Fairway Rollin' - PGA Championship Storylines With Kevin Van Valkenburg and Jeff Neubarth

Episode Date: May 17, 2022

House and Hubbard start by briefly talking about takeaways from the Byron Nelson (2:08). Then, ESPN’s Kevin Van Valkenburg joins the show to discuss some of the major storylines heading into the PGA Championship in Tulsa, including how Tiger Woods looks, Phil Mickelson withdrawing, and much more (9:54). After that, Callaway Golf executive producer Jeff Neubarth joins the show to discuss what the course conditions are like, changes to the course, and some of the different elements people can expect on the TV broadcast (47:22). Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Guests: Kevin Van Valkenburg and Jeff Neubarth Associate Producer: Isaiah Blakely Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Bill Simmons. We're not just reacting to the NBA playoffs on my podcast. We're also doing it on the Ringer NBA show and the Mismatch podcast. They are coming after some of these NBA playoff games. Check it out, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights on the Ringer podcast Network. Friends and welcome to this major golf podcast, unlike any other. Oh, yes, we have done it. My birdie buddies, this is Fairway.

a golf podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network. I am your starter. Joe House, my eagle enthusiast, my par-saving pals. This is a major week. The PGA championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma. So we're going to do it major style. Two guests on today's kickoff the week preview podcast, both gentlemen calling us.

checking in from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I am, of course, accompanied, as is always the case here on Fairway, rolling. By our PGA Tour correspondent on the ground, Nathan Hubbard, going to start off as a two ball, then we might stroll into a three ball, then we might have another three ball. You guys know how it works. Throw a peg in the ground. The first fairway at Southern Hills is somewhat wide open.

Let's get it going. Nate, dog, fresh from your trip. to McKinney, Texas. How you feeling, buddy? Craig Ranch Fairways are wide open house. Literally. Could we hit them? Yes.

Would we be Fairway rolling out there? Yes. And if we didn't, it wouldn't be a big deal because there's no rough to speak of either. That matters. That's my kind of golf course, honestly. Yeah, I don't know what we learned this week. I mean, I walked the damn thing for three days. Yes.

It's really hard coming off of that court. It just doesn't have the day. defenses that anybody would and so it did sort of turn into a putting contest. I think it's a little misleading to look at the leaderboard and see all the best guys in the world up there because they should be. It's really less

for me that we learned who has a great chance to win than we learned that there's some guys whose games are not in form. Oh, okay. DJ shooting a plus one yesterday makes zero sense to me. Will Zalotaurus missing

the cut and just continuing to struggle with the short putts is a red flag for me. I don't know that Xander shooting a 61 on Sunday is that much more telling than, then, you know, Jordan secretly putting like crap yesterday, losing 1.5 strokes on the green. I just don't know that we learn that much. I expect these good players to perform well. It was a, it was what top 10 strength.

the field event of the year. So we have coming on today's show, Jeff Newbarth, who is with Calloway Media Productions, but he has been working on many of the major golf tournament productions. He's working with ESPN this week, and he will have walked the grounds by the time he's joining us. And we're also going to talk storylines today with our beloved pal, Kevin Van Balkenberg.

KV. KV. Senior writer from ESPN also walking the grounds today. So we're going to get some feedback on conditions on the ground. But Nate, to your point about, you know,

not a lot to extrapolate going from a venue like Craig Ranch with a kind of very small, possibly the smallest sea, challenge you can imagine, because it's just not a challenge at all. It's just who's going to make the most birdies. To a venue that I believe is going to play in the nature of a U.S. Open venue, I still want to

think positive thoughts about Dustin Johnson, about Will Zalotaurus, and about Jordan Speath as well, and maybe even a tiny bit, I can't quit him. Zander Shafley, we'll talk to the guys and see if there's any kind of feedback from them. But since you laid eyes on the dudes and you shared with us your sentiment that maybe a tiny fade of DJ, what are you going to do with Alatoris? Do you just think if you want to be generous about it and it's a question, you say those guys are just getting ready for this week? I think that's probably overly generous.

Overly generous. Yeah, the guys who are getting ready for this week. or Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas and Hadecki. You can say Hadecki's back from the injury, for sure. If we were worried about that, the 62 yesterday showed us that he's in good shape. Great. I'm thrilled to hear it. I'm a little nervous about Jordan.

I was hoping we were going to see his odds more in the 20 to one range, in which case you'd jump on it because he's striking the ball well. And after the round, he spoke about, you know, the draw that he hit on 17 into that par three, which has been a shot he's been afraid to hit and just didn't have in the bag. He put it into play, said, I'm going to go for it under pressure, hit the best shot that he'd hit all day, felt great about it. But then ganked the nine-footer. On 10, the bogey, I mean, he had a six-foot-eight putt for Bertie on 10. Missed that, missed the two-foot-eight comebacker or something.

In the heat of the moment, it's a little unsettling, right? It's a little unsettling that there's the Jordan stuff still there. On the JT front, you know what I walked away from this week going, this is a guy who's, I think he may have the most pressure of anybody coming into this week. I know that's like a huge statement. But he has defined this coming week as, all he cares about this season are majors.

Last season was a failure because he didn't compete. And there are just some guys who feel like they are one or two or three strokes ahead of him, even as consistently well as he's played. I don't totally understand why yesterday he isn't the guy who's, seized it by the balls after shooting a 64 on Saturday and went and won that tournament. I have to confess to you, I don't think I care. Yeah. Like I just not prepared to draw causal links between the two.

And I had a chance earlier today to go on with the Golf Digest guys on their Be Right podcast. And we're trying to kind of solve for what. the nature of the challenge at Southern Hills is going to be, because it hasn't hosted, you know, an event like this since the restoration, right? It, it's, it did host the PGA championship in 2007 and Tiger won it, you know, all along the way. Um, but this is a different golf course now. So I was kind of, I'm thinking, is it going to be like a US Open kind of vibe? But that's not the way that the PGA of America wants it, um, competed. And, and, I was kind of, I'm thinking, is it going to be like a US Open kind of vibe? but that's not the way that the PGA of America once it competed.

And one of the guys, Stephen Hennessey, and we're going to share this with KBV in a second, made the observation that the architect at Southern Hills, Perry Maxwell, is truly the person that deserves the most credit for the design and execution of the Greens at Augusta National. Interesting. So notwithstanding, the very important footprint

that Alistair McKenzie created there. The actual construction of the Greens, building of the Greens occurred much later after the course design was in place. And before the Masters was first competed, it was Perry Maxwell's Greens. And so we're drawing this connection.

And if you're looking for reasons to feel positive about Jordan Speath, that would be it. That would be one of those reasons. And if you're thinking that this golf course is going to be a venue where some of the Speeat magic hands are going to be important because you're going to have to be saving par from all over the place, that would be another reason to think positive thoughts. And if you were thinking positive thoughts about Will Zalotaurus coming into this,

a young man who's performed very well at Augusta National, if you believe in that linkage, if that is a translation that you want to accept as part of your anticipation of how the championship might play out. But Nate Dogg, why don't we welcome in our good friend, Kevin Van Balkenberg, physically there in Tulsa, Oklahoma, taking in the sights and the sounds and see if he has any insights or observations for us here on Farroway. Rolling.

