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 2: And when I find my.
Speaker 1: Ball in a brid egg Friday Egg, the dreaded Frida
Speaker 1: Egg Friday, fridagg Frida Egg Bride egg Lie.
Speaker 2: I'm about ready to run off of the up course.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Golf Podcast.
Speaker 3: I am your host, Andy Johnson, and today I am
Speaker 3: joined by Joseph Lavanya. We are going to be diving in.
Speaker 3: This is an annual tradition on this pod. I think
Speaker 3: I think we did it last year. I know we
Speaker 3: did it at least two years ago, but I try
Speaker 3: and do this every year. We are going to dive
Speaker 3: in and uh and come up with a couple players
Speaker 3: we think might break out in twenty twenty five. So
Speaker 3: we've gotten to the end of this year, all all
Speaker 3: the results are in, all the statistics are in, and
Speaker 3: we're gearing up for twenty twenty five on the PGA Tour,
Speaker 3: and I guess we could do all tours. I don't
Speaker 3: know if you have any, Joseph, that any live breakout candidates.
Speaker 3: I think maybe the Thomas Peters moved to the four
Speaker 3: races might finally unlock that potential we've been we've been
Speaker 3: dying to see since since the Ryder Cup years. But
Speaker 3: we came each came up with five breakout players and
Speaker 3: we will kind of run through them. There are varying
Speaker 3: degrees of players. Joseph, how are you.
Speaker 1: I'm doing great. I'm looking forward to this. I don't
Speaker 1: remember for sure if we did this last year, but
Speaker 1: I have a feeling that might not have aged as
Speaker 1: well as probably would have liked to based on the
Speaker 1: performance of the camerons this year. So I'm hoping we
Speaker 1: do better in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: Listen, we don't go We don't look back in anger,
Speaker 3: as the Great Oasis Wants once said, we do not
Speaker 3: look back and think about all of our past transgressions.
Speaker 3: This is strictly an outward approach. You know, you can't
Speaker 3: allow the past to, you know, influence what you're how
Speaker 3: you're predicting the future. And I've I've got my a
Speaker 3: couple of things that I always monitor. I always monitor birdies.
Speaker 3: I'm a huge believer in birdies. I believe you can
Speaker 3: coach away bogies. You can't teach birdies.
Speaker 1: So and there's something to do that by the way
Speaker 1: you're smiling, But I think that's legit, not just.
Speaker 2: I'm dead serious.
Speaker 3: This is like I, you know, you always watched I
Speaker 3: as a as a as a career Midham as a
Speaker 3: I always joke with my Midiam buddies we are great
Speaker 3: at making like fifteen pars and how the other four
Speaker 3: holes shake out really determined.
Speaker 1: If there's a good day or a bad day. Why
Speaker 1: do you play nineteen holes or three or fourteen fourteen parts?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 3: The keg is safe pars, you know, and uh, and
Speaker 3: when you play with the very talented college kids, you
Speaker 3: you see a different gear sometimes where you're like, well,
Speaker 3: I can't make eight birdies pretty on a pretty fairly
Speaker 3: consistent basis. I can't come out and make eight birdies
Speaker 3: a lot. And it's like, well, if you could just
Speaker 3: figure out how to coach away those bogies that you
Speaker 3: know that that's that's the easy stuff. It's hard to
Speaker 3: make make the birdies though, as you know. Anyways, let's
Speaker 3: get into it, Joseph, who's first on your list?
Speaker 1: I went with five different golfers from kind of five
Speaker 1: different levels in stages of their careers. So I don't
Speaker 1: know I have one that I can start with. I
Speaker 1: think the only opening comments I had Andy is when
Speaker 1: I was putting this together, a couple of things that
Speaker 1: I think you have to keep in mind. And I'm
Speaker 1: curious if your philosophy with this is the same. Age
Speaker 1: is massive, right, if you're giving me a thirty year
Speaker 1: old golfer that you think is gonna break out, like,
Speaker 1: I need to understand what you think is going to change.
Speaker 1: Like not to say that you can't get better at
Speaker 1: that age, but generally there's a natural progression when you're younger.
Speaker 3: So could I could I say thirty year old, thirty
Speaker 3: year old Justin Thomas switches to broom putter, breaks out,
Speaker 3: becomes an average putter, and that could be how they break.
Speaker 1: Out if there's a catalyst, Yeah, right, I mean Victor
Speaker 1: Hovelin's kind of an example where he was still young,
Speaker 1: but in twenty twenty three he fixed the chipping a
Speaker 1: little bit, but really what he credits with a lot
Speaker 1: of his improved performance was the course management, and that
Speaker 1: had a significant impact on his en course performance. So
Speaker 1: if there's some kind of catalyst like that, I'm here
Speaker 1: for it. But generally, I think players if we're talking
Speaker 1: about breakout candidate, it's got to be somebody who's in
Speaker 1: a little bit more of a ripe age breakout.
Speaker 2: Let's just quick.
Speaker 3: I think like if we were going to break deem
Speaker 3: some breakout candidates from last year and a couple buckets,
Speaker 3: I think like the clear top of the top of
Speaker 3: the game breakout was Xanderschoffle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 3: Who would you throw into the kind of next bucket.
Speaker 1: You're putting me on the spot? I would I'd probably need.
Speaker 3: To Sahe Thigala would be a great example of going
Speaker 3: from kind of a top forty player to a top
Speaker 3: twenty player.
Speaker 1: You could almost put Tyrol Tirol's been a really good player.
Speaker 1: He kind of took things to a little bit of
Speaker 1: a different level this year.
Speaker 2: I completely agree.
Speaker 3: Aaron Raye would be a great example, great a breakout
Speaker 3: player where went from you know, probably like a top
Speaker 3: one hundred ish player to top thirty player.
Speaker 1: I would also say I would say Davis Thompson is
Speaker 1: a good example.
Speaker 2: Davis Thompson took a pretty.
Speaker 1: Big jump and one on the PJA Tour. I would
Speaker 1: I would describe him as an example. Yeah, those would
Speaker 1: be a couple of them that come to mind off
Speaker 1: the top of my head.
Speaker 3: Steven Jaeger would be another one. And yeah, I think
Speaker 3: that essentially, And that was kind of like it was
Speaker 3: more of like an eighteen months ascension. I think like
Speaker 3: there are always tea leaves that you can start to
Speaker 3: like pick out on how how players and like someone
Speaker 3: like Nick Dunlap, I don't think that really counts as
Speaker 3: a breakout. He's just really freaking good and started playing
Speaker 3: professional golf, right, I have him on my breakout list,
Speaker 3: But well, I think he could break out from last year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, okay.
Speaker 3: But like you can't count him last year as a
Speaker 3: breakout player because he he just is really good and
Speaker 3: played professional golf, right, Does that make sense?
Speaker 1: I kind of get what you're going for. But I
Speaker 1: think he took his profile to another level. I understand
Speaker 1: he had maybe it didn't have the opportunity to do
Speaker 1: that before. I still think he had a mini breakout
Speaker 1: last year. But if we want to talk about him
Speaker 1: for a second, age was a.
Speaker 3: Huge part of let's start the start, we're starting with
Speaker 3: Nick Dunlap. I completely agree with where you're going with this.
