Fairway Rollin' - Ep. 1: The 'ShackHouse' Premiere

Episode Date: March 23, 2016

The Ringer's inaugural golf podcast tees off with Geoff Shackelford and Joe House discussing the 2016 PGA Tour season, the importance of WGC events, Master's odds, and more from the links. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shackhouse is presented by Calloway, the number one iron in golf. Their irons have a face built to change the game to push the industry further and iron performance farther. If you're not playing an iron with Calloway's industry-leading 360 face cup technology, you're losing out on distance, and who wants that? This face belongs to the number one iron in golf, and it's a face built for distance. Welcome to Shackhouse, presented by Callaway. I am Jeff Shackleford, and joining us from a secure undisclosed location is Joe House House. Tell me you're going to be playing some golf wherever you are. I'm happy to tell the world where I am.

I am in Jamaica. Everything is IRE. And, yeah, there's only a couple things to do in Jamaica. One of those things is play golf. Well, normally on this fine show, you're going to be joining us from Washington, D.C., so we get to live vicariously through you today. And I can't wait to hear all about the Gulf of Jamaica. I'm sure it's just really profound architecturally down there.

It's pretty lush. I will say I played last year. I got a couple rounds in. And Jamaica, I guess, a big secret that there's, it's kind of mountainous terrain. And one of the courses I played, the White Witch, is situated in a pretty, there's a lot of dramatic elevation change. It's very cool. But hey, it's a pleasure to be on a golf podcast with you. Well, that's very kind of you. That's probably a little excessive. But this is exciting. I think we're going to have a lot of fun with this. We're going to talk about cool stuff in golf, make fun of some people that need to be made fun of. We're going to get into some of the off-beat stories and a little bit behind the scenes.

And just kind of think of this as a fans kind of show because it's a great time right now in golf. It's been a phenomenal run-up, I think, this year. I'm usually pretty cynical, as you probably know, House. And the PJ Tour has had a run here that has been, for a golf fan, a really pure golf fan, has been pretty awesome week to week. And I've actually wanted to watch the final round very closely every week since January, and that doesn't always happen. I was especially impressed with this Florida swing.

I thought the courses acquitted themselves. It's a pretty cool thing to have tournaments won by a major winner. Yeah, and old guys, too, especially after all the love fest we heard about the kids, they've taken over. They're amazing. And they are. Some of them are amazing. They're doing amazing things.

But wasn't it interesting how the West Coast stuff, the old golf courses that require a little bit of knowledge, and then we got to Florida, the places that really are, all those golf courses have kind of had transformations in the last few years. And, you know, the young guys didn't quite come through. It was the geysers in their early 30s and late 20s who kind of showed that it still takes a little bit of seasoning, a little bit of smarts out there, which I found. thrilling. I do think it's funny, though, that people aren't as enthused about this recent swing of golf because the young guys kind of struggle. Is that right? Where's the lack of enthusiasm?

Well, no, there's enthusiasm, but I haven't heard, like, I threw out the idea. I went through some past winners and West Coast and Florida swings, and I hate the, and I know you're a recency-buying this guy because I listen to you on Bill all the time, and I know how you feel about this, but I actually, I declared on Morning Drive that this was as good of a run-up to the Masters as I can recall. Obviously, we have a couple more events, but in terms of great names, diverse leaderboards, and people who you expect to contend at Augusta getting to check off having a couple of great weeks, it was phenomenal, and every event's been close and interesting. I agree. Who disagrees with that? I just think there is such a desire to have the, the, the, the, the,

year olds, the Jordan Speeth's Rory guys take over, that they get a little conflicted, you know, when they kind of struggle in Speath and McElroy and even Ricky kind of, you know, has had some really awesome weeks, but he's also kind of done some weird stuff. And so. I see. So like from a tour branding perspective, you're not getting exactly. But holy, holy S word, and by the way, we are allowed to curse on this, at least, you know, curse on the Simmons one. We ought to be able to curse on this too. Look at all of the master in Jason Day, who's been on the brink of a master's win, easing his way into his season, coming up with a big victory two weeks out, right?

There's still some weeks in between. I just love the trajectory that the four, the master's winners. It's interesting. The one guy who's really kind of sucked since January is initials are J.S. Well, be clear, that was since the second week of January. He started off really well at Capulah, but yeah, it's been pretty weird since then for him, and McElroy's been just bizarrely inconsistent. At Riviera, he was just going along beautifully. He eagled the first hole, and on the third hole, I was there watching me. He blew a pot about five feet past the hole. He made it. The next hole,

he had like a 15-footer for Bertie on the fourth hole, did the same thing, missed that one, and he was toast. I mean, he could not, he just couldn't really believe in himself on the Greens from that point going forward. And it was so bizarre to watch him kind of just unravel so quickly on just a couple of bad puts. And that's to me what's been sort of really fun about this stretch of golf is that they've had to be at a kind of major championship level and be ready to go. And the slightest little hiccup has kind of cost some of these guys down the stretch. and you just love seeing them kind of get battle tested before Augusta, because you kind of know now who it's going to be. It's probably going to be one of a dozen people.

