Speaker 1: Well, this is where it gets interesting. If keptco wins US,
Speaker 1: he'll have five major championships. He will have broken the
Speaker 1: tie with Rory. I mean, he'll have won five majors
Speaker 1: since Rory won his last one. He'd be wild if
Speaker 1: Brooks kept his spats Rory four majors and he gets
Speaker 1: a career Grand Slam first. That got thoughts in my head.
Speaker 1: Can't get him out, John, Not the thing what I'm
Speaker 1: thinking about. That thoughts in my head, can't get him out, John,
Speaker 1: Not the thing what I'm thinking about. Hello, this is
Speaker 1: Alan Schipnuck back for another Fire Drill podcast. Michael Bamberger
Speaker 1: and I are in a secret corner of the Press building.
Speaker 1: And the thing that's I think that's amazing about Augusta
Speaker 1: Nashville is everywhere you go there's something new to see it.
Speaker 1: It's like Disneyland and they've they've ushered us to this
Speaker 1: giant boardroom. We're sitting like fifty feet apart at the
Speaker 1: same table. I've got Adam Scott behind me. It's kind
Speaker 1: of cool. I never do this existed like the the
Speaker 1: the expansion of the campus just boggles. But anyway, it's
Speaker 1: just a quick note on that Island. The first year
Speaker 1: this place was open, the chairman of the club was
Speaker 1: still Billy Pain and I wrote him a note about
Speaker 1: a month after the tournament, and I said that I
Speaker 1: was still in the press building and that nobody had
Speaker 1: found me yet. And he wrote back, dear mister Barmburger,
Speaker 1: I do not find you funny at all, Sincerely mister
Speaker 1: William Paine. The first part is absolutely sure. I did
Speaker 1: not get a response. See that's I mean, that's just
Speaker 1: bad manners. Like on Billy, You've got the dean of
Speaker 1: the golf takes time to send you a personal letter.
Speaker 1: It should be responded, Tom, I'm offended on your behalf.
Speaker 1: Should we quickly describe or ambivalence to the stylish mahal
Speaker 1: of press catering. Oh, it's sure, I mean it's it's
Speaker 1: stronger than that for me. Like every master's week, you
Speaker 1: see these these members come in with their friends and
Speaker 1: family and they're giving them a tour of the press
Speaker 1: building like it's the zoo, Like, oh look, those are
Speaker 1: the writers at work in their natural habitat. It's like
Speaker 1: so offensive, and I mean it looks cool. It's it's
Speaker 1: it is grand. There's a lot of things we don't
Speaker 1: need or care about, like there's a whole locker room
Speaker 1: of showers. Like maybe if you're a super sweaty TV guy,
Speaker 1: that's helpful, but most of us don't need that. The
Speaker 1: food is good. They built like this lovely little restaurant,
Speaker 1: but the things that matter are like the Wi Fi,
Speaker 1: which is it comes and goes, and it's the interview space.
Speaker 1: And the old building it was small and crowded and hot,
Speaker 1: and there was like a real intimacy that either the
Speaker 1: writers are right on top of the players and you
Speaker 1: felt a connection, You've got a lot of great stuff.
Speaker 1: Then now it's like this mausoleum that it's just to
Speaker 1: look good on TV. They've put They've put the the
Speaker 1: players on a stage separated by all this dark, heavy
Speaker 1: wood and all these flowers, and there's like no connection.
Speaker 1: They're so far where you feel like you're in this
Speaker 1: like library built in the nineteenth century and you're supposed
Speaker 1: to like whisper like the two things that really matter
Speaker 1: for us to our jobs. I mean c minus at best,
Speaker 1: but it is it does look good for the members
Speaker 1: where they show their their friends and family, like, oh
Speaker 1: these are writers. Look at his look at the coffee
Speaker 1: stains on his shirt. And yeah, yeah, they are mostly
Speaker 1: bald and overweight. That's true. I mean they're like anthropologists.
Speaker 1: But anyway, don't get me started. What are your feelings,
Speaker 1: Michael Well? I think the only reason like we would
Speaker 1: even have the listener engage in this part of the
Speaker 1: of the broadcast is that there really has been a
Speaker 1: disthification of the tournament of the week. There have been
Speaker 1: some real positive changes in recent years. I think the
Speaker 1: gust National Women's Amateur event is fantastic. I love it,
Speaker 1: but it is sort of all a little bit more
Speaker 1: maybe not a little bit, a lot more mechanized than
Speaker 1: it used to be. And you know, even like something
Speaker 1: like yesterday's situation in Brooks KPKA. I mean, it's an
Speaker 1: odd situation to me. It was very clear that the
Speaker 1: caddies said five. It's clearly a violation of the rules.
Speaker 1: But if you want the public to really understand it,
Speaker 1: there has to be some give and take with the players,
Speaker 1: the caddies, the rules guy. And we don't have that,
Speaker 1: partly because of this building and partly because just things
Speaker 1: have evolved in a way where everything is more precise
Speaker 1: and perfect and we're going only going to present you
Speaker 1: the finished answer, but there is really no finished answer,
Speaker 1: you know, so the messiness is carta gone. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: So I used to get a lot of good interviews
Speaker 1: done on the the clubhouse porch, in the essentially the
Speaker 1: front of the clubhouse where you pull in, not the
Speaker 1: back that faces the course, and like this is pre COVID.
Speaker 1: I was talking to Paul Casey there and the security
Speaker 1: guard came to chase me away. To Paul Casey's credit,
Speaker 1: He's like, let us finish the interview. And so I
Speaker 1: went to the security guard. I was like, what the fuck.
