Fairway Rollin' - A Crucial Moment for LIV Golfers and Dell Match Play Takeaways With Brendan Porath

Episode Date: March 28, 2023

House and Hubbard are joined by Brendan Porath, cohost of the ‘Shotgun Start’ podcast, to recap everything from the WGC-Dell Match Play (02:40). They also discuss how crucial it is for the LIV golfers to perform well at the Masters and talk about Porath’s favorite pick at Augusta (19:22). After, House and Hubbard offer their favorite picks for the Valero Texas Open (43:51). Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Guest: Brendan Porath Producer: Eduardo Ocampo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Danny Kelly, host of the Ringer Fantasy Football Show, and from now until the draft, we are turning our feed into the Ringer NFL Draft Show to talk all things draft with me, Danny Hyfitts, Ben Soak, and Craig Horlebeck. Check us out on Tuesdays and Thursdays and search the Ringer NFL draft show. Hello, friends, and welcome to this golf podcast, unlike any other. Oh, yes, my Bernie buddies, you've done it. This is Faraway Ro. Golf Podcasts on the Ringer Podcast Network.

I am your starter Joe House joining me as he does every week. Our incomparable accomplice, the PGA Tour correspondent boots on the ground. Nathan Hubbard, this week is a special week. We are really trying to make some sense out of what to expect out of this upcoming major championship. There's a lot of weirdness associated with this thing. So we had to get weird with our guests, our beloved Brendan Poreth from the Friday, Again, the shotgun start is on helping us navigate all of the storylines.

It's a three ball to get started. Then Nate Dog and I try and run through some picks for you at the Texas Open, help steer you towards a little return on investment. But let's get the three pegs in the ground. We're all going to tee off at the same time because that's how we do it when we get excited for the Masters. Let's go. All right, my birdie buddies, we are quickly approaching one of the weirdest moments in the history of professional golf

and its major championships. And as such, we had to get somebody up to the task to help us make sense out of the weird. You know him. He's a co-host of one of my favorite golf podcast of Shotgun Start,

writer and editor for the Friday and New York Times. Brendan Pohrath, welcome back. Joe. Thank you. Nathan, Joe. Thank you guys for having me. It's an honor to be here

as we, the first men's major of the season kind of bears down on us. So thank you for having. Let's talk about the unfinished business from the weekend. Unlike the college basketball, the final four in the match play

was scintillating. But just like the hoops, the finalists ended up being not the blue bloods that everybody might have been rooting for. And yet it still had its own allure. I enjoyed all of it. How are you feeling about the way the very last match play in Austin,

at least for the foreseeable future, played out? It was amazing. It was kind of indicative of the PGA Tour golf this year, right, through this first quarter. And I know it's pretty simple and obvious to say, like, the best players played well. Like, no, no shit. Like the best players, they play good golf. But, like, that doesn't always happen at the match play. And it doesn't happen at a lot of these events where, well, A, they're all together.

That's the whole new deal with this designated events thing. And they've kind of been delivering on the promise of this restructured and reimagined tour. The best guy showed up. The match play we know can be fickle and not necessarily representative of the largest sample size of who's a great golfer, who's better than the next man on tour. but they all delivered more or less. John Rom didn't make it out, but a lot of those guys went 5 and O that we saw on Sunday. They played great matches up until the finals,

which were kind of a dud, but you can't, you know, that's not going to take too much away from the entire week. And I just think it was indicative of the kind of tour golf we've seen all year, both non-designated, designated events. It's been like a really great year for the PGA tour product. So, Brendan, why are we killing this thing?

What is the future of both this golf course, which showed out pretty well? I mean, we had some, we were on 59 watch a couple of times. It's hard to say because all these butts are given and whatever. But why are we killing the match play event? Is it just because it's so much darn golf? And by the time we had Schaeffler and Rory ostensibly for a lot of marbles, even though it was the consolation match, it felt a little anticlimactic.

They seemed to be a little tired, and it didn't quite have the oomphus, some of the earlier rounds. What's the future here? I don't think anyone has a really great answer for that. Even this week, Garrett Morrison for our newsletter tried to dig in over the weekend. We were hitting out people about the tour. I asked around like people in both media and the tour, like there are a couple explanations, but I wouldn't say there's a good answer. If you can like make that distinction, A, that started with like a venue issue. It sounded like Austin played hardball and didn't want to, you know, want a little bit more money and a little bit more for their troubles. Dell, you know, wasn't super as committed as they wanted it to be for a title sponsor.

The WGCs are going away as an entity with the designated event. So it's like this combination of factors, but none of them should have been overriding enough. We saw that Intel would, like, you know, they had other title sponsors that would pump in the money. And Austin decided to play ball with the terms of the tour. the tour is saying that there's just not room for it in the new designated event structure, which is like really unfortunate because, A, the court, I mean, it's a major metropolitan area in the United States now, a growing area, obviously, a great course that showed out wonderful for match play golf.