And I'm fine with that. That's just the nature of the masters. So am I. That's the masters. That's the point. I will say it is really interesting that the difference between guys like Rory and Jordan, as compared to the guys who have won at the great menus over the last six to eight weeks, Bubba, Adam Scott a couple times, Jason, it does seem to be mental.

Oh, no question, yeah. And I mean, Jason is such an interesting case. I've watched him for a few years now. He works with a guy who does this whole pre-round thing where he gets in this sort of meditation mode. And, I mean, what he has done, because he's a pretty sensitive guy. And he has really kind of best seen with his comments about Jordan Speeith. if he's played too much. And he said it in a way like he was actually concerned about him.

But he does so much to get into a round. And then he obviously goes through every conceivable thought on the golf course, as you can see by his speed of play under, well, in any circumstance, especially under pressure. So he's just, he's in a perfect position going to Augusta. It's just he couldn't be more ideal in terms of having been rested and refreshed. And now he wins at Bay Hill. But the one thing, House, it's kind of a story that's also not really being discussed a whole lot yet

because everybody wants to see how this match play unfolds and somebody like him gets there. And if he has to play five, excuse me, seven matches, I believe, to win it all. And is that taxing? Is this kind of this schedule and this buildup to the masters? Because right now it's been perfect, right? It's just been ideal. And the thing that before we kind of dive into the curiosity of Austin with a does, WGC event, you know, just on the outside of the Masters, is the impact it just had on the Arnold

Palmer field. Yeah. A lot of great American. Well, that was what I was getting. Not in the field. Yeah. Yeah. And it was a big story.

I actually have a quote on my website from Palmer from like, I don't know, 30 years ago where he said, hey, you know, we can't all play every week. So it was kind of ironic that in the last week, that's all anybody could talk about. But it is telling, and there are a number of reasons why guys don't like to play at Bay Hill and has nothing, obviously, to do with Arnold Palmer. They all revere him. I think they've all had it drummed into him to be reverential and to be grateful for what he's done. But really, the golf course hasn't been in that greatest shape the last few years, and a lot of them don't really like the golf course. And then they don't like the way he sets it up. A lot of people don't know this house, but there's two golf courses on the tour where the rule staff sets it up. But they don't quite have the final say. And I know you'll be shocked to know that those two courses happen to be the places that are tied to Jack Nicholas and Arnold Palmer. And they do a great job with their events, but, you know, they don't like guys tearing up their golf course. Blaints about the way that Jack sets up the memorial as well. Yeah, yeah. Well, he just has a little

more control. So, I mean, a few years ago, he had, they were raking the bunkers with these deep tines, you know, he did that. I remember that. The tour would never allow that kind of thing. Arnold's always liked a lot of rough and like to have the greens a little firmer and the 17th green really firm. So stuff like that, little stuff like that's kind of eaten away at the player's view of the place. And I think it's kind of – but then you also throw in this match play, this WGC. I hate the WGC concept. I get it. I know why people like it, but it's dreadful for the tournaments around it.

Occasionally it helps the tournament the week before. But for the most part, it's just taking players who would have played Bay Hill and moved them to – and what's going to be this week, Austin, Texas. Yeah, so one more, one last thought on the Arnie thing. The thing that I guess I wonder about, so Arnie is not a young fella any longer. And it doesn't, you know, the opportunity is to kind of show up at his event and, you know, express your appreciation by playing in the event or at least, you know, Ricky had the decency to figure out a way to, you know, go go have lunch with Arnie.

But, like, you know, I hope Arnie lives another 10 years, but we're officially in a zone where that may not be the case. I'd hate to be a player like, you know, Jordan or somebody or Pat Reed, for plenty of legitimate reasons, skip the event, but missed out on the opportunity to kind of, you know. Yeah, and I do wonder sometimes of maybe. just that sort of storyline that he paved the way and you need to be grateful, actually kind of almost backfires and that players get a little annoyed that they have to do that. I mean, Ricky, yeah, Ricky went and had lunch with him. And then for some reason he was at Jimmy Walker's house over the weekend. And there was a photo tweeted by Jimmy Walker's wife.

