Fairway Rollin' - Tony Finau's Glass-Half-Full, the Challenges of the WGC, and the Lead-up to the PGA With Chris Vernon

Episode Date: July 28, 2020

House is joined by Nathan Hubbard to talk about the recent 3M tournament (01:10) and recap Max Homa's and Tony Finau's performances. He then shares a wonderful story involving Michael Thompson, and then looks forward to what will happen in Memphis as well as the upcoming PGA championship. They are then joined by Chris Vernon, who's in Memphis, to give his insights on the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational (21:53). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

and welcome to this golf podcast. Unlike any other, you have done it. We are back, my friends. This is Bearaway rolling. The golf podcast on the Ringer podcast Network. I am your starter. Joe House, as has been our way, we have our tour correspondent on the ground,

Nathan Hubbard, joining us, as well as an old friend of the pod. Chris Vernon, Memphis native son, he's going to help us anticipate and forecast and think about what's going down at the WGC FedEx St. Jude event happening in Memphis, Tennessee this week. The first tee is open. We're going to go over there. Nathan and I are going to take a couple swings and kick this thing off. Let's get on the line with Nathan Hubbard.

Now on the line, as has been our way since the restart, our tour correspondent on the ground, Nathan Hubbard, hey buddy. Tony Fienow, this is my public apology to you for the pick last week. I'm looking forward to your public apology to us for the giant dump you took in your final round yesterday. Hey, wait a minute. That's not very gracious. That's not the way to kick this thing off. We want the golf gods looking down five.

At us, Nate. I have rounds to play yet. I mean, I don't, I don't need anybody, uh, handicapping anything that we have going on because we say bad things about people. There's nothing bad to say about Tony Fiena of the person. There is nothing bad to say about Tony Fienow the person. He's the best. I just, I've held off for so long. And Sunday, he just broke me. I, I watched it. You know, there were a lot of balls in the water this week. Like the most that we've had on tour in a long, long time. We're going to see a lot of balls in the water coming up this week. But I just, he was what I was in it for.

Max Homa flirted with us. We thought the homie Homa might come through. And in the end, we got a good guy interview, which was the feel-good story of the week for sure. So that was kind of the booby prize of the week. Yeah. So we're talking about the 3M up in Minnesota, the TPC Twin Cities up there. Thompson won the event. And to his credit, you know, he was at the top of the leaderboard

and, and really stuck to it for, for the whole, you know, 36 holes that mattered the Saturday Sunday. And there's a great story there. In addition to the emotion that he showed over having all of the bonuses that flow from winning on tour at this moment. He's now playing, he's guaranteed to be in the U.S. Open. He's guaranteed for the 2021 Masters. He's got his card guaranteed for the next couple years. And he showed real emotion of the grind. He had one tour on win previously. It was back in 2013 at the Honda down in Florida. We have to remember this. Put this in your memory banks for next year. There is a correlation between good performance at this venue and that Honda. And he just proved that out. I'd seen some of that in the data and

analytic leading up to this. Of course, we didn't use any of that in giving out our picture this coming week. No, why would we do that? That was too smart. But next year, remember a correlation, Honda and this, we won't forget because Michael Thompson. But the story that I wanted to share about Michael Thompson, our podcast pal Alex Myers from Golf Digest, um, had in, in the magazine recently a story about, um, Michael and his wife adopting their second child during the pandemic, they went to Kansas and worked out this adoption. They were there for the birth of this child. And they stayed in Kansas for a number of weeks. And Michael was grinding there in Kansas outside of his normal, comfortable environment. He lives down in Sea Island, which is an

absolutely world-class facility for golf practice and physical fitness and all the rest of it. And, you know, they added to their family during these crazy circumstances. And he had, had to, you know, chase his profession on the road, you know, the way a lot of us are chasing our professions in unique and unusual circumstances. But you know what? It bore fruit for him. And it's clear that he's a good dude and the emotion that he showed in the interview with our girl, Amanda Ballionis, our woman, AB, was spectacular. So nice, nice bow on the prize. first shout out to Amanda because we have been talking a lot about the post-round interviews during the restart and it's been Amanda who's been doing them and she's asking the right

questions and she's eliciting interesting responses that are that are enough for clowns like us to continue to talk about for a couple of days but with Michael Thompson look first of all the rule on the PGA tour is you got to finish your career with at least as many wins as you have kids so he gets to check that box today but you know we didn't know a lot about them we know that he's been fourth in shots gained putting over the last four years, which is a hell of a stat. He's been just behind Ricky Fowler and unbelievably ahead of Webb Simpson. So when you're consistently good at putting like that, if you can hit the ball remotely decent, it gives you a chance coming into a tournament like this. And he was just solid T to Green all week long. And

the one time when we really saw him get shaky, which was the shot on 16 when he's in the bunker, he hits the hardest shot in golf, which is the long bunker shot to two feet. And that was when you knew the door was closed and he was going to win this tournament. That's exactly right. So kudos to Thompson. Keep on the grind. We love to see it. Let's go ahead and talk a little bit more seriously about Tony Fee now. Now, the real news of Fee now is that he split with his caddy, like the caddy of his entire life, his longtime caddy. And he put his swing coach on the bag for his, the very first occasion was this event at 3M. And he finished tied for third, three shots behind the winner. Now, it, you know, it's a glass half full, glass half empty kind of

assessment for for for for tony right he now has 30 top 10 finishes since his first uh and only tour win which was back in 2016 30 top 10 finishes without a win the only other guy that has that that that fits that that kind of marker is Tommy fleetwood and he's only done it 16 times um over that same period so are we calling this for tony fienow is he struggling on sunday or is this, you know, him part of his process finding his way? What do you make of it? Well, this is a different kind of challenge for a golfer than what we see when we call guys chokers.

