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Speaker 1: dot com. The Travelers Championship there is only one. It's
Speaker 1: the Son of a Butcher podcast. I'm your host, Claude Harmon.
Speaker 1: Coming off of a very very excited PGA Championships Xanderschoffle
Speaker 1: gets his first major and wanted to take a deep
Speaker 1: dive into it, so figured we would get one of
Speaker 1: the voices of professional golf, Steve Sands, NBC Golf Channel.
Speaker 1: I think he's one of the best in the business
Speaker 1: and had him on the pod before. But it was
Speaker 1: a very very interesting week at Valhalla and a lot
Speaker 1: of storylines, just a lot of craziness from last week,
Speaker 1: so I wanted to get Steve Sands on to talk
Speaker 1: about it, and I think it is a good one.
Speaker 1: So sit back and enjoy listening to Steve Sands my
Speaker 1: guest today, Steve Sand's Voice of Golf on Golf Channel
Speaker 1: and NBC Sansy at the beginning of the week. Beginning
Speaker 1: of the week at the PGA, if I told you
Speaker 1: the headlines were going to be Scotti, Scheffler gets arrested,
Speaker 1: Rory McElroy's getting divorced, Xander closes, Bryson has a chance
Speaker 1: to win another major and is a fan favorite. I mean,
Speaker 1: does any of that track with with what we thought
Speaker 1: was going to happen?
Speaker 2: It makes perfect sense, Scott. I mean, that's exactly the
Speaker 2: way the world has been the last you know, eight
Speaker 2: or nine years, the last three or four years. In
Speaker 2: the sport. It makes all the sense in the world
Speaker 2: that a guy who sleeps with a Bible, who's the
Speaker 2: hottest player on the planet, it's the most recognizable person
Speaker 2: in the sport outside of Tiger, just outside the gates
Speaker 2: at a major championship, would get into some type of
Speaker 2: disruption or discussion with a police officer and it just
Speaker 2: doesn't work. I mean, what are we talking about here.
Speaker 2: It's crazy. You know, the legal part aside the sad
Speaker 2: part is, of course we had to say this out loud,
Speaker 2: that somebody lost his life, Claude, that was the reason
Speaker 2: there was a traffic terror. That's the first thing and
Speaker 2: really the only thing. The secondary part of the number
Speaker 2: one player in the world being arrested. We've been to
Speaker 2: sporting events a thousand times in our lives, Claude. We've
Speaker 2: seen that traffic type of pattern. You know, maybe not
Speaker 2: the circumstances because of the traffic, but we've seen that
Speaker 2: traffic outside of sporting events for years. That was just
Speaker 2: I have no idea what happened. I hope the police
Speaker 2: officer and Scotti are all perfectly fine, but again, we
Speaker 2: have no idea what took place there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and listen, I've been in courtesy car. You ride
Speaker 1: with the player you're trying to get in. I mean,
Speaker 1: we were all saying on the driving range. I mean,
Speaker 1: how many players you've You've done that one hundred times, right,
Speaker 1: You've you've seen the traffic. You know you're in a
Speaker 1: courtesy car. You know it's got the you know they're
Speaker 1: gonna they're gonna bring you in, and so you know,
Speaker 1: so definitely the guys I've worked with, DJ and Brooks.
Speaker 1: I mean, you do that at majors, you do that
Speaker 1: two or three times a year. It's just it's all
Speaker 1: that part of it. And normally the police as soon
Speaker 1: as they see the courtesy car, you know, with the
Speaker 1: logos on the side of it, you get ushered right in.
Speaker 1: Scotty Scheffler and Brooks Kepta have the same agent, Blake Smith.
Speaker 1: Blake's father, Randy Smith, is Scotty's swing coach, and Brooks
Speaker 1: and I were talking on the driving range. I gotta
Speaker 1: think that Blake Smith never thought he'd get a call
Speaker 1: saying that he had to go get Scotti Scheffler out
Speaker 1: of jail.
Speaker 2: I mean, what are the odds of that happening going
Speaker 2: into the week, What are the odds that happening anytime?
Speaker 2: I honestly, I have no idea how this is all
Speaker 2: going to play auclaude, but Friday morning last week has
Speaker 2: to be one of the most bizarre, you know, stretches
Speaker 2: of I'm Beyonce around a golf tournament in the history
Speaker 2: of the sport. I mean, that was just yikes, man,
Speaker 2: that was great and we laughed. There's this you know,
Speaker 2: who knows how this plays out. I mean, we're joking
Speaker 2: about it now, but my goodness, you know, if this
Speaker 2: doesn't work out in anybody's favor, we're not going to
Speaker 2: be laughing here. Who knows?
Speaker 1: I mean and talking to Randy Smith on Sunday, his
Speaker 1: you know, Scotty's longtime swing instructor. He played Friday on
Speaker 1: just pure adrenaline. I mean, just pure, one hundred percent adrenaline.
Speaker 1: I mean, nobody can prepare you for something like that.
Speaker 1: I've got to think out of all the places Scotty
Speaker 1: Scheffler ever thought he would be in a jail cell period,
Speaker 1: let alone a jail cell at a major championship, is
Speaker 1: just something that you just couldn't He couldn't even believe
Speaker 1: that would happen. And then on top of that, he
Speaker 1: goes out and plays an unbelievable round of golf. But
Speaker 1: then Saturday again, his caddy, Teddy Scott's going to watch
Speaker 1: his daughter graduate. Teddy Scott's not on the bag. You
Speaker 1: kind of figured that was going to be Saturday was
Speaker 1: going to be tough for him. It was. Once he
Speaker 1: got arrested, it was like a lot of the like
Speaker 1: the wind went out of the sales of the tournament,
Speaker 1: because obviously everybody thinks that Scott he's on this run
Speaker 1: to maybe win his second major championship. The rounds he
Speaker 1: played on Friday was unbelievable. I mean, I couldn't believe
Speaker 1: he played that.
Speaker 2: Well, that's as good a round of golf as he's
Speaker 2: ever played under the circumstances, considering it's not a Sunday
Speaker 2: to major, I understand that, but for what he went
Speaker 2: through that morning to come back out. She's sixty six.
Speaker 2: I realized there were low scores that day, but it
Speaker 2: doesn't matter. It's this incredible last for Saturday. Claude, I
Speaker 2: just think he ran out of gas man. You know,
Speaker 2: imagine what was going on, you know, in his mind.
Speaker 2: Again you're talking about for people who don't understand. To
Speaker 2: be number one in the world, you have to have
Speaker 2: some omph to you. There is no such thing as
Speaker 2: being mister nice guy all the time if you're going
Speaker 2: to be the best at something on the planet. But
Speaker 2: Scotty is as nice a kid as you'll ever be around.
Speaker 2: If you have a daughter, he's the kind of guy
Speaker 2: you want her to marry. He's he's warm, he's nice,
Speaker 2: he's smart, he's thoughtful, he's an incredible athlete, he's competitive,
Speaker 2: the whole thing. He's got the whole package. I just
Speaker 2: can't believe he got arrested. I just can't believe that happened.
Speaker 2: But again, well I'm gonna have to wait and see
Speaker 2: how it all plays out. But what he did Saturday,
Speaker 2: with that Friday, with that sixty six, Claude, Holy smokes.
Speaker 2: I mean, you and I both know we've been around
Speaker 2: these guys a long time. It's one thing to be talented,
Speaker 2: to be great, to go out there play golf kind
Speaker 2: of laissez Faire's another thing in major championship golf and
Speaker 2: in big PGA Tour events, big live golf events, big
Speaker 2: moments like that. You know, from the collar bones up,
Speaker 2: you've got to be strong out there, and you couldn't
Speaker 2: be stronger than the strength he showed between the ropes
Speaker 2: on Friday, playing on adrenaline and all the things going
Speaker 2: on in his mind. That sixty six was outstanding.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, he is the he is the Tom
Speaker 1: Hanks of golf, right, I mean, he's he's this character,
Speaker 1: this person this personality that everybody loves, says, you've been
Speaker 1: you've been around the game a long time. Your your
Speaker 1: weekend week out with these players. I mean, you've seen
Speaker 1: some amazing runs. Obviously what Tiger Woods did, what the
Speaker 1: greats of the game has done. But putting to perspective
Speaker 1: the golf that we're seeing from from Scotty, because I
Speaker 1: think that because his personality is what it is, and
Speaker 1: that's to me, the best thing that he's got going
Speaker 1: for him is you know, I was talking to his agent,
Speaker 1: Blake Smith. His mind is his superpower, right, his persona. Yes,
Speaker 1: his golf game is unbelievable, but I think the approach
Speaker 1: that Scotty has to not only life, but to also
Speaker 1: professional golf is the superpower that he's got. How significant
Speaker 1: in the in the realm of great players and runs
Speaker 1: that great players have been on. This run that Scotty's
Speaker 1: been on for the last you know, two three years,
Speaker 1: it's as good of a golf is that we've seen.
Speaker 2: It really is. It's amazing what he's been doing. The
Speaker 2: ball striking is outrageous, The consistency is outrageous. That round
Speaker 2: on Saturday at Valhalla was the first overpar around he
Speaker 2: shot all year. I mean that that's a joke. I mean,
Speaker 2: that's that's really truly outrageous. Another top ten finished for him.
Speaker 2: Didn't have a chance to win it on Sunday, but
Speaker 2: it's still a top ten finish. I was talking to
Speaker 2: Raymond Floyd. You know how in Live from the Masters
Speaker 2: on the Golf Channel, we have all the guys come
Speaker 2: in with the green jackets and Ben Crenshaw, Raymond Floyd,
Speaker 2: Tom Watson, Jack Nicholas. It's all really cool. Gary Player
Speaker 2: did it for years, Arno Palmer did it for years.
Speaker 2: All these guys come in, and Raymond was when he
Speaker 2: was in there, I asked him, what are we seeing
Speaker 2: here from Scotty Scheffler? Same question you just asked me?
