Fore Play - Darren Clarke: “Sometimes your best is just shit”

Episode Date: February 26, 2019

Darren Clarke, the 2016 European Ryder Cup captain and 2011 Open champion, joins the show from the Abaco Club in the Bahamas. Darren tells a phenomenal story about Tiger Woods, details what goes on behind the scenes as a Ryder Cup captain, and reveals how horribly he was putting heading into the 2011 Open. In Headlines, we react to Bryson's latest controversy, the backstopping brigade, and Tiger's weird approach in Mexico. Oh, and we revel at just how good Dustin Johnson is! You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/foreplaypod

Hey, 4Play listeners, you can find us every Tuesday and Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. We are back. We got a big, big-time show. We have Darren Clark on the show, 2016 European Rider Cup captain, 2011, Open Champion. I got to say, I spent a good amount of time with him, about an hour and a half of them, and he is a beauty. He looks like a beauty just from the pictures. Like always laughing and shit. He's just an absolute season.

the North Irish beauty. He's very candid. He's got phenomenal stories. He tells an incredible Tiger Woods story. He's pretty good buddies with Tiger. He took him down in the 2000 match play in the finals. Great story from that. He was obviously the Ryder Cup captain, so he talks all about what it's like to be the Ryder Cup captain, European versus American. What he thinks the difference is he couldn't put, literally couldn't putt leading up to the 2011 Open Championship and then he won it. So he talks all about that. phenomenal stories. So pay attention, listen.

You're going to love the interview with Darren Clark. Big shout out to him. And thanks to him for sitting down giving us the time live from Abico, which where we were, my lurch of myself were. We talk a little bit about Abico in the interview with Darren Clark. I couldn't, I have a ton to say about it. I'm probably going to save it for when Lurch is on again because he and I were there together. But, I mean, we were kind of talking before the show.

I'm officially an island guy. Yeah, you said before, because you're more of a Colorado guy. You said on this podcast before, two things you do. What are they? I golf in the summer, and I ski in the winter. Yep. So you were more of a Colorado mountain guy, but then it sounds like you've down and turned into an island. My dad doesn't like beaches.

Yeah. It doesn't really do beaches. And when you're a kid, you're at the mercy of your parents and what the vacations are. And we were landlocked. Yeah, we're in Missouri. Trent Daddy or Iowa, like as far away from the ocean as you could be, basically. So we just didn't really do much oceaning. And I got to say, this place, Abaco, it's kind of a sister.

It's like a little bit different. vibe to Baker's Bay, but they're in the same spot and probably more similar to the naked eye than they would be different. But this place, Awego is just, you can't even imagine. I was posting all kinds of footage. I'm sure people saw it. You can't imagine how beautiful it is. You can't imagine how good the golf course is getting to play golf in like a bathing suit and with no shoes on one day, just on the ocean with this perfect golf. It was, it was unbelievable.

We'll save it for when Lurge is here. But anyways, also got to say Supreme Golf, presenting sponsor for the entire year. We wouldn't have allowed them to be our presenting sponsor and talk about them on every single podcast unless they were the best, which they are. So they're the only T-time app that you need. They're the only T-time website they need to visit SupremeGoff.com. Big thank you to Supreme Golf for all the next support. Your skin took the sun pretty well, too. Usually people come back when you're landlocked and you're in the city.

I was in Florida for like two days and my skin was burning off my body. You know who this guy is, right? He's the sunscreen tweeter. I have unfortunate news. If I were to take my shirt off right now, you would. laugh in my face. So here's what happened. You're just hiding the pain right now.

Somehow my face is like blotchy if you actually look. It's a little blotchy and red in spots. The lighting's helping them. You look great right now. It's even. Okay. But you get like the hat on outsides. It's not as bad.

Here's what happened. I have bought a bottle of this spray tan shit. Spray, you know, where you got to spray it and then rub it in the suntan lotion. Yeah. Usually I'm strictly a rub it in guy. Like the actual lotion where you apply it rub it in. It's a little bit more annoying, but it works. It seems like you're putting on.

extra layer of, you know. Yeah, you're caking it up. Yes. You know, I can't penetrate. Yeah. You're good. Well, we did on Saturday at Abaco. We had a boat.

