Fore Play - “Tiger’s Crowded Chaos” with Austin Cook

Episode Date: February 20, 2018

BIG show this week as we kick it off with a huge Fore Play announcement then discuss why we do or don't like Bubba Watson (we don't), if we agree with Rory and JT's comments on crowds being too raucous (we don't), and why we play our best golf the first month of the season. For the second half, recent PGA Tour winner Austin Cook joins to chat about his upcoming Masters debut, winning for the first time, and what it's like having former Fore Play guest Kip Henley as his caddie!You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/foreplaypod

Hey, 4Play listeners, you can find us every Tuesday and Thursday on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. It's the whole gang. We got myself. We got Slim Daddy Trent. We got Frankie Brelloey, the Pizza Maker. In the house, we have a huge, huge show this week. We have on towards the later half of the show, Austin Cook, who won just a few months ago for the first time on the PGA tour.

On his bag as well is Kip Hinley, who we had on this show, short of the show. after the players championship last year so lots of ties to austin cook he's one of the new young studs on tour he's a little bit of a change of pace from kisner who's an absolute clown that we had on the show um kis was all over rough and rowdy he was on the show last week now we got austin cook a little bit more of a responsible human being i like very much he's young he's married he's responsible he's putting away his christmas decorations as you'll hear on the on the interview he's a very good guy we've got a big announcement the boys um are slated to be on golf channels drive this Thursday.

We are being told that our spot will air at 10.40 a.m. Eastern time. Very exciting. I'm using cautious language in case we somehow ruin it and everything falls through. That's very possible. Totally possible. Anything's possible. We've been practicing all week not to curse

too much. That's going to be the hardest part because cursing has now, just because you working a place like Barstle where it doesn't matter, you can just say anything at all times. And on Golf Channel, that is not allowed. You can't say those things. Definitely not allowed. So even Austin Cook was a great, you know, he's much more of a conservative, respectful guy with his language than we are. Yeah.

So we didn't, there was no cursing. There was a loss of gosh instead of God, things like that. So we're trying to really, we're trying to stay level. Stay in level. For me at least, because I'm just, I just fire up the hip. Well, Frankie, we're not pretending. I mean, we're going to be clowns on the show. I'm saying we're trying.

I'm not saying this is going to happen, but I would love to get bleeped on the golf channel. A nice good, like, effective bleak too. Like, I mean, that fucking bubble Watson. They're like, oh, you could feel Studio AP down to Orlando just like, oh, wow, you shouldn't have brought these guys out. When we had the call with the guy that talked about doing the show, he said we get to wear makeup. And I'm sneaky excited to put on a little bit of powder. It's going to be interesting rolling in there. Frankie's been through it with Dave because Dave's been on TV and whatnot.

This is Trent and mine's, hopefully, will be our first time on TV. this all came from obviously we've been cultivating relationship with Golf Channel for a while now. Our guy Brandel, we had Faradie on. George Savaricus, we hung out with this past a couple weeks ago when we were in Phoenix. And it all spawned from, we met a producer for Morning Drive, our guy Jeremy, who helped set this whole thing up. Another massive bonus from us going to Phoenix and flying ourselves out there in a big deal. So anyways, big announcement.

Look for us Thursday morning. We got Bubba Watson one. We're going to talk all about Bubba. We've been very critical of Bubba on this very show. Even Frankie's critical of Bubba. Hate him. Those criticisms aren't going to fade either. We're going to get a few more of those today.

He's such a fucking loser. So we're going to talk about it. But first, this show is brought to you by our friends from E-Harmony. Look, Trent and I, we use E-Harmony. We're single guys. We're in the big city. If you try it online dating and all that, you've been through it all. A lot of it's like hookup sites.

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uh love this tournament love the golf course it's always a universally positively reviewed course out in l a riviera it's been like that for a long time um it was an interesting week we had a massive field um all kinds of big names there's rory there's speed there's dj there's tiger obviously bubba ended up winning um um So let's get into some Bubba talk. We've been, we hate Bubba. We don't like Bubba at all. Not even close.

