Fore Play - Tiger Return Recap w/ Golf Channel Reporter Steve Sands

Episode Date: December 5, 2017

Steve Sands joins the show to break down everything he witnessed firsthand from Tiger's return in the Bahamas. In From The Gallery, Trent, Frankie and Riggs talk through their biggest pet peeves on the course and debate if it's possible to enact topspin on a golf ball with a golf club. The guys also detail their own thoughts on Tiger's return, Rickie's 61, Dufner's twitter beef with Brandel Chamblee, and much more!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. This is one of our bigger shows. People are anticipating a lot. They're going to get a lot. We are wildly excited. You go from tournaments that not a ton of people are all that invested into just getting thrown right into the tiger mix. So this is a very big show.

It's going to be a lot of fun. I'm actually sitting and leaning down in my chair to try to restrain my excitement. decided don't jump through the roof. Yes. On this week's show, we have from Golf Channel, Steve Sands, reporter there since 2001. He was on site. He was walking with Tiger.

He was talking with Tiger. Tiger has his own nickname for him, Sansy. Sanzi. Which you will see how Steve reacts to that. We get into all kinds of details with him, his thoughts on how Tiger looked, his health, his expectations for Tiger teeing it up next year, et cetera, It was cool just to get an inside look from somebody who was on the ground.

We all watch the coverage. We see the swings. We see everything. But you don't get to see everything. He gets to see everything. He has some very interesting insights from Tiger's weekend in the Bala's. We are going to break down Tiger from our point of view, everything that we saw, start to finish our excitement level. Were we disappointed about anything?

What are we looking most forward to? What do we expect next year? We're going to get into all that. We also have on the show, as always, Frankie Borelli, the pizza maker will hop in for the from the gallery. He's also going to do a little Tiger. talk with us. We got biggest pet peeves, others do on the golf course. We have a question of, is it possible to enact top spin on a golf ball with a golf club? Thoughts on push carts. A lot of good stuff. Much more in from the gallery. But first, this episode of four plays

brought to you by our friends at Omaha Stakes. Let me tell you about Omaha Stakes and how for only 4999 you can get the family gift pack. When you go to Omaha steaks.com. You enter the code 4, that's F-O-R-E, into the search bar, and you're going to get 75% off. How much percent off? 75% off. We've talked about this before, but this honestly is, this deal is insane. It's so good.

I don't want it to ever expire. I don't want it to ever disappear. I just want this to be a reality forever because it's that good. You go to Omaha Steaks.com. You're going to see a search bar. You're going to type in for F-O-R-E, and you are going to get, for what is usually around 200 bucks. It goes down to $49.99.

You're going to get all of this. You get two filet mignons. You get two topster loins. You get two boneless pork chops. You get four boneless chicken breasts. Four kielbasa sausages. Four burgers. Four potatoes.

Algratin. Four caramel apple tartlets. One Omaha steaks. Seasoning packet. Plus, they add in four additional kielbasa sausages for free. Listen, they sent us two of these packages. We each took them back to our apartments. And I think we can say that is nothing but rave reviews.

It's a ton of meat. You can take it out there. You put it on there. You mix it with your buddies. It'll feed a fucking army. And then it's delicious. And now you just got to go out. And what you want to do is you want to get it as a gift.

We got the Christmas season coming up or whatever holiday you celebrate. All you got to do is you go to Omaha Stakes.com, put in the code for F-O-R-E. And you get 75% off all of that meat that rigs just listed. It's really a no-brainer. It's one of the best gifts. It's one of the best things to have around. I'm still eating meat, sausages, filets. I'm still eating it with my roommates.

It's still delicious. It's the best thing in the world. It comes in dry ice. We had a whole ice discussion on a couple podcasts ago. We got to the bottom of the ice situation. Comes with dry ice. Comes great. Comes fresh.

It's a great deal. Go to almostakes.com. Type in the promo code for it in the search bar and you are good to go. You got Frankie Borelli in the house to talk some tiger. I don't even know where to start. Look. Well, actually, I know exactly where to start. I predicted you would finish ninth.

He finished ninth. He finished ninth. Shout out to me. Wow. T-9th, but we'll take it. I mean, everybody's super positive. We talked about Brad Faxon's puff piece a week before when he played with Trump and DJ and Brad Faxon. But the hype, it seemed different.

It felt different, blah, blah, blah. He finally teed it up. There's nothing in the world like watching Tiger Woods play. Yeah, let's start there. Let's say, all right, so we work in this office. It's not like any other office. It kind of has TVs everywhere But so when Tiger comes on

We mosey on over Unfortunately he teed off at noon on Thursday So that's right when Frankie has a national radio show to do But me and you sat in the recliners Right in front of the TVs And we're just like let's do it I'm ready for this It is just

You know We kind of talk about this with Steve Sands a little bit But I legitimately hang over A Tiger Woods like Four foot par pot During a fucking December tournament With 18 guys in the field on Thursday more than I hang over any put on the back nine of Augusta when he's not in the mix.

You just every shot matters. You remember every single shot. You could sit there and talk with your buddies about Thursday's round on every chip that he hit. How did he hit it? Did he hit it like shit? Why do you think he hit it like show? You could talk about every single shot he hit. Well, and a lot of the talk coming into this was the fusion, as Dr. Riggs has covered extensively on this podcast.

He's been on Rundown. So the first couple, you know, swing. his driver, is he free? Does he have any pain? And then once he starts hitting it, because at first it's like a basketball player coming back from a knee injury. I remember going through that with Derek Rose, where every time you go on the court, it's like you feel like you have so much, you're filled with anxiety because you don't know what's going to happen. And then once you get into a couple holes with Tiger where you can see that he's swinging freely, it's like, all right, this is going to be actually fun now.

The nervous level on the first tee was unlike anything I've ever experienced. I honestly, I was a train wreck. I was an emotional train wreck. you're thinking like man he when he lashed at that ball you're thinking like oh god oh no what do you do like take it easy dude like relax he swung hard and he's fucking roasting the ball swing looks great he's driving it great he comes out uh you know he has a good looking uh good looking birdie pot on one hits a wedge in there tied after roasting a drive past j t who jt was like eighth on tour last year in driving distance right around 309 i think or something something like that he was top ten i think he was number three

eight. But anyways, Tiger's out driving him. Par par, gets the number three, reaches it in two. Two puts. He's one under through three. He ended up playing the front nine all week with the exception of Saturday, which we'll get to really, really well. He got to eight under par for the week. He finished ninth. He didn't look injured at all. The only thing, and we had our guy, Brandl-Chambly, on, he went through all of this, all the details, all the hurdles that tigers got to get over. Talked a lot about the chipping. Tiger's got the chipping yips. Every time we've seen him come back, he's a struggled chipping. First, first attempt, it was like, God, it was like the fourth hole, I think. It was after he made a birdie. And it's the most straightforward fucking chip

a professional golfer can have. It's like uphill. He's got like 15 feet of fringe and then 20 feet of green to work with. Flubs it. Ends up can in a 20-footer. Gives a huge fist pump. So it's kind of an emotional roller coaster. You're like, Jesus Christ, his career is over. He can't chip cans it fistpup you're like he's back to win the mass that's the other thing with this the emotional roller coaster is insane like he would he'd be making par saves and we thought it was the biggest putts in the entire world and they were because he is historically whenever he is doing well he's making those long distance par saves and it gets them all jacked up and then he keeps playing well so they are it's big emotional swings especially with tigers first time back yep so he

would get to uh then on the on the he would make a couple pars then on the seventh which is drivable par four he drives into a green side bunker he's got a pretty straightforward bunker shot for these guys, hits a poor bunker shot. So it's another short game shot around the green to 20 feet or so, two putts. Then on nine, he rips two great shots. His ball actually landed in the middle of the green.

Looked like he was going to have like 15 feet for Eagle, dribbles over into a chipping area, flubs another one short, three jacks from there, makes bogey when it was looking like a sure birdies. So you're thinking, again, my God, he can't chip. It ends up posting a 69 despite horrific chipping. Nice. Nice.

The nice stuff was all over the place. Even golf channel tweeted nice. They did. Shout out to our gang of the golf channel. Getting edgy over that. Real risque. Yeah, it is. Isn't it amazing when you see like an actual organization, stuff like that?

Like do stuff like that. Like I would see like the Yankees Twitter ever make even a, like a, even remotely of a joke, it's like, oh. Just like weird. Whoa. Weird. It's like you hearing like your teacher say a bad word when you're like, I just like, what? What would you just do? Yeah.

Friday. he comes out blazing takes the lead makes eagle on nine to take the lead twitter is going bananas nuts everybody's jacked up he's going to win the masters i mean not even not only he's not only he's going to win the term he's going to win about eight shots he's blazing hot ends up he cools down in the back nine but again he looks healthy he's pumping the ball everybody's jacked up charley hoffman kind of goes crazy so tigers five shots off the lead but we're super jacked up at this point yeah going into the weekend i mean not only only was Twitter, Jack, though.

We were doing the radio show, and we hear screams as if, like, someone just hit a walk-off home run for your favorite baseball team in the World Series Game 7. There were, there were cheers among, this office had a buzz to it. Like, when I walked into the office on Thursday, and even Friday, it's like, whoa, something's happening today. And it's like a golf tournament in December, an 18-man tournament in the Bahamas. It's a money grab for these guys. They're going out of the Bahamas.

They all just make millions of fucking dollars. There was like a, there was an aura in the building. It was like, even the guy downstairs, I think, knew. Even like our door guy was like, oh shit. Dude, I'm getting text messages from people I haven't talked to in years. They're texting me. How pumped do you about Tiger? I got guys walking by me on the street like Go Tiger, make Sunday's great again.

People are fucking fired up. I'm getting the chills right now just thinking about him. He just changes everything. How is it possible that it's that more fun to watch one guy golf than to watch anyone else play for anything? And so we come to Saturday. He kind of shits the bed Saturday, but it was a tough day. Nobody broke 70. Nobody on a pretty easy course.

Win was howling. He ended up, I mean, he shot 75. He kind of got a bat. Could have made a couple more birdies. One thing I will say going through the highlights on Saturday, which was a shitty round of the week by far. He actually hit the ball five. He got into some bad spots. He hit it too far in a couple holes on, I think it was three where he like laced one over the green.

He was up against the collar. Ended up a couple chips because he can't chip that great. yet made bogey on seven again he drove it over the green on the reachable par four seven shitty spot like took him a couple chips ended up making bogey there so it wasn't like the mechanics of his golf swing broke down no and he alluded to it in the post round interview he said it's just one of those days where i thought i hit it well ends up in a bad spot so then when you hit it even when you hit it bad it ends up in an even worse spot yeah so he it's good that he can tell the difference between he's hitting the ball well it's just not going where he wants it to and the like complete meltdown

mode. So it's good that he knows the difference. Frankie and I, we played Bayonne with Francis and one of Frankie's boys on Saturday, so we missed the front nine. So I'm looking at the scoreboard and I'm panicking. I'm like, God, Tiger's three over. Is he going to fucking withdraw what's going on? Looked at the highlights. Was jacked up to see that. He looked great.

