Speaker 1: I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset.
Speaker 2: When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
Speaker 1: And when I find my ball.
Speaker 2: In a Frida egg Friday egg the dread and Frida
Speaker 2: Egg Friday Frida Egg Egg, Frida Egg Bride Egg.
Speaker 1: Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the course.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Golf Podcast.
Speaker 1: Today we are going to talk about the Olympics. Uh,
Speaker 1: the men's competition that wrapped up on Sunday. It was
Speaker 1: a scintillating tournament. It was It was really awesome. I
Speaker 1: think everybody had high hopes for the Olympics and it delivered.
Speaker 1: I am joined today by Joseph Lamannia and then Sean
Speaker 1: Martin will be joy to talk about the Olympics. But
Speaker 1: first we're going to do our in and out segment. Joseph,
Speaker 1: what are you.
Speaker 2: In on Andy? I am in on the Wyndham Clark
Speaker 2: redemption story or partial redemption story. There was a lot
Speaker 2: of Wyndom Clark hate coming into the Paris Olympics. I
Speaker 2: think that was exacerbated by people kind of knowing that
Speaker 2: he wasn't the strongest course fit. He's been really struggling
Speaker 2: this year, but Wyndam Clark qualified. He wasn't picked. This
Speaker 2: wasn't a boys club type thing. Wyndham Clark has accomplished
Speaker 2: a lot on the golf course in the last fifteen months.
Speaker 2: US Open champion last year. He deserved to be there.
Speaker 2: He opens with a seventy five, and.
Speaker 1: Social media and everybody piled on.
Speaker 2: Everyone started piling on right. Bryson tweeted that he'd love
Speaker 2: to be in Paris, but you know he's cheering for
Speaker 2: Team USA. He tweeted that after round one, convenient time
Speaker 2: to tweet it right when everyone's going at Wyndham Clark.
Speaker 2: And then Wyndham turned it around sixty eight, sixty five,
Speaker 2: sixty five to finish, tied for fourteenth, beat a lot
Speaker 2: of good golfers and I really enjoyed reading his quotes.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if you look through his transcript after
Speaker 2: he finished, but there was a question more or less
Speaker 2: to the effect of, I don't know if you saw
Speaker 2: any of the social media chatter, a lot of people
Speaker 2: saying that maybe you were distracted going to a lot
Speaker 2: of these events and the way you're doing the Olympics,
Speaker 2: and Wyndham was like, look this is a once in
Speaker 2: a lifetime opportunity. I went to a lot of other
Speaker 2: events like the gymnastics, and he went to track. He's like,
Speaker 2: this was an amazing experience and I have no regrets
Speaker 2: about the way I handled any of this. I think
Speaker 2: he did a really good job of indicating himself and
Speaker 2: I respect the grind to lock in after a bad
Speaker 2: first round and put up three good performances on a
Speaker 2: golf course that didn't suit him particularly well. I think
Speaker 2: there are a lot of people who just don't like
Speaker 2: Wyndham Clark and wanted to take a shot at him
Speaker 2: and again, is he one of the best five players
Speaker 2: in the world. No, he's not playing like that. But
Speaker 2: he deserved to be there, and I think he've indicated himself.
Speaker 1: I think the year has been a tale of two
Speaker 1: halves of the year. He was great at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the year, you know he was. There were questions
Speaker 1: like is he the best player in the world at
Speaker 1: one point this year before Scotty went absolutely bananas. You
Speaker 1: know he almost won it at Sawgrass. Of course, that
Speaker 1: I would say doesn't really fit his his game well.
Speaker 1: And I think, like you know, Windom Clark, I guess
Speaker 1: the one thing I do appreciate about Wyndham Clark in
Speaker 1: a larger scale is like, to me, he seems like
Speaker 1: he's himself. He is very I think the right word
Speaker 1: to use here is is genuine. Uh there isn't I
Speaker 1: think like the person that that was that everybody was
Speaker 1: clamoring to replace him. I don't. I think he's like
Speaker 1: pretty much the polar opposite of Bryson. There's not you know,
Speaker 1: underlying motives to you know, what he's doing. Like, you know,
Speaker 1: Bryson's not tweeting about congratulations Sky Scheffler, what an amazing performance,
Speaker 1: you know to win an American gold. This is like
Speaker 1: it was more of a you know, there was definitely
Speaker 1: a cryptic undertone to when and why Bryson might have
Speaker 1: tweeted out that that that message. It was probably directed
Speaker 1: at the fourth qualifier from the Americans, who you know,
Speaker 1: played a very bad first round. So I I agree.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm generally in on on Wyndham Clark and his
Speaker 1: performance there. I'm in you know, this is this is
Speaker 1: a greater I'm in on the Olympics. What a what
Speaker 1: a what a takeaway here, I'm in on golf in
Speaker 1: the Olympics. But more if I wanted to zero in,
Speaker 1: you know, the men's tournament, We'll get into this on
Speaker 1: the pod. Was was amazing. This is I think the
Speaker 1: biggest event in women's golf now, and I'm super Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's the biggest event in women's golf, and
Speaker 1: I'm super excited for the women' event this week. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, you have a lot. You have all the
Speaker 1: best players and all the best women really in the
Speaker 1: in the world competing, and I think from the platform
Speaker 1: that the Olympics gives it the passer, but the general
Speaker 1: passer by audience, the general fan interest. My my neighbors
Speaker 1: are not golfers. On Saturday night, they were asking me
Speaker 1: what's going on in in men in the in the golf,
Speaker 1: what who's going to win? You know that that doesn't
Speaker 1: happen for any you know, and I I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't want to, you know, be dismissive of any women's
Speaker 1: tournament at this point. But that does not happen for
Speaker 1: any women's golf tournament at this point. It happens for
Speaker 1: one the Olympics, the general sports fandom, the audience. Yesterday afternoon,
Speaker 1: my wife stopped by and was genuinely interested in what's
Speaker 1: going on in golf. I have done this now for
Speaker 1: almost nine years. I can tell you that that does
Speaker 1: not happen for the Masters, That does not happened for
Speaker 1: the US Open, That does not happen for any golf tournament,
Speaker 1: doesn't happen for the Ryder Cup. It happens for the
Speaker 1: Olympics because my wife Will, who's not a sports person,
Speaker 1: will watch Olympics sports because it's the part of this
Speaker 1: big festival of the Olympics that that captures a non
Speaker 1: sports interested audience. And that is an amazing thing for
Speaker 1: women's golf. It's an amazing thing for just golf in general.
Speaker 1: Is that general passerby. When you have passerbys, you have
Speaker 1: the ability to track them and make them fans. And
Speaker 1: I think this is a huge moment. This might be
Speaker 1: like the moment that women's golf really I don't want
Speaker 1: to say needs, but this could be a moment that
Speaker 1: we look back on years from now and say, you
Speaker 1: know what the twenty twenty four Olympics were it that
Speaker 1: was the jumping off point that turned you know, we
Speaker 1: see women's basketball having this moment. The WNBA ratings have
Speaker 1: never been higher. Maybe this is the moment that leads
Speaker 1: to the really growth and popularity that we've been waiting
Speaker 1: for for women's golf, and I can't wait for this tournament.
Speaker 2: I hope you're right. I'm really excited for this tournament. Andy.
Speaker 2: I thought it was really cool to see some of
Speaker 2: the quotes on the men's side. Shane Lowry said, the
Speaker 2: majors are up there, but the atmosphere this week is
Speaker 2: as good as any major that I've ever played. Alejandro Toasty,
Speaker 2: you know, a fan favorite, had posted a video saying
Speaker 2: it's the biggest crowd he's ever played in front of.
Speaker 2: I really hope that energy is there for the women's game.
Speaker 2: The only question I even have is the rationale as
Speaker 2: to the order of the women's going after the men.
Speaker 2: I just hope that with the men's game being a
Speaker 2: little bigger, it doesn't take some of the oxygen out
Speaker 2: and they the women get the same turnout. I think
Speaker 2: it probably just worked better for the professional schedule to
Speaker 2: do it this way, but I think there's maybe a
Speaker 2: case to be made that the other way around would
Speaker 2: elevate the women's game. Regardless. Super excited. I'm in on
Speaker 2: that too, all right, what are you out on totally
Speaker 2: different direction here. Just think it's an interesting story that
Speaker 2: indirectly affects golf. But there's a pretty controversial tax happening
Speaker 2: in the sports betting world that I think is interesting
Speaker 2: for people to see, but big headlines around it like
Speaker 2: DraftKings is introducing this surcharge tax Andy, and basically the
Speaker 2: way it's working. Instead of offering fans like let's say
Speaker 2: to bet on either side of Bears Browns to use
Speaker 2: a shotgun start matchup, like you have to risk one
Speaker 2: hundred and ten dollars to win one hundred, they're implementing
Speaker 2: this tax where instead of changing the price you pay
Speaker 2: on the front if you win the bet, they're taking
Speaker 2: like a small fee out of your winnings. And it's
Speaker 2: very clearly impacting customers to the point that I know
Speaker 2: that it's going to go into effect January first of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five, but it's going to outrage customer so
Speaker 2: much that some people think that they're doing this on
Speaker 2: purpose to kind of spark some uproars against the legislation
Speaker 2: and to get some fans on board with kind of
Speaker 2: punching back a little bit. We don't want to see
Speaker 2: money taken out of our winnings regardless. DraftKings is a
Speaker 2: partner of the PGA Tour. Sports betting is very relevant
Speaker 2: and professional golf, and I think people should be aware
Speaker 2: of some of the things that are happening, some of
Speaker 2: the ways that customers are going to be impacted, and
Speaker 2: some of the more predatory practices. I'm not sure if
Speaker 2: this would be described as predatory, but sports gambling is
Speaker 2: a huge subject that's going to ruin a lot of lives,
Speaker 2: a lot of young lives, and I think it should
Speaker 2: be legal, but people should be aware of how it works.
Speaker 2: And like some of these small things that it's already
Speaker 2: very difficult to win at sports betting, regardless of how
Speaker 2: it's marketed. Things like this make it a lot harder,
Speaker 2: and that's not always Again, the way that the entire
Speaker 2: phenomenon is promoted.
Speaker 1: This is a page out of the Big Tech playbook.
Speaker 1: Big Tech playbook is hey, uh, get people hooked to
Speaker 1: your product and then change the rules. And this is
Speaker 1: this seems like a quintessential rule change, where hey, this
Speaker 1: is the way sports betting works. You get paid you
Speaker 1: you risk this much, you get paid this much. But
Speaker 1: now it's like, oh, hold on, not only are you bet?
Speaker 1: Are we betting against you? Like a small fee change
Speaker 1: tilts the odds in a in a in a major way,
Speaker 1: And it's sad. I've uh, you know, I've long compared
Speaker 1: this and you know, probably to the detriment of the
Speaker 1: health of our company, you know, in terms of advertisers,
Speaker 1: Like there's been a lot of money to be made
Speaker 1: for for sports media companies and you see it with
Speaker 1: like ESPN ESPN bet you know, like they have their
Speaker 1: own betting thing. But like, to me, this is felt
Speaker 1: the whole time, like like cigarette ads, Like we are
Speaker 1: at some point going to look back on on sports
Speaker 1: gambling and be like, remember when we allowed Joe Joe
Speaker 1: Cammell and allowed like you know, sports betting to completely
Speaker 1: infiltrate our our our sport like the sanctity of sports.
Speaker 1: And you know, I don't want to be on my
Speaker 1: high horse here. This is not what it is. I'm
Speaker 1: fine with sports betting and we would like entertain you know,
Speaker 1: having sports gambling advertisers, right, Like it's not like a
Speaker 1: you know, a a we would never do this thing.
Speaker 1: But like when you look back on like I was
Speaker 1: a kid that grew up with with cigarette advertising and
Speaker 1: it kind of got outlawed while I was a kid,
Speaker 1: and you think back to that time period, it was
Speaker 1: like we kind of woke up and we're like, why
Speaker 1: are we allowing this to happen to our kids? Like
Speaker 1: the gambling as we're really targeted at kids like Joe Cambll,
Speaker 1: the Marlborough Man, like these are these are figures that
Speaker 1: as a kid you would look at and be like
Speaker 1: that's cool. And I think like the way that sports
Speaker 1: has happened, the sports gambling thing is like, you know,
Speaker 1: it's been really marketed as like gambling on sports is
Speaker 1: fun and cool, and I think that's not necessarily like
Speaker 1: the best thing. And as they continue to to the
Speaker 1: decks were already leaning their way, and as they continue
Speaker 1: to put more more weight their way, I would say,
Speaker 1: is it really gambling or is it just you're just
Speaker 1: contributing money?
Speaker 2: And again this is a tax. I think it's a
Speaker 2: little potentially different in that. Again, DraftKings and I'm sure
Speaker 2: similar sports books may end up really being trying to
Speaker 2: advocate for their consumers here, but regardless, I agree with you.
