Speaker 1: I miss a green. For example, I'm already upset. When
Speaker 1: I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
Speaker 1: And when I find my ball in a.
Speaker 2: Brid Egg Friday Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg, Frida Egg Egg,
Speaker 2: Bride Egg.
Speaker 1: Lie, I'm about ready to run off the.
Speaker 3: Up So Joseph the Friday eggs own. Andy Johnson won
Speaker 3: the media lottery at the Masters because some people just
Speaker 3: have all the luck. And he is playing Augusta National today,
Speaker 3: What do you think he will shoot?
Speaker 4: It's a good question. I believe he's playing with Persimmon drivers.
Speaker 4: It does yes. Before I answer that, Gary, am I
Speaker 4: correct that he also won a Frida Egg event recently?
Speaker 4: Is that true?
Speaker 3: I think I feel like he's won multiple Frida Egg events.
Speaker 4: I was gonna say between a win at a Friday
Speaker 4: Egg event and winning the Masters lottery, things are starting
Speaker 4: to stink, maybe a little bit at the Friday Egg.
Speaker 4: So I don't know how corrupt things have gotten, but
Speaker 4: just seeing his name pulled it raises some questions. Per
Speaker 4: Simon driver are in they're playing the championship teas. I
Speaker 4: think Andy, I haven't looked at the forecast today. I've
Speaker 4: been more checking it for the tournament days. I should
Speaker 4: have been checking it for media day. I'm gonna go
Speaker 4: with this is a hard question. Per Simon driver.
Speaker 3: Long, per Simon driver PT three wood that he had
Speaker 3: bombs by the way, like that carries farther than the driver,
Speaker 3: but the driver gets run out.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: He hits kind of this knuckle cut with a driver
Speaker 3: sort of low. The PT is a high, you know,
Speaker 3: sort of straight ball that he hits. And then he
Speaker 3: has Wilson's staff seventies. I believe Era irons goose neck
Speaker 3: and that's his. That's the setup he's going with.
Speaker 4: Look, I'll give Andy his flowers around with him in
Speaker 4: the fall at Essex County Club and he shot a
Speaker 4: bogie free sixty six with a person and driver. I'll
Speaker 4: say eighty three, eighty three at Augusta.
Speaker 3: Eighty three, Okay, yeah, I mean, what do you think
Speaker 3: I think he might not keep score. That's sort of
Speaker 3: a cop out, though I would I would say, I'm
Speaker 3: not sure what his form has been like lately, but
Speaker 3: maybe he'll break eighty. I think I'll go with seventy
Speaker 3: nine just to take the under on yours and we'll see,
Speaker 3: we'll see how it turns out, I'll get in touch
Speaker 3: with him.
Speaker 4: He's gonna beat Jason Day.
Speaker 3: He's Jason Day. Well, they're playing I believe they play
Speaker 3: from the members teas, so yeah, then you know, if
Speaker 3: they were playing from the championship tees, then that would
Speaker 3: be one thing.
Speaker 5: But from the.
Speaker 3: Member tees, I feel like the courses, you know, I mean,
Speaker 3: it could be gettable, but the greens are going to
Speaker 3: be really really tough and so, but yeah, you never
Speaker 3: know what anything. Sometimes he goes super low. Obviously a
Speaker 3: good player. I was just joking earlier about him winning
Speaker 3: Friday events. I'm not sure that he's won one. He
Speaker 3: may have won the one at Lake Mercaid recently. But also,
Speaker 3: you know who else has won Frida Egg events, Cameron
Speaker 3: Heurdis and Will Knights and so, honestly, the corruption sort
Speaker 3: of has eaten its way through the entire company fair enough.
Speaker 4: I actually I thought he's playing the championship teas. If
Speaker 4: it's member t's a'll go with like eighty.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, I think we're converging around the same number.
Speaker 3: I feel like that's probably a good guest.
Speaker 1: There.
Speaker 3: You are listening to the Frida Egg podcast. I'm Garrett Morrison.
Speaker 3: That is Joseph Lamania, and this episode is of course
Speaker 3: a Master's recap. We're not going to be talking about
Speaker 3: Andy Johnson's golf very much more during it. We're going
Speaker 3: to bring on Shane Bacon a little later to answer
Speaker 3: some of your male bag questions. But first, Joseph and
Speaker 3: I will cover the headline stories, which include John Rahm
Speaker 3: versus Brooks Koepka. First and foremost, Ram is the best
Speaker 3: player in golf right now. I think most people agree
Speaker 3: with that, and Keopka is the best Major championship player
Speaker 3: of the past decade or so. So it's very siding
Speaker 3: to see these two go head to head. Rom came
Speaker 3: out on top shooting a final round sixty nine. Do
Speaker 3: I have that right? Sixty nine to win by four shots?
Speaker 3: I probably should have looked that.
Speaker 4: Up for sures be trying to finish to win by
Speaker 4: four shots, You're.
Speaker 3: Good sixty nine to win by four shots. I've got
Speaker 3: my facts straight. So that's John Rahm. He is a
Speaker 3: Master's winner. That's his second career major. Now, Joseph, in
Speaker 3: the past, you've said that Rom has a tendency to
Speaker 3: be over aggressive strategically, whereas Koepka at least in majors,
Speaker 3: is very patient and smart. From what you saw this week,
Speaker 3: do you think Rom has turned a corner and become
Speaker 3: more like Major Championship Kopka in his strategic approach?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 4: Maybe I don't. I think not necessarily. But part of
Speaker 4: the beauty of Augusta to me is that you don't
Speaker 4: have to be conservative everywhere. There's such a good blend
Speaker 4: of aggressive shots and conservative shots, So I don't necessarily
Speaker 4: take huge sho with like John Ram's course management in general,
Speaker 4: I think he can get over aggressive, and he's had
Speaker 4: those moments like at the Players Championship some other moments
Speaker 4: like even at bay Hill. Just I'd probably advise him
Speaker 4: playing the course a little bit differently. But like an
Speaker 4: example would be the approach on six at Augusta. Right
Speaker 4: when that pins up on the top right there, that's
Speaker 4: not a concert that's not a shot you need to
Speaker 4: hit a conservative approach into it would just if you
Speaker 4: hit into the center of the green, it would end
Speaker 4: up all the way at the bottom. So I think
Speaker 4: Augusta is great in the way that it rewards both
Speaker 4: aggressive and conservative play depending on the pin locations. And
Speaker 4: John Rom did a really good job handling all of that.
Speaker 3: By the way, that pin position on six was interesting
Speaker 3: in the final round because John Ram came up short.
Speaker 3: I think he misstruck his iron. I don't think that
Speaker 3: that was a good shot for him, but he ended
Speaker 3: up hitting a good lag putt, or at least a
Speaker 3: good second putt. He two putted from which it was
Speaker 3: off the chip. Yeah, yeah, and he lag putted on five,
Speaker 3: That's what I'm thinking of. He was kind of front
Speaker 3: of green on five and he putted from there, but
Speaker 3: on six he was off the green front. Koepka was long,
Speaker 3: and that is like really not where you want to be,
Speaker 3: and Kepka ended up making bogie. And so when you're
Speaker 3: going at that pin, I found myself wondering, wanting to
Speaker 3: ask you, like, where are you aiming for that? Because
Speaker 3: it seems like if you aim at that high right
Speaker 3: shelf that you're risking going over and that's the deadly,
Speaker 3: deadly spot, Whereas if you're down on the lower level,
Speaker 3: you know you're not making birdie more than likely. But
Speaker 3: two putting from there, or even getting up and down
Speaker 3: from where John Ram was seems pretty feasible. So what's
Speaker 3: the what is even the approach there is it just
Speaker 3: like hit it anywhere and just don't go long.
Speaker 4: It's a really difficult approach shot. So I actually think
Speaker 4: John Rahm, I'd have to go back and Rewatch. I
Speaker 4: don't think he misstruck it. I think he misjudged the
Speaker 4: wind and got a little gust or something, because I
Speaker 4: think he thought that shot was better than it ended
Speaker 4: up being. Generally on six, when the pin's on the right,
Speaker 4: if you're kind of pin high on the right or
Speaker 4: just somewhere over there, you're okay that putt from down
Speaker 4: below lagging it fifty seventy feet. That is such a
Speaker 4: hard putt to get the speed right that I'm not
Speaker 4: just taking some kind of conservative approach and accepting a
Speaker 4: fifty foot putt. I'm not doing that. So I think
Speaker 4: you are trying to kind of go at that pin
Speaker 4: or keep it pin high a little bit right. Just
Speaker 4: a tough shot. It's a really tough shot at Augusta.
Speaker 4: That separates the strikers from the non strikers. It's a
Speaker 4: great hole. I think that's such a great example of
Speaker 4: how Augusta has so many of these different targets. They're small,
Speaker 4: and sometimes you can be aggressive with them. Other times
Speaker 4: you have to play defense, often on hole one, right
Speaker 4: when you get a backpin on hole one, if you
Speaker 4: go over. If you go over that pin, you're dead.
Speaker 4: So it's cool that there's just this blend of shots.
Speaker 4: Got to be aggressive some places, got to be conservative
Speaker 4: in others.
Speaker 3: I believe jo Justin you have an extensive notebook on
Speaker 3: what happened in that final round at Augusta National, So
Speaker 3: I'll kind of let you guide things from here. Where
Speaker 3: do you want to start with emptying your notebook on
Speaker 3: this duel between Brooks Koepka and John Ram.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm interested in your opinion. I think this is
Speaker 4: a pretty sleepy Masters. Even though it had all the
Speaker 4: ingredients of being a really exciting duel, it didn't really materialize.
Speaker 4: Like one note I have is that I think this
Speaker 4: will end up being one of the leader boards that
Speaker 4: when you look back on fifteen years from now, it
Speaker 4: will be like the least reflective of who actually had
Speaker 4: a chance to win. Like Phil and Jordan Speith are
Speaker 4: going to show up there. They never had a chance
Speaker 4: to win this golf tournament. They got I mean, they
Speaker 4: made some birdies down the stretch, but they were never
Speaker 4: live to win. Read maybe could have Charles schwartzeld it
Speaker 4: and like maybe got into minus ten and had an
Speaker 4: outside chance. Russell Henley, Russell Henley.
Speaker 5: I was going to say he had.
Speaker 4: A prayer, because I think he was. I think he
Speaker 4: played his back nine even so if he had shot
Speaker 4: like three under, he could have posted minus ten.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was like minus seven in the middle of
Speaker 3: the back nine. I remember him seeing and I was
Speaker 3: kind of like, well, he could do it, but you
Speaker 3: know it's gonna.
Speaker 4: Take a lot exactly. And you know, one of my
Speaker 4: notes is that some of the players who had the
Speaker 4: chance to step up and win just didn't perform. And
Speaker 4: the names that kind of come to mind there for
Speaker 4: me would be Brooks. Kopka obviously really was flat, played
Speaker 4: a terrible round of golf. Victor Hoblin didn't didn't do it.
Speaker 4: He's got some short right from the beginning.
Speaker 5: Didn't do it.
