Fairway Rollin' - Las Vegas and Setting the Stage for the PGA in 2022

Episode Date: October 5, 2021

House and Hubbard are joined by Jason Sobel of The Action Network to take a look at the exciting PGA Tour events happening in Las Vegas and beyond (01:43). They also discuss whether the Presidents Cup is poised to overtake the Ryder Cup in terms of competitiveness (16:03) before discussing who has the best odds going into the top events this week in Las Vegas (42:52). Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Guest: Jason Sobel Producer: Steve Ahlman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From in-depth analysis of basketball and football to life advice, Ryan Rusillo has got you covered on the Ryan Rusillo podcast. Join him as he talks to some of the best names in sports while providing sharp analysis and wit you won't find elsewhere. Check out the Ryan Rusillo podcast on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, friends, and welcome to this golf podcast unlike any other. This is an early 2021-2020-22 PGA tour golf season edition. of Fairway Roll. The Golf Podcasts on the Ring of Podcasts Network. I am your starter.

Joe House, my birdie buddies. We're joined, as always, by our PGA tour correspondent on the ground. Nathan Hubbard, I don't think he's in Las Vegas yet, but he's going to Las Vegas because the tour is playing in Las Vegas this week. But for us here at Fairway Rowland, this is the kickoff, the official kickoff of the tour season.

I mean, it started a couple events ago. There's already two, but really, you know, until the Ryder Cup is over as far as we're concerned, things don't get serious. The only way to properly set the stage is with our beloved PGA tour, all things professional golf, man on the spot. Jason Sobel from the Action Network here to join us. The first tee is open. It's a three ball. We are strolling over right now and throwing a peg in the ground. Sobel, Nate, what's up, boys?

My dudes. What's going on? Great to talk to you again. Great to see you again. Thanks for having me on again. Sobel, did you put money on Burns? It was so obvious he was going to win that tournament, wasn't it? Two years in a row, the most obvious play at that event has been, so last year I was sitting there going,

why is Sergio playing in Mississippi? And he's like 60 to 1. He's the best player there, but it doesn't make sense. He's probably just going there for some sponsor deal. and like he doesn't really care about it. He goes out and wins, and you're like, of course he won.

He's the best player there. And then Sam Burns goes this past week. And you look at it and go, yeah, he's the best player there, but I don't know, he's the favorite. I hate betting favorites.

Yeah, I'm not going to do it. I'm going to outsmart everything. I'm going to go with all these triple digit guys because it's the fall and those are the guys that really care. And of course he wins because he's the best player in the field. And it makes so much sense. And I was not on.

Yeah, it felt like a live bet on Saturday night or Sunday morning was maybe the move there because he was behind. because he was behind and you could get decent odds and you just knew nobody else. Like there's a couple of guys who maybe, see, he's going to be a good golfer. I think you just,

you had a sense that maybe he would shake under that pressure. I do have a question for you about this tournament overall, though. I'm hearing rumblings and reading some rumblings that this tournament is maybe in jeopardy along with potentially a lot of the fall season with the Euro thing. Do you have any insight into whether we're going to be back, at the Mississippi Masters again. I don't. I don't have any insight.

I wish I could give you something. I know that Phil, that would be Mickelson, leaked something not that long ago about, oh, by the way, the whole fall thing is going to change and that's not going to be around anymore. Maybe there'll be no FedEx cut points for the far. Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to say anything. And like, as if like, you know,

hey, I'm going to tell you some of the news, but then I'm going to pretend that I wasn't supposed to tell you any of the news. So I don't know what's happening with it exactly. I wouldn't be surprised if, I mean, we've seen a guy like Billy Horshaw who's now playing over in Europe. He just played again at the Dunhill Links this past weekend. I could see like, okay, there's a partnership, PGA Tour and the European Tour. They're trying to bring more European Tour players over for the bigger events during the meat part of the schedule.

If that means, hey, we're going to try to ship out. We're going to try to export some of our U.S. players to go over and play in Europe at the end of the schedule for their race to Dubai, then that would seemingly make sense. Hey, what better way to get players to go overseas than give them no other option to play anything state-side and you kind of send them over there. So I could certainly see that in the works, but I have no intel or anything like that.

I mean, look, to use your words from a betting perspective, it would suck if they eliminated a bunch of these fall events because if you pay attention, you can get some real value looking at a guy like Zahitha Gala, Hayden Buckley, who you knew those guys were going to come out either because of the way they were playing or, you know, Buckley's connections to the tournament and the area,

that those are the kinds of top five, top 20 bets that you can really pull off. I hope that they still keep this thing around because it's good from a betting perspective. Yes. More golf is not good for anyone other than golfers and betters. Like, if you're just a golf fan, you're like, you know, I like watching golf. You know, it's pretty cool.

I put it on TV on Saturday and Sunday. and, you know, sit on my couch and I watch it and it's really fun, you're like, there's too much of it. And it needs to go away so I can miss it for a while. I said that for years. And that was the years that I wasn't necessarily covering it from a betting perspective. And now that I am, I'm like, well, yeah, give us more to bet on. The more the better at this point, it's like, you know, I want to see these events during the football season when a lot of shark betters are paying attention to other sports as opposed to paying attention to golf on a regular basis. And yeah, you can find some bargains out there.

And like you said, some of these players are a little more motivated this time of year than other players. And if you can figure that out, then you can find some guys. If tournament favorites keep winning in September and October, that's no fun. We don't like that. Well, so we've spent six minutes now at the top of this show on the Sanderson Farms classic Mississippi Masters Open, which is exactly what the birdie buddies and the eagle enthusiasts expect out of us. but I do think there are some interesting points to be made and kudos to Sam Burns you know 15 to one isn't exactly value but there is value otherwise on

the dance card and I do want to circle back to this early season the two Ws have been from Homa and Burns both guys that we feel like are kind of on the cusp but let's let's save that conversation we're still as far as I'm concerned enjoying the afterglow of the Ryder Cup. And there are continued to be stories coming out about different aspects of it. The U.S. especially just enjoyed all of the thrashing. And you can see Harris English was on college game day this past weekend down in Georgia to rep his bulldogs.

