Fairway Rollin' - Emergency Tiger Woods Podcast With Bill Simmons | ShackHouse (Ep. 77)

Episode Date: September 24, 2018

The Ringer's Joe House calls into 'The Bill Simmons Podcast' to react to Tiger Woods's Tour Championship victory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All right, Joe House is on the line. Host of the Shackhouse podcast presented by Callaway. Speaking of Callaway, this segment is brought to you by the chrome saw from Callaway, the ball that changed the ball. The ball that will be used by Phil against Europe. And then he'll use it to take on Tiger on Thanksgiving. House, you're fired up for that. But you're not nearly as fired up for anything in your life,

except for this Tiger Woods thing. You were calling it. You were saying it. You were clamoring for it. You wanted it. Your zipper was ready. It finally happened. The gallery's following him down the 18th.

Thousands of people. He's got this big ass smile on his face. House, I got emotional. I swear to God, I got emotional. I didn't start crying, but I welled up a little bit. How about you? Well, it was a goosebumps on goosebumps moment, my friend Bill Simmons. You said it all.

We've been talking for years. I've been coming on your show with each. Yeah. Well, he stuck around. I have to tell you, I went to bed, pretty confident that he was going to win today. Yeah. Just very high level to see off the T. Yeah, the two things that jumped out to me.

One was just the body language, the chest puffed out, the big confident smile. He seemed very alpha-doggy. This was the tiger that I don't want to say we grew up with because we're in our late 40s, but this was the tiger that we loved. This was the MJ Tiger. This was the LeBron against the Celtics Tiger. that just a charisma and a swagger and invincibility about him,

I think that was the most surprising thing to see that come back. But then there was this great moment. I think it was the 18th. And he just crushed that last drive. Just crushed it. And him and Roy were walking and he just had this look on his face like,

I'm back, baby. I can't believe it. I never thought this would happen. I'm back. It really felt like the old tiger and it felt like the last nine years were a dream slice. Nightmare,

nightmare. I know they weren't. I know they won't. But this was the tiger we thought we'd be getting it. How old is he now? 42? 42. He turns 43 in December. Well, that's a great segue. You and I have been having this ongoing conversation. And I don't know if we should mention the third party in this dialogue or not. I don't want to be name dropping if it's inappropriate. Yeah, I don't name drop. I won't say as initials even then. Highly esteemed in the claims we're trying to rank. Where does this one rank? because of the combination for Tiger of him being very best historical figure in his sport.

Yeah. Who experienced, and it's all extremely well documented, a combination of both, you know, psychological issues, enormous physical issues, drug dependency kinds of issues. Not potential. What do you mean potential? He had drug dependency issues. He admitted it. He went on the record that said, I'm addicted to stuff.

and I need to not do them anymore. And yet here he is. All just that he went and won. He took all, he was, this is the top 30 team. That 30 best this year. Yeah. And he just went out and put it down on him. Yeah, I would say, so when we're talking about it, I was saying, I think the Ben,

the Ben Hogan car accident is still number one. He broke his back. And he had a car accident. Well, back when they had cars that, I don't think you're wearing seatbelts and you probably just go right through the front of the car and nobody thought he was going to play again and then he played again and succeeded. That's way up there. I think a couple readers pointed this out, Mara Lemieux coming back from Hodgkins winning the scoring title. That was amazing. Yes. I would, you know, it wasn't an injury, but just Ali having the four and a half year

layoff and coming back to a sport where you have to be quick and fast, not kind of the same overcoming the odds, but just it's not a sport where you want to have a layoff. Not that long. And then you have to go to like the Sean Livingston blowing out his knee and never thinking anyone would come back in Grand Hill. But that those are all like, we come up with a million of those to come back. Yeah, that's right. For, you know, a Pantheon type guy to have a career hurricane basically and come back from it. It just didn't seem like it was going to happen.

And even, you know, there was, maybe it was a. year ago he did or a year and a half ago he did that long interview with somebody weird it was like a golf magazine or remember that or it was time magazine or something it was something i do remember it and we were like why did he pick that and he just kind of seemed so sad and pathetic in it you know and it really seemed like the biography oh yeah the biography didn't help either but it just it just seemed like like he hated himself almost i i don't want to speak for him but it really seemed like he was as disappointed in himself and the way things had gone. He was more disappointed than all of us. So I can't even imagine what that was like for him today, not just being able to get his mojo

back in the gallery and people chaining Tiger. And this was a guy that, you know, really hit rock bottom in 2010 and then kept hitting rock bottom. But 2010 punchline joke, late night jokes, all the conspiracy stuff about what really happened that night and the embarrassing press conference and, you know, it's just, you always expected to come back to happen, but not the way it did today. This was the best version of it unless it had happened at the Masters. Yeah, and I would say 2010, too, how about 2017? He drove his car off the road and he was intoxicated. I mean, he had no alcohol, but, you know, he was under the influence of drugs. He was lucky to survive that car accident. I mean, who knows how fast he was gone or any of those

things and properly was put under arrest for that. He's a father of two young children. I was mad at him last summer when that whole thing went down. And, you know, to sit here today and have the conversation that we're having, part of the thing that I think is going to be incredible over there is the outpouring. I mean, we've seen it. Yeah. There's just he has become an incredibly sympathetic figure.

