Fairway Rollin' - The Kuchar-Garcia Controversy and Early Masters Bets | Fairway Rollin’

Episode Date: April 3, 2019

Joe House is joined by Chris Vernon to recap the WGC-Dell Match Play event and the Matt Kuchar–Sergio Garcia putt controversy before covering this week's news in Tiger Woods (1:45). Then Harry Gagnon joins the program to talk about his world-record-breaking gambling attempt and to offer some early Masters bets (21:00) before The Ringer’s Megan Schuster stops by to cover Phil Mickelson’s clap back at country star Jake Owen and forecast players' clothing choices for The Masters (38:00). Host: Joe House Guest: Chris Vernon, Harry Gagnon, Megan Schuster Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

and welcome this podcast. Unlike any other, it is almost time for the Masters. But right now it is time for some fairway. Ro! Yeah, my par-saving pals, my birdie buddies. We've done it.

It's the week before the Masters, so we are very excited. Things are starting to get serious. You have landed upon the Ringers' new. You golf podcast brought to us by our outstanding friends at Callaway Golf with whose epic flash models already have more worldwide driver wins so far this year than any other driver models, including the driver win in the hands of none other than Kevin Kisner, the match play champion. There's also been 10 worldwide Callaway driver wins by non-staffers

because they choose that driver based on performance. Callaway continues to be number one in worldwide driver wins and worldwide driver usage across the major tours this year. I am your starter, Joe House.

We have an outstanding show, obviously doing a little bit of early forecasting on the Masters, doing a little bit of recap on the events of the match play tournament. The first tea is open, my birdie buddies. Let's go stick a pig in the ground and get this going. Four, please.

Now on the tea, Chris Vernon. Yeah, Vernon. We're doing the Masters style introduction because the Masters is right around the corner. I can't believe it. Are you ready? I can believe it. we just have to act like this Valero Open. It's not happening this weekend.

Is that what we're going to do? We have a two-week run-up to the Masters. The only thing I care about I want to think about and evaluate is who we're going to pick for the Masters, what sandwiches might I eat if I'm able to get down there. Like, you know, we need a game plan for the Masters. All credit to the Valero Open and the charities associated where they're with and the players that are playing in that thing. I honestly hope Jim Furrick goes.

win so he can play in the Masters because he's on the outside looking in on the official world golf rankings. But yeah, I just have to say it's all Masters all the time. Now, having said that, having set that stage, let's talk about how we did this most recent week at the WGC Dell match play. Do we have to? All right. Let's say, all right. So it was by Wednesday. I was like, I don't even know why I made picks on this stupid day. Because Now, in retrospect, I took a bunch of bigger names that were longer shot. Like, the odds were pretty far on, pretty much everybody, unless you were going to deal with DJ or Rory or whatever.

And obviously, in this kind of setting where you can get bounced out, that seemed foolish to me. So I was at least proud that I took a crack at, like, the Jordan's Feast of the world in the Lee Westwood, this got to stuff, like, just go ahead and cry. You had Kepka. You tried with Kepka. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, just, all right. So here's guys that are a little further down in the odd. And maybe if they find themselves or maybe if they're going head to head, we'll get the best out of them. Because in the end, when it all shook out and you ended up with the final four, I could honestly say outside of Mollinari, who we talked about, I could honestly say, I never considered any of these guys. Yeah, I mean, the only one that, like, I don't recall whether we discussed him or not,

but as I compiled my lineups and thought about who I would enter in the various pools and so forth that I play in, I took a look at Kisner and, in fact, I included him in one fantasy lineup because he was the runner up last year. And the point in this thing for a lot of the formats is just to get guys that make it to the final eight or final four because everybody's making money. It's a WGC event. There's no cuts. Everybody's cash in. So you just need to get into that top eight. And then if you're really lucky, you get to top four.

So I had Kisner in one lineup. But you're absolutely right. I mean, Coucher, all he had to really go on was the longer, you know, looking way back a little bit, his track record. He's a good match play player. And Molinari, we knew. But this is what happens with this thing. Lucas Beard, Beer regard. I mean, I'm going to get the name wrong, and I apologize to Lucas and his family.

He played awesome. I mean, it was awesome to see. But he landed in the right place coming in fourth place. All right. Let me, yes. Let me speak on this very quickly on the Matt Coutcher front. Number one, there is nobody in sports that I can remember outside of like real legitimate scandal and or crime, like a Ray Rice, right?

