Speaker 1: I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset.
Speaker 2: When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
Speaker 1: And when I find my ball in a fried.
Speaker 2: Egg Friday egg, the dreaded Frida egg, Frida egg, fridagg
Speaker 2: bride egg, Lie, I'm about ready to run off of.
Speaker 1: The Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Golf Podcast.
Speaker 1: I am your host, Andy Johnson, and I am back
Speaker 1: at home after an unforgettable Masters Uh tournament. I am
Speaker 1: not sure if we will ever see as thrilling of
Speaker 1: a tournament for my lifetime covering the sport, however long
Speaker 1: that goes after this year. I am just so grateful
Speaker 1: that I was there. Rory McElroy just went through it all.
Speaker 1: There were the highs, lows, a lot of other highs,
Speaker 1: and a lot of other lows on his way of
Speaker 1: capturing his first major championship since twenty fourteen, completing the
Speaker 1: career Grand Slam, becoming the sixth player in the history
Speaker 1: of golf to do so, joining Jack Nicholas, Tiger Woods,
Speaker 1: Gary player Ben Hogan, and Gene Sarazen and the players
Speaker 1: that have accomplished that. I was on the grounds and
Speaker 1: I followed the final group all day on Sunday. Brendan
Speaker 1: Porath and I did a long recap of what it
Speaker 1: was like to be on the ground on Sunday night
Speaker 1: on the shotgun start. But I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I have a buzz and I'm not sure I'll lose
Speaker 1: that buzz. It's just it's a reminder that the Masters
Speaker 1: is just this unbelievable tournament because of the the players,
Speaker 1: the history and what it's been able to become with
Speaker 1: the you know what winning a green jacket and tails
Speaker 1: and you know that gravity of that, and then the
Speaker 1: golf course. I mean, the the golf course is just
Speaker 1: an extraordinary test. There are no places to hide. Every
Speaker 1: year going down there, I'm just amazed at how you
Speaker 1: just have to hang on and in every part of
Speaker 1: your game you just cannot hide. There are you know,
Speaker 1: if you're worried about your chipping, you're going to find
Speaker 1: yourself in some very difficult locations that you need to
Speaker 1: hit good chips or else you could make a double
Speaker 1: or worse from as we saw with blood Big on
Speaker 1: the eighteenth hole or Rory in the fourteenth hole, like
Speaker 1: you can be in what seems like a fairly benign
Speaker 1: position and and everything can get away from you so quickly.
Speaker 1: It's just an amazing golf course. You have to put
Speaker 1: it well, you have to drive it well, and you
Speaker 1: have to hit your approach shots great. I'm thrilled to
Speaker 1: be joined by Trevor Emmmelman, master Champion himself lead analyst
Speaker 1: on CBS. He was doing the telecast with Jim Nantz,
Speaker 1: which I thought was phenomenal. It was great. I had
Speaker 1: a long flight home that I was able to sit
Speaker 1: and sit down and watch the telecast. I thought it
Speaker 1: was really spectacular. The team at CBS is doing really
Speaker 1: great job showing golf and I thought that was a
Speaker 1: extraordinary telecast and was awesome to watch after being out
Speaker 1: on the ground. You you know, out there with no
Speaker 1: phones and you know, kind of a very large patron
Speaker 1: gallery you are, you're seeing what you see and relying
Speaker 1: on roars and and kind of murmurs through the crowd
Speaker 1: to know what else is going on on the golf course.
Speaker 1: And uh, coming back and watching the telecast was was
Speaker 1: just extremely additive and it was a great way to
Speaker 1: relive what was a sunday I will never forget. Big
Speaker 1: congrats to Rory McRoy for getting it done, getting across
Speaker 1: the line, ending the drought, and UH launching what now
Speaker 1: looks to be a extraordinary major season set up for him.
Speaker 1: We'll see if he can snag another one or more
Speaker 1: with with what's coming down the pipe with Quail Hollow
Speaker 1: just a couple of weeks away. So Trevor, Trevor joined big.
Speaker 1: Thanks to him for carving some time out in his
Speaker 1: busy schedule. I think we will be doing these after
Speaker 1: every major ME and Trevor, so lock in and enjoy
Speaker 1: this one. It was great to unpack everything with the
Speaker 1: UH with the great Trevor Immelman. All right, before we
Speaker 1: get to Trevor Big, thanks to be Dratty. Be Dratty
Speaker 1: was our sponsor for the week. They had me scripted
Speaker 1: out and I got to say, I don't think I've
Speaker 1: ever gotten so many compliments on what I was wearing
Speaker 1: from just random people. People will be like, I really
Speaker 1: love that shirt vest combination you got there. That's because
Speaker 1: I am I'm not necessarily the I'm colorblind. I don't
Speaker 1: I don't always put together the best outfits. So it
Speaker 1: was great having them coordinate and put together you know,
Speaker 1: a wide range for weather. That was was delightful. It was.
Speaker 1: It was always cool in the morning and then it
Speaker 1: warmed up in the afternoon, so you know, I got
Speaker 1: to their full suite of clothes. I think that's the
Speaker 1: thing that I appreciate about them is they have a
Speaker 1: awesome set of clothes. The stars really from from this week.
Speaker 1: I think Brendan and I both wore the shacket. Their
Speaker 1: shacket's called the Bradshaw out tons of compliments on that.
Speaker 1: People really really liked that the shacket. If you don't
Speaker 1: have a shacket, I highly recommend it. It's great for
Speaker 1: spring and fall. It's just like a nice thing to
Speaker 1: wear in the mornings and nights, and you can dress
Speaker 1: it up, dress it down. It's very versatile. Also, the
Speaker 1: everyday vest were this almost every day. I think Brendan
Speaker 1: did achieve the every day Vest challenge. That is just
Speaker 1: a extremely versatile piece of apparel. And then you know
Speaker 1: there's there. They're tried and true polos I wore. They
Speaker 1: now have three different fabrics. All of them are are delightful.
Speaker 1: I love the original cotton polos. Those are just like
Speaker 1: amazing on a cool day, on a you know, if
Speaker 1: you know it's topping out at seventy seventy five. There's
Speaker 1: nothing better to wear than those. They have their sport
Speaker 1: and then also their new cool fabric, which are both
Speaker 1: really good for when it heats up a little bit
Speaker 1: more so. A couple of days I had those with
Speaker 1: a vest. It was it was just great. They have
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Speaker 1: TFE thirty. That's TFE thirty at b dradty dot com,
Speaker 1: you'll get thirty percent off your order, big chunk of
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Speaker 1: They've been partners with us for years. Great guys and
Speaker 1: great great apparel. All right, let's get to Trevor a moment.
Speaker 1: All right, Trevor, welcome in. I gotta say it had
Speaker 1: to be. I mean, when you come down from calling
Speaker 1: that sports event. I watched the telecast on my flight
Speaker 1: back home. I was out in the crowd, in the
Speaker 1: with the patrons all day long on Sunday, kind of
Speaker 1: living with the roars. I didn't realize how much stuff
Speaker 1: I missed. But you know, that's that's the nature of
Speaker 1: covering the masters in person. For you are you have
Speaker 1: you processed where this sporting event might sit in terms
Speaker 1: of all timers for golf.
Speaker 2: First of all, it's awesome to be with you. Man,
Speaker 2: saw you from a distance last week, didn't didn't didn't
Speaker 2: get up to you to be able to shake your
Speaker 2: hand and say hi. I know, busy you guys were.
Speaker 2: I was reading all the newsletters and all that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff, keeping track. But you know, I'm this is
Speaker 2: the first time I'm starting to think about it. Yesterday
Speaker 2: went up to congaree and rarely just tried to unplug
Speaker 2: from the whole thing and not think about it at all.
Speaker 2: We did fifteen hours of live golf television on the
Speaker 2: weekend on CBS, which is it's kind of hard to
Speaker 2: even wrap your mind around the intensity of that. But
Speaker 2: as you start to let it settle and let your
Speaker 2: your thoughts start to fall in line, it's an all timer.
Speaker 2: You know, you start to throw it up there with
Speaker 2: Jack in eighty six and Tiger in twenty nineteen. And
Speaker 2: you know, Tiger had a bunch of them when he
Speaker 2: completed the Grand Slam in two thousand, when he was
Speaker 2: winning those majors by you know, eight, ten, twelve shots
Speaker 2: all the time you won four straight majors. This is
Speaker 2: going to be thrown right in there the meaning of it.
Speaker 2: Look winning a green jacket, And I don't say this
Speaker 2: just because I'm lucky I've to have done it. You know,
Speaker 2: it might sound a little weird. That's not my style.
Speaker 2: You guys know that, But winning a green jacket is
Speaker 2: it's such a monumental moment in your life anyway, And
Speaker 2: now for him, after all these years of like anticipation
Speaker 2: and build up and heartbreak, for him to get that
Speaker 2: done is tremendous in its own aspect. But the fact
Speaker 2: that he's done it to join this list of five
Speaker 2: other guys, you know, sort of like a mount Rushmore
Speaker 2: with an extra little piece on it, with six of
Speaker 2: them now is it's going to be remembered for a
Speaker 2: very very very long time and spoken of as you know,
Speaker 2: where were you on that day when McElroy felt like
Speaker 2: he choked it away every third hole but eventually ended
Speaker 2: up winning. I mean, it was a remarkable week. Everything
Speaker 2: was great about it.
Speaker 1: I think something that was telling when he talked afterwards
Speaker 1: was and I think, like, I think this puts it
Speaker 1: into perspective a little bit, because everybody was like talking
Speaker 1: about the time span of the chances at the career
Speaker 1: Grand Slam you know, and the pressure of coming there,
Speaker 1: for this was the eleventh year in a row with
Speaker 1: the chance to win the career Grand Slam. He kind
Speaker 1: of joked, like, what are we going to talk about
Speaker 1: next year? But then when you add in what he
Speaker 1: added in was like my disappointment since twenty eleven. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so just if you looked at just the Masters,
Speaker 1: it's just this, you know, fourteen years of disappointment and heartbreak.
Speaker 1: And whether it was one of the years that he
Speaker 1: missed the cut and bombed out, that's like one type
Speaker 1: of heartbreak. Whether it's twenty eleven where he had the
Speaker 1: tournament in his palm on the back nine, and that's
Speaker 1: a whole different type of heartbreak. The middle period where
Speaker 1: he like is resigned that he's so happy that he
Speaker 1: finished second in a non competitive second, like he's just
Speaker 1: elated that he had a good memory leaving there. But
Speaker 1: then when you add on top of that the last
Speaker 1: three years of major championship, like the close calls, the
Speaker 1: not getting across the line at the old course, LACC
Speaker 1: and Pinehurst, it's just like, I think the thing that
Speaker 1: I took away from watching the telecast when you were
Speaker 1: on the ground, you felt you felt the energy and
Speaker 1: like you you felt these like raw emotions of like
Speaker 1: in the swings and watching the telecast seeing just seeing
Speaker 1: Rory's face. Yeah, and what you could just see the
Speaker 1: the enormity of the moment, the enormity of the accomplishment,
Speaker 1: and also all the things that he was trying to
Speaker 1: get through and get across the line.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what was quite fascinating to me. And you know,
Speaker 2: Jim Lanson, I sit down in Butler Cabin, our little studio,
Speaker 2: Our little booth is down in the back of Butler Cabin,
Speaker 2: right next to where you guys watched the presentation. So
Speaker 2: that's the room we sit in. And you know, I
Speaker 2: had that line at the end when he reacted and
Speaker 2: he went down to the ground and you could see
Speaker 2: he was like so emotional about it, and it almost
Speaker 2: looked like he was struggling to breathe at one point.
