Fairway Rollin' - Hideki Matsuyama Takes The Green Jacket! A Masters Recap.

Episode Date: April 12, 2021

House and Hubbard join right after Hideki Matsuyama's historic victory at Augusta. They discuss how many players this year seemed to feel pressure late in the tournament and how they may have to rethink their play strategy moving forward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All right, my birdie buddies, my paris, my eagle enthusiast, you have arrived at the Sunday evening recap edition of Faraway Roll in the Golf Podcasts with the Riga Podcast Network. I am your starter, Joe House, on the line as is our way. Our PGA tour course is on the ground. Nathan Hubbard, Nate Dogg, just as everybody predicted, Hideki Matsuyama's wearing the green jacket. We're going to have to talk about two things. One is I've never heard a more reserved, less enthusiastic final line from Jim Nance than we heard today.

And number two, how, a lot of guys choked this weekend. And there's a lot of pressure on the guys who choked. It's great for Hedekhi, and we've got to give him his props, and we got to give him a lot of love. But there are some guys for whom the screws just got really tight. Well, Nance did his best.

He kind of slow walked and he finally led us in on the land of the rising sun has a favorite son he did get that you know Japan connection for us he had a long time to think about that one did you know that Hedeky's from Japan

I just found out I wasn't exactly sure but now I know I know an entire nation was on his back I know from Faldo that he gets followed by the Japanese media like Paris Hilton circa 2002, and now he has the monkey off his back, I guess. I'm sure we're going to see 100 major

wins from him going forward. Here's the thing about Hedekhi that you were reminded of by tuning in as he teed off on number one. He sucks at putting. Well, he plays slow. I mean, that was a long-ass round of golf. Good. God. Do you think it was strategic today. Did it? I mean, they talked about the fact they were out of position and they were at least a hole and a half behind by the turn. But did it fuck with Xander? I don't think so. And you know, the Friday guys mentioned before they teed off today about the slow play from Hedecki and how he had been penalized as stroke at the British Open within relatively recent memory. But it's not J.B. Holmes level slow. No, I agree. That's right. It just took on an added dimension. because there was no drama on the front nine. Was there any drama, though? Or were we just trying to make it? Well, there was two moments of drama.

Zalotaurus putting a charge in it right off the front nine was pretty exciting. And watching him and sort of imagining with a bemused curiosity what he might be capable of, that was fun. With a 28 inch waist. Yes. Yeah, right. He played aggressive golf. He was not out.

out there to do anything but win. How ridiculous is it that Will Zalotaurus is not eligible for the FedEx Cup playoffs, but he just finished second in the Masters? I think that's why the PGL is also a horrible and great idea. Like, I mean, we'll get to that at another time, but the fact that a guy who cannot make the FedEx Cup playoffs, finished second in the Masters and had a real chance to win is significant. Well, can he, if he wins a tournament he gets in, right? Between now and then? Yes, but I feel like this was Custer's last stand today.

I mean, this was... Zalotaurus? I mean, now you're going to throw all the top 10, top 20 stats at me and you should. I don't need to. It speaks for itself. He's on a heater. Is there anything to suggest that the heater's coming to an end? It's just that he hasn't ever truly threatened a golf tournament.

This is the golf tournament he's threatened the most. Okay. And I think we were grasping at straws because Norman was up six. and Jordan made the turn up five and Rory teed off up four and they all choked it away in their own way so it could happen but Matsuyama was going to have to

massively regress with the putter for this not to be a done deal today and this is probably the widest one shot win we've seen at a major in a long time he was not threatened I agree with your last point but I slightly disagree

with the setup, we had a rollicking locker room experience last night. It was tremendous. I'm just glad it's not tape for posterity unless any of the people inside did. I do. What is locker room? Do you know what it is? I mean, I got in there and I said some things. What is it?

It's Clubhouse or Twitter spaces for sports. It's been acquired by Spotify. Oh, Spotify. It's Spotify's live action. Okay. Yes, it's their response to the clubhouse and Twitter space is movement. Got it. And I have a sense.

That's why Billy texted us and was like, I just started a room get on right now. You and I were, I don't know, 13 or 14 Azaleas in. And we have some regrets about that. Well, he promised that it wasn't going to be recorded and then published. But he did send me a note. literally two minutes before last nights and said, you have

to stay mostly appropriate. Yeah, and true to form, you did not, so I value... Well, he opened the door. We have been, and I think we're allowed to say this on this podcast. We're not going to go there. You don't want to do it? The name that we've given, Will?

