Speaker 1: If you got invited to play in the Masters next
Speaker 1: year for whatever reason, and you were in the part
Speaker 1: three and you were tied for the lead in the
Speaker 1: last hole, and you had an eight footer for Bertie
Speaker 1: chanced to win some crystal win the whole thing. Would
Speaker 1: you would you make it? Or would you would you
Speaker 1: three put it? I don't know. I usually never got
Speaker 1: to the ninth because if I was ever doing well,
Speaker 1: I just hit it over the back on the into
Speaker 1: the water. Okay. So that answers the question about I
Speaker 1: wish you stupid because it would be fun to win,
Speaker 1: right And what a basical crystal to have on your show,
Speaker 1: And like someone's gonna do it one day? Put another
Speaker 1: log on the fire nobody hears. Get the time? All right?
Speaker 1: Here we go Episode three of The Fire Drill. What
Speaker 1: a week already. It feels like it's been a long week.
Speaker 1: And it's Wednesday. It always does that. Everyone gets so
Speaker 1: wrapped up on Monday really for this or Sunday even so,
Speaker 1: and the target stories ben a big one, so that's
Speaker 1: kept everyone excited. That's like a press room is, um,
Speaker 1: we can't wait to get to Augusta and I can't
Speaker 1: wait to leave you know, He's like, it's a fun week,
Speaker 1: but it's definitely a grind and that's part of the
Speaker 1: fun though. All the off course things like tonight's the
Speaker 1: Golf Writer's Dinner. There's various parties and gatherings all week
Speaker 1: long for for media but also for players. I'm kind
Speaker 1: of wondering, Jeff, like, do you have any fun stories
Speaker 1: away from the golf course from your master's about just
Speaker 1: things that happened around town or in the rental houses
Speaker 1: or any I don't know about fun stories. But everyone
Speaker 1: gets a house and you're all usually with your management
Speaker 1: or somebody staying with a few people because the houses
Speaker 1: are all pretty big and expensive, so you split it.
Speaker 1: But then you have parties at your house and people
Speaker 1: are coming through to pick up tickets. It's a pretty
Speaker 1: chaotic week. Actually, the master's to stay away from the fry.
Speaker 1: Really impossible to go out to dinner because if you
Speaker 1: pock a tournament carried any of the restaurants, everybody sort
Speaker 1: of to keep picking in and so he's eating in
Speaker 1: there to not um. Yeah, it's an interesting town. You
Speaker 1: just gotta it's you lay low, and I hope your
Speaker 1: house isn't one of the really active ones, you know,
Speaker 1: because some of these houses are active all week. You
Speaker 1: mentioned Tiger. I mean just obviously there's gonna be plenty
Speaker 1: of time and everybody has spoken, but maybe just top
Speaker 1: level thoughts obviously on the idea that Tiger is here
Speaker 1: and Phil is not here. That's amazing. He wouldn't have
Speaker 1: picked that ten months ago, would you at all? No
Speaker 1: chance he would have got good aunts on that. Yeah, nuts, amazing.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's a he's a freak tiger. He keeps
Speaker 1: coming back. He looks really good, he looks fine, done it.
Speaker 1: He looks you wouldn't even know really when you see
Speaker 1: his swing, you can he seems to be walking fine,
Speaker 1: and he looks up in about He's been playing every day,
Speaker 1: so I mean there would be a massive ass to
Speaker 1: see him play really well. But like you wouldn't put
Speaker 1: it past him to put a good round or two,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, he's already won the Masters with
Speaker 1: five different golf swings and five different bodies. Like it's
Speaker 1: you just I thought, you know, when he was at
Speaker 1: his Nadier like fifteen sixteen seventy, with the chippyps and
Speaker 1: the surgeries and telling people he thought he was done.
Speaker 1: I mean, I said, if he comes back and wins
Speaker 1: like a Bob Hope, it's going to be one of
Speaker 1: the greatest achievements of his career. If you can even
Speaker 1: get to that level, and not like that. Of course,
Speaker 1: he won the Masters, he was the best player in
Speaker 1: the world at Royal Melbourne, maybe the best golf course
Speaker 1: in the world. Like he climbed the ultimate mountain, and
Speaker 1: it's incredible. He's gonna try and do it again. Like
Speaker 1: just the determination and the will. And we were talking
Speaker 1: yesterday about how hard is to organize your life at
Speaker 1: this point when you have kids and you have all
Speaker 1: these business interests and um that want and that that
Speaker 1: that grind. That's what's amazing. I mean, if if he can,
Speaker 1: if he can play like he can, he can be
Speaker 1: a threat. Like he he'll find a way to get
Speaker 1: the golf club at the back of the ball right
Speaker 1: no matter what. Like he's just an all time golfing genius.
Speaker 1: So whatever his body will or will not let him do, like,
Speaker 1: he's gonna find a way to deliver the club. And
Speaker 1: then you know, obviously competitive rust but who knows, it's amazing.
Speaker 1: It's he needs no, he doesn't need this, but he
Speaker 1: gets so much out of the comeback thing. You know,
Speaker 1: I can't do it in my back is bad. I
Speaker 1: can't do it. I love the u s open, my
Speaker 1: leg's broken. I've got to prove I need it. Obviously.
Speaker 1: He needs obstacles almost, you know, like in a way
Speaker 1: he's not doing any on purpose, but he's better when
Speaker 1: he's got obstacles almost. You know. He loves to debat
Speaker 1: the challenge, you know, slay the dragon. He's done it
Speaker 1: like three or four times. As she said, he keeps
Speaker 1: coming back from these things that you can't come back from,
Speaker 1: and he just keeps coming back. It's not amazing, he
Speaker 1: said it. I mean, and I think we all know it.
Speaker 1: But you don't get to eighty two and fifteen without
Speaker 1: this undeniable urge to compete. He said, I'd love to
Speaker 1: compete period. That could be that that is the tiger story,
Speaker 1: and that that's the only way you get to be
Speaker 1: that far superior to your peers. Is robotic, sort of
Speaker 1: void of human element aspect of part of what he
Speaker 1: is as a as a person is just a founding
Speaker 1: to this. To see what he's doing right now is
Speaker 1: it's yet another point in which we're surprised not to
Speaker 1: be surprised over the fact that he's doing something that
Speaker 1: we should all be surprised at. I wonder how much
Speaker 1: Charlie's a factor now like that desire to be able
Speaker 1: to play with him, and you know, when it's Charli
Speaker 1: Wood's gonna get his first sponsors invite like a Tiger
Speaker 1: at his at sixteen, Charlie's probably ahead of where Tiger
Speaker 1: was at thirteen. Like you know, I'm sure he's thinking
Speaker 1: when if he's gonna play the LA Open in two
Speaker 1: thousand six, I want to walk down the first Ferry
Speaker 1: Rid with him, you know, Like I think that's something
Speaker 1: that helps get him out of bed. Like Lebron James
Speaker 1: is talking about you, he wants to play with Brawny
Speaker 1: in the NBA, uh Tiger, competing with Charlie on the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour is a lot more attainable and in certain
Speaker 1: ways just the physicality of the game and all that.
