Fairway Rollin' - Hideki Matsuyama’s Dominant Genesis Win, Tiger’s Withdrawal, and Mexico Open Picks!

Episode Date: February 21, 2024

House and Hubbard start the pod with their recap of an unusual Genesis Invitational, including Tiger Woods’s withdrawal, Hideki Matsuyama’s dominant win, and Jordan Spieth’s bizarre disqualification (02:16). After, they preview and offer their favorite picks for the Mexico Open at Vidanta (34:16). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Producer: Eduardo Ocampo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hello, friends. Welcome to this golf podcast unlike any other. Oh yes, my friends, we are back. This is Bearaway Roll. A golf podcast on the Ringer podcast Network. I am your starter Joe House. Jo joined, as always, by my incomparable accomplice hour PGA tour. Boots on the ground, Nathan Hubbard.

A golf tournament just happened in Mr. Hubbard's backyard. We have thoughts, takes, observations, all of which will be at least, least as good as Hedeky's Sunday 62, but Tiger wasn't there to give out the trophy. Let's throw two pegs in the ground and see if we can make some sense out of this thing. Nate Dogg, how you feeling, buddy? That was different than I thought it was going to be, House. Riviera, there was some great golf played. The top 20 of the leaderboard looks clustered with names.

But man, having J.T., having Fitzpatrick missed the cut, having way more guys. I mean, boy, the over, under over, you and I said it was eight and it was way more. And the Tiger Disappearing Act and the Jordan DQ just made shit weird, didn't it? It got weird. And we keep sort of looking at the calendar, the golf calendar, and wondering, is this going to be the week where we catch the buzz, the buzz gets resuscitated. And this is like, you know, patently unfair.

We will compare this moment right now on the golf calendar in 2024 to the same moment on the golf calendar in 2023, where we had a series of amazing outcomes featuring the best names in golf. It doesn't help the PGA tour that thus far, through these six events, the defending champion of three of them was John Rom who no longer plays on this tour. I missed him this week.

Yeah, I missed him. I'm never going to forget him bounding up those stairs at Riviera, how happy he was into the player dining area with his everybody around him. I just like, his presence was missed this week. Well, I feel compelled right from the jump to come in and, tell everyone, I will not tolerate any more of this in-and-out burger slander.

The amount of speculation that followed from the adverse health situation confronted by Tiger Woods, the adverse health circumstances surrounding Jordan Speath, who allegedly messed up his scorecard because he allegedly had an urgent bathroom situation to address. 911D. The Tom Kim almost missing his tea time. And allegedly, I don't know if this was a meme or actually picked up on the telephone. I didn't get a chance to research it, but there was this intimation that it had played a role in his own delayed. well, Cantley showed up Sunday with a 100 degree fever.

He at least, he and his team had the good sense to not try and blame his fever that he woke up with on Sunday on In-N-Out. But I, for sure, it's the case that Tiger Woods fleeing the premises and then not returning to give out the trophy or participate in any of the weekend's events had absolutely nothing at all to do with In-N-Out Burger. So don't try it anymore. Whatever's going on out there at golf Twitter. Leave in and out out of this.

That's my take, Nate Dogg. Tiger had influenza. He had the flu. Did he give that to Jordan? Did he give that to Patrick Cantlay? It was a contagious flu, huh? Well, those three guys in particular, what do they have in common? and they're all sitting on the packboard.

They probably spent some time huddling up, talking about a number of issues that, as we talked about from Phoenix, we're still hot on the table. The thing that's interesting is that it does not appear Adam Scott had it, although he drained a birdie on his last. He didn't have the best week,

but didn't seem to be showing signs of illness. Yeah, why not? Let's blame Tiger. Well, here's the thing. we had a great time trying to forecast this time last week. The prospects for Tiger, I expressed, you know, my gentle skepticism. This place is not his place. And, you know, he's never really played.

Well, but I was starting to get my appetite for it. He had the overlook. One of the bets you put the wagers you put in front of me, Tiger Woods at four and a half birdies over or under house, house got it wrong. I said under four and a half. I was rubbing. that on you. Yeah. Yeah, right at the end. He birded 17 and got five birdies in his Thursday round.

And he was perfectly well situated through the first seven holes on Friday to compete for sticking around into the weekend. And how would we be looking at this tournament if Tiger had been part of the story? I just stop with the hypotheticals. He's more done than in an Outburger, right? right now. And I just, I love him. He is my all-time favorite golfer. Are you saying, is he golf done? Is that your take? How, now you got to take a step back and look at his last starts, where he's withdrawn from three of them and not how to top anything. I mean, look, he's not playing enough to get into a flow, particularly with the putter. And the birdies were nice. He was swinging the club okay, but the thing that scared me most of all was that shank on 18,

