Fairway Rollin' - JT Takes the Trophy and Setting Sights on Augusta

Episode Date: March 17, 2021

House and Hubbard celebrate JT's victory and begin to eye the prospects for the Masters. They take into account all of the major wins this season up to this point to see who is going to be in the best shape come time for Augusta. Then they break down what Justin Thomas did to pull off a dynamite win at The Players Championship. Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

to this golf unlike any other. We've all done it. We're back. It is Fairway. Golf podcast on the Ringer podcast network. I am your starter. Joe House. What a time to be alive in golf world.

What a time to be alive in the real world as well. Progress is being made in 2021 on all fronts. This week, Nate Dogg and I are out as a two ball. we have a wonderful, wonderful celebration of JT's victory. We are officially 24 days out as we record this podcast from a certain major tournament in Augusta, Georgia. And there's other great golf to talk about out there. The first tee is wide open. Nate and I are strolling over for this two ball.

Let's try and hit one down the middle here. Nate Dogg. Feel the Fitzmagic house. He's coming to D.C. Oh, he is so sexy. I immediately texted everybody that was reaching out to me. This is Ryan Fitzpatrick leaving Miami for some reason to come here to Washington. He immediately ascends to the top of the number one sexy guy in all of Washington DC lists.

He just fucking catapulted and yes I F bombed right away. Catapults Ted Cruz. Just leaps right over. Ted Cruz is number one sexy guy. Dude, the reason he came, there are 10 million of them. That's why. Those are good. Those are 10 million. You know what?

I had a Miami friend send me an angry note. And I'm like, bro, CTC, cut the check. Well, why are you talking to me? Yeah. I love that everybody's pissed about losing Ryan Fitzpatrick, who's been passed around like a, like the bottom of a bottle of whiskey at a late night party. He's the hero we needed 2021, Nate dog. here in Washington for sure, right? Joe, is the players a, is it a major?

I won't indulge you in this. I will not gain, I won't do it, but I will say, it's a dumb conversation. It's an awesome golf tournament. Yes. And it showed so well this week. We have had great golf over these past couple of weeks. It has been awesome.

Like every PGA tournament to start the season has been a home run. I'm a little worried about this week. but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. This was terrific. I'm glad that you mentioned that. Let's just go through the six, seven, eight weeks that we've had here since this show got going in 2021. We kicked off after Hawaii. And we had Sea Woo Kim win out of PGA West.

And that's fine. That's a nice appetizer. It was because we also had, you know, Cantlay making a big hard run there. It was an interest. We had the snails. which was a big moment. But there was intrigue and interest. But now listen to these winners that we've had the absolute pleasure of discussing week in, week out.

Patrick Reed puts all of his junk up on the table and invites everybody to give it a smooch. Not before he moves the ball, though. Well, he moved the ball. And then it went on the table. Then he invited the rules official. Tori Pines. Then we get Brooks Kepka in Phoenix. Big comeback win. Daniel Berger, hot stud since the restart out at Pebble, a magnificent closing hole, you know, Eagle from from Daniel Berger. The homie Homa with the story of the year back where he grew up, where his love of Tony, where his love

of golf got, got started, just magical out of Riviera. Even the off, all, all. WGC event, the second event, Brandon Grace, that was, that's a, you know, that's another quality name. You see his name up there on major leader boards, but the WGC event was Kalamor Kawa at the concession, major winner Kalamor Kaua, major winner Bryson DeCambeau at Bay Hill, and now major winner JT at the players. Like, it's a parade of riches, bro. We've talked a lot about how concerned we've been about what's going to happen in the post-Tiger era, not so much concern, but just that we got to get ourselves there. And we're just seeing this handful of 10 to 15 great young guys trading off each week.

It makes it hard to bet, but it makes it fun to bet. Well, the thing speaking of betting that feels extra rewarding when you catch JT at the players after a string of subpar by his standards performances. We had him at 20 to 1. And we just, we all looked at each other. Pat Mayo was on the preview show last week. We're all looking at each other like,

it's JT. I mean, we know that he's in a funk and we know that, you know, there are things going on in his life that he's got to sort out, you know, his own mistake in Hawaii, and then the passing of his grandfather,

and then the tiger accident, and all those things are weighing on him and all things that he had to deal with. The performance over the weekend was record-setting, yes, but it was also, like, majestic, like exactly what we always beg for out of our great players in this game, right?

It was. It brought me back to thinking, if this guy puts two more majors under his belt over the course of the next 18 months, I mean, does he start to separate from this entire generation of young guys? Because just what we saw over the weekend and the ball striking was, I mean,

Jimmy came off the course as caddy in near shock. Like that was a masterclass. So, and part of the thing that I really enjoyed from the broadcast was Jim Bones McCai, Bones out there following JT's group over the weekend and Bones having caddied for JT's, a few times in the last calendar year.

Bones had, it was a really good job by him of showing the proper restraint for keeping his, but you could hear the enthusiasm. Like it was like 10%, maybe a tiny bit more, where just the inflection of his voice. And he was doing an awesome job of conveying to us how exquisite some of those, the long irons, the five wood on 16,

the long iron, the long iron into 11. 11. Yeah, the four, fourth, that was a four iron into 11. Yeah, five. And he'd done the same thing on Saturday. Right. Long irons. And that was, you know, I really love bones on the case.

Yeah. He understands what's inside of his bag. He also seems to understand what's inside of his head. And we got both of those things. We got the exquisite shots. We got a little tiny bit of headcase from JT. We have seen him, you know, most recently in my head at the Zozo here at Sherwood, we've seen him down the stretch get squirly with the driver.

And when he gets squirrelly with the driver, he tends to block it outright. Yep. The best part of that drive on 18, where he stepped up and I was texting with a few people saying, I think this is over and they're like, look, he could easily bogey this. and Westie hadn't missed the shorty on 17 yet. But when he stepped up, I thought, oh, boy, he's going to lose it right. But no, it was the big donkey draw. At best, we can call it a draw.

