Fairway Rollin' - Ep. 25: Jon Rahm and the Rise of the Young Guns

Episode Date: January 31, 2017

Geoff Shackelford and Joe House discuss Jon Rahm’s victory at the Farmers Insurance Open (03 :00), Tiger’s performance in the tournament (14:15), golf-related Super Bowl prop bets (20:40), and the value of rivalries (26:15). They wrap up by picking their favorites for the Waste Management Phoenix Open (38:05). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shock House is brought to you by our friends at Calloway Golf, makers of the great big Bertha Epic Driver. Of course, Phil Mickelson, Daniel Berger, and Brandon Grace have already put the epic in their bag, as did last week's first and second leading players in Farmers Insurance Open Driving Distance. They were Patrick Rogers using the 10.5 degree, accrediting it with his confidence in driving around Tori. He went on and on about it in the press center with us, as did former Georgia Tech star Ollie Snyder Jans, who was second in driving distance, You know, the Epic Sports two titanium rods inside the club head that changed the way the driver's soul, the driver crowned soul and face behaved at impact.

So what's the result of jailbreak technology for you, the average golfer? Why it's more ball speed and distance all over the face? Even better, at least to me, after hitting it, the jailbreak seems to bring the feel of the face together like no other club I've hit. But hey, don't take my word for it. Just visit CallawayGolf.com to find a place to demo the new Epic Driver today. Let's go to the Shack House. House, greetings from sunny California. How you doing today?

Shack, it is not sunny here on the East Coast, and especially not here in Washington, D.C. We had snow overnight. I've seen flurries all day long. You're over there talking about the epic driver. I'm sitting here thinking, when am I going to be able to touch that epic piece of a machinery? I don't know when.

It feels like spring is a long way off here on the East Coast. So is it true when these women, West Coast events are played and a weather like we had at Torrey Pines this weekend, that people on the East Coast sit there and drool over what they're seeing on the screen, or is that overrated? I can't speak for other people, but that's what I did. It's part of the whole allure of, you know, the season kickoff in Hawaii and then the California swing and this little bit in Arizona.

I'm seeing all these places with the sun and the desert and the ocean, and waves and surfers, and it just, you know, it makes me, for a moment, allows me to escape the dreary run that I'm in here on the East Coast. So I don't know if I'm unique in that respect, but that is definitely what I'm sitting there doing. Well, and the ratings I've seen would indicate that a lot of people agree with you, which is why I think the West Coast swing is so important. Plus, a lot of people don't like to hear this, but it really did get going with the play at Tori Pines. I think it's a combination of the course.

Really good field. Obviously having Tiger and Phil bring something, Jason Day, et cetera. But it's a big time venue. It's one we all kind of know now. I mean, how many years have we been watching that last whole decide tournaments? It's amazing, really, to think about. But it was, I thought, well, actually, the more I kind of sit back and consider that wacky last day, I think we're going to look back at this event at the end of the year.

and think it was one of the more significant just because of, and you know how, I don't want to get on the bandwagon about the kids today are just better, and the kids this, the kids, that, you know, and then just ignoring people like Brandt Snettaker and Jim Furrick and good players who I feel are almost disrespected in the love fest for the kids. But that said, we just saw what college golf is producing, in the Farmers Insurance Open, and it is very clear that the kids who are coming out of school right now are ready to play on the PGA tour. I mean, John Rom, Patrick Rogers, who led after 54, and Ollie Snyder Jans, who contended there all the way near to the end,

were really three of the best college players the last five years, and there they were on a very tough golf course. Greens are soft, but still, big time, big, hard golf course. and I don't think those three are going to go away anytime soon. So it's interesting. I don't think that recognizing this young generation necessarily conveys along with it any disrespect to the old guard. The guys that the tournament was kind of producing that you thought might make a run, guys like Rose and Snedeker and maybe. Charles Howell III, you know, the vets were all poised right there in the front nine

to go ahead and try and seize control the tournament. And instead, it was Rom and Tony Fee now and C.T. Pan and Patrick Rogers, all guys, you know, in a different demo than the vets. And, you know, we are now in this moment where there have been 11 stroke play, and I'll call it mostly full field events, because the Hawaii opener is only, you know, the winners. But of those 11 stroke play events, eight of the winners are under the age of 30.