Speaker 1: So I think that's helped him, you know, to get
Speaker 1: him out of bed every day like that. I think
Speaker 1: that fire is always going to be there, But if
Speaker 1: you needed any more motivation, like now that that's on
Speaker 1: the horizon, I could see that being something that pushes
Speaker 1: him forward. I think he'd be bored unless he was
Speaker 1: growning at golf. You know, it just seems to be
Speaker 1: his thing. You know, it's said to be had a
Speaker 1: sty wife for very long. He just loves it done.
Speaker 1: He loves He had a firepit on with Ken Gifford
Speaker 1: Griffy Jr. On the idea that he and his dad
Speaker 1: hit back to back home runs as Seattle Mariners. You
Speaker 1: could see Tiger and Charlie doing something, you know of
Speaker 1: that nature. You know, there's been a lot of father's
Speaker 1: sons who have played professional golf. There's brother but I mean,
Speaker 1: what what's what's the potential of Tiger and Charlie Woods
Speaker 1: could be something? Really who knows a little more star
Speaker 1: power other than Bill and Jay Hass or anyone else
Speaker 1: you can name anyway, Yeah, and then they're probably they're
Speaker 1: probably the best father's son duo right as far as achievements.
Speaker 1: So um, yeah, it's it's interesting to think about. We're
Speaker 1: talking about, you know, multigeneration. So it's just what's Wednesay
Speaker 1: afternoon here in Augusta. They just put a delay on
Speaker 1: the Part three tournament because the weather we were watching
Speaker 1: it before, so Jeff, I have to have to get
Speaker 1: your take on how the part three's evolved from. You know,
Speaker 1: for me, when I came here in the mid nineties,
Speaker 1: it was awesome to watch because it was a really
Speaker 1: spionny balls and you know, all the wedge Maestro was
Speaker 1: like tom Kaite and you'd go out there and the
Speaker 1: way the control they had over the golf ball was
Speaker 1: just mesmerizing, and it was one of my favorite parts
Speaker 1: of the week. And now you've got the wives and
Speaker 1: the kids and the photo ops excuse me, the girlfriends,
Speaker 1: and um, it's lost a little bit of its appeal
Speaker 1: for me. But of course I've never been out there
Speaker 1: between the ropes with my kids, and I'm sure it's
Speaker 1: a special thing. So what does your take on on
Speaker 1: the part three? Uh, both sides actually unlocked. They all
Speaker 1: when I first started applaying it was, I mean, girlfriends
Speaker 1: about Caddy and parents and it's like the opportunities always
Speaker 1: be an oportunity to get your friend and he's got
Speaker 1: a ticket or somebody yet they're cadding for you. Um.
Speaker 1: But it was quiet and it was quicker, and it
Speaker 1: was fun. It was massive, but that was pretty tell.
Speaker 1: I think that's that's Prairie television past three and post
Speaker 1: I think and Pray to It was definitely different. I
Speaker 1: mean it was really really cool, really loud. I mean
Speaker 1: I was out there when like Jack, Gary and Armild
Speaker 1: were playing like two a couple of groups in front
Speaker 1: of them, and that was just experiences that are better
Speaker 1: than almost on the course, you know, those three playing
Speaker 1: in front of everyone. It was just nuts and one
Speaker 1: of them had a holy one a few years ago
Speaker 1: Jack maybe somewhere. It was just crazy, like it was unbelievable,
Speaker 1: and that's really special. But then there's the other side
Speaker 1: of it. It has seemed to have got out of
Speaker 1: since it's been put on TV, and it's a different
Speaker 1: style of it now. Now it's more visual. So I
Speaker 1: guess it's kind of cool that the kids are run
Speaker 1: out there. They have such a good time, they're so happy,
Speaker 1: and when they get in all their little white their
Speaker 1: little jumpsuits and stuff. I mean, it's different now, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know, like it's part of the masters. It's
Speaker 1: like slowly over the last thirty years showed us a
Speaker 1: lot more. We used to get two hours on the weekend,
Speaker 1: maybe three hours, you get it back nine Now we
Speaker 1: get the whole week, you get what is it, four
Speaker 1: hours every day, maybe you get the whole coverage and
Speaker 1: you get the Path three and you get the whole thing,
Speaker 1: and it's like you actually kind of get led into
Speaker 1: the Masters on the broadcasting that which you never did before.
Speaker 1: So I don't know things evolved. I kind of like
Speaker 1: the old just the just the players out there in
Speaker 1: a sense of like trying kind of showing off on
Speaker 1: a pat three course. But it's I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: kind of fun there and the old guys play, like
Speaker 1: as I said, when when Jack Garranol we're out there
Speaker 1: and Watson and Crencher on that, I mean, the people,
Speaker 1: the respect and that the guest standing ovation for two hours.
Speaker 1: You know, it's pretty amazing, but it makes it tough
Speaker 1: if you trying to win the golf tournament. You get
Speaker 1: out there late and it's really slow. It can be
Speaker 1: had a couple of years out. I didn't play it
Speaker 1: because it just kind of did have a tedium do
Speaker 1: it if you got up the back of the field
Speaker 1: and it took three hours to play what the first
Speaker 1: group plays in forty five minutes? You know? Um so yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's an amazing thing. It's nuts. Anyone who hasn't. Actually,
Speaker 1: if you come to the Master's Wednesday maybe one of
Speaker 1: the better days because you get a good spot on that.
Speaker 1: It's pretty good to watching it. I mean it is
Speaker 1: like atmosphere is crazy. Yeah, I mean the people are
Speaker 1: actually almost sitting on the green. Like the intimacy of
Speaker 1: it is pretty incredible but scary. There's a couple of
Speaker 1: holes there where we're hitting like full nine ones and
Speaker 1: they're sitting there about three yards on the side from
Speaker 1: the pin and they're sitting there like and I can't
Speaker 1: move because it's deep. So they're both coming at them
Speaker 1: and just hits them. But that they haven't the best
Speaker 1: time in their live because they're on the edge of
Speaker 1: the green. So yeah, and you're when you're putting and
Speaker 1: you're writing your pots that you're almost touching them when
Speaker 1: you're scoring them and they have wrought there. That's nuts,
Speaker 1: I Laird Shepherd. Just as an update as subject of
Speaker 1: our podcast number two of the Fire Drill, Laird Shepherd
Speaker 1: got to play a practice round or played at least
Speaker 1: nine holes with Rory McRoy and Harry Higgs today, which
Speaker 1: apparently was very engaging and probably super beneficial for Laird,
Speaker 1: but I loved the point that you made to him,
Speaker 1: which is, don't sleep on the part three as an
Speaker 1: opportunity to utilize those greens, green complexes to hit pots
Speaker 1: that you might you know. My seeing out there this week,
Speaker 1: I thought that was that was inside almost made me
Speaker 1: look at the part three a little different. I just
Speaker 1: love it as a fairly new dad seeing you know,
Speaker 1: sort of seeing the interaction between the kids thinking about
Speaker 1: being a kid, you know, the drive chip and put.
