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Speaker 1: Scotty Scheffler, Worry McElroy, Victor Howlin, Patrick Cantley, and returning
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Speaker 1: dot com. The Travelers Championship there is only one. It's
Speaker 1: the Son of a Butcher Podcast. I'm your host, Claude Harmon.
Speaker 1: This week it is a PGA Championship preview, the second
Speaker 1: major of twenty twenty four Valhalla, and I figured hadn't
Speaker 1: had him on a while to get my dad, butch
Speaker 1: Armon On talk about obviously the favorite coming in this week,
Speaker 1: Scottie Scheffler. But he's been doing a little work with
Speaker 1: Rory McRoy, get his takes on that and just anytime
Speaker 1: I think we can get Butcher's takes on you know,
Speaker 1: players and the state of the game, he'll be eighty
Speaker 1: one in August, and I think he always has amazing thoughts,
Speaker 1: insights and listen. What a career, right, I mean, I
Speaker 1: think he'll be eighty one in August. And you know
Speaker 1: Rory McRoy picks up the phone and says, listen, man,
Speaker 1: can you give me an opinion about what I'm doing?
Speaker 1: So you know there are a lot of players that
Speaker 1: do that and.
Speaker 2: Listen. He's worked with the majority of.
Speaker 1: The best players the last thirty years, so always good
Speaker 1: to have Butchy on. He's always a fan favorite and
Speaker 1: he does not disappoint. So sitpack and enjoyed listening to
Speaker 1: There's no one else like him butch Harmon. Well, with
Speaker 1: the second major of the year coming up, figured we'd
Speaker 1: get somebody that always has great takes on it Dad
Speaker 1: second major of the year.
Speaker 2: The PGA.
Speaker 1: Before we get to that, because there's a lot of
Speaker 1: storylines around that. This run that Scotty Scheffler was on.
Speaker 1: I remember I had you on the podcast right after
Speaker 1: he won his first Masters. He is now a two
Speaker 1: time Master's champion, four wins this year, including another major.
Speaker 1: You've seen a lot of good golf. I know you
Speaker 1: were on the call for Sky Sports at Augusta. You
Speaker 1: got to watch it. It's beyond impressive. And I think
Speaker 1: Shane Lowry said to me Sunday morning, the most impressive
Speaker 1: thing about Scotty is how easy and unimpressive he makes
Speaker 1: winning look. Meaning when Rory, when some of the bigger
Speaker 1: names win, they dominate, it looks like they're doing something special.
Speaker 1: Scotty Scheffler just plays amazing golf and makes it look easy.
Speaker 3: Well, I think he just he knows how to get
Speaker 3: around a golf course. He does everything very well. You
Speaker 3: wouldn't say there's one thing greater than the other. And
Speaker 3: he's arsenal. It's just every part of it. He's driving
Speaker 3: his iron, players just control. He's improved his putting so much.
Speaker 3: Everything he does is good and he's on an unbelievable role.
Speaker 3: He's putting better than he has in a while. I
Speaker 3: think going to that malahead putter, I think Rory was
Speaker 3: the one suggested the two. It was a good idea.
Speaker 3: You know, right now, he's definitely the best player in
Speaker 3: the world. There's no doubt about that.
Speaker 1: When you look at his stats, Dad, right now, I
Speaker 1: mean it's very much like you know, he gets compared
Speaker 1: a lot to Tiger, but his game is completely different.
Speaker 1: But if you look at the stats right now, first
Speaker 1: in strokes gain total, second stroke paint off the tee,
Speaker 1: first in approach, ninety fifth in putting, first in greens
Speaker 1: and regulation, first in proximity. I mean, if he was
Speaker 1: top twenty in putting, he'd win every week.
Speaker 3: Well, that's a big if, if be honest with you know,
Speaker 3: we were doing the broadcast of the Masters for Sky
Speaker 3: and Nick Dordio, presenter and I were talking about this
Speaker 3: and he actually made the statement that you know, Scotty
Speaker 3: Scheffler is almost Tiger S And I said, yeah, if
Speaker 3: he can do it for the next twenty years in
Speaker 3: a row, that Tiger s. So that's that's the big
Speaker 3: if into this. There's no doubt about a caud there
Speaker 3: right now. He's playing better than anybody and more consistent
Speaker 3: than anybody. Look at his distance control of his irons.
Speaker 3: He's always pinned high. And that's the one stat that
Speaker 3: I look at it all the time with my players.
Speaker 3: It's the only one really that makes any sense to me.
Speaker 3: Is distance control. If your balls are finishing pin high,
Speaker 3: are in that relative area every time, you have completely
Speaker 3: control of your ball through the air and on the ground,
Speaker 3: and he's had it now, he's been off for a
Speaker 3: few weeks because his wife obviously hasn't had the child
Speaker 3: yet and they're expecting.
Speaker 2: Well, I think they just had it. I think they
Speaker 2: just had it.
Speaker 3: Did they just have it this week? Why? I haven't.
Speaker 1: So he will, but by all accounts, he's going to
Speaker 1: go to the PGA.
Speaker 3: Dad.
Speaker 2: When when when you have a baby you played professional golf.
Speaker 1: I mean, my sister and I were born when you know,
Speaker 1: we were young, when you were out on tour. For
Speaker 1: a guy like Scottie sha Effler, does does having a
Speaker 1: baby change the way he plays? Or is he just
Speaker 1: that He seems to me to be the type of
Speaker 1: player and the type of person that won't be affected
Speaker 1: by it at all.
Speaker 3: Well, the beauty is college of scott He's a wonderful
Speaker 3: human being. I mean, he's a great husband, he's going
Speaker 3: to be a great dad. Everything about him his first class.
Speaker 3: You know, he's very religious. He lives his religion, which
Speaker 3: I admire for him. It's not my cup of team,
Speaker 3: but I admire him for being that way. Do I
Speaker 3: think it will change the way he plays golf? Yeah,
Speaker 3: maybe a little bit. It will give him a little
Speaker 3: more to play for it, because now he's a dad
Speaker 3: and he has another person to worry about. But I
Speaker 3: don't think it's going to change his attitude and how
Speaker 3: he goes about it. I think he goes about it perfectly.
Speaker 3: You know. He and Randy Smith always come up with
Speaker 3: a great game plan on how to play. Valhalla is
Speaker 3: a place that I understand they changed the golf course.
Speaker 3: I mean I've been there for the PGA, I've been
Speaker 3: there for the Ryder Cup, so I don't know what
Speaker 3: the change in the golf course is. But Scotty Sheffer
Speaker 3: be ready, There's no doubt about that.
Speaker 1: And so we saw on Sunday, I mean we saw
Speaker 1: that part in the round. I think the great ones. Dad,
Speaker 1: wouldn't you agree that they all seem to do this
Speaker 1: when they are on these major runs, that they can
Speaker 1: put the gas on when they need to. On the
Speaker 1: front nine, it kind of got close, and then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, he bird.
Speaker 2: He's eight nine and ten.
Speaker 1: And I remember saying to somebody the tournament's over, and
Speaker 1: they're looking at me and they're like, what do you mean.
Speaker 2: I said, Well, the.
Speaker 1: Way he is playing and the game that he does play.
Speaker 1: He doesn't really beat himself, does he. He has that
Speaker 1: kind of knack of not really beating himself, not really
Speaker 1: making big mistakes.
Speaker 3: Well, in my opinion, that's one of his biggest strengths
Speaker 3: is he has the total confidence in his own ability,
Speaker 3: but he doesn't make mental mistakes. That was the thing
Speaker 3: that said Jack Nichols Apart, that's the thing he said
Speaker 3: Tiger Woods apart from all the other great players, those
Speaker 3: two had that ability. Yes, they were great players, they
Speaker 3: could handle the pressure, but they just didn't make the
Speaker 3: mental mistakes. And Scotty doesn't seem to make any of those.
Speaker 3: And like you say, when get close, he puts the
Speaker 3: hammer down a little bit, he knocks its stick in
Speaker 3: a couple holes, and all of a sudden, there he
Speaker 3: is with a big lead. I mean, I can't imagine
Speaker 3: any of this is going to change unless someone just
Speaker 3: a guy like Rory who is really starting to play
Speaker 3: well himself, if he doesn't make any push on him,
Speaker 3: who knows what's going to happen.