And there he is. KVV. Hey, buddy. How are you? How you doing, buddy? I'm doing pretty, pretty well. Congratulations. It's clearly beard growing season. It is. You know, I, I've had a beard off and on. Now my kids won't let me shave it at all. So they're just kind of like the face is too scary. Yeah. Once you get kind of used to yourself looking like a beard and then you shave it off, it looks very scary. Looks like, you know. Well, speaking of scary, we were just kind of like setting up the, this week and in terms of themes and theses and so forth trying to get our arms around what kind of ballpark this is going to be and how to anticipate it might play out this week. I know you arrived yesterday in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Have you had a chance to circumnavigate the grounds a little bit? Just a little bit went and walked a few holes with Mr. Eldrick Woods. you haven't heard of him.

Yeah. Let me tell you, the biceps look enormous. He's clearly been just doing lots of arm curls. Lots of upper bodywork. Beach season. Beach, S-Z-S-Z-S-Z-S. I'm not exaggerating. He looks legitimately like he's been doing a bunch of arm curls.

That's not even a joke. He looks decent. You know, I hate a couple of loose shots out there, but. How's the gate? You saw the gated Augusta. We didn't love the gated Augusta. Gated Augusta was tough. I would say maybe a little better,

but I think it's mostly kind of a wait and see sort of deal. I mean, I think it's really... This is more pessimistic than I expected. The first couple guys who saw him out the last couple days were like, well, look, he's sprinting up a hill. I was like, yeah, but watch him walk a fairway. It sounds like you watched him walk a fairway. Yeah.

I mean, look, he looks fine. It's a... I don't think it's like unrestrained, like never have to think about it. I saw him walk up some stairs and looked fine. But I think there's still, you know, a little bit of tentativeness there. And I think what really, what I really think is interesting is to like watch like 17, 18, you know, tomorrow or Thursday and see what that feels like. That's where the sort of the grind of things that Augusta was starting to really hurt. And I think it'll be better.

I don't know that I'm quite as optimistic about him contending as some people seem to be. I think that's a bit of a bridge too far. But I will say the course sort of sets up for his brain. I think especially I like particularly courses that don't have a lot of rough around the green. So the ball rolls and that you can then a lot of different options once you're there. You can chip it. You could fly it high, you can hit it into hills, you can use slopes. And so watched him chip for 15 minutes or so out of some rough and then out of the short grass.

And he's still a magician about that kind of stuff. So that's where it's fun to sort of see. I think if it's the kind of championship where, you know, 9, 10 under is a winner, then I can see him, you know, I don't know if contending, but being around. you know, and certainly in that area for a couple days where, you know, getting to 10 under is like the winning score. You know, if it's like you got to make, you know, 18 birdies or something, then I'm not sure that that's the game where he can currently hang right now,

but I think he can grind over some stuff and get up and down from spots where other people can't just using his brain. And what did you see out there? Does it feel like it's going to be a single digit to 10 or, you know, What's the teeth of this golf course? I mean, there's definitely some elevation change. The greens are, they're big, but they don't play as big as they look. And so there's going to be shots that hit greens, but then roll off and where guys are going to get frustrated.

But really, I think speed said an interview, effectively the greens play about, you know, 60% or whatever. maybe like a 50% of what they look like. And so that's kind of where the teeth is. I mean, it's longer than it certainly was when it played in 2007. It was, as we were joking, as I came on,

there was a bunch of weather earlier in the week. So I don't know, like, if they'll be able to get it quite as firm as they want. It looks like Sunday, there's going to maybe be a little rain. It would be, you know,

really cool if it was firm and fast. It's just so hard. It certainly could never do that in August, but, you know, it's harder when it's hot and humid. There's not really any humidity here yet, so that's a good thing. But, you know, it's Oklahoma. It could easily sort of change out of nowhere, and we could be dodging tornadoes and various things by Sunday.

So I think it would be a fair, fair championship. That's what I think is exciting. It's a better course than certainly Bedminster, where this was originally supposed to be. so excited about that change of video. So I want to pick up on a couple of the things you just touched upon. The weather forecast, at least, you know, if you're looking at it now, says 90 degrees on Thursday, and then around 80 on Friday, and then highs of 70 over the weekend. And that all by itself, with winds that look like they're going to be in the 10 to 20 range.

And none of the days, at least as we sit here on Monday, have giant gusts. included in that. So I don't think we're sitting here trying to forecast morning afternoon advantages across the field. But that sort of firm and fast concept seems like, you know, just is a question of what you observe,

which is, will we get these afternoon thunderstorms that pop up out of nowhere? They can't, you know, there's always, you always put 25% chance of rain because of the time of you. that it is in in Tulsa. But the observation around watching Tiger chip and your observation around his brain, this is the way that I prefer to think about Tiger's chances this week,

which is a very simple make the cut. And I'm going to wager on him to make the cut. And I was together with the Golf Digest guys earlier today. there, Be Right podcast. And, you know, we talked about how he has an unrivaled mental approach to these major competitions, these majors. And, you know, notwithstanding Justine Reed's great frustration with Tiger flying in a month ago and going around the golf course with, you know, the head pro and getting observations. Allegedly just, allegedly Justin Reed, just so clear, you know, alleged.

You're a journalist. Nobody holds me to journalistic standards. I could say whatever the F-I-1. Allegedly, Justine Reed, just to be highly clear about it. Justine, if you're listening, come on Fairway Roll. It's a song for you. You look, any time. We'll talk about the kids. We'll talk about, you know, Patrick's love of steak and his PXG contract. Anyway, I, on the Tiger storyline, just have the simple, open aspiration for him to make the cut. And I think to your point is,

he could use his brain and 75% of his brain plus 25% of his hands around the greens. Because like the Gilhands restoration, part of what everybody's touting is what you described, which is the shaved slopes away from the green. Misses, you have to be able to scramble to say par to make up for those misses.

You've shared the sentiment, that I'm delivering here? 100%. Yeah. I think somebody who wins this week will be somebody who has a really well-rounded game. You're not going to be able to just drive it great all week and win. You're going to have to be able to chip from tough spots

when you miss shots, and you're going to have to hit precise iron shots. And, you know, I think that's one thing that's sort of sneaky fun about the PGA is like, in the last, decade it's been pretty darn good. It has been a lot of really great fair tournaments. And I think that they have found the sweet spot in terms of setup. You know, the rough is only like two and a half inches this week.

But that's pretty fair. You know, that's where there's a reward for hitting it in the fairway. But the penalty isn't so severe for hitting it in the rough that you can't, you know, make shots still. And so, you know, I think that's where there's some of the things, you know, where, I think Bethpage a few years ago is one where it's a little different. Whereas like if you hit it in the rough and you're Kevin Kisner, you were screwed. Like there was no way you're getting it, you know, onto the 14th green of Bethpage or whatever.

