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 2: And when I find my ball in a brid egg Friday.
Speaker 1: Egg, the dreaded Friday Friday, Frida Egg, fridagg bride egg Lie,
Speaker 1: I'm about ready to run off of the hump course.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to another edition of the Friday e Golf Podcast.
Speaker 2: It is here, we are here. It is Masters Week.
Speaker 2: This whole week I will be in augusta national. We
Speaker 2: are so excited for the eighty eighth playing of the Masters.
Speaker 2: We are going to have a ton of stuff going
Speaker 2: on uh with at the b Dratti House live from
Speaker 2: there as well. We will be on the rounds this
Speaker 2: week with a couple of us there, and we'll be
Speaker 2: pumping out content through the newsletter. We'll be putting up
Speaker 2: a lot of website articles and then of course podcasts.
Speaker 2: Between this podcast as well as the Shotgun Start, we
Speaker 2: will have all of your master's needs covered. So to
Speaker 2: get to the Masters, I want to call up one
Speaker 2: of my favorite people to talk golf with, Trevor Emmlman.
Speaker 2: Trevor is the lead analyst for CBS. He is also
Speaker 2: a past champion of the Masters. So an absolute pleasure,
Speaker 2: honor to talk with Trevor about the twenty twenty four
Speaker 2: Masters tournament. So we did our traditional five Things podcast
Speaker 2: where each of us prepares kind of five things that
Speaker 2: we're watching for the Masters. We had some overlap. It
Speaker 2: was a great discussion. Trevor was as you'd expect, prepared
Speaker 2: and really great in this format. So this I'm excited
Speaker 2: for everybody to listen to this podcast, and just you know,
Speaker 2: if you don't subscribe to the newsletter, subscribe this week.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: If you don't, you know, kind of uh follow our
Speaker 2: website off and we should have a lot of stuff
Speaker 2: up there. We have a whole page that's dedicated towards
Speaker 2: our Master's UH content. And then I think we're gonna
Speaker 2: have a lot more social media content this year. We
Speaker 2: have we'll have a photographer on the ground at the Masters,
Speaker 2: and UH excited for that. That'll be a first time
Speaker 2: for us having, you know, images that we can share
Speaker 2: from from Augusta National. So before we get to Trevor Immelman,
Speaker 2: let's talk about the Dratty House. Uh B. Draddy, longtime
Speaker 2: partner of ours, UH is the presenting sponsor of this
Speaker 2: week and uh, b Draddy has h has is awesome.
Speaker 2: They've outfitted us with a ton of gear and uh
Speaker 2: and the house with just a ton of goodies. So
Speaker 2: b Draddy be sure to check out bdraddy dot com.
Speaker 2: It's spring, it's time to check out, time to look
Speaker 2: through your clow it. You know, it's always nice to
Speaker 2: refresh and spring the new seasons here, get a little refresh.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna I just was at a golf course. I
Speaker 2: was at Brambles up in northern California, and I uh,
Speaker 2: I was looking around their pro shop. They had a
Speaker 2: bunch of be dratty. But you know what I got?
Speaker 2: What I purchased full price from the pro shop in
Speaker 2: everyday Vest. This is one of my favorite pieces. It goes,
Speaker 2: you know, goes well with everything. It's April. It's a
Speaker 2: great layering piece. You're at that time of year where
Speaker 2: you know, even if your highs are in the seventies,
Speaker 2: your lows are gonna be in the forties fifties. It
Speaker 2: is perfect for your like walk to work, if you're
Speaker 2: walking the dog, this thing you will wear a ton.
Speaker 2: So I just picked up a new everyday vest. If
Speaker 2: you visit bdratty dot com. We have a great promo code.
Speaker 2: It's TFE thirty. It's thirty percent off. I mean you
Speaker 2: can you can get some pretty good, good dollars off
Speaker 2: if you use that promo code we have. You know,
Speaker 2: if I was going to recommend a couple of things everyday,
Speaker 2: vest Liam Polo, I love the Russ hoodie. I wear
Speaker 2: that a lot. I love the russkrewneck too. Those are
Speaker 2: two things I wear a ton. But big thanks to
Speaker 2: b Draddy and their support of our coverage of the
Speaker 2: first major of the year here, so visit bdradty dot com.
Speaker 2: And now to Trevor Immlman. Trevor, welcome back on. You
Speaker 2: were nice enough to join us last year for the
Speaker 2: same episode and excited to talk about the twenty twenty
Speaker 2: four Masters. Here to kick things off, I would love
Speaker 2: if you could take us back to your first Masters.
Speaker 2: Where were you when you found out you were in
Speaker 2: the Masters, and if you could just talk about that
Speaker 2: first time around Augusta National, what you felt and what
Speaker 2: stuck out to you about your first Masters.
Speaker 1: Well, Andy, first of all, it's also to join you
Speaker 1: huge fan of the pod, and you know this time
Speaker 1: of year you can probably if anybody has the opportunity
Speaker 1: to watch this, you can see the huge smile on
Speaker 1: my face. You may even be able to hear it
Speaker 1: in my voice. Like this, this is the time of
Speaker 1: the year that rarely gets me going leading up to
Speaker 1: the first major, to the Masters. This event is meant
Speaker 1: just so much to me in my life. So it's
Speaker 1: interesting you ask that question because I have so many
Speaker 1: amazing memories and recollections from over the years. First time
Speaker 1: I played actually was in nineteen ninety nine as an amateur.
Speaker 1: So how I found out that I was qualified or
Speaker 1: going to be invited was winning the pub Links at
Speaker 1: Tory Pines and the year before this summer before in
Speaker 1: ninety eight, so I had like this countdown period from
Speaker 1: winning the pub Links to that first Master as an amateur,
Speaker 1: and it was a thrill. I was able to get
Speaker 1: some invites on the South African Tour and the DP
Speaker 1: World Tour back then the European Tour to try and
Speaker 1: get some more experience under my belt playing at the
Speaker 1: highest level. And you know, those months leading up was
Speaker 1: a lot of fun, trying to work on my game
Speaker 1: back in South Africa and get things ready and I'll
Speaker 1: never forget. I played in the end of January. I
Speaker 1: played in Dubai, the big tournament in Dubai on the
Speaker 1: European Tour, and then the week after that the Middle
Speaker 1: East Swing back then used to have Dubai and then
Speaker 1: Qatar back to back, so I played those two as
Speaker 1: an amateur, and then I actually flew from there to
Speaker 1: Augusta to play my first practice round. So this is
Speaker 1: now early February, and the excitement on this massive trip
Speaker 1: and flight from the Middle East all the way to
Speaker 1: Georgia was just like I could not wait. I couldn't sleep,
Speaker 1: I couldn't rest on the plane. I just wanted to
Speaker 1: get there. And I was fortunate enough to be hosted
Speaker 1: by a member the Hample family, and I actually stayed,
Speaker 1: believe it or not, in Butler Cabin for those couple
Speaker 1: nights that I was there. And once again, you know,
Speaker 1: once you get on site and you find out, well,
Speaker 1: you're actually staying in Butler Cabin, the way I felt
Speaker 1: about that, I mean, it's really it's hard to even describe,
Speaker 1: you know, nineteen eighty six, when I was just six
Speaker 1: years old, as the first Masters I've watched I watched
Speaker 1: on TV back in South Africa, got permission from my
Speaker 1: parents to stay up past midnight and watched it and
Speaker 1: was totally enthralled. I mean, everybody that knows anything about
Speaker 1: golf knows the nineteen eighty six Masters, and now here
Speaker 1: I am as a whatever, nineteen year old kid staying
Speaker 1: in Butler cabin about to play Augusta National for the
Speaker 1: next two days. So got up early, hardly got any sleep,
Speaker 1: played thirty six holes for two days in a row,
Speaker 1: and then I had a couple months to get ready,
Speaker 1: and then once I got to the tournament, it was just,
Speaker 1: you know, kicked up a notch because now you're nervous,
Speaker 1: you're anxious, you're trying to figure out how you can
Speaker 1: make the cut.
Speaker 2: Do you remember after you played those practice rounds of
Speaker 2: two days of thirty six holes, what you took away
Speaker 2: and you said you had a couple months to get ready,
Speaker 2: what did you from your first time around there zero
Speaker 2: in on what you needed to get ready.
Speaker 1: Well, first of all, it's the elevation changes that absolutely
Speaker 1: catch you off guard if you have not been there.
Speaker 1: Look nowadays, and I'll say this because I worked for CBS, nowadays,
Speaker 1: we do an amazing job really trying to and also
Speaker 1: with the technologies that have improved from the eighties until
Speaker 1: now in television to be able to show that undulation
Speaker 1: a bit better and try and give viewers at home
Speaker 1: bit more of a grasp of it. But when you
Speaker 1: think back to the eighties and when really they're only
Speaker 1: used to broadcast the second nine and you couldn't always
Speaker 1: get a real feel for it. Now the technologies are
Speaker 1: so good. So yeah, that's the first time.
Speaker 2: I'll say this as someone who's a part time photographer.
Speaker 2: There's no way to capture what you see and feel
Speaker 2: with the elevation there in a photo. There's no way.
Speaker 2: There's no way to do it. Like it's gotten I
Speaker 2: will echo what you said. The telecast has gotten leaves
Speaker 2: and bounds better every year. It gets better. I mean,
Speaker 2: you see the guys with the ground cameras running around yep,
Speaker 2: trying to get that, you know, those ground shots looking
Speaker 2: up at these perch greens. But it is it is
Speaker 2: un and I know this gets like beaten into the ground. Nothing,
Speaker 2: I will say, nothing prepares your eyes for the first
Speaker 2: time you're there, and nothing when you're inside the ropes
Speaker 2: on the golf course, nothing prepares you for the what
Speaker 2: your feet feel, what your feet feel when you get
Speaker 2: on some of the greens and when you're hitting those
Speaker 2: shots is just discomfort.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So that's that's exactly where I was going, that
Speaker 1: that elevation change transcends into having to hit so many
Speaker 1: shots from uneven lies and you just don't get that
Speaker 1: very often anymore, do you. You know, you just don't it.
Speaker 1: And really, even when you're practicing and you're practicing, you know,
Speaker 1: either off of a mat or off of a driving
Speaker 1: range teeth, it's pretty flat. And leading up to the Masters,
Speaker 1: you really have to seek out places where you can
Speaker 1: go and hit balls from downhill uphill side hills and
Speaker 1: make sure that you still have elite distance control off
Speaker 1: of these slopes, because at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: one of the keys to unlocking Augusta National is distance
Speaker 1: control and preciseness with your approach play. Because if you
Speaker 1: want to have a decent look at Birdie, you know,
Speaker 1: you've got the size of a mid sized rental card
Speaker 1: to land your ball in. And that's tough enough to
Speaker 1: do off of a flat line. Now you've got some
Speaker 1: elevation to deal with. You may have five or ten
Speaker 1: miles an hour of wind to deal with and an
Speaker 1: uneven lie, it's it's difficult. It's difficult, never mind being nervous.