Go ahead. You can give them the name. Well, we gave a lot of names. Let's just not give the lineage. There's a lot of nicknames out there for Will Zalatoris, because Zalotaur is doesn't actually, like, easily roll off the tongue and you can do like Willie Z. There's a bunch of Z derivations you can do. And it started with us talking with Verno in fairness as he was prepping for the amazing master's updates that I felt like he absolutely delivered this week. Knocked out of the park. But his thing is, hey, I got to, I got to learn some rhymes because you

never know who's going to be on the leaderboard. Boys, what rhymes with Spieth? Boys, what rhymes with Zalotaurus, and you and I did some work on that and had some ideas. But that's not how we ended up at his nickname. Anyway, the point is, Will Zalotaurus weighs 100 pounds soaking wet. If the sprinkler system blazes at Augusta randomly, there's a fire alarm. It goes off. Zalotaurus will walk out of their way in 105. So that's why we call him the Big Z, right? Big Z. That's good. So let's just go, but here's the point. And we talked about it on the locker room, which is why I took us down that momentary rabbit hole. Or do we call them the Z spot?

Do we call them the Z spot? We ended up with the Z spot. Okay, so that's why we call him the Z spot. And that's pretty good. Yeah, okay. We call them the Z spot. You can get there. Here's what we talked about, though.

We anticipated, I thought Hadeki was going to shoot over par. Hadeki shot over par. And as we sort of talked it through in that live action space last night, a 65 or 66 by somebody in that. seven under six under class was going to put that pressure that we were looking for. And as it turns out, we said, what about Speed,

speed, is the guy, it feels like the guy who has the magic and the mojo around this joint. And he did today. He just fucking bogeied too much. He birdied so many holes. Yeah, exactly. That's right. House, this was not an overpar round from Hideki. It was only

over par because he was true. It was like it was overpar in the way that Tiger when he won. No, no, no, no. No, no. No, no. Because he was in the middle of the fairway on 18, and all he had to do was take, it was a wedge. If he hit the green with his wedge instead of hanging it into the bunker. He didn't have 14 major titles under his belt with that wedge shot. Come on. Or a 12 shot lead as Tiger came up 18.

You know what I mean? Yes, but he did hit it in that bunker. And he can't control whether the ball plugs or whether it rolls down beautifully and gives him a wonderful, you know, uphill sand shot. Truth or dare. You were definitely hoping that it was plugged. Truth. You wanted a Z-spot, Hideki playoff.

I did want that. I wanted drama for today. Not that I was rooting against Hideki. I was rooting for some drama. You wanted Matsuyama for your drama. I wanted Matsuyama for your mama and some drama. And I wanted it to come from X. And X gave us 10 and a half seconds worth.

We have to talk about X because this is now a thing, it's a problem. This is one of the people who has the screws very, very deep into their temples at this point. We know that Xander had a very complicated upbringing with a very overbearing father. We know that that has ramifications that seem to potentially, if you listen to some psychologists, play out on the course in moments of pressure, where this guy now has delivered unbelievable results in major champions. and he's not getting it done. And his interview with Amanda was great because he said,

listen, I had to go for it on 16. I listened to all the vets. I hit the shot flush, exactly what I thought. I got the wind wrong. I put it in the water. But the truth is he lost this tournament four, five, and six with bogeys, bogeys, double bogeys, right?

No, I disagree. I disagree. I think that he saved the opportunity to win the golf tournament by scratching out, you know, he got to. five bogey, bogey double. But he got to the turn in only was he won over for his round? I mean, yeah, one over for his round.