But if you do that here, like you may still have a chance. You may have to take five iron, but, you know, at least you can advance the ball and can put it around the green and then use your skills to kind of get up and down. And so, you know, look, I feel we had to kind of make picks. for ESPN this week. And I was like, gosh, you know, this is before the Craig Ranch. I was like, this is really Speeth's best chance

to maybe win the Grand Slam because he can use his sort of creative mind to get around up and down from a lot of places. He doesn't have to kill it off the tea. He can, you know, make up for some misses with the hits in the rough. And, you know, it could be a while before I mean, Valhalla's coming up.

That's not super forgiving to him. O'Kill next year. You know, nobody knows what Friscoe is going to be like. So if you've ever wanted a bet on Smith to sort of complete the Grand Slam, like this might be the moment. So I took a bold little flyer, picked Smith, and then he went and almost won Craig Ranch. So it looked like I'm jumping on the bandwagon at the right time.

But I feel like, you know, I had it, had it in before that. Does that mean we need to cut Hovland? I mean, I will say one of the things I guess that about you know, those sort of slopes is like Hovelin could put some of those things, you know, he doesn't always have to rely on chipping it. I think what's a little bit tough when there's a lot of thick rough around Greens is and you miss it, you just have to really execute a certain kind of like ship, right? You have to be able to hit kind of a sandshot explosion out of some spots,

or you have to be able to really nip it. Maybe, you know, Hovind can kind of get creative in some ways and not have to, you know, play the shots that are as demanding as they might otherwise be. So I, you know, I don't quite, I'm not quite buying Victor Holland in majors just yet because I feel like still needs a little bit more seasoning and a little bit more sort of kind of practice around some of those weaknesses. But, you know, home game for him. You can't discount the home game model. Oh, see. All these Oklahoma State guys. I was ready to come on here and pronounce affirmatively, definitively without hesitation or reservation that I am fading Victor

Hovelin this week and looking to have him in every head to head that I can find where there are comparable players, I'll go ahead and lay the juice for those comparable players to beat his ass because he still hasn't finished better than tied for 12th in a major and he did that when he was an amateur. So it's just to show me. It's just to show me with that. That's all. That's all I'm asking. If I lose all my bets because he comes out and kicks sass of this week, then great. He taught me a lesson. It is.

Exactly. Because I love Victor Hovlin. I also used to love this guy named Phil Mickelson, but I don't love him anymore. And we're not going to watch him in this golf tournament this week.

KV, what a saga. What a saga, huh? Hard to believe that this is where we are. And where we were a year ago. I mean, I, I you know legitimately when he hit that nine iron into the 18th green at Kiowa like I got a little bit emotional I was like wow this is like this is I've seen the whole arc of this guy's career and like I you know it's not like I mean I definitely was a fan when I was younger and then when I kind of a golf beat felt much more sort of detached from it but just the sort of like the monumental feat of that and like kind of laughing out of people who had sort of mocked to him over the years and what a what a cool. just sort of sports moment that was.

And now I'm sort of struck by just how kind of sad it is. And I'm a little bit surprised, to be honest, that he's not here. I mean, I just don't quite grasp what is so scary about having to stand up there and answer a few uncomfortable questions. I think Phil could easily be like, yeah, man, like I, you know, said some stuff that I shouldn't have said. And I'll probably have to figure out, you know, ways to kind of fix that. And, you know, I suffered some consequences.

and you guys can decide whether that's fair or unfair, you know, but I'm really just here to kind of defend my title. And I'll happy to answer your questions you want. Do you think there was deliberation? I mean, the fact that he was on the list for a while suggests that he was thinking about it. Yeah, and players told us he was, you know, they kind of expected him to play that some players who talked to him.

Is it maybe about the golf? I mean, that could be very, like, on right there that he, you know, went out and played a couple of practice rounds at Whistling Rock or wherever. And he shot in the 80s or he shot in the high 70s from, you know, 7,000 yards and was like, this is, I don't want to do this. I don't want to embarrass myself because then I think it would sort of open him to a little bit of ridicule. But on the other hand, too, you could come out here and say, hey, you know what? My game is in really bad shape. I've been sort of certain through some stuff trying to work on some stuff. And I'm probably not going to play that well.

when I'm out here. I'm just going to throw it out, guys. I'm hoping at best to, like, break 80 or at best make the cut. I think people will be like, oh, yeah, Phil. It's fun to have a Mac out here, whatever. I just not quite sure why the PR of things is so scary for him. I mean, I'm just sort of curious about whether someone that said, you know, hey, maybe be better for you if your first appearance was just at the live golf event in London.

That's what I want to explore a bit deeper. I don't think it's about the golf in any way, shape or form. That would have, that would be the first time in 30 some years that he felt like the golf, like his performance on the golf course is going to be the thing that has him. That's not, that's that would be a radically different version of Phil. That's all. He ain't scared. This is someone who's played for, you know, half a million dollars a whole, probably. Yeah. So he could count. Like, I'm sure he could find something. My, my sad and cynical perspective is that part of him repairing the relationship with the folks that he seems inclined to do business with was to give them

the shine of his reappearance on the scene because that will draw all of the media attention, all of the eyes, all of the chatter around that week. It goes from being sort of a curiosity to a story on our national sports scene if he chooses to run it out there. What do you think about that? I mean, I think it's, you know, have no evidence to support that that's the case. But I think that they're, I think it's a fair thing to speculate about that, you know,

this is an organization that might be about to pay him $100 million to sort of be a part of their deal. Like those kind of deals don't come with no strings attached. I mean, they've already sort of reports leaking out that, you know, some of the players were annoyed that they were going to sort of make them wear uniforms and make them sort of,

you know, do kind of corporate meet and greets. Like, yeah, like it ain't just to play. golf, man. You might have to give lessons to the second son of the crown prince. Like, this is how this works. And that's why you ought to understand where the money is coming from. You know, it's so I think it's important to just kind of weigh that in context of like there

are strings. And if you can live with them, great. I don't honestly, if Phil McClinson was like, hey, I've made this decision and I understand the controversy behind it, but I'm going to live with it. Like, I'm not going to sort of, you know, beat Stalick Critical. I mean, he can make the choice he wants. I think where a lot of people sort of feel and why some of the backlash was so enormous is that Phil got basically caught in this thing that basically revealed him to be the person that a lot of people always thought he was, which was sort of a, you know, sneaky kind of Eddie Haskell type of like playing one side against the other, trying to sort of seem smarter than he was. And that blowback is not even so much about the Saudis. It's like, man,

are you just a disingenuous person in general? And so I think that's kind of what a lot of people aren't grasping is that the suspicions or the hints that people always felt about Phil. He basically laid his cards out. I was like, yep, I am that dude. And that's what a lot of people are like, you know what? The heck with you, man. And like at least Tiger's, you know, sort of in the second half of his life, been a more

honest person about who he sort of is in life and he's not really faking it anymore. He's just kind of like, yeah, I golf and I am who I am and like me or not, whatever, that's up to you. Whereas Phil has kind of coveted this love and attention and gotten so deep into the social media game and wanted and sort of thirsty for that attention. And then all of a sudden it's kind of like, yeah, dude, it's all just kind of employed and sort of get what I want from the tour. Like, I'm good. So I think that's what upset a lot of people and made them be like, you know what, I'm done with this dude.

