Fairway Rollin' - Day 1 of the Masters: Pop-Up Pod (Ep. 32)

Episode Date: April 7, 2017

Geoff Shackelford and Joe House finish watching the first day of the Masters and join up to discuss the Dustin Johnson fiasco (02:00), Charley Hoffman's round (06:00), Rory McIlroy's performance (09:00), the nasty wind on Thursday (13:30), and what to expect during Sunday's preshow coverage (24:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, this episode of Shackhouse is brought to you by Callaway Golf, who this week brings you a giveaway, unlike any other. Pudding is at a premium here at this big event in Augusta, Georgia. So our friends at Calloway Golf are giving away an Odyssey O works, one wide putter. This is the one with a microhinge insert. You've heard us talk about for a better role. And we'll come with an awesome, awesome. I mean, unbelievably cool commemorative Arnold Palmer head cover. You've probably seen some of the players using him this week.

And that's the same putter used by Phil Mickelson in round one who made a 42-foot eagle on the second hole and route to a 100 par 71 in brutal conditions. So here's how the giveaway works. Get over to callawaygolf.com slash community. Sign up then to enter comment in the giveaway thread with a year that Mr. Arnold Palmer won his third green jacket. That's number three. A winner will be named Monday following the message. Masters on Shackhouse. So, friends, it's time.

Round one has been completed in Augusta, Georgia. Let's go to the Shack House. How's greetings from the podcast room and the beautiful new press building here at Augusta National? I'm about 40 feet from the interview room where Charlie Hoffman is holding court after an unbelievable opening round 65 on a day that was absolutely vicious. Have you been watching? what do you think? Tell me everything. I want to know. I've been out and about and doing some writing and listening to Amen Corner Live and it's been a lot of fun, but I want to know what it looked like from afar. How are you? Shack Daddy, I'm awesome. It's Thursday of the Masters. We're doing pop-up

Shaq House podcast. We have to do it because we got round one in the books. It's a very exciting time of the golf season. Golf is officially upon us. And we have, a round to discuss that might be one for the ages. This Charlie Hoffman round. It's going to help us forget. It's going to help us forget the fiasco that took place. Which fiasco? I mean, there's one or one, right?

Oh, that fiasco. Well, no. Yeah. Yeah. That fiasco. That's the one we can discuss on this show. What an unbelievable thing. Well, I mean, he's the number one player in the world, and he's gone.

And it's just an unbelievable thing, really, to have. I mean, I was out there interviewing Stuart Hagastead, the mid-ameter, with three other people, and we were all standing there. Stewart played beautifully today. I followed his back nine. I went out, and it was to kind of just see what was going on. And he's a great guy, and he shot two over. He's got a chance to be the first mid-ameter make the cut ever.

And he goes, oh, guys, by the way, I think Justin Johnson just withdrew, if you want to leave, I won't be offended. And there it was walking out of the clubhouse. And it's just, if I feel like we have these surreal scenes here all the time. Well, the thing that is a bummer is he was on such a role. I mean, that's the part of it that hurts. Like, you know, in the grand scheme of things, he has a great life. His great life is going to continue.

You know, but for the purposes of this competition and where he was positioned and his level of play. And, you know, just the curiosity of, can he keep this going? Can he tame Augusta the way that he's been taming virtually anywhere that he's teed it up? That was going to be, you know, that was all the intrigue. And, you know, the field is obviously the sensational field.

So it's a disappointment. But we're going to try and get over it. How about this leaderboard? I love a positive attitude. Come on. How about this leader boy? Now, House, before we leave Dustin Johnson, I want to say, you know what, I'm going to find the positive in this, too. And here's what I've decided.

This is finally going to end the madness in this world, the love, the obsession with hardwood floors. They cause hip displacement and poor little dogs. People slip on them. All these germophobes think they're so cool. and they just took out the number one player in the world who admittedly probably shouldn't be wearing socks in a house he doesn't know. But come on, wood floors, they're terrible. I'm a little bitter.

I'm really disappointed we didn't get to see this because he was going to go right out in the unbelievable win. And he had a fascinating pairing that ended up still putting on a good show. So we don't have him on the leaderboard. We don't have Justin Spieth right now. We do have Justin Thomas playing a nice round. But Charlie Hoffman's the man. What an unbelievable thing.