and that wasn't about his hand-eye coordination. That was about his body in round one, round one, his body's ability to finish an 18-hole round. And yeah, you're right, he had five birdies, but he had six bogies. And my could, yeah, well, that, the real concern in connection with that shank is that it was preceded, and he said it out last. by back spasms. By back spasms. And I just think the body at this point has not, is not cooperating. And it's not cooperating to the point where, again, he can get into a real rhythm with the putter

so that he can get himself into a reasonable place of contention. Might he have made the cut? I don't know, man. I mean, well, if he didn't have COVID, what do you have made the cut? Look, the guys at plus two all got. cut and he came into the day at plus one. So I, I, if I'm a betting man, and by the way, when he came off the course, he was plus two overall. So if I'm a betting man, no, Tiger Woods misses the cut in that event. And I, look, I don't mean to be dramatic when I say he's done, but we've been

talking for a long time about how golf needed to take the Tiger Woods needle out of its arm. And the disappointing thing about this moment in time is that with this array of players, none of them are perfect. Therefore, it is fun when they're all together because they've all got a chance. But the dilution that's come with Rahm and others leaving leaves us a little bit of an unsatisfactory cast of characters.

Here it was again, Scotty Schaeffler playing great Tee to Green, second T to Green, but 51st in putting, missing just a ton of, putts and ho-humming his way to a top 10 when he should have been in contention. Here it was again, Shafley and Can't Lay with a tournament victory served up on a platter, meh in round four, right?

I mean, meh, each of them, Can't Lay fine, he was sick. He's still 37th and putting. Shaflea didn't seem to be sixth was 49th in putting, just not able to really execute, right? And what that leaves me with is this sort of you long for Tiger and we put so much of an investment into him performing it. I just think he's telling us by his performance right now. The body can't do it enough for him to be consistently

great or consistently good. Well, he is the reason that we didn't take the needle out of our arms because this season above all other seasons needs Tiger in it. If this truly is... Are you excited to see him at

Aral Palmer Invitational? Yes. Really? 100%. He's won seven times there. Yes. Yes. Yes. If there's any indication between now and then, see, the lack of enthusiasm, my muted prospects for Tiger as I tried to forecast RIV. Like to me, that was just, it's already all by itself a humongous lift for Tiger. He has to be somebody, you know, there for everybody at this event, this Genesis event. He has to be there for the partner. he has to be there for his foundation.

Apparently not. He was gone for the whole weekend. Except he was gone. Pooping his brains out. Or coming back from COVID, which is my own view of exactly what was going on. But that's a radically different proposition than being close to home in Florida at a place where he's won seven times where his only obligation is to show up and play the golf. So if we don't hear any more nonsense about. back spasms between now and March the 7th.

Yes, I am going to be excited for Tiger. I like his prospects. But he didn't talk about backsasms coming in either. Well, he also didn't compete, you know, at professional golf. Here are his finishes since the 2022 PGA championship, inclusive of it. Withdraw, cut at the open, T-45 at the Genesis last year. withdraw from the Masters, 18th at the Hit and Giggle Hero World Challenge, withdraw from the Genesis Invitational.

That's three WDs, a miscut, and a T-45 in the tournaments that matter. I thought he looked great. I thought he looked great walking. But no, he did not. Listen, he still tiger. It's the best he looked since he had a car accident. He's still Tiger effing Woods, which is what those five birdies were about, which is why I felt like that was the right bet.

but because he's Tiger Fing Woods of today, he's making six bogeys because he's just not sharp. And I think the back told us at the end of that round that he's not... Larry Bird ain't walking through that door house! Well, we're going to find out.

And I'm not asking for Larry Bird. And I'm not asking for the full Tiger Woods. We are. We are. Because you and I, in retrospect, realized that him winning the Masters in 19 was one of the greatest all-time sporting moments, period. It was one of the greatest Tiger moments, we're never going to see anything like that.

As Nick Faldo said, we will never in your life. Probably not, although Tom Watson at age 59 was one extraordinarily flushed, so well-flushed eight iron away. And Phil, but neither of those guys had the physical impediments that this guy has. That's right. So that's my thing. And look, I want it to happen. I so badly want it to happen.

It just is the B in my bonnet or the B in my briefs is that golf is relying too much on the Tiger effect, including all of Pontevira, and ignoring the stories that they need to tell and the moves that they need to make to get to a world where this guy doesn't have to come in and save your ass every tournament. Except for that's exactly right where we are. This moment, him saying, I'm going to play seven or eight times and letting us. all sit at the beginning of the golf calendar this year and try and pick those times. Here are the seven, right? Four majors, the Masters, the API, Memorial, incredible, right? We're going to have a tiger sighting at all of the most important moments, and that will be the thing that helps bridge this negotiation that's going to drag out over the course of 24.

I mean, let's take a quick interlude. Do you think that there will be a deal by the Masters? Because we've talked before, and your anticipation was that there could be a meeting of the minds by the Masters, and it would be a wonderful announcement pre-masters. Is that still in the cards? Well, the deal that I thought was going to happen was the investment that got made. They made that announcement.