Speaker 2: And Raymond said, and I totally agree with them. So
Speaker 2: you have I told Ramy, you have McElroy from eleven
Speaker 2: to fourteen winning four majors. You have Speed from fourteen
Speaker 2: to seventeen winning three major championships. You know, keepka on
Speaker 2: that crazy run. Then he won another one last year
Speaker 2: to make it five major championships. What are we seeing
Speaker 2: from Scotty Scheffler? And Raymond said? Great players all get hot,
Speaker 2: The question is can they remain hot through a sustained
Speaker 2: period of time? So when I went over those names
Speaker 2: that we just went through, McElroy, Speed Kepta, those crazy
Speaker 2: great runs they went on, Raymond said, oh, no, we
Speaker 2: all do that. But when we get into a separate
Speaker 2: category like a Tiger or a Jack and those types
Speaker 2: of players, you're talking about guys who are consistently great
Speaker 2: beyond three years. So what Raymond said was, we're seeing
Speaker 2: pure greatness from Scotty, there's no question about that. We're
Speaker 2: also seeing someone who's on a heater. There's no question
Speaker 2: about that. The combination of the two will it sustain
Speaker 2: itself after three years? That will put Scotty Laud in
Speaker 2: a different category than just being another not I mean quotations,
Speaker 2: another great player who's gotten hot. But there's no debate
Speaker 2: he's the best player in the world right now. There's
Speaker 2: no debate is the best ball striker. And if that
Speaker 2: Potter cooperates, he's going to be there on Sunday, and
Speaker 2: if it's his time to win another one, it is.
Speaker 2: And I think he's the best player in the world
Speaker 2: right now by far. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I think Sansy's the thing that when I look
Speaker 1: at his game, I mean just the way that he
Speaker 1: approaches golf and the way that he kind of lives
Speaker 1: his life. You know, he doesn't really get wrapped up
Speaker 1: in a lot of the stuff that a lot of athletes,
Speaker 1: but specifically golfers get wrapped up in. You know, my
Speaker 1: dad says the same thing, but she says the same
Speaker 1: thing that can he sustain this and can the heater
Speaker 1: become What Rory did was Rory came out and he
Speaker 1: was on a heater and then he just did it
Speaker 1: for the next ten twelve years. Right. You can talk
Speaker 1: about the fact that Rory hasn't won a major in
Speaker 1: ten years, but Rory has been one of, if not
Speaker 1: the top three four dominant players of the last ten years.
Speaker 1: So he's been doing this for a decade. And every
Speaker 1: major Rory is one of the favorites for the foreseeable future, Sansy,
Speaker 1: every major Scotti Scheffler, regardless of where the golf course is,
Speaker 1: regardless of what the setup is, he is going to
Speaker 1: be the favorite because he has so many of the
Speaker 1: other things that you have to have to be a
Speaker 1: great champion and a great player. You have to be
Speaker 1: able to handle the pressure. Like you said, everybody's good.
Speaker 1: Everybody gets on these runs, but to be in the
Speaker 1: elite great you have to sustain it for longer than
Speaker 1: just a two to three year period.
Speaker 2: Well, just think about the four major championships. You know.
Speaker 2: The beauty to me of the four major championships is
Speaker 2: is they're different. They're like tennis, you know, they're the
Speaker 2: four Grand Slams are different from each other. The four
Speaker 2: major championships in golf are different. You can't find one
Speaker 2: that doesn't fit Scotty. I used to think this about Tiger,
Speaker 2: you know, like, oh, this course fits him well? Really
Speaker 2: which one doesn't? I mean, which one doesn't fit him well?
Speaker 2: So you know, the Masters, obviously he's won it twice,
Speaker 2: so clearly augusta National has warmed up in Scotty's mind.
Speaker 2: You know, the PGA Championship again, he put himself right there.
Speaker 2: The Open is the US opens at Pinehurst, I mean,
Speaker 2: tell me why he can't succeed there and then at
Speaker 2: Royal Troon. There's no reason at an Open championship. The
Speaker 2: way he strikes a golf ball. If it's windy there
Speaker 2: and the bad weather comes in there, it doesn't matter
Speaker 2: whether the weather's great or whether it's bad. He's the
Speaker 2: best ball striker in the world. So if the weather's bad.
Speaker 2: I'll take the ball striker when the weather's bad, and
Speaker 2: the guy who's mentally tough. Oh, by the way, Scotty's
Speaker 2: mentally tough as well, so he's got one of those things. It's,
Speaker 2: you know, not picking on Andy North winning two US
Speaker 2: Opens or Lee Jansen winning two US Opens or hail
Speaker 2: Or winning three US Opens. You know, love all those guys,
Speaker 2: and they're all great, great players, but it seems like
Speaker 2: they had like one avenue. You know, in these major championships.
Speaker 2: You talk about Rory, you talk about Scotty Schefford, these
Speaker 2: guys could win anywhere. You know, these guys could win
Speaker 2: absolutely anywhere. And look, we're gonna go to pine Ricks
Speaker 2: next month, and as long as he's healthy and still there,
Speaker 2: who's gonna be favored Scotty?
Speaker 1: Well? I mean, And the other thing is he's playing
Speaker 1: this week in Colonial. Wouldn't be surprised if he wins there?
Speaker 1: Then what memorial before that? Sure is? How wouldn't surprise
Speaker 1: me if you won there? Because that's a big golf course.
Speaker 1: You have to be a great ball striker. He could
Speaker 1: conceivably go into Pinehurst off the back of two more wins.
Speaker 2: No question about it. And that's the thing that I
Speaker 2: love about watching Scotty play. Is Colonial this week, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm flying there tomorrow. Okay. Colonial this week is like
Speaker 2: hilton Head, like why lie the Sony Open in Hawaii,
Speaker 2: and then all of a sudden you got this monster
Speaker 2: ballpark which we're going to be seeing at the memorial
Speaker 2: at Mirfield Village. And last week Valhalla was like Tory
Speaker 2: Pines and hilton Head combined, real small greens but a
Speaker 2: massive ballpark. And here he was once again, except for
Speaker 2: that one day, like Brooks Kopka, you know, just one
Speaker 2: day kind of took him out of the event. And
Speaker 2: Scotty just didn't have a great day on Saturday. But
Speaker 2: weird circumstances for him. But there's no way he's not
Speaker 2: the favorite clot coming in. It's just it's just wild now,
Speaker 2: different months, different conditions, different cour different time zones, different brass,
Speaker 2: different agronomy, different players coming in. Hot Macelroy this week
Speaker 2: was the man who won two in a row in
Speaker 2: New Orleans with Shane and then at Quel Hollows, Vander
Speaker 2: came close and then he put it together. The one
Speaker 2: constant in all of this is Scotty Scotty is just
Speaker 2: there every single week. It's amazing.
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Speaker 1: play without limits. You mentioned Xander Schaffle getting his first
Speaker 1: major championships. Within the fraternity of professional golf, both on
Speaker 1: the playing side and the media side and the caddyside, everybody,
Speaker 1: there are popular wins and then there are popular wins.
Speaker 1: Zander winning a major will be a very, very popular win,
Speaker 1: but there are also wins on tour when players get
Speaker 1: their first major to where everybody in the sport says,
Speaker 1: you could see it coming. He's always had the game.
Speaker 1: The knock against Xander is, you know, eight wins. I
Speaker 1: mean he's what fifty million now, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: turn pro, what's sixteen seventeen, So the career is so legit, right,
Speaker 1: But the knock against Xander was when he did he
Speaker 1: should have won more. Yeah, I mean you can always
Speaker 1: say that about a lot of guys, but Xander seemed
Speaker 1: to always put himself in position a lot, and he
Speaker 1: put himself in position a lot in majors. And he
Speaker 1: has every part. There isn't a part of the game
Speaker 1: that he doesn't have. And you know, he's made some
Speaker 1: changes to his golf swing with Chris Como. But for
Speaker 1: a small guy, he hits it. Miles Xander is as
Speaker 1: legit as it gets, and I think everybody is surprised
Speaker 1: that it has taken him this long to win a major.
Speaker 1: Thus just because that's how good everybody thinks he is.
Speaker 2: Well, we know that that golf is your life. It's
Speaker 2: been your life, you know, literally your entire life. But
Speaker 2: I know you're also a sports fan and you also
Speaker 2: appreciate other athletes in other sports. You know, it took
Speaker 2: Michael Jordan's seven years to win his first NBA title.
Speaker 2: He had to get through the you know, the Pistons.
Speaker 2: They had to get through the Celtics before that with
Speaker 2: the Pistons. Teams do this all the time in teams competition.
Speaker 2: They can't quite get there and then they break through. Well,
Speaker 2: there's no reason to think that golf is any different.
Speaker 2: You know, Xander had to build up some scar tissue,
Speaker 2: he gave a couple away, didn't play great a couple
Speaker 2: of times when he was in that spot, but overall,
Speaker 2: he put himself in a position to win. Just wasn't
Speaker 2: his time, and you ran into a brick wall. It
Speaker 2: happened for him on Sunday, and I'm so happy for him.
Speaker 2: It's an incredibly popular to win AI amongst his peers.
Speaker 2: He's a great guy, not just a great player. He's
Speaker 2: a competitor. How about his confidence, Claude, I mean, you're
Speaker 2: in the instruction business, okay, you know which I've always
Speaker 2: joked with your dad about this. You guys are so
Speaker 2: brilliant at the technical side of the game, but also
Speaker 2: have an understanding without a degree in this, that you're
Speaker 2: also part sports psychologist when you're also coaching in golf.
Speaker 2: And for him to switch away from his dad, okay,
Speaker 2: his lifelong coach is his dad, all right, And he
Speaker 2: goes to Chris Cuomo, and he has the changes, and
Speaker 2: he's not playing not to lose, Claude, He's playing to win,
Speaker 2: and he's stayed aggressive. The second shot on eighteen, when
Speaker 2: you had to dig into that bunker, get real low
Speaker 2: below the ball, do you lay up there? Do you
Speaker 2: play conservatively there? Or do you say no? No? This
Speaker 2: has been my game plan all week. I know I
Speaker 2: need a four at this par five to get a win.