And like, you said you had a scheduling conflict. You had to go do some stargazing with the walkers. I mean, like, what? You know, just you live in. I don't mind it. Ricky, Ricky did the right thing. I'm okay with, you know, him skipping the event. I think there are plenty of legitimate reasons for the, you know, work, construct their schedules in whatever way it makes the most sense. And, you know, I just think with the kind of stage that we're at with Arnie, and I find that the observation you just made about, you know, maybe some mild resentment around just the idea of paying homage to Arnie. Arney created the commercial. vehicle by which so many of these guys, you know, reap off the course benefits. Most of these guys make their money, or at least the top 15, right, by way of sponsorship and commercial deals. They don't make all their money from the golf course. Arnie's the one that's responsible

for that in the first place. And then Tiger exploded it. You know, I still maintain that every single guy that, since 1997, back to Tiger every single year, which is because of what, the transformative things that Tiger did to the tour and the commercial opportunities. Anyhow. Yeah, you know, that's a fair point. It's a legitimate point. As somebody who loves golf history, I also kind of roll my eyes at it a little bit because there was somebody like Walter Hagan.

I mean, if you really want to go back and look at the people who kind of paved the way for the modern golf pro, you really could start with old Tom Morris. I mean, you could go all the way back. So Mr. Palmer is amazing. He has done, as you say, amazing things for them in allowing. them to make money off the golf course. But there were others as well, and I'm sure there are some who kind of roll their eyes. But I don't think that's why they skip the place.

I really do think it has to do with just timing some of the maintenance issues. And by the way, the course was an amazing shape at Bay Hill this year. So that'll get more guys back. Even Arnold, his interview with Jimmy Roberts on Thursday, even he expressed surprise at how good the conditioning was, which was kind of one of those, what will, you know, old people will say anything kind of thing. I think he was so shocked, really. That's awesome.

But anyway, but his events also tainted a little bit by this matchplay. So let's be honest. So help me understand. What the hell happened? I loved it in February. I understand they didn't love the venue in Arizona, but it was a neat thing. It's kind of a unique and maybe, you know, a cynical person would call it slightly gimmicky. I did see these photos of containers with like lottery ping pong balls in them.

I don't understand that. I don't know if you explain it to me. But it was like a perfect kind of moment in the tour schedule back in February. That's the right time for, you know, kind of a weird, non-traditional event to take place. And it could be in a West Coast, you know, warm venue kind of thing. What are we doing in Austin this week? It's called Money House. very simple thing. The WGC events are very expensive to sponsor. They're, I think, about $4 million more,

at least than the average tour event. And so they're really only about 12 companies in the United States, as I understand it, that probably can afford to sponsor such an event and who maybe have an interest in sponsoring such an event. And so Dell came along, and obviously Dell wanted to bring it to Austin, which is fine. That's great. And I think they just felt that February is a little bit rough going in Austin weather-wise, and March is a lot better. And I think it ultimately just came down to that. They really weren't interested in playing it somewhere else. And this is such a hard event to get a sponsor for it because so much of the narrative

during the week, as you know, is how fluky match play is and how unfair it is. And you just, you know, they get 40 grand to show up. And then they all they do is just say, well, it's just a fluky format. Well, maybe. but if you play great golf, you're going to win seven matches. Yeah, it is a novelty, and I don't begrudge the guys doing whatever kind of, whatever their mild golf complaints may be. It's just such a weird point in this schedule.

I love Austin. Austin is one of America's great cities, but what the hell is so special about this golf course that was built in 1984 that they had to rush in? and jump on there. It's a Pete Dye design, right? Yeah, well, it was the one course in Austin that probably could handle the event in terms of having enough space, although it's going to be very tight. But having something, too, that looks cool on TV and plays well for matchplay. I played it in 1990, so my memories are very simple.

I remember the back nine had these cool holes with these canyons. The front nine goes down by the lake. It's really going to be dramatic. They flip the nines. So the back nine is that club's front nine down by. by the water. And it's going to be great. Yeah, it's going to look cool on TV. I don't know how it's going to be as a walk in the park kind of thing for spectators. I've noticed they've built an enormous number of tents so that people don't have to move very far. And really, that was the reason. I think

they'd love to, after a few years, go to another golf course if it's built in Austin that's a little more able to handle it and maybe as a public course. There's a project that Joe Ogilvie's involved with or that's kind of the dream. So for now, it's Austin Country Club. It's Harvey Pinnock was the pro there, and it's a great story in that sense. It's nice to shine a light on some golf history like that, but I don't, you know, I don't know how this is going to work with match play right before the Masters. I think you're going to hear a lot of players complain. It's a weird mindset to be in. It's different than stroke play. But they get three matches guaranteed. So they can't complain that they got shorted on the amount of golf they can play.

