Fore Play - The Match Delivered, And Now It’s Our Turn

Episode Date: May 26, 2020

The Tiger, Phil, Brady, Manning match, in our opinion, delivered. We’re joined by tournament director for the match, Kevin Hopkins, and breakdown our own thoughts. Then we preview everything about our own match, as a four man scramble, against Kevin Kisner at Pinehurst No. 2!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 Podcast, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. We're at the Carolina Hotel here in Pinehurst. It's kind of weird. It's a weird vibe. We're all sitting like eight feet apart from each other. Yeah, we just got here. Frankie and I just rolled into town.

Nine hour drive. Yep. You guys are still wearing your kind of like driving travel year. Like comfy sweatshust. This has been my quarantine outfit. Sweatpants and sweatshirt. a really comfortable t-shirt underneath and a hat.

Like, I haven't done my hair in four months. I will say you look as good as you've ever looked. Which is crazy. In terms of your personal physique, I don't know what it is, but you look healthier, heavier than I've ever seen. Well, I'm wearing baggy clothes to start.

Right. But even in your face? Well, I got this mustache going on. You know, everybody's... First time I saw it in person was this morning when we got to the car and I think it looks better in person. Well, it's taken now another week to fill out.

So you've got to think a week ago. I think it's gotten... thinner and uglier and just works. But I think we've reached our thickness point. Like I've been like even looking with a microscope. I don't see any more hairs coming in like on the sides and stuff. So this may be it. You don't see any more growth on that face.

No, no, I got no more testosterone to pump out of little hair. But I'm really excited to be back at Pine Harris being out of the fucking war zone that is New York. Yeah. Right. How different is it down here just in terms of you're seeing people together? Well, that's the shocker for me when I first came. Yeah.

And we were saying like, I was saying like on the drive in like we've got these I've got the mask thing around my neck right now almost feels like we pulled in like from a mad max movie and like we just came from New York City the epicenter and then he come down here and things are definitely like a little more calm and relaxed we got gas and we saw people looking at us like Jake was pumping gas with a mask on it and I thought that people may have thought he was sick you know I mean like oh why is that guy wearing a mask like get away from me yeah what guys have a big sign on all your foreheads it says like New York like he came from New York yeah I know it was a rental car

What plates do you have? What state plates? Is it? North Carolina, I think. I think Jake said North Carolina. Okay, that's a same in grace. Because if you roll around with New York City and New York plates, like that's a red flag. Drive was surprisingly easy.

It was long. I felt like every time we looked at the camera, at the GPS, it never made up any ground. We hovered around six hours for like five hours. Yeah, but like you listen to a bunch of music. You talk about fucking stupid things. And like you play that little game that you guys are doing with the fucking, you name a player and you just name the college.

Oh, yeah. I was so bad at that game. My brother and I used to play this game where, it was back when I was more into the NBA and basically you go back and forth and somebody says a player. Chauncey Billups. Yeah.

You got to guess the college. It's a very simple game. Many people play it, I'm sure. Michigan State? No, Colorado. Oh, no, wait. You said Billups, right? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. So we played that for a while. I was good with football players, never really with basketball players. My game in the car, if I'm with a friend, is the alphabet game. So you can't look backwards.

You've got to get A through Z by only picking off license plates or signs. And the first person Z wins. Awesome game. I feel like the person who rides on the car with you. Do you have to alternate or you just go? No, you just do it. So, like, I don't know where you're at,

but sometimes you'll get cocky and be like, I'm past Q. Because once you're just, you sit there and like, we could be talking about other things, but like I'm looking for C. It's pure honor system. Pure honor system. I thought you called them out.

No, no, no. I thought you did too. Because the goal is defined like an obscure cue on a license plate that like the other guy doesn't see. So if you're driving and you can't look back, you might see a Q car and then get in front of it and then just never let it pass you. I don't like this game because you don't tell the person you just saw it. Right?

I would scream out like LQ. But then they can see it too. Once you call it, it's over. That one's dead. Oh, you got dizz on the letter. That's a good change to the game. It's a nice wrinkle. I would just love to be driving the car and like we're both looking for why.

And then the first person screams out like, Yankee doodle restaurant. And you're like, fuck. Yes. Like, that's funner. That actually, I like that's a good wrinkle. I've never played that way. But if you spot a letter, you kill that. The other way.

Well, because both people get Q, but that's not me. Somebody's phone. That's some laptop. Screaming louder than any. The other, the way Lurch plays that game, it's just like everyone's stewing in silence. Right. But then when someone's like, I win, it's like, damn it, I was on something. I don't know.

I think like with a road trip, like with the college game, you need something that keeps the conversation going, as opposed to sitting there. Let me tell you something. Maybe that's better for my parents with kids because it just shuts you. I would also say the people who ride in a car with you on a road trip are also like, I just don't want my eardrums to get blown out. So like the less lurch talks, the better. Let me tell you something that gets me going.

I didn't know. No offense. It's good to see you. I guess none taken, but everything taken. It's good to see. Tiger Woods playing golf. So good. So good.

So Tiger was playing golf gets me going. He was so good. So Tiger was phenomenal. We have a ton to talk about. We've got the entire matchy of Sunday with Tiger with Phil. with Brady, with Manning. We've got the preview for our match, which is tomorrow. It's today, as you folks are listening to us.

You can probably go on Instagram live, go on our Instagram story on Fordplay, go on social and check it out. You're going to get updates. You're going to see clips. And then we're filming the entire thing and putting out a full video next week. But we do have a ton to get to. We're going to break down everything that was the match at medalist on Sunday. Before we do that, we have to remind you that we have an official cocktail mixer.

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We just grab that stuff. You just pour it in with the ice, with the liquor, and boom, you have an awesome, awesome, high-quality cocktail. It's like you're at a bar. It's like you're at a nice lounge, except you're just at home or you're at some little party. Social distancing, of course. It's very easy. Barstool 15, Owensmixers.com. There are our official cocktail mixer here at Barstool here on Foreplay.

so Owensmixtures.com bars to a 15. Okay. The match. Yesterday we have Kevin Hopkins on. So after we're all done talking, we have Kevin Hopkins on. He's the tournament director for the match. Now that might sound funny because it's just four people playing golf. But he goes into that.

I kind of give him shit about that. Like what do you mean tournament directors at the easiest job of all time? It's not a tournament. It's just four people. But he goes into all of dealing with the tour, the different sponsors, the different agencies, obviously Phil's represented by a different whole different team. then Tigers represented by. And so you got to get everybody on the same page and figure out the golf club and the dates and the broadcasting rights.

He's the tournament director for all of that. So we get into the behind the scenes, how the match came to be, what it was like getting each party involved, what it was like switching from the memorial to then doing it at medalist because of COVID-19, the weather, the impending weather. What the hell were they going to do about it? They had microphones and wires breaking during the thing. People were they upset about it? Were they going to play? were they not going to play.

We get into all that behind the scene stuff. So that's coming after we chat about this. I chatted with Kevin alone, so I'll throw it to you guys. General thoughts on the whole thing. I thought it was the most fun. I don't know if this is recency bias, which it probably is. And it's also the fact that I hadn't watched anything in the last three or four months. But I thought it was the most fun I've watched.

I've had watching golf. And that's like including the Masters. Now, we watched Tiger Woods win the fucking Masters while the Islanders were winning a Stanley Cup playoff game. that was fucking awesome but like this was a different kind of awesome i was so in tune with every little thing and amongst multiple people right usually when i'm watching the masters i'm locked in on one guy who's gonna win tiger woods that's who that's what that's what i want to hear everything phil said i want to hear everything tiger said everything tom brady said everything patin manning said justin thomas embleman i mean it was it was a perfectly run golf event

perfect yeah it blew me away and i think they learned a lot from the past things like this too right like the first match the response to that was very boring we thought we were going to get banter i know that's a popular word between phil and tiger didn't really get it and then even as recent as last week you got the the rory dj rickie matt wolf match also kind of not that great and then you get this match and i've been trying to think about what made it so much better than the ones in the past and i really do think it was brady and peyton even just from a sense of like i think when you have it just phil and tiger and it's on them to Play really well, make it interesting, talk shit, make bets.

But then when you bring in two other guys, I think it takes the pressure off of them. And in turn it makes them more relaxed because you got everything you wanted from yesterday or Sunday's match. You got everything you wanted. You got the genuine shit talk. You got Tom Brady playing terrible golf, terrible, relatable golf. Peyton Manning's playing great golf. I honestly, I can't say enough about how great. Tom Brady was in a house of horrors, man.

