Fairway Rollin' - Ep. 2: 'ShackHouse' on WGC-Dell Match Play, Mickelson's Masters Odds, and More

Episode Date: March 30, 2016

Geoff and House recap the WGC-Dell Match Play at Austin Country Club, reflect on PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem's career, look forward to PGA Tour future possibilities, discuss Phil Mickelson's Masters odds, and wrap up with a speed round. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shackhouse is presented by Calloway Golf, the number one iron and golf, with a face built to push the industry further and iron performance farther. With industry leading 360 face cup technology, Calloway is the number one iron and golf. And presenting sponsor of Shack House. Welcome to Shack House, where this week we'll recap the WGC matchplay, chat about golf's upcoming change and commissionership. Take a look at the latest master's odds. Plus, take a look at the 1986 Masters. It's the 30th anniversary coming up. and we've got some great questions from Twitter that you all submitted.

House, are you there? How you doing? I'm here, and I am excellent. What a weekend of golf last weekend. I was so prepared to be cynical and underwhelmed by the match play event at the Austin Country Club, and it exceeded every possible expectation. You were there, Jeff Shackleford. What did you think? It was awesome. Yeah, it really was nice. You know, the match play has taken such a beating over the years. It was really bad in Tucson. Kind of a remote course, solace sort of setting resort thing with not a lot of fans and all that stuff. And they, I mean, they started this event at La Costa, the worst course on the planet for match play. So, you know, the bar was pretty low. They went to Harding last year and they had a little bit more of the vibe of Harding Park. But I, I,

I kind of sense that the course would be good, but it ended up being just such a star of the week. And, you know, it also just exposed for me how, again, and I'm not one to get into the whole youth movement thing, but the young players don't complain about matchplay. They, you know, like there was a cool moment where Spieth and Ricky had been eliminated on Saturday, and they were out on the lake where all the boats were kind of watching the golf. They hung around. You know, just another example of where the youths were. young kids are kind of get it a little bit more.

They're not looking to get out of town immediately. You know, just everything kind of came together. And then the golf was just phenomenal. The Final Four was a really solid, interesting group. There were no Americans, but you can't beat that kind of quality competition. And, again, no complaining about match play, which is just wonderful to me. We're not used to that. As a dude who consumed it by, you know, sitting at home and watching on TV, and I mostly

watched Saturday and Sunday. I didn't get a chance to catch much of the earlier rounds. The whole thing, the spectacle of it, Austin is, you know, we were reminded that Austin's one of the great American cities. The way the setting looked, the course itself looked spectacular for, you know, a place that had just undergone a renovation and been improved for the purposes of getting themselves up to pro quality for this event. But the setting was cool. The bridge was awesome. The water was awesome. The boats in the water were awesome. The crowds were awesome. Yeah, and you know how's the thing, I guess where I get a little touchy being kind of into course design is that people have said for years that the venue doesn't matter. It's about the players and the head to head and hearing all the talk. And that's great. But the thing that's cool about match play that people finally got to really see, I think, with Austin Country Club, is that the course is this third player.

this third protagonist in the whole drama. And that's what's really fun. So you have two guys going head-to-head. They're weighing what the other one's doing, but then they're also having to deal with the course. And I just think that's if you love the game and you get a chance to kind of hear some of the stuff, and NBC did a great job as they always do with the sound.

You did get to hear some of that tension. But that said, out watching some matches, it's more different. There's more stuff going on that you pick up that you don't get on TV, but you can't get everything on television. Right. I thought the broadcast by NBC, another quick on my knees moment, but the NBC did a spectacular job, especially Sunday. There was a lot of Twitter criticism of Jason Day and the pace of play. I didn't really have any issue with the pace of play. I felt like the pace was kind of perfect for a Sunday afternoon, you know, match play kind of.

event and that the drama of, you know, Jason Day having just reassended into the number one spot in the world and how's he going to fare against Rory. The Rory match, the only thing that's unfortunate is that Rory and Day were in the same side of the bracket because that match was excellent from the beginning all the way through to 18. So if there's any sort of quibble, it's just that, you know, those two guys should have been opposite each other, but you can't have everything. I understand, Speath was on the other side of Rory, and I guess that was the hoped-for

outcome. Yeah, but to get them to the semis is pretty good, and it was probably the match of the tournament. Though I will say I watched on Saturday, or excuse me, on Friday, Bill Haas and Adam Scott had this phenomenal match, went to the last hole, and it was, and when I watched it and kind of took it all in afterwards, and Scott was not very happy with himself for kind of how things went. And by the way, speaking of slow, you think Jason Day's slow, Haas was just, I don't know what was going on.

He just set up shop out there. And there was a hilarious irony. His uncle, Dillard Pruitt, was timing him, which was one of the more bizarre things I've ever seen. Dillard's on the PGA Tour rule staff, and he was the one putting Bill on the clock in the match. And I don't even remember Bill being that slow. But anyway, he was taking his sweet time in this match.