Yes, one over. At the turn. But that was considering the circumstances, a pretty impressive turn of events. I know, but he was five back. Like, he's out at that point. It's great that he went on the four birdie run between 12 and 15,

but like you're going to birdie 13 and 15 on Sunday. The truth is you should birdie 16. The shot on 16 was not go for the whole. hole. It was put it up at the top of the hill, have it rolled down, and then put the pressure on Hideki who did not have the T, right? He was hitting after Xander, put the pressure on Hadeki to put it close. And instead he went at the hole, puts it in the water. Nobody puts it in the water on 16. Nobody. A thousand percent, right. That is absolutely 100 percent, a thousand percent, 10,000 percent. He choked twice in this, in this last round. On five, the double is,

like inexcusable after bogey bogey on three and four and sixteen you just can't do it you cannot do it 16 is is the one that that i believe deserves the indictment the front nine just trying to find find his sea legs if he had done what you just described which is hit the ball to the top of the hill and let it roll down and so many of the guys we've watched it so many years it's a very very shot. I mean, obviously the wind and the nerves and everything that goes into it, it's very easy for us to sit here and say it, except for we've seen so

many guys do it so well in the moment. Or the alternative, even, if you're not on top of your game, is what Tiger did in 2005, which is nuke it, but you know what? If you nuke it, you can still make birdie.

And have a super awkward white guy high five when you do it. Right. The thing you cannot do under any circumstances. Put it in the water. Water. The drink, you can't go on the drink. So I do not, I just don't understand it today.

Like 3, 4, 5, Zander was in his own head. I loved the way he righted himself. That's right. I actually think 16 isn't the problem. Because if we kill him for that, as he said to Amanda in the cabin, he said, look, I was chasing. So I got to go for it there. Because realistically, I think I got to have two birdies to win.

We agree with all of that. The problem was, was, was, was, was, execution. But the shot that came back to his feet on five, I mean, come on, man. And that doesn't bother me. The front nine doesn't bother me. He had the chance to put pressure on championship, fortune outcome, change of direction, put that pressure on the T on 16. That was the moment to do that. And Hadecki was leaking oil. I mean, you know, he was right there. I mean, come on, he was strategic. He boated 15. Yeah. He, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, He was strategically working his way around the course.

If you want to talk about disappointments, I mean, I think Xander, I actually was super impressed with Zander Saturday. This guy's going to win a tournament. He's Phil-esque at this point, not in any way, shape, or form related to the game, but related to a guy who, like, when you hang around the hoop

or you circle the drain, pick your metaphor, you do it enough, you're going to win. And Zander is going to win one of these. It's not a debate at this point. He's good enough to do it. he's gotten frankly unlucky from the stat standpoint. The guy who I think walks away from this week the most disappointed is who? Justin Thomas.

Fuck, yes. I mean, there's no excuse. What happened? He was going to win this golf tournament halfway through Saturday. And then they got pulled off the golf course because of weather coming in. And what? Did he go do six bong hits? Did he go drop four quailutes?

You tell me what the fuck happened during the interim. I don't know, but listen, we have documented on this pod for now almost 18 months, the fact that when the clutch comes, JT, on occasion, starts to blow his drive right.

That didn't necessarily happen today, and you can't fault a guy for feeling nerves because when the bar is Tiger, it's unfair to everybody else, right? It's not fair. This guy puts himself in position, but Justin Thomas needs a second major. He's too good to not have a second major.

He probably should have three or four based on the quality that he's playing. He's a better golfer than Brooks Kepka. Agree, disagree. He's more consistent than Brooks Kepka. Right. He's been in there. This guy has the same number of majors as Patrick Reed, Colin Markauer, blah, blah, blah. Adam Scott, like all the way down the list, right?

He is the next guy. He is at this point, if it's not Spieth. and this was his chance. He was in position on a Saturday, and you cannot blame the break. He made bad decisions. He made bad decisions. Well, the shot into the creek on 13

is, I think, forever tied to his legacy until he goes and wins another major because it is so inexplicable. He laid up and then hit a wedge into the creek. like yeah and and that's my jam that's my shit right that's right that you and i do that at wilshire with billy on a fucking tuesday afternoon when we're playing hokey i'm gonna lay up here and give myself the short wedge in because of my whatever yeah but but but the body language right like guess guess who else had bad shots this week every other golfer but the body language when he

allows himself to slump in that situation he's one of the only guys who can actually pull himself out of it and reload and bounce back with a bunch of birdies. And listen, you know, he rallied the best he could, but it just was a meh performance from from ostensibly the second, third best player in the game

who should have won this golf tournament. I mean, he left the most out there this week. And now, as we go forward, he's won a PGA. And in hindsight, you and I kind of look at that and go, to be honest, who cares? Go win a U.S. Open because you can.

Go win this tournament because you can. Go win the British because you can. It's time. The screws are on Justin Thomas, who is at this point, I think, DJ's almost a decade older. Listen, he's the Great American Hope. Tiger's ankles powdered.