Speaker 3: Victor Hoblin was out of it. I'm not sure it
Speaker 3: was even just the short game. He just didn't show
Speaker 3: up with anything on Sunday.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I think that is one of the things
Speaker 4: to keep in mind with Hoblin. The short game is
Speaker 4: still a problem. He's an amazing ball striker, but it
Speaker 4: makes you a little nervous when you don't have a
Speaker 4: great short game and how you have to attack some
Speaker 4: of those targets. At Augusta, the other player was Patrick Cantley,
Speaker 4: who was actually kind of live this tournament, and then
Speaker 4: I believe he shot plus three on the back nine,
Speaker 4: like he had a real chance to win that golf
Speaker 4: tournament and just kind of didn't give it much. So
Speaker 4: that's kind of one of the stories for me. John
Speaker 4: rom played excellently, but there wasn't a lot of There
Speaker 4: was a lot of pushing at the end.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3: You know, this had this setup of my favorite type
Speaker 3: of major championship, which is the dual runaway. You know,
Speaker 3: think of Troon Stenson versus Mickelson. You know, even though
Speaker 3: that ended with Stenson kind of separating himself a bit
Speaker 3: from Phil, that was just so incredible to watch that
Speaker 3: quote unquote match play situation between those two with really
Speaker 3: high stakes, both players playing incredibly well, and so in
Speaker 3: the morning on Sunday when they were finishing up that
Speaker 3: third round, I was seeing that sort of come together,
Speaker 3: like these two guys could kind of separate themselves a bit,
Speaker 3: put some distance between themselves in third place and just.
Speaker 5: Have it at out.
Speaker 3: But the problem was that neither of them, and especially
Speaker 3: Brooks Koepka, really played well enough to create that true dynamic.
Speaker 3: Even John Ram, you know, he didn't advance much. He
Speaker 3: did what he had to do. He played a great,
Speaker 3: great final round of golf, but it was a sixty nine.
Speaker 3: It wasn't a sixty five. You know, he didn't shoot
Speaker 3: the round that Phil Mickelson shot in the final round,
Speaker 3: and so it wasn't really a true situation. It was
Speaker 3: more like these two guys were separated enough so that
Speaker 3: there wasn't a real threat coming from behind. A few
Speaker 3: of the guys who sort of had a chance fell away,
Speaker 3: and then by the time we got to Hoole ten,
Speaker 3: I think it was pretty clear that Rom was in
Speaker 3: the driver's seat. And unless Koepka did something incredible or
Speaker 3: Rom had a little collapse on a man corner, which
Speaker 3: is always a possibility, it just didn't seem like that
Speaker 3: was going to happen. As soon as Kopka missed that
Speaker 3: putt on nine and did not make the par to
Speaker 3: Rom's bogie, it just seemed like this was going to
Speaker 3: be sort of a cruise into the finish and it
Speaker 3: was and it wasn't unimpressive, Like it was really impressive
Speaker 3: to see John Rohm do what he did on the
Speaker 3: back nine. I think he played incredible golf on the
Speaker 3: back nine, but it didn't quite turn into that sort
Speaker 3: of battle to the death that I was sort of
Speaker 3: hoping for on Sunday morning.
Speaker 4: I agree, and I think Brooks is I'm very impressed
Speaker 4: with what Brooks did this week. For the record, I
Speaker 4: think that's a fascinating story going forward. His version of
Speaker 4: the events in his post round with Amanda Renner I
Speaker 4: didn't quite agree with Like he talked about not getting
Speaker 4: some good breaks and how the approach on nine could
Speaker 4: have rolled down to a couple feet. Yeah, that wasn't
Speaker 4: a great approach shot either, and it could have been
Speaker 4: in the bunker. Like Brooks was just not sharp. I
Speaker 4: will say I have quite a few notes on Ram
Speaker 4: and I think his round was pretty brilliant. I know
Speaker 4: it was only he only shot three under par, but
Speaker 4: if you go back and click through his round, he
Speaker 4: hit some exceptional golf. Show the chip the kind of
Speaker 4: half wedge into number three making birdie. That was a
Speaker 4: phenomenal golf shot, even the approach into four like, that's
Speaker 4: not an easy shot and it was conservative, like he
Speaker 4: hit a kind of into the center left of the green,
Speaker 4: but it was a phenomenal shot. His pitch on number
Speaker 4: eight turning that into a birdie, that was a golf shot,
Speaker 4: rolled in, believable shot, unbelievable shot, and there were just
Speaker 4: so many The approach into fourteen obviously one of the
Speaker 4: best shots of the tournament. He played really well. I'd
Speaker 4: even say that the chip in eighteen Scotti, Scheffler, and Tiger,
Speaker 4: their wins weren't the most glamorous the way that they finished,
Speaker 4: and Rom's had the opportunity to kind of be a
Speaker 4: little bit ugly too with his t shot, and he
Speaker 4: turned it into a really nice par So I think
Speaker 4: Rom played a pretty flawless round. Not flawless round, but
Speaker 4: exceptional round.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it seemed really really solid, like he wasn't hitting
Speaker 3: an exceptional number of brilliant shots. He clearly didn't have
Speaker 3: his A plus game for long stretches this week. For
Speaker 3: long stretches he had his like B game, but he
Speaker 3: managed it really well. And when I'm looking at Ram's
Speaker 3: final round, I'm kind of looking at that stretch between
Speaker 3: like whole seven and whole fourteen, the heart of the
Speaker 3: round and his T shots. Huge T shot on seven,
Speaker 3: three twenty five fair way, huge T shot on nine.
Speaker 3: He hit a bad approach and that hole didn't turn
Speaker 3: out well, But he hit that T shot three twenty
Speaker 3: six down the hill, good position ten three sixteen, perfect position,
Speaker 3: eleven three forty three, perfect position thirteen three oh seven,
Speaker 3: perfect position down the left. That's an uncomfortable shot for him.
Speaker 3: He got it around the corner. He was able to
Speaker 3: make the the area of the green into comfortably. This
Speaker 3: is just sort of bludgeting, you know, just like ball striking,
Speaker 3: ball striking. And then his approaches were often just sort
Speaker 3: of to the middle of the greens, sane approaches, easy
Speaker 3: two putts, and on fourteen he was able to attack
Speaker 3: that pen, get pretty close and make a birdie. But
Speaker 3: this is the type of game that's just really really
Speaker 3: hard to catch. Like that kind of performance off the
Speaker 3: tee is so dominant, and he does it with seeming
Speaker 3: relative ease.
Speaker 4: Totally, So I have I've been digging through some gen
Speaker 4: Rahm's stats because I want to give a testament to
Speaker 4: how well he's played at Augusta, and I think I
Speaker 4: found an interesting one for you, Garrett, So okay talking
Speaker 4: to obviously like John Rahm off the tea performance this
Speaker 4: past week was amazing. He's one of the best drivers
Speaker 4: of the golf ball in the game. If he's not
Speaker 4: number one, he's number one A one B with Cameron
Speaker 4: Young and he started to put together quite the resume
Speaker 4: at Augusta. So recently been working on putting together a
Speaker 4: historical database of all Masters results going back to the
Speaker 4: first edition of the tournament. John Ram has now in
Speaker 4: his first seven starts at Augusta. Do you know how
Speaker 4: many top tens?
Speaker 3: He has a lot, probably, but what is it?
Speaker 4: He is five in his first seven starts.
Speaker 5: Okay, how many?
Speaker 4: Where do you think that puts him historically? How many
Speaker 4: golfers do you think have done that? Five top tens
Speaker 4: and their first seven starts at Augusta. Just what are
Speaker 4: your thoughts on that? Who do you think is the
Speaker 4: last player to do it? Like any thoughts? I know
Speaker 4: I'm really putting you on the spot here. I would
Speaker 4: have had no clue before I checked this morning.
Speaker 3: I don't really have any clue, but it feels like
Speaker 3: something that Jack Nicholas might have done. It feels like
Speaker 3: something that somebody like Tom Weiskoff could have come out
Speaker 3: of nowhere and done. There are a few players who
Speaker 3: started off their careers really really well at Augusta. Ben
Speaker 3: Crenshaw did, but maybe none of them. I don't know,
Speaker 3: what did you find?
Speaker 4: So only nine golfers have ever done it, and John
Speaker 4: Rahm is the tenth. And part of what's I think
Speaker 4: particularly impressive about John Rams is that, especially back in
Speaker 4: the day in the Masters, it was a lot of
Speaker 4: guys first seven starts, right, like if it was the
Speaker 4: nineteen thirty eight edition of the Masters, like no one
Speaker 4: had played at more times than the people, so could.
Speaker 3: Have been like Horton Smith or somebody like that, could have.
Speaker 4: Exactly Ed Dudley has had six top ten finishes in
Speaker 4: his first seven starts, right, Okay, the most recent player
Speaker 4: to do it was Hale Irwin in nineteen seventy eight.
Speaker 4: So since nineteen seventy eight, no player has had five
Speaker 4: top ten finishes in their first seven starts at Augusta.
Speaker 4: John Rahm has now added his name to the list.
Speaker 4: I think that's a really interesting statistic. He also has
Speaker 4: a win right this year and so he joins just
Speaker 4: Arnold Palmer, Byron Nelson, Gary Player, and Henry Picard as
Speaker 4: being players who have five top tens in their first
Speaker 4: seven starts at Augusta with a win included. I think
Speaker 4: it's pretty interesting statistic and way to view John Rahm
Speaker 4: within a historical context.
Speaker 3: Well, got just the fact that Tiger Woods didn't do that. Now,
Speaker 3: I mean, I guess he played as an amateur for
Speaker 3: two years before he won the ninety seven Masters, But
Speaker 3: then I would have thought that he would have just
Speaker 3: reeled off, you know, five straight top tens. But I
Speaker 3: guess maybe he didn't. Maybe nineteen ninety eight was an
Speaker 3: off year.
Speaker 4: Tiger's first two starts at Augusta were a tied for
Speaker 4: forty first as an amateur, and then he missed the
Speaker 4: cut in ninety six and he finished eighteenth and ninety nine.
Speaker 4: So that's disqualifying.
Speaker 5: John Ram There it is.
Speaker 4: John Rahm is the only player since nineteen seventy eight.
Speaker 4: I'm putting this database to the test, So I hope
Speaker 4: this is kind of a buzzer beater in terms of
Speaker 4: pulling the statistic before we started recording. Somebody can fact
Speaker 4: check me, but I'm pretty.
Speaker 3: Sure this is the golf record by the way that
Speaker 3: you're putting together with Kyle Porter and others.
Speaker 4: Right right, Yes, So I'm pretty almost I'd say ninety
Speaker 4: nine point nine percent sure the statistic is correct. John
Speaker 4: Rahm is the first player since Taylor went in nineteen
Speaker 4: seventy eight to finish in the top ten five times
Speaker 4: in his first seven starts at Augusta. And I think
Speaker 4: that's much more impactful than any other major championship venue
Speaker 4: or tournament because this is the one held at the
Speaker 4: same course every year. So to start to put together
Speaker 4: such a resume on the course he's going to be
Speaker 4: at every year, you gotta take note.
Speaker 3: So then what is it about this course that you
Speaker 3: think suits John ram so well? Because when I think
Speaker 3: of John Rahm, I think of like, no one's gonna
Speaker 3: beat him at Tory Pines, no one's gonna beat him
Speaker 3: at Oak Hill coming up for the PGA Championship. That
Speaker 3: kind of course, if it's sort of wet, if it's narrow,
Speaker 3: if there's some rough, if it just really rewards somebody
Speaker 3: who can bludgeon the hell out of the ball as
Speaker 3: he did on the back nine at Augusta this year,
Speaker 3: then that's going to be the kind of course where
Speaker 3: he really thrives Augusta National. You know, it rewards his
Speaker 3: type of game, there's no doubt about that, but it
Speaker 3: also rewards other types of games. So why is it
Speaker 3: that he does so well here?
