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 brid egg
Speaker 1: Frida Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg, Frida Egg, Frida Egg,
Speaker 1: Frida Egg, Bride Egg Lie, I'm about ready to run
Speaker 1: off of.
Speaker 2: The hump course.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to another edition of the Frida Egg Podcast.
Speaker 2: It is Masters week.
Speaker 3: I'm excited for another major championship at Augusta National. We
Speaker 3: will be on the grounds. We are credentialed media for
Speaker 3: the first time. It's very exciting. So we will be
Speaker 3: churning out a lot of content, lots of articles on
Speaker 3: the website, some podcasts. The Shotguns Start will be air
Speaker 3: daily and this is our first preview pod and we
Speaker 3: are joined by none other than co host of Golf
Speaker 3: Today on the Golf Channel and you know, really golf
Speaker 3: media Extraordinay Shane Bacon. So Shane is also the host
Speaker 3: of Get a Grip podcasts and you can find that
Speaker 3: wherever you get your podcasts. I love listening to Get
Speaker 3: a Grip. He just fired it back up after a
Speaker 3: little break and he had Scott Van pelt On to
Speaker 3: talk about the Masters, So I recommend listening to that.
Speaker 3: And without further ado, here is Shane Bacon. All right, Bacon,
Speaker 3: you're back. It's another Masters. I feel like we had
Speaker 3: you on last Masters and then we did the recap
Speaker 3: the last time Tiger played the Masters? And how's life
Speaker 3: with two kids?
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's been easier than everybody said it
Speaker 1: was going to be. And I don't even want to
Speaker 1: knock on wood or any of that stuff, but uh,
Speaker 1: you know, people tend to like they project their negative
Speaker 1: parental experiences on you, and it's a reminder that everybody's
Speaker 1: experiences their own experience, right, But it's been it's been lovely. Uh.
Speaker 1: The little little girls nine days old, almost almost double digits, big,
Speaker 1: big do you do like a celebration? Is that like
Speaker 1: a Patton Oswalt birthday celebration when you get to double
Speaker 1: digit days?
Speaker 2: I don't know. You know.
Speaker 3: The thing that I always wonder about is like I'm
Speaker 3: at the I'm at nineteen months. Now, when do I
Speaker 3: get to drop the months and just go she's one,
Speaker 3: she's two.
Speaker 1: I did it too, I did it too. But the
Speaker 1: problem is now is my is Henry is almost three.
Speaker 1: But he's not right there. So do you say two
Speaker 1: because two years eight months is a lot different than
Speaker 1: two years one month, right, I mean, it's a completely
Speaker 1: different child with experiences and what they're doing. And so
Speaker 1: I least I used to always trash the month thing,
Speaker 1: and now I at least understand it to a certain extent.
Speaker 1: Now I don't do it, but I at least understand
Speaker 1: the people that do it.
Speaker 3: I have this whole theory. I think I've said this
Speaker 3: either here or the shotguns start on time. And why
Speaker 3: as you get older it seems like the years go
Speaker 3: faster and faster is because it's a smaller sum of
Speaker 3: your life, Like it's a smaller percentage of your life
Speaker 3: a year. So when you're when you're thirty five or
Speaker 3: thirty you know, I'm just gonna embarrass myself with math,
Speaker 3: but you know, that's such a smaller percentage than when
Speaker 3: you're ten. So months actually makes sense, I think almost
Speaker 3: until you're probably like four, because it's just a month
Speaker 3: is such a huge part of part of their life.
Speaker 3: When they're under two years old, especially.
Speaker 1: Three months is a big Yeah, three months is an
Speaker 1: enormous difference in the child as they're moving Three months along,
Speaker 1: Like my one of my best buddy's son is exactly
Speaker 1: three months older than Henry. And as I'm watching you know,
Speaker 1: their Instagram videos and things like that, I get excited
Speaker 1: for what comes three months later. You know, Like right now,
Speaker 1: Henry's been hitting golf balls, by the way, hitting golf
Speaker 1: balls lefty, which I'm very excited about. I've got to
Speaker 1: actually after this, I'm going to the hardware store to
Speaker 1: buy one of those things that can cut metal, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna cut some clubs down and see if he
Speaker 1: actually will like regrip some little clubs and see if
Speaker 1: he's actually gonna be a lefty. We'll see.
Speaker 3: Wow, that's gotta be exciting. You're you're doing it the
Speaker 3: old fashioned way. You aren't gonna go get a fancy
Speaker 3: set of beginner clubs.
Speaker 2: You're just gonna cut down some old ones. He's gonna
Speaker 2: be He's gonna be swinging some hafty swingways.
Speaker 1: I gotta So. I went through this phase where I
Speaker 1: was asking a titleist sent me like a seven eight
Speaker 1: nine iron in blades because I was thinking about doing
Speaker 1: a combo set, and I think I'm gonna cut the
Speaker 1: seven iron blade down. And this kid's gonna have the
Speaker 1: coolest little kid club of all time, Like a blade
Speaker 1: seven iron is pretty sweet.
Speaker 2: You're gonna be like Tiger. You're gonna be giving your
Speaker 2: kid blades from.
Speaker 1: This very much like sure? Is that the segue? Yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Don't even know that.
Speaker 3: I didn't even know, so it wasn't professional's it was
Speaker 3: just dumb luck. But uh, I guess this is what
Speaker 3: we have to talk about as of this is Friday afternoon.
Speaker 3: I thought by this time we were gonna know, but
Speaker 3: we still don't know. He's waited till the very last minute.
Speaker 3: Uh Tiger Wood, it seems all signs point to him playing.
Speaker 1: Seems like that. Yeah, yeah, I think that's so. So
Speaker 1: I'm I'm bringing back to Get a Grip podcast. I
Speaker 1: did an episode on Thursday with Scott Van Pelt that's
Speaker 1: drop it on Monday, and much like you and I
Speaker 1: are doing here, we basically just talked as if Tiger
Speaker 1: was in the field, and if he's not, it's going
Speaker 1: to be an awkward first twenty minutes of the podcast.
Speaker 1: But it feels like he's going to be doing it,
Speaker 1: and it feels like he's going to be in the field.
Speaker 1: It is like I wrote something already about this, Like
Speaker 1: I haven't. I haven't posted an article in a year.
Speaker 1: I mean, it is so bananas to me that this
Speaker 1: guy is actually going to play professional golf again in
Speaker 1: any capacity. And then it's the Masters, right, I mean
Speaker 1: it's his place. He's the modern Masters guy, and he's
Speaker 1: gonna make the return here. I mean, like, is the
Speaker 1: week a win? That's what That's what I wrote. I
Speaker 1: wrote it, the week's a win. No matter what happens,
Speaker 1: this is a win for this sport.
Speaker 3: I think I had gotten to the point with Tiger
Speaker 3: before this injury where.
Speaker 2: I literally nothing surprised me.
Speaker 3: Right, if he went out and he finished dead last,
Speaker 3: I wasn't surprised.
Speaker 2: If he went out and won, I wasn't surprised.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think we just have to look back
Speaker 3: to what happened with the FedEx Cup playoffs and a
Speaker 3: couple of years ago when he wins the Tour Championship
Speaker 3: and one week later he's the worst player maybe outside
Speaker 3: of Phil.
Speaker 2: At the Ryder Cup. You know it, just.
Speaker 3: The Varians. You know this at this point of his career.
Speaker 3: I just I don't ever know what to expect. I
Speaker 3: think it's a huge win, no matter what that he's
Speaker 3: even playing. I think Brenda por F wrote something on
Speaker 3: The Frida Egg this week where he compared it to
Speaker 3: Alex Smith, who obviously came back from a similarly gruesome injury,
Speaker 3: and he said along the lines, I'm gonna misquote this,
Speaker 3: but he said it wasn't you know that that first
Speaker 3: play back for Alex Smith, nobody remembers the results of
Speaker 3: the play They just remember him.
Speaker 2: Being in the game again.
Speaker 3: And I think that's the mentality that everybody should take
Speaker 3: with Tiger, who knows. One of the things I think
Speaker 3: is crazy is like, when the injury to the leg happened,
Speaker 3: he was rehabbing another major back surgery, right, and nobody's
Speaker 3: talking about the back. I put as a subhead for
Speaker 3: an article that'll be live by the time of this pod,
Speaker 3: is Tiger's back.
Speaker 2: You know, we haven't heard anything about the back.
Speaker 3: And I think that's another layer to this that makes
Speaker 3: this return so crazy, is that he already was rehabbing
Speaker 3: a major back injury and then he almost lost his
Speaker 3: leg and he's back playing a little more than a.
Speaker 1: Year later, competitively potentially, right. I mean that again, is
Speaker 1: what is so wild. This is a guy I talked
Speaker 1: to Van Pelp a lot about Tiger and one of
Speaker 1: the things I said was, this is the toughest athlete
Speaker 1: of this generation of athletes. And it's crazy to think
Speaker 1: that a golfer can be the toughest athlete. And you know,
Speaker 1: Scott was mentioning, I mean, there's a difference in toughness
Speaker 1: in hockey and football versus golf, obviously, but in terms
Speaker 1: of finding a way to come back from these types
Speaker 1: of injuries that put people out of the sport forever.