It was a house of course. But that's what people want to see, right? You watch the DJ Rory, Matt Wolf, Ricky Fowler match. They play pretty good golf. They're all very good golfers. And at a certain point, it's like, all right, now I'm just watching four guys carry their own bags and play pretty good golf. Tom Brady throws a complete wrench into it. And he got guys at home, like me, who are looking at it being like, that's how I play.

It's nice to see a guy who is considered the greatest of all time at his sport, be probably really nervous, feeling exposed, playing golf and playing terribly. Like, I thought that was great. Yeah, I mean, I loved it. I mean, I thought it was like, it was perfect all around. And to the banter point, I don't know if that's just like a team sport that maybe team sport players are more like shit talking oriented because the banter between Peyton and Brady like spurred just a tremendous round between everyone. And I think even like humanized and pushed Tiger and Phil to do more. So I thought that was just phenomenal. And the golf and seeing anyone who's considered the greatest struggle is just so.

relatable and like makes me like you more. And just the struggles that they went through naturally and how frustrated Brady was with whatever he was going through. It was perfect. And to your point, Frankie, it was one of the most enjoyable things to watch on the TV that I can like remember. Because it entered a new like form of watching golf. I was like Phil Mickelson was explaining to a person Tom Brady who I think I'm a better golfer than.

People didn't like that on Twitter at all. They hated that. They hated that so much. I think yesterday, like you're, you playing well versus what Tom Brady did yesterday, you would beat him. Yeah, you, what I had in front of me, I've played better than that. Right. On a pretty consistent basis. Obviously, he has too, but that's the beauty of watching amateur golf.

Yes. Because, like, tomorrow when we go play Kistair, nobody in this room knows how they're going to hit the ball. It's a nightmare. And if you don't hit the ball that well on the first couple holes, we've got no way to correct it. I can't correct the swing in a golf. I've been where Tom was before where no, where, like, you have no idea where the ball. going when you make contact, which is scary. It's a scary sight.

There's no denying he had a ton of nerves. But also, like, I saw Hank say that. Like, Frankie would fold on national television. Are we using national television as an excuse for Tom Brady? The guy charges down the field during Super Bowls. It's different, though. What do you mean? It's different.

He's not playing football yesterday. But you don't think, like, the national television aspect cannot be used for Tom. No, I totally disagree. But so I just want to make a quick point. Yeah. It has no nerves. So I agree with you, Frankie, that, in terms of like the, you know, national TV shouldn't be the full barometer,

but he's doing something on national TV that's not a trusted skill in his bank. So the fact that he's going out there and showing like kind of, you know, oh, I don't know if I'm going to be very good at this and present that, like not a known skill set to the world is, I think, what makes it nerve-wracking. Totally. When he's on national TV playing football, in his head, he can think, I'm the greatest of all time. And it's true.

When he plays golf on TV in front of a national TV audience, especially an event that no one has watched live sports in the last, you know, couple of months. 5.8 million people watched it. That's amazing. With a peak of like 6.5. The most much golf event of all time in cable history. So he's out there doing something that he's not the greatest at?

I bet he was very nervous. It is like, I would say it is like if we, I'm trying to think something that we are generally considered like good and natural at. It'd be like if they ask us to go on national TV and do like the four play podcast, I don't think we'd be nervous. It'd be like, it'd be a little nervous, be on national TV, but like, we'd rip and it'd be like, fine. Nerves wouldn't be like that crazy you'd get used to it, whatever. But then if they asked us to go on national TV and, like, play golf, it'd be like, that's

very, very different. And so you're, you know, it's like when you're really comfortable at something and you know that all the time that you put in and all the work that you put in that, like, you are one of the best and that you are going to deliver. And then the nerves are very different and that he's had that on the major, major scale in football. obviously the best of all time you get six fucking ring but then you put him a golf you said a skill that he knows is not in the bank it's like up in a question mark that's bad

imagine if they plucked us and they're like all right you're on national tv sing a song oh right sing a song carry a tune do it right now and it's like i'm gonna ship my pain i would but have i told the world that like i'm a decent singer like we expected tom brady to be well you've told the world that you're like an above average amateur you know like you're like in terms of the average is probably a 12 handicapped he's slightly a better than that right so he came in a what like an eight handicap or something yeah right he's like an eight point i had a conversation i despise about golf twitter i hate golf twitter a lot and everything is really starting to like i really starting to hate those people um but when they're like oh like tom brady's an eight handicap

and i say that at riggs all time like well it's just like he is right and like that actually proved that like you can be an eight handicap and shoot 103 because like he was way into triple digits with the way he was playing if he's if he took his score i'm I mean, he lost every single ball off the two. Yeah, on the front nine especially. I mean, he shot 60 on the front. And that's like being generous. Shout out.

Yeah. Like, that happens, right? Like, we're always on video and I'm like, I'm a 10 handicapped. They're like, Frank, he's a 10 handicap. Like, well, I'll show you the app that says I am. Right. It's not my fault. Like, I've just played bad today.

I'm going to input that score and it's going to tell me what my handicap is. And if it's anything that you don't believe, that's your problem. I don't know what else to tell you. I just play the game of golf. I put my numbers in and it gives me a number. That's what Tom Brady does. It is happening to play bad, but that doesn't mean that's not his handicap. Those comments, it's funny because they come from a place where those people are like,

oh, no, I know more than you. You're not ex-handicap. And really all you're telling me is that you're dumb because you don't understand how the system works. Right. And eight handicaps can go out in the most nervous situation, uncomfortable rain. Like, Tom Brady's probably never played in rain. Why the fuck with Tom Brady ever playing rain? Two gloves on.

Right. So he's got two gloves on. He's got microphones attached. They're falling off when he's swinging. And you're like, oh, there's no way. Handicap, play that bad. What are you talking about? A, handicap, go shoot 1-10 any day easily.

I've seen them all do it. So it's like, you people are, it's so obvious that you don't know what you're talking about. You think an 8-Handicap just goes out and shoots 8 over par every round? Right. What? How dumb can you be? If you're going out there shooting an 80 every single round, you're not an 8-hand-point- No, you're like a 4-year-four.

Yeah. So it's so stupid, man. And that, that aspect really, I was really happy that that happened, that someone went on national TV and played the way Tom Brady did because it proved that, that no matter what your number is, no matter what, you can have a bad day. It doesn't change the type of golf you are. Tom Brady clearly has the skills that make him like a sick golfer from time to time. I mean, he went drain all from like 130 yards out. Well, that was one of my-

Sick backspin. Like one of my favorite things in the world was right before that, like, Twitter, the world is just killing Brady. My tweet went out 10 seconds before he drained that. Yeah. Well, then Kepka's like, I'll give a hundred grand if Brady makes par. And then that comes up on the screen and then he dunks it. And then it's like news alert. Kepka has donated $100,000.

And it was just so funny. Yeah, it's a donation alert. It was like, Brooks, it was phenomenal. People weaponizing charity money against Brady was so mean like Barclay. He was like, if you hit the green,

all down 50,000, dude, he was not going to come anywhere close. Obviously, he proved it to Brooks a couple of holes later. But like to be like, yeah, I could have been like,

I'm going to put up $100 million dollars for you to hit the green. It's just like it's the same exact thing. Also, I like that. I knew it was going to be better. As soon as they were standing on first T-box because the announcers didn't say anything.

Yep. That was so much better than every other thing we've done like this where guys are talking over each other and we can't hear what the actual players are saying. So for them to just let it breathe and they did it pretty much the entire broadcast where if the guys were talking to each other and they were going over a shot or whatever, the announcer is just completely stepped back and we're like, we'll let this tell the story. And that is, it's doing less is actually way, way better for the broadcast. Samuel L. Jackson doing those intros and the players being able to hear it.

The technology was off the charts. I guess that was Cisco or whatever they kept putting that up. That was so seamless to be able to do that. Have these guys wearing three like battery pack things on their on their backs. They had the ear pieces in like that also. Like that's hard to play golf with that. You got to imagine, right? If I have the slightest bit of something going on in my arms and my shoulders,

like when you wear these fucking rain jackets, that's my first excuse. It's like, well, I mean, it's like, what's the where we always use? It's, um, restricting. Restrictive. It's very restrictive. my swing right now. It's like, well, it's just an excuse.