Speaker 2: I think especially young people, if you look at how
Speaker 2: prevalent sports betting is and like high schoolers now very
Speaker 2: well versed in what a spread is, what money line Like,
Speaker 2: you can't escape looking at tickers now without seeing sports
Speaker 2: bets and the different odds associated with each game, prop
Speaker 2: bets being shoved down your throat, Like, I think people
Speaker 2: in sports need to understand the mechanics of how this works,
Speaker 2: especially if they're taking on partnerships for example, like the
Speaker 2: PGA Tour right, Like, there need to be executives who
Speaker 2: understand the way that it's impacting their fans, because if
Speaker 2: it does leave fans with a negative experience, those could
Speaker 2: that could be detrimental to the long term health not
Speaker 2: just of their consumers, but of their own sport if
Speaker 2: those people end up being disenfranchised.
Speaker 1: One thing I'm out on is golf's scheduling for this Olympics.
Speaker 1: I think that when we zoom out and we think
Speaker 1: about this, like the men shouldn't be playing the week
Speaker 1: after the Olympics because the women are on the stage,
Speaker 1: I think that it. I think it's it's reasonable to
Speaker 1: ask professional golf every four years to take a three
Speaker 1: week break. I don't think there should be any event
Speaker 1: really scheduled around the Olympics, any major tour, whether it's
Speaker 1: PGA Tour, Deep World Tour, or Women's like the LPGA.
Speaker 1: I don't think that LPGA you should have players playing
Speaker 1: in Portland, Oregon and trying to play for their status
Speaker 1: and then having to get on a plane and fly
Speaker 1: to France miss out on like the opening weeks of
Speaker 1: the Olympics if they've qualified, and likewise with the men,
Speaker 1: I don't think there should be men that are having
Speaker 1: to get on the plane right after they played the
Speaker 1: Olympics and fly to Sedgefield, North Carolina and have to
Speaker 1: go battle for their status on tour. I think this
Speaker 1: is ridiculous. I think that like there's a I understand
Speaker 1: it's an inconvenience, but when you're talking about the Olympics,
Speaker 1: the honor of representing your country, you shouldn't have the
Speaker 1: honor of representing representing your country pitted against your job status.
Speaker 1: And that's what both of these tours have done with
Speaker 1: their scheduling. For a player like sky Shuffler, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: But when you get down the list at like Eric
Speaker 1: van Ruyan or players like that, it matters greatly. And
Speaker 1: the vast majority of both of these fields, these tournaments
Speaker 1: that are around it matter and they are drastically impacting
Speaker 1: their Olympic experience. And I know that this is legislating
Speaker 1: a change in schedule for a select few, but these
Speaker 1: are players that have achieved something that is a lifetime
Speaker 1: achievement playing the Olympics. And I don't think that the
Speaker 1: re I think that this should be a collaborative understanding
Speaker 1: that the Olympics are going to be a huge, huge
Speaker 1: driver of interest in both sports, the overall sport. This
Speaker 1: should just be a three week hiatus. And I think
Speaker 1: that like we've seen hockey do this where you know,
Speaker 1: if hockey intersects into the Winter Olympics, there's a break.
Speaker 1: Like it's not like they just keep going, you know,
Speaker 1: there's a break. I think that this should be instituted
Speaker 1: and should be a part of the part of the
Speaker 1: pro golf schedules is like, hey, we're going to take
Speaker 1: a break. I understand like maybe there's a couple select
Speaker 1: few corn Ferry Tour players that qualify, and maybe there's
Speaker 1: a tournament outside, Like I can somewhat get on board
Speaker 1: with that. I would love to see though, just a
Speaker 1: full three week stop.
Speaker 2: I don't have a lot to add that as well said,
Speaker 2: I completely agree, I think some of it is just
Speaker 2: putting athletes bodies in the best position to be successful.
Speaker 2: And flying from Paris to North Carolina is not putting
Speaker 2: the athlete's body in a way that I mean, you
Speaker 2: don't have time to get your body adjusted, You're not
Speaker 2: putting them in a position to be successful. And I
Speaker 2: think if golfers like an Eric van Ryan are saying
Speaker 2: to themselves, well, I didn't play super well at the Windom,
Speaker 2: but I was just coming off of the Olympics, like
Speaker 2: that isn't great for the sport. So I agree. I
Speaker 2: don't know what. There's obviously business trade offs, right the
Speaker 2: NFL schedule is an optimized for athletes performance. They're playing
Speaker 2: games overseas and then turning around and playing another game
Speaker 2: seven days later. But I'd love to see some kind
Speaker 2: of schedule accommodations made to elevate both the Olympics and
Speaker 2: the events that around it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think this would be a hard conversation for
Speaker 1: the Olympics, where every year it's once every four years.
Speaker 1: It's like, when you think about it, in the grand
Speaker 1: scheme of things, it's the Olympics are asking you know
Speaker 1: the way I always would say, you know, I used
Speaker 1: to say this to the CDGA who struggles to get
Speaker 1: great venues for their state ams, and I think they
Speaker 1: have like unique situation where the Western am takes a
Speaker 1: lot of like the best venues around Chicago. But I
Speaker 1: used to say to them, like, you know, like you
Speaker 1: if you say, hey, we want one week of your
Speaker 1: calendar to a great club every this year, one of
Speaker 1: fifty two weeks, it's a hard conversation and they're probably
Speaker 1: going to say no. But if you say, hey, can
Speaker 1: you give us one week in the next five hundred
Speaker 1: twenty weeks? So one week in the next ten years,
Speaker 1: what one week can you give us in the next
Speaker 1: five hundred and twenty the conversation changes a lot. And
Speaker 1: I think, like that's the thing when you look at
Speaker 1: this is the question, isn't you know that this isn't
Speaker 1: this one year? We need three weeks so you're fifty two.
Speaker 1: That's a hard conversation to have with both the LPGA
Speaker 1: and the PGA tour, who are dealing with like a
Speaker 1: lot of players, a lot of sponsors, and a lot
Speaker 1: of juggling of the schedule. It needs to be more
Speaker 1: viewed as Hey, the Olympics, which is a huge you
Speaker 1: know opportunity for us to grow our sports, to grow
Speaker 1: our fan bases, to grow our interests, the general interest
Speaker 1: in our sport. The Olympics requires three weeks out of
Speaker 1: the next two hundred and eight weeks. That is a
Speaker 1: lot easier way to frame and to work around creating
Speaker 1: schedule solutions. And I think that's that's the way they
Speaker 1: need to change. It's not it's Olympic year. The Olympics
Speaker 1: happened every four years, and this is what we've done
Speaker 1: with our schedule over four years to accommodate that. With you,
Speaker 1: all right, one way you talked about the body clock.
Speaker 1: I've been doing a lot of travel and uh, I
Speaker 1: got to say, the body clock stuff is real. Like
Speaker 1: I flew from Michigan back to California. I was really
Speaker 1: gassed after this trip, and you know, eight o'clock rolls around.
Speaker 1: I'm like this, I am, I need to sleep. I've been.
Speaker 1: I was kind of sleep deprived just because of the
Speaker 1: hours of the day in Michigan and shooting photos and
Speaker 1: videography requires you to be up early and out late
Speaker 1: in Michigan. But one thing that really helped me throughout
Speaker 1: the week, I brought it on with me on the
Speaker 1: trip was my good Walk coffee. Joseph, are you you're
Speaker 1: a coffee guy? Are you drinking the good Walk? I'm
Speaker 1: drinking the good Walk. I get it shipped every couple
Speaker 1: of weeks.
Speaker 2: Have a little You're blend. I'm the light medium roast,
Speaker 2: and so you go with the fried Egg blend. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I go with the fried Egg blend. I'm not even
Speaker 2: positive if I picked it, but if I had, that's
Speaker 2: the one that I would have gone with.
Speaker 1: Goodlie Coffee is are coffee partner. We have a couple
Speaker 1: of proprietary blends with them. We have the Shotgun Start blend,
Speaker 1: which is a dark medium dark roast, and the fried
Speaker 1: Egg Blend, which is a light medium roast. These are
Speaker 1: freshly roasted coffees. I mean they are shipped pretty much
Speaker 1: like a week or two from their roast date, which
Speaker 1: is really important with coffee, Like you're not going to
Speaker 1: get that nice like bloom in the coffee if you
Speaker 1: don't have fresh coffee. So these are high grade, high
Speaker 1: quality beans that are shipped. I kind of selected these
Speaker 1: two blends, so if you've got qualms with them, you
Speaker 1: can bring them up with me. Maybe you could say
Speaker 1: my coffee taste is shit, but I think there really
Speaker 1: high quality stuff. And if you use the promo code
Speaker 1: fried Egg at checkout, you'll get twenty percent off your
Speaker 1: entire order. One of the things that I think is
Speaker 1: great about this is starting a subscription. That's the way
Speaker 1: we have it set up for all of our staff here.
Speaker 1: I now have, like, because of my travel schedule, a
Speaker 1: nice surplus of coffee. I just gave. You know, one
Speaker 1: of my neighbors just came back from a long trip
Speaker 1: and he was drinking coffee. We were having a coffee
Speaker 1: while kids we're playing together out out in the neighborhood,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, let me go get you
Speaker 1: a bag of our coffee. I gave him a bag
Speaker 1: of our coffee because I have like a nice little surplus.
Speaker 1: When you do the subscription, you never run out of coffee.
Speaker 1: It's great. It's like having to get forgetting to get
Speaker 1: coffee when you make a grocery run. It's one of
Speaker 1: the worst things when you run out of coffee and
Speaker 1: you got to wait till the grocery store opens, or
Speaker 1: go pay for coffee at a coffee shop. So if
Speaker 1: you use this code Frida Egg at Goodwalkcoffee, dot com.
Speaker 1: You'll save thirty percent on your first order and ten
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Speaker 1: off the first order with just the code. So go
Speaker 1: to Goodwalkcoffee dot com check out our two blends there.
Speaker 1: They're delicious and you know, kind of upgrade your morning
Speaker 1: coffee experience with that. All right, we're gonna bring in
Speaker 1: Sean Martin from the PGA tour. He is lead coma
Speaker 1: editorial whatever that means, it mean seas in charge of something.
Speaker 1: I know that Sean covered the Olympics when it was
Speaker 1: in Japan four years ago. I think he covered this
Speaker 1: Olympics from his couch. But Sean, I would love to
Speaker 1: hear what was you know? There was storylines galore in
Speaker 1: this Olympics. You had, you know, there were so many stories.
Speaker 1: What was your favorite one on Sunday that you were
Speaker 1: kind of following.
Speaker 3: I think for a lot of this it was the fans.
Speaker 3: I think the fans added so much. I think, you know,
Speaker 3: the first Olympics was kind of maybe a test run,
Speaker 3: didn't quite at the field. They wanted Japan a better field.
Speaker 3: Some guys knocked out because of COVID, notably rom and Bryson,
Speaker 3: but you really had a good competition, but you just
Speaker 3: had no fans.
Speaker 2: There there was no energy.
Speaker 3: And I think Paris you had the peak thus far
Speaker 3: of Olympic golf. You had a good field, you had
Speaker 3: a great leader board, and then you had the fans.
Speaker 3: I saw some players compared to a festival, the fans
Speaker 3: going wild for Victor Perez. I think just the dynamic
Speaker 3: of having an interesting golf course, one that produces a
Speaker 3: lot of different outcomes. There were birdies we made and
Speaker 3: bogies as well, and then fans to react to those shots.
Speaker 3: I think that was the big takeaway for me.
Speaker 1: I think with the fans thing. The golf course lends
Speaker 1: itself well to fans as well, with the finish with fifteen,
Speaker 1: sixteen and eighteen all being in that one centralized area
Speaker 1: where they have, you know, it seems like big mounds
Speaker 1: around it, so you can watch a ton of golf.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can watch almost the entire finish of
Speaker 1: the golf tournament from that central area, and I think
Speaker 1: that led to increased energy it had. It gave the
Speaker 1: telecast like a place to show, you know, and in
Speaker 1: return to over and over again, where you had big
Speaker 1: groupings of fans. I feel like, you know, this sport
Speaker 1: we cover is like you know, a miles long a
Speaker 1: field and like you can catch it, you know. I
Speaker 1: think this is a this is like a popular live
Speaker 1: PGA tour thing. You can catch it either tour at
Speaker 1: a bad spot and be like, look, there's no fans there,
Speaker 1: and I think you could have found spots that like
Speaker 1: Golf Nationale without fans, but having that central kind of
Speaker 1: meeting location as you described and players described as a
Speaker 1: festival that also aided that festival like environment. Joseph, what
Speaker 1: was your favorite story you were watching.
Speaker 2: I think Victor Perez charging up the leaderboard as the
Speaker 2: fans were going crazy for him, the local French fans singing,
Speaker 2: he was being serenaded. I believe it's the French nation anthem,
Speaker 2: and just a really cool scene as he started stacking
Speaker 2: birdies on the back nine. He described being very emotional afterwards.
Speaker 2: Obviously he didn't finish on a podium, but he was close.
