Fairway Rollin' - Bryson's Blowup, Crazy Camera Angles, and Tiger's Continued Progress

Episode Date: July 21, 2020

House and Nathan rejoin to discuss the recent Memorial Tournament including Bryson DeChambeau's recent blowup on and off the course (06:04). They also preview the latest matchups and standings leading into the 3M Tournament and highlight some of the exciting new advancements in the broadcast in the absence of fans (23:59). They conclude with a look at the progress Tiger Woods has made in these past few events (41:15). Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer Podcast Network. It's Liz Kelly. This week, we launched a new show on the network called The Ringer Fantasy Football Show. Coming from the guys who brought you the Dannasy Football Podcast, Danny Hifitz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlebeck will guide you through the fantasy football season, providing analysis on big picture conversations like weekly matchups, trades, and daily fantasy. The show will run every Monday and Wednesday throughout the rest of the summer, and we'll be helping you through the regular season as well. So follow and listen to the first episode of the Ringer Fantasy Football Podcast, out now for free on Spotify. Hello, friends, and welcome to this golf podcast, unlike any other. Oh, yeah, you have made it here.

We're back. It is Farroway. Rolling the golf podcast. On the Ringer podcast, Network, I am your starter, Joe House. On the line, as has been our tradition. in custom since the restart of the PGA tour. Our PGA tour correspondent on the ground, Nathan Hubbard. Nate, how are you, buddy?

I'm doing great. Jack got his revenge. Jack got his revenge. My goodness. We had modest success. We didn't have the 100% success we were hoping for out of the flop house boys. Very, very, very grateful to have Joel Damon and Max Holmes. and your brother, Homeless Hubbs, Mark Hubbard, on the show last week,

after all of them had not done very well at the Workday charity event, we hoped the podcast bump from last week's interview would lead to great heights for all three of those fellas last week. Joel and your brother both made the cut. Max missed it by a stroke right at the end. It was tough to take. But, you know, we're still very, very happy. for the flop house for boys on on balance, right?

The donkey stable hung in there. I actually think Mark was leading the tournament by two through 13 holes. That doesn't speak well to the way it finished, but it was a good week. Yeah, let's go ahead and talk a little bit seriously about what they experienced, what the feedback that we were getting as the tournament was occurring, because the real winner of this past week's event was not another than Jack Nicholas. He set up a course with a particular point of view. He had a point he wanted to make to the tour, and boy, was he successful.

I mean, the 75.96 strokes average Sunday was the highest at a non-manger since the fourth round of Farmers Insurance at Tori in 2016. I mean, I got a text from a player that said, with my A game on my best day, I would not have broken par. And that's a good thing because we've had a lot of tournaments where the winner has been absolutely just pocketing birdies left and right since the restart. And Jack was pissed about it. He telegraphed on Friday on the telecast, how he was feeling. He was pissed with the scoring. He's pissed with the distance and the records. He ran it about how he's been asking the USGA to deal with distance for 43 years. And he begged them to stop studying and do something. And then on Saturday and Sunday, he just took matters into his own

hands. And he smirked through the entire weekend. His guys struggled, right? It started with Bryson hitting that arrogant three wood and then the next one and then the next one out of the rough and letting Tiger make the cut and it came all the way down to Sunday where these guys were absolutely bleeding. And you got a wonder house. Tiger has made more money at Jack's tournament than Jack has made his entire career. He's a legend. He's a gentleman. He's a philanthropist. And he's also still got some competitive bones in his body. You know, there's just something with him about the way players are carving up these courses that just feels disrespectful to him. And this was Jack putting everybody in their goddamn place. It was

extraordinarily delightful. And I think you know, there are a couple big picture sort of things that we can combat about, you know, in the sense of Jack Nicholas having a particular point of view and wanting to show

the tour itself, but the sporting public at large that he's still, I mean, it's not that he needed to make a point about still being relevant, but the fact that, you know, the greatest golfer of all time, the kind of power that his intellect possesses, right? It's not like, he's not a power play. It's just his view of the game and his ability to convey that view through course setup. It was really a unique moment and very enjoyable.

