Fairway Rollin' - Tiger Woods Stays Hungry and the Crowd Gets Rowdy at the Arnold Palmer Invitational | Shackhouse (Ep. 57)

Episode Date: March 19, 2018

Geoff Shackelford and Joe House break down Rory McIlroy getting harassed (5:42) and Tiger Woods's performance at at the Arnold Palmer Invitational (24:22) and then look ahead to the Masters (42:49). Read Megan Schuster's article "How Tiger Woods Changed the Masters Betting Game" here: https://t.co/x3yW2ALpJg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's episode of Shack House, we discuss a thrilling Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. We talk about Brad Faxson as a putting instructor, another positive week for Tiger Woods, and House's knockoff the rest trip that gave us two big winners of a Callaway road driver, an OGO bag house. Hey, speaking of the road house, you know what happened this week while you were Galvanting around down in Sea Island territory. Tell me, Shaq. Calloway rolled out the customs platform, you know, that used to be old. only relegated to epics and wedges and golf balls.

They're doing that for the rogs? They're doing it for the rogue. They got two different zones, nine color options, 81 combinations to make your rogue driver your very own. Or I think it's a really cool gift, although some people think it's a little personal to be picking out the colors. But anyway, it's available in the three rogue models, the standard of the sub-zero.

Go to Callawaygolf.com slash customs to check it out and play around with the color combos. Calloway, keep bringing that customization. Daddy loves it. Speaking of things that daddy loves Shaq, baseball season right around the corner, you have a rooting interest. I have a rooting interest. Spring training is in full swing. It's time to start thinking Yahoo fantasy baseball drafts. Flex your skills as a real GM, Shaq.

New weekly lineup format makes it even easier. Use the set active players feature to set your lineup for the week in one tap. That's nice. Yahoo Fantasy Baseball is the official fantasy game. of Major League Baseball, sign up now at Yahoo.com fantasy baseball. Let's go to the Shuggos. As always, the Shagos is part of the Ringer Podcast Network, where you can listen to great things like House of Carbs.

Last week, we covered March Madness Munchies with Mark Titus and Craig Gaines. We also had Top Chef wrap-up with Andy Greenwald. also be sure to check out the ringer.com. You can read how Tiger Woods change the master's betting game by Megan Schuster. Shaq, we're going to talk about Tiger Woods and the master's betting game on this show today. Did you enjoy watching that thrilling, thrilling finish? I have-Maric. Macoroy, just put everybody out of their misery.

I can't keep this up, Shaq. Sundays are my day of relaxation. Like, I need to rest. I know. Today was not relaxing. It's not relaxing. Wow, I mean, good, it's good tension, though. But there was a lot on today.

And the golf was as exciting as anything on television today in sports. It's great tension. And let me be humble about this. The golf was the mother effing best thing on TV because for 15 holes, our king and hero, our savior, our golf lord almighty, Eldrick Tiger Woods was bringing the hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot. He was. Um, I, let me say something that's going to sound sacrilege after I just deified the man.

Um, this is going to sound crazy. I'm prepared for it. Uh, kind of glad that he, he faltered down the stretch. Okay. Why is that? Because I don't want him at the ultimate height of his powers yet. Oh, I see. I still want this little dose of humility.

And it, and it was only a spoon fill. And I'm not worried about, honestly. you know, his psychology or his ability to sort of navigate a wild success. But it's just for him and the progress that he's making, I greatly enjoyed his post round interview with Steve Sands. Yeah, I did too. Yeah. Where he was, he was calm, cool, and collected. He's like, I just, I had a decision to make with that T-ball on 16 and I just got stuck in the decision. Yeah. You didn't commit. That was his, that was his line. He didn't commit. Exactly. He's like, I was hitting three wood 300 to 310 today. Probably could have hit that. Yeah, that was the that was the one that was a killer. Why didn't you go with the three wood? But, but like you said, the admission that he didn't commit is a big leap for him. That in the past, that would have been, that would have been a technical mistake. He wouldn't have admitted that he just probably tactically didn't handle that one right and probably got a little bit excited about trying to blow on down there over the right bunker.

So that's progress. But House, I just wanted before, of course, we were going to do Tiger Leger in the show, but now you got me. So humbled. I want to get into the humbled thing. What would, what, he's been humbled enough. Okay. I think that's, don't you really, I mean, come on. No, no.

