Fairway Rollin' - Tiger Woods Wins the Masters With Bill Simmons and Chris Vernon | Fairway Rollin’

Episode Date: April 14, 2019

Joe House is joined by The Ringer’s Bill Simmons for an immediate reaction to Tiger’s legendary win at the Masters (2:30), then Chris Vernon calls in to discuss all things Tiger Woods, including how his victory will impact golf, the moment they knew he was going to win, and his experience playing a factor in his final round (41:00). Host: Joe House Guests: Bill Simmons, Chris Vernon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, my friends, and welcome to this historical episode of Faraway Rolling, brought to us, as always, by our good pals at Callaway Golf. You asked, they answered the beautiful triple track golf ball used by Phil Mickelson out at Augusta National, the Chromesoft X triple track golf ball available this. coming Friday, April the 19th. Order them right now at callowagolf.com. Available this Friday. Friends, today's show also shout out to Pierre Henry. Do you own dress socks? Do they often roll down to your ankles?

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You can get 20% off any order when you visit www. p.h.sox.com and use the coupon code fairway. That's www. p.h.sox.com code fairway. Hello, friends, and welcome to this very special historical episode of Fairway Row. This is the golf podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network. I am your exhausted starter. Joe House, this show is brought to us by our good pals of Callaway Golf, the triple track golf, now available, Chromesoft X. get it on this Friday, April the 19th.

Today's show, there's only one way to do this. We have to talk to the OG, the podfather, Bill Simmons. We're going to try and put this historical Tiger Woods victory in proper perspective. Of course, Verno comes on. Berno and I, we've been doing this week in Tiger Woods since the show started. This was a pretty good week for Tiger Woods. Let's get into this right away with the Podfather Bill Simmons. we're hitting off the first T right now.

All right, there's only one way to properly characterize what we just observed, to properly put in context what we just watched. That's with the podfather himself. Bill Simmons, welcome to Fairway Rowland. That was your shortest intro ever.

Well, I'm honestly, physically and emotionally exhausted. Every ounce of me is spent right now, Bill Simmons. Me too. I woke up at 440s land. bed like a loser. I turned on the television. It got me in the right frame of mind and watched some ghosts. And then it was just great. I tell him, and then the weather was going to round him choked. Like everything I ever could have. Well, you mentioned the weather thing. And I really feel like that was a

conspiracy between the golf gods and the old heads that run Augusta National, because they made the call pretty early on Saturday that they were going to push this whole thing up to the first part of Sunday. to ensure in the first place, safety for everybody that was going to come out and watch this. But also, it changed to me the sort of trajectory of the historical moment. Like, you don't watch the Masters first thing in the morning. The Masters is an afternoon event, right? The afternoon, it's on into the evening. And, you know, it's late in the day on the East Coast.

It's middle of the day on the West Coast. this master's on the first half of this Sunday gave it like an unfettered it just owned the first part of the day. There's nothing else to talk about today other than the masters and then it became the masters in Tiger Woods is the only thing to talk about. Well, you know, when you just kind of wake up for the West Coast, sometimes those are even in motion by that time. at least part of it. Yeah, incredible. There's so much going on there, but the competitiveness that he has, not only on the course's attention that falls in wherever he's going.

And then the fact that it's three, not two, I do feel like that's a big thing. Like, it seemed like it weirdly benefited him. It allowed him to take out two rivals at the same time, basically. Fino, you know, was all over the place. And then the Italian, who we were joking was a robot. It really did. Like he, I don't know, it seemed like he hit the tree in that one approach shot. On 15, he hit the tree.

You're right. You're right. Yeah, yeah. It seemed like I clipped it, which is bad luck. But he certainly didn't look like the Italian down the stretch. Like the guy that we're used to is just, you know, for a machine. And it seemed like, you know, all that stuff. Watching it for, I don't know if you watched the, you watch the 86 Masters, right, way back when?

I did. I did. I was sitting on my, you know, the couch. I'm in a junior year high school, and I'm sitting there in my parents' house by myself. I know everybody else was out and about, and I just got to sit there by myself and watch Jack. I came home from caddying and being yelled at by people, and it was like the exact opposite experience watching Jack. But, you know, it was the same dynamic, though, becomes too big, and yet you're playing golf, plotting you or politely rooting for you, even if they don't really want you to win. But everybody was just different.

All of it was different. Well, that has an interesting dynamic that we watch. You talk about guys being up to the moment. Because of Molinari's double bogey on 12, all of a sudden, that led a bunch of names that we hadn't been paying attention to that we hadn't been hearing. Really in two or three days, all of a sudden appear as players of interest. We saw there was a Bubba Watson siding. There was a Ricky Fowler siding. There was this guy.

Yeah, DJ. we finally see a DJ shot on the like the 17th hole of the final round. Patrick Cantley is out there making birdies. He eagled 15 and then, you know, got close on, on, I don't remember which hole. But, you know, he was on the board and we're watching all this

Patrick Cantlay action. Like, what the hell's going on here? Why are we watching this guy? But I wanted... Canley wasn't even shown. All of a sudden he was like one of the leaders. I don't even think they'd showed three shots from him. Exactly. But your point about Frankie onions. Now, Frankie Onions is our boy. Frankie Molinari. He came on the show. I had him on Fairway Rowling after he wanted the Arnold Palmer. And I just think that today was a function of the immense experience of Tiger Woods versus everybody else that he was standing up against. Because you look at the scorecard, he played the first 12 holes at even par.

and that is obviously deliberate. That's obviously part of his strategy. He better than anybody knows that the time you win this golf tournament is 13, 14, 15, right. Those are the holes. It's really 13 through 17 is where you go out and grab the tournament. You don't try anything on 12. You're just trying to make par on 10.