Speaker 2: He had a chance to, and he described, Yeah, if
Speaker 2: there's a six to twelve year old, impressionable young golfer
Speaker 2: out there who showed up to this event, it may
Speaker 2: show them that playing golf and playing at the Olympics
Speaker 2: amongst all the best athletes in the world is a
Speaker 2: possibility for them. I thought it was really cool. I
Speaker 2: thought he handled himself really well. The first t scenes
Speaker 2: with Victor Perez were cool. That was just a really
Speaker 2: cool storyline from Thursday to Sunday that I was very into.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, this is one of the great
Speaker 1: things about the Olympics, and having three places that are
Speaker 1: awarded medals. I think Sean, you were on I believe
Speaker 1: we did a podcast after your Olympics experience four years ago,
Speaker 1: but this is very similar. Victor Press was very similar
Speaker 1: to one of my favorites, the Silver Slovak, the Rory
Speaker 1: Sabatini story. Now Victor Press didn't end up with with
Speaker 1: the with the medal to show for it, but it's
Speaker 1: so neat that you can have these Sunday charges. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, Scheffler would be the person that had the
Speaker 1: Sunday charge and got the medal. But you can have
Speaker 1: this Sunday charge and in most tournaments you're just gaining
Speaker 1: you know, some extra cash or some extra FedEx cup
Speaker 1: points from the Sunday charge. Here, you can have a
Speaker 1: Sunday charge and there's an extraordinary reward at the end
Speaker 1: of the Sunday charge if you've kept yourself, you know,
Speaker 1: within striking distance of that top three position. And like
Speaker 1: what I think makes that made the Victor Perez dynamic
Speaker 1: was like he was playing along and then those last
Speaker 1: four it was like, oh this actually like really means
Speaker 1: something coming down the stretch, and you see how guys
Speaker 1: carried themselves and handle themselves, you know when they seemingly
Speaker 1: are just kind of playing free wheeling, playing for nothing,
Speaker 1: but then get really in the mix at the end,
Speaker 1: and I think like we saw different outcomes we saw,
Speaker 1: you know, like Rory kind of I felt like had
Speaker 1: kind of something he got going, and I think there
Speaker 1: was a moment in time where he was like I'm
Speaker 1: going for the gold and tried to hit that heroic
Speaker 1: shot not in and came up a club short, like
Speaker 1: you know, he was kind of in between clubs. He
Speaker 1: tried to hit it really close on on that was
Speaker 1: fifteen and spun it back into the water, you know,
Speaker 1: where like Victor Perez, he had a really good look
Speaker 1: on eighteen, given how difficult that hole is to make
Speaker 1: to make a birdie there and change it and get
Speaker 1: on the on the podium. I think my favorite story.
Speaker 1: You know, I think Tommy fleet was just an interesting
Speaker 1: character in terms of golf and this generation where he's
Speaker 1: he's now like getting on being pretty relevant for ten
Speaker 1: years without a lot of like landmark wins. He's had
Speaker 1: some really good European Tour, deep World Tour wins, but
Speaker 1: for how often he's in the mix, there weren't a
Speaker 1: lot of wins. And I think this tournament is going
Speaker 1: to be remembered as maybe one that he really played great.
Speaker 1: He really had an awesome Sunday. He delivered, he hit shots,
Speaker 1: he got up and down, he made putts, and he
Speaker 1: had a couple bad breaks. But you know, this is
Speaker 1: the story of twenty twenty four. He just got beat
Speaker 1: by somebody that's playing at a different level than everyone
Speaker 1: else in Scotty Scheffler and Tommy Fleetwood. You know. The
Speaker 1: nice thing for Tommy Fleetwood, and I think this is
Speaker 1: the one of the things that makes this event super
Speaker 1: unique is that when he walks away with a silver medal,
Speaker 1: adding to Great Britain Summer Olympics medal total, and you
Speaker 1: don't walk away probably feeling the same way as a
Speaker 1: second in a major championship where there's some sort of gratitude,
Speaker 1: some feeling of accomplishment, and I think that's one of
Speaker 1: the neat things about the Olympics.
Speaker 3: So I think there's been a lot of debate about
Speaker 3: where does a gold medal stand in relation to the majors.
Speaker 3: I still don't think that a gold medal has surpassed
Speaker 3: one of the majors. But I think the Olympics has
Speaker 3: the best second and third place finishes in golf. To me,
Speaker 3: I think a silver medal beats even a runner up
Speaker 3: at the Masters. It's a great showing. You can leave
Speaker 3: feeling very enthused about your game, but all it gets
Speaker 3: you is a return to augusta National the next year,
Speaker 3: whereas a silver medal once every four years you're an
Speaker 3: Olympic medalist. So I think, you know, we talked about,
Speaker 3: like you said, there's nothing else to play for coming
Speaker 3: down the stretch. You don't have to worry about protecting
Speaker 3: the points, let's say, or where you stand on different standings.
Speaker 3: It's only about that one week and you can, you know,
Speaker 3: kind of leave it all on the field if you will.
Speaker 3: But I think we saw that that I think the
Speaker 3: Olympics has the best second and third place finishes in golf,
Speaker 3: or at least the best prize for finishing second and third.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would, I would agree with that. I I
Speaker 1: think that's I mean, it's so it's so deep. I mean, like,
Speaker 1: you know, you'd think about like what the metal symbolizes,
Speaker 1: and I think that is the aspect of the event.
Speaker 1: I I you know, I think the the overall the
Speaker 1: overarching uh tone of the week was that I think,
Speaker 1: you know, Sean, you hit on kind of the awkwardness
Speaker 1: of golf kind of in the Olympics with the with
Speaker 1: covid at in Tokyo where you know, some guys weren't in.
Speaker 1: I don't think the buy in was full. Did this
Speaker 1: feel like an arrival for the Olympics to you guys,
Speaker 1: Sean and Joseph.
Speaker 2: I'd say for me like that. One of my biggest
Speaker 2: takeaways and having my notes was that this past week
Speaker 2: was a huge windfall for professional golf. And I don't
Speaker 2: think in professional golf we've had a ton to get
Speaker 2: super excited about in twenty twenty four. There hasn't been
Speaker 2: a lot of progress on a deal. This is now
Speaker 2: an event that has kind of sprung up, not out
Speaker 2: of nowhere because it's been building but sort of out
Speaker 2: of nowhere into prominence, and that we have a huge
Speaker 2: event every forty years to look forward to that. I
Speaker 2: think there is total buy in and the golfers who
Speaker 2: aren't bought in may just get left behind. Like, I
Speaker 2: think the event will exist and is bigger than any
Speaker 2: of the active players right now, So if they choose,
Speaker 2: for whatever reason not to show up in twenty twenty eight,
Speaker 2: the event will go on and be special without them.
Speaker 2: So I think this was a huge windfall for professional
Speaker 2: golf and something to be extremely excited about going forward.
Speaker 2: Did you feel similar toly Sean?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was honestly surprised that the storyline of who
Speaker 3: will play and who will not play wasn't even really
Speaker 3: a storyline. There was some point this summer where I asked, like,
Speaker 3: are we sure Scotty's playing and Xander and everyone else?
Speaker 3: I mean, I guess Xander is defending champion was definitely,
Speaker 3: but you know, before twenty sixteen a special, and even
Speaker 3: twenty twenty one because of COVID, there was kind of
Speaker 3: that talk of like it was a big deal when
Speaker 3: a big name said I am playing the Olympics. I
Speaker 3: will definitely play there. No one even really had to
Speaker 3: say it out out loud. I don't remember players come
Speaker 3: out in declaring they were going to play the Olympics.
Speaker 3: Just the qualifying field came out and all of those
Speaker 3: guys played. And I was wondering if they would because
Speaker 3: you had the Open, you had a week off, and
Speaker 3: then you had the Olympics, and so I could have
Speaker 3: seen some guys saying like, hey, I don't want to
Speaker 3: have to I'm not going to go back and forth
Speaker 3: to the States. I also don't want to stay in
Speaker 3: Europe for three weeks, so I'm not going to play
Speaker 3: the Olympics. But that really didn't happen. Everyone just kind
Speaker 3: of took a week off down in resorts around like
Speaker 3: Spain and Portugal and places like that. I think, had
Speaker 3: a nice week together or with their families, and then
Speaker 3: they showed up to Paris ready to go.
Speaker 1: I mean it shows in a way that the idea
Speaker 1: of playing some part of the calendar in Europe is feasible,
Speaker 1: especially this time of year. If you were going to
Speaker 1: pick a time of year to do it, July and
Speaker 1: August when when kids are out of school, would be
Speaker 1: the best way. Best way to do it because you
Speaker 1: can lump in a vacation, you know, and and still
Speaker 1: get the full experience. I thought this was a huge
Speaker 1: arrival for the Olympics in golf, and in particular men's golf.
Speaker 1: I want to be you know, I think that it
Speaker 1: has been a huge event for the women since the inception.
Speaker 1: I think they've taken it, you know, very seriously. To me,
Speaker 1: this was the first year where the men were fully
Speaker 1: bought in, as you alluded to, Sean, Like, I remember
Speaker 1: asking a similar question to a player. I was like,
Speaker 1: are you are you going to play the Olympics? Are
Speaker 1: you going? And they were emphatically like, yeah, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: going to the Olympics, right, And I think that that
Speaker 1: was like kind of the big change, you know. You
Speaker 1: Jason Day talked about how how much he regrets not
Speaker 1: playing the first one, you know, and I think that's
Speaker 1: one of the unique aspects of this event is that
Speaker 1: like your your status in your I guess your eligibility
Speaker 1: is not certain because of how stringent and difficult the
Speaker 1: qualifying criteria is. Like being one of the four best
Speaker 1: Americans four years from now is really hard. Like for
Speaker 1: the guys, like any of the guys, even Scottie Scheffler
Speaker 1: to say like, oh, I'll be back for La I'll
Speaker 1: be back for Riviera. That is not like being one
Speaker 1: of the two best players in your country from your
Speaker 1: country is so difficult. And I think that adds like
Speaker 1: a layer to the competition. It adds a significance and
Speaker 1: as this event continues to grow in popularity, I think
Speaker 1: and history, I think it adds a significance of like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm coming down the stretch, I'm going for a metal
Speaker 1: and then in the back and in the back of
Speaker 1: the head is like, I don't know if I'll ever
Speaker 1: be back here. Like I think that is that one
Speaker 1: of the neat things about the every four years, when
Speaker 1: you create that type of scarcity, it is a double
Speaker 1: sided scarcity. It's not just I'm one of the best
Speaker 1: players in the world. I have to be clearly one
Speaker 1: of the best four or two players from my country
Speaker 1: and one of the best players in the world to qualify.
Speaker 1: And this only happens every four years, so I really
Speaker 1: probably am only going to get one shot. The realistic
Speaker 1: aspect of the Olympics is four players for those top
Speaker 1: you know, twenty players like you probably only will get
Speaker 1: two or three shots at the Olympics at the most
Speaker 1: in your in your lifetime, and and for the Americans,
Speaker 1: it's I think it's more like you're probably going to
Speaker 1: get one shot, because I mean, is Xander the first
Speaker 1: repeat Olympic performer.
Speaker 3: There's a handful of guys who have played all three,
Speaker 3: but you're talking about like Ryan Fox from New Zealand.
Speaker 1: Yeah, or Rory from Ireland or Hideki from Japan. You know,
Speaker 1: like I think, you know, some of the other countries
Speaker 1: that might be easier, but in the American like, I
Speaker 1: don't think there. I think Xander might be the only
Speaker 1: repeat American performer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're gonna Colin was also in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 3: which I mean you're gonna have to be. But again,
Speaker 3: you have to be a top ten player in the
Speaker 3: world if you're an American, not for all four years,
Speaker 3: but once that four years swings around again, you're gonna
Speaker 3: have to be in the top ten in the world.
Speaker 3: And to stay in the top ten for you know,
Speaker 3: four years or to be back four years later is
Speaker 3: a pretty impressive and not an easy position.
Speaker 2: And I think it's a great point and it kind
Speaker 2: of goes with some of the longevity talk that we've
Speaker 2: done recently on this podcast. If you can say you've
Speaker 2: won multiple medals, that's gonna be something that And as
Speaker 2: careers are getting shorter, that means that you've been relevant
Speaker 2: for at least four years right, playing well, and then
Speaker 2: four years later. I think it's gonna be rare and
Speaker 2: that's gonna be a subtle accomplishment that as we talk
Speaker 2: about medals stacking up, like where does that rank with
Speaker 2: a major championship win and all that. I think as
Speaker 2: a mark of longevity, participation in the Olympics is going
Speaker 2: to be a cool way to look at somebody's career.
Speaker 1: I think that way a lot about like Ryder Cup
Speaker 1: and on the international side, President's Cup appearances. When you
Speaker 1: scroll down and you see like all the years that
Speaker 1: they've been on a Ryder Cup team. When you start
Speaker 1: to see people that have played in five Ryder Cups,
Speaker 1: it's like, WHOA, that's a that's a crazy long career.