I mean that. This is a fair point. I mean it in a very limited sense. I mean it in terms of the sort of stretch that he's in right now of 10 consecutive of rounds under par and the success that he's enjoying and the hunger that he's demonstrating,

right? The appetite that he has to improve. I loved, I'm not sure if it was an interview with Sands or in a different interview where he confessed that he will be going to Augusta soon. He wants to find out

whether or not his yardage book still works. It still applies. Yeah. Well, he's going to He's going to be in for, yeah, it's beautiful. No, and I can't wait to hear about his scouting trips. Not that he'll be tweeting details of them, but it was another sensational week for him. But more importantly, let's save the rest of the Tiger Talk. Because we will.

The entire picture of the week, there were a couple things I want to hit on. But let's get to Roy McElroy and this stunning victory where he comes into the event, not really confident or seeming like he's ready to finally break through. He gets a putting lesson from Brad Faxon, and then he holds off a sensational leaderboard with Bryce, I mean, look at the, I just love the variety of this leaderboard. You had Henrik Stenson coming out of nowhere, and I want to address two things, by the way, a golf course with Greens 14 on the Stip meter, and Roy McElroy and Henrik Stenson dueling it out at the top two of the not the best putters we've ever seen on super fast greens.

So right there, that alone just gives them both so much going into the Masters. And then Rory obviously takes it to another level with this resounding victory with, what, was it four birdies in a row now? I've already gotten, I've lost count. But it was at least four birdies in a row. It was five birdies in the last six, eight under through his last 13 holes. I mean, yeah. And 119 yards into the 16th hole up par five.

Yes. So to take this lesson from Brad, of course, opens up a whole bunch of interesting discussion points. So I don't know where you want to go from there, but obviously just that reaching out on his putting is a big thing for him because he's been very technical. Phil Kenyon is a great instructor. But I think there's been a concern that Rory takes a lot of things maybe too literally in the numbers. You know, he's really into using the Quintic ball roll, this kind of launch monitor that's the equivalent of Trackman for putting. He went from Dave Stockton in 2016 to Kenyon, who's a more technical guy. And he went, I don't know how this exactly came about, you know, but there are a few stories out there about how Brad and worked with him on Monday at the Bears Club.

And here he is now Sunday evening, winning. the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. So yeah, I just think it's a... But we, I believe we touched on this last week that more so at Augusta than Bay Hill, because Rory's had kind of some... Not a great record at Bay Hill. More so at Augusta, he had that ability to maybe flip the switch, whereas I still think Spieth has it, the ability to walk on the grounds and just become a different person.

But now he does it here, and he's going to probably slug. into the master's favorite role and and it just adds one more incredible name to the list of people who are playing well right now. So that's the segue. I have a big picture thing and a small picture thing. I'm glad you referenced last week's show. It was indeed one of our parting shots on last week's show. We identified a couple guys that we were hoping to see something from as we sort of really round into the home stretch here and advanced the masters. The two guys that we called out where Rory and Ricky Fowler and God bless. Thank you.

Both gentlemen decided to show up and really, you know, show a kind of form that neither one. Now, Ricky has been, we described as, I described this performance to me as kind of flat. It was good to see him on the leaderboard. He kept nudging up and then dropping back, nudging up and dropping back. And I did also, very quick aside on the leaderboard, there was several moments today. the leaderboard had four major winners on it, which was just, I mean, come on. What are we talking about here?

But the point on that Rory and Ricky, hey, there they are. Those are names that you have to pay attention to. It felt like an added bonus to get Henrik. And it wasn't just, you know, a decent version of Henrik. We had the lights out Henrik for nearly three quarters of this tournament. I mean, his ball striking would look like, you know, It was back to that classic, you know, he does something to the ball that goes way beyond compression.

But the smaller point about Rory, and I will give the good folks at Golf Channel, some credit for this graphic that I really enjoyed yesterday morning in the run-up to the broadcast of Saturday. They showed a side-by-side of Rory putting, you know, recent putting sort of how he's, approach it, his form, his posture. That's the word I was looking for, Shaq. And he looked overly rigid, and it looked like he was arching his back, and it looked like he was vertical. And then this week, they had us in the side-by-side, his arms are relaxed.

They're hanging straight down from his shoulders. There's a slight rounding of his shoulders on his back. And lo and behold, here we are, he stroked exactly. 100 putts this week, which is a very good number on greens that are rolling 14. And a very good number as, you know, we start thinking about what the greens at Augusta are like and what they require. Yeah, they were scary. I got to go out on Wednesday afternoon and watch a little of the setup, and they had just,

they were just rolling them, and they were, how they were just frightening to look at some of the putts. You're just, I mean, looking at, no putt is easy out there. And they're a beautiful condition, by the way. It's not because they're bumpy, but just absolutely beautiful. But to your point, yeah, Faxson had him change to an inch and a quarter longer putter, which is the length he's used. And I think that kind of changed the posture that you're talking about. The stroke has always been there.

