Fairway Rollin' - Season Superlatives With Chris Vernon and Megan Schuster | Fairway Rollin’

Episode Date: September 5, 2019

Joe House is joined by Chris Vernon to figure out what happened to Dustin Johnson this season, what to expect from Tiger Woods next season, and who next year's breakouts will be (1:25) before The Ringer’s Megan Schuster drops by to give out some 2019 Golf Social awards (35:25). Host: Joe House Guests: Chris Vernon, Megan Schuster Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My Eagle Enthusiast, welcome to part two of this epic two-part fairway rolling podcast. We had to break up the season-ending golf podcast into two parts. We're going to jump on with our beloved rigor pals Chris Vernon and Megan Schuster to give out some awards, a few 2019 superlatives. Fairway Rowland brought to us as always, my birdie buddies, by CaliBuddies by Cal A golf who works with Odyssey, the number one putter on every major worldwide tour this year. It's the number one putter on the week just completed on the European tour, the LPGA tour, the Champions Tour, the Stroke Lab putters, and revolutionary. Multimaterial Stroke Lab shaft continuing to be popular all over the world. This shaft is engineered to actually improve the tempo.

and consistency in your stroke to help you make more putts. Let's get on the first tee with Shusty and Verno and break down everybody that deserves awards, accolades, and acclaim for this 2019 golf season. All right, now on the line he's been with us all season long from Spring Creek Ranch in the greater Memphis, Tennessee area, Chris Vernon. Yo, Verno, what's up, buddy? Yo, I am glad we had a bit of a delay before we resume talking about the goal season

because I am still licking my wounds from the alpha male Brooks Kepka head to head. Whole $15 million on the line versus Rory McElroy, my dream scenario, and Rory just murdered him in broad daylight. I said I was over, but now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not sure I am.

Well, it is nice. We do have a little bit of perspective. This is the season recap version of Fairway Roll, and so it was good. We were comparing notes as the tournament concluded last weekend. And we were saying, should we do a pod now and sort of give the reaction? why don't we just wait and do a kind of full season gig, and we'll have a little bit of time to marinate and stew, and other things in life will take place.

You know, there'll be football. The U.S. Open tennis is underway. The kids are back in school. Like, let's let all the things in life kind of intervene, and then we'll figure out how we feel about this golf thing. I'm with you. I still can't believe that Rory did that to Brooks, but I kind of love it.

it. I mean, it really sets up for, it puts a beautiful bow on this season as far as I'm concerned, and then sets up next season in a terrific way. And you know, it is good for the game, in

my humble opinion, to have a little bit of question about who is indeed the alpha male, right? No, I mean, look, we, one thing that we were so happy with is the season went on. Now, this whole thing began

with Tiger Woods winning the Masters. I mean, before, actually, the whole thing began when I remember one of the first times we spoke was after Mexico, Justin Johnson looked like the greatest player on Earth. He had just

he'd come off a good season in April 4. Rory McElroy's kind of chasing him down on Sunday, but cannot gain any strokes in that last round because DJ just won't stop burning everything. And it was like, holy mackerel, is this going to be the year

where this guy who was best player in the world at the end of last year is kind of holding everybody off and he's ready to ascend. And then as the season went on, he got worse and worse and worse. And by the end, he's like, I mean, I remember I texted you in that last tournament. I'm like, he is plus 12. Like, what happened? And we still got to figure that. out. Let's tap the brakes for a second on that because it is one of the stories of this just

concluded season and I really haven't seen much out there in the way of golf writers, golf journalists, the analytics folks chiming in with an explanation as to what the hell happened to Dustin Johnson because he completely fell off the planet. The numbers, they will all tell you that he was like one of the worst putters in the world from like, you know, four to eight feet. You know, they can break it down any kind of way they want, five to ten feet. He was one of the worst, you know, on tour at this distance.

Okay, fine, I get it. So why? He hasn't always been some kind of miserable butter. Did he not work his art? Did he have something going on? Did he switch and quibb? Like, what happened? In that exact same vein,

he turned into, somehow or another, one of the least accurate drivers of the golf ball. His performance off the T over the last five or six events that he competed in had him in the bottom desile. He was like in the bottom 10% of everybody that was playing over that same period. And his strength, you know, the thing that has really distinguished him made him a giant among the mere mortals was the combination of accuracy and length. then all of a sudden he can't figure out where to the middle is.

So between what you just shared on the putting and, you know, this driving the golf ball all over God's good green earth, I mean, at some point there needs to be. The only sort of data point we had with DJ as the season progressed was that there was a little bit of a hiccup in terms of what he was doing with his coaching. He got rid of Claude Harmon. He was still sending videotapes to Butch Harmon, and he was going to work harder with his,

the coach that he's had his legacy coach down there in South Carolina from his college days. And that's like the only sort of thing that I can recall that was like, here's some information about something that's going on with DJ. But otherwise, I don't have anything. I don't recall seeing anything to pinpoint what the heck happened. Well, and that is the other thing that I, you know, you do wonder how far can the Gulf analytics take us because golf is a little bit different. I've been thinking about it a lot, especially you and I both play that we're not,

look, we love to play the game, but we also, you know, when you play, you know, there is no, there is nobody that can pick you up. There is no, I mean, you can say, I suppose, that the caddy can encourage you, but it's, it's you, it's you and that ball, and there is also nothing. like even a kicker that is necessarily affecting what you are doing. And so anything that could be going on in your personal life or anything that could be going on that, you know, got your mind scatterbrain, or if it's just once you start thinking about everything and I don't want to chunk it now or I don't want to do this or I don't want to do

that or just don't chunk it. Like, I mean, you know, it could play, it could play games with you. And so, being that that game is so in between their ears, I do wonder if there is, if there's going to be a limit, yes, they will be able to tell us who's hitting the ball well, who's not hitting it well, who's putting really well this season, and who's not doing this this season. But that, in terms of figuring out how a guy goes from someone that could lace