And coming out of that now, it sure looks to me like there are some baseline governance issues that are still being worked out around how this whole thing goes, and they're teaching the current membership about which of the four tiers of equity they're in and what that means. And if there's a concurrent deal to be worked out between Live and the PIF and the tour before the Masters, I think a lot of the language that has come from the board members about desiring it but not needing it. suggests to me that there's not a rush at the moment because it's not going to change this season now. It can't possibly in good faith with all the criteria. So they've got some time. And the tour did gain some leverage by getting the injection of cash. They've now set up a league that the player's own

and where if you do the math and you've stayed, you can see a world in which you've got one bird in hand that might be as heavy or close to as heavy as whatever offer live is putting in front of you. think that changed the dynamics and the urgency to get a deal done by the masters between the Saudis and the tour. Okay. I accept all of that. Now give me one reason to watch. Tell me what. I just watched the past six weeks. Was I blown away? Where was there, was there any drama? Yes. The most drama was, you know, the naked butt slides in Phoenix. I think there was drama if you had been able to be more invested in the stories of the players who were in contention. I loved seeing Willie Z in contention this week. Amazing.

And we talked about it last week, by the way. His top 20 numbers were, I hope you jumped on that. We've been decent about those. We've been decent about those. We're not always going to be, but in that case, we were decent about those. Look, I think some of these stories are interesting. Sheffler's struggles are interesting to me. Well, that's a tough watch, though.

It is. It's a really tough watch. But that's kind of where we are in golf right now. This is the guy who... Is that a good thing? He should have the throne. He should have the throne. He should be sitting on the throne from a ball striking perspective.

He is doing what the guy that were lamenting didn't show up for the weekend, Tiger Woods, did. He just is putting like Tiger Woods, I mean, worse than Tiger Woods. Woods is putting now. And it's hard to watch. With his ball striking, this should have been his third win. And then think about the story for this season, right? Yeah. It should have been his third win with the quality of T to Green and approach.

And even around the green, is it around the green numbers are also, you know. And it should probably be his ninth win in the last year. Yes. Yes. Now you're, yeah, exactly. That's right. It is how well he's hitting it. So, yeah, is that as compelling as.

one guy going out and dominating, no, it isn't. But I still think the tour needs to do a better job of being able to market its product and its players when it doesn't have a generational superstar across all of sports. Otherwise, what are we even doing here? And that's the lagging part that this weekend could have been more interesting than it was. The Cantlay Shafley thing for me is fascinating because you have, guess who's sitting there once again, you know,

with a pretty dang good result from this week, you've got the, you've got a bunch of the young guard just sort of sniffing Aberg,

Oberg, sitting inside the top 20. Ever heard of you. Victor sitting inside the top 20. And that was teed up right there for, for Xander or Cantlay.

And it just, you start to get a sense that if one of these guys doesn't snap into gear in the next year, and grab that major, there's going to be a whole generation of people,

of people who are going to replace them or at least going to make their odds much, much, much worse to win a major. All these things are interesting stories when there is real competition. I just think the entire sport has been constructed over the last 20 plus years around one man

who keeps showing up again and again and again and not with his words, but with his play, telling us you can't rely on that anymore. Well, I am going to wonder out loud as it relates to folks in that Zander and Cantlay kind of class, which is to say guys who are

inside the top 15 of the world rankings, all the world rankings, whatever world ranking you want to come up with, who have been... Including Norman's, Greg Norman's rankings, whatever he tweeted. I don't know all this. Who are getting, you know,

they're getting paid by way of the PIP and there... Right. Is there, you know, this is a thing in the golf chattering class right now, Is it potentially impairing the competitive integrity for the guys who have all of this money, this boatload of money flowing their direction over the last 18 months or so? You know, is it life or death for Cantlay or Shafley? Are those guys, you know, like taking gigantic checks from all of these different directions?

I'm like, okay with third. you think that's my question i don't take some of the i don't know i don't know to me in some cases i think that takes some of the cluster f of you know zander lipping out on 18 which was like a 600 000 300 000 miss whatever it was uh it takes some of that pressure away because you're comfortable and then you can just go out and play i mean that that's sort of where tiger got to was it it eliminates some of that mental how do I feed my family stuff that all these guys in some capacity have had to live with because they they get to a certain point and then they got a lifestyle they're trying to maintain. So I know as crazy as that sounds, but I'm not so sure which way that tips.

