Speaker 1: So if something happened last week that I didn't think
Speaker 1: anybody in the golf world ever thought would happen. Anthony
Speaker 1: Kim came back to playing golf and I was in
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia. It was it was very It was very interesting.
Speaker 1: I mean, first of all, I mean I never thought
Speaker 1: we'd see him again, right, I mean, I never thought
Speaker 1: that we would ever see Anthony Kim playing competitive golf again.
Speaker 1: And so to see him back and to see to
Speaker 1: just kind of see him in the flesh was just
Speaker 1: it was crazy because I'm a fan. I was a
Speaker 1: fan of his when he played and you know, a
Speaker 1: twelve year absence. I mean, I was at the Houston
Speaker 1: Open in twenty and twelve. I was working with Ernie
Speaker 1: L's and AKA was it was kind of right around
Speaker 1: the tee off times that Ernie. He was in the
Speaker 1: in Ernie's wave, and I watched him warm up, watched
Speaker 1: him hit some shots on the course. He pulled out,
Speaker 1: and then that was That was kind of it. But
Speaker 1: it's crazy to think that he's back playing golf. I
Speaker 1: talked to him a bit. I posted some videos of
Speaker 1: his golf swing on my Instagram, and I guess you'd say,
Speaker 1: they went viral because everybody picked him up and everybody
Speaker 1: was looking at and it was a driver you know,
Speaker 1: it was a driver swing and an iron swing. And
Speaker 1: I think it's important to have to put into context
Speaker 1: who Anthony Kim was. I mean, there are a lot
Speaker 1: of people listening to this podcast that never saw him play,
Speaker 1: but I did, and listen. He wasn't He didn't win
Speaker 1: fifteen twenty times, right, but he won three times on
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour, won a Ryder Cup, went three and
Speaker 1: one in the President's Cup, third the Masters in twenty ten,
Speaker 1: fifth in the the Open Championship twenty eleven. And he
Speaker 1: was kind of a cult type figure, cult type hero
Speaker 1: because he he was a total breaking of the mold
Speaker 1: of what everyone thought. Everybody on the PGA Tour was.
Speaker 1: He was this young kid. You know, he had the
Speaker 1: ak belt with all the look like diamonds all over it.
Speaker 1: He just had an amazing looking golf swing, and you know,
Speaker 1: he was young, and I think it was kind of
Speaker 1: infectious the kind of energy that he brought. And then
Speaker 1: out of nowhere, he was just gone and he was injured,
Speaker 1: and then there were all these rumors and it was
Speaker 1: you know, over the last twelve years, it's been like Bigfoot.
Speaker 1: You know, you would hear people say, oh, man saw
Speaker 1: ak the other day in Dallas, or I saw Anthony
Speaker 1: cam in Vegas, or I saw him in Palm Springs.
Speaker 1: And then every now and again, you'd you'd hear somebody say, man,
Speaker 1: I saw him hitting golf balls and it still looked
Speaker 1: the same. So, you know, over the last i'd say
Speaker 1: probably about three four months, and we kind of heard
Speaker 1: that there were rumors, and you know, he showed up
Speaker 1: on Live last week and played, and listen, he didn't
Speaker 1: play great. Seventy six, seventy six, seventy four, he topped one,
Speaker 1: he shanked one, and there were a lot of people,
Speaker 1: you know, I read I saw on social and I'm
Speaker 1: sure there's a lot of people listening that say, you
Speaker 1: know that says, yeah, this is why Live's a joke
Speaker 1: that they let people like Anthony Kim, you know, play.
