Fairway Rollin' - Tiger vs. Phil, the Scottish Open, and Matt Ryan | ShackHouse (Ep. 69)

Episode Date: July 10, 2018

Geoff Shackelford and Joe House break down Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson potentially facing off for $10 million (02:42) and preview the Scottish Open (22:27) before Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan joins to talk about his experience growing up with golf (41:32). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, everyone. Calloway's road driver was in the bag of second place finisher. Kelly Kraft at last week's military salute at the Greenbrier Classic. And House, I think I swore I saw some jail break, like the sun hit, hit those rods. And I think it caught my eye from the bag of Kevin Knaw. The winner, there was, I'll tell you what, Shaq, I was paying close attention. I'm pretty sure I saw something epic going on in that Kevin Knob bag. Yeah, I don't know. Anyway, and of course the great Shackhouse, former guest, Harold Varner at an excellent tournament.

I thought I saw something in his bag, too. But anyway, the rogue, the epic, Calloway Drivers. They're the number one on the European tour and the LPGA last week where there was some epic scoring. Let's go to the Shack House. House, greetings from sauna like Southern California. I know you're not going to really feel too much empathy for our weather since you just were in Las Vegas. I enjoyed all the coverage. loved all of your Instagram stories from Sin City.

That was wonderful. Thank you, Shaq. I'm very pleased to be here, and I mean that literally. I'm very pleased to have survived the Vegas experience. We are, of course, here on the Shack House, part of the Ringer podcast network, where you can listen to House of Cause. Last week we had on Brooks Headley to discuss his punk rock musical origins. He was a hero of mine at Born Against.

opening his restaurant superiority burger eating vegan in his new cookbook about the superiority burger experience. Also, don't forget to go to the ringer.com to check out all of the fun that we had in Vegas, all of the survival skills we deployed. And there is an incredible video out there right now starring Jason Concepcion Network called My Quest. I'm going to leave it at that. You have to go online and check that out. Very cool. And you had Steve Lavin as your Major D there. Cesar's. That was very cool.

We had a lot of different... I had to zoom in on the photo. Is that Steve Lab? Yeah. It's possible. Anyway, he wasn't tan enough. Anyway, so today on Shackhouse, we're going to recap what's been going on since we've been away with a couple of interesting developments.

And then we're going to talk a little bit of Scottish Open and maybe a little bit of Open Championship preview of the preview. And then we're joined today by Matt Ryan, the Atlantic Falcons quarterback, who is exactly the person I know you all think of when you think Scott is open, but you're going to be surprised. So, House, since we've been away, Alan Shipnuck broke a big story. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, possibly looking at a match for $10 million, winner takes a haul. I can't say that without laughing. There's no chance that somebody's going away empty-handed, please. But anyway, your impressions, you were in Vegas when this broke. It sounded like this is a Las Vegas-driven

concept. Shadow Creek was the hoped for venue on July 3rd. I have no idea why. I hope they were going to play this under the lights because July 3rd golf in Vegas is a little tough. But your take on the concept to this, this revelation. Yeah, I can attest. It was easily 100 degrees at night out there. I mean, it was otherworldly stifling. So I hope these guys, I don't know what they're going to do, where on the calendar this is going to fall since it didn't happen before the fourth um obviously i love this this is brilliant um i don't know who gets credit i love the backstory to it where obviously these dudes were probably my guess would be like in the december january time frame collaborating right they're together they're i don't know if they're texting i don't know what kind of pals tiger and phil are at this

stage of the game. But clearly they recognize their status and their appeal and their place in the game at the moment. And there was obvious collaboration well in advance of the Masters because of the very targeted, you know, hint dropping by both of them at the Masters. You know, we're going to, who's going to beat who's butt and why don't we just go to the final round and play it. You know, all that stuff was obviously very deliberate right up my alley. I'm fine with it. And I, the only thing that that caught me is by surprise is that we're only talking about 10 million. I mean, it's got to be at least 25 million if we're going to try and cover some of Phil's back debt, right? Uh, no. This is an interesting question. Two guys who have a lot of money.

Is it compelling that they're just playing for money and one of them takes home 10 million? I mean, it's life-changing for a lot of people. I don't know if it's life-changing for these two. And so, therefore, is it compelling? See, I think it'd be more fun if there was a matchplay component where maybe they could press when somebody gets two down and I'm going to press, you know, it's a $2 million press. Or if they were somehow putting their own money and then it was being matched or doubled, I just wonder if at this point that's something that takes away from this,

or is this in the vein of the old Nicholas Palmer challenge matches? Gary Player and Palmer used to challenge people and they were made for TV, and it was more about the match and the exotic locale they go to and maybe some different production values. You know, everybody's got a mic on. I mean, we haven't really had anything like that in a few years now. And the technology's changed a lot where the things that we had were those nighttime matches and under the lights and Skins game and all that. Television can do so much more production-wise to make it something special when they're just dealing with a few players.

But the money thing, you know, that doesn't strike you as a deterrent or something. Because you saw what I did on my side probably. I put, because this smells like pay-per-view to me. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me. And I will tell you at this early stage, I didn't process this as a thing where some big chunk of money is going into one person's pocket.

I thought this was kind of being introduced as, you know, this grand $10 million thing for the purposes of some eye grabbing. But that the ultimate deep. of how the money, my expectation 100% is that a humongous chunk of this is going to charity. What I like, and you've got the wheel spinning now, is what's the threshold? What's the pain threshold for those two dudes? Like if we said this is a $10 million all-in event for the charity of choice, and then these guys had to match out of their pocket, what's the pain threshold? And I love this idea of the presses and everything.