Maybe a gnarly hook. I think it starts with an age, but that's fine. It was the exact option. It's like he has been working on this so hard since he pushed a few tournaments down the toilet with the push driver. And he got himself to a place where he knew he wasn't going to push it, but he overcorrected.

And he saved the tournament by six feet, five feet. Right. That's it. I mean, and the one sort of contour on the left side of the, as you go up number 18 at sawgrass, out at that yardage where he hit it,

there is this kind of like indentation where you can almost use it. even though the ball's moving hard right to left, it catches that berm. There's a tiny berm. Those guys all know that it's out there. It's not relevant for guys like you and I. No. But he caught it in exactly the correct way and it pushed it back to the right.

Like it, you know, it impeded the ball from taking, you know, the spin that it had on it and running right into the drink. Yeah. And it just keeps going. So it becomes a 312-yard drive to the fairway. And he's got 125 yards in and the tournament's over. And how about this? The opportunity to go 18 for 18

greens and regulation standing there over that 124 yard shot in there. Nobody's done it in the history of the players championship on the last day. No 18 for 18 green in regulation. And he puts the same short with the same way. It's awesome. Awesome.

I know. But it really the story of his weekend, you said it was the back nine and in particular 11 and 16 and just the approach shots there, got an eagle on Saturday, got an eagle on 16, got an eagle on 11 on Sunday.

And that was the difference. I mean, he only won this tournament by a stroke, in part because Westwood hung in there and Bryson faded a bit, but he really went and grabbed this one, four under on the back nine. What can you say?

If you want to put Lee Westwood in the final group from now for the rest of the season, I'm here for it. Please do. Fine by me. It's very lovely to watch. I love the Helen.

interactions, it's all good. It really does take your headspace when it comes to watching competitive golf, the entertainment product, and seeing that exchange, first of all, it's very welcome for him with his girlfriend who's easy on the eyes. And on top of that, there's a humanizing element. It changes the tension of the moment.

And it seems like for him as well, like for me as a TV viewer, it changes like the heightened tension that I'm feeling, you know, the unconscious sort of like my neck, you're getting that tight, like, come on, come on. But they're having a great conversation. He's chill. So much of the success that we've seen over the course of the last year has come from players who have started to figure out what's in between their ears. And for Lee Westwood, in so much of his 30s, this is a guy who should have two majors and 10 wins on the PGA tour. There's just no other way to say it. He was that talented.

He was the Colin Montgomery part two, the guy who just couldn't get over the hurdle, but you didn't want to see him in match play. You didn't want to see him, you know, in a Ryder Cup. So we were rooting for him, and it's just so nice to see him in a place where he's basically got his therapist on the bag. conversely, Justin Thomas has been in a stage where he's really been struggling mentally to get out of it.

And he spoke this week about looking to a guy like DJ, who he played with at the memorial when I think DJ shot double 80s. And was lost and going through some things that I don't think have really come to light just yet. I don't think we really know about the emotional mental stuff that DJ was dealing with. But then to see DJ come back, grab the FedEx Cup by the throat, you know, win the masters in the way that he did, Thomas looked at that as a reminder that, hey, golf is hard. It ebbs and it flows. You have to trust the process and know that you're going to come through it at any moment in time. That is such a hard thing to do mentally. It is what is so unique about golf versus any other sport because it's just fucking you.

out there. It's you against the course. And what J.T. said was he had to tell himself to suck it up. People encounter hard things in their lives. And they have to overcome them if they want to reach their goals. And he said, you know, that was a big part of

just telling himself, you need to deal with this. Get over it, bro. Suck it up. And the point you just shared about his reference to DJ. It's amazing that we look at, you know, DJ as the exemplar

of mental strength and stability on tour, but those guys do, right? They really do. Isn't it great that before the Masters, we've had two guys win and stars in Bryson and J.T. and cry about the win? And we're not even at the first major of the year. I mean, that tells you something about the season that we're in, the way they've structured these tournaments.

I'm all in on this. This is terrific. Yeah, well, I want to do some accolades for JT to sort of address your question early on about JT separating himself from his peers because he's only 27. He turns 28 pretty soon. But we have to talk about the event itself. We have to talk about how cool it was to have fans. Yeah.

How great the every shot thing was. I having seen now, and I'm just going to touch on it quickly because we'll go back to the JT accolays. I really do want to give him some proper recognition for where he is historically. The wind charts on 17. Did you see how they show the wind patterns? I love them so much. I loved them too.

But it was like, what the fuck he's supposed to do? Look at what the wind is doing. Holy shit. But just the visual is so insane. What if we get that at the Masters? What if we get to see how the wind is behaving down? Yes. See?

You see what I'm? You're picking up. I'm dropping, brother. That's it. Wait, wait. What if we can see the wind on 12? What if? Like, serious kudos to NBC.

That's an innovation, right? Yes. That win thing. It was great. It absolutely enhanced the broadcast immensely. So this was the best, yes, I think this was the best broadcast of a golf tournament that's ever existed because we got every single shot.

we got a bunch of really interesting and important stats layered on top, like meaningful stats about, you know, if you were putting real-time money down, for example, you got a sense for how a guy's strokes gained were in that day, so on and so forth. You could watch any player at any time, and they had the win thing. I'm just not ready to call it the best,

but I am absolutely ready to give it, you know, top tier. Like the bar has been, set. Yeah, okay, fine. It wasn't the best. Let that be the bar for the balance of 2021. Were there any drones out there? See, that's, it can't be the best if we don't have.

We didn't have drones. But we did have like unbelievable footage, drone footage of them showing us the holes in ways that we haven't seen before. Yeah. We didn't have live drones. And I don't know. I wonder if that's a function of having human beings out there if that changes the availability of the drone footage.

because insurance purposes we don't want to crash. You can't crash a drone into fans. Seems like it could be a problem. But I have no idea. I'm not doing the research on this. What we know is we want to see this going forward. And it's great that the tour made an announcement about their deal with Amazon to have this every single shot thing.