And it's always been a nice looking stroke. So it's amazing in this game, how those kinds of little things. change your point of view and you just get back to being a field player and which is all he's ever needed to do and yeah he was a hundred and twenty fourth going into the week and strokes game putting he'd finally become eligible in the stats and and look at the difference it's just uh it's frightening what that could do to his confidence too he dominated strokes game putting it was like plus seven and a half or something an incredible number i think an all-timer perhaps in his whole career i would like my own self to you know we'll have brad fax and

at some point. I'm glad that we won't be in the same room because I'm, yeah, we tried to get I might try and reach across and kiss him after a little popular. Well, yeah, for forgiving us back Rory, right? I mean, the thing with Rory that we know is his, the ultimate streak player and every aspect of his game feeds on the other aspects once he starts, when something clicks. And he is, his own self said, something clicked with the putting and then all of it. And he said, in the post, interview. He didn't feel like he was very far away. And it looked, that that had to have been, we know from what we observed of his performances in the Middle East that he, he was indeed not very far away. But he, his tendency to deflate when one aspect of his game is not on full fire.

I mean, two consecutive miscuts coming into this event, right? Yeah, exactly. And not really any sign that there was a turnaround coming. So that's, Fantastic. Brad faxon. Yeah. Yeah. So I, I texted Brad. He's been doing a lot of interviews, and it's his dad's 80th birthday, and so we'll have him on the show soon. But when Rory made the putt at 18, I suggested that it might be nice that he at least call dad and wish him happy birthday, and then Venmo 100 grand, at least to Brad, for the effort for the week. I mean, wow. That's tip money at this point after what he just did. I'm also glad he won for another reason, House. I know you're probably going to guess it's because I don't need to see the Chloe Griffith ad from MasterCard for another year. And that means the golf tournament. The first time I saw it.

Yeah, the 49th time it was a little painful. So he ended the golf tournament more abruptly. and that's a wonderful thing. But you probably saw that he called out the drinking issue and the alcohol cutoff sales. And I don't know how far you want to go down this rat hole, but I'm really glad he won because I think that had he lost, it would have made that situation more problematic, I guess, because I've just astonished how many people,

I put up a blog post and how many people, wrote back about, oh, what a jerk. That alcohol pays his salary. It's the purse. It's this. It's that. And it's the same thing as Justin Thomas. There is a mentality that you're entitled to go to a tournament and Badger people or in Roy's case. You scream out his wife's name, which is just creepy to me. So I'm glad he won to put that away. And I'm glad it gives him, he used his platform and now he won this week in spite of kind of what went on. And I think that makes his case a little bit stronger. Well, here's the interesting thing about that point. And in the first place, Rory of all the guys on tour definitely has the thick skin and can take whatever folks yell at him, right?

I mean, he's been a guy that has welcomed some of the, at least in the Ryder Cup format. He absolutely is not, you know, a wallflower. I think welcomed would be the, would be strong. I think that he embraced it as a way to motivate himself. Okay. Well, I don't think he enjoys it. I don't think he enjoys being called out or having his wife's name mentioned or at the time. That's over the line.

And if he had asked, you know, a Mark, or somebody to go speak with that fan, I would have had no problem with it whatsoever, because that's clearly over the line. But it does raise an interesting point about this phenomena we're going to observe for as long as Tiger is playing well and he's healthy, which is greatly swelling fan attendance at these events. Now, the Masters will be its own animal because it's a fixed number of tickets and the crowd sizes will be the same as always.

And they cut off sales at 4 o'clock. Well, and the Masters hasn't, can you think of an instance? And they have Pinkerton Guards. Yeah, I was going to say, the Masters, it really doesn't enter into this conversation. But it is something I think that's worth observing through the rest of kind of this first portion of the schedule. Again, if Tiger continues on this trend and plays events that he hasn't traditionally played, where the sort of trickle-down effect of larger crowds and what those crowds,

they might not necessarily be folks weaned on the tour, right? Weaned on golf tradition. They might be folks that are curious to come to a golf event and see Tiger because they didn't see him at the height of his powers 15 years ago. And, you know, how is golf going to handle that sort of, you know, because a lot of folks this day, age, you know, you see it across the professional sports board feel like the price of a ticket