But where does it start to hurt? Where does one guy, you know, between the pride point, you know, carries quite a bit of it. Both of them are deep competitors. They're playing for pride. But, you know, coming out of pocket a little bit, you know, they both obviously will support whatever the charity is, their charity of choice. Where's the pain threshold? Well, with Tiger, it tends to be a much lower threshold because he's not in the Scotty Pippen category,

but he's definitely known for his, shall we say, lean tipping, whereas Phil, you know, just gives out C-notes like their dollar bills to you and I. So I think that at this point, it's, there is, it's a difference for both, but I think they're both doing just fine. So I don't know if there is one that's at a dollar figure that anybody wants to know about. It'll almost be off-putting in a way. It'll just sort of like, oh, my gosh, this doesn't even phase him. But, I mean, they would tell, they would say the right things and all that.

I just, I just don't know if, if I can believe that they would do a winner-take-all that somebody would show for nothing. Well, has there been any more, am I completely off-base? Is the idea that the money will go into one person's pocket? Yeah, the first concept was a winner-take-all match. And I don't know what the charity component is. Well, it needs to be the whole thing. I mean, the charity is the. No, no, no.

These guys don't work for free. So I think the more compelling concept is something where you see Apple or Netflix or Amazon create a series around these two where it's not just one thing. Maybe it kicks off with one big live event. But then it becomes something where, again, they just rip off the old school, All-Star Golf, Shell's wonderful world of golf. And they go to different parts of the world. They play. Maybe they team up.

See, because I think another problem, house is this whole Kumbaya Task Force bond they have now takes another little bit of an edge away from such a match, you know. So we're not going to believe any animus they show we're going to think is fate. Is that what you're saying? Well, unless Phil starts batting down fescue grass in front of the tea, and Tiger goes, what are you doing, dude? That's two shots right there. Is that a violation?

Is that a violation? Let me check. Yeah. Is that a rule on that? So, I mean, they could create, like, in wrestling, they could have some faux, faux animals. I just, I don't know. Tiger's really got me convinced. He's just a different person now.

And that instead of getting mad at something like that, he's entertained by it. He finds it funny, and he should. He's at an age where he's seen it all, and he really knows better, and it doesn't, he's seen worse things in the world, and he knows there are bigger problems that people have, and so he finds it funny instead of getting annoyed. But now you put, I think somebody nominated Rory and Poulter versus Tiger and Phil, or you guess Sergio, Sergio would be great fun because he does still, annoy them for some reason.

And so I think you need a little of that. So anyway, so my point is, what if it's a package? You pay $100 and you get this pay-per-view package for whatever it is, a six-series thing where maybe they play each other twice and then they play two or three or four other challenge matches. That seems to me like the only model that works on the pay-per-view concept. All of that is fine. Obviously, I would pay.

And I like very much the idea of a series. I hope that there is some intelligence that you have on this, that you're not sharing just quite yet because it's not fully baked. No, I don't. Come on, Shaq. That's the whole point. You're the guy with the ear to the ground. I mean, the pay-per-view I'm very confident in because I have heard that that's the way it works the best,

or is the most compelling way to do this. It's hard to see my friends at the Golf Channel, NBC, CBS, or ESPN, fronting the kind of money to make this work. I mean, the Skins game no longer works house because it requires a certain amount of money and to make it compelling by modern standards. So I think the only way you get the numbers up is through pay-per-view. Plus, it just adds a different element. to it and kind of an excitement factor and we'll get to all deal with a buffering stream and fun things like that. Now, you just mentioned three entities where the money is irrelevant. All they want is unique content. So in the interest of unique content, a series makes a ton of sense. I think the

least interesting of the competitions will be Phil against Tiger head to head where one of them wins money. That out of all the possibilities is like the least interesting to me. What is interesting is what you tapped into, which is absolutely one of the directions this has to go, which is those two teamed up taking on comers. And my nominee for the very first team that they take on is Jordan Speath and Patrick Reed, because I want to see the old dudes take on the fire of the young dudes and go kick some ass. I mean, that would be genuine fire. I think those guys, you know, wouldn't give Patrick Reed or Jordan Speeth an inch. And I think there would be genuine you know, Phil and Tiger

are at a stage of their careers where they'll be able to muster a little bit, but I think there would be genuine live fire with that Reed speed combo going up against Tiger, because Reed is out of his mind. Right. All by itself.

And we need this to be, I love this concept of them wearing mics. Patrick Reed with a mic in a competition where he thinks he's the best guy out of the foursome. That I'm going to pay $100 bucks for, you know, if it's a six- and a part series, I'm paying the hundred bucks, but what I'm really won out of that is 18 holes, four hours of Patrick Reed or five hours of Patrick Reed.

Yeah. No, I think that would be fantastic. And then you go to the right golf courses. You go somewhere interesting. You know, they were going to do this at Shadow Creek, which isn't my style of course design, but nobody's seen it. It's been a place that's very private. So that would have been kind of exotic.

It's cool. I've played it. It's cool. So, yeah, there are ways to make this a lot of fun. and make it interesting. And I hope they don't rush it. I hope they be because, but what is interesting houses,

I've been reading up on the open and kind of getting in the mood. You know, this young Tom and old Tom Morris played the parks all the time and they have these money challenge matches. And by the way, that's the other thing. I would love to see a format, you know, where they, they, and I'm assuming Vegas was hoping to bring in something that made it a little bit more interesting to bet. I don't know what that would be, but they would come up with some exotics. But it's already there.

