Fore Play - The Magic of Augusta

Episode Date: April 7, 2022

It’s here. The Masters is beginning. Frankie and Riggs spent Wednesday at Augusta National. We detail the entire experience and prepare for the start of the most hyped Masters in recent memory. Also, Adrian Rietveld, TaylorMade's Golf Senior Tour Manager, joins us to talk about working with and tweaking the clubs of guys like Dustin Johnson, Rory, Morikawa, Tommy Fleetwood, Scottie Scheffler, and more for the Masters.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. Foreplay, Brastool Sports. We got myself, Trent, and Frankie Lurch, I believe, is not here. He scheduled flights during this podcast. It's been a crazy week. Frankie and I decided to go to Augusta National. It's pouring here right now, but we just finished up a full day on the grounds.

We took a bunch of video of it, which that video should come out on Thursday. We had a hell of a day. We lost each other. We bought a bunch of merch. We saw Tiger Woods make a birdie. We got a lot to discuss. Trent, Daddy, it appears that you are in the Chicago office, which we're going to be at Thursday, Friday, and then Saturday, Sunday, we're going to be at the bar. How are you?

How's your week? How's the Chicago office? I'm great. The Chicago office is great. This is my first time here. And it's really just a magnificent office. I walked in here, and I know everybody says that who comes from the New York office to hear. but I'm really we were talking a little bit before we hopped on the podcast and I just feel I feel home

I'm a Midwest guy Chicago is as Midwest as it gets and it's it's good to see Eddie I mean I've I've seen all the guys it's good to see all of them I can't wait for you guys to get here the setup that we're going to be watching the the coverage at is fantastic I feel great I mean I probably don't feel as good as you guys do because you were just at the greatest place in the world but for me personally right now I feel great and I've got this fantastic hoodie on which I'm sure we're going to talk about. Yeah. You do look, you look like you were born. You were born in the Midwest. You were born to be in that office. Something about the blue and the white and the little red dots. The Chicago colors and Trent just works. We were at Augusta National today. And I mean, I could cry just about like just being from that Augusta gets me really emotional.

It's a place that, and I'm not going to reference Disney in this episode. I'm not. even though I should. Like, it's a place that you just can't believe is real. There's real magic happening inside that built, inside those grounds. Beyond those walls, beyond those pines, magic is happening. And it happens in all different crevices of this place. We saw Tiger Woods hit a golf shot and then just tap in a bird. That's crazy.

By the way, that's crazy that you saw him. Like being there is one thing and it is a magical place. but the fact that Tiger was there playing golf in front of you guys is something that I want you guys to tell me all about because I want to know and I think the listeners do. Trent, like players, like, and this is us just talking to as like buddies on a podcast that a bunch of people listen to, like players now,

like we've seen this trend of guys like knowing who we are and stuff. Like when you're at Augusta National and guys are prepping for the masters, the fact that people are legitimately walking from the fairway over to the page, the patrons to spot us out and get our attention, like a Will Zellatoris. Just a random guy that happens to kill it at Augusta just as like, yo, Frankie, like, what's up, Riggs? Like, come over here.

It's like, oh, yeah, no, hold on just one second. So we're just going to come over there and we'll talk to you. It's like fucking like, dude, he was on like 15. It's like fucking like, what are we talking about? Are you like practicing for the masters? What are you doing? So yeah, no, it is, it's been a surreal experience. We're in some house.

And yeah, it's just, it's crazy. It's crazy out here. Happy Masters Week, everyone. We had a great day. I have to say, Frankie and I have had, you know, it's a little bit of a bummer because we're at the part that that sucks that you deal with because you want the last two days to exist. And that is that as soon as we're done with this podcast, which we're cramming in, trying to squeeze in an hour here where we can do this podcast in this home. Shout to the entire club Magnolia crew that set us up. and put us in this spot where we got a nice couple quiet rooms we can do the podcast

and have our friend Trent join us from the Chicago office. But we're at the part where we have to finish this podcast and then we have to do a two hour and 45 minute drive to Atlanta and then deal with the worst airport in the world, which is Atlanta, and then fly to Chicago, get in late, wake up and not really have a ton of sleep, but we'll obviously run out adrenaline because it'll be master's time. But that time's going to be great. We are so fucking jacked up to watch the masters, to watch Tiger. To use the Barcelona sports book, the unders club, which Trent's rocking that hoodie right now.

