WEBVTT - Takeaways from the 2022 Masters 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:02.520 I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. 0:00:02.640 --> 0:00:04.920 When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:06.960 And when I find my ball in a Bride egg, 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:07.920 Friday Egg. 0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:10.600 The dreaded Frida Egg, Frida Egg, Frida Egg, Brian Egg, 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:12.959 Frida Egg, Bride Egg, Lie, I'm about ready to run 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:36.680 off of the hump. Hello, and welcome to the Frida 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:40.000 Egg Podcast. My name is Garrett Morrison, and today we're 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:43.720 talking about takeaways from the twenty twenty two Masters Tournament. 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:49.200 So I have to be honest. From a competitive perspective, 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:53.200 this wasn't the most compelling Masters in recent memory. Scotti 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:57.160 Scheffler dominated the event from Friday through Sunday. Yes, Cameron 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:00.320 Smith challenged him at various points in Roy McElroy a 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:03.840 great run on Sunday, but Scheffler played so brilliantly that 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:07.199 for most of the final round the outcome really wasn't 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:10.920 in doubt. And Yet what this Masters may have lacked 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:13.920 in competitive tension, I think it made up for in 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:18.760 rich interesting storylines. First, there's Scotty Scheffler, who has won 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:22.319 four of his past six tournaments, and this weekend fully 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:25.399 confirmed his status as the number one golfer in the world. 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:29.760 Now we can legitimately ask the question, is Scheffler Golf's 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:33.080 next superstar or is this just an incredible hot streak. 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:37.200 Then there's Rory McElroy, who did seem to exercise some 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:40.600 of his Master's demons on Sunday as he shot sixty 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:44.720 four and finished solo second. It was really thrilling to 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:47.040 see him pull out from the bunker right of the 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:49.600 eighteenth green and not quite know what to do with 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:52.760 his body because he was so excited. But from another 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:56.560 point of view, you could see Rory's performance yesterday as 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:59.960 yet another example of him finding his game at Augustine 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:04.040 exactly when he knows he doesn't have a chance to win. 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:07.560 And of course we can't not talk about Tiger Wits. 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:10.720 Fourteen months ago, he drove his car at a dangerous 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:14.359 rate of speed into a ravine in Palos Verdays, California. 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:18.040 His lower extremities were mangled and he was confined to 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:21.840 a bed for months. This past weekend, he made the 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:24.760 cut at the Masters and walked seventy two holes at 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.160 Augusta National, which, in case you haven't heard, is hillier 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:31.600 than it looks on TV. It was obvious that Tiger 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:35.040 was in pain, but equally obvious that he was determined 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:38.560 to prove that he could do it. Finally, there was 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:41.920 a lot of discussion of the course itself. Augusta National 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:45.560 made substantial renovations to its eleventh and fifteenth holes and 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:48.639 smaller tweaks to a few others. The quality of these 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:52.000 changes and the effect they had on competition was a 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:54.720 topic of discussion all week, and will wrap it up 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:58.560 as best we can in this podcast. As will typically 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:01.680 do for major championship recas this year, we talked to 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:05.320 three different guests for this episode, all with unique perspectives 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:08.680 on the game. First, we have Heimi Diaz, who talked 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:11.080 to me from his hotel room after finishing up his 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.679 work for Golf Channel's terrific show Live from the Masters. 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:17.919 Heimi has written for The New York Times and Sports Illustrated, 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:21.000 and he is one of my favorite golf writers of 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:24.519 all time. In addition, we've got two voices that you'll 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:27.640 recognize if you have listened to the Friday Podcast for 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:31.720 a while, Bob Crosby, a golf historian, and Joseph Lamanna, 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:35.480 an analytics expert. All right, let's get to it. Here 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:41.080 are some takeaways from the twenty twenty two Masters. All right, 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:44.320 so I have Jimi Diaz on the phone. Jimi has 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:48.320 been out at Augusta National covering the tournament for Golf Channel. 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:51.000 How you doing, himI, You've had a long day. 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:53.960 Yeah, it's a long day, but it's an hilarating day, 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.280 and it's kind of nice to just I'm here in 0:03:56.320 --> 0:04:00.240 a guess the hotel room right now, very or of 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:03.040 stated by the whole day, by the whole week. Yeah. 