It's been a part of the game for a long time. Say again? These kinds of matches have been a part of the game from the very beginnings. So they would just be continuing that tradition, but it would be great to see it done at a new level. And I've just got to think you're right. It's one of those entities that has a few money and they're just going to throw it out there. But I hope the execution is well thought. out. That's key. Yeah, right. It's okay even for them to go ahead and test the waters a little bit with

this first event and go down in the same way that the Olympics, you know, went right down the middle with a vanilla stroke play competition. And then, you know, they're repeating the mistake. It's not a mistake. It's a way of reintroducing the world to golf as a competition. But the really interesting way to do Olympic golf is by teams. And I think in the same way, we'll let this go ahead and walk out. they'll get a reaction. It'll have enough momentum to go ahead. And maybe they've already worked all this out in terms of a series and in terms of the team play and so forth. I mean, some of the previous made for TV events included co-ed competitions with Anika and who was the, who'd Onika play with?

It was Tiger and Onika and Sergio, I think. And why am I forgetting her name? from Mexico. Oh, Lorraine Ochoa. Yeah, yeah. Wasn't that one of the last television? I believe it was. Yeah.

And that run of the Terry Jastro produced, yeah, prime time golf things. Yeah, there was something like that. God, I've forgotten a lot about those. There's a showdown at Sherwood. And it was cool to have the element of kind of under the lights and live TV. Right. But I, yeah, and I would hope that if they play a team format, it's, it's, they play alternate shot match play, which is faster and also compelling.

And, uh, I mean, especially, you know, there's, yeah, especially for the shit talking. That alternate shot match play is awesome. Yeah. I mean, that, well, there's also just the stress between, uh, partners when somebody's a little bit off. So. Right. And maybe they play 36 and that.

I don't know to give people their money's worth. But, um, anyway, I think it's exciting that they're putting it out there. I just do, uh, I do. I do wonder about a couple of these elements. Again, I would love to see something creative where, you know, Phil goes too down. I'm going to press you. I got to press for $2 million. Yeah.

I don't know what this, how this gets into their relationship with the PGA tour in terms of integrity and gambling. I mean, they gamble on Tuesdays for amounts that the tour knows are eye-opening amounts, not $2 million. It's been going on for 40 years. So, yeah, but they are, I'm sure, going to be very sensitive to these kinds of things with some of the changes that are going to be occurring with gambling. So I think those are elements they have to chat. And they just have to get essentially the tour's blessing on these things. There are components to their relationship with the tour. Do they?

Come on. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're going to throw out a date and the tour is going to say, wait, you can't be doing this on the, you know, the Thursday of the. the Greenbrier or whatever it is. And you think Tiger and Phil will say, oh, okay. Okay, Comish, we'll abide the wishes of this, you know, third-tier regional event. Yeah, they have to.

They do. There are ways that the tour could retaliate. At their own peril. Oh, sure. I wish it would never take on Tiger and Phil. It would never become uncivil or anything. But I'm sure that's part of this process. And the tour has been a little busy trying to put together the new schedule,

which will be out probably by the time that this podcast is being listened to, which is why you and I are not going to talk about the new schedule, because I believe it's going to be released this week. So, all right, let's take a quick break. Our friends at Calloway just have a fantastic epic Calloway live guests this week, the man who loves his Chrome Soft, who loves his Truvice, the great Tom Watson, five-time Open Champion. Whoa, I had no idea.

That's awesome. I knew he was on this season, but I didn't know it was tomorrow. It's a great time for this. It's on Tuesday this week to just add to your list of, I mean, there's some great open championship mood setting stuff. Golf Channel's got the, as we're recording this tonight, the 99 open documentary, which I hear is sensational. I got to tell you, I watched the rebroadcast last week of Sergio v. Harrington down the stretch.

I forgot how zany that Open Championship was. Calaway's, carnoosey does amazing things. But anyway, so does Calloway. So check out Calloway Live on the interweb. Go to YouTube. That episode begins at 6 p.m. Pacific time on Tuesday. And I'm sure Tom will talk all things, his career, the Open. his love of Truvus, which is now the strong number two seller, the Callaway Chromesoft is.

And of course, the Truvice is becoming, well, cool with almost everybody. House. I know you're still on the fence, but you know I love them. No, I just, you have no idea. I know. I know. I ordered an ungodly amount of the Stars and Strikes. I really did.

Oh, you're so patriotic. Well, they're cool. I love them. I saw them with a Shedcock. There was none available. I'm like, you know, what do I got to do? Who do I have to call? Who do you have to call?

I think you know who. All right. So now, I think you have a word from our friends at Helix. Absolutely. Good people at Helix sleep. There is nobody on the planet like you, my shack house, pal. So why would you buy a mattress built for anyone else? Working with the world's leading sleep experts,

Helix Sleep has developed a mattress that is customized to your specific height, weight, and sleep preferences. So you can have the best sleep of your life at an unbeatable price. Here's how it works. Get yourself over to helix sleep.com. They have a two-minute sleep quiz that lets them understand what kind of sleeper you are. And then they design your custom mattress. and if you like, they can even customize the other side of it for a partner. In 2018, Helix Sleep has taken customized sleep to the next level with the Helix

pillow. These all new pillows are fully adjustable so you can achieve perfect comfort regardless of sleep position or body type. Helix Sleep has thousands of five-star reviews and you get 100 nights to try them out. go to helixleep.com slash shackhouse right now. And you will get up to $125 toward your mattress order. That's helixleep.com slash shackhouse for up to $125 towards the mattress order. Helixleep.com slash shackhouse.

