Fairway Rollin' - Masters Recap: Scottie Wins Second Green Jacket and the Arrival of Ludvig Aberg

Episode Date: April 15, 2024

Scottie Scheffler does it again! House and Hubbard recap this year’s Masters tournament, starting with how Scottie pulled away to win his second green jacket and whether his career can shape up among the all-timers (01:47). Then, they discuss the impressive second-place finish from Ludvig Aberg in his major debut (26:36). Finally, they talk about the disappointing performances of Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm (33:32) and some of the best performances from players such as Collin Morikawa and Max Homa (52:36). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out rg-help.com to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Producers: Eduardo Ocampo and Tucker Tashjian Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There are a lot of quarterbacks in the NFL draft this year. My name is Ben Solac and I host the Ringer NFL Draft Show with Danny Kelly, Danny Hypatts, and Craig Horlebeck. We cover trades, free agency, and the draft, which is, yeah, obviously. We'll tell you about everything, which includes which quarterbacks are good, which quarterbacks are bad, and which quarterbacks are just Kirk Cousins. That is the Ringer NFL Draft Show. Search the Ringer NFL Draft Show on Spotify. Friends and welcome this golf program, unlike any other. Yes, my friends. This is very friends.

Railway, a golf podcast and program on the Ringer Podcast Network and Fandall TV. My Bernie buddies, my par saving pals, my eagle enthusiasts. We are joined as always by our incomparable accomplice, our PGA tour boots on the ground. This, my friends, is Nathan Hubbard here to join me on a recap of the N. The inevitable Masters outcome, the inevitable 2024 Masters, it's a two ball, the pegs out onto the ground, and off we go. Mr. Nathan, how are you, buddy? Well, all's well that ends well house all week long. All we said was, if Scotty doesn't win, followed by hours of commentary and a bunch of nonsense.

because at the end of the day, the most logical outcome, the thing that made the most sense, the thing that all of the data had been leading up to, was Scotty Sheffler delivering when it counted most. And he did that today. We'll talk about the fact that he had some pursuers who didn't quite do their jobs today. But I think at the end of the day,

this was not about anybody losing it. You'll love to see a guy go win it, and the best player in the world went and won it, House. So there was no mistakes in terms of the formulations at the beginning of the week, the odds associated with Scotty as the presumptive champion, and his play was up to the test. That one thing that you wonder about always with Scotty Schaeffler is the putting performance. We have our strokes game data.

He finished 22nd out of the 60 guys that made the cut. That's perfectly acceptable. in view of and around the green game that he possesses that maybe he doesn't get enough credit for, Nate, but first in around the green, super high and off the tee. Interestingly, not as high in terms of approach as we've grown accustomed to. And the thing that we constantly celebrate about him is his approach prowess, but it didn't matter. He was absolutely on point in terms of the off the T, T to green, around the green. And he finished first and strokes gain total, which is just a way of saying that the numbers back up what we saw with our own two eyes, a dominant performance out of Scottie Schaeffler.

Yeah. That said, this was a tale of multiple rounds. And when you and I got together earlier in the week, we understood that it was going to be a game of survival for these guys to just get to the weekend. And when you look at Scottie's overall shots gained, it doesn't quite tell the story when you look at individual rounds

because round one and two, the reason that Scotty survived was because of his short wedges, his touch around the green. Yes, in round one, he was 27th in putting. But round two and three, he lost strokes putting. It was around the green and off the tee where he really hung in there over the course of those three days. And then today, he had his best day. He was 12th on approach today.

He was 14th in putting. And when Scotty Sheffler is 14th in putting and he has the second best round of the day, only to Tom Kim, there's just not going to be any stopping him. And that is really what is brilliant about Scottie Sheffler, isn't it? It's that in all facets of the game, he's got it. The thing that resonates with me and that I will remember more than anything about this Masters is two times on Saturday and Sunday, he was vulnerable. He was vulnerable on Saturday.

He left the door open. He was not playing great golf. And then on 13, lo and behold, he drills that eagle putt and the whole dynamic of the tournament changed. And then today, early on, he was missing greens outright with his irons, flying them way over. It felt like the adrenaline was maybe having him. He felt good about the strike. They were just going 10, 15 yards over.

And he got up to nine with a door open and lots of guys in the mix. And he put it to tap in range. And from there, he just put the pedal down, let other guys make mistakes. That's the thing with Scotty is if you're going to beat him, you have to put pressure on his putter. And not once was his putter under pressure in this tournament. And it showed in the fourth round, he had his best putting day of the whole week. that was it. And to really contextualize his ability to rise to the challenge as the challenge arrives, Ludwig Erbé Berg, you know, moments before his group, before Scotty and Morikawa,

made it to the T on, you know, off the T on 9, Aberg sunk an incredible, very unlikely Bertie Putt on 9 and was within a stroke. And all of a sudden it felt, like, oh, maybe we have a golf tournament. Well, 10 minutes later, Scotty Schaeffler nearly jars it with a lob wedge after an absolutely massive drive on nine. And went on to Bertie 10 and just, you know, from that point, he had the double bogey on 11. We thought, oh, wait a minute. No, just the bogey on 11.

I'm sorry, a bogey on 11 for Scotty. And was that a door opening? But no, because he followed up with an excellent performance on 12. It is exactly the proper place on 12. And then Bernie 13 and created enough distance where it felt like by 13, really the combination of 12 and 13, that sucked all the drama out of the situation, Nate, dog. I think I even think by 11 it was really over. I mean, the response to me on 7 was when he was. was a little wobbly. We saw UFC last night and a couple of guys who took a knockout punch

with time running out. Here we're on the seventh hole. Scotty gets in the bunker. He stuck, makes bogey, but it was the response. Birdie on eight like you're supposed to. Birdie on nine like you didn't expect. Birdie on 10 like you definitely didn't expect. And what happens in front of him is Colin next to him pulls it into the water. Max in front of him makes double. Ludwig also on 11 pulls it into the water. In the span of 10 minutes, that tournament changed. And it really was a crash course

in how you play Augusta, wasn't at House? Because on 11, as Colin said after the round, he got greedy. He got greedy on 9. He got greedy on 11. And on this course, you can't get too greedy. Now, it may be that Max was playing in a way that wasn't greedy and enough,

and we'll talk about that today. Colin got too greedy, made shots that just were not the way that you play this course. by 11, it was over for him, no matter how he came back. Ludwig, the first time out there, he learned his lesson the hard way.