Now, three of those wins came by way of Mr. Justin Thomas and Hideki Matsuyama also had a win in there. So that's kind of half of the eight. But the interesting thing to me, there is a little you know I'm a little bit of an analytics nerd

you know this from my my mediocre gambling strategies you've heard me drop some angles I ran across I like this this Twitter feed

Jake Nichols and his he's at J-A-L-N-I-C-O-L-S he doesn't know who the hell I am but I'm plugging him because I like his Twitter feed it's an all-analytics

all-Golf analytics Twitter feed He had in there a story by an entity called Data Golf. And the title of that story, is Golf's next generation as good as we say they are? And these guys took a look at winners, top five, top 25, under the age of 26 since 1983. And the analysis was pretty interesting. They came up with the conclusion that there are, on a percentage basis, more young guys on tour. now than in years past, like the last eight years. So if you're talking about a generation, that kind of covers it.

And that this current generation are winning more than an above average percentage of the tournaments. So it kind of validates what we seem to be experiencing, which is more young guys and young guys performing well early. Now, last year, about this time, we were talking about a silly media. driven, you know, idea that there was a big four with four mostly young guns. And we, those guys, their own selves, told us that it was dumb to be talking that way

and thinking that way. And I think the course, over the course of the season, it was kind of proven out that it's kind of a silly narrative. But we have lots of young guns coming up and performing extraordinarily well. and I honestly expect this coming Phoenix event to also have a young gun winner and a bunch of young guns in the top 10. Well, they tend to embrace what goes on there a little bit more.

You definitely hear the older guys not liking what goes on there. A few do. I mean, a few think it's fun, but some of them get a little get off my lawnish when you bring up the waste management. Well, let's talk a little bit about the finish and John Rom, because he is the guy that everybody has been saying when you talk to people about the college players. I mean, first of all, I just get fatigue on the obsession with the next new thing, probably because I've just been watching long enough in golf to know that golf is just different than other sports.

It's really hard to tell who's going to end up having a long career. That said, John Rom seems like he's going to be around a long, long time. Here's what blew me away, House. He is so humble. He is so poised. He has not been speaking English almost at all except for the last four years. And now he's more articulate than a lot of people who've been speaking at their whole life. He is so bright.

He is so confident without being obnoxious about it. And so respectful of his elders, his peers. and to go out, and this was right after going out and just throwing out a little 30 on the South Course back nine with two Eagles, and then one of the just all-time great last makes you'll ever see. And so he's the real deal. Everybody's been telling us this.

And, you know, all the players that were in contention, you mentioned there, also C.T. Pan, who everybody dealt with him at the University of Washington has been saying this kid is fearless, look out, and sure enough, there he was already. and Ollie and Patrick Rogers have incredible records in college. So he he dusted them in the last few furlongs there. And it was just, it was really a stunning win, I think.

Shaq, what was so impressive to me is he was sitting right there amidst, you know, eight or ten guys going into the back nine, his back nine, where any one of those eight or ten guys, including the pedigreed guys, could have grabbed hold of the tournament, and he's the one with two Eagles, and the birdie on 17 to me was really the thing that was a distinguishing factor. I mean, he stuck it to like six feet,

so he put himself in position. I loved very much. What I always am looking for out of a young player is, is it a guy that goes and grabs the tournament, goes and wins the mother effort? You know what I mean? 65 at Tori on the South Quarie. horse on a Sunday. That's going out and grabbing that thing by the short hairs and putting it to work.

You know what I mean? Now, look, Rom has a pedigree here. His first 50 rounds on tour have him among the very, very best in history, which is kind of a surprising thing to hear because this is his first win. But, you know, he just turned pro last summer. He had top fives here in Washington, in D.C. in the Quicken and then up in Canada, he already as an amateur had a top five in Phoenix, so it's not that surprising. The only thing that I really, really regret is I had John Rahm on my roster last week, but not on my roster this week. But I will have, I mean, for Tori, I didn't have him on him on my roster this week. Yeah, you should have given his love of Arizona. One of the things he told us, there were a lot of great things. I'm going to link the post around

press conference on my blog, because I'm going to link the post around press conference on my blog, I think the entire thing is up at the tour website. But he mentioned that he pretended to be won back, even though he knew he had gained the lead. And he kept playing that way. And I asked the follow-up, I said, is that something you always do when you've been in contention? He said, no, it was just kind of something he felt like he had to do yesterday.

And that was fascinating. I mean, there were a bunch of things in the press conference. He still uses meters. He converts everything to meters in his book, even though he's got a caddy who's in a long-time PG. Jay Torkatti, who works definitely in Yardges. I thought that was fascinating. And then the way he taught himself to learn English was listening to hip-hop.