Speaker 1: I mean, you mentioned the Alex Smith thing with the
Speaker 1: poor ath article. You know, I go back to Sean
Speaker 1: Livingston a lot, and when Sean Livingston had that horrible,
Speaker 1: horrible injury and the video is like unwatchable, right, and
Speaker 1: the fact that he was able to come back was
Speaker 1: so incredible just to watch him be athletic again. Alex
Speaker 1: Smith much of the same. The difference being is you're
Speaker 1: talking about two very good athletes and now you're talking
Speaker 1: about who I think is probably the most famous athlete
Speaker 1: in the world, definitely the most famous athlete in the
Speaker 1: United States to make a return like this after all
Speaker 1: these injuries and everything he's gone through and what is
Speaker 1: this now? Like the third or fourth return for Tiger Woods,
Speaker 1: and to me, this is the biggest one to this point,
Speaker 1: considering you know, we were asking a question almost a
Speaker 1: year ago, is he going to walk again? And now
Speaker 1: there's a chance that he's gonna walk one of the
Speaker 1: toughest golf courses on the PGA Tour to walk and
Speaker 1: play in a major championship. It's you, guys. I thought
Speaker 1: you guys nailed it on the shotgun start earlier this
Speaker 1: week or late last week when you guys talked about
Speaker 1: this event kind of sneaking up on you a little bit,
Speaker 1: it just felt like the Masters kind of poked its
Speaker 1: head and all of a sudden, it's here, and we're
Speaker 1: getting the story that everybody in the world would hope
Speaker 1: to get. Right, So, even though we haven't seen a
Speaker 1: lot from Rory and DJ and Rom and those types
Speaker 1: of names that you hope are playing well coming into
Speaker 1: the first Major, you are getting the biggest story you
Speaker 1: could ever ask for in golf and outside of golf,
Speaker 1: and that is Tiger coming back. I mean, who do
Speaker 1: you compare him to Andy? I mean Brady Serena.
Speaker 3: You said when he said he's the most famous athlete.
Speaker 3: I don't think I necessarily disagree. I think the people
Speaker 3: that you would put him in it put in that
Speaker 3: you named him Serena Lebron, Tom Brady. I don't think
Speaker 3: anybody in baseball gets there. I mean Michael Jordan would
Speaker 3: be the other guy that he hasn't played in forever
Speaker 3: that might be able to even I think Michael Jordan
Speaker 3: would probably be the guy that was the only, maybe
Speaker 3: the only athlete that's more famous than Tiger.
Speaker 1: I keep hoping Tiger fax is the note in like,
Speaker 1: just find a way to send faxes out, you know,
Speaker 1: when he makes the actual return like full Goordan just
Speaker 1: I don't even know who would get a fax, Like
Speaker 1: would the AP even know what to do if it
Speaker 1: popped on their machine? But it would just be unbelievable
Speaker 1: if he just sent faxes out. If Steinberg was faxing
Speaker 1: out all this information to the world, letting him know
Speaker 1: that Tiger was back as a true you know, hat
Speaker 1: tip to mister MJ.
Speaker 3: What I mean, we did the recap show after he
Speaker 3: won in twenty nineteen. What is there any result short
Speaker 3: of winning that would eclipse that in terms of a
Speaker 3: sports moment.
Speaker 1: I think if he got in contention at this Masters,
Speaker 1: and again I'm I've said this, I wrote something about it.
Speaker 1: The week is a win. If he's playing golf on Thursday,
Speaker 1: he won the week he won the twenty twenty two Masters.
Speaker 1: To me, if Tiger Woods is actually playing in the
Speaker 1: field on Thursday, let's say we're actually talking about the golf.
Speaker 1: If he found a way, and he's gonna need conditions,
Speaker 1: and I know you and I were going to talk
Speaker 1: about our five things we're watching.
Speaker 2: This is number one. This is the first.
Speaker 1: Thing everything Tiger, right, But I.
Speaker 2: Mean he's this is the first thing for both of us.
Speaker 1: This is all bold, all italicized in like font thirty.
Speaker 1: But he's gonna need Augustin nationalill cooperated. When I say that,
Speaker 1: I mean he's gonna need a golf course that could
Speaker 1: play into his hands. He's gonna need it to be firmer,
Speaker 1: he's gonna need to play faster. He's gonna need a
Speaker 1: place that's not soft, and it's going to play into
Speaker 1: the hands of guys that could hit it three oh
Speaker 1: five and three ten in the air. Right, But if
Speaker 1: it does play like that a little bit. What the
Speaker 1: forecast looks like for Thursday through Sunday of next week.
Speaker 1: But if it can play in his hands there and
Speaker 1: he does find a way to do those old Tiger
Speaker 1: tricks right, go out and shoot even par in the
Speaker 1: opening round, shoot one under on Friday, make a little
Speaker 1: bit of a move on Saturday, and he's just around
Speaker 1: like Jack was in ninety eight. And to me, that's
Speaker 1: the comps. It's not Jack at eighty six, this is
Speaker 1: Jack in ninety eight, when Jack found a way to
Speaker 1: finish in the top ten coming off Tiger's win in
Speaker 1: ninety seven. You know, kind of the one We forget
Speaker 1: about a lot that Jack actually had a chance to
Speaker 1: win the Masters in nineteen ninety eight, which is so
Speaker 1: silly to think about, But that is the comp I
Speaker 1: would compare it to, is there if Tiger got in
Speaker 1: contention and was just a storyline simply making the cut
Speaker 1: into the storyline on the weekend. I think we will
Speaker 1: remember this, probably not as much as nineteen, but we
Speaker 1: will remember twenty two as much as maybe three of
Speaker 1: his wins at the Masters. I mean, I think ninety
Speaker 1: seven and nineteen are forever going to be one and
Speaker 1: two in some way, right with Tiger. And then you
Speaker 1: probably make an argument that Tiger slam is third because
Speaker 1: he one of four straight majors. For goodness sakes, the
Speaker 1: return is gonna be in those top two three four
Speaker 1: experiences of Tiger at the Masters, which is crazy to
Speaker 1: think considered he has won it five times.
Speaker 2: It's it's wild the whole thing.
Speaker 3: I did not expect this to be a real thing,
Speaker 3: even like when he was playing the PNC. I felt
Speaker 3: like we were stealing when we got him playing the PNC,
Speaker 3: and it's like, oh, there's a PNC gonna be this.
Speaker 3: But I think we're gonna see Tiger probably from what
Speaker 3: he said, we might only see him four or five
Speaker 3: times a year from now on, and it could be
Speaker 3: just centered around these majors, And I think that's I mean,
Speaker 3: that's a huge win for for all the majors and everything,
Speaker 3: but it's a huge win for golf. I mean, the
Speaker 3: general interest of this event. If Tiger's playing is spiked
Speaker 3: so much because of everything that he's gone through, and
Speaker 3: obviously I think this is a huge win for the Masters, because,
Speaker 3: like we were talking about, it was kind of it
Speaker 3: kind of stuck up on us. Everything about golf has
Speaker 3: been about the Saudi's. The big names haven't been winning
Speaker 3: golf tournaments leading up to the Masters. I think you
Speaker 3: made this point on Golf Today a couple of weeks
Speaker 3: ago about the names of that were winning last year
Speaker 3: versus the names winning this year. So you don't have
Speaker 3: that lead up where you typically like to see you
Speaker 3: like to see Rory win, knock one off at bay
Speaker 3: Hill or something, you like to see John Rohm win,
Speaker 3: but all of them have been kind of mired.
Speaker 2: And even I was looking into it, like Klin.
Speaker 3: Marcus hasn't been talked about much because he hasn't been
Speaker 3: on leader boards that much because he's kind of been
Speaker 3: having a down year by his standards, and obviously it's
Speaker 3: a small sample size, but the ball striking, which is
Speaker 3: something you know, the iron play hasn't been there at
Speaker 3: the level that it had that we come to expect
Speaker 3: over his short career, and I think, you know, coming
Speaker 3: into this event, that's obviously you know, Tiger just just
Speaker 3: shot this thing to the moon when it was one
Speaker 3: of the most under hype Masters of all time, is
Speaker 3: now going to be one of the most hyped.
Speaker 1: You said something interesting about Tiger's scheduling kind of going forward,
Speaker 1: and again we're assuming that he's playing right, we're assuming
Speaker 1: he's going to play the Masters. So then you start
Speaker 1: to think about when will we see Tiger the rest
Speaker 1: of the year. I just finished that great Roger Federer
Speaker 1: book that came out this year, and I know Federer
Speaker 1: and Tiger were like buddies back in the day, and
Speaker 1: I hope Tiger takes a page out of the way
Speaker 1: Federer kind of spent the last five eight years of
Speaker 1: his career where it was all about the Slams, but
Speaker 1: it was all about the specific slams. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you remember, Federer would skip the French I mean he
Speaker 1: would skip clay season even when he was healthy, because
Speaker 1: he understood his best potential to win was on grass,
Speaker 1: was at Wimbledon, and was around those types of seasonal events.
