WEBVTT - Five Things About the 2025 Masters with Jaime Diaz 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:02.800 I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:04.920 I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:07.200 And when I find my ball in a brid egg. 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:11.080 Friday egg, the dreaded Frida Egg Friday Frida Egg, fridagg 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:12.040 bride egg Lie. 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:14.080 I'm about ready to run off of the hump course. 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:42.000 Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Golf Podcast. 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:46.199 I am your host, Andy Johnson. We're here. It is 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:49.680 Masters week. Uh. This is the eighty ninth playing of 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:54.520 the Masters, and I'm quite quite excited. I I, along 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:58.440 with Brendan Porth and Cameron heard us from our team 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:01.600 will be on the ground at Augustin National all week. 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:04.440 We have a huge week. Uh. You know, we will 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:07.559 be pumping out content and uh this is the start 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:12.039 of that content. I guess last week's podcast was too. 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:16.360 But I am joined by the great Hi may Ds. Uh. 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:20.600 You know, anybody that has read golf for the last 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:25.680 uh for decades knows who Hi may Ds is one 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:29.640 of the greatest golf writers uh really ever and UH 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:31.800 it was just such an honor to have him on 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:36.600 the podcast. Uh. Hi may is a writer at large 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:40.720 at Golf Digest and is a contributor for Golf Channels 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:43.640 Live from so Hi, May joined me to do our 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:47.280 traditional five things about the Masters. I come up with five, 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:49.680 he comes up with five. We chat him out. 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:50.000 Uh. 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:53.600 This was really a fun conversation and I hope it 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:58.480 gets you guys into the master's mood. A few housekeeping 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:01.720 things if you if you if you don't already, please 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:04.560 sign up for our free newsletter, go over to the 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:07.920 fried egg dot com sign up there. We will be 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:11.920 doing daily newsletters from the Masters. That's where you're gonna 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.560 get on the ground insight during the week from me Brendan, 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:19.720 insights from some of our talented staff that are watching 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:24.600 the Masters, like Joseph Lamanya, Garrett Morrison, Will Knights, and 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:27.960 well it'll keep you in the know of everything going on. 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:32.680 I know we're doing a pool for this first major 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:35.680 of the year. We should have some awesome prizes. It 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:38.360 will be free to join, so keep your eyes peeled 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:43.560 for that. And we still have some of the major 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:47.000 that first major themed merchandise. If you want to go 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:50.760 over to our pro shop so proshop dot Thefridagg dot com. 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:55.560 There's some cool stuff in there. I am particularly high 0:02:55.600 --> 0:03:01.120 on that. Mackenzie Bunker Gear. We just got a one 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:04.280 of the T shirts at our house. My wife promptly 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:06.840 stole it from me, so I'm going to be hoping 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:09.639 for a return so that i can get another one 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:15.320 sent out here. But Meg and our team Cameron did 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:18.240 the illustration on that did an awesome job with all 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:22.959 the merchandise, So go over there check that out. This 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:28.040 is a huge week and we will maybe drop another 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:30.000 episode in here. I'm not going to promise it, I 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:33.040 would I would venture to say we probably won't, but 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:37.120 possible that we drop another episode in here. But coming 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:40.880 back to recap it all after the Masters next week 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:43.680 will be Trevor Immelman, so that'll be kind of your 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:47.280 Master's slate on this podcast. If you're interested in daili's 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:50.800 go check out the Shotgun Start feed. That'll be me 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.880 and Brendan breaking down the what's going on from the 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:57.839 grounds every day. We will have a live show on 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:00.760 Tuesday night for the Shotgun Start on the Frida Egg 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:05.480 YouTube page at six pm Eastern. Before we get to 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:10.760 I may, let's talk about our partner, our partner that 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:14.160 has been with us for a long time. Be dratty 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:17.240 they you know, I think about my first trip to 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:20.440 Augusta National, first trip to the Masters. It was I 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:23.839 was riding in the car with Jack Lessing, who works 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:28.000 works for B Dratty executive there. We were driving down 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:33.359 from Sweeten's Cove and that's kind of the nascent days 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:36.280 of this partnership. That was That would have been twenty seventeen, 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:41.000 and it's been really cool to see their brand grow 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:43.440 and our brand grow, and we've been able to do 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:48.640 this Master's kind of partnership for years. So they have 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:52.599 some awesome, awesome gear. Right now, I'm wearing their cool hoodie. 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:57.440 They're Cool Line, whether it be you know, your kind 0:04:57.440 --> 0:05:02.640 of B dratty sport, but also these pullovers are awesome. 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:05.159 I am a huge fan of the Cool hoodie. I 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:10.880 wear it a ton, Especially with cooler California mornings, I 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:14.200 find myself wearing the Cool Line a ton. They have 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:17.600 a ton of gear, great gear. I could go on 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:21.640 and on. I'm a huge fan of the everyday vest. 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.640 With it being that kind of springtime, you're starting to 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:28.200 think about playing golf in the northern parts of the 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:32.240 United States, this is a good time to get one piece. Obviously, 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:37.320 I'm partial the Andy hoodie that's been a big hit. 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:41.120 It is a from what I gather, they are having 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:44.240 trouble keeping it in stock. But that is a awesome, 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:47.839 awesome hoodie. Go check it out. If you use the 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:52.360 promo code TFE thirty, that's TFE thirty, you get thirty 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:55.920 percent off your order. For whatever reason, I think that's 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:58.839 the promo code. For whatever reason, that doesn't work, you 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:02.239 can use SGS thirty to both. Those are our codes. 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:06.120 You get thirty percent off, which is which is a 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:16.520 good chunk change hoodies, layers, sweaters, polos, shorts, pants. I'm 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:18.839 gonna be decked to the nines this week. I think 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:22.840 they set up a little scripting for every day so 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:26.600 b Dratty can take care of all of your clothing needs. 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:30.200 Check it out at bdradty dot com and use that 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:34.240 promo code tf E thirty thanks to b Draddy. Let's 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:44.479 get to high mads, all right. I am joined by 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:47.479 the great High Adas And I don't want to flatter you, 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:50.520 but I was. We were talking last night on the 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:53.160 phone and I was about to go on a walk 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.160 with my wife and daughter. And my wife after I 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:58.479 got off the call, was like he saw me beaming, 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:01.120 and she's like, who's that, and I said, you know, 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:03.760 it's just one of the cool things about the last 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:07.040 few years. As I'm talking to the guy about doing 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:09.880 a master's podcast, the guy that I grew up reading 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:14.280 so many articles, Hi, May, It's always great to chat 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:17.400 with you on this podcast, and I can I can 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:21.680 say that you are, without a doubt one of the 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:24.560 reasons that I'm doing what I'm doing so well. Thank 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:27.480 you for all the years of work in the golf 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:34.120 space and appealing to the demented golf nuts like myself. 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:37.440 That is flattering. Andy, Thank you, And I got to 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:41.640 compliment you guys on just taking golf journalism, golf coverage 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:44.640 into a new direction. You know, a lot of old 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:47.920 guys myself included, you know, bemoans some things that have passed, 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:51.520 you know, the long form of stories and everything, but 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:55.280 it's also been replaced by more detail and more i think, 0:07:55.360 --> 0:08:01.280 intensive everyday coverage than ever, and so it progresses. It's 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:03.480 just been in a different form, a different format, and 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:05.880 I'm proud to be on this format now because I'm 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:12.760 definitely not, you know, easily acclimating to it, but guys 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:15.400 like you make it very comfortable. So thank you. 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:19.760 You know, I think like and this is what everybody 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:23.200 wants at at the top of a master's previews golf 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:27.520 media moment minute. But this is a golf media platform here, 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:32.400 I think, like what would be ideal? And I wonder 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:36.480 if the market will somehow bear this out in the 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:40.640 coming years, is that there becomes a blend of old 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:45.080 and new where like I just I always think about 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:51.080 your piece about Jose Maria Olsapol, where you went to 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:55.280 the town, you had no interview set up, Like you 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:57.760 think about it now, like if you pitch this, they'd 0:08:57.760 --> 0:08:59.440 be like, well, if you have an interview set up 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:02.760 with those Maria or whoever the player is, No, I don't, 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:06.440 and you just hung out in the town for for weeks. 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:09.120 Right, this is legendary now, I mean it's got it's 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:12.160 grown beyond what it was. But no, well there was 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:15.000 a function of you know, decadence and money because sports 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:16.480 olisary had a lot of money in the in the 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:19.280 mid nineties. They said go see what you can find 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:21.520 and that that was not a unique kind of assignment 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:24.679 for for people that they fed that and they had 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:26.560 faith in their writers and I probably didn't deserve it 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:28.880 as much as others and others turned it into classic 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:31.880 stories sometimes. But I knew Jose Maria and I knew 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:34.240 his agent, and I thought i'd find something. And I 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:36.520 had done that with Golf Digest, just kind of showing 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:39.640 up on sev with Sevy one day in Bedrena, and 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:42.320 he was angry for a you know, about five seconds 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:44.040 and then he was like, okay, you're here. What do 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:47.760 you want? You know? And Maria had rheumatoid arthritis and 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:51.920 he was hold up in his house and I went 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:54.760 to the you know, to the gate where they had 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:58.199 kind of what would you call it, not a microphone 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:01.160 but uh uh and I can't think of the word 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:02.760 right now. You know, just you push a button, you 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:05.080 talk into the into the into the uh in the 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:09.400 into the speaker and and he came to the phone, 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:11.000 you know, and at that time I heard, you know, 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:13.400 he really was having a hard time walking and it 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:15.920 was very earnest and he said, you know, thank you 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:20.320 for coming. But I promised the first interview to Die Davies, 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:22.560 who was a British writer I think with The Guardian, 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:24.760 might have been The Independent, I can't remember, but he 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:29.160 was a you know, very much uh one of the ogs, 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:31.280 so to speak. Over there and and Jose Maria is 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:33.120 such an honorable guy that he wanted to respect that. 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:35.160 So he talked me, talked to me a little bit. 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:38.480 But uh then I talked to his his agent for 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:41.439 a long time in a you know, in a nice 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:44.000 kind of little restaurant for about five hours. So I 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:47.559 got plenty of material, but it was, you know, kind 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:49.480 of on a whim. Let's go go see what you 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:51.800 can find, because he was a mystery man. And of 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:53.880 course he did make the Ryder Cup in ninety seven, 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:57.559 and uh that was you know, that was an incredible moment. 