Fairway Rollin' - The 2019 Season Recap With Alex Myers | Fairway Rollin’

Episode Date: September 4, 2019

Joe House is joined by Golf Digest’s Alex Myers to help us hit all the major story lines from the 2019 season including Brooks vs. Rory, the new 2020 PGA schedule, controversies from this season including slow play and new technology, and much more (00:00). Host: Joe House Guest: Alex Myers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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We've made it a whole season under our belts. My birdie buddies, you are listening to the golf podcast. Fairway rolling on the ringer. Podcast Network. I am your starter. Joe House, this fantastic golf podcast brought to us by our fantastic friends in Callaway Golf. My par-saving pals, my eagle enthusiasts, the season has ended. We have a whole two-week breather before the 2020 season gets started with a whole bunch of events this fall. Even though they take place in 2019, they belong to the 2020 season. The only way to properly wrap up this season was to run through all of the storylines, all the highlights,

the low lights. We have our beloved pals, Shusty and Chris Vernon. We go through a whole bunch of purlatives, but we also needed a voice of authority and a voice of reason to rein me. And Alex Myers from Golf Digest.com came on. Now, we went so long with our wrap up here. We decided to break this into two pieces, two parts. Alex Myers and I are here to break down for you all the best storylines of 2019, a little forecasting of 2020. That's part one. And then part two, season superlatives with Shusty and Chris Vernon. There's lots of Tiger Woods. There's lots of Phil Mickelson. There's lots of Brooks Kepka and Rory McElroy. Let's go over to the first tee. We're going to get down and dirty with Alex

Myers. There's slow play. There's technology. We've got all the storylines covered. Let's just go head and try and strike one down the middle with our pal Alex Myers and then stay tuned for part two little later this week shoosty and verno to give out some awards all right my birdie buddies we are recapping the 2019 golf season we need to have a competent and qualified person to help us through there were lots and lots and lots of stories and storylines On the line with us, he is a senior writer at Golf Digest and author of the must-read weekly column The Grind. Alex Myers, what's happening, buddy? Hey, what's up?

Thanks for having me on. Always. So we were convened last for the Open Championship. We went through a few storylines. And since that time, a few more things have happened. in the golf world. We were really delivered what feels like just an embarrassment of riches by having none other than the two very best players of the season

squared off in the last event of the season, head to head, 18 holes, $15 million on the line. The PGA tour did something right to be rewarded with this outcome. What do you think, Alex? Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, you had Brooks versus Rory on the final day, as you mentioned, that huge, ridiculous amount of money on the line, $15 million. And, you know, it's not like second place got $10 million.

Second place got $5 million. Of course, nothing to sneeze at. But the fact that you could drop $10 million and Brooks ended up finishing tied for third. So I think he pocketed only $3.5 million. So you're talking about playing straight up for a difference of $10 to $12 million. dollars. It's pretty crazy. But yeah, those two guys, I think, certainly separated themselves a bit from everybody else this year. Rory, of course, in every event, that wasn't a major, and Brooks in all the majors, and it's exciting to see because, you know, Rory just turned 30.

Brooks is still 29. They both have four majors. They've both won their four majors in spurts. Rory a little earlier in his career. Now he's in a five-year, quote, drought. And now Brooks has won the four in the last, you know, three seasons. So a lot of potential for more than the meet-up head-to-head. Again, they already had met up in Memphis, where Brooks got the better of Rory that day. But Rory got the better of him when it mattered more at least financially. So he came out on top, and it was a great finish to the season.

It was terrific that we got this juxtaposition of, of the two guys that really did control the playing narrative. You know, Rory had the most top tens of the season. He came out on fire at the beginning of the season and, you know, had a whole string of inside top 10 finishes and then broke through in March at the players. And then didn't really distinguish himself at all in any of the majors.

And Brooks came to the four and Brooks did what Brooks does, apparently over these last two years when it's major. time is Brooks time and he ended up beating Rory by 21 strokes. If you just measure the scoring over the majors, you know, and, you know, Roy didn't even make the cut at his own championship in Northern Ireland. So, I mean, that's been beaten to death. But it was very nice to have the, as bookends, the two guys that really deserved based on on the play together for a final round. And And as you mentioned, you know, Brooks had faced Rory down before and didn't seem all that bothered by him. But hey, we got to give it up to Rory.