I almost, I, does it, does it hurt, does it make it harder for Tom Hogi going head to head with Xander? Maybe it does because those guys have very different economic situations. And if you're Hogi, maybe you're happy with third or fourth. I mean, it's what we dealt with Mark at AT&T, right? When the rain comes and you're T4, and suddenly you're going to get 300 and whatever points, but you're only a couple shots behind,

and you're not sure that Wyndham really is a mutter, and it's really hard to follow up a 60 with the round, and you know that course, and you love it, you know, a lot of people around them are probably going, shit, take the money, take the points, let's be set up for the season, but you know what he's thinking fuck here's my chance to win I know this course I know I can play it I want to go do it

but you know there's a lot of guys who might have felt geez let me I hope it rains really hard tonight you are talking about guys in different equity tiers yeah right we're talking about you know so it will be continuing

and as much as anything this is you know the rub of the green right because the the great fortune that the tour enjoyed last year when it, you know, hurriedly pulled together their elevated events, their signature events, and hurriedly fashion fields where it was mandatory participation for all of the best players. And then we got great performances out

of the top players in the world with Sheffler and Rom. And, you know, Max Homa, no slouch, won a Tori last year, like a whole series over the first six. weeks. Right. And it really did sort of energize the season. You're right. And it validated this idea. Let's get the best players together more often. Matthew Pavon is not doing it for you. I get it. And all due respect to Nick Taylor who burned the house down. It was they're the first half of the Super Bowl. And

I bet Nick Taylor could walk into the circle liquors here in Chevy Chase and not have any issue with grabbing a couple sixers of Labats. Fair enough, but it is, it has been a hard opening start to the tour. And it wasn't just because this week, Tiger was gone by the weekend. And Jordan signed a Goofy's card and Fitzpatrick and U.S. Open champion, Wyndham Clark and Justin Thomas and, you know, Kegan and all missed the cut. You also just think back to the weather issues we had. I mean, this tournament was lucky to get it in because it is, there's another inch or two a rain that's dropped today.

And leading up to Rive, there was a ton. But we've had weather in Babel. we've had weather in Arizona. It's kind of been a tough slog at the start of the season. And now we're going to get into a stretch here that's massively unproven. I mean, this Mexico field this week is a glorified corn ferry tour event. It is the worst field of the year. And that's great from a betting standpoint if you've been paying attention because it means

there are some things that you can glom onto. but it's API sort of definitely the players and then the masters from here and getting people excited about what's next, it's a slog and the tour's got some work to do. Yeah, it might just be the masters. We're going to see.

Every week is a new opportunity other than this upcoming week. Every week on tour is a new opportunity for new stories, new great, because we didn't have Nick Dunlap on our card for the administration. American Express. And that was an amazing story.

It just got completely dwarfed by the best weekend in all of professional football, which is the wild card weekend. So we'll see. We should also say amongst those guys who even the guys who made the cut, there was weird shit. I mean, Rory and Max, two of the guys you would have had the microscope on, both were over par in their first rounds. Now they fought back over the course of the weekend, but the best they could work into was top 25s basically, right?

Rory had a nice little finish, but it wasn't, it wasn't spectacular. So this was a weird, it was just a weird event. And against the backdrop of all of that, that Hadecki round is one of the best rounds of golf you're ever going to see. Unbelievable. Outrageous. When this guy's third in putting, it's over. It's over.

It's not dissimilar to what happened at the Masters. But for him to walk off the course and say, I felt like I played three over today to Amanda when he put it collectively inside a foot on 15 and 16. I mean, a guy just threw the accelerator down. And it was nice to see because it's been a little while since we've seen Hideki in this form. Well, that's exactly the observation I was going to make.

I am so pissed at us. I'm pissed at many of the smart people in our lives. everybody was doing the great, you know, historical correlation between Augusta and RIV and the winners at RIV over the last decade, over the last 15 years, replete with Masters winners. And somehow, because Hedekhi has been so inconsistent and physically inconsistent, you know, the back issues, we, nobody, only, I saw Matt Bincenzy or Bichensi at Golf WRX. He's the only guy whose forecast I could find had Hadeki. And he's like, I'm playing Hadeki because he's at 80 to 1. And you know what?

That's a great rule for a guy with a world-class golf game. Every single week when he tease it up, we say, I mean, we deliberately went out of our way to talk about Hadeki at Phoenix. And he did finish in the top 30, but it wasn't. like, right. It wasn't like, oh, this is showing me that version of Hadecki that I believe in. Oh, end of 21, start of 22. He won the Sozo in Japan with that incredible three wood in. I mean, it just was awesome. It comes out. He wins Sony with an likewise incredible shot into the last. Like, that's when you thought, okay, here we go. And he had a couple of top tens, but it's when the injuries really started to take the toll. And then, as you said, if you look at his last 25 starts, there's not

much to get excited about. I mean, he's got a top 10, you know, going back to the players where he finished fifth last year, from that time on, he's got one top 10. So you just don't think that he's going to come in and storm the way that he did. And he really wasn't the story heading into Sunday. But man, you put, you put that round on the board, 62 at RIV under those conditions when you've got the fourth hole where 15% of the people hit the green for crying out loud. he was stellar. It was amazing. It was an outrageously great round to watch.