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.600 Uh when when Seve introduced him after you know, he 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:03.960 had looked like his career was over and everybody was 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:05.800 crying and was a very Spanish moment. 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:09.679 We're going to get to the Masters. But I got 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:13.760 to ask this question while we're here. With one of 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:17.680 my pods, the shotguns start. We do historical look backs, 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:21.120 and you know, my immediate thing whenever I come across 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:23.959 a player that I might want to want a profile 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:27.840 in a historical look back, I will search their name 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:31.760 and SI vault and the stable of writers I feel 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:35.600 like in the eighties and nineties was just extraordinary. You know, 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:39.280 you read some of this writing, and it's just it's 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:42.760 out of, out of it's just absolutely incredible. Is there 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:48.080 like a particular piece from the from the years you 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:51.120 were there before you were there that stands out to 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:53.880 you as like if you were, if you're a golf fan, 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:57.200 you should you should look for this article and read 0:11:57.240 --> 0:12:01.280 this article. And it could be by I know you're 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:05.960 you're too humble to anything of yours, so you know, 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:08.720 I figure it'll be be somebody one of your colleagues. 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:10.880 No, it definitely is not humility that those you know, 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:13.360 I was a utility in Fieler there and oh god, 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:15.920 you're oh no, well, I was very proud to be there. 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:17.560 I mean, you know, it was just the best thing 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:20.640 that ever happened to me. Uh to be hired there 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:23.240 and have and have as many years as you know, 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:27.680 fourteen years. But I go back to Gary Smith, who 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:30.000 was you know, kind of he would write epics, you know, 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:35.360 and he wrote a story on Tiger in ninety six 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:37.560 before I guess it was a Sportsman of the Year 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:42.280 story before he won the Masters, and and Gary was 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:46.800 just so in depth and very psychologically driven. In fact, 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:50.600 his wife was a psychiatrist or a psychologist, and he 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:53.480 really came from that orientation and not in that kind of, 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:56.240 you know, pretentious way. He just wanted to know about 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:59.320 the human condition. And he would just you know, really 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:04.360 intensively interview and I remember him talking about it once 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:06.839 he goes, look, I know, I know the guy's got 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:09.080 the answer I want. And it's not a made up answer. 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:10.760 It's not I'm not going to be I'm not going 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:13.800 to be, you know, manipulating him, but I'm going to 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:16.199 ask him that question until he gives me that answer. 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:19.440 And you know, he just kind of had extreme sort 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:23.400 of methods. And even when he edited, he said, I 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:26.079 just try to take you know, a final version, every 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:29.120 unnecessary word out. It might be a seven thousand word piece. 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:32.200 So I mean, he was that that, you know, uh, 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:38.040 thorough and incredibly insightful. And I thought that piece it 0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:40.680 still holds up because he talked to Earl a lot. 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:44.000 And and you sense the pressure that Tiger was under 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:47.439 from his own dad, I mean, and not necessarily unwelcome 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:50.440 in an unwelcome way, but his dad just had these 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:54.440 visions of him far beyond golf, and so Tiger carried 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:57.160 that grandeur sort of with him. And I think It's 0:13:57.200 --> 0:13:59.599 part of his greatness that he just was never satisfied 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:02.280 with just you know, I won the Masters and my 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:04.840 dream fulfilled. It was like, no, there's way way more. 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:07.480 Always and he might have been just wired that way, 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:10.520 but I think I think Gary got to the dynamic 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:14.120 between he and Earl that drove him also. But Riley 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:17.360 was amazing. Rick Riley. My first Masters was eighty six 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:20.080 and his also and I'd never met Rick, and we 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:22.120 stayed in the same house. And Rick's one of the 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:26.360 most charismatic humor, very funny. Obviously writes funny, but he's 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:30.160 also really funny in person. And he's just so curious 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:33.760 and innovative in his mind. He makes these connections. He 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:35.840 did not low a lot about golf at that time. 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:38.000 I mean, he was not a total stranger to it, 0:14:38.040 --> 0:14:40.120 but he didn't know a lot about the history. There's 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:42.240 a guy named Walt Bingham at the SI and he 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:46.360 would take us on the lure tour of the Masters 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:48.400 because he'd been coming to the Masters since the fifties. 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:51.160 And Rick went on it, you know, and I remember, 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:52.600 and he was learning all kinds of stuff that he 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:57.040 didn't know. The point is, after Nicholas won It was 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:01.000 just an immense the impact of that on the press room. 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:03.360 It was like, guys were going around here, it's too big. 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:06.560 I can't write, you know, it's just too perfect and 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:09.720 the weight of it and the burden and the obligation 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:12.720 is too great. And he had a friend named Buddy Martin, 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:15.880 a friend he had been a former boss in Denver 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:17.520 when Rick worked there before he went to the La 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:20.920 Times and then he went to SI. And Buddy came 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:22.440 up to him because he'd known Rick since he was 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:24.360 like twenty one. He said, Rick, put your notes away, 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:27.480 sit down, just write it, and then go back to 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:29.600 your notes and fill it in. But write what you're feeling. 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:31.680 Because he knew Rick, and he knew Rick had these 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:36.560 amazing instincts and able to connect things in just these 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:39.760 the ways that made him so famous and rightfully so. 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:44.440 And Rick wrote just the greatest story. I thought game story, 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:48.040 the best one almost ever to me. I guess maybe 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:50.560 because I knew the conditions of it. But that's when 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:53.320 you know. I was new, but i'd been into SI 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:56.360 a couple of years, and I just said, man, I'm 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:58.080 just so lucky to be here. These guys are so 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:01.360 much better. But I can draft off of that and 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:04.840 get better myself. And so I wasn't jealousy ever with Rick. 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:06.880 I just thought, this guy is so gifted. And there 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:09.720 were five or six guys like that, Risteve Rushing. I mean, 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:12.880 you go on almost everybody, and it was a it 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:13.720 was a great privilege. 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:18.840 That's that's awesome. I love that, you know, you always 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:22.160 when you have journalists on, they know the hits to play, 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:26.480 and you pulled out ninety six Tiger eighty six Jack Nicholas. 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:31.400 I'll throw one from my personal reading. I haven't read 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:35.440 them all, but my favorite one that I've ever read 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:39.400 was Garrity's piece. I think it was Garretty's piece on VJ. Singh. 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:43.440 Yeah that was yes, where he told basically the story 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:46.840 of VJ. Singh playing, you know, hitting balls under a 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:49.160 mango tree next to an airport. 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:54.800 And yeah, yeah, you know, go to Fiji, you. 0:16:54.760 --> 0:17:00.240 Know VJ Singh selling selling trophies of tournaments that hadn't 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:02.760 been contested yet because he knew he was going to win. 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:05.159 Like just incredible, incredible insight. 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:09.000 I told John this when I used to get blocked, 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:11.880 especially on Sunday night under pressure or Monday morning, even 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:17.040 more pressure because the deadline was always Monday morning. I would, well, 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:18.679 I wouldn't do it Monday morning, but I would do 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:21.520 it Sunday when I was like, oh my god, I'm 0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:25.040 kind of freezing here, I would, And I carried two 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:26.520 or three of them with me. But if I was home, 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:29.200 I'd look at maybe three or three or four others 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:32.639 stories by Garrity, and he just had there was a 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:36.640 grace about him in his writing and a precision and 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:40.440 flow it was it was, I don't know it would 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:44.600 I could almost internalize it. And I knew John really well. 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:46.000 We had a lot of nice talks. He was a 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:47.760 mentor in many ways. I don't know if you know. 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:51.320 Johnny's just such a gentleman and you know, so thoughtful 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:55.600 but never overbearing, and you know, just reserved but brilliant 0:17:56.160 --> 0:18:00.200 and very very talented. He was great musician as well, 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:02.720 and his words were like music. But anyway, they would 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:04.640 get inside me somehow and it would free me up. 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:07.439 And there's certain guys that you kind of you know, 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:09.679 had a like I could never write like Rick or 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:14.159 obviously Dan, Dan Jenkins or but certain guys I felt like, 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:16.320 you know that I could aspire to this style at 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:18.080 least and Garretty was that way. 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:23.520 Yeah, I'm I'm not a natural writer. I'm very envious of. 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:28.560 I'm so envious of when I see see the see 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:31.080 the guys of the press room that just like they 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:35.120 just put like that, put it, they put the computer 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:37.400 up and they just go. And I'm like, I wish 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:39.160 I could. I wish I could cook like that. 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:43.280 Me too, me too. No, I mean I remember watching 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:46.439 Jenkins writing just like eighty four. I just started s 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:49.400 I and uh it was an Oregon of all places, 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:54.960 at the Senior Open. I'm not mistaken. Yeah, well yes, 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:59.359 and and uh he you know he was a veteran 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:02.560 by that time obviously, but he just put the paper 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:06.080 in and I think and there was a typewriter. It 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:09.159 was a manual typewriter. And I think having to be 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:14.399 organized so that you weren't correcting constantly and rewriting and 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:16.479 erasing and you know, as we do on a computer, 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:20.720 just made you a more disciplined thinker. You had to 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:22.520 kind of have it formed in your head before you 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:24.879 wrote it, otherwise you'd be wide outing all day or 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:27.639 exing out all day. It was impossible. And Dan's copy 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:31.040 was notably clean always, so he was writing in his 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:34.720 head before he wrote it, which you know sometimes we 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:37.359 play with words and the computer does that. But I 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:41.320 think there was a level of concentration that that took 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:43.919 that might have made those guys even better. And he 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:48.120 was really fast, like John Finstein who just passed really fast, 0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:53.680 Alan Ship Knutt really fast. Rick was. Rick would labor, 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:56.520 but he was always really fast as far as that 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:59.919 first draft. And I am really slow, So I mean, 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:01.480 I just know I don't have the gift. I just 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:04.479 got a grind. And when you see that gift, it 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:07.719 is something really uh it's it's close to genius in 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:10.800 some cases. And I think it just shows a natural aptitude. 