And he said the English he spoke was too much like the British version. So I don't know if he used to say brilliant and proper too much or what he did. So he's just very, he's clearly got a very creative mind. and I think that's why people have been so drawn to him and his talent, and the ceiling seems very high. So I will, on my website, I will try to post that press conference because it was one of the more enjoyable ones I've ever sat there just listening to him, articulate everything that went on down the stretch.

And really, it was wacky how the golf course was not separating the field. And then to have somebody just explode like that, it was just unusual. I thought we were headed for about a seven-player playoffs, which would have been interesting. But I feel it was a little more rewarding to have that kind of a great closing stretch by a player. We don't get enough of that. It really makes you excited about watching the tournament and sitting through all of the commercials and all the things that you go through on a telecast these days. I guess that's right, especially here early in the season.

CBS has a certain way of producing these broadcasts that on the one hand, it's very pleasant. You know, when you asked me earlier about the experience of watching the West Coast and seeing the sun and the surf, it is nice in some respects that it's a very sort of low pressure experience watching it. On the other hand, it's easy to get a little impatient because you're not getting a whole lot of golf. Yeah. And I know that's a repeating criticism that folks offer up. up. And I know that come Pebble Beach time, all of the folks, the Twitter, Twitter will, the Twitter knives will be out with respect to the CBS broadcast. But as long as-

Orachange.org petition as posted by our, no laying up for more golf shots. I, right. Sure. Sure. I'm happy to sign on to that. Well, speaking of signing on, we had a performance by the Tigray this week. And I want to ask you, glass half full, glass half empty. What was your take? Somewhere right in the middle. You know, I went out on the back night of the pro-am. I did not get out there the pro-am morning when he teed off at 640.

It was really, really cold. They showed his first birdie early in the round, and everybody in the gallery had their hands in their pockets. It was not a good look. And it was in the high 40s. And he was swinging at about 30%. It was almost comical. But by the back nine, and that's when I followed him, he was playing normal golf.

It was beautiful. And he didn't miss a shot house. Did not miss a shot. The sound of the ball coming off the club was crisp. And then Thursday, it was just pretty clear. His body wasn't there. The swing didn't look as good. He was hitting everything right.

He couldn't adjust it. And I assume that's just a little bit of nerves. And also, I think he's just going to have days where when it's cold like that, in the morning, the body doesn't respond. So that's kind of why I'm having trouble being too positive about that element of his game. But then his attitude after both rounds was sort of, well, I would put it at still confident and not discouraged. And that tells me that he kind of knew this week was going to be just kind of get out there

and dust off the rust. And then, you know, and then he had a group where, Everybody was kind of stinking it up. Dustin Johnson was probably a little still hung over from the flight over from the Middle East. And Jason Day just didn't get in the groove for whatever reason. And, geez, Tiger only was two shots worse, I think, than Jason, number one player in the world. So I think he didn't get hurt. And he had a good attitude.

So to me, it's a start. It's not a setback, that's for sure. Yeah, the thing that I, that struck me in Tiger's own assessment of the round was his frustration, and obviously he has a lot of experiences with this at how long the round took on Thursday. You know, and how that's part of the reps that he needs to reacclimate himself to in terms of the, you know, experiencing competitive golf. Sometimes it's going to take five hours to, get around. The interesting thing about Tiger, he was really undone by one stretch of

holes on Thursday. Otherwise, you know, he was pretty close to what I think folks were modestly hoping for. He would have been but for the streak he went on.

You know, he's standing on the 12th T Thursday on the south course at one under par, which would have easily had him make the cut. And then he went bogey, bogey, double bogey, par,

bogey birdie. And that was it. I mean, that was his week. And that coincides exactly with like where you would expect him to be maybe frustrated by how long things were taking. And, you know, he couldn't he didn't hit a single fairway

in regulation on that back nine on the south course. And you know, again, this is all reps. I liked the piece that Jaime Diaz did about his kind of mindset and disposition and how everybody is observing that he's got a little more positive kind of outlook. Maybe he's not going to be as hard on himself. And, you know, he's understanding and acknowledging publicly that this is a process that's going to take him time and he needs the reps. So all good, glass half full is what I'm giving it. Okay. Yeah. Well, and he'll have a quick Turnaround, starting Wednesday night, he's in Dubai, and he has a long flight, and always

probably some sort of embarrassing pre-tournament publicity events. They'll be, well, I think HSBC is the one that usually makes them do the really humiliating pre-tournament things where they put on an outfit and they play the drums, or they swirl some swords around. I don't know if the Dubai Desert Classic, he'll have to do that. Well, I want to ask you, be as honest as you can be. How much is he getting to appear at this event? Well, in his heyday, I mean, like the ultimate prime of the Tiger Mania, it was $3 million.