So I think they ought to just kind of hush and suck it up and take their guaranteed $40,000, but they won't. Yeah, has made a deliberate effort to try and present the players with something that's akin to what they'll confront at Augusta. Has there been any indication that they've tried that in Austin as well? No, no. I don't think they oversee the rough, so there's no point. No, they're just going to go with the golf.

course the way it is. And that's fine. I love what Houston does, and that's worked really well for them, although even they are kind of hurt by this event being where it's at. So basically, you've hurt Houston, which is a great, long-time event, really well-run, great tournament director, and you've hurt Arnie's tournament by having it here. So that ultimately, it's less about the match play close to the Masters. That bothers me less than hurting two events that are staples of the tour, towns that have been with this tour, supported this tour through thick and thin, and were important events, even when the tour was just kind of a fledgling. And that's always what bothers me. And so I admire Tim Finchon for wanting to save matchplay. And I think we all should be

thankful that he kind of insists on trying to save it. But man, trying to sandwich this in right now, I think it'll be fun to kind of hear what the players say as a week goes. Yeah, so that's exactly what I wanted to ask you about. Any indication of mood or sentiment among the players? Because, you know, for all of the factors you just described, it seems like we might get a winner this week, or ambition as it relates to Augusta. But, you know, there's a lot of money at stake

and a lot of points at stake with this event. Some guy who says, hey, I'm probably not going to win at Augusta, but I'm going to put the pedal to the middle in this matchplay event and, you know, try and go get a W. Whereas a bunch of other guys might just be using this event as a kind of tune-up vibe because nobody wants to really, you know, who knows how taxing the seven rounds might be, you know, in this short cycle. I think the good news is... Any mood or sentiment vibe?

No, I think you'll hear a little of that grumbling, but nobody will complain about having to play too much. I think their ego will get the best of them when they're out there playing a match and they don't want to lose. And ultimately, there might be a few veterans who don't just go all out and grind, grind, grind, but I'd be shocked. I mean, even Phil Mickelson, who probably is wondering why this event is two weeks before the Masters, when he's out there head-to-head with somebody, he just does not like to lose. He's not going to go, eh, I'm going to give this about 60%.

He'll be all in. They all will be. And I think the new format where they at least play three matches is a good thing. It kind of forces them to no longer complain about the one-a-done things. Yeah, nobody's going to be mailing it and understanding that they only have the one round. Maybe haven't rounded into form yet. I'm thinking especially of somebody like Patrick Reed, who's a terrific match-play player, has had this kind of season that he may have preferred so far.

I think he had a miscut in there on the Florida swing, and he had previously had some great events in Florida, and maybe Bill Haas could use this event. He's playing, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. So maybe he'll use this to lick some wounds. I mean, I don't know.

You can come up with a couple storylines, I think, about guys who might use this as a kind of propulsion event. I did think, you know, you miss out using the event when it was back in their season. I think it was really transformative for Jason Day, for instance, to have won that event when it was in February. Was that two years ago? Correct, yeah.

Yeah, so, but anyhow, it'll still be cool. It'll be cool to see a new course that nobody's seen on television before. I'm very intrigued by your description of it. And, you know, with a field like this, it's going to be great golf. All right, now, House, let's talk about the Masters in a second. But first, Yeah. You know, the physics of driving are simple, right?

If you want to go farther, you've got to go faster. So Calloway worked with the world's leading aerodynamic engineers from Boeing to find even more speed house. A lot more speed. Wesley Bryant can attest. He just won the Louisiana Open on Sunday using the new XR driver. And they gave that driver a larger head and a hotter face. They streamlined the shape and made it extremely forgiving. Now, there is a rumor that you have one.

Can you attest? I do indeed possess one of these devices. As a 13 handicap, I need all the forgiveness I can get. Oh, it's a sweet club. You know, my thing with the driver is that it's got to feel solid from the clubhead to the end of the grip, like it all is kind of connected and works. Like the best persimmin and steel drivers did that.

And that's, you know, kind of tricky to find with the modern stuff. And the XR for me is the first driver that's kind of done that. I'm going to be on the White Witch later this week. Tomorrow I'm playing. Of course, but actually has hosted PJ events in the past. It's called Trial. Oh, yes, yes, yes. I think the World Cup or something like that there, yeah.

Right, right, exactly. Nice. I've never set foot on that joint. Tomorrow will be 15 and me, so we're excited for that. All right, well, enjoy. And next week, we'll kind of grill you on how it goes. Please, you know, put a little tape on the top just in case. You know, that first shot's a little bit, you know, sketchy.

You are a, those of us who have been longtime listeners of your podcast with Bill Simmons know that you guys like to talk about some odds and some, some wagers and things like that. And I think the Masters is kind of the one event where it's fun to look at the odds. They're still ridiculous. The favorite should never be below 10 to 1. But I do think it's the one event where you feel like you could, you could predict a winner. and if you could bet it the way they do in Britain during the Open Championship and the other golf tournaments where you can do an each-way bet, which is sort of a win-place bet, where you can get either the win or you get a fourth of your earnings for a top six or five or seven finish.