at 350 yards down the middle of a fairway and then be draining 12 furters regularly to somebody who can't hit it straight and then missing. Plus, I mean, that's not physical. I mean, something is a ride, you know, that it's taking place here. That's right. I mean, the only thing, like, quote-wise,

that he shared about, you know, after the season was that he was mentally worn out. That, and maybe, and let's not, you know, undersell this. Let's not underestimate it. he could have fallen victim to this new schedule, right? Like every guy on tour, and we've seen a little bit of criticism starting to come out a bit about the compressed schedule of the majors, everybody had the same playing field this season 2019

of trying to make a schedule that was going to maximize their opportunities to compete well in the majors and at the same time honor the commitments they have to the tournaments that they like to play in. And it was just a brand new level playing field in terms of the schedule. And maybe the schedule kicked his ass. I mean, who knows, right? Well, we all said, look, if we're not, we would be irresponsible at this point. Given that these guys live like celebrity lives and he lives the celebrity life,

it would be dishonest for us to not even mention. Like, it was at the beginning of the season. It was actually a year ago. go almost to the day that there was the huge headline, Paulina delete DJ off her Instagram. Right? As a year ago now, right? So he may have been having all kinds of fun when he was awesome. It's not like we haven't seen this happen to another guy.

Once upon a time, evidently was having the time of his life off the course, killing it that on the course I mean it was that was a year ago that that story was plastered everywhere you're right

but the intervening thing that happened is he went down there and he kicked ass in Mexico and that was like in February and then he took Brooks right to the brink in May so you know it's not like he didn't have success

this season he just after the PGA championship fell off a cliff somehow I don't think he had he went some he went eight consecutive, nine consecutive starts without a top 15 finish. Didn't it feel a little bit like there was a, like this year,

there was a little bit more of the breaking the action with Kepka. Right, it was always DJ and Brits and DJ and Brooks and DJ and work out together with this guy in Florida and DJ and Brunth. And then it's kind of like, Runch is like his own guy. Like he won the majors last year and then this year, he didn't hear as much about that. didn't see all those pictures all the time. I mean, if you saw pictures with Kepka,

with him and his girl, you know, off the course. And the other part to that point you're making, which is a good one, is that Kepka became his own man in terms of his outward facing persona. I mean, he was going on a podcast. He was on television.

He really shared a version of himself that we had never seen before and really distinguished himself from that. You know, it wasn't just Kepka. Kepka as DJ's little brother or his lifting buddy. And that was part of the speculation around DJ leaving Claude Harmon, because that's Claude Harmon is Brooks's coach as well,

that DJ wanted to get out away from that as well. So we told him, Paul, and what we saw it at the beginning of the season, maybe this is like the year where he is the guy. and then we moved into the Tiger thing. And then it felt like Tiger was going to be like Tiger's back and oh my God, this is going to be amazing. And yeah, he's not going to play all that much, but he's focusing on getting ready for the majors.

And then that really never took form, but then we were able to be whisked away by Kepka, who's in the mix for all of them. And then here comes Rory. While he doesn't perform well, all that well, in the majority of the majors, you know, at the beginning of the end, he bookended that thing.

Because at the beginning, he's right there with DJ, and then at the end, he's right there with Kepka and going heads up with Kepka and beating him. And he obviously had this unbelievable season. It was just not the season that we typically think of,

which is capitalized on your greatness by winning the majors. He didn't play as well in the biggest tournament. But I will say, I mean, you look at the way the season played out, and now you do have, it does feel kind of like Rory and Brooks going in to next year. And then you've got all these other guys. Bees started playing better at the end of the year. Shaw flea was there again. You know, and he's right there on the cusp of at some point breaking through because he's gotten these top three finishes in a couple of majors now. Hold that thought.

we're going to do our epic Callaway pick of the 2020 season verno we're going to you and i will give our breakout star so that just hold the thought there uh for a minute on on what we're anticipating you we know who the top guys are going to be but let's we're going to try and give out a name or two that are right there sort of bubbling up to the surface and you already mentioned one of the names that i like but i want to uh focus for a minute on how juicy this Brooks Rory thing could get in this upcoming season with the Rider Cup as the background, because the 2020 Rider Cup is common, and it's at Whistling Straits. So it's back here domestically.

And we already have some really good evidence of how the Midwest shows out for the Rider Cup. So this one, you know, Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, the folks that showed up at Hazeltine in Minnesota were insane. and Rory was extraordinary as kind of the lead villain of the European team. So all we can do, I'm knocking on wood, you might be able to hear this. Hold on. Yeah, I'm knocking on wood because if we can get Brooks and Rory to continue to sort of go back and forth a little bit through the balance of that season and then we arrive kind of this time next year with those two guys still kind of the head of the game, how's that set up for a beautiful

Ryder Cup in 2020, right? That would be absolutely unbelievable. And the truth is, it felt like this past year. And when we started with the Tiger stuff, it just felt like there was a sea change in the interest in golf in that. And I know that you had talked with people from the CGA that had credited top golf in some form for bringing more people to it, making it cooler to younger people as a fun activity to do. but there's just so many guys on tour right now and especially young guys.

And as we talked about that the season, all of these younger guys that have like these fashion companies now with golf. It just felt like this particular year that there were a lot more young people that started to watch, care about and relate to the golfers. then I can remember, honestly, in my life, outside of Tiger, Tiger was the cool thing, but he was the only cool thing, right? Everything else was the same as it has always been, whereas now that's just not so. And I think that, I just give you one quick example of when it really stood out to me,

I was in Chicago and I went into the Under Armour store there, right? And so you walk in and, you know, they've got one big section. And it's the rock. And it's all these workout clothes that they've got for the rock. And then they've got this other section. And it may be, you know, somebody else that they got, maybe like a little section that's got like Bryce Harper stuff or whatever. But then they had like in the back of the store,

they had this huge Jordan Speed setup, right? And it was buy his outfit on Thursday, buy his outfit on Friday, buy his outfit on Saturday. You know, and they had the outfits all that. laid out and everything. And I'm like, what in the world? And obviously the top floor is all step curry. But just to think, there I am, you know, on Michigan Avenue in Chicago,

Jordan Street doesn't even want anything, you know? In a while. Yeah. And I'm walking in and I'm like, when would this ever happen? Like, this is unbelievable. But he's one of these athletes that here, this massive brand is really commercial. loading and it just felt like that all year that like golf somehow became cool again. I have a theory for it and I'm interested in your take on this theory.