Like somebody like that, they've destroyed their perception within 24 hours, right? With something like that. Outside of that, I really believe, no, I have never changed course, my perception of someone in three months time as much as I have with Matt Coocher. I found him to be so likable, the corny guy that's always smiling with the sketchers, you know, everybody's like, cooge. Yeah, he's in on the joke. He was in on the joke a little bit, right?

Yeah, he stiffed Pucan down in Mexico. And then I don't know how active you were on Instagram yesterday. I was active. I observed. This video with him and search. I honestly have seen more comfortable hostage videos than this. Well, that was the thing. We wanted, I was looking for his hands because I wanted to see if the which hand had the gun in it.

That was he had jammed into Sergio's side, right? This was swear to God, I'm watching it and I'm waiting for like the punchline, the gaff, the joke, whatever it may be. And it like never came. It never came. It was like, this was serious. And I'm like, are you kidding? me? This is like, and he's like, it was like a principal talking about a kid. Like, Billy understands what he's done and Billy's contrite and wishes he would have handled things differently. And I've

spoken to Billy about how we can act differently in class. And I'm like, is this for real? Like, is it, I can't even, I can't believe this is happening. And this isn't a joke. Like, if it was a set-in-law-s sketch, I wouldn't believe. Yeah, well, that's right. I expected at the end of it, Sergio, to say April fools and then turn around and give Cocher the finger. Because that would have been the right ending. It really wasn't April fools. It was two April fools sitting next to each other with a highly contrived, completely artificial attempt at reestablishing some normalcy between them.

It was a hostage situation. I mean, it felt like a bad episode of The Bachelor. It was, just be clear on this. nothing has come out saying that that was a goof, right? No, I haven't seen it. I mean... Okay, I kept waiting for like, surely this is a goof, right? Because this is ridiculous.

Yeah, I mean, this is the thing with these golf guys. They live in a world that the rest of us don't live in. I mean, the best you can be, the most generous you can be after watching that is you just say, well, that was extremely awkward and highly forced and not anything like a normal conversation that two normal human beings would have. But maybe this is because they're pro golfers, this is the way they talk and they think the outside world is able to comprehend them. I don't know.

That's the best I can do. I don't believe for one second that Sergio did not go hang out with his buddies that night and be like, can you believe this D. Ed? I'm telling you. Didn't give me, like just give me, Sergio understands what he did. Sergio understand that he missed the putt, and I'm like, I'm like, bro, come on. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nobody has come out and said that Matt Coochard did not have an opportunity to turn to the rules official and say, I conceded the putt. Nobody said he was deprived of that opportunity. He, his own self, said that Sergio hit the ball before he had the chance to concede it, but that did not prevent him from turning to the rules official and saying, I conceded that putt. It is the battle of the generally unlikable in this particular case. But because, right, because if Sergio is a hot head who's like effing up greens for. Yeah, right, right.

Nobody liked what he did in Saudi Arabia. I was fine with it. Who cares? F up those greens in Saudi Arabia. And then he'll take 100 years to hit a shot. And, like, I mean, he's not exactly, you know, the people's champ by any means. But, house, if me and you and a couple of buddies are playing, and I went and tapped that like it was a gimmy, and it rolled out,

and then you turned to me and said, that wasn't a gimmy. I mean, it's a fifth fight. It's a fight. It's a fight on the green. We don't even make it to the next tee because, and by the way, the green is getting messed up because we're on the ground. I mean, it ain't even like, there's going to be swinging with them. We're going to be grappling.

I mean, it's a fight on the green. And that's when people are like, right, when people, when the average guy who plays golf and is hopefully listening to this podcast plays with his buddy, that happens 10 times around. Yes, exactly. It's just the dinky and you just pick it up and all right, let's go to the next hole, right? Because you miss the one that really mattered, right? That's right. I ain't standing over it making you. I ain't standing over it.

you making you make a six inch putt. Like, what are you talking about? I know. That's exactly right. I mean, then so. It's a word.

Anybody that would not concede that or anybody that in, in retrospect, when it was, you know, when they did give him the hole, like again, that's a fifth bite. Well,

he had the opportunity to make it right. That's what Sergio attempted. He said to him, well, why don't you just concede the next hole? And then we're right back to all even. Now, I mean,

the reservation for, Coutcher there is losing an advantage, but he didn't deserve that advantage in the first place. So, I mean, this is villain on villain crime. So as far as I'm concerned, you know, if it had been mutually assured destruction, that would have been better if they both had fallen over at that moment and had busted knees. That would have been fine. Unfortunately, Coucher went all the way on to the final, but the golf gods looked down and took recognition of it. And that's why Mike Coucher was not the WGC matchplay champion. of 2019. Enough about those dickheads. Let's move on to something much, much, much more important.

