The RoundHouse | 1/23/2019 3:48:00 PM

 
Where are they now:
 
Julien Trudeau, men's golf (1999-2003)
 
Two years ago, Trudeau visited Wichita to have lunch with Wichita State golf coach Grier Jones and that day sticks with him when he thinks about his connection to the school and golf program.
 
"He got to meet my wife (Mallory) . . . and that meant a lot," Trudeau said. "He's basically the only reason why I went to Wichita State. He gave me an opportunity to come play and learn from him. The stuff that I learned from him still helps me to this day. The work ethic and the preparation and all that stuff, that is stuff that Grier stressed and I take with me to this day. It still works."
 
Trudeau, from Saint-Lambert, Quebec, Canada, golfed at Wichita State as Jones' building job began to hit its heights. The Shockers won four Missouri Valley Conference titles during his time and he played on NCAA regional teams in 2001 and 2003. The 2003 Shockers advanced to the NCAA Championships, the program's first appearance since 1979, and finished No. 18.
 
Trudeau earned All-MVC honors in 2002 and 2003 and MVC Scholar-Athlete recognition in 2003.
 
"We had some great, great dudes on our team and we still keep in touch," he said.
 
Trudeau didn't limit himself to golf during his time at Wichita State. He became a big Shockers basketball fan and fondly remembers watching baseball at Eck Stadium.
 
"What I miss the most is going to baseball games, for sure," he said. "Sitting out in the outfield. I played baseball in high school and had a bunch of friends on the baseball team. I miss that a lot."
 
Status update – In 2010, Trudeau quit the grind of earning a living as a professional golfer after one year on the Web.com Tour.
 
"I basically was tired of being broke all the time, or maybe I wasn't good enough," he said. "At the end of the year, I was just fed up, done."
 
A friend offered him a chance to caddy at a Scottsdale, Ariz., club and that started him on his career. In 2012, he caddied for Graham DeLaet, a fellow Canadian, on the PGA Tour. In October 2017, a back injury sidelined DeLaet. 
 
Trudeau will caddy this year for Grayson Murray, starting at the Phoenix Open later this month. Murray, an American, joined the PGA Tour in 2017.
 
"You kind of have to get lucky a little bit," Trudeau said. "I was lucky a little bit that I made some connections all the way from my amateur days when I was in college. You can't just show up and put your name down." 
 
The work at Whisper Rock Golf Club in Scottsdale hooked him immediately. 
 
"I left Whisper Rock . . . my first day and I came home with 200 bucks in my pocket and I was like 'This is incredible,'" he said. "I got some exercise, I met some new people, I helped them out a little bit and made 200 cash. When you're a golfer, you go and you miss the cut – there's not too many jobs where you go to work and you lose money. So, this was kind of the turning point."
 
Trudeau never changed course.
 
"It was very rewarding and I enjoyed helping people," he said. "I like helping people out with their golf games. I guess it was kind of a natural fit."
 
Family - Wife, Mallory; Madeleine (3 weeks)
 
Big Blue Nation –Trudeau moved to Lexington, Ky., a year ago. The Wichita State-Kentucky meetings in the 2014 and 2017 NCAA Tournaments come up occasionally. Mallory Blackwelder Trudeau is a Kentucky native who golfed for the Wildcats.
 
"I've got to listen to these UK basketball fans all the time, and it gets really old," he said. 
 
Family business – Julien and Mallory met in 2011 when both participated in The Golf Channel's reality show "Big Break Ireland." Two years later, they got engaged. 
 
Mallory gave him his first full-time job as a caddy. He carried her bag during the summer of 2011 on the Symetra Tour.
 
"Traveling around in her car, right after we first met," he said. "It was so much fun. We loaded up – she had a (silver) Volkswagen Passat – and traveled around the Northeast (United States) and down to Florida. Pretty cool summer and good experience."
 
When to shut up – Knowing the golf course and knowing the golfer's game is important. Understanding how and when to relay information, however, may be more necessary.
 
"The art of the conversation is very, very important," he said. "How you talk to your player is huge. Usually, it's less is more. We don't need to be filling them with just a bunch of information. Some guys like to give targets with three words, max. Blue house. Big tree. Left edge bunker. These guys are so good that they don't need that much information."
 
Major moments – Trudeau worked at all the majors and caddied for DeLaet in the 2013 Presidents Cup.
 
"Hearing Graham's name called out at St. Andrew's in the (2015) British Open and hearing it echo through the town of St. Andrew's is pretty cool," he said. "That's the mecca, like the home of golf."
 
Playing The Masters Tournament is equally humbling.
 
"I was even nervous on the first tee at Augusta," he said. "Augusta just this aura that's overwhelming. It's pretty insane how the emotions are there."
 
In 2015, DeLaet played with Tiger Woods on Saturday at The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Florida.
 
"The first tee was just packed with people, five or six deep, 100 yards down the fairway," Trudeau said. "Tiger Woods – are you kidding me. That was a really cool experience for Graham."
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.