He looked completely fine. He wasn't like out of sorts. He wasn't like wailing these t-shots out of play. He was just, he was getting in some tough spots, still swinging nicely. Played the last seven holes at two under and it could have been deeper. He barely missed some putts. So he was fine. Then it comes out. Another 31 on the front nine Sunday.

He would kind of, you know, he would come back a little bit on the back nine once again. He made some sloppy bogeys on 17 and 18. Those were, yeah, those were bad. To shoot his 68 on 18. You could tell he was kind of relieved that the week had gone as well as it had gone. He lost a little bit of focus, three putted from like 20 feet after hitting two great shots. I don't know. Give a shit about that.

That means nothing. He looked great. We're going to get through a couple quotes. We got Butch Harmon, Tiger's original coach, OG coach, when he came out on tour, who has maybe more respect than any coach on the planet. He said, and I quote, very pleasantly surprised with the performance of Tiger Woods over the last four days.

Two things that really stood out to me were that he seems to have total freedom in his swing again. I don't see any of the up and down movements that he used to put in there and he looks to have his speedback and you can tell that he's pain free. That is the main thing for me. I got to be honest,

I really like the way Tiger is swinging in the club. That doesn't give you a fucking big old boner. I don't know what does. There was this thing over the weekend, and I put it in a blog and I also tweeted it. But this happens a lot, especially during Tiger comebacks, where when he's not playing as well as we want him to be, we're like, all right, he's healthy.

This is good. I'm so happy. Anything else is, you know, is gravy. But then when he starts playing well, I get my expectations up and I think he's going to win the Masters. I think that's a perfectly fine way to think. Like, people think that's a weird thing to do, and it might be flip-floppy,

but if you just getting excited about Tiger is completely fine. I don't think there's any problem with that. No, not at all. You know, it is a, it is, it is, I hate this is such a cliche now, but it is a process. It's a legitimate fucking process. And the beginning of that process is you need a healthy guy. And then you need the nuts and bolts of, you know, his action, his gain, his swing.

I am fully convinced that Tiger, since relatively shortly after his surgery, has been doing very, very slow ingraining of patterns into his swing, a la, if you've read the big miss. Hank Haney talks about when Tiger returned from ACL surgery into his swing. 2008 that he had him very, very slowly ingraining the patterns that they wanted to ingrain going forward so that when Tiger could take full swings again, it wasn't his first time, you know, going through the motions of a club in eight or nine months. He had been very, very slowly, you know, imagine you're sitting there working on 12 inches of your takeaway for a month straight, right? And, you know, something of that nature. I'm of the belief that Tiger has been doing

something like that that Como, his swing consultant, has had him on a program because his swing, everybody's talking about it, clubs more out in front of him, he looks way more free, he wasn't hitting these wild drives, he wasn't snap hooking it, he wasn't flaring it, he drove it great all week, drove it phenomenal all week, and people like, yeah, the fairways are pretty wide there. Yeah, but he doesn't drive it that well the last times he's come back there, not even close. And his swing, he's ripping his two iron, I think he's been working hard to ingrain patterns and they're in there pretty solidly. Now he's going to have off weeks.

We're all going to freak out when he does, but he's going to have off weeks. His swing looks good. The patterns look good. Even Brandl Shambly himself, who came on this podcast two weeks ago. I've got the quote right here. Oh, yeah.

He starts it out with this. I was wrong. That's really big of Bramle to admit that. Yep. I didn't think he'd come back with this much speed. I didn't think his swing would be this good. I didn't think he'd look this good. I didn't think his irons would be this good.

That's a lot coming from Brandl. It's a ton coming from Brattle. Brannel sat right here on this show and talked about the hurdles. He listed a handful of hurdles that Tiger would have to get over to get to a point where he thought he could win and get on tour. He went as far as to say, I was wrong. He said, I was wrong about four of the five. Chipping, he believes, and quite apparently, is still not there yet. Is that a case of the incurable yips, or is that just, you know, Tiger's got to iron that out? Who knows? But he can very clearly, in my opinion, compete and win with the game that he's

got there is absolutely no reason to believe um it should be nor that it's chipping up better as the weekend went on Thursday was a disaster it did but i mean but braddle's old point was like i mean the chipping yips if you got them they're not going to come out on every single shot but they're going to be in the back of your brain they're going to affect your ability to hit it you know instead of hitting it to four or five feet you hit it to eight or nine feet and then if you go through the statistics you know your your statistical average of making those puts from that distance is going to be a three or four stroke difference per tournament at least blah, blah, blah, blah.

So that's very concerning. It's incredibly concerning. However, all things considered, I mean, this was just a massive, massive success. We've got to be jacked up. Even just the thought of sitting there the week of the Masters, and Tiger Woods is still swinging well. He's still pounding the ball. He's played a handful of tournaments,

and he's going to tee it up in the Masters as I'd be stunned if he plays consistently from now until the Masters, if he's not a top five favorite to win the Masters. I don't know how he wouldn't be. that's so exciting i just don't know how it wouldn't be no i know i know i'm with you and even the guys there's uh i can't remember who the analyst was but somebody on golf channel yesterday saying i mean if he teased it up next time he tees it up whether it's at troy pines or whatever i mean he was like he's going to be a top two or three favorite in the tournament he has to be i don't know how else

he wouldn't be he's one of that tournament like eight or nine times so a lot to be pumped about he also looks great i suppose he's jacked he's jacked seeing him next to just and thursday and Thomas for those where they play Thursday and Sunday together. It's hilarious. I mean, he is so much bigger than JT. He's still big of the biceps, you can tell. But if he can swing freely and he can, with his back fusion, everything's fine, I don't have a problem with him being in the gym like 15 times a week.

Yeah, I do think, you know, I'm really curious to see how he looks when he does come back at a course like Torrey Pines, which is a U.S. Open caliber course, a very difficult course. It's very demanding off the T. You got a work shots, different ways. You know, there's a little bit of a notion. that he is not comfortable drawing the ball at all. He's just cutting everything, which at a wide open course in the Bahamas where there's no tree trouble or anything like that,

you can kind of get away with cutting the ball into every hole. You know, at another course where you have to work the ball both ways. How will his game hold up? We'll we be able to draw the ball? Those types of things remain to be seen. But all of that, we're very, very positive. We're very pumped. We are like sitting here wanting to jump, you know,

through the roof with excitement, but also like, hey, let's not get our hopes up too. much. We got to talk a little bit about what I thought was Tiger's dorkiest moments of the week, which were his relentless references to the word denominations whenever he would play with the boys.

He just kept saying it. How are those practice rounds been with Ricky and J.T. Well, we play for a certain amount of denominations. People forget that tiger stupid dad joke. Is a huge dork. He's a huge dork. As awesome as he is, as awesome as it is when he plays well, he is still a giant

dad dork. Big time. One of the biggest one of the sneaky biggest dorks of all time is Tiger Woods. I'd never be able to pull the word denomination out of my head when speaking to someone. 30 times this week. Ever. Well, we had a lot of fun playing for denominations, and they would give like a little look, like, see how I'm not revealing too much there. It was great.

That's my guy. Okay, Tiger. God damn it all week. That was kind of his go-to buzzword for the week, and he just kept dropping it. Trent, you got to give a shout out to your guy, your Twitter guy. I was. I was just going to. So while we were, Twitter was going crazy, obviously, with Tiger playing so well.

He was, he played so well that it brought this guy, Stephen O'Day, who had not tweeted since. Ever. He's never tweeted. Yeah, it was November of 2013 when he last tweeted, or he didn't tweet. He hasn't tweeted. He said, have had Twitter for four years, never tweeted once. However, the cat is back makes Sunday's great again. Four years he didn't tweet.

Yep. And it's got your join date right there. Yeah. The guy has legitimately been on Twitter for like four or five years. Never tweeted once, never comes out to tweet at us and be like, the big cat is back. Do you think this guy was just sitting in his living room, like pacing? Like, how do I get my excitement out to the world? Because no one's answering their phones.

I know nobody. I'm in my house. I'm watching this man come back into my life. I need to let someone know and I'm just going to, like, tweet. The way that I thought about it was nothing over the past four years has moved him to tweet. So nothing that happened to the world. A Trump presidency, he was just like, I have no thoughts on that. That's not going to do it for me.

I'm just not, that's not, this is ridiculous. The Trump or the, the tiger comeback, he's like, well, I got to say something. Yep. Like, I picture him like fidgeting, like shaking, like, oh, I have Twitter. Like, somewhere in his, like, it's like in his productivity folder on his phone. Like, it's not even like anywhere where it's supposed to be. It just got, like, lost on his phone. He's like, oh, my God, I have an access to the world to let him know this.

Tiger Eagle the ninth hole on Friday to take the lead for the first time in fucking forever. And this guy whipped out his phone. pulled out the Twitter app and was like, this is it. This is my first tweet. I have to tweet about this. My followers have to know how I feel about it. He has no Abby. It's a Twitter egg.

He has no concern for any of that. He just is excited that the cat is back and we're all excited about it. So Tiger's back. We got much more with Steve Sands coming up in a few minutes. He was there, all that. We talked about it. We do have to get into a little bit more headlines. We got Ricky Fowler who had one of the rounds of the year, really.

yesterday. He birded his first seven holes, seven straight, birded eight of the nine holes on the front nine, posted in 11 under 61, came from seven shots back when he teed off Sunday afternoon to win by four. It a blowout win. Poor Charlie Hoffman, man.

Charlie Hoffman, 0 for five with the 54 hole leads on the PGA tour. This year, he was in the mix all the time, all the time, and he had no wins this year. A little bit of a bummer We like Charlie Hoffman He was on the pod right before the President's Cup

He had a very solid showing at the President's Cup Really good dude They call him the Seagull Because he flies over and shits on everyone Which I like Love that But yeah tough for Charlie Hoffman Tough to I mean too

Like he wasn't even in the tournament When he made the turn It was like Is he gonna start getting that like Phil Mickelson vibe to him Where every time he's just gonna be Like a relentless like number two guy I mean he's won before Is the thing you know

He's won a couple like here and their turnies I can't remember exactly which ones he's won. But like if he's on the turn and he's in the lead, like, are you already thinking like there's no chance? Yeah. He already has that, like, attached to him. Yeah.

That's brutal. People are like, that guy's not even in the mix. I mean, that's how it was. I know. Literally yesterday, he wasn't even in the mix. Nope.

Teed off of the five shot lead. He had five shot leave when he teed off. It's like I'm not even worried about him. Ricky shot at 61. And you know, that's just, that's in your brain. Oh, yeah. Like, I'm winning my five. Let's do this.

We got this. I'm only winning my three. I'm losing. I fucking lost. And you know it's in his head because there was that moment last season that the mic's picked up when he's talking to his caddy where he goes, I'm sick of finish in second. I'm sick of finishing second. He doesn't want to lay up. He's like, I got to go for it.

I think that was at Firestone. It was. Yeah. It was like the 16th of Firestone where it's, you know, and he just ripped a three-butt he's like, I'm sick and tired of finishing. And he finished second or third. Yeah. So. And you have like a monoccal laugh.

