Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Fire Drill. Before we get started,
Speaker 1: two of our great UH partners, the Dormy Workshop, make
Speaker 1: artisanal that's the word I have stolen from Alan ship
Speaker 1: Nick artisanal club covers. They do a bunch of other things.
Speaker 1: Great place Dormy Workshop. Check them out and then also
Speaker 1: part points awesome map UH great way to new way
Speaker 1: to play and score golf. It's awesome place, UH, just awesome,
Speaker 1: So please check them out. They're a great place. UH.
Speaker 1: They also sent us a bottle of wine at Bandon
Speaker 1: and we drink um this weekend the fire Drill, we
Speaker 1: talked Russell Henley and his five wins. A. I didn't
Speaker 1: know he had five wins, and B we discussed whether
Speaker 1: it's the quietest five wins and PGA tour history because
Speaker 1: that is a very small group to be a part
Speaker 1: of UH and most of his wins are dominant, although
Speaker 1: this one ended like two or three strokes, usually wins
Speaker 1: by seven. We allegedly talk about Patrick Read and allegedly
Speaker 1: some of the things that he has allegedly done or
Speaker 1: not done. We also talked about his wife, who allegedly
Speaker 1: might be on Twitter UH and allegedly might be behind
Speaker 1: all of the things that are happening and the reading.
Speaker 1: Uh compound, that's a huge Allegedly, Uh, we talked about
Speaker 1: dl Fincher Walt. You might not know the name. You
Speaker 1: might know the name. I have a story about him
Speaker 1: and why it's important to me. Michael knew him and
Speaker 1: was friends with him and had some great stories. There's
Speaker 1: a Phil and dal story in there. We talked about
Speaker 1: the Asian tour and a thirty seven dollar check, and
Speaker 1: we talked about Q school. Uh. And Jake, my producer,
Speaker 1: didn't even tell me in our recap of what we
Speaker 1: talked about why we talked about Q school. And that's
Speaker 1: ridiculous because that's the most important thing we talked about.
Speaker 1: The Fire Drill is my favorite. I've told you that
Speaker 1: many times I get to listen to Michael Bamberger and
Speaker 1: Allan ship Nick tell great stories. The was no different.
Speaker 1: Without further ado, here is the three of us talking
Speaker 1: about golf. Allegedly. I got thoughts in my head. Can't
Speaker 1: get Joan nothing what I'm thinking about, can't get him
Speaker 1: out nothing, think what I'm thinking about. Hello, this is
Speaker 1: Alan ship Knuck back for another Fire Drill podcast. It
Speaker 1: is Sunday that means Michael Bamberger and Philadelphia and Ryan
Speaker 1: French somewhere in the middle of America have joined us. Boys.
Speaker 1: Thanks for being here. Delighted Michael, Alan Jake behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: Good to be here. Michael usually just give us a
Speaker 1: raised fist or something that the podcast listeners cannot hear,
Speaker 1: so I'm happy. That's actually real quickly. This is not
Speaker 1: the greatest way to start the podcast, but real quickly.
Speaker 1: Jake Muldowney is our producer, huge Packers fan, I'm Alliance fan.
Speaker 1: Today didn't go great. Next week, Jake is going to
Speaker 1: He usually doesn't show his face on this thing, but
Speaker 1: he's going to next week because I have an amazing
Speaker 1: Lions hat that I'm going to send him and he's
Speaker 1: going to be on. Thanks Jake, Love you, buddy. Well,
Speaker 1: it's it's a competitive sport um being a football fan
Speaker 1: if you're a member of the fire Pick collective. So
Speaker 1: let's start in uh in Mexico at Mayacobo because Russell
Speaker 1: Henley won. I mean, if I'm honest, I haven't thought
Speaker 1: about Russell Henley in years, not I at all. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's no you know, he was might just send
Speaker 1: her up for one quick second thirty six whole later
Speaker 1: at the US Open in San Diego. I think we
Speaker 1: all remember that. Yeah, that was that was the last
Speaker 1: time I thought about him, honestly, And but great guy,
Speaker 1: he's just super dude. I've always enjoyed talking to him.
Speaker 1: So this is his fifth career PGA Tour win. He's
Speaker 1: gonna he's now headed to probably thirty or forty million
Speaker 1: dollars in career earnings. He's gonna have a very very
Speaker 1: nice career. Um, I mean, is is Russell Henley the
Speaker 1: poster boy for just how good these guys are? Is he?
Speaker 1: This is an indictment of the tour that you can go,
Speaker 1: you know, you can go years that winning and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden he wins again, Like where have
Speaker 1: you been all this time? Russell? Like what do we
Speaker 1: make of the fifth career victory for Russell Henley. He's
Speaker 1: a super talent. You know, I would say he's at
Speaker 1: the Willie Wilcox level. And uh, you know, he's got
Speaker 1: all the shots. He's not very long. But I've I've
Speaker 1: watched him play. I've always enjoyed watching him play. He's
Speaker 1: a great talker and and you guys probably know the
Speaker 1: story where he q himself when he was playing with
Speaker 1: a nonconforming ball? Was this the same tournament? Think it
Speaker 1: might have been. Do you guys happen to know? Was
Speaker 1: that in Mexico? But anyway, it was one of those
Speaker 1: situations not to get into all the details. Um, but
Speaker 1: he was the only person who could have possibly known
Speaker 1: that he switched golf ball brands from a conforming to
Speaker 1: a nonconforming that happened to be in his bag and
Speaker 1: he used it and uh, and he missed the cut.
Speaker 1: And what he said really honestly at the time was
Speaker 1: he was more afraid of how he would feel if
Speaker 1: he cheated and stayed in the tournament. He was afraid
Speaker 1: at what the long term repercussions would be for his mind.
Speaker 1: He's a super interesting guy and I'm couldn't be happy
Speaker 1: for him, and he's a he's a major talent. And yes,
Speaker 1: it's your point. I think it does. I think Russell
Speaker 1: Henley's occasional appearance, uh and his ability to contend just
Speaker 1: does show you another example of how incredibly deep the
Speaker 1: PHA tour fields are. Yeah, I mean I remember his
Speaker 1: first win, um kind of was like twelve years ago
Speaker 1: now in Hawaii, you know, he went twenty four under,
Speaker 1: was the second lowest score in PG Tour history. Um,
Speaker 1: and it was like wow, when he was a rookie,
Speaker 1: He's like, this guy is going to be a world beater.
Speaker 1: And um, you know, I think that golf course favors
Speaker 1: a certain kind of finesse player and you know, maybe
Speaker 1: that it was just one of those things. But UM,
Speaker 1: I just I'll never forget when he came out of
Speaker 1: box like that, you know, basically the start of his
Speaker 1: rookie year. Um. So I'm sure Russell Henley is probably
Speaker 1: content with with his career. But I've always I've always
Speaker 1: kind of remembered that performance and thought, well, where's Russell Henley?
Speaker 1: Or I haven't thought of Russell Henley? But I don't know, Ryan,
Speaker 1: what what's your take on on on what it means
Speaker 1: when when these guys just pop up and and snatch
Speaker 1: a victory and then disappear for a while. Uh. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it makes me think two things. I just
Speaker 1: looked it up. But Ricky Fowler has five wins right A.
Speaker 1: It makes me think what marketing means, right Like, I
Speaker 1: don't know if that's just personality or agent or a
Speaker 1: combination of all of those things or being in contention
Speaker 1: and majors or whatever, but they have the same amount
Speaker 1: of things. And it also makes me think and and
Speaker 1: this is me included in this group that we underappreciate
Speaker 1: a lot of players on the PGA Tour, and Russell
Speaker 1: Henley would be amongst them. I mean, five wins is
Speaker 1: in the scheme of things. You know, how long the
Speaker 1: tour has been around, and how many players have five
Speaker 1: or more wins. It's miniscule. And uh but I mean again,
Speaker 1: this is not a shot at Russell. It's just like
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you don't really think about him
Speaker 1: for a year or two years or whatever or eight
Speaker 1: months and then all of a sudden, boom he wins again.