Speaker 1: And I think you know, even too, if you get
Speaker 1: two Olympics as an American, that is that you were
Speaker 1: you were a player for a long time, because like
Speaker 1: it's just so hard to be one of the four
Speaker 1: best Americans especially now that everybody's going to be playing
Speaker 1: in this conceivably for the future. Let's talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about the players and the performance. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: Scottie Scheffler's had like a crazy year. I don't want
Speaker 1: to be a prisoner of the moment, but was this
Speaker 1: the most impressive final round of the year from them
Speaker 1: or a most impressive round.
Speaker 3: The sixty three that the players is up there? I'm
Speaker 3: not being a homer, I promise, But you talk about
Speaker 3: find Lois find around by a champion.
Speaker 1: Just wait, wait till what he does at the ultimate
Speaker 1: prize with that three shot lead.
Speaker 3: He's that's the only thing really missing from his resume
Speaker 3: at this point, but Lois find around in player's history.
Speaker 3: He was five back against a good leaderboard. Wyndham and
Speaker 3: Xander were up there. He'd been injured earlier in the week,
Speaker 3: and honestly, a lot of that player's performance I think
Speaker 3: just said so much about Scotty and his gift because
Speaker 3: he couldn't swing it the way he wanted because of
Speaker 3: the injury, and so he was really just creating shots
Speaker 3: with his hands, and which is very antithetical to how
Speaker 3: the golf swing has been taught for a long time
Speaker 3: about using big muscles and minimizing the role of the hands,
Speaker 3: and so I think it just shows that kind of
Speaker 3: innate gift that Scotty has that was on display again
Speaker 3: Sunday in Paris. But I think the way he turned
Speaker 3: it on and I appreciated the way he talked about
Speaker 3: making the decision to be more aggressive. I do think
Speaker 3: sometimes in this era of data in golf, and I'm
Speaker 3: not knocking the data boys, you know, it's just about
Speaker 3: giving yourself the most chances, whether that be on a
Speaker 3: hole or in a week, and then hoping the chips
Speaker 3: fall your way. So you know, maybe pound middle of greens,
Speaker 3: don't be too aggressive and just give yourself as many
Speaker 3: birdie putts as possible. And Scotty talked about how when
Speaker 3: rom was up by four he made the conscious decision
Speaker 3: to be more aggressive and then he pulled it off,
Speaker 3: and I thought that was just enlightening, and then showed
Speaker 3: again the scale of like when he wanted to turn
Speaker 3: it on. He turned it on and shot twenty nine
Speaker 3: in the back and won a gold medal.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna pooh pooh his performance. I thought the
Speaker 2: back nine at the Masters was or his last like
Speaker 2: eleven holes at the Masters on a very firm, demanding
Speaker 2: setup where that tournament was up for grabs, and then
Speaker 2: he completely slammed the door. This was obviously very impressive too,
Speaker 2: but I think the Master's probably ranks a little higher
Speaker 2: for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's something I wanted to talk about, Sean. Is
Speaker 1: what you the aggressiveness, And I think I think we've
Speaker 1: gotten to this state with a lot of and I
Speaker 1: don't want to put everybody under the blanket, but a
Speaker 1: lot of the data and analytics community is like you
Speaker 1: play the same way all the time, and like I've
Speaker 1: just always believed like you have to have a pulse
Speaker 1: as a player of what's going on. If you're down
Speaker 1: for and you've got nine holes to go, sure I
Speaker 1: could make I could run in a bunch of twenty footers,
Speaker 1: or I could miss my target five feet right, you know,
Speaker 1: four times in a row, you know, and have right
Speaker 1: pins that you know, I hit it closer than I
Speaker 1: expect to. But when you're Scotti Scheffler and you're playing
Speaker 1: really well, guess what you're You're just your potential miss
Speaker 1: radius is very small. And I think he was in
Speaker 1: a spot where he was swinging really well, and he
Speaker 1: he put his foot on the gas, and I think, like,
Speaker 1: I believe this is like if you want to win
Speaker 1: a lot of golf tournaments, if you want to win
Speaker 1: a lot of golf tournaments, you have to deviate and
Speaker 1: play differently than the rest of the field. You know,
Speaker 1: And in an era where everybody plays safe, I think
Speaker 1: we saw Tommy Fleet would play very safe on eighteen.
Speaker 1: He was protecting that silver metal on eighteen. But in
Speaker 1: an era where everybody plays extremely cautious and safe, there
Speaker 1: is a lot of money left on the table if
Speaker 1: you're able to play aggressive and pull it off. I
Speaker 1: think that is like one of the things that will
Speaker 1: change over the next five years is that there will
Speaker 1: be a zig back to players understanding, hey, this is
Speaker 1: a moment I can go take this, and I'm going
Speaker 1: to play a little bit more aggressively, especially because understanding
Speaker 1: your own personal dispersion patters, Like when you're playing well,
Speaker 1: your dispersion is a lot tighter than when it isn't.
Speaker 1: Like I recently played a lot of golf last week,
Speaker 1: and I played really well a few days, and those
Speaker 1: couple of days that like I was swaying, my body
Speaker 1: was moving well. I made sure my targets were a
Speaker 1: little tighter. The day that I didn't feel good and
Speaker 1: I the swing didn't feel good, I played very conservatively,
Speaker 1: like I think that's where this is going to go
Speaker 1: long term. And I think this might be a moment
Speaker 1: where Scotty understands maybe what he can do when he
Speaker 1: needs to do it. And I think that is an
Speaker 1: important aspect of this whole performance here is going forward.
Speaker 1: How often do we see Scotty when he's right around
Speaker 1: the hunt put the pedal to the metal and try
Speaker 1: and push it because he's been successful now doing so.
Speaker 3: It's also what he says is one of his skills.
Speaker 3: We did a Q and A with him before the
Speaker 3: Players Championship this year and I asked him, what do
Speaker 3: you think separates you from the rest of your peers
Speaker 3: with ball striking? Your numbers are incredible. He's obviously the
Speaker 3: best iron player on the planet, you know. I thought
Speaker 3: I might get a technical answer about club face rotation
Speaker 3: or something, and instead he just really went to kind
Speaker 3: of course management and self management and really knowing when
Speaker 3: to pick his spots and when he feels comfortable with
Speaker 3: a yardage and waned and everything else, but he feels
Speaker 3: like it's a shot he can hit. He goes right
Speaker 3: at it, and then he is really good at knowing
Speaker 3: kind of when to back off and aim at the
Speaker 3: middle of the green if maybe he doesn't have a
Speaker 3: great yardage or he's between clubs, and so that is
Speaker 3: one of Scotty's skills and it has allowed him to
Speaker 3: separate himself. And another thing I find really interesting about
Speaker 3: him and Joseph and I have talked about it is
Speaker 3: he keeps leading the tour in greens and regulation like
Speaker 3: he has for the last three years, and there's not
Speaker 3: often you know, your guy who leads in shros gained
Speaker 3: approach isn't always leading greens and regulation. And I look
Speaker 3: back to I always remember when I was growing up,
Speaker 3: Joe Durant like always led greens in regulation. But it's
Speaker 3: because he's just hitting it a middle of green all day.
Speaker 3: He wasn't a long hitter. He's hitting long irons in
Speaker 3: the middle of the green, not making you know, a
Speaker 3: ton of birdies on longer courses or just like how
Speaker 3: shorter hitters always led in driving accuracy, but Scotty like
Speaker 3: is both leading in stros gain approach. So he's hitting
Speaker 3: it close, but he's also making sure to hit a
Speaker 3: ton of greens, which isn't always the case, and doing
Speaker 3: so hard setups too. Right, he's playing, you know, one
Speaker 3: of the harder schedules of the year of anyone. So
Speaker 3: I just think Scotty Obviously he's got kind of athleticism,
Speaker 3: he's got the innate gift with his hands. He's a
Speaker 3: great shot shaper, but he also is just really good
Speaker 3: at picking his.
Speaker 2: Spots, and maybe even more so Sean the I think
Speaker 2: it's really impressive the way he ranks so highly in
Speaker 2: strokes gained around the green, when he ranks so highly
Speaker 2: in greens and regulation because those are a.
Speaker 3: Little chipped in yesterday on the front nine, and you
Speaker 3: look at all of his wins. There are holeouts in
Speaker 3: the fun round, his first Masters, his first players, actually
Speaker 3: this year's players. You hold a wedge, A lot of
Speaker 3: his wins have holeouts from off the green. Final round
Speaker 3: is kind of crazy.
Speaker 2: Right, Like, if you're hitting a bunch of greens, it
Speaker 2: is hard to rank high and strokes gained around the
Speaker 2: green because you're giving yourself fewer opportunities, not like strokes
Speaker 2: gain per shot, but strokes gaining around the green. It's
Speaker 2: unbelievable to see how well rounded Scotty is that normally
Speaker 2: those guys who are at the top of strokes gaining
Speaker 2: around the green are guys like Kevin nah in his heyday,
Speaker 2: where he was missing a lot of greens and giving
Speaker 2: himself a lot of opportunities. So I think it is
Speaker 2: a testament to just how well rounded Scotty is.
Speaker 1: Joseph, what stands out to you about the way Scotty's
Speaker 1: able to kind of move his way around the golf
Speaker 1: course strategically.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I disagree a little bit with the okay now
Speaker 2: fully pedal down versus completely playing conservatively. Like I don't
Speaker 2: think the way that golfers should play golf course changes
Speaker 2: that radically with the situation, but where I do think
Speaker 2: it changes a lot, and this was I think it's
Speaker 2: an underrated skill of players is to understand conditions and
Speaker 2: how that impacts their dispersion. And like you're saying, Andy,
Speaker 2: when you're really dialed or when you have a great number,
Speaker 2: understanding that your dispersion is going to be a little
Speaker 2: bit tighter. So this past weekend on Sunday at the
Speaker 2: Golf National is pretty soft and there was almost no
Speaker 2: wind like that's an opportunity where you can be a
Speaker 2: little bit more aggressive because short sighting yourself isn't going
Speaker 2: to be as big of a deal. And when you're
Speaker 2: not hitting it into a significant amount of wind, like,
Speaker 2: your dispersion is going to be tighter. And I think
Speaker 2: that there are a lot of golfers who don't know
Speaker 2: how to adapt their strategies, even if it only has
Speaker 2: to be adjusted a little bit. I think Scotty and
Speaker 2: Ted Scott Ted Scott his cat, he does understand this
Speaker 2: stuff very well. Scotty always gives him credit for it.
Speaker 2: I think they understand when they can press a little bit.
Speaker 2: So I think Scotty does a remarkable job of being
Speaker 2: hitting shots that are still relatively conservative. He birdied sixteen
Speaker 2: par three to a tough pin, but he's not just
Speaker 2: going directly at the pin. He's still aiming a little
Speaker 2: bit left and allowing it. If it doesn't cut, he's
Speaker 2: still fine. Like eighteen, he hit a pretty conservative shot
Speaker 2: into the green to make sure that he wasn't going
Speaker 2: to go in the water. He does a really good
Speaker 2: job of picking his spots, as Sean said, So I
Speaker 2: don't think that it's like Scotty feels pedal down one day,
Speaker 2: conservative the next, but just understanding that middle ground how
Speaker 2: the conditions impact it. That's an underrated skill that I think.
Speaker 2: I don't know if anybody's as good as Scotty is
Speaker 2: at that.
Speaker 3: It's an interesting contrast to Rory from Sunday. You know,
Speaker 3: he said that he hit the shot he wanted into fifteen.
Speaker 3: He saw his two playing partners go long because they
Speaker 3: rode the wind, and he tried to, I think, go
Speaker 3: under the wind a little bit and it never caught
Speaker 3: any of it and so it ended up short. So
Speaker 3: you know, I'm not saying Rory macroy doesn't know how
Speaker 3: to read the wind, but he said that an improper
Speaker 3: judgment of the situation is what led to his ball
Speaker 3: in the water on fifteen.