Do it today. Wow, 125. That's awesome. Beautiful. A lot of I know. All right. Before we get to Matt Ryan, we have to kick around a few things. So this week, we have the Scottish Open at Gullen Golf Club, which we'll get into some details on here.

We also have the John Deere Classic where Bryson D. Shambo is the defending champion. And then the players who are in the open get on the plane and head on over to the open. And, of course, how the U.S. senior women's open at the unbelievably private and never before seen on any scum. scale nationally Chicago Golf Club, which I highly recommend everybody tune in. I'm going to put some coverage up on my blog. Andy Johnson's done some beautiful history coverage of Chicago Golf Club and some flyovers to help you see this Seth Rayner golf course that was originally a CB McDonald. And it is an otherworldly place.

And the idea that they're playing a big time tournament there is amazing. But so is it, House, that they're playing at Gullen. I know they were there a few years ago, 2015, before the Open Championship. championship. Ricky Fowler held off Matt Coocher. And it was a big, big deal to go to Gullin. That was the first time it had ever really played host to something that's significant. It's always been an open championship qualifying venue. And it is just the most bizarre in a great way, Lynx. It starts in the town. You move up to the top of Gullen Hill. And then you kind of trundled down in this beautiful Lynx land overlooking the ocean. Their old military relics. and some fantastic holes. And the thing house that we are going to see, if we watch, if you watch, I'll be there beginning Thursday, are Lynx golf courses that are as crispy as they have been since Mearfield in 2013. We've had a lot of rain the last few years.

And I think this is going to be an absolutely mind-boggling year for Link's golf. Just seeing all the photographs of various golf courses, how yellow they already are. and it looks like this week, the weather is going to continue for a few more days of baking them out. So since we've been gone, Francesco Molinari won the Quick and Loans National. Tiger made a pretty nice showing there. And then Kevin now, of course, won the Greenbrier. And those are two players who I believe will be guys to watch in the Open Championship because it's just going to be a style of golf that I think is a little more precision.

It's a little more scrambling around the greens and short game touch. And it's not going to be a Bombers Paradise. So it's going to be a lot of fun to see what happens at going. And then as we transition to Carnusti. Yeah. So I, this is going to be a rare occasion. I'm a guy that very much enjoys watching the PGA tour week to week, seeing the courses, reminding myself, oh, yeah, I like the way this course looks.

Or, oh, yeah, I remember this feature. This is a rare week where I'm going to watch almost no PGA tour because I am, first of all, very captivated by the idea of seeing Galane and adjusting my eyes. Gullen, Gullen, Gullen. You know. Have you heard me before? I get names wrong. I know. I know.

I'm just trying to prevent you from getting the Twitter pushback. That's fine. From the Scots. By now they know. I love that we have. I want to adjust my eyes. We're going to be using some real creola colors. We have burnt sienna, I think, and maybe we're going to have some khaki haze.

We're going to have some baked out browns. I mean, it's going to be a real adjustment. It's going to be such a departure from what we see week to week in terms of competitive golf. I will also tell you, I love that we're across the pond because I'll get to watch the competition at Gullen, and that's the early morning, and then the later afternoon and evening, what I'm watching is the senior women's at this club

because in the same way that I couldn't get enough of watching the LPGA at Wilshire and how stark and stunning that course. It wasn't stark in the sense of it not being lush, but I just didn't know what to anticipate, and there was elevation changes. Yeah, that looked like the greens were hidden, and I mean, all of the creative design elements that make Wilshire so special.

It was really cool, and I liked very much trying to learn the ins and outs of that. And I'm very psyched to have a repeat here with the Chicago Golf Club. Yeah, and some of those women have been out of the limelight a long time, and some of them are incredible players and have had incredible careers. So it'll be neat for them to get some attention. But just a reminder, the, the, Coverage from the European Tour's event, the Scottish Open. It starts on Golf Channel, but then remember, it moves to NBC on the weekend for the key part of the leaders playing the golf course on Gullen Hill.

So that's at like 1230 to 3 Eastern. So remember, they tee off really late in the Scottish to appeal to American TV. And then, of course, the American Century Championship is on after that, too. house should you want some celebrity golf, which, you know, I believe Steph Curry is playing. Or an important nap, which is exactly what I'm going to take at that moment. That's a great thing to have on the background. There's a whole net. There's that golf does provide that wonderful opportunity sometimes.

Aaron Rogers is playing. Tony Romo's in the field. Really? You're not. You're not. Let's see. Who else? We got Reggie Bush.

Larry Fitzgerald. No. No. If I want to see Bums playing golf, I'll just go out Friday as I'm going to and play with my pals. Oh, no, no, no. Charles Barkley's there. Larry the cable guy, Kevin Neeland, Ray Romano, Brian Erlacker. I can watch bad golf with my crew. All I do is go out with my past. I think it's still pretty cool that Steph Curry and Aaron Rogers are there. You have two guys that are, you know, athletes still at the top of their game and their sports. and they go out and play pretty well.

Well, it's cool. But anyway. That's what I'm not going to watch. I wish Matt Ryan was in working order. He's got game, but he's got his twins, his twin boys at home, so he's not going to be out there joining those boys. Yeah, no. And he did a few of these events a few years ago, but he has a very set schedule. So before we talk about him, is there anything else you want to know about Gullen?