Speaker 2: And I had a line that I threw out there,
Speaker 2: something something like you know that that's eleven years of
Speaker 2: a built up emotion coming out right there. And then
Speaker 2: he came in and Jim mentioned that to him in
Speaker 2: this in the presentation, and when he said, oh no,
Speaker 2: that's actually fourteen years since twenty eleven. I was like, Wow,
Speaker 2: we when we think of Rory, we think of oh,
Speaker 2: he's you know, where's his emotions on his sleeve. He's
Speaker 2: the most open and honest golfer out there. He answers
Speaker 2: every question. He tells you exactly how he feels, maybe
Speaker 2: even at times to his own detriment because he can
Speaker 2: contradict himself because he's been around for so long and
Speaker 2: his positions have changed, and you know, people call him
Speaker 2: a flip flopper, but it's like, hey, this guy's been
Speaker 2: around for like, you know, almost two decades. He's allowed
Speaker 2: to change his opinion as he matures. But what I
Speaker 2: realized was, man, that even though he had won four majors,
Speaker 2: since he had won I don't know, what is he
Speaker 2: like twenty nine PGA Tour events, probably twenty DP World
Speaker 2: Tour events. I mean, this guy's won all over the world.
Speaker 1: I think he's that thirty nine DP World PGA Tour
Speaker 1: winds Okay.
Speaker 2: So even though he's done all of that, that twenty
Speaker 2: eleven Masters was like a thorn in his side. Man.
Speaker 2: It was the thing that has made him get up
Speaker 2: in the morning for the last fourteen years. And that
Speaker 2: to me was we learned something about him that we
Speaker 2: didn't know because a lot of people would say, Okay,
Speaker 2: well he choked that Masters in twenty eleven, but then
Speaker 2: he went to the next year so open and won
Speaker 2: by I don't know how many went by six or
Speaker 2: eight or something like that, and they're like, oh, he's
Speaker 2: put the demons to best bed. No, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: this has been bothering him for fourteen years, bro. I
Speaker 2: mean that to me was something like, Wow, I just
Speaker 2: learned something about Rory McElroy. And the atmosphere was so
Speaker 2: thick and heavy the whole day, all the way through.
Speaker 2: I mean, he was still super emotional when he came
Speaker 2: into Butler Kevin, What a day? What a week?
Speaker 1: Yeah, the the I think you nailed it. Like the
Speaker 1: emotions were that, the outpouring of them. I was standing
Speaker 1: where like kind of in that tunnel where they walk
Speaker 1: off the green and by the time he got to
Speaker 1: scoring scoring it look, I mean he was he couldn't
Speaker 1: control them, like they were like just flying out like it.
Speaker 1: And it's just like you see like this, and I
Speaker 1: think like the thing with with golf is people say,
Speaker 1: like you, when you play competitive golf, you never forget anything.
Speaker 1: It's like you can you remember the smallest little details
Speaker 1: of these innate in these like innocuous rounds of golf. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but for Rory, I have to imagine that twenty eleven
Speaker 1: was kind of like the first time that that that
Speaker 1: sort of he felt, that meltdown kind of happened, that
Speaker 1: sensation of that happened. And one of the hard things,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure you could speak to this much more
Speaker 1: than I can opine and project, but one of the
Speaker 1: hardest parts about the Masters is you have to keep
Speaker 1: coming back to the place that you've you've experienced failure
Speaker 1: or coming up short. And we've seen it with so
Speaker 1: many players, whether it's Ernie El's, you know, Greg Norman,
Speaker 1: Tom Weiskough, Phil for years. It took Phil forever to
Speaker 1: get over the line, and now Rory it's like these
Speaker 1: the year after a year of having to go back
Speaker 1: to that same place, Like you just have that association
Speaker 1: and that deep rooted association. You could tell yourself, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm not I love this place, I'm happy here, but
Speaker 1: deep down you have those bad memories.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. Hey, you can add Justin Rose's name
Speaker 2: to that list. Now he's had so many close calls.
Speaker 2: Now had two shots at it in playoffs. I mean,
Speaker 2: this one was a little bit of a gift. He
Speaker 2: played brilliant golf, and you know, Rory kept bringing everybody
Speaker 2: back into it, but yeah, you're right. And I brought
Speaker 2: that up on Sunday when they got to the tenth tee,
Speaker 2: and you know, we realized afterwards that twenty eleven is
Speaker 2: clearly in his mind, and you know, he had to
Speaker 2: face that situation again of here I am with the
Speaker 2: lead nine holes to go, and now I've got to
Speaker 2: hit this t shirt where it all started to come
Speaker 2: unglued last time, and he ended up making a birdie
Speaker 2: at ten this time, And at that point was one
Speaker 2: of the many, many many times during the week that
Speaker 2: I thought, oh, he's got this. I'm not ashamed to
Speaker 2: say it. I'm sure I'll take some heat for this,
Speaker 2: but whatever. On Thursday already, when he was what four
Speaker 2: or five under going to the fifteenth holl four under was.
Speaker 1: It and just over the green like he hits that
Speaker 1: iron shot. It was a good iron. It came out
Speaker 1: a little flat.
Speaker 2: Came out a little flat. He must have popped up
Speaker 2: his drive just a little bit and didn't quite catch
Speaker 2: it because he was quite well behind the guys he
Speaker 2: was playing with, but he's still got an iron in.
Speaker 2: I mean, we know how high this guy can hit
Speaker 2: his irons probably, you know.
Speaker 1: We saw it the next two days. Yeah, two of
Speaker 1: the next three days he.
Speaker 2: Could probably launch it up, you know, higher than anybody
Speaker 2: since Tiger. At that point already, I was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: everything is starting to play out for him to win
Speaker 2: this tournament. And then he goes double bogey double bogie's
Speaker 2: seventeen and shoots even power and he's seven back, and
Speaker 2: you're like, oh, there's another year, another year that he's
Speaker 2: let slip by coming in in good form. And then
Speaker 2: he shoots sixty six the next day and you're like, Okay,
Speaker 2: he's gonna win it. This is it. He's back, no problems,
Speaker 2: and he keeps it going on the third day and
Speaker 2: it's like this is meant to be, and he's got
Speaker 2: the big lead and then he hits it up the
Speaker 2: face on the first just completely butchers the hole. On Sunday,
Speaker 2: I mean takes four to get down from I don't
Speaker 2: know sixty yards or.
Speaker 1: So with a lot of green.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, with the whole location all the way in
Speaker 2: the back and you're like, oh no, it's heartbreak again
Speaker 2: for this poor guy. He plays the first and second
Speaker 2: and two over, he's thinking about playing him in one.
Speaker 2: That's a three shot swing. And then he birdies three
Speaker 2: and you're like, okay, he's back. There's no problem with me.
Speaker 2: Birdi's four and you're like, oh, he's going to win again.
Speaker 2: So from Thursday afternoon to Sunday afternoon must have been
Speaker 2: ten times where I thought to myself he had lost
Speaker 2: it and won it. It was the most volatile mental
Speaker 2: experience at a major championship that I've ever experienced as
Speaker 2: a fan, ever had to go through as a fan.
Speaker 2: You know, by the way, and I will just say this,
Speaker 2: it's not just Rory that that's happening with. There's so
Speaker 2: many other players too that are they are up there.
Speaker 2: Rose shoots the sixty five on the first day and
Speaker 2: it's the same kind of back and forth, and then
Speaker 2: he shoots the seventy five on Saturday. Just puts terrible.
Speaker 2: He averaged more than two putts a hole.
Speaker 1: That was that to me is like one of the
Speaker 1: like the sliding doors things about this is like the
Speaker 1: putter on Saturday afternoon just completely abandoned him, Like, I mean,
Speaker 1: I can't remember exactly which hole he three punted from,
Speaker 1: like four feet on sixteen? Was it eight or fifteen?
Speaker 1: He three punted from four feet somewhere on Saturday, and
Speaker 1: it's just like he was hitting it so close and
Speaker 1: just getting nothing out of it all Saturday afternoon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do you want to know what's not? So he
Speaker 2: had three three putts on Saturday, and he had two
Speaker 2: three puts on Sunday and still made ten birdies on Sunday.
Speaker 2: But on Saturday he averaged two point zero six putts
Speaker 2: per green and the field average was one point sixty three.
Speaker 2: So I mean, he just got absolutely crushed on the greens.
Speaker 2: So but anyway, I was saying, you go through these
Speaker 2: ebbs and flows with all these players, the shambo as well.
Speaker 2: You know, he would hit two or three good irons
Speaker 2: in a row and you're like, okay, he's found something.
Speaker 2: And then he'd have a wedge into a green and
Speaker 2: hit it twenty yards short and you're like, dude, what
Speaker 2: is that? You know, the wind's not blown that hard
Speaker 2: out there. The lie wasn't you know in a first
Speaker 2: cut or second cut, excuse me? And something that you
Speaker 2: think could jump will come out soft? The amount of
Speaker 2: iron shots that he hit off of a tee on
Speaker 2: a part three and from the fairway there would go
Speaker 2: twenty yards long and twenty yards short. If he somehow
Speaker 2: finds a way to clean that up, he is a
Speaker 2: problem for these guys. Man, he is a problem.
Speaker 1: I uh, I want to get to Bryson. I think
Speaker 1: like one of the things that I while watching the
Speaker 1: telecast I was thinking about was, you know, we talked
Speaker 1: about all the build up of of in the scar
Speaker 1: tissue of the the from twenty eleven on here also
Speaker 1: in the round like everybody talked to you know when
Speaker 1: he talked about Rory before this year at the Masters,
Speaker 1: like how does he need to get it done? He
Speaker 1: needs to avoid double bogies or worse, he has to
Speaker 1: avoid soft boat, like the quintessential soft bogies, and like
Speaker 1: you think through it, he made four double bogee. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he had bogey's like the eighth on Saturday, where you're
Speaker 1: just like what what how did you make bogey here?
Speaker 1: You know, and you think about like the whole totality
Speaker 1: of the tournament, and it was like he literally had
Speaker 1: to overcome like every every like obstacle of of like
Speaker 1: what has snake bitten him at augustin National Ye double bogies,
Speaker 1: the big numbers, the you know, the soft bogies, and
Speaker 1: he did it by like what tantalizes everybody about him
Speaker 1: as a player is just the the sheer explosiveness in
Speaker 1: his game, the shot making, the ability to come out
Speaker 1: of the gate with six straight threes, you know, like
Speaker 1: being able to go to gear that nobody else in
Speaker 1: the game can really touch.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I've said that before in this kind of
Speaker 2: setting and probably on TV as well, when when Rory
Speaker 2: is it full flight, He's the closest thing we've seen
Speaker 2: to Tiger in his prime. There's been other players that
Speaker 2: are very good, good, good good Hall of Fame style players,
Speaker 2: major champions, World number one's great players. Tiger Woods is
Speaker 2: on a completely different level to basically everybody but Jack
Speaker 2: and Rory. One of the reasons why it's been so
Speaker 2: frustrating to watch him over the years is because every
Speaker 2: now and then he touches that like he dips his
Speaker 2: toe into those waters. But then he does ridiculous things
Speaker 2: to where you like it's head scratching moments and mistakes
Speaker 2: that those two players Tiger and Jack never ever made.
Speaker 2: But when he's rarely going, when he's feeling it, gosh
Speaker 2: it is. It's insane when you start to think of
Speaker 2: the difference in quality the spectrum of shots that Maceroy hit.
Speaker 2: Just on the second nine on Sunday, I mean, okay,
Speaker 2: the T shot of ten, I'm going to do a
Speaker 2: real quick run through right the T shirt of ten. Perfect.