Speaker 1: I mean it is the quietest five wins, one of
Speaker 1: the quietest five wins that I know of. Who will
Speaker 1: win next on the PGA Tour Between Russell Henley, Jonathan
Speaker 1: Bird and Rick Fowler? I mean, well, I think Jonathan
Speaker 1: Bird's probably, I mean he's been knocking around. I don't know,
Speaker 1: you can never guy, He's just like he's gonna be
Speaker 1: sixty four and you can be like out there on
Speaker 1: the tour somehow, Um, Jonathan Jonathan Bird mad respect to
Speaker 1: that guy has he pushes his own push cart at
Speaker 1: corn Ferry Monday's I mean wild. I mean I've tweeted
Speaker 1: about him many times. He's been super super nice to me.
Speaker 1: Great dude, and uh and um, I just can't believe
Speaker 1: that a man who has that many PGA tour wins
Speaker 1: pushes his own card at the at a corn Ferry event.
Speaker 1: But John Birton, he has five tour wins. Is that
Speaker 1: why you're going this direction? Michael, Yes, yeah. I mean
Speaker 1: for you to say, Ryan, when you say it's a
Speaker 1: minuscule amount, I mean it's actually somewhat substantial. I mean
Speaker 1: there's there's a lot of guys who know. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm a miniscule amount of people have that many wins.
Speaker 1: I see I misunderstood. Yeah, you know. And it's just
Speaker 1: like we and this is me included all of us.
Speaker 1: I'm not talking just the three people in this room.
Speaker 1: It's like we kind of underappreciate Russell Henley. Right we're
Speaker 1: talking before. It's like, I mean, oh, he's got five wins.
Speaker 1: I was like, he's asked five wins. It's like, I mean,
Speaker 1: and that is I mean, he is in a very
Speaker 1: very very select group of PGA twour players. Well, and
Speaker 1: not only that, I mean he led by six strokes
Speaker 1: through fifty four holes. That's hard to do. I mean
Speaker 1: that that is that is a dominant before does every
Speaker 1: time he wins. Yeah, I mean you can go deep
Speaker 1: and that's I guess my frustration is like, if if
Speaker 1: you're good enough to lap the field like that, um,
Speaker 1: how can you can't do it more often? I mean
Speaker 1: that that's that's my big question. And it's not specific
Speaker 1: to Russell Henley. It's it's a lot of these guys like,
Speaker 1: if you're good enough to to go that deep and
Speaker 1: completely blow away the field in over fifty or four holes,
Speaker 1: you know, shouldn't be able to win in two or
Speaker 1: three times a year. I use a Graham to let
Speaker 1: uh and we're Michael and I. We've talked about a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff, but we talked about Graham to let also.
Speaker 1: I use a quote of his um a lot and
Speaker 1: he says, you know, if you're not a top player
Speaker 1: in the world, for most guys like myself or in
Speaker 1: this case Russell Henley, like we have our best stuff
Speaker 1: maybe five times a year, and you know, if we
Speaker 1: don't take advantage of it. We're not gonna win that
Speaker 1: year because our B game and C game is not
Speaker 1: good enough to win on the PGA tour. So I mean,
Speaker 1: maybe he just falls into that. But his A game
Speaker 1: is ridiculous, you know. I think it was David's Love
Speaker 1: who said, you know, and I've heard it from a
Speaker 1: few people since, like of a tour players earnings are
Speaker 1: gonna come in their starts. Like it's kind of what
Speaker 1: you're saying, Ryan, Like the these guys they have a
Speaker 1: handful of hot weeks and that that makes the whole season,
Speaker 1: And um, I don't know that they're so optimized if
Speaker 1: they want to be with the track man and a
Speaker 1: sports psychologist and the nutritionist and the trainer, Like I
Speaker 1: guess I would just expect a little more consistency week
Speaker 1: to week. I mean, like look at Steph Curry. You know,
Speaker 1: he his numbers came in and game out are almost identical,
Speaker 1: and he's playing against different teams every night. They're designed
Speaker 1: to stop him, but he kind of maintains a very
Speaker 1: consistent performance. Obviously, he's one of the greatest players of
Speaker 1: all time, so maybe that's not a fair comparison, But
Speaker 1: like you know there's Uh, that's that's my my question.
Speaker 1: And maybe that's the ephemeral nature of sports, and golf
Speaker 1: is hold on ephemeral word of the day. What does
Speaker 1: ephemeral made experious like it's that's I mean, that's the
Speaker 1: great mystery of sports. That's why some guys can do
Speaker 1: in some camp. Michael, what are your thoughts on this? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I think Russell Henley, if he were on
Speaker 1: the program right now, tell us that he is a
Speaker 1: head case. Uh So, Alan, everything you're describing is great
Speaker 1: if you're mentally tiger and you can just bring it
Speaker 1: every time. If you don't have it, you'll summon something else.
Speaker 1: And Russell Henley, by his own admission, isn't built for
Speaker 1: that he had There's a lot of things that go
Speaker 1: crazy weird in Russell Henley's mind, So I don't think
Speaker 1: I just don't think he's capable of it. One to
Speaker 1: this conversation leads to something that I've thought about, but
Speaker 1: not really this specifically ever before. Before. Uh. Given what
Speaker 1: you just said about the twenty numbers, it's amazing that
Speaker 1: the golfers don't tank like the tennis players. In other words,
Speaker 1: they grind and grinding, grinding, grind to make cuts and
Speaker 1: everything else. And based on eight D twenty, I'm not
Speaker 1: really sure why they do, but they do do, and
Speaker 1: it's interesting. Yeah, well, I mean there's a few reasons.
Speaker 1: I guess sometimes you don't know which is your is
Speaker 1: your weak you know, there's a million examples of guys
Speaker 1: barely make the cut by one stroke and then they
Speaker 1: go really deep on the weekend and they finished T
Speaker 1: three and that's what that's one of their great weeks. So,
Speaker 1: I mean it's things things can click with with one swinger,
Speaker 1: one put. So I think that's the answer Michael is
Speaker 1: they don't quite know when it's coming. But to be fair,
Speaker 1: and Michael knows as he's Caddy. But when you're like
Speaker 1: ttight and you have no real chance of moving on Sunday,
Speaker 1: it's kind of a death march is too strong of
Speaker 1: a word. But it's not a lot of fun at
Speaker 1: a PGA tour event, uh inside the ropes when you're
Speaker 1: like T forty eight on a Sunday, you know, it's
Speaker 1: kind of like very business like let's go home type thing,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, but I mean, like if you just
Speaker 1: going back to the Maya Cooba leaderboard. Scottie Shuffler was
Speaker 1: in thirty fifth place going into Sunday. He shot sixty two.
Speaker 1: He's tied for third. That's FedEx Cup points, that's Ryder
Speaker 1: Cup points, that's World Ranking points. I mean, there's always
Speaker 1: it gives you something. It gives us something to work
Speaker 1: on and look forward to your next time. Ryan. Definitely,
Speaker 1: I've seen it, and and we we all know that
Speaker 1: it's true. But I think it's more common that they're
Speaker 1: gonna like, well, let's see if I can find something here. Yes,
Speaker 1: they're definitely some news where they just grind it out
Speaker 1: and get home, but there are as some news that
Speaker 1: they that they don't. Michael and I mean Alan I
Speaker 1: think said it last week. I mean, Shamus Power is
Speaker 1: one of the most consistent players in the world right now.
Speaker 1: That dude is going to be on the Ryder Cup team.
Speaker 1: Mike God, every time he's ease it up, he's in
Speaker 1: he's in contention. It's funny how his his whole, his
Speaker 1: whole trajectory has really accelerated. And I mean that Saturday's
Speaker 1: sixty three was nuts, right, Yeah, he had an ace,
Speaker 1: he had a whole out um, he had an eagle
Speaker 1: like he's he's not only as he consistent, but he's
Speaker 1: he's kind of explosive, Like the guy's got another gear.
