Fairway Rollin' - Ryen Russillo on Max Homa, Ball Striking, and Recapping Riviera

Episode Date: February 23, 2021

House and Hubbard tee up to recap the explosive results of the Genesis Open at Riviera and Max Homa's victory (01:19). Later they are joined by Ryen Russillo to talk about his connection to Homa and Russillo's insights into developing a powerful swing (23:28). Then they recap Tiger's performance and how often we can hope to see him in tournaments this year (47:52). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, friends, and welcome to this golf podcast, unlike any other. Oh, yes, sir, we are back. It is time for some fairway. Golf podcasts on the Ringer podcast Network. I am your starter, Joe House, on the line as he always is. Our PGA tour correspondent on the ground, Nathan Hubbard. And we have a special appearance by a special guest on today's show. This gentleman actually communicated by way of FaceTime with Max Homa,

the PGA Tour champion of the Genesis Open at Riviera moments after Max's victory. So we have to talk to our homeboy, Ryan Rosillo. The first tee is open. Nate and I will go ahead and get started as a two ball, throw a couple pegs in the ground. if we can get it out there a little bit. All right, Nate Dog, here we go. What a tournament at Riviera. I'm exhausted.

It was exhausting. It was too much to watch that down the stretch. That took years off my life. So what's kind of crazy about it, and there's a whole bunch of things that I want to cover all built into what you just said, it felt very quiet for a while, for kind of a long while.

Some of that is because of the start and stop because they had to take a four-hour break for high wins on Saturday. That then impacted Sunday because some guys had to go out early, including Maxoma and finish off their third rounds in the first part of Sunday. But Sam Burns was out to such a comfortable lead for so much of the tournament that it didn't really start feeling spicy until like, I don't know, four o'clock in the afternoon here on the East Coast, maybe, maybe even later than that. Actually, it was definitely later than that. And it was just the back nine at Riviera where guys really started to separate themselves. It was the 10th hole that DJ hit a, you know, hit the ball behind a tree and then hit the tree on his, on his chip bottom, like, oh, DJ's done.

You can cross him off. They stopped showing Patrick can't lay earlier than that. But in any event, it was a marathon experience. including the playoff that Homa unbelievably won over Fienau. I know you made it there sometime over the weekend. Give us a report from the ground and give us some of your insight into what you watched. Well, let's just remember that this is one of the best courses in golf. That's what we were reminded of this week.

We saw it on TV. I got a chance to see it in person. The players raved about it. for all of the distance discussion and what do we do about the equipment, everything, you know, when you put them all on a golf course like this, you get a great tournament where a bunch of great players play well, they're challenged, and you've got to, you know, that's even before the elements kick in. Saturday, that wind was insane. I live not that far away from the course, and the Goodyear Blimp kept drifting over my house.

and then out over across the ocean because the wind was insane all night and coming into Saturday morning. And I know there was some chatter about the stoppage and whether it was just because, well, they'd screwed up the greens and they needed to inject them with water to soften them up. But I'm just telling you, in the parking lot at Rive, out by the putting green at Rive, it was blowing like crazy. There was no way those guys were going to be able to play a legitimate round of golf. and certainly not one where the whole point is to televise an entertaining event. So it was, you know, when that weather came in, they just had to stop it. They were not going to be able to get a fair tournament in while it kept blowing.

The good news is the golf gods stepped in and smacked the weather gods in the mouth and gave us enough of a Saturday afternoon reprieve to get most of the golf in. And you said it didn't really heat up until Sunday. I think if you were watching late on Saturday. I was. I loved it. You saw that Sam Burns bogeed 12, 13, and 14. By the way, three impossible holes.

Sure. But you could see the car was starting to go in reverse. And while he did finish out, you know, paring out in the morning on Sunday, we had a golf tournament with him with an only two-stroke lead. But here's the thing. He went out and shot 31 on the front, of his fourth round, his final round, and that's what that performance,

I thought was going to be the thing that separated himself and just put it to bed. The thing, the only thing to keep an eye on at all in that context was, is there somebody coming from the back that is just going to put up a number and then go sit up on the top of the hill and watch everybody, you know,

try and climb the hill. And that person looked like it was going to be Tony Fee now. I mean, Finao had a phenomenal day, an unbelievable golfing day. I'm not going to say, you're not going to really get me to say anything bad about any aspect of his day, including his performance in the playoff. He was entitled to one mistake in the playoff, and he made it. I mean, I know that there was some question about how, you know, how great the chip was on 10. It was great enough for that to be a seven foot put. it was a hard put, but, you know, that, that's, that was the only kind of way for the drama

to really come into this thing, but it all happened all at once, right? Look, we got to stop calling him top 10 Tony and start calling him top two Tony, because it's his third runner up in a row. But the key is, this is a different Tony fee now. I really think, and we'll get into this with Max, but, you know, if you take Max, if you take Tony, if you take Jordan, these are three guys who have been very open and vulnerable of late about their struggles. And guess what? When they acknowledge the elephant in the room and they talk about it, it's served to get them focused and maybe help them get to the next level where they can put themselves in position to play much better golf. Tony Fienow, you know, the knock on him's always been

Sunday, Sunday afternoon he doesn't bring it. In this tournament, that was, as you said, a flawless Sunday. I think playing the playoff in one over is a bummer. And that put on 10 he decided to play it a little downhill and he said, I regret that. I shouldn't have done that. Because it was going in if he'd hit it a little harder. But I think we got to put

to rest the hey, can Tony Tony Finow is going to win golf tournament. And as we talk about what's coming up at the concession this week, if you're not favorite, Tony, Tony, there are six guys who are favored ahead of Tony Fenow right now. And I'm not sure what the gambling markets are thinking. Because Tony Fianow's going to get the win. And that is what we saw on Sunday was a guy who was

dedicating himself to playing his ass off on Sunday. He did it. End of story. I mean, you also had some other guys running up from the back who were really going to, you know, DJ had a week where it was ho-hum. I mean, he didn't do anything interesting, right? And he still finished T-8, right? Fee now, first in birdies, first in Eagles. He's making the run from behind. And then there was Max. So when you saw that list of guys, and by the way, Rom posted a five under kind of early as well.

You thought he got off to a four under through six lead. He said, well, maybe he's going to get to do it. It really was watching Sam Burns, who now has gone to bed with the most leads this year on the PGA tour. It was watching a kid who's 24 years old, who is a, by all accounts, immensely talented golfer. And if anything, has kind of underachieved so far.

at age 24 we're saying at age 24 which we have to talk about in this age of you know romansbyth and j t and and the young guys in morikawa and wolf etc whether you know how he was going to handle this on a big big big boy golf course and look he didn't play well on the back that's all there is to it the back nine on sundays where you got to do it it's where the mentally uh you know immature start to struggle and that 12th hole is just a beast and it was on the 12th hole where it started to fall apart. And you knew by the time he bogeyed 14 that the wheels were not off,

but that he was not really going to threaten this, even though he had a chance to get into the playoff with a birdie on 18. He just was going to slowly open that door. He's going to learn from that. We're going to see Sam Burns in the winter circle soon. It certainly feels like it. I mean, that was, you know,

he almost right on the brink of like truly historic stuff leading this event wired. If he'd won it wire to wire, it would have been the first since Hal Sutton back in 1983. It's so hard. Yeah, exactly. So, and he shot under par, right? This is another thing about, you know, these young, he shot under par on Sunday. At Riviera.