It's just not the right label to put on Tony Fee now. First of all, he's, again, an incredible guy by all accounts. He's also an incredible golfer. So golf is impossible. This is fun for us to armchair. but he's also 171st in Sunday scoring average. And, you know, the Sunday scoring average was like 68.3. He shot a 68.

This is not a guy who's getting into contention and then hitting that one ball that just comes 10 yards short and dumps in the water and it's a catastrophic moment where you're like, that was the moment where he choked. It's like he comes into these final rounds without the killer instinct. And by the way, that's why I'm still optimistic about Tony Fino.

Because it's not like there's a moment where the nerves get to him and it's too much. It's almost like, you know, with a new guy on the bag, and I'm glad he made a change because it tells us that he wants to be better, right? The growth mindset is you've got to accept what is and just find another way. So he's not doing the same thing over and over again. expecting a different result. That's the definition of insanity. He is trying to get better. And the thing that Tony Fienow is going to have to do to get better is he's going to have to bring more energy and more of a killer mindset to the final round. And the catty can help you do that. It just doesn't

seem like this is a guy whose nerves overcome him and he hits the bad shot. That's the good news. He's got to enter the round with a different mindset. And he just didn't do that on Sunday. Well, this is a calendar year where we go back. You have to recall, it feels like years ago, five years ago, but he had the lead on Sunday down in Phoenix and had the opportunity to close that tournament out with the was of maybe eight foot, 10 foot putt that would have beat Webb Simpson and would have foreclosed the possibility of there being a playoff. Instead, he missed that putt. it touched an edge and did not drop in. And Webb went out and won the playoff against Tony. And then, you know, fast forward to the memorial.

Finao was playing outstanding golf at the memorial last week. 54 whole lead. That's exactly right. And all the talent that we've seen out of him. And he has both short game and long game. The prodigious length. I mean, we talked a little bit last week about him reaching ball speed, swing speed and ball speed measures that only Bryson can really aspire to.

And that's just part of Tony's DNA. He's not out there eating extra steak sandwiches to hit the ball the way he does. But it did seem like that was, that memorial event was the last one with that caddy. And he did fall apart. I mean, he fell apart pretty early in that Sunday round. And so to your point, you know, this change. in approach, it's more, it's got to be like trying to find a psychological edge, trying to find a way. And having your swing coach there seems like that's the right play.

I think you're right. He walked off the green on Sunday after that last putt, and Faldo said something about grit pressure. He said, it seems like maybe his grip, and I'm thinking grip pressure, it's his brain pressure. Like, we got to, we got to diffuse that. And because it looks to me like, this is a guy who, you know, ought to have six, seven, eight wins on the PGA tour, certainly over the next couple of years if he can get it together. And so kudos to him for being vulnerable enough and thoughtful enough to make the change. By the way, it's really hard to compete in back-to-back weeks on the PGA tour, right? See Justin Thomas and Colin Morcawa from just staying on the same course going from the workday to the memorial. So going

from Memorial to this, that's a tough grind. And I think there's reason for optimism with Tony Finau. This is clay that can be molded as opposed to a lost cause. I like very much one of the features of Tony Fienow, which is he gets on these hot streaks. And I think we're in the middle of one of his hot streaks right now. And we have two events coming up that are really opportunities for him to show that he's potentially turning that corner that we're talking about here. This WGC event down in Memphis, it's a limited field, 78 of the world's best players. We're only missing a handful of guys. Adam Scott still enjoying his surfing.

I know that you're mad at him, but I still love it. He's enjoying the Australian lifestyle. We're still trying to get him an internet connection so somebody can send him an email to let him know that golf is back. Frankie Molinari is skipping this week and El Tigray is skipping this week. That's it in terms of the really prominent names that are not competing in this event. We have coming up one of our favorite buddies here on Fairway Rowland. Chris Vernon, Memphis native son who's going to walk us through. He played the venue last week.

So he's going to give us a little intel on the ground about what he's seeing and how it's going to play. But, you know, let's set it up. We have this WGC event and the barracuda, which is going to be in Tahoe, right? It's in Tahoe. It's in Truckee, a new course this year, but it's basically a U.S. Open qualifying event because two guys are going to, in the top 10, who are not exempt already, are going to get into the U.S. Open. Other than that, it's a stableford scoring event.

So there'll be guys going for birdies and eagles, and nobody's going to be watching it because everybody's going to be watching the WGC. Yeah, and there are FedEx Cup point implications at the barracuda, and there's money implications, and there's torque-card implications, and it's an opportunity for kind of that mid-tier player to go out there and try and make a bark. I mean, the only win for Colin Moracawa until, you know, before he won at the most, you know, the, the Warfield Village a few weeks ago, the Workday. was this event.

So, you know, it's a way for up-and-comers to come and distinguish themselves. One of those storylines is your boy, Lanto Griffin, right? Yeah, this is a sneaky fun event. I went when it was in Reno, and it's fun just because of the scoring system to see guys go after it. But usually in a normal system,

or in a normal year, guys' tour cards are actually on the line. Because nobody's going to get relegated this year. It's more about, are they going to make the playoffs, and what kind of events are they going to get to qualify for next year. But one of the undercovered parts of this year is that the top 10 in the FedEx Cup are going to be part of the Wyndham bonus or something,

where $10 million gets distributed across the top 10 guys. Number one guy is going to get $2 million. Number 10 guy is going to get half a million. The number 10 guy right now is Lanto Griffin. And Lanto Griffin is the fourth alternate at the job WGC. So he could not get in to the tournament in Memphis. So he's going to play in Truckee basically to try to keep pace. Because guess who's nipping at his heels?