Speaker 2: Let's keep playing the way I've always played. And you
Speaker 2: put all that together and I'm just so happy for him.
Speaker 2: I'm proud of Xander for hanging in there. You know,
Speaker 2: in this short period of time. People think he's been
Speaker 2: out there for one hundred years and he hasn't gotten
Speaker 2: that first major championship win. Like you said, his body
Speaker 2: of work in his time frame since turning pro claude
Speaker 2: is beyond legit. Man. He is a filthy, filthy golfer man.
Speaker 2: He is a great, great player, and I think there's
Speaker 2: more to come. I'm not a huge fan club. You know,
Speaker 2: you and I have talked about this before. You know,
Speaker 2: it happens all the time. Guy busts through and wins
Speaker 2: his first major, and now everybody is saying, oh, now
Speaker 2: the floodgates are going to open. I don't necessarily believe
Speaker 2: in that in this particular case because of how he's
Speaker 2: gotten to this point, building the step by step to
Speaker 2: get to a major championship victory. To me, Xander's not
Speaker 2: going away anytime soon. I fully expect him to be
Speaker 2: in contention at plenty of majors over the next decade.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And the other thing that that was impressive about
Speaker 1: last week is he had he had a chance to
Speaker 1: wink before at Wells Fargo and he got smoked by
Speaker 1: Rory McRoy. Okay, Roy McRoy has this extra gear that
Speaker 1: not a lot of players have. But he's in the
Speaker 1: final group with Rory. Rory turns on the gas, wins
Speaker 1: going away at Quail Hollow the week before. It would
Speaker 1: be easy to be affected by that, to say okay,
Speaker 1: because that could go the other way, right, that's another
Speaker 1: chance that Xander's got to win a big tournament against
Speaker 1: a quality field, against one of the best players in
Speaker 1: the world. And you know, Roy what shot eight nine
Speaker 1: under on Sunday at Quail and Sander what shut couple
Speaker 1: under and didn't get it done. So you wouldn't be
Speaker 1: surprised if he comes in with a little bit of
Speaker 1: scar tissue. But sixty two, sixty eight, sixty a, sixty
Speaker 1: five to get to twenty one under on a Sunday
Speaker 1: that Listen, there are a lot of people Sandy talking
Speaker 1: about the golf course being too easy. It was like
Speaker 1: EPC all of it. The golf course is the golf course, right,
Speaker 1: and the players play the golf course that they're told
Speaker 1: to show up to. I thought we saw some big
Speaker 1: time drama on Sunday for a major that everybody that
Speaker 1: a lot of people. I've heard articles social saying, oh,
Speaker 1: it needed to be harder, it needed to be harder
Speaker 1: twenty one under. I thought it was really good.
Speaker 2: But I would like to see a major championship play
Speaker 2: more difficult. There's no question about that. I think everybody
Speaker 2: would agree with that. However, there's no way to discount
Speaker 2: someone's victory. It rained two inches the week prior, It
Speaker 2: rained half an inch on Monday. It rained a little
Speaker 2: bit more on Thursday night and Friday morning. The golf
Speaker 2: course is soft. There's nothing you can do about it.
Speaker 2: If it was firm and fast, it may not have
Speaker 2: been as entertaining. Who knows. It was incredibly entertaining. And
Speaker 2: by the way, it was like that for everybody in
Speaker 2: the field. All right, So was it a little bit
Speaker 2: on the easier side, Sure, okay, the scores were low,
Speaker 2: but Xander was the best player all week. And by
Speaker 2: the way, let's not discount the wire to wire factory, Claude.
Speaker 2: You know this, What people see in golfers and what
Speaker 2: we see in athletes is their talent, their skill. What
Speaker 2: we can't measure is how mentally tough they are because
Speaker 2: we can't get inside their brain. Well, you try sleeping
Speaker 2: on a lead. I've talked to a million golfers who
Speaker 2: who have told me, can't sleep when you have a
Speaker 2: lead next day, can't sleep when you have a lead.
Speaker 2: God forbid. You have the lead after fifty four holes,
Speaker 2: and you're leading with only eighteen to play, and you
Speaker 2: know what's in front of you. This guy went wired
Speaker 2: to wire, all right. That is so difficult to do
Speaker 2: at a regular PGA Tour event. It's so difficult to
Speaker 2: do at a Players Championship. It's exponentially more difficult to
Speaker 2: do at a major championship. I just think the world
Speaker 2: of Xander as a person and as a golfer, and
Speaker 2: I think it all came together for him last week,
Speaker 2: and I'm really looking forward to seeing how he moves forward,
Speaker 2: how this propels him moving forward, will keep him motivated
Speaker 2: to win more? Will he rest on his laurels? I'll
Speaker 2: take the former, not the latter. I think Xander is
Speaker 2: here to stay for a long time. He is a great,
Speaker 2: great player.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I also thought it was a statement the
Speaker 1: way he played in the final group, playing with a
Speaker 1: two time major champion in Colin Morrikawa. You'll call him,
Speaker 1: you know, won two majors early in his career, and
Speaker 1: it's made looking made winning majors look really really easy.
Speaker 1: The switch from Stefan, who is a larger than life character,
Speaker 1: like one of the great characters in professional golf. We're
Speaker 1: lucky enough to know Sanders dad Stefan. You hear him
Speaker 1: before you see him. He's one of my favorite people.
Speaker 1: But like you said, it is tough when your father
Speaker 1: has been kind of your coach and your mentor and
Speaker 1: helped you get to this platform. It's not an easy
Speaker 1: decision that Xander took to reach out to Chris Como
Speaker 1: and say, okay, let me see if what you think
Speaker 1: and let me see if there's some gains that I
Speaker 1: could make, because you know, there's a comfort level when
Speaker 1: you work with your dad and he's kind of been
Speaker 1: your guy. I take my hat off to to Xanders,
Speaker 1: say listen, man, I'm gonna try and see if there's
Speaker 1: something I'm missing or something that maybe I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think that that's been huge and for Chris Como,
Speaker 1: that's you know, two major champions now for Chris as
Speaker 1: a coach and Bryson de Champeau and Xander, who couldn't
Speaker 1: be any more different, but an interesting, interesting choice from
Speaker 1: Xander to make that change.
Speaker 2: Oh interesting for sure. I'll tell you what, Claude. I
Speaker 2: was saying this last week to some people. I wasn't
Speaker 2: working last week because a CBS ESPN event and I
Speaker 2: don't do life in the PGA, so I was just watching.
Speaker 2: But I was texting with some friends of mine. I
Speaker 2: was like, you know, you ought to you ought to
Speaker 2: bring up how about the credit Stefan deserves. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: for your son, who's your your your your whole world
Speaker 2: professionally and personally, like you said, great guy, credible personality, huge,
Speaker 2: larger than life kind of person. But for him, Claude,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm a parent, you know, for you to
Speaker 2: receive that news from your son and then take it
Speaker 2: the correct way and not ruin your a relationship with
Speaker 2: your son, which is the most important thing, but be
Speaker 2: the professional side as well of what Xander's trying to do.
Speaker 2: To me, it speaks volumes as to what people thought
Speaker 2: of Stefan before this and now after. He is not
Speaker 2: some guy who's just in Xander's face and in his way.
Speaker 2: That is a tremendous job. In my opinion, I see
Speaker 2: the smile on your face, you know, not a part coach,
Speaker 2: part parent. I thought Stefan handled that beautifully, and I
Speaker 2: thought Xander handled his father beautifully in that position. You
Speaker 2: can imagine how difficult that must have been for Xander.
Speaker 2: Now I'm not making them analogous, but we all see
Speaker 2: Mike Thomas and Justin Thomas all day, every day at
Speaker 2: PGA tour events, and people ask me all the time
Speaker 2: about that relationship, and Mike gets asked about it all
Speaker 2: the time. Justin gets asked about all the time. It
Speaker 2: can't be easy when you're with your dad twenty four
Speaker 2: to seven like that, in a working environment, and when
Speaker 2: things don't go well. As we all know, Claude, it's
Speaker 2: never the player's fault. It's the cadi's fault. It's the
Speaker 2: coach's fault. He's fault. It can't be the player's fault.
Speaker 2: And I say that facetiously, but you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: So when you have to make a switch, or you
Speaker 2: feel like you need to make a switch, it's one
Speaker 2: thing to call Claude Harmon, it's another thing to call
Speaker 2: your dad. I mean, my god, that's not easy. They're
Speaker 2: all not easy. So I give them all credit for that.
Speaker 2: I give Chris a ton of credit for handling that
Speaker 2: situation well and again for Xander to mix up his
Speaker 2: action because he needed to make an improvement to get
Speaker 2: this next step and then to have it all come
Speaker 2: together and come to fruition. Man, I give all the
Speaker 2: parties there a lot of credit. It's just it's just
Speaker 2: just a lot there. And by the way, back to
Speaker 2: the Justin Thomas and Mike Thomas thing. You know, Justin
Speaker 2: and Mike have both told me and you know this
Speaker 2: for years, they have found that correct balance of father
Speaker 2: and coach, coach and father pupil and father pupil and coach.
Speaker 2: Because Justin is the boss, he's the player, and it's
Speaker 2: got to be very strange to have that. And I
Speaker 2: give all the credit in the world a step on
Speaker 2: and Xander for handling that beautifully.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And Stefan, you know, was a very good athlete
Speaker 1: when he was younger, and and you know, I think
Speaker 1: he took a lot of the things that that kind
Speaker 1: of propelled him in his early career. It's trying to
Speaker 1: be an athlete as well. Sander goes to number two
Speaker 1: in the world. If if you still believe in the
Speaker 1: Official World Golf rankings. Can he be the best player
Speaker 1: in the world. Does he have that type of game? Santy?