Speaker 4: Well, So, first of all, I guess is a hardcore
Speaker 4: long iron approach test, and John Ram is one of
Speaker 4: the best in the world. I think I had pulled
Speaker 4: a stat like six months ago. I was looking at
Speaker 4: approaches between like two hundred and thirty and two hundred
Speaker 4: and seventy yards from the fairway, and I believe Ram
Speaker 4: hits the green in that situation like eight percent more
Speaker 4: often than the guy who's in second place. Like he's
Speaker 4: just dominant on like a two hundred and fifty yard
Speaker 4: approach shot. And I know a whole like whole four
Speaker 4: isn't quite that long, but when you start to think
Speaker 4: about which player do I want hitting my approach shot
Speaker 4: on whole four at Augusta, John Ram's right at the
Speaker 4: top of that list. So long iron approach absolutely. I
Speaker 4: think another huge part of Augusta is that sure really
Speaker 4: long and pretty wide, but when you have wide missus
Speaker 4: at Augusta, you get penalized. If you're in the trees,
Speaker 4: you got to have a pretty clever recovery shot to
Speaker 4: save par. And if you're consistently putting it three hundred
Speaker 4: and twenty yards down the center of the fairway, you're
Speaker 4: gonna have a lot of opportunities as a good approach player.
Speaker 4: So when I think about a hole like seven, if
Speaker 4: I picture Rory standing on the tee of seven and
Speaker 4: he does not hit the ball as accurately as John
Speaker 4: Ram versus John Ram standing on hole seven, who's t
Speaker 4: shot I feel more comfortable with in avoiding trouble. It's
Speaker 4: not close. I feel way better with John Rahm going
Speaker 4: up and hitting that stock fade down the middle. So
Speaker 4: I think there are a lot of reasons that Augusta
Speaker 4: fits his game so well. His short game probably goes
Speaker 4: a little bit under the radar, But John Ram is
Speaker 4: exceptional at pitching around that place. So the chip on
Speaker 4: six in the final round, Yes, the chip on eighteen.
Speaker 3: John chip on the chip on one. It wasn't actually that.
Speaker 3: The chip on one wasn't all that good, but he
Speaker 3: made the putt for Pars so he was up and down.
Speaker 4: The chip on thirteen was really good, right, So yeah,
Speaker 4: John ram is really good. He has great hands on
Speaker 4: and around the greens, so I think it's a place
Speaker 4: that he's going to continue to have a ton of success.
Speaker 4: And again he joined He's now the tenth player to
Speaker 4: ever finish in the top ten five times in his
Speaker 4: first seven starts. So pretty good.
Speaker 3: So, jumping off of your point about how Augusta does
Speaker 3: penalize wide misses, not a single time in the final
Speaker 3: round did John Rahm hit it off the play it
Speaker 3: off the tee. Those misses on two and I mean
Speaker 3: three wasn't really a miss, but it did trickle into
Speaker 3: the second cut. He was still in the arena. Basically,
Speaker 3: he was never deep in the trees. Brooks Kopka badly
Speaker 3: pulled T shot on the first hole, badly pulled T
Speaker 3: shot on number eight, badly pulled T shot on seventeen.
Speaker 3: He was struggling with something off the tee. And it's
Speaker 3: not just that he missed the fairway, it's that he
Speaker 3: missed the whole corridor. He was in the trees on
Speaker 3: those holes and he wasn't able to get effectively back
Speaker 3: in play. On one, he had a great scramble for
Speaker 3: par but you know, eight he pared that hole when
Speaker 3: he should be burning that hole in that final round
Speaker 3: in that situation. Most of the time he gave up
Speaker 3: a shot to ram in that situation and he bogied
Speaker 3: seventeen after birding the previous two holes. So is that
Speaker 3: kind of what went wrong in Kepka's round? You know,
Speaker 3: when you're looking when you're doing a diagnosis of Brooks's round,
Speaker 3: how highly do those t shots rank? And what are
Speaker 3: some of the other items that you would look at
Speaker 3: in diagnosing what went wrong for him in shooting this
Speaker 3: seventy five?
Speaker 4: Yeah, and when we talk about why miss is being penalized,
Speaker 4: I'm sure there are people who are like Joseph Phil
Speaker 4: Mickelson finished in the top five and Cameron Smith has
Speaker 4: given it goes here like, what do you mean why
Speaker 4: missus are penalized? I think the way to think about
Speaker 4: this is, well, if you have a wide miss, you're
Speaker 4: probably chipping. So when you get offline, you better have
Speaker 4: a good short game, like both Cam Smith and Phil
Speaker 4: Mickelson do, because if you do get offline here, you
Speaker 4: probably have to punch it into a favorable location and
Speaker 4: then get up and down. So I think the perfect
Speaker 4: example here is Victor Hofland where when things are going
Speaker 4: well and he's hitting the ball well, he'll be fine,
Speaker 4: especially in soft conditions, and he can do pretty well.
Speaker 4: But when he hits an errant t shot, he's probably
Speaker 4: gonna have he's gonna have to hit himself into a
Speaker 4: location where he has a chip off a tight line,
Speaker 4: and that's where some bogies are going to start to accumulate.
Speaker 4: So it wouldn't surprise me if Victor Hovelin has a
Speaker 4: bunch of finishes between eighth place and like twenty second
Speaker 4: during his master's career. I think you're gonna see that Brooks.
Speaker 4: I need to go shot by shot to really diagnose
Speaker 4: everything here and like maybe look at it from a
Speaker 4: strokes gain perspective. But he was he was just flat.
Speaker 4: Hit some good iron shots, like even on number one
Speaker 4: that was a really good recovery shot, but Brooks didn't
Speaker 4: have it, a lot of wide shots, didn't convert some opportunities.
Speaker 4: I would need to look at his strokeskin putting rounds
Speaker 4: in the last I'd be pretty confident it was negative
Speaker 4: in the final round. Just didn't have it really sloppy
Speaker 4: on nine. Just a couple things like that that Pekee
Speaker 4: Brooks Kopka doesn't normally do and bad.
Speaker 3: T shots on the first three par threes, bogied all
Speaker 3: of them, bunker on four, long on six, and he
Speaker 3: was left on twelve and hit a pretty poor first
Speaker 3: chip there. So yeah, I think it was sort of
Speaker 3: all around, and he was missing a few makeable putts too.
Speaker 3: You know, the six footers, the eight footers, you know
Speaker 3: those need to go in if you're spraying it a
Speaker 3: little bit, and you know, he just didn't quite have it.
Speaker 3: But looking at this performance by Koepka, though, you have
Speaker 3: to be impressed, and you have to start to ask
Speaker 3: some questions about the sort of popular notion that players
Speaker 3: on the Live Tour are going to regress in terms
Speaker 3: of their skill sets.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 3: Phil Micholson also played extraordinarily well, I'm not sure how
Speaker 3: much we can read into that, because he'll just show
Speaker 3: up in a major sometimes like he did a Kiwa
Speaker 3: and play unbelievably well after having not done anything for
Speaker 3: like a year and a half. Patrick Reid also was
Speaker 3: t four right. I think his performance kind of went
Speaker 3: under the radar. He was really great this week. And so,
Speaker 3: putting all of these together, do you think we have
Speaker 3: to start to rethink the way that we talk about
Speaker 3: the competitiveness of live golfers when they come to these majors.
Speaker 4: I have so many thoughts on this. So for one, No,
Speaker 4: I think overall, live performed pretty well, and I think
Speaker 4: it was kind of in line with expectations. They had
Speaker 4: eighteen of the eighty eight players in the field, I believe,
Speaker 4: and when you remove some of the old guys and
Speaker 4: the amateurs, they had like eighteen out of eighty. I
Speaker 4: mean they had about a quarter of the field. They
Speaker 4: finished with three in the top six, which is out
Speaker 4: performing expectations sort of. They only had one other player
Speaker 4: in the top twenty, so that kind of balances it
Speaker 4: back out. Like, I think, they kind of performed how
Speaker 4: I expected them to. I didn't think that live golfers
Speaker 4: would all show up and stink. Some of them did.
Speaker 4: Dustin Johnson played terribly. But overall, I think the narrative
Speaker 4: that like, oh, fifty four holes isn't enough preparation for
Speaker 4: seventy two holes I just disagree with. But one point,
Speaker 4: I was talking to a buddy of mine who's a
Speaker 4: really good golfer, and he was saying he thinks that
Speaker 4: maybe sleeping on the leads a little bit different on
Speaker 4: live versus in a seventy two hole tournament, and I
Speaker 4: think that is an interesting dynamic that is a little
Speaker 4: bit different between live and the PGA Tour where or
Speaker 4: PG Tour or a major where you're like waiting around,
Speaker 4: you're the last person to tee off, you kind of
Speaker 4: have the night before, feels a little different versus a
Speaker 4: fifty four hole shotgun start tournament. I do think you're
Speaker 4: trying to close out an event might be a little
Speaker 4: bit different. So maybe that's something that's going to be
Speaker 4: interesting to watch for. What's your reaction to that.
Speaker 3: I really like that that last point, and it's really
Speaker 3: hard to quantify right Definitely, that is just a feeling
Speaker 3: that you have about playing a golf tournament. The tournaments
Speaker 3: on live right now are really really really different from majors,
Speaker 3: and so going from a live event to a major
Speaker 3: has to be a shocking transition, whereas going from a
Speaker 3: big PGA Tour event one of these designated events to
Speaker 3: a major is a smoother transition. There's odds a big difference,
Speaker 3: but right now there are more similarities between a PGA
Speaker 3: Tour event and a major than there are between a
Speaker 3: Live event and a major.
Speaker 4: And one thing I've thought about since the beginning with
Speaker 4: Live is they only have limited number of players. What
Speaker 4: is it forty eight?
Speaker 5: Right? Like?
Speaker 4: Is it forty eight or fifty four? Forty eight? I
Speaker 4: get confused to why not remove the shotgun start and
Speaker 4: just have them tee off in order? It wouldn't really
Speaker 4: extend the length of the play that much. One of
Speaker 4: the advantages they have is that you only have to
Speaker 4: get forty eight guys through, So if they got feedback
Speaker 4: from Kepka, like you know what, it'd be kind of
Speaker 4: helpful if the leaders teed off later and like that
Speaker 4: dynamic was a little bit more similar to major championships.
Speaker 4: Why not change it? I don't think it would fundamentally
Speaker 4: alter the product that Live has. It wouldn't extend the
Speaker 4: rounds that much. So I think you maybe would see
Speaker 4: Live do this if somebody made a compelling argument, because
Speaker 4: I actually think it's a pretty compelling reason to change
Speaker 4: it without sacrificing on the product they've built.
Speaker 3: I think it would just hurt them in terms of
Speaker 3: their messaging that we're different, because the shotgun start is
Speaker 3: part of what they're presenting as a as a transformed product. Right,
Speaker 3: they're saying that this is a different form of golf.
Speaker 3: This is golf two point zero, right, And to get
Speaker 3: rid of the shotgun start is to get rid of
Speaker 3: one of the fundamental aspects of what they say their
Speaker 3: new product is. It's to get rid of their one
Speaker 3: of their main innovations. And I agree with you that
Speaker 3: it would probably be better for the players to do it.
Speaker 3: It would just be kind of hard for them to
Speaker 3: do it, just as it would be hard for them
Speaker 3: to extend the events to seventy two holes, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's fair. I think if they did it just
Speaker 4: for the final round, maybe it wouldn't change things that much,
Speaker 4: and it wouldn't really change the viewing experience because you
Speaker 4: have the golfers on the same time. Yeah, on the
Speaker 4: course at the same time that way too. But yeah,
Speaker 4: we'll see, that'll be an interesting storyline to follow, all right.
Speaker 3: Coming up, I'll bring in Shane Bacon, who spent the
Speaker 3: past week as the announcer of the featured group's stream
Speaker 3: on masters dot Com. We're gonna do a little Master's
Speaker 3: mailbag me and Shane. That's after this break. This episode
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Speaker 3: I am here with the man, Shane Bacon. Shane, how
Speaker 3: you doing.
Speaker 5: I'm doing good.
