Fairway Rollin' - The End of an Era at Firestone, and Early Predictions for the PGA Championship | ShackHouse (Ep.73)

Episode Date: July 31, 2018

Geoff Shackelford and Joe House look ahead to the World Golf Championship–Bridgestone Invitational and say goodbye to the Firestone Country Club (5:30). Then they predict who will make the Ryder Cup team for the United States (15:15), and Joe House reveals a trend about past winners of the PGA Championship (27:15). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, everybody. Did you notice that Chrome Soft Truvus rolling around at St. Andrews with Tom Watson shooting his age and almost shooting his age two days in a row. It was pretty cool stuff. But hey, you know how I love the Truvist. I got some with the Old Course logo on it. But forget that. Go to Callaway Golf.com. Check out the Callaway Customs, what you can do with a Chrome Soft. Really cool stuff. It's right there on the homepage. You can't miss it. Get that graphene in your bag, that soft cover. You're going to love it. The dual core, the whole package. check it out, go to Callawaygolf.com, and customize away. You're going to have a blast. Yeah, feel free to throw a Shuckhouse on there. I've got something. We just can't play together, Shaq. You can't lose them. If you play with the Shack House and I play with the Shack House, I guess I'll have to put a little insignia on there with my Sharpie. Well, you could also view it as it's almost a kind of a business opportunity by sprinkling them through the ruffs as I did through Scotland. I could have done some good advertising for the show. I wish I'd known. I've been sprinkling them all over to the East Coast this spring, believe me.

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For premium quality, perfect fitting shirts, my friends, visit propercloth.com slash shackhouse and use gift code, shack house, to get $20 off your first custom shirt today. And now let's go to the shack house. How? Greetings from the beautiful United States of America again. It's the WGC Bridgestone Week. I know you've had this one penciled on your calendar all year long. Actually, you didn't until Tiger decided to qualify and make it. It's going to be a fun week at Bridgestone. It did change some things. Tiger jumping in. And I will tell you something, Shaq. First of all, welcome back to the United States. It felt like you were gone for a month. I'm glad that you made it back safely. I do want to ask. you a question. A very quick aside before we jump into the Firestone and Tiger. Did you play that little course with the Hickory sticks? Hickory clubs, yes. You can call them whatever you want. It sounds like an appetizer or something when you say Hickory sticks, which is probably what you

were thinking. Yeah, of course I did. What do you think I walked around with them and then just played my Calloways? By the way, can I just say, I love Hickory Golf, but can I, a word of advice to anybody out there who's interested in Hickory Golf. Don't try to mix Hickory and modern technology in the same round. It is not an attractive site for the golf swing. They do take different golf swings. I learned a very valuable lesson at Killspendi. I apologize to my playing partners for that. But yeah, that's a cool little course I played. Well, what was the mix? What did you do? What was the mistake? Oh, I took a push card and I played with, I had my little Hickory bag. You could put, I have two small bags and then I had my full bag of normal clubs with my, you know, my rogue Fairway Woods and my epic driver and my

modern technology. And then I tried to hit some shots occasionally with the, the hickories, just because I had just gotten this playable set. And it's just not a good idea. It leads to very ugly things, but with both sets of clubs. So it threw me off the rest of the trip. But, yeah, I did. I played this place called King Garrick. It's about 15, 20 minutes from St. Andrews. And it's I'd played there years ago with Jeff Ogilvy and Mike Clayton and Lawrence Donigan and we had had a blast there and I went back and it was great to see it's designed to kind of take you back to a certain time. It's on this estate that has kind of a whole downtown nabby thing going. There's a, they give tours and it's a beautiful estate. And then they had built a golf course on it around the turn of the 20th century.

And so they brought that back eight years ago. and I wanted to go back and revisit it. It was beautiful. It was great fun. I'm glad you did. It was an incredible thing to see on the Instagram. And I'm looking forward to being in your company when you can show me some of the other pictures. I know you didn't put all 50 pictures that you took up on the Instagram.

But it was such a cool, you know, the layout, the way it looks. It takes, you know, Scotland and that entire sort of links proposition to a whole other level. So I just enjoyed it. I wanted to get the... Oh, thanks. Yeah. The first hand account having experienced it. But speaking of firsthand accounts, you were there live and in person for the Open Championship.

We talked about it at the conclusion last week. You came home the middle of the week last week. Have you caught your breath yet? I have. I have. And now I'm just, you know, holding my breath, hoping that your Nats give up a few relievers from my team. How dare you? How dare you?

I'll be in really great shape. We're not sighing. We're not in a selling mode. We're buyers today, Shaq. Good luck. So, yeah, no, I'm very excited. I'm re-energized. It helps a lot, though, the Tigers playing this weekend, Bridgetown.