When are we going to see it outside the players? It's awesome. It is the perfect way to get introduced to a bunch of players. We picked up. up a lot of naughty talk on the mics. It's everything we want. We're going to get to JT in this historical, uh, context, but let's do the naughty talk right now because you can't just tease it like that.

I mean, it was absolutely spectacular. And by the way, the other place we're going to see every shot is Masters in 24 days. But let's let's talk about how rich the experience was at the, a huge field, 150, whatever, was it 153? And it's such a big field. we couldn't finish on Thursday or Friday. Right. Guys had to come out first thing in the morning.

But what they got on Wednesday was a tech saying, reminder, every shot's going to be filmed. Watch your ass is basically what the tech said. And a bunch of the guys tweeted about it, you know, jokingly that it up. But sure enough, you get up to the sixth hole or the seventh hole and you're just having a nice walk and you forget that everything that's happening on every hole is being stored in the depths of the internet. And if you're, you know, Taylor Gooch, let's hope that he gets more attention going forward because he should. But on Thursday, not a lot of people are paying attention to Taylor Gooch or Mark Hubbard's round. But they were paying attention to Jordan Spee and Colin Moracawa, weren't they?

That was absolutely magical. Thank you, Internet. To set the stage, Spieth, and this goes to how long was effing taking out there, right? I mean, the guys are trying to get around. No. Jordan hits a ball into a group that has Rory Sabatini in it. Didn't see the guys. He didn't see him.

And the mic picks up Jordan realizing that he'd hit into the group and having like a, oh, God, of all the sons of bitches to hit the butt into. He hit into Sabatini. And he mentioned Sabatini by name on the broadcast. and then you pick it up from here. Well, he said at least, I think he likes me at least. Yeah. And then Sabatini hits a bad shot, looks back at the tee again, and Jordan's like, yeah, sure, it's my fault.

You're blaming me. And then there's some muddled cross talk where it sounds like Colin Morcawa is saying something like Sabatini is somewhere between interested and obsessed with his girlfriend. I mean, it was muddled cross talk. sure, but I mean,

creeper. Did we hear it? We heard it. Did he say it? He said it. And in five minutes, it's everywhere on Twitter. And in five hours,

it's gone. It gone. It lasted five. Hey, look, the PGA tour has been letting some of its shaggy dog moments for the players hang out there. Hang out there.

This was not one of them. They took that dog. Well, I don't ever want to use that kind of a euphimus. I don't like that. I'm a dog guy, so I'm not talking about putting the dog in the pound or putting the dog down. But I'll just, what we're going to say is they disappeared it. It was a wire. It went into one of the row houses in the wire.

Yeah, that one they sided with Bryce and DeShambo on help me protect my brand and made the executive decision to bury it. And it's okay. hards, they saw what they saw. I would have loved to have seen the lunch table discussion between Morikawa's Pete and Sabatini because there must have been some conversation after the round.

You think? Why? I mean, I don't, he was, the glaring back was he was pissed. He's grown and those guys are young. So he, he didn't, if you're grown and the youngsters are acting up, you just let him know

that they misstep. There was a misstep. glare is sufficient. There's no reason to have a chat. Now, Sabatini's a dick, so maybe there was a chat. I don't know. Maybe it seemed like maybe he sent three more texts to work out his girlfriend. Who knows? You are our PGA tour correspondent on the ground.

I mean, you can find these things out. Maybe for the next show, we'll have a little more intel on what happened after the round. We'll get some combination of me and TMZ on this. Anyway, don't stop showing the shots and picking up the conversation. because in addition to all that, we got awesome catty player conversations. The Jordan Michael conversations are just Hall of Fame stuff. We need a wing in the Golf Hall of Fame for all their conversations.

They're equivalent to Bones and Phil, right? Oh, I mean, I don't have enough of the Bones and Phil experience to properly judge it, assess it. because the bones and fill conversations to me, the bits that I've always picked up, always run in the, in towards the technical. The speed growler conversations, that's what a married couple.

That's how married people talk. Was my shot not good enough for you? You don't like that I clean. You don't like these drapes? You don't like the couch? Why are you talking to me? I didn't say a word. Are you calling me fat?

Don't try and, and, conclusions from whatever you think my body language is telling you, I'm happy for our mutual success. Can we please just move on with our lives? Oh, my God. It was so good. Yeah. Seriously, they could you, we could have a speed cam and let's just let's have the audio of their entire round. And I might choose to watch the round that way. Well, and you could have that's what is great about the way they're showing this. It lets them lift up the, the visibility of some of these mid-tier players, a guy goes on a heater, you know, you don't have to have bones run

six holes back across the course, which is three fucking miles. Fans can just tune in and watch it. Yeah, it's outstanding. Well, let me go ahead and talk about some of the things that Justin Thomas did with this win, starting with only two players before the age of 28 have at least 10 PGA Tour wins. a major and a WGC win. And those two players now are Justin Thomas and Tiger Woods. Now, the world golf championship hasn't been around long enough to give us, you know,

some of the legendary names out there. But since 1960, there are only three other players to have 14 PGA tour wins before age 28. And that's, you know, Jack Nicholas, Johnny Miller and Tiger Woods. So JT joins that company with his 14th win on tour before age 28. The one thing about those stats is that all those guys that he's in that dialogue with were lowering the bar to one major because it's only Justin Thomas who has one major. He has spoken about how mentally hard it is to get your second. He actually thinks it's harder to get your second than your first. but there's something about this win and the tears afterwards

that say to me it's all about the majors now for Justin Thomas this guy's got to go get six majors and it's got to start this year oh so that's interesting I don't disagree that he should gobble up a bunch of majors there's absolutely nothing stopping him he had a shitty putting week his putting stats were

mediocre across the board but his T.D. Green was so much better than everybody else and his approach. He gained 11.18 strokes T2 to Green over the last 36 holes, the most by any player on a weekend at TPC Sawgrass since they started tracking that in 2004. I mean, he missed a 2 foot 11 inch put on 14 on the back nine on Sunday that could have busted the whole tournament. Right. He was fortunate to get out of there without that, you know, inflicting major damage on his chances. So I don't know whether or not I agree that he has to win a major this calendar year. It's got to come soon, though.

