Speaker 1: It's the Son of a Butch podcast. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Claude Harmon. I'll be the guest today. Obviously, just got
Speaker 1: back from the PGA Championship and I mean, what an
Speaker 1: amazing week. I think it was a pretty important week
Speaker 1: in Brooks kept his career, certainly after what happened at
Speaker 1: the Masters where he wasn't able to close, and he's
Speaker 1: been a closer his entire career. Unfortunately, he didn't get
Speaker 1: it done at Augusta, but at o'kill he got it done.
Speaker 1: And you know, it was a really really interesting week.
Speaker 1: That is a that is a big boy golf course,
Speaker 1: and that's that's another thing. I mean, obviously, that's Brooks's
Speaker 1: fifth major, which puts him in very very elite company.
Speaker 1: But if you look at the golf courses Aaron Hills,
Speaker 1: everybody says it was an easy golf course, it was
Speaker 1: a bomber's paradise, and yeah, I'll take a little bit
Speaker 1: of that. But if you look at the rest of
Speaker 1: the golf courses that Brooks has won major Zone Shinnecock,
Speaker 1: Beth Page, you know, Belle Reeves kind of old school,
Speaker 1: and then Okill, which is very very old school. He
Speaker 1: wins on really really difficult golf courses, and I think
Speaker 1: that's another big part of the story, is his game
Speaker 1: rises to really really difficult challenges. Okill is, it was
Speaker 1: a tough golf course before the redesign. They did a redesign.
Speaker 1: They took out a lot of trees. I've been there.
Speaker 1: I was there in eighty nine. I was there in
Speaker 1: two eighty nine for the US Open, two thousand and
Speaker 1: five for the Ryder Cup, and then in thirteen for
Speaker 1: the last PGA. I like the changes. I think they
Speaker 1: did a really good job. There is this kind of
Speaker 1: I think it's I don't want to call it a fad,
Speaker 1: but there is definitely a move towards going to these
Speaker 1: old golf courses and trying to take out a lot
Speaker 1: of the trees that have grown up. So I guess
Speaker 1: they're trying to take the golf courses back to where
Speaker 1: they were originally designed, because obviously, if something was designed
Speaker 1: forty fifty years ago, the trees that they were planning
Speaker 1: then are different than the ones and the amount of
Speaker 1: vegetation they'll have now. But I like the redesign. I
Speaker 1: thought the sixth hole was just brutal. It's just a
Speaker 1: tough golf course, tough hole. But I do think the
Speaker 1: players that I talked to everyone said they don't mind it.
Speaker 1: I don't think golfers professional golfers like it, dislike it
Speaker 1: being hard, and I thought Oka was very, very fair.
Speaker 1: But it is a tough test, and it's just there
Speaker 1: are stretches of holes where you know that that's the
Speaker 1: kind of that's the time to make your score because
Speaker 1: you know coming in you're going to go through a
Speaker 1: stretch of holes. We were just going to have to
Speaker 1: hang on. So yeah, I mean, it was a really
Speaker 1: it was an interesting week for Brooks. Thursday, I mean
Speaker 1: practice rounds. He was fine. He played good the week
Speaker 1: before in Tulsa, didn't putt great. I think if he
Speaker 1: putts it all in Tulsa the week before where he
Speaker 1: was playing on live, he probably could have gotten into
Speaker 1: the playoff with DJ and Gracie and Cam Smith. Didn't
Speaker 1: get it done and we didn't. We didn't do a
Speaker 1: ton and ton of work at Okill. We kind of
Speaker 1: paced ourselves. It's been a long run for Brooks. You know,
Speaker 1: you can tell that he's a little bit tired, and
Speaker 1: so we we didn't grind a ton golf swing wise,
Speaker 1: he's hitting it good. He's been hitting it good for
Speaker 1: a while now. Thursday I thought was really I thought
Speaker 1: Thursday was one in the golf tournament and that was
Speaker 1: the worst round he had. He did not play well.
Speaker 1: Warm ups were good, but he just got on the
Speaker 1: golf course didn't play good. As soon as he got done,
Speaker 1: we went straight to the range. He said that he
Speaker 1: felt his hands had kind of gotten a little bit
Speaker 1: back at a dress and he kind of was missing it,
Speaker 1: you know. Both ways. Hit some really wide shots on Thursday,
Speaker 1: but there was zero panic. There was like no panic,
Speaker 1: And I found that quite interesting that I think when
Speaker 1: a player plays poorly but they know they're playing good,
Speaker 1: there isn't this sense of panic. So we went to
Speaker 1: the range after Thursday's round for about twenty minutes, hit
Speaker 1: some balls. Got his set up. Everything in Brooks' golf
Speaker 1: swing tends to be you know, when he gets off,
Speaker 1: the issues tend to be set up related issues. His
Speaker 1: hands get too far back, ball position gets too far back,
Speaker 1: a line mint gets off. So a lot of what
Speaker 1: I do over the course of my time with Brooks
Speaker 1: is we do a lot of work on the basics
Speaker 1: and listen in twenty twenty three, basics aren't real sexy
Speaker 1: right now, grip stance post your alignment. No one's making
Speaker 1: Instagram videos on grip stance, posture in alignment. They're making
Speaker 1: them laying the shaft down and all the cool stuff
Speaker 1: that all the cool kids are doing right now. But
Speaker 1: I think you would be surprised at you know, for
Speaker 1: the best players in the world, when their alignment, when
Speaker 1: they're a ball position, when the basics of what they're
Speaker 1: doing before they hit a golf ball get off because
Speaker 1: they've got so much speed, because they've got so much power,
Speaker 1: because they hit the golf ball so solid, they can
Speaker 1: hit the golf ball a long way offline. So when
Speaker 1: Brooks's basics get out of whack, he can shoot some
Speaker 1: bad scores and hit some bad shots. So I was
Speaker 1: really happy that that's all it really was. He didn't panic.