Because, you know, House, okay, I don't want to be a downer. But this is the end of an era. This is the last event at Firestone. That's a PGA tour event. They're going to have a champions event. But this is sort of the golf equivalent of the end of multi-purpose stadiums, the three rivers, the, just you name it, the astroturf, that era of, of multi-purpose, soulless kind of architecture and baseball.

Not a very kind analogy you're drawing, and not a very, you know, you're talking about the astroturf at the vet. And I mean, Firestone and next week at Belrieve and the PGA Championship are kind of from that same era, not coincidentally, where bigger was better. and I just think that the game is kind of moving in a new direction. And Firestone, you know, has been a very important part of American golf tournament history. And it's hosted, I mean, it hosted three PGAs between 1960 and 1975, and it had the American Golf Classic and all sorts of made-for-TV events.

And then, of course, the World Series of Golf, which became the Bridgestone event that we are saying goodbye to this week. And obviously, Tiger will be sad to see it go. And I'm glad he made it there. And I think he's going to win and send it off in style. But it also is kind of a time in tournament golf that I won't miss these kind of big, long places that are sort of devoid of some of the more interesting kinds of golf holes we've come to love. And I think the players are pretty much of the.

the same views. So I feel bad for the people of Akron because they've been great supporters of this event. And, you know, they've given us some great thrills through the years and great crowds and great energy. But it's also probably something we're going to take note of the next couple weeks that Belle Reeve also, Robert Trent Jones design is probably, you know, hosting its last significant event in our lifetime. So it's just a change of taking. It's just a change of tastes and desires of those who host tournaments going forward. Well, I will say Firestone has been a hell of a test, and it has produced unbelievable champions. I went back and looked at the last six or seven years of winners at this event, and it's five

major winners, along with Hedecki, who won last year with a 61, and Shane Lowry, who finished second at Oakmont. the U.S. Open. But otherwise, this is in this list of winners. We have DJ, Rory, Tiger, Keegan Bradley, who, you know, flashing the pan a little bit early in his career, but he's rounding back into form. He had a really nice performance in Canada, and he loves this place. And Adam Scott was won in 2011. That's a lot of pedigree right there. It's also a lot of distance off the tea there, too. Pretty consistent threat. But it's also a, it's also a, it's also a group of people who, when they're driving well, drive it both long and pretty accurately.

And Tigers, I think, back in that category, although he won there hitting some real quackers, too. But he loves it. It fits his eye. And all those guys will tell you that this week. It fits their eye, which is, you know, good for them. If, of course, fits their eye, that's always a good sign. Well, and a testament to the quality of the venue also. And I understand your architectural point, but, you know,

It is bringing out great players, great play by great players, right? I mean, most of the time, the winning score at this event, you know, you have to get right. It's a guy that just crests double digits under par. And it's typical last year was, you know, pretty typical performance. Half the field finished over par. And, you know, more than half the field just over. And then the rest a little bit under. Yeah.

And some of my issues have been with setup. They've gotten carried away with a rough some. years and even one year Tiger had to had to kind of say something. And it's just not necessary. It's got enough going on that it seems like overkill. So that'll be an interesting thing to see what we get set up wise, because it has varied there quite a bit. And if they show up, I haven't seen any reports yet, but if they show up with some silly high rough, that'll make some people grumpy. But I don't think they will. They've kind of also learned, I think the rule staff learned from that that Firestone can hold its own without chip out rough.

But you got me, I wanted to say one thing about Tiger, why I'm bullish on him this week that I kind of had a chance to reflect on the Open Championship. And two things that we didn't get to talk about in our open episode that stood out from me and why I think he'll win this week and why I'm just bullish on his game going forward if he stays healthy. Number one, Carnusti, I don't think, fit his eye. And he never once said that. And the fact that he played as well as he did there on a course that I don't think, he is very much a horse for course.

And he's not shy in sharing what he likes and what horses don't fit his eye. And Carnussey, I don't think truly fit his eye. And when he played that sixth hole T-shot Sunday so beautifully, and then one of the people that's part of his group told me that he does not like that T shot at all. I don't know anybody who would, especially 25 miles an hour of wind in your face and out of bounds on the left.

And they altered the right fairway is almost non-existent. They've brought it in so much that he conquered that not feeling like it fit his eye, I think was a huge thing. And then the other story I didn't get to tell you in the open episode house was on the ninth hole.

I was on the left side of Fairway, and this is the far end of the course. Pretty quiet. So the crowd was as thin as you could get. And I was standing talking to one of the members of his team there, and his two children were there and their nanny and his girlfriend and his physio and his press guy, Glenn Greenspan, were all kind of standing there.