Speaker 2: It's a it's it's a it's a very awesome and
Speaker 2: very exhausting week, you know, to be uh getting up
Speaker 2: early and calling, you know, golf NonStop. And then there's
Speaker 2: always a lot of activity in and around the Masters,
Speaker 2: and I think, you know, you're you're at such a
Speaker 2: high for the whole week that when Monday after the
Speaker 2: Masters hits, I feel like it it's almost like when
Speaker 2: you return from a Vegas trip, you know, when you
Speaker 2: you don't realize how kind of tired you are until, uh,
Speaker 2: until you're actually home or you're on the flight and uh,
Speaker 2: and so I feel like I'm on the comdown right now.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, your body is beginning to
Speaker 3: rebel and and say, you know what the hell man?
Speaker 2: And and you you got the pleasure of seeing my
Speaker 2: three year old a couple of minutes ago, but also
Speaker 2: coming home to two kids, uh, three and three and
Speaker 2: one doesn't really allow you much much time to go.
Speaker 2: You know what, I'm gonna take some time on the couch.
Speaker 2: It's like, no, let's let's play ghost for three hours.
Speaker 3: So yeah, and let's let's relieve my spouse here for
Speaker 3: for a minute.
Speaker 2: Cindy goes, Uh, Cindy, she went and picks she had
Speaker 2: to run a couple of errands, and she was going
Speaker 2: out the door earlier, and she looks back at me
Speaker 2: and said, I'm not leaving with the kids. This is
Speaker 2: a really interesting feeling. You know, it's been it's been
Speaker 2: eight days since I've I've been home. So I I
Speaker 2: will say, you know, we give credit when credit is
Speaker 2: due a lot of the time. These are the times
Speaker 2: because I've done it. I've done you know, two three
Speaker 2: days alone with both kids. A couple of times, you
Speaker 2: know where she's gone on trips or gone on on
Speaker 2: you know, vacations and stuff. I mean she had like
Speaker 2: five or six days after they went to school where
Speaker 2: she had no help and nobody relieving her. And those
Speaker 2: are those moments where you're like, you're a really awesome
Speaker 2: human being. Like I think you're awesome all the time,
Speaker 2: but you know this is this is adding a new
Speaker 2: layer to it. So you always get home and you're
Speaker 2: impressed by your significant other.
Speaker 3: And now you're on a podcast with me. So we
Speaker 3: will keep this segment nice and concise. But I did
Speaker 3: want to hear from you because obviously you were calling
Speaker 3: featured groups on the streams all week. I heard your
Speaker 3: voice a lot. Guys did a terrific job. It's always
Speaker 3: such a pleasure to be able to choose from a
Speaker 3: number of different streams and not just see the broadcast
Speaker 3: but kind of curate your experience a little bit and
Speaker 3: also hear from some announcers that you really like hearing from.
Speaker 3: I enjoy all the announcers on the streams in different ways,
Speaker 3: So you know, I'm curious after your stream wraps up,
Speaker 3: usually your stream is going to wrap up before the tournament,
Speaker 3: before play wraps up, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 5: So the feed goes the whole day.
Speaker 2: So so feature groups will go you know, basically from
Speaker 2: when the player's tee off, you know, Thursday Friday, we're
Speaker 2: going to get a relatively early notable tea time because
Speaker 2: you know there's no coverage on CBS till later in
Speaker 2: the afternoon and then but it goes through basically until
Speaker 2: you know, the final group is done, and typically one
Speaker 2: of those groups going to be late. The nice thing
Speaker 2: is there are two teams, so you know, Colt, Billy
Speaker 2: and I'll typically get in there, you know, seven thirty
Speaker 2: eight in the morning to do you know, at early
Speaker 2: tea time that's notable. You know, we had it was
Speaker 2: kind of wild, Garrett. There were we had four groups
Speaker 2: over the weekend at times, which is the most we'd
Speaker 2: ever had. And you know it I've done, you know,
Speaker 2: I've done you know, full broadcast and network golf, and
Speaker 2: it almost felt like doing that in terms of of
Speaker 2: how much we were bouncing around and showing so much
Speaker 2: golf and so many different players. But yeah, I mean,
Speaker 2: it goes the whole time. So then Brian and Smiley
Speaker 2: come in in the afternoon and they take us home
Speaker 2: but yeah, I mean it's I mean, you know, Sunday,
Speaker 2: I think I think Colt, Billy and I.
Speaker 5: Were in there.
Speaker 2: Eight twenty eight was our was our go time on Sunday,
Speaker 2: and we walked out of there at three pm with
Speaker 2: with not really much much break. We'll take we'll all
Speaker 2: three take up a ten minute walk around, so you
Speaker 2: know what, we'll hit the producer. Steve is our producer.
Speaker 2: He's super awesome. He's a lovely guy, and he's a
Speaker 2: really really good producer. But you know, we'll hit them
Speaker 2: and go, hey, we're gonna take ten minutes. And it's
Speaker 2: funny they have the green sandwiches and the coolers in
Speaker 2: our content center, so you'll grab a pimento cheese and
Speaker 2: just go outside and you know, like soak in sunlight
Speaker 2: for a minute and then it's right back to it.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it very much is helpful that there's three
Speaker 2: of us in those seeds.
Speaker 3: I believe among the different streaming teams, you have the
Speaker 3: holes four through sixteen Amen Corner Team, Yeah, fifteen and
Speaker 3: sixteen team. Is there any agreement among those different teams
Speaker 3: as to who has the best gig?
Speaker 5: No, I don't think so. I mean, the thing about
Speaker 5: it is.
Speaker 2: I think, you know, it pops in your head right now,
Speaker 2: like something popped in my head. But then you think
Speaker 2: about you get to watch Amen Corner and you see
Speaker 2: some players going through there, and you want to watch
Speaker 2: them play Amen Corner.
Speaker 5: You're gonna flip over there.
Speaker 2: I remember, you know, yesterday afternoon, after I was done
Speaker 2: and I was back at our rental house watching obviously
Speaker 2: the CBS telecasts on the TV.
Speaker 5: There was I think Speeth.
Speaker 2: And Phil We're playing fifteen sixteen, So I flip it
Speaker 2: over there and I have that on and then and
Speaker 2: there was one point early I think early on Saturday,
Speaker 2: where I had the four or five six stream ons.
Speaker 2: So I feel like, even as somebody that's involved in it,
Speaker 2: I'm bouncing between all four and with the on the
Speaker 2: range five streams. So I would say, if you want
Speaker 2: to follow Tiger for the day, you're gonna watch us.
Speaker 2: You know, if you want to see Jordan Spieth early
Speaker 2: in the day on Thursday and they're playing four five six,
Speaker 2: you're gonna watch that. And I would say all of this,
Speaker 2: what's really really cool and what I think CBS does
Speaker 2: an amazing job at is all of the streams have
Speaker 2: a bit of a different feel, do you do you
Speaker 2: since that a bit, Garrett. I mean it you get
Speaker 2: to get like, you know, I own a NED. I
Speaker 2: think we're an awesome team this year, you know, And
Speaker 2: that was fifteen sixteen and you'd pop in there and
Speaker 2: it was a totally different feel than maybe what you're
Speaker 2: gonna get an amen corner, and you know, to me,
Speaker 2: all of the different crews and they're all really good,
Speaker 2: and they're all unique, you know. I mean it's like
Speaker 2: sluming and for Plank or on four, five and six.
Speaker 2: In terms of the analysts, they can bounce off each other.
Speaker 2: I mean, they're guys that are friends, and they know
Speaker 2: so much about each other's golf games, and they obviously
Speaker 2: know the golf course so well that I don't know
Speaker 2: if there's kind of a hierarchy to which one's the best,
Speaker 2: but I think it's really dependent on what you're trying
Speaker 2: to experience that day, in that moment.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, the different teams kind of have different vibes
Speaker 3: between each other. And then also they're just commenting on
Speaker 3: different types of golf holes, different moments in the golf
Speaker 3: course and in the golf round, and yeah, bouncing between
Speaker 3: those streams is one of my favorite aspects of the
Speaker 3: modern Masters. Right this has not always been the case
Speaker 3: with the Masters. When I was a kid, it was
Speaker 3: all about the limitation of the coverage window. That's what
Speaker 3: was sort of unique about it. Now what's unique about
Speaker 3: it is the opposite, the availability of anything and everything
Speaker 3: and a multitude of different experiences, and it's just something
Speaker 3: I look forward to every year, and right now I
Speaker 3: find myself getting a little bit sad that it's over,
Speaker 3: I know, you know, and then I have to wait
Speaker 3: another year.
Speaker 2: Sunday night, when you're a golf fan is really tough
Speaker 2: because again I think for everybody watching, you know, Masters
Speaker 2: fans going to the tournament. You know, if you're lucky
Speaker 2: to get a ticket any by the players come Sunday evening,
Speaker 2: you know, you you're kind of exhausted because it was
Speaker 2: so much and you put so much energy into it,
Speaker 2: and at the same time you're kind of exhausted yet
Speaker 2: hungry for it again, because you know, I was listening
Speaker 2: to I think it might have been the no.
Speaker 5: Ley and up Brat pod.
Speaker 2: I think Sally said, you know, he watches the ceremony
Speaker 2: at the end because he doesn't want to lose any
Speaker 2: moment of Masters week.
Speaker 5: You know, it's kind of the last thing you can watch.
Speaker 5: And I mean I did the same thing. I was.
Speaker 2: I was, you know, at the rental home last night
Speaker 2: watching you know, watching the ceremony and all that. Because again,
Speaker 2: the moment that ends and that stream cuts off, you
Speaker 2: don't get it again until next year. And so I
Speaker 2: will say I want to do give a shout out
Speaker 2: though the on the rain stream. This was really the
Speaker 2: first year I really got into it. And Kelly is
Speaker 2: so good, Breed is so good, Smiley and Amanda down
Speaker 2: there on the on the grounds. It's a totally different
Speaker 2: experience in watching live golf. But to me it was
Speaker 2: like I'd been introduced to a new candy where I went, oh,
Speaker 2: this tastes amazing.
Speaker 5: I should have been doing this for years.
Speaker 2: I felt like that was a lot of fun to
Speaker 2: really kind of dive into before we got going on
Speaker 2: our streams.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel like that's in a sort of underused
Speaker 3: type of stream. I would like that at every tournament
Speaker 3: because there's so much that you can talk about with
Speaker 3: somebody who really knows the golf swing right and really
Speaker 3: knows the players with a range stream and we see
Speaker 3: that with the Masters every year. So getting right into
Speaker 3: the first question that we got for this mail bag,
Speaker 3: we're doing going to do like a miniature mail bag here,
Speaker 3: just a few questions. I put out a call this afternoon,
Speaker 3: you know, got a few responses, a few interesting questions
Speaker 3: that I'll just throw your way. One that came from
Speaker 3: Will Knights the fried egg z one? Will Knights ever
Speaker 3: heard of them? That that ties in, that ties in
Speaker 3: to you know what we've been talking about so far.
Speaker 3: Is there any part of you that misses watching the
Speaker 3: Masters at home as a normal fan.
Speaker 2: It's an interesting I mean shocking that will ask a
Speaker 2: good question. It's it's interesting. I was thinking about this
Speaker 2: this week, you know, and I will say this, I
Speaker 2: was thinking about this exact thing this week.
Speaker 5: It was before we started, so I think.