It'd be a lot of fun to bet the Masters. If you could, of course, we can't. But have you had a look at the Master's odds lately after yesterday's? I have taken a look. I have a few thoughts. One of the things that jumped out at me, these were as of the 15th, and I don't know whether anything's changed in the last handful of days.

Okay. I have a feeling for Rory this year. I don't love the Rory odds. In fact, I think phenomena of one blow-up round that has really been more than anything like we talked about earlier, it seems to be mental. He seems to like play himself out. Oh, he flat out admitted yesterday's mental.

He said it. Yeah. He gets mad himself, yeah. Which was kind of a stunning admission. And, you know, he's had a lot of success and had, you know, pretty dominant performance here in 2016 for his anger to be getting the best of him. That's the kind of thing you expect kind of earlier in his career. That Augusta is perfectly suited for his kind of game. working and we know he can do it because he's done it across a variety of different

courses and conditions he can't get the putter working sometimes i like rory i don't like them at i do it 15 to one no no no no eight to one eight to one uh yeah so i'm not touching him but i do like him as a winner the guy that i've kind of circled in pencil right now the guy that i'm circling in pencil is my main man schworzzel yeah I loved that win a couple weeks ago. But also a guy that is up for it in the majors, and the reason that I like him, and maybe you have the odds in front of you,

I saw something that suggested that he could be added 65 to 1. Well, that may have been one of your street corner bookie types, because I'm looking at 30 to 1 now. Somebody's gotten wise to that number. Oh, okay. I'm telling you, this was the 15th. I don't know where I'm getting these numbers. them. Well, they changed quite a bit.

It's okay. It's okay. But I mean, come on. I take Justin Rose at 25 before I take Schwartzel. And maybe that's just because I can't. I'm not a Schwartzel fan. Well, you can't get Rose at 25. Yeah, he's 25. Yeah, he's 25. Yep. No, he's 25 right now. I'm looking at him, yeah, which I think is here. Here's why I like him. I might need to stop for a second, make a phone call. I might have to put the phone down here. Finish second last year. That's $25. It's delicious. Yeah, it is. And he is working with the same guy, Jason Goldschmidt who has been helping Jason Day with this kind of pre-round stuff. And I saw Jason out walking with Rose at Riviera. And Sean Foley is all over working hard with Rose, which I know when

I say that a lot of people are going to go, well, then he's toast. But they've had a great working relationship. Sean is a great instructor with the right pupil who can take the information the right way. And he does an amazing job. And they are working so hard right now on his game. But he's also pacing himself. And I know he's got this thing circled. And the whole thing is built, the whole season's built around Augusta for him. And I just, I just, I love his game there. I think he putts well enough. Rory, I'm sorry, going to the left hand low is just, it's just depressing with the putting. I mean, when you're, when you're doing. An act of desperation. It is. It is. You know, what's sad is his putting stroke isn't that bad when you watch it. It's actually quite nice,

but it's just in his head now. So Rose is not a great putter, but he's good enough. He knows how to put at Augusta. So that I love. Amazingly, Tiger Woods is 100 to 1. He's not going to be playing. So, you know, Matsuyama at 30 to 1 is kind of interesting. Speed that's his 7 to 1, which is absurd at this point. Not touching.

Yeah, not touching. No. One thing I like about Justin Rose, and speaking of the UK where you could make this bet, Justin Rose has led the Masters after the first round. How many times? It feels like 15 times. I know it hasn't been that many. But Justin Rose loves to lead the Masters after day one.

He does. He does. I don't know the number either, but it's definitely a place he gets off on the right foot, which is, you know, never hurt anybody. So I don't know. Looking at these numbers, I don't know who would bet any of these prices. They're just not very forgiving, frankly. Bubba 10 to 1.

Right now, for me, it's Bubba Scott and Day are on kind of another level going in, just because of their track records, the way they play. their confidence level. What do you have Scott at right now? Scott 12 to 1, which is pretty good for a former winner. He just won twice and who is kind of unbelievable at Augusta. The only thing that's kind of weird there is Stevie Williams is joining him on the bag. He's finally got a guy who, you know, he's just won a couple of events with,

and he certainly won with Stevie. But, you know, all of a sudden he's going to dump that guy and Stevie's going to be on the bag of Augusta. It's kind of weird. I didn't know that. You know, Adam played great this past week, except for the, I think he ended up seven over on 18 over the last two days. Yeah. I know he, five over, five over Saturday and Sunday combined on 18.