It looks amazing. That part's going to be awesome. But the next, I don't know, eight hours or so from me and Frankie are going to be miserable. But this is the part that you know going in when you squeeze out a last second trip to Augusta to try to go into the Masters for a day. Kisner got us our tickets, Kis and Brittany. Kevin and Brittany, Kisner. You know, this is the part that really sucks is that we packed up all our luggage this morning. We've got to go through all this bullshit.

It's pouring out. We might kill ourselves driving. But we have had an excellent, excellent two days in Augusta. Today was so much fun. We got one of the luckiest breaks, I would say, in history. Frankie and I, you know, we were out a little bit late last night. We were having a couple drinks. We were finagling.

We were telling stories. We, you know, without giving it all away, we can't because we can't. Like Mark Steinberg and the Excel crew we were hanging out with, telling stories, had a absolute blast last night. Trent, you wouldn't believe what happened last night. You wouldn't believe what happened. I'm going to say, I can't wait for you guys to get here. You better tell me all about it.

We had so much fun, but we get back a little bit late. And, you know, we wake up. We don't get to Augusta until maybe 9 a.m. or so. First three and a half hours that we're there are spectacular. It's beautiful out. We go down the back nine. We see Tiger Woods. He appears as if we, but we walk by the merch.

Merch was not even part of the question. It was going to be like a three or four hour wait. So we roll over there. We got to talk about. Shady rays, which I wish I would have had on me out there on the golf course today. I forgot them. We're going to get to Shady Ray's. Best warranty in the game.

And we have our own pair. So just go check out Shady Race. But we get to Augusta. We're like, we got to find Tiger Woods. We heard the Tiger Woods seat off at 8 a.m. We're enamored by the entire place, obviously. The color green that it is, there's nowhere else on earth. That is that color green.

I don't know how they do it. That juxtapositioned with the yellow flags. You kind of walk out from the merch concession area for the first time. You're right by the first tee and the first fairway. You can't believe the undulation on the first fairway. The very first fairway that we're seeing, it is like a half pipe. It goes way down and then way back up into the first fairway. And you're just like, holy shit.

We're at Augustin National. It's so green. The signs they say aim and corner this way, the first tee that way. So we're like, we've got to find Tiger Woods. There's whispers. The whole property is whispering that Tiger Woods is on the back nine that he teed off at 8 a.m. We're not on the runs. At that point, at that point I just,

in their way. Are you just looking for a crowd? Are you looking for the most people ever on a golf course? Correct. We're just looking for, and at Augusta, there's massive corridors and viewing points through the trees. You can kind of tell.

So we pretty much could look from almost the 9th, 18th green area all the way down to kind of the 15th, 16th holes. You can't actually see those holes, but you can see the crowds and being like, yep, we're going that way. And everyone that's with us is speedwalking as well towards kind of 16.

There's whispers that, Tiger's there. So Frankie and I meander our way down. We get ourselves a nice pimento cheese, a couple of egg salads. I got a lemonade. I think Frankie got a Coca-Cola classic. And we walked our way down. And next thing you know, dude, we're in the 17th fairway trying to kind of see.

And Tiger Woods, Freddie couples, and Justin Thomas are just walking up the 17th fairway. Tiger's balls in the middle of the fairway. We're like, Joey's walking down the fairway. That's a good sign. He's going to that ball. Oh, my God. That ball's really far.

It's right in the middle of fairway. Tigers right in front of us, maybe 30 yards in front of us, massive gallery. I'm talking huge crowd. We could only get maybe five people back. It was like five people deeper so. Tigers going through the whole Ritia. And then just right behind us are the full swing guys and Robbie Mack.

And they're like, boys, what's up? So Robbie Mack and us. And what's our guy's name from full swing again, Frankie? Jason. Jason. He was California large. He looks exactly like large, but he's a California version. And maybe my favorite person,

on the planet. He's so good. His smile. So he's like the Bazar alert. He's great. And so Robbie Mac is like, boys, it's so good to be here. I can't like great to see you guys. So then he's getting to do it with Frankie and his chipping again. And we're just back. Like, we're back in the scenario that we have missed for so long. It's almost like it was pre, not even pre-tiger accident. It was like pre-COVID. It was like dapp it up. What's up? The world was normal. Tiger Woods is right in front of us. Hits it to like 20 feet. we hang out with them for 30 minutes while Tiger and then play 18. Tiger stripes in the middle of Fairway on 18,

hits it to tap in distance on the 18th hole. Crowd's going crazy. Makes Bertie on 18. They do their whole chipping routine and all the bullshit. And then they kind of, he just, him at Robbie's like, yeah, yeah, we're going to get out of here. The weather's coming in. So great to see you boys.