You're just trying to make par on 11. You're just trying to make par on 12. And the incredible thing of four of the five, guys in the among the two threesome's that preceded that that hit the ball in the water so brooks kepp can hit the ball in the water ian polter hit the ball in the water tony fey now so something on 12 something karma happened because that's short and the announcers were talking about like oh my drew it up in the exact same way and he was the one guy that actually cranked it he was funny i was so frustrated uh you know on the fourth and he botched it and then the

the 10th hole, same thing. He just had a bad drive, had to get a bogey on that hole. Yeah, did he save it? Or, you know, he boagued. He bogeed. Whatever the,

the one he bogeed in the back nine, but he couldn't keep his drive straight. And then he just like, something happened. He locked in on the 12th hole, it felt like. I don't think he had a, did he hit a bad shot from the 12th hole on?

No, no, that's the point. This is what we're saying. This is why he wins. You know who, all those guys that we talked about, his competitors that were right in the mix on 12 and you know the the the the commonality of that mistake that they made there is a wind there that he knows about the tiger woods knows about that i don't think those other guys had any experience with they haven't played you know sunday you talked about the weather changing the weather was changing but he knew what part of the green he was going to hit that ball to on 12 and he knew what club he was going to hit and he knew how hard he had to swing i mean Molinari took a swing that looked like he was, you know, trying to hit it 110-yard, you know, wedged somewhere close. It was a very easy kind of cut that he took at it.

And it never had a chance. I mean, it was like a full club and a half short. But that's what distinguishes him. And that was the thing that really set it up. Now, I didn't think that he was going to win until the 15th hole, his second shot from 227 yards out to the fat part of that green. and he knows how that ridge behaves, and it kind of pushed it a little bit closer to the hole. It was still, like, not an eagle putt that you would expect him to make,

but it was like a guaranteed birdie. It was a guaranteed birdie by the way he hit that. There's actually good luck for once, but he just had a perfect drive on 15. You know, I was really bad if you're trying to win the tournament, and the only way not to get it for is to screw up your drive or do basically do a Molinar did a long time, just kind of waiting it out. And I was saying to my wife, like, these were his holes.

Like, this is 13, 14, 15, 16. Like, this is when he would win the Masters. Or this is when he would put the Masters away. Or this was when he would stretch it to some. You know, remember there was that stretch in the late 90s length of the Masters? Has Tiger broken the Masters? They did it. They did like it in the course.

They tried to Tiger proof it. Yeah. So that 15, it's the perfect drive. Just nails the second one. we go to 16 and it's the Vern Lundquist, you know, maybe, maybe yes. And it really seemed like that was giving me a hole in one. I mean, can we talk about how close to a hole in one that was? Oh, my God.

Like six inches? I mean, as soon as it catches the ridge up top there, I start saying, oh, please go in. Oh, please go in. Oh, please go in. The moment it was way at the top, it was like, oh, shit. That's gone in before. Yeah. He was in a spot where it could have tumbled right on in there for sure.

But it's still left. That was the most exciting. I would say 10 seconds of sports. And listen, my team just won the World Series. And even the Chiefs Patsky shit, he's going to make this. Oh, my God. Yeah. Well, a bunch of history here.

This is the first major that he won, where he didn't have the lead or the co-lead after 54 holes. And it really, you know, it's true. That's a true fact. In retrospect, we were very modest. coming into this on fairway rolling with verno. Harry did like Tigers odds and Harry gave him out a long time ago. But we were just, we were trying to be, you know, respectful about kind of where he was and his comeback.

I personally thought that he, I think, I believe that he was going to win a major this year. I just didn't think it was going to be until the PGA at Beth Page or at Pebble, possibly or maybe even in Ireland at Royal Port Rush. but it was... But, I mean, you don't get good odds on Tiger. He's like betting on, you know, it's the most public thing you can bet on. It really makes sense to bet the odds.

Yeah, and I don't mean for the purposes of like betting, I just never really indulge the idea that he could win this week. And because, you know... Yeah, we talked about it. You were on my pod two weeks ago, and we batted it around. And it just seemed like, you know, he's 43. They had that one spot in the front eye and hit the downhill line.

He kind of pulled it left. and the announcer's like, that's the kind of shot when you have a bad back, you know, you end up using your arms because your back subconsciously, your back's telling you, uh-oh, this is going to handle fusion surgery, but it has a bad back and it's been playing a lot of golf lately. Like, I couldn't identify with that more. It's like, oh, shit, this guy's 43 and has a bad back. Like, he's about to win the bastards.

Like, I just couldn't get over it. It's just that, you know, you can't get in the way of the OG. and you know there's a bunch of like circle of life stuff here that's just incredible. I mean, this is, he's the only player other than Jack Nicholas to have 20 years go by between winning majors, right? I mean, this Jim Nance said it. Jim Nance, the return to glory. How do you like that one? What do you give Nance for that one? Is it 12 years or 20?

20. He was 22 years. He won 90s. He won the Masters at 1997. Oh, I did you mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Only him and Jack Nassiz. Nicholas have had that amount of time elapsed between major victories. You know what I mean? What about the, I hadn't even thought about that. He is now one a Masters and a Majors in three decades because he squeezed this one

the last year of the decade. But now he has a chance to potentially win a Masters in four decades. Like, what I thought of that? My brain cells started flying out of my head. Well, how about this? Like, the incredible thing, and I'm wondering about your kids, I did, I was able to persuade my son to come watch a little bit of it. And there was a genuine hearkening back. He did wear the red mock turtleneck for us. So it did feel like 15 years ago.