And it's a format switchup that has to be on tour. It's like the original way that golf was played. And can you satisfy sponsors doing it, you know, 10 times? a year or maybe even more than once? No, but like, it distinguishes itself by that format. And I think that could be attractive to a title sponsor, just sticking out that way instead of being yet another 72 whole stroke play event. But there's not a good answer. We're not in the business here at Fairway Rolling of giving the tour of the benefit of the doubt. Yeah. But I will say, it does feel like for 2024, it was simply a victim of every

everybody running around with the house on fire and trying to put it out with buckets and the designated event structure and landing on a schedule with a cadence that made sense for the events. They knew that they had to get across the goal line for 24. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for that. We need to hear over the course of this year and the next year that match play will be returning to the schedule. We'll be returning to the calendar. I would love it to be back at Austin. I would love for there to be a way. I mean, of all of the Texas events, all respect to colonial, all due respect to colonial.

This was got juice. Like, and I very much, I hope that it's attractive enough to a sponsor to see the Wednesday through Sunday. It is clearly exhausting. And the guys all come off the walk off course thing, especially on Sunday. God damn, it's exhausting. but it feels like to me a minor price to pay. You have the exposure that runs Wednesday to Sunday for a sponsor. We just have to have a version of this.

And I'm hoping in 2025, it'll be back in Austin because it's a great city, a great American city, and the golf course showed out so well. Yeah, they didn't make it easy on them. Some of these, like WGC Firestone, it kind of like the post-Tiger heyday, it started to fizzle, right, despite all the money and despite the history there. It just got a little sleepy. That one went out with a bane. It's like why it did not make it easy on the tour. They didn't give them any layups of, okay, I can do without this. It was like an amazing event locked in. It was great for gambling, like all the head to heads. And you know,

that's an integral part of what the tour and everyone's doing. Like it's really suits itself to that. All the head to head matchups and daily betting you can do. So I just, I think match. Austin, it seems like they're probably done with Austin Country Club. That seems like the hardest piece of the puzzle. but I would hope matchplay would be reincarnated somewhere on the schedule. Again, it's hard to figure out when. Is it later in the year? Is it earlier? And it just feels like a title sponsor would want to come in with a lot of cash for something that's so unique on the schedule.

Well, I want to talk a little bit about what we learned this week. Tam Young has been on the radar since he came up on tour. But he really, at least for me, it was the 18th hole at St. Andrews last year. year where you said, okay, this is a dog and he is going to hunt and he's going to get a win. He now has a collection of top threes that most players on tour would die for. He does not have a win. This week was a return to form that we sort of have expected. He had been pretty weak in the beginning part of the year. He just had not had as good of a run as possible. It takes over Webb's caddy,

Altosori. What do you make of what we saw from Cam Young? Is there reason to be concerned about him getting to the mountain and actually winning? Is this a Tony Fienau perpetually, you know,

top 10 Tony before he became Top Gun Tony situation? Or do you think this is just, it's hard to win a golf tournament? He's got a caddy, who's brought him back to form, and it's only a matter of time. Yeah, I think it's hard to say

he's not going to win. It's really hard to doubt him and say this is the top 10, Tony. Until we see this repeated over and over again. He won a ton. He won a ton on the Corn Ferry Tour. This is a guy who's like not just bag top 10s. I know Corn Ferry Tour is different than winning a WGC or a major championship. He's won in the past. All golf tournaments are hard to win at whatever level you're at. And so we've

seen him win. I just think it's probably closer to him, but maybe like a Scotty Schaeffler situation where Schaeffler didn't win for a while there. I'm not suggesting he's going to go on that kind of heater and become the very best player in the world. But Even Shuffler had that for a while, right? Guy won a bunch on the Corn Ferry Tour, and it took him a bit, a lot of top five's, top tens, before he broke through in Phoenix last year.

It feels like Camion could be on a similar trajectory to getting that first one. I don't think he's going to bag like four and 60 days, and you have that sort of symmetry with the caddy deal, right? Paul Tesori split with Webb Simpson, probably a good move on Paul Tesori's point. Yeah, do you think that's what this was? Do you think this was Cam subtly reaching out to Paul?

Or do you think that the split was happening between Webb and Paul and Cam with his relative underperformance in the first part of the year was ready for a switch? Yeah, I think he was probably ready for a switch. He switched last year. He seems to have some sort of like a little bit of unsettled bagman issues here in the last 18 months. He's kind of mixed it up a few times. And for Paul Tissori's, I mean, him and Weber incredibly close and have a long successful history. but Cameron Young's the more promising horse at this point, right?

He's younger. He's making a lot more money on tour, not that Webb is, you know, a hack at this point. But I do think there's a symmetry there with a Schephler, Ted Scott thing, right? Where an older caddy, and I know that's like, that could become a crutch, like an easy talking point on TV and broadcasts. Like, oh, the caddy means so much to him. I don't, walking with them at the players, Sheffler at the players on like Thursday. and I would be skeptical of assigning too much weight to that kind of thing. I was like,

holy shit, like this matters a ton for Sheffler. While Rom and Roy were, you remember they didn't play, it's too great. Rom eventually WD, but there was just like a downer angst about the whole group. And Sheffler,

Ted Scott, like, has him in like the best mental headspace. And I feel like Tesori could do similar for someone like Camion, who's so close. Is it catty could be the difference, right? Between.

Yeah, he's got one fewer. top two finish, sorry, second place finish, runner up finish, then he does miss cuts on tour. I mean, this is how close he's been. It does, it is, I mean, I think we're one or two away from saying, does he not have the killer instinct? Is there something?

I mean, I thought he would, based on the way that he played in the beginning of part of the week, just making birdie after birdie, that he was going to blow it out. He's, he's, like, let's let him play. He's a kid. Let's let him play a little bit. One or two more. You're such a stickler for a stud.

