Speaker 1: Welcome to the Clubhouse with Shane Bacon. I am your host,
Speaker 1: Shane Bacon, and did appears that golf is back, because
Speaker 1: at least that's what people are telling me. Of course,
Speaker 1: we've got Tory Pines this week and the waste management
Speaker 1: and we got Riviera, so it's kind of back to
Speaker 1: back to back, fun exciting events. And since Tory is here,
Speaker 1: I figured who better to talk to than Jeff Shackelford.
Speaker 1: Of course, the guy that lives in California, spends a
Speaker 1: lot of time on that coast around those golf courses,
Speaker 1: knows everybody of grass that's moved year to year, and
Speaker 1: so had him on for a lengthy chat. I mean,
Speaker 1: we touched on keptco versus Rory and Tiger Woods and
Speaker 1: the return and the golf course and the changes as
Speaker 1: we get set for the US Open there next year
Speaker 1: at Torrey Pines. What kind of player might have some
Speaker 1: success this week considering the distance changes, how seventeen has
Speaker 1: been moved, some of the other holes there at Tory South,
Speaker 1: and a lot more. It was a great discussion, fun discussion.
Speaker 1: Always love having Jeff Shackford on. You're gonna hear some
Speaker 1: background noise to start. That's Xander Shafley's press conference in
Speaker 1: the background. This is what happens when you have guys
Speaker 1: on the grounds in the media center talking about the
Speaker 1: event that week, so you hear a little bit of
Speaker 1: Zana in the background. Shack was great muted his phone
Speaker 1: at times, but that's what you're gonna hear. It shouldn't
Speaker 1: affect the podcast at all. Honestly, I barely heard it
Speaker 1: as I was talking to him with my cans on,
Speaker 1: so hopefully it's not an issue. But I think you'll
Speaker 1: enjoy the conversation because Shacks always great to have on.
Speaker 1: Stay till the end because we have a discussion about
Speaker 1: mixed events changing, possibly what the Olympics look like, especially
Speaker 1: if Tiger Woods isn't involved. I know we're a long
Speaker 1: ways away from the Olympics and there's a lot more
Speaker 1: golf to talk about, but we just ventured into that
Speaker 1: world for a moment, and I just thought we had
Speaker 1: a fun conversation about some changes that could make certain
Speaker 1: events better, and how much fun team events are every
Speaker 1: single time we have them, and how much fun team
Speaker 1: events are for us, for the average golfer, for the
Speaker 1: regular golfer that gets a chance to go out and
Speaker 1: play with a buddy or a member at a club
Speaker 1: that they get paired with or whatever you play, alternate
Speaker 1: shot or best ball, scramble, whatever you play, whatever format
Speaker 1: it is, it's just more fun to have a partner,
Speaker 1: more fun to have a teammate. So stay till the
Speaker 1: end because we talked a little bit about that and
Speaker 1: maybe some changes the President's Cup could have, and I
Speaker 1: just I enjoyed it. I thought it was great. I
Speaker 1: thought there was some good points brought up. I think
Speaker 1: you'll enjoy it as well. Keep your eyes out on
Speaker 1: social media at Shane Bacon on Instagram at Shane Bacon.
Speaker 1: I have a pre qualifier for the Monday qualifier into
Speaker 1: the waste Management on Thursday, So when you're listening to this,
Speaker 1: I'll probably already be out on the golf course at
Speaker 1: McCormick Ranch playing. I'm gonna have my push cart, my
Speaker 1: push cart with a seat on it. And always important
Speaker 1: if you're gonna do this and go as far old
Speaker 1: guy as I've gone, as you also got to purchase
Speaker 1: the seat cover. You've got to get the cushioned seat
Speaker 1: cover to go on top of the seat that's attached
Speaker 1: to your push cart. Just do it. Don't worry about
Speaker 1: what people are gonna say. I had so many people.
Speaker 1: I posted my push cart on Instagram on Friday. I
Speaker 1: play in a Friday game at Dobson Ranch every week
Speaker 1: when I'm home. It's a great money game. There's some
Speaker 1: hundred players that play in it. And I posted a
Speaker 1: picture of my my push cart with my seat on it.
Speaker 1: And I get so many people, many ninety and you
Speaker 1: get all these people chattering on social media about it.
Speaker 1: You know what I don't What doesn't bother me. You
Speaker 1: know it's never gonna bother me is being comfortable, rested,
Speaker 1: and happy. And that's what my push card does for me.
Speaker 1: We're best friends. We love each other. I believe it
Speaker 1: loves me. I sure love it. And um, you know what,
Speaker 1: if you make fun of me on social media, that's
Speaker 1: really your problem. That's your insecurity is not mine. I
Speaker 1: will sit on my seat when I can. I will
Speaker 1: take the load off whenever. And also I when I'm
Speaker 1: gonna rank real quick before we get the Shackford. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna rank now as a thirty six year old man.
Speaker 1: My three favorite ways to golf, and I'm not including
Speaker 1: caddy because Catty is the obviously answer. Anytime you give
Speaker 1: a catty, it's the best caddies off the board. Number
Speaker 1: one push cart just it's the best. The push card
Speaker 1: is the best. It's the best option out there. You
Speaker 1: don't have to carry the bag. You don't have one show.
Speaker 1: I'm a one shoulder carrier, so always one shoulder is
Speaker 1: a little more tired than the other. Push cards number one,
Speaker 1: carrying the bags number two and cart is three. I
Speaker 1: would say two years ago those would have been completely flipped.
Speaker 1: I was a card guy a road and uh and
Speaker 1: now at the club I play at and and most
Speaker 1: of the time I'm out on the golf course, I'm
Speaker 1: carrying my bag. I couldn't even tell you the last
Speaker 1: time I've written in a cart, which is a surprise.
Speaker 1: Actually I know what it was. It was media, Davie.
Speaker 1: That's okay. Those you're always in a cart in the
Speaker 1: media to day. But I just love the push cart
Speaker 1: and then carrying the bag and then golf cart. Those
Speaker 1: are my rankings. That's what you get here on the clubhouse.
Speaker 1: Let's get to our guest and we welcome back into
Speaker 1: the club house. One of my favorite people in all
Speaker 1: of golf, Jeff Shackleford Golf Channel contributor of course, runs
Speaker 1: what I would say has withstood the test of time
Speaker 1: as the best golf website out there, Jeff Shackleford dot com.
Speaker 1: And I'm not just saying at to perk you up, Jeff.
Speaker 1: I know you're at Torry Pines. People can probably hear
Speaker 1: some of the announcements in the backgrounds, maybe some some
Speaker 1: jets flying over as we chat. You are there throughout
Speaker 1: the week. I know you've talked a lot about the
Speaker 1: golf course since the changes. We'll get into that, but
Speaker 1: you're fresh off Rory McIlroy press conference, and I want
Speaker 1: to start with this, and it's a little heavy hitted,
Speaker 1: so let's go with it. I feel like two thousand
Speaker 1: twenty the storyline that leads all storylines even more than
Speaker 1: than Tiger and what Tiger is gonna do, And of
Speaker 1: course we continue to get pushed this is you gonna
Speaker 1: win eighty three storyline? Is I feel like two thousand
Speaker 1: twenty for golf fans and golf people alike, is Brooks
Speaker 1: versus Rory. And I just wanted to ask to start
Speaker 1: did Rory speak at all about Brooks Koepka and what's
Speaker 1: kind of gone on as they're back and forth continues,
Speaker 1: and it's great entertainment for people like you and I
Speaker 1: because when you're talking of the two best golfers right now,
Speaker 1: they sure seem like one and two and the order
Speaker 1: can be debated. Well, thank you for I mean that
Speaker 1: great introduction. I guess the I don't disagree that they're
Speaker 1: likely to be the story, especially since sports seems he's
Speaker 1: come back and shown that he's physically fit and ready
Speaker 1: to go, and there aren't any major issues with the knee.
Speaker 1: But you know, when the rivalry word comes out, and
Speaker 1: then right now, there's no reason to call a path.
Speaker 1: They don't uh dislike each other in any significant way,
Speaker 1: and they don't play the same events enough for it
Speaker 1: to be a rivalry. Um. But yeah, they're the two
Speaker 1: players you're expecting. That's Xander Shotley talking in the background.