So if he finished at 9, that's 14 under that if he could just have pared 18 and brought it home, 14 under would have had something. Yeah. I love his form right now. 12 to 1 is kind of tasty. I have to tell you, Jeff Schaubbred. Yeah, it's not horrible. I'm going to give it some thought.

By the way, how's the food down there in Jamaica? I know you're a food guy. How's it looking down there? It's wonderful. I mean, it's spicy jerk stuff. It's chicken, it's fish. It's very healthy. You know, I need to be in lean, mean,

fighting shape entering the golf season. Golf season is officially upon us. And if I'm going to be swinging the XR 16 and giving it the very best it deserves, I can't be walking around with the winter midway belly. Jamaica is a great kickstart for that. Nice, nice. All right, it's time for the Speed Roundhouse,

brought to you by Calloway Golf, the number one iron in golf. Their irons feature 360 face cup technology. Did you know that house? I don't know what that means. Can you tell me what it means? It allows for more distance, no matter where you hit it on the face. You can hit it anywhere. If you are using an iron with a 360 face cup,

You're giving up yards. The only thing faster than the speed you get from Calloway Iron's House is a speed round we're about to play. So let's just try to kind of reel off a bunch of topics here. We've sort of glossed over Jordan Speeith. Jordan Spee. Dun, toast, tired, what do you think? What does it look like to you as a sports fan, kind of seeing an athlete get to the point he's at right now, which is a little weird? It's weird.

He's tired. I mean, you know, I understand for the kid the idea of, um, maximizing a position in terms of what he achieved last season. But, you know, you can't come at the expense of the Masters. You're the defending green jacket wearer, homie. Get it in shape. Get it together. Yeah.

Yeah, it's weird. Austin's going to be really interesting for him. He's going to the place. I know he plays Austin Country Club a bunch. University of Texas has this amazing practice facility for the golf team there. I wouldn't be surprised if he kind of hangs out there after the rounds. As long as he doesn't play the golf course there, the practice facility is amazing. But this whole thing with this fatigue and kind of sort of transitioning, you know, each week to hitting more shots and practice.

I've never heard of a player kind of say they were like on a ball count that wasn't coming back from an injury. He revealed that at Riviera, just kind of threw that out Friday afternoon after he missed a cut. and it just floored me that he was on like a restricted ball count and he was he was watching his time I figure he must have had really bad jet lag for one of his trips over the winter or something I don't know it was it was oh yeah he he should have been on restricted miles count yeah he should it should take it at 70,000 miles and chopped it down to 25,000 yeah I mean but throwing your caddy under the bus and and uh you know the whole we thing bothers some people and it doesn't bother me because he really does believe it's a team but but then, you know, to go out there after the final round to Innesbrook and just basically say,

well, we're taking the blame for this one this week. It wasn't just me. That was that was kind of unusual. I would imagine some of his fellow players either thought that was really strange or they liked it because they sort of saw an opening. The other thing is he loves Match Playhouse. Loves it. I know if you saw any of the Farity interview. I didn't see the whole thing all the way through. There's a part where he's talking about Bubba Watson and how he knew he had him, like he was in his head. And it really bothered him that year when they were kind of going head-to-head. It was essentially match play that he didn't seal the deal and kind of finish him off and put him out of his misery.

And I couldn't believe the way he was talking that way on an interview like that. I thought that was so fascinating that he loves the head-to-head battle that much. So many of these guys don't. Well, he had a mentality in the Ryder Cup and gave those of us who grew up with the Ryder Cup being at least, you know, a cop that this new generation of young Americans is up to them. They're not guys who are going to be asking about, you know, increasing the money that that that whole thing with Duval and, you know, a generation ago. Very uncool. I like what Speed and Reed are bringing to the table. Yeah.

And Ricky has it too. It is really refreshing to know that you're not going to have to listen to them complain about having to play the Ryder Cup. They know what it does for their game, their confidence if they have a great week, and they love representing their country and the whole thing. So now maybe when they're older, we'll check back with them. Now, the other thing that Speed did wrong, and I know this was a speed round that is grinding to a halt because we're still on Jordan Speed. in that little hissie-fed at Innesbrook, he also got into it on social media. He actually challenged the tours a tweet about one of his quotes, and it was just bizarre. And I don't want to, we can move on from him.

The other social media superstar of golf who also runs into pretty much a daily battle is Ian Poulter. And I don't know if you saw us. He basically ratted on an assistant AD at Florida Southern who had, who had, who idiotically admitted to heckling him on the course, then took to Twitter and threw in some humble brags about how he had heckled Boulter. And Boulter called him out and called out his school and the guy lost his job. A little rough? Or is that, you know, that kind of the market forces at play? Yeah, I don't have any problem with it.