I just want to see him go get it. You're a stickler for a stud. I want to see him close this thing. He kind of went and got it. He beat Rory in extra holes. I know. So why couldn't he boxed out? Sam Burns for crying out loud.

He lost six and five. Yeah. Burns is kind of the other side of that. It won five times. They're not too dissimilar at age. But he's kind of the other side. He is the guy who's bagging wins. I don't know.

My point. Yeah. Cam's like this modern player, right? He rips it or some fall balls and he's got to get hot with the putter, which he did this week. Let's make sure we give some flowers to Sam Burns. It took us, you know, six minutes, six minutes on Cam Young. I mean, he did win the tournament. He did so in dominant fashion.

He stared right down his buddy Scotty Schephe. Now, I do think in some respect, it was kind of a benefit for him to have Sheppler. and not Rory, but still, he made the shots. He made the putts. And he went into the final and took it down in golf stud fashion. And this is one of those events, BP, that, you know, this is a true notch in your belt, right? This one, the players, we don't give them major status. But it is, you're putting yourself into rarefied air by winning this match play thing, right?

Yeah, I mean, he's got, he's got. a couple of vals bars, which is like, that's a professional event. It's not WGC match play. It probably takes a little more, a little more work, a little more good fortune, too, to win it. But yeah, he won a couple of valspars of Sanderson. This is, and it wasn't like he backed, backed his way in. He beat a Schephler. He beat a hot Camion, made like eight birdies and ten holes, was dominant in pool play. This wasn't like some sort of he got a good draw or lucky break, you know, snuck through the bracket. it was like a macho win

and it's something that's indicative of like a really, really strong player. Yes, exactly. Do you think as Monaghan steps back now we're through this first part of the season that all sort of leads up to the Masters? There's not much it could have gone better this spring or winter into spring, is there?

I mean, this first part of the season has gone as well as it possibly could have. Yes. I'm going to, I want to interrupt because I want make sure, because I loved it so much, you and Andy doing this. Everything from Monaghan's perspective was going so well, Nate, that he got onto his private jet and went down to Punta Kana and took an ass whipping. Yeah, I mean, everything except for talking to the second tier guys.

That constituency is probably not super thrilled with him. The opposite field event, that's, I admire him going into that players meeting is probably not super friendly environment. But yes, but for... Are you guys as friends sympathetic to that, though, at all as fans? To Monaghan having to deal with that? Or to the second, the opposite field event guys at this point.

No. Yeah, I'm not either. I think they have to understand it was survival and, you know, there's a lot of money for them to make playing golf. And some of these are individuals have been around for a while and are pounding the table. And like, it's hard to tell these guys, like, and it's cold, but like, you're not bringing a lot of value to these purses or to the business. You're used to, like, the tour, you are part of the tour and you're, you're a critical part, but like you're not bringing the value. And it's hard to cold, hard truth to tell them, I guess.

And some of them, but they're kind of like blockbuster video. It's like the world has changed, dudes. That's true. That's true. But, yeah, this, this Q1. one's been like, it's been perfect for the tour. As I've said, like, live is the one that had to dramatically improve and bolster its product. For sure. And the tour is the one that's come back here in this year and dramatically improved and bolstered its product more than anything,

right? And I'm not suggesting like they could have stood Pat either. But like the one organization that's really shined this year is the PGA tour. And a lot of that's just the way it's been structured, the way some of its may be good fortune with who's played well at which events. But just having this depth, and this has always been the looming question of the post-Tiger era. Like, tigers, you know, once in a generation thing, even more than that. Like, that's just not replicable. You're never going to go to the boom times, but what's like a suitable sort of bridge? And having this depth at the top with a couple stars, Rory Ram Schaeffler, kind of interchanging.

and that's what you want. And now they're getting them in the same spot. So we've had all of these rumors and really tin hat conspiracy theories about the NFL being scripted. But House, if I gave you million to one odds, but you had to bet $500, that there's been some finger on the scale scripted part of this first part of the season. Would you bet that? Of course. Because million to one odds. Yeah.

Now 500 bucks is that that's past month. my pain threshold, but at a million to one, those are fantastic. A hundred thousand to one? With 500 bucks, I would do it for 100 bucks. Yeah. That's like, you know, that's like two door dash meals. Like if I order two Popeye's door dashes, that's 100 bucks for me. Popeye's door dash.

I do 50 bucks a pop when I order Popeyes. I mean, you know, that's amazing. This is what I'm trying to do is. The box of 18 is a lot. Yeah. Scope your conviction around both papas and also the potential tour conspiracy. It's really been wonderful. I love it so much because it sets us up perfectly for exactly why Bradford-Rath is here today.

Let's get weird. I mean, we really are in this moment. And the segue is beautiful because we're talking about how crucial this juncture is for Live. Live has to be a viable product, be an. interesting television show. And so far, it's been a terrible television show. But for the first time in history, we have guys from that television show coming up against guys from the television show that we've all been watching and enjoying for the, for the,

for the most part. And I can't think of anything like it in terms of like the field is 88 guys for the masters, 18 of those guys are the live guys. So damn near, you know, a quarter of the field, 20% of the field gave or take. I can't do the math fast enough in my head. That's why I would lose that bet. But you guys get the point. Brendan, you know, and in some ways, I love to be overly dramatic. It does feel like a make a great moment for the lives. I do love it. It really feels like a make or break for the lives. How do you mean make or break? It feels like a, it feels like their first moment of relevance this year. I mean,

unless you're tuning in, tune it into the crooked cat, whatever, they're playing a crooked cat, Orange County National this week in Orlando, which is just ideal master's prep. We want to be doing 54 whole shotguns in central Florida. But what do you mean, make or break?