And this whole like cancel culture stuff surrounding it is all just kind of a smokescreen for like I actually didn't want to like that dude. Yeah. Even Nicholas, who said that moving this tournament from Bedminster to Southern Hills was part of cancel culture, it appears today that he turned down $100 million to be the face of this thing. And, you know, for Norman's aggressiveness. He and Nicholas, you mean.

Jack Nicholas turned down $100 million to be the face of. So Greg Norman is the face instead? Is that why we ended up in this? Look, for all of his aggressiveness, he's really turning this into, you only say yes to this if you're able to be bought. And that's the thing that's going to make it even harder for Phil going forward. I guess that's what he's going to do. Part of what I don't grasp about like Nicholas and in some ways Phil,

like if, I mean, Phil, I guess, but it's a little different. But some of these guys like Westwood or, you know, Poulter or some of these guys sort of come out and said, you know, especially lately, why not just own it? Like if you're Jack Nicholas and you've designed courses in Saudi Arabia and you're telling me like, hey, you know, like it's better there. Whatever? Take the $100 million. Like just do it.

Do you clearly, deep down, do you have some moral hang up, but you want to sort of have it both ways? Yeah. If Jack had said, hey, look, I don't. quite have enough energy to do what they wanted to do, whatever. You know, why not? You can take that $100 million and invest it over whatever. He's big into the folds of honor stuff and the, you know, various political causes that he supports. Take that $100 million and do whatever you want with it. You clearly don't have an issue with working with the Saudis. Why, what's the sort of hang-up

hesitation? If you believe those things, then great, own it, but don't kind of try to have it both the ways. You mentioned Tiger being himself. I went back and looked at the leaderboard when he won here. He beat Woody Austin. Aaron Oberholzer, John Sending, and yes, okay, Ernie Ells rounded out the top five. It wasn't exactly a murderer's row that he sort of beat here, right? But I look at the field today. And I mean, have we had a stronger field in a major where there's more guys who can win this thing? It just feels like even in that period of time, since this course has been redesigned, golf has evolved to the point where I'm not sure we're going to have a tiger again

because there's so much parity across this list now, isn't there? It's hard to make a pick today. It really is. I mean, you could, I think there's 20 guys you could pick and you could say, you know, oh, yeah, that makes sense. Like, you know, you could pick a decade and you'd be like, yep, that sounds a great pick. You could pick Rom.

You could be like, yep, you could pick Rory, you know, you could be off of the last couple of performances. You know, you could pick Max Homa. And the only thing I would sort of say is like, well, he hasn't shown it. doesn't prove it yet in a major, but he's got the game to do it. So, you know, that's, that'd probably be in it like a flyer of a pick. But, you know, there's a lot of dudes who are really sort of, you could definitely imagine them holding the Wanamaker.

And that's fun. It's funny to think about that tournament, the one that Woods won back in Woody Austin. I don't know if you guys remember, but Woody Austin shot 70 and then round that Tiger shot 63. and then Woody came into the press room and was like, you know, I just outplayed him Tita Green. Like I struck it so much better and I just obviously didn't put well, whatever. And it was kind of like, it became this sort of running joke and Woody Austin is still sort of angry about it. But he was like dead serious. He was like, I hit better in Tiger Woods all day and he just made a bunch of puts.

It's like, yeah, dude, well, he might have left those puts in like a really better spot than you. Like sometimes probably better to be putting 15 feet below the hole than above it. And you probably just, you know, thought his way around a little bit better than you did. But the shots gained numbers from that tournament have magically evaporated. But I would love to look that out. A shot link would start. It was really wasn't in vogue then in terms of like the data was, you know, widely shared. But I'm sure, I think it started in what, 2004 or five.

So there should be some shot link data from there. But it maybe doesn't have the millions of sort of examples fed into the machine. to kind of give us a true number of what Woody's strokes gain would have been that day. So to your point that we wouldn't be surprised with any one of really 20 guys winning, we're trying to formulate a strategy over the course of this week for actually trying to come up with, you know, an organized way to do a betting card that doesn't have 600 different variations, although I might end up with 500.

what are some of the governing principles for like when you're when we're really splitting hairs as you sit there in Tulsa right now obviously we've hit on some of the themes around the course design some of the weather stuff like to you um sitting there how would you choose between Colin Warcawa and I'm not going to say Scotty Sheffler because the chefler's a whole other conversation based on his experiences at this this venue, his pronounced love for this video, but let's say Morikawa and Justin Thomas, how would you like try and weigh that? What would your pros and cons approach be? Well, I would probably, I mean, to start with price for sure. I mean, what odds are you going to be able to get them at? And then I would sort of make my kind of initial thing from there. I would say, if you're asking me, you know, between Morocowah, and J.T. is an example. Like, I would want to start with their,

their strokes gained approach data over the last month. That would be where I would sort of first look at because anybody can have a hot putting week, but if you don't give yourself chances, then it doesn't matter how good you put. Like, you're not going to make enough 25 footers to sort of, and the thing with, you know, JT has been a very, and I might work out certainly too,

but they've both been sort of streaking. putters. But, you know, if you're giving yourself, you know, a ton of 11 footers or whatever, then you're going to make four of those. And you're going to, that's going to be enough to sort of give you an edge up on the field. It's going to be hitting it to 20 feet and might make, you know, one or two of those. So I guess that's where I would sort of, I always kind of look at strokes gain approach data because if you're just not hitting it close, then you've got no shot, I think.

You're just not going to be able to, especially at a term where you have to make some birdies. You know, if this is the kind of deal where it was U.S. Open, I could say, okay, you can scramble your ass off and you can kind of, you know, you get up and down from spots. Not a lot of guys are going to be able to do that. But in the PJ Championship, you've got to make birdies. And I think it's a tough one between JT and Mark Cowell, right, because I think JT's the Mork creative player. He's a player who can shape shots and can handle the wind a little bit better stuff in terms of take some spin off this. But more cows is a more consistent player, right? He's the one who like, hey, look, I can hit a 158-yard fade when you need to be to hit it 159 yards.

And, you know, it's not that JT can't do that. It's just sometimes he's like, well, I think I'd rather, should I draw this in their bones? Should I hit a little chippy cut? should I, you know, try to, you know, shape this off this slope. Whereas Marcau's kind of like, yeah, dude, I kind of got like one shot. And I do it better than anybody to come along in the last 15 years. So I'm going to kind of just stick with that. When it blows hard, that's a little bit harder for Marcault

to sort of, because of his shot shape. But, you know, sometimes consistency is good enough to sort of be like, all right, you know, it's all about your misses, not about like how close you get it on some shots. So that's kind of what I would sort of look at between the two of them. And I think you can just kind of look at the stroke game data, you can identify sort of like general patterns, right? It's like, yeah, you spread the spreadsheet out and you said, all right, who's been playing well over the last year? Okay, well, how much of that has come in the last, you know, six months?