We rented a boat for the entire day. One of those beautiful experience you can possibly witness to turquoise water, all that stuff. So we're out on this boat. I got shirt off sitting on the couch with my stomach out just the whole day. I'm talking for like six hours straight. You can't believe it. I did three applications of this spray stuff. You know, and then you fucking rub it in.

You have somebody rub it in on the back. Three. I'm thinking I'm good. I'm a big sunscreen guy. I got the tweet, the history, all that. I get back to the place, take my shirt off, look in the mirror. I mean, I was blinding people how red I was. It was insane.

Then, I mean, that next morning I woke up, put a polo on to go golf. I couldn't even move my arms. My whole body, like the whole torso of my body just hurt. Top of my feet, fried. Oh, that's bad. The worst. Miss that spot like an asshole. So I appreciate I look good now.

I'm also like only 5% of my body, my skin's showing or something like that. You know, so. I picture you spraying the stuff on and when just taking it and not even hitting your body. A hundred percent. Like dumb and dumber when he does the mint spray in his mouth and it goes the wrong direction. That's how I picture you putting on this stuff. That was me. I mean, that was what happened to me.

It was a real sad situation. Again, my stomach, I look, my whole just, it just looks ridiculous. But face looks fine. So as long as I wear this outfit, I should be okay. We got a lot to get to. There's a ton that happened. And we do two shows a week now. You know, we've been doing a lot of these, the caddies and the superintendents, which are people love it.

We invented this new way to do golf podcasting. We hear from the people. We give them a platform. We get a lot of funny interactions. It's great. But in just the four days or five days since we last did a show, we've got an insane amount of stories. Our guy, Bryson D. Chambot, who we have a long history with. We shit on him for a long time.

I then interacted with him at the PGA championship, became more of a fan. We had huge battles on the show about him before finally he came on the show for about a half hour. He buried Frankie with the butternives comment, which was all time. He's been liking everybody who chirps Frankie on his. Any anti-Franki Borelli tweet or Instagram comment on a random video, it doesn't matter where it lives on Instagram or on social media. He likes it. I don't know how much time he has. It's crazy.

So we have a long history of Bryson. That's amazing. It's insane. We have a long history of Bryson. He's got wild history with the media, public relations, and all that. from his meltdown last year at Karnusti to then his meltdown that was on the range, then his meltdown like a week later in the European tour event where he had the four-shot lead or something, hooked a driver and then just like sort of crying on the T-box.

And everything in between, the spritzing, like all this stuff, he just makes news all the time. Well, he was back at the end of the last week. The Sky Sports video, you know, they got their set right next to the practice screen, and it cuts to, I think it was like Rich Beam talking about something. Yeah, it was Rich Beam. I don't know why I remember that name. It's Rich Beam. It's stuck out to me too.

It's like, oh, there's Rich Beam. It's up, Rich Beam. Rich Beam. What's up, Rich? Rich Bean. It's a fucking heard Rich Beam's name. It's a great sportscaster name. Rich Beam.

Yep. Yeah, it is. Exactly. Yeah, he should be like the local go-to announcer for a team. For like a high school basketball. Rich Beam. Coming with the calls. So they cut to Rich Beam, and in the background, you see Bryson.

He's staying on the side of the practice screens. He hands him as putter. And he just tomahawks it into the green. immediately pulls out his like divot repair tool and starts fixing it, whatnot. But the clip goes viral, everybody freaking out, all the golf hardos freaking out. And it is a bad look. Don't give me wrong. I mean, anytime you're just tomahawk your putter under a green and damage it, bad look.

Real bad. Terrible look. People are losing their minds. People are calling them, you know, you understand. You get what happened. You can go check out of you have. So then Bryson apologizes the next morning. He did that day.