Speaker 3: Where I think you're going with this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wasn't planning to start with him, but age
Speaker 1: is a huge part of this We're here, and the
Speaker 1: other part I think that will be a through line
Speaker 1: is speed, and I just am not as likely to
Speaker 1: deem somebody a breakout candidate if they're consistently giving up
Speaker 1: distance to the field. Nick Dunlap is a He has
Speaker 1: plenty of speed, and he is an elite iron player,
Speaker 1: which are some of the things that translate at the
Speaker 1: highest level. Like a couple of the notes I had
Speaker 1: on Dunlap. First off, he hasn't even turned twenty one yet,
Speaker 1: so in terms of the development he could go through
Speaker 1: over the next couple of years, and he could develop
Speaker 1: for three years and he'll still be on the young
Speaker 1: end of the spectrum. He gained strokes in a lot
Speaker 1: of big events, and that's something that I think is
Speaker 1: a pretty strong signal. I have noted that he was
Speaker 1: ninth in the field with his approach play at Memorial,
Speaker 1: which is about as strong as fields get. If in
Speaker 1: the field on his approach at the Saint Jude again
Speaker 1: top fifty players on the PGA Tour, most of the
Speaker 1: best players in the world. When a golfer is that young,
Speaker 1: has that kind of speed and is gaining strokes on
Speaker 1: approach against the best players in the world. There's a
Speaker 1: pretty strong signal in there that he's a real talent.
Speaker 3: I think the other thing when you highlight those two
Speaker 3: courses and how they might differ from your run in
Speaker 3: the mill PGA Tour course, he's doing that on courses
Speaker 3: like Saint Jude is notorious for mid irons. It is
Speaker 3: a mid iron golf course. Memorial is one of the
Speaker 3: toughest tee to green tests and there are a lot
Speaker 3: of mid irons in that test. So when you think
Speaker 3: about like a Nick Dunlap, to me, like a Nick
Speaker 3: Dunlap breakout, is he's going ascending into the top twenty
Speaker 3: maybe in the world. And also with that is major
Speaker 3: championship golf, and I think those two golf courses that
Speaker 3: that mid iron test is a big part of major
Speaker 3: championship golf where you are going to have longer approaches,
Speaker 3: and the difference between leading the field and strokes gained
Speaker 3: approach on a driver wedge course is way different than
Speaker 3: leading the field or being at the top and being
Speaker 3: in the top tier of an elite field at a
Speaker 3: golf course that demands mid and long irons like that
Speaker 3: is that is a whole different skill and that's where
Speaker 3: real great iron players. And this is where like I
Speaker 3: struggle a lot with like the strokes gained metric in
Speaker 3: just an aggregate, is that there are so few golf
Speaker 3: courses that are very demanding still because of how far
Speaker 3: the t shot goes.
Speaker 1: And and how different strengths of fields are. You can't
Speaker 1: just lump the multi. Gaining strokes at the Rocket Mortgage
Speaker 1: now is completely different from gaining strokes at Memorial Andy
Speaker 1: time to So, yeah, there's something that we talked about
Speaker 1: at the outset of this. Nick done that missed the
Speaker 1: cut by one, I believe at the Masters this year
Speaker 1: gained significant strokes with his approach play right one of
Speaker 1: the most demanding long iron tests. He also had three
Speaker 1: double bogies that week over two days and missed the
Speaker 1: cut on the number by I think it was by one.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of thing, as you're saying, you can
Speaker 1: coach away like he's gonna get more familiar with places
Speaker 1: and learn how to get some of those double bogies
Speaker 1: out of his range. He's showing that he's making a
Speaker 1: bunch of birdies at Augusta. His first time out there,
Speaker 1: like and he's twenty, I have very high expectations for
Speaker 1: what nick down Map can do over the next twelve
Speaker 1: to twenty four months.
Speaker 3: I think this gets talked about a little bit, but
Speaker 3: I and I'd love to see like a statistical breakdown
Speaker 3: at some point. But what is the advantage you gain
Speaker 3: as in a second year as a tour professional for
Speaker 3: not going through like going through these golf courses for
Speaker 3: a second time seeing a golf course, not being the
Speaker 3: first time you play at Memorial, not being the first
Speaker 3: time you play at Riviera, which, like we now look
Speaker 3: at the last really like twenty years of Riviera. It's
Speaker 3: got a skew to be one of the oldest average
Speaker 3: age winner stops on tour, right, So like what are.
Speaker 2: You gaining every year?
Speaker 3: Like to me, the things that you would like think
Speaker 3: statistically you would improve at is on the greens, putting,
Speaker 3: like understanding where putts break, Understanding the nuances of whole
Speaker 3: locations because a lot of times whole locations are the same.
Speaker 3: I think like double bogie avoidance probably goes up because
Speaker 3: you understand places that you can't miss more, or bogie
Speaker 3: avoidance maybe would go up. I think like also probably
Speaker 3: and I don't know, like you would know this more
Speaker 3: strokes gamed around the green and strokes gained. Approach would
Speaker 3: missing understanding where to miss around greens impact your up
Speaker 3: It would actually impact your around the green play, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, more than the approach play. I mean, because it
Speaker 1: treats all twenty yard chips the same, so if you're
Speaker 1: short sighted, it gives it the same expected value to
Speaker 1: your question there that that could be a good analysis
Speaker 1: to look at over the next couple of weeks. I
Speaker 1: think the putting you wouldn't see as much as you
Speaker 1: might into it because putting tends to be very noisy,
Speaker 1: and even if you know where an eight and a
Speaker 1: half footer is breaking versus the year before, actually realizing
Speaker 1: that gain isn't going to be that reliable. I could
Speaker 1: be wrong, but that's my intuition. I think you'd see
Speaker 1: it a lot in both approach and around the green,
Speaker 1: especially with grass type. I think that's the biggest thing
Speaker 1: that I hear from a lot of young golfers is understanding,
Speaker 1: like what kind of chip shots should I be playing
Speaker 1: around the greens dependent on the grass type, and understanding
Speaker 1: the settings of their wedges. I remember talking to the
Speaker 1: guy who had just gotten on to tour a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago, and I was asking him about grass
Speaker 1: types and he was like, it's all chipping for him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, so techniques technique, Yeah, you have to you
Speaker 3: have to approach bermuda. I mean, if you have a
Speaker 3: really good chipping kit technique, it works on all grasses.
Speaker 3: But understand developing that technique, understanding how balls are going
Speaker 3: to react. It's first bounces, Like it's even like if
Speaker 3: you're someone who grew up playing golf in California or
Speaker 3: the Northern Hemisphere, when you play on bermuda, you know,
Speaker 3: like when you're chipping, you don't realize that you need
Speaker 3: to look at like the grain of where you're going
Speaker 3: to land the ball, because if you're landing it into
Speaker 3: the grain, it might check up a little bit more.
Speaker 3: If you're landing a down grain, you might not get
Speaker 3: that check that you're expecting. And these are the differences
Speaker 3: between hitting it to three feet and hitting it to six,
Speaker 3: which makes a huge difference on your your up and
Speaker 3: down percentage. So I completely agree with with the chipping
Speaker 3: familiariz familiarizing yourself to grass types like we we see
Speaker 3: it every year, like there are there are special West
Speaker 3: Coast putting specialists. When you know you go through the
Speaker 3: West Coast and you put on the POA, like there
Speaker 3: are absolutely players that put better on that. I remember
Speaker 3: for years brand Seneteker, who was a great putter, but
Speaker 3: like his West Coast putting stats were incredible, and a
Speaker 3: lot of it was that the ways stroked and hit putts.