I think more than anything else, the new schedule is responsible for that, that, you know, putting golf on the sporting world's consciousness and elevating it. And it's the combination of, to be fair, it's the combination of, to be fair, it's the combination of Tiger getting good again and the new schedule. So Tiger getting good again in the last fall, last September, September of 2018, winning the Tour championship and reappearing in the world's consciousness. Oh, yeah, right.

Professional golf. We, Tiger is back. He can win again. How cool is that? And then the season started off this 2019 season. season. And, you know, we have all our preliminaries and we play a little in Hawaii. We play a little in California. We had the Phoenix open. Ricky won the Phoenix, which was great. And then, but, you know, it's just a really a rev up for Augusta. And then, you know, first week of April, Tiger is on the scene in the first major. Now, the players championship preceded and Rory won the players in March.

But that's just a tune up. It's a nice exhibition that reminds everybody. oh yeah, professional golf. I like that. Nice tune-up for the Masters in April. And then it's like Tiger winning the Masters just created, I think, this signal boost. Oh, there's no doubt about it. Right. And then, yeah.

Yeah, there's no doubt about it. The Tiger brought, I mean, everybody was watching on Sunday. Everybody. Everybody. That was like probably the best sports moment of 2019, say, you know, the United States women's soccer team, and there might be a handful of other, but it will certainly be in the top three to five things that took place

throughout the year. Beyond that, I think two other things, I really am a believer in the whole fashion angle of it all. You know, guys are wearing air maxis, like the Buma Under Armour, Nike, all these different brands are like trying to make cool

stuff and the guys are all wearing it. And the other thing is they're all athletes now. All of them. You can't, so if you're watching on TV, it's like you look at it and you go, these guys are like real athlete. Like when you and I were growing up,

you flipped it on as frigging, you know, John Bailey and fuzzy Zeller and these guys that look like your dad. Whereas all these guys, these guys look like they could play something else, like they look like other professional athletes. And I even remember when I first said, the sports radio 100 years ago, it was like,

it used to be a topic that people would say, are a golfer's athlete? Like, there is a question. Now, these guys are, you know, if you're not athletic, you cannot be on the PGA tour. It's almost impossible. I like this point.

And honestly, I'll spend a minute here thinking about while I chat with you about this. I'll think about who the least athletic guy is to have won on tour this season. We'll have to think about that. But your point is right. And I think it's a combination of both the depth of talent of young guys. So, you know, then that's part of, you know, the effect of adopting popular style, popular, you know,

and guys just putting themselves out using social media as a means of like just saying, look, here's who I am and here's what the kind of stuff that I like. and when you have a field that's so deep with young talent, when you have Jordan Speath, when you have Justin Thomas, when you have Tony Fee now, when you have even Ricky, who's kind of the elder statesman of the group now,

really, you know, charting the course for a combination of a social presence plus, you know, the, the, you know, being mindful of how they hold themselves out with fashion and then just being fan responsive, fan attentive, all of that has that effect, I think, of what you're talking about where, you know,

some smart folks out there making clothes and so forth have thought about, you know, been mindful of connecting with that demographic and made golf appealing in that way. And in terms of the athlete point, it's Tiger, again, deserves credit for this because his workout ethic is legendary and all these young guys grew up seeing that out of Tiger.

So even guys that are not physically imposing figures, not cutting physical, you know, pictures like with Brooks Kebka taking all his clothes off and showing off his muscles, even the guys like Jordan Speeth and Justin Thomas and Xander Shafley, those guys hit the hell out of the golf ball. Like they leave nothing in their shoes when they swing at the golf ball. And there's another conversation out there about the technology sort of emboating those guys. But we won't talk about that now. It's just I'm agreeing with your point.

And be not mistaken. I mean, look, Tiger Woods is responsible for all of this. But, you know, when your dad took you out to learn and my dad took me out to learn, you didn't have options as to like what you were going to go get. Like, you wore this, the friggin' white and brown two-tone foot joy. That's what you have. Like, that's your only option. And you had a, you know, a polo shirt that your mom had bought you.

And that was it. Like, there was no, like, there was nothing cool about it. Except that you were learning, you know, what was, you know, learning how to play. But once you get Nike into it, Nike starts making golf shoes. Next thing you know now, guys are, you know, my guy, HV. sponsored by Jordan for God's sake like all of that stuff even Nike getting involved

in the golf game and like starting to make polos and shoes and all this kind of like that's all because of him all of it right that's a fact that friend you're right about all of it yeah I mean imagine if I mean imagine if it wasn't Nike

right that signs of it it's the way it always would have been until you had I don't know like whatever. I just think of some brand that could have signed Tiger, you know, 20 years ago and some gold brand like a, you know, eyes on or whoever. Sure, sir. When we were a kid, signed him, then maybe it doesn't all change everything.

Maybe it's not as sporty and as athletic and everything else. And now you have this whole generation of guys that grew up on that. That's right. We're paying homage to the man. Let's go ahead and do this week. in Tiger Woods. Tiger, Tiger, Tiger, we got the news last week

that he had knee surgery, which I guess helps explain a little bit. He got some cartilage cleanup, and maybe that helps explain why he backed out of the Northern Trust. And he still has a pretty full schedule coming. He's supposed to go to Japan and play in an exhibition match and then play in the first ever PGA tour event in Japan.