Speaker 1: It's it's impressive to see a young player put it
Speaker 1: together the way he has. I agree he's making himself
Speaker 1: a lock for for Rome. Which and as a reminder,
Speaker 1: I said it last week, but I'll say it again.
Speaker 1: Eighteen months ago I saw him on the range at
Speaker 1: a Monday Cute and he was like, I just want
Speaker 1: to get a few more starts so I get a
Speaker 1: year added to my pension. Like he was in a
Speaker 1: like bad place, like, oh, I'm gonna get fifteen starts,
Speaker 1: I'll go back to Q School, get good corn ferry
Speaker 1: status and starts this whole process again. And here we are.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's wild. It's pretty wild, alright. So Maya
Speaker 1: Cobe is where a lot of golf fans um are
Speaker 1: paying attention. But for you, Ryan, I know the big
Speaker 1: events is Q School. It's happening right now. It finishes
Speaker 1: on Monday, um when this podcast will drop, so we
Speaker 1: don't have we don't have the finished results, but set
Speaker 1: up some of the intrigue that that's happening in at
Speaker 1: Q School. I will hijack the rest of this podcast
Speaker 1: because I swear I love this. Uh okay, real quick.
Speaker 1: Chan Kim is leading UH, and it would be very
Speaker 1: interesting to see. He's obviously going to get his card.
Speaker 1: He's four strokes ahead and you have to finish in
Speaker 1: the top forty to get guaranteed starts. But Jan Kim
Speaker 1: had a very good careators on the state and just
Speaker 1: hasn't been able to break through. Has played well though
Speaker 1: in a few majors. I think it was like twenty
Speaker 1: five or something in the p J champ Mean Ship
Speaker 1: last year, something like that. But I think he has
Speaker 1: seven wins in Japan and was in the top hundred
Speaker 1: in the world at one time, and I think he's
Speaker 1: like one now. But anyway he is. He has four
Speaker 1: strokes ahead, so it'll be very interesting to see. But
Speaker 1: I mean, Chris got her up is up there. Former
Speaker 1: ncy A champion, UH, he's second Chase Seifert UH a
Speaker 1: veteran UH. Jared so Watta, here's a great story at
Speaker 1: Q school and then I'll let you guys get back
Speaker 1: to talking. Jared Sawatta played at eight University Hawaii and
Speaker 1: never had a scoring average better than seventy eight. Like
Speaker 1: he should not have even teed it up in a
Speaker 1: pro event. I mean, no one looked at his game
Speaker 1: and thought, you know what, you should go play professionally. Uh.
Speaker 1: And for eleven years he uh like just grinded away
Speaker 1: and he has an amazing record that you guys probably
Speaker 1: don't know. But he's Monday qualified for the Sony in
Speaker 1: Sony opened five times um, which is ridiculous. But he's
Speaker 1: gonna get his card. I mean, he's within he's well
Speaker 1: up the leaderboard, and that is insane that someone who
Speaker 1: average basically eighty at college is going to play on
Speaker 1: the second best tour in the United States. I love,
Speaker 1: I love to hear that. What I mean, we should
Speaker 1: we should at least acknowledge. Um. The legend Spencer Levine,
Speaker 1: who going into the last round is he's tied for fifteen. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, he went he went low on the first round.
Speaker 1: He's kind of hanging out with a couple of seventy ones.
Speaker 1: He's he's dropping a little bit, but he's still there.
Speaker 1: I mean, well, right, let me ask you this, because
Speaker 1: Levi pops up on Twitter and and people kind of
Speaker 1: why do we love this guy? I mean, for the
Speaker 1: fans who aren't totally tuned into the cults here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean he is just such an honest dude. Uh.
Speaker 1: I mean I think most people was at the memorial
Speaker 1: Guys Michael Memorial when he was shaking in the in
Speaker 1: the thing, and yeah, I mean he just wears his
Speaker 1: heart on his sleeve. He swears he's used to be
Speaker 1: a smoker. He hasn't smoked a long time, but he
Speaker 1: was one of the last guys who smoked regularly on
Speaker 1: the course. Yeah, and I mean I think he just
Speaker 1: he does not. I just think he like everybody can
Speaker 1: relate to him in some sense. He's just a regular dude, nervous, ticky.
Speaker 1: Now he has a hockey, he does the happy Gilmore
Speaker 1: uh putting stroke, you know. I mean it's ridiculous. It's
Speaker 1: it's ridiculous and we all love him for it. Now. Really,
Speaker 1: a very important sidebar of him getting back to tour
Speaker 1: is he's two cuts uh short of the two made
Speaker 1: cuts short of getting his full pension on the PGA tour.
Speaker 1: So that dude is very motivated to get back to
Speaker 1: the tour. Don't really have to achieve a hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty made cuts, and he has a hundred I mean,
Speaker 1: a hundred is a big number. And to me, it's
Speaker 1: kind of wild that it's based I would think it'd
Speaker 1: be based on starts as opposed to made cuts. I
Speaker 1: think there's two ways that you can do it, I think,
Speaker 1: but I'm not positive about that. Yeah, we should dig
Speaker 1: into that because that that's I know, the maid cuts
Speaker 1: has always loomed large. And it seems like, you know,
Speaker 1: at IBM, it's like how many years did you work?
Speaker 1: It's not how many computers did you sell? Like you know,
Speaker 1: you were there, you were punching the clock. You were
Speaker 1: part of the show. And and to Peggett to actually
Speaker 1: having him to perform in a certain way, maybe it's fair.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's a meritocracy. I don't know, but um as
Speaker 1: a PG tour slides more and more to socialism. Just
Speaker 1: given out half a million dollars to anyone who wants it.
Speaker 1: It's like it's an interesting it's an interesting wrinkle. Um, Michael,
Speaker 1: your favorite Spencer Levine story. No, I just I've enjoyed
Speaker 1: watching him. You know, he was he ran really hot.
Speaker 1: He he smoked those servites right down to the nub.
Speaker 1: And uh, I'm glad he quit smoking. It's a nasty habit,
Speaker 1: but it was kind of I think you can still
Speaker 1: smoke on the course because I know I've seeing John
Speaker 1: Daily do it, and maybe they just know how to
Speaker 1: Shan Kim Jan Kim is a big vapor. Uh huh okay,
Speaker 1: real quick on um. A guy that I posted about yesterday.
Speaker 1: His name is Chris. Chris, I'll go, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know how to say his last name. But
Speaker 1: he went bogey free except for one hole he shot
Speaker 1: a seventy four. He went bogey free and shot seventy
Speaker 1: four with a thirteen thirteen. Uh. That means he played
Speaker 1: the other holes six under, played seventeen holes six under,
Speaker 1: and shot seventy four. When it first posted, it was
Speaker 1: posted as a seventeen because the poor live score is
Speaker 1: this guy was pepper ring balls out of bounce, and
Speaker 1: I mean pepper ring balls out abound. The live score
Speaker 1: had no idea what had happened. Uh. Evidently pop he
Speaker 1: peppered four oh b before getting one in play. Well
Speaker 1: that was remember when when Kevin Na made his fourteen
Speaker 1: at the Texas Open and they had to have a
Speaker 1: pow wow to replay all the strokes because he lost
Speaker 1: track of it. It was happening so fast, and he
Speaker 1: was he was slashing away in the forest. His caddy
Speaker 1: was rattled like they had to watch the tape, I
Speaker 1: think to make sure they got it right. So I
Speaker 1: pitied the score. But yeah, well, sometimes in a pro
Speaker 1: event when it gets a little sideways in the and
Speaker 1: the live score has a lot of stress, I mean
Speaker 1: we can all sense the stress of like what ball
Speaker 1: is that? What the and that is obviously like very
Speaker 1: rarely it's more than one ball, you know. Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean this dude fired six off the tee. The
Speaker 1: fifth one happened to be in bounds. Evidently that dude
Speaker 1: fired six balls, and that live score just sweating bullets.
Speaker 1: I mean, there is no way you're not He marked
Speaker 1: it down as a seventeen, and what's close it was
Speaker 1: a thirteen. It's it's hard to keep track after a while.
