Fairway Rollin' - Olympics Story Lines and the Growing Excitement for the Summer Games

Episode Date: July 28, 2021

House and Hubbard rejoin to talk about the exciting story lines and action coming into this year's Olympic golf tournament (01:22). They critique the format of the tournament in Tokyo yet still find ways to get excited about the odds of each major competitor (24:08). Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Producer: Steve Ahlman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Flying Coach is back for a second season. Peter Schrager and Rams head coach Sean McVeigh are joined by guests from around the sports and entertainment world. They're discussing the latest NFL news, telling stories from their careers, and breaking down games from their unique perspectives. Check out Flying Coach Season 2 on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, friends, and welcome to this golf podcast. Unlike any other, this is an Olympic version of Fairway Roll! The Golf Podcast on the Ring of Podcast Network. I am your starter.

Joe House on the line, as is our custom and our way. Our PGA tour correspond on the ground. Nathan Hubbard, we are back. After a week off, we have, I think, hopefully recovered from all the early mornings with the open championship in the rear view mirror. First, he's wide open is a two ball. It's me and Nate Dog. out there for a leisurely summer loop.

Let's throw a peg in and get this going. Nate, Doc, how you doing, buddy? Golf is coming to the Olympics. Do we care? Well, it's been in the Olympics. It was in the Olympics in 2016, and here we are five years later. And it's the exact same 72-hole stroke play format

that we complained about five years ago in 2016. We'll have an opportunity, of course, to talk about that and complain about the lack of imagination. So let's start on a positive note. And that positive note is the 3M championship, which was a very nice event to have here in the United States of America after the Open Championship, after Colin Moracawa, served notice that he is, and I'm just going to flat out say it, the air, apparent to Eldrick Tiger Woods because that's the company that he's in when he walks out and wins the open championship the first time he plays it and he wins the PGA championship. The first time he plays it, that's the kind of company that we're talking about.

And you can argue with me or not. But the 3M in Minnesota, very nice vibe, very easygoing. lots of guys on trend, especially guys competing in this Olympic event, and it was nice to see Louis O'S Hayeson's creep in for another second place finish. That was the most impressive part of the week because most of the guys who came back from the open

did not perform very well this week, as you might have expected. As you might have expected. Well, I will say one performance that I was happy to see, and kudos to the good folks at the Action Network, our homie, Jason Sobel, those folks have on the site a whole page called Golf Bet, and they do great job with the analytics, and they have a whole team that breaks down all the tournaments and the interesting angles and so forth.

And one of their guys last week put in the front of my mind the idea of Cameron Champ. And the 3M felt like the kind of tournament where a guy could come from kind of nowhere and win it because just the year before Michael Thompson came from nowhere and won it. And there was also some evidence that it was a venue that a bomber could have some success at. So I bet six guys and one of those guys was indeed Cam Champ. And Cam Chap was available at 85 to one, Nate Dogg, 85 to one in my book. Now, if you'd bet him even earlier in the week than I did, he was available in triple digits. but I did get on Cam Champ and that was a wonderful ticket.

That really worked out great. Yeah. Was it purely golf bet that pushed you there? Because coming in, he was 206th on tour in strokes gained putting. That is awful. He's 199th in strokes gained around the green. That is also awful. And he's 162nd in strokes gained approach.

So there was nothing outside of a T-11. finish at the John Deere to think that Cam Champ could possibly win. But this is why betting on golf is impossible. There's so many good guys and people can be complete shit one week. And the next week you go, oh my God, guess what? Now there are four guys who are 27 or younger who've won in each of the last three seasons. And it's Colin Morikawa, John Romer, Bryson DeChambo, and Cam Champ. And Cam Champ. And Cam Champ. Yeah. So that's really the thing that clinched it that made it to me feel like it was worth betting the half unit that I, that I wagered.

Now, I bet on six different guys. I bet on Bubba. I bet on Johnny Vegas. Johnny Vegas has been on a heater. I think I put a tiny taste on Oosty Hoosty. But all of these were just to win bets. I didn't bet top five. I didn't bet top tens.