And they're all in red. And really it was only, you know, they were the only people up against the rope and uh tiger's kids yelled at at him you know something like uh go get them dad or go get them we're doing great or it was just something kind of innocuous but it was very sweet and he he did not acknowledge him he didn't hear them and i thought that in hindsight was really fascinating because he's been so attuned to to calls out from kids in the crowds uh this year and it's been really cool to see him acknowledge people but that was the first time I've seen one where he must have heard him, but he was so locked in on what he was doing,

you know, nine holes to go or nine and a half holes to go in a major. And he knows the sounds of his kids' voices. And he just was, he was all in on the shot. They were not, by the way, they were not offended. I think they, they know their dad. But I just thought that was really cool. And I didn't really realize it at the time. But it was a moment where I thought, oh, okay, he's, he's, he's taken that focus level back up a notch. He's not all the way back to the Hogan-esque thing where he's oblivious to everything but the shot at hand. But I think that's a positive sign for his game.

It has felt like he's almost too open to kind of everything that's going on around him and not quite as focused on the golf as he used to be. So anyway, a couple little analogies there is why I think it's going to be a good run here in the coming weeks for him. I sure hope so. I appreciate that observation, especially on 9. I will just tell you that I'm not surprised to hear that.

That was the moment when really all the adrenaline for every golf fan, everybody watching was reaching kind of peak because it became apparent that Tiger was going to be one, two, or three on the leaderboard, you know, in that 8, 9, 10 stretch. And, you know, everything, all the, all the, all the, the sentences were in heightened form at that moment. I mean, I was getting the tingly touches at the end of my fingers, Shack. I can only imagine Tiger out there walking in the focus that he was feeling and, you know, trying to channel some of that old Tiger juju, you know, major Sunday major juju.

I'm, I'm interested. That's a really interesting analogy that you just shared. So, yeah, but there are other people. Yeah, it's more of a story. It's not really an analogy. That was my, that was my, no, no, that was my bad. I used the word first. But there are other people playing at the Bridgetown this week. And there's actually quite a bit on the line in terms of, well, one, getting some momentum going to the PGA, getting back into classic inland-style golf mode and bombing it and hitting a ball high and hitting lob wedges around the greens.

And then there's obviously really only two weeks left to make the Ryder Cup team for the U.S. on points. So I think that's going to be a fun story. And it's gotten livelier, I think we'll talk about after the break with Bryce and Des Chambot. And, of course, I think it's gotten interesting with Phil. I don't, I feel like Tiger's a lock now. And I guess Jim Furek today on Matt Adams show touched on Mickelson and Tate. Tiger in a way that made pretty clear they're both on the team. But I think Phil needs to show something. And I think there's going to be a lot of attention on Phil this week. I've heard some rumblings there's going to be a, you're going to be wanting to watch some stuff on the telecast. Just keep an eye out for that. I don't think it'll be hard to find on social media when it gets going. Anyway, I don't understand. What are we talking about?

I just think I've heard it's, it's not a Callaway thing. There's a there's going to be a television. spot that might generate a little bit of discussion with the old film. Do we need to put him into some proper cloth? Is he going to show up in another? Yeah, I don't know about that. No, no, no.

Come on, the clothes are fitting better. He finally got to a tailor or something. You say so. No, no, they do. They look better. He looked good at the open. He did look good at the open, but he was making, for the most part, you know,

dressed in open gear. He was in a half vest and some long sleeves. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's what a little nip and tuck will do with the Taylor. So I think, but I still like to see him show a little more form, but it sounds like he's going to make the team. So the U.S. team is really an interesting scenario then for those last two, well, the last spot on points and then who makes it. So that, I think, will be a fun story to keep an eye on. And then the European team as well has some issues with Henrik Stenson and Sergio Garcia's play.

So they need to show some life. And Henrik just is not healthy right now with his arm. So he is playing hurt. And hopefully he's had a little time to recuperate from the open and will be refreshed. Because I really think they need their veteran presence on that team. And they need to show some game here the next couple weeks. Sergio hurt my feeling, Shaq. You know, I touted him.

I bolstered his case for all of the lovely form that he's shown over the years at the Open Championship, and particularly at Karnoosti. And I thought that we'd turn the corner with a couple of those pretty good performances in Europe at the Scottish and at the French. And then I'll be gosh darned if he didn't just go out there and poop one on out on me. I don't know what to tell you. Well, it was a golf course that just exposed any weakness in your game. And that's one of the things I've talked to a few people. My plumber wanted to talk about Tiger the other day, fixing my sink.

Of course. He just doesn't have it on the back night. And I said, I just, I know it's hard to believe, but it was just a golf course that accentuated, especially on Sunday, the slightest, slightest mistake. and I think it's why time will be more than kind to what Francesco Molinari did that day in terms of essentially playing. The more I think about it, it was just the most flawless round of golf under the circumstances when you put them with Tiger, the way the wind was blowing, the firmness of it all.