I'd be interested in somebody like Coasterman, you know, to hear his kind of kind of take on how it is that the redemption story where it came from. I mean, part of it for sure has to do with like the American comeback. We always love an underdog. And somehow along the way, Tiger became an underdog again. We don't need Closterman. People love comebacks. To me, this is like, this is no different than Ben Affleck.

Not Tiger is better at his sport than Ben Affleck was in his field. But same kind of mechanics, right? Ben Affleck come back? I'm talking the first time. We haven't even had the second Ben Affleck comeback yet. He has G. Lee, he has J.Lo, all that stuff, and just hits rock bottom by 2007, 2008, and then has this five-year comeback leading to winning the Oscar and becoming Batman. But he hit a point where he went from punching back to people were rooting for him.

And that's an American story. We build stars to break them down. them back up again. That's what we do. The Tiger thing, I think, has a different element to it because golf was just never the same since he disappeared. And when they were talking about this year at the open, it was a 10-year anniversary of him winning the U.S. Open on the torn ACL. 10 years is a long time. I mean, even they said today, it was 1876 days since the last time he won a tournament. And I was trying to count it in my head how long ago that was. And then they said it was August 2013. And I'm thinking like August 2013, okay.

Grant Land's two years old. My son is not even six yet and we're worried that he might need a helmet or something. He's just insane. Just all the ways your life changes over the course of five years. And now he's back. And now he's back even better at the perfect time for him to be back. Because we have Ryder Cup next week. and then we have this crazy tour schedule next year

where it goes basically April, May, June, July, the four majors. If he can keep this going for eight, nine more months, I forgot to mention the Mickelson thing on Thanksgiving, but all he needs to do is stay hot for another year and just more good things are going to happen. So give me the countercase.

Why can't that happen? No, the only reason it couldn't happen is because of the health, but he looks incredible. I mean, he looks the thing to me that as you sort of watch him on television, that striking is how skinny he is. Yeah. And he said today that he can't run anymore.

So I just, I don't know what he's doing in terms of his fitness regimen. Careful house. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not going anywhere in here. I have a guard up. Careful, please, careful. No, no. This is going to be, Tiger's on the throne today and I'm on my knees.

I mean, I'm not, you're not going to hear me say anything bad. I'm genuflecting in front of the goat. That's what I'm about to do. Yeah. I'm just saying, you know, if you're trying to anticipate how his health might go over the next handful of months, like we had lots and lots of validation that he can survive these rounds under a whole variety of conditions. You don't see him wincing anymore. Yeah.

You see him taking pretty aggressive swing the entirety of his event. and he had a really smart approach game plan. I hope he replicates that. I hope everybody, you know, in his team and in his walk of life, gives him the good advice and good counsel, and maybe he'll be making his own decisions about this, that, you know, like an 18 event kind of number of events, I hope nobody gets crazy and thinks that you ought to be flying off to Dubai

and, you know, going off to China and stuff. Yeah, he's not doing that anymore. There's too much more money at stake for him. when he's succeeding on the PGA tour. You know, like, you've got to pass something to buy a paycheck because I'm sure he's going to get more sponsors over the next couple weeks and all that stuff. Oh, it's going to be insane.

I'm interested in seeing what the overnight number. I mean, I want to wake up tomorrow morning and see how, like, you know, at 5 o'clock on Sunday, what number NBC got for that broadcast. One of the things, I'll just do a quick shout-out. NBC and its partner to Southern Company, had this deal where for this tournament, they show the final nine holes without commercials.

Yeah, it was cool. So what great luck was this for today to be watching Tigers Back Nine without commercials? Holy death. It also is one of the cooler courses. I love that hole. I think it's the, what's the hole that is basically

the three-story building around the green? Is that 17? That's the B. Yeah, I love 50. It's hard of the mother play down there a few times. It's a very cool course. I like that little building.

I have one more theory on Tiger, and this is something I think I've talked about on the podcast before. I have a lot of thoughts on bad backs because I had a bad back. And I had a herniated disc, and I have like a little compressed fracture and all that stuff, somewhere in there. And what you learn is you research backs. I ended up not getting the surgery in 2004.