And I don't think it's that now. I would guess it's at most half of that. Really? Yeah. Why? Is that low? I would have guessed that it would have been the same amount of money he could command at the height, you know, because this is still at this point of the season, at this point of his comeback. It's still compelling at least to like a TV viewer like me.

I'm going to be watching at those odd hours, you know, tracking that thing down on the golf channel to watch and see, you know, how he looks and how he's responded to the long flight and, you know, all the kind of stuff because, you know, obviously the way. What I'm rooting for all season long is a healthy tiger, a competitive tiger. So each one of these moments is a benchmark moment. So I'll be watching and I would expect I'm not alone in that respect. So I don't, I don't, I, well, one caveat. He, once he played presentably down at the hero, then he was able to start planning the schedule. And this event and the HSBC event in Abu Dhabi had already pretty much fulfilled. out their field and their appearance fee portion of the field.

And so he was a little late to the game, but I'm sure that the people over there who have the resources found a few more dollars for him. So that's another reason I don't think it was close to what he used to get, but it's still a nice amount of money. That's fair point. That makes a lot of sense to me. Right. They already had their dollars out the door.

Now, the Super Bowl this week, did you see these prop bets where they're, you're, you? They're playing off Tigers play in Dubai versus the game. And there's a few other Justin Thomas and Phil Mickelson and Hideki Matsuyama bets too. But these are posts that I saw on golf.com. Did you see those? I did see them. Obviously, I love them. Any opportunity to try and marry up, you know, the golf, which I'll be watching anyway

naturally along with the Super Bowl, and an opportunity to allocate a little capital. I mean, I already have a whole bunch of stuff lined up for the Super Bowl. But mixing in the golf, I mean, that's just, you know, that puts me right in my element. That's like fried chicken and a nice T-bone sitting next to one another. I mean, I eat it all. I love it all. So you love Woods' first round score minus 24.5 versus gross yardage of Atlanta punter, Matt Boch's first punt. That's a lot of work.

I guess too much math. I'm not doing that one. I'm out on that one. Well, what was the one you like? Like fourth round birdies, of course, fourth round he needs to make the cut versus total field goals made by both teams. Wow, that's some people have a lot of time on their hands. I actually would be worth, that one is worth a little investigation

just to sort of see whether or not you can make the bet. So if he doesn't make the cut, then any field goal made by any team would give you a win on that bet. And it looks like it's an even money bet, but I don't know whether or not he has to make the cut to qualify. the bet. I mean, that was worth some investigation, though. Okay. Okay. Yeah, these are all, they all feel a little bit like a reach to me, but I, hey, we're not going to complain. We want more prop bets. There aren't enough of them, and they're a lot more fun than just

betting golfers. And we've had a few people request, too, that we look a little bit more of the matchups, which are a lot of fun. We're going to preview the waste management here a little later on in the show. So maybe we'll get into that a bit. I have a couple of locks. Locks for the week. Locks. Locks from Jeff Shackleford. Yeah. I love it. I am full confidence in two players going into

Phoenix, besides John Rom. I'm not even going to waste anybody's time with that one. That's an obvious. He's really going to have another good week, I'm sure. These golf props, are you going to do any of them? For Dubai? Yeah. I just read you a couple of these.

Are there more that I'm not aware of? Oh, no, no, I'm sorry. I was asking, are you going to bet any of them? Oh, no, no. No. Please. House. All right.

Come on. I kind of like this one of Phil's fourth round score in Phoenix plus 44 and a half. So you add up, say, Bill shoots a 70, and then you add in 44.5 as against the Patriots total rushing yards. I like Phil. I like Phil in that one. I think that's 70 plus 40 70 plus 45 is 115

and so the Patriots have to rush for less than 115 I love that one okay it's all yours baby you got it all right house how about a message from our sponsors friends

you listen to the shack house and you may think to yourselves I love talking about golf as much as these guys do? Why don't I have a world famous podcast on the Ringer Network? Well, you are not alone. Bring your love for golf talk online to the Callaway community where like-minded golf nuts are testing and reviewing products before they are in stores getting custom fitting advice and coming soon an opportunity to mix it up with me and his evidence, Jeff Shackleford. This year, we will be doing giveaways, answering questions, and other kinds of whatnot.