He's like, I'm just sick of it. Yeah. I was going to fucking rip this thing. He was fucking. He was, if I don't hit this club, I'm going to, like, throw you in the pond. I don't care if it's 180 out. I'm hitting three wood. I'm hitting over the fucking green.

I can see him yelling. I'm not finishing second in his sleep like stepbrothers. I'm not finishing second. I think he'd rather finish third. Yes. Yeah, he did. Fuck second. Oh, man.

So it was awesome stuff from Ricky. You know, everyone's going, oh, this is now going to be his year next year. Throw him in the mix. We've got a million guys that are all the young guard. They're having a matter because Tiger's going to roast everybody. You're going to roast them. We also have to address. Brandel's been a podcast.

subject on this podcast. Brandl got into it with Jason Duffner. Look, this one's tough. Brandl's our guy. Fucking love Brandl. And Duff's one of the more popular guys on tour. If you don't like Duff, there's something wrong with you. Yeah.

So essentially what happened was Brandl's doing his thing, right? He's vocalized this many times on this podcast and in great detail that he believes the current players lack the technique that a lot of the past generations have had. He believes that the current crop of coaches only add to this, that they've basically preached the very poor stuff, that this is gained traction, and therefore bad technique and bad teaching has led to worse form among a lot of guys.

Jason Duffner's coach was looped in with his crew. Duff did not like that. He took serious offense to it. he started tweeting getting back into it Brandel did his thing which he always does which he blocked Duffner

Duffner took a screenshot of the block and then wrote on Twitter best part of my day when people aren't educated in what they are saying they run and hide from the truth it's to keep what they have going

and not be exposed for being a fraud the whole obviously everybody went nuts on this they were like oh eviscerated Duff killed your guy home roasted look you can say

whatever you want about Brando you cannot say that he's not educated in what he's saying. He's written books on the issue. He's incredibly prepared. He's incredibly knowledgeable. And you can't sit there and act like, oh, he's blocking people now like it's some new thing. No, Brandl's been blocking people forever. So much so that there was a golf, there was a golf.com article written about him last March that the title is Brandl Shambly says he's blocked over 20,000 people on Twitter. And this is the quote that he says in the article. He says, I have an informal approach to the interaction

that I have on Twitter and that I view it as a party at my house. Come on in, argue if you see fit, but if you start breaking dishes, you have to go. I can smell rudeness of par five away, hence I block an average about 10 people a day, which means I have blocked around 20,000 people in my six plus years on Twitter. So what he's saying, because what Duffner's argument is that, oh, look, we're getting this guy, look at all these, he's blocking me, he's blocking everybody, people are screenshotted and sent it to Duffner. That's not news.

That's not something that you can be like, ha, ha, look at this, because Brandl embraces that. And that's not him running. That is, Brandl came on two weeks ago. We talked about the Billy Horshawkshaw, where Billy Horsal called him a goat. on the range and brandle said yeah i am a ghost on the range while a lot of my colleagues like to go down they like to talk on the range they talk to the swing coaches they talk to the players they get the vibe they hear what they're trying to work on and then they come back to the set and that seeps into their analysis and they talk about it brandle says look i have one way of doing my preparation and that is

you know i look at video i look at still shots i look at the way that they play i look at statistics I form opinions based on intense research and intense preparation. And nothing anybody tells me on the range or nothing that if I go down and schmooze with the players is going to help me make those decisions or make that come to my conclusions. Therefore, in order to remain objective, I'm not going to be on the range. I'm not going to be talking and schmoozing with people. And I think he carries that same thing to Twitter. He likes to be objective. And he doesn't think that people bitching back at him doing this, that is going to affect it.

He is of the belief that he's done all. the preparation. He is done and will continue to do the research to draw his conclusions. And if people are breaking dishes, they shouldn't be invited as fucking house party. Don't be breaking dishes at Brandel's house party. So yeah. So for Duffner, it's very easy in the Twitter age to be like, this guy is blocking me. So let's like make fun of him and everybody send me your block screenshots and oh, eviscerated, oh, he's dead, all this and that. It's just you're sort of playing in a Braynall's hand because he has said that from the beginning. Also, my favorite part of everyone blocking or Brano blocking everyone blocking everyone.

and them sending screenshots to Duffner is if you go to these screenshots, you'll see that Brandl Shambly's header picture is of his very attractive wife reading his bestselling book. So every single time somebody sends screenshots to Duffner and he's like, Spinoz. He retweets it. You get to see that Brandl's doing just fine. Brandle's doing fine. He's going to be just fine. He's going to be just fine. He's going to be just fun zone that he blocks everyone.

So they'll tweet these screenshots of just how great he's got it. Yeah. It's got his gorgeous wife reading his phenomenal book. He was doing through. Yeah, I was a horrible move. I didn't even know. That has me moved. It's great.

Yeah, I mean, it just pops up. You scroll through Doffner's mentions where everyone's like, ha, ha, you block me too. You just see this picture of Billion Tage and you're like, well, who's that guy? That guy's doing great. It's like, I mean, I'm like at a loss of work. Yeah.

Her reading the book is so diabolical. So good. It's so good. These are my two greatest things right here. Like, like, roast me. Yeah. And that's the only thing you have access to. The picture pops up.

It's great. So, and you're right in that it's going after Brandel, right? We did a whole video where Trent got to say, fuck off, Brandel. Because everyone knows Brandel's got that smartest kid in the class type thing going. People love to hate them. And so Duffner grabbing all these screenshots, weaponizing social media. It's going after low-hanging fruit. Of course, if you tweet negative shit about Brando Shambly, you're going to get a million people that come up and go,

oh, you crushed them, you killed them. It's low-hanging fruit. I didn't like it. I don't like going after my guy, Brandel, but it's tough. because Duffner is one of the most popular guys in the tour. We've blogged about Duff a million times. Oh, I love Duffner, yeah. He don't like Duff.

So it was a little bit of like watching Mom and Dad fight type situation. But I think it was below Duff. I think he took it a little personal that Brandl, you know, has his beliefs. And his beliefs are that his coach, the technique that they teach is not the best way to do it. And he's always going to have that belief. And it's very well founded, et cetera, et cetera. So. And, you know, beef is.

good for business. So Brandel, like this has been Brandel's rep forever. He is, he's going to have this and, you know, I think this might be opposite profile more than Duffner probably wanted it to. I agree with that. And, uh, and then Duff's, you know, he's going through and he's retweeting a million people that kind of chirp Brandl and then Brandl started retweeting a couple of people that were

supporting him. So it was just a whole, it was a classic social media beef. Uh, these things happen. That's it for headlines, right? Uh, yes, that is it. The Duffner thing was last thing. I think that's all we got, folks. We are now going to move into, the From the Gallery segment. First, I want to talk about I want to talk about only two words that you need to remember

while making your list and checking it twice this holiday season. What are they really? Those two words are Tommy John, the revolutionary men's underwear brand that has redefined comfort for guys everywhere, including Trent, myself, and Frankie Borelli. All Tommy John underwear is crafted from lightweight, breathable fabrics that move with you, never against you.

That means the legs never ride up. The waistband never rolls down, and it's impossible to get a wedgy. Wedgy stink. Tommy John underwear also features a game-changing horizontal quick draw-fly plus a breathable contour pouch to nestle the goods. This is true. This is a key engineering design that they've come up with here.

The contour pouch is huge. The contour pouch. If you don't have the contour pouch, you're basically just being a jerk to your goods. Nestle the goods, it says. Nestle the goods, it says in the copyright there. Innovation never takes a day off at Tommy John, even during the holidays, they're constantly thinking of new ways to help guys feel more comfortable. Contour pouch, hint, hint.

Like patented undershirts that stay tucked in and pull perspiration right off of your body, socks made with proprietary. Propriety. Stay up technology and a whole lot more. Plus, all Tommy John underwear is backed by their best pair you'll ever wear or it's free guarantee. You got to like that. With over half a million men upgraded to a more comfortable life, there's only one Tommy John. no adjustment needed. So here's what you do to give the gift of life-changing comfort for the holidays to yourself

or to someone else. With Tommy John, you go to Tommyjohn.com slash 4. That is Tommyjohn.com slash F-O-R-E. You're going to get 20% off of your first order. That is Tommyjohn.com slash 4 for 20% off. Plus get extra savings with exclusive holiday deals, all kinds of good stuff at Tommyjohn.com slash four. From the gallery this week, I want to start with a question that came up in my apartment.

Big debate. And it is simple. Is it physically possible to ever enact topspin on a golf ball with a golf club? The reason this came up is because people say, you know, if you blade a wedge here, you know, you get it going with top spin to get through the rough. Or people say like, oh, yeah, if you hit a draw off the tee, you're going to get that top spin and it's going to roll out anymore in the fairway. This is all complete. Dog shit. Top spin.

You can't top spin a golf ball. You're just hitting it with less backspin. Yep. Now, there are, if you get down to the needy gritties, it's, I want to say, I still don't know the answer to this question. We put it up on a Twitter poll. We got about 12,000 votes. 56% of people says, yes, you can physically do it. 44% says, no, you cannot physically do it.

I asked a couple, like, professional golfers. One person said, no, you absolutely cannot. Page Sparanic text to me and was like, you can definitely do it. But it's like, it's a crazy shot that you would never actually. actually hitting competition. Do you guys have thoughts on this? I just wanted to bring it up because it was so, like, we were fighting about it all night. I'm shocked.

I'm shocked about those poll numbers. The poll numbers are wrong. Yeah. I mean, this is impossible. I'm going crazy. Impossible. The club would have to start from below the ground and you'd have to almost smack it coming up.

It's physically impossible. So what Ben, my lurch roommate was saying. Oh, here we go. He's like, let's say you. The Ranger fan. This guy knows a lot. I'd say you'd be. Frankie had the best chirp on Ben, on Lurch one time.

We're at the Jets game. Yeah. And Lurch is a huge Rangers fan. Frankie's obviously a huge I-winners fan. Frankie always shits on Henry and Lund Quest. King without a crown. Lurch goes, they play on the most famous arena in the world. And Frankie goes, famous for losing.

Boom roasted. The biggest boom roasted I've ever heard. He grabbed like a bag of nuts and just like walked away. So anyways, he was saying, what if you tee the ball up like really high on a tea? and then you come in and swing up on it with a driver. And I was like, your driver would have to be, because he's a big tennis guy. And he's like, well, I can enact top spin on a tennis ball.

And I was like, well, you put the, you're like delafting the tennis racket, right? If you hit the tennis ball with in any way of like a lofted backwards racket, it's going out of bounds. It's going over the fence, not even close. Like you can't hit it with top. Plus, you're starting at such a lower plane. You're starting down by your hip.