I think Tiger did get the surgery. But what you learn about backs, the more you learn is that a lot of people have, have messed up backs to varying degrees. And the things that can tip it are poor habits, like if you're sitting at your desk too long or you're not stretching or stuff like that. But then the bigger one is stress.

And there is this book that Dr. John Sarno wrote that Howard Stern actually, I found out about it from the Howard Stern Show because Stern was a big fan of this book. And it was all about how much of a back issue was mental. and stress and if you're not in a happy place and you have all these things that are piling up, that's kind of the tipping point for your back sometimes.

And that's what happened to me. I was at Jimmy Kimmel's show and I was also trying to write my column. We just moved to L.A. My wife hadn't made a lot of friends yet. I had all these things piling up and of course my back goes out. And you'd think like, well, he's never,

and I ended up playing basketball in my 40s. Like my back was fine. I'm convinced it was stress. And I look at the tiger situation. and I know he's structurally messed up and whatever. But I also think like when you're happier, your body feels better. And you watch him like with the swagger and stuff. And it's like his back's probably the same it was last year.

He just feels better. And he's moving better. And when you don't have that constant anchor over you, maybe that's part of this. I don't know. Just a theory. No, I like it. I mean, I totally get that. And it's not even not even career stuff.

It's also like, he has an ex-wife and she probably isn't a huge fan of his and he broke up with his girlfriend a year ago and his kids probably are old enough now that they can Google him and God knows what kind of shit that guy is

running through his brain and I'm sure it affected him. Oh, unphysically as it relates to the battery. And it seems like he finally got like a diagnosis that made the most sense for him and put him in the best position. And then the last time you and I talked about this

last couple weeks about Tiger, one of the things that seemed to be going on over the course of the sort of rediscover, can I do? You know, I'm inside kind of a new body here, and, you know, what am I sort of capable of? It's partly why I think over the course of the season, we talked about this a little bit,

he seemed to be playing a pretty conservative game. If he was, you know, and he wanted to make cuts so he could play four rounds in each of the events that he entered. He only missed two cuts, the whole season. Yeah. And, you know, it's clear that that over the course of the season,

what it was all about was crucial. Off the tea was crucial because he kicked everybody's ass in that regard. He was awesome off the tea, and then he putted better than everybody with his old trustee, Scotty Cameron, 14 majors on that thing. He was doing the follow the putt to the green a couple of times today, which I loved. Yeah, the fusion surgery, some people have had that and it hasn't gotten better. Other people have it and it does get better. I also think we should mention, and if you read the book that came out last year or earlier

this year about him, he's got an incredible pain tolerance. So he might not even be out of the woods. I think his back was obviously so bad, you know, earlier that he couldn't even he couldn't overcome it. But this is a guy, I don't need to go through all the injuries he's had. But his knee was deteriorating for, you know, the first 15 years of his career. and that's the, to me, that's more shocking than the back, because when you read about the stuff that's happened to his knee, the state that his knee is in, that he shouldn't be able to come back

from. The back thing, I can see it coming and going and Pilates and you have the surgery and you have less stress in your life, but your knee is kind of, once it goes, it goes. There's no coming back from it. And you never hear about it. Well, it does look like he's, but I don't care. Yeah. Yeah, he has a, that's right.

I don't care. I just want him healthy because listen to the... We talked a little bit about what the future holds. Yeah. Obviously, this was yesterday. He was in Stolling. Oh, my God. That's crazy.

And, you know, one of the things you and I observe to each other is Augusta too hard for Tiger. It may have been showed up with in April, the first week of April, 2018. But, you know, if he's in anywhere near the condition, that he's in right now and the confidence that he has, I think he'll be up to the next two majors are after that. The PGA championship has competed in May in 2019. They're going to Best Page, New York, New York's best. Do you think that that crowd will have some Tiger love, will be prepared to go crazy for Tiger if there's any possibility at all? And then he goes from there, the U.S. Open next year, Pabble Beach. He loves Pabble Beach. How about all the history?

there. I mean, it's really time for us to start thinking about, and it's just because I'm feeling greedy in the moment. We had all, you know, five years since the last win. Next year, it'll be 11 years since his last major win. But why can't we start talking about how many more majors he has in him? Yeah. Well, and then you left out the British Open, now called the Open Championship or wherever the fuck they decided. That's in Ireland. I know, right. And you know, you know who loves Tiger? A bunch of drunk Irish people. Oh, he's fine.