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:06.080 Well, thank you so much for spending some time with 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:09.720 me after your long day and making this part of 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:13.360 your wind down. But I was just wondering, you know, 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:17.760 if you could have one general takeaway from this tournament, 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:18.880 what would that be? 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:23.160 Well, I think the brilliance of Scottie Scheffler. Yes, he's 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:25.000 sort of new on the scene in terms of being 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:27.400 a force in the game, but you are seeing a 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:31.919 very fast evolution of a player who's i think recognized 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:34.440 that you know, maybe he's a little better than he 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:37.320 even knew him himself to be, even though he's always 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:41.359 been on a gradual upward track going way back to 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:44.200 when he won in the US Senior Amateur. But he 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:48.880 has the properties and the qualities of I think the 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:53.400 best tools for the modern game. He hits the ball 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:56.320 very high, hits the ball quite long. He's not the 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:59.240 most accurate, but he's not He's not a wild driver 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:03.680 by any means. Uh. He hits very authoritative, you know, 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:07.640 high irons that can that can stop on major championship 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:12.719 quality firmness, and he's shown that already. And uh, I 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:15.520 think the six previous majors he finished top twenty, which 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:18.200 for a young guy is impressive. Uh. And of course 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:22.320 we see the not just the creativity, but the you know, 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:25.920 the the real quality strike of his short game and 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:29.920 how he how he can really recover again on really 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:33.640 fast from greens because he he does strike it so 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:36.560 so purely with a lot of spin, and he's really 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:39.240 good at those shots with sixty degree wedges that you 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:41.120 know Phil Michelson for example. I think that was his 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:44.719 great advantage. Not that Scotty gets a lot of flop shots, 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:49.720 but just has the uh, the craftiness and the hand 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:52.880 eye and the awareness of the of the clubhead to 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:57.160 really fashion shots and recover when he does make a mistake, 0:05:57.200 --> 0:05:59.919 which I think for a power hitter that's so important. 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:03.240 You're going to be winning tournaments because power hitters just 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:05.440 they have less margin for error and they're going to 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:09.560 make mistakes and they're not going to be Although Scotty 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:12.760 is a good iron player, it's just he's not, you know, 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:15.279 this kind of point to point guy like Colin Morikawer 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:17.520 or someone, and so you got to have the short game. 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:20.839 I mean, that's what Sev did, That's what Greg Norman did, 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:23.400 That's what Tiger did to a large extent, you know, 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:27.600 it's a way of being I think traditionally a dominant 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:31.720 type player Phil you know, earning to some extent, they 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:34.800 had both the power in the hand. But I think 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:37.760 Scotty is showing real promise to be a guy with 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:40.800 a very strong foundation who will last a long time. 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:42.200 And this really wasn't a fluke. 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:46.520 It seems like his game will age well. But at 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:50.080 the same time, the reception of Scotty Shuffler has been 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:53.720 interesting to me because I think people don't quite know 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:56.359 what to make of him yet. I mean, he is 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:59.840 a new name to a lot of people, to casual fans, 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:03.240 to people who follow golf only occasionally. They sort of 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:05.840 come back from the break from the last major and 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:07.839 all of a sudden, this new guy is supposedly the 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:10.160 best player in the world and people are trying to 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:16.120 process that. But also, you know, unlike Rory, unlike even 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:21.000 Colin Morrikawa, Scotty doesn't necessarily have one big skill that 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:23.600 really stands out. You know, With Rory it's the driving 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:25.480 of the golf ball. You know that that is so 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:29.360 obvious that he's great at that, And then with Colin Morrikawa, 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:32.720 it's the iron play. With Scheffler, it's it's a little 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:37.240 hard to tell what that standout skill is. And maybe 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:40.280 it is just as you're saying, the combination of a 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:43.200 few different things, the ability to hit the ball high 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:45.760 and the wonderful hands around the green. Would you kind 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:49.560 of say that that's where where his you know, outstanding 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:51.000 excellence comes from. 