How much has this come since the Masters? I mean, I always, I mean, if you look at like Brooks Kepka's record in the PJ Championship since he turned pro, he's finished outside the top 15, like, one time. Yeah. So, like, whatever it is about the setup about BGA championships, Brooks really is always in it. And it doesn't really sort of matter to the venue. Like, it's just this is the kind of thing. He's probably, I would say, certainly over the last decade is, is the best, most consistent PGA championship golfer. And so even though he missed the cut at the Masters and he withdrew from the Byron Nelson,

I would be surprised if Brooks wasn't in it because it's just his track record here has proven that he is. He doesn't make dumb mistakes in majors. He's patient. He always kind of finds it a little bit with the putter. So those would be some sort of, like, I'm not a huge, you know, gambling great guy to sort of give tips to, but those are the things I kind of think about when I think about, like,

who would I really actually feel like has a good feel for this course? A year ago, the biggest story in golf was Brooks versus Bryson. Yeah. And Bryson just let us know today that he's headed to Tulsa to try to figure out whether he's going to play. I mean, that hand has still got a nasty scar on it. So we got both these guys who are clearly hurt or, you know, on the edge. Do you think Bryson's going to tee it up this week?

Not that it matters. I mean, House would love to fade the hell out of him. I really want him to play because I will bet him to miss the cut. And it won't be out of hatred. It'll be just out of rational economics. That's all. It's a money-making opportunity for us for sure. He's not someone who,

I think could ever just like show up at a course without like the prep work and without really, you know, having a feel for things. I mean, he's been standing in his garage hitting into a net for at least 48 hours. If this was a hitting into a net championship, you can see Bryson would be definitely a guy. Yeah. I mean, look, it's one thing to, I always kind of laugh too when he posts those videos of like, there's always a cut in them, right? So it's like, oh, I hammered this drive and then it immediately like there's a video cut.

But it shows the sort of foresight launch monitor of like, That was 342 carry. You're like, yeah, sure, man. Like, whatever you say, like, I guess. I mean, you could, you know. There might also be a correlation between how hard he's swinging and the surgery he just had to have. Totally. Totally. You know, again, I think, I think there's probably, I would say I'd put it at like 50-50 that he plays.

Yeah. I'm not 100% convinced that he really, I think he probably kind of wants to do it, but also he's going to sort of feel super uncomfortable. standing on some of these holes where he hasn't really, you know, mapped everything out. And before the Phil stuff, by the way, it was Bryson who was getting the heat for the live golf stuff. Yeah. And everyone sort of 100% assumed that Bryson and Dustin were like as good as gone. And so it's interesting to kind of see how, I mean, even Bryson's like statements or whatever, like for now, I'm committed to the BGA tour.

And he hasn't really had to face much more else of that. I mean, because he did answer question, but more specifically about Phil at the Masters. But, yeah, I don't know. I mean, for all we know, what I think is kind of, we were kind of friends and I were joking, like, who would be, who would cause, like, golf Twitter to melt down the most if they left for live golf, like, out of the blue and no one sort of saw it coming? And, like, obviously, Tiger would be number one far and away. But, like, is there a chance that, like, Ricky Fowler? Well, this is the last time we see him, you know, play. in the United States for a little while.

Like, I think there's a very real chance. A Mary Fowler has been rumored to potentially be someone who's interested in that stuff. And we, you know, he hasn't really played well enough to sort of face any of that scrutiny. But, you know, what if Ricky, who's like a household name is in every other commercial that you watch and a golf broadcast still, all of a sudden was like, yep, I'm going over to play this thing. I'm going to rebuild my career over there. Kev, let me tell you, I was on the ground in Texas. this week at that tournament. And there were two experiences I had that made me wonder.

You alluded earlier to some of the guys being like, what the fuck do you mean we have to play with sponsors? I thought I'm just getting a check. I watched Spieth sign for those kids for 30 minutes, 45 minutes. His family was going back into the clubhouse to get him pens as they were drying out in the heat and coming back out. And you go in there, he's holding his infant in his arm as he did this. I walked with Sheffler.

Sheffler played with my brother, and his whole family was there. Chatting with his dad for nine holes, his sisters are that, blah, blah, as you know, it's a family affair. You can't bring the support network to Saudi Arabia to play golf. I think that there's some guys for whom,

it's just not an option, if they really want to be off the course, what a bunch of these guys are today. And Ricky's the one where I go, he's got a little baby. He's got, you know, his best buddies are not, leaving this tour to go there. There's some guys who are probably going to be in for a

Rood Awakening as it unfolds what this is actually going to mean. I think specifically if like the events that they make them play, you know, in the kingdom, right, or in the Middle East or whatever, if you're telling somebody, hey, go play at Pumpkin Ridge in Portland

and you win $4 million against like a corn fairy tour quality field, Reggie Fowler might be like, yeah, dude. Sure. That's awesome. But if you're saying, you know, hey, this is where you need to spend 10 to 15 days in Rihata or economic city, I can't have to live in a city or whatever somewhere in the Middle East. And you're saying, I need you not only to play golf, I need you to be here to sort of, you know,

press the palms and talk to people and you can't get on a jet. You can't get on a jet and be home in two hours. Right. Do a little chipping clinic for, you know, 300 people. And just put your, you know, put your hands on somebody. That's the difference between being on salary versus being on contract. And that's what Rory said. It's like, look, the money is sort of interesting and the morality is tough.

But ultimately what helped Rory made decision is like, I don't really want to be told where I have to be and what I have to do. I want to have that freedom. That's worth a lot of money to be. $400 million or whatever they rumored to offer him was not going to change his life dramatically. but what was going to change his life is somebody saying, hey, you have to be here for this tournament and this clinic. And if you say no, then you're in violation of that. Yeah, sorry, Poppy's got to wait.

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I hope, I hope, um, Ricky is not part of that and that, because I have, uh, come to really appreciate what kind of an ambassador he is. And honestly, he still has goodwill with me because he went down to that Olympics in Brazil and really sort of, you know, embraced that that... Gave a shit. Yeah, it seems like

he did. It seemed like... Now, Bubba did also and Bubba seems a very inclined to, you know, go do whatever MBS and the Kushner Open require of him. Potentially, I don't know, it's just one of the rumors that are out there. But Bubba's his own cat.

Yeah. I think watching Ted Lassow like flipped me on Ricky because, like, I used to think it was sort of funny to like crack jokes about how Ricky would always be like waiting a degree and to congratulate somebody or whatever. And then I watched the lesson. I was like, no, wait, like, isn't that the kind of person like we should all want to be? Like, shouldn't you like have goodwill and like happy about success of others? Is it so corny to actually like appreciate? And I think that's true.

Yeah. Yeah. But literally no one has a bad word to say about Rick. I have never heard another golfer be like, oh, that guy. Like he, you know, He's a jerk. No, they all like him. They all think he's such an endearing. Like, he's, he's very bland and very sort of buttoned up and guarded in, you know, with his dealings with the public and the press. But in, you know, he's just a swell guy in many ways to his peers.