And if the tennis ball is up at your eye level, you're going up. and around. You're almost curving it. So how are you doing that with a golf club? So I put this up there and you get these idiots that respond. One guy's like, oh, you're a total hack if you don't know that you can get topspin by just blading it off the tee. What do you think happens

when you top one? And I was like, no, you moron. You drive it into the ground quickly. And then after it hits the ground once or twice yet, it starts rolling with top spin because that's what rolling is. But you're actually the actual spin that you're enacting upon the golf ball when you first strike it is backspin and

downwards. And so we got in this huge debate, I was going through reading all the reactions. The people on Twitter are dumber than we were. They're so dumb. Which is incredible. We kept, like, I don't know why we thought this was like a rational voice. We're like, oh, put it out to Twitter. They know.

That's like, ask the fucking audience, you brought in a bunch of morons. It's alarming that over 6,000 people think that this is, like, true. I still don't know the answer. It's alarming. Because I still, like, I still don't know if you hit it, if you, like, blade the very top of the ball with, like, a wedge and you come in from love. and you teed it up, like, would you actually enact top? I don't know.

I just, I genuinely don't know. You'd have to get a super HD zoomed in camera and just like hit a billion balls and just see exactly the first rotation of everything. I know. And even then people showed a couple videos, but I still thought even when it, if it did look like it was coming up with top spin, that the actual original force is being driven down into the T. So technically backspin right away and then it starts top spinning. Like I couldn't. we fought about this all night. It was crazy for like six hours.

Like we were about to fight each other. It was crazy. Well, Paige says, she said if she can make one do it, she should hit the shot and show us which shot would give us top spin. Yeah, Paige, do it. Let's get the track man out. Let's get the super high deaf, whatever camera. I want to see it because I'm not a believer that you can hit a golf ball with top spin with a golf club.

Those poll numbers are shocking. I don't think it's possible. It's shocking. The majority of my Twitter followers are idiots. Well. Next one. James asked a great one. He says, what are your biggest pet peeves that other players in your group do while you're golfing?

I do have to give him credit because he pretty much nailed, nailed a couple of mine. So this started with that it was a couple weeks ago or so, a week ago when I was saying that Frankie is a very inefficient cart driver. Yes. And Frankie, he actually had to, when we were playing, he started driving in the cart. And after a hole or two, he had to get out. we had to switch seats. I couldn't take the pressure anymore. Because he couldn't take the pressure because I was like hounding him from the

pastor's seat. Like your driving is ridiculous. You're not even close. So anyway, James emails us and says, you know, I'm fully, I'm on your side rigs.

You're spot on with that. What are your guys most? Oh, so these are his. These aren't yours. These are his. I mean, this is straight from you.

Yeah. These are legitimately spot on. So it was tough because I had to come up with new ones. Yeah. Other ones. He right. I thought this was for me. That's what I thought.

He writes these. Thanks for your options, Rick. He goes, he goes golf car. Golf car drivers drive me absolutely insane. First of all, he says, people that my buddy never parks facing the hole, which is one of my biggest bedpiece in the world. I'm trying to think if I do that. What does that mean?

So when you, when you, let's say your cartner hits one into the fairway, and then you pull up to the ball and you pull up like up to the side facing like back and to the left or something. Like, you'd have, wouldn't you have to come all the way around and then, like, no, like, if you just pulled up to, like, if you just pulled up at a 90-degree angle to the ball and you just, like, stopped facing the ball and the holes to your right or something. Okay. I've definitely done that.

Right. And then the guys, like, I think I've gone to, I think I've actually done a circle and then, like, oh, it's easier. Your clubs are, like, right by the ball. Right. That's why I was veteran. Right. Guys do that all the time.

Right. And it drives me crazy. No, dude. I want a view of the shot. Like, face me at the hole. Right. So then I can see the shot. Because then you got to do like some awkward thing or like the bars are in the way on the cart.

You got to like sit weirdly. And it's like, no, I just want to chill in the cart while you hit your shot and have a good view of the shot. So that one drives me crazy as well. He's got a buddy who always drives to his ball first, even when it's like the furthest ball off the tee. That's a classic. We know a lot of people that do that. I don't know if I think I'll drive right to their ball and they'll be like, oh, where's yours going? Yeah, that's a tough one.

It's always tough too. It's like, do you want to let the person get out? Do you want to let the cart games It's more intricate than you fit You have anxiety I think you I think we may have talked about this before I think rigs should do like

An instructional video Yeah I think I have to I really think you do When is it when is it acceptable To tell the person To walk to their ball Yeah correct Right like oh I'm gonna go to my ball

Why don't you take your clubs and walk That's always like Yeah do you want to walk Like why don't you go Why don't you go fucking walk And it's really tricky around the green Because like you got to triangulate Your position right

So if your ball is like 70 yards short of the green But 100 yards away from the cart Like let's say We cart can't drive all the way to your ball So it'll be like, I'm going to drop you off here You should take your putter and your wedge Because it's going to be way shorter of a walk

For you to just walk up to the green Then it is walk all the way back to the cart path And I'm going to have to sit here and wait for you the whole fucking time And then we drive up I can drop you off now I can drive up to the green You walk up to the green We all meet at the green

And it's more efficient for everybody There's nothing better when you have that synergy with your carton. Oh, yeah. So, like, you just know. Like, sometimes I'll be driving, and I see that they're, like, just in the fringe right off the green,

I'll be like, I'm about to pop out, I got my putter, you go. It's just like, you don't even say anything. They take that little slide. The car's almost still moving. Yep. They take that slide. I hop out.

I grab my putter. I'm good. I wasn't on my game with you with that because we had no synergy. That's my favorite phrase in the world. I'll grab my putter. Yeah. I'm like, this guy gets it.

Yeah. He totally fucking gets it. We're in great. Yeah. But you're right. When that synergy's on, it's great. When it's off, it's like, we can't be teammates. I'm a huge, let me grab my partner guy because if I hit a good shot, I'd love to walk up like on the tournament.

Totally. Let me walk free. I'm like, let me walk free. Yeah, I've swing my arms and everything. I'm like going up there. It totally ruins the mojo to hit a great shot and then walk back over to the cart. And sit in there. Sit there and then drive up to the green.

It's like you're a fucking schmuck. All right. What do you guys got? My first one is the guy, I got to count my strokes guy. So when you finish a hole. Oh, yeah. And he's like, I'm like, what did you shoot? And he's like, oh, then looks backwards at the hole and in his head does it.

And you see him counting on his fingers. I just want to kill that guy. It's insane. I had this one written too, and I was just telling Brett this. And I was infuriated just talking to him about it. I have multiple friends that do this. It's like, you get up to the green. What the fuck did you think you were playing for?

Right. Like, what were you doing? When you were just putting that putt, what did you, what were you thinking? Nothing? Yeah. Your brain was empty? Right. What was your brain?

How? Like, you have to have some thought. I'm putting for par here. I'm putting for bogey. How do you not? This would be a huge bogey save after how bad I've played this hole or something. Dude, I've done this before where the guys made a birdie. It's like, what did you get? He's like, oh, I was one here. And then I dribbled it up to the green.

And then I made the, oh, I got three. It's like you only took three swings. You took two swings and one put. You just know you just made birdie? How is that? Is your brain just broken? Right. Like, most people I know when they,

have a couple birdie putts around, they bring out like a fucking compass and they're like getting the greatest read of all time. Oh yeah. Even if it's for triple boge, you should know what you're playing for. How hard is it to remember what you did? You're doing it. I'm not asking you for my score. When they look back towards

the T-box and do the point is that you're like, all right, well, buddy, you're out of the hole. This could be anything. And the crazy thing is they are, they remember the whole so much that they know the exact flight path of the balls because they do it with their hands. But in the moment they're like, in the moment, they're like, Like, I don't know. If you remember that descriptively, how the hell do you not remember it in real time?

It's crazy. That was my number one. The count of strokes. That is the worst. That one makes me a stink. What do you got, Frankie? All right. All right, so I have a couple.

To go back to the golf carts, this may be, this is a very public golf course problem that I despise. If it's playing slow, which most public golf courses do, especially in the New York area, I'm talking real slow. Like a five hour, six hour round, it's like in the dog days of summer. and you hate when people watch you. I think we are all in agreement that we hate when people watch us on the first tea. It's the worst feeling ever, right? So bad.

There is nothing worse than when the group behind you on a hole pulls their carts all the way up to your T-box when they know that there's a backup. I don't know why this one irks me so much. But I always specifically try and park in my golf cart in a spot where they can't see me so I know that I'm not putting pressure on them. So basically there's like a huge backup. They know that there's someone on the green on a part three. and they pull their cars all the way up right next one, and now we have eight people on the T. And now I'm like, why do I need this stress of you watching me hit now?

Why? Yes, they should do, worst case, they do like a half pull-up. Right, but just don't let me know that, like, I understand that it's going slow. It's not my fault. I don't want to have to see you. I also don't want to talk to you. You're not in my group.

I do not want any interaction with the people behind me. I don't want the pressure, especially on like the seventh hole. I should not have first hole pressure on the seventh hole part three. that's a big pet peeve of mine. Yeah, I agree with that one. That's actually, a lot of people are, a lot of people are just idiots. Right. We never even think about that, and they just pull up like, hoo-hoo.

Yeah. It's like, dude, like, give a little bit of awareness. That's the thing. If you just like, whenever you're on a golf course with something like that, just, whatever you think is the furthest, like, way to be courteous and nice, go as far that way as you can. Yes. Anything else is you're being a fucking asshole.

Here's another one. The guy who doesn't hit that far of a drive, and then we get up onto the fairway. this is also a public golf course pace of play problem and he waits until the people he's 250 yards out and he waits until the people get off the green to hit his next shot yeah and it happens to this you know this type of person off the first tee you know it's like these guys are 300 yards out this guy's wearing like all pro gear he looks like an asshole he's a long island guy's name's probably vinny and he's getting up this tea box and he's like i'm going to wait for them to move it's like bro i dare you to hit these people i dare you i won't physically give you a thousand right now if you put a ball on top of that guy's head. And then he dribbles it, right? And then we get up to the fairway. And I'm like, look at this motherfucker. He's going to wait for them, isn't he?

And now I'm like, I'm angry at him. We're only on the first time. Now you're like rooting for him. Yeah, wait. I do. I root for him to dribble. I'm like, you wait for them to get to the next screen. And I want to see you fucking dub this shot.

And when he does, and I always turn to my friend next thing, I'm like, oh, yeah, that felt good. Like he probably feels like an asshole. As he should. As he should. Know your distances. And honestly, like, there's times. where I have to wait. If I'm

like 190 yards out, I know I'm putting that on the green. I have a chance. Right. If you're 260 yards out. And you haven't hit a drive off a perfect T-2-60 all day. And you have like a three-wood two-sixth. And you have a three-wood in your hands. It's like good luck. I always tell them to like, do it. I want you to do it. Proof me wrong. I'll go out there. I'll pay the bills myself. The medical bills. I will do it. Man, do I hate those. I like that one.

I like that. I have a couple golf course pet peeves. And you guys know one of them. It's Matt's at a driving range. Yep. Hate it. We experienced us at Bayonne the other day. Yep. Bayonne had a frost problem in the morning.

My buddy, Kyle, and I got there really early. We were excited to hit the range. We got there really early, by the way. I got to this golf course like three and a half hours early. That's very. Dude, you posted a snap story from the course before I left my apartment. Yeah. And we had like drinking the night before.

