Tim Herron explains what makes his practice group so appealing

Tim Herron and Tom Gillis

Tim Herron and Tom Gillis are practice-round buddies.

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Tim Herron spent over two decades competing on the PGA Tour, amassing four career wins. These days, he plays on the PGA Tour Champions, where he’s notched four top-10 finishes.

On this week’s episode of Subpar, Herron revisited the highlights and amusing anecdotes of his professional career this far with hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz — including why his practice group is among the most coveted on tour.

“Our group is Carl Pettersen, George McNeil, [Tom] Gillis and myself. That’s our group,” Herron began. “We’d play a no-bogey game, and it got pretty batty. We had alternates. And sorry to say, Jason Bohn, you’re first alternate in our four-banger. So, if all four weren’t playing that week, Jason was the fourth guy. Sorry Jason, you’ve always been first alternate. So then there’s a fifth and sixth. We had [Henrik] Norlander, great kid, but he couldn’t give it. He could take it. He couldn’t give it. He’s a big guy, nice kid. And [Tom] Hoge was good too.”

So what was it about Herron’s group that makes it so appealing? Turns out, it’s more than just the “no-bogey” game.

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“Why people wanted to get in our group was we’d have a fake laugh,” Herron said. “See, people didn’t even know that. We’d give it the [laughs loudly] HAHAHAHA! And everyone’s like — see how you laughed? So then we’d all start laughing because someone would give a fake laugh. We’d do it throughout the whole course.

“Nothing was funny,” Herron continued. “We just laughed like we were having the most fun, so everyone wanted to get in our group.”

So what was it that prompted the fake laugh scheme? According to Herron, it was just a simple need for amusement.

“Practice rounds get boring,” Herron said.

For more from Herron, including how he got his famous nickname, Lumpy, check out the full interview below.

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.