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:13.359 When you talk about natural if you're fast, you know, 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:16.280 it's really fast. Gary Van Sickle. In fact, he won 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:20.399 typing contest. And I'm not just saying it's mindless just typing, 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:23.080 but it's it helps if you can, if you can 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:25.360 keep up with your thoughts with your typewriter or your 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:27.840 you know obviously now the computer. I think that helps 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:32.679 you flow. And I couldn't pass the typing test at 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:37.280 the Oakland Tribune, literally and they had one in for 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:39.840 hr and I was forty five words a minute. With 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:42.840 six mistakes and I could not do it. It was 0:20:42.880 --> 0:20:45.240 like I needed the double eighteen that you know. I mean, 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:48.480 I might have had four mistakes with you know, maybe 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:50.600 two lines to go and I and I would I 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:51.160 would choke. 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:53.639 You know, you know what you were. You were the 0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:56.119 the golfer that would would would make a couple of 0:20:56.200 --> 0:20:59.560 mental mistakes out there, make a couple doubles, but always 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:04.800 made a lot of birdies on here say you're too humble, 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:09.600 all right, enough golf media stories of old here, No, 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:12.320 this was that was great. We're going to talk about 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:15.680 the eighty ninth playing and the Masters. We're going to 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:19.000 do our traditional five things here. So I've got five things, 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:22.600 You've got five things, and let's just bat it about. 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:26.480 This is a just setting the table. Obviously, Scottie Scheffler 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:31.680 is the defending champion, and the weather looks it's interesting 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:34.200 early in the week, but it looks like a delightful 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:38.439 weekend at the Masters where we're going to have really 0:21:38.520 --> 0:21:41.520 really nice weather from basically Tuesday on. It'll be chilly 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:43.960 early in the week and then warming up to to 0:21:44.240 --> 0:21:48.280 a nice weekend at Augusta National if all holds, so 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:53.040 Hi May it's been a while since we talked. What 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:57.960 what's your first thing here about about this Masters that 0:21:58.000 --> 0:21:59.000 you're looking forward to? 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:03.560 Oh, look, yeah, I think it's such an uncertain time 0:22:03.600 --> 0:22:05.480 in golf we've been going through for two or three 0:22:05.520 --> 0:22:09.080 years now, and and the Majors kind of unify things 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:13.080 at least for uh, you know, a sense of temporary 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:16.520 permanency because it is history, whatever's made it, whatever's done 0:22:16.520 --> 0:22:19.680 at the Majors, and uh, you know, the Masters has 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:22.879 become more important I think as as the one that 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:25.879 kind of you know, brings us back to a better 0:22:25.960 --> 0:22:28.959 time by being the first of the year. And I 0:22:29.000 --> 0:22:31.080 do sense that, you know, people really looking forward to 0:22:31.119 --> 0:22:33.560 it just for that, you know, in terms of the 0:22:33.720 --> 0:22:36.399 the you know, the old gathering and uh, you know, 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:40.119 the same kind of scene and the same kind of 0:22:40.160 --> 0:22:42.840 importance on the win, and that hasn't been diminished, I 0:22:42.840 --> 0:22:47.760 don't think by live and by the fracture, but because 0:22:47.800 --> 0:22:49.720 a couple of live guys have won too or you know, 0:22:49.840 --> 0:22:55.359 certainly done well. So I'm looking forward to that because 0:22:55.480 --> 0:22:58.080 I think we all miss it. Uh. But I'm also 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:01.840 looking forward to, you know, the battle and the greatness 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:05.600 that I think belongs to the Scotti Scheffler. I think 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:09.600 he's underrated in some ways, maybe because to some people 0:23:09.680 --> 0:23:12.000 he's not I won't say flamboyant, but he's he's not 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:15.280 enough of an extrovert. I find him a very controlled 0:23:15.280 --> 0:23:20.000 thinker and a very controlled speaker and a very controlled golfer, 0:23:20.359 --> 0:23:21.919 and I think it's a strength. I mean, I think 0:23:21.960 --> 0:23:23.400 he's got a lot of thoughts, and I think he's 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:27.040 a pretty amiable guy to his friends and and got 0:23:27.040 --> 0:23:30.080 a sense of humor. But in a public setting and 0:23:30.119 --> 0:23:32.960 when he's focused on golf, I don't think that he 0:23:33.040 --> 0:23:35.040 thinks it serves him well to just kind of let loose. 0:23:35.920 --> 0:23:39.800 And so I admire the discipline in the way he plays, 0:23:40.160 --> 0:23:44.119 how complete he is through the bag, his skill set, 0:23:44.240 --> 0:23:47.159 you know, how he deals with adversity, because the putter 0:23:47.240 --> 0:23:49.919 was a problem there for a little while, and you know, 0:23:49.960 --> 0:23:52.320 he kind of shut down every talk all to talk 0:23:52.320 --> 0:23:56.200 about it, which is difficult to do in a nice way. 0:23:56.680 --> 0:23:58.639 But I mean those questions were kind off limits for 0:23:58.680 --> 0:24:00.960 a while, and he just worked it out. And you know, 0:24:01.000 --> 0:24:02.960 you could say, well, he wasn't being cooperative, but I 0:24:02.960 --> 0:24:06.800 think he was just internalizing the solution and he found 0:24:06.840 --> 0:24:09.000 it on his own in a way that was not 0:24:09.280 --> 0:24:12.880 that disruptive, and in the meantime he continues to improve 0:24:12.920 --> 0:24:14.760 with the rest of his game. And I think when 0:24:14.800 --> 0:24:16.840 it's fast and firm as they are at majors, I 0:24:16.840 --> 0:24:19.760 think he's got the advantage because he has a wonderful 0:24:19.760 --> 0:24:23.080 short game and great touch to recover when he misses 0:24:23.080 --> 0:24:25.359 the green. But more than anything, he comes in so 0:24:25.359 --> 0:24:27.959 soft and with the right distance control on his irons. 0:24:28.480 --> 0:24:31.640 And you know these majors, especially the where they where 0:24:31.640 --> 0:24:34.520 they're put in the whole positions and the firmness of 0:24:34.520 --> 0:24:36.760 the green, you just got to be able to hit 0:24:36.800 --> 0:24:39.840 it in there soft and obviously work it both ways 0:24:39.840 --> 0:24:42.520 when he needs to. I think the cut obviously is 0:24:42.560 --> 0:24:45.160 his money shot. He plays a lot like Nicholas, and 0:24:46.040 --> 0:24:49.359 I think that is when you are probably the most 0:24:49.400 --> 0:24:53.040 gifted through the bag, that's the way to play conservatively 0:24:54.600 --> 0:24:58.119 and minimize mistakes and let the birdies come when they do. 0:24:59.680 --> 0:25:04.120 Yeah, I you know, Scotty, it was my one a. Also, 0:25:05.000 --> 0:25:07.600 I think when you when you talk about Scotty and 0:25:08.440 --> 0:25:13.119 simplicity and being and boring is just the most admirable 0:25:13.320 --> 0:25:16.800 trait for golf. Yeah, you know that is there's a 0:25:16.800 --> 0:25:19.119 way to live life. And I always go back to 0:25:19.200 --> 0:25:21.840 like his warm up routine. He talked about this last 0:25:21.920 --> 0:25:24.960 year at the Masters, and like what they do, the 0:25:25.280 --> 0:25:27.840 simplicity of it, just like when you think about like 0:25:27.920 --> 0:25:31.080 I always I've said this before on this podcast, but 0:25:31.160 --> 0:25:34.000 I always I've always said, I think the hardest part 0:25:34.000 --> 0:25:38.000 about golf, just the simple hardest thing about golf that 0:25:38.240 --> 0:25:41.520 nobody really talks about. If you could just set up 0:25:41.560 --> 0:25:45.280 to the ball the exact same way every time, you 0:25:45.280 --> 0:25:49.080 would play such good golf. Like I'm convinced, especially for 0:25:49.160 --> 0:25:53.000 recreational golfers, like setups like the biggest issue because like 0:25:53.760 --> 0:25:56.600 you take a week off and you might set up 0:25:56.680 --> 0:26:00.320 when people talk about like, hey the swing doesn't feel 0:26:01.000 --> 0:26:03.000 the same as it did yesterday, it could be that 0:26:03.040 --> 0:26:06.640 you're like a three sixteenths of an inch further away 0:26:06.680 --> 0:26:09.080 from the golf ball. And that's the thing. And when 0:26:09.119 --> 0:26:12.399 I watched Scotty Scheffler warm up, it is just you know, 0:26:12.440 --> 0:26:15.800 he does his grip work. He has he has ted 0:26:15.840 --> 0:26:18.480 Scott looking at a swing plane and it's like he 0:26:18.520 --> 0:26:20.840 grips the club the same. He makes sure his swing 0:26:20.880 --> 0:26:23.359 plane is the same, and like from there, if you 0:26:23.400 --> 0:26:26.640 grip it well and your your swing's on plane. There 0:26:26.680 --> 0:26:28.920 isn't much that can go wrong. And I think when 0:26:28.920 --> 0:26:31.760 you look at his consistency, it's like, well, he fit, 0:26:31.960 --> 0:26:34.000 he got himself to a good spot, and now he 0:26:34.160 --> 0:26:37.679 just he operates under that good spot as much as 0:26:37.680 --> 0:26:40.879 he can. And I think, like, if you start to 0:26:40.920 --> 0:26:46.600 look at what you said underrated, he is on a historic, 0:26:47.119 --> 0:26:51.320 historic clip of major success where if you look at 0:26:51.440 --> 0:26:54.560 the greatest players in the game of golf, and you know, 0:26:55.200 --> 0:26:58.560 maybe not Tiger or Jack, but all the other greats, 0:26:58.960 --> 0:27:01.600 he is at a very similar clips. So he's played 0:27:01.600 --> 0:27:05.600 in twenty one majors, He's got twelve top tens, over 0:27:05.680 --> 0:27:08.479 fifty percent of the majors he's played in, he's finished 0:27:08.480 --> 0:27:11.280 in the top ten. He's got two wins, which are 0:27:11.720 --> 0:27:14.560 obviously he's had a ten percent win clip. Those are 0:27:14.680 --> 0:27:18.000 historic numbers if you throw in the players, if you 0:27:18.200 --> 0:27:21.880 if you associated a half major for each players, he's 0:27:21.880 --> 0:27:24.399 had three majors and you know twenty you know, so 0:27:24.520 --> 0:27:27.679 you start to like do the math on what he's doing, 0:27:27.760 --> 0:27:32.840 and it's extraordinarily impressive. You know. The one thing I think, 0:27:32.880 --> 0:27:35.919 like the putter isn't as much of an issue. But 0:27:36.000 --> 0:27:39.199 I think that's the still the bugaboo, and I just 0:27:39.240 --> 0:27:41.400 see I just see it flare up, and I think 0:27:41.440 --> 0:27:43.800 one of the things. And you know, if you ask 0:27:43.880 --> 0:27:48.119 him this question, you're not getting an answer. But I'm curious, 0:27:48.160 --> 0:27:50.639 like when the putter flares up, and we saw it 0:27:50.680 --> 0:27:52.800 flare up last year at the Open, We've seen it 0:27:52.840 --> 0:27:56.600 flare up early this year, Like what's going through their head, 0:27:56.720 --> 0:27:58.840 through his head, because it seems like he does not 0:27:59.200 --> 0:28:03.520 operate with doubt in any with any club in the bag. 0:28:03.840 --> 0:28:06.200 But I think when he gets those five footers, when 0:28:06.240 --> 0:28:09.000 he's not feeling great with the putter, that's where he 0:28:09.080 --> 0:28:12.120 has those those kind of bad thoughts that he's having 0:28:12.119 --> 0:28:13.359 trouble getting out of his head. 0:28:14.480 --> 0:28:17.240 I think there's more pressure on the putter when you're 0:28:17.640 --> 0:28:20.840 a really good ball striker, yes, because you have so 0:28:20.920 --> 0:28:24.880 many chances, and you know, especially if they're inside fifteen 0:28:24.920 --> 0:28:28.000 feet or in that area, you feel like you should 0:28:28.040 --> 0:28:31.639 make some of those and you know the percentages, it's 0:28:31.720 --> 0:28:33.639 kind of it's not random, but you know, if you 0:28:33.680 --> 0:28:35.960 make a third of them, that's really good. And when 0:28:36.000 --> 0:28:37.800 you're always and you see this with a lot of 0:28:37.800 --> 0:28:41.120 great ball strikers, I mean from Hogan on down, and 0:28:41.240 --> 0:28:44.200 Jack would suffer from this too. Sometimes you know, you 0:28:44.360 --> 0:28:46.560 just you're just two putting your way around all the time, 0:28:46.600 --> 0:28:48.880 and you see these guys you're playing with, you know, 0:28:48.960 --> 0:28:51.120 knocking in eight footash or par all day or whatever, 0:28:52.040 --> 0:28:55.640 or being more opportunistic seemingly, and it really takes patience. 0:28:55.680 --> 0:29:00.560 And and also you know, Scotty has been he's been 0:29:00.560 --> 0:29:02.840 there so many times with majors. He probably feels like 0:29:02.880 --> 0:29:04.880 he should have more. And so I think there's an 0:29:04.920 --> 0:29:07.520 impatience there. And you wonder about the window. You know, 0:29:07.560 --> 0:29:10.120 he's he's at his prime age right now, but how 0:29:10.160 --> 0:29:12.640 long does that window last? And I hope he just 0:29:12.640 --> 0:29:15.040 thinks of himself as a long term guy. I could 0:29:15.040 --> 0:29:17.680 see him winning into his you know, if he wants 0:29:17.760 --> 0:29:20.880 to keep playing at the same intensity he's He's an 0:29:20.880 --> 0:29:23.640 incredibly good athlete, I think. And I think the reason, 0:29:23.680 --> 0:29:26.920 you know, people, I think what they miss is when yes, 0:29:27.000 --> 0:29:32.360 footwork looks awkward, it's actually a really repetitive athletic act. 0:29:32.480 --> 0:29:36.040 You know that he's got incredible you know, club face 0:29:36.080 --> 0:29:41.000 awareness and and and feel for the way his body repeats. 0:29:41.480 --> 0:29:43.400 And yeah, so his legs move around, but you don't 0:29:43.400 --> 0:29:46.800 see him spraying it. So there's something there that I 0:29:46.840 --> 0:29:48.760 think we should appreciate as opposed to look at as 0:29:48.800 --> 0:29:51.800 a flaw. And I just think, you know, the nature 0:29:51.840 --> 0:29:54.560 of putting is, you know, the most random part of 0:29:54.560 --> 0:29:56.640 the game. You can hit great putts that don't go in. 0:29:57.040 --> 0:30:00.000 And I think when you're really great and really ambitious, 0:30:00.800 --> 0:30:03.120 it might be harder to put up with the misses. 0:30:03.720 --> 0:30:07.320 And I think, you know, everything about him would indicate 0:30:07.360 --> 0:30:09.840 he'd have the maturity to handle that. But I think 0:30:10.200 --> 0:30:12.800 especially could success came very quickly there for a moment, 0:30:13.640 --> 0:30:16.880 the pressure and the expectation increased, and I thought his 0:30:17.040 --> 0:30:20.440 putting issues, whatever they were, and you know they're at it. 0:30:20.960 --> 0:30:22.920 We're a little bit hard on him with the putter 0:30:22.960 --> 0:30:24.680 because he's got such a high standard in every other 0:30:24.720 --> 0:30:26.600 part that we look, Okay, that must be the weakness 0:30:26.800 --> 0:30:29.360 and it's really not. But I think, you know, it's 0:30:29.400 --> 0:30:35.280 his putter, his stroke, his his mechanics look great, and 0:30:35.360 --> 0:30:38.720 it's it's just a mental barrier at times, and I 0:30:38.720 --> 0:30:41.000 think he'll learn to handle it better as he goes along, 0:30:41.800 --> 0:30:43.880 and just you know, hope that the motivation and the 0:30:44.520 --> 0:30:47.160 and the intensity continues because that's I think that's the 0:30:47.160 --> 0:30:47.760 hardest part. 0:30:47.680 --> 0:30:51.440 To keep up, you know. I think when you talk 0:30:51.520 --> 0:30:55.560 about Scottie, one thing that doesn't get talked about enough. 0:30:55.920 --> 0:30:59.760 And I don't necessarily like that expression, but just when 0:30:59.800 --> 0:31:02.920 you listen to him talk about breaking down a golf course, 0:31:02.960 --> 0:31:05.440 when he when he gets a little nitty gritty on, like, 0:31:06.400 --> 0:31:11.360 you realize that he like the depth and the level 0:31:11.440 --> 0:31:15.280 that he's thinking about a golf course is so insanely high, 0:31:15.560 --> 0:31:19.120 Like he really knows how he's going to attack and 0:31:19.200 --> 0:31:23.040 what he's doing around a golf course. Something I heard 0:31:23.880 --> 0:31:26.719 an anecdote I heard this year at the Players was 0:31:27.400 --> 0:31:29.240 when they went to Bayhill, and you think about, like 0:31:29.280 --> 0:31:33.520 the modern tour player and the ideology of tour play 0:31:33.600 --> 0:31:36.160 right now is like just hit it as hard as 0:31:36.200 --> 0:31:39.960 you can and go find it. I heard at bay 0:31:40.000 --> 0:31:43.760 Hill he had like a very simple strategy. He was 0:31:43.840 --> 0:31:46.640 taking speed off. You never hear of guys taking He 0:31:46.720 --> 0:31:50.560 was taking speed off, prioritizing fairways at bay Hill, and 0:31:50.640 --> 0:31:52.760 if you look at it, he led the field in 0:31:53.160 --> 0:31:55.360 strokes gain off the tee that week. He hit a 0:31:55.360 --> 0:31:57.520 ton of fairways. He was teeing it down kind of 0:31:57.600 --> 0:32:01.520 hitting a cut, taking speed off the driver and then 0:32:01.560 --> 0:32:04.239 you like, look at you know, and he's hitting like, 0:32:04.400 --> 0:32:07.480 you know, high one sixties, low one seventies ball speed 0:32:07.840 --> 0:32:13.080 regularly there. Then you go to Houston and he's in contention, 0:32:13.320 --> 0:32:15.120 and obviously I don't think he had the results. He 0:32:15.160 --> 0:32:17.800 was frustrated with bay Hill because I think he drove 0:32:17.840 --> 0:32:21.000 it so well and did not score the way he 0:32:21.040 --> 0:32:24.560 wanted to. But you go to Houston and there he's 0:32:24.600 --> 0:32:27.320 hitting high one seventies with the driver, like you don't 0:32:27.360 --> 0:32:31.000 see guys fluctuate like that. But that's just him taking 0:32:31.040 --> 0:32:33.160 what the golf course gives you. And I think when 0:32:33.200 --> 0:32:36.520 you talk about Augusta National and players that have such 0:32:36.560 --> 0:32:41.280 success at Augusta National are the players that understand what 0:32:41.320 --> 0:32:45.840 the golf course is giving you and not pushing the 0:32:45.880 --> 0:32:50.480 pedal down in opportune moments. And I just think Scotty 0:32:50.600 --> 0:32:54.560 is so comfortable because of his short game. His short 0:32:54.560 --> 0:32:58.800 game is so good. He's so comfortable just dumping a 0:32:58.880 --> 0:33:02.880 ball out to a side that gives him green to 0:33:02.920 --> 0:33:06.440 work with, or an upslope to work with. He's so 0:33:07.400 --> 0:33:10.160 comfortable just throwing it over there, knowing he's going to 0:33:10.240 --> 0:33:13.800 hit a chip to eighteen inches like, I just like, 0:33:13.960 --> 0:33:17.280 I think it's amazing when you watch Scottie in an 0:33:17.440 --> 0:33:20.959 eighteen at Houston last week was a perfect example of this, 0:33:21.560 --> 0:33:23.840 where like he misses a green and it's just like, 0:33:24.400 --> 0:33:27.920 I think, like it almost is numbing how often he 0:33:28.040 --> 0:33:31.440 hits it to a foot eighteen inches from these chip 0:33:31.480 --> 0:33:33.800 shots that you look at and it's like, Okay, that's 0:33:33.800 --> 0:33:36.280 not the hardest chip in the world. But it's also 0:33:36.400 --> 0:33:39.440 like he's he's twenty yards away and it's just like, 0:33:39.640 --> 0:33:44.720 I mean, it's amazing how he just understands where to 0:33:44.800 --> 0:33:48.040 get the ball when he's when he's out of position, 0:33:48.200 --> 0:33:50.720 even if it's not obviously out of position. 