We started off by observing we're in the home stretch here. Let's talk about this week in Tiger Woods. Tiger, Tiger, Tiger, Tiger! All right, Verno. So look, we both had very, very, very modest expectations coming into this match play event. We poo-poohed his chances of going forward and then the golf guys rewarded us, with the most unbelievable, out of all of the juiciest pairings you could imagine on the, on the tee sheet, the golf gods looked down and gave us Rory against Tiger Saturday morning. Were you able to watch that?

I was a, you know, right now in terms of expectations and how he can play. Because here's the thing, House. Number one, you know, it's easy in the moment or a little bit later to forget,

like Rory was taking on all comers and has been unbelievable and has been going head to head, you know, weekly with the best guys in the world and coming up big over and over. A guy that I would routinely expect to hold under pressure or if he's right there at the end, I'm like, I don't know if he's going to be able to hold on to this. And like even down the stretch, you remember the one tournament earlier this year,

he birdies like six holes, six out of seven holes, and doesn't gain anything on Dustin Johnson because Johnson's just playing out of his mind too. But, I mean, more routinely has been at peak of powers looking like the best golfer in the world. And so this was the chance, right? All right, now we're going to get to see, you know, does he look? Now, here's the best guy in the world at this moment,

if it's not Dustin Johnson, certainly the guy that has been playing the best most recently. and does it look like it's two different caliber of player? Does it look like, you know, because in the end, you know, Tiger's been, what, like maybe eight strokes off of a leader in any of these tournaments so far since the season began, though we think he's played pretty well. He hasn't been very close to winning a tournament yet.

And so now here's the moment. And does it look like he's right there alongside this guy, or does it look like he's, you know, a step below? That's right. He's more like everybody else. And that's right. He looked, I mean, he looked him dead in the eye and beat him. And so I don't know how my expectations could be greater or how I could feel greater right now about him going into the Masters because that's the test.

What do you look like when it's heads up, you versus the guy who's been the best most recently, he was right there with him. step for step and then took him down. That's why I think your analysis here is so thoughtful and on point, Mr. Vernon. The incredible thing about this match play tournament and the format is it gave us a beautiful preview of what two guys standing on the same tee because the format and the master's on Sunday is just two guys. And so if you're in one of those last, let's say five groups, the thing that you're trying to do in the first place is beat the dude that you're matched up against. Because if you beat that dude, that means you have the possibility of climbing up the leaderboard while the other guys and the other groups and any of those top five groups are mucking around doing whatever they're going to do.

And, you know, this was a very, very, I think it's right to link this up this way. Rory stood on the T with Patrick Reed last year in that final group, and his first shot off the T was a damn near out of bounds and a scramble to save Bogie, and he had a chance on the very next hole to rectify that wrong and to clean himself up and to redirect the round on the very second hole, and he missed a short putt, and that was it for Rory. And here we are with Rory, you said it so well. at the height of his powers in the 2019 season,

that he's matched up with the goat, the greatest of all time. And it really is a heads up. We're looking at each other. It's time to go. One guy's going to win and one guy's going to lose. And it was Eldrick Tiger Woods that came out on top, ready for the moment with the golf to accompany it.

And I'm like you, I'm feeling very, very good about two weeks from now. No, if he's up in that moment, if we get him against Rory or we get him against Dustin Jopson, that was the two. Either one of those two guys, everybody else is a peg down as far as I'm concerned. Like if you have to face those two guys,

because we're just coming off recently, Rory having a chance to win the tournament and just pipes it down the middle on 18. That's right. And he wins, and he wins the tournament, right? Something that we would not have thought is generally his characteristic.

it's like, okay, this is a different dude now. Like he can be a killer. He was around the hoop. He was around the hoop. That's right. That was it. I mean, and really at the players championship, it was him bouncing back after kind of an unforced error bogey on 14. He birdied 15 and that's what put me on notice that something was happening. He was bringing something to the table that was different from years past. I mean, from weeks past, the only event, you mentioned it, it was the Mexico event where he was, he was playing to win that that golf tournament.

He just ran into a buzzsaw in Dustin Johnson. But Rory at the players did remind us of what he's capable of. So here's a difference, Verno. At the players championship, Jason Day, in those last handful of holes, was not a viable threat to win the golf tournament. That was who Rory was paired with. And he stumbled a little bit. it was still a possibility of ROM or Fleetwood coming from behind,

but Rory felt comfortable heads up against Jason Day on that Sunday. That's a different vibe altogether than heads up. It's one guy's going to win and one guy's going to lose. So I don't know where that leaves us with respect to Rory, but I know where it leaves us with Tiger. All right, so we're feeling good. We'll get to have a two-week high because he's not playing in this Valero. so now hope springs eternal for a go.