And the contrast to me from an entertainment perspective, right, because the tension that the tour and golf in general has been working through is professional golf as an entertainment vehicle as a fun thing to watch on television against measured against the competitive balance and all of the technological advances in equipment and the ball and you know can there be a healthy tension there we had sort of an extreme dose over the first handful of events of distance, you know, run amok in the form of Bryson. And then we had this beautiful, wonderful dose. And everybody observed that this golf course with the,

with, with, um, the particular way it was, it was set up and the field that we had, that it had a major feel. And it was a reminder of how the majors play out. And it was in that respect, a wonderful, uh, breath of fresh air at this early stage. of the re-up. Do you agree with me? Jack's quote was the best. He said, I love these kind of conditions because I know that most of the guys will not be patient. And he took us over the course of the telecast through every single hole and what the players are doing that's disappointing him slash pissing him

off and what he's going to do with the new renovation to protect against that. And the discussion, as you've said, we've been talking about it on this pod for weeks is, hey, is the home run ball good for golf? You know, Bryson took so much of the conversation in the first couple of weeks because he's hitting the crap out of the ball. And so that naturally moved us to the conversation of, oh, geez, how do you protect against this when the other guys start to pick it up? What are we going to do about 400-yard drives? And I feel like Jack was sitting there recovering from coronavirus with his arms crossed smiling, just saying wait till they get to Muirfield.

And not even the first week, but the second week I'm going to show them. And I'm going to show them how you defend against this. And then I'm going to literally roll up the turf on them as the final group finishes each hole. I'm going to start digging up the course to make it even harder for you next year. And, you know, Jack, there was a lot of golf god vibe through this,

through this whole weekend. The golf gods looked poorly on on some players for some of their behavior. And, you know, we all sort of knelt at the hand of, of the golf god that is Jack Nicholas. It's such a great point. The golf gods writ large because only the golf gods could deliver the 26 minutes of Bryson D. Shambo on the 15th hole on Friday, having seemingly easily made the cut. He was only one over par at that point. And on a hole that, that, that, you know, is largely thought of as a, you know, plays under par hole, should be a birdie hole for somebody of Bryson's acumen. And to have Jack Nicholas happen to be sitting as part of the broadcast for that extended run and all 26 minutes of Jack growing more and more incredulous at the decision making. You use the

word arrogance. That is the word for the incredible bulk at this moment. And to have the entirety of the villain side of DeCambeau on full display in the face of the greatest golfer of all time at that golfer's own home venue. It was extraordinarily rich. And I thank the golf gods. I got worked up over that moment. And I did because I've been okay. with Bryson building up this persona over these last couple of weeks, even with the talk about the brand and the protect, like, I liked that he was making some noise and making some news because he was also delivering it on the golf course. And it brings up really important conversations about how golf should be played going forward. But you said it. The arrogance of pulling the three

would there at all, much less three times on Jack's course. I mean, you're not going to do it out of the rough. And then the futile ruling argument that came with this self-victimization claim that he always gets garbage rulings. I mean, like he was going to go splinter his wrists and blow up a wedge by hitting a ball under the iron fence, right? The ball would have gone 10 feet. But what got me was after all of that, Tim Tucker, his caddy, jumps in front of the camera to try to keep them from filming Bryson after he posts a 10. And I'll tell you what, Tim Tucker should jumped in front of the goddamn three wood. Is he going to jump in front of every fan with a camera phone when fans come back? It isn't about the telecast. It's 2020. Everything you do is on the

internet. And if you want to be the story, if you actively nurture a world in which you are the story, as Bryson has done, then you are always the story. You're not capable of controlling it. You don't get to do it. That's what comes with being the story. You know, you want to throw a blanket over you're moping about a couple of bad shots, you know, after giving press conference after press conference, then you post a 10 and you walk off the course without talking to anybody. Like, that's going to make it go away. I mean, wait until they come after Bryson's personal life. I'm not a nosy guy, but I know about Ricky's wife. I know that DJ is married to Paulina Gretzky and had substance abuse issues. We know about Jordan's wife. We know Sergio married

Angela from the Golf Channel and Rory married a, you know, a woman who worked for the PGA tour after breaking off his engagement to the tennis player. I mean, we know Elyn Woods broke the back of tigers escalate with a nine iron for crying out loud. And we know this, not because we're nosy, but because it's brought to us on a silver platter by the media. And because each of these guys has been or continues to be the story. So if you're going to make Instagram videos of you working out and getting 200 plus

mile an hour club head speed over and over and over again, or like posing in front of Bentley's when 20% of the U.S. is unemployed for crying out loud, then you better be ready to deal with what it means to be the story and to have everything you do posted on Instagram, not just your hype videos. I mean, everyone is the camera guy now. So be the golfer you want to be at all times, not just when you hit it 426 down the middle of the fairway. Well, and it's not just golfer.

It's public persona for all of the reasons that you just went through. He hopefully is using this off week. And whether it's voluntary or involuntary. or involuntary to do a reset, to sit down in front of the mirror and gather his team, including his caddy, and having a discussion amongst themselves, either with the input of the tour or not, to think about how they intend to hold themselves out going forward. Because there is, you know, this real dissonance between the sort of golf component, which is fascinating and the character component when he is in a good mood, which is interesting and charismatic.

