Fairway Rollin' - Cam Young Wins the Players Championship!

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

House and Nathan react to Cam Young winning the Players Championship! They break down what led to his victory, how the rest of the field fared, what the future of this tournament might look like, and what we learned from Brian Rolapp’s press conference.(0:00) Welcome to Fairway Rollin’!(1:10) Cameron Young (-13) wins the Players Championship(6:40) Ludvig Aberg’s back nine was the story(12:30) Players who finished outside the top 20(22:30) How did the rest of the field fare?(26:20) What might this tournament look like in the future?(41:05) Thoughts on Brian Rolapp’s press conferenceThe Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available.Hosts: Joe House and Nathan HubbardProducers: Tucker Tashjian and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, friends, and welcome to this golf program, unlike any other. Oh, yes, my friends, the Players' Championship Recap here on Fairway, Role. A golf podcast and program on the Ringer podcast network and Netflix. My birdie buddies, my part saving pals, my eagle enthusiast. I am your starter. Joe House joined by my incomparable accomplice. our PGA tour boots on the ground. Our boots were on the ground at the players championship this week.

And lo and behold, this golf tournament delivered everything we hope for and more. It was a hell of a week. I hope everybody enjoyed it. It's a two ball. The pegs are on the ground. Nate and I cannot wait to get going. Off we go. Nate Dogg, how is your yellow Marajou?

My goodness. I mean, I'll tell you what. And shout out to our boy, Jason Justin Ray, who came on this podcast earlier in the week and made the point that to me transcends all others, which is there are so many ways to fit the puzzle pieces together to win and to perform well at this golf tournament. And we saw guys do that, right? We just had a down-the-stretch duel from the guy who had the closest proximity to the pin this week and the guy who hit the most fairways. Matt's Fitzpatrick hit the most fairways. Kim Young had closest proximity. Multiple ways to string this thing together.

And we had guys doing it from across the board. There are also a lot of ways to blow this thing and to really lose it. And we saw that two house, didn't we? Now, I mean, my question to you as we start, because you and I got some great time on the ground there. We walked that course. We fell even more deeply in love with it than we already are. But we saw the setup.

And my question to you is, were you surprised at the outcome? You and I called this was going to be a 12 or 13 under number, no doubt. You know, we saw that rough that dramatically changed the way these guys played the golf course. It made 18 heart right. Were you surprised having been on the ground at what you saw coming down the stretch today? Not even a little bit. Not surprised one iota. And the reason that I answer that way is because the golf tournament was there to be won.

by five or six, maybe even seven different guys as we approached the back nine. And then it was the guys who were the best off the T. The guys who coming down the stretch as you made the turn into 10 and got, you know, your headway in front of you, who was going to get off the T, keep the ball in play, give themselves birdie chances. Cam Young shot a 33 on the back to go out and grab the golf. tournament and Matt Fitzpatrick was not that far behind him in terms of the quality of the play. It's just that Cam Young was a tiny bit better as we came down here. And, you know,

in in the big picture, this satisfies a thirst that that was out there for us. We on this program at the end of September of 2025 watched what Cam Young did. did at the Ryder Cup and said, this man is ready for the next big step. Well, that next big step has arrived. He took it with giant steps through the back nine of the players championship. This thing was, we don't have to talk about major, not major, an awesome, the best event on the PGA tour at a venue that was set up to play like it, intended to produce a worthy champion and look at the names that we have on this leaderboard. Well, I think that's it. And we talked about Cam Young at the beginning of the week

because he'd finished T7 at Genesis and T3 at API, and it was coming. Since that win at Wyndham, he finished fifth at FedEx, 11th at the BMW Championship. He was T4 at the Tour Championship. He played into the fall like some of the other guys. He was T4, excuse me, T9 in Napa, finished 10th at Tigers event. And then he cooled off a little bit coming through Pebble Beach. But you and I at the start of the season said this in our preview said this is the guy to watch because at 90 plus events, he finally broke through at Wyndham. Then we saw him admittedly in a pretty significant home game even for him play just with the stones that we expected. And the question was, was he going to break through?

And I thought he gave one of the most interesting comments today in the post round, which is, Kara asked him the right thing, which was, did that pressure come off you when you won at Wyndham? When you got that first one under your belt and after the Ryder Cup. And I thought his answer was awesome because he looked dead in the camera. And this guy does not show a lot of emotion. He sometimes gets some shit for that. But it's not unlike Sheffler, part of the reason why maybe he's been successful. He looked in that camera and he said, none of that is remotely close to the pressure that I put on myself. and that I've been putting on myself my whole life to, to achieve.

And so that just tells you that, yes, there's always going to be a game in your head, right, in this sport. There is for everybody. We knew coming in that both Rory physically and Scotty mentally probably weren't at their peak, which is why this thing was open for others. But we learned something about Cam Young today, House. I mean, down that stretch, that shot on 17, that 375-yard drive, the longest recorded in the history of the hole on 18, after putting it in the water yesterday to take himself further back, told us a lot about this guy. And I think he is on the trajectory now that we sort of thought was going to happen

with Ludwig Oberd, who after he won Tory, won that elevated event, moved himself into the Ryder Cup, won the only singles match on Sunday there for Europe. We thought maybe it was there. And today, we learned something about both those guys, didn't we? Well, this was a back 940 is the story for Ludwig.