You know, the lowest common denominator element of Twitter and, you know, the Twitter muckles that people get, I think it's, It's okay, Poulter. Now, Poulter is the easiest of easy target. He is. To take his lumps and take the criticisms. But dude got on there and said that he, like, you know, yelled for Poulter to hit the ball in the water. Like the least sportsman kind of thing you can imagine.

As an assistant AD, it's kind of like there's a, there's a competency there. Yeah. So I didn't, all Poulter did was say, hey, guy, for the job that you appear a tuition. I didn't mind that by Pultz. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know if that's gone on. And I didn't call him Pulse.

Yeah, you did, like your buddies. Yeah, well, this may be the most attention he gets all year. I don't think he's going to make the Ryder Cup team. Grand Slam of Golf. Is he playing in the event in the event this week? No. He's currently the alternate. The top 64.

He is currently first or second alternate, I believe. I've got to double check that. He's one of the only characters worth watching in this thing, typically, you know. Oh, he's a phenomenal matchplay player, and he just, he has the whole thing down, mainly the thing called making putts and just making people really annoyed that you just make everything you look at. And matchplay, that's so deflating. It's so awful. Yeah.

All right, Grand Slam of Golf, it's going away. Sad day for the game? You know, it had its time. Yeah. And I enjoyed it as a youth, you know, the random times it would come on, the random matchups. But it hasn't had momentum in a long time, so I guess I'm not really heartbroken. Yeah, no, the money didn't get anybody's attention, and we have too much golf as it is, and you're right. At its time, it was kind of a fun celebration of the major winners.

But when you started lumping Jim Furrick or Patrick Harrington, and who hadn't won majors in five or six years, as the alternate, it was sort of embarrassing. Yeah. All right, House, now this is a tricky topic, you know, as this show is sponsored by Calloway, who is making equipment that makes you, allows you to hit it a lot longer. We're off to a very fast start on the driving distance issue on the tour, which you may or may not know has been a little bit of a thing with me. I'm kind of a bifurcation guy.

I think the pros should have a few restrictions on their equipment, and I think the average guy should be able to play whatever they want, up to a point, obviously. And things are a little bit up this year. And, you know, the tour, the RNA, the USGA, they've kind of, you know, said, you know, things have flatlined and everything's just hunky dory. And all of a sudden now we've got some numbers showing that they're going to be sweating a little. They're going to have to come up with some new spin jobs at the end of the year. What do you think? Are you a – where do you stand on the distance issue?

It only matters to me as it correlates to scoring. So if we start seeing some of the classic courses like Riviera or, you know, even the Blue Monsters start giving up scores in the 15 to 25 range because guys are hitting at 340 and taking, you know, even the most challenging par fives that are like, you know, in the 495 to 515 range and being able to hit driver 9 iron or driver wedge, that's where I think, you know, I start to have a problem with it, but we didn't really see that so far in the season. So I don't mind this concept.

I think some of that is properly attributable to the overall physical well-being of the players. If you look at the winners so far this season, they all have a certain body type, right? I mean, blah blast the ball. But he hasn't lifted away in like 20 years. Come on. He's got... No, no, I'm talking about, you know, a demonstrated ability

to crush the ball. And Day has been a long hitter for most of his time on tour. So I don't really have any issue with the distance. Yeah, the thing that's interesting now with these numbers, and why I've always just laughed at the various bodies for saying, oh, it's leveled out, it's not going to change, is that you are seeing on the tour replacing players who swing a certain way out. Like we watched Justin Leonard contended at Riviera this year,

and the difference in the sound and the swing speed visually in person between him and Adam Scott, for instance, it's stunning. It's like watching an amateur to a pro, and Justin Leonard's, you know, former major winner, great player, but you are now replacing people like him. Yeah, that's a tough one, though. How old is Justin Leonard now? I want to say, 45. I think he's the same. Yeah, I think he's 45. Yeah, so comparing him to Adam Scott.

And Adam Scott is 6-3 and a nice $195, right? So my point is, though, the people like him are now playing the tour less, and they're being replaced by a Justin Thomas, who swings so hard, has learned the game with modern equipment, has learned, and this is my thing, they don't know what the big miss is, House. You and I are old enough to have hit a golf club where the miss made you feel so miserable about yourself, the old snap hook, the little tiny heads, a sky ball. They don't know that shot, which is fine.

I'm happy for them. Nobody should have to go through some of the humiliation that some of us went through with Persimmon. But they don't know that shot, so they swing a certain way. And in the numbers, you know, when you start weeding out the people who are from, even Tiger and Phil are from an era where they played Persimmon and then small metalheads, they know the big miss. They've experienced it.