Do you want to hear about how the, you know, dates to 1650 and the Weavers of Dural, used to play the weavers of Aberlady and the old Hansel on Mondays. It used to be a racehorse training ground as well, too, if you really want to go into the deep wonkery of Gullin. Okay, well, that's... But the thing to keep in mind there is that Ricky won it last time. Matt Coocher played incredibly. They are both already over there.

Coocher was at Wimbledon in the Royal Box. I think half of the golf universe has been in the Royal Box. I saw it today. It was Bjorn had like the whole writer-com. Cup coaching staff, which means they filled up the box. But Ricky was playing North Barrack today with a push cart, which I thought was really cool to see. And it's neat to see who all is going over.

You had a list of some of the Americans who were making the trek, which is, I think, always nice to point out. Yeah, yeah. Well, Patrick Reed, who is leading the European horse race in Dubai, is obviously over there. Phil is going to make a reappearance. I think he took last year off, didn't he? Did he take the Scottish Open? He did.

He took last. He's back. And then we have a few debut performances. Kevin Chappell, Luke List, Charlie Hoffman. They're all going to be over there. And Julian Surrey is making the Scottish Open debut. He was quite excellent in France until the back nine. And it looked like he got a little bit of winteritis. He started thinking the Scottish.

that he might win and his knee started knocking a little bit. I watched that. That was a really, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, club in France is going to be. Ballsy. It's going to be great. There was so much risk reward and it really ate up a bunch of guys. And Alex Noren won the event a couple of weeks ago.

And I, I, I use Balzy. He was not cowed by the course. And a lot of guys were, we're, we're just getting stuck. I mean, Sergio had a chance to win a tournament. and he got stuck. John Rom had a chance to win the tournament. It was just eating guys up. I really enjoyed it, to be honest with you.

Yeah, no, it's going to be great. You're right. You're right. Risk reward holes. And as far as Rider Cup venues go, it's going to have probably more volatility than an intrigue than any we've seen a while. They act like it's, you know,

we're going to the old course of St. Andrews architecturally. It's not that great. But it is, I mean, when you look at some of the places they've gone in Europe, they are just not interesting. So this is going to be fantastic. No question.

Oh, and by the way, there is a Rider Cup scouting trip this weekend. Jim Furek is over there. Tiger is doing, I think I read something in London, some events. So he'll stop in at that. Phil will probably do some zany, take the jet down, be seen in the morning, and then hopefully have an afternoon tea time at the Scottish kind of thing. Yeah. So, yeah, they'll be doing their scouting trip.

and figuring all the captains will be figuring out what what's the best way to get the wives from the 13th T to the clubhouse in the shortest time as possible. All credit to Justin Thomas, who played the event. And also, you know, could have, he was on the leaderboard for a little bit there. He couldn't put at that particular event. But he was definitely ball striking well enough. He was on the top page, the front page of the leaderboard for a little bit. Yeah. Well, I will, and if you have any bets, you know, you just feel free to let me know.

I'll be hitting the local shop there as we get closer to the open. I don't anticipate Francesco Mullenari being a very good value and a few of the other names we've probably thrown out in the past who are playing well. It should be a fun betting open. I certainly am going to be just running to bet on Rory missing the cut because these conditions are just like they were at Mirfield in 2013 and he hated him. And he had a so-so Irish open last week. I just don't think he likes firm and fast golf. So I don't think I'll get a very good. price on that.

Which, which, what are you talking about? We're talking about the open, the open. Oh, well, the open. Well, so look, you, you, you, you've now walked this right in. Well, I'm making it in the Scottish too, but I don't think I'll get there in time. Well, I mean, I'll bet on the Scottish. I'm not afraid. But, but I am working on my, my strategy here.

This is the pre-pre preview show. Yeah. Right. We're going to have the actual Open Championship preview show next Monday. But, but let me walk this through. We've now talked about the heat wave. We've talked about the color. of the turf and the terrain.

We already know that successful links play. It is its own animal, a style of golf that requires careful planning, careful targeting. Walk. Well, very strategic club selection. Luck of the draw. But here's the, and obviously the most important factor, a strong ground game. Yeah. So I have a kind of profile that I'm working on here.

a working thesis right now. And I'm going to, I want to hit on some of these guys that I think are great golf thinkers. And I'm talking about, you know, young guys and, and older guys.

Obviously on the young side, we talk about Jordan Speeth. And we talk about Bryson D. Chambot, two guys who obviously over the top in terms of thinking through the game and very verbal about it. But I think we,

you know, some other guys that I would sort of include in there who have shown a real strategic competence, Jason Day and Brooks Kepka. These are the kinds of names I'm thinking about, I'm formulating on. I keep coming back. The homie, Brendan Porath at SB Nation, posted a transcript from the Chronicles of a champion golfer, which was a couple of year and a half ago. Golf Channel ran a series of six.

It's quite excellent. It's available on Netflix and on on. demand. I highly recommend it to folks. They'll also be running a few more leading it up to the open. They had new ones just this last week debut on Trevino and Paul Lorry and Nick Price. Oh, I saw the Paul Lorry one. I'm sorry. I mean, yeah,

they're tremendous. The first six didn't were like Tiger and Greg Norman and Jack and a couple of others. But the quote that that Pohath was kind of enough to post on on the Twitter with Tiger going through sort of the his mental experience of learning he's talking about it at the old course primarily but you know the

the the very discreet and distilled thinking the smart thinking and the disposition of taking the breaks as as they come you know being curious about about the challenge as opposed to having anxiety over the challenge. How can I not include Tiger in this? Yeah, yeah, yeah. More importantly, it's going to be so firm and fast. He's going to hit like two drivers all week. Let's cut to the chase house.