And for I think Kiz said it right. For about a half hour, his driver disappeared on him. He was hitting, you know, voluminous, luscious drives really all week long. And then it just went by-bye for about a half hour. Did you hear, Brandel? What did he say? Yesterday? on live from?

No. When the sun was setting, Brandl went on a long, data-driven rant about how Ludwig has struggled with 36 and 54 whole leads. The most recent one was Scott Schopen, which we saw him lose.

And he just said that he didn't see, he said, I'm not saying that's what's going to happen, but I'm saying he has struggled multiple times at the BMW in Europe, at the Scottish Open. He has had these leads that he struggled with. And it was, you know, again, live from is just sublime, but it really was

a harbinger of what we ended up seeing today. And he, he shot four over on that back nine house. It was the difference between finishing, what did he finish, tied for 10th, tied for 8th, and being tied to win the golf tournament. I mean, the difference between 13 under and 9 under. That's it. And it was just that back nine. Yeah, he finished T5, Ludwig. And, you know, we'll get into some of the numbers, but it is, you know, reflective of he needs the reps.

I mean, you know, it escaped him. We saw all this on the back nine at the Masters a couple of years ago in his debut. He's standing in the middle of the fairway on the 11th. hole he snaps one left into the water into the water it's it's just reps like you know i i i'm not here to he was smiling walking off the tea so there's that yeah i'm not lobbing bombs um no no i think you know the the the talent is is there the talent is is all of it uh and and when you look at that leaderboard how packed and stacked it is with you know your your highest quality guys all this rider cup experience you see on this board. All of these guys that have either won majors or been there for

the back nine of a major in recent history. I mean, recent memory, Ludwig certainly one of those guys. But, you know, it's hard to win golf tournaments. No, it is. That's the answer. It is. And six under was T-13 in this event. Tommy Fleetwood somehow climbed us way back to a T-8 in this golf tournament after being pretty much, you know, not that involved in a meaningful way. Sam Burns with a, so you're exactly, Brooks Kepka, who we talked about, gave us that T-13 after a decent day. I do think like this is a very, very meaningful win for Cam Young. He's been, he got a lot of shit.

Let's just be honest. He took a lot of it for not winning and then for his sort of, let's call it dispassionate disposition. and I think what you saw coming down the stretch today did it. And I do want to just say, let's not get too far off course set up because the way that Cam Young won was not by birdying 16. Neither of these guys got a birdie on 16. And in part, because of the way this course was set up,

it forced the action all the way to 17. And then, you know, I would argue that this course, winning on this course, everything through it runs through 18. 17 is the famous hole. 18 is the one that you actually have to deal with. But the way they set this course up this week, that rough that you and I saw on the right of nine that came into play, that rough that you and I saw on the left at 16, that is why Cam had to make par there and couldn't do better than that. It just was too much to contend with. That rough on the right on 14 that forced people to flirt with the left side, right? All of the setup choices that they made this week where they made

the greens a little bit firmer and faster and they grew the rough out a little bit more. It just and then to your point on 18, that rough on 18 on the right was dead and that is why, you know, guys were guys were happier to draw a ball into the water over the green than to go right because it was more likely that you would bogey with the draw than with the fade into that rough on the right. Yeah, and to the, you know, point on on the setup, even goes just go back to four hitting up on the left on on four like Thor himself, Michael Horbournson. His golf tournament ended by hitting the ball up the left side. He did the right thing by by chipping out. You know, he took his medicine, but then he hit the ball in the water on, you know, a between

yardage because, you know, you're not expecting to be hitting from that. And, But that's ostensibly a birdie hole, right? If you're in the fairway. Yep. And otherwise it's super not. So I really thought the course shined. And you sent me a text as these guys were coming down the stretch. And you said something to the effect of eight of the 11 guys, top 11 guys right now are rider cupers.

Like this course did an incredible job of separating out the skill players and the guys who've been playing the best so far this year from the rest of the guys in, you know, what is annually one of the strongest fields in golf. Yeah, so let's talk about guys that were not in the top 20 for a minute. And that has to start with Scotty Schaeffler, who continues to be in this kind of stasis right now. He feels a little stuck. He looks a little stuck. He doesn't want to hear you say that.