Speaker 1: I hope it's not too loud. Um he uh yeah,
Speaker 1: I worry. I didn't really even know he had a
Speaker 1: chance to take the number one spot this week. Now,
Speaker 1: whether that's a story about whether we inflace the rankings
Speaker 1: too much or not, I don't know. Um, but he
Speaker 1: I don't think he's that focused on Brooks or the
Speaker 1: number one thing. He's focused on each tournament he's playing
Speaker 1: in and just trying to win and with a big
Speaker 1: picture goal obviously of the major champions whip. So I
Speaker 1: think those I think it's a chance. But Tigers looking
Speaker 1: awfully good, and it's hard to imagine that he isn't
Speaker 1: always a bigger story when he plays, because he's he's
Speaker 1: on form and he doesn't play that off until we're
Speaker 1: easier too to know what he's doing when he does play. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's interesting with the Tiger thing. You know, he's
Speaker 1: making his first start this weekend. We'll get into Tiger.
Speaker 1: You know, two thousand twenty already a winner in this
Speaker 1: wrap around season that seems never in And I love
Speaker 1: the fact that he took a long time away from
Speaker 1: the golf course, but just going back to to Rory
Speaker 1: and keepka for a moment. You know, golf in sports,
Speaker 1: when they're at their best, have rivalries and they have players, teams,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it, that aren't big fans
Speaker 1: of each other. And you said it earlier, it's not
Speaker 1: like these two guys don't. Then it's not like they
Speaker 1: don't like each other. They're they're fine with each other.
Speaker 1: I think they respect each other. But the thing that
Speaker 1: I feel like we have ruing is we have these
Speaker 1: two young guys that have ungodly talent. They both at
Speaker 1: the ball forever. They have different looks to it, but
Speaker 1: basically means to an end are very very similar. It's
Speaker 1: been a long time since we're when a major. Kepka
Speaker 1: has been really just dominant in the majors throughout his
Speaker 1: career the last few years. I feel like as we
Speaker 1: get going this week, you know, into the Masters and
Speaker 1: the players in the US Open and the p GA
Speaker 1: on down the line, there's a chance for this to
Speaker 1: set up to actually be something. And when you think
Speaker 1: about rivalries that we've had the last thirty years, you know,
Speaker 1: you could circle Phil Tiger, but it wasn't really a rivalry.
Speaker 1: I mean Phil and Tiger at times, you know, early on,
Speaker 1: Tiger just beat his brains in and then lately it's
Speaker 1: been filled that's actually taken Tiger to task when they've
Speaker 1: been paired together, But we never really got you know, Tiger,
Speaker 1: Phil playing great golf at insert US Open golf course.
Speaker 1: And I'm hoping, at least maybe it's just me hoping
Speaker 1: for this to happen. But these two guys had years
Speaker 1: that were great. They were one two in voting for
Speaker 1: Player of the Year. However, you want to dissect that.
Speaker 1: And we're going into a season where Rory has looked
Speaker 1: as good as he looked since he was playing so
Speaker 1: well in two and kepcas Kapka and he's a guy
Speaker 1: that seems to bring it at the big stages. So
Speaker 1: I just wonder as we get going with the Rory
Speaker 1: season this year right now in California, there's a chance
Speaker 1: that this can continue on and that to me is
Speaker 1: the best case scenario for golf moving forward in terms
Speaker 1: of storylines, even over Tiger, because as we all know,
Speaker 1: Tiger is in his mid forties and him winning stuff
Speaker 1: is great and it's gonna bring eyeballs to the sport,
Speaker 1: but it's not gonna stay there forever. No, it definitely
Speaker 1: is not. And yes, I mean I think to your point,
Speaker 1: I would look more to Florida for this this to
Speaker 1: start to perk up. I don't have a great feeling
Speaker 1: for Brooks on Paula Greens on the West coast, although
Speaker 1: you nearly want a couple beach, but he is gonna
Speaker 1: play Riviera, which is incredible. We're gonna have the top
Speaker 1: five players in the world. They're hopefully the weather cooperates. Um.
Speaker 1: But I think it's in Florida in the run up
Speaker 1: to the Master's where it couldn't get insting. It's just
Speaker 1: whether Brookston rise to the level he doesn't. Major championships
Speaker 1: and those those regular tour events. I think it is
Speaker 1: something that's probably a goal of is because it is
Speaker 1: so bizarre. We're just not used to a player doing
Speaker 1: what he does, which is to just sort of play
Speaker 1: and then and then suddenly take it up multiple notches.
Speaker 1: In a major it's usually the other way around and
Speaker 1: Rory Um. It was a little bit guilty of that
Speaker 1: at a few times last year. Um. Great everywhere, but
Speaker 1: the major championships so um. But to your point, I
Speaker 1: do think it would be wonderful we have such a
Speaker 1: you know, the way the games played now, with the
Speaker 1: equipment and all the things going on, the power game,
Speaker 1: the number of people, the wisdom that they are fed,
Speaker 1: it just has made it. It's neutralize things so much,
Speaker 1: and to me, not a great way in the sense
Speaker 1: that the elite players are having a harder time separating
Speaker 1: themselves and dominating and those two have still managed to
Speaker 1: do it in spite of the factors. So the sport
Speaker 1: definitely needs just some continuity there in terms of star power.
Speaker 1: And that's my nice way of saying, not a rivalry,
Speaker 1: but just some consistency and seeing some people atop some
Speaker 1: leaderboards who are both trying to beat each other, and
Speaker 1: it would be a lot of fun. And and and
Speaker 1: I think they're although a lot of people. I think
Speaker 1: that the components of this is that there is a
Speaker 1: Brooks can be kind of the villain to Rory's a
Speaker 1: nice guy, and I think that helps. Maybe that's why
Speaker 1: people keep looking at these two, besides obviously what they've
Speaker 1: done on the golf course. I as a media person,
Speaker 1: of course, he loves books because he provides us moreliners
Speaker 1: and he surprises you. In fact, you really have to
Speaker 1: listen closely to his press conferences because he can so
Speaker 1: told you to sleep with that monotone. You just think
Speaker 1: he's he's just not there, and then you know that
Speaker 1: you go back and you read the copy and Adam
Speaker 1: Scott is this only the opposite. He's He's just says
Speaker 1: really profound things, but he says them slowly and carefully,
Speaker 1: and he doesn't say like and you know a million
Speaker 1: times and you go, oh wow, that was really that
Speaker 1: was really fantastic. And Brooks is just more of the
Speaker 1: monotone throws you off, But then he throws these singers
Speaker 1: and he has no fear of getting into it with
Speaker 1: other other guys who he's kind of a delayed by.
Speaker 1: And I love that. I mean, we need that that
Speaker 1: the people who don't like him, I go, well, I
Speaker 1: get you know, and you've got an edge to him
Speaker 1: and he's not your favorite, but it's just nice to
Speaker 1: have variety and a variety of styles and personalities. Um.
Speaker 1: And then Rory's just getting more and more likable. He's
Speaker 1: so bright, he's well read. His press commerce today just
Speaker 1: gave gave so much insight. Um, none of that edge
Speaker 1: of like I don't want to reveal my secrets and
Speaker 1: my team. Um, he's changed so much in that sense.
Speaker 1: You know, he used to kind of dream of being
Speaker 1: sort of a the proper star and then having the
Speaker 1: proper car to pull up in and and the vanity
Speaker 1: weightlifting and and he's just gone so the other direction
Speaker 1: now and basically all those categories and is he the
Speaker 1: most uniques and fun to follow? Yeah, is Rory the
Speaker 1: most unique player? And I'm gonna say player in I
Speaker 1: know you you are going to kind of associate that
Speaker 1: with with a great player. I mean a guy that
Speaker 1: we want to talk to, a guy that we want
Speaker 1: to ask questions to, and a guy we want to
Speaker 1: listen to talk. Is he the most unique player in
Speaker 1: this sport that you've heard just speak in your years
Speaker 1: of covering golf, probably, and that he is the most
Speaker 1: open and he always has been. And he's gotten in
Speaker 1: trouble at times, which he's admitted or he's he felt
Speaker 1: like he's too much, and yet it hasn't really changed him.
