Pro Golfer Berry Henson on His Career & Uber Side Hustle

What's up, guys? Leslie Robbins here for Young Hollywood, coming to you from the famed Los Angeles Country Club. It is the 123rd US Open. So let's play some golf. To my right, Mr. Barry Hansen. Welcome to the US Open. Now, that has an amazing ring to it. Like tell me the emotions going through your body being at this course.

Well, I feel like I might be in a Zen with myself right now. Uh this is a long time dream to be here at a major championship at a US Open at Southern California. It's like a triple header for me. I feel amazing. I feel a little bit excited, a little bit nervous, but I know come Thursday, I'm going to feel at home.

Okay, let's break down a little bit of your four-decade story to get here.

You just aged me, Leslie.

Listen, Young Hollywood, it's about attitude, not age. Okay, okay. So, you belong, it's all good, you're young. Okay.

Yeah. I'm fit. I'm fit. I'm in decent shape.

You wouldn't be here if you weren't.

I'm single. Ladies? Hey.

Wait. So, so you're here to win a championship and maybe a lady, right? Just saying. Okay. Just saying. You have an agenda. Wait, what's happening?

I don't know. Uh, we're here to make birdies and eagles and pars. Yeah. Um, I'm here with my team going to enjoy the experience as much as we can. Yeah. Hopefully at the end of the week, we have something to cheer about.

Okay. So, let's go back to that four-decade story. I'm not going to age you, but you've been putting in the work. You're You're a story that I cherish in sports. Someone that works their tail off, does not give up, doesn't listen to anybody. And let me let me just get to it. Full-time pro golfer who dabbles part-time Uber driver, just to keep busy. Talk about a side hustle.

You know, I've been driving with Uber since 2016. When I had a little wrist injury, I needed something to do to keep my mind busy, so I didn't go crazy cuz I'm a professional athlete and I need to keep my mind busy. And it's turned into 3,000 rides with 4. 99 Uber rating right here. 4. 99, got to make sure that gets across the air. So if you get in a ride with me, you're going to have a great experience. You're going to have some good stories, and you get to get to talk to a professional golfer.

Well, see, that was kind of one of my questions. You just actually started down that road. When you get into an Uber, the driver's like, oh, how are you guys doing? And the the rider usually wants to vent and tell a story. But they say, oh, how are you doing? Well, let me tell you. How often does that happen where it's like, let me tell you who I am and they're like, no way.

I'd say about 80% of the time.

Wow.

Yeah. But this is what I do. I have a game I play with my my riders. I tell them to ask me questions about what they think I do for a living, but I can only answer yes or no.

Oh. Okay.

And they go down that route, they go down the entertainment industry, they think I'm in movies. And sometimes it takes them quite a ways to figure it out. But when they do, then I share them my I share them my social media, I tell them who I am, and they're like, no way, this is so cool. And then they follow me and we talk and we chat. I've had so many of my riders uh message me this week and say, hey, you're my Uber driver congratulations on joining the US Open.

I mean, you are in the right town for a story like that. We're in Hollywood. This is made for to be made into a movie. How do you feel about that? Um. It's an epic Cinderella story, it's beautiful. Who who's going to be me? Who would play you? Because it's a movie. It's a script. It's beautiful.

Mark Wahlberg? He's a golfer.

Oh, the guy has to play golf.

Yeah. Mark plays golf, he's good at golf. Okay. And he is. Um, Matt Damon? No. Not sure. But he's got a good golf swing. Got to think of the good golfers.

Matthew McConaughey?

I did have long hair yesterday, but we trimmed it a little bit. But that yes, that could work.

Does your all right, all right, all right.

All right, all right, all right. That is it.

So talk to me about the career overseas and when like the negative stories went through your head, how did you persevere?

I I mean, I always thought I can do this. It was just getting the opportunity, putting myself in the right position and keep going. Stay fit, stay healthy, do all the right things, get 1% better, which is my motto. If you can get 1% better every day in in your life, you're going to be pretty good. So nutrition, health, sleep, golf, work, whatever. Anybody can use that motto. By the end of the year, you're going to be pretty good.

So who uh monitors the 1%? Do you have to kind of know it in your soul?