Well, we're just watching the golf being played tied for 22nd this week after, you know, it was a top 25 finish at API last week, but we don't expect to see him landing between 20 and 25 every week. It was once again, a meh performance on approach. I think he finished 44th, something like that, in the 40s. Yes, 44th. And, you know, that's the difference. That's why, you know, he did make a performance.

push on Sunday on Saturday, a nice 67 on Saturday. He was, you know, within kind of shouting distance. You thought if he came out and shot another drop a 65 on us that, look, you know, maybe we got something to talk about, but, you know, just still kind of plotting around a little bit. Yeah, I think that's right. And the round on Sunday was exacerbated by a shorty mess down the stretch. But, you know, the live from guys, again, did a really good job bringing it down his swing. And what they see on the irons is a swing that is a foot and a half shorter than it was. And that that's maybe a symptom of, like, you just get out of sink. It's not like a death blow and things are different. But his iron swing looks different than it did six months ago,

period. And he's got all the coaching and video stuff in the world to go see it and deal with it. Sometimes you just slide out of the feel. And that's something that happens to, thank goodness, All the best players have to contend with that. Now, what's crazy about it is this is Scotty's floor. 25th is Scottie's floor. That's how good of a player he is when he's out of sync and there's a foot and a half of shortening of his swing that has impact down as he brings the club back around.

That's still not enough to derail him from 100 other golfers. And this golf course won't tolerate. I got it wrong. He was 44th in off the T. strokes gain off the T, 37th on approach, which is inside the top 40, we're making progress because he was in the 80s coming into this event. So he'll move up a tiny bit that way. But here's the issue.

You can't shoot, you can't be tied for 50th on driving accuracy at this golf course. You can't be under 60% on driving accuracy on this golf course. And what this golf course requires, this is why Matt Fitzpatrick made the push that he made. I think he was north of 80% accuracy-wise and had an extraordinary weak accuracy-wise off the T. Matt Fitzpac. Except for 18, 18 got him. Something about that.

But for Scotty... Seven to 14 fareways today, you know? Yeah. With the rough the way it is, you can miss that fairway by a yard, and it takes you completely out of the hole. And, I mean, I think I had a bunch of people in my house as we were coming down the stretch here. And after that birdie on 18, you know, they said, oh, it's going to go to a playoff.

And I said, no, no, no. Like, we watched 18 all week long. The wind is down. Like, somebody's going to bogey this hole. It's just, it takes its toll. And after that T shot, you just knew Fitz was not going to be able to get that done. Now, interestingly, you know, we didn't see Fitzpatrick coming in the same way that we saw some of the other guys in this golf tournament. And that is because he had a nice, nice, nice.

at the Phoenix Open, and he definitely, listen, he won the DP World Tour Championship. But, you know, coming in, he was T14 at Pebble, T24 at the Genesis, and 41st at API, and he lost shots on approach. So it was not Matt Fitzpatrick coming in on fire. That said, you know, as you mentioned, the way that he dissected this golf course was just to keep the ball in the fairway. And at the beginning of the week, if you'd told me, Matt Fitzpatrick's going to hit more fairways than anybody, I'd have told you he was going to win. If you told me he was going to be 83% in fairways, but miss 18, all four days, I might have told you it's going to be close, but not all the way there because that hole took

more doubles this week than any other hole. It just is punishing. And we saw it in both directions. The wind was in the early part of the week, and it was down at the end of the week, and it just requires choices that make it one of the best holes in golf. if not as sexy as its predecessor on 17. Yeah, but what a clincher. I'm mad at Matt Fitzpatrick because I had him last week at Arnold Palmer,

had invested in him a lot of different ways, had him for a top 10 as one of my favorite plays. Because of his off-the-tee action this year, it's been outstanding. Like you mentioned, his approach left a lot to be desired at API. But he's in form and you know he did get and show us some of that comfort Puddy wise and these greens definitely suit him so not surprised to see him out there one of the things you're you're gonna get mad at me make fun of me but he mentioned it not me he said it out loud that he had a very nice comfortable pairing with his teammate yeah young his TGL teammate and you you could see

The two of them, there was a kind of, I don't know. Big hug at the end, man. I know, but there was a, they were fueling each other, clearly, right? There was a kind, it became down the stretch, the two of them. They could just focus on each other. And it wasn't a cold war. You know what I mean? Correct.

They were doing thumbs up and stuff out there, Cam Young was. Two rider cuppers where you would have in years past expected the tension, there was a warmth that, I think you're right, fueled the. them both and again, a pretty big embrace. That's as much emotion as you see Camp Young, you know, expressed was, was in the way that he sort of hugged Matt Fitzpatrick. So I'm not going to make funnier because there was the narrative earlier in the weekhouse that some of the injuries that we'd seen was coming from guys who were playing

on the TGL, these back injuries to Rory to JT on and on down to Conmore Cowan. Now, I think all those guys have sort of poo-poohed that. And I think it's, it's probably a. an angle that's worth poo-pooing and not focusing any time on. But I will tell you that there is clearly some camaraderie amongst the guys who are doing that. And by the way, none more than Thor Bjoranson, right, who went out there for the, really, most of this week, he's a guy who we talked about again when we kicked off the season and said, this is a guy who has a chance to elevate himself. And not jokingly, because he had been picked by Rory clearly to join the ball frogs.

and they had seen in him the potential that made him the number one PG-2-U-G-2-U-guy after Ludwig had a couple years after Ludwig had gone on to be a pro. Now, he had a tough day, battled back. You know, he's going to learn from that. And speaking of needing reps, I think he needed those reps today. And because, you know, even with a decent round, he was going to be in this golf tournament. But I will concede and give to you. I'm still going to make fun of you every time that you talk about TGL

because it's a patently ridiculous thing that the technology, like we're just not talking about the fact that the tech FERPs a lot. But that said, it is clear that from a culture perspective and from a relationship between players' perspective, and in some cases, you know, from a skill level standpoint, like it's helping to hone the craft. Undoubtedly so. What do you want to do with Rory?