You have one excuse, an excuse is why I didn't do well. But like, they had a lot of things going on, but the technology worked, man. Like they heard everything that, that the announcers were saying

at the right times. And then they heard each other and they heard Amanda and Justin. And then they had those little cams inside the fucking golf cart. That was so sick. Shout out to the tournament director. And then they had,

yeah, where to go on director. And then they had like Brooks Keppco was obviously live tweeting it being like, I'll give 100 grand for this. And then they have Brooks call in like spontaneously. And they don't keep them on for too long. like Bill Murray or anything like that.

So it all felt. Russell Wilson goes live for closer to the pin. They shoot three darts to within five feet. Incredible. Mani almost holes one out. Like that was awesome. Yeah. It was really great.

Yeah. It was. It was. It was. It was a, they finally, it seems like someone finally took what people have been screaming at in like a, just less is more. Just micke these guys up and then just let us listen to them. Yep.

And somebody talked about it earlier, but Phil Mickelson, talking with Tom Brady. Yeah. about like coaching him through different shots and getting him back on track and then be all of the different stuff around puts and like all right so I think it's definitely you know moving a little left to right as you can tell from this and kind

of even just going through and Phil's clearly a showman like Phil knows that like everyone at home is going to be listening to my genius brain break this down but that was the perfect opportunity for be like Phil lay it on me like lay it on thick with how fucking smart you are about the grass

and the rain and there's high point and here's the apex hit me with all that shit and he was and he was like giving it to tom brady and there's tom brady who in this moment like yeah he's tom brady but also like we said he's like he's clinging for dear fucking life and he's like yeah phil tell me everything i need something and it working out and having them like and oh that is what the putt did that's how phil mickleson thinks through shots whether it's the you know 18th hole of the masters or whether he's out here during covid playing this little fucking charity game that's how these guys think through shots you had all of Tiger in his glory just playing great and like stepping up he had the honor on every

tea you know especially for the first for the first three hours of this whole thing because they were just dusting them so tiger before you even knew there on the next hole they would just cut the tiger on the tea and he would just rip one in his red shirt and they would put a red tracer on it you're like oh my god and he had every single fairway to miss a fairway the whole time he looked healthy he looked fast last time we saw tiger he's withdrawing from tournaments left and right so we didn't know what to expect. He looked great. He didn't even do a ton of talking because he didn't have to.

It was like all these, like Lurchison, all these other guys made it less pressure on them to do the fake, forced banter. That's been the big keyword banter that we get. It was like, no, let me watch Tiger do what Tiger Woods does. We're just play golf. Let me hear the chatter between the guys who were clearly from team sports and they've been busting balls in the locker room, let Phil lay it on thick and it all just fucking worked.

And it was very enjoyable to watch. The chatter was perfect. Yeah, like, yeah. thought even tiger like came up well where Phil was go right before the long drive ball like Ty or Phil's going on this rant about whatever and work day and the whole hoopla and Tiger just made like two

comments who were like yeah that's great and like I have to do like I have to hear this every time I come with Phil yeah that's Tiger but that's like the best of Tiger or even on the drive range concise yes it was so so in two weeks you can't like drive it further than me and Tiger's like all right or when Tom sprayed one and he was like oh yeah that'll be on the fairway

on another hole and it's just like dagger tiger told phil the market on the green like u.s open chervis it's just so good man also shout out to justin thomas what a what a what a show nominal first showing of that because like he was able to get into these he was able to show off his like um inner circle friendship kind of with those guys but then also teabubb uh mr eldrick and that was another one i think yeah um but also give you the right insight at the right times right they're like oh justin like what's this shot and he knows that golf course like the back of his hand clearly the way he was talking about it and he belongs there and he was like

I'm so happy to show the world our fun little place that like me Brooks and Tiger like rip around every day and it's like so cool like he had that moment for everyone but yeah I thought Justin was great and just the whole all the whole commentary crew man even Charles Barkley

like wasn't over the top like sometimes he's over the top and he talks too much about stupid shit but he was there was so many personalities honestly and somehow torment director it blended together as well as it possibly could Yeah, it was even like one time like Trevor Owen, who we had on like three weeks ago, who was awesome. He just would throw in little insight there like, Trevor, what are you seeing with Tom here on the first four holes?

Like, why is he struggling so much? And he's like, all right, here's what he needs to do. Move his ball a little forward in his stance and then just get his, you know, keep himself through the ball. And everyone at home is like, like, all right, I'm going to stand in front of the mirror now. And like, do what Trevor was talking about. And then he would just, and then it was just like back to the audio from the guys being miced up. And you were like, oh, shit, that was great. Like it's just, it's just you've never seen it work and you never expect it to work that well.

And it did. I thought one of the best moments was when Trevor told Tom how to drop that ball. Yeah. Yeah. Like that was like, I don't know, breaking the fourth wall or third wall, whatever the fuck you want to call that. But like the announcer talking about what's happening and then and then the athlete literally just looking into the camera being like, what'd you say? Like, okay, where am I going? And then the announcer's like telling him that was like some weird fucking shit.

I felt like I was watching a black mirror episode. Yeah. That was weird. And then Justin Thomas saying, I'd love to see your fat ass try to dunk a basketball to Chuck. I was in my apartment laughing about as hard as I've ever laughed. I still missed what Chuck said to Justin. I don't know what sparked that, but I've watched a clip of Justin just say, I'd love to see your fat ass dunk a basketball and I laugh every single time.

It is so funny. And it's like that is perfect because it's not him. Right. Like that was just right into JT's mind and that he wasn't being some fake person to do the broadcast right. Yep. He just was like JT. Like, oh, yeah, he was micing up JT. And that was kind of him being like, yeah, we're going to mic me up. That's it. That's what it felt like. It felt like it didn't feel like, hey, we're here to put mics on you guys.

And then talking to the microphones and make it interesting. It's like you just put mics on them. And then that is sort of how it felt all day. It felt very natural. And that's what it's these other matches have been missing. It was natural. And it's, you know, these all, like they captured to the feel. And I did think the one with Rory and those guys at Seminole captured this a little bit, but not as well and not as much. But it captured in my mind, like, what a round with the four of these guys would pretty much look like. Yep. Like with the chirping and with them, like, hitting horrible shots and then Tiger and Phil bailing them out. And then, like, pretty ruthless chatter and, like, chirps here and there, but pretty good golf.

And it was just like it was kind of almost like you were flying the wall, like appearing into what a round of golf. would look like with these four absolute legends playing together, except it was all broadcast for TV. And it just like, it just worked. It was fun. It was one of those that like I was counting down the holes, sadly, like, to when it's going to be over. Right.

You're like, oh, this is going to end, you know? Like, sort of like you do when they, like, when they play Amen Corner on Sunday at the Masters and they like finish the 12th hole and you say like, I'm not going to get to see someone play that hole now for a year. Right. It's like sad. And that was, as they were counting down the holes, and there's only three or four holes left in my head.

I started to think like, oh, this sucks. Like, this is going to end. Where the other broadcast, a lot of times you're just like, I hope they get through this thing. Frankie said it a couple weeks ago on the lead up to the DJ Roy match. Give us something to tweet about. And this match had countless things to tweet about. I felt like I couldn't tweet fast enough.

So many things were happening at once that I was like, this is what we were looking for. That fucking towel. That thing had me sweating. Hell yeah, bro. Tiger in that towel, man. I mean, he was rubbing his grips, rubbing his face. The first one, he was rubbing the hell out of it.

The things I would do. It had fucking Frankie all hard and bothered. Oh, man, I was fucking hot and bothered. Before that long drive when he was rubbing that thing, holy shit. Kid me? You get a lot of a wall riled up right now? Throw a not safe for work on that one next time.

I think you have your own hotel room. It blurs it out somehow. They just blur the part of the head. He should be wearing sweatpants right now. Also, shout out to Peyton Manning. Pretty damn good golf game. Some of his approach shots and then the part three. where he stuffed it to like three feet or less than three feet.

He was incredibly impressive. As unimpressive as maybe Tom Brady's golf game was, Peyton Manning was the complete opposite. Also, the banter that he had with Brady, even on the driving range, like, he's like, oh, like I was thinking about getting Belichick as my caddy or whatever and like going back and forth. Like that was hysterical. And then Brady came right back at him and was like, yeah, I mean,

you're definitely going to struggle today. You're like a dome quarterback. Like there's no way you're going to deal with the element. Peyton is like an actually a funny guy. Yes, he is. You can tell who's funny and who's not with the athletes and the celebrities. But like when when Peyton was on SNL, it was a super funny episode. Like he is actually a funny person.

