Fairway Rollin' - Jon Rahm Wins the Masters. Plus, Mickelson and Koepka Finish in the Top Five.

Episode Date: April 10, 2023

House and Hubbard start by recapping Jon Rahm’s victory at Augusta after not leading through most of the tournament (02:27). They also discuss Phil Mickelson’s and Brooks Koepka’s impressive top-five finishes, Tiger Woods bowing out, and more (22:29). Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Eduardo Ocampo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Follow the show now on Spotify. And do us a favor. Give us five stars. And do us another favor and stay major. Hello, friends, and welcome to this ball show, unlike any other. Oh, yes, my friends, we have done it. This is a master's recap edition of Fairway Rowland. A golf show on the Ringer podcast Network.

I am your starter. Joe House joined by my incomparable accomplice. PGA tour correspondent, our literal boots on the ground. Nathan Hubbard, it's a two ball, and we have so much to cover about this glorious masters that just wrapped up. The pegs are in the ground. Let's get swinging. Nate Dogg.

How you doing, Bubba? I mean, I hope people are listening because we did good on the, this one house. We did good. Good job by you. With one notable glaring Mickleson-esque exception, great job by us on seeing what was happening. I'm happy to live with it. I'm kind of like fine. That's not a pun. You're happy to live with it. I am, but look, sometimes the easy answer, the somewhat obvious answer is the right answer. It was John Rom. We've been talking about him for weeks. We went through it with our buddy, Justin Ray on the Monday preview show.

Hope everybody heard it and saw it. And there was unanimity amongst our crew. We couldn't come up with the reason to fade John Rom. And the one thing that really clinched it for us as we sized it up coming into the week was Justin Ray's observation that there was weird variance around his success in approach in previous master's editions. He cleaned that up. In fact, we're going to do. only a handful of these, but from Justin Ray himself,

the opening round that Rom had featured a combination of fairways hit and greens hit that has only been accomplished by one other players since 1990. Every fairway every fairway in 17 Greens, right? Yes, exactly.

I mean, he was just incredible. He was fifth on approach in the first round. The second was a weird one. He was only 40th, but round three, again, same thing. It was a little weird round four, seventh. But on for the event, he was sixth on approach. Second off the T, first T to green. That's kind of what gets it done here, isn't it?

He fit every one of the parameters for past winners. So it made it, you know, kind of easy. He fits squarely within it when you look at all of the sort of indicators of likely success at the Masters. And it is now his fourth win of the calendar year, which has only been done by two other guys over the last 50 years. Scotty Sheffler and I think maybe Jack was the other one. So he is in rarefied air.

He's the first European in history, in the history of professional golf to win both the U.S. Open and the Masters. It's been done by folks of other ones. all other nationalities, but never by a European. I'm kind of shocked to hear that and process it, but it's a Justin Ray fact. So that means it's a true fact. I mean, I think, well, and yet, I want you to get to the in yet, but don't, don't overlook the fact that two of those three other wins were in these elevated events, Capulua and

Riviera, Riviera in particular being just a world-class golf course against the best fields that can possibly exist on the PGA Tour. So this is an historic win. And watching him walk off that 18th Green House, it just felt like he deserved it. It felt like John Rom should be in a jacket, didn't it? It felt absolutely correct. I love that Jose Maria Oliva came down to give him a hug.

John Romstead in his Butler Cabin interview that they chatted for another 10 seconds. They both would have been in tears. There has been this observation, this recognition of all of the connections to Sevi. This date, it happened to be Sevi's birthday. Sevi won his second Masters 40 years ago. Sergio Garcia won on April the 9th.

I mean, there's a, in 2017, it was John Rom's first start in 2017. Yes, a bunch of cosmic alignment. The but yet that I was going to share, he didn't, he didn't have the lead in this golf tournament until this afternoon. I mean, we're not going to talk about, I mean, he shared the lead, you know, Thursday. Yes, he didn't know that that since the end of the day Thursday until this afternoon, he was. not in charge, they dog. We spoke about this earlier in the week on the pod,

on both Fairway Rowland, on the Bill Simmons podcast. The weather was going to create the chaos. And indeed it did. He was tied for the lead coming out of Thursday. And then it was bonkers until this morning. And it wasn't really until

this morning where you felt like they're on a level playing field for the first time. And as soon as they get, there was over two strokes difference between the late early and early late because of the weather. Rom got basically a two-shot penalty just by virtue of the draw. And that's to take nothing away from Brooks Kepka, who I think comes out of this week, a big winner, a very big winner.

But Rom, as soon as he got on the level playing field, playing the same course at the same time with his his adversary. It just never really felt in doubt, did it, House? It felt methodical. It felt like he sized it up. And the thing that was the noteworthy difference to me was the quality of the striking of the golf ball, the consistency off the tea. John Romps' comfort in moving the ball both ways,

hitting the shots that were called for. He really never looked uncomfortable to me. No. He got loose. He got loose. He did. It's true. He got loose.

But he didn't get uncomfortable, did he? Yes. That's the difference. Where, on the other hand, our buddy, Bruce Kepka, did get uncomfortable. And he ended up shooting 10 shots worse than Phil Mickelson in his final round. Phil Mickelson shot a 65. Brooks Keppka shot as 75.

One thing that we absolutely positively must note in connection with that dramatic difference in outcomes. And I think a real contributing factor to Brooks's, you know, inability to just tighten it up. He likes to play fast. And he wasn't able to do so. You're just looking for another reason to blame Patrick Cantley.

something. I get it. Why can't I? Why can't I? You can, and it was interesting in Brooks's gracious post-round interview with our friend Amanda. He put a lot of blame on bad breaks. He didn't totally say, I mean, he was classy and said, hey, it feels so good to be here. I'm so excited to be here. He was not entirely comfortable taking ownership of it. And I think he probably swallowed the can't-lay thing. I mean, there were enough from the CBS crew and enough sort of quiet shots of those two guys in in ROM and in in Brooks on the T-boxes. They were going nuts. It seemed like it didn't it.