I mean, the mock turtleneck, when's the last time you saw that? He had the mock turtle neck. And, you know, he looked very similar to how he's always looked. He's a little. Oh, yeah, this guy's old. Yeah, that's right. But this guy's a bald guy. Yeah, but I ask about the kids because now he's relevant. He's a relevant. he's a relevant champion to a whole new generation. Right, right. Well, he said that.

Champion of the moment. Wasn't that the famous quote he had two years ago about how his kids, he really wanted to win a major because his kids just know him as the guy on YouTube. Yes. And he was like, I really wish they could, she was going to come because she came out. I was like, wow, I really identified with Tiger Woods now. We both have played golf in the last, this month. and his daughter also lost a soccer tournament.

We're so close. Two of us. So much to like. I'm not afraid to admit, uh, as a grown-ass man. It got dusty, uh,

here in, in Washington, D.C. when he grabbed his kid and his kid was wearing the red shirt, the exact same color scheme and, you know, seeing the, his head's head buried on his shoulder,

uh, with the black hat and the, and the red shirt was like, oh, man. That, that brings it home. Um, I got more emotional for the,

for the, for the, the daughter hug because you know she's the one that holds the slight more of a grudge, right? Could be. Could be, right? Yeah, sure. A lot of stuff happens. We both have sons.

Sons are dumb and happy. They're just loyal. And the daughters have processed everything differently and that. I was glad that she was there. And it's funny, she's like the perfect. Didn't you think that? Yeah. It was like, wow, this is like a crazy just combo of the two of them.

And she's like grown up and it just made me feel like, God. Except we're not. not that old because Tiger Woods is still winning effing majors, bitch. I know. I mean, we're not old. Tigers out here are still winning it. Now, it is funny. The daughter,

you're right. We haven't seen these kids in a long time. It feels like. I honestly didn't know what they look like. I haven't seen them ever. Right. I don't know what they look like. And,

you know, we've seen them before as like tiny kids as he felt like he was making his comeback. But yeah, just incredible. I also didn't know, I didn't know his mom was still alive. I'm glad to see her.

And I loved it. It all led to Chang's tweet about how when she leaned in that she said, I can't believe you boge in the last hole. I said he did hashtag Asian mom, which I thought was a classic, classic Chang Asian mom humor was hilarious. It was so good. But yeah,

it was, I think all my favorite things about it. I'm with you. It got super dusty. I just like seeing how locked in he was. You know, he birded 16. Not an easy putt.

definitely like missable. You know, it was, he should have made it. He wasn't going to miss that. He wasn't going to miss that one. No, I know he wasn't, but he, all right. You know, when he was at various points of his comebacks, he would really try to own the moment and kind of exaggerate the fist pump and, you know, kind of do Tiger karaoke to some degree.

That one, he made it. Quick friend is right next to the seven end of the end ofling that whole last two hours. He was just like, what's my next shot? What am I doing? He never, like, wavered, ever. But that's that methodical OG un surpassable mental strength, right? This is his true advantage over everybody else. That's why we watch all those dudes.

We talked about it a couple minutes ago. All those dudes wilt around him. And he's got that OG steel trap mine that this is why it was so good. This is why the euphoria and all of what happened after he made that final put. I'm going to re-watch that walk from the green to the bugger cabin, you know, 50 times because of just that sheer exhilaration, the exuberance of it. And, you know, some stuff went his way. We talked about Molinari fauna. Nobody really, and it's kind of amazing that minus 13-1.

Like, if you told me that at the beginning of the day, I would have said no. Kepka was almost there. Like, he had the birdie on 18 and he misread the 70. Yeah, he was two under. I mean, this is the thing. DJ and Zander Shaflae both shot four under. Kepko was two under. Jason Day kind of came out of nowhere to shoot 11 under.

He shot five under today, which was an incredible low round. And he had one in the water. He put one in the water in the front of night. And he never really threatened. Like, you never really felt like, oh, Jason Day is going to, you know, is in contention to win this thing. But don't remember when I texted you about DJ? when we were going back and forth early.

But DJ was like sick and it's such an unusual, you know, like the guys like DJ and Kepka are going to be better on the back nine because you had the chance to get the Eagles. And what you didn't, one of those guys was going to go. DJ and how close did he get? What was he minus 11? No, DJ finished minus 12 and had that 20 footer to make Bertie and Finnie be in the house at 13 and then it would have been real pressure on Tiger.

but he left the putt short. And the same... And then Kepka did the same thing, because if Kepka made that put, then Tiger has to hit a driver on 18 and has to par it. And if he hits that driver and like the sand trap or something,

he screwed. Because remember, like, he hit that shot on... And he went right. And I was like, oh, you want to go right. We walked that. You know, he played for five. It got a little hairy, though. Didn't you...

That second shot, I feel like it had to hit the tree. I don't know why they didn't have a replay of it. Yeah, I'll, I'm interested in seeing the explanation. It was so short. It was not a place that you would expect that he had in his mind. This is where I want to miss this second shot. Like he, you know, he's planning this out for the, you know, five at worst. And so the game plan there is here's where I'm going to miss this.