At the end of November, I believe, leave it no it's out in october and then he's got he's supposed to host his his annual charity event uh the hero world challenge um in december although you know uh prayers up for for the bahamas who knows what kind of shape that golf course will be in whether or not it'll be competed you know where they in the traditional spot but that's a lot of stuff on his calendar oh i i forgot the president's cup is in Australia this year also. And he's he's definitely the captain of it, whether or not he makes himself also, you know, names himself to the playing competitive team remains to be seen. But there's a lot on his plate through the balance of 2019, Verno. And I think we just saw kind of like the most that we

can expect for, expect, hope for out of Tiger in terms of the new schedule with the events kind of month to month the month, how much a tiger are we going to see? What are your hopes and expectations for 2020? I hope that he is able to play and play well in the biggest tournament, right? If he misses, you know, some tournament here and there,

we know he's not going to play all that much, but that when it comes master's time, when it comes U.S. open time, I mean, at this point, that's what's out there. He's got the wins. He's got the wins. So, like, that major record is the big thing that is hanging out there. And so what you'd like to be able to see is that he's good enough to be able to compete in those.

That he's there on the leaderboard on Sunday for one or two of them. You know? And that, most importantly, that he gets healthy, that he can actually play. Well, the thing that is coming to light is since winning the Masters, his schedule got so loaded up with other stuff in his life, other opportunities. He unveiled this instructional series, a collaboration with Golf Digest called My Game, where he has all this kind of instructional stuff. He was obviously working behind the scenes on this exhibition in Japan,

where he's going and playing with Jason Day and Rory and Hedekhi. And he committed to the event in Japan along with. So he traveled with his family to Thailand in between the U.S. Open and the British Open. I mean, he just had a full plate. So I hope that now with all that stuff, you know, all the opportunities that became real credible, viable things for him to do and ways for him to continue to sort of build his legacy business wise, all of that stuff hopefully is like under control. And he just sits down sometime over the holidays here before then and comes up with a schedule that has 10 or 12 tournaments on it, all centered around performing well at the majors.

I mean, I'm rooting for the exact same thing as you. We want to see him compete at the majors. And really anything else beyond that is just gravy. We're on the same page on this. Yes, as long as he can beat himself in the biggest tournament, if I could have that, I would make that deal right now. I don't need him for the whole season. I got a bunch of other guys that I'm interested in.

But I do want him in the biggest tournaments. Well, you said it. Let's talk about some of those other guys that you're interested in. Verna, we're going to give out our 2020 season Epic Flash potential breakout star brought to you by the Epic Flash driver presented by Callaway, featuring the innovative flash face technology, which is promoting more ball speed. They used artificial intelligence and machine learning

to generate this thin face. Most of the players who use Epic Flash on the European tour, the LPGA tour, the Champion Tour, all of which were the number one driver brand on those tours. That is the Callaway Epic Flash. There are non-staffers putting these drivers in their bags because of their performance.

Verno, who do you like for 2020? That's not one of the big names that we already covered off. Yeah, okay. So I'm going to leave off the shoplight because, I mean, he's right there at the end. I've had a love-hate relationship with him. He broke my heart, you know, a couple times during the year. And then he obviously ended the season. Great.

And I watched his interview on Farrity and he's incredibly likable. I love him. Love him. Love the X-Fan. Yeah. So I do think he's going to break through. But the one for next year, the one for next year is Hoffman. Oh, I love this. Oh, yeah.

Got that card, get the card at the end of the year with the corn fairy. And his start this past year were just absolutely unbelievable. He didn't, you know, he was there at the end of the year having to fight to get his car. But he was just so good. you know what's so funny about that he didn't even win his boys murakawa and and and matthew wolf were the ones that got the w's but we're all in agreement the golf the golf rooting public all agrees with you verno hovlin is the one we're all hot and bothered by right oh yeah no he is super fun to watch he had that low lamb you know where he got to be in butler cabin

which was awesome. But he is just like, he seems intensely likable, and beyond this down being intensely likable, he was so good in his start this year. Throughout the year, he was so good. He, in fact, I got this written down where he finished throughout the year. Okay, so this was his summer.

He was a college player of the year for Oklahoma State. then he's tied for 12th at the U.S. Open. Then he turns pro. He's 54th at the Travelers. He's 13th at the Rocket Classic. 13th at the 3M Open. 16th at the John Deere Classic. Fourth at the Wyndham Championship.

Then he qualifies for the Corn Ferry Tour finals. Then he's, um, and was it, T2 for at the Boise Open? Yeah. At the end of the year. And that was enough. He was just, I mean, come on. He's not even a pro yet.

He's not even a pro yet. He's at three or four tuck 20s, including in a major. I mean, in nature. I think he's on his way to big, big things. And it's going to be sooner than later. Well, I feel like it's a cop out now for me. I'm going to say two names. And you might be mad at me. I am going to say the X-Man as a breakout star,

just because he's ready. I'm going to, there's two guys that every major, I'm going to bet. I'm going to bet the ex-man, Zander Shafley, and I'm going to bet Patrick Cantlay. Both of those guys are on my list of guys that should be available in that 25 to 1 to 35 to 1 range, depending on how they're, what kind of form they're in. Zander, I'm not sure if you know this, was second behind Kepka in terms of scoring across the four majors. Zander had finished tied for second at the Masters and tied for third at the U.S. Open. He still finished 18 strokes behind Brooks, which tells you how good a season Brooks Kepka had in terms of scoring across the four majors.

But the X-Man keeps knocking on the door, and he's guys, he's got that mental. In fact, I thought he might just go ahead and win that tour championship last week. Even in the last six holes, I put a little sprinkle on him. I got him at six to one odds. I thought Rory might still fall down in the face of Brooks. So I put a sprinkle on the X-Ban with six holes left at the Tour championship. And then Cantlay is just around the hole. He's around, you know, that basketball term, he's around the hole so much.