Speaker 1: The footwork Dad, that everybody talks about. I think everybody
Speaker 1: looks at his footwork and thinks it's, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of all over the place and thinks, why can't I
Speaker 1: do that? But the way his feet work is very functional,
Speaker 1: and it's very much the opposite of the way the
Speaker 1: average golfer, you know, the club golfer, their weight tends
Speaker 1: to go up to their toes. They get closer to
Speaker 1: the golf ball with that lower body than the upper
Speaker 1: body in the head have to back out, very similar
Speaker 1: to one of your former students, Greg Norman, and the
Speaker 1: way that his footwork works, that trail foot, his right
Speaker 1: foot goes back and his feet actually do a little
Speaker 1: bit of what the long drive guys do to where
Speaker 1: their feet are actually going back not forward. And I
Speaker 1: think it just goes to show you. I think Randy
Speaker 1: Smith is someone his coach, you've known pretty much most
Speaker 1: of your adult life. I know you have a lot
Speaker 1: of respect for him. I've heard Randy say before that
Speaker 1: he feels like in modern coaching sometimes that we take
Speaker 1: out what kids do with their feet. When you look
Speaker 1: at Scotty's footwork, I mean that is part of his DNA, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, that is his kind of signature in what
Speaker 1: he does. There are a lot of people that would
Speaker 1: have taken that away, that would have tried to make
Speaker 1: that better, but it's one hundred percent functional for him.
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, I have all the respect in
Speaker 3: the row for Randy Smith. He's been Scotty's coach ever
Speaker 3: since he was a young man. And what they've done
Speaker 3: is the things that you and I have been talked about.
Speaker 3: You never take away what a guy does naturally, you
Speaker 3: just make it better. Going back to the footwork, if
Speaker 3: you look at impact, impact position, which is the most
Speaker 3: important thing in the game of golf, is how you
Speaker 3: put the cab on the ball and impact. His footwork
Speaker 3: is fine. All the other motion is because of the
Speaker 3: speed and the rotation and of the torso and the
Speaker 3: body and all the speed that he generates. But if
Speaker 3: you look at impact, the feeder on the ground, the
Speaker 3: weight is in the right place. Everything is right, and
Speaker 3: then all of a sudden it goes. The only thing
Speaker 3: that scares me about it is I keep thinking he's
Speaker 3: going to snap that left tangle one day, the way
Speaker 3: he gets over on top of it, and I don't
Speaker 3: think he can pull a Tony Fena how like he
Speaker 3: did it the part three of the Guessta where he
Speaker 3: snaps it back of place.
Speaker 2: We've got three majors left.
Speaker 1: I mean Obviously, when you win the first one, there's
Speaker 1: always talk about, you know, could someone win the Grand Slam.
Speaker 1: But the way he plays golf, the way that I
Speaker 1: mean obviously, to do that, to win all four majors
Speaker 1: in one year, I mean, is it is next to impossible.
Speaker 1: The stars have to align. But the game that he plays,
Speaker 1: and I think the way he handles adversity, the way
Speaker 1: he doesn't kind of get too high and too low.
Speaker 1: You can make an argument that in the game right now,
Speaker 1: if someone's going to win all four, I mean, he's
Speaker 1: probably the favorite.
Speaker 3: He's the only one that can. He won the first one,
Speaker 3: definitely gonna be the favorite. I think it's a tall order.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's so many things that have to fall
Speaker 3: into place for that to happen. So let's not get
Speaker 3: ahead of ourself. Let's let's get to Valhalla for the
Speaker 3: PGA and see what transpires there. If you look at
Speaker 3: the courses coming up for majors, you've got Pinehurst for
Speaker 3: the US helping, You've got Trooned for the Open Championship.
Speaker 3: Those are two good driving golf courses, courses where you
Speaker 3: got to control your ball. I know they've made changes
Speaker 3: at Valhalla, and I haven't been there to see what
Speaker 3: the changes there are going to be. But Valhalla is
Speaker 3: a pretty straightforward course right in front of you. So
Speaker 3: I think all three of these courses suit his game.
Speaker 3: I remember, I don't think there is a course that
Speaker 3: doesn't suit his game the way he's played because he's
Speaker 3: so under control. But let's go from the first major
Speaker 3: to the second major and see what transpires before we
Speaker 3: start looking the way down the road.
Speaker 2: He's won two Masters.
Speaker 1: Now, dub what do you think about his game lends
Speaker 1: itself to Augusta Nashvill in the way that golf course
Speaker 1: gets set up and the test and the questions the
Speaker 1: design of that golf course demand from me, what do
Speaker 1: you think he has?
Speaker 2: Because I mean he can't.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you win two Majors and you've got
Speaker 1: two out Augusta, it would lend it would lead you
Speaker 1: to believe that the game that you have sets up
Speaker 1: good for that golf course.
Speaker 3: Well, he won two different ways. The way he played
Speaker 3: this year at Augusta was not as well as he
Speaker 3: played when he won it the first time. He's a
Speaker 3: different player now, he's better in all aspects of his game.
Speaker 3: He has gotten better. That's not to take away from
Speaker 3: when he won the first time, because he played beautiful
Speaker 3: and he got the job done. But he went out
Speaker 3: and won this time. I mean, he just took this
Speaker 3: place away from everybody else in the field and just
Speaker 3: said this is mine, this is how it's going to happen,
Speaker 3: and went out and did it. The first one, it
Speaker 3: was a little bit of a chore and stuff, and
Speaker 3: you know, to win you first major is not easy anyway.
Speaker 3: And now that he's won two times and he's going
Speaker 3: to have to be a thousand percent full of confidence
Speaker 3: that he can win these. He's a very confident player.
Speaker 3: As you said, He's got all the attributes, especially the
Speaker 3: mentally tough, which you have to be to continue to
Speaker 3: win majors that I can't say enough about Scotti Scheffer.
Speaker 3: I think he's a phenomenal player. He's a phenomenal human being.
Speaker 3: I wish he was a little more charismatic so the
Speaker 3: fans could relate to him a little more, which isn't
Speaker 3: his fault. He just is who he is and I
Speaker 3: admire him for being who he is.
Speaker 1: I think the partnership of getting Teddy Scott on his
Speaker 1: bag as his caddy, I think that's been a huge,
Speaker 1: huge asset in the sense that they're very similar people
Speaker 1: on the golf course. They're very similar people in the
Speaker 1: way they live their life off the golf course. What
Speaker 1: do you think having ted Scott on the bag is done?
Speaker 1: I mean he counted for Bubba Watson when he won
Speaker 1: two green jacket, so Teddy Scott as a caddy. He's
Speaker 1: been on the back for four Masters Championships. But I
Speaker 1: think it's just been an amazing partnership. And the calmness
Speaker 1: that Teddy Scott brings on the golf course I think
Speaker 1: is just perfect for the way that Scotty thinks some plays.
Speaker 3: I think it's a brilliant move for Scottis Scheffler to
Speaker 3: bring Teddy Scott on. Teddy Scott had semi talking about retiring,
Speaker 3: wanting to go do some teaching and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: He gets the call from Scotti Scheffler, he thinks about
Speaker 3: it for I don't know how long. I would think
Speaker 3: only about two minutes and said yes, I'm there and
Speaker 3: the rest is history. They are a wonderful team and
Speaker 3: they're perfect for each other because they're very similar off
Speaker 3: the course too. They believe in the same things. They
Speaker 3: live their lives the same way. It's been a great
Speaker 3: move for scottis Scheffler and an even better move financially
Speaker 3: for ted Scott. That's for damn sure.
Speaker 1: I mean Teddy Scott is making It's gonna be one
Speaker 1: of those years where Teddy Scott is going to qualify
Speaker 1: for the Tour Championship. I mean he's going to be
Speaker 1: He's gonna make enough money on the money listened to
Speaker 1: play in the Tour Championship.
Speaker 3: For the years over where he may be the second
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Speaker 1: without limits. I want to get to the work that
Speaker 1: you're doing that you started doing with Rory. I know
Speaker 1: Roy gave you the call kind of right before Augusta.
Speaker 1: But Dad, in twenty fourteen, when Rory won his last
Speaker 1: major to go to go to four, he had four
Speaker 1: majors twenty fourteen, the way he won that golf tournament
Speaker 1: again late turning on the gas. If I told you
Speaker 1: in two thousand and four, at the end of the
Speaker 1: year or fourteen, that in twenty twenty four would be
Speaker 1: going back to Valhalla, that Rory would only have one
Speaker 1: major or four majors, and that Brooks Koepka would have
Speaker 1: more majors than Rory Macrowy. I just don't think anybody
Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen would have believed that, given how talented
Speaker 1: Rory is.
Speaker 2: What a storyline.
Speaker 1: I mean, he has an opportunity to win his first
Speaker 1: major in over a decade.
Speaker 2: His game is so good.