Speaker 1: But you all listening need to understand that the PGA
Speaker 1: tour was one hundred percent trying to get Anthony Kim
Speaker 1: back on the PGA tour. Listen, I know that, I
Speaker 1: know that for a fact. So anybody that thinks that
Speaker 1: the tour wasn't trying to get Anthony Kim to come play. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: I got news for you. They were he chose live,
Speaker 1: and it'll be interesting to see what happened. But the
Speaker 1: reason why I wanted to talk about it, obviously everybody's
Speaker 1: been talking about. But the reason why I wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about it and talk about his comeback he is
Speaker 1: I think it kind of blends with what a lot
Speaker 1: of you hear me talk about on the podcast. All
Speaker 1: the time, I watched Anthony Kim on the driving range
Speaker 1: and I just sat there and watched him hit balls
Speaker 1: for twenty minutes, talk to him a bit, but just
Speaker 1: watched him as a fan, as an instructor, as someone
Speaker 1: that loves golf swings and listen. It was I mean,
Speaker 1: I've sitting there with Pat Perez and a couple of
Speaker 1: the other players, and you know, Charles Schwatzel was watching
Speaker 1: him hit balls and he was just looking weird, just
Speaker 1: laughing because I mean, he was asking questions. First of all,
Speaker 1: he used DJ's track Man, and I think this story
Speaker 1: got out, but he had no idea how to use TrackMan.
Speaker 1: And I think the other thing that I in talking
Speaker 1: to AKA that I found very interesting is how much
Speaker 1: the game of golf has changed since he left twelve
Speaker 1: years ago. You know, he had no idea how to
Speaker 1: use a launch monitor. He used DJ's track man. We
Speaker 1: had to tell him how to set it up, We
Speaker 1: had to tell him how to normalize it. We had
Speaker 1: to tell him what numbers to put on, and he
Speaker 1: he had no clue. He had no clue how to
Speaker 1: use one. He talked a lot about how much equipment
Speaker 1: has changed and how much balls have changed, so that
Speaker 1: I found very very interesting because I didn't really think
Speaker 1: in twelve years until you know, I was talking to
Speaker 1: Aka about it. The game has changed, I mean, and
Speaker 1: the technology has changed. I mean, the driver technology has changed.
Speaker 1: Everything has changed in the last twelve years. And I
Speaker 1: think we look at all of the advances in golf
Speaker 1: and we kind of look at them retrospectively, you know,
Speaker 1: thirty forty fifty years ago. But the game has changed
Speaker 1: in the last decade to fifteen years. And Pat Perez
Speaker 1: told me a great story of having breakfast with Aka
Speaker 1: and sitting down and talking to him, and Akay said, listen,
Speaker 1: are there any rules that I need to know about
Speaker 1: that have changed? And if you think about it, twelve
Speaker 1: years ago, you were dropping the golf ball kind of
Speaker 1: shoulder height, you could you couldn't double hit a chip
Speaker 1: without a penalty. You couldn't tap down spike marks. It
Speaker 1: was funny. I said, we were going through on the range,
Speaker 1: we're going through some more of the rules and I said,
Speaker 1: you know, you can tap down spike marks, and he said,
Speaker 1: you know, it's funny. I was watching golf the other
Speaker 1: day on TV and I saw somebody tap it down
Speaker 1: spipe marks, and I was thinking, they're definitely cheating. And
Speaker 1: it was strange just to it was kind of like
Speaker 1: he'd come back to, you know, the planet. And obviously
Speaker 1: the planet that he's come back to is professional golf,
Speaker 1: but when you're away from it for that long, and
Speaker 1: I wasn't surprised. I thought he could do anything. Last week.
Speaker 1: I thought he could shoot, you know, under par I
Speaker 1: thought he could shoot over for but I thought seventy
Speaker 1: seven or seventy six, seventy six, seventy four was probably
Speaker 1: about accurate. I don't know how one of the things
Speaker 1: that that Anthony said to me that he was not
Speaker 1: concerned about, but he thought that was going to be
Speaker 1: not an issue, but something that he was gonna have
Speaker 1: to deal with is He was like, I haven't walked
Speaker 1: eighteen holes in twelve years. Any golf that he had
Speaker 1: been playing, he's playing in karts. And I don't think
Speaker 1: people realize that, Yes, golf is not a contact sport.