Speaker 2: It's a great question, Claude, Uh do Look. I think
Speaker 2: that Rory, Scottie and if John ever got it together again,
Speaker 2: you know, and it Brooks is a completely healthy and
Speaker 2: motivated at all times. I think that those five, you know,
Speaker 2: justin Thomas has kind of fallen off just a touch,
Speaker 2: but obviously the game is still there. I'm sure. I'm
Speaker 2: sure he'll get it back. Kyler Marakalis seems like he's
Speaker 2: gotten it back, you know, a little bit to where
Speaker 2: it was when he was in his heyday. But as
Speaker 2: far as to me, McElroy, Scheffler, Xander a healthy and motivated,
Speaker 2: productive John Ram I think those are the four best
Speaker 2: players in the world that I don't see any reason
Speaker 2: why Xander can't be number one in the official World
Speaker 2: Golf ranking if you still believe in that, but also
Speaker 2: be right there with those guys every week as far
Speaker 2: as being favored and then showing up on Sundays on
Speaker 2: leaderboards at major championships. For sure, Xanders got the game.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's got all you need. And now that
Speaker 2: he has this win, perhaps that little shot of confidence
Speaker 2: that lets him know that, Yeah, there's a big difference
Speaker 2: between thinking you can do it and knowing you can
Speaker 2: do it. Well, up until Sunday, he always thought he
Speaker 2: could do it, and now he knows he can do it.
Speaker 2: So let's see where it goes from here. But I
Speaker 2: don't think there's any reason. Maybe week in week out,
Speaker 2: I would think that Rory and Scott he might be
Speaker 2: more consistently better, maybe right now, but Xander's right there
Speaker 2: with him. Man Sanders, good man, he is so good. Club.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about someone who's really kind of I will
Speaker 1: say this, I think he's transformed his game. Bryson d Chambeau.
Speaker 1: I mean, Bryson always had a tremendous amount of talent,
Speaker 1: and then you know, he went down the route where
Speaker 1: he looked like he ate Bryson and during COVID bulked
Speaker 1: up and all of a sudden showed up looking like
Speaker 1: the incredible Hulk and was trying to drive greens and
Speaker 1: wins a major at Wingfoot and then makes all the
Speaker 1: comments that he makes about Augusta where par Is in
Speaker 1: the fifties and all of this stuff. But I've been
Speaker 1: you know, all of my guys went to live so
Speaker 1: I've watched Bryson play a lot of golf over the
Speaker 1: last two and a half years, and sansy he has
Speaker 1: figured out how to play golf. He is still as
Speaker 1: quirky and unique and testing equipment and always pushing the boundaries.
Speaker 1: But there is a different Bryson in twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: than there was in twenty twenty. He's evolved as a person,
Speaker 1: but he's also evolved as a golfer. And I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, four rounds in the sixties, sixty eight, sixty five,
Speaker 1: sixty seven, sixty four on Sunday, I mean the eight
Speaker 1: iron he hits from two ten to twenty and stiffs it.
Speaker 1: There's nobody in the world that Bryson is one of
Speaker 1: those players that can do things that really no one
Speaker 1: else in the game can do. How how important do
Speaker 1: you think last week was for Bryson from a game standpoint,
Speaker 1: but also the fans seem to embrace him in a
Speaker 1: way that they never did before, and he seemed to
Speaker 1: embrace the fans in a way that he hasn't embraced
Speaker 1: them before. I just think it's been cool to watch
Speaker 1: this kind of transformation into Bryson kind of where he
Speaker 1: was to kind of I think this is Bryson two
Speaker 1: point zero.
Speaker 2: You're familiar, Claude with the what's going on with the
Speaker 2: TV ratings this year on the PGA Tour and how
Speaker 2: down the ratings have been. The ratings were up ten
Speaker 2: percent on Sunday, and that's a direct result and no
Speaker 2: offense to Xander, who I love. It's a direct result
Speaker 2: of Bryson. I think that the fan favorite part of
Speaker 2: it is fascinating because Live took away some of the
Speaker 2: great villains in the sport, and I mean that in
Speaker 2: a lovable way, you know, like a lovable villain in
Speaker 2: sports is necessary. And to me, what I saw last week,
Speaker 2: more than anything Claude, is just how much golf fans
Speaker 2: in America miss seeing Bryson to Shamba play. He is
Speaker 2: a showman. He is a bizarre cat who thinks his
Speaker 2: own way, plays his own way, does things his own way.
Speaker 2: It's as if Frank Sinatra's song My Way was written
Speaker 2: just for Bryson to Shambo and the golf fans. Last
Speaker 2: week on TV and in person, you could just sense
Speaker 2: how much he has been missed because he's out there
Speaker 2: hooting and holler and he's running around, He's doing the
Speaker 2: whole thing. He's Bryson, the whole deal, and he's muscling
Speaker 2: everything and is just fascinating to watch. He's the most
Speaker 2: fascinating guy in the sport to watch when he's playing well.
Speaker 2: I don't think there's any debate on that. You can
Speaker 2: like him or dislike him. You can go through the
Speaker 2: litany of ten, twelve, fifteen best players in the world,
Speaker 2: you can't find anybody more fascinating to watch than that
Speaker 2: guy at the highest level. So he's missed and his
Speaker 2: game is so good, Claud and he's just he's done
Speaker 2: it different ways as far as the science of it all,
Speaker 2: but he also has evolved into the player he is
Speaker 2: today through his own convictions, his own way of doing it.
Speaker 2: And there's a lot to do with the people around
Speaker 2: him and Chris and everything. But you know, good for
Speaker 2: Bryson for you know, getting it together and getting it
Speaker 2: back on track. And I think he's better now than
Speaker 2: he's ever been. And I was not surprised to see
Speaker 2: him play well last week. It won't surprise me to
Speaker 2: see him play well at Pinehurst or Royal truon well.
Speaker 2: He's just a tremendous player and my god is he
Speaker 2: a breadth of fresh air to a sport that really
Speaker 2: needed it in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: What do you think last week showed the fans that
Speaker 1: they maybe didn't see before, or maybe Bryson wasn't able
Speaker 1: to show them because he's always had legit game, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't you can't fake it. I mean
Speaker 1: usam you know, wins early major champion. He's been on
Speaker 1: President's Cup and the Ryder Cup team, but last week
Speaker 1: seemed like it was different. Is that more Bryson changing
Speaker 1: or do you think the fans are changing.
Speaker 2: A little bit of both. I think that, you know,
Speaker 2: one thing that people don't realize. I'm fifty five years old, Claude.
Speaker 2: I think you're a little younger than I, but.
Speaker 1: I'm fifty five. Babies, Sammy Hagar.
Speaker 2: We're the same age. There you go. So I think
Speaker 2: people really forget that this guys are kids, man, their kids,
Speaker 2: and they're growing up Unlike you and me, they're growing
Speaker 2: up in front of the world's eye, so everything they
Speaker 2: do and say is scrutinized from the time they were
Speaker 2: like nineteen twenty twenty one. So here's Bryson Wotson in
Speaker 2: his late twenties. Is he around thirty maybe, you know,
Speaker 2: let's say around there. He's just getting going, claud I mean,
Speaker 2: you know he can be. He's young enough to be
Speaker 2: one of our kids, for God's sake, So he's just
Speaker 2: kind of evolving as a human being and not just
Speaker 2: a golfer. That's the first thing I think. The second
Speaker 2: thing is, I think the guys who I've spoken to
Speaker 2: and you know this way better than me, the guys
Speaker 2: i've spoken to with live the one thing they say
Speaker 2: they miss more than anything is the juice, you know,
Speaker 2: they miss, you know, being against the best in these
Speaker 2: monster crowds. I know there's a big crowd at an
Speaker 2: Adelaide down in Australia, but for the most part, they're
Speaker 2: not playing in front of these monster crowds. And I
Speaker 2: think people forget to use this word earlier with Bryson.
Speaker 2: People forget these guys aren't just professional golfers, their performers, Claude.
Speaker 2: You know, during COVID we heard a lot of them
Speaker 2: say it was really weird. It was so quiet out there.
Speaker 2: They weren't playing in front of fans, They didn't have
Speaker 2: any reaction, they didn't have the adrenaline going and I
Speaker 2: think Bryson loves the show, isn't afraid to show off
Speaker 2: a little bit, isn't afraid to show his enjoyments on
Speaker 2: the golf course and get people fired up and do
Speaker 2: things a little differently than most professional golfers. And I
Speaker 2: think that over time, he's maturing as a human being
Speaker 2: and he's also maturing as a golfer. And I think
Speaker 2: they all came together last week and I think that Live,
Speaker 2: more than anything, and this PGA Tour Live ridiculous spat
Speaker 2: back and forth has made the major championships, Claude bigger.
Speaker 2: They've made them better, They've made them bigger. And that's
Speaker 2: why the major championships are not getting involved in misfight.
Speaker 2: They keep inviting Joake Neman too, Augusta Taylor, Goots and
Speaker 2: a couple of guys at the PGA. It's going to
Speaker 2: continue because the majors are small. They know Claude that
Speaker 2: the fight between the PGA Tour and Live is only
Speaker 2: elevating their events because their events are the only ones
Speaker 2: that Bryson and Brooks and Dustin and Cam and all
Speaker 2: these guys get to play against the guys on the
Speaker 2: PGA Tour. And it was a win win for everybody
Speaker 2: last week, but Bryson was the show. Alexander stole the
Speaker 2: show by winning, but Bryson was the show over the
Speaker 2: course of the weekend, especially on Sunday. Man it was
Speaker 2: just fun to watch them out to compete again. It
Speaker 2: was cool.
Speaker 1: Witness insurmountable deficits turn into unforgettable victories at the Travelers Championship,
Speaker 1: the northeast one and only PGA Tour signature event. See
Speaker 1: Scotty Scheffler, Worriye McElroy, Victor Hovlin, Patrick Cantley, and returning
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Speaker 1: in all four days of the competition at close by
Speaker 1: TPC River Highlands the Excitement teas all June nineteenth through
Speaker 1: the twenty third. For tickets and information, visit Travelers Championship
Speaker 1: dot com. The Travelers Championship there is only one you mentioned,
Speaker 1: you know, the majors. I mean because to me, in
Speaker 1: this whole kind of PGA Tour live thing that we've
Speaker 1: all been involved with over the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: the majors to me hold all the cards, but they're
Speaker 1: the ones that can say, listen, you guys fight this out.