Speaker 1: But remember once, that long time ago in the nineties,
Speaker 1: you were working with Greg Norman and he shot seventy
Speaker 1: five when he was number one in the world, And
Speaker 1: I said, he can shoot sixty six with his eyes closed,
Speaker 1: and you said to me, but sometimes he can shoot
Speaker 1: seventy five with his eyes wide open.
Speaker 2: Rory is like that. He can shoot.
Speaker 1: He can make shooting sixty three looked so unbelievably easy.
Speaker 1: But there were times in the last ten years in
Speaker 1: major championships where he puts himself behind the eight ball early,
Speaker 1: he doesn't get off to the good start. Then he
Speaker 1: has to go on offense, where it's hard to be
Speaker 1: on offense in major championships. Why do you think it's
Speaker 1: been over a decade since he's won a major.
Speaker 3: Well, we'll go back to that first point. When he
Speaker 3: won those four, you would have thought he'd have run
Speaker 3: on and had maybe eight by now. You could say.
Speaker 3: You could say the same about Jordan's speeded he caught
Speaker 3: on fire early and he won a bunch of them,
Speaker 3: and he hasn't won any either. It just shows you
Speaker 3: how hard it is to win him. I mean, I
Speaker 3: think in Brooks's case, Rory's case, and George's case, they
Speaker 3: act kind of made it look easy the way they
Speaker 3: were doing it. In Brooks's case, he's become the major
Speaker 3: championship assassin. I mean, you go to a major championship,
Speaker 3: he's ready. I mean, it's almost And you know Books
Speaker 3: better than anybody. You were the one who helped make
Speaker 3: Books who he is. You had him from the challenge
Speaker 3: to our way back a zillion years ago. I remember
Speaker 3: when it was the twenty thirteen at the opening of yourfield,
Speaker 3: and then the first time I saw him and you said, here,
Speaker 3: I want you to come look at his kid. Books
Speaker 3: kept going working. Well, we've done a phenomenal job with him,
Speaker 3: and he's done a phenomenal job of making it happen.
Speaker 3: But it's not easy to win these things. I mean,
Speaker 3: these guys sometimes they make it look easy. That's what
Speaker 3: made Jack and Tiger so much better than everyone else
Speaker 3: as they did it for twenty five years. I mean,
Speaker 3: you look at Jack. I mean, yeah, he won eighteen
Speaker 3: of them, but he wouldn't have thirteen fourteen, fifteen seconds.
Speaker 3: You know, you look at Tiger, he'd been going on
Speaker 3: and on right now, Scotty Shepherd's the man. Rory is
Speaker 3: the guy we would have thought was going to to
Speaker 3: be that man. But I think a lot of times, Caud,
Speaker 3: when things come too easy for you, you just expected
Speaker 3: to always be there, and then when you hit that
Speaker 3: speed bump in the road or something, and it kind
Speaker 3: of gets you all tracked, you start changing things and
Speaker 3: you start thinking the other way. I personally think that
Speaker 3: Rory is back to being Rory again. I mean the
Speaker 3: work I did with him, it wasn't a tremendous amount
Speaker 3: of changing what he did. It was his attitude and
Speaker 3: the way he played certain chots from one hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty yards and he made that full swing like he's
Speaker 3: hitting the driver, and I wanted him to make more
Speaker 3: three quarter swings and chop the bottle through off a little.
Speaker 3: He's a very high ball hitter, but with short irons,
Speaker 3: highballs aren't good. It's hard to control. We wanted to
Speaker 3: bring the ball flight down, and then I've showed him
Speaker 3: a lot of different ways to do that. He's put
Speaker 3: his own spin on that and he's incorporating that into
Speaker 3: this as he goes on to watching the tournaments stuff
Speaker 3: Couyle Howell. He's still working on the things to try
Speaker 3: and do those things. But he's got to do it
Speaker 3: in his way. I showed him and explain to him
Speaker 3: why he should do it and how he should do it,
Speaker 3: but then he's got to put his own take on it.
Speaker 3: I think we saw in New Orleans he felt very
Speaker 3: comfortable to what he's doing. We see it again this
Speaker 3: week as you and I are speaking. The tournament's going
Speaker 3: on in Charlotte, and he's right there. Only what done
Speaker 3: looking it on TV? Only only one back on Saturday
Speaker 3: from under Shop Play. So he's got his game going
Speaker 3: in the right direction also, and I think once you
Speaker 3: see it go in the right direction, the confidence thing
Speaker 3: takes over. Confidence in golf and everything when everything's going
Speaker 3: your way. Golfs he's I mean, just golf swing is
Speaker 3: built for driving golf ball. He's the best driver of
Speaker 3: a golf ball since Greg Norman. I mean, he's long,
Speaker 3: he's accurate, he can hit it a mile, but that
Speaker 3: swing is geared to hit drives, and that's why I
Speaker 3: wanted him to work from one hundred and fifty yards
Speaker 3: in on wider on both ends, take the ball out
Speaker 3: of the air, control the ball fight a little better
Speaker 3: once so it can one bounce and stop not spinning back.
Speaker 3: So all these things he's trying to incorporate into his game.
Speaker 3: The thing I admire about him, just like Tiger did's,
Speaker 3: he put it right into play as soon as we
Speaker 3: talked about it, even in AUGUSTA when it was all
Speaker 3: fresh to him. He's still doing it in weekend and
Speaker 3: week out. He's continued to do the same things. So
Speaker 3: I think he's he's trending in the right direction. I
Speaker 3: think his confidence level is there. He still tends to
Speaker 3: miss some putts from six and seven eight feet that
Speaker 3: you got to make to win, but I think he's
Speaker 3: going in the right direction. Are so many of the others.
Speaker 3: I mean, if we look at the other guys that
Speaker 3: are playing well over there on Live, you look at
Speaker 3: how good Brooks is playing. John Brown's starting to play better,
Speaker 3: you know, And I have to admire the PGA.
Speaker 2: Cam Smith's starting to play better.
Speaker 3: Who's that.
Speaker 2: Cam Smith has.
Speaker 3: Really been playing, no doubt, and you know, the PGA,
Speaker 3: I take my hat off to him for inviting what
Speaker 3: sixteen of the Live players to play. Because the world
Speaker 3: ranking thing is a bunch of bs now, because the
Speaker 3: top fifty in the world to get in majors is
Speaker 3: something of the past. They got to come up with
Speaker 3: a new system because if you look at Live, John
Speaker 3: Rahm is the only guy in the top top thirty five.
Speaker 3: I mean, Brooks is thirty seventh, Cam Smith is fifty six.
Speaker 3: You can go all the way down to DJ three
Speaker 3: hundred something. So I mean the world ranking thing, that
Speaker 3: to me, they should throw that out now for major
Speaker 3: championships and go on quality. And I think that the
Speaker 3: PJA have done that, and my hats off to them.
Speaker 1: What do you think is is there a fixed in
Speaker 1: your opinion for the world rankings, because obviously the argument
Speaker 1: is everybody that went to Live knew what the consequences were,
Speaker 1: they knew what they were getting into, they got paid,
Speaker 1: But it just seems like, you know, for the majors,
Speaker 1: the majors want the best fields, and regardless of which
Speaker 1: side of this that you're on, you know there are
Speaker 1: people that are, you know, fiercely loyal to the PGA Tour.
Speaker 2: There are people that like Live listen, I don't.
Speaker 1: Care, but I think the lawyer the majors now they're
Speaker 1: the they should be the best fields. And this argument
Speaker 1: Dad that the best players got together all the time
Speaker 1: and we need to have that happen more. You've been
Speaker 1: around golf more than I have. That rarely happened. Rarely
Speaker 1: did you have tournaments where all of the best players
Speaker 1: were playing. The Players Championship always tries to get the
Speaker 1: best field of the internationals and the guys that play
Speaker 1: on the PGA Tour. The majors have historically been where
Speaker 1: we have that. But you said that, you feel like
Speaker 1: maybe in twenty twenty four and moving forward that given
Speaker 1: what has happened and what has transpired over the last
Speaker 1: two and a half years with Live coming on the scene,
Speaker 1: it looks like the world rankings are somewhat comical now
Speaker 1: when you have players I mean the eye test, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think for those of us involved in
Speaker 1: professional golf, if somebody I don't care where they're playing,
Speaker 1: if somebody is playing in Europe and wins four or
Speaker 1: five tournaments, that passes the eye test in professional golf,
Speaker 1: you know the players that are the best players in
Speaker 1: the world based off of their performance, their toolbox and
Speaker 1: the way they play in visional way moving forward, that
Speaker 1: the majors maybe say, okay, I mean the one that
Speaker 1: could change it all. And we talk about this all
Speaker 1: the time, the Masters in the way that they run
Speaker 1: that golf tournament. The Masters could play with the completely
Speaker 1: set of their own rules. They could say to everybody, listen,
Speaker 1: you have to play with our golf ball. You have
Speaker 1: to play by these rules, and everybody would do it
Speaker 1: because they have so much respect for the tournament and
Speaker 1: you know the history there. Do you think that maybe
Speaker 1: the majors take the lead and start saying, listen, we
Speaker 1: are going to make up our own criteria to invite
Speaker 1: the players that we feel are the best.