At Riviera, right. And what's the Justin race at? Since the beginning of last season, players leading by one or two strokes entering the final round have won 16.7% of the time. It is hard to win on the PGA tour. and to bring it back to Fee now, and we're going to have a whole bunch on Max, but this, Tony is going to win. You've just got to keep putting yourself in contention.

The stats are crazy. They don't make any sense to me. It's a statistical anomaly at this point because just in Tony's case, there should have been some Sam Burns is in front of Tony who fell apart and gave him a victory. He's been in contention so many times. That's how hard it is to win. That's what usually happens to people who are. were unproven in the moment.

It just hasn't happened to Tony yet. Again, 37 top 10 since 2017. It's coming. This is a different player. And you know that at some point in the next couple of weeks, we're going to be seeing him in the winter circle. Yeah, I totally agree. The parting shot for me with Fee now is not the playoff,

but instead he birdied 16, he birdied 17. He saved par on 18. Great shit. Every one of those, you know, the put on 16, the putt on 17 and the chip and made putt on 18, those are how winners win. Those are winners winning golf tournaments kind of performance across the last three holes. When it was winning time, he put his foot on the pedal. We talk about this all the time because it's my silly analogy. But I just, you know, I want guys to go grab golf tournaments by the throat.

win them. And that's why, let's go ahead and start talking about the homie homa. His performance, he, he on 18, hit the ball to three feet. He was going to grab the golf tournament by the throat and win it because he matched Tony Fienow on that back nine stroke for stroke. Max needed the birdie on 12. Max got the birdie on 12. Tide going to 18, drive straight up the middle, piped it, ran out another 70 yards, and then takes, I think it was an 18. I think it was an eight iron, maybe it was a seven iron, and sticks it, stuff's it. I mean, you know, golf Twitter lost its mind. There was a whole bunch of zipper action on 18, yeah.

It was a full zipper zone. It was a full zipper zone shot. Let's hear it. First of all, the drive was 339 yards. Oh, so he did not have an eight iron. He had a sand wedge in his hand. That's right. Of course.

And he was going to hit a gap wedge and Joe is caddy said, you are juiced up. take this sand wedge, the number is 127, it's perfect. And because those greens were so firm, he didn't have to worry about the spin as much and knew that if he just hit that number, he was going to give himself a chance. Well, three foot four inches away,

and you're thinking, all right, this thing is over. But it wasn't. And you tell me, I mean, look, he has acknowledged, knowledge, that was a super nervous putt. I mean, I watched the replay of that thing over and over and over again. And it's interesting because the line looks, like the line on his ball looks pretty straight. But it just, I don't think, I think he probably lined it up wrong, misread it, played at center, and it pulled further left than he thought it would. But that's one where, man, when that thing went out, I was, it like disemboweled me because I know Max a little bit. And, and, you know, we,

We talked about Max coming into the week as a player to watch for all the reasons that he'd been T5 last year. He was T7 last week. He was getting his game into shape. Mark played a practice round with him on Wednesday and came home and said he is absolutely playing incredible golf. But the big thing is he's hitting it farther than I've ever seen him hit it. And that is really what got him into contentional week because he drove the ball absolutely

beautifully, and gave himself chances to hit irons on a second shot course. And that's exactly what he did. I mean, the back nine, you know, the truth about, did you see the Saturday round?

Did you see his 10th hole on Saturday? So that's, you beat me to the punch, right? Because there were two shots by Max Homa at this golf tournament, at this event that will go down in, in history,

as legendary, the hallmark shots. And they were his shot out of the bunker on 10 on Saturday and his shot from behind the tree in the playoff also on 10. I mean, how unbelievable is that Max Homa's life will inextricably be linked forever and ever and ever with the 10th hole at Riviera, at least for us golf nerds? You said it. It's hard to describe how impossible the bunker shot was on 10 on Saturday. He's got 82 feet. It runs downhill and away to the pin.

I want to interrupt you just because to emphasize the downhill and away part, it was where Max landed his ball is the exact same place that Keegan Bradley putted his ball and it rolled off the green. It was the reason that the golf tournament was halted for several hours on Saturday is because Keegan Bradley putted to a spot that Max Homa, five hours later, was able to, from 82 feet away, he hit the ball to a spot that no human being on Earth can get the ball to stop in, and yet for Max Homa, it stopped. That could have easily gone off and into the other.

I mean, he was looking at a six in that spot for sure, and he just picked it so perfectly. People are going to talk about the playoff, hooded gap wedge, where, you know, he's up against the tree and he hit a great shot that, you know, I think a lot of people on TV anyway thought he had no chance. when he got up there, he felt like he had a little bit. He hit it perfectly. But it was that bunker shot on Saturday that really at the end of the day kept him in the tournament and gave him a chance to win. And he made the putt.

I mean, that's the thing that was most impressive about it, right? Like that putt also downhill, incredibly hard, like, you know, degree of difficulty, nine out of ten. Homa all week leading up to his put on 18 to win the golf tournament had gone. 55 for 56 on putts inside five feet for that week. And so, you know, I don't know what the official length was of the putt he made on 10 on Saturday, but it wasn't, it was right in that five foot range. Seven foot two inches. Yeah, okay.

So there it is. I mean, it was in that same kind of range. And he just had the stroke all week, right? Yeah, he really did. He found the groove. And that gets to the larger point about Max Homa. I mean, he is one of the most. talented guys that not a lot of people know about.

And Max's struggle has always been between his years. But he's been so, you know, wonderfully open and transparent about the struggles that he's had. But listen, I've caddied for Mark in Columbus in 2019 at the Corn Ferry Tour playoff event, and we played two rounds with Max. And I think we talked about this when we had him on the pod. But there was, there's a par three, 17th hole, where Max missed the green and he sprayed his clubs all over the T-box. And Joe just sat there and watched him,

and they got him picked up, and they walked up to the green. And he went on to, I think, make par or Bertie on 18. And the next day, the Sunday, he had a great round that got him enough points such that he qualified and ended up keeping his card. He qualified for the next tournament. He played well. I think it was in Portland. Kept his card. And he won at Kuala Hollow the following spring, right? But it didn't end there because after Kuala Hollow, we didn't hear a lot from Max Homa, right? He was at the memorial last year when we interviewed him. He was slamming his clubs and closing his door. He was so frustrated that the

game wasn't coming together. This fall, Joe caddied for Mark Hubbard here in Los Angeles at the Zosso because Mark's caddy couldn't work that week and Max was taking the week off. And there was definitely some darkness there. Max was struggling to find the game and they were not in good sink. And here we are just a few months later. And there's nobody who's been working harder at the game than Max, but it's not just the game. He led us in so much this week to how emotionally difficult his journey has been and how mentally he's had to really reinvent himself to be able to win on a course like this. So this is, you know, it's a storybook ending.