Speaker 1: I think the other thing that can happen too with
Speaker 1: like the wind in particular that shot in what makes
Speaker 1: it so tough. It seemed like he took a little
Speaker 1: off it. When he takes something off and you're playing
Speaker 1: down wind, the wind can knock it down. Like what
Speaker 1: makes you ride the wind is spin. So when you
Speaker 1: hit a shot hard, you know that that ball is
Speaker 1: going to carry with the wind. More when you hit
Speaker 1: something soft like I've always found like the hardest shots
Speaker 1: and I I you know, in a moderate wind, I
Speaker 1: prefer to hit approach shots all day long into the
Speaker 1: wind because it's so much more predictable than when you're
Speaker 1: playing downwind, particularly with wedges and short irons. It's where
Speaker 1: you like, you just lose a lot of control of
Speaker 1: carry distance, especially if you're taking yardage off a ball,
Speaker 1: because that ball just doesn't spin as much. And I
Speaker 1: think that's probably what happened in you know, describe and
Speaker 1: describing that is like the wind just inst carrying it
Speaker 1: and knocked it down a little, because you know, if
Speaker 1: you just think about the way the ball goes up
Speaker 1: if it's down wind, it can get your trajectory knocked down. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, like we talk about how golf
Speaker 1: is played so much between between your ears, and this
Speaker 1: is the stuff. This between your ears like to be
Speaker 1: like Scotty is a savant in being able to read situations,
Speaker 1: lies everything, like the shots from the rough, like I think,
Speaker 1: like the chippens, like all this stuff is having a
Speaker 1: supreme understanding of how the ball is going to react
Speaker 1: off the club face reading lies like you know those
Speaker 1: shots on seventeen and eighteen out of the rough were
Speaker 1: incredible shots. They were you know there. I know Brandle
Speaker 1: talked a lot, and I think this is a great
Speaker 1: point about his upright swing, the benefits of an upright
Speaker 1: swing with rough, but there's also a supreme understanding of
Speaker 1: what the ball is going to do, and that could
Speaker 1: be partly ted Scott to but this is this is like,
Speaker 1: you know, that's the stuff, like understanding how the ball
Speaker 1: is going to come out, because if you misjudge it,
Speaker 1: you can look like a fool.
Speaker 3: It also streaks to the quality of his strike because
Speaker 3: the quickest way to get kind of an unpredictable result
Speaker 3: from a shot, especially with wind in line everything else,
Speaker 3: is to mishit it. So not only is he hitting
Speaker 3: it solidly all the time, but he's also hitting it
Speaker 3: with consistent launch characteristics that he knows how it's going
Speaker 3: to respond to those different reactions. And you know, his
Speaker 3: distance control is great, but the most important thing with
Speaker 3: good distance control is hitting it solidly. So there is
Speaker 3: a lot of that too. But I think it goes
Speaker 3: back again to like the physical just he hits it
Speaker 3: so solidly and hits it so well that it's easier
Speaker 3: to predict. I'm not discounting what you said abou him
Speaker 3: being a savamp, but I think that makes it easier
Speaker 3: for him to also predict it when he's hitting it.
Speaker 1: That well, all right, let's take a quick break to
Speaker 1: talk about one of the coolest projects that I have seen.
Speaker 1: He's become a friend of mine. Josh Pettitt, who runs
Speaker 1: the Alistair mackenzie Institute. He produced a few years ago
Speaker 1: a wonderful book that we did a podcast on called
Speaker 1: The McKenzie Reader. He's got a new book that he's reproducing.
Speaker 1: He's reproducing the famous golf architecture book that was written
Speaker 1: by Alis McKenzie. This was a book that Als McKenzie
Speaker 1: used to give out to every club that he worked at.
Speaker 1: He would he would bring the book with him and
Speaker 1: hand out. It was really like a kind of party,
Speaker 1: a marketing tool. That's why a lot of architects back
Speaker 1: in the day wrote so much. It was a marketing tool.
Speaker 1: It's a way for them to get their thoughts out there.
Speaker 1: So these this is Alis McKenzie's book that really details
Speaker 1: his thoughts on golf architecture. So what Josh has done is,
Speaker 1: you know, you get a lot of bad reprints. Like
Speaker 1: if you go on and buy this, it's it's kind
Speaker 1: of just a crappy version of the book of the
Speaker 1: original book, the sketches won't be as beautiful or show
Speaker 1: off as well. What Golf what What Josh Pettit has
Speaker 1: done here is he has reprinted the book. So he's
Speaker 1: done his own type setting. He's set the type setting.
Speaker 1: It's you know, manually, So he's like, you know, he's
Speaker 1: done that, Like this is painful work that he has
Speaker 1: done to like the paper sourcing, Like this high quality
Speaker 1: paper is going to like make the sketches really turn
Speaker 1: out great, Like you're going to see a higher quality sketch.
Speaker 1: So he is he has reset this book and it
Speaker 1: is a beautiful, beautiful addition to your library. I have
Speaker 1: the Mackenzie Reader. It is by far my favorite book
Speaker 1: that I have. Like I just love opening it, turning
Speaker 1: the pay reading it, like it is a beautiful, beautiful book.
Speaker 1: So he has done this with Golf Architecture. So he
Speaker 1: is doing a pre order right now and if you
Speaker 1: use the promo code frieda Egg, you save ten percent off.
Speaker 1: The book is one hundred and twenty dollars. It is
Speaker 1: a wonderful, wonderful book to have. It is a quintessential
Speaker 1: staple to your golf library. We have Yoke with Dokes
Speaker 1: coming out next week. One of the questions in the
Speaker 1: Q and A was what golf architecture book do you
Speaker 1: find yourself keep coming back to over the years in
Speaker 1: your career. This was the answer. This was the book,
Speaker 1: so I would get your copy of this. It is
Speaker 1: a is a collector's item type book. This is an
Speaker 1: elegant version of golf architecture. So use the promo code
Speaker 1: Frida Egg. You get ten percent off and you go
Speaker 1: to Golf Mackenzie. The web U r L to get
Speaker 1: this is Mackenzie dot Golf. That's Mackenzie m A c
Speaker 1: K E N z I E dot Golf, Mackenzie dot
Speaker 1: golf and use the promo code Frida Egg for ten
Speaker 1: percent off. Congrats to Josh. This is a beautiful piece
Speaker 1: of work. All right, let's get back to the Olympics chat.
Speaker 1: Does this make you feel different only about Scotty Scheffler's
Speaker 1: year at all?
Speaker 2: It does for me. I think going into this event,
Speaker 2: player of the Year was pretty up for grabs, and
Speaker 2: I don't know that it should be declared now, even
Speaker 2: though it kind of was on the telecast. I don't
Speaker 2: know if everyone caught that, but I kind of leaned
Speaker 2: Xander after he had two major wins. Now, I do
Speaker 2: think this changes the calculus quite a bit, especially because
Speaker 2: the Olympics have seemed to arrive in a big way
Speaker 2: that I don't know that it's necessary to say that
Speaker 2: they rank exactly with a major or figure out exactly
Speaker 2: where it stands. But to me now it's hard to
Speaker 2: look at Scotty's season and think that somebody had a
Speaker 2: better season with a gold medal to his name, Especially
Speaker 2: Xander had a chance to win this and didn't get
Speaker 2: it done at all. It's very clear that Scotti Scheffler
Speaker 2: is the best player in the world. He has I think,
Speaker 2: in seventeen starts this year, he's finished outside the top
Speaker 2: ten twice at Amex and at Pinehurst, like it's just
Speaker 2: a remark gooble season. And he again won this week
Speaker 2: losing strokes putting like he's dominated. So to me, unless
Speaker 2: something crazy happens the rest of the year, which I
Speaker 2: don't think is really possible since I don't view the
Speaker 2: FedEx Cut playoffs on anywhere near the stage that I
Speaker 2: view the Olympics or the Majors. Sorry, Sean, I think
Speaker 2: it's I think Scotti Schefler is probably going to be
Speaker 2: the Player of the Year unless something crazy happens.
Speaker 1: It's voted on by peers too, and I just have
Speaker 1: a hard time believing in that that vein that the
Speaker 1: peers would in any way not vote Scottie at this
Speaker 1: point after what they've gone through.
Speaker 3: And there's two schools of thought with Player of the Year.
Speaker 3: There's either who was the best player week in week
Speaker 3: out or whose season would you rather have? And it
Speaker 3: can be different. The latter usually skews more towards major performance.
Speaker 3: The other is more for just you know, week in
Speaker 3: week out, counting you know, regular event wins as well.
Speaker 3: I look back to like when Brooks and Rory were
Speaker 3: kind of the top two players for Player of the
Speaker 3: Year twenty nineteen. Brooks had a Major but hadn't done
Speaker 3: a ton outside of that, maybe had won one other event,
Speaker 3: and then Rory, you know, won the FedEx Cup, was
Speaker 3: really consistent, and the players voted on Rory. But I
Speaker 3: think with the gold medal now Scotty checks both boxes.
Speaker 3: Week in week out, He's been the best player, and
Speaker 3: I think you could argue that even though Xander has
Speaker 3: more majors, in some ways, I could see Scotty having
Speaker 3: the season that players would actually prefer to have. You
Speaker 3: have a major, you throw in a players and then
Speaker 3: a gold medal, I think, and more wins. And I
Speaker 3: think the whole of that in the variety of different
Speaker 3: kinds of titles that he won, especially with the gold
Speaker 3: being a pretty coveted prize. Now, I think, like Joseph said,
Speaker 3: I think that his season checks both boxes. So outside
Speaker 3: of Xander sweeping the Fedest Cup playoffs and winning all
Speaker 3: three events, I think it's Scotti's.
Speaker 1: Yeah. To me, I'm in the same boat. I'd love
Speaker 1: to disagree here, but I think like it was a
Speaker 1: I kind of was looking at Xander's year with the
Speaker 1: two majors and being like, you know, two majors too
Speaker 1: drastic different courses. I know Scotti's won basically like everything
Speaker 1: for a little while, like he went bananas on a
Speaker 1: lot of different golf courses. But this is the this
Speaker 1: is to be the cherry on the top. There's no
Speaker 1: way that any I don't think. I mean Xander, if
Speaker 1: he ran the table in the playoffs, like I just
Speaker 1: I still don't think I would feel differently about about
Speaker 1: their two seasons, even though that'd be crazy impressive and
Speaker 1: something we've never seen before. I think i'd still feel
Speaker 1: the same way I feel now where Scotti has just
Speaker 1: I mean extraordinary, extraordinary year, and I think, like you know,
Speaker 1: when you when you think about everything that has happened
Speaker 1: with Scotty Scheffler, it's it's also impressive because he's handled,
Speaker 1: he's been able to handle the ascension and the fame
Speaker 1: that's come with his play. And you know, I think
Speaker 1: I think Detective Gillis probably played a part in his
Speaker 1: popularity increase, but I think the thing it's impressive that
Speaker 1: he's been able, Like I think this is something that
Speaker 1: a lot of bigger players would agree is like challenging
Speaker 1: is getting used to being the guy, and he's carried
Speaker 1: he's taken it so in stride and and the play
Speaker 1: has has just been been phenomenal. And this is just
Speaker 1: the latest example of uh, you know where I have
Speaker 1: to imagine if you're Tommy Fleetwood Hideki, you kind of
Speaker 1: leave leave this week really happy about your metal performances,
Speaker 1: but also scratching your head as to like I can't
Speaker 1: believe that guy got me, you know, from where he
Speaker 1: was because it didn't look like he was going to
Speaker 1: win or even potentially medal, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: in a flash, he wins the wins the golf tournament.
Speaker 2: Andy a takeaway for me that I think kind of
Speaker 2: is tightly related to that. There's some debate like did
Speaker 2: Tommy Fleetwood choke? Was this another situation where Tommy Fleetwood
Speaker 2: didn't get it done? And I kind of have mixed
Speaker 2: feelings about that, But to me, the biggest takeaway is
Speaker 2: that Scotty Scheffler is playing. There's just a new level
Speaker 2: that we haven't seen anywhere recently that very few guys
Speaker 2: can actually access. That they can play that way for
Speaker 2: four days. And I think you made a great point.
Speaker 2: Following the Masters, Colin Morikawa more or less said Scotty's
Speaker 2: better than I am. I think a lot of players
Speaker 2: in the locker room, virtually everybody knows Scotty Scheffler is
Speaker 2: clearly the best player in the world. I am not that,
Speaker 2: And I wonder if deep down how Xander Schoffley feels
Speaker 2: if he thinks that he's actually on Scotty Scheffler's level.
Speaker 2: I would find it hard to believe that there's anybody
Speaker 2: else on the planet who thinks they're on Scotty's level.
Speaker 2: So I think this was the year.
Speaker 1: I can see John Rahm thinking that.
Speaker 2: But certainly the par two after yesterday, the gulf between
Speaker 2: John Ram and Scotti Scheffler got a lot larger this year.
Speaker 2: So that to me is like twenty twenty four is
Speaker 2: the year that Scott Scheffler planted a flag and put
Speaker 2: a new baseline that we haven't seen in professional golf.
Speaker 2: And I think that's the biggest takeaway for me to
Speaker 2: Tommy Fleetwood, like choke or not. Maybe he should have
Speaker 2: closed a little stronger, but he is not a thought player.
Speaker 1: I like, I struggle with this because, like that up
Speaker 1: and down on seventeen was really hard, but he birdied sixteen.
Speaker 2: The birdie on sixteen was impressive. I think in calm conditions,
Speaker 2: playing the last five even just isn't going to get
Speaker 2: it done. Those are hard holes, but Scotty's just better.
Speaker 2: That's that's where I land. It's not necessarily a choke,
Speaker 2: but he's just not good enough to be a Scotty
Speaker 2: Scheffler who's in rhythm.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like he got a really tough break
Speaker 1: on fourteen too. That was the That was the difference
Speaker 1: when I when I think back, and he might he
Speaker 1: probably chose the wrong club.