That would not have happened but for this U.S. ass whipping. Sobel, you were lucky enough to physically attend the Ryder Cup all the way you, I think you arrived in time to attend the Monday night football game in Green Bay last week. Let's let everybody in on that experience. The frat party that had football in the background is what it looked like from Sobel's Instagram. That's every NFL game. It was okay.

I don't know. Look, I told you guys this and past it. My job is essentially fantasy camp. Like I'm waiting for somebody to like walk in one day and be like, hey, you, wake up. You got to go like, you know, we're going to go. go deliver garbage or pick up garbage or whatever. I guess you don't deliver garbage. Deliver it to the dump. In any case, we're going to give you some other job that you're more equipped for as opposed to like, you know, just sitting around watching people play

golf, which isn't a real job anyway. So if most of it is fantasy camp, then the Ryder Cup was like fantasy camp on steroids. I mean, honestly, I had the absolute best week. I keep telling my radio buddies that for like 20 years, I've covered this game where, all right, All right. So stay in a hotel. You wake up in the morning. You either get on a shuttle bus or you drive over to the golf course. You sit in the media center and walk around the golf course for 12 hours. You write a bunch of stories. You get either back on a shuttle bus or back in your car. Go to the hotel. Sit there, have some dinner at the hotel bar. Have a beer, go up to your room, watch a game, go to bed. And like, that's essentially every night. Well, now that I'm doing the serious XM stuff, I stayed in a house with four of my really good friends, two Paulsons, gravy in the sleeves. and we just had a good time. I mean, there was nothing, you know, it wasn't like going to the master's staying in the house. Yeah, it wasn't like crazy partying or anything. It was just like, hey, we'll sit there and have a couple of beers and watch a football game.

We'll play some cards. We'll do whatever, just tell stories. I mean, it was fun. We went to the Packers game on Monday night. Went to the Brewers game on Tuesday night. On Wednesday night, Greg Norman was doing analysis for us on the radio. And we went over to Greg Norman's rental house where his personal chef made dinner for everybody. And we sat around eating like this incredible meal.

I mean, like, it wasn't the worst week ever. And oh, by the way, the U.S. goes and trounces Europe on a really fun golf course and a really cool environment. I just, it was really, really fun. I wish I could sit here and tell you guys like, man, you know, you guys only see like the fun stuff. You don't see like the hard part of the job where you're grinding on it. Nah, it's just the whole thing's fun. It really was. It was a great time.

The vibe coming in, I mean, we know how much the media loves this thing and fans love going to. it because the experience, right? It's probably second to the Masters in golf experience. And maybe you'll argue that it's better than the Masters. Is it? All right. So I struggle with this. I am very jaded. You know, I've been doing this for a long time. I've watched Tiger Woods when major championships from like four feet away. And it's like, yeah, okay, been there, done that. And yes, the Ryder Cup, it's really cool being there. I have buddies who go every two years. I've got a friend who he and his wife had a flight that was scheduled to get in Thursday afternoon. It got delayed by like eight hours. They got it at 2 a.m.

Thursday night slash Friday morning at 6 a.m. I walk up to the first tee and I feel someone throws their hat at me from like up above and I'm on this little riser and I turn around and it's him and his wife. And they're like, yeah, we got like 30 minutes of sleep and we came right to the first tee. We couldn't get a rental car. We Uber'd here. We ran from the gates and like they do everything they can possibly to get to the Rider Cup and they absolutely love it. For me, I walk around. I'm like, there are so many people concentrated in such a small area. It's really hard to walk around and see anything.

It's really hard to like follow the matches. But the energy, the atmosphere, the electricity, it's all so cool that, yeah, it's probably worth it. And is it better than the man? It's like a complete opposite of the Masters. I mean, it's, I don't know. Better. That's a hard one, man. I don't know.

So coming in, it felt like the media was in love with this event. The fans were in love with this event. Wasn't clear that the players were in love with this event. And in fact, House had some intel that there was some dissatisfaction amongst the young players coming in. But by the end of it, man, it sure seemed like everybody on that team fell in love with it. Did you notice that progression through the course of the week? And was it as positive on site by the end as it felt like on you? TV. So one of the best things, and still, even now, people are saying like, captains don't matter.

You know, I could have captain that U.S. team. You tell the guys to go out and play their best golf, that's what they're going to do. And they won and Steve Stricker didn't do anything. That's what Tom Watson tried to do in 2014 to Glenn Eagles. He basically said, hey, you guys are better than them. Why you just go play better and you're going to win? I mean, what's the big deal? Yeah, it doesn't work. You have to, you have to captain the team. You have to lead these guys. Steve Stricker let this team take on his persona, which was, look, I'm a soft-spoken guy. I go out there and play. I take care of my business and that's it.

And so there are no raw, raw speeches. There were no videos being shown in the team room. He essentially let them be professionals, let them be adults and let them go about their business. And so there were a bunch of guys, Scotty Schaeffler afterwards said, you know, other than the team aspect, we're all wearing the same shirts. It sort of felt like a regular event. That's what they were going for.

And so I think, Nate, that other teams, other U.S. teams in the past probably had a whole lot more fun during Rider Cup week that, you know, they went out like Tuesday evening. They probably all got drunk together and they stayed up until two in the morning and they told stories and they had a great time. This team didn't do that. But if the goal of the entire week is let's go out there and bond together and win this thing as opposed to let's go and have the most fun for the entire week, then they accomplish their goal. And they, they, it's a fascinating perspective. And I guess that's the way you do it. I mean, you treat it like, hey, this is our job, even though you're not getting paid for it. And let's wait until Sunday night when we win and then we can celebrate as opposed to,

let's celebrate all week because we're all together and we're trying to force some sort of bonding between us. One of the things I'm interested in your take on, you know, a lot of folks have proclaimed that, the future of the U.S. teams in both Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup that there could and should be dominance because of this group of young folks. And Stricker deserves credit for having the balls or whoever was advising him, all of them collectively, having the courage to go ahead and put six rookies on this team and really re-identifying, rebranding the character of this team. the vets completely out of the mix. The real only vet was DJ and he earned his way, you know, onto the team. Ab's a fucking luteley. We're he wanted to say it. He was so close. We, we seem to be poised for a good solid run. Obviously it's golf and when anytime, you know, you're only competing something once a year or once every two years. Lots and lots and lots of