Isn't that going to be true of everybody? I think. This is going to be about driving irons. And that's why when you mentioned Kepka, I was like, oh, boy, he's so good. He's so good with those long irons off the tea. Yeah, I just think I'm having a hard. time. Now, we'll see, we'll get there. We'll see what the rough's like. We'll see how the forecast changes if it suddenly starts raining a lot and everything gets softened up. But it just,

the sense right now is this is going to be a Hoy Lake type year where it's going to be about hitting stingers off the tea. And, and, you know, Phil did that beautifully in Mirfield when he won, which is why if he could, he could get locked in here and focused, I think he's another person who should love these conditions. And Tiger loves firm and fast. He contended at that open as well. So, yeah, no, he's certainly going to be somebody who will be formidable. And the conditions are definitely going to, I think, favor those kinds of players.

Some veteran experience, some patience, some love of this, what could be crazy firm and fast. I mean, you've seen some of the videos. People are posting on Instagram where they're dropping balls and they're bouncing up past their waist. It is, it's going to be fascinating. Yeah, I mean, there are, there are four guys clustered around at this value price right now. And I might, as soon as we get off this podcast, rush right out to my local telephone and place the call. I need to place. But listen to this.

Brooks Kefka is available at 22 to 1. Tiger Woods is available at 22 to 1. Henrik Stenson is available at 28 to 1. Yeah. Well, let's see if he plays. He just withdrew from the Scott of Show. Oh, no, what happened? Elbow 10 minutes.

Okay, strike Hendrick Stenson. Sorry, Hendrick. I mean, I can't wait to, I was all prepared to rush right out. Frankie Mullinary is sitting there right this second at 33 to 1. I haven't seen a ball striking performance like what he put on at the, here at the nation's capital, TPC at Avonel Farm, whatever they're calling it now. I grew up Potomac Farm, Potomac Tech, I don't know. I grew up calling it Avonle. That's the only way I know it.

But the ball striking display that he put on on that Sunday, that's 62. That was the 62 that could have been a 60 as well as he was striking it. He just didn't make one or two putts on the front because he made every putt on the back. 33 to 1 is simply delicious shack. I can't disagree. He's going to be a very popular choice. The only thing I would say is try and hold on to see if he, you know, isn't just so-so position after 36, but, ah, go for it, House. You know you have my blessing.

Thank you. Thank you. Now, more importantly, all right, so why did we have Matt Ryan on to preview the Scottish Open House? Well, it's actually very simple. The Atlanta Falcons quarterback, who was the third pick overall in 2008 and from Boston College, who led them to an incredible 25 and 7 record in 32 starts. and the MVP in 2016 when he led the Falcons to the Super Bowl, only to lose to the dynasty that is the New England Patriots and an incredible game. Matt is a student of golf, and he has become a student of golf course architecture, and in particular, the Lynx Golf House,

because one of the owners of the Atlanta Falcons, John Imlay, who passed away a few years ago, but was one of the foremost collectors of important golf art that he would probably overpay for to salvage and to save. And he has this incredible home on the seventh green at North Barrack, and that is now owned by another one of the Falcons owners who bought it after Mr. Imbley passed away. And every year, Matt goes there with a group of teammates and owner types and executives

and friends of the Falcons. And they hang out at North Barrett. and then branch out and play golf elsewhere in Scotland. He usually does this in June. This year, his wife gave birth to twins, so he did not go. And he is a man who loves his East Lothian golf, which is the region where the Scottish Open is this week,

where North Berwick and Mearfield and Gullen, and the place where I always advocate, if somebody you want to make a trip to Scotland, it's the perfect place to go because you can get a bunch of different experiences, all within a nice, very, very close area that's also in nice proximity to Edinburgh, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and not too far from the old course at St. Andrews.

So that is why we had Maddie Ice on today. So I think without further ado, unless you have anything you want to say. I can't wait to hear Maddie Ice. Let's get all right. Let's go. All right. Well, here he is joining us now, Matt Ryan, because when you think Scottish Open Golf and Link's golf, you think the quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, Matt, how are you today?

I'm doing great, Jeff. How are you? I'm doing great. I'm excited because this is Link's golf season. And I was particularly thrilled when you were on Calloway Live and I got to meet you. And you mentioned your affinity for the East Lothian area, which I had no idea that was coming and shocked me. So tell us a little bit how you got into golf in Scotland and in particular the area where we're kicking off a couple big weeks here. the Lynx golf season. Yeah, so I got drafted to Atlanta in 2008,

and was a huge golfer time. You know, we're having lunch with John one day, and he mentioned about coming over. I really didn't know much about it at all, other than, you know, I had a blast. teammates and would spend, you know, a week there

every summer, and just fell in really cool. You know, and unfortunately, John passed away probably probably three years ago, You know, but minority owners, a group of guys ended up buying. It's kind of this weird. He used to look at the time over there and get into the golf courses.

Yeah, so what are some of your favorites? Because I know you didn't, I mean, you have a great setup there at Mr. Emley's home. And so I believe it's on the seventh green. And I know you've played some evening golf after dinner kind of thing. But where else have you played? And what else do you love besides, obviously, North Berwick? Well, yeah. I mean, the setup is pretty unbelievable where we stayed, and you're right. It's just opposite to 17.