entitles them to voice their opinion. And I don't think golf is necessarily, you know, going to be able to insulate itself from that expectation, that sort of fan conduct. So, and maybe, I'm not sure that booze is 100% the problem because, you know, the mashed potatoes and the yelling at the, at the, that happens at the beginning of the rounds. That is correct. But I would say that, yeah, the booze are a problem in that the tour wants a younger energy, a more excitement, a more of a Phoenix open, excuse me, waste management, Phoenix open vibe. And I think it's fascinating that so many of the people who react to the young guys in anger when they don't like Justin Thomas or Roy McElroy saying that,

that they're not enjoying this abuse, or even Ricky at Phoenix also did it, come to think of it, that part of the feeling is, well, hey, you wanted a different energy. You wanted that Ryder Cup Patrick Reed, Rory McElroy type vibe out at tournaments, and we're bringing it as fans. It's just peculiar that it kind of crosses into that over the line the way it does. And as you say, there's a misunderstanding of the kind of sporting events you're at. golf is an individual sport and it's not a team game except at the cup events. And so you're not really entitled to go out and interfere with a competition. Plus, of course, there's the long-term

effects of betting and will this lead to people who are bettors going out there and interfering with the competition? So it's going to be a challenge for these events. And I do think, though, I'll be honest with you, how I'll be honest with you, how I need to cut off the sales at a certain point. They really, at some of these events, send people out in not good condition. And it is part of what goes on in terms of the abuse. Okay. Anyway.

And to answer the question of, by the way, that I think a lot of people were bringing up, beer sales and ticket sales and merchandise sales and those things, those go to charity. the proceeds go to expenses for the tournament and charity. The purse for the players is paid for by the sponsor and the television money. So beer sales are not paying their salary. Okay. Yeah. So if you see that response.

Yeah. Well, God, I sound like I deflated you. I don't want to do that. But, you know, I think it was a big topic. I mean, that story got picked up. You know, I have Google alerts and stuff. And that story got picked up. I was at a shop this morning and somebody said,

I was reading an article about Roy McElroy. And they wanted a little explanation because they know what I do for a living. And so I gave it to him. And so it does, it is an interesting topic to people because it's probably, as you say, we're bringing some new people to the game because of Tiger or back who've been away a while. And they want to know why this is an issue and why golf's a little bit different. And I understand that element of it. Yeah.

So it'll be in common. on the tour and the local entities putting on these events to establish a code of conduct and then enforce it. And in all respects to me, I think that's a matter of like deploying proper resources, which means, you know, fans and, I mean, marshals and security and that kind of thing to ensure that there is, you know, the sort of standard of conduct that is expected. And, you know, there's got to be a little bit of peer-on-peer policing as well. All right, Alice, let's take a quick break to hear from our friends at Callaway Live,

who are back this week for season four. And they have an incredible lineup of guests coming right out of the shoot. They have Eddie Q, Apple Senior VP of Internet Software and Services. He's a ginormous sports fan. New to golf loves him some golf. Big Warriors fan, you probably know. I think the ringer has covered some of his fans. there at the Warriors games and just a fascinating, awesome, very important guy in the world of

business. Plus, Sergio Garcia, the following week, Bill Simmons, Masters Week, Zander Shoffley, and more. That's CallawayGolf.com slash Callaway Live. Check it out. Tuesday at 9 p.m. Eastern. Bill Simmons on Calloway Live. How about that? How about that? Yeah, pretty good. We love the Callaway Live. So I will be catching all of those on the U-2s, I assure you. Also, Shaq, quick word from our good pals at ZipRecruiter. Hey, golf friends. Are you hiring? Posting your position to job sites and waiting and waiting for the right people to see it.

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The right candidates are out there. ZipRecruiter is how you find them. businesses of all sizes trust zip recruiter for their hiring needs. And right now, Shackhouse listeners can try ZipRecruiter for free. That's right. F-R-E-E. Just go to ZipRecruiter.com slash shackhouse. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash shackhouse. ZipRecruiter.com slash shack house.

ZipRecurter's the smartest way to hire. They are awesome. And hey, house there's Santa Monica company. Great guys. I've met a few of them. Awesome people. Great company. Thank you for your support. Now, House, Tiger Woods this week or this week in Tiger Woods. Let's start off early. It seems like about a month ago. Early in the week, Tiger was announced as a President's Cup captain. I was there for the press conference. It was an odd time to be having a press conference from the President's Cup since we're just getting in the mood for the Ryder Cup. And he admitted to us that. that he asked for this job. And I, you know, I, it's just, I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one. I don't quite understand why. They seem to have this little task force thing where they've all decided who's going to take which job when.