Speaker 1: Obviously I have mixed emotions on that whole concept, but
Speaker 1: I think if you really, you know, have kids seeing
Speaker 1: other kids in that situation with their parents, I mean,
Speaker 1: you can't help but appreciate that whole scene for what
Speaker 1: it is. And at the end of the day, no
Speaker 1: one really actually wants to win because of the the
Speaker 1: jinks of being able to win it, so it's become
Speaker 1: just this hit and giggle and fun exhibition. So it
Speaker 1: is what it is, and it's a nice little pressure
Speaker 1: release prior to what is for you know, potentially for
Speaker 1: pretty tight days. So it's kind of nice to see
Speaker 1: these guys out there smiling and laughing and enjoying the
Speaker 1: good stuff. If you got invited to play in the
Speaker 1: Masters next year for whatever reason. And you're in the
Speaker 1: part three and you were tied the lead in the
Speaker 1: last hole and you had an eight footer for Bertie
Speaker 1: just have to win some crystal, win the whole thing.
Speaker 1: Would you would you make it? Or would you would
Speaker 1: you three? Put no. I usually never got to the
Speaker 1: non because if I was ever doing well, I just
Speaker 1: hit it out of the back on the I the water. Okay,
Speaker 1: So that answers the question about I was just stupid
Speaker 1: because it would be fun to win, right and what
Speaker 1: a basic crystal to have on your show, and like
Speaker 1: someone's gonna do it one day. So you did buy
Speaker 1: into the whole Jinx thing for a while. A little bit,
Speaker 1: A little bit, that's the Masters. He got a little bit.
Speaker 1: He hit it over the green men a tempt fight. Yeah. Interesting.
Speaker 1: So yeah, talking, So you know, Laird had to work
Speaker 1: really hard to get that practice around with Rory. I'm
Speaker 1: just curious, like, what was the best practice around pairing
Speaker 1: you ever talked your way into out here? Um? I
Speaker 1: don't know. I had a few, like non halls are
Speaker 1: Tommy Aaron once, which was pretty fun. Um that's how
Speaker 1: you know that, Like he's a real golf purist. If
Speaker 1: Tommy Aaron is like, um, grand show up and I
Speaker 1: think I played a few holes Freddy. I loved playing
Speaker 1: with Freddy around here. I applaied a bunch of practic
Speaker 1: friends with Freddie and like Scottie, Um, yeah, Tommy Iron
Speaker 1: is a memorable one. I don't know because I didn't.
Speaker 1: I've never played with him before. Like he was from
Speaker 1: a past general and you know, was he telling stories?
Speaker 1: Was he chatty? What was that? He was great? We
Speaker 1: chatted all the way around. I can't remember for the
Speaker 1: life of maybe what we talked about, but it was interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a link to you know, since she, you know, played
Speaker 1: played with Bobby, Like what a cool thing to have
Speaker 1: as a connection point to someone who played with the guy,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, this week is just nuts because
Speaker 1: it's like the who's who have golf who are still
Speaker 1: alive are all in that building sometimes you know, or
Speaker 1: up at the clubhouse, or they're playing in the tournament. Still,
Speaker 1: Like it's crazy, Like if you've got the inside ticket
Speaker 1: at the Masters and you get in there, it's it's outrageous.
Speaker 1: Who's here and everybody's here, almost everybody who's ever played
Speaker 1: golf at an unbelievable level who's still alive somehow seems
Speaker 1: to be at the Masters every and it's just cool
Speaker 1: to be around those sort of people, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean Crenshaw told me that for the Tuesday night
Speaker 1: dinner that he's now the host the m c of
Speaker 1: he always gets the old timers talking about their their
Speaker 1: great moments at this tournament, so as a way to
Speaker 1: have that history passed down. So Doug Ford tell us
Speaker 1: about that Birdie man the last hole, and you know,
Speaker 1: by now the Tiger and Phil have heard that story
Speaker 1: a lot of times, but you know, Dustin and Hideki
Speaker 1: they may have never heard it. So it's kind of
Speaker 1: a cool way, Like it's like this oral history of
Speaker 1: the Masters and from from the people who lived it,
Speaker 1: which I think is pretty amazing. Oh yeah, it's crazy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just just when you have a golf tournament at
Speaker 1: the same place, especially a place that's so like this
Speaker 1: one is non too years or something, you get stories. Right.
Speaker 1: When you move it around all the time, you don't
Speaker 1: get the stories. But when you're at the same place
Speaker 1: for so long, it's pretty cool. For me. You know,
Speaker 1: my first Masters was the ninety seven Masters. I showed
Speaker 1: up as a photo editor for Sports Illustrated. I got
Speaker 1: my dad and my uncle in as photo assistance back
Speaker 1: when you could you could actually add a little leeway
Speaker 1: with the badges, and neither one of them could carry
Speaker 1: a camera obviously those are like cameras, But so we
Speaker 1: had to then hire other people as photo assistants. But
Speaker 1: they got an opportunity to to be here and see
Speaker 1: the grounds. And I think of first impressions and how
Speaker 1: blown away are by the visuals here right when walk through.
Speaker 1: If if this doesn't if you're if you're a if
Speaker 1: the game means something to you, if this doesn't hit
Speaker 1: you in the heart and the soul, then you might
Speaker 1: not have a pulse. But um and I did things
Speaker 1: like higher photographs to shoot out of airplanes over the
Speaker 1: nine eight Masters and Marc Omyre's win in which you know,
Speaker 1: I think got me in some hot water. But we
Speaker 1: ran it as a full spread image in Sports Illustrated
Speaker 1: that week with long shadows and no, you're not doing
Speaker 1: the story justice. So like you could actually hear this
Speaker 1: airplane on the telecast. It was buzzing so low over augustin. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but like you sneaking in the Butler cabin as ascribe
Speaker 1: our jobs, and especially at Sports Illustrated, where you know,
Speaker 1: we're talking about top gun of of journalism and relevancy
Speaker 1: at the time in the nineties, the mandate from my
Speaker 1: boss was to get photographers in places that you know,
Speaker 1: in theory, they're not supposed to be get angles that
Speaker 1: nobody else has. So we had a guy named Jim
Speaker 1: Gunn who we would hire on a regular basis to
Speaker 1: shoot sporting events from the open door of an airplane
Speaker 1: with a high wing so they could he could strap
Speaker 1: in and shoot out the plane. And this is before
Speaker 1: drones exist. This is a human drone. Yeah, so and
Speaker 1: the idea was all right, well for the last hour
Speaker 1: and a half. As so they go through sort of
Speaker 1: the second nine will say, uh, you know, shoot the
Speaker 1: hell out of the action. Meanwhile, we had four or
Speaker 1: five guys down on the ground leap frogging each other
Speaker 1: trying to cover the tournament because they don't get inside
Speaker 1: the ropes. This is actually harder to cover than every
Speaker 1: other tournament as a as a photographer. And uh so
Speaker 1: we called him air Gundo goes up and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm back now I've left SI on Saturday with the
Speaker 1: bags of film because it was still film film back then,
Speaker 1: dropped him up the time, inc building for for for processing,
Speaker 1: editing days worth of film on a Sunday morning, leaning
Speaker 1: into the you know, get to the final final nine
Speaker 1: of the Masters and here come the broadcast on here
Speaker 1: and all all you can hear in the you know,
Speaker 1: over the broadcast Jim Nance's I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: that's are playing. Oh my god, we're disrupting the whole
Speaker 1: broadcast of the Masters and they you know, at that time,
Speaker 1: I couldn't even I couldn't even send him a text.
