Speaker 1: I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When
Speaker 1: 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: Friday egg, the dreaded Friday Friday, Frida Frida egg Bride
Speaker 1: egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the hump.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Golf Podcast.
Speaker 2: Today I am joined by Johnson Wagner to break down
Speaker 2: this year's PGA Championship. I can't believe it's here already,
Speaker 2: it is.
Speaker 1: We are.
Speaker 2: We are in the heart of major championship season. Of course,
Speaker 2: last week we talked about Oakmont. This week we have
Speaker 2: the pg Championship at Quail Hollow. Xanderschoffle is the defending champion,
Speaker 2: obviously has a great track record at Quail Hollow through
Speaker 2: the years. And you know, we've We've got a major
Speaker 2: championship chock full of storylines. I think the amazing thing
Speaker 2: about this year's PGA is just the run up what's
Speaker 2: been happening in pro golf, and it's hard not to
Speaker 2: be excited about the top players and their form coming in. Obviously,
Speaker 2: Scotti Scheffler is coming off of a win at the
Speaker 2: CJ Cup, a dominant win at a golf course that
Speaker 2: makes it very hard to be dominant at You have
Speaker 2: Rory McRoy fresh off his Master's win, as well as
Speaker 2: j T getting in the winner circle and Bryson getting
Speaker 2: in the winner circle on live in South Korea, so
Speaker 2: tons of stories. You know, the big players are going
Speaker 2: to be the dominant story. I think that that's kind
Speaker 2: of a great situation for the PGA Championship is to
Speaker 2: have kind of that player led story. So we are
Speaker 2: joined by Johnson Wagner, a local Charlotte resident. Johnson is
Speaker 2: a big become a big time superstar personality for the
Speaker 2: Golf Channel. He's on live from he is. He is
Speaker 2: a great guy, great golf mind. You know, he is
Speaker 2: into golf course architecture, obviously very astute with the professional
Speaker 2: game from his years playing on the PGA Tour and
Speaker 2: covering it now for Golf Channel. So thrilled that Johnson
Speaker 2: could join. I've been really a big fan of his
Speaker 2: his career post playing. So excited to talk about the
Speaker 2: PGA and do our five Things about the PGA Championship
Speaker 2: with Johnson Wagner. Before we get to that, let's talk
Speaker 2: about our partner Good Walk Coffee. This is a true partnership.
Speaker 2: I have to say. I was in Scotland for ten
Speaker 2: days and then I came back home. I was stopped
Speaker 2: in Oakmont, but on my way back home, all I
Speaker 2: could think about was making my own pot of coffee
Speaker 2: in the morning. I think that's one of the things
Speaker 2: that I often miss when I go on these big trips,
Speaker 2: the most besides my family and my home, is you know,
Speaker 2: the idea of waking up and making a nice pot
Speaker 2: of coffee. And my coffee is the fried egg blend
Speaker 2: from Goodwalk Coffee. As I said, we are partners with Goodwalk,
Speaker 2: so that purchasing this product directly helps us as well
Speaker 2: as Goodwalk a great friend of ours. And you know,
Speaker 2: I would recommend checking out the subscription. If you do
Speaker 2: a subscription service, you can basically get the coffee shipped
Speaker 2: to you on a cadence that worked for you. I
Speaker 2: get two bags a month. It might be a little
Speaker 2: light when I'm home all month, it might be a
Speaker 2: little too much when I'm traveling. So right now I've
Speaker 2: got a nice surplus. But the great thing about that
Speaker 2: is that I am able to dish it out to
Speaker 2: some friends neighbors. Bag here, Bag there makes a great call,
Speaker 2: a great gift for you know friends. So we have
Speaker 2: two different blends. We have a Shotgun Start blend that
Speaker 2: is a more medium dark roast. So if you like
Speaker 2: a darker bean, that should be that that would be
Speaker 2: right up your alley. I'm more of a light bean drinker.
Speaker 2: My wife turns out as a dark bean drinker. We've
Speaker 2: got kind of a battle going on in the household
Speaker 2: between the two blends. So the light Bean is if
Speaker 2: you're more of a light bean drinker, check out the
Speaker 2: fried Egg blend. You can purchase all this stuff at
Speaker 2: Goodwalkcoffee dot com. If you use the promo code fried egg,
Speaker 2: you will get twenty percent off your purchase with fried Egg,
Speaker 2: thirty percent off your first purchase of subscription, and then
Speaker 2: ten percent off every shipment after that. So use the
Speaker 2: promo code fried egg and go to Goodwalkcoffee dot com.
Speaker 2: All right, let's get to Johnson Wagner. All right, it's
Speaker 2: time for the twenty twenty five PGA Championship, and I'm
Speaker 2: super excited about about the guests. It's it's been a
Speaker 2: long time. I feel like we talked about you coming
Speaker 2: on the pod like three years ago, and it's just
Speaker 2: been you know, it's just been misconnection after miss connection.
Speaker 2: Johnson Wagner, I'm happy I remembered I asked you at
Speaker 2: the Masters. I'm not gonna lie. I. I was in
Speaker 2: this stupor from my long trip and I was like scrambling.
Speaker 2: I was like, who am I having on for the PGA,
Speaker 2: And then PJ reminded me what about Johnson? You said
Speaker 2: Johnson was coming on. I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: I completely forgot. So Johnson, thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2: You are you're traveling across the country for your your
Speaker 2: Tiger Tiger historic shot thing. How's it going.
Speaker 1: It's going good, Just getting really going out here at
Speaker 1: Pebble Beach. Was fortunate to play a practice round. At
Speaker 1: practice round, I played around at Cypher's Point upon A
Speaker 1: and man, I just love being out here and excited
Speaker 1: for the rest of the trip. It's going to be
Speaker 1: gonna be a good time. Hopefully Tiger Woods. Hopefully I
Speaker 1: can make him proud of some of these recreations.
Speaker 2: I would if I'm Tiger, I'm worried that you're going
Speaker 2: to outdo them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is not going to happen. And if it does,
Speaker 1: it will be met with a wild celebration.
Speaker 2: You know, honestly, you've You've carved out quite a role
Speaker 2: in golf media. It's been so fun to watch like
Speaker 2: your your popularity rise. I'm not sure that your ardent
Speaker 2: fans would like if you outdo Tiger.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's possible. I will give away a
Speaker 1: little bit. I know. I don't know when this is
Speaker 1: going to air, but I will be hitting the shot
Speaker 1: out of the fairway bunker at Glenn Abbey on Friday
Speaker 1: for Golf Central. And I can tell you one thing,
Speaker 1: I will not be hitting the six iron to where
Speaker 1: he did. If I hit six iron and probably go
Speaker 1: in the middle of the lake, it's gonna be a
Speaker 1: three iron for me. I'd be happy if I found
Speaker 1: dry land.
Speaker 2: The Tiger shots are astautic. So I was at Carnousti
Speaker 2: last week and I walked over and looked at the
Speaker 2: I looked at the bunker that remember on ten when
Speaker 2: he hit that shot out of that bunker. I went
Speaker 2: in and I pulled up the video and watched the
Speaker 2: video and then put a ball down where it was
Speaker 2: and I was just looking at it, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: this is not possible. This is not a humanly possible
Speaker 2: to hit this shot.
Speaker 1: There's nobody that could hit the shots that he was
Speaker 1: able to hit, especially I mean in his prime, the
Speaker 1: shot he hit at Hazeltine when he hit that three iron,
Speaker 1: cut it out of the bunker. I mean, like most
Speaker 1: people are just pitching that back to the fairway and
Speaker 1: Tiger Woods is like, no, I can hit this up
Speaker 1: there close. It's it's remarkable the stuff he gets he
Speaker 1: was able to do.
Speaker 2: I sometimes, you know, with some of the chips you've
Speaker 2: hit over the year, over the last year, I think
Speaker 2: that sometimes it gets lost that like you were a
Speaker 2: bonafide tour player, one of the best players in the
Speaker 2: world for a very long time. I feel like people
Speaker 2: are discounting the fact that you are a bona fide
Speaker 2: tour pro.
Speaker 1: Well. I mean it's tough, man. I get out there, Andy,
Speaker 1: I get out there, and I wait for about an hour.
Speaker 1: It's not like I'm going to the range. It's not
Speaker 1: like I'm practicing. I don't hit any warm up chips
Speaker 1: or anything. And my short game sucks. It always has,
Speaker 1: and so now I've got to do it at the
Speaker 1: highest pressure moment without having made contact with the ball
Speaker 1: yet for the day. So I don't expect much out
Speaker 1: of myself and that's why sometimes when I hit a
Speaker 1: good one, I'm like, Oh, I surprise myself. But usually
Speaker 1: they're Usually they're pretty bad, which people I've found enjoy
Speaker 1: watching me. I wish people had enjoyed watching me skull, Duff,
Speaker 1: shank chunk chips back when I played, because I may
Speaker 1: have had some galleries because that was kind of what
Speaker 1: I did all the time.
Speaker 2: Well, I've got news for people. It's not out of
Speaker 2: the question that you will be playing on tour in
Speaker 2: an opposite field event this year. You've been getting close.
Speaker 1: I have been getting close. I'm trying, like.
Speaker 2: Can you walk me through before you're gonna get to
Speaker 2: the PGA. But when you see your name creeping off
Speaker 2: the alternate list, what are you are? You are you
Speaker 2: texting your wife being like, hey, can you get my
Speaker 2: clubs ready? You might have to ship them.
Speaker 1: So I entered. I entered the field of both Puerto
Speaker 1: Rico and Dominican Republic because I wanted to get my
Speaker 1: old Caddy a credential for the year, and so I
Speaker 1: had to at least be like, yeah, I'm signed up
Speaker 1: for a couple events I plan on going to play,
Speaker 1: and I got really close to Puerto Rico and my
Speaker 1: heart started beating really fast on Monday when I was like,
Speaker 1: oh damn, I'm an ape alternate. I know how this works.
Speaker 1: I'm getting in and I'm gonna go play. Right. My
Speaker 1: son never got to caddy for me on tour. He's
Speaker 1: sixteen now, so I was gonna go play, but it
Speaker 1: would have been I mean, I've got the high rights
Speaker 1: and the low lefts off the tee. I don't know
Speaker 1: that I could finish around on the PGA Tour right now.