Do you want to give him a pat on his lower back? for making it for for grinding it out I think my instinct is that he came in here to do no further harm to do no harm to do no further harm because he has his eyes set on one single thing and he played a kind of golf that was going to in the first place make the cut and then in the second place you know finish out the golf tournament without doing any he finished under par today which is no small thing when you look at the way this leaderboard was go ahead he he was second off the tea this week that was all good he just sucked with the putter and was meh on approach and we saw him when he showed up wednesday night he went to the back of that range yeah and he started hitting and he was pushing in the same spot mind you that colin morikawa started pushing after his infamous you know practice swing on 11 the second second hole of the tournament after which he withdrew. Rory was sort of pushing on the same spot.

And you and I put some stuff out on social that just said like he's not right, stay away. It's fine that he's here, but don't take the risk. And I think Rory rolling in at T-46 without hurting himself and being second off the T, which is to say the swing is still there, he just, he had zero practice rounds is perfectly fine. So I, you're exactly right. All I's on Augusta, the game is still there for Rory. and if he didn't hurt his back anymore being second off the T, that's great news. I don't know when we're going to see him again, but I know that he's going to show up to the

Masters as one of the big favorites. Have to talk about Jordan Speath. He gave one of his all-time greats, and there is a whole litany of all-time great pressers from Jordan Speath. his 76 yesterday basically took him off of the front page of the leaderboard it was the thing there was a little bit of excitement building Nate dog I will tell you there was a sentiment because that 68 on Friday is like you know we're kind of in the mix here a little bit but it all went away and what was it a four putt he ended up with it was at least a three putt from very very

very close range. Yeah. And yeah. 60 second and putting ninth on approach. Like the pieces are there. And I think he's. He says that that. Yeah, he said that.

I mean, 63rd off the T. So, I mean, it's Jordanesque. But he's right that on this course, the line between success and perceived failure is fairly thin. And that guys can come in with game that is in decent shape. And if they are not super precise, you walk off 18 with a double boge because you were one inch right in the rough. That is how this course was set up this week. And so I don't mind the positive talk and the reinforcement.

Do we believe it or not? I'm not sure. But let's put it this way. Jordan Speath is delivering top 30 results in ways that he was not a year ago. And so the game is hovering around there. I think it will be very interesting to see what he does through this Texas swing where I expect he will play, if not more than once, at least once, leading into the Masters because that's his home. Let's see if he can put some of the pieces together and if he can get to Augusta where obviously he's had both his highest and lowest moments in the major and string it together. But Jordan Speeth is a better golfer this year than he was a year ago. There's no doubt.

True story. Another guy that I feel like we could say that about, And I'm prepared to just go ahead and say full on, welcome back. And you did mention earlier, welcome back Brooks Kepka. I mean, that T-13 at this big boy golf course under these big boy circumstances, I gave him out as a potential sleeper to win this golf tournament. And that was never really in the cards. He didn't put well enough. Still negative strokes game putting.

Ended up 53rd for the week. But strokes on approach. Yeah, yeah, right. Exactly. Doubled 18. That's the only reason he did in top 10. So I'm with you, bud. I mean, I think the more reps this guy gets, like look at Augusta. I mean, not to get too far ahead of ourselves,

but Bryson won that tournament in, on live this morning. Hong Kong. You got, you know, Rory hitting the ball well. You got Brooks coming in. I mean, the Masters is going to shape up to be a very, very interesting moment. I'm still not sure. if it's going to separate the skill from, you know, the wheat from the chaff, the way that this course really does.

And I'm sad that we only get to see it once a year. And I just hope they learned their lesson this year, maybe intentionally, maybe an intentionally house, because there was a lot of chatter about let's make this thing a major. And not necessarily directly from the tour, but I think what's wonderful coming out of this week is we don't need to talk about that anymore. Like, it's not a major. Let's not. Let's not talk about it. players. And it's what makes the fact that it is the players is what makes it actually special.