And I even think Max thought he hit a good shot on 12 that just flew maybe five, 10 yards too far, hit that back apron and just catapulted in. But by the time, those guys were all through 12, and Scotty had hit the green. It really was just sort of a matter of time. Yeah, and really, again, 13, that birdie, he hits the green on 13, both Saturday,

and Sunday, and both times, you know, created the space, created the comfort. And really just, you know, for a whole that was not giving up very much, and we watched many of the leaders go through 13 with the opportunity, the character of 13 is different now, you know, quick side tangent. Kudos to the masters of the folks in charge of, you know, the modifications they make over the years, what has been presented, created, both 13 and 15 is a new paradigm of risk reward. They are not lay up, you know, driver wedge, driver nine iron, try and make the eagle holes any longer. And they...

Yeah, this is not a par 68 anymore, as Bryson once famously declared. No, it was not. And the added sort of element of that, the biggest surprise to me over the course of the weekend in terms of how the course played was Saturday, typically moving day, but because of the clear effect of the wind. You hated the whole locations on Saturday. You hated it. It was, if Saturday is going to be moving day, then I don't want to be moving in terms of a war of attrition. I'd like to see some guys have some opportunities to score a little bit to create the drama. Now, you know what's coming Sunday. Sunday,

are always the traditional pins. There's always, you know, the roars from the valley that you're sort of hoping for. Except we didn't totally have that today, did we? We had doubles on 11. We had doubles on 9. We had doubles on 12. The course played harder. Guys did not, the story of Augusta has always been, you got to birdie all the part

fives. You got to take advantage of them. And as the announcing crew at CBS, which felt like maybe they were broadcasting five years ago, most of them, today. And we'll talk about the telecast a little bit. God love them because they were all wrapped around the Vern Axel today. And I was too. But there was, it wasn't the best performance of all time.

But as they were talking about the importance of the par fives, you had, as you just said, real choices of guys. I mean, Max hitting a three wood on 13 and then laying up to me was the end of the tournament. And again, we'll talk about Max's strategy in a bit because he was intentionally conservative this whole week. And that was going to be good enough for a top five. Unfortunately, when you're playing against the best player in the world, it's not enough to win.

And that really is the calculation and the trade-off that the players in real-time had to make on these par-fives because of those changes that they've made. And they were hand-in-hand, the changes combined with how firm the golf course was playing, which was, I think, an effect of the wind that came through. But already the case, it was clearly the case that they had the course in a condition to be playing firm

because they anticipated the rain that arrived. It was obviously a different golf course than what we saw in the women's amateur event and like ramped up right to the edge from some players. No player will criticize. Only John Rom got anywhere near talking about it potentially being unfair.

And that was his reaction to how the course played Friday afternoon, which, you know, it's a rare thing. We get to see these guys in the absolute at worst of conditions. And they were all... 35 mile an hour guts. What are you going to do? They came off the golf course saying, I'm so happy to be off the golf course right now.

I mean, it was the challenge of a masters that we really haven't seen in a long time, Nate. Yeah, I just, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the test. You know, sometimes when the U.S. Open gets a little bonkers, it just feels like the entire defense of those courses is the rough. or the greens are just sort of not fun. This felt like when guys hit great spinner shots,

they actually could keep them on the green, but when they made that slight error, when Morikawa comes up short and he's in a tough spot in the bunker on nine, that's going to lead to a double. When Max overflies it on 12, and he hits it off the back apron, yeah, it's going in the bushes.

But when Scotty thinks it through and hits the right shot left, or even on 11, when Max saw Ludwig go in and then Joe calls him off the shot. They take a step back. They think about what they're doing. Max lines up right of the flag.

He aims 20, 25 feet right of the flag, nails the shot, hit it perfectly. That was a great reward for what he was doing. He got through that challenge. Just couldn't totally get through 12. So I thought I enjoyed these conditions because they didn't, to me, feel like you know what the outcome is, that it's predetermined if the guy misses the fairway.

Guys Miss Fairways here, they could make good shots to come back. They could get to the green. It just took creative and thoughtful shot making. And the guys who hit it great did that. The guys who didn't didn't. I do think House, as we look at sort of the stats, that what's fun about this week is guys did it in different ways. Ludwig clearly, look, for the week,

Ludwig was 13th on approach. But today, he was mediocre. It's just all week long, this was the best putter out there. He did it unequivocally with the putter, right? Shane Lowry, our guy who we absolutely loved coming into this week, he finished first on approach, but he finished 43rd in the tournament because he could not putt to save his Irish backside, could he, right?

So you saw guys who had different strengths who were successful in different ways, and again, I think the reason that a guy like Scotty was successful, when your first teeed a green, 22nd putting first around the green, that's going to do it. I agree with that. Absolutely.

Now, look, let's take a quick break, and then we're going to do a little bit in terms of putting this in the historical context, which is something I know you've been chopping at the bit. You really want to thrust Scotty into the conversation of the all-time greats in history. Let's take a break and we'll come back and do some comparing. All right, Nathan, we're back.

And I know that you have. have been itching to take this Scotty performance. Don't on you? This run that he's been on. And, you know, we, we have been saying these numbers match up really with only one other player of the modern era. We don't have strokes gain for Jack Nicholas and Lee Trevino. You know what I mean?

We also don't, they didn't play with the Pro v.1. So we're going to talk about it in the context of the modern era. But what Scottie Shephler did today, he was the top ranked player in the world in the official world golf ranking. Well, now it is Scotty who won the Masters, possessing the number one spot. He's done that twice. He is alongside Tiger Woods, the only players in history to hold that official world golf ranking top spot and win multiple majors.