I literally had even left my fucking apartment. I think I got home at like 4 a.m. the night before and I was in the car on my way to Bayon at like 7 a. It's amazing. You know why? Because we made this decision that taking the trains and the LIRR and then transferring over to the New Jersey Transit just to get to this golf course would have taken an hour and 45 minutes if I drove it was 50 minutes. So we were halfway to the train. I'm like, turn around.

I'm driving. Okay. This is insane. Yeah. So we did that. We get to this golf course really early. One of the nicest golf courses ever. Payone's unbelievable.

Great facilities. We were so amped to use them. Some people try to shit on it too because, like, the design. Yeah. It is awesome. It's unbelievable. Bayhone is fucking awesome. It's so sweet.

and yeah they had mats right and i'm crushing the ball of these mats i felt so good off these mats and it's a lie mats are a lie because you can miss hit every single shot they're fraudulent they're fraudulent fake and then but that's all we use to practice so like how am i supposed to then go on to the golf course and hit those same shots with not the lie like the truth i can't hit off the truth after i hit off the lie it's impossible what's your other court's gripe holes that exist next to driving ranges, which also happened at Bayonne. So you ever get up to a hole and there's just like a million balls on the airway?

Yep. I fucking hate that. Don't have a driving range then. This is a big time New England one because they used to like, they've built so many of these tiny little ranges right in the middle of a golf course. And then driving ranges that don't allow you to have a driver. Yeah. Don't even have it.

Yep. Don't even have it. That's a, that's a New England like staple for a lot of old clubs. Like wing foot has like the shortest. tiniest little range and it's right in the middle of the course TCC up in Boston has this tiny little range that's right in the middle of the course one time at TCC

actually I was playing the member guests up there and they have their range legitimately like the first hole is on the right of the range and the 18th hole is on the left so like you got a bad shot your hole is on the golf course or your shots on the golf course yeah and I got the shanks with a six iron on the range and I legitimately hit like six in a row like low shank left to right missiles onto the first fairway I had to leave, I had to, like, leave the golf course.

I was like, I'm spraying the first. People are playing a very important match, and I'm sending low missiles into the first fairway. It was insane. I mean, yeah, this happened at Bayonne. I, there was a ball, and Bayonne has very, very nice practice. Trains balls. They have Titleist three.

Well, mine was a Titleist three Pro v1. And on the bottom, it's just a little words as practice. And I hit a drive at Bayonne, and I'm like, oh, this is a great drive, I guess. I got lucky. at this. Remember I hit it like way left breaks? I'm like, wow. I even made a comment. Guys, look at the kick I got. Right. I make sure you know they don't think you're cheating. Right. I'm like, look at the kick I got. I'm like, I'm not going to go over to the ball. You look at me and go over to the ball. And my catty's like, yep, that's you. I hit a shot. It was okay. And then like all of a sudden I'm like, oh, look, another title is three pro v one. And another one. I'm like, what's going on over here? These are all my ball. He's like, no, dude, these are all practice balls. I'm like, well, they mine was definitely a practice. Because I hit me a thousand yards to left.

So then we walked all the way up to the ball, which was like 200 yards. I hit like a four iron, so I smoked it all the way down. Saw that it was a practice range. I'm like, well, goddamn. We ran all the way back to my horrible drive, and then I found it eventually. But like that is such a, I hate that. That there's even the possibility that if I find a ball on the golf course, it's not mine. Yeah, ranges, I like when rangers that are in those positions, they make their balls a different color.

Like, they'll make them yellow or something. Yeah, so these ones were like pro-vue ones. Right. They're like just, yeah, they're just what you're using. Right. One of my biggest ones is when someone belittles me after hitting a shitty shot and acting like it was like the most impossible shot in the world. Like when you're like I hit one in the middle of the fairway and you got like a hanging lie off like a left to right slope or something and you just hit a fucking shitty shot. I had like a seven hour every middle of fair.

You hit a shitty shot. And they'll be like, oh man, it was a really tough lie. I was tough. I'm like, no, it wasn't, dude. Like that was the easy shot in the fucking world. I just hit a shitty shot. I'm not that good at golf. Like golf's really hard.

I hit a shitty shot. Don't, like, fucking belittle me. Right. Oh, that was so hard as nothing you could have done about. What you mean? There's not going to do. It was in the middle of fairway. Right.

Because if I did hit a good shot, you wouldn't have, like, no. Oh, great shout out, that terrible lie. No, you would have been like, oh, you should have hit a good shot. You're in a good shot after you hit a good t-shot. I totally agree. I hate what people do that. It drives me fucking insane. Yeah.

I think your list may be, like, an hour long. I have a lot. I have a lot. I think, I think, right, this list could be very detailed and very long. And I'll be a whole other podcast. I'll clap back in people too. Like, man, that was a tough loud. I'll be like, no, it wasn't.

Yeah. Like, what are you talking about? Yeah. What else you got? The other one, when someone starts telling a story, when it's their turn to hit. Oh. Oh, man. I don't know.

I had not thought about that one. I feel like, these are things I may not even catch and I do. Like, people will, Guy, he'll tee it up, right? It's like, he's like third to go on the top. Oh, that's a little crazy. He'll tee it up. And then as he's one. walking backwards to do like the classic like you stand behind the ball he'll be like so man this one

time i didn't tell you guys this and you're like dude like no no like you hit take this next 15 seconds hit and then start the story right and we've got all the time in the world because fucking jim hasn't hit yet you could talk a little bit while he's about to hear pause for five seconds and then we'll all walk up to the fairway you all time of the world telling that story but right now is like this is you're on the clock what you're telling me to do clear codes i don't need to know in this 15 seconds correct It's like, but this is your time to hit the golf ball now. We'll talk afterwards.

So that drives me crazy. I thought you were going to say a guy who starts the story who had just hit. And another guy's going up there and he like starts a story. And you're like, no, no, no, no, no. Just like, save it. No, I don't mind that. I don't like, because then you can just pause while the other guy hits. Yeah.

But you're supposed to be in your process. Yep. Like, do your thing, hit your golf ball? Because we all just standing there waiting like, then everybody's anxious on the tea, right? Like we're not even listening to your fucking story because we know you're supposed to be hitting the golf ball. Yeah. So now, do we tell you to stop telling your story to hit the golf ball?

It's like a lot of confusion. It's weird. And then the other one is this one isn't a big one, but when it's, sometimes it's, let me just say it. When someone's off the green but not away and they think that that person has to go first. Because, and again, sometimes this is fine because you want everybody to play up on the green so you can pull the pin out and everybody can put. Oh, yeah. But if you're like 12 feet away, but you're six inches onto the fringe and another guy's 60 feet away, but he's on the green. You were going to me at Bayonne the other day.

The guy on the green is, like, if you're away, you're away. It's your turn to go. Dude, this happened to me the other day, and it drives me crazy. And it drove me crazy for a second because he gave me – I love Francis. I love playing at Bayonne. Shout out Bayonne. I love Francis. Shout out of Francis.

He said this thing. Like, we were playing a match. He was my partner, so obviously he was getting ready for the put. But I was actually in this hole. I was playing really bad that day, and I was actually in the hole. So I was talking to my caddy. I was maybe like 60 feet away from the hole. And Francis was pin high just off on the fringe.

and I was talking to my caddy about a read and for instance like Frankie do you want me to go like basically saying like I'm talking and is like in his putt I'm like I was about to be like well why the hell are you going right like I'm literally about to put like I'm 60 feet away I'm not even like I wasn't even like I'm basically not even on the green so now if we're going to do this on the green off the green

I'm like a thousand yards away right that drives me crazy like you should always know who's away and when it's when it's the away guy's turn yeah now if there's a couple people that are like similar then right when it's one of your turns one of your guys is turn, you should have a quick talk. Be like, is it you or me? Because you're wasting time that people stand there.

They're like, oh, I didn't. It's like, no, dude, like, your way, fucking go. I also hate the, like, I hate the back and forth of it. Like, if it's, like, an eyeball and I say, I'm away, like, whatever. Even if I'm not away, just say it. Just someone. Right. If it's close enough, someone just make the decision and do it.

I hate like the, oh, should I put my bowl down? Like, what are you going to do? Just fucking someone put. Yeah, because then you're, like, your process is all messed up and you're, like, standing over the pot like did i go through it the right way am i really confident here like what's going on what do you feel about the people this is another one about the people that ask you what you hit right after you hit it what club i don't hate that as much as i hate guys this guy put this in here actually is a really this is a very common one is a guy who like doesn't play golf that much who

asks you what he should hit all the time that's the worst like what do you think i should hit here like what should i hit that's impossible to answer for everyone right i don't know how the hell you hit dude I don't I'm not your caddy what the fuck you asking me right even your caddy wouldn't know your caddy would you give you the number right wind and the downhill and be like this is what you hit or this is what the number is more of like all right so like I don't hate that like the one thing I don't love is when it's someone that's on like if we're having a match and it's someone another match because like this happens a lot and then you end up like changing your mind right I hate hearing

what other people hit I don't know why I have my club set and all of a sudden it's like oh shit he hit a six iron what the fuck am I doing with a six? seven in my hand, which could also help you. But I feel like it hurts more often than that. You know what? Like, I made my decision. I'm not an idiot. I knew what I knew what I wanted to hit. Yes. This information you just gave me didn't like, all of a sudden be like, oh, I thought it was 300 yards. Like, no, I knew what the distance was. Right. The only like, right,

that's, it's not groundbreaking information. Like, I had already, like, I had already taken all the information to win, the yardage, got in the yardage and done the math in my head. And this is the shot I'm going to hit. And then when everyone else, like, well, I'd at eight and I'm like I got a six in my hand I'm like what the fuck do you mean at eight right then you club up and then it's like then you're short it's like I should have just listen to myself I do it to myself all the time and then you stand in a tear I'm gonna hit some crazy shot that I like wasn't gonna hit beforehand I'm gonna I guess I got to like hit some power drop to the wind now I love the guy too this happens all the time I love the guy it's like

yeah I hit a six but I didn't hit it right oh what the fuck does that mean you don't have to like protect how far you hit the ball you can just say you hit a great six hours I'm like, dude, would you hit on this like 150 yards? Like, dude, I hit a six, but I went real soft on it. It's like, no, you're a pussy and you hit a six. But you're on the green. You don't hit your six as far as Dustin Johnson. That's fine.

Right. Totally fine. One thing that I do now with when I have caddies is I always tell my catty right out of the gate, don't say a word to me on the green unless I ask for it. Wow. Because I can't, like, I generally putt pretty well. Right. So, like, why the fuck would I stand on the green? why would you stand in the green and just be like okay you do now one of the most important parts in all of golf for me right like putting is the most important part of the game and i'm just going to leave the whole thing up to you and people are like well the caddies should know all the greens he works there but like i don't fucking know this guy he could be the worst caddy in the club could be i don't fucking know and he could like he could put his put his puts in at like two foot past the whole pace and mine i die him in the whole like i don't know so i can't like it shocks me when you play like old men that are members at clubs they i don't think they've ever read a green in their

life. When they have patties? I fall into this thing, too, though. I just listen to them. Correct. And you're giving up one of the most important parts of the game to a guy. You don't even know anything about this guy. I don't think I even looked at the hole at Bayonne.