Speaker 1: We've all been there. Um. But you know, on on
Speaker 1: the other end of a really famous one, uh. I
Speaker 1: think the ten that Woods made on twelve at Augusta.
Speaker 1: I think the area was defending and then he went
Speaker 1: from five under from there to the house. I think
Speaker 1: that I put that in, you know, the Pantheon of
Speaker 1: Woods activity he sets up there For me, Michael is
Speaker 1: talking about is the gumption to keep going, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: which is what your guy did. He kept going, Oh
Speaker 1: my god, a ridiculous at Q School. I mean, the
Speaker 1: most important week of your career in some respects right
Speaker 1: up until this point, the most important, uh event of
Speaker 1: your week, and you make a thirteen easily could go
Speaker 1: very sideways coming in right like very sideways. He played
Speaker 1: two under is awesome. It's ridiculous. He didn't play great today,
Speaker 1: but he has an outside chance if he plays really
Speaker 1: well tomorrow to get in the top forty and get
Speaker 1: guaranteed starts. If he does that with a thirteen on
Speaker 1: the card, the story of Q School not even it's
Speaker 1: not even close. That's that's a legendary Um all right,
Speaker 1: So I think we should acknowledge at this point in
Speaker 1: the podcast were among the few people in the golf
Speaker 1: media who have not been sued by Patrick Read yet.
Speaker 1: Um you know this is this is a dicey place
Speaker 1: to go if we're we're trying to stay out of it. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it was a it was a big
Speaker 1: part of the weekend golf. So he refiled his lawsuit. Um,
Speaker 1: you know he obviously he he was at he filed
Speaker 1: against Brandle Shamblee. But now he's added Aimon Lynch was
Speaker 1: okay Amon and loves to he he's a he's a
Speaker 1: pot st. He said some inflammatory things. I guess you
Speaker 1: could maybe like, Okay, well it's not he's not gonna win,
Speaker 1: but he might have he might have some beef there.
Speaker 1: But then he added Doug Ferguson, who we all of
Speaker 1: the ap We all know Doug just plays it down
Speaker 1: the middle all the time. I mean, he's the Fred
Speaker 1: Funk of golf reporters. Like he's just the middle of
Speaker 1: the middle. He's on the sprinkler line. It's hard to
Speaker 1: imagine he said anything that would that would be actionable.
Speaker 1: And then who's the nicest person in the world, and
Speaker 1: definitely in the golf it's obviously Damon Hack right, So
Speaker 1: Damon got swept up into it. Shane Bacon um like
Speaker 1: Shane Ryan. Yeah, I mean Shane wrote a whole book
Speaker 1: about it. But yeah, I mean, so Shane, you know,
Speaker 1: he in some ways he kind of broke the story
Speaker 1: of Patrick Reid's um, you know, in his book, and
Speaker 1: which of course got excerpted and cited many places, you know,
Speaker 1: talking about Patrick Read's misadventures in college and and beyond,
Speaker 1: and so Alan quick consruption. Did did did not Ian
Speaker 1: O'Connor have that first? I'm not sure if Ian had
Speaker 1: it first. I feel like it was Shane in his
Speaker 1: books Slaying the Tiger. I mean, there's there's been different
Speaker 1: parts of the story. I mean Ian had the parents
Speaker 1: at one point, but you know, Shane got all the
Speaker 1: Georgia teammates. Really yeah, because the Augusta State teammates and
Speaker 1: everything the Augusta State teammates that. I mean, I would
Speaker 1: say Ian may have had it a little bit, but
Speaker 1: Shane advanced it and and so very good book. By
Speaker 1: the way, not saying it's true or it's not true.
Speaker 1: It's true. It's probably true, but it's wild. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't mean, you know, the First Amendment is such
Speaker 1: a powerful tool. It's very hard to win a libel lawsuit.
Speaker 1: I would assume that that Read and his lawyer understand that.
Speaker 1: But I guess they're trying to have some chilling effect
Speaker 1: and this guy's lives. What is the point of this?
Speaker 1: What is the point? It's not to win money because
Speaker 1: they know they can't win, because you gotta pay for lawyers,
Speaker 1: and you started making people nervous and uh, no one
Speaker 1: wants to get sued. We've all, you know, been been
Speaker 1: close to it, and it's uh, it's unsettling. So I mean,
Speaker 1: he's even even when we had when Alan and I
Speaker 1: had Jeff Tubanan were and he was saying, there's a
Speaker 1: legal term for for this, it's a joke. Uh, it's
Speaker 1: still a lawsuit. You still require, it's still gonna so
Speaker 1: you're gonna need a lawyer. I would like to say
Speaker 1: this about Patrick Reed, if I may, Patrick Reed is
Speaker 1: the kindest, just warmest, most being I've ever known in
Speaker 1: my life. And I would like to add that I
Speaker 1: have never outwardly questioned whether he may or may not
Speaker 1: have skirted the rules at a Monday qualifier. I don't
Speaker 1: believe that. I mean hypothetically, can you cheat at a
Speaker 1: Monday qualifier? Yes, it's relatively easy. There's no fans, there's
Speaker 1: no rules officials, there's hardly any caddies. Could you Yes?
Speaker 1: Did he definitely not? The man is upstanding citizen. It's
Speaker 1: not even close, not even a thought in my mind.
Speaker 1: Did he hit it over in the woods and find
Speaker 1: one magically? No? No, he just found his well, man, Well,
Speaker 1: I mean the thing is, when we keep adding more
Speaker 1: and more people to the lawsuit, it gets to be ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Like I mean, Brandal definitely had some very strong takes now,
Speaker 1: which is jobbed offered opinion. Opinion is almost always protected speech.
Speaker 1: So but that would that could have been, that could
Speaker 1: have been spite see it in in a fun deconstruction.
Speaker 1: But when when you when you add the entire press
Speaker 1: room to the lawsuit, it's kind of like, what are
Speaker 1: we doing here? So I don't know why doesn't he
Speaker 1: add Ricky Fowler to it while he's at it? Because
Speaker 1: at the Albany event, Uh, if you guys remember this,
Speaker 1: and you probably do, Ricky Fowler was already in the
Speaker 1: house and he watched a replay of it of you know,
Speaker 1: when he grounded his club or you don't scraped away
Speaker 1: the sand before where he allegedly scraped away the sad
Speaker 1: before playing Uh that show. Well, I'm we're American, correct
Speaker 1: her mat Uh Larry Larry Cusman. We said allegedly, Okay,
Speaker 1: thank you continue. Do you guys remember what Follower said?
Speaker 1: He looked at like, what's even the discussion? You're obviously
Speaker 1: it's so obvious what he did. Uh wait, a lot
Speaker 1: of people because Ricky Fowler knows, they all know, they
Speaker 1: out well and and Cam Smith had had some strong
Speaker 1: things to say, you know, a fellow live golfer. Now, so, um,
Speaker 1: it's it's for iculous. But as you say, Michael, I mean,
Speaker 1: for the these are our colleagues. They have to defend it,
Speaker 1: they have to get a lawyer. That um, their parent
Speaker 1: companies are part of the lawsuits. So they're they're sweating it.
Speaker 1: And it does create clearly, um, some energy around it,
Speaker 1: which is I mean, we always praise Patrick Reed lavishly.
Speaker 1: This podcast is hardly the first time this speak of
Speaker 1: it we speak. You can see how people might, um,
Speaker 1: it might affect their behavior. I think that's ultimately what
Speaker 1: they're trying to accomplish here, is that when next time
Speaker 1: someone wants to drag up Patrick Reads. I've said this before.
Speaker 1: I don't know how the Reids don't have a reality show,
Speaker 1: but we need it, and we need it now, Okay,
Speaker 1: because we see public and we're like, whoa, Okay, imagine
Speaker 1: what is happening. We've all seen their house. Okay, we've
Speaker 1: all taken the pictures of the house and about sums
Speaker 1: it up when you're when you're like, hey, we're gonna
Speaker 1: check your board everything and make it super dark goth,
Speaker 1: I mean wild, wild house. So whoever's listening think that's enough.