Speaker 1: Whereas for ence to speed, obviously, he's struggling a little
Speaker 1: with his game, so he's not in the greatest mood
Speaker 1: to talk to about his game. But he is somebody
Speaker 1: who's now making an effort to really give away less
Speaker 1: because he just somebody told him he said too much
Speaker 1: with I don't know who did. It's disappointing because I
Speaker 1: can listen to speech and he just kind of goes
Speaker 1: deep on peeky golf stuff all day long and and
Speaker 1: really enjoy it. And he doesn't get enough chances to
Speaker 1: do that. Rory just he's just very genuine and even
Speaker 1: though he's gone through these things that it's not only
Speaker 1: not changed him, if it or if it has changed him,
Speaker 1: it's changed him for the better. He's just sort of
Speaker 1: he's what you see up and these press commences and
Speaker 1: interviews and um, there's there's just no guard. There's no
Speaker 1: bs and um, you know, Tiger still has a little
Speaker 1: bit of a guard up and and and so it's
Speaker 1: wonderful obviously, and why he's beloved by the by the
Speaker 1: British press and buy us over here and by fans,
Speaker 1: and because fans recognize these things, and I don't think
Speaker 1: they give enough credit to the things they recognize. And
Speaker 1: it's one thing that if we ever could get time
Speaker 1: with the players to explain to them that, you know,
Speaker 1: people really notice the stuff and they just put such
Speaker 1: a guard up now discussing their games, and it makes
Speaker 1: them so much less interesting. They realize that that they
Speaker 1: get that, I think from their agents and just tell
Speaker 1: them everybody's got to get you and I'm able to
Speaker 1: protect you. And then then it leads to this, you know,
Speaker 1: this kind of attitude they have. Yeah, you really missed
Speaker 1: an opportunity there to just answer no, the no, Bryson
Speaker 1: is the most interesting that you've had a chance to cover.
Speaker 1: You had a chance there to just throw Bryson out
Speaker 1: there for everybody to to die. Well, yeah, but it's
Speaker 1: an interview with him is really a struggle. I mean
Speaker 1: I got a good look at his the work he's
Speaker 1: done on his back because at the Bahamas I that
Speaker 1: was the only as after his round. I just we
Speaker 1: were trying to interview him about something very very very
Speaker 1: blame the new Puma shirts that they were wearing just
Speaker 1: have they had the collection with the turtle thing, and
Speaker 1: we were trying to you know, keep it light and
Speaker 1: and then he did not stop, so we followed him
Speaker 1: to the parking lot. So I got a good look
Speaker 1: at the back. The back muscles are very you know,
Speaker 1: protruding ish. But never really got to stop him to act.
Speaker 1: They have a conversation. So he's I love him. I
Speaker 1: think he's grateful the sport and fascinating and so nice
Speaker 1: to have variety of people and their views and and
Speaker 1: be a little kookie. But but he's he's increasingly tough
Speaker 1: to pin down for the twenty seconds and um, and
Speaker 1: it's too bad because he is interesting. Yeah, he's just
Speaker 1: gonna ask him virtually anything. I've decided. He's like a
Speaker 1: young Gary player in terms of just asking him a
Speaker 1: question and then they can just kind of take it
Speaker 1: wherever they want. I feel like that's what you get
Speaker 1: with the shambo. It's hey, what do you think about
Speaker 1: the astros? And let's just see where he goes, you know,
Speaker 1: and and and you know what, he even if he
Speaker 1: doesn't have a take, he's going to make one up,
Speaker 1: which I appreciate. And it might not even make any sense,
Speaker 1: but I appreciate where he goes with it. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: even well, most of the best ones will do that,
Speaker 1: and I you know, we did that. We had Justin
Speaker 1: Roso yesterday and I threw a question out. He didn't
Speaker 1: quite answer it, but what he gave was kind of
Speaker 1: something you clearly he wanted to talk about. He he
Speaker 1: kind of wanted to let it be known that Folly
Speaker 1: has Sean. Folly is ditched, and I gotta go find
Speaker 1: him this afternoon. He was too busy teaching yesterday, but
Speaker 1: Powys ditched. The track man and Justin and and Sean
Speaker 1: had been exchanging iPhone videos of his swing, so it
Speaker 1: was kind of fascinating to again geeky world where these
Speaker 1: guys now all travel with the track man. And then
Speaker 1: here's the guy who was really one of the first
Speaker 1: instructors to swear by the thing and one of the
Speaker 1: first players to literally send numbers and they did. I
Speaker 1: remember interviewing them about that. They just used to email members. Well,
Speaker 1: now they're back to looking at things visually and trying
Speaker 1: to find a place where they thought Justin was best.
Speaker 1: And he kind of wanted to share that it didn't
Speaker 1: really have much to do with the question I asked,
Speaker 1: but it was fantastic, so and I don't think that personally,
Speaker 1: guys do that a lot of times. You throw a
Speaker 1: question out just to let them get whatever it is
Speaker 1: off the chest, and that at least sounds like you're
Speaker 1: trying to do your job as opposed to just think,
Speaker 1: uh rory, so what do you want to what do
Speaker 1: you want to talk to us about today? Talk about
Speaker 1: talk about your week? Yeah, well, that's my my least
Speaker 1: favorite way to start a question, which you hear all
Speaker 1: the time, and I'm sure you're in your television work
Speaker 1: you get screened after doing so, but talk about either
Speaker 1: talk about or starting a question with how is is
Speaker 1: puts people in a spot to give up. You know,
Speaker 1: how how great are you? Um, you know how magnificous
Speaker 1: and are today after shooting existed forwards? Just so what
Speaker 1: are they gonna say something to answer out sounding like
Speaker 1: a course? So this golf course. You are a guy
Speaker 1: that knows a lot about architecture and building golf courses
Speaker 1: and changing golf courses. This is a golf course that
Speaker 1: feels like it's ever changing. And I talked to this week.
Speaker 1: I've talked to a couple of PGA Tour players. They're saying,
Speaker 1: the back nine, now, is it close to four thousand yards?
Speaker 1: Just the back nine alone? I mean, this is sea level, Jeff,
Speaker 1: This this is gonna be forever. You know, it's a
Speaker 1: good question. The scorecard we have out in the media
Speaker 1: center is the old one, so I have not seen
Speaker 1: the new. But seven teams just got a little bit
Speaker 1: longer and a lot suffer. Um you know, they added, yeah,
Speaker 1: a couple more teas on the back nine. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I could see course thousand and then there's uh, we
Speaker 1: had a little bit of rain on Monday night. It
Speaker 1: was actually a really nice firmness on Monday afternoon when
Speaker 1: I walked around and uh, and that that just took
Speaker 1: a little bit of a roll out of a place,
Speaker 1: not that there was in the plot was gonna be
Speaker 1: running much anyway, But yeah, it's a beast. The fourth
Speaker 1: hall is tougher. You know. The big change this year
Speaker 1: is the seventeen call really gets the canyon in place. Finally,
Speaker 1: it's not out of bounds down the left. Most of
Speaker 1: my life it was lost. It was not marked as
Speaker 1: a funnelty area or hazard ends. Um. So that's a
Speaker 1: great change on that t shot um, but it still is.
Speaker 1: It's hard to look at. And the old Green complex
Speaker 1: thes weren't masterpieces, but every one of them was just
Speaker 1: a little bit different, had cool little little elements, you know,
Speaker 1: a little bump here with a pin behind the bump
Speaker 1: um and all of that got wiped out. And basically
Speaker 1: every Green's bunker left, bunker right, and and a in
Speaker 1: a circle with a tier in the middle. And it's um,
Speaker 1: it's not very architecturally sophisticated. Is it gonna be? Is
Speaker 1: it going to be something? In terms of scoring this week?
Speaker 1: You feel like it's going to be considering the rain
Speaker 1: you said, and how it's a little bit wetter, I
Speaker 1: know it's longer. I mean, are you gonna expect to
Speaker 1: see what you always see? Is it gonna be a
Speaker 1: lot tougher than you think, because you know they're obviously
Speaker 1: getting ready for this US Open. The golf course is
Speaker 1: going to host the US Open for the first time
Speaker 1: since one of the best US Opens of all time
Speaker 1: was it Tory Pines. So do you feel like we're
Speaker 1: gonna get a chance to kind of see what it
Speaker 1: will play like at the US Open or is there
Speaker 1: just not gonna be the firmness that you're gonna expect
Speaker 1: to see when you get the summertime in that area. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know it plays a lot shorter in the US Open. Um.
Speaker 1: It was amazing in two thousand and eight, even from
Speaker 1: from from May to June, how much uh it furmed
Speaker 1: up and and that was worth a lot more marine layer.
Speaker 1: We really haven't had nearly the marine layer here. Uh Now,
Speaker 1: then that's one of the reasons they've had so much
Speaker 1: trouble at the trees. They they just haven't had it
Speaker 1: in the last decade. Um. But it is it is
Speaker 1: playing much longer right now in the morning, is in
Speaker 1: very cold. The greens are beautiful, But they did they
Speaker 1: did kind of go from a nice firmness to still firm.
Speaker 1: But but you just it's hard to get people that
Speaker 1: comprehend how hard greens have to be to make the
Speaker 1: ball of the modern tour professional bounce and then roll out.