Speaker 2: This was on Wednesday, and I was thinking about what
Speaker 2: my life used to look like in terms of this week,
Speaker 2: because it's always in my favorite week in golf. You know,
Speaker 2: it used to be when I was writing and blogging.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: I went a few times, you know, with the press pass,
Speaker 2: but most of the years I was really blogging, I
Speaker 2: was at home watching on TV, and I had all
Speaker 2: the streams going. I will say, as I was thinking
Speaker 2: about that, I think what I felt extremely thankful about,
Speaker 2: in a very cool feeling personally, is I would watch,
Speaker 2: you know, I would turn the stream on the moment
Speaker 2: it came on. I would turn CBS on the moment
Speaker 2: the broadcast came on. And now you're a part of
Speaker 2: those people's experience. So now all of those people that
Speaker 2: used to be me, that can't wait till eight twenty
Speaker 2: eight on Sunday for the stream to start, or can't
Speaker 2: wait till three pm for the CBS broadcast to start,
Speaker 2: now you involved in other people's enjoyment of this amazing
Speaker 2: event in a very small way. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: it's not about us, but in a weird way, you're helping,
Speaker 2: you know, present this amazing, amazing experience. I mean, it's
Speaker 2: the best experience in sports in my opinion, in terms
Speaker 2: of as you said, there's so much available. There's so
Speaker 2: many different avenues you can go down, you can watch
Speaker 2: golf from sun up to sundown, and so it's it's
Speaker 2: humbling and it's exciting to feel like you, in a
Speaker 2: small way, are helping.
Speaker 5: That experience for a fan at home. And so I
Speaker 5: think in that regard. No, I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't miss the at home thing because I've I
Speaker 2: feel like I've kind of, in a way, kind of
Speaker 2: graduated to something that I would have never dreamed of
Speaker 2: being able to do. And it feel like I feel
Speaker 2: just so blessed and thankful to get asked to do this,
Speaker 2: you know, for a third year. And so you know,
Speaker 2: maybe there's an eight year old kid or ten year
Speaker 2: old kid at home that you know, colts making chuckle
Speaker 2: once an hour, or Billie's you know, throw an inside
Speaker 2: at him, you know, as they're watching Jordan' speeth, you know,
Speaker 2: make birdies and bogies. So yeah, it's you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: everybody always wishes for you know, the other lie for
Speaker 2: the old life. I don't think that's necessarily the case here.
Speaker 2: I think I love the seat I'm in.
Speaker 3: Well that's the classy answer, but I can I can
Speaker 3: see where you're coming from on that. It is it
Speaker 3: is a real privilege to be able to call some
Speaker 3: of this action. So here's the question from bo Bramhall.
Speaker 3: And I'd like to take this question in you know,
Speaker 3: whatever direction you want to take it, because you commentated
Speaker 3: on the first part of Phil Mickelson and Jordan's speeds
Speaker 3: round as part of the featured group's coverage, and Bo
Speaker 3: asks how important do you think it was that Mickelson
Speaker 3: posted the minus eight number as they went to the
Speaker 3: back nine as Rom and Kopka went to the back nine.
Speaker 3: We can answer that question, but also just open it
Speaker 3: up to what your impressions were of Phil Mickelson's round
Speaker 3: as well as Jordan's speeds. They both shot great numbers
Speaker 3: on Sunday and really made some noise, and so you
Speaker 3: were sort of part of that action. Tell me about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, you know, Speed hits it in the fairly
Speaker 2: on one and I'd been doing some notes before we
Speaker 2: got going with because they were our first group. It
Speaker 2: was Jordan and Phil were our first group out, and
Speaker 2: I was so pumped because I haven't seen much Phil
Speaker 2: Michlson golf, you know, Garrett, I mean, I'm a left
Speaker 2: handed golfer. Phil was my guy as a kid, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, this was the dude that I rooted for.
Speaker 2: This was the guy I wanted to be.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 2: Obviously, it's been a very interesting last few years with
Speaker 2: Phil Micholson, and you know, feelings have changed a bit personally,
Speaker 2: in terms of exactly how you experienced him. But I
Speaker 2: still want to watch Phil Micholson play golf. And when
Speaker 2: I heard we were getting that group, I was super
Speaker 2: fired up. I was I was high five and Billy
Speaker 2: and like, we get Phil and Jordan.
Speaker 5: You know, this is great.
Speaker 2: And Jordan was walking off the first tee and he
Speaker 2: hits that iron close. And I had these notes written
Speaker 2: down about twenty eighteen, and you know, in twenty eighteen
Speaker 2: he was nine back in this year he's eleven back
Speaker 2: of the leaders and he hits it a foot on
Speaker 2: one and he makes purty and then he birdies two.
Speaker 2: And I just mentioned, you know, he shoots sixty four
Speaker 2: and twenty eighteen and with you know, despite the bogie
Speaker 2: at the last, he didn't make bogie there. He literally
Speaker 2: might have gotten in a playoff with Patrick Reid and
Speaker 2: you know, lo and behold, like two hours later he's
Speaker 2: doing exactly what he did in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 5: He made the same amount Birdie's Garrett.
Speaker 2: I mean, he made nine birdies and that round in
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen he made nine birdies on Sundays.
Speaker 5: So that was cool to watch the magic of Jordan Speed.
Speaker 2: That augusta National up close, and you know he made both
Speaker 2: he made bogie both the Part three's on the first nine.
Speaker 2: But he had all these birdies. He was hitting these
Speaker 2: amazing shots. And it was funny because Jordan Speith made
Speaker 2: Phil Mickelson's game look conservative. I mean Phil was playing
Speaker 2: just very solid golf.
Speaker 3: I mean he was under under control, right, Phil Nicholson
Speaker 3: seemed relatively under control, whereas Jordan you didn't know what
Speaker 3: was coming next, which is what we're used to thinking
Speaker 3: of Phil Nicholson.
Speaker 2: I mean Phil was Jordan before Jordan, right, And yes,
Speaker 2: I mean I was looking upstats before the round and
Speaker 2: Phil was like, I think he was tied for second
Speaker 2: in driving accuracy for the week, which again, these aren't
Speaker 2: things we typically you know, a ligne with Phil Micholson
Speaker 2: and he was hitting fairies, hitting greens, you sitting these
Speaker 2: awesome shots. That win at a six was epic, you know,
Speaker 2: and he's making birdie after birdie after birdie after bertie,
Speaker 2: and you really got that sense that it's probably not
Speaker 2: going to be good enough to win. But this is
Speaker 2: a magical situation at Augusta National on a Sunday that
Speaker 2: these both guys are throwing haymakers eat each other. Garrett,
Speaker 2: there was not much conversation between these two. I mean,
Speaker 2: we watched them a decent amount early because they were
Speaker 2: our only group. They weren't walking necessarily close to each other,
Speaker 2: they weren't talking much. These were close people at one point,
Speaker 2: you know. I mean it was famously, I think it
Speaker 2: was it was Phil that called Fred Couples and said,
Speaker 2: we need to pick this nineteen year old, you know,
Speaker 2: and put them on the team, you know, the USA team.
Speaker 2: And so they've obviously had an interesting relationship. And who
Speaker 2: knows what the players.
Speaker 5: Think about Phil at this point, but you got the
Speaker 5: sense at the shot on six that Phil might do
Speaker 5: something pretty special. And as you know, a lot of the.
Speaker 2: Times when these rounds happened early and they start to
Speaker 2: make the birdies, something dumb happens. They don't birtie eight,
Speaker 2: or they spin it off the green on nine, and
Speaker 2: he just kept a avoiding those situations. And I was
Speaker 2: impressed with the link. I was impressed with how straight
Speaker 2: he was getting the bug off ball. And honestly, Garrett,
Speaker 2: it felt like thirty eight year old Phil Mickelson again,
Speaker 2: like the way he was playing golf. And I wasn't
Speaker 2: surprised with the way he finished, I mean nearly holes
Speaker 2: out on seventeen and then makes that one on eighteen
Speaker 2: the bummer again, just like twenty eighteen was speed HiT's
Speaker 2: the one left in the trees, And I thought, I
Speaker 2: kept thinking, somebody has to get to nine. That's what
Speaker 2: I kept thinking. They got to get to nine. If
Speaker 2: they don't get to nine, it's not gonna be good enough.
Speaker 2: And of course nine wasn't gonna be good enough either,
Speaker 2: but I just felt like nine, with the way Rom
Speaker 2: and kept could play the first nine, I thought nine
Speaker 2: at least had an outside shot if somebody had a
Speaker 2: bad shot.
Speaker 5: On eleven and twelve, and obviously Rom never did that.
Speaker 5: But it was very cool to watch those two.
Speaker 2: I think, Garrett, if you were gonna have me list
Speaker 2: my favorite golfers of all time to watch, I think
Speaker 2: those two would be in my top four. So again,
Speaker 2: I mean, you talk about the golf nerd and me
Speaker 2: and the young golf fan and me being excited about,
Speaker 2: you know, my job that day more than I already
Speaker 2: would be.
Speaker 5: It was.
Speaker 2: It was a pretty cool Sunday to get the chance
Speaker 2: to kind of follow those two guys.
Speaker 3: Yeah, incredible pairing And to kind of go back to
Speaker 3: Bo Bramhall's question, if they had gotten if one of
Speaker 3: them had gotten to minus nine, do you think that
Speaker 3: would have started to wriggle its way into the psychees
Speaker 3: of John Rahm and Brooks Kupka Or do you think
Speaker 3: that minus eight did it that that gave those guys
Speaker 3: a number to think about and that that had some
Speaker 3: kind of impact on the action, Or do you think
Speaker 3: that John rom was just like, you know, yeah, I'm
Speaker 3: going to do better than minus eight. That's not the
Speaker 3: number I have to be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just you know, the way Rom played all
Speaker 2: week and the golf shots he was hitting in the
Speaker 2: most crucial moments of the Masters, those shots that ruin
Speaker 2: your chances second into eleven, you know, the second into twelve,
Speaker 2: you know, getting qued into thirteen. Obviously with the new
Speaker 2: t getting queed into thirteen now is with a three
Speaker 2: four five iron, not with a seven eight nine iron,
Speaker 2: And so maybe, but just every shot Rom was hitting
Speaker 2: under pressure was perfect. You know, he hit it right
Speaker 2: over the bunk on twelve, right, I mean, he hits
Speaker 2: exactly where you're gone to hit it on eleven. I
Speaker 2: just feel like he was so dialed with what he
Speaker 2: was trying to do. That The only thing I think
Speaker 2: nine would have factored into is if the ball didn't
Speaker 2: kick out on eighteen, because if that ball stays in
Speaker 2: the left and they don't find it there, Rom could
Speaker 2: have easily made a double and so you know, double
Speaker 2: I think would have had him at nine. So you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, it would have that would have been very,
Speaker 2: very interesting if somebody would have been at nine and
Speaker 2: the t shot would have stayed and not kicked out.
Speaker 3: I believe double would have gotten him to ten because
Speaker 3: I think he finished at minus twelve. He made a
Speaker 3: par Yeah, I mean, but the point is taken because
Speaker 3: if you hit it where Rom hited off the tee
Speaker 3: and you're at minus twelve and there's somebody in the
Speaker 3: clubhouse at minus nine, then you're at the very least
Speaker 3: starting to think about it, so that you know it
Speaker 3: could have had some kind of impact. But it just
Speaker 3: would have been hard for Phil and Jordan to get
Speaker 3: to a number. That would have really bothered Rom on
Speaker 3: that back nine the way he was playing.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, so did Jordan finish at seven?
Speaker 3: I believe he finished at seven? Yes, so he finished
Speaker 3: at seven. He was tied with Patrick Reid and maybe
Speaker 3: one other player at T four.
Speaker 2: So there was no real way on eighteen for him
Speaker 2: to get to ten. So yeah, I mean, to your point,
Speaker 2: ten was probably the number they had to get to.
Speaker 2: And you know, I mean he bogues both the par threes,
Speaker 2: you know, on the first nine, and I mean, you
Speaker 2: know you don't bogie those, and honestly didn't play him
Speaker 2: very well. He didn't wit very good shots, but you know,
Speaker 2: you par there and don't hit that shot on eighteen
Speaker 2: and maybe ten was in play. But I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: we always say this, and I know it's become a
Speaker 2: running joke on Twitter. You know, if they go out
Speaker 2: in twenty nine, they go out in thirty. But you know,
Speaker 2: playing perfect golf is sixty four, sixty three. There's been
Speaker 2: two sixty threes in Masters history, and so these guys
Speaker 2: shooting sixty five and sixty six are some of the
Speaker 2: all time final round numbers, right, And so it just
Speaker 2: shows how hard it is to do that. I say
Speaker 2: this a lot when we're on fifty nine. Watch, you know,
Speaker 2: a guy shoots seven under on the front nine or
Speaker 2: something like that at a random tour event, and you.