Speaker 2: Listen, I think I think you're entering in with the
Speaker 2: best possible mindset. Low expectations typically yield great surprising results, right.
Speaker 1: Go win, Go win one of them and get into
Speaker 1: the PGA Championship, and the players like go and then
Speaker 1: and then what do I do? Then?
Speaker 2: Then you're in a pickle with your job. You'd be
Speaker 2: one of one of it. You know, you wouldn't be
Speaker 2: the only part time player, part time analysts the Golf
Speaker 2: Channel's got, so you know that would be that would
Speaker 2: be the position you get yourself in. Let's get to
Speaker 2: the PGA. This is a big week, this is your
Speaker 2: home course. What what are you most excited about with?
Speaker 2: You know, I always think like there's a level of
Speaker 2: pride when you're covering the game of golf when the
Speaker 2: road show hits your hometown in particularly a major championship.
Speaker 2: As a chicagoan very prideful golf city, this is one
Speaker 2: of the things that I'm most sad about that, you know,
Speaker 2: there's no major championship in sight for one of the
Speaker 2: great golf cities. But the big, the big show is
Speaker 2: coming to Charlotte. What are you most excited about?
Speaker 1: Well, you guys have the President's Cup in Medina next year.
Speaker 1: I'm coming now.
Speaker 2: Irrationally excited about the Peak Cup. This is the most
Speaker 2: excited I've been about the Peak Cup. The golf course
Speaker 2: is gonna be great for that, and excited about you know,
Speaker 2: Jeff Ogilvie leading the Internationals to their to victory.
Speaker 1: And he's gonna have a ton of great insights since
Speaker 1: he did the rent restoration of that golf course too,
Speaker 1: So I think that's gonna be awesome. But what I'm
Speaker 1: most excited about, man, you know, the PGA Championship we
Speaker 1: had in twenty seventeen, back in August, it was wet,
Speaker 1: it was humid, it was just awful weather. Quail Hollow
Speaker 1: plays so much better when it's overseeded. The next big
Speaker 1: event we had was the President's Cup in twenty two.
Speaker 1: Again it was Bermuda, and it played really well. It
Speaker 1: played really nicely that week because we got some cool
Speaker 1: weather and it kind of thinned out and it was
Speaker 1: sort of this jumpy Bermuda rough. But I've always felt
Speaker 1: like the Wells Fargo Championship, now the Truest Championship, is
Speaker 1: the best time of year to be in Charlotte. It's May.
Speaker 1: It's like we can have some cool mornings and some
Speaker 1: warm days. And I'm excited for the golf course because
Speaker 1: we've been shut down as members for three weeks leading
Speaker 1: in and I'm telling you, there's not a blade of
Speaker 1: grass out of place. The fairways are as firm and
Speaker 1: as fast as I've ever seen them. The rough, while
Speaker 1: it's not long, it's super thick, and it's been kind
Speaker 1: of moan and drug back towards the tee, so it's
Speaker 1: going to play gnarly. I'm excited because I think this
Speaker 1: is going to be the best Quail Hollow has ever
Speaker 1: presented itself for a major championship or for any big event,
Speaker 1: and it's going to be awesome as a member and
Speaker 1: as someone who's covering it to watch the best players
Speaker 1: in the world try to attack it.
Speaker 2: I think it's in a hard position just because of
Speaker 2: it being a annual host on the PGA Tour. I
Speaker 2: think this, like Pebble is not immune to this. Like
Speaker 2: the criticism of Pebble with the US Opens is like
Speaker 2: we see it every year, and I think, like, we're
Speaker 2: gonna run into something similar with Riviera in the Olympics,
Speaker 2: Like we see this course all the time. I think,
Speaker 2: like that's one of the challenging things about about hosting it.
Speaker 2: But that being said, one of the beneficial things is
Speaker 2: that a major championship. And I'm such a firm believer
Speaker 2: in this, Like major championships going to major cities is
Speaker 2: a great thing because you get great crowd support, you
Speaker 2: get like the local aspect of it. There's a sense
Speaker 2: of like rather than it going you know, somewhere far
Speaker 2: away from a city or an hour from a city,
Speaker 2: like say like an Aaron Hills, this is not meant
Speaker 2: to be a drive by of Aaron Hills where everybody's
Speaker 2: getting like taking like a long shuttle to get there.
Speaker 2: It is awesome to be in cities. And and you know,
Speaker 2: Quail Hollow is the club in Charlotte, right Like that's
Speaker 2: the one everybody kind of talks about. Obviously, Charlotte Country Club,
Speaker 2: Carolina golf clubs are great places, but but Quail is
Speaker 2: the spot, and it's neat to go to the top
Speaker 2: spot in a big town. I think, like, I'm not like,
Speaker 2: I'm not the biggest Kuail Hollow fan. I think we
Speaker 2: well know this. I will say one thing I appreciate
Speaker 2: about Kail Hollow is I think it has a nice
Speaker 2: cadence of give and take where you kind of like
Speaker 2: start out, you have a nice start, then it gets
Speaker 2: a little tougher, then you have a run of scorable
Speaker 2: holes where you can really get while you're while the
Speaker 2: getting's good, and then you got to hold on for
Speaker 2: dear life on the finish. And I think that that cadence,
Speaker 2: whether or not you love the golf architecture being presented,
Speaker 2: the cadence of the round works really really well for
Speaker 2: championship golf and for exciting tournament golf.
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree more. And I mean fourteen fifteen, where
Speaker 1: they're located fourteen. I would argue fourteen is one of
Speaker 1: the best drivable holes in championship golf because it actually
Speaker 1: allows you to get the ball close to the green.
Speaker 1: I love Tenant Riviera, but you can't you can't hit
Speaker 1: that green with off tea. I mean maybe if it's
Speaker 1: soft you can keep it on the front left. But
Speaker 1: fourteen at Quail, if you execute the right shot, you
Speaker 1: can give yourself a makeable eagle putt. And then fifteen,
Speaker 1: the par five, is tremendous. Yes, of course there are
Speaker 1: some issues. Seventeen can be pretty difficult to hold the
Speaker 1: green the par three, but yeah, I agree with you
Speaker 1: on the cadence it. It does deliver a true championship test.
Speaker 1: And I think to your point about having a regular
Speaker 1: PGA Tour event, I think it was the no laying
Speaker 1: up guys called it Quail Hollow fatigue, Like we don't
Speaker 1: get an opportunity to miss Quail Hollow because we host
Speaker 1: something every single year, and I think that's where people's
Speaker 1: opinions come from it. But we deliver really exciting, good
Speaker 1: tournaments that, by the way, benefit Roy McElroy most of
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 2: Right, we do this five things. I was going to have.
Speaker 2: I figured course was going to be one of your
Speaker 2: five things, So I figured I just tee you up
Speaker 2: with it. My first thing's Rory McElroy. And you say,
Speaker 2: this course benefits Rory McElroy. You ready for his finishes
Speaker 2: through the years at Quail Hollow.
Speaker 1: Bring it on.
Speaker 2: Twenty ten, first place, twenty eleven, he missed the cut,
Speaker 2: twenty twelve, T two, twenty thirteen, T ten, twenty fourteen,
Speaker 2: T eight, twenty fifteen, first, twenty sixteen, T four, PGA
Speaker 2: Championship of twenty seventeen, T twenty two, twenty eighteen, T sixteen,
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen, T eight, twenty twenty obviously no tournament, twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one, first, twenty twenty two, fifth, twenty twenty three,
Speaker 2: T forty seven, and then twenty twenty four a win.
Speaker 2: Pretty good.
Speaker 1: Call that a honey hole. That's Quail Hollow. Is his
Speaker 1: is his? Is his annuity right there.
Speaker 2: I think he is obviously the big storyline of the week.
Speaker 2: I think that, like really, like you know, I think
Speaker 2: this this is you know, one of the less interesting
Speaker 2: five things because I think like the way that the
Speaker 2: world of golf is kind of positioned right now, and
Speaker 2: it's a extraordinary run up. The prime storylines of the
Speaker 2: of the world of golf center around the prime players
Speaker 2: right now in the in the world, and and I think, like,
Speaker 2: what's really cool is we have Rory Mackleroy, Scottie Scheffler,
Speaker 2: Bryson de Shambo in peak form. And I think John Rohm,
Speaker 2: you know, he will tell you he hasn't finished us
Speaker 2: at the top ten in forever. He is, he isn't
Speaker 2: good for But you know, I think there needs to
Speaker 2: be a little asterix there. I think Rory he's got
Speaker 2: the he's got the monkey off the back, and he's
Speaker 2: going to one of you know, winning the Major at UH,
Speaker 2: at the Masters, and he's going to one of the
Speaker 2: the great golf courses set up for him. Why does
Speaker 2: Quail Hollow set up so well for Rory McElroy.
Speaker 1: Well, so, I mean, I know he plays a little
Speaker 1: bit of a fade now off the team when he wants,
Speaker 1: but Quail Hollow has always been a drawers paradise. It's
Speaker 1: part of the reason I love Bryson to play well
Speaker 1: at quil Hollow UH. And I think when you look
Speaker 1: at the changes we've made over the years to the
Speaker 1: sixteenth hole, which used to be such an incredible part four.
Speaker 1: Now it's down towards the pond. There's a bunker out
Speaker 1: there that was used to be three to ten to cover.
Speaker 1: We built a new tee for Rory for the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four Wells Fargo. Now it's three twenty five to carry,
Speaker 1: and he's the only person or one of the only
Speaker 1: people in the field that can carry that bunker. And
Speaker 1: you look at what we did leading into the PGA.
Speaker 1: We only made one change, which is a small amount
Speaker 1: for us, and we put a new t box on
Speaker 1: nine and it's back. It's now five hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: five yards and it only benefits one player. It's Rory.
Speaker 1: So it's like when Augusta National tried to tiger proof
Speaker 1: their golf course, all they did was make it more
Speaker 1: of an advantage for that player. And so when you
Speaker 1: look at the changes we've made to Quaile Hollow, it
Speaker 1: only benefits Rory and the green complexes. We redo our
Speaker 1: greens maybe once every seven or eight years, and this
Speaker 1: is now going to be two years in. They're still
Speaker 1: going to be firm even if we have weather. So
Speaker 1: Rory's ability to spin the ball the way he does,
Speaker 1: I mean just thinking about the shot he hit fifteen
Speaker 1: on Sunday Augusta, curving it around the trees like the
Speaker 1: quil Hollow rewards someone who hits it long and can
Speaker 1: spin their ball coming into the greens, and that just
Speaker 1: fits into a te.