Masters. We have been over the course of this season, positing that there needs to be something about those guys and the way that they're playing that is compelling. I love golf.

I love professional golf. I have loved many of those guys on that tour. I don't give a shit about watching that. It's not a good television product. It's not a television show. I don't have infinite time. Cam Smith won the last major that we played. Right.

Exactly. But he's sucked so far this year. We have no context. We have no context for how he's played since then, right? I mean, I know it's not that long ago, but what, yeah, so what are you suggesting, how is that like, they have to show out still highly competitive golfers in a major setting, most of them, several? It feels like it's kind of important. It feels like the viability of that product kind of hinges on this moment where they're going to have oodles and oodles and oodles of ample airtime. You're not going to get airtime that's like this.

It's the best airtime. It's Tiger Airtime for Christ's sakes. So all these dudes can be on television. The biggest problem thus far is they're on, you know, half television. They're not on full television. That was the problem last year. They weren't on television at all. Now they're on half television.

They're going to be on real TV now. Is it going to be interesting? Are they going to be good? This is why I have you here, my friend. I think, like, it's hard to say, right? I mean, it's hard to, because they have zero context for how competitive, what kind of competitive golf they're playing, right? And I expect Dustin Johnson to play well and Cameron Smith to play well.

Am I less certain of that than that I am Scotty Schaeffler and John Rom and Roy McElroy, Cameron Young? Yeah, because I just don't know what kind of competitive reps they have. And it's hard to just show up. Everybody talks about this. Tiger talks about this. Tiger says that's the biggest issue he's going to have going forward. Is it playing, you know, three, four times a year? like it does matter rest matters but reps matter just as much and i i at they're playing some like

bermuda grass crooked cat course and they've played you know in tucson you know in myocoba and that's been it and there's really no understanding of of how well they've done right i mean it's it's hard to gauge if they're they can be competitive a 72 whole stroke play event i i expect that their best guys to be well to play well but like you said it's pretty critical because they're irrelevant their competitions are largely irrelevant now

and this is a moment of relevance on stage. I feel like if it was winning a major alone that was going to move eyeballs it would have happened when Cam Smith went to live. It didn't move eyeballs.

So the only way that it will change the narrative is if a live guy wins and the media spins it up and actually creates the demand and the interest. Because I think on a standalone basis, a golf fan watching this still won't go, well, I'm going to click away from the PGA tour

to go catch this guy beat up on old European golfers on the Liv Tour. But it is a little bit to me interesting, Brendan, because if we do look over there, there's not, you know, Danny Lee is winning golf tournaments. Cam Smith is not winning golf tournaments. right now. We do have a few measures, don't we, of how they're playing? Like when Chucky Three Sticks and Danny Lee are winning events over Kepka and Mickelson and Bryson and Dustin,

is it that they don't care? Is it that their games are slipping? Do you have any measure of that in your mind right now? It feels like some of them, you know, Bryson particularly, is barely like a competitive golfer, professional golf. He's more like a YouTube. or doing other things, other interests. But yes, like the big issue for Liv is, I don't know, since maybe that DJ Neiman playoff, what was that Boston last year? Like, they haven't really had these stars

that they're paying so much money compete. My colleague Andy talks about how some of the venues, like this is the least of their problems. Venues aren't really rewarding their kind of players, like the big bombers that it's allowing a Chucky Three Sticks, like these tight desert type courses to kind of, a ball strike his way and beat up on a fill who's just ripping it all over the desert and can't keep up. But yeah, they haven't played particularly well, even within these team 54 whole

settings. And so I don't know how you can come in with any amount of confidence and think they're as well prepared or well suited for this Masters than the guys who've played three, four designated events and a few other events on the PGA tour. It's impossible to suggest that. So what would we say is the very best possible outcome from the live perspective? Is it like going one through five and Phil wins? Phil wins the Masters. And then Cam Smith finishes second, DJ finishes third, Kepka finishes fourth, and Patrick Reed,

who we can't give him the flowers. He can finish fifth. that's fine. Is that the best case scenario? Yeah. Oh, gosh. Yeah. I mean, the best, that's like fantasy land. Let's like be honest. Of course. I know. I know. The Mastersfield is 88, so it's small. Like it's set up to get, it's set up more than the other majors, but to get like a dynamite leaderboard, right?

Because of we're starting 88, we're cutting down. And it's, it's hard to get a bunch of launch shots in the mix. The leaderboard's going to be strong almost no matter what. but I think their best case scenario is a winner, right? I mean, it's, it's Cam or DJ. I don't think Phil is really, even though he's played well here. House is riding for Joaquin Neiman. I really am. I'm strong on Neiman.

I think that's, so that's that he's like sort of the unicorn. That's what you'd think. You'd think that's dumb as hell. Even, I mean, he hasn't done a tonne in majors yet, right? I mean, he hasn't played a decade on tour, but he's like the live unicorn, right? The guy who had his whole young career in front of him. He was a top player in the game at the time that he left. He wasn't one of these guys who's aged out or just needed the cash.

