Jake Owen has his biggest hit yet with his latest smash, “Don’t Think I Can’t Love You,” but there was a time when the ACM Top New Male Vocalist saw his future not on a concert stage, but on a golf course. Although we were lucky enough to get Jake into music, he still loves golf, and he hopes that one day he’ll get to play the course at Augusta National, in Augusta, Georgia, home to one of the sport’s greatest traditions, The Masters. This year’s tournament is underway now, with top players such as Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson among the favorites. Jake tells us he sees a parallel between golf and another of his loves, songwriting, in that both are challenging activities that you can do on your own, where what you get out of it really depends on what you put in. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

• “Don’t Think I Can’t Love You” is the first smash from Jake’s new album, Easy Does It, out now!

  Jake Owen sees a parallel between golf and songwriting. (:39)
“Golf is one of the only solitary sports where you play for yourself…you’re not playin’ against anybody, per se. You’re playin’ against the golf course. And it’s your score against the course. And that’s the thing that it’s always…I’ve loved about writin’ songs is that you can sit down and write somethin’ that comes to your mind and put it on paper. You don’t have to depend on anyone else, you know? And it’s just, it’s hard, too. It takes a lot of dedication; it takes a lot of hard work. That’s why you see guys like Tiger Woods, and people’ll tell you why he’s so much better than everybody else is that he’s so focused on what he’s doing. And golf, I think, really brings that out in a person.”

  Jake Owen says that if he had his pick of golf courses to play, he’d love to take a swing at Augusta National, home of The Masters tournament. (:13)
“I definitely would have to say Augusta National. I just…I’ve always wanted to play that golf course. And hopefully, in the years to come, if I’m lucky enough, I might have someone be nice enough to ask me join ’em out there.”