Speaker 1: So you got those things, the elevation and then just
Speaker 1: the green complexes and understanding the patterns to those and
Speaker 1: way to put yourself in a spot to where you
Speaker 1: can try and make a few birdies and at the
Speaker 1: very least keep the big numbers off your card.
Speaker 2: Did you have a favorite place or spot to practice
Speaker 2: those uneven lies that you found. Was there something you
Speaker 2: did not necessarily your first time around, but in your
Speaker 2: prime where you went to specific spot to practice uneven lies?
Speaker 1: Well, I would do it all in weeks proceeding. And
Speaker 1: you know, for the most part around that time, I
Speaker 1: was hanging out a lot at Lake Nona here in Orlando,
Speaker 1: and there were many areas there we could just go
Speaker 1: and find a spot, drop a few balls, and you know,
Speaker 1: see what the ball does when it's a foot above
Speaker 1: you or the downhill. You know, some shots really jumped
Speaker 1: to mind that people who haven't stood out in the fairways,
Speaker 1: haven't had that opportunity, may not quite grasped. First of all,
Speaker 1: the second shot into thirteen, if you're going for it,
Speaker 1: that ball is at least twelve inches above your feet
Speaker 1: and more in places. So now you're trying to pure
Speaker 1: a long iron. And now you know we're back to
Speaker 1: being mid and long irons after they moved the teeing
Speaker 1: area back last year. But you know, we'll pretend that
Speaker 1: I'm still getting ready for ninety nine. You got a
Speaker 1: long iron or maybe even a fair way word, and
Speaker 1: you you got to catch it so pure in order
Speaker 1: to make sure you get over Ray's Creek, and it's
Speaker 1: not easy to do. I always found that the second
Speaker 1: shot at thirteen played club longer than the number, and
Speaker 1: I think it's because you just don't get perfect contact
Speaker 1: because the ball is so far above your feet, and
Speaker 1: when you do catch it good, it's inevitably got a
Speaker 1: little hooked to it, and then you're bringing those bunkers
Speaker 1: into play or that little swale that's not always easy
Speaker 1: to get up and down from. That's one that you've
Speaker 1: got to be ready for. And then the wedge into
Speaker 1: fifteen off of that downhill lie, I mean, that is
Speaker 1: just you know, you've got to be careful. It's easy
Speaker 1: to pick the club up a little too quick on
Speaker 1: your takeaway, and then you hang a little too much
Speaker 1: on your left side, and then if you keep going
Speaker 1: with it, that ball flight's in a little bit too low,
Speaker 1: and then the first bounce is too big and it
Speaker 1: jumps over the back or you rock back a little
Speaker 1: bit because you can feel a little too much weight
Speaker 1: on your left side, and then you don't quite get contact.
Speaker 1: You see guys landing on the front spin it back
Speaker 1: into the pond. I mean, those are shots you just
Speaker 1: have to be ready for. Second shot into nine is
Speaker 1: another one, big big down slope. They're hitting to an
Speaker 1: elevated green, so the green's above you and you're on
Speaker 1: a down slope. Got to be not just have great skill,
Speaker 1: but you've got to be very committed mentally in order
Speaker 1: to pull those shots off.
Speaker 2: I think, like you hit on a few of the
Speaker 2: shots that are just you think about like the the
Speaker 2: nuance of the shot into thirteen. Also, you have this
Speaker 2: lie that is gonna make the ball go left. But
Speaker 2: you know in golf, one of the amazing things about
Speaker 2: golf is a wedge goes more left off that lie
Speaker 2: than a seven iron. A seven iron goes less or
Speaker 2: more off the left off that lie than a four iron.
Speaker 2: It is like it goes through the bag and the
Speaker 2: longer the club you have in there, you feel like
Speaker 2: it's gonna go left, but that club like more often
Speaker 2: than not, kind of hangs a little more right than
Speaker 2: you think. And it's just, you know, the degrees of
Speaker 2: this The wedg shot, I mean, the downslope wedge is
Speaker 2: one of the hardest shots. And then the green that
Speaker 2: they pair with it is the most punishing, most precise
Speaker 2: screen on the golf course. It is, you know, like
Speaker 2: the shot you just highlighted into nine, the side slope,
Speaker 2: down slope into a green that's perched up. It's that
Speaker 2: you know, you're hitting that web shot and it's gonna
Speaker 2: come out a little bit lower, but you're hitting to
Speaker 2: this elevated green and then the worst miss that you
Speaker 2: can make on that green is long. Yeah, And it's
Speaker 2: just and your tendency is going to be to miss
Speaker 2: long there. It's just I think, like what I think
Speaker 2: about that golf course is just how the greens and
Speaker 2: the orientation the slopes of them pair with the land
Speaker 2: that you're approaching from is unmatched. There's no golf course
Speaker 2: in the world that pairs that dynamic of the ground
Speaker 2: and what it makes you feel and what the tendencies
Speaker 2: of those shots are with pairing the worst places you
Speaker 2: could be on the green or around the green, you know,
Speaker 2: with the tendency of the lie like it is, it
Speaker 2: is psychological warfare from the second you step on the
Speaker 2: course and that first green.
Speaker 1: Man, that's beautifully put. It's beautifully put. It. It's uh,
Speaker 1: it's a masterpiece. I mean there there really is no
Speaker 1: other way to describe it. And you know, when you
Speaker 1: were talking about that second shot into nine, now I
Speaker 1: was thinking to myself, Yeah, and never mind that you
Speaker 1: also have the green that sits at a slight angle,
Speaker 1: So now it challenges your t shot. If you hit
Speaker 1: it down the left, you're gonna have to come over
Speaker 1: those bunkers and the green is more shallow, or you
Speaker 1: can try and push your T shirt down the right
Speaker 1: and then be hitting more up the angle of the green.
Speaker 1: And then oh, by the way, there's three levels to
Speaker 1: that green as well.
Speaker 2: And also if you come up a little short, it's
Speaker 2: gonna roll forty yards out town.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's the best.
Speaker 1: The tournament is incredible. The traditions that they have there
Speaker 1: are unmatched. I mean, there's just there is just no
Speaker 1: thing like it. I'll tell you what. The person who
Speaker 1: wins this year this is going to be the eighty
Speaker 1: eighth Masters. That uh that has a nice ring to it.
Speaker 1: Eight eight, So check that one.
Speaker 2: It's you know, as you get I feel like as
Speaker 2: you get older, years become less of an obstacle. I
Speaker 2: just say, you know, you saying that I didn't realize
Speaker 2: how close we were to the to the hundredth that's
Speaker 2: going to be a spectacle, you know when you think
Speaker 2: about it, as we're getting close to that. So eighty
Speaker 2: eighth Masters. Last year, when when we did this, you
Speaker 2: you were you were upset about you cheated. You cheated
Speaker 2: a couple of things. You were upset about the prep.
Speaker 2: This is our five things episode. You didn't you didn't
Speaker 2: complain about it this year in the lead up. You know,
Speaker 2: I didn't know if you were saving them for the pod.
Speaker 2: But uh, I definitely cheated again. But I you know,
Speaker 2: I set the rules and one of the things you
Speaker 2: could do, like I might just be a little bit
Speaker 2: more experience. I know, the new answers of listen, like
Speaker 2: if you could come up with a broader topic, you
Speaker 2: can lump four storylines into one topic.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I think I've learned from from my experience
Speaker 1: with you last year. Also, I recently listened to a
Speaker 1: pod with you and Bacon where you did the same
Speaker 1: thing to him. You, you know, you put four or
Speaker 1: five things into one one topic, and I was like, man,
Speaker 1: this is obviously Andy's go to move when when he
Speaker 1: has people on the pod to talk about their five
Speaker 1: favorite things. So you know, I've got a little something
Speaker 1: up my sleeve for you.
Speaker 2: All right, let's let's kick it off. What's your what's
Speaker 2: your first thing? You're excited about our first storyline. I
Speaker 2: don't really know what the right bucket is to say
Speaker 2: these what's the first thing?
Speaker 1: Okay, but before I get to the first thing?
Speaker 2: All right? Here already getting more things in here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so then maybe this is number six. But weather, weather, weather, weather,
Speaker 1: this is on my weather is all I'm interested in
Speaker 1: right now. I'm checking the forecast twice a day leading up,
Speaker 1: and I am just so hoping for a lot of
Speaker 1: sunshine this week in prep up there, and then once
Speaker 1: the tournament gets going, some more heat and sunshine because
Speaker 1: it feels like it's been a little while since we've
Speaker 1: had a real firm and fast Masters, And because of
Speaker 1: all the nuances and the things that you and I
Speaker 1: have just outlined about the brilliance of the course design.
Speaker 1: When it's firm and fast, this Augusta National comes alive
Speaker 1: even more. And when that ball is running, the drama
Speaker 1: that goes along with that, the anticipation that goes along
Speaker 1: with that, the excitement of that ball rolling on the
Speaker 1: ground just increases exponentially. So like before I get to
Speaker 1: number five, whether it's something I'm very interested.
Speaker 2: In, listen, I uh, this was on my list. I
Speaker 2: think the forecast right now looks really great. I don't
Speaker 2: want to jinx this since since you've been broadcasting, it's
Speaker 2: just been dire. I mean last year it was horrendous.
Speaker 2: The year before that was bad. Even if you go
Speaker 2: back to Tiger's year, you know it was an amazing Sunday,
Speaker 2: but the Sunday happened hours before what it was supposed
Speaker 2: to happen, you know, because they moved up to the
Speaker 2: tea times and it was a morning, so it wasn't
Speaker 2: real Master Sunday. You think about that. That wind, the
Speaker 2: wind was amazing, it was one of it was an
Speaker 2: iconic Master Sunday, but it didn't happen on the afternoon
Speaker 2: a Master Sunday, you know, so I completely agree. Do
Speaker 2: you have a memory of Augusta National when it was
Speaker 2: really fiery and a shot or or something that was
Speaker 2: like whoa, that's different, Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, knuckling down the rounds or what year it was.
Speaker 1: Because I've been going there so long is harder for
Speaker 1: me to do. But you know, you start to get
Speaker 1: the feel on approach shots when the greens, you know,
Speaker 1: they have phases of firmness in the last few years,
Speaker 1: Like you say, it's been pretty green, and then they
Speaker 1: can go a little yellow, ye, a little purple at
Speaker 1: times when it starts getting really firm, and you know,
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of approach shots you've got to be
Speaker 1: really careful. We're starting right at number one, which is
Speaker 1: the highest point on the golf course. That green, if
Speaker 1: it's firm and fast, gets baked out and it is
Speaker 1: one of the most intricate and complex greens on the
Speaker 1: whole golf course. I mean, the areas that you have
Speaker 1: to play with there are tiny because of that false
Speaker 1: front and that funnel in the front of the green.