Speaker 1: He knows he's hitting it good. His hands got a
Speaker 1: little bit back. He kind of felt that on the
Speaker 1: golf course. We went to the rain, and then he
Speaker 1: looked at Ricky Elliott and I and looked us right.
Speaker 1: Both of us looked right at us and said, I
Speaker 1: won't play bad again this week and there have been
Speaker 1: times where Brooks has said that before, and normally when
Speaker 1: he says something like that, in the way that he
Speaker 1: says it, in the conviction that he says it with,
Speaker 1: you tend to believe him. He played really good on Friday,
Speaker 1: came straight off the golf course and as he was
Speaker 1: walking from eighteen into scoring, he just had this look
Speaker 1: on his face and he looked at me and he said,
Speaker 1: I told you I'm not going to play bad again.
Speaker 1: I think he learned a lot at Augusta from not
Speaker 1: getting it done on Sunday, and I think last week
Speaker 1: and I think Sunday was a massive, massive day for Brooks.
Speaker 1: In his career, he has been in alpha in the
Speaker 1: major championships. There was a time where it seemed like
Speaker 1: to a lot of people that he had somewhat cracked
Speaker 1: the code in majors just because he was winning them
Speaker 1: so much and so often. So I think to come
Speaker 1: back and shoot three rounds in the sixties, get himself
Speaker 1: back in the golf tournament on Friday. The golf the
Speaker 1: conditions on Saturday were not good. I mean, it was raining,
Speaker 1: it was cold. You knew if you hit the golf
Speaker 1: ball offline, you're gonna get it into the thick rough
Speaker 1: that was already penal and then it was wet, and
Speaker 1: he went out on Saturday and shot another really good
Speaker 1: score and you could just see this kind of momentum building.
Speaker 1: But Sunday, I gotta be honest, the Sunday he was
Speaker 1: a little jumpy in his warm up. He didn't feel
Speaker 1: like he was hitting it that great. I know, he
Speaker 1: said to Pete Cowen that he didn't feel like his
Speaker 1: golf swing was was great. But by the time you
Speaker 1: get to Sunday on a major championship, you know, what
Speaker 1: you have is what you have golf swing wise. I
Speaker 1: think Brooks was trying to you know, maybe being yeah.
Speaker 1: I think he was probably a little bit nervous. I
Speaker 1: think he was, you know, looking for perfection, which is
Speaker 1: tough to have. The warm up that he had on
Speaker 1: before the final round on Sunday at Augusta made the
Speaker 1: warm up that he had at Oakill on Sunday, I mean,
Speaker 1: it was like black and white. He never missed a
Speaker 1: shot on Sunday at Augusta in his warm up. It
Speaker 1: was one of the best warm ups I've ever seen him.
Speaker 1: Have complete control ability to do whatever he wanted with
Speaker 1: the golf ball, but just total total control over what
Speaker 1: he was doing and went out and didn't play the
Speaker 1: way he wanted to, didn't get the job done. I
Speaker 1: think getting off to the start that he got off
Speaker 1: to on Sunday was so important. Hit it to sixteen
Speaker 1: feet on the first, four feet on the second, four
Speaker 1: feet on the third, four feet on our nine feet
Speaker 1: on the fourth. So he's hitting it inside of ten
Speaker 1: feet on three of the holes and right around fifteen
Speaker 1: feet on the other one. That's a statement I think
Speaker 1: everybody he was looking on Sunday, specifically the guys that
Speaker 1: were around Brooks on the leader board. He took a
Speaker 1: one shot lead, but I think you're looking to see, okay,
Speaker 1: which Brooks is going to show up. Is it the
Speaker 1: Brooks from you know, two thousand and seventeen, eighteen and nineteen,
Speaker 1: where he was winning majors on a regular basis, or
Speaker 1: we're we're going to get on Sunday the Master's twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three Brooks where he didn't get the job done
Speaker 1: on Sunday. So I thought getting off to that start,
Speaker 1: hitting those type of shots early certainly kind of put
Speaker 1: him in a little bit of a I wouldn't say relaxed,
Speaker 1: but I definitely think at one point early he had
Speaker 1: a three shot lead, two or three shot lead, so
Speaker 1: your mindset is very, very different. The sixth hole, which
Speaker 1: I referenced, such a difficult, difficult hole. He had a
Speaker 1: poor drive, but somehow managed to make a bogie. And
Speaker 1: you know, the eight years I worked with Brooks previously,
Speaker 1: and you know, back together with him now, one of
Speaker 1: the mantras and we had as a team for the
Speaker 1: major championships were don't make any double bogies. Bogies are fine.
Speaker 1: You can survive making bogies, making double bogies and major
Speaker 1: championships are very very tough to overcome making double bogies.