Now, the official world golf rankings only existed since 19. So again, let's contextualize it. He three-time winner on tour this season in just nine starts. He is, again, alongside Tiger Woods as the only players to win both the players' championship and the Masters in the same year. He is that he sees 27. He's the fifth player to claim multiple three-shot Masters. wins. Everyone else on this list are in the World Golf Hall of Fame. We're talking about

Tiger, Sevy, Jack, and Sam Sneed. I mean, I think only Jack, Tiger, and Scotty have won the players twice and the Masters twice. And Scotty, you know, with a, a, the first to do the players back to back in history, the history of that golf tournament. Fewest starts to two Masters wins. he had five starts to get to his two. Bubba had six. Arnold Palmer had six. The leader in that particular stat, Horton Smith, 1934 and 1936,

only three masters for him. Yeah. But we will see as this goes on. I can keep going down this list. But now we're in the place where you've wanted us to be, which is he's up in the echelon of the all-time greats, two players, two masters, and, you know, no, I'm going to knock on wood, nothing in front of us that suggests anything that might derail him other than the

arrival of his daughter, which did not happen during the Masters this week, Nate Dogg. You know, I've been thinking about this a bit because you and I have had this sort of playful back and forth over his sort of historical role. And the thing for me about today is, look, my take. here is, you know, you can get a little insight into it based on you talking about Bubba there. Bubba won two green jackets. Scotty did not advance himself beyond where he should be today. What has been maddening about this run that Scottie's been on for the last two years is that he has let a ton of wins go by because of the putter. He, this weekend, or this week, I should say,

not weekend. He missed three puts inside three feet where he went up. That's kind of what Scottie does. But today he missed none. And today he gained a lot of strokes putting. It was a very strong day for him on the greens. And it's it only feels now like he's just about where he should be. The truth is I think he probably ought to have three, right? When you think about the U.S. Open, when you think about the PG, where his putting performances weren't where they ought to be, the second place finish at the U.S. Open, for example, if he had putt as well as we believe that he's starting to do, thanks to that mallet, thanks, Rory, he probably would have six to seven more wins

and one to two more majors at this point. So the frustrating thing was not so much, hey, this is definitely an all-time great. It was, is this a guy who's capable of making that leap to put together what has been historically great ball striking? with historically great results. And until today, you would have said that the results relative to the statistics

have been disappointing. Now it feels like, okay, he had no hiccups in the fourth round. He did not four-putt 18. He looked cool as a cucumber out there. He did it with his wife expecting a baby. Maybe that helped today. Maybe his mind being on,

I just want to get home, was, you know, beware the sick golfer, beware the injured golfer kind of thing that helped him get focused. But now he knows he can do it. So I think for you and I, it is, this is a historically great ball striker who is starting to figure out the putting, who also between the ears is stronger than he was the last time that he won the Masters. Now we go. And now it is, can he put himself in that elite company with the guys who've won all four? I mean, if Colin had won today, you would have had to take your hat off to Colin Morikawa and said, this guy has every single title except a U.S. Open right now.

Like, he is probably ahead of Scotty in terms of the way that history will think about them. So as Brooks always reminds us, it is measured in majors. And right now, Brooks is the guy. And Roy's behind him. And then you got Scotty, you got Colin, you got JT, you got Spief. What we also saw today is there's a lot of guys coming. So all. All of these guys have got to be on their game. And I think what's really fun about today is we love greatness. We love to see it in its incarnation. And we have believed that this guy had it in him.

It still is yet to be determined how great he's going to be. This year is a year. The greats, they win two within one year. Scott, he's the best golfer in the world. If he does not win one of the next three majors, I think personally it will end up being a disappointing season for us as golf fans because he's capable of it. Don't you?

Well, it's, you know, the number of variables that might intervene in terms of either the golf or his life, you know, the arrival of his daughter might impact the trajectory for this year. But, you know, the point you're making is the right one. The caliber of play has him in the right place in terms of us thinking giant thoughts about what could be. About what he's capable of. Yes, in front of us.

That's exactly right. But he's not there yet, right? Because if he doesn't continue to execute, this is Bubba Watson. And you and I both love Bubba Watson as a golfer, but like Bubba Watson is not on the tier of Jack and Tiger and Arnie and Phil and and and and I would say, you know, when you reel off these consecutive wins in the manner that he has, his last four starts have been win-win second because he missed a five-footer and win, right? And they weren't like chump events.

You know, they're Arnold Paul. and the players and second at the Houston. Yeah, right. So that's it. And so absolutely correct to be hoping that this heater continues because the sky's the limit. That's what we want to see. And maybe that will be a thing that is interesting to the sports public. I don't know.

It seems like the numbers were up, the numbers that I saw on Thursday and Friday. And I honestly think, in a way, the weather gods, the golf gods, and the green jackets, they all conspired for especially Thursday to put golf into the primetime spotlight. And we got to see primetime golf. I mean, we got the guys were playing until it was, you know, just too dark to play. In the gloaming, it was wonderful. It was wonderful. The Bryson hauling out on 18 in the evening was terrific.

I mean, we knew he was not going to have the day that he needed to have to win the tournament. That was yesterday. But even still, just sort of these guys all finishing in the light was great. The sort of multiple different weather days was great. I mean, look, at the end of the day, I'm reminded, and we don't have to go to the business of golf just yet. But I am reminded that this sport is at its best when all the best players are together, on the best course, with a tournament that is focused on the end. patron or fan. And they create an app that is better than any other experience. They create an on the ground, on-site experience for the fans that is better than any other experience. They create a tournament and an

on-site experience for the players that is better than anyone else. And at the end of the day, guess what the money seems to flow and the eyeballs seem to follow? And that is what was so reassuring about these last four days, really the whole week, which is we've had such a divide- bunch of nonsense for the last year plus. And this week, it just felt like guys came together. They rolled up their sleeves, and it was best man go out and win. And the best man was Scotty Sheffler. Well, and to have Scotty, hopefully continuing this dominance over the course of this,

what's left of the season, everything's left in the season. But his ascendance to the throne, and then you have the, the, the, the, the, taking on all comers aspect of it. It was great to see Bryson. I forget, it's fun to watch Bryson Des Chambot play golf. He's a maniac. He's a lunatic. It's fun to watch.

He's a dufous. It's more fun when he's around, isn't it? The chip in to the water on 15, the thumped chip. He chunked another one today, but followed by moments of brilliance. It's just more fun when he's around. The birdie on 13 that has, had him punching from the pine straw up towards the T-box on 14 and the iconic image that will forever be preserved in master's lore of him picking up the sign with the, you know, the,

the direction posts showing folks where to where to go and him carrying it and moving it, his own self, that's one for the ages. That's going to be, you know, remembered forever. We'll constantly see it when Bryson's name comes up. He birdied the hole after all of that nonsense. That's a dude. I mean, it's fun to have him back on plan. Tough weekend for him, right?