11th is Zander Shafle, who's only 11 points back. And that's, you know, there's no cut in Memphis this week. So if Zander finishes 47th or better, he's going to catch Lanto. Daniel Berger is only 14 points back. There's a bunch of big guys nip in Atlanta Griffin's heels. He's had a great year. But man, there's a lot of money on the. line. So he's headed down there, and that's basically the story of that tournament.

Well, and you just mentioned two names that I have a feeling are going to pop up in our discussion with Verno about guys we like this week at the WGC. That's right. So it's not just like nipping at the heels. These are guys that are like might just blow right right on by. Well, that's right. And as we look at what's going on in WGC, hey, there are some guys who are right on the cut line right now as to whether they're going to make that FedEx Cup playoffs or not. And this matters to these guys. There is a ton of money, $15 million on the line and then some for these guys who can get all the way into the Tour Championship. Brooks, who we're going to talk about, you know, thank God for Brooks that Fienow struggled this week because otherwise we'd be talking about the fact

that his brother is currently the best golfer in the Kepka family. And Brooks is playing, he's now 155th in the FedEx Cup. He's 100 points behind Matt Wallace, who's 125. That's the equivalent to a sixth place finish. So we know Brooks cares about the PGA. We know that Memphis is a play is where he's the defending champion. But not only does he want to defend, not only doesn't want to play well in the major, there's a ton of money that's on the line if Brooks can make up this hundred point gap over the next two weeks. And then lastly, there's a couple of guys sitting on the bubble. Johnny Vegas, one of your guys from last week. Broke my heart. Yeah. Brought my heart last week. He's at 126th. Justin Rose, one of the best players in the world, is 127. Sergio Garcia is

130th. So if these guys don't step it up over the next two weeks, we're going to have a set of, you know, playoff events lead into a tour championship that excludes some of the best players in the world. We, it's funny you mentioned Rose. He's already said he's not playing this WGC event. He's taking this week off to get ready for the PGA championship. And that is one of these things that we're seeing, you know, with the compressed schedule. You've been talking about it since the restart. We're getting some, some odd kind of individual decisions here. And Rose just wants to play well at the PGA championship.

So, you know, good on them. We'll see it happen, right? If he misses the cut, maybe he goes to the wind him and tries to work his way into the playoffs. We'll see it. It's actually setting up nicely. Some of those events that we thought were going to be snoozers are turning out to be really important for a bunch of ways down the stretch.

That's right. that's right well let's uh we have chris vernon on standby let's let's jump over and connect with our memphis homie chris vernon we got uh big things coming up next week we're we're going full bore with the pga championship there's a good chance that you might literally be the boots on the ground there so we're just going to throw that teaser out but let's jump over with verno talk a little bit about memphis all right my eagle enthusiasts verno is all right almost ready before we connect with the Memphis homie. Want to talk a little bit about what is going down with all the action at Fandool.

Sports are back. Golf and the PGA tour is back. We have basketball coming up. We have baseball. Games are being played. Not in Miami or Philly or at the moment, but games are being played. if you have been with Fanduil for a while, you know how great it is.

If you're new to the experience, here are a couple great ways to win that you do not want to miss. First off, Fandual is adding $10 in free bets to every account. You don't need to do anything. No deposit required, no strings attached. Just take your free $10 from Fandul. In addition to that $10 bonus, Fandu also giving you a day of risk-free betting. That means you can place any bets you want on baseball,

on basketball, on hockey, and get up to $100 back on your total losses. There are some outstanding matchups coming up in the NBA. Some games I have my own eyes on, and we're looking at the lines and the spreads and the money lines. Portland and Memphis is going to be extraordinarily intriguing because it could result in Portland and Memphis playing for the eighth seed to make the playoffs.

This first game right out of the box is a doozy. Also, Lakers Clippers. I mean, it doesn't get any better than that. Let's go ahead and get the Western Conference finals. preview in our back pocket two awesome NBA games to gamble on. Pick aside and go ahead and use your risk-free $100. If you already have a Fandual account, you're all set. Just use your $10 bonus in the day of risk-free betting before they expire on August

the 2nd. If you'd never tried Fandualsportsbook, what are you waiting for? Download the Fandual Sportsbook app to get started and be sure to sign up with promo code rolling. That's R-O-L-L-I-N. So they know that we sent you there. promo code rolling. 21 plus only.

You got to be present in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, West Virginia, and Colorado. The offer ends on August 2nd. It's a $100 max refund issued in site credit and it expires in seven days. So you're going to have to get down another couple of bets.

But I know you're, got it in you. $10 bonus issued as non-withrawable site credit that expires on August 2nd. If you have a gambling problem, call 1-800-Gambler. If you're in Colorado, call 1-800-5-22-4700. If you're in Indiana, 1-800-9 with it. And in West Virginia, 1-800 gambler.net. Eagle enthusiasts, very, very, very excited to have our old pal,

Memphis's native son, Chris Vernon, is on the T. Whatever no! Hey, man, I am missing you, House. It was obviously a year ago. You were in Memphis for the first part of the week for the WGC event. And then now this year, not only are you not going to be in Memphis, nobody, except for some golfers. It's going to be in Memphis for the tournament that's going up.

But at least outside of Tiger, they've got. all the big names here. Yeah, and I know they're letting some press on the grounds. You get yourself a credential? I got it today. Okay, there we go. I got it today. So I will be able to go out there.

It's going to be interesting. Like, I mean, I don't know, I don't know if you've been through this yet, but, you know, they send out a thing. It basically says, I'm going to have to fill out a questionnaire, you know, saying, hey, you know, I only know how it is at my place where I go to work every day. They say, have you been out of the country in the last 14 days? Have you been around anybody with coronavirus? And then they take your temperature.