And so many people are like, yeah, great dude. Love that guy. Love getting paired with him. So there's something to that, man. You can't, like, it's one thing. And I also think that, you know, a lot of these people say, why do you hate Ricky, whatever. Why does golf Twitter make so much? It's kind of done with love, right? It's kind of done with like the cheekiness of like,

we've seen this guy grow up and we've sort of been there for all this. Like he's such an ubiquitous presence in our lives with the commercial stuff. Like we're ribbing in some way like you'd rib, you know, a cousin or a family member of like, oh man, like it was all Rick and his rock and mortgage ads. KVV, you're in Tulsa. Tell when, do you stand for the whole tournament? It's the whole deal, baby. Man. writing off the winter on Sunday.

So are you, what's during the week, are you pushing stuff out? Are we going to find you on ESPN.com? Yeah, you will. There'll be stories throughout the week. I'm sure I will,

spoiler, be following Tiger on Thursday, right? Something about, you know, for better or worse. But, you know,

I'll have some things here and there. I mean, you know, the upside of, if Tiger plays well is like, you know, a lot of people will be super interested in it. The only downside would be,

you got to come up with something different to say for like five days in a row about Tiger. Well, if he's dueling down the stretch with Yiyang again, maybe there'll be something to say. I have faith in you, KBV. I know if if there's anybody that's up to the challenge, it's you. Thanks, bud. Appreciate it. Thanks as always, my friend. Enjoy the week.

We're rooting for no thunderstorms all week long. We don't want you to dance around raindrops. Thank you. Well, I'm too big to fit between the raindrops, as you say. but I can, you know, still got some of that old tight end speed in me. I can run for cover. Yes, yes.

Enjoy the week. All right, my eagle enthusiasts, as described at the top, we have another special guest on today's mega preview pod. Forecasting the week. Another gentleman in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as we speak right second,

he is the head of Callaway Media Productions. But for the purposes of this week, working on the ESPN broadcast, Thursday, Friday into the weekend as well, Jeff Dubearth. Into the weekend. There we go. Okay. Welcome to the fairway, Roland. You've been here before. You know how we get down. I'm excited to be back with you guys. And let me just tell you before you get going,

this golf course is unreal. Well, this is what we want to know. This is why you're here. You got to take us through it. What have you seen? I mean, gosh, you just walk out there. And I mean, the golf course is just, just absolutely perfect. And you look at it and I mean on paper, right, you look at the length, you look at what what Gilhance and Jim Wagner did to get it back to restore, you know, Perry Maxwell's, you know, greatness. They just took this golf course to a whole other level that's never been at before. You have just, they just eliminated some trees, which just created these great, great kind of open spaces where, and I'm going to be honest, it's going to be a little

funky because like six and seven you're like literally teeing off over each other um you know you're you're you're literally i mean if if house was playing the six t because he likes to hit a low trajectory golf ball some say he does i do on like i would not want to stand on seven when house hits his stinger to the part three six because he will hurt he will take someone out i mean the name of the show is fairway rolling i like that low rolling kind of action i'm well aware it's my favorite name for a podcast you've ever done. But at the same time, I think that what's going to be interesting is this kind of attrition battle you're going to see because it's going to be hot on Thursday. It's going to be 90 degrees. And these rounds are going to take five and a half hours.

So buckle up golf fans. We're in for a long day. And the great thing about the ESPN coverage is we're going to have from first put, first drive to last put. What time is first drive? We will be on the air at 7 o'clock local. So at 7 o'clock local. So that's 6 a.m. Eastern. Good God. I'm staying in bed. I'm not... No, it's not six am Easter. Oh, no, it's seven. That's right.

That's right. It's eight o'clock Easter. 8 o'clock Easter. I can't do math. Yeah, they said there would be no math. But, you know, you go right from there. And, and I mean, you know, I think you're going to see golf go till, you know, pretty close to dark, which is about 820-20-ish year, but you can probably play another half hour.

The weather forecast looks spectacular. And there's just so many things that they can do to this golf course. You know, like one of the things that's interesting is, is there's really, you know, you know, you always talk and majors, right? You want to leave the ball below the hole? Good luck, because there may not be below the hole. It may be like a creek, you know, or a bunker. So it's just going to really challenge the players. And I'm really excited to see it. Where's the scary part of this course? Are there holes that are going to determine the winner coming down the stretch? You know, I think, I think that it's the

cumulative effect of it. So I'm sure you guys have all read this stack because everyone's been talking about it, but every winner of all the tour championships, the majors that have been played here, they've all been either the leader or tied for the lead on Friday. So that's why you've got to watch the first two days, you know, shameless plug on ESPN, and ESPN, the ESPN plus, because that's what's happened every time they've had this tournament here. And, I mean, Jim Nance said it in the CBS press conference. That's where I first heard the stat. Nowhere else has had that.

In fact, only two of the winners, Tiger and Dave Stockton were either tied for or in the lead after Thursday. So this is not a golf course where as the week goes on, you're going to get hot on the weekend. I know House is a big fan of someone who likes to finish backdooring into the top 10. You're not going to see that this week. You're not going to hear the roars from the backdoor. But I think that this is one of those golf courses where you just got to get out there early. And it's when you say it every week, you literally have to hit it in the right place here. Like if you look at the golf course, there's 10% of each hole you can hit it in. If you put it in that other 90%, you're done. You're making bogey. But you better make it.

progy, right? You don't want to have to blow up and get even worse. And that's why I think makes this so awesome. So Newbarth just made a joke that he and I share, which is Roars from the back door. He's saying, don't expect a 64 from Roy McElroy on Sunday to sneak him in. And what we're also saying, if you are fancying the possibility of Rory McElroy coming on to your dance card, we want Tim to do something he hasn't done in the majors in eight years, which is perform very well on a Thursday. But Jeff, I want to pick up on something. I got together with the Golf Digest guys. And one of the Golf Digest guys, Steve Hennessy, has some background in some of the architectural history and so forth. And he made this connection that I told him I was going to

steal it all week long. And I'm going to in every venue that I can. He reminded us the hand that Harry Maxwell had in the design and execution and implementation of the Greens at Augusta National Golf Course. And the, you know, the, the, the, the, the strong linkage potentially between the green complexes, the way these greens at Southern Hills, you know, the design concept of what you just hit on, which is like the 10% is available, that's so Augusta. Am I right about that? Yeah, but I'm talking about the whole golf course. I'm talking about off the T, you have 10% of the golf course that you got to hit it in that spot to be able to take advantage of the whole. But one of the interesting quotes I was reading was from Russ Myers, who's a superintendent here.