They were waiting and waiting and waiting. And every time they show a Patrick Cantley putting process, you know, we say, here we go, set aside 20 minutes. He'll hit this put. Just hold on. Hold on. He's got to pad his feet through. three times. He's got to look at it.

And then he's got to lick his lips and he's got to pat his feet another five times. It was a lot. Here's the thing. As we assessed at the beginning of the week, you know, there was some conversation. I had an exchange, in fact, with our beloved Verno's producer, John Rosa, who is an active participant in Verno's incomparable master's update tradition. It's Rosie Inverno. Rosie's up in the booth.

what's going on at Augusta. Rosie hit me up on the Twitter machine and he's like, hey, look at these Brooks Kepka odds. And they were pretty juicy. You said, you know what? You got to allocate a little bit. How? Because those odds are appealing.

He looked incredible on Wednesday. He looked fit, but not just fit. You can see and you don't have to be a golf maniac to get it. You don't have to understand in the slow-mo cams where Imamon is breaking down, look at how he transfers his weight to his left foot. You don't have to understand what he's talking about to just look at a guy being an athlete and know that Brooks has not had that in him

if you've watched him before. He looked good hitting the golf ball. We knew, we said it Wednesday night. Two people we saw on that course were playing better than we expected because physically they look great. And it was Brooks Kepka and Patrick Reed. And lo and behold, those two guys are in the top five.

these are these are true facts uh the one thing that i noted to rosy the thing that worried me is we haven't seen brooks in a marathon situation and the way the the week was sizing up weather wise it looked like we were going to get one of these marathons now honestly if that was a problem we would have been worried about phil well that's a whole other conversation and and we will have to at some point we need we need some of his DNA so that somebody can break down what the hell is going on with him. I don't know. I'm not calling for a drug test because I'm thrilled by the performance.

But I just want to know what the chemistry is in that dude that produced that extraordinary performance. He really channeled some kind of cerebral and physical connection to Augusta National. But I want to finish the thought on Brooks. Please do. It was the 30 whole marathon. It was a pretty benign marathon, honestly. the dude got to sleep in his own bed, have a wonderful rest from Friday into Saturday.

He knew that he wasn't going to play any golf until lunchtime Saturday. He got to plan it out. And then all he had to do was play six holes. So he wasn't really put out, uncomfortable in any way, shape, or form. And it's why he extended his lead from, you know, he went from 12 under to 13 under. And Ron backed up a tiny bit to 9 under coming into the true marathon,

which was today. But as marathons go, it was the weather looked great. There was some wind a little bit, but the real sort of measure is the competitive golf over that stretch under those circumstances where a green jacket is waiting for you

at the end of this if you can ride the whole sucker out. And John Rom was just a little bit better than Brooks in terms of that task, right? Well, I think so. I do think we should contextualize Ram's round because there were two guys who really stood out in the heat of competition. And that was Phil and Jordan at seven and six under respectively. Tagala had just a super fun Tagala-esque five under round, where he almost replicated the tiger chip and just was so happy to be there. We know this guy's

going to win a golf tournament. But then it's Brooks, or then it's ROM at three under, right? Brooks, on the other hand, shot like the bottom of the leaderboard. I mean, three over was a bad, bad score today. And we're not going to knock him too hard because it didn't feel like he was super off, but you could feel the nerves on that first tee as he blasted it so far left, it went through the trees and into the ninth fairway. And Nancy's first comment of the day is basically, I don't think I've ever seen anyone hit it that far left. So I just, I think the performance of ROM, you know, against the field really mattered here.

And I get that, you know, down the stretch, it's not like he absolutely blistered the back, but I mean, he shot two under on the back. And that's what you got to do on Sunday, whereas Brooks just wasn't really able to kick it into gear. And, you know, it was cute for us to say that the number that Phil posted was going to scare Rom. it didn't scare Rom. It just didn't. He was, as you said, undeniably methodical. And when he made mistakes,

he generally, he had a couple weird, shaky parr puts this morning in the third round where you thought maybe he's not going to be able to handle this, but it felt like

that opening T shot from Brooks let some of the air out of the balloon for Rom, and he just went and did his assassin thing. And that's why he's wearing the green jacket. Well, that is interesting.

I want to kind of complete the thought on that first hole because what Brooks did was go over to the ninth fairway. It has to be the ninth fairway, right? It's the ninth. Yes, it's the ninth. And hit a beautiful five iron over the trees to pin high for a relatively routine two put and what John Rom did for the middle of the fairway from 134 yards out or whatever it was, was fan won right into the bowl and,

and, you know, have to chip up and save par. And on the first hole of the final round, with, you know, those two, that juxtaposition, and I was like, oh, man, this is going to be some hand-to-hand combat. Now, what transpired was three pretty sloppy bogies by Brooks on the front. Brooks didn't have his first birdie of the final round until the 13th hole. And that also looks kind of sloppy. But, you know, he made a, he made a huge put.

and it was, you know, kind of impressive. And down the stretch, you know, he birdied both 15 and 16 to at least sort of give you an idea. But I'm glad you mentioned the Jordan and Phil thing, Jordan Speeth and Phil Mickelson and the scores that they posted. Rom said he took note of those. Rom said, I think it created for him, and I'll be interesting to see in the fullness of the interviews that are occurring right now as we're taping. if he elaborates it all on that point. But it sounded like he said, here's the floor. If I beat those scores, then I'm going to be good, right?