But House, what was cool watching this, you realize, one, how well both guys are playing going into the Masters, how into this they were, and what great preparation this was for the Masters. That was sort of my takeaway that, yeah, Scott lost the match. But he was going to leave that feeling like, wow, I'd just been through a really good, solid, clean, intense match. Neither one of us played that great. But that just made him that much sharper going into Augusta. And so I think that, to me, was really cool to see because that'll kind of end that hole.

whatever potential dialogue there might have been about match play being so close to the masters as a dangerous thing or like i don't know put give people bad habits or something well it did seem like the venue in particular um acquitted itself kind of perfectly in that respect the um shots into the greens it appeared that with the where they put the holes there was about a you know two and a half yard landing area for for many of those shorter par four and the green speed looked to me like master's speed. I mean, the balls were roll, roll, rolling. Yeah, they were really quick. And the guys were a little touchy. That was the only thing they kind of didn't really like about the course. They felt like the greens were tough.

They were firm fast. But mostly they were commenting on the contrary, which I thought was kind of funny because I think they'd been toned down a little bit prior to the event when they regressed them a year ago. And by the way, they were a year old. I had no idea that the course had just been literally open for just a few months from a regrassing. It was an unbelievable shape. So they really had nothing to gripe about on that front.

So it was a great week. I think it kind of saved the match play event, which has always been in jeopardy. And that's, to me, a positive thing because golf needs some different formats. There's just too much stroke play week to week. Yeah, it really did remind of how. interesting match play can be, especially at that venue with so many risk reward holes. And that intensity that we saw from the very best players in the world there leading into the Masters event here, you know, with the Masters being two weeks out, it seems like it could

be a semi-permanent fixture. I know the contract is only for another three years with ACC, but it looks to me like, you know, 10-year arrangement or something. It looked great. That's an eternity, by the way, in golf three-years house. That's a phenomenal length of time. A lot will happen. So, yeah, well, really cool week. Now, House, if you were naming people, you'd be most surprised to know we're passionate golfers. Where would your beloved Adam Levine rank? You don't have to answer that. I don't mind. I don't mind. I don't mind. answering it, I would not put him as a golfer, although how about this for Adam Levine?

I wouldn't identify him as a funny dude either, and he was awesome on Saturday Night Live. Did you see that episode? I did not. So that's even more reason, House, to tune into Calloway Live this week because the Maroon Frived Frontman, and of course he's awesome on the voice where I have seen him. He's on this week's episode with the great Harry Arnett, and he's telling all sorts of golf stories. He's a golf fanatic.

works with Hank Haney. He's got, he likes the bedhouse. He's got betting stories. So what more could you want, right? I think Adam and Libina and I might be capable of being buddies. Yeah, you may be going iTunes and downloading some Maroon 5. So check out right after this. Check him out on Callaway Live. There's a cameo from Hank Haney, CallawayGolf.com slash Callaway Live, where you can also watch a couple great recent episodes last week with Lydia Coe, Morgan Pressel, and then Phil Nicholson was on a few weeks before that, did it unbelievable SNL-type bit. The man has an acting career in his future. A man who does not have an acting career in his future house is Tim Fincham. And he confirmed that he is retiring this week. I'm going to miss him. He is going

to hang on for a year, but he called in, of course, his classic corporate speak. This is a, this one-year extension, a placeholder contract. He's a lawyer. And, you know, he's allowed to speak that way. But unfortunately, he takes that publicly house. And so he's going to be replaced by a guy named Jay Monaghan, most likely. And as a blogger, I'm going to miss the commissioner because that wonderful, that jargon, that corporate speak, just gives me so much material. I am not going to miss him as a commissioner. I understand he's done a lot of wonderful things, made a lot of wonderful cash for players. And he's held certain things together on the tour. The match play, for instance, his base And he deserves so much credit for telling the players to stop whining and to embrace match play once a year.

So that said, there's some interesting things going on here behind the scenes for the fan and for the viewer. I'm curious, though, your view is just kind of a sports guy looking and knowing about other commissioners. What you think of Tim Fincham? So I, as a passionate golf fan, but not really somebody. that lives the ups and downs, the trials, tribulations, and travails of the tour itself. Don't have a strong opinion of Finchham.

He always struck me as a dude without a sense of humor, which, to your point, as a blogger, had to have been a rich source of material. But during his tenure, I have generally liked the things that I've seen

happen with the tour and on tour. I'm glad that the match play has survived. It looks like it's found the, you know, a semi-permanent home. It's impressive to me that the Olympics are going to have golf on the menu this year, and I have to give him some credit for that as well. I've liked the venues that the non-USGA, that the PGA events have been played at, the PGA championship, I've liked those venues. So to the extent that Finchham gets credit for those kinds of things,

I haven't had any problem with his stewardship of the game. Okay, well, first of all, yeah, the Olympic thing is a fun one because it was really Ty Vota the tour. It was kind of the one who's spearheaded that, and he works under Fincham, so obviously the big guy gets credit, and I understand that. But Fincham, of course, was opposed to drug testing for years, which made it very difficult for golf to be in the Olympics, and he finally budged on that. My biggest issue with him, and this is, I feel like I've been pretty consistent on this

from the beginning. He's really, he's not a, I don't sense he's a sports fan. Like he, his moment where he just gets a big Woody is when the players take off their hat and shake hands on the 18th green, to him that imagery is like, that's golf. It's a gentleman's game. And we project this image of civility, and that's what makes us great. Not something like we saw last weekend where you got to see this really intense competition,