He lost. So this was, I think, Thursday after his round. round. He goes to practice screen and work on it. Then he tomahawks it. That day he lost 3.7 strokes to the field in putting. Second worst, the entire field. And then he was lost his mind the following morning. He releases a statement. He kind of apologizes for the whole thing. I'm a passionate guy, this, that. Then Bubba Watson and Ted Scott, they filmed this video from the locker room where Bubba says, you know, I had a bad round yesterday. I shot like 74 or something. I can't figure out the firmness of the greens. They're kind of like chirping a little bit. Oh, it's got to be

science oh where's bryson we'll talk to bryson it basically goes into the scientific explanation where the only way you can figure out the firmness of the green is you tomahawk your putter into the green real zany video real real look it wasn't the funniest video of all time it was hard to watch all right there's a lot is that is that is that the rundown of it or is there more well what i want to say is people now are double outraged over the video because they're like not only did he tomahawk his putter into the green but now he's acting like this huge cocks who doesn't care because he's laughing with Bubba Watson and Ted Scott about the whole thing. And that's where we're at where we'll pick it up.

There's a lot to unpack. Before we get to that. Okay, yeah, go. Rich Beam. How are we not calling him Dick Beam? Dick Beam. Are we fucking kidding me? Got an audible laugh at producer.

I mean, how is Rich Bean's name not Dick Beam? Dick Beam. Although Rich Beam is clearly working pretty well because that's what we remember. Not even close. If this guy came to the golf course, he goes, my name is Dick Beam, I want to interview you right now, they're going to be like, you can ask me whatever the hell you want. That's like from the era of Ron Burgundy. You got a Dick Beam.

I feel like you would be a competitor of his. All right, go on. How long have you been thinking about that? Oh, well, I was like, Rich Beam. What a fucking name. Then I'm like, his name's Dick Beam also. You could call him Dick Beam. Rich Beam has a really nice ring to him.

Dick Beam, you're almost a circus character. Yeah, it's too much. Dick Beam fucks. He fucks. The only thing to say about that. Dick Beam is a porn star name. Dick. Rich Beam is a professional, you know, a major champion and a broadcaster now for Sky Sports.

A lot to unpack with this. First of all, I want to say, Bubba and Bryson are clearly friends of the program because we've interviewed them recently. But they got to stop making these videos. Remember the DJ and Brooks Keppko one? These videos, they think they're a good idea. And then when they do them, they are a colossal disaster. They make everyone uncomfortable. It's tough for me to think that they made this video and then showed it to people.

They watched it themselves and were like, we got to put that out. That to me is a problem. I understand what they're trying to do. They're trying to make light of a situation that makes Bryson look bad, but that video just made me very uncomfortable. I didn't hate it. I didn't hate the video. I thought they were, in a way, they're almost kind of mocking golf hardos everywhere.

Like, I like the video a lot because I know how infuriated it makes a lot of the Golf Hardo Twitter. And that was actually the second part of mine was what Bryson did, I actually am not that pissed about. Like, I don't really care that much. It was a practice green. He fixed it. He apologized. Right.

But I am also in this where I have a longstanding thing with Bryson where I think he's an asshole. But this thing that he did most recently did not make me as mad as I feel like it probably made Frankie Borelli or anybody else. Well, the actual act of it, I can't really, like, condemn or whatever. I'm not that mad at, like, slamming your club because everyone gets those, like, moments of frustration. And he just happened to be on a camera. I mean, I can't imagine how many times Tiger, like, you. gets pissed off at himself. I mean, he's one of the most visible angry guys on the golf course.

Yeah, but the difference in everybody's mind is that it was on a practice screen. That's what people are losing their mind. I know. Like I said, I mean, I think that happens more than you would think, too. These guys are frustrated. They're practicing. It's after a round that he played horribly. And he went and fixed it right away.

Right. He wasn't like fuck the screen. The thing is that he's just an unlikable guy. This is the only reason. Everything he does, there can be an explanation for and there can be a reasoning for, but he comes off as unlikable. And it's those videos that he comes out with that make him seem like a robot. It makes him seem like a scientist.

scientific robot that someone plugged into his neck, like a little keyboard comes out of his neck, and there's a little man behind him that types in, like, you have to be funny now because we made a boo-boo. And, like, he, like, goes on screen. He's like, hello, yeah, you have to do this with the arms, and then you're going to slam the toughness of the green. It's like, you're not that funny because you're coming off. Like, everything being tied to the science just doesn't come off natural and, like, genuine. It's just so, like, PR-1-1-1. Because he was making fun of the science.