And on the other hand, all of this boorish behavior that is so petulant, it's all this only child bullshit behavior. And I don't know whether or not he has siblings, but he really behaves as though he's the only one on planet Earth in those instances. And, you know, it's very bizarre to have, you know, this kind of immaturity for from out of somebody that has, you know, been in the public eye as a professional golfer for a long time. I mean, his success as an amateur, you know, when he won the USM a handful of years ago, he's been in the public eye for coming up on a decade now. Like what's so unusual or uncomfortable about the current moment that would produce this, this level of immaturity? Anyway,

unanswerable questions at the moment. We'll see Bryson at the Memphis, I think. You know, it's a WGC. And Friday is the deadline for all the entries. And then we'll see him at the PGA championship. And, you know, we'll just see whether or not he's taken any guidance from anyone. But we can't go all this time and not talk about John Rom. That's right.

Who was so effing impressive in the face of a golf court. and circumstances and conditions that took down everybody else. He was so extraordinarily good. He really was on path to shoot a 73. He did make Bertie on 16 that was later adjusted, but he made that shot. An incredible show of intestinal fortitude, all the fortitude in the lower half of the body.

John Rom showed it on 16. notwithstanding the imperceptible movement of the ball and the penalty, he is presently the number one ranked player in the world, according to the official world golf rankings, and it's largely attributable to sustain great play. Half of the events that he's played in in the 2019, 2020 season. He's finishing the top 10. So, you know, just sustained excellence.

And really this is his 10. 10th win, by far his most impressive win. It was, and we didn't really see it coming from the restart. Cut at Colonial, you know, T-33 in South Carolina, T-37 in Connecticut and T-27 last week. But, you know, as he said coming off the course on Saturday, today could have been one of the best rounds of golf I played in my life. And, you know, coming into Sunday, I think a lot of the guys, behind him felt like with the wind coming up and the course in the condition that had Jack cackling the way that he was, that no lead was safe. And that front nine on Sunday, Rom really shut the door.

That was him really putting everybody in his wake, which allowed for a little looseness down the stretch on the back nine. But culminating in that shot on 16, where we got yet another super awkward cheer like JT from the week before, uh, that just sort of hangs out in the air on the telecast with everybody being like, oh, this would be a lot cooler if fans were here. It is, it is the cheer that we make our own selves when we were playing in our own little

foursums or when something good goes well. I mean, it's, it's, it's akin to the cheer and I'll confess this. It might be like, you know, uh, 1130 on a Thursday night. and I might have something riding on the outcome, the Milwaukee Bucks against the Indiana Pacers. And the, you know, the game goes to overtime. And then miraculously, I hit an over in point total.

And boy, there's a cheer, an audible cheer, but it's just me. And yeah, it's probably a little awkward. Well, you know, it's worth talking a little bit more about Rom because this is, I mean, the guy, first of all, the guy looks like a grown-ass man, but he's only 25. I mean, he's younger than Bryson. He's younger than JT. He's younger than Speath.

I remember when he first came up on tour in that year, he was walking around the clubhouses, and he's one of those guys. There's just something different about him. He looks different. He carries himself different. He swings it. Like, you could just tell this was going to be a guy,

if not the guy. He's the third fastest to reach number one, behind only Jordan. and Tiger, you know, as you said, he's won 10% of his starts. He's, he's only missed the cut 12% of the time. 50% of the time, he's, he's top 10ing. So this is some pretty unprecedented stuff. And the way that he played this course, as you said, fourth, you know, off the tea, he was first tea to green. He was first around the green. You know, I mean, he just played this course in incredibly well. And, and, you know, he did it. The only question about John Rom that we still have

coming out of this week is not, is he going to win a bunch? Is he going to compete in majors? It's what's going on with his temperament? And is this a guy we're going to root for? We're going to be terrified of him in the Ryder Cup for years to come. But do we, do we like him? Do we trust his temperament? I mean, that club slam on 11 with a, you know, 11 million shot lead, I liked it because it meant he was still in the round and he still cared and clearly, you know, at that point, you think he's going to win. Maybe he's just upset with his performance. He's missing his goals. But I mean, we heard that this guy's working. His mental coach is a guy who defuses bombs. I'm not sure I want John Rom defusing the bomb for his house. I'm not sure he's got to be figured out how to cut the wires

without trembling just yet. Well, look, I'm glad that you mentioned the 10% win rate, right? Because, And this is a shout out to Nosferatu. Do you follow Nosferatu? It's at VC 606. A terrific follow. All of the official world golf ranking monitors it on like a day by day basis. And he shared, you know, it is momentous that this memorial event for ROM was his 100th official world golf ranking sanctioned event in his career.