Callawaygolf.com slash community, head over and sign up. And we are also brought to you by Simply Safe. I think we can all agree, friends, that keeping our home safe is an extremely high priority, but it ought not come at the expense of signing your life away on some kind of confusing long-term contract. Thankfully, there's a much smarter way to protect your home. Simply safe home security. These are the guys that I trust. With Simply Safe, there are no annual contracts and no middlemen.

You get that superior protection for less than half of what traditional companies charge. This is a system built by a Harvard-educated engineer to make you safer. They provide professional monitoring with police dispatch so your home is safe around the clock. It's wireless and portable with a cellular connection built in, so there are no lines that can be cut by potential intruders. And best of all, simply safe, 24-7 protection is just $15 a month. That's about a third of what most places charge. It's unbeatable protection, a great value, no contracts. So protect your home the smart way.

Visit simply safe, S-I-M-P-L-I-S-A-F-E.com slash Ringer. and get 10% off your system today. Go now. Simplysafe.com slash ringer. All right, house. So that was my first tour event of the year. And one of the things that really I'm seeing more and more, and maybe it was the Federer Nadal element of the weekend,

where we had these two longtime rivals playing. But a lot of people brought up the rivalry issue in golf. You know, we love to talk about the young players, but really we want rivalries, right? Is that not really the key to making a sport more interesting or is it overrated? Because I have a point, but I want to know, first of all, just kind of your general view on rivalries before we dive too deep. So I adore rivalries. I mean, I grew up with Washington Deadskins and the Dallas Cowboys in my DNA.

I also was a Washington Bullets fan my whole life, have been a Washington Bullets fan my whole life. And it doesn't amount to a rivalry, but I know I always hated playing. the Boston Celtics. And the Washington capitals over the years have had nice back and forth with the penguins. There was a time in my life when I hated the Rangers. I've always hated the Flyers. So rivalries in sports are indeed important, I think. Yeah.

And I think in individual sports, obviously McEnroe, Borg, Martina, Chrissy, I think were, I don't know if they were as much rivalries or even Lakers Celtics, something like that, where as much a rivalry issue as just contrasting styles and contrasting personalities. I bring this up because what you see at the tour events right now, there's such a fraternal thing where I've learned now, I've been told multiple times about how somebody is not a good guy. He's a jerk. That guy's a jerk.

We didn't like playing with him, this and that. And I come to find out from people around the person. He's actually a nice person. And it's just that that person on the golf course is out there to win and out there to shoot the lowest score possible and is not out there to be buddy buddy. And it's a fascinating mentality with the spring break group and the class of 2011. And I discuss this with Ballionis and Jeff Newbarth on the Calloway Ship Show pod this morning, that Patrick Rogers has really got a lot of confidence right now. And is that gain from this kind of group of buddies down in Jupiter? and I'm sure it is, and I love the camaraderie.

I love that they root for each other and they're happy for each other, but I'm starting to worry that it might be a little bit dangerous for the sport not to have some villains and some people who kind of get under the skin of other players. You know, Lanny Watkins, Hale Irwin, Ray Floyd, those guys, they annoyed the people they played with probably because they were fiery and they were hungry and they were all about winning. My sense out there is that there's a little bit of a danger right now with the tour that this is kind of the direction we're going in. And it's going to soften the guys. Now, maybe we'll always have the Europe PGA tour thing to kind of have.

But even that has sort of changed. The Europeans really are, a lot of them are basically PGA tour members. Do you think that's something that's important for golf for attracting kind of a mainstream fan, that there's an attraction to that sort of two different size, two different ways of playing the game and all that good stuff? I don't. I don't think it matters. I think, you know, we have a couple of villains already out there.

Now, there's always been with Bubba Watson, a big constituency that paints him as a villain. The no laying up guys have been fantastic. regard forever. And you know, Patrick Reed over the years has acquired a reputation. Just I don't know whether it's among the other players, but it's, it's an observation that the media makes and that fans make about his kind of disposition and his steely resolve. Now, we're still in a honeymoon period with Patrick because of what he did in the Ryder Cup. And we love that fire out of Patrick once every two years.

in the Ryder Cup. But at some point, we'll forget, again, that he was such an ass kicker. And it'll start robbing folks, you know, the wrong way again. But I don't, you know, in terms of actual, like, animosity between players, the only thing I could really think about was Tiger and Sergio. That's the only thing of, like, recent vintage. Yeah. Sergio brings.