I'm not sugar-cote it, yeah. No. But when he wins, we were talking about this before the show. When he wins, you know, I put out a tweet that she said, Bubba is a fucking weirdo. Did really well on Twitter, by the way. But I also got a bunch of responses from people being like, what are you talking about? I like Bubba, blah, blah, blah.

So it makes you reassess. Like, do I really hate Bubba? Trent. Well, then he does start to do Bubba things where, like, he breaks down during his interview. I told him that I was going to go home and wrap Caleb up in it. I'm glad I asked. Thanks, my love. Me too.

So that was the only thing I did with it. You know, I didn't, out of respect, out of honor, I'll finish this one. Try to. Out of respect and honor for Augusta National. and one of the greatest clubs we have, one of the greatest tournaments. Out of respect for them, I didn't do any of my funny antics that I normally would do.

And so the only thing I did is wrap Caleb in it. That ends our press conference. And nothing has changed between me and Bubba. We did talk a little bit about this beforehand where it's good to see Bubba get a win in the thought that now we still have an enemy. Like when Bubba was fading, I think he got to 117th in the world.

Love that. Like, love that, but also kind of love that he's pushed him back into the, into the spotlight. Yeah. He didn't make the Ryder Cup team two years ago, but then he got selected as like a late fifth vice captain. And then he was crying when they won that he wasn't even, he didn't even hit a shot. And then you start to rehash. I was going back through a bunch of Bubba stories on the website. Well, the big thing for me is that he, it's the way he treats the galleries.

It's the way he treats his caddy. Yeah, Ted Scott gets just, just gets crucified by Bubba. He portrays this image as the Southern good boy named Bubba. That seems pretty simple. But then you see the mics that catch him ripping into his caddy or ripping into gallery members. You're going to stop walking, man? Damn. You did it all day yesterday.

Tell you what, man. Veterans would kiss my ass. And sure, maybe some of the gallery members deserved what they had done. But for the most part, I see him as a fake person and someone who has an attitude problem, but portrays himself as someone who is nice to everyone. He just, he does a lot of weird, bad things. He says dumb things. He posts the most cringe-worthy, like, trick-shot videos. Look at me.

Look at me. Oh, yeah. He says, you're welcome. You're welcome. You're welcome. When he makes a trick-shot and he says, you're welcome. At the end of that. Hey, I didn't say anything.

So you don't have to say you're welcome. That's worse than you guys from Justin Thomas. I don't know. Justin Thomas's tweets are infuriating. But just to double down on the way Bubba Watson treats his caddy coming as a caddy. When I was growing up, not even growing up, but the past few years, seeing Bubba Watson become more and more popular. And the only thing I see of him is that he is an asshole to his caddy.

It's all you really see on the social aspect of the game. He does what he does on the course. But whenever you see a story about him or anything on Twitter or anything on Instagram, it's like about him just being an asshole to his caddy. And what he did this week when he hold out on 14 from the sand and like he pointed at his caddy. because he knew that the moment was on him. He knew that all the cameras were there. He knew that it was such a big shot.

And he points out his catty. He's like, you did that. Like, you knew that, baby. It's like, it's your time to shine, Caddy. Like, you know what? Like, just let the fucking guy be. And let him be when you do the wrong thing. He's like overcompensating, like going the other way?

When Bubba misses his shot, does he that considerate of his caddy? He looks at him every time. Every single time. It's like, you're. the one that reads it in the end. You are the one. You're a professional golfer. You even say this, and you're not even a professional golfer. You're like, it's my putt. Don't talk to me. Don't let me know. I want to be the one. I am a professional golfer. I am a professional golfer. I am going to put this. And you know what? He can give you all the insight he wants. I know he's a professional catty. I know

that that's what they do. I know that's his job. I know that his job is to consult Bubba Watson on how to play the game. But in the end, it's his fucking fault. It's your fault for missing the put. Don't ever look at your caddy for it. Right. You can't have it both ways is what you're saying. No, ask him for his, yeah, you cannot have it both ways. You can't all of a sudden start like, he's trying to reel everyone in. He's trying to be like, oh, look how nice I am to my caddy. I just pointed out of, first of all, that shot never even should have fucking went in. That ball on 14 was zooming by. That's almost like the, that's almost like the shot I hit at Bayonne. It is, but it's also like that's how you win golf tournament.