Speaker 3: Well, I think a Masters has already done that the
Speaker 3: last two years. They were the first one. I think
Speaker 3: they were the event that the PGA, the Open championshid
Speaker 3: us help them, was looking at to see how they
Speaker 3: handle it because they have their own rules on how
Speaker 3: they invite people, and just because you qualify doesn't mean
Speaker 3: they have to invite you if they don't want to.
Speaker 3: They were the first one to say, yes, we want
Speaker 3: these guys. They're the best players. You look at this year,
Speaker 3: we had a whole bunch of live guys playing there.
Speaker 3: We got what sixteen of them playing in the PGA.
Speaker 3: This is what we want. We want to see the
Speaker 3: best fields we can have. Now they're talking about they
Speaker 3: formed the committee to talk to PIFF and see if
Speaker 3: they can start to make this happen. And I think
Speaker 3: it's going to happen Pud because it has to happen.
Speaker 3: The PGA tours losing sponsors. This is the last year
Speaker 3: for Wells Fargo, Hand has already gone. Some of the
Speaker 3: others are talking about, well, how can you ask us
Speaker 3: to spend all this money when we don't really have
Speaker 3: the best players in the world playing together. So I
Speaker 3: think the Masters are really the template of how it's
Speaker 3: going to be. Now, how we get to that remains
Speaker 3: to be seen. There's still a lot of water under
Speaker 3: the bridge. They got to clean up and stuff. But
Speaker 3: I'd like to see some sort of start where there
Speaker 3: can be some crossovers, whether the three tours get together,
Speaker 3: you get lived, you get the PGA Tour, you get
Speaker 3: the dp World Tour, and say, look at certain events.
Speaker 3: If somebody from Live wants to play in this, we
Speaker 3: can invite them. If somebody the PGA Tour wants to
Speaker 3: play in a live event, Live can invite them to
Speaker 3: play in it, and so and so forth. I think
Speaker 3: that would be a start. Is not going to happen,
Speaker 3: Probably not, because it's logical and nothing seems more chological
Speaker 3: these days.
Speaker 1: Dad, how much do you feel over the last two years,
Speaker 1: the fact that Rory was basically the spokesperson for the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour. How much do you think that affected his
Speaker 1: own course performance in his game.
Speaker 3: I think it affected him a lot, and I think
Speaker 3: the powers to be at the tour, i'd have to
Speaker 3: just say out of him because he's the commissioner. I
Speaker 3: think they asked him to be the spokesman, and to
Speaker 3: his defense, he did, and he put himself out on
Speaker 3: the limb, and then in a way he got thrown
Speaker 3: under the bus on a lot of the things that happened.
Speaker 3: And now he's kind of changed his tune. He's come
Speaker 3: over to being a lot more open minded, which I
Speaker 3: talked to Rory about when I was with him about
Speaker 3: a month ago, and he has opened his eyes and
Speaker 3: he said, you know, maybe I got a little bullheaded
Speaker 3: and the way I did stuff, And so I admire
Speaker 3: that for him. He's come out and said that he's
Speaker 3: on that committee now to talk to to be able
Speaker 3: to talk to the people that live, and I think
Speaker 3: he's going to be a great asset for that. I
Speaker 3: think the problem you have you have Tiger over here
Speaker 3: on the PGA tour side. He seems to be very
Speaker 3: anti lived. You have a bunch of other guys that
Speaker 3: seem to be that way. There has to be a
Speaker 3: way for all three of these tours to come together
Speaker 3: and play. That's all we want, that's all we want.
Speaker 3: We want to see the best players in the world
Speaker 3: playing in as many events as we can get. And
Speaker 3: somehow or another, the three bodies are going to have
Speaker 3: to put their egos aside. And I'm not going to
Speaker 3: pick side. I'm not going to pick the tourist side,
Speaker 3: Live side, dB World two side. Just everybody, throw your
Speaker 3: egos out the door, let's sit down in the room
Speaker 3: and let's make this happen. I mean, that's that's the
Speaker 3: way things get done. But it doesn't seem to be
Speaker 3: working out that way.
Speaker 1: Well, I know from you know, from I mean obviously
Speaker 1: on all of my guys went to Live. I know
Speaker 1: there will be a lot of live players and some
Speaker 1: of the bigger live players that will look at this
Speaker 1: kind of new diplomatic It's like the diplomat Rory right
Speaker 1: to where he's thinking. And you know, this is from
Speaker 1: a guy that a couple of years ago was saying
Speaker 1: he hated Live, he wanted it to die, it was
Speaker 1: going to die. You're right, I mean, I think it
Speaker 1: is a good thing. And then you know, just in
Speaker 1: the last you know, forty eight hours, the ultimate the
Speaker 1: epitome of the ultimate live hater Brandall Chamblie comes out
Speaker 1: and says live on air that there's got to be
Speaker 1: a deal to be made and they need to make
Speaker 1: a deal. It's crazy times right now. Where do you
Speaker 1: stand on on this?
Speaker 2: Do you think that there's this big push now?
Speaker 1: You know, I'm standing on the range and one of
Speaker 1: the AUGUSTA members said to me, it just seems like
Speaker 1: there's a lot of greed in professional golf.
Speaker 2: Right now, and there there seems to be a.
Speaker 1: Lot of people talking about the product. There's but five
Speaker 1: years ago, i'd never heard anybody talk about the product.
Speaker 1: I never heard anybody talk about what a professional golf
Speaker 1: was putting out. Live comes in, they offer a bunch
Speaker 1: of money and stuff. Do you think that in your opinion,
Speaker 1: do you think the players have gotten greedy or do
Speaker 1: you think the players are finally saying we finally have
Speaker 1: a voice and we've always been told we're independent contractors,
Speaker 1: but we have to be told what to do by
Speaker 1: the tours that we play on.
Speaker 3: I think some of both. To be honest with you,
Speaker 3: and look at the tour you talk about degreed. Didn't
Speaker 3: they just come out and start handing out hundreds of
Speaker 3: millions of dollars to people in some kind of trumped
Speaker 3: up deal. I don't know what it is what they
Speaker 3: take to fed away money and then give it all
Speaker 3: of the players or something that Isn't that what Live did?
Speaker 3: I mean? Come on, and if you're on the PGA tour,
Speaker 3: you need to open your eyes and say, you know,
Speaker 3: maybe you didn't agree with Live, And I got no
Speaker 3: problem if you didn't agree with it, because it was
Speaker 3: kind of a strange thing that I offer these gigantic
Speaker 3: come outs with mini of people. But you can't you
Speaker 3: can't get on a guy for doing it, and you
Speaker 3: can't say that he can never come back because that's
Speaker 3: ridiculous too. But now all of a sudden, the PGA
Speaker 3: Tour is doing the same thing, Claude. I mean, I
Speaker 3: don't know what they call this thing. They just hand
Speaker 3: out what Tiger Woo's got one hundred million and Rory
Speaker 3: got right on down and they had three different categories
Speaker 3: of how much money you get. So I mean, in reality,
Speaker 3: everybody ought to thank Lid because I think they live
Speaker 3: open their eyes to what can happen. Okay, that's important thing.
Speaker 3: What can happen? Now? Did both sides are starting to
Speaker 3: go this way. It's been that way for three years.
Speaker 3: The PGA tours now audishing out a lot of money.
Speaker 3: Just because you've been there, I said, all right, let's
Speaker 3: get together. Okay, you kind of both are on the
Speaker 3: same thing. It's just that some people do it this way,
Speaker 3: some people do it that way. But the money's still
Speaker 3: coming into the players. You can't say that the players
Speaker 3: are being greedy because of the fact that they're getting
Speaker 3: paid more money. Anybody that listens to your podcast weekend
Speaker 3: and week I would love to have someone come up
Speaker 3: to them and say, hey, look, I'm going to give
Speaker 3: you fifty times more than you make doing your job.
Speaker 3: To do the job over here, my guy didn't get
Speaker 3: on a trampoline and leap over there. And I think
Speaker 3: now the PGA tour is kind of drinking that kool
Speaker 3: aid with this new thing they're coming up with. So
Speaker 3: at least we're working in the right direction. Let's just
Speaker 3: damn it, let's make it happen.