I mean, 50th and putting on Saturday, 45th on Sunday. And there was something about it that just, look, his demeanor while he's putting is very tight. And he will tell you that it is the physics of it, right? And the geometry of it. But it looks stiff. And it looked like he took a lot of the feet. out of it. And what we saw from Ludwig was tons of technique and tons of form, but just a little bit more feel and touch. And that was the difference between the performance from those two on

the weekend. All right. It's time. We have to talk about Ludwig. And speaking of things that I'm anticipating for the season, and I'll certainly be working all of the angles in terms of how I might make investments this season. Ludwig is here. He's not going anywhere. He's not going anywhere. The only thing that might fell him is, you know, and if he has bad luck with eating something bad or takes a misstep or whatever, the dude is him. He is him. Ludwig is him. He has the highest finish of any player in the history of golf to have a first time appearance in a major. No player in the history of golf has ever walked on a golf course for the first time in a major and finished solo second. This dude just did. This dude just did.

it and it looked like he was in the mix all the way up until a tiny mistake on 11 which is purely a function of his lack of, yeah, an experience. Just an experience. And he

was non-plused by it and he had, he was super chill all the way through. You know, it will be funny and it'll be remember to be part of his story. He's fist bumping fans on the walk between nine and 10 T-box.

He's eating an energy bar. One of the fans knocks it out because he's given, you know, Ludwig's giving up knucks with the hand that's holding the power bar. Come on, Ludwig. At least switch hands, buddy. But, you know, he got a chuckle out of it. And he just was, you know, on point on his game all the way through. And all the way to the end, he's absolutely the talent that we thought, right?

And then some. I mean, when you just look at round four, Sunday at the major at the Masters. He said his legs were shaken on the first tee. And we've heard that from a lot of guys before. But he shot three under today. Scotty, for all he did, was four under. Max was one over.

Colin Moracow was two over. Bryson DeShambo was one over. Zander was one over. Cam Young was one over. So all of these guys who were maybe in the mix or maybe supposed to be able to be there and make the run, they stumbled. And in spite of it being his first time around this course on a Sunday, he stepped up and played great. And I think you're exactly right. I mean, this was his arrival.

And just like Scotty, I think Ludwig's going to be in the mix all the way down the road every major from here. I mean, this guy has all of the makings of six, seven, eight majors, at least. And the reason is his swing feels effortless. And there's a lot of guys who swings feel effortless. guess whose swing looked effortless all week? It was Max Holmes for most of the week, right? But Max has a very well-documented set of stuff between the ears that he grapples with in all kinds of ways. I think he actually handled it very well this week.

But Ludwig himself, there's something about the Scandinavian cool that I think we probably over-ascribe to guys like him and Scotty who are just more reserved, generally speaking. We say, wow, this guy's really cool. He's got a whole lot of duck's feet moving underneath the surface. But I do think there's something sort of preacher natural about this guy and his sort of destiny to be great. So it's fun to see him on the scene. And again, I talked about Xander.

I mean, how's my takeaway looking at Ludwig today? And even Nikolai Hoygard yesterday, he ran into a bunch of the rookie mistakes that we saw, made a whole bunch of bogies as soon as he grabbed the lead. But that guy's got all of the talent in the world. And these were great reps for him. If you are Jordan Speath who missed the cut and Justin Thomas. who missed the cut. And Patrick Cantlay and Zander Shuffley, who made the cut but did not really make moves

and didn't threaten in real ways. I mean, I texted this morning. I thought Zander was going to make a huge run. Plus one for me, after Tom Kim lays down a six under, was disappointing day for Zander because he's capable of more. That said, I think if you're those guys right now,

you're looking at Ludwig, and you're looking at Nikolai Hoygard and whoever the heck else is coming out of the college ranks, who's under 23, 24 right now, and you're going, I got, there's a chance I'm not going to win another major because Scottie's playing at the top of his game. There's always going to be a week in which a Morikawa or a Kam Smith or a Max Homa jumps up and plays well. There's some dudes over at Live.

And by the way, John Rom did not look happy in that jacket ceremony. John Rom does not like this attention. We're giving Scotty Sheffler right now. I promise you John Rom's going to come back and fight this year. He does, he was super unhappy. But if you're that cluster of guys, this is a tough day for you because there are people who have shown they are just better at golf right now and they're younger, they have fewer reps and they got less to deal with between the ears than you do. It was really a fascinating coming out party in that

way for Ludwig. Yeah. And the takeaway, and I'm glad you touched on a bunch of those names, I don't think we need to go through a full on, you know, giving out grades. We have a bunch of guys that are lost. JT is lost. JT was even par. Justin Thomas was even par going into the 15th hole on Friday. He shot seven over, which had the effect of moving the cut line for everybody, but that seven over on four holes took him out. He missed the cut by a single stroke through his own undoing. And, you know, in the forecast that we sat and tried to talk through, okay, well, Justin has a really exemplary record at Augusta. He just had the breakup with bones, is there going to be a potential liberating effect through round one and, you know,

four fifths of round two? He was there and then boom, he wasn't. And it was over. The same with Jordan Speed. Jordan was kind of like in the mix, probably hovering in a good spot. He gets to the 15th hole. And this, you know, is it a recurring theme with him? Like, are we going to talk about how he gets undone?

by a single hole at Augusta National, you know, two times, right? Yes, we are. Ludwig smiled after 11. Ludwig was in it. Ludwig was 48th on approach today after three days in which he was, you know, first, second, and, you know, hitting the ball really great. He was hitting it awful today, but guess what he was? First in putting. I mean, he just found a way.

And to your point, those are the things that guys like Spieth and Thomas and the scar tissue that they've built up trying to get in Thomas's case from two to three and Speeth's case from three to four. It just, it's in the way right now, isn't it? It's in the way. I wanted to go back to John Rom because on the one hand, I'm not that inclined to read too much into the week's performance. I said on our programs leading into today that I was inclined to fade him because I thought that it was kind of asking too much of him to both be that person, the defending champ. He hasn't been playing.

It's a lot of work, man. Right. He hasn't been playing competitive golf rounds. He's got family stuff. And so that in one respect, you know, kind of made sense that he wouldn't, you know, have any, any kind of success. On the other hand, I just want to wonder aloud. Is, are we going to see John Rom competitive this upcoming year?

I think we are now. I think we are now. His face, I'm just telling you, the average viewer who doesn't nerd out about golf, like you and I and the people listening right now, the average viewer thought John Rom was pissed in Butler Cabin. He had no smile on his face. He didn't shake Scottie's hand. They did shake hands out on the green.

They're obviously friendly. But John Rom did not like. like the Nance outro talking about Scotty unequivocally being the number one play. John Rom is competitive, and we got those little bits this week where he was like, yeah, we should be playing 72 holes, not 54. Like, John is not one of the truthers, right? He has gone over there and been a little bit disillusioned that the merger didn't happen immediately.

