Fairway Rollin' - The PGA Tour Is Back! With Bill Simmons and Nathan Hubbard

Episode Date: June 10, 2020

Joe House is joined by The Ringer’s Bill Simmons and Rival CEO Nathan Hubbard to discuss the return of the PGA Tour with the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club this week. They discuss the opportunity for golf to take the live sports spotlight this weekend, speculate about what some of the health and safety protocols will look like, and of course give out some bets! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, friends, and welcome to this golf podcast. Unlike any other, we're back, baby. It's time for some fairway rolling on the record podcast network. I am your starter Joe House. Join today by our PGA tour correspondent, the boots on the ground, Nathan Hubbard and the podfather himself. he had to get in on some of this action. Sports are back.

Welcome back, gentlemen. Well, we're launching a new Fanduel contest. What's that? Give us the URL house. Sure, fanduel.com slash ringer golf. We have a $5,000 tourney open to 100,000 entries. A thousand bucks is going to first place. It's free to enter.

So you get to jump in there and make fun of me and Simmons and brother, Nathan here at our awful DFS picks. Fendell.com slash ringer golf. Come try to kick our ass. House will be kicking both of our asses. Nathan just picked, he spends the most money on his brother each week. So just cross him off unless his brother comes through.

Just assume if his brother didn't win the tournament, Nathan's going to be out. So really, you just have to beat me in house. Well, I already put Mark Hubbard in my lineup and I'm, I'm keeping him there. I like the intel that Nathan's been sharing.

But fellas, we were together convened five months ago for the beginning of the PGA tour season, the legit beginning. I mean, they have their swing season in the fall and they have a couple of these nice events in Hawaii and a little bit in California. But we were sitting down together the week of January the 20th in advance of the event at Riviera or no, it's Tori Pines. And that's when the fields, the folks really start coming out. The players come out to play. And guys, we were talking about, you know, dumb shit like is, is Rory and Brooks a rivalry? And what do we think about the new slow play rules?

I mean, some things have, have happened since then. Well, so what are they going to do with the flagstick? Are they going to be completely over the top and just be like everybody who touches the flagstick has gloves on? How crazy are we going to get? Because I don't know, it seems like we've come and gone here on how safe things should be. and I'm just curious, like, is it, is it going to be everyone walking on eggshells this weekend? Is it going to be weird? Let's ask.

Is it just going to be, you tell us, Nathan. Yeah, Nathan, because there's a whole set of protocols and procedures and they want the guys, you know, to follow the, like, all the safety protocols. What's, what's happening, Nathan? It's, uh, there's a lot going on. And the difference is that some of it is for real, temperature checks as soon as you arrive, grab and go food and player dining, one person to a table. And some of it is absolutely for show.

So these caddies basically should be sponsored by Clorox from here because it's only the caddies who are going to be wiping down the rakes and wiping down the flag sticks. And that's basically their job. They can only touch the bag. They can't touch the clubs. They're supposed to stay six feet away, which for a lot of players,

they want to stay away from their caddies anyway. But the tour is sending out repeated reminders to everybody that this is absolutely strict, but as much for optics as everything else. There have been a few hiccups. Like players are forbidden from going out to eat, but the hotels that all the players are staying in has no food and no in-room dining.

So there's still working through how to eat, but the encore stuff is really going to be for show so that that guy who normally calls and complains because somebody put a towel under their knees when they hit out from under a tree and it should be a penalty, this time the guy's going to call and complain about the volunteer who's not wearing the mask.

Sounds fun. There's already been some reports today of folks, you know, getting a little too comfortable and treating this as a little too business as usual and the tour doing exactly what you described, Nathan, which is these texts reminding people the text has two parts.

And the first part is, reminder, we need to be safe. And then the second part is, reminder, we need this to not look like we're being assholes. We need the public to see us out here practicing safety protocols, right? That's exactly it.

What if the caddies wear hazmat suits? Would that take away from the luster of the event or no? Like, how far do we go? I just want to see some golf. And I really want this to be an escape. I don't want to be like silently judging all the Chlorics wipe usage by the caddies of the 15th pole. Like I really hope we can find the right balance of letting me escape for four days of watching some golf versus all this other stuff that has dominated our lives for three months.