Speaker 1: TV executive, please please give the reads. When we speak
Speaker 1: of the big three, the golfer, his wife, and the
Speaker 1: brother in law, how do you guys rank the big three?
Speaker 1: For like, if you could give truth serum to only
Speaker 1: one of them, who would you want it to? The wife?
Speaker 1: The wife's I mean Justine. Well, of course we don't
Speaker 1: know it to be true that she's running the use
Speaker 1: golf a legend had running it appears to be running it,
Speaker 1: but again we have no conclusive treef for that. All
Speaker 1: of this, all of this says that the Reds need
Speaker 1: a reality show. Okay, you know who runs the Twitter account.
Speaker 1: We'd see him angrily tweeting at two am. We need
Speaker 1: it all And what I was gonna say is that
Speaker 1: Twitter handle moves the needle like very few things in golf.
Speaker 1: When Justine logs on or I'm sorry not Justine. Whoever
Speaker 1: is running that that handle? We don't know it to
Speaker 1: be Justine, but we think it is, but we can't
Speaker 1: prove it. We don't know for sure, but we like
Speaker 1: it's justine. When that person whoever it is, logs on
Speaker 1: like golf, Twitter blows up, it's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. Man,
Speaker 1: say this probably on the subject, and I think you
Speaker 1: will agree. Um. I want to stand in praise of
Speaker 1: our close personal friend Mark Steinberg, who did not sue
Speaker 1: us when we when we named a a an agent
Speaker 1: to a golfer named Tree Tremont and then a book
Speaker 1: called The Swinger Finky Finkelstein, and uh, I just think
Speaker 1: that shows what a man he is. And I appreciate it. Mark.
Speaker 1: Thank you. We're living in an alternate reality right now.
Speaker 1: It's actually kind of fun. Oh oh yeah, Oh no,
Speaker 1: that's right. We're supposed to say in the main road
Speaker 1: here all right, Um, this is this is a more
Speaker 1: serious question. How about you with lawyers when you're writing
Speaker 1: the film book? What what kind of things can you
Speaker 1: talk about about where things got Harry? Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: the Simn's user lawyers were awesome. They basically, you know,
Speaker 1: we had a lot of conversations asking me about you know,
Speaker 1: sourcing and how how confident I else in in the information?
Speaker 1: And they pretty much always came down on my side. Um,
Speaker 1: and there was you know, a little bit of phrasing
Speaker 1: they wanted a massage, which was fine because it didn't
Speaker 1: really change the actual meaning of it. But um, they
Speaker 1: they they are they're used to these fights and this
Speaker 1: is what these lawyers do for a living. And while
Speaker 1: their their job theorectly is to protect the publisher, Um,
Speaker 1: they're in it because they want to. They want to
Speaker 1: take care of the writers. I mean, they're they're not. UM,
Speaker 1: I don't see them as as corporate stooges. Like they're
Speaker 1: there because they care about the First Amendment. They care
Speaker 1: about the written word, they believe in in um is
Speaker 1: the big part of it, a legal side as you
Speaker 1: go through it. I mean there's like I mean proof
Speaker 1: reading obviously and those kind of editing. But absolutely, and
Speaker 1: they they read it very carefully because you know that's
Speaker 1: there and I already have an instinctive understand ending of it.
Speaker 1: But and I flagged a couple of things, and uh,
Speaker 1: it went back and forth, but there was there was
Speaker 1: not one thing that I wanted for the book that
Speaker 1: they said to take out. And there's a couple of
Speaker 1: things that they we talked over extensively and they gave
Speaker 1: their their go ahead to put in the book, and
Speaker 1: I elected not too for my own reasons. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of things that would have been dicey and
Speaker 1: we would have had to rely on unnamed sources, and
Speaker 1: I just didn't want to go that route. But you know,
Speaker 1: some very explosive material like after talking to where they
Speaker 1: said yeah approved, So I was. I was impressed. Phil
Speaker 1: is very well lawyered, as you know, better than most, um.
Speaker 1: But is he litigious? Has he gone down that road
Speaker 1: at all? He has this lawyer, Glenn Cohen, whom back
Speaker 1: in the days of the Phil rumors, some of which
Speaker 1: I had discussed in a sober manner in my book.
Speaker 1: They went out they tried to find these anonymous internet
Speaker 1: trolls and actually did a good job of it. Um.
Speaker 1: And they and they were able to shut down some
Speaker 1: of these They were just individuals and they basically just
Speaker 1: somehow got their identity from the servers and they were
Speaker 1: able to threaten them and make them go away, which
Speaker 1: was their ultimate goal. Um. But no that they did
Speaker 1: file a lawsuit in in in Canadian court, and that
Speaker 1: was that was trying trying to unmask one of one
Speaker 1: of these anonymous posters and they succeeded in doing that.
Speaker 1: But that's really been the extent of it. And um,
Speaker 1: you know I did. I talked, so I talked to
Speaker 1: Cohen extensively, and then Phil had another lawyer from from
Speaker 1: San Diego who got involved and we had some some conversations.
Speaker 1: So yeah, he's definitely lawyered up. But um, you know,
Speaker 1: I especially the guy at San Diego was pretty sophisticated.
Speaker 1: I mean he seemed to understand like, Okay, we can't
Speaker 1: really win a First Amendment case, so let me just
Speaker 1: try and and influence things on the margins. But um,
Speaker 1: you know, it was a little good cop bad cop
Speaker 1: between two different lawyers. But uh no, I mean they
Speaker 1: given everything that's around the Nicholson's over the decades, Um,
Speaker 1: they have not elected to go to the courts, which
Speaker 1: is interesting of course when you do that, as Patrick
Speaker 1: Reid's gonna find out, the other side gets to do.
Speaker 1: You know, they get to ask the questions too, and
Speaker 1: you're under oath. So now you know, I think ultimately
Speaker 1: in Phil's case, it's not worth the risk of discovery. Like, um,
Speaker 1: you know, if if he wants to challenge people, then
Speaker 1: he's gonna get challenged, and I think he knows there's
Speaker 1: some things I don't want to come to light. Patrick
Speaker 1: Reed may find out the same thing. Um, there's there's
Speaker 1: a term for this, um you know, funk around and
Speaker 1: find out, and that may happen to Patrick Reid. You
Speaker 1: know this is basically he's he's kind of trying to
Speaker 1: hold seventy footers right, and he might he might run
Speaker 1: a few off the green to use a golf metaphor,
Speaker 1: like he's he's gonna there's gonna be some blowback to
Speaker 1: this when when you know, like because not only did
Speaker 1: he he sue the individuals, he also sued the parent companies.
Speaker 1: And they have resources and they have people have been
Speaker 1: doing this along time, so they're they're gonna now go
Speaker 1: after him, and he may regret going down this road.
Speaker 1: I was once with Trump at the West Palm Beach course,
Speaker 1: uh and the Golf Digest ranking had just come out,
Speaker 1: and of course you want to be in the top hundred.
Speaker 1: And as he told the story that he was, he
Speaker 1: was number he was number hundred one on the list,
Speaker 1: and uh so he started writing his own brief, his
Speaker 1: own legal brief about why golf Digests had screwed him over,
Speaker 1: and of course he would just submit that to his
Speaker 1: lawer and have this, have the lawyer files something a
Speaker 1: totally completely frivolous act that would go nowhere. But the
Speaker 1: requires golf digests to defend its process. How do we
Speaker 1: make the list and go through a whole thing that
Speaker 1: nobody wants to waste their time doing. Uh so, yeah, well,
Speaker 1: for Trump it's a pr exercise, right, So, like he
Speaker 1: just he's trying to he's trying to defend his golf course.