The show an NFL thing is good. The Peyton whatever, the NFL 100 series. It's really good. Oh, I didn't watch that. He does one with Tom Brady at Jim Nance's house. I talked about that a little bit on one of the last shows. But yeah, he's really funny. And also you can tell that he's had a lot of practice of playing golf recently.

He's just got that country club retired old athlete swing where like it comes in. is a nice draw and like you can tell that like he hits the range every day because he just got that like same very he's grooved that it's like it's like it works yeah he's repeatable for him honestly they should repeat that match like make though just run it back bro i'd rather watch that

all day long than the fucking john dear classic like screw the pGA tour did not see that come no i didn't even screw the pgat i was like i was like yeah go in on the first match go in on the dj where i mat and i just caught a sucker punch to the side of that me that over any other golf tournament except for me. Give me that except for like every major and the players and I guess the FedEx Cup championships. And then I'll just watch matches like that. I don't need any other tournament.

It's a pretty formula too. You can now just like cycle in different personalities. And it can be a different thing every time. Get comedians in there. Yeah, do it all. They found something. If they can capture what they had the other day, it is incredibly repeatable. And I'll watch it every time.

I think two golfers, two non-golfers. And it's got to be that way. You can't do four golfers. alternate shot was so electric. It was so perfect. It's so perfect to see which drive they're going to take because then I'm sitting at home being like, oh, like, yeah, Tiger lays one right down the middle, but Peyton needs to get this one in the fairway because you need Tiger to hit that next shot. It doesn't matter that Tiger hit his in the fairway.

Like, we need Tiger to hit the next shot because you don't want to go Peyton-Mitting against Phil Mickelson on approach shots. Like, that strategy is awesome. Yeah. And then JT asked him, he's like, was there any strategy to this? And he's like, nope, easy on that one long one. It was like, they were 260 out on a par five. And they're like, oh, why didn't you go a Peyton one? He goes, it's easy.

Easy decision. Tiger would have won the Masters in April. That's all I'm saying. Yes. Yeah, that's no doubt. Whole and Rum Instagram giveaway, presented by Gosslings Rum. June 9th is International Dark and Stormy Day. To celebrate, we've teamed up with Gosslings rum to give away five Ford Play Gosslings,

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Okay. We have much more chit-chat about the match, Tiger, Phil, Brady Manning with Kevin Hopkins. That's coming up in a few minutes. Coming up, the day that you're probably listening to this show is us playing against Kevin Kisner. We just saw Kisn in the lobby. We just sized him up.

He's short. I didn't see him yet. Damn, that's what I know we're going to go with that. We've seen him a bunch of times now. Yeah, I know his stature. I'm seeing Dewey everywhere. Dewey got here early. He's been here for four days, which I don't like.

He's scouting the course. He played two today. He's talking about the greens, the speed. What the fuck is going on? I did not appreciate that conversation. And I saw his whole family. They seemed very cheery and happy. How dare that man have a happy family?

I told him, I go, you're the enemy this week on my way out. Well, your real response to running into kids just now was he just looks so relaxed and ready to go. So obviously to his face, I didn't say any of the stuff I just said. Obviously. But when I saw him, I'm like, well, first we're talking about my mustache. Right. He's like, I'm looking at it. We're all looking at it.

And second of all, second of all, it's just amazing. It was. That's the first thing we talked about. Second of all, what I said to him was you're way too calm, cool, collected, and tan and relaxed to the point where like he doesn't even know, he doesn't look like he has anything going on tomorrow. He's here for a fucking spa day and to do a little trip around the links tomorrow. He has no idea that someone else is in his path trying to beat him. Like in his mind, like he's just like, I just showed up here. I'm going to make some money for a great foundation.

I'm going to play this golf course. Probably going to shoot a 68, 69. I'm going to walk out of here and now I'm just going to leave. And like, we're just going to be on the side clawing at him. Like, I don't know. We're going to beat you. Like, he doesn't even know that, like, in his mind. He looked right through me.

He looked right through me. Yeah. He just like, yeah, he goes to. That's too bad because you're looking as healthy and as big as you've ever looked. You say that now, but I'm going to look pretty fucking sick tomorrow. You probably will. I don't know what it is. You've never looked this good.

It's a bag of clothes. Yeah. That's what I told producer Jake. Producer Jake's like, hey, you look, you look skinner. I'm like, look at these clothes I'm wearing. You can't, you can't see any of never been bigger. I've huge right now. I'm huge right now.

I told you, you leave me alone for two months in my apartment. Look out. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm starting to look at you. You're looking thick. Yeah, bro. Yeah, bro. You guys look fantastic.

First time seeing you guys. You have a glow to yourself. And Riggs is your hair looks, your bald head looks fantastic. Yeah, it's coming around. You think so? It's just correct. It's correct. I think it's the right, right.

Right. Now that it has color, when it first, when you first did it, it was like a glow top. It's just correct. Right. It's the best option.

Yes. I think there's no doubt about that. 100%. There's just the best option. There's no doubt. I appreciate you saying that. I feel like we're too gassing each other up right now, which is great.

Well, I got cold fat, but other than that. Oh, strong. No, I'm seeing. He did get cold fat. Because I.

Well, I had to give it back to him once. No, no. No. Well, they probably play the quiet game, so you never have to hear Lurch his voice. And Jyn's like, well, you know, I just got a cold little fat boy over here. I'm serious. I'm serious.

I'm like, I'm a little disappointed in the rest of you because we've been in quarantine for three months. What the fuck are you guys been doing? You're supposed to be eating and not exercising. Like, I thought we're all in this together. And I come out and I'm weighing a million pounds. And nobody is there with me. Match tomorrow. Sorry.

You guys played Piner's number two yesterday. Yes. from nowhere close So that's the first question Where did you guys play it from? We played the same T's we played when you guys were here. 6,800? No less.

I think it's like 64. So it's a different game then. You guys shot an 80 and 82 respectively. Yep. So it's a different game. Yes, but I will say, I think I'm not close to the same golf course. Let me tell you this though, but you're not playing your own ball.

Let me tell you this. I'm of the belief after watching myself and Lurch play number two that if we play our game, which we're all pretty bad golfers. But if we just play our like our like standard B game, I think we'll be very, very competitive. I think if we play our A minus game, A game, we will win.

And I think if we play like our C game, which we play a lot, we will lose. So like we're there. I think we're in the hunt. I just wanted to be competitive. I agree. I originally said we're going to destroy him. And then I flip flop and said we're going to get killed. I just wanted to be like we're going into 15 or 16 and we have.

have a chance. Someone needs to make a bomb putt. Someone needs to make a chip. Or Kiz needs to make a great chip, like what he is capable of. Like kids needs to go over a bunker and make it up and down just to push it. I need something like that because we do have four shots at every single station. So we should be able to be competitive. We should be able to move massive four swings down this golf course.

We should be able to make it competitive. We're going to put some good swings on these balls. Right. And staying in the moment of playing your game and just playing your shot is going to be key. because, like, we all have to give it our best attempt each time and not, like, oh, Frankie's playing really well right now. Like, I can just, like, you know, it doesn't really matter what I do. It doesn't really matter what I do on this, like, putt. Like, we all have to.

Because I've been to scramble before. I'm like, oh, I don't even need to hit a shot. Right. Because this guy's so good. You know, he's playing so much better. They're like, that we'll just, like, I'll trust him. Like, we have to figure out a way to get balls out there because it's going to be a challenge. We also did a four-man scramble with, like, we had a few buddies down this last week.

and we did a four-man scramble on Saturday afternoon. And it was like, it was like, what, 10 under par? And it was guys that I would say each collective team was worse than our team. And now it wasn't Piner's number two from 7,600 yards. But like all the par fives that were 510, 520, which is what the hardest par fours that Piner's number two were, were like guaranteed fours. Right. So it's like on some level.

You've played Pines number two so often. I have a ton of course. Right. Like a tough. And I think Lurtz saw that yesterday in my game. That like even if I'm not driving it perfectly that, like I know where to be to be able to put up decent, like a pretty solid score. And I think like going around the course that way is going to give us a very good chance. Now, I will say something that is going to be breaking news to everyone, which I think overall is a good sign.