That performance that he put that 60-60 shot on Sunday at Eastlake was one that ought to go in his sort of legacy book as really something that distinguishes them. Yeah. And I mean, you know, you look at it. It's kind of crazy. Tiger won two of the first three FedEx Cups in, in 2007. 7-2009, you had to wait 10 more years for someone else to win a second FedEx Cup. And so that's Rory. We won in 2016. Now he wins again this year. So, you know, say what you will about how they do it or whatever. It's difficult to win the FedEx Cup because you have to be playing well at the

exact right time. So for him to do that, yeah, definitely a big accomplishment for him to do it head to head with Brooks, huge accomplishment. And it's, yeah, it's not like, you know, they both had poor rounds. I mean, Rory went out there and took it. But, yeah, the four majors, of course, were where Brooks really established himself as the clear number one, you know, four top finishes inside the top four, two runner-ups, the win, obviously, the PGA, the almost win at Pebble Beach where it looked like, I mean, everybody thought he was going to beat Gary Woodland.

that day, especially when he birded five of the first six holes. So, you know, it's weird. It's, you can evaluate golf different, a lot of different ways. The four biggest events, Brooks was clearly the best player, and he beat Rory all four times. But, if you

value consistency more, Rory definitely had more good weeks throughout the entire season. You mentioned the top tens. I mean, a staggering stat, 14 top tens in 19 starts. I mean, that is ridiculous. That's Tigeresque. To compare Brooks only at nine top tens and 21 starts.

So, you know, Rory definitely played week and week out better. But as Brooks alluded to one tournament, he basically doesn't practice those other weeks. So he doesn't care about those weeks. So, you know, if you want to penalize him for that, that's something. But, again, you could look at both their seasons. They both had tremendous seasons. But I think Brooks Kepka still gets the player of the year just because of the majors counting so much more. yeah we're in agreement there and i don't really want to waste our good listeners time it's not a real debate because i don't think that there's any controversy around the idea that the player of the year is the person that performed the best across the majors and brooks was unparalleled yeah um we we have kind of touched on something that i want to sort of characterize as infrastructure though which is um two two different kind of of new phenomena this season and i'm interested in in your

thoughts on on each sort of aspect so we had both a compressed schedule where um the order of play of the majors changed and there's been now uh that the seasons kind of ended a little bit of trickling out of some criticism around it and the other sort of aspect of that was trying to create this fedex cup playoff dynamic um where the fedex cup would be completed but prior to labor day. So let's start. I want your thoughts on both like the compressed schedule. Was it a success or not from your perspective? And then what about what can we do with this FedEx Cup? Because I really feel like I'll just give you a little preview of my thinking. I like it, but I'm not sure I cared about it. So let's let's start with the majors first. And then we'll do the FedEx Cup. Okay. Well, the majors, first of all, I actually do like the move to

PGA to May. I think it made the season flow a little better with the PGA kind of being in the mix and not being lost in the shuffle out in August. The FedEx Cup ending when it did, I think, was pretty good, although it did kind of, it does seem like the season ended up,

you know, ended pretty early, but I think it made sense logistically. What I was saying about all the changes is and everybody's going crazy about this big gap between, you know, the last major and the masters, that's how it's always been. So I don't really see that it's that big of a change.

I mean, so what? The Open Championship ended July 20th. The PGA in old days would have ended in, you know, August 10th, August 12th, August 12th, somewhere around then. We're talking about two or three weeks difference here. So I really don't think that's as big of a deal with everyone saying. I know Jack Nicholas said, you know, you kind of get screwed basically if you're not playing well right then because you only have a four-month period to win a major.

okay fine but again it used to be a five-month period so again i don't think it's that big a deal i think it is weird that golf in general has its four biggest events grouped so closely you look at tennis they play their four events throughout the entire year i think that is better but obviously because of um weather and everything else you you know the golf schedule gets a little more compact so anyway that's my thought FedEx cup i know everybody went nuts about the leaderboard out looked weird you know justin thomas was 10 under before he hit a shot honestly by the end of that first day, it looked like a normal 36-hole leaderboard, maybe even a 18-hole leaderboard at a place where guys go really low. And you had three guys tied at 10 under.

And from then on, it was easy to follow. So I think they did a nice job. Like you said, they ended up with two guys playing head-to-head that final day. It was very easy to follow. It was pretty exciting. You're saying you don't really care that much. I'm not going to argue with you. I cared. I think I cared. I'm also, obviously, huge golf fan as you are, but I still think I cared about it. Did the general golf fan? I think they did. I think they did more than years past. I think they could follow it more easily, and I think as much as that tournament is being defined by money, that's what it's defined by now. And $15 million, I know these guys make a lot of money, but it was still pretty interesting seeing them play for that much money under pressure.