And the competition hasn't been great. He told us that he's been paying attention to things like Scotty winning the players, for example. So I think John Rom, to matter. Max's quote on Saturday night. John Rom definitely has that dog in him. And I think we're going to see John, forget the live performances. John cares about the majors.

He cares about his place in history. He cares about Sevy and the Ryder Cup and all of these ranking things. And he cares about history more than he does the official world golf rankings. I think we're going to see John respond. This is going to be a great test of him because he's rich. You're right. He's got another baby coming. He's not playing as much as he was before.

he's probably a little disgruntled, although I'm sure he's happy with his checkbook. He's just not totally thrilled with the competition. We're going to see what this guy is made of over the course of the rest of this season. So that's the point, right? We're going to see what he's made up because I think that I'm more in the glass half empty camp

with him. The fire that you're describing, well, how is he going to get it? How is he going to recapture that competitive tenor, what he needs to go compete in the, effing majors, when you're at the Bukti-Dibu tournament at

the whatever muni that they're playing on live and the guys are in their shorts and it's, you know, Aviki in the background, right? Or Vici, how are you said? Avichi. You tell me. That's how it's pronounced.

My only counter to that is the big question, at the beginning of the week, I gave you a list of guys who I thought could win this golf tournament. I was right about some I was wrong about some. One of the guys on my list was Cameron Smith. And Cameron Smith, when I put him on the list, you said,

does that guy even care about golf anymore? And it was the right question. Cam Smith finished T6. Yeah. Patrick Reed finished T12. Word. Teryl Hatton finished T9. Some of the guys who've gone over there are able to show up

and compete against some of the best in the world. I think it may be true that the fact that a number of them faded after 54 holes is not a coincidence, right? And that some of the guys he didn't hang in there. But by a mile, it feels like right now the best golfer over there is John Rom. And it's just whether he can really put himself to the grindstone to come out and do what Brooks did last year at the PGA and show up and say, this is mine. I'm that guy. I'm going to do it. Okay.

it's something to keep an eye on. Let's just leave it that way. Speaking of keep an eye on, let's take a break. I want to come back, and there are a couple names we haven't touched on yet that I want to make sure that we give a little bit of eyeballs and some airspace, too. But we'll get on to Rory McElroy and his disastrous performance right when we come back. Oh, boy. All right, Nate, Doug.

In the outro, I characterize Rory's week as disaster. master's, obviously a little hyperbole in there. But I'm now in a mode, in a place in a position where not only do I not think that he is ever going to win the masters, because I don't think he's ever going to win the masters. I just don't. I'm not, I don't think he's going to win another major. He hits the daylights out of the ball. I think he's going to continue to win on tour.

I think he's going to continue to win noteworthy events on tour. I don't see the, there's something missing between the ears with him. I don't know what it is or why, particularly as it relates to Augusta, which is why I'm saying, I just, you know,

what's the radical change that can come for him that will make him competitive at Augusta? The problem is there's too many good young guys coming up that are just not there to bow down and let him uh, waltz his way. But in terms of like the overall,

just competitiveness, um, now he's been going through some kind of swing thing. His strokes gained approach has been lackluster this year. He allegedly had a bit of a breakthrough in San Antonio. He's been texting with Bush Harmon. Um, great.

Congratulations. Here's the thing. We're going to Valhalla for the PGA championship. it's the last time that Rory won a major was in 2014 10 effing years ago at Valhalla. What's your sort of overall sense reaction to Rory this week and what you expect of his future this season? Well, I think a few things. The first is I think you're being overly critical of a guy who you have been mad passionately in man love with for quite some time, let you down this week yet again. Man golf love. Man golf love, yes. Man golf love. I think,

look, Rory, his weekend wasn't bad. He was even on the weekend. He got hit in the wave. But he got hit in the wave on Friday that just blew up his round. That, the guys who finished late on Friday got blown off the darn course. I'm not making excuses for Rory because I will come back to this. We saw it in full swing too. where he sat down and said, I think we need to rebuild. We talked at the beginning of the week about how last week,

you know, 10 days ago, you and I would not have bet Rory McElroy for anything. We would have said he has zero chance. He showed up in San Antonio and had his best ball striking week in five years. So that got us a little bit excited, especially as he came in and we weren't exactly sure who was moving around.

Neither of us picked him to win. We thought he would have performed better. But I do think his time with Butch is an indication that he knows he needs something different. I think you have aptly pointed out that it might be time for a caddy change because guess who ushered Ludwig

around the course today? It wasn't Ludwig. It was Joe, his caddy. And it still feels like between Zander and Rory, as you, again, have pointed out so many times that those guys don't necessarily have Ted Scott on the bag who's going to get him through whatever psychological and, you know, course-taxing situation that he gets himself into.

I still step back and think Rory's masters is going to happen, and I think it's going to happen the way that Sergio's happened. And I know there aren't that many years left for him to be the same age, but I do think there is, this course has a way of bending the arc of history and making it beautiful. And whether that was Tiger or Jack or Sergio or Adam Scott or Phil, like the guys who we think ought to get one, tend to get one here. There's very few guys who didn't get one who ought to have. It's just going to be a question of time. And to your point, Rory, look, what I love about the way that Rory's handled the live stuff is he's clearly open to change. He has strong opinions that are loosely held. And he will alter his stance. He will change his way of doing things

in service of getting better. And I think this major, as much as any, is going to alter the way that he continues to prepare. He still has the skill set. He still can show up. His T-shots are as good as anyone's in the game, including Ludwig. It's going to be about the approach and the clutch putting. He should have won the U.S. Open. He should have won last year.

He should have won the British Open. The Cam Smith won. I still think he's got a few left in him house. I hope you are right about that. And it might be the case. I think it was somebody on the live from set. it might have been McGinley, who said the most likely path for Rory to get one at Augusta is to win a couple more in other places and to feel like, you know, to remember what that

feeling is like coming down the stretch of a major and then, you know, fending off all challengers and getting across the goal line and that that will create the space for him to, you know, be in the right. Because I thought prep wise, I liked everything that I heard. from Rory this week. We liked everything about it. Coming into the thing. And, you know, if you look at his numbers, they're just sort of average numbers.

Strokes gained off the T. He was, he was eighth. But everything else, you know, 30th in putting, 45th in around the green, and 34th in approach. So whatever he found approach-wise at San Antonio just didn't follow through.

But, you know, I'm willing to indulge this sort of Rory referendum for one more major. And it's it's about howla. You know, can he channel some of that, that old feeling? But I'm not going to just, you know, dump on. Don't abandon ship just yet. I'm going to give him one more. I'm going to give him one more.