these great athletes. He likes that, but he likes this sort of optical illusion. stuff a little bit more. And so that's kind of where I've just struggled with him all along. He was horrible with golf course venues, by the way, early on, very involved with some just dreadful projects. And to his credit, in later years, he's worked really hard on steering his staff to find good venues like an Austin country club and understand why those are important for the game. But I'm curious. So let me tell you about his replacement, this Jay Monaghan dude. He used to work for Fenway Sports. And so he's a, Jay is a really nice man. I mean,

really, really impressive when you meet him and funny and interesting, but he's a sports nut. And he's from that kind of, you know, Fenway, Boston, those guys really are pretty creative with the business side of sports. And I feel like he has the potential, and I'll be curious if you would agree with this, because I don't follow the NBA closely enough to say. but I feel like he'll be golfs, Adam Silver, or for baseball fans, are Rob Manfred, that person who kind of brings the stuff from the old, you know, slightly goofy former commissioner and brings kind of a more sane approach to certain things, but then also a little bit of a progressiveness. Am I correct that Silver, that is sort of how he's viewed, or is he kind of stalled, you know, after a great start?

Is that a decent analogy? Yeah, I don't think anybody thinks that Silver has stalled. He was confronted with a handful of kind of existential issues in the first six months of his stewardship of the NBA. I mean, the Donald Sterling thing is as bad of a situation you can confront as a brand new commissioner for any league with any kind of business. issue like that. And he handled it by everybody, you know, there's unanimity that he handled that brilliantly. I hope that Monaghan doesn't confront anything like that early in his tenure.

The one place where I think that there is an analogy to be drawn is the globalization of the sports. I know that Silver is committed to getting the NBA and the NBA to its credit. You know, Adam was behind the scenes. for many years behind Stern, supporting Stern, but the NBA has been really dedicated to getting over to Asia, to creating a market for the NBA in China, to getting over to Europe,

and really open the door for European players to come over, you know, back in the 90s. You know, Dirk Nowinski came over and was drafted into the NBA in the 90s. I think that golf has an opportunity to capitalize on the same kind of globalization. I personally really liked Raffa Cabrera Bello playing on a Sunday evening in front of a U.S. audience on a course in Texas. That's good for the game. It's good for the U.S. audience to see the quality of player.

I think the WGC events have the right idea. they just have been kind of awkward in terms of placement on the schedule and game plan. But to the extent that that globalization can be furthered by Jay, I think, and obviously Fenway gets that, right? Fenway has an investment in one of the most prominent soccer teams in the world, right? It's interesting you bring that up because that will be his next task as a commissioner. and Fincham keeps dropping that he has two more projects to finish before he leaves, and we don't really know what those are. I assume one of those is resigning FedEx.

I think that's almost guaranteed to be one of them. The other one people keep saying is this world tour, world tour. And I don't quite understand that because we're sort of at a weird spot in golf where we have the European tour that's all over the world. Now you have the World Golf Championships like we just had in Austin, and they're never played outside of the United States. So the idea that they're called World is sort of laughable. But it does bring these people from around the world.

You get this great international field. They put the international flags up, and people get to see somebody they don't know. And I think that's always kind of scary at first, and they realize, wow, it was really cool to see Rafa and, you know, a few other players. But that's going to be his challenge is, does the PGA tour want to go international?

Because the schedule is so long. And Jay Monaghan knows sports, and I know he knows that the golf season is too long. and that they really need to stop and get out of the way when football comes along. And I don't know if Tim Fincham agrees with that, again, because I don't know if he's quite the sports fan that Jay is. And so I think that my sense is that's where he's going to have a really hard time because they're going to have international companies, HSBC,

and all these great companies want to spend a lot of money. But they also just are wearing these guys out. And, you know, tennis ran into this a long time ago. And it's going to be the challenge for him to kind of, be we are the world, but not completely burn out all the players. Yeah, right. And we have, you and I have talked about it. Now we have been talking about it.

Yes, exactly. About Speath. And, you know, it was excellent for him to go to Australia in November and defend his victory in the Australian Open. And it was terrific for him to be in Hawaii. and then really good for exporting the game to Asia, for him to go over to Malaysia. But, you know, I feel like since the win in Hawaii, we haven't seen performance-wise out of him. And this was the observation we made last week, the same kind of relentless technical skill that he showed through the latter half of last year, really starting in April, not even latter half, from April all the way through the people. PGA. And to your point, that dude is he 22 yet? Yep. He turns 23 here soon. Yeah.

So that's a 22-year-old who's showing the wear and tear of a global schedule. And so I think you're absolutely right. Finding that balance, it does seem like there should be an off-season that kind of runs from like middle of November, early November, through the new year, and then things get started up again in Hawaii. But, you know, that's the time in which a lot of these world events take place, right? I mean, that's when Dubai kind of falls in that time frame. And some of, there's a China event somewhere in there also, right? Yep. Yep, the WGC. And they would still play those, but it's just more of, I think, getting that tour championship earlier and out of the way of football, because it's just, it's just not working. The ratings are just,

they're dismal and there's just people are done they want to and the other thing two houses you know it's fine if guys go and play around the world and we get to watch golf from australia late at night on the golf channel whatever for the hardcore fan but for the casual fan it needs to go away the sport doesn't ever go away and so it's just like oh gosh what event is it now what's going on and even if it's just a month and you give people that sort of refreshment period and kind of miss it I think it'll be huge. And for the tour to do that would be phenomenal. So we'll see what he's got a lot to juggle there.