And it just, it took people really all week, but then especially on Sunday. But even early in the week, it just took people who were a little bit off, and it really separated the field. And that group of, even though it felt like the field was bunched, probably because of the whole locations at the top, it was hard for somebody at the top to separate themselves. But if you really look at the scores, it really spread things out.

And that was really a testament to what an incredible test of golf it was and how sharp you had to be. and Sergio was just not sharp and several others weren't as well. I do want to chime in on the Molinari achievement because it did feel like even in the last 90 minutes of the tournament, Tom Lehman came and sat down and he was watching as Justin Rose was finishing up. And Tom made the observation, whoever gets in the house at six under first, I think has a good chance to win this tournament. And then Justin went up and birdied 18 and was the first in the house at six under. Now, Roy did it also.

But over that 90 minutes, it really did feel like we had a playoff coming, and it really did feel like there was going to be a bunch of guys clustered around that 600 number. We could have had three or even four players there if Molinari had faltered at all in even the least bit. And it could have been Shafley. It could have been, you know, Jordan Speath was still close enough to that number. And both Rose and McElroy were in the house at six under. and boy, oh boy, did Frankie just put it down? I mean, all you could say is he had an incandescent and unmatched short game performance on that back nine. He did, and he just, every iron shot, I started thinking back to some of the holes.

He just, he missed the ones he did miss or the ones he played safe, he played in the perfect spots. And I think it was also interesting, the other feedback I've heard from the open and headed into the rest of the year is just, how much people really liked him and he's not the most dynamic character, but something about him translated well to the audience. And maybe it's just that he's from Italy, which hasn't produced a lot of great golfers, or it's just that he's somebody different. He's not 6.3 and hitting it 340.

It just could be his kind of calm demeanor, or just I think maybe that subliminal admiration that a lot of people, people have. Maybe they're not sure why, but just, just he had the toughest possible circumstances you can have. He's, he's paired with Tiger and, and he, he, uh, held him off. And he faced those crazy last few holes. Maybe, maybe because we're so used to all the antics on those last few holes that, um, that, uh, he, he just kind of stood out for how well he played them. Um, I'm not exactly sure. Oh, by the way, House, I have one other story from the open. I have to

share. I don't believe I shared this. It's related to those last few holes at Carnusty. And then we'll take it. It's like to hear it. All right. So they had a 10th T shuttle for the media. And on Friday, I

go out to pick up Tiger for the back nine. And I get in the shuttle van, and there's John Vandeville. Yeah. So I'm thinking, oh, this will be fun. get the ride out with Jean Van de Valle. I close the door and then there's a knock on the door and there's a photographer. And I go, oh, great. All right. So I get out. I let him in, let him in the back seat. He's shot Vandeville one time or something. So he acts like he's his long lost buddy

starts chatting with him and, you know, how you've been this and that. So, Jean, now we've just started pulling out of the parking lot. John, now in 99, did you have a three shot lead going to the last hole. And I, and I'm just, I'm looking at my phone and I'm thinking, oh, no, he's not, he's not really going to do this. And he proceeds to just grill him, you know, now when your ball was in the water, did it, like, did it move? Was there something about that? Did the photographer, and I was, about the fourth question, I was close to turning around and saying, you know, there's a documentary. There's a book. There are about 14 articles. Shut up. But he's such a nice guy that he went along with the whole thing.

You know, I don't know. I mean, it was like grilling, you know, Jackie Kennedy on, on the flight back to, you know,

I mean, it was just, it was like, what are you doing? You just don't do this. So anyway. But I, I have even more admiration for Jean Vanneville than ever before.

And when we got off the van, I just had some small talk with him. And it turns out he spends a lot of time here in L.A. and plays a lot of golf here. Oh, you got to play with him then. Yeah, yeah. I hope I run into him somewhere. He spends time in Beverly Hills, though.

That's a different zip code for me. We'll work on that. I think that's a, that grace note feels like the right time for us to take a quick break. Yeah. So, hey, House, I have a little message. Now, as much as I love CallawayGolf.com and customizing clubs, I've learned from a friend of mine recently who's gone through three sets of irons. He finally went and got fit instead of just buying them.

walking in the shop and buying him. Please, people, go get fit. Rogue irons by Calloway, the number one iron in golf. Go to your local shop. There are a couple different options with the rogue. You've got your pros. You've got your pro black.

You've got the X. You've got the Irony X. Yeah, you do have the X. Do you have a little hybrid combo? That's another thing. That's another reason to go see your local shop. Get fit. Hit the clubs.