So great time to go ahead and take stock of how he's. performed through his first 100. You mentioned the 10% win rate because he got his 10th win on Sunday. He also, across these 100 events he's competed in, 24% have been top threes, 38% have been top fives, 50% have been top tens, and he's only missed the cut 12% of the time. And Nosferatu points out, only Tiger Woods is the head of John Rom in all of these categories at those particular success rates.

I mean, that's incredible stuff. So when you say quite accurately that we wonder about his temperament, when you measure that temperament against the performance, sustained performance, number one in the world level performance, maybe it's the fuel that he feeds off of. And it's apparent. He's talked about it. that the psychology support that he's getting is how to make that fuel efficient fuel. Let that be fuel that produces continued success.

Let that fire show up in a managed way where he goes ahead and exhales in whatever demonstrative way he needs to, like slam it at a golf club. And then he clears his mind and he's ready to go on to the next opportunity. be. I think that's right. And one shining spot, and he deserves a lot of credit for the way he handled the interview at the end of the round. Our friend Amanda Ballionis asked the absolute right question. I thought she did a great job with that. And it was really fun to watch his eyebrows go up halfway up his forehead, but then have him really make some thoughtful comments about his own personal life, the way that he played and to just handle that moment,

which could have set him off if he really was the ticking time bomb, to handle that moment with grace and I think an understanding of the moment. He didn't just win Jack's tournament. He ascended to number one in the world as fast as anybody else ever has except for two people. And, you know, again, on that question that Amanda asked, the great way that she asked it, And his response, it was such a unique moment because of all of the circumstances that produced him basically walking off the green to the interview with her without anybody from the

tour or the rules officials intervening to brief him on potential rule violation. And he showed, you know, genuine surprise. It's what you just described. and it was like a really rare unique live TV moment of unique surprise, at least in sport lately. And I just really enjoyed that aspect of it. But he was very sincere and earnest, I thought, in how he responded to it. And he, you know, said exactly the right things, spur of the moment there. So it showed me a kind of roundedness in terms of self-awareness and, you know, just a kind of maturity to use that word again.

that may be different from some lack of maturity we've seen out of other guys. And again, for you mentioned it, 25 years old, so composed. So shouts to John Rom, he is on my card, Nathan Hubbard, as one of the top five guys to win the PGA championship in three weeks. I think he has got to be in the mix. And he also deserves a shout out for pushing forward an idea that's been circulating for a while. he walked off the course on Saturday and said he doesn't think four scratch club champions in a scramble could have broken par which I thought like what a great idea. Let's do that.

Let's have those guys go around so that we, the viewer can have that metric to sort of measure performance against. Well, this is a terrific idea and it does segue, you know, very nice. into one of the things I wanted to talk about with the upcoming 3M event in Minnesota, which is this new experiment that we've been seeing on the golf channel of a nine hole charity match between, you know, twosomes. I think it's Flewittwood, Casey, Will Gordon, and Matthew Wolf. Right. That's pretty great. That's interesting. And the guys have been wearing mics and talking. And we get to hear, you know, they're putting on a little bit of a show because, you know,

the match isn't terribly serious and they're able to show a little personality, but great innovation from, I'm not sure who's responsible. Is it the tour that's been championing this or golf channel? I don't know who, but kudos. Yeah. And clearly is a little bit of an innovation lab that they're using to try out some new concepts. And we've seen a few things bleed into the telecast last week. I mean, I got to give CBS credit.

Ryan Palmer kept backing off his shot and looking up at the drone. And that's exactly what I want. I want such crazy inventive camera angles that the players are like, what the hell? Like, I got to take a set. Like, yes, please, get up inside them. Let's go too far to that spectrum and have the players bring us back. So I love seeing Ryan Palmer back off from that. And I can tell, you can tell that they're trying out some of these things on these nine whole

contest. The other thing that, we got last week that that has started to come out of the experimentation that's being done, is we got the right behind the ball before it gets chipped onto the green camera angle. And that gave us the questionable ball movement stuff from Rahman 16, which by the way, also happened with Tony Fienow on Saturday. So explain to me rule 9.4 and how it works. I don't know. But it has pushed CBS to start thinking, not just CBS, but all of the telecasters to start thinking about how they get more innovative in the coverage,

what does it feel like to really mic these guys up? How do we bring out the personality and the fun of golf while also maybe educating you on how the game is played? So I think it's great what they're doing. And I just want to see some of those innovations get pulled forward into the telecast as fast as they can. Yeah, I mean, the scratch scramble is effing brilliant. I don't know what day of the week. I mean, we can easily make the bubble accommodate for scratch golfers, maybe even like in the local that, you know, wherever they're going. Make it a contest for charity. I'm with you.

Exactly. 100%. That's right. And just, you know, have cameras on a portion of it. I know that the logistics are probably not, you know, super easy. But may, I don't know, send them off first on a Saturday or sending them off, you know, some point lunch. I don't know exactly how to make the logistics work.