And where he was is not where he intended to be. That is not the miss that he had in mind. There's no way. Remember he looked up and he pointed at the tree. and the announcers were like just so ready to talk about him walking up the fairway. I was like, can we find out if the ball hit the tree? He doesn't have 12 cameras. He's telling me if the ball hit the tree.

They had to have it at the tree. Why would he hit a 90-yard, you know, nine iron to the fairway? It was made no sense. I mean, in that respect, it was very relatable. Like, oh, it's time to go in. Watch how I shank. It was, you know, shank is the wrong word. But watch how I miss this one.

When I was watch with my wife, and there's everybody, had shots these last two days they're in the woods and they're basically just hitting it between two trees or hitting it right underneath the branch and I was just like, I'm just hitting that branch when I play golf. I'm trying to hit it under the branch

but it's going to hit the branch and ricochet back and almost hit me in that. Of course, of course. They're all amazing. That's right. Well, let me, I'm going to ask you one more question and then I want to compare notes on how much golf you and I are going to play together this year because we, I mean, this is the year for finally. my last question

what do you think he's capable of now what do you expect out of Tiger Woods for the rest of the season well before I answer that by the way I just think he's one of the best guys again as long as his back holds up

don't you think oh it's tough to argue with that everybody else has yeah he sticks in the world and the next two majors are at places where he's one major tournaments and you know pebble beach was one for the ages

so yeah I mean yes he's one of the best guys I agree. There's like what? It's DJ and you just go through it so he could win it. So he got that back. I think the bigger thing for me, he reminded me of after Jordan came back,

not when he won in 96, but he shaped his destiny, the last two against Utah when he went to, in 98, you know, hits the shot and something else. And I think with Tiger, like his legacy had kind of been written and now it's 18.

There you go. All that stuff is in motion again. He's one win away from, tying Sneed on the all-time PGA Tour wins record. He's got he's an 81 wins and Sneed has 82. So he only needs one more win and right the conversation

about catching up with Jack wide open again because the tiger's only 43. And I'm glad like a different, I have a lot of young people that work for the ringer including producer Craig, producers podcast right now. Like a lot of those people were an ACL which was really the last great

tiger moment. 2008. Yep. It's a long time. Like that was before Barack, you know, you think about, so I can't even think of another parallel. Like even when Nicholas won in 86, it seemed like he was 60 years old. But he hadn't not won a title for 12 years. Right.

You know? Yeah. He didn't go through all of the, you know, the personal turmoil and the physical, you know, stress. When you and I got together after Tiger won the tour championship last August, or early September there. We were trying to put in some historical context.

Is it the greatest sports comeback ever? And we weren't, you know, it was a TBD at that point. But now the Masters, the fifth green jacket, I mean. Well, and beating some. What do you mean? Today? Just today. Like he looked out with the draw.

Like these were all like there's some real big timers. trying to win it and he was fending them off. Six of the top eight names you see on this list are major winners. Like, he's, this is the thing of coming into this week that made this week so delicious and so intriguing. It's the depth of the leaderboard, like 25 guys could literally legitimately win the golf tournament.

That's how great the state of the game is in terms of the upper echelon of golf. And some of these big game hunter guys, like, like Xander Schofley, this was his second master's, ever but this dude just keeps collecting top five top six finishes in majors uh uh brooks kefka like you're gonna keep him off the leaderboard i don't think so and uh you know he's he's got two of the the last four majors now uh you know you asked me you asked me when i thought tiger had a chance

to win you thought it was today i thought it was yesterday when he hit the five and he was like i was sitting on the couch thinking you used to the five iron two 40 It's spinal fusion surgery. Like that made no sense to me. So that was the stuff that made the tiger legend when he had that peak from 97 to 0. He'd hit the shit out of the ball. You know, that was like a big, it wasn't just like the YouTube putts and the wedges and, you know, great. I'm glad you're making that point because I feel like he was playing in like sort of an 80% zone.

Really for all of his golf leading up to this moment in terms of like, like really taking his foot and going down on the pedal. You're taking his foot off the break and getting after it. And honestly, I think he kind of got himself around Augusta National. The first three days in that same kind of manner, right? Like he's just hanging around, hanging around, hanging around. Yeah, he's having his very solid, you know, high performance rounds.

But not anything where you go like, oh, my God. He's got to, you know, he's shooting, he's going to shoot 64 today. That was never like in the car. The 67 yesterday was what he needed to do to keep himself at the top of the board because there were 364s yesterday. But the last five, six holes, I feel like, I don't remember. I didn't count how many driver twirls he had, but the driver was twirling in my man's hand after a few of those T-balls.

Well, you just made the key point. He was 80% but never had the spinal fusion. surgery, but person, you can have all the person who's at 80%. And Finaw are kind of next to each other. Exactly. That's a big deal. As you know, as you know, as the host of Fairway Rowland, like,

Fee now is a fucking long ball hitter. Like, for Tiger to be next to Fee now is crazy. Makes no sense. So I just hope he passes the P-Test house. Do they have a P-Test at the Masters? Not for Tiger Woods. Tiger. You know that.

Tiger, here's like, Tiger, here's your up. Oh, boy, this looks pretty good. We'll just go. You just keep going. We're pretty good here. Is it warm? Okay, it's warm. Good. Throw that out. You're good. I don't care what he did. I don't care to plutonium. That was the greatest golf day of my recent life. That greatest golf day of our recent lives. Now, look, you and I have some great golf days ahead of ourselves in our upcoming lives, right? This is the year. I don't want to talk about the age that we're going to turn, but it's a milestone birthday year for both of us. And we have never. played golf before. We're going to call ascomies. We are going to get our, yes, we're going to make sure that we have good health, you know, get screened, the way that folks at our age are supposed to get screened and get, you know, good bills of health that way.