Look down at them because they all have different vibes to the way. They sit on the ground, the top lines. Don't be like my friend and spent too much money just buying the thing off the shelf. It doesn't cost a lot of money at this point to get fit people. Go to your local fitter. Check out the rogues. Check out everything by Calloway Irons.

They're the number one iron in golf. Well, I think that's all I have to say. That's outstanding advice. And, you know, these days they will roll the price of whatever price they might charge you for the fitting. if you buy the clubs from them. Of course. A lot of vendors will go ahead and roll that in. Speaking of rolling things in, Shaq, let me tell you about our good pals at Helix Sleep.

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Go to helixleep.com slash shackhouse right now and you'll get up to $125 toward your mattress order. That's a big, big savings because Helix sleep mattresses are very affordable. Well, that's helixleep.com slash shackhouse for up to $125 towards you order. Helixleep.com slash S-H-A-C-K-H-O-U-S-E. Shack-H-H-H-H-O-U-S-E. All right, Shaq. Yeah, so what do we, we got a lot going on in the business side of golf. A lot of, a lot of deals being made.

We've got a Ryder Cup. We've got our last PGA championship in August. What's, what's exciting to you most? We need to talk about the Ryder Cup. We need to give out to some folks, some thoughts on who's going to perform well at Firestone. And then I want to do a little bit of early prognostication. I have a little trend I want to share with you and get some thoughts, early forecasting on the PGA championship.

Tell me now. I want to hear it. Oh, okay. Well, let's just go right there. There has been this curious thing that I've observed over the previous three major winners in 2018. and it consists of this composition. There are two factors. And I mentioned this on the Bill Simmons podcast yesterday because I'm always looking for trends.

I need my angle, Shaq, and I'm happy to share this with all of our listeners. Maybe there's somebody not on my list that I'm forgetting in terms of the contenders for the PGA if this trend holds to form. There have been two attributes that each of the previous major winners this season have possessed. Do you know what they are, Jeff Shackleford? I do not. one is they all wear Nike clothing. Each of the major winners thus far. And I will say in the case of Patrick Reed and Frankie Molinari, they wear the kind of Nike clothing that I, that appeals to me.

Like shirts with collars and, you know, pants that go all the way down to the shoes and that kind of thing. Kepka can wear whatever he wants because he's a beast and I would never say anything bad about Brooks Kepka because I don't ever want to accidentally bump into him. You don't want to be on his bad side. No, never, never, never. him too. I picked him for the open championship. I gave him out as a pick for the open. He should be a good pick for Belrief too. Yeah. Well, he fits

this credential since he already won one. Here's the other thing about each of this year's major winners. All of them have in some way, shape, or form a mixed bag. Now, a lot of them play, guys have, you know... That's because they're all Nike guys and they were forced into it, but go on.

Well, no, I mean, some of them, you know, Patrick Reed had a previous sponsor. But for each of those guys, they have, in the case of like Frankie Molinari, he had a single manufacturer for his woods and his irons and possibly his wedges as well. But different putter, different ball. Kepka had a true mixed bag between irons, woods and putter and ball. And the same is true of Patrick Reed had real diversity inside of his bag. There are only a couple guys that right now.

I know where this is going. Well, there are only three guys. Now, a couple of guys I was prepared to tout for the PGA, but both Rory McElroy and Jason Day. Right. Yeah. No, they're out on your. They're out because they're Nike guys, but they play from, you know, top of the bag all the way to the ball, the same manufacturer. Here are three names for you that have a little bit of a mix.

One of them is my pick, so go ahead. Okay. I'm excited. Tommy Fleetwood has, you know, a little bit of diversity in his setup. Tony Fee now. There's the one. Wow. He's available at great odds right now.

50. Yeah. 50 to 1. Yeah, exactly. And, of course, we're not leaving out the tiger. Tiger Woods has a little bit of diversity. Still putts with an off-brand putter. No, he switched to a tailor-made.

Well, I saw that, you know, it depends. I think on what comes in and out, right? I mean, the Cameron was in this year. That's all. It was earlier this year, but he's all, he's all tailor-made now. Except for the ball? Except for the ball. Okay. So does that, does that fit your mixed? Yeah, yeah, it does. It does. Yeah. I mean, any diversity among the setup. Okay. All right. That's diversity. But wait a second now. Let's think about this. Anyway, yeah. Well, it's just a trend. I don't have anything to make of it. It's just what happened. Well, I mean, who am I? I don't All I am is a guy looking for an angle. Okay, no, I like the angle.

I mean, I love it. It sets up for Fianau, who I just feel like is playing so well. And when you look at the golf courses the next couple of weeks, it just seems like his power will be very handy at both. I don't know. For some reason, I'm less bullish on Tiger at Belrieve than I am at Firestone, probably because of his Firestone track record. Yeah, eight wins will have that effect, I think.