Speaker 1: And for him, that was worth paying the lawyer thousand
Speaker 1: dollars and fees or maybe not paying him. You know
Speaker 1: Trump's history of not paying his lawyers. But um, you know,
Speaker 1: Patrick Reid's getting a lot of billable hours, and maybe
Speaker 1: he thinks that that somehow he's he's going to launder
Speaker 1: his reputation here. But I think it's more about trying
Speaker 1: to have this That might be the wildest part of this, right,
Speaker 1: Like that's the only reason that you do this. You know,
Speaker 1: for the most part it's going to be hard, too,
Speaker 1: almost impossible to win. He must think that this is
Speaker 1: going to like prove that he's just this upstanding person
Speaker 1: and that is the wildest take of all of this, right,
Speaker 1: Like he's at home thinking like, man, really I've done it.
Speaker 1: Now him and Justine are like, yeah, look at what
Speaker 1: we've done. We're gonna get everybody on her side. Like
Speaker 1: that is the craziest part of all of this, right,
Speaker 1: Like that they think that this is somehow like fixing
Speaker 1: a reputation, like this is making it worse. The craziest
Speaker 1: part is it shows you how completely out of whack
Speaker 1: all the golf is now. I mean, like this has
Speaker 1: become a routie and thing that Patrick reread is suing
Speaker 1: somebody for something, you know, and uh, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Golf used to be a place. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: lawyers getting very wealthy on golf this year, very wealthy. Right,
Speaker 1: people used to just settle their differences, uh quietly. It
Speaker 1: was just, you know, it's just another indication of what
Speaker 1: turmoil the game is in the fact that these suits
Speaker 1: are happening in the first place. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: a more aggressive kind of reporting of golf is certainly
Speaker 1: part of it. Speaking of that, if I'm ay Allen,
Speaker 1: unless you tell me this is not appropriate thing to
Speaker 1: bring up. But you know, these Bubba Watson comments about
Speaker 1: of course we got an endorsement when he got you know,
Speaker 1: if we got money for showing up at cocktail parties
Speaker 1: and all the rest. Um. That was something like everybody
Speaker 1: seemed to know forever. Nobody ever really wrote about it. Uh,
Speaker 1: and now it's out there. And of course it's out
Speaker 1: there because Bubb is not on the PGA Tour. He's
Speaker 1: probably never going to play the PGA Tour againting So
Speaker 1: for you know, the Masters and a couple of other things,
Speaker 1: uh things, it's just you know, I put them probably
Speaker 1: the same categories Patrick It. It's like there were all
Speaker 1: these old systems in place, for good or for bad.
Speaker 1: You can definitely argue with both ways, and they're crumbling. Yeah. One,
Speaker 1: it's interesting that that read is only filed these lawsuits
Speaker 1: since he joined Live Golf, and we know that Live
Speaker 1: is fueled by Saudi money and and grievance. Those are
Speaker 1: the two rocket fuels, right and and so um I
Speaker 1: guess and the when he's on the PGA Tori, you're
Speaker 1: still trying to play nice and now he's like, that's
Speaker 1: screw it. You know, I'm I've gone I've gone to
Speaker 1: the dark side, So might as well just might as
Speaker 1: just let it rip. But you know, in Reed's case,
Speaker 1: Doug Ferguson and Aimon Lynch and Damon Hack and Brando
Speaker 1: simply are going to be reporting on and talking about
Speaker 1: his career for the next ten or fifteen years. Like,
Speaker 1: would you really, on just a very basic level, do
Speaker 1: you want to the people who are going to help
Speaker 1: assign your legacy on some level, do you want to
Speaker 1: make all the mad at you. It doesn't seem like
Speaker 1: it's not. It's the opposite a charm offensive um, but whatever.
Speaker 1: There's a zero point zero chance that he's going to
Speaker 1: find anything that Doug Ferguson did that was with malice. Uh,
Speaker 1: it will be unlikely you can find anything that Doug
Speaker 1: Ferguson road that's even inaccurate. But but if it's you know,
Speaker 1: for those who don't know that, if it's inaccurate but
Speaker 1: not with malice, it wasn't will if you weren't wilfully
Speaker 1: trying to defame the person or slander the person, or
Speaker 1: hurt the person in some way, you know, that's what
Speaker 1: constitutes liabel. There's a zero point zero chance that Doug
Speaker 1: Ferguson would be capable of it. He's just too well
Speaker 1: trained to professional. I mean I would tell that the
Speaker 1: entire group, but Doug I know best. Yeah, yeah, Shan
Speaker 1: Shane Ryan said in the tweet that you know Hunt,
Speaker 1: he said, I can't say anything about it about a
Speaker 1: stand behind my reporting, so he's obviously confident. Well, and
Speaker 1: of course it's all gonna get dressed up again. So
Speaker 1: here we go. Like, you know, people haven't thought about
Speaker 1: Shane's book in a long time. Right now, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be everywhere he put the link. I mean, smart of him,
Speaker 1: because it's a good book too. Is he put the
Speaker 1: link in his tweet. He's like, hey, I can't talk
Speaker 1: about it. If you'd like to read about it, that's
Speaker 1: so great. And it's kind of like a question that
Speaker 1: hangs over live golf, like, you know, are they actually
Speaker 1: sports watching because most golf fans have never really thought
Speaker 1: about the farious influence of Saudi Arabia on our our
Speaker 1: lives and our geopolitics. Right it just wasn't something that
Speaker 1: the average golf fan really thought about. Now I've talked
Speaker 1: about every day, every week, every podcast, Like in some
Speaker 1: ways they've called more attention to themselves and their misdeeds,
Speaker 1: Like what is the opposite of sports watching, it's like,
Speaker 1: and that's that's what reads doing with this lawsuit, and
Speaker 1: and it's changed the attitude because back to Michael's point
Speaker 1: about what Bubba said, I've heard that. I assume you
Speaker 1: guys have heard that way more than I that you know,
Speaker 1: so and so player doesn't want to play in the
Speaker 1: three m and the PGA Tour can't do appearance fees.
Speaker 1: So some sponsor pays so and so three thousand dollars
Speaker 1: to show up at a cocktail party. And it's relatively
Speaker 1: regularly happening. Uh and so skirt the rules of an
Speaker 1: in parance fee and blah blah blah, Like that is
Speaker 1: huge news, and it has become so like they've like
Speaker 1: this negativity towards them. That kind of was like, oh,
Speaker 1: there's Babba crying again. Like it wasn't really you know,
Speaker 1: it was like, that is what's happening on the PGA Tour,
Speaker 1: Like that is happening. But the negativity of these things
Speaker 1: is just not It's getting kind of like tiresome at
Speaker 1: that at some point, you know, like that should have
Speaker 1: been a huge story in my opinion, I mean it is.
Speaker 1: What's your impression, what why would Bubba go down that road,
Speaker 1: what's to be gained. It's und you see this from
Speaker 1: a lot of the live guys, and like I've had
Speaker 1: a lot of them tell me a lot of things
Speaker 1: about Rory McElroy and his finances and his ties to
Speaker 1: the tour because they're they're tired of Rory being being
Speaker 1: held up as a savior and and this guy who's
Speaker 1: doing it all for the good of the game, where
Speaker 1: you know, and the things they've told me, you've checked out.
Speaker 1: It's like pH has made a lot of money for
Speaker 1: Rory and so and and you know, one of the
Speaker 1: live guys said he's bought and sold more than any
Speaker 1: of us. But people just don't know about it. And
Speaker 1: so this will be in my forthcoming book by the way.
Speaker 1: But so it's like I don't have a link yet, Shane. Sorry,
Speaker 1: but you know there's no Tappy, Yeah that's right. Um
Speaker 1: so yeah, I mean, the the lip guys are tired
Speaker 1: of being picked on, right, there's there's they very well
Speaker 1: cultivated this this victimhood and so there it's just a
Speaker 1: chance to like fire back. And but yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: there's tournaments, who are you have people saying negative things
Speaker 1: about Rory McElroy. Yes, the live guys know that Rory
Speaker 1: McElroy is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being.