And I sense that it's kind of the same thing. When you get to the tournament, they'll have like a media parking area. There's not going to be that many people. But they are going to, they're going to make you fill out a questionnaire, you know, kind of saying where you've been and who you've been around. And then you've got to get your temperature checked. and then you'll be there, but it's obviously going to be all so strange as compared to any year before.

This one I do think is a little different. You saw the setup last year house. This Southwind, TPC Southwind, where they're playing this, it's literally in the middle of a neighborhood. So probably not, I know we saw it at Ohio, but I think this is going to be way different because Memphis is a, it's a big city, but it's like a small big city

where everybody kind of knows everybody. So there will be house parties all over that course. And there's most every hole, you know, is lined with houses and people stand up at the gate. So, and they are also saying that there could be like a thousand to 1500 people that are out there and around. They're going to let some sponsor stuff go on. And they're going to let, they're going to let golfers bring their families. And so they're attempting to, I think, expand this thing, a little. little bit. Still, 1,500 will feel like nothing. Verno, are they making you take a test?

No. Can you walk the course? Yeah. As far as I know, I have a, I have a field pass. So it's a grounds pass is what it's called. Obviously, I can't be in the ropes, but in terms of walking around. But you can hit all the house parties on the way is what you're saying. I don't know, because here's the problem. The house parties, I'll be interested to see how this comes off. on TV too. And hopefully Mimphians will know that they're all

going to be on TV and they'll be wearing masks outside. But like there's a lot of, a lot of these houses have pools in the back too. I promise you are going to see,

you will audibly hear a lot more fanfare than you have in these tournaments the last couple weeks. Well, one important thing just in terms of context to remind everybody

is that this is one of the premier charitable endeavor for the tour. And St. Jude's Children Hospital is the beneficiary of this particular event. And there is a long-storied tradition of that partnership between the PGA Tour and St. Jude's. And, you know, when you're talking about house parties, quite a few, my own recollection from being there last year, a lot of these houses are outfitted with support of big banners and signs, talking about the St. Jude partnership and a lot of

uplifting messages to the kids there and like partnerships where there are specific houses that are associated with specific patients there. I mean, it's really as much as anything I didn't want anybody to get the wrong flavor for these house parties. I know that there's social events, but they're all colored by the St. Jude's affiliation, right? Yeah, and everybody will see when they're watching whatever round. When the guys come up 18, there is a massive house that is right next to 18,

and they put up a huge banner across their back patio that says, we love St. Jude. And then there's water, and the logo will be in the water on the side on 18. And I just played it about a week ago, and it was immaculate. Yeah. Let's set the stage a little bit about the course. And I'm glad that you've been on there. So it has this reputation. It is secretly, or maybe not so secret. It has the most balls that go in the water. Since 2004, there was a redesign.

More balls go in the water at this venue than any other venue on tour, including sawgrass. In fact, this place has more balls go in the water by 1,500. This place has 5,000 balls in the water since 10.000. 2004 and Sawgrass is second at 3500. Let's tell all the Eagle enthusiasts out there, did you keep your balls dry? I did not.

So 11 is, so there's a hole on the front nine, three is a par five. They have lengthened that hole this year as to make it a greater detriment to go for it into, like what was happening is Dustin Johnson was hitting a driver and then he'd hit like a nine iron into the green. So that's lengthened now. And you really can put a lot. The whole thing about, you know, as you're leading up to the green, water is on the entire right side.

Then you're kind of not messing with water for a while. And then you get to the back nine and 11 is an island green, which is really like it's 125 for them, it'll probably play closer to 145 or 150. And so that's, it's the weirdest thing. It's kind of like, you know, a pebble beach, you know, where you could see balls flying off or whatever. Sometimes the ones that feel like they would be easy, so you just grab your A wedge or whatever end up being the most daunting. The green is, it certainly looks big enough while you're on the T-box, but there's no side of it that you can not fall. off. Even if you're behind it, there's no place to land. Like, you have to land that ball on the green or it's gone.

Like, there's, there's no way around it. So I dunked that. And then the sneaky one is 12. The next hole is this long par four where the entire right side all the way from almost to the T-box, all the way to the green. The entire right side is lined with water. And I think they said something. like 60 or 70% of the pros put it in the water there because the hard part about that is the water wraps around the back of the green too. So 11 and 12 are just disasters. You see, you see big numbers being put up there and you could just go out there and watch guys hit it in the water all day and they're pros. How's it rough this week? I will tell you that when I played a week ago, it was the worst round I had played in a year because

The problem is with the kind of grass they have, so they're rough and obviously it'll be more grown out because they shut it down basically two weeks before the tournament. But it's for us that, you know, aren't necessarily, we don't have rules officials standing next to us when we're playing, right? So you might get one that's a full wedge or two. Yeah. Yeah. Or you might just do a little propping up, right? Okay. Okay.

And especially when I'm playing. Fluffer. Yeah. Especially when I'm playing with my buddy. buddies. And so, like, they don't give a crap. I don't give a crap. So I went to prop one up. There was no chance. But then the worst one was I hit one out. I went to go drop it. And it's the grass that it just falls to the bottom of the grass. The grass is like, you know, four inches high. There is no propping it up. It's that wispy grass that it just falls to the bottom.