Yeah, that'll do it. And only out of the top 10, three times. And I just, I'm having a hard time seeing him getting excited about Belrieve, especially after Karnusti. Same thing with Jordan Speeth. You know, Carnusti, just for those kinds of players who love the sort of chess game kind of golf that it presented, Bell Reef's just going to be a very different kind of exam. And I don't know how much it's going to excite them, but, you know, there's a major on the line. Yeah, it's a major.

It's, it's Jordan Speed, you know, closing out the. Oh, yeah, but he's openly said it. It's going to be a very hard one for him to win the PGA anywhere, especially in the August, thankfully, last date where it's hot and it's a bomb fest. And it's really kind of biased towards probably towards distance. And maybe not. Maybe that will get there next week. Well, I am curious.

But the greens are also, they've been really struggling with the greens at Belreve. So two people who, and that's why I kind of singled out Jordan and Tiger, there are two people who feed off of their putting a little bit. And I'm having a hard time envisioning them getting excited if the greens are not good. But they've been closed. I don't know. Maybe they've been able to resuscitate them with not having any play on them. We'll find out.

I'll be there on Monday evening. So I'll be able to get a good firsthand look to see how that'll play. Well, it is curious to me that you're making this distinction with Tiger. Because what is required of good performance at Firestone, you have to get the ball off the T in a way. Now, you don't have to hit every fairway in regulation. You have to hit Greens in regulation. But that means that you have to have a reasonable accuracy off the T. And over the course of this season, Tiger with Driver in his hands has not been a very successful club.

It's why, you know, the performance at the players and the performance here at the Open Championship, Those were the two where it's a Saturday or Sunday and you're starting to think something might happen with Tiger. I'm nervous about seeing him with the driver in his hand. No, not at all. I totally disagree. And here's why. I'm glad. I'm glad to hear it.

The thing that I did not get enough play on his performance in the open was his driving. You know, we've come out of so many of these events where it's been the sense that he could hit it anywhere. And he just had it under complete control. And the thing that was most interesting to me was the rhythm with the driver. And if you look at that last day with the wind blowing, there were a couple times where I think he would have not been comfortable and you would have seen a swing that was just not really the old rhythm. And he just, a lot of them I saw from a distance. So I was watching from 100 yards away. And I was telling Brandl Shambly this the week after that the most fascinating.

thing to me watching it because it is different in person. There's something about television that changes it is it almost looked like he wasn't accelerating on the down swing. The rhythm was so smooth that there was not that kind of build up and then just absolutely on leash except on like one or two T shots. Everything was under control. It was beautiful tempo. And I just think the driving is totally different than it was at the beginning of the year. So that to me is why he's going to be successful. And he may be successful at Belrieve. He may, he may find that he, he likes it. But I'm, I'm less bullish on that, obviously, than Firestone. Well, you mentioned his drive on six. And he definitely hit driver on six. And it was possibly the best drive of the day.

Yeah. At least of the, you know, anybody in contention on the, in the top 20 there, because he annihilated it. And it was a perfect position. And then he hit three wood right up to the front of the green. So for, for a hole that was playing and the guys in commentary, wise, we're like very skeptical of anybody reaching that green and two. And he was right there at the front of the green and two. It was like, woo, woo, that's off the alarm. Brandl Shambly had that number, that second shot. He wanted to know more about the second shot. I said, what was funny was out there. The ovation was really light. And so we couldn't see from our spot over on the side where it ended up. And I figured, well, by the light ovation, he must have

left it where he has a really tough wedge shot. Well, it turned out it was a perfect shot. And he, he's, I think he had the number of $2.98 for that shot. And he said that was, that was the most impressive shot that, that, that he thinks Tiger has hit in a long, long time. That that, that, that, that shot was, was just off the charts, crazy good, that, that, how many other people could have done that, 298 into the wind and got it within spinning distance of the green was just astounding. So, um, let's talk about two other players, I think, who are really interesting to studies over the next couple. weeks. They both have something in common. They can get a little hot under the collar.

And both of them, I think, are really going to be interesting in the context of, well, golf going forward for the next few years, but also the Ryder Cup. And that's John Rom and Bryson D. Chambot. You know, John Rom is on the Ryder Cup team right now for Europe. But like Sergio and Henrik, he creates a different kind of headache for Captain Bjorn with the way he's planning. So he's, and I only really wanted to bring him up that this is somebody who we need to see in the next couple of weeks showing some signs of life too. And also some signs of having settled down. I mean, he is just so tightly wound out there on the course right now. Well, this is the thing. You know, I tried to take a contrarian position on the Open Championship. And I inserted him into some lineups and I gave him out as somebody that could be interesting. And he handled Thursday. beautifully, but everybody, you included, expressed great skepticism because he just has not shown any resiliency. He cannot redirect himself. He can't, you know, control the emotion as soon as he