I just wanted to have a little action, a reason to look at the leaderboard over the weekend. and there was somebody else I had in that that mix that I liked. I can't remember. I did not bet Mark Hubbard because we established here on this show that I do not do that under any circumstances. A nice top 16 finish for Mark Hubbard this week. Yeah, probably

a little bittersweet. I feel like we left a lot out there. Played with Cam on Saturday. So saw that happen. But the game's trend in the right direction. Best finishes of the year. Three of them have come in the last month. Yeah. And what we're going to be featuring here

on Fairway Rowland over the next handful of shows, is this hard charge to the playoffs because there's two dynamics going on. One is guys pushing to get to 125 or under position number 125 in the FedEx Cup rankings. If you're 125 or under after the final event of the season, the Wyndham in North Carolina, you get to. to go play in the playoffs. The guys between 125 and 150 have conditional status on the tour next year for the 2021, 2020 schedule a season. And that means that they can play in most of the events.

They do not have to go down to the corn ferry. Did I get that right? No, you get, you go down and defend, but you have conditional status. So you get a handful of starts. You still want to go down to that, uh, to, to, to the corn fairy. to try to get full status by finishing in the top 25 through the last three corn fairy playoff events. That's what's going to happen there.

But as long as you are 126 to 150, you know you're going to get some starts. But it's a slog coming out of that category, especially now with all these guys who are so good, guys like Mito, we're going to talk about Mito Pereira, who got the battlefield promotion and is now a legit guy we got to talk about for the Olympics. So it's a slog, but these guys are all towing the line. And what was cool about 3M for me was all of the guys who advanced their position. If you look at the guys who finish in the top 20, Bo Hogue, he was 125. He moved himself up.

Gary Woodland was just outside the 125 at 127. He moved up. Bryce Garnett moved up. Ryan Armour moved up. Cam Champ moved up. You know who moved one back? Tell me. One ex-Olympian, Ricky Fowler, is now the guy sitting in the very last spot to get into the Northern Trust, which is the first playoff event. So the next couple of weeks outside of the event in Memphis, the FedEx event in Memphis, the Olympics, the guys around this cut line are grinding very, very hard. There's a ton at stake for those guys. the interesting thing with a name like Ricky, we saw, we've been seeing these brief glimpses,

you know, potential Ricky resurgence, return to form, and then it kind of goes away again. But he's getting close. He's in a, I think I, he might have been one of the six guys I bet for the three in the three. Well, I wouldn't blame you. He's swinging the club a lot better. If he'd played the Scottish Open, he would have won it, as I predicted. that's right. You did predict that he would win

and then he did not play in that event. But that was a function of the fact that he sort of, yeah, listen, he shot 64 on Thursday at 3M and had a tough Friday and didn't really get it going, but he's showing those glimpses of when he's feeling it, the swing is coming back. It's not going to be too long before we see him, but there's a whole lot of other guys talk about.

At the end of the day, though, you got to look at Cam Champ and go, this guy's got three wins. He's a young kid. I mean, I don't know if I fully buy into, in two weeks, he completely changed his mindset versus the putter got unbelievably hot. And when you hit it 391 yards as he did off the T once this week, it's super helpful. But we have to always remember that Cam Champ is there and can win a big tournament. He's a great golfer and he's going to be around for a long time.

He does seem to have an affinity for these events that are like that fall. on kind of a weird spot on the calendar also. Yeah. And the only reason. Won the Safeway in Napa. Exactly. Exactly right. But he's like, he's such a crazy high ceiling guy. It's worth it like just in the back of the mind. Just keep Cam Champ in your mind.

It's just impossible though now because now we have to worry about the guy who's 142nd in FedEx Cup beating Louis Eustazen who like only the major winners this year of beating Louis Eustace. And Cam Chambon. And Cam Champ. I do recall one of the guys I bet, and I'll do a quick, you know, shout out to Hank Lebiota, who withdrew after making the cut comfortably. I bet him to win this golf tournament.