Speaker 1: I thought that Seth Wall and the PGA, you know,
Speaker 1: inviting some of the live guys was a good thing. Listen.
Speaker 1: I think at this point, if I keep saying this,
Speaker 1: if you're anti live and PROPGA Tour at this point
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four, with all the evidence and all
Speaker 1: the information that's out there, you're doing that strictly for
Speaker 1: your own reasons. Right. If you're ANTIPGA Tour and you
Speaker 1: fiercely live and you're you're one of those, well you're
Speaker 1: doing that for your own reasons as well. Right the game,
Speaker 1: I think we are seeing that the narrative that going
Speaker 1: to live means you can't play anymore. I think this
Speaker 1: is the second year in a row where we've had
Speaker 1: a live player almost win a major championship and come
Speaker 1: in second. Happened at the Masters last year when Brooks
Speaker 1: finished second to John Rahm. He went on to win
Speaker 1: a major, you know, a couple weeks later. But again,
Speaker 1: there is still a narrative out there that if you
Speaker 1: go to live it only prepares you for three round
Speaker 1: tournaments and stuff. I think we are seeing that golf
Speaker 1: is golf and the other thing. Sandy and I said
Speaker 1: this to my dad last week when I had him
Speaker 1: on the pot as well. There is an eye test
Speaker 1: in golf that those of us and this isn't an
Speaker 1: arrogance thing that I'm saying that we go, but those
Speaker 1: of us that are around these players day in day out,
Speaker 1: week in week out, year after year, as much time
Speaker 1: as we spend around the professional game, there is an
Speaker 1: eye test. You know who the good players are, regardless
Speaker 1: of where they play, right, And I think now more
Speaker 1: than ever is there is going to be an eye
Speaker 1: test because I don't see I mean, I don't see
Speaker 1: anything happening anytime soon. I mean I think next year
Speaker 1: at this time, we're still going to be talking about
Speaker 1: whether there's a merger or not. But I do think
Speaker 1: that when you see players and you look at their
Speaker 1: results and you look at whether they've been winning, how
Speaker 1: they've been playing, there, to me, there's an eye test.
Speaker 1: And Bryson D. Chambeau, regardless of whether he's playing live
Speaker 1: or not, Bryston D. Shambau is one of the best
Speaker 1: players of the world.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't. I don't know where he was in
Speaker 2: the official World Golf ranking coming into the PGA, and.
Speaker 1: It's thirty five now, but I think he was in
Speaker 1: the hundreds before, so he jumped I mean for thirty five.
Speaker 2: First of all, he's not the thirty fifth best player
Speaker 2: in the world. Second of all, he's not in the hundreds. Okay,
Speaker 2: So the Official World Golf Ranking is clearly a little
Speaker 2: bit skewed because of what's going on with LIB. But
Speaker 2: to me, the most important factor right now, if I
Speaker 2: was a live player, is the clock is ticket. The
Speaker 2: clock is ticking for them, because if the Official World
Speaker 2: Golf Ranking is not going to recognize live and it
Speaker 2: continues to keep the players out of the major championships.
Speaker 2: For the guys like Bryson, who won the US Open
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty, next year is his last year of
Speaker 2: those five years twenty one, two, three, four five, So
Speaker 2: he's going to have to have these top four finishes
Speaker 2: to get back into these majors after next year's four
Speaker 2: major championships, as long as he doesn't win one of
Speaker 2: the next two or winning one in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: So to me, you know, I mean, I don't see
Speaker 2: it coming together anytime soon either. I don't know, I
Speaker 2: have no intel on that, but I think both sides
Speaker 2: are kind of you know, thinking one thing and thinking
Speaker 2: another thing on one side and vice versa. And I
Speaker 2: think they're pretty far apart as far as coming together,
Speaker 2: but as far as the guys on Live and the
Speaker 2: guys on the tour coming together and playing in these
Speaker 2: big events, the majors, Man Claude, you said it. The
Speaker 2: majors could end this that they wanted to. They sure
Speaker 2: majors wanted to end it. They could just say hey, sorry,
Speaker 2: not coming. But they're not doing that because it benefits
Speaker 2: that And I don't blame them whatsoever. I think this
Speaker 2: is the PGA Tour and lives fight. I do not
Speaker 2: think the major championships are going to get involved anytime soon.
Speaker 2: To put this aside.
Speaker 1: Fred Ridley, who's the chairman at Augusta Nashvill and his
Speaker 1: press conference, said, this is an invitational. There always a
Speaker 1: criteria to be you know that they have for players
Speaker 1: top fifty in the world and stuff like that. But
Speaker 1: the Masters has always been an invite. I mean every
Speaker 1: year the players that get invited, you know, they get
Speaker 1: their they post on social they get an invite, they
Speaker 1: get you are invited to the tournament. So there isn't
Speaker 1: anything stopping the major championships from saying, listen, we're going
Speaker 1: to have a criteria for our tournaments. There's four of
Speaker 1: them a year, and these are the people that we
Speaker 1: are going to allow to play.
Speaker 2: I will say, Claude, I do think if it goes
Speaker 2: beyond next year, Okay, if it does go beyond next year,
Speaker 2: I can see one of the majors. I don't know
Speaker 2: which one, but I could see one of the majors going, Okay,
Speaker 2: clearly they're not going to settle this argument, so we
Speaker 2: are going to have to do something to ensure that
Speaker 2: our field is going to be the best it can be.
Speaker 2: So maybe I could see one of the majors going
Speaker 2: two or four of the top live earners who are
Speaker 2: not already exempt for our events will be exact. I
Speaker 2: could see that happening. I don't think it's going to
Speaker 2: happen in the next two major championships, but it could
Speaker 2: happen in twenty twenty five. And I could definitely see
Speaker 2: it happening in twenty twenty six if this is still
Speaker 2: going on, as you said, a year from now, because
Speaker 2: they don't want to, you know, look, the PGA Championship,
Speaker 2: Caluse understands you don't have Bryson there last week. Well,
Speaker 2: I mean, what are we looking at here? You know,
Speaker 2: I mean, Xander's a great player, but you need to
Speaker 2: have a tet, do tet. You can't have, you know,
Speaker 2: just one person doing it. So, like I said, a
Speaker 2: villain in sports can sometimes be a great, great thing.
Speaker 2: And I don't mean that in a bad way. I
Speaker 2: mean a lovable villain. I used to love watching VJ
Speaker 2: Sing play. He was a villain to Tiger. Duvall with
Speaker 2: the glasses was a little bit of a villain. You know.
Speaker 2: Nicolson was out there doing his thing, Ernie Elis was
Speaker 2: doing his thing. Tiger's doing his thing. But you know,
Speaker 2: you get a little Patrick Reid in the mix in
Speaker 2: the late twenty tens, you know, riling people up. That's
Speaker 2: a good thing for sports. You know, you can't have
Speaker 2: Rory mister nice guy at Hazel team and not have
Speaker 2: Patrick Reed on the other side, you know, pretending to
Speaker 2: be Captain America. You can't just be one side. That's
Speaker 2: how sports works. So it was great to see bryceon
Speaker 2: And the PGA of America understands that Claude. So does
Speaker 2: the RNA, so does Augusta National, and so does the USGA.
Speaker 2: You take away these guys after one or two more
Speaker 2: years and they're literally no longer in the major championships.
Speaker 2: That's bad for the majors. Then they'll start getting more involved.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Rory McElroy finished twelfth Big News last week,
Speaker 1: you know, off the golf course in his personal life,
Speaker 1: but it's ten years now since he won his last major.
Speaker 1: In the last major he won was at Valhalla, a
Speaker 1: dominant performance at Quail Hollow the week before. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's just no way he can't win another major. There's
Speaker 1: just no way. The guy is just I mean what
Speaker 1: he did at Quail Hollow. You know this. There are
Speaker 1: players and then there are players that do what Rory
Speaker 1: did at Quaija. I said to him on the range,
Speaker 1: there isn't anybody in the game currently that can put
Speaker 1: the foot on the gas and just sprint away like
Speaker 1: he can't. He did that at Quail Hollow. He's in
Speaker 1: the final group with Xander and just puts the hammer
Speaker 1: down and wins, going away making it look easy. He
Speaker 1: goes to Valhalla where he's won a major before. It's
Speaker 1: the last majors one has. You know, it's been ten years.
Speaker 1: The stance where We talked about this when you were
Speaker 1: on We had you on the podcast. Last year, Rory
Speaker 1: took the mantle and took the role as being the
Speaker 1: PGA Tours spokesperson. Now we're seeing a little bit more
Speaker 1: of the diplomatic Rory. He's got some issues obviously off
Speaker 1: the golf course, but there's still two majors left. What
Speaker 1: does he have to do, Sanzy to win one? Because
Speaker 1: you couldn't design a golfer better than Rory McElroy's, like you,
Speaker 1: honestly you couldn't. I mean think about what you what
Speaker 1: would you design better? I mean other than the fact
Speaker 1: that maybe he needs to be six two or six three,
Speaker 1: I mean that's the only thing that you would design differently.
Speaker 2: I mean the only thing this is year realm, not mine.
Speaker 2: The only thing that I think he truly needs is sharpen.
Speaker 2: The wedge play, the short iron play, the proximity to
Speaker 2: the hole is he giving himself? You know, when these
Speaker 2: guys are eight to twelve feet versus twelve to eighteen feet,
Speaker 2: the difference percentage wise, you know, you could go down
Speaker 2: that rabbit hole. But my gosh, when when Rory is
Speaker 2: playing well, I still think he's the best player, and
Speaker 2: that includes Scotty Shaffler, But he hasn't done it in
Speaker 2: ten years at a major. He has done it plenty
Speaker 2: of times since then at non majors, and that of
Speaker 2: players as well. He's also performed well in the Ryder Cup.
Speaker 2: In a pressure ized situation like that, it's impossible to
Speaker 2: think that he's not going to win another major. Impossible.