Speaker 1: And I think for Tiger, and you and I have
Speaker 1: made this point many times, is going forward, Tiger's going
Speaker 1: to have as good a chance to win and Open
Speaker 1: as he is anything else. Right, if he's healthy and
Speaker 1: can walk on a golf course again, if he can
Speaker 1: play four days of professional golf at some sort of
Speaker 1: a tournament level, his best option to win another major
Speaker 1: championship is going to be the Opens. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: very interesting if he decides to skip PGAs and decides
Speaker 1: to skip US Opens at times, understanding that those golf
Speaker 1: courses and he'll his skill set might not kind of
Speaker 1: you know, congeal if you will, I mean, it might
Speaker 1: not work out that way.
Speaker 3: How great would it be if Tiger is playing like
Speaker 3: the Irish and Scottish and the lead up to the
Speaker 3: the Open Championship.
Speaker 1: Not certain majors would be pretty wild?
Speaker 3: And it's like, then the Masters he plays, you know,
Speaker 3: he plays bay Hill and maybe what other and those
Speaker 3: are his six events of the year. Is like he
Speaker 3: plays just he just plays the Open and he just
Speaker 3: plays the Masters, because I think those are the two
Speaker 3: tournaments over the years that have shown they're not I
Speaker 3: think this kind of parlays into one of my first
Speaker 3: points is the youth movement has overtaken golf. It has
Speaker 3: been something that we've been talking about for five years
Speaker 3: and it's now fully realized, I believe with if you
Speaker 3: look at the official World Golf rankings, it's here, he's.
Speaker 2: Not coming anymore.
Speaker 3: It is here that it can't get much younger than
Speaker 3: it is right now. And with that, the two majors
Speaker 3: that have been the most equitable to older players over
Speaker 3: the last five ten years have been the Masters in
Speaker 3: the Open Championship and partially the Masters because of the
Speaker 3: field makeup, but also because of the golf course and
Speaker 3: there's a lot of little local knowledge in it. But
Speaker 3: one of the things that I'm watching this year is
Speaker 3: in this is years going forward, something's got to give.
Speaker 3: There's never been a first time winner at the Masters.
Speaker 3: We've got a younger than ever top ten in the world,
Speaker 3: the top five in the world right now, the entire
Speaker 3: top five is sub thirty years old.
Speaker 2: Something's got to give.
Speaker 3: There's going to be a first time player to win
Speaker 3: the Masters at some point in the future.
Speaker 2: Could it be this year?
Speaker 3: And obviously if we're talking about this year, we're talking
Speaker 3: about maybe Sam Burns. He's a top ten player in
Speaker 3: the world and he's never played the Masters, which I
Speaker 3: don't know. I don't I should have asked justin Ray
Speaker 3: ahead of this. I don't know if that's ever happened before.
Speaker 1: Top ten player coming in and making his debut at
Speaker 1: augusta National. Yeah, yeah, I mean you got to you
Speaker 1: gotta go back to Fuzzy, right, Fuzzy was the last
Speaker 1: player that won in his debut, right, Is that the
Speaker 1: last player that won.
Speaker 2: The last players start. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well that kind of parlays into one of my
Speaker 1: points since we're talking about young players, and obviously we
Speaker 1: have both spoke on the superstar names that haven't shown up.
Speaker 1: And I think when you say that, you have to
Speaker 1: bring up Scotty Scheffler because you talk about you talk
Speaker 1: about surprising the world in terms of becoming something, and
Speaker 1: he's all of a sudden the number one ranked player
Speaker 1: in the world. It's still even when you look at that,
Speaker 1: it seems a bit surprising Scotty Scheffler, and I know
Speaker 1: you and I are going to talk about Justin Thomas
Speaker 1: in a bit. Scotty Scheffler's major resume to this point
Speaker 1: is astonishine le good. And again this is the number
Speaker 1: one ranked player in the world, coming in totally under
Speaker 1: the radar, you know, three wins, He's played great golf.
Speaker 1: But when you're talking about young players that could have
Speaker 1: major success and win majors quickly, Scotty Scheffler has played
Speaker 1: let me see here, I got it. He's played in
Speaker 1: nine majors. Okay, two of those is an amateur. He
Speaker 1: was low amateur at Aaron Hills at the US Open
Speaker 1: where he finished and a tie for twenty seven, so
Speaker 1: that was a top thirty. As an amateur player, he
Speaker 1: played in the twenty nineteen US Open at Pebble Beach
Speaker 1: and he missed the cut. Since then, he's played in
Speaker 1: six majors, all of them are top nineteen finishes, three
Speaker 1: straight top eight finishes last year in majors coming into
Speaker 1: augustin National, this is a guy that has routinely found
Speaker 1: himself in the top ten on the leader boards, and
Speaker 1: I think sleeping on Scotty Scheffler at this point is
Speaker 1: almost an idiotic move from anybody involved in and around golf.
Speaker 1: You have to sit here and think that this guy
Speaker 1: not only has a great chance to win the Masters,
Speaker 1: but this guy has a great chance just to get
Speaker 1: himself in contention. He's done it in almost every major
Speaker 1: championship he's played in. So when we look past the rories,
Speaker 1: we look past the rams and look past the kep,
Speaker 1: because there's a guy standing here right in front of
Speaker 1: us that has the potential to be Colin Morrikowe Calm
Speaker 1: October of twenty twenty two. Right, we could be looking
Speaker 1: at this guy going he won another major. He's number
Speaker 1: one in the world he now has I don't know,
Speaker 1: let's say five wins, six wins at that point. But
Speaker 1: I think Scotty Scheffler is sneaking up on that next
Speaker 1: guy thing that we have kind of been waiting for.
Speaker 1: Who's gonna push more kawam.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know how few players have won four
Speaker 3: times in a PGA Tour season. There's I mean, I
Speaker 3: can't that. The list has to be.
Speaker 2: Tiny, yeah lately especially and and.
Speaker 3: This guy one more win if he picks one more
Speaker 3: win off this year, he's got four PGA Tour wins.
Speaker 3: It's it's wild. And I think the thing about Scheffler
Speaker 3: that makes him such a good major players you look
Speaker 3: at him and he nothing in his game. He's plenty long.
Speaker 3: Nothing in his game is really like excellent. You're not
Speaker 3: talking about Morico where you're like his iron play is
Speaker 3: otherworldly good. There's nothing excellent. But also he doesn't have
Speaker 3: an achilles heel. Like every player you go down the
Speaker 3: list and John Rahm has been this player, no achilles heal,
Speaker 3: but this year the putter has just kind of been
Speaker 3: disagreeing and you don't want to see that linger too long.
Speaker 3: But the players that don't have any discernible weaknesses are
Speaker 3: always going to be the most consistent and the most
Speaker 3: well verse when it comes to major championships because it
Speaker 3: puts such stress on every aspect of your game, and
Speaker 3: that when you look at Augustin Nasal, I think that's
Speaker 3: where like the recipe for Tiger to contend is that
Speaker 3: he's been working on a short game of putting seemingly
Speaker 3: for a year, right, you know, and that's a place
Speaker 3: that if you know where to miss, you can kind
Speaker 3: of get it around. Jordan Speed does it all the time.
Speaker 3: He makes these junkie sixty sevens, like you're just so,
Speaker 3: how do you shoot sixty seven? But Scottie Scheffler is
Speaker 3: along the same lines of like, hey, this guy doesn't
Speaker 3: really struggle with anything. He has no demons in a way,
Speaker 3: because he's pretty good at every aspect of golf and
Speaker 3: that suits him some suits him so well for different
Speaker 3: venues and different major championship tests. And if you go
Speaker 3: back to his amateur career, Scotty Scheffler was a bit
Speaker 3: of an enigma. People always wanted more out of him.
Speaker 3: But if you looked at the big time events, when
Speaker 3: the USAM rolled around the NCAA, Championship, the Big the
Speaker 3: Big twelve Championship. You know there's a guy always near
Speaker 3: the top of the leaderboard. It was Sky Scheffler, and
Speaker 3: I think that he's one of those guys that he
Speaker 3: the professional light has kind of turned on, Oh I
Speaker 3: do this for money now, and there might be a
Speaker 3: little bit more I don't think he was necessarily a
Speaker 3: poor work ethic, but there might be a little bit
Speaker 3: more focus now that millions of dollars are on the
Speaker 3: line and it's not just pride and and you know,
Speaker 3: I don't think it's a fluke. He got to the world.
Speaker 3: You don't get to world number one and have it
Speaker 3: be a fluke.