He'd been on a heater. He withdrew because his father was ill, and his father was actually in intensive care. He was, his family let him play Thursday, Friday. called him when it looked like circumstances were pretty dire. And he flew and his dad made it through. So congrats to the Lebiota family. And, you know, thank God. The guy who also got some bad news of a very different kind and chose not to pull out and

finish the 3M is none other than self-proclaimed Captain America, Patrick Reed. He's going to the Olympics, baby. No, what was the bad news? I think it's all good news. If you checked use golf facts, you would know it was only good news. It's only good news. I mean, the good news was that DJ and Brooke said no. Well, DJ said no months ago.

Like, there was no chance. It is interesting that Brooks said no. And I want to do a very quick aside with you. I don't think in John Rom's case that the, whatever the COVID issue was. Yeah, yeah. Fits this category with Bryson.

I ask you this somewhat half-heartedly. The question is, COVID or fuck it? Do you think that he, because there has been an undercurrent of ambivalence that we've seen across the board with some higher tier players.

Now, I think Bryce, Jason did want to play in this because he is in a mode where the rehabilitation of his reputation, especially after talking smack about his equipment manufacturer, an opportunity to be on the world stage, to be representing the country, to cover himself in the flag, a little bit of a nice opportunity to redirect the narrative around here, him. But I don't, so I don't think that he bailed because he didn't want to travel to Tokyo and there's not going to be any fans and it's going to be, you know, it's just a slog and there's no money involved, really. But what's your instinct?

Yeah, I think it would have been good for Bryson to get over there and do exactly what you just said. I think he wanted to do it. And I think it's just a son, man, get vaccinated. And don't come at me with the John Rom stuff because there can be some false positive. tests, which I think has to be at play in the John Ron situation? John Rom situation? I saw one story as it relates to Rom that suggested that it's apparent, and he talked about it, that he had received the first vaccination shot, but not the second. And somewhere I saw a story that suggested that if you've received the first, but not

the second. And in that intervening period, you've contracted COVID, you have to. to wait some period of time before you can go get the second shot. And we might have been still in that period. Yeah, I saw that too. Maybe that was Herrig's story. Okay, fine. It still smells like maybe there's some false positive tests. And it doesn't matter because guess what? That means it's even scarier because you can't, there's no false positive test about whether you're in the hospital or dying. So it just means that the thing was more deadly and dangerous than we thought if that's true. Either way, the point is just like, why fuck around?

Get the shot. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean. And that's not a criticism on Rom because he clearly, again, he handled it very, very well. And he had his own circumstances going on. Absolutely. And so no judgment on that other than I think he has handled all of these circumstances extraordinarily well.

And he's really becoming a statesman in a lot of ways. And it's a shame that he couldn't take his statesmanship to the Olympics and represent his country in that way. Because I think he really earned it and deserved it. would have made this tournament a heck of a lot of fun. Not that it's not going to be fun, but would have made it a lot more fun to have him and Bryson there. So I'm disappointed they're out. But it does, it does, you know,

Bryson still continues to pull out pistols and shoot himself in the foot on now almost a weekly basis. I do think that the number one thing a Hollywood PR person would tell somebody like Bryson is go away. The news cycles are short. people forget things, but if you stay in the cycle constantly, it becomes the brand. Just go away. And so maybe in a sort of bizarre way, this is great for Bryson to get some time off. We won't see him again until FedEx, I guess, if he's back. Yeah, the FedEx in Memphis. Yeah, because he, oh, do we think

timing-wise, he will receive clearance to go to Memphis? Because that's only like 10 days out. Yeah, but that's, I mean, that's what's happened with other players as long as they are, I mean, think about wrong in the U.S. Open. Good point. Right. As long as he's asymptomatic and passes a couple of tests. But I think it's good that he's been quiet. You have not seen anything from him on social media. You hope that means he's just staying quiet as opposed to that he's not healthy.