Speaker 1: Everybody says, you know, it's easy, you know, it's not
Speaker 1: physical and stuff. But walking fifty four holes, walking seventy
Speaker 1: two holes, walking thirty six holes. I mean, one of
Speaker 1: the things that amateurs always say to the tour players
Speaker 1: in pro ams is they're amazed at how tired they
Speaker 1: are by the end of the day because of all
Speaker 1: the walking. So that was something I think ak was
Speaker 1: having to deal with for the first time in a
Speaker 1: long time. But the golf swing on the driving range
Speaker 1: looked great. I mean it looked good. The speed he
Speaker 1: wasn't up to full speed, but there were watching him
Speaker 1: and they were going I could see him shooting under
Speaker 1: power because of how good he was hitting it on
Speaker 1: the range. But that's what I wanted to talk about.
Speaker 1: And you've heard me say this before, but I think
Speaker 1: this is the best example of this that we could
Speaker 1: possibly have. What you do on the driving range has
Speaker 1: very little to almost no involvement in the outcome. It's
Speaker 1: what you do on the golf course. So Ak's hitting balls.
Speaker 1: I'm watching them hit balls. Other players are watching them
Speaker 1: hit balls, and everybody's gone, Man, golf swing looks money.
Speaker 1: I mean, the golf swing looks great. But there is
Speaker 1: a massive difference to what your golf swing looks like
Speaker 1: on the driving range and how your golf swing performs
Speaker 1: on the golf course. And I think we saw that
Speaker 1: last week with Anthony Kim. I'm sure that he hit
Speaker 1: a lot of good shots on the range and he
Speaker 1: hit some good shots on the golf course during the tournaments.
Speaker 1: His good shots were good shots, and that is something
Speaker 1: that I talked to all the players that I work
Speaker 1: with a lot, but I specifically, you know, probably talk
Speaker 1: more to junior golfers about this. The warm up, your
Speaker 1: practice sessions, your practice rounds, they're just that they're practice.
Speaker 1: And there's a big, big difference when the flag goes up,
Speaker 1: when they put give you a scorecard and a pencil
Speaker 1: and you put it in your back pocket and you
Speaker 1: know that every bad shot you hit is going to
Speaker 1: cost you strokes. I watched, yeah, I walked around some
Speaker 1: holes and watched Anthony play and listen he was rusty.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't think he had total control over
Speaker 1: his golf ball. I don't think he one knew where
Speaker 1: it was going. And I think that's just because he
Speaker 1: he has played no golf. He also told us when
Speaker 1: when he was getting back into golf, he ordered golf
Speaker 1: clubs off the internet because when he quit playing, he
Speaker 1: basically just gave away to his friends all his golf clubs.
Speaker 1: He didn't have any golf clubs. So I think it's
Speaker 1: going to take him sometime to dial in the equipment.
Speaker 1: I think it's going to take some time to dial
Speaker 1: in his body. And I think it's going to take
Speaker 1: some time to dial in his golf swing so that
Speaker 1: he can go out on the golf course and perform
Speaker 1: and have his golf swing do what it needs to
Speaker 1: do on the golf course. But the walk, and I've
Speaker 1: said this a million times and it's a cliche, but
Speaker 1: it's a cliche because it's true. The longest walking golf
Speaker 1: is from the driving range to the first tee. And
Speaker 1: I think that if you are trying to get better
Speaker 1: at golf, you have to ask yourself two things. Do
Speaker 1: you want to be a better practicer? Do you want
Speaker 1: to have a really good looking golf swing on the
Speaker 1: driving range and have a golf swing that everybody looks
Speaker 1: at and goes, man, he's got a beautiful looking golf
Speaker 1: I mean, we can go through loads of players that
Speaker 1: have really good looking golf swings that haven't one big tournaments,
Speaker 1: that haven't performed at the highest level, and I think
Speaker 1: we're seeing that with Aka. It was really cool to
Speaker 1: see him again. It was so cool to see him
Speaker 1: hit golf balls and to watch his golf I was
Speaker 1: always a huge, huge fan of the way he swung
Speaker 1: the golf club, so to be able to see him
Speaker 1: again hitting golf balls on a driving range was really cool.