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:53.320 Yeah, I think it's just the accumulation, you know, the 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:56.040 well roundedness, you know, sort of the composite of it 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:59.760 all right, and sort of lacks a weakness, or at 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:03.480 least a really overt weakness, which I think Rory kind 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:06.040 of still has. He you know, when we talk about Rory, 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:08.640 I think that was one of the big real positives 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.080 of what he did this week, was where he was 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:13.840 putting his focus on, you know, kind of to plug 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:15.640 up the holes in his game that I think he's 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:17.960 ignored for a while because I think he was under 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:20.160 the impression that if I just drive it great' you know, 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:22.800 I have such an advantage, I'll beat people, which is 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:27.280 not necessarily true. So you know, I think Scheffler has 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:31.760 got a player's mentality as opposed of a ball striker's 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:35.640 mentality or you know, a great swinger's mentality. He's about 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:39.200 playing golf, and he's won in many different ways already, 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:43.720 and it's it's just because he can access different tools 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:46.679 at different times if he's not on with something else. 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:49.880 The short games are to clean up a lot, and 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:51.920 I don't know how long that lasts. I mean, I 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:54.680 think Tom Watson played like that a lot. I remember, 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:57.240 you know, he was a dominant player who was not 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:01.720 the most stylished ball striker. I mean, beautiful, great athlete 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:03.720 and a lot of rhythm and power, but he hit 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:07.200 it a lot of different places and and he would recover. 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.679 I meant, I didn't mention him before, but I and 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:15.120 Sevie of course, you know, was just a clean up magician. 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:15.800 Uh. 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:17.839 And then when he was on he did make a 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:20.240 lot of birdies, but when he wasn't, he kept his birdy. 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:23.720 He kept his birdies because he saved Parcel. Well, I 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:25.720 think that's where his ship. I think that's where Scotty, 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:28.439 that's his He's part of that continuum. 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:32.360 Tom Watson is a really interesting comparison. I hadn't thought 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:35.720 of that one, and I was trying to come up 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:39.600 with what a good historical comparison for Scotty Scheffler would be. 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:44.000 You mentioned Sevy and Tom Watson. Are there any other 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:46.920 players that you can think of, you know, going back 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:50.960 through the years that resemble Scotty Scheffler to you? 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:55.040 Yeah, well, you know, I kind of went through my 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:58.760 little list because I was thinking of number ones, and 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:02.760 you know, Sandy Aisle was a little like that. It 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:05.360 wasn't it wasn't that unusual, you know, against power and touch. 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:09.680 That that was the thing that used to be considered rare. 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:12.400 You know that if you had one, you probably didn't 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:15.280 have the other. And those rare players that had the combination. 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:19.360 Because Jack didn't really classically have a great short game. 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:22.160 He was you know, he was a great manager and 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:25.360 so he he usually you know, would and hit and 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:28.440 hit a ton of greens of course, but he was 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:32.000 not a real stylish scrambler, right and uh, you know, 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:33.720 to be people with proficiency and. 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:37.120 Power and great putting, right he was. He was a 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:39.320 power player and he could putt well. That was his 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:40.320 that was his mask. 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:42.960 Yeah. So he didn't have the wedge, but he didn't 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:46.120 need it that often. He just a side. You know. 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:48.760 I asked him that once and I said, Jack, why 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:51.360 weren't you a better wedge player, you know? And he says, oh, 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:53.520 I should have gone to see you know, Uh, Paul 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:57.040 runying Jack Route never taught short game, and I just 0:10:57.280 --> 0:10:59.000 kind of told myself I didn't need it. I could 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:00.400 slop it up there and make the He put it 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:02.640 for PARB. But I said, hey, you didn't win every tournament. 