He's sort of the live unicorn. And, you know, he and Cam Smith, I think, going forward, if this live still continues, are your continued best options at these majors? Neiman's a good option if you're selecting from the live cohort. What is your sense for the actual degree of animosity that exists right now? I thought it had started to die down, but then when you go out and see all the live bots in the accounts that are just raking Rory McElroy,

that are, you know, saying Pat Perez is a top five golfer in the world. Like, it's just, they're absolutely trying to poke the bear right now. The masters we think of as tradition and respect and all of it, we'll get to the Champions Dinner, which is going to be the weirdest and most awkward dinners. since I don't know. Yeah. Probably House's last family reunion,

but do you think that the level of animosity is going to be high here to the extent to which it makes parts of this week uncomfortable for some of the guys? Yes, because there's two things here. There's the move to live, and then there was like the underlying people who went anyways. Like they were already pretty, a lot of them, divisive figures, controversial red asses, guys who roll their eyes at them on the range and things like that. So like they were already, some of them, were guys who stirred the pot.

So I think that animosity really exists. We have got Fred Couples at a champion store event calling Phil Mickelson a nutbag. And that was like a week ago. And now they got to have dinner next week. Like that's pretty like intense stuff. And Sergio's telling Fred he needs to shut up. I earned my spot in that dinner. So I think the animosity absolutely exists.

It depends on which guy, right? Or Scottie. Right. Like the most gentlemanly, like God-fearing and loving man is going to be at the head of the table trying to just like mediate a civil war. Well, at least he came up with an Applebee's menu. I mean, at least he came up right down the middle. Cheeseburgers.

I do like, yeah, right, right, sliders and firecracker shrimp and, you know, there's got to be some kind of nacha it's beef chase with beef cheese burgers and prime rim it's like ridiculous go ahead last tinfoil question

last tinfoil question um do you think that any of the guys the 18 live guys because we we've set this up they need something

to make that tour an interesting television show. Do you think that any of them in the interest of creating you know

drama, furor storylines because you know we've long maintained on this podcast the whole point of the lawsuit is not to win the lawsuit the point of the lawsuit

is to be in the news once a week and they were very successful with that last year a little less so now because it doesn't have the same momentum but if the point is to catch eyes

and we know like the character of the lives that all the golf villains are over there now. Like, I don't even know who you would say is the biggest villain on the PGA tour at this moment. That would be a fun conversation to have. But do you think that any of these guys, again,

this is crackpot stuff I'm talking here. But anybody going to do something, act out in a way to grab headlines and stuff? Or is it the risk of credibility impairment too high? And we're starting getting at WWE storyline. I kind of likely.

You did damn right. It was offering me a million to one odds. A little extra bonus money from Yasser to go, like, start mixing it up and turn. I feel like Augusta might be a bad place to do that. But they have the characters who might go on a limb and try to stir it up. Patrick Reed, who's been in the building and been there. You know, they did the T thing at Dubai with Rory. That's happened.

Jason Cochreck, Sergio. Like, they have the guys to do it. I mean, as someone who loves gifts from the content gods like this, I would be a big proponent of adding a little spice to the pre-tournament, pre-tournament days in Augusta. I just feels like that's the one. It's amazing. You go to some of these events, right? And they ask you like, can you come talk to the press or can you do this? Can you do that?

They're like, hell no. I do. I'm done. I'm pissed. I just shot 76. The green cuts ask you to do something and you do it. They show up. these guys talk to the press, they follow all these rules that when other weeks they might be

telling Jay Monaghan to go, you know, F off, pound sand. I feel like there's a certain reverence, whether you agree with it or not, that they don't, they don't act out too much at Augusta National. But the live guys have some of the characters who might do it. I just don't see it coming this week, as much as I would love it at the Masters. Well, Brennan, I don't know that we're going to get a chance to speak with you on this pod before the event itself. So as we come out of match play, and I think if

it had been for first and second, we might be making more of the Rory Schaeffler match. But we've had a very clear run of three really great golfers who have separated themselves from the pack. If you are betting today, who's your guy who's going to win the

Masters? Can I go with Rory McElroy? Can I root for the story? Prior to this week, I was a little dubious, right? He's tinkering with equipment. He's missing cuts at the players. Wasn't really a factor in Phoenix or RIV. It feels like the, God, I've said this since like 2011. It feels like Rory's moment. I've still like stunned from the Patrick Reed, 28th. Like that's disappointed me forever

following that on Sunday. It really feels like Scott is like probably the proper pick given consistency in form and just doesn't make mistakes ever. really. But it feels like Roy McElroy's the water. Maybe that's a little bit of heart and head coming together. And I think like he showed again this week, why he was number one in the world as soon as, as recent as this year. So, so Rory's the guy that stands out for me. But there's so many. Jason Day is playing well again. That's another like long shot, obviously longer shot. Really has his form again and played well at Augusta National many times over the years. But for me, Rory's the one that kind of jumps off the page.