And I think he can at least point to Spieth if this kind of continues with Speeth. And we'll get to him and talking about the master's odds in a moment because I do want to talk about what I saw with Speeth in person just to see if that tantalizes you to want to place a wager on him. Or to maybe put him on your fantasy team come Masters time. there's always that possibility because fantasy golf contests begin House when tournaments tee off. So get draftkings.com and choose your golfers now.

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You can get sneaky good baseball tickets. You can go see the Washington Nationals here on kind of a random Thursday and get sneaky great tickets by way of Seat Geek that way. Nice. Yeah, that's why I downloaded it for the Dodger season while I still have hope, which will probably end in about three weeks. But I also used it the other day to look at tickets for the Masters. And right now, they're not cheap. But you can't get a practice round ticket for something. And those are good days to go.

The players actually show up for these practice rounds, unlike other tour events. Sure, sure. Sunday badge. Just tease me. What's Thursday look like right now? Ooh, Thursday was in the $8 to $900 range. Oh, it's about $12,000. Yeah, yeah, about $1,200 for the final round, about $750, according to Seekek for Monday and Tuesday.

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Let me hear it. House, that's the promo code for Seat Geek, too. And they'll send you $20 after you've purchased your first ticket. So go for it. Download the free Seekek app and enter Promo Code House today. I almost got that out completely. All right. So the Masters.

The odds, the ones, if you're going to go and use your app and get a last minute ticket, who you bullish on now, House? Who do you like? I still like the two South Africans. I thought Ooste is, and now the problem is I liked him a lot better. I thought we talked about him. Yeah. You mentioned him in the 30s last week, right?

Yeah, yeah. Like 30 to 1, and I see him now down at 25 to 1. Yep, 25. Not very enticing. And I still like he travels. By the way, hey, he travels with an air mattress for his back, which is a little frightening. But, yeah, no, Schwartzel does look a little better. He just needs his back to work for four rounds.

He's inching back up. Schwartzel's pushing a few places here I'm looking at in the 40 to one range, which is a little better. It's not the 65 you were hoping for. Yeah, I saw 65 a few weeks ago. That was, I missed that one. Yeah. I'll tell you what, I watched a little of Justin Roe. Rose House, and I think last week I mentioned that I was really bullish on him at 25 to 1.

Not so bullish. The ball striking looks really good, but he just flat out, came out and said his short game stinks right now. And that's just not a very comforting thing when one of the best players in the world tells he's just not getting up and down. He did finish second last year, but that's not encouraging. And he always plays well at the Masters. He's always good, you know, for an early first round, good performance.

but right, I'm not going to be putting any money on a dude who's telling the world that his short game isn't very good. What did you go ahead? No, no, no, I want to hear what you're going to say. What did you see in Jordan Speath? Well, I thought he looked great. His body language was really good. His swing was tight. You know, just looked together.

His routine looked good. He looked comfortable. He was playing Dubois-on, and it was just embarrassing. It was like watching, you thought, oh, my Lord, if these two meet. in the in the in the in the writer cup this there's just not even a match here uh there were just two totally different players attitude wise dubuisson was banging his sand wedge on the cart bath after after one hole his strategy on the holes was awful and speed was playing this kind of semi-aggressive game and it was it was beautiful to watch so then i i come home Friday night

I turn on the golf Saturday and he looks awful he's just off again And I think the concern is that he's just not holding those bad days together like he did last year. And that's a problem because he was unbelievable last year on the bad days. Yeah, that was that that was exactly the thing. He survived so many rounds where he would come in and say, I didn't have it today, but I still scratched out, you know, one over, even par. And this year, it's five over. It's six over is what we're seeing.

Now, I heard you on the Bill Simmons podcast recorded on Monday. Bill mentioned Phil at Love and Phil at 15 to 1. You just shot him down fast. Why was that? It's a ridiculous number. I mean, I think, you know, there's no value whatsoever in taking. These are all, you know, what amount to future bets. And there's no value whatsoever in taking any futures bet that's less than 20.

20 to 1. Yeah. Because the basic probability and the, you know, the strength of field make it a bad proposition to mess with anything less than, and even 20 to 1 is not very good odds, where you're trying to pick one guy to win the event. Now, I am kind of interested in seeing what Phil does this week in Houston. Yeah. Because to Houston's credit, right, they have attempted to represent.

some playing conditions, and we covered this a bit last week. But what a field this week in Houston. We have Jordan. We have Ricky. We have DJ. We have Patrick. We have Henrik. Phil is there. Jimmy Walker. My man, Schwartzel. Brendan Steele, J.B. Holmes. That is a good field. Yeah, it is. And it's a credit to them for kind of doing this setup the way they do it. and I think this is for a lot of the guys who just don't like to get to Augusta early and think too much. Here's the thing to watch with Phil at 20 to 1 right now. His swing house looked absolutely as good as I've ever seen it look at the match play. He's tightened it up, and it's just all, it's just tighter.

It's just more together. It's not as long. He has this one little problem, though. And I saw it at Tori Pines. I watched him almost four putt, one green, back-to-back three putts, and he did it again at Austin. He hits these four and five footers like a 20-footer, and he'll hit him five, six feet by. He just tries to power it through everything. And you can't do that at Augusta.

I don't think. It's too stressful, dealing with the comebackers, and it's just weird. I don't get it. A lot of the guys like to power their putts kind of through lines now, but he's a touch guy. I don't get it. So I'd watch for that this week. Yeah. So it is weird, and it's not, if there's anybody, though, that you would think would be able to kind of self-correct at Augusta, it's Phil.