Speaker 1: It was something, you know, special, to watch it up
Speaker 1: close and to just be able to sit there for
Speaker 1: fifteen twenty minutes and watch him hit balls, and everybody
Speaker 1: that was watching him hit balls was would kind of
Speaker 1: walk away after watching him hit you know, five ten
Speaker 1: balls and just kind of shake their head and just go, man,
Speaker 1: that looks really cool. But there is a massive, massive
Speaker 1: difference between the esthetics of your golf swing and how
Speaker 1: your golf swing performs when you were on the golf course,
Speaker 1: and I think we saw that. I think we saw,
Speaker 1: you know, Anthony hit some wayward shots. He didn't get
Speaker 1: off to great starts, and that's something I think everybody
Speaker 1: listening goes through in their own golf swing. I think
Speaker 1: seeing I mean, in my opinion, what we saw from
Speaker 1: Anthony Kim last week was probably the closest that the
Speaker 1: rest of us are ever going to get to having
Speaker 1: somebody's game mirror rs. Meaning, didn't get off to great starts,
Speaker 1: made some big numbers, shanked some, topped some. That's what
Speaker 1: all of us do on a regular basis as well,
Speaker 1: and I think it was a unique insight to just
Speaker 1: how hard the game of golf is and also how
Speaker 1: hard competitive professional golf is. I mean, the players make
Speaker 1: it look easy. I think there is this sometimes this
Speaker 1: kind of misguided view that yeah, it's not really that hard,
Speaker 1: but golf is hard, and golf is hard on a
Speaker 1: number of different levels. Golf is hard physically, golf is
Speaker 1: hard technically, and golf most importantly and probably the most
Speaker 1: important part of the game of golf is the mental
Speaker 1: aspect of it. It's hard mentally. It's hard to stand
Speaker 1: up if you've hit a bad shot, if you've topped one,
Speaker 1: if you've shanked one, if you've rinched one in the water,
Speaker 1: if you've snapped hooked one out of bounds, it is very,
Speaker 1: very difficult to stand back up on the next shot
Speaker 1: and make a committed golf swing. And that is I
Speaker 1: think the things that I took from last week that
Speaker 1: I think are positives for Ak. Right. I think that
Speaker 1: you know, there were some good shots. You know, his
Speaker 1: touch wasn't great. You know, his short game wasn't great.
Speaker 1: You know his speed was a little bit off on
Speaker 1: the putting greens. But I think this week as well
Speaker 1: in Hong Kong, for Ak, I think it's another opportunity
Speaker 1: for him to test and kind of gauge where he's at.
Speaker 1: And then I think what he's going to do is
Speaker 1: go home and kind of say, okay, let's make a plan.
Speaker 1: I mean, he had one of his boys caddying for him.
Speaker 1: He knows he needs to get a real caddy, someone
Speaker 1: that can help him on the golf course, someone that
Speaker 1: can you know, shepherd him around the course. Is at
Speaker 1: a veteran, is it a young guy. I don't know.
Speaker 1: His old caddy, Biggie. He caddies Eric Larson. He cardies
Speaker 1: for Harris English. Now Gary Matthews, who caddies for Wako'neman,
Speaker 1: who's won two out of the first three live events.
Speaker 1: He caddied for ak in the past, So I think
Speaker 1: the caddy is going to be a big part of this.