Charlie Hoff is the man, but I have to just call something out. You take going on the hot take about wood floors. I mean, that's kind of a new one. I'm taking the other side of wood floors. So what if you're against the wood floors, what are you for? What do you want? Do you prefer carpet?

Come on. They just made the number one player leave the masters. They're horrible. He did that. The floor didn't do that. Well, they were slick. They were probably really clean. They were polished.

It's terrible. Just to clarify, you're a carpet guy. You're a carpet guy? I am. And I'm tired of all these places that just obsess. The acoustics are better. Carpets better. Get over at germophobes.

You've done terrible damage to Dustin Johnson and his master's hopes. So I hope you're happy. All right. Enough of that. All right, fine. Let's go to, let's dwell on the positive. And Charlie Hoffman's round will be one for the ages. It's sensational.

He's got a four-shot lead over Lee Westwood. But you were going to say you like some of what you're seeing on the leaderboard. I mean, we've been talking about this tournament for a long time house, and it's fun to see some of the names that we projected doing well. And I'm most pleased about that, I think, especially Justin Rose lingering around there, nicely at one under despite playing and what was the worst wind of the day. So what's curious to me is like, well, that's right.

And I want to ask you about that because Hoffman by contra distinction looked like he got the benefit of being on the backside of some of the worst wind of the day. But I'll ask your opinion of that in a second. What I want to talk about very quickly here is the revenge of the 40-year-olds. Hoffman himself is 40.

We have Westwood on this leaderboard. We have Mickelson on this leaderboard. We have my man, Ernie L's on this leaderboard T-12. I mean, a lot of names, a lot of old familiar faces. And don't let me get to him. The master of the masters himself, old Freddie couples sitting right there, T-19, a plus one. I mean, it's just such a great thing year-in, year out. Something about this place brings out, you know,

the performance and these guys who've been doing it for, you know, in a couple instances, decades now, right? Yeah. And it's really fun. It is. It is. And I think you have to obviously give that local knowledge element some love here. And I think a lot of it is really that those grizzled old veterans know how to deal with

these conditions, combine it with the local knowledge. And then I think distance was neutralized today. So some of the advantage that a Rory McElroy has and some of the other young bombers, I think was really when you look at the 15th hole was a no-brainer three-shotter. The win for some reason was particularly vicious on that hole when I was out there and then watching it when I came back in. So you take that hole out because that played right into the win. Number one is a hole that the long hitters have been gaining an advantage on in recent years because they can get up to the top of the hill. that was just a brutal hold for everybody. And so I think it was a nice combination of things that led to that.

And we're going to have a day like it again tomorrow, not at quite as bad. So I think it's going to bode well for those kind of grizzled old guys for at least one more day. And it's, you know, that's kind of what we love about Augusta, though, that it rewards some smarts and some savvy. and isn't that kind of fun? You just mentioned one name. I feel like it makes sense to give a special shout out to this guy for the grind that he put on today. I know this is a family show,

but I have to tell you, I haven't seen grinding like this since my trip to Las Vegas to Spearmint Rino in 2014. I'm telling you, Shaq, this was some world-class grinding that we saw today out of none other than Roy McElroy, who, you know, I ended up allocating a little capital to him on the, you know, on the chalk side of things. And a couple of interesting names here.

Now, as you look at this list, one through 12, you know, some of these guys, you don't feel like could win this tournament. McElroy is a guy you feel like he could win this tournament. Justin Rose is a guy you feel like can win this tournament. Phil Mickelson is a guy who could win this tournament. Yep. And so I, you know, I just like the positioning here, but I was especially impressed by the grind that Ricky, that pardon me, Rory put on today. Yeah. After opening up, you know, he was three over through seven or eight holes.