I don't think he was worried in the big picture. I think he did what we hear time and time again. And in fairness to Trevor Immelman, who I thought acquitted himself very well in his first year in the official chair. But Immelman right out of the gate said, if I'm Rom, I'm picking a number, and I'm thinking about that number, and I'm focusing on it. And there was a point at which it sounds like Rom said, I just got to play even par from here.

If I play even par from here, they can't catch me. I do think the most, in the post-round interview, they asked him, when did you feel like you sort of took control the tournament? He mentioned the birdie on eight. But there is, you got to go back, open the Masters app or go to Masters.com, pull up the T-shot on 13. Because every other T-shot that John Rom hit this one, week was this power fade. He's been struggling with the driver. It's not really fair to say struggling

because the guys won three times before today. But to the extent to which he hasn't played his best golf, it's been a struggle with this new paradigm driver from Callaway, the Triple Diamond. He's made some changes to it to benefit this cut, which if you remember when DJ finally won the Masters, it was moving to the cut. But that hole with the changes. Tiger taught them all. Exactly. That That hole with the changes backing it up, 35 yards meant you have to hit a draw to be in the tournament. He steps up after four days of hitting it, fade, fade, fade, fade, fade, and hits a beautiful draw that puts him in the flat spot. And he makes Bertie, it wasn't as easy as it ought to be in, but he makes Bertie. That drive, the tournament was over.

It showed you this guy deserves to win it. He's got all the shots. He has the confidence to step up with a giant creek on the left. lead and draw that ball in. That was an absolute dagger, put the man suit on, and then put the green jacket over it. It is a great call,

and that was the thing that inspired the confidence for ROM backers, some of us holding lucrative ROM tickets, that he was able to move the ball in that manner after we watch him hit cut after cut after cut. And really he prefers the high fade on approach as well.

Again, right out of the Tiger Woods playbook, and the lesson that he's taught all of us, Tiger, I'm talking about, over the past 20 plus years. One thing I want to talk about as it relates to sort of the overall arc of the tournament, there was some complaining from the peanut gallery about the fact that we had two guys going into the weekend with double-digit underpar rounds, did there, where there was some quiet grumbling, did they set the course up too easy on Thursday,

And Friday, was it too accommodating? What's your take on that? Well, I honestly. You really noticed on Thursday that they'd set it up to go for it because they were worried about the weather. That's my conjecture. I have no idea. We didn't have an opportunity to sit down with the Greens Committee and run through their strategy with the pins. It's just the case that we watched with our own two eyes.

Balls from on the 10 fairway, we sat right behind the road. on 10 green and could watch those approach shots come in and balls that we might have expected to hit and skid or move off the green they held there was moisture in those greens there was humidity in the air and it led to yeah Brooks's ball that should have come back uh was it 13 uh that that spun back and hung up in the morning in the in the rough that should have come back I think it was 15. 15, exactly, 15. Should have come back in, just like Freddy's on 12, whatever, 31 years ago, with the

moisture, it hung in there, didn't it? Well, the only thing that I'll say is we ended up with a tournament victor, and this so often happens, that was different from the guy who was 12 under on Friday, but the winning score was 12 under. Like, you know, it's all well and good. And once again, kudos to the green jackets. Of course they got it right. Of course they had it set up Thursday and Friday, knowing what the weather was going to be. You know, they couldn't anticipate, you know, the trees coming down.

There was probably, they probably would have played more holes Friday if those trees hadn't come down. Thank God. There was a lot of pooling of water on those greens. And we can talk about the telecast and the absolute Truman show that we got on on Saturday morning. Saturday. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. And well, I'm saying though, Friday, they probably would have kept playing a couple more holes. Yes. They suspended play. They resumed play. The trees came down. Thank God, nobody was hurt. Really, the suspension of play, that lightning strike that occurred at 3.30 had the effect of getting enough people cleared out that those trees coming down. They would have hit people if it had been, you know, two hours earlier. How many times did we walk by that this week? I mean, I just. I know. And I don't.

don't know what they could have done because there was a heck of a lot more moisture that fell after that. So that was a very, very, very scary moment. And it got me thinking about insurance policies and liability. But boy, you're a businessman. That's how a businessman thinks. I'm just, I'm just glad it didn't. It did occur to me after seeing those go down that that his Rom and Kepka stepped up to the 17th T. If one more tree had fallen and mashed those guys, Phil would have won on a technicality. Phil Mickelson. Well, shall we move into the Phil Mickelson portion of this show? Are we ready to go in down this weird rabbit hole, buddy?

We just have to. We just have to. And I think let's start because it's so tainted by the live stuff, by the all black with the hi-fi with two-wise logo stuff. But let's start and just say, this man has absolutely wowed us after 50 years old. He deserves all of the flowers for whatever has gotten him to this point. There were muted receptions to him on the greens. He stayed out of the limelight this week.

It was super weird that Amanda didn't interview him in Butler Cabin, and I can only assume that was his choice. He kept his head down and just played golf, which, boy, if he'd done that for the last couple of years. So there's going to be a lot of stones. The whole thing is colored by that, but we cannot deny what we saw, which is one of the greatest golfers of all time,

over 50 years old, pulling off a feat that, by the way, his younger counterpart started the day, younger, more, quote-unquote, greater counterpart, Tiger Woods, started the day by withdrawing because of his injuries. Phil Mickelson absolutely wowed me today.

He deserves all of the credit for this performance. He is the oldest top five finisher in Masters history. And what he's done is bookend, his oldest major champion status that he got by way of winning the PGA championship at Kiowa. And now here we are with everything that's transpired between, you know, May of 2021 and April of 2023. Three lifetimes worth of stuff have happened to that dude. And by the way, he looks like he's wearing it.

Yes. You made the point. Like we've seen his body go through three transformations, at least three transformations that look like he's, you know, three different lifetimes. But it's aged him. Let's just say that. It's aged him. And something. Yeah.