Speaker 1: When you have the lead and you're in a major
Speaker 1: championship on Sunday, you throw a double in the mix early,
Speaker 1: it normally doesn't farewell. It kind of lets the field
Speaker 1: know that, hey, there might be some chinks in the armor.
Speaker 1: So I think the par that he was able to
Speaker 1: make there, or the bogie that he was able to
Speaker 1: make there, was huge because he's staring making double right
Speaker 1: in the face he was. I think he knew that
Speaker 1: Victor Hovlin was playing well. Vic I can't say enough
Speaker 1: about how good this kid is. He is, he is legit,
Speaker 1: he is elite. His ball striking is as good as anybody.
Speaker 1: And you know, the work that he's done recently with
Speaker 1: Joe Mayo on a short games has paid dividends. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, we all kind of have seen Victor struggle
Speaker 1: around the greens. For a good player, he has struggled
Speaker 1: a lot, and it was great to see him now.
Speaker 1: I do think that the way the rough was set
Speaker 1: up at at at Oakhill, very penal, very much old
Speaker 1: school kind of US open Northeast kind of thick, thick rough.
Speaker 1: I actually think that helps Victor because it takes there's
Speaker 1: no creativity at that point. You're not trying to figure
Speaker 1: out what shot you're going to hit, what type of
Speaker 1: shot you're going to try and play. You just basically
Speaker 1: have it's thick rough. You just have to beat down
Speaker 1: on it and grind, you know, grind it out and
Speaker 1: just get it on the green and run it to
Speaker 1: the whole. There isn't a lot of nuance, there isn't
Speaker 1: a lot of skill, So in that respect, I think
Speaker 1: it was it was helpful to be on that type
Speaker 1: of golf course. But listen, Victor Hoblin is going to
Speaker 1: have chances to win major tachampionships moving forward. I'd be
Speaker 1: shocked if he doesn't win one. He's got that type
Speaker 1: of talent. He and his caddie, Shane Knight. I think
Speaker 1: they're one of the best teams on the PGA Tour.
Speaker 1: And I am a huge, huge Victor Hovelin fan, So
Speaker 1: great to see him play well and he will have
Speaker 1: more chances and I definitely think there is a major
Speaker 1: in his future. But you know, Brooks somehow makes bogie
Speaker 1: and then you know, made a couple of putts when
Speaker 1: he needed to. But to me, the game changer for
Speaker 1: him was thirteen Part five where he's looking at you know,
Speaker 1: definitely making birdie and had to hold a pretty dicey
Speaker 1: quick downhill left to right putt. And you know, if
Speaker 1: you're going to win a major championship, there's always going
Speaker 1: to be one of those putts from ten to twelve
Speaker 1: feet that is for parr And if you want to
Speaker 1: win the golf tournament, you're going to have to win.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to make it to win the golf tournament.
Speaker 1: And he stands up on fourteen and just hits an
Speaker 1: unbelievable draw and you know, closes the door at sixteen.
Speaker 1: I thought the drive that he hit on eighteen showed
Speaker 1: a lot of guts. He didn't have to hit driver
Speaker 1: there with a lead. He could have easily hit something
Speaker 1: else and had a longer iron. But I think it's
Speaker 1: a testament to how he was playing and how much
Speaker 1: confidence he had in what he was doing. He has this,
Speaker 1: this knack this, and I don't. I'm around him a
Speaker 1: lot and have been around him a lot for the
Speaker 1: last ten years, and Brooks just he likes he likes
Speaker 1: major championships. He liked and trust me, anybody that tells
Speaker 1: you that they that they like major championships, they're probably
Speaker 1: not telling you the truth. But Brooks, he really does
Speaker 1: like them. He likes the pressure, he likes the you know,
Speaker 1: all of the things that he knows that you're going
Speaker 1: to have to do to win one. He knows that
Speaker 1: you're going to have to go through a lot. It's
Speaker 1: going to get tough, it's going to get dirty, it's
Speaker 1: going to get messy, it's going to get ugly to
Speaker 1: win a major championship. And some guys like that, and
Speaker 1: some guys don't. He is one of those players that
Speaker 1: just really really really likes it. He likes it when
Speaker 1: the pressure is the toughest. He's now won fourteen percent
Speaker 1: of the majors he's played in, and in fifty percent
Speaker 1: of the majors he's played in, he's finished inside the
Speaker 1: top ten. Those are just those are just numbers that
Speaker 1: we just aren't used to seeing from one person, specifically
Speaker 1: in the majors. I mean, I guess you could say,
Speaker 1: you know, we saw that from Tiger, but of the
Speaker 1: modern generation. You know, Roy McRoy won his last major
Speaker 1: when Brooks had won none, and in twenty fourteen. If
Speaker 1: I told you that Roy macroy is going to have
Speaker 1: four majors and Brooks Koepka would have more majors than him,
Speaker 1: I just don't think anyone would believe it, because that's
Speaker 1: how great Rory McElroy is. That is how dominant a
Speaker 1: golfer he is and can be. So I think Brooks
Speaker 1: now with five. It's I mean, I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people are trying to figure out where to put
Speaker 1: this win with all the live stuff going on with
Speaker 1: the debate. I think, moving forward, hopefully, I think it's
Speaker 1: a fantastic thing for the game of golf that somebody
Speaker 1: from Live won a major, because I think it's an
Speaker 1: opportunity for us to just go back to talking about golf.