Yeah. Self self-monitoring.

Wow.

Yeah. But I do have a team that keeps me responsible and if I'm getting off track, then they will definitely let me know.

How do you get your sleep amongst all of this? I mean, you look at the Los Angeles Country Club and it's how do you sleep knowing you're here and playing here?

It's been hard this week. I feel like I've been leading the golf tournament every day for the past seven days. The excitement level's been very high. It's something that I'm slowly starting to bring down because I cannot play good golf when it's too high. So that's something as the next few days, I'll I'll bring that level down. Um, but yeah, I mean, Hollywood, there's a lot to do. You know, I want to go to Dan Tana's this week. It's one of my favorite restaurants. Anything there is amazing. So I need to make a reservation at Dan Tana's. I'm coming. Be ready for me. The Heisenator and the Heisenator Nation are coming.

Wait. Okay. You'll win the tournament, fine. Yay, celebratory dinner. But I have I have an idea. You'll meet someone here and take them to Dan Tana's and you'll have a date at Dan Tana's and that would be like and scene, the end of the movie.

Are you going to be my PR spokesperson this week to set this up?

I I mean, I'd have to sk- what are you looking for? This interview is leading in another direction, but what are you looking for? What what what you got?

She's got to play golf. Oh. She's got to be a golfer. Okay. She's got to understand understand golf. Okay. That's for sure. That's a big criteria. It's good. It's got to be, you know, fit, stay healthy. Right. Right? Live that type of lifestyle. Okay.

Those are those are good keys to start. Wait. Do you online date too? And it says like pro golfer and they don't believe you and you go through like that as an Uber driver?

I I wish I had time for that. Traveling the world, living in different countries and doing this a lot. It makes it difficult to date. Right.

Okay. Well, we're going to try and ground you a bit. Okay. And cool. Now, tell me a little bit about Thailand. Because you live there most of the time.

Yes.

It's quite different than Los Angeles.

Yes.

And the states, really.

Yes. It's amazing. I love the Thai culture. I love the Thai food. I live at Black Mountain and Wahin, Thailand, which is beautiful, 20 minutes from the beach. I have everything I need there. And I have the time to relax and enjoy my time off, which is very special and needed when you're doing this 25 to 30 weeks a year.

And so when you play pro overseas, how is that different than playing pro here?

It's Yeah, it's there's there's many different aspects. I mean, you're going to different foods, you're going to different cultures, different languages every week. So here, you know, it's easy. You know, we all speak English pretty well. You know, we all eat pretty good food. And the conditions each week on the PGA tour are pretty similar. So, I mean, obviously this week's US Open is different, but but the conditions are quite similar each week over here in the US.

Well, I have to ask um before we get back to your dating, you said PGA Tour, LIV, big announcement. I I have to ask cuz we're here the week of what talk about a bombshell. I wasn't expecting to talk to you about that this week.

Yeah, I mean, it I I don't really know exactly what's going on. I've been in such a this whirlwind for the last seven days. I haven't been able to like get my bearings on preparing for the week. But I think, you know, that's going to take care of itself in the long term and and in the short term and there's some things they need to iron out and and I'm you know, we'll see what happens there.

Okay, you said the word iron. And I'm here. And I know you're looking for a lady that knows how to play golf. But like truth be told, I'm a reporter that knows nothing about golf. I mean, minigolf maybe.

Minigolf? Yeah. Sure.

How about you show me a few things basic, basic stuff. You want to do a little chipping?

What's chipping?

Okay. Is that like the chip?

Yeah, that's the chip. So when you're just off the green, we call it getting up and down. So you want to get up and down because you got to save your par. The par is the No. Par is the hole. So you got par, birdie, bogey. You don't want bogeys. No, that's when it's like Yeah, that you don't want bogeys. Right.

Right, that no that's. We want we want birdies and pars. Okay. Okay. So if you miss the green on a par four, for instance, that means your second shot's near the green, you got to get that chip near the hole, so you can make the putt for four.

Whatever whatever he just said, but we're going to learn some golf.

But but but short game's my specialty.

Good, I'm short. We're good.

No, well, not that short.

Ah, see, I I didn't know.