And you can't get a club through the thing. You just, I mean, it is. death. And so the rough is, the rough is rough out there. It was a bitch for me. So I'll be interested to see a lot of times it can be hard for these players too. It used to be that tournament. You would get mega low numbers and that's just not the case anymore. You don't get crazy low numbers out there anymore. And the other thing is there's been guys that have played this course unbelievably. Daniel Berger's won it twice. know, and then Kepka, obviously, last year, took down Rory, and then DJ, the year before, eagled out on 18 when he already had the tournament wrapped up. So, I mean, you've got the best of

the best that have had great rounds, but DJ pulled out lame last week. Kepka's been nothing like himself. Neither has Rory, frankly. And then Daniel Berger was hot a couple weeks ago and won that tournament, and it still played decently. But there's some guys that have really torch this course, but they have not been torching other courses, at least recently. So that's what, to me, makes it so fascinating. Yeah. So, Verno, I'm going to share some data that backs up some of the observation that you're making. And this is from our friend and pal, our Canadian pal, Pat Mayo, some of his work on this.

So he says, the past nine years at TPC Southwind, only one winner has finished worse than 16th in strokes gained off the T. And then, so that means you have to be accurate off the T. And then on approaches, no winner has finished outside the top 20. And he makes the point that two of the past four champs were at the top of the list of strokes gained approach. And Brooks Kepka last year, he was fifth off the T and 11th in approach. So, you know, what we're really talking about is,

is quality ball striking, but you also have to be accurate off the T. And there's a bunch of par fours here. So it's a par 70 golf course that plays almost at 7,400 yards, which means it's playing long as heck, right? Because that means as a par 70, you're only, you only have a one par five on each side.

So you're not getting all that yardage from the par five. And I was actually talking to one of my buddies last night about if when I get the chance to go out there, and I can't even believe I'm saying this, like I can't stand him, but I have got to see Deschambo on this course. Hey, the first two holes, he will have a chance to drive the green.

But they're the first two holes out of the box. He could drive them. And I think he'll try to drive them. Seriously. Like, and they would be epic. Because I've seen it, I've played with a couple long hitters. that have had a crack at it, but they've been maybe, you know, I don't know, 30, 40 yards out.

I was, just for point of reference, I was 100 yards out when we played it. So Deschambo can put it on the green if he wants to, if he wants to go for it, and it would be hilarious if the tournament starts, and he pulls out that driver is like, to hell with it, and he drives the first green. It would be unbelievable. Are there enough restaurants open in Memphis for him to get the meat that he needs to maintain the strength? this week. You know what's funny is it's not that far from where a lot of the guys went last year, because they all typically rent houses at the, you can rent your house at Southwind,

like that neighborhood that I was telling you about. And you can get like six to eight grand for the week. That's what these guys pay to rent it. I've got buddies that have houses out there and they will not be there through the week. It like pays their mortgage for like a couple of months just by letting these golfers stay in their house. So a lot of them, some of them have bring chefs. But last year, Mickelson, and there were like three or four other guys that people were routinely seeing at Whole Foods. They run up the Whole Foods.

And so being that the course is not far from Whole Foods, I'd imagine Deschambo will go up there and get all of his products and then bring them back to wherever he's staying. Well, while we are on Bryson and. And while we have you, we haven't talked in a little while. We've had seven events since the restart. And we've had a pretty diverse mix of winners. Daniel Berger won the first event. And he's on a streak of rounds under par.

And he continued that on through at the Colonial. Then Webb Simpson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson, Colin Warwickawa, John Rom, and then most just this weekend, Michael Thompson. What's your sense of how things have been going? Have you been impressed with the golf? Like, what's your take on the restart? Oh, yeah. No, I've been, you know, I have been a little disappointed that I think we were all setting up for,

especially with the way last year ended with the Memphis event. And then the WGC finals, where we saw that Rory Kepka square off against each other, that I thought, like, we're heading into this year and we're going to see some real battles. And, you know, maybe by the time we get to the majors, we will. But the fact that those two guys have not routinely been in, they haven't been in the mix. Like, we're not watching on Sundays and watching Rory McElroy and Brooks Kepka yet. They haven't regained the form that we certainly left off with them seeing. the other one is we've seen this vary so much, right?

Like you mentioned Marikawa. Like they played the same course. He wins that tournament where Thomas, frankly, I think should have won the tournament. I think everybody thinks he should have won the tournament. But Morikawa wins that tournament. Like the next week, he misses the cut, you know? And they're playing the same. I know it's set up completely differently.

And so we've had a lot of the weird up and downs, right? where, and I don't know what to draw from that, where guys have been spectacular one week and then not been around. You just mentioned Dustin Johnson, you could watch him

and he looks like the best player in the world by a pretty wide margin. He was running away. And then, you know, he pulls out of the first round last week. And so I don't know.

I don't know what to make of the, you know, where are the guys that are like consistently every week it feels like guys are in the top 10 and then they're missing the cut the next week, except for Fianau, who's like in the mix

in all of these, it can't win shit. And I say this as a huge feno fan. Yeah, no, I know. Come on. I want to touch on a couple things that you mentioned. It is curious, you know,

both DJ and Brooks seemed to be having some kind of physical ailments. And, you know, Brooks had that. that knee surgery at the end of last year. And then a week ago talked about in one of the press conferences that he'd had an MRI on that knee because he didn't feel like it was getting any better. And then he came out, he's playing in these events because he needs the FedEx Cup points

to be eligible for the playoffs. And he really didn't distinguish himself. Now, he hit the ball fine at the 3M event at Twin Cities up in Minnesota, but couldn't put for for shit and miss the cut. But, you know, DJ won the event in Connecticut and then came very close to his next three rounds, all being 80 or greater. He just, he, he burdened at the end of last week on his way to withdrawing to, to finish, you know, under 80.