I mean, all he's forcing his way in. And he established himself across a whole bunch of statistical categories. This is the Patrick Cantlay that folks anticipated maybe like, two years ago. He had a couple setbacks, both physical and a personal setback, a tragedy in his life. But all of that seems to be in his rearview mirror and just playing wise. I mean, he finished in the top 10 in a couple of accuracy categories. His scrambling was incredible. He's always had a reputation of being a good putter. So those are the two guys that aren't DJ or Rory or Brooks that I think are ready to sort of jump up

and grab a major potentially next year. I knew you'd take him. You can't get mad at me. No, I'm not mad at you. Hey, look, hey, hey, look. I like both those guys, Hovlin and X, man. Okay, well, there we go. So we have three names to look at.

I can't promise you, Verno, that I won't call you up before we get going again in 2020. proper. There's bound to be some interesting golf stuff that happens between now and January and I might have to holler at you during that time. But until then, my verno, let's hit them straight out there, buddy. All right, my par saving pals, we are wrapping up

the 2018-19 season. I think the tour calls it just the 2019 golf season. That's fine. We've been doing golf social all season long with Minneapolis, Minnesota's finest, Megan Schuster. Shoestie, how are we going to make this, what kind of lipstick are we going to put on this social pig? Hey, House, I think we have to do some, maybe some superlatives today for some of the best social that we have seen over the season.

How does that sound? I love it. I mean, I don't mean to make it sound negative. It was an extraordinary voyage. Truly. We really have this awakening that's occurred across golf social media and new entrants and lots of spicy takes and stuff out there. It was just a glorious season. The only way to do it properly is to give out some awards.

What do you have in mind, Shusty? I've got a few. I've got a few. And I think I'm going to save the biggest one for last. So why don't we start things off with a few nominees in a category called Best Post? I like it. So I wanted to keep it vague because there's a little bit going across Twitter and Instagram and some things like that. So here, I have some nominations for You House.

We can chat through them and then sort of figure out from there which one's the winner. I love it. Let's do it. Perfect. So first in Best Post, I have a few Brooks ones. So I broke them off into their own category. The first one that I have was his Brinks truck tweet from a few weeks ago. Did you see that one?

Absolutely terrific. I did. Just incredible stuff. So a fan or, well, I guess he's not a fan of Brooks's, but a Twitter user had tweeted at him, basically critiquing him for not, you know, trying in non-major tournaments, quote, you know, not caring about where he finishes. And the person told Brooks to, quote,

stop playing around and go drive a truck. This tweet has since been deleted, so we're relying on some other people for giving us the translation there. But Brooks responded to that, simply Brinks Truck, which I think is one of my personal favorite moments of the year. It's just very classic Brooks, keeping it simple, short and sweet, but just basically completely owning this person to the point where they deleted their tweet.

Well, the person should not have deleted the tweet. The person in many respects became kind of the voice of the common golf fan expressing, you know, some vexation, some frustration about the apparent. difference between sort of committed play by Brooks in what we'll call sort of regular tour events versus majors. And it is kind of vexing. Brooks himself has confessed he has a different mindset. He approaches the majors differently than non-major events. And so one of the, a golf fan who for whatever reason was including Brooks in his DFS lineups or gambling on him, I'm not sure what this person was doing, including Brooks in this manner,

you know, relying on Brooks to perform at that major level in non-major events. I mean, a little bit as the dude needs to look in the mirror. But he should. There was no reason to take the tweet down. No. And it elicited such a beautiful response out of Brooke. Yeah, if you don't want to perform great every week, Brooks, why don't you just drive a truck? And Brooks, oh, chef's kiss.

Just truly beautiful. And I agree with you. If you're going to go at an athlete like that and you are going to, you know, insult their work ethic and, you know, call them out for all of this stuff. Like, you can't delete the tweet when they come back at you. You just can't. It's part of the contract. Own it. That's right.

Just own it. It's all good. Agreed. It would be a high watermark if somebody made fun of me that way. I would love it. If Brooks kept, if Brooks kept a tweet tweets at me, I swear to God, it'll go on my six foot by eight foot panorama in. in my office. Yeah, I'll screen print one onto a coffee mug.

Like, that would be a Twitter highlight for me. Exactly. So that's entry number one. Number two in the Brooks category is his post-PGA championship win Instagram post, where he's holding up the Wanamaker Trophy with both hands, holding up four fingers on each hand for his major win totals. And he captioned it, now that's Gucci Bra. Which was like just the perfect encapsulation of his whole aesthetic.

through the week and just wonderful stuff. Great celebration. Oh, you have something on that one? No, I just love being introduced to the vernacular. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, I'm not with, I'm not in bro culture. I'm just trying to keep up.

So, you know, just drag me in. I'm along for the ride. I enjoyed it. I mean, I appreciate it and applauded that one as well. Okay. And then the last one. and my own personal favorite comes to us from May of this year

in the middle of the Brooks and Brandl Shambly feud when Brooks quote tweeted a story that you know, had Brandl giving him some criticisms and he included a photo of Brandl with a photoshopped clown nose

over Brandl's own nose. No words, just just the picture. And a giant clown nose. Like it wasn't, It wasn't subtle. It was very outsized for the face. You know what I mean? Yeah, it was like about three times the size of like what Rudolph's proportion is.

Like that's what this was. It was incredible. And that was in the context of Brandl talking about Brooks engaging in what Brantle characterizes, essentially self-sabotage by going on the diet that he went on. Am I correct about that? Wasn't that the context for that one? That was part of it. And this also was Bram.

Randall was asked on a podcast who are like the best players in golf and who can stand up to Tiger. And he notably, this was, you know, in the middle of their feud. And he notably did not include Brooks within that group. What a troll. What a terrific troll. I mean, you got to give it up to Brandel, honestly. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he had to have known this was coming, you know. Like their feud was public at this point.