Speaker 1: I've been doing interviews here for twenty years, and they're like, well,
Speaker 1: the rules have changed. And so I marched over to
Speaker 1: the green jacket who is in charge of sort of
Speaker 1: the interview area, and I was like, what is happening
Speaker 1: and he said, well, the chairman does not like to
Speaker 1: see reporters on that side of the clubhouse. And I said,
Speaker 1: I said, well, I explained how in this job, information
Speaker 1: is the coin of the realm, and it's that's how
Speaker 1: that's what sets us apart as reporters, is what we
Speaker 1: can get that nobody else has. And I said, that's
Speaker 1: a great place for me new interviews. He's like, well,
Speaker 1: we have this nice flash area for you. I said, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's anything anyone says, it goes out to the whole
Speaker 1: world because Agra gated it's on every website and that
Speaker 1: has no value to me. And and he said, well,
Speaker 1: the chairman does not like to see reporters over there.
Speaker 1: I said, well, the chairman doesn't understand how we do
Speaker 1: our job. And then he gave me this big, beautiful
Speaker 1: smile and he said, well he doesn't have to. And
Speaker 1: I said, that is I said, that is the single
Speaker 1: most honest thing anyone's ever said at Augusta National. And
Speaker 1: so they took that away. And then in COVID they
Speaker 1: closed the locker room where we couldn't talk to players.
Speaker 1: COVID's over I think because they're acting like there's no testing,
Speaker 1: there's no mass, there's no COVID policy. But now we
Speaker 1: can't get in the locker room. It's just never going
Speaker 1: to come back. And the reason why the very board
Speaker 1: listener at home might be interested in this is like
Speaker 1: on Tuesday night, which was the Champions dinner, and there
Speaker 1: was all this build up about how Spicy was going
Speaker 1: to be. If I could have I would have gone
Speaker 1: and camped out on the front porch until nine or
Speaker 1: ten PM, and I would have picked off all the
Speaker 1: players after dinner and gotten the real scoop about what
Speaker 1: happened in real time. It was a little drunk and
Speaker 1: more likely to be honest, and it would have been
Speaker 1: a great story. But because I can't get on that
Speaker 1: side of the clubhouse, they were just going to walk
Speaker 1: out and go to their cars and I couldn't get there.
Speaker 1: And so it's this sanitized official version that Augusta National
Speaker 1: wants to mandate, and they prevent us from doing our jobs,
Speaker 1: and that's why it sucks. Now let's talk about the Masters.
Speaker 1: I feel so I feel better. I was all pent up.
Speaker 1: Now now I'm ready to talk about the golf. But
Speaker 1: so it's it's late in the second round, brooks Kept
Speaker 1: played an absolute spectacular round of golf, shot five under.
Speaker 1: He's twelve under for the tournament. He's leading by four
Speaker 1: strokes over the amateurs. Mister Bennett. John rom is still
Speaker 1: in the golf course and it's been a little rain
Speaker 1: so often, so he may close the gap here while
Speaker 1: we're talking. But we wanted to get this podcast to
Speaker 1: our listeners as soon as possible, and he's really the
Speaker 1: only guy that matters right now on the golf course.
Speaker 1: But let's start with the Brooks because it's clearly his
Speaker 1: tournament to lose. I think he had a really insightful
Speaker 1: conversation he should with his swing coach, Claude Harmon. You know,
Speaker 1: they had this this messy breakup and for about two
Speaker 1: years they weren't working together. I mean, Claude was there
Speaker 1: for the glory years, you know, seventeen eighteen nineteen, and
Speaker 1: then they came back together last summer, and he's played
Speaker 1: obviously an important role in Brooks's ascension back to big
Speaker 1: bad Brooks Kepka and two things he told me that
Speaker 1: really stood out as well. And he said Brooks was
Speaker 1: working harder now than he did when he was number
Speaker 1: one because the game it was easy for him. Then
Speaker 1: now he's had to find it and chase it. And
Speaker 1: that he's scoffed at the notion that that Live has
Speaker 1: made Brooks or any other players so off. He said,
Speaker 1: this guy's busted his butt. But what he also said is,
Speaker 1: you know, Brooks, he thrives on controversy. He loves it.
Speaker 1: He's like John. He made a parallel to John McEnroe,
Speaker 1: which I thought was great. He's like Brooks needs a
Speaker 1: foil and all the live angst has just has just
Speaker 1: rabbed his engine and so he's healthy. He swings more
Speaker 1: technically sound, and he's super fired up and he wants
Speaker 1: to win this badly. So that's my little riff on books. Michael,
Speaker 1: what have you seen out of up to including this
Speaker 1: business with a caddy that is now swirling around. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it'll go away because that's the nature of the beast
Speaker 1: right now, the swirling thing with the caddy, and no
Speaker 1: one's going to say, oh, you know, he's lead instead
Speaker 1: of four, it should be two, even though I do
Speaker 1: feel like he lee should be four instead of two,
Speaker 1: because I think it's very clear that the caddy did
Speaker 1: break the rules, and the caddies, for those who don't know,
Speaker 1: the caddy in the rule book is basically extension of
Speaker 1: the player from whom he's working here she is working.