And can they pipe in crowd noises like like they pipe in bird noises at the masters just to spice it up a little bit for us? Or is it just going to be silent weirdness? I think it's better if it's silent and weird because the thing that we like to see out of golfers is putting him in uncomfortable positions. Like what professional athletes are more pampered, more coddled than professional golfers? They go from beautiful country club to beautiful country club, five-star hotel to five-star hotel.

Let's go ahead and make it a little complicated. I think that's part of the appeal of some of the run-up events we saw, you know, the charitable efforts, especially at Seminole, the guys were carrying their own bags and, you know, just playing around the golf, walking and carrying. their own sticks, but it is, you guys, hold that, hold that thought house. Yeah. What you just said would have been the most fun wrinkle for the PGA.

If it was like, we want to bring everybody back, but it's not safe. It's not totally safe yet. No caddies. Everyone's carrying their own bags. That's it. And we'll have a person on the 18th hole who will come and lift the flag and then put it back. Other than that, you guys are on your own. That would have been amazing.

At least I wish one of these tournaments had, tried it. No caddies. You guys are on your own. They still could do it. The only thing is, and Nathan could speak to this, you, we have to pay the caddies. These guys have been out of work for, you know, three months now. Good point. As always, as always, House is a voice of reason here. You're right. You're right. Fair. I just would have like the physical toll of carrying your own bag, I think would have been such a fascinating wrinkle. Well, the other reason they can't do it this week is the 10% of the field is from the freaking champions tour this week because they don't have an And so you got a bunch of older guys.

It is true. We have a lot of the endangered demo in here. Bernhard Langer, Scott McCarran. There's even another couple old guys in the mix. And we got rising cases in Texas. That's the subtle text to this week is can they all avoid it? And it's going to be 120 degrees. So I don't know if anything will live during that heat, including the human beings.

It's going to be freaking hot as hell. It is. And the course is not in great. shape. So you're going to have a bunch of golfers who've taken time off, who're probably out of shape, who are huffing around, who are older, hopefully a lot of mics on the course picking up swearing. Well, BS, you hit on something, speaking of picking up swearing, you hit on something that I am personally fascinated by and interested in hearing. You guys are both media moguls. I want to hear your takes on this. This is another unique opportunity,

Crazy unique opportunity for golf to be at the forefront of the sporting world's consciousness, right? NASCAR, I guess, was first back as a sort of major sport. But really golf, you know, it consumes an entire weekend. It's something you can check in on a Saturday and Sunday, you know, starts on a Thursday. And it's not competing against anything else in the sports world. And we're getting every big name this weekend except for Tiger. So what do you guys think? I mean, this is a great opportunity for golf to get some eyeballs, right?

Well, especially if they do a good job with Mike and the players and Lenius actually hear stuff they're saying. I'm sure there's going to be a delay. I don't understand how that's going to affect the live betting and whether it would at all. But my guess is they're going to try to have more conversation on the course. We'll be able to, we'll be like flies on the wall overhearing like Nathan's brother bitching himself out after he flubs a three iron or something. something. And it'll be on some sort of delay so they can protect the players so that, you know, if somebody drops an F bomb or an S bomb or a C bomb or whatever letter you want to put in front of bomb, it's not just thrown out there on CBS. But then the question for me is then,

let's take the biggest degenerate we know, which weirdly isn't Sal. It's probably Harry, his friend. And Harry's just live budding constantly as this is going. But if it's on a 20 second delay, I guess you could say he might technically be able to have Intel. I don't know how he would. But so that's the part they'd have to figure out. Maybe you suspend live betting unless it's the commercials. I don't know. Well, I don't think the entire broadcast needs to be on delay because it's not like every single player is going to be miced. They're going to be walking into aspects of the course that have mics. And they'll know they can they can run that piece of it on delay. I mean, I think the logistics of ensuring that the S bombs and the C bombs are well under wraps.

What about the D bombs? What about a couple B bombs? Yeah, I mean, all of them. What do you think, Nate? They got to get it right because they're setting us up for what it could be the craziest gambling opportunity on sports in golf for sure, between August and September. Because you just have these events that are all stacked back to back. the three-week FedEx cups, then one week, first of all you get the PGA, one week off,

all three FedEx cups where they're playing for over $15 million, then a week off, and then they do U.S. Open, followed by Ryder Cup. And there's no way that a golfer is going to be able to keep his peak throughout both those two months. Well, there is a way. No, there's one way. Yeah, well, there's one way.