Speaker 2: You should have hit a better shot.
Speaker 1: I think he hit a really good shot. I think
Speaker 1: they they hit the wrong club. They I think I
Speaker 1: got the telcast they were saying he went down to
Speaker 1: seven wood, like he went back and I think, I mean,
Speaker 1: the shot looked really good, but I you know, I
Speaker 1: was looking at seven wood two fifty whatever, and I
Speaker 1: was like, that's a big seven wood, And I think
Speaker 1: that was like a mirror, like he didn't hit the
Speaker 1: right club. I think facts and afterwards like long's not
Speaker 1: bad here after he hit it, and and you know,
Speaker 1: that's a situation where just kind of misplayed the situation
Speaker 1: rather than an execution error. That's the thing I think
Speaker 1: like people people, I feel like execution errors and I
Speaker 1: think we can this can parlay into the next discussion.
Speaker 1: But execution errors are what you should be looking at
Speaker 1: when you when you feel like someone lets a tournament go.
Speaker 1: You know, golf is extraordinarily hard, and I guess it
Speaker 1: could be some of this too, But like Fleetwood, you know,
Speaker 1: he missed a fairway on seventeen, and then he missed
Speaker 1: a green, which shouldn't be super you know, it wasn't
Speaker 1: like it was a terrible swing. Either of them were
Speaker 1: terrible swings. And then he got a really tough break
Speaker 1: with where the ball ended up with that like thick
Speaker 1: ruff behind him, and that made that up and down
Speaker 1: like impossible. If that ball's two inches the closer to
Speaker 1: the hole, I think that it's probably a simple up
Speaker 1: and down. If it goes into the thick rough, I
Speaker 1: think it's an easier up and down than what he
Speaker 1: was left. And then you know with fourteen, his ball
Speaker 1: not getting down into the bunker and staying on that lip.
Speaker 1: That was just that was a really bad break. And
Speaker 1: this is like part of what the difference of golf
Speaker 1: tournaments a lot of times ends up being, like you
Speaker 1: gotta bounce here. You got to bounce here over seventy
Speaker 1: two holes and like down the stretch winning time. He
Speaker 1: got two kind of pretty shitty breaks in terms of
Speaker 1: like how it whears, ball ended up, and I think
Speaker 1: that's the difference. Like I think you add those two up,
Speaker 1: it probably equals a shot in the grand scheme of things,
Speaker 1: Like he gets one of the two up and down
Speaker 1: if he gets to the bottom of the bunker or
Speaker 1: the or the you know, into one of the defined
Speaker 1: cuts of rough where he's not on the edge. I
Speaker 1: think someone who just failed to execute down the stretch.
Speaker 1: Two players were John Rahm and Xander Schoffley. John Rom
Speaker 1: has to be the biggest disappointment here. He had a
Speaker 1: four shot lead standing on the eleventh hole and he
Speaker 1: doesn't even end up on the metal stage. I thought
Speaker 1: this was an example of when you're playing for something
Speaker 1: that has substantial meaning and what can happen. I don't
Speaker 1: think this would happen at a at a live event.
Speaker 1: I don't think it would happen at a run of
Speaker 1: the mill PGA Tour event. And this is why I'm
Speaker 1: pretty confident associating a very high position for the Olympics
Speaker 1: in the pro golf hierarchy of great tournaments. John Rom
Speaker 1: just kind of just faded away shot thirty nine on
Speaker 1: the back nine, and and to go from twenty under
Speaker 1: in a four shot lead, looking like the tournament was
Speaker 1: over to T five was was shocking. I think this
Speaker 1: was the biggest shock of the of the event. Joseph,
Speaker 1: what do you how do you leave this tournament feeling
Speaker 1: about John Rom.
Speaker 2: I agree with I agree with everything you said about this,
Speaker 2: his collapse kind of being validation of how special the
Speaker 2: event is, because there are very few tournaments that can
Speaker 2: create that kind of intensity that it results in a meltdown. Separately,
Speaker 2: I leave feeling fine about John Rom.
Speaker 1: I think there's been a.
Speaker 2: Lot of overreactions to how bad of a year he's had.
Speaker 2: Like he really he's got a lot of stuff going
Speaker 2: on in his personal life aside, I know, like his
Speaker 2: wife's going through a challenging pregnancy, and he's had a
Speaker 2: couple of kids, changed tours, he had two really bad
Speaker 2: events this year, the PGA and the Masters, and otherwise,
Speaker 2: I think if there were a major three weeks weeks
Speaker 2: from now, John ram would be one of the favorites,
Speaker 2: and deservedly, he'd be well behind Scotty, he'd be behind Xander,
Speaker 2: and after that I think he and Rory would be
Speaker 2: pretty close. So I think John Rahm, especially in the
Speaker 2: last month or so, has kind of reasserted that he's
Speaker 2: one of the top players in the game. But I
Speaker 2: fully agree with you that both he and xanders collapses
Speaker 2: are a signal that this event meant something. Especially with
Speaker 2: that particular golf course, it can result in some stressful shots,
Speaker 2: and you see who has their game when there are
Speaker 2: shots under pressure. So I agree with everything you said,
Speaker 2: but still come away from it thinking, like, in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty five, John Rahm is going to be one of
Speaker 2: the top five golfers in the world. I feel pretty
Speaker 2: confident in that. Where do you Lanshawan Rom.
Speaker 3: On that front nine on Sunday looked like the guy
Speaker 3: from early twenty twenty three, and I think I wrote
Speaker 3: it a couple of times. Just felt relentless, like just
Speaker 3: kept pounding greens and hitting them and giving him birdy
Speaker 3: opportunities and just kind of kept coming at the Masters
Speaker 3: that he won when he chased down Brooks, like Brooks
Speaker 3: sprinted out to that lead, but rom just kept coming
Speaker 3: and eventually chased him down and passed him, you know,
Speaker 3: like a strong finishing kick in a you know, fifteen
Speaker 3: hundred or whatever. And Scotty sort of did that today.
Speaker 3: But then Rom on the back nine. The interesting thing
Speaker 3: is the short putts and then the te shots missing left,
Speaker 3: and that can be a swing thing, equipment thing, who
Speaker 3: I don't know, But in that span between the start
Speaker 3: of twenty twenty three where he won like four out
Speaker 3: of six or three out of five, and then he
Speaker 3: went through a lull and then he won the Masters.
Speaker 3: He kept missing left, like when that power cut isn't cutting,
Speaker 3: he misses left, and that's what hurt him off the
Speaker 3: tee Sunday, and that's what you know, hurt him, can
Speaker 3: hurt him at times. I don't know the cause. I
Speaker 3: know Faxon mentioned an alignment issue that Rom and Dave
Speaker 3: Phillips had worked out, so maybe that was it. But
Speaker 3: the other thing, too, I think, is just how crazy
Speaker 3: things get on Sunday and how many judgments we make
Speaker 3: from them, Like you look at Zander and Xander at
Speaker 3: Wells Fargo, look like the Xander that couldn't close, will
Speaker 3: he ever close gets it done, lips it in at
Speaker 3: Valhalla and squeaks by Bryson, and then it Truon looks
Speaker 3: like a killer, and we're like, this new Xander is here,
Speaker 3: who's unflappable, is gonna win five six majors, has figured
Speaker 3: it out, he's a force, and two weeks later looks
Speaker 3: like the guy almost from Wells Fargo where he just
Speaker 3: couldn't get it done On Sunday, So I do think
Speaker 3: there's more pressure. You know, it's harder to hit shots
Speaker 3: on the golf course and on the driving range. It's
Speaker 3: harder to hit good shots in a tournament versus a
Speaker 3: casual round, and so it's harder to hit good shots
Speaker 3: on Sunday versus Thursday. So there's some of that. But
Speaker 3: also golf too is just like this crazy game with
Speaker 3: wild variants, and Sunday afternoon gets the most attention, and
Speaker 3: so what we see Sunday afternoon leads to the biggest judgments,
Speaker 3: as it should. But Xander, I think it's just proof
Speaker 3: that storylines and narratives can just change so rapidly based
Speaker 3: on really only a handful of holes.
Speaker 1: Handful of holes in a handful of outcomes. Right, Like
Speaker 1: you think about, like the number of times you have
Speaker 1: a chance to win over the course of your career
Speaker 1: is still I would say, like I you know, from
Speaker 1: my college statistics classes that are like, you know, decades
Speaker 1: away or decades from now, you know, like you know,
Speaker 1: fifteen twenty years now, they would that's still like if
Speaker 1: you added up like the most prolific players of our generation,
Speaker 1: of any generation, that number of chances to win would
Speaker 1: still be a statistically irrelevant number, right, isn't it? What
Speaker 1: is it, like sixteen hundred or something, is like the
Speaker 1: number that would say, like you can determine if somebody
Speaker 1: is a clutch player. So I think that's it. One
Speaker 1: thing I loved about you know, you talked about Ram
Speaker 1: the relentlessness, that word, and I think we hadn't seen
Speaker 1: the relentlessless. And I think like there's an aspect of
Speaker 1: Rom's game when he's clicking that I really admire, and
Speaker 1: he kind of brings that very few players I've seen bring.
Speaker 1: There's a physicality to it, like with his stature and
Speaker 1: the way he plays golf, like you know, just the
Speaker 1: way you described it, pounding fairways and greens, like there
Speaker 1: is just like this. There's a presence that he has
Speaker 1: when he is when he is in the lead, and
Speaker 1: I know, like I think that some of this has
Speaker 1: to do with his stature, but like he feels like
Speaker 1: a bull, you know, in there and like you can't
Speaker 1: move him off his position. I thought it was just
Speaker 1: shocking to see him get into where he got and
Speaker 1: in for it to slip away and it may you know,
Speaker 1: I I would I would adventure, I would agree that
Speaker 1: like there was like that, I'm not worried about John
Speaker 1: Rohm next year. I think the last couple of weeks
Speaker 1: have been like a very nice turnaround for a player
Speaker 1: that had a really rough start to his season with
Speaker 1: a lot going on in his life. I will say
Speaker 1: that I think there was an added weight to this
Speaker 1: tournament because I believe that that John Rahm into probably
Speaker 1: a little bit lesser an extent. Rory McElroy viewed this
Speaker 1: event as like, hey, this winning a gold medal would
Speaker 1: really redeem what you know was a disappointing year. You know.
Speaker 1: For Rory, I think the disappointment came with just you know,
Speaker 1: you could just say Pinehurst, the disappointment of Pinehurst. The
Speaker 1: gold medal could save that. For Rom it was everybody's
Speaker 1: talking about how lives changed me as a player. This
Speaker 1: is what can change the narrative on me, and I
Speaker 1: think it would have. I think if John Rohm walked
Speaker 1: away with a gold medal, it would be like John
Speaker 1: Ram's back. Is he at the level of Scotty and
Speaker 1: Xander when he's cooking? That's what we would have been
Speaker 1: talking about on this podcast and for seventy for sixty
Speaker 1: three holes or sixty four holes. You know, John rom
Speaker 1: was back and he looked like, you know, especially playing
Speaker 1: with Xander Schoffley, a different player than Xander Schoffley. He
Speaker 1: left him in the dust, and then it all came
Speaker 1: crashing down. So I think, like I think the takeaways
Speaker 1: for Rom, this is a really bad year, no matter
Speaker 1: what happens to the rest of the year with Live.
Speaker 1: For him, I think he's going to look back and say,
Speaker 1: like you do these career narratives when you look back
Speaker 1: on great careers from the eighties and nineties, and like
Speaker 1: a lot of times you'll see like there's one or
Speaker 1: two year gaps where they just weren't the same player.
Speaker 1: And I think we'll look back on this and be like, well,
Speaker 1: this is all These are all the things that happened.
Speaker 1: He had a bunch of kids, he went to live
Speaker 1: and this year was one of the years that was
Speaker 1: like kind of a lost John Ram year.
Speaker 3: You mentioned Rory and we talked about physicality, and I
Speaker 3: was at Wells Fargo this year and honestly, Wells Fargo
Speaker 3: when he went eight under on eight holes and lapped
Speaker 3: Xander felt like one of the most physically violent things
Speaker 3: I've seen on a golf course and it felt like
Speaker 3: old Rory, and I felt like we got glimpses of
Speaker 3: him this week. Do you remember he you know, second
Speaker 3: shot in a par five, bounces off the flagstick, makes
Speaker 3: that run to start the back nine before hitting in
Speaker 3: the water, and I am kind of curious where Rory
Speaker 3: goes from here. He kind of took a shot at
Speaker 3: himself in his post round comments, saying he was the
Speaker 3: nearly man of the last three years, that he hasn't
Speaker 3: gotten it done, and he even kind of said that,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm tired of trying to take positives. I
Speaker 3: just want to win. And you know, Rory subscribes to
Speaker 3: that kind of growth mindset they talk a lot about
Speaker 3: in contemporary psychology, where you try to endure the hardships
Speaker 3: by finding the positives, like, yeah, I might have lost,
Speaker 3: but it's a learning experience and I can grow from this,
Speaker 3: and that's where the growth mindset comes from, of like,
Speaker 3: these are all basically steps in the process to getting
Speaker 3: to where I want to go, and it does probably
Speaker 3: help lessen the sting of losses which Rory has experience recently.