He's not coming back. It's done. I love Phil's performance today. Great. But if, you know, unless Jordan Speath picks it up, it is Thomas or bus. Okay. Well, I mean, this is, I felt you,

you walked me up to it. I feel like you're being a little disrespectful. Because one Jordan Speeth has put us on notice that he is back, baby. I mean... Listen, you know I ride or die. I'm constantly reverse jinxing Jordan Speath. And I loved... But listen, coming into this tournament, what do we say?

Last week, his driving accuracy is the worst it has been in a long time, even worse than three years ago. And it showed today and yesterday. It wasn't good enough for him to go win this golf tournament. else was great, even though, by the way, his putting was awful today. Well, and he putted poorly yesterday as well, which is the most surprising thing out of Jordan Spee. It's the last way we expect him to play himself out of the tournament. He was negative 2.45. When I tell you you have an 8, 9, 10 footer to save par, it's way more

nerve-inducing than when you have an 8, 9, 10 footer to make birdie, right? Yeah, but that's Jordan Speath time. Like, we've gotten used to, to seeing him make all those. I'm not disagreeing with you. It's... He just put too much pressure on himself by... That's right. With the wayward drives, like, he's got to just hit a few more fairways. And he's going to be at eight majors before we blink, I think. Well, and I... We've been seeing some good progress over the balance of this comeback for his accuracy off the T. So, uh, and he's still finished tied third, by the way. Let me ask you something.

Go ahead. And you got to tell me that you got to tell me the God's honest truth, like, as you believe. Are they on a jet to Baker's Bay right now? Not right now. Spieth and Thomas are they on the way? Possibly tomorrow morning. Not right this second. Possibly tomorrow morning. I mean,

Jordan's got a wife and he's got family stuff. They've all got significant others. Ricky does too, and it's Ricky's place they'll be visiting, I'm sure. Well, Ricky's got to be there already, right? Yeah, Ricky's been there with Smiley or whoever the rotating fourth guy is. they've been there for the week. Well, let's do some superlatives for what Hideki did, because I was prepared with a narrative that I'll share with you in a second, but a few superlatives.

Not only was his approach game on point. He finished fourth for the week in strokes gained approach. That is the most crucial stat. All of the winners of the past, I don't know, five years, 10 years. It's a Justin race stat finishing the top five of strokes gained approach at Augusta. But equally impressive, maybe more impressive. He was fourth this week in strokes gained around the green. He scrambled his ass off. I think he finished with 85%.

Yeah, I was just going to ask if I knew it was over 80%. That's outstanding. And our eyes saw it. Hit the par save on five. was fucking incredible. You know, that he made a put that if it had not gone into the hole, it looked like it was going to go 25 feet by the hole. 15 was the only one, but Faldo made the call.

He's got to just lay up basically with the chip there. And that was his caddy, wasn't it? Don't we blame the caddy for that? On 15? Some human being has to throw themselves in front of him and say, we're not hitting. Well, okay, but on 15, your point is he should have laid up. My point is the chip after he was in the water.

Faldo was on the telecast really wisely saying, this just has to go to the fringe. He just needs to put this at the top of the hill. Great call, which is exactly what he did. And that was Folldo. That's why we have Follado on the telecast. That's why we deal with Faldo with the Hartford or whatever,

the fuck we have to deal with where he doesn't, he just woke up after being at the bar and he notches. He was the one that was breathing heavy. You kept texting. Who's breathing heavy? He had to have been Faldo. This is why we put up with him is because, to be honest,

he's great at the Masters. he understood before everybody else did the pressure that was on Matsuyama. He was great. He was really great this week. Well, and, and, you know, again, more context for where Matsuyama came from. Since 1960, Masters winners who had not won anywhere in the world for 1,300 days or more, that we're talking about since 1960. So that's 61 years now.

Larry Mize, who won the Masters in 1987, and his previous win before that was in Memphis, in 1983. And Hedekhi Matsuyama, whose previous win was the WGC Bridgestone in 2017. I mean, when's the last time that he mattered? It was when Tiger stole the Zosso from him in Japan right before he won the Masters, right? So the thing is, there have been some green shoots from Hedekie. he competed at that Wingfoot US Open. I had him on a betting ticket and watched intently.