Like it is its own thing, as David S. Pumpkins would say from that sketch, it's its own thing. And let's keep it that way. So it's March the 15th, 2026. I fully expect that in this next calendar year, there will be some kind of conciliatory whatever it is that gives John Rom and Bryson and whoever else is playing good golf on the live tour Tyrell Hatton, maybe Yacco Neiman, an opportunity to come play in this golf tournament and then we can really sink our teeth into because the coming together here is a recognition of how good this venue can be and the players themselves coming into this thing and treating it. And one thing that I think will help and we'll see how the schedule ultimately reflects itself, plays itself out. I feel like the American sporting public

isn't quite ready to call this like the kickoff to Big Boy Golf. And some of that is because we have these signature events, we're stacked with signature events leading. We had three signature events before this. And we saw Pabble. We saw RIV. We saw Phoenix. Like those were big tournaments. Yeah, exactly. that we, we, uh, um, API, right? Another signature event. Those are all, once we get some balance here to the schedule where we're not doing, you know, um, enormous events all crammed into, uh, February, end of January, February and then really have a chance to let this venue like do what it just did for us,

which is give us, uh, an opportunity for, for, for a wide open, um, board. coming down the stretch I mean Robert McIntyre was right there there would have been nothing surprising at all about him going and winning this golf tournament hit the ball in the water on on that off of a really tough lie on 16 that took him out entirely but I mean this this is the thing that where this tournament occurs on the calendar and with the return of those guys we we need to continue to like figure out how this thing can get the shine that it deserves because it just it delivers unbelievable outcomes. And that's why I think we actually don't have to work on it. It's speaking

for itself. It's doing exactly what it should do. Tommy Fleetwood this week was 65th in putting first T to Green. Again, all class players rise to the top in this tournament. It can handle itself. It doesn't need its own special tagline and marketing. It is being recognized. at this point by people who watch the tournament where it delivers these class winners. And Cam Young is exactly the kind of worthy champion of the players who when you go back historically and you go through the list, yes, somebody always sneaks through. But he's a Jason Day for me. He's a Ricky Fowler type guy who's, you know, is going to be in that upper echelon.

And the only question is, is he going to win as many majors as Justin Thomas is? Is he going to, you know, that he's going to be that caliber of player? And so, you know, Justin Leonard won this golf tournament. Like proper champion won a couple opens. Like these are the kinds of guys who win this thing. So I just, I think the tour this week, they did a great job of building up buzz around this. And I think part of the point was to create controversy about whether it was or wasn't a

major. It's not. It doesn't need to be. We've now spoken a lot about it. That in and of itself, that conversation has elevated this tournament above any of the signature events for sure. And now it can just live on its own. And I think the way that they nailed the course setup, do it this way, as long as we

don't get crazy weather like we had a couple years ago where guys were having to hit four irons on 17 and the ball was blown back in their face and stuff like that, you know, the weather was very kind to us this year. It screwed us a little bit on the betting side in that in that we really thought, really thought early late was going to have an advantage. And in fact, late early had over a stroke in their direction. And then this afternoon, we thought we were going to get thunderstorms to the point that Todd Lewis reported that if there was a playoff, they were going to have to do it on Monday because the weather right there now, they're getting pounded. So that's that's February, you know, in, or March in in Florida.

But other than that, this course really speaks for itself. And now I hope that the tour will just build on this momentum that they have. got to create a little more buzz, more events during the week of the tournament, right house? Like you and I were, we and I were looking for stuff to do when we were down there. I think that's probably the next thing to tackle the way they do it with the U.S. Open, the way it happens at the Masters. But they're in a better viewing experience on tour, and that includes Phoenix. And so I think this one now is off and running and just let it ride.

Yeah, let it ride is exactly right. I do wonder if it has to occupy the spot on the calendar. And I do like, you know, it residing in March, occurring in March and there's a kickoff, big-time kickoff event. I do, you know, in, I played golf earlier today, came off the golf course, go, you know, sit down for a little 19th hole action. And there was some competition for the TVs because it was still early enough in the day in the round. with the college basketball and the built up excitement about the brackets coming out. And, you know, the golf tournament ending at the same time as the brackets are being announced for the NCAA tournament, March Madness. I don't know.

But yeah, it's fine to coexist because in the same way that you have Phoenix coexisting with the Super Bowl, Phoenix ends up being, you know, the waste management, a wonderful sort of lead into another great event. And, you know, if this thing, uh, timing wise just continues to be like the lead into, you know, now you can flip over and watch the brackets get announced. I don't know. Yeah. Well, this, this was great. Anything else to sort of talk about from the, from the results that we saw in terms of guys who, I mean, it was nice to see JJ Spahn sort of bounce back a little bit, but he had a tough day to day. Victor Hovlin hanging around, but then a plus two today. So, you know, the guys who we know are capable. of making the runs sort of pop their head up, but it was the guys who were playing best. We talked about step struck at the beginning of the week. I hope, you know, Justin Ray laid that out for you. I hope you got on that. He finished in the top 10. You know, I, I, there's always the

surprise, but there's Jacob Bridgman who if you've been paying attention to these other tournaments, he got a win that, that, that, you know, clearly propelled him in a way that we got to pay attention to him for the rest of the season. So it felt, and the one, and the one, you know, the one, you know, guy that we haven't really talked about that I was, you know, candidly surprised because I sort of had him written off, even though at some points along the way before Moracawa got bid up, Zander was third on the odds board. And Zander turned in a performance on Friday that was one of his best iron striking days ever. And he finished second on approach in this tournament. It was nice to see Zander back playing good golf and the putter wasn't awful he was 18th for the week like