Speaker 3: He hit him with a little bit more authority. And
Speaker 3: when you get in the afternoons on some POA that
Speaker 3: can get ropie. Sometimes Poe's as good as it gets.
Speaker 3: I want to be clear, Like some of the best
Speaker 3: putting surfaces in the world are poeana. But you know,
Speaker 3: like DJ always putted really well on the West Coast,
Speaker 3: which is like surprising given he's from South Carolina. But
Speaker 3: then you've got guys like Sam Burns who have won
Speaker 3: almost all of his events.
Speaker 2: That he's won.
Speaker 3: I've been on Bermuda right, I was looking a player
Speaker 3: on my list, and I doubt he'll be on your list.
Speaker 3: Is Joe high Smith not on my list? Uh so
Speaker 3: he's a young player. Last year he was a rookie,
Speaker 3: and I think last year being a rookie was extraordinarily hard.
Speaker 3: You did not know when you were playing. You with
Speaker 3: the with the reef jiggering of the tour, you had
Speaker 3: more veterans and high priority players playing more regular events
Speaker 3: than ever, you know, like they were almost mandatory. So
Speaker 3: what we saw was less and less player less and
Speaker 3: less starts for rookies.
Speaker 2: It was an.
Speaker 3: Extremely difficult year and I think like he had he
Speaker 3: had some good moments. He had he was in contention,
Speaker 3: had some bad Sundays, but then he came into the fall.
Speaker 3: He was well outside the one twenty five. I think
Speaker 3: it was around one sixty four, and he worked his
Speaker 3: way up into one ten and in the fall he finished.
Speaker 3: It's a diverse set of golf courses. He played six events,
Speaker 3: five of them he finished in the top sixteen. He
Speaker 3: was a factor on Sunday at a lot of them.
Speaker 3: Huge college player at Pepperdine, one of the best in
Speaker 3: college golf just a couple of years ago, and he
Speaker 3: was six in birdie average as a rookie. So again
Speaker 3: looking at that birdie average, gets to go around these
Speaker 3: golf courses for a second time, guaranteed starts, he knows
Speaker 3: where he's playing. I think this is a huge It
Speaker 3: could be a year where he goes from. I think
Speaker 3: he's like around one to ten in the FedEx Cup
Speaker 3: this year. He could be a top seventy player next year.
Speaker 1: I like this call. Mean he played way better in
Speaker 1: the fall than he did, way better towards the beginning
Speaker 1: of the year. It'd be interesting to hear what his
Speaker 1: perspective is on that his putting was pretty bad all year,
Speaker 1: which is kind of a positive sign. And if the
Speaker 1: ball striking is good right Like the ball striking he
Speaker 1: gained on his approach a lot of weeks, so he's
Speaker 1: an interesting name to keep an eye on. Has a
Speaker 1: little bit of distance off the ted, decent ball speed,
Speaker 1: so we'll see. I don't I don't mind that call
Speaker 1: at all. Young twenty four, Yeah, twenty four? Yeah, can
Speaker 1: I give you a young name.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty excited to see what Tom mckibbon's got. Tom
Speaker 1: McKibben is twenty one, he's about to turn twenty two.
Speaker 1: Northern Ireland, Hollywood. I don't know if he'll be the
Speaker 1: best player to ever come out of Hollywood, but we'll see.
Speaker 3: He think he's the Pavon of this year. I would
Speaker 3: have been a breakout player last year.
Speaker 1: Matthew Pavaughan is what thirty one like, that's I think
Speaker 1: we got to keep that in mind. Like Tom McKibben
Speaker 1: hasn't turned twenty two yet. He was a very steady
Speaker 1: performer on the DP World Tour this year. He played
Speaker 1: in twenty five events on the DP World Tour, not
Speaker 1: counting majors, had nine top tens, missed just four cuts.
Speaker 1: He gained Sorry, he made cuts in both majors that
Speaker 1: he played this year, the US Open and the Open Championship.
Speaker 1: He was on the wrong side of the split at Troon,
Speaker 1: which was a huge waves split and he still made
Speaker 1: the cut. Not even twenty two yet, has a lot
Speaker 1: of speed, really good iron player. The iron play kind
Speaker 1: of dropped off towards the end of the year, but
Speaker 1: I think there's some flashes in here. He shows some
Speaker 1: signs of being somebody that could develop for the next
Speaker 1: two years and we'll see how his game translates at
Speaker 1: strong fields. I mean again, the two made cuts and majors,
Speaker 1: like even at Pinehurst game strokes both off the tee
Speaker 1: and approach that was his major championship debut. I think
Speaker 1: there's something to keep an eye on here, just.
Speaker 3: From insiders I've spoken to game might be better suited
Speaker 3: for America. Hits it high, might not have that much
Speaker 3: trajectory control.
Speaker 2: And when you know.
Speaker 3: PGA Tour golf courses are kind of about hitting it
Speaker 3: far and high. You know that is that is a
Speaker 3: general uh uh strategy type of golf that that lends
Speaker 3: itself well in America. So yeah, I think, like I
Speaker 3: think my hesitation always with young Europeans is going to
Speaker 3: be the I mean, this is a big change, So
Speaker 3: it's a hard thing.
Speaker 2: You're you're moving away, You're.
Speaker 3: You're far away, and you're like the outsider on a
Speaker 3: tour that's predominantly full of Americans who have played golf
Speaker 3: together for a very long time and have known each
Speaker 3: other for a really long time. So I think that
Speaker 3: is one of the underlying And like, let's be clear,
Speaker 3: he probably knows Rory McElroy the best of anybody, of
Speaker 3: anyone being from Hollywood. I don't know if that's actually true,
Speaker 3: but probably some reasonable they aren't ever going to be
Speaker 3: playing the same tournaments, like they're going to play maybe
Speaker 3: four or five of the same tournaments, like they'll play
Speaker 3: in Palm Beach together. But like he is not going
Speaker 3: to be you know, teeing it up at at the
Speaker 3: you know, at this on the same schedule. So I
Speaker 3: think that that is that is always my concern with
Speaker 3: young Europeans, is just assimilating to the American game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a concern. And then I'd say some some
Speaker 1: of the weaknesses in the iron play. I mean, the
Speaker 1: beginning of the year was really good and then it
Speaker 1: dropped off, and in previous years it hasn't been great.
Speaker 1: So that's gonna be a huge thing to keep an
Speaker 1: eye on. He's going to have the speed, but can
Speaker 1: he hit his irons well enough to take it to
Speaker 1: the next level. We'll see. Do you have another name? Yeah?
Speaker 3: I got another name here I'm gonna and this was
Speaker 3: I think one that you could kind of say broke
Speaker 3: out this year. I think I I expect him to
Speaker 3: take another leap here this year and become one of
Speaker 3: the best players in the world. That is Akshay, Batilla, Akshay.
Speaker 3: If you boil down what happened this year, why he
Speaker 3: became all sudden prevalent on basically every leader you know,
Speaker 3: like all sorts of leader boards. It was simple. He
Speaker 3: switched to the broom putter, and turned his biggest weakness
Speaker 3: into a strength. So he picked up over a or
Speaker 3: just about a shot on the greens from last year.