I think it makes for good TV. I totally agree with that point. And at the end of the day, to me, the thing that I like most about professional golf is the entertainment value. I'm always conscious of like that component of it, which lots of times runs into tension with some of the tradition of, of golf and you know it has us in this weird place where there's a criticism potentially around the the venues you know can we still compete on these golf courses um where guys like you know madina uh what happened at medina will be sort of you know exhibit a of of folks you know who don't like um the advances in technology with the golf ball and the driver and

you know, the way that the skill of these guys these days is a lot more kind of compressed, I guess. And there is not any golf course in the world, it doesn't seem, unless you deliberately kind of trick it out and try and grow rough up to four inches and have the rough come in on 15-yard-wide fareways that these guys can't go shoot 25 under. I mean, Tom Lewis just went to Victoria National, which is supposed to be one of the hardest golf courses. in America. What did he finish at? 22 under? 23 under? Yeah, 22, 23 under. Yeah, 4-1.

Yeah, crazy. Incredible. On the final day. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Under the most pressure circumstances, I mean, you know, circumstances that folks like it. You know, we're talking about the guy who won the final event on the corn Ferry tour and cemented his opportunity to compete on the PGA tour this coming season and bringing that venue to its knees.

But that entertainment kind of factor as the informing thesis of the FedEx Cup. So two things in the first place. And one's very fixable, I feel like. They can gently tweak the point system so that you don't have this weird thing of guys who just play well in those weeks having such a pronounced advantage. It felt kind of artificial that JT had such a big advantage over Rory going and entering the Thursday. But that's fixable. And then I will tell you, I missed the last event occurring this weekend. I don't know why it had to fix.

I understand not wanting to conflict with college football and trying to avoid college football. Saturday, the first one. But if the tournament started Friday and ended Labor Day Monday, both Sunday and Monday, there's only one college football game or two at most, right? So there was nothing conflicting. I really missed it. Like, I enjoyed watching the U.S. Open tennis, but we're still in the round of 16. We're not in the finals yet. You know what I mean? It's not like the tour is beholden, you know, it's going to lose eyes to mid-round level tennis. So I I think that there is some tweaking schedule-wise also. I liked the tradition of having some professional golf on Labor Day.

It used to be the Deutsche Bank, right? You could watch that tournament up in Boston and it ended on Labor Day Monday. I like watching professional golf on Labor Day Monday. It is the end of the summer and onset of school and back to work and all the rest of it. You know, nice to have the golf there. And having it, the FedEx Cup, you know, the finals of the cup, the last day of of the Cup competed on Labor Day Monday has a certain appeal

purely from an entertainment perspective. You agree with that? I do actually, and you're right. Maybe they did go a little too far in moving up and trying to avoid college football because, yeah, you're right, especially if you go with a Monday finish, you do avoid that.

And the NFL, I don't know what it is. I mean, I know the NFL in college are kind of in cooots here, too. It seems like the NFL's starting even later than normal. Maybe I'm wrong on that. But there may, obviously, the PJ Tour's main concern is finishing on a Sunday versus NFL.

There's no NFL yet, not even this past weekend. So, yeah, I think they could. There's never NFL prior to Labor Day. NFL always comes after Labor Day. Right, okay. But the FedEx Cup would go, you're right, the Deutsche Bank would finish on Labor Day, but then there'd still be two more tournaments after that.

Yeah, that was the old way. Late September. Right, right. But we could find a compromise here and end on. Labor Day. Yeah, because it did feel like it wrapped it pretty quickly. Well, it also felt like it wrapped up suddenly because they cut it from four events to three events.

I'm not opposed to that. I do kind of wonder why the first event now is going to be split between Boston and New York because it seems like Boston and New York could each handle their own tournament every year, especially when they rotate courses in the New York area. So that's going to be interesting next year that there won't be a tournament in New York. It'll just go straight to Boston for the Northern Trust. But overall, I think the three weeks in a row is definitely a lot better. I'm sure you agree on that too.

Three weeks in a row is better than stopping, having a week in between. And, you know, if you're supposed to be a playoff, there's supposed to be some sort of momentum here to kind of take a break in between was ridiculous. And with the four events, you saw a lot more guys skipping, you know, maybe that first event or that second event. This year you didn't see that as much. guys were, you know, in there to play those three events. They realized that they had to bang those three out.

Yeah, to get inside the top 30 to have a shot at it. And it did give us, you know, we got Tiger, which is, you know, again, one of the goals, I think, of the tour. And again, as golf fans, one of our goals as well, please, let's have as much Tiger as possible. It was a shame that he wasn't physically able to come defend his tour championship and get himself inside that top 30. But that's, you know, the tradeoff was he won the Masters and, you know, everything that went along with that.