Speaker 1: I behind Patrick read, second behind Petrie Read. You know,
Speaker 1: it starts at the top with with Greg Norman. We
Speaker 1: know that that, um, he's a he's a vengeful personality
Speaker 1: and um that's trickled down to the entire organization. So
Speaker 1: there the gloves are off. I mean we've seen that
Speaker 1: all year long, and it's just it's all is being
Speaker 1: revealed and um, so yeah, I mean what Bubba said
Speaker 1: it was certainly factual. I mean there's there's tournaments where
Speaker 1: it's known like, uh yeah, just go when we fly
Speaker 1: on your jet, just go fill it up down there,
Speaker 1: you know, put in jet fuel and you know, just
Speaker 1: put on the tournament tab. You know, there's there's all
Speaker 1: kinds of little things like that that that have been
Speaker 1: done to entice players and um, and it's it's it's
Speaker 1: not even really an open seeker. It's just a known
Speaker 1: thing in the Gulf world. But um, I don't I
Speaker 1: don't know why it wasn't discussed, but you know, Bubba's
Speaker 1: sort of torn the band aid off, and there's there's
Speaker 1: more reporting to do there for sure. Okay, quickly, I
Speaker 1: no one wanted to talk about the Asian Tour. We
Speaker 1: brought up what we wanted to talk about, and these
Speaker 1: guys were senior tour. We're Bernhard Langer at I mean
Speaker 1: my tweet, My tweet yesterday was at a hundred and three,
Speaker 1: Bernhard Langer, it is probably gonna win the Rails Swap Cup.
Speaker 1: The man does not age, He does not age. It's
Speaker 1: it's incredible, actually actually truly is incredible. It's no. Swing
Speaker 1: does not need to be pretty to be effective, because
Speaker 1: the swing is not pretty. It is effective the stroke,
Speaker 1: but he gets now to be fair. Underneath my tweet,
Speaker 1: there was some very angry people about the fact that
Speaker 1: he anchors. I mean, he's like, you could play until
Speaker 1: a hundred and three if he's If he keeps anchoring,
Speaker 1: they think that his hand is touching his chest when
Speaker 1: he's they're just angry. I mean, I'm sure that's done
Speaker 1: in tournament golf in various places, but Longer seems like
Speaker 1: such a black and white personality. I don't believe that
Speaker 1: he would agree. I really agree. I agree it is
Speaker 1: ridiculous that he won again. Ridiculous it's ridiculous. And Steve Alker,
Speaker 1: how about making double on the lose a million dollars, right,
Speaker 1: And that's real money for a guy like that, You know,
Speaker 1: a million dollars some of these dudes. But that's real money.
Speaker 1: That's real money. So let's okay, how do you say
Speaker 1: his last name? Jazz? J Okay? Okay, quick story about Jazz.
Speaker 1: I am middle of COVID. My wife and I, for
Speaker 1: some reason, decide that we drive down to my brother's
Speaker 1: house in Florida as a vacation home in Florida. We
Speaker 1: made the twenty hour trip from Chicago and got there.
Speaker 1: This is like full blown middle of COVID, like everything
Speaker 1: shut down. West Florida Tour had just started back up,
Speaker 1: so and they were like an hour down the road
Speaker 1: from my brother's house. I get in the car. I
Speaker 1: drive to the West Florida tournament. Now I knew that
Speaker 1: Daniel Chopra, PJ Tour winner, multi time PJ Tour winner
Speaker 1: played in West Florida event. He pulls up in his
Speaker 1: Lamborghini and out jumps Jazz and Jazz at the time
Speaker 1: was thirty six player in the entire world, but didn't
Speaker 1: have any place to play the Asian Tour shut down
Speaker 1: and uh played West Florida Tournament in that event finished
Speaker 1: like I'm just gonna make this up. I don't know
Speaker 1: what it was to eleven or something and got a
Speaker 1: check for thirty seven dollars and thirteen cents. And it
Speaker 1: makes my day. It just makes my day that a
Speaker 1: man who's thirty six in the world got a check
Speaker 1: for thirty seven dollars, Like, what does he do with it?
Speaker 1: Did Jazz like cash the thirty seven dollar check? Yes?
Speaker 1: Or no? Of course? Well that was wasn't it? Mad? No?
Speaker 1: What was the grading Carter magazine, Michael, that um spy
Speaker 1: spy magazine they did. They had this bit going for
Speaker 1: a long time where they sent celebrities checks and increasingly
Speaker 1: small amounts. You would start with eighteen and you get
Speaker 1: down to twelve, and then you could see if they
Speaker 1: cashed it. And they kept trying who cast it and
Speaker 1: most of them didn't at all, or they stopped after
Speaker 1: the first one. The one guy who cashed every single
Speaker 1: check was Donald Trump. This was decades ago, but it's
Speaker 1: a famous bit. Oh God, that's amazing. I mean, it
Speaker 1: just made like there was no one on the course
Speaker 1: and it was jet and I honestly I think he
Speaker 1: was thirty five or thirty six at the time, and
Speaker 1: uh like playing in a cart not a single fan around,
Speaker 1: and he finished like T eleven or something like that
Speaker 1: and got a check withut seven buck. Daniel Choper rocking
Speaker 1: up in a Lamborghini. I mean, Daniel is he had
Speaker 1: had a nice career, but thank you Tiger. Well right,
Speaker 1: I didn't say the circles back to the Russell Henley conversation, like,
Speaker 1: I mean, Daniel chopra very good golfer, had a nice
Speaker 1: little career, but travit Lamborghini's wild here is now this
Speaker 1: is important from the standpoint of, uh what this leaderboard?
Speaker 1: Head do it? David puig on it finished third, Scott
Speaker 1: Vincent lift player, Uh, Barton Rat who's made a all
Speaker 1: of a sudden playing well in Asia, finished fifth, Eric
Speaker 1: Compton finished ninth, Chase kepto eleventh. I mean it is
Speaker 1: like a live I mean, what a what a leaderboard?
Speaker 1: This was? Right? Well, I mean yeah, as a lot
Speaker 1: of those names are playing live golf, and I mean
Speaker 1: we've talked about in previous podcasts, but the Asian Tour
Speaker 1: is a very important part of the vision for live
Speaker 1: as a feeder system, as a landing spot for guys
Speaker 1: who get relegated, UM as a way to develop their
Speaker 1: their their next generational players. So I think it's only
Speaker 1: going to accelerate their everyday Asian Tour events are gonna
Speaker 1: just get better and better. And when it surpasses the
Speaker 1: European Tour, it seems like it's only a question to win.
Speaker 1: As far as strength of fields and will, ranking points
Speaker 1: and money and and those things. It's um, you know,
Speaker 1: the balance of power is definitely shifting. What's to prevent
Speaker 1: the Asian Tour from staging those tournaments in the United
Speaker 1: States and other places. They're they're having Acute school in
Speaker 1: the US, Michael, this year, They're coming. They're coming, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, as the PGA Tour keeps it expanding and
Speaker 1: playing overseas like it, I don't. I think I think
Speaker 1: it's more like a gentleman's agreement. And as we were
Speaker 1: saying earlier in this podcast, like all that stuffs out
Speaker 1: the window. Now it's it's brass knuckles times. So yeah,
Speaker 1: there's no anything. But yeah, I mean, you know, Live
Speaker 1: Golf's playing most of their events over here, so maybe
Speaker 1: maybe the Asian to attack if you want to. Just
Speaker 1: for fun, I do want to let the listeners know
Speaker 1: that here the fire Pit Collective, we are expanding our
Speaker 1: podcast network, and you know we already have. We have
Speaker 1: the fire Pit Podcast, which is really Matchell's baby, and
Speaker 1: those are kind of narrative and long form. We have
Speaker 1: Grassroots with Lasarsias and John Nichols and they get into
Speaker 1: the culture. Ryan has his podcast which is obviously focused
Speaker 1: more on on the grinders and the dreamers. We have
Speaker 1: these fire Drills, which are big events, breaking news and
Speaker 1: and kind of now the weekly ebb and flow of
Speaker 1: what's happening in golf. But we were delighted to announce
Speaker 1: that we're gonna a new one called Need a Fourth
Speaker 1: and it's it's a bamburger myself and a guy named
Speaker 1: Jeff Ogilvie and we take turns inviting guests. Um, one
Speaker 1: person organizes a guest, the other two co hosts do
Speaker 1: not know who that person is until they show up
Speaker 1: on their screen here. And yes, if if you're a
Speaker 1: fan of the SmartLess podcast, and most of us are,
Speaker 1: we shamelessly stole their idea. But it's just so much
Speaker 1: fun and so um we're gonna start rolling those out
Speaker 1: this this coming Thursday and they'll they'll be weekly for
Speaker 1: a while and hoping to get people excited about it.