Brooks is obviously being alerted to every perceived slate that Brandel gives. And this was just great. It's terrific. And the golf community needs it. Golf media needs it. We need it for our enjoyment of the game. I'm very, very curious. I'd love to be a fly on the wall for a moment between those two guys.

If they just sat down and talk, I bet they have a lot more laughs about, you know, sort of where they're coming at each other than anything that looks like, you know, real animosity. That would be my guess. That's what their relationship is like. Oh, I would think that too. I mean, I know, you know, part of both of their jobs is like driving up the entertainment value. And, you know, in Braynell's case, he's paid to give his hot takes, which, you know, I don't think anyone needs to ask him for.

You know, that's what he's here for. And I'm sure both of them together, you know, understand where the other one's coming from. Yeah. So are we going to pick one out of those three? Well, and then I have two other options in the non-brooks category. Oh, got it, got it. Of course. One is from Eddie Pepperell in May, where he, this was.

was post a few different segments in the Matt Coocher, ongoing Matt Coocher saga. And he tweeted out, it's been quite a year for Matt Coocher as he leads the PGA tour in both money and shithousery, which was a beautiful turn of phrase. Wonderful. Yes. Truly. Good. Cudos to Eddie. True. Eddie, a nominee for top tweeter of the year. Yes, yes, he is. He is.

And then our last one, I had to throw a Phil tweet in here. his original video post driving up to Augusta National when he was talking about hitting bombs, which started off the whole series of videos that he put out this year, which has completely changed his own social media landscape and many issues of this podcast. So thanks to Phil. This was the original one, and it's a really great one. Well, and I think that one will be looked back. it is really an iconic posting and it did have a transformative effect to me.

Now, this is me confessing something about my own station of life and, you know, I'm close an age to Phil, maybe a little older. But, you know, Phil's announcement of this phase of his career and who he is going to be and what his public persona, like the potential of it. that moment to me of him driving up the Magnolia Lane and just the production values, the zingers, he got in a beautiful coocher shot during it. I mean, it really was an announcement. And to me, that's the one.

Now, the problem, the challenge we're going to have, Shusty, is we don't want to make this just a 20, 20 minute segment of, you know, Phil plotted. But it's hard to avoid because it was such stellar content all season long, all the way up to this moment where he has been going on Twitter and engaging. It's basically like asks me anything without Reddit and just making self available in these quiet moments. Oh, I have two hours. Let me get on Twitter and have conversations with 300 of my nearest and dearest friends. Okay, Phil. I'm here for all of it.

to read the whole thing. No, I agree. And, you know, I'm just rewatching it now. And the perfect, like, timing of it ending right as he pulls into his spot. Like, you know, you get a nice little shot of Augusta National in the background as he's talking, which is not something we really get because of their lack of phones. So, and it was just lovely. Like, he's just having a little chat explaining what he wants to do that day. I mean, for this being his first venture into these kind of videos, it's,

really amazing that he could pull it off so well. It's brilliant in concept and in execution, a true rarity in the social media world. And then he kept it up all season long. So I don't want to step on the rest of the segment. But, you know, we're going to be saying a couple other nice things about Phil over the course of the shoestead. I mean, it's just more than everybody. We are. And I'm looking at the video right now and just have to tell you it currently has 4.5 million views. How about this? Every one of them deserve.

Yes. And four or 500 of those are me. I was going to say, you could take mine out and it would still be over four million. So that's pretty good. So is that your pick for your favorite? That's mine. That's mine. Yeah, that's mine.

Yeah. I was debating between that one and the clown nose. The clown knows is funny for so, so very many different reasons. but I think when I think about golf social from this year, it'll be Phil's Augusta Post. So I'm with you there. All right. We're an agreement. Yes.

Speaking of Phil, he came out with a number of video series this year from his calf post to his fireside Phil chats. And so I think we might need to do some ranking of those fireside chats house. Sure. I'm here for it. So there's the first, just to review, there's the first one, which was the infamous dump in the cup video, where he came out, you know, announced his intentions for this series and told this story about trying to play around in a tournament and came up upon the green.

The rules officials were cutting a new hole, and it turned out that someone had taken a number two in the cup. So there was that one. Number two was his mom as a guest talking about how he talked himself out of trouble when he was younger. Then there was Zach Johnson, Padraig Harrington. Tiger Woods, who did not actually appear on the show, but was there in the form of an iPad. And then last was Justin Thomas, who told a story about exchanging some barbs with Phil back at Pinehurst in 2014.

And Shusty, breaking news, there's a new one up, I think, just today with Jordan Speeth. Yeah. So let's add Brother Spee. Add that one to the list for sure. To that list as well. which was your favorite out of all of them? I loved the first one. It's a classic.

I loved having his mom on there. She was a great orator. And I totally saw where his personality comes from because they just fed off of each other. And it was great to see them like reminiscing together about this funny story from Phil's childhood. Zach Johnson's was fine. Patrick Harrington's was interesting. But I think my favorite part of his was the fact that they had to close caption, Patrick Harrington in case people didn't couldn't understand him, which was, you know, maybe

speaks to the full on content of it. But I got to say tigers is my favorite. The Tiger one was really extraordinary because of, again, the execution. He had two pictures of Tiger, one with a great smiling face and one with kind of a scowl of frown. And then how he worked that into the content was just brilliant. My personal favorite was dumping the cup because it was exactly the kind of, you know, a story tale that you could only really get from a locker room or being in a situation where the guys have their, let their guard down.

And that's part of, I think, what makes the whole thing with Phil this season, his appearance in social media so compelling. It is like, you know, we're all inside the wall now. We're all inside the locker room. We're physically inside the locker room with the interviews. he's doing with the players. He's sitting down inside the locker room with Zach Johnson. He's sitting in the locker room with Padrick.