You know, probably my favorite stretch of, you know, eight, nine, and then wind back around and play the 11th and then walk back in. Doing that after dinner was one of my favorite things to do. But, you know, other than that, I mean, Mayerfield right down the street, that's tough to be. I mean, you know, the alternate soft of format and, you know, get to meet the members and get to meet the members and get to be playing theirs. One's very good, you know, down the street. Yeah. And where it's coming up, you know, there's no shortage except against any of, you know, Long Island up in Hampton.

On that little stretch, you know. Were you an immediate convert to golf in Scotland or did having somebody like John Imlay who was just an incredibly passionate historian and lover of, I guess he was really a Bobby Jones fanatic, but also a lover of golf in Scotland. Did he kind of help prepare you for Link's golf and understanding what makes it tick? Well, you know, I'm a highball hitter. You know, it's immediate.

When you go into the town, and you just get important to game of golfers in each of the communities. You know, what a big part is instantly. And that kind of is what makes you fall. in love with playing links golf and particularly in that area. So, you know, got spread up with the guys from the fireworks to keep it below the wind over there. Nice.

That kind of changed my success rate over there. How did you get into golf? So, you know, I played a little bit growing up. My dad, you know, played a little bit. So, you know, probably two or three times a year, you know, when I was younger or through high and play. And then, you know, I didn't play much in college. When I got Glasgow to Atlanta, you know, we have so much time during our offseason.

So I was just dating my wife's part of the time. She was working. So I had, you know, from the month of February until, you know, we started in July. I had six or eight hours a day that I spent over at TPC Sugarloose, Georgia. And that kind of got me going. I started playing. And you have a charity event. House was wanting to know about the Monday after the Masters at Sugarloaf?

is that right? We do. We've been doing an event there for, gosh, maybe eight years ago. That is at, you know, TPC still. So the golf course is one of the few places that oversee, you know, golf with Ben Greaves and overseed. You know, it's a ton of force in that condition. You know, it's a really good event.

We raise a lot, you know, now being a father, I've got two boys that's all the best of time there. it's a great problem. It's something that you can't really raise out to be part of that. So now, you're, congratulations on being a new father, but it also meant no golf trip to

Scotland this year. Is that right? Is it kind of cut back on your golf? Definitely, you know, not playing as much golf as as a customer at length. You know, hopefully have two guys who are in the doctor. Yeah, you'll be trying to put a club in their hand

at a pretty young age, you think? you think it'll be a good sport for a lifetime? I'll be honest with you. My wife sent me a picture one morning. You know, my one son had his kind of hand in an interlock grip. And she was like, it's kind of sick that I know what I think is. I thought you would like it. So that's like, I'm such a few good pictures of my son so far.

Yeah, good sign. Awesome. So will you be watching? Do you watch a lot of golf, you know, or is it during the season you, I know, you put the clubs away? Do you kind of stay in touch though with the sports? sport? I, you know, to be honest, would be the fall of the fall

swing. You know, once the Tour Championship finishes up this year, there's a lot of foot, which is still a little bit. You know, I don't follow as closely during the fall. It's kind of, you know, that kind of kicks off the golf season where I start watching again. I'm pretty good about it. I'll watch all to go off throughout the year and

enjoy it. You know, just to see how good these guys are and their talent levels and all that stuff. All right. So now you put the clubs away during the season, but we had a question from listener Harry from Carlsbad, California. And he wants to know when you shut it down the way you do, how long does it take to get your game back?

First of all, when do you actually start practicing again after the season? How long do you wait? and then how long, because you have a nice low handicap. Does it, does a lot go away, or do you get it back pretty fast? You know what? Well, I usually start playing when I start to feel good. And so that could be, you know, it's just different every year. Some people have a little bit longer to feel good enough to go out and hit some balls.

But it's starting to come back faster than it used to, which is going to. I feel like that's a sign that, you know, I guess my mechanics. and things like that are better than they used to be. But it takes usually three or four weeks to start scoring, you know, halfway decent. You're putting and tipping. It's amazing how quickly that just disappears. Typically, I can hit my iron and keep the ball, you know,

in play decent, but that putting and tipping just takes a little bit of time to come back. Now, and we're getting you kind of here as you're starting to ramp up for training camp. When do the clubs go away for you? Or are they already have? No, they usually go away the day before training camp. Oh, okay. It's always like one of my best ones. It's right before we meet the training camp.

And so it's like, gosh, I don't really want to put these away right now. But it's fun to do it. But one of the things you mentioned to Harry on when you were on Calloway Live is that, and I thought this was really interesting. and I think it might be a little bit surprising to a lot of people, but you have found that golf has been beneficial to you physically in the off season just in terms of flexibility? 100%. You know, it's, you know, it's here's so much teaching,

especially looking at the golf ground up, and you're creating four feet throwing the ball. So, you know, the movement, you know, it's the same patterning that, that you use in a football football. It's really good in terms of keeping my mobility where it needs to be. And, you know, all of the training that I do to help me professionally, you know, then actually helps my golf game too. It's perfect right now.

Hmm. What's that component, that last part that you do in the football that helps with the golf? Tons of, you know, hip rotation work and strengthening, you know, you hear that term all the time in golf of clearing. It's the same thing. You know, getting those hips rotate it, you know, to the left and your upper body kind of staying behind the ball. You know, it's the same thing that's working on. And so to try and be the, you know, absolute best quarterback that can be, you know, a byproduct of it.