But I think we'll see him in Memphis, but we'll see him in the Fed of Cup playoffs. And those events will be interesting. And it'll be a moment for him to hopefully stop stepping on his, you know what. Stop stepping on as you know what. So speaking of stepping on, you know what. So let's talk about some storylines related to these Olympics. I'm going to ask you a question after I sort of run through the noteworthy storylines are Hideki playing in Japan on a golf course that he's won on before.

I think I don't know this to be a fact, but I think he's the only player in this Olympic tournament to have competed in a live action tournament on this golf course. I think that's the case. Yes. We have all of the intrigue around the South Korean players, Sun J.M. And Siwu Kim, both of whom skipped the Open championship, the British Open, so they could prepare for this moment so that, and apparently all, they don't need to win the gold medal. They just have to win an Olympic medal.

So gold, silver bronze for either one of them gets them out of the military duty requirement. And I don't understand. I think the South Korean government's passing laws to get BTS the K-pop band out of their required service. Right. Because they have to change the law. That's actually not even a joke, right? No. I'm serious. They're trying to do that so that BTS can stay together. But I don't know why they don't do it for these guys. I don't have an answer as to why they won't do it, haven't done it.

It does seem like as ambassadors of the South Korean brand. Both those guys are fun golfers that we enjoy seeing on a weekly basis. They're on television every week. Speaking of a high ceiling guy, Si Wu, either is incandescently hot or missing cut with, you know, by 10, by a dozen strokes. Right. And Sungjay eats at Waffle House and plays every single event. He's so fun. And doesn't have a house in the United States.

Maybe he's fixed that by now. So those are the major storylines. Last time there was an Olympics, the United States, even though they had four entrants, only Matt Kucher meddled. Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson were the

other medalists. And really, it was an interesting tournament in 2016 because it was the first time golf was back on the Olympic menu after, you know, decades and decades and decades. and there was some intrigue around the golf course because Gilhans and our old buddy Jeff

Shackleford played a role as well designed a golf course from scratch essentially for this event. And so it was a golf course that nobody had played before and it was kind of cool to see down there in Brazil. And, you know, so one of the storylines this time around is, you know, do we expect an improved performance out of the U.S. competitors, we just, I did at least, talked about Colin Morcawa and used his name in the same breath

as His Holiness, Eldrick Tiger Woods. And, you know, we've been looking for signs of life out of Justin Thomas, and this feels like the kind of thing where Justin Thomas can remind folks of his stature in the world. Zander Shafley,

we keep talking about as a big game hunter. This would be a big game medal to take down. and then Captain America, who's going to leave Captain America off their dance card? So lots of good intrigue around the young American players. And I do like that they're the young American players. I like the sort of age range here. But your question is.

Yeah. So on a scale of one to 10. And this is a limited field. So the part of the thing that we're going to get to that's going to be interesting is the fact that there's only 60 players. No cut. there's no cut. But like really only 15 to 20 can win if it's even that many. Oh, God.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how excited are you for Olympic golf? Da, da, da, da, that two. It's a two. I mean, Nate Dogg gives it a two. I look at this and I say, I appreciate that everybody's over there. It's actually more fun that Patrick Reed is there because it's going to, you know, sort of increase. If he flames out, it's going to give us a reason to maybe leave him off the Ryder Cup team. If he plays well, you've got to put him on the Ryder Cup team.

All pressure on Hideki. I mean, we just saw what Simone Biles, you know, is going through with sort of the expectations of a country, you know, so he's got, he's got that maybe mitigated by the Masters win, but boy, other than that, man, I don't know what we're doing here. We're not really going to be able to watch it, at least certainly not on the West Coast. 7 a.m. your time. Oh, no, they're showing it at 6 o'clock at night on the golf channel. Oh, they are. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I mean. That gives you an indication of how I feel about this. It just doesn't feel like a big time event that the entire PGA and European tour schedule rearranges themselves to accommodate and that you flame out some guys. Look, it's nice experience