There's one way. It seems just how much they test in addition to take temperatures. But so there's going to be crazy opportunities for guys to step up and win tournaments that couldn't before. A lot of gambling money to be made up there. And you throw on top of that,

basketball will be in full swing. That'll probably be round two of the NBA playoffs. Football will be coming in, we think, NFL. And we've gone from just being like people wandering in the desert looking for like

one drip left of a bottled water to all of a sudden we're going to have like a water fountain. And it's going to be amazing. It's going to be a fire. I mean, here's the thing, and this is part of what I'm excited to see out of the American sporting public. Betting on golf is insanely fun.

It starts Wednesday night and doesn't end until Sunday night. And there are a dozen things you can do in addition to the DFS, fan duel.com slash ringer golf. I mean, betting on individual matchups, betting on who's going to win the whole thing, betting on how guys are going to finish. and you can do it round by round. I mean, the opportunities are endless, and I will say the platforms have all gotten really good. Like the competition has really driven a lot of gambling opportunities

with good prices on, you know, how this is all going to shake out. And if people get a little taste of gambling on golf, I mean, it's already been reported that because golf was excluded from a lot of the distancing, measures early on in a big part of the country because it's played outdoors and it's easy to distance that golf club sales as of like through through May the online traffic has been through the roof and we know that the eyeballs on the match with Tiger and Phil and Peyton Manning and your boy TB12 Simbo got the highest rating in cable history for for a golf event.

So like the American sporting public, I think has a growing interest in golf. Agree. He's not my boy TB12. We're still working it out. I'm not against him. I'm not for him. There's still a lot of feelings there.

I was at the same position during that tournament. It was like you broke up with your college girlfriend and then you ran into her four months later. And all of a sudden you're making out in the corner of the bar at 2 in the morning. That's how I felt seeing Brady competing. I need to get over it. I need to move. on. But that's me. Those are my own issues.

I have a bet on Fandole, actually. Nathan's brother, top 10 finish, us getting Nathan to admit on a text thread later today that he's dying his beard. So I have that. Is that a parlay? I think he has somebody coming over dying his beard. It's a very handsome. He has a lot of facial hair. It's swarthy even.

Yeah. I shave finally. It's a mess. It's going to go. way soon. I thought we were doing a phone one. You have a lot of hair and a lot, and you're, both your, the hair on your head and the hair on your face. It's downtime for me. You know,

it can't be downtime for House, though. You brought it up at the beginning. We talked about Brooks Kepka and the rivalry. There are 10 events until the FedEx Cup playoffs and Brooks Kepka has 21 FedEx Cup points. We are not far from a tour championship

that has no DJ, no Brooks if they don't get their asses in gear over these next 10 turnies. Well, let me tell you, go ahead, go ahead, Bill Simmons. Well, we, Brooks isn't in this week, right? He's out. He is. He is. He is in.

So Tiger's not in. Who's the other one? Who's the other big gun who's not there? He's the, well, these guys, Patrick Cantley isn't in and Adam Scott isn't in. But like, I'm glad Adam Scott isn't here. We're all winners this weekend because we don't get to watch Adam Scott. Look, all of the top five players in the world, one through five are playing this event. 16 of a top 20 in the world are playing this event.

Almost 70% of the field has won at least one time on the PGA tour. This is as good a field as you get other than a major. Well, I'm throwing it out here. It's happening. You know it was going to happen. How long have we been taping? 15 minutes. Let's have the Jordan Speeth conversation.

I'm here for it. We're all here for it. He likes the course. I like the guys who like the course, who've had success on the course. And, you know, it would be a nice little fun wrinkle if we got to throw his hat in the ring with all these other great golfers we have that all of us are so enchanted by a little Jordan Speed comeback. What do you think? Make the case house. Well, look, he, and I'm going to hit up some stats from our boy, Justin Ray from the 15th club, a friend of the pod. speed to your observation BS he leads all players in scoring average he leads all players in birdie

average he leads all players in one putts and this is since he started playing at this venue in 2013 no player with a better scoring average in this tournament over the last three decades his average score when he plays here is under 68 over the last five years his cumulative score to par 47 under it's 11. Seven strokes better than anybody else. But who the hell is Jordan Speeith? Like, what are we getting out of him? Now, I am a glass half full guy.