this kind of came out of nowhere for me and now suddenly let's see what he plays between now and augusta but that's the place for him that's always been the place where he's been competitive how do you feel about Xander's week coming out of this this finish well when we were with justin ray last week we had a pretty good conversation and i was pretty bullish on zander that I did not really wager heavily on him for an outcome here, even though he's got, you know, he's demonstrated to us that this place fits him. He's comfortable. I just bet him to win the Masters because I think that he is absolutely live. He's in that 20 to 1 to 25 to 1 class. I don't know. The odds I, we'll see when we, you know, later tonight when they reshuffle odds after this tournament

where he is, I wouldn't be surprised if he's down in like the 16, 15, 16 to 1 range. But like what he's showing is a restored, renewed comfort. Because, you know, he's a new dad. He came off of a season of ups and downs. Last season did include a win, and it wasn't a chump golf tournament that he won in the fall. Yeah. He won in. The whole Ryder Cup team was there.

Yeah. And, yeah, exactly. And, you know, he's been showing signs thus far this season. What you have his results in front of you? Yeah, T7 at Genesis, T19 at Pebble the week before, T24 the week after. So it wasn't as glaring in our face as Cam Young was. But, you know, he won the Bay Current Classic after, you know, in the fall and just kind of came in a little bit slow. It just felt like statistically it wasn't all there.

You know, there's been that hangover, I guess, from the double major season where he just grabbed both those things. and we saw that from John Rom when he won the U.S. Open, man. I think there's something about it that some of the guys, it just takes them a little while to get back on that horse and go. And that's why we got to pay attention to Zander, because it's going to be really hard for Rory to repeat as master's champion. It's hard for anybody to repeat his master's champion. He's got extra obligations that week on and on and on.

Scotty, with his iron game, not exactly where it is. it's suddenly a very interesting view at some of these other guys down the board. And Xander's the one who has shown he can step up in a major and win. And that's why I think what Ludwig showed us today. And I love the guy. And I got to be honest, at the start of the day, I was rooting for him. I think the way he carries himself, like he just is this gentle giant smiling even on 18 after all of that. Like, just touch a clash, touch a class, right?

Yeah, about a thousand percent. And so he will figure it out. and if you're right that it's just reps, fantastic. He'll be there eventually. But, you know, Colin Warcawa, who we all got super excited about after his last couple results stepped up. And, you know, what he told us is, how, I mean, he's got a back situation that, you know, is familiar.

Like, he's had this before. He knew. That's why he withdrew because he knew treatment wasn't going to make this thing go away. he's had this. And it's concerning for him, for sure, because it's not a, this isn't a one and done thing. This is a thing that he's going to have to figure out how to manage and exist. And so, again, coming in to the next really big tournament, which is going to be Augusta, you got to step back and go, geez, Cam Young, I still remember that eagle on 18 at St. Andrews, big boy golf course. Zander Schaafle, I still remember grabbing those two majors really by the throat. And, and, and,

the gold medal and showing us that he has the chutzpah to win this. So if you don't have the two separated golfers of their generation at this point in Rory and Scotty in the mix, you know, is Bryson peaking at the right time? Can Zander be that guy? Can Cam Young be that guy? It's going to be a fun, very interesting conversation leading up if you take the top two guys off the board. Well, and this is going to be the challenge because we're not going to really get any opportunity where guys separate themselves over what the schedule contains because we're to Tampa, we're off to Texas for a few tournaments, we're not going to see a whole bunch of these guys. We are going to see Brooks, who right now, because of that performance today,

push himself all the way up to 63rd. His stated goal was to be playing in all of the Big Boy signature events. He's now right on the outside looking in, I think, right? Top 60 is the guaranteed status. But I think, you know, whatever the pathway is, your A on top, whatever, he's knocking on the door there. And I also, you know, we can't go through this golf tournament without saying welcome back also to Justin Thomas, who opened this golf tournament with a pair of 68's after missing the cut at Arnold Palmer and wanting to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible came down. clearly was in form, right?

Whatever you want to say about the rust that was reflect, he hit something about that situation didn't suit him. And so he just hit eject and wanted to get the F out of Orlando. But you don't walk into this golf course, this venue, and just shoot a pair of 68's to open the tournament if you're not in some kind of shape because of the demands, the accuracy demands, the around the green demands. So great to have JT. Yeah, and it's also a reminder that there are horses for courses.

