Fairway Rollin' - Recapping the 2022 Presidents Cup and Picking Future Major Winners

Episode Date: September 26, 2022

House and Hubbard recap the 2022 Presidents Cup (01:23). They discuss the performances from both rosters including Tom Kim, Si Woo Kim, Kevin Kisner, and Max Homa. They also discuss whether Scottie Scheffler really is the no. 1 golfer in the world, the importance of Tom Kim’s role with the tournament, and why the devolution of golf has begun (16:24). Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Associate Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, my name is Kevin Clark. I'm the host of a new football podcast called Slow Newsday. I want to tell you about it. On Mondays, Lindsay Jones and I will recap the weekend in football that was, as well as look ahead to what's next. On Wednesday, the normal Slow Newsday, the thing you've been watching for years, current players, current coaches, current analysts talking about the football world. And on Friday, it's a wildcard. Could be some college football. Could be more pro stuff. It's a video podcast so you can watch it on Spotify or listen to it wherever you get your podcasts. Follow on Spotify. It's Slow Newsday. Hello, friends, and welcome to this golf podcast unlike any other.

Oh, yes, my friend. The President's Cup has concluded, and we hear it, Faraway Road. Have some thoughts. This is the golf podcast on the Ring of Podcast Network. I am your starter. Joe House, joined by my incomparable accomplice, our PGA tour correspondent on the ground, Nathan Hubbard. Hey, buddy, the President's Cup is in the books.

It was slightly more dramatic than felt like it was going to be. But, you know, here we are in this old familiar place, this old familiar feeling with the President's Cup. How are you doing? You know, I'm good. That was better than I thought it was going to be. That's it. I mean, the 2022 President's Cup better than we thought it was going to be. Wasn't it nice to see golfers not at each other's throats and talking shit and like trying to dunk on each other and all of this tension that's existed in golf?

It was so nice at the end of this event, albeit you had to watch it on the golf channel because they shift to ever to see Emelman lead his team and all the wives and all the assistant captains over and they had a wonderful sort of like post Stanley Cup handshake, uh, in which Kisner, by the time. the way called Siwu an ugly motherfucker, which was awesome. Correct. And, uh, or something to that effect. But it was a, it really was a, a nice gentlemanly way to finish an event, sort of a nice throwback to some of the traditions of golf. Almost everything else about this event sucked, except the guy who you heard here first on Fairway Rolling, when we saw that this guy had to do something in the last four events of the season to earn his way into his PGA tour card. And that is Tank Kim.

And we saw Max Homa continue this run of serious studliness. That basically for me, outside of a few speethgasms, was the story of this event. Yeah, it was the Tom Kim coming out party. And he was two and three. Well, the Saturday of this event,

look, I mean, When we went to bed Friday night, it was eight to two, the U.S. just delivering its, every two-year ass pounding to the internationals. But over the balance of the weekend, the internationals went 10 and a half to nine and a half. And Saturday was a revelation. And you know what? There was genuine buzz in the air from the American sporting public. The Twitters were alive.

People were talking about the fact that this thing took on a little bit of an air of competition. I do share your sentiment in terms of the sportsmanship and everything, the grace. It was really excellent to see the guys in that light. But how about this? I think Kisner went after Siwu because Siwu went after your boy, J.T. a little bit. He got in that ass just a little bit. Like there was some tension there. JT didn't like putting a three-footer.

He wanted to be given that put. That's it. We share this sentiment. This is the inventor of I love me some me at the President's Cup. Everything is fair game. I love that he got in his head and pushed him. I mean, J.T. is the, I mean, let's be clear. J.T. is now his combined match record of 16, 5, and 3 at the Presidents and Ryder Cup.

His points per match average is the best in U.S. history for a player with five or more starts. Thank you, Justin Ray. Super poised to go 174 and 3, by the way. He was right there. He's the host, but I think it's nice to CC would throw a little dash of salt in the mix. It was great. That's it. That's what we're looking for.

A little spiciness. Yeah, he was shaking hands at the end. Oh, yeah. They hug it out. It's competition. It's what we want to see. We want to see genuine competition. A couple things to hit.