And it's a mix of head and heart. And I've probably been burned too many times that I should find, just go with the safe pick for Scotty. Probably not the value, talking from a betting perspective. But Rory's the guy for me that completes the slam after this last year. And really, in view of the last, you know, nine to 12 months of Rory's life, a true capper to, you know, his stature in. the game and what he did in terms of being the face of

a reinvigorated tour obviously we're Rory Truthers here so he seems like honestly I walked with them quite a bit at the players talked to him a little bit but also watched him from afar like he seems like

entirely 100% thousand whatever percent comfortable with who he is like as a person as a golfer even when he's not playing well, like making fun of himself, doesn't care, doesn't care a whole lot of like

who's talking what about him. He seems like entirely, and that's not always been the case. Like he's been a little like surly or he's been a little sensitive or he's been a little in his own head, especially about the masters, always kind of figuring out

what's the right approach to the masters. But he seems so entirely comfortable with who he is as both like a person now, older with family. and as a professional golfer, and why wouldn't he be? He's been number one in the world this year. I was shocked at how much he was just fine,

making fun of himself and going even just like totally everything's out there on the table, just not sensitive at all. So I think he's really in a good space. Well, it was my not so bold prediction at the beginning of the year that Rory was going to win the Masters, Nathan was merciless and making fun of me because he knows what a sap I am.

Yeah. And it's deserved. it's fine. I'm ready for him to win the Masters. I thought that I was ready for him to win the Open Championship and I thought that would be a pivotal moment, right? And it would have been, it would have been, you know, at the at the birthplace of golf winning the 150th competing of the Open Championship, that that would have been cool. But I'll accept him at this moment winning at this juncture of where the tour sits. I'll accept that as the, you know, feather in his cap at the stage of his career, if that's okay. And while I'd say it's like the game's really deep, like the guys who've really been doing it,

a lot of guys have been sort of up and down this year. Like JT's not playing great. Colin Markow was great at Capulah, but it's been kind of hit or miss. And so like Rory Rob and Sheffler. He's playing San Antonio for some reason. I saw that. What's going on there? With a neck injury.

Yeah, he pulled out because of the injury. So maybe it's like an injury, but he needs to knock off. the rust. I was shocked by that. It's a very weird choice. Yeah, it's an odd choice. Well, maybe it'll be one of these things like, you know, Thursday morning, Hadecki's on a flight to Augusta. But he's there getting, he's getting the reps, he's getting the practice, you know, it is a it is a TPC after all. Right, right. And speed's been up and down too. So a lot of these top, like while it's deep, the most consistent guys in an 88 man field, Sheple, Rahm and Rory, they, they say it's like, among the easiest events to win, right?

because you start with a small group. You don't have all these guys, these long shot qualifiers that get hotter or these 88th in the world who can shoot, go 6666. So I do, I love Roy Rahman Sheffler. I know that's very obvious to say. It's like the most basic stuff, but they have been most. But it's not. Yeah. And this is what we wanted out of this first part of the season was a filtering mechanism to help determine who those guys are. And that's definitely what happened here. Now we want to see them go do it in the majors. There will be an incredibly compelling storyline if any one of those guys wins. Sheffler defending, Rory completing the Grand Slam, and Rom finally getting a major. I mean, this is probably the most under-majored player that we've got on tour right now. If you think

about it, it's, it's been a while since the U.S. Open at this point. Like, it's time. Rom's got to, get one of these this year, I think, or it starts to get in his head in the way that J.T. told us it was in his head until he finally took down the, the, uh, the, uh, PJ last year. I wonder if that like filtering mechanism is is maybe going to be the majors to the major's benefits, right? Where like the best players are more battle tested in like high pressure and against each other situations. Like like how's your MBA tends to deliver on this, right? The number one seeds and the stars like the super like the top three players in the game often advance their teams. Like I wonder if we get a little bit more not predictability but delivering upon that because

of the filtering that Nathan talked about. Well, and it has really been stark in view of, of, you know, what we're skeptical about with the live guys, right? We, we've, each of, each time we see these down to the wire, um, moments with guys coming through in the clutch, like Max Homa, the reps for Homa this year have been like outrageous. And, and, you know, obviously the top three guys, like, what's the saying, uh, fire what would what is it fire steel there's something in there the where you're your your the pressure Mary kill that's we we do that when we see Pauline on the ropes on on on down there in

Augusta um anyway uh I'll skip over it yes I do think the pressure matters um Brendan speaking of storylines you're headed down uh I don't want to get you in trouble at home but you're headed down to August in only a handful of days. I know you guys have lots of content the shotgun start, you and Andy and the Friday. Both the podcast and the written content

and the TFE club, right? Yeah, we've got the club TFE launched this week, or this year, I should say. We'll be down there. We got a couple people going to the women's amateur this week, and then we'll be down there. Saturday to Monday, full like nine to 10 days,

writing, podcasting, club TFE, It's like a membership program kind of helps us do some of these trips, support the content and what we kind of are writing from these from on site at a lot of these events. So yeah, we'll be there. Podcasting, writing, probably hanging out, trying to talk to some players. Eating egg salad. Enjoying the masters. Yes. Yeah, that media center really corrupts you quickly with all the free food, very, very quickly.

No peach ice cream I hear. That's what the people are saying. No peach ice cream this year. It's a big deal down there. That's a big thing. Only the masters gets people worked up about the concessions, you know, with three weeks in advance. We'll be doing some sandwich hacks from the Fairway Rolling Space. And we'll come over and toast you with a pimento cheese.