Speaker 1: I mean, can we just go back to talking about
Speaker 1: golf and not politics and all of the other stuff
Speaker 1: that you know, people seem to want to talk about.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just these guys are golfers, right, Brooks
Speaker 1: is a professional golfers and a professional golfer, and if
Speaker 1: he's healthy, which is it is so naive to think
Speaker 1: that he's not going to be a great player. He's
Speaker 1: not going to be a dominant player in the majors
Speaker 1: because that's what he was. A lot of the reporters
Speaker 1: afterwards were asking me, were you surprised by any of this?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, the only people that are surprised by
Speaker 1: this are the people in the media that have been
Speaker 1: anti Lived, that haven't gone to any of the tournaments
Speaker 1: and haven't watched any of the live tournaments, and you know,
Speaker 1: like to pretend that it's a fifty four fifty four
Speaker 1: hole exhibition, and you know, everybody that plays on that
Speaker 1: tour is hurting their career because they're not playing on
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour and they're not playing in seventy two holes.
Speaker 1: I think that whole narrative. Now we had another major
Speaker 1: where there were live players. Bryson played good last week,
Speaker 1: had a great showing. Cam Smith had a great final
Speaker 1: round on Sunday. It's golf. These are professional golfers. It
Speaker 1: doesn't really matter are where they play. And I think
Speaker 1: anyone that thought that these guys just weren't going to
Speaker 1: be able to continue to play in major championships on
Speaker 1: the biggest stage, to me, it was I think it
Speaker 1: was for a lot of people. They were hoping that
Speaker 1: for their own agendas, whatever those agendas are. But I
Speaker 1: think the last two Majors have clearly shown that the
Speaker 1: players that went to Live they were great players when
Speaker 1: they went there, and they're still great players. If you
Speaker 1: don't agree with Live for political reasons, if you don't
Speaker 1: like the format, that's that's fine. I mean, everyone is
Speaker 1: entitled to their own opinion. But the fact is that
Speaker 1: in two major championships, you know, one has been one
Speaker 1: by guy that went to Live, and the Masters was
Speaker 1: almost one by guy that went to Live. And you know,
Speaker 1: someone who has been a you know, a anti LIV
Speaker 1: punching bags see Wan Kim see Wan Kim made the
Speaker 1: cut and played good and beat a lot of people
Speaker 1: that play seventy two holes and play on the PGA
Speaker 1: Tour and all that. So I mean to me, it's
Speaker 1: all bullshit, right, It's this is golf, professional golfers. I
Speaker 1: don't care where you're playing professional golf. I don't care
Speaker 1: if you're playing on the PGA Tour. I don't care
Speaker 1: if you're playing on the LPGA, DP World, Asia, South
Speaker 1: Africa Champs Tour and Live as well. If you were
Speaker 1: playing on a professional tour and you are winning on
Speaker 1: a professional tour, then your game is going in the
Speaker 1: right direction. And you know, brooks Kopka's won three of
Speaker 1: the last slum trying to think since he won in
Speaker 1: Jetta so one in Jedda, his team had a chance
Speaker 1: to win the team championship in Miami at the Live finale,
Speaker 1: so then he played Saudi Arabia, then missed the cut
Speaker 1: in an Asian Tour event in Oman that all the
Speaker 1: anti Live people jumped all over, and you know, and
Speaker 1: then has played pretty good the last month. So it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter in my opinion, It doesn't matter where you're
Speaker 1: playing or where you're winning. If you are winning. Then
Speaker 1: don't be surprised if you see guys playing a tournament
Speaker 1: have a chance to win. I mean we see that
Speaker 1: all the time, we have seen for years. I mean,
Speaker 1: look at Tom Kim, right, I mean Tom Kim is
Speaker 1: the new darling of the PGA Tour, right, and I
Speaker 1: think he's a superstar. I mean I really do. I
Speaker 1: love this kid. I thought, you know, last week him
Speaker 1: falling in the water and all of that, that is
Speaker 1: just who he is. Right. You could see the progression
Speaker 1: that Tom had of playing in Asia, then playing some
Speaker 1: European starts, he started having some confidence, he started winning
Speaker 1: some tournaments, and now he's one of the legit players.
Speaker 1: So I just this narrative that because the golf is
Speaker 1: being played on live, it's no good and you're not
Speaker 1: going to be any good because you went to Live.
Speaker 1: I think if that's what you've been pushing and you
Speaker 1: still believe that, then I feel sorry for you because
Speaker 1: I think that you're doing it for your own reasons,
Speaker 1: because it's not the truth. If you don't like Live
Speaker 1: and you don't like the players that went there, that's fine,
Speaker 1: that's you got the right to do that. But to
Speaker 1: try and portray these guys as being bumps. To me,
Speaker 1: that's the thing that upsets me the most. And you know,
Speaker 1: it's pretty vocal with some of the media. There's an
Speaker 1: article of Golf Week that came out and listen, I
Speaker 1: think there has been a segment of the golf media
Speaker 1: that has been fiercely, fiercely anti Live and the stuff
Speaker 1: they wrote, the things they said, I think it hurt
Speaker 1: a lot of guys that went to Live. And you know,
Speaker 1: you've got these these players that had had great careers.