So I'm not that put off by this phenomenon. I've watched the same thing as you. His ball striking looks awesome. And I love what he's been doing, tinkering between two drivers and his. three wood. He has been crushing three wood off the tea this year. So the issue will not be tea to green. All of his trouble begins on the green. And I've seen the same thing as you, these four-footers that become six-footers when he misses. But I don't think that's going to be as big an issue at Augusta because that's not, you know, that's not how he, you know, that's not how he

navigates around there. He does not seem to have the same kind of whatever it is, whether it's got to be mental, right? He doesn't seem to have that same kind of mental block at Augusta. No, no, you're right. He'll kind of dial it in there and maybe he knows where he's staying and he kind of has that veteran presence now like Nicholas had later in his years or a lot of the veterans where they kind of know how to just hang around. Last year was obviously it got out of hand with the amount of birdies that were made, but he still hung around, and he knows how to do that there. And I think that isn't really the way he plays week to week, knowing that he can just be fill and kind of chip away at the course and then just be there for a run on Sunday. And you're right. That's a different fill than

you get at Houston, for instance, this week, where he has one. But there is something about the local knowledge aspect to Augusta, whatever it is, the food, just kind of the routine of it, that does make me very bullish on him contending. I just, I don't feel great about Speeds. So I've kind of whittled it down. Obviously, Day, Scott, and Bubba are in a different league. Rory's almost there, I think. And then there's like a second tier that fills in that any of those guys can win. Let me throw these at you. Speeth, Mickelson, Louis, Charles, Rick. DJ, Dustin Johnson, and Schwartzel. I feel like the winner is going to come from one of those,

let's see, what is that? That's 10 players. Yeah, I honestly think if I, you know, at gunpoint, my pick for Masters winner, and maybe I'll change my mind over the course of this week, but my pick for Master's winner is Rory. I think he's in an incredible spot right now. I thought he was great all week in the match play.

Him losing today, that was, you know, all credit today for, you know, grabbing that match. I thought Ricky, Rory looked tremendous. Rory also has kind of this mental thing going on putting-wise, but he made a lot of putts over the course of from Wednesday to Sunday. And he's my horse right now. I like to reserve the right to change my mind. But Rory's my guy for the 2016 Masters. Okay. Well, he's seven to one. He's yours right now. He did express. I don't dare bet that. That's a ridiculous number. But I like him. That's for the children listening at home. I appreciate that. That's nice. He did express a lot of confidence in the new stroke. And because it, it,

looked that great to me. We hit on that last week, and I didn't think it looked that great, but it looked better at Austin. And then his comments suggested he, A, feels great about the new stroke, the left-hand low deal. And then B, I asked him about the golf course in one of his press conferences, and I thought he would have liked it more. And he just, he gave the nicest answer he could give, but it was all the coded language that he actually really didn't like the place. He's kind of got a love-hate thing with Pete Dye, and he mentioned that. So to reach the semifinals there. I just think that was a very, in a way, kind of his breakthrough week for the year, really.

And if the punting keeps... Well, that's what I've been waiting for, and that's why I picked him. I felt like he's been hitting the ball pretty damn well. He's just had the one round. And even at Riviera, it was like half a round. You know, he's been hovering right there on Sundays and then falling apart for whatever reason. He's a guy that can put it all together. so quickly, and he's such a confidence guy, if he starts feeling good about himself and blasts the

ball all over the place in Augusta in terms of hitting 350-yard drives, he's going to be tough, I think. Yeah, and it really is a Bombers golf course. I just don't see how, and that's where Stenson worries me that, you know, even if he has a great week in Houston, I'm just worried that does he have the confidence in the driver? because we know he hits the three wood better than most people on the tour hit their driver. So maybe that's enough. But at Bay Hill, there were a couple times where he needed that little extra bit of gas

and he didn't quite have it. And I think that's going to be an interesting one to watch because he's kind of due to have a big week there. Are you talking about Phil? Henrik. Henrik Stenson. Oh, Henry. I just threw out of him. I'm sorry.

So that's kind of the one guy I think that's a fun one to watch. Yeah. You know, everybody's all excited about Danny Willett. But we'll see. I don't know. The wife having a baby and the whole thing. He is going to play. And he's 65 to 1.

But I just, I feel like it's setting up for one of those great finishes, where are these names we kind of expect. And then there will be one or two we didn't expect to be in contention. But the golf course has changed since 1986 where he really is just not, there's not a place for an old man unless you consider Phil old to make a run. But Phil's such a so much a younger. 45 than Jack Nicholas at 46 and 86 and by the way house that was my subtle way to segue to a topic that was I like to segue I also agree with the point I mean when you think about the

combination of the equipment and and the physical specimen that Phil is now it's it's I'm sure that will get a few chuckles he's not exactly you know in kind of tiger 2000 shape he's not show enough muscles, but his flexibility has not diminished one bit. It still looks like the dude can take, you know, the golf club and touch his left hip on his takeaway at the top and then bring it right back to square and pound it 330 right down the middle. So that is an interesting observation about, you know, the difference between being in your mid-40s now versus 86.