Speaker 1: It was it was the page or days where you'd
Speaker 1: have to page and then hopefully they'd call you back,
Speaker 1: you know, and I couldn't. It was we're at the
Speaker 1: mercy of the the the sound at that point anyway,
Speaker 1: O'Mara makes the pot. You know, everybody go crazy. Beautiful
Speaker 1: incredible image. Got a call from Glenn Greenspan at Augusta,
Speaker 1: you know, that week as the magazine came out. It
Speaker 1: was like, is that your guys is playing up there
Speaker 1: on eighteen Uh? Yes, it was beautiful image, amazing, you know,
Speaker 1: would love some copies of that for the clubhouse. And
Speaker 1: the office is here as many as you can send
Speaker 1: sixteen by twenty. Great, great on it, Glenn, no problem,
Speaker 1: And if you ever do something like that again, we'll
Speaker 1: pull your badge for life, you know that second second time,
Speaker 1: I've got that call from Glenn Green's man by the way,
Speaker 1: and uh and after that, they essentially closed the airspace
Speaker 1: over Augusta, Nashually there's I tried. I've tried to hire
Speaker 1: planes since over you know, from different airports, anything in
Speaker 1: any way to try to get a up angle. And yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not happening anymore. So that was the last of
Speaker 1: its kind. But that you know, having you know, you
Speaker 1: you're talking about having friends on your bag at Part
Speaker 1: three's or or getting you know, being able to have
Speaker 1: opportunities to get relatives and getting you know, my dad's
Speaker 1: and uncles in the in the tournament, getting being able
Speaker 1: to see film make that put In two thousand and
Speaker 1: four and watch people cry as he wins the Masters
Speaker 1: or obviously Tigers, you know forty thirty. I mean, do
Speaker 1: you have sort of special moments or memories of certain things,
Speaker 1: obviously birding five in a row. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know all of it really. First time, something like you
Speaker 1: said The best thing is how excited all your friends
Speaker 1: are when you get your first invite, right because they're
Speaker 1: all lining up for get the tickets. How many tickets
Speaker 1: you get? You get eight, and I think you can
Speaker 1: buy you can pay sticker price for the for more.
Speaker 1: I think, I think it's the deal. So you get
Speaker 1: eight sort of for the whole week, plus your family
Speaker 1: or your wife, kids and stuff, so you get it's
Speaker 1: quite generous, but it's the same for everybody, and everybody
Speaker 1: gets the same because everybody gets the max that they
Speaker 1: can get. Usually. Yeah, that's parents first obviously in siblings,
Speaker 1: and then friends and then every year because they're not
Speaker 1: everyone comes every year. You could have if you play
Speaker 1: for a while, it's good. You get to share it
Speaker 1: amongst your friends. It's good. Yeah, yeah, I wrote my
Speaker 1: mom and my dad they're so happy. They have the
Speaker 1: best week. It's just incredible how happy people are when
Speaker 1: they come to the Master's for the first time. In
Speaker 1: it you said every year, it's like just like it's
Speaker 1: like kids at disney Land, grown ups. It's amazing. I
Speaker 1: have a funny story. So my mom came in ninety seven,
Speaker 1: which is obviously a momentous year, and I had that
Speaker 1: like nineties. In the fall of nineties, I was actually
Speaker 1: covering college football. Put me on the college football be
Speaker 1: for s I. So I had not seen Tiger Wood
Speaker 1: take a golf shot in person until the ninety seven
Speaker 1: Masters and first round. I can't remember what we were doing.
Speaker 1: We got there lates. We ran down to the back
Speaker 1: nine and he was in the middle of that rally
Speaker 1: on fourteen. He clipped a tree with his drive and
Speaker 1: so he's way back. He's sent a firn in and
Speaker 1: I was on that hill above, and the sound of
Speaker 1: the strike and just the trajectory and the grace of
Speaker 1: the fall. It was the first time I ever saw
Speaker 1: swinging club and it's like burned in my brain. And
Speaker 1: so then we you know, of course he birdies that one,
Speaker 1: and he hits his drive down the right side of
Speaker 1: fifteen and back then there's those big mounds and you
Speaker 1: could to slingshot off those mounds, and um, so we
Speaker 1: ran down the right side, and of course he spins
Speaker 1: that wedge in close makes eagle. You know my mom
Speaker 1: was she was she would have fitted in the silent.
Speaker 1: She was pretty sneaky. So somehow she had smuggled a
Speaker 1: camera in her purse onto the grounds. You know that
Speaker 1: security was not as as uptight in the nineties is
Speaker 1: now he know, no metal detectors whatever, and so and
Speaker 1: everyone runs down the green to watch Tiger putt. And
Speaker 1: so I have a picture of my mom pointing at
Speaker 1: Tigers div it and I just found that picture a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago. I was going through some old albums
Speaker 1: and this is a classic. Like we were right there,
Speaker 1: and you know, that was the whole the whole history
Speaker 1: of golf. Flip on that back nine, you know when
Speaker 1: he won and and just kept going and one that thing.
Speaker 1: But don't as a momentous as that week was for
Speaker 1: for Tiger and for the game. Like my strongest memory
Speaker 1: is is this goofy picture of my mom pointing at
Speaker 1: the divt and uh so, yeah, there's there's a personal
Speaker 1: element to all these things that more than anywhere else
Speaker 1: because no one ever asked. You know, in our world
Speaker 1: they might but if it's if you know, it's a
Speaker 1: pebble beach, I'll have people ask me to go to
Speaker 1: the US Open because but no one said, hey, I
Speaker 1: want to open at Oakmont or Marion or whatever. It's
Speaker 1: just not on the radar screen. The way the Masters is,
Speaker 1: it's just something different about this place. Toodnight before Christmas.
Speaker 1: Right now, it's start on the subject of photos. One
Speaker 1: last one, but two thousand one of my last Masters
Speaker 1: I covered for Sports Illustrated as the photo editor. We
Speaker 1: had just coordinated efforts with UM Golf magazine. We were
Speaker 1: actually sharing some sort of Sports Illustrating Golf Magazine had
Speaker 1: kind of come together for a concerted effort of photo
Speaker 1: you know, photo synchronicity in terms of as a photo
Speaker 1: and I had now access to guys like Fred Botch,
Speaker 1: so we would send the typical Sports Illustrated photographers, the
Speaker 1: best of the best, plus Fred Us who came in
Speaker 1: with this really amazing team like mentality, humble attitude, incredible talent.
Speaker 1: And it was come Sunday that final round two thousand
Speaker 1: one and Tiger and Phil actually we're paired together that
Speaker 1: that round and Tiger was winning by I mean, he
Speaker 1: had a comfortable lead, I believe at the time, you know,
Speaker 1: coming up that the last few holes and it was
Speaker 1: all about, you know, again leap frogging photographers. And it
Speaker 1: came down to if you have five guys, one guy's
Speaker 1: at the tea, one guy's at the green. The next
Speaker 1: guys at the tea and next guy has green. We
Speaker 1: have a leap frog system in place, but we had
Speaker 1: this fifth photographer, Fred Botch's access and was like, what
Speaker 1: are you going to do differently on Sunday during the
Speaker 1: final and everyone wants to run up and be near
Speaker 1: the green so you can surround that green and get
Speaker 1: the shot of the react, the pod or the thing.