Speaker 1: They just yeah, they did the combination of the height
Speaker 1: they hit it, the spin they put on it, everything
Speaker 1: they dial in, and the freshness of their grooves essentially
Speaker 1: most of the time. I mean, I've seen some greens
Speaker 1: in the last years and I walked out on and
Speaker 1: they're shiny, and you just think, oh my gott this
Speaker 1: send the brick and and and you you know, and
Speaker 1: you look at the Twitter and people are going, uh
Speaker 1: those kin cush and greens. I don't know how that is.
Speaker 1: They're just really firm. So there their ability to do
Speaker 1: that just makes any course um gettable, that there's any
Speaker 1: hold at all. They're just incredible. And the pall old,
Speaker 1: you know, scare a few guys off, But I expect
Speaker 1: good staring because the weather is supposed to be good
Speaker 1: and then it's usual. Now Torry finds not much winds,
Speaker 1: cold mornings, beautiful days. It looks like all weeks. So
Speaker 1: I don't remember what justin finished last year. I feel
Speaker 1: like it was fifteen under, but I don't, I don't,
Speaker 1: I don't exactly what fall it was. It was an
Speaker 1: astounding performance by him last year because he thought the
Speaker 1: same thing last year. The place was playing, Oh he
Speaker 1: was nineteen under. Excuse me, I twenty one under. Adam
Speaker 1: Scott was nineteen and Adam played unbelievably and they were
Speaker 1: they separated themselves, um so unbelievably. I don't believe that
Speaker 1: him here Tony went under and then it was it
Speaker 1: was ten under an eighteen when when Jason Day wanted
Speaker 1: to playoff, and we've seen I mean, you go back
Speaker 1: to sixteen when Snedecker one and it was it was
Speaker 1: minus six. That was obviously in that and that brutal windy,
Speaker 1: uh windy Sunday when he fired that unbelievable final round. Tiger.
Speaker 1: We haven't talked about Tiger, which you know, is what
Speaker 1: are we twenty minutes in and not discussing Tiger. In
Speaker 1: his first start in two thousand twenty, I talked a
Speaker 1: little about this break and and he's saying he really
Speaker 1: only touches clubs once, you know, basically after the President's Cup.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know it's the word break. You know,
Speaker 1: it's subjective at this point because most sports have five months,
Speaker 1: and you know, a break for these guys is one
Speaker 1: month or three weeks. But still, I think you and
Speaker 1: I both agree anytime Tiger takes a little bit of
Speaker 1: time off, it's a good thing. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: we probably prefer him to only playing about six events
Speaker 1: a year, you and I would, because that would make
Speaker 1: him as fresh assumably possible for the ones that actually
Speaker 1: matter in terms of what he's doing for his career.
Speaker 1: But Tigers at a place you know he loves, that
Speaker 1: he plays well at, and he's one at before we
Speaker 1: saw a I would say, a refreshed Tiger late last season.
Speaker 1: What are you expecting I don't want to say this
Speaker 1: year for Tiger because how the heck do you know?
Speaker 1: But this week at a golf course that you know
Speaker 1: it's it's gonna play long, no matter who you are,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna play a tough and it's going to
Speaker 1: be cold. All of those things have seemed to be
Speaker 1: negatives to Tiger over the last few years. What do
Speaker 1: you expect from Tiger coming into this week? And also
Speaker 1: a second question to this is Tiger is a guy
Speaker 1: that's always said I'm only teeing it up to win.
Speaker 1: Is that still kind of the mindset you feel from
Speaker 1: Tiger as he prepares for this week in particular? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I do. You know, yesterday we had a press converence
Speaker 1: with him and he was half awake, um, and it
Speaker 1: was just not a great session. It was just kind
Speaker 1: of flat, and he said what he needed to say. Um,
Speaker 1: we have kind of a new dynamic in the room here,
Speaker 1: so just you know, it's it's joined with all the
Speaker 1: the actual desks and things, so you just never quite know. Um.
Speaker 1: Today in the program, he looks sensational. Um, I don't
Speaker 1: know if he's quite got the new driver, and he's
Speaker 1: trying to work the new tailor made driver and I
Speaker 1: don't think it's quite dialed. And he ended up not
Speaker 1: playing yesterday's hit two buckets of Walls, trying to get right. So, um,
Speaker 1: it looks to me like that's his focus, is trying
Speaker 1: to get it the way he wants it. But he um,
Speaker 1: he's moving well, he looks uh, you know, he looks
Speaker 1: it's lean the thing he knows we're looking at, saying
Speaker 1: maybe it's because Brighton's price has gotten so ridiculous. But
Speaker 1: but Rory and Tiger now have have really leaned down.
Speaker 1: They're not not that they're they've lost a lot of muscle.
Speaker 1: They just kind of shifted their bodies back to a
Speaker 1: place that I think is better in terms of all
Speaker 1: the everything, flexibility of getting warmed up, easier, reducing injury.
Speaker 1: Um So I expect him to have a very good week.
Speaker 1: My question to him in the press conference, and I
Speaker 1: shouldn't asked him two parts because I was I was
Speaker 1: trying to get at as she's gotten older, when you
Speaker 1: take a little bit of time off, what I was
Speaker 1: trying to get out, what what's the slowest thing to
Speaker 1: come back? And he said it was essentially the competitive
Speaker 1: um not necessarily to fire, but sort of some balance
Speaker 1: between getting repped up and getting but but not geting,
Speaker 1: not trying too hard to get it in a competitive mode.
Speaker 1: There's a there's a place he finds that would be
Speaker 1: really fascinating to hear him go much deeper on that,
Speaker 1: and not in front of the cameras rolling where he
Speaker 1: could kind of flush it out, but it it was
Speaker 1: it was the start of an interesting answer that there
Speaker 1: is some place where he needs to to find kind
Speaker 1: of a middle ground, and he said some weeks since
Speaker 1: it just hasn't come and he suddenly there you go,
Speaker 1: he misses a cup. Of course that's happened, Like you
Speaker 1: can comp that on two hands. But um, I feel
Speaker 1: like he's uh when he shows up now, he's going
Speaker 1: to be somebody. He's not. He's just not going to
Speaker 1: do these events where he's just getting reps to to
Speaker 1: get reps. He's he's there to play well, and he
Speaker 1: enjoys playing well in front of big crowds. And they're
Speaker 1: gonna have good crowds this weekend. So I think that's
Speaker 1: really what gives him the three all at this point.
Speaker 1: And he's he's gotten to appreciate that when he when
Speaker 1: he lost that. Um, And I just don't think people
Speaker 1: also understand how much more fun golf this for him
Speaker 1: again because he's not hitting the driver all over the place.
Speaker 1: I mean we're talking about he doesn't have the driver dial.
Speaker 1: Then you know he's keeping it. Can't play, you know,
Speaker 1: just missing a fairly. We're not you know, he's not
Speaker 1: he's not hitting it into the Hilton, uh A team
Speaker 1: anything like that just makes it makes life more fun.
Speaker 1: You know, the game is better the iron play is ridiculous.
Speaker 1: The short game is. Yeah, he was putting in a
Speaker 1: little extra time on the short game today, just trying
Speaker 1: to trying to get that out and that'll look great.
Speaker 1: So he uh bet on the proms a circus and
Speaker 1: there's people everywhere, and he was playing with Kelly James
Speaker 1: today he clearly likes but I mean it was a
Speaker 1: mess and his people everywhere in golf TV. And but
Speaker 1: it just doesn't bother him, you know. And I think
Speaker 1: in the past he would have been like, you know,
Speaker 1: with the security guy, like what is this? And and
Speaker 1: I wouldn't blame him, by the way, but he's just
Speaker 1: kind of he's just kind of a nice, relaxed five
Speaker 1: about him. It's it's interesting say it's a great question
Speaker 1: you asked him, but it's interesting you say that his
Speaker 1: answer was, you know, the competitive maybe mindset if you will,
Speaker 1: that he has to get back into. It was the
Speaker 1: thing when you go back and rewatch the Masters from
Speaker 1: last year. His his focus on Sunday and you just
Speaker 1: watch the shots of his face and him reading putts
Speaker 1: and walking to the whole after iron shots and even
Speaker 1: off tease. It was basically the same face all day. Long,
Speaker 1: the reaction never changed. I mean he never got up,
Speaker 1: he never got down. It was like he was in
Speaker 1: a business mode that you see the elite to lead
Speaker 1: to lead, to lead to lead, athletes find occasionally and
Speaker 1: it's interesting to hear him say it takes me a
Speaker 1: while to find that, but it's not that's not crazy
Speaker 1: to hear, even from a guy as successful as Tiger,
Speaker 1: because I'm sure it does take a little bit of time.