Speaker 1: If you look at the people that are involved with
Speaker 1: the decision making process on tours, I mean, these are
Speaker 1: the ssg's guys that are coming in now with the tour.
Speaker 1: They are very very good business people. You've got yaes
Speaker 1: ser at the piff they're in business. I mean, these
Speaker 1: are some of the smartest business people on the planet.
Speaker 1: And if you look at the decisions that they're making
Speaker 1: on a daily basis from a business standpoint, and some
Speaker 1: of the things that they're able to do in the
Speaker 1: business world, and some of the decisions that they're making
Speaker 1: and merging companies and coming out with new products, to me,
Speaker 1: it seems like there isn't a solution because they don't
Speaker 1: want one. Because with all of the smart people that
Speaker 1: we have, it just continues to amaze me. But with
Speaker 1: all these smart people and these business people and people
Speaker 1: like Jimmy Donn and people you know from SSG and
Speaker 1: the people that I've met, you know in Saudi from
Speaker 1: a business standpoint as well. I just I think there's
Speaker 1: a lot of people that just don't want peace, that
Speaker 1: they don't want this to come together, and it seems
Speaker 1: like there's a faction of people that want this divide
Speaker 1: to continue.
Speaker 2: Do you do you get that feeling?
Speaker 3: I hope not. I hope you're wrong. I can see
Speaker 3: where you can think that way. As a first of all,
Speaker 3: it's backtracked a little. I don't think Jimmy Dunn gets
Speaker 3: near enough credit for what he did. Someone had to
Speaker 3: go talk to the Saudis. Someone had to go. He
Speaker 3: was the guy. Jimmy loves God, he's bizarre, seminole, he's
Speaker 3: a remember Augusta and all of these and I commend
Speaker 3: Jimmy for dinner. They've kind of pushed him beside now,
Speaker 3: even though he tried to make the attempts to make
Speaker 3: some things happen. I just think that now the players
Speaker 3: seem to be running the tour. Okay, is that good
Speaker 3: or bad? Well? Professional tour players aren't businessmen. That isn't
Speaker 3: good that they're running the tour. They need to have
Speaker 3: structure ahead of them. They need to have Do we
Speaker 3: need a new commissioner? I would say we probably do,
Speaker 3: to be honest with you, because I don't think the
Speaker 3: players trust this commissioner. Is there anybody that would be
Speaker 3: great at that? Sure, I have my opinion on guys
Speaker 3: that I think would be a great commissioner. They're probably
Speaker 3: not going to do it. But we got to have
Speaker 3: some kind of some kind of backbone and some people
Speaker 3: to say, hey, look, I may not agree with this
Speaker 3: one hundred percent, but what's in the best interest of
Speaker 3: the game of golf. Let's get together. Let's make it happen.
Speaker 3: I hope that you're wrong on the packs and the
Speaker 3: people are saying, no, we don't want to make it happen.
Speaker 3: We like the divide. I hope that's passed. Three years ago,
Speaker 3: I could understand that because there was a lot of
Speaker 3: Burgo hostility between the tour. I hope that that's gone
Speaker 3: now because I think we need to go and try
Speaker 3: and be positive on all ends and let's make this work.
Speaker 1: What would you envision professional golf looking like in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five if you could up, what would be your
Speaker 1: vision of Okay, this is what you would like to
Speaker 1: see happen from the tour standpoint, from live standpoint, from
Speaker 1: all the various tours around the world, and then from
Speaker 1: what the majors are going to be doing as well.
Speaker 1: What would be your wish list of where we are
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: I would like to see the three tours get together
Speaker 3: form a end of the season events. You can take
Speaker 3: four events, six events, whatever you want to take. For
Speaker 3: the best seventy players in the world, no matter what
Speaker 3: tour they come off of, play for fifty million dollars
Speaker 3: an event or something like that, and I think the
Speaker 3: savvast could make that happen. But it's a combination of
Speaker 3: everybody has a chance to play in this and it's
Speaker 3: the end of the season, true world championship stop. I
Speaker 3: mean that to me sounds very reasonable and it's so
Speaker 3: logical that'll probably never happen, because, like you say, there
Speaker 3: are people that are trying to make it not happen.
Speaker 3: I actually think claud if the commissioner three years ago
Speaker 3: had taken Yastra's phone call, we might have already had that,
Speaker 3: because I don't think Yoser wanted to own all of
Speaker 3: golf in the world. He wanted to be part of it.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know him very well. You and I
Speaker 3: have had this conversation. I think he wanted to be
Speaker 3: part of the process. He could have been a phenomenal
Speaker 3: part of the process, just to make what I just
Speaker 3: said happen. Can you imagine at the end of the year,
Speaker 3: in the silly season, when football is going on and
Speaker 3: all this other stuff World Series and Baseball, all this
Speaker 3: stuff is going on, that all of a sudden, we've
Speaker 3: got six events, say six weeks in a row. Pick
Speaker 3: a number you want, one hundred players, seventy players, seventy
Speaker 3: five players, the best players in the world, come all
Speaker 3: over the world. Have a criteria to bring the best
Speaker 3: all of the world together for a huge prize money.
Speaker 3: Make it. If you win the thing, you get eight
Speaker 3: nine million dollars, would give you charity five million dollars
Speaker 3: or something like that. Make it something that people would
Speaker 3: care about and want to watch, and actually they would
Speaker 3: turn it on even when there's a football game on.
Speaker 3: They say, holy smokes, this is something special. Look at
Speaker 3: who we got playing in this thing. Look where they're playing.
Speaker 3: They're playing all over the world. They're the best courses
Speaker 3: in the world and all these countries. This is what
Speaker 3: people want to see. This is what it's all. Why
Speaker 3: do you think that the NFL and is that all
Speaker 3: these are going they're playing games in Germany and England
Speaker 3: and stuff because people want to see them play. Well,
Speaker 3: golf's no different. People want to see these people play.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: We just got back from you know, Australia and Singapore,
Speaker 1: and the crowds that turned out in Australia, it was unbelievable.
Speaker 1: They just they've never seen that. That's many good people.
Speaker 1: The golf courses Dad in Australia, the sand belt golf courses,
Speaker 1: they're just they are just so good. The design, the
Speaker 1: bunkering in Australia and those sand belt and we you know,
Speaker 1: the Grange where they played the live event isn't one
Speaker 1: of the superstar I mean Royal Adelaides right across the street,
Speaker 1: which they say is really good. But I just love
Speaker 1: to where they're There are these green complexes and the
Speaker 1: bunkers are basically on the green, and there's these deep runoffs,
Speaker 1: steep faces, and it just it allows for so much
Speaker 1: shot making. I know you've been down there a number
Speaker 1: of times. The golf courses are just so cool down
Speaker 1: there in Australia.
Speaker 3: I've fyed a lot of those, especially in the sand Belt.
Speaker 3: I've fighted a lot of those golf courses with a
Speaker 3: great tom crow, my good friend, we'd go over and
Speaker 3: play them. The bunker and is phenomenal. I mean, it
Speaker 3: reminds me of Tilly Hasse and Wingfoot, the deep bunkers
Speaker 3: with steep slopes. The beauty that I love about the
Speaker 3: golf courses in Australia is the banks are very firm
Speaker 3: and everything goes down into the flat of the bunker.
Speaker 3: If you notice the only rate the flat part of
Speaker 3: the bunker, because that's where all the balls end up.
Speaker 3: Very seldom do you see one stick in the bank.
Speaker 3: It can happen if they've had some rain and stuff.
Speaker 3: But their golf courses are beautiful. But there's great golf
Speaker 3: courses all over the world. I mean in great parts
Speaker 3: of the world that would love to see an event
Speaker 3: like we're talking about, and they would. You couldn't. You'd
Speaker 3: have to stop selling tickets. So many people would want
Speaker 3: to go see the day. Let's get these three tours.
Speaker 3: Let's get PGA Tour Live, Let's get DP World Tour.
Speaker 3: Get off your ass and let's make some of this happen.
Speaker 3: Let's sit down and talk about it. New haters got
Speaker 3: to stop hating.
Speaker 2: The hate.
Speaker 3: Time is over with Live not going anywhere. It's going
Speaker 3: to be here, and they're putting a good product on.
Speaker 3: I don't necessarily agree with the fifty four holes. I
Speaker 3: wish they'd go to seventy two holes. I don't necessarily
Speaker 3: agree with the shotgun start, although the players like it,
Speaker 3: because then whether it's not a problem everybody's on the
Speaker 3: course at one time, the team thing is. I'm sure
Speaker 3: it's fun, but it's very confusing when you're trying to
Speaker 3: watch it because they start talking about this and that.