I wouldn't single out Tiger there. Sergio brings that out of many people. John Rom will not. for instance. He's so respectful, so even tempered. You know, he just won't do it. But Sergio, he does bring that out of people. Well, let me throw out an example because there's probably some people not understanding. And let me show you, let me give you an example of what I see and why it bothers me. We may have discussed this, so forgive me if I'm repeating myself. But very frequently now, when you, and television will hide this, although every once in a while, Baker Finch or

Costas will note it and they get annoyed. And I love it that they get annoyed. And I love it that they get annoyed by it and they call it out. But you will see two players misagreing. Player A will chip up. He's away. And he will leave his ball down if it's in a place where it's behind the hole for Player B. So that should Player B chip up and hit it too hard and have his ball going past the hole in a bad way, it will instead of Player A marking the ball and having it in his pocket, will hit Player A's ball and keep him closer to the hole. And this goes on. a lot. And I think it's dishonest. I think it's, I think it's wrong. And it's an example to me where there is this sort of one of these weird little unspoken rules that we kind of take care of

each other. And I just don't think it's really within the spirit of the rules. I think you mark the ball and then the player hits their shot and whatever happens happens. That's pretty interesting. Yeah, I get what you're saying. I guess to me, as you described it, sounds more like sportsmanship to me. And I can't. See, that's how they view it today. That's how today's player views it, that that sportsmanship, and I view it as unseemly. I don't know why would you want to help the guy in your group get his ball closer to the hole?

You're playing against him. There's a lot of money at stake. Well, I guess the thing that I kind of stands out to me, how often do balls make contact with one another on the, you know, in the course of a tournament round? And so that's why it hasn't, I don't think, become a huge issue. But it has happened. And I think it's more of the spirit of the game situation that this is the way the tour golf is played. And there's kind of this wink, wink, you know, when that happens to me, you'll do the same kind of thing. And then, of course, this gets us back to this rivalry retention issue.

There are players who won't do this, who will run up there and mark. that ball and get it off the green because they're not interested, you know, they're not interested in helping somebody shoot a couple shots less. It might take money out of their pocket. And, you know, and a team has been, it's obviously a different situation, but this is individual stroke play. And so I guess I just feel it speaks to a little bit of a change in the way Tourgolf is played. Again, I love a lot of the camaraderie. It makes it more attractive to me. But there are times where I wonder if it's going to ultimately deprive us of some of the great dramatic tension or some of the great catty bickering that that could be part of the fun of watching the sport.

Yeah, I guess on balance, I have been more, I find the support, especially what we observed with Jordan Speath openly rooting for Justin Thomas in Hawaii. and who else. Daniel Berger was also in that threesome. Like those guys rooting for Thomas. I find that appealing. I understand exactly what you're saying in terms of rivalry and kind of the natural appeal of some tension between players. But, you know, there's only a handful of guys that seem to have the guts to sort of take on that villain mantle.

I mean, another guy, a guy that I'm sure would go mark his ball and get at the F off the green is Rory Sabatini. So I'm very glad that he's back. to inform. He had a pretty good... Yeah, he had a nice week. Yeah, a pretty good week this week. So, but those are guys with kind of, you know, the internal makeup, the DNA to kind of wear that villain hat and roll with it.

And I don't, you know, I get like the gamesmanship and so forth that comes from, you know, a match play kind of thing. And I think that's more where we're likely to see it. But I don't even remember any lingering effects. from the Austin tournament last year. Any outstanding moments from that? There might have been one driving range discussion that was a little bit edgy,

but that had something to do with other things off the golf course. But yeah, no, there were no great moments that I can think of of gamesmanship, but they'll come up. They always do in matchplay, and I think they'll come up more because of the situation I'm describing, I mean, because players are so unused to feeling that tension from their competitor that it makes them so hypersensitive to the slightest thing in matchplay.

You know, a put-not-given or a, just whatever, a guy thinking that somebody's dangling coins in their pocket or any of the other fun things that you see in really sleazy gamesmanship. And so I think we'll see it more in the matchplay. I just can't think of any last year, but it is something that makes the player almost softer so that when those moments do come up or in the moments come up in the Ryder Cup, they don't react as well to them necessarily. But it's, you know, we've always had them in the Ryder Cup, and there's some legendary spadding that's gone on. But let's get to the Waste Management Open here.