But Kiz texted me yesterday and said, hey, since you guys are playing a four-man scramble with like the club line. thing I obviously get to take a club length on every lie too right and I said no and good answer I was like thank you well it doesn't end there as you may have cast yeah I was it feels like it more and then he was like well then you guys have to play it down and I was like well what does play it down me I was like the whole deal is we get to play a four man scramble you get to you have to play as like your own ball and he said well I'll give you two options or I'm not coming one of them is I get a club length from every lie just like guys do or the other one is you guys play it down which means the first guy whichever ball you actually take you have to just play it from that

lie like exactly as you found it and then the other three guys have to drop their ball as close to that spot as possible without obviously being in the guys div it and I said fine I don't know why we can't just play a scramble against a professional golfer and try and beat them why I thought we all could drop so even the guy like if I hit a drive out there we're playing my drive and it somehow rolls into a divot. I have to play that ball. I can't drop to. Like Kisner, yes.

I don't like where we've positioned ourselves. We didn't. He was like, I'm literally not coming. Yeah, that's a tough spot to be for us. Well, now he had us to have because there's a whole thing with plan.

Exactly. Exactly. So here's my thinking now. So now we can put him back and be like, no, everybody gets the drop. It's a scramble. It's a scramble.

Like, I don't know what, That's just what the rules of a scramble are. The one thing I do like, he's not playing any sort of stable. If he's making a little side. He's texting us yesterday. He's nervous. He wants a club length?

That's never going to happen. Because if he gets in the bad stuff, I'm not giving him a club length for the good stuff. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here. Kevin Kisner is like a top 30 golfer in the world. He's going to shoot his score. It's all about us being able to do this fairyland thing where we all get to hit four balls from the same spot. Like we get to do whatever the fuck we want to try and beat him. We're playing a scramble.

I'm not going to hit a ball from a divot. I'm trying to be you're a pro golfer. You're going to beat me if I have to hit out of a fucking divvit, right? Like, we're playing a scramble. It's already Fairyland and gumdrops. I was trying to negotiate with him last night. And I was trying to make that exact point, Frankie. And it was difficult.

We're going to talk to him tonight. Doesn't sound like you came out on top. I think it's crazy. You got to get him here. You got him here. Well, that is something, though, to be cognizant of, like, if you hit, if I hit a drive 255 and you hit one, 262 or $2. or 270 even

but your ball literally lies in a divot Like we should take my drop Well no because three of the guys get to hit You know fine I know but like it's only 10 you know like No and his thing he wants us to put it into a divot as well No he said you take a He said you drop as close as you can

To the other one without obviously being in the first guy's divot So like that same divot will be gone Yeah right right right You know what I'm saying The problem is the sand which I thought a lot about this I even thought about going out doing some test runs yesterday but I didn't. But if the hard pan sand is so obviously like tough and hard around here that I think dropping

with the new rules from knee, they won't plug. They'll just like roll a little bit a couple inches and that's where we'll play from. So it'll be fine. I thought that was way better than allowing kids. If he hits one into those little bushy things or something, then he just gets to move it to a perfect lie. Like he'll kill us because they'll basically there's no fair way at that point for him. Like every lie is perfect.

He'll just shoot like 500 paw. Right. So I thought. that it won't really affect us that much. I really don't. Like, I think we'll be taking a ball from the fairway almost every time anyways or a ball that's got a good lie

in the little sandy hard pan stuff anyways. The only thing would be like if we have a little spunker shot, a bunker shot, but like, why would we be taking a bunker shot? Maybe it'll come into play once or twice, but I really doubt it. So ultimately that was my thinking and I just wanted, and we were drinking yesterday,

I just wanted to get it over it. No, I know. I just don't want to start being this like modified scrambles every time we play these guys. Like, let us just do our thing. We're going to be in a scramble. Let us fucking try and beat you. He doesn't want to lose is his biggest thing.

That was the, that's the main tag. That's a great. Him trying to change up the rules of a scramble. And now it's four-man modified scramble. Hashtag, Kevin Kisner, scared of us. That's a little nerve-wrack for him. Wow. Good hashtag.

Lurch is definitely going to use that. We're about to hop off because we have our video releasing right now, which you have to go watch, because we're going to be playing Kisner, watch us on social media, and then we're going to have a Kisner video out. But we also came here a couple months ago, and we are doing our travel series, and I think it's the best video that we've released yet in the travel series.

It's like 50-something minutes long. It's got all of our caddies in it. It's got crazy drone footage. It's got history. It's got renovations. It's got renovations. It's got all the shit that you need to know about Pynast number two, and it's out on YouTube right now.

So watch the course that we're about to play Kisner on when you listen to this. And then watch our Kisner video. Seriously, go do it. for play golf on YouTube. Pioneer's number two. It's out. You can check it out. We're playing kids.

So there's a lot happening. We're trying to provide as much as we possibly can. Enjoy that. Kevin Hopkins is up next. So we got much more chatter about sort of the nuts and bolts and the logistics and the behind the scenes and the decisions that were made for the match. We'll be back on Thursday. We're going to know the result, the situation. What happened in the Kisner match?

We'll be here to break that whole thing down before we go to Kevin Hopkins. As some states start to reopen and going out in public becomes a greater possibility. It's time to start thinking about whipping that quarantine body back into shape. Shout out Trent. But trading curly fries for dumbbell curls can be difficult, especially when you haven't left the couch in over a month. Thanks to my friends at CBDMD and their topical products, you can get the superior support and relief you need to get moving again.

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they're offering our listeners 25% off your next purchase when you use the code for play at checkout. Once again, that's CBDMD.com promo code for play, one word for play at checkout. You're going to save 25% on your next purchase of superior CBD products from CBDMD. Here is the tournament director, air quotes, like, Boston Powers, Dr. Evil, air quotes, tournament director for the match that we just watched this past weekend.

Kevin Hopkins. All right, folks. We are joined by somebody who has been referenced on this show actually several times. And I believe with like a title and a description that he finds quite flattering. Kevin Hopkins, I was thinking about how to like intro you. I think it's better to just have you introduce yourself how you would kind of describe your role and everything with the match and your job and your connection to us and all that. I like it better when you intro me, Riggs.

I think you went with, I've been a few things on the show. I've been Tiger's Guy, which I'm certainly not. I've definitely been my guy inside Tigers Camp, you know, which I'm also not. But for this particular event, I'm the tournament director of the match. I came over to Excel Sports Management in 2018, about probably two months before the first edition of the match. Lived in Vegas for like a month. It was, they threw me right into the fire. So, yeah, it's been great.

And so, you know, I would say for the last, we've been planning this for a while. We've had talks for quite some time with Tiger and Phil. and with Peyton and Tom. And it's obviously changed over the course of the last few months and really the vision court changed. So excited to be wrapped up with it. Just got back home here back into the tri-state area in New Jersey. So very relieved that it's over and glad that it went well.

Yeah, it's funny. I have referred to you as Tigers guy many times. And like you said, different variations. And I do want to say the reason for that is because it was my connection with you that originally got our first interaction ever with Tiger, which was in the locker room in Shadow Creek. You were standing there. Robbie Maca was there.

Joey Okava was there, like the whole little crew we were trying to make it happen. Well, I was your videographer. I mean, I was basically your Jake. Like, hey, can you hold this phone and please press record? But now it worked out well, man. It was funny. I'll never forget you handing me that phone and me checking it being like,

Please tell me he recorded that. Please tell me he recorded that. So like you said, you got brought over. I mean, we're obviously going to get into yesterday, everything that went down yesterday, how it came about. It was, I think it was phenomenal. I've been texting you on the side, just kind of my reaction. And I thought it was phenomenal. I think everybody's reaction has been very, very positive.

But like when you first came over to Excel and you're working with Steinberg and you guys were putting on the first match, like you were the tournament director of that. And how much, I mean, how far along were they already? And ultimately, like, describe your role as the tournament director for a freaking one-on-one golf match. Yeah. You know, that was, so Mark Steinberg is my boss. He's been Tiger's agent, his entire career. And, you know, we stayed and he was, he hired me originally at IMG over at IMG for 13 years. and then he moved over to Excel and then, you know, every time I would see him, you know, there was always, yeah, I knew at some point I wanted to go back and work there and finally he had the right opportunity for me.

So, you know, summer of 18 is kind of when it happened. I started in September of 18 and the matches in November. So at that point, a lot of stuff had already been decided, right? They were playing for $9 million. inbox it was on pay-per-view you know closed to the public had you know VIP we were doing it out in Vegas there are so many different partners that have made this thing happen Turner Sports is is our broadcast partner and our production and sales arm we work with logadair which is Phil's agency to co-manage the event and and then we work with the tour it's a tour sanctioned event so there are a lot of different people who have their hands in this in some capacity.