Speaker 1: You know, right, I've been I've been thinking a lot
Speaker 1: about Scotty Scheffler this week, and just because I think, again,
Speaker 1: it's been a little surprising that he just this has
Speaker 1: happened this quickly, right, And I always go back to
Speaker 1: you see certain professional golfers that have this stretch where
Speaker 1: it feels like it's really easy for them, And I
Speaker 1: always go back to the Goodwill honey moment, you know,
Speaker 1: where Will Hunting burns the paper right, because you know,
Speaker 1: f and easy this is for me, And I always
Speaker 1: think about that when I think about pro golfers. Dustin
Speaker 1: had a long stretch of this where Dustin would play
Speaker 1: golf and it just seems so easy. You know, it
Speaker 1: seems so easy for Dustin to finish sixth and to
Speaker 1: finish fourth and to win. Right, I mean, to go
Speaker 1: out there and win on hard golf courses, easy golf courses,
Speaker 1: whatever's asked of them. Rory earlier in his career, it
Speaker 1: looked so easy for Rory McElroy. And there are times
Speaker 1: with Justin Thomas where it feels like golf is incredibly
Speaker 1: easy for Justin Thomas. Now, what's so interesting is there's
Speaker 1: certain players out there that have made careers out of
Speaker 1: almost making it look hard. I think Phil Mickelson, throughout
Speaker 1: his career sometimes make it look really hard. Jordan Spieeth
Speaker 1: is another one that sometimes you watch him. I mean
Speaker 1: the great Rory McElroy quote. Right, the last time Rory
Speaker 1: was really in the hunt at the Masters and he
Speaker 1: didn't make a burning, he said, how the hell's this
Speaker 1: guy beating mirror? How the hell's this guy two under? Right?
Speaker 1: Is the quote he said about Jordan Speed. It doesn't
Speaker 1: look easy, but he can kind of junk himself to
Speaker 1: a sixty seven or a sixty eight, and Scotty Scheffler
Speaker 1: kind of does both. There are days where you're watching
Speaker 1: him and you're like, how is he two under? And
Speaker 1: there are days where he shoots sixty five and you're
Speaker 1: thinking that's about his par And I just feel like
Speaker 1: to have both of those, to have both of those
Speaker 1: pitches and to be able to kind of play those
Speaker 1: types of golf courses, and we've seen it this year.
Speaker 1: I would be surprised if Scotty Scheffler's not in the hunt,
Speaker 1: just because of the way he's played lately, to your
Speaker 1: point about the big events, and simply how comfortable he
Speaker 1: seems to be right now in his own skin. He's
Speaker 1: going to go there thinking I got a chance to
Speaker 1: win this thing, and that's as important as anything in golf,
Speaker 1: is that confidence in yourself and your game.
Speaker 3: The demeanor is really unbelievable for him out there too. Yes,
Speaker 3: it just he never looks flustered, and that I think
Speaker 3: is something I haven't seen him really get angry about
Speaker 3: things like it just it seems like life is just
Speaker 3: in a good place. And I think that's one of
Speaker 3: the things golf that it's really hard to play great
Speaker 3: golf for a long time. One of the reasons is
Speaker 3: life like life, and what's going on in your life
Speaker 3: impacts your golf. Anybody that's ever gone to try and
Speaker 3: play golf with a lot on their mind about different
Speaker 3: things probably realize how difficult it was to figure out
Speaker 3: how to hit.
Speaker 2: A golf shot that way.
Speaker 3: And I think you know something that's coming to light
Speaker 3: is golf in your twenties probably is a little bit
Speaker 3: easier from the sense of you're a little bit more naive,
Speaker 3: You're not aware of the pitfalls of the sport, and
Speaker 3: you have less.
Speaker 2: Going on personally.
Speaker 3: And I think that, combined with coaching and technology, has
Speaker 3: led to this youth boom, is that it just is
Speaker 3: an easier sport to play when you're younger, because there's
Speaker 3: less clutter in your brain. Now for a quick word
Speaker 3: from our sponsor, Elijah Craig. Did you know that Shane
Speaker 3: Bacon's good friend and PGA Tour pro Max Hooma is
Speaker 3: a new brand ambassador for Alive Craig, he will be
Speaker 3: out of the masters. I feel like he's kind of
Speaker 3: a good, sneaky long shot pick. Actually, he's great iron
Speaker 3: players won a lot of great golf courses, but he's
Speaker 3: also a friend of the program because he's a fellow
Speaker 3: brand ambassador for Elijah Craig. Like Homa, Elijah Craigbourbon never
Speaker 3: settles for less than the best.
Speaker 2: Every bottle of their award.
Speaker 3: Winning small batch carries a signature warm spice and subtle
Speaker 3: smoke flavor. It's exceptionally smooth and well balanced. I like
Speaker 3: to drink it on the rocks. Elijah Craig won the
Speaker 3: double goal that the San Francisco World Spirits Competition last year.
Speaker 3: It's not only celebrated by experts, it's enjoyed by all,
Speaker 3: especially Max. Whether you're at the clubhouse or watching the
Speaker 3: Masters at your own house, enjoy the action with a
Speaker 3: glass of Elijah Craig, the signature sip of PGA Tour
Speaker 3: Pro Maxhoma. Pick up a bottle today or order online
Speaker 3: at drizzly dot com. This is really awesome. Good to
Speaker 3: deliver to your house and save five dollars on a
Speaker 3: bottle of Elijah Craig delivered to your door with the
Speaker 3: promo code fried Egg five. That's fried Egg five if
Speaker 3: you use drizzly dot com. The fried egg is brought
Speaker 3: to you by Elijah Craig, Kentucky, Straight bourbon whiskey, Bardstown, Kentucky,
Speaker 3: forty seven percent alcohol by volume. Elijah Craig reminds you
Speaker 3: to think wisely and drink wisely. Now back to Shane Bacon.
Speaker 1: So we're talking about youth. Can I throw out one
Speaker 1: of my things that is about the complete opposite of youth?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Okay. So when you think of players of age that
Speaker 1: you feel like will have a chance to play well
Speaker 1: at Augustin National, of course people love to throw Freddy out,
Speaker 1: as they should. I'm gonna go Bernhard Langer because Bernard
Speaker 1: Langer does an age and he's aging and reverse. It's
Speaker 1: an even It's an even year. It's an even year
Speaker 1: this year, Andy, and he's had a lot of success
Speaker 1: recently in even years. Langer twenty fourteen, T eight six
Speaker 1: T twenty fourth, twenty eighteen, T thirty eight, twenty twenty
Speaker 1: T twenty ninth. It's twenty twenty two, baby, this is
Speaker 1: the year I think Langer gets himself back in contention.
Speaker 1: I want Langer Tiger paired together on Saturday or Sunday.
Speaker 1: Let's just completely bulldoze the youth movement with these two
Speaker 1: guys at Augustin National. It's twenty twenty two, it's an
Speaker 1: even year. I like his chances of continuing the tread.
Speaker 3: Don't make me go down the road of Bernard Longer's
Speaker 3: not getting the respect he deserves for what he's doing
Speaker 3: on the Champions Tour.
Speaker 1: But I mean, like, think about that eighth twenty I
Speaker 1: mean three times he's finished in the top twenty nine
Speaker 1: in the in the last four even year at events
Speaker 1: at the Masters. Now he's thrown some stinkers in there
Speaker 1: as well. That's why I didn't include those because those
Speaker 1: are a load of years, and I'm talking about even years.
Speaker 1: But I mean to just consistently find yourself in contention.
Speaker 1: I go back to this a lot. I mean I
Speaker 1: asked him on Golf Today last year if he'd feel
Speaker 1: comfortable being on a Ryder Cup team. He was like, absolutely,
Speaker 1: I think I'd be a benefit. You know, I mean,
Speaker 1: who says that, what is he sixty four?
Speaker 3: Could you imagine if he had been out there during
Speaker 3: whistling straight.
Speaker 4: But he couldn't have hurt clicking back, but everybody would
Speaker 4: have pointed to that that would be he would have
Speaker 4: been the scapegoat and maybe that's the benefit.
Speaker 2: Maybe that's the benefit.
Speaker 3: If you put him on the roster, you've got your
Speaker 3: immediate scapegoat.
Speaker 2: Bernard Longer shouldn't have been on the team.
Speaker 1: So do you like that one? Do you like that?
Speaker 2: I like that?
Speaker 3: I I personally, you know, there are some people that
Speaker 3: think that this past champion thing should go away. I
Speaker 3: love it. I loved Woozy's run last year. I'm disappointed
Speaker 3: we don't get another Woozy run this year. I love
Speaker 3: Larry Byes out there hitting at two forty and making cuts.
Speaker 3: I think he's made three of the last four cuts
Speaker 3: or something. I mean, he's made more cuts than Bryce
Speaker 3: has made in the last four years, I think. And
Speaker 3: I mean that's another crazy thing is that Bryce is
Speaker 3: not really a main storyline because he hasn't been really around.
Speaker 3: I meane, mister Parr sixty seven isn't a main storyline.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I like that one.
Speaker 1: I like that.
Speaker 3: It's it's humorous. It's if we if we could ride
Speaker 3: him to the top thirty. That's a good DraftKings pick baby,
Speaker 3: it's good, good late pool sleeper.
Speaker 1: I can promise you it's not never a bad thing
Speaker 1: to throw him in a lineup. That's all I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1: All Right, I see the floor you have, you have
Speaker 1: one of your five, all.