Speaker 1: I think if Anthony can get somebody on the bag
Speaker 1: that he knows, he trusts, he likes, and that can
Speaker 1: kind of point him in the right direction, I think
Speaker 1: that's going to be big. Obviously, he's going to need
Speaker 1: to get more command and control over his ball flights,
Speaker 1: over his trajectories, all of that stuff. And to be
Speaker 1: honest with you, again, going back to what I just said,
Speaker 1: that's another example that he's human, that he's just like
Speaker 1: all of us. Like we're all trying to get better
Speaker 1: command control over a ball flight, we're trying to hit
Speaker 1: it more solid. I think that Anthony will take these
Speaker 1: two weeks, and depending on how he plays this, I
Speaker 1: would think that he would play better this week in
Speaker 1: Hong Kong than he played last week. A completely different
Speaker 1: type of golf course. This is much tighter, it's more
Speaker 1: tree lined. Last week in Jeddo was desert, so if
Speaker 1: you hit it offline, you're hitting it into the desert.
Speaker 1: This week, if you hit it offline, you're hitting in
Speaker 1: the trees. But it's a different style of golf course.
Speaker 1: The length isn't going to be that big of an issue.
Speaker 1: So I mean, obviously there's some really really long hitters
Speaker 1: on Live Listen. There's long hitters everywhere, right, there's long
Speaker 1: hitters on the PGA Tour, DP World, wherever. But this week,
Speaker 1: I think Anthony isn't going to be so much behind
Speaker 1: the eight ball, behind the bombers. But his iron game
Speaker 1: wasn't great last week. And I think if if he
Speaker 1: can go away after you know, the first two weeks
Speaker 1: and and really grind and kind of figure out use
Speaker 1: these two weeks and say, Okay, what wasn't working on
Speaker 1: the golf course? What aspect of my game wasn't working?
Speaker 1: Was it short game, was it putting? Was it iron play,
Speaker 1: was it driving? Whatever it was? I think, ak, we'll
Speaker 1: get a good idea of what he needs to work on.
Speaker 1: But I think it's just fascinating that your golf swing
Speaker 1: can I I was I was marveling at how good
Speaker 1: it looked. I mean when he started hitting drivers, I
Speaker 1: was just standing there and I was like, I mean,
Speaker 1: how good's the position that he puts it in at
Speaker 1: the top. I mean the impact positions. You know, I
Speaker 1: took a bunch of slow mo video for myself, and
Speaker 1: when you slow it down, you know, the positions are
Speaker 1: really really good in slow motion. In positions, AK swing
Speaker 1: looks solid, looks good. It looks like someone that has
Speaker 1: played golf at an incredibly high level. It looks like
Speaker 1: someone that has won tournaments on the PGA Tour, that
Speaker 1: has played in Ryder Cups. I mean, his golf swing
Speaker 1: passes the look test. But again, there's so much more
Speaker 1: to golf than just the way your golf swing looks.