0:33:51.200 --> 0:33:54.000 I think that's a Tiger influence in terms of having 0:33:54.040 --> 0:33:58.200 studied or just watched by osmosis, how Tiger played that 0:33:58.400 --> 0:34:01.680 Jack didn't quite have. So that was the evolution. Tiger 0:34:01.720 --> 0:34:05.120 had just about everything, if not everything, and the short 0:34:05.160 --> 0:34:09.000 game was crucial to that, and Scotty is in that 0:34:09.280 --> 0:34:13.080 in that same you know, I skill set almost through 0:34:13.120 --> 0:34:15.880 the bag. You know he's got the power. It's not 0:34:16.040 --> 0:34:19.839 it's not quite Jack power, not quite Tiger power, but 0:34:19.880 --> 0:34:23.160 the iron play and everything else is of the same caliber, 0:34:23.719 --> 0:34:27.000 and the chipping is where he sets himself apart from 0:34:27.080 --> 0:34:30.680 Jack and approaches Tiger. And to your earlier point about 0:34:30.800 --> 0:34:34.359 changing speeds, I think that is the that is an 0:34:34.440 --> 0:34:37.959 ultimate skill. When you're that comfortable that you're not making 0:34:38.000 --> 0:34:40.960 mechanized golf swings over and over with you know, pretty 0:34:41.000 --> 0:34:43.600 much full force, because that's what you practice and that's 0:34:43.640 --> 0:34:45.840 all you really have, or that's all you're comfortable with 0:34:45.880 --> 0:34:48.520 in competition. When you can change speeds, then you're playing 0:34:48.560 --> 0:34:53.160 old school, in my opinion, artistic golf, whether it's Snead 0:34:53.239 --> 0:34:55.520 or Hogan. You heard about that all the time from 0:34:55.560 --> 0:34:58.399 old timers who's talked about how they would take something off. 0:34:58.640 --> 0:35:00.759 They didn't know exact yardages all the time. I mean 0:35:00.840 --> 0:35:02.719 not to say they didn't know the yardage, but it 0:35:02.760 --> 0:35:05.359 was more about the shot they saw. And I think 0:35:05.360 --> 0:35:07.880 Scotty has that gear and you know, I love that 0:35:07.920 --> 0:35:09.640 he can hit a soft driver and he's not always 0:35:09.719 --> 0:35:12.520 just pounding threewood or now the mini driver. I mean, 0:35:12.760 --> 0:35:15.240 guys are so unable to change speeds. They got to 0:35:15.040 --> 0:35:18.240 get a shorter driver they can swing at the same speed. 0:35:18.880 --> 0:35:21.920 You know. To me, it's that's a little bit of 0:35:21.960 --> 0:35:25.000 the de skilling of the game slightly and doesn't mean 0:35:25.040 --> 0:35:27.840 they're not great at what they do, but since that 0:35:27.920 --> 0:35:30.240 technology is available, I think it's kind of an easy 0:35:30.239 --> 0:35:33.239 way out. And I think Rory's gotten better because he's 0:35:33.320 --> 0:35:35.480 learning how to change speeds. I think it's kind of 0:35:35.520 --> 0:35:38.600 a last frontier for a real great play. 0:35:39.480 --> 0:35:42.000 Yeah. I think like if you want Rory, the way 0:35:42.040 --> 0:35:46.480 he drove it around Pinehurst last year was extraordinary. He 0:35:46.520 --> 0:35:49.840 had that low ball he I'll always think back. I 0:35:49.880 --> 0:35:53.000 think Taylor made did this video. I've referenced it on 0:35:53.040 --> 0:35:55.040 this podcast. It was a couple of years ago before 0:35:55.080 --> 0:35:58.120 the Open and they just had Scotty go through on 0:35:58.160 --> 0:36:00.520 the tee how he hits all of his driver and 0:36:00.560 --> 0:36:03.759 it's like he moves ball positions, he moves tea, he 0:36:03.840 --> 0:36:06.440 has different tea positions. He's like, this is my faaraway finder. 0:36:06.520 --> 0:36:09.000 Here's my kind of like stock driver. When I really 0:36:09.040 --> 0:36:11.759 want to go go at it, I do this and 0:36:11.760 --> 0:36:14.080 and it's like I think, I don't think like people 0:36:14.160 --> 0:36:17.319 think of Scotty necessarily as a golf artist, but like 0:36:17.719 --> 0:36:20.919 of all the modern players, I don't. I can't think 0:36:20.960 --> 0:36:23.759 of like a time where he's mentioned like, oh well, 0:36:23.800 --> 0:36:25.960 I was looking at my track man, and this is 0:36:26.040 --> 0:36:28.600 what what it told me. You know, like he I 0:36:28.640 --> 0:36:32.080 don't like, I don't associate him with the modern like 0:36:32.320 --> 0:36:35.200 obsessed with numbers. Like to me, like Scotty Shuffler in 0:36:35.200 --> 0:36:38.480 a way is like a polar opposite of Bryson to 0:36:38.560 --> 0:36:40.080 Shambeau and their approach to golf. 0:36:40.239 --> 0:36:43.000 He hit shots, you know, he hit shots, and it's 0:36:43.000 --> 0:36:45.320 fun to watch. And I if I have a bias 0:36:45.440 --> 0:36:46.920 towards what I'd like to see in the modern game. 0:36:46.960 --> 0:36:48.560 I like to see guys hitting more shots because I 0:36:48.560 --> 0:36:50.839 know they're capable. I just don't see as many of them. 0:36:51.200 --> 0:36:53.040 And it doesn't mean that they're not good, solid shots. 0:36:53.080 --> 0:36:55.880 They're hitting, but you don't sense they're fashioning a shot. 0:36:56.120 --> 0:36:57.879 You know, they're they're hitting a yardage and they're hitting 0:36:57.880 --> 0:37:01.560 the same shot and it's effective. But I think the 0:37:01.600 --> 0:37:04.560 majors ask a little bit more, and that's where I 0:37:04.600 --> 0:37:07.080 think you see guys like Scotty start to excel because 0:37:07.080 --> 0:37:08.320 they have more variety. 0:37:09.320 --> 0:37:12.960 I'm picking Scotty this week. I'm a little a little 0:37:13.120 --> 0:37:15.920 slightly worried about his like lead in I don't think 0:37:15.960 --> 0:37:19.359 like last week at Houston, I feel like was the 0:37:19.440 --> 0:37:21.640 first time that he had like a real chance to 0:37:21.680 --> 0:37:26.040 win a golf tournament even though he wasn't really a 0:37:26.080 --> 0:37:29.480 factor in the sense like on Saturday you were like, Okay, 0:37:29.480 --> 0:37:33.279 he's gonna win. Before Saturday's round, Scotty's gonna win, Like 0:37:33.520 --> 0:37:36.080 this is we've seen this before, but he didn't. And 0:37:36.120 --> 0:37:38.160 I think that's been the year. And I think like 0:37:38.200 --> 0:37:41.560 he's a little frustrated with the play this year. And 0:37:41.640 --> 0:37:44.080 obviously you know he had the hand injury. I don't 0:37:44.080 --> 0:37:46.680 think like I think he's a creature of habit and 0:37:46.920 --> 0:37:49.480 like it hasn't been talked about that much, but like 0:37:50.120 --> 0:37:54.560 his his habit, his habitual prep of a season got 0:37:54.560 --> 0:37:57.200 thrown off by the hand injury, and I think he's scrambling. 0:37:57.520 --> 0:37:59.960 But like at the end of the day, him at 0:38:00.080 --> 0:38:04.000 that golf course, I just like I would be shocked 0:38:04.200 --> 0:38:07.800 if he finished outside of the top five, Like shocked. 0:38:08.800 --> 0:38:12.239 I think that's a reasonable, uh projection. I do think 0:38:12.280 --> 0:38:16.760 three in a row is a big ask. And he's capable. 0:38:16.760 --> 0:38:19.160 I don't mean he's not. Uh. So that's the only 0:38:19.160 --> 0:38:22.360 thing that makes me not call him just the outright 0:38:22.400 --> 0:38:25.560 favorite uh. And it's got nothing to do with what 0:38:25.640 --> 0:38:27.960 he's capable of. I just think it's a mental burden 0:38:28.400 --> 0:38:30.440 and if he can just get into a vacuum and 0:38:30.480 --> 0:38:34.399 not and not make that the foremost thought, it helps him. 0:38:34.400 --> 0:38:38.200 But man, it'll be it'll be such a such an accomplishment, 0:38:38.640 --> 0:38:41.839 I mean talk about unprecedented. So uh, and I guess 0:38:41.880 --> 0:38:46.840 I'm biased towards rooting. I guess for history and a 0:38:46.960 --> 0:38:47.359 Rory win. 0:38:48.080 --> 0:38:51.279 Well, is that is that your co favorite? And is 0:38:51.320 --> 0:38:52.239 that your second thing? 0:38:53.000 --> 0:38:55.560 Sure? Yeah, I think it's both of ours. It's everybody 0:38:55.440 --> 0:38:58.160 say right now, yeah. 0:38:57.360 --> 0:38:59.279 I think you could. You could make one one a 0:38:59.480 --> 0:39:02.360 one one be but I think Scott at this tournament 0:39:02.480 --> 0:39:06.000 right now is about Scotty and Rory, and I think 0:39:06.040 --> 0:39:09.760 like it's pretty pretty easy to say that in twenty 0:39:09.800 --> 0:39:13.520 twenty five, Rory McElroy has been by far the best 0:39:13.520 --> 0:39:14.239 player in the world. 0:39:15.080 --> 0:39:19.160 Yeah, you know, yes, Yeah, the players was really impressive 0:39:19.160 --> 0:39:22.040 because he didn't drive it that great, but he did 0:39:22.080 --> 0:39:23.840 all the other stuff that You've been hoping that he 0:39:23.880 --> 0:39:26.359 would develop more as he got older, and he has. 0:39:27.080 --> 0:39:29.839 And so seeing Rory improve as a golfer has been 0:39:29.960 --> 0:39:33.360 very satisfying because it's well overdue in my opinion. I mean, 0:39:33.360 --> 0:39:36.040 he's almost thirty six and I think he's just coming 0:39:36.040 --> 0:39:39.239 into his prime as a as a complete player. Now 0:39:39.239 --> 0:39:41.759 he may have had more explosiveness, and you can't argue 0:39:41.760 --> 0:39:44.319 against four majors before the age of twenty six. But 0:39:44.640 --> 0:39:47.280 at the same time, I like the way he plays 0:39:47.320 --> 0:39:49.920 more now. I like that he's got more control of 0:39:49.960 --> 0:39:52.919 his wedges and he's hitting them lower, and he's flighting them, 0:39:52.920 --> 0:39:56.000 and he's playing a softer ball, and he's thinking about, 0:39:56.360 --> 0:39:59.160 you know, those that scoring area that he used to 0:39:59.160 --> 0:40:02.319 give away so much. After driving at three sixty and 0:40:02.320 --> 0:40:04.080 then having you know, one hundred and ten yards and 0:40:04.160 --> 0:40:06.920 hitting it to thirty feet that seemed to be just 0:40:07.000 --> 0:40:12.840 too prevalent. And I think now he's more aware of 0:40:12.840 --> 0:40:14.719 getting it in the fairway and maybe it only goes 0:40:14.760 --> 0:40:17.319 three to ten or something, and then really focus on 0:40:17.400 --> 0:40:20.920 that second shot, because you know, in talking to I 0:40:20.960 --> 0:40:23.440 think people who've really studied the great player, someone like 0:40:23.520 --> 0:40:27.880 David Letterman. Letterman especially no Ledbetter, who's you know, just 0:40:27.960 --> 0:40:33.360 intimately familiar with developing great players and working with them. 0:40:33.840 --> 0:40:36.239 It's the iron game is the thing that ends up 0:40:36.280 --> 0:40:39.520 separating them the most, especially at the toughest courses, and 0:40:39.560 --> 0:40:43.160 Faldo is you know a prime example, Nick Price Prime example. 0:40:43.600 --> 0:40:45.960 You know he's worked with everybody obviously, and he just 0:40:46.000 --> 0:40:50.920 feels like, yeah, you can be so you know, just 0:40:51.080 --> 0:40:54.160 overwhelmed with the with the talent of someone with speed 0:40:54.400 --> 0:40:58.080 hitting an incredible driver, but the thing that ends up 0:40:58.520 --> 0:41:01.440 winning them tournaments is just getting it on the green, 0:41:01.760 --> 0:41:04.960 pin high, with chances, over and over, with few mistakes. 0:41:05.440 --> 0:41:07.680 And I think Jack played that way. I remember once 0:41:07.719 --> 0:41:10.440 talking Arnold Palmer, what was the best part of Jack's game? 0:41:10.480 --> 0:41:12.920 He goes, Oh, his irons, his middle irons, He never 0:41:12.960 --> 0:41:15.120 missed the green. He goes, he was so hard to 0:41:15.120 --> 0:41:19.319 play against. I mean Trevino. People talk about Travino being 0:41:19.360 --> 0:41:22.080 the greatest ball striker other than Hogan or with Hogan, 0:41:22.520 --> 0:41:25.400 and you know it drove it perfectly so often. But 0:41:26.080 --> 0:41:29.720 the irons, the irons were always pin high. Johnny Miller, 0:41:30.800 --> 0:41:34.840 these are the geniuses of I think you know the 0:41:37.160 --> 0:41:40.120 best way to play, which is you know, you just 0:41:40.160 --> 0:41:42.560 don't You don't let yourselves have to scramble a lot, 0:41:43.520 --> 0:41:45.120 and you have control of the golf ball and you 0:41:45.160 --> 0:41:46.759 know where it's going to land. And I think it 0:41:46.880 --> 0:41:49.840 started with Byron Nelson and Hogan. I'm sure every player 0:41:49.960 --> 0:41:52.440 has played that. Barden probably played that way, but I 0:41:52.480 --> 0:41:55.399 just think it becomes more evident when you start looking 0:41:55.440 --> 0:41:59.120 at the differences in the majors and it's the Iron 0:41:59.160 --> 0:42:03.480 guys and Rory's not been there. Norman was never quite 0:42:03.520 --> 0:42:06.640 there as good as he was with the Irons. It 0:42:06.680 --> 0:42:08.120 was it was a bit of a weakness and it 0:42:08.200 --> 0:42:10.600 cost him a lot and he won a lot of 0:42:10.600 --> 0:42:13.719 tournaments obviously, but it was hard in majors to capitalize 0:42:13.719 --> 0:42:16.640 because he would make the mistake and Rory's made the mistake. 0:42:16.719 --> 0:42:18.360 And I think he's just making fewer of him and 0:42:18.400 --> 0:42:20.600 it's it's made him more likely to do it. 0:42:20.640 --> 0:42:25.560 Finally, I think, you know something that gets a little 0:42:25.560 --> 0:42:29.200 glossed over also is the short game. How good the 0:42:29.239 --> 0:42:31.959 short game is for Ror? I mean you you watched 0:42:32.000 --> 0:42:35.839 that final round of of at Pinehurst number two and 0:42:36.440 --> 0:42:38.600 you see the up and downs that he made that 0:42:38.680 --> 0:42:41.600 kept that round going, that got him into the position 0:42:41.719 --> 0:42:44.480 to be ahead, and it was, you know, the short 0:42:44.520 --> 0:42:47.239 game was the thing that that got got him through that. 0:42:47.400 --> 0:42:51.240 And I think, like I think what's interesting about Rory. 0:42:52.320 --> 0:42:55.160 I think the maturation, as we talked about, like he 0:42:55.280 --> 0:42:57.640 has evolved as a player, and I think like one 0:42:57.640 --> 0:43:01.520 of the things as he's grown into his thirty I think, 0:43:01.560 --> 0:43:07.759 like with golf, everybody told him, like, you can overpower, 0:43:07.840 --> 0:43:10.279 you can manhandle a golf course, you can do this, 0:43:10.520 --> 0:43:14.399 and that was when you become focused on like that, Well, 0:43:14.480 --> 0:43:16.560 that's my game plan, that's what I have to do. 0:43:17.360 --> 0:43:19.560 I think, like what he's realized is like, I'm going 0:43:19.600 --> 0:43:22.080 to overpower a golf course, whether I try to or not, 0:43:22.680 --> 0:43:26.600 like that that's just going to happen. And what's changed 0:43:26.719 --> 0:43:29.839 is in the recent years where he's become this extraordinary 0:43:30.000 --> 0:43:33.680 US Open player where the golf is the hardest. What's 0:43:33.760 --> 0:43:36.919 changed over the years is he and especially I think 0:43:36.960 --> 0:43:39.839 this year when he talked about I want to play 0:43:39.880 --> 0:43:43.960 more like Scotti, is the realization that what he has 0:43:44.040 --> 0:43:50.000 to do is just avoid disasters because and I think 0:43:50.040 --> 0:43:53.960 at Augustin National he is going to run into birdies. 0:43:54.400 --> 0:43:58.120 I would find it hard hard for him to have 0:43:58.200 --> 0:44:02.239 a week where he doesn't doesn't make you know, seventeen 0:44:02.280 --> 0:44:06.080 birdies at Augusta National. And when you start to think 0:44:06.120 --> 0:44:09.880 about it, like if I make sixteen seventeen birdies on 0:44:10.400 --> 0:44:13.640 a low, like if I'm going to run into those birdies, 0:44:14.800 --> 0:44:17.600 then I've done enough to win the tournament if I 0:44:17.719 --> 0:44:19.279 limit my mistakes. 0:44:19.280 --> 0:44:22.520 Well said, yeah, I agree with that. You know, it's 0:44:22.960 --> 0:44:25.400 very fortiate. Just the last couple of days, I was 0:44:25.400 --> 0:44:28.880 on the West Coast and played pebble, which and you know, 0:44:28.920 --> 0:44:32.000 so I had to talk to a small group about 0:44:32.239 --> 0:44:35.479 pebble and its history. And you know, Tiger in two 0:44:35.520 --> 0:44:39.719 thousand there were three round shot with no bogies, and 0:44:39.800 --> 0:44:42.960 he shot two of them, including that last round, which 0:44:43.000 --> 0:44:45.040 it sort of made it his goal. Sometimes I think 0:44:45.080 --> 0:44:48.160 if Rory had a goal of no bogies and he 0:44:48.920 --> 0:44:53.239 forced him to back off slightly on certain shots, he 0:44:53.280 --> 0:44:58.560 would have won maybe a major or two more. And 0:44:58.600 --> 0:45:01.280 to your point about the short game, I think about 0:45:01.960 --> 0:45:05.760 twenty twenty two at San Andrews, where he had so many, 0:45:05.840 --> 0:45:09.359 you know, seems like sixty seventy thirty one hundred and 0:45:09.360 --> 0:45:11.719 five yard second shots because of the nature of the 0:45:11.719 --> 0:45:16.720 golf course there and never got it close and it showed. 0:45:17.360 --> 0:45:21.279 And Cameron Smith, who you know, doesn't have Rory's long game, 0:45:21.320 --> 0:45:23.919 but he's got incredible hands in a wonderful short game, 0:45:23.920 --> 0:45:26.560 obviously great with the wedges, and that made a huge difference. 0:45:26.560 --> 0:45:27.960 He made a bunch of putts too, but he was 0:45:28.560 --> 0:45:30.880 in position to make him because he had that finesse 0:45:30.880 --> 0:45:35.320 and that variety with his wedges and so yes, Rory 0:45:35.360 --> 0:45:39.880 I think learned, whether he's verbalized it about that specific tournament, 0:45:39.920 --> 0:45:42.960 that he had to improve those that area. And it'd 0:45:43.000 --> 0:45:45.399 been a while where he you know, he was kind 0:45:45.400 --> 0:45:47.880 of mistake prone with I used to call it soft bogies. 