I mean, get them off at 7 a.m. They can go around the course. And then you got a graphic every time a player comes through that says, oh, by the way, he just eagled this and the club champs, you know, struggle to make birdie. I mean, it would be a fun point of comparison. The only thing that's close to it is that the Masters, when they have a single, they make him play with a marker.

Jeff Knox, the famous Jeff Knox. Right. And everybody cheers the marker. And it's fun to root for it. It's the same thing. let's just see how average slubs like me might get around the course. Well, scratch golfers are not average slubs like us. I mean, I'm going to include me with you.

I wonder if they could do it like Monday. Anyway, I don't want to belabor the scratch scramble, but it is entirely in concert with the kind of innovation that we were talking about and kind of enjoying as the golf channel and CBS and NBC all sort of get along the way here. Well, and as you say, it's also a way to introduce us to some new guys that we don't normally see. I mean, if we're being honest about this week in Minnesota, it's kind of the first Who Cares Week on the PGA tour. We get to catch our breath a little bit before we ramp up for a ton of huge tournaments in August and September. You know, the drama this week is really like which one of the Kepka brothers is better at golf.

But you look at the featured groups and they're doing some of the things that our buddy Max Homa talked about last week, which is, hey, let's take some good players and find a way to interject some of the middle part of the tour to give some exposure to them. Now, they're doing that out of necessity because it's a super bottom heavy field this week. But, you know, we got DJ Tommy Fleetwood and Tony Fienow in one group. Okay, that makes sense. We got defending champ Matthew Wolfe and our boy Max Homa, along with Brandon Grace in another group, right? That's good. Yeah, it's great.

But Bubba Watson, Paul Casey, Pat Perez in another group. Pat Perez is like the guy Fierry of golf. Like the guy's a complete lunatic. That's the group that I'm going to be watching. But then we got Brooks Kepka, Keith Mitchell, and Charles Howell, which seems like a missed opportunity to put Chase Kepke in with Brooks and have a Fredo moment and just see which one is better. But these are interesting opportunities for the tour to try some things out

and start seeing whether they can, you know, make the story more than just who's the biggest guy playing the tournament this week. Because this week, if we're being honest, it's a wide open field outside of basically DJ, Fleetwood, Kepka, Fina. Right. And, you know, the stated goal of this tournament last year was to let guys come in and score. Like, they definitely, you know, favored the version of professional golf as entertainment. that sort of depends on birdies and eagles. And they were rewarded for that setup because the drama of the tournament last year

came from Bryson D. Shambot, eagling the 18th hole, and then going and standing up, you know, entering his score and standing and watching the remaining groups come in. And Bryson standing and watching Matthew Wolfe arrive on that 18th hole and make his own eagle, which was the only way for Matthew Wolf to win the tournament

and prevent DeSambeau, prevent a playoff with DeSambeau. So great job. And the winning score was 21 under par. So I think we're back. We're going to have that return of, you know, Birdy Fest,

Eagle Fest kind of golf, but with, you know, guys that aren't necessarily in the limelight on the regular, as you just observed. So it gives a chance for some young guys, some young names,

maybe some European names. to jump up. There is one guy in particular, you know, the early news, and this will be all the way through into Thursday, Eric Van Royan went to the University of Minnesota. He married a Minnesota girl.

He's staying with his Minnesota in-laws. And we mentioned him a little while ago. I think it was a couple weeks ago when Jason Sobel was on, right? I brought him up. You know, he's, I mean, look, with this course,

it's definitely a bomber's course. he's also just in the only short period of time we've seen him. He's 22nd and shots gained T to green. And so 20 second, you go, okay, but when you take out the guys in front of him who aren't playing this week, he's got a real chance to do something this week. Well, and he's available right now at 45 to 1, if you're interested in allocating a little capital. He has played this venue a bazillion times.

He's extraordinarily comfortable on it. I don't know which way that cuts. Speaking of cuts, he's played in. seven tournaments since the start of calendar year 2020. And what he does is he either misses the cut or he finishes inside the top 25. He has missed the cut four times and finish inside the top 25, actually 22nd or better. In the other three starts, you would expect him to be comfortable at this venue and to play well, one of the fun storylines coming into this week in Minnesota.

also want to mention the fact that I think it's a sponsor's exemption exemption for Sahith Tagala. He's playing in this event super heralded amateur. You know, Ben Hogan Award winner, Jack Nicholas Award winner was ranked as high as third in the world as an amateur. We got to see him in Connecticut, you know, was disappointed. We didn't get to see him last week. But I'm excited to see him come out and have, you know, have assets. this course. I'm with you. Okay. So I just mentioned a couple names, couple items of interest, sort of, sort of off the, the big page. Let's talk about the big

page for a second. Yeah. Dustin Johnson had a week, kind of like our boy, Joel Damon, the week before. I'm not sure what the numbers are for, for DJ in the worst professional performance he's ever had, but this had to rival it. back to back 80s is not what you're shooting for. But I have to tell you, that course was set up in a way that I just don't put a whole lot of stock into guys who flamed out at the beginning part of the week. I think for some people,

if they didn't have the mental acuity to hang in there, or they got, you know, I mean, Bryson was playing pretty well before he had the 10. Yep. Yeah. And he was on 15 on Friday.