Speaker 3: He went from negative a half shot to plus point
Speaker 3: three four five, so zero point eight five gain in
Speaker 3: almost a full shot per round better on the greens
Speaker 3: than the year before because of the broom. But if
Speaker 3: you look at his numbers, he actually he actually regressed
Speaker 3: off the tee, which was surprising, Like you know, when
Speaker 3: you look at it, he regressed basically off the tea
Speaker 3: and approach. And I have a theory that he spent
Speaker 3: a lot of time getting comfortable with the broom putter,
Speaker 3: spent a lot of time working on his putting, and
Speaker 3: sometimes with golf, what happens when you spend a lot
Speaker 3: of time working on something else, other things can slip
Speaker 3: just a little. And if he picks up basically the
Speaker 3: third shot that he lost from tea to green, that
Speaker 3: he you know, he is all a sudden a world beater,
Speaker 3: you know, because he'd be a very good off the
Speaker 3: tee player, above average approach player, and a really strong
Speaker 3: putter like that is a great recipe and I think
Speaker 3: it's one that could see him be a top fifteen player.
Speaker 2: In the world.
Speaker 1: I mean, I like the auc shake call, especially given
Speaker 1: his age. It wouldn't shock me if some of the
Speaker 1: drop off and the ball striking is actually just from
Speaker 1: playing stronger fields in the way that that's showing up
Speaker 1: in the data versus actually getting worse in those categories.
Speaker 1: So that'd be something interesting to look into. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: just a lefty thing, but the way he hits shots
Speaker 1: off the tea does kind of remind me of Bubba,
Speaker 1: and I'm kind of interested to see if he has
Speaker 1: success at similar courses that Bubba had, so like, I'm
Speaker 1: excited to see him play Riviera and he made the
Speaker 1: cut at the Masters this year. That was his Master's debut,
Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaken, Yeah it was. It was Like,
Speaker 1: I actually think that's kind of an interesting golf course
Speaker 1: for ok Shay if the iron play continues to improve
Speaker 1: and he has these different shots in his bag, the
Speaker 1: courses where you need those shots like Augusta, I think
Speaker 1: he's kind of a sneaky candidate. Not to get in
Speaker 1: the mix necessarily next year at Augusta, but to be
Speaker 1: somebody that five years from now we look back like, hey,
Speaker 1: he's put together a pretty pretty good track record of
Speaker 1: this course.
Speaker 3: Right now around the greens. He's he's basically too or average.
Speaker 3: He's basically a zero zero player. You could see a
Speaker 3: realm of possibility with with with him, which is rare,
Speaker 3: and he's still young, I mean, like he should be
Speaker 3: a senior in college. Is like the other thing about Akha, Like,
Speaker 3: imagine if he was in PGA tour, you what we'd
Speaker 3: be talking about. You know, but he's been playing pro
Speaker 3: golf for four years basically. But he's one of those
Speaker 3: rare players where you could see someone who could be
Speaker 3: a top thirty player in every statistical category.
Speaker 2: That you know.
Speaker 3: That kind of reminds me of yep, Xander Schaffle, like
Speaker 3: where all of a sudden you start to look at
Speaker 3: it and it's like, Okay, if this guy just makes
Speaker 3: some small incremental gains each year, that that is a
Speaker 3: skill set of a top five player in the game.
Speaker 2: When you you know, the thing that.
Speaker 3: I think every great player really has in common is
Speaker 3: that they don't have real holes in their game. And
Speaker 3: you can say, oh, Scotti's potter as a whole, Well,
Speaker 3: he's got such extraordinary other attributes that he can afford
Speaker 3: a little bit of a hole and that's like probably
Speaker 3: the best place to have a hole. Yes, But like
Speaker 3: when you start to look at like players that can
Speaker 3: and be great players they have it is not like
Speaker 3: we need to turn this guy from a blow average
Speaker 3: approach player into a great approach player. It's we need
Speaker 3: to take this guy from you know, thirtieth fortieth in
Speaker 3: approach play to twentieth and from you know, twenty fifth
Speaker 3: and off the tee to fifteenth and then all of
Speaker 3: a sudden you've got the ingredients with the if the
Speaker 3: putter stays at above average tour player level.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you're mentioning Scott. Yeah, I think something
Speaker 1: to always think about a little bit, especially where we've
Speaker 1: I think trained our brains to be very strokes gained
Speaker 1: focused thinking about strokes gained, approach and around the green together,
Speaker 1: I think can be a useful exercise where if you
Speaker 1: don't hit a great approach shot, you can generally bail
Speaker 1: yourself out with a really strong around the green shot.
Speaker 1: So Scotty always kind of has that working in his favor.
Speaker 1: I think with Akshay, what you would want to look
Speaker 1: at is, Okay, he's not necessarily elite iron player, like
Speaker 1: can he bail himself out around the greens when he
Speaker 1: doesn't hit a great approach shot and is around the
Speaker 1: green play, like you mentioned, is pretty much to our average.
Speaker 1: So it'll be interesting to see how he develops in
Speaker 1: those two skill areas.
Speaker 3: I think that around the green play is something that
Speaker 3: like you are going to get better at as you
Speaker 3: age because of what you just lay what you just
Speaker 3: laid out earlier about grass types, it's like grass types
Speaker 3: technique understanding and the more it's really that is one
Speaker 3: of the few I would say that one of the
Speaker 3: few areas in the game where experience is just like
Speaker 3: so so important still is just understanding the more, the
Speaker 3: more shots you play, the more situations you're in, just
Speaker 3: lend itself so much to around around the green play.
Speaker 2: You know.
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Speaker 1: All right, I have three more do you want? There's
Speaker 1: that least, I have a high profile one that I
Speaker 1: definitely want to get to, and then two younger.
Speaker 3: Let's keep going. We'll keep going. We can all right,
Speaker 3: all the time. There's no time limits here.
Speaker 1: I think Will's Ala Taurus for me. I know that
Speaker 1: some people might say he can't be a breakout candidate, because.
Speaker 2: I think he can.
Speaker 1: In my mind, Will's Ala Torus might be like the
Speaker 1: most underrated player right now by like official World Golf
Speaker 1: rankings or like a Data Golf ranking or FedEx Cup.
Speaker 1: He's sixty third in the world right now in the
Speaker 1: official World Golf rankings, and he's just dealt with a
Speaker 1: lot of injury. If we get Will's Ala Taurus back
Speaker 1: and healthy, we know that he's one of the top
Speaker 1: players in the world, especially on demanding setups where you
Speaker 1: really have to flash that elite iron play Andy. Twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one was his first year playing like a full
Speaker 1: schedule of majors. Basically since that time, he has three
Speaker 1: top tens at Augusta. He missed a year, so he's
Speaker 1: three for three top tens out Augusta since twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: That's as many as any other player has, and that's
Speaker 1: with Will missing all of twenty twenty three with injury.
Speaker 1: He's become basically one of the best golfers at Augusta.
Speaker 1: He's second in strokes gained per round in the Master
Speaker 1: since twenty twenty one, only Scott He's better than he is,
Speaker 1: and then there's a pretty big drop off after Will
Speaker 1: almost won a couple of majors already, like he was
Speaker 1: close to in the same year at Southern Hills and
Speaker 1: at Brookline. Feels like somebody where if he's healthy, which
Speaker 1: he really hasn't been the last year and a half,
Speaker 1: but I think he's starting to feel better. It sounds
Speaker 1: like I think he could be a top ten player
Speaker 1: in the world, and that's maybe a term we throw
Speaker 1: around too casually. I know I've been guilty of that
Speaker 1: but I do think Will Zlataurus is truly a top
Speaker 1: ten player in the world when he's healthy.