Hope springs eternal. I'm going to leave. I'm going to let you go in one minute. We're going to get together next week and do our formal prognostication and forecast for the masters. Do you have any picks other than Tiger right now? Who are you feeling good about other than Tiger? And maybe it's Rory. For the Masters, maybe it's Rory.

I don't know. Other than Tiger, who else you feeling good about? See now. Wow. I love it. I feel like the broken ankle. I think he's got a chance to win this thing this weekend. And then go in or, you know, be in the top five this weekend because this is like a long driver's course.

Yeah. So he gets in the top 10, top five. I know his odds aren't that good for Blero. But he gets there in the top 10 or five. He's feeling good about himself. And you know I love stories. So the redemption of a year removed from the part. three, hole in one,

snaps his ankle. He's got the new Nike ankle support now. Well, they made that funny shoe. That was the best April Fool's joke of the day was Nike with the special high top up to his knee. Yeah, that was good.

Absolutely hilarious. So, yeah, like, you know, it's a year later. And by the way, the guy was like, you know, practically crippled from the ankle injury and was awful. of even the rest of the way. Finish inside the top 10.

And there are a bunch of advanced metrics that like Tony Fee now. We'll talk about those. I'm glad you said him because there's going to be a lot of phenow love out of this podcast come early next week in the forecast. Berno, I'm going to let you go. Thanks for coming on.

As always, it's master's time. I hope you're ready with your annual rundown of, you know, Tiger at the Masters. Are you getting the song ready? I could not be more ready. You're going to do a little bit of the song for us next week.

I wait all year for this phone. I know you do. All right, buddy. Appreciate you. Talk to you next week. Thank you. Four, please. Now teeing off.

Harry Gagnon. Hi, buddy. Oh, it's going great. Now, we have to begin this week in this conversation. with congratulations. We have congratulations in order on two different fronts. First of all, you attempted a world record last week. You were in Las Vegas, Nevada. You were out there with the cousin Sal. You were attempting to beat the number of casinos bets placed inside of 24 hours. Did I get it right? Is that what the world record was?

Yeah, that's the requirements for the record, right? But yeah, and, you know, it happens to the best of us. For 10 and a half hours, I walked for 22 miles during that 24-hour period. This is why I knew I had to congratulate you. Now, how to turn out. Now that I know how it's worked out and where I need to start. Well, 51 still deserves incredible kudos. That's a 24-hour tour of all that Las Vegas has to offer.

Were you keeping track of monies won or lost? How'd you do in terms of the gambling? one. Well, considering... Couldn't hit, buddy. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I understand.

I get it. I get it. I get it. Now, the other congratulations I want to pass along this week, tomorrow evening. You guys, I'm not sure whether you're recording today or tomorrow. It marks the 100th episode of Against All Odds. The degenerate trifecta has become worldwide famous, you know, the beloved gambling troop behind the gambling guru.

cousin Sal, congratulations to everybody involved with against all odds, an incredible achievement. Oh, thanks, pal. One of my favorite listens, and it's evident. This is why it's one of my favorite lessons that listens, that everybody is pals, and that's what I like. But it's also serious gambling advice with a handful of winners here and there, and that's why you are here with me today, Brother H. we are talking about the Masters. We're less than,

we're two weeks out from, we're less than two weeks out on Thursday. It'll be one week out from the kickoff of the tournament. I know you have some early thoughts. We're going to get together again early next week to do our formal prognostication, give out our formal picks. But at this stage where we're like 10 days out,

let's start talking a little bit about where your head is at right now in terms of, of masters. How were you game planning for this thing? Well, you know, I mean, it's it every, you got a factor in. Oh, we should have gotten it in last week. I know, right? You did? I did not. I should. I wish I had. I know. I should have too. I know. I mean, this guy's red hot. I mean, 100 15th and FedEx standings. And that's just six starts.