Right. But that was also ridiculous that the guy who wins the Masters only gets 600 at X-Cup points, which is 100 more points than if you win like the John Deere Classic. And so at the end of the year, Tiger, you know, doesn't make the final 30. I mean, that that's crazy. I could almost see them tweaking that rule going forward that if you win a major, I know Shane Lowry won the Open Championship. he didn't make it all the way to the Tour Championship either. That seems a little silly with the system. And back to your point about Justin Thomas,

I mean, yeah, Justin Thomas had a disappointing season, in part because of a wrist injury. But then all of a sudden he has one great week, and then he's got the stranglehold on this tournament and this whole season-long championship did seem a little bizarre. I know you want to reward the guys at the end of the season, and they've struggled with that. How many points do they give to the playoff events

versus the regular season events? But you're right, it did seem a little skewed towards that. I mean, same thing with Patrick Reed. He has a bad season. He wins the first event. He jumped all the way to number two. And then Justin Thomas wins the second event. He jumps to number one.

And meanwhile, you know, the guys like Rory and Brooks are kind of just treading water and getting passed by these guys who have one good week. So it's weird. I know people say, well, in the playoffs and other sports, you know, you could have the best record all year and get knocked on the first round. That's a good point. But I think what's so, what's different here is that they're playing for so much more money than at any other tournament. It almost doesn't seem fair to the guys who have had the better season.

So I was actually glad that Rory or Brooks was in that final group because they were, you know, of course they were the two guys that deserved to have a crack at that big price. That's right. And, you know, to your point, I personally, I don't care what they do with the points. The whole thing is an artifice for the purposes of trying to reward guys for consistent play over the year and then creating a little bit of a dynamic where there's some drama at the end. So the allocation of points doesn't matter to me that much.

You just have to have the four winners of the four majors in the top 30. You can't have a season-ending thing that leaves out the guys that won the majors. I mean, I don't even if it's a guy that a crazy long, shot that just had a miracle four weeks, even if it was a Ben Curtis or Todd Hamilton kind of guy, those guys matter. Like it's still, again, on this entertainment value proposition, those are the guys we want to see. We want to be reminded of what they did. Those are cool stories.

Those guys that go out and win. Shane Lowry was a great story. I want to see more Shane Lowry. So, you know, put him in the top 30 so we could get, you know, one last taste and you can kind of milk his story one last time. but you can't not have Tiger in the season ending event. He won the Effing Master's. So some tweaks.

Yeah, exactly. It was crazy. Yeah. So there are some tweaks out there to be had. But for all, to me, it was mostly a success in terms of producing, because you talked about that Thursday, that Thursday round where the guy, where J.T. started off with a sizable advantage. And then the guys played hard on Thursday. It had a real electricity.

It felt like a big time event that Thursday. NBC put all of its top stuff. Mike Toriko is there talking about Thursday golf. I loved that. I just wish it was like, you know, this Labor Day weekend, it could have been Friday and I could have been enjoying it, you know, because I wouldn't have been worried about work or anything like that. I would have just been enjoying it.

And anyhow. That's true. so we're we're in alignment. I like very much the new schedule. I think the new schedule is very, very fan-friendly. It has the effect of creating momentum for golf that starts in March with the players as an appetizer. And then the master's always the thing that is the real signal to the golf fan and the casual sports fan that golf season has arrived. And then having big time events each month all the way up until August.

And, you know, the thing about August with, um, is being sort of set aside, uh, and not having to deal with, uh, schedule, um, you know, challenges, it, it permits the Olympics. It permits FedEx Cup. It permits, you know, maybe moving it shifting it weeks, uh, here or there. Because the, it permits maybe, you know, buying a, uh, a decent weekend for the rider cup. Um, I just think it creates a lot more flexibility having everything sort of done, uh, in terms of the, uh, you know, majors come August. Right. And they're making a tweak. Yeah, I do. And they're also making a small tweak for next year. The week after the open this year was that the final WGC in Memphis. And it was kind of ridiculous to expect these guys right after the open to fly back across,

you know, the pond and play in one of the, quote, next, you know, biggest four events of the year. So they've switched that next year. It's going to be a couple weeks before the open. open, which makes a lot more sense. So that will be better as well. But, you know, the only complaint I have about the schedule in general, and it's been this way since they went to the wrap-around season. And, you know, I don't blame the tour.

They're making money. They have, if they have sponsors who want to sponsor these events year-round, that's what they want to do. But, you know, we just never really get a big breather. Like, right now it seems like the tour is on the longest hiatus ever, and it's two weeks. And that is long for the tour to be on a break. But you don't get that sense in these other sports where you just are really that longing to like, man, I can't wait for these guys to be back out there and playing. And like, you know, like you said, the masters still get that.