The 30s not that far away. Well, you know what? He's got the players. And that is however you want to characterize that tournament. Not a major. Right. But still significant, still prominent. Still counts.

But this is the last one on the case. Like, there is now an open. gaping open hole on his trophy case where major tournament trophies need to go. It's time. He's capable of it. I don't think he's blown any tournaments. It's just shift into gear. J.T., go get him.

Because you can't talk about a guy being on par with Tiger Woods when he's only got one major at the age of 28. You just can't. Yeah, yeah. Well, I want to also talk with you about another extraordinary thing that we witnessed this week at the players championship. And I made a very deliberate point of not raising this with you over the weekend and particularly

Friday. I just wanted to let, you know, because I just wasn't sure how it was going down among the family. Now, you've since given me some assurance everybody's in the right head space. And then it makes perfect sense. I'm, of course, talking about Mark Hubbard. and his incandescent round on Friday where he took a Thursday turd bucket huge turd bucket.

Yeah. And by the way, he forecasted, he, his own self forecasted, he said, don't pick me this week. I'm not,

you know, you've talked about the struggle he's been having with long irons. And then on Thursday, he went out and shot 77. 8. 78. I'm sorry.

Yeah, don't forget about the last bogey. And then on, Friday. Look, Thursday, he had three doubles in a row. Yes. He messed around and got a triple double. He tweeted that. Yeah. And

then on Friday, he steps up on seven from 180 yards with a, you know, six iron and drains it. Yes. Maybe it was a seven iron, actually. But he trains it. He's a pro. I'm sure it was a seven. Boom. Eagle.

And it just starts a fire round and all a sudden he birdies eight, he birdies nine, he birdies 11, and I'm texting my dad going, wait, he's not going to, can he make the cut? He's actually going to make the cut. And these are the little stories that happen underneath the surface of the big stars who are crying, right? This is, hey, he's got a baby coming in three weeks, you know, now actually in two weeks. And can he get breakthrough? I mean, if we go back and look at great opening around in the desert, he led the, he led Phoenix. He shot a great

second round at the Rive, great opening round at Pebble. You put all those things together. He could be winning a tournament. He hadn't had a top 10. And so it's just a good indication of the struggle. He comes down 16, which you got a birdie. You got a birdie 16. Right.

This is on Friday. He's on 16. I'm really excited. Like, oh my God, this could really happen. Yep. And because the drive goes in the rough, he doesn't have an approach. So he's got to get there in three. He's got a 10-footer for birdie that he misses. And I had been texting my dad on the backside saying he's going to have to birdie 17, I think, to make the cut. There's

just no chance otherwise. And sure enough, he sets up to 17. And my heart is sort of in my stomach because I'm like, oh, I really thought he was going to get that one. He hits his T shot on 17 to 36 feet. And you figure, okay, let's, you know, that's it. Maybe it gets a nice, a nice safe shot on 17, but pedestrian. Yeah, and then drains the putt. Drain's the putt. Yeah, and ice cream's so loud that the people who were in my house thought something was wrong.

Because, oh, my God, he's going to make the cut. Because now he is inside. He's six under for the day. Best round of the day at that time. And he's one inside the cut, which is definitely going to be even. It's not going to move. There just aren't enough people out there.

18's a hard hole, though, house. 18's a hard hole. It requires, it's demanding off the teeth. and it's demanding on the approach. And both ways can get you. So his T-ball wasn't really God-awful. It was in play. In the rough.

That's right. That happens on that hole. And he had a long iron in his hands. And it's been the long iron that's been tough and just pushed it a bit right. Tiny bit. Tiny bit right. It wasn't a giant push. And as it was in the air and his body language, as is coming down,

there's kind of a small knoll, a little bit of a corner where if it carries one more yard, it will hit the top of that little hill and bounce down to the left, onto the green. Yeah. And instead it doesn't. And one of the great things about the course this week was set-up was awesome. I mean, it was soft and pure, but the rough was up. And you get a lie like that, even though on 90% of the courses they play, that's a routine wedge. With the rough the way that it was, you just don't know how it's going to come out

and blasts it 40 feet past the hole, and that's the end of the day, because you're not going to make two 40-footers in a row, usually. And you miss the cut by one, and you go, you know, it's a indication and just a classic example of how fucking hard golf is. When you're almost there, you just can't string two, three, four full days together.

Yeah, that's right. And what's his headspace? Did he feel like the week was a success after that kind of experience? Like, after you get over, okay. All right. That's why I'm asking. I mean, yeah, making the cut at API where he'd never broke in par, it felt great.

This is a course that he feels like he can do something on. And it's just been consistency. And there are guys all up and down the board. on this tour who have the exact same feeling, which is they lock in for a bit and boom, they're on a heater and all of a sudden you're six under and you're like, whoa, okay, I got it. And then in an instant, you know,

one thing happens and you don't get to play the weekend. I mean, I'm sure if he'd played the weekend, he would have played great. You know, and it is an interesting thing, the observation you made about his own sentiment that he should be better at this golf course, that it's a golf course that sets up for him. that is part of the real appeal of this and what came through a really great reminder.

It really requires strategic golf. You don't have to be a bomber. You don't need to be a guy. But it accommodates bombers. You know, Brian Harmon and Bryson Deschambeau shot the same score for the week. That's it. And so you got to golf your ball. And whether you're Bryson DeCambeau or you're Brian Harmon or you're Mark Hubbard,

you have to take in this game what's working for you. at that moment in time and go out and do the best you fucking can. And so Mark is not alone in this, you know, we've got a bunch of guys who've missed the cut and followed the next week with a win, but it's how you walk away from a bummer like that, even though you shot five under, that determines how you continue the rest of the year.