Well, and not just the, the clutch performance there after the, the world being performance, um, to win the Open Championship, the British Open, you know, five weeks preceding the Rider Cup, but then to come out this most recent week and validate that big swinging Johnson. Now, we're calling them Frankie Onions. I had him on as a guest after he won at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and he gave me permission to go ahead and call him Frankie Onions, and he gave me the Italian, the proper way to pronounce in Italian, if we wanted to call him by his Italian name, Francesco, Chipola, Chipola is the, that's Frankie onions in Italian, but that's who he is over this last,

you know, 12 months of competitive golf. He has stepped up to the plate and shown us somebody that is not to be trifled with. Am I right, Harry? Oh, absolutely. He's got ice water in his veins. Like, you just look at him when he's, you know, going down the pist. I mean, I'd be really surprised, really surprised if he's not on that top of it. You and I both. So that's one guy, 22 to 1, we're advising people at this early stage before any sentiment really starts swinging his way. We've already lost the benefit of the 30 to 1, but jump in now at 22 to 1 because both Harry and I feel pretty strong. He fits a lot of the metrics in terms of the classic profile of a master's champion. Get on him now, but before the price changes again.

in the wrong direction. Who else do you got for me, H? You know what? I got John Rom, too, at 18 to 1. Okay, interesting. Yeah, or so Rom is dropped down tonight in the world rankings. He had gotten the numbered ad, though.

He still has in 2019. So I like Rom as well at 18 to 1, and it feels like there might be a smidge of value in there because what folks will remember about him is what happened down the stretch at the players championship and especially on the 11th hole where he was he had the choice of laying up or trying to hit that green in two and what he did was try to hit that green and two against the advice of his caddy and that's the thing that everybody's going to recall and

I think it's kind of proper that would be the only knock that you could muster as it relates to rom is his decision making but what if he learned something incredible at the players about himself and about the right way to play. Now, this is also an element of, you know, success at the Masters. Everybody says that that experience of when to push down on the pedal and when to, you know, ease up a little bit and try and be strategic about the way that you get yourself around Augusta National is a big time element,

what if John Rom learned a lesson from his experience at the Masters and that lesson will carry through perhaps into this player's championship. I like it. Oh, I mean, I think, I think, yeah. We like John Rom also, that last year's performance was a 65-69. Now, Ram's only played in two masters, but the thing that you mentioned that I agree with quite a bit is as a driver of the golf ball, he puts it out there at a distance that gives him and advantage versus the rest of the slate.

And he's the guy, a guy that's capable of, you know, rounds in the 60s when it's winning time, Saturday and Sunday. Okay, so I like both of those. We have Molinaria 22 to 1. We have Rahm at 18 to 1. Do you have early thoughts on a potential sleeper? I'm standing champ Patrick Reed. Oh, my God. I want to sleep on him.

I want to sleep on him, Harry. Tell me why not to. 55 to 1 you can't that's that's that's still he's still a lot of the states more than the European tour this hundred and 25 to 1 he's been at the time

yeah I like Gary Woodland he performs um he has a decent track record at the Masters and then I think you know he's a guy that can string it together it would be he he's been on the major stage at the PGA championship a couple times but

um you know he he hasn't yet really distinguish himself as a contender for the Masters. But you're talking about value when you're talking about 95 to 1. So I'll go along with that. I don't have any problem with that one at all. Okay, so we have couple sleepers. I like the pepperl one. He really has been sneaking around.

And he kind of fits the profile of a guy that I had a handful of years ago, Danny Willett, who feels like, you know, the sporting public felt like Willett came from out of nowhere. to win the Masters as Spieth you know how to collapse at 55 to 1 yes sir I did and we gave him out on that Wednesday now that was just one where we were doing sleepers and so forth but we did give him out and you know the reason

that we selected him is because of the form that he was showing and it's not that dissimilar from the form that pepperol especially at the players championship so impressive down the stretch he had a legit chance to put himself up at the top of the leaderboard and you know we like that that's supportive so uh okay i i like those guys now um let let's talk uh uh for one second before i let you go we're going to save our actual picks for the next week but we do have to make uh an epic flash pick of the week

you know epic flash is the number one driver on tour our man kevin kisner won with his epic Flash a sub-zero driver. He had an Epic Flash fairy wood in his bag. He took on all comers at the WGC matchplay event. And that artificial intelligence and the machine learning that produces that incredible flash flash face technology, Harry, this is the thing with the Callaway Epic Flash. Let's go ahead and make a Callaway Epic Flash pick of the week for the Masters right now at an early value.

I'm going to let you make one pick for the Calaway Epic Flash pick of the week, and I'll make one pick also. Masters, that's right. I love you so much. You know, I just think, you know, look where he,

look where he's come in the last year and a half to, what is he like 13th, 14th in the world. I love it. I'm happy to hear it. I'm looking up the odds. Right now, Tiger Woods is available at 13 and a half to one,

which is, is honestly, that's about like the best odds that we've seen for Tiger to win the Masters, the Masters outright winner in a while. He's been, you know, down in the single digits a few times. He's been hovering in the 10 to 1 to 12 to 1 range. Tiger all the way up to 13 and a half to 1. My own pick at this stage of the game, I like Justin Rose. I liked him last year. I like him again this year. The pedigree is there. The stretch competition, down the stretch competition, down the stretch competition he had with Sergio a couple years ago.