Speaker 1: Fred Voish we talked about hanging back and he said,
Speaker 1: what if I go medium format silent shutter in the
Speaker 1: photo tower behind the tea to try to get something
Speaker 1: a little different of Tiger. I think he practiced it
Speaker 1: on Saturday. It looked amazing. If you get the timing
Speaker 1: just right, could be an incredible image. Again, willingness to
Speaker 1: not go up to the green, stay back because if
Speaker 1: you're back at that tea in that booth, you're not
Speaker 1: getting up to the green. And Fred, which volunteered to
Speaker 1: go back, shot medium format. I get the role of
Speaker 1: film and sports those after it gets process timing, building
Speaker 1: comes down to the light table. I roll it out.
Speaker 1: There's two frames on the whole on the whole roll
Speaker 1: of film. One is Michelson right at the top of
Speaker 1: his backs being time to perfectly, which is not easy
Speaker 1: to do. And then Tiger top of his back swing
Speaker 1: in a perfect sort of as I recall, shaded area
Speaker 1: where the light is sort of shining in on the
Speaker 1: ball on the t Tiger perfect top of his back swing,
Speaker 1: down that shoot from behind. And you know, this was
Speaker 1: the quote masterpiece cover for Sports Illustrated on the way Out,
Speaker 1: and they used that one frame Fred bois being selfless.
Speaker 1: There was no react to the green tissue and that's
Speaker 1: you know, teams were like in the dream and the
Speaker 1: credit to which is attitude and energy. And that was
Speaker 1: the and that was my last Masters I covered for
Speaker 1: s I and then I went to digest and go
Speaker 1: for a book. In the lobby of the Sports Ulsted
Speaker 1: building in Manhattan, they had that blown up. It was
Speaker 1: about ten ft wide and the detail was just it's
Speaker 1: the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I wanted to
Speaker 1: steal that's so bad, but I couldn't have too heavy. Well,
Speaker 1: the masterpiece worked on I've got one up in my office.
Speaker 1: The masterpiece work worked on both levels, not only as
Speaker 1: tigers performance but the image itself. It's a it's pretty
Speaker 1: cool this, I mean, this is it's so funny that
Speaker 1: that you're as like we all span Like when I
Speaker 1: was an intern at Sportshill Straight the Olympics was at
Speaker 1: Lilla Hammer in Norway. There was there were no flights,
Speaker 1: and the magazine hired a large it to fly to
Speaker 1: and from Little Hammer in New York just to bring
Speaker 1: back bags of film because that was the only way
Speaker 1: to get in the magazine. Really, I mean people would
Speaker 1: jump on the flight too, but the whole reason was
Speaker 1: just to get the film because things would happen on
Speaker 1: the weekend and they have to go in the magazine,
Speaker 1: and the literally the only way to do it. We're running.
Speaker 1: I I served as a photo editor slash film runner
Speaker 1: on countless occasions, including the involved around the Ryder Cut,
Speaker 1: in which I had to carry the film back from Spain.
Speaker 1: Slept through my flight, you know, like I mean, you
Speaker 1: know the stories are and the back of the day
Speaker 1: it was just light. The idea of light tables and
Speaker 1: running film is just you know where is opposed to
Speaker 1: just you know, sending a digital image now is just
Speaker 1: like a drug mule. Yeah, yeah, that's stressful if you
Speaker 1: lose that film minus the things in awkward places, But yes,
Speaker 1: drug mell yeah, exactly, more more memories, Jeff, what do
Speaker 1: you got? Well, I'm wondering about this, like all the
Speaker 1: build up you get here, whatever, Sunday, money, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Speaker 1: you said the night before Christmas? Like, how how do
Speaker 1: you go to sleep on Wednesday night before the Masters
Speaker 1: when you're in the field and you know, if your
Speaker 1: first one or maybe you're a favorite, or like, how
Speaker 1: did you do that? I don't know. Sometimes you probably didn't.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it was fine, and I don't know. First time,
Speaker 1: I'm sure I was pretty nervous and probably didn't sleep
Speaker 1: very well. But then you get used to it, and
Speaker 1: you can remember we do this every week, Like I know,
Speaker 1: the Masters, it's not the only tournament we play all year.
Speaker 1: It's the eightieth tournament we've played in the last three years,
Speaker 1: you know, Like so we used to sleeping in a
Speaker 1: new bed, going to bed on some sort of knowing
Speaker 1: that golf is happening tomorrow, and then the other may
Speaker 1: just keep you up a little bit. I mean the
Speaker 1: first time, I think I was probably pretty rough, but
Speaker 1: up for a while, I think, and you get so
Speaker 1: tired as a tiring week because you just want to
Speaker 1: be out there, especially when you're first coming here, you
Speaker 1: want to be out there all day Monday, all day Tuesday,
Speaker 1: all day Wednesday. Um, I don't know, you just work
Speaker 1: it out your glasses later in the career a class
Speaker 1: of red or a couple of years, mate. But no, never,
Speaker 1: it wasn't never a big problem because it's like what
Speaker 1: we do, you know. I mean it's a it's a
Speaker 1: bigger version and a better version of what we do,
Speaker 1: but it's still what we do, you know. So I
Speaker 1: think every now and then it's hard, Like the lead
Speaker 1: having a lead here would be a hard one to
Speaker 1: sleep on. Leads are hard to sleep on anywhere, but
Speaker 1: here would because it would be especially hard course to
Speaker 1: go out with a lead on, because such crazy stuff
Speaker 1: can happen, right, And the two times at two forty
Speaker 1: like yeah to Sprutal and all you want to do.
Speaker 1: You can sleep till ten whenever you want, when you're that,
Speaker 1: when you're young. But all of a sudden you wake
Speaker 1: up at seven that day for some annoying reason. You
Speaker 1: play having heard what you said about Greg Norman and
Speaker 1: how the whole country sort of wait was waiting for
Speaker 1: him to win one what what was? What was your
Speaker 1: memories and reflections on on his on his collapse. Ninety
Speaker 1: six is s brutal. Yeah, I mean because we've had
Speaker 1: eighty seven. He got hold out on Larry Myers chipped
Speaker 1: in and that was the very major after Bob had
Speaker 1: to hold out on him from the bunk. The two
Speaker 1: majors in a row, someone would hold out on him
Speaker 1: to like walk off beat him, you know. So, I
Speaker 1: mean we were just all about that. And then he
Speaker 1: was in it every year, it seemed like, and then
Speaker 1: he kind of hadn't been there I don't think for
Speaker 1: a couple of years. And then ninety sixty three in
Speaker 1: the first round. I think he was leaving a whole week. Um,
Speaker 1: I think he shod sixty three in the first round. Anyway,
Speaker 1: it's what six in front, and it was Fouldo made
Speaker 1: that big part on seventeen on Saturday, and it was
Speaker 1: kind of this, I'm going to sign because those two
Speaker 1: Voudo would kind of had his number a little bit.