Speaker 2: Then he felt the face flip a little on the
Speaker 2: second shot, but it came out perfect and he makes
Speaker 2: the putt, so it's like an ideal hole. Then he
Speaker 2: blows the T shot out to the right, probably twenty
Speaker 2: yards further right than what he's thinking at eleven. So
Speaker 2: not a great shot, just an average shot. Then he
Speaker 2: gets a seriously lucky break on the second that's got
Speaker 2: double written all over it. Twelve he plays perfectly. Thirteen
Speaker 2: he decides to just push the three with down the
Speaker 2: right hand side, which I have no problem with in
Speaker 2: that moment. Then he's going to lay up. Then he
Speaker 2: hits one of the worst wed shots that I've ever
Speaker 2: seen from a player that is playing well. No, seriously,
Speaker 2: you know when you're struggling and you're missing a cut
Speaker 2: or you're not feeling well, you hit shots that are
Speaker 2: just ranked like horrible. Even the best players in the world.
Speaker 2: We've seen tops, we've seen shanks, we've seen alsot But
Speaker 2: when you're playing well and you're leading a major championship,
Speaker 2: what is he leading by three or four at that time?
Speaker 1: I think it was three?
Speaker 2: Okay, that is? That is it's one of the worst
Speaker 2: shots I've seen. It's eighty yards he's got like he's
Speaker 2: got Let's check the whole location. Whole location on thirteen
Speaker 2: was eighteen on. I think he had like eighty seven.
Speaker 2: He's got seventy yards to the front edge and.
Speaker 1: A ball he was from where he laid it. The
Speaker 1: other thing, he laid it up into the perfect place.
Speaker 1: That's amaze, made the hole a ball.
Speaker 2: Let me give you a little little reference here. So
Speaker 2: whole location eighteen on six right, he's aiming over there,
Speaker 2: he is. He's pushed the shot by between fifteen and
Speaker 2: twenty yards with an eighty yard shot. I kind of
Speaker 2: wonder if there was a little huzzle involved there. It
Speaker 2: was maybe flew a little too straight for some huzzle.
Speaker 2: But and then he gets to fourteen ah, and it's
Speaker 2: a couple of goodies. But he makes the bogie there
Speaker 2: now it makes the bogey because he comes up short
Speaker 2: at fourteen fifteen. He then hits a beautiful tea shot
Speaker 2: and hits yeah, one of the shots will remember forever
Speaker 2: when we talk about this Masters sixteen sixteen, the great
Speaker 2: one seventeen, he hits a great one eighteen. He hits
Speaker 2: the t shot and you're like, okay, he's got it going.
Speaker 2: And then again with the wedge one twenty three, won
Speaker 2: twenty four. You know he's missed his target there by
Speaker 2: quite some margin too. It's it's amazing the the ebbs
Speaker 2: and that you go through when when you watch Rory McRoy. I,
Speaker 2: you know, I got to think about what he kept
Speaker 2: talking about.
Speaker 1: This was a question I wanted to ask that in
Speaker 1: the press center that I didn't get the chance to.
Speaker 1: He talked to Bob Rotella. You talked about with Bob Rotella.
Speaker 1: All what they're working on is finding a feeling and
Speaker 1: getting to a feeling when he's playing golf. And I
Speaker 1: felt like that round was just like a toggle between
Speaker 1: getting there and being pulled away and having like the
Speaker 1: most intrusive thoughts you could have as a golfer, Like
Speaker 1: it was just this constant battle of getting to that
Speaker 1: point and getting pulled back out of it and getting
Speaker 1: to it. And I think there were like these moments where,
Speaker 1: you know, I think he was very concerned with Bryson
Speaker 1: as he should have been at the start of the round,
Speaker 1: and it was almost like this matchplay situation and like
Speaker 1: once he got done with Bryson on the tenth hole,
Speaker 1: or you know, really when Bryson hid in the water
Speaker 1: on eleven, Yeah, I think he knew it was over
Speaker 1: for Bryson.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like you you.
Speaker 1: You get out of the moment, you maybe get out
Speaker 1: of the feeling, and then you have to this you
Speaker 1: have to re center back into it. And it was
Speaker 1: just this afternoon in the in the end of it
Speaker 1: became this like this him just dealing with what was
Speaker 1: pulling him out of the moment was the enormity of realizing,
Speaker 1: like I have I'm doing what I'm not I've never
Speaker 1: been able to do. And I think, like there there's
Speaker 1: the whole tournament. You saw this like Saturday, it's like
Speaker 1: is he gonna shoot sixty two? And it's like, as
Speaker 1: as a golfer, you get these and I think this
Speaker 1: is like the heart of these are this is why
Speaker 1: people like you are freaks of nature. It's for mortals.
Speaker 1: You get six under or five under through five and
Speaker 1: you're like, oh my god, like like I'm five under
Speaker 1: through five. I better protect this sure, And it's like
Speaker 1: you can't. It's so hard to stay in the moment
Speaker 1: or stay keep that feeling of like I think it's
Speaker 1: like full freaking Maybe it's like something like full freedom
Speaker 1: for him, Yeah, where he just swings without any thoughts,
Speaker 1: because that's what it like to me, Like the shot
Speaker 1: on fifteen. The only way you hit that shot is
Speaker 1: if you know there's no other option, and and like
Speaker 1: and it's like you almost say to yourself, well, I've
Speaker 1: got to hit a great one.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think it's difficult to chase that feeling or
Speaker 2: even go search for it. I found that the more
Speaker 2: you search for it, the harder it is to find.
Speaker 2: It's one of those weird things to where you got
Speaker 2: to let it come to you a little bit. I
Speaker 2: believe what he's trying to tap into or what he's
Speaker 2: trying to communicate. Sometimes it's hard to put these things
Speaker 2: into words, but what he's trying to communicate is basically
Speaker 2: the feeling of playing like a kid yes, playing how
Speaker 2: playing like you just love the game so much, playing
Speaker 2: like you are just trying to hit great shots instead
Speaker 2: of not hit bad shots. And to me, the emotional
Speaker 2: ride that any Rory McElroy fan was on during that
Speaker 2: day was you could almost feel the moments where he
Speaker 2: started to get defensive and not play Rory McElroy golf
Speaker 2: like a kid. And then when like you mentioned on fifteen,
Speaker 2: where he was like, Okay, this is it. You know,
Speaker 2: my back's against the wall again now, and now I
Speaker 2: got to make something happen here and go for a
Speaker 2: shot and just totally free this up and I got
Speaker 2: to hit a twenty yard draw around this tree and
Speaker 2: the picture was so clear to him, The moment was
Speaker 2: so clear to him that he just pulled it off.
Speaker 2: That's playing like a kid. And it was an incredible
Speaker 2: ride from that standpoint to see him grapple with all
Speaker 2: of that mentally. And I said at the top of
Speaker 2: the show, when we did the on camera, which was
Speaker 2: maybe at about two twenty or so on.
Speaker 1: Sunday, three lifetimes earlier.
Speaker 2: It feels like, yeah, it feels like about three weeks ago.
Speaker 2: But nance asked me, you know, what are these two
Speaker 2: players face today and I said, well, it's completely different.
Speaker 2: For the turvem Rory is fighting the emotional and mental
Speaker 2: scar tissue of all these close calls, and that's that's
Speaker 2: the part that he's going to be battling. And for
Speaker 2: Bryson it's more physical. He's fighting his iron game. He's
Speaker 2: distance control. Can he find a way to hit you know,
Speaker 2: thirteen fourteen greens today and give the rest of his
Speaker 2: game an opportunity because he was chipping and putting so
Speaker 2: well and it ended up playing out like that and
Speaker 2: McElroy he was fighting some demons there on that second nine,
Speaker 2: and we could see by by the reaction after he
Speaker 2: eventually made the two foot even up to the last hole,
Speaker 2: you know, he hits the beautiful drive in regulation and
Speaker 2: you're like, oh, it's over. It's so far down name
Speaker 2: he's got a sand wedge to the green, maybe a
Speaker 2: chippy gap wedge, another terrible wedge shot way right. That
Speaker 2: one's probably eight or nine steps from where he's looking,
Speaker 2: so not a good shot by his standards at all,
Speaker 2: And you're like, when he's throwing it away again and
Speaker 2: then he goes for he's got a great lie uphill lie.
Speaker 2: He can play that bunker shot anyway he wants. He
Speaker 2: can go direct line with spin, he can go direct
Speaker 2: line with chunk and run. He can go up the
Speaker 2: bank with chunk and run and feed it towards the hole.
Speaker 2: He's got so many options. And he hits a you know,
Speaker 2: considering the situation, like an eight out of ten shot
Speaker 2: out of the bunker, and you're like, okay, here we go.
Speaker 2: This is right edge, five feet, not a speed problem,
Speaker 2: slight downhill, just a standard Augusta National putt. And he
Speaker 2: starts this thing left edge and you're like, wow, I
Speaker 2: can't believe this. There's just no way that this guy
Speaker 2: can rebound from this sort of anguish and heartache. Surely,
Speaker 2: now all the mojos with Rose, he's made ten birdies.
Speaker 2: He's been given this gift. You know, when we got
Speaker 2: two let's call it like seven eighth hole on Sunday,
Speaker 2: and we've got that mini leaderboard on the right of
Speaker 2: our screen, the bottom right corner of our screen that
Speaker 2: has five or six names on it. Rose wasn't even
Speaker 2: on that. He wasn't even on that leaderboard at that point.
Speaker 1: The background was insane.
Speaker 2: Okay, all of a sudden, he's like I was way
Speaker 2: out of this thing. I now I got a chance
Speaker 2: to win the green jacket. So he's feeling completely different
Speaker 2: going to the playoff hole. And so now you're like,
Speaker 2: Macro is no way he is, no way he can
Speaker 2: rebound from this. The whole week's been a complete mess,
Speaker 2: up and down all over. This is surely this is
Speaker 2: this is one too many that he's got to go
Speaker 2: to the will And he pipes another T shirt down
Speaker 2: there and stiffs the wedge and you're like, this guy, Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's what I was talking about earlier. His great is
Speaker 2: up there with you know, the best I've ever lived
Speaker 2: for sure, But he takes us on a hell of
Speaker 2: a ride. Man, He's got a lot of Jordan Spieth
Speaker 2: in him.
Speaker 1: Well, I think that. I think that's the thing about
Speaker 1: him that makes him so popular, right, is like he's
Speaker 1: kind of different than a lot of all time greats.
Speaker 1: And I think that might be part of why you know,
Speaker 1: he he is he's gotten to this point where he
Speaker 1: had these these struggles for ten plus years. Is that
Speaker 1: if you think about like athletes in his class, they're
Speaker 1: all kind of crazy people, yeah, right, like insane insane,
Speaker 1: insane human being. Like if you think about Tom Brady,
Speaker 1: you think about Michael Jordan, you think about you know,
Speaker 1: even Lebron James, Like you know, I say that with
Speaker 1: a you know, baited breath as a as a Michael
Speaker 1: Jordan guy. But but you think about these like the
Speaker 1: the all all timers, like they are they are kind
Speaker 1: of like insanely driven. You watch the Last Dance and
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan's making up things that people say to get
Speaker 1: them motivated for the game. Like yeah, and you have
Speaker 1: Rory who's like very normal, like a very normal person
Speaker 1: that has these like extraordinary gifts, and what what you
Speaker 1: witnessed on Sunday was like very similar to a normal
Speaker 1: person trying to close out a club champion.
Speaker 2: Trying to break eighty for the first time.
Speaker 1: Like you you were watching someone go through it like
Speaker 1: they got it that they have they have it, they
Speaker 1: have it that day. But there's no it's not a
Speaker 1: straight road, like we get a custom I mean, Rory
Speaker 1: McElroy especially now, is in you know, an all time
Speaker 1: great category. He's the best player of the post Tiger generation.
Speaker 1: And I think we could talk, we could unpack that some.
Speaker 2: I got Brooks there, you got Brooks up there as well.
Speaker 2: You got you gotta share some respect there for sure.
Speaker 1: I you show some respect. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: like the the entire portfolio, in the time, the length
Speaker 1: he's been doing it, you know, yeah, eighteen years.
Speaker 2: I'm just throwing I'm just throwing it in there.