Speaker 5: Go, man, that's great. He's got to make six more
Speaker 5: birdies to shoot fifty nine.
Speaker 2: It's like, when you think about that, it really changes
Speaker 2: how impressive those types of scores are. And and again,
Speaker 2: I mean they they played, they played just brilliant golf.
Speaker 2: I don't want to say flawles golf because obviously there
Speaker 2: was some some ups and downs on the Jordan's speed side,
Speaker 2: but it was it was damn impressive golf from Phil Nicholson.
Speaker 2: You know, I mean, like this guy's played some really
Speaker 2: good golf in majors the last few years. I mean,
Speaker 2: he wins the PGA in twenty one, and he finished
Speaker 2: his second and the Masters in twenty three. I don't
Speaker 2: I feel like Phil might win another major. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, like I really think he might win another
Speaker 2: major championship.
Speaker 3: It's kind of crazy because he is capable of doing that.
Speaker 3: You just don't know when or where or how he's
Speaker 3: gonna show up, because I mean literally, he's done nothing
Speaker 3: since Kiowa in terms of competitive golf, like it's been absent.
Speaker 3: But that was the case also before Kiowa, and so
Speaker 3: you just I mean it's, yeah, you don't know where
Speaker 3: he's gonna pop up. And but clearly he is capable
Speaker 3: of doing what he did this week, right, he proved it.
Speaker 3: He showed that he has the game to do that.
Speaker 3: But he just disappears for long stretches and then comes back.
Speaker 3: It's just a very very strange late career thing that,
Speaker 3: you know, I guess we've seen versions of it in
Speaker 3: the past with like Tom Watson or Freddie Couples at Majors,
Speaker 3: but those guys were maybe a little more consistent and
Speaker 3: predictable because you just don't know when you're going to
Speaker 3: get it from Phil and that's that's sort of an
Speaker 3: interesting late career arc for Phil. So just a couple
Speaker 3: more questions, Let's do lightning round style.
Speaker 5: Sort of.
Speaker 3: A couple of questions here that I thought were interesting.
Speaker 3: Eddie Bajak says, what is your preferred strategy on number three?
Speaker 3: Do you like to blast driver up, you know, sort
Speaker 3: of to left of the green it trickles down left
Speaker 3: of the green or do you like when guys sort
Speaker 3: of hit that iron to the top of the hill?
Speaker 3: What would you prefer to do and what do you
Speaker 3: like seeing?
Speaker 2: So this was a big talking point on our channel.
Speaker 2: We had what does Andy Johnson call him? The data
Speaker 2: boys or whatever.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we had that. Oh yeah, well they came for Colt.
Speaker 5: It was a Colt take.
Speaker 2: And I think once they started to come for Colt,
Speaker 2: he dug a little deeper into it because he was
Speaker 2: john to have some fun with them. But the first
Speaker 2: two days, that whole location was front left and front right,
Speaker 2: and I thought, Billy Kratzer, you know, made a really
Speaker 2: really good point. He said, maybe this golf course was
Speaker 2: designed to win. It's a three hundred and fifty yard
Speaker 2: par four, and the other the next longest, next shortest
Speaker 2: part four is four to forty, you know, so this
Speaker 2: is really the only quote unquote short par four at
Speaker 2: Augusta National. And he said, and when you look at
Speaker 2: the card and these guys are so long, it makes
Speaker 2: them think birdie hole. Right, you look at a three
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty yard part four and you go, this
Speaker 2: is a birdie hole. And he said, maybe the design
Speaker 2: was when the whole locations are in the front, it's
Speaker 2: just not a birdie hole. It's not intended to be
Speaker 2: a birdie hole. And so when it was front left
Speaker 2: and front right, we saw some really bad shots when
Speaker 2: people pound the driver. And then what was interesting was
Speaker 2: we saw more and more irons come out deeper into
Speaker 2: the week, we got saw more players hitting iron to
Speaker 2: the top of the hill when the whole location's back.
Speaker 5: It's driver all day.
Speaker 2: Hit driver, hit driver, hit driver, hit driver, And even
Speaker 2: analytically this is probably incorrect, but I would say that
Speaker 2: we saw more good shots, not great shots, but good
Speaker 2: shots when there was irons played to the fair way,
Speaker 2: to the front left and front right hole location. Because
Speaker 2: if you hit it to the top of the hill
Speaker 2: and you have one hundred and ten or one hundred
Speaker 2: yards in, you can hit it deep and if it
Speaker 2: spins back, it'll get you know, five eight feet, But
Speaker 2: if it stays up there, it's gonna be a quick putt.
Speaker 2: But it's a putt for Birdie. The theory could make
Speaker 2: but you're most likely go to two putt. But when
Speaker 2: the way I look at it, it takes five out of play.
Speaker 2: And there were a few players this week that hit
Speaker 2: driver on Thursday Friday hit a pitch either short and
Speaker 2: it came back down the hill or blasted it deep
Speaker 2: and they made five and it was just such an
Speaker 2: awkward shot for those players. So I would say it's
Speaker 2: all whole location based, But would I would probably hit
Speaker 2: iron to the front ones off the tee if I
Speaker 2: was playing in the Map, I'm probably.
Speaker 5: Not going to do that.
Speaker 3: But yeah, interesting, you're probably not going to play in
Speaker 3: the Masters, saying I mean, are you?
Speaker 5: Are you?
Speaker 2: I mean, come on, US Open qualifiers in three weeks.
Speaker 2: I've played one round of golf in two weeks. So
Speaker 2: if I win the US Open, you know, I think.
Speaker 3: I think that would do it. Yeah, And that's within
Speaker 3: the realm of possibility. Sure, I can tell you that. Well,
Speaker 3: you know, one thing related to the to the question
Speaker 3: about three is that players are not machines. They don't
Speaker 3: always follow the rules set out for them by their
Speaker 3: analytics advisors, and they don't always follow the strategy that
Speaker 3: data suggests that everybody should follow. And that's part of
Speaker 3: the magic of a whole like three is that it
Speaker 3: actually motivates players to use some different strategies sometimes even
Speaker 3: if what's suggested is that one strategy really works best
Speaker 3: on that whole. And and that's just something that I
Speaker 3: don't think enough people really acknowledge that these guys are
Speaker 3: not machines. They don't always follow the rules. All right,
Speaker 3: final question from our buddy car for the course the
Speaker 3: Masters make subtle and sometimes substantial tweaks almost every year.
Speaker 3: I assume he means to the course, but you know,
Speaker 3: maybe also to whatever else they're doing right, whether it's
Speaker 3: the broadcast or anything else. What are your predictions, Shane
Speaker 3: for the inevitable changes to the twenty twenty four Masters.
Speaker 3: Do you have any ideas as to what should or
Speaker 3: can change next year?
Speaker 2: So I thought Phil Mickelson's point about extending that thirteenth
Speaker 2: tea box. Obviously they pushed it back a bit, but
Speaker 2: having a little bit of a longer tea box back there,
Speaker 2: so when it's into the wind or when it's cold
Speaker 2: like it was over this weekend, you could push that
Speaker 2: thing up to the front, take fifteen twenty yards off
Speaker 2: the number, and maybe give players an opportunity to go.
Speaker 2: I think was a really smart call by Phil. You know,
Speaker 2: he said, basically in the third round, nobody went for it.
Speaker 2: It was basically a layup from every player in the field.
Speaker 2: And he said, while the changes make a ton of
Speaker 2: sense to make it longer, because everybody's longer, and you
Speaker 2: know they're hitting mid irons in or short irons into
Speaker 2: thirteen when the conditions are changing a little bit like
Speaker 2: what we saw fifteen last year, Garrett. You know, remember
Speaker 2: it was into the win and nobody made an eagle
Speaker 2: on fifteen last year. So he said, I thought that
Speaker 2: was a very interesting take, is to kind of maybe
Speaker 2: make that tea box just a little longer, where you
Speaker 2: could maybe play at it five twenty five and not
Speaker 2: five forty five when you know, the wins into the
Speaker 2: players or whatever. I found that smart, and I'll be
Speaker 2: very interested if you know, if Augusta, you know, has
Speaker 2: any ideas or thoughts about doing something like that, because
Speaker 2: when the conditions are perfect, play it back. And I
Speaker 2: thought it was brilliant this year. I love the changes,
Speaker 2: but I still want to see players, you know, at
Speaker 2: least capable of going forward if they wanted to, even
Speaker 2: if that means everybody going forward hit sit in the creek,
Speaker 2: at least they go.
Speaker 5: So I thought that was really smart. I'm trying to
Speaker 5: think of anything else, you know.
Speaker 2: I've always wondered if there was an opportunity to make eighteen.
Speaker 5: A little longer.
Speaker 2: But you know the thing about eighteen is I love
Speaker 2: the fact that if you hit a straight drive, it
Speaker 2: goes in those bunkers, you know, And I don't want
Speaker 2: to take that away. I mean, they obviously made the
Speaker 2: initial changes because Tigers just hit it over all the
Speaker 2: bunkers when he was winning, you know, in ninety seven.
Speaker 2: But I was wondering about that, is there any opportunity
Speaker 2: to make that hole, you know, a little bit longer.
Speaker 2: And then the only other thing I was thinking is,
Speaker 2: and this probably goes against, you know, all the ideas
Speaker 2: you were talking about three. I was wondering if there
Speaker 2: was ever any idea about having it where that hole
Speaker 2: one day could play three thirty, you know, and again
Speaker 2: put it in the hardest spot, probably that front left
Speaker 2: hole location, right, because if you hit it over that green,
Speaker 2: that's it's it's.
Speaker 5: Tough too, right, So if you're short, it's tough, deepest tough.
Speaker 2: You could ship it down the hill and have it
Speaker 2: go off the front and all of a sudden, maybe
Speaker 2: you're making six. But we saw I think we saw
Speaker 2: one player hit it on the green, you know. I
Speaker 2: think Nieman hit it on the green maybe on Friday.
Speaker 2: But I just feel like since it's the only short
Speaker 2: hole Augusta National, and having that is just an outside
Speaker 2: option for a player that's very, very long, I think
Speaker 2: it would be kind of cool one day to see
Speaker 2: if it was actually legitimately drivable. I asked Cameron Young
Speaker 2: Ripple one one day we had him on the coverage
Speaker 2: and right was the standing over the tea. I said, cold,
Speaker 2: can he get there? And he said, I don't think
Speaker 2: he can get there. You can get close, but.
Speaker 5: He can't get there.
Speaker 2: And he smoked one, I mean absolutely roasted one, and
Speaker 2: it landed fifteen yards short of the green. It rolled
Speaker 2: up almost to the front of the green. But as
Speaker 2: that slope catches everything, you know, it came off the
Speaker 2: slope and it was still kind of in that similar
Speaker 2: catch area and I was just wondering was that shot happened.
Speaker 2: I went, it would be pretty interesting if that was
Speaker 2: ever something that was thought up. And maybe again, maybe
Speaker 2: that goes against everything the third hole is, but it just,
Speaker 2: you know, as a person that always loves the idea
Speaker 2: of players maybe giving it a go occasionally on a
Speaker 2: part four, I've always thought that that would be something
Speaker 2: to be cool one day, you.
Speaker 3: Know, yeah, open up the possibility that they could go
Speaker 3: long like the tenth at Riviera, because we don't see
Speaker 3: players going long of that green off the tee. It's
Speaker 3: just a little bit too far for that to be
Speaker 3: a viable option. So we see the very best drives
Speaker 3: just sort of hanging up on that slope on the
Speaker 3: right and offering that nice little pitch into the green,
Speaker 3: but rarely do we see them actually drive the green.