Speaker 3: But even he kind of mentioned it seems like I
Speaker 3: just need to care about winning now. At this point,
Speaker 3: it's been enough close calls, you know. I'm sure he's
Speaker 3: done the mental inventory, he's learned all he's going to
Speaker 3: learn from these close calls. Like it seemed like he
Speaker 3: felt like now like I just need to win and
Speaker 3: worry only about winning.
Speaker 2: I completely agree. I think pretty much every year after
Speaker 2: the last like six years, the spin at the end
Speaker 2: of Rory's major season has been like what he learned
Speaker 2: and why it's going to be different the next year.
Speaker 2: It's not the exact same thing, but I almost think
Speaker 2: it's kind of similar to players saying that they're not
Speaker 2: getting there. They're hitting the ball a lot better than
Speaker 2: the results they're getting, Like at some point you just
Speaker 2: have to do it. So in the same way that
Speaker 2: he's probably fatigued about talking about it, like I'm also
Speaker 2: a little fatigued about hearing about it, and like it
Speaker 2: does just need to get the job done. So I
Speaker 2: don't think that it's a negative, like he's getting himself
Speaker 2: in the mix. But next year with Quail Hollow in
Speaker 2: the major rotation, like the noise is going to be
Speaker 2: loud and Roy just needs to get one across the
Speaker 2: finish line.
Speaker 1: Yeah, i'd agree. I think I think like the Pinehurst
Speaker 1: experience and I think it was one that you can
Speaker 1: take away a lot of different things from, but I
Speaker 1: think the one thing that it should have taken away
Speaker 1: was like it was a Sunday where he made putts
Speaker 1: until he didn't, you know, which I think has been
Speaker 1: the problem. I think that was a big problem with
Speaker 1: Saint Andrews and Lacc was he just like made nothing
Speaker 1: and and then this this week. I think the takeaway
Speaker 1: is like, you know, hey, like that quil Hollow run
Speaker 1: can happen at at a at an event I care about.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't mean to take a shot at
Speaker 1: the Wells Fargo, but that that that of that run,
Speaker 1: that type of like explosiveness can happen at events that
Speaker 1: care about. It is like, if you have the positive takeaway,
Speaker 1: it's hard. I mean, this is this is why golf
Speaker 1: is so compelling because there's only one winner and there's
Speaker 1: a slew of world class players attempting to win these
Speaker 1: events and for the most part, and I think this
Speaker 1: is like the hard thing about about Rory's career. And
Speaker 1: maybe this is like where the where it's you know,
Speaker 1: what makes it so compelling is like Rory didn't lose
Speaker 1: a lot early in his career, and as he's aged,
Speaker 1: as he's gained perspective, as he's become our I would say,
Speaker 1: a better golfer, he's lost more often like that that's
Speaker 1: a hard thing to deal with, Like he's he's had
Speaker 1: this frustration. I think he I think almost everybody that
Speaker 1: has watched Rory McElroy would believe that he's a better
Speaker 1: player now than in twenty fourteen. You know, more well rounded,
Speaker 1: has more shots, can play more golf course as well,
Speaker 1: but at the same on the same token, he has
Speaker 1: lost maybe some of that. Trying to think of the
Speaker 1: right the right word, I think it's more like being naive.
Speaker 1: I think, like like when you don't lose as much,
Speaker 1: like you don't like there's like an invincibility. You think
Speaker 1: about Tiger's like career, he didn't lose ever and then
Speaker 1: he lost to why y Yang and and like there's like
Speaker 1: a distinct difference, and I you know, the injuries and
Speaker 1: personal life stuff like kind of mounted up. But like
Speaker 1: there's this whole I have, like this whole like thought
Speaker 1: of like if he never loses to hy Yang, like
Speaker 1: does he does his career play out differently the rest
Speaker 1: of the way, and I think I believe yes, But
Speaker 1: like with Rory, like he's having to deal with this,
Speaker 1: Like I think like there's like the mindset thing is,
Speaker 1: like you're having to deal with the knowing that you
Speaker 1: can lose when you play really well, and that's something
Speaker 1: that he didn't have early in his career.
Speaker 3: Where do you land, Sean, I think so, I mean,
Speaker 3: I think scar tissues is a thing. I think when
Speaker 3: you deal with a sport where like the minute changes
Speaker 3: and in like at impact in the milliseconds of impact
Speaker 3: lead to huge things. I always think of like players
Speaker 3: who talked about when they would try to play conservatively
Speaker 3: but they kind of knew the flag was over there
Speaker 3: and they'd kind of just leave the face open a
Speaker 3: little bit and you know, hate it over there. Like
Speaker 3: the opposite. I think it's true too, and you have
Speaker 3: that little bit of scar tissue of like maybe you
Speaker 3: just kind of ease off it or just kind of
Speaker 3: aim away from that flag. And it's just such a
Speaker 3: mental game where the smallest things make such a big
Speaker 3: difference that the slightest shift in mindset I think can
Speaker 3: have a huge change. And so I do think when
Speaker 3: you lose that kind of naivete where you know everything
Speaker 3: seems to be going your way. We saw with Speed
Speaker 3: as well, like twenty fifteen, nothing can go wrong, Everything
Speaker 3: went his way and then gets punched in the mouth
Speaker 3: at Augusta and he won a major after that, but
Speaker 3: hasn't really been the same. I think that that matters because, yeah,
Speaker 3: because of the huge impact that little things can have
Speaker 3: in this game. And I just want to read the
Speaker 3: Rory quote just why I'm accurately representing him, But this
Speaker 3: was after his round on Sunday. He said, I feel
Speaker 3: like I've been Golf's nearly man for the last three years.
Speaker 3: It's all well and good saying I'm close and close
Speaker 3: and close. Once I actually stepped through the threshold and
Speaker 3: turn these near misses and close calls in the wings,
Speaker 3: that's what I need to do. So it's interesting to
Speaker 3: see if maybe if he shifts his mindset away from
Speaker 3: kind of growth and learning towards just winning and getting
Speaker 3: the thing done, maybe that's the change that's needed to
Speaker 3: capitalize on all these experiences that preceded this.
Speaker 1: All right, let's kind of wrap up here, but you know,
Speaker 1: to wrap up, I'd love to hear one parting thought
Speaker 1: on the Olympics, one thing in your notebook that you
Speaker 1: hadn't got to and then we'll close this out.
Speaker 2: You know. A family member of mine texted me this,
Speaker 2: and I thought it was a great point seeing Novak
Speaker 2: Djokovic win and express the emotion that he did, somebody
Speaker 2: who's accomplished everything you can in tennis, almost indisputably the
Speaker 2: greatest tennis player of all time, at least in my
Speaker 2: mind as a casual tennis fan, saying it's probably the
Speaker 2: biggest success he's had in his sporting career, more or
Speaker 2: less saying that his career is complete. Just the range
Speaker 2: of emotions on display at the Olympics was a huge
Speaker 2: takeaway for me, very refreshing in the modern landscape, especially
Speaker 2: with what's happening in golf. Seeing Scotti Scheffler crying as
Speaker 2: the United States national anthem was playing this event. I'm
Speaker 2: so bullish on and I think there's a little thing
Speaker 2: I had in my notes of like how do we
Speaker 2: feel about Riviera and like what kind of crowds it's
Speaker 2: going to get. Like my understanding is the Olympics in
Speaker 2: the United States is going to be a little more
Speaker 2: spread out right with sites in like soccer games in Dallas,
Speaker 2: and I really hope that they're able to get international
Speaker 2: fans packed at riv as long as the fan presence
Speaker 2: is going to be there. There are not many events
Speaker 2: that I'm going to be as excited for as the
Speaker 2: Olympics moving forward. So I think just seeing that range
Speaker 2: of emotions has really made me feel something as a
Speaker 2: sports fan, and I'm just extremely excited about the future
Speaker 2: of this event.
Speaker 3: I think one unintended consequence. I don't think he did
Speaker 3: it for this reason, but I was thinking about Rory
Speaker 3: playing for Ireland instead of Great Britain. I think it
Speaker 3: means that he might even have two Olympics left in him.
Speaker 3: I don't know, you know, who knows how long he
Speaker 3: wants to play and play a full schedule to rack
Speaker 3: up world rankings, but being one of the top two
Speaker 3: players from Ireland, I feel like is something that he
Speaker 3: could hold for eight more years. And I think this
Speaker 3: week also my main bigger point. This was another week
Speaker 3: that kind of illustrated some of the genius of Scotti Scheffler,
Speaker 3: and it came about, I think from Brendan Quainn of
Speaker 3: the Athletic who sort of asked Scotty, what does this
Speaker 3: mean for your legacy? And Scotty was like, I don't
Speaker 3: care about my legacy. You know, we're going to die
Speaker 3: and in thirty years no one's gonna remember us. And
Speaker 3: everyone kind of took that as this like nihilistic Nietzschean response,
Speaker 3: but a I think there's some truth to it. You know,
Speaker 3: try to name some major champions from nineteen sixty three.
Speaker 3: You probably can't, some of us maybe can't. I can't.
Speaker 3: And I think that gives Scotty a freedom to on Sunday.
Speaker 3: He's not thinking about what does this mean? What is
Speaker 3: it worth? I want to win this for, you know,
Speaker 3: other reasons besides, he just wants to win. And so
Speaker 3: I think he does this great job of balancing. He
Speaker 3: cares deeply about competing and winning, but doesn't care about
Speaker 3: it more than he needs to. He walks a really
Speaker 3: fine line between it's very important to him in the
Speaker 3: moment and then it's also not important to him afterwards,
Speaker 3: and I think that helps him be the player he is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's that's right. That there's never when
Speaker 1: you we talk about like how hard it is to
Speaker 1: win these types of events because of the history, but
Speaker 1: if you don't ascribe or associate any value to it,
Speaker 1: Like if you think about like two players we talked
Speaker 1: about struggling down the Stretch with Rory and Rom, I
Speaker 1: think that are two the people that talk the most
Speaker 1: about history and and you know what know everything that
Speaker 1: certain players did, like you know, you know, Rom can
Speaker 1: just rattle off you know, former major champs. Same with Rory,
Speaker 1: you know, and you know when you I don't know
Speaker 1: if Scotty could do that, Scotty probably would just be like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, And I think that's like, actually,
Speaker 1: like a super valuable thing is not knowing in a way,
Speaker 1: because then it doesn't feel different than the heritage or
Speaker 1: the you know, uh TPC Craig Ranch right like that
Speaker 1: that it doesn't feel different if you if you don't
Speaker 1: ascribe a historical value or understand the context of something.
Speaker 1: So I think I think you're spot on there. It's
Speaker 1: like another one of the the mindset things about Scotti
Speaker 1: Scheffler that you look at and it's like, this is
Speaker 1: a big advantage. I think like that one of the
Speaker 1: things that I just was, you know, we haven't touched
Speaker 1: on this surprisingly with with Sean's Hideki stance and fandom.
Speaker 1: I think one of the cool things is like the
Speaker 1: disappointment of Hideki Matsuyama last Olympics, not losing out on
Speaker 1: the bronze medal in his home country.
Speaker 3: On the final hole to get bronze alone Ja And.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you just think about like the the disappointment that
Speaker 1: that you know, probably stuck with him for a long time.
Speaker 1: You know. I think when we look at Hideki's career,
Speaker 1: it's it's a super impressive one with the masters, even
Speaker 1: like down to like the Zozo winning that in from
Speaker 1: his home kind and you think about like the redemption story.
Speaker 1: We just talked a little bit about how it's not
Speaker 1: guaranteed that you're going to be able to make it
Speaker 1: back to the stage, but to make it back the
Speaker 1: next Olympics and get the job done and get on
Speaker 1: that podium. And I think like the last five years
Speaker 1: of Hitdecki's career has been kind of weird. He had
Speaker 1: that insane run and what was it twenty eighteen.
Speaker 4: When seventeen going into eighteen, Yeah, it was like that
Speaker 4: winter where he won four of six events that he
Speaker 4: played in, and you know, it looks like he was
Speaker 4: the best player in the world and he hasn't been
Speaker 4: able to for I think health reasons, really be at
Speaker 4: the level that he could have been.
Speaker 1: But he looked really good out there this week. I
Speaker 1: was like taken aback at some of the drives he hit.