Speaker 3: The health is the thing, right And my I guess
Speaker 3: my big question where we saw the leap with Zalatorus
Speaker 3: was he came back from an offseason with more speed.
Speaker 3: Sean Martin wrote an article about this while it happened
Speaker 3: on PGA tour dot com.
Speaker 2: But he had picked up fifteen.
Speaker 3: Yards or so off the tee and it really, like,
Speaker 3: you know, when you pick up that yardage, it just
Speaker 3: unlocks your other skills even more. It just makes Will
Speaker 3: zalators an even more deadly iron player because he's fifteen
Speaker 3: yards closer. And I think the thing that if you
Speaker 3: look deep into the numbers last year, he came out
Speaker 3: of the gates pretty hot, like he played really well
Speaker 3: at riv he played. He had like a pretty good
Speaker 3: early season. I think he had he had some injury
Speaker 3: issues in some complications in the back half of the year,
Speaker 3: but even early in the year, the speed wasn't really
Speaker 3: there yet. And I think that speed is the difference
Speaker 3: between that top ten type player and the top thirty
Speaker 3: player we saw before the speed increase, So to me,
Speaker 3: it's so is health dependent and beyond just like staying healthy,
Speaker 3: it's being healthy enough with the changes in his golf swing,
Speaker 3: and like, this is a big question I have. Do
Speaker 3: the changes in his golf swing impact the ability for
Speaker 3: him to swing and produce the speed numbers that we
Speaker 3: saw when he was at his best, because that would
Speaker 3: be where my question marks with zal Toros are.
Speaker 1: But what yes, I'm with you, But what I think
Speaker 1: is encouraging is that towards the end of this year
Speaker 1: his speed numbers kind of got back up, and so
Speaker 1: he finished, like you mentioned, second at Riviera this year,
Speaker 1: and that was without his speed really being no speed.
Speaker 1: He finished t. Nine at the Masters this year probably
Speaker 1: questionable health and didn't have his speedback. So if he's
Speaker 1: doing this without the speed and now the speed numbers
Speaker 1: are starting to come back, if he says going into
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five that he feels fully healthy, he's somebody
Speaker 1: like I'm seeing him around like thirty to forty one,
Speaker 1: forty to one to win the Masters, Like I think
Speaker 1: you can do worse than that. It feels like we
Speaker 1: might be talking about Wills al Torris as one of
Speaker 1: the front runners. If he comes out at the start
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty five healthy.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 3: I think, like you know, if I talked about players
Speaker 3: of this generation that I think it's always interesting at
Speaker 3: golf tournaments who you follow, like you like set out
Speaker 3: with intentions of following people, and then you have other
Speaker 3: people you have no intention of following.
Speaker 2: Wills l.
Speaker 3: Torus is someone that I just always gravitate towards to
Speaker 3: watch because it is it's an experience that the ball striking,
Speaker 3: the level, the level of talent from tea to green
Speaker 3: is so so high, and it is I think like
Speaker 3: when you're talking about people that can match him tee
Speaker 3: to green, it is about as short of a list
Speaker 3: as you would get.
Speaker 2: Like I think like.
Speaker 3: When he's cooking, it's it's pretty much scotty and maybe
Speaker 3: Victor Mark how doesn't have the gas pedal he has
Speaker 3: is the thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is like more cow just like it is truly.
Speaker 3: An extraordinary, extraordinary Like he is one of the best
Speaker 3: players to watch play live golf in the world, and
Speaker 3: so I really hope that he is back. I also,
Speaker 3: he's got a swagger about him. He's got like a
Speaker 3: little a little bit of uh, I guess I could
Speaker 3: swear on this.
Speaker 2: He's got a little fuck.
Speaker 3: You in his game, like like where like he knows
Speaker 3: he's good and like that cockiness to me is like
Speaker 3: such an important skill for a world class player. Like
Speaker 3: he's had his near misses, and I don't think there
Speaker 3: is a shred of self belief issue with him. Like
Speaker 3: you see a lot of players that come up short
Speaker 3: a lot of times and have heartbreaking losses that being
Speaker 3: a big problem. I do not think that is the
Speaker 3: slightest issue with his kind of mental makeup.
Speaker 1: The last thing I'll mention about Will that I don't
Speaker 1: think should go underrated is his course management. He's been
Speaker 1: very much at the forefront of optimal strategy, right of
Speaker 1: hitting approach shots aggressive to conservative targets, right, Like that's
Speaker 1: the line that often gets used, as it should.
Speaker 2: He's the OG decade disciple.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think one thing I've always like laughed at.
Speaker 2: They tells you if you've heard of that before.
Speaker 1: I've heard not as much recently, but I used to
Speaker 1: hear it all the time. I sometimes see people tweet
Speaker 1: like Strokes gained numbers in major and they talk about
Speaker 1: how Will's alataurus elevates his game in majors versus in
Speaker 1: regular events. But some of that is the golf how
Speaker 1: demanding the golf courses and how they let you separate yourself,
Speaker 1: but also that those important course management principles will materialize
Speaker 1: more on setups where short sighting yourself is terrible. Right
Speaker 1: like Augusta National Will's Alataurus gets to really separate himself,
Speaker 1: not just with his elite iron play, but with his
Speaker 1: course management. So that's something I'd always keep in mind
Speaker 1: with him if he's healthy. He's just a weapon in
Speaker 1: all facets, maybe minus the short range putting and some
Speaker 1: short He's not an elite short game artist, but just
Speaker 1: so good with his irons that I would never discount him.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget.
Speaker 3: I had dinner with Jeff Ogilvie once and he said
Speaker 3: to me, the biggest shame in professional golf is that
Speaker 3: fans don't get to see players consistently do everything they
Speaker 3: can do because venues, right on a regular basis, don't
Speaker 3: demand them like that. That's always stuck with me, and it's,
Speaker 3: you know, it's why venues matter. Everybody that says they
Speaker 3: don't like venue, the great venues demand a different level
Speaker 3: of shot making and and have a sterner set of
Speaker 3: consequences when that shot making is not met.
Speaker 1: All right, you want to keep it rolling?
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's keep going, all right, I got I got one.
Speaker 3: He's thirty one, which is going to immediately turn you
Speaker 3: off to him.
Speaker 1: Maybe he's got injuries or something, and there's a there's
Speaker 1: a catalyst.
Speaker 2: What we got, Kurt Kitti Yama?
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, let's hear it.
Speaker 3: So, Kurt Kitty Yama is it's just a statistical anomaly.
Speaker 3: I think he finished like seventieth in the FedEx Cup,
Speaker 3: seventy fourth in the FedEx Cup, but when you zoom in,
Speaker 3: he was sixteenth and off the tee and tenth in
Speaker 3: strokes gained approach. Truly elite numbers, Like there are not
Speaker 3: two There are not many guys in the Like the
Speaker 3: people that rank in the top twenty of those two
Speaker 3: categories are like the best golfers in the world. Now
Speaker 3: what Kirkidiama finished one hundred and seventy first in putting,
Speaker 3: like so one of the worst putters in the world.
Speaker 2: But I am going to be I just am going
Speaker 2: to buy. I'm buying.
Speaker 3: When you're elite off the tee and approaching the green,
Speaker 3: you are better than seventy fourth.
Speaker 2: He's just not. He's not the seventy fourth best player on.
Speaker 3: The PGA Tour statistically, and I don't buy that that's there.