It's hard. It's hard to blame him for that. He's gone through a lot and it looks now like he's wearing it. But, you know, I hope this helps him smile a bit more. Well, here's the thing. And Brendan Pohrath, our buddy, uh, wrote for the for the fried egg. He was on the pot a couple weeks ago. did he did a post about phil and what he observed because brendon was on the grounds this week and

did some reporting on the experience that phil seemed to have in the dinner and the overall uh you know sort of persona that phil had on the grounds obviously a marked departure from the fill that is kind of one of the mayors of uh augusta national town right yes a a and outgoing big swinging D you know I love this place I own this place kind of fell up within within you know reason I'm not disparaging Phil for you know having a certain comfort level there that comes along with a multiple green jacket winner

the the report that the Brendan shared with us it was it was quiet Phil all week he was dead silent at the dinner people went up to him you know wished him good luck made made small talk, but Phil himself was not, you know, trying to involve himself. And the way he conducted himself on the grounds, not looking for interaction, no, uh, uh, uh, interview, press interview. He was, he had the opportunity to do a press interview on Tuesday. It's, it's been reported. Um, and he chose for sure not to. Now, he is on my television right now. So there is a, a press. He's participating in the post, um, uh, you know, tournament.

press conference. It'll be fascinating to hear. We'll see what he says. But he made a concerted effort, if a contrived one, to be quiet this week and to send a message. And he did it. I mean, he did it. So here's what I think, I want to bounce this off of you. Here's what I think goes hand in hand with that. He's inside the confines of perhaps the most comfortable golf course, golf venue,

golf experience that a professional player of his stature could hope for. It's unparalleled in terms of the comforts that that place and that the protocols, the overall approach, what they provide for the players in terms of a respite. And it's a respite from regular way professional golf in many respects. They are away from the crowds. The people inside the ropes are limited. If you don't want to have interaction with the crowd, you don't have to. and you could just sort of channel your own Augusta National inner picture.

So I think he did that. He drew upon all that muscle memory. And that's the thing that he so successfully translated into this amazing outcome. That's the house thesis. What do you think about that? I think that's it's the only explanation. I mean, he gained eight shots total today. It's four and a half on approach.

I mean, that's after a third round, which admittedly was a bit split up, but where he lost a stroke and a half on the field and his putting wasn't great. I mean, he didn't even put that great this week. There was just something about coming back to these confines after the break that just was a reset for him. And it felt a little forced. But I think how could it be anything other than weird, given all that has gone on? And it's weird to see him riding or dying for the high flyers. It just is. It's weird to see his physical weight.

It's weird to see him popping thumbs up, but not fully engaging with the crowd. It was also weird to see a 50-plus-year-old playing badass golf the way that he did. And so, again, I think we can throw all the stones, and he will go down as the most controversial figure in the history of golf. because on the one hand, he created this mess, and on the other hand, he created this mess. And there are going to be two sides of this coin always. And, you know, the Machiavellians of us will say that the ends justify the means and that Phil deserves an enormous amount of credit.

You know, others will say that Phil is the reason for the animosity and some of the fissures in a game that really ought to be united because it's just not that big except on days like this. But this was a week where it felt like the golf world came together in a really meaningful and important way. I know that Greg Norman was kicking around Baker's Bay. I got that intel along with a few other live players who were not in it, but it sure felt like the live guys who were here

and the PGA tour guys who were here were interested in the masters and not the dog shit that has been paralyzing golf for the past two years. I'm so glad that you made that observation because I share that sentiment. And in terms of the emblems and what he's wearing with the hat and everything, it could just as easily be a Japanese company that I'm not familiar with, right? It could be any player sponsored by any company. that I might not have heard of before. But the thing that I know for sure is that there wasn't a single player.

Now, 12 of the 18 live guys made the cut. So, you know, kudos to the quality of play. Kudos to those. We've put to bed this myth that 54 holes and the infrequency of play, again, there are good guys over there. There might not be the best guys. But when guys over there are playing well and beating some of the, of the other guys over there.

It's an indication that they're playing well. And Patrick Reed was third, and Brooks Kepka won last week. Don't care that the course was an Orlando Muni course. They came here. They acquitted themselves incredibly well. Doesn't mean we're going to watch this product. Doesn't mean we care about what's happening over at Live. And I actually think that if Brooks had won,

it might have been bad for Liv because it's very clear that he enjoys playing against the best in the world. But we can save that for another day. What we know is those guys, are ballers, and they came over and they bawled. Yeah, Patrick Reed, Brooks Kepka, Phil Mickelson, all guys with major championships, those belts around their waist, they showed like they understand what it is to come compete in a major championship.

The storyline of Live versus PGA Tour irrelevant to this Masters, only a curious footnote, but what we had was former champions, former major winners coming out, showing out, reminding us of what they're capable of. Everybody except for DJ. Come on, DJ. I had DJ, you know, sort of penciled in. He had eject at some point during that third round. Now he came back.

I actually wondered if he was going to talk about his own plan or fasciitis at some point and walk his ass off the golf course between the third round and the fourth round. But he didn't finish DFL. We stood behind four on Wednesday, and we watched him hit yank, two balls super left. Patrick Reed then showed us the incredible skill of his short wedge game. DJs seemed a little off, seemed like DJs put on a little dad punch in a lovely kind of, you know, love it up kind of way, maybe mowed through the Easter basket this morning. And it's fine.

