RELATED:\u00a0Train lead singer Pat Monahan on his wine bond with Keith Mitchell and his go-to golf course music<\/a><\/p>\nThere\u2019s not a ton of time for golf with a busy summer on tap. Train has a new studio album, \u201cMad Dog in the Fog,\u201d coming out in August and a 39-city tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of their iconic \u201cDrops of Jupiter,\u201d which resulted in the band\u2019s first two Grammy Awards. Monahan, who is also the co-writer of a new musical, \u201cBegin Again,\u201d set to debut in the fall, will bring his clubs on the road as always. The band will also travel with a semi-trailer with equipment for workouts on show days.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not in really good shape right now, but I will be by the third week of July,\u201d Monahan says. \u201cGolf\u2019s my fun time.\u201d Just as golf is a lifelong sport, Monahan views his music career in the same light.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a long-distance runner more than a sprinter, and we\u2019ve never been the biggest band in the world,\u201d says Monahan of the group that formed in 1993 in San Francisco and of which he\u2019s the only remaining original member. \u201cBut I was like, \u2018We\u2019re gonna outlast all of them.\u2019 That was always the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monahan says that scrappy attitude carries over to the course as well, and he appreciates the game\u2019s ability to keep him hungry and humble. \u201cYou can have a great drive, nobody cares. What are you gonna do with it? That\u2019s a thing in music as well,\u201d Monahan says. \u201cNobody cares about, Hey, that\u2019s the guy who wrote \u2018Drops of Jupiter.\u2019 It\u2019s like, What about now? What do you got? I try to stay competitive in that.\u201d<\/p>\n
His competitive side comes out when he plays in celebrity tournaments or in club events at Aldarra. When asked for a golf highlight, he points to a Presidents Cup match a few years back when he hit two great shots on the par-5 seventh hole and then converted a clutch eagle putt from six feet after the opposing two-ball team chipped in for birdie.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeating those two guys on that hole was one of the best things I\u2019ve ever done,\u201d Monahan says with a grin. \u201cIf you met these guys, you\u2019d be like, \u2018I\u2019m so glad you won.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Most of his rounds are much more friendly. A few years ago, Monahan was jealous of the camaraderie he saw at San Francisco Golf Club when a friend challenged him to do something about it at his home club.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I went there, and I was determined to meet as many people as possible, so they know me and I know them,\u201d Monahan says. \u201cI try to mix it up as much as I can. I just think it makes me better as a person and player.\u201d<\/p>\n
The game certainly hasn\u2019t hurt him as a musician. Monahan famously penned \u201cDrops of Jupiter\u201d in 15 minutes a quarter century ago after waking from a dream about his recently deceased mother returning from a spiritual journey through the galaxy. When he suddenly gets a burst of inspiration while on the course, he\u2019ll sneak off and sing something into his phone to record it for later.<\/p>\n
If there was a Venn diagram of people who have both written a song and performed with Taylor Swift as well as taken a golf lesson from Tiger Woods, we\u2019re pretty sure Pat\u2019s name would be the only one on there. While he hasn\u2019t gotten to \u201csail across the sun or make it to the Milky Way,\u201d some golfers may argue that playing places like Pebble, Pine Valley and Augusta National qualify as similar experiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m living a pretty cool existence,\u201d Monahan says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYou can have a great drive, nobody cares. What are you gonna do with it? That\u2019s a thing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10553,44,818,10550,589,10551,588,82,3615,1142,10552],"class_list":["post-26525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-drops-of-jupiter","tag-golf","tag-golf-money","tag-in-golf-and-rock-n-roll-train-frontman-pat-monahan-knows-youre-only-as-good-as-your-last","tag-magazine","tag-pat-monahan","tag-plus","tag-story","tag-taylor-swift","tag-tiger-woods","tag-train"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}