Yeah, I mean, what do you make of this? What do you make of it, Nathan? Like, why do you think we are seeing guys? Like, guys that are not just maintaining being in great form and routine, and instead these grand fluctuations seemingly week to week. I think there's a similarity between some of the guys who are struggling right now. And it is that they hit the living shit out of the ball. And they put undue torque and force on parts of their bodies

that the science hasn't fully, you know, kept up to figure out how to balance the asymmetric, force that they're putting on their bodies and they're incredible at it, but it comes with a toll. And DJ's struggling. I mean, I asked you about the rough because how's DJ going to get out of it with a bad back this week? And Brooks himself is, I mean, Chase Kepka is the better golfer in the family right now. And so for me, you know, Tigers, Tiger's not playing this week. And I wanted to ask you if the air came out of the room when Tiger, you know, decommitted or announced he wasn't going to play if it took anything away from the event. It doesn't seem like it, but I'd be curious for your take on that.

But the reason Tiger's not there is because he too, you know, has now a full career full of beating up his body. And so I think the consistency is hard, especially with this schedule that we've got over the next couple of months, guys are having to regulate their bodies and regulate their play because they're going to have to play those three FedEx Cup events. A week before, two weeks before that, they're going to be in the PGA. and two weeks after that, they're going to be in the U.S. Open. Regarding Memphis and Tiger, like, it's interesting because Memphis has been one of the cities that has had a tour event going all the way back to, it was called the Danny Thomas Classic, who's the guy that originally started St. Jude's Children's Hospital,

and it was played at a different course here in Memphis, and all the best players played there. If you go out there, there's like a sign on one of the holes, Gerald Ford, as while he was sitting president, got a hole in one here, and like all the old heads will talk about it. It's where Al Guyberger shot the 59, which stood for 100 years, it feels like. But even with all the history,

even with them having a tournament for so long and being a routine tour stop, he never came here, ever. He has never been here one time. And so, like this year, it feels like every other year where everybody's talking amongst themselves, is this the year he's going to come? Is this year he's going to come? And I thought maybe this year

they might have had a better chance simply because, you know, it's right before the PGA. He's only played four competitive rounds. And so being that there's not a cut, at least he would get more reps in before he's playing in that major and maybe he'd want to. I don't think that, you know, I think we're past the whole being let down every time. I do think that once they got a WGC event, they thought, okay, now Tiger Woods is going to come. But he's, He didn't come last year, and now he's not coming this year. And it would have been, it would have been kind of honestly, like, it would have been great for TV, and it would have been great.

The more attention that can go to St. Jude, the better. But for golf fans, it would have been an absolute kick in the balls if this is the year he finally came to Memphis after all these years. Now he comes and, like, nobody can go. Well, so let's talk about that because this week is, really the start of the rest of sports coming back. We got baseball back. We got basketball back. Hockey's getting ready. We've had this unique period over the last couple months for golf, where it's been showcased and all by itself. And the good news is that it's shown that you can get

back to sports without making the pandemic worse. But I'm interested to hear, how did golf do during this period? Did we grow the game? Did we get better? Because there's going to be life after Tiger Woods, where we don't have this week in Tiger Woods on Fairway Rowland because he's done. So we got to keep the game moving to a place where it can exist without him. How did golf do during this stretch where it was really the only thing going? I got to be honest. We're not past the Tiger stuff. Not with the average fan.

I think for you and me that are watching golf tournaments, you know, on PGA live on Thursday morning when they're sitting around and so you've got it. So you just flip it on and you're watching morning rounds. I think for golf fans and hardcore golf fans, I do think that they've done a very good job of putting on these events. And I think there have been some things that hopefully will last, like being miced up, like some of the interactions that we've had, that can certainly make things better going forward.

But in terms of capitalizing on the average sports fan, no, they did. I mean, I don't think that there's a lot of people now that love golf that just started watching it five weeks ago, you know, or six, you know, whatever it's been. They kind of had the stage to themselves. And I'm not sure that they went out and snagged the average sports fan. I think that it was great for the golf fan. But do you sense? I mean, I don't. I don't sense that there's a whole lot of people that are talking about the golf tournament this weekend that wouldn't normally.

I think so much is still predicated on is Tiger Woods playing. And I do think that's the other thing that's hard about this. If we would have seen Justin Thomas, Roy McElroy, Brooks Kevgo, I think it's hurt to have a million different winners. Like Deshambo has been the biggest name since it's come back by a wide margin, by a wide margin. Like I would tell you that, let's just say like my wife, my wife would know who that is now, maybe and had no idea. She would have no idea prior to them coming back after quarantine. But now he's, I've explained the story. Look at what he looked like a year ago.

This guy's a monster. He's hitting the shit out of the ball, you know, whatever. And so I think he probably got a lot more attention. I'm not sure that they brought in a crowd that is now going to. to be watching golf that wasn't watching prior to. I don't know what you'd think, house. I don't sense that my friends that don't watch golf cared about golf tournaments. Viewership numbers are up across the board, weekend and week out.

I haven't yet seen the results of the viewership numbers for the 3M event in Minnesota that just concluded. But, you know, weekend and week out, they've gotten, you know, slight upticks, not the kind of of, you know, giant numbers. Like the match with Tiger and Phil and Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, that thing did astronomical numbers. But that was at a moment in the sports landscape where there was absolutely nothing. And we got four of the most, of the biggest stars in the sports world together, you know, for that event.