If you get the, what does he care? He goes home to kids and his wife and a big. big ass boat and a paycheck, it seems that that's how he feels. There's something else in it for Phil. And for me, House, the way, the place that I will throw the stones is I think that the Livbots are going to go nuts about how this vindicates and you got three out of the five. My response is, it shows you what a little bit of a joke live is, because it's not competitive enough to pull this out of Phil Mickelson. Yeah. It's in Phil. We have seen nothing since he went over there. And it's Infield, he's capable of doing this. So what's happening over there that these guys aren't playing

at their best in that situation? And I'll tell you what it is. They've already been paid. The carrot is behind them or in their pocket or in their stomach, not sitting out in front of them. At the masters, the tradition, the history, the competition, all of it still matters. And lo and behold, it brings out people's best. I think this was actually the best case for the PGA tour that we could have seen. I do wonder yet what stories are to come as it relates to one Mr. Brooks Capica because we we were reminded and I think he was reminded. He likes the line light. He likes being on TV. He likes giving interviews.

Jenna likes the par three. Jenna likes it. Oh, she likes it. Yeah, they like it. They like it. So that's a story. That me too. But I'm not clicking over to the CW to watch it.

No. Well, because it's. not this. This is different. This is real. There are genuine stakes. There's history at stake, which is why it's cool, notwithstanding to use Fred Cupple's term. What a nutbag, Phil is, he still channeled that champion blood. And that's badass. I'm happy to take the L. I lost a big chunk of money, but I won a big chunk on John Rom, so it's okay. You also, yes, you did. And you also knew very well to move to somebody else who took the big check that Brooks Kepka was going to miss this cut.

You mean Bryson Dishambeau? Excuse me, yeah, that Bryson DeCambeau was going to miss this cut. We called Brooks, Brooks playing decently well. There would have been something wonderfully serendipitous about Brooks getting the jacket from Scotty. I went back last night and watched the second episode of Full Swing on Netflix, which is the one dedicated to Brooks Kepka, where he actually says watching Scottie Schaeffler win in Phoenix, I can't compete with this guy's got.

Scotty can go out and shoot a 63 any day. And that clearly in the midst of his own injury and insecurity and self-doubt is the reason that he went to live, there would have been something very interesting and dramatic to see Scotty put that jacket on Brooks. And the historical lore of him winning his fifth, that list is 12 guys. I mean, it's incredibly short. And you forget just how important this guy is. to the game. So I come away from this feeling like John Rom deserved it. I think of John Rom as a master's champ. I'm happy to see him in it. It clearly was his year. I just wish we got to see more Brooks Keppka. I fell a little bit back in love with him this year, just watching the grit and

watching him play hard golf, even today as he battled a swing from the first shot in the final round. Now, I do want to ask you this. He's really struggled. in final rounds of late. This has become a bit of a pattern since his PGA tour win. I think it's really hard to calculate because the injury was on both sides, but he had

trouble in 2019. He had trouble today. He had trouble in 2021 in the final pairing with Phil. Yes. If exactly where Phil somehow roped him and I thought... Dog walked him. Yep.

And I wondered whether that was an advantage to Rom or to Brooks today. I will be interested to hear the story because, if you remember, Phil slowed down play pretty dramatically in that final round on purpose. And today, Rom didn't actually have to do that. Can'tley did the legwork for him. Yeah, Cantley really did the legwork for him. But what we know from the Netflix series is that there is a vulnerability and a fragility to Brooks, which no man wants to admit, but every man is. And it comes out in different ways. It comes out with Max Homa, who we can talk about. had a very tough Sunday today and lines him up in a very interesting position as he thinks about where he goes from here looking towards the U.S. Open in L.A. But nevertheless, Kepka has that fragility.

And do you think on net Kepka comes away from this week and in his heart of hearts when he's honest with himself tonight or when he's back sitting on that swing and Jen is going through her closet tomorrow? Does he think this was a great, step forward or is there a voice in his head that says you blew it in the final round again?

Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Athletes don't think like that. He says, I'm back, baby. Here I am. He knows how good he feels. And he really did get the very best possible, not only the late early, but like everything that went along with late early, the comfortable playing conditions, the behavior, the predictability of what his schedule was going to be.

There was very little disarray other than the 30 holes on Sunday. And what he says is, you know, I went hand-to-hand combat for 30 holes with this dude. And, you know, this dude is supposed to be what's wrong now, number one in the world? Well, yes. Here I am, baby. Here I am. Well, that's great. If he takes that away, we're, you know, as he said to Amanda, I fully expect to be there for the next three.

He said that, like, we would know. He didn't use the word major. He didn't. We all know what Brooks Kepke is here for. It's to fill those voids in his trophy case that he sort of, you know, lamented to his mother. We're empty. I think you're right that he comes away from this week and goes, I got more coming. So the only question in Brooks mind now is, what's the best place for him to get ready to go win those?

Is it unlive? Is there a chance he comes back to PG-Tor? Is it even possible? Who knows? We'll save that drama for another day. Yeah. Well, we've gone solid half hour. I think it's about the right time.

We got to talk about Tiger. It was not easy to watch. You were skeptical all week long. You especially were skeptical in view of the forecast, the combination of the cold weather and the rain. It was literally the thing that made it not possible for Tiger to compete. I think we will look back and say what a terrific achievement

continuing the cut made streak because that was very much in jeopardy Saturday morning. He bogeed 17, bogeed 18. He was inside the cut line bogeed those two holes and we were all very nervous watching that was the real drama of Saturday morning. Will Tiger continue his made cut streak and the broadcast to its credit, we had a genuine cut sweat.

Like a real, we've been begging for it for years, right? We got a cut cam, baby. Yeah, and they gave us the guys. Here are the two players that can move the cut, and here's what they have to do, and we got to track it. And it was like real drama. I couldn't have enjoyed it more.