for them to go. We know that Ricky loves it. He tattooed the Olympic Rubeau. rings on his arm so he really cares. We talked about him on this very podcast. We talked to him about his experience in the Olympics and he loved it. So I think it's great for these guys to go, but as sort of a viewer or something of intrigue, you said it, Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson, Matt Coocher. Do we think any differently at all about those three golfers because of their Olympic performance five years ago? I mean, I guess for Justin Rose especially, as you make the Hall of Fame case for him, since he only has one major,

you put the gold medal alongside that, and that bolsters his case. I mean, he's a FedEx Cup champion also. But it wouldn't have been, it's a less impressive win than, you know, a no-cut WGC win. This really, to me, feels like a WGC light event,

because the qualifying requirements, you know, they, the governing body is the international, Golf Federation, which I'd never heard of before this moment, but I'm sure they have all the best intentions of growing the game. The qualifications permit, you know, players off of the official world golf ranking from a whole bunch of countries to come in and play through a variety of means. There are players from India and the Philippines and places where, you know, the Czech

Republic, guys that play on second tier tours that are going to get this opportunity to go compete for a medal doesn't really feel like the competition's going to go much beyond, like I say, the top 15 guys, right? It's not, I mean, ROM's not here, DJ's not here, Cantley, it's not here, like, Terrell Hatton's not here, Speeth is not, like. Yeah, Bryson's not here. It's just not that fun. We got to be honest.

And we'll build it up because for crying out loud, it looks like the U.S. women's national team, the soccer team is sucking. And Simone Biles is gone. And God damn it, the basketball team looks like shit. So we need a hero, baby.

So, I mean, let's go. Colin Moracowah, line it up. Oh, I thought you were going to say, Pet Captain America. Who cares? Let's go some American. Well, let's go ahead and do the thing, which is criticize the format,

because we are, we are required by law as golf commentators to criticize the format. It is a completely dull idea. Now, I mean, I think part of the rationale for a 72-hole stroke play is to motivate the top players in the world to come and participate in a format that they're accustomed to and not have, you know, the additional. impact on schedules and so forth for what really amounts to nothing more than an exhibition of beyond a stroke play event, also a match play event or a team kind of format. Why not a team event? Yeah.

But that's right, obviously. So that's because there are a million of different sort of examples out there in amateur golf, in collegiate golf, where there is a combination of stroke play and team play. and, you know, it's accomplishable. There is a model for it. You could do 54-hole stroke play and then a team thing and give out individual medals to folks for the individual component and also have team medals for the team component.

And I, in my heart of hearts, would really enjoy seeing men and women. Do the shot together. Oh, well, that too. a golfer shot put? Yeah, just let's put them into sports that they really probably suck at. Let's have them all pole vault. Well, JT tweeted about going into the gym and not having a lot of competition for the 20 pound dumbbells.

So I'm not, the shot put is kind of heavy. Have you ever thrown a shot put? No, but put Patrick Reed on the rings. Now, Bryson on the shot put would have been something. Right. Something, right? That would have been worth the price. you know, maybe we would have gotten some glimpses as he was on his

reputation rehabilitation tour going, this was the thing from 2016, all joking aside, Bubba and Ricky were kind of stars among the competitors, because they're on television every freaking week. They are, you know, for the purposes of an event like this,

it's the golfers and the basketball dudes and women that are on television. with some frequency. And the same is true of the women of the LPGA players. They are their names. We've seen them compete. Yeah. They have any intro story profile pieces on NBC about any of these golfers because we already know them.

Only the golfers that we don't know, perhaps. You mentioned Mito Pereira and, you know, his, what he had to go through to qualify for this. And also, you know, his own qualification going from the Corn Ferry Tour up to the big tour, you know, kind of a cool story. But it's those kinds of stories that maybe we'll see in the quieter moments, although all of this, this whole tournament is going to be quiet moments. But House, guess what we do every time there is an ostensibly boring golf tournament

with a small field, with some guys that you know, but a lot of guys that you don't know. How do we make it exciting, House? We gamble our asses off, Nathan Hubbard. That's what we do. We gamble our asses off, brother. So here's the challenge with this event. It's at the Kasu Megaseki Country Club. Kasumigasaki.