The funny thing is it happened so fast. We had six guys tied at 14 under and it was like, okay, now we're talking. This is the finish on tour that we've been sort of pining for. And it's all these big names, guys with different storylines, you know, guys who who need wins could use a signature win at a historically, a, a vaunted venue, right? It would be a career enhancer for Zander, a career enhancer for Cantlay. For sure.

You know, Willie Z, he's all the way back, right? There was a bunch of insane storylines just popping up. And Hadeki took one look. It's like, whack, whack, turn him it over, boys. He gained eight and a half strokes on the field on Sunday. Yeah. And, I mean, it had one had a great round and gained five. and a half. But then the next closest guy

was three and a half. I mean, this was an absolute ass kicking and it wasn't there was nothing fluky about it. It just was scary when he came off and said, I just don't feel like I hit the ball very well today. It was wonderful. Amanda, Amanda was because she couldn't believe it. Sir,

what are you talking about? How dare you? Yeah. So it did though remind me at least house. What a wonderful golf course. This is not that you ever forget it, but on television, it looks great. It's great to see these guys struggling.

It isn't weirdly punishing in the way that Bay Hill sometimes can be in the wind where guys just don't like the challenge. They love this challenge always, again, with the exception of that fourth hole, which I think the consensus at this point is they just got to re-sad the front because it's... Yeah. It's just too... I don't know what they're waiting for. But everything else about this course is majestic.

And it's just a special, special place. It really feels that this... point, I don't know that there's a more prestigious regular season PGA tour title than this one, as far as I'm concerned. I agree. And the venue is three quarters of it, if not, you know, 80% or even higher. Like, it is the polar opposite to me. I know people like Mirfield Village and Jail Jock in the highest esteem and, you know, the memorial is. Players do not like that course. Tiger loves that course Players do not like that course

Yeah so I you know Because it's too tricked out Rib is never one It feels like he's trying Riv doesn't have to try RIV just is The Very quick aside also

We've sort of intimated I love the CBS coverage This past weekend There will always be the complaints about showing enough shots I thought Nance was on fire He clearly clearly was like

fully recovered from the Super Bowl from the Romo washout I was fine with Romo by the way I mean we're not I don't not gonna insist even the last play I was fine with it I really didn't have any any big big issue I just don't think he knew that the overtime

that time could have run out and you know the chief still would have had the ball when he said this is for the Super Bowl that was I like Tony I mean too whatever but Nancy Nancy said in the after the championship game that he really missed his golf friends.

I think he loves golf above all. I really do. Well, and we're going to miss him because they're not back on again until the master's. I know. So we're about to start a run of NBC. I know. And please, you know, for everybody out there. He was great with the, with the internet sleuths calling in on Hadecki, putting the wedge behind the ball, telling him to go pick on somebody else.

Let me ask you, though, House, because we just got to address it. The Jordan DQ. Does it matter? Do you care? I don't care. Neither do I. Who cares? It's a dumb rule.

Sign your damn scorecard right. Why are we talking about this? Like, I'm fine with the idea that professional PGA tour events, like, they're keeping score. Everybody's keeping score. Don't put it on the volunteers doing Shotlink, which was somebody's dumbass idea. Those guys are the worst possible idea. Wonderful, delightful. like walking corpses.

Like honestly, they are the most friendly people who have no idea how to use the technology that's in their hands. It's just, it would be the most unfair thing to add. They're just trying to walk 18 holes,

much less capture all this stuff. It can't be on those guys. I don't care. And I think it's fine that he decued. The tour could come up with its own rule for tour events because it's probably better to have Jordan Speath play all four rounds

for television purposes. And since it's a TV product, it's probably better to have your guys on TV, like the charismatic, you know, folks of interest, characters of interest. Hey, how he's, he's an interesting person. I think they would like to prefer to have him on TV.

Now, my question is, was he sick? Well, maybe he was, but you know what? Got more broad mass appeal attention than anything else this golf season? Jason Day's clothing. Jordan Speeat DQing. Got more attention than anybody who's won early in the season,

any other event this far. So, yeah, you're right. But it also at least injected golf into a little more mainstream sports culture. I guess. It's not like this happens multiple times a year. It's a dumb rule and I don't care. Fine. Who gives a shit?

I agree. Except for it's better. for TV to have your TV stars on TV. I wish Jordan had been there on the week. They'd figured out the way. I'm not sure he was going to shoot a 62 on Sunday to stay. Assuming that he also didn't have COVID, yes, it would have been good for him to be on TV.

All right. Let's go to Mexico. This is the final event on the West Coast. Do we have to? Do we call it the, is it still the West Coast swing? I mean, oh, good question. No, it's not because it's in the Central Times. zone. This is the first week

Liv should be playing. What are they doing? I think I would definitely watch if they played this week. They have to go to where are they going? Jedda. I don't go into Jeddah next week. Next week, okay. I mean, have to.

They don't have to do anything. There are no rules over there. That's why Norman complaining about the official world golf rankings is so lame. Like, just make the changes, man. Nobody cares. Yeah. I mean, at this point now, it's kind of absurd.