Speaker 3: He's twenty eighth in strokes gain total, so like clear
Speaker 3: discrepancy with where he finished. So I think just like
Speaker 3: a couple more putts go in this year, like if
Speaker 3: he goes if he got to one twenty and putting,
Speaker 3: he'd be probably playing at Eastlake.
Speaker 1: He two thoughts on I don't have a ton of
Speaker 1: thoughts on Kidiyama, but I two right off the top. One,
Speaker 1: he always shows up in some of the advanced accuracy
Speaker 1: numbers I have as he's a sprayer. Yeah, he's complete sprayer,
Speaker 1: and that is a limiting factor, right, Like it doesn't
Speaker 1: always show up in strokes gain like it should, but
Speaker 1: when you're spraying the ball way offline in your long
Speaker 1: he's kind of got the Bryson profile a little bit
Speaker 1: where when it gets offline, Like, there are certain golf
Speaker 1: courses that are just gonna kick his butt. One one
Speaker 1: note in the positive category. I'm not gonna try to
Speaker 1: get into the business of ranking golf instructors too much,
Speaker 1: but I believe he's recently been working with Chris Como,
Speaker 1: and I do like a lot of what comes out
Speaker 1: of sessions with Chris Como some more speed, yeah, and
Speaker 1: like gaining it through technique. He just seems to have
Speaker 1: the right mindset for how he approaches his the golfers
Speaker 1: that he's instructing. I think that's a legitimate thing to
Speaker 1: keep an eye on, right, I mean, Xander went to
Speaker 1: Como and got a lot better. You can find examples
Speaker 1: of players who have done better and worse for every coach.
Speaker 1: But I do think, yeah, I think that's actually a
Speaker 1: pretty interesting angle, especially because I think for a lot
Speaker 1: of this year, Kidiyamo is actively changing things, which might
Speaker 1: if he goes into twenty twenty five with some of
Speaker 1: those changes solidified, then maybe that's a catalyst Andy to
Speaker 1: take his game to another level. So I'm not sure
Speaker 1: I'm with you, but I think there are at least
Speaker 1: reasons to believe that he can assent.
Speaker 3: I mean, like you think, I'm not saying he's gonna
Speaker 3: win a major. I'm just saying he's not the seventy
Speaker 3: fourth best on the PGA Tour.
Speaker 1: I agree, I agree like Hill, I know I did,
Speaker 1: he did.
Speaker 3: He's Yeah, I just think he's he should be he
Speaker 3: to me, like he profiles as someone with like the
Speaker 3: PGA Tour courses and the way they're set up Tory Pines. Yeah,
Speaker 3: like there are a lot of courses that fit this
Speaker 3: profile even if he sprays it, there are a lot
Speaker 3: of great places to play on the PGA Tour as
Speaker 3: a sprayer. He's basically Luke list Yes with he's his
Speaker 3: So his nickname in college went to UNLV. His nickname
Speaker 3: in college was the Project because like the members I
Speaker 3: guess apparently the members of the course that they were
Speaker 3: at were like, we don't see it with this kid,
Speaker 3: Like he's just not not good. So I think he's
Speaker 3: like one of those like kind of late bloomers in general.
Speaker 3: Still figure like still like I think like this is
Speaker 3: the thing, like why age is a little bit different
Speaker 3: than other sports. This is not we aren't projecting out
Speaker 3: NBA players where age is a huge thing and everybody's
Speaker 3: like falling in love with Dalton connect and it's like, Okay,
Speaker 3: Dalton Connects twenty.
Speaker 1: Four basketball player for the record, Yeah.
Speaker 3: He's playing on the Lakers and he's shooting threes, he's
Speaker 3: making he's been impressive, but it's like, Okay, a lot
Speaker 3: of these other guys, I'll take over Dalton Connect in
Speaker 3: four years, you know, or five years with.
Speaker 2: A nineteen year I think the Bulls have a nineteen
Speaker 2: year old.
Speaker 3: It's like he scored twenty the other night, and it's like, well,
Speaker 3: what's he look like in five years? And that's where
Speaker 3: what Dalton Connect is it now. And it's a great
Speaker 3: fit for the Lakers. But with golf. Like golf, you
Speaker 3: kind of like for most of these guys, you have
Speaker 3: like three good years really like three years make your career.
Speaker 3: You know, the outliers have ten, fifteen, twenty years, three years,
Speaker 3: like where are your best three years? And to me,
Speaker 3: Kurt Kidiyama might not have had his best three years
Speaker 3: as a tour pro.
Speaker 1: I mean he's been getting better too, Andy, So if
Speaker 1: he if his best year is next year, like that
Speaker 1: is not out of the realm of possibilities, And like
Speaker 1: you're mentioning with the ball striking numbers, like I don't
Speaker 1: think he's going to get to the point where he's
Speaker 1: consistent a consistent top player, but he could spike like
Speaker 1: he could win a big event.
Speaker 2: Tenth in approach to the greens nuts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean a lot of that's it looks like
Speaker 1: it's in pretty weak tournaments. But I hear you, all right,
Speaker 1: can I've got two more.
Speaker 3: I think all he has to do is like win
Speaker 3: two events, win win an event. And he's in East
Speaker 3: like this.
Speaker 1: Year to say all you gotta do is win two events.
Speaker 1: You're saying that, I step back.
Speaker 3: I stepped back from that mitt as I was saying it,
Speaker 3: I do. I was gott. I had a step. I
Speaker 3: had taken a step too far, half step too far?
Speaker 1: All Right, I got two more names. Really interested in
Speaker 1: what you think of this first one. Some friends of
Speaker 1: the program are really high on this kid, notably Lawrence
Speaker 1: Donnegan and Mike Clayton, Breda Golf podcasts, Elvis Smiley, Oh
Speaker 1: all right, European Tour. He young, twenty two and most
Speaker 1: of his results.
Speaker 3: Did you watch any of the Australian stuff I did? Yeah,
Speaker 3: he was good, he.
Speaker 1: Looked And That's where I'm going with this. So, I
Speaker 1: mean the last few years of his career. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's really young, but it hasn't been anything too notable.
Speaker 1: And then bang, starting this October, he got hot and
Speaker 1: in his last seven starts he has six top tens. Now,
Speaker 1: most of these are the PGA Tour Australasia, which is
Speaker 1: not that strong of fields, but he won. He did
Speaker 1: win the Australian PGA, which was very impressive win. He
Speaker 1: was in the final group with Cam Smith, and that's
Speaker 1: a golfer that I know he has a relationship with
Speaker 1: and I'm sure looks up to like stood toe to
Speaker 1: toe with him and took him down. He's got a
Speaker 1: lot of pop And I do respect the opinions of
Speaker 1: the friends of the program here. They think like this
Speaker 1: is potential Adam Scott type of trajectory and it's a
Speaker 1: long ways away from that. Like that's the part I want.
Speaker 2: To that's all, Like, I I love the optivism.
Speaker 1: I hear you.
Speaker 2: Adam Scott was out on tour when he was eighteen.
Speaker 1: That's that's the part we got to keep in mind here.
Speaker 3: It's like playing he was like contending in massive events
Speaker 3: at nineteen.
Speaker 1: I'm with you. I mean, he's older than Tom mckibbon, right,
Speaker 1: who's done a lot more already than Elvis Smiley has.