You know, it's so hard to get close to the pins because the greens are not large, but they're compartmentalized. And I think that's going to be the word of the week, compartmentalized because you'll, you're going to see balls that land on the right spot of the green. Unlike in Augusta, where I think in Augusta, when you hit it to the right spot, it'll generally stay there. and you could get that really, you know, amazing shot to lead to that birdie or eagle. I think here you're going to see those roll 10 feet, 15 feet. So I think you're going to be, you know, who again is this battle of attrition and lots of heat, you know, it's not going to be as hot as it is in August here, but it's certainly not cool here. And you're going to be 25 feet away and you better be able to chew out a really slopy, you know,

green. And I think with keeping the green speed to where they're going to keep them, and they're saying it'll be somewhere 11, 12. That allows so many different whole locations. If they got it faster than that, if they got it up to 13, they wouldn't be able to use a lot of the greens. So I think there's that. And I think they just have all this technology here under the greens,

which I think you'll hear about during the week on the broadcast, that will show you how they can kind of do this in ways other places. Can it's just amazing what they've done. Technology under the Greens. Yeah, yeah. What do we got? There's some stuff. There's some stuff we're going to be shown on the broadcast on Thursday and Friday.

Not just subair? Well, I mean, it's it's a different version of this stuff, but you got to think about it. What is subair design for, right? Sub air is designed to like suck water out when it rains. Well, they have that issue too. But what's Tulsa's greatest, you know, challenge with keeping the golf course perfect? It's this heat. So they have some other things they can do to regulate the temperature of the greens.

Can I get some shirt made out of that technology? I mean, I'm trying to find one. I am lucky because the Travis Matthew I have on right now is keeping me perfectly cool. here in this Tulsa weather. But I'll tell you, you know, just walk in nine. I don't really did nine today. It's not the easiest walk you've ever done. And it's hot.

And there's just lots of places where you're just kind of standing there. So I will say the weather forecast, you mentioned, it's 90 degrees on Thursday, but then it goes down to like high of 80 maybe on Friday. And then the highs on Saturday and Sunday, the high is 70 maybe? Correct. So that's kind of, that's a big swing. and it means at night there'll be a big swing in temperatures as well. Do you think that's going to have an impact?

I mean, I really don't only because I think that, you know, I mean, look, the thing that's going to impact this golf course would be rain and knock on whatever we could knock on. We're looking good right now and wind. And the wind doesn't seem like it's going to be like crazy, crazy wind. So I think it's going to be out there for the players. I just think it's a really, really difficult golf course. And I don't think we're going to see a lot of low scores.

But I do look for this trend to continue that if you're in good position on Friday, by the time we sign off there on Friday, you know, evening, I think we're going to have a pretty good feeling who the contenders are. I don't think you're going to see one of those Augusta moving day, Saturday, 63, 64s to get going. I think it's going to be, you better be, you better be ready right from that first shot on Thursday. So are there players who you look at and having. seen the course and had your little chats with some of the guys who have a sort of reaction to what they've seen where you say this is the right fit for them. We got a wide open field this

week. Yeah. I mean, I think it's honestly, for me, it's still a little too early to kind of have that all figured out. Mostly because House and I haven't had our conversations about it. And I don't know if we want to share all that information with the public at this point. But what people don't know, and I'd like to give House a little bit of credit here is, you know, house pick Danny Willett years ago. House almost picked Hadeki to win at Augusta. He was one bit of information away from having that one locked in, which would have been a nice run.

That's on you. That's not on me. That's on you. I know. I still beat myself about it every day. But I think the thing that's going to be the most interesting for everybody is Tiger. And I did happen to see a little bit of his practice round earlier today. And he says he's stronger than he was in Augusta.

And this is an easier walk than that. And then what really got me thinking is, well, okay, if he got this much stronger in the month from the Masters, what are we looking at by the time we get to St. Andrews, which we all know is a place that he could do something special with. But I think to me, where I'm looking at is I'm looking at someone like John Romp who just hits the ball way longer than people give him credit for. People don't call him a bomber. And I'd like to actually just ask everybody, can we just start referring to him as one of the bombers? he's as long as anybody out there. And then the fact that he's so good in this proximity to the hole that he might get that extra benefit that I think you're going to need.

And then we saw the putter return to life in Mexico. And if he can kind of keep that up, I think he could be someone. I mean, that's really a bold prediction on making right. But he could be someone. The other thing is I like one club pro to make the cut this year. Okay. Well, that's always a fun. they'll be out there.

But, you know, I want to pick up you. There's been a common thread, a common theme to your observations, and that is the challenge of the venue. There are always scoring props, both in terms of the final score and also, you know, low round through the four rounds. Do you think that, now it's playing to a par 70, correct? Yeah, par 70. So what would you, I know it's impossible because it's Monday.

We'll get closer. We'll have so much more information weather-wise. But if the weather stays in this sort of general vein as predicted, do you think that we're going to see better than, you know, 500 or 6-under? Is that possible? I don't. I don't see it.

I just, I mean, I can't figure out where the holes you're going to get it, you know? Like you go out there and it's like, all right, here's a 500-yard bar four. I'm just going to hit one down the middle. I'm still going to have a six iron in. I'm going to get it to 25 feet. I'm going to two butt. And again, like I was saying at the top, I still think that if you don't hit it in this 10% area off the T, you're going to boge you the hole. So you're just going to have those things. I think it's going to be similar to other times we've been here. But even, you know, it's just magnified because they did add blank to it. They did, you know, bring bunkers back into play that weren't in play, you know, kind of the last couple times we've been here. I think we saw it last year even at the senior open. And it's certainly going to be set up different than that. that this golf course just has some tea. And, you know, I just think it's going to be, it's going to be one of those, I think right around five or six

is going to be who lifts the Wanamaker on Sunday. So you're involved in this telecast. Talk to us about what we're going to see that we haven't seen before. Sounds like we're going to see some technology into the Greens. But how do you think about what's next for us watching this thing? Well, I think, I think, you know, look, the goal of the ESPN show. and Mike McQuaid's our corporate in producer. He produces the back nine.

I get to sit in the front nine truck. And then CBS obviously has their team that comes in and does the weekend when we're off the air. We still do Saturday, Sunday in the morning. But we just want to show as many golf shots as possible, right? We know that's what golf fans want, especially on a Thursday or Friday. So we're going to be challenging ourselves to up our pace to not kind of get stuck where we're sitting there for four or five minutes as what to do or get a ruling whatever. We really want to show the viewer as many golf shots as we can. And, you know,

you'll have the requisite tracers. You'll have technology out there. You know, I think we have a top-notch, you know, crew of announcers. And I'll put it up against anybody. But just to be able to show as many golf shots as we can to everybody, I think that that's the goal for two days. If we finish Friday night, everyone's like, yeah, we saw more golf than we've ever seen before out of the first two days of a major. I think we've done our job. Talk about this alternate with Joe Buck and the big caddy. Is that, that, that's coming, is that got to be on plus or on where we're kind of, it'll be on plus certain hours and then ESPN 2, I believe, other hours.