All right, a couple more things. House wants to know what your favorite golf course food is, since he is a food podcaster as well. Oh, milkshakes that I've had at Whisper Rock. Yeah, they are rather legendary. What, I've, I mean, I've never had a... I don't even know what was in it. It was like a concoction of a lot of different... But that was, it's like...

What's your favorite hole at North Barrack? Cool. I mean, you describe the loop, which is really cool. Yeah. That's an impossible question. Hull's pretty cool because you've never seen anything like that again. And I've, you know, hit a 60-degree. Yeah.

Yeah, that's 13. I mean, it's tough to beat that. Yeah. That's such a good part, you know, putting it jump out at me. How about yourself? I'm partial to that stretch, 13, 14, 15. I love perfection, the 14th, just because it's so, so goofy and so not perfect. I love the name of it.

It's just, it's just bizarre, but it's, there's something about that blind shot when you get over the, the second shot here. Yeah. The second shot in is unbelievable. Yeah. It's just... The whole thing is... The whole thing is... It's just fun that it's just fun that it's gone from a course that was viewed as having so many goofy holes and so many...

Just be, you know, the word quirky was always used, and now the word is used in a great way. That it's just every hole has something memorable and fun about it. And it's been fun to see how people have changed in my lifetime in their... their view of the place. So if somebody was going to go on a golf trip to Scotland, you guys have branched out and played other places on this annual trip that you normally do, what would be your advice to people making the voyage over there for, say, like a once-in-a-lifetime type golf trip?

Oh, man. Yeah, there's so much to cover. There's so much. you know, for sure, for sure, the golf courses that you mentioned in East Boe. You have to play North Berwick. If you have the opportunity to be able to play in the field, you've got to play it. Going's really good. I would play there.

You know, over on the world, you know, just this place is going to play. There's a great membership there. Western Gairns over there. I'd say, Coonbury, Big Bill, you know, teams barns. I mean, I've never done up north thing. I'd love to go up and play, you know, some of the golf district. Yeah, that area is really incredible now, and it's easier to get to. And Brora is just an incredible place.

And Dornick is, of course, amazing. But then there's Castle Stewart and Nairn, and you're not ridiculously far from Cruden Bay, which is another absolute must. So you, and it's beautiful up there. I still got some work to do, man. Yeah, well, it's like it's ridiculously spread out. I mean, it's just, it's unbelievable how many great courses they have. But it's kind of nice.

At least they're in regions and that area up there's now become. And, well, there's another place called Lossie Mouth that these military jets are landing right over you as you're playing. And it's got great holes. It's an old Tom Morris course. And you just go there and you go like, wow, if you put this in other places, it would be world famous. But they just have so many great lengths that it's a wealth of riches. Well, we'll let you get ready for your preparation. You're out here on the West Coast getting ready for the season

and enjoying some cooler weather and working on your football game. And hopefully you're getting a little golf while you're out here too. So we thank you, Matt. We apologize that you didn't get to go to Scotland this year, but it was for good reason. And hopefully you'll get back next year. But thank you for getting us in the mood for the Scottish Open. You got it, man.

I look forward to watching it. All right. Well, we thank Matt Ryan. again for joining us from from southern cow where he's getting ready for the season and still getting in a little last minute golf before he puts his uh callaway clubs away and by the way go to uh the interweb and and search matt ryan and watch that episode of callaway live with harry arnett it's a phenomenal episode he talks a lot about golf and a few of the things that we discussed on the on the show today i think it's just how utterly fascinating that that after all the years we hear about how

hard golf is on your back that here's here's a top athlete uh high highest paid player in the NFL, who looks to golf to maintain his flexibility and in a way, his strength and nimbleness in the offseason. I think that's kind of wild. And he loves golf in East Lothian. What's not to love? It's insane, but it makes sense, the flexibility part. I really enjoyed that. Anyway, our show today, as always, was brought to you by Calloway, Makers of Odyssey. They won the punter count at all eight majors so far this year and probably will again at the Open championship in a couple weeks.

So I noticed a lot of Audices in the bag again at the Greenbrier that I thought I saw Harold Varner with a little bit of a white hot face there on his putter. And of course, Kelly Kraft in that second place, finished was going with the Odyssey. So House, what have you got coming up on House of Carbs of note that we should be carving out some time for? Yeah, build in a little bit of time before next week's Shack House for a crossover podcast coming up. I was with the inimitable David Chang. We did some eating together at the Momofuku in Las Vegas, an incredible experience. And we had the head chef there as well as

the head of the entire Momofuku Culinary Empire, both as guests. And it was a great conversation. I think everybody's going to leave very hungry. Very cool. Awesome. I look forward to that. And we will have an interesting schedule. I think we're going to try to do our normal major schedule. We'll have a preview show on Monday. I'm going to get out to Karnoosti mid-morning, and we'll have a look around and get a good look at the links and see what's going on and confirm that it's playing a certain way. And I know that if you've watched any of the old Karnoisty opens,

it's going to be zany no matter how firm and fast it is. Crazy things happen on those last few holes. So House, we'll have a Monday show, and then I think we'll do a pop-up and we'll wrap it up on Sunday night. Yeah, that is our major way, our major play. And I think it's going to be, I mean, I'm just really fired up for Thursday to arrive and start getting some of this khaki haze, the baked out browns. Those really are the colors of choice here on. The Shaggers!

Part of the Ringer Podcast Network.