I am almost there as a speith truther. I want him. A speather? A speether. Yes. Do you know he's only 26? He's a youth. He's a baby.

It feels like he's like 40. Every time I see his age, I'm like, oh, shit, 26. A lot of golf left. Well, the other thing, you know, that if you were thinking, about putting a little sprinkle on him. He's a guy he's relatively newly married. He's no kids. He's

in Texas already. He's going to be coming from home to this event. We already established how comfortable he is at this thing. What has he been doing the last three months other than grinding at the range? And he's got that reputation anyway. What do you think, Nate? I picked him in the fantasy

piece this week. I just wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night, worrying he's their next Anthony Kim. And so I think he's going to bring it back. He's still the golden child to me. But the longer this goes on, and in particular, the more distance there is between him and J.T.

I think the harder and harder it's going to be psychologically for him to come back. But this is the perfect one. He's been grinding. He is the favorite son in Dallas. And I think he's going to top 10 this week. I think he's the next Mark Herbert because he's in his mid-20s and he got married when he's a successful PGA golfer.

Come on, Jordan. Speed. Play the field. So you're like 38. What are you doing? Well, you did sort of. I love it. Nate,

it's just staying quiet. Nothing, nothing out of Nathan. Nate's, it's like, I get nothing. Just picking up the chest for men to die the beard of the end. Well,

you did hit on something there, BS. We really don't know. The circumstances under which this tournament is being competed are not totally unprecedented, but nearly unprecedented. We have no fans.

We have no grandstands. We have no corporate tents. And, you know, some of the analytics that we use when we try and figure out how and anticipate how guys are going to play, we look at course history as kind of an analytic tool. But that course history is typically tied to a particular field. Like, you know, you want to have this type of field year over year. Well, this field is unlike any field they've ever had at this venue since Arnold

Palmer was playing golf. So you can't use that in a. So analytic, we mentioned it's hot and dry there. Length off the T is mitigated, maybe completely negated. They have all these dog legs. You have to be able to shape your shot. And a bunch of guys that don't hit the ball very far have won here, including last year's winner.

Kevin Noss, Speeth is a guy that doesn't hit the ball very far. And Speeth is a guy who previously could, could shape shots. But, you know, where does that leave? Go ahead. Was that, that's why Bryson's getting some. some sleeper buzz here, right? Because he's long off the tea. Well, that doesn't help him here.

And he's missed the cut three of the last four years because the greens here are bent grass greens and he puts terribly on them for some reason. I don't know what that is. So you don't agree with the sleeper buzz? I don't. I'm out. If I had one guy to fade, it would be Bryson. So everybody who's doing your lineups and gambling, definitely go put some money on

Bryson. So, you know, it's funny. This just goes to Shay how old I was. because I how old I am because I asked you if Brooks was playing before, but later in the pod, I was going to ask you about this top three, which Brooks is in. They stacked it.

They put Rory, Rom, and Brooks in a threesome together. All those three dudes are going to be on Thursday playing together for, what, four and a half hours? Yes. That's going to be fun. Thursday and Friday. Yeah. And they got Spieth, Ricky, and J.T. together, too.

That's great. Who's your bro playing with? absolutely nobody I want to look up the threesome now to see who it is to see if I agree whether it's it's nobody's or not why couldn't you have caddied for him what were you you weren't available I can't I want to go to Texas what am I going to do there make 600 bucks I can't even get on the next

flight it's it's a mess could driven down until 24 hour drive the real reason is because Nathan Hubbard does not do dine and go Nathan Hubbard does not do box lunches, Bill Simmons. No. There's no chance. House, give us your guy. Give us your, if I had to bet my life on any human being in this tournament, here's who I would bet on.

Well, I will give you that. I have a few bets. I went on with a cousin Sal yesterday. So I had a chance. We did against all odds at Pod's up now. And we gave out a handful of bets. A couple bets that I like. One that I really, really, really like is this guy Ryan Palmer, who is a member at

Colonial Country Club. Oh. Who plays a regular Friday game there. Who knows what the place looks like and feels like without fans and without grandstands and without corporate tents because that's how he plays it all the time. And he went on podcast earlier this week with another friend of the pod, Jason Sobel, and said that he shot 64 last Friday in his normal Friday match. He has a terrific record at this venue, as you would expect.