Speaker 1: I mean, to me, the easiest example is you've got
Speaker 1: Henrik Stenson, right. Henrik Stenson won the FedEx Cup, won
Speaker 1: the Players Championship, won a major, an iconic major, down
Speaker 1: the stretch with with Bill Micholson, one of the great
Speaker 1: all time majors, stole ward of the European tour, of
Speaker 1: the euro Ryder Cup team, and based off of all
Speaker 1: of that criteria, they anoint him as the Writer Cup Captain.
Speaker 1: That's what happens when you do what Henrik Stenson's done,
Speaker 1: and you played your golf in Europe, they make you
Speaker 1: a Writer Cup Captain. When you have that type of resume.
Speaker 1: The day he goes to Live, bum insignificant was never
Speaker 1: any good. And I'm like, the day before he made
Speaker 1: the decision go to Live, he was the writer Cup captain,
Speaker 1: so in one day everything that he did is just
Speaker 1: a bomb. I just don't get it. And maybe, listen,
Speaker 1: maybe my view is a little bit skewed because I've
Speaker 1: been involved with Live for the last six seven eight months.
Speaker 1: All of my players went there, but I was part
Speaker 1: of the PGA Tours ecosystem for twenty something years. It
Speaker 1: was part of the European Tour for a number of
Speaker 1: years when I worked there. I've seen what those ecosystems
Speaker 1: are like. I've seen what those tours are like. I
Speaker 1: know how they work, I know how they run all
Speaker 1: of those things. So I'm I said this, I'm pro
Speaker 1: Live because I am pro professional athlete, I am pro
Speaker 1: professional golfer. I think that professional golfers should have the
Speaker 1: same opportunities that every other athlete in professional sports has,
Speaker 1: and there are players that get big contracts in every sport,
Speaker 1: and I just I just don't fundamentally understand why there
Speaker 1: is this continued want to have golf be like the
Speaker 1: Truman Show, like this utopian Truman Show type thing. In
Speaker 1: the fifties and sixties and where everything is just perfect
Speaker 1: and nothing bad ever happens, and you know, everything's just
Speaker 1: like it used to be. I personally don't want to
Speaker 1: be a part of a sport like that, I really don't.
Speaker 1: I don't want to be a part of a sport
Speaker 1: that's constantly looking backwards. I think the game of golf
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three is in an amazing place. I
Speaker 1: think we have some of the best golfers in a
Speaker 1: very very long time. I mean, if you look at
Speaker 1: the players playing all over the world on the men's side,
Speaker 1: on the women's side, the caliber of golfers, the depth
Speaker 1: of golfers, it's just it's staggering. It's tremendous. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I think we are so lucky right now
Speaker 1: to be seeing the golf that John Ram is playing,
Speaker 1: the golf that Scotty Scheffler's been playing, and all of
Speaker 1: these new kind of stars that are coming up. I
Speaker 1: mentioned Tom Kim, Max Homer. You can you can keep
Speaker 1: finding players right and you can find them on every tour.
Speaker 1: There's great players playing in Europe right now, there's great
Speaker 1: players playing in Asia right now. I think the LPGA
Speaker 1: is going through an amazing period of great play. And
Speaker 1: I think from the men's side, just because guys went
Speaker 1: to Live, it doesn't mean that they can't play golf.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean that they're not going to continue to
Speaker 1: be good players. And I'm glad that Brooks personally. Obviously
Speaker 1: I work with Brooks's but I'm I'm glad that I'm
Speaker 1: glad that somebody from Live won a major because hopefully
Speaker 1: we can all just get back to realizing that this
Speaker 1: is this is just golf. These are just athletes. They're
Speaker 1: playing a sport. They're playing a sport with a ball
Speaker 1: and a stick. They give you a scorecard and you're
Speaker 1: trying to put the lowest score on the scorecard as
Speaker 1: you can. And I don't care where you play, That's
Speaker 1: what everybody is trying to do. So I think it
Speaker 1: was a I think it was a big I think
Speaker 1: brooks Kepta's win his I think him getting his fifth major.
Speaker 1: I think the way that he won his fifth major,
Speaker 1: I think is good for golf, and I think it's
Speaker 1: good for golf. I'm very, very glad that somebody from
Speaker 1: Live won one of the I was hoping one of
Speaker 1: the Live guys would win one of the four majors,
Speaker 1: because I think that that's the way that all of
Speaker 1: this craziness starts to unravel. Brooks is now second in
Speaker 1: the US Ryder Cup points list. If you haven't seen
Speaker 1: Brad faxon and Am and Lynch talking about the Ryder Cup,
Speaker 1: you find it on social I thought Facts did a
Speaker 1: fantastic job of saying, Hey, we're playing golf and that's
Speaker 1: what's what this to me, that's what this is. But
Speaker 1: I do think now that Brooks is in a is
Speaker 1: it a rare He's a rare position now because he's young,
Speaker 1: he's healthy. I gotta be honest with you, I wouldn't.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised if Brooks continues to win majors.