But before we do that, I just want to close out our reads here and our friends at Odyssey Golf, courtesy of Calloway, of course, the number one putter and golf who are generous sponsors of the show because we all know how when it comes to putting, the best players in the world generate top spin at impact. And that is a huge differentiator between the pros and amateur golfers on the greens, especially if you have greens like we had last week at Tori Pines, where spin is so vital on those poe of greens that are about 13 and have a few little bumps here and there. So guess what? Odyssey is here to help us compensate for that lack of forward role.

with the new O-Works putters from Odyssey featuring the microhinge insert that dynamically generates immediate top-spinded impact, regardless of how terrible your putting stroke is. It was played initially by Phil Mickelson during the Ryder Cup, but this new insert's already hot on the tour, and it was a big buzz at the show, the PJ show last week, as people finally got to do what I got to do even a few weeks ago, which was actually hit the putter and feel that unbelievable softness of the ball coming off the face. So the new O-Works microhinge insert from Odyssey will be in stores February 17th. So go to Odysseygolf.com to check out how this new way to roll works. So waste management open.

We have your defending champion Hideki Matsuyama who beat Ricky Fowler in a playoff last year. Brought Ricky to tears. I don't know if you remember that house. I do. His grandparents were there. I love that tournament. That was a great tournament. I don't know how many people saw it because it started to bleed into the.

the Super Bowl pregame stuff. But Goodfield this year, 11 of the top 25. Jordan Speeth is playing there, I believe, for the first time. Of course, it's the huge return to they're now calling it the Coliseum Caldron. Oh, God. Yeah, that's getting a little silly. Yeah, we're working the gladiator references a little hard, I'm afraid. Of course, Phil is there for his 28th start at TPC Scottsdale.

always huge down there. He's won at three times. So I think a lot of good ingredients. I have one little bit of breaking, well, not breaking, but News House. Something to keep in mind when you're watching the golf tournament from the telecast point of view. And then we'll get to the players and some picks. But there is a very interesting little give and take going on behind the scenes. Well, there's not a whole lot of give and take. It's mostly kind of a change in the economics of doing golf on television. There was a blimp at Torrey Pines. There was a blimp at, or there was a plane in Hawaii. There will be a plane flying over Pebble Beach. There will be no blimp coverage this week in Phoenix for the first time. And as long as I can remember,

Good Year is really not as keen as they used to be in sending the blimp all over the country for golf tournaments. MetLife is out of the blimp business. And now, I know this doesn't sound like a big deal, but one of the cool things from this tournament is seeing those crowds from above, and you see all the promos, all the blimp shots, and then also seeing the ball in the air when guys are trying to drive the 17th, you know, the things that those camera shots at the blimp brings us, we won't see it this year. And there is a very real possibility that after the West Coast swing, there won't be any blimp coverage in golf the rest of the year because of this situation. And so it's something, it's a story I'm working on, but this is the first week

where it'll be very noticeable. And I hope it doesn't impact the way the telecast comes through because this is always one of the great events on TV. This is breaking news to me. And I have to tell you, I'm really disappointed. Mainly for the point you just described, which is, you know, there's 200,000 people that come through here. This tournament loves to tout the huge crowds.

But you know what? There's actual documented proof of huge crowds. I mean not to make any reference to huge crowds alleged that may not be provable. This is a provable huge crowd. And here's my question to you, Jeff Shackleford. The technology exists to replace the blimp. Where are the drones? Okay.

Live drones are tough. I've interviewed a few people. Live drones just don't really work very well. The blimp is allowed to get up high, be quiet, and have a really good camera that can get those shots. It's not just a wide shot, but the shot of the ball up in the air and following that ball as it goes into the green, which I think is one of the coolest replay shots there is. You know, it brings the architecture into perspective. You get to see the way the ball kind of hit the ground and how it worked off a feature.

It just brings a different kind of drama to the whole proceedings. And I hope they're able to figure this out. But yeah, so the drones are great for pre-production, but for live, it's hard to beat. And then the airplane they're going to be using up at Pebble and that golf channel's used a few times. I love those aerial shots where they're moving quickly around the course. It brings an urgency. But the problem is they can't then go and shoot the ball in the air and actually kind of give you a sense of a great replay on a shot. And by the way, I was on the attendance.

Last year, I just looked it up. They always announce a record every year. It goes up. You can always cut these numbers in half. and they're still impressive. But last year they announced 618,000 for the week. And they noted that easily surpassed the Cardinals 2016 home attendance of 519,000. Oh, yeah.