stuff can change. But do you, do you share that sentiment? So, Yeah, I do. Well, first of all, putting workies on the team. I love how that's controversial every time. Like, you're a losing team. Let's go with inexperience over the experience. Like, if the New York Jets are a losing team for 10 years in a row, they don't say, well, you know what we need. We need to keep all the same guys around. More Jets. We've been really bad for a while. So let's get in some 11-year veterans who have been with us and re-sign them. And, you know, maybe we'll turn things around. No, you go get new players. You go get younger guys who are going to be better for the team. and that's what they did. I mean, that makes perfect sense. Yeah, I mean, I, look, I have a really hard time not taking the, the recency bias opinion of, look, these guys are all really good.

There's going to be at least nine, maybe 10 of them on the team come two years from now, 20, 23 in Rome. And I think they're all going to be really good. Maybe you take out English and possibly burger and you replace them with Zalotaurus and Burns. And there you go. Let's go to Rome and let's win again. I don't know that it's necessarily going to be that easy. I mean, two years ago, you would have put Patrick Reed probably at the top of the list of guys who were going to be at Whistling Straits and he wasn't there.

So things can change in a hurry. What I will say is that that European team is getting really old, really fast. And I don't see reinforcements waiting in the wings. I mean, you look at the guys who are the good young European players. Okay, Bobby McIntyre is like, he's going to be a good player. He's not a world beater. He's not John Rom. Rasmus Hoygard is pretty good.

I don't know. Like Victor Perez, he's okay. I tell you what, the international team for the President's Cup is way, way better right now than the European Rider Cup team. Is the President's Cup poised to overtake the Rider Cup in the level of interest,

at least a level of competition? I mean, the Ryder Cup has a deserved, revered place in golf legend and lore, but I think the President's Cup is poised to be more competitive. definitely poised to be more competitive. You take, first of all, a better, and I'll just go out and say it's a better team, the international President's Cup team.

You're going to have good players who don't make that team next year. But just being better, and the combination of the U.S. players, look, they're just not going to get us fired up for it. You can't do it every year. You can't go like, all right, we just went 110 percent,

beat them by 10 points. All right, next year, Quail Hollow, let's go get it's to band together and beat, hey, we got to beat the Japanese guy and the South African guy who were playing together. It's just for the same reason the international team doesn't get as fired up as the European team. The U.S. team doesn't get as fired up to beat them. It's just different. It just is.

But I think it would probably be a lot more competitive. It can't be less competitive, quite frankly. So, yeah, it's going to be a good one. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the U.S. players go into this one, you know, sort of with a little bit of attitude of, hey, look, we're all really good. We've done this before and we can win this thing. We always win. The international players, you know, kind of feel that underdog role and finally are good enough to go out and compete and contend. And I can see the international team winning that thing, more so than I can see the European team winning in Rome in 23.

Who impressed you most coming out of that week? Was there, was there anybody that stood out for you? John Rom proved that John Rom is the best player in the world. I mean, he is unbelievable. He's awesome. He is, when I talk about guys, Nate, like, what's the ceiling for a Patrick Cantley? What's the ceiling for a Xander Shafley? I always say that they can be number two in the world over the next two, three, four years because number one's locked up. I mean, he ain't going anywhere. No, he isn't. And you know, because you're in the rooms with these guys.

There's something, you're in the room with Ron. There's just a vibe about that guy. And there has been from the first tournament he played on tour. He's just special. He's just different. And that U.S. Open win, I think, uncorks the champagne for a long, long time. I do want to interrupt for a second. Because I'm trying to build this.

I'm trying to speak it into existence. And we chatted about it briefly on our Riter Cup. Recap, the immediate reaction show. Is there any possibility soable that we can get? It's rivalry probably doesn't capture it. But at least like Kalamorakawa and John Rom, trading because like the two majors by Morikawa in such two like radically different places under radically different circumstances that's playing that's golfing your ball yeah it's such a

manufactured type of thing we don't really get these rivalries in golf I mean we wanted Brooks and Bryson's rivalry they still haven't even played together let alone been on top of that's that's coming buddy that's coming sure yeah thanksgiving great yeah we'll pay for it uh look I just can't get too fired up about that at all. John Rob and Colin Morcow are two of the absolute best players in the world. John Rob's number one, Colin Morcao, if he's not the second best, he's somewhere in the top five, depending on how hot his putter is on any given week. But it's just there's such different players, different personalities that it's really hard to envision,

like, hey, over the next 10 years, like these are the two guys and they're trading haymakers back and forth at majors. And this guy wins one and this guy wins the next one. the other guys runner up. I just don't really see it. I mean, you know, we we've waited for years for, you know, some sort of new rivalry to develop in the game of golf. I don't see it between those two guys, quite honestly. I wish I did. Hope I'm wrong. Well, there's a guy who we wanted to be in the peak rivalry for the last decade who really struggled his way through the Rider Cup, and that's Rory. And House, I know I'm sealing some of your thunder here. But,

But I do want to ask the question, what is it going to take for Rory to translate that unbelievable passion for the game and being really the best ambassador that we have, although I think Romm has, you know, proven himself pretty well over the past six months? But what's it going to take for Rory to translate that desire and that love for the game into results? I felt like just viscerally, some of those tears on Sunday were the culmination of two years of him not performing the way that he wants. He's working hard and it's not translating into results to, you know,

Quail Hollow aside. What did you see from Rory this week or that week? Completely agree with all of that. If I had an answer to this question, I think Rory might pay me eight figures for me to give it to him because he's searching for it right now. I don't know. And Nate, you're absolutely right that he is the best ambassador for the game.

He's the best interview. I never thought about golfers in terms of leadership. until Rory started acting like a leader in the last three, four, five years where you look at him and you say, he's great on every issue inside and outside the game. He's a guy that other players look up to. I mean, the guy is what, he's president of the players advisory committee right now, the fact that there's never like the one of the best players in the game who does that. It's always kind of a guy that straddles a line. Yeah, Kevin Streelman, a guy that's like, hey, I've been at the bottom. I've been near the top.