And it's tough because, you know, you're talking at some points, we're working with directly with our competitors to, in Lagadere with what we do on a day-to-day basis, but we're working towards the same goal. So, honestly, it's a great, that event in particular, my role was, you know, listen, just try and get these groups together and working towards the same end. And, you know, there was a lot of more, it was more so logistics, I would say, last time around. You know, most people would say, okay, it's just four guys, just put them out there. But, you know, we probably had close to 1,000 people on site for the time it was all said and done.

And as Shannon of people, you know, a lot of, yeah, you were there. You saw the crowd that was there, but hospitality and all the operations that go into it. So I think we learned a lot. I think that was the biggest thing is we obviously, all, of us partners for the first time working together, whose role is what and how do we communicate. So I think we learned a lot. And then just coming away from the broadcast, rewatching it, you know, learning what worked and what didn't work. And then also from a marketing standpoint, I think, you know, that was billed as this, you know, one-on-one for, you know, nine million

bucks. You know, we were asking people to pay 20 bucks and download it on pay-per-view, which obviously there were some issues with. But all in all, I think if we didn't have that in 2018, we certainly wouldn't get to what we had on Sunday. So, you know, I think we took a lot of the good and the bad, and we tried to spin in our favor this time around. Yeah, so then how do we get from the first match, Tiger versus Phil, Vegas, Shadow Creek, to what we saw on Sunday, which is Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, team. There's kind of a one club. It's like, did you guys know right away, hey, we're going to do something else and get to work?

Or how does that work? Yeah, I mean, contractually, we were doing another one. So it was just a matter of when and where. You know, I think we looked at potentially doing it on the Friday after Thanksgiving again last year. as Tiger before adding the NFL talent. And if you remember end of last year and you do,

because you were obviously in Australia, but they had Tiger's event in the Bahamas and the President's Cup back to back. So we couldn't go with Tiger and Phil. We couldn't tell them, hey, spend your Thanksgiving in Vegas again, get on a plane, go to the Bahamas for a week, then go to Australia.

Too busy of a stretch and oh, by the way, Tiger won the Masters last year. You know, it kind of changed his overall schedule. So we all agreed as a team, hey, let's look towards 2020. And let's figure out how to make it better, right? I think the hard part when it's just Tiger and Phil, and we knew that coming out. We always knew that we wanted to do four players.

You know, when it's just Tiger and Phil, and especially when it gets down the stretch, like they want to beat each other and it's not it goes from you know entertainment and kind of some hopefully some fun banter back and forward um but then they get into competition mode and it's great and it's riveting you know as far as the golf is concerned but um it's not necessarily the best when it's one-vers-one um from a tv perspective so i think uh you know when we started to think about so Peyton Manning is one of our clients at Excel and and then Tom Brady's actually represented on the marketing side by my former company WME and IMG so I knew some of the folks

over there really well and and this guy Brian Zirif who's become a pretty good friend it plays at Riviera all the time and he saw Brady there I think in the summer of last year and was on the range with them and was like dude you should come playing this And he was intrigued. BZ came to me. We talked to, you know, I went two offices down to Alan Zucker, who's Peyton's agent. And we had a pretty quick conversation. So the idea and the concept was there.

And I think everybody agreed upon it. Now, it changed along the way. So originally this was, you know, as of, I want to say, like March, the first week of March, we were going to do this at the Memorial. And, you know, we spoke with Jack and Dan Sullivan, who's the tournament director of Memorial. And Peyton's a nationwide guy. So Peyton plays in the program there every year.

Tiger, obviously, has won there many times. Phil always has that on his calendar. So the three guys were already going to be there. And it worked well from a scheduling standpoint with Tom. It's the off-season, you know. So we had to work really. the Tom's window is the one that we needed to figure out more so than the other three. And, you know, we did this in Japan last year with the tour at the Zozo Championship. We did a

skins game to kick off their tournament week. And it's nice because all the infrastructure is already in place. The players are already there. And you can basically utilize all of, you know, everything that's already on site. And, you know, so from this standpoint, that that's what we were going to do with the memorial and we were going to play for nationwide children's hospital. And, you know, we had the pieces in place. And then obviously, this pandemic hit. So, you know, we went back to the drawing board. You know, we were still trying to figure out, okay, is this going to happen? And we hope that, you know, when the tour comes back in a few weeks, that everything rolls and that the folks in Columbus get a great tournament here in July. So, but we did shift gears and

say, you know what, at this point, it's probably best. And all credit, honestly, for this entire thing, needs to go to the four players because they could have easily said, hey, listen, we're out. It's a great idea. Let's just do it when it's safe. And instead, they said, no, let's use this for good. You know, I mean, they personally said, we're going to put $10 million to causes that we believe. It's not just their time. I mean, their time is valuable enough to come out in play, but to put their money where their mouths are was ridiculous, awesome to see. And they were really the drivers behind this entire thing. So really cool to turn it around.

The folks at the medalist, you know, just Tigers Home Corps, welcomed us with open arms. And, you know, the tour agreed, Turner agreed. And now all of a sudden we had a purpose and, you know, something to play for. And I think that really drove what happened this past weekend. It's funny when you said, I give all the credits. to the four players. I thought you said to four play at first. And I was like,

I will give you zero. You get absolutely zero credit. So, thanks for you. So, you know, you guys pivot. Like you said,

you're going from the memorial. It's like, okay, we got to figure something else out. Really a great opportunity to, um, raise money to do it for a great cause. But also to get a lot of eyeballs because people are sitting around going,

you know, we need something. We need sports. Everybody's been talking about how golf, could be the only the first sport, really, that's able to come back because it's got natural social distancing. It's not a physical sport where there's physical contact with one another. So then when you guys decide to pivot, you know, how do you choose the course? Medalist is obviously Tiger's home course, but is Phil then bitching about like that's his home

course. That's like that's what I would be doing. I'm not playing this guy's home course. So how is that shakedown? Do you have to have like a text group with Phil? How do you, you know, is there like a lot different disconnect with the okay tiger says we could do medalist now somebody talked to Phil and Tom can't how's that it's funny yeah the the behind the scenes is really funny because we've got one text chain that's the agent's text chain and then there's a text chain of the four players and a lot of time you know they're very different stories and whoever depends on who's relaying the information you know it's it could be total BS so you just don't know who to trust. The one thing that we did know, you know, down there is that medalist was in

Martin County. The restrictions were not as hard from a health and safety standpoint as they were even, you know, just south or just north of there as far as what they can do and playing golf. And it's obviously, I mean, you saw it and unfortunately it was in the weather that we had, but you saw how awesome of track it was too. And so it was, you know, listen, a lot of discussions we talked about, you know, do we want to go back to Vegas? We looked at other, you know, courses in Florida. And Tom and Tiger were already in Florida. So that's really where we were trying to narrow down to.

So, yeah, honestly, it was somewhat of the perfect storm with this thing, I guess literally and figuratively with what ended up happening there, thank you. And I think between the pandemic hitting and these guys agreeing, hey, let's play for some people who really need it. And then, you know, the fact that people were desperate and starved for some live competition,

I think it honestly was, it came together. And my role, certainly from the first one to this one, it changed. Like my whole, you know, my job wasn't necessarily worrying about, you know, sponsored VIP hospitality and, you know, media arrangements and things like that. It went into health and safety really, really quick. And I had to do, you know, a real crash course with the tour and what they were doing with their event on NBC at Seminole. And, you know, now I'm talking to doctors every day and we're having, you know, three hour long conference. what's the testing process? What's the thermal testing process? It was just, and then trying to

communicate that. So, I mean, it was like trying to take, you know, I had a final in college that on a topic that I've never studied and I have to get it right. Like there's literally no, I can't, I can't get anything wrong on it. So our team worked really, really hard to put together, you know, Turner put together a really comprehensive health and safety plan. And we followed it and adhered to it and, you know, a huge learning experience. And hopefully it can be a blueprint for, you know, other sports, right? It doesn't necessarily just need to be a blueprint for golf moving forward. But hopefully it can help, you know, these leagues as we start to see a return to a normal scene. So, you know, Sunday more, well, I guess a couple days even before Sunday,

it starts to be pretty obvious. There's going to be some dicey weather. How much, you know, I mean, you've done all this planning. You've just. just went through all of the really years from like building upon what happened in 2018 to we're going to do it again. We're going to get Tom somehow in the same place where we have the other three. And then we got to move out. We got to move from a memorial to Florida. And we're going to do this great thing for a great cause, raised a bunch of money. It's going to be a medalist.