I love the ball striking skill set coming into to Wingfoot and what he could not do was putt there. And that it flustered me. He finished, I think, runner up at Houston. And then he was in the top 15 at the Masters in November. And he has a bunch of like the classic Masters, winner portfolio. He's in the top 30 in the official world golf ranking. I think he's 24th or 25th. And he's 29 years old. So that's like right in the sweet spot. What scared me today,

okay, to your point is, look, this guy, he has been an elite ball striker for a long, long time. We expect that he should have a lot more wins and majors, blah, blah, blah. It's all about the putting. That was the whole conversation coming in today with everybody being like, you know, he can't fucking put. That's really what we're telling you. The second. seventh hole, he steps up with a four or five footer for Bertie. He misses it. Misses it. That's right.

And misses it badly. And that was where there was a potential open door. He followed it with two Bertie's house on eight and nine. And that was where I felt like he closed the door and said, hell no, I'm not giving this up. I think that was the three-hole stretch that won him the tournament. He also had some of the golf gods looking favorably down on him because in our thread with Simmons. And Kevin Clark. And Kevin Clark.

Shout out to the homie Kev. He hit two on 13 that easily could have found their way into much more calamitous. I mean, he ended up birdying 13 and 13 could have easily been a bogey or a double boge with the two balls that he hit. So and the saving par on five was remarkable to bounce back as you just described of making. breaking birdies on eight and nine after a short birdie miss on seven. I mean, he really did golf his ball and he avoided for the most part all of the drama. There was we had it felt like 97 seconds worth of drama when he hit the ball in the water on 15. And then and and and Xander damn near hold his sand shot for Eagle. It touched the hole it looked like. But that was the extent of it. I'm so intrigued with the storylines coming out of this. Not so much because of Matsyama. I mean, that's just one of those classic monkeys off the back kind of, you know,

storylines. But I'm looking at guys like Fienau. You mean top 10, Tony? Another top 10. Once again, he holds a shot from the fairway for a birdie. He has this crazy under the tree, you know, low stinger that bounces off a bunker lip, 10 yards left and then rolls up next to the hole so that he taps it in. I mean, there are some real guys now who, in this post-Tiger era, where we, you know, we wanted

it to be speed, we wanted to be DJ, this week told us they're great, but they're not the greatest. They're not the next thing. So we have this wonderful, I think, sort of, you know, array of golfers, probably 15 deep, any of whom is a pretty decent bet to win a lot. major. But some of whom now, again, have real weight on their shoulder. I love what Rom did today, don't you? Me too. Wonderful. We thought for a second that he might go out and put up like a nine under round, go out and shoot a 63 and just be in the house for three hours at nine under. Let everybody see that

number. Did you hear Amanda's interview with him? He said, look, I know the data says I've been close. I haven't been close. He said two years ago I was close. Maybe. I was within two. He's like, I'm actually not playing well enough to be close here. I know the course. I got to do better. And I loved everything about that. You know, fast forward to Xander comes off the course where he completely choked those early holes and 16 looks ugly, but, you know, maybe you let him off the course. And he's sort of like fake smiling like the loser at the Grammys or Oscar like actor or actress, you know, in the press conference like, no, everything's great. I'm just so happy to be nominated, right? That was the Zander speech. Whereas Rom, like a, a

fucking robot is like, no, no, it hasn't been good enough. I know it, and I'm going to be back. I know this course. Yeah, I know what you're asking for. You want somebody like Xander in the position that he was in and with the kind of game that he had today and with what was in his own hands standing on the T on 16 to come off and be devastated. We wanted X to be devastated. I just wanted honesty. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think part of the DNA for him and what works for him is some kind of positivity. That probably borders on delusion. Yes, but let me not say.

He was beautifully honest in the way he said, look, I'd heard from all the guys about to trust the wind, and I trusted the wind, and I flushed it, and it is what it is. They didn't really ask him about the early part of the round where, you know, listen, the CBS crew buried him, and they should have, because it was over at that point. It's fun what he did at the end, but it was over at that point.

You have to play a better round of golf than he did. He will understand that. It's just, Roms the one who, I think, understands the most how to win and takes the losses the least hard. He's going to be able to survive a bunch of second, third, fourth places and come out on top relative to some of these other guys who might be looking up at the other 13, 14 guys who perpetually are in the mix and get a couple. I totally agree.