But we're also going to play golf for the first time in our lives together. Yeah, we never crossed, our golf eras never crossed past. I quit when I was 24. You started playing in your mid-20s. and then I just started coming back and now it's going to happen now we're going to play together we're going to have and we won't have any reason

we won't be able to put point of the equipment to blame any kind of bad performance you we both have the Calloway Epic Flash we both have the Calloway Apex I don't have it I love it and when I saw the Calloway Epic Flash umbrella I got it I got a little lightheaded

I can't lie because it's like that driver has I've never hit her drive ever better than that. So I saw it. It just made me happy. Well, that's our boy. One of the people in his party had the Callaway. It was Malinari. Frankie onions. Frankie onions. Frankie's a Callaway dude. This is why he came on fair, fairway rolling this year. Yeah, I felt like that was a good sign. It was a good omen. I was like,

my favorite driver. And look, our boy, Zander Shafle, that's the driver that he played today. He finished tied for second in his second ever masters. This dude is a big game hunter. but he couldn't go make history because there was only one dude. He couldn't stop history. Well, wait, we have one more thing to do before I go. Your greatest golf day ever, it's like, that was one A. I think this is one B.

Okay. All right. I accept that. You know, in the stream of Twitter and texts that I observed, it's in the conversation. It feels like it may be the, thing that distinguishes 86 from this, and this will be my kind of parting thought,

it was, Jack was so unexpected at that point. He was, and he was, and he was 46, and he had had a bad back like Tiger, and when Jack and 86, that was on nobody's radar.

It seemed like he was done. We agree. That's the reason that 86 still, you know, exceeds this, but it's a 1A, 1B. We're splitting hairs. And the put on 16.

Maybe. That the one? The yes, sir? Yeah, I think that was yes, sir. It might have been 17. I don't remember. I'm not an 86. 17, yeah, it was one of those that 16 or 17.

I can't remember. Yeah, I'm not a historian. I can't watch that one again. But that's the 1A for me. This is 1B. And I got to say, Tiger on the, with the bum knee when in the U.S. Open or was that what he won in 2008? 2008.

2008, Tori Pines. Yes, sir. Well, we didn't know he had a broken leg until afterwards, so we couldn't give him credit for it. He didn't have fucking limp. He was like, we almost fell over. He almost fell over about a dozen times. So we did know something was wrong. But this, I prefer this one to all others.

I have it right there side by side with Jack with you in terms of all-time historical great golfing performances. This is right there with it. Well, you know what? This is my last point. And then I know you have to go. He tried to get LeBron over. You and I know he's not. He's not.

I'm sorry. He's just not. And, you know, we're turning 50 this year. This is the best. I was really nice to see him have another moment. Yeah. You and I are in lockstep agreement. And I'm rooting for just a handful more of those moments and a couple moments between you and I as well.

Throw away the P test. There's no record of it. It's warm. It's good. It's warm. It's good. Check pass. All right.

Love you, Podfather. Thanks for coming on. Love you too. Plank off this summer. All right. Can't wait. See it. All right, my friends.

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just download the CBS Sports app on your phone, Fire TV, Roku, or Apple TV to start watching today. All right, we've been doing it all year long. Since this Fairway Rowland got rolling in January, Chris Vernon has been coming on here, and he and I have been doing a segment this week in Tiger Woods. I think this, we might call this one, a very special edition of this week.

In Tiger Woods. Tiger! Tiger! Tiger! Yo, Verno! Are you alive? I mean, a house. Let me tell you something. I woke up 30 a.m. Central time. I had absolutely no chance of going back to bed.

I knew I wanted to be there when the whole thing started this morning. I knew if I fell back asleep, I might miss something. And so I got up and I turned it on. and from whatever, I guess, 6.30 central time, they teed off somewhere about there. I had masters.com up, and then it went straight into the CBS coverage beginning at like 8 o'clock central or whatever it was. And I think, I mean, over there's like 10, that's the amount of times I got out of my chair completely. one of the most unbelievable, riveting, you know, whatever it was, I guess five hours, five and a half hours of sports I've ever watched in my life.

And I, by the end, I'm sitting there in the chair, like tears running down my face as the guy is hugging his kid. They're showing these pictures of him hugging Earl Wood. And you can see, I mean, the roars going on in the crowd. That was, I mean, I don't know what I envisioned it being like, but it defeated it a hundredfold. That was the greatest thing ever. Let's start with that. I wouldn't allow myself to envision it. So I didn't go through, you know, I didn't have anything in my mind's eye of what this was going to look like because I didn't want to pretend that this was possible.

You know what I mean? I wasn't indulging that fantasy. Before we get going, I want to first. tip of the hat, tip of the cap, you know, down on one knee to the combination of the golf gods and the folks that run the masters. And for this week, maybe it's the exact same crew. So you mentioned getting up at 5.30 and not being able to go back to sleep. The masters in its, you know, the folks that are the decision makers there down at Augusta National had the wisdom and foresight to take into account the terrible weather that is going to be hitting that area here in the next, you know, hour.