And even, you know, you don't get a lot of the big names playing in the fall anyways. You do kind of have to wait until January to see those guys for the most part. But, you know, it's just, man, that many tournaments all year round. I mean, there's 11 PGA tour events now in the fall. 11. There's going to be 11 tournaments now until before the tournament of champions

in January. There's going to be 11 tournaments. I just counted it. I mean, that's, there's a new tournament in Japan. There's a new tournament in Bermuda. You've got these other tournaments moving like the Greenbriar, which will be the first one next week.

It moved from the summer. Just think about that. I mean, that's wild. So not only, you know, are these guys, it's just not as exciting, I don't think. When you, they all start to blend together. And unfortunately, I just think there's too many. But again, they're not going to turn away money. They're not going to turn away sponsors.

That's not going to change. But that would be my only complaint about it. And for the casual fan, they're not really watching those tournaments anyway, I guess. And they're just going to be excited when the real year starts again. I guess that's kind of where I come at it. I don't mind these events. If they are going to use the opportunity to go to some venues that they haven't been before, and they can maintain relationships with some communities that have historical ties,

you know, Greenbriars is good. I'm glad that they're in Napa with the Safeway. I'm glad they get down to Sea Island, you know. Those are all like cool venues. And, you know, for true degenerates, I just love the gambling. I mean, it's, it's, it's two, twofold. I get to learn about some new guys. So the guys who just clinch their cards at the, at the, at the corn fairy, those are a bunch of names that, um, I get just got introduced to by watching the corn fairy finals, but those are some guys that could be informed that

could be hot where you get some value on some odds and maybe you just dabble a little bit. But it also does set up for those of us that are sort of deep passionate golf. fans that's you and I we know we'll we will learn about some guys when the when the season starts properly next year we'll know about some guys to keep an eye on and and guys that will catch our fancy I mean the buzz around cam champ um that was created last fall because of what he did uh down down at sea island and the run that he was on you know he was it was really like introduction um to golf consciousness he wasn't able to sustain it but i'm glad to have met Camp Camp.

You know what I mean? Yeah. No, that's a good point. I mean, you're right. Yeah, that can happen. And it's a great point about those guys being on form right now because, and not only on form, but more motivated to play because, you know,

as much as these other guys who aren't the stars, they're motivated, but these guys who just turned their card for the first time, they don't care. They're like, they would play this week. I mean, they would run to the next course to play now that they're on the PG-A tour.

So they're going to be fired up and certainly given an A effort. Yeah, we love, we love the hungry guys. That resonates very much. All right, my par saving pals, quick break from this chat with our brother, Alex Myers, for a word from Destination Kohler, Birdie Buddies, this episode of Fairway, Rolling brought to you by our friends at Destination Kohler in Kohler, Wisconsin, home of whistling Straits, Black Wolf Run, and the 2020.

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ziprecruiter.com slash rolling that ziprecruiter.com slash R-O-L-L-L-I-N. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. We have to do a quick bit on a couple of get-off-my-lawn topics. We can't really wrap up this season without, you know, touching on a couple of the controversies that bubbled up and stayed around or the things that that, you know, are sort of constant persistent, uh, you know, issues for the professional, uh, tour. Just really, I think that the main, the men's tour, these are issues. And, and then I'm talking about slow play and the, the, the, how far the ball travels, how far, you know, the,

combination of, uh, skill and technology for the guys. So let's do the, the, the, the, uh, the, uh, do the slow play thing first. It really had a giant moment here in August with Bryson D. Shambo, two different video captures, him walking off 70 yards and then how long it took them to put during, it was the Northern Trust, right? Wasn't that the tournament where we had this? And it brought to the four, this criticism that it really had been had started all the way back, I feel like in January, and it's kind of been a persistent theme. Yeah, well, February was J.B. Holmes down at Riviera and J.B. Holmes as a, you know, repeat offender here. And there is this, this, the golf commentariat loves to jump on this and, and complain about it.

I still have mixed feelings about it. I'm not sure how much I can. but let me let you sort of set it up with your thoughts and then I'll give you my vibe. I mean, this controversy of slow play is gold if you work for a website like I do. I mean, that's just people eat this stuff up. So I'll be honest right here.