There's obviously not real science behind testing the firmers to the rim, like slam your partner to the green. Everything he does is like PR 101 to me And it just doesn't come off like genuine Like why couldn't he just say what we're saying right now It's like I fucking You know what he did He did say that And then the next day he made a little video

Just leave it at that then Leave it at the leave it at the leave it I didn't think the video was PR savvy Like he's getting more roasted For the video people are calling People are fucking losing their minds over the video Because he is like he's laughing He's making light of something

That he clearly thinks he did wrong right Like that's why I don't apologize But the thing also it's not like he didn't murder somebody He just like damage to green So he's making light of that the day after. But do you think him doing both is, I think, the problem. Either you apologize or you make the video. I think you don't do both.

Well, if he just made the video without apologizing, he'd be the ultimate villain. Which would come up more genuine. Which would be more like from a personal. But I don't know that that's actually who we. I think he's trying to be a villain. He's playing both sides by doing the apology. If he's able to know what his personality is more if he did one or the other. Yep.

Right. Like everything that comes from Bryson seems like someone's telling him what the do. Obviously, they didn't tell him to slam the putter on the green. But everything after that just seems like he can't just make up a decision on his own. Like, we can't, we don't know who the real Bryson is ever to me as a fan. Yeah, like, you see the guy who is actually like, oh, I'm sorry, I did that. It comes on here and he's a bro and he's awesome and he's bodybagging me. And then he's like everything else is like the second something happens in his life, it feels like everything has to fit into like the Bryson handbook on being the science and really good guy for golf and all stuff.

It's like, dude, if you're out there like crying on the T-box and slamming golf. clubs on the fucking practice screen, why don't you be the villain? And then, be this, like, awesome common golf. And then when people get mad at you, you make a zany, weird video to say, go fuck yourself. As opposed to doing both. This video would have been an all-time video of there was no apology. This was his only reaction. Unreal.

It's so cool. Dude, he clearly is, he might have convinced me. He clearly is like this more common guy because he's like, he can't control his fucking emotions. He's out there trying to win every single golf tournament he's in. He's getting mad when he can't make these fucking puts. He's sprits in his golf ball because he wants to get a better edge on people. It's like, dude, be this, like, crazy person.

Don't come out here with, like, these rewritten fucking... I would say that he's more the video guy than he is the apology guy. It's just that his team told him to apologize. Yeah, which I think would be great. Also, like, that's also the biggest issue that I had or the only real issue I had when he was on our show was that he said a few times, yeah, people want to think I'm kind of this nerdy, like, weirdo, but really I'm not. And I was like, no, that's, you are. Yeah. And that's fine.

That's cool. We want you to be that. We want you to genuinely be who you are all the time. So you guys make some good points. If he did drop that just that video, especially with Bubba and Teddy and some of the people that just don't like their whole thing. Oh, man, I would have been all time. I mean, he'd be, he would have gone even further up in my book. But this has been, again, this has just been chaotic. Just be yourself, Bryson. That's it. That would be our memory. Let the outrage consume you. Let the Twitter fingers get angry. Yeah. You don't always have to bow down. Don't bow down to the me's. Frankie Burrellys and stuff, like when we chirp you.

Come back, which is what he does when he's presented with the opportunity, clearly, because he came on our podcast and fucking dominated. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. HelloFresh is a meal kit delivery service that shops, plans, and delivers step-by-step recipes and pre-measured ingredients so you can just cook, eat and enjoy, which sounds quite enjoyable, I must say. Achieving your 2019 goals is as easy as enjoying delicious home-cooked meals with Hello

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go to hellofresh.com slash 460 and enter 460 as your code. Again, you get $60, $20 off your first three boxes. You go to hellofresh.com slash 460 and use the code F-O-R-E-6-0 for $60 off. The other one is backstopping. So this has been, again, like kind of golf hard on Twitter, has been all over the backstopping case for the last six months or so, maybe the last year. If you remember there were the Jimmy Walker comments last year,

where he came out and basically just said, well, yeah, there are instances, like if you're playing with a guy who's a good buddy of years, you're not going to move your ball. Whereas if you're playing with somebody who's kind of a dickhead, maybe you will or something along those, I'm kind of paraphrasing a little bit. But he made comments that became incredibly controversial.