It's all about the mental part in this game, and JT felt it at the elite level all the way on down to a guy who missed the cut like Mark. Well, speaking of a guy that missed the cut, and I want to talk about Rory, then I want to do a speed round on some names because it's time for us to start getting serious about sizing up prospects for the masters.

But an extraordinary, extraordinary bit of insight from Rory McElroy, clearly in disarray, 10 over for the tournament, missed the cut by two miles, By the way, that was my note to Mark. I was like, well, you be Rory.

By a lot. Like, you know, if only we could have, you know, asked the book for that matchup, can we please have the Mark Hubbard Rory McRoy matchup? Then we would have been making some money, Nate Dog. But again, like, here's a guy in Rory

who's showing us what's going on in his mind. So this is the thing that was so interesting to me about it. I think the questioner was, who was it, Ryan Lavner? I don't remember now who asked the question. Yes, yes. And Rory took literally 20 seconds before a word came out of his mouth. Because it was clear that he was debating how candid he wanted to be about what he's struggling with.

It reminded me of like smart Supreme Court justices at a hearing for their confirmation. Like they take a question. they think, they process, they structure their thinking, they decide what the hot button and footballs are. And then he just went for it. He went for it. That's the only way you can say it. And he told us the truth.

And that's what we love about Rory. And so what did he say, House? It was stunning that he took us all the way back to last fall. October. Because, you know, we have seen moments of great golf out of him. He finished third over in the desert. So as he arrived here in the United States, I've been kind of waiting for him to get on a bit of a year. Yes, exactly. I mean, he led Bay Hill. We had the low round in the clubhouse at Bay Hill on Thursday.

It's just stringing them together. It's the same problem that everybody has. I can get one. Can I get four? And Roy's had trouble. We got a good stat last week in a preview show about how bad he's been between 75 yards and 125 yards that all. of his troubles emanate from there. But that's not what he talked about in response to this question, the press conference, after he missed the cut. What he talked about was the changes in his swing and what he's been doing to attempt to generate more speed, more power, more length. And he said, Rory McElroy said, I would be lying if I didn't talk about seeing what

Bryson's doing and not and that not having some kind of impact on my own thinking. Yeah. He said if courses are going to be set up like this, we got to go that way. And I've been chasing him and my swing is, I got the speed. I got there. But my swing got a little too flat. And I can't be consistent with it. So part of the thing that felt like an underrated aspect of his comment was that the observation he made about Bryson out of the rough and how Bryson playing single length clubs. Yeah. That creates for Bryce and this opportunity to generate more speed out of the

rough than everybody else who plays stepped sets. That was so fascinating. House, why is nobody else doing this? It's a, I mean, the interesting thing to me is like, Rory, you've already got all the speed you need, bro. You lead the tour in driving every single year. You don't need extra speed power distance. On the driver.

Yeah. Go try the single length iron. Is everybody so stubborn? Does everybody think Bryson's that much of a douchebag? They just don't want to give him the credit and just there have to be 12, 13, 14, 15-year-old golfers right now who are insisting on clubs of the same length. Have you ever tried same-length clubs? No.

Have you ever played with anybody who has? No. So, you know, the first mover in this, and I don't, I'll have to think about whether I want a name drop or not. But David Edel, Edel, Edel, however you say, E-D-E-E-E-L, that. that independent golf brand founded by David, he was doing single length irons before. And he did a set for Bryson that preceded Bryson's relationship with,

with Cobra. And I got to play golf. I'll name drop. I don't care. I was super lucky. I got to play golf with Alan Shipnuck. And Alan, you know, the golf writer for previously for golf.com, there was an announcement today as we're recording this that he and Matt Janella have

partnered up and they're doing their own. own independent substack thing media brand they're doing podcasts they're doing video they're doing writing

it's awesome and they're going to bring in other folks I'm psyched for him but Alan hosted out he lives in in Carmel

so I mean in Monterey the peninsula and he hosted at Monterey Peninsula Country Club which was just the most gracious thing ever

he has a set of the Edel single length irons and he's signed up a long time ago. He's been playing them a long time Alan has. And I'm looking at them, it's like,

this does make sense. Now, I was not in the right frame of mind, the right shape, the right golf game to like try. And I didn't ask, I felt like I was still, I didn't want to ask Alan. Like, come on. Let me, let me try out of the list. Because what if you brought you to the clock? What if you put a ding in it? You know what I mean? But then he's got to go through

a whole thing. But the logic of it, when you see them sitting side by side, like with your own two eyes as opposed to the sake seeing on television. The logic is extremely appealing. It makes sense. You can see it. Now, I don't, I'm not saying that I'm going to rush right out and do it.

I have a new set of golf clubs at home. They're, they're every bit tied to the specifications that I've been playing the last half decade because I'm doing old man golf out there. And I mean, at this advanced stage, am I going to bring in a bunch of the single shafts? But the single.

length. For a guy like Rory to make that observation and to share with us his insight, the impact on his own swing, and the guys looking at the innovation by Bryson, and interestingly seizing upon the body change, the speed change, the power part of it without maybe the technical aspect with the clubs. That is kind of a thing, Nate. It's like stubborn dudes who don't want to, they're just too insecure to be like, yeah, that guy's right. I'm going to follow. I don't know. There's no,

somebody else should try this. Is it too big a departure? Like let's think about it from like Mark Hubbard point of view. Would it be an enormous, such an enormous departure for Mark? Well, I'm not saying it's not now, not now, right? But when you have some time off, if you don't go try things other than, you know,

uh, heavy lifting, if you don't go try the full package of what he's thinking about and doing, if you're not a top hundred golfer right now, like shame on you. That's part of the growth mindset of golf, taking new ideas, try things,

be prepared to fail for a bit. Like if you're not trying this, I don't know what's wrong with you. And the interesting thing for Rory, besides the, you know, observation that Bryson is gaining an advantage because of the rough.

I mean, lots of folks said he was taught, you know, if courses are going to be set up like this, well, is Rory referring to courses being set up like the USO? because that's the U.S. Open. Only the U.S. Open is set up like the U.S. Open. But it is true, and we're seeing it.