Speaker 1: Five is another one that gets really firm. You start
Speaker 1: getting back right whole locations at six that you're just
Speaker 1: wondering how on earth am I going to stop the
Speaker 1: ball up on that little plateau seven? Hitting uphill as well,
Speaker 1: that ball is bouncing as high as the flag and
Speaker 1: you've only got like eleven yards of depth to work with,
Speaker 1: So you're in a panic over that second shot hitting
Speaker 1: off of a down slope. You know, there's there's lots
Speaker 1: of areas where you've got to be real careful. And
Speaker 1: and that's what what I'm really hoping for and looking
Speaker 1: forward to, because that's when you need supreme control over
Speaker 1: spin and trajectory and and and that's that's what I'm.
Speaker 2: Opening spin trajector, it's you know, even gets it's got
Speaker 2: to get to the fraction of where you hit it
Speaker 2: on the face, if you catch it a little on
Speaker 2: the toe and it's got just that fraction of hookspin,
Speaker 2: you're not going to find that right that perfect spot.
Speaker 2: And I think, like I think sometimes, you know, with golf,
Speaker 2: we watch these leaders and they make it look so easy,
Speaker 2: but the reality of how perfectly struck on a firm
Speaker 2: golf course, how perfectly struck a shot has to be
Speaker 2: to get to some of these areas that they get to.
Speaker 2: It's obscured just by you know, they they hit the shot,
Speaker 2: and it's sometimes it's like the shot that goes that's
Speaker 2: fifteen feet right of a flag from a bad angle
Speaker 2: with a firm green. It's like those shots because they
Speaker 2: aren't three feet away, get obscured of, like just how
Speaker 2: freakishly good that is. And I feel like that's something
Speaker 2: that you really pick up when you're on the ground
Speaker 2: at an event and you see or in your case,
Speaker 2: have played the like you know, I've I've been there.
Speaker 2: I know how it feels when I'm standing over that
Speaker 2: shot and thinking I have to hit this absolutely perfect
Speaker 2: to get to fifteenth.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, you don't need to remind me about
Speaker 1: those last few years. Twenty nineteen, I was actually playing
Speaker 1: and because we played early, I teed off the tenth
Speaker 1: tee on Sunday.
Speaker 2: Oh god, and here's early morning.
Speaker 1: Here's a useless piece of trivia for you. In all
Speaker 1: my years at the Masters, twice I've teed off the
Speaker 1: tenth tee. The third round in two thousand and five
Speaker 1: I shot sixty five, and the final round twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: I shot sixty nine. So I got I've actually got
Speaker 1: a pretty good scoring average teeing off the tenth tier
Speaker 1: in Augusta National. This is something I'm sure you didn't know.
Speaker 2: I got it. I gotta say, I'm I think that
Speaker 2: if they had stuck with the original routing, ten was one. Maybe, yeah,
Speaker 2: you might be like a sixth time. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's two guys. There's two guys that would have
Speaker 1: a huge saying that, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods. They've
Speaker 1: done pretty well at that tournament, not giving many other
Speaker 1: guys a great shot. But and then twenty was the
Speaker 1: COVID year, so we played in November, was completely different
Speaker 1: golf course. And then, like you say, last year, we
Speaker 1: had twenty eight holes on the Sunday. It was that
Speaker 1: marathon on Sunday after all the rain. The course was
Speaker 1: pretty soft. So yeah, really hoping for a firm one.
Speaker 2: I can't remember. I feel like we've gotten a round
Speaker 2: or two of really firm conditions, But I can't remember
Speaker 2: the last time we've had a four round tournament where
Speaker 2: we haven't had weather come into the equation. You know,
Speaker 2: I can't remember the last time.
Speaker 1: Right now, it looks really good, looks pretty solid this
Speaker 1: week all the way through the weekend, all the way
Speaker 1: through really Wednesday, then Thursday, Friday is a slight chance,
Speaker 1: and then looks pretty good on the weekend again, which
Speaker 1: obviously we're excited about at CBS. That's when we really
Speaker 1: get to show off, is when it's bright and sunny.
Speaker 2: All right, I'll do one since you know you already
Speaker 2: you already knocked one of mine off. But what I'm
Speaker 2: extraordinarily excited about over the last you know, over the
Speaker 2: last really three years of golf, it's we've had these
Speaker 2: kind of side show, the side storyline, sometimes dominant storyline
Speaker 2: of of what's going on with liv and the PGA Tour.
Speaker 2: This year is no different. But what I love is
Speaker 2: this week, more so than every other week, becomes all
Speaker 2: about the golf. We're zeroed in on on the golf
Speaker 2: at hand, the Major Championship, the first major of the year,
Speaker 2: all the top players are here, and really, you know
Speaker 2: what the what the tournament becomes is the tournament, unlike
Speaker 2: so many other tournaments, isn't viewed through the context of money.
Speaker 2: It is viewed through the the idea of history and legacy.
Speaker 2: And I just think when golf tournaments are rooted in that,
Speaker 2: and when you make the turn on the back nine
Speaker 2: on Sunday or you're on the sixth hole on Saturday,
Speaker 2: and you're in the mix. There is an added weight,
Speaker 2: an added thing that is in your mind and you're
Speaker 2: thinking about, and it is It is about becoming a
Speaker 2: player that will not be forgotten in history along with
Speaker 2: the big winners check and all the things that happened.
Speaker 2: But it is really about becoming a Masters champion. And
Speaker 2: to me, this is when golf thrives, This is when
Speaker 2: golf is the best. And I you know, in the
Speaker 2: last two weeks, I've just become so smitten knowing that
Speaker 2: this week is coming because of this dynamic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's very well said. I'm right there with you. Look,
Speaker 1: the last two three years has been exhausting, completely exhausting,
Speaker 1: and to feel like we're going to have this moment
Speaker 1: in time where hopefully all of that is you know,
Speaker 1: thrown onto the back burner and we can just focus
Speaker 1: on a golf tournament that really transcends the sport and
Speaker 1: a magnificent golf course for like you say, playing for
Speaker 1: history and legacy and to see somebody put on the
Speaker 1: green jacket, whether it be the first, their first time,
Speaker 1: or another opportunity they're getting to do it. If you
Speaker 1: think of some of the other players, that is something
Speaker 1: that rarely does excite me. I'm right there with you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like I always think about when I think
Speaker 2: about this, I you know, I know you've worked with him.
Speaker 2: I always think about Curtis Strange is kind of back
Speaker 2: nine and eighty five.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he.
Speaker 2: Had I wish I had I pulled the quotes, but
Speaker 2: he talks about he has some great quotes about when
Speaker 2: he made the turn where you know, he he makes
Speaker 2: the turn and he just he got on the tenth
Speaker 2: tee and everything just felt different, you know, and all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, it just it was hard and and
Speaker 2: sure like he didn't end up winning. Curtis was a great,
Speaker 2: great player who didn't get a Green jacket that you
Speaker 2: might look back on history and say, that's one of
Speaker 2: the guys that should have gotten a green jacket that didn't.
Speaker 2: And if there's just so many you go through the time,
Speaker 2: is there's so many. There's something about Augusta National where
Speaker 2: certain players are just like it's like they're blessed by
Speaker 2: Augusta National and other players get kind of snake bitten
Speaker 2: by it and there's a whole other mental hurdle that
Speaker 2: you have to overcome, and it's just so rare, and
Speaker 2: they're just like, you know, I think that there's something
Speaker 2: to be said about tournaments, and I think this has
Speaker 2: really helped the players over the last two decades. Tournaments
Speaker 2: that come back to the same place all the time.
Speaker 2: And what it does mentally to players is there's those
Speaker 2: built in memories of hey, you know, four years ago,
Speaker 2: I hit this shot here that just stay rooted in
Speaker 2: their head. There's good memories and you get these positive, warm,
Speaker 2: fuzzy feeling memories, or you can get these negative memories
Speaker 2: where you're remembering, oh that that day, that third round Saturday,
Speaker 2: I was three shots out of the lead and I
Speaker 2: hooked it in the water on eleven. And there's something
Speaker 2: that's there's a power to returning to venues. Yeah, It's
Speaker 2: why I think sometimes it's hard to play tournaments at
Speaker 2: your home course because you you remember bad shots you
Speaker 2: hit there.
Speaker 1: But also what I've found is, you know, when you
Speaker 1: play your home course, you're not always as disciplined and
Speaker 1: your mind is not always as cluttered, and you just play.
Speaker 1: But then all of a sudden, if you've got a
Speaker 1: tournament there and you walk on the tea and you
Speaker 1: pull out drive and you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm
Speaker 1: actually like, this means something now, you know, there's remember
Speaker 1: that that leak is down there, and you know if
Speaker 1: I hit it in there today, it means something. There's
Speaker 1: something interesting about that as well. I remember going through that.
Speaker 1: The two South African Opens I won was actually at
Speaker 1: my home golf course, and that experience was was pretty
Speaker 1: weird mentally, having to actually play the course in a
Speaker 1: slightly different manner. And that's you know, I'll come back
Speaker 1: to that a little bit when I get to one
Speaker 1: of my other players here that I'm going to talk about.
Speaker 1: But you're right, you know, you think of legends of
Speaker 1: the game that haven't wonted Augusta, you know, Wiscoff, Trevino,
Speaker 1: Ernie Rory. You know, it feels like those players absolutely
Speaker 1: should have been able to win the Masters. But it's
Speaker 1: one of the it's one of the million threads of
Speaker 1: this tournament that just makes it so great is that
Speaker 1: you have the Norman is another one that's just jumped
Speaker 1: to my mind. Yeah, you have the amazing stories of
Speaker 1: the Palmers and the Mickelson's and the Woods and the Sev's,
Speaker 1: and you know the players and those guys that were
Speaker 1: expected to win and one multiple times Jack obviously, I
Speaker 1: mean that goes without saying. But then you have these
Speaker 1: other legends that didn't ever find a way to unlock
Speaker 1: that something around there, And like I said, it's just
Speaker 1: one of the many things that makes this tournament great.
Speaker 2: If you think about Augusta and in the context of
Speaker 2: an elite, elite professional golfer, you know, they all make
Speaker 2: these like scouting trips where they play maybe two, three
Speaker 2: four rounds in addition to the practice rounds leading up
Speaker 2: Augusta National they play over the course of say fifteen
Speaker 2: years of their prime career, ten years Augusta National they
Speaker 2: play probably the most golf at outside of their second
Speaker 2: golf course or outside their home golf course. They don't
Speaker 2: they do not fly out to play the travelers, you know,
Speaker 2: a month in advance, like they play their usual tournament
Speaker 2: prep there. Augusta is the place that they play an
Speaker 2: extra round or two here or there. They might play
Speaker 2: it seven times in a year, eight times in a year,
Speaker 2: and that's probably the course that they log the second
Speaker 2: or third most rounds year in, year out, and it's
Speaker 2: like a it's just something a dynamic where for these
Speaker 2: guys they are more familiar and familiarity has like has
Speaker 2: great benefit. It's I think it's like the what was
Speaker 2: it Harrington's great quote a few years ago, experiences and
Speaker 2: all is cracked up to me, like you know, sometimes
Speaker 2: like it's bad, like there are you get the bad
Speaker 2: memories and there's there's good things about it and bad
Speaker 2: thing there's strawbacks, and I think that's something that when
Speaker 2: you have a regular that's the only regular major host,
Speaker 2: and that's part of what makes it more special than others,
Speaker 2: is the familiarity of the course, not only for fans
Speaker 2: but for the players.