Speaker 3: But I think there's a way to continue along and
Speaker 3: everybody get along, and there's just different aspects that each
Speaker 3: tour has. It's really good, and let's put all these
Speaker 3: aspects together and let's create some of it. Well.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, if you think about what they
Speaker 1: did with PGA Tour, you right, I mean lud big
Speaker 1: ober Coming, who was just so impressive at Augusta this
Speaker 1: year finished in second. I mean last year at this
Speaker 1: time he was playing college golf. Now he is was
Speaker 1: he seven in the world. Thea what they did with
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour, you which was giving you a ranking
Speaker 1: system to college players everybody. I mean, obviously I think
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour did that one hundred percent to try
Speaker 1: and counteract the live money trying to take the best
Speaker 1: college players. But I mean that is something that everybody
Speaker 1: in the professional game has thought that needed to happen.
Speaker 2: For the last fifteen years, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, the players coming out of the college golf
Speaker 1: system now are amazing. But what I find interesting is
Speaker 1: we can't figure out how to get live World ranking
Speaker 1: points because it's fifty four holes, there's no cut. Individual
Speaker 1: team doesn't seem to be.
Speaker 2: A pathway on that is college golf.
Speaker 1: College golf is fifty four holes, there's no cut, there's
Speaker 1: a team an individual winner every week. I can't pick
Speaker 1: up if you're seventeen years old, you can't pick up
Speaker 1: the phone and call John Fields at the University of
Speaker 1: Texas and say I want to play golf at the
Speaker 1: University of Texas. He's going to tell you, well, we
Speaker 1: would have to recruit you, and you can't just come
Speaker 1: qualify for a team. He basically every week through qualifying,
Speaker 1: how many times college golfers. Have you coach that said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I finished second qualifying or third and qualifying, but they
Speaker 1: didn't take me this week. So the coach picks the team,
Speaker 1: and then if you're really good and you're going to
Speaker 1: go to Stanford, they're going to pay for you to
Speaker 1: go to school there.
Speaker 2: So if they can figure out.
Speaker 1: How to get somebody out of that system directly onto
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour, like you said, there's got to.
Speaker 3: Be I can't blame the PGA Tour for doing that.
Speaker 3: I mean of Coursel. I got about all of the
Speaker 3: tour good. I thought it was a great idea. I
Speaker 3: think the stumbling block for LID is fifty four holes.
Speaker 3: I really do. I get it. They wanted to be different.
Speaker 3: I know that l I V stands for fifty four ands.
Speaker 3: I get all the coalition with that. I don't have
Speaker 3: a problem with the team stuff. The guys seem to
Speaker 3: like it. They seem to enjoy it. I mean, we
Speaker 3: have Ryder Cup teams and international team the President's Cup,
Speaker 3: so we have team events. But I don't blame the
Speaker 3: PGA Tour for doing that. I see where your argument
Speaker 3: would be, but I just think that the fifty four
Speaker 3: hole is a crutch. I think if you went to
Speaker 3: seventy two holes and maybe seventy players or so, because
Speaker 3: these events that go on with seventy players in it
Speaker 3: and no cuts, I mean that would be the same
Speaker 3: thing as what lives doing. You know, designated to me
Speaker 3: makes sense. I just think the world ranking the way
Speaker 3: it's run, I never understood it anyway it was. I
Speaker 3: mean I didn't go to MIT, I went to no It,
Speaker 3: So I mean I couldn't understand what the hell that
Speaker 3: I had. The guy at de Royal County down we
Speaker 3: were having a lunch one day and we were talking
Speaker 3: about it, and he was trying to explain to me,
Speaker 3: and I was a deer in the headline finding I said, look,
Speaker 3: I'm very sorry, but I have no idea what the
Speaker 3: hell you're talking about. Okay, I wasn't very good in school.
Speaker 3: I didn't like school. If I wasn't a good athlete,
Speaker 3: I couldn't have got through school. So I mean, you're
Speaker 3: talking to the wrong guy with meal pissing into the
Speaker 3: win because you're getting it all over yourself because I
Speaker 3: have no idea what you're talking about. So they got
Speaker 3: to come up with and I don't think the players
Speaker 3: have any idea of how it works either. I mean
Speaker 3: when I look down to live players and I see
Speaker 3: that Patrick Reed is ninety two in the world ranking.
Speaker 3: These are major champions. I mean Cam Smith fifty six,
Speaker 3: he took major championship d Chambeau. He's one hundred and seventeen.
Speaker 3: Dustin Johnson is three hundred and seventy ninth in the
Speaker 3: world ranking. The guys one major championships. Bill Michelson just
Speaker 3: won one a few years ago and he's one hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty eighth. What kind of system is this? I
Speaker 3: have no idea what the hell this is? I mean,
Speaker 3: come on, let's get a system that works. How about
Speaker 3: to get a system. As my dad used to say,
Speaker 3: that the guys that shoot the low scores win, that's
Speaker 3: the system. The best players in the world are the
Speaker 3: ones that are shooting the lower scores. I don't give
Speaker 3: it damn what you're ranking as a two year ranking
Speaker 3: and all that bullshit. If you're shooting good scores and
Speaker 3: you're winning, tess what you're good. I don't give it
Speaker 3: damn where you're playing.
Speaker 1: And that goes back to the eye test that we
Speaker 1: were talking about, right, you know the best. You know
Speaker 1: who the best players in the world are. Right, The
Speaker 1: ranking system is the ranking system, But those of us
Speaker 1: that are lucky enough to be in professional golf, that
Speaker 1: are lucky enough to still work with good players, you
Speaker 1: know who the best players in the world are. When
Speaker 1: somebody goes, oh, he's one of the best players in
Speaker 1: the world, you're gonna if you're looking at the record,
Speaker 1: how many tournaments they've won, how many majors they won,
Speaker 1: you might say, yeah, Okay, he's had a good year
Speaker 1: and he's finished second a lot, but he hasn't really
Speaker 1: won a lot of golf tournaments. The eye test, I
Speaker 1: think is important in the ranking system data. One question
Speaker 1: I've got to ask you, going back to Rory mclroy,
Speaker 1: You'll be eighty one in August. You've been lucky enough
Speaker 1: to work with the greatest players of the modern generation
Speaker 1: and stuff, But you know you're eighty When Rory McElroy
Speaker 1: calls you, does it get you excited?
Speaker 2: Does it make you go man? Roy McRoy just called
Speaker 2: me and asked me for help.
Speaker 1: As an instructor who's been in the game for so
Speaker 1: long and worked with so many great players, does it
Speaker 1: still kind of give you that buzz in your stomach
Speaker 1: that went a great player like Rory wants your opinion
Speaker 1: on something.
Speaker 2: Does it?
Speaker 3: Does it?
Speaker 1: Does it still have that same feeling that it's always
Speaker 1: had for you.
Speaker 3: Damn Reditize, You're damn reditize. I'm honored that he would
Speaker 3: think that they call me. He's done it before. This
Speaker 3: was the first time we've done it. And there's a
Speaker 3: lot of them that have done it. You know, Jordan's
Speaker 3: done it, Dat's done. All the best players that come
Speaker 3: a cake, they just want to hear something different, or
Speaker 3: maybe they want to hear you tell them something that
Speaker 3: they've missed you something, but you dn't right. I loved
Speaker 3: it when he called me. It was like when Ricky
Speaker 3: called me back when he when we hadn't been together
Speaker 3: for three years. And I love that that he had
Speaker 3: the confidence in my ability as a as a as
Speaker 3: an instructor and a coach. And there are two different
Speaker 3: things to be honest with you, but it makes you
Speaker 3: makes you feel good because, Wow, these guys still have
Speaker 3: faith in me. I might be eighty, but I've still
Speaker 3: got these two track mans right here that work pretty
Speaker 3: damn good. These blue things that you're looking at right here,
Speaker 3: that that's what these are my track mans right here,
Speaker 3: and they worked pretty good for about the last forty
Speaker 3: years with these guys. So yes, I was. I was humble,
Speaker 3: and I got a big smile on my face, if
Speaker 3: you want to know. And I couldn't wait for him
Speaker 3: to get here because I already had an idea. You know, me,
Speaker 3: I've watched every great player in the world, and I
Speaker 3: have a memory bank and golf swings in my head
Speaker 3: that I've seen everybody play. So if a guy were
Speaker 3: to call me I've never worked before, I guess what
Speaker 3: I've watched it play. Now, if I've ever had an
Speaker 3: idea what I thought you could do? Yeah, I think
Speaker 3: I could help you. And in Rory's case, it was
Speaker 3: it wasn't difficult what he needed to do. We had
Speaker 3: some good, good conversations about how to handle majors and
Speaker 3: the deals, deals and how you approach majors and how
Speaker 3: you go about it, and so, you know, so I
Speaker 3: loved every minute of it.