encounters any sort of genuine adversity. And I don't know why it is. This is only true so far, in my observation, in the majors, because he has encountered adversity in the events that he's won on the European tour and in the U.S. tour. Now, he does have this inclination, it seems. He loves a birdie fest and he goes out and kicks ass in the birdie fest. But, you know, was it the Irish Open that he won? That wasn't, you know, an all-out assault on the course. And he definitely, you know, encountered double bogey along the way there and then

bounced back and closed it out. And he had a really good finishing round at the Scottish that I thought was really going to propel him. But for whatever reason in these majors, he encounters, you know, a little bit of adversity and he just takes himself right out of it. He hits the eject button so quickly. Well, and he can play any golf course fee if he's, if his mind is set to it. And that's the, that's the thing. So it's just really all about his attitude. I think he's, he better make the team on points because I don't know how many guys really want to play with him. You know, he was paired with Rory McElroy for a little Monday game at Carnusti.

And I think that the European side is trying to find a good fit for him on that team. And they may be struggling a little bit. It seems like, you know, and if you can't play with Rory, there's a real problem because he gets along with everyone and can find a positive in somebody pretty easily. So that's one to keep an eye on. So now, House, did you, this is such a petty little golf world kind of thing, but did you track any of this on the U.S. side, Bryson Deschambeau saga at the event last week in Germany? I took note of the fact that Bryson and Patrick Reed were both playing and that Patrick had a little tete-a-tete with a photographer who was gendling change. Yeah. And both Patrick and Bryson were at the top of the leaderboard.

So I had the intention of watching a little bit Sunday morning. I didn't get around to it. But I saw what happened with Bryson where he fell apart. And I watched the video of it yesterday over the final four holes, had the lead. The tournament was his to win. And he shot four over over the last four or five holes. And then was very short with the congratulations to the eventual winner, Richard McAvoy, is that his name?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I, and I know a lot of people took notice of, of, uh, what appeared to be, uh, you know, a missed opportunity to show a little class and little grace. I, yeah, so I took the opposite side, uh, because I watched it. I saw a lot of the, the social media bickering and acting like it was one of the great snubs of all time.

And so I had not seen it live. It was on very early in the morning here. And I was kind of more focused on the senior open at the old course. because it was to me really way more interesting. But it was a fascinating finish. And it was such a, to me, just not a big deal. And it was blown out of proportion. He made triple on the last hole.

He was running hot already all week. He probably needs to get back to the U.S. and have a couple of cheeseburgers and get some home cooking and some sleep. But he really wanted to win. And he's passionate about what he does. And he is rough around the edges sometimes. But he's also incredibly gracious. and classy, you know, there's just kind of a, there's two sides there.

But what I couldn't believe was that the discussion then shifted to. Now, he took his hat off. He made eye contact with a guy and shook his hand. It just was very quick. It was not great. But it was not the end of the world. It did not deserve the Zuprooter film breakdown that it got. What I couldn't believe, though, was that it started to become this well.

I don't know if we can have, Jim Furrow can have this on the Ryder Cup team. And it's like, well, okay, first of all, it'd be good to have somebody that's a little bit of a rogue on this team. We already have Patrick Reed in a way in that sense. And then I poked around none of the British press, which is they love to seize on the ugly American story. None of them were writing this. A couple of players pointed it out. In fact, today, if you go on the Twitter, the gentleman who won who was supposedly snub came out and just said, I just didn't even notice it at the time.

I was just so happy. He just made a winning putt. I won the tournament. He was enjoyable to play with. He's a great talent and move along. So I think it's fascinating, though, that suddenly there's this, and you know how these little narratives build in Golf House that, I mean, tennis, if you watch tennis, there are rude handshakes on a daily basis, either between players or players and referees.

I mean, daily. But that's not the expectation. There's a different expectation involved. There's a gentleman's game. And people want, you know, to as much for the, especially with these Rider Cup, with these national teams, you know what people want. They want, you know, to believe in the guys that they're all, all our boys are classy boys, that they're the best boys. And we can indulge a rogue in the form of Patrick Reed because his play takes care of. But he goes out and burns everybody down in this event.

And if you're looking for a reason to leave a guy off, and that's where we're going to end up. Because if you look at this list, we really have, you know, 15 guys. Like one of Matt Coocher or Xander Schaughley or Kevin Kisner or Tony Fee now or Webb Simpson. You know, there's only room for like one or two of those guys. So four of those guys are going to stay home. And they've been playing very well. Oh, I know. You'd love to have Kisner on this team because of what he's shown in a team capacity.

but we're going to have Phil and Tiger on, which means, you know, somebody out of, now I'm okay with Webb. I'll never forgive Webb Simpson getting inserted onto the team ahead of Chris Kirk a handful of years ago. I thought that was an injustice and Webb Simpson begged to be on there and then shit the bed. And I, you know, that's enough. Oh, we just shanked a couple shots. You quibble. It was only the, it was just the Rider Cup for Christ's sakes.