I almost hope they don't solve it. That being said, I think it trickles down to when we go out and play ourselves. And, you know, it gets frustrating when you're waiting and waiting. And a lot of it is people see these guys on tour. say, man, well, they take a lot of time, so I need to take a lot of time. And again, it's just

trickle-down effect. So I do think that I wish that they would be able to, you know, maybe crack down a little more to get the guys picking up at least a little. I know some guys say, well, it's only going to shave 10 to 15 minutes up the round. And I say, well, how do you know that? I mean, back in the day, they played in under three hours, a lot of these guys. So I don't get that attitude. I think there's a lot of room. for improvement. I think, you know, it was just a perfect storm, obviously, with Bryson DeCambeau, who is a guy who is a lightning rod himself, and then slow play is a lightning rod in itself,

and combined, it just exploded. It was crazy. You could capture videos of every player on the PGA tour, maybe not the two-minute part. That was a little extreme. But you could capture a video of any player on the tour pacing off a 70-yard shot from an unusual spot. I mean, that just happens all the time. And for whatever reason, it's Bryson. People jump on it. I almost feel bad for him because he kind of took the brunt of this when there's,

he's not even the slowest guy by any means. But I do think for the product, quick story here, the second hole at the Masters this year on Sunday. I'm out there following Tiger, of course. He's playing with Francesco. Tiger struggled on the second hole. I don't know if you remember, he hooked one left. He had to punch out. He had a 200-yard third shot. He put it on the front of the green, right? He had about a 60-foot putt to that back-right pin. He took, I mean, at least three or four minutes.

He paced the shit out of that. He went back and forth, and I'm watching with a coworker, and I said, I mean, I love Tiger. You know that. I said, this is unbelievable how long he's taking. It was brutal to watch. And this is Tiger Woods in the final round of the major, and it was kind of brutal to watch this.

Now, he ended up two putting. And then Francesco Molinari had like a six-footer per birdie. He waited for Tiger to do all this. And then he did his whole pre-putt routine, and he missed. And I was just thinking, wow, these guys are brutally slow. So that's just one example. I do think as a whole they could pick up the pace. What's the next thing?

Oh, ball ball over. Yeah, well, let's talk about that pace thing just for a second. I don't remember that vignette of Tiger on the second hole walking that off. And what is truly sort of surprising to me, listening to you retell it, he knows that pin better than anybody. He knows what that putt does. Why does he have to walk it off? Like the point you made about-

He's probably had that put a bunch of times for Eagle probably, not for, you know, Birdie. But yeah, he knows that. Yeah. He knows, right. The point you made about Bryson is so on point with that 70-yard shot. That where he ended up, that's not a place that he has a yardage from. That's not a stock distance. That's not a lie that he plays from.

And you made your observation is dead on. Those guys, they all walk it off because it's completely out of order with what they know and what their game plan contemplates. So I think you're right and it's fair to give him a break on that. The only aspect of the slow play that matters to me is what you said. And I think you're dead on correct, which is the impact on casual observers who then go out and play casual golf. You just can't have guys laying down or reading the reading pots and all that stuff. It just is insane and not, you know, that waiting the, the etiquette like it gets beat into

you when you're young. And I don't know if, like, I'm interested in your, you're a millennial. Is that etiquette like? What is the order of play? Because, you know, I was, I grew up with the order of play, you know, farthest from the whole. But there are a lot of times you find over your, your casual. golf career, that you don't have to wait. You can hit and not interfere with other people and other parts of the same hole.

And the same is true of the putting, right? A hundred percent. And, I mean, it obviously depends who you play with. If I'm playing with my normal group, for instance, this past Sunday, two guys were riding a cart. I was walking. The guys in the cart would get to their ball first, and they would play their shots before I would get to my ball.

And that was fine. And that's just how we do it. And same with the putting, especially if you're putting for like a double bogey or something. You just kind of get out of the way. And then, of course, honors on the T-E, I mean, L-O-L. I mean, we never do that. I mean, so, you know, there are definitely ways to kind of speed it up.

Now, nobody else is doing that ahead of you. It doesn't matter. You're still going to have to wait, which we did. But, you know, yeah, exactly. I mean, we've been raised ready golf, ready golf. You know, at a tournament level, it's a little different. but I think as long as two guys who are playing with each other have an understanding of this

and it's not Sergio and Tiger at the players a few years ago and Sergio got kicked the Tiger for you know I think they have a way to figure this out but you know you mentioned though that's what my point about watching Tiger in person there was just

TV does a good job for the most part of masking this so if you watch on TV you're like all right whatever it's not that bad I'm telling you it's when it's in person is where it's deadly. And to me, I'm like, you know, I'm there for my job

and everything else, and I've seen a lot of golf, and I love it. I love watching the best guys play. But there are certain times we're like, man, I almost don't even know

if I would pay to go to a tournament if there's this much inactivity. That's how bad it is in person sometimes. So again, watching on TV is almost better than watching in person. Oh,

that's a good distinction. And I agree with you. I am kind of dismissive of the watching in person because I so rarely do it. I mean, it's like a fun thing to do if you're not really that interested in watching the golf. It's like a fun event. It's a fun thing to attend. But you're not really going to get to watch anybody play golf. Right.