I still remember that he had the tournament in his hands. Sergio had divine intervention, and that was, you know, you can't beat God when Sergio was getting the kind of breaks that he was getting, the ball not going out in the creek on 13 and some of the other things that happened for Sergio. Justin Rose is available at 14 to 1. That's not, you know, incredible value. But if I have to make a pick today, Justin Rose is my selection. at this stage. It's just too much of the pedigree, and he's also been in an incredible form.

I think that his performance at the match play was very consistent. He doesn't love that match play format. He's never been great at it. Some years, he skips it. So that doesn't speak to me at all in terms of his fitness for this upcoming event. And he does have a special relationship with Augustine National. So my epic flash pick of the week, Justin Rose, Harry's epic flash Pick of the Week, Tiger Woods. What a great way to kick off our true preparation. We'll get together next week and give out our

formal prognostication and picks across the board. Harry G. Love you, my brother. Thanks for coming on. Oh, we do. Thanks, man. Thanks for everything. Thank you. Always, always, always. Four, please. Now teeing off,

Megan Schuster. Yeah. Hey, Shoehl. Hey, house. How are you? I am a-ok. It's time for a little golf social. Now, I want to confess something. I know that you were chipping at the bit, chomping at the bit,

dying to get into some of this Sergio Coutcher, you know, mutual axe murderer dialogue around what went down between them and their match. I just, Chris Vernon and I, covered quite a bit of it, but let me hear, give me, give me 60 seconds of the shoestie take. I just had to comment on the video, because it might have been the most cringe-worthy, like, apology video that I've ever seen. They both were smiling in it, like they had Vaseline rubbed over their teeth,

and that was the only thing, like, keeping them looking alert and smiling. I thought that Tony Johnstone, who works for Sky Sports as a broadcaster, he tweeted out after watching the video that Coocher looked like a smiling assassin, which pretty much summed it up better than I could have. Well, I told Vernon that I thought, it looked to me,

I was trying to find Coutre's hands because it looked like he might have had one hand out of sight with a gun jammed into Sergio's ribs. I wouldn't put it past him. This was, I mean, just the weirdest orchestrated thing that I've seen in a while. I don't, I don't, this is.

is a show that we already have an explicit rating, and I'm not going to be completely explicit about it, but the level of comfort, the two of them displayed sitting together like that, it is as though there was a double-ended sex toy involved in, that's how comfortable they looked in the sitting and the presentation of this whole thing. I can't even come up with a generous explanation for what was going on between those two, but it's probably best for the entire world if we just move on. Agreed. I have far too many. questions to squeeze into the time that we have today. So I think that's probably the move. Yeah, that's right. It really is two for two, though, with Matt Coucher and a dramatic, you know,

change in brand identity. You know, the golf world, the golf world is fickle. If you show, you know, a disrespect to a human being in terms of the proper way to be gracious. And then you show another disrespect in the actual field of play in terms of, you know, the proper kind of etiquette, the proper kind of move. I don't know. I mean, three, we're awfully close to Coutcher being out, Shusty. It's been so wild to see how quickly this turn has come for him and how quickly his like overall stock rating has dropped, like among golf fans on tour now, it looks like.

There were a lot of even tour players that were skewering him over. media over the weekend. It was just, I haven't seen anything turned that quickly and I don't know the last time. Well, it must be the case, you know, you can be the smiling go happy guy, but don't, you know, be smart about whether or not you let anybody see what's underneath that smile. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Speaking of letting people see what's underneath a smile, we're no fucksville continues to just blow it out of the water let's talk about this story uh over the last couple days that came out yeah i mean at this point like he's he's just out for the the year long belt like week after week i keep waiting for someone to unseat him as you know probably like the

sauciest guy on tour and i just don't think it's going to happen that's right it's it's wild so this week, country music star Jake Owen went on the Foreplay podcast, talked, you know, shared a lot of golf related stories, one in particular that related to Phil Mickelson. This apparently happened at Jordan Speath's wedding, which was the day after the infamous The Match between Tiger and Phil. I guess Jake and Phil were both in attendance and Jake had paid the, you know, whatever, $29, $39.30 it was the day before to watch Tiger versus Phil. Now, Jake said on the the podcast. He'd had a couple of drinks, was at the wedding, and decided that he wanted to basically give Phil a piece of his mind and tell him to his face how terrible he thought the

overall play was, the match in general, basically that he wanted his money back. So I won't read the exact quotes here because they are laced with expletives, but basically Owen confronted Phil said his piece. And this was confirmed by Phil yesterday on Twitter that Phil in response took a $100 bill out of his pocket and said, quote, I won 90,000 of these things yesterday. Take 100 and go F yourself. Which is just like one of the most iconic things I've ever heard in my life. I mean, if he ran for president in that moment or even upon the telling of the story. Now, I'd love to hear his version of the story.