Never once. You stand over and the guy just goes, it's a ball left. You go perfect. And like, that's one of the most important parts of the game is reading the green. You're not even doing it. No, I'm not. I'm just listening. I realize.

It's because I was a caddy. So I'm just like trusting him. It's like catty trust. Yeah. It's like this guy knows what he's doing. but like this is like the first year of my life I've ever like really had caddies just like all the clubs we've gone to and shit

and I realized like halfway through the year I was like I have it like I love reading greens like standing there looking at slopes and shit being like trusting it and then coming up with the decision and then hitting that put and like seeing what it does if you were right if you were wrong and I'm just like

I'm like leaping off a cliff on the greens basically I'm just standing on the green jumping off a cliff being like I hope that guy's right that fucking random guy met eight minutes ago it's crazy I mean it would be okay to Ask them for insight. Like, hey, I think this is going to right to left. Do you agree?

Right. It's like, this guy's been here. Totally. 25 years. They have to get to know him. It's like, he knows where this. And I do. And I do.

That's why I tell him, like, unless I ask. And like, I'll do the same thing. If I have like a 60 foot leg putt, I'll be like, all right, what does this do? Because if you're off by, like, a foot difference. Because the slopes are huge and it's a 60 foot and all that. So I'll ask for it on that. But like, if I've got like a six foot pot, like, I generally can stand over. I'm like, okay, this goes left to right.

I'm going to make it. Right. Pretty simple. I'm sure the caddies love that. I don't think they want the pressure. They love it. The guy loves you guys are always like, oh, awesome. It's like great.

I don't need all this pressure so that every single time you put, it's on me. And then I feel like when I don't say that and the caddies give me reads all day, then every time he misses one, I'm like, I'm like mad at the catty. Right. But it's like, what do you mean you're mad at the fucking catty? Like it's your putt, you dumb ass. Right. Just like read it yourself.

So it's crazy. So I don't, that's one of my big things. I just don't I don't I just don't rely on caddies on the greens All right I think that's it Yeah I think that's oh yeah We have a couple more we're gonna save it for next week Because we can just go and go and go I think that was great I think that right there was perfect

We're getting a lot of good from the galleries the Frankie Borelli has rejuvenated the from the gallery segment I love talking golf with you guys It's great It's fucking great Oh you know what quick story I want to tell you guys something about my dad Remember I wanted to bring this out about this club that he uses? Yes oh yes dude All right, so here we go.

Shout out to my dad, because I think the listeners will get a kick out of this. My dad has, this could be actually a running thing that we do, that how my dad just disrespects the game of golf. And he doesn't, buy, by, maybe just the Brearley family disrespects the game of golf because I do also. Because he has this golf club, and you guys can all search it. It's called the Spin Doctor. I don't know if any of you have ever heard of this golf club. I feel like I've heard of it, but I don't know what the fuck is.

like a 1980s like gimmick golf club that he still has that I guess my grandfather had bought right because my grandfather was the type of guy like anything he saw on the TV he had to get like he needed the best things he needed the funny things he needed anything that you like oh did you see this like yeah I already own it so like that's the type of guy he was he has this golf club called the spin doctor and I shit you not it's got like six inch thick grooves that come out of the face of a sandwich right so it's like this plastic grooves that just come out so every single time you hit this golf ball, you get like 20 feet of spin back, right? So my dad's been hitting a lie for his entire golf career.

He uses just so people think he's sick and he spins a bat. Dude, he hits these shots and they just stick right next to the pin every single time. And everyone's like, holy shit, Frank. Like, how'd you do that? He's like, and he never shows him the club, right? So when we're like golfing out of place and like, he leaves the golf club on the green, like he quickly picks it up. So no one like picks it up and be like, oh, what the hell?

He's like, give me that. It's like a secret. Jesus Christ. Like you should see these things around the green. You should see these things. God forbid he hits one from like 100 yards out and he really puts a swing on it. The thing goes from the end of the green to the front. Like, so he doesn't spend a shot all day with any other club.

Not one. Gets the Spind Doctor out and he's in talking, Tiger Woods. Dude, he saves so many strokes with this thing. It's insane. He puts it right. I'm like, and he'll always. His buddies that are, if any of his buddies are listening to his podcast, he's going to be very upset. I mean, I don't know.

I guess I have like Aaron got his biggest. secret on the golf course. Yeah, you were like, he doesn't tell anybody. We just told the biggest golf podcast. Yeah, it's okay. Yeah, so that's just, I mean, that is, that's, I got to see this thing. We're going to have to look up the spin doctor. Dude, I'm telling you, it's one of the funniest things ever.

It's, it's the classic, like, old Italian guy gimmick thing that you would see in, like, straight out of, like, caddy shack. It's unbelievable how much spin you get off this golf club. That is the most stereotypical Frankie Borelli's dad move ever. It's amazing, too, because I've become, I know how to. read his shots now off of it. He goes, I'm 80 yards out. I'm like, I'm like, go right at the pin because it's a spin doctor.

Because you got the doctor. You got the doctor. Like, it's just, it's hilarious. And when we play with caddies, you always see them looking at it, like what? And they never say anything. Yeah, of course that's so preposterous. Yeah, Caddy would never say it. It's a silver golf club that has a black blade.

And you could just see the ridges on it. Like, the ridges come out so much that, like, your finger will bleed while you're on it. That's amazing. We're looking at a picture of it right now. It looks preposterous. It's preposterous. It's insane. It's got to be the most illegal golf club I've ever seen of my entire life.

Borelli's disrespect the game of golf is my new favorite segment on this show. That is. We have to have your dad on and talk about it. For sure. He probably won't come on and talk about it. I don't know. He may be shaking in his boots the next time he plays like a golf match. Send us emails for play at barstool sports.

com. Next up, we have Steve Sands. We are bringing Steve Sands to you from Ruff and Routy. Oh, yeah. We are just. Ruffer Routy won. Just over a week removed. There will be blood.

There will absolutely be blood. If you've been following basketball sports for a while, certain events obviously stick out. Everyone has their personal favorite moments. There's probably not that much overlap among them due to all the volume of content put out over the years. One event is on everyone's list. It's on there because it's pretty much like nothing else we've ever seen. No.

It's the rough and rowdy. December 15th, you're going to step back into the ring with natives of West Virginia as they sell ruthless personal feuds, slight disregard. agreements or just want to prove they're the baddest brawler in the back woods. Remember the thrill you got from fights back in school as a kid. Well, basically all that comes out as a bunch of clowns. We're going to fight each other. We're going to have all kinds of commentary from Frankie's guy, El Prez, Dave Portnoy.

Made event this year. Barstool's very own text against Pardon My Take, producer. Hank. It's going to be incredible. This is the amazing thing about Barstall. There's a lot of amazing things about Barstall. But the fact that we now own a company where we can just be like, all right, these two, co-workers hate each other, let's just have them fucking fight in the back with the West Virginia.

Legitimately fight. Like a professional setting. Thousands of people. Thousands. Can I just say I was at Rough and Rowdy, the ones before we owned them? Yeah. And I had a camera on the ring. So basically my hand was on the rope.

I was on the corner of the ring and I had a camera in my hand. And I filmed three and a half hours of the greatest event I've ever been to in my entire life. I'm not even kidding. I'm not just doing this so people like, so it's like selling it. I am not kidding when I say, I genuinely have not. never been to an event like that ever. You have these amateur boxers that have no idea what they're doing.

They're in tank tops. They're in white beers. They're in sweatpants. They're going out there. They're overweight. They're sweating. They're bleeding. And they're taking haymakers at each other's faces. And it always ends in a knockout. Every single fight ends in a knockout. When do you get to watch a boxing event and see that much entertainment?

You watch a three-hour boxing event, professional, and you don't see one. You see defense. It really does take the best parts of what everyone loves about awesome. boxing matches where somebody gets knocked on the fuck out. What did we want to see in Mayweather McGregor? You want to see a knockout? Yeah, more than anything in the world.

What do you see every single minute at Rough and Rady? Knockout. You remember the guy last year who was up against the corner ropes and he was flexing like this? He put his hands above his head. And he was just haymaker in the face and he was like, I'm fine. And then you add Dave's commentary to it and you have all business Pete. I think he's going to be wearing a suit this year. Like it's going to be amazing.

The event was so awesome that Dave went to it and was like, I have to buy this. I have to buy the whole thing. Yeah. That's a man. That's a guy who has an eye for like what. It's going to pop. We've been talking with Ria, Hank's girlfriend, what she's going to do if he loses? I think like, I think the idea that a bag is going over her head.

She doesn't want to show her face ever if he loses. She's going to do a check in the office or just like a paper bag over her head. Because of whatever got beat up by one of their. We were saying this on Barso Radio. There is no. Like, Hank has everything to lose. Yes. If Tex loses, he just texts.

Like, Tex is a loser. The whole time we've talked about that. Perennial loser. Yeah, he takes L's. He's known for taking L. Hank cannot lose this to deck. Hank has... Because then Hank is the one who took the L to the loser.

Hank takes the L. Big Cat and Tex have their thing, so Tex can hold that over Big Cat forever. There's obviously the Ria angle where she's apparently going to wear a paper bag over her head forever. It's all on Hank. But shout out to Hank is I wouldn't get in that guy. I wouldn't get in that ring with that crazy person. No, never. Tex is a crazy person.

I have a lot of respect for Hank for doing this. The best part about all this is you're probably thinking, I probably have to pay $99.99 for this. Nope. It's just $9.99. That's all it costs. Your typical pay-per-view, all those boring boxing events that we just talked about. It costs you about $100 bucks.

This one is just $9.99. You go to rough and rowdy brawl.com. That is rough. The letter in, rowdy, r-o-d-y brawl. That's how you get it. That's how you order it. It's December 15th, which is next Friday. It's going to be fantastic.

It's going to be great. Next up we got Steve Sands talking all about being. on-site with Tiger Wood. All right, next up, we are joined by Steve Sands, a golf channel reporter since 2001 lead interviewer reporter for NBC Sports's PGA Tour coverage, also acts as play-by-play host for the network. Been a big part of NBC Sports's coverage surrounding the Olympics as well. So he's been around most recently on site of the Hero World Challenge, and we're going to get into. Also, we'll be doing the play-by-play for the P&C Father's Son Challenge on Golf Channel on NBC Saturday and Sunday, December 16th and 17.

Steve Sandsenkslopper, joining. How are you, sir? I'm doing it. You got to sound like my dad giving the resume out. My gosh. We're dropping the resume. We're plugging. You guys doing all right?

We're doing well. We're doing well. It's a little chillier here than it was in the Bahamas, so we're going to get in to all of that. We, you know, we're pumped to hear about it. You know, first of all, just in general, how was it down in the Bahamas? It was great. You know, it's a good event, you know, for this time of year. You have to keep it all in perspective.