Apparently it's hot in Japan. Apparently, it's wet. Yep. So soft golf course. It is long. It's like 7,400. And by like appearance, some folks are saying it looks to the eye. Like Augusta, now we're not comparing.

We're not comparing this golf course to Augusta. No, we're not. And it's a Fasio redesign. So if you're looking for... Bed grass greens. Yeah. So let's talk about the metrics that we think that matter for, you know, trying to come up with some value in terms of potential plays on these Olympic competitors.

And once again, you know, shout out to the golf bet dudes. I like the compilation. So we have strokes games. putting on bent grass. That makes sense as a category. One thing that I saw in here that I liked was strokes gain total Tom Fosio designs

because there has been a comparison that we've seen between this venue and quail hollow and Firestone. So if that's something that floats your boat, maybe that's a way to separate look for some value.

That's the Rory Truther case right there. Well, that's Rory's number one in that. Now, but guess who's number two right there? Patrick Reed. Justin Thomas. Quill Hollow PGA Tour, PGA champion. Are we going to get

sucked into Justin Thomas? Probably. 14 to 1, not great odds. A name that I'm going to play for sure this week, no matter what, just because I think he's a big sexy man is Johnny Vegas. Johnny Vegas top, I'm going to bet him to top five. I'm going to bet him to top 10.

He's playing well. Finish third. He's been on a great run. Yep. And he's in this. He hasn't, he's performed well on the strokes gain total Tom Fasio design. He's performed well on strokes gain. He's number one strokes gained off the T on off the measuring stick last 24 rounds.

This feels like a birdie fest. It feels like what they're telling us is the course is soft. The greens are big. And guys who can put it close to the flag are going to. to be able to drop it right there and the ball's going to stay there. That's what it feels like. So I start to think,

who's going to strike the ball well? And man, that's where you start to think Hideki could actually do this. Yeah, sure. And stroke gained approach over the past 24 rounds, Hideki's fourth on this list. I mean, there's no surprise

who's number one on this list and that's Colin Morikawa. But the odds are so terrible for... For those guys. It's just, you can't do it, I don't think. Yeah, yeah. I mean, look, we said if we ever saw you know, Thomas getting back

into the pre-player's odds that we saw 21. I just feel like his odds are so inflated this week because everybody got burned that time. I just don't think you can bet him at. 14's not a good number. No. Zanders

at 10 Collins is at plus 757 and a half the one. You just can't play him. I'm interested in, so Johnny Vegas is is 80 to 1 to win the gold. I'm not going to bet them.

I mean, that might be worth, you know, 10 bucks or something. But I like Paul Casey has quietly pulled together a nice string of performances in the four majors this year, tied for 15 at the Open Championship. We've seen them on a leaderboard a little bit.

16 to 1 to win. No, but maybe like a top 10 bet. And it wouldn't like Paul Casey winning the bronze at this event, Sure, right? It just, it feels right. That's the cooch. That's the cooch of British Olympic medal winners, I think.

Victor Hovlin, do anything for you at 14 to 1? Maybe. Maybe. I mean, look, I get excited about Mito Pereira at 80 to 1. I mean, the dude, he's won three times on the Corn Ferry Tour. He was T5 at Barbisol. He's T6 last week at 3M. I got him in Fandil at 80 to 1 right now.

You got to think about it. I like that. I'll do a tiny bit on that. I'm not afraid of that. I'm looking at, I like Joaquin Neiman a little bit. Yeah, his Chilean teammate. A quiet heater.

Abe Anser has been pretty good as well. I think those last seven starts, he has four top eight finishes, something like that, Ava Ancer, I'm pretty sure that's the right stat for him. If you're going to go long shot, you've got to look at Rafa Campos.