It's purely like a who's bigger contest, which is probably why he's wearing tight shorts all the time. I think he's already won. He's bigger. Why are we doing this? Yeah, he's bigger. Just make the changes and get your guys into the world rankings. I'm pissed at you.

Not anybody else. I want to see Jocko in the majors. I do think the sort of knock-on effect of getting some of these live guys to go play all around the world. Because a bunch of guys are going and playing. Right. Asian tour events. Right.

It's kind of interesting. I don't know if I'm going to go out of my way to hunt down where that's being broadcast. I'm sure, you know, there's somewhere on the internet. I could catch versions of it. But yeah, there are a bunch of guys who want to play in the majors

are using this as a way of, you know, trying to continue to build up points under that system. I say whatever, but this is going to be the first week in which we've got real, were sort of scraping the doldrums. And if you look at the FedEx Cup standings right now, you know, the tour had projected that about 40-ish percent of guys in the top 50 would churn.

Right now, if you stopped it today, I think 34 percent of the guys would churn. So it's not too far afield, actually, from what their assessment was. That said, over the course of the next month, right? We've got API. We've got the players. So we're going to have a couple of elevated events that, man, you know, guys get points. And there's people who are having hard time getting into these events. I mean, one of the guys I'm going to talk about this week is Bronson

Burgun. He's been hurt, but he's back. He just can't get a start. He's only had two starts. He was T-14 at Amex, T-50 at Tori. Started with a T-67 there, though. That guy's plus 600 for a top 20 this week. He's 17th an approach on those two starts. Like,

Bronson feels like, hey, that might be a decent play. You just don't know, some of these guys in the web category and in the reshuffle, they're just not getting starts right now because they're getting boxed out by so many guys who I think are afraid of being Justin Thomas last year. Sure. They didn't have the points. So guys are just playing, playing, playing, and maybe they'll ease off the gas towards

the end of the year and all these guys are going to get into Minnesota and they'll get into Rocket and, you know, we'll see him in a couple of places. But right now, there are some guys who just are. aren't getting in. And I think there's a lot of those guys who are looking at the point system going, man, this can't possibly be fair because the rich here really are getting richer. And, you know, if you're the rich, you turn around and you go, guys, that's what we told you about last year. Everybody could qualify. That's what we told you about. And you know what Justin Thomas is doing? He's playing his way in because he's back into top third in the world. And you know what Willie Z did

last week? Willie Z is that guy who's had to get sponsor exemptions into tournaments. But guess what he just did. He just earned it. He's now in the A on top 10 and he will get into API without sponsor exemptions because he's actually doing the work and getting it done. So as always, as Rory said, play better. I enjoyed very quick

last thought on Willie Z. Shout out to him. He shared that he'd lost a family member. He was emotional about it. He played through it. He played beautifully. He was right there to win this golf tournament. And again, that correlation between great

performance at Augusta, great performance at RIV. We will keep that in mind next year for Willie Z. But the thing that caught my attention with his game was his putting. He finished strokes game putting in the top 15. And that stroke was radically more comfortable. It's the most comfortable I've seen him with that putter and with that stroke. Yep. So for sure.

It wasn't great in round four, if we're being honest. He lost almost a stroke in round four. But I'm okay because I'm with you. think the stroke itself, especially when you contrast it with what we're seeing out of Shephler right now. Right. Exactly. And so you got to at least compliment and admire Will for being able to say, I'm going to make a change. Definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. Give me the broomstick. Let me see. Let me order these things and try something different. And here you go. And boom, his career is way back on track in a faster way than

even we thought based on the early results, you know, certainly what he did at the hit and giggle at the end of last year, you saw him kind of flame out. And we thought, okay, it's going to take him well to get used to everything. But in particular, this new swing that's there to save his spine. But boy, this broomstick has rejuvenated him. And let's just hope that it holds up and continues. I mean, it's not different than what happened to Lucas Glover.

So it immediately makes you think, when is Scotty going to make a change? And I don't mean to be harsh on him. No, it's got to be now, right? Like, when Rory goes on national television and speaking of, get a mallet, kudos to the CBS broadcast. That was a nice sit down with Rory. I would have preferred it if, you know, there were a couple instances where people were talking over top of him.

I just kind of was interested in hearing him because he is in this mode right now, such comfortable chat. I mean, he and Amanda had a great thing. And that observation about Scottie, he said for him himself, get the, like, that is an all-timer, right? Do you think that he had a text waiting for him from Scotty, like, fuck off afterwards? No. Scotty's too much of a gentleman. That's a good point.

Good point. He also, yes, he wouldn't write a curse word probably either. But there is this, like, rule of fight club is don't talk about fight club. It's like the rule of bad putting is don't talk about bad putting. At this point, like, all of the conversation around it is there. I just think it's really hard midseason to make this change. And there will be a real off season this year. And let's see how he goes.