Both of the last two, J.T. and Speath, he's clearly sitting in the locker room. So that element of it is so appealing. And just having that be the first impression, there's a dump in the cup. Oh, okay, then proceed. Please proceed. Whatever the, I mean, I just botched the punchline. But how wonderful was that? And you know he had that kind of.

stored up. That story has been, you know, in his memory bank for some time. But letting that as the first kind of tale, it really set the course for what these fireside, these fireside with Phil's could be all about. So that's mine. No. And I agree with you. And it's been so fun to see, like, other players' personalities through this series, too. Like, all these guys are agreeing to basically sit on a bench and stare at Phil Mickelson for two minutes with like a dumb lit can handle sitting between them and are agreeing to play along with this whole, like, lunacy of, like, let's sit here and, like, tell your favorite story about me. And they all have one. And they all seem like more than willing to do it. And I think it, you know, it speaks to,

like, their personalities, but also how beloved Phil is on tour that, like, guys from all these different generations are willing to sit there and do it. I mean, that's it. It speaks to the power of Phil and, you know, his, his legacy and impact on the game and really ushering in alongside with Tiger, the modern era of competitive golf is entertainment is the way I would say it. Yes, I agree. So before we get to the one negative award that I have, maybe we go through the biggest one on here, which is what I'm calling our MVP or most valuable tweeter. I love it.

I see this award coming in like one of four. ways. Okay. So we could give it to the aging vet who's really come into his own this year. You could give it to the low stats, high efficiency guy. You could give it to someone who is great at witty, quick replies. Or you can give it to a player who's really sort of elevated the sport of tweeting, if you will, to a whole other level.

So I think this one is all about your philosophies. view of the award. So with those categories in Mindhouse, here are our four nominations. First is Phil, obviously. Second is Brooks. Third is human SaaS master, Eddie Pepperl. And fourth is Max Homa. So this is a category where I am not going to reward Phil.

I'm not going to give the tip top. by now the the the recent just celebration is the but i can't i was trying to think of the right word to describe him interfacing with hundreds of of golf fans and responding to to to just dozens at a time um and celebration is the word that i'm going to choose to use um i i think he is extraordinarily sharp and quick on twitter his wit is uh impeccable um but out of the though you you kind described a handful of different folks, different sort of archetypes, if you will. That's the English

major and me coming back out again. And you're going to be mad at me because I have a sneaking suspicion that this is also the guy that you had in mind for NVT. All right. And it's not Brooks either. I feel like Brooks has a team and I feel like his team is

participating. So it's not I don't imagine Brooks. The way that Phil is sitting somewhere with a phone or an iPad with his feet up and a beautiful beverage next to him. I don't think Brooks is doing that. No. I think he's got folks supporting him.

Pepper Rule's terrific, but he's just, I don't see enough of him, right? It's like he's a little too irregular for me to give him MVP. So to me, it's Max Homa. Yeah, we have the same one. So Max showed himself. And, you know, he's a guy that has been toiling on the professional tours for a while. He fits a kind of character that exists tenfold in terms of guys that have worked professional golfers that have worked super, super hard. He finally had a breakthrough moment.

We had a handful of these this year. Guys like Nate Lashley and some other names that I'm not going to, Jim Herman won again on tour. but guys that have been around the professional ranks for a long time and then finally have a kind of a breakthrough win. And Homa had shared his personality with the No Laying Up guys in a podcast during the time that he was still, you know, working his way up onto the PGA tour. He didn't have full status.

It was very revealing. And then his Twitter persona to me is so relatable. It's such, he's a complete version of a professional. athlete with interests that go well beyond his sport and he participates and interacts with people to show the breadth of his interests and his sort of participation in popular culture. Can I give you one example from today? Please do it. Just from today.

He tweeted this earlier. He said, quote, I hate when I'm with a buddy and we get to a set of stairs. And he goes for two at a time because I was just trying to have a leisurely walk. And now apparently we're doing CrossFit. So that's just like a nice like morning average tweet from Max. It's great. And that's like all of us.

That's what I mean by relatable. That's the way I feel. Like buddy, I'm, I'm officially middle age. We don't need to be two stepping it out of time. So I'm happy to have that validation out of, out of a guy, you know, at the, at the upper echelon of his profession as a professional athlete. Yes. No, I agree.

My justification for this was that Brooks gives us great stuff in all arenas from Instagram to, I honestly think most of his best stuff comes from press conferences, which is an entirely different skill, but also amazing. So his skills aren't really limited to Twitter. Phil's been iconic, but I feel like he's throughout the season almost become a little too self-aware. And, you know, I'm not quite sure it's out of pure love of the game anymore house, which concerns me. Eddie Pepperall is amazing, but I agree. I think most of his best work comes in Twitter replies, which are a little bit harder to see. and just, you know, not as visible. But Max is, you know, like you said, he's been out this for a long time. His Twitter presence is pretty legendary,

and he's really kept it up even after gaining a higher profile from his win at the Wells Fargo Championship earlier this year, which I think is impressive. It's easier to tweet, you know, nonsense, I think when you have a smaller following, but he's, you know, really managed to maintain it throughout the year. So I agree with you, and I think he wins. There we go.

We haven't had a single disagreement. Let's try for that with this last category. Let's do it. I think we can do this. So the last one is the best group pile on. And I have three nominations. You let me know if you have any others. My first one is the World v. Bryson DeCambo.

This came after his multiple incidents at the Northern Trust with slow play, where he, you know, walked off a, you know, a long, long shot. took, I don't even remember how long it was, but it was, you know, long enough that there were multiple flashes of Justin Thomas, who was playing with him that day, looking frustrated at the amount of time that Bryson was taking to read a putt. And there was just a complete dumping on him all over Twitter, you know, many people criticizing him, many people criticizing him, many people criticizing the PGA for not penalizing him or anyone playing in that tournament. So that was a big one. My second one is Sergio Garcia,

which came from much earlier this year in February, after he threw a tantrum at the Saudi International and got kicked out for damaging greens, throwing a fit in a bunker, all that sort of stuff. And then my last one is Matt Kucher, who was widely criticized after it became public that he had kind of cheaped out on paying his caddy in Mexico in November after he won, giving him just $5,000 after winning nearly $1.3 million.