It's kind of funny. That would be a more enjoyable thing to bet on every day, the attendance number, because every year it goes up no matter what. They count like seven people per car in the parking lot. But they get a lot of people. It's a beautifully run event. If you ever have a chance to go, waste management has, has the Thunderbridge are great. They do a phenomenal job. And the waste management is one of the

better sponsors I've seen integrating kind of their message and their actual what they do for recycling and for trash and how to deal with all that. It's, they do a beautiful job kind of bringing their sponsorship and into the tournament in a way that's kind of cool. So, and that's just a fun event. People are having a great time. They have great concerts every night. And And it's not for everybody, you know, the noise on the 16th and all that stuff. But it's, I always enjoy it. I think it's such a great contrast. And one week out of the year, it doesn't hurt anybody.

So, House, have you looked at any of the numbers and picked out anybody you like this week? I have that the problem that I have with this week is there are about six guys that I like. And it's a combination of guys that have performed well on this joint historically and some recent form guys. I mean, it's going to be really hard to leave off guys like Tony Fee now and Ollie Schneiderjans and Adam Hadwin. But, you know, Hideki has a pretty good track record here. Phil has an incredible track record here. I love what I've seen out of Jordan Speeth so far this season. But how the hell do you leave off Justin Thomas? So, and oh, by the way, there's another guy, another two guys, big bombers that have bashed the ball all over this joint and had a lot of success.

J.B. Holmes and Bubba Watson both. So I just said 10 guys. I mean, I don't know how to whittle it down. I'm going to think about it during the course of the week. I can whittle Bubba off your list. I'm very unhappy about Bubba. I thought the Ryder Cup was going to be his wake-up call, and I thought he was going to have a new dedication. And it's not happening. I haven't seen it yet. Maybe this will be the week. He has colored balls and high tops. You know, that's not a combo that's working for you. I just don't see him going in the direction that's possible to really take his game to the level that it should be at. So let me give you my two picks.

You mentioned Adam had one. He was T-17 last year. He is playing great. And he is, I think, somebody who lives there. He's in his own bed. And he got off to a nice start last week and then faded a little. So maybe the fatigue from the 59 and all the hype that went around that kind of caught up to him. And so I think he'll be well-rested and ready to go and be very happy to be back on those desert greens and the overseated rye and all that good stuff.

The other guy, you did not, I was waiting for you to mention. I thought for sure you would. And I would absolutely put him on your roster this week. Is Harris English. He finished third there last year. He was right there at the farmers until he double-boats. he's 17. He is playing with a lot of confidence. He loves that golf course. And he was at about 40 to 1. And I think he's just an absolute must to have on any lineup or if you're playing

any matchups. Harris English is the guy. Oh, I like this. Harris English is about to get a little look at especially 40 to 1. Now you're talking my kind of numbers. That's where I like to allocate some capital. I'm also going to take a look. I'm sure the odds suck now. But John Rom, you know, it's tough to not mention him after what he just did at Tori, what we know about how familiar he is with this track. And speaking of the comfort that Hadwin feels, I bet John Rom feels pretty comfortable here, too. No, he was about 25 to 1 the last time I looked. So, yeah, Jordan Speaker was a ridiculous. He was a ridiculous 8 to 1.

I thought that was just. No way. Yeah. Absolutely not. NFW. All right, cool. Well, I think it should be a good week. This is where the tour started to kind of, you know, catch a little, pick up a little steam here.

There's going to be a little Super Bowl hype that gets in the way. Yeah. Nice field, nice event. It should be a lot of fun. Maybe you and I can do a little bit of as the week develops and we're able to hone in a little bit. Let's get on the Twitter and give out a couple ways we might allocate. I'll just speak for myself. I'll probably allocate a little capital.

Yeah. We'll get on the Callaway community too, right house? We could definitely do that. be a nice place to go ahead and put up some of our continuing thoughts on the matter. All right, cool. Well, it's been fun talking to you. It should be a good week. Good Super Bowl, hopefully, right, House?

You and Bill going to do a pre-super Bowl show? I'm on the record as taking the Falcons and the Over, but when it comes Sunday morning, I'm not sure where my capital is going to go. But all the same. Let's this weekend in that Callaway community. We'll let folks get in there and check out the Shackhouse. And get some of our thoughts, Jeff. All right.

We'll talk to you next week. Thanks.