And what's the idea? Explain it to the, to the good folks here fair way. I mean, I think, I think the idea house is that, you know, the Matingcast works. And you may not want to watch all games. every game of that, but when they have someone interesting and compelling, you're going to want to check that out. You know, there's a lot of hours we're going to be sitting in that truck. You know, we're coming on, like I said, at 7 o'clock local time, which House now knows is 8 o'clock, his time on the east. And we're going for 12 hours. At some point, you're going to get tired of

what we're doing on that show. Here's another alternative for part of the day to be able to go in there and hear other interesting people talk about the game. I haven't seen their guest list release. And we all saw with the maining cast and football was fun each day to see. who was going to be in each quarter, and they would kind of spread it out. I'm assuming they'll do the same thing. But I think it's just, you know, the more people we can get to watch golf, the better.

But this is just another avenue that someone's going to check in, check out, and be able to spend an hour with and enjoy it. You know, you're still going to be able to see the coverage of what we're doing over on the main show. Is there a buzz in Tulsa? Are they excited about this? Yeah, I mean. You expect the crowds this week?

Oh, yeah. They're saying 45, 50,000 every day. and there's plenty of room for it. Well, there's no way any of those people are spending $18 effing dollars on an effing Mickelope Ultra. Like, did you see this? This is the by far. This is stunning to me.

And I wanted to go ahead and have a positive podcast through the first, you know, hour plus of this mega preview. But ultimately the PGA of America. Well, the PGA of America is ultimately responsible. I know they've contracted with whatever vendors or whatever, but you can't have a major tournament like the Masters where they charge five bucks for import and an American craft and four bucks for domestic and then go to Tulsa, Oklahoma and put a price list up.

Now, I hope that it was a fake. That is possible. It did have golf Twitter yesterday and today up in arms. But, and, you know, the best case scenario would be it was a fake. It had $18 for a Mikhailob Ultra. What in God's name are you talking about? I don't get it out. Do you think it was a fake or do you think that they're going to try and do that?

I have no idea. You know, it's funny. When I go back out there to do my next lap around, I will walk over to one of the stands and I will personally validate the authenticity of this. I suppose there are occasional things on Twitter that are not true. What? I have heard that. Yeah.

Come on. I have heard that a couple times. But I don't know, man. It's, I, I'm not going to be able to partake anyway. I'm working the whole time. I'm not worried about you. I'm worried about the good people of Tulsa. 50,000 people from Tulsa are going to be thirsty on that 90 degree Thursday.

House, my dad used to go into Washington football team games with sandwiches tied around his ankles. he'd tape them and strap him to his ankles because fuck Dan Snyder is what he would always say the good people of Tulsa can figure out how to duct tape a handle to their inner thigh I'm sure that's true but like just charge six bucks for a beer just be normal like who the fuck do they think they are I just don't understand it

it's like completely befuddling and confounding to me like oh we had a marketing firm do a survey of venues and the football stadiums charge $18 for a beer. And so we think that's our price point. Get the fuck out of here. It's a goddamn golf tournament. People want to walk around and enjoy and stroll and have a sip. And nobody is going to pay $18 for a goddamn Michelob Ultra.

I wouldn't pay $18 for a case of Michelob Ultra for Christ's sakes. That's all. Do better, PGA of America. This event lines up perfectly in so many other respects. The beer prices are indefensible. That's all. I will say, though, that the only positive we can take out, because I do want to turn this back into a positive we got to hear. I haven't heard a good house rant in months.

So thank you. Thank you, everybody who was responsible for this, whether it's fake or real. I got a good house rant, and I enjoyed that. So thank you. Well, I want to make sure, because I know that the good folks at Callaway are, all over this week's tournament with all kinds of content and stuff of all the Callaway professionals. One of the things you guys did that was very cool is this like multi-dimensional race kind of

thing. And I think that's coming out. The teaser is out now. And I think the race will be out this week. Tell the good fairway role in listeners about that. Yeah. So we tape something house. You've been to our shoot every year.

We do a shoot on Avidra. one of the great segments that no one ever saw grilling with Grillo. That really did happen. I made him a flange steak with Chimmy Churry sauce and made Chimmy Chiris sauce. And he was not amused one bit. He should be a bad golfer. Not really good thing. We decided to go a different direction and we turned a nine-hole golf course

into like where golf would beat the amazing race, got souped up golf carts, paired one staffer with kind of an ambassador type person. and just kind of went for it, went crazy. I had about 30 cameras, had drones, and like in-car cameras. It was pretty nuts. And it all kicks off this Saturday for an eight-week run.

It's called the Rogue Race on Calloway's YouTube. John Rom, and as John called him, he finally got a chance to play with the better Brian brother. You got to play with George Brian. Take that, Wesley. But it was unbelievable. I mean,

some of the stuff that these players did was pretty amazing. And watch all the way through the series. There's some pretty good, ones you're going to be watching. Is it on your YouTube channel? It'll be on our YouTube channel. Every Saturday, we're going to premiere those I think around 7 o'clock West Coast,

which house? What time is that for you on the East Coast? 7 o'clock West Coast is 10 o'clock East Coast. Great. You're getting better. You know what? By the end of this pot, I got a rant and your math. You did a great job. Well, and I will not be drinking any $18 $1.5.00 at 10 o'clock.

I promise you. Jeff Newbarth, please get out there. If this information's wrong, I'm happy to clarify the record. I'm just saying it didn't appear as anything other than the God's honest truth about what they're trying to do to the poor people, Tulsa, Oklahoma. And I can't tolerate. And I'm looking very forward to ESPN's broadcasts of the PGA championship this week. So thank you for coming on. We can't wait to bring it to everybody.

And enjoy the week. This is going to be one heck of a major. Thanks, Jeff Newbart. All right, my par-saving pals. and we'll just leave it at that because it sounds like that's what we're up against this week down in Southern Hills. Our enormous thanks as always to our guest,

Kevin Van Balkenberg and Jeff Newbart, two guys, boots on the ground literally, giving us some perspective on how the week may yet play out. And you know what we're doing here at Fairway Rowland is factoring in all those variables. We have, because it is the only way we get down on a major week. Justin Ray coming up.

We're going to tape with him Tuesday evening, so that show should be up Tuesday night in the Wednesday morning as you build out your dance card. One thing that I can tell you right now, the Nate Dog has put my attention on this. Fandul, you know, its markets are open, all right? And we have our site set on a handful of guys. One thing that's out there, I'm going to ask Fandil,

they'll boost this even. they have a parley three three leger column ora cowahua to top five cam smith to top ten Nate dog what's the third leg Xander shafle to top 20 that look at that the same Xander who just absolutely torched a 61 yesterday and what are the odds what are they giving us plus 3,700 god 37 to what now look everybody understands three leg of parley's tough this is not to do it with your description discretionary income. Don't do it with the with the bread money. But look, if you want to have some fun, I will just tell you all of our, you know, early analytics and the way that we're anticipating the week to play out, we love all three of those guys. So if you want to jump in on this,

we're going to talk to the fan duels, see if they got a boost for us. But this is one that Nate and I both will be playing. And I have to drive to Virginia to do it. But look, it's worth it. It's worth it to me. We have Justin Ray coming up. The full dance car. will be available to everybody Tuesday night into Wednesday. You have all day Wednesday to listen to that. Take some of this preview information and think about what's out there for you. And in the meantime, my birdie buddies, let's hit them straight out there.