Speaker 1: And it's kind of a shame that it didn't get
Speaker 1: addressed properly because if he does go on to win
Speaker 1: this thing, then there's a little tiny asterisk on it
Speaker 1: and people can say, and I totally understand, well, who
Speaker 1: cares it didn't have any influence on the outcome. That's
Speaker 1: very possibly true. But the fact is the underpinning of
Speaker 1: all of golf is there is a rule book and
Speaker 1: it needs to be enforced all the time. It can't
Speaker 1: pick and choose when you're going to force leaving that
Speaker 1: all the side by the way, just for those for
Speaker 1: the listener who might still be curious. The thing with
Speaker 1: Keptka signaling five is he's taking off the glove that
Speaker 1: a lot of people have been paying diner. Just to
Speaker 1: share my own opinion about it, I don't think he
Speaker 1: was signing anything. I really actually believe it when he
Speaker 1: says he was just taking off his glove. I don't
Speaker 1: think he would. I don't know. I just don't think
Speaker 1: that's just how I saw it. But I guess it's
Speaker 1: worth mentioning because it shows you that people can really
Speaker 1: view different things differently. Somebody else might say, oh so
Speaker 1: I Elliott mouthed that, but he wasn't saying five. He
Speaker 1: was saying, you know, dinner at five or some crazy
Speaker 1: thing who knows kept on all cylinders healthy, psychologically healthy,
Speaker 1: physically healthy. You know, we've seen it now for what
Speaker 1: six years. One of the best players ever to play
Speaker 1: the game, just a dominating golfer. We were on with
Speaker 1: Jeff Ogilby yesterday and all three of us are saying
Speaker 1: the same thing. Brooks kept good. Looks like he's going
Speaker 1: to win this thing. Having said that, you would have
Speaker 1: said the same thing at Bethpage Black when he won there,
Speaker 1: and what he was at two thousand and nineteen, I
Speaker 1: think it looked like he should run away with it.
Speaker 1: In the end, he just sort of walked away with it.
Speaker 1: I think the same thing will happen here this golf course,
Speaker 1: this the combination golf course in tournament and what you're
Speaker 1: playing for, especially if you have guys all of whom
Speaker 1: are trying to get their first screen coat. Let's say
Speaker 1: John rom Victor Hoffland, called Amerkawa, Shane Lowry, Let's say
Speaker 1: they're all in the knicks. They'll all start choking up
Speaker 1: stuff and doing unexpected things come Sunday and will have
Speaker 1: a tight leaderboard come Sunday. But even having said that,
Speaker 1: if his lead is still four shots by the end
Speaker 1: of thirty six souls, it's a substantial lead for a
Speaker 1: guy who's doing everything. It's not like he's gotten lucky
Speaker 1: to be where he is. He's just doing everything right.
Speaker 1: He's not doing anything spectacular, is just playing really solid.
Speaker 1: Brooks good golf. The putter looks so good in his hands.
Speaker 1: He just it just looks comfortable. And you know he
Speaker 1: Brooks is a fader of the golf wold. If you
Speaker 1: saw a second shot on thirteen today, you know he
Speaker 1: kind of hugged the creek with his drive, which is ballsy,
Speaker 1: shortened the hole by turning it over so that right
Speaker 1: there's not an easy play, and then he had to
Speaker 1: hook the second shot around these trees that almost knocked
Speaker 1: the flagstick down for a very easy two pop Bertie.
Speaker 1: But those two swings tell me he's fully in control
Speaker 1: of his instrument, because that's those are doer dice shots.
Speaker 1: And he went against his natural ball flight and so
Speaker 1: I didn't see that. I didn't see the two shot
Speaker 1: on Alan on thirteen. What did he do there instead
Speaker 1: of baling out right? I mean, he kind of took
Speaker 1: a left center line and turned it over and he
Speaker 1: was right down, you know, left side of the fairway,
Speaker 1: which is that things can go sideways there. And I'm
Speaker 1: just saying for guys will play to their on the
Speaker 1: hard hole. Sometimes they refer back to their there's the
Speaker 1: safest ball shape, like tigers hitting these big cuts on
Speaker 1: dog leg lefts, like he's just trying to find the
Speaker 1: fairway and you know he's he's reverted back to that,
Speaker 1: which is okay when you're struggling. But um, yeah, the
Speaker 1: thing about Brooks when he's playing well is he has
Speaker 1: a certain mystique which is very rare in this game.
Speaker 1: He has he has a there's there's a badass energy
Speaker 1: around him that very few golfers have. And you know,
Speaker 1: you would I would say it's Sevy Ask in certain ways.
Speaker 1: Sevy is more flamboyant, but there was he had a
Speaker 1: presence that you felt, and you know Faudo had that
Speaker 1: to some degree, Norman had it, Tiger had it. There's just, um,
Speaker 1: there's there's a feeling like this, like it's like alpha energy, right,
Speaker 1: and it's kind of a cliche, but Brookes radio it's
Speaker 1: that and it's a real thing. I mean it's palpable,
Speaker 1: you can feel it. And uh, this thing is certainly
Speaker 1: not over. I mean the Saturday forecast is for very
Speaker 1: cold temperatures, a lot of rain and wind, and so
Speaker 1: if if Brooks is fractionally off, you could easily shoot
Speaker 1: eighty and this thing gets blown open. But uh, he's
Speaker 1: been so in control of his golf ball, which is paramount.
Speaker 1: You know, the scramblers were kind of hanging on right now,
Speaker 1: they'll get exposed in that weather. You have to hit
Speaker 1: in the middle of the club face, and Brooks is
Speaker 1: doing that every time. So I think the bad weather
Speaker 1: actually helps them. I think it can separate him from
Speaker 1: from a lot of the contenders. But let's talk about
Speaker 1: some of the guys or do you ever the last
Speaker 1: book one quick brook slot? But it's really abroad August
Speaker 1: National thought. And this is why, despite all the things
Speaker 1: you're talking about about the lack of intimacy and how
Speaker 1: it's changed over the years, one of the most intimate
Speaker 1: moments on this golf course, and it's almost it is
Speaker 1: almost guaranteed to be high drama this year, as it
Speaker 1: is every year, is the T shot on thirteen. And
Speaker 1: now it's a different T shot than it was a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago. So I'm fascinated to hear Alan
Speaker 1: what you said. Here's a guy who can fade the ball,
Speaker 1: hit a mile high with four yards of fade and
Speaker 1: long and totally in control shot after shot after shot,
Speaker 1: and he's going to stand on Sunday trying to win
Speaker 1: his first green coat and try to drive the ball
Speaker 1: in the fairway where he can knock a six iron
Speaker 1: on and two put for four maybe and maybe make
Speaker 1: a putt for three and try to do something that
Speaker 1: doesn't come naturally to him. And we've seen Sergio do
Speaker 1: We've seen Ernie do it. We've seen Savey back in
Speaker 1: the day do it. It's there's a lot that can
Speaker 1: go wrong the whole back nine, and you know we
Speaker 1: always and we had on Jeff Vogli last side. We're
Speaker 1: talking a little bit about the similarities between the old
Speaker 1: course in this place. But what this place has, which
Speaker 1: really Oqua and Shinnecock Hills and the old course and
Speaker 1: other songs. It's got lakes, lakes in play. There are
Speaker 1: water hazards go to lore in this golf course. And
Speaker 1: if you're really playing well and it's Thursday Friday, you're
Speaker 1: not really thinking about it. But it's impossible not to
Speaker 1: think about him on Sunday. And that's why we get
Speaker 1: giddy anticipating what we're anticipating the weekend of Master's play.