Speaker 1: When they head to head it over like tournament wins
Speaker 1: and stuff. Norman beat him all the time, but when
Speaker 1: they actually head to head it Fouldo had looked hard
Speaker 1: for Norman to work out, and yeah, we turned it on.
Speaker 1: That was back in the days when the footage came
Speaker 1: came on, the telecast came on, and he was playing
Speaker 1: the ninth. He used to see the second shot of eight,
Speaker 1: remember that period, second shot to eight, and then the
Speaker 1: music would come and nance would get on his thing
Speaker 1: and then you'd start watching nine, right, and that was
Speaker 1: when you started, and we started, and Ventur he was
Speaker 1: just saying, don't hit it. He could do anything he
Speaker 1: wants to hear, but don't hit it short on nine.
Speaker 1: Don't hit it short or nine, don't and he spins
Speaker 1: it off the front or nine, and right then it's like,
Speaker 1: this is not going to go really well. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just felt from there it felt scary, you know,
Speaker 1: for an Australian Norman fan. And then it was pretty
Speaker 1: hard to watch PTSD, like literally did that like that that?
Speaker 1: But I mean that that mattered. I mean that was yeah,
Speaker 1: it was hard to watch. And then I don't know, um,
Speaker 1: I practiced hard of that day. I went straight to
Speaker 1: the golf course and practiced all day. And I know
Speaker 1: if I got a plenty of friends who did the same,
Speaker 1: because they were just like, I don't know, That's all
Speaker 1: I could think to do was to just go practice.
Speaker 1: It was a sad day in Australia though, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure that there would have been one of those microeconomic
Speaker 1: downturns that day, because everyone would have liked that struggled
Speaker 1: to get to work or been down and flat at work.
Speaker 1: Like it was a dark day for Australia for sure,
Speaker 1: because it would have It would have been a Monday
Speaker 1: Monday morning. Yeah, yeah, because we watch it. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: watch it and everyone's late to work on Monday. Oh,
Speaker 1: light to the one. I'd like to school because you'd
Speaker 1: get in too much trouble, but like you would, uh yeah,
Speaker 1: everyone's light. It finishes about nine o'clock in the morning
Speaker 1: and everyone scoots into walk at work and talks about
Speaker 1: the Masters. I guess on Monday. You know, it was
Speaker 1: always like great Greg, Greg, can he win in this ship?
Speaker 1: And he went this year? And yeah, it was pretty sad.
Speaker 1: I was walking around out there and it was still
Speaker 1: the eeriest feeling on a golf course because just a
Speaker 1: slow unraveling and they got down to Amen corner and
Speaker 1: he just didn't No one knew how to react. And
Speaker 1: there's there's a few shots are burning in my brain.
Speaker 1: One of them is foulto on thirteen that second shot,
Speaker 1: because I was right by the ropes and I had
Speaker 1: just that quintessential view through the trees and the golden
Speaker 1: sun and just sort of the daffled light, and he
Speaker 1: smashed that two iron, and you know, Gregg had driven
Speaker 1: up into the pines for I had to lay up,
Speaker 1: and so now Fault that was hitting and he puts
Speaker 1: in the creek like Norman's back in it, but he
Speaker 1: just hit this absolute laser and again the sound of
Speaker 1: that one I remember that was like, guy, this is it.
Speaker 1: I mean, this guy's not going to go backwards. And
Speaker 1: um yeah. I bumped into to David Ledbetter out there
Speaker 1: and it was just this it felt like almost like
Speaker 1: this funeral is too strong a word, but it was
Speaker 1: really extreme heaviness in the Dogwoods and never been in
Speaker 1: a tournament like that. I mean usually maybe it's also
Speaker 1: because you know fall It was a great champion, but
Speaker 1: he was kind of a prickly character. So you know,
Speaker 1: if if he would if it was Fred who was
Speaker 1: going to beat Norman, the people still be really excited
Speaker 1: because it was Fred, whereas Fault that they didn't know
Speaker 1: how to feel. And god, it was that was that
Speaker 1: was the weirdest Sunday ever I think around here that
Speaker 1: I've experienced. He was on a label about that when
Speaker 1: he felt there the last round might just he was
Speaker 1: as good as we have a soul dove Taga crazy.
Speaker 1: I think that was transition to because that was pretty
Speaker 1: Tagataga was obviously that was probably the second one, third one, Yes, Amateure, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and then everything Giants. It was kind of the end
Speaker 1: of Fellow Norman to really want to and they had
Speaker 1: a few good stuff after that, but Taga turned up
Speaker 1: after that and that was all anyone so off for
Speaker 1: the next twenty years, you know, and they were number
Speaker 1: one and two for so long. Yeah. I ended a
Speaker 1: lot of media media nights at the Media Center shoulder
Speaker 1: to shoulder with Tim rose Afford and goes Worth mentioning
Speaker 1: you know that I was watching live from can't help
Speaker 1: but miss tim rose Afford's reporting in presence. He's just
Speaker 1: been such a mainstay and and a rock to all
Speaker 1: all of golf reporting and storytelling, but especially at a
Speaker 1: place like the Masters. Do you have any did you
Speaker 1: have any reflections or thoughts on Tim Rosefort Did you
Speaker 1: have any run ins or or or experiences with Tim,
Speaker 1: lots of experiences I mean, non memorable, just because I
Speaker 1: saw him every week for years. You know, it was
Speaker 1: just the guy you could say anything you wanted to
Speaker 1: and you would never you knew he was safe. You know,
Speaker 1: there some out there that you know are safe to
Speaker 1: be open with. You know, they'll only print what's fair
Speaker 1: and the something that you don't, and he was one
Speaker 1: of that. He was fantastic, was wise, interested more in
Speaker 1: the deepest story, not that just he played well today,
Speaker 1: you know, it was always after that, the interesting stuff.
Speaker 1: He was good, great team, very respected. The players loved him.
Speaker 1: I think he loved really to be respected and be
Speaker 1: loved by both sides well and not only these readers,
Speaker 1: but but the players end his peers. It's pretty hard
Speaker 1: to do, I mean, because you've got to write some
Speaker 1: strong opinions every now and then and it's going to
Speaker 1: annoy people. But he just did it in a way
Speaker 1: that was professional and classy. You know, you can't remember
Speaker 1: people's names, you know, you paid attention. You know, he
Speaker 1: was good. Yeah, So it's sad. It's really sad because
Speaker 1: it's a there is there is important to the tournament,
Speaker 1: like the great journalists are is important to these tournaments
Speaker 1: as the golf is wrong. So that's how everyone always
Speaker 1: used to write about him, and that's how we hear
Speaker 1: about it all the stuff. So that's always been my
Speaker 1: feeling anyway, Alan, I mean they talk about you know
Speaker 1: that this one, especially your shoulder, shoulder, all in the media.
Speaker 1: Everybody's scrambling. It's harder to cover this to this tournament
Speaker 1: more than any And yet I've also you know, Trunky
Speaker 1: the great the great stories of Rosaford and always reporting.
Speaker 1: But you know, you get lauded for your your reporting
Speaker 1: and being able to get where other people don't get.