Speaker 1: I felt like in singles at the President's Cup he
Speaker 1: was a little bit in that mindset where it seemed
Speaker 1: after out the first tea like this is Tigers to win,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, he's he's not going to lose
Speaker 1: this match no matter who you put up against him.
Speaker 1: And I would love to hear an and he'd never
Speaker 1: give us this, but I'd love to hear, honestly when
Speaker 1: he says, you know what it clicked I found it
Speaker 1: is that a Wednesday, is it a Friday? Is it
Speaker 1: Riviera Sunday? You know, when is it going to happen
Speaker 1: for him that that thing clicks on? And when it does,
Speaker 1: will we see it? Will his body be able to
Speaker 1: take him throughout the year with that mindset where it
Speaker 1: needs to be. I think he'll he'll mention it if
Speaker 1: you read his words carefully. He usually does when he's
Speaker 1: on the tournament. He'll he'll kind of mention some shot
Speaker 1: where he's something kind of clicked, any any and any
Speaker 1: he kind of went on cruise control from there, or
Speaker 1: he just felt good from there. Um, I just expected
Speaker 1: it to be I didn't. I didn't expect that to
Speaker 1: be the answer. But in hindsight, he has kind of
Speaker 1: touched on this before. I think most of the time
Speaker 1: we've always read it as it's more of a uh,
Speaker 1: I have no competitive fire, and that shock got me
Speaker 1: going and hearing the crowd and I figured something out.
Speaker 1: It's more of the answer he gave yesterday was more
Speaker 1: of actually finding a balance of pumped up and and
Speaker 1: the adrenaline going and but controlled and not forcing things
Speaker 1: and and so that that was interesting and after all
Speaker 1: these years that that's still the thing. Well, it's got
Speaker 1: to be pretty cool for him. And I guess that
Speaker 1: would have been where I was trying to get what
Speaker 1: the follow up was. You know, with experience, what what
Speaker 1: is it now that you know versus twenty years ago?
Speaker 1: That is that thing you need to find? And I
Speaker 1: guess he was answering that UM that way, But that's
Speaker 1: got to be a pretty neat thing to be able
Speaker 1: to recognize UM and get. It's just got to give
Speaker 1: you even more confidence knowing that that's the thing that
Speaker 1: you have to find, not not the first t shot
Speaker 1: or um any number of weird you know, my short
Speaker 1: game or whatever it is. That's kind of make you
Speaker 1: feel awfully good that you know, if you find that
Speaker 1: one thing uh that uh, it's it's all systems go.
Speaker 1: That's that's got to be a pretty and that's probably
Speaker 1: why he's won a two tournaments on the PJ Tour
Speaker 1: and fifteen majors and will probably win UM when more.
Speaker 1: I don't know this year. I mean, obviously Gus is
Speaker 1: great for him, and I think Harding Park will be
Speaker 1: great because it's po and even though h he he's
Speaker 1: growing up on it, he knows that he UM, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be a good place for him. Wingfoot should
Speaker 1: be sensational for him. Um the way he's fitting his irons,
Speaker 1: and it's to me, it's really I think you've been
Speaker 1: there recently. You can you can tell me, but I mean,
Speaker 1: to me, it's about everything there is about iron play.
Speaker 1: You know, everybody focuses on the on the roughs and
Speaker 1: then that shating careways in US Open blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: too many winks? What's about being missing in the right
Speaker 1: places all day long? In the US Open and um
Speaker 1: and then Royal St. George's is just at anything can
Speaker 1: happened there. It's kind of kind of weird. It's a
Speaker 1: weird place, is there. This is you just get a
Speaker 1: lot of you get a lot of weird balances there,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of there's a lot more chance
Speaker 1: on that length than than all the others I've done.
Speaker 1: Has there been a buzzword from the players these first
Speaker 1: few weeks? And of course you're getting a lot more
Speaker 1: players there this week in California, tor You seem it
Speaker 1: seems like every season we get something that all the
Speaker 1: players are gravitating towards. Is there anything that you've seen
Speaker 1: or heard or noticing from players that they're doing into
Speaker 1: already that might that you might have an inside track on.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be the thing this year for the players. Well,
Speaker 1: I just after the last two days I had I
Speaker 1: was not looking for this, but I'm now I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be kind of looking and seeing if there's a there's
Speaker 1: been a realization that there's been way too And I
Speaker 1: don't necessarily buy this. I think track Man is amazing
Speaker 1: and launch monitors are amazing, but I just on kind
Speaker 1: of seeing what or he's doing what he talked about
Speaker 1: with what Rose talked about. Looking at the range yesterday,
Speaker 1: I was I was shocked how few track Men were out.
Speaker 1: It was still seven or eight. But I'm wondering if
Speaker 1: guys are I just my numbers and my numbers this
Speaker 1: and I sent my numbers to my guy and we
Speaker 1: looked at my numbers. I kind of wondered if we've
Speaker 1: hit a peak on people obsessing about their their track
Speaker 1: Man numbers. Because one of the things I've been asking
Speaker 1: a lot about is this speed concept. Because I I'm
Speaker 1: mostly bothered by it. I could care less of price
Speaker 1: and sale wants to get more speed and hit it
Speaker 1: law or good for them if that's what they want
Speaker 1: to do. The game still has to be played a
Speaker 1: lot of different ways. What worries me are these weird
Speaker 1: littlantic coach you hear about um you know, uh, college
Speaker 1: coaches say hey, send me your kids numbers or I
Speaker 1: need to see all, you know, constantly see the numbers
Speaker 1: and make sure he doesn't combine once a month, you know,
Speaker 1: like you can check up um, and I want to
Speaker 1: monitor them that kind of stuff, or parents thinking their
Speaker 1: kids not gonna be tall enough to generate enough speed.
Speaker 1: That those trends to me are just awful for for golf.
Speaker 1: So I'm always I've been kind of looking at that
Speaker 1: and compiling quotes possibly to write something. Um. So this
Speaker 1: was a little bit of a and again it's one week.
Speaker 1: We'll see, but I'm I'm intrigued to see if maybe
Speaker 1: we've hit a peak on that. And there's a little
Speaker 1: more interest in a few other um. Sean Martin has
Speaker 1: been asking about three D in these press conferences for
Speaker 1: a story, and that's in the transcripts. It's kind of issues.
Speaker 1: So there may be some I think, I don't track
Speaker 1: me as not going away and lost monitors aren't going away,
Speaker 1: But it may there may be a realization that's that
Speaker 1: we've some of us have got a little carried away
Speaker 1: with those numbers out here. That's that's just that's my
Speaker 1: first impression. But it's only one thing. Yeah, and you
Speaker 1: you already touched on this one thing that I'll be
Speaker 1: interested to see throughout the season is and you talk
Speaker 1: to Rory and Tiger, is that whole bulking up and
Speaker 1: now bulking down? And it feels a little when you
Speaker 1: look at some of these guys, it feels a little
Speaker 1: like what we went through at the NBA. I mean
Speaker 1: when you think about Lebron and when he came into
Speaker 1: the league and maybe four or five six years into
Speaker 1: him being with the Calves, he was huge. He was
Speaker 1: enormous in terms of of muscle, and he was probably
Speaker 1: in that two eighty weight range for his size and
Speaker 1: his ability to move. And while he's still obviously he's not,
Speaker 1: he's not weak by any stretch of the imagination, you
Speaker 1: do see a different looking right. His body type is
Speaker 1: a little bit more for longevity and staying on the
Speaker 1: court for forty eight minutes and playing, you know, well
Speaker 1: into the playoffs and all of that, and he's probably
Speaker 1: shed I'd say probably fifty I don't I don't know number,
Speaker 1: but let's just call it pounds of that peak weight
Speaker 1: he was in. I feel like you see a little
Speaker 1: that with Tiger. I definitely see that with Rory, And
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting to see if if this is a
Speaker 1: little bit of where we're going. You know, why are
Speaker 1: we not? Why are we worried about bulking up when
Speaker 1: flexibility is is where we're kind of creating that speed. Well,
Speaker 1: I think that's why the Bryson thing is so fascinating,
Speaker 1: because you've seen some people reach that peak and now
Speaker 1: they're kind of throttling back. I mean, I only saw
Speaker 1: one guy yesterday, Um who, I just went, WHOA, jeez,
Speaker 1: he's a that's a big boy. He's he's uh he
Speaker 1: actually is. Uh. I think it's Will Gordon. Um. His
Speaker 1: photo on the tour side doesn't look like he's a
Speaker 1: big guy anyway, six three and he had some guns.