Speaker 2: I was thinking about something the other day, and you know,
Speaker 2: you hit on Rory's You know he hits a little
Speaker 2: bit of a fade off the team now, but he
Speaker 2: is he is a natural drawer of the golf ball
Speaker 2: as he grew up drawing a golf ball. And I
Speaker 2: was watching actually a Grant Horvet YouTube video with Bryson
Speaker 2: when this, with this thought enter my mind, I would
Speaker 2: say that Bryson and Rory right now are the best
Speaker 2: hard golf course players in the world. You could probably
Speaker 2: throw Scottie in there also, But you know, one of
Speaker 2: the things that I find interesting is like it's kind
Speaker 2: of become like fade or bust in pro golf, and
Speaker 2: arguably the two hardest golf course players, Rory and Bryson
Speaker 2: are both drawers of the golf ball.
Speaker 1: It's just so much easier to control the fade right
Speaker 1: if you can. I'm a I'm a hooker of the
Speaker 1: golf ball. I wouldn't consider myself a drawer anymore.
Speaker 2: One of my favorite lives is hookers eat Hamburger. Faders eat.
Speaker 1: That's exactly right. And I mean these guys, they you
Speaker 1: can just you can hit it harder with less worry
Speaker 1: about it going offline if you can hit that fade.
Speaker 1: And I think that's why with the modern drivers and
Speaker 1: the ball and the fact that it's hard to curve it,
Speaker 1: I think that's why Rory's going to that fade. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean Cepstraka, Lucas Glover or maybe two of the
Speaker 1: only other guys that I can think of that pretty
Speaker 1: much exclusively hit that right to left T ball. They're
Speaker 1: they're just it's a dying breed out there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just I just found it interesting there. I
Speaker 2: think if you were once were a drawer, it's then
Speaker 2: easier to hit both ways. And I think that might
Speaker 2: be one of the things is like, if you start
Speaker 2: out drawing the ball, it's it's relative. It's not that
Speaker 2: hard to become a fader. As this is as someone
Speaker 2: who was a drawer, okay speak from personal experience, but
Speaker 2: then it opens up the ability to hit bull shots
Speaker 2: because you have done it. It's in your id right,
Speaker 2: And if you think about like Rory winning that that Masters,
Speaker 2: it really came down to him being able to row hook,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah. But at the same time, like the way he
Speaker 1: was able to hit the t shot on eighteen, both
Speaker 1: in the playoff and in regulation, like you can't hit
Speaker 1: a Roe hook off that tee. But the yes, like
Speaker 1: put Max Homa in that position on fifteen, and I
Speaker 1: love Max, but he is pretty much an exclusive fader
Speaker 1: of the golf ball. Put him in that spot on fifteen,
Speaker 1: he probably lays it up right, I mean he there
Speaker 1: aren't many guys that can just shut that face down
Speaker 1: and hit that high swooping drawl like Rory was able
Speaker 1: to do.
Speaker 2: What do you think with Rory? Do you do you
Speaker 2: see this as a floodgates or a you know what,
Speaker 2: we're gonna see similar, you know, Like I think, like
Speaker 2: the thing that's unique with Rory is, you know, he's
Speaker 2: been in so many positions, He's been in the mix
Speaker 2: so often, he's been the most consistent major player, has
Speaker 2: like been the most consistent player without a win. Now
Speaker 2: he has gotten the win, do you see it as
Speaker 2: the Majors are going to be easier for him, or
Speaker 2: do you think they're just going to be kind of
Speaker 2: a similar situation to what we've seen in the last
Speaker 2: three years.
Speaker 1: Well, my hope is is that they're going to be easier.
Speaker 1: And the amount of work he did leading up to
Speaker 1: the Masters this year, changing his golf ball, being able
Speaker 1: to hit the three quarter shot, the amount of work
Speaker 1: he put into his mind, and the way he's able
Speaker 1: to handle things differently and not have the highs and
Speaker 1: the lows, at least emotionally. Obviously Sunday Augusta he had
Speaker 1: the highes and lows all over that golf course. But
Speaker 1: I do think I'm going to do a walk and
Speaker 1: talk with him either Tuesday or Wednesday at the PGA,
Speaker 1: and one of my questions is going to be about motivation, right,
Speaker 1: Like if he's motivated the way he was to go
Speaker 1: win that Masters. Yes, I think it's a floodgate situation,
Speaker 1: and I don't think anybody would fault him for maybe
Speaker 1: taking a step back a little bit because of what
Speaker 1: he poured in, like because of I mean the emotions
Speaker 1: that poured out of him when he won the Masters.
Speaker 1: I don't think anybody would be like, ah, you know what, Rory,
Speaker 1: you can take some time off, but I don't think
Speaker 1: that's in his DNA. I think he's going to be
Speaker 1: motivated and he knows. I mean, look at the setup
Speaker 1: this year. He got the Masters out of the way
Speaker 1: quil Hollow Is, He's won four times there, like everybody's
Speaker 1: gonna think he's going to have a great chance to win,
Speaker 1: which he probably will. Oakmont's a great fit. He can
Speaker 1: just hit it all around that place. And then going
Speaker 1: to Northern Ireland like this is his major year. So
Speaker 1: I expect him to be motivated. I expect him. I
Speaker 1: think he's going to win more majors in this second
Speaker 1: act Postmasters than he did before, right, I think, you know,
Speaker 1: the four Majors was great and it took eleven years
Speaker 1: to get that fifth one. I expect him to go
Speaker 1: on to win ten plus personally, and I think it's
Speaker 1: been important to him to be the best European player
Speaker 1: of all time. So I think looking at Sevy, looking
Speaker 1: at looking at Nick Faldo, I think he's still motivated
Speaker 1: to go get those get those wins.
Speaker 2: I think that's I think that's right. I think like
Speaker 2: he cares about his legacy and I think he's been
Speaker 2: good now for almost twenty years. There aren't many like
Speaker 2: I just don't think. I don't think that. I remember
Speaker 2: this used to be the discourse with DJ is like, oh,
Speaker 2: he doesn't care, he doesn't work hard, and it's like
Speaker 2: I just feel like it's like, buddy, you don't get
Speaker 2: to number one in the world without working hard. That
Speaker 2: just doesn't happen. And you don't, you know, in Rory's case,
Speaker 2: you don't stay. He hasn't been out of the top
Speaker 2: sixteen in the world rankings. I think it was one
Speaker 2: week outside the top fifteen in the world rankings since
Speaker 2: something like twenty ten. You just you don't spend fifteen
Speaker 2: years in the top fifteen if you aren't motivated and
Speaker 2: you don't like you are not a maniacal about your craft,
Speaker 2: because like we see it now, I mean, the second
Speaker 2: somebody takes their foot off the gas a little, it's like, wait,
Speaker 2: how did they become the thirtieth rank player in the world.
Speaker 2: You know, I thought, you know, And I think that's
Speaker 2: like the thing with with Rory. I don't know how
Speaker 2: long he's going to keep playing. I don't necessarily think
Speaker 2: that like we're going to see him like grinding like
Speaker 2: crazy deep into his forties, he said as much. You know,
Speaker 2: sadly for PJ, he says he's not going to play
Speaker 2: the Champions Tour. I think PJ wants to ask some
Speaker 2: hard questions one day of rory about that. But the uh,
Speaker 2: the the thing I think he's he is looking at
Speaker 2: the next real five years as this is you know,
Speaker 2: prime hunting season, and I think he's motivated, as you said,
Speaker 2: to be the best European tour, the best European player
Speaker 2: of all time. But then also you start to think
Speaker 2: about like if he can add two three majors where
Speaker 2: he gets career legacy will eyes as well, Like you know,
Speaker 2: he's going to add three or three PGA Tour wins
Speaker 2: a year to his resume pretty much one one, you know,
Speaker 2: one would be a bad year for him. So you're
Speaker 2: you start to see like forty PGA Tour wins, maybe
Speaker 2: fifty PGA Tour wins if things go really well, and
Speaker 2: you know, if he gets to six, seven, eight majors,
Speaker 2: it's like a pretty crazy career.
Speaker 1: It's a crazy career. And I think in this time
Speaker 1: of golf when they're playing for so much money that
Speaker 1: they these guys have three or four like Justin Thomas,
Speaker 1: for example, wins two majors, has a nice career, He's
Speaker 1: won fifteen sixteen times now, like he doesn't need to
Speaker 1: do a thing the rest of his life. And I
Speaker 1: think to your point about the Champions Tour, I think
Speaker 1: they're in a real pickle because you're not going to
Speaker 1: see these guys like I'm forty five now, you should be.
Speaker 2: You should be getting out there, you should be getting
Speaker 2: stars out there.
Speaker 1: Maybe I will, maybe I will, But the Champions Tower
Speaker 1: is not going to survive on Johnson Wagner's and I
Speaker 1: know JJ, Henry's going out there, Charlie Hoffman, Ryan Palmer
Speaker 1: are about to turn fifty like that tour needs Rory
Speaker 1: to go want to play. But what golf does to
Speaker 1: your body and these guys the way they swing it now,
Speaker 1: I just don't I don't see it. I don't see
Speaker 1: it either. But yet, Rory's gonna get to eight majors.
Speaker 1: I'm confident in that. I think he's going to get
Speaker 1: to ten. Personally, I think double digits is the goal.
Speaker 1: I think he's going to get there. I think he's
Speaker 1: gonna win at least one more this year and then
Speaker 1: who knows.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Oakmont is a primo primo setup for him. After
Speaker 2: I was just there this week for the first time
Speaker 2: and I was kind of like, I mean being you know,
Speaker 2: it's him and Bryson to me just fit so well
Speaker 2: at Oakmont.
Speaker 1: The way they can hit out of the rough and
Speaker 1: be able to control their ball is so next level.
Speaker 1: I play the seven US Open and Oakmont, I couldn't
Speaker 1: move the ball out of the rough, and these guys
Speaker 1: they can hit it so far down there that maybe
Speaker 1: they're coming in with an eight iron or seven iron
Speaker 1: into a par four out of that rough and they
Speaker 1: can hit it high and soft and put it in
Speaker 1: good positions. It's just it's ridiculous. And Bryson at Quail Hollow,
Speaker 1: by the way, the way this ruff is, man, it
Speaker 1: is thick. We did a different overseed this year to
Speaker 1: ensure like a heavy stand even if we had a
Speaker 1: warm spring. It is the thickest rye overseeded ruff I've
Speaker 1: ever seen a Quail Hollow. And with Bryson's strength, man,
Speaker 1: he's going to be a problem around that place.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about I assume he's one of your five things.
