Country Music’s Jordan Davis on a New Album and a Golf Favor From Peyton Manning

Multi-platinum country music star Jordan Davis is about to hit the road again on tour for his newest album, out now, Learn the Hard Way. And when he does, his golf bag will be packed right along with his instruments.

The 37-year-old CMA Song of the Year winner (2022’s “Buy Dirt”) talked to Sports Illustrated about the new album, golf on the road and a promotional video few other artists could pull off.

Sports Illustrated: Would you describe yourself as a golf fanatic who just happens to play music?

Jordan Davis: I love both. I’m much better at one than the other. I’ll let you guess which one that is.

SI: What does planning for a music tour look like for a golf nut?

JD: Well, it really cuts into my tee times. Fortunately, whenever we’re on the road, we are usually able to sneak a round in the morning of shows. We work with a lot of courses that we’ll be able to swap tickets with for a round of golf. I hope I’m not giving up my secret, but I feel like a lot of artists do that, too. 

SI: What’s the ideal pre-show round?

JD: It’s all about speed. Me, my drummer (Kyle Wilkerson), my bass player (Benton Kubicki) and my guitar player (Jonathon Jircitano) in a foursome, and it’s ready golf, man. We try to get in at under three hours to get back and make sure the sound check’s good and all that. So we usually tee off pretty early, and try to rip through it as fast as possible—which a lot of times, actually, I play better golf. I don’t have time to sit around and think about technique or something I’m working on, I just get up, see ball, hit ball and hit it at the flag. I’ve played some of my better rounds that way.

SI: What have been some of your favorite spots to play?

JD: We’ve played some amazing courses down on the road. I’ve been able to play some Dormie Network courses. Played Camp Creek down in Florida. One great thing is, you don’t meet a lot of bad people in golf, and it makes a day so much easier when you can meet some new people, make some new friends, play some beautiful courses. Bandon Dunes is one that I’ve been fortunate to play. Our handicaps don’t reflect the type of courses we play (laughs).

SI: Jim Nantz and Peyton Manning appeared in a YouTube video to announce your tour, and that’s no small feat. How did you get them?

JD: I got lucky on that one. Peyton has become a buddy over the past couple years, both of us being from Louisiana and me being such a big Manning family fan going all the way back to Archie. I texted him and was like, “Man, I’ve got this crazy idea,” totally expecting him to be like “I’m booked up, I can’t do it.” But he said “I’d love to help out.” A lot of that is just Peyton is such a great human. And then that’s when we kind of started talking about, “What about Jim to narrate this?”

I think it was easy when I said, “Here’s what I’m thinking. I’m gonna go out and play golf and I just want y’all to bash my golf game.” And they were both like, “done.” That will always be probably the coolest video I’ve ever done, and it has nothing to do with music, other than announcing the tour.

SI: One of the lines Nantz had was, “I’ve seen better swings on a front porch,” which I might have to steal for my buddy rounds.

JD: When he said that, I’m pretty sure he had to do that twice because I was cracking up the first time. 

SI: You played with Jordan Spieth. Did you learn anything from him?

JD: I got to take on 17 at Sawgrass with Spieth. He probably hit it to 15 feet and I asked him, “Any pointers?” There’s probably 20,000 people watching and his advice was “Don’t go in the water.” Which I did. But I’ve been fortunate to play with Spieth, play with Tony (Finau) out in Utah. It’s just crazy how the difference is between even the best golfers that I get to play with. The difference between them and the pros is so big. 

SI: Does the same kind of divide exist in music? 

JD: Yeah, there’s a ton of guys in Nashville that I go listen to and the first thing you say is, “Man, how is that guy not bigger?” There’s just so much talent out there, a lot of times it’s the right place, right time.

But I’ve met some guys that can do things on guitar that I truly didn’t think was possible. Marcus King being one of them, me and him have a song together on this record, and watched him play guitar. I just don’t understand how you make it sound like that. 

SI: You headlined a concert at the Players Championship. What’s it like playing to a golf audience?

JD: I feel like golf is becoming more fun than it’s ever been. People show up to golf events to be entertained, and I think that’s a cool thing that now golf is kind of starting to mix in more music with it. Golf concerts can be just as rowdy as showing up to an arena on Friday night. And they’ve done such a great job with the stages and setting it up to where these concerts are just as fun as any other show we play.

SI: Your new album is titled Learn the Hard Way. What’s the backstory to that?

JD: I feel like that’s been my life for the last four years. Even going back to my early days in Nashville, starting out in music, there’s a lot of things that I was told that I should do or shouldn’t, that I had to learn the hard way. And now, the last couple of years, with a growing family and the career picking up, that’s been a big battle for me, that balance of work and life. That’s really where that title came from, I’ve learned the hard way.

SI: What is your handicap?

JD: I’m an 11 right now.

SI: You’re on a desert island and you can only have one guitar and one golf club, what are they? 

JD: For the guitar, I have a 1972 Gibson Country Western. It was the first guitar I bought on the road. We were in Chicago and I went to Chicago Music Exchange, and fell in love with this guitar. At the time I didn’t have a ton going on, but I knew I couldn’t leave without that guitar, so I paid way too much money for it. Every time I play that guitar, I go back to where I was in my career. Kind of just getting started, trying to make things go.

So I’m bringing that guitar and for one club, I’ve got to bring a sand wedge. There’s going to be a lot of sand over there and I spend a lot of time in the sand as it is. I feel like I’m comfortable with my sand wedge, which right now is a 60-degree. It’s been treating me pretty well.