I kind of understand like where everybody is in that spectrum and I can relate to everybody. But Rory likes sort of being in that in that moment. How can he bottle sort of the emotions that came out on Sunday afternoon after he beat Zander Shoffley in that first match? I have absolutely no idea. Is he done? Is he going to win another major? Maybe.

I think so. I don't know if the Masters is coming. The Masters, we always thought was inevitable that he's going to be the sixth player to get the career grand slag. I might right now, if I had to bet Jordan Speath winning a PGA or Rory winning a master's, I might go with Spith over Rory just because there's so much scar tissue that's been built up over the years. I do think there's something to be said for Rory trying to go about his business the same way that Tiger has and really Brooks has over the last few years as well, which is, hey,

I'm going to play other events and I hope I play well. But really, it's about four weeks a year, getting my game to peak, being at my best. And he's seen Tiger do that in person. He's seen Tiger like, hey, I'm just going to flip a switch. I'm going to go to Augusta and I'm going to play my best golf. He's seen Brooks do that. Brooks has as many majors as Rory has and he has for a few years. He's got four since Rory's last one. And so I think Rory is trying to emulate what these guys have done, which is, hey, I'm going to go on cruise control for a while. And then in April, I'll turn it on. I'll start to play my best golf. And I don't think Rory has that in them. I think that Rory probably needs to,

if I'm advising him right now, I'm going to tell him, step on the gas pedal now and just try it. You've got to be able to just do it all the time. You know, go out and win some stupid event in the middle of October that doesn't mean anything

and gain some confidence moving forward. Then keep going and keep going and keep going as opposed to, I just don't think he's gotten his personality to dial it back and then step on the gas pedal and go again. But I don't know. And I don't think Rory knows right now. Our expectations of Rory came out of the Tiger Woods era where we just assumed there was going to be a guy or two guys who were going to eat up all the majors.

And, you know, this is a problem Justin Thomas is looking at right now. It's like in another era, this guy would have six, but he's looking right now at a field 12 to 15 deep of guys who genuinely can and should win a major. And we just haven't had that level of parity in the very top echelon of golf for a lot. long time. And I think Rory is, you know, he's a couple years older than those guys. He's got a family which takes away some of the burn. And you just don't know if he's going to get back up that mountain. I don't know how all of this is to try to make you feel better for all of the money that you've lost on Rory through the years. The thing with Rory is I like rooting for him. And it will always be a regret that the 2020 Masters got wiped away because to Jason's point, he really was

trending in the right direction in that spring. He played well in the Middle East. He played well at Riviera. The players was sitting there as potentially like, you know, something where we're going to, it was like the referendum on Rory's state of Rory's game as he, you know, rounded into form for the masters that March players. Couldn't we have said that in eight other occasions when he was rounding into form in April and, hey, he's going to win this one.

He's the favorite. I mean, it feels like that's the same old story for him. Except for he, he also played in the final round in 2000. with, you know, Patrick Reed with a chance to win the Masters, like, you know, it isn't a formula that's a busted formula. It does feel like now he, he essentially, because of whatever happened to his personal situation, you know, with the COVID break, whatever, he wasn't able to charge the batteries, recharge the batteries. He was open about, you know, playing without fans and how weird it felt. It, we kind of miss. missed maybe 18 months of really, you know, competitive golf out of him other than the Kuala Hollow thing. But, you know, he's still young enough. He has another 10 years, which hopefully translates into no more, no more injuries, no more kickabouts when you're the defending champion of the Open Championship. So that should be, you know, 40 more opportunities.

10 times 4 is 40. That's 40 more majors for him to go with. This might be hypothetical. I'm not sure we can do this or not. not, so it might not be worth talking about. But can you imagine, like, sort of drilling through DJ's brain and, like, taking his brain out and putting it inside Rory's head? That's a hypothetical. That's a hypothetical. It is. We can't do that, huh? Is that against tour rules? I don't know. I've never seen anything in the, in the guidebook about that. Speaking about cracking open brains and trying to transplant them, the World Long Drive Golf Championship this week, uh,

in our rear view mirror now was the most interesting golf event on the golf calendar, the thing that had all of golf media and golf Twitter a buzz. And that is because our buddy, Bryson D. Shambo, not only did he compete, he was really impressive. And the aspects of it that I particularly was taken by, and I'm interested, Jason, in your experience on the ground at Whistling Straits, it feels like Bryson was among his people, that there was this overwhelming, like, just enthusiasm for him being there.

And I feel like, you know, at Whistling Straits, at least watching on television, it seemed like the crowd was very supportive. What he did driving the green on number one on Sunday and making. the eagle put, I think was a real conversion event for any non-believers. It was the balliest thing I've ever seen at a Ryder Cup. And it feels like it carried through. You know, there was a lot of hand wringing and gnashing of teeth about him, his comment where his hands were all knocked out because he was getting ready for the long drive. And then, but he played well at the Ryder Cup. And then he went to the long drive and played really well and had nothing

but enthusiasm and support and speaking of ambassador, perhaps an ambassador for that event because he was apparently among his people. What do you think? So first of all, I wrote this. I talked about it for months leading up to this. I take no credit because we all should have seen it coming. But yeah, of course, Bryson's going to get the Brooksie crap for months and months. And then all of sudden show up at the Ryder Cup. He were in red, white and blue, get the crowd pumped up. I walked with him during a few of the practice rounds in every single T-box. He would take out his driver, unsheathed it like a sword, hold it up to the masses. Everyone goes nuts.