And this is one for him. He's one here. And we got to just remember that form is not always, you know, recent form is not always the answer, right? You got to pay attention to guys who get spurred into form by the challenge of the course and the way that it fits their eye. And this is one of those for JT. Well, we have, I think, as open a field as we've, in the recent memory, going into this Masters, because I honestly feel like it's a Masters where we can talk about 10 guys who absolutely

positively legit have a chance to win. For sure. Health is going to play a role, right? We will need to know how Mark How is doing, how his back treatment is going. We'll want to have confirmation that Rory is fine. Jake Nat missed the cut. We thought that he coming into this golf tournament. it was an illness that had him withdraw from API.

It was not. It was some kind of back thing for him as well. It turns out at least that's the way the reports are going. J.T. is off of the back thing. Performed very well. So, you know, hopefully we'll get all guys in as good health as possible coming into Augusta. And then we get to see John Rahm and Bryson Deschambeau and Tyrell Hatton and Neiman, you know, kind of for the first time of the season at Augusta.

with these guys, this group, you're Matt Fitzpatrick, your Tommy Fleetwoods, you're, you know, these guys at the top of the board that are week in, week out, Xander just put us all on notice. And these are the names that we're going to be talking about going into Augusta. Let's make sure we touch real quick on the commissioner, the CEO. He's not the commissioner. He's the CEO of the tour, Brian Rolap. He was a much anticipated press conference. We were there on Wednesday, enjoyed it very much.

And really, he just sort of set up an outline, didn't have dramatic things to tell us about how the schedule is going to play out. Didn't have dramatic things to tell us about how the, you know, what venues were going to be in. But gave us some good guidance. And, you know, I came away from that. It looks like across the board, you know, your, you're, you're, you're, you're, um, larger golf media, your sporting world media, all sort of giving this a gentle, okay, we see the pathway here. This makes some sense. Give me, give me a little bit of your thoughts on that. Yeah, I think you're exactly right. I think what the overwhelmingly positive

reaction was really to not much of substance, but it was to the culture and approach of transparency and saying, sort of answering questions directly, standing up there, by the way, until all of the chitter-chattery golf media were out of questions. He was ready to stand there as long as it took. I was waiting for you to ask a question. Listen, I had plenty.

But I felt like, you know, truth be told, coming in the week, there was a lot of, but they moved it to the home of golf. They moved to PJ to RHQ. And out of the media center, a lot of partners were invited to this thing. They put media in the first four rows, but I'm telling you there were 50 rows of chairs, their house, I think. Back to house. And so the whole staff was hanging around the upper rafters.

I think if I had to wager on it, my sense is that there was a plan to potentially reveal more than they did this week. And that that actually is the interesting story. The first interesting story is that Brian Rolap is building up a lot of trust with the golf community about his ability to communicate and or as a result of his ability to communicate and about the fact that I think people feel like he's going to tell them the truth. And what he effectively said in this press conference is we didn't get all the way there yet, but I see the path. I'm going to tell you more in three months. I think it is telling that they didn't reveal more because I think it indicates that. all is not like totally copacetic.

You've got a bunch of different stakeholders who want different things. You've got guys on the corn fairy tour. You've got Mark Herbert and Joel Damon, who we walked with, and you've got Scotty Sheffler. And in a lot of ways, the needs and desires of those three players who are just represented on the player council alone are different, much less the players who own, I don't know, somewhere between 11 and 13% of the equity in this thing. And the strategic sports group that owns a huge chunk. and there's differences of opinion about how to proceed between those guys. So Brian Rolap has a lot of stakeholders that he's going to manage. And I do think this is where he's going to lead over these next three to six months

because there is no way to perfectly fit those puzzle pieces together. Lots of ways to put the puzzle pieces together to play TPC Sawgrass. No perfect way to put these puzzle pieces together and make everybody 100% happy. And so he's going to have to lead. coaxing along people who will have some tinge of disappointment in some of these issues. And like every great politician finds some consensus in the middle that isn't compromise and therefore a shitty solution, but to actually lead people towards the things that he believes in. And he did give us a sense for what those are going to be, 120 man fields. You know,

the top players playing 21 to 25 events, 21 to 26 events, so on and so forth. But I think the key is now that this is going to move into June before we get anything. He's not going to surprise anybody and he's not going to move the target in 27. I actually think 27's going to look a lot more like 26 than we thought before this week. But for the most part, he's going to make some big changes and have to lead people who are a little bit uncomfortable with it towards really significant change for 2028 that doesn't take jobs away from that many people as it does give opportunity. for guys to play their way in and unfortunately give consequences to guys who no matter how big your name is will play their way out if they if they struggle and so i'm excited to watch because we've

got a leader in that chair now who communicates better than i think we've had in in a decade and maybe ever in that chair but now has the burden of the crown is that he's got to direct people and put his thumb on the scale a little bit and get us to an outcome so that we're We know what this tour is going to be going forward because they've got this great event called the players that we know is not going anywhere. It's what comes around that that is still TBD. Yeah, and I will say as a golf fan, purely from a fan perspective, the four big things that resonated with me that I was happy to have like just some certainty. 120 player fields. Yes, that's a good number.