Like it's a not to be believed. It's almost like trite that he won at the venue that he really sparked his love for golf that really, you know, for him, he talked about the experiences with his father coming from, from, you know, 30 miles away where they live, that he got to see Tiger Wood, his idol up close and in person occasionally at Riviera. And now, you know, you come to this moment in his professional career where you just described the struggles that he's been through. And he's demonstrated to us this pedigree of being able to compete with the absolutely the world, best, the win at Quail Hollow, which is a major tournament venue. And here we are at Riviera,

where we have the life story for him. We have the L.A. connection. And we have the biggest of big stages in terms of the quality of the field and the quality of the venue and what it would mean particularly to him. And to his great credit, the misput on 18 did not submarine him, did not send him into an impossible tailspin, did not lead to him, you know, losing the playoff on the very first hole. Instead, it was a moment of testicular and mental fortitude that carried on through the playoff,

and that's how we won. Well, that's why the three-foot putt miss was so awful, because this has been a guy who's been resilient. And this tournament, I am almost sure, means more to him than the Masters. I know that sounds crazy, but it really, this was everything for him. And as he was coming up 18, we said he's going to birdie this tournament. He's going to birdie this hole and he's going to win.

And he had it right there and it slipped away and you just thought, well, that's it. It's over. And there's no way he's going to recover from this because who would be able to recover from that? But you saw Joe put his hand tightly on his shoulder. You know, Max was smiling a lot coming up 18. and it felt a little bit like the nervous smile. He was forcing it. Yeah, it felt like to me, those of us who know him a little bit looked at him and went,

okay, all right. But, you know, you figure a three foot putt, it's going to go a little. When he missed it, you just thought, oh, and that's what was so gutting. It was like, oh, he was there. He had it. Like, I thought, okay, there's a decent chance. This just sends him spiraling, right? And he may not be on a leaderboard for a long time.

but boy, you know, that shot on 10 and the way that he handled it. First of all, we know he talked to his wife in between 18 and when he went out on 10, and she texted him what he has been working on, which is forgive quickly. Wow. And he got out there and hit a what he thought was a good drive, and he's smiling walking up 10. We all knew at the time. He's up against the tree.

He must have no shot for sure. But I loved the way that he didn't shake his head. He didn't hang his shoulders. He just went to work. And I promise you, I don't think Joe thought he had a shot. Joe was probably thinking, we got to chip out just to the fairway leading up to the green and try to chip up and get down for par.

That's our best play. But Max saw it and knew he could hood that wedge and hit, you know, he just stayed focused, executed it. And that was when you went, all right, Tony misses the put, advantage Max. And he steps up on 14 and hit, you know, he probably drew that a little more. than he was intending to, but put just a great stroke on it.

And with Tony in the bunker, felt like this was just a matter of time. It was over. Yeah. Amazing. Amazing. Well, look, the outpouring from the sporting public and, you know, across like the golf, Twitter, golf, social media as well, he's a beloved figure because of what he's done in terms of sharing himself is the authentic version of himself.

in the limelight for going on like 18 months to a couple years now. One of our pals had a little exchange with Max afterwards. So let's go ahead and check in with Ryan Rosillo and see what his experience with Max was like. All right, my par saving pals. As you know, there are not a lot of rules here on the Fairway Rowland podcast. But anytime a friend shows up in a text thread and puts in the thread a picture of himself FaceTiming with the winner of the PGA tour event of the day. And that friend appears in the picture in the FaceTime without his shirt on.

Well, then that guy's got to come on a podcast. I mean, that's just that is one of our rules here on Fairway Rolling. Ryan Rissillo, what's happening, buddy? What's up? I didn't, you know, I was sharing that with you because I know you're such a big golf guy and anybody that knows Max was really happy for him. And so then I was like, oh, this is turning into a bit. The picture will not be released. Oh, come on. I might release it. Yeah, that wasn't really the plan behind it. But what were you doing? Were you doing pushups or what was happening? All right. So first of all, I don't have a shirt on ever. And I don't know that that. That's even weird right now, to be honest with you. Like somebody set me some clothing and I go, I've been in workout shorts and hoodies for about

a year straight. I've never saved more money on clothing because there's just no point. After being on TV every day, five days a week for a decade plus, now I'm like, who cares what I'm wearing, you know? Because back then you'd wear the shirt at the same time in like two weeks and you're like, loser. You didn't have any your shirts. You're running out of shirts.

Anyway, I was home watching basketball, prepping for my Sunday night pod with Simmons again. and, you know, I had the Genesis Open on where I've been to that tournament so we can get to that a little bit. And Homa came on the pod. He followed me. I followed him. I love the guy. And so I was like, you know, I don't know if this is too much of an alpha move or not. Like, he's followed me long enough. So he kind of knows my deal. And I go, I'm just going to shoot him at FaceTime. See what happens. So he answered. He was at Riviera. He was waiting on a plane back to Arizona. He was pumped. And then he immediately was like, what are you doing? Did you just work out or something? Like, what the hell's going on? And I said, well, you know, it was shoulder day a little earlier. I was like, honestly, I'm just writing down notes watching pelicans and nets and everything. And I was really intense. I was super into it. So that's the backstory.

What did he say? Yeah, what did he say? He was just so happy considering, and I was getting text all day. After he came on my podcast, yeah, I have friends that are huge, huge golf fans. You know, I brought a couple of them to the masters. I kind of knew towards the end of the ESPN run. One of my friends was like, hey, look, if you're really going to leave, can you pull the gust the thing off for us. Can you ask for a favor once? And I'm not a big favor asker. So I did go to

John Skipper, who I think and was like, all right, we'll give these guys. He hooked us up. He didn't just give us four passes to every day. He gave us like the double eagle club access thing. And then I know somebody else to the PGA tour that when I first, before I'd even moved here, I was out here looking for houses in February of, that would be 18. And I went to the Riviera for the day. And I brought other friends up. And so, I used to golf more when I was younger and I had the time for it. But I have all these friends that are huge golfers, huge golf fans, and they heard Max. And so they're texting me all day knowing that I'm probably locked in all the NBA stuff.

And I'm like, no, no, I've got it. And so I just want to tell Max there's just a ton of fans. He knows he has a ton, but there's even more than he doesn't know. And it was just cool that I had so many, my college roommates texting me shot by shot. And then when he misses the put, they're devastated on his behalf because they just liked him so much. So when I called to tell him that, you know, I kept it short. He has bigger things going on trying to get his wife back. But for him to pull this off and win essentially like the course he grew up going to watch these events, it's a totally storybook ending.

So you reached out to him. That was my very first question because I imagine, you know, he's got his phone. He's got this text. He's getting the FaceTime from all kinds of folks. And you just had to give a shout out. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if I was supposed to do it, not do it. You know, had he not answered, I don't think.