Their chair, they're like, yeah, Bryson, let's go. And he'd hit the thing 400 yards and, you know, and then pump his fist and play to the crowd. It was absolutely his element. I think he did a wealth of good for himself at the Rider Cup. Hopefully it continues. Hopefully it doesn't do something stupid in the next couple of weeks where everyone goes, ah, there's Bryson again, roll their eyes at him and see in two years when I can root for

you again. but he is. He's a showman. He likes getting people on his side. He was able to do that finally at the Ryder Cup. He struggled with that in other PGA tour events. As far as the long drive thing, I care less about how he did in the long drive

and what it means for that event itself or anything like that. But what if Bryson, and, you know, because he's not swinging 110%, even if it looks like he's going full bore after it sometimes, for the most part, he's not bringing his long drive swing to PGA tour events. What if the more he trains for this stuff, the more he likes doing it,

the more he finds, you know what? I can swing as hard as I possibly can and still hit it as straight as I do when I swing 90%. What if he just becomes a long drive guy who's playing in PGA tour events and a pretty good wedge player

and a really good putter? And all of a sudden, like, literally he hit it, I believe he was like 323 average drive on the PGA tour to lead the tour this past year, which, granted, that's, I'm sure there's a lot of measured drives that he hit three wood or even an iron off the T. So it's not totally true or anything like, but what if he says, you know what? I want to hit it 360 on average. I'm just going to smash driver everywhere because I don't think I can lose it as much as some other guys can when they swing as hard as I get. I just, there's a very real possibility that he changes the game

even more so than he's done already, that he says, you know what? I can swing as hard as I possibly want, and it's not going to go that far offline. And I'm going to bring that to major championships. I'm going to bring that to bigger events and see how it works because I don't think he's that far away from it. Do you think the skill sets are that different? Are these actually different sports? No. I mean, there's probably something to it. It's kind of like, it's reading the story not that long ago on these professional put-putt guys, professional mini-golf guys who, like, they'll sit there for like eight, nine, ten hours and like,

look at the angles. Hustle kids out of money. Yeah, I mean, no, they have like these real, like the U.S. Open of put-up putt. And like these guys are like playing these like real events. Yeah. Look, Jordan Speed is a better putter than these guys, but there's something to be said for like,

hey, if I can figure out exactly where to hit that putt, it doesn't take as much skill, doesn't take as much creativity. It's more straight line fact as opposed to opinion, I guess, if that makes sense. And so you take one of those guys in a match against Jordan Spieth in Putt Putt. But what if Jordan says, you know what? I'm going to work and become like not just the best putter around, but the best putter of like anybody anywhere. Like I can roll the rock like better than anybody else and brings that PGA tour

events. If you starts making, I mean, we've seen him make butts from 20, 30, 40 feet for years now. But if he can do that, the same thing with Bryson where he just goes, you know what, I'm just swinging a club. And if I can swing a club and hit it, look, what's better? Hitting it 330 and finding 60% of the fairways are hitting it 360 and finding 50% of the fairways. I'd take the ladder every time. The answer is it depends, right? Like, this is part of the beauty of Bryson and this experience. that he's undertaken, right? Like golf courses that require

artistry and creativity seem to be at this stage still a little outside of his comfort zone. Like we haven't seen him click at the Masters, right? I mean, and, you know, the, the US Open, he showed us at Wingfoot, the ability to get around that whole thing.

But Tori confounded him a touch on the back nine on Sunday. So there's still some elements of, like, creative golf that he's going to have to embrace, right? If I'm advising Bryson, go find some wedges that are normal way. Like, you don't need the single length wedges that are built like a seven iron or whatever they are. Go, go find some wedges that work for you. Go work on that part of your game. Quite frankly, he's got the other parts.

I mean, he's got, he's got the best bread in the world. And he's got to just figure out the best meat to put inside. and it'll be the best sandwich. And he just can't fit. He's got, okay, you've got the driver, you've got the putter, because he is one of the best putters on the PGA tour.

Figure out that middle part, and you're going to be unbeatable. I mean, what beats a guy that hits at 400 yards and makes a whole lot of puts? I'm not interested in a golf tournament anymore that doesn't have a fun driveable par four. Like Vegas this week,

the 15th hole is a super fun driveable par fort. Not everybody can actually get there, but to your point house, what he did on one, was super exciting. And it's really changing, more so than people feeling like they have to elongate the golf course. I think architecture going forward is maybe the,

the biggest impact he's going to have is on people thinking about how you create really fun, driveable par fours. And we may have, you know, going forward courses that have two in 18 as opposed to the one. Well, and to also pick up on an aspect of Jason's observation there,

I think it's the case. and Bryson, I believe, said so. He wants some of the long drive guys. He wants to bring them into the tour. He wants to be an ambassador for that connection. I think Kyle Berkshire said that he is going to try, the guy who won the Long Drive Championship. He's a defending champion, Kyle Berkshire.

I believe there's a report out there that indicates that he's going to try and get into some PGA tour events. He's going to try and do some qualifying. So that makes it, I think, an interesting element. I mean, he's by far right now, Bryson, the most entertaining figure in professional golf. I don't think that's really up for debate. Jamie Sedlowski had tried it.

He worked with Gary McCord for a while and he had played in at least some corn ferry events or nationwide at the time. And he was trying to get on to the PJ tour. I might have played a couple of PJ tour events as well. He's not just a long driver, but a very good player too. And we've all, I mean, we've all sat around with buddies. You know, we're on the course. We're talking golf.

we're having a couple of beers. We're like, man, what if those long drive guys could like, you know, if they could only just chip and put pretty well, we got a long drive guy on our club. Yeah. Exactly. I mean, that's it. And basically now that's exactly what we have.

He might have reverse engineered it and said, hey, I'm going to learn how to play golf first and then I'm going to become as long as I possibly can. But we sort of have a long drive guy who's one of the best players in the world now. And I think that's only the tip of the iceberg. At some point, 10 years from now, it's going to. be like the long drive competitions might be filled with, you know, half PGA tour players because those are the guys that can succeed on the highest level. That, that's where the PGL is going to put

their money into the long drive. Well, so Bryson part of ways with his caddy mid year. There have been a couple of breakups between players and caddies over the past couple weeks. We've seen bones come on to the bag as Jimmy has left to do other things with, with Justin Thomas. We've seen Bubba partways with his long-term caddy. Do you, any takeaways from that for you? Does it mean anything? Yeah, it means something.