Like, you know, in the order of things to touch on, Jordan Spee. finally won a singles match. He went 5 and O. He is the very deserved MVP of this tournament. He was lights out short game. It reminded you you, you know, there was, I can't remember

who in the, in the Twitters, kept hitting it. Might have been our guy Kyle Porter at the CBS Sports, but, you know, Jordan Speeth, look out for the Masters. I mean, part of the thing that I want to touch on for sure is having watched this tournament, you know,

Who can win a major? This always feels like a little bit of an audition because we see guys in an uncomfortable position with a level of pressure. Not the Canadians house. No, that's it. You know who else? Not the Australians either. Cam Davis, nice player, likely to win more events on tour. I think he's got game, not going to win a major.

Not a guy that you'll ever see me wagering on to win a major. But I do want to sort of big picture this thing. We, on the introductory pod before this thing, really got going. Wednesday night, we got the lineups, we tried to forecast some. We're talking about, man, this thing feels stale. How can we reinvent it? One of the things that I was reminded over the course of the weekend,

this does still matter. It still resonates. It still has legacy implications for all of the guys competing because we're constantly measuring these performances against historical markers. You just hit on a stat for JT there, an all-timer, really. and you know that that that means something now i still think that this thing could use an injection of some fresh ideas a fresh approach i would love to see international women on the stage here

and you know especially paired up with with some of these young players that we got to see i we're i adam scott seems like a nice guy i don't really have anything bad to say about him he's a beautiful man he wears too much brown um i don't need to see to see him play anymore in these events. I'm kind of done with it. It's a wet fart experience for me. 42 years old. He was the elder statesman for that international team,

but not a leader, not a leader. Did he feel like a leader to you? No, he did not. Yeah. So, I mean, but just in terms of set of guns. They got two wins. I know. Congrats. They got their asses handed to him again. The two wins didn't come at the beginning when they could have kept it close.

They basically lost by the margin of the Thursday, Friday. Outcomes and, you know, he went out and got rolled in the very first match, him in Hedecki. And, you know, the internationals, that was the theme Thursday and Friday. They got rolled and they couldn't come back from it. It was fun, though, on Saturday to see a little bit of life. And I'm primarily interested in your assessment. Obviously, we're celebrating Tom Kim.

We're celebrating Siwu Kim. I thought Sung Jay played pretty good. I just wish. Now, when we watched, I watched live the singles matchups. I watched them go through the process. And Trevor afterwards said, Trevor Emblem and the captain of the international team, we used our process, we didn't deviate from our process. We had an approach that we planned to use for this.

We didn't move off of it. And we didn't, in particular, move off of it in view of the Saturday outcomes. I was disappointed. I wanted to see Tom Kim out first. I wanted to see Song J.M. among the first three players. Si Wu was a fierce competitor, absolutely has the chops to be out there

as the first guy out. That's fine. Best record of the week. But we need to see those guys. Let me tell you what I think he was thinking. I think he understood they had to win eight points to win the cup.

Max and Tom Kim were third from last group. So for them to be alive, it had to get to that third to last group. And you already had Mito and Bezudan Hood, who were not having a good week, to say the least. Well, they didn't play Saturday, neither one of them. Right. And Corey Connors, who had to play. I mean, he...

I mean, Basuddin Hood went 1-0-and-one. What was... Right, because he was just trying to hide him. I mean, what could Imelman really do, having had all the defections? I did not mind the idea that if they survived all the way down to the end, of the card, it was going to be, Tom Kim would have had to have won that match to give them,

that could have been the clinching point if they'd won everything else. But Tom Kim had to win that match for the internationals to win. So I don't mind him front-loading it with Siwu. Maybe Cam can be Jordan, Hideki, Adam. Suddenly you get further down, you got to put the Canadians somewhere, right? So you got to hide them somewhere. I don't mind. Back of the bus. Yeah, but at some point, point, if you've got the two Canadians plus Mito plus Bazaed and Hood, the Beezer, then it's just a lot to get through. I feel like he was thinking, Tom. I just go ahead. Well, he was. He was at the end of the day. But like it felt like Tom Kim was going to be there to win that match and suddenly there's two matches

left that are going to determine the President's Cup and it would have put a ton of pressure on Morikow and Kisner, who by the way, were not in their best form ever. I mean, to everybody who said Kisner should be on the Ryder Cup team. May I present to you, O2 and 1, and the highlight of Kisner was being called Grandpa and calling Seawu Kim an ugly fucker. Yeah, I mean, he's just... Can we just put that to bet?