Speaker 1: For you so you you get your you have him
Speaker 1: now at this like stage. And it's like the personality
Speaker 1: types of other set athletes in this pantheon I think
Speaker 1: are like dramatically different than Rory McElroy. And that's part
Speaker 1: of it, right, Like there's you know, there's not like
Speaker 1: this like robotic nature this like you know, I think
Speaker 1: like what was telling is like Bryson was shocked that
Speaker 1: he didn't talk to him because he's a nice guy.
Speaker 2: I got. I'm shocked that Bryson is shocked.
Speaker 1: I mean just in twenty nineteen, Tony Fenow came off
Speaker 1: the golf course and was like, Tiger didn't talk to
Speaker 1: me all day.
Speaker 2: I I I just throw myself back when I was
Speaker 2: in that situation. I'm friends with Brent brent Snedteker. I
Speaker 2: really like Brent Snedteker. I don't know anybody who doesn't
Speaker 2: like Brent Snedteker. I did not say one word to
Speaker 2: him until he walked up to me as we were
Speaker 2: approaching the eighteenth green on Sunday and said, well done,
Speaker 2: because I was three ahead, and so, you know, everybody
Speaker 2: kind of knew it was over. We were both up
Speaker 2: on the green to me this and Bryson knows this
Speaker 2: better than anybody. I mean, this guy's a two time
Speaker 2: US Open champion. He's been in this situation multiple times.
Speaker 2: There's the focus and the intensity and the anxiety and
Speaker 2: nervousness and the manicness of a Sunday at a major championship.
Speaker 2: There's not much so much chatter out there.
Speaker 1: Man, what was he going to ask? How is your breakfast?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Like, what are we talking? What are we going
Speaker 2: to be talking about?
Speaker 1: Bryce? I love your leaders breaking fifty video.
Speaker 2: About you know. To be fair to him, look, somebody
Speaker 2: asked him a question and he answered it. But I
Speaker 2: guess if I was in that situation, my answer would
Speaker 2: have been, well, no, I didn't want to talk to him.
Speaker 2: He didn't want to talk to men. We're trying to
Speaker 2: win the Masters here. This is this is not like, yeah,
Speaker 2: two buddies going out for a twilight nine holes, having
Speaker 2: a couple of drinks, and a cigar sort of thing
Speaker 2: with the music going. This is this is playing for legacy.
Speaker 2: On one side, you've got Bryson with this incredible major
Speaker 2: championship record in the last five years, trying to win
Speaker 2: his third major in five years. I mean, can we
Speaker 2: just talk about how good that is and how amazing
Speaker 2: his major championship record is since the win at wing Foot.
Speaker 2: And then on the other side of the t box,
Speaker 2: you've got a guy that's literally trying to do something
Speaker 2: that only five humans have ever done. There's just not
Speaker 2: going to be a lot of talking on that in
Speaker 2: that round of golf. Too much intensity.
Speaker 1: Bryson, I saw this from I think the Twitter account
Speaker 1: was yeah, click clack. I think he would have been
Speaker 1: the third player. It would it would have been him,
Speaker 1: Tiger and Jack that had a US AM and two
Speaker 1: US Opens in a Masters if he had won. So,
Speaker 1: like Bryson was playing for kind of like a very
Speaker 1: rarefied error. So not the same as the Grand Slam.
Speaker 1: And I feel like you can put partition a lot
Speaker 1: of things together to make these like small little clubs.
Speaker 1: But like anytime you get into like a I have
Speaker 1: three majors and I'm my combination of accomplishments are with
Speaker 1: Jack and Tiger. You get to this spot, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say it.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say it one more. I'm gonna say it again.
Speaker 2: I've already said it. I'll probably say it again before
Speaker 2: the end of this pod. He is going to be
Speaker 2: a problem in the major championships for these other players.
Speaker 2: He has the mental build up, the toughness, he has,
Speaker 2: the self belief, he has incredible talents. He has the
Speaker 2: crowd on his side for the most part. He creates
Speaker 2: incredible and amazing energy around him, and people are excited
Speaker 2: to see him and be near him. Ah. He uh,
Speaker 2: He's gonna win more Majores. There's no doubt about it.
Speaker 2: In my mind, man, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1: I think there were a couple of things I took
Speaker 1: away last year. I watched a ton of Bryson a ton,
Speaker 1: and I thought it was like kind of this like
Speaker 1: I saw at the Master's last year. I think, like
Speaker 1: kind of public opinion shifted on him. Sure, But and
Speaker 1: then you go and he has the US Open, which was, like,
Speaker 1: you know, an incredible When it was at a golf course,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't expect him to play well at And I
Speaker 1: think like one of the more compelling aspects of the
Speaker 1: Bryson Rory duel was it it was unfolding at a
Speaker 1: golf course that both of them has had a very
Speaker 1: difficult history with. Like we've seen some of Bryson's lowest
Speaker 1: moments at Augustin National. That's right, and I think, you know,
Speaker 1: like it was fun a couple of years ago. You
Speaker 1: do Bryson versus Larry Mayes. You know, Bryson hitt in
Speaker 1: at three fifty and Larry Mice hitting at two thirty
Speaker 1: and plane to draw every year, you know. But the
Speaker 1: uh what, what I'm so impressed by is how he's
Speaker 1: able to single out things that he struggles with and
Speaker 1: you and improve them. Last year it was the lag
Speaker 1: putting and Sunday the lag putting was an issue. But
Speaker 1: the first three days he was unbelievable on the greens,
Speaker 1: and he talked about how he worked so hard on
Speaker 1: lag putting. If you watched him on the putting green
Speaker 1: before the before the round, it was all lag putting work.
Speaker 1: It was that's all he was doing. He was putting
Speaker 1: to tee using his yardstick to measure that. I think
Speaker 1: like this year, if you look at what he said,
Speaker 1: he said, I have to get better and more comfortable
Speaker 1: hitting off uneven lies with irons, and I thought it
Speaker 1: was telling it. I think it was. Jim said this
Speaker 1: on the telcast Bryson. Of all the holes at Augusta National,
Speaker 1: the hole that he's played the worst over his career
Speaker 1: is the tenth hole. And that's the hole that you
Speaker 1: have probably the most severe uneven lie without like there's
Speaker 1: no way to avoid the uneven lie. You could hit
Speaker 1: it down the left and get a little bit less
Speaker 1: uneven the lie. But it's like the hole that like
Speaker 1: kind of illustrates the challenge of Augusta National, I think
Speaker 1: the most, like all the little factors that go in it.
Speaker 1: You have the elevation, it's hard to judge the win there,
Speaker 1: and then you have this uneven lie like this downhill
Speaker 1: side hill lie. And I think like his equipment makes
Speaker 1: that more challenging because they are longer clubs and you know,
Speaker 1: it's got the big grips, and I think that makes
Speaker 1: that aspect of it. But like here's the thing, like
Speaker 1: what you said, he's going to be a problem. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he has identified what he needs to improve, and throughout
Speaker 1: his career we have seen this guy, he identifies issues
Speaker 1: and he goes into the lab. You know, that was
Speaker 1: a pun intended, and he he gets after it and
Speaker 1: he usually comes out a better player.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, I'm following all these players leading up to
Speaker 2: the tournament. The research starts about a month before, and
Speaker 2: he had been he had been talking at the tournaments
Speaker 2: he was playing. He had been talking about the golf
Speaker 2: ball and having some issues with ball spinning too much
Speaker 2: and not being able to control it the way he
Speaker 2: wanted to control it. And he clearly had the Masters
Speaker 2: in mind when he was making those comments, trying to
Speaker 2: make sure that he tightened all that stuff up. But yeah,
Speaker 2: he was able to give himself a chance to win
Speaker 2: even with absolutely head scratching distance control issues the whole
Speaker 2: week at the Masters. I mean even on Sunday when
Speaker 2: he was wild, when he was kind of out of it,
Speaker 2: and he gets to fifteen, hits a great T shirt
Speaker 2: all the way down there, he's got nothing in there,
Speaker 2: and he makes this beautiful swing and he's like leaning forward,
Speaker 2: posing on it, and we've got a great shot of him,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, well, he likes it. It didn't even
Speaker 2: hit the bank. It flew straight into the water in
Speaker 2: front of the green. I mean that that is, that's
Speaker 2: a solid ten to twelve steps from where he was
Speaker 2: trying to land it, And it's like Wow. Normally at
Speaker 2: the level that these guys are at, which is brilliant,
Speaker 2: it's brilliant for the most part. They are so good
Speaker 2: that as soon as they strike the ball they know
Speaker 2: if it's good or not. Like write at impact, guys
Speaker 2: like that are like, oh yeah, be right, get in that,
Speaker 2: watch this. Watch this is going to be close Bryson
Speaker 2: poses on iron shots, they'll be twenty yards away from
Speaker 2: where he's looking. Distance wise, that is something that he's
Speaker 2: going to have to to rarely tighten up and pay
Speaker 2: close attention to. And if he finds a solution, he's
Speaker 2: gonna win a major this year for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think you know, if you if you play
Speaker 1: this like out, if you game this out to one
Speaker 1: of the things about Bryson, and you know, at the
Speaker 1: moment on the teilcast, you thought like at eleven, he
Speaker 1: had to chase, you know, this guy has to chase.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I said that. I said that, Yeah, he had to.
Speaker 2: He was so far back and Rory just got this
Speaker 2: good break.
Speaker 1: But the reality of what ended up unfolding. Was like,
Speaker 1: he could have probably just hit the safe shot there
Speaker 1: and because he you know, he this is playing it
Speaker 1: out and you know, you can't really do this, but
Speaker 1: like the reality, I don't. I don't think he was
Speaker 1: hitting the ball well enough either way to win.
Speaker 2: No, but this thing that there's a way though, there's
Speaker 2: a way though you can you can play aggressively and
Speaker 2: you can chase and not let that ball get left
Speaker 2: of the flagstick. What you know, I don't want people
Speaker 2: to to misunderstand what I was trying to get at
Speaker 2: the Ordinarily, at eleven, you're pretty much aiming at the
Speaker 2: right edge of the green. Okay, So what I'm saying
Speaker 2: is he's got the short club, he's hit a brilliant
Speaker 2: T shirt, so this one is gonna it's gonna start
Speaker 2: turning closer to the hole here. But I'm not talking
Speaker 2: about letting it drift left of that whole location. I mean,
Speaker 2: that's like there's no space over there at all. So
Speaker 2: I'm saying, be more aggressive. Is this needs to be
Speaker 2: you know, inside twenty feet right of that flagstick. But yeah,
Speaker 2: still in his mind, he's not thinking ror he's gonna
Speaker 2: make seventh thirteen.
Speaker 1: I mean nobody did though, Like all those I bet
Speaker 1: Justin Rose thought he needed to get to twelve, you know,
Speaker 1: yeah to have a chance. I think the thing that
Speaker 1: I'll take from Bryson is the Saturday finish. And it's
Speaker 1: like the number of players that would have been able
Speaker 1: to when they clearly didn't have the stuff lift their
Speaker 1: games up. Because he wanted to get into that final group. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the final pairing, and the built the way to finish
Speaker 1: with three birdies on those last four holes and like
Speaker 1: just like move move himself into right where he wanted
Speaker 1: to be. It is like he manifested I am going
Speaker 1: to get into the final group and I will get there.
Speaker 1: And it just like it's like, you know, to finish
Speaker 1: that way on Saturday, I just thought was like, I mean,
Speaker 1: you knew he was not at his at full flight
Speaker 1: with his with his irons, and to get there was
Speaker 1: just extraordinary.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's just brilliant. And the party made on
Speaker 2: the lost toll. You drive it into the left Beiwet bunker,
Speaker 2: quite a nice second shot. The whole locations all the
Speaker 2: way at the back right and it's about twelve yards
Speaker 2: up the hill, so there's a lot going on there
Speaker 2: you can't see the surface of the green, and he
Speaker 2: gets it onto the correct level and then makes that
Speaker 2: put with everybody there, It's like the defining moment of
Speaker 2: the day really is him making that put and getting
Speaker 2: within striking distance of Rory. You know, it's interesting because
Speaker 2: I think back to Macarroy's he's been maturing as well.