I mean, look, we all go through changes. And I said on a radio show yesterday that I think these player caddy relationships are less like marriages and more like sort of just relationships that you would have. You know, hey, at some point you go, you look at each other. It's not necessarily like, ah, I dumped you or I dumped you or I. dumped you. It's, hey, let's just, you know, let's just kind of, it's been a long time. Let's move on. Let's go for some changes. You know, marriage is at least supposed to be forever. And, you know, you're looking at it and you say, you know, okay, well, we're in it for the long

haul. I think when you're a player in a caddy and you get together, you're like, hey, I'm hoping we make it to next week and next week works pretty well. And if that does, then we'll go to another one. We'll see how that one works. And at some point, you count them all up. And it's been 15 years and you're like, wow, that was a really good long run. But change is good. I mean, look, we've all taken changes and detours and different journeys in our careers and said, I'm glad I did that. If you work at the same job for 20, 30 years, all of a sudden you get done and you retire and you go, well, I wish I would have tried something different because I just did the exact same job the entire time. And I think that the players who are changing caddies, J.T. Bryson, Bubba, you know, for better or worse,

I do think that at some point, it's, you know, it's good to hear, you know, somebody else's jokes for a few minutes walking down the fairways. It's good to hear, you know, someone else's take on something. And, you know, we've seen guys over the last handful of years, whether it's Rory or Jordan or Jason Day, essentially just have buddies on the bag. Dustin Johnson has his brother Austin on the bag. I mean, you can kind of make a caddy these days. I hate to make it sound like, you know, professional caddy.

isn't very valuable out there on the PGA tour, but there are guys who have proven that, hey, as long as you're pretty intelligent about the game and you can kind of pick up on some things, you can be a world-class caddy with a world-class player. Well, fall is the season for breakups with college kids in their high school partners and caddies.

It happens in the fall because there's not a lot happening. But Bones is a little bit different. I mean, even on the telecast, his familiarity with JT's bag, You could just hear that he never quite let go of that analysis. This is a little bit different. I mean, the one time he caddied for him, they won, right? Do you think that this changes the trajectory for JT at all?

Or do you think that, you know, you and I would get 85% of the same results that Bones is going to get? It's really, really hard to say. And I think anything we think afterwards is going to be hypothetical anyway, Nate, because JT's going to play really well. Look, he's one of the best players in the world. He had a little bit of a down year, and his down year included being the leader on Team USA for the Ryder Cup team and winning the players championship

and having a whole bunch of other top tens. I mean, if that's your down year, then your up year is going to be really, really good. So I expect JT to have a really good year. And when he does, we're all going to sit around and say, hey, look, that switched to bones. That really worked out so well form and bones knows his game. The truth of matter is that,

He was going to have a really good year this coming year, whether it was Bones or Jimmy Johnson or anybody else, and we'll never really know how much bones helped him. I don't think he's going to hurt. You know, I'll put it that way. I don't think he's going to have bones on the bag and all of a sudden start to struggle because he's got one of the best caddies in the world walking next to him. But I struggle to figure out like exactly how much bones will help, whether it's, you know, does he give him a 2% edge over Jimmy and 8% edge? edge, a 15 percentage, I don't know. I don't think it's as wide as maybe some people think.

Jimmy's also really good at the job, too. Yeah, and I wonder if it's just the effect of a different voice and an already trusted voice. Because one of the things that I think we've seen over the handful, the last handful of years, and especially with the names that you mentioned, these are emotional relationships, like the emotional intelligence of the guys carrying, their ability to read the mood of, you know, the player and try and say the right thing at the right time or try and not say anything.

That aspect of it seems as important as whatever the technical elements of caddying consists of. With Bones, it feels like intellectually he could be a challenge to JT, and it feels like to me as an outsider observing, that JT could use that challenge. He could use somebody like getting in that ass just a little bit. Not that because J.T. just has the t. just has the tiniest bit. This isn't even a criticism.

I would say it to his face if we were sitting across from one another. He's got a little braddiness to him. He needs to get out of his own head a little bit and just get, you know, reset. And I really feel like Bones as an authority figure, as a guy who can speak from, you know, immense success. can be that voice that JT needs. And that's perhaps the 2% or the 4% or 8% difference. I've always thought JT very much like Rory is a guy where you can be watching nothing. You can be away from the TV, not look at your phone, all of a sudden walk by a tournament,

look up at the TV and go, oh, he's playing really well right now or he's not playing well at all. Either he's kind of strutting down the fairway, his shoulders are square, he's, you know, got to kind of bounce in his step, or he's kind of shoved. muffling his way through the fairway, his head's down, and he's kind of muttering to himself. You can just look at him. You can see the body language. So maybe that's something where bones can get on the bag and go, look, I want that not to be the case.

Not that I don't want you get up when you're playing really well, but let's, I don't want somebody to look at you and know exactly how you're playing. Let's, let's keep that internal. Let's kind of just go shot by shot and not worry about what just happened the last hole or what just happened on the last shot and just kind of keep an even keel about you. Maybe that works for him. Maybe it doesn't. But I can see that being something that Bones brings to his bag

maybe a little more than he had previously. We're talking about a lot of players who are not going to play in Vegas this week. We've got a two-week swing in Vegas coming up, which from a betting perspective can sometimes mean that you know who to count out. I mean, the last time Brooks played this event, Chase beat him. So I'm not, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on Brooks. But there's a lot of talk about the strength of the field this week, but we still have the highest ranked player in the world,

Azouc stays in this thing, I think, right? So this is still a little bit of a fall event that's open for some of these up-and-comer guys who are either riding a heater coming out of the Corn Ferry Tour finals or are just generally playing well. So talk to us about, I read your column, but talk to us in particular about who you see this week

looking good on this course. This course is easy as hell, and it's only getting easier, right? I mean, they got the rough cut down to two inches. They got, you know, scoring right, this is a 23 under, 24 under winner. And even though Martin Laird won last year, you know, he sort of had that one week. Who do you see coming in to Vegas into Summerlin a sneaky fun course to watch down the back and playing well this week? I think there are a lot of options. And you're right.