Backstopping, of course, is deemed this act where two people playing in the same group. One person hits their ball up there pretty close to the hole, like probably behind it usually or right on it. And then, but definitely not in the way of the ball going into the hole. another person plays up because they're playing quickly. They don't want to wait for somebody to run all the whole market and then walk away. It takes time.

We're worried about this to play all that stuff. Chips up. Their ball hits the other guy's ball. The guy's ball who goes further away gets to just replace it. So boom, all of a sudden two balls are really close to the hole and one of them shouldn't be. And if this act is intentional, it's a penalty. The rule is written as that. Well, we had, and again, they kind of every week this happens where certain corners of golf Twitter catch some video and they say, is this cheating?

and they all get into it with each other. Now, we had a case. Amy Olson and World Number One, Aria Jutanagarn. Nailed it. I watched a lot of lady golf. You do. I saw that. Or you watch a lot of Game of Thrones.

I mean, that name sounds. What's that name? Aria Jutanagarn. And that literally is a name in Game of Thrones. Aria is, yeah. What was it? Juteneagarn. I don't know if I'm perfect, but I think I'm pretty close.

I will be calling Aria her aria from here on our conversation. How is Juteneagarn? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's like Targaryen. It's like a mixing area Targary. So House Jutanagan was involved in this. Basically, what happens is Arria Jutanagan chips up there, very close to the hole.

Amy Olson, who they said afterwards there was a pace of play issue or concern in the group. She chips within a few, you know, basically seconds afterwards. Hits a pretty poor chip. It's coming in hot, hits Aria's ball, and both of them stay next to the hole. they both put out, blah, blah, blah, well, right afterwards, they go and fist bump each other before they even went up and moved the balls back, kind of fist popped each other. They're laughing. Again, golf Twitter lost its mind. This is blatantly cheating.

I can't believe this. This is disgusting. Amy Olson came out and put out a statement last night, a scathing statement. Basically, I could take your names off my lips type of statement. People are calling us cheaters. They need to be held accountable for their words. So it's sort of erupted into this very touchy and tricky situation. The rule is written as it says Rule 15-3A prohibits 15.3A, whatever,

prohibits players from agreeing to leave a ball unmarked to act as a backstop when playing shots from just off the putting green. So the LPGA tour rules official said there has been no penalty because in order for a breach to occur, that two more players must agree to leave a ball in place. They said there's no agreement. They were just playing, and that's just what happened. And they were basically, she, Amy Olson and Aria in their statement came out.

And Amy Olson said, like, I just know that Aria was basically fist upon me because she was happy and wants to see me successful. She's a great person. She's as classy as they come, blah, blah, blah. Pretty ruthless that they just got labeled cheaters by everybody. I mean, if you watch that video and you think that there is cheating going on there, like intentional cheating, I think you need to have your head examined. It's very clearly that they're just trying to play a little quicker.

Oh, she left the ball up there. I'm going to hit now. And, oh, it just so happened to run into it. I don't think at no point did I watch that and like, oh, they're doing that on purpose. There's something of foot here where they're cheating and they're cheaters. I guess like the laugh and like the grimace afterwards, but that's just like a fun. Anytime you hit someone's ball, any golfer that's ever got out there and hit someone's ball, it's usually like an unbelievable event.

Everyone's like, oh. Right. Like, it's so cool to like hit someone's ball for some reason because. golf's like, you know, that's like one of the only things that usually doesn't happen on the golf course. It's like you hit someone else's ball when you're going on the green. So I didn't think anything was wrong with it. The tricky word here is always intent, right? It's like, what is the intent?