But watching him play, I just have a hard time understanding why he, he wants to do this now. But I think he really enjoys this captain thing and it's gotten him energized. It's got him to where he feels comfortable being in front of people again and around players. And I think he had just gotten where life had gotten a little bit strange. And the whole cup thing has kind of brought him back. And so maybe he feels a need to kind of give back. So I agree with all of that. But I want to clarify something with you.

You physically attended the press conference? I did. Were you there for the kangaroos? I was not. I know where you're going with this. I know where your mind is going. What do you mean? What are you talking about? I'm talking about his hand being in the ass of the kangaroo in the photo they post for. How else are you supposed to hold a kangaroo? And by the way, Ernie else held it without having his hand there. But here's the best part. Ernie's a giant man. Ernie's hands are like triple the size of a normal human being. He is a large man. Let me ask this, though. This is what's crazy to me. whose idea was it that they hold the kangaroos? I really don't know.

I don't like to be held, do they? No, no, these are tame. These are from a petting zoo, but even then, what could possibly go right in that scenario? That's right. How about this? I don't understand it. What if Tiger Woods has to withdraw because the kangaroo didn't like having his hand in its ass and he bit him and Tiger WD? Or kicked him in the lower region?

I mean, that's what kangaroos do. they kick. The thing about it that also caught my eye, these were not baby roos. They were a little handheld shack. They were big mega rue daddies. Now, at least they had the good sense after these live shots

of the two boys, you know, Tiger and Ernie holding these things to put them down and then just take a shot of one standing there. But I was a little dumbfounded by all of that. I think the point you made is the right one, which is it seems like, he, in terms of the overall psychology, and you know I love nothing more than pop

psychology in the Tiger Woods. Yeah. It is part of his, you know, sense of who he is at the moment to fill that mentor role, to play a, you know, to give back as much as anything. And I think that's why he's so, he's been so willing to take on the captaincy roles in the Ryder Cup, in those instances where they're basically like giving him, they're creating a role for him just so they could be along for the ride. That's awesome because all those guys love him more than anybody else in terms of golf professionals that they grew up revering, right?

You know, the stars of the show that they grew up revering. So it makes sense to me. It doesn't seem out of order to me that he would affirmatively go seek the role, have it in place, have all this time to plan for it properly. and I think it's it's complimentary to his own reemergence on the scene,

his own ascendancy, I'm not going to go good. Yeah. You know, so I thought it was fine. Yeah, I think that's all right, house,

but you don't actually want the explanation on the, on the photograph. Of course I do. Well, I went to, during the pro am round,

I didn't go up to him, but yeah, we were out there walking in the fairway because Damon and Hack, David and I were doing like old school, Jimmy DeMert, Gene Saras and Shells Wonderful World of Golf updates for Morning Drive.

It's a pro-am round. I don't know if we really offered any great insights. But I went to Tiger's buddy, Rob McNamara, who is kind of out there. You'll see him watching his swing and kind of helping him get back some of this artistry that he's reclaiming. And I showed him the photo, and he said, well, here's a funny thing. Tiger got nothing. Hand was perfectly clean, no issue. But the other kangaroo soiled.

shirt and he had to put on a new shirt. So there you go. Important clarification on this important element of the week. However, so there you go. But yeah, the press conferences were great other than I didn't think it was the appropriate time to be doing such a thing, but there's that. And then he was very coy about whether he'll be a playing captain. I was very pleased that I tried a backdoor question to get him to address that,

mentioning Royal Melbourne. and if the venue might influence his thinking on whether he plays and also captains a team. And he actually bit. I couldn't believe it. And he kind of admitted that it is a pretty cool place. But he also admitted that it'll be kind of weird to look at a lineup or look at it if he's not on the team on points to look at a list of names and pick himself. So I thought that was great. But then in the other session, we had a really.

he threw out the word creativity. And so I got the last question. And I don't even know if it was a very good question, but I kind of took a few of the things, the buzzwords he'd mentioned and remind him of how much more he was rehearsing shot shapes at Ennisbrook. And he took it and just gave a great answer. I put it on my blog.

It's really, really cool. And he mentioned just kind of some stuff about getting back to artistry and his childhood and the way he played and the way his dad taught him to play. And the point was, it showed that he is definitely getting away from a lot of mechanical stuff that he had gotten into. I'm sure he's still on the track man and doing the data analysis that he likes to do, both with his stats and with his swing speed and all the other smash factor and all that stuff. But that said, he's really also trying to get back more artistry.