Speaker 1: He's just that good. And when he's healthy and when
Speaker 1: he's swinging the way he's swinging and playing the way
Speaker 1: he's playing, he can dominate. And you know, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be surprised if he has legit, legit back nine chances
Speaker 1: in La at the US Open and at Liverpool for
Speaker 1: the Open Championship. I mean, that's what I know. He
Speaker 1: expects those of us on his team, we expect that
Speaker 1: as well. I just can't. I just can't say enough
Speaker 1: about the team that Brooks has around him. Last week,
Speaker 1: Ricky Elliott, who's been on his bag. That was the
Speaker 1: ten year anniversary. They've switched the dates for the for
Speaker 1: the majors. The PJA used to be the last major
Speaker 1: in August. Now it's in May. But that was ten
Speaker 1: year anniversary of when Ricky and Brooks first started. They
Speaker 1: started at the PGA in twenty thirteen. I think Ricky Fowler,
Speaker 1: excuse me, Ricky Elliott is one of the best caddies
Speaker 1: on the planet in the game. I'd known Ricky for
Speaker 1: a long time, and you know, I thought he would
Speaker 1: be a perfect fit for Brooks. And you know, I
Speaker 1: told Brooks listened, he was turning, you know, it was
Speaker 1: coming to the States, was going to play. I said, listen,
Speaker 1: I think Ricky Elliot would be the perfect caddy for you.
Speaker 1: It's funny, my dad, in twenty thirteen we walked, he
Speaker 1: walked a couple holes with us, and afterwards he said, man,
Speaker 1: that Brooks is really impressive. Hey, we need to get
Speaker 1: him a real caddy. I said, We've got him a
Speaker 1: real caddy. The real caddy is Ricky Elliott. And he goes, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: needs a veteran. He needs a veteran cartery down like
Speaker 1: he doesn't need a veteran caddy. He has the perfect
Speaker 1: guy for him. And I think I was right. I
Speaker 1: think the job that Ricky and Brooks do on the
Speaker 1: golf course, I think the relationship they have off the
Speaker 1: golf course. I would say that Brooks considers Ricky literally
Speaker 1: part of his family, like a family member. I think
Speaker 1: he loves him like a brother. Mark Wall, who is
Speaker 1: Brooks's physio, I think he's the most valuable person on
Speaker 1: Brooks's team. I told Brooks that when he first turned
Speaker 1: pro and told him to hire Mark Waller said you
Speaker 1: need to hire Mark Wall and I said, he will
Speaker 1: be the most valuable person you have on your team.
Speaker 1: And the work that Mark Wall has done with Brooks's
Speaker 1: body doctor Rs, the work that Aura has done. Brooks
Speaker 1: got your trainer this year, Andrew Cummings, that back room team,
Speaker 1: they are the heroes of this. They are the young
Speaker 1: sung heroes. They have really transformed Brooks's body, got him
Speaker 1: back to where he can swing the golf club, got
Speaker 1: him back to where he's healthy, got him back to
Speaker 1: where he can work out. And I've said this a
Speaker 1: number of times recently. I don't think anyone realizes for
Speaker 1: Brooks how catastrophic the injuries were, and I think the
Speaker 1: Full Swing documentary in his interviews, I think people have
Speaker 1: been surprised him talking so candidly about how bad the
Speaker 1: injuries were. But they were almost game over for him.
Speaker 1: They were almost career over because if his body wasn't
Speaker 1: going to be able to do what he needed it
Speaker 1: to do to swing the golf club, then as a
Speaker 1: as a golfer, as a player, you can't perform at
Speaker 1: the level that you're trying to perform at. So I
Speaker 1: think the team around Brooks is one of the best teams.
Speaker 1: He has a big team, Jeff Pierce, putting instructor, Pete Cowen,
Speaker 1: short game I look after Full Swing. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: a lot of people, but that's to me, that's another
Speaker 1: example of this this narrative that a lot of people
Speaker 1: tried to push that you know, everybody was going to
Speaker 1: go to live and you know, get the bag, get
Speaker 1: the money, and then just check out. I mean, Brooks
Speaker 1: has got like seven people on his team and he
Speaker 1: rehired me after us not talk to each other for
Speaker 1: two years. If you think that's him checking out. I've
Speaker 1: got news for you, it's not. I've never seen Brooks
Speaker 1: more hard than he's working right now. I think his
Speaker 1: game is moving in a direction that he can be
Speaker 1: one of those players that week in week out, can
Speaker 1: have chances to win tournaments, can have chances to win majors,
Speaker 1: and if he gets on a run, he has a
Speaker 1: chance to dominate because he has that type of game.
Speaker 1: And you know, five majors by the time you're thirty three,
Speaker 1: three PGAs and two US Opens. I think he has
Speaker 1: the game. I think we've seen that he's had chances
Speaker 1: to win the Masters in nineteen and this year, and
Speaker 1: I think the Open sets up really well for books.
Speaker 1: He can move the golf ball a lot of different
Speaker 1: directions his ballflight, he can change trajectories quite easily. He's
Speaker 1: quite comfortable doing that. So I think, you know the
Speaker 1: conditions if he doesn't get you know, messed around by
Speaker 1: the draw and get the wrong side of the draw,
Speaker 1: which can happen to you at an Open Championship, I
Speaker 1: fully expect him to have legit chances in the next
Speaker 1: two majors. And I think that I think this was
Speaker 1: a statement win for Brooks because after what happened at Augusta,
Speaker 1: where everybody was so used to seeing him close in
Speaker 1: him not closing. I think there were some questions, you know,
Speaker 1: which Brooks was going to show up on Sunday at o'kill.