Speaker 1: Yep, totally, totally, totally all right. So now I'm gonna
Speaker 1: start with my actual number five.
Speaker 2: All right, number five? You counting down? Five down?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm going from five to one.
Speaker 2: All right, I'm already two in, so you're you've got
Speaker 2: more than me.
Speaker 1: So Tiger Woods. It's my number five storyline leading into uh,
Speaker 1: this eighty eight Masters. Somehow he's actually coming in to
Speaker 1: this Masters with less golf under his belt than he
Speaker 1: did last year, which is just fascinating. He's had twenty
Speaker 1: four holes competitive golf as prep for this last year Masters.
Speaker 1: At least last year he played all four rounds in La,
Speaker 1: made the cut there, had a good round I think
Speaker 1: either it was the second or the third round, and
Speaker 1: got a little momentum. But this year went to La,
Speaker 1: got sick, only played six holes on the Friday, and
Speaker 1: so he's even more undercooked than what he was last year,
Speaker 1: which is fascinating and the reason I've got him at
Speaker 1: number five. First of all, look, I mean, there's just
Speaker 1: no player that even comes close to the fame and
Speaker 1: the juice that Tiger Woods brings when he teased it
Speaker 1: up in a tournament. But you know, forty eight years
Speaker 1: old body seems to be hurting. There's just not many
Speaker 1: records that I feel that he still has a chance
Speaker 1: to break. But there's two that I think that are
Speaker 1: still in reach. And the one is, you know, winning
Speaker 1: for an eighty third time and beating Sneed's record and
Speaker 1: then coming up here at this Masters is breaking the
Speaker 1: all time consecutive cuts made record. So right now he's
Speaker 1: tied at twenty three with Gary Player and Fred Couples.
Speaker 1: And if he makes the cut at this Masters, then
Speaker 1: that's another record that he breaks and sets a new
Speaker 1: mark at twenty four Masters in a row making the cut.
Speaker 1: That is just phenomenal.
Speaker 2: I took the words out of my mouth about why
Speaker 2: Tiger matters this year, and I think, like, when you
Speaker 2: think about Tiger Woods, and he's obviously got the most
Speaker 2: records of any any golfer, that I think, I don't
Speaker 2: know if anybody will ever match the sheer number of
Speaker 2: records in my lifetime, in your lifetime, the Tiger said,
Speaker 2: it's hard to fathom that there will be somebody that
Speaker 2: comes through with this many records. And I think what
Speaker 2: makes Tiger such such an icon of the sport, like
Speaker 2: so many other greats of any sport, is his ability
Speaker 2: to do the unthinkable, the unfathomable when all the odds
Speaker 2: are stacked against him. And as you outlaid, he comes
Speaker 2: into this Masters having played twenty three holes of golf,
Speaker 2: competitive golf, and he's going to tee it up at
Speaker 2: the golf course. That is, you arguably need to be
Speaker 2: the most precise and sharp with your game. It's a
Speaker 2: physical test, it's a mental test. And here he's coming
Speaker 2: in this record. This isn't the biggest record. This isn't
Speaker 2: the most you know, amazing record he's ever gonna hold.
Speaker 2: But to break this record is a given the circumstances
Speaker 2: that he's in, is a unbelievable accomplishment. If he makes
Speaker 2: the cut this.
Speaker 1: Year, well remember remember last year when he made the
Speaker 1: cut and then that weather rolled in on the Saturday,
Speaker 1: and I just remember vividly his second shot into the
Speaker 1: fourteenth hole, and we were on the air and it
Speaker 1: was just bucketing down with rain, and you know, he's
Speaker 1: got the rain suit on and the umbrella and the
Speaker 1: hat and there's just water everywhere, and he hit the
Speaker 1: shot and walking over to his bag, which is like
Speaker 1: five yards away. The way he was walking, the pain
Speaker 1: that he was in just to get back to the
Speaker 1: golf bag was I That's an image I'll never ever
Speaker 1: get out of my mind. You know. The fact that
Speaker 1: he went ahead and made the cut before having to
Speaker 1: withdraw on you know, in that after that third round,
Speaker 1: or at some point in that third round, was just gosh,
Speaker 1: highlights how much pain he was in.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget watching him walk up the eighteenth hill.
Speaker 2: It felt like he wasn't gonna make it up, you know.
Speaker 2: I uh, and I think physically, with the with the leg.
Speaker 2: It seems like he's in a way better place now
Speaker 2: than last year. I think it's just it's just the
Speaker 2: the the reps, as he always has said, I mean,
Speaker 2: competitive reps really matter if you want to play high
Speaker 2: level golf.
Speaker 1: Now we'll say this, if it's firm and fast, like
Speaker 1: I'm begging for, I think it improves his chances because
Speaker 1: he can use all of the experience and understanding of
Speaker 1: where you can leave the ball and still make a score.
Speaker 1: So furm fast would be in his favor.
Speaker 2: If it's firm and fast, I think that that brings
Speaker 2: in some of the guys that thrive, are that understand
Speaker 2: the golf course and then have magical short games.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So like if you're a George Speed fan, firm and
Speaker 2: fast to me would be where where what you're really
Speaker 2: hoping for because it allows him to have a little
Speaker 2: bit in a way it sounds counterintuitive, but the margins
Speaker 2: are smaller to make birdies, but they're wider if you've
Speaker 2: got just an extraordinary short game in the sense of
Speaker 2: more guys are going to miss around the greens and
Speaker 2: it plays in your hands.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, And yeah, and his record there is pretty
Speaker 1: pretty dang stilla that place. That place absolutely suits him
Speaker 1: and gets him going.
Speaker 2: So all right, let's take a quick break to talk
Speaker 2: about another partner. This is a new partnership. This is uh.
Speaker 2: We used to have a Shotgun Start coffee back in
Speaker 2: the day, and we've always wanted to get back into
Speaker 2: the coffee business and we have partnered with good Walk
Speaker 2: Coffee to create a fried Egg coffee blend and a
Speaker 2: Shotgun Start coffee blend. So both of these coffee blends,
Speaker 2: we've got a light roast and a dark roast. The
Speaker 2: fried egg is a kind of a medium light roast.
Speaker 2: The shotgun starts a medium dark roast. It's really to
Speaker 2: pease both types of coffee drinkers. This is really good coffee.
Speaker 2: I was I was lucky to get to sample a
Speaker 2: bunch of coffees when we were When we were finalizing
Speaker 2: this partnership, we tried out a lot of different blends.
Speaker 2: We kind of settled on these were two favorites from
Speaker 2: the different genres. And really what this does is, you know,
Speaker 2: you buy our coffee, it goes to support the podcast.
Speaker 2: It's a consumable good. This one of the virtues of coffee.
Speaker 2: I think in the in the modern era, you don't
Speaker 2: have to rely on going to the grocery store. At
Speaker 2: this point, you can get a subscription and just get
Speaker 2: it shipped out to you and you never have that moment.
Speaker 2: You know, everybody like has that moment. It's nine o'clock
Speaker 2: at night, ten o'clock at night and you're like, oh,
Speaker 2: I don't have coffee to make in the morning. So
Speaker 2: we've got all the options. You can get ground. You
Speaker 2: can get a whole bean. The website to go visit
Speaker 2: is good Walk Coffee. That's good Walkcoffee dot com slash
Speaker 2: fried Egg. Goodwalkcoffee dot com slash fried Egg. Go there.
Speaker 2: You can buy a single bag, or you can subscribe
Speaker 2: and get it shipped to you so you never have
Speaker 2: to worry about it coming. That's Goodwalcoffee dot com slash
Speaker 2: fried Egg. Thanks for the support, and now back to
Speaker 2: Trevor Emmlman. My next one is going to be the
Speaker 2: live players. I've got three guys on the list, and
Speaker 2: I don't think it's just surprise anyone. I'm not putting
Speaker 2: Walkie Nieman in the in the mix until I see
Speaker 2: a top ten. Yeah, I'm right. I just I want
Speaker 2: to see something I want to see more. I know
Speaker 2: he played really well in that Fall Masters. During COVID
Speaker 2: he was in the mix, but you know, faltered late.
Speaker 2: Not all major records when you look at Wikipedia tell
Speaker 2: the true story. He was in the mix that year.
Speaker 2: That being said, I'm zeroed in on Brooks, Rom and
Speaker 2: camp Smith. Camp Smith were eighteen months removed effectively from
Speaker 2: him possibly being the best player in the world. He
Speaker 2: wasn't great in the last years. He wasn't terrible in
Speaker 2: the majors last year, he wasn't terrible. You know, what
Speaker 2: is he at this point is a question. I'll just
Speaker 2: run through these quick. You know, Rom, I don't know
Speaker 2: if he I think his decision to go to Live
Speaker 2: I think he went because he thought he was that
Speaker 2: the deal was done and he was coming back and
Speaker 2: I and I don't know if he thought this was
Speaker 2: all going to be together. He was going to be
Speaker 2: playing PGA Tour events. But to me, John Rahm seems
Speaker 2: like a control freak, And I'm just curious about his prep.
Speaker 2: He's a world class player. I think he can play
Speaker 2: well at Augusta with any prep, but I wonder about
Speaker 2: his prep and whether he's gotten to do exactly how
Speaker 2: he would want to prep for the Masters, And I
Speaker 2: don't necessarily think that he does. He's the reigning champion,
Speaker 2: defending champion, but he hasn't. You know, you think about
Speaker 2: last year coming into the Masters, he was undoubtedly, undoubtedly
Speaker 2: the best player in the game. This year he is,
Speaker 2: without question not that In that same pedestal, and I
Speaker 2: think you saw that with that Mono Imano showdown with Brooks,
Speaker 2: he knew he was the best player in the world.
Speaker 2: And Brooks, for the first time ever kind of got
Speaker 2: out outfitt On on that kind of marathon Sunday.
Speaker 1: You count twenty nineteen when Tiger got him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true, as I was gonna I have that
Speaker 2: in the in the Brooks section. Then we then if
Speaker 2: you take if you look at Brooks, if you take
Speaker 2: Brooks's twenty twenty two out of his majors just because
Speaker 2: of injuries, you know, he couldn't squat down to read
Speaker 2: a putt. Yep, He's got seventeen top tens in his
Speaker 2: last twenty six major starts.