Speaker 1: I mean, Brooks is a discipline player though, like you know,
Speaker 1: for him, he calculates the risk and going for it
Speaker 1: on Friday is worth it, and he made the birdie
Speaker 1: and that's creative. If he still has a three four
Speaker 1: shot lead, he has the discipline not of Phil Nicholson,
Speaker 1: like he'll he'll play he'll play this the correct shot.
Speaker 1: So I think he's less likely to give it back.
Speaker 1: That's really interesting because we might see something we've never
Speaker 1: seen a leader hitting four or earn sandwich into thirteen.
Speaker 1: But maybe that's the way to make that Maybe that's
Speaker 1: your best joan speaker for there. Sure, yeah, yeah, hybrid three,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot of there's a lot of ways
Speaker 1: you could play that hole. Now if you just say
Speaker 1: accept that it's it's five strokes. I finally have the
Speaker 1: definitive answer, by the way to a question in which
Speaker 1: I know we get a lot. If someone is new
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Speaker 1: We got Mother's Day coming up. We've got Father's Day come.
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Speaker 1: Robin Golf guys excited to have him be a part
Speaker 1: of what we're doing, and their sets are on the
Speaker 1: way from my son and daughter and wife, and I
Speaker 1: look forward to breaking him in on fire Pit clicks
Speaker 1: dot com. I'm gonna have a story about Brooks and
Speaker 1: the interview with Claude Harmon really made the whole thing,
Speaker 1: and he's such an insightful guy and I learned a
Speaker 1: lot talking to him. So I'm happy to share that
Speaker 1: you're going to write about one Philip Alfred Mickelson, who
Speaker 1: had a crazy round yesterday. I would encourage anyone listening
Speaker 1: you hasn't done, so go to maasters dot com call
Speaker 1: up the Thursday round. You can watch every shot and
Speaker 1: feel hit a driver off to the deck out of
Speaker 1: the pine straw. He had driver off the deck on
Speaker 1: eight to set up a birdie. He played a shot
Speaker 1: right handed, a ball in the water. It was one
Speaker 1: of those wildly entertaining seventy ones in the history of golf,
Speaker 1: and but today it was it was it was a
Speaker 1: cleaner round. He shot three under, one of the best
Speaker 1: scores of the day. He's he's right at this moment,
Speaker 1: he's tied for tenth. I mean, he's eight shots back,
Speaker 1: but he's only four shots out of second place. And
Speaker 1: when I saw out of field was he put jaunty
Speaker 1: out there? He looked like he was having fun. And
Speaker 1: he's been in such a funk for you know, the
Speaker 1: last year plus. And we all know he missed last
Speaker 1: year's Masters. He's back again, and something about this place
Speaker 1: has always lit him up. But I think this is
Speaker 1: exactly what he needed. But Michael, what did you see
Speaker 1: how to field that he liked? Well, he was, you know,
Speaker 1: he was having a great time on the golf course.
Speaker 1: He was in a great time off the golf course.
Speaker 1: Amy is here. I haven't seen her personally since the
Speaker 1: Ryder Cup in Wisconsin, you know, right after the PGA,
Speaker 1: where he was where he was so triumphant. He needs
Speaker 1: golf probably more It's just an odd thing to say
Speaker 1: about a fifty year old man for as successful as
Speaker 1: he is, But he probably needs golf more now than
Speaker 1: any other point in his life because he's trying to
Speaker 1: reclaim a life that he had and that was built
Speaker 1: on golf, not coffee or fitness or fancy belts or
Speaker 1: anything else. So I think he's doing what a lot
Speaker 1: of people do when they're in a bind. He's doubling
Speaker 1: down the thing that he really likes, the things that
Speaker 1: he's really good at. And why wouldn't he be giddy
Speaker 1: doing it at a Gusta National, at the place that
Speaker 1: he dearly dearly looks. Yeah, he's certainly. You know, he's
Speaker 1: been playing very mediocre golf at the live events, but
Speaker 1: I've seen it with my own ice, how hard he's working.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's been on the putting green for hours
Speaker 1: at a stretch. I saw it in Tucson. I saw
Speaker 1: in Mexico. He's hitting bags and bags of balls like
Speaker 1: he hasn't given up. He's still on this quest to
Speaker 1: be an impactful player. And when you have that kind
Speaker 1: of talent and and you have that drive, it's it's
Speaker 1: a good combination. You know, you can't play your best
Speaker 1: golf at this level without a clear head. And you
Speaker 1: see it all the time, and whether someone's got a
Speaker 1: sick parent or marital woes or whatever is it affects
Speaker 1: their performance and it Phil's been through the ringer at
Speaker 1: the last year and a half and so I feel
Speaker 1: like he's just kind of getting back to himself. As
Speaker 1: press conference yesterday, it was actually he was funny. You know,
Speaker 1: he's been so muted and careful and you can he's
Speaker 1: like just dripping with the media training. That's not who
Speaker 1: the guy is. Like. He's a showman, he's a freewheeler.