Let's just put it to bed. It's a team chemistry role. He's a glue guy. We don't need glue. We didn't need it. It didn't matter is the thing. Yeah. Because the team was so loaded.

I mean, we got nothing... I love kids. We got nothing from Scotty Sheffler. We got nothing from Sam Burns. You know what I mean? Well, we got a lot from Sam Burns. I think we got a lot from San Burns. And one thing we should talk about.

Listen, he played great. He just ran into the wrong guy. I agree. He made a lot of bird. This was not, this was not like Horshawrishol or Cam Young. No, I know. I'm worried you. The Sam Burns and to a lesser extent,

Sheffler played really good golf that just ran in the wrong guy. Sam Burns is defending his title in Jackson this week. Yes. And really what you need is a guy on the ground to figure out just how drunk they get tonight. And my sense is that it's because it wasn't close, there's not as much ebullience in that team room. And so they're not going to rage like the traditional wins.

And so I think Sam Burns is going to come out next week and absolutely kick ass because he played great this week. He did play great. And it's got to be kind of a psychological relief because the pressure. This is a part of the thing when we're talking about that sort of legacy concept, the pressure of the week is unmistakable. It's genuine. And it is, by contradistinction, such a difference from the garbage exhibition thing that is off to the side, you know, paying off these guys.

Yeah, this is different kind of team golf. Yes. Different altogether. Like genuine things at stake. Yes. And genuine passion and genuine sentiment. And faces on big TV screens. Deservidly so.

There was a moment today where this could have gone wrong. You could look at the board and NBC didn't show it to us very often, did they house? Up to their usual standards. Yeah. You could look at the board and see it because there was some tight match. Matsuyama and Burns was tight. It was a fun match to watch. Speeth was down through eight holes.

Yes. Siwu and JT are sort of wrestling. So to me... Heavyweight bout. Yeah. I mean, Jordan's going on Fuego starting with 9. then winning four straight holes on the back, had it going.

But even then, you could look down the board and go, I could see it. And I think the guy who turned it around, and I know Top Gun Tony, dude, Top Gun Tony was down to Pendrith. He was down two holes to Pendrith. He birdies nine.

He burdies four on the back to close it out. And when Fienau won, with his putts just rolling in from everywhere, it was over. I got to say, top gun Tony, three and one this week. If you're going to give number one,

I guess you've got to give it to speak. He was holding up his kid like the fucking Lion King on the first team. It was awesome. Thomas seemed to be in serious awe of how Jordan was just doing Jordan things. Max Homa was 4 and O. 4 and O.

And he arguably drove the nail on the coffin Friday night with that put on 18. Yes, that's exactly right. And so we will celebrate the homie Homa. We wondered whether the fatiguanian, fatigue of being on the West Coast and winning that tournament and winning that tournament in a grind in bad weather, whether that was going to impact him.

Dude, that's three in a row for him. Mental regimen, fitness regimen. He went from the left coast to the right coast. He made it over and he was on point and on his game all week long. I mean, four and oh, you got to give it up. The dude's on a heater and he deserves it. We got a hoss. How about it?

Now, the question is that I have for you is, He's definitely on a heater. Was Sheffler just on a heater when he got to number one in the world? Because between Tour Championship and this event, he's still a great golfer. I mean, he's a top 10 golfer in the world. Is he the number one golfer in the world right now? I mean, by ranking. So we just say, yes, technically, but he's not playing the best.

There are other guys playing better. I mean, we saw them at the Tour Championship. Really, to me, Rory's playing the best. Roy is the best playing the best in the world. And we're going to have an opportunity to see him in another forum here coming up at the Dunhill, which is, you know, it's super fun. Scotland, they rotate between three courses, including the old course. And a bunch of the lived orcs are going to be at that event again. So we'll get to see Rory large and in charge.