I think I would have been devastated. I think I would have understood. He didn't, he didn't hit me up with the FaceTime. Trust me. I mean, I didn't know. I didn't know how inner circle you were. I mean, I know from the pod last year was great that you guys hit it off. And he's obviously awesome. We've had him on our little show here as well. And, you know, Nathan's brother and Max and Joel Damon, those guys, you know, travel around a little bit together. So we get some decent home of scoop, but none of us FaceTime with him yesterday. Now I feel like maybe I shouldn't have. I feel like this.

I think you did the exact right thing. I mean, in between the 18th and the playoff, he was on his phone. And I was like, oh, shit, we're going to get our first mid-round tweet ever. And it's going to be a disaster. But you knew if you, you knew he was going to have his phone on him. I think that was about like the easiest call the day. But you said it. Why do you think so many people are attracted to this guy and his personality?

Like, what is it about Max Holmes? he's obviously the internet, you know, golf Twitter darling because of the way he rose people swings. But there's more than that. Like, what is it that draw people to Max Homa? The social media part of it is definitely a factor, as you're saying, because I think it's really hard to kind of pull off a thing. Like, if somebody goes, hey, I'm going to have a schick on social media, nine times out of ten, we'd be like, oh, the fact that you're even planning on having anything is already a turn off. And then anybody trying to do stuff, you'll be like, Oh, you know, it would be certain guys, like,

I were just going to retweet videos I saw a month ago. Like, this is what, like, it's not a real thing until it's on your feed. Okay, cool. Got it. You know, Rex Chapman went from, like, attempted murders to, like, dogs and humanity tweets. And I was like, this is a weird career pivot. But it worked out for him.

Where Max's swing thing is funny. It's actually funny all the time. I can't believe he can continually keep up with this stuff. So there's that part of it. So I think that is a great way to, like, introduce yourself to an audience. But then I think the other part. that you're alluding to, like, what else would it be? And this is somebody that, you know, lost his card.

He'd only won once before. You know, when he made 18 grand one year and loses the card, he tweets out that I've been getting hit up by caddies because they said they heard they get the weekends off. And that kind of stuff is that he was so self-deprecating, but it wasn't necessarily negative, even though the guy was struggling so much. And we all know how tough it is.

Like, the tour is crazy in that we focus. focus in on the guys that are rock stars. But one of the cool things about working with Van Pelt is I got to understand the world so much more where, you know, one of the caddies, there's that Connecticut tournament, right? It used to be the GHO and now it's the, what is it now? The travelers. Travelers. I should know. We hosted the show from there once.

But it was back in the day, it was a GHO and it went off. And it's an awesome course and it's a really fun tournament. And Van Pelt's like, oh, yeah, one of the caddies is staying with me. I'm like, what do you mean? He's staying with you. He's like, well, he's not one of the caddies that's one of my golf channel boys back in the day. You know, he's, he's with a guy, he's got a guy's bag who hasn't really been killing lately and anything they can do to keep costs down. I was like, wait, what do you talk?

He goes, no, you don't understand. Like, it's such a small group that it's this traveling circus. And there's a big part of it where it's, I don't just grab a private jet to the next course because I didn't make the cut. Like, I got to be doing my finances the entire time. And if it goes really bad, I could lose money even playing. And then your caddy wants to bail on you. And look, Leashman's caddy stayed with me.

And it was awesome. Maddie Kelly. He was with me. And I met those guys when it was down in Augusta. And I think Valor's caddy came over. A couple of the other guys, John Rom's caddy came over, hung out with us up at the house. So getting to know these guys in this small band of brothers outside of the rock stars, I think people, I wish the tour did a better job of, I don't know how you market.

hey, here's all the guys that you're not paying attention to. But I think Homa kind of represents this appreciation you have for the grinder and the work of the common man of golf. So that was really the theme of the conversation that we had with him when he and Nate's brother, Mark and Joel Damon, all came on because all those guys fit that class of golfer, right? The guys constantly grinding, constantly on the hustle, not in the top 50 of the official world golf rankings,

not in the top 50 regularly of the FedEx Cup stuff, but the guys out there just working their ass off to try and make a living at this impossible sport, and what you just hit on, which is it's not really necessarily even economically feasible. Like for a lot of guys, you better have some support in place. But the thing with HOMA that I think resonates,

and I'm glad you mentioned the point about, you know, the tour kind of trying to find, guys across their competitive field because, you know, most events have 135 to 150 players. We know the first, you know, the first and last name of maybe 20 of them. I mean saying the sporting public at large, not, not us here at Fairway Rowland. Not you guys, no. Yeah, right.

We know like 24 of them. But it's like the guys either have to do it themselves, which is Homa and to his credit, and it's like the incredible authenticity of his personality and his voice. And that's what, you know, and he's also got an excellent sense of humor. All that comes right through immediately from the social media. And, you know, he's got a podcast that he's been doing with a golf media guy, Shane Bacon. But there is still this like really vast open opportunity, it feels like, for the tour or the guys

themselves to just jump in and start letting the sporting public learn a little bit of something about them because it's like much more relatable than I think we sort of anticipate because we see the big dollars that are flying around that the winners win, right? Yeah, and look, I'm not sitting here saying the PJs has been doing it wrong this whole time. I mean, the NBA is not going to start marketing an eighth man on a team. But there's there's always a connection to golf that I think is different than the other sports because you can have a moment in your round where you hit a shot that looks just as good as somebody, you know, closing out a tournament on a Sunday. Like, you can have that one moment that always

brings you back and wants you to keep playing and gives you hope and you feel so good. There's not a moment any of us would have in a pickup basketball game that looks remotely like an NBA game. Okay? Like, it's never going to happen. And, you know, look, the dumb thing about golf, too, is that, you know, basketball players at a younger age will lie about some high school coach or college coach, screwing them over, and that's why we don't know who they are. It's like, well, no, you're a really good player in this pickup game at this gym in Watertown. But there's a pretty good chance you're not supposed to be on the Hornets either. Where golf, I mean, how many guys have you met that are like, you know, I'm thinking about just doing it,

you know, just going around and, you know, hitting 50 shots out of the sand trap and then whatever, whatever. Like, the difference is with pro fighters, you probably know deep down, you're not as tough as those guys are, but golfers don't ever, want to give up on the idea that it's actually not just time. You know? And maybe that's a cool part of it. I've I've joked about it a little bit. And it's, it's not even like a negative golf thing. But I think that's kind of why maybe a guy like Homa or this sport in particular, you know, just the last day to see people so excited for this guy to win like this, I think it speaks to a unique connection between the fan participant and what this sport is,

more so than the other ones that we talk about, at least with team sports. Yeah, there's a time when people would have questioned whether golf was even a sport and whether it took a lot of athleticism to actually play. I think what's undisputed is the mental challenge of the game now. And we don't see a lot of athletes in general let us into their process, as you alluded to. This guy has struggled in really deep, dark ways, even as recently as last fall. He and his caddy, you know, he took some time apart. He caddied from Joe caddied for my brother at the Zozo here in L.A.

