...no harm in repeating given the circumstances.
I've had the good fortune of being in Lou's company a handful of times through the years as close friends of mine are very close friends of his. In May of 2014 there was an Irish Legends charity golf tournament at Olympia Fields followed by a gala in Chicago. It was essentially Lou, Ara, and BK's charities all operating the event under one umbrella. My friends were involved with constructing the celebrity teams and asked if I would be one of the "celebs." There was going to be a competition between the three coaches' teams. I had recently had some success in some bigger amateur events and Lou wanted some better players to stack the deck so he would come out victorious. I showed up the morning of the event and there's a banner with Rick Mirer, Mark May, Stuart Scott, Johnny Lujack, Jerome Bettis, et al...and there's my name hidden in the middle of them.
The morning of the tournament it snowed . It was miserably cold and everyone was in the clubhouse waiting to see if we could actually play (postscript: the tournament was eventually cancelled). Jack Nolan MC'd a Q&A where they ran through each of the celebs in the event and the coaches gave some thoughts on each of them. They get to my name. I'm the only person Jack has never heard of, he kind of rambles through a couple things on my resume and goes, "Coach, why am I not surprised that you enlisted a ringer for your squad?"
Without missing a beat, Lou fires back "if you can't recruit, you can't win."
Fast forward to September of that year and the USGA Mid Amateur was hosted at the course where I grew up. Traditionally the host club has a featured speaker the Thursday before the tournament. Usually they have some sort of tie to the club or area (for example, Jay Bilas spoke at Charlotte CC since he's a member...same with Condelezza Rice at Birmingham CC), but I was on the marketing committee and I suggested Lou because why the hell not? Lou graciously agreed to come into town and do it for free. He arrived that Thursday afternoon and after chatting with local press turned and asked me if I'd give him a tour of the courses. We hopped in a cart and we drove around chatting. It was pretty surreal.
At one point he asked if I was feeling any pressure being the hometown guy and all the focus that came with locally. I said not really, the pressure I felt was getting to this point and the fear of missing out...now that it was here I was enjoying it. He looked at me very seriously and said, "listen, I want you to remember one thing if you start to feel pressure: pressure is for those who haven't prepared for the moment. If they were asking you to perform surgery this weekend then you'd have every right to feel pressure, but you've been preparing for this moment and you should be excited to show the fruits of your labor. Any time you feel nerves creep in remind yourself of that."
At that point in his career he was kind of a caricature on ESPN with Mark May, but that moment was a glimpse into Lou the coach and motivator. It was such a simple comment, but it instantly instilled confidence and had me ready to run through a wall. When pressure mounted that week, I would say that line before I started my pre-shot routine: pressure is for those who haven't prepared for the moment. It instantly focused me. I use it to this day.
I had a good run that week and Lou texted me throughout. Still have his number saved. One of my greatest accomplishments in life is the fact that I never once drunk dialed/texted him.