But, you know, no reason to knock Scotty Sheppler. No. You know, golf moves quickly in this manner. you're on a heater, then you're not. And, you know, it can last. For him, for Scotty, it lasted a pretty long time. I mean, he made it all the way. He was in the final couple groups at the U.S. Open with the chance to win the U.S.

Open after winning in Phoenix, pretty good. You know, that's February through June, pretty good. And including a master's win in there and three other wins, I think that's a good heater. For sure. For sure. Let's see the consistency. I only say that because Max, Max just has seemed to get stronger and stronger and stronger as everything has gone on.

Because there's confidence. You can see his confidence. It's just there. And this is, I think, going to be another one of those notches in his belt that just continues to elevate him. I'm really ready to see him go head to head with the guys who were his teammates today and really see him in a big event playing with these guys. Let's have the conversation. This is what I want your thoughts on of the guys who just competed in this President's Cup. We have many major winners already, but who amongst the non-major winners do you feel like

have it in them? Because I have a short list, but I have a list of guys who like, I absolutely positively could see winning a major and putting it on their belt. Well, I know this is going to be unpopular with you, but I think it's top gun Tony. And I think it's...

Why would that be unpopular with me? Well, it's fine. I root for him. Okay, great. It's Xander's time. He was senior... crappy today. He was senior crappy. I mean, Corey Conner's just, I mean, Zander was doing everything

he could to give this to Cory Connors, and Corey just would not take it. He just was dropping the ball. Would not? Could not. That's right. It just, bleh. But Zander and Cantley all week were pretty impressive, and I'm very interested to hear whether Cantley's on your list

because... That would have been, see, that would have been the unpopular one. When you started in with... You thought I was going... You're unpopular answer. No, I was thinking about you all weekend, going, is this changing the way House thinks about Cantley because he really was an assassin this week. What he did to Adam Scott,

I think the Adam Scott thing was kind of perfect, and that's really the aspect of the international teams, how they lined up that I just regret. I wanted to see one of the young Korean guys in this spot that Adam Scott occupied. I think that Tom Kim would have given

Patrick Cantlay a hell of a battle. And, you know, it's true that Fienow's win nudged the U.S. to where it really felt like there was no question. But Patrick Cantley beating Adam Scott, and it was not close really

at any point. I mean, Scott was playing catch up the whole time. Yeah, he was just playing catch up. It was a surgical. But I don't think that Patrick Cantlay stands on a tee with Adam Scott and says, oh, God, I'm up against something. I feel like this is a challenge. That's the part of it. That psychological element was missing.

And that's where I wanted. I wanted that the Tom Kim, what he was carrying in the universe, I wanted that to move from Saturday night into the beginning of the round on Sunday

so that we had like that the genuine drama. I wanted that momentum to carry over. Does the position of his match with Max change the way you feel about the fact that Max won four straight

down the stretch on the back nine to win the match by two? No, because it doesn't undermine Max's accomplishment. I just think that it it absolutely positively, unequivocally had an impact on Tom Kim's competitors because he's a kid, because he's 20.

If they'd let him out early, you think he just brings out all the testosterone and everything. Yeah. Okay. Yes. Yes. Okay. I understand what Trevor was thinking, which is that we're going to need some injection of massive adrenaline.

If we actually have a chance to win this thing, the guy that I want in the critical match that will save us is Tom Kim. So I don't mind him putting it down because he's like, if we get that far, who's going to lead us forward, who's going to be the guy. It's going to have to be Tom Kim. You got to get there. That's my issue. You got to get, like, you can't just hope. I just hope that Scott plays great. But to get there, Taylor Pendrith and Corey Connors have to win. Those are hope guys. You got to put a little bit behind the hope. I wanted to see Sung Jay. I wanted to see Tom Kim. Or Mito or Beezer. Well, Mito stunk and they deliberately kept him off of the roster for Saturday.