And you can tell like Max was really trying to dig it out. But he has been so transparent about that. I'm trying to think about an athlete in another sport who we've sort of rallied behind who's sort of given us access to their mental struggles and their process. It's like Embed maybe is somebody who's shown us him building that. Kevin Love has more now. You know, and it's clearly part of the times of the last year where people, and I think for a good way, they've removed some of the stigma.

of the mental process and how much guys have struggled. But when you mentioned the phone thing with Homa, because I went back and read a couple of the recap stories, like he was on the phone with his wife, and he was talking about how she, like, gives me these messages. Because the problem was is that because he's grinded and because he's had these ups and downs, he misses that pot, especially this course,

you know, that he talks about walking around eating soft pretzels and just loving the, and the course is unbelievable. The event itself, when it's under normal circumstances, the hosting part of this thing is incredible. Like you wish like, you almost feel weird some of this places. Like I was allowed into these venues and you're like, how come there's not more people in here? Because this is incredible.

They're like, well, that's the whole point. They don't want a million people in here. You're like, oh, okay. Like I know. All right. Because we were like in an upper deck over the 18th green watching from above these makeshift clubhouse. They built these things and you're like, this is, this isn't permanent.

And they go, no. Like, this is unbelievable. So for him to be what, 30 miles away? I think was the number where he grew up and to know this course and then to miss that put. I don't, I think most people are going, all right, you know, Finao who's had a brutal struggle in these finishes who actually the first time I saw Finao was in person at Riviera. I was like, who's that guy? And how come he doesn't win all the time?

Because as far as athleticism goes, I think he's the most athletic guy, at least look, I'm a very casual observer, but his whole package is just incredible. But when he misses that and then it was just so positive about, look, He won, so he was more positive about it. But I actually believe him. I believe him, Nate, when he talks about just getting through it with positive thoughts because not only did it work, it just seems to be his personality. Yep, I agree.

Ryan, you have in the past, and maybe it was just because you didn't want to mess with me, downplayed your connection to golf. But it is apparent that you have a deep, longstanding connection. when's the last time you picked up a golf club? I used to play in this charity thing in Denver where whenever I would go back and forth from Connecticut to L.A. as much as I could. And it was usually like once every other month there

for a couple years towards the end. And Denver would be the only other city that I probably was thinking about moving to more because of friends. But business-wise, I wanted to be out in L.A. And so they would always ask me to come back and play in this scramble. I'll tell you right now, my golf history is nothing to brag about.

I played consistently for a couple years when I was still bartending in Vermont. And I'd play with all the hockey guys that were back for the summer because a lot of the hockey players would play to UVM that were in the pros or not in the pros. Couldn't wait to come back and drink in Burlington for two months because it was like fantasy camp for adults for those guys. And we'd all get a membership at the same course, Williston and Williston, Vermont.

It was a short course. And, you know, I sucked. And then just something clicked. And then when it clicked, it was an unbelievable feeling. because then you start to realize like, oh, now I know when I hit something bad immediately what I did wrong. And I shot, this is funny. I had a 79 going into 18 and a par 5 uphill. And I was like, well, I got to go for it.

Excuse me. Excuse me. No, no, no, no. I had a 76 going into 18 and a part 5. Yeah. And I was like, I have to go. This is not a story about an 82. No.

Well, hold on. God damn it. So I drive her off the tea, terrible. I can't hit a fairway wood out of the rough. I try again. I was sitting on 79 for par. So I was like, I'm going to try to get there. And I got an eight.

So I ended up with an 82. And it's easily the best round I've ever had. And my friends, the guys that didn't golf me that day, they're like, there's no fucking way you shot an 82. and that you were 74 going into 18. And 18 on that course is really hard. And I was just like, well, I fucking went for it because I was like, I might as well break 80 while we're here.

And then the two guys golfing with me were like, no, he legitimately was on fire all day. So the reason I bring up the Denver part of it is then I played sparingly. You know, I got worse. We all know how it is. You get so bad that you don't even want to play, which makes you even worse. But I can, and I know this isn't going to be the most shocking thing, I can smash the fucking ball off the team. I mean, just, so when I would go to Denver, they'd be like, let's grab Rosillo to drive the ball and these scrambles.

450-yard drives. Yeah. And I played, where was the U.S. Open? It's like south of Denver. And I showed up there and my friend was like, hey, the guy, you know, the CEO of this company, he's going to have you play. You've got to come play here. The full deal, you know, assigned uniform caddies. It's unbelievable.

And the guy was like, let's see. Let's see you hit this drive. And I had a drive and the caddy was like, I don't think I've ever seen anyone land there. And I've been working here for like seven or eight years. And I bogeyed the hole. So I suck. I suck. Well, that has you fitting right in with us.

Yeah, I was going to say, have you played shirtless from then on? Yeah, that's been frowned upon. You know, there's probably a couple boys' weekends in our 20s where, you know, you You know, and that was funny too, because whenever you'd have those golf trips, you'd be like, who is putting in for the 7 AMT times? Who is doing this? Because we had some guys that were really, really into it. And they get to the point, like, later in their 20s or they were staying in because they

didn't want to ruin the golf. Oh, God. Yeah. So, no, I'm terrible. And I don't play at all anymore, unfortunately, which is, you know, something I definitely wish I'd picked up during this time because it's one of the few things you could do or whatever. But I do not want to oversell it other than every now and then I can get a hold of one, which isn't all that impressive, I guess.

Well, you're playing with me and Nate and Simmons the next time we're all together out in LA. That's it. That's the foursome. That will be part of setting the year on the right trajectory, 2021. Speaking of setting the year on the right trajectory in 2021, we are about to get to the meat of the golf schedule. This is the true run-up to the Masters in April from where you've been sitting and watching

and observing the tour thus far this. year. What's your sense? You have any any any any, any, uh, any, uh, any, uh, lead horses you like, any dark horses, any sleepers, how you're feeling about the tour right now? This is probably a part of the pod we'd be saying goodbye to me because for me to offer anything, um, any kind of analysis whatsoever would be a mistake. So I, I know, no, I just was wondering if there's any guys that you like. That's all other than Homa. No, I just, I want to see Fiena get one. I really do, but I didn't want to see him get it yesterday. Yes. He's just, have you guys watched him play in person? Yes. I have not. I've never seen him play in person.

Nate, give me your more educated take on watching that guy swing, especially when he's really geared up for a drive. It's incredible. Yeah, I imagine it's like watching you swing. It sounds like. I mean, nobody hits it as far as he does. The only guy who can compete in terms of distance on tour with Bryson and Cameron Champ is Tony Fienow, and he's only swinging at about 85, 90% right now. This guy could be hitting 400-yard drives. His athletic is, like, I watched him Riviera, and then, you know, I didn't really know that much. Again, I'm incredibly casual about it.