It's like, yeah, that's a little bit of a break that it hits the pin. It goes in because that's going 10, 20 feet by. at. But it's also like, you know, I mean, that's kind of how you win. That's a difference. But the thing that pissed me up is he's acting like they called it and like they knew exactly what type of shot they hit. Like he's acting like it was this huge thing that they spoke. They knew exactly where the ball's going to like. He acted like Ted Scott was like, that's an inch outside left. And he's like, okay, perfect. Bobba Watson doesn't hold out shots too. I saw something. That was the first time he's

hold out one in the last 19 tournaments. Like he doesn't hold out. So it's just not a whole out shot. Just a lucky shot. He's pointing at everyone being like, you just it's pulling stats on that. He's not a He's not. That's nice. Well, and also, in cases it's starting to sound like three bloggers who are like, I hate Bubba, hey Bubba. I don't know if you guys remember. There was the ESPN poll a couple years ago where it was, I pulled it up here actually.

The question, ESPN the magazine basically ask all the PGA tour players. They said, Blank is in a fight in the parking lot and you're not helping him. The guy who got voted the most was Bubba Watson. So it's not just us on the outside looking in and being like, I hate this guy for this many reasons. It's everybody. It's even his peers. And the other thing is. is that, and Trent said this, one of our first podcasts ever,

Trent said, on paper, Bubba should be very likable. Oh, so likable. He kills the ball, hits at a mile. He's got a homegrown, self-taught swing, so he's just kind of a guy out there feeling it out, hitting feel shots. He shapes the hell out of it. He hits 30, 40, 50-yard cuts, slices, draws, hooks.

He hits all kinds of crazy shots. He's a lefty, I'm a lefty, and I fucking hate it. He's a lefty, which is great. His feet are all over the place. It impacts. It's awesome. like he's dancing. His name's Bubba, which is like an unbelievably likable name.

He's just such an unlikable guy. He had the whole incident last year. I think it was last year at the, yeah, 2017, at the Masters last year, when he made the comment, he said at the Masters, he said golf is tough. I don't know if you ever played it, but writing articles is easy. And everyone was roasting him for that. And then he came out was like, it was just a joke. I was trying to make a joke.

It didn't come off well. What do you mean he's a fucking joke? Like, no, it wasn't. You literally were saying golf is hard. You idiots writing about it. That's just easy. and people are going to be upset about that and you add all this shit up

and it's like we just don't like Bubba Bubba sucks I even had a blog that I found in my research too where I think it was around the Masters last year was one of those tournaments a tournament where the PGA tour put out on Instagram it was like they always do these like finish our sentence or like answer our question Instagram posts

and they put up like Bubba Watson we'll finish blank this week and all the comments were like last last last miscut last last fuck Bubba so we're not alone in that I just Googled mine because you brought up your bubble blog. I googled myself, Barstall Sports and Bubba Watson. And the first one that comes up is Bubba Watson is the least funny person in the world.

And these videos prove it. So, like, I have an art. This is with like a llama or something. Yeah, he's like, he's in Wisconsin. It must have been during the U.S. Open. Aaron Hills. And he was just trying to make jokes on Twitter. And it's just no good.

I blame his crew, though. He's always with the crew when he makes these videos. Who's allowing him to do these things? He's a bunch of yes men. And they all laugh. This always happens with these guys. Surrounded by yes men. There are more of the problem, honestly, when you think about it.

They keep enabling this behavior. Does he really have much of a crew, or is he just with his wife all the time? Oh, and he's so tall and he's just... Lanky, he's lanky, he's crying all the time. I'm a big cry. I'm a cry guy. I cry to Jimmy Fallon, allegedly. It's not because...