They still do from time to time. And these guys, I don't think they really. know that shot. So the numbers are going to keep going up. And that's, they're going to have to deal with it. But speaking of Tiger, by the way, take your pick. What was your favorite Tiger anecdote from last week? That he's texting Jason Day as his mental coach or that he got the mortgage paid off with the wife and that she personally went to the courthouse to sign the document, I guess just for fun, to let it be known for the record that she was paying attention. And, she's been paid off. What's your favorite? I like very much the role the Tiger's taken on

as kind of a senior member of the global tour, but the thing that I obviously like more than anything else is the Elon thing. And I'm still a dude who thinks maybe I'm nuts. I think they're going to get back together. I think at some point there's going to be a reconciliation. Oh, no. Okay. I don't even know where to go with that. Let's Let's go to the elder statesman idea. Now, you're a big NBA guy, and I think you and Bill may have discussed this, or Bill may have discussed it with Chuck Gloucesterman. I can't remember. The Kobe, like right now, Kobe is suddenly this elder statesman. He's the Abe Lincoln of the NBA. Everybody loves him. And I, you know, no, Kobe was a narcissist. That's why he was great. He played a

certain way. Tiger's the same way. This stuff that he's an elder statesman, he wants to, bonding sessions with the Ryder Cup team. And he's texting with Jason trying to help him. Give me a break. Come on. That's not his nature. He did help Jason, though. I don't, well, I don't disagree with that.

And the Kobe thing couldn't be more phony. And I understand exactly. It's a good analogy because, you know, two enormous narcissists has tough fun a little over the last 24 months. Has he been. Well, that's what scares me. Had enough doses of humility. Hasn't he eaten enough humble pies? over the last half decade to be in a position where we could genuinely

any of these youths? Well, I can accept it, but it worries me that he'll never get his edge back. And that's what I guess I'm accepting now that he's going to be like Kobe, except that golfers can have late in life periods where they can kind of get it back together. In this hole, I'm going to be a car driver at the Ryder Cup. I'm going to be encouraging Jason. It just seems to me that he's conceding. that he's never going to get that edge back.

Because that was part of what made him great. Was he just blow by people? And he'd have that kind of Hogan cranky thing going. And I think it's kind of sad. I know people find it touching that he's being an elder statesman. But I think it's kind of sad. I think himself back to a position where he's physically ready. I think all that, and I'm going to use, I'll go ahead and Chris,

I think all that shit goes out the window. I mean, I am a person who will never tiger Woods out of all. anything because he taught us with 15 years of dominance that he is always up for it. You know, but I think, you know, I love the trajectory. Now, I'm just, you know, a dude sitting at home whatever's on the interwebs about his path to his rehabilitation path. But it seems like he's showing some patience this time.

Perhaps for the first time, if through any of the injuries, that he's encountered in patients, and that's another attribute that we hadn't seen a lot of out of him. So maybe this is the time. Yeah, it's called the patience is induced by Dr. Glea not being able to make house visits anymore. And so on that, on that positive, no, you hey, you just had some. Jacketford goes right there. You had an injection of some kind, right? You had the platelet spinning nonsense, right?

I did. That's legal, by the way. I know. For any American, you can get that. It was very helpful, by the way. I'm going to be able to play golf tomorrow because of that. So you're going to test that out tomorrow. Okay, good.

Now, anything else we didn't. Anything else you want to get off your chest before we wrap this up? No, I think this is a great first entry of the Sheckhouse. And I invite everybody to come along. Hot dogs and beers on us. Yeah, well, I agree, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun. We need to have some good Frank talk about golf. And I think you and I, as we kind of get to do this,

with everybody, and we hear a little of the feedback. We'll get more and more going, but and we want to thank our friends. Yeah, big up to Calaway for the opportunity. Yeah, they've sponsored us and we appreciate them coming up with this show and helping us. So one last thing about our friends of Calloway are sponsored. Did you know they've, now they've teamed up with Vice Sports, another outstanding entity for an epic video profile of Jamie Siddlowski, two-time World Long Drive Champion from Canada who hits it over 400 yards. I know Jamie. I'm familiar with his work. Yeah.

So they've got his stories from his minor league hockey days, his travels around the globe. It's at CallawayGolf.com's backslash vice sports. Check it out. And by the way, house, Callaway.com has tons of great content. You know, they're doing stuff as a company that's not just telling you how great they are, but trying to kind of get the dialogue going to golf. Callaway Live, awesome show.

They've had Mickelson, Jimmy Dunn. This week, they got Lydia Coe and Morgan Pressel, two of the LPGA's most most engaging personalities in my view. So check it all out. Excellent. And we thank them for all their support of this show, and we look forward to talking to you next week as we build up to the Masters. I'm Jeff Shackleford.

He's Joe House, and this is Shackhouse, and we'll talk to you next week.