And I think you're absolutely right. the dominant story since the restart has been Bryson. And that is something that has filtered down to, you know, into the basic, you know, sports fan consciousness. But the tournaments themselves have, haven't really featured the biggest, you know, names are Dustin and Bryson. I mean, John Rahm is somebody that could end up being, you know,

more well-known, but he's not there yet because he's a kid. 25 years old. Yeah, plus we've had runaways. You know, like, Rom, he wasn't, he wasn't challenged at the end of that. It looked like he might F it up at the beginning of the back nine. But then he kind of, he had his lead. Bryson, the week he won, had his lead. Like the only time that you saw a lot of activity and like all your buddies would be

texting you was the end of the Thomas Morikawa thing. Yeah. Because that was in, that, that's drama. and a lot of these have not had drama at the end. Right. And that's just part of golf, right, Nate? I think so. I mean, the good news is we've had a lot of great players involved in these tournaments. I think Bryson DeShambos is the biggest star in golf right now. And we can debate whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

But that's why this week is an important week because you got everybody who's great in the world coming head to head. You know, not everybody's going to be bringing their fastball. I don't think because you got guys who are tapering themselves for PGA. But, you know, Justin Thomas grew up not far from where this tournament is happening. He's been fishing all week, pulling out huge fish. As you said, Verno, he really should have won the workday. He has been in the mix in most of these tournaments. He's had those eight under days where you think, all right, he's going to run away with it.

But he hadn't totally closed the deal. And this is going to be an interesting week to see who's ready. for this stretch we have coming up in August and September. The other thing, the forecast sucks. Oh, is that right? Yeah, here. In what respect? Like, I could hold up my iPhone so you guys could see this.

It's little clouds with a lightning bolt in it every single day. Yeah. Every day. That's bad for golf and fishing. All through the weekend. And so, who knows? And they've, you know, one of my buddies works for CBS and he was texting me yesterday morning. And he's like, God, can I catch?

a break because you remember they they redid the times yesterday for you know and and they just had to do that where everybody played early and now they were able to at least run it live you know by yesterday afternoon but they had to switch around the times and they have dealt with weather in a couple of these different tournaments at least two of the weeks where they've had to tee guys off early just to make sure they could try to get it in um if i look at uh like my daily thing wednesday 80 percent Thursday, 100%. And then Saturday, Friday, 60%. Saturday, 60%.

I mean, so it's going to... You're going to have to have a Microsoft Zoom to watch this thing. It's going to be terrible. Yeah. And well, you know, and like Wednesday, 80%, Thursday, 100%. The problem is Wednesday, and they haven't done this before. They're actually doing a charitable deal. You know, you know, House, I love Hovland.

He's in it. So I was going to go out there and even watch that on Wednesday. It's like him and Henrik Stenson and Brantznetter. And they're playing $100,000 goes to St. Jude Children's Hospital. They're playing a nine-hole match. Kind of like, yeah, one they did with Polter and Fienow. Yeah, they've been doing it. You know, this is either the fourth or the fifth since the restart.

It's a really great idea, terrific innovation. They walk along. You can listen to them, talk. It's on Golf Channel. it's a really great, you know, Wednesday afternoon. It's been a super idea. I've really enjoyed it. But it's going to be, I mean, so the forecast sucks.

So here's hoping that they're going to be able to get this thing in, but just looking at it right now. I mean, 80 and 100 percent doesn't really give us a lot of leafway. Well, let's talk. All right. I mean, you know, we have all the data that we need now to make an assessment. I mean, 100 percent thunderstorms means it could be thunderstorms at four o'clock in the afternoon that go till seven o'clock at night.

It doesn't mean that they can't play golf from seven in the morning till, uh, you know, noon or whatever, two o'clock in, and this field, it's only 78 players. It's a no cut event.

They can get them around. If you, if you do threesomes and push them off of one and ten, it feels like there's a, they ought to be able to find a window. But we mentioned a lot of names. We have all this stuff that they're, they're up against.

The PGA championship is, is the week after. So that's another thing to factor in. Let's talk about some names you got your eye on. Some guys that you're hoping get a little breakthrough here at the WGC, FedEx, St. Jude in Memphis, Tennessee. I was surprised just because it's usually not him at the very top of the odds. I was surprised that ROM was installed as the favorite, and I was a little disappointed. because, yeah, because I followed Rom last year,

and this course is good for him. Like, he can, if he's dialed in like he was when we just saw him two weeks ago, and now he's the whole number one player in the world, and he comes in here, and you know he wants to get that $10 million bucks at the end. Yeah, I mean, plus $800, that's despicable. I mean, that's, I mean, come on.

I don't understand how anybody has that low of odds to win something when you've got all the best players that are coming here. But certainly my inclination was ROM. Outside of ROM, you know, you're going to get longer numbers on these guys that we know have played this course great. And so is there any reason for me to believe in Dustin Johnson? was he just bullshitting last week, shot, came out the box, played terrible, and he was like, oh, my back hurts,

and he left. He's actually done that here before where he came out, he bogeyed like, you know, six holes quickly, and he's pulled out of the tournament. He just left on day one. He's done it here,

Mipfiz, and so I don't know if he really, like, if his back's really hurt, or if he was just, he had a shitty score, and he's like, I'm not sticking around here. I'm getting, I'm going to go get ready for Bipfus.

he's available. He's available at 30 to 1 right now on the book I'm looking at. Yeah. Burger for sure. He's won it twice. Yeah. And up until this year,

it was the only tournament he's won. Right. So, of course, getting him, I think he was $2,200. Is that right? Somewhere around there. I see him at 28 on what I'm looking at.

Oh, yeah. I would take a crack at that for sure. Yeah, I like that a lot. I like Burger. Because it's not a one-off thing. He did it twice, you know, where he came back in one. So obviously he likes the course. It's good for him.

Kepka, who has not showed up at all, but he is, I mean, he torches the course, man. He tors, if he's on, this course is perfect for him. Like last year, this is how you know how much he likes Memphis and how much confidence he has in Memphis. And again, he's given me no reason to believe in him. but I will tell you, it was 45 minutes before he was going to play like Rory, final round.