And I think the trackman actually allows him to do that. If you use that information correctly, it can make. you less mechanical, which is really interesting. So that all was really sensational. And then, you know, he really just kind of struggled in the second round. And otherwise, it was a pretty great week, I think, for him. Well, he was, he had a low round of the day going this afternoon until Rory kind of, you know, jumped into the driver's seat and pushed the pedal all the way down with both feet.

But I will say this, speaking of backdoor questions, I'm not sure if you saw on the Twitter. Lindsay Vaughn had to get in the mix today. Oh, no. Do tell. Well, you know, Lindsay tweeted out, and I'm going to, I can't link it up. I'm not going to do the forensics on this, but the timestamps were awfully close. So she tweeted out, I'm pretty sure golf just got popular again. Let's go.

That's awesome, right? And how about that? Lindsay Vaughn chiming in. Now, the timestamp for that was right around 5 o'clock. And I have to tell you, Shaq, I don't. don't know exactly what time Tiger teed off on 16, but it was awfully close in proximity timing wise. I felt bad my own self. I retweeted Lindsay's tweet and I felt like, you know, me, did we create a karma moment for the teagre? I sure hope not, right? I don't be responsible for that

OB. It was such a great round he had going. Now, fortunately, Rory let us all off the hook because there was nothing that Tiger could have done to get himself to, what before he finished, 18 under? Yeah, he finished, yeah, which is kind of incredible. Kind of incredible. So in any event, so that was my, I had a little, a brief moment of, I hope that wasn't a karma, but, you know, don't, don't worry. It shows all walks of life.

It was excited to have the Tiger back. In fact, I'm not sure I have permission to disclose. this, but I was having a nice chat with a guy who's been sort of a golf, a golf nanimousist, the writer Malcolm Gladwell, there's some enthusiasm out there. There's some enthusiasm out there, Shaq. That's all I'm going to say. I didn't get permission, but there's some enthusiasm out there for the reemergence of our icon. Well, absolutely. And actually, I think that that gives us kind of a nice opening to transition to the knock off the Rust tour. Because one of the things, one of the things before we talk about your trip and I don't nobody wants to hear the details of a buddy trip.

That's a fact. So we won't we we're not going to go blow, blah, blow. But I actually wanted to kind of step back from a few things because you were out and about with golf people and at golf facilities and and all that good stuff. And I am, I was curious if you got a sense being out there that it's revitalized, uh, things at all for people. if the guys behind the counter are saying, you know, we've got a little bit of an uptick, or if it's just kind of a general atmospheric thing, if you sense anything like that.

I don't want to fill in blanks that aren't there, but I will tell you, it could just be the nature of the beast at Sea Island down in Georgia the second week of March. It's a hot time to be down there because, you know, it's, first of all, it's absolutely beautiful there. And I deliberately did not do any research in advance of getting down there. I wanted to experience the venue, the courses, the instruction. I really did almost no pre-research, which is not my way. I don't like to walk into a place cold, but I did it in this instance because I wanted to sort

of take it all in fresh and just let my senses be kind of overwhelmed. and indeed that's exactly what happened. It was, you know, an unbelievable golf facility. So if you have an opportunity, really from anywhere, I was going to say the East Coast, but that's not right. If you're on the West Coast, get yourself to Sea Island. It's a very, very special golf destination. Like every, the attention to detail on sort of.

every aspect of the experience from the lodging to the proximity of the locker room, to the first tea, to the practice facility. Everything can be on foot if that's your inclination. And then, you know, they're just built. It's an enormous facility. It's undergoing a huge renovation in many respects. I stayed at the portion of the property called the Lodge. which is cited immediately proximate to the T-boxes.

You know, you tee off on plantation and seaside. The two premier courses there. And I was very sorry to not connect with Scott Sherman or Mark Love, who were super generous with the offer of giving a preview because plantation is about to go, undergo a renovation. The Davis Love design team is going to do some work to plantation immediately after the RSM event. this upcoming November.

And I'm sorry that I didn't connect with those guys to hear their plans. But having played that course, I loved it. I loved it. So I'm psyched to hear now having played it what the ideas are for how they're going to expand it. But the footprint that exists now is a great footprint. So just an all around unbelievable experience. We do have a couple winners to announce. Wait.

Oh, well, I feel bad, you know, for the winners because. they want to know their names now, but you completely filibustered and didn't answer my question. Oh, you're right. Was there like a tiger buzz down there? Yes. Well, that's it. I didn't want to fill in that blank with, then call it Tiger Buzz. What it was is golf buzz.