Like, you know, easily going to make the cut. No issue. Yeah. So that was, of course, that just compounded mistakes. And I think we're going to see bounce back from DJ this week. Okay.

I like that. I mean, Damon said on the pod last week, what you do when you have back to backgrounds in the 80s like that, you just, you know, hit eject and it goes out of your head. And Damon proved it. He hung in. He made the cut on the number and, you know, collected a little check from this past week. I think for me on the, you know, the big guys on the board this week house, there's two guys playing this tournament

who it's time to see something from. Okay. And for me, that is, and we should talk about each of them a little bit. I mean, for me, that's Tony Fienow, and it's Tommy Fleetwood. And these are two guys who, you could argue,

have underperformed pretty significantly relative to what they're capable of and their potential. This is a week in which there's not really an excuse for one of the big names to not come in and clean this tournament up. Tommy Fleetwood, we know, shot 64 at Shinnecock Hills this week. That card looked nice. He's playing great golf.

He finished third at the Honda before the break. It's time. I mean, this is the 12th ranked player in the world. We should probably have a conversation about the official world golf rankings because how Tommy Fleetwood is ranked ahead of Colin Moracawa right. now. I don't know. But, but, you know, he hadn't won since a diluted European tour event in 2019. He had a lot of almost in 2019. I mean, he was solo second at the open, a bunch of top fives and higher profile events. But it's time for Tommy Fleetwood to step in and win a tournament so that he's

not just the guy with the hair who's hanging around contention but doesn't quite get it done. I like that. I mean, it would be nice for Fleetwood to start collecting some of these regular PGA tour events to start burnishing his credentials, to start building out the resume a little bit. We've seen him, you know, sort of incandescent in majors, right? He's right there nudging the leader, pushing the leaders. What he did at Shinnecox to speak of, you know, in 2017, 2016, when ever the, you know, they were just just there a couple years ago, you know, to really hold Brooks Keppka's feet to the fire. He threw up and he. an incredible number and had a birdie putt on 18 to get himself all the way to one over

and just blipped out. I mean, Fleetwood has shown us extraordinary skill under the most challenging condition. So he needs to start doing what you're saying. Let's just, you know, see some excellence on a consistent basis in, you know, where the pressure is slightly different to show us sort of that well-roundedness. The guy that I'm interested in is Kepka. You know, I'm now legitimately concerned about his physical well-being. You should be.

So in a post-round interview last week, he acknowledged that he'd had an MRI on his left knee at the beginning of the week. And the person doing the interviewing took a half-beat. It was like, what? And then had to ask the follow-up, you know, you did? like, you know, why? And, you know, there was a handful of, of a Q&A around the status. And what

Brooke said was he wanted to make sure that there wasn't any issue in there, that it was like a periodic. He tried to characterize it. It felt like, like, you know, a periodic kind of check-in an evaluation to ensure that nothing had diminished since the surgery at the end of last year. but it doesn't seem like you go get an MRI for a periodic check-in, right? No, and the key phrase out of that interview was there hasn't been any improvement. And I don't see that as Brooks making excuses, but that's the first time that he's put some information out there proactively about his performance. We have been alluding to this for weeks now here on Fairway Rowland, but he's 154.

fourth in the FedEx Cup. He's 82 points out of making the top 125, which you have to do over the next four events in order to play for the FedEx Cup and the $15 million, which we know he cares about. 82 points is like a T8. And so he's got a lot of work to do over these next couple weeks. I think, honestly, that's the only reason he's in the field this week

is he's got this week. He's got next week in Memphis, he's already, you know, committed to and he's, he's defending there. And, and then he's got the PGA. And, and if he has to go to, to Greensboro to play the tournament the last week, maybe he does it. But if the knee isn't better, you got to wonder if it might be better for Brooks, if he just isn't going to make the, just to shut it down and play for the PGA, play for the U.S. Open. Well, he clearly is in, is not insufficient discomfort. And now we're taping this. on Tuesday before the start of the Thursday round.