It feels like with more frequency, courses are letting the rough grow up. And some of that is seasonal. But we saw a lot of rough at Tori. We saw so much rough at Tori that the balls were disappearing and maybe the guys thought they were embedding. Well, that's right. The tour is figuring out set up. There have been great set up courses these past three weeks, either pure with slightly softer greens and high rough, like you said, or this week,

fast and firm, but low rough. But still rough. The ball disappeared sometimes. Some guys got bad lies in this rough, even the more favorable shorter rough. There were still some bad lies. Yeah, this week coming at PJ National. Oh, okay, gotcha. The rough is down and the greens are really fast.

But yeah, I think on sawgrass, that is exactly what they let that rough come up. And it played a big part. And Bryson was competitive both. the weeks because as we said last week, like the next time that we see long course with high rough, you got to go Bryson. This was not long course with high rough, but it still gave him the advantage any time he was in it, as Rory told us. Yeah. So Godspeed to Rory, getting it figured out, the Masters is only 24 days away. He's got the physical skill to get himself back and he's gotten so close so many times. I mean, it was really barely only coming.

less than two weeks ago that he led the field at API. I mean, he went out and shot the low round so he's not that far away. Yeah, let's just also make this point. Bryson DeShambo did not run down Lee Westwood on Sunday this week.

Great, great call. That's right. I mean, he is a killer, but that's one that got away, and that's one that a lot of players who are in the Mount Rushmore of golf superstars would have gone out and won, especially with Lee Westwood

playing an even par. Well, I mean, listen to his quotes. He says, you know, it's just a little bit of a learning block, he said. He's going to go back. I'm going to work really hard

of my golf swing and figure out how to, again, he said, be less sensitive. I was more sensitive last week and pulled out the victory. So I don't know what that means. Do you have any idea

what Bryson Dishimba? I have no idea what it means. But you know what? I'm done doubting him because every time I think that he's making fun of himself or making a fool of himself for talking about his gut health and his brains and then he comes back and wins a tournament. So I trust him. I want to do a speed round on a bunch of names.

And since we're talking about Bryson, we'll talk about good poop or bad poop. I mean, is this guy at a good poop mode or bad poop mode? since we'll use Bryson as the setting it up. So Lee Westwood, we're going to start with that just because the guy has the best. He talks, he said he was lightly disappointed. He's won $2.6 million in the last two weeks. And he talked about he's going to go play Augusta. He played Augusta yesterday with his son Sam.

Now, that is the tits. I love Lee Westwood. And since he's going to Augusta, we're going to run through these names and do good, poop, bad poop for these guys on potential, you know, great performances out of Augusta. So Bryson, I have no idea. What do you think about Bryson at Augusta? I think Bryson's going to be terrific. Okay, great.

Cam Smith had finished top 20 at Sawgrass. He was tied for 17th, even though he shot even part 72 on Sunday. Where are you on Cam Smith? I'm in on Cam Smith. I think the guy, I love what he's done with his own look. With the mullet. Yes,

like that's reflective of a guy who's in good headspace, I think. He's like, he's zeroed in on and he's had a bunch of good, um, high finishes, good form. Yeah.

So I'm, I'm in on, on Cam Smith. Uh, soon J.M. Um, final round 66, also finished tied for 17th. And if I hadn't already used him at the Sony,

he would be my one and done. pick this week at the Honda. Sure to repeat. I'm just not there yet on Sung Jay. I'm just not. Finished runner up. I'll remind you in November. Not that long ago.

Bad poop. It's fine. Fine. Corey Connors. Another nice finish for him. Seventh place finish. He also shot a nice final round. He had a chance. He was on the leaderboard for a bit on Sunday and then

wasn't able to get really serious. Couldn't get the birdie on 16 and that sort of ended it, but yeah. We like him in the top 20. I like him in the top 20. Sure, sure. I don't think Cory Conner is going to compete for the Masters. Okay. Sergio Garcia. We had a Sergio sighting. I kind of like what we're seeing from Sergio. He's got to win. Can you believe it? He's going to be around the leaderboard. T-9 at the players and really with disappointing Saturday, Sunday rounds. I mean, there's no other way to say it. just didn't play that great. Missing two footers out there.

Sergio stuff. And his back nine on Sunday, he was two over. So I like Sergio Garcia to be a top 15 master's finisher this year. Okay, I like it. Jordan Speath.

Yes. I mean, all over it. Yes. Everything is gearing up and moving towards Jordan winning the Masters. The universe is pushing us that way.

The books. The books know, well. I think he's all the way down to like 11 to 1. He might even be 10 to 1 by now. That's the problem. Because he keeps making cuts and he keeps seeing him and the books know. Everybody loves Jordan Speed at the Masters. From a betting perspective, it's going to be an awful bet. But yes, number one in our hearts. Number one in our hearts. All right, last guy, DJ. How are you feeling about DJ at the moment? Tide for 48th at the players. I don't care about what he did at the players because DJ doesn't care what he did at the players. He's going to come into the

masters and be a top five finisher. It's just whether he gets the brakes to win. Well, I said last one because I was talking about guys that played this week. I do want to make sure that we talk about Brooks. Is there any word out there? He withdrew knee sprain and the Masters feels like it's in doubt potentially, which is such a shame. I have not heard anything on the results of the MRI, but that was a scary. The best case scenario there, is it's sprained. He could have gone if it was the Masters, but what he decided is,

I'm going to wait three weeks because all I care about is the Masters. I'd rather do the Masters than the players. I don't want to screw it up. So rest, you know, I screwed up 18 months of my career by playing through these injuries instead of just shutting it down.

I'm going to shut it down this time. He's definitely going to play the Masters. If he doesn't play the Masters, we have a big problem. Well, a repeat of the same kind of injury. that that was serious enough to keep him out of the U.S. Open. Yeah. So fingers crossed.