This is like the commander's offensive line. Like you're just trying to talk me into it. why we keep it together. Patch it together. Oh, my God. Thank that we were not talking about the C words on this podcast. That's the only reference to them. We got a safety. So you did.

You mentioned Top Gun Tony, no issue with him. Can't lay still a no for me. Who else? Who else do you have as guys that open up your eyes? Zander's a yes. And then we got to talk about Max. I mean, Max is a conundrum for me because of his major performance. historically, but I do think he is now putting one foot in front of the other, and every step

he takes, he's going higher. I think it's fair to say that, you know, he's won at Quail Hollow before, so no surprise that this course fits him, but he also won at Riviera. He also won at Avenel. He's won at Napatois. He's won on some fairly different courses, and he's won against some pretty big fields. So you just want to see it in the major, and how did you come out of this week? I mean, just looking at his progression, just you cannot write off what. he did at the Tour Championship. He was awesome at the Tour Championship against a lot of good guys

playing for a lot of money. I wish we could hurry up and have it be April already. Yeah. That's what I think. Because between now, it's September the 25th. Can he keep it going?

That's it. And that's why I ask you the question as it relates to Sheffler. Because it's hard. We're seeing Sheffler after a heater peel off, you know, nine months later. If Max could keep,

if the Masters was, know, the masters of 2020, and we're doing it in November. You and I feel great about this. It's just whether he has actually elevated himself enough that he can keep the consistency because he is going to take a much-deserved break over the next bunch of weeks. He's got, I think my guesses he'll play Vegas as an MGM sponsor-e. Rep. He is sponsored by MGM.

Whatever the fuck you. Fine. That means. My guesses will see him there. But other than that, my expectation is he. He's going to take a much deserved break. And I just wish that he could... We'll see.

Listen, the great guys find a way to stay consistent. They take the break and they keep going. Max works so hard, but he will be out of competition for a while. Let's see if he has finally made it to that level where there isn't quite the ebb and flow of some of the guys who are just one notch below the top guys in the world. Everything that Max is saying that's coming out of his mouth indicates he has solved what has always been the weakest club in the bag for Max Homa,

and that is what's between his ears. He just is a different human being to his friends. He's a different human being to his caddy and his coach. It appears he's a different human being to his family. He's definitely a different human being on the course. The Brain Club. All right, let's do the international team. Shorter list, from my perspective.

Who did you see? Well, I've never really wavered on Sung-Jay. his game is such that at any given time in any given tournament I fully expect him at some point to win a major really only two other guys

it is Si Wu 3 and 1 who really really showed something today that was an all-timer like that would have the challenge put in front of him

to go out in in lead position and just deliver a point and for him to stare down JT and pull it off. That, those are... If we could just get a major on a Pete Dye course, see we're going to win.

So, and he's, he is a players championship winner. So that's the pedigree, right? That tells you he can win a major. That tournament is absolutely no joke. It's just in the rearview mirror. And it's, you know, a handful of years, five years now.

Can he be the 76th ranked player in the world? And then you look at his putting statistics week after week. You know, you just say, what the F is going on with you, C. Wu? It's the most boom or busts ever. And this is our homie, Pat Mayo, comes on here. And, you know, he's on C. Wu for every week, boom or bust. That was the traditional criticism of Hedecki before he stepped up and won at Augusta, right? Was the best ball striker in the world, but can he actually putt when it matters?

So let's do Tom Kim, because Tom Kim saved this tournament. Tom Kim saved this tournament, period. And the answer's got to be, I don't know. It's a fair answer. He was two and three this week, man. It's a fair answer. I love the energy. I love the game.