And so it's possible that he withdraws between now and Thursday. But he has not experienced sufficient discomfort to dissuade him from pushing forward with a third consecutive week of playing. That's what this will be. And as you just mentioned, he's already lined up to play the WGC event in Memphis next week and then the PGA, the following week. That's five straight events in a row. it feels like he's pressing.

It feels like he's pressing. If it's a bulky knee, you know, I don't know which way that cuts. I mean, that's exactly right. It's, you don't know how much of it is physical, some,

is some aspect of it, psychological. He's feeling pressure. I don't know. But I guess I personally, I want to see him play this week. I want the knee trouble to be in the rear view mirror for a little bit,

give him a break. I hope he plays great. I hope he gets a top 10, starts, you know, gets enough points to jump inside that 125. He has the option of playing Memphis or not, although he's going to play it because he's defending champion.

So I guess he wouldn't withdraw from that. No, the curve of every great golfer house, you know, has highs and lows. And this is a guy who, when he won the U.S. Open, I mean, they knew so little about him that, you know, they screwed up the name of his girlfriend, right, when he won for the first time. and he came out and just crushed four majors and he seemed kind of invincible. This feels like part of that path

that we've had with a lot of our favorites who go through the highs and the lows, DJ's gone through it, Speeth is in the middle of it, Tiger's gone, where we get to know a little bit more about their character and where they get sort of stronger and better

because they've got to deal with this adversity. This is a guy who didn't have a whole lot of adversity for a couple of years on tour. He was just the man. And so I don't mind. listen, I don't wish anything bad on him, but I'm excited from a narrative standpoint to see how this makes him a better golfer, assuming that, you know, we've got a physical health situation that is solvable for him. Well, speaking of physical health and narratives and adversity, we've

somehow gone 43 minutes in this podcast, Nathan Hubbard, without talking about his highness, Eldrick Eltegray Woods, Tiger, Tiger Woods, y'all. It is now time for this week in Tiger Woods. Tiger, Tiger, Tiger, Wood. Okay, so we were convened about this time a week ago, me and you, and we were kind of running through our hopes and expectations for Tiger Woods. And now we have four rounds in our back pocket. Give me a score, a one to ten.

What score you given Tiger for this past week? I'm happy with what came out of it. Friday night's press conference scared the crap out of me because you had a bunch of guys standing around him trying to get him to snap about the state of his back. And they kept asking him the same question over and over again, which was basically like, Tiger, this really sucks. You must really be upset, huh?

Your back really hurts. and they asked him about the aging process. And he said, you know, I used to look forward to it. And now it's just really hard. I'm just trying to go day by day and manage my life going forward. He was more resigned to it. And he told us in so many words, boy, I really hope you appreciate what I did in Augusta last year

because it's going to be hard for me to string four rounds together. That said, House, he was fifth and shots gained approach this week. Yes. That's a great sign. A lot of the mess was around the greens, which is something that he's going to be able to clean up. And again, I think the course was really brutal.

It was his first test back. Like, let's cut him some slack on that one. I don't put a whole lot of stock in the, he was driving carts instead of walking, right? It's that he's a 45-year-old man and his back doesn't work very well. So we just have to hope that the adrenaline and the good golf gods, because he definitely worships in the House of Nicholas, are going to take care of his back in those moments

when he's really in contention. As far as a test goes and a warm-up, I give this week like an 8 out of 10. It's about what we expected. He made the cut. That's what we thought. He's striking the ball pretty well. He's got a couple weeks to clean things up

before the PGA, FedEx, and the U.S. Open. Let's go. Okay, I like it. I like the glass half full. I'll go right along with your 8 out of 10. he met expectations, right? We said here a week ago that we anticipate him being rusty. Well, he was rusty.

He said in post-round interviews that he's been putting down in Florida on Bermuda, and he came up here and, you know, with greens that have very little break in them down in Florida. And all of a sudden, he's playing 10-foot, 12-foot break. The rough that he encountered at Memorial isn't like anything that he's. he's been playing out of. And we said he need reps. Like the guys are too good right now. The guys that have been playing in these restart events have, you know, all gotten in the reps that they need to be, you know, capable and competent at this stage. And this is just

Tiger getting four rounds. And every time that he plays in an event, the goal, the stated goal is to make sure that he gets the four rounds in because he needs the reps at this stage. of golf existence. And he, you know, showed us the ability to shoot under par. He shot under par twice at this venue to go along with this pair of 76s. But the 76 that he shot on Sunday was the average. I mean, you mentioned it. 75.96 was the average score on Sunday.