They were one or two. Rory had the lead on him going into round four. And about an hour before, like people were texting me and like every, the buzz everywhere was he wasn't there. I remember this. No, he pulled up like 30 minutes before and walked to the frigging, like, you know, took a.

a couple swings, walk to the first tee. And then people were like, you know, people found it odd that you like kind of pulled up right before a tea time, you know, was that like mind games or something like that? He's like, um, I've played this course and I played this course well, like, you know, many times. I know where I'm going to hit the ball, you know, true Brooks bro fashion. I know where I'm going to hit the ball. Like what do I need to?

Why do I need to practice? What about you? I know. I mean, that, that's him. Nate, who you got your eye on? I'm looking at Xander Shafley this week, and I'll tell you why. You beat me to the punch. He is number 11 on the FedEx Cup list right now, and the top 10 guys get a bonus.

So if he wins this tournament and gets enough points to put himself in the top 10, it can be worth somewhere between half a million and upwards of a million and a half dollars. He's not going to play next week. So there's a huge bonus on the line for Zander to win. And we saw him grind his ass off at the memorial to get back into position. So that's my guy this week. You said he's not playing the PGA championship? I just don't think that we can count on anything coming out of the PGA.

I think he's playing this week thinking if I get myself inside that top 10, you know, I got guaranteed money. I got no cut. what I learned at the memorial is even when I make the cut on the number, I can come back and be in contention and this is the week I'm going to put to bed the money. Okay, well, that's fine,

but I think he's going to try hard at the PGA championship also. He is. It's a tougher spot out there. This is an easier week. You know, it would be absolutely perfect. I have been, when I've talked to you over the course of the past year, I so desperately want my guy,

Hovland, to bust through. And this would be the biggest, right, that he's won. And I do think he's going to play that thing, hopefully, on Wednesday, get a look at it early. He has been very good and he just didn't play this past week, right? So he gave his body the week off. But Hovland, it would be destiny.

You know, if it can't be my guy, HV3, Hovland would be destiny for me to get to see him when something this big in person. Well, you guys stole both of my, picks. These are the two names I had sitting here. I like the data. Hovland, you know, we talked a little bit about some of those attributes that are necessary to be successful here at TPC Southwind. He's first in the field in ball striking at the moment. He's been the most consistent player since the restart. First in the field, the ball striking, first of the field and approach sitting fourth right now in strokes gained off the T.

The problem with, with Hovlin so far has been putting, but it has nine thousandth in shots gained putting. He's behind. He's behind us. So I mean, you know, that that Hovlin calls a good one. And then X has, you know, another guy, uh, the X man, Zander Schauchley, he's got four top 20s in five starts since the restart. And, and I really like this angle for him.

He does well in these events where there's no. no cut. He's won four times on tour. Three of them have been no cut limited field events. He won the tour championship down in Atlanta where there was only 30 guys. He won that tournament. He didn't win the $15 million bonus, but he won that tournament. He won the 2018 WGC in China, and then he won the 2019 tournament of champions down in Hawaii, where, you know, they assemble everybody all the winners from the previous year. Those are three of his first. win. So this kind of fits the mold for the X, right?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, look, those are all names that people like to take on the only one that's not a burger is the one that I would say is like the longer shot that has a good chance. And the other thing is, I don't know if you could bet on this, but you mark my words and I want to, I'm going to

try to get out there so I could see it a bar. Deschambo will lose his shit on this course. You mark my words. I pound. I, Look, there is so much water. He's going to kill the ball, and then he's going to be in that rough, and then he's not going to be able to get the club through it, and it's going to go in the water, and he's going to absolutely lose it. We can get another tin cup thing where he just keeps it, give me another ball, and he starts dropping it and shaking him.

There's so much waterhouse, as you chronicled. And the other thing is so many, these par threes that are out there, they're all, like, feel par threes. they're not like, because if you miss, uh, you're not, you're not landing and then chipping up and making it. Your ball's just dead. You're just missing.

It has been the one aspect of his game that's been a little shaky is the wedge yardage. Yeah. He's been going long. We've been watching them go along. That's right. Burno, as always, my brother, thanks for coming on.

We'll be looking for you on the television broadcast. Yeah, I guess. Try to try to stay dry. I mean, I, you know, hopefully these thunderstorms are time. in a way that let us get this golf tournament played. And we'll go ahead and apologize right now to Zanders Schaulfley and Daniel Berger. For the stink hacks.

Yeah, we've been putting a little bit of a whammy on our guys when we give out these picks. But Bruno, great to talk to you. We'll be looking for you on the two, my man. When you said you're looking for me, look, if I can get out to that grounds or whatever, my moment will be what I'm going to try to do is whenever he freaks. out, I'm going to try to be there for it. All right. So whenever you see him losing his mind, like I will track to when he's playing the

holes, then I think he's going to absolutely lose it. And I'll try to get in the frame. We're going to give you a virtual high five on that one. All right, guys. All right, Chris Vernon. Always a pleasure, my dude. We'll be in touch. All right, brother.

There we go, my birdie buddies. Another outstanding show in the books. little preview for what we have coming for the PGA Championship. We are going big here at Faraway Rowland. Our pal Nathan Hubbard is going to go to San Francisco, California. He'll be on the ground at TPC Harding Park, giving us a lot of important information. We're going to have a preview show covering all the storylines. That'll be up on Monday, August the 3rd.

And then on Wednesday, August the 5th, right before the tournament kicks off, we're going to go through all of our picks, a lot of the data and analytics that we're looking at, the course conditions, all of the ways that we're going to try and put a little bit of capital in your pockets, whether it's on your DFS, whether it's through some gambling. If you want to take advantage of some fantasy intel, we're going to try and help you with that. And then Sunday night, right after the tournament, Nathan and I will be together. maybe with a special guess, I don't know. And we will give you a full recap of what we've seen the PJ Championship. That's all to look forward to next week. Until then, my par saving pals,

let's hit them straight out there.