Speaker 2: Right, I'm gonna put Kylin Markaua in here, okay.
Speaker 3: And the idea behind Klin Markaua is he would you know,
Speaker 3: win here. He's Alsodden, the next great major player. He's
Speaker 3: one away from the career Slam and all of a
Speaker 3: sudden looks so much more realistic than every other one
Speaker 3: away from the career Slam content contender that we have. Uh,
Speaker 3: he has not played great recently. That said, he's putting
Speaker 3: better than he ever has in his career. And I
Speaker 3: don't think it takes much to turn on a great
Speaker 3: iron player. And if you if you're a great iron player,
Speaker 3: you drive the ball well enough like he, you know,
Speaker 3: he drives it really well. Great iron play at Augustin
Speaker 3: National is about about as good of a skill as
Speaker 3: you can have. And I mean, Kylin Morrikawa just seems
Speaker 3: like he's going to win one of these because of
Speaker 3: that iron play. And I think, you know, in terms
Speaker 3: of if Klin Morrikawa picks us off, the commentary around
Speaker 3: Klin Morrikawa becomes rather significant and he.
Speaker 2: Enters a stratosphere.
Speaker 3: He's already in a crazy stratosphere, but he enters all
Speaker 3: of a sudden, like where could this go from here?
Speaker 3: When the golf courses are hard and they separate good
Speaker 3: shots from a great shots from good shots, there's you know,
Speaker 3: him and John Rahm are the two guys you want.
Speaker 1: I am. I'm looking at Morikawa as year and we'll
Speaker 1: see how this plays out in terms of majors. And
Speaker 1: I love that you brought up the putting because the
Speaker 1: putting is drastically improved in terms of the statistics. And
Speaker 1: you said it, I mean the ball striking will be
Speaker 1: there either now or eventually sometime this season. It's not
Speaker 1: like he lost the ability to be the generational iron player, right.
Speaker 1: I go back to Louis last year. Ye you know,
Speaker 1: Louis is an unbelievable ball striker that at times could
Speaker 1: have a baalky putter. Last year he putted great and
Speaker 1: look how often he was in contention in the major championship.
Speaker 1: So if Colin Morrikawis shows up and has a relatively
Speaker 1: okay week putting, and what's all of a sudden say
Speaker 1: he has a great week putting like he did when
Speaker 1: he won his two major championships. He's going to be there,
Speaker 1: He's going to be around the he's going to be
Speaker 1: around you know, the lead, and he's going to be
Speaker 1: in contention. And I always go back to thus Tazen
Speaker 1: because I just feel like last year the ball striking
Speaker 1: and the golf swing has always been very impressive from
Speaker 1: Louie and the fact that he was literally leading the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour in terms of putting was the reason he
Speaker 1: was finding himself contention at different golf courses, at different
Speaker 1: majors and different situations against different people, right, And I
Speaker 1: feel like there's a chance we're going to see that
Speaker 1: from Colin if that putter continues. And what I keep
Speaker 1: saying about this guy is he's won two majors basically
Speaker 1: leading the field and putting. He didn't have to leave
Speaker 1: the field and putting. He needs to finish twentieth or
Speaker 1: twenty fifth. I was looking at JT's putting stats, and
Speaker 1: JT wins when he's around fortieth in strokes game putting.
Speaker 1: You know, he didn't have to be first, he didn't
Speaker 1: have to be second. But if he's fortieth, if he's
Speaker 1: just better than average with the flastic, he has a
Speaker 1: really good chance to win, and I feel like Calin
Speaker 1: more Cow was much of the same. When he's one
Speaker 1: hundred and ninetieth, it's hard to win, but when you're
Speaker 1: thirtieth or fortieth you might have a chance.
Speaker 3: Something that everybody talked about the Greens books, and I'm
Speaker 3: very guilty of this and how they could hinder players. Right,
Speaker 3: maybe Kalin Moricau has been helped by not having a
Speaker 3: Greens book. Maybe it's made it more athletic and more natural,
Speaker 3: and he doesn't feel like he needs to look into
Speaker 3: a book to read Putts, and that could be as
Speaker 3: simple of a thing as you know. I hope you're
Speaker 3: friends with Brad Faxon, and you anytime you hear Brad
Speaker 3: Faxon talk about putting, it's always about being athletic, being natural,
Speaker 3: being in the moment. And I can't think of something
Speaker 3: like a somebody who who literally can just sit there
Speaker 3: and dial up irons to half yards and all he
Speaker 3: has to do is, oh, one fifty two and a half.
Speaker 3: Here you go, you know, here's my three yard fade.
Speaker 2: Right, Getting onto.
Speaker 3: A green and looking into a book seems like the
Speaker 3: complete opposite of what you should be doing on the green.
Speaker 2: And maybe removing the.
Speaker 3: Green books has helped him with just becoming a natural putter.
Speaker 3: And it you know that made the statistic. That's all
Speaker 3: it is.
Speaker 1: I got one for you as I'm kind of looking
Speaker 1: at five things, so I figured we'll get into Rory
Speaker 1: at some point. For Rory, it's stopping the opening round
Speaker 1: blues in terms of major championships seventy three, seventy five,
Speaker 1: seventy six, and first rounds in his last three Masters,
Speaker 1: including twenty twenty where everybody was going crazy low. But
Speaker 1: this is a guy that just is not allowing. Kind
Speaker 1: of like what you talk about with Colin morri Coowan
Speaker 1: freeing yourself up on the green. Rory McRoy is approaching
Speaker 1: these majors and doing the complete opposite of what Tiger
Speaker 1: used to do in majors. Tiger would use the first
Speaker 1: round to feel out his game, the golf course and
Speaker 1: how this was going to play. Because majors are different, right,
Speaker 1: They played tougher typically, especially at Augusta National. It's asking
Speaker 1: different questions than every other tournament is asking. And the
Speaker 1: first round shouldn't be a place where you feel like
Speaker 1: you need to go out and get it. You need
Speaker 1: to go out there and not shoot yourself in the foot,
Speaker 1: and Rory has consistently shot himself in the foot. And
Speaker 1: for Rory, even parr should be the goal. Man like
Speaker 1: even par one under. If you shoot two under, great,
Speaker 1: but don't shoot seventy five. Man, if you shoot seventy five,
Speaker 1: you're probably not gonna win. And that has been the
Speaker 1: formula that has doomed him as of late, is he
Speaker 1: just can't get off to even a remotely okay start.
Speaker 3: You know what Rory's first rounds have shown overthinking a
Speaker 3: guy that knows he's going up against history.
Speaker 2: It's nerves.
Speaker 3: I think that's the telltale sign of nerves is slow starts.
Speaker 3: If you think about what you've struggled in tournaments or
Speaker 3: struggled in qualifiers, it's usually off the getting off to
Speaker 3: the blocks and then you have great back nines that
Speaker 3: can save him sometimes. But nerves is just getting out
Speaker 3: of the gates. And obviously, if you go through all
Speaker 3: his actions, all his quotes over those times, you see
Speaker 3: a guy that's trying to figure out a way to
Speaker 3: cope with something that's mental. On that first round, what
Speaker 3: you said is kind of true, like seventy two, and
Speaker 3: if you talk to any pro about Augusta nastional. The
Speaker 3: thing they say is it's easy to shoot seventy two.
Speaker 3: It's really hard to shoot sixty six. And when you
Speaker 3: start try and shoot sixty six, you break seventy six
Speaker 3: in So maybe his goal should be to go out
Speaker 3: there and shoot seventy two. It's just because if you
Speaker 3: look at what he does after the first round, it's amazing.
Speaker 3: He'll it's almost a guaranteed backdoor top ten after he
Speaker 3: shoots the seventy six or the seventy five or whatever
Speaker 3: it is in the first round. So yeah, with Rory,
Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't know what it is. Maybe
Speaker 3: he needs to go have a bottle of wine, drink
Speaker 3: a bottle of wine himself the night before.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Maybe he should come into it a little blurry. Maybe
Speaker 3: he shouldn't take a touch of club the entire leading
Speaker 3: up and just go out and play, because like, there's
Speaker 3: no there's no way. In twenty fourteen, if you said
Speaker 3: this is what Rory's gonna do in the first round
Speaker 3: of Majors for the next eight.
Speaker 2: Years, You've lost every dollar.
Speaker 3: It's it's nuts, it's utterly nuts what his performance has been.
Speaker 2: And I don't know. It's got to turn around, right.
Speaker 1: I love what you said about the like if you're
Speaker 1: Rory McRoy with how talented Rory is. Right, if I
Speaker 1: said to Rory on any golf course on the planet
Speaker 1: on any day, hey, I want you to go, I'll
Speaker 1: bet you a million dollars that you go out and
Speaker 1: can shoot even par like, just shoot even, and I
Speaker 1: mean just post seventy two. There's no way he couldn't
Speaker 1: do that anywhere in the world. He's too good not
Speaker 1: to even part to your point, even par is attainable. Now,
Speaker 1: shooting three hundred augustin ashell is not always attainable. Sometimes
Speaker 1: the course is playing really tough. Sometimes you just don't
Speaker 1: have it. But even when somebody has talented as Rory
Speaker 1: is doesn't have it, he should still be able to
Speaker 1: get it in It's seventy two. Just get off the blocks.