And that could be his stump speech as far as I'm concerned. If he went around town by town and just told that story, I for one, I'd love to be his campaign manager. Phil for president as far as I'm concerned. This clenches it. He has to have like 100% approval rating right now, right? I mean, he's just on like the craziest tour. He has my 10,000% approval rating. I can't approve of Phil anymore.

I can't approve of no fucks Phil anymore than this. And these stories they feel like, because we're in this mode with him, where he's communicated to everybody in his life, essentially, that this is his MO. I think we're going to keep getting these kinds of stories coming out of the woodwork. I mean, this happened however many months ago.

This was right after Thanksgiving, you know, four months ago, four and a five months ago. And it's just not, I feel like there's a lot of those stories that are just pent up ready to come out. I think so. It feels like a sort of a momentum shift

where Phil has sort of made it clear that he is kind of okay with this stuff coming out and has embraced it. And I will say we've heard so much of, you know, funny Phil stories and seen so much of him like showing so much personality lately that I wasn't even surprised when I read this this morning. I just had to laugh. The only thing I will

say that surprised me about this was the fact that it happened at Jordan Spee's sweating because I did not expect that event to be like rowdy enough that this would have happened. Well, maybe it wasn't that rowdy. But the country music singer dude getting lit doesn't sound like exactly out of order. And Phil, the day after, you know, that Vegas competition wanted to get a couple under his own belt. Yeah. And maybe he was 100% sober.

Who knows? Either way, anything's possible with Phil. He could have been dead sober for this whole story to go down. But if he'd had a couple, that's fine too. I mean, it's, you know, following all that hard workout in Las Vegas. Let's just both pray that he keeps it up. I mean, there's nothing better than this version of Phil Mickelson. Truly.

I hope we get this at Augusta, too. I can't wait for this tour of force to continue. All right, Chusty. We're going to talk about some scripting. We've got some early outfits coming up here. But before we get there, let's talk about something that looks beautiful in any golfers hands. And that is an Odyssey putter.

We saw an Odyssey putter in the hands of Kevin Kisner this week. His is cut down a little bit. He likes it a smidge shorter, 34, and a quarter. quarters inches, but he's had this Odyssey putter in his bag for years. Odyssey also won on the opposite field event down at Punta Kana. That was in the hands of Graham McDowell. That was a double winner for Odyssey putters. Odyssey had 28 putters in play at the WGC event.

No other brand had more than 14. And Odyssey continues to dominate in worldwide wins and the worldwide putter count this year. a double winner will do it. Let's see if any of these outfits give out any double winners to us, Shusty. Let's do it. The Masters is barely a week away, Megan Schuster. I couldn't be more excited. I talk with both Verno and with our buddy Harry Gagnon from Against All Odds.

We're doing some orally forecasting. How do we feel about Tigers' odds and so forth? It's officially time to start talking about what dudes are going to show up in. We know that a couple of these brands have already started. with some of the scripting. This is the thing where the players or their clothing manufacturers published for the public's enjoyment and consumption, the clothes that the players are going to wear over the master's tournament,

the master's competition, right? Yes. And it looks like Adidas has most of their guys out there so far. Puma does. Ralph Lauren. I've only seen tigers look from Nike. So I don't know if Nike is holding off for another few days before they release the looks for like Rory and Patrick Reed and those kind of guys yet.

But yeah, most of them are out there. So let's give some quick reactions to the scripting that we've seen. Let's start with Tiger. I can't tell whether the shirts and these pictures that I'm seeing. Now, I love the shoes. The shoes are awesome and I can't wait to rush out and buy this. This is the thing. I've had my criticisms of Nike when it comes to its golf gear.

It dresses its pros in a way that's fine for those guys, but no other human being could dare wear those clothes in any other setting. Some of the hat designs, the shirts, the form fitting like, that's not us, which is to say the American golfing public. We can't get away with that. These shirts, Shusty, look to me, they're not those, they're not banned collar shirts. They look like mock turtlenecks. They are, house. They are mock turtlenecks. And I will say, out of all of the scripting announcements that I saw yesterday and today, this was by far the most controversial because everyone hates the blade collar.