Speaker 1: I think he was. He was past Rory on a
Speaker 1: drive that Faxon described as being pumbled. He past Xander
Speaker 1: the day before on a couple t shots. And to me,
Speaker 1: if Hideki has that in the tank, can somehow get
Speaker 1: to a place where he's hitting the ball like that,
Speaker 1: you know, do we have a couple more years of
Speaker 1: him being an elite player, because I think that's one
Speaker 1: of the things that like over the last three or
Speaker 1: four years has slipped, is like Hideki isn't that first
Speaker 1: page player. We see glimpses of it. We saw it
Speaker 1: at Riviera where it's like, oh, yeah, he is that
Speaker 1: guy still, But like there's been just kind of like
Speaker 1: an inconsistency, and I think a lot of it's health related.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think the hard part too, we don't really
Speaker 3: know when he's healthy and when he's not. He's not
Speaker 3: doing a ton of press conferences, he's not getting a
Speaker 3: lot of English language interviews, so it's just hard to
Speaker 3: know when he's healthy and when he's not, and how
Speaker 3: much of the poor play is due to injury. You
Speaker 3: know how long this stuff's been lingering.
Speaker 1: But the guy's gonna stop flying Spirit.
Speaker 3: Do you think he still is? Do you think he
Speaker 3: flew Spirit to Paris? Do they go to Paris?
Speaker 1: He's gotta he's just got to take care of himself
Speaker 1: a little bit better. No comment from he's got.
Speaker 3: I mean, he's got to be a private jet at
Speaker 3: this point. Right. The Spirit thing was shocking, especially to
Speaker 3: La from Columbus Now Columbus l A. There's not a
Speaker 3: lot of options. Maybe some Southwest in there with a
Speaker 3: stop go to Burbank or something. I don't know, but uh,
Speaker 3: i'd be curious. See you know what, does he fly
Speaker 3: to Paris? Delta private?
Speaker 1: I don't know who knows? Sean big thanks for coming on.
Speaker 1: Do you have you know? I want to let you
Speaker 1: leave as you're you know, your token for coming on
Speaker 1: and discussing golf with us. I want you to be
Speaker 1: able to leave. You know what, what are we what
Speaker 1: are we going to be excited about the next couple
Speaker 1: of weeks for the for golf with golf Golf's ultimate
Speaker 1: prize on the table. What are what are you watching?
Speaker 2: Comcast Business Class top ten?
Speaker 3: Just Business top ten, I think, uh, especially personally, I
Speaker 3: love Memphis. I love Germantown, one of my favorite stops
Speaker 3: on tour.
Speaker 1: But really, are you for Memphis?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I'm excited for BMW. Castle Pines. I think
Speaker 3: will be a fun venue. It'll be unique. I have
Speaker 3: a story coming out on kind of Wyndham Clark dominating
Speaker 3: junior golf there and kind of the phenom me was,
Speaker 3: which you know, that's another player we didn't get into.
Speaker 3: It's probably some people owe Wyndham Clark's my apologies after
Speaker 3: his first round, admirable comeback in his last fifty four
Speaker 3: holes at Paris and then Atlanta. I was up at
Speaker 3: east Lake last week. I really like the redesign there.
Speaker 3: It's a totally different look for east Lake. A lot
Speaker 3: of the corridors are the same, but the greens, the
Speaker 3: bunkers are totally different. Really enjoyed meeting Andrew Green, talking
Speaker 3: to him. What a humble, gracious guy. So I think
Speaker 3: those two things, and then just three tournaments where you
Speaker 3: have the best players in the world competing against each other.
Speaker 3: I think are things worth, you know, worth watching. I
Speaker 3: think the big thing is, and I think we liked
Speaker 3: it about Scotty crying, is we like to know that
Speaker 3: the golf means something to these guys besides just tons
Speaker 3: and tons of money, which obviously the money helps. And
Speaker 3: I think the thing with the FedEx Cup is, you know,
Speaker 3: there's obviously lots of opinion on formats things like that,
Speaker 3: Like I think it matters to the players. Scotty talked
Speaker 3: about it really affected him when he lost that six
Speaker 3: shot lead to Rory two years ago, and then I
Speaker 3: think for Victor it was kind of the biggest thing
Speaker 3: he'd done yet in his career. And like I think
Speaker 3: for it's like your year end performance review, Like I
Speaker 3: think it matters to guys that like it just validates
Speaker 3: the hard work, validates a good season. And so I
Speaker 3: do think that matters to players, and so in that
Speaker 3: I think the FedEx Cup has important there. It is
Speaker 3: you want to end your year on a good note,
Speaker 3: if you've had a great season, like Scotty, Like, if
Speaker 3: you're Scotty, you want to win that thing because you
Speaker 3: want to cap that year off on a great note.
Speaker 1: If you if you were the czar of the PGA Tour.
Speaker 1: How many shot lead with Scotty deserve for his year.
Speaker 3: Five more? Joseph ten.
Speaker 2: I think there's only one right answer, and it's zero.
Speaker 2: But go on, go ahead, okay.
Speaker 1: I I just find it crazy that we can We're
Speaker 1: going to get to the end of this and there's
Speaker 1: a real chance. I guess that's what's interesting. It's I'm
Speaker 1: actually more excited to watch than End of Year because
Speaker 1: I have this, you know, you know, I just want
Speaker 1: to see I want to see chaos at all times.
Speaker 1: And if some person, you know, I if Wyndham Clark
Speaker 1: wins the FedEx Cup and Scotti ends up like tenth
Speaker 1: on the end of year standings, it's going to be like, wait,
Speaker 1: what what are we talking about here? But that would
Speaker 1: make it exciting, you.
Speaker 3: Know, chaos always makes for good television.
Speaker 1: All right, Sean, big thanks for coming on and talking
Speaker 1: about the Olympics. We'll look forward to the next couple
Speaker 1: and reading your writing, your dispatches from Memphis. Thanks so
Speaker 1: much for coming on.
Speaker 3: Thank you guys.
Speaker 1: All Right, Joseph, let's close with some recommendations. What do
Speaker 1: you got for me?
Speaker 2: It's going to be one that some people love and
Speaker 2: it may be a small percentage of the people who
Speaker 2: try it, and some people are gonna absolutely hate it.
Speaker 2: There's this new game I've found on my phone that
Speaker 2: somebody sent me called Contexto. I don't know if you've
Speaker 2: heard of that. It's similar to a New York Times game,
Speaker 2: one of those that there's like one puzzle a day,
Speaker 2: free to play. But the way it works is you're
Speaker 2: trying to guess the word of the day, and with
Speaker 2: each word you input, it gives you a similarity score.
Speaker 2: Like a natural language processing model. It gives you a
Speaker 2: similarity score to the word. So if it's stove and
Speaker 2: you pick the word cold, you won't get a super
Speaker 2: high score. But then you pick hot, you get a
Speaker 2: higher score, and you start working your way up to
Speaker 2: the word. Very difficult, very frustrating, but I think for
Speaker 2: the right person if you like these kinds of word games,
Speaker 2: once you sort of crack it and you start playing
Speaker 2: once a day, I'm all in and it's it's one
Speaker 2: thing every day that I will not miss. So it's
Speaker 2: Contexto dot me is the u r L. I look
Speaker 2: forward to it every day. I find it very rewarding
Speaker 2: when you get the right word. So some people will
Speaker 2: hate this, and if you want to give up right away,
Speaker 2: that's fine. But for the right person, I think it'll
Speaker 2: be a smash hit.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's me. I'm not going to be
Speaker 1: playing context, so we won't be. We won't be. You
Speaker 1: won't be hearing from me about my contextow troubles. This
Speaker 1: is for travelers. I've got a little tip for travelers.
Speaker 1: I think the vast majority of people are flying coach
Speaker 1: in an economy or whatever you want. Your airline calls
Speaker 1: it uh. Something that I've done recently, I sat yea.
Speaker 1: I have a status so I can book in like
Speaker 1: the premium economy. But if you want to have the
Speaker 1: most possible space in economy, the row for you is
Speaker 1: the second exit row. So the second exit row in
Speaker 1: a in a standard in your standard airplane is the best.
Speaker 1: Is the row that you have the best most amount
Speaker 1: of space. If you want the most amount of space,
Speaker 1: it's ile like just in terms of like pure space,
Speaker 1: the aisle second exit rows the most amount and the
Speaker 1: reason is those seats recline. So I'm more of a
Speaker 1: window seat guy. But for my long flights, I used
Speaker 1: to always prioritize being up near the front of the
Speaker 1: premium economy up near the front, like you get off
Speaker 1: the plane faster. But when I'm doing these long trips,
Speaker 1: for the most part, I'm checking a bag, so I'm
Speaker 1: gonna wait no matter what when i get off the plane.
Speaker 1: What I've done is I have prioritized the space, and
Speaker 1: I've been booking into the second exit row my window seat.
Speaker 1: Second exit row, it generally kind of fills up a
Speaker 1: little bit later than the forward window row of window seats,
Speaker 1: uh in the premium economy, So I've been going that
Speaker 1: second exit row. I notice, like I feel better getting
Speaker 1: off the plane because of all the like it's an
Speaker 1: insane amount of space. It is the most space you get, uh,
Speaker 1: non first class on a plane. So second exit row,
Speaker 1: window seat for me. But if you like, like you
Speaker 1: like the aisle, that's where you're gonna get the most space. Honestly,
Speaker 1: like I feel, I like, I know I've noticed that,
Speaker 1: especially on long flights, the amount of space, like I like,
Speaker 1: my legs really can like can can breathe. So that's
Speaker 1: my tip as a experience. I know this is bad
Speaker 1: for me because these these might you have more demand,
Speaker 1: but that is like where you get the most space
Speaker 1: in terms of pure, pure like numbers, second exit row
Speaker 1: because then you get the real climb.
Speaker 2: As somebody who recently downloaded TikTok Andy, all I can
Speaker 2: think about is like this lends itself very well to
Speaker 2: an Andy's travel tips. I think there's a future for
Speaker 2: you and giving out some of your travel tips. Again,
Speaker 2: you don't want to influence demand too much. Now it's
Speaker 2: going to be impossible to book one of those tickets,
Speaker 2: but I think you have a future in that that
Speaker 2: it could be a side hustle.
Speaker 1: As I listen to this, I'm just trying to pass
Speaker 1: out some nuggets as I as I think about, like
Speaker 1: how I've been able to like, you know, it's increased
Speaker 1: my travel enjoyment just a little bit. All Right, That
Speaker 1: does it for this episode of the Friday Golf Podcast.
Speaker 1: Big thanks to PJ. Clark for the editing and producing
Speaker 1: of this episode. As a reminder, we are common in
Speaker 1: club TF today this is Monday. A new design notebook
Speaker 1: just went up and involves a Q and A with
Speaker 1: a golf developer as well as Matt Rusche's. You probably
Speaker 1: recognize that name who formally produced this podcast. Now is
Speaker 1: kind of more moved into like a full time role
Speaker 1: of producing content for us, whether it's a lot of
Speaker 1: social stuff you'll see or written stuff. He went in
Speaker 1: a Affordable Indiana golf trip, which is in that design notebook,
Speaker 1: so if you want to check that out, it's a
Speaker 1: great piece. But we do that weekly. We have weekly
Speaker 1: course profiles. I don't want to make any promises. I'm
Speaker 1: working on my course profile for Oakland Hill South future
Speaker 1: US Open hosts. I'm about fifty percent of the way
Speaker 1: through that, but check that out. It's one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty dollars for the year, and it's a great way
Speaker 1: to support what we do here at Friday Golf. We'll
Speaker 1: be back on Thursday with a new episode of The
Speaker 1: OAKU with Douk. I was in Michigan. That's one of
Speaker 1: the reasons I was in Michigan last week recording with Tom.
Speaker 1: We've got two new episodes of that coming out in
Speaker 1: the next two weeks. So that was fun. It was
Speaker 1: fun to hear all that's going on in his life.
Speaker 1: He's very busy. He had three golf courses to open
Speaker 1: this year, three golf courses that are under construction, and really,
Speaker 1: you know, when you think about the time of his career.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a legacy building time of a golf
Speaker 1: architects career when you get to open this many new
Speaker 1: golf courses, because new golf courses are what you know,
Speaker 1: you're gonna remember. It's not going to be necessarily the
Speaker 1: restoration of this. It's the new golf the golf courses
Speaker 1: that have your your name on them. So cool time
Speaker 1: for a lot of golf architects. You think about Core Crenshaw,
Speaker 1: Gil Tom uh, you know, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: There there's so much work in the industry that a
Speaker 1: lot of these guys, you know, Rob Collins, Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: there there are a lot of people getting a lot
Speaker 1: of opportunities to build new courses, and that's great for
Speaker 1: the golf course architecture space and in the future of
Speaker 1: golf course architecture as a job. You know, I think
Speaker 1: we went through a time where there was not that
Speaker 1: many jobs and not that much work in golf architecture.
Speaker 1: And right now we're in a boom and hopefully it
Speaker 1: sticks out, it holds on because it's it's great for
Speaker 1: the you know, there's more young people in that in
Speaker 1: that industry than ever before, and a lot of architects
Speaker 1: are getting a great opportunity to show what they can
Speaker 1: do in their creativity. So exciting chat with Tom and
Speaker 1: we'll be back on Thursday with that episode.