Speaker 1: He absolutely is, and I picked him on my five
Speaker 1: clubs podcast with Gary Williams earlier in the week. I
Speaker 1: obviously I'm a huge Jordan Speed fan, huge Rory McRoy fan.
Speaker 1: I would love for one of them to win. But
Speaker 1: I just I see Bryson to Shambeau being there till
Speaker 1: the very end. He's motivated, he's all he's all been
Speaker 1: out of shape that Roy didn't talk to him all
Speaker 1: day Sunday at the Masters, and he's got something to
Speaker 1: prove and he's gonna I mean, I don't know that
Speaker 1: he's gonna win, but he's gonna be right there on Sunday.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think, like, obviously, the thing that's been amazing
Speaker 2: is like the evolution of Bryson since he went to Live.
Speaker 2: I think he's obviously become it's become extremely popular one,
Speaker 2: but he's also become a much more well rounded player.
Speaker 2: And we see this at the Masters, like this that
Speaker 2: was a golf course that gave him fit. He obviously
Speaker 2: won at Pinehurst number two, a golf course that you
Speaker 2: did not expect, you know, at the lead end of
Speaker 2: the week at the US Open at Pinehurst last year
Speaker 2: was like, oh, I don't know how how this golf
Speaker 2: course really fits with Bryson. He almost won Valhalla, a
Speaker 2: golf course that fit his game quite well. Now we
Speaker 2: go to a golf course that, you know, we just
Speaker 2: talked about how good of a fit is for Rory,
Speaker 2: the other guy I think in the field that can
Speaker 2: make all those bunkers obsolete, the guy that you know
Speaker 2: when you talk about Rory proofing a golf course, that
Speaker 2: if you Rory proof a golf course attempt too, you're
Speaker 2: also playing directly into the hands of Bryson to Shambeau
Speaker 2: and you know, the control out of the rough. I think,
Speaker 2: like I said this after the Masters, what goes under
Speaker 2: under the radar? Everybody talks about the power with Bryson.
Speaker 2: The guy just knows how to get the ball in
Speaker 2: the hole. He has a he has a penchant for
Speaker 2: hitting the hitting shots and making putts when he absolutely
Speaker 2: has to. It's all, it's like a It's just everybody
Speaker 2: knows the guy at their club that like just seems
Speaker 2: to get it done when he needs to get done.
Speaker 2: I think what doesn't get talked about enough with Bryson
Speaker 2: is he's just like he's just a natural scorer of
Speaker 2: the golf ball.
Speaker 1: His short game at Augusta was mind blowing and the
Speaker 1: way he goes about his business and the way he
Speaker 1: hits those shots like he he was a little rigid
Speaker 1: for me in the short game before Augusta, and he
Speaker 1: had this little like whip in his wrist sort of
Speaker 1: at the top where he's throwing the club head under.
Speaker 1: He hit some of the most remarkable shots. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it was seven when he was missed it
Speaker 1: way left of the green and hit this beautiful pitch
Speaker 1: to the front center pin. Like he didn't have his
Speaker 1: best iron play, he had to get it done with
Speaker 1: the short game with the putter. The putt he made
Speaker 1: on eighteen on Saturday from the left edge of the
Speaker 1: grand it's a fifty footer in front of the crowd.
Speaker 1: Like he does, he is a flair for the moment.
Speaker 1: And when you think about Quail Hollow for him specifically
Speaker 1: the first hole there, it's a par five for member play.
Speaker 1: It's not my favorite opening hole. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you remember Quail Hollow before the opening hole was an
Speaker 1: absolute gem. Bryson takes this thing over the stand of
Speaker 1: pine trees when he plays it and hits this thirty
Speaker 1: yard drawback to the fairway on number two. He can
Speaker 1: take it over the trees, like he can cut corners
Speaker 1: and do things that only a couple people in the
Speaker 1: field can do, and most of them can't do it
Speaker 1: with any sort of control. To have the speed he
Speaker 1: has and to be able to hit it as straight
Speaker 1: as he does, He's going to be a force. Not
Speaker 1: only a quail, but man, I mean Oakmont. The only
Speaker 1: venue I don't really like him at is the Open Championship.
Speaker 1: I think the one thing is him flying those long irons,
Speaker 1: Like he just hits the ball so high with so
Speaker 1: much spin that he really struggled at Troon last year.
Speaker 1: I see the Open Championship sort of being his achilles
Speaker 1: heel when it comes to majors.
Speaker 2: I think for him and Scotti, I think we've seen
Speaker 2: this with we saw it with Phil. They have to
Speaker 2: learn to love links golf. I think you it's starting
Speaker 2: to be really clear to me, Like the type of
Speaker 2: golf that Scotty likes is like it's the right in
Speaker 2: front of you kind of fair police golf, where like
Speaker 2: I hit a good shot, I'm in good shape. He talked.
Speaker 2: He complained about Pinehurst, about the the native areas Pinehurst,
Speaker 2: how it was just pure luck. He had the worst
Speaker 2: driving week I think he's ever has had in the
Speaker 2: last two years there and then he you know, the
Speaker 2: Open has been his weakest major Scottie, but like Bryson
Speaker 2: in a similar vein he's so calculated. I just came
Speaker 2: back from playing, you know, basically two weeks and and
Speaker 2: you know, you play there in a heavy wind, with
Speaker 2: firm conditions, and you know you're six seventy yards away
Speaker 2: with like you know, you're just guessing where to you
Speaker 2: have to feel where you hit the shot right. And
Speaker 2: I think that's where the last piece of Bryson is
Speaker 2: really getting that being able to play the feel. I
Speaker 2: think he's look what the work he's done with the
Speaker 2: Masters of course, where he's struggling with uneven lies, struggling
Speaker 2: around the greens, and he's become so good there. Like
Speaker 2: and I think that's the last thing with Bryson in
Speaker 2: the Major championships is these guys need in there. You know,
Speaker 2: they're kind of creatures of routine, especially Scotty. They need
Speaker 2: to go out and just play, like two weeks of
Speaker 2: Links golf and just you know, enjoy the joy. Don't
Speaker 2: bring your rangefinder, just hit shots, you know, understand like
Speaker 2: you know how the ball is going to bounce in
Speaker 2: and how you can hit different shots around the greens
Speaker 2: and fall in love with that. But with Bryson, you
Speaker 2: know these convention like I wouldn't say conventional, but American
Speaker 2: major championships. So he's played last year, he goes T
Speaker 2: six at the Masters, which was a real surprise, second
Speaker 2: place at the at the PGA, he wins the US Open,
Speaker 2: and then he misses the cut it at Troon. He
Speaker 2: then finishes T five at this year's Masters. I think
Speaker 2: he's rounding into as good of a major championship player
Speaker 2: as there is. You know, obviously four top sixes in
Speaker 2: a win in the last five majors, and I would
Speaker 2: argue he's one two US Opens. I would argue that
Speaker 2: the PGA setup philosophy is probably the very best setup
Speaker 2: for Bryson to shamba.
Speaker 1: I would completely agree with that. And I also love
Speaker 1: your points about going over in Scotland and playing golf
Speaker 1: getting rid of the lay. Yes. Absolutely, Bryson's so mechanical.
Speaker 1: He's got the three quarter swing. He calls a nine
Speaker 1: o'clock at ten o'clock, eleven o'clock backswing. That doesn't work
Speaker 1: when you're playing in thirty mini hour wins, right, that
Speaker 1: doesn't it's not Linkskoff is not science in his field.
Speaker 1: You have to be an artist and he's got that
Speaker 1: in him. But the PGA set up beer spot on there.
Speaker 1: It is perfect for him because you don't generally have
Speaker 1: the pitch out us open rough like he won with
Speaker 1: at Wingfoot, just manhandling that golf course, hitting as far
Speaker 1: as he could. Yeah, you're making my Bryson pick at
Speaker 1: quil holliseem even smarter right now? Andy?
Speaker 2: I yeah, I you know, one sneaky thing. I was
Speaker 2: looking one like thing we forget. I'm you know, I
Speaker 2: think of it in one and done with picks. I
Speaker 2: think I'm going to take Rory this week for my
Speaker 2: one and done. I think it's just like such a
Speaker 2: great bit. Obviously a great fit. We don't we went
Speaker 2: through as results. I'm saving for Okmont. He was in
Speaker 2: contention through three rounds in twenty sixteen. It's something he
Speaker 2: was in the top ten. He had an outside shot
Speaker 2: at winning that tournament. He had a bad Sunday and
Speaker 2: that he tumbled down, But like that was that was
Speaker 2: when the golf course didn't necessarily fit his game as
Speaker 2: well as it does now like he's so much like
Speaker 2: talk about an evolution of a player, and I think
Speaker 2: that's like a fascinating thing with Bryson is like we
Speaker 2: see guys try try and chase stuff and fail at
Speaker 2: golf all the time. Look at Victor Hoveland right where,
Speaker 2: and look at what's happened with Jordan Speed through the
Speaker 2: years through injuries and but also kind of trying to
Speaker 2: rework his game. He's you know, Bryson has evolved like
Speaker 2: twice now as a player, and he's I'd be interested.
Speaker 2: A couple of years ago, I asked him at the
Speaker 2: Open Championship if he was playing the best golf. It
Speaker 2: was at the old course of his career. You know,
Speaker 2: he had he had, you know, won a major. He
Speaker 2: still said that his best golf was twenty eighteen when
Speaker 2: he won those I would I would bet if you
Speaker 2: asked him now, he would say he's the best golfer
Speaker 2: he's ever.
Speaker 1: Been, completely agree with that. He's way more well rounded
Speaker 1: the short game, the putting. He has reinvented himself with
Speaker 1: that putter, and as uncomfortable as it looks and as
Speaker 1: weird as it is that he goes and paces off
Speaker 1: the distance and has that yardstick that he practices with
Speaker 1: and he knows how far to take it back for
Speaker 1: a I mean, it's weird, right, but it works for him.