Like, everyone, you know, has their issues with it. And that's fine. But this is even taking it really a step further. This is like a 2005 master's throwback look for Tiger, which is really interesting. And I didn't mind it, you know, for one day maybe. but it's a really bold choice to go with the mock turtleneck collar for all four days. It really is like curious. I bet the shirts look great on him because he wouldn't approve of it otherwise.

He knows what kind of shape he's in and what kind of shape he expects to be in next week at Augusta. You know, he's demonstrated to us at his commentary after these tournaments so far this season. like he's paying attention to his weight, his workout regime. He's a finally attuned, finally tuned athletic machine at this stage. I bet he looks great in them. But my question is, who else can wear these? Right. Any of us?

Like, I like the light blue one with a pattern on it, but I just feel like if I wore that out with my buddies, there's a good chance I'm catching a slap to the back of my neck. Right. Like wearing that shirt maybe under a sweater for a spring round would make sense to me, but wearing it on its own is quite the look. I'm really curious to see just since we haven't seen any of the other Nike looks if this is a choice that has extended beyond Tiger or if this is a tiger-specific look. Because last year, a lot of the Nike guys had, you know, the similar coloring every day. Like they all wore blue on some days and most of them were, I think, was it pink on Sunday? Um, so I'm really curious.

They called it Azalea and that all by itself had its own mini controversy in the sense that it wasn't tiger didn't wear tiger red. Now, we're looking at his ensemble right here. That is tiger red. Yes. And I love the point that you're making about the rest of the Nike guys. Is anybody else going to be permitted to wear tiger red? Right.

At the masters this year. Right. I don't know. I don't know if Nike is sticking with those team colors. If they decided that that's, you know, to move away from that. I'm really curious to see what. we'll get from the rest of those guys. Yeah. So who else is out? What other scriptings out there?

So we've got Jordan is out there with Under Armour. His look is, you know, pretty much the same as always. Although I will note there are no white pants in his ensemble this year, which is a market departure from many of his looks. He's going with the all-navy blue on Sunday, which is an interesting choice. We have also got all of the Adidas guys. I will say, I think Adidas has my award for the most boring. Yeah, I just wonder about this. I like Adidas clothes in general.

I feel like those are clothes that have in mind what the regular golfers among us can wear. And the cuts are all appropriate for like the American. average American golfer sizing. But your point is right, a little bit of flavor. Like, I don't want to be solely responsible for my own flavor. Adidas could drop some flavor in there. Exactly. It feels like they've just kind of scaled like the gray gradient spectrum.

Like, Dustin Johnson is almost all wearing gray all week. Sergio is mostly gray with some flashes of green in there. But most of these guys, there's really not much to go off of. Yeah, and it could be, this is the thing, if I, I'm going to level a criticism after having established that I like Adidas closed. The, the, the, the, the, the, it could be from any of the past five years. Yes. These, these palettes and these things. Now, this is a thing, I'm looking at Jordan's ensembles right now.

I love both Friday and Saturday. I absolutely adore the, that it's not lime green is overstating it, kind of a mint green. Yep. with a gray stripe and the gray slacks. That is classy with white shoes and white hat. Boom. That's a great one. And the Friday outfit is also just, to me, top notch.

It's a three, it's a color block shirt with a, with like a gray heather in the center, but the top has a nice pop of color. And then a dark pants, a dark blue. It looks like dark navy. It doesn't look black. And Navy goes better with the azalea pink on top. Yes. So kudos.

I like, I like what under our. doing and I call this out because these colors, these color schemes, better than Adidas. Much better. Better than Adidas, right? Much more adventurous. They are, you know, it's springtime. It's master season. We all want to see a little bit of color, a little bit of, you know, risk taking in these outfits.

Make me dream of pimento cheese clothes. Make me. Now, the one of the guys that I'm excited to see, I've always had a soft butt in my heart, because of the classic look that they put is the Ralph Lauren and the Polo RLX. Now I'm lumping together a handful of golfers, but that's Justin Thomas. That's Billy Horschell. I always enjoy like the throwback, the classic looks that Ralph Lauren comes up with. So that's one I'm looking forward to.

And we'll just have to see what Nike unveils for the rest of its golfers for the week. Yes, yes, we will. See if that mock turtle. that goes anywhere near Rory. All right. All right, Shusty. Another great episode of Golf Social. I look forward to comparing OSU who will be Masters Week next week.

It will be high level of excitement, high level of anticipation amongst us. And I know that we'll have a couple good things to talk about. So I appreciate it. Yes, sounds good. I can't wait. All right, thanks.