But let's talk about 1986. It's the 30th year anniversary. Yeah, yeah. On Twitter, Pete Schumacher recommended we give this a little bit of a hit because there's going to be a lot with the 30th anniversary coming up, some documentaries and a lot of talk. Jack Nichols will be called on. And there's going to be a Where Were You Story? Did you watch the 86 Masters House? I did. So I was 16 years old for that Masters. And it was a Sunday afternoon.

I didn't watch any of the Saturday round. But that Sunday afternoon, for whatever reason, I can remember the day. It was a nice day. And I'm sitting on my couch, and I have two brothers and a sister. My whole family, for some reason, was out that day. So I was home alone on my couch, and I kept looking outside, and it was nice. But I got sucked in by Jack. And I could not get up off the couch.

I was captivated by Jack, and that really sowed the seeds. For me, that was the golf bug for me. That summer, I bought my first set of golf clubs with money I made from lifeguarding and played this little track here in Washington, D.C., with a couple of my other lifeguard buddies, the Rock Creek Golf Course, located right in the city in Rock Creek Park. And that was really the start of it, that Sunday afternoon watching Jack at age 46. Now, I know you have a story. Yeah, well, people, some people.

might need to leave the room if they get upset by kind of horror stories. But it all worked out okay. Before I tell mine, though, how, so you were, you were not a golfer at that time. You were just a fan. You were just watching the telecast. I grew up playing basketball and a little bit of baseball. Okay. So that and that broadcast, now, so you didn't, you didn't record it or anything. Like, you saw it live and then you've maybe seen some highlight shows and all that since, right? That's exactly right. Okay, okay. Well, I was at the 1986 Masters, and my dad was working for a golf company, and he brought me along graciously. I was 15 years old, and we had tickets all week. So, first of all, I walk out, and the place is different now. The grass is not cut as tight as it used to be, which I know shocks people. So the first thing I saw was, like, everything looked like a green. Everything was cut so tight. Now they let the grass go a little longer, and they mow it towards the tea, and it's... that's another story for another time so my first impression of course of augusta was just like

everybody else's just blown away by this emerald unbelievably manicured place we do the par three contest then we have saturday nick price breaks the course record and we sat on the 13th house on saturday we got there early parked in the grandstand now i had at the time a sony watchman television. And this is something that they would arrest you now for trying to bring on to the property. Right. And yeah, no chance. You can't even bring a phone on there. So I had my little watchman, and we're watching Nick Price lip out on 18 for 63. And that was a great day. A little problem. So my dad decided that it was very important for me to be back at school on Sunday. So, excuse me, on Monday. So Sunday we watch players warm up.

We watched some morning golf. I see Jack Nicholas in the yellow shirt and plaid pants. And I remember at the time already at 15, I had noted that was a good outfit for the green jacket. It's very important that players wear something that looks good with a green jacket on Sunday. So we watch up to a point where we watch Greg Norman play into the seventh hole. And because I was perhaps going to a private school, I don't know, dad decided, and he's listening to this, and he knows we've been through this. It's a family moment that we've discussed and worked through.

We left. And so we are driving to Atlanta as a final round. The back nine, when the master starts, as Dan Jenkins has put it, gets going. Now, at the time, there's no serious radio. There's really no sports radio. And between Atlanta and Augusta, there's really no radio. You literally, it was like this dark period where you don't have anything. So to just make it a little bit of a cinematic story,

we're driving and I'm constantly checking the television, trying to get the telecasts with my little watchman and a little antenna straight up. It's black and white. And as we're getting near Augusta, I start to get a picture. And I'm kind of shaking it and moving it, trying to get the antenna right. And I look at my dad's driving and I said, oh, they're in Butler Cabin. Oh, great. they're well jack nicholas is there and my dad i remember said something like oh well then maybe they just had him in to you know congratulate the winner and i went uh no they're putting the green jacket on him and i'm sitting in the car and i and we just we were just wait no when we left that man was not he was not going to win the masters it was going to be sevi or gregg norman it wasn't going to be

Jack Nicholas. And so he never really lived that one down, obviously. But the great news is when I got home, my mom had recorded the final round, and I still have the videotape today. And I have watched that final round

so many times, and I'm so grateful that she did that. That had to be on a beta max. That couldn't even been to VHS back then. No, it was VHS. It was VHS. It was VHS. All right. People don't realize, unfortunately, and we'll see all this anniversary stuff. That broadcast,

is arguably the greatest broadcast in all of sports history. Everything went perfectly that day for CBS. Every announcer call was dreaming, and you'll see the calls in these highlight packages, but it's not the same. I so desperately want them to run the full broadcast, because there are just moments in it where, and I don't even know if, like I interviewed Tom Weiskopf recently, and he didn't even really remember the moment when Jack is on 16,

and he's about to hit the shot, and he backs off. And Jim Nance, who's working his first masters on 16, says, so, you know, Tom, what do you, what do you do in this moment if you're Jack Nicholas? And Weiskoff has this great answer of, well, if I'd known, I would have won one of these. And they all kind of chuckle. And then, but then Weiskoff, in this amazing moment, recovers and says, you know, no, in all seriousness, you know, he's got to, whatever, pick his target.

goes through all this stuff, and he goes, and then Jack, this is your destiny. And then Nicholas pulls the trigger, immediately hits the shot, looks at Jackie, because he's blind as a bat, which he denies, but he couldn't see the ball. And he knew it, though. He knew he'd hit a perfect shot, hits it almost makes hole in one. The place goes nuts. And there were moments like that through the entire broadcasts where everything they did was just right. And so for people who watched that and who've had the chance to, and I know a lot of people who had a tape of that day, And I know a lot of people who wanted copies of the – I've since put it on DVD because it was just – it was just – it was like a – it was cinematic. It really was cinematic.