Speaker 2: We've had similar concerns and issues about him and with
Speaker 2: his wedge plate and his distance control and his ability
Speaker 2: to rarely be precise with the Irons, and Bryson is
Speaker 2: in that same slot. But he's so smart. He has
Speaker 2: incredible discipline, incredible work ethic. He's a thinker, as we
Speaker 2: all know, He's going to find a solution to this.
Speaker 2: I really do believe he'll He'll find a solution to
Speaker 2: be able to tighten that up.
Speaker 1: The I think, like you just hit on something I
Speaker 1: wanted to touch on. Is I do think, like you know,
Speaker 1: Rory's talked about, I'm the most complete player I've ever been. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think this year we've seen Rory take his
Speaker 1: his golf game to whole new level with the you know,
Speaker 1: you take away like some of the Irons late on
Speaker 1: Sunday and I thought that was the most complete iron
Speaker 1: performance we've ever seen from him in terms of distance control.
Speaker 1: You know, I think that's been the thing that's kind
Speaker 1: of plagued him at Augusta is like maybe the iron
Speaker 1: play wasn't exactly where it needed to be to you know,
Speaker 1: hit a lot of shots, pin high hit, you know,
Speaker 1: avoid getting in places we saw Bryson get into when
Speaker 1: you have distance control issues, Yeah, where you get above
Speaker 1: the hole on four right. So he I think he's pushed,
Speaker 1: he's gotten to this place, and I think, like I'm
Speaker 1: not you know, I don't know if this is true
Speaker 1: or not, but like, to me, like one of the
Speaker 1: things that might be a reason why is Scotty Scheffler.
Speaker 1: I think Scotty Scheffler clearly taking the top spot in
Speaker 1: the game of golf last year by stranglehold where you know,
Speaker 1: even Rory McElroy, and I've said this before on this podcast,
Speaker 1: I wonder how many times in his career Rory McElroy
Speaker 1: has just been like, yes, Scott, he's the best player
Speaker 1: in the world. Like, how many players has he said
Speaker 1: that about? You know, maybe never, Yeah.
Speaker 2: He's fled out, said, he's fled out, said in the media.
Speaker 2: He wants to play more like Scotty. Yeah, and what
Speaker 2: he's trying to communicate there is less of what we
Speaker 2: saw on Sunday. He wants to be more consistent, uh,
Speaker 2: you know, more disciplined, more strategic, because that's how Scheffler is.
Speaker 2: You know, Scheffler is just ordinarily so clean with the
Speaker 2: way he plays. Let's take a look how many double
Speaker 2: bogees Scottish Scheffler made. How many do you think how
Speaker 2: many he didn't have his best week?
Speaker 1: Maybe one?
Speaker 2: He ended up four, finishing fourth. Scottish Scheffler had zero
Speaker 2: double bogies last week. So that's kind of what Rory means.
Speaker 2: And I do think that he is he he's taken
Speaker 2: that to heart because they've got them placed together so much.
Speaker 2: And when you start to unpack the twenty twenty four
Speaker 2: season for Scheffler and winning nine times around the world,
Speaker 2: and Okay, how's he gotten this done? What has he
Speaker 2: done in order to be that great for such a
Speaker 2: long period of time. Yeah, that's that's the thing that
Speaker 2: if Rory can find a way, that'll be.
Speaker 1: So I think with this iron play, like he's leading
Speaker 1: the tournament in strokes gain approach through three rounds and
Speaker 1: something I was I jotted down is like it is
Speaker 1: Rory the most complete player in golf the way he's
Speaker 1: been hitting his irons this year, because like you start
Speaker 1: to look at him and there's no deficiency, right, the
Speaker 1: putter can get is is streaky, right, but when it's good,
Speaker 1: it's really good. Yeah, And when it's bad, it's not
Speaker 1: it's not really bad. And I think, like you start
Speaker 1: to look at it, and it's like Scotty's probably is
Speaker 1: a better iron player, right, Rory's got the ability to
Speaker 1: hit a thirty past Scotty yeap, you know, and drive
Speaker 1: the ball a little bit with a little bit more explosiveness.
Speaker 1: Scotty short game is probably a little bit better, but
Speaker 1: Rory short game is really good too. And at the
Speaker 1: with the putter, you know, Rory McElroy is a better
Speaker 1: putter than Scotty Shuffler. Like I think you he's got
Speaker 1: He had this moment last year where he's like, I'm
Speaker 1: not the best player in the world anymore. To me,
Speaker 1: it feels like he that has motivated him in taking
Speaker 1: his game to hold another level.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it sure has, And that's why he tells the
Speaker 2: story of basically locking himself in a simulator and making
Speaker 2: the changes to his swing for a couple of weeks
Speaker 2: in the fall that he made was because he knew
Speaker 2: that there was something missing technique wise in order to
Speaker 2: be able to have that consistency and be able to
Speaker 2: be on the level to compete with Schefler week in
Speaker 2: and week out. If we go with recency bias, which
Speaker 2: is always such a heavy thing to weigh, then yeah,
Speaker 2: Rory is the most complete player right now. But I
Speaker 2: think we just got to pump the brakes and remember
Speaker 2: last year. Remember the golf we saw from Schefler, Remember
Speaker 2: the golf we saw from Zander. It's been a bit
Speaker 2: awkward to start to the season with those two guys
Speaker 2: being injured. You know, they're rarely not gosh. I don't
Speaker 2: even feel like Xander's out of second gear yet this year.
Speaker 2: He's still figuring things out. Scotty is Scotty's Scotty's out
Speaker 2: of second gear, but he's not in He's not in
Speaker 2: sport mode yet like he was last year. And if
Speaker 2: Rory can maintain this level, I mean, think about the
Speaker 2: places he's won Man Augusta National, Pebble Beach and the
Speaker 2: Stadium Course, that's.
Speaker 1: Think about where think about where we're going the next
Speaker 1: next three Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. But if if Rory can maintain that and
Speaker 2: then those guys can get back up to their level,
Speaker 2: we're gonna have a lot of fun. You start to
Speaker 2: add in Bryson, you start to add in John ram
Speaker 2: I spent quite a bit of time with John Rahm
Speaker 2: in the locker room last week. Uh. He made a
Speaker 2: brilliant ten footer on Friday afternoon late just to make
Speaker 2: the cut, and then played some really good golf on
Speaker 2: the weekend. And if we rewinded a couple of years before,
Speaker 2: I mean, he was the Scottish scheffler in in you
Speaker 2: know what are we talking twenty two to twenty three times?
Speaker 2: He was the guy that was super consistent, being in
Speaker 2: the top ten all the time. We've got five or
Speaker 2: six guys. I'd love to throw Oberg in there. I'd
Speaker 2: love to throw more Kawa in there. That if we
Speaker 2: get to a tournament where they all bring their best,
Speaker 2: that's going to be a fun run.
Speaker 1: To me to be with Rom He needs to get
Speaker 1: to a level of I think maybe happiness. It's hard
Speaker 1: to play great golf when you're unhappy, and it seems
Speaker 1: to me that some of the joy if you if
Speaker 1: you juxtapose twenty twenty two John Rahm and the way
Speaker 1: he talked in press conferences. You know, the questions and
Speaker 1: a lot of the answers were centered around his love
Speaker 1: of the game, the history of the game. And now
Speaker 1: you you flash forward three years later, he made a
Speaker 1: very interesting decision with where he would play his golf
Speaker 1: and and now he is seemingly fighting a battle of
Speaker 1: feeling irrelevant, and his answers are are are short, they're snippier,
Speaker 1: and I just think like, at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: playing golf unhappy, like when you're personally feeling dissatisfaction of
Speaker 1: some aspect. It could be anywhere in your life is
Speaker 1: a near Playing high level golf with that is one
Speaker 1: of the hardest things to do in the world. And
Speaker 1: to me, like with John rom he just has to
Speaker 1: get to some level of acceptance, like accept that, hey,
Speaker 1: you know what, like, no matter what you do on
Speaker 1: live like, nobody's going to, you know, give you the
Speaker 1: credit you feel like you deserve. And look at Bryson
Speaker 1: as an example. Nobody gave Bryson credit for the work
Speaker 1: he was doing until he won the US Open and
Speaker 1: now people are like, wow, look at Bryson, Like look
Speaker 1: at this guy, Like, listen to this conversation we just had.
Speaker 1: He is a problem. Like he's going to be a problem.
Speaker 1: He's going to win more. And that's came. That came
Speaker 1: from what he did at major championships because he you know,
Speaker 1: nobody was like, you know, look at what he's doing
Speaker 1: on live and this is what he's doing. And John
Speaker 1: rom just has to accept that. Where I play golf
Speaker 1: right now, nobody is going to, you know, say that
Speaker 1: I'm playing great because of the nature of the league.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's an opinion for sure. Uh. He
Speaker 2: seemed in good spirits to me last week. I would
Speaker 2: agree with you that the style of questions that he
Speaker 2: gets asked now is different to what it was a
Speaker 2: few years ago. And the fuse maybe one of the
Speaker 2: things that makes him fun to watch is he has
Speaker 2: a short fuse. Yes, and he's like he's a unit man.
Speaker 2: He is. He's a big dude, a big, strong, forceful,
Speaker 2: like he's got presence about him.
Speaker 1: There's there's a physicality yeah to his game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you just you you know that he's there
Speaker 2: and when when you have that presence and you have
Speaker 2: this this this temperament that can just get caught on
Speaker 2: fire at any moment. It makes it fun for us
Speaker 2: to watch. Now. To me, the shuse is just to
Speaker 2: touch shorter than what it always was. Maybe a little
Speaker 2: less patience in there, but there's no denying the skill
Speaker 2: set and the ability that he has to beat anybody
Speaker 2: in the game. So we'll have to see if if
Speaker 2: now with the schedule that they have at Live, you know,
Speaker 2: it may be a process of him still figuring out
Speaker 2: the best way to come to major championships in his
Speaker 2: best form, and we'll have to see how he deals
Speaker 2: with that. Bryson has very clearly figured it out. He
Speaker 2: knows exactly the formula that is needed. Five of the
Speaker 2: last seven Majors now he's been in the top six
Speaker 2: with that one win. You know, he knows the system
Speaker 2: that he has to run, the routines that he needs
Speaker 2: to have with the schedule, with his playing schedule, how
Speaker 2: to be shop coming into the Majors. And it just
Speaker 2: appears that John hasn't quite figured that out yet. When
Speaker 2: you bake in last year's major performance and then sure
Speaker 2: a great weekend here, but was never really in it
Speaker 2: he was a ten foot away from missing cut had
Speaker 2: a great weekend seventy sixty nine to finish tie for fourteenth,
Speaker 2: So a bit of a backdoor action there. So in
Speaker 2: my opinion, super super, super good, but needs to figure
Speaker 2: out what he's got to do to be ready to
Speaker 2: come into the PGA Championship. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You think about Bryson and rom They're like pretty diametrically
Speaker 1: different people. And to me, John John thrives on the
Speaker 1: kind of like the iron sharpens iron, yeah approach where
Speaker 1: you know, like him being him playing, Like you just
Speaker 1: think about the lead up and think about, like how
Speaker 1: how Rory wins this year. You know, he wins. He
Speaker 1: plays a bunch of top flight fields. He wins two
Speaker 1: big tournaments at at Pebble Beach and the Players, and
Speaker 1: you can't not believe that that, especially the Players experience,
Speaker 1: helped him extraordinarily in the with the Masters, where he
Speaker 1: had the you know, disappointed, he was disappointed he was
Speaker 1: even in the playoff at the Players. He had to
Speaker 1: feel similarly at the Masters. And then you have Bryson
Speaker 1: on the other hand, Like I think Bryson he's kind
Speaker 1: of introverted. I think one of the things that things
Speaker 1: with Live is like it's been really good for him
Speaker 1: to be away, like away from the public eye. It
Speaker 1: allows him time to work on things, and he's not
Speaker 1: working on things in front of people, right. I think
Speaker 1: that's always was the thing that struggle with Bryson struggled
Speaker 1: with was like the cameras and the attention and the
Speaker 1: weekend week out of the tour where he was working
Speaker 1: through whether it was personal things, whether or whether it
Speaker 1: was things in his game, you know, was that day
Speaker 1: in day out, week in week out attention was not
Speaker 1: good for his game. I think the opposite is true
Speaker 1: for Rom where that that was how that playing against
Speaker 1: the best players in the world constantly have measuring yourself
Speaker 1: against them was what pushed Ram ahead, you know. And
Speaker 1: I think, like it's just hard, you know. I think
Speaker 1: if you if you were playing like play. I used
Speaker 1: to play a lot of basketball in my twenties and
Speaker 1: I'd play, I'd play pickup ball on the weekends and
Speaker 1: then we'd play in the league and like the you know,
Speaker 1: the league with refs and everything, and you know, I
Speaker 1: was playing a ton of basketball. And I always was
Speaker 1: amazed how I could play hours of pick up basketball.