Speaker 1: It is who he is and he's absolutely the best
Speaker 1: player and he is whether it's real or it's fake.
Speaker 1: Like the engagement he has with the fans, like he's
Speaker 1: got more support than he ever has. And who would
Speaker 1: have thought Sunday at Augusta that it was even a
Speaker 1: question in the last group with Roy McElroy that yeah,
Speaker 1: Bryson's going to have his fair share of fans out there,
Speaker 1: and he proved that he did. And it's just it's
Speaker 1: of all the guys that went to Live, he is
Speaker 1: the one that he's the only one that has really
Speaker 1: benefited from that decision because it's allowed him to kind
Speaker 1: of be himself a little bit more and to express
Speaker 1: himself in different ways. And good on him, man, He's
Speaker 1: been great to me. Every time I've asked him to
Speaker 1: do anything, he does it. I know that a lot
Speaker 1: of players still think he's completely full of it, but like,
Speaker 1: I don't care. He's got to figure it out.
Speaker 2: He Yeah, he he's become He's just become a very
Speaker 2: good player. I think the the fan support is going
Speaker 2: to be very behind him. I think the Masters is
Speaker 2: a unique situation with it with the fans. I think
Speaker 2: that Bryson's going to be the most popular player at
Speaker 2: at Quail and also at Oakmont.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna push back on that one. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be Rory at Quail. I mean, he is a
Speaker 1: He's an honorary member. The city of Charlotte loves him. Like.
Speaker 1: There's no way Bryson's gonna have more support than Rory
Speaker 1: A quill.
Speaker 2: Come on, Andy, I think he would more supportive Pinehurst
Speaker 2: Bryson did. I just I think that when you get
Speaker 2: that big, big audience, like the open ticket, you know
Speaker 2: the Sunday of the Masters is not an open ticket, right,
Speaker 2: when you get that open ticket atmosphere, I think Bryson
Speaker 2: de Shambo has got just such a big not maybe
Speaker 2: not more fans, but louder fans.
Speaker 1: Is he a lot for you on the Ryder Cup
Speaker 1: this year?
Speaker 2: I think he is? He has to be right.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine how much support he'd have out there?
Speaker 1: And what about a Rory Bryson Sunday singles where like
Speaker 1: the Cup comes down to that match. Can you imagine
Speaker 1: the support he'd have there.
Speaker 2: I uh, I fear for the for what will be
Speaker 2: happening in the crowds. Yeah, absolutely, it's gonna be a busy,
Speaker 2: busy week for security possibly.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: Very that that brings up my next thing, Brooks Kopka
Speaker 2: and John Rahm and and a little bit of the
Speaker 2: Ryder Cup. I think John Rahm for the most part
Speaker 2: is probably a lock for the Ryder Cup. Brooks Keepka,
Speaker 2: he was invited to the Ryder Cup dinner this week
Speaker 2: at Truest And I think, like a big question for
Speaker 2: me is these guys have to do stuff in majors
Speaker 2: because of their decision go to the live like that's
Speaker 2: the only their only path towards relevance. I think that
Speaker 2: John ram is very sensitive about his status in the
Speaker 2: game of golf right now. And I think with Brooks
Speaker 2: if he is going to be on this Ryder Cup team,
Speaker 2: we need him. He has to contend very deep in
Speaker 2: one or more of the next three majors. And I
Speaker 2: don't I don't necessarily think we've seen a lot from
Speaker 2: Brooks Kepka since the Oak Hill win. And it's a
Speaker 2: big question mark for me is like where are we
Speaker 2: at with Brooks Kopka and are we starting to see
Speaker 2: maybe a decline in his performance at major championships.
Speaker 1: It's like we're talking about with Rory, it's the motivation
Speaker 1: and I'm just not seeing it out of Brooks right now.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's got so much skills and he's got
Speaker 1: the mind. Obviously, the guy's won five major championship. He loves,
Speaker 1: he loves getting in that hunt, and the fact that
Speaker 1: we're not seeing it, I feel like is a testament
Speaker 1: to his lack of preparation. And when you're playing on
Speaker 1: that tour and you're not getting the reps, you're not
Speaker 1: getting the competitive sort of juices going like you would
Speaker 1: at signature events or bigger events on the PGA Tour.
Speaker 1: I just think that he's showing up and he doesn't.
Speaker 1: He just doesn't. He just doesn't have what it takes man.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's always said that he what's different about
Speaker 1: major championships is that he actually prepares for him. Well,
Speaker 1: he's clearly not preparing right now. That's my take on Brooks.
Speaker 2: I think like one of the things with Brooks too
Speaker 2: is I feel like if you read between the lines
Speaker 2: when he talks about his kids, a kid, he's did
Speaker 2: father and I and I think that that is just
Speaker 2: another aspect of of you know, life especially I mean
Speaker 2: I think that just like parenting's changed a lot from
Speaker 2: twenty five years ago to now, and you know it,
Speaker 2: I think that is just another aspect of preparation. The
Speaker 2: ability to only care about yourself. I imagine you went
Speaker 2: through this as a pro golfer, like it, it is
Speaker 2: a selfish endeavor you have to put Like the nature
Speaker 2: of the sport is you have to put yourself first.
Speaker 2: And I think with with Brooks and you know, I
Speaker 2: don't know about Rom, but like Rom also seems like
Speaker 2: he's invested as a father. It makes playing extremely high
Speaker 2: level golf a little harder, and when you get to
Speaker 2: major championships, it is a challenging Like the margins just
Speaker 2: gets so small. And that's the difference between a T
Speaker 2: eighteen and a I've got a chance to win a major.
Speaker 1: On a Sunday. I mean my from personal experience, my
Speaker 1: son was born in April of two thousand and nine,
Speaker 1: and twenty and nine and ten were the worst two
Speaker 1: years of my golf career. I mean, like I wanted
Speaker 1: to felt guilty when you leave and your wife's at
Speaker 1: home with a baby, and when you're home, you just
Speaker 1: want to help out and do everything you can to
Speaker 1: make her life easier, which takes away from your preparation
Speaker 1: going out and practicing and stuff. So I think that's
Speaker 1: I think that's a very valid point. But I mean
Speaker 1: Jack Nicholas did it. You just have to have you
Speaker 1: have to have a wife that is understanding and supportive,
Speaker 1: and I think I think Ram and Brooks both have that.
Speaker 1: But they're also they have a lot more downtime than
Speaker 1: they used to. I mean they're only playing, they're only
Speaker 1: playing twenty weeks twenty two weeks a year, and they
Speaker 1: have more time at home to be with the family.
Speaker 1: And they're like, you know what, this is pretty nice.
Speaker 1: I think I'm not going to go to the golf
Speaker 1: course today. How about we take the family out on
Speaker 1: the boat and go fishing today instead. I mean, those
Speaker 1: are easy decisions to make. Of course, you're going to
Speaker 1: choose that.
Speaker 2: I you know, Brooks is it's just a I also,
Speaker 2: like my other thought with Brooks is one of the
Speaker 2: things with his game is like the overwhelming power that
Speaker 2: he had, and I just don't think it's as overwhelming anymore.
Speaker 2: He's still a force, but he is not. I would
Speaker 2: not put him in the like who are the preeminent
Speaker 2: power players of right now in golf. I don't think
Speaker 2: he's in that top echelon like he used to be
Speaker 2: in you know, twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: The amount of effort it takes, and that's what makes
Speaker 1: what Rory's done throughout his whole career so impressive. I mean,
Speaker 1: the guy's an animal in the gym. He does like
Speaker 1: an hour workout that would rock me to my core
Speaker 1: before he goes and plays every day.
Speaker 2: It's every day creatures of habit, right. Him and Scottie
Speaker 2: are to me are like the two that just like
Speaker 2: they know what they do.
Speaker 1: So I've been thinking about this question a lot lately,
Speaker 1: and I've asked a few friends. Rory McElroy and Scotti
Speaker 1: Schefler are both playing a games and they're together in
Speaker 1: the final round. Start Todd, who do you take at
Speaker 1: their best? Do you take Rory or do you take
Speaker 1: Scotty at their absolute best? Who is the better player?
Speaker 2: I think it depends where where where they're playing. If
Speaker 2: it's Quail Hollow, I'm taking Rory because he can just
Speaker 2: bypass so many of the hazards I do. I was
Speaker 2: thinking about this a couple of weeks ago. Is to
Speaker 2: me when they've been you know, paired on the weekend places.
Speaker 2: And I don't know this is just anecdotal memory stuff,
Speaker 2: but like to me, it seems like Rory usually gets
Speaker 2: the best. I think it's hard to play from forty
Speaker 2: yards behind someone, even for Scotty Scheffler. It's when they
Speaker 2: play together. It is kind of mind boggling. How much
Speaker 2: for their Rory hits it.
Speaker 1: Well, I'll throw this one at just Sunday of the
Speaker 1: Genesis is shy Year. Obviously at Torrey Pines, not Riviera.
Speaker 1: They played, they were on the periphery of contending Scotti
Speaker 1: Schffler went out and whooped him. Scotti Scheffler was making
Speaker 1: sort of an Olympic size comeback like you did in Paris,
Speaker 1: and sort of faltered there on sixteen and made bogie,
Speaker 1: but Rory had no chance. AGE think that's the only
Speaker 1: time I really remember them playing together on a Sunday
Speaker 1: anywhere remotely in the hunt. Probably to your point that
Speaker 1: they don't necessarily fit the same golf courses, so you
Speaker 1: don't see them pair together a lot late on a Sunday.
Speaker 2: I was thinking back to LACC twenty twenty three when
Speaker 2: they played together on that Sunday and it was, you know,
Speaker 2: they get it done so different. Scotty was one of
Speaker 2: my things. Is on your list?
Speaker 1: Absolutely?
Speaker 2: Like to me, the thing that is impressive with Scotty
Speaker 2: is just the he kind of tailor's his style for
Speaker 2: the for the golf course. You can see you see
Speaker 2: him some weeks throttle back, take speed off the driver.
Speaker 2: You know, he has a lot of different he I
Speaker 2: think he might be the premiere tactician of a tacticianer
Speaker 2: of a golf course, right Like he looks. I think
Speaker 2: he since thee since the sizes golf courses at an
Speaker 2: extraordinarily high level, understands like deeply where he needs to
Speaker 2: get the ball to succeed. And I think, like, what's
Speaker 2: He's kind of a chameleon with how he plays where.