Speaker 1: And but everybody I otherwise, I don't. I'm not seeing
Speaker 1: a whole lot of that. I do wonder if that
Speaker 1: that the people around these guys and the ones they
Speaker 1: look to for inside have to have kind of picked
Speaker 1: up on the Rory and Tiger Leaner look. And you know,
Speaker 1: Dwight Howard to your NBA analogy has kind of gone
Speaker 1: that way. Part of its age, but part of its
Speaker 1: trying a new way to try to deal with his
Speaker 1: his propensity for for injuries. And it's I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: we hit the peak in two thousand seven with Tiger
Speaker 1: and then Rory kind of followed suit and and they
Speaker 1: don't get asked about that enough. But uh, and Tiger
Speaker 1: of course revert to Jim talk, and he won't he
Speaker 1: won't let on that he's leaned down intentionally too much
Speaker 1: because he likes to act, you know, he likes to
Speaker 1: talk Jim talk. And you know, I'm but I'm waiting
Speaker 1: for I think uh, I did a prediction thing, and
Speaker 1: one of the things I'm looking for this year is
Speaker 1: that first load management reference. You know, certain guys still
Speaker 1: like to talk that talk that I'll let you know
Speaker 1: they're real jocks. Um, but hopefully, hopefully we never hear
Speaker 1: that term. We're gonna we're gonna set we need to
Speaker 1: set Vegas odds on the players that will say that. First.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna guess that we after have books. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, kept could probably be like mine
Speaker 1: is two fifty. You'd have Tiger in there as well.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna assume Bryson might want to throw it in
Speaker 1: there early. He might be a big guy. I feel
Speaker 1: like load management's like preschool kind of terminology to Bryson
Speaker 1: it's like that's just so beneath them, that's so two
Speaker 1: years ago. And um, yeah, I think DJ would be
Speaker 1: an outside shot and that just kind of picking it
Speaker 1: up because he likes sports and watching it. But and
Speaker 1: with the schedule this year, there is going to be
Speaker 1: and we had a lot of that already in these
Speaker 1: press conferences, which is a little schedule talk. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's just nothing more painful. Um. And but it's a
Speaker 1: big issue this year. They have won to have just
Speaker 1: so many good tournaments to choose from, and then they
Speaker 1: have the Olympics and so much as jammed in this
Speaker 1: one little space and uh of time. It seems like,
Speaker 1: so there's going to be that the term don't happen
Speaker 1: because somebody's just gonna wheel it out be to justify
Speaker 1: there they're skipping Memphis or whatever it is. Maybe 'saner
Speaker 1: just said it when you were sitting there. Maybe you
Speaker 1: missed the first load held it during the press I
Speaker 1: will I will run a search on his press conference.
Speaker 1: Although he would not be the guy that I would,
Speaker 1: I would pay for that. He just doesn't feel well.
Speaker 1: He's and by the way, he is still here, um,
Speaker 1: hanging around the other tides in these press conferences literally
Speaker 1: darted uh quickly, and he's hanging around. But he's a
Speaker 1: local guy, so it's great he's putting in his time
Speaker 1: here and and um, and he's obviously one of the
Speaker 1: players that just has so much game and and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just fun to watch he's got It's
Speaker 1: just fun how fans just are drawn to guys like
Speaker 1: him who have They bring a certain intensity every round
Speaker 1: they play. And um um, I love that that that
Speaker 1: that people recognize that and someone like him. Now, I
Speaker 1: know you can be a bit of a curmudgeon at
Speaker 1: times and don't take that offense. I feel I feel
Speaker 1: like you embraced the word at times. But I want
Speaker 1: to say that I want to say it about two
Speaker 1: thou twenty is it feels like this is a really
Speaker 1: exciting year for this sport in particular. I mean, you've
Speaker 1: got Tiger and Tiger already winning and playing well at
Speaker 1: the President's Cup, and Tiger is always gonna be a story,
Speaker 1: no matter if he shoots sixty five or eighty five.
Speaker 1: I've already talked a little bit about Keepka and Rory
Speaker 1: j T is kind of lurking and it's not gonna
Speaker 1: make National herdlines until he wins again, but he's had
Speaker 1: already had an incredible season. You already mentioned Zander is
Speaker 1: kind of the the guy all the golf people look
Speaker 1: at as the next big thing. DJ's again another player
Speaker 1: that isn't talked about, maybe as much as he should be.
Speaker 1: And these are just some of the players not to
Speaker 1: mention a lot of the other storylines, including stuff like
Speaker 1: Phil you know, who is obsessed with hitting the ball
Speaker 1: forever and the results aren't there, and Jordan's speech is
Speaker 1: is looking for his first win since the Open, and
Speaker 1: they're just seems like there's a lot to talk about
Speaker 1: in terms of golf and we're just getting going this year.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like that is is that? Does that
Speaker 1: feel like when you're at these events that there it's
Speaker 1: an exciting time for the sport. This week is obviously
Speaker 1: it's really the first big event of the year, and
Speaker 1: then the West Coast just from now on um is
Speaker 1: to me, it's the sensational because it's it's the variety
Speaker 1: each week is is incredible, going from Phoenix to to
Speaker 1: Pebble to Riviera to Mexico City all that just just
Speaker 1: different courses and you did great fields and the weather
Speaker 1: is a factor and and and it's you know, beautiful
Speaker 1: places to look at when the sun's out and it
Speaker 1: just gets you going. And then Florida is just great
Speaker 1: now because it's all in one nice package with the
Speaker 1: players back and the run up to the Masters and um,
Speaker 1: so to me, yeah, this is the best time and
Speaker 1: we'll find out, um, you know, where everybody's kind of at,
Speaker 1: and it all happens kind of fast. I guess that
Speaker 1: would be the sort of torn. I like the new
Speaker 1: schedule that it's all in one little a tighter window, um,
Speaker 1: because I think last year when the Presidents kept do
Speaker 1: in December, it just it just stretched out and people
Speaker 1: kind of got burned out on and needed a break
Speaker 1: on golf and it never really quite happened. And of
Speaker 1: course the Presidents Cup is great viewing, so that that
Speaker 1: made us forget get the wrap around a year round
Speaker 1: thing can get a little bit tedious. So it seems
Speaker 1: like the ingredients are there for an incredible year. I
Speaker 1: have no the only I don't really have any uh
Speaker 1: reason to think it won't be um. You know. Then again,
Speaker 1: Royal St. George's is probably the the only little bit
Speaker 1: of a downer to me and that it's it's um
Speaker 1: just it just it just can be very bizarre. It's
Speaker 1: a it's a great, great course, really neat place, but
Speaker 1: it's it's goofy and uh, I don't I don't know
Speaker 1: what the Olympics do. I do worry that the guys
Speaker 1: just get tired of talking about the Olympics. You already
Speaker 1: I could already feel it in the question and yesterday, Um,
Speaker 1: it's just not it's just not there yet and in
Speaker 1: terms of being that special tone, and I don't know
Speaker 1: if it ever will be. And I just I can't
Speaker 1: get off the fact that before Mat misses the opportunity
Speaker 1: for for real team golf. And yeah, I was out
Speaker 1: on the course just to go on on the team
Speaker 1: golf thing. But I I'm really gonna be fascinated to
Speaker 1: see we already know it. Team team golf really outside
Speaker 1: of the Major is the best thing we have. It
Speaker 1: just brings out drama, emotions, It's it's just so fun
Speaker 1: to watch mass play. And there was some there's a
Speaker 1: some young kids out and I follow one of them
Speaker 1: on Instagram. He's got the greatest swing you've ever seen.
Speaker 1: And we showed it one time on morning drive and
Speaker 1: his dad war mean they were coming out and UM
Speaker 1: and they played the Junior PG Junior League and I
Speaker 1: asked him, I said, so, do you guys like playing
Speaker 1: for yourself more or do you like playing for the team?