He tied for six last year. He has four top six finishes in the past eight years. You can get Ryan Palmer at plus 300, three to one odds to finish inside the top 20. Why wouldn't you do that? Like you said at the very beginning bill, we want the guys who we know can play this golf course good. He plays that golf course pretty good, I would say. It's like when you guys play with me at Wilshire Country Club. And I just know the course, man.

That's why I'm in that 100, 105 range. I know what to do. I know where I'm going. I don't know who Ryan Palmer is house. I've never heard of that person. He's a Texan. He's been around for a long time. Okay.

Journeyman? He's won at least once, maybe twice. I don't know. Okay. Nathan, who's your favorite guy? Who's your bet your life guy?

That sounds like a good way to lose money betting on a guy who peaked in a non-tournament score. Yeah, that was also my feeling. Yeah. For me, I mean, And Spieth, I think, Spieth is the one to watch this week.

I'm pulling Mark Hubbard because he's feeling good and playing as well as he ever has. But I think Scottie Schaeffler was going to break through at some point. And he's having such a good solid year. Although strangely in the World Golf rankings, he's ranked ahead of Brendan Todd, who's won twice. Sheffler's not one yet. He's well overdue. He's going to be in a place he's super comfortable. And he's already shown that he can play against a really strong field and a bunch of other events.

So, Shepler's my guy this week. have a guy. Let's hear it. He's a guy. He's been a long-time guy. I've wagered money on him. I've lost money on him, but I've always felt good about it. Unlike John Rom, who's hurt my feelings a couple times. Unlike Tommy Fleetwood, who not just hurt my feelings, there's healing to do house. There's healing to do with me and Tommy. I really was on the bandwagon early and he just hurt my feelings. This guy has never hurt my feelings. And I got to see him in person with you. It was a heroic effort in Augusta. Oh. My man, Tony Fee now. Oh, yeah. Finished second at the colonial last year. Granted, weaker field. He's 30 years old this year. Right around the age, if it's going to

happen, it's going to happen. He's been a guy for the last three years. It's like, ah, him, John Rahm, Fleetwood. There's been a couple guys where everybody's been going, this could be the year for so-and-so. And he's been in that zone for three years. I just like him. And I like watching him play golf too. And he's fun to root for. I like the way he carries himself. I like his swing. I think he stands out. His whole package is unlike any other golfer that you watch on a weekend. And that's the guy I'm going to be riding this weekend. It's a nice data point you just mentioned there, there is a track record at Colonial of older guys being successful. I think the only guy in the last, I don't know, 10 or 12 years to have won under the age

of 30 is Spieth, who won here maybe, you know, three, four years ago. But, you know, for the most part, because it's a course with all dog legs and the shot shaping and everything, it requires strategy and requires some patience for what reason, the winners at this event are way on the other side of 30 years old than under. We should have a way in for this event before we have to gamble. Like in fights, you get to see the dudes with the shirts off. Like, how have they been eating? How do the bodies look?

I need to know if Scottie Schaeffler put on the Corona 15 over the last couple months or if he's looking good. Like, we should be able to see these guys before we bet. This has been a hot topic in NBA circles because there's been a couple sightings of a couple players who I won't name on the podcast. And let's just say they filled out over the break. And people are kind of excited to see what happens when these teams start scrimaging again and somebody waddles in who's 20 pounds heavier than they were in February.

So that definitely in golf, that could happen. Or maybe it goes the other way. Nobody has anything to do. Maybe they look like Tiger looked incredible. She's like stuck in his house just working out. It's like my daughter. My daughter, you know, is, think she's, you know, like, some 25-year-old freaking cross-fit person now

because she's got nothing to do in the backyard doing like stomach exercises and trying to get an eight-pack. I wonder how many of the golfers that we're covering this weekend or that we're watching this weekend are actually going to look like ripped. Well, let me share one thing with you BS

and I hope I don't get in trouble for relaying this. I had 15 minutes of alone time on a Zoom call with Brooks Kepka recently because we were trying to connect with Brooks. We're going to try and do some podcasting with Brooksie and logistics got in the way. We weren't able to pull it off. But I will tell you, he was sitting in his beautiful house.

He had just come from the pool where he was doing. Now, he was just getting started. And this is in mid-May. He was just getting started with his golf practice protocol. But what he shared was he was doing his. knee rehab in the pool because that resistance, that water resistance is so good. And at the beginning of this season, the challenge that we saw Brooks going through was getting his body physically right after the knee surgery and then the setback that he had.