Speaker 1: It's awesome. It's awesome.
Speaker 2: It includes five wins and fourteen top fives in there.
Speaker 2: There's a I think there's three top t sixes in there.
Speaker 2: So if you went to T six to beat seventeen
Speaker 2: top six finishes in twenty six starts in majors, this
Speaker 2: guy and I'm not a better I just I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't really pay attention to betting odds very much.
Speaker 3: He's twenty to one, he's twenty one to one. Twenty
Speaker 3: to one. How is this possible? He's spent so close here.
Speaker 3: The Tiger year, it looked like the tournament his and
Speaker 3: then you know what happens on Sundays with Tiger Woods
Speaker 3: in the mix. Happened, you know, unless your name's Trevor Emillin.
Speaker 2: And then last year through thirty six, it looked like
Speaker 2: there was nobody that was going to beat this guy.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: If he wins, he has six majors, he's one leg away.
Speaker 2: If he wins this, I don't think there's like I
Speaker 2: think that we have to start to look back, ignore
Speaker 2: the lack of other wins and say this is the
Speaker 2: greatest player of the generation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I totally agree with you. I mean, there's not
Speaker 1: too much really that I can add to that. Rom
Speaker 1: was my number two, my second second biggest storyline leading
Speaker 1: in So I guess I'll jump in on that. It
Speaker 1: is fascinating to me and exciting to me to be
Speaker 1: able to observe how this is going to unfold with him.
Speaker 1: Like you say, last year came in he had played
Speaker 1: eight PGA Tour events, he had won three of them,
Speaker 1: and he came to the Masters won the green jacket,
Speaker 1: So that was his fourth win and undoubtedly let the
Speaker 1: world know that he is the best player in the world.
Speaker 1: And now after making this move, he's going to have
Speaker 1: played five live events after Miami this weekend, and if
Speaker 1: you do the math, because they play three round events,
Speaker 1: that'll be seventeen less competitive rounds under his belt than
Speaker 1: what he played last year coming in to the Masters
Speaker 1: when he won. So is that going to mean anything? Like,
Speaker 1: we don't quite know yet. If you look at the
Speaker 1: twenty three Masters Brooks came in, then I know what
Speaker 1: he was doing. And like you say, after thirty six holes,
Speaker 1: it didn't look like anyone was going to beat him.
Speaker 1: Michelson finished second out of nowhere like nowhere, and you've
Speaker 1: got to give a shout out to Patrick Reid as well,
Speaker 1: or finished typer fourth. So it didn't affect those guys
Speaker 1: having played less coming into last year's Masters, But that's
Speaker 1: not going to say that John Rohb's not going to
Speaker 1: feel a little different. And I am really really fascinated
Speaker 1: to see how he handles the whole thing, what the
Speaker 1: reaction is going to be, like, what those press conferences
Speaker 1: are going to be, like, how he interacts with the
Speaker 1: media and other players that he hasn't seen for a
Speaker 1: long time on the PGA tour, and just what the
Speaker 1: dynamic is it's going to be. It's going to be
Speaker 1: lovely to watch.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean throw in. Do they have enough
Speaker 2: toilets around the court? You know? Is he going to
Speaker 2: be happy with that situation?
Speaker 1: Now? Cam cam Smith as he just got rid of
Speaker 1: the mullet, so hopefully he doesn't lose anything.
Speaker 2: It was April fourth, he got you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh man, I'm glad to hear it. I'm glad
Speaker 1: to hear it. You know, I don't want I don't
Speaker 1: want Cam losing any of those special short game powers.
Speaker 1: You know, the guy is a genius with a wedge
Speaker 1: and a putter in his hand and in the same
Speaker 1: vein as Spieth. At a place like Augusta National that
Speaker 1: is a massive weapon. So you're always going to keep
Speaker 1: your eye on cam Smith and Brooks is an animal.
Speaker 1: Brooks is a major championship animal as always. He hasn't
Speaker 1: played very well leading up to it or in the
Speaker 1: last few months, but does it really matter, because when
Speaker 1: he pitches up to a major championship, he's able to
Speaker 1: just shift into another gear and get himself in contention.
Speaker 2: To me, the only thing that matters with Brooks if
Speaker 2: you go back through his career so many of the
Speaker 2: times he's won majors, is the week before does he
Speaker 2: turn up and is the is the ball striking there?
Speaker 2: And so live Miami? Like, I think that's the story.
Speaker 2: The thing to watch is Brooks Kopka on the leader board.
Speaker 2: If he's on the leaderboard, you gotta feel great about
Speaker 2: what's gonna happen with him going into Augusta. It's like
Speaker 2: it's like clockwork. I think it was triny Forrest. He
Speaker 2: might finish fourth right before the PGA one. It's like
Speaker 2: if you go back last year, Crooked Catty wins and
Speaker 2: then he plays Augusta, he plays great. It is as
Speaker 2: kind of like clockwork that I think that's how you
Speaker 2: tell if Brooks is ready to go, is the week before,
Speaker 2: if he's in the mix, and I just, yeah, I
Speaker 2: think that you know, sneaky. We talk about Rory with
Speaker 2: with Augusta National, is Brooks actually the one that has
Speaker 2: been kind of snake bitten the most by Augusta and
Speaker 2: had the best chances to win. I think with the
Speaker 2: last five years, he's definitely and I think, like you
Speaker 2: talk about game for Augusta National, he's perfect, He's got
Speaker 2: everything you want.
Speaker 1: You know, it just feels like it's more intense with
Speaker 1: Rory though, because it's been for a longer period of time,
Speaker 1: you know, since Yeah, twenty eleven. I remember playing was
Speaker 1: twenty eleven was the one where he threw it away
Speaker 1: in SCHWARTZELBERTI the last four holes, Right, it's twenty eleven,
Speaker 1: I'm quite sure. But I remember playing with Rory in
Speaker 1: the third or fourth round in two thousand and nine
Speaker 1: when I was defending champion and just watching this kid
Speaker 1: play this golf course, going, he's going to win five
Speaker 1: of these, Like this golf course is perfect for him.
Speaker 1: Back then he played more of a draw and I
Speaker 1: was just playing that round of golf with him that day, going, man,
Speaker 1: this course is tailor made for this guy. So the
Speaker 1: pressure feels a little bit more intense for me when
Speaker 1: it comes to mc roy as opposed to Kipka.
Speaker 2: With golf, I think there's in it, particularly with Augusta National.
Speaker 2: I'm curious what you think about this, but to me,
Speaker 2: Augusta is the place that you have to swing more
Speaker 2: freely and without thought than anywhere else in the world.
Speaker 2: And there's going to be people on both sides of
Speaker 2: this which disprove and prove it. But to me, Augusta
Speaker 2: is the place where, when you're over the ball, you
Speaker 2: have to let go of all your worries about where
Speaker 2: it might go, what it might do, and hit the shot,
Speaker 2: commit to the shot. And I think for some players
Speaker 2: as you age, that becomes a harder and harder proposition.
Speaker 2: You're light like your life when you're twenty two, the
Speaker 2: thing you worry about are so much less and so
Speaker 2: much less consequential than by the time you're thirty eight
Speaker 2: and you've got kids and you're worried, you know, like
Speaker 2: you're you become more trained as you age to worry
Speaker 2: more in a weird way. And I think this golf
Speaker 2: course almost some for some people, certain types of people
Speaker 2: versus other types of people, becomes more difficult to play
Speaker 2: because of that.
Speaker 1: Do you are you are you connecting that with Rory?
Speaker 2: I don't know. I think it's just certain personalities right
Speaker 2: where I think there's with young players, and I think
Speaker 2: like Speak's a great example, not at Augusta, just in
Speaker 2: general in his career. I think golf's gotten harder for
Speaker 2: him as he's aged and he thinks about more stuff.
Speaker 2: It's not is when you're I remember when Adams.
Speaker 1: That he thinks about more, but he definitely knows more.
Speaker 2: Yes, and knowledge can be It goes back to that
Speaker 2: Harrington quote experiences everything. Yeah, when you think about Adam
Speaker 2: Scott when they changed the rule about flagstick putting and
Speaker 2: he started putting with the flagstick and he had this
Speaker 2: great putting year and he talked about how it reminded
Speaker 2: him as a kid when he used to just sit
Speaker 2: on the putting green and bang putts into the flagsticks,
Speaker 2: the little flagsticks on a putting green, and how it
Speaker 2: made it easy because it connected back to when you
Speaker 2: didn't think about things.
Speaker 1: Sure, And I.
Speaker 2: Think that that Augusta because of all the things we
Speaker 2: outlined right at the top, like all these little things
Speaker 2: and you have to you have to figure out what
Speaker 2: you're doing with a shot and then forget about everything
Speaker 2: and hit the shot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, look, there's there's a lot that's going on.
Speaker 1: You know, we touched on the lies. It's absolutely in
Speaker 1: your mind how much or how small the space is
Speaker 1: that you need to land your ball on approach shots.
Speaker 1: And then the swirling wind is really the icing on
Speaker 1: the cake from a standpoint of sewing doubt. So when
Speaker 1: you know that you have this small space that you
Speaker 1: need to land your ball and to give yourself a
Speaker 1: good look and you're not one hundred percent sure where
Speaker 1: the wind is, that it's it's a problem. It's a problem.
Speaker 2: We since we've touched on Rory here, I know Rory's
Speaker 2: on your list.
Speaker 1: Rory's my number three, So.
Speaker 2: We're here, let's talk about him.
Speaker 1: So ten tenth go trying to complete the Grand Slam.
Speaker 1: If he does, I actually think it. You know, if
Speaker 1: you've got this Rory and Brooks rivalry really of you know,
Speaker 1: who's the best player of this generation. If Rory goes
Speaker 1: ahead and wins the Masters, completes the Grand Slam, it
Speaker 1: gives him that slight edge over Brooks.
Speaker 2: Because variety of courses.
Speaker 1: But also like that is the most elite list in golf.
Speaker 1: I mean engulfing history. For Rory to be only the
Speaker 1: sixth guy to do that, I mean that is likes.