Speaker 1: Was it going to be you know, the nineteen Brooks
Speaker 1: where he was number one in the world and you know,
Speaker 1: multiple major champion, or was the Sunday at Augusta Brooks
Speaker 1: going to show up? And I think he showed everybody
Speaker 1: that I definitely think he's back. I definitely think that
Speaker 1: he has the type of game and he's still I mean,
Speaker 1: he forget Brooks Silene early thirties, thirty three, he's exempt
Speaker 1: into every major and for the next five years, right,
Speaker 1: so he's exempt into all the major until eight. So
Speaker 1: I'm bad at math, but that's a lot of opportunities,
Speaker 1: and I think he is going to continue to have
Speaker 1: opportunities to win major championships. I couldn't say this to anyone,
Speaker 1: but Brooks lost the Masters to Tiger in twenty nineteen
Speaker 1: double Bogie twelve hit it in the water and ended up,
Speaker 1: you know, just missing out, and Tiger won, and then
Speaker 1: he won three four weeks afterwards at beth Page and
Speaker 1: I just, I just I know Brooks, those of us
Speaker 1: around him know him. I just I said to my wife,
Speaker 1: I said, to a couple of guys I work with,
Speaker 1: Brooks is going to win the PGA. And you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't say it publicly, but you you could just tell.
Speaker 1: And you can tell when players are in a different space.
Speaker 1: You just can't. It's like the room is a different temperature.
Speaker 1: And being around him, you can see the confidence, you
Speaker 1: can see the command that he has over his shots,
Speaker 1: you can see, you know, how good his body is.
Speaker 1: And I just i'd seen it before. I saw it
Speaker 1: in nineteen where he, you know, had a chance to
Speaker 1: win the Masters and didn't get it done, was devastated
Speaker 1: by that and then wanted to make a point and
Speaker 1: win the next major. And I definitely think that that
Speaker 1: was the mindset. I definitely think he was in that
Speaker 1: headspace to where he was like, Okay, I should have
Speaker 1: won the Masters. I let that one slip away, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to go get the job done at the
Speaker 1: next one. And he did it. The emotions that you
Speaker 1: go through when you watch players, I mean, you spend
Speaker 1: more time with these guys than you do with your
Speaker 1: own families. So when you spend time with them as
Speaker 1: much as you know those of us on the teams,
Speaker 1: of these guys do when they you know, I I
Speaker 1: I walked to the I was in the clubhouse. I
Speaker 1: was doing some TV for Sky. You couldn't see anything,
Speaker 1: so it's just easier. And I knew I'd be able
Speaker 1: to watch everything, you know, every shot that Brooks hit,
Speaker 1: I knew I'd be able to watch it on TV.
Speaker 1: When he was going to the eighteenth hole, the eighteenth tee,
Speaker 1: I walked over, made the walk over to to go
Speaker 1: stand behind the eighteenth green and was getting you know,
Speaker 1: when I saw that he'd hit the ball in the
Speaker 1: middle of the fairway on eighteen because that is a
Speaker 1: difficult drive. You hit it in that bunker, you're you're
Speaker 1: struggling to make par and you know, you're just you're
Speaker 1: filled with a lot of you know, a lot of emotions,
Speaker 1: or at least I was, And you know, you're watching
Speaker 1: a player that you know has been through so much,
Speaker 1: and you know, to to the hug that he gave
Speaker 1: Ricky Elliott on the on the on the eighteenth green.
Speaker 1: If you know Brooks, that's real, that's who he really
Speaker 1: is as a person. Brooks can sometimes kind of act
Speaker 1: like he's an alpha kind of sometimes act like a
Speaker 1: tough guy, sometimes act like he doesn't care, but privately
Speaker 1: is a very very different person, and those of us
Speaker 1: that are lucky enough to know him privately see a
Speaker 1: different side of him. I mean, obviously, the fans and
Speaker 1: everyone listening to the podcast, you guys don't know him.
Speaker 1: I mean, you don't know. We don't know any of
Speaker 1: these players, right, But when you're lucky enough like I am,
Speaker 1: to know what they're really really like, it's it's fun,
Speaker 1: it's amazing, and you know, I'm just I'm just proud
Speaker 1: of him. You know, it takes a lot. You know,
Speaker 1: I put out a post on social that you know,
Speaker 1: everybody gets knocked down, right, but it's what you do
Speaker 1: after you get knocked down that really really matters. And
Speaker 1: I think this is an opportunity for Brooks to have
Speaker 1: a second phase of his career. And if he's healthy
Speaker 1: and if he can stay healthy, which I think he can,
Speaker 1: and his golf continues to be where it is, I
Speaker 1: think over the next five years he's going to be
Speaker 1: forced to be reckoned with and if he qualifies for
Speaker 1: the Ryder Cup team, automatically because of the points. I
Speaker 1: don't know how you keep them off that team, and
Speaker 1: then hopefully I actually want that to happen. I want
Speaker 1: Brooks to be on the Ryder Cup team because then
Speaker 1: we've got players that play on Live winning major championships.
Speaker 1: We've got players that play on Live playing in the
Speaker 1: Ryder Cup and it's golf. We're just this isn't rocket science,
Speaker 1: Mark Karen Cancer out here, folks. This is professional sports.
Speaker 1: These are athletes, and Brooks's an athlete made the choice
Speaker 1: to go to Live. I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: have tried to portray Brooks as a guy that wants
Speaker 1: to come back to the PGA Tour. I promise you,
Speaker 1: I promise you. I've never heard Brooks mentioned that once.