He had to, you'll remember pull out of the president's cup at the beginning of December because his body wasn't all the way right. Who could have benefited more from these past three months in terms of getting his body right and being ready to come out here and kick some ass, then Brooks Kefka, right? Okay, so he's 213th in the FedEx Cup right now. Does he make the playoffs? I'm not betting against Brooks.

Me either. I would bet on him making the playoffs, and obviously you'd have to pay some odds on that. But like for this week, he has good memories here. Second place two years ago to Justin Rose, he fired back to back 63s at this venue. So a guy with, you know, who has no problem with length off the T also with a touch

and maybe coming back here and being in the refreshed frame of mind, his body feels good. Brooks coming out and kicking ass, even though, you know, we only expect to see it out of him in majors now. Maybe he comes on. He's like, look, I'm back, baby, and he puts it on the table. The other thing with golfers, because you think they're they're not home probably as much as normal people because

they're on the road stuff like that but they all live in tax tax favorable places right they're in like Texas and Florida and these different places in the south they have these big houses all this equipment in there so if they're quarantined they're actually quarantined in ways that could probably really help them plus let's be honest even though nobody was saying it you know these guys were going on courses and playing. Like, you know, they're calling in favors and sneak it on and playing 18 left and right. So I actually think the quality of the golf is going to be really high this weekend. Unless it's, I think 120 degrees.

Then I'm, then I say no. I think Patrick Green is going to weigh in at 244. And then that's before his right leg goes on the scale. It could actually get higher. I have some shockers. Who else do we like, House? Give us a couple of bets. I'm going to bet to win this tournament. My guy is Webb Simpson.

This is exactly the kind of venue that he excels at. And nobody was hotter than him when everything went on hiatus. He's currently ninth in the world in the run up to the pandemic shutdown for consecutive top tens. He's first in tour right now in bogey avoidance, which is a crucial stat at this venue. He's first in tour on so-called par four performance. which is a measure that, you know, reflects the best scoring under par on par fours. This particular venue only has two par fives.

So if you're good at scoring on par fours, that's a good stat. Webb Simpson in the top 10, in approach, in the top 15 in putting. He's available right now at 22 to 1 to win this thing. And he's going to be in all of my fan duel.com slash ringer golf lineups that I enter,

as well as I'm putting, you know, something reasonable, something to give me a little taste in the game for it. Two, two top three finishes in the last couple years on this course, too. He's, he's got no problem. Unfortunately, he looks like this. He looks like a guy who's on the bachelor, the bachelorette, who's definitely going home night one, but really tries to get some time alone with the bachelorette and comes up with some story and then she's like, I get away from this guy.

That's the vibe I get from Webb Simpson. Hard got a root for. There's some guys that I just looks profile immediately and I'm out and he's one of them for some reason. Adam Scott obviously leading the wrist for leading the list for a variety of my least favorite golfer. Just do not like Adam Scott. You don't back me on Adam Scott?

Well, he's got the world by the tail. Is that why you reject him and resent him? I think you as a rule just fade handsome golfers. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe I do. And if they're not for America, even better. Yeah. Well, Nathan, part of the reason we have you on this podcast was to give us some of that on the ground intel about who's showing up looking fat. I mean, your brother's there. Who's fat? Who doesn't look good? Who looks out of shape?

I really think it's a good idea for me to talk publicly about who my brother thinks is fat right now. That sounds awesome. I'm not saying that it's your brother. There's a big extended network of contacts that you have. You are our PGA tour correspondent on the guy. ground. Not everything's coming from Marky, Mark. And listen, I'm usually, I'm usually, yeah, I'm usually great on the food side of things. But I, look, the word is that Bill said it. A lot of these guys have been working hard, but the guys who are in Florida and Texas had a distinct advantage because there were some guys who went home to California, got stuck in other places who could not get out for a while. And for some of them, that was great because they needed rest from their bodies. But the buzz this week is just this. There's actually only 10 tournaments until FedEx.

includes PGA. So there's going to be added pressure. You know, you talked about the strength of the field. There's all of the corn fairy event this week is full of PGA guys. The guy who's 30th on the corn fairy list can't get into the tournament. So there's this added pressure right now. It's not so much physical right now. It's actually mental because they've got only a couple tournaments to prepare for like $50 million in potential prize earnings over the course of August and September. We're going to see a lot of psychological breaking in these next couple of weeks for people who are on the edge and can't get there. I have some breaking news. I googled Patrick Reed to see if there's any photos of him being fatter.