Speaker 3: Man along the same lines is like getting off to
Speaker 3: the fat start. The other thing with Rory, it just seems,
Speaker 3: and I think Bryson's kind of the opposite. I've noticed
Speaker 3: like this penchant with Bryson when whenever he whenever something's
Speaker 3: kind of rocking and he's got a big putt, he
Speaker 3: makes it. It's wild like he rolls in a twenty
Speaker 3: footer for par where he always makes that eight footer
Speaker 3: for bogie when it looks like he might make a double.
Speaker 2: With Rory, it's things.
Speaker 3: Are going good, things are going good, and it's just
Speaker 3: like a terrible bogeye. And there are just these speed
Speaker 3: bumps that he always seemingly hits that just stop and
Speaker 3: kill momentum.
Speaker 2: And it's so so.
Speaker 3: Easy to see it, Augusta, because you know the course,
Speaker 3: you know the scoring opportunities, and they always happen like
Speaker 3: along those tracks he hits one left on their or
Speaker 3: you know he has swimming the water out fifty. It's
Speaker 3: just like you just can't give one away on sixteen
Speaker 3: with a funnel pin.
Speaker 2: You can't make a bogie there, right.
Speaker 1: Like, take do what the course is asking of you,
Speaker 1: you know, don't try to do too much, don't try
Speaker 1: to do too little. Just make the birdies on three
Speaker 1: of the par fives and don't make a stupid six
Speaker 1: with a wedge, and then we'll see where you are
Speaker 1: on Friday afternoon. But that's my Rory point.
Speaker 3: I will say this though, with Rory, and everybody loves
Speaker 3: to be like, oh, Augustus Taylor built for him. And
Speaker 3: I think this is this was a take that was
Speaker 3: founded when distance was so king at Augusta. But now
Speaker 3: everybody gets over the hills, so it's a little bit
Speaker 3: less of a separator, right, you know, there's that area
Speaker 3: to clean clear that was like the big thing, and
Speaker 3: Rory was one of the early big ball a big
Speaker 3: long drive guys. Now I think Augusta the under emphasize
Speaker 3: point is the importance of short game, you know, And
Speaker 3: and when it comes to getting up and down like
Speaker 3: short game of putting, like Rory's not on my list
Speaker 3: of guys that I'm like. And Rory misses Missus greens,
Speaker 3: you know, he has those bad misses in the back
Speaker 3: and and I think it it kind of I don't
Speaker 3: think Rory's perfect for Augusta.
Speaker 1: Right, Well, I would go a step a step further
Speaker 1: than what you said there. And because you brought up putting,
Speaker 1: and I have contended that you don't have to be
Speaker 1: a great putter to win Augusta National. You need to
Speaker 1: be a great lag putter, but you don't. We've seen
Speaker 1: a lot of putters and even bad historic putters. Think
Speaker 1: about Adam Scott, think about Sergio Garcia as of late
Speaker 1: that have won there. You know, even Hideki, who is
Speaker 1: not a great putter historically, right, I mean he's a
Speaker 1: guy that has struggled on the greens. I think the
Speaker 1: number one skill is pitching the golf ball. The number
Speaker 1: one skill is using your wedges to your advantage. And
Speaker 1: there's a reason Zach Johnson winted Augusta Nashal was playing
Speaker 1: brutally tough, and there's a reason Tiger won a lot
Speaker 1: there and Sebby's had success there, and players that are
Speaker 1: so good with their way.
Speaker 3: Deeckie and Sergio are like two of the greatest pitchers
Speaker 3: that no he talks about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Jordan's so good at that as well. And
Speaker 1: I mean when you look, I mean Cabrera, I mean
Speaker 1: think about Cabrera's hands in his prime and how good
Speaker 1: he was at pitching the golf ball. And Phil Mickelson.
Speaker 1: All of these players that have different skills, set and
Speaker 1: hit the ball different distances and use different putting styles
Speaker 1: and sometimes completely different putters, they all are awesome around
Speaker 1: the greens with their wedges. It's not necessarily about making
Speaker 1: the five foot or it's about finding a way to
Speaker 1: wedget to five feet to give you that opportunity. And Rory,
Speaker 1: I'd say that's his worst skill set, right. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think for Rory that's the part of his game
Speaker 1: that he struggles with the most, and he struggled with
Speaker 1: the most throughout his life. Is the creativity goes away
Speaker 1: around the greens for Rory McElroy and it has to
Speaker 1: be so locked in for him to have success. And
Speaker 1: typically when he's won majors, going back to twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: he's just ball struck the place to death.
Speaker 2: Speaking of the great pictures of the golf.
Speaker 1: And I knew you were gonna do this. I knew
Speaker 1: you were going to do this.
Speaker 3: I think I would pay an unreasonable sum of money
Speaker 3: to watch just and Thomas in like an eighteen hole
Speaker 3: match play of like I get a pick where I
Speaker 3: dropped the ball him and him and Cameron Smith, and
Speaker 3: like who can get it up and down? Like I
Speaker 3: would love to see a tournament like that, like crazy
Speaker 3: up and downs match play between guys.
Speaker 2: And Justin Thomas, he's so fun to watch.
Speaker 3: Everybody talks about the ball striking and how fun the
Speaker 3: variety of shots, but around the greens, he's so fun
Speaker 3: to watch he hits. He has such a wide array
Speaker 3: of shots, like the bumps, he hits those bump and runs.
Speaker 3: He hits the high pitches like he's he has every
Speaker 3: shot in the bag from T two green. And you
Speaker 3: know I just said Rory is at Taylor Made for
Speaker 3: Augusta Nashville. You know who is Taylor Maade for Augusta Nashville,
Speaker 3: justin Thomas Hell. Yes, wide array of shots shapes. He's
Speaker 3: great chipper of the golf ball, you know, one of
Speaker 3: the five best iron players in the world. Plenty laws
Speaker 3: and he's a little crooked, which isn't that big of
Speaker 3: a deal at Augusta National. And you know, up until
Speaker 3: last year we hadn't seen him really contend at Augusta
Speaker 3: and coming out from around the court like growing up
Speaker 3: around there, I'm sure there was a lot of pressure
Speaker 3: coming into it. He's never putted really well there, but
Speaker 3: last year he got into contention. Obviously didn't go his
Speaker 3: way on the weekend. But this is a guy I
Speaker 3: expect to be there on Sunday. He's played exceptionally well
Speaker 3: this year without winning. Nothing's come together. He's had rounds
Speaker 3: where he's putted well or determinents he's putted well and
Speaker 3: the ball striking hasn't just been up to his level.
Speaker 3: And then the weeks that the ball striking has been there,
Speaker 3: the putter just hasn't been there. And maybe these things
Speaker 3: burry up, but it just seems really cheap and really
Speaker 3: ridiculous that Justin Thomas only has one major to his
Speaker 3: name as of NOWT and that happened six years ago.
Speaker 1: I'm with you. I mean, he's my pick to win it.
Speaker 1: I picked him a couple weeks ago. I said he's
Speaker 1: going to win the Masters in twenty twenty two for me,
Speaker 1: and I had Justin Thomas on my list as well. Andy.
Speaker 1: For me, it's time for Justin Thomas to be Justin
Speaker 1: Thomas at Augusta because this is a place that should
Speaker 1: make so much sense to him. We've talked so much
Speaker 1: about Jordan's speed, and everybody loves to bring up the
Speaker 1: buddy buddy thing, But as much as Augusta makes sense
Speaker 1: to Jordan's speed around the greens, it should make that
Speaker 1: much sense to Justin Thomas in terms of the ball striking.
Speaker 1: I love what you said about his underratedness around greens too.
Speaker 1: You know, when you watch those old videos, and people
Speaker 1: on Instagram post these a lot the old videos of Tiger.
Speaker 1: You know, Tiger in his prime. What I'm always in
Speaker 1: awe of is how soft his arms are. You know,
Speaker 1: he'd hit those just it felt like the club's moving
Speaker 1: the same speed on the way back and the way through.
Speaker 1: And JT is that modern example of that. There's a
Speaker 1: reason Tiger has kind of brought JT into his camp.
Speaker 1: There's a reason Tiger travels to Augusta with Justin Thomas
Speaker 1: is because I think he sees so much of himself
Speaker 1: in his game when he was in his twenties. I
Speaker 1: think he sees a lo lot of JT there. And
Speaker 1: I feel like it's time for JT to kind of
Speaker 1: step up because he needs to do it now or
Speaker 1: he's going to truly become the forgotten major player, which
Speaker 1: is sad. He doesn't need to be that. He doesn't
Speaker 1: need to be the guy that has one major when
Speaker 1: he's thirty five years old. This is the place that
Speaker 1: needs to start happening. He needs to go on one
Speaker 1: of those Earnie runs or Phil runs where it's six
Speaker 1: or seven straight Masters where he's in the top seven.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think the thing about him there is
Speaker 3: that he can play mediocre in top ten at AUGUSTA. Yes,
Speaker 3: it's just a matter of if he's striking it really well,
Speaker 3: he's going to be in the mix. And if his putter,
Speaker 3: like you said earlier, is just above average, it just
Speaker 3: has to be above average, and he's he's got as
Speaker 3: good a chance as anybody to win. So it's JT,
Speaker 3: this is time. How many how many you got left?