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:04.280 He goes, You're right, you know, I probably got about 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:07.679 I should have done it, and I just wasn't dedicated 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:11.480 enough to do it. And and and I maybe, you know, 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:14.640 was I was trying to save my energy because I 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:17.600 knew if I obsessed about every shot and every every 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:19.360 area of my game, I might go a little crazy. 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:22.480 So it was just this kind of field thing that 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:26.720 he chose to sacrifice. But to say, I think Tiger 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:31.160 is the best example of having close to everything. But 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:34.520 you know, Tiger was not the straightest driver, and so 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:36.640 he had to recover a lot. And I think he 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:39.800 was and and he goes back to his junior days 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:42.120 when he had to be a good little wedge player 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:43.960 to stay up with all the longer kids that he 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:46.560 was playing with who were older than him. And and 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:50.000 he developed a wedge early and liked it, like the 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:52.000 creativity of it and the variety of it, and what 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:53.960 he could make the ball do and dance and all 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:57.040 those things. And it's you watch him in those warm ups, 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.199 you know, if you watch a golf channel, in the 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.559 show a shot that he is in practice that warming up. 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:05.400 He loves hooking those little chips and hitting you know, 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:08.439 all these little sort of almost like it's a playing 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:13.120 table tennis or something. And that fascination makes him special 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:16.400 along with all his other attributes. I think when he 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:18.520 was off, he could always make a score. And I 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:21.280 get that sense of Scotty he can always make a score. 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:26.200 Now, speaking of the ability to make a score when 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:29.720 you're not on, that seems to be an issue with 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:33.560 Rory McElroy or has been for the past few years. 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:35.920 And maybe even before that, maybe he was just so 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:39.120 brilliant in other aspects of the game that he was 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:42.400 able to make up for his, you know, seeming lack 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:46.400 of ability to kind of put things together when he's off. 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:51.280 But today, Kimi, I think you noticed a few things 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:54.760 that he was doing that were a little bit tighter 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:57.439 around the greens, I guess, and where he was able 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:00.880 to preserve scores in ways that maybe we haven't seen 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:01.840 him do recently. 0:13:02.760 --> 0:13:04.600 Yeah, I think it's more of a frame of mind 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:08.079 and a focus, a new focus, and a final acknowledgment. 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:11.040 You know that I am just letting too many shots 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:14.400 leap away, and I don't no matter how well I 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:16.840 hit it, especially off the tee, it's it's not going 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:20.240 to make up for those for those lost, you know, 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:22.840 sort of soft bogies that seem to undermine him, and 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:25.040 I think they're discouraging too. I think they do something 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:28.240 to his momentum and his state of mind. I think, 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:31.560 you know, Rory, in some ways, maybe the worst thing 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:34.000 that ever happened was winning two majors by age shot, 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:37.360 because I think it created the illusion that I can 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:40.120 just overwhelm golf courses and overwhelm my opponents with my 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:44.040 great advantages, which are great advantages. But two things happen. 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:46.840 Number One, people see that marker out there, that this 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:48.920 is what this guy's doing, and they catch up, you know, 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:51.640 just like in every other sport, you know, the other 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:54.719 players adapt and get better. And I don't necessarily think 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:56.720 Rory's the best driver of the ball anymore, not that 0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:58.840 he's not great at it, but there's a bunch of them, 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:01.360 you know. I think DJ kind of took that mantle 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:04.480 for a while, and maybe maybe John Rahm has it now. 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:08.640 But so Rory doesn't have this five car length advantage 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:11.920 over the field with the driver, and he's been exposed, 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:14.400 in my opinion, for not having the other part of 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:16.720 the game that we just talked about with Scotti Scheffler. 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.920 But what I noticed recently is he's been talking about it. 