Stop giving Tiger so much crap. I can make these jokes. I'm 25% Irish. Yeah, they'll be rooting for him too. The accent was terrible. That was like, that sounded like Bono crossed with the Mike Myers' dad and so he married an ex-burger. Yeah, so listen, he's, the majors is the next piece of this. This was great.

Yes. This was awesome. so nice to have him back. But now that he's got the Tiger, Tiger, Tiger, Swagger back, now that he's got a little something, something going on, now we're talking, now he needs a major. And we were there at the Masters, and we were there for at least the first day,

but then watching on TV, and he could never, it always felt like he was like one hole away from getting it going, and it was just like, oh, that putt didn't go in, or that drive hit the wrong. He just couldn't get it. No. He didn't have the, the, but he was, he lingered.

though. And then it got to the U.S. Open. And, you know, he was lingering and you were calling it. You were saying it on the podcast all year. You were talking about like daily fantasy and gambling stuff. And you were like, I think Tiger's in the mix here. And I went from thinking like, oh, my God, you're just in the bag for Tiger to you were right.

Tiger's played. Tiger played really well for, you know, five, six months there. He was lingering and he was around and he was in the mix. And he wasn't even playing that many tournaments. No, it got real. when he was, he held the lead standing on the T at the 11th hole. Yeah, that's when it got real. Yeah, but he was there.

Yeah. Are you okay with, uh, with Justin Rosewin and the FedEx, whatever the fuck it's called? The PGA tour really appreciate you, uh, calling it that. That's what it's called, right? The FedEx, whatever the fuck it is. That's, is that the name of the trophy? It's the FedEx WTF. Yes, it is.

There you go. You just gave it. It's been in search of a brand identity. Among the many talents you possess Bill Simmons. Can you name the last five winners of it? Starting going back to 2013? I can name like a handful of them because I know like Rory wanted. Yeah, yeah.

Nobody knows. Nobody remembers. I mean, you know, it's awesome. People remember majors. You know what people remember majors? Well, $1 million check. Yeah, they remember that part. They remember cash in the $10 million check.

The idea isn't crazy. They try and create a system by which to reward their season and come up with a way to give a little bit of your 30. And then once you have these points and you can, if you win the tournament. So like a name way off of the, I had a great round today, 65, I think. All of a sudden he had a chance to win the $10 million bucks. And he's won it before the season, the tournament,

have a great chance at winning the $10 million. It's also a huge purse, though, for this thing. I think Tiger won almost a maybe over $2 million. You know what they should call the FedEx Cup? The $10 million check. Yeah. I wouldn't even, the FedEx $10 million check. That's what I would name it.

The race for the check? You don't like that idea? That's fine. The announcer should say, oh, he's leading the FedEx $10 million check. They should just remind everybody that $10 million is at stake. Not that I really care. where I saw show up with a wheelbarrow filled up with 100.

I need to be, let the people see. Yeah, it should be like once there is a poker. They should just have the $10 million in bags. That would be great. What a great idea. Yeah, next year it's $15 million, but that just means a bigger wheelbarrow. Howes, we're going to the Masters

and we're going to the U.S. Open, and it's going to be fucking awesome. I'm just telling. Oh, it has got to be awesome. I haven't even told Callow yet. I'm not positive. We even have a whole point. but we're going. Calloway, you're sending us. We love you. I mean, you understand. I'm still, I have to get it all

worked up again. I know. You're really this is a very exciting we need all the forces to come together because this peak of his powers and he's showing all the young guns what it's like. Walk alongside Tiger. Do you see Rory today by the way?

Yeah, he was... He was in high school when Tiger was the height of his powers. He shot 74 today alongside the goat. Yeah, well, that's, you saw it during MJ's Wizards run that was actually a little more entertaining than I think people remember, but on the days, MJ had it going. He melted everyone in the crowd and everyone was so excited to kind of be on the court as MJ was feeling it. And Tiger felt it for the whole weekend. All right, we got to go.

We got to get to the football. Maybe I'll let you back on it. Maybe I'll let you back on Friday rolling this week. You're a mush. If the bucks pull us Just what people know All I did was take your picks from Friday I listened to your podcast

I gave them back out of mine So I thought that would be funny I appreciate that All right house Shack House Shack House of Carbs Subscribe to both Oh yeah well how about this

The Shack The Shack! Rider Cup preview show Tuesday Me and Jeff Shack For Shack is in Paris As we speak So we're going to convene We're going to talk about

Now I don't know about the U.S. fortunes. I'm looking for some value. I want to bet on something, Bill. So you know bottom. I look forward to wagering on whatever you tell me to because you've been red hot this whole season. House, talk to you soon. Talk to you soon. Bye, bye, bye, bye.