But he's, it's kind of like watching somebody in a college game. If you don't know who everybody is and then all of a sudden, like, if you weren't a basketball fan and you were watching Zion a Duke and you go, wait a minute, what the hell is that? He's different. He does that stuff? How come more guys don't do that? Well, no, oh, because other guys just are incapable of doing that. kind of stuff. Golf, it's a little harder to come up with the same comparison, but I do think that that's how impressive he is. And you have to see it in person to really understand how impressive

his ball striking is. There I go, ball striking. We use that term to fit in a little bit of it. That's the high water mark. Ryan Rusillo, thank you for the time today. The next time you talk to a PGA tour pro, even if he doesn't win, we'll have you back on. And we're definitely playing together in 2021. You can wear your shirt or not wear your shirt. I'm cool either way. It depends on which course. If Simmons is paying for, I imagine I have to wear a shirt. Well, he's paying. He's definitely paying. All right, our thanks to our homie, Ryan Rosillo, for all of the Homa insights. We're going to get around with him, Nate. It's going to be out in L.A. We're going to do it.

We're going to see if he pounds the ball. I think he does. I'm sure he does. That wasn't hyperbole. I don't think he hits. I think he gets his money worth. Well, speaking of getting our money. worth. Wanted to make sure before we leave Riviera, I know you were physically there. You got to observe the conditions. I know you also watched some on television. Just a real quick shout out. Once again, I thought CBS's presentation of the venue, and in particular, the drone footage, it just continues. This is the second straight week where I'm seeing golf courses that I feel like I've seen most of my whole life, but the angles, the, you know, the perspective,

the elevation, we're seeing, especially the scrambling on Saturday. I don't know why. It just struck me that I was seeing things in a brand new and different way. And, you know, just kudos. I, well, we will continue to give Fox credit for innovating with the drones and, you know, bringing that element in. But thank God, CBS. putting some of that to use, right? Yeah, they did a good job. The portrait mode, floating camera, gives us a real good sense of the guy's facial expressions.

And we're seeing the hardest part about golf historically has been you don't really get to see the elevation changes on a golf course. And at a course like Riviera, where it goes down deep into the canyon and where the second shots are so important because of the ways that the greens are undulating and shape, You just have to have to have that perspective.

I am excited to see how they introduce this at a certain course called Augusta National where you do not get to see on TV historically how much elevation change there is and that it really isn't a bull and how many tears there are on the green. So I'm fired up for the way that they are they're filming these golf courses to see what they do for the granddaddy of the mall. Well, and they did miss some stuff, like the playthrough stuff. There's the timing of that still remains a little imperfect. And I know that with the COVID restrictions, they can't have the size of, like,

the infrastructure out there. I would have liked to have seen more of San Burns drive on 12, right? Like, I would have liked to have seen it in real time rather than just hearing Dottie Pepper describe it, you know, being hit possibly out of bounds. And the fact is that it bounced off a tree and then landed in bounds. And we found that out. because one of the marshals put a little white flag down. But, you know, I would have seen it.

Yeah, it should have been in Jennifer Aniston's balcony, by the way. Like, those houses up there are insane. I mean, you know, it doesn't make any sense. It's a worse place does it hit it than there. Yeah, exactly. He probably would have gone and gotten it and withdrawn. Sunday afternoon, I would have. Me too.

Speaking of the telecast, I want to make sure that we hit this week in Tiger Woods. Tiger, Tiger. I know you saw the interview with Tiger. I'm going to give you the floor first. I saw him walking at Riv. I didn't love the gate of the walk. It did not look good to me. And then in hindsight,

I watched, you know, I watched the replay of his interview. And there was nothing about that that gave me a whole lot of hope that we're going to see him at Augusta, you know, much less anytime sooner. A couple things for me that, also were cause for caution, maybe not cause for alarm, but didn't make me feel great.

He looked physically exhausted. Now, I don't know what's going on, you know, whatever the travel requirements were with him as the tournament host and, you know, all of the unique attributes of trying to do this in this COVID environment. but he also, you know, it was a version of him in addition to the exhaustion where he's, you know, his face looked a little puffy. His eyes were a little glassy. Like he just was not the tip-top version of himself.

And his conversation with Nance just made it to me. I think we'll be lucky to see him play golf professionally three times this year. I think that the first goal might be the U.S. Open. And he might play once before that just to get himself ready because it is Tori Pines. He is the defending Tori Pines U.S. Open champion. But timeline-wise and physically, it seems like we need at least that much time. for him to be ready. And then maybe he'll play the British as well.

But like one of the things that I saw on the Twitter timeline, somebody posed the question, it was to the effect of like, what if Tiger knew that he was going to have to get this surgery that he got in December and that he also was clear about what the implications were from that surgery and what that meant potentially for him playing ever professionally again, and that was the reason that we saw him and Charlie at the

father-son event in December, because that very well might be the last time we see him play competitive golf. There was enough to the way the person posed the question. I said, you know what? There's something to that. What do you think? What I'm doing is trying to figure out what the countercases. The counter case is that he flew out on Saturday or Friday night from Florida and he saw a bunch of his LA friends because he hasn't been out here in a while and they all had a bender on Saturday night and he just was feeling rough during the telecast on Sunday and he just went into he set some expectations so that you know this is the last this is the first time I think we've really heard him speak a lot since the documentary was released yeah and you got to

imagine that sort of weighed on him a little bit and if not pissed him off. So these were his first public comments since that. And maybe that was sort of the dark cloud that was over him. And between that and the wine from the night before, he just was more focused on the injury than the comeback. That's the best case scenario. But it wasn't good. So we are left in this position that we've been in with him for a number of years of just having the hope for the best and rooting for the very best outcome in terms of his physical well-being, and hopefully we're not transitioning into him as a, you know, commentator. But it is why a week like this past one at Riviera and an event like the one that's coming up

are so important to the future of golf, because we know now that Phil Mickelson is a champions tour player and a marketing genius and an ambassador to the game. and that is, for the most part, what Tiger is without the Champions Tour play. And so for the game of golf, we got to start focusing on what do we do now that the needle has got to be yanked out of our arm. We have to enjoy this sport and the next generation, you know, without our Michael Jordan and basketball. And we don't necessarily have a LeBron coming up right behind him yet.

And so we do, on the other hand, have a bunch of incredibly talented, young guys who are playing terrific golf right now at the highest level. And there are so many great golfers that a guy like Maxoma can come out and win. So it's a very interesting moment for the tour and for golf in general as we get to officially now this year, the post-Tiger era. Yeah, and that's really the theme of the season. You've been talking about it since we got going in January. This is the year that it feels like we were going to have to win. ourselves off of the tiger and fill narratives. And lo and behold, we are getting some incredible play at iconic venues and with, you know, championship level, major championship level guys,

you know, just doing it for us. We have another wonderful test. We are about to embark on the Florida swing. Now, we should be headed down to Mexico, but because of the COVID situation, the tour, and I think this was a great decision, said, let's go ahead and just get the Florida swing underway directly from California. The guys will travel cross country and then just be cited in Florida for the next four weeks. And we're going to do this WGC event at a venue that has never been shown in this manner on television. And that's a Jack Nicholas design course outside the Tampa area called the concession. My first question for you, Nate, Do we know anybody that belongs to the concession?