It's an insane golf place. So everybody there's got golf. It's golf, golf, golf, golf, golf. The men's locker room, you know, you go in there, you sit down, you drink, you're surrounded. They have an unbelievable Crab Ceno sandwich. It's a crab BLT. I mean, come on. Yeah, and what was with you guys in the Cobb Salads?

Both Rappaport and you put out stuff, and your stories were great. Who did those for you? Because I know you're not doing those graphics. How dare you? I'm my Instagram captain of industry. I mean, I'm on that thing. But I know you had to have help. Well, shout out to Lexi Eater, of course.

There we go. That's on Alexis Eater. She has absolutely the woman with the plan. She knows how to take this old lemon and turn it into some delicious lemonade. believe that. And you both hit on the cobs, the different cobs. Is that their thing? They have... That was just really a getaway salad. It was our last day, our last meal on property, we're headed to the airport and nobody wanted to go huge. And God bless them, they have a standard common. What protein would you like? I was made fun of for getting blackened chicken,

but I just wanted a little spice. Rapo got, because he's a food pro, editor-in-chief of Bon Appetit magazine, he got the fried chicken on top of it. Of course, he let me have a little. a bite. You know, that's mandatory. Right. But that was the pro move. To clarify an important detail there on the food. So talk about knocking off the rust. Now, you're going to do a full ship show breakdown of this

trip for those who would like to hear all about it. But I do want to know how many pars you made because the knock off the rust world tour kickoff contest involved your number of pars with Thursday's low round at Bay Hill, which was a 64.

It was. So tell us how many pars you made. I made. I had a goal. I'll name my goal first. The goal was 18. I was hoping for six bars around because that sort of implies for me around in the 80s, which at this point of the season with my first rounds of the season. That's awesome. That would have been great. I did not achieve 18 pars. I did achieve 16 pars. And I will say I was pretty pleased with my performance on the par five. The vast majority of my quality scoring this week, or last week, was on the par fives. I didn't sit down and look at the scorecards to come up with the aggregate score

across the par fives, but the bulk of those 16 pars came from the par fives. As is always the case, it's the best of times, worse of times. I got some instruction on that had me slightly changing my grip. You know, shout out to Jared, Zach and Daniel Gray, by the way, the golf performance center down there. Incredible. And they had me. They all, yeah. Condolences is the right word.

I really need to work on, on my right wrist. It was just way too flat. So I'm going to say this. Nobody said this, but it was, it felt like they were trying to get me into a Mo Norman. And I will tell you when I was able to replicate what is, these hardworking gentlemen were trying to get me. me to do. I was hitting the back of the ball and I was, you know, getting a thump, especially with the irons that I am not accustomed to. And so when it goes, it goes. When it works, it works, but it doesn't always work, Shaq. Yeah, no, that's, it's a cruel game that way. So 16 pars. So what does that

mean in terms of a winner? So it is kind of a miracle. We had 16 pars and 64 and we had a great number of entries. Thanks to all the Shackhouse listeners for getting the entries in. We had exactly two winners, which is pretty lucky because we had exactly two grand prizes to give out. We have a beautiful new rogue driver and the OGO mutant travel bag. These guys are awesome looking. I don't have one physically here in Casa Day House, but that's going to change here soon. these two gentlemen 1664 Zach Forbes and Jason Victor I mean there's something in that name I think

that has set him up for this victory those two guys Zach Forbes and Jason Victor hit that combo on the nose so Shaq if you would be so kind to reach out to those gentlemen and get their email info and you know look for some outstanding Callaway and OGO gear coming their way that's awesome well congratulations to them Nice handicapping on the 16 pars. That's the most impressive, I think.

Well, I mean, you know, the 64 is an impressive number two. But well done. And congratulations on a great trip. Now, again, you'll be on the ship show with, I don't know who your host will be this week, but you'll be on the ship show. Calloway's great show that you can find on, of course, any podcasting platform.

Now, House, we have to look at a little. head to the match play a little bit. I will be heading down there tomorrow and we will have a little brackatology show tomorrow night that will settle kind of the breakdown of the various pools in the matchplay. But it's one of my favorite events of the year because, of course, it's matchplay and it's in Austin and it's a great matchplay golf course, Austin Country Club, and they have 59 of the top 64. That means, you know, a few people are sitting out for different reasons. Brooks Kepka hurt his wrist.

Henrik Stenson is a matchplay purist and does not believe in the pool play format. At least that's his excuse. Justin Rose, on the other hand, just doesn't like matchplay close to the Masters. I don't know Ricky Fowler's excuse or Adam Scott's. But otherwise, it's a great field. Tiger, of course, is not there, and that's fine.