Well, you know some people at the Golf Channel. Maybe you could put in a word for – This is an Augusta National issue. They are the ones who have to free up the tape. Maybe that's what – that'll be my question for Chairman Payne in the press conference this year. I'm sure he'll love it. So House, it's time for the speed round. We've gotten a whole bunch of cool stuff from Twitter,

and the speed rounds brought to our friends and our show sponsor, Calloway Golf, who have created and unveiled and put in your hands the new XR driver, where fast meets forgiveness. You know, Boeing helped make this driver the fastest on the market, which is why it's up to us to make this speed round quick, which you know is no chance of happening. Not a lick. Thanks to our friends of Calloway.

We are going to take some questions from Twitter. Now, you made the command decision. We're going to put off the Masters, ones, which were phenomenal till next week. So I want to ask you this first one. This was kind of a cool one, and I told the guy on Twitter that we would save this for a big-time topic, but I think it kind of fits with the whole Jay Monahan, Tim Fincham discussion we've had.

This is from Matt Craig. He's a 20-year-old guy. It looks like he's in sports journalism, I think, based on his profile. And he wants to know how golf can work to appeal to the under-25 audience. Tate's people, if you will, our producer here. He's a 20-year-old super fan, but he knows nobody else that really is why. watching golf. What do you think, House? Great question, right? Because that is the other thing for Mr. Monaghan to tackle how to continue to expand the appeal of the game, restore the appeal of the

game to a demo that may have lost touch with it. So one thing that Monaghan has going for him is a whole bunch of players that fit this demo that are providing a natural narrative that's attractive. One thing I enjoyed very much about Jordan Speath's run last year was after he won the U.S. Open, the run up to the Open championship, the British Open, it was a sort of national story that Jordan had won the first two majors and this third major was looming and he was in contention on Monday because they had to finish on a Monday. I went to a bar to watch on a Monday afternoon at lunchtime here in D.C. The bar was full of people who were like-minded there to watch the end of the Open Championship

and to see if Jordan could pull it off. And this was like a regular place. It wasn't a sports bar. It wasn't a golf theme bar. So in that respect, the game is well positioned. I think some of the ways to catch the attention of a younger demo and maybe Tate will sit in the background laughing loudly at this. It's stuff like Top Golf, which is, you know, this to me, because I'm officially middle age now, glorified, fancified driving range, you know, driving range with beer. but the scoring system, the ability to compete with your friends,

maybe have one of the tour stars pop in at one of these joints. You know, have a Ricky show up at a top golf. And maybe this is already happening. And if so, I'll shut up. They're trying to do a lot of things like that. I think you've just shown why this is a great topic that Matt Craig submitted. And I think we want to save it again for a slow week because there are some cool things to touch on what you just mentioned. My only comment would be love what they're doing.

doing, don't try too hard. And that's always my concern. I mock this stuff on my website. A lot of the millennial love fest by the tourist, it's so desperate. Just be yourself. You have cool young players. They resonate. Don't try too hard. Just keep letting them be who they are and do some of the stuff. But I feel like that desperation can be off-putting. So second question. And I'm going to take this one first, because this is an easy one for me. Austin Evans wants to know what we think the WGC events will look like 20 years from now. And my view is I think they're going to be looked down on in a sense that they are kind of thin fields.

They're great players, don't get me wrong, but they're not full field events. And, you know, Tiger's record, I think in a way is, I'm not going to say it's tainted by all of his wins in them, but it does kind of make you wonder like, wow, I wonder if a few of those events were full fields if he might not have won quite that many. And so the other thing, of course, is that they weren't very world. and international, and I think 20 years from now, that will have changed, and they'll look back at the beginning, like, wow, what took so long to take this around the world? Is that your sense of the WGC? So that's exactly my view. I think we're going to look back and say, oh, those events were the precursor to this truly world tour that we have now, that we enjoy now, because with somebody smart like Jay Monaghan, we'll have figured out, you know, how to make a truly world tour, you know, work, and it'll work in a way. way that induces the best players in the world to go to the various venues and play the game

all over the world. So I think these WGC events, we'll look back and say, you know, they had the right idea. There was just kind of an execution problem with them. But it led us to this great place. It's the baby steps. All right. Adam Tilsner wants to know howse, one thing that can be done to improve golf broadcasts. What do you nominate? More effing golf. So this is the thing between CBS and NBC. We've been on this blessed run with NBC where NBC is showing golf swings. They're showing the players play the game and to their credit.

I love Pro Tracer. I can't get enough Pro Tracer. In my middle age, I have to wear glasses now. I can't really pick up the ball every single time without Pro Tracer. I'm a fiend for ProTracer. I think if they had set up the ProTracer on 14, so we could have watched the guys bashing the ball off that grandstand. You know, that short par four.

13, yeah. That was, oh, 13, I'm sorry. And I don't think that Grandstand will be there next year, by the way. Oh, no, I loved it. It was a backstop. It would look a little bit gimmicky. It's like, you know, it kind of appeals to the put-put element in me. But I think the most important thing to improve the golf broadcast is to show the players playing golf.