It's, uh, Louie's the number eight, I believe, in the world ranking, and he's the highest ranked player. It's sort of bottom heavy in the top tier, if that makes sense. There's 15 of the top 30, but only two of the top 10. And so you got a lot of fairly big names, but not necessarily the biggest names who are at this thing this week. I top of my list, a guy that we mentioned earlier who played really well in the Ryder Cup, he was 2-0-1.

I've got to think he's going into this thing with tremendous confidence. One of four players to play in for the U.S. Ryder Cup team without ever having won a PGA tour event beforehand. Of the previous three, two of them won pretty soon afterwards. And I think Scotty Sheffler's on course for getting a win at some point pretty soon. I don't know that it's necessarily going to happen this week, but we know he can go really low. We know he's got some confidence right now. It just beat John Rom and Sunday singles a few weeks ago.

Feels like it's all set up for Scotty to have a really good two-week stretch here. It really fits the trend. we've seen early. I mean, two, two events doesn't make a trend necessarily, but the first two winners on the tour in the new season that started in September, the fiscal year season, Max Homa and Sam Burns, Scotty Sheffler definitely belongs in that same conversation, right? Yeah, absolutely. And you look back over the years, maybe this means nothing, but guys who have made Vegas their first career victory, Tiger, Jim Furek, Kevin Nah, Patrick Cantley. I mean, it's not just, there are a whole bunch of guys who have been a first timer in Vegas.

Yeah, a lot of events have that. It's like big timers have become first timers in Vegas. So I think there's something to be said for that. Of course, that could be a Will Zalotaurus win or something like that instead. Oh, you stole it. That's my guy this week. I'm on Zellotaurus.

Talk about Pous. He's in, well, he's in form tied for 11th at the Fortnite championship. I'm not going to say whatever the right name is. It's too hard. And then top 15 is Sanderson. Now the top 15 to Sanderson, if you wanted to go glass half empty, it was a disappointment because he shot what, 61 or 62 one of the days and was in one Friday. Yeah, 61 on Friday and was, you know, in the lead or in the top five.

And then kind of. shitty Saturday. Yeah, that's right. You know, let it get away from him. But I like this idea of the bentgrass greens at this venue. I like that this is a year ago. Yeah, exactly. And that that is one of the prevailing.

aspects of the guys that are going to go on my dance card. I want guys that have played this venue because of the elevation change, because of the familiarity with this bank grass, because of the, you know, the air density stuff. Like, you know, some of the science does matter. Some of that familiarity. He's got it all. And this absolutely fits that sort of characteristic that you just described, Jason,

of like big time guys coming out and grabbing their first win. Zal Taurus, I love him this week. You know another type of player I like at this event? Guys who live there or at least have lived there or went to school there. No other place is that a bigger edge. We always talk about that every week. Like, well, he gets sleep in his own bed. Okay, sometimes that sucks because you're getting,

you got to pick up 300 extra tickets and you got neighbors coming over afterwards and you got to take out the garbage before you go out to, you know, the course and go to the range and stuff. I mean, just got too much stuff going on. In Vegas, look, golfers are human too. And guys, I guarantee, are going to get to Vegas at the early part of this week and go, all right, let's go over, hang out, Belagio, maybe go to Aria for a little bit, hit the tables, go out for a nice steak dinner, let's go see this club.

I mean, look, it's early in the year, especially those guys who are pretty secure in the fact that I've got 11 months to claim my card, to keep my playing privileges. I'm not too worried about it right now. in October that, yeah, I can, you know, I can have some fun this week. And so the guys who aren't going out there to have fun and go, hey, let's walk up down the strip and let's go have a good time are the guys who live there. And I think it's a huge edge for guy like Kevin Nah, who's won this thing twice. Charlie Hoffman doesn't live there anymore, but live there for 20 years. I'm sure he's not. God, I don't trust Charlie Hoffman anywhere. I don't trust me either. I just, I say that, but I really

don't trust him a whole lot either. No, Charlie's been great right now. He is playing great. I just, I have a hard time bet in Charlie. But no, I do like him this week. Maverick McNeely lives out there. I love Maverick McNeely this week. You give me a short course right now, especially a West Coast type of course, a desert course. Mad McNeely is absolutely on my radar.

Scott Piercy always plays well in the desert. My guy, Brendan Steele last week, I was like looking at final rounds. When you talk about Brendan Steele, I listen because you always have the inside track on Brennan Steele. We see heart emoji. Say whenever you start saying Brendan Stee, a heart emoji, start rising up on the screen. You always have the inside scoop.

So I definitely would put something on him this week. I usually know kind of how he's going to play. And last week, you look at the final round ball strike numbers. He led the field on Sunday at Sanderson in strokes gain to green and strokes gain approach shots. I guess I texted with him afterwards. I was pretty good. He's like, yeah, dialed right now. I'm feeling it.

Golf is good again. Okay. And then I keep, I've seen a lot of these golf touts out there on Twitter saying this Hubbard guy is going to have a good week too. Very underpriced on DFS. I don't know. Speaking of having some insight, I'm all yours right now. Yeah, I just don't make me jinxed.

He did. He was 15th in Napa and yeah, we'll see. Thank you to MGM for getting him in the tournament. I am going to gloss over that quickly so you don't jinx it and come back to a guy who we need to reverse jinks. House, you will recall that I mentioned, uh, the last major that Matthew Wool. somehow played and he was one of the best odds on the board in terms of just value. He was T-17 last week. He lost in a playoff here in Vegas last year. Last week he was 19th in

shots gained off the T even though he only hit 37% of his fareways and was 135th in accuracy. He was first in driving distance and still hit 75% of his greens. He made 22 bird last week. I love it. You cannot lose a ball in Vegas unless you hit it into the actual desert in the rocks because the rough is so low. So he's going to

and you're right, Sobel, that this is not necessarily a course that you've got to be long to win, but it doesn't hurt. Especially coming down that stretch where you have, you know, a couple, the drival par four, two par fives, 18 is long.