Speaker 2: Quail Hollo, by the way, host of PGA next year,
Speaker 2: in case you're wondering, he's won there four times. So
Speaker 2: you know, I don't know, man, is there something missing
Speaker 2: from his game? No? Is there something missing from the
Speaker 2: way he approaches it. No, he just hasn't gotten there,
Speaker 2: not yet, not in the last ten years. But you
Speaker 2: have to think it's gonna happen. So to me, you
Speaker 2: got to get off to a good start, because he's
Speaker 2: gotten off to shaky starts. But he got off to
Speaker 2: a good start, a decent start on Thursday at the PG.
Speaker 2: I think Xander just kind of ran over the rest
Speaker 2: of that field with that sixty two. But you know,
Speaker 2: there's no reason at all, Claude that he doesn't perform
Speaker 2: well at Pinehurst. He's already wonted an Open championship, that
Speaker 2: would have been the one. You would think that he
Speaker 2: would of one. He's probably the most Americanized European player
Speaker 2: who's ever played on the PGA Tour, growing up in
Speaker 2: the Tiger era. He hits the ball, high, hits the
Speaker 2: ball far, hits with lands and softs. It's not like
Speaker 2: he's running it out there, you know, like traditional European
Speaker 2: players before him. So there's nothing holding him back, Lad,
Speaker 2: there's nothing. How could he not win another major championship.
Speaker 2: It's absurd to think that he could not. I still
Speaker 2: think when he's playing his best, he is the best.
Speaker 2: And I agree with you that he's the only person
Speaker 2: in golf today. Although Scotty won by five at the Masters,
Speaker 2: one by five at the Players, so he can. He
Speaker 2: can sprint out there like secretary and leave everybody in
Speaker 2: their dust as well. So I put Scotty in that
Speaker 2: category with Rory as far as being able to run
Speaker 2: away and hide. But those are the only two right now.
Speaker 1: In fourteen, when he won his fourth major at Valhalla
Speaker 1: ten years ago, how many did you think he'd have
Speaker 1: by twenty twenty four?
Speaker 2: Oh God, I thought no fordigious first, I thought for
Speaker 2: Or he was going to get to ten. I did
Speaker 2: not think he was gonna get to eighteen. I didn't
Speaker 2: think he was going to get to Tigers fourteen at
Speaker 2: the time he won his fifteenth and twenty nineteen. But
Speaker 2: I thought he was going to crap up on double
Speaker 2: digits because at the time I thought, Okay, he's gonna
Speaker 2: win a Masters, and he's going to clip off a
Speaker 2: PGA at a US Open and Open somewhere, and then
Speaker 2: all of a sudden he's gonna end up with eight
Speaker 2: nine or ten. But I also thought, and I don't
Speaker 2: know what you thought. Maybe you and I talked about
Speaker 2: this after he won a Valhalla in twenty fourteen. That
Speaker 2: was his second PGA, so he had won the twenty
Speaker 2: fourteen Open, okay, And after he won the Open in
Speaker 2: twenty fourteen, he then needed the Masters to win the
Speaker 2: career Grand Slam. To me, that's the most difficult of
Speaker 2: the four. Only Gene Sarah's in in thirty five did
Speaker 2: it had no offense to the Squire. We loved the Squire,
Speaker 2: but the Masters wasn't quite the Masters in nineteen thirty five.
Speaker 2: So as it's gotten farther and farther away away from him,
Speaker 2: it's gotten more and more difficult for him at Augusta,
Speaker 2: and I thought at the time, I'm going to give
Speaker 2: him five chances to win the Masters, and it's well
Speaker 2: beyond five. So you know, I hope I'm wrong, and
Speaker 2: I hope he wins it, and I hope he becomes
Speaker 2: the sixth player to win the career Grand Slam Claude.
Speaker 2: But it's impossible to me to think that he hasn't
Speaker 2: won a PGA or a US opener and opened since then,
Speaker 2: the open at St. Andrew's, I mean, you know PGA's
Speaker 2: US Opens. I mean, come on, man, how does he
Speaker 2: not have more than four majors. It's just incredible. And
Speaker 2: if he does win one, you know, he might just
Speaker 2: walk off and say see it. But if he wins
Speaker 2: another one, but I hope he keeps going because it's
Speaker 2: just impossible to me to think that he has not
Speaker 2: won at least a fifth, sixth or seventh major by now.
Speaker 2: It's amazing.
Speaker 1: Victor hovlin Vic gave us a little insight. Vic said
Speaker 1: he wasn't even gonna play, thinking about not even playing
Speaker 1: last week and git on the back nine, I mean
Speaker 1: toe for toe with Xander with Bryson. Vix joined the
Speaker 1: Floridian where I'm a member out. I've watched Vic over
Speaker 1: the last offseason. You know, coach, different coaches, trying different stuff.
Speaker 1: Said he wasn't playing good. He was working with Joe Mayo.
Speaker 1: He rinses Joe Mao. He goes to Grant Waite, rinses
Speaker 1: Grant wait goes back to Dana Dalkquist, rinses Daarkuist. And
Speaker 1: then Monday, Tuesday, Wait, Victim his his caddy, Shaye Knight.
Speaker 1: You know Shay very well. I saw Shay on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: I was like, Yo, where's your boy. He's like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's not getting it till tonight. He's in Vegas. So
Speaker 1: he flies out, works with Joe Mayo again and then
Speaker 1: lights it up. I mean just lights it up. Three
Speaker 1: sixty six is in a sixty eight and had a
Speaker 1: putt on the last hole to to get to twenty under.
Speaker 2: I think that Victor Hoblin. I might text him at
Speaker 2: after we're done two eight one seven. Oh wait, I
Speaker 2: don't want to give out your number here on the podcast.
Speaker 2: But he needs to call Claude Harmon and he needs
Speaker 2: to needs to get Claude Harmon involved. And then all
Speaker 2: of a sudden he'll get.
Speaker 1: To the face just to quit. He needs to quit
Speaker 1: messing around with his golf swing. I said that to
Speaker 1: his caddy. I said, listen, mate, and I'm jokingly I
Speaker 1: said it. I said, listen, we've we've watched this, right.
Speaker 1: The guy won the FedEx Cup in October and now
Speaker 1: he's thinking in May of not even playing. And this
Speaker 1: game sansy in an effort and we have seen this,
Speaker 1: in an effort to try and get better, in an
Speaker 1: effort to try and get to the next level and
Speaker 1: do the right thing. You can fuck it up and
Speaker 1: go backwards, and sometimes it cannot be repairable because you've
Speaker 1: lost what you had. And I think Vic at the
Speaker 1: end of last year, I thought he was the best
Speaker 1: player in the world. I didn't think, you know, Speci
Speaker 1: after the Writer Cup. I couldn't. There wasn't anybody playing
Speaker 1: better golf than him to win the FedEx the way
Speaker 1: he played in the Writer Cup. And it's a delicate
Speaker 1: balance of if you're going to come in and you know,
Speaker 1: if you win a Super Bowl and you're going to
Speaker 1: fire every coach and change schemes and go from a
Speaker 1: running team to a pack. I mean, it can go
Speaker 1: south on you if if you don't, And I hope
Speaker 1: that Vic we're seeing that this is now the resurgence
Speaker 1: of him going Okay, let me go back to what
Speaker 1: I was doing that helped me get to the level
Speaker 1: that I was at and maybe not mess around with
Speaker 1: it so much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that Xander switching coaches and messing around
Speaker 2: with his swing and then winning the PG is not
Speaker 2: going to help that argument. I agree with that, but
Speaker 2: I think it's a copycat league. You know, players look
Speaker 2: at other players and go, let me try that, you know,
Speaker 2: that kind of thing. And for Victor, I think Victor's
Speaker 2: mind needs to keep spinning and needs to keep moving forward.
Speaker 2: You know, it takes a certain personality to be Adam
Speaker 2: Scott and never change your golf swing, not that you'd
Speaker 2: ever need to because it's so aesthetically beautiful, but he's
Speaker 2: never changed it. You know, Tiger swing was seemingly perfect
Speaker 2: and then all of a sudden he changed it, you know,
Speaker 2: and change it multiple times. So you know, Victor's just
Speaker 2: he has one of those personalities. I love Victor, I
Speaker 2: love being around him. He's a terrific kid. He's got
Speaker 2: so much game. I was so happy to see him
Speaker 2: playing well. I was hoping he was going to make
Speaker 2: that putt because it was going to be a playoff.
Speaker 2: Let's make it a three way playoff, not a two
Speaker 2: way playoff. But I don't know. It's I think Victor
Speaker 2: has the opportunity to be a top five player consistently
Speaker 2: over the course of the next fifteen years. But he
Speaker 2: might need to pick a side. He might need to
Speaker 2: pick what side he wants to take. And it's it's
Speaker 2: it's not easy to be that great and to have
Speaker 2: the personality that says, okay, got to keep improving, got
Speaker 2: to keep doing this, got to keep doing this. I'll
Speaker 2: tell you what he has done. I mean, first of all,
Speaker 2: you've been around him. He's a wonderful guy. I love him.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what's amazing. How about the improvement he's
Speaker 2: made with his chipping and pitching.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean he did with Joe Mayo. I
Speaker 1: mean he's he was a fifteen handicapper. I mean he was.
Speaker 2: He was bad when Dustin Johnson had trouble with his
Speaker 2: chipping and pitching, and he improved it to the point
Speaker 2: where all of a sudden, You're like, man, these guys
Speaker 2: work so hard on their game. I understand the fluidity
Speaker 2: of it and wanting to keep improving. I don't understand.
Speaker 2: I've asked Tiger this, I've asked every player this. Why
Speaker 2: do you want to keep changing everything so much? Why
Speaker 2: not just tweak here and there? You know, It's not
Speaker 2: as if a shooter in the NBA, a guy who's
Speaker 2: you know, has a jump shot in the NBA, is
Speaker 2: going to completely change his stroke just because he has
Speaker 2: two bad games. The NFL. You don't change your throwing
Speaker 2: motion just because you throw a couple of picks a
Speaker 2: couple of games in a row, so the full fledge changes.