Okay. I don't like him, but go ahead. Why don't you like him? Maybe this is the right kind of event. Like Sunday Rafa is not my favorite Rafa. I like him on a Thursday. So, I mean, but at 420 to 1, the dude's T2 at Punta Kana, T3 in Puerto Rico, T20 and Barbisol. There's at least some. Those were three opposite field events you just rattled off.

This is an opposite field event. Except for the top six guys that he has to jump over are, you know, in the top 10 in the official world golf rankings. I just think if you're, I'm like he's, he is almost dead last in terms of favorites. So I don't think he's going to win the damn, but he's the kind of guy who could sneak in and grab like a like a bronze medal or a top five just at those odds. If you're just looking for value, he's rated behind Scott Vincent and Polish guy. and other guys who were,

and he's behind Jay's Jazz. He's behind jazz. Yeah. Okay. All right. I like what you're saying. That's okay. I'll buy it.

I'm just putting it out there. Do we touch anything having to do with the two South Koreans? It's hard because their odds are definitely inflated because of the pressure that's on them. What are you seeing on Fandu right now? I'm seeing Sung Jay at 22 to 1 and Siwu at 42 to 1. So Siwu at 42 has. my attention. I'm just worried about the back injury.

Maybe that was a fake back injury that he was just like. Oh, it's a great point. He just, that was an eject. He wanted out. Yeah, I think he just wanted it. He knew he wasn't going to make the cut and he just wanted to get ready.

Okay. All right. I don't, I'm not going to do anything, uh, biting down hard on any of these guys. You like Johnny Vegas, though.

I'm going to do, I'm going to do a little something on Vegas. I just like catching guys when they're on a heater. Vegas is there. Pereira is a good story. Yeah. The law, super long.

on Ratha. You just talked to me into a top 10 play for him. I'm definitely playing Captain America. I can't not have this come up.

I think he can definitely win this thing. Is he still at 18, 18 to 1 on Fandle? On Fandul, they've got him at 14 to 1 right now. Son of a bit. So you know what?

A lot of people have the same instinct as us. Everybody's like, oh God, you could totally see him winning. You could totally see him winning. Now, the only thing that would be

a limiting factor is I don't think he gets to get on the goal. golf course on the grounds until like the first tea. I'm not sure if he's going to get a full practice run in. Right. Because he had to fly over after the 3M. But what about Cam Smith shaving his head?

That's another re guy to bet. He put a shaved AUS into the side of his head in honor of his native land, Australia. So we bet we bet the mullet. We bet Captain America. We bet a couple long shots. We bet Johnny Vegas on a heater. Okay, I like this. I think now I'm feeling good.

My interest is peaked. I've just laid out probably a couple hundred dollars worth of bets here that I'm going to have to play. Now I'm excited, Nate, dog. Are you still at a two? No, I'm not. Let's do better. I'm an eight now because now I'm realizing. Yeah, let's go.

Let's go. I'm fired up. I know. Why not? Let's go. Let's do this. Let's do this. Fuck yeah.

All right, my Bernie buddies. It is the Olympics. It's golf. We're going to watch this and root hard for all of our bets. We'll see how they turn out. I have no problem at all betting on players from other countries, just to make it abundantly clear. I'm also betting against the U.S. basketball team every chance I get. But look, this event with the men followed next week by the women, tons of intrigue.

Across the Olympic. Let's go Nelly. Women venue as well. Yeah, right. Number one, did she lose her number one position in the world? No. Okay,

because she didn't perform great at the EVEon. No, she didn't. It's a good question, actually. I don't know coming out of the Avion. I know that she's first on the odds board. That's all I know.

Yeah. Well, part saving pals, Bertie buddies. Best of luck. Hopefully there's a little bit of food for thought here for this Olympic event where we went from a two to an eight, which,

hopefully all of you are feeling the exact same way. We'll be back in a couple weeks. We have some great storylines going on in terms of the hard charge to the playoffs, the looming relegation situation, the playoffs are right around the corner. And look, while we've sorted this all out, do this for us. Please hit him straight out there.