Speaker 1: But you get into a league game, like a real game,
Speaker 1: the real competition, and this is not real competition of
Speaker 1: you know, like a major or even you know, any
Speaker 1: sort of organ You get in a league game and
Speaker 1: you play like six minutes and you're like spent. You're
Speaker 1: just like, oh my god, Like I'm just like I can't,
Speaker 1: like I'm so tired, because that intensity ratchets up, and
Speaker 1: if you're not playing that regularly, you just you can't
Speaker 1: play long minutes in a in a in a league setting.
Speaker 1: And I think it's something similar going on with rom
Speaker 1: right now, is like, you know, like not having anything
Speaker 1: that even comes close to replicating the intensity of a
Speaker 1: major championship, and they're just being dropped in there. The Olympics,
Speaker 1: he had that great performance that was what two weeks
Speaker 1: after the Open Championship.
Speaker 2: I'm not exactly, but it wasn't that long after years.
Speaker 2: I'm not exactly sure, but it was pretty close where
Speaker 2: he had the lead and then yeah, kind of threw
Speaker 2: it away on the Sunday with Chefler shooting sixty two.
Speaker 2: As well.
Speaker 1: You think about his year last year, it was like
Speaker 1: a ramp up, like almost every major got a little
Speaker 1: bit better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because he played better. He finished tie for seventh
Speaker 2: at the Open. After he went he was forty fist
Speaker 2: at the Masters. He missed the cut at the PGA
Speaker 2: at Valhalla, and then he had the toe issue at
Speaker 2: the US Open and couldn't couldn't compete at Pinehurst.
Speaker 1: But like there's a ramp up because he was getting
Speaker 1: acclimated to games. You know, in another sport, you'd call
Speaker 1: it game speed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Yeah, it's just.
Speaker 1: I think that's the challenge for a guy like rom.
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, it's just like you always
Speaker 1: struggle on golf when you just get dropped into something
Speaker 1: that you're you're not necessarily ready for.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, talking to the LIV guys last week,
Speaker 2: they seem to be I would say that they are
Speaker 2: for sure still trying to find a way to tweak
Speaker 2: their schedule to where it's dialed in for the majors,
Speaker 2: not just when they're playing, but where they are playing
Speaker 2: as well, to where you know their game is been
Speaker 2: able to be worked on in competition, needing the style
Speaker 2: of shots that they're going to need for that next
Speaker 2: major championship. So I think they're still trying to get that,
Speaker 2: get that figured out and dialed in in a way
Speaker 2: that they want and their intention is to do that.
Speaker 2: I would say that's a fair statement.
Speaker 1: Who's one player we haven't talked about. Uh yeah, that
Speaker 1: that you want to touch on here let me see here.
Speaker 2: You know, Oberg continues to show that he's he's got
Speaker 2: what it takes.
Speaker 1: It's something else.
Speaker 2: Look disastrous finish. I mean just in a in a
Speaker 2: stretcher the last two holes. I mean he's gone bogie
Speaker 2: triple bogie to finish the tournament.
Speaker 1: Make it triple a without without a penalty of stroke.
Speaker 2: Like I said, this is this is the first time
Speaker 2: I'm really sort of thinking back and I'm starting to
Speaker 2: get some memories of the whole week. Like I said,
Speaker 2: you know, I have breakfast with John on Sunday morning.
Speaker 2: You run into Bubba, you run into Sergio, you speak
Speaker 2: to all these different players, you know, Rory during the week,
Speaker 2: Cheffler during the week. Uh and and so I'm starting
Speaker 2: to just recollect different conversations that I had. And we
Speaker 2: just mentioned that triple bogie. On eighteen, Oberg had a
Speaker 2: putt on the sixteenth green to take the outright lead
Speaker 2: and missed it, and then it went bogie, triple bogey.
Speaker 1: I what terrible, terrible bogey at seventeen that was a
Speaker 1: terrible three pot.
Speaker 2: Seventeen is it's a hard hole man.
Speaker 1: Fourteen and seventeen are so sneaky. This is something I
Speaker 1: had in my notes from watching the telecast, is like,
Speaker 1: if you think about fourteen, Rose, Rory and Ludwig all
Speaker 1: hit bad t shots. Ludwig got the up and down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, mclarroy too. McRoy was to the right on fourteen
Speaker 2: and kind of couldn't get it there him, him and
Speaker 2: Oberg were in a similar spot and Rosy's short short
Speaker 2: right there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they all like it. It's just like it's amazing,
Speaker 1: Like all the hoopla goes to and right lely so
Speaker 1: to like thirteen and fifteen. But like if you can play,
Speaker 1: if you're in the in the mix, and you can,
Speaker 1: if you can power fourteen and seventeen, you know, like
Speaker 1: you you're gonna pick up half a shot, maybe a
Speaker 1: full shot on everybody around you because those holes, like
Speaker 1: they just always trip people up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the golf course.
Speaker 1: Golf course is amazing, so good.
Speaker 2: It's magnificent. It's so magnificent. Every there's just there's no
Speaker 2: there's no sleeper holes. You know, the the third hole
Speaker 2: is a lot easier than when it was in my day,
Speaker 2: right because hardly anybody, I mean a few guys could maybe,
Speaker 2: but you have to rip one to cover that front,
Speaker 2: that bunker on the left at two eighty like rip one,
Speaker 2: and you would have been like, Okay, they've moved the
Speaker 2: tea a little forward, and maybe I got a little
Speaker 2: help on the southwest winds, so now I feel a
Speaker 2: bit better about carrying that bunker. For the most part,
Speaker 2: players would lay up and then it's a tough web shot.
Speaker 2: But even if you drive it down to the front
Speaker 2: of the green where these guys are hitting it, you
Speaker 2: still you could still make a make a mess of that.
Speaker 2: All you know, the green is it's such an interesting,
Speaker 2: intricate green with tiny little fingers, you know, in the
Speaker 2: back and in the left, with enough slope to them
Speaker 2: to where it catches your attention with enough danger if
Speaker 2: you miss them that even with the technology change, three
Speaker 2: is still a hole you've got to be aware of
Speaker 2: and be careful of. But every single hole is just
Speaker 2: so good, so difficult. You have to be so precise.
Speaker 2: But when I say difficult, to me, the beauty of it,
Speaker 2: the beauty of it is you get rewarded for playing
Speaker 2: the way you supposed to play, And that to me
Speaker 2: is is how how a great golf course should be.
Speaker 1: Every hole is achievable, yes, like every hole, every hole.
Speaker 1: And I was looking at driving stats on this was
Speaker 1: on Sunday morning, and I think this is part of
Speaker 1: it is there's guys like Zach. I think it was
Speaker 1: Zach Johnson and Aaron Raye. We're leading the field and
Speaker 1: driving accuracy.
Speaker 2: Shout out to Zach tie for eighth at forty nine
Speaker 2: years old.
Speaker 1: Incredible performance, Like I like, honestly amazing performance. He's gonna
Speaker 1: be a menace on on pj's Champions.
Speaker 2: True, Bernard better retire before Zach gets there. The uh,
Speaker 2: Zach is gonna be a problem.
Speaker 1: So they're there, are there are driving stats they're at
Speaker 1: like ninety plus percent, it was like ninety one percent. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and when like so if you play well, like I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be hitting from short grass into every one of
Speaker 1: those greens. And you know, they do an amazing job
Speaker 1: with course set up where there's this give and take,
Speaker 1: where there are you know every day. You know, they
Speaker 1: have this amazing ability to change a hole. You know,
Speaker 1: I can't think of many courses in the world where
Speaker 1: you can move a whole location on almost every hole
Speaker 1: out there and change the scoring average probably close to
Speaker 1: half a shot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, from a bergihill to a burnial.
Speaker 1: And they so they have this amazing versatility. And one
Speaker 1: day you go up to to fourteen and you're thinking,
Speaker 1: I got to make a birdie, and then they can
Speaker 1: move the pin to the you know, into one of
Speaker 1: the positions that's really hard, and then it becomes like, well,
Speaker 1: I better hit a good t shot if I want
Speaker 1: to make a bar because if I'm not in the
Speaker 1: right spot. So you know, there's just this like amazing
Speaker 1: versatility to it, in variability where you're around the cadence
Speaker 1: of that, Like you settle into a tournament and you're
Speaker 1: like on most courses you know what's coming like and
Speaker 1: your week goes is like, okay, like birdie, this is
Speaker 1: the stretch, I go get it. This is the stretch
Speaker 1: I gotta be careful of out there each day. The
Speaker 1: cadence is a little different based off how they set
Speaker 1: it up where certain holes are going to take from you.
Speaker 1: It's just disrupting that flow a little bit. But have
Speaker 1: you ever been at a bar where they do, like
Speaker 1: a German bar, they do the mug hold where you
Speaker 1: have to like hold the mug out, you hold the
Speaker 1: mug out, and it's just basically like holding a weight
Speaker 1: and keeping your shoulder extended. And you see people just quivering,
Speaker 1: ye like, and they're shaking and you can see when
Speaker 1: they're going.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that's the way I think about Augusta Nashell,
Speaker 1: particularly on the weekends. It is like everybody's just trying
Speaker 1: to hang on, you know, and these guys are playing there.
Speaker 1: We saw just such an extraordinary level of golf at times. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they're just trying to hang on, and inevitably the
Speaker 1: golf course just cracks them.
Speaker 2: Sure at some point, Yeah, some quicker than others, but
Speaker 2: at some point. Yeah. The intensity of the week is uh,
Speaker 2: it's quite something to deal with, you know. You and players,
Speaker 2: you know a lot of a lot of people. You
Speaker 2: want to get in there Saturday, you want to get
Speaker 2: in there Sunday, coming early. Man, But it's it starts
Speaker 2: to get to you. There's just so much going on,
Speaker 2: you know, think about I was thinking the other and
Speaker 2: I never realized this when I was playing, but it
Speaker 2: kind of dawned on me this year. I was eating
Speaker 2: lunch with my wife up on the balcony as the
Speaker 2: leaders were coming out to the first tea, and I
Speaker 2: said to wow, this is kind of like the Kentucky Derby,
Speaker 2: or you know when you go to those big horse
Speaker 2: races and the horses are like walking out as they're
Speaker 2: showing them and then they go out onto the track.