That is the stretch where you score and you win. So I, we're going to learn a lot about whether Matthew Wolfe is back this week. We've seen little flicker signs. I love him coming in this week. I think this is going to be a statement tournament for him. I want to ask you about the corn fairy guys though. In particular, Yeager, okay, this is a guy who you know, he's been around forever. He's been, he's, he was the best player on the corn furry tour last year. He's not really turned it over in the PGA tour. Are there guys like Yeager who you think are coming up from, from the corn fairy who are, are finally going to break through and land on this tour,

either vets like Yeager or some up-and-coming rookies? So I think Yeager's guy that's can be a good, solid PGA tour player. Like, I don't know that he's going to win three times this year. In fact, I don't think he's going to do it. It's just not going to happen. He's got to have a breakthrough at some point. I think he can win. I think he's going to contend a handful of times.

Can he be, you know, sort of on that borderline for getting to the tour championship, like kind of in that, you know, like, 30s to 40s on the point list at the end of the year. Yeah, I think that's about World Bade. I think that's a good range for him, not a guy that's too worried about keeping his card at years end, but also not a guy that's like looking to break into the top 20 in the world ranking either. I just don't know if there's that ceiling for him. Some of these guys are going to be really, really good. I mean, I think Mito Pereira is going to be a top 20 player at some point fairly soon. He's a must bet for me every week, even though, you know, because he's going to have that

breakthrough and his numbers are in the right place in terms of the value. We mentioned Figala earlier. I think he's going to be really good. Do you feel him this week? I don't. No, because he had a big league last week. I mean, this is a corn ferry course. I mean, you're going to have to shoot six under every day to win this tournament. And that is like a corn fray with no rough.

But I don't know. It feels like is he going to be that consistent? He barely got into the cornfairy finals for crying out loud. He's a west coaster giving him somewhere. somewhere late January, early February. I'll kind of figure it out. Maybe Phoenix or something like that. Yeah.

Amex or something. Yeah. Yeah. That's another desert place. I guess I kind of look at that as a correlation. If you're going to take a guy in Palm Springs, you might take them this week as well. But yeah,

I just probably back to back. I don't love them. But there are a bunch of really good players who are coming up. Buckley, any of those guys? Sig's a guy. He's essentially like a Kevin Kisner, J.T. Post.

and kind of guy where when they go to the southeast and there's Bermuda Greens, he's a guy I'll be looking at every single time away from there. I'll take a wait and see approach and see if he's the kind of guy I want to chase. David Lipski is a guy that lives in Vegas and he's won all over the world now and he didn't get in. He's like fifth alternate, but he's a guy that's going to be a good solid player for a while, I think. I mean, there's a lot of them.

The discrepancy, the differential between guys coming off the corn, Ferry and guys who are sort of back end on the PGA tour is very, very thin right now. I'm leaning in the direction of rounding out a card with a couple like protective plays of guys with with track record established names. I'm going to stick something on Lucas Glover, like work him in because he's got a bunch of top tens at this venue. I can't be in Vegas and not play Kevin Nah. Got to play Kevin Nah. I got to have something on him. You could be a top 20, top 10, even if the odds aren't spectacular. And then I, I might do like, you know, the odds aren't incredible,

but they're still pretty attractive for a boom or bus guy. And he's in your column also. And I just like putting a little on him in the same way that I like doing it with Mito Pereira, his fellow countryman, Joaquin Neiman. I'm going to play Neiman at this venue. Is there any reason not to play Neiman this week? There are three guys that I think are undervalued in the marketplace this week that are good players and have some win equity.

It's Neiman, who came out at 40 to 1, which I thought was, really long odds for Neiman this week. Same number for Patrick Reed. I get that Patrick hasn't played a whole lot of golf and we haven't seen them much. He played revenge Patrick. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Patrick Reed, first event after the U.S. wins the Rider Cup.

I mean, if he's healthy and everything, watch out. He can play really well. And I thought Mark Leishman at around 60 to one, that's a really big number on Leishman as well. I get the sense with him. And I haven't talked to him. And I don't know anything. But he was fourth at the Fortinet in Napa a few weeks ago. I just get the sense that

yeah, I get the sense that Leishman's kind of got this revenge tour thing on his mind right now that he's like, you know what? I'm pissed off that I didn't play as well as I should have for most of this year. I'm going to go out there and just let me show what I've got during this fall swing and go out there and play my best stuff right now.

Brooks is going to win this thing by 8. We wrote him off. He's going to win it by 8. I'm going to bet on him missing the cut. I'm going in the other direction this week. It's a fantastic thing. It's the same thing we said at the top of the pod. which was, hey, yeah, Sam Burns was the best player of the field last week. And he went out in one.

Brooks kept, I guess. This is Vegas Brooks. Just everybody. Yeah. Everybody knows Vegas Brooks. He's here for some fun. Let's fade Vegas Brooks. You know who we're not going to fade. We are not fading. Jason. So, well, thank you for helping us kick off the season, my brother. We'll get a couple more of these events under our belt and have you back on. And we'll see, you know, how we're, how we're sizing up the season. None of us are going to go against John Rom, but we're still a long way away from players, masters, you know,

where the big, big events start coming into view. But let's go ahead and try and find some value in this fall season. Sobel's column is up at the beginning of every week on the action network at golf bet. You got to check it out. And he's on the Sirius XM radio, the golf channel,

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, two to four. Yep, that's it. There we go. Look at that. I pay attention every once in a while.

Thanks for coming on, buddy. I'm glad that you survived the Ryder Cup. and we'll have you on again soon. I appreciate it, boys. We really should have done this in Vegas. Now that I think about it, we should have done 14 days in Vegas, spent two weeks out there,

just covering the tour and see, you know, just all business, obviously. Are you going to pay my divorce attorney? Are you going to pay for that? Yeah. Can we get action to cover that? The action network will cover that,

that then I'm in. Cover the retainer. I'm in. Can you imagine? Like, we always say that. Like, one night's not enough in Vegas and three nights is too much, but these guys are going to spend like two full weeks in Vegas.

What? This is going to be a complete shit show for some of these guys. Vegas Brooks. Vegas Brooks. There we go. All right, my birdie buddies, there you have it. Hopefully a little way to produce a little early season return on investment. Our thanks to Jason.

So, but we're back next week. We're just rolling here on Fairway rolling. Until then, let's hit them straight out there.