I do not know anybody that belongs to the concession. Me either. And so I was hoping we might get some inside scoop, you have to hit somebody up. Yeah, we need a Florida man who has been inside that course to give us a little more insight. We've heard some things about it through the players to get to know it. It is going to be an interesting display.

But the main reason it's going to be interesting is we have the top 15 players in the world all playing it. That's what's wonderful, right? These WGC events, there's, they're small field. It's 72 players. It's a no-cut event. We have every one of the top of 15. The only noteworthy guys not playing, I think, are like Paul Casey and, I guess, Phil,

but, I mean, it's not even that know-worthy that Phil's not playing in it. The only, like, really competitive golf that features anybody that's in this field is Bryson Deshambo. winning the NCAA championship there in 2015, he beat CT Pan. And so we know Bryson has good vibes at this joint. We would anticipate him playing better than he did out at Riviera last week with a gigantic miscut. I mean, in some ways, I kind of enjoyed it.

Well, let's not forget, though. It wasn't just Bryson. J.T. missed the cut. Rory missed the cut. So there were a lot of guys who didn't get to the weekend at a really hard golf course. This is a different kind of course, though. Wide fairways, lots of elevated greens. And so the runoffs, if you're not hitting your approach shots well, are going to be brutal for some of these guys.

And there are going to be some high scores. But this is a big bomber advantage course. And isn't it interesting, though, that even with the strength of field, that this doesn't feel like as big of a tournament as last week did. Well, it doesn't have any, the history. I mean, that's the thing, right? Like the L.A. Open at Riviera, you don't have Hogan's Alley out here at the concession. The concession was built 15 years ago.

It's only 15 years ago. It was built in 2006. Now, I do, though, want to draw some correlaries. I want to pick up on some of the things that you just mentioned about this venue. And some of the research seems to suggest. So Jack and Tony Jacklin. The reason this golf course is called the concession is because it was a project that Jack and Tony Jacqueline, and they partnered on the design for this and the famous 1969 Ryder Cup moment where Jack Nicholas conceded a two-foot putt that preserved a tie between the U.S. and at that time, Great Britain, rather than insisting that Tony Jacqueline make a two-footer that would have been the worst.

worst thing ever in the history of great Britain and the well other than America succeeding seceding from Britain probably the worst that's not okay for them yeah come on we defend them it's fine but in any event so these guys collaborated together on this piece of property this wooded wetland kind of you know Florida kind of venue and they called it the concession one of the things I saw the tidbits I saw was that Jack was working on this venue at the same time as he was collaborating with Tom Doak on Sabonik up in Long Island. I have had the pleasure of playing Sabonic. Oh. That's not just a that's not a name drop thing. I mean, people can get it on Sabotic. It's not that hard. Okay. But tell us about it. Small greens,

right? Well, it like heavy undulation. So it is a second shot golf course, but the first shot is also pretty damn important. You have to be on the correct side of the fairway to have the angle in. And then once you get to the greens, it's a whole new adventure. Some of the corollaries that I'm seeing in the research that folks are drawing, and there are some very nice overview, like side-by-sides of some of the templates that Jack seems to have been inspired by. Murfield Village, a bunch of holes that mimic that. PGA National, some holes that mimic that. Riviera, interestingly, there is a hole at the concession that looks just like the 10th at Riviera, Augusta National, and Royal Melbourne all have some alleged connection in Jack's

brain to templates of holes that he was using to build this out. Now, the Mirfield Village thing in particular is mentioned a couple different times because of the fact that there is an outsized punishment for being in the wrong position of the fairway, even though there are fairways that the... that are wide enough. And then there isn't any out of bounds at this joint, but there are, you know, trees and pine trees. We're not going to see any houses, right?

It doesn't seem like it. Doesn't seem like it. And the sand down at this place was imported from Ohio. It's the same sand that they use at Meerefield. So the reason that I'm talking all that up is because I'm trying to pick a winner here, Nate. I mean, we're trying to come up with some names, you know what I mean? We're trying to come over a good couple weeks. Well, for all of the Eagle enthusiasts, the Birdie Buddies, the Par Saving Pals,

we got to, you know, we got to put a little sprinkle out there. You deserve credit for the homeless election. That was a wonderful pick. We had, we mentioned Kepka down in Phoenix a little while ago. I mean, we're doing good. We've been doing pretty good. Daniel Burger, did burgers, burgers win? We talked him into the one and done.

So here's a stat, and this is our homie, Jason Sobel, in these events, these WGC events, and it's not that big a surprise because the field is so small, it's always the top in the official world golf rankings that play well. So the last time that anybody ranked lower than 19th in the official world golf rankings, that was Phil Mickelson, winning in Mexico in 2018, and at the time he was 34th in the OWG rankings, the official. World Golf Rankings. Since 2016, the average official world golf ranking of these WGC winners in stroke play events, not match play, is 8.3. So you're looking for somebody in the top 10 in the official world golf rankings. I know what you're doing. You're trying to talk us into

ROM. Of course. Of course I am. You know me so well. I mean, this is a big money event. I have to go ahead and get my one and done into the Pat Mayo thing. I'm still inside the top 500. How long does this thing go? Can't lay. It's all season long. So every week we're doing a one and done, Nate. Okay. You're ready to burn ROM right now. Well, because it's a giant purse. It's over 1.8 million bucks. And he's motivated only by money? No, no, no. To the contrary, he's great in these events where it's the top notch fields. He's great at Muirfield Village. He was great this past Sunday at Riviera.

The 65 that he shot with the strokes gained, you know, on approach in particular, if this venue is going to be a second shot venue, I like John Rom under those conditions. I will allow it, but I need an explanation

for why John Rom was hanging around during the playoff. Did you notice on the telecast? Yes. I Why was he he's not friendly. He's not really friendly with Max. He's not really friendly with Tony Fino.

That's not to say they're not, he's not an affable guy. But like, I didn't understand why he was hanging around. Do you have an answer? I haven't, I mean, we could ask him.

We should hook it up. I don't know, but I thought he was just a fan of the game and wanted to see the winner come through. And maybe he really wants to win and he's smelling victory and he was looking for something to rub off on him. And it happened and you're going to

take him in your one and done. I'm definitely taking him in the one and done. It was the quiet top five. It was a very quiet top five. And he's actually had a quiet kind of restart. I mean, it's time for ROM to flex his muscles here. I thought in Arizona, you know, that was going to be a time for him to really step up. But he has not dominated a golf course consistently in a little while. So I don't mind it. He was on my list this week. Well, good. So you have a list. because we're recording this early in the week. So we haven't had had a chance to do a ton of research, although there won't be a ton of research

because we're all going to be guessing corollary courses and good performance and just looking at the guys that are good form right at the moment, right? Well, that's right. The only counter argument to John Rom, there's a guy who shot lower than John Rom on Sunday, and the only reason he didn't win this golf tournament

is because he shot a 71 on a very getable easy Thursday, and that's top two Tony. But it sounds like you're trying to save, what, Tony for the Masters or what? No, I used them. Oh, you did. I used him at Torrey because he has a wonderful relationship at Torrey. Tori fits my eye as a place like, you know, Tori, Riviera.