You should. Because when you dive into the numbers, again, we keep looking at these averages. But when you dive into the numbers, it was that Friday round where the stats just plummeted. and his approach was awful, and he just did not deliver. He was the problem that day was he was awful off the T. He was 67th off the T and 69th on approach. The other days were not bad at all. So I think it was in there.

Was he going to get to 11? I think every guy in the field right now has to be asking, how am I going to get to 11 under? Scottie got there. How do I get to 11? Ludwig was great, saved for 11, and he was first in putting, and he only got to 7 under.

Like, how do we get to 12? to beat this guy. I think every guy in the field is feeling that way. I can see Rory getting to 7-8-9 this week without a whole lot of change other than weather and yeah, catching a little bit of what he did in San Antonio this week. Well, look, I'm not going to just sit here and dunk on Rory. There are some other names that deserve a little bit of review.

Brooks Kepka. Where was Brooks Kepka this week? he lost to Phil Mickelson. If you're looking just if you sit down and map it out, he couldn't beat Phil

Mickelson. I think he beats Phil pretty regularly on the live tour so I don't know what it was about this week. He did. Yes, you do. Well,

he's messing around with putter changes, you know, at Dural. Like, what are he doing? It's Masters' week for Christ's sakes.

He was messing around with putter change. is here. And, you know, in our prep episode with Justin Ray, you asked me who I thought was going to win, who wasn't Scotty. And I said, Brooks. And then when we came back on Wednesday, I said, I'm off. I'm off Brooks, 100%. I do not think Brooks is on the list of guys who can win because he was telling people one thing and doing another. And every time we've ever seen Brooks do that, the dissonance means he's not playing well. When he was hurt and his knee and hip were out and he wasn't playing, he told us he was fine, he played horribly.

You know, when he was going to live at the U.S. Open in Boston, and he wasn't telling people that he was going, he played horribly. Here, he told us he was all set and he was with the mallet, but on Tuesday and Wednesday, he's out there with the Scotty Cameron. It just was not truthful. And I think Brooks is a straight-ahead guy generally. I think that dissonance and, you know, dishonesty with the media,

which he's perfectly allowed to do. He doesn't know anybody anything. But I think there's something about that facade that is uncomfortable for him, He came out of Durow playing, he shot 77, 77 at a resort course, and then showed up tinkering with putters. And guess what? It ultimately catches up with you. Whether you catch a little bit of lightning in a bottle the way that Colin Morikawa did, he also changed putters. This time, not in the middle of the week, but in between rounds one and two.

Between rounds, yes. Yeah. Or if you're screwing with it in the beginning of the week, rarely does that kind of thing work out. And Brooks' game just isn't there. the question that you're asking subtly, I think, is after Brooks won the PGA, did he get complacent? And are all the live guys suffering from a little bit of, you know, Louis Catoor's gout where they're having too much fine wine and fine food? And they're a little bit too comfortable. And the burn is not there.

Now, that's not to say these guys aren't entitled to the money that they, like, go get your thing. Do what's right for your family. But it's showing up in the results at the end of the day. I don't necessarily fault Brooks for having a little bit of a letdown after the PGA because it took a lot to get there. But this week, he just unequivocally was out of form. Yeah, didn't see anything to suggest that he was going to be competitive in this major or any other majors for the rest of the season, except for you dismiss Brooks Kepka in a major at your own risk and peril. So we were not going to do that here on this show.

The other name that I want to make sure that we give a little bit of time to, is Victor Holland. Because at the end of August of last year, and right into the Ryder Cup, this dude was playing as good of golf as anybody on planet Earth. He was definitely playing better golf than Scotty Sheffler. And that was not that long ago, Nate Dogg. Now, in between the Ryder Cup victory by Europe

and his commencement, you know, the rounds that he's played on tour this season, including the players and including his performance here at the Masters, something has happened. He said he's looking for, so he's got to, you know, he changed his swing coach. He's working on some swing stuff.

But what the hell's going on with Victor Holland, Nate, dog? Well, everything looked great on Thursday, didn't it? He shot one under and, and things were happening. But he told us coming into the week, yeah, things aren't great. Hopefully I go out and play well.

But, I mean, he has been tinkering. Unlike Brooks, he had not put up the facade like everything's fine, and I'm coming in kicking ass. Maybe even the way that Wyndham put up the facade on Thursday night telling us, oh, well, you know, Live only plays 54 holes. I can go out and shoot, you know, seven or eight under tomorrow. No big deal. I think in his case, he's a seeker and a searcher, and the swing just is not there. This is the first time we've seen real vulnerability from him. the round in the 80s on Friday was awful, even with the wind. He then withdrew from Harboretown this week,

which is, again, an indication, you know, something that he did earlier in the year, where he bailed out of a tournament just so that he, because he feels like he does his best swing work, not on the course, but on the range. So, look, he's struggling, he's going to find it. We've seen this out of a lot of guys, and to your point, we know what he's capable of

based on the way that he was playing, relative to Scottie Sheffler back in August, but this is a guy who, for whatever reason, and this is why we need to track it with Ludwig. I mean, we're singing the praises of Ludwig, but we sang the praises of Thomas, and we sang the praises of Victor, and we sang the praises of Speath,

and the more you get out there, and the more you build up that scar tissue, and this is a nasty, mean, terrible game in a lot of ways. So it's all, you know, roses and rainbows when you come out early on and you have that success, but it is how you sustain that excellence, that we got a little bit spoiled by Tiger

and to a lesser extent filled, didn't we? And now we've got stars who are going to have this ebb and flow, and there's going to be roller coaster moments. There were moments where Scotty Schaeffler could not make a putt inside of five feet that mattered. And when we saw him miss that put inside of five feet at Houston,

we thought, oh boy, here it is again. But there is, not everybody's going to be Tiger and sort of historical greatness. That's why we need to be careful about the way that we talk about Scotty, because what we know from Tiger's 24th, 25th, straight missed cut this week, or made cut this week at the Masters,

is that sustaining excellence for that long a period of time in this unique particular game is incredibly difficult. And it's sort of the fun of this generation that we're in, where we've got guys who ostensibly from a skill level,

from a practice level, and preparation level, have had all, if not more than Tiger. But do they have his mind? There are odds up on the Fandall Sportsbook right now for the PGA championship. And I will tell you right now that Victor Hovlin at 31 to 1 is on House's card as a must-fire. Just must-fire. You're not going to get a better price than that for Victor Hovlin, unless, you know,

he gets hurt or he has whatever. But Victor-Haw-N it's where he was coming into the Masters. they should be given us, I mean, we should be at 35. Come on, baby. Let's drip him out. All right, now we're going to talk about the telecast on CBS, and we are going to look ahead at the PG Championship of some of the odds. But let's make sure that we give flowers,

give appropriate recognition to some guys that performed, you know, tremendous this week that gave us some drama, gave us some, you know, fun things to root for. And, you know, we can do it. you want. I'm mainly mostly impressed by Colin Warcawa and Max Homa and