Speaker 1: He's a huge personality, and it was all stuffed and
Speaker 1: bottled up and he sounds like himself. He looks his
Speaker 1: game looks is vintage. So I'm not suggesting that Phil
Speaker 1: can close the gap on Brooks, but it's just fun
Speaker 1: to have him around and hidden shots and interacting with
Speaker 1: the gallery and you know, welcome back, Phil. I think
Speaker 1: we all missed you on sub level, even the people
Speaker 1: who feel has always been polarizing, and there's people who've
Speaker 1: never liked Phil. There's probably more people who don't like
Speaker 1: him now, but even those people have to enjoy watching
Speaker 1: a play golf, even if you're rooting against him, It's
Speaker 1: still fun to watch. I think, do you feel Alan,
Speaker 1: I know you're far closer to it than than most
Speaker 1: people would be. Do you feel that there is some
Speaker 1: sort of flying out between live golf and the PGA
Speaker 1: Tour at this moment thawing out? Yeah? I think this
Speaker 1: is going to be remembered as kind of an important
Speaker 1: week for that, because you know, they came they came
Speaker 1: together at the US Open, in the British Open last year,
Speaker 1: and that was the thick of it. Players were jumping
Speaker 1: left and right and the drumbeat of speculation and all
Speaker 1: of it, and everyone was defensive, everyone was bitchy, and
Speaker 1: the volume got way turned up. And obviously a lot
Speaker 1: of time has passed since then. It's wild that the
Speaker 1: of all the weeks that the arbitration case got settled
Speaker 1: over in Europe and clarified that piece of the pie,
Speaker 1: and I think that, Yeah, I think there's been good
Speaker 1: energy that I pulled some players aside and asked them, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I know everyone's saying that that it's been it's been
Speaker 1: fine and dandy, but like, give me the dirt, Like
Speaker 1: what have you seen and everyone even and I was like,
Speaker 1: I won't use your name, is like, tell me something juicy.
Speaker 1: Everyone's coming up empty. I mean, I think the players,
Speaker 1: partly out of kind of respect for the institution, they
Speaker 1: want to rise above it here Augusta, Nashville. And I
Speaker 1: think they're also tired of it. Like these guys didn't
Speaker 1: sign up to be barristers or to be pr folks.
Speaker 1: I think they're just golfers. They just want to play golf.
Speaker 1: And so I've sent I've sent a simmering down of
Speaker 1: the tension. But again, if Brooks hangs on to win,
Speaker 1: that's a big deal. And you know that Greg Norman
Speaker 1: is going to be blowing up social media, lives gonna
Speaker 1: be putting out TV commercials. It's gonna be a monumental
Speaker 1: thing for lives credibility. The crown jewel the sport is
Speaker 1: the Open at St. Andrews. They have the guy that
Speaker 1: won that the second most covenant thing and all of
Speaker 1: the of golf is a green jacket. If they if
Speaker 1: they have those two guys on their on their league,
Speaker 1: it just gets really hard to dismiss it. And the
Speaker 1: talking you know, the tours primary talking point is that
Speaker 1: we're hardcore competition, we're a meritocracy and they're just a
Speaker 1: BS exhibition, and a lot of fans have bought into that,
Speaker 1: but Brooks kept the preparation for this Masters was playing
Speaker 1: live golf events and winning live golf tournaments. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: how he got That's how he got sharp. And so
Speaker 1: if he plays like this and he wins this, the
Speaker 1: critique of lives as not real competition, it gets gets
Speaker 1: hard to make. And so there's a lot at stake,
Speaker 1: and it will it will turn the volume up again
Speaker 1: on some of the discourse. But I do think it
Speaker 1: are personally the players have kind of whether they did
Speaker 1: it by design or just came naturally, they've they've kind
Speaker 1: of chilled out. Yeah, I feel the same, And I
Speaker 1: mean it's sort of this isn't well. When we look
Speaker 1: back at this period, the fact that Greg Norman couldn't
Speaker 1: attend the Champions Center at the Old Quarters last year,
Speaker 1: where you know, all the Open champions were to be invited,
Speaker 1: because he started a competing golf leak, it's going to
Speaker 1: look insane. Actually, I think it is. You know, I
Speaker 1: thought it was insane. Then you have a dinner for
Speaker 1: former winners it's not like he murdered somebody. He just
Speaker 1: started a golf league you don't like. So cooler heads
Speaker 1: are prevailing and probably to some degree of fatigue is
Speaker 1: setting in about the whole discussion. And we can't get
Speaker 1: inside Rory mclroy's head. But for Rory mclroy, as good
Speaker 1: as he is and playing as well as he hasn't
Speaker 1: been playing with all the proposition they had to come
Speaker 1: here and miss a cut tiger the same, but that's
Speaker 1: kind of a different category. It tells me he must
Speaker 1: have had some sort of vicious mental fatigue about all
Speaker 1: that he has had to do of sort of carrying
Speaker 1: the anti lib pro PGIA tour flame, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: it wasn't that longer that Rory mcgoy was saying, you know,
Speaker 1: Greg Mustco, why who? And with due due respect, who
Speaker 1: are you to say Greg Mustco? He doesn't work for you?