Speaker 1: You know, he has probably been in more meetings for
Speaker 1: Live and his team than any of the other team
Speaker 1: captains and team owners on Live. So I haven't seen
Speaker 1: him do anything other than be fully invested in Live.
Speaker 1: It was a decision, he meant. He has no animosity
Speaker 1: towards the PGA Tour. He doesn't. He saw He told
Speaker 1: me he saw Jay Monahan at the PJA champions dinner.
Speaker 1: Said they spoke, said everything was fine. And when he
Speaker 1: played with Roy McElroy at the Masters, everybody tries toy, Oh,
Speaker 1: he's you know, he's playing with Rory because he wants
Speaker 1: to come back to the PGA Tour. He's playing with
Speaker 1: Rory because he normally plays a practice round a couple
Speaker 1: times a year with Rory at a major championship. They're
Speaker 1: two of the best players in the world. Why wouldn't
Speaker 1: they play together. They know each other well. They members
Speaker 1: at the same club down in Jupiter, they live in
Speaker 1: the same town. They played the European Tour together. I
Speaker 1: think that moving forward, I hope is that we can
Speaker 1: just talk about the great golf that these players are playing.
Speaker 1: And enough with all of this Live versus the PGA Tour.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it's gotten so out of hand,
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of people that were anti live,
Speaker 1: you know, need to ask themselves, Okay, now what now what?
Speaker 1: Because what's the narrative. Now? The narrative was they all
Speaker 1: took money, they were all committing career suicide, and they
Speaker 1: weren't weren't going to be able to play because they
Speaker 1: only played fifty four holes and it was an exhibition.
Speaker 1: And now you have those guys playing go to majors,
Speaker 1: and now you have one of those guys winning a
Speaker 1: major championship and has a legit chance to be on
Speaker 1: the Ryder Cup team and qualify for the Rider Cup team,
Speaker 1: not even have to have a pick. He could qualify
Speaker 1: and it'll be interesting to see what the powers that
Speaker 1: be do that. But I know a lot of people
Speaker 1: are gonna not like this comment, but I think Brooks
Speaker 1: winning his fifth major was a good win for golf
Speaker 1: because we got to see some great golf. We got
Speaker 1: to see some great golf and Brooks from Vic Scotti Scheffler, man,
Speaker 1: I mean, this guy just he just doesn't go away.
Speaker 1: And I think the golf that that Scottie Scheffler's playing
Speaker 1: is so good. And because I've been on Live for
Speaker 1: so for really since June, I love coming back to
Speaker 1: the Majors because I get to see a lot of
Speaker 1: these guys, they get to watch them hit golf balls,
Speaker 1: and to be on a driving range and get to
Speaker 1: watch Scottie Schefler hit golf balls. I mean, he's definitely
Speaker 1: somebody else stop and watch and oh kill tough, tough
Speaker 1: golf course. And you know, I definitely thought last week
Speaker 1: some of the best players in the world stood up
Speaker 1: and you know, went toe to toe with each other,
Speaker 1: and Brooks Kepka came out on top. I think us open. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's going to be really interesting to see
Speaker 1: if this trend can continue, if these if we can
Speaker 1: have these great players continue to play well. But you know,
Speaker 1: right now, through two majors, John Rahm, Brooks Koepka, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm definitely here for that, and I can't wait for
Speaker 1: the next two majors, and I'm excited to see it.
Speaker 1: And Brooks is back and he's not going anywhere, so
Speaker 1: definitely definitely proud of him and excited to see what
Speaker 1: he can do. That's the eighth major I've been a
Speaker 1: part of. I got to watch Ernie els Whin. I
Speaker 1: worked with Ernie when he won in twenty twelve, that
Speaker 1: live them, worked with DJ for his two majors, and
Speaker 1: now that's five with with Brooks, and they are just
Speaker 1: as a coach, they are just they're so special to
Speaker 1: be a part of. And I am just so unbelievably
Speaker 1: lucky that the players that I work with and trust
Speaker 1: me to help them with their golf. And I say
Speaker 1: this all the time. I learn way more from them
Speaker 1: than I think they sometimes learn from me. So, Brooks
Speaker 1: Koepka twenty twenty three PGA Champion. Anybody, did anybody listening
Speaker 1: have that down last year at this time that Brooks
Speaker 1: was going to be the twenty twenty three I mean,
Speaker 1: I didn't, and I can't imagine a lot of other
Speaker 1: people did. But I think it's good. I think it's
Speaker 1: good for the game, and I'm looking forward to see
Speaker 1: what Brooks can do in the majors for the rest
Speaker 1: of the year. Thank you everyone for listening. We're gonna
Speaker 1: continue to get good guests. We've got some great podcasts
Speaker 1: in the can coming, and we've got some great podcasts.
Speaker 1: If you're a new listener and you haven't gone back through,
Speaker 1: we've got a bunch. I'm gonna get Brooks on. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna let him die down from this. Definitely gonna try
Speaker 1: and get Ricky Elliott on because I think, you know,
Speaker 1: the perspective of the caddies is always good. I actually
Speaker 1: think it would be really cool get Brooks and Ricky
Speaker 1: on together and kind of talk to get them talking
Speaker 1: about that interaction that they have on the golf course
Speaker 1: and stuff, because I think that'd be really fascinating to listen,
Speaker 1: But thanks everyone for listening, Rate, review, Subscribe wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Son of a Bunch, I'm just to
Speaker 1: you every Wednesday. We'll see you next week.