Yeah, no, he was grinding. And it was one of those rounds. I think, well, I think if you look at his even part round and then you look at Jordan Spee's round, now, he had a nine. But McElroy's could have easily been that same 75 that Speath shot. and he kind of grinded it out and good for him. And that's kind of been something with him that on a day like this, he is not a man who likes win. And I think he has to go into the clubhouse and have a nice dinner at home

and actually feel pretty darn good about it. And then, you know, looking at the – I feel the good news is there was no luck of the draw situation today where you said, oh, yeah, that group did well. And so all these guys who feel like they can just – hang around for these first two days, and then we have a nice crisp weekend with light wind's plan, but nothing like what we had today or a little bit of tomorrow. So these guys just hang around, and that's the beauty of the masters, and they just have to ignore what Charlie Hoffman did, which will be hard to do,

because it was such an astoundingly good round. That's the perfect setup, though. How far back, you know, who's still in contention at this moment? Are the guys at plus four still in contention? Sure, sure. Okay. Oh, yeah. The guy, what about?

I mean, a 68 or 7 or 6 by those guys tomorrow, and they're going to be back in the top, I mean, looking at the forecast that I'm looking at, they're going to be back in the top 20 with ease. So, Shaq, I'm going to ask you about the forecast, but first, a quick word about our good pals at Blue. Apron. Not all ingredients are created equal, Shack. Fresh, high-quality ingredients make a real difference, so it's important to know where your food comes from. Thankfully, for less than

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com slash shack house. Blue apron is a better way to cook. What's the forecast? That's what I'm interested in hearing. Okay, yeah. So I just wrote a piece. That was why I was a little late getting to you here. I was writing a piece for golf week basically saying, hey, the people who do the dirty work here,

You never see them. You don't know who they are. The setup committee, the weatherman, and the people who do all the moisture readings and the greens. And House, it was unreal out there, how windy it got at times. It was nasty. And this golf course could have easily been lost. And a lot of us really, when we saw the forecasts out there might be a play stoppage, when you see the 40-mile-per-hour gusts.

And sure enough, we got those. So tomorrow, now the wind was out of the west today, 20-30 with the gust of 35-to-40. Tomorrow, west, northwest, 15 to 20 with August 25 to 30, which is still significant. High of 64. It's going to be really cold in the morning. So 43 is a low, and I think it's going to be another day where there probably won't be a lot of low scores, but there might be one or two. So, wow, I just, I'm fascinated. It'll be another fascinating day watching people do strange things.

If you watched the coverage. So let's talk a little bit about that house because I went out for a pretty long gap. But when I came in, ESPN was coming on the air. And I have a console here that lets me see Amen Corner Live and all that good stuff. I don't know. Tell me what your setup was. My setup's ridiculous. It's the most amazingly beautiful setup they give us here.

But how did you take into viewing today? And then we'll have a little chat about this because there's some very interesting stuff going on. So I'm a guy with a real world job. I was locked, you know, locked into my office sitting at my desk. I wasn't in lovely, Augusta, with the peach ice cream sandwich, you know, just two or three steps away from me. I was sitting at my desk. Now, we talked about this on Monday.

The masters.com website is spectacular. Whatever they have done in terms of building up their tech infrastructure, whoever they partner with, it's an unbelievable. platform for viewing. And I found my own self. I didn't really, I wasn't interested in the broadcast portion of the live viewing. The website allowed you to choose from four or five different options.

You could follow featured groups. You could pick, you know, a couple holes to watch. 1516 was a nice combo. Amin Corner's obviously always an interesting way to watch. So I did a little bit of featured group and then I did a lot of 1516. because I was so intrigued by 15. Louis Ustee Hussie's 8, followed up by Jordan Speeth's 9. It was like, what is going on at 15?

And, you know, the funny thing is, you watch guys, it was the wind that was messing with yardages, but guys were still sticking it in there close. I saw Rory and John Rom both stick them in there. And that, I think, was a testament to the fact that the wind had died down a little bit by the time those guys got around to that portion of the course. A little. A little, but it was still wicked. They got their yardages, and then the same was true on 16. Both of them hit great T-balls on 16.

But in any event, viewing-wise, that was the way I preferred to watch it. I didn't mess with much of the live ESPN broadcast. So what I would tell people, House, is you got to have your tablets or your laptops and all that ready to go. Frankly, if you were on the fence about buying something like an Apple TV, this is the time to do it. And House, this is the buried lead and all of this. So this week, they just quietly rolled out this Masters TV app for Apple TV. And I've been hearing already for people how sensational it is. And it's got all these feeds on it. So for the first time, really, truly, you can watch these feeds on a big, big TV.