Speaker 1: And and I say this with a lot of sympathy
Speaker 1: for Rur because I know he believes what he's saying
Speaker 1: and it's important to have a voice to speak up
Speaker 1: for the PGA Tour and he's the person who has
Speaker 1: been sort of anointed to do it, and he's fulfilled
Speaker 1: the role spectacularly well. But I don't see how he
Speaker 1: couldn't be a little mentally tired himself at this point,
Speaker 1: because I don't really know what else could explain. Now,
Speaker 1: maybe he is he going to miss the cut of
Speaker 1: a part of me if I'm spoke there, But he's
Speaker 1: going to miss the cut. So it's almost inexplicable. This
Speaker 1: is one of the easiest cuts in all of German
Speaker 1: golf to make. He's one of the best golfers in
Speaker 1: the world. For him to miss this cut seems beyond unlikely. Well,
Speaker 1: and he missed the cut at the Players Championship. I
Speaker 1: mean there's there's definitely a little swing funk going on.
Speaker 1: I mean he's hooking a lot of t shots and
Speaker 1: if Roy Mcinway is not going to drive the ball, well,
Speaker 1: then you know there's a there's a time space continuum,
Speaker 1: there's a rupture there, and so he's got some technical issues.
Speaker 1: But again, does that come from not having he's so
Speaker 1: burnt out on life he doesn't want to go practice.
Speaker 1: Is his mind cluttered like we were talking about it.
Speaker 1: It's sad to see Rory just I don't like I
Speaker 1: say he gave up, but just to get blown away
Speaker 1: by this golf course. I mean, he looked fried mentally yesterday.
Speaker 1: But when you're as good as Rory, you can't get
Speaker 1: blown away by the scolf course. It's not hard enough
Speaker 1: for him to get blown away by the sculf course.
Speaker 1: You can blow yourself away. But I mean brook Show
Speaker 1: Brook scup has twelve on apart without doing anything astounding
Speaker 1: for brook Skopka. For us, it would be astounding, but
Speaker 1: it's not for him. Rory's Roy's the same same exact
Speaker 1: scill Scott is brook Skepka and he shot what you know,
Speaker 1: fifteen eighteen shots worse well. And this is where it
Speaker 1: gets interesting. If Kepko wins this, he'll have five major championships.
Speaker 1: He will have broken the tie with Rory. And one
Speaker 1: thing Roy could always hang his hat on is when
Speaker 1: all said done, I'll be the best player of the
Speaker 1: post Tiger era. You know, he's wide in the gap
Speaker 1: food himself and George Speed. You know, Dustin's had a
Speaker 1: tremendous career, but only the two Mays is probably. You know,
Speaker 1: Rory's gonna win that tiebreaker every time no matter what.
Speaker 1: But if Kepta gets to five majors, he's won. He's
Speaker 1: won the one that Rory covets the most. He's selling
Speaker 1: that he's not He'll be knocking on the doorstep of
Speaker 1: the Grand Slam himself. Career Grand Slam. I'm like, uh,
Speaker 1: we we have another probably decade for this to play out,
Speaker 1: but it would be a monumental statement for for Kepca.
Speaker 1: I mean, he'll have won five majors since Rory won
Speaker 1: his last one. It's unbelievable he'll I mean there's some
Speaker 1: all time genuses the five major championship wins Sevy Bisteros
Speaker 1: Byron Nelson. I mean, five is a monumental number. You
Speaker 1: get to six, you're talking phil Lee Trevino. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is very rarefied air and it's Kepca doesn't have
Speaker 1: the body of work. He hasn't won as many tour
Speaker 1: vents he has won around the world, you know, the
Speaker 1: outside of his career. He's won in Italy and Spain
Speaker 1: and Turkey and some out of the way places, which
Speaker 1: is cool. But it's Rory and his Tiger and Jack
Speaker 1: and it's others who have elevated the majors to be
Speaker 1: all end all, If that's the yardstick, Brooks is standing
Speaker 1: very tall already and he gets this one. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it gets really interesting, like how deep can this
Speaker 1: guy take it? Because he was he was always a
Speaker 1: big game hunter, his game travels. I mean, he's got
Speaker 1: that he can smash these low drives that can just
Speaker 1: tear it through the wind. I mean, he's definitely a
Speaker 1: threat to win any open the way he's playing. So
Speaker 1: it would be wild if if brooks Keptca spots Rory
Speaker 1: four Majors and he gets a career Grand Slam first,
Speaker 1: like it's been the same with George Speed. You know,
Speaker 1: he spotted George Speed three. Like this guy's going to
Speaker 1: reshape our thinking about about this whole era if he
Speaker 1: keeps going like this. Yeah, I mean if if if
Speaker 1: it's a race still the Grand Slam between those two,
Speaker 1: I would have to get the edges to brooks Kepca.
Speaker 1: It would seem like brooks Skepica is gonna gonna win
Speaker 1: a British Open for all the reasons you decided others
Speaker 1: before Rorry would win here, uh, in part because maybe
Speaker 1: it just does mean I mean too much of him.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you a question. I know it's been
Speaker 1: a while, but you have spent time with Brooke Skeptico
Speaker 1: off the golf course. He was saying yesterday I was
Speaker 1: asking about the Netflix series and sort of the vulnerable
Speaker 1: side that he that he showed, and he said, uh,
Speaker 1: that there was a disconnect, but what he showed in
Speaker 1: public and what he showed in his private life. Do
Speaker 1: you have any experience along those lines? Do you have
Speaker 1: a sense of of pow true that is? Yeah. I
Speaker 1: mean I went to his house for a big cover story, uh,
Speaker 1: for one of the golf magazines, and yeah, he got
Speaker 1: some time and he's, you know, in the pool and
Speaker 1: he's got the dog and we're sitting out on the
Speaker 1: on the dock, and there is a reflective side to Brooks.
Speaker 1: And I only got little glimpses of it, you know,
Speaker 1: the whole thing. There's a lot of people there, there's
Speaker 1: a camera crew. It was it was not exactly quiet time.
Speaker 1: But I do think there's there's some kind of depth there.
Speaker 1: Like I mean, it Emo Brooks that came out in
Speaker 1: the in the Netflix show. I thought it was impressive.
Speaker 1: It takes bravery for any human being to be vulnerable
Speaker 1: in any setting like that's especially a guy who's kind
Speaker 1: of built his brand on being being a tough guy,
Speaker 1: you know, and whether you enjoyed that episode or what
Speaker 1: it changed your opinion about Brooks or not, Like it
Speaker 1: takes courage to be to be honest about your struggles,
Speaker 1: and so I slewed him for that, and there is
Speaker 1: it does take a certain amount of character. And even
Speaker 1: going back to my interview with Claude Harmon, it was
Speaker 1: funny he said, you know, all these guys out here
Speaker 1: are conflict of verse, Like when they want to fire someone,
Speaker 1: they have their agent do it, like and that's Tigers
Speaker 1: thing all the way, right, Like he always has someone
Speaker 1: else to deliver the bad news. He wants to break
Speaker 1: up with his girlfriend, he gets one of his underlings
Speaker 1: to trigger and going on vacation like but in Clouds,
Speaker 1: like Brooks called me. You know, Brooks did it himself,
Speaker 1: and he had a weird respect you know, grudging resp
Speaker 1: back for it. And I thought that was funny. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think Brooks is old school in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: He kind of lives by by a code and he
Speaker 1: can be a little strident, but I think that comes
Speaker 1: from actually kind of being real, Like he does have
Speaker 1: a he has a value system, and he's intensely loyal
Speaker 1: and he does care and winning means something to him.
Speaker 1: Being great means something to him, and he can he
Speaker 1: can shut down in the interview settings. He can be
Speaker 1: a little standoffice. But I don't think that, you know,
Speaker 1: if you fall on social media. He was like a
Speaker 1: fun loving guy, like he's always not having a good time,
Speaker 1: and I think he's kind of learned. He got put
Speaker 1: into this role and when it comes to deal with
Speaker 1: the golf press and if it's just become like this
Speaker 1: little run he falls into and a lot of people
Speaker 1: have kind of made up their minds about who he is.
Speaker 1: But I think he's probably right that there's there's more
Speaker 1: complexity there than we've really seen. Mm. Interesting. Yeah, all right,
Speaker 1: a couple of things before we go. Shout out to
Speaker 1: John Rom a couple of back to back Birdie's. He's
Speaker 1: within three of Kepka. I mean that is a pretty
Speaker 1: smash mouth Saturday Final pairing. If it holds up Brooks
Speaker 1: and John Rom, I think these are these are big,
Speaker 1: bad almbres. And there's a lot of clubhead speed, it's
Speaker 1: a lot of it's a lot of mojo. Like that's
Speaker 1: that's pretty epic. I'm excited about that, Yes, But over
Speaker 1: the course of thirty six holes triumph, but each of
Speaker 1: them trying to win their first green coat. I'll take
Speaker 1: a guy with this relatively slow backswing over a guy
Speaker 1: with a fast back swing one hundred times out of
Speaker 1: one hundred, with all due respect to my friend Nick Price,
Speaker 1: who is one of my favorite people in the world.
Speaker 1: But a quick back swinging Hubert Green. You know it
Speaker 1: does happen, but it's hard, hard, hard. I think Sunday
Speaker 1: golf with quick back swing is hard. I'll take Phil Jack, Julius, Barrows, Snead,
Speaker 1: and a long long list of guys with languid back
Speaker 1: swings first. This is why you're such a national treasure
Speaker 1: of Michael. Thank you for that. And we do have
Speaker 1: to acknowledge Sam Bennett. I mean, what he's done is incredible.
Speaker 1: He's in third place, eight under par. He made no
Speaker 1: bogies in his first round, first time an amateur had
Speaker 1: done that in like fifty plus years. His two round
Speaker 1: total of one thirty five is just one off of
Speaker 1: Kenn Venturrey's all time record. I mean, spectacular performance. And
Speaker 1: if you know, Ryan Labner of Golf Channel wrote an
Speaker 1: incredible feature about the kid, spent a lot time with him.
Speaker 1: In his family, and I didn't really know his backstory,
Speaker 1: but you know, Bennett's father Got was like a beloved
Speaker 1: figure in the community. He was a I think he
Speaker 1: was a doctor at Dennis. I can't remember now, but
Speaker 1: you know, an educated, you know man doing important work.
Speaker 1: And he got early onset dementia and Alzheimer's like his
Speaker 1: early forties. Just and it just it just wrecked the family,
Speaker 1: as it would any family, and kind of left a
Speaker 1: whole at Sam Bennett's heart and he had to through
Speaker 1: all of that. And he was also a very undersized
Speaker 1: kid and you know, lightly recruited, it seemed like, and
Speaker 1: then he had a gross spurt and but a really
Speaker 1: easy guy to root for. I would encourage anyone to read.
Speaker 1: It's an emotional story, and uh, you'll you'll you'll want
Speaker 1: to pull for this kid. But also, you know, I
Speaker 1: always pick up on these things. He was a short
Speaker 1: stop and he was like a point guard growing up,
Speaker 1: and he was good. That's that's a Jordan's Spee kind
Speaker 1: of background. But that's Dustin Johnson, like Augusta Nashville rewards
Speaker 1: the athletes because and Jeff what will. We talked about
Speaker 1: this beautifully on our podcast last night. I was going
Speaker 1: to make the point, but the conversation moved on. But
Speaker 1: you never have a flat shot out here. It's very
Speaker 1: much reactionary golf. You have to get in a funky
Speaker 1: position and just have to swing at it. And it's
Speaker 1: not track man golf. Or you hit the same make
Speaker 1: the same swing and hit the same distance, and you
Speaker 1: gotta shape it and you gotta play it off swales.
Speaker 1: And there's something about this place. You know, Jack Jack
Speaker 1: Nicholas is a great tennis player, right, a basketball player
Speaker 1: like Sam Snee, like those. It just there's every golfer
Speaker 1: this level has athletic tools, but it seems like the
Speaker 1: guys who played a lot of sports and who have
Speaker 1: a different gear, it just rewards that. And this kid,
Speaker 1: Bennett is of that, of that ilk. Just one quick
Speaker 1: note about about Ben is that you grew up playing
Speaker 1: a little nine hole course. It shows it. You don't
Speaker 1: have to be from a super affluent family and have
Speaker 1: you know one of the Claude Harmon's coaching you to
Speaker 1: make it in this game. There are a lot of
Speaker 1: different paths there, and there's absolutely nothing like athleticism to
Speaker 1: really make it in the game. At the end of
Speaker 1: the day. Golf identifies athleticism, and this course most especially
Speaker 1: especially all those greenside shots that don't look like they
Speaker 1: requires so much strength, and maybe they don't, but they
Speaker 1: really do require athleticism. Yeah, and it's because speed. I
Speaker 1: hit two balls in the water through the first round.
Speaker 1: But he's hanging around, He's tied for six. Who've got
Speaker 1: Jason Day, Sam burn In, Strictor holland Colin Moray Cow.
Speaker 1: I mean, it is a blockbuster, Cameron Young, It is
Speaker 1: a blockbuster leaderboard. So but most of the guys who
Speaker 1: are looking to win their first coat and that's hard.
Speaker 1: And then and Brooks falls into that. I mean, we've
Speaker 1: talked about this previous It's the most tantalizing of all
Speaker 1: the tournament. It's the one they all want the most.
Speaker 1: And the choke factor, I mean, wasn't Johnny Millers that
Speaker 1: you start choking when when you drive down Magnolia Lay
Speaker 1: Like it's a grand quote, you know. So it's gonna
Speaker 1: be one hell of thirty six holes. I would encourage
Speaker 1: everyone to drink some hot chocolate, get bundled up in
Speaker 1: their living rooms, like out of empathy. For the rest
Speaker 1: of it. It's going to be called a nasty tar.
Speaker 1: I can't wait. I love that stuff. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: an absolute war of attrition and uh and then it's
Speaker 1: gonna probably be a shoot out on Sunday on a
Speaker 1: soft golf course. So it's good for us on because
Speaker 1: we never figured out the air conditioning in our house,
Speaker 1: but we're not gonna need it. Michael's running in the
Speaker 1: middle of the night. It was it was like the
Speaker 1: ghost of Christmas path Like I could hear bang it
Speaker 1: on the Thervis stat and then I was I was
Speaker 1: still sleeping and he was doing dishes and it was
Speaker 1: quite a rookie. It's like, but it's worth the suffering, Michaels,
Speaker 1: so we can podcast like this together. So anyway, thanks
Speaker 1: all of you for listening. That's going to because the
Speaker 1: National Golf Club for lending us this room. Despite all
Speaker 1: the nasty things we said at the beginning, you really
Speaker 1: do run, Honest to God, you run a great invitational tournament.
Speaker 1: It adds a lot to my life. I know you're
Speaker 1: light blan, I know our listener feels the same way.
Speaker 1: It is a joy, but we gotta pick it. We
Speaker 1: gotta pick out it a little bit. But it's such
Speaker 1: a delight. I mean, it's a complete third delight to
Speaker 1: be here covering this golf tournament. And I do really
Speaker 1: take that view. I take the view that it's a
Speaker 1: private golf club. They put on a tournament, they invite
Speaker 1: people to play, they invite us to cover it. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's quasi public, of course, but it's quasi pup private too.
Speaker 1: It's a weird, weird blend of things, and it's a
Speaker 1: great addition, of course to the golf calendar, and it
Speaker 1: brings a lot of pleasure to a lot of people.
Speaker 1: That's well said. I know no one cares about our
Speaker 1: first real problems of trying to report effectively, So would
Speaker 1: I'd like to apologize not for the content in my remarks,
Speaker 1: but just for my tone of voice. You're right now. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I don't even think it's I don't think this is
Speaker 1: be necessary to apologize, because this our job is to
Speaker 1: describe the whole experience. But it is. I guess we're
Speaker 1: trying to say the same thing that it's great to
Speaker 1: be here, and you know, there's a lot of civil
Speaker 1: unrest and violence in this world, and we're covering a
Speaker 1: golf tournament. On that note, let's go get a peach
Speaker 1: ice cream silence and start typing. So thanks to everybody
Speaker 1: for listening. We will do a big blowout on Sunday
Speaker 1: when this is over. Jeff I will be back for
Speaker 1: that one and it'll be fun to see how this
Speaker 1: all plays out. So until then, lots of good stories
Speaker 1: on fire Pitclint dot com, and we appreciate your fidelity
Speaker 1: reading and listening. And if you want something to watch,
Speaker 1: we do have a rind episode the Futures Lard Shepherd
Speaker 1: the British Amerge Champio. We follow them from the snowy
Speaker 1: driving ranges of Scotland all the way down Magnolia Lane.
Speaker 1: We got to play in the Masters last year and
Speaker 1: so it's a really charming episode. We haven't checked it out.
Speaker 1: I would strongly encourage it. So until then, thanks thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, and we're back into ear soon. That's the end.
Speaker 1: I be big and played the win, made a fortune,
Speaker 1: win my ship game. I ran the table, never thought
Speaker 1: I could fall. Then the winter time hit me like
Speaker 1: a cannon ball and now I can't shake this losing
Speaker 1: the stream. Every road I take is a dead end stream.
Speaker 1: I got thoughts in my head, can't get them out.
Speaker 1: Join nothing what I'm thinking about. I got thoughts in
Speaker 1: my head. I can't get them out. J I think
Speaker 1: what I'm thinking about