Speaker 2: You know, Rory commented this week about Golden Age golf
Speaker 2: courses how he's just learned that he just hits driver,
Speaker 2: figures it out from there, right, And I like JT
Speaker 2: corroborated the point. He's like, if I was Rory, I
Speaker 2: do that everywhere. I think Scotty, you see him play,
Speaker 2: particularly off the tee. He's got like change, he's got
Speaker 2: he's got different stuff for different places in different holes, right,
Speaker 2: And I think Scotty is he's obviously Craig Ranch was
Speaker 2: like that was one of the most impressive performances because
Speaker 2: of the golf course's inability to like create tension with
Speaker 2: the best players in the world to just run away
Speaker 2: is actually like that was like a fifteen shot win
Speaker 2: at the Memorial.
Speaker 1: His performance at the Byron Nelson was unbelievable. And to
Speaker 1: your point about having another gear with the driver. The
Speaker 1: t shots he hit on Saturday and Sunday on fourteen
Speaker 1: the driverable hole, there was a different Scott. I mean
Speaker 1: on Sunday he's got a nine shot lead starts at
Speaker 1: left of the left hole location and just pounds it
Speaker 1: up there. Like I didn't think he had that cover
Speaker 1: when it when it came off the club, I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh man, he just rented it. This may get interesting,
Speaker 1: but he does. He has that, he has that power.
Speaker 1: One of my topics was about course knowledge a quail hollow,
Speaker 1: and I think this is a perfect conversation to have
Speaker 1: about Scotty because he's never played the Wells Fargo Championship,
Speaker 1: their truest championship. He's only played the President's Cup, and
Speaker 1: I think when I saw him Monday at Pinehurst he
Speaker 1: had never been to Pinehurst. Number two obviously was just
Speaker 1: completely mentally physically drained from that win of Memorial because
Speaker 1: that was a major championship setup at Memorial that day
Speaker 1: when he won, and what issue won over par to
Speaker 1: get that victory like that was ridiculously trying test. So
Speaker 1: I'm a little bit concerned about him at Quail Hollow,
Speaker 1: just because he does have the week off, so he'll
Speaker 1: be able to come in and prepare. And I think
Speaker 1: Ted Scott has a lot to do with Scotty's preparation
Speaker 1: because Ted's been around these places with Bubba so many
Speaker 1: different times and other players too, and I know Bubba
Speaker 1: love Quail and so Ted knows that place really well.
Speaker 1: But you learn certain things about a golf course based
Speaker 1: on competitive rounds, and I think Quail Hollow different whole
Speaker 1: locations one day, obviously, I think any great golf course
Speaker 1: is this way. But one day missus front left to
Speaker 1: a back right hole. The next day the Penn's front left,
Speaker 1: and you know you can't miss it, and sometimes it
Speaker 1: takes those reps of actually hitting it in that spot
Speaker 1: before you realize how bad it possibly is. But that
Speaker 1: is what makes him so great, and that's what I
Speaker 1: think the team of Ted Scott and Scotti Scheffler are
Speaker 1: so great because they do they tactician themselves around. You
Speaker 1: rarely see Scotty in a spot where he's got no
Speaker 1: chance to get it up and down. When he misses it,
Speaker 1: it's usually in the proper spot, and that is one
Speaker 1: of the greatest qualities you can have as a championship
Speaker 1: level golfer.
Speaker 2: We've seen Scotty obviously, he's won two Masters. He does
Speaker 2: not have, you know, I think one of the things
Speaker 2: with when you he's had an incredible couple of years here,
Speaker 2: he's been bona fide best player in the world. And
Speaker 2: when you look at like weeks at career, number one
Speaker 2: career all time, he's getting very high up there. I
Speaker 2: think he might be fourth in all time weeks at
Speaker 2: number one in the world, but he has no majors
Speaker 2: outside of Augusta, Georgia, and that starts to become a
Speaker 2: bigger But he's still young, he's still early in his career.
Speaker 2: But I think this is One of my themes with
Speaker 2: with a lot of players in the field is that
Speaker 2: butt and that and we saw this with Rory. It
Speaker 2: gets harder the longer it doesn't happen. And for Scotty,
Speaker 2: I'm looking at it and it feels like to really
Speaker 2: cement his like all time, all time status, like there
Speaker 2: needs to be major championships outside of Augusta, Georgia.
Speaker 1: I'm completely with you, and I'm down to start this narrative.
Speaker 1: What's what's wrong with Scotty? He's one dimensional when it
Speaker 1: comes to majors. He can only win at Augusta National.
Speaker 2: I'm not there, I've not He's contended a lot of places,
Speaker 2: He's had chances to would a lot of other places.
Speaker 1: I think I think we have to weigh until he
Speaker 1: wins his third Green jacket before we can really start
Speaker 1: that narrative. Because he's I mean, he's built for a
Speaker 1: US Open in my mind, the way he drives the
Speaker 1: golf ball, the way he thinks about the golf course.
Speaker 1: I think a US Open is coming really soon, in
Speaker 1: the next couple of years at least. I think he's
Speaker 1: gonna he's gonna pick one of those off. And I
Speaker 1: would say the same thing about the PGA Championship, I do.
Speaker 1: I think Scotty, he's the way the way he goes
Speaker 1: about his approach mentally, was there ever a doubt that
Speaker 1: he was going to win the Byron Nelson after that
Speaker 1: first round? He's such a great front runner, he's got
Speaker 1: such a great mind, like he doesn't he doesn't beat himself,
Speaker 1: which I mean, look, Rory, that has been the knock Pinehurst.
Speaker 1: Rory kind of lost that US so not kind of
Speaker 1: he did lose that US Open once he birdied thirteen.
Speaker 1: He lost his swing and started missing the left on
Speaker 1: all the t shots. And Scotty, though, do you have
Speaker 1: more confidence in somebody if there's nine holes to go
Speaker 1: and he's got a two shot lead, Is there anybody
Speaker 1: in the game of golf you're more comfortable winning that
Speaker 1: tournament than him? Like he's not going to beat himself.
Speaker 2: Floor of a pro golfer. I think, like there are
Speaker 2: players that maybe have had I don't even know if
Speaker 2: there are players that have had higher peak peaks, but
Speaker 2: there's without a doubt since Tiger Woods, no player that's
Speaker 2: had a higher floor. Like you know what's coming every
Speaker 2: week from Skyty Scheffler.
Speaker 1: I think Xander was daring close last year. I think
Speaker 1: Xander's floor is pretty high, but I not like Scotty's.
Speaker 1: He doesn't finish outside the top ten, and if he does,
Speaker 1: he's certainly not finishing outside the top twenty. When he
Speaker 1: had won, finish last year outside the top twenty, and
Speaker 1: that was at Pinehurst, which he didn't have his best
Speaker 1: stuff still makes the cut. I mean it's it's remarkable
Speaker 1: and he does it in such a way that people
Speaker 1: are like, oh, Scotty's boring. He's not boring. Scotty's hilarious
Speaker 1: watching him cut it up Thursday Friday with see Lukim
Speaker 1: and Jordan Speed when they're waiting all day on this
Speaker 1: golf course at TBC Craig Ranch, Like, the guy is awesome,
Speaker 1: he just doesn't. I think. I think it was starting
Speaker 1: at Valhalla last year when he got arrested and he
Speaker 1: was talking about the stretching in the prison cell, and
Speaker 1: that was a first. Like, I think he's starting to
Speaker 1: just show us little snippets of his personality because he
Speaker 1: is a man. He is a fun dude. I saw
Speaker 1: him at the Hero World Challenge. I was invited to
Speaker 1: play the pro am and had this dinner and Scotty
Speaker 1: comes up to me and he's like, tell me a joke,
Speaker 1: Johnson in this like dry way. He's like, he's just
Speaker 1: he's a guy you want to go play golf and
Speaker 1: drink a couple of beers with after the round. That's
Speaker 1: who he is, and he does it in the most
Speaker 1: unassuming way. I just I love him. I think he's
Speaker 1: a role model for the future generation of golfers you
Speaker 1: want to be like Scotti chef.
Speaker 2: People call him a robot, and you know, it's like,
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what a robot wouldn't have done is
Speaker 2: after he won the Masters, stopped in at the local
Speaker 2: dive bar on the way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, all right.
Speaker 2: He's played twenty one Majors. How many top fives do
Speaker 2: you think he has?
Speaker 1: Twelve?
Speaker 2: No, seven, twelve seven was Z zero at the Open,
Speaker 2: so four of which at the Open. So if you
Speaker 2: take out the Open, he's got he's got seven top
Speaker 2: fives and seventeen starts, so get almost fifty percent, which
Speaker 2: is insane.
Speaker 1: It's insane. But it's the same way. It's the same
Speaker 1: way he is on the PGA tour, I mean, and
Speaker 1: that's like he doesn't I don't think he puts majors
Speaker 1: on this super high pedestal. I think he puts I
Speaker 1: think he puts all golf turnings he plays in on
Speaker 1: the same level. And that's what makes him so consistent.
Speaker 1: I think able to win, to be able to win
Speaker 1: the Masters and the draining, the amount of mental drain
Speaker 1: that is, and to go win the RBC Heritage the
Speaker 1: very next week like he did last year like that,
Speaker 1: that to me is one of the greatest things ever.
Speaker 1: Because you win a major, man, you want to take
Speaker 1: some time, you need to decompress, you need to celebrate,
Speaker 1: let it settle in. But to go out and win
Speaker 1: the very next week, man, that is that's that's tough
Speaker 1: to do.
Speaker 2: He I would I would handicap him third here, and
Speaker 2: that's just because he cannot bypass the hazards the way
Speaker 2: that Bryceon and Rory can. Would you agree with.
Speaker 1: That maybe even fourth? I mean you look at the
Speaker 1: way Xander Schoffle has played Quail Hollo over the years.
Speaker 1: I mean he was I was standing in the ninth farewell.
Speaker 1: It's the ninth hole, but for the President's Cup it
Speaker 1: was the eighteenth hole. Because we rerouted the golf course
Speaker 1: and I was standing in the fairway when he hit
Speaker 1: this little wedge end there and made the putt to
Speaker 1: clinch the President's Cup. He battled with Wyndham two years
Speaker 1: ago there, he battled with Rory last year. I think
Speaker 1: Xander Schaffle Sneaky is just ahead of Scotty's.