Tommy Fleetwood of all names. So those three guys are all deserving of recognition and flowers. Who amongst that group were you sort of most captured by? Yeah, I think for me it was Max all week. And hearing him go live on the

Twitter space on Tuesday night and talk about the wisdom that he had gleaned and how now in real year four, actual year five, but November 2020 didn't count. Real year four, he had the wisdom for how to play this course. And he gave us this nugget of insight into how he was going to handle this week. And that was he was going to play conservatively. When he thought he might be able to make the shot, he wasn't going to do it. And I think House for three days, that worked extraordinarily well. And I think it led him down on Sunday because he found himself in a pack with, as he said on Saturday night, I'm going to tell my, remind myself that I'm a dog. Well, he found himself in a fight with three other dogs, two-time major winner Colin Morikawa,

up-and-coming superstar Ludwig Oberg, and Scotty Sheffler. And that became a moment when he was going to have to take risks that his core strategy was not designed to do. And when you just sort of look at how it ended up playing out for Max, you know, look, he lost strokes putting on, uh, you know, on Sunday. And I think a lot of his game was geared around getting yourself to the green and taking advantage of his best attribute as a golfer over the last year has been his putting. He massively over indexes because he's just a really, really strong putter. It just did not come through on a day in which he lost strokes on approach. He lost strokes putting. That was a tough Sunday for him after a after a day on Sunday in which he really sort of, I mean, listen, he lost strokes putting barely on

Saturday, too. But even though he didn't make a birdie, he found himself within striking range because of that conservative play. So it's sort of taught, you know, the difference between Ludwig on 11, yanking it into the water, and then Max making the discipline change to hang in there. It's just that the rest of the round going up against those guys, you're right that to finish top five at the Masters, you can play conservatively. But to work, win at the Masters against the best in the world now and probably in the future, you've got to take some shots. And I think that was the only thing that befelled Max. Net, net, this is a great week for him. He told us he's going to drink a bit tonight. Good. You've deserved it. And my biggest takeaway

from Max's week is between Max and Wyndham Clark, who talked a lot of bravado and then went out and missed the cut. Julie Elion, their sports therapist is going to have a very, very interesting in a couple of weeks handling those guys. I think, yeah, hopefully she has enough time.

She's got the hours set aside, especially for Wyndham. Maybe they've already gotten together. The only thing they'll add... Good week for Max. Yeah, that's it.

The only thing I'm going to add, he's trending in absolutely the right direction. His last two performances in the majors tied for 10th at the Open Championship, tied for third at the Masters. So,

you know, the sky's a limit, and he himself talked about how in his own head, he learned things, that this is, he knows what it's like to be on this stage. It was like a real, uh, important audition as much as anything is the way I characterize it. Uh, I'd just like to say, welcome back Colin Warcawa. I was really happy.

So, um, we didn't talk about him. I put him into the specials for this past week and they showed up on the ringer specials. I liked him to top 20 because he checks a lot of boxes in terms of high finishes at the masters. And I had forgotten that over the holidays, I had bought a ticket on Kalamorakawa at 31 to one to win the Masters, but it was really just a function of, you know, in that time frame when I'm sitting and looking like, how's this year going to play out? I had no idea where Kalamorakawa would be in terms of, you know, the strength of his game over the California and Florida swings. it was just like, this is an attractive price,

a 30 to one ticket on Morcawa, you know, with the quality of the game, two-time major winner plus the master's experience. But he really was in there. His performance on Friday, especially, in those adverse conditions, was excellent. And, you know, it was a version of him that I was happy to see again because he's a guy that can really compete.

We talked earlier, you observed, and he himself said it, he made a couple critical like strategy mistakes. He got greedy at two spots where he shouldn't have, and it really was the difference between, you know,

a much higher finish and where he ended up. I don't mind the greediness. In hindsight, I think when he thinks about the fact that Scottie got to 11, at some point you got to put the pedal down. You got to try. And maybe he just gets through those holes,

11 in particular, and then you got to try to do a shootout on 13 and 15. but the way that Scotty played the back in making three birdies coming in and four overall, man, it's just tough to make up two shots on him when he's going to do that. So yes, he could have been less greedy,

but I'm with you that I loved what I saw from Colin this week. I was disappointed in the day today, but I think when, again, you unpack it and don't look at his stats across the week or even across the day, but just on those two holes, that's really where he lost all his shots gained. and I think he did that, as he said, because he was getting greedy.

And it's just competitive pressure, don't mind it. You and I always argue, is he just a guy, is he not? We never really resolve it. It's nice to have him back in the mix. That's exactly right. We'll touch real quickly on Fairway Jesus. Speaking of, you know, now this was a very consistent performance by Tommy Fleetwood, kind of across the four days.

And then he just showed up and what did he shoot, three under today? and that's what pushed him all the way up inside the top five still feels like a guy that could win on the PGA tour still feels like a guy that could win a major to me the way he flushes it but

he was very comfortable out there today. You could see he missed a couple of puts that were super edge birders like they didn't miss by very much. Yeah. His career trajectory feels a little bit like a Davis Love the 3rd to me at this point. Like we know

that he doesn't always have the winning pitch. He's going to be around the leaderboard. It was a bit of a backdoor for me to move. But, you know, listen, anybody who was under par come into today, this felt like backdoor. I have to tell you, I was a little bit more impressed with Matthew Pavon this week. Okay.

I think, like, what we're seeing from this guy, consistent, sustained excellence, you know, from Tori and earlier, like, all the way through it, I'm just really impressed with the way he's showing up and the way that his game is translating across a bunch of courses. That's to take nothing away from Tommy. I think Tommy's going to get the win. I just think we sort of have seen enough from Tommy.