It's the only sport that you, if you really want to watch the sport, it's crazy. It is peculiar. Well, let's talk about the technology part and sort of whether you're, whether you're, whether you think there's anything. You know, both the USGA and the RNA are supposed to come out with updated review and report on how far the ball is traveling and have thoughts and recommendations about doing it. And the bifurcation, which is to say, you know, some technology that's standardized for pros

mainly with the ball and letting all the rest of us play with our equipment that helps make the game more enjoyable. It's always sort of a lingering kind of talk. talking point out there, what's your sense of whether or not we expect anything to change? Are we going to see anything out there that's dramatic? Or are you just going to sort of hold the course that we're on status quo and the, you know, the distance folks are going to be upset and the, you know, the rest of us will get along with it.

It's fine. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's been a few years now where you've heard rumbling that something's actually going to be done. But you've also heard those team rumblings for slow play and nothing's been done. So I kind of think it's going to stay the same, at least for the foreseeable future. And I think they should do something, whether it's a rollback of the ball, whether it's just capping the equipment right now. And again, you mentioned bifurcation, that's what I would be for.

Obviously, I don't think they should come around and tell me or you, you can't use this driver or this new ball or whatever, because we need all the help we can get. These guys are so good, though, that they don't need all that extra help. And they don't need all that extra distance. I mean, we see these courses. You mentioned Medina. I mean, they tore this place apart.

Not only is a difficult course, but it's a long course, and it just doesn't matter to them. Justin Thomas shot 25 under par. And it's because he can hit driver without fearing much, because even if he's in the rough, he's so far up, he can hit a wedge. out of that rough. It's the era of driver with impunity, right?

Drive with impunity. Right, exactly. Exactly. And, you know, like you said, unless they trick up the greens stupid, put the pins in stupid spots and make the rough, the fairways ridiculously narrow, that's dumb too. I just, I fear and I know that the main people who want these changes, they fear that these old courses are becoming obsolete. And it's not even a beer.

I mean, they are becoming obsolete. If you can shoot 2,500 at Medina, the old course, these places, you're seeing course. I do want to take issue with that. And this, again, sort of runs to my pronounced bias of golf, competitive golf as entertainment. It doesn't matter to me from an entertainment perspective. They're still competing at Medina. They're all out there. One guy has to play better than the other guy.

I understand the tradition, the golf tradition of shot values and what the original framers of the golf course, the original framers of the golf constitution imagined in terms of using all 14 clubs in your bag and perhaps diminishing the entertainment factor because of this bomb and gouge phenomena. But I still like the competition of it. And it doesn't really diminish my entertainment. element of consuming the golf that way. Am I crazy? Let me count.

Yeah, let me counter with just two things on that is, I don't think you or I know what entertainment we're missing, though, by not seeing these guys play the courses how they were intended to be played, not just bombing it, you know, having the shape shots around, having to lay up on a par four. And then play a little more strategically. I think, you know, we're just so used to this. You're right.

It's still great. I mean, still great golf. Don't get me wrong. It's still great to see these guys vomit and whatever. But I think we might see even more creativity, having to see guys recover more from different spots, this or that. I think it would actually be more entertaining. The other thing I would say is, yes, it is very competitive still.

You see, but it's a handful of guys for the most part that just, the length is the only thing that gets rewarded now. Now, I know you see a guy who just is on fire on the greens that week. You know, a shorter hitter can pop up here or there, and they win, of course. But for the most part, all the best players are the best drivers of the ball and the most powerful. And the reason why they're the best drivers of the ball because of the most powerful. And so I think it's taken away from, you know, these other skills, unfortunately. So I would say that that would also add to the entertainment value.

But again, I'm with you. I mean, look, it's fun. We love the PGA tour. It's fantastic. I just worry that it's going even more and more towards this bomb and gouge and, you know, taken apart these old courses. And I think it could, I think it could be better if they did something. Yeah, I don't mind the idea of some kind of standardizing of one aspect of the equipment.