Speaker 1: And I hope everyone listening takes what Ak went through
Speaker 1: last week and applies it to their own game and says, Okay,
Speaker 1: there's what I do on the driving range, and then
Speaker 1: there's what I do when I'm actually playing golf. And
Speaker 1: I think last week is probably the best example I
Speaker 1: can give to everybody listening that playing the game of
Speaker 1: golf is more important than what your golf swing looks like. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: Anthony hit some bad shots and part of that has
Speaker 1: to do with his golf swing. I think he needs
Speaker 1: more reps. Something that you know, Tiger Woods has made
Speaker 1: famous and made a constant statement. You know, you hear
Speaker 1: players say that, but he does. He needs reps, he
Speaker 1: needs more practice, he needs more rounds of golf. So
Speaker 1: I would imagine that he's probably going to be playing
Speaker 1: a lot of golf and hitting a lot of golf balls,
Speaker 1: and you know, he'll go on the driving range. He'll
Speaker 1: figure out what works and what doesn't work. Is is
Speaker 1: golf swing definitely looked faster on the driving range. It
Speaker 1: looked more committed on the driving range than it did
Speaker 1: on some of the shots on the course. And again,
Speaker 1: I think that's a great parallel that everybody can for
Speaker 1: their own game, that you're trying to swing the golf
Speaker 1: club on the driving range the same way you swing
Speaker 1: it on the golf course. Which, listen, that's hard to do, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, you've got out of bounds, you've got water,
Speaker 1: you've got hazards, you've got all of these things. So he,
Speaker 1: from what I was looking at, he was definitely making
Speaker 1: committed golf swings, and the golf swings looked a little
Speaker 1: bit more committed on the driving range, the irons and
Speaker 1: the driver as well. I mean he was able to
Speaker 1: kind of swing at it on the range and then
Speaker 1: on the golf course at times it looked a little
Speaker 1: bit like he was steering it. And you all, if
Speaker 1: you're a regular listener of the pod, have heard me
Speaker 1: all the time say one of the best things that
Speaker 1: you can do on the golf course is to say, Okay,
Speaker 1: let me make a committed golf swing, okay to a
Speaker 1: not aggressive target. So just just making committed golf swings
Speaker 1: to conservative targets, right. But I also think last week
Speaker 1: is an example of you can not get off to
Speaker 1: a good start. I think the positive Anthony will take
Speaker 1: where the long string of pars that he put together,
Speaker 1: I think that's that's important because you don't want to
Speaker 1: go out and shoot ninety and stuff. And listen, there
Speaker 1: were a lot of people that wanted him to fail there,
Speaker 1: and you see those people, and I think anybody that
Speaker 1: wants Anthony Kim to fail and to not do well
Speaker 1: is is doing that for their own reasons. And I
Speaker 1: think that you know, he he's going to get better,
Speaker 1: He's going to get more comfortable. I would imagine, you know,
Speaker 1: he'll maybe go at some pins as the golf swing
Speaker 1: gets better that maybe he wasn't or maybe he just
Speaker 1: says listen, I'm just going to try and be really
Speaker 1: really conservative and and minimize all the mistakes that I'm making,
Speaker 1: and try and you stay away from the big numbers.
Speaker 1: I thought the first day his opening round, to not
Speaker 1: have any really really big numbers, I thought was a win.
Speaker 1: He threw in some some doubles, which I expected him
Speaker 1: to do, and again that's a massive reason why he
Speaker 1: was shooting the scores that he was shooting. But I
Speaker 1: think when you over this coming year, I think Anthony Kim,
Speaker 1: you know, he's going to play a lot on live
Speaker 1: and I think it's going to be a very cool
Speaker 1: opportunity for all of us, his golf fans and his
Speaker 1: golfers to watch someone kind of come back and watch
Speaker 1: how he handles the comeback, what he does. He worked
Speaker 1: the majority of his professional career with Adam Shriver as
Speaker 1: his instructor. Adam works on the PGA Tour with Sam Ryder,
Speaker 1: or at least did when when I was still on
Speaker 1: on tour. I've been on tour in a while, but
Speaker 1: Adam's a great coach. Does he link back up with him,
Speaker 1: Does Adam start coming out and traveling with him and
Speaker 1: and helping him. Does he you know, try the lone
Speaker 1: wolf thing and dig it out of the dirt. Does
Speaker 1: he get an instructor, does he hire somebody to help
Speaker 1: him with his golf swing, to help him with his
Speaker 1: golf game. I think all of that is on the table.