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Speaker 1: much did you.
Speaker 2: Yell at him? How much did you did?
Speaker 1: You put him in the office and get on him
Speaker 1: a little bit.
Speaker 3: I didn't really get on them. We sat down in
Speaker 3: the office, we had a conversation with by our families
Speaker 3: and stuff, and then we started talking about major championships.
Speaker 3: And I tried to explain to him, because I've had
Speaker 3: a lot of successful guys that have won a lot
Speaker 3: of major championships, about how they went about processing the
Speaker 3: major championships, not just this is before we got into
Speaker 3: his mechanics of his swings, of the things I thought
Speaker 3: he should do. I wanted to talk about Augusta and
Speaker 3: the very majors. We talked about preparation leading out, how
Speaker 3: you handle it, who you live with when you're there,
Speaker 3: do you get there too early, get there later, you know.
Speaker 3: And I just explained how everybody did it differently, and
Speaker 3: then then I'd laid out to him. I said, but
Speaker 3: he says so because he had he had gone to
Speaker 3: Bay Hill and made twenty six birdies and finished like twenty.
Speaker 3: He had gone the next tournam and he's missing greens
Speaker 3: in the left bunker with wedges and nine acts. And
Speaker 3: I explained to him why. And I explained to him, Look,
Speaker 3: you've got a golf swing that's built to drive the ball.
Speaker 3: You're the best driver in the game since I've seen,
Speaker 3: since Greg Norman drove. I said, you're you're a phenomenal driver.
Speaker 3: I said, the problem is you hit your web shots
Speaker 3: with your driver's swing. Got this big old long swing
Speaker 3: and this big ol' fallow through the balls too high
Speaker 3: in the air. I said, I need to show you
Speaker 3: how to hit three quarter shots, bring the ball flight
Speaker 3: down so one bounce and stops the donecomb roaring back
Speaker 3: off of greens. Because of the height you're taking it
Speaker 3: in there, you'll control the distance better. I explained to
Speaker 3: him how he would do it. Then I said, look,
Speaker 3: you're gonna have to put your own take on it
Speaker 3: on how you do it. But and and so far,
Speaker 3: you know, he's done a nice job. And I can't say, yeah,
Speaker 3: he's not doing everything that we talked about, but he's
Speaker 3: picking the pipes that he thinks he can do right now,
Speaker 3: and he's playing better. He's more consistent now every week
Speaker 3: he's right up there again, which is what we want
Speaker 3: to see.
Speaker 2: I mean, you.
Speaker 1: Worked with, you worked with two of the biggest alpha's
Speaker 1: probably the professional game has ever seen, in Greg Norman
Speaker 1: and Tiger Woods. They had everything. They had every shot,
Speaker 1: they had everything that you could do. When you look
Speaker 1: at Rory Dad and you look at his game, not
Speaker 1: just the way that he plays golf, the toolbox he has,
Speaker 1: where do you rank him out of all the players
Speaker 1: that you've seen, Because I think he's one of, if
Speaker 1: not the best players I've ever seen. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: to me, he is as close to Tiger and Greg
Speaker 1: as you can probably get from having everything.
Speaker 3: Well, I wouldn't I wouldn't say he's is close to Tiger.
Speaker 3: I don't think anybody's close to Tiger. There's only one
Speaker 3: Tiger Woods. His tale like he is. Greg Norman doesn't
Speaker 3: get the credit for how great he was because he
Speaker 3: only won two Maniors, because he had the bacles and
Speaker 3: other ones. A lot of them were his fault, A
Speaker 3: lot of them they weren't his fault. And we're judged
Speaker 3: on major championship but Rory's got four of them, so
Speaker 3: he's he knows how to win major championships. He won them,
Speaker 3: he knows how to do it. I put Rory right
Speaker 3: there with one of the best players of all time.
Speaker 3: I don't think. I don't think yet his game management
Speaker 3: is as anywhere as near as good as Jackson Tigers.
Speaker 3: Greg had the Australian mentality. He was an Arnold Palmer,
Speaker 3: a gopher, broke of everything, and a lot of times
Speaker 3: he let his ability to have all that talent get
Speaker 3: in his way. And I think Rory has done that
Speaker 3: in the past few years. And I think he's getting
Speaker 3: away from that now. He's starting to understand his own
Speaker 3: game a little better, you know, So we'll see what happens.
Speaker 3: But he is truly one of the best players he's
Speaker 3: ever lived. I mean, you can't say he isn't. Look
Speaker 3: at his record.
Speaker 1: Going to the PGA. Give me some dark horses that
Speaker 1: you think could play well. I mean, obviously I think
Speaker 1: everybody's going to be looking at Scotty. I think everybody's
Speaker 1: going to be looking at Rory Brooks. Having just won again,
Speaker 1: He's going in there with a bunch of confidence. I
Speaker 1: was with him today. He's back to really feeling like
Speaker 1: he's playing good. He wasn't happy with the way he
Speaker 1: played at the Masters, So I think he's going to
Speaker 1: be somebody they'll talk about. But give me some of
Speaker 1: the other players that you think could have a chance
Speaker 1: this week.
Speaker 3: Well, I think the young Aberg kid. I'm not sure
Speaker 3: I'm pronounced his name right. I think he's phenomenal. I
Speaker 3: think he does. He have oh the length of time
Speaker 3: that I have learned how play.
Speaker 1: And win a major, only a second major.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the guy who plies under the radar
Speaker 3: the most, who hasn't won one, and it's hard to
Speaker 3: believe his Tommy Fleetwood. And I don't say that just
Speaker 3: because I work with him. I just know his game
Speaker 3: so well and how good he is. And you know,
Speaker 3: he could have won the Open Championship last he could
Speaker 3: have won the US Open Championship. He put himself in
Speaker 3: those positions, the putts didn't quite fall for him. He
Speaker 3: played beautifully at Augusta finished tied for third at Augusta.
Speaker 3: If he puts it all as good as as Sephid
Speaker 3: that he would have been right there given him a chance.
Speaker 3: I think Tommy is a dark horse that you can
Speaker 3: look at. If I'm looking at some of these other players,
Speaker 3: you can't leave out Patrick Cantley because he's a good
Speaker 3: ball striker. He's a strange guy, but yet he has
Speaker 3: the talent to do it. Max Holmes's got the talent
Speaker 3: to do it. If I look at some of the
Speaker 3: live guys that are playing there, Cam Smith, you've already
Speaker 3: said the rom we know books, we know if Terrel
Speaker 3: Haddon can keep a cool ahead about himself, I love that.
Speaker 3: I love this guy. I got to say something about
Speaker 3: terol at Terrell Hadton is what the game needs right now.
Speaker 3: The game the PGA Tour, for example, to me, these
Speaker 3: young players are so good, but the tour is driven
Speaker 3: by superstars and characters don't really have Chef was a superstar,
Speaker 3: but he doesn't have that charisma the others half. Terrel
Speaker 3: Hatten's got it, man, He's got the other I wish
Speaker 3: there was a few more like that. I'm not saying
Speaker 3: that we need to keep a microphone around him all
Speaker 3: the time. But he gets a bad shot. But Doug
Speaker 3: gun Tom Bench is entertaining.
Speaker 1: And how much does Tyrell Houghton reminds you of yourself
Speaker 1: when you played the tour?
Speaker 3: Well, his demeanor reminds me of itself. Not this talent
Speaker 3: level I entered into talent. I love the guy and
Speaker 3: as you know, off the course, he's a nice guy.
Speaker 3: He just is passionate about what he does. And when
Speaker 3: he goes into these rent and ravens, it's usually about himself,
Speaker 3: not about anything else.
Speaker 1: Oh no, he's not complaining about he rarely. I mean
Speaker 1: he'll complain about hitting the flag or getting a bad break,
Speaker 1: but normally the thing he's complaining the most about Tyrell
Speaker 1: on the golf course is Tyrol.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you look at you look at Bryson. Bryson
Speaker 3: is an odd duck. But Bryson's a hell of a player.
Speaker 3: I mean, you in the US Open, the Wing Poot,
Speaker 3: you can play golf. I'll tell you that. But see,
Speaker 3: we don't have these kind of guys anymore. We don't
Speaker 3: have these these out of the box kind of guys.