The ball is the most, is the easiest element to require all. the guys to play with the same ball with the same compression or whatever. I would be fine with that. I still think we get a lot of variety. I mean, Kevin Nau won the Colonial this year. Short hitter

target course. Like, that still happens. Like, Frankie Molinari Damnir won the Masters and won the British Open, not one of the longest hitters on tour by any stretch. Like, there's still opportunities for accuracy to

prevail. I mean, you can, it's easy to come up with, you know, the counter argument, Gary Woodland and Brooks Keppka and DJ. I mean, you know, it's, I, but there's still a place for other kinds of golfers. And, and, you know, some of those values. But I just still, to, to me, I would continue to, I hope the tour has in, in mind, you know, continuing to play some of the old, uh, venues as the, as the majors. Yeah, like, like colonial, like colonial. Like colonial. Yeah. Right. That's right. That's right. And, you know, the scores were going to be what they're going to be based on the combination of, you know, there have been advancements in information. So the guys know a lot more about the venues. There have been advancements in, you know, like with launch monitors and stuff. The guys could get better and, you know, in terms of their execution, the skill level, the Greens books continue to have tons of information that, you know, different from the previous era. There's a lot of advantage. that the guys of this era have over previous eras that I don't mind. And ultimately, they all have to go play against each other. And ultimately, we just get one winner each event. So that, to me, is the thing that continues to make it interesting. True, true. Well, let's do a little forecasting of the upcoming 2020 season.

We're not going to count the fall. We like the fall. The fall is good for gambling. learning about some guys as we sort of cover. But what are your thoughts and hopes and expectations for 2020? The guys now have a full season under their belts of what it's like to play big events starting in March and ending in July. What are some names that you're sort of keen on seeing some big things out of in 2020?

Well, you know, I don't know how we've gone this many years without Rory McQuarrie winning a major. So I would say, I wouldn't say it's a lock, but I can't imagine him not winning a major last year if he holds any sort of form like this. He's just due to win a major. The guy who really might have made, well, two guys made huge gains this year, I think, and it's Patrick Cantley and Dandershawley. And those are two guys. I know Cantley won the Memorial, but both of them, you saw them on major leaderboards. I think those would be the two guys that I would to think would be able to make the next big leap forward as well. I mean, Zander, man, he showed a lot on that final round at Eastlake.

I mean, he was hitting the driver all over the map, and he still grinded out an even par with just amazing short game, great scrambling, really good putting. You know, he's a guy who doesn't fade on the weekend like some of these other guys. He's not scared of anybody. He's not scared of playing head-to-head. with Rory like he did in that third round. I really like his game. And Patrick Canley, the same thing.

You know, other than Rory with the strokes gain stats, overall, Cali, Camler's number two on tour behind Rory. So, you know, he's sneakily right there. It's actually kind of surprising that he only won the Memorial. He could have won a few more events. So those are two big names. I'd like to jump up there. But Rory's got to win a major next year.

Or he's going to start feeling even more pressure because he's just too good to go over five years in the prime of his career without winning one. Yeah, and honestly, if I was going to pick one right now, I think Rory is particularly well suited to perform at its wing foot. I think that's a golf course that just sets up with a Rory back Roy kind of game, the length and their premium on hitting it into fairways and you can't miss. You know, if he gets that driver going, as he showed at Eastlake, you know, with that accuracy.

Right. It just gets to be too much. I'm going to end with this. I want to know, because one of the guys that I expect a rebound from, and it's funny to say it this way, is Dustin Johnson. Do you know what the hell happened to Dustin Johnson this year?

No, I don't. And that is the most bizarre finish. What was it? I think eight, his last eight events, he didn't finish better than T20, after runner up at the first two majors, after dominating in Mexico, it's a great question. I mean, you almost wonder if it's,

if there was an injury or something, because I know he, and I know he, quote, parted from Claude Harmon throughout the year, but even he and other people I've talked to said that really wasn't a big deal. He really works with Butch predominantly anyway. I don't know. It was very odd to see him falter,

but you're right. It's weird to talk about him as a, quote, comeback player. considering how little he did the last, what, five months of the season, yeah, he's a guy you'd have to figure it would bounce back. Well, let's do this. Let's promise each other. We'll reconvene in 2020.

Okay. You know, we'll do some preview. And between now and then, let's see if we can't figure out what happened to DJ. Okay. Let's get on the case here. Let's do some things. Let's get on the case. You said it.

All right, Alex Meyer, senior rider for Golf Digest. thanks for coming on and helping us put a beautiful bow on what a season we had this year, Alex. You've got it. Thanks for having me. I can't believe we can talk about Phil Mickelson's calves. But anyway, there's another time. We'll save calves and bombs. It's been a great year.

Thanks, buddy. All right. Take care, man. Thank you. All right. Talk to you. Thank you. All right, my Eagle Enthusiast.

That is the 2019 season in a nutshell with our homie. Myers as mentioned stay tuned we're giving out some awards for 2019 season that's with chris vernon and Megan schuster later this week but I appreciate my good buddy Alex Myers coming on and helping us walk through all the storylines the highlights and low lights of the 2019 season let's definitely be sure to check out burno and schusty to hear some important award winners for 2019