Speaker 1: But I really I was just I was really happy
Speaker 1: to see him again. Listen, I'm not friends with him,
Speaker 1: we're not boys. I knew him to say hello to him,
Speaker 1: But as a golfer and as a golf fan, I
Speaker 1: think it is an opportunity for some sense of redemption
Speaker 1: for a K and I and and I'd be interested
Speaker 1: to hear what his goals are, what what he thinks
Speaker 1: is kind of a win for this year, because I
Speaker 1: would imagine given the type of personality that Ak has,
Speaker 1: that that we've all been able to kind of you know,
Speaker 1: watch he always had a tremendous amount of confidence, and
Speaker 1: I think that was one of the things that that
Speaker 1: I always really liked about him is he just didn't
Speaker 1: give a shit. He he wanted to beat you. He
Speaker 1: had a lot of swag, and you know, you can
Speaker 1: still see some of that there, but you know, he
Speaker 1: looks different. He's got the long hair, he's got the
Speaker 1: sleeve tad on the left arm. I'm here for all that, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, and listen, a lot of people were talking
Speaker 1: about how he looks and how he was dressed and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. Listen. I'm just glad the gets back.
Speaker 1: I hope he gets you know, he can hopefully this
Speaker 1: can be the catalyst to to helping him find some happiness.
Speaker 1: He was over in Saudi Arabia, and I know he's
Speaker 1: this week here in Hong Kong. He's got his his
Speaker 1: wife and his young daughter with him and it was
Speaker 1: cool to see that too, you know. And I think
Speaker 1: that's in talking to some people that know Akay, I
Speaker 1: think that's one of the things that has driven him
Speaker 1: to want to come back and play competitive golf again
Speaker 1: so that his daughter maybe one day can see him
Speaker 1: and remember him playing golf. But it was a really
Speaker 1: cool week and I'm excited. Uh I didn't see I
Speaker 1: didn't see him today, but I know DJ and And
Speaker 1: and Pat Perez were gonna they were definitely gonna try
Speaker 1: and play a practice round with him this week, and
Speaker 1: I think that would be really That's the other thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think Anthony's kind of been on his own,
Speaker 1: doing his own thing for you know the better part
Speaker 1: of you know, twelve years now. But I do think
Speaker 1: it will be helpful. There were so many good players
Speaker 1: on Life, regardless of what everybody listening, whether they like
Speaker 1: live where they don't live, I don't care, I really don't.
Speaker 1: But there is some serious talent on Live. I mean,
Speaker 1: you walk up and down the driving range, and I
Speaker 1: think Anthony cam is walking up and down the driving
Speaker 1: range with some of the best players in the world,
Speaker 1: and so I think it will be massively beneficial for
Speaker 1: him to play practice rounds with some of these guys.
Speaker 1: To play a practice round with DJ and Brooks and
Speaker 1: Cam Smith and John Rahm and all of these Bryson,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think, you know, he's going to learn
Speaker 1: a lot and see and kind of be able to
Speaker 1: gauge his game a lot. You know, the players, you know,
Speaker 1: they the big players like to play, especially around the majors.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've said this on the pod before, Rory
Speaker 1: has DJ and Brooks play a lot of practice rounds
Speaker 1: with Rory around major championships, right because they're trying to
Speaker 1: kind of get an idea of what their games look like,
Speaker 1: what their strategies look like, and all of that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. So I think that's going to be something
Speaker 1: that is going to be massively beneficial for ak is
Speaker 1: to get back out and play some practice rounds with
Speaker 1: some of the best players in the world, some of
Speaker 1: the best ball strikers in the world, and I think
Speaker 1: that'll give him a very good gauge on the things
Speaker 1: that he needs to work on. I think this is
Speaker 1: going to be a fascinating year to watch a player
Speaker 1: that was one of the best players in the world,
Speaker 1: that had so much talent, and to watch him kind
Speaker 1: of navigate where golf is in twenty twenty four. The
Speaker 1: game has changed, equipment has changed, technology has changed what
Speaker 1: we know about the body and stuff. He listen, he