And now that we're talking about it, he's probably to win the Masters. He just had a real off season. I know. And he made some changes. He tried some things. It's not better. He's still shoving it right.

Stop shoving it right. Yeah. But we've got to be clear about what it is, right? As we laid out last week, he's a pretty damn good putter over 15 feet. He's an awful putter. in the in the in the five to 10 foot range as you get to 10 feet it's like this is a miss I don't even see it inside you know it's it's it feels like an accident when it goes in

speaking of feeling like an accident I will say maybe the reason that there's no live this week is because Greg Norman wants his course the Vodanta the a Greg Norman design to really be at the top of the golf charts he wants everybody to see this perfectly design uh Mexico's Westcoor in Porto by Artha. The weather looks great. This golf course is playing a little longer this week. It's softer. Okay. All right.

So it's a little bit earlier than the last time we saw it. So that does say, hey, it's going to be as long as you think, but it's going to be a little softer. And it's a little grainier around the greens right now. And with the softness, there's some digging. So the chipping stats are going to be a little worse this year, which may give you a little thing to think about as you pick some guys further down the board. There's going to be

it's not going to be as easy to make birdies as it was last go around here. Well, we get to talk about Paspalum. We get to use the word pass palom a handful of times on this week and then when we wrap up the recap next week, so everybody you know, I know how excited

everyone is. For that, it's the Tony Feeneau show. There's no reason to not play Tony Feenow. The odds are horrendous across the but he is by a long shot the class of this field and his performances. You wouldn't actually bet him, would you? I might.

At these odds? No. I definitely would not. No. You won't. I mean, that's the thing. That's the thing. That's the reason why we, that's what we try to educate the birdie buddies on,

which is that at these odds, like, what's the point? Why are you betting winners in a field of 100 and whatever? Yeah, that's right. too much variance, not enough return on the risk. Maybe you could tie him into a parlay, a house special parlay, but you wouldn't bet him alone to win. You want to throw a top 20 in there for top 10,

Tony. I had top 10 Tony to top 10 at the at Riv. It didn't happen. Yeah, I just think if you look at this season so far, you got to expect the unexpected. He has plus odds to finish in the top 10, so I would consider that. Top 10 is plus 115 on the Fandall sports book right now.

Okay. And he's top 10, Tony. And last year, you know, he shot 24 under at this tournament, cleared by three. Yeah. Over Rom. Rom gone now, you know, the next closest competitor shot 19 under. That was Brandon Wu. So I think, and it's an

even weaker field. So that may make you comfortable. Are there other guys this week? I mean, I told you Bronson, a lot of guys are on Nik Nikolai Hogard. Yeah. And I, and I, look, Nikolai's had an incredible last six months, but if you just go on form, I mean, I look at McKenzie Hughes last week,

he was better than Nikolai last week at Rivieri, started 6965 before a somewhat meteoric, oaker weekend, but McKenzie Hughes is plus 230 for a top 20. Well, you like McKenzie Hughes because he has demonstrated some comfort with this style of golf course, this sort of coastal, you know, the, you know, the good, obviously you won at RSM, but yeah, that there, there's a lot of McKenzie Hughes, um, things to point to. Uh, and, and it's quietly, you know, solid start to this

golf tournament at Rift. Yeah, exactly. 6965 Thursday, Friday. I mean, it's not, T-31, okay, but, uh, you know, Nikolai Hogarth, he was three clear Nikolai Hogarth this week. So I, I don't know, when you jump on, jump on some of those guys to win. I'm really interested in Jake Knapp. I've seen him on the boards of a couple of folks this week. And Mayo likes him. I'm not necessarily giving out something totally new, but I watched him up close in person,

and he just has this swagger. He's got like some kind of Southern California swagger walking through the clubhouse. T3 at Farmers, T28 in Phoenix. He hits at a mile. He's 22nd distance. He struggled a little bit with his accuracy. He's 163rd in accuracy.

But we know, here that you're not as penalized for that. So his stats are all trending positively over the last four events. He's gaining strokes putting, gaining shots on approach. He's kind of a bomb and gouge kind of guy, and that's what this course is. So I love the people who are sitting

on Jake Knapp right now. Again, don't bet these guys to win, but look in your top tens, look in your top 20s. Yeah. In that same kind of concept, I'm looking at like Eric Van Van Royen, plus 350 to top 10. This is

guy who definitely plays well in these kinds of coastal things. He was tied for second after the first two rounds at this event, at this venue last year. He won in November in Mexico, and that is putting on the same grass, the pass palom, that, that, you know, is the predominant grass this week.

So, Van Royan, for sure, top 10, top 20. at some of my action. Yeah. I like Taylor Pendrith this week. Big hitter. He's 10th in driving distance. He's third in scrambling,

so the potentially sneaky, tougher bit of chipping. He's third and scrambling overall on tour right now, early in the season. But that 15th in putting, fifth in shots gain overall. So like Taylor Pendrith,

I also got to say Doug Gim, man, he's got a T-13, a T-12, his last two times out. He's 11th in shots-gain total this year so far. He's on a quiet heater. I love this. Yeah, and he's plus 200 for a top 20.