Speaker 3: I saw Phil's comments about thirteen to two. I think
Speaker 3: that's interesting. Obviously, flexibility in teeing areas is not the
Speaker 3: specialty of Augusta National. They like having their two tees,
Speaker 3: their championship tees and their members' tees. You know, when
Speaker 3: players weren't really going for it on the heavy weather days,
Speaker 3: there were still eight players that I counted. I was
Speaker 3: deep in these stats this week. There were eight players
Speaker 3: who went for it in the third weekit which is
Speaker 3: not much, but there were some players who were still
Speaker 3: capable of getting there. And so that distance that they
Speaker 3: found for that hole, that length that they found for
Speaker 3: that hole was pretty darn spot on, considering that they
Speaker 3: don't have much flexibility. So you know, I thought that
Speaker 3: it worked. But yeah, I mean, could they build a
Speaker 3: kind of runway tee there and get it a little
Speaker 3: bit shorter on the days when they need that. That's
Speaker 3: a suggestion that I could see them reasonably implementing. I
Speaker 3: don't doubt that that's something that would be on the.
Speaker 5: Table, Garrett.
Speaker 2: So out of eight out of I was on Saturday,
Speaker 2: So that had been fifty four players, right, because fifty
Speaker 2: five made the cut and then Tiger w DD, So
Speaker 2: that's eight of fifty four. What do you think is
Speaker 2: your perfect number for go or don't go on a
Speaker 2: par five? Because you know, we don't see don't go.
Speaker 2: Par five's hardly ever, But what do you feel like
Speaker 2: is the perfect number? Because I don't think it's half.
Speaker 2: I think half might be too many, eight might be
Speaker 2: a little too short in terms of the players that
Speaker 2: are able to do that. What do you feel like,
Speaker 2: as a golf fan and somebody that obvious pays a
Speaker 2: lot attention to this stuff would be the perfect kind
Speaker 2: of go don't go number.
Speaker 3: I mean, this is a cop out answer, but for me,
Speaker 3: it really depends that there just is no perfect number.
Speaker 3: I think if we talk about a perfect number for thirteen,
Speaker 3: I've heard Trevor Immelman say seventy percent. For me, that
Speaker 3: might be a little high. That might be getting to
Speaker 3: where you know, we expect guys to go for it,
Speaker 3: and the only situation when they don't go for it,
Speaker 3: is if they hid it in the trees on the
Speaker 3: right or if they hit it in the creek on
Speaker 3: the left. And I think that that's the place that
Speaker 3: we got to in the past several years with that hole,
Speaker 3: where everybody went for it except if they just hit
Speaker 3: it in some kind of hazard, and I think that
Speaker 3: that makes the whole less interesting. I think that you
Speaker 3: need some situations where players are laying up from the fairway.
Speaker 3: So looking at these stats that I gathered this week,
Speaker 3: looking at a bunch of shot trackers, the percentage who
Speaker 3: laid up from the fairway in the first round was
Speaker 3: nineteen percent, second round twenty eight percent laid up from
Speaker 3: the fairway, Third round seventy eight percent laid up from
Speaker 3: the fairway, so very different, and then fourth round forty
Speaker 3: percent laid up from the fairway. The go for it,
Speaker 3: you know percentages when the weather was good, it was
Speaker 3: between fifty and sixty five percent going for it. For me,
Speaker 3: that's a good range for that hole, and I feel
Speaker 3: like I'm willing to take the cost of unusual weather
Speaker 3: days turning that number into like, you know, ten percent
Speaker 3: all of a sudden are going for it. That's kind
Speaker 3: of okay with me, but I can understand and why
Speaker 3: there would be people who would say, you know, the
Speaker 3: hole becomes a little more boring on the days when
Speaker 3: there's weather because just almost everybody lays up and seeing
Speaker 3: guys lay up one after another. Just from a viewing experience,
Speaker 3: if you were standing on that hole all day, you
Speaker 3: might be a little bit disappointed in that, especially if
Speaker 3: the gopher it attempts don't turn out to be super exciting.
Speaker 3: But I don't know. From my perspective as a golf nerd,
Speaker 3: I kind of liked the variability the days when it
Speaker 3: was really hard to go for it, and when guys
Speaker 3: did go for it, it was something exceptional, it was
Speaker 3: something special, Whereas on the days when the weather was good,
Speaker 3: you know, we were looking at like about half of
Speaker 3: the field or a little bit more going for it.
Speaker 3: And I also like that because it takes a darn
Speaker 3: good drive to get in position to go for that green.
Speaker 3: On Sunday at the Masters, it really does, and a
Speaker 3: lot of guys ended up in the water on Sunday,
Speaker 3: About twenty percent of the field ended up in the creek, amazing,
Speaker 3: which was just something we haven't seen while.
Speaker 2: So to that point, because that's a really I think
Speaker 2: your point is is totally right and I couldn't agree
Speaker 2: with you more. You know, last year fifteen, we didn't
Speaker 2: really get to see how fifteen was gonna play because
Speaker 2: it was into the wind the whole week. Hey, and
Speaker 2: like I said, nobody made egle. But and I wrote
Speaker 2: this on Twitter. You know, when you go to Augusta
Speaker 2: National and you see that fifteenth green and you see
Speaker 2: it in person, I always say the two smallest things
Speaker 2: in golf when you see it in person is the
Speaker 2: fifteenth green at Augusta and the pond on eighteen at
Speaker 2: Torrey Pines. Like, when you see him in person, you go,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, it looks like, you know, the pond
Speaker 2: a Tory looks like it's you know, this massive, you know.
Speaker 5: You know, great lake. And then you get there and
Speaker 5: it kind of looks like, you know, it looks like
Speaker 5: something that you would jump into. I mean, it's so tiny.
Speaker 2: And then fifteen green at Augusta, when you see it
Speaker 2: in person, you go, dudes, go for this, are you
Speaker 2: kidding me?
Speaker 5: It is?
Speaker 3: Well that green looks crazy and because especially you see
Speaker 3: the water in the back too. Yes, you see that.
Speaker 3: You see the Yeah, I mean it looks it's pressed up.
Speaker 3: The green is pressed up. It looks like an island.
Speaker 3: It's so intimidating.
Speaker 2: So you know, there are like pro golf is so
Speaker 2: crazy because like John rum four putted a hole and
Speaker 2: hit a ninety yar drive this week you won the
Speaker 2: Masters by four.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: I mean, these guys everybody thinks they hit every.
Speaker 2: Shot perfect, and they hit everything perfect, and they never
Speaker 2: miss putt, and they're very good at golf. But you know,
Speaker 2: they hit a lot of terrible golf shots, and I
Speaker 2: praise the pro golfer and it shows how good they
Speaker 2: are at golf. To me, one of the biggest examples
Speaker 2: of this is the second shot at a fifteen. That
Speaker 2: these guys can hit fairway woods onto the green and
Speaker 2: hold it, that they can hit three irons onto the
Speaker 2: green and hold it. There are certain places around golf
Speaker 2: that when you see the way these pros can pull
Speaker 2: golf shots out relatively consistently, it is mind boggling that
Speaker 2: you would go for that green under pressure, that you
Speaker 2: would go for that green when you already have a
Speaker 2: great round gooing, and the fact that you pull that
Speaker 2: shot off and I would say that thirteen is getting
Speaker 2: a little bit more of that, which is so cool that,
Speaker 2: like you said, to take it on in tough conditions
Speaker 2: and to pull the shot off and hit it in
Speaker 2: the middle of the green and give yourself thirty feet
Speaker 2: down the hill for eagle takes a what was it
Speaker 2: a momentous decision or whatever the term may be.
Speaker 5: It's like, yeah, that is.
Speaker 2: It's such a big swing now for these players to
Speaker 2: pull off. And I've always felt that about fifteen. I mean,
Speaker 2: obviously Sergio had eight iron in in twenty seventeen. That's
Speaker 2: just not going to be the case anymore. But I
Speaker 2: think Sam Bennett, you know, like one of those first
Speaker 2: few rounds had like two fifty six into fifteen hits
Speaker 2: three wood on the green.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: Yah, People just that have never been there don't understand
Speaker 2: how impressive that is and how hard that is to
Speaker 2: pull off and how absolutely dialed your shot has to
Speaker 2: be to land there and stay there. And the fact
Speaker 2: that thirteen is back to a little of that. It's
Speaker 2: always going to be easier than fifteen because it's just
Speaker 2: gonna play shorter. But it's a lot of fun to
Speaker 2: see those golf shots into those two par fives, because
Speaker 2: a lot of bad stuff can happen when you're trying
Speaker 2: to get cute, and a lot of good stuff can
Speaker 2: happen when you pull the shot off.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I have nothing to add to that. That's really
Speaker 3: well put. So Shane, thank you so much for coming
Speaker 3: on the podcast. I've kept you longer than I said
Speaker 3: I would, so enjoy your time at home. Appreciate you
Speaker 3: doing this with me.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's Garrett. You know it's it.
Speaker 2: You leave, you leave the Master's week, You're tired, you know, you're,
Speaker 2: like I said, you kind of have that Vegas come down.
Speaker 2: But there is an enormous feeling and I can sense
Speaker 2: it from so many people that are involved in what
Speaker 2: we're able to do and lucky to get to do.
Speaker 2: But there's this enormous sense of real pride and it
Speaker 2: really feels like this big team coming together to be
Speaker 2: a very very small part of this incredible tournament and
Speaker 2: incredible sporting event.
Speaker 5: And you know, I.
Speaker 2: Will be beaming for two three weeks after this, just
Speaker 2: because it's such a cool week and it's my favorite
Speaker 2: week of the year.
Speaker 5: And you know, to the Will.
Speaker 2: Knights question, you you truly are kind of pinching yourself
Speaker 2: when you get to say welcome to the two you know,
Speaker 2: to the twenty twenty three Masters Tournament, or you know,
Speaker 2: when you get in text from some of the people
Speaker 2: that text you, it's it's a very you feel very
Speaker 2: blessed to be a part of it, and I'm very
Speaker 2: lucky to get to do this. So I will be
Speaker 2: I will be tired today, but I will be reflected
Speaker 2: on a lot of positives.
Speaker 3: All Right, thank you, Shane. One more quick break and
Speaker 3: I'll come back with Joseph Lamanna to talk about the
Speaker 3: storylines we're tracking this week. I want to take a
Speaker 3: moment here to talk about the Frida Egg's membership program.
Speaker 3: It's called Club TFE, and if you want to find
Speaker 3: out all the details about what this membership offers, go
Speaker 3: to the fridagg dot com slash membership. We're just coming
Speaker 3: off of a really fun Master's week in Club TFE.
Speaker 3: We had daily blog posts. One of those posts was
Speaker 3: an architects roundtable where we basically just invited on three
Speaker 3: architects to talk all about Augusta National, and they ended
Speaker 3: up saying stuff that I hadn't really noticed before or
Speaker 3: hadn't seen said before. Just from their perspective as architects.
Speaker 3: It was so interesting to see what they saw and
Speaker 3: what they thought was important in Augusta National. And then
Speaker 3: in addition to that, we did a Master's Pool where
Speaker 3: basically people just chose a bunch of players, we added
Speaker 3: up the scores and saw who won. At the end
Speaker 3: of the week, the top three finishers ended up getting
Speaker 3: significant amounts of Pro Shop credit, so that was really enjoyable.
Speaker 3: We're doing stuff like that all the time in Club TFE,
Speaker 3: so come check it out. It's content, it's perks in
Speaker 3: the pro Shop, it's early entry to events. And also
Speaker 3: you know that you're supporting the Friday Egg and you're
Speaker 3: helping us get year to year and continue to grow.