I love the fact that he won his first PGA event by five, shooting a 61. I love the kid. He's 20 years old. If he'd gone, I mean, we're not talking about, you know, we're not talking about Sebastian Munoz who had the best record of the, well, he was undefeated. He was 2.0 and 1 this week. And played, I mean,

he was pretty impressive. He took down Scottie Schaeffler, the best player in the world. Yeah. I don't think either of us step back and go, he's going to do that for four straight rounds. That's always been Sebastian's problem. Tom Kim, great to have him. Great personality. When I think about the guys who are going to win a major, he's still going to be 20th on my list of people right now who I think, you know, are going to step up. But I don't know how you feel. I'm so happy to have the injection of youth from a non-European,

non-American player and personality on the tour. Like, the tour needs Tom Kim. That's it. Just brilliant. And that's why this tournament counts and why this tournament matters. He was a revelation. And he put himself on a world stage. Like, it's one thing to win the Wyndham in Greensboro for nerds like us watching golf and, you know,

drilling down into it each week. and it's why, as we saw him coming, you know, late summer, we're like proclaiming, hey, this is pretty interesting. But for him to come to this stage, again, this is the thing that really sets apart the tour from its lackluster, flaccid, small C competitor, which, you know, the Jared Kushner tour.

This was Sergio-esque, dude. They're eyeballs on this thing. We're watching it. There's real competition here. Like, this is, this means this is real television with real, you know, real competition. But this felt like Sergio doing the scissors leg kick at the PGA more so than Tiger Woods or somebody breaking, you know, or Jordan Speed winning the Masters, right? In other words, in other words, it was a, it was a feat of youthful exuberance and skill, but not one where you're like, holy shit, this guy just took over a tournament. No, and, you know, part of the thing for sure that we were both in the thrall of,

at the moment is the charisma because the kid hasn't. And everything else was boring as fuck this week. Let's be honest. It's like Adam Scott, like Corey Conner's Mito. Did you hear anything out of Mito this week? No, no, no, right? Cam Davis. Taylor Penrose.

Well, Cam Davis did on Saturday, late Saturday, Bertie the final three holes, snatched a match that looks like it was an L for the internationals, put them in that position to go to bed 11 to 7. And I give a little dot. Cam Davis, nice PGA tour player. That's what I'll say.

What I'll say is this. Of the guys who are comfortable enough with their English to get in front of a microphone, Tom Kim was by a mile the most interesting and charismatic. Okay. And that's kind of why we fell in love with him this week. Yeah, yeah. Well,

everything can't be sunshine and roses. Like we said, the Dunhill and the Sanderson Farms. The Sanerson Farms is the domestic event. Dunhill is, Probably the last time we ever see it. So this is, well, that Sanderson Farms event, is that right? Jackson, Mississippi is going to lose an event.

Yeah, I mean, I think the Sanderson Farm CEO was the champion of this event. He's gone. You know, we got all kinds of changes coming. Why are we going to Jackson, Mississippi, and not New York, Chicago, Miami, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's just, you know, that's just business. That's fine. I'm not, I don't mind it. We got to enjoy the chicken, the chicken farm while we can.

So let's do, let's talk golf business though. Who are the next guys or is there, is it less than two that you expect to see jumping over to the Kushner tour? First of all, can we just be clear? Josh Kushner is a wonderful human being. Okay. He is a great, great person. So let's call it the Jared Kushner tour. All right, we call it the Jared Tour.

It's fine by me. That's fine. the answer is let's find out the rumors everywhere are that it's meadow and munoz but i will say that munoz had a lot of fun this week and this event meant a ton to him now my guess is the signature is already dry and it doesn't allow him to back out but he was very gracious he said he was really sad that it was over which maybe had extra meaning than we thought those are the eyes those are the players that we should have eyes on coming out of this event. Okay.

Well, Mito, I won't miss. Who cares? Yeah. Munoz, I agree with you. There was a level of charisma watching him go up against Schephardt today that I wasn't prepared for. And I was reminded he had some good tournaments over the course of the 21, 22 season. We watched him a few times like, hey, this guy's got some game. I mean, he's, he had some top fives.

I think he had a runner-up in there. I would prefer that he... Yeah, me, listen, he won Sanderson Farms in 2019 for crying out loud. There you go. There you go. He can win. Yeah. But that's fine. Those are... If both those guys go, they don't move the needle. I ask you...