Yeah, and that's what you see. You see that 86 Masters in its entirety. Frank Trichinian, that was his thing. Just show shots left and right. And not just don't focus on putts. They show so much putting. And that broadcast is unbelievable. It's just boom, boom, boom.

Now it helps that they're like 10 guys in contention. They're all superstars and all that. but it's all about shots. And now they get very into storytelling CBS more than NBC. My one thing, it's tough for me to will it down, but I really want more drone footage of golf courses. I want more flyovers to give a sense of scale, a sense of the property. Austin Country Club so desperately needed a drone

to kind of give you a sense of the changes in elevation and the coolness of some of the contours that you just don't get with a blimp or normal camera shots. but I also have a long list of other things I'd like to add to improve golf broadcast. Yeah, it's true with Austin. They did animated versions of the flyover. Yeah, just aren't the same. Which were helpful, but you're absolutely right.

The technology exists for, you know, to get a live view of the terrain and the elevation. Oh, I don't even care. I don't even have to have live house. I just want them on tape. I'll take anything. All right. Last one. Ben Heightonan.

wants to know if you can play the U.S. Open Open Championship and PGA at the same venue every year, which one would you pick for each major? He was obviously inspired by Augusta National hosting the Masters every year. I'm going to nominate for the U.S. Open. I believe it should be – if they had to set up shop at one place, it would be Pebble Beach. The Open Championship is obviously the easy one, St. Andrews. The PGA is kind of the tough one because they don't – they're all over the map with different venues and locales and regions. I would love to see them have made Torrey Pines their every year venue because of the weather, not the golf architecture.

But that's not going to happen because Tori Pines is now U.S. Open venues. So I can't vote for Whistling Straits. I can't vote for Valhalla. I really don't know where the PGA should go every year. Not congressional. Sorry, House. No, no, no offense taken. I'm going to cheat in my answer to this one.

So I think the U.S. Open has to rotate between Pebble and Oakmont. I think it's crucial to have the open on the West Coast as often as possible because it lets us East Coasters enjoy the open in kind of prime time and watching it on into the evening. I will, for all of my life, remember watching Tiger at Torrey at like 9.30 at night, you know, chip in on whatever that was on that Saturday night, the group of friends I was with and how much fun that was.

So I'm going to advocate for rotating between Pebble and Oakmont for the U.S. Open. I love what Oakmont does to the players. It's just the most diabolical invention. Yes. The Open Championship. Yeah, that's obviously St. Andrews.

Yeah, there's no other answer. My answer on the PGA, I would like get to be at Bethpage. I like that the idea of a venue that the regular dude can play being featured as the site for a major. And I also like Beth Page's location in New York. I think the crowds that we've seen at the U.S. Opens competed at Beth Page have been great crowds and have really enhance the experience of it. I think if the PGA has to be at a single venue, my boat would be for Bethpage.

Okay. Well, you're going to get your wish in 2019 and then the 2024 Ryder Cup is there as well. I hope the Greens survive. That's the only problem with Bethpage. August is a little bit tough for growing grass. Right. Not a great time of year for that.

And I wish they could have found a West Coast venue. Better than Harding Park. That's where they're going. Not great. But that's why I would have loved Tori for the PGA. It's just by the ocean. It's August. It's beautiful. The fog's kind of coming in and out. Anyway, hey, House. Tell us about our new sponsored, Draft King. Yes, Jack. Golf's first major is right around the corner. You can play one week fantasy golf for free at draftkings.com. Whether you are a

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Only at draftkings.com. DraftKings.com play for free. All right, House, and I want to tell you about our other sponsor, our presenting sponsor, our great friends of Callaway Golf, because they've got a question house for you. They want to know if you want to be the first

to test their new products. I sure do. Yes, I do. I love to test products. Yeah. Yeah. I had a feeling you were one of those people. Well, head on over to callowagoff.com.

Actually, you have. Callowagoff.com slash community. Sign up for their Calloway community. Did you do it? Right? I did it. I'm a moderator. Beautiful.

I can field questions and give answers. All right. Well, you can learn about new products, chat with your fellow equipment junkies and House. There's even a thread going up about this podcast where you and I might just kind of like dig in and answer a few questions or take questions for this show. Let's do it. Beautiful.

Calloway Golf. dot com slash community sign up now and house thanks to everyone who signed up last week on iTunes making this a number one podcast in America how about that that's incredible I think it had everything to do with me being out of the country yeah and maybe that Bill Simmons guy tweeting a few links I don't know just a thought but anyway make sure to check out all the ringers channel 33 podcasts they're awesome including most recently Annie Greenwald and Chris Ryan the watch one of my favorite shows and of course in anticipation of the final four weekend. Tate Frazier, our producer here,

and Mallory Rubens, The Pivot Podcast. Talks all about the big weekend. Can't wait for that. And, of course, the Bill Simmons podcast with some stellar, stellar recent episodes, including David Dukovny, great chat with Mike Tolan, who I hears a big golfer, Jim Lampley,

and of course you, Joe House. Yeah. Nice. All right, everybody. That's all we have. We'll talk to you next week from Augusta, national, or at least I will, and House will be kind of salivating from far away, and I'll be teasing him about the Georgia peach ice cream sandwich, right, House?

Yeah, I know. Hey, thanks, everybody.