Speaker 1: I think that's it. I think I ran through mine.
Speaker 2: You got through here. Okay, so my last one, I've
Speaker 2: got to change it.
Speaker 3: I was going to talk about the course, but I've
Speaker 3: talked about the course on this podcast already, and the
Speaker 3: course j are obviously going to be a big story
Speaker 3: and something that a lot of people talk about. But
Speaker 3: one of the things I wanted to talk about is
Speaker 3: just how many potential winners there are. If you look
Speaker 3: down the official World Golf rankings, anybody in the top
Speaker 3: twenty five, maybe the top thirty, exclude a couple names
Speaker 3: out of the top thirty. Of the top thirty, I'd
Speaker 3: say that twenty five of the guys in the top thirty.
Speaker 2: If you told me they win this year's Masters, I'd.
Speaker 3: Say, oh, that's not that big of a surprise, and
Speaker 3: I think that talks about the depth of golf right now,
Speaker 3: the depth of talent. There's so many good players, and
Speaker 3: you know, I think if I was going to go
Speaker 3: through the list and say, like, this guy isn't gonna
Speaker 3: win at the Masters, it would be the highest ranked
Speaker 3: player would be Billy Horschell at thirteen. Then it would
Speaker 3: be Terre o'hatton. Obviously Harris English isn't playing because of injury.
Speaker 3: But then you get down it's like Matt Fitzpatrick's playing
Speaker 3: as good as anybody on the PGA her right now
Speaker 3: and has played really well at Augusta National. I wouldn't
Speaker 3: be that surprised. But then you get down it's like
Speaker 3: Kiszner and Kevin Not. I don't think those guys necessarily
Speaker 3: have the horsepower to get it done. But outside of that,
Speaker 3: anybody else in that top thirty, and will Zel Torris
Speaker 3: is there at twenty nine. I mean, if the putter
Speaker 3: is halfway decent, he's got a great shot.
Speaker 1: And Andy it has been a long long time since
Speaker 1: we've had a non big name win a major championship.
Speaker 1: I mean even Gary Woodland at Pebble. I would say,
Speaker 1: Gary Woodland was a known name. People knew Gary, they'd
Speaker 1: known what he'd been able to do. Everybody kind of
Speaker 1: knew about him as the long driving guy, you know,
Speaker 1: earlier in his career and he kind of changed his game.
Speaker 1: But to me, you kind of go back to Danny
Speaker 1: Willett as the last player that kind of shocked the
Speaker 1: world and that guy was almost a top ten player
Speaker 1: in the world when he did it, right.
Speaker 2: Because did you he finished? Did he win?
Speaker 3: Durrelly finished third? He was a top ten player I
Speaker 3: think in the world when he was.
Speaker 1: He was either top ten or just outside when he
Speaker 1: won that. And I mean you look at him, and
Speaker 1: you've got Jimmy Walker, who I think now when you
Speaker 1: look at it might come off the page a little
Speaker 1: bit when you go through the recent major winners, but
Speaker 1: I mean at that time, Jimmy Walker was a big
Speaker 1: name in golf. It's been a long time.
Speaker 3: I mean since we've had up until recently, nobody had
Speaker 3: led the FedEx Cup more than Jimmy Walker.
Speaker 1: There you go, there you go. You got it in.
Speaker 1: I was waiting to wondering if you'd get it in
Speaker 1: on this podcast, but no, I mean, it has been
Speaker 1: a long time we have been blessed on the men's
Speaker 1: side of golf in terms of the winners of major championships,
Speaker 1: and it's been a long time. And again I don't
Speaker 1: say this is a bad thing when a Tom Hogy
Speaker 1: gets it as a chance to win a major championship.
Speaker 1: But come Sunday, if one of those lesser named players
Speaker 1: takes home a green jacket, I think we're at least
Speaker 1: getting closer and closer to that inevitably being the case
Speaker 1: at one of these majors this year next, because it's
Speaker 1: been so long since we've had it, and we've seen
Speaker 1: so many big names win majors recently.
Speaker 3: To go along with the first timers. Hogy's on that list,
Speaker 3: Cameron Young, Taylor Gooch. I think Gooch would be an
Speaker 3: example of a guy that like nobody, you know, no
Speaker 3: cat visual fan really knows how good Taylor.
Speaker 1: Goose right, it's great point.
Speaker 3: Sensational tee to green player. And obviously, like I even
Speaker 3: a guy like Max I think like he's he's got
Speaker 3: a lot of mainstream appeal because of his good uh
Speaker 3: his social media you know, uh presence.
Speaker 2: But Max Homa wins it at really good golf courses.
Speaker 1: Seeingly tough golf courses.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And I think that's like a demanding golf course.
Speaker 3: He's a great iron player, and that's like, this is
Speaker 3: a golf course that I think he could play well at.
Speaker 3: But like, that's the thing with the Masters is, especially
Speaker 3: with this type of talent that's now on the tour,
Speaker 3: there's so many guys that hit the ball at such
Speaker 3: a great level, and if any of their putters get hot,
Speaker 3: they're gonna be right there. And I I just this
Speaker 3: is what makes the Major special is this is what's
Speaker 3: different than the Wells Fargo. This is what's different than
Speaker 3: you know, the the Honda. Is that you get to
Speaker 3: the back nine on Sunday and you're not you're not
Speaker 3: playing the best player. You're not just compete against the
Speaker 3: best players in the world. The history and the gravity
Speaker 3: of the moment becomes immense.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Max. I mean, I think he's primed for
Speaker 1: a big Major year. I just he's playing better and better.
Speaker 1: He's playing more consistent. He plays tough golf courses and
Speaker 1: tough tournaments as good as anybody out there. I mean,
Speaker 1: go look at how he's played the Bay Hills and
Speaker 1: the rivieras and win conditions have asked those questions of you.
Speaker 1: He's had a couple of years now of major experience.
Speaker 1: I would be non surprised if Max has like three
Speaker 1: top tens and majors this year. I mean, I just
Speaker 1: feel like his game is getting to that point. He's
Speaker 1: worked so hard on the short game over the last
Speaker 1: eight months that I just feel like he's getting to
Speaker 1: a place where he feels like he should be getting
Speaker 1: himself in contention of majors. And that was a little
Speaker 1: bit of what we talked off the top. You know,
Speaker 1: you bring up the history of these things, and I
Speaker 1: always say about the Masters, it's the easiest and hardest
Speaker 1: golf tournament in the world to win. It's the easiest
Speaker 1: in terms of it's the least amount of great players
Speaker 1: you have to beat, and it's the hardest golf tournament
Speaker 1: in the world to win because it's the one they
Speaker 1: want to win the most. And there's so much that
Speaker 1: comes with it. And if you take this thing off
Speaker 1: at twenty five or twenty eight or thirty two, and
Speaker 1: you understand that for the rest of your life, you're
Speaker 1: a part of the most elite club in sport. That's
Speaker 1: a lot to take on when you're standing over that
Speaker 1: shot on thirteen or you got to hang in lie
Speaker 1: on fifteen, Right, I mean, there's a lot more that
Speaker 1: comes into your mind than I'm trying to make egal here.
Speaker 1: It's I'm trying to win the Masters here. And that's
Speaker 1: what makes this so important. That's why these Majors are
Speaker 1: going to get bigger and bigger each and every year
Speaker 1: going forward. Because with all the money in the Netflix
Speaker 1: and social media and PIP and all these things that
Speaker 1: we laugh about at times in and around sport, the
Speaker 1: one thing that's constant is the history. And there's no
Speaker 1: more history in sport than Augusta, Nashvill and the Masters.
Speaker 1: And it's such a fun thing to be a part
Speaker 1: of and to get to witness because every year, you know,
Speaker 1: I always think about this getting to Monday. Every year
Speaker 1: on Sunday, somebody's life's going to change, right, every year,
Speaker 1: a life has changed forever. No matter how how rich
Speaker 1: and how important and how cool you are, your life
Speaker 1: forever will be changed. If you play four good rounds
Speaker 1: of golf.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think you hit on something that I
Speaker 3: was thinking about the other day. And I think with
Speaker 3: the Masters it's more so than anything else, is when
Speaker 3: your mind is allowed to think about what you get
Speaker 3: when you do something on the golf course, and when
Speaker 3: you get into the moment where it begins to creep
Speaker 3: into your mind. Hey, I get to come back here
Speaker 3: every year for the rest of my life. I get
Speaker 3: to host the Champions dinner like once these guys.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 3: The thing that I'm always most astounded by is how
Speaker 3: good at staying in the moment these guys are. But
Speaker 3: they even have slip ups, and that's what golf cannot
Speaker 3: be any harder. Then the moment you start thinking about
Speaker 3: what you get if you just keep doing what you're.