So we're recording this Sunday afternoon. It's 320 East Coast time. And bad weather is coming to Augusta National. And I'll be gosh darned if the folks at Augusta National and the golf gods together conspired to provide this incredible window to get this mesmerizing, unprecedented, unexpected, just every word you can call it. come up with, uh, event accomplished. And, you know, it, it, it gave us that uninterrupted a whole morning, five hours of the most compelling kind of, of, uh, sport and in human, uh, drama

imaginable. So I, I, I wanted to do you, yeah, you make a good point house, because I, I, I actually, that kind of gets lost in this, you know, because we just got caught up in everything that took place, but it's not supposed to be like it was, right? It's not supposed to be played early in the morning and that it's, you know, around lunchtime when this thing wraps up. And God forbid, they would have started like they usually do and have to suspend play or not get to finish it at all and then carry it over to Monday. I mean, that would have been, that would have been awful. Everybody's like back at work, not being able to watch it. I mean, and then considering the magnitude, right?

Like if Patrick Cantlay holds on and he wins, it's like, all right, fine, it happened on Monday. Who cares, right? I mean, right. That would have been. No offense to Patrick Cantlay. Yeah, but that would have been two consecutive years of Patrick Crimes. You know, Patrick Crimes Against Humanity. We had Patrick Reed last year.

Patrick Cantley this year. There were no way the golf gods were going to tolerate that. And to your point, how about this? Now because it's over. it's the middle of the day on the East Coast, and it's just now noontime on the West Coast. We have all of this time today to process this, to celebrate it, to put it in its proper context. It's not like everybody's going to be working overnight tonight. Well, people will be working overnight tonight, but we're not cramming it all in into an evening and then Monday morning kind of reaction.

We have all day today to luxuriate in this unbelievable outcome, right? there's no way around it. And, you know, there's a million things that ran through my head. One of which was I went and I grabbed my son, who is nine years old, who he's never seen, I mean, he knows of Tiger Woods. He's certainly seen the stuff I have around the house. I mean, he has an awareness of who he is. If you showed him a picture, he'd know who he was.

And obviously his dad plays golf, so he knows. But he's never seen Tiger Woods win, and he has an awareness of the story to the extent of he used to be the greatest athlete or the biggest athlete in the world, and then fell on hard times, had some personal issues, had four back surgeries, had four knee surgeries, and that this is the comeback. And I drug him into the room, and he watched the last, I mean, he watched the majority of the last whole part of it, and then certainly the celebrations and everything, and was asking him, me all kinds of questions about it, whatever.

And you saw people that, you know, Tiger is different than literally anybody else in terms of who he brings to the television, like people that don't care about golf in any other way. And I couldn't help but think, you know, I think right now, I'm very interested to see what kind of impact this has on golf in general because it made so many people in our generation huge fans, right? He was young, he was cool, he was dominant, he was our generation of guys that were, you know, and we all latched on to him.

So it's kind of like, you know, you've got this whole group of us now that are older. many have kids and it's like now their kids getting to see what we experienced when we were you know, in college and just right out of college and coming up and and now like golf is, there's so many of these guys that are trying like that are making golf cool. You know, like, you know, I see all this stuff on trendy golf and Malbon and Jay, you know, Lindbergh and all these like there's cool golf clothes and there's cool golf stuff going on and it feels like the really pumping towards

a younger crowd and now you get something like this that takes place. I mean this is just different than literally anybody else winning. And I wonder if you know what I mean? Like all these years later, does it have the same

kind of impact? I have two things. First, we have to I love you talking about the direction of style and the clothes and, you know, the kind of the appeal to the current generation, and Tiger is out here winning today in an old school mock neck. I mean, is the mock neck is back.

You don't think that the mock neck, how many mock necks are going off the shelves, huh? I tell you that my wife came in and she said, so are you going to be wearing a mock? And I was like, hell no. I can't pull that one off. But to your bigger, bigger point, this is, a full circle moment that is really only possible in the sport of golf, right? You can't go 11 years between championships.

You can't go 20 years between winning your first great, great championship and, you know, doing it again. That just doesn't happen in other sports. You read all these, you know, I read all these articles and stuff like you were talking with the fashion and everything. I guess my bigger point is, like, with all of these guys that are, and you go to those trade shows at the PGA, whatever, guess what? All of those companies now, you know, like the ones I mentioned, the Balbonds, and the Gracens, and like all of these companies and the Link's soul and on and on. There's a million of them now that are all putting out such cool stuff, and they're all run by guys our age.

All of them. Right. You know what I mean? It's all people that. fell in love with it when they were young and just coming up. And you know that is in great part to how big of an athlete Tiger Woods was to us. It's kind of like how we, you know, we like boxing, right? Because Mike Tyson was a big deal. We were kids and we liked the NBA because Michael Jordan were the – I mean,

these were the biggest athletes when – you know what I mean? When we were watching sports all the time. And this is, yeah, this is what we've been asking for, though, right? We've wanted to see this old guard and the mix of the youth. And this is why coming into the week, the most intriguing, one of the most intriguing storylines was like the depth of the field, the talent of the field. I mean, I'm just looking at the leaderboard right now, six of the top eight names you see major winners. And then on this point of the connection between generations,

you have Tiger sitting at the very top and then you see Brooks Kepka, then you see Zander Shafley, then you see Tony Fee now, Ricky Fowler is still in that mix, you know, with another top 10. Justin Thomas just outside the top 10. Those are the young guys.

And Jordan Speath had another good day to day, by the way, after, you know, starting off. He ended up one under, but still. Think about it. You're talking about all these names. Think about this. Think about how, like, this is where it did feel like old time.

at the very end there, Dustin Johnson has been the number one player in the world. I think in the current world rankings, I think he was two behind rows, but he's been either one or two going back and forth for the last, like, full calendar year, okay? I think we saw three shots. The guy got second.