Speaker 1: That's rarefied air right there. And it's so interesting to
Speaker 1: see how he goes about it. It's not like he's
Speaker 1: he's played badly. He's had seven top tens in the
Speaker 1: last ten years at the Masters, so he's had a
Speaker 1: few opportunities there and thereabout. But this year feels a
Speaker 1: little different because normally he's won by now he's played well,
Speaker 1: but this year he really hasn't played well. He won
Speaker 1: in Dubai earlier on in the season and then in
Speaker 1: his five starts on the PGA Tour, T nineteen at
Speaker 1: the Players is his best finished. That is, it's unheard
Speaker 1: of for Rory McElroy. So I'm wondering, like, does this
Speaker 1: take some pressure off? Does this take some of the
Speaker 1: spotlight off? These are all interesting things. And then you
Speaker 1: know he's been putting in a little work with Butch
Speaker 1: Harmon for the last few weeks. How does that change
Speaker 1: things He's spoken about, you know, earlier on the season,
Speaker 1: missing left with the driver seemed to fix that, then
Speaker 1: started missing with the Irons hasn't had a week where
Speaker 1: he's really put everything together. Now, if there was one
Speaker 1: coach that I would have recommended for Rio, it would
Speaker 1: have been Butch Harmond for sure, because Butcher has an
Speaker 1: amazing ability to give a player confidence without changing too much,
Speaker 1: and he just he has a knack for that. He
Speaker 1: did it with Fowler last year, and he's done it
Speaker 1: with multiple players throughout his career. He is a mastermind
Speaker 1: of getting the best out of highly talented golfers. So
Speaker 1: it's going to be fun to see how Rory pitches
Speaker 1: up and how he goes about it. And you know,
Speaker 1: we'll probably get early look here this week at San
Speaker 1: Antonio if anything looks a little different. But let me
Speaker 1: just finish by saying this. My belief is Rory plays
Speaker 1: Augusta National two aggressively and that's what gets him undone
Speaker 1: all the time. And I just wish that he would
Speaker 1: take his foot off the gas a little bit and
Speaker 1: let the golf course come to him rather than going
Speaker 1: out trying to burdy every hole. You know, I remember
Speaker 1: last year in the first round afternoon tea times, I'm
Speaker 1: sitting in Butler cabin, I got Jim Nance to my
Speaker 1: left ram steps up. It's the southwest wind helping off
Speaker 1: the left on number one, Okay, you've got about two
Speaker 1: eighty or so to that fairway bunker down the right
Speaker 1: hand side. Ram steps up, perfect club choice five word,
Speaker 1: lays it up just short left of the bunker. He's
Speaker 1: got a seven eight iron into the green, middle green. Okay,
Speaker 1: he had a bit of a nightmare on the green.
Speaker 1: He four putt or what have you, but and got
Speaker 1: off to the poor start. But Rory steps up straight
Speaker 1: to the driver. He's got the helping wind. The beauty
Speaker 1: of the design on number one is the widest part
Speaker 1: of the fairway is in front of that fairway bunker.
Speaker 1: And as you start pushing it past the bunker, the
Speaker 1: pine trees on the left creep in at an angle.
Speaker 2: So he's now a fair fairway moves at an angle too,
Speaker 2: so that faaraway is in a straight fairway. It's an
Speaker 2: angle fairway where you have to hit the exact line
Speaker 2: and distance control. It becomes a two part question exactly.
Speaker 1: So now he's trying to fit a driver into an
Speaker 1: extremely narrow place on the first shot of the tournament.
Speaker 1: There's no point in doing it. Absolutely no point in
Speaker 1: doing it. He ends up hitting a eight out of
Speaker 1: ten t shot straight into the trees on the left
Speaker 1: because he's run through and he's run out of space,
Speaker 1: and I'm just I look over it at Jim Nance
Speaker 1: and I'm like, what is he doing hitting driver there?
Speaker 1: And those are the sort of things that I just
Speaker 1: wish he would let the golf course come to him
Speaker 1: a little bit more. And I think took back to
Speaker 1: something that Jack Nicholas said to me, and I never
Speaker 1: had the talent and ability to use this strategy, but
Speaker 1: McElroy does. And Jack said to me, Look, when I
Speaker 1: was in my prime, I knew that I was the best,
Speaker 1: and I didn't have to do anything special to have
Speaker 1: a chance to win with nine holes because I knew
Speaker 1: that I was the best. And McElroy has that to
Speaker 1: at his disposal. He does not need to go out
Speaker 1: there and do anything crazy to have a chance with
Speaker 1: nine holes to play on Sunday.
Speaker 2: I think he played so aggressive last year. He played
Speaker 2: so aggressive at o Kill the next event, which I
Speaker 2: think o'kill was like beneficial to play aggressive in spots.
Speaker 2: I thought his game plan for LACC was spectacular. You
Speaker 2: know what I told him. What he did is he
Speaker 2: hit less drivers. He hit a lot of three woods.
Speaker 2: His three wood goes as far as the best players
Speaker 2: in the world's drivers go, and he finds more fairways
Speaker 2: and from the fairway. The thing about Rory is Rory
Speaker 2: is going to run into birdies left and right.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was so unbelievably good.
Speaker 2: If he plays from the fairway or with clear shots
Speaker 2: into greens the vast majority of time, he's going to
Speaker 2: make four five birdies at Augusta National almost every round,
Speaker 2: and from those positions he's going to limit his bogies.
Speaker 2: And I think, like you've hit the nail on the head.
Speaker 2: It's not for Rory, It's not about It's never this.
Speaker 2: In this whole major drought, it hasn't been about the
Speaker 2: ability to score on a golf course. It's been about
Speaker 2: the ability to limit the backbreakers, the momentum killers. And
Speaker 2: I know some people don't believe in momentum golf. When
Speaker 2: you make when you make an eight, when you make
Speaker 2: an eight footer for par and you go to the
Speaker 2: next tee, it feels like a birdie. And I think
Speaker 2: so much of Rory is about keeping the card cleaner,
Speaker 2: because you know, with the par fives that Augustin National,
Speaker 2: his length, his talent, his skill. There's there's three birdies
Speaker 2: easy birdies per round. Maybe you don't hit a drive
Speaker 2: a great drive on one of them, and it becomes,
Speaker 2: you know, a par hole. But three of the four
Speaker 2: you're gonna have a shot. If you're driving it halfway decent,
Speaker 2: even with your three wood, you're gonna have an easy
Speaker 2: shot into the green and a chance to make birdies,
Speaker 2: and you're gonna run into a couple others. So you know,
Speaker 2: I think, uh, I like, I like his game plan
Speaker 2: this year of he's coming in late, coming in I
Speaker 2: think Tuesday, he's skipping the par three. He's done his
Speaker 2: prep work this week that now it's uh, you know,
Speaker 2: Poppy might be happy. I've got a daughter about the
Speaker 2: same age. Poppy might be happier getting to sit in
Speaker 2: front of a TV and watch TV. I love that.
Speaker 1: It's the best.
Speaker 2: So I I like the I like the strategy that
Speaker 2: he's he's employing this year where it seems to me
Speaker 2: he's approaching it more like just another tournament. And I think,
Speaker 2: you know, if you're looking for positive science at the players,
Speaker 2: he made a ton of birdies, and I think that's
Speaker 2: that's valuable for some by That's what Rory's secret sauce is,
Speaker 2: is that the guy can make more birdies than anybody
Speaker 2: else in the world when it's going. Now, the flip
Speaker 2: side is he made a ton of big numbers, and
Speaker 2: that's been the Achilles heel all year has been the
Speaker 2: big numbers, the big mistakes.
Speaker 1: But they kind of go hand in hand, don't they.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're gonna if you plan that aggressively, you're
Speaker 1: gonna make a ton of birdies, but you're gonna make
Speaker 1: six and sevens as well, which he does more than
Speaker 1: any great player I've ever seen. And that's what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like he's gonna make birdies. He's gonna make birdies regardless.
Speaker 1: And as far as the prep goes and playing nine
Speaker 1: holes and not playing the part three or playing and
Speaker 1: not playing the week before, I don't actually even care
Speaker 1: about any of that. I care more about what is
Speaker 1: he gonna do on Thursday when it matters. He needs
Speaker 1: to not play as aggressively. He needs to let the
Speaker 1: golf course come to him and open up for him
Speaker 1: and just play every shot on its own merit without
Speaker 1: like when the whole location is on the left corner
Speaker 1: on three, dump it out to thirty feet right when
Speaker 1: the whole location is back right on four, hit it
Speaker 1: forty feet in the middle of the green and make
Speaker 1: a par and get out there. When the whole location
Speaker 1: is back right on five, hit it towards the bunker
Speaker 1: and put up the hill from thirty feet. Those are
Speaker 1: not birdy opportunities, make pars. Wait till you get to
Speaker 1: a spot where you can actually be aggressive, and it
Speaker 1: is on the par fives, and it's in a couple
Speaker 1: of situations to easier whole locations on the threes and fours.
Speaker 1: But let the golf course come to you. You are
Speaker 1: that good. You don't need to do anything special, just
Speaker 1: just play normal golf.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. And to go to the next guy
Speaker 2: on my list, Yeah, guy that plays baby normal golf
Speaker 2: better than anybody in the world, who's hitting the ball
Speaker 2: better than anybody in the world, is Scotti Scheffler.
Speaker 1: So he's my number one storyline.
Speaker 2: Obviously. He comes into this with win win second on
Speaker 2: a you know, really an eighteen months plus run where
Speaker 2: the ball striking has been at a level that only
Speaker 2: has been matched by Tiger Woods. I think the big
Speaker 2: question is for me is going to be. Is the
Speaker 2: putter a band aid or has a new putter changed
Speaker 2: his the way he puts, because in the last few years,
Speaker 2: I don't think the putter's been It's been a stroke
Speaker 2: slash mental thing, and I just you know, it's one putt.
Speaker 2: But I do wonder about that putt at Houston and
Speaker 2: how it sticks with him. If he puts average, I
Speaker 2: have a hard time believing that anybody's going to beat him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if he puts average, generally it's over. That's all
Speaker 1: he needs is to not lose strokes. The put on
Speaker 1: eighteen on Sunday bothered me too. I know there's a
Speaker 1: lot of pressure that he's running on high confidence right now,
Speaker 1: but he's supposed to make that putt. And when people
Speaker 1: throw these comparisons with the Tiger like run, Tiger like
Speaker 1: ball striking, let me tell you what Tiger would have done.
Speaker 1: He would have buried that put he would have been
Speaker 1: dancing around the green giving upper cut fist pumps, and
Speaker 1: then he would have birdied the first playoff hole to
Speaker 1: win the Houston Open. So you know, it's always tricky
Speaker 1: when you make these comparisons because we want to see
Speaker 1: another Tiger so badly because we had so much fun. Well,
Speaker 1: I was getting my brains beat in by him, but
Speaker 1: as golf fans so much fun watching this extraordinary athlete.
Speaker 2: I go back to the three putt also that in
Speaker 2: that tournament, there's two two putting moments that why did
Speaker 2: as in one three in a row? And I listen,
Speaker 2: I don't want this to come across as nitpicky, but
Speaker 2: when you get when you're the best player in the world,
Speaker 2: that's what analyzing the best player in the world becomes.
Speaker 2: You see all the shots, you see the moments, and
Speaker 2: and there's you know, that field at Houston is an
Speaker 2: event that the you know, the greats of all time
Speaker 2: win those events. It's you're expected to and it's it's hard.
Speaker 2: But when I look at the putt on eighteen, the
Speaker 2: day that he three putted, people are brushing it off
Speaker 2: as that short putt was was just a lapse in concentration.