Right. Fingers crossed. We want Brooks, especially when he's out there. He got himself in such good form that he won Phoenix, and he won Phoenix, you know, with a Sunday closeout kind of round. Yeah. All right. Well, we are this week down to the PGA National.

This is our last Florida event. It feels like a fast Florida swing to me. I don't know why. Well, they have three tournaments and we're out. That's it. Exactly right. We only have seven of the top 50, and I... Very weak strength of field.

I'm not sure if I have, if that needs to be updated, if that number's correct, because we've had some COVID cancellations this week, right? Yeah, Woodland backed out yesterday and a few other guys. Look, this is one of those weeks where a lot of eyes will be averted because the stars, most of the stars aren't out. But we talk about this all the time. Those off-week events are where if you've been paying attention, to whose game is in form,

you can make a little bit of money. Yeah, we're going to try and do that. So obviously, the guys right off the top that are in form that you don't have any hesitation or reservation, at least I don't. You got to play Daniel Berger. You got to play Sung J.M. You got to play Adam Scott from my perspective.

The wind is going to howl this week, and in particular this weekend. So you need guys who know how to handle that. So with Sung Jay, we know that he can handle those weather conditions. He went low on Sunday last year in like, you know, the worst weather of the event. He went four under on that Sunday to win the event at sixth under. Crazy, you know, that that means the place. It always plays hard as a reputation of playing hard as the legendary bear trap.

And the challenge, all of the defense of the golf course comes from the wind, and the wind always blows this time of year down there. Yeah, this week, that course has very fast greens. We're going to see the fastest greens that we've seen. I will be very surprised if scores get any lower than they were last year at 600. It may not even get that high if the wind's really going to blow like it sounds like it is. Yeah. So let's talk about a couple guys that are not.

you know, kind of the obvious guys with the strong track record here. Do you have a guy for me? Well, we got to start with Brendan Steele. He's, he is a horse for courses. Brendan Steele shows up on the places that he loves, and he doesn't really show up in the places that he doesn't. It's not to say he's not trying. It's just there are courses that he dominates.

He's made eight of nine cuts here. He's had top 15s in four of the last five rounds that he's played, tournaments that he's played, and he was the 36-hole leader last year. He finished tied for fourth. Brennan Steele's going to be in the top 20 at least. That's an easy bet. And he should be top 10 with the strength of field.

Oh, I like this. And I'm always, you know, he's a horse for course kind of fella, Brennan Steele. So that's why he's an easy one to back. I am on, and this is really a weather play, but also a form play. Sneakily, we are seeing a lot more Shane Lauer. the last couple weeks.

And if you want to talk about a guy who can handle ultra hard conditions, win conditions, a total grinder, if I can, you know, talk about it that way, the British Open Champion, we're allowed to call them that,

even though, you know, they want to call it the Open Championship. Another top 10, T8 at the players last week, gaining strokes on the field in all, departments, but he's quietly had a pretty damn good 2020, 2020, 2021 season.

He has. And he said last week that he'd figured out the putting stroke and really settled on a grip. And so that's danger because, you know, he knows how to play in the wind. Yeah, that's exactly right. He has on his docket in this 2020, 2021 season, tied for 11th at Houston and a top 25 at the Masters. So, well, I like him. this week. He's in that, I'm seeing I'm in that sort of 28 to one range. What I don't like is in the exact same range as Taylor Gooch because Taylor's playing well. He played great at Rivieri, finished T5 last week. He is ninth in scrambling this season. He's got three top tens. He would be a guy that you'd go to. We've talked about him over the course of the past couple

weeks, but those odds just look a little too scary. Like he is basically in, when he's in the same range as Adam Scott and Shane Lowry, I'm sort of out on that. Yeah. So I like him in fantasy lineups and DFS lineups. I do not like him where the idea of the proposition is, will he win this golf tournament? That's right. You know, in this, in this way, we saw a ton of him on Sunday. And it was impressive. Like, I like watching Taylor Gooch. I never thought he was going to win the golf tournament. No. And it's just the tiny,

tiny mistakes right down the stretch on the back nine that separate, you know, the opportunity to go and have a life-changing win. Yeah. Or just having a top five, which is mother effing awesome. That top five at the players is effing awesome. So that's not,

it's not a bad thing. But I just, the experience we had of watching poor Doug Gim, who had, an extraordinary week at the players and got to play with Justin Thomas in the final round and the moment got to him. He wasn't ready for Sunday last four groups out kind of golf. And everybody jumped off the gim train. He's 50 to one this week, but the guy's 25th in shots gained approach this year. He's 25th in scoring average. And there aren't many people in front

of him in those stats who are playing this tournament this week. So, he's going to go one of two ways coming out of that round. He's either going to pick himself up, lick his wounds, and keep playing well, which he has been doing, or it'll send him into a spiral. It's a very compelling bet in the range where he is. So I'm on Doug Gim this week. I like Doug Gim. I liked what we saw out of him. I like him, the idea of him taking that experience and taking all the positives out of it. I mean, you know, he made an eight on. on seven. And then it was ugly. And you could hit the ball in the water. I mean, you know, and they couldn't recover from it.

You knew off the first T after that drive. It was like, oh, okay. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

That's right. But there's some other guys too. I mean, I, guys who've been playing well, we got to stop pretending that Chris Kirk isn't playing awesome.

Yeah. And I love his game. I honestly thought about live betting him on, you know, Friday into Saturday. Yeah. The all time. opportunity to the live bet when I was sitting quietly in my home at 8.45 in the morning,

looking at Justin Thomas at 40 to 1 Saturday. And I even texted it to a couple of buddies and like, JT's staring me right in the face. Just looking at me. He was. He was. And he won that staring contest. He did. But Chris Kirk's, he's got two top tens, four top 20s in six starts in 2021. He is 17th around the green, which is going to help here. He's 21st in shots gained T to green. So this is a guy who, you know, he's got better odds from a betting perspective than than guys like Shane Lowry and Taylor Gooch. He's sitting out there ready to go. I also look at Cam Davis, who we have spoken a lot about. T8 last year, 11th in driving distance. Like this guy feels like he's looking for a way to break through with a win.