Speaker 2: It's just, you know, form certain places you just go
Speaker 2: and it feels like you can't shoot a bad score.
Speaker 2: And it seems like for Xander and Rory that Quail
Speaker 2: Hollow is just that place where it's just you go
Speaker 2: there and everything seems to work. Even if you're not.
Speaker 2: Everything's not working perfectly for.
Speaker 1: You, right. But I think it'll be a testament to
Speaker 1: Scotty's game when he's in contention on the weekend at
Speaker 1: Quail Hollow, because it's a tough it's a tough time
Speaker 1: in the schedule for guys from Texas that have loyalties
Speaker 1: to both the Byron Nelson and Colonial because they've got
Speaker 1: to take a week off somewhere. Jordan'speth this year isn't
Speaker 1: He's going to play five straight through the Memorial, which
Speaker 1: is a lot of golf. But for Scottie, I respect
Speaker 1: the fact that he has not played Quail Hollow because
Speaker 1: he wants to support his hometown events. But man, it's
Speaker 1: just it's not everybody's cup of tea. John Ram's talked
Speaker 1: about it. John rom hates Quail Hollow. I mean he
Speaker 1: hates it. There's there's some holes out there that he
Speaker 1: just can't he can't get over, like the fourth role
Speaker 1: of the par three, which I don't disagree with him.
Speaker 1: I don't particularly care for that hole either. When you
Speaker 1: have a blank canvas to build a par three and
Speaker 1: you build that hole, it's it's a bit frustrating. But
Speaker 1: other than other than four and maybe the Green Complex
Speaker 1: on number eight, I think it's a I think it's
Speaker 1: the best place in the world.
Speaker 2: What what else do you have on your list of
Speaker 2: a big big things you're watching this week?
Speaker 1: I mean, I think we have to talk about Jordan's
Speaker 1: beef and I mean, what a great time that we
Speaker 1: are our ages to be enjoying and covering the game
Speaker 1: of golf we've had. You know, Phil Micholson obviously has
Speaker 1: a chance to complete the career grands slaying at the
Speaker 1: US Open, but Rory doing it has made it to
Speaker 1: reality and I would not have said that Jordan's Beef
Speaker 1: had a prayer to win at Quail Hollow. It was
Speaker 1: his first time trying to complete the Grand Career Grand
Speaker 1: Slam back in twenty seventeen, and now it's his ninth
Speaker 1: crack back at Quail Hollow. What he's done with his
Speaker 1: driver the last couple of seasons is working for me
Speaker 1: and watching him play the Byron Nelson he had. He
Speaker 1: has more pop than I've ever seen. He's really committed
Speaker 1: to that driver. He now is giving me some hope
Speaker 1: that he can get there on Sunday at Quel Hollow
Speaker 1: because he's driving it long, he's driving it straight, and
Speaker 1: as tough as Quail Hollow is around the greens, Jordan's
Speaker 1: Beef can get it up and down from anywhere. And
Speaker 1: I think the problem with him has been like he
Speaker 1: puts himself in too much trouble off the tee the
Speaker 1: last few seasons. And now that he's driving it better,
Speaker 1: he's gonna let his artistry work around these green complexes.
Speaker 1: And I think he's got an outside chance. And two
Speaker 1: weeks ago I would have said he had zero chance.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I I think like Jordan's one of the more
Speaker 2: interesting golf stories just from from you know, I think
Speaker 2: we saw this with Sevy a little bit where maybe
Speaker 2: Sevey played his best golf at a very young age.
Speaker 2: And I think Jordan there's been just a lot of
Speaker 2: like he's a tinkerer, right, He's obsessed with chasing perfection,
Speaker 2: obsessed with improvement. And I think if you look at
Speaker 2: at a guy like Scotti Scheffler, it seems to me
Speaker 2: like Scotty knows what works and he does what works,
Speaker 2: and they're like kind of diametrically opposite approaches to how
Speaker 2: they you know, And I think there's like a real,
Speaker 2: real aspect of like golf success if you are fine
Speaker 2: with monotony, if you are fine with just rolling in
Speaker 2: and doing what you do weekend, week out, day after day,
Speaker 2: golf is a lot harder for those that are very curious.
Speaker 2: And I think, like I just wonder, like, in pursuing
Speaker 2: becoming a great driver, did he lose what his superpower was,
Speaker 2: which was approach play? And to me, like it's if
Speaker 2: you start to look at like what the greatest major
Speaker 2: championship players, what they typically have is stellar approach play.
Speaker 2: And that's where I've struggled with Jordan right now, is
Speaker 2: like are we getting rock solid A plus short game
Speaker 2: or approach play weekend week out.
Speaker 1: No, clearly we're not. But I would also take it
Speaker 1: a step further when he's win on all those majors
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, seventeen in contentional all the time, he made
Speaker 1: more thirty footers than anybody ever could. And it's not
Speaker 1: a sustainable lifestyle. You cannot expect to make putts like
Speaker 1: that all the time. But he did for a number
Speaker 1: of years. And now you see a guy like Rory,
Speaker 1: and you see a guy like Scotty. Scotty Scheffler had
Speaker 1: an eight shot lead last week or whenever the Byron
Speaker 1: Nelson was and he was seventeenth in Strokeskane putting for
Speaker 1: the week. You're breaking all kinds of scoring records, building
Speaker 1: this massive lead, and you're not the number one putter
Speaker 1: in the field like that, And then you look at
Speaker 1: Jordan and you're like, man, if he doesn't putt well,
Speaker 1: he's probably not going to be around for the weekend.
Speaker 1: And so I think it's the iron play. I also
Speaker 1: think it's the putter with him too, like he finally
Speaker 1: on Sunday he shot sixty two and finished solo fourth,
Speaker 1: I believe, but too little, too late, and it takes
Speaker 1: him making all these putts because he misses so many
Speaker 1: short ones and he does so many bad things that
Speaker 1: he has to make compensate and make up for it.
Speaker 1: He's not a mistake free, boring golfer like Scotty Scheffler.
Speaker 2: I think we're so removed now from from that run
Speaker 2: that you begin to hear undertones of like people being
Speaker 2: like we do that the model wasn't sustainable, you know,
Speaker 2: And it was like while it was going on, nobody
Speaker 2: was going to say that, but it is, you know,
Speaker 2: like you begin to hear, you know, it's like, well, yeah,
Speaker 2: he wasn't gonna put like that forever. Because I think
Speaker 2: that's what we're going through people's head while it was happening,
Speaker 2: is like, how how is how is this happening? How
Speaker 2: does this guy make so many twenty footers? I think
Speaker 2: like when you look at career Grand Slam opportunities for
Speaker 2: for Jordan Speith, Aron Mink, PGA, Frisco Olympic Club, probably
Speaker 2: better opportunities than Quail Hollow.
Speaker 1: I think the rough and the approach game coming from
Speaker 1: off the fairway, He's just got to do so many
Speaker 1: great things that I think, you know, the the Bryson's
Speaker 1: and the Rory's are just going to have such an
Speaker 1: advantage over him. It's going to be it's definitely an
Speaker 1: uphill battle. But I give him a I give him
Speaker 1: a two percent chance.
Speaker 2: Hey, it's better than nothing. I think like two years
Speaker 2: ago it felt like or you know, even last year
Speaker 2: at Valhalla, it didn't feel like there was even a chance.
Speaker 2: Like it's the career Grand Slam narrative with with him
Speaker 2: has gotten pushed so far down the storylines going into it,
Speaker 2: you know that. I think that's you know, I golf
Speaker 2: is a better place when Jordan Speed's playing great golf.
Speaker 2: So hope, hope for great golf from him.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: My last thing is majors are only going to get
Speaker 2: more difficult for and we see this is kind of
Speaker 2: the Rory situation. The longer it goes for Kalin Morkaua,
Speaker 2: Victor Hovland and very I am not being impatient, I'm
Speaker 2: not this is very uh Ludvigger Obert and this is like,
Speaker 2: I'm not worried about Ludvig, but this is a great
Speaker 2: place for Lodvig. And I think I think everywhere is
Speaker 2: a great place for love Vic. But this We've seen
Speaker 2: this so often with players. It is so important to
Speaker 2: pick off majors when you're young and early, because then
Speaker 2: it becomes it becomes the best player that doesn't have major.
Speaker 2: Ludwig is absolutely the best player in golf without a major.
Speaker 2: Victor Hovelin's right there, I think, And.
Speaker 1: But what about Patrick Can'tley. I mean, I'm sorry, I
Speaker 1: don't think.
Speaker 2: Is Patrick Can'tley a world class player? Still?
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely the top.
Speaker 2: Would you put him in your top ten players in
Speaker 2: the world?
Speaker 1: No, go ahead, continue.
Speaker 2: So anyways, Morikawa is more like he hasn't won one
Speaker 2: with fans.
Speaker 1: There were were there were people out there at the.
Speaker 2: Fair limited. He really hasn't one many tournaments with fans,
Speaker 2: and it's been a long time and there's been a
Speaker 2: lot of close calls, and it's getting to be like
Speaker 2: a you know, it's a it's a storyline. And I think,
Speaker 2: like the other thing is he's running into Scheffler on
Speaker 2: Sundays and he's running into Rory on Sundays, and it's like,
Speaker 2: is I think there's a clear top echelon in the
Speaker 2: game right now and he is just a notch below it.
Speaker 2: And winning one though it like getting his third puts
Speaker 2: him back up into like this stratosphere of like supreme
Speaker 2: young talent, like supreme young talent that could end up
Speaker 2: being one of the all timers. And I still I'm
Speaker 2: not like word, but he's such a great iron player.
Speaker 2: But does he have the horsepower? And again, these things
Speaker 2: just get more difficult the longer you go without winning
Speaker 2: another one.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have enough horsepower. But one thing I will
Speaker 1: say is his the market improvement he's made on his
Speaker 1: short game over the last season and a half. That's
Speaker 1: going to compensate for the for the lack of power
Speaker 1: off the team. You really have to have one hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty mile an hour ball speed to win major
Speaker 1: championships right now. I hate it that that's where the
Speaker 1: game is. I think Morika is going to be a
Speaker 1: guy that benefits from the golf ball roll back in
Speaker 1: a couple of years. And he's still so young when
Speaker 1: we look at Jordan's Jordan's he's just thirty one. How
Speaker 1: old is Calin Marcowa twenty seven eight? I mean, he's
Speaker 1: he's still young. I think I don't know why he
Speaker 1: got rid of JJ Jacobac by the way, and higher
Speaker 1: I mean, I think Joe Grinder is a heck of
Speaker 1: a caddy and I think he's awesome. But like, you're
Speaker 1: the fourth ranked player in the world, you've been on
Speaker 1: an incredible run. Do you have any insight into that
Speaker 1: split at all, Andy, because I don't.