Speaker 1: But I do think this, if the breakout's going to happen,
Speaker 1: we should probably see it this year because he's going
Speaker 1: to be playing DP World tour, and those are fields
Speaker 1: that are a clear step below PGA Tour signature fields
Speaker 1: clearly and even non signature. So if Elvis Smiley's going
Speaker 1: to be a good golfer, we should see it in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't. I don't hate that. All right, Let's
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Speaker 3: here's a question. Do you think there's still breakout potential?
Speaker 3: I have him on my list for Davis Thompson to
Speaker 3: keep going absolutely?
Speaker 1: Why even are you guarded there with your optimism?
Speaker 2: So I have him on my list.
Speaker 3: He's obviously thirty fourth, and like my question is, like,
Speaker 3: do you see a world where Davis Thompson's one of
Speaker 3: the twenty fifteen to twenty best players in the world,
Speaker 3: because that's where he has to break out to. And
Speaker 3: I think it's like a good question, and because like
Speaker 3: you get to a certain level and I think, like
Speaker 3: that's like almost like you know, every level up you
Speaker 3: go is so so hard, Like you know, I think
Speaker 3: about a guy like Stepstraca, I mean he's been kind
Speaker 3: of floating in this like twenty to fi range of
Speaker 3: a player for probably three years now, and I don't
Speaker 3: I don't see any more upward mobility for him. Like
Speaker 3: I think he's he's where he is and he's probably
Speaker 3: got one or two more years. This is spoken from
Speaker 3: someone a couple of years made three years ago, four
Speaker 3: years ago, on this very topic of this podcast, said
Speaker 3: Sepstraca is better than he is playing. You know, he
Speaker 3: was a breakout candidate a couple of years ago. I
Speaker 3: think I was a year early on him. But anyways,
Speaker 3: like I don't think there's any more room for Sepstraca,
Speaker 3: but Davis Thompson I believe in. And this is strictly
Speaker 3: based off of performances at US Open, at the US Open,
Speaker 3: and it goes back to like he contended at wing
Speaker 3: Foot as an amateur. This year he finished at the
Speaker 3: top ten at Pinehurst. And to me, like someone who's contended,
Speaker 3: who's like played, who's been a real figure in two
Speaker 3: US Opens, what was.
Speaker 1: The I'm not I don't think he contended at the
Speaker 1: at wings Foot.
Speaker 2: He was he was the first round leader.
Speaker 1: Okay, he missed the cut.
Speaker 2: I know, but he was the first round leader.
Speaker 1: I'm sure are we calling that? All right? All right,
Speaker 1: maybe we're calling that content?
Speaker 3: Like I think he was relevant. He missed the cut,
Speaker 3: but he was on the leaderboard. Like I just play
Speaker 3: stock in these things.
Speaker 1: I'm with you on Davis Thompson overall.
Speaker 3: So anyways, like I do like I think Davis Thompson
Speaker 3: can be a could be a top fifteen player in
Speaker 3: golf if he gets there. It's so hard to get there.
Speaker 3: And this is where like at this point, like once
Speaker 3: somebody gets to Okay, he finished thirty fourth in the
Speaker 3: FedEx Cup, what's a breakout from there? Like it's got
Speaker 3: to be like can he be a top fifteen player?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I mean for what it's where it's I don't
Speaker 1: know that FedEx Cup is always going to.
Speaker 2: Be the one John Deere.
Speaker 1: That's what I was gonna say. Like he won the
Speaker 1: John Deere, which gave him a bunch of points, so
Speaker 1: like that's why he's there. There's a lot of room
Speaker 1: to go up, like in my mind if he finishes
Speaker 1: thirtieth next year, but there those finishes come in more
Speaker 1: high profile events like that can qualify as as breaking
Speaker 1: out a little bit and as much as we like
Speaker 1: to dunk on the John Deere and other events like
Speaker 1: that that are weak fields, which they are, he still
Speaker 1: looked he played very very well.
Speaker 3: He blew out John Deere. Like that's another aspect of.
Speaker 2: The way. I think, like there are not you know,
Speaker 2: like he he won.
Speaker 3: By I think like five or it wasn't yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: all Sunday he was just breezing through, you know that.
Speaker 1: And again I think the top ten at Pinehurst shows
Speaker 1: a lot, shows a lot of promise.
Speaker 2: And the first round we'll always have the first round
Speaker 2: at wing Foot too.
Speaker 1: I'll give that some merrit. I was too dismissive of
Speaker 1: that last name I have, Andy. I think Rasmus Hoyguard
Speaker 1: is an interesting name to keep an eye on. He
Speaker 1: had a very solid year this year, notably won the
Speaker 1: Irish Open, took Rory down in the pretty dramatic final round.
Speaker 1: But Rasmus is somebody who's kind of won at every level.
Speaker 1: He's still twenty three. He was a great amateur. He's
Speaker 1: won in these different I mean he's been on the
Speaker 1: DP World Tour for a little bit pretty much, has
Speaker 1: won every year, steadily gotten better, a lot of pop
Speaker 1: off the tee, and he's gained strokes on his approach
Speaker 1: pretty much every event going back to early in this year.
Speaker 1: I think he's somebody to keep an eye on. Rasmus.
Speaker 1: Maybe I don't know if you'd say that he's not
Speaker 1: on Based on his amateur pedigree, you thought he'd be
Speaker 1: further along by now, but like maybe it's taken a
Speaker 1: little longer, but really strong year and now he's twenty three,
Speaker 1: looking at having a PGA Tour card for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't be shocked to see him make a little bit
Speaker 1: of a jump.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think he's probably had untiled in as
Speaker 3: a Ryder cupper at this point, like expected, I mean potential.
Speaker 3: I four years ago when you first started hearing about
Speaker 3: the hoyguards. Rasmus was the name, right, Everybody's like, Rasmus
Speaker 3: is really good. Nikola I they weren't sure of. And
Speaker 3: you know Nicola is now bona fide PGA Tour player.
Speaker 3: I mean Nikola is.
Speaker 2: An interesting name too. For a little bit of a leap,
Speaker 2: I think he's like that.
Speaker 3: That's you know, you talk about playing as a rookie,
Speaker 3: like playing as a rookie with with a twin brother
Speaker 3: that's playing in Europe that you've played golf with your
Speaker 3: entire life and being part Like I have to think
Speaker 3: that that's going to be a better situation for Nickolai
Speaker 3: this year playing on tour with his brother in America
Speaker 3: like that just like generally is worth something like so contend, yeah,
Speaker 3: I I listen, Like he'd beat Rory at uh at
Speaker 3: Rogue County down. This is a bonafide win, right, like
Speaker 3: bonafide if the.
Speaker 1: Second at THEDP World Tour Championship, like he's got he
Speaker 1: had eight top tens this year.
Speaker 3: And I again, like I go back to it, like
Speaker 3: four years ago, everybody's like watch out for Rasmus. They
Speaker 3: didn't talk about Nikolai and maybe like things happen, you
Speaker 3: go through blips you get, you struggle with things, you
Speaker 3: you might not be in the right headspace to play
Speaker 3: great golf. And I think that can you know, with
Speaker 3: the sport getting younger and younger, this is just going
Speaker 3: to be more and more prevalent. Like where like you're
Speaker 3: twenty two and maybe some stuff in your personal life
Speaker 3: are is challenging or you're going through a tough like
Speaker 3: you're not as equipped as someone. Like the sport used
Speaker 3: to be like you're thirty five and you're grade. Now
Speaker 3: it's like you're twenty five and if you're not great,
Speaker 3: it's like what happened? So I remembered there was a
Speaker 3: headline and I can't remember where it was. Like, you know,
Speaker 3: like veteran. They could describe somebody as a PGA Tour
Speaker 3: veteran in US, like he's twice six and a tour
Speaker 3: for three years, like that used to be that would
Speaker 3: be a feed up, you know, PGA tour veteran wins
Speaker 3: twight six.