Speaker 2: I don't understand the tweaking. Totally understand that Victor's a great,
Speaker 2: great player. It was awesome to see him play well again,
Speaker 2: and hopefully that puts him in the headspace moving forward
Speaker 2: that's going to allow him to just continue to be
Speaker 2: a great player. I feel like sometimes he gets in
Speaker 2: his own way. I don't know that for a fact,
Speaker 2: you would maybe more than me, But sometimes guys like him,
Speaker 2: you know, with that personality, they get in their own way.
Speaker 2: They're just so great, there's such geniuses of what they do.
Speaker 2: They feel like they have to keep improving and sometimes
Speaker 2: they get in their own way.
Speaker 1: Lastly, Sansy, it's tough to watch tw man. It's tough
Speaker 1: to watch Tiger and every time he plays it's the
Speaker 1: same thing. He shot sixty two in the practice round
Speaker 1: and lit it up in the practice round and stuff.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I mean, we're still going to see Tiger
Speaker 1: hit great shots. We're still going to see because he's
Speaker 1: still a great player. But I just don't know if
Speaker 1: we're going to see Tiger play great if he can't
Speaker 1: play more. I mean he I mean, he said that
Speaker 1: in his press conference on Sunday or on Friday when
Speaker 1: he missed a cut. He needs, he needs to play more,
Speaker 1: but he can't play more because of the body. And
Speaker 1: it is you know this. When he is on the range,
Speaker 1: you feel it. When he walks onto the range, you
Speaker 1: feel it. There is an energy. When he is on
Speaker 1: property at a tournament, it's a different feel. When he's
Speaker 1: getting ready to tee off, it's a different feel. The
Speaker 1: morning wave. If Tiger's in the morning wave on Thursday Friday,
Speaker 1: it's it's different. If he's in the afternoon wave, it's different.
Speaker 1: You guys televise it differently. When he's going to be
Speaker 1: playing but it is. I can't imagine. You know him,
Speaker 1: I know him. I can't imagine how frustrat this must
Speaker 1: be for him. For as much as he still wants
Speaker 1: to play, and for as great as he was, it's
Speaker 1: got to be killing him. Not being able to play
Speaker 1: more and playing like he's playing to kill.
Speaker 2: It's got to be killing him. It's just got to
Speaker 2: be so frustrating. When you're that competitive and you've been
Speaker 2: that great, to not be able to do it at
Speaker 2: the level you're accustomed to has got to be incredibly frustrating.
Speaker 2: I thought the the the press conference at the Master's
Speaker 2: Claude and the press conference at the PGA were there
Speaker 2: were stark differences there, subtle but stark differences. When he
Speaker 2: was asked at Augusta, when he was on the podium
Speaker 2: on Tuesday before the Masters, why do you keep doing this?
Speaker 2: Why do you keep doing this to yourself? Why do
Speaker 2: you keep getting after it? And he just kind of
Speaker 2: smiles that I love the game. I love to compete
Speaker 2: that kind of thing. I wouldn't be here if I
Speaker 2: didn't think I had a chance to win. I wouldn't
Speaker 2: do this if I didn't think I could still win.
Speaker 2: I totally one hundred percent believe him. I do, I
Speaker 2: really do. I don't think he's snowing anybody on that
Speaker 2: Fast forward four weeks the Tuesday before the PGA Championship
Speaker 2: tempered expectations. We'll have to wait and see how it goes.
Speaker 2: That kind of stuff. It wasn't the same conviction, and
Speaker 2: it makes me wonder does he have it just an
Speaker 2: inkling in his brain where he's thinking, I don't know
Speaker 2: if I keep doing this against the best players in
Speaker 2: the world who are playing three out of every four
Speaker 2: weeks or two out of every four weeks on tour
Speaker 2: or on live or wherever they're playing in golf, and
Speaker 2: they practice every day, and they work out every day,
Speaker 2: and they hit balls, and they chip and pitch and
Speaker 2: they put and all the things that I used to
Speaker 2: do every single day to make me the best player
Speaker 2: of my generation. He can't do those anymore. Claude, and
Speaker 2: the guys he's playing against they do. They're twenty to
Speaker 2: twenty five years younger than he is. They are incredibly
Speaker 2: accomplished major champions because he no longer has that vacuum
Speaker 2: and sucked out all the air of every major championship,
Speaker 2: and these guys now have the grit, the game, the
Speaker 2: experience and the moxie to play every single week. And
Speaker 2: you know, it's tough to watch him not play well.
Speaker 2: It's tough to watch him struggle, although I didn't see
Speaker 2: him limping, you know at the PGA, which I thought
Speaker 2: was great, but not severely. But it's tough. Man. Like
Speaker 2: you said, as a sports fan, you want to watch
Speaker 2: the best players play their best. You want to see
Speaker 2: one of the great quotes I've ever heard from Rendez Barber,
Speaker 2: the Hall of Fame cornerback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Speaker 2: All you want in life is to be the best
Speaker 2: of yourself when it matters most. And Tiger can't do
Speaker 2: that right now. Doesn't mean he can't do it at Pinehurst,
Speaker 2: doesn't mean he can't do it at Royal Troon, but
Speaker 2: it sure doesn't look like it right now that he
Speaker 2: can go four days including a practice round or who
Speaker 2: with nine holes before that? Can he do it all
Speaker 2: four days physically and not being as razor sharp as
Speaker 2: you normally would be because you're only playing once a month.
Speaker 2: You know that difference, The difference between me and you
Speaker 2: being in a golf cart with Brooks Koepka and Dustin
Speaker 2: Johnson with a couple of beers in our cart, telling
Speaker 2: stories and playing a practice around and hanging out at
Speaker 2: home at the grove at the Floridian. That's a lot
Speaker 2: different than being inside the ropes at Pinehurst, and it
Speaker 2: just is a wholly different deal. So I don't know
Speaker 2: if Tiger's going to be able to do it. I'm
Speaker 2: never going to count him out, but it sure hasn't
Speaker 2: looked great in his first two major championships.
Speaker 1: What do you think at this point, Sansey? The motivation
Speaker 1: is then, because obviously.
Speaker 2: To win we judged.
Speaker 1: We judge Tiger off of a lens that you don't
Speaker 1: judge anyone off of. It's not like Michael Jordan kept
Speaker 1: playing at this stage of his career, right, it was
Speaker 1: over by this point, right, mj was done. So when
Speaker 1: we look back at Michael's career, we never really got
Speaker 1: to see him in this Tiger phase of his career
Speaker 1: to where he's showing up at tournaments and he's not
Speaker 1: playing well, And it's just I just don't understand how
Speaker 1: much longer he would want to do this. Knowing him
Speaker 1: the way that I know, he is the most competitive
Speaker 1: human being I've ever met ever, right, and this has
Speaker 1: got to be killing him for him to go out
Speaker 1: and play the way he's playing, And I just wonder,
Speaker 1: why does he want to keep doing it?
Speaker 2: None of us will ever understand what it's like to
Speaker 2: be Tiger Woods. It's impossible to know. Even those of
Speaker 2: us who are around him on the periphery like we are,
Speaker 2: it's impossible to know exactly what it's like to be
Speaker 2: Tiger Woods. I agree with everything you just said, especially
Speaker 2: the part with why, Like, at what point is he
Speaker 2: going to say, Yeah, this is just killing me and
Speaker 2: I just for me to tie for forty seventh if
Speaker 2: I make a cut, or for me to struggle to
Speaker 2: make a cut, or for me to miss a cut.
Speaker 2: It's just not who I am. It's not who I've been.
Speaker 2: And at some point he's going to come to the
Speaker 2: realization and he's just going to say, you know what,
Speaker 2: I don't want to do this anymore because I'm just
Speaker 2: not good enough to do it. I'm not healthy enough
Speaker 2: to do it. And that's a brutal thing to find
Speaker 2: out in sports. If I was an athlete, if I
Speaker 2: was Tiger, I would play as long as I could.
Speaker 2: You never know when lightning's going to strike and you
Speaker 2: can put four days together, but you do conjure up
Speaker 2: these images of Joe Namath playing for the Rams and
Speaker 2: Willie May's playing for the Mets, and you're like, yeesh, Now,
Speaker 2: no one's going to think about this part of his
Speaker 2: career and not the fifteen major wins in the eighty
Speaker 2: two regular PGA Tour victories pg R Tour victories. With
Speaker 2: eighty two, no one's going to think, oh, you know
Speaker 2: this and the other thing. But it is tough to
Speaker 2: watch as a sports fan, as someone who's been around
Speaker 2: him for twenty five years. You know, I just want
Speaker 2: him to be happy, and if this is making him happy,
Speaker 2: go ahead. But like you, I would have to think
Speaker 2: it's probably more frustrating than anything else. I mean, he
Speaker 2: can't compete against the best players in the most pressurized situation,
Speaker 2: against full fields at major championship venues which have the
Speaker 2: most difficult setups. Save for what happened last week with
Speaker 2: the scoring in Valhalla, you're asking a lot to have
Speaker 2: majors be the only time you play golf. Is he
Speaker 2: going to play the Memorial claud and then the US Open?
Speaker 2: I don't know. You know he didn't play Bayhill or
Speaker 2: the players before playing the Masters. That had to have hurt.
Speaker 2: You know. You know that prep is everything, man, and
Speaker 2: you just can't compete against these guys. These guys are
Speaker 2: playing golf every day of their lives, getting ready for
Speaker 2: these big events. They're healthy, hungry, ready to go. Golfs
Speaker 2: are only focus. You know, Tiger's got kids, he's injured,
Speaker 2: he can't play as much as he used to, he
Speaker 2: can't practice much as he used to. He's forty eight
Speaker 2: years old, his body is sore, and he's got a
Speaker 2: lot going on. I mean, it's just it's just really
Speaker 2: really difficult.
Speaker 1: Well, hopefully we will see four good rounds put together.