We can finally get Phil and and Peyton over to Florida, which is where it's out and everything is. And then it's just horrible weather, not just yesterday, Sunday, but for the foreseeable future. Behind the scenes, how much were you panicking? How much were we panicking about the weather? You know, I'm not a big weather guy. I know a lot of people in the tournament business who look at the, you know, the 10 day, the two week 10 day, seven day, you know, three day out forecast. I mean, you've got to plan for it. You've got to have, you know, some type of backup plan. You know, honestly, we were going yesterday. And credit to the guys because they showed up, you know, they called and they texted in the morning just being like, hey, any updates on your end or are we good to go? And we're like, hey, we're good to go.

Come to the golf course. We don't see, you know. And they got to the golf course. And I'm like, any lightning? I mean, it's pissing down. Like we, I mean, they showed them when they came in in their cars. And it's literally like, you know, I'm wearing this earpiece that connects me through to the truck. We're like, hey, we're sticking with, you know, three o'clock, we're going on air or balls in the air at 3.30 or 340.

And sure enough, we go on the air at 3 o'clock. Peyton's the only one on the range, and it is sideways. Like, it is just teeming rain. So, you know, listen, all morning, every, you know, all morning yesterday, everybody that we talked to was, well, man, what's going to happen here? I mean, it's Florida in May. So, you know, it's fairly typical that you're going to get some squalls that come through. and I think we expected that. I think the good news is we didn't have a bunch of people on the golf course

and everybody was in golf carts. So if we needed to clear out because there was lightning in the area, whether it was going to the halfway house or bringing them back into the clubhouse, we had the ability to do so. I don't think it was in anybody's, you know, anybody's plans to try and move, you know, bring this to Monday or Tuesday or further along. I mean, we're dealing with four pretty high-profile guys who have somewhat busy schedules, even in a pandemic. So, you know, our goal was if we could, we were going to get it in.

You know, I got to say I was pretty nervous just from, you know, a pace of play was a little slow. The weather was certainly working against us there. And by the time we got to 17, it was dark, you know, the old classic. It's darker than it looks on your TV. Oh, yeah. Dark. I mean, I made a phone call on 17th Fairway. to the clubhouse and I was like how are those back porch lights like you guys got any floodlights

there you can just throw something on to 18 green and they're like it's it's not a great option so you know I was rooting for some misses and you know listen we we got there um it worked out the way it was supposed to work out yeah I um I was just wondering like is anybody was anybody handling the weather noticeably poorly right like whenever we will be out there with our forces. Like two guys, they get their rain gear, they're fine. And one guy's like, it's okay. And then somebody else might just be like, this rain sucks. Was anybody in the broadcast or on the course, who was handling the weather the worst? No, honestly, everybody was good. You know, the course maintenance crew was so good.

It looked pretty good. The course looked pretty damn good, considering everything. I mean, it drains really well. But the course super, his name's Jason. He was, he was, he was fantastic and his whole crew. And like, listen, we, the production team from Turner and then our producer and our director, Jeff Newbarth and Steve Bime, I have to give them a shout out because we went to a talent meeting with them and we have different scenarios, right? When we come on air, we've got a scenario that with them teeing off at 305 or 350 or if it's really pissing down and we can't go. We're going to, you know, air a bunch of other footage that we had canned just in case.

We're going to front load as many commercials as possible. And then if it clears up by 6.30 or whatever time, you know, 5 o'clock, we're going to let the guys go out in carts and play nonstop golf as fast as they can play. So, you know, I think everybody handled it really good. There were a couple people who totally rattled all morning who were just trying to get us all worked up. But everybody, for the most part, kept a calm head. And like I said, the players came in. They were like, we're going.

We're going. And that's what they did. So, you know, your reaction, somebody says to you right now, how'd Sunday go? How'd the match go? What's your reaction? Listen, we raised $20 million. You know, it's really hard to, I don't care how bad the golf could. have been. I don't care how bad the broadcast could have been. It's really hard to knock something,

especially in a time like this, that raises $20 million to, you know, people on the front lines, trying to eliminate food insecurity, you know, small businesses that are folding and the Red Cross. Like, it's really tough to knock that. So no matter what anybody said or from a critic standpoint, It was a success and it means a lot, you know, for somebody like me who's, you know, worked really hard to try and, you know, put these pieces in place and to actually do good, right? We work in golf, but we're actually doing good for the world. So I feel great about that. And then on top of it, I think, you know, I didn't get to do much yesterday or last night.

But you know that golf Twitter is a particularly dark place on the, internet. Correct. Yeah. And for the most part, I feel like it was universally accepted. I think you know, I haven't been able to watch the broadcast yet. I was out on the golf course with the guys yesterday. So that's that's part of my plans for tonight. I'm excited to dive in and see what worked and what didn't work well. You know, I had an earpiece in to a direct line to Jeff, our producer and you know he was just the maestro and and it's tough because i can't hear what's going on but all i see is you know there's a bunch of things like man so many people involved in this thing who um who deserve credit right like the sound guys who are running around in a in the middle of

a torrential downpour you know trying to in between shots unhook you know unhooked radios that are soaked and earpieces that aren't working and um you know ultimately try and make it look as presentable as possible on television. And, you know, it sounds from the sounds of what I've heard from most people, it was really well received. So I think my overall feeling is, I feel a sense of accomplishment for sure, but relief and pride in really all of the groups that came together to do this. And I'm excited to watch it tonight.

Did you like it? much overall i loved it i loved it i uh you know i i think that the golf twitter which like you said could be a very dark depressing awful place curmudgins just just terrible awful it could be absolutely awful um i think even golf twitter was a big fan of of everything yesterday i mean it was it was entertaining it was good golf it was relatable golf like all mixed together it was mega stars that you were watching tiger looked phenomenal he literally didn't miss a fair way oh my god he was not this a fair way ty or phil's you know out there trying to sling bombs and he's in the trees but yet still making the match interesting which is classic phil john brady had the most relatable weekend golf around

uh in the history of televised golf just coming out can't find the club faces save his life then he holds out for birdie it turns everything around and now he's in the mix he makes an eagle put so like all of that made it so entertaining. And then you guys had, you know, J.T. He was hilarious. He obviously had some comments that went very viral during the whole thing. Oh, yeah. He's just, I mean, he's JT.

he's like a number fourth rank player in the world. He's boys with tigers. He's a member of Mattalist. So, like, he's out there just kind of letting it rip. He's like, oh, you guys gave me a microphone. And like, so he was awesome. So overall, I mean, I thought the product was great. How much do you guys, speaking of golf,

Twitter and the other mat, How much do you pay attention to the feedback and what's going on and what golf, the golf world's reaction is to the first match and to the Seminole Skins game? Yeah. I mean, listen, I think you have to. I mean, I pay attention because I'm a fan. So, you know, yes, for my job, I think it certainly helps because at the end of the day, you want to put out something that is well received. You know, you don't want to put something out that, you know, everybody's upset with. And, you know, the event at Seminole, I think that I know how tough it is to do.

And they, again, they raised, you know, $5.5 million for, you know, for nurses and frontline workers. And those four guys gave their time. And it is really challenging, especially when this isn't the way that it's done every week, right? normally you've got you know dozens of cameras on site and you're able to you know piece together a broadcast like the NBC event they had a broadcast team that was in you know north Florida and they had Toriko from his couch in Michigan it's really it's it's really hard it's a hard job you know I think that Jeff overall as a team like we we looked back at what people hated about 2018.

You know, and I think there was a certain level of, this is the rich getting richer. You know, I don't want to pay 20. If I'm going to pay $20, this better be the best thing I've ever watched. You know, no fans on site. It's just, you know, a bunch of sponsors walking around. From my opinion, and as we started making decisions this time around, it was how do we check every box? and that's what we tried to do, you know,

and the event was free for anybody that had cable, and we were raising money. We weren't, you know, putting, you know, more money into players' pockets. We weren't taking, you know, pictures of Phil to become, you know, big on PGA memes of him with the, you know, $9 million. You know, so I think we pay attention enough not just to please the golf viewer and golf Twitter. But I think we paid attention to a point where there's, when there's an angry mob, usually something's wrong with it, you know?

