From British Columbia to a walk-on at Purdue to a Korn Ferry Tour member, Stuart Macdonald certainly hasn’t taken the conventional path in professional golf.

It’s been a banner 2021 for the 26-year-old too. Entering 2021 at No. 125 on the Korn Ferry Tour Points Standings, Macdonald has slowly crawled his way up the standings to No. 62 after posting four top-10s in his last seven starts including a career-best T3 at the REX Hospital Open.

Macdonald sat down with PGA TOUR Digital to discuss his latest upswing, how David Leadbetter led him to Purdue, his ping-pong skills and the different musical instruments he plays.

What do you attribute to the recent surge you’ve had with four top-10s in your last seven starts?

I think it’s just a continuation of last season, working on the right things and continually getting a little bit better. I made a lot of cuts last season, but I was just finishing 45th and not having great Saturdays or Sundays and just moving down the leaderboard instead of putting a couple good rounds together and moving up. But I’m just kind of doing the same thing as last season but learning a little bit more and getting a little bit better and those 72s on Saturdays or Sundays are 68s or 69s.

In golf, even little improvement is hard … What part of your game have you seen the improvement in that you feel like has allowed you to shoot just a little bit better scores as you mentioned?

I think my swing has gotten a little bit better. I work really hard on my golf swing. It’s something I’ve got to keep in check or else it goes pretty rogue. But I don’t think my swing is a lot better than it was last season, but it’s continually getting better. But it’s mainly probably just the space between your ears for me.

Growing up in Canada in Vancouver, how’d you get started in the game?

My mom actually played at University of British Columbia on the golf team, so she’s always played golf and she got me into the game. She would take me down to the driving range here and there growing up at the age of 8 or 9. But golf was the last sport that I kind of took seriously – I played baseball, soccer, tennis, hockey and all the racket sports. We’d go to the driving range occasionally. I’d say when I was 12 or 13, I started taking it seriously, and I quit all the other sports and started focusing on golf.

Who were your favorite players growing up?

I’ve always enjoyed watching Jordan Spieth with the run he’s made and he’s a really interesting player to watch and see develop. Obviously, Tiger, I’d have to say Tiger for everything he’s done. I always enjoyed one of the first golfers I watched was Fred Couples, and I always enjoyed his golf swing and the rhythm with it.

How did you end up deciding to go to Purdue?

I got to know the Leadbetter family very well when I was at the Leadbetter Academy in Florida my last two years of high school, and I became really good friends with James Leadbetter, David’s son. So, yeah, I was just really close to the family, and David is really good friends with the director of golf at Purdue and David kind of planted the seed to take me on as a walk-on. And I ended up going there and playing qualifying as a freshman and walking on to the team and playing four years there.

That’s pretty unique to go from a walk-on to a Korn Ferry Tour member … How were you able to do that?

I think just being fortunate with having the right people around me; Rob Bradley, the coach at Purdue, has been a huge influence on me. He played six or seven years on the (Korn Ferry) Tour. Having him kind of guide me and help develop me was huge. I think also being part of the Golf Canada National Team because the head coach Derek Ingram was just awesome, and we have a lot of resources being a part of that program. So, I think it’s just the culmination of good coaching and being around people that are really knowledgeable and wanting to help.

What are your favorite golf courses you’ve ever played and what courses remain on your bucket list?

Favorite golf courses I’ve played would be Muirfield Village, and I played Augusta; it was awesome. I haven’t played any golf in Scotland or Ireland or England, so I’d want to play a true links like St. Andrews. That would be very fun.

Who is the person you’d most like to play golf with?

It’d be really interesting to play with Bryson (DeChambeau), I think, and just hear him talk about all of the elements of hitting a golf shot and hearing what his thought process is and playing golf.

If you get a day away from the golf course, what are you usually doing?

I like to not touch a golf club. I like to play music. I play a few different instruments. I like to mess around on the piano. And I would say just getting out and exploring the outdoors in a part – rivers or mountains, do some hikes.

What instruments and kind of music do you play?

I like all kinds of music. I don’t know if I play any particular genre, but I like to mess around, and I have a loop pedal, so I like to loop recordings whether that’s on the keyboard or guitar or piano.

As a musician yourself, who are your favorites to listen to?

There’s a guy right now named Marc Rebillet, and he does live loop recordings on his keyboard and it’s very entertaining.

How’d you get into music and playing different instruments?

I took a few piano lessons when I was 10 or 11 but quit after a few lessons, didn’t like doing lessons. We had a piano growing up, and I wanted to get into guitar, so my mom was able to get me to a few guitar lessons early. But it’s really not something I do a lot because I’m not near a keyboard or guitar. I really don’t play that much, and I’m really not that good. But it’s something that I really enjoy doing and messing around with.

I hear you’re a ping-pong extraordinaire; how’d you get into ping pong and are you the best player on the Korn Ferry Tour?

I would venture to say I’m top-five because I know there are some really good players I haven’t played. I just played racket sports growing up – I played badminton and tennis a lot and ping-pong, and we played a lot of ping-pong in college. I played a lot of ping-pong with Adam Schenk. I played with Adam for two years at Purdue, and he’s really good at ping pong and we’d play for hours every day.

What are your favorite sports teams?

The Vancouver Canucks are my favorite. I went to a few Canucks games growing up probably once a month or so, and I’m a Canadian sports fan, so Toronto Blue Jays fan and Toronto Raptors. I’m also a bandwagon Seattle Seahawks fan.