I forgot about that. It's not because of the show. Frankie went to Jimmy Fallon and cried when he came on. It's just the theatrics of it. He's slapping the table, Jimmy Fallon, you just couldn't hold it in. cried at anything if it had those i mean they warm you up uh i'm that way too though because i went to a broadway show and you even warned me i believe like you're gonna cry at this thing and it's the theatrics of it i went to the book of mormon not a particularly sad show and they open up that

curtain man i'm just there for the i mean the roots were playing i was looking at the roots were right there and like the the the curtain opened up and jimmy phallon came out and i was bawling anyway bubble watson tries to reel us in every time like all the everyone in the media is like Oh, he's crying again. He's such a nice guy. He's so humble. Like, no, just 10 minutes ago, he was throwing his club across the fucking sand trap. And, like, even I saw, like, John Bucciagrasse, I tweeted out.

Like, I'm going to be speaking to Bubba Watson Day. Hopefully I could make him cry. It's like, everyone thinks he's like this great, just like this great lovable crier. It's like, no, he's not genuine. He's one of these guys, too, that if he just turned heel and was an asshole all the time, I would respect him way more. Totally.

It's almost like why the argument for why, hey, Polter kind of falls apart a little bit because Ian Poulter is an asshole. He drives Ferrari's, he has frosted tips, he's in private jets all the time. I agree with that. I was actually thinking in my brain this weekend because I was thinking, you know, we were coming up with this villain thing, but then we were also talking about the guys that we hate. Yeah. And the more I started thinking about Ian Poulter, I was like, do I love Ian Poulter because he's such a,

he's everything about him is so hateable that I kind of love him. Remember when he's an asshole, he's getting people fired? Like you said, the Froston Tips is like if I was going to paint a golf villain that I want to from Europe. some from Europe so you know well and I come back to Poulter he almost lost his card and then a mathematical miracle brought it back around you said to me was that you're glad he's back because it gives us a villain yes and that's how now I feel about Bubba if he had one usually in the past when he won I'd be like this sucks I hate him so much and it is that but I do like that he's back

on the scene a little bit so we can have something to hate it's always good to have something if there were three guys in the top of the leaderboard that we don't care about we're indifferent about then it's not must watch TV. When Bubba Watson's up there and we're all rooting against them, it's must watch. And it just, it fuels it makes it more interesting. When he did make that bunker show, I was devastated. I was texting like my buddies, I was devastated when that went in. And then we're all doing that.

It's going 30 feet by. You got to be kidding me. But that makes it more interesting. That makes me want to watch. 100%. So it's good to have those guys. He also did the retirement thing afterwards. They asked him, were you really serious about your retirement comments?

because he had previously said if he ever gets to 10 wins, this was his 10th win, that he would retire. His response was, yes, I've mentioned it about 10 to 12 times to my wife. We sat down and had many talks about it because physically I wasn't where I needed to be to continue to play. That's dog shit. He was never going to retire. Everybody knows he wasn't going to retire. He's won the Masters twice in the last five or six years. So that's a fucking lie.

Shout out to Trace and be graded for swat and a shout at the NBA All-Star game, the celebrity game. One of my favorite moments, kind of ballsy, but this is the thing. We should all love Bubba. He's taking a break in the middle of a tournament. where he's in competition, and he goes and he plays in a Celebrity All-Star game. That should be great, but I still hate him. And when he gets swatted by Tracy McGrady into the cheap seats, I am the happiest person alive.

We had just watched Rough and Rowdy people get their fucking faces beat in. And I was almost more excited of watching Tracy McGrady's swap Bubba shot. It's such a good start to the week for our hate for Bubba. Like, there's no way he's going to win a term after he gets absolutely emasculated like that. And then he wins. So kind of a weird week on that front. Tiger Woods, 72, 76, finished six over par, missed the cut. but announced he's playing the Honda Classic this week.

It's a healthy man. It's a good sign if I ever heard of one. That's a healthy man right then. Yeah, he's healthy. He's playing back-to-back weeks. That's fantastic. He hit the ball all over God's Green Earth again, I think, on Friday. He missed left, miles left all the time.