I don't think that... I don't remember... I swear to God, I don't remember one thing about Dustin Johnson's masters. Nothing. I could not. tell you. Like, I mean, I remember seeing a couple shots here and there, but like other than that,

and he got, and he's like right there at second and he's been, like I said, either number one or two for the last year. And it was just like it wasn't even happening. Right. I mean, the only thing I'll remember is he had an uphill put to get to 13 under and maybe put a little pressure from, from out front, you know, by being in the house at 13 under and he came up short. I mean, that's, Now, I don't, that's not going to be a knock that I, on, on Dustin Johnson. It's just one of the things that I will remember about this master's tiger's triumphant return because the same thing, Brooks Kepka had an eight, eight foot uphill put. And I, I, you know, subscribe to this, this thing.

I'm a miss, I'm a mystic. The golf got saw that putt coming up the hill and there was a little nudge left and it rolled just off that left edge. because that was a very makeable put and Kepka has been making those. I thought I thought he was winning when I was like

oh he's winning. I thought he made it. I thought he made it. Oh, you thought Tiger made it? Yes, I thought Tiger made it. That's what I'm saying. What was the moment that you thought, oh my God, he's really going to do this?

15. Honestly, I thought 15 because of that shot that he hit into the middle of the green. The thing that struck me was he played the first 12 holes in even par. It was such a master class in what a master's veteran and an OG who's been around Augusta National 500 times, it was a master class in how you run a Sunday. He played the first 12 holes, even par, and then he was three under standing on

the T on 18, knowing exactly what he needed to win the golf tournament. He shot three under on, he made birdie on 13, he made birdie on 15, and he made birdie on 16. And he had decent birdie chances on 14 and 17. But, you know, that's, that's what distinguishes, you know, Tiger from, from everybody else. Like, this was why, and I was shocked, honestly, to see Molinari fall apart the way that he did. The miss clubbing on 12 is just, it's proof positive of how confounding 12 is and why it's arguably, you know, the best par three ever created, the best tournament golf part three ever created.

Because four of the five guys in the two groups playing that hole hit the ball into the water. Tony Fino in the water, Brooks Kepka in the water, he had Boulter in the water. I wondered if it just, if there was just a great. grand miscalculation of how much wind was really up there. All four of them do it. I thought they think they can get at this pin and it's going to get, and it gets caught up in that wind, and now it's getting dunked. And I did wonder, like, do you think, I mean, it was been a good question to ask him, do you think when he sees somebody dunk it, right? And he's aware of that. do you think that's why he played it to the complete left side of the green?

Because this was a massive, massive turning point in the round when Fienau and Molinari both go in the water, after Poulter and Kepka had both gone in the water. So the best they're hoping for more than likely is to try to save a bogey. And obviously Fianow couldn't even do that. Do you think that he plays it to the left side there? because we talked going in about how much like this is different than every other place where, yes, they play the same course every year, so that makes it different. But beyond that, experience at this particular course seems to matter a massive amount.

And obviously he's got the ultimate experience putting up the best rounds ever there. That being said, do you think he didn't go for that pin like because he saw Molinari put it in the water? I've always wondered that. No chance. No chance. No chance. Here's why I'm saying. Well, because you just explained why. He doesn't hit at that pin. He doesn't need hit at that pin.

The point on 12 is to make par. 12 isn't a birdie hole. 12 is a bogey or double bogey hole if you make a mistake in judgment and execution. If you're not up to the moment pressure-wise, Tiger Woods was going to hit that ball to the fat part of 12 on that. left side a hundred times out of a hundred he was not going to be swayed uh persuaded by any of the circumstances of the moment to do anything different and he had he knew exactly the club he knew exactly where to hit it's exactly what you said that experience and he knew what that wind was four out of other guys didn't know they couldn't process with their caddies how is this wind

behaving what's the right you know club where am i aiming like they none of them got it right Only Tiger got it right, right to the middle of the green two-putt par. And honestly, it was a balsy two-putt par because he left it pretty short, much shorter than I think he would prefer. But then it was time to go on and win the golf tournament. You win the golf tournament on 13 and 14 and 15 and 16 and 17. And that's what he did. Sunday Tiger in the Sunday mock neck red. It was, it's just, I mean, I'm speechless, Verno.

that was because you know you make a good point right like that he's just thinking all right this is not where you get it and and yet there was all these guys at the top and you know they're feeling like i need to i need to get a stroke here you know we're all kind of bunched up at the top um this could be a big turning point for me they're not thinking about the consequences they're not thinking about, and my God, I mean, obviously there are, I mean, look, phenos right there. If he just, if he does what Tiger does, right? He doesn't, I mean, it obviously cripples your round when you, when you're putting a double

up on the board, especially when the margins between these, you know, between, you know, one stroke is just swinging it every time. and you know the pressure of the moment just keeps getting to you over and over again. But I did feel like that was the real swing. That's when I was like, okay, Molinari, this isn't like if, because he had done a couple other things. Like, I know he was like, everybody was like, he's a machine, you're ever going to make a mistake? He kicks on getting up and down. But it's a lot harder for me to believe like he's not going to crack at all.

because of the names he's playing with, i.e. Tiger, but beyond that, you know, he was scrambling to make all that stuff. And my God, he was, especially on that front nine, but you just got to think the odds are not with you. Being able to do that for 18 holes. And then, so that's kind of the turning point. But then I was at 16 when he, I mean, God, if that would have dropped, but when it almost, in, I'm like, he's winning this thing. He is. He's winning this thing. That's why I mentioned the shot into 15, because, again, he, you know, in the exact same way that he demonstrated how, you know, the combination of strategy and, you know, course intelligence and history, he hit the ball to the part of 15 that was going to hold it and give it a little bit

of a push towards the hole. And all he wanted out of that was birdie. And I can't remember who I was having the exchange with. But I wrote somebody, hey, if he stuffed this on 16, it's over. And, you know, he hit the ball. It's in the air. It's starting to come down the hill. I'm yelling, get in, get in, get in, get in.