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:22.160 He never used to talk about it very much. He 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:24.640 just say, you know, I just got to you know, 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:28.240 get a nice groove and and think about, you know, 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:31.000 getting my golf swing a nice He didn't talk about 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:35.040 short game very much, and now he is. He's at Texas. 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:37.000 He did miss the cut there, but he said, I've 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:39.560 got to get more consistent getting the ball up and down. 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:41.920 I've got to be better for May feeding in And 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:46.200 I think that basically summarizes where he has in my 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:50.400 opinion anyway, just watching and without quantifying it necessarily with stats, 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:53.280 it just seems that's where he would undermine himself, especially 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:58.520 in majors. And so that's where today was when he 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:00.840 was asked what pleased him the most about his round? 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:02.320 And it was such a beautiful round and it was 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:04.760 so explosive and he hold out what four times from 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:07.280 off the green and it was incredible. So that's kind 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:09.200 of fluchy, and don't you don't expect that, But he 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:14.160 said it was saving par saving putts and getting up 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:18.040 and down on He specifically said the eleventh hole, the 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:20.960 twelfth hole, and the fourteenth hole, and they were all 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:23.000 examples of where he had to make like a tough 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:24.800 six footer for par or. He had to get it 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:27.040 up and down from a fairly tight line, and he 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:30.840 did it and it kept him going it. You know, 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:33.680 I was a Bogue list sixty four now, you know, 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:36.160 I could have seen it easily be a sixty nine 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:38.680 or a sixty eight if Rory had gotten into one 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:40.680 of those bogey trains where he wasn't when he wasn't 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:43.400 hitting it good making bogue because a couple of those 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:45.320 verdies were places where he might have made bogey. He 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:47.480 chipped in a couple of times too, so anyway, but 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:49.800 the point is what the way he talked about, and 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:53.880 I think Paul McGinley was talking about how he's working with. 0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:56.680 Paul has worked with Rotella and knows Rotelo well, and 0:15:56.680 --> 0:16:01.000 he thinks he sees Rotella's fingerprints on high excuse me, 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:02.720 on Rory's sensibilities right now. 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:06.080 And this is this is Bob Rotella, the author of 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:09.360 many bucks, including golf is not a game of perfect 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:12.320 and and he works with has worked with many PGA 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:14.120 Tour pros on their mindset. 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:16.400 Yeah, I mean he's sort of a pioneering the pioneering 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:20.680 sports psychologist in golf right probably, And you know, not 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:23.840 a real complicated message, but it's really about, hey, how 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:26.240 do you shoot a number? And how do you, you know, 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:30.600 prepare yourself to make the best of what you have 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:33.080 that day? And as you were saying earlier, Rory when 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:35.920 he's not on, has not He's not good at at 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:39.840 squeezing out the best of himself every when he's not on. 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:42.320 When he's on, he's he's an inspired player. And as 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:44.400 we said, you know, he's won two majors by eight 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:48.680 strokes and it's kind of his his legacy, but that's 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:50.920 not going to happen anymore. I mean, he might win 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:55.040 majors again, but it's not because there's too many people 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:58.360 that play in a similar way to him for him 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:02.000 to outstrip that unless he putched incredibly well and does 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:03.600 the other things. But he's not going to do it 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:05.520 just by a driving the ball perfectly and win by 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:06.400 eight strokes. 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:09.439 Well, something I was thinking about a lot this week 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:16.280 is the idea of sustained greatness. Rory had a period 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:19.600 of a few years where he was truly great and 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:22.680 we all sort of assumed, because we were just coming 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:27.080 out of Tiger's great era, that it would continue, but 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:30.160 it didn't. And then since then we've also had great 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:35.040 runs from Jordan Speith, from even Jason Day for a 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:38.240 little bit there. We're currently in the midst of one 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:40.560 with Scotti Scheffler, we had a great run from from 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:45.040 Brooks kept gun in majors at least, Yes, And what 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:48.280 does it take to sustain greatness? And I think that's 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:50.959 such a complicated question, not one that we're going to 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:54.520 get to answer here. But when you think of Tiger 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:58.200 Woods and you think of how he sustained his greatness 0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:02.639 at various points in his career, people did seem to 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:04.679 catch up to him, just as you said, you know, 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:07.000 people have caught up to Rory in his driving of 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:09.720 the ball. You know, people seem to kind of catch 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:12.440 up to Tiger maybe by two thousand and two, two 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:15.280 thousand and three, at least in terms of the equipment, right, 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:19.280 he didn't have that advantage of the Eurethane Nike ball anymore. 