Speaker 3: We got to whole bunch of clones that all look
Speaker 3: the same. They're beautiful golfers, and I'm not taking it
Speaker 3: away from them because they're phenomenal golfers. But the problem
Speaker 3: is you turn on the television and a normal PGA
Speaker 3: tour vet and you look at the top ten, you
Speaker 3: may only know one or two of these people because
Speaker 3: the really superstars haven't played that well at various times,
Speaker 3: so people turn it off, they go to something else.
Speaker 3: We need these guys that are a little bit of
Speaker 3: a character. I mean we had it in the old days.
Speaker 3: I mean you still have it on the Champions There
Speaker 3: Tour with John Dadley. People love John Tiley. John Daily's,
Speaker 3: you know, poor guy, he can't get out of his
Speaker 3: own way. He's a tremendous talent. But we need stuff
Speaker 3: like that. We need characters, and I think the Living
Speaker 3: has kind of brought that in with the music and
Speaker 3: the way the guys have a good time out there
Speaker 3: and stuff. So there's there's a lot of things that
Speaker 3: I think need to happen in professional golf, But I
Speaker 3: think the overall first thing is we got to get
Speaker 3: all the best players playing in the same event. And
Speaker 3: we're going to have that next week at Valhalla, and
Speaker 3: quite honestly, I can't wait to see what's going to happen.
Speaker 1: Lastly, we'll see Tiger Woods hopefully again next week at Valhalla.
Speaker 1: We saw him play at Augusta. What do you think
Speaker 1: we'll get from from t dub? I mean, is are
Speaker 1: we going to continue to get more of what we
Speaker 1: saw at Augusta to where you can obviously see that
Speaker 1: he'll have a day where he's fresh and looks like
Speaker 1: he has all the shots and looks like he's in command,
Speaker 1: and then halfway through the next round, it's like there's
Speaker 1: an expiry date on his body and his body just
Speaker 1: gives out on him, and you're thinking, man, if he
Speaker 1: can just finish this round and somehow finish this tournament's
Speaker 1: it's a win and a success for him.
Speaker 3: Well, let's just kind of like it is anytime Tiger
Speaker 3: Woods plays. We like it because we don't know what's
Speaker 3: going to happen. We all know Tiger Woods. If he
Speaker 3: shows up to play, he's going to tell you I'm
Speaker 3: there because I think I have a chance to win.
Speaker 3: The downside is Claudie can't walk. Can he walk? Seventy
Speaker 3: two holes so far has proven that he can't, and
Speaker 3: That's a sad thing for me because I hate seeing
Speaker 3: Tiger Woods as great as he was. And really he
Speaker 3: seems to have put a lot of work on his
Speaker 3: golf swing. I like the way he's swinging the club,
Speaker 3: what he's dealing with with his legs. He figured out
Speaker 3: how to offset that a little bit. So the talent
Speaker 3: level is still there. It's Tiger Woods. There's nobody's ever
Speaker 3: had more talent in the world. Look like golf of
Speaker 3: Tiger Woods. The problem is you got to walk seventy
Speaker 3: two holes and he just hasn't proved to himself. Forget
Speaker 3: proven anything to us. He didn't prove anything to us.
Speaker 3: We know how great he was. I just hate seeing
Speaker 3: him going out there suffering and try and make himself
Speaker 3: believe he can still do this when I'm not sure
Speaker 3: he even believes he can walk seventy two holes. But
Speaker 3: we're gonna get it. We're going to get a look
Speaker 3: at it and see if he can. And you, you
Speaker 3: and I have been in Valholliver for it's hilly. There's
Speaker 3: a lot of hills and a lot of up and
Speaker 3: down there, and that's wear and tear on him. But
Speaker 3: if he shows up, I know Tiger Woods. And I'm
Speaker 3: never gonna ever say he can't do something, because that
Speaker 3: was what I used to challenge him within the ten
Speaker 3: years I work with him. When I really wanted him
Speaker 3: to do something, I just tell him he couldn't do it,
Speaker 3: So let's move on to something else. What do you
Speaker 3: mean I can't do it? I told you probably could,
Speaker 3: but it would take a long time. No, let's show
Speaker 3: it to me. So you know, he's got his mind
Speaker 3: believing that he can, and he's used after his strength
Speaker 3: his whole career. I just hope if he shows up,
Speaker 3: he could be healthy and he can enjoy his time
Speaker 3: out there. The fans love him, They love having him back.
Speaker 3: Television loves having him back once again. We'll just absolutely
Speaker 3: what happens.
Speaker 1: Well, he famously won in a playoff at Valhall against
Speaker 1: Bob May. You were working with him then, what do
Speaker 1: you remember? What do you remember about that week?
Speaker 3: Oh? I just remember the back nine that he played
Speaker 3: and then the playoff post. I mean it was just amazing.
Speaker 3: I mean you got to hint it to Bob May.
Speaker 3: Bob made did everything right. Bob May did not lose
Speaker 3: the PGA. Tiger Woods just beat him, and to lose
Speaker 3: the Tiger Woods, there's no excuse. But I've made made
Speaker 3: some great potts and hit some great shots. He'll be
Speaker 3: remembered the fact that the Tiger won. But to me,
Speaker 3: I and I was doing the broadcast for Sky, I
Speaker 3: was there at the time. Bob May was amazing. Tiger
Speaker 3: coming down the stretch was amazing. I mean the puts
Speaker 3: he made on seventeen putty made on the last hole
Speaker 3: coming down that hill with that slider was unbelievable. After
Speaker 3: coming beautiful bunker shot coming out. I mean, there was
Speaker 3: some some cool stuff going on there. Valhalla is special.
Speaker 3: I remember the Ryder Cup when your man Anthony Kim
Speaker 3: who now on LIB was playing Sergio Garcia and that
Speaker 3: what was it the fourteenth hole or something? He won
Speaker 3: the hole of clothing. No, he won. He'd racing to
Speaker 3: the next day and Jose Riya, one of the vice captains,
Speaker 3: had to say, no, hey, k wait a minute, you
Speaker 3: won the match. So there's I've got some cool memories
Speaker 3: at Valhalla, and I think we're going to see some
Speaker 3: more next week at least, I hope.
Speaker 2: So all right, Well, great talking to you.
Speaker 1: I think the stuff you're doing with Rory, Yeah, and
Speaker 1: if he'll listen to you with the wedge stuff, I mean,
Speaker 1: it'll definitely help him because he's I mean, he's seventy
Speaker 1: seventh and and starts gained approach. You can't win majors
Speaker 1: if you're Rory McElroy and be in the seventies in
Speaker 1: in hitting greens.
Speaker 2: You've got to be one of When Rory McElroy is.
Speaker 1: Playing his best, he is an elite iron player, and
Speaker 1: I think the work that you're trying to do will
Speaker 1: help him get back there.
Speaker 2: Thanks for talking to us.
Speaker 1: Always good to talk to you, and I'll give you
Speaker 1: some updates from the PGA.
Speaker 3: All right, thanks for having men. Love you, buddy.
Speaker 1: So some really good takes from Butcher there. And as
Speaker 1: I said in the in the opening, I mean the
Speaker 1: life that he has lived in the game of golf
Speaker 1: and the players that he's been lucky enough to work with.
Speaker 1: I thought he it's second to none, the record that
Speaker 1: he has, how many players he's helped win major championships.
Speaker 1: And I thought he also, you know, said some really
Speaker 1: good things, some clear thinking things about you know, the
Speaker 1: game of golf. In twenty twenty four Live the PGA Tour,
Speaker 1: wear all the shakes out stuff like that, so always
Speaker 1: good to get.
Speaker 2: His views on things.
Speaker 1: And PGA Championship I can't wait for its start. Should
Speaker 1: be a good week Valhalla. Lots of storylines. Does Scotti
Speaker 1: Scheffler get another major championship? Can Rory get his first
Speaker 1: in ten years? I mean this is the last time
Speaker 1: he got one was in fourteen at Valhalla. Can John
Speaker 1: Rahm get another one? Can Brooks Keepker get another one?
Speaker 1: Can Max Homa and some of the guys that don't
Speaker 1: have one, can they get there first? Some great storylines.
Speaker 1: I think the majors are the most important events in
Speaker 1: professional golf at the moment, regardless of what side of
Speaker 1: this debate you're on, But it seems to be the
Speaker 1: time that we're getting the best players from all the
Speaker 1: various tours. I think hats off to the guys Seth
Speaker 1: Wall and the guys at the PJ of America for
Speaker 1: giving invites out. I think it's that, you know, we
Speaker 1: try and find a way to make all this work
Speaker 1: as supposed to, try and find a way to make
Speaker 1: it not work. Son of a which comes to you
Speaker 1: most Wednesdays, We will definitely see you next week.