Speaker 2: It's what it's like. It's what it's like at Augusta
Speaker 2: National because the players are coming from the practice area
Speaker 2: and then they walk through, you know, under the in
Speaker 2: the tunnel at the clubhouse, out under the big Tree,
Speaker 2: and everybody's just there dressed up, you know, fancy hats
Speaker 2: on jackets, and the players have to make their way through,
Speaker 2: and I was like, wow, even even that moment right there,
Speaker 2: like it's it's it's an intense environment.
Speaker 1: It's so intense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the excitement and the the noise, the buzz, it's
Speaker 2: a love for a player to have to deal with
Speaker 2: throughout the week.
Speaker 1: I wrote this down in my notes. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you caught this. Do you know what numbers Rory
Speaker 1: and Bryson's caddies were wearing. So there was ninety six
Speaker 1: players in the field last year. For listeners, your number
Speaker 1: is a caddy number one goes to the defending champion.
Speaker 1: Every number after that goes in order of arrival.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So Bryson was eighty nine?
Speaker 1: Was he eighty nine?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Correct?
Speaker 2: And Rory was eighty one? Was he?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I just like you saying, like the intensity of
Speaker 1: the week and everybody wants to get in on Sunday
Speaker 1: and do their work. Like I wonder if there's something
Speaker 1: to you know, I think both of them arrived on
Speaker 1: Monday night or Tuesday morning.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I Uh, if I was getting ready to play
Speaker 2: in the mastas, I would make the trip two before.
Speaker 2: I would spend you know, two to three days there,
Speaker 2: just getting comfortable with all the strategy, hopefully get to
Speaker 2: play the course in two different wind directions. Uh. And
Speaker 2: then I would I would come in Monday night and
Speaker 2: I would at some point Monday get some body work,
Speaker 2: maybe have a workout, have a great meal, and then
Speaker 2: nine Tuesday, nine Wednesday, let's go.
Speaker 1: The jack used to didn't he show up a lot
Speaker 1: of times on Wednesday?
Speaker 2: So what he told me that he would do is
Speaker 2: he would play the tournament the week before. So he
Speaker 2: would always go and this is why he had an
Speaker 2: issue with the Memorial being the week before the US
Speaker 2: Open last year, because he was like, I would never
Speaker 2: have played my own tournament then, because I always took
Speaker 2: a week off before major. Uh, and we're going to
Speaker 2: see that move for this year. So he would go
Speaker 2: the week before and he would play four rounds, count
Speaker 2: every shot, so he would play the tournament against himself,
Speaker 2: against the court. That's what he was doing and everywhere
Speaker 2: and every major championship. And the reason he did that
Speaker 2: now at the Masters, this doesn't really come into play,
Speaker 2: but he said, you're talking about the Open, the US Open,
Speaker 2: the PGA Championship. The rough would always be longer the
Speaker 2: week before because they're still going to be growing it
Speaker 2: in and then probably given it that final cut the
Speaker 2: weekend before, and the greenswoar was firm and fast, and
Speaker 2: he felt like he rarely got to test himself and
Speaker 2: understand the challenges that he was about to face, and
Speaker 2: then he could figure out the strategy going into the
Speaker 2: real tournament. It's quite clever, but professional golfers, you know,
Speaker 2: it's it's evolved so much now it probably would be
Speaker 2: hard for players to do that, but maybe you could
Speaker 2: find a gap at some point to be able to
Speaker 2: go there. With enough time, I think you can get
Speaker 2: it done in two or three days and really get
Speaker 2: your homework done to where you don't have to do
Speaker 2: you don't have to There's so many stresses on the Monday, Tuesday,
Speaker 2: Wednesday of a major championship and then the tournament, you
Speaker 2: just don't want to add anything to that during those
Speaker 2: final moments you want to be trying to It's like
Speaker 2: one of my close friends as won three medals swimming
Speaker 2: in the Olympics, name is Roland Schummer, South African swimmer,
Speaker 2: and in their sport, they talk about tapering to where
Speaker 2: they do all this crazy training, but then actually coming
Speaker 2: up to the races they taper that down to be
Speaker 2: able to have the appropriate recovery and mass and stamf
Speaker 2: and all that kind of stuff. It's almost like you
Speaker 2: need a little bit of that coming into mages.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that's I mean, that's the thing you
Speaker 1: have to It's almost like you have to treat yourself
Speaker 1: well before a major, yeah, because you if you come
Speaker 1: in with stress, like it's so much of is in
Speaker 1: particular Augusta Nashal, I feel like it's the most stressful
Speaker 1: place to play a tournament because you have the knowing
Speaker 1: that you can score. But but then if you don't
Speaker 1: hit the shots, everything becomes extraordinarily hard. It's just and
Speaker 1: it's like you just so rarely see people leave stuff dead,
Speaker 1: like you leave putts dead. Hind you never it's it's
Speaker 1: the whole, it's the course that you might have to
Speaker 1: hold the most three to four footers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you can hit a nine out of
Speaker 2: ten putt from twenty feet and you got to get
Speaker 2: the coin out of the pocket and you got three
Speaker 2: feet coming back, and you're like, I mean, I've just
Speaker 2: hit this pot. Okay, it didn't go in, but I've
Speaker 2: hit this pott as good as what I possibly could,
Speaker 2: and I'm still got to fight to get out of
Speaker 2: here with the pie and that stuff. Yeah, it piles up,
Speaker 2: and by the end of the week you are I
Speaker 2: wonder if Rory's even working up yet, any of these guys,
Speaker 2: I mean, Rory Rose read how about Reid holding out
Speaker 2: one bouncer on seventeen.
Speaker 1: You weren't there. This was amazing. I was. I was
Speaker 1: standing there at that point. Nobody cheered, nobody saw.
Speaker 2: It because it just disappeared so fast.
Speaker 1: No, because they were the scoreboard was changing.
Speaker 2: Oh, I gotcha and we and we were, we were.
Speaker 2: We showed it and he didn't. He had no clue.
Speaker 2: He actually said to his caddy, where is that.
Speaker 1: He had a little blockie. It was a little blockie.
Speaker 1: Did he go in one.
Speaker 2: Bounce all of a sudden? If he hauls it out
Speaker 2: on eighteen, he would have gotten into the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Can we talk about his three foot three putt from
Speaker 1: three feet on thirteen?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is unusual for him. I mean, he's such
Speaker 2: a great short gamer putter. He said he had struggled
Speaker 2: with his putting in the first couple of days, but
Speaker 2: then started to figure it out on the weekend. But yeah, great,
Speaker 2: finish third on his own, and then Scheffler does nothing
Speaker 2: the whole week, finishes fourth, does nothing the whole week,
Speaker 2: and it's still got a chance with nine holes to
Speaker 2: play somehow. After Rory's hiccup, I.
Speaker 1: Got a couple of rapid fire questions before we go.
Speaker 1: Yeah on here, I'm kind of shooting from the hip here.
Speaker 2: Don't worry, I've been doing that the whole time.
Speaker 1: Shot You'll remember the most Oh, I.
Speaker 2: Don't have one I don't have one.
Speaker 1: Because that's why it's a hard question.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Microroy's two shots into fifteen on the weekend were
Speaker 2: and I mentioned this on the broadcast. They reminded me
Speaker 2: of Jack and Tiger. You know, you see all those
Speaker 2: great clips Tiger wearing black pants or red shirt Jack
Speaker 2: various different times. But the one that jumps out to
Speaker 2: me is two that jump out to me. He's nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy eight, excuse me, nineteen seventy five. He's got the
Speaker 2: white pants, the green and white striped shirt. In eighty
Speaker 2: six he's got the yellow shirt and he's got like
Speaker 2: plaid gray pants. Kind of a deal. And they make
Speaker 2: these swings with long irons from the top of the
Speaker 2: hill and immediately start charging after the ball. It's like.
Speaker 1: Said earlier, they know it's perfect.
Speaker 2: You know what was mind boggling to me about Bryson
Speaker 2: because he's staring these shots down and then they they're
Speaker 2: nowhere near, but immediately, even though it's ten yards down
Speaker 2: the hill, the wind swirling, when they make contact with
Speaker 2: the ball, they're like, this is it. This is it?
Speaker 2: The club toils from Tiger. You know Jack, he's always
Speaker 2: like he's got that shoulder move that he always used
Speaker 2: to make, and Rory did that with the sixth iron
Speaker 2: on Saturday, and then the seven nine on Sunday does
Speaker 2: jump out to me. NANCE called it the shot of
Speaker 2: a lifetime, which was amazing. But I gotta say the
Speaker 2: wedgend of thirteen on Sunday, I have to remember it.
Speaker 2: It will go down as one of the poorest shots
Speaker 2: that McElroy will hit in his curreer.
Speaker 1: It's kind of eerily similar to the speef chunk from
Speaker 1: the drop area. Yeah, yeah, right, Like if it had
Speaker 1: gone the other way, it would have it would have
Speaker 1: been that.
Speaker 2: I kept thinking to myself throughout the whole and I
Speaker 2: know you said it's supposed to be a rapid fire,
Speaker 2: but I kept thinking to myself the whole way through
Speaker 2: that Sunday, the the moment that McElroy is dealing with,
Speaker 2: like the magnitude of this situation, the outcomes are so
Speaker 2: polar opposite. He's either gonna win be remembered for the
Speaker 2: rest of time or he's going to lose and it's
Speaker 2: gonna be the worst day of his life. Yeah, Like,
Speaker 2: there there's no in between. Like we talk about these
Speaker 2: other guys justin forty four years old, another great opportunity,
Speaker 2: cementing Hall of Fame status read great third place, Scottie Okay, solid,
Speaker 2: Xander eighth Oberg getting it going. There's there's like a
Speaker 2: middle ground for every other player, but for Macroy, it
Speaker 2: was either going to be one of the six greatest
Speaker 2: names that will be remembered forever. Oh, this is going
Speaker 2: to be the worst day of your life. There was
Speaker 2: zero action in the middle at all.
Speaker 1: And I think that's why you just saw it on
Speaker 1: his face and he saw I think that's why you
Speaker 1: saw just the wide range of outcomes we saw throughout
Speaker 1: his round. Yeah, was just that that enormity of the situation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, but so they can't even imagine how it felt.
Speaker 2: Oh, there's so many shots though. You think of the
Speaker 2: t shots at one and two that he hit in
Speaker 2: the third round. You think about some of the up
Speaker 2: and downs that Bryson made. Bryson shot sixty nine on
Speaker 2: Saturday and he hit nine greens.
Speaker 1: All time scoring round. I think I said this on
Speaker 1: the shotgun start, But like Bryson gets called all these things,
Speaker 1: and at the end of the day, like I think,
Speaker 1: what his superpower is is he just knows to score
Speaker 1: of the golf ball. Like he just he's one of
Speaker 1: those players that like just gets the ball in the
Speaker 1: hole really quickly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's tough man. He doesn't quit. He's tough.
Speaker 1: And with that guy, yeah, I would hate to play
Speaker 1: I'd hate to play him like in a mat like
Speaker 1: you know, like he's just never out of it. He's
Speaker 1: got some super superhuman talents, right, But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, the guy like he makes big putt,
Speaker 1: he has a knack to make putts when he needs
Speaker 1: to make putts, and he has a knack to hit
Speaker 1: shots when he has to hit shots. And it didn't
Speaker 1: work out on Sunday. But like the situation, situation or
Speaker 1: swing that you'll remember the most, Like swing in in
Speaker 1: in the tournament.
Speaker 2: Oh swing in the tournament.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like like like moment is so situation or like
Speaker 1: moment grand moment.
Speaker 2: It has thirteen. You know we thought, I think the
Speaker 2: whole world when he hit it on the green on twelve. Everybody,
Speaker 2: you don't have to be a great golfer to no
Speaker 2: Augusta National, just if you love golf. We've all watched
Speaker 2: it so much. We know where the pitfalls are. And
Speaker 2: on eleven, when he was standing on the tee and
Speaker 2: they were waiting. They waited quite a lot. On the
Speaker 2: second nine, I kind of foreshadowed. I was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: he's now birdied nine and ten. He's got this big lead.