Speaker 2: A that doesn't happen with Tiger if you want to
Speaker 2: do the Tiger comparisons. But b I think that was like,
Speaker 2: that was the putt. That's that's the thing that he's
Speaker 2: been struggling with, where that putter face opens a little
Speaker 2: bit and you miss those putts on the right. If
Speaker 2: you watch that short the putter faces open and then
Speaker 2: the flip side of when you're when you're having that problem,
Speaker 2: and you know on short putts I that face, I
Speaker 2: just don't release it, I don't square it. Then what
Speaker 2: happens is that you you have that pull, that soft pull.
Speaker 2: And that's what that putt on eighteen was. It was
Speaker 2: a soft pole the putt to tie.
Speaker 1: The backswing looked so short and rushed to me in
Speaker 1: real time. I hadn't. I haven't watched it again, so
Speaker 1: I will go ahead and say that. But I was
Speaker 1: watching live, and you know, if I was on the call,
Speaker 1: I said it out loud. As soon as I watched
Speaker 1: the putt, I said to my son, how short was
Speaker 1: that backswing? Like it was? There was almost no backswing,
Speaker 1: and then he was like trying to find the face
Speaker 1: through impact and for a right to left putt to
Speaker 1: have that thing looked like it started kind of inside left.
Speaker 1: If we're being generous, maybe more left edge. It show
Speaker 1: wasn't pretty. But let's switch this to the positive side.
Speaker 1: Six out of his last seven events he has been
Speaker 1: positive strokes gained putting for the week okay, And since
Speaker 1: he's gone to this mallet in these three events, he's
Speaker 1: been positive strokes gained putting, and we just touched on
Speaker 1: if he can keep that around average for the week.
Speaker 1: There's probably only three guys that have a chance to
Speaker 1: beat him. It's Kepka, mclroy and Ron So it'll be
Speaker 1: interesting to see. The other thing that is just so
Speaker 1: amazing about him is his demeanor and his mental outlook
Speaker 1: and approach. You know a lot of people out there
Speaker 1: say that it's not exciting and he doesn't show enough
Speaker 1: personality and what have you, and I can see that
Speaker 1: side of it. I mean, it's attainment at the end
Speaker 1: of the day for fans, but gosh, it's solid, man,
Speaker 1: it's solid. He doesn't get too high, he doesn't get
Speaker 1: too low. And when you start coming to major championship
Speaker 1: golf when it is draining physically, emotionally, mentally, to have
Speaker 1: that sort of mental approach that Scott he does. In
Speaker 1: a lot of ways, it's how Brooks is at the majors.
Speaker 1: You know, those guys are able to conserve so much
Speaker 1: more energy and keep some gas in the tank for
Speaker 1: just in case they're really going to need to do
Speaker 1: something special with nine holes to play. His mental approach
Speaker 1: is it's on the money. It is on the money.
Speaker 1: The way he handles the media, the way he answers
Speaker 1: the questions, the way he never beats himself up, it's
Speaker 1: really really good.
Speaker 2: He's he's an extraordinary player from if you just study,
Speaker 2: He's how everybody who's played tournament golf would dream of
Speaker 2: playing tournament golf. In terms of the way he maneuvers
Speaker 2: a golf course. It's just I feel like he never
Speaker 2: puts himself at undue risk. And what you said, I
Speaker 2: there's like an aspect of tournament golf that doesn't get
Speaker 2: talked about enough. Is stress management. Yeah, when you're playing around.
Speaker 2: I think about Molinari's final round with Tiger in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2: That final round, everybody is rooting for Tiger, and I remember,
Speaker 2: maybe off of sixth Green, it's like, when is this
Speaker 2: guy going to make a bogie with like where he's been.
Speaker 2: He wasn't playing well, but he was. He was pulling
Speaker 2: together these pars and it looked like it just wasn't
Speaker 2: going to stop. But the stress level on that was
Speaker 2: so high through six holes, through nine holes, through twelve holes.
Speaker 2: When you get all that stress, eventually you're going to
Speaker 2: crack yep. And it's just you cannot play four rounds
Speaker 2: of golf like that. You can't. It's hard to play
Speaker 2: one round of golf where you are piecing it all together.
Speaker 2: You're trying to, you know, get up and down here.
Speaker 2: You've got a five footer here, six footer here, seven
Speaker 2: footer here for par. And what Scotty does so well
Speaker 2: is with the demeanor, with never getting too high, never
Speaker 2: getting too low, and the way he plays a golf course.
Speaker 2: He just never puts himself into too many situations, you know.
Speaker 2: And really the situations that have been the crux of
Speaker 2: his issue is like I have four feet for par
Speaker 2: the last you know, year and a half, that's been
Speaker 2: his stressor. It's not been anything te to green. And
Speaker 2: part of it is unbelievable striking the ball. The other
Speaker 2: part of it is what we talked about with Rory
Speaker 2: is not putting himself into positions to have big numbers.
Speaker 1: His course management is it's awesome. It's the best out
Speaker 1: there right now. Out of this crop of players that
Speaker 1: are playing at the highest level right now, Scheffler has
Speaker 1: the best course management strategy understanding of where to put
Speaker 1: the ball, understanding of when to hit what shots. I mean,
Speaker 1: think about that eighteenth hole at the Players. Yeah, a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago, how he gears down to the three word.
Speaker 1: You know, everyone always talks about the go to fade. Nope,
Speaker 1: he turns a little high right to left, three word,
Speaker 1: right down the right half perfect wedge to fifteen feet.
Speaker 1: Hit a pretty good putt there and that didn't go in.
Speaker 1: But the guy is, he's the man right now. He
Speaker 1: is the best player in the world. I don't think
Speaker 1: it's particularly close at this point, and with how good
Speaker 1: his iron play is, and how good his iron play
Speaker 1: has been for going on three years. If we circle
Speaker 1: all the way back to the beginning of this conversation
Speaker 1: and hoping for firm and fast, if it gets firm
Speaker 1: and fast, with the control that he has over shape,
Speaker 1: trajectory and spin with his irons, he will be extremely
Speaker 1: hard to beat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, he's I think he's the favorite, and
Speaker 2: for all intensive purposes, it's hard to see how you
Speaker 2: could pick somebody else given the run. The floor, to me,
Speaker 2: like the thing that's crazy with Scheffler is like the
Speaker 2: floor is if he if he plays bad, he's fourth
Speaker 2: or fifth or sixth.
Speaker 1: Yeah, last year he was. Last year, I believe he was.
Speaker 1: I'm wanting to say tied for tenth and dead last
Speaker 1: in putting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's crazy. It's it's insane stuff. Last one
Speaker 2: before we get you out of here, this is I. Oh,
Speaker 2: you got one more? What's yours?
Speaker 1: You go? All right?
Speaker 2: I've got a list of players, and you know, I
Speaker 2: think it's insane that the fourth ranked player in the
Speaker 2: world is playing his first Masters.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think we're we're on the we're on the
Speaker 1: same the same thing here. So let's hear it.
Speaker 2: Well, it's like the fourth ranked player in the world.
Speaker 2: Has this ever happened where we've had a top five
Speaker 2: player making their debut at the Masters?
Speaker 1: Shucks, not that I can recall.
Speaker 2: And we've got two guys in the top ten to
Speaker 2: the top ten players in the world, and I I
Speaker 2: don't this goes to some of the problems with the
Speaker 2: world rankings right now, but I would have a hard
Speaker 2: time believing there'd be more than maybe maybe Jackie Neeman
Speaker 2: and Cam Smith are two players that could be in
Speaker 2: the top ten, you know, but in Brooks so there's
Speaker 2: three players maybe, but two of the top twelve players
Speaker 2: in the game right now are our first timers at Augusta.
Speaker 2: It's insane. Yeah, it's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: It really is. And so this was my number four storyline.
Speaker 1: So you and I were thinking along the same lines.
Speaker 1: Nineteen seventy nine, the famous Fuzzy Zella playoff win is
Speaker 1: the last time that the first time will won the Masters.
Speaker 1: But these two have a shot. These two have a
Speaker 1: legitimate shot. Awesome players. Wyndam Clark has in the last
Speaker 1: year turned into like a big game hunter. You know,
Speaker 1: he does not win small events like he wins on
Speaker 1: tough golf courses against the best players. You think of LACC,
Speaker 1: you think of the Wells Fargo, you think of the
Speaker 1: sixty at Pebble. I know we didn't have a final
Speaker 1: round there, but still this guy wins big time tournaments
Speaker 1: and was obviously right in the mix with Scutty at
Speaker 1: API and players.
Speaker 2: So guy, the guy has some gas off his tea.
Speaker 2: I don't think it gets talked about enough, but I
Speaker 2: was out with his group with Rory and at Genesis.
Speaker 2: I mean there were a few times where he hit
Speaker 2: it ten to fifteen past Rory. Yeah, there are other
Speaker 2: times where I mean like I think into the wind
Speaker 2: Rory had a better ballflayer, he might spin up a
Speaker 2: little bit more. But I mean, I don't think he
Speaker 2: gets enough credit for how long he is, like pro
Speaker 2: prodigious length off the tee.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think when they are both just cruising with
Speaker 1: the driver, which is different to meremmortals cruising, But when
Speaker 1: they're both just cruising, Windham has probably got two or
Speaker 1: three more miles an hour ball speed than Rory. He
Speaker 1: gets up into that you know, one eight six, one
Speaker 1: eight seven, one eight eight, which Rory has, but he
Speaker 1: doesn't really get to that too often on the course.
Speaker 1: He's more in the eight three eight four zone. But
Speaker 1: that's the one thing that is my concern with Wyndham
Speaker 1: Clark at Augusta National because there's a few times during
Speaker 1: the round he's gonna need to at the very least
Speaker 1: have a straight drive, whereas even though he bombs at
Speaker 1: a mile, he puts quite a lot of curve from
Speaker 1: left to right on it with the driver. So there's
Speaker 1: a few times I'm thinking of two, I'm thinking of nine,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of thirteen, I'm thinking of fourteen, where if
Speaker 1: the ball starts to leak to the right, he's not
Speaker 1: going to have much space. Yeah, but ten he can
Speaker 1: just erope the three wood or even a driving iron
Speaker 1: for as far as he hits the ball. So ten
Speaker 1: is like a tennis like a specialty shot. It's almost
Speaker 1: like when you're behind a tree and you know you've
Speaker 1: got to hit a twenty yard hook. That t shot
Speaker 1: is like a specialty shot. Guys generally find a way
Speaker 1: to pull it off. Some of those others that are
Speaker 1: a bit more subtle that I mentioned, he's gonna have
Speaker 1: to be careful not to run out down the right
Speaker 1: hand side and get him get himself into some trouble.
Speaker 1: But he has proved to us he is not scared.
Speaker 1: He's got the guts, He has a ton of self belief.