There are only 18 guys on the field. But it's probably the best event of this time of year. And that's because the best players in the world play. And the reason they play is because it's Tiger Woods event. And they want to, you know, pay homage to Tiger for all that he's done for them, their families, the game, not just economically because of all the purses that have been, you know, rising and rising since Tiger term pro in 96, but just for everything he's done for them and in the game. And with him coming back last week, it was, you know, it was bigger than most.

And it felt big, too. It was pretty cool to be there. Yeah, it's funny. Our boss is a little bit of a, you know, he's a little bit of a tiger hater. And we're telling about the event. And he always points to, oh, it's only an 18-man field. What is that? But, I mean, it is the best guys in the world.

I think people forget that a little bit. Yeah, there's no question. Look, there are 18 guys in the field. their official world golf ranking points given out so they go by the FedEx Cup in rankings so 17 of the 18 players were ranked 32 or higher in the world

the only one outside of that was Tiger he's ranked before last week 1,199th in the world so almost 1,200th in the world and that's only because he hasn't played in almost now more than 300 days so it's a stout field It's the best players in the world.

Now, your boss is right. They're only 18 players. It is December. This is not a field of 132, 144, or 156 playing on the PGA tour or the players championship or a major championship. It's nothing like that. But it's still significant when you're competing against the best players in the world. There's no doubt the best players on the world, most of them anyway, were there last week.

So we're going to get into a lot of the details, but I want to start with if you had to describe the last week. for Tiger Woods in one word what would you use in one word I would say successful I think that would be the word I would use and why because of a couple things one is how did he do health-wise his back held up for 72 holes it wasn't a twinge there wasn't a tweak there wasn't any hint of any pain whatsoever so to me the most important thing was that he played for 72 holes and did not have any health issues.

His game was rusty at times, but for the most part, it was better than what everybody imagined, and he has his length back off the T, which is very important on PGA Tour. If you're hitting at 285 and the guys you're playing against are hitting at 305,

it's an enormous difference. And he had his length back, he had the speed back, he did not have any shortcomings with his swing, Was there a little bit of rust with the short game? Absolutely. But for the most part, for the really, really, really most part of everything from head to toe soup to nuts, you would have to give him, you know, an A minus B plus coming back.

If he would have won or something ridiculous like that, it would have been an A plus. But for the most part, Tiger really looks strong for having not played in such a long time. So I want to get into a little bit of, you know, your job, coverage of it. Obviously, a couple months ago, Tiger was dropping hints and everybody's freaking out a little bit that he might not even play again. All of a sudden this week, we're giving him A's. He looks great. We're pumped about next year. When does your coverage of this event, when does that start? I mean, did you know you're going to go? You're going to be covering an event that's going to be Tiger Woods's return, you know, a month ago, right when he announces,

talk about that all the way up until, you know, when you actually get down there. Yeah, I mean, our schedule never changes. For NBC, you know, we have all of our events at the calendar year, and we know that we're going to be doing the event. What does change on the Golf Channel side is we added an hour for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday of live tournament coverage. So there was an extra hour added to the coverage the first couple of days. And the other thing is, you know, for morning drive, which is the morning show on Golf Channel,

for Golf Central, which is the sports center of golf before and after live coverage of just about every PGA tour event, every single week. It's on every single day. They had expanded coverage. But for us, for the live tournament, you know, for the live telecast, the only thing that really changes is that when we're there and when we're on the air, we are obviously showing him more than we're showing just about anybody else because that's where all the eye. balls want to be. That's where all the interest is. Whether it's social media or whether it's just the regular eyeballs watching television, everybody wanted to know how Tiger was faring and what he looked like. And we made sure we showed him as often as we could. Well, there were even reports that the

players who were playing in the actual tournament itself wanted to know how Tiger was doing. Oh, there's no question. I mean, look, the guys we talked to, you know, talked to Justin Thomas, who played with him twice. He played with him in the first round, which was, where everybody was watching to see what he'd look like. He also played with him yesterday in the final round. And Justin, you know, was watching him while playing his own game because he's so interested in seeing how Tiger competed. That's what, one of the most fascinating things about Tiger in his latest comeback.

You know, we're all sports fans. So we all had our guys, you know, like I'm a D.C. guy. I played football as a wide receiver growing up. My guy was Art Munk. Art Munk was my guy. Well, if you take Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Glory Macarroy, Jason Day, Ricky Fowler, the five best young, young players in the world. Dustin Johnson and Justin Rose are right there, but they're north of 30 years of age.

If you take those five guys, Tiger was their guy, and now Tigers are competing with them. They've never really had a chance to compete. They've seen it on TV. They've seen it in tournaments back in 2013 when Tiger played well, but they've never played with him when he's at the top of his game. And that's what they would love. They would love to compete against their guy when he's playing at his best. When will that be if that will happen? Who knows?

But hopefully he comes back and plays well and gets to go and play against this generation of great players because that would be a heck of a contest. It is such a cool narrative. And I mean, just even to speak to the interest level, you know, when Sergio Garcia is on the first tee at Augusta in a playoff, I'm not as nervous as I was over Tiger's first tee shot on Thursday. because the implications are just, it's massive. And it's, you're right in that, you know, anyone that that's a hater or that goes against,

oh, why is he getting all this coverage? It's a no-brainer. The interest level, how much he just captures your interest is, it's crazy. And to have it back, it just, it, you reminded that, oh, yeah, I wasn't just playing that up in my mind. Like, watching him golf is like nothing else in the game. There are very few athletes who literally transcend the game. and bring people into the game that don't normally watch or care or listen or talk about the game.

Tiger is one of those and one of those guys. He's a once-in-a-generational type of athlete who has brought millions of people to golf who normally would never even go near watching golf or playing golf or thinking about golf or talking about golf. It's just the way it is. And he's done that through greatness. You know, Tiger was a star before he did. teed it up on the PGA tour based on what he had accomplished as an amateur and based upon how kind of famous he was. He was a star before he played professional golf at the highest level,

and then he tacked on the greatness to back it up. He didn't do it the opposite way. And I think it's just amazing the interest. The social media aspect of what's taken place here in the last few years, I mean, we were getting on the air Thursday and Friday on Twitter, Steph Curry, Michael Phelps, Bo Jackson. I was getting texts from people that are amazing, you know, how many people were watching and were into seeing him come back. And Kurt Byram was on the air. I don't know which day.

It was Friday or Saturday. And he was saying with us that it would be like Michael Jordan, turning back the clock and being 32 again and being able to go out and play after we haven't seen him compete here for a long, long time. that's what type of comeback. This is it for Tiger and fans, and those fans include some of the most famous people in the world. It was pretty wild to see the reaction that Tiger got

on the golf course from the guys currently playing and people who were watching who probably hadn't watched golf in a long, long time. Well, then outside of the social media, you had Rafael Nadal in the actual gallery walking along watching it. He was there. I talked to him yesterday on the air on NBC. Here I am walking around. I mean, I was in the booth for the first couple of hours of our telecast.

we hear that Rafa is down there with a group of his friends and family watching Tiger play. So we have cameras obviously following Tiger, and we see Rafa. Rafa is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet, by the way. I love Rava. So the cameras are on Rafa. They show Rapa. And then after I get out of the booth, I go down on the ground and do the interviews for all the guys when they get done, our producers says, hey, go out to Tiger's group and see if Raffo chat with us for a couple of minutes about time.

So I go out there, and Rafa could not be a nicer guy. It really is. He couldn't be a nicer guy. Go out there and ask him because, surely happy to. He starts talking about why he's there, why he wants to support Tiger, how cool it is for Tiger to come back from injury, how amazing it is for Tiger to compete against the best players in the world after such a long layoff and fare pretty well. You know, Rafa's won 16 grand slams. Rafa's been injured in his career. Rafa's gone against great players like Federer and Jokovic and Murray and all these great players who have not been able to beat him in Grand Slamovans.

He's the famous Tiger. I mean, he's one of the great players in the history of the sport has done just about everything you can possibly do in tennis. And here he is out there in the Bahamas, chilling and walking around and hanging out with Tiger. I mean, you know, it just speaks volumes to the reach of Tiger. You know, it's pretty amazing. So, Steve, you've covered golf for a long time. You've covered other Tiger comebacks. You know, you've been there.

You've talked to them. You've seen it. This week, there was a vibe, kind of an underlining theme, that this comeback was different. First of all, do you feel like this one is different? I do. And for one sense, the reason I think this one was different than the others. Let's just take a year ago.

When he hadn't played in a long, long time, and then came back and played in his own event, the same event, the Hero World Challenge. He didn't look right. He looked stiff. He looked tight. He wasn't swinging freely. He looked like he was really battling.

This time he didn't. Now, did he win the tournament? No. But he didn't look like he was battling. He didn't look like he was trying to, you know, force-feed something or hide an injury or, you know, be real careful with the way he swung the golf club. He took some rips at it.

that you can only take if you're healthy. And the result was fine. It may not have been what he wanted, which was to win the tournament, but the result was pain-free, healthy golf. That's why this comeback seems different. It seems like he waited long enough, was patient enough until the doctors gave him the go-ahead, and then he went out to practice to get ready for the event.

And then when he competed, he didn't have that grabbing of the back or limping or twinge or tweak or any of that stuff. He just played, and that was the joy in watching Tiger this time compared to last time or the other times, and that he didn't have any pain. It was actually okay to watch him play golf as opposed to struggling to watch him play golf. Well, I also think there's a difference in his attitude this time around. He's smiling. I remember on Saturday when he finally made a birdie on 14.

He gave a smile and a little bit of a bow. It seems like he's actually fully healthy because he can smile and have a good time with what's actually going on this time around. you know for a couple of weeks before this it's a great observation because that's exactly what happened and it looked he looked more at ease he looked more comfortable not just with his health but just with himself he just looked more at ease now you can make an argument that he's never going to be great again unless he becomes an assassin which is what he was but you could also make the argument that as time goes on athletes change and they have to adjust to them You know, their game has to adjust not only physically, but mentally.

And I think Tiger seems to be in a very good place on and off the golf course right now. We'll have to wait and see what happens. Probably not going to play again to Tori Pondon, because this is about six or seven weeks from now. So, you know, he gets a chance to get even healthier. But, you know, I totally noticed that just like you did. He was totally more at ease, totally more comfortable with himself and within his own skin, which, you know, we'll see. We'll see if it works for him professionally.

but personally, it absolutely works for him. You know, on Saturday, I flip on the TV. I'm a little late. He's a couple over through a couple holes. And the only thought of my mind, you've got to be on time. The only thing in my mind is, you know, how does he look? That's all I care about. Is he grabbing anything?

Is he moving gingerly? So, you know, you're there all week. You see him up close in person. Did you see any signs at all of any discomfort or anything like that? Zero. not a thing. And there were a couple of times where he really stepped on it and pressed. You know, you ask professional golfers, unlike what it seems like on TV, if you ask them in person, they'll tell it to you, they normally don't swing it 100%. They don't try to get after it every time.