I also am going to maybe dabble a tiny bit in Dylan Fratelli. Okay. You know, we recall he's looking 60 to one odds from what I'm seeing. Top 25 at the players. He had that top five finish at the Masters. So he's kind of in that form. And strokes gained around the green, which because, of the potential conditions.

He's inside the top 10 and strokes gained around the green. Just looking for guys down the card that you want to kind of fill out a lineup with. Okay. That's a pretty good roster. I want to hear it. One more guy that I want to just talk about and then I have a wild card for you. We can't not

talk about Keegan Bradley. We have spoken about him before. The dude is seventh in shots gained approach, 10th in shots gained T to Green. He is 200 and fucking sixth in putting. But he is hanging around these leaders. He's not going to win the tournament, but he's hanging around. You're seeing him on TV. He's finishing in these top, you know, sort of 20 spots. So pay attention to

Keegan. He might win this tournament. He really might. All he needs is a hot putter and he's going to win the tournament. But the guy that we haven't talked about, and you've got to know where I'm going with this one. I'm not ready yet. Go. Phil, is it 80 to 1? Oh, well, how about this? I had no idea he was playing. I had I crossed him off for this event. I mean, he he played great at the players championship. I just, we've written him off before. He's playing champions tour events, but he looked like maybe he's going to show up for the next month to do something at the Masters, probably not compete for the win, but at least be decent. And this is a tournament where like, you know, experience matters.

Experience matters. And he's got a ton of experience of PGA National. Oh, boy, oh boy. Just had to see your reaction because you've whipsod on the Phil train for me over the last six months between he's dead to embedding him to the master's whole thing. Yeah. I think about these things in a very narrow kind of way, which is how can I make any money? And Phil was horrendous for a good stretch of the fall.

And betting against him every week was very profitable. Right. And then he had, I bet against him at the Masters, and it cost me. But that was terrific. I'm happy to like, I was a down payment in a way. I'm seeing him with the same odds as angry, stocky, Rory Sabatini and Ritchie Werensky this week. Yeah. That's, see, that's kind of unfair.

I mean, Werenski's speaking of guys who've been pretty good. And then we've seen on TV a little bit. I want more, more action. I want Phil at like 100 to 1. That's not, I'm not getting enough. juice for Phil at 80. Those guys have been, I don't know.

I don't want to be disrespectful with Phil because he really has been, he's showing me something over these last four, four months or so. We need to do what had done. I need a guy. I did after we went with, we talked everything through with Mayo and we were just at a loss.

And then you guys laughed at Tommy Fleetwood. I'm so, I'm so happy that you did. And I thought about Victor Hovlin. And I thought about Morikawa, but I didn't pull the trigger on any of the one of them. I reminded myself that the players championship is worth $2.7 mother-offing million dollars.

Like, I'm using JT. That's it. So I play JT in the one and done last week. And I'm now inside the top hundred in the Mayo One and Dunn League. Okay. So we got some big choices to make. And I think you're probably leaning towards Shane Lowry. I mean,

that's because I already used Burger. What about Adam Scott? That's the other one. It's either Adam Scott or Shane Lauer. Those are the choices. Are you saving Neiman? Yes, because he's just, he's not on the kind of heater that I want him on. Okay.

Coming into, to the event, he can win. Let there be no doubt. Joaquin Neiman, absolutely every week that he walks out to the first tee can win the golf tournament. That's not a knock on him. I just don't want to burn him now and find out, oh, is this, you know, he just was out of sorts for whatever reason and he misses the cut. And Westie's legs are too tired and he's going to be hung over from the Masters and like that's it. I don't know. Should I do Westie out? Is it too sentimental? Is it too cheesy? I think it's just too much to expect that guy to do three weeks

in a row. He's going to have his boy on the bag. That's the reason not to play Westie. Because he's given hell in a break. His boy that he's going, he's playing in Augusta with is traveling with him to this event to be his caddy. I don't like the change. I don't love it. Yeah. I don't love it. Bad energy. Come on. Bad energy. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure the kid's great. Just like, you don't break a good thing right now. I think it's all fine.

2.6 million over the last two weeks pretty good. Yeah. I was fine when J.T. brought in bones and went in one. That was a change that I could get behind. But bring it in your kid, I don't care. Yeah, sure. So it's Adam Scott or it's Shane Lowry. I want to play Adam Scott. Yeah, it's Adam Scott. It is. Okay, good. It's Adam Scott. And, yeah, it is. I just haven't seen enough from Shane Lowry over the last six months.

He is gaining momentum and gaining steam, but... And he's got a couple nice finishes up there. You know, that top 25 at the Masters for Shane is good. Yeah, this course could be befuddling for him. And I think Adam's going to love the fast greens. It'll help him put pure and I go Adam Scott. Okay, great. That's it. Adam Scott for the one and done.

So that's a show. We did it. have this nice moment to sort of catch our collective breath in the golf world. And, you know, let, let, uh, JT kind of have a whole, the whole week and, and all the adulation that he deserves were 24 days out of the masters. We're going to finish off the floor to swing and then go to Texas for a couple of events. When do we have to order our egg salads? Uh, I mean, it's, it's week of.

They, they came so quickly, I think. Yeah. Don't you don't. I mean, they, they, they prove to us that if you order it on Monday, you might have it by Wednesday. Okay. All right. So we got. And I'm going to have to order it in advance.

Well, I'll save that for later. Okay. But I'm going to have to order it in advance because I may not be in my own home for the Masters this year. Could be somewhere else. Nate Dogg, we did it. We're back next week. We'll be talking about whether or not I want to kiss Adam Scott on the lips.

A lot of people feel that way. He's a very handsome man, Nate Dog. I've heard. Yeah. And, we'll get ready for the WGC event down in Austin. We'll talk about some delicious Austin barbecue because I can't help myself. Until then, my birdie buddies, let's all please hit them straight out there.