Speaker 1: Doing, you bring up like I've had these conversations with players.
Speaker 1: I mean, I remember talking to Curtis Strange about nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty five one time. I mean, you're talking probably thirty
Speaker 1: five years later when we had this conversation, and it's
Speaker 1: like it was yesterday. I Mean, you think about the
Speaker 1: great Wiscough line, right, about how good the green jacket's
Speaker 1: going to look on me? And you think about Kenny
Speaker 1: Perry and he's almost to the finish line, right, He's
Speaker 1: one step away from completing the marathon, but he didn't
Speaker 1: quite finish it off, and he finishes bogey bogey, and
Speaker 1: then of course the green jacket's taken from him, and
Speaker 1: it's you gotta finish it. I mean, even Tiger in nineteen, like,
Speaker 1: you got to make five on eighteen to win the Masters,
Speaker 1: and he wasn't the easiest five in the world that
Speaker 1: he made, but you got to make that five. And
Speaker 1: it is the one place that does not let up,
Speaker 1: and it is the one place that continues to ask
Speaker 1: those questions and imagine standing like for you and I
Speaker 1: who've played competitive golf, standing on eighteen to t haven't
Speaker 1: hit that drive to win the Masters, and then haven't
Speaker 1: hit the second shot to win the Masters, and having
Speaker 1: to navigate the putt. Oh my goodness. I mean, it
Speaker 1: just seems so stressful. Now I'm sitting in my basement
Speaker 1: thinking about it. I can only imagine what it's like
Speaker 1: for these guys. But those are those are my five.
Speaker 1: I wanted to hit on Rory. I wanted to hit
Speaker 1: on Scheffler, give him, you know, the praise he needed.
Speaker 1: And I know you and I both wanted to hit
Speaker 1: on j T.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we didn't hit on lots of red meat.
Speaker 3: We didn't hit on rom obviously. Uh, you know, I
Speaker 3: think not much to say about him other than he's
Speaker 3: exceptional golf. And then Kepka, Kepka's going to be my pick.
Speaker 1: Wow, just feeling it, Huh, you know, I.
Speaker 3: Just he's gonna be around, is by all. I all
Speaker 3: I'm looking for is somebody that's going to be around.
Speaker 3: I feel like his recent when he wins at majors,
Speaker 3: he plays well the week before or the week two
Speaker 3: weeks before, Like it just always happens where he plays
Speaker 3: really well. I don't think you want to get to
Speaker 3: the final four at at at the Austin Tournament.
Speaker 2: I think the best way is to bow out before that.
Speaker 3: And I think that Kopka, he he's done everything but
Speaker 3: win it and Augusta and It.
Speaker 2: If he wins, that'd be something else.
Speaker 1: I mean, is this like I know that it's so
Speaker 1: easy to say this is your favorite week of the
Speaker 1: year if you're a golf person, But the wait from
Speaker 1: major to major, the anticipation and the knowledge of the
Speaker 1: golf course and understanding of the history of it. I
Speaker 1: love the Open, obviously, I mean I love the US
Speaker 1: Open and kind of being a part of the broadcast
Speaker 1: side of things. You know, I respect the PGA for
Speaker 1: what it is, but getting to this week, it just
Speaker 1: always feels like we made it. You know. Every time
Speaker 1: we get here, it's like, ah, Okay, here we go.
Speaker 1: Now we're going to go on this run.
Speaker 2: Yeah I put it. Lately, i've been I love the Open.
Speaker 3: I think as a spectator in America, I love the Open,
Speaker 3: and partially I love it also because of like work
Speaker 3: life balance. It's been like I love that the Open
Speaker 3: are these hectic major weeks where I still have an
Speaker 3: afternoon where I have a life, but these the every
Speaker 3: other major week, it's the entire day for an entire
Speaker 3: week is just gone. But I think the Open and
Speaker 3: the Masters to me, are the clear tops of the pedestal.
Speaker 3: I mean, this is I love the US Open too,
Speaker 3: but I think they're the style of setup has become
Speaker 3: a less appealing to me over the years.
Speaker 1: Well this is I mean, you know, getting go down there.
Speaker 1: I know we're gonna go down there and watch the
Speaker 1: basketball earlier in the week and have some food and
Speaker 1: just hang out and talk about this. But I just
Speaker 1: had a baby ten days ago, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's not much stuff that's gonna get me excited to
Speaker 1: leave home. And you know, I mean, I know I'm
Speaker 1: gonna miss Charlotte. I know I'm gonna miss the fan
Speaker 1: when I leave. But I pinch myself every time I
Speaker 1: get to go to walk around that place and get
Speaker 1: to be a part of it in some capacity. And
Speaker 1: I can't wait to do it again. Man, I mean,
Speaker 1: and I'm so pumped it. It's gonna be like it was.
Speaker 1: What was it three years ago? Right? Three years ago?
Speaker 1: Is that right? My goodness? So it's gonna feel like
Speaker 1: a bit of a of like we're all returning as
Speaker 1: well in a capacity. So I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: I have one last golf question before we go. I
Speaker 1: have to. I wanted to say this to the end
Speaker 1: of the podcast. I'm playing in a one club golf
Speaker 1: tournament tomorrow, one club only. What club do I take out?
Speaker 2: How long is the course? How long?
Speaker 1: Not overly long? Not overly long. It's probably sixty four
Speaker 1: sixty five hundred from the backs.
Speaker 2: I think it's six iron.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was six or seven, is what I'm really between.
Speaker 1: I want to take three wood. I want to just
Speaker 1: take three wood just to be an a hole and
Speaker 1: because there's a couple of par fours. I could dry
Speaker 1: with my three wood, but.
Speaker 2: Then you'd be around the green. What would you do
Speaker 2: around the green?
Speaker 1: You just bump and running? Man, just go go, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of go a little Todd Hamilton like, you know,
Speaker 1: just hit the little runner. I mean, you can't do that.
Speaker 1: You gotta go with something with a little bit aloft.
Speaker 1: But I think it'd be hilarious to go three wood.
Speaker 2: With a six or seven iron. You can still get
Speaker 2: out of a bunker. Yes, you get the three wood
Speaker 2: in there. You're what are you gonna do with the
Speaker 2: three wood?
Speaker 1: Do you do you blamee the putts? Or do you
Speaker 1: d like do you do the d loft putt?
Speaker 2: I like you have to blame him. You have to
Speaker 2: blame him.
Speaker 1: Okay, right, I don't know. I'm gonna I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: out there early tomorrow and hit a couple of putts.
Speaker 2: Maybe you could go writy and use the back of it.
Speaker 1: I thought about that as well. I've thought about hitting
Speaker 1: backwards as well, But I almost think the d lofting
Speaker 1: And maybe people think I'm crazy here, but I almost
Speaker 1: feel like on longer putts I do back on my
Speaker 1: foot dl loft and just kind of like almost try
Speaker 1: to meet it with zero offt.
Speaker 2: I like that. I think for longer putts.
Speaker 3: I think you go, Phil, you have two methods.
Speaker 1: And there and there it is our our Michelson mention
Speaker 1: of this point.
Speaker 3: You notice the ball was in a slight depression. So
Speaker 3: I switched switched claw last.
Speaker 2: Minute to win, to pop it out.
Speaker 1: To win the PGA. I changed my putting stroke on
Speaker 1: the seventy first hole. Wild stuff. But yeah, I'm looking
Speaker 1: forward to it. It's gonna be a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: All right, everybody check out, get a grip.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: They may they might hear you on some stuff.
Speaker 3: I you know, I know that all cahoots and quiet,
Speaker 3: but they might hear you if you're if you're tuning
Speaker 3: in to coverage, they might.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: And uh, we look forward to a great week down
Speaker 3: at UH in Augusta.
Speaker 1: Man, I appreciate it. I'm looking forward to it as well.
Speaker 1: And anytime you need me, just let me know.
Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to another edition of the Fridagg Podcast.
Speaker 3: Today's episode was edited by the wonderful Meg Atkins.
Speaker 2: Thank you Meg.
Speaker 3: As a reminder, as I said at the top, it's
Speaker 3: Master's week, so we will be on site. It's a
Speaker 3: great time to sign up for the newsletter, the Fridagg Newsletter.
Speaker 3: It is sent out daily during Master's week. Will and
Speaker 3: our entire team will be contributing, but mostly Will Will
Speaker 3: Knights and he does.
Speaker 2: A great job with it.
Speaker 3: And you can go to the Frida Egg dot com
Speaker 3: and there should be a little sign up bar sign
Speaker 3: up for the newsletter. It is free, It comes to
Speaker 3: your inbox every day during Masters Week and then three
Speaker 3: days a week outside of that, and the easiest way
Speaker 3: to stay up to date with everything going on in
Speaker 3: the golf world. Thanks and we will be back with
Speaker 3: another episode of the Friday Podcast this week.