Speaker 1: I'd just like to see him put together four good rounds. No,
Speaker 1: and listen, I mean he played four rounds at the Masters,
Speaker 1: but on the weekend. I mean, you know that he's
Speaker 1: just basically trying to get through the round. It would
Speaker 1: be amazing to see Tiger shoot, You're just somewhere four
Speaker 1: rounds in the sixties, finish twentieth, you know, and not
Speaker 1: have those not have it be Is he going to finish?
Speaker 1: Is he going to make the cut? I mean, because
Speaker 1: to me, that's That's the sad thing right now, is
Speaker 1: I mean us open. The narrative is got to be okay,
Speaker 1: does he first of all, can he finish? And can't
Speaker 1: he make the cut? And that's not where I think
Speaker 1: I want to see Tiger Woods playing. I just don't
Speaker 1: want to see that. I don't want to see that.
Speaker 2: I'm with you if you believe that the smart people
Speaker 2: out in the Nevada Desert know what they're talking about,
Speaker 2: and they usually do, because the last time I saw
Speaker 2: a casino close was never so not in Nevada anyway.
Speaker 2: And he was minus two thirty five to miss the
Speaker 2: cut at the PGA. Okay, for those who aren't in
Speaker 2: the gambling world, that's a pretty heavy favorite, which means
Speaker 2: that they think it's going to happen. Pretty heavy favorite
Speaker 2: that he's going to miss the cut. That's at the
Speaker 2: PGA now, if he doesn't have a start before Piners, Pineers,
Speaker 2: I would assume would have a little bit more of
Speaker 2: a difficult setup than the PGA, especially Vahalla last week
Speaker 2: because of all the rain and the moisture. So what
Speaker 2: are the odds going to be at Pinehurst to make
Speaker 2: the cut? You know, it's it's tough man. It's Tiger Woods, Claude,
Speaker 2: Tiger Woods. We shouldn't be talking about can he make
Speaker 2: the cut or not? We should be talking about Kenny
Speaker 2: win or not. That's it. And if Tier wants to
Speaker 2: continue doing this, totally his prerogative. It's great seeing him
Speaker 2: out there, Fans love seeing him out there. But if
Speaker 2: he wants to continue to punish himself in this regard,
Speaker 2: I just would be surprised if he keeps going on
Speaker 2: and on like this. I just can't imagine that he's
Speaker 2: okay going out there and being someone who's looked upon,
Speaker 2: is whether he going to make the cut or not,
Speaker 2: and basically being a ceremonial golfer. He said for years
Speaker 2: he wouldn't be that, but currently right now it looks
Speaker 2: like he is. And I you know, he can do
Speaker 2: whatever he wants as far as I'm concerned. It's just
Speaker 2: great seeing him out there, but I just can't imagine
Speaker 2: how often he's going to keep putting him out there,
Speaker 2: putting himself out there and having these types of results.
Speaker 1: Well, and the amazing thing is, I mean the short
Speaker 1: game that he's showing us. I mean, if he didn't
Speaker 1: have a short if he didn't have a short game.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's no telling what some of these scores
Speaker 1: would because the way some of the shots he hit
Speaker 1: at Augusta were unbelievable. And you can see him in
Speaker 1: his practice sessions. I think the golf swing Sansy looks
Speaker 1: like what he can do. I think he's figured out
Speaker 1: a way that he can move in a way that
Speaker 1: he can swing the golf club. But I watched him
Speaker 1: go over to the short game area during one of
Speaker 1: the warm ups, and you're watching the short game and
Speaker 1: you're watching how he does things, and it's still like
Speaker 1: watching Picasso paint. I mean, the guy's short game is
Speaker 1: is ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Doesn't that make sense? You're the instructor, not me. Doesn't
Speaker 2: that make sense? You know, with his body and how
Speaker 2: sore he is and how beat up his body is,
Speaker 2: the thing he can work on the most is a
Speaker 2: short game because he's not doing the full swings. The
Speaker 2: full swings are the ones that he's gonna have the
Speaker 2: most difficult with.
Speaker 1: Right Yeah, now, listen, the short game still looks amazing.
Speaker 1: It's just you know, he was such a great champion.
Speaker 1: I was lucky enough to be around owned for kind
Speaker 1: of the Butch harmon Tiger era. I mean, I saw
Speaker 1: it all. And I always say this about Tiger. As
Speaker 1: good as people think he was, he was better. He's
Speaker 1: one of these people that because a lot of this
Speaker 1: younger generation of guys never really saw it. They never
Speaker 1: saw it up close. They didn't know what it was like,
Speaker 1: they didn't know what the tournaments were like. So when
Speaker 1: I look at Tiger now, it's upsetting to me to
Speaker 1: watch because I got to watch Tiger in the day
Speaker 1: and it was so much better than people remember. He
Speaker 1: was so much better. It's just crazy to see how
Speaker 1: his body just won't let him do what he wants
Speaker 1: to do. And I just think that's gotta be that's
Speaker 1: gotta be killing him.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's got to be killing him. He was literally
Speaker 2: the definition of intimidating. He was intimidating to players when
Speaker 2: he walked onto the range. He was intimidating when he
Speaker 2: was in the locker room. He was intimidating when you
Speaker 2: were on the practice putting green. And let me tell
Speaker 2: you something. I've had players tell me this before. Claude.
Speaker 2: It's one of the coolest things ever. Whether you're watching
Speaker 2: on TV or you're lucky enough to be there in person.
Speaker 2: The coolest thing when Tiger's playing on the first tee
Speaker 2: when he gets announced. Most guys get announced. Now on
Speaker 2: the tee from Jupiter, Florida. Here's Claude Harmon, now on
Speaker 2: the t from Washington, d C. Here's Steve Sands now
Speaker 2: on the tee the nineteen ninety nine, two thousand, two
Speaker 2: thousand six. You just keep going, thousand and seven, You
Speaker 2: just keep going. You're gonna miss your tea time because
Speaker 2: his announcement is so long, and he is literally the
Speaker 2: most intimidating golfer who's ever played the sport. You could
Speaker 2: argue whether he's the greatest of all time, you cannot
Speaker 2: argue that he was an intimidating force out there. And
Speaker 2: by the way, when he still comes to an event,
Speaker 2: even if it's only once a month or once every
Speaker 2: couple of months, when he comes to an event, it's
Speaker 2: a whole different happening. Man. He completely changes the temperature
Speaker 2: when he walks onto the grounds, no matter where he goes.
Speaker 2: It's amazing, it is.
Speaker 1: It is fascinating to feel and to see.
Speaker 2: He's earned it, though he's earned every second. Tiger too much,
Speaker 2: You show him too much, show nobody shows him too much,
Speaker 2: because guess what. The first thing anybody asked when they
Speaker 2: don't see the golf is what Tiger shoot today? The
Speaker 2: second thing they ask is who's leading? It's always Tiger first,
Speaker 2: and then who's leading. It's never the other way around.
Speaker 2: For anybody who says that TV shows him too much,
Speaker 2: or podcasts or radio or newspapers talk or write about
Speaker 2: him too much, you're wrong, man. He's earned every second
Speaker 2: of that one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: And listen, it's still great to see him. And it's
Speaker 1: still great. I mean, he actually said hi to me,
Speaker 1: which is you're normally he's kind of in the zone,
Speaker 1: and you you know, I've non listen, I've known Tiger forever.
Speaker 1: But he's one of those He's one of those human
Speaker 1: beings that I'm not gonna I'm not gonna talk to
Speaker 1: him unless you know, you just don't. He's just got that.
Speaker 1: He there is an intimidation factor to this day. So
Speaker 1: I was standing on the putting green and he was
Speaker 1: putting near DJ was hitting some putts and everything, and
Speaker 1: he walked right past me and he shook his hand down.
Speaker 1: He goes, hey, bro, what's up man, Good to see
Speaker 1: you he gave me a little hug and everything, and
Speaker 1: I was just like, I was surprised because normally, you know,
Speaker 1: he doesn't really say much, and so.
Speaker 2: I speak to he speaks first.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you definitely don't speak first. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I'd never in a million years be standing on a
Speaker 1: putting green and engage conversation with him. I just and
Speaker 1: like I said, I used to used to stay at
Speaker 1: our house. He used to pick him up from the airport.
Speaker 1: I've known him since he was sixteen years old. But
Speaker 1: the intimidation thing that you said in the persona that
Speaker 1: he still has is he is this type of character
Speaker 1: to where I would never think of just walking up
Speaker 1: to him and saying hi to him. I just, I
Speaker 1: just I just wouldn't do it.
Speaker 2: I hope he wins the US Senior Open, so that
Speaker 2: he has a US Senior Open, a US Open, a
Speaker 2: US Amateur, and a US Junior. He'd be the first
Speaker 2: one ever to do it right.
Speaker 1: He'd be amazing. Sansy always great talking to you. We
Speaker 1: said this the last time. One of the downsides of
Speaker 1: all this turmoil is there are a lot of people
Speaker 1: that we don't get to see as often as we
Speaker 1: used to so great. Great to talk to you, and
Speaker 1: I will look forward to seeing you at the US Open.
Speaker 2: Seeing Pineers. Let's make sure we make some time to
Speaker 2: raise a glass.
Speaker 1: You got a power. Good to talk to you, but
Speaker 1: be good. So some great takes there from Steve Sands,
Speaker 1: and we got through a lot. But I think the
Speaker 1: performance from Xander, all the things that Scotti Scheffler went
Speaker 1: through last week, Bryson, there were a lot of good storylines.
Speaker 1: But I agree with with with Sandy. It was great
Speaker 1: to see all the best players in the world back together.
Speaker 1: You can argue listen, I'm done with the arguments, but
Speaker 1: I think the Majors we talked about it. The Majors
Speaker 1: are the place where you're going to see all of
Speaker 1: the players from all the various tours around the world.
Speaker 1: I hope that continues. Hopefully the governing bodies realize that
Speaker 1: they have the power and to showcase the best players
Speaker 1: in the world if they so choose. And I think
Speaker 1: there are a lot of people that are thinking like that,
Speaker 1: and Steve Sands and myself are I am definitely one
Speaker 1: of those as well. Son of a Butch comes to
Speaker 1: you almost every Wednesday. We will see you next week,