[There were] defining moments in Australia for Tourist sauce there and Tourist sauce Sweden out at Visby ... the island of Gotland is the world's military base, and somehow we stumbled upon a 10 of 10 spot at Visby Golf Club.

Ed. note: Nobody is asking me, but if they did, I would say Tourist Sauce Scandinavia is the best one.

Those are the places that I dream of taking my kids to. I can't wait for them to continue to be exposed to golf and fall in love with golf and go on summer trips to those places with them to enjoy those moments in those places with them because I think that's what I'm building my golf to is to be able to enjoy it with my family.

KP: What do you want your girls to learn about life through golf?

Cody: It doesn't matter who you are, where you come from, what you look like. It's all about passion and one thing in common that you have is the game of golf, it doesn't matter what your ability or level of it is, that is all you need to form a basis for any relationship with anybody in their life.

Golf is an incredible bridge to so much. I mean, it was a bridge from my career of shooting guns and blowing up stuff to me now.

It's something that has provided me so much. I know that they see and are sucking that up now because of my lived experience.

I think the number one thing that happens to people in golf is you get to meet a ton of new people and everybody is like, “Oh, yeah. If you're ever in New York, look me up or send me a message or whatever,” nobody ever does it. Do it. Because golf people are good people and they're putting it out there for a reason. If they didn't want to enjoy your company, they would have never said it.”

Thank you for reading until the end.

You’re a sicko for reading a golf newsletter that’s 3,368 words long.

I’m grateful for it.

And thank you to Cody for letting us in on his story and his life at NLU. You can follow him on Instagram here and Twitter here.