I don't think we have... I don't think we have... It is still Cam Smith and Dustin Johnson shooting really fat, rich fish in a barrel. Okay. That's what it is over there. And the narrative coming out of this week, might be if they get Munoz, hey, you know, world ranking points, you got to pay attention to us because we just took the guy who went head to head with the world ranked number one player and he plays for us now. You got to give us that. That's nonsense. I don't, I don't even want

to indulge that conversation. I'm just telling you that's what they would say. It's just a dumb thing. It's fine. And as we talked about last week, if I was, if I was everybody else on the PJ tour side, I'd say anybody who defects after this from the international team is too afraid to play with the big boys because it's clear who the big boys are. They're all on the PGA tour and the guys who left are sour grapes. That would be the narrative if I was a PR firm for these guys that I'd pursue. But now we now we have this long sort of winter of, you know, some quasi-intering events on the PGA tour. I don't know what the hell's going to go down in Miami at the tour championship at the Trump course. I mean, good God. The Jared Tour Championship you mean. I mean,

That may be, there may be subpoenas served. There may be arrests made on the 18th green. Full circus. We should get some clown suits and go down there. Bryce and Deschambo might decapitate himself on somebody's thread that they used to sew. Who knows? I'm glad you mentioned Bryson because the other thing that I wanted to get your thoughts on, who do you think that, you know, that's made the leap over?

Do you think any of those guys were watching and feeling left out, feeling like, yeah, okay. Who in particular? Name names. I think Cam Smith looked at that and said, if I had been there, I bet we could have won. Oh, that's an interesting assessment. I mean, he would have been a successful

and a contributing. Now, the Australians, Adam Scott and Cam Davis, went four and six, which I guess is okay. I just think if you have a real dog, in the room. Yeah. I mean, Tom Kim,

we're like, yeah, Tom Kim, he was the guy. Again, he went two and three. Yeah. If you had a guy who went four and oh,

five and oh, you can start to pull forward. Yeah. Yeah. Some people say, if I'm Cam Smith, I look at that and go, geez,

I, you know, that could have been me. Other than that, I, I, DJ don't, do you think DJ cares?

No, I mean, I think DJ probably tonight is pissed that he can't be drunk because you remember from the, from the, from the, from the, from the,

from the, Ryder Cup when they asked them, are you going to lead it? Can you out drink these guys? And he said absolutely, right? That was a great DJ moment. He said that. He said that. It's true. And so my guess is he looks at it and goes, oh, that would have been fun to party with those guys tonight. But when you think about the three best Americans who were there, and correct me, but I think it's Brooks, it's Bryson and it's DJ. DJ, you know, at this point, probably he seems to be like able to emotionally shut down from that. Brooks has the I'm too cool for school vibe anyway. doesn't give a shit, doesn't really want to buddy, buddy, right?

His vibe has been, I'm not really friends with those guys anyway. My friends are off the course. And Bryson DeShampo has possibly the lowest EQ of any professional golfer we've ever seen, which is part of, you know, why he at times has been really good at golf and also why he at times has been really bad at golf. So I'm not sure that any of those guys do anything other than say, wow, I missed the attention. The one guy who's probably sitting around is Patrick Reed. You mean Patrick Reed?

Captain America, who, you know, I mean, I really missed him this week house. It would have been so great to have Captain America out there. And we probably would have won by 20, you know, we probably would have gotten to 20 points if he was there. But, you know, otherwise. No longer in the top 50 of the official world golf rankings because he missed the cut on the Asian tour. I mean, you know, he really was trying to make some time for his family with the Kushner tour experience. But sometimes he goes to the Asian tour. tour and just wants to get his reps in.

Tough. If you miss the cut, it does have an impact on your official world golf ranking. If you go to a tour that features talent, you know, that's maybe not at that tip. Jazz, Jen Watan. Yeah. Has an impact on the number. You can take a look at that and they can complain. Maybe they can write another letter. Well, listen, it was sad to not have them here.