I think Direc TV subscribers also have some amazing stuff going on with 4K and these little windows and cool stuff that they do. And AT&T is a sponsor of the event, so they put that together. But in terms of sort of a modern kind of forward-thinking viewing experience, they're doing it now. And the idea that this is going to be on TV is going to really change things. So I highly recommend everybody do a little homework. I've put up a little explanation on my blog every day, jeffshackover.com, of kind of the viewing times and the viewing options and where to go.

And it really isn't much – it's not hard work, right? house once you kind of work on the website. Their website is so beautifully designed and simple and clean. Just go watch. That's right. All that this does is add one more item for me to figure out proper placement because I already, I'll be in front of the TV. I have my food and drink items lined up a certain way.

The laptop is also, you know, necessarily part of it. But I'm going to be viewing on the laptop. So I need another device to be communicating with. watching on the laptop and have the broadcast television televised element on the TV as well because, you know, we have to be prepared to criticize. Actually, no, you know, to give those guys credit, maybe we won't be criticizing. Maybe we'll be saying good things. I mean, it's just Thursday today.

So they didn't have all the technology all ramped up and rolled out on the broadcast today. But we'll get it on. I'm going to watch it on the computer. No, no, no. I think they have a philosophy that for some reason the main broadcast is supposed to be this one way. Because remember, the masters.com people are driving a lot of this other stuff. So it's a weird little clashing because the Masters prides itself in being the most innovative. And I don't quite understand it myself.

But the goodness is the number one complaint every year is why does the Masters not come on until 3 o'clock? And you just have to understand that there's all this great stuff all day that really, frankly, right now is more. compelling to watch than the main broadcast, although, you know, I think Nansen Faldo are sensational in the Masters because they are so knowledgeable about the place and so locked into the history of it. I mean, just watching Hoffman come up 18 and Nance kind of trying to put this round in perspective when you think about the conditions and you think about what went on today and he had a putt for 64. And if you told people that in the morning and then as a day progressed, they would have thought you were nuts. So

But that said, great first day and that, again, it could have been a boondoggle. A lot of our guys. Now, I mean, give me some thoughts on some of your wagers and who are you happy with? Who are you eyeing as a kind of to make a run here? I mean, I'm looking at the scores. I'm an extraordinarily... Nobody we advocated completely blew up, so I'm very happy about that. Yeah, here's the thing.

It's like Fight Club. This is betting club. The first rule of betting club, don't talk about bedding club. You're not going to get me to talk about any of the people that have allocated any capital on. It's Thursday. This tournament's over on Sunday.

Now, I might have a few opinions on Saturday, depending on who makes the cut or not, because I do have a big, juicy, make the cut parlay out there. But at this stage, I'm just taking it all in. The right way to handle all this emotionally, be patient. Just remember, you know, guys,

battle today. Tomorrow's a new day. They'll be playing under, you know, slightly different weather conditions and who knows, you know, maybe they had a wonderful, somebody's going to have a wonderful rib-eye tonight with a lovely cabernet. Another guy's going to have a burger and a beer. Whatever makes their belly feel good. They might arrive first thing tomorrow morning. And look, it's a brand-new day. Time to go shoot 68. So I'm not going to talk about any of my guys at this stage. It's not time yet for me. Well, I'm very excited about Thomas Peters, even though he got the five under and ended up even. And that may get back to that little course management concern I had that I saw at the match play. I don't know.

But anyway, great round of golf. Paul Casey, lingering very nicely. Justin Rose, though, obviously, I believe my pick. And then Phil, you know, that's just a beautiful round. So he's licking his chop. So, you know, he's tight with Charlie Hoffman. So that should be fun. to start going out to San Diego guys.

And, God, Lee Westwood. Lee Westwood's unbelievable here. Amazing. So, gosh, just, and Matt Coacher, by the way, who I drafted in my little golf week fantasy pool, and I think they kind of laughed at me, T-12, I'm very happy to say. Another guy, perfect for this kind of scrapping it around weather. So super stuff. And then Freddie Couples and John Rom probably, he was getting, his, his, his, his,

temperament seemed a little bit on edge out there. It was that kind of day, five and a half hour round in brutal conditions, but still one over, nothing wrong with that. Justin Thomas won over, nothing wrong with that. But at a house, I followed Larry Mise, who shot two over,

who's 58, and he was playing with Stuart Hagestan. It was really fun to watch those two. And Mize just hits it nowhere. I mean nowhere. And Hagenstad was hitting it awful and just making everything. amazing debut for him out there, but it was, to put it mildly, just so stressful.