Speaker 2: You know, let's start to think about the places that
Speaker 2: it can come undone. Okay, we've got what's the water holes.
Speaker 2: It's eleven, it's twelve, it's thirteen, it's fifteen, And then
Speaker 2: I said sixteen. He doesn't have to worry about too
Speaker 2: much because with the whole back right, we'd have to
Speaker 2: be a pretty rank shot to get to the water.
Speaker 2: And so I sort of foreshadowed that. And when he
Speaker 2: hit it on the green on twelve, everybody on the
Speaker 2: planet must have been that's it. That's over. Now he's
Speaker 2: got tupop. Yes, it's normally where he feasts. He's made
Speaker 2: all these eagles and birdies throughout the week. And then
Speaker 2: he keeps it out of the water on his first
Speaker 2: and he's second on thirteen, and then it all just
Speaker 2: went completely sideways. I mean, that's what I remember, big swing.
Speaker 1: I said this on the shotgun start, but I felt
Speaker 1: like it was it's so easy to play Monday morning quarterback.
Speaker 1: But I thought it was a mistake to take the
Speaker 1: foot off the gas on thirteen because I thought it
Speaker 1: it changed the mindset of how he was playing golf.
Speaker 2: Yeah, look, he plays better when he's being aggressive, but
Speaker 2: we need to be careful how we frame aggressive. Aggressive
Speaker 2: does not mean stupid. Yeah, aggressive means a confident, committed swing.
Speaker 1: With conservative targets. That's the best way to play last.
Speaker 2: And so I have zero problem the strategy on thirteen.
Speaker 2: Zero problem. I don't mind him, you know, turning it
Speaker 2: into a three shotter. But to hit that sort of
Speaker 2: a shot from eighty something yards is it brought It
Speaker 2: brought four or five guys back into it. And the
Speaker 2: fact that we haven't even paid reference to the three
Speaker 2: two shot swings in the first four holes shows how
Speaker 2: dramatic that thirteenth toll was.
Speaker 1: I mean, this round will be talked about forever because
Speaker 1: there's so many micro moments, like little advantages that happened
Speaker 1: early in the Bryson Rory showdown segment of it where
Speaker 1: Rory got Rory made putts first that put the pressure
Speaker 1: on Scottie. I thought that were like huge, huge moments,
Speaker 1: you know, whether it was three or nine, you know,
Speaker 1: him getting the putt first in both those like to
Speaker 1: me that that nine was kind of a knockout punch
Speaker 1: for Bryce. That was where he he was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I can't, I can't, I can't beat this guy. Maybe
Speaker 1: today when he got to putt and it looked like
Speaker 1: Bryson was pacing it out like he thought he might
Speaker 1: have been trying he was trying to hit his putt first.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were, they were watch it. They were within
Speaker 2: inches of each other distance wise, But that that was
Speaker 2: it was a big moment right there. And then for
Speaker 2: Roy to birdie ten. I'm just looking at his scorecard here.
Speaker 2: I mean, the guy made six birdies and shut one over. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he doubles in one round.
Speaker 1: It was it was the full experience, the full Augustin
Speaker 1: National Rory experience through the years. All right, real rapid
Speaker 1: fire and then we'll we're gonna get you out of
Speaker 1: here because I know you got your you got harbortown
Speaker 1: responsibilities here over under six point five majors for Rory McElroy.
Speaker 2: They're not that easy to win, by the way.
Speaker 1: No, we're seeing he does got off and eleven year
Speaker 1: side here.
Speaker 2: That means he's gonna win two. More so I'm gonna
Speaker 2: go yes, all right, I listen, go onto my X profile.
Speaker 2: Earlier in the season, before everyone started playing, I said
Speaker 2: what I thought was going to happen, shadowed Henley winning
Speaker 2: the E one Arnold Palmer, I four shut at McNeely.
Speaker 2: He's now playing really well and he's going to make
Speaker 2: third championship. I said McElroy was going to win a
Speaker 2: major championship. That's happened. I've said on TV. The venues
Speaker 2: this year for him are like totally in his wheelhouse.
Speaker 2: We're going to next he owns Quail Hollow, owns Quail Hollow.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be the favorite coming in there. Oakmont. You
Speaker 2: gotta hit one ball like a missen so that suits him.
Speaker 2: We know he's turned into a good putter. And then
Speaker 2: I mean he's going home. He's going home for the
Speaker 2: Open with the green jacket. He's going to be celebrated
Speaker 2: and received there like maybe nothing we've ever seen before.
Speaker 2: And that's just this year, never mind the next. He
Speaker 2: seems to be fit, he seems to not get many injuries.
Speaker 2: What is he thirty five years old? Now, you've got
Speaker 2: to think he's got at least another five years And
Speaker 2: in the way he's looked after his body and been
Speaker 2: so disciplined with his health. I'm giving him two more.
Speaker 2: I'm giving him two more, and I tell you why
Speaker 2: that will be special. He said last year that he
Speaker 2: has three goals left in his career, winning the Masters,
Speaker 2: winning an Olympic medal and winning an away Ryder Cup.
Speaker 2: I would add one more for him. He scratched one
Speaker 2: of them off this last weekend with winning the Masters.
Speaker 2: If he gets to seven Majors, he is, without a
Speaker 2: shadow of a doubt, the greatest European player ever to live.
Speaker 2: He's got to get pass Faldo at six, but if
Speaker 2: he gets to seven, to me, it's unquestionable.
Speaker 1: I'm doing rapid fire.
Speaker 2: I can't do rapid fire. Hey listen, let me just
Speaker 2: tell you something. In my job, I'm rapid fire.
Speaker 1: I know, I know I have.
Speaker 2: Two seconds to say something, three seconds to say something.
Speaker 2: When I come on one of these, you get the
Speaker 2: full experience of how I have all these thoughts in
Speaker 2: my mind and I have to like edit it down
Speaker 2: to five words on TV. So now you're getting the
Speaker 2: whole apologize to the listeners.
Speaker 1: I don't think anybody's anybody's upset. If anything, people are
Speaker 1: upset with me. All right over under three point five
Speaker 1: majors for Bryson.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm going over on that as well. He's their one,
Speaker 2: super strong and yeah, he's gonna figure the Irons out.
Speaker 1: I think i'd be and that I'd agree with both
Speaker 1: of these. So far over under three point five green
Speaker 1: jackets for Scottie.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm gonna take the under on that one to
Speaker 2: change it up. He'll win another one. He'll win another one.
Speaker 1: It's mind boggling how he did nothing and finished fourth.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he'll win another one. He's uh yeah, him and
Speaker 2: Rory on one A and one B right now.
Speaker 1: All right over under zero point five green jackets for Ludwig.
Speaker 2: I'll take the over on that one.
Speaker 1: He seems perfect.
Speaker 2: His game fits anywhere, anywhere, everywhere, demeanor ten out of ten,
Speaker 2: seems to frame things up the right way. I actually
Speaker 2: said on the broadcast that he's like a mixture between
Speaker 2: Adam Scott and Roger Federer. Yeah, he's got like that classy, tall, look,
Speaker 2: beautiful swing like Scottie, supremely talented. So yeah, I'm going
Speaker 2: over on that. He's great.
Speaker 1: I'm worried. I'm already worried. About what we've seen with
Speaker 1: scar tissue. Now with Ludwig, just two close, two kind
Speaker 1: of close calls. It's not good when you start racking
Speaker 1: up the close.
Speaker 2: Calls there, Okay, I feel differently.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't. I'm not saying I'm gonna go under.
Speaker 1: I'm just this is. This is a brief area of
Speaker 1: concern for me.
Speaker 2: His first two Masters starts, he's gone second and seventh.
Speaker 1: Seventh with an asterisk.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, take the lead with two holes to play.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Trevor, thank you so much. Kill her
Speaker 1: job this weekend with coverage and look forward to hearing
Speaker 1: you the next couple of weeks the next major. Well
Speaker 1: have you so can't wait. Thanks for having on.
Speaker 2: Right back at you, guys. Appreciate all the social media stuff,
Speaker 2: the whole team out there, the newsletters. You know, I
Speaker 2: would once I got done with all my work, I'd
Speaker 2: be back the house at midnight, you know, early mornings,
Speaker 2: reading all the stuff, making sure I was up to
Speaker 2: date with everything that was going on out on the grounds.
Speaker 2: So yeah, well done to you guys. We all need
Speaker 2: a couple of days off and then we get back
Speaker 2: on the horse. It's great to be I haven't.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen my daughter yet, so I'm going to
Speaker 1: run in and see her for ten days. She's apparently
Speaker 1: apparently requesting my presence.
Speaker 2: Yeah, same thing. Mine is actually on spring break this
Speaker 2: week and arrive here at Hilton and off an hour,
Speaker 2: so I'm looking forward to.
Speaker 1: All Right, thank you for listening to another edition of
Speaker 1: the Friday Golf Podcast. That was fun. I don't I
Speaker 1: don't think we're gonna be done talking about that major
Speaker 1: for a long time. Big thanks to Trevor again for
Speaker 1: joining and we'll be back next week. One of you know,
Speaker 1: Rory Winning, was really happy about that. But other big
Speaker 1: win of the week was our great photographer videographer Cameron
Speaker 1: Hurdis who logs tons of hours when he goes to
Speaker 1: Gusta National photographs from basically sun up to sundown all
Speaker 1: day every day. Also is you know, a huge part
Speaker 1: of all of our videos on YouTube. He won the
Speaker 1: Media Lottery. Cameron is a architecture nut. He's actually won
Speaker 1: the Leedo Competition, the Golf digestin Mackenzie Society, Lido competition
Speaker 1: where you design a hole three times. His band from
Speaker 1: the competition, so he's so into golf. Architecture, and he
Speaker 1: is a good player, and he has spent more time
Speaker 1: roaming around those grounds the last three years than really
Speaker 1: or last two years, than me or Brendan, really any
Speaker 1: media member I know of. He's basically out there every hour,
Speaker 1: every minute he can be during the tournament. He got
Speaker 1: to play Augusta on Monday. So next week I think
Speaker 1: we are going to have him for about thirty minutes
Speaker 1: or so talking about his takeaways from playing and another
Speaker 1: segment on the show. So we're not done with Augusta content.
Speaker 1: A little slow burn here as we kind of come
Speaker 1: off this incredible high from that tournament. I mean, so
Speaker 1: many different angles of it. I think I could talk
Speaker 1: with Trevor for two more hours about it. So big
Speaker 1: thanks to PJ Clark, who was on the ground. He
Speaker 1: was not he was. He was kind of in and
Speaker 1: out of the in and out of the grounds at
Speaker 1: Augusta when we could find scrounge up a ticket, but
Speaker 1: he was manning down the house and and producing all
Speaker 1: of our shotgun start pods. And big thanks for him
Speaker 1: for hopping on and producing this one at a moment's notice.
Speaker 1: So PJ gets some rest, and thank you all for
Speaker 1: the support. It's a it's a dream come true to
Speaker 1: get to go cover golf tournaments like the Masters, and
Speaker 1: none of this would ever happen if if you guys
Speaker 1: didn't listen, and it's uh yeah weeks. Weeks like last
Speaker 1: week are the ones that make me want to make
Speaker 1: me pinch myself and and really eternally grateful forgetting to
Speaker 1: do what I get to do. And thank you guys
Speaker 1: for all the support through the years, and that's made
Speaker 1: it possible for us to UH to get out there
Speaker 1: and cover these events the way we do. And we
Speaker 1: hope these are the best years of covering majors and
Speaker 1: our coverage just continues to get better, I hope in
Speaker 1: the coming year. So big thank you to everybody for
Speaker 1: supporting the podcast, supporting the UH, the company that we've built.
Speaker 1: We'll be back next week and I hope you guys
Speaker 1: all have a great rest of your week.
Speaker 2: M h mh