And I'm not going to tell you what the other side of that is because that's one of the hacks. It's one of the secrets. But thanks for coming up, buddy. Always a pleasure. Thank you guys. Thanks for having me. Bertie Buddy's big news. Fanduil is launching a brand new mobile golf game with PGA superstar Jordan Spieth.

That's our guy. The game is called Jordan Spieth's Faraway Friendty, and it's available to play now on Fandul's iPhone skill gaming app called Fandul FACEoff. On Fandual face off, you can compete in all your favorite games against other real people for real cash. The app features a wide variety. of games such as Wheel of Fortune. Oh yeah. Atari breakout blitz, Scrabble cubes, and now Jordan Speed Spareway Frenzy.

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superior golfer Nathan and I will play against each other and Nathan will beat me he is the superior golfer on Fandall face off contests are action-packed and last between two to five minutes that means you can play games for cash during commercial breaks waiting a line at the grocery store over a cup of coffee or whatever works for your schedule the best part you can practice for free anytime without worrying about your game being interrupted by annoying ads. Fandul FACEoff also has an awesome reward system that gives you bonus cash for playing both free and paid games. Plus, you can challenge your friends to a freer paid game to officially claim bragging rights. Search for Fandul faceoff in the Apple App Store or visit fandul.com

slash faceoff. For more information about the app, age and location restrictions apply void where prohibited see Fandul.com slash faceoff. terms for terms and conditions. There we go, my Eagle enthusiast. Big, big thanks, as always, to our homeboy, Brendan Poreth, you know here on Fairway Rowland. There is a golf tournament this week. And we kind of like, Nathan and I secretly like

these quiet second-tier events because it feels like you might be able to grab an unexpected name and grab some odds associated with that unexpected name. and maybe produce some unexpected return on investment. The tour is in San Antonio. They're at the Oaks course. It is the Valero, Texas Open. And the main storyline is Ricky Fowler needs to win to make it to the Masters.

I don't know if I could bet on Ricky Fowler this week, Nathan. Why? I mean, I'm going to bet. Do you think it's going to reverse jinks? No, I'm going to bet him to top 10 and top 20. He's playing really good golf. man. He's playing really good golf. Does he have to win to get in?

Yeah, he does. He has to win to get in. Yeah. Yeah, he has to win to get in. And look, he has finished between 10th place and 31st place in each of his last six starts. There we go. The only reason he's playing, the only reason he's playing this event, he would not be playing this event if it was not the only path for him to make it to the math. is that it's golf. So it's weird. Golf is weird. It means he has to play aggressive, but this golf course doesn't really, it's not conducive to aggressive play. It's not a bomb and gouge. You really have to like keep it in the fairways. You get off the fairways. It's like treacherous. You have to be super good at part threes that are over 200 yards long. You have to be patient with the crazy wind because the wind gets cooking in the San Antonio

foothills. Yeah, it's not going to be too bad this week relative to some years past, but this event is the weirdest one on the calendar being before the Masters, because it just, it doesn't help you get ready for the Masters. And so I don't, I don't understand why Terrell Hatton is playing this golf tournament, except that maybe he feels like he didn't get enough last week and he is always better on week number two or three. So it's a building thing for him. I don't understand why Hedekhi is playing this golf tournament, especially if his neck was bad enough last week to withdraw, why don't we just give it a little bit more time so that he can go put the jacket on, shake hands, and play. There's some strange choices in this field house, and I think as

they revisit the scheduling years forward, they're certainly going to think about the timing of this one. One of the things that I wonder about, and we hit on it with Hedecki, when we were chatting with Brennan, I wouldn't be surprised if a handful of these more prominent names or pullouts come Thursday. You know, they're going to the trouble of showing up here. Maybe there's, there's some benefit to the reps. And then they're giving themselves the option of competing at this thing. And the only way to preserve the option is the commit.

And then they get there and, you know, oh, neck, sore neck, sore knee, load management, just like the NBA guys, you know, okay, now it's time to go to I don't know. for a couple of these guys it feels like just preserving the option as opposed to a full commit to go play the tournament. Yeah, I'll do it. I mean, I really

my heart beats for my heart beats for Ricky Fallow this week. I would love to see it. But this reeks of one of those tournaments where some guys further down the odds board, and again, if you've been paying attention, I mean, last week, Nikolai Hogarth with his brother, the Dane, his brother's so good.

Yeah, his brother's not in this one, but Rass was not in this, but he is, Nikolai was second last week in the DR, by the way, in a little bit of wind. He's sitting there at 50 to 1. It's somewhat tasty to me. And then I don't know about you, but I'm looking at all these guys who are sitting in the 66 to 1 category. You've got the Taylor Pendris and the Alex Smalley's, the Davis-Thompsons, the Sam Riders. These are guys who earlier in the season had stretches of top 5s, top tens. But in the last, call it, four to five tournaments have not been.

quite as strong. And so their odds have drifted down a bit. But these are guys who've all been in the mix of late. And I just think for the price, you might put a little multi-guy, you know, an exacta of these guys to get one of them to win at 6601. Yeah. There are a couple names that I keep showing, that keep showing up in some of the Monday treatments, you know, the early forecasting of how the week might go, our homie. Jason Soyl and some other folks that we follow. I keep seeing Ben Griffin. I see the Ben's.