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:22.000 And there were a few years when when he wasn't 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:25.879 winning as many majors, But then he kind of reworks 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:28.720 his swing, figures a few things out, and goes on 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:32.199 another amazing run from about two thousand and five to 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:36.560 two thousand and eight. And so Tiger has put together 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:39.719 those different phases of his career, and now he's in 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:42.280 yet another phase of his career where he's coming back 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:45.560 from these injuries and doing things that just blow our 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:48.920 minds in different ways. And it's all out of this 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:52.000 It seems like this love of the game. And I 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:55.520 wonder if that's the thing that Tiger had that these 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:59.719 other guys just don't quite have in his grade of quantities. 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:04.320 Well, you framed it very well. I agree with so 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:07.080 many of the things that you're implying in your question, 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:13.760 and I do think Tiger is special physically, very very gifted. Obviously, 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:16.520 it's not his greate as quality in his opinion he 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:19.960 always talks about, not always, but he has talked about, 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:22.800 you know, wanting to be sure maybe the most talented, 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:25.679 and maybe not the most talent, but certainly the hardest worker, 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:29.640 and to be in his own mind, an overachiever. So 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:34.000 there's this, but this is tremendous desire and burning ambition 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:36.879 and determination that he has and who knows where that 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:39.959 fuel comes from. That makes him special as well. And 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:44.000 so I think to your point about, gee, we looked 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:46.359 like there was a template being set there and Rory 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:48.639 was going to follow it and you know, make the 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:51.640 Rory era as good as a Tiger era. And you know, 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:53.879 I guess that's recency buyings or whatever you want to 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:58.199 call it, but he definitely was sort of looking like 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:01.440 he was heading there because you know, again, those major 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:04.640 victories would buy so many shots, and then having four 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:08.480 at such a young age. But I think the separator 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:13.159 is tigers just refusal to ever be satisfied and to 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:17.359 rise to any challengers. He rose to David Duvall, I mean, 0:20:17.400 --> 0:20:19.159 he played his best golf when he was challenged. He 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:23.200 rose to dj he rose to Ernie Els, and Jack 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:25.199 did that to a large extent. I mean, he had 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:29.359 a bunch of guys who came after him. He conquered Arnold, 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:32.720 but then you know, there was Trevino, and there was 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:36.000 Johnny Miller, and there was Weisskof, and there was Ray 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:40.000 Floyd and probably missing some I mean, nobody really caught him. 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:44.640 He answered every challenge until finally Age and Watson and 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:49.119 watching sort of his own genius finally overcame Jack. So 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:52.320 I think that's a quality of greatness, and if you're 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:54.760 going to sustain, you have to be motivated every time 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:58.520 somebody challenges you. And I don't know that everybody had that. 0:20:59.160 --> 0:21:01.639 But the other thing I think is that, in an 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:05.320 inverse way, sort of Tiger becomes this cautionary tale because 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:08.520 Tiger gave everything to the game in terms of his 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:14.840 energy and his obsession towards perfection and improvement constantly, and 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:19.000 you know, Tiger has lived a complicated life, and it 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:21.600 may have taken a toll on him and his ability 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:24.199 to balance life and have a good life because he 0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:27.840 made some mistakes that who knows where they came from. 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:31.639 But I think there's a sense I don't know why 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:34.439 I just used the phrase cautionary tale. I think, you know, 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:38.080