Do you think there's anybody else who looked at this with some regrets? I do not. I mean, Brandon Grace had a good run, you know, for the, for the, for the, President's Cup, but, you know, Louis would have been, they would have been more fun to have them, Abe, answer. Really, and honestly, this is the complaint that goes

to like the guts of my single biggest problem with the guys who jumped over. A Bancer was literally nobody until December of 2020, when on the world stage, he went up against Tiger Woods and said that he wanted to go

up against him. And all of, you know, it caught the sports calendar at a very unique time. And we got to watch like real interesting competition at Royal Melbourne. The golf courses were magnificent. It was, it was a Tiger Woods tournament. So, you know, the world's eyes were watching. And A. Banser caught all of that shine. He's otherwise literally a nobody could walk into Target. Any target, right up the street here, Northwest D.C. Walk in the target, not one person would stop him, ask him anything about his professional expertise,

but he caught all that shy. I didn't see him over the aisles. Yeah. That's right. And he's a damn good golfer. I mean, damn fine golfer, but not a guy that is anybody

in the absence of what the tour construct created for him, which is elevating his stature, elevating his persona, and that elevation turned into whatever amount of money that he took. from the lives. Good for him. Good for his family. I'm happy for him. But you're missing out on real competition, real legacy building, really interesting competitive of golf. And that's it isn't it?

House, that's the sadness of this moment, which is that the devolution of golf has occurred. And it's going to be quite some time because of the vitriol, because of the aggressive tactics of Norman, that alienated a lot of people, not just, it's not Jay Monaghan who's the issue. It's the players. Because as we've seen, if the players really want to make something happen,

they can make it happen. But the guys who are standing in red, white and blue right now, chugging out of that gold cup, do not want to fuck with the guys on the live tour. They do not want to give them the professional benefit and courtesy of creating an event

where they will play each other. Don't need them. Right now, they don't feel like they need them. And the sad thing for us as fans is you and I are now going to do 45 minutes on an event that was missing probably the three best guys who should have been there. Abe answer, Walking Neiman, Cam Smith, I mean, Louis Euse Hayeson. DJ. Oh, you're mean for the international.

On the international side. Just on the international side alone. And that's just us talking because there's an embarrassment of riches on the U.S. side. But the point is it's going to be a while for the interpersonal animosity that has been. built up between the players on Live and the players on the PGA Tour to subside. There will, I believe, sure is Sunday, be a reconciliation, you know, Rocky 4 come together type moment where it might take a decade. It might take 15, 20 years, but where the best players actually come together outside of the majors in some kind of team format that's probably not going to be Live versus PGA,

like AFC, NFC, but will be some kind of sort of country-oriented thing. But it's going to be a long time. And for that, I'm sad because if we can make this diluted tournament into something that you and I start not caring about on Wednesday and by Sunday we actually give a shit about, it speaks to the format. And Live is not this format. And quite frankly, you know, PJ doesn't have this format either. So I'm sad that we're not going to get this for some time. I agree with you. So what we have to look forward to a couple Kushner Tour events and a couple of interesting events on the tour. So hit to gala this week.

There's no doubt. Well, that's it. It's a hit or Sam Burns. More opportunities for guys on the come up to go ahead and, you know, put a, make their mark and put a stamp on things and try and qualify for next year's playoffs. This is still an important, this is the last time it will be important. More than ever, because top 70 matters. So these next couple events for the guys who are not on that, you know, bender down in Charlotte,

North Carolina tonight mean a hell of a lot. And so we'll be watching and, you know, intrigued by who can claim it, who steps up and grab something by the seat of the pants and gets their moment. We have a couple shows coming through this fall. We remain relevant here at Fairway Rowland, as relevant as golf can be. We'll do a year-end wrap up as the, you know, the tournament schedule goes from November into December, right around Thanksgiving time. And then we'll be ready rocking and rolling come January with the answer, perhaps,

to who we're going to see playing in the Masters in April of 2023. But, you know, in the meantime, we're just chugging along here, trying to find the middle of the fairway, my birdie buddies, my parsaving pals, my eagle enthusiast. Thanks for coming along. Hope you enjoyed that. I was flipping between the football and the golf. There was some interesting stuff. stuff to watch new heroes coming forward.

Fall golf. It's sweater weather. Please use the leaf rule. Be aggressive. The leaf's strong on the ground. You can't find the ball on leaf rule. Just drop one and keep playing. In the meantime, please, everybody.

Let's head them straight up there.