0:45:47.960 --> 0:45:51.200 You know, he'd miss a green by four feet and 0:45:51.200 --> 0:45:54.160 he'd have a thirty foot thirty foot chip and leave 0:45:54.160 --> 0:45:56.160 it six feet short or something to miss it, and 0:45:56.200 --> 0:45:58.799 that those are maddening kind of bogies, especially for a 0:45:58.800 --> 0:46:01.480 great player. He just you know, Tiger didn't make those 0:46:01.520 --> 0:46:05.600 kind of bogies. And and so you know, whereas he's 0:46:05.640 --> 0:46:07.840 he's learned to play more like Scotty, which is great, 0:46:09.000 --> 0:46:13.680 that's also more Tiger like. And I think Tiger really 0:46:13.840 --> 0:46:17.160 took pride in par putts and saving pars almost more 0:46:17.200 --> 0:46:20.320 than he did birdies. And the birdies came as he 0:46:20.400 --> 0:46:22.000 run into him. I just said, he couldn't help, but 0:46:22.040 --> 0:46:23.640 he was too good. And just like Wordy's too good, 0:46:23.760 --> 0:46:26.479 He's going to run the bog birdies, but stay away 0:46:26.480 --> 0:46:28.480 from the bogies, like Travino would say, you know, keep 0:46:28.520 --> 0:46:30.799 your birdies and and word to make it hard on 0:46:30.880 --> 0:46:36.160 himself with soft bogies. And I think, you know, it's 0:46:36.200 --> 0:46:38.439 it's it's only natural that he would he would pick 0:46:38.520 --> 0:46:42.040 up on that. Uh and and and I thought the 0:46:42.080 --> 0:46:44.920 players was a great indicator that he even the par 0:46:45.000 --> 0:46:47.080 on eight on the seventy second hole. That was huge. 0:46:47.200 --> 0:46:48.680 You know, it was a kind of a it was 0:46:48.680 --> 0:46:50.600 a rough par It was a grinded out part. He 0:46:50.600 --> 0:46:52.680 had to make that four footer. I'm glad that went 0:46:52.719 --> 0:46:54.960 in because that would have been devastating, but he did it. 0:46:55.400 --> 0:46:57.719 And I think that's something that he can carry into 0:46:57.760 --> 0:46:58.640 the Masters. 0:46:59.160 --> 0:47:02.320 Yeah. I I think that putt on the seventy second 0:47:02.320 --> 0:47:08.319 hole was extraordinarily huge for his psyche, whether you know, 0:47:08.440 --> 0:47:11.240 like and you saw it right away on the first 0:47:11.280 --> 0:47:13.719 hole of the playoff he had a similar putt. Yeah, 0:47:13.719 --> 0:47:16.320 And that was that was as good as good of 0:47:16.360 --> 0:47:19.880 a putt as you could hit there, like the pace, 0:47:20.120 --> 0:47:22.200 the way it went into the hole. It was a 0:47:22.200 --> 0:47:24.680 perfect putt. And it almost feels like that was like 0:47:24.719 --> 0:47:29.280 a barrier to pass since the since Pinehurst. 0:47:29.680 --> 0:47:32.960 And quickly to say also very quickly you know, making 0:47:32.960 --> 0:47:36.680 that putt, I think it it on seventy second hole, 0:47:36.920 --> 0:47:38.239 and even though he had a wait and sign the 0:47:38.239 --> 0:47:41.640 scorecard and everything, that drive on the first playoff hole 0:47:41.800 --> 0:47:45.319 was you know, insane, and I just I think he 0:47:45.480 --> 0:47:47.839 was just completely liberated because he felt so good about 0:47:47.920 --> 0:47:50.720 himself and he just let it go. Yeah. 0:47:51.400 --> 0:47:56.399 He he's at LACC at Pinehurst. I feel like when 0:47:56.440 --> 0:47:59.440 he's in contention that first T shot, where most people 0:47:59.560 --> 0:48:02.840 have a lot of nerves, he has been extraordinarily good 0:48:03.120 --> 0:48:06.520 in those, like those first T shot, setting the tone 0:48:06.640 --> 0:48:09.480 and getting into a round. In the recent years, I 0:48:09.480 --> 0:48:11.279 think like what you said about the wedges is so 0:48:12.280 --> 0:48:15.480 spot on with with with Saint Andrews, and then you 0:48:15.520 --> 0:48:19.200 could extend it to l a CC. You know, what 0:48:19.360 --> 0:48:21.520 got him in trouble in the final round the you 0:48:21.520 --> 0:48:25.000 know the probably the faithful shot was a wedge where 0:48:25.000 --> 0:48:28.960 he particularly had to take the speed off. And I 0:48:29.000 --> 0:48:32.560 think like this year it seems like with the ball 0:48:32.640 --> 0:48:35.719 switch and everything, the wedges are at a level that 0:48:36.040 --> 0:48:39.560 they haven't been And I think that's you know, if 0:48:39.560 --> 0:48:42.200 you're if you're making a case for for Rory McElroy, 0:48:42.239 --> 0:48:45.720 I think this is this is the best I think, 0:48:46.600 --> 0:48:48.480 you know, we talked a little bit at the at 0:48:48.520 --> 0:48:51.600 the very top. You touched on athletes that just like 0:48:51.719 --> 0:48:53.880 and you said it with with the Tiger piece. The 0:48:54.040 --> 0:48:56.560 essence of getting that Tiger piece in ninety six was 0:48:56.600 --> 0:48:59.960 getting that like this wasn't isn't over after the first math. 0:49:00.760 --> 0:49:04.040 Rory mclroy's a rare one when you look at look 0:49:04.120 --> 0:49:07.680 at the Lebrons, the tom Brady's, the you know, Tiger Woods, 0:49:07.760 --> 0:49:11.759 these athletes that that have like desire, like Rory mc 0:49:12.280 --> 0:49:16.200 roy's won so much money. He's in this era where 0:49:17.080 --> 0:49:21.200 careers are not long and it takes a lot of 0:49:21.320 --> 0:49:23.160 effort to stay at the top of the game. And 0:49:23.200 --> 0:49:26.160 anybody that disagrees with this just look at Dustin Johnson, 0:49:26.520 --> 0:49:29.640 like you see, like these guys aren't so talented that 0:49:29.680 --> 0:49:32.000 they just wake up in their top ten players in 0:49:32.040 --> 0:49:36.760 the world. You it takes effort and continual focus and 0:49:36.920 --> 0:49:40.000 at the core when once you've crossed the money threshold 0:49:40.040 --> 0:49:43.040 of having more money than you ever imagined, once you've 0:49:43.080 --> 0:49:46.240 crossed that, like at the end of the day, what 0:49:46.640 --> 0:49:50.239 drives you is is competitive fire and wanting to be 0:49:50.320 --> 0:49:52.040 one of the greatest of all time. And I think, 0:49:52.080 --> 0:49:54.880 like I think like that's one of the things with 0:49:55.000 --> 0:49:58.359 Rory is like at you know, he clearly wants to 0:49:58.440 --> 0:50:02.719 be one of the greatest. And I think he's obviously 0:50:02.760 --> 0:50:04.640 a Hall of Famer. He's one of the best of 0:50:04.920 --> 0:50:08.120 the generation, if not the best of the generation. And 0:50:08.200 --> 0:50:11.720 I think, like Brooks having five majors, is he wants 0:50:11.760 --> 0:50:14.600 to have more majors than anybody in the generation has. 0:50:14.719 --> 0:50:19.240 I'm glad to hear you know that articulated. I think 0:50:19.960 --> 0:50:22.640 it's hard to, you know, rewire yourself. I don't think 0:50:23.239 --> 0:50:28.520 Rory's quite wired like Tiger or Tom Brady or Lebron maybe, 0:50:28.920 --> 0:50:33.000 or I would say more Jordan than Lebron. Lebron to 0:50:33.040 --> 0:50:37.520 me is I mean, let mean I talk basketball, he's amazing. 0:50:38.280 --> 0:50:41.640 He's not as intense to me and as and as 0:50:41.960 --> 0:50:46.520 just you know, nails under pressure as Jordan was. And 0:50:46.600 --> 0:50:49.600 I'd say the same about Rory and Tiger, not that 0:50:49.640 --> 0:50:52.200 there's a direct comparison. I mean, some people think Lebron's 0:50:52.200 --> 0:50:54.600 the greatest player ever, and I don't think anybody thinks 0:50:54.800 --> 0:50:58.080 Rory's better than Tiger. But I think, you know, I 0:50:58.080 --> 0:51:02.720 think Rory has gained appreciate for his gift. It's so enduring, 0:51:02.760 --> 0:51:05.520 He's so gifted physically, why not make the most of it, 0:51:05.719 --> 0:51:08.799 and yeah, you've left some, you left some, let some go, 0:51:09.280 --> 0:51:11.560 but you also got an incredible start and maybe you 0:51:11.560 --> 0:51:14.680 can bookend this career now with a great ending. And 0:51:14.960 --> 0:51:16.360 I think you know, he's playing for the love of 0:51:16.360 --> 0:51:18.680 the game. You know, you talk to sports psychologists and 0:51:18.680 --> 0:51:22.120 it's it's almost the most important question. Why do you play? 0:51:22.640 --> 0:51:24.319 You know, And it is for money, and it is 0:51:24.480 --> 0:51:28.640 which is fine, you know, that's that's a motivator for 0:51:28.719 --> 0:51:31.160 a while, but it's not enduring. But if you play 0:51:31.200 --> 0:51:34.399 for just the inique, you know, intrinsic joy of it, 0:51:35.719 --> 0:51:39.399 that's what keeps you going in a way that's more 0:51:39.480 --> 0:51:42.000 meaningful as you get older. And I think he might 0:51:42.040 --> 0:51:43.319 be in that sweet spot right now. 0:51:44.440 --> 0:51:50.520 Yeah, I think he's. It's I think he's becoming It's 0:51:50.560 --> 0:51:53.360 so rare to see someone in this era just become 0:51:54.080 --> 0:51:57.160 more and more complete when they had the early success. 0:51:57.440 --> 0:51:59.440 Like I think you see guys like Russell Henley and 0:51:59.480 --> 0:52:01.759 you could say, oh, Russell Henley is the best he's 0:52:01.800 --> 0:52:03.799 ever been into his mid thirties and you see that, 0:52:04.200 --> 0:52:08.720 but rarely is it like he has amazing success. There's 0:52:08.920 --> 0:52:12.279 a period of years where he's still having a lot 0:52:12.280 --> 0:52:14.560 of success, but maybe it's not at that level that 0:52:14.600 --> 0:52:16.680 we we thought it was going to be. And now 0:52:16.719 --> 0:52:20.960 he seems to ascend it to a different level. And 0:52:21.160 --> 0:52:24.680 I yeah, I'm I'm fascinating. You know. I hope for 0:52:24.800 --> 0:52:28.440 him he gets this thing done. And you know, I 0:52:28.440 --> 0:52:31.960 think that that would be the best story. Is this 0:52:32.040 --> 0:52:36.200 guy that everybody said was was tailor made to take 0:52:36.200 --> 0:52:40.439 down Augusta National, has banged his head against the wall 0:52:40.520 --> 0:52:43.600 for so many years and finally gets it done. I 0:52:43.600 --> 0:52:47.040 think it is, Uh, it is probably you know, the 0:52:47.120 --> 0:52:49.799 best possible story coming out of this Master. 0:52:49.719 --> 0:52:53.600 Top top five all time Master story. I think you 0:52:53.960 --> 0:52:54.959 would make the top five. 0:52:55.120 --> 0:52:59.360 Yeah, eighty six Jack in twenty nineteen, Tiger are artist, 0:53:00.360 --> 0:53:03.400 extraordinary masters? What's next on your list? 0:53:03.840 --> 0:53:05.520 Oh gosh, let's see. 0:53:06.360 --> 0:53:08.279 You know, he got through the behemoths. 0:53:08.360 --> 0:53:10.759 Here we talk about Ram and you know, Deshambo and 0:53:10.800 --> 0:53:15.600 the live guys. It's just intriguing. It's fascinating what I 0:53:15.680 --> 0:53:19.480 have these guys retained what they had or has it 0:53:19.520 --> 0:53:23.080 been eroded? Do they have even more because they got, 0:53:23.280 --> 0:53:25.959 you know, something to prove. I think Bryson's in a way, 0:53:26.040 --> 0:53:30.759 you know, he's still on the high from the US Open, 0:53:31.000 --> 0:53:33.360 and he might be feeling really good about himself. And 0:53:33.400 --> 0:53:35.440 he I think was T six last year. I mean, 0:53:35.480 --> 0:53:38.960 he's very capable at Augusta. I don't buy that, you know, yeah, 0:53:39.000 --> 0:53:41.040 he doesn't have the classic Augusta game because he's not 0:53:41.440 --> 0:53:45.560 really a touch guy. Having said that, what was outstanding 0:53:45.600 --> 0:53:49.759 at Pinehurst I think his his his scrambling, at his 0:53:49.840 --> 0:53:54.399 ability to recover, and obviously on the seventy second hole, 0:53:54.480 --> 0:53:56.560 but you know a lot of shots from kind of 0:53:56.600 --> 0:53:59.400 the hard pan there in the natural areas were just 0:53:59.560 --> 0:54:03.480 pinched beautifully and he's gotten better. He got better at that. 0:54:04.120 --> 0:54:08.480 I believe in Bryson's work ethic and how he focuses 0:54:08.520 --> 0:54:10.719 on a weakness and makes it better and maybe even 0:54:10.719 --> 0:54:14.080 a strength. And so I don't think he's you know, 0:54:14.320 --> 0:54:17.319 trapped by his style of player, by his you know, 0:54:17.960 --> 0:54:20.680 approach to the game. I think it's flexible and I 0:54:20.680 --> 0:54:23.160 think we've seen him get more accurate and slightly shorter 0:54:23.200 --> 0:54:26.319 with the driver and focus more on his control and 0:54:27.080 --> 0:54:30.719 excellent putter. Gotta say, you know, we don't see him 0:54:30.719 --> 0:54:32.279 that much. Obviously he's playing it live. But he shot 0:54:32.280 --> 0:54:35.160 his fifty eight. But you wonder week the week whether 0:54:35.200 --> 0:54:38.360 it can possibly mean enough to really bring out your best. 0:54:38.920 --> 0:54:43.480 But these majors now are so vital to their credibility 0:54:43.520 --> 0:54:47.160 as players. It's one of their few shots. And Ram's 0:54:47.160 --> 0:54:49.520 a different case. You know. I don't think Rom has 0:54:50.080 --> 0:54:51.920 you know, fulfilled himself in the way he would have 0:54:52.040 --> 0:54:55.239 liked to in these intervening years since signing with Live 0:54:55.760 --> 0:54:57.920 or interviewing. A couple of years as all it is, 0:54:57.960 --> 0:55:00.000 but it seems like a long time because he's been missed, 0:55:00.800 --> 0:55:03.360 and I have no doubt he's still got the same ability. 0:55:04.400 --> 0:55:08.360 But does he have the mental state that's going to 0:55:08.400 --> 0:55:09.840 bring out his best or is he going to be 0:55:10.280 --> 0:55:13.520 you know, trying too hard, pushing and pressing because he's 0:55:13.560 --> 0:55:16.360 got so much to prove. Will he be impatient because 0:55:16.360 --> 0:55:21.319 he's been discouraged and angry about maybe no merger? You 0:55:21.360 --> 0:55:23.759 know who knows those are He'll never probably even be 0:55:23.760 --> 0:55:27.399 able to answer those questions unless there's time that kind 0:55:27.440 --> 0:55:30.799 of gives him the perspective to But I sense that 0:55:31.120 --> 0:55:34.440 it's not optimal where he is, and I think that 0:55:34.560 --> 0:55:37.320 was the risk and in a way the price he 0:55:37.400 --> 0:55:42.279 paid for taking taking the money. You know, he may 0:55:42.320 --> 0:55:47.040 have forfeited his best years to achieve greatness, historical greatness, 0:55:47.480 --> 0:55:49.160 and now he might be impatient to try to make 0:55:49.239 --> 0:55:49.600 up for that. 0:55:50.960 --> 0:55:53.920 I think, like, I think he's someone that gets really 0:55:53.960 --> 0:55:57.720 frustrated when someone when he doesn't get the recognition he needs. 0:55:57.920 --> 0:56:01.919 Rob I think if you look at the analytics, they 0:56:01.920 --> 0:56:05.719 say he's still in the top end of golf, but 0:56:05.840 --> 0:56:08.200 the fact that he hasn't won it a high clip 0:56:08.200 --> 0:56:11.800 there and that people say, well, you haven't won it 0:56:11.800 --> 0:56:16.319 a high clip, he's extraordinarily frustrated. Does that make me 0:56:16.440 --> 0:56:20.320 think that he shouldn't be absolutely a top five favorite 0:56:20.320 --> 0:56:24.120 this week? No? And I think I think rom is 0:56:24.520 --> 0:56:29.800 a fascinating story. I would extend the live conversation to Brooks, 0:56:30.120 --> 0:56:34.319 Cameron Smith, and Joaquin Neeman as well. I think that 0:56:34.920 --> 0:56:39.040 you know Brooks Is, Brooks has gone from this player 0:56:39.280 --> 0:56:45.520 that was a like, well, like it's a major Brooks 0:56:45.560 --> 0:56:48.600 Brooks is there, like he is like, how do you 0:56:48.640 --> 0:56:51.319 not say he's the favorite or you know, in the 0:56:51.360 --> 0:56:54.200 top three. So we've moved into this phase with Brooks 0:56:54.239 --> 0:56:58.320 where it's like, well he could win, he could also 0:56:58.400 --> 0:57:02.360 finish forty second, and you know it's like we really 0:57:02.400 --> 0:57:05.720 it's really kind of like a box of chocolates type 0:57:05.960 --> 0:57:09.120 situation with Brooks Koepka, like, would you if he won 0:57:09.960 --> 0:57:11.400 next week, would you be surprised? 0:57:11.800 --> 0:57:14.120 I would be. But I was surprised when he won 0:57:14.160 --> 0:57:17.960 the PGA, you know, because first of all, it looked 0:57:18.000 --> 0:57:20.600 like his career was really threatened. It might even in 0:57:20.600 --> 0:57:23.760 his mind been very close to over and probably motivated 0:57:23.840 --> 0:57:26.400 him to sign would live and then to see him 0:57:26.640 --> 0:57:30.440 recover physically enough to win another major and then you know, 0:57:32.000 --> 0:57:36.480 still be still have the firepower in his game is 0:57:36.760 --> 0:57:41.400 an eye opener. But I don't know. I just feel 0:57:41.440 --> 0:57:44.400 like this has been a deadening period for those guys, 0:57:45.040 --> 0:57:47.840 and it's hard to turn it on and off motivation wise, 0:57:49.120 --> 0:57:51.280 or at least I won't say motivation. They may be 0:57:51.400 --> 0:57:56.600 very motivated in terms of really missing being at the 0:57:56.600 --> 0:57:58.720 top of the game or considered the top of the game, 0:57:59.240 --> 0:58:03.840 but it takes, you know, kind of a disciplined routine 0:58:03.960 --> 0:58:08.080 to stay mentally focused, and once you slack off on that, 0:58:09.000 --> 0:58:11.120 it just like golf. It's just like the physical part 0:58:11.120 --> 0:58:14.400 of golf, you develop bad mental habits. And I don't 0:58:14.440 --> 0:58:16.120 know that he has. I'm not saying that, I'm only 0:58:16.160 --> 0:58:19.240 saying I think it's an extra layer of difficulty when 0:58:19.280 --> 0:58:21.760 you have to try to, you know, turn the faucet 0:58:21.800 --> 0:58:24.680 on and off, whereas you know someone like Scotty or Rory. 0:58:25.160 --> 0:58:30.280 It's a more consistent approach of mental intensity and not 0:58:30.320 --> 0:58:32.640 taking your foot off the gas because you're gonna get 0:58:32.680 --> 0:58:34.800 you know, you're gonna get passed, you're gonna get boat raced. 0:58:35.160 --> 0:58:37.840 If you're not sharp mentally out on the PGA Tour, 0:58:38.440 --> 0:58:40.600 you may not win. And I'm not saying they're optimal 0:58:40.680 --> 0:58:43.640 every week, but they're closer to it. And so that's 0:58:44.000 --> 0:58:47.280 and Brooks has been I think, you know, almost unique 0:58:47.400 --> 0:58:50.600 in that he's got five majors and yet you never 0:58:50.640 --> 0:58:52.840 thought of him as a week to week guy, as 0:58:52.880 --> 0:58:55.920 a favorite, you know, on the PGA Tour. You always thought, well, 0:58:56.160 --> 0:58:59.000 he's saved him for the majors and he could do that, 0:58:59.360 --> 0:59:02.600 and so maybe he still can. But I I don't know. 0:59:03.320 --> 0:59:05.480 I've always been so impressed with Brooks when he's won, 0:59:05.600 --> 0:59:09.040 because he's so together, through the through the bag, excellent putter, 0:59:09.120 --> 0:59:11.040 great chipper. You look at him, you know, he looks 0:59:11.040 --> 0:59:13.360 like a power guy, but he's really a touch guy too. 0:59:13.920 --> 0:59:16.320 But he's also a guy who has I think a 0:59:16.440 --> 0:59:19.760 challenge caring enough, carrying enough to really make it important. 0:59:20.040 --> 0:59:24.280 Obviously the Major's brought that out, will they still? I 0:59:24.800 --> 0:59:27.080 think there's doubt that's all. 0:59:27.280 --> 0:59:30.320 Yeah. I And I think that something that doesn't get 0:59:30.360 --> 0:59:34.440 talked about a little bit is like what is brooks Kepka? 0:59:34.600 --> 0:59:36.880 What would he be if he was playing every week 0:59:36.920 --> 0:59:39.360 on the PGA Tour right now? And I think like 0:59:39.800 --> 0:59:42.560 something that doesn't get talked about is like if if 0:59:42.560 --> 0:59:45.040 you went on the range five or five or six 0:59:45.120 --> 0:59:49.640 years ago, they seven years ago, and watched brooks Kopka, 0:59:50.000 --> 0:59:53.680 you would be in awe of him hitting a driver. 