He couldn't hit the fairway with an iron. He was Struggle City. I did see a couple tweets, too, talking about they're going down to PGA National at the Honda Classic this week, and there's water everywhere. Not good. I got a tweet from somebody that I thought was funny that we needed to pay someone to go to one of these tournaments, grab or grab Tiger's driver and just snap it in half. Like don't let him use the driver anymore. Three woods all day, pal.

All day. That would be great. It's kind of a tough start. He birdied the 10th on Thursday, which is his first hole. And then his ball got lost in a tree on the second hole, which was a lot, which was the 11th. Just never came down from the tree. Nope. That's tough break.

And it just, it wasn't an overall great week golf wise, but he's healthy. That's huge. He did have a very excited. exciting comment beforehand. They asked him about the Ryder Cup being an assistant captain versus being a player. And he said, why not both? I think we talked about it on last week's show, but we mentioned, you know, somebody sent in it from the gallery being like, you know, what do you think Tiger is going to play or not? And there's just absolutely no possible way that if he tells Jim Furrick, I want to play on the team, that Jim Furik's going to be able to step up and say, no, you're not on the team.

There's just absolutely no chance. right it's good that it's kind of it sounds like it's in his mind and yeah i wouldn't put it past tiger to do that to jim fjerk to just bully him like at some dinner i couldn't agree more um bulliam tiger do whatever you got to do to get on that team i love it push your weight around big dick eldrick we call you that for a reason um also pertaining to tiger there are some comments made by uh rory and then later by jison thomas about the crowds this past week um so rory jt and tiger all together Thursday and Friday. Rory said afterwards on Friday, I swear playing in front of all of that, he gives up half a shot a day on the field. Like it's two shots of tournament he has to give to the

field because of all that goes on around him. Now, of course, I did some math. And according to Rory, Tiger is the undisputed greatest golfer of all time because he would have won from losing by a stroke in three majors to winning by a stroke. And he would have gotten into five playoffs. And if you just do a very conservative two out of five record, even though he's 11 and 1 in his BGA tour career in playoffs and 3 and 0 in major championships. Tiger would be adding five to his 14 total. He'd be at 19, Jackson, boom, it's done. But that's neither here there.

What are our thoughts on Rory's comments here? If I'm Tiger hearing these thoughts from Rory, I am upset. Because this is essentially saying he wishes they would baby Tiger, or that Tiger hasn't played in front of crowds like this before. Like that's the thing that I don't understand. Why is Rory saying this? Sure, there's a ton of a shit ton of people out there. watching Tiger and him and Justin play,

but it's not a crowd that Tiger hasn't seen before. So if I'm Tiger, I'm hearing this, he's basically saying, oh, I feel so bad for Tiger, all these people come out and watch him, he should get a couple of strokes. Well, I mean, I think what he's saying is that, you know, the golf fans are just so chaotic around Tiger, and they get out of control,

and they get out of their element that they're usually in, and therefore they cause ruckus. I mean, we saw it at Tori Pines, where some asshole yelled in Tiger's back swing or backstroke on a pot. That clearly cost him a stroke there. So I think that Rory's just alluding to that over the course of an entire tournament. But it's also, I think it's more of the fact these guys just haven't seen Tiger inside the ropes really before.

That's really what that is true. Like Phil and Ernie L's and Vijay and all those guys have been commenting about the Tiger Woods crowds forever. Yep. Forever. They know like if you get paired up with Tiger, it's a different deal. Like it's literally an entire different experience. I haven't really seen if Tiger commented back. Yeah, that's what I'm trying to, that's what I'm trying to say is like if you put yourself inside Tiger said,

what do you think he's thinking when he sees these Rory comments? You know, it was interesting because I was noticing on their first tee on Friday because it was Friday afternoon. They were supposed to tee off at like three. They didn't tee off to like 3.30 or 3.40 because there was a bit of delay just on the whole field in general. And so they're standing on the first tee, which is a rucket scene to begin with. right underneath the clubhouse there it's kind of elevated there's crowds everywhere and as they were teