Speaker 1: Welcome back to another edition of the Frida Egg Podcast.
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Speaker 1: Today's episode is with the Great Kyle Porter. Kyle is
Speaker 1: golf writer se probably an editor, a big time title
Speaker 1: at CBS Sports. You can find all of his writing there.
Speaker 1: He's also one of the co hosts of the First
Speaker 1: Cut podcast. Kyle came on to preview the PGA at
Speaker 1: Key Island this week, so we did our five things.
Speaker 1: We each came up with five different things that we're
Speaker 1: watching this week. We had a little bit of a overlap,
Speaker 1: but as always Kyle had a lot of great thoughts
Speaker 1: about the tournament and uh, you know what he's watching
Speaker 1: this week. So, without further ado, here is Kyle Porter.
Speaker 2: I miss the green, for example, I'm already upset. When
Speaker 2: I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
Speaker 2: And when I find my ball in a.
Speaker 1: Bright egg Friday Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg, Frida Egg,
Speaker 1: Frida Egg, Brian Egg, Frida Egg brid Egg, Lie, I'm
Speaker 1: about ready to run off of the hum course.
Speaker 2: Kyle, how's it going, I'm good, I'm uh, you know,
Speaker 2: we were just talking about this. Covering a major from
Speaker 2: home is very different than being there. You and I switched,
Speaker 2: so you were at home during the Masters. I was
Speaker 2: at the Masters. Now you're at the PGA and I'm
Speaker 2: home for the PGA, And there are pros and cons
Speaker 2: to both. But I'm excited. I don't know, man, I
Speaker 2: get I get really fired up from for major weeks.
Speaker 2: It's just a ton of fun. You just you kind
Speaker 2: of bathe in it for you know, eight straight days
Speaker 2: or whatever, and it's tiring by the end, but it's
Speaker 2: it's so much fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, it's majors are it makes a job so
Speaker 1: much fun. It's uh, it's like so much work in
Speaker 1: the lead up and then so much work during the week,
Speaker 1: and then there's the you know, kind of deconstruction of
Speaker 1: the major at the end when you're you know, kind
Speaker 1: of the fallout from everything that happens. But I mean,
Speaker 1: this is uh, this is legacies and everything. I mean
Speaker 1: not to be cliche, but this is this is what
Speaker 1: it all comes down to, right.
Speaker 2: How do you I was I was wondering. I always
Speaker 2: wonder this with other people because I kind of go
Speaker 2: back and forth, But how do you prepare for like,
Speaker 2: I'm Major week, are you reading stuff a week in advance,
Speaker 2: a month in advance, are you like, like, what's your
Speaker 2: what does your preparation leading in look like?
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of what we do is with
Speaker 1: the golf course, so it's it's focused a ton on that.
Speaker 1: And then I think it's just I just like watching
Speaker 1: a lot of golf in the weeks leading up, you know,
Speaker 1: making sure to carve out time to watch and see
Speaker 1: what's kind of happening, and it's I think this new
Speaker 1: schedule kind of makes it a little weird because the
Speaker 1: guys don't play a ton between the Masters and the like.
Speaker 1: I feel like we you could really conceivably not see
Speaker 1: these guys outside of you know, they play Quail Hollow
Speaker 1: or they play a valves Bar. But I think that's
Speaker 1: one of the things with this new schedule, is it
Speaker 1: kind of month after month after month of the Majors.
Speaker 1: Is that you know, there's a lot of tournaments in
Speaker 1: between that don't matter a ton, is I miss? That's
Speaker 1: the thing I think I like the most about the
Speaker 1: Masters lead in YEP is how those guys are playing
Speaker 1: so much on the West Coast. Then you get the
Speaker 1: players and you kind of have this really good building,
Speaker 1: and I think having that PGA one month after it
Speaker 1: loses that a little.
Speaker 2: What do you do well? I agree with you about
Speaker 2: the lead in. I was singing about that. I think
Speaker 2: the Players is even better than the Masters because there's
Speaker 2: so many tournaments that those guys play with Arnold Palmer
Speaker 2: and I mean there's there's like that six week stretch
Speaker 2: where you're playing like at like at least four times
Speaker 2: and most management yeah, and most guys are playing five.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Usually I like to read about the
Speaker 2: course kind of the week before, and I agree with you,
Speaker 2: like I love looking at data golf and some of
Speaker 2: the advanced statistics. But but sometimes with and I think
Speaker 2: that stuff matters for the Masters because of the way
Speaker 2: the lead in is, But for the PGA, you're like, like,
Speaker 2: just what happened at the end of February? Is it
Speaker 2: meaning for the PGA at Kiowa? I don't know. It
Speaker 2: doesn't seem like it, So I think it's kind of
Speaker 2: hard to I think the PJA is a little bit
Speaker 2: difficult from that perspective to to prognosticate, to kind of
Speaker 2: figure out. But I just I love the course research.
Speaker 2: I love like Sean Martin did a great piece. Y'all's
Speaker 2: fried egg video on on Kiola was awesome because I
Speaker 2: like learning about the history of kind of the course
Speaker 2: and the course architecture. Jeff Shackelford has done some really
Speaker 2: good stuff with Who's the Who's the architect that redid it?
Speaker 2: Scott Sherman, Yeah, he had a he had a two
Speaker 2: part deal on the quadrilat Quadrilateral that is excellent. So
Speaker 2: I just I love reading about all that stuff leading
Speaker 2: into uh, into the Major week.
Speaker 1: I don't know this is we're doing our five things.
Speaker 1: So we did this with before the Masters. I think
Speaker 1: we'll do this before every Major this year. We did
Speaker 1: with Shane before the Masters. But you know, Kyle's on
Speaker 1: for this one. But I think this leads into like
Speaker 1: my first thing and like what I think about this Championship. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the course has a good deal to do with it.
Speaker 1: It's not one that we've seen a ton. Obviously we
Speaker 1: saw it with Rory but a different time of year,
Speaker 1: and we saw it at the pgat the Ryder Cup
Speaker 1: in ninety one. But I feel like this is just
Speaker 1: a total crapshoot. This tournament. I feel like I I
Speaker 1: just don't have like a great feel. I don't think
Speaker 1: anybody's playing like dominant golf leading in. And that's one
Speaker 1: of the things I think about with this tournament is
Speaker 1: just it feels like there's twenty guys that probably could win,
Speaker 1: and I wouldn't be surprised if any of those twenty
Speaker 1: guys won. I don't know if you feel the same way.
Speaker 2: So my very first I'm not kidding, My very first
Speaker 2: thing that I wrote down is the top ten lax juice.
Speaker 2: And what I mean by that is other than Rory
Speaker 2: uh and his man, I don't know his win at Quilhalla.
Speaker 2: It wasn't it wasn't super inspiring. It was good. I'm
Speaker 2: glad he won. I think that when Rory's playing well,
Speaker 2: that's good for golf. But it was like I didn't
Speaker 2: come away from that thinking like, oh, Rory's going to
Speaker 2: go on a you know, just a heater right now.
Speaker 2: And you go down the board of the top ten
Speaker 2: guys in the world and it's just like, I don't
Speaker 2: know who JT's kind of hitting it well, but who else?
Speaker 2: Like what else? DJ, Well, that's the thing you got.
Speaker 1: Rom hasn't been great, And obviously I think having the
Speaker 1: baby's been like adjustment. I think that's something that we've
Speaker 1: seen some people have these great, surreal performances when right
Speaker 1: after they have a baby. But like, I think it's
Speaker 1: a big adjustment. I think Rory went through it too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think like Rom's going through it. He just
Speaker 1: was on his press conference talking about like how they've
Speaker 1: had to, you know, make adjustments since they had this baby,
Speaker 1: like that they realized things didn't work. He needed sleep, Like,
Speaker 1: I think that's one of the things. But like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: like you said, Bryson's not playing well, Xander's kind of
Speaker 1: ben Xander. He's super consistent, but we haven't seen the
Speaker 1: winds pile up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and more, you know.
Speaker 1: And then you get Hatton who hasn't really done much
Speaker 1: in majors and Patrick Reid. Yeah, I completely agree. Top ten.
Speaker 1: When you think about to last year at the PGA,
Speaker 1: how much different was we were talking about Brooks and
Speaker 1: potential three Peete and how different just one year less
Speaker 1: than a year really makes this feel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally. Did you see Rom talking about First of all,
Speaker 2: he goes into some details with his with like his
Speaker 2: wife and kid, and I'm like, I don't know if
Speaker 2: I need all of those, maybe just like cut it
Speaker 2: in half and give me, give me half of it.
Speaker 2: But he was talking about how after the first month
Speaker 2: they hired somebody like a night nurse or a night
Speaker 2: name and whatever you call it. I was like, Oh,
Speaker 2: what's what's that like? That must be just be a
Speaker 2: nice little route, a nice little path.
Speaker 1: To take you can afford it. It's a good luxury.
Speaker 2: To to kind of compound the thing that we're talking about.
Speaker 2: The leaderboard from twenty twelve is crazy, right. So you've
Speaker 2: got Rory at thirteen, and then beyond I know you
Speaker 2: want to talk about the Swedish pancake, but beyond that,
Speaker 2: it's Steve Stricker, it's Jamie Donaldson. It's all these guys
Speaker 2: that you're like, what And I was curious if you
Speaker 2: thought when it gets crazy windy out there, which it
Speaker 2: did at times in twenty twelve, is that a thing
Speaker 2: where nobody's hitting greens and so it becomes like kind
Speaker 2: of a chipping contest. Is that why you see guys
Speaker 2: like Stricker and those guys up there.
Speaker 1: I think so to a certain extent. But what's interesting
Speaker 1: about that is that the really windy day was Friday, right,
Speaker 1: and Tiger and VJ were leading after Friday.
Speaker 2: VJ shot a sixty nine on Friday. Oh epic round,
Speaker 2: I mean, unbelievable. The quotes that from that round are
Speaker 2: just insane. I wish I had them handy. I researched
Speaker 2: him for a piece I did for the PGA dot Com.
Speaker 2: But like the quotes from players about that round, like,
Speaker 2: you know, like I can't believe. One of the guys
Speaker 2: was like, you know, if this was if I didn't
Speaker 2: have to play a term in golf today, I would
Speaker 2: There'd be no way I'd be out there playing golf,
Speaker 2: like you know.
Speaker 1: But but that see, that's the interesting thing is the
Speaker 1: board really changed when it was soft and not windy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when it was really hard, you had VJ and Tiger
Speaker 1: at the top, and then it gets soft and and
Speaker 1: Rory obviously blitz the field. Those guys fade. You know,
Speaker 1: I think this golf course, it's it's really interesting in
Speaker 1: terms of and this kind of I think plays into this.
Speaker 1: I think it's anybody's kind of game. It's long, and
Speaker 1: everybody's gonna look at the length and they're gonna say,
Speaker 1: you know, you need to vombit. But you can't spray
Speaker 1: it at all, Like when you're off the course. It's
Speaker 1: not good like out of the corridors. So I think,
Speaker 1: you know, there's set up flexibility. There's a ton of
Speaker 1: flexibility with how Carrie Haig can set this golf course
Speaker 1: up from distances. I don't think it's ever going to
Speaker 1: play the yardage that is on the card and everybody's
Speaker 1: talking about, oh, longest major course ever. It's not going
Speaker 1: to play that way any day. It's gonna be dictated
Speaker 1: on the wind. But I think it's a golf course
Speaker 1: where you have to place it so well. I think
Speaker 1: it's almost more like sawgrass. It's just a beefier sawgrass
Speaker 1: in a way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with that because when we think about length,
Speaker 2: and I was going through kind of the longest majors
Speaker 2: ever because you know that's gonna be kind of the
Speaker 2: hot like phrase or buzzword or whatever. But it's not
Speaker 2: a It's a very different kind of length than Beth
Speaker 2: Page or even in Aaron Hills, right, because you're you're
Speaker 2: almost it's not it's not just like hey see how
Speaker 2: far you can hit it, and then see how far
Speaker 2: you can hit it again, and even like wingfoot was
Speaker 2: a little bit like that because there's no there's no
Speaker 2: trouble there, right, I mean there's no there's trouble, but
Speaker 2: there's not there's no penalty trouble. And so that's where
Speaker 2: somebody like I think somebody like Bryson and even a
Speaker 2: rom is gonna have to be incredibly disciplined and patient
Speaker 2: this week because because you can't, you don't just like
Speaker 2: take the course on. You have to be so strategic
Speaker 2: and careful about where you're placing the ball. I think
Speaker 2: that's kind of plays into somebody like Jordan Spie Sands.
Speaker 1: Honestly, I agree like somebody, I think there's different types
Speaker 1: of great ball strikers, Like I think Bryson's a great
Speaker 1: ball striker.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you.
Speaker 1: Know, I think one of the things he does the
Speaker 1: way he, you know, is a great ball striker, is
Speaker 1: he overwhelms golf course with his power. And he did
Speaker 1: that obviously at wing Foot this golf course. If you
Speaker 1: if you're a little off, you're out of play. The
Speaker 1: guy that I kind of think of when he's hitting
Speaker 1: on all cylinders who could play really well is like Fleetwood,
Speaker 1: where he's like surgical, where he is that the longest guy.
Speaker 1: He's plenty long, but he's just Fairway green, Fairway green,
Speaker 1: Fairway green. Or when we saw him, moll And I'm
Speaker 1: not saying Molinard he's going to play well this week
Speaker 1: because we haven't really seen him. But when I think about,
Speaker 1: like how Molinari played in twenty eighteen when he won
Speaker 1: the Open, like that type of play is what I
Speaker 1: think we'll we'll end up playing really well at this major. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you want to talk about Speith, That's.
Speaker 2: My number two is the Space Slam. We just we
Speaker 2: just copied each other.
Speaker 1: We didn't send these to each other before.
Speaker 2: So the Speed Slam is and people keeps it. So
Speaker 2: I got to get this off my chest because one
Speaker 2: thing that bothers me is people keep saying, well, this
Speaker 2: is his best opportunity since twenty eighteen. First of all,
Speaker 2: he played Quolhalla in twenty seventeen with an opportunity to
Speaker 2: win the Slam, right right after he won Birkdale. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and that was actually his best opportunity because that was
Speaker 2: as well as he's ever played, I think as a professional.
Speaker 2: I heard him on the No Laning Up podcast two
Speaker 2: weeks ago. He's like twenty eighteen, I was just kind
Speaker 2: of lost. I think he was actually talking about the
Speaker 2: pgat where was it Bell Reeve and twenty seventeen was
Speaker 2: actually his real, like hey, career Slam opportunity. But I
Speaker 2: do agree. I do think I actually think this course
Speaker 2: sets up well for him, and I think the excitement
Speaker 2: for me with him is in whatever. The Byron Nelson
Speaker 2: is not a great test of like where your game's at,
Speaker 2: But for him to come out and hit it like
Speaker 2: he did, I felt like completely validated everything that led
Speaker 2: up to the Masters. Because we see these guys go
Speaker 2: on runs where they'll play great leading up to the Major,
Speaker 2: they'll play great at the Major, and then they'll just
Speaker 2: fall off, like they'll just kind of have a dip
Speaker 2: after that. It's a very normal kind of progression in
Speaker 2: PGA Tour world. And he hasn't. He's still hitting it
Speaker 2: like the best player in the world. So I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think there's a ton of reason. Is he gonna
Speaker 2: win this week? I have no idea, but I think
Speaker 2: there's a ton of reason to be excited about his chances.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. I think one of the things you
Speaker 1: hit onto earlier is it's a golf course, especially when
Speaker 1: it gets when if it gets windy, and I think
Speaker 1: it's gonna be have some good wind out there, like
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to scramble because people are gonna miss
Speaker 1: greens and nobody he just has. He's like the guy
Speaker 1: that you look up at the end of a basketball
Speaker 1: game and you're like, how did he get? Like, you know,
Speaker 1: how does he have twenty five points? He didn't even
Speaker 1: like look like he did. Like he shoots sixty seven
Speaker 1: and you're like, how did that? How do you shoot
Speaker 1: sixty seven?
Speaker 2: I always think it is that like Tim Duncan.
Speaker 1: Tim Duncan would be a perfect comparison, Like it just
Speaker 1: goes about it in such a like fundamental way. It's
Speaker 1: not like pretty, it's not rory, but it's just the
Speaker 1: way he scores.
Speaker 2: He just scores.
Speaker 1: He gets the ball in the hole so efficiently. You know,
Speaker 1: he might not have the prettiest swing, but he's just
Speaker 1: nobody scores better than him out there. And obviously he's
Speaker 1: been playing so well. And I think I always like
Speaker 1: when guys play well the week before and are in
Speaker 1: the mix, but don't get it done. Like I think
Speaker 1: that's like the perfect way to head into major is
Speaker 1: to play well the week before, but not great because
Speaker 1: then it just kind of clicks in the next week.
Speaker 2: Do you worry about him, or really anybody out there
Speaker 2: having to work it both ways off the tea, Like,
Speaker 2: how much do you have to? Because I definitely think
Speaker 2: you have to with some of your approach shots. But
Speaker 2: is there a necessity to work it both ways off
Speaker 2: the tee?
Speaker 1: I don't think that much out there. I don't think
Speaker 1: there's like a super big need you know, a few
Speaker 1: t shots that it could be helpful. Yeah, but one
Speaker 1: of the things, you know, and where it could be
Speaker 1: helpful is with crosswinds. You know, just being able to
Speaker 1: hold stuff against the wind is kind of where it
Speaker 1: might be most helpful. I don't think it's that big
Speaker 1: of a deal out here. The fairways aren't that wide. Also,
Speaker 1: they don't they don't move that much. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: definitely preferred shot shapes, but I think a lot of
Speaker 1: them moving moving that left right's fine. There aren't a
Speaker 1: ton of draw holes out there. Yeah, there's only a
Speaker 1: couple draw holes where you would say, oh, you want
Speaker 1: to hit a draw here. So I think that that's
Speaker 1: good for him because that squeeze cut is kind of
Speaker 1: his go to shot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it definitely is. Yeah. I just think about well,
Speaker 2: I mean I think about Sawgrass where it's whatever the
Speaker 2: third or fourth hole where you you have to hit
Speaker 2: a draw off the tee or you hit it.
Speaker 1: There's nothing like that out here, yeah, just because you know,
Speaker 1: they don't have those like trees.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like that.
Speaker 1: It's it's just wide open. So they have bunkers that
Speaker 1: make you hit shapes, but they aren't anything like Sawgrass.
Speaker 2: Man, I am so fascinated by and this is always true,
Speaker 2: this is actually more true of us opens. But I'm
Speaker 2: fascinated to see how guys strategize their way around on
Speaker 2: the course, because you know, the thing you keep hearing
Speaker 2: and I think you guys might have touched on this
Speaker 2: on your video, is like it looks like it should
Speaker 2: be a Lynx course, but you've got these almost Pinehurst
Speaker 2: type greens where it's it's their bowls and their or
Speaker 2: their upside down bowls, their volcanoes. You know. I think
Speaker 2: I saw a quote from it might have been twenty
Speaker 2: twelve somebody that was in contention saying like it's it's
Speaker 2: very unlike a links course where you can't run it
Speaker 2: up there. You have to hit a really high shot,
Speaker 2: and the problem is you've got a twenty five mile
Speaker 2: an hour wind knocking down that shot. So I'm just
Speaker 2: I'm I'm really intrigued to see how guys kind of
Speaker 2: handle that, especially if you know, like Rom said, it's
Speaker 2: playing pretty fast and firm as it is early on
Speaker 2: in the week.
Speaker 1: Well, I think that's what the really neat thing about
Speaker 1: about this tournament. And I think that's why when I
Speaker 1: when I thought about the majors, I thought this was
Speaker 1: probably going to be one of the maybe the most
Speaker 1: compelling one. You know, if you take out the Augusta
Speaker 1: every year, you know, the most compelling one was just
Speaker 1: because it's like the most opposite of driving range golf,
Speaker 1: like that idea of like the simulation golf where everything's
Speaker 1: a perfect setting, flat lie, no wind, and you're just
Speaker 1: hitting balls at a target like this, this golf course
Speaker 1: you're gonna have. And one of the neat things is
Speaker 1: it's easy to look at six through thirteen and you
Speaker 1: say they all play in the same direction. But what
Speaker 1: it does is it just kind of wiggles different directions
Speaker 1: and the way die orients these holes. If you look
Speaker 1: at it closely, you'll see that the t shot will
Speaker 1: go one way, the approach shot will go a little
Speaker 1: bit different way. So the wind, while you're playing the
Speaker 1: same general direction for a large stretches of these of
Speaker 1: the golf course, you're always playing a slightly different angle,
Speaker 1: which makes it just very uncomfortable. So really, like, you know,
Speaker 1: they got the rangefinders, but if it's blowing out there,
Speaker 1: the type of golf where the number really doesn't matter,
Speaker 1: you're you're standing there trying to figure out how many
Speaker 1: extra clubs or you know, what's the wind gonna do.
Speaker 1: And then one of the other things that can be
Speaker 1: really nasty out there is you're hitting these elevator greens
Speaker 1: and you get a wedge in your hand is downwind,
Speaker 1: that wind can knock the ball out of the air,
Speaker 1: and with the greens elevated, it just hits into the
Speaker 1: front and it's gonna end.
Speaker 2: Up at the bottom.
Speaker 1: You know, the player that wins this week is going
Speaker 1: to have to, you know, have all his senses like
Speaker 1: on high alert. And that's what I think it's gonna
Speaker 1: be so fun to watch. And that's where speed, that's
Speaker 1: what going back to speak, that makes speak so much
Speaker 1: sense because he's he's that type of player.
Speaker 2: I heard Rom talking about how the wind is is
Speaker 2: it's a different kind of wind than other courses because
Speaker 2: it's so dense right by that, like so humid right
Speaker 2: by the ocean. And as soon as he said that,
Speaker 2: I was like, Oh, Bryson's gonna play like seven hour rounds.
Speaker 2: This is gonna be a just an abomination. Like how
Speaker 2: long he's gonna be out You're.
Speaker 1: Trying to feed this out air density. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: gonna be maybe he's got a win guy. You know, Kyle,
Speaker 1: I played a junior tournament at the Ocean Course years ago,
Speaker 1: and it was it was in the middle of January,
Speaker 1: and I'll never forget just sitting in my car before
Speaker 1: the round. It was like seven am and it was
Speaker 1: it was like thirty five degrees out with like a
Speaker 1: twenty mile an hour window coming off the ocean. I
Speaker 1: just didn't want to go outside. Yeah, And that's the
Speaker 1: thing the Ocean Course is just it can be just
Speaker 1: so you just don't want to hit golf shots in
Speaker 1: the wind, even like calm days are windy out there.
Speaker 2: That's the quote that you guys started your video with
Speaker 2: was it's of course you want to play again next
Speaker 2: year but not tomorrow. And I feel you that's such
Speaker 2: a like you just want to kick the can down
Speaker 2: the road a little bit, which is such a good,
Speaker 2: good description of it. You want my number three here? Yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: So we touched on this a little bit earlier, but
Speaker 2: for me, it's it's what strategy does Bryson employ on
Speaker 2: this course? And this is sort of a not I'm
Speaker 2: not just talking about Bryson. I'm talking about all the bombers,
Speaker 2: but I think we always run to Bryson for like, oh,
Speaker 2: what's what's he gonna do? And I've got a stat here.
Speaker 2: He is two hundred and fifth on tour in proximity
Speaker 2: to the edge of the fair away. And so what
Speaker 2: that means is like when his when he misses, he
Speaker 2: misses by a lot, right, Like his misses are huge.
Speaker 2: And that makes sense because he's, you know, the longest
Speaker 2: guy in the world. Like if he's off by a
Speaker 2: little bit, it feels like a lot more than that
Speaker 2: because he's so far out there. So I'm just intrigued
Speaker 2: by it. I wonder if he hits a bunch of
Speaker 2: irons off the tea. I wonder if he tries to
Speaker 2: carry some some spots where other guys I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'm just really intrigued by kind of how that plays
Speaker 2: out going into the week.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, you know, when you think about what
Speaker 1: he set out to do when he added all the speed,
Speaker 1: added all the weight, it really was a reaction to
Speaker 1: Beth Page. Will Gray had that got those great quotes
Speaker 1: from him talking about Brooks, and it was all a
Speaker 1: reaction to Beth Page. And then it it bore out
Speaker 1: that he won it wing foot of similar setup thick
Speaker 1: rough yep, you know where if you just hit it far,
Speaker 1: you can then gouge it out of the thick rough.
Speaker 1: This that doesn't work here because if you hit it
Speaker 1: far and you're offline, you're out of play. And I
Speaker 1: think that's where, Yeah, I agree with that take it.
Speaker 1: I don't know how he's gonna play it. I think
Speaker 1: there's a lot of holes. That's kind of the luxury though.
Speaker 1: You know, he can hit his iron as far as
Speaker 1: some of these guys that you know, like Matt Matt
Speaker 1: Fitzpatrick hits his driver.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he has options where other guys don't. Like Matt
Speaker 2: Matt Fitzpatriy doesn't have an option. I mean he does,
Speaker 2: but I mean, he's gonna miss a cut if he
Speaker 2: if he chooses some of the options that are that
Speaker 2: are you know at hand and Bryson has a bunch
Speaker 2: of options and and got and I don't know. I
Speaker 2: I think that's why. And we don't need to get
Speaker 2: into like a distance deal. But that's why. So like
Speaker 2: the majors, especially PGA's and US Opens are won by
Speaker 2: six guys, right, is they have so many options at
Speaker 2: their disposal for the way these courses are played. And
Speaker 2: you know, not to take away from like you have
Speaker 2: to have a great short game, you have to hit
Speaker 2: your wedges great, but it is it does give them
Speaker 2: so much more wiggle room whenever they're they're playing courses
Speaker 2: like this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you look at the distance rank of the
Speaker 1: the last ten or so winners of the PGA or
Speaker 1: of the US Open, they're really power players. It's a
Speaker 1: power players championship versus the masters in the in the
Speaker 1: Open Championship, they have a lot of balance. You see
Speaker 1: guys all over the board win those in terms of
Speaker 1: their you know, associated distance rank. This golf course, I
Speaker 1: think is going to play more like like a sagress.
Speaker 1: Like one of the things that Pete Die Pete Dies
Speaker 1: golf courses longevity wise, have held up so well to distance,
Speaker 1: and it's because of just the little angle, angular tweaks
Speaker 1: that he makes. Yeah, I think that that make it
Speaker 1: so uncomfortable to hit driver in certain places for long hitters.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think that's a that's a great point.
Speaker 1: I want piggybacking off of that and looking, We've talked
Speaker 1: a little bit about the twenty twelve leader board, but
Speaker 1: I think this could be a week where we it
Speaker 1: really favors veterans and and part of that is playing
Speaker 1: in the conditions too, where these guys have seen a lot.
Speaker 1: When it gets Wendy, experience matters, like you have to
Speaker 1: have a lot of different golf shots. And I think
Speaker 1: I think we could see a week where, you know,
Speaker 1: we might have some guys that are in the mix
Speaker 1: that you know, are looking to bag that last major
Speaker 1: that adds a ton to their legacy.
Speaker 2: So you're so you're talking about Europeans that have that
Speaker 2: are great ball strikers that have a bunch of it
Speaker 2: feels like a trojan horse.
Speaker 1: The one thing I'm worried about with Westy is is
Speaker 1: the chipping around the greens yeah, that's what I'm a
Speaker 1: little right, but he's not really. I'm also talking about
Speaker 1: like Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia.
Speaker 2: You know, Sergia. Yeah, Sergia is interesting, I think. And
Speaker 2: Rory talked about this right with twenty twelve where he's like,
Speaker 2: I've never been my shore game's never been that good,
Speaker 2: and I think that is like really instructive for how
Speaker 2: to think about this week. So we run to like,
Speaker 2: oh he was. I talked to Jim Nance about this
Speaker 2: and he was like, I was pure poetry off the tee,
Speaker 2: and of course it was. It always is. But your
Speaker 2: shot game has to be unreal this week, I think
Speaker 2: to be able to win this golf tournament. So yeah,
Speaker 2: that's where the Westy think my.
Speaker 1: Fall apart part completely. I mean I think also like
Speaker 1: you look at like Patrick Reid a Web Simpson, if
Speaker 1: they can have one of those special ball striking weeks,
Speaker 1: then all sudden everything falls into place for them because
Speaker 1: of how good they are. But also Paul Casey Louiu
Speaker 1: stays in you know those types of players where they've
Speaker 1: seed it all, they've played in everything. Yeah, and this
Speaker 1: is a type of golf course you can play perfect
Speaker 1: and then a big number can just come bite you.
Speaker 1: I think I think Furick made like an eight on
Speaker 1: thirteen in twenty twelve, and he was playing just like
Speaker 1: a basically didn't miss a shot all round and then
Speaker 1: makes makes an eight.
Speaker 2: The guy that I really want to pick because he
Speaker 2: doesn't have any holes and because his short game is
Speaker 2: really good is somebody who's missed like five cuts in
Speaker 2: a row, which is Patrick Cantlay, and I can't. I can't.
Speaker 2: I can't pick him because he's playing terribly, or at
Speaker 2: least he's he's not playing like he doesn't have any momentum,
Speaker 2: but his like his sort of statistical profile to me,
Speaker 2: fits a place like Kiowa, so well, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think, like I don't know if you agree with this.
Speaker 2: I think Kiwa is going to play as a PGA
Speaker 2: championship a lot different than we've seen over the last
Speaker 2: five or six years. Definitely different than a Beth Page,
Speaker 2: but also way different than a Bell Reeve as well.
Speaker 2: I just I think it stands out as it's not
Speaker 2: a I think you're right. I think it's a little
Speaker 2: bit like a players championship, and we've seen big numbers.
Speaker 2: One of players we've seen small. We've seen, you know,
Speaker 2: lesser numbers one of players. I think it's gonna be
Speaker 2: and even in talking about who's gonna win, it feels
Speaker 2: a little bit like that of like this feels wide open,
Speaker 2: and that's what we say every year around the Players
Speaker 2: Championship as well.
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be like a hybrid of
Speaker 1: the players in an open because you have the weather
Speaker 1: aspects and we could see, like I'll never forget walking
Speaker 1: a practice round with Jordan Speith at Aaron Hills and
Speaker 1: the group was talking about just a what's the easiest
Speaker 1: major to win, and it was just immediately open Championship
Speaker 1: because the weather can eliminate half the field, and that's
Speaker 1: what could happen here. I don't looking at the weather,
Speaker 1: it doesn't look like that could happen, but you never know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's something that could happen here. And I think that's
Speaker 1: the it's kind of a mix between the players, but
Speaker 1: with with those elements that you have to overcome, this
Speaker 1: is a This is going to be a mentally exhausting
Speaker 1: tournament for players, Like you get off the golf course,
Speaker 1: you're gonna feel like you just played thirty six holes,
Speaker 1: not eighteen yeah for sure. Now for a quick word
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Speaker 1: Now back to Kyle Porter.
Speaker 2: Okay, my number four knees whose knees are going to
Speaker 2: hold up knees? Knees? Brooksy, Oh bad knee gimping around DJ.
Speaker 2: I don't know what's going on with his knee. I
Speaker 2: think he just didn't want to play Byron Nelson.
Speaker 1: I think he probably looked at the weather. It's like
Speaker 1: I don't want to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm good. Uh but but yeah, those are two
Speaker 2: guys that are in that group of six. I mean
Speaker 2: DJ has been beaten by two players in the last
Speaker 2: two PGAs. So you got to be by by Colin
Speaker 2: Markabbo last year and he got beat by Brooksy the
Speaker 2: year before that.
Speaker 1: That's it, I mean his did Brooksy? Did Brooksy beat him?
Speaker 1: Or did Austin beat him with that overclub like.
Speaker 2: A phill at Marion situation? Uh yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 2: So I don't know. I think I think Brooks this
Speaker 2: this should be a Brooks week, But I have no
Speaker 2: confidence in it because he can't He can't even squat
Speaker 2: down to read a putt. I think he I think
Speaker 2: he'll make the cut because his ball striking is so
Speaker 2: good that it'll just it'll be he'll, he'll he'll be
Speaker 2: able to ride that into a made cut. But I
Speaker 2: just have no confidence. I don't really have any confidence
Speaker 2: in either of them winning this golf tournament. So I'm
Speaker 2: interested to see just kind of you know, I'm kind
Speaker 2: of using the injury as a little bit of a
Speaker 2: trojan horse to talk about those two guys, But I
Speaker 2: think that's a storyline going into the week.
Speaker 1: It's so it's just amazing how golf changes, right like,
Speaker 1: and how quickly it changes, because yeah, think about it
Speaker 1: in November at the end of that Masters in November,
Speaker 1: ever thinking that DJ might not be in the your
Speaker 1: top five favorites for this week, and yeah, like here
Speaker 1: we are, Like he's on the fringe of the top
Speaker 1: five favorite and it's just you know, he can. He
Speaker 1: makes it look so easy. And I think that's the
Speaker 1: thing too with Brooks is this golf course. When you
Speaker 1: were just talking, it kind of reminds me a little
Speaker 1: bit of Aaron Hills off the tee and the fact
Speaker 1: that like there's plenty of space to hit the ball,
Speaker 1: but when you get outside the space, the ball's gone. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And we saw that at Aaron Hills, where like there's
Speaker 1: plenty of places to keep it in play, but the
Speaker 1: second you get off that in play, they're big numbers everywhere.
Speaker 1: And we saw I think DJ missed the cut that year.
Speaker 2: I think that's right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then you know, Jason Day missed the cut.
Speaker 1: There were a lot of big names. Rory might have
Speaker 1: missed the cut.
Speaker 2: Rory missed the cut, yeah.
Speaker 1: But that that's the type of golf course. And if
Speaker 1: those guys are driving the ball, well, it just has
Speaker 1: a bummer with with Brooksy and the knee, you know,
Speaker 1: I feel like we're missing out on like some really
Speaker 1: prime years of his golf because of this knee, Like
Speaker 1: just for the last you know, five six majors.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I don't know his his whole stick whenever
Speaker 2: he was number one in the world and winning all
Speaker 2: the time. At the time, it was like, Okay, this
Speaker 2: is fun and cool and funny and there's like, you know,
Speaker 2: kind of a levity to it. But at the same time,
Speaker 2: during that time period, I was I was thinking like
Speaker 2: what about when this goes the other way, like it's
Speaker 2: not gonna be that funny anymore. It's going to be
Speaker 2: kind of like annoying or just grating a little bit.
Speaker 2: And that's kind of what it's turned into, like his
Speaker 2: whole like I don't care about golf, but I'm also
Speaker 2: the best player in the world. I don't know. I
Speaker 2: just I have not enjoyed the last year and a
Speaker 2: half of kind of the Brooks stick because you never
Speaker 2: know when he's healthy, you never know when he's injured.
Speaker 2: He's just I don't know. I just as a as
Speaker 2: a consumer of golf, it has not been enjoyable.
Speaker 1: Brash works really well when you're playing really.
Speaker 2: Well, when you're the number one player in the world.
Speaker 1: But as we've seen, you know, and this was the
Speaker 1: thing is like over and over again, and it just
Speaker 1: shows how much Tiger spoiled us, because like the holding
Speaker 1: on to that top spot is so such a fragile
Speaker 1: thing like it and it's fleeting like it. You know,
Speaker 1: DJ is still number one in the world, but you know,
Speaker 1: not by the margin he was six months ago. And
Speaker 1: it seems like that might come to an end in
Speaker 1: the near future.
Speaker 2: Who is who is your number one? Who's the number one?
Speaker 2: Player in the world in your mind right now, it's hard.
Speaker 1: See, this is where I think it's just that's what's
Speaker 1: leading into this wide open thing. I think if I
Speaker 1: if I was gonna have to pick one player, I'd
Speaker 1: probably pick Justin Thomas right now.
Speaker 2: What about you? I think it's Speed, which sounds just insane.
Speaker 1: It is insane.
Speaker 2: I mean it would have sounded like like a crazy
Speaker 2: person three months ago. But his numbers, the consistency that
Speaker 2: he's shown over the last and and if you pull
Speaker 2: back that time frame past three months, you can't say Speed.
Speaker 2: I think it's it's j t Or or it might
Speaker 2: be Bryson for me if you pull it back past
Speaker 2: three months. But yeah, I think if you look to two, three,
Speaker 2: four months, it's probably Jordan Speed.
Speaker 1: It's crazy. He's so good again, it's just it's amazing. See,
Speaker 1: it's great for golf to have him back. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think he's Legitimately. I'm in this major draft thing and
Speaker 1: with a bunch of buddies and you pick, you get
Speaker 1: like a random order, and you pick, you get you know,
Speaker 1: it's a draft order. And I got the first pick
Speaker 1: and it was I had I was picking between Rory
Speaker 1: and Speeth. I picked Rory. I'm probably gonna Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: not happy yet. I don't know why I picked him.
Speaker 1: He's gonna shoot seventy five. This is this is one
Speaker 1: of my things. Can Rory get off the good start?
Speaker 1: He does needs to not shoot seventy four in the
Speaker 1: first round.
Speaker 2: So I wrote about this. I wrote about this for
Speaker 2: cbsports dot com on whatever to whatever today is Tuesday.
Speaker 2: He like people, there's gonna be a through line this
Speaker 2: week where people are like, oh, twenty twelve, Oh just
Speaker 2: one Wells Fargo. And that's true, and that's fine, but
Speaker 2: like I mean, think about the seasons that he had
Speaker 2: that he has had from twenty fourteen to twenty twenty one,
Speaker 2: and how few, like what are his major even opportunities
Speaker 2: to win in that in that period of time?
Speaker 1: Nothing?
Speaker 2: Eighteen Masters? Is that it?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it. It's it's crazy and he has all
Speaker 1: these high finishes, but it's all because he can't he
Speaker 1: can't get off to a good start.
Speaker 2: And it makes me feel like it's something.
Speaker 1: Yes, there's such an importance, and we've seen it with
Speaker 1: the press conferences, like how he talks about, oh, it's
Speaker 1: just another week. Oh I'm juggling. Oh you know, like
Speaker 1: this everything revolves around this week. You can tell that
Speaker 1: he's trying to change is the way he preps for
Speaker 1: these majors because he knows something's off.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the juggler, I forgot about that.
Speaker 1: Uh it is the best one, the juggling, and it's
Speaker 1: gotta be it.
Speaker 2: It's got to be infuriating for him because it's infuriating
Speaker 2: for us to watch and for him to know, Like, hey,
Speaker 2: I'm I had the third best strokes gain season of
Speaker 2: all time in twenty nineteen, and I was just a
Speaker 2: no show, not a no show, but like I was
Speaker 2: not really in contention to win any of the four
Speaker 2: tournaments that really matter, right, And that's that is emblematic
Speaker 2: of what the last seven years have been. And so
Speaker 2: I think people are gonna get worked up about Kiowa
Speaker 2: and qual Hollow and oh this is it, and maybe
Speaker 2: it is, but I just the evidence, we have seven
Speaker 2: years of evidence that just points to like he's got
Speaker 2: some sort of mental even if it's tiny, it's some
Speaker 2: sort of hanging up at these majors. And that's a bummer.
Speaker 2: Like I want him to win his fifth I want
Speaker 2: him to win six, seven, eight, but I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's just not at least he hasn't proven it over
Speaker 2: the last few years that he's in the right spot
Speaker 2: mentally to be able to do so.
Speaker 1: And it's crazy that we're doing this. He's got twelve
Speaker 1: top tads that time frame, I know, but they're top.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, they're there. It's it's empty calories.
Speaker 1: You well, I just want them. I want him to win,
Speaker 1: get back on on the because that's the thing is
Speaker 1: like he's still he's still.
Speaker 2: Only like what thirty one, thirty just turned thirty two. Yeah,
Speaker 2: by the way, I think KOA was his best major.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it gets lost because he was all out of assault.
Speaker 1: But how hard it was, even though it was in
Speaker 1: the most docile conditions. Yeah, he lapped the field and
Speaker 1: it covers up that, like only a few guys were
Speaker 1: under parts A par seventy two. That's the thing too, yes,
Speaker 1: par seventy two, and the scores I anticipate this year,
Speaker 1: like scoring is gonna be below ten, is going to
Speaker 1: win you know, probably on a on a par seventy two.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well part of the social construct. Uh you
Speaker 2: want my fifth one? Yeah, okay, so my fifth one
Speaker 2: is can Colin Marikawa repeat. And the reason I want
Speaker 2: to talk about him is because I think he has
Speaker 2: the most to gain in terms of the changing the
Speaker 2: way we think about a player this week. So what
Speaker 2: I mean by that is, if Rory wins, it's great,
Speaker 2: but it doesn't really change a ton about the way
Speaker 2: that I think about him. If Xander wins, okay, like,
Speaker 2: it doesn't change a ton about the I always thought
Speaker 2: he was probably gonna win a major, maybe two, something
Speaker 2: like that. But I think Marikawa, if he wins, and
Speaker 2: that would be five wins in his first like forty
Speaker 2: five starts, including two majors, all of a sudden, I
Speaker 2: think that changes the way that I think about him
Speaker 2: to where it's like, wait a second, is this a
Speaker 2: Rory Speith level of talent? Because I don't quite think
Speaker 2: of him like that right now, and maybe I should,
Speaker 2: but I don't, And so I think he has the
Speaker 2: most to gain with a win this week.
Speaker 1: I think, Yeah, I think I'd throw Rom in there too.
Speaker 1: If you look at the win percentage of Rom and Morikawa,
Speaker 1: and if you include European Tour wins for Rom, because
Speaker 1: he's won a lot of Rolex events, you know they
Speaker 1: haven't been like the a lot of puff, you know,
Speaker 1: little tiny events like that, they've been at least the
Speaker 1: big ones, Like if you throw those in their their
Speaker 1: win percentages are the ones that stack up with the
Speaker 1: pills and the ernies. They aren't Tiger. Nobody's going to
Speaker 1: get to Tiger level win percentage, but those are guys
Speaker 1: that early in their career look like they could be that.
Speaker 1: You know, they win ten percent of the time they're
Speaker 1: in a field maybe yeah, you know, eight eight to
Speaker 1: ten percent, which is really really freaking good. So I
Speaker 1: would say I throw Rom in that bucket too. With
Speaker 1: with Morikawa in terms of a win here would Rom
Speaker 1: kind of like sneaky. He's starting to get a lot
Speaker 1: of major starts. I know there aren't a lot of
Speaker 1: majors every every year, but you know it's for a
Speaker 1: player of his level. With the wins he's had, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, the clock's gonna kind of start to tick
Speaker 1: on John Ram.
Speaker 2: And I think that's fair. I think he would say
Speaker 2: that's fair because he again, he's somebody you look at
Speaker 2: his top tens like I remember a Will Gray tweet
Speaker 2: from Pebble in twenty nineteen and he was like this
Speaker 2: this t three I think he finished T three from
Speaker 2: Rom is going to look a lot better on Wikipedia
Speaker 2: than it did in real life. And it's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't I don't even remember him. He wasn't in contention.
Speaker 2: And that's the thing. It's like, when has Rom really
Speaker 2: been in contention at a major championship. I don't even
Speaker 2: know if he has been. Maybe maybe a Master's one
Speaker 2: year kind of. I don't know if you have to
Speaker 2: start winning majors, but you at least have to start
Speaker 2: contending for.
Speaker 1: Some What if Tony Fina wins, would he fall into
Speaker 1: the bucket of most perception change? I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: perception change.
Speaker 2: Maybe it would. It would almost be so shocking we
Speaker 2: wouldn't even know how to comprehended.
Speaker 1: He played great at the last PGA. That was like,
Speaker 1: this is the thing. He played really well, he executed
Speaker 1: the shots, he made putts at the at Harding Park,
Speaker 1: and Kyl Morikawa just beat him.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I feel like with him and Xander and guys
Speaker 2: talk about how uncomfortable it is to be in or
Speaker 2: near the lead. Sometimes they'll get near the lead and
Speaker 2: there's hit, like a really bad shot, like even Xander
Speaker 2: on sixteen and Augusta. You're like, man, that is that's
Speaker 2: not even close, And so I do want that. I
Speaker 2: wonder if there's like a mental thing there. But I
Speaker 2: think generally we overrate that storyline of like, oh, he
Speaker 2: can't get it done. I think so much of it
Speaker 2: ninety percent of it is luck and situational and that
Speaker 2: it'll eventually happened.
Speaker 1: My fifth thing was kind of piggybacking off of Morikala.
Speaker 1: So this was a big breakthrough for Morikala last year. Obviously,
Speaker 1: he he's won a bunch, but winning a major that
Speaker 1: young in a career is a huge deal. And I
Speaker 1: kind of I circled some some other guys. Unfortunately, your
Speaker 1: boy Matt Wolfe is not on this list, not here,
Speaker 1: and that's that you think about last year's PGA and
Speaker 1: to this year and how much things can change. But Scotti, Scheffler,
Speaker 1: holand Haveland. This is great venue for Haveland, especially now
Speaker 1: that he can Chip. Joaquin Neeman, sun dam xel Taurus.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a bunch of other names you could
Speaker 1: put in here, but all these guys I think would
Speaker 1: fall into the bucket of like all of a sudden becoming,
Speaker 1: you know, potential superstars with a major Oh Sam Burns too.
Speaker 2: I love Zala Taurus this week, and maybe that's heat
Speaker 2: of the moment, like I'm just reacting to the way
Speaker 2: he's played over the last couple of months, But I
Speaker 2: just I love the way he hits the ball, and
Speaker 2: I don't know, maybe he doesn't keep it him play
Speaker 2: enough off the tee to really contend here, but his
Speaker 2: iron play is a joke. It's so so good.
Speaker 1: Xell Turus and Morikawa are really really similar, or when
Speaker 1: you start to look into their games and how great
Speaker 1: of iron players they are. They are both top five
Speaker 1: on tour right now iron players.
Speaker 2: And I think what's so interesting about them is they
Speaker 2: both stayed in college. Correct me if I'm wrong. I
Speaker 2: think they both stayed all four years.
Speaker 1: Zelle tourist left with a semester to go.
Speaker 2: I think, okay, so close to it. But there's an
Speaker 2: interesting more Kawa interview or conversation on Golf Digest right
Speaker 2: now where he talks about how he actually he purposefully
Speaker 2: stayed in college to kind of prep for the PGA Tour,
Speaker 2: like almost as a in lieu of playing the corn
Speaker 2: Ferry Tour, which is not how he said it. But
Speaker 2: it's kind of how it came across. And I thought
Speaker 2: that was really really interesting because most of the time
Speaker 2: we think about guys that are that good from Teita
Speaker 2: Green is coming out after a year or two years,
Speaker 2: somebody like a JT. But those guys stayed almost the
Speaker 2: entire time, which I think is interesting in like in
Speaker 2: terms of how we view amateur golf.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, like think about Maricow he finished, he
Speaker 1: finished runner up, he lost it a playoff at a
Speaker 1: web event as a freshman after his freshman year, Like,
Speaker 1: how many kids would go back to school for three
Speaker 1: more years after that.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't.
Speaker 1: No, I wouldn't either. I don't. Yeah, they're definitely it
Speaker 1: gives them a maturity. Yeah, for sure, you could go
Speaker 1: both ways, right because like Speith and JT didn't do that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you could argue that like Speith, I mean,
Speaker 2: if he didn't hit the stick at the John Deere,
Speaker 2: maybe he' didn't like maybe none of this happens, which
Speaker 2: is like that's a crazy thing to say. But if
Speaker 2: you're that good, if you're Xalatorus or Morikawa good, I
Speaker 2: don't think it is like hurting you necessarily to stay
Speaker 2: in college. Because those guys were already working on things
Speaker 2: that they needed to do to become great pros. It's
Speaker 2: different if like they're just in it, they're already in
Speaker 2: a different class. So I don't know you could argue
Speaker 2: it both ways, but I thought that I just thought
Speaker 2: that was an interesting nugget for morcow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, who's your pick?
Speaker 2: I am? I am going back and forth between U
Speaker 2: dB vibin and UH and speed. I don't I don't
Speaker 2: know who to pull the trigger on.
Speaker 1: That's a good dB vibe in course too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 1: I'll like I could talk myself into anybody in the
Speaker 1: top twenty. I could honestly talk myself into honest Abe.
Speaker 2: I don't know if he hits it far. He's like
Speaker 2: one hundred and seventieth in driving distance, but he's so good.
Speaker 1: He's good at everything else.
Speaker 2: I don't. I don't tell me this. How does somebody
Speaker 2: like him contend at quail Hollow? Cause he's just so
Speaker 2: freaking good. That's a great analysis.
Speaker 1: There, but it's just he's good at everything else, like everybody,
Speaker 1: every player, you know, when you think about it really
Speaker 1: deep down, like every player has a deficiency right right now.
Speaker 1: It makes it what if your deficiency is driving distance,
Speaker 1: it makes it tougher because as you start every round behind.
Speaker 1: But you go down the list like JT's deficiencies. Putter right, yep,
Speaker 1: DJ I'd say probably the putter can be a little
Speaker 1: dicey Rom. I don't know what if Rom has a
Speaker 1: deficiency to be honest, you know, but you go down
Speaker 1: the list that you know Bryson could get a little
Speaker 1: squirrely off the tee and his short irons aren't great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: more Kawa Putter Rory, I mean pick pick the day
Speaker 1: of the week what you want. Rory's coming out, wedges
Speaker 1: or putter.
Speaker 2: Whenever you were describing like, uh, you gotta you gotta
Speaker 2: hold wedges against like a cross woman, I was like,
Speaker 2: Rory's Rory mind, that's the cut.
Speaker 1: I mean he hits some of the worst shots of
Speaker 1: a top ten player every like with the wedges. It's
Speaker 1: it's jarring. It's jarring to see a top ten player
Speaker 1: in the hunt hit a wedge ten ten yards over
Speaker 1: the green, like that shouldn't happen.
Speaker 2: That's not a hitting wedges from like let's say one
Speaker 2: hundred to one forty. That's a you can learn that, right,
Speaker 2: That's not like an elite skill.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Well, it's just think about like your
Speaker 1: your elite skill is the driver that gets you all
Speaker 1: these wedges and then just not being all hit the wedges.
Speaker 2: Maybe you should just play up, like play back, just
Speaker 2: hit five irons in.
Speaker 1: The other thing about Rory is like the equipment stuff.
Speaker 1: Like so I had heard that he was when he
Speaker 1: switched to tailor made, he was having to get new
Speaker 1: wedges for every round because he couldn't get the spin
Speaker 1: on the ball that he wanted, you know, years ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then now we're talking the other day's talking about
Speaker 1: he can't drive draw the ball because of the driver.
Speaker 1: It's like, what get the guy some clubs that he
Speaker 1: can play.
Speaker 2: I mean, I thought they said he didn't. I thought
Speaker 2: you said he didn't want to draw the ball.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, but like he just like said he
Speaker 1: can't draw the ball. He tries to hit that push
Speaker 1: draw and it just he drew it on eighteen at
Speaker 1: maybe been more than a draw. But but this is
Speaker 1: like an epidemic with with golfers, like notoriously, like Jack
Speaker 1: played that golf ball that he made that for a
Speaker 1: couple of years that was just like not a good
Speaker 1: golf ball. Norman played bad equipment for a while, like
Speaker 1: what what's with golfers? And like you get to the
Speaker 1: top of the world and then all of a sudden
Speaker 1: you have like your you self sabotage yourself with equipment decisions,
Speaker 1: like because of money, Like guess what, You're gonna make
Speaker 1: more money if you just win big tournaments, So get
Speaker 1: equipment that you can win, Like that's what. One of
Speaker 1: the things I think that was so underrated about Brooks's
Speaker 1: run was no oem yeah, you know no. Like but
Speaker 1: but like with Rory, like what why are we It's
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. Why are we dealing with this? Like
Speaker 1: what like get the guy, get the guy a driver
Speaker 1: the can draw so you can hit his little push draw.
Speaker 2: Give me three uh dream final pairings on Sunday. So
Speaker 2: Rory Speith is probably one, right.
Speaker 1: I mean Westy Rory Ernie's not in the field. Well,
Speaker 1: it would be remiss to not get Hideki in one.
Speaker 1: The one guy that can still win the Grand Slam
Speaker 1: is as I would say, I think rom rom would
Speaker 1: be one that I'd like to see. I mean it's
Speaker 1: hard to I liked having I like having contrasts with styles, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I kind of like the old guy young guy
Speaker 1: if you if you went with like a a rom
Speaker 1: Rom Westy Rom Scott, you know, I think Morikawa defend
Speaker 1: would be really neat.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think Bryce and Ram would be great because
Speaker 2: there'd be so much just angst and anxiety and frustration
Speaker 2: and tension. Yeah, like Hatt and Ram, the you might, yeah,
Speaker 2: just blow a gasket on the back nine.
Speaker 1: What about hatton this week?
Speaker 2: You know, he hadn't played well at Majors, He didn't
Speaker 2: play well at Majors in twenty twenty, and then he
Speaker 2: finished t eighteen at the Masters, And I think that
Speaker 2: he is somebody who's I mean, his iron game is
Speaker 2: so good, it's so so good, Like his approach plays
Speaker 2: is excellent, and I think that, Yeah, I think I
Speaker 2: worry about him a little bit when it when I
Speaker 2: mentioned the words discipline and patience earlier and it comes
Speaker 2: to talk about him winning, you, I think there's a
Speaker 2: little bit of concern there. But I think him and
Speaker 2: Matt Wallace are both really good. Kind of Wallace is
Speaker 2: more of a sleeper pig, but they've both been been
Speaker 2: playing really good golf.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's he's got He's got a T six
Speaker 1: and a T fifth at the Open. He's won the
Speaker 1: Dunhill Links Championship a couple of times. Like Elements, he
Speaker 1: seems to play pretty well in Elements.
Speaker 2: You know, I love Matt Wallace this week. I think
Speaker 2: he is. I think he's like one hundred to one
Speaker 2: or something, and to me that's just I mean, he's
Speaker 2: he's been a top five or six ball striker over
Speaker 2: the last three months. So it's like Spith Hovelin, JT
Speaker 2: and Matt Wallace. I think. I think Webb and Web
Speaker 2: and Corey Connors are up there, but Matt Wallace is
Speaker 2: and he's got a top I think he finished T
Speaker 2: three at the twenty nineteen PGA. I think him and
Speaker 2: Speath tied for third at beth Page.
Speaker 1: Matt Fitzpatrick could be a sneaky one too.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I feel like he's We've talked about this on
Speaker 2: on the First Cup podcast over at CBS. Is Fitzpatrick's
Speaker 2: the guy that like how he's not going to compete
Speaker 2: here and then he just keeps doing He keeps doing it.
Speaker 2: He did it at Mirfield Village, he did it, He's
Speaker 2: he does it everywhere and he just is he's really good.
Speaker 2: Like I don't know, Like I finally just kind of
Speaker 2: accepted that he's a really good Top twenty type guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's just been really good for a really long
Speaker 1: time too, at all at all stages of his career.
Speaker 2: He's great pedigree.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what do you What do you got going on
Speaker 1: this week on First Cut and CBS.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we've got We've got previews all week. We
Speaker 2: got our big preview on the First Cut coming out
Speaker 2: on I think Tuesday night, and then CBS Sports HQ.
Speaker 2: I'll be doing videos from my little shed here in Dallas, Texas.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it'll be a fun week. I mean, I
Speaker 2: just I could sit here for two more hours and
Speaker 2: talk about this with you. But it's just so fun
Speaker 2: to talk about the majors and legacies and just all
Speaker 2: this different stuff. I love it. I eat it up.
Speaker 2: It's a ton of fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you could read read Kyle obviously wonderful words. Uh,
Speaker 1: watch them and and listen to them. You're you're hitting
Speaker 1: all platforms.
Speaker 2: I know, I'm I got. I started doing this and
Speaker 2: it's like ninety writing and now it's like am I
Speaker 2: am I still a writer? Do I still write? Or
Speaker 2: is it just all the other stuff.
Speaker 1: I know. That's why I never I'm going to try
Speaker 1: and get the keys, get the fingers working. This week
Speaker 1: a little bit so great. Look forward to great PGA
Speaker 1: and thanks for coming on and everybody check out Kyle.
Speaker 1: He's on on Twitter too easy to find their great
Speaker 1: follow and uh on everything else.
Speaker 2: Thanks Andy, appreciate it, man,