They try to smooth it. So, you know, there are very few times during a round that we'll take a driver and not go like 80, 85, 90%. Sometimes, when they really are trying to, trying to do something, they'll go 100% at it. So there were probably a handful of times where Tiger really made a strong rip at it. And each and every time, it was like the old days. He recoiled like it was a regular swing. He was totally pain free. Never twins or tweaked or winced, nothing.

It was absolutely perfection as far as his health was concerned. No question about it. After his Saturday round, he said, quote, I feel good. I was telling Sansey out there. It's nice to be part of the fight again, fight against the guys, fight against the golf course.

First of all, how good does it feel to have them call you, Sansey? Well, it doesn't actually. Oh. I cannot tell you. I'm not going to curse,

but I cannot tell you how much crap I got from every friend of mine, every person I work with, is like, oh, man, now you got a nickname from him. Because, you know, Tiger's like a hockey player

in the NHL. Everybody has a Y or an IE on the end of the test. And, you know, I guess it's a badge of honor, you know, that you have to wear. But, oh, my, you cannot imagine the crap I got from that. We went to commercial break after he said, thanks, Sansey. I'm telling you, I got roasted by everything. And I looked down on my phone, man, and I got 100 text messages. And I mean from a lot of different people.

Some of a lot of big athletes texting me and they're laughing. in me. I'm like, God, it's awful. That might, Steve, that might be. You try to go through your, you try to go through your whole life without having a nickname. So anyway. That might be jealousy. I mean, you're getting a nickname from Tiger Woods. That can't be all that. No, you know, that's all good, man. What did you observe from Tiger in between shots, walking from T shot out to the fairway? Because, you know, for us watching, we get a little bit of that. But for the

most part, we get the swings. We get, you know, maybe a twirl afterwards. We don't really get to see, you know, is he chatting it up with the other guys? Is he smiling? Is he jogging a little bit? I mean, you know, what is he, what is Tiger like out there in between shots? He's doing all of those things at this event. Now, he will not be like that when you tee it up at a regular PGA tour event, the players, a World Golf Championship event, the major championships,

whatever big events he plays in coming up. This was a little different. There were only about 100 people out there. Most of them he knows because most of them are members or are friends. friends at Albany. You know, it's more mellow, but he, you know, he jogged off the tea a couple of times. He hugged a few people a couple of times. He gave his kids a hug before Charlie and Sam, beautiful kids before he teed off.

He came off the golf course out of the scoring tent, gave his girlfriend a kiss. You know, these are things you don't normally see from Tiger. But he was, as I said, very at peace, very mellow when it came to dealing with people. It was great. I mean, it was, it was cool to see. I've been a long time since I had seen him personally. So, you know, I'm happy for him. I'm happy for him that he's back.

I'm happy for him as an athlete that he can compete. And, you know, selfishly, as someone who, you know, announces golf for a living, you know, it's great for TV. It's great for the game to have him back. You mentioned Tori Pines is, you know, the most likely spot for him to come back, which I think everybody kind of agrees with that. Do you think there's any reason to believe that he won't be teeing it up in the majors, all of the majors next year? Well, it depends.

You know, the majors don't start until April. It's a good question, but it just depends on what we see. You know, look, I would like to see him. What do I know? I'm a hack. But I'm not an analyst. I'm just an announcer. But I would like to see him play a little bit more, not less, and be more prepared for those big events.

I understand his line of thinking that he wants to play less, be rested, ready to go. But this sport is unlike any other. The reps really matter. So he normally plays Tori Pines. He's going to play Riviera because his foundation runs that event, the Genesis Open in L.A. He always plays Bay Hill where he's had massive success. He normally has played when he's healthy. He's a Honda Classic because it's right down the road from his house in Jupiter.

And that's pretty much it, you know, before he goes and plays the Masters. To me, I think you need a couple of more reps under your belt, and let's do it at places where you see the ball go in a hole. That hole gets a lot bigger when you see the ball go in. When he plays Torrey, Palm Beach Gardens, PGA National, Bay Hill, Riviera, those places are hard. You know, go to Waili in Hawaii, where the course will be perfectly suited to him.

Or the following week in the Career Builder Challenge, which is in the California desert, where the winning score is always 25 or 28 under par, or that kind of thing. To me, you know, open it up a little bit. I don't think he'll do that. I think he'll stay with his game plan, and he knows way better than me or anybody else. But it seems to me that you need a little bit more, you need some more reps to go and play the Masters than just four or five times playing.

So, you know, we'll have to wait and see what he does, but there's no indication the last four days in the Bahamas. that would lead me to believe that he is not healthy all the way and that he would definitely go and play all four major championships this year. That's great news for us to hear. We like that a lot. We've got to ask you about your Twitter account. You have been, you've had an account since 2011. You have 3,600 followers, and you've never tweeted before.

Very unique. What's the question? I'm just kidding. Not a social media guy, right? Look, as much as I love Barstow, I think you guys do a great job, and I'm fully aware of you guys work as I'm always checking it out. I am not a social media guy at all. You know, if you guys want to talk to me, call me, text me anytime,

I'll get right back to you. But, you know, Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and all that nonsense, you can give that to the kids and all that stuff. I'm just happy enjoying the anonymity of not being involved in social media, not getting in trouble after having too many beers on a Saturday night and jump it on Twitter when I see something stupid. I hear about

funny stuff on Twitter. You know, obviously I'm fully aware of how powerful it is and how great it is and how great it is for people's brands and blah, blah, and that's how the kids communicate. You know, I'm more close to the vest and I'm more old school. I'd rather just

if I want to talk to somebody, I'll call them or I'll text them. But, you know, for the most part, I'll stay off of Twitter. I get, you think I got crap getting called Sanji the other day? You just see how much crap I get not being on Twitter. I'll stay away from that kind of stuff. I'm a little jealous, to be honest. You guys, your young audience.

It's all you, man. I'm a little jealous. That anonymity. It's kind of nice to just not be there. It's great. I mean, look, I'm on TV, man. You know, you can't go anywhere without somebody saying, I love you, which is very nice. People are always very nice.

Part of the job, it's awesome. But just getting on Twitter. My life is so great. You know, what am I going to? to get on Twitter and go, hey, I'm in the body. Take a selfie and say, hey, I'm here in the Bahamas. Oh, I would love that. That'd be great. How you doing up there in Mancato, Minnesota right now?

You know, I mean, like, I mean, I love Mancato. I'm just saying I'm just picking a random city. But, I mean, like, think about the things that we get to do with sportscasters, places we get to go, the people we talk to, the circles we run in. I think it's so self-gray. I mean, take it easy. I mean, you know, keep it in perspective, settle down. I mean, these selfies, hey, I'm on the beach, whatever.

I mean, they already know you're in the Bahamas, you know. I mean, they already love your job and think where you're going is great. Why do you want to show off? I hate showoffs. I hate showoffs. Just hand the ball to the ref and go back to the sidewalk. I love it. It is very much a, hey, look at me type thing.

Pretty much that's exactly what social media. Don't you think? I mean, come on. I mean, take it easy. I like it. I respect it. So you are in a couple weeks, you'll be. back on the golf channel coverage.

I do got to give you a little bit of a hard time as well. Is this the Washington Capitals year? Oh, man. I've been hearing that for 45 years. Here's the thing that I like. It's definitely not my skins here. I can tell you that. God, they suck.

Yeah, they're struggling. They suck. You know what it is with the Caps? Here's what I like about the Cats. We were home for Thanksgiving and visit my parents. We went to the game on Friday when the beat. Tampa Bay 3-1. It's just a November game, not a big deal. But what I like the most about what I've seen from the cap so far is they're not the best team in the NHL. They're not favored to

win. They're not going to win the President's trophy. It's fantastic that if they make the playoffs, and I think they will, that they'll be somewhere between, you know, whatever, a four and seven C, whatever it is, four and eight C maybe. And they'll be able to just go play pressure-free, of course, until they play in the second round against Pittsburgh. And then we'll have to do that. But, you know, we'll see. I think they're better than people realize right now, and I think they're going to get better and make a run at it. But do I think if there's a year? God, I hope so. There's really nothing in the world I'd rather see more in sports than the caps lift the Stanley Cup. I'd rather see, I've seen the skins win Super Bowls. I've seen my Terps win the NCAA

championship. I've seen the bullets win when I was a little kid, the NBA title. And the nationals, I love them, but they've only been around for a decade or so. What I want was than anything in sports is a Stanley Cup to be in its rightful place, the nation's capital. Well, look, I feel your pain. I'm a diehard St. Louis Blues fan, so we've pretty much been in the same boat. Same boat.

Yeah, the same boat is made. So I feel you. You're right. You want something different. You don't want the same, the exact same regular season leads to the exact same playoff disappointment. Everybody inherently wants things they can't have. The Stanley Cup is the one thing we haven't seen in D.C. for a long time.

Again, the Nats are very good, and they've had some caps-like finishes in the playoffs. But it's only been around for a few years. The caps have been something my whole, I'm 48 years old. I've been caps in my entire life. It's got to happen at some point. It'll happen sometime. All right.

Steve Sands, Golf Channel on NBC Sports. If you see him out there, call him Sanzi. He'll love it. He'll absolutely love it. He was there with Tiger this past week. He'll be on the coverage doing some play-by-play for the PNC Father's Son Challenge, Golf Channel NBC Saturday and Sunday, December 16th, and 17th. And he'll be all over the golf channel next year as well.

So look for him. Steve, thank you very much, sir. Go ahead, fellas. Take it easy. Thanks for having us on. Take care. Thank you. Great insight from Steve Sands, who is down in the Bahamas with Tiger. Speaking of Tiger, our make Sunday's great again, shirt is on a heater right now. Oh, yeah. You go to store.com.com. You really can't miss it. It was everywhere. We had people on site that were basically in every, in the frame of every shot that Tiger hit.

incredible. Somebody tweeted us, that's our foreplay guardian angel, because he was any screenshot, any slow motion shot at Tiger's swing, you saw the guy back there in the McSunny's Grading a shirt, I felt like a proud Papa seeing that shirt. It was great. Even when he wasn't front and center, you could see him like 10 people back, like up on a hill, just you could

see it every time. A little bit of a Waldo situation. Like, where is the guy in the tiger shirt? Where is he? It was kind of a Waldo. The shirt got its own paragraph in the New York Times where they wrote about the guy wearing it and it was like of course, classic Stoley, classic patron, plaitron was high-fiving everyone in sight.

Just going nuts. Tiger made an eagle. Just going nuts. And we also have a source on the ground who told us that Tiger has seen the shirt and his comment was, that's awesome. So go buy the shirt. It's a fantastic shirt. We also got sweaters.

We got hats. We got all kinds of good stuff in the store. Go to store. Barstoolsports.com. You can't miss it. We're very excited about next year. We have two great guests already lined up for Disneyland. December, so we ain't stopping.

2018, Tiger's going to be back. Ricky's playing great. J.T. is obviously playing great. DJ's healthy again. It's going to be so much fun. Jordan Spee. We get all kinds of good stuff. It's going to be a great year. We're going to keep rolling on.