What is the intent? Which is the rules problem, and it's a problem they have to address because if you, once you start throwing the word intent into anything, it can go whatever direction it wants to go. And the person can always just deny it. Right. They did not intend to do that. That's the problem with intent. Right, but that's where people would argue then they're cheating because they'll be lying,

which is cheating, right? Like if they just say that wasn't their intent, but it was their intent, then they're cheating. Right. I don't think that's the case. Right. I mean, just because you don't know, it doesn't mean it wasn't cheat. Like, if someone goes in the woods and hits their ball twice, but nobody saw it, and they just lied. Yep.

Like, they're still, they still cheated. That's the problem with intent. Right. That's what I'm saying is the problem. You would never know. So, yeah. Right. But what we're saying is like, did they actually cheat?

We're not saying, like, is there a way for us to know? We're saying, did they actually. And I, my thinking of it, the reason where it gets murky, I don't think they did. I think labeling them cheaters is like wildly irresponsible because once that's the worst thing in golf, you just can't be called a cheater in golf. Like that's, you can't do that. Yep. You're over, your reputation, all that. And so where it gets, like where the issue is, is like Trent was saying, in the rule. And it becomes, like when they're, it becomes tricky because if they, if her ball, if Arias ball was in front of the hole, Amy Olson probably says, like, can you run up there at market?

Yeah. right if it's blocking the hole yeah she definitely does whereas it's not so she doesn't so then it's like is there some sort of intent in there to be helped but there there is no agreement right so if the rule is written it's definitely not cheating but i can see where it could be murky in some people's minds as like well if you would change the way that you do it based on if it would her help somebody then i see what you're saying how is that not protecting the field then it's the rule you got to change the rule and be like you have to go up there and mark your ball before the other person minutes.

Yeah. Which also be, I mean, they're on a pace of play thing. So it's like you've got to balance the two. And if every chip, somebody has to like get out of the bunker, go all the way up there, mark their ball. Yeah. It's going to add a lot of time. Right. So I, and then if that practice becomes the norm, then people that play every weekend golf, every country cup golfer takes golf super seriously.

And they make sure they all play by the same rule. It slows the whole game down for something that's pretty minuscule. The other argument is like, dude, she isn't aiming for the girl's ball. She's aiming to get it close to the hole. Correct. Nobody can aim for the small golf ball. The thing's tiny. If you're aiming for the small golf,

he might as well aim for the hole. Correct. So it's like it doesn't, in that sense, it doesn't, you know, it does, it gets murky. I think the problem is in the rule. It's in no way is it, let's classify these people as cheapish. That's what's really. People getting their torches and pitchforks out for this is like, you know, take a walk outside, breathe some fresh air.

It's ridiculous. It's crazy. It's quite ridiculous. So we are defending them. We're defending House Juttenegarn and Amy Olson. We are on your side. you are not cheaters. However, the rule probably could be rewritten so that this doesn't become a gigantic controversy.

If someone goes on to, it happens on 18 of the Masters or something, and so he gets into a playoff because of it, that would be a serious problem. Real quick, before we get to Darren Clark, let's just talk about Tiger. Tiger finished 10th, T-10th in Mexico. Kind of a weird week for him. He had this crazy conservative strategy going on. Throughout the first two days, it says Woods hit iron. After iron off the tea, he was routinely leaving himself 40 to 50.

yards behind his playing partner. As the week war on, Tiger found himself looking up at DJ and Rory. The strategy never changed and it guaranteed money, no cut event. Tiger just never stepped on the gas, never really started whipping out drivers. He said he probably only hit a dozen drivers or so over four days, which is not very many. That's like three drivers a day. There's a point to me that he just, if he would have putt a little better, blah, blah, blah. So obviously his putting was terrible too, if people know that.

But it's kind of a weird thing that we saw Tiger play so conservatively. Yeah. I mean, I, yeah, I mean, it is, it is kind of strange. I mean, especially with, I mean, I wonder if it's just, he saw, like, the field also, right? And just changed the way that he was going at it. I mean, like, I saw your tweet yesterday when DJ is on his game. Is he the best player? Did you write, like, the best player?