Speaker 1: War And I all said the team? And I wonder,
Speaker 1: you know what the PGA Junior League. And it's going
Speaker 1: to take a while, but I I could see a
Speaker 1: day where team golf is something that players are more
Speaker 1: passionate about. And we see something like World Team tenants
Speaker 1: to have the team stuff and that the Olympics missed
Speaker 1: that or that we didn't create a portion of the
Speaker 1: schedule and golf and I say we Iowa, and they're
Speaker 1: saying this, UM, but I will I wonder if that
Speaker 1: that that's something where we're just so badly missing it
Speaker 1: as a sport and not capitalizing on on this. And
Speaker 1: then also seeing where we're kind of a younger generation
Speaker 1: is gravitating towards UM and the Olympics will will raise
Speaker 1: that that point again and and we'll all write articles
Speaker 1: about all different formats and they'll go out of their
Speaker 1: way to tell us why none of those things work
Speaker 1: and that the IOC doesn't have enough beds and the
Speaker 1: YadA YadA YadA um. But it's higher does to make
Speaker 1: the Olympics, then all everything will be on the table
Speaker 1: because it'll be a no one will care, so that's
Speaker 1: the only good news. So they may have to actually
Speaker 1: consider uh these things, so you know your your point
Speaker 1: on the team thing is is interesting. I brought this
Speaker 1: up around the President's Cup. I think I might have
Speaker 1: written on Twitter somewhere that nobody really cares about, but
Speaker 1: it was about the way that these team events are formatted.
Speaker 1: And the Ryder Cup doesn't need to be changed. The
Speaker 1: Wryder Cup is perfect. Everybody loves the Ryder Cup. It's
Speaker 1: compact and it's beautiful, and it's brings out true rivalries
Speaker 1: and everybody's excited and they want to win. So don't
Speaker 1: touch the Ryder Cup. But of course there's plenty of
Speaker 1: things you can do to the President's got to make
Speaker 1: it more interesting. The one thing I said that doesn't
Speaker 1: really need to even though I'd love to see, you know,
Speaker 1: the l P g A and and women's golf involved
Speaker 1: in a mixed gender team event that I think would
Speaker 1: be really special to watch for golf and lovely and
Speaker 1: everybody be excited about it. Plus I think it would
Speaker 1: even the plane field a little bit in terms of
Speaker 1: what the President's Cup is. But and I think would
Speaker 1: be really cool that the President's Cup could do. And
Speaker 1: it's to your point about team events, I would say
Speaker 1: that the drag, if there is a drag about these
Speaker 1: Ryder Cups and President's Cups, is you get this unbelievable
Speaker 1: team dynamic for two or three days, depending on which
Speaker 1: event it is, and then it goes to singles on Sunday.
Speaker 1: And while the singles is great, and you get to
Speaker 1: see Rory battle and Patrick Reed, and you get to
Speaker 1: see Ricky out there winning the last four holes in
Speaker 1: hopes of maybe triumphing in this Ryder Cup, and you
Speaker 1: get to see Graham McDow win it. I feel like
Speaker 1: the President's Cup could throw some sort of a team
Speaker 1: aspect where everybody has to play on Sunday and you
Speaker 1: still get that playing alongside someone on your team in
Speaker 1: pivotal moments, pivotal matches that are gonna actually decide the
Speaker 1: President's Cup. And I I got a chance. I played
Speaker 1: our our country club here, Phoenix Country Club has a
Speaker 1: has a Pros Cup that we did a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago and it's basically a Ryder Cup style format.
Speaker 1: It's ten players versus ten players, and you do the
Speaker 1: first days alternate shot, and then it's best ball and
Speaker 1: then it's singles. And those first two days are so
Speaker 1: much more fun than the singles. You know, and you're
Speaker 1: you're out there with a buddy, maybe you don't even
Speaker 1: know him, and you get to know him and you
Speaker 1: get to be pals with them, and you're playing alternate shot,
Speaker 1: you're playing best ball, and it's so much fun and
Speaker 1: it's so much different than your regular let's go out
Speaker 1: and play and see what we shoot type of golf
Speaker 1: that I feel like if the recreational golfer, the amateur golfer,
Speaker 1: the professional golfer, and the elite professional golfer all agree
Speaker 1: on something, it seems like an easy thing to change.
Speaker 1: And I think if you, if you really pull people,
Speaker 1: you get a nine percentile type of vote that team
Speaker 1: golfs more fundan singles. Uh. Yeah, and that's interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it'd be great to start off with singles, get it
Speaker 1: out of the way, and and you're right finished with
Speaker 1: with you know, either true alternate shot or four ball.
Speaker 1: Um and and and of course the Olympics would have
Speaker 1: been such a great place for it, just and and
Speaker 1: some modified version small of teams um men and women.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's just so many ways you could do it.
Speaker 1: It's it's frustrating that and and and now at the
Speaker 1: point where where the people who actually care about it
Speaker 1: don't even want to throw out ideas because generally the
Speaker 1: people in charge and golf go out of their way.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm convinced that the Tour Championship format of
Speaker 1: starting a ten under was the only thing that no
Speaker 1: writer ever wrote about as a possible way to conclude it.
Speaker 1: And and that's why they went with it. I mean,
Speaker 1: I really think they went out of their way to
Speaker 1: to not the Internet. Everybody look up on Google if
Speaker 1: this has been this's been applied by anybody. It's like
Speaker 1: a giant whiteboard of all the ideas and who came
Speaker 1: up with them, and and and so it's almost hard.
Speaker 1: You want to put some kind of concept out there
Speaker 1: where you combine them in and women, how many players,
Speaker 1: because you do have to there's a lot of things
Speaker 1: you have to think about. The teams have to be
Speaker 1: a certain size. You don't want them too big because
Speaker 1: you want a lot of countries to be able to participate. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're all these components, but it could it's not that complicated.
Speaker 1: It's just but they just come up with the excuses
Speaker 1: um of of of beds and and it's not medals.
Speaker 1: It's not metals. The Olympic, the IOC loves to give
Speaker 1: out medals. They just have a thing about beds. And
Speaker 1: of course that's all ludicrous because all the players and
Speaker 1: Rio other than Ricky and a few others stayed in
Speaker 1: private housing and they certainly will do that at Versailles
Speaker 1: and Japan and Pacific Palisades. So uh, anyway, it's it's
Speaker 1: just a it's a thing, and it it's it's so
Speaker 1: disappointing because it is important to golf be great in
Speaker 1: the Olympics, and um, and then again you know, and
Speaker 1: there's a jet flying over case you couldn't tell the
Speaker 1: and then the other lunatic proposal that always gets um
Speaker 1: laughed at and I've thrown it out multiple times and
Speaker 1: I don't care. I'm gonna keep throwing it up. Long
Speaker 1: drive is more of an Olympic sport than that stroke
Speaker 1: play our team golf. Those are athletes. There's a time,
Speaker 1: there's a timing to it, there's an athleticism to it,
Speaker 1: there's a training element to it. Um. I think it
Speaker 1: would be an enormous hit um and you can take
Speaker 1: it to exotic things like they did in Las Vegas Speedway.
Speaker 1: It's tricky because you need the landing area to be
Speaker 1: right um. But it's one where again, the the closed
Speaker 1: mindedness towards that has been so disappointed, because because it
Speaker 1: would help regular golf. If long drive was in the Olympics,
Speaker 1: I think it'd be like beach what Beach volleyball has
Speaker 1: done for volleyball. Um. But they just that it's not
Speaker 1: a PGA Tour property. And they have a lot of
Speaker 1: to say in the European Tour and the World Golf Federation.
Speaker 1: I don't even remember which one that one is that
Speaker 1: the idea excuse the International Golf Federation. They have the
Speaker 1: World Golf Foundation and the International Golf Federation. Don't tell
Speaker 1: me what you think, you know what you can do.
Speaker 1: You can just throw out letters in it. That's probably
Speaker 1: going to be sensitive of an organization that that that's
Speaker 1: involved itself at this point. So they are the ones
Speaker 1: who decide with those people and uh and deal with
Speaker 1: the IOC, which isn't fun either, and I empathize with them.
Speaker 1: But and then they have to go to the players,
Speaker 1: and then the players gonna shape this format originally too,
Speaker 1: and the ILC wants to see a tournament played. Uh,
Speaker 1: that's that that that this a championship decided similar to
Speaker 1: the one that is in the Olympics. But that's easy
Speaker 1: to do, that's easy to craft, I would hope. So anyway,
Speaker 1: it's something that that to me is the one sort
Speaker 1: of it's not even it's not a big deal, but
Speaker 1: it is sort of the one thing that that that
Speaker 1: will always linger through the season. Um, because the players
Speaker 1: just get asked so much about the Olympics. We've already
Speaker 1: started and obviously Justin Rose been here, was and Rory.
Speaker 1: It's always a weird topic. Um, so it's gonna keep
Speaker 1: coming up through the year. And for the most part,
Speaker 1: those people just in golf don't care. They want to
Speaker 1: hear about the run up to the Masters and then
Speaker 1: and the managers. I just was laughing internally at the
Speaker 1: thought of Tiger sleeping on one of those recyclable cardboard Japan.