We got a tournament to prepare for. And then they just kind of disappeared. And that was it. And that was how our day began. It's not even fucking 10 a.m. yet. The thing that's great about that situation for you guys and the world right now as a Tiger fan is this is the most magical, magical it can be right now because the tournament has not started. We don't know what's going to happen, but the possibility of what could happen is injecting an amount of magic into this situation,

into this scenario that is honestly unmatched. Like maybe, you know, if he doesn't perform well at the tournament or he doesn't make the cut or whatever, I don't even like saying those things. But then that magic has gone a little bit. Right now, what you witness today is as magical as it can get because he can still win that golf tournament. And you're watching him play and he looks great and he's hitting it great. And it's just a very cool. That's something you guys will remember for the rest of your lives.

And having a moment like that that you realize like, I'm going to remember this forever is very cool. We watched the greatest golfer of all time play at the. greatest golf course of all time without any leaderboard implications. Right. There was no stress. There was no, he has to do this. We just watched the greatest, at the greatest. Just play the game of golf.

He hit a drive. He hit an approach shot and he made a putt. He did the thing we loved to watch him to do. And there was no stress, just optimism, just excitement, just this feeling of like what's to come. Christmas morning is coming tomorrow. and like we have no idea what Santa's going to bring. It could be coal and it could be that brand new red shiny bike that we've wanted our whole lives.

So I'm really excited about what's to come. Yeah, I mean, everything just kind of fell into place for us. It just like we had a couple of rain delays. That was kind of crazy, but that also just helped us in ways that you couldn't imagine. We got like, we got like VIP access to the merch. You know, I don't want to call it merch tent. it's a merch like Walmart basically is the facility that they have there now because Trent as we're and again this is all brought to you by Shady Ray's amazingly Trent as we are getting escorted off of the property and we are

being the slowest people ever to leave it's like the horns went off at like noon or like 1230 and it's like kick everybody off property kick everybody off property it takes forever right and we're kind of like we're like dude we haven't seen a name in corner yet so we kind of like sneak our way down by Aman Corner. And there's a couple people lingering around, but they're like, no, no, you got to go. You got to go. So we're like, yeah, yeah. And then we kind of like find somewhere 20 feet away.

And then they're like, no, you got to go. So by the time we finally get kicked off property, literally we get our phones. And they're like, there's a green jacket there who's like, hey, we're letting everybody back in in 10 minutes. So if you want, you can turn around and we're like, let's go. So, dude, we turn around 15 minutes later, whatever it was. they let us back in and we just waltzed right into the merch shop. First people back into the merch building. They were 45,000 people.

So we just got them. We were leading the herd of just humans rum. You just heard a rumbling coming behind us and we just got in there, bought way too much stuff inside that building. But yeah, it was a hell of a scene, to be honest. You guys are like the kids at the arcade. They're like, all right, kids, the arcade is closing and they're kicking you out. And you're like, man, I don't want to leave you're dragging.

feet. You don't want to go. You didn't get to play the game that you wanted because the line was too long. And then miraculously, as you're about to leave, they say, hey, the arcade is back open. Come on in and you get to go play the best game in the place as soon as you get in there. That's fucking amazing. It was precisely what happened. It was incredible. And we couldn't believe it because the line was, there was a moment where we were being kicked off property that it felt like no one was ever going to be allowed back on Augusta National again, not even just like today, but ever again. And here we were thinking the day's over.

We hadn't gotten a chance to get merch. What if like this is this famous Masters where Tiger Woods came out and he had the practice rounds. And nobody knew if he was really going to play. And then he played. Who knows what's going to happen? We want that merchandise that says Masters 2020. I actually have one of my clean hats on right now. I had to put it on fire right now.

But yes, it was that kind of experience. We got so lucky with the rain delay allowing us to be first.