Yeah, I mean, a lot of people say, like, a lot of people have this argument of, oh, if everybody has their A game, who's the best? Yeah. Right. You know, because really nobody ever has their perfect people. I actually think DJ may be the answer. I think it is between Rory and DJ. I know a lot of people are like, oh, what about Tiger? Well, look, Tiger may get there in the next year or two if he continues to improve his game and his swing and all that.

But clearly, Tiger, I don't think is at the point where he doesn't hit the ball as far as DJ and Rory. And I think the two of them are the best answers to that question. JT's getting into the conversation. But again, even Spieth, and people always go back to like, well, Spith or Rory have this many majors versus that. fine but that's not the argument and also like Rory hasn't won a major since 2014 and the argument is like today right now if every player had like their A game who's the best and I think it's DJ I think his A game putting is way better than Rory's you think when someone sees DJ playing like that though it changes the way that they

go about I would think that it would make Tiger play more aggressive right because Tiger doesn't play for 10th he plays the win what did we say last week where you said like he kind of he didn't step on the gas as much as he could have because this isn't a major and, you know, he sees that he's not going to win the turn. It was like riding a horse, seeing the guys like running away and then you just let up on him because you know you have a race. All right, I'm going to try and work on some things. But he didn't let up.

This was his strategy the whole time. Yeah, that's the only difference. So right, so he is you know, at Hoylake when he won by hitting iron off every team and leaving himself a million yards back. Like he had this strategy and nothing was going to stop him from that strategy. And you could argue like, well, if he would have just put it well or decently, he would have

been able to contend or win the tournament and Tiger's not just going to veer from his strategy because his putting isn't working like that's his strategy and that's what he thinks and he's the greatest course management player of all time and all this and that so it is very curious you know we always it's it's funny because we've had this argument before we all we have with ourselves of like when Tiger's spreading driver all over the place we're like why don't you fucking hit a three wooder yeah yeah it in play you're so good with your irons so I think maybe he does have that theory he's just like yeah no he finished I mean, I didn't really watch anything about Tiger was doing and thought, like, man, he looks awesome.

And he still finished 10th in, you know, maybe the toughest field of the year so far. He's doing. He's stringed together birdies in a consistent base. He's not doing it, obviously, for our entire round, but there are four or five whole stretches where he's knocking in three or four birdies in a row, which I like to see. Like, I'm seeing him, like, consistently go a three or four hole, five whole stretch where he's just, like, dominating for those five holes. And then he just regresses a little bit, but definitely. And, like, he, too, I think. he knows that. I think he knows once he tightens up

kind of the rest of the game. Once he cleans up his putting, he doesn't, he had a four putt. He had like some three putts. I think he at one point he had a four putt followed by a three putt. He did. The four putt was outrageous. Outrageous. They said that was four putt, three putt up first time in his career. He'd ever done that. It's just amazing. So he does, if you think about the fact that he out thinks everyone else and he knows how to win golf tournaments, what number to get to and how to get there, I do think he very much is like, okay, I don't usually

make mistakes. He's kind of a mistake-free guy. Doesn't make many bogeys. If I get on the tough par fours, I just rip a two iron out there, and then I'm the best iron of all the time. If I rip a mid or long iron in the middle of the green, and then I attack the par-fives, I attack the short par-fors, and I shoot four or five under every round. I'll be around 20 under, and I'll win

every go. You know what I mean? I think that he is getting to that point, and I think that that's why he's not veering from his conservative strategy. If you remember when he almost won at the Valspar last year at Ennisbrook. and he came to the 18th after making that bomb on 17, and he was one stroke behind,

then he ripped a two iron off that tea, and a lot of people were kind of questioning that decision, but it's like, no, that's his strategy. He knows how to get it and play on the tougher holes and, like, get into the situation. So it's, you know, it is weird to see him leave himself that far back. He did the same thing at Carnusty. Remember how fucking far back he was at Carnusty all the time?

Yeah. Remember on the, like, ninth or tenth hole? And he was playing with DJ DJ. I drove him by, like, 130 yards on a hole. But, like, that's just the strategy that he went, He was leading the golf turn in the bag nine before he made some uncharacteristic mistakes. So I think that's where he's at. I think we're fine.