In the same way, you and I have to step back and say, we've sort of seen enough from Zander at this point to know that if he's not going to go hunting on Sunday, in the way that Tommy did, it's going to be what it is. Look, last one I'll just say is another top 10 in a major for Will Zalotaurus, even with a broomstick pole where he missed a three-footer. I mean, this kid, it is one of the most resilient things that we've seen in golf coming back from this injury and being able to consistently overperform when the chips are down. It's a really exciting development to have him back in the fold.

Super knocking on wood that his body can continue to be up to the test as he builds strength again and acclimates to the surgery. but like where he is now to get to, you know, top 15 at the masters after that the surgery, great signs of what could be ahead for him. So this is knock on wood for continued improvement in, in all aspects of his health and his golf game, because he's a great, he's somebody that we love to see out there. All right, let's talk about the broadcast on.

CBS and I'll just give you my overarching reaction comment. I really felt like we were, we moved backwards. We moved back in time. It felt like old guy TV to me, Nate. It felt like they imagined the audience for the broadcasts to be folks that are yet, you know, I'm old, but still, you know, a demo that's about 20 to 25 years older than me. And what I'm talking about, is the patter and the chatter, just mostly nonsense. The disinclination to share like mature adult information with us in terms of, you know, the quality of how guys are performing over the course of the rounds. Like, it's okay to talk about strokes gained in the middle of a round.

And just like sort of in general, I don't know. to be fair to the CBS folks, how much of it is driven by a tradition that they have and the relationship with the green jackets, but it was a throwback not in a positive way for me. I hate to agree with you, but I think they really, I think Vern Lundquist's 40th and last year

was an emotional thing for everybody at CBS. And I think Vern deserved all the alcalades. I loved seeing Tiger walk over and shake his hand and all the memes because Vern was behind a tree, all that stuff is great. And Vern deserves all of the credit in the world, and he's been a gift to golf. But I think some people were maybe a little bit off their game today because of it.

And not showing Max and Ludwig's approach on two was a travesty. We didn't see it. You know, telling us, as you said, like very subtly, that Bryson was a clogged toilet out there, stopping up so many guys that Max had to wait, as did Ludwig on 11 forever because Bryson was taking too long and they didn't call it out in the way that they ought to have. They just, they sort of didn't go right at it in the way that they normally do. And I think it's because they were setting up for that moment on 16, which was going to be Vern's last one

and they wanted to treat it with respect, that they just didn't get into the meat of what was happening out on the course and they missed some shots that mattered and they missed some calls that mattered. I loved the last, you know, three holes. They executed super well on that because it's a great team. But I think leading up to it, they just got wrapped around the Vern Axel. And, you know, far be it for me to judge on that because it sounds like he's been a wonderful colleague and he certainly has been incredible for golf. We'll see where the ratings land.

They were definitely up across, you know, sort of all channels. And this day and age, you have to sort of really suss out, well, what are they measuring exactly? can we compare this year over year? Can we say this is, you know, how is this compared it up five years ago? It's kind of hard because the way these broadcasts are measured now, they give themselves credit for streaming and for all the alt channels that are out there. And that's all well and good.

And that stuff, you know, continues to be a very special part of the Masters in particular because I watched a ton, as did you, of featured groups and the holes, you know, the featured holes. And it was a great way to begin, each day because we had Masters Golf on as the day started. We'll see where the ratings land ultimately, but

we, maybe we'll get a different kind of broadcast for the PGA championship. I kind of hope so, Nate Dogg. Me too, my friend. Okay, let's take a quick look. We're going to say Bomb Voyage for now to everybody, but I want to take a look at the odds board

for the PGA championship and get your reaction to some of these numbers. This is on the Fandau sports book right now. You are not going to be surprised to hear that Scotty Sheffler is the prohibitive favorite at plus 450, which is basically the same number

that we landed on with him at the Masters. After Scotty, it's Rory at 10 to 1. It's John Rom at 15 to 1. Ludwig is available in 17 to 1. No thanks for who. Like that better. No thanks for Rory and Rom. Yeah, no thanks.

Ludwig 17 to 1 auto bet. I mean, seriously, what are we doing? Brooks at 21 to 1 is interesting. It feels like you're not getting enough in return for trying to invest in a version of Brooks. Zander at 21 to 1, which kind of feels right. Can't lay at 24 to 1, Kalamorkawa, 28 to 1, Camp Smith, 28 to 1. Homey Homey, 28 to 1, Zalotaurus, 28 to 1.

And then you have Tommy Fleetwood, Cam Young, Wyndham Clark, all of whom are at the same price as Victor Hovlin and at the same price as Bryson D. Shambot. So, you know, all 31 to 1, that class of golfer, I feel like you could get a W out of those guys. Hilariously, Justin Thomas and Jordan Speed 36 to 1 the same price as Joaquin Neiman. So I just walking through that, what sort of catches your attention? Yeah, I mean, I think it's Ludwig at 17 because I think he's a more attractive play right now than Rory or Rahm, for sure. And Colin, as you said, I mean, I think we're going to see a few of these guys who flamed out come back in a month. Not a lot of them are going to play New Orleans. I know Rory is playing with Shane.

But I think we're going to see some of these guys come back and perform better. I don't think Kadecki's going to embarrass us the way that he did. I don't think both Thomas and Speeth are going to be, you know, lay down, especially not Thomas at a PGA where he's, you know, had success here. So it's going to be interesting. But to me, boy, you bet against Ludwig Oberg at your own risk right now. You and I share that sentiment. I'm also getting down on Victor because I don't know how many more times. I'll just repeat myself, Victor Hovlin, at 31 to 1.

He does not belong in the same class as Jordan Speeter, Justin Thomas. That is kind of a preposterous thing. Unless it's the case that he comes out and says, my swing is F, that I'm going to be terrible. Then I'll have to reconsider. But look, thanks to everybody for watching and listening. I hope we were profitable. A couple of those make the cut, miss the cut came through.

Both Phil and Tiger made the cut. Hopefully that was happy making for you in your bank role by Birdie Buddies. and both Justin Thomas and Victor Hoffman missed the cut. That was 13 to 1. If you were paying attention, my eagle enthusiasts, we're back this upcoming week to preview another signature event on the PGA tour. They are in Harbortown as folks catch their collective breath postmasters. And we'll have some thoughts about, you know, what to look for at Harbortown,

but also some continued thinking around the Masters. Until then, my birdie buddies, I hope you're able to get a peg in the ground. And if so, please hit them straight out there. You must be 21 years old or older and present in select states. Fanduil is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. If you have a gambling problem, you can call 1,800 gambler, or visit Fandul.com. slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, North Carolina, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia.

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