It was Sung J.M. And Justin Thomas, Thomas coming up the stretch. They had to, at least one of them had to, uh, bogey or maybe I don't remember exactly the, the particulars of what they had to do. They both had to back up one. And, and, uh, and Thomas unfortunately backed up so much that he missed the cut and Sung Jay hung in there and got to play the weekend. But so the only question, I'll put you to you with Tiger. We don't really need to belabor it. Um, he looked, you know, it's a real bummer. He can't walk. The, and, um, as catty Joe Lukava said,

if we could put this man in the cart and drive him around and let him play these golf tournaments, he has the swing speed, he has the accuracy, he has the putting prowess, he has the brain, he can't walk. So he really can't compete. When do you think we see him next? Well, it's hard to fault him because the four of us, you, me, Pod Father Bill Simmons and Dave Chang dragged our asses around that course, and we didn't feel great either. I mean, I think you were on 600 milligrams of IVuprofen by the time. it was all said and done. So this is the hardest course to walk around.

But, you know, Riviera's hilly, and any golf course that's worth its salt has a lot of elevation changes unless it's over in Europe, usually. This is just something we have to get used to. And as a golf, I'll say it again, as a golf fandom, we've got to start listening to Tiger. I think we got accustomed to not necessarily believing him

because he, like Brooks in the early part of his career, refused to show any kind of vulnerability. And he would say, well, I'm bringing my A game. And we'd be like, yeah, all right, whatever. You know, we sort of came. He is telling us the truth. He's not sure how much longer he's going to be able to do this. The things that he did to achieve greatness have severely limited what he's going to be able to do

in the later stages of his career. He gave us 2019 at this course. I don't think there's a fill at Kiowa. you know, surprise coming down the pipes. He has too much damage to his body. And so I think we have to appreciate him for what he is. The thing that this man has, that, again, Phil probably doesn't. Sandy Lyle probably doesn't.

Jack maybe didn't. Is so much pride that he will not come out here and be just an ambassador for the game doing a hit and giggle unless Charlie's involved. He's not going to play that often because he's so freaking competitive, that streak that made him so great, will not allow him to put video footage on the internet that is anything less than him having a chance to win this. And that's the part that hurts because I don't want to let go of Tiger. But if we take a step out to 30,000 feet and look at the

guy who put the jacket on the guy who won the jacket today, yes, Sevi was fueled Rompe. Everybody who played this tournament today benefits from what they say. saw Tiger Woods do has been inspired by him. I think we're going to have to start appreciating that memory more than these moments of false hope because Tiger Woods is not the same and it's not going to come back. We're going to be lucky to see him again. I think the next time we see him is probably the U.S. Open. Okay. So you answered it. We're not going to see him in Rochester, New York at the PGA championship at Oak Hill. You think he skips the PGA championship? He's going to have to get ready in four weeks.

I hope we see it, but I have a sense that that may not be in the cards if he wants to take care of his body. He was hurting badly this week. Badly. Real quick preview of the U.S. Open. We have some other topics to hit here, but how is LACC north flat, elevated? What's the walk like? LACC is worse than Augusta. in terms of its hillyness and its elevation changes.

Really? Yes. It is... Oh, my God. There is more up and down on almost every hole. I am more tired walking, and I have played that course 35, 40 times. I am more tired walking LACC North than I am walking Augusta. Okay. All right.

Well, we'll... Thoughts and prayers between now and the U.S. for Tiger Woods. I think that's why he maybe takes the PGA off. I don't think he... feels like in four weeks time, he's going to be ready to go win a major. I think he can talk himself into the idea in eight weeks time. He might be. They said he has planter fasciitis. And I don't think it's called fasciitis, but that's what they kept repeating it, that enunciation. Planter fascism. That's a different show altogether. Speaking of that, let's go ahead and talk about

most disappointed. Yeah. We know the name that leads that list. There's three of them for me. Yeah, I have three as well. This is great. Okay, so you do your three and let's see if we're unanimous. Go ahead.

Yeah. In order for me, it is Rory, it is Max Homa, and it is Justin Thomas. Wow. Okay. So I didn't have one of those guys. Go ahead. We're in lockstep on Rory and JT. So we can, I think, probably pretty quickly dispense.

make the case for Rory. Yeah, I mean, this is his white whale. He was playing the best that he has coming into a Masters. This was his chance to win this tournament, complete the Grand Slam. Every other great player in the world, with the exception of Max and J.T. showed out at this event. And he was a no-show. And he just, he got off as he has always in these tournaments to very slow start,

couldn't recover. He's got a lot on his shoulders. I think it's time for Rory to pass off the, Phantom Commissioner job to somebody else and let him focus on golf. This one just is in between the years. It's not really in the game. The game was certainly good enough coming in, and he just didn't do it. Okay.

I'll do a quick version of JT because you and I had a spirited conversation yesterday. We were trying to get to the bottom of our fields as it related to JT's performance. He shot six over on the back nine. and missed the cut. He was two under at one point, coming into the back, and then, you know, just down the stretch.

Now, that six over happened to coincide with the worst weather that the guys actually played in of the entire tournament. And so the challenge is, do you say it's a one-off, it's a thing where for whatever reason, J.T. couldn't calibrate his own physical comfort

with the, discomfort of the situation. He just couldn't find the swing. The swing abandoned him. He couldn't recover it. And, you know, he, he, he's just not a mutter. He just couldn't handle the conditions. If you, if we're being

sort of gracious and generous about it, do you share that sentiment? Do you have a different view? I hope that you're right. I think, I think JT is a tunnel vision player. And at the PGA last year, he stayed in the tunnel.

and played his ass off and made a shit ton of birdies and snatched that trophy away from Mito as soon as Mito tripped and won the playoff against Will Z. I felt like on the back nine, and maybe you put some of this on Bones, that he was in a tunnel not really backing out to say, okay, I'm in a war. I just got to survive.