Speaker 1: What's your what's your what? What was your strategy to
Speaker 1: this week? And what continues to be your strategies weaken
Speaker 1: in an effort to try to get something that nobody
Speaker 1: else has. Yeah, it gets harder and harder. Um, But
Speaker 1: as far as far as Rosie goes, I can remember
Speaker 1: being a lot of Augusta press rooms and starts getting lonely.
Speaker 1: At ten o'clock, people start filing out. You get to eleven,
Speaker 1: it gets gets thin. You get to midnight, there's about
Speaker 1: ten left. I mean, me and Rosie were sometimes the
Speaker 1: last you guys in there, and um, you just had
Speaker 1: that gry and you know, and that that was part
Speaker 1: of the fun. I think he always wanted me to
Speaker 1: leave first. It's like it's like, I'm gonna wait this
Speaker 1: guy out. And that was just part of his his
Speaker 1: you know, that fullback personality that we've talked about a lot.
Speaker 1: But um, you know, and it's worth mentioning to especially
Speaker 1: this week, like, uh, it's very generous. We just say that,
Speaker 1: you know, the reporters are as important as the players
Speaker 1: in the history of Augusta National. I mean, that's true.
Speaker 1: Like grantland Rice is a big reason why August and
Speaker 1: Nashally even got formed and in the thirties because he
Speaker 1: was he was this great honk for the tournament and
Speaker 1: the club and he was an original member and he
Speaker 1: helped recruit people. And then you have you know, Herbert
Speaker 1: Warren Win is one who came up with the term
Speaker 1: Amen corner, and Dan Jenkins, you know, coined the phrase
Speaker 1: doesn't matter doesn't begin to the back night on Sunday,
Speaker 1: Like the legend of of the Masters, the reporters have
Speaker 1: been really important, so more than any other tournament, which
Speaker 1: is just kind of interesting. At the same time, you know,
Speaker 1: they they don't really like the reporters out much anymore,
Speaker 1: as as August has embraced making their own content and
Speaker 1: the stuff they put out as beautiful, like they've further
Speaker 1: marginalized the rest of the press because they would rather
Speaker 1: have even going to Masters dot com. And so it's
Speaker 1: they've they've restricted more and more where we can go,
Speaker 1: how we can talk to people. It's accelerated oer COVID.
Speaker 1: So it's a challenge. You know, I could probably get
Speaker 1: back into bother cabin, but at this point I probably shouldn't,
Speaker 1: you know, So Unfortunately, like I've closed off a few
Speaker 1: avenues for myself. Um. But the one good thing is,
Speaker 1: as you're talking about Jeff, like, everyone has a lot
Speaker 1: of family and friends here. So if you go out
Speaker 1: and walk and you follow people, you can find the
Speaker 1: college buddies and the girlfriend and the parents. And there's
Speaker 1: a lot of reporting that can be done outside the
Speaker 1: ropes where many other tournaments they're not there at all,
Speaker 1: and so there's still that opportunity. And in a big crowd,
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily easy to find them, especially if it's
Speaker 1: a young up and comer, but you can usually tell,
Speaker 1: especially girlfriends stand out right like there's there's a type
Speaker 1: um and uh so that's kind of a fun challenge,
Speaker 1: is just picking out the faces in the crowd. And
Speaker 1: there is you know that a lot of turn mints.
Speaker 1: The players are kind of under siege after their round
Speaker 1: and they're they're trying to get away from the fans,
Speaker 1: but because of the no autograph policy here, there's a
Speaker 1: lot more lingering. And so after the players signed their car,
Speaker 1: they'll often stand in the tree with their family and
Speaker 1: that's how you can pick people out and um and
Speaker 1: then maybe the next day you can find them on
Speaker 1: the course, or it used to be when they're waiting
Speaker 1: for their cars in front of the clubhouse, you could
Speaker 1: you could chat people up on the veranda there. But
Speaker 1: you know, I got busted for that now because Billy
Speaker 1: Paine doesn't he doesn't want reporters on that side of
Speaker 1: the clubhouse any marks. We were not allowed to go
Speaker 1: to the front and did a million interviews in that
Speaker 1: parking lot um over the years, but we can't go
Speaker 1: over there anymore. So lots of little some of the
Speaker 1: institutional knowledge has been forfeited because they are they're always
Speaker 1: changing the rules and not for the better. But if
Speaker 1: you hustle, and then you have instincts you can you
Speaker 1: can still you can still get your work done, but
Speaker 1: it's definitely harder than it used to be. So you'll
Speaker 1: be craping around in the crowd looking for girlfriends and yeah,
Speaker 1: somebody's gotta do it job and um, well, I mean
Speaker 1: this week not as much because they have other people,
Speaker 1: but like for twenty years, I've got out there and
Speaker 1: walk and usually the girlfriends are the wives are by themselves,
Speaker 1: are actually happy. I want to talk to you, like
Speaker 1: you get a lot of reporting done that way, and
Speaker 1: you go into your your deep like your so fun
Speaker 1: message voice. Hello, Well, you know what's really funny? He
Speaker 1: just jogged in memory. So I was sitting next to
Speaker 1: Roosaford in the press room and it was it Augusta
Speaker 1: I'll never forget. And he was working the phones on
Speaker 1: some story. I was a kind of minor consequence. It
Speaker 1: wasn't a big deal, but you're making phone call after
Speaker 1: phone call, and you and it's kind of like making
Speaker 1: you know, It's like it's like when you scrambling eggs.
Speaker 1: You're always working around the edges and then you kind
Speaker 1: of get to the middle. Like he's always he was
Speaker 1: getting more and more information than he would go to
Speaker 1: the next person said, well, so this guy told me this,
Speaker 1: but I want to fact check it and like, and
Speaker 1: he was just just going through the whole process and
Speaker 1: it was fun. It was fun to listen to. I was.
Speaker 1: I feel like that was nineties. I think that was
Speaker 1: nineties or seven. It's one of my first masters. And
Speaker 1: and then when he's when he's done, he's like, he's
Speaker 1: turned because he was aware. You know, I wasn't like
Speaker 1: a staring on, but I was clearly kind of tuned
Speaker 1: into it. And he says to me, you know, it's
Speaker 1: kind of like picking up a woman, you other, there's
Speaker 1: some seduction there and you gotta share a little bit.
Speaker 1: And ye I'm like, wow, that's Steve. You know. Thanks
Speaker 1: to him, I was like, you telling Lair don't sleep
Speaker 1: on the path through. Yeah, I was like, God, I
Speaker 1: thought it was just basically exchanging of data, but no,
Speaker 1: there's a whole other human element to it that and
Speaker 1: Rose Fork passed it on. Yeah, I know. I think
Speaker 1: he made some allusion to some old Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Speaker 1: cheerleader that you dated, just to finish the annecdote. But yeah,
Speaker 1: good for Rosie. What prognostication doesn't seem like it's it's
Speaker 1: your favorite thing in terms of picking winners. But do
Speaker 1: you have do you have someone that you have your
Speaker 1: eye on or you don't bet on golf? You don't,
Speaker 1: you know, you're not You're not one of these guys.