Speaker 1: was injured, so hopefully the injury has healed and he
Speaker 1: can get back to playing golf. But I think he
Speaker 1: was really honest in his interviews and said, listen, you
Speaker 1: know one of the positive I think one of the
Speaker 1: cool things is he said he played so bad that
Speaker 1: he thought it was a positive because I mean, he
Speaker 1: can only go up. He is a competitive person and
Speaker 1: he doesn't listen. He doesn't want to come and shoot,
Speaker 1: you know, a bunch over par every week. I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously not so I'm excited, and as a golf swing
Speaker 1: nerd is someone that whose entire life is looking at
Speaker 1: golf swings. I got to be honest with you. In
Speaker 1: the last week, I've spent a lot of time looking
Speaker 1: at ak swing, just you know, because it's it's he's back,
Speaker 1: and it's cool to see. And I'm excited, I really am.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to see what he can do. And I
Speaker 1: think this is going to be a very interesting thing
Speaker 1: for all of you to follow. And like I said,
Speaker 1: this is basically what we all go through, right, We
Speaker 1: hit it good on the range, our practice sessions are good,
Speaker 1: and then we go out and we shoot over par,
Speaker 1: and then we come back and go, Okay, what do
Speaker 1: we need to work on? And I think part of
Speaker 1: this is going to be technical golf swing. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean definitely. I do think that if he can get
Speaker 1: more control over his golf ball, if he can control
Speaker 1: the trajectory, you can flow control the flight, control the shots.
Speaker 1: I think that's going to make it. I think the
Speaker 1: putting in the short game is the easiest, low hanging fruit.
Speaker 1: You put some time in on that, get some reps
Speaker 1: in on that, and he'll start to feel comfortable. And
Speaker 1: then I think this week it's going to be a
Speaker 1: different test, and and I'm excited and I'm interested to
Speaker 1: see how a really really different type of golf course
Speaker 1: than than we played last week. Yeah, last week desert
Speaker 1: very much like Scottsdale, very much like Palm Springs, wide open,
Speaker 1: wind blows a lot because that golf course in Jetta
Speaker 1: is right on the Red Sea, so you can get
Speaker 1: some really windy days. But here in Hong Kong, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's a different anim well, it's a different type
Speaker 1: of golf course. It's tree lines, more parkland. It's very
Speaker 1: very different. And I think it's it's cool to to
Speaker 1: kind of get these two different golf courses for Ak
Speaker 1: early and then I think he'll have a really good
Speaker 1: idea of where his game is. But I'm a fan.
Speaker 1: I want him to succeed. And if he was, if
Speaker 1: he was playing and getting some sponsors invites on the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour, I'd want him to succeed there as well.
Speaker 1: But if you think, and if if you're trying to
Speaker 1: use Anthony Kim coming to Live as a reason to
Speaker 1: think that Live is a joke and everything like that,
Speaker 1: if he wasn't going to live. He was going to
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour and he was going to get invites
Speaker 1: and you would have seen him there, So regardless of
Speaker 1: where he's playing, I'm excited. I think it's a big story.
Speaker 1: I think he is a needle mover and we'll see
Speaker 1: how that plays out. And I wouldn't be surprised if
Speaker 1: we see him at some point this year on a leaderboard.
Speaker 1: I think he's good will be good, and if he
Speaker 1: can minimize and limit how bad the bad is, I
Speaker 1: think he can start playing some competitive golf and some
Speaker 1: decent golf again. And I am one hundred percent here
Speaker 1: for it AK being back. I think it's a good thing.
Speaker 1: It's just my opinion. I'm sure everybody else listening has theirs,
Speaker 1: but I saw it up close. I got to talk
Speaker 1: to him, and it's pretty damn cool, something I never
Speaker 1: thought that we would see again. Can't thank everybody enough
Speaker 1: for listening. If you haven't listened to last week's episode
Speaker 1: with Victor Hovlin, it was good. It was a really
Speaker 1: good one. And there are a ton of good podcasts
Speaker 1: with a bunch of good guests. We're going to continue
Speaker 1: to try and get more guests. The Son of a
Speaker 1: Butcher comes to you every Wednesday, and we will see
Speaker 1: you all next week.