It's actually the opposite. He transformed his body during the quarantine. In a recent interview with the pro show, Reid revealed he'd lost some weight since the tour hit pause. He said, quote, I felt like we're going to have a sprint to the finish for the year. So I needed to get in better shape. Then he said, for me, it's more about diet. I love food.

I love to eat, which gives them something to come with Joe House. He said, so I changed things up. I basically took as many carbs and sugars out as possible. For me, once I figured out breakfast, it's been pretty good. Here's this special breakfast, Nathan. Three sausage links, two sunny side up eggs and a whole avocado. This does not sound like the Patrick Reed. we've grown to the test

over the last five years. Could in shape Patrick Reed be a wildcard in 2020? Well, with all the ridiculousness of his play over the course of the last year and the questionable rules, uh, things, he definitely isn't Captain America anymore. So maybe we'll just call him keto read. How, are you buying or selling keto read?

I'm buying it. I mean, he just hit on like a whole bunch of the stuff that, that Nathan was describing, which is recognizing, how important it is to be fortified for this eight to ten weeks stretch and how, you know, everything's going to be different. And the one thing you can control more than anything else, the one variable, because golf is all about, you know, variables that you can't control and how you react to them.

But what you put into your body, you can absolutely control that. And Homeboy got on it. I mean, California, Pat Reed with the avocado and then, you know, sausage links. I'm impressed by that. Well, one thing about Kito Reid, he said he's still going to cheat during tournaments. He said he's not, he hasn't quit that. He's still going to try to get away with suspicious back swing activity and moving the ball a foot closer than when he picked it up.

He's still going to be doing all of that. What else do we have? Anything? Any other bets house? Well, BS, Nathan and I are already in with our lineups, Fanduel.com slash ringer golf. What are you going to put in? I'm going in heavy on phenow. I hate to do it, but I agree.

The Webb Simpson case is just overwhelming. He's clearly going to be our right. I'm in on Brooks. Sure. I think that the three months and, and the layoff that he had, which hopefully the same effects will happen for Kemball Walker. I'm a beloved Boston Celtics.

It doesn't bother you that he actually has to be in a pool. It doesn't bother you that it's so bad. He's learning how to exercise in the pool. Yeah, that is a little worrisome. Well, that's not the exclusive rehab. but it's just part of his protocol and the pool's right outside the patio there. Don't, don't, we don't slander Brooks on this podcast.

That was a significant part of the Alex Smith rehab program too. So I'm a little worried about what it means for it. I need, here's what I need house. This is what you could give me because we can't ever let, I want us to win this beat the house every week on Fandul where we just kind of embarrass all the people who sign up and it becomes a thing. We're just like kind of kicking ass taking names.

I need an old guy. Who's the token 44-year-old, 46-year-old, who's going to, the type of course this is, just hit a bunch of old guy's shots and he's going to be tied for first with eight holes to go. Well, there is one guy who's older than what you're describing that really does fit that bill there, which is Jim Furik, who's 50 now.

But he has a bunch of the advanced analytics support him because he's so, deadly accurate. And because we're at a venue where the length just is mostly irrelevant, his, he scores very favorably, according to the analytics here. I was asking for somebody who wasn't the same age as me, but that's fine. I'll do some Jim Furek research. I really wasn't looking for a peer. I was looking for somebody in their early mid-40s. You could go Chad Campbell. He's a Texan. I don't bet on people named Chad. It's It's going back to the Chad Pennington era, other Chads.

I'm just out on Chads. In on Brooks is out on Chads. Yeah, Brooks is, you know, you can kick it back with Brooks. Chad is like you don't want to leave him alone with your girlfriend in college. If his name's Chad, right? House, I know deep down you. I agree with all of this. Okay.

All right. So I'm in on Fee now. House is in on Webb Simpson. And Hubs is in on who? I'm in on Sheffler. Scottie Sheffler, sure, up and comer. There you go. Fandu.com slash ringer golf.

Every eagle enthusiasts, par saving pals, birdie buddies. There we have it. Fairway Rollins back. The tour is back. Let's all go out there and lose some money.