So how do you try to, you know, put out the best product that you possibly can? So the next one might have to be for play Scramble against Tiger. Well, listen, we were the, I think at this point, the appetizer to your entree tomorrow with kids. So the floor is officially yours. we did just get our ratings back, which were a monster. The text that I just got literally like a half hour ago was the match was the most watch golf broadcast in the history of cable television.

Wow. Come on. Ridiculous. So good. So it just confirms that, number one, a lot of people were interested in this. And I think, you know, somewhat of a product of the times that we're in. But, you know, throwing two names like Peyton and Tom into the mix with, you know, two of the best to ever do it.

And Tiger and Phil was, you know, I think it was confirmed that it was a solid choice. So what is next? Is it, you know, I mean, it's clearly it continues to get better and better. Like you said with those ratings, reviews have been excellent, not just numbers, but just the feedback, the people's sentiment, people's thoughts on it has been very, very, very good. So what's next? I mean, where do you begin to kind of plan the next one? Yeah, I think you don't want to oversaturate it, right?

So I don't know how many, I think it's got legs, you know, I think we're walking away from this in all partnerships that I mentioned, whether it's Turner or Lagadera or the tour. You know, I think we all walked away feeling really good about the product that we put it out and the way that we all work together on it. I think the players walked away feeling really good about it too, knowing what they did. So I think we take those pieces and we get together collectively and say what is next.

I think the beauty of golf is it gives us the opportunity to crossover, you know, which is different, right? We wouldn't be able to necessarily bring Tiger and Phil, you know, onto the gridiron or, you know, a basketball court or baseball field. But most of those guys love golf. And, you know, we have a format that we can be flexible with. You know, it's made for TV exhibition. This isn't the final round of a major.

So we can have some fun with it. We can do a one club challenge. You know, we can do some fun challenges on the golf course. So, you know, we regroup and we figure out what's next. I don't know who it is. You know, it could be more golfers. It could be crossover. It could be celebrity, entertainers, musicians, you know, different sports.

So I think we'll look at the, you know, we'll look at the list and figure out, what work. It's going to be tough. Like Tom and Peyton are such massive names, right? So, you know, there's probably a short list of people that we would want to look at. But there's, I think we learned that there's an appetite for it. Yeah, the format stuff's interesting to me. How do you, you know, you guys went with the best ball on the front and then modified alternate shot on the back.

There was a one club challenge. Who makes that decision? I mean, who signs off? Does, like, does somebody have to go to Tiger Woods? and be like, hey, we're going to do like a modified alternate shot. Does that not? Honestly, Tiger came to me and was like, hey, you know, I spoke with your boy, Robbie Mack.

And, you know, originally we were talking about, do we want to just do alternate shot? And then we were like, man, 18 holes of alternate shot with two AMs who are good, but not that good, you know, could make for really hard, you know, at a really tough golf course could make for a really hard viewing experience. And so we looked at it a few different ways. I think that we wanted to start off with the best ball format because it kind of takes some pressure off of Tom and Peyton. You know, we gave them a couple stroke holes where they could be in the mix.

But we had somewhat of a, you know, and I think from a golf fan perspective, people haven't seen Tiger Woods swing a golf club in, you know, two and a half months. So I think we wanted to show as many shots of Tiger and Phil to see what type of shape they're in, right? If the tour comes back in two weeks in Dallas and, you know, these guys start to play. Like, it's a, you know, it's a valid question of how's Tiger feeling? Last time we saw him, you know, he wasn't playing all that well and, you know, took off a tournament. So I think it was pretty clear yesterday that he's in good form. I mean, was just absolutely, you know, putting the ball where he wanted to all day.

So that was part of the decision for best ball. We wanted to watch Tiger and Phil and see what type of shape they were in. And then, you know, we knew that we needed to mix it up. I think 18 holes of watching, you know, when you saw it those first seven or eight holes, really, until Brady jarred that, which was the moment, you know, that was the moment of yesterday. He was in a rough place. Like, you know, and it was, I think, very cool for some people to see, you know, the greatest of all time, you know, he's vulnerable, you know, just like we all are on the golf course.

It was. It was super relatable. And it was, like you said, it was seeing this guy who the only time we've ever seen him, he is in his comfort zone. He is in a place where he's had. more success than anybody else in the history of the game. And now here he is in a place that we've all been in a million times. You're out there.

You don't have it. You're uncomfortable and you're just exposed. And it sucks, except he was doing it on a massive, you know, stage, like you just said, with huge numbers. Also with, you know, the two best golfers of this generation, kind of like being like, hey, buddy, like, let's go. Like, we got to. So I've, and then all of a sudden, boom, flips his whole.

bay around, which is another thing we've all been through, but I don't want to out. So it was cool to get the kind of juxt the position, you know? Yeah, I mean, and listen, I think it was really cool to watch the partnership, right? I mean, Phil, I'm excited to hear it because I saw it in person or in between holes and Phil being like, hey, we're going to get one or two back before the turn. We're going to make this thing a, we're going to make this thing a match on the back. Like, it was very cool to see that. And then to go to alternate shot, like, I think we, I think we ended up going modified so that we didn't have to put more pressure on Tom and Phil from the T's, right? If they have to hit four or five T shots and they have to hit it or else Tiger, Phil,

you know, are hitting a recovery shot from a bush or, you know, whatever it is. So I think that that helped us. And, you know, I think that it created some really fun dynamics where, you know, on second shot, sometimes it was Tiger versus Tom and Phil versus Dayton to try and put it in close or to try and make a put to win a hole. So the dynamic worked out really, really well. And, you know, the rules officials are our rules officials from the tour were fantastic and, you know, really open to being creative with this thing and giving us their feedback on what they think would work best. So all in all, I think having the two different formats worked and was entertaining. Oh, you know what I wanted to say? What happened with Brady's pants? Like, was he

concerned about that? Yeah. I mean, listen, that was right after he, uh, it was right after he jarred. Yeah. So like, was he panicking? Well, no. So I started getting tax and I had a, I had a pair of pants in the, in the back just in case. I had it for Peyton in the back of my cart for for rain pants because Peyton was wearing shorts. And Peyton was like, I'm good. I don't need them. And so as soon as I saw with Tom, I went up to him, I was like, dude, we got a little situation on the back here.

And I told him what the deal was. He's like, oh, okay. But I need a solution. I can, he's like, I can go, you know, change at the turn or whatever. And I was like, I got rain pants here. And they were XL, so he threw them on. I mean, really, really funny. But handled it like a pro and had some funny tweets about it.

It was good. Well, I think overall it was awesome. I think it went great. I think it's like you said, the $20 million is an insane number to be raising right now with everything going on. So you guys did a great job. Congratulations. Thank you. Golf Twitter.

Thank you. Kevin Hopkins, we appreciate you taking the time. Tiger's guy, whatever you want to call them. A lot going on. Before we sign off, give me, what's your prediction for tomorrow? What's going on with you guys and kids and final prediction from the four boys? So I will say I was very confident until like an hour ago. Yeah.

When you got on a plane or when they drove down, like what's until you saw your teammates on the range? No, look, Lurch is hitting the ball great. I'm playing pretty consistently because I've been in freaking Piedhurst for over two months. but I did get a text from Scott Brown, who's, of course, Kiz's boy down at Palmetto. And he was like, Kiz is absolutely striping it right now. I said, what do you think he shoots?

And he said, three or four under. And I'm like, three or four under from 7,600 yards, a pioneer number two is preposterous. Like, if he shoots that, he's going to win the U.S. Open in 20. Like, there's no. But he was like, no, I don't know. But he's like that he's playing great. I'd be surprised if he doesn't shoot.

something in the 60s. And I'm like, I think that we can post something low 70s. I think we'll make a couple birdies. I think we'll make some bogeys and we'll come in in the low 70s. But if kids shoot something in the 60s, we're in trouble. So I do think it's going to come down to the 18th hole. This morning, I think I predicted that we win on 17 with a birdie. But now after hearing that information from Brownie,

I think it's going to come down to 18. I think somebody's going to have a big put to win it on 18. and I hope it's us with four attempts at it. That's what I hope. I hope so, man. Looking forward to. I think that'll be the most watched, you know, internet only Instagram live in the history of, you know, made for exhibition golf tournaments.

I agree. I think the ratings are going to be through the roof. So congrats to both of us. Hop, I appreciate the time. Thanks for jumping on. I know you're busy. You just flew back from Florida. So get yourself some rest.

and we'll do this again sometime. Appreciate it. Good luck to you guys tomorrow. Thanks for the support, buddy. Thanks, brother.