Speaker 1: His mental game is as good as anybody's out there
Speaker 1: right now. It's wonderful to watch him to see how
Speaker 1: quickly he bounces back mentally from bad shots and gets
Speaker 1: on with it. He he's gonna going to be an
Speaker 1: interesting one to watch there being a first time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that. And then Lodwig obviously great driver.
Speaker 2: Something you were saying when I was thinking. One thing
Speaker 2: I was thinking about is like it's been etched into
Speaker 2: our brain how important distances at Augusta National, And it's
Speaker 2: important everywhere, But I think this of players. Almost everybody's
Speaker 2: long enough, plenty long to play there, and it's become
Speaker 2: an underrated control course.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Look for me, I've always thought that it was
Speaker 1: a second a second shot approach play, elite level approach
Speaker 1: play that is going to win you the Masters. You
Speaker 1: know you've got to drive the ball. Well, don't get
Speaker 1: me wrong, but you can get away with some things.
Speaker 1: And there's certain areas where you have a bit of
Speaker 1: space to where it's not mega intimidating, like old school
Speaker 1: US opens that I used to play, where we had
Speaker 1: twenty yard wide fairways an eight inch rough. It's not
Speaker 1: like that. You can conjure up shots from out of
Speaker 1: pine straw. You can, you know, hit some running shots
Speaker 1: out of the second cut. You have some options if
Speaker 1: you hit some squirrely t shots. But high level approach
Speaker 1: play is the thing that really gives you a good
Speaker 1: shot at Augusta National.
Speaker 2: That's my concern with Ludwig.
Speaker 1: I know that stats wise, he's it's not his strength.
Speaker 2: I thought that the Ryder Cup is what sticks with me.
Speaker 2: A lot of uneven lies, a lot of you know
Speaker 2: where I don't. I wasn't out there, but some of
Speaker 2: the terrain I thought was was actually kind of similar
Speaker 2: with the Master with Augusta National in the sense of
Speaker 2: like the severity, and I just thought under the gun
Speaker 2: in intense pressure. The thing that I walked away from
Speaker 2: that event going was the approach play has a lot
Speaker 2: a long way to go, And that's my concern with
Speaker 2: the Masters.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm less concerned with the approach play and a
Speaker 1: little bit more concerned with the putting for him. And
Speaker 1: here's why. He seems to put rarely aggressively speed wise,
Speaker 1: and I've just never seen anybody have too much luck
Speaker 1: with that at Augusta National especially you know, when I
Speaker 1: watch him hit three four five footers, I mean he's
Speaker 1: shrinking the hole. Man. It thing has got a ton
Speaker 1: of speed on it, and the edges are so sharp
Speaker 1: and the greens get so fast that if you put
Speaker 1: a ton of speed on one and it rooms out
Speaker 1: and you're gonna have five to six feet coming back.
Speaker 2: Also, where the holes are. The holes are on these
Speaker 2: little tricky spots where it's like this little like knoll
Speaker 2: where where the ball runs away in all these directions,
Speaker 2: So it amplifies the.
Speaker 1: Miss totally, totally.
Speaker 2: All right, we got we got through our five things. Yeah,
Speaker 2: who's your pick to win?
Speaker 1: Scheffler?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's it's hard not to pick Sheffler.
Speaker 2: That's hard not to.
Speaker 1: It's really hard not to hit the run that he's on.
Speaker 1: I say, the mental approach. He's not going to tie
Speaker 1: himself up and knots this week when he's at home,
Speaker 1: you know, he's probably out he loves playing pickleball and tennis,
Speaker 1: and he's probably out there just having a good time
Speaker 1: with his buddies and doing a little practice. He's not
Speaker 1: gonna get all wound up. He's just so cool, so calm.
Speaker 1: He's the best iron player in the game. Hits the
Speaker 1: ball a mile, he works it both ways, off the
Speaker 1: tee if he needs it. He has the experience of
Speaker 1: winning there, he's coming in winning two massive tournaments. It's
Speaker 1: just so hard, so hard to pick anybody other than him.
Speaker 2: All right, that's Trevor Immelman, lead analyst, Will hear you
Speaker 2: on the telecast congratul on the start of the year.
Speaker 2: I think CBS has been has taken. What they've built
Speaker 2: the last few years is just you guys have done
Speaker 2: such a great job, and this year you've made the
Speaker 2: coverage even by and I can't wait to see what
Speaker 2: you guys have up your sleeve for this year's Masters.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Thanks Andy, We are so excited. The team has
Speaker 1: been in constant contact throughout this peroge. You know, we're
Speaker 1: a little likely run. We've only had three events so
Speaker 1: far this season and the Sunday of Pebble Beach was
Speaker 1: rained out, so.
Speaker 2: You're in a similar sessions the situation round.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. We're chomping at the bit. We're ready to
Speaker 1: get down there and have an amazing week. It's a
Speaker 1: huge week for us at CBS, if you don't mind
Speaker 1: me saying this. You know, our chairman Sean McManus is
Speaker 1: retiring and this is his final event as chairman of
Speaker 1: CBS Sports. Is his twenty eighth Masters. He took over
Speaker 1: in ninety seven. He's been an unbelievable leader. And then
Speaker 1: Vern Lundquist is retiring. This will be his fortieth Masters.
Speaker 1: The amazing calls, historic calls at Augusta National have been
Speaker 1: made by Vern. So it's a huge week for us
Speaker 1: to to get down to Augusta and the Mastas and
Speaker 1: then we go on a long run all the way
Speaker 1: through the regular season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I it's it's gonna be. It's gonna be sad. Uh,
Speaker 2: you know, I think obviously Sean's in the background, but Uh,
Speaker 2: with Vern, it's gonna be it's gonna be tough. And
Speaker 2: I haven't Vern after this year. He's especially. I mean,
Speaker 2: I think, like the greats really age well, and he's
Speaker 2: aged so gracefully with with the calls. You know, they
Speaker 2: aren't always as sharp as they once were, but they are.
Speaker 2: They are so memorable, and he's just got he's just
Speaker 2: got a voice and a timing for the moment, you know.
Speaker 2: And I think that's what all the greats have, is
Speaker 2: that that ability to say the thing that you're feeling
Speaker 2: that you would never yourself be able to pull out
Speaker 2: into words.
Speaker 1: Yeah. He he's a legend. He is a legend. He's
Speaker 1: a Jack Nicholas, He's a Tiger Woods. He's an Arnold Palmer.
Speaker 1: Like in broadcasting, you know, he's up there. He is
Speaker 1: up there, and I always have this little chuckle. We
Speaker 1: did a media call the other day and he was
Speaker 1: telling the story about what was going through his mind
Speaker 1: before he made the call on seventeen in nineteen eighty
Speaker 1: six when Jack made that putt, and he said, as
Speaker 1: he was sort of trying to figure out what his
Speaker 1: strategy was going to be, you know, as Jack was
Speaker 1: playing the seventeenth hole, he said, he came up with
Speaker 1: the idea keep it simple and get your butt out
Speaker 1: of the way. And I was thinking to myself, you know,
Speaker 1: that's somebody that really understood the moment. We're at the Masters.
Speaker 1: This is the greatest player to ever live. He's forty
Speaker 1: six years old, he's about to and trying to win
Speaker 1: his sixth Green jacket. There is no need for an
Speaker 1: announcer to be filling the air up with whatever. Keep
Speaker 1: it simple and get your butt out of the way.
Speaker 1: And that that's Vernon in a nutshell. He's just a legend.
Speaker 2: I think that that is an amazing piece of advice
Speaker 2: in general. Yeah, for life, keep it simple, get out
Speaker 2: of the way. If you just followed that for the
Speaker 2: rest of your life, I feel like you get into
Speaker 2: a good spot.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, all right, but awesome to join you man,
Speaker 1: Thanks so much. I'm a huge fan of the pod.
Speaker 1: You know what you do here at the fried egg
Speaker 1: and shotgunstart and all the other different bits and pieces
Speaker 1: you guys have got going.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Trevor. I'm I'm looking forward to seeing you
Speaker 2: next week in Augusta, so I'll see you there, and
Speaker 2: thank you so much for coming on. Big time fan, So.
Speaker 1: All right, I have a good one.
Speaker 2: All right again, big thanks to Trevor. I can't thank
Speaker 2: him enough for coming on and doing this. I know
Speaker 2: he's super busy with all the things he does the
Speaker 2: week of the Masters, that this was a real treat
Speaker 2: to get him on. Big thanks to Matt Rushes for
Speaker 2: editing and producing this podcast, especially while he's been on
Speaker 2: the road. He's been doing a big tour of South
Speaker 2: Carolina golf and a lot of that stuff that he's
Speaker 2: been touring. We're gonna have write ups in Club TFE
Speaker 2: in the near future from this South Carolina trip. Also
Speaker 2: just kind of coming soon. In Club TFE, I've got
Speaker 2: two profiles that I'm finishing up, one of which is
Speaker 2: on Augusta National. Club TFE is our membership. It is
Speaker 2: a it's one hundred and twenty dollars for the year,
Speaker 2: and we do a ton of content in there. We
Speaker 2: do every week. There's a Tour Guide, which is a
Speaker 2: PGA Tour Professional golf focused write up and then twice
Speaker 2: a week we have Golf Architecture. We have a course
Speaker 2: review every week and design notebook every week which dives
Speaker 2: into what's going on in the design world. So subscribe,
Speaker 2: join Club TFE. There's a bunch of other benefits. It's
Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty dollars a year and I love
Speaker 2: the community that we're building in there, so really proud
Speaker 2: of it. We've got Augustin national profile. By me saying this,
Speaker 2: it means I have to get it done in County Louth.
Speaker 2: Beltray a great Tom Simpson design in Ireland. So Beltray
Speaker 2: will be up hopefully this week too. I think, just
Speaker 2: depending on time that is going to be done before
Speaker 2: the Augusta National profile. It'll just be a matter of
Speaker 2: when we get it posted. So those two files will
Speaker 2: be coming to you next week or to the next
Speaker 2: two weeks in Club TFE, So join there. We love
Speaker 2: our love our members and uh we're well we're looking
Speaker 2: to add a bunch of stuff to that membership over
Speaker 2: the course of the year and the coming years. So
Speaker 2: thanks and uh, I can't wait for Masters coverage. I
Speaker 2: hope everybody's got great Master's plans and we'll be back.
Speaker 2: Garret and I are are recording a podcasts actually on Sunday,
Speaker 2: the day you're listening to the day this episode came out.
Speaker 2: We're recording a podcast for later in the week that
Speaker 2: we'll be We'll be going through each hole at augusta
Speaker 2: National ranking them one through one through eighteen will be
Speaker 2: a fun, fun exercise. I'm excited to see where we
Speaker 2: differ and UH and where we align. So thanks and UH,
Speaker 2: and I hope everybody, I hope we have a great masters.
Speaker 2: I hope everybody has a great master. The