I'm going to hit this ball to the middle of the green and not try to move up or down the, not down obviously, not try to move up the leaderboard, but I'm just going to try to get in right now at even par and play as safely and defensively as I possibly can. It just felt like the same instinct that puts the guy on heaters took him out of this tournament on that back nine. And I'm unclear as to why Bones didn't step in and just throttle him back.

He wasn't going to win this week. He wasn't playing well enough. But let's be clear, if he gets in the house at two under, he could have won this golf tournament because he could have gone on a heater today. He could have done a Speethian nine birdies without the bogeys that Speeth put together and found himself in the mix on this thing. So I think it was a strategic tactical error. Some of what makes J.T. great also sometimes gets him lost in the plot. Okay, you do Max, then I'll do my third player. And my own personal take on Max, Max just did what he does, did what he does in majors.

Like, I'm not that disappointed in his performance. He's still the same guy. we're going to look at each major as he comes into it and tries to show us that he's a different guy because of his performance. You know, he's really elevated himself into this conversation of a top five guy on the PGA tour. He just doesn't have any success in any major. He showed up with this major. We thought that maybe he would have some success and he didn't. So that's my sizing it up.

Let me hear why you were disappointed in him. Well, I'm disappointed because Max Homa is a top five golfer in the world. if you look at the last 18 to two months of results. Full stop. He's got six wins. He's got two in this official season, six top tens. I mean, it is time for Max Homa to be the player that he is in a major championship. Max knows that.

He's spoken about it for months. The win at Napa is kind of nice at this point, but it's not enough for where he wants to be. And I feel badly for Max because I know that he was measuring himself now. He wants to measure himself against majors. He's playing the part three with JT and Spieth. He's on the President's Cup and probably the Ryder Cup teams. He wants to be in that big boy club, but the truth is to be in that big boy club, you've got to show out in the majors.

And every other big boy in the big boy club showed out in this major with a few exceptions or has done it before. And for whatever reason, this is still in between his ears. And coming home to LACC for the U.S. Open as we talked about, he's got the Wells Fargo between now and then, which he's won at Quail Hollow, which maybe we'll give him that confidence back. But this was the test to see, okay, now I've won six times. Am I that guy? Am I ready? And he shot six over on Sunday today. You know what we talked about when we discussed what we observed of him on Wednesday?

It was the fairway roll and show where we got to watch some of the guys out on the golf course. And by the way, people were in the timeline saying that I said bad stuff about Kepka. And I may very well have earlier in the week. Once we saw him on Wednesday, it's the reason that we walk and watch the guys, I said on the pod that I am betting Brooks Kepka. And I bet him a number of different ways because of what we saw and how good he looked. But in any event, what we said about Max was maybe this isn't the right major for him to try and get that breakthrough because there's too much other stuff going on it's a whole thing

the masters is not where you just put your head down and you're in your hotel room or your Airbnb and you're with one other player or two and it's quiet and you go from spot to spot the masters is is a is an experience and he experienced it and he deserved to experience it it's the part three it's it's the family it's you know the way that everybody treats you and it's the wrong one if if you're looking for a breakthrough for a guy who sort of fits the bill of what you're describing. Look, in the best possible scenario, this takes the air out of the balloon a bit of expectations for Max. And he can come back to being a little bit commando. Not everybody's going to be like, I'm betting Max coming into LA, Max, Mac, like the internet love for him.

He's on the internet. We know he reads his comments in ways that I don't think Rom does, right? So the downside of reading your comments is you're going to see. it and hear it and you got to deal with it. And there's been a lot of love for Max, which has been deserved it. I hope this maybe helps him change his approach to L.A. He should come in. He should have more fun if he can. Still a serious approach for sure, but not put as much pressure on himself in the way that I think you and I observed it on Wednesday in that practice round. He was dropping multiple balls. It just looked like he was treating this like it was a bigger

thing for him than maybe you or I felt like it needed to be. Well, we've been. going for some 50 minutes and I'm going to share with you who I was most disappointed in and it's not Scotty Sheffler. So 50 minutes into the show we finally discuss, we finally mentioned by name last year's master's winner. He showed us that he was just having a terrible time putting and never got any better. That's it. And that happens. That happens sometimes. He really had the ball striking was there, right? I mean, for the week, Scotty Sheffler was 50th in putting and that's only because today he had a great round and was 13th. If we'd measured it after the third round, he was dead last. For the event, he was first in shots gained approach, which Justin Ray

told us is the key. He was fourth in shots gain off the tee. It was the putter, the putter, and the putter this week that kept him from winning a second green jacket. It's why it's so hard to repeat. It's literally the thing. When you look at all the matrix of, you know, how are we going to try and pinpoint the potential contenders. You never take a guy to repeat because it's so impossible and the thing that can escape you immediately. Listen to the quality of the ball striking. Those stats you just read.

Insane a level of talent. And there's a potter went cold and that's it. Do you think it was the cheeseburger sliders on Tuesday night? It definitely was not. He has a real comfort zone. That was part of the comfort zone that he had for himself. But where did Scotty finish the tournament? I mean, you know, he showed out quite, quite well.

Yeah, no, no, no. He finished T10. T10, of course he did. You can't keep him down. He was too under today. I mean, he played terrific. This is the second best golfer in the world, an absolute hoss. He played, he put horribly and finished 10th at the Masters.

Not the guy I'm most disappointed in. Who was your most disappointing guy? It's just Jason Day. And it's not a criticism of Jason Day. It's just because we bet on him. Yeah, that's all. My favorite parlay of the week was Jason Day top 20 with a hole in one. We didn't get a hole in one.

Thank God we didn't. The juice there was way too rich for my blood. No hole in one and no Jason Day top 20. We didn't get the Jason Day top 20 because he shot 80 today. Hello, Cho. So the marathon got to Jason today's Jason Day. And the reason I'm disappointed, and it's, it's, you know, it's just, I like having him back around the hoop. That's a major winner.