I mean, that's where we are. Ugh. How do you feel about DJ? Are you disappointed in DJ? I'm extremely disappointed in DJ. I was in that camp of DJ just chilling in the run-up to this event. But you know what? The storyline, an emerging storyline, entering this April Masters,

the return of patrons were back in the traditional place on the schedule was, are we going to stick an asterisk next to November because of the conditions and everything and the scoring that was out there and what DJ is? that right now? Is this an asteris win for DJ? Well, I mean, you got to validate what you did by making the cut. You can't show up and bogey, bogey 17 and 18 and miss the cut as a result of that. His previous year's performance were terrific, though, in April. I mean, it's not like this was a fluke of a thing. Like, I feel like- I didn't call it a fluke. I'm just, but we're five months, So it was five months ago.

So what's different? What changed? Listen, you know what's different? They fucking made pigs in a blanket, these fat kilbasa sausages in some battered shit. Like, that was bullshit. Like, bring the pigs. That's why you fucking missed the cut. They needed to get a traditional Vienna sausage.

Stick it inside a goddamn. They need some Pillsbury Crescent rolls with the mini hat dogs. You know and I know how to roll these things. The Vienna sausage in a Pillsbury. That's a pig in a blanket, for Christ's sake. I blame the chef in the cabin. Come on. It was a sabotage.

Okay. Speaking of sabotage, what do we say about Bryson? Go. Look, I'm thrilled by it. I'm absolutely invigorated by him sucking at Augusta. But the reason is because this is not, this is not Beefy Bryson hate. it poses a challenge to him, a problem to him, that he so far has not been able to solve. It's extremely vexing.

And a lot of the commentary from smart golf people has focused on the idea that Auguster requires a kind of artistry, a kind of creativity that Bryson has not yet either founded himself or accepted or identified as the way to success. navigate this golf course. He keeps trying to do lines. He's, you know, Brandl, I think, called him too linear. I can't remember maybe it was Braille.

I don't remember who. But I agree with that. One of these dumb old guys. I agree with that thesis. Yeah. You can see him. He's so quickly

deflates. It's great. It's enormously fun. It's wonderful. Because he's going to figure this out. That's the thing is, well, is he?

That's what makes it so goddamn good, Nate dog. Is he? I didn't feel like this was a puzzle when Mickelson was trying to do it. It was just about Mickelson controlling himself. For Bryson, it feels like this is legitimately a puzzle and that one piece that connects the weird, you know, images or whatever

that's sitting off to the side, he just hasn't found it yet. And so his face, listen, it was so ridiculous on Saturday. When he hits the T-shot, he hits it fat, his hands open, you know he's chunked it. And he goes, oh, the wind. And then they immediately cut in the app to a still flag stick. And you see the ball go, blip, you know, in the water. Wonderful.

He's full of shit. And he's full of shit while he's figuring it out. But you know, listen, this guy is a revolutionary in the game. He is. Love him or hate him. And I'm not a huge fan, but I love the revolutionary aspect of him. It's so fun to see him trying to unwind this thing and solve the problem. That's right.

It's Friday 67. shows you, tells you, he's got it in him. There's, you know, some aspect of his raw skill, his raw ability translates into five under at Augustine National. And if he just managed to get himself a round par or a little bit under on a couple others around. That's the difference between tie for 40th or wherever he is and, you know, the top five. That's the difference. Yeah. Is there anybody else that? this week who either exceeded your expectations or fell short in a real way of what you, in hindsight, feel like were fair expectations for them?

Only a teeny tiny bit. I really feel like Colin Warcawa and Augusta National are going to be a good match eventually. And I had him penciled in as a guy that I love, and he shot 75 on Saturday. I mean, one over on Thursday, three under. on Tuesday and then the 75 and that was it. I really do think that he's a guy that can have some success at this venue. I mean, we, Zalotaurus was the biggest revelation, but, you know, we started off the show with him. So, I mean, that, that's great.

I can't wait to see him play more golf. I love, there's a little bit of a swash buckler, and maybe it's because he has, that's 28-inch waist that kind of accentuates it. but uh what you and i use his belt as like a whoop band around our wrist but we saw the two studs morikawa and sheffler they both finished tied for 18th at at one under and those are guys that we point to you know on a weekly basis as the guys that are the next you know generation can we just do one bit of can we just do one bit of important sort of uh you know honoring of of the old guys Phil when he makes the turn

is two under. And if he finishes there, he's going to finish T12. As it happens, you know, he bogeys 10 and 11 and then 18 sort of just screwing around.

