1. Play more than you practice

When the realization set in that a career in Major League Baseball wasn’t on the cards, Buckley turned his attention to golf — and initially, the driving range. He’d spend hours practicing, and while it helped iron out some of his fundamentals at first, he quickly saw the returns diminishing. It’s when he came to a simple realization: That it was time to leave the range, and head to the course.

“Videos of a swing on a range is only so much,” Buckley says. “Just look out here. every swing looks perfect, but what are you going to do on the golf course? Once I figured out how to actually play golf, I learned how to get better and better at it.”

Specifically, Buckley says, learning how to shape the ball both ways.

“I hooked the ball a bunch. But when I was on the range, that didn’t matter as much. I could just hit another ball,” he says. “It was on the course I learned how to play my nice little fade.”

2. Play in different conditions

And so, Buckley started playing his home course in Mississippi. He’d tee it up early, playing 18 or 36 holes a day. His scores quickly started to drop, but as often happens in golf, it brought with it a new set of problems. When the time came to play tournaments, his scores would go through the roof.

“I didn’t know how to compete,” he says. “I didn’t know how to play different golf courses. There were nerves every time I played. I didn’t know how to play different courses. I only  knew how to play my golf course.”

Buckley realized he needed to get out of his comfort zone. Playing different courses in different conditions — and, crucially for a born-and-bred Mississippi boy, on different grasses. By his senior year, he finally started to figure it out, and won four times along the way.

“I had never played in cold weather before. I had never played on different grasses,” he says. “I just didn’t play enough tournaments when I was young.”

3. Embrace an underdog mentality

Nuts and bolts aside, Buckley says the true secret to his success, and the message he wants to send to other juniors looking to him as an example, is his underdog mentality.

Staying humble, taking nothing for granted, realizing that what you’re doing is never enough. They’re the kind of notions that have become cliche in sports.

“I always feel like I’m practicing and preparing like I’m still the no. 15th player on my college team,” he says. “It wasn’t fun being no. 15th of 15, but it’s fun now.”