And it was barely, you know, I don't know if it ended up three feet or four feet away. He stuffed it on 16. and it was time for the Vince Carter Giff, right? It's over. It's BC time. Use both hands and cross it off. It is over. And, you know, the funny thing about the pressure you mentioned,

how many names did we see all of a sudden pop up out of nowhere because Molinari's double bogey on 12 brought all these people back and we saw Fowler around the down, the out there a little bit. We saw Bubba out there a little bit. This dude Patrick Cantlay. and all of them had a little mistake right in those last, I mean, Fowler should have been at 11 under on 16, but he missed the putt.

He had a great shot in there and missed the putt. Cantley threw the drive all the way to the wrong side on 17. So did Bubba. And, you know, they just couldn't bring it home. DJ and Kefka showed a lot of fortitude in those last few holes, and they both had putts on 18 that would have put that pressure on Tiger. and weren't able to do it. But that's how, you know,

you know that the red mock neck is just, it was just destiny. It was destiny. It felt like it was destiny, especially the way it all played out. And you know on the pod when we were given our picks, I had fee now. And then you would ask me about Tiger,

and I said he'll be in the first, you know, two pages, right? So we thought top 10, top 10 was going to be, I said, be in the mix, right? I did expect him to be in the mix because of the way he had played in the recent majors that he had played in. And because he seemed to be so confident and he had kept on saying, everything is building toward.

And, you know, there were some missteps along that way. But this is a guy that obviously, you know, obviously, you know, we look today, And we say, all right, if you can't make the shots, if you are physically capable of making the shots, there's nobody that knows better how to play that thing. And this is the first time he has been totally physically capable of doing it all. He never, like never wants to be, outside of the stupid security guard, bowling them over, which is like, I mean, divine intervention that that was not worse. than it could have been, right?

You're right. You're right. I mean, seriously. But outside of that, you didn't see him wincing. You know, we have always seen him wincing or cringing or something. And so when you take the ability to make those shots, and then, you know, you just laid out house like four different instances where that experience, when it mattered most, paid off. He knew exactly what he wanted to do.

And you see the other guys throwing their ball in the water. Well, look, we were, I think we were right in terms of being modest with our expectations. That was the correct way to approach the golf guides and to approach history. I believe that I did my part by betting on Tiger to finish inside the top 10, but not betting on him to win. I feel like that was my tip of the cap to the golf guides. and I didn't dare bet him today. I didn't touch him. I bet a bunch of other guys today.

I live bet some guys just to cover off some exposure out there. I got it at 750, but that was late in the game. Well, well, I mean. And I will say this, you know, I had name checked last week, Joe Pita, who wrote that master's preview, and I had said, I got to the end of it, and Tony Fienow, it was his pick to win the thing, right? And Tony Fienau obviously had great opportunities. If he doesn't double that one, he had the eagle putt that he missed on the par five after sticking it.

I mean, he had his chances, certainly. And he was in the last group on Sunday, for God's sake. But what I did not mention about that book, and I cannot wait until the entire book comes out. And he should get great credit for this. So he had Fianau winning it who did end up in the top five. He put, if you read to the end of that book, he's got his leaderboard. You know who is number two? Tiger Woods. It's got to be Tiger Woods. It's got to be Tiger Woods. It was not being.

All right. Well, look, Berno, I'm going to let you go. Now, look, we both have, the Masters is over. It is officially time to start playing golf for you and I. We're going to get out there with our brand new apex irons. I got you some smoke coming. I know you like them in that smoke finish. They're on the way, brother. Apex 19 irons, the number one irons in golf by Callaway. We're both going to be out there. there in the Calaway bucket hats doing this thing properly. My dude, I'll be, we'll connect in about a week. We're going to talk about the Zurich coming up, but I think it's going to take at least that long for my body to resume some normalcy. I think it's going to take me at least four days to find my pants. Verno, let's enjoy it, huh? I'll leave you with this. So my son at the end, they've got that Nike commercial went around, which by the way, was amazing. The Nike commercial, which gave me total chills. But at the end of the commercial, he says, I want to beat Jack Nicholas, right?

Or I'm going to beat Jack Nicholas. And so the number's 18, right? That's 15 today. And my son says to me, so if he wins the last three, he gets the record. And I was like, don't even speak it. Don't even speak it. Dare to dream. I'm dare to dream.

I talk to you in the week, my buddy. All right, thanks, Al. Wow. I hope everybody enjoy that. Thanks to all of you, our fairway roll and listeners, it was one for the ages, a true return to glory of Eldrick Tiger Woods. We're back with another fairway roll in a week from now.

We're going to be up on Monday, previewing the Zurich classic down in New Orleans, and no offense to all the terrific golfers that are going to be competing there, but I'm more interested in the food than the golf. Until then, my Bernie buddies, hit them straight out there.