With a cut. you that lets you have stories you just stole one of my things the cut is absolutely vital you must have a cut and it must be a meaningful cut not just cutting off 12 guys because everybody's within 12 shots of the leader or whatever it is how else and I began this and we didn't really give him his flowers how else is Soudrechan Yelamar marajou going to finish tied for fifth and win a million mother effing dollars playing professional golf the most he's ever won a guy who made his way cut his teeth with no swing coach ever learning watching Phil Mickleson and Tiger Woods swing videos and going out and playing in many Canadian

mini tours this guy deserves some shine this guy deserves the light of day this guy just finished tied for fifth by shooting 66 68 on the weekend at the players championship that's what we need that's what this tour should reveal to us nobody knows who the hell this guy is he's in he's Indian and he lives he missed family moved to Canada when he was four. And he, you know, he just, he turned pro when he was 19 because he couldn't afford to go to college to play golf. He was a competitive golfer, but he couldn't afford to go to college. So he just turned pro and went for that struggle and look at this. Look at how it's validated. And it's how they're going to tell the stories of these guys

that matters from here. And you asked me, you thought I was going to ask a question. That really is the question that I wanted to ask. And I spoke to the CEO about it on 17 on Friday. I just said, the hardest thing that you've got to do now is you actually have to take some ownership of telling the story when you have 100 different brands. And if you want a little indication of how they're going to approach that on Tuesday, I think, they're going to publish this Hard Knocks-esque documentary called Chasing Sunday that followed Akshay, that followed Siwu, that followed a few others this week, trying to get through that that is in partnership with NFL films. Let's go. That's where Brian Roelap used to work. He understands a little bit about how to tell stories around these things. But I do think that's something the tour is going to have to lean into because you're right.

There's going to be a Jacob Bridgman who jumps out of nowhere. There's going to be Akshay, who you've got to get to know better to really understand how he got to the tour. Like there's some really interesting. And, you know, when Brian, Brian Harmon wins the, you know, he had a decent week, but Brian Harmon wins the open. and JJ Spawn wins the U.S. Open and Ben Griffin wins three times. And then in 2026, they're nowhere to be found. You've got to be able to sub in the Jacob Bridgman's. You've got to be able to sub in the next guys.

Yes. Yeah. No doubt. And so I think the tour, part of where they're going to end up on championing 120-man fields, 120 guys having their job, is they got to find new ways to tell these stories. And I think we behind the scenes this week certainly saw an openness and, a lot of ambition to find new and different ways to tell these stories. Well, speaking of ambition, the other two things that I really love about the results of the press conference,

love the idea of West Coast Golf in August. So the East Coast gets prime time. You know, whatever the events are, it's apparent that the tour understands the entertainment proposition, the value proposition of giving, you know, everybody's on vacation in August. What are we going to watch? You know, when we're, it's dinner table time on the East Coast. Let's flip on the T. Oh, look at, look at the wet.

Look at Pebble Beach. Look at Rivier. Oh, it's going to be magnificent. And then I really love this idea that he floated without biting down hard on any potential format structure when it might be introduced. But the notion that that match play is going to be a way that they decide some outcomes on this tour is to me, chefs. effing kiss. And if you want to do a tour championship where it goes one through 32 and every

guy has to play all the rounds to figure out whether they're first in that in that match play or 32nd in that match play and there's money that's tied to it, sign me the F up. I am here for it, baby. That is a perfectly fine way to, you know, give a conclusion to this thing that's out of the box and let everybody sort of get their heads around it. Yeah. Well, I feel like we come off this week, the player seems to deliver more than we expect. We have the Super Bowl. We have Phoenix. We have some of these elevated events at courses that we love. And we always sort of immediately start looking around the corner at Augusta, don't we? But this is one that just can't be overlooked. You got to go if you're a real golf fan, because from a spectator perspective, it's

terrific. And I really think that these last couple of years have told us, man, it delivers. And it delivers always down the stretch. You got to watch to the end, right? I think about Wyndham's lip out. I think about the playoff last year between McElroy and JJ. I think about how 18 decided this golf tournament today. So that's exactly what you want. As much as I adore TPC Scottsdale, that 18th hole with the way the ball travels now, those church pew bunkers, like they don't matter. Like that's an easy hole from a finishing perspective. We can go. through the list of holes, the fact that this one can punch you in the mouth and deliver either a birdie or a double really makes a difference because your heartbeat is racing

after you come off 17 and you think it's over. But it's like that horror movie where the guy comes back from the dead one more time with the machete and it's fun as heck to watch. Yeah, 375 yard drive from Cam Young, 100 yards in and he wins the golf tournament. That's what we like, baby. That's what we're talking about here. My birdie buddies, my bar saving pals, my eagle enthusiast. It was a hell of a players championship. And we are just building not only in terms of tour schedule,

but right here on Fairway Rail. And we're back with the preview of Tampa. And we're going to keep chugging along here. The Masters is right around the corner. It's a wide open Masters field. We talked about it. And it is time to play golf wherever you happen to be. although there's some weird weather that might come through, at least the East Coast.

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