0:59:54.880 --> 0:59:57.160 And I think the way the game has changed and 0:59:57.360 --> 1:00:00.680 physically for him, you know, he's had physical issues that 1:00:00.720 --> 1:00:03.240 he's had to overcome. I think if you go on 1:00:03.280 --> 1:00:05.200 the range and watch him hit a driver right now, 1:00:05.440 --> 1:00:08.400 it's not You're not like, oh Wow, this guy is 1:00:08.760 --> 1:00:11.920 like a completely different tier than these other guys. Like 1:00:12.440 --> 1:00:15.280 part of it is that the youth there are more 1:00:15.320 --> 1:00:18.600 people that drive the ball like brooks Kopka, And part 1:00:18.640 --> 1:00:21.560 of it is like where a player like Rory who 1:00:21.800 --> 1:00:24.160 was you know that has been that way his whole 1:00:24.160 --> 1:00:27.360 career has continued to send Brooks has kind of stayed 1:00:27.360 --> 1:00:30.880 the same. And I think when when you talk about 1:00:31.600 --> 1:00:33.520 and this has happened, I think this has been like 1:00:33.600 --> 1:00:35.560 kind of the story of Ricky Fowler, it's been the 1:00:35.600 --> 1:00:40.000 story of Justin Thomas, is that if you don't keep 1:00:40.040 --> 1:00:44.000 improving that great skill, these young players are going to 1:00:44.040 --> 1:00:47.560 come in and push that great skill down. And I think, like, 1:00:47.600 --> 1:00:51.160 if you look at from just strictly a skill standpoint, 1:00:51.560 --> 1:00:54.760 Brooks Kepka isn't as overwhelming of a player as he 1:00:54.880 --> 1:00:56.840 used to be because that off the t game has 1:00:56.960 --> 1:00:59.680 maybe gone from he's a top ten player with that 1:00:59.760 --> 1:01:03.040 drive everyone is cooking, to he's a top twenty five player. 1:01:03.160 --> 1:01:06.240 And that's a big fall like that, that's going from 1:01:06.280 --> 1:01:11.040 like I'm an ultra elite player to a a very 1:01:11.080 --> 1:01:14.280 good player, and that's in golf where the margins are 1:01:14.280 --> 1:01:17.880 so small, especially in major championships, that's a big deal. 1:01:17.920 --> 1:01:21.560 I remember watching him, Rory and Gordon Sargent play a 1:01:21.600 --> 1:01:24.680 practice round years ago and I was in awe of 1:01:24.800 --> 1:01:27.320 where and I think Brooks at that point was physically 1:01:27.400 --> 1:01:29.959 not in a good spot. But I'm looking at him like, God, 1:01:29.960 --> 1:01:33.439 he's forty yards behind these guys, you know, and that's 1:01:33.440 --> 1:01:37.720 not you know that that's something to be noted, you know. 1:01:37.760 --> 1:01:40.640 On the Cameron Smith aspect, I just I just wonder, 1:01:41.320 --> 1:01:43.720 you know, we this is the thing with liv and 1:01:43.800 --> 1:01:46.280 we just talked about with Rom, like, I just wonder 1:01:46.400 --> 1:01:50.760 what Live makes guys. This is the perfect golf course 1:01:50.800 --> 1:01:55.880 for Cameron Smith. He's he's been okay in majors, Like 1:01:55.920 --> 1:01:58.920 we haven't seen him at that twenty twenty two level, 1:01:58.960 --> 1:02:01.040 but that you know, getting to a point where it's 1:02:01.040 --> 1:02:05.280 a long time ago now and and I'm just curious, 1:02:05.280 --> 1:02:07.959 like what what it is we'll get from him. He's 1:02:08.000 --> 1:02:10.320 one of my favorite players to watch when he's in 1:02:10.400 --> 1:02:13.040 the mix, and that's been you know, one of the 1:02:13.800 --> 1:02:16.160 one of the departures I've been most sad about because 1:02:16.160 --> 1:02:19.520 I just enjoyed watching him play golf against the best 1:02:19.520 --> 1:02:20.320 players in the world. 1:02:20.800 --> 1:02:25.320 Yeah, I really I love guys with Cameron Smith's skill set. 1:02:25.320 --> 1:02:29.840 I love great wedge players, great finesse, and and that's 1:02:29.880 --> 1:02:32.000 the art of the game in many ways. And but 1:02:32.080 --> 1:02:34.640 I do kind of equate him, and I don't think 1:02:34.640 --> 1:02:37.560 it's a coincidence with Patrick Reid, who maybe even had 1:02:38.200 --> 1:02:44.400 a better short game than than Cameron, and they both 1:02:44.880 --> 1:02:49.680 you know, declined and again and they're very different people. 1:02:49.720 --> 1:02:52.360 And I always thought of Patrick Reid as extremely hungry 1:02:52.360 --> 1:02:55.760 and extremely competitive, but he seems satisfied. I mean, he's 1:02:55.800 --> 1:02:59.680 really dropped off. Cameron Smith would gave us kind of 1:02:59.760 --> 1:03:02.720 intoation years ago when they I don't know it was 1:03:02.760 --> 1:03:06.800 an interview from Australian journalist or not, but he talked about, 1:03:06.840 --> 1:03:10.200 you knows, he hoped to, you know, win some championships maybe, 1:03:10.200 --> 1:03:12.520 but really what he wanted to do is sit back 1:03:12.560 --> 1:03:15.880 and open a coffee shop in Melbourne or Sydney or somewhere, 1:03:15.920 --> 1:03:19.320 you know. And I don't know that's I don't think 1:03:19.320 --> 1:03:22.919 you ignore that kind of comment, especially look at someone 1:03:22.920 --> 1:03:26.200 like DJ so talented. I mean, DJ was the best 1:03:26.280 --> 1:03:31.160 number one as far as you know, sustained excellence after Tiger, 1:03:31.720 --> 1:03:34.680 and now DJ looks like he's semi retired. 1:03:36.040 --> 1:03:40.760 DJ will never get the credit he's deserved of the 1:03:40.880 --> 1:03:43.040 twelve year run that he had no. 1:03:43.600 --> 1:03:46.720 Real fine with it than him. Yeah, and that's I 1:03:46.720 --> 1:03:49.240 think the secret to him. You know, I don't think 1:03:49.240 --> 1:03:52.440 he's got any regrets, you know, greatness and all that 1:03:52.680 --> 1:03:55.680 historical It just maybe it will when he's sixty years old. 1:03:55.720 --> 1:03:58.240 But at the moment, I don't think it moves him 1:03:58.320 --> 1:04:01.240 very much. So he's the kind of guy that you know, 1:04:01.360 --> 1:04:05.080 made the right call for himself, probably strictly from you know, 1:04:06.160 --> 1:04:11.640 economic factors, so you know, you know, we're talking about 1:04:11.760 --> 1:04:15.520 these guys. There is an edge. There is an edge 1:04:15.520 --> 1:04:18.000 you need. Tiger kept it for a long time. I'm 1:04:18.040 --> 1:04:21.240 sure it takes a toll on you as far as 1:04:21.280 --> 1:04:25.000 the stress level of your life. And and maybe you're 1:04:25.520 --> 1:04:29.840 you know, you're the balance in your life. But the 1:04:29.920 --> 1:04:33.400 really great ones and Jack was maybe the model he 1:04:34.280 --> 1:04:39.480 somehow kept to all accounts, you know, a very balanced 1:04:39.520 --> 1:04:42.560 life while still being the greatest player. But in general 1:04:42.720 --> 1:04:45.480 it's hard to have both. And those guys now have 1:04:45.560 --> 1:04:49.040 probably a more balanced life and fun life off the course, 1:04:49.120 --> 1:04:52.080 but it does sacrifice the edge that you need to 1:04:52.080 --> 1:04:53.000 win championships. 1:04:53.200 --> 1:04:56.720 I think I completely agree, and I think it's under 1:04:56.720 --> 1:05:01.080 talked about in terms of golfers. Is and and Live 1:05:01.240 --> 1:05:04.920 was this this whether no matter what you say about 1:05:05.120 --> 1:05:07.920 the if you're Live fan, if you're if you like 1:05:08.080 --> 1:05:12.080 the formatting, Live was a change. And I think, like 1:05:12.120 --> 1:05:18.760 when you talk about golfers, golfers, in order to be great, 1:05:19.120 --> 1:05:23.920 you have to inherently be very selfish and if you 1:05:23.960 --> 1:05:29.120 think about like things that are can potentially, you know, 1:05:29.680 --> 1:05:34.560 derail you being great players like life changes and live 1:05:34.680 --> 1:05:37.040 presented a life change for all these guys. I think 1:05:37.040 --> 1:05:40.440 it's made Bryson better. I think that that format is 1:05:40.960 --> 1:05:45.240 better for Bryson than the week in, week out. Yeah, 1:05:45.560 --> 1:05:48.320 it gives them like time to do other things like 1:05:48.440 --> 1:05:51.439 and and I think that and it gives them time 1:05:51.480 --> 1:05:56.520 away from like the media, constant media scrutiny. But you know, 1:05:56.600 --> 1:05:58.480 you think about like other things that can do this 1:05:58.520 --> 1:06:03.760 as like kids, you know, partners. It is a it's 1:06:03.800 --> 1:06:08.880 not like golf. Golf is just a It's one of 1:06:08.920 --> 1:06:13.160 those things where you have to mentally be in the 1:06:13.320 --> 1:06:17.320 right place to play at an extremely high level. And 1:06:18.040 --> 1:06:22.320 different different factors in life can cause you to feel 1:06:22.360 --> 1:06:25.560 different ways, and whether or not you notice it can 1:06:25.840 --> 1:06:29.840 greatly impact your performance and take a player from being 1:06:29.880 --> 1:06:31.640 one of the best in the world to being a 1:06:32.320 --> 1:06:34.960 you know, still a great player, but not at that 1:06:35.040 --> 1:06:37.840 same level. You know that. And and the margins are 1:06:37.880 --> 1:06:41.200 so small that it's it's it's crazy. So we're three 1:06:41.240 --> 1:06:43.880 for three on the same topics here, we got to 1:06:43.920 --> 1:06:46.960 break apart here, what is your what is your next topic. 1:06:47.160 --> 1:06:50.000 Oh, we got to break apart. Well, you know we're 1:06:50.040 --> 1:06:55.000 talking I guess maybe underdogs or dark horses or you know, surprise, 1:06:55.960 --> 1:06:59.840 but you might agree with this guy. But ox Shay, 1:07:00.120 --> 1:07:02.840 but Tia was so impressive at the Players, and I 1:07:02.840 --> 1:07:04.720 know you're a fan, so actually I don't mean to, 1:07:05.160 --> 1:07:06.760 you know, have another one when with the same. But 1:07:06.840 --> 1:07:09.880 I'm kind of a new convert because I didn't actually 1:07:09.920 --> 1:07:13.720 have I've never really watched him really carefully, and the 1:07:13.880 --> 1:07:17.240 and the Players coverage was so good, and the way 1:07:17.280 --> 1:07:20.320 he played coming down the stretch was he made mistakes. 1:07:20.360 --> 1:07:22.520 It was a young player's mistakes, but man, was he 1:07:23.280 --> 1:07:26.880 striping it and aggressive and fearless and all these things 1:07:26.960 --> 1:07:29.560 you hear about young players. I never really always believe 1:07:29.600 --> 1:07:33.720 fearless because I think you know that golf course especially, 1:07:34.600 --> 1:07:37.520 and yet it looked like a guy who, you know, 1:07:37.560 --> 1:07:40.040 all he wanted to do was win, which for a 1:07:40.080 --> 1:07:42.680 young player, and in that setting with all that money 1:07:43.080 --> 1:07:46.800 available for second, third, fourth place, I was impressed. But 1:07:46.920 --> 1:07:50.200 also you know, he's only played in one Masters and 1:07:50.240 --> 1:07:52.720 you know his T thirty five, which is decent, but 1:07:52.760 --> 1:07:55.320 he's a lefty, which I think the course does help, 1:07:56.120 --> 1:07:59.480 especially on the dog Lake lefts with the with the 1:07:59.520 --> 1:08:04.600 power cut and everything, and you know, I'm impressed. I 1:08:04.640 --> 1:08:06.960 think he's on the rise here, even though what is he? 1:08:07.400 --> 1:08:08.160 Is he twenty one? 1:08:08.200 --> 1:08:09.280 Still twenty three? 1:08:09.400 --> 1:08:11.600 Twenty three now? And yes, excuse me, you said that 1:08:11.680 --> 1:08:14.880 yesterday when we were talking. So anyway, I don't know 1:08:14.880 --> 1:08:17.920 if you have someone that he's I think he's a surprise, 1:08:18.040 --> 1:08:18.880 or just talk about him. 1:08:19.479 --> 1:08:22.320 I think he's a fascinating player to watch. I think 1:08:22.360 --> 1:08:25.960 there's so much shine on Ludwig, and deservingly so, Like 1:08:26.040 --> 1:08:31.040 Ludwig's great. I always think golf misses the boat a 1:08:31.040 --> 1:08:34.120 little bit on age. This is like the It's like 1:08:34.160 --> 1:08:36.559 the number one thing when you look at how NFL 1:08:37.000 --> 1:08:41.960 and NBA play executives scout age. Do they do it 1:08:42.000 --> 1:08:44.639 down to like the month? You'll see nineteen point one? 1:08:45.800 --> 1:08:49.839 Okhay's twenty three, Ludwig's twenty five, both you know both roughly, 1:08:50.240 --> 1:08:54.960 you know, it's about exactly two years apart, like month wise, 1:08:55.520 --> 1:08:59.799 and I think like, Ohay has had a very interesting path, 1:09:00.200 --> 1:09:04.120 uh not going to school and taking some lumps early on, 1:09:05.040 --> 1:09:06.960 and you look at it and it's like, well like 1:09:08.120 --> 1:09:11.479 at this point in Okhay is And if Ludwig at 1:09:11.520 --> 1:09:13.920 the same point was in college golf, this at this 1:09:14.120 --> 1:09:19.479 point of Okhay's age and like Ludwig would have been 1:09:19.520 --> 1:09:22.000 a senior at Texas Tech. And you think of all 1:09:22.080 --> 1:09:26.479 the things that that Akhay's accomplished, and he doesn't have 1:09:26.520 --> 1:09:29.479 the raw power, uh that Ludwig has, And I think 1:09:29.479 --> 1:09:35.000 that's like obviously the big you know, you know, advantage 1:09:35.040 --> 1:09:38.200 that you'd point to with with Ludwig. But when you 1:09:38.280 --> 1:09:44.600 look at Okhay's just over overall game, it is extraordinarily impressive. 1:09:44.760 --> 1:09:47.200 And I think, like I was looking, I did a 1:09:47.240 --> 1:09:51.760 Breakout Players for twenty twenty five podcast last year and 1:09:51.800 --> 1:09:53.599 I put Ochay on it because you look at it 1:09:54.120 --> 1:09:57.640 when he went to the broom it it solved his 1:09:57.880 --> 1:10:01.519 one big death it as a player, which was the putter. 1:10:01.600 --> 1:10:03.800 He was very bad with the putter and that was 1:10:03.840 --> 1:10:06.840 holding him back. But what took a step back, and 1:10:07.040 --> 1:10:09.280 it makes sense, like you put all this time into 1:10:09.280 --> 1:10:13.040 putting and the broom putter is you know, you're putting 1:10:13.080 --> 1:10:16.599 all this time, it's natural you'd expect something maybe takes 1:10:16.600 --> 1:10:19.640 a step back because of the intense focus. And the 1:10:19.640 --> 1:10:22.360 thing that took a step back was his driver, and 1:10:22.400 --> 1:10:24.639 I look, you're looking at these numbers and you're like, well, 1:10:24.680 --> 1:10:28.240 like maybe he just had a really bad year driving 1:10:28.320 --> 1:10:30.200 the ball. And you see this with like you know 1:10:30.360 --> 1:10:32.760 basketball players where like they have one year where they 1:10:32.800 --> 1:10:36.120 are three point percentage dips to thirty percent, but their 1:10:36.280 --> 1:10:39.160 entire career they've been a thirty eight percent three pointer shooter. 1:10:39.240 --> 1:10:41.280 And you're, well, it's not like a crazy bet that 1:10:41.360 --> 1:10:43.639 this guy's going to go back to thirty eight percent. 1:10:44.160 --> 1:10:46.479 And it was just a bad year. And I think 1:10:46.479 --> 1:10:48.200 when you start to look at the numbers, it's like, 1:10:48.200 --> 1:10:51.040 actually had this incredible it had a great year last year, 1:10:51.200 --> 1:10:53.479 and he didn't drive the ball well. And it's like, 1:10:53.880 --> 1:10:58.760 and you saw that with Sawgrass is I mean the 1:10:58.800 --> 1:11:01.800 iron play you us talked about. This iron play is 1:11:01.880 --> 1:11:06.760 what you know is so important at major championships. I 1:11:06.760 --> 1:11:09.360 don't think anybody hit the ball better than him on the. 1:11:09.280 --> 1:11:12.120 Way he did on Sunday. He was the closest and 1:11:12.280 --> 1:11:15.960 the sound even through the television was impressive. It was 1:11:16.080 --> 1:11:18.360 really aggressive, great compression of the ball. 1:11:19.160 --> 1:11:21.799 And do you think about Saturday as like young player 1:11:22.360 --> 1:11:25.080 in a situation he's never been in before, and the 1:11:25.120 --> 1:11:28.880 wheels came off. It was so impressive that it wasn't 1:11:28.920 --> 1:11:31.439 an eighty that he put up that you've battled back, 1:11:31.479 --> 1:11:33.639 and then it's like, well he could still win on Sunday. 1:11:34.320 --> 1:11:39.920 I just think that that those are the experiences. Golf 1:11:40.000 --> 1:11:42.439 is such a game where you you know, it's so 1:11:42.720 --> 1:11:44.960 rare that you just get in the moment and succeed. 1:11:45.280 --> 1:11:49.160 It's so rare, and I think that's like we've watched 1:11:49.200 --> 1:11:52.160 these superstars and these all time greats come up and 1:11:52.200 --> 1:11:54.200 they you know, they seem to just get it done, 1:11:54.280 --> 1:11:56.680 like Tiger in the ninety seven Masters, where it's just like, 1:11:57.120 --> 1:12:00.960 well he's here, you know, yeah, But like so often 1:12:01.320 --> 1:12:04.599 is the moment where you get into the cauldron and 1:12:04.880 --> 1:12:09.200 you get uncomfortable, and like for Akhay, he comes out 1:12:09.240 --> 1:12:11.439 of the gates blazing and he misses that short put 1:12:11.439 --> 1:12:14.080 on two and it just seemed to like rattle him 1:12:14.160 --> 1:12:16.280 and it set him and that that's why he didn't 1:12:16.280 --> 1:12:18.439 win the Players. You know, he missed the short put 1:12:18.479 --> 1:12:22.400 on two. I think he bogied three, and then on 1:12:22.520 --> 1:12:25.759 five he makes that triple or whatever he made on five, 1:12:25.920 --> 1:12:29.000 Like you know, you see this like three hole stretch. 1:12:29.240 --> 1:12:31.879 That just is the reason he didn't win the tournament, 1:12:32.479 --> 1:12:37.519 and you just think about that, is like he is 1:12:38.160 --> 1:12:42.120 a better player because of that, especially because it because 1:12:42.160 --> 1:12:44.000 of the way he came out of it and played 1:12:44.320 --> 1:12:48.599 fantastic golf for the final twenty, you know, thirty holes 1:12:48.600 --> 1:12:51.800 of the tournament versus what could have happened where he 1:12:51.880 --> 1:12:54.719 got into it and it goes and he shoots an eighty, 1:12:54.840 --> 1:12:56.880 and then there's real doubt. 1:12:57.520 --> 1:13:02.879 That's well said. As you are, you've watched more carefully 1:13:02.920 --> 1:13:06.760 and explained his gifts very well. I don't want to 1:13:06.880 --> 1:13:12.200 short change Oberg. He's really really impressive. I mean, just 1:13:12.240 --> 1:13:14.840 the ease with which he plays and produces power and 1:13:15.320 --> 1:13:17.439 his game is so uncluttered and the way he gets 1:13:17.439 --> 1:13:19.960 over the ball and just lets it go, and man, 1:13:20.200 --> 1:13:22.400 he looks like he's made it simple, and I'm sure 1:13:22.400 --> 1:13:26.320 it isn't. Uh, you know, it's almost counterintuitive, but it 1:13:26.439 --> 1:13:30.080 almost works against him in my in my sense of 1:13:30.200 --> 1:13:36.320 him totally unfairly that maybe he just doesn't have that 1:13:36.320 --> 1:13:38.960 that edge we've been talking about that you know, it's 1:13:39.000 --> 1:13:41.439 almost too easy. And then that's so dumb, I mean 1:13:41.479 --> 1:13:43.240 in a way, because I mean in his second the 1:13:43.240 --> 1:13:45.800 Masters and he's won and he played great at Tory 1:13:45.960 --> 1:13:49.840 was beautiful to watch, but you know, will he really 1:13:49.840 --> 1:13:53.560 step on the gas and go for something special or 1:13:53.600 --> 1:13:58.440 will he, you know, just have this very, very elevated 1:13:58.479 --> 1:14:02.439 career that won't have as many highlights as it seems 1:14:02.439 --> 1:14:05.120 that he's capable of. And it's way early to even 1:14:05.400 --> 1:14:08.840 speculate on that. I just, you know, I would like 1:14:08.880 --> 1:14:11.760 to see. I would not that I would like to see, 1:14:11.800 --> 1:14:17.639 but I guess for me, I want to see the passion. 