Yeah, I believe. And I don't think he would be the first choice, although kind of the way he played at the players and that kind of golf might work at this venue in France. But as you say, Kevin Kisner is the one that I think after the Open Championship has to be the player that gets picked by Jim Furek just because when you look at the venue and you look at the way he's playing and what he showed in the President's Cup, is pairing with Phil and how much he loves match play. And he's just showing himself to be a guy who can play a lot of different. kinds of courses and will adapt. It's going to be very hard to leave him off. And that is going to make it.

I mean, Bryson, I think, is going to have to make it on points. But I just hope he's not eliminated over this silliness. I think it's absurd. I understand your view. He will be eliminated because of this. This will be one of the factors in the silliness. I'm just telling you, you know how it works. I know.

Webb Simpson made the team because he called Tom Watson and begged him to be on the team. This is just how it works. buddy. The other thing that's tricky too is if Tiger's playing, Tiger won't be overseeing a pod. Or maybe he'll have us, maybe will he still have his pod and play?

I don't know. But Bryson would have been in the, the woods pod because they're, their buddies and I think Tiger's entertained by all of his lunacy. Well, think about that pod. That's the Patrick Reed, Bryson D. Shambo, Tiger.

I mean, who else would go in that pod? Who would be the fourth? I mean, that's a hot pod. Talk about, you know, affirming Tiger's sainthood status when he takes all the rogues. Wow, he's probably sitting there a couple times going, can't I just have Justin or somebody?

I'd put the X-Man in there, put Zander in there. Yeah, well, so it's going to be a lot of fun watching this play out. It's a great time for U.S. golf. It's a wealth of riches, whereas I think despite Monty's proclamation, this is the greatest European Ryder Cup team ever. They've got a lot of issues. But as we also know, the Ryder Cup is still a ways away. It's bizarre.

It's still a ways away and a lot can change. But it also is kind of sneaking up on us because we've got this little race within the race heading into the PGA championship. So it's a fun time. Two weeks where these guys right on the edge can make a jump in or jump out. I think we've covered all the bases. I do believe so. Well, it's going to be a fun couple days at Firestone. Tiger's going to be playing with Jason Day.

I don't know what the timing is, but limited fields. So a good portion of his golf should be on golf channel the first two days or if not on PGA Tour Live. And then, of course, the weekend on CBS and Golf Channel pre-coverage. It's a WGC. So they're on way too many hours. But hey, you know, when Tiger's there and if he's in contention, people want to see it. So thankfully all those hardworking people will be there. Yeah, I know I want to see it.

I'll be watching. Absolutely. All right. Well, one last word, Tiger. I've called you tiger. You can call me Tiger. That's fine. Cow, how am I doing?

How's you been to your local shop yet to see the Odyssey Red Ball? I have not yet. I'm just lusting after it on online. That's the best I can do. Oh, I have. It's very cool. But you can go check out. There's a great video online.

Our friends of Calloway have made the Odyssey Red Ball. I think it's going to be a very popular practice putter for a lot of tour players. But it allows you to kind of easily and consistently get the right. set up proper line every time you're over the ball it's kind of got a little al-servic kind of uh you know like lock it in kind of thing yeah without the uh without the telescope uh so it's just very cool and it's of course got the white hot face and it's uh it's it's now in stores as of july 20th so go check it out oh that's awesome uh i i need some help with my three footers don't we all don't we all well we have a whole a whole bunch of guys coming up here

in Firestone and the Ryder Cup is on the line. How, and then you mentioned, you talked a little golf on the Bill Simmons pod. What's that all about? I had to invite myself on there. We've been dying. We've been sending notes about the show on HBO Succession. Have you seen Succession, Jeff? Yeah. Yeah, I gave up on it. Sorry.

Oh, well, you need to, you gave up at whatever point you gave up on it. How do you likes any of those people? They're just not likable people. Yes, correct. There you go. You're getting it. Wait till you see. What episode did you give up? Number two. I don't want to get to know the Murdoch family. There we go, buddy.

In fictional form. I really don't. This isn't a mistake. Every one of us who are now head over heels for succession had the exact same experience through the first three episodes like, eh, I don't know. These are all unlikable people. I don't know what the point is. But guess what, Jeff?

They are setting the table. Wait till you get to episode. Hang in there. Get through three, four and five, and then things go haywire. You got to do it. I'm telling you. And you and I will get convened right here on the Shackhouse, part of the Ringer podcast network and extol the virtues of succession.