Like, he's going to win at some great venue. He might win at the players. He might win in Augusta. Like, he's got, he's got major game. And so I just picked Tori because he has a longstanding love relationship with Tori. and I burned him there. I just don't know how the odds makers have six guys ahead of him. So we'll be looking for,

we're going to hunt for matchups and we're going to hunt for opportunities. We'll play into top five and the top 10. That feels comfortable right now. It's all, he's on a heater. Well, ROM's 10 to 1. So I think,

DJ's still the heavy favorite and he should be based on what we saw last week. I still can't get over what a meh week it was for Dustin Johnson. And he kind of lulled his way into it. a T8. It just... It was just the back nine. Yeah. Like he was still within three or four strokes of the lead as they entered the back nine. He went out and hit a tree on 10. And that was it. He's just like, I've had enough. I'm done. Yeah, he still, but he still would have had to shoot, you know, what, 66 to get into

the playoff. The true thing is his T-ball was not up to Dustin Johnson standards for the whole balance of the week, right? It wasn't. So I don't mind, I don't mind the wrong pick. Who else do we like this week because it is it is a bunch of hitters do i mean a lot of times we're looking further down the list to find those guys who we think can maybe sneak in i mean i for me this week it's really there's only two guys uh who you could take some momentum from rive further down the list and say maybe they break through and it's neeman yeah who was wearing the the the joggers and the untucked shirt on Saturday and proceeded to shoot a like 112. He played

like a guy who shows up dressed that way. I don't even hate the dress. I mean, Ben On has been out on Twitter for the last 48 hours, just absolutely going to war over how they should just be able to wear whatever the hell they want. And mind you, DJ was wearing a hoodie. So let's not get all

holier than now about the outfits. But if you're going to dress like that, brother, you've got to back it up. I mean, Tony, top two Tony wore a traffic cone yellow shirt like crossing guard my old patrol belt from school he wore but he backed it up

yeah he's in that he's always rocking the Nike the Nike always looks smart on him he's an athlete so it looks good I didn't love the shirt but I but I sure loved the play look Neiman Neiman and his outfit are at 50 to 1 and Matthew Fitzpatrick

or as Frank said on the telecast Michael Fitzpatrick poor Frank God. Man, he screwed up the ocean last week. He said that he screwed up the... Anyway, these guys don't have a lot to do. But those two guys are the ones who you'd say maybe, you know,

their Sundays weren't awesome. And Fitzpatrick's back nine was just full of pars on Sunday. But you might look at those two guys and say, you're starting to see something from them. Neiman, we've seen a lot of heat this year before he took the break. So it wouldn't surprise me if last week was a warm, up and he's near the top this week. Anybody else?

I'm just going to say that a couple of the young guys because of the ball striking element that we're anticipating. So you got to, I'm going to say Morikawa and I'm going to say Hovland, just as guys, if the price is right to build out

fantasy lineups for DFS, Morikawa was second in the field at Riviera and strokes gained approach. And he was plus eight and a half strokes gained approach at the Sony. What happened to him? I didn't,

see it. Did he just put like crap? Yes, he lost almost eight strokes on the greens. Okay, but he had a new putting stroke. Yes, the hawk or something, I mean The hawk, is that like the snail? I don't know what, it's not like the snail. I don't know what he's calling it. He was

over negative six in strokes gained putting. That's how bad the putting was. In just his final round. And, you know, these are Bermuda Greens and he, so he hasn't in his career been like incredible on Bermuda Greens, but if it's a shot maker's course, and I mean, we'll find out.

We don't know for sure. You have to include him because, you know, that is his strength. And then Hovlin had a fine week, speaking of guys who were quiet and then finished top five, Victor Holland finished the top five at Riviera this past week. Yeah. So let's talk about a couple of other momentum guys. Spieth would be the one that we'd be talking about if he made it into the tournament because I think he acquitted himself well at Riviera. agreed. He's got to stop missing four and a half foot putts on, you know, the third hole on Sunday that just derail his round. But but Kepka is an interesting creature at the moment, isn't he? We thought maybe coming off Phoenix that he would come into this tournament and really threatened. And there was a while where he was sitting there at four under and you thought, all right of them. Yeah. You thought maybe, but he kind of fizzled a bit. This is a tournament and a course as we understand the course. where his kind of game should be in the mix. How do you feel about him this week?

I like it. He still seems to be in a mode where he's in search of. And so it either clicks and we get Phoenix where he wins. And by clicking, I mean all the elements come together at once. Or one of the elements of his game is off and he's fighting it. His ball striking at Riviera was. substandard. I mean, he was mostly fine off the tea. Part of the thing, you know, the interview with Tiger that was like, you know, catnip for for the golf community, the golf architecture community,

was Tiger emphasizing how important at Riviera it is to have, it's all about angles. It's all about, you know, the strategic element of getting around that golf course in a way to give yourself any opportunity at all to make par. And if you're off with your lines at all, you're cooked. And that's what happened with Capka's ball striking. He was just not hitting the ball well enough into the greens to continue scoring, even though he got off to a decent start.

We saw a lot of him going into the weekend. What elements, where he is with relation to the various elements of his game, I'm interested. Yeah, I mean, he gains strokes in the first and third round on approach, and he lost him on the second and fourth and lost overall. So he's not

totally there, but it's weird. to see Brooks Kepka as an underdog to Victor Hovland and Terrell Hatton. And this is Hatton's first appearance. We have Tommy Fleetwood's coming over for the first time. Terrell Hatton's coming over for the first time. A few of the guys from the European tour, this will be the first occasion to see them. But right, I mean, Kepka won two weeks ago.

He still. He did. And Hatton's an interesting character because the first time when we went, wow, this guy can play golf was when he won the 8th. API a year ago, the Arnold Palmer, which is the week after. But he's been on a tear. And this is going to be the first time he's really in the field with all the top players since the Masters. I'm interested to see how he responds. So, you know, he's been great in Europe. You know, he started up the season. Well, he already has a win on the Euro tour. So right. This is it, though. We're in the home stretch. We're in Florida. which means we're going to be in Georgia before you know it. I think that's the right note on which to like this hopeful. Look, there's snow on the ground still on the East Coast,

but I see more grass than snow at the moment. The temperature is supposed to be in the upper 50s. I have some golf clubs. I'm going to take out of boxes this week. I mean, there's green shoots, Nate, dog. Some green shoots. The wind has died in Los Angeles. It's back to 75 degrees.

Armageddon is over. Let's get out and hit it. It's time to play some golf. Well, that's it. We will be back next week, my birdie buddies, my eagle enthusiast. We will have a winner of the WGC event at concession, as well as the counter event in Puerto Rico. And maybe that's something. We'll get an interesting name out of that.

We always enjoy the counter programming, and we didn't touch on it for the purposes of any gambling action this week, but that might show up on my dance card. And if it does, we'll tweet some stuff out about it, right, Nate? Absolutely. Until next week, my par-saving pals. Let's hit them straight out there.