I see Ben Griffin and I see Ben Martin. Keep showing up. Each has, you know, various things commend them. They're both in form, some track record, at least for Ben Martin, of making cuts at this event. Ben Griffin is probably playing a little bit better. And if you draw a correlation between this. venue and like the Honda, Arnold Palmer, where it's kind of a tough venue, windy venue kind of thing. Ben Griffin has, you know, two top 25s, including 14th at API.

If you make that connection. I like, you went the Hogard way in terms of a European. I like another European and I liked him last year as well. And he quietly cashed a few times for me. I'm looking at Ryan Fox, who came in to the match play and had a nice surprising victory in the first round. He didn't. My man Foxy, since coming over to the U.S., he tied for 14th at the Palmer, tied for 27th

at the players, and then advanced out of the group play at the match play last week. And you look at the official world golf rankings, you will find him inside the top 40 all these stats coming from our homeboy Jason Sobel. So I really like a guy with that profile in this kind of context. He's already in at the Masters, but like him just collecting, you know, these high finishes.

A guy, you could bet him a few different ways, you know, 40 to 1 to win. And then if you wanted top 20 and top 10, I wouldn't, that that's definitely going to be part of my ticket this week. I think psychologically speaking, coming from the match play into this tournament. He's got to look at the field and go, I can beat every single one of these guys.

I really think there's something to be said. Yeah, there's something to be said for those guys. You know, somebody who's probably not saying that, but who's had a heck of a lot of success of late on tour, and I do not want to let it go, which is Pearson Cootie, not because I'm desperate to see him win at 125 to 1. But this is a University of Texas golfer

who's going to be finally playing a PGA tour event in Texas. And I just have a sense based on the way that he has performed. He's had some stellar, stellar rounds, has not strung four great ones together. But he's learning and you can see it happening in real time. This steepness of his learning curve is what stands out to me and the way that he's performing every time he gets back into one of these events. So interested to see Pearson Cudy. We'll want to take a look at what the top 20 odds look like.

But if he's sitting at 125 to 1 to win this thing, I think we're going to like. the top 20 odds. Yep, I'm with you on that. I'm also looking at Corey Connors, you know, higher up the board. He won here. And he's had a little bit. He started off, you know, pretty well.

Four top 25 finishes over his first six full field event starts. And then he didn't play great at the Genesis. I think he missed the cut at both the Genesis and in Phoenix. and oh no, miss the cut at the players. So if he's, his problem's been putting, he's 113th in strokes gain putting,

but he's second in strokes gain approach and third in strokes gain off the T. This is measured over the last 48 rounds. So he's close. And the Bermuda grass greens at TPC San Antonio, he is, he actually has strokes gained for him,

there. He's better on Bermuda than any other surface. So little Cory Conner's channeling some, you know, classic ball striker kind of vibe. Yeah. The thing that is most glaring as you look further down the odds board and you go, okay, way down, is there anybody who stands out? I can't even make this recommendation, but I'm sitting here looking at three-time tour winner Cam Champ at 200 to 1. A guy who we know had a major offer to go to live and passed it up. And other than an eighth place finish at the Zoso in October has basically missed the cut in every tournament that he's played, save for a called a T53 at Farmers, but he shot a 77 on Sunday and just wasn't even in it. So this is a guy who's really struggling right now. Again, we watched what happened

with Ricky when he had the big offer, we talked about it a couple of times, how he went to the woodshed and worked and worked and now he's in a position to potentially, I mean, he's third, third guy, third favorite on the board this week. Here's Cam Champ who had the same thing and just has not been able to find it. I'm going to be really, really interested to see if this street continues. First of all, we'll live be interested in him. But second of all, is he going to be able to dig himself out? I just, I look at somebody like that, a three-time, tournament winner and at some point he's going to catch fire. He just literally, except for the Zozo, he's not shot a round in the 60s this season. Stunning house that we're here. Yeah. Yeah. Well,

he is an all or nothing guy. 2001, you know, that's worth 10 bucks. I don't hate that at all. I think that that's that's kind of it in terms of fix for this upcoming event. We'll put on the Twitter machine, if there are any other names that we feel like we should have put out there. buddy's how about you yeah sing it nacoja let's go let's go we're gonna be down there we should go we're going not only should we not only could we we we gone we're definitely 100% what's our schedule house well waffle house for sure uh xxby's uh definitely the concession stand uh by seven yep we'll be over there if anybody wants to come say hello. Dave Chang in the Fandual

House. Dave Chang, yeah. I mean, assuming his back lets him, God, the poor guy, I'm listening to the Dave Chang food pods and the poor homie is really under some duress, but I believe he's going to man up. I believe he will be there with us. They'll be on the grounds

and I think he might be whipping something up in our Fandual House. I mean, he can't help himself, Nate, dog. I know. I believe there's food being delivered. So we'll have a lot to say from the Vandal House. We will. Next week, jam-pack

content from your friends at Farrow and Jam-Pank content from the Podfather. The Podfather loves the Masters. We will all be together. I think there'll be some kind of content coming from the ringer.com all week long. We will be boots on the ground together.

But in the meantime, let's go ahead and enjoy this amuse bouch in in Texas, you know, see who takes down this tournament. We're rooting for Ricky. That would be an amazing story coming into the Masters. It is full-on golf season out there, my par saving pals. Please throw a peg in the ground. And if you're able to do so, let's head him straight out there.