I don't know if people realize how stressful it is to play against the National. There's no gimmie. And then you throw in these kinds of wins. The only good news is, how we didn't have to hear about swirling winds. It just blew. It was not the normal kind of look up at the trees, look at the flag, look at the flag over on 11 kind of thing. and that's not exactly a good thing when you're playing golf here. I mean, it's a toss-up, which is more difficult here.

I think I would almost take the steady hard win, but wow, it was nasty. Well, look, we are all lined up here. We have this Thursday recap, and then on Sunday, we're going to jump in the pod box, the Kobe's muse pod cage, I guess, I don't know, and get our reactions immediately

recorded post-round so that we can get the outcome of this 2017 masters in the books and give folks a listen. But Sunday has some good pre-round stuff, right? Right.

So besides having your console ready to go with your whatever, your viewing options are. There are a couple things people need to know about. The pre-coverage starts 1 o'clock Eastern. Okay. So they kick off with Bill McAtee is presenting the master's Phil Mickelson. And it's a, I hear it's a super show. And it really, Phil goes into incredible detail about his wins there and his amazing track record and life in Augusta. And it's an absolute must-see. And then that's followed by Jim Nance for members. And he revealed on the conference call house last week that they will be showing an interview that is the last television interview that Arnold Palmer ever did.

It was done after the honorary starters ceremony last year, which I, of course, went up to the first tee at 740 and witnessed again. It's the highlight of the year for a golf rider to get to stand there and apply. And by the way, House, I'm a total, total clapper, just, you know, it's a. Jack and Gary, of course you're going to clap. You're not going to stand there and be a stupid reporter and put your hands down. And it's the most incredible moment. Chairman Billy Payne handled it very well. Anyway, so last year after that, Jim Nance sat down with Arnold Palmer. It was a total impromptu thing. They talked about it. They had a crew ready to go if he wanted to do it. He did it. Jim said the light came on and it was amazing. So you're going to get a great kind of one-two package of Phil Mickelson and Arnold. Palmer there leading into the telecast and I highly recommend all tune in to check

that out. So there we go. We have Sunday all lined up. We have the great giveaway of the putter that you read about. We still also have these brand spanking new epic driver available. Yeah.

All the way till Sunday. Yeah. I'm hearing rumors. I'm hearing rumors that the reviews have been flowing. I have not had a chance, sadly, to sit and read some of them. Because, you know, when Augusta National is outside the door from the press building, that is the most lavish, incredible thing you've ever worked in. iTunes reviews are not a priority, but I am going to get to them. But House, is that right?

Yeah, we're getting a lot of reviews. That's right. That's right. That's right. Some beautiful writing, some literature. Some, yeah, somebody wrote a fantastic poem. and I don't remember the style. Oh, dear.

Yeah, there's a poem. All you have to do to be eligible to get a crack at an epic driver's, go on to iTunes and leave a review of the Shack House under the Shack House podcast. We're going to pick one of you guys, and you're eligible to enter all the way up until Sunday evening. So please go on to iTunes and leave a review. Beautiful. All right. All right, so House, you are working again tomorrow.

So you'll be pretending to work and watching Amen Corner Live and all that good stuff. Correct. I will be on morning drive, bright and early at 6.20 with Mr. Sunshine himself, Charlie Reimer, and Chris DeMarco. We're going to talk about today's action. And then I'm going to be out on the golf course and checking out the action and trying to see who makes a cut and who hangs around. Other than DJ, obviously, I'm very excited about today. That's, I don't, it's interesting, though, House, I don't feel like the people here, at least right now. Now, of course, I wasn't out on the course after the news got out.

But right now, I didn't feel that sort of pall and misery over the whole place because of it. So I think that's good news. I think we're going to have a good energy and a good finish and can't wait. So it's what we've been waiting for. We've gotten the bad weather out of the way, and we're going to finish on Sunday. Hell yeah. All right, great. Well, thank you, everybody, for checking in on this pop-up version of

The Shack House. Master Style.