So he finishes even, who cares, he's T21. But that was a hell of a performance, a hell of a performance when he actually had to grind it out to make the cut. Two made cuts for Phil

at the Masters in five months. That's one more than Dustin fucking Johnson. I mean, that's a guy that's, actually out there taking his craft seriously. Now, Phil with his hustle always has a half dozen things that we are not aware of that are going to come out, you know, and we will see some kind of, well, I think we already know that he has

another iteration of one of these matches coming up where he'll get paired up with another Oh, God. You mean the business stuff got in the way of the golf? No, no, I don't know. I'm saying it's not getting in the way. instead, I like Phil leveraging these unbelievable performances. He's out here showing us on a Sunday at the Masters how much game he still has at 50 years old.

So when he goes and does these little bomb wong, bomb all kind of adventures made for TV things, fuck yes. You can see it's Phil. He just made the cut the Masters. It's Phil Mickelson. Okay, okay. Okay.

But of all the oldest guys, you've ever existed. And you raged about this on Clubhouse. Tom Watson losing to Stewart's sink is the most painful thing we've probably experienced in our lifetime. As golf fans, you know. As golfing. Yeah. I mean, that's six iron an on 18. It should have stayed on the green. The wedge you didn't hit great. He was perfect. Yeah, he should have won that turn. Okay, fine. You know, Tiger winning the Masters in 2019 is a serious, is a serious thing. the sort of consistency of Bernard Langer who probably had a little bit more in him this week

but still hung around and you got to love him. Ola Thabble finally making a cut is great. What I'm moving to is, is there any chance that Phil Mickelson in the next 10 years is going to contend and potentially win a Masters? Or is this the best we could possibly hope for this week? Oh, I think there's definitely a chance.

Absolutely there's a chance. Could we get the guy who's 58, 59, 6? 60, 62, who wins a major, and it has to be at the master's fill, probably, right? Under the right circumstances, I say absolutely yes. I mean, the wind comes up, a score around 500 or 600, by the way. He has to lose the shades. The green jackets delivered exactly. I think he alleges that they help his overall vision, that he can see things better with them. I don't know whether that's true. He didn't wear him yesterday is all I'm going to say. But this is our last hope, not last,

because Tiger's not doing, like, everything we heard from the guys this week is a nice way of saying, like he has residue for a right leg right now. Please stop pretending, just be happy that he can, you know, take care of his kids and all that. He's alive.

Yeah, exactly. That's it. That's it. And so in terms of sort of golf icons at an old age, replicating Jack in 86, Tiger and 19, the only,

and almost Watson in, what was it, 11? Yeah, I don't... Whenever he unfortunately lost to sink. Mickelson is our best hope. I loved Olothobble this week, getting through and playing well.

There is an amazing story of the old guy, especially as we start to stretch our ages and all these guys are in better shape, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And by the way, Stuart Sink, tied for 12. Like, the proof is in the pudding. He's 47, is that his age, right? Yeah, so the difference between Stuart Sincol's Sink and Phil Mickelson, T12 for Sink is not like that, you know, Phil was T-21.

Let me be clear. They can play. They can play. Right. They can play. They can play. Well, look, Nate Dogg, I think we should end on that note. We've done some of the historical context.

We have things to look forward to. This was a good master's, buddy. It was so great to have it in April. I'm so bum that we have to wait a year. I almost want them to have Masters A and Masters B so that we get. you know, but this was a great week. It's a bummer to have to wait another year. Oh, well, look, no, we're on the accelerator.

Like, we're just pushing down on the gas, buddy. We've got the PG&P. We can see South Carolina, the PGA from here. Yes, exactly. Like, it's all systems go. We're doing PGA. We're doing the U.S. Open. We're doing British Open.

There's some Olympics. We got Quail Hollow is in our future. We got Byron Nelson. We got Harbor Town next one. week, maybe. Well, we're not, we will be talking about next week a week from now because we're going to go ahead and give ourselves some well-earned rest this week. But we will be back in a week's time, my par saving pals, my birdie buddies. I hope some of you jumped in on the live betting action on Hedecki. I did not, but, but, you know, that does not undermine my admiration and overall

enjoyment of the man's wonderful performance today. Nate Dog, thank you so much for a master's week. Thanks buddy. We will be back in a week's time.