Speaker 2: He's made some curious decisions what's a blackburn for a while,
Speaker 2: then went back to his old coach. You know, it's
Speaker 2: been I don't know. I think he's tried stuff and
Speaker 2: maybe he just feels maybe he just feels like he
Speaker 2: what was what they were doing? He wasn't getting across
Speaker 2: the line. You know, relationships are weird like that, right, you.
Speaker 1: Know, very much so. But still like he's just improving, improving, improving,
Speaker 1: and he's getting there. You're right, he ran into Scheffler,
Speaker 1: he ran, he runs in, he gets beat. It's not
Speaker 1: like he's beating himself. I mean you could say maybe
Speaker 1: he Yeah, we definitely did there. And then the doubly
Speaker 1: made on nine at the Masters last year on Sunday
Speaker 1: was catastrophic. That was sort of a self inflicted wound.
Speaker 1: But he is getting beat by better players. And when
Speaker 1: you look at Scotty, when you look at Rory, they
Speaker 1: have a dynamic aspect of their game, and I just
Speaker 1: don't feel like Colin has that dynamic aspect to go
Speaker 1: run away and high from fields. I don't think a
Speaker 1: Caddy change is going to make that happen for him.
Speaker 1: But I mean, he's been so consistent over the last
Speaker 1: couple of seasons, Like I think his time's coming, but
Speaker 1: it's not coming to Quail Hollow. He needs a he
Speaker 1: needs a place that sort of mitigates distance a little bit,
Speaker 1: like a pebble beach maybe, yeah, you know, heard somewhere
Speaker 1: where it's cold, the Olympic like that, Like he needs Yeah,
Speaker 1: he needs that vibe. He doesn't need a bomber's paradise
Speaker 1: like Quail Hollow where it's going to be warm and
Speaker 1: the ball is going to go forever. He's just he
Speaker 1: just can't do it. And he's pretty one dimensional off
Speaker 1: the team as well. I'd love to see him be
Speaker 1: able to shape the ball both directions that that that
Speaker 1: one dimensional fade I think is nice, but I think
Speaker 1: it's hard to win major championships with that, especially an
Speaker 1: open championship as well. You gotta be able to fluck
Speaker 1: that ball down.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget I watched, I watched a couple of
Speaker 2: players hit shots at Kiowa on seventeen. It was just
Speaker 2: howling into it and I watched him just hit his
Speaker 2: stock fade and it just floated. And it's like, I'm
Speaker 2: very surprised in this era where players have have had
Speaker 2: real success adding speed incrementally. Look at Rory McElroy, like
Speaker 2: it's just he has added speed slowly. I am so
Speaker 2: shocked that we haven't seen incremental gains in Colin Morricowo,
Speaker 2: who seemingly has like a very strong fundamental base to
Speaker 2: work off of right A really and I get like,
Speaker 2: one of the things you have to be precious with
Speaker 2: with Colin morikow is like, do not rock the boat
Speaker 2: with the irons, right because that is he the reason
Speaker 2: he's going to be a top five player for such
Speaker 2: a long time is he is a generational iron player.
Speaker 2: But getting get improving the driver distance to get more
Speaker 2: short irons to amplify your generational skill seems like it
Speaker 2: would be at the top of my list of things
Speaker 2: to do if I was, you know, looking hard at
Speaker 2: Colin Morikawa's game.
Speaker 1: I mean, he hits it far enough, but he's a
Speaker 1: little guy, like I don't want to like Xanderschoffle did
Speaker 1: it beautifully and look what it's done for him. I mean,
Speaker 1: Xander can I mean he can pump it. He get
Speaker 1: that ball speed up to one eighty five plus one
Speaker 1: eighty seven if he needs and.
Speaker 2: And all of a sudden he came from close to
Speaker 2: getting across the line.
Speaker 1: Yep. And it's just it's where the game's headed. I
Speaker 1: think it's it's more so now than it's ever been.
Speaker 1: Length is a prerequisite to winning major championships. You have
Speaker 1: to have it. Like Brian Campbell, who won the Mexico Open.
Speaker 1: Brian Campbell is never going to win a major championship.
Speaker 1: He's got one hundred and sixty five one hour ball speed.
Speaker 1: It's just sorry.
Speaker 2: He went to one of the greatest universities in the world.
Speaker 1: Kill that's right a line.
Speaker 2: I so fill a caveat there.
Speaker 1: But I mean, you can have a nice career on
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour. You can do your you can play well.
Speaker 1: And like sept Straka, went the other way. Step made
Speaker 1: it a point he wanted to play from the fairway.
Speaker 1: More so, he took a couple miles an hour off
Speaker 1: of his driver over the last four years, which Accep's
Speaker 1: a massive dude. He could be sending out there. But
Speaker 1: I think to be a top five player in the
Speaker 1: world to contend in these major championships, you can't have
Speaker 1: less than one hundred and seventy five hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: mine hour swing speed. It's just Ira Klubetsby ball speed.
Speaker 1: It's just not it's watching golf the way I watch
Speaker 1: it now. It sucks because it's why I wasn't good
Speaker 1: enough to play in more majors is because I didn't
Speaker 1: hit the ball far enough. And it's just my son
Speaker 1: who's sixteen. He can get it out there. He's got
Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy seven mine hour ball speed right now.
Speaker 1: And it's like, man, you gotta teach these kids as
Speaker 1: they're going up, like if you want to be great,
Speaker 1: you have to hit it far. It's just the way
Speaker 1: it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, you look at like Bona Fide, We
Speaker 2: just who's going to play well major championship in and
Speaker 2: major championship out right now? The list is like who
Speaker 2: you expect it from, Like you expect to play well?
Speaker 2: Is Scotty who he can hit one eighty? You know
Speaker 2: you've got Xander, You've got Rory. You've got John Rahm
Speaker 2: and Bryson, all of them, Like when you look at
Speaker 2: their games, there are not discernible weaknesses. There's not like
Speaker 2: a glaring like he can't do this. And I think
Speaker 2: with Colin there's a glaring. And it used to be
Speaker 2: a couple glaring things, but the iron play carried the
Speaker 2: day so much. But now it's just like, well, could
Speaker 2: I just get a few more easy wedges into greens?
Speaker 2: And that's what distance offers you.
Speaker 1: And as these golf courses get longer and longer, I mean,
Speaker 1: quil Hollow can stretch out to seventy six fifty and
Speaker 1: these places aren't getting shorter. And that's why I mentioned
Speaker 1: pebble or Olympic, these sort of pebble. I'm out of
Speaker 1: pebble today. I was looking at the card. It's sixty
Speaker 1: eight hundred yards. It doesn't play that short. It doesn't
Speaker 1: play that short. But I mean it's like me playing
Speaker 1: on the PGA Tour. There are very few places that
Speaker 1: I can win, that I could win, and I took
Speaker 1: advantage of those few places. Colin Morikawa is like that
Speaker 1: at major championship venues. Like I don't love Oakmont for
Speaker 1: him I don't love qual Hollo for him, like and
Speaker 1: you look at a Ludvig, even Ludwig has no there's
Speaker 1: no golf course that doesn't fit him. As you said,
Speaker 1: I think he can get a little better with his wedges.
Speaker 1: I think he can get a little better around the greens.
Speaker 1: But I mean he's still man. We're just like his
Speaker 1: second halfway through his second full year on the PGA Tour,
Speaker 1: So I'm going to give him a little bit of
Speaker 1: a break. But for Colin, you bring up some really
Speaker 1: nice points and it is concerning. And what's more concerning
Speaker 1: is that the caddy split right in the middle of
Speaker 1: major championship season. I didn't understand it. I saw him
Speaker 1: at Zeri Classic. JJ's awesome. That was that was mind
Speaker 1: blowing to me that he would make that switch leading
Speaker 1: into the PGA.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, it's gonna be a great, great championship. We're
Speaker 2: going to see you on Golf Channel. You'll be all
Speaker 2: over it live from you know, hopefully replaying a lot
Speaker 2: of iconic shots out there. Absolutely, I've really enjoyed your
Speaker 2: your rise in the golf media world. It's been super
Speaker 2: fun and look forward to seeing you more this year.
Speaker 2: You've got Bryson for the record down as your winner.
Speaker 2: I've got Rory looking forward to great PGA championship and
Speaker 2: big thank you for coming on and joining us to
Speaker 2: chat through it.
Speaker 1: And you, Andy, let's wait until the fall. But when
Speaker 1: you get some time, you need to come to Quail
Speaker 1: Hollow and play with me and my friends. And I
Speaker 1: think it would give you a better understanding of how
Speaker 1: special this place is.
Speaker 2: I you know there, there are a lot of people,
Speaker 2: a lot of people have been in my ear that
Speaker 2: you know the quail. The quail distance needs to stop
Speaker 2: till you set foot on ground, so you're not alone.
Speaker 1: I'll even bring into the Member ten next week. We
Speaker 1: can we can have we can have a transfusion together.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna be there. I had to, I had
Speaker 2: I listen. I got a young family, and I was
Speaker 2: just away for basically two weeks and I was at
Speaker 2: the Masters. I have I am on a on a
Speaker 2: on a strict kind of limited travel for the next
Speaker 2: couple of weeks. All right, Well that I'll see you at.
Speaker 1: It's our loss. I'll see it. I'll see it. We'll
Speaker 1: have to catch up there in person.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Andy, all right, Thanks Johnson all right, big
Speaker 2: thanks to p J Clark for editing and producing this podcast.
Speaker 2: We're gonna have a ton of stuff going on the
Speaker 2: p G A check on our website, Thefrida egg dot com.
Speaker 2: It's new check that out anyways. But we will be
Speaker 2: flown with content. We'll have daily pods on the Shotgun
Speaker 2: Start Pod if you want to know what's going on
Speaker 2: in the action day in, day out, But follow us
Speaker 2: and hope everybody has a great PGA Championship.