That guy adds class to what's happening. He's like, you know, kind of an Adam Scott vibe as well, right? When those guys, those elder statesmen are at these vent, these majors playing well, you know, they have the opportunity to become mentors in their own right. I like them to show out to play through. And we have a certain, you know, expectation of those. guys when they're in form that they're going to be competitive. We have an expectation that they're not going to lose this money. It's fine. I'm just disappointed. I like it. I like it better when he's playing better. Justin Rose played pretty damn good. Adam Scott played pretty damn good. Like that's

good. That's good for the game, right? Let's have our elder statesman and our upper incomeers, you know, in this meld right now where golf is is all-time competitive and it's, It's really fun to watch and get into. We're going to finish with this here on the Fairway Rowland show slash podcast. Most promising. So pick a guy that, you know, played over the course of the tournament, either met or exceeded your expectation. You feel happy about where they are with their game and what the rest of the season portends for this player. We'll each do one guy.

We might have the same guy. well you get to go first so that i don't steal your thunder well of course you know who i'm going to say and it's probably because it's easter and he channeled everything that that easter uh delivers to him in in his golf life he's clearly a holy soldier jordan speech went out and shot 66 today an incandescent six under surpassed only by 52 year old phil mickleson god bless him keeping it up for the for the old guys. Who knows what's in his system. But Jordan Spieth, you know, still a youth. And look, we know what he does at this place. He birdied half the holes on a Sunday master round.

Half the holes. Yeah. I mean, if he hadn't played like such a donkey on three, I mean, he had an absolutely had a 63 in him. Yeah. And so the round three, 76, that was, you know, split over two days. we say all that he was he was a weather victim otherwise 69 70 66 well under par you're the three rounds you come out on Sunday you come out on a Sunday at the Masters and drop a 66 you're still you're still doing good things Jordan Speeth I still believe in you baby I do too I do too and I loved it look I think I've got two names that I think we just got to stay attention to Victor Hovland was wonderful this tournament man and really good say Dave, the short game around the green was excellent.

Round two was not excellent. It was another one of those suddenly lost almost two and a half strokes around the green. But we watched him save a bunch of pars you and I did out there in person. And even in round three and round four, he gains strokes around the green. He struck the ball well. I'm excited about what's to come for Victor Hovland. Still has a little more work to do. don't think he's going to get washed away by the greatness of the five to eight guys who are clearly

ahead of him. It still feels like one of these is going to drop to him in a week when he can put. And the second one for me is Cam Young. I just think this guy is an absolute hoss. He finished T7 alongside Victor here when I think back to that Eagle on 18 at the British last, you know, last July. And then I think to the way that he played this tournament, having not played it very often, and this is a guy who is going to win a major or two. And it may be the first tournament he wins because he still, he's finished second so many times. He still didn't have a win under his belt.

He's ready to do it and he's definitely a top 10 guy anytime we come into these majors just because of the all-around parts of his game. The funny thing with him is now, because of this performance, he fits virtually every metric that you look for for a potential master's winner because he's now, he missed the cut last year. So he didn't make any of the criteria. Now this top 10, the performance under,

the thing with Cameron Young, that to me, the firepower, what his arsenal is a different arsenal than other guys. What he's capable of showing. And, and, you know, he is clearly not overwhelmed by Augusta National.

He can move the ball around at this golf course. So great. I totally agree with both of those guys. And I think like all three of those guys going forward are guys that I wouldn't be shocked to see win the rest of the majors this season. Maybe not because John Rahm and Scotty Sheffler and Rory McElroy will want to have some things to say about that. But that's it. Any one of those three guys winning would not surprise me. I want to make sure that we touch on the afterthought guys because.

we touched on them in the preview. We already briefly touched on Cantley. So now it's just our list of guys that best to not win a major. It's Zander, it's Patrick, and it's Top Gun, Tony. I guess we'll just keep waiting. Yeah, we're going to keep waiting. This was a not particularly inspired performance from Tony, just didn't have it this week relative to the other guys.

I think Morikawa, you and I go back. and forth and say he's obviously won two majors is he a guy is he just a guy top 10 again two years in a row he's been in the top 10 here and he didn't do anything particularly great this week so he feels like one of those guys who's always going to be around the hoop and we just have to wait for the heater to check in like it did in his two major championships that that's fine well big thanks to all the birdie buddies all the eagle enthusiasts all the par saving pals out there. We had a hell of a week. I am still

recovering from our actual experience boots on the ground at Augusta National. Thanks to everybody who came up and said hello to me. Hello to Nate. We had a really fun time with the podfather and with our beloved pal, David Chang. We had a nice contest

going between who would be more recognized between those two guys. I don't want to share the results. I'm not going to share the results. It could be an ongoing competition. It was kind of year in my game. They didn't even really know it was happening. We had fun counting hellos. It was for our own entertainment, maybe our gambling purposes.

But enormous thanks to everybody who made that trip go so great. Thanks to Fandul, of course. Thanks to the green jackets who were so cordial to us that we got to shake hands with and meet and chat with a little bit. And our media friends that we saw there, it was a tremendous week. I wish we could run it back, not next week, but in a couple weeks. thanks to our producer Eduardo Campo. Thanks to everybody that helped make the show go great.

We are back this week because there's more professional golf and it's actually a sneaky fun tournament. Elvated event, baby. Yeah, so we're going to have some, every eligible golfer that wants to play is committed to the field. So we're going to have a bunch of top 100 guys in the field in South Carolina. We're back Tuesday. I think we're taping.

So the show should be up Tuesday night, Wednesday morning. We'll have some picks for you. and hopefully a little R.O.Y that's similar to the R.O.I. For this week, in the meantime, my birdie buddies, please, if you throw a peg in the ground, let's hit them straight out there.