Speaker 1: This is your room here, you're rooming with with with this,
Speaker 1: with with this Track and Field star. This is your
Speaker 1: bad they actually just get You can just recycle it
Speaker 1: and the medal you're gonna wins also recycled. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think you and I both love the idea of
Speaker 1: recyclable bed. I laugh at the idea of Tiger Woods
Speaker 1: using the recyclable bed. Yeah, I'm anxious to see the
Speaker 1: feedback on those, since an athlete getting rest. Uh, then again,
Speaker 1: they convert dorms all the time for Olympic villages, so
Speaker 1: you never know what they're getting. I mean, I would
Speaker 1: help the great athletes demanded certain kind of bed. But yeah,
Speaker 1: recycled cardboard. That was. That was an add one to
Speaker 1: hear about again. And not one golfer will be in that.
Speaker 1: The golf course is so far from the athlete housing
Speaker 1: it will be if they do stay in the village.
Speaker 1: It's literally to do it for a couple of nights
Speaker 1: and to uh to take it in briefly kind of
Speaker 1: kind of like the amateurs now in the crow's nest,
Speaker 1: which is um, there's two there's two great mysteries to me.
Speaker 1: One why some amateur hasn't said, sCOD I'm staying there
Speaker 1: all week. You guys all leave and I'll have the
Speaker 1: place to myself. They all do one night. I don't understand.
Speaker 1: They do one night and they leave. You have one
Speaker 1: chance in your life to stay in the crow's nest
Speaker 1: during the Masters, and you're kidding me. You really need
Speaker 1: to go stay in some in a in a house
Speaker 1: with your family and give me it's just nuts. And
Speaker 1: then of course the other thing is to go another
Speaker 1: ran off my chest. Uh, possibly the favorite in the
Speaker 1: Augusta National woman's ame choosing to play in the A
Speaker 1: and a inspiration. You likely have one chance in your
Speaker 1: life to be a favorite to win a golf tournament
Speaker 1: at Augusta National. You really need to play that. I really,
Speaker 1: I really can't believe that. Anyway. I could read you,
Speaker 1: I could read your I could read your tone as
Speaker 1: as I was. I was going through that post on
Speaker 1: your website about Gabriella Ruffls and your tone, and you
Speaker 1: said decided to play in one of the five majors,
Speaker 1: and I just I read one of the fives and
Speaker 1: I was just kind of going in. I mean, I
Speaker 1: understand your point here. It's it's it's a fairly special
Speaker 1: of it to get a chance to play Augusta. But oh,
Speaker 1: you know I I, Hey, listen, everybody's got to make
Speaker 1: the decisions that they want to make. And a lot
Speaker 1: of these decisions we make in our lives, so we
Speaker 1: look back on five years later in regret. So maybe
Speaker 1: exactly No, And it's it's yeah, and my disdained thing
Speaker 1: more at the people around the players, because it's we
Speaker 1: just see it so many times where they get they
Speaker 1: get led towards bad decisions that are so obviously not
Speaker 1: good ones, and it's just it's just it's frustrating to
Speaker 1: see because when it is one of these opportunities. Plus, yeah,
Speaker 1: I I selfishly wanted to see her there because I
Speaker 1: want that tournament to succeed, and and last year was
Speaker 1: an amazing success. Um. But now you know, all these
Speaker 1: so many kids turning to and over the five best
Speaker 1: female college players all turn pro over the holidays. It's
Speaker 1: it's bizarre. It's bizarre. And then this despite the women
Speaker 1: who went last year having exactly what you hope the
Speaker 1: experience of a lifetime, UM and and you so they
Speaker 1: have an example and they still ignore it. It's bizarre.
Speaker 1: And the Crow's nest one, I mean that one I'm
Speaker 1: sure you've gotten. Curtis going or somebody one of the
Speaker 1: former great amateurs. It's that got to experience that they
Speaker 1: just they just shake their heads, well, this is this
Speaker 1: is and we don't want to I don't want to
Speaker 1: dive into it. I'm sorry, I'm I I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I I would say it's more and again, this isn't
Speaker 1: this isn't reel on the youth. It's just kind of
Speaker 1: how we are. I'm more like this now than I
Speaker 1: used to be. It's you know, we're a little bit
Speaker 1: more in our own worlds, and our worlds tend to
Speaker 1: be focused in and around whatever device we have in
Speaker 1: our hands. And sitting around on with strangers playing cards
Speaker 1: at night. I don't think sounds like something a nineteen
Speaker 1: year old is gonna be iNeST in doing. Even if
Speaker 1: years later they went, Man, that could have stayed at
Speaker 1: Augusta National for a whole week and I decided to
Speaker 1: see at the Hampton right right with with the family. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I get that too, By the way, I'm a
Speaker 1: creature of habit. We all are. And when you're a
Speaker 1: competitive athlete, I get it. You're you want to do
Speaker 1: your your stuff, your routine, you want to put your
Speaker 1: stuff everywhere and not worry about being in a bunk
Speaker 1: bed and all that. But it's Augusta, then you're not
Speaker 1: gonna be uncomfortable. Um, you might need to bring your
Speaker 1: plugs in case somebody else in the crow's nest snores.
Speaker 1: But like I said, they all leave after one night.
Speaker 1: So somebody to one of these guys especially, it's gonna
Speaker 1: get smart and go I'm staying the week and I've
Speaker 1: got it to myself. I get to go down in
Speaker 1: the clubhouse at night. Uh look at you know, look
Speaker 1: at stuff, and uh, it's just and the guys who've
Speaker 1: done it, the stories they have, and then then they
Speaker 1: all get giddy. They'll tell you that was one of
Speaker 1: the greatest variances of their life. Um. So whatever, it's
Speaker 1: like he said, it's a different thing, and it's a
Speaker 1: different vibe of the people around them, and um and
Speaker 1: I just think a lot of them are getting bad
Speaker 1: advice to them. There's your rant, the Jeff Shackleford rant
Speaker 1: we were waiting for. You're an amateur and you're listening
Speaker 1: to this and you have a chance to win the
Speaker 1: US Amateur or Latin America or the mid am for
Speaker 1: Goodness Stakes. Stay in the crows you know what, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna fire off an email after this pod to Mike
Speaker 1: Clayton asked if his buddy Lucas is uh gonna if
Speaker 1: he's gonna he's gonna do that, or he is somebody
Speaker 1: who might just stay on the closed nest all week
Speaker 1: fingers crossed. That's that's what I'm saying. I'm hoping that's
Speaker 1: the case. Jeff, I appreciate the time. You can obviously
Speaker 1: follow Jeff Shackford dot com. Read it if you forgotna.
Speaker 1: If you don't read Jeff Shackleford dot com, you're doing
Speaker 1: it wrong. It's a mix of unbelievable updated topical golf
Speaker 1: news and cranky Jeff Shackleford writing. Those are two of
Speaker 1: my favorite things. All right, Thanks Shane. I appreciate the time.
Speaker 1: As always, it looks like I'm a big thanks to
Speaker 1: Jeff Shackleford for taking a lot of time. That was
Speaker 1: a lengthy, lengthy podcast, but I loved it. It was
Speaker 1: a great discussion, a great conversation. One of the best
Speaker 1: voices in all the golf is Jeff Shackford. As I
Speaker 1: said as we were closing, if you don't read Jeff
Speaker 1: shack for dot com consistently you're really doing it wrong,
Speaker 1: because I just believe it's a great place to get
Speaker 1: true golf news with a little bit of opinion. But
Speaker 1: he doesn't throw his opinion all the way in there,
Speaker 1: which I think is nice. I mean, sometimes you want
Speaker 1: to go in there and just read what happened, pull
Speaker 1: out the meat of a quote, and you can click
Speaker 1: on the link from where it is. That's also what
Speaker 1: kind of a lost start it seems like these days,
Speaker 1: is linking back to where the story originated, and he
Speaker 1: always does that. So a big thanks to Jeff. I
Speaker 1: hope you guys have a great week. I hope you
Speaker 1: guys enjoy the event, and uh check in on social
Speaker 1: see how I played in the pre qualifier. I think
Speaker 1: it's gonna have to be somewhere in the five under
Speaker 1: range to have a chance to get into the money day,
Speaker 1: but you never know. I played okay on Friday. I
Speaker 1: think I shot full under. I'm gonna try to keep
Speaker 1: that same positive mentality going in. We'll check back with
Speaker 1: you next week. M