Speaker 1: It's like Joaquin Neman, right or Sung Jay. Sung Jay
Speaker 1: is a great example of that where he's he feels
Speaker 1: like a veteran, he's still young.
Speaker 2: That way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, I just think he's the sort gonna be
Speaker 1: in the majors next year. That that is a big
Speaker 1: he's forty fourth in the world, like he's gonna he's
Speaker 1: never played the Masters, for example, Like he's gonna play
Speaker 1: in the Masters, so he's gonna have the opportunity to
Speaker 1: show himself a little bit.
Speaker 3: I think the other thing that like just in general,
Speaker 3: the European Tour is is just a better tour than
Speaker 3: the corn Ferry Tour in terms of like the venues
Speaker 3: they play and they have like bona fide pros. We
Speaker 3: saw this last year year and I would not be
Speaker 3: shocked this. It was the first year that they had
Speaker 3: the ten spots and those ten dramatically outplayed the corn
Speaker 3: Faery players that came in. And there's there's a multitude
Speaker 3: of reasons, but like just in general, the ten spots
Speaker 3: that are coming from from the the European Tour are
Speaker 3: better players than the corn Fairy Tour, Like they're better
Speaker 3: at golfers. So I expect like there might be corn
Speaker 3: Faery Tour players that are like you're you're not going
Speaker 3: to see a Scottie Scheffler come from the European Tour, right,
Speaker 3: probably not, but you are going to see just year
Speaker 3: and year out. My guess is just better play from
Speaker 3: those ten new players than the corn Fairy players. They've
Speaker 3: played better golf courses. There are a lot of really
Speaker 3: bad golf courses on the corn Fery Tour, and they
Speaker 3: are effectively putting contests that determine who comes to the
Speaker 3: PGA Tour.
Speaker 1: I think that's going to be really interesting to see
Speaker 1: how that was top ten performers from the DP World
Speaker 1: Tour doe versus top ten from the KFT. I know
Speaker 1: it's more than ten who gets status from the KFT,
Speaker 1: but it's gonna be really interesting to look at those
Speaker 1: side by side. I mean, another golfer not on my
Speaker 1: breakout list, Andy, but like Rio, he said Sonne, who's
Speaker 1: the rookie of the Year on the DP World Tour
Speaker 1: two years ago and then had status on the PGA
Speaker 1: Tour last year. He didn't have a great year on
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour. But you're talking about somebody in that
Speaker 1: pipeline now who's only twenty two. I'm not sure i'd
Speaker 1: tab him as a breakout candidate, but just kind of
Speaker 1: interesting within that mold of everything you're saying of DP
Speaker 1: World Tour potentially being better preparation and he's got a
Speaker 1: year under his belt as a PGA Tour rookie. Just
Speaker 1: another name to keep an eye on.
Speaker 3: I think people love from what I've heard, people love
Speaker 3: Frankie Sappin.
Speaker 1: Yeah, third, he finished third this year on the KFT, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, people like love him. He could be one name
Speaker 3: from the corn Ferry. Obviously we already saw McCarty win. Uh.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think I think like that there are always going
Speaker 3: to be young studs that are coming up from from
Speaker 3: the uh like Kevin You would be a good example
Speaker 3: of another player that I think has another level to
Speaker 3: go up that obviously one in the fall, but I
Speaker 3: think he could continue to get better. I think that's
Speaker 3: that's a top thirty player in the world. He's been
Speaker 3: extraordinary at the level of play.
Speaker 1: Top thirty. You're going, Kevin You, top thirty player in
Speaker 1: the world. I mean, he's been great. He's been great everywhere,
Speaker 1: like every level. He was great as a freshman Arizona State,
Speaker 1: like he's he's been awesome. He's an awesome golfer like that,
Speaker 1: and I think like he's gone basically as quickly from
Speaker 1: college golf to PGA Tour golf as you can go
Speaker 1: without having some like freak some like you know, ridiculous
Speaker 1: like run right. He's just basically just progressed as quickly as.
Speaker 2: You can can progress.
Speaker 1: And I think I'm not expressing skepticism. I just think
Speaker 1: that's that's an interesting call. It's a big call.
Speaker 3: Well, I think like this year, I think I just
Speaker 3: like expect him to keep progressing. So like, if you
Speaker 3: think about like the progression, it's he went from PJ
Speaker 3: Tour you I think he was like three or four
Speaker 3: immediately to tour card and then you know, I think
Speaker 3: he's going which PJ Tour you got him a corn
Speaker 3: Faery card, which then he took parlayed the corn Fairy
Speaker 3: card into a tour card after a full year. Then
Speaker 3: last year was his first year on tour. He wins
Speaker 3: in the fall, that bumps him up into a new
Speaker 3: level of golf, and I think like from there, now,
Speaker 3: like let's just call him a top seventy player on tour.
Speaker 3: I think from there the next step is like I
Speaker 3: think he could make He's.
Speaker 1: Like, I like this call, that's a fun one. I
Speaker 1: don't think most people would consider Kevin you a potential
Speaker 1: top thirty player next year. So that's a fun one
Speaker 1: to track, all right.
Speaker 2: Uh, who do you have one more?
Speaker 1: That's it? Mckibbon, Dunlap, Rasmus, Elvis and Zaltaur's.
Speaker 3: All right, so I have high Smith, Davis Thompson, Akshay,
Speaker 3: Kurt Kadiyama and uh and Kevin Yu. Real American bias
Speaker 3: right there. Seriously can get yelled at. I was thinking
Speaker 3: about putting Tom Dietree on mine, just because he's bound
Speaker 3: to win one. He's bound to win. The guy can
Speaker 3: could only rack up so of a top five finishes
Speaker 3: in his in his lifetime. He has to win once.
Speaker 1: He shows so many flashes. It just hasn't come together.
Speaker 1: I worry a little bit about him at thirty two,
Speaker 1: about turn thirty two, but we'll see.
Speaker 3: I mean, we have a University of Illinois product. Every
Speaker 3: time he's on a leader board, it pops in my
Speaker 3: college college chain. And they have even picked up on
Speaker 3: just we shouldn't even talk about this guy until Saturday.
Speaker 2: Saturday it's over.
Speaker 1: He seems delightful. I'd love to see it. That's when
Speaker 1: I'm a little skeptical of just based on the track.
Speaker 2: I almost put it on there just to be Homer.
Speaker 1: I think that was probably wise omission.
Speaker 3: Do you you don't have any cootie stock as a
Speaker 3: Texas alum, Pearson to.
Speaker 1: Try to separate my roots from I try out to
Speaker 1: be biased in that direction. I would love to see
Speaker 1: either of the cooties breakout. I think they both have
Speaker 1: a long way to go right now, Frankly, all right.
Speaker 3: Joseph, look forward to reading more of your stuff in
Speaker 3: the newsletter on the website, and we'll talk to you
Speaker 3: again sometime soon.
Speaker 1: Sounds good.
Speaker 4: Thanks for having me, Andy, all right, big thanks to
Speaker 4: our producer PJ.
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