He probably needs a week off. He had to work pretty hard last week at the match play. But he is, oh, and we didn't touch on the Master's odds. before I get into whatever we're going to try to do for the bracketology of the match play. Do you want to do a bracket? Should we do one on Tuesday night? I'll happily do one. I think I came in either dead last or second to last last year.

So I'm eager to see if I can replicate that outstanding feat. The only thing that I will say about this week's event and what I'm personally looking for and I'm going to skew my bracket in this direction, I'm really rooting for Jordan Speath to come alive. I'm hoping that this time off, this most recent week, he also has talked to Brad Faxson or somebody about his two-foot puts. And I hope he's done whatever he needed to do to get extra relaxed. I'm not going to suggest various means of relaxing that I my own self might undertake.

Whatever works for Jordan, I want Jordan. to do that. I'm going to pick him to win the event because I want him to be in that mix for the Masters. Yeah. Well, I'm not too worried still about him just because of that Master's magic thing that he can walk on that property and things change. But it would be nice to see him win his pod and advance into at least well into Saturday. So yeah, he's in a great place for him. and some of his, he can go kind of hang out and practice at the UT Golf Club if he wants. There are a lot of different things about the week that are, I think, pretty comfortable for him. So I'm with you there.

He is still at 11 to 1 for the Masters, whereas Tiger Woods moved into favorite range in the United States. In the UK, the Brits were still a little more cynical. They still had him in the 10, 11 range, whereas Justin Thomas and Dustin Johnson were still ahead of him. And now, Rory, my God. over, I haven't checked odds checkers since he won, but I'm going to guess that Rory is now your master's favorite. I don't think I'm really going out on a limb there. I want to do a very quick thing on this master's odds thing. I just have a very specific question for you. What's Henrik Stenson's record at the Masters like? Oh, you just had to kind of blindside me there. It's

not great. Oh, it's not great. Yeah. So he's sitting here. That I can tell you. 40 to 1, he should just take his driver and throw it into Ray's Creek and add in, you know, another long iron or a hybrid or something. He doesn't need driver at Augusta. He seems like he's got more game than 40 to 1. He does. He does. But it's always been the putting. And I think that's what's exciting about what he did at the Arnold Palmer, that he tackled some pretty tough greens and showed that he's got some form again, some confidence.

I mean, it's just huge because he's kind of disappeared for a while. And that's, I think, what he has to hang on to. And great number for him right now. It feels like it. Feels like it. Yeah. All right. Yes, Rory has moved ahead.

I just checked on odds checker, and he's getting lots of action, 9 to 1, your master's there. I do think it's interesting. We have a 9 to 1 favor. The last few years, it's gotten down into the 7 to 1 range, 6 to 1. And so that's encouraging. So yeah, good for him. Anything else you want to cover on any of the various topics this week? I think we've got it all covered up, Shaq.

Hey, but I do have to tell you, when we were talking about Stenson and his fine putting house, I do need to remind you that he is a Callaway Odyssey putter man. He is as the White Hot Pro number seven putter from Odyssey. And, of course, our friends at Calloway are the great providers of Odyssey putters, won the putter count on both the PGA tour and LPGA tour again last week. So just a little note for you there

on that from our friends of Calaway. So you've got a... Are you back in the real world this week and you've got a house of carbs and you're going to be watching the match play and trying to better last year's crappy bracket? All of that's true. I am leaving the country on Saturday.

So we're going to have to... This might be another international shack house next week. Oh, my. I'm going back to the scene of the crime back to Jamaica. for spring break with my family for a week. But I'm sure that we'll be able to cover all the important topics of the match play, you know, across the pond, as it were. All right. Great.

Well, and I look forward to the ship show because, you know, again, there's nothing that people love more than to live vicariously through somebody else's buddy trip. No, I do want to hear some of the details and some of the fun. And it's such a great concept, the knock off the rush and you went to a cool place. and I'm anxious to get a little more of the vibe from you. And I mean, I love the Snapchat or the Instagram stories, excuse me. You're definitely not on Snapchat. That's not happening.

But no, it was great coverage and look forward to hearing from you from the ship show. I hope Harry can make some time for the show. But if not, I'm sure Jeff New Barth will be there and be a very fine host. Anything else? I think we got it, Jack. All right, so House, we look forward to hearing from you on the ship show. But I don't know if you have a call out for that, do you? No, there's no call out.

Not for me. That's not my show. My show, Shack, is this show with you, which is, of course, the Shack House. Part of the Rigger Podcast Network.