So there's some value there as people sort of overlook what he's doing. The other one that, look, this can go one way or the other, but we've talked about Alejandro Toasty before. Yeah, I love it. He had a T10 here last year. We're waiting for that breakout four days. He's had a few breakout rounds this year. He's shot 66 in each of his first rounds in all three of the events that he's played. But he's seventh off the T, and he's 20th.

in putting. He's just been a mess on approach. Last year, when he was T-10 here, though, he gained over a stroke on approach. So this course may be, if you believe in horses for courses, and that's why we gave out Willie Z last week, because Willie Z was the leader in recent rounds in terms

of bird he's made and shots gained on that course. Toste, he's not the leader there, but if you think that maybe his iron approach will benefit to being in Mexico, the rest of his stats are pretty tight, and he's proven that he can play well in this course. Yeah.

So if you look at horses for courses, you mentioned Brandon Wu, you got to take a look at his numbers. I can't remember who made the case. SLO 3rd last year. Somebody made the case for Cameron Champ.

And I really like the case because he's a super high ceiling low, low basement kind of guy, but has a decent track record. Eighth last year, sixth in in 2022. And I got to play

the other name for sure, Emiliano Grillo, Grio for sure at all of these sort of coastal events, your Punta Canas, your, you know, the Mexico events,

you see him rising up. Well, sure, he was, he was T5 last year. But the only thing that makes me nervous about Cam Champ

is he just, I mean, he hadn't made a cut this year, right? He's, he's over four. That's it. High ceiling.

Low, you're, so you, you try, and catch him when he, when he turns it on. No, and,

and I think, I think the thing that you got to love about what you've seen from Greo is the, his, his shotskin approach have always been, you know, sort of where he's,

he's thrived. It's been the putting historically that we've worried about. And he's gained strokes putting in every event except Phoenix this past, you know, this year. And I,

I just don't, as, as we said last week, I just don't think you can take much away from Phoenix because of how cold and weird it was. Yeah. Folks, uh,

I know that Sobel is on Keith Mitchell, speaking of guys who can pound the ball. And he's just riding or dying with Keith Mitchell. He will not give it up. He confesses it. He does have a second at Corrales. So if you want to try and draw that. Cam Champ at 65 to 1. So the only thing I'll say about Champ, just to close the thought, is he was on a

string of miscuts before he came to this event last year and they finished eight. So there you go. So you play him as a horse for course and the fact that he pounds the crap out of the ball and you go for it. See, these are the little things house. Why, you may not love the golf itself, but again, the green action is, is kind of nice on an event like this because there's a lot of stuff that gets overlooked, I think, if you're not paying attention.

I agree with that. Any other names? No, I mean, those are the ones. I mentioned Bronson, I really think his performance has been great at plus 600 for a top 20. I like what I'm seeing from him. And you said Brandon Wu. If you don't like the numbers on Brandon Wu,

because coming in, he's struggled a bit. Look at Dylan Wu. T-15 last year. He's plus 450 for a top 20. So you got to pick your Wu. Why don't you do a Wu-W-W-Parlay? That's even scary. Top 20,

Top 20 Woo-W-W-W-Parlay. I'm going to run the numbers right now. Let's double up our woo. Let's double the woo. Why not? But this is an event that will, I think, soon be forgotten, most likely. But we are going to find out a little bit about Tony Fee now

because it does feel like he's been in a lull, hasn't he? And it's kind of time to see if Tony's going to be a part of this conversation of the next generation. me listen, he won this a year ago, but since then, man, a number of cuts on the board, you know, a Hero World Challenge T4 doesn't make me too excited. The T6 at Farmers does. I didn't love the way he played Pebble and Genesis, but now's the time for us to see if Tony can turn in a season that it felt like, it felt like coming out of his 2022 season,

that he was really going to start to be a major contender. and it just hasn't been there in his last, you know, cut, cut in the open, the 23, open T-32 in the U.S. Open T-72 in the PGA, T-26 in the Masters. Can we get a little bit more? Yeah, that's it. Like, let's build our momentum. The Wu-W-W-W-Parlay, this will be the parting shot, 15 to 1, plus 1,000, plus 2,000, Dillon-Wu, plus-400 to top 20.

your woo-woo top 20 parley 15 to 1 let's go Nate dog all right by birdie buddies by par saving pals my eagle enthusiast we're not going to do any better than the woo-woo parlay we are back next week because we are

rolling here on fairway rolling there is warm weather in the forecast on the east coast at least here in the mid-Atlantic I'm looking forward to throwing a peg in the ground I'm definitely going to do I played this week and I'm looking forward to next week if you're able to throw a peg in the ground Please, let's hit them straight out there.