So Tiger was, if you think about it that way, he was right there with his peers on Sunday. And he shot under par to previous day. So, you know, as far as I'm concerned, everything you could have hoped for out of the Tiger Woods. I was happy. So the question is, what do we think he's going to do between now and the PGA championship? He got really cute with his answers about that. You know, he wouldn't say competitive reps. He just needed reps. So I might be surprised if we see him in Memphis. You know, you think about him, he's going to have to fly to Memphis. It keeps him out of his home for two weeks because then he's got to go to San Francisco. It's a trip across the country

for him from Florida. So I think I'm going to be surprised if we see him there. Yeah, it breaks my heart for our homie, Chris Vernon, the ringer's own Chris Vernon, Memphis native, who I know will be rooting hard in Memphis for the great field that will come together there. And he really, they haven't had Tiger yet. But I'm with you. I don't think he's going to play Memphis. I think he's going to go. And I don't know, you know, in terms of what he just experienced at Memorial,

which is a radically different golf course than what he's been practicing on. I'm sure he has a point of view on what to expect at TPC Harding Park. And, you know, that he's going to attempt to replicate conditions that he will encounter there, including possibly flying out early. Like there's nothing, if he doesn't play in Memphis, there's nothing keeping him from flying out the previous Thursday and getting acclimated to the West Coast and getting the rounds in and just, you know,

using the time. We know with Tiger he doesn't want to overpractice, but like when's the last time that he's played this particular venue? It's got to have been a number of years. Yeah, I think that's right. If you're Tiger, I think you're sitting there going, I go to top 10 this week, if not for my back on Friday. Is it the competitive reps that I need?

Or is it the rest and the work on a few things that I saw out there to get ready for the PGA? My sense is he's going to choose to do the latter. I'm with you on it. Let's give out a pick and then let's call it a wrap for this week on Fairway Rowland. Is there anybody jumping off the page that you crossed, you know, the various skill sets and so forth? Give a name and a number for who's going to win this week. I need to see something out of Tony Fienow this week. You know, he's got one top 20 since he, since he got run down in Phoenix by Webb Simpson.

You know, this week, you know, okay, we had some tough conditions, but he's really got to show us something now. The spotlight is going to start to burn pretty hot on Tony Fee now. He should have won more than once on tour. He's got the most top tens without a win in the last couple of years, period. So I want to see Tony Fienau come out and win this tournament. I think it's going to be a 21, 22 under type week. It looks like we're going to get some rain.

And so the little tweaks that they made to the golf course last year to try to toughen it up a little bit and make it less of a champions tour track and more of a PGA tour track, you know, they may not take effect if we get the afternoon thunderstorms that come out of the Midwest. But I want to see if Tony Fienow is the golfer that we all want him to be because he's such a good guy and he's so excited. And I will say this, one thing that we have observed, when he gets on a roll, he can stay hot. You know, it's a, he starts hot and stays hot. He'll knock it down for like four or five events. And so maybe if the memorial, something clicked there and, you know, if he can get over the collapse on Sunday, if he's already put that in the rearview mirror and has the good feeling, we saw him swing speed wise get to 206 miles an hour on social media.

last week. So we know that he's in perfectly fine physical condition. There is a, the only thing that could stop him is, is the six inches between the ears. I'm just going to be a sap with my pick. I'm going to take Eric Van Roy and we laid out the case for him. It, it feels like this is a, uh, an event as demonstrated from last year where, you know, an opportunity for the field to, to come up and I'm a sucker for a good story. I like Van Roy's. story. He's available between 45 to 1 and 55 to 1 right now as a winner. That's, you know, that's worth a little dash of something. And I think he's going to shoot like 22 under. I think if you're looking for some value down ticket, the Fairway Roland's been behind Lucas Glover

since the restart. He's made every cut. He's been finishing in the 20s. You know, if you got to fill out your DFS roster, Lucas Glover's been playing great. Sam Burns, 10th in driving distance, you know, he's got a T-24, T-30, T-17 in his last three starts. He's been playing a really great golf. And I think Carlos Ortiz is a guy. He played Saturday. He had a great round on Saturday at the Memorial. He's 38th in the FedEx Cup.

He top 10 to here last year. He's a guy who might be worth filling out the bottom of your fantasy roster with. I like it. Those are some good names. I'm looking also at Charlie Hoffman, who has been, you know, putting some quality golf together since the restart, finished tied for 41st at the travelers

and tied for seventh at the workday. But what's happening is he's having one bad round. He's shooting, you know, some very decent scores. And then one round is, is holding him back. So venue like this feels like a kind of Charlie Hoffman special kind of joint.

And that's my down-ticket guy for this week. Nathan Hubbard, we shall be talking about the results of this event in Minnesota in a week's time. And we'll also be visiting Memphis, Tennessee and the upcoming WGC event there. Hopefully with our local Memphis homie, Chris Vernon on the line to join us. That's it for this week, my birdie buddies. We shall be back again. In the meantime, everyone, please hit them straight out there.