Speaker 3: So that's the Frida Egg dot com slash membership CLUBTFE.
Speaker 5: Check it out.
Speaker 3: All right, we're back with Joseph to talk about storylines
Speaker 3: that we are tracking right now. Joseph, what is your storyline?
Speaker 4: My storyline for this week? I don't want to repeat
Speaker 4: one that I gave you last time, which has to
Speaker 4: do with players trying to get into the top fifty
Speaker 4: for the FedEx Cup standings for next year. But that's
Speaker 4: going to be really interesting thing to watch. So players
Speaker 4: like Billy Horschel, who are outside the top one hundred
Speaker 4: FedEx cut points, are they going to be able to
Speaker 4: qualify for designated events? But to kind of cheat here
Speaker 4: and maybe use a second one that I think is
Speaker 4: really the main storyline is Rory McElroy withdrawing from the
Speaker 4: RBC heritage this morning and what does that mean. He
Speaker 4: definitely he could have an injury or something like that
Speaker 4: could be totally legit, or he could have something going
Speaker 4: on in his personal life that's totally private. But at
Speaker 4: the beginning of the year, we were told players could
Speaker 4: only skip one designated event, and this is now the
Speaker 4: second event that Rory McElroy's skipping. So again, there could
Speaker 4: be a number of reasons for why he's doing it,
Speaker 4: but it introduces some questions around the PGA Tour's ability
Speaker 4: to build a schedule and to build a system that
Speaker 4: provides the proper incentives. I think this is another example
Speaker 4: of that where if the penalty is missing out a
Speaker 4: little bit on his Player Impact Program funds, which that
Speaker 4: might be the penalty here, then why do we have
Speaker 4: the Player Impact Program? Something that I've already like, I've
Speaker 4: been a vocal opponent of this from the beginning. But
Speaker 4: if that's not working, if that's not providing the proper incentive, like,
Speaker 4: we got to re examine some things here. So I
Speaker 4: do think it's notable that he withdrew from the RBC Heritage,
Speaker 4: the second designated event that he's missing this year. Any
Speaker 4: reaction to that, Garrett.
Speaker 3: I mean, Rory is the guy who in that last
Speaker 3: episode of Full Swing was saying, we've all gotten a
Speaker 3: little soft. Every other kind of athlete has to show
Speaker 3: up to certain events, why shouldn't golfers have to do
Speaker 3: the same, And now here he is missing two designated events.
Speaker 3: Now I don't know the reason that he's missing the
Speaker 3: Heritage this week. I'm sure that there is some legitimate
Speaker 3: explanation for it, but we haven't heard it yet. And
Speaker 3: the explanation for missing Kapalua wasn't that he was physically unable.
Speaker 3: It was just that he didn't want to play that event.
Speaker 3: That's not one of the events that he likes to play.
Speaker 3: I wonder if it's the same with the Heritage, because
Speaker 3: that golf course at face value, would not seem to
Speaker 3: suit his game very well. And so if that's the
Speaker 3: reason that he just doesn't want to play the event,
Speaker 3: then fine, But I think it demonstrates how difficult it's
Speaker 3: going to be to get players to show up to
Speaker 3: these designated events in the way that the PGA Tour
Speaker 3: is saying that they will. The whole difference with the
Speaker 3: designated events is supposed to be that we can predict
Speaker 3: who's going to play in them, but it seems to
Speaker 3: me that those incentives just aren't really working already this year.
Speaker 3: Next year, the incentives are going to be even lighter.
Speaker 3: How are these going to be different from WGCs, where yes,
Speaker 3: a lot of top players showed up for those, we
Speaker 3: could rely on a really strong field. But we couldn't
Speaker 3: rely on the same players showing up to every WGC
Speaker 3: because even if the purses were big, even if the
Speaker 3: field was small, then if players wanted to skip the WGC,
Speaker 3: then they would for whatever reason that they wanted to
Speaker 3: skip it. Jordan Speed was also talking this week about
Speaker 3: how man I've played a lot of golf recently. I've
Speaker 3: played a lot of golf leading up to the Masters,
Speaker 3: and I think it might have hurt me this week.
Speaker 3: I think that players are going to be looking at
Speaker 3: that stuff and picking and choosing the designated events that
Speaker 3: they play in, and that's going to take away a
Speaker 3: big part of this program's appeal. To me at least,
Speaker 3: I don't know would you agree with that totally? And
Speaker 3: I'm going to be a broken record here, but I
Speaker 3: don't care. The way to do this is to incentivize
Speaker 3: them naturally. No forced incentives. Don't stipulate they have to
Speaker 3: show up certain places. You have to have a special
Speaker 3: Tour Championship and the only way to qualify has to
Speaker 3: be through the designated events. If the Tour Championship becomes
Speaker 3: prestigious enough, they'll want to show up at the designated events.
Speaker 3: And that's how you create this incentive structure. And some
Speaker 3: of the counter arguments to it, like I have responses
Speaker 3: to those right, Like you can separate the concept of
Speaker 3: qualifying for the PGA Tours status versus playing in the
Speaker 3: Tour Championship, Like I don't think it should be that
Speaker 3: there should be thirty players in the Tour Championship. But
Speaker 3: part of the reason it is is because finishing in
Speaker 3: the top thirty comes with some other benefits, like qualifying
Speaker 3: for a certain number of events the next year, getting
Speaker 3: into augusta like, I think we need to decouple qualifying
Speaker 3: on tour means from what participating in the season long
Speaker 3: championship means. Same thing for the player impact program, right, Like,
Speaker 3: it's clearly not working. If Rory doesn't care that much
Speaker 3: enough to participate in the events that he's willing to
Speaker 3: take a little bit of a penalty, All right, what's
Speaker 3: the solution to that?
Speaker 4: I think? I think the solution is an All Star
Speaker 4: Weekend that's fifty percent fan vote fifty percent performance based. Now,
Speaker 4: Tiger Woods will play in it because he'll get the
Speaker 4: fan vote, and it incentivizes engagement the same way that
Speaker 4: the player impact programs trying to incentivize engagement. And another
Speaker 4: a player like Tom Hogi or Kurt Kiddiyama who's having
Speaker 4: a really good year but maybe wouldn't win the fan vote,
Speaker 4: that's how they would get into the All Star Weekend
Speaker 4: and do some kind of skills challenge. I just think
Speaker 4: there are more elegant solutions to what the PGA Tour
Speaker 4: has put out, And these are the symptoms. Rory withdrawing
Speaker 4: this week is a symptom.
Speaker 3: They have to think through what the incentives are and
Speaker 3: what actually motivates these guys, I think that the prestige
Speaker 3: of an event like the Tour Championship, if it were
Speaker 3: a proper Tour Championship, would be a great incentive. You
Speaker 3: know what not a very good incentive for most of
Speaker 3: the top players is is money. You know, is perse
Speaker 3: money that they're not guaranteed necessarily. And so yeah, this
Speaker 3: has to be thought through for sure, because we're already
Speaker 3: seeing it kind of come apart at the seams. And
Speaker 3: if we can't rely on the top players showing up
Speaker 3: to these events, what's the point.
Speaker 4: And to that point, they're kind of framing branding twenty
Speaker 4: twenty three is a bridge year. I'm just gonna say
Speaker 4: it now. I already see the same issues in twenty
Speaker 4: twenty four, and I know you've also voiced those, Garrett,
Speaker 4: like why show up to some designated events versu non
Speaker 4: designated event? Those issues are going to persist into twenty
Speaker 4: twenty four. It's because they have failed to build the
Speaker 4: proper infrastructure. So we will see how it goes. What's
Speaker 4: your storyline for this week, Garrett.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm going to keep mine brief because I think
Speaker 3: that is probably the most important one for people to
Speaker 3: focus on. But I'm just wondering if LIV does gain
Speaker 3: a little bit of momentum over the next few weeks.
Speaker 3: Obviously they had a few players have really good showings
Speaker 3: at the Masters. I think that whether that matters is
Speaker 3: going to be proven in the long run. I'm not
Speaker 3: sure that it definitely will. But one thing that is
Speaker 3: coming up is the event in Australia. It's at an
Speaker 3: excellent golf course or what appears to be an excellent
Speaker 3: golf course in the Grange. It's in Adelaide, a real city,
Speaker 3: you know, It's not out at one of these kind
Speaker 3: of random venues in the middle of nowhere that people
Speaker 3: aren't going to be able to get to. There's probably
Speaker 3: going to be a nice, big crowd there and I
Speaker 3: could imagine it being a very successful event. And so
Speaker 3: if LIVE is going to pick up a little bit
Speaker 3: of steam in the next couple of weeks, then I
Speaker 3: wonder whether this event in Adelaide is going to do
Speaker 3: it now. It starts on April twenty first, goes through
Speaker 3: the twenty third, and so that's this month. And so
Speaker 3: if there is a little bit of positive momentum that
Speaker 3: LIVE has from these great performances by Koepka, Michelson and Reed.
Speaker 3: Then it seems like that could be maintained through the
Speaker 3: event in Adelaide, and perhaps we could see Live turn
Speaker 3: a little bit of a corner here, because like this
Speaker 3: year has been really really bad for Live, I think
Speaker 3: there's no other way to see it, and so, you know,
Speaker 3: I just wonder if that's going to appear to turn
Speaker 3: around a little bit over the next few weeks.
Speaker 4: Jared, I have one question for you. I'll be brief.
Speaker 4: I thought it was a really interesting point. I think
Speaker 4: it was on a Frida Egg podcast that you did
Speaker 4: where you talked about how the schedule wasn't built particularly
Speaker 4: wisely for Live this year, like not starting in the
Speaker 4: United States was a little bit of a head scratcher,
Speaker 4: like starting at Mayacoba, which was really sleepy. Yes, I
Speaker 4: guess my question to you would be, what's the most
Speaker 4: exciting Live event this year? And is it not Australia.
Speaker 4: Seems to me like in theory, this would be the
Speaker 4: most prestigious, the biggest live event. Am I correct about that? Yeah?
Speaker 3: I think that this one is going to have the
Speaker 3: most organic interest in the location where it's held. I mean,
Speaker 3: looking at this schedule, my eyes immediately went to Australia
Speaker 3: and I thought like this could be a pretty big
Speaker 3: deal if this event really really works and Australia rallies
Speaker 3: around Live and it's hero Greg Norman and Cameron Smith.
Speaker 3: You know, it just seems like this is a high
Speaker 3: potential market for this tour in a way that you know,
Speaker 3: Oklahoma going to Oklahoma for an event that's going to
Speaker 3: be before the PGA Championship, or going back to single
Speaker 3: the Green Brier, Yes, exactly, the Greenbrier. Who's going to
Speaker 3: really care about that? I think they're going to Adelaide,
Speaker 3: going to this golf course, having the crowds that they're
Speaker 3: likely to have. This seems like the biggest moment for
Speaker 3: Live in this calendar year, and if it works well,
Speaker 3: that could mean something. I'm not sure it's going to
Speaker 3: mean a lot, but it's something to keep an eye on.
Speaker 4: Totally agree. And if they moved like the season end
Speaker 4: finale to Australia, that wouldn't surprise me. That could be
Speaker 4: pretty cool. So I'm with you. That's a great storyline
Speaker 4: that you picked up on.
Speaker 3: All right, Joseph, thanks for coming on the podcast. Appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Everybody subscribe to the Finding the Edge newsletter. You're continuing
Speaker 3: to put out content on the Finding the Edge newsletter
Speaker 3: as well as do stuff for the Frida Egg newsletter
Speaker 3: and our Club TFE membership and our website. So thanks
Speaker 3: for all your good work.
Speaker 5: Joseph appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: This episode of the Frida Egg Podcast was produced and
Speaker 3: edited by Matt Rusius.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Matt.
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