Speaker 1: If I would, I think dust would be hard to
Speaker 1: sleep on Dustin. I think, I mean he's just he's
Speaker 1: under the right as he's ever been. I mean remember
Speaker 1: a few yars ago he was on one when he
Speaker 1: was falling over in the garage on on all the
Speaker 1: stairs and it was like the novel. He was the
Speaker 1: story of the week. Yeah, he's not that. There's like
Speaker 1: stories all over the top of him this week, especially
Speaker 1: with Tiger so and he played unbelievable at the match play.
Speaker 1: He's perfect for this course, especially if it plays long.
Speaker 1: He would be hard to beat if he if he
Speaker 1: plays well, if he really hard debate, I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: I took Dustin days ago with with with Las on
Speaker 1: his podcast. But yeah, I mean it's gonna it's it's
Speaker 1: been raining today. I mean the fairies are going to
Speaker 1: be soft. I mean it's gonna, as we talked about
Speaker 1: with suba of the greens, can they confirm them up
Speaker 1: to a large degree. But soft fairways, I mean it's
Speaker 1: it's going to be a long golf course. So that's
Speaker 1: a tough combo, right, soft fairways and hard greens. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, look, they're all pretty long. But Dustin does
Speaker 1: it easy, don'ty, And it's he's just extra long, you know.
Speaker 1: And he's one here that's a fifteenth club this week.
Speaker 1: If you've already got a green jacket, maybe even a
Speaker 1: sixteenth club, like it's you can't be. They just always
Speaker 1: carry an air of and they're not as nervous. They
Speaker 1: don't they've already done it. They are in the Champions
Speaker 1: dinner forever, right, So they're just putting cream on top
Speaker 1: the other guys like Rory, I mean he's carrying way
Speaker 1: more than Dustin come down the stretch, right, So Kim
Speaker 1: Smith when the players and I mean the guy is this.
Speaker 1: Is this as solid as it gets right now? Is
Speaker 1: that possible? Yeah? Absolutely, it'd be hard to see him
Speaker 1: liked to argue against him. I mean, unbelievable in it
Speaker 1: was it capital with this year, unbelievable a soul grass
Speaker 1: like unbelievable s grass. So yeah, I mean, anyone who
Speaker 1: puts that good would be great to same win Australia
Speaker 1: will be like riding him in Leash Scotty pretty hard.
Speaker 1: I would have thought pays good here. Yeah, Leash don't
Speaker 1: sleep unleash Um. He's it's whatever. Regardless of his form,
Speaker 1: when he gets the big tournaments, he usually sort of
Speaker 1: shows up, don't he And he's got a good game here.
Speaker 1: He loves it. He's been up there a few times,
Speaker 1: so he knows what to expect. I like Luke List
Speaker 1: and Lucas Glover is a couple of little sleepers, guys
Speaker 1: who are wells List. I mean he's pounds it like
Speaker 1: he's with stats lately. But he's definitely one of the
Speaker 1: best drivers out here. So that makes him dangerous, especially
Speaker 1: this week. Any other guys out No, I mean I
Speaker 1: haven't been picking j T. That's like seems like consensus pick.
Speaker 1: But I don't know. He's he seems to jump you
Speaker 1: out there, like that triple bow he made on on
Speaker 1: thirteen last year, you know, from the middle of Fairway,
Speaker 1: like there's I think you know. Johnny Miller talked about
Speaker 1: this a lot, how Augusta just gets in guy's heads.
Speaker 1: He was one of them. Obviously, Greg was another Ernie Trevino.
Speaker 1: I mean, Rory, you take that those are those are
Speaker 1: five of the best, you know, twenty golfers ever probably
Speaker 1: and they don't have a single jacket between them. White's cough.
Speaker 1: I mean, some guys just wanted too much. And there
Speaker 1: there is a mental aspect here that seems like it's
Speaker 1: different than anywhere else. And so um so he hasn't
Speaker 1: has heartbroken here like Rory has quite as much. But
Speaker 1: I don't know, I just feel he's already fallen into
Speaker 1: that category. So he's got that mean, he's got the game.
Speaker 1: He can win anywhere, anytime. But I don't see that
Speaker 1: it's easier for me to talk to myself out of
Speaker 1: pick than it is to make one. He's got bones now,
Speaker 1: that helps, And and he's got the Tiger, the Tiger
Speaker 1: inner circle, you know, info which I'm sure can't hurt,
Speaker 1: can't hurt If it's not this year, you would think,
Speaker 1: I mean, you would say he will definitely win one.
Speaker 1: But we said that about Rory eight years ago, and
Speaker 1: I've said that about a lot of players through the years.
Speaker 1: So there's something confounding about Augusta Nashville that's what makes
Speaker 1: it such a It's just part of the week. You know,
Speaker 1: there's there's a lot of heartbreak out there. There's there's
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of blood on those greens too.
Speaker 1: I mean we remember the triumphs, but you know, go
Speaker 1: back to kenventor you name it. I mean there's there's
Speaker 1: a lot of guys would have expected to win here
Speaker 1: who just never did. And those shadows. That's that's part
Speaker 1: of the tournament there. It is. Boys. Tomorrow we wake
Speaker 1: up to golf. I like it. I'm so excited. It's
Speaker 1: so at this point, it's I'm so ready. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a long preamble, it's it's let's tee it up.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. More tomorrow, Yeah, yeah, I think you
Speaker 1: know the plan is Jeff and I at least we'll
Speaker 1: we'll do something tomorrow and Friday, and obviously we'll be
Speaker 1: talking a lot about Tiger tomorrow. No matter what you shoots,
Speaker 1: he's the story. Like, crowds are going to be just unreal,
Speaker 1: um and you know that that's all. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: also something worth mentioning. Throughout the week, there's different crowds
Speaker 1: on different days, and like Monday through Wednesday, it's a
Speaker 1: lot of people feel like it's our first time here,
Speaker 1: and um, you know, those are the busiest days in
Speaker 1: the merchandise tent. You get to the tournament rounds and
Speaker 1: it's more of the longtime badge holders and and whatever.
Speaker 1: But um, I feel like I feel like there's something
Speaker 1: in the air where people are aware that it's fleeting
Speaker 1: with Tiger. If you want to watch Tiger Woods playing
Speaker 1: in person, you better get on it because nothing is guaranteed.
Speaker 1: By the way his back, I mean, one forgets like
Speaker 1: he was recovering from back sturgery when he wrecked his car.
Speaker 1: Like we haven't even talked about his back. That's an
Speaker 1: ongoing issue. It's got a few spine you know whatever.
Speaker 1: So every swing is precious. So I feel like there's
Speaker 1: this this need to memorialize it. You know, if if
Speaker 1: you've been if you've been a little complacent for for
Speaker 1: a while now, it's like, Okay, I better take my
Speaker 1: son or my nephew or or my dad or whomever
Speaker 1: and get out there and watch him to do it.
Speaker 1: So I think it'll be some of the biggest Thursday
Speaker 1: crowds ever around one player, and that's just gonna be
Speaker 1: all part of the show. Colard Shepherd, that shepherd, all right,
Speaker 1: it's a rap. It's a rap. Put another log on
Speaker 1: the fire. Nobody hears. Get the time