Speaker 1: We we've already taped a bunch of them now and
Speaker 1: the guests are a plus. And um, it's you know
Speaker 1: and those of us who who have listened there to
Speaker 1: those of you have listened to the fire drills and
Speaker 1: even from Michael and I you know, with Ogilvie such
Speaker 1: a great talker and thinker, and so it's a delight
Speaker 1: to happen as part of this and he is amazing. Uh,
Speaker 1: they're really really fun. They're really fun. So we we'll
Speaker 1: be doing a little promotion on on the various socials
Speaker 1: throughout this week to remind folks. But we're excited about that.
Speaker 1: And we've been talking about this and working on it
Speaker 1: for a while, so it's gonna need to set it,
Speaker 1: set it free out into the world. Ryan, what how
Speaker 1: are you going to monitor Monday? And what do you do?
Speaker 1: What do you do? Do you do you follow it
Speaker 1: on a computer? I mentioned or there's no yet Tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow is a pretty big day for me, the final
Speaker 1: day of Q school and it also in return makes
Speaker 1: for a good Monday story often because a lot of
Speaker 1: the guys who are normally at Monday's are in Q school.
Speaker 1: So usually some great stories get through the Monday down
Speaker 1: in Houston. So it's a great It's Mondays are always great,
Speaker 1: let's be honest, but this is this is an exceptional Monday. Yep. Well,
Speaker 1: I would just I would just wrap for myself. Um,
Speaker 1: and I'm anyone who I knew the man would feel
Speaker 1: exactly the same way. But uh, uh a fond farewell
Speaker 1: to a real great gent of golfed Al Finsterwald. Uh,
Speaker 1: I would say I knew him quite well. Definitely one
Speaker 1: of my god two guys like Bob Goldie was and
Speaker 1: other of that generation. Uh, great great friend of Arnold Palmer.
Speaker 1: He had something Tom Watson did not win in the
Speaker 1: PHA Championship and had a beautiful swing and uh carried
Speaker 1: himself with a lot of class for a long, long career.
Speaker 1: So farewell to to do. I mean he was a
Speaker 1: rules official with the Masters for years. I mean it's
Speaker 1: pretty neat, like I kind of drew about. You know,
Speaker 1: I coach high school basketball and at some point I'm
Speaker 1: gonna become I'm gonna become a referee because I feel
Speaker 1: like the on the girl's side, they need better refs.
Speaker 1: And it's kind of analogy as you go from from
Speaker 1: playing the Masters to being a rules official. It's kind
Speaker 1: of a cool journey. And I'd see him and he
Speaker 1: carried himself with such dignity, and everyone seemed to love
Speaker 1: the guy and I he was always in these rapped
Speaker 1: conversations out on the golf course or under the tree.
Speaker 1: And um, I never really knew him. I just knew
Speaker 1: of him. But he had he had a he had
Speaker 1: a very palpable like presence. So I'm glad you. I'm
Speaker 1: glad you tipped your cap to him. Yea, And I
Speaker 1: remember you asking for his number while did you reach
Speaker 1: him on that occasion? I was probably, Yeah, he was.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he struggled some at the end. That was
Speaker 1: fairly recently. Well, and that was that was for the
Speaker 1: film book because um, well this is this is the
Speaker 1: story that's gonna go to the grave with Dow. But
Speaker 1: there was there was there was some dust up, but
Speaker 1: that Dow got involved in the fill out on the
Speaker 1: golf course and he was the only guy who could
Speaker 1: really tell it. So that that very very discreet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he had a thing with Arnold where they would be
Speaker 1: an Arnold's garage at his Arnold's really quite modest town
Speaker 1: house condo at at Bay Hill, and they'd be looking
Speaker 1: at their watches fifty eight four fifty nine. Right at
Speaker 1: five o'clock. They would open a little mini refridge on
Speaker 1: the first beer so would come out. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: they just had their rituals and they just belong completely
Speaker 1: to another error where you know, it's easy to romanticize,
Speaker 1: but on the other hand, it is romantic where it
Speaker 1: was really about the camaraderie and their friendship and trying
Speaker 1: to beat each other on the golf course but still
Speaker 1: liking one another when he came off the course, which,
Speaker 1: of course I would say, of course we're missing now,
Speaker 1: which is a shame. It's it's the usual thing that
Speaker 1: money does wherever, gross grotesque large sums of money show up.
Speaker 1: But anyway, Dot was U Dow was a Jim I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna tell a story in print about doubt
Speaker 1: at the Masters in a couple of days, just along
Speaker 1: the lines of what of what you were saying? Uh,
Speaker 1: some people, very very briefly, some people wouldn't know that
Speaker 1: uh Dow was contending and might have one of Masters
Speaker 1: one year, but got a penalty for practice putting between holes,
Speaker 1: and I don't remember the details right now, but I
Speaker 1: look that up as well. But he was a hell
Speaker 1: of a player, and he one twelve times and one
Speaker 1: of pg Championship. So here is my only thing I
Speaker 1: know about Dow is And obviously it's changed now. But uh,
Speaker 1: if you look up, everybody asked me about status all
Speaker 1: the time and how the rankings work and how status works,
Speaker 1: and dow was the first person, for some reason, I
Speaker 1: don't know if I was alphabetical or whatever, the first
Speaker 1: person on every status. Uh. Like if you look up
Speaker 1: all the rankings of uh players that are out for
Speaker 1: PGA Tour events, like jack is up there, and because
Speaker 1: you're a certain quateria of life, and dow was always
Speaker 1: listed number one. He was still eligible at ninety. He
Speaker 1: could have he could have played an event if he
Speaker 1: wanted to. It might it might relate to, you know,
Speaker 1: the year he won that PGA Championship. It was the
Speaker 1: first year after they went from match play back to stroke. Yeah,
Speaker 1: some of some some time a rule changed and like
Speaker 1: players got grandfathered out, you know, but those guys, some
Speaker 1: of those guys. So the guys who won the PGA
Speaker 1: Championship were grandfathered in and that's so like he was
Speaker 1: listed number one, he was like he could have been
Speaker 1: the first person in any PGA tour field. And I
Speaker 1: just wanted so badly for the night, get doubt to go.
Speaker 1: You know what, I am going to play the Memorial
Speaker 1: this year, right, yeah, yeah, just like yeah, I am
Speaker 1: going to play the Barracouta Classics this year. That this
Speaker 1: has been a fun conversation is always with the usual
Speaker 1: diversions Um, but typically Captain Russell, Henley, dolfinster Wall, Patrick Read,
Speaker 1: Shane and Ryan Um, Justine Read and various others who
Speaker 1: made an appearance on this pod. So another fire drill
Speaker 1: is in the books. We'll keep doing these, uh, every
Speaker 1: every Sunday. And for Michael Bamberger and Ryan French, I'm
Speaker 1: Alan Schepnak. Thanks for listening and we'll be back in
Speaker 1: your ear soon. A bed big played to win, made
Speaker 1: a fortune win my ship game in I ran the table,
Speaker 1: never thought I could fall. Then the winter hit me,
Speaker 1: lack a cannon, the ball, and now I can't shake
Speaker 1: this losing the stream. Every road I take is a
Speaker 1: dead end. Stream I got got in my head, can't
Speaker 1: get now. Trying not to think what I'm thinking about
Speaker 1: IM Gov of Throns in my head, can't get him out,
Speaker 1: Trying not to think what I'm thinking about h