1:14:17.800 --> 1:14:21.320 I guess, which I'm sure you know, hey, internally, you know, 1:14:21.320 --> 1:14:23.360 I just talked about Scotty. We just talked about Scotty 1:14:23.360 --> 1:14:25.960 and I was praising how he doesn't really show a lot, 1:14:27.080 --> 1:14:30.240 but I do sense the passion with him and Oberg. 1:14:30.840 --> 1:14:33.280 It's almost like, Wow, I have this gift and it's 1:14:33.320 --> 1:14:36.400 so cool. But I mean, come on, man, you know 1:14:37.000 --> 1:14:39.360 you got it, so really get the most out of it. 1:14:39.400 --> 1:14:43.200 And probably he's doing that it just for appearance's sake. 1:14:43.680 --> 1:14:46.080 It seems like he's got another gear that maybe emotionally 1:14:46.160 --> 1:14:50.639 hasn't access completely yet. And I guess we'd certainly learned 1:14:50.640 --> 1:14:52.479 to be one of the masters, whether it's there or not, 1:14:53.760 --> 1:14:57.040 and almost certainly would prove that it was because right now. 1:14:57.080 --> 1:15:00.559 The expectation is there. There is pressure on him extent 1:15:00.600 --> 1:15:03.840 that you know, you got to you gotta validate, you 1:15:03.880 --> 1:15:05.640 know that how good you are, and this is the 1:15:05.640 --> 1:15:09.200 place to do it. But anyway, by the way, we 1:15:09.240 --> 1:15:12.519 didn't talk about rollback if you want to, but I'm 1:15:12.600 --> 1:15:14.280 prodding you towards that one, if you want to. But 1:15:14.840 --> 1:15:15.880 maybe you're you got to. 1:15:15.920 --> 1:15:18.000 Well, I was I was gonna, I was going to 1:15:18.080 --> 1:15:20.839 play off this. I put a poll up on Twitter 1:15:21.439 --> 1:15:23.880 during the players about Ludwig who has a better career 1:15:23.920 --> 1:15:27.880 Ludwig Akha and it was like ninety percent, loud, big, sure, overwhelming, 1:15:28.360 --> 1:15:30.799 And I just think, like, if we look at Jordan 1:15:30.880 --> 1:15:33.080 Speith and this is one of my five things, and 1:15:33.160 --> 1:15:36.479 Jordan Speith and Justin Thomas, if we had done a 1:15:36.520 --> 1:15:39.639 similar poll at at age twenty four, when they're both 1:15:39.680 --> 1:15:44.000 twenty four, it would have been ninety eight percent Jordan Speeth, 1:15:44.080 --> 1:15:46.639 two percent Justin Thomas. And we're getting to the point 1:15:46.680 --> 1:15:50.799 where it's very you know, obviously Speith has the one 1:15:51.000 --> 1:15:54.240 one extra major on Justin Thomas, and I think probably 1:15:54.280 --> 1:15:57.400 overall a better major record. But I think we're at 1:15:57.400 --> 1:16:00.320 this stage where it's like, well, like you could probably 1:16:00.360 --> 1:16:03.240 make a case that Justin Thomas his career might end 1:16:03.320 --> 1:16:05.559 with a better end, with a better career. So it's 1:16:05.640 --> 1:16:09.280 extremely hard at young ages to project who's going to 1:16:09.760 --> 1:16:12.880 evolve as a player into their early thirties and mid 1:16:12.960 --> 1:16:16.000 thirties and who's ends up being a better player. It's 1:16:16.120 --> 1:16:18.400 it's one of one of the things that makes golf 1:16:18.439 --> 1:16:21.479 such a beautiful game to watch in in you know, 1:16:21.880 --> 1:16:24.760 as a you know, you start to see these arcs 1:16:24.760 --> 1:16:27.559 of careers, whether it's Adam Scott and Sergio Garcia, how 1:16:27.720 --> 1:16:30.640 mirror images they almost are, and you you know, you 1:16:31.080 --> 1:16:33.479 could make that you could debate who was better when 1:16:33.479 --> 1:16:36.160 they were twenty four and now at age forty whatever 1:16:36.200 --> 1:16:37.920 they are, you could debate who's better. 1:16:38.920 --> 1:16:40.599 Well, I think, yeah, excuse me. 1:16:41.160 --> 1:16:44.120 But when you say, I think, like, you know, we're 1:16:44.120 --> 1:16:47.760 at Jordan Sped twenty fifteen, Masters Champ twenty sixteen, the 1:16:47.800 --> 1:16:54.000 heartbreaking kind of disaster of a where the Danny Willett, 1:16:54.000 --> 1:16:56.559 which Danny Willett was kind of the last kind of 1:16:56.640 --> 1:16:58.720 out of out of the blue a little bit. He 1:16:58.760 --> 1:17:00.400 was a great player. I think out of the is 1:17:00.439 --> 1:17:02.840 like maybe a little bit of a harsh generalization if 1:17:02.840 --> 1:17:04.599 you look at the way he had played going into 1:17:04.600 --> 1:17:09.040 that Master But I I just wonder, and I think 1:17:09.080 --> 1:17:12.519 this is just an overriding story in golf is like 1:17:12.520 --> 1:17:16.200 what where are we with Jordan Spieth? And you know 1:17:16.240 --> 1:17:19.360 what does the next five years make? And he's he's 1:17:19.360 --> 1:17:23.280 been dubbed this you know, he's this Master's specialist. And 1:17:23.400 --> 1:17:26.280 he's had two top fives in the last four years. 1:17:27.160 --> 1:17:29.240 You know, he's had miss miss cut. You know, he's 1:17:29.280 --> 1:17:34.680 shown that he's he's not invincible, But like, what what 1:17:35.840 --> 1:17:39.759 is he this bona fide? Like should he be considered 1:17:39.800 --> 1:17:42.760 a top five player at Augusta National? Still? Like, to me, 1:17:43.080 --> 1:17:45.240 I just haven't seen enough from him in the last 1:17:45.240 --> 1:17:46.000 couple of years. 1:17:46.280 --> 1:17:48.040 No, I agree, I think he's dropped out of that 1:17:48.080 --> 1:17:52.760 top five. And I think you know that that the 1:17:52.840 --> 1:17:55.840 reason the arc is so interesting in golf is that, 1:17:56.760 --> 1:17:59.360 you know, the physical game sustains longer than it does 1:17:59.360 --> 1:18:01.960 an other sport, and it comes down very often to 1:18:02.080 --> 1:18:05.559 what you have inside and how badly you wanted and 1:18:05.600 --> 1:18:08.519 how you manage your mental game in a way that's 1:18:08.560 --> 1:18:11.120 productive as opposed to allowing the game to kind of 1:18:11.160 --> 1:18:14.240 wear you down. And I do think though there are 1:18:14.360 --> 1:18:18.080 different playing styles that are more likely to wear you down. 1:18:18.840 --> 1:18:23.320 And as much as I love Jordan Speed's game and 1:18:23.680 --> 1:18:27.240 all those winning moments he gave us in two fifteen especially, 1:18:29.080 --> 1:18:34.720 he plays a game that is very wearing mentally in 1:18:34.760 --> 1:18:39.400 my opinion, because there's just a lot of brinksmanship. There's 1:18:39.600 --> 1:18:43.320 you know, Phil plays that way, but Phil capitalized in 1:18:43.400 --> 1:18:48.479 ways that made it satisfy because he had power that 1:18:48.600 --> 1:18:50.960 kept him in the game when he was hot, and 1:18:51.080 --> 1:18:54.080 Jordan doesn't have as much power. Obviously, he's trying to 1:18:54.080 --> 1:18:58.960 get longer. I wonder sometimes if to the expense of 1:18:59.120 --> 1:19:01.880 maybe his brilliant it's with with the shorter clubs. I'm 1:19:01.920 --> 1:19:04.439 not sure. I mean that happened to Looke Donald. I'm 1:19:04.439 --> 1:19:07.960 not putting them in the same exact category. But I 1:19:08.720 --> 1:19:12.879 just think Jordan's got a more complex kind of equation 1:19:13.080 --> 1:19:17.240 to solve going forward, because if he's not striking it well, 1:19:17.880 --> 1:19:20.080 it just you know, he's not going to get away 1:19:20.080 --> 1:19:23.360 with power sort of you know, giving him some easy 1:19:23.400 --> 1:19:25.519 birdies on par fives. He's got to work for the 1:19:25.520 --> 1:19:28.280 whole thing more than other players with with more with 1:19:28.320 --> 1:19:32.680 more power, and then to rely on brilliance with with 1:19:32.720 --> 1:19:38.720 the putter and rely on short game, you know, uh uh, genius, 1:19:39.840 --> 1:19:42.840 that's that's a hard way to go. It just you know, 1:19:42.880 --> 1:19:44.599 you've got to keep pulling it out of the fire. 1:19:45.080 --> 1:19:47.960 I think of Sevy, and it wore him out, you know, 1:19:48.040 --> 1:19:50.160 he just didn't hit the ball well enough to stay 1:19:50.160 --> 1:19:52.519 with with the other guys. Norman and Faldo and the 1:19:52.560 --> 1:19:55.120 other guys who lyle they just hit it better than 1:19:55.120 --> 1:19:56.760 he did, and it you know, yeah, he was the 1:19:56.760 --> 1:19:59.200 genius the ever we loved watching him, was the most 1:19:59.320 --> 1:20:05.680 entertaining and charismatic. But he was under he was under weaponized, 1:20:05.760 --> 1:20:08.960 so to speak. You know, he didn't have enough even 1:20:09.000 --> 1:20:11.960 with all the and then finally the stress of that 1:20:12.600 --> 1:20:16.920 ends up eroding your putting, you know, and it's just 1:20:16.960 --> 1:20:19.479 hard to what to me. Know, you know, two things 1:20:19.479 --> 1:20:22.000 that don't last dogs that chase cars and pros it 1:20:22.040 --> 1:20:26.439 putt for pars. You know, it's an old, wore old cliche, 1:20:26.560 --> 1:20:28.400 it but I think there's a lot to it. And 1:20:29.080 --> 1:20:31.519 I think Jordan's tried to get better bass recking and 1:20:31.520 --> 1:20:33.920 maybe he hasn't maybe from this risk injury, his mechanics 1:20:33.920 --> 1:20:36.360 are going to improve, and I would like nothing more 1:20:36.400 --> 1:20:39.200 than seeing that. But for the moment, I think he's 1:20:39.200 --> 1:20:42.519 outside the top five because he just doesn't have the 1:20:42.560 --> 1:20:45.920 physical kind of long game that you need to just 1:20:46.040 --> 1:20:48.000 keep hanging over seventy two holes. 1:20:49.080 --> 1:20:53.639 I think when I think about Jordan Spieth and his 1:20:53.880 --> 1:20:57.080 career is kind of like twenty fifteen's when I started 1:20:57.200 --> 1:21:00.600 doing this, and like, I just think about all the 1:21:00.760 --> 1:21:02.960 all the years I was. I walked a practice round 1:21:03.040 --> 1:21:08.320 with with Speith the week before Aaron Hills, and I'll 1:21:08.360 --> 1:21:12.240 never forget I was. It was it was like the 1:21:12.280 --> 1:21:17.360 Sunday before and him and Cameron McCormick were talking about 1:21:17.800 --> 1:21:21.439 getting to Jack eighteen and how how they could do it, 1:21:22.040 --> 1:21:24.719 and you just think about like that moment in time 1:21:24.760 --> 1:21:27.320 and where we are now, and it's pretty wild. Like 1:21:27.800 --> 1:21:30.600 at that moment in time, I think golf, it was like, 1:21:30.720 --> 1:21:33.920 well this guy could be the next double digit guy, 1:21:34.320 --> 1:21:37.000 you know, and they're talking about like how to get 1:21:37.080 --> 1:21:41.840 to eighteen majors And now we're sitting at three and 1:21:42.880 --> 1:21:45.920 he's not. I don't even think he's even he's on 1:21:46.000 --> 1:21:49.200 the Ryder Cup radar because he's a you know, because 1:21:49.240 --> 1:21:51.479 of his name. But if he was, if you put 1:21:52.479 --> 1:21:55.519 Joe Billy is his name, he wouldn't be on the 1:21:55.600 --> 1:21:59.519 Ryder Cup radar, given how he played, and I think, like, 1:22:00.320 --> 1:22:05.600 to me, it's when we talk about Scottie Scheffler, his 1:22:05.680 --> 1:22:10.120 approach to the game. The simplicity Jordan Speith to me 1:22:10.360 --> 1:22:15.080 is like the potential casualty of constantly searching. And I think, 1:22:15.120 --> 1:22:18.559 like you could put Victor Hovelin into this bucket and 1:22:18.600 --> 1:22:20.240 we don't know where this is going to go with 1:22:20.360 --> 1:22:25.360 Victor Hovelin. But when you when you play golf, swing 1:22:25.840 --> 1:22:29.240 more than you play golf, and you become you go 1:22:29.320 --> 1:22:33.639 down the rabbit hole of tinkering and trying to change 1:22:33.840 --> 1:22:37.880 your bluep your your fingerprint is a golfer, you run 1:22:37.920 --> 1:22:41.040 the risk of losing your incomplete identity as a golfer. 1:22:41.280 --> 1:22:44.439 It's a huge risk, but I think there's times you 1:22:44.520 --> 1:22:45.920 got to take it if you want to get if 1:22:45.960 --> 1:22:48.599 you really want to get better. I think Valdo took 1:22:48.640 --> 1:22:51.240 it in the mid eighties. He was a good player 1:22:52.080 --> 1:22:54.200 and won tournaments, but he didn't like the way he 1:22:54.200 --> 1:22:56.519 played in majors. He knew he lacked sort of the 1:22:56.520 --> 1:22:58.960 compression of the golf ball, the flighting of the golf ball, 1:22:59.240 --> 1:23:03.080 and he wanted a better technique. And I think Jordan's 1:23:03.080 --> 1:23:06.040 a really smart guy, and if they were talking about eighteen, 1:23:06.760 --> 1:23:08.720 I think that would have included we got to get 1:23:08.760 --> 1:23:11.760 to be a better ball strikers. I don't think he could. 1:23:12.040 --> 1:23:14.160 I think you look at you look at it. He 1:23:14.240 --> 1:23:16.080 was the he was maybe the best iron player in 1:23:16.120 --> 1:23:16.479 the world. 1:23:16.720 --> 1:23:18.519 He was a decent good iron player, but he didn't 1:23:18.600 --> 1:23:21.080 drive it particularly long or straight. It was you know 1:23:21.200 --> 1:23:24.000 to me. And he wasn't blowing people out. I mean 1:23:24.000 --> 1:23:26.519 the Masters, and you know he started out. He would 1:23:26.560 --> 1:23:28.760 have those rounds where he made everything and it was incredible, 1:23:28.760 --> 1:23:31.639 but they were mostly narrow victories. He was not dominant. 1:23:31.680 --> 1:23:34.000 He was not killing people like Rory did, or certainly 1:23:34.000 --> 1:23:37.479 Tiger did, and and and Scotty on occasion has too. 1:23:37.479 --> 1:23:39.960 He just had more game. I don't think. I don't 1:23:39.960 --> 1:23:42.439 think Tetera. Green Jordan had that kind of game to 1:23:42.479 --> 1:23:45.400 be thinking about eighteen majors. And I'm not saying they 1:23:45.439 --> 1:23:47.960 were seriously, you know, projecting that like it was some 1:23:48.040 --> 1:23:50.559 kind of plan. It was a nice thing to talk about, 1:23:50.600 --> 1:23:53.000 I'm sure, and he was, you know, feeling great about 1:23:53.000 --> 1:23:55.439 what he'd accomplished. But I think if he looked deep 1:23:55.479 --> 1:23:58.160 into himself and and if Cameron did as well. They'd go, 1:23:58.280 --> 1:24:00.800 you know, we got to get a little better, uh 1:24:00.880 --> 1:24:03.040 Teta Green here if we're going to truly going to 1:24:03.120 --> 1:24:07.120 be dominant players. Uh that's that was my impress I mean, 1:24:07.160 --> 1:24:08.800 I love this game. It was fun to watch it, 1:24:08.880 --> 1:24:11.080 and I'm not making it sound like a little game. 1:24:11.120 --> 1:24:14.719 It was. And he was a really good statistically iron player. 1:24:14.840 --> 1:24:17.160 He had a lot of game, but not that kind 1:24:17.200 --> 1:24:20.400 of game, not the dominant kind of game. And uh 1:24:20.439 --> 1:24:21.720 so I think he's done. 1:24:21.760 --> 1:24:25.600 I think if I think if you asked his peers too, that, 1:24:26.200 --> 1:24:29.320 like the players going up against him, I think there 1:24:29.439 --> 1:24:33.160 was belief that you can't make the putts he was making, right, No, 1:24:33.240 --> 1:24:36.320 it was unsustainedby were I think they might have been like, 1:24:36.840 --> 1:24:39.000 what is going on? How does this guy make so 1:24:39.120 --> 1:24:42.479 many putts and they've netted out? Now they if you 1:24:42.560 --> 1:24:44.679 talk to him, it was like, yeah, you can't putt 1:24:44.720 --> 1:24:47.360 like that, like that was out of this world putting. 1:24:47.720 --> 1:24:50.759 I don't think that's unreasonable. And and for whatever reason, 1:24:50.840 --> 1:24:53.480 Jordan it started to have some problems with short puts, 1:24:53.920 --> 1:24:56.960 and you know, that's definitely something that a dominant player 1:24:57.000 --> 1:25:01.400 can't keep going on. Uh uh, you know, being dominant 1:25:01.400 --> 1:25:04.160 with so anyway, I don't mean to make this a 1:25:04.360 --> 1:25:07.280 you know, a critical session on Jordan. 1:25:07.400 --> 1:25:10.559 Are there are there parallels? Would you say that a 1:25:10.600 --> 1:25:13.680 safe parallel? Could? You know? And obviously Ben Crenshaw had 1:25:13.720 --> 1:25:17.240 health issues that cause you know his Would Ben Crenshaw 1:25:17.360 --> 1:25:22.280 be a comparable career? Could be, you know, like I 1:25:22.600 --> 1:25:26.960 wouldn't rule out a late win for speed, but he 1:25:27.200 --> 1:25:30.200 just doesn't seem to be the guy that when rolled 1:25:30.200 --> 1:25:31.439 out here when he was twenty two. 1:25:32.200 --> 1:25:34.720 It's not it's not far off. I think Ben was 1:25:34.920 --> 1:25:38.040 a brilliant putter as a young guy. He was a powerful, 1:25:38.640 --> 1:25:43.240 very impressive ball striker, and he got on tour, which 1:25:43.240 --> 1:25:45.920 a lot of guys do. To your point, he realized 1:25:45.960 --> 1:25:49.320 mechanically he wasn't very consistent with his golf swing, and 1:25:49.320 --> 1:25:51.200 he wanted to make it better and he got a 1:25:51.200 --> 1:25:55.200 little lost and that set him back, and then he 1:25:55.280 --> 1:25:57.360 was always kind of going back to try and find 1:25:57.360 --> 1:25:59.680 that natural feel he had when he was you know, 1:25:59.760 --> 1:26:01.559 kind of famously said I think I was a better 1:26:01.560 --> 1:26:03.400 player when I was eighteen or nineteen. That was the 1:26:03.400 --> 1:26:06.600 best golf I ever played. I didn't think I just did. 1:26:07.600 --> 1:26:10.360 And that's to your earlier point about don't mess around 1:26:10.400 --> 1:26:14.240 with your fingerprint. But I don't know. I think the 1:26:14.280 --> 1:26:19.120 best players get better technically in a subtle, not overbearing 1:26:19.200 --> 1:26:23.200 way that that leads them on a on a too 1:26:23.280 --> 1:26:27.080 risky journey. I think Jack made a lot of a 1:26:27.120 --> 1:26:29.759 lot of adjustments over his career. The golf swing changes, 1:26:30.400 --> 1:26:32.120 but you got you got to know what you are 1:26:32.640 --> 1:26:35.400 and what kind of change matches who you are. And 1:26:35.479 --> 1:26:37.799 I think that's where it gets scary, when you start 1:26:37.920 --> 1:26:41.559 trying things that maybe just don't match your your your 1:26:41.600 --> 1:26:47.040 personality or your physical makeup. And you know, I think 1:26:47.080 --> 1:26:50.200 Victor is a Victor Hobbins, brilliant and he may be 1:26:50.400 --> 1:26:54.240 on a really interesting journey that finds a higher pot 1:26:54.240 --> 1:26:56.639 of gold, and it would have had he not tried 1:26:56.680 --> 1:27:01.479 to change. But the risk is high. And I think nowadays, though, 1:27:01.880 --> 1:27:05.599 with the money, it it's like it may be more 1:27:05.880 --> 1:27:08.800 feasible to try to change occasionally and go for the 1:27:08.840 --> 1:27:11.519 optimal as opposed to just staying with what you got 1:27:11.560 --> 1:27:14.240 and having you know, good success and knowing it'll be 1:27:14.280 --> 1:27:19.160 more consistent but never reaching you know, the ultimate. I 1:27:19.240 --> 1:27:21.519 think you might see more guys go for the ultimate now, 1:27:22.320 --> 1:27:25.799 and maybe the technology and the teaching knowledge is higher. 