And that one, I think, has had some extra life as he made some, you know, not smart comments about it earlier this year. And he even got crap from Rory McElroy for it as recently as last month in a press conference. So those are the three nominations. Is there any that I'm missing? No, I think those are the true highlight lowlights of the 2019 season. Yes. You go first. You go first.

All right. All right, they are all valid. They are all, you know, worthy. But I think the staying power of cootures really pushes it over the edge for me. The fact that Rory is still making cracks about it in a like pre-Fedex Cup tournament press conference is really special and just shows, you know, how cheap and how stupid this controversy was. So I think that that wins it for me. So just for the sake of not agreeing on every gosh darn category, Shusty, because honestly, that is my take as well. I find it very interesting that this persona that Coutcher had put out there for years and years of being an all shucks, golly, decent guy, you know, smiles for everybody kind of fella, really fell flat this season.

and, you know, through the combination of being a cheap skate and subsequently speaking of Sergio Garcia, he and Sergio had a match play moment together where, you know, Cocher had an opportunity to be generous and chose not to be. Yep. And so, you know, Sergio lost a hole and a match as a result of that. Now, couldn't happen to a nicer villain, I guess, is what I would say. But so I'm, I'm tending to be in agreement. Like, it is clear that the guys who compete with Kutcher like him.

Yeah. They clearly do. And he clearly has a good sense of humor. But he, he needs some kind of persona reformation. He needs to think about who he's going to be and how he wants to hold himself out. And he needs to show himself in a different light, maybe a little bit edgier so that we can get the picture. If he cares, maybe he doesn't care. Maybe he just, you know, can be, you know, somebody that we don't trust anymore with the all shucks, Ghali stuff. That's fine. That's his

prerogative. But if he wanted to sort of be, you know, in the media eye and show himself to be a little more authentic, he could rehab himself. He could go on a podcast or two or he could do some media stuff that shows this other side to him that clearly exists. But in terms of the villain for 2019, I'm going to give that award to Sergio Garcia for one simple fact. He misbehaved a number of times throughout the course of the season. And there really has not been any explanation for what was going on, nor has there been anything that looks like an apology. He threw his driver at his brother at the Open Championship, you know, a super dismissive,

bad behavior, bad attitude, kind of, you know, drivet. driver toss. He used his driver to create a big gouge in the T-box at the St. Jude, of all places in Memphis, where the whole point of that tournament is the fundraising effort for kids suffering from cancer to have that kind of petulance in that kind of environment shows a pretty distinct disconnect. And then the temper tantrum in Saudi Arabia was just unparalleled. The fact that we don't have video of him going out and scarring those greens. It's unbelievable. We'll be a forever regret of mine. But the thing that makes it to me, the most villainous is I, what was his damage? What's the problem? Sergio, what's going on in your life?

Your little girl was one years old. Why are you so upset, buddy? That's a great question. A truly great question. And I have to think that, do you think there's video of the green damaging like somewhere that's just not being released. I pray to God. Oh God, I pray that that exists. The only hope I have is that this is sitting in a locked vault somewhere and five years down the road, some intern will stumble across it, not knowing what it is and accidentally release it to it to the world. Because I, if I never get to see this in my lifetime, it will be a very, very great sorrow for me. My A number one single hope is that it exists somewhere and somebody on the American side has it and is sitting on it waiting for the 2020 rider cup.

He competed at Westling Straits. And right as the advent of that, the start of that tournament comes around, somebody unleashes this video of Sergio out on the greens and really makes Sergio a juicy villain for the Rider Cup. That's my hope. I have a lot of confidence in Justine Reed. And I think that if she really put her mind to it, she could get her hands on that video. And I have full full.

faith and her sense of timing. So Justine, if you're out there, please, please don't let us down. Please don't let us down. That's the perfect way to end this 2019 golf social. Justine Reed, we're not going to top that Tuesday. Thank you for the whole season. I loved it. And I'm very much looking forward. Now, I have to, I'm going to do this with everybody. I told Verno, if anything happens between now and the beginning of the golf year, the calendar year 2020, we're going to have to convene. So I'm asking for your indulgence, you know, short notice. I might have to hit you up.

But if not, looking very forward to the 2020 golf season, Shusty. I am too. Thanks so much, House. Always. Wow, I can't believe it. My Eagle Enthusiast, my birdie buddies, my par saving pals. That is a wrap on the 2019 golf season. My immense thanks to all of you for tuning in and listening and participating.

painting all season long in this new venture here at the wrigger.com, this golf podcast. We tried a few new things. We had a lot of different voices on this summer. My thanks to Alan Shipnuck. My thanks to Alex Myers. My thanks to Joel Beal. My thanks to Justin Ray. My thanks to Pat Mayo.

My thanks to all the guests that came on. My thanks to Chris Vernon and Megan Schuster for the regularity. They came on. My thanks to Harry Gey, y'all, of Against All, for the recurring appearances, trying to give out a couple of winners. My thanks to Craig the producer. He's in my phone as Craig Farroways. Craig H.

Thank you, my homie, for all of the solid support for this season. My golf pals, we shall return in the 2020 season 100%. But in the meantime, I'm reserving the right to tee it up between now and the end of this year. if anything exciting happens on the golf course, we might have an impromptu fairway rolling. We're always rolling out here, my par save and pals. Thanks to all of you. Keep your eyes and ears open.

If anything exciting happens in golf between now and the beginning of the year, we shall reappear. Until then, my eagle enthusiasts, let's hit them straight out there.