1:27:26.120 --> 1:27:33.120 Perhaps some would argue that it's not, but not many 1:27:33.160 --> 1:27:35.839 players have done it. You know, you can say Faldo, 1:27:36.439 --> 1:27:38.000 I'm not even sure you could say Tiger. I think 1:27:38.000 --> 1:27:40.479 Tiger with Butch and then he was great with Hank 1:27:40.800 --> 1:27:43.400 and as an iron player, he got better with parts 1:27:43.439 --> 1:27:46.320 of his game. But some would say the best was 1:27:46.760 --> 1:27:53.519 two thousand and you know, at the same time, physically 1:27:53.560 --> 1:27:55.679 you were road so you have to make changes as well. 1:27:55.760 --> 1:27:57.960 And Jordan's now got a risk injury, so he's gonna 1:27:57.960 --> 1:28:01.519 have to make changes anyway. I'm not really coming to 1:28:01.520 --> 1:28:06.320 any conclusions here. I just think that it's to just 1:28:06.320 --> 1:28:07.960 say I'm just going to stay with what I got 1:28:08.000 --> 1:28:10.800 seven you should have stayed with what he had. When 1:28:10.800 --> 1:28:12.840 you get out there and you start comparing yourself against 1:28:12.880 --> 1:28:15.880 the other guys, you know what you're missing, and it's very, 1:28:16.000 --> 1:28:18.600 very difficult not to try to aspire to to some 1:28:18.720 --> 1:28:20.639 of the strengths that other players have if you want 1:28:20.640 --> 1:28:21.080 to beat him. 1:28:23.000 --> 1:28:26.760 All right, I think we're in the same bucket with 1:28:26.880 --> 1:28:32.719 speed and just I mean, the pursuit of getting better 1:28:33.000 --> 1:28:34.519 when you're at the top of the game is one 1:28:34.520 --> 1:28:37.000 of the most fascinating things about them. And to your pointer, 1:28:37.080 --> 1:28:40.000 I mean, we saw Tiger do it. Tiger. 1:28:40.120 --> 1:28:41.920 Now you know Jordan's had two I just to make 1:28:41.960 --> 1:28:44.759 that point as well. The thing about life changing, that's 1:28:44.800 --> 1:28:47.200 another thing, obviously, but go ahead with your thought. I'm tiger. 1:28:47.240 --> 1:28:50.280 Excuse me, well, Tiger reworked a swing multiple times. I 1:28:50.320 --> 1:28:53.000 just I just finished that. Uh A couple of weeks ago. 1:28:53.040 --> 1:28:56.400 I read this new Steve Williams book. Yeah, and it's like, 1:28:56.800 --> 1:28:59.200 you know, you think about like the idea of changing 1:28:59.240 --> 1:29:02.080 from go from Butcher to Hank Haney, and you know, 1:29:02.160 --> 1:29:06.160 it's like how you know it's there always Like. 1:29:06.880 --> 1:29:09.280 He loved to experiment and work on everything and know 1:29:09.320 --> 1:29:12.960 the possibilities, and it kept him engaged, you know. I 1:29:12.960 --> 1:29:15.960 mean you could make the argument that why did he change? 1:29:16.160 --> 1:29:18.080 You know he had he already had it all. He 1:29:18.120 --> 1:29:20.800 goes well to stay interested, to not get bored, to 1:29:21.439 --> 1:29:22.160 have a new goal. 1:29:22.960 --> 1:29:23.360 Uh. 1:29:23.560 --> 1:29:26.559 That may have been unconscious or even conscious. So you know, 1:29:27.520 --> 1:29:29.479 none of us know what it's like to be that good, 1:29:29.880 --> 1:29:32.639 you know, and it's so easy to second guess. Uh. 1:29:32.800 --> 1:29:35.360 You know, Jack Nicholas had periods. When he moved to Florida, 1:29:35.400 --> 1:29:38.519 he started playing, practicing in the wind a lot, and 1:29:38.560 --> 1:29:41.160 it made him too steep, and he just started hitting 1:29:41.240 --> 1:29:47.080 these kind of you know, glancing uh cuts, and he 1:29:47.160 --> 1:29:50.920 and he lost the ability to really uh square the 1:29:50.960 --> 1:29:53.800 club up and he so he learned that he'd gotten 1:29:53.800 --> 1:29:56.439 too upright, and and he changed and and he and 1:29:56.479 --> 1:29:59.840 then the seventies came in and he found a nice 1:30:00.200 --> 1:30:02.280 and then he lost it again. And then nineteen eighty 1:30:02.280 --> 1:30:04.560 he went to Phil Rogers and he again flatten to 1:30:04.600 --> 1:30:07.280 swing a little bit more. It's just a you know 1:30:07.800 --> 1:30:09.840 you've heard this, Andy. I mean, those guys wake up 1:30:09.840 --> 1:30:12.800 every day and it feels a little different every day, 1:30:13.360 --> 1:30:17.599 and on the on the range. Maybe the the challenge 1:30:17.600 --> 1:30:21.400 is to find something that's gonna feel comfortable within your 1:30:21.400 --> 1:30:23.920 own parameters, but it might be a different feel every day. 1:30:24.680 --> 1:30:27.439 All right, this is this podcast is called five Things 1:30:27.520 --> 1:30:30.519 about the Masters. And we're we're both at four here. 1:30:30.560 --> 1:30:32.960 We have to get to five. And I want to 1:30:33.000 --> 1:30:34.360 be conscientious of your time. 1:30:34.400 --> 1:30:36.280 What's your thirst that I thought we were at? 1:30:36.280 --> 1:30:39.040 So no, now, well well you sure at four? 1:30:39.439 --> 1:30:41.719 Okay? Oh we go, so that's actually eight? 1:30:42.360 --> 1:30:45.360 Oh yeah, we're at eight. Oh it's how we get 1:30:45.360 --> 1:30:47.519 to ten? You know, I just say five? 1:30:47.760 --> 1:30:52.280 Communally, you know, uh huh, go ahead, Uh my last. 1:30:52.000 --> 1:30:55.160 Thing, and I'm curious this is uh. I think like 1:30:55.400 --> 1:30:59.879 what's happened is because of Rory being on this Master's 1:31:00.080 --> 1:31:04.479 thing for you know, eleven years the Grand Slam Watch, 1:31:05.880 --> 1:31:09.200 we have the discourse of who's the best player active 1:31:09.200 --> 1:31:13.200 player without a Masters Yeah, it's a foregone conclusion. So 1:31:13.320 --> 1:31:15.479 I was thinking about it, and it's like, who's the 1:31:15.520 --> 1:31:18.080 best player outside of Rory that hasn't won it Augustin 1:31:18.160 --> 1:31:20.640 National because it always is going back to Rory and 1:31:20.680 --> 1:31:23.120 it has for ten years. And I think it's we're 1:31:23.160 --> 1:31:26.360 at this juxtaposition where we have like a number or 1:31:26.680 --> 1:31:30.320 number of players that like it's like, okay, yeah, they'd 1:31:30.320 --> 1:31:32.760 be a great Master's champ, but you know they you know, 1:31:32.760 --> 1:31:34.840 we're always going to go default to Rory would be 1:31:34.880 --> 1:31:36.519 the one that we want to see to be the 1:31:36.560 --> 1:31:40.000 first Masters winner. And then I would I with your 1:31:40.160 --> 1:31:43.400 with your brain, I think the historical I'd be I'd 1:31:43.439 --> 1:31:46.160 love to know the historical Who do you think the 1:31:46.200 --> 1:31:48.080 best player without a Master's is? 1:31:48.920 --> 1:31:51.920 Okay, you want me to start, well, on the record, 1:31:51.960 --> 1:31:56.600 it's probably Travino if you don't count Hagen, you know, 1:31:56.680 --> 1:31:58.599 because you only got to play in one or two Masters. 1:32:00.720 --> 1:32:03.639 Trevino had six Majors, but he never really came close 1:32:03.680 --> 1:32:04.120 to winning. 1:32:05.200 --> 1:32:06.760 Wasn't a golf course fit for him? 1:32:06.960 --> 1:32:09.479 Well, there were a lot of things that were at 1:32:09.520 --> 1:32:11.519 play there. A lot of it was mental and not 1:32:11.520 --> 1:32:15.080 feeling comfortable and having a conflict with Cliff Roberts and 1:32:15.160 --> 1:32:17.280 a lot of things that put him out of the mood, 1:32:17.560 --> 1:32:19.639 so to speak. But it was not a great fit. 1:32:19.720 --> 1:32:22.880 But he you know, Nicholas. One of the reasons Torino 1:32:22.960 --> 1:32:25.439 turned it around was Nicholas told him, why aren't you 1:32:25.439 --> 1:32:28.680 playing the Masters? And that was, you know, part of 1:32:28.680 --> 1:32:31.759 the conversation. The most important part was when he said, 1:32:32.439 --> 1:32:34.960 you don't have any idea how good you are. You 1:32:35.000 --> 1:32:37.439 can win anywhere and here, and that from Nicholas just 1:32:37.560 --> 1:32:40.880 changed Trevino's own self image and he went on a run. 1:32:40.920 --> 1:32:42.720 And that was in seventy one. That was in March 1:32:42.760 --> 1:32:44.559 of seventy one, and seventy one was his greatest year 1:32:44.600 --> 1:32:50.640 after that. So anyway, yeah, I would say Norman is 1:32:50.680 --> 1:32:53.960 the best player to have not won the Masters, because 1:32:53.960 --> 1:32:56.160 he had three runner ups and three thirds and gave 1:32:56.200 --> 1:33:03.640 away at least one and certainly conceivably too and you know, 1:33:04.600 --> 1:33:07.519 Brooks has got five and he's still in today's world, 1:33:08.360 --> 1:33:12.040 so he may be the answer besides Rory to your 1:33:12.080 --> 1:33:12.799 modern question. 1:33:14.120 --> 1:33:17.320 He's been close. I think you Brooks has had better 1:33:17.400 --> 1:33:20.000 chances to win at the Masters than Rory too. 1:33:20.520 --> 1:33:20.800 Yeah. 1:33:20.960 --> 1:33:24.040 Yeah, but I think you could make an argument he 1:33:24.400 --> 1:33:26.840 you know, you could make an argument that you know, 1:33:26.920 --> 1:33:30.000 he's the one because you think about like the Tiger Masters, 1:33:30.240 --> 1:33:34.040 the Rom Masters, where like that it seemed like that 1:33:34.160 --> 1:33:38.040 Rob Masters really so you know that he turns around 1:33:38.040 --> 1:33:41.760 wins Oakhill, and he always references that that day and 1:33:41.840 --> 1:33:43.599 it was a weird day because he had to play 1:33:43.640 --> 1:33:46.840 thirty six holes effectively with Rom that day, you know, 1:33:46.880 --> 1:33:48.920 and you wonder if, like if there had been a 1:33:49.000 --> 1:33:52.840 reset after eighteen and you had like it's like these 1:33:52.840 --> 1:33:56.599 sliding door moments like where you know, sometimes getting off 1:33:56.600 --> 1:33:58.559 the golf course is the best thing that can happen, 1:33:58.840 --> 1:34:01.840 you know, and that day being such, with the way 1:34:01.880 --> 1:34:04.680 the weather shook out that week, him having to just 1:34:04.800 --> 1:34:07.240 bear all through was probably the worst thing that could 1:34:07.280 --> 1:34:07.759 have happened. 1:34:08.040 --> 1:34:10.120 Yeah, but you know, we don't look at Brooks not 1:34:10.160 --> 1:34:14.120 winning the Masters as this sad missing link or anything, 1:34:14.160 --> 1:34:18.360 because he's had these PGAs in US opens to I 1:34:18.360 --> 1:34:21.879 think feel like it's gravy at this point, more majors. 1:34:21.880 --> 1:34:24.880 But let's see, he's capable. He certainly showed it. I 1:34:24.920 --> 1:34:27.479 mean in twenty nineteen, you know, he was right there. 1:34:27.479 --> 1:34:29.760 He's one of the guys on twelve that kind of 1:34:29.760 --> 1:34:33.880 handed as the tiger. And so there's a lot of guys. 1:34:33.920 --> 1:34:35.880 You could talk about Hale Rwin, you could talk about 1:34:36.040 --> 1:34:39.080 Kayne Stewart, Louis ust Heisen, you know, a lot of 1:34:39.080 --> 1:34:39.960 guy Davis. 1:34:39.680 --> 1:34:41.280 Love, There's a lot of guys else. 1:34:41.640 --> 1:34:45.320 Yeah, Ernie l certainly, I would say Weiskoff with four 1:34:45.400 --> 1:34:49.240 runner ups was probably the other one. And he, you know, 1:34:49.280 --> 1:34:53.519 he's in the Hall of Fame now. Johnny Miller, great player, 1:34:53.600 --> 1:34:56.439 almost one in seventy one. Almost wanted Johnny. Yeah. 1:34:56.560 --> 1:35:01.720 The crazy thing about Johnny was that his caddy, Andy Martinez, 1:35:02.040 --> 1:35:03.479 wasn't allowed to caddy for him. 1:35:04.240 --> 1:35:06.840 Well nobody and yeah, because. 1:35:07.240 --> 1:35:09.200 At the time it was you had to use And 1:35:09.439 --> 1:35:13.599 during that crazy run, they had a putting routine where 1:35:13.680 --> 1:35:18.800 Johnny didn't feel like he could line the ball up, yeah, 1:35:18.360 --> 1:35:22.080 I think, and Martinez would would read the putts and 1:35:22.160 --> 1:35:23.679 line the putts up for him. 1:35:23.800 --> 1:35:27.559 No, I know, and they outlawed that finally. But yeah, 1:35:27.600 --> 1:35:30.439 he had a guy named Mark Eubanks uh an old 1:35:30.479 --> 1:35:34.040 Augusta Caddy who was known for reading putts, so you know, 1:35:35.680 --> 1:35:39.800 he felt pretty good with the reads, Johnny said. You know, 1:35:39.800 --> 1:35:41.559 I've talked to Johnny a lot over the years. He 1:35:41.680 --> 1:35:44.519 just got too nervous in majors with the putter. The 1:35:44.520 --> 1:35:47.240 putter was his weakness. He had gotten yippy of all 1:35:47.280 --> 1:35:51.160 places in college after being like, uh, in his mind 1:35:51.240 --> 1:35:53.080 one of the top ten putters in the world when 1:35:53.080 --> 1:35:55.559 he was a junior, and not exaggerating in his mind. 1:35:55.720 --> 1:35:59.840 You know, he had a gift, but he lost it 1:36:00.080 --> 1:36:04.040 and he never really had in his mind a great 1:36:04.240 --> 1:36:08.639 putting era, even though he was winning fourteen at Tucson 1:36:08.680 --> 1:36:10.720 in Phoenix, in his mind he was just hitting it 1:36:10.760 --> 1:36:14.479 so close. So I think Johnny, as far as talent, 1:36:15.280 --> 1:36:20.920 along with Trevino, maybe those are the two that you 1:36:20.960 --> 1:36:24.120 would say, you know, should have had a master's even 1:36:24.160 --> 1:36:27.640 though Trevino's style probably didn't fit. But as far as opportunities, 1:36:27.680 --> 1:36:32.639 I'd say Norman and Weiskoff the two, and Ernie close by. 1:36:33.240 --> 1:36:34.719 You know, then you got guys like, you know, great 1:36:34.720 --> 1:36:37.640 players Hailer winning Price, and Nick Price was right there 1:36:37.640 --> 1:36:40.640 in eighty six, but in general they were not perennial 1:36:40.720 --> 1:36:43.599 Master's challengers, and the guys that I mentioned were except 1:36:43.640 --> 1:36:44.160 for Trevino. 1:36:45.320 --> 1:36:48.600 I think one player that you could start to identify 1:36:49.600 --> 1:36:53.680 is Colin Morikawa with his two majors. But then you're 1:36:53.720 --> 1:36:57.360 starting to see this master's form where twenty twenty two 1:36:57.600 --> 1:37:01.679 fifth place, twenty twenty three tenth, twenty four t third, 1:37:02.439 --> 1:37:04.880 and you start to see what he's put together this year. 1:37:04.880 --> 1:37:06.960 And I know he hasn't won in a while, but 1:37:07.040 --> 1:37:09.400 he's been really really close, and he's been losing to 1:37:09.439 --> 1:37:12.960 a lot of great players. When he loses, is he's 1:37:13.000 --> 1:37:16.200 he's second in strokes gain total, he's ahead of Scotty 1:37:16.240 --> 1:37:20.120 Scheffler and strokes gained total only behind Rory McRoy. And 1:37:20.200 --> 1:37:22.679 you start that golf course is a really good fit 1:37:22.760 --> 1:37:25.760 for somebody that hits really great iron shots, and he 1:37:25.880 --> 1:37:30.559 is he is a I mean Scotty's one iron player 1:37:30.880 --> 1:37:33.519 one A. I think Colin more Cow is probably the 1:37:33.600 --> 1:37:36.360 only other guy that on a day can wake up 1:37:36.479 --> 1:37:38.400 out of bed and say I'm a better iron player 1:37:38.439 --> 1:37:39.280 than Scotty Scheffler. 1:37:39.680 --> 1:37:43.120 Well, I'd say skill set wise very well suited other 1:37:43.160 --> 1:37:45.240 than length. But you know, I just say, second shot 1:37:45.280 --> 1:37:46.719 golf course and he hits it long enough. 1:37:47.520 --> 1:37:50.639 I think that length is not I think everybody almost 1:37:50.640 --> 1:37:54.280 in the field prerequisitely outside of you know, your really 1:37:54.320 --> 1:37:56.559 short hitters have enough to get over those. 1:37:56.760 --> 1:37:58.960 Yeah, and he's showing that he can contend. So I 1:37:58.960 --> 1:38:02.439 would only say, you know, can can you make the 1:38:02.520 --> 1:38:06.080 last putt? You know, can the putter holed up on Sunday? 1:38:06.720 --> 1:38:09.679 And that's that's to me, the question mark with Colin. 1:38:09.720 --> 1:38:12.719 And you know that sounds harsh, but I think that's 1:38:12.720 --> 1:38:16.559 what's been missing. And he's there a lot, and getting 1:38:16.560 --> 1:38:20.080 over the line means making the big putts, and that's 1:38:20.120 --> 1:38:21.960 that's the club. That is the question mark. 1:38:23.600 --> 1:38:26.320 All right, last question, who's your pick to win? 1:38:27.600 --> 1:38:27.800 Yeah? 1:38:27.880 --> 1:38:30.519 Well, you know early you can always change this. 1:38:30.680 --> 1:38:32.479 Oh no, it doesn't matter. I don't you know I'm picking. 1:38:32.520 --> 1:38:34.479 I'd never taken it seriously because I'm always wrong. But 1:38:34.560 --> 1:38:37.840 I happen to pick Rory at the Players. Of course, 1:38:37.840 --> 1:38:41.439 that was on Saturday, but still he was behind. And 1:38:41.439 --> 1:38:44.639 I'm gonna pick Rory again because I want him to win. 1:38:45.439 --> 1:38:47.720 But I'd love to see Scotty Win too. It's not 1:38:47.880 --> 1:38:51.200 it's not about actually sentiment, it's history. I'd love to 1:38:51.240 --> 1:38:54.840 see Rory make history, and I think he's pretty pretty 1:38:54.840 --> 1:38:57.679 close to ready, maybe as close as he'll ever get. 1:38:57.720 --> 1:39:00.840 And if he does it, it's going to be, I think, 1:39:01.200 --> 1:39:05.000 so satisfying for so many You mentioned Crenshaw. It'll be 1:39:05.080 --> 1:39:07.160 that kind of feeling if he wins. 1:39:08.000 --> 1:39:11.559 I the last two years, I've somehow talked myself out 1:39:11.600 --> 1:39:15.320 of Skottie Scheffler as the week's gone on, and like 1:39:15.400 --> 1:39:18.720 I told myself, go again, I'm not talking myself out 1:39:18.720 --> 1:39:21.599 of this. So I'm taking Shuffler by hearts with Rory, 1:39:21.680 --> 1:39:25.760 but I'm sticking with with Scheffler this year. I just 1:39:25.840 --> 1:39:27.439 won't won't do it to myself. 1:39:27.680 --> 1:39:30.280 So I'm almost right there, almost right there with you. 1:39:30.360 --> 1:39:33.000 Yeah, Hi, May, Where can we see your work this week? 1:39:33.800 --> 1:39:36.439 A Golf Digest and then you'll be on Live From. 1:39:36.840 --> 1:39:38.439 Yeah, I'll just be on Live From for the one 1:39:38.479 --> 1:39:41.760 segment each night with the you know, the privilege to 1:39:41.800 --> 1:39:42.880 be with Brandon and Paul. 1:39:43.160 --> 1:39:48.360 So I'm with those incredible, incredible show. So thank you 1:39:48.439 --> 1:39:50.920 so much. We'll have to do this more often. It's 1:39:50.960 --> 1:39:53.320 been too long so we came on and I got 1:39:53.360 --> 1:39:56.160 I got some ideas as we were talking about future things. 1:39:56.160 --> 1:39:58.240 But it's such a pleasure to have you on and 1:39:58.520 --> 1:40:00.360 look forward to seeing you next week at a Gusta. 1:40:00.680 --> 1:40:02.320 It was a pleasure being with you Andy, Thanks for 1:40:02.320 --> 1:40:04.599 having me and look forward it's a couple of days 1:40:04.600 --> 1:40:05.160 away as all. 1:40:15.840 --> 1:40:18.680 All right, thank you for listening to another edition of 1:40:18.760 --> 1:40:22.000 the Frida Egg Golf Podcast. Big thanks to Hime Diaz. 1:40:22.040 --> 1:40:26.479 That was fantastic, and huge thanks to PJ Clark for 1:40:26.680 --> 1:40:30.439 editing and producing this podcast. PJ will be in Augusta. 1:40:30.479 --> 1:40:32.599 We're trying to get him on the grounds. We'll see 1:40:32.640 --> 1:40:34.240 if we get him on the grounds, but he will 1:40:34.280 --> 1:40:38.519 be in Augusta this week doing some production work and 1:40:38.600 --> 1:40:42.200 helping us, helping us keep on the straight and narrow 1:40:42.320 --> 1:40:45.559 as we need help. As I said at the top, 1:40:46.240 --> 1:40:49.240 sign up for the Fridagg newsletter. If you're interested in 1:40:49.320 --> 1:40:52.680 daily podcasts, check out the Shotguns Start. We will be 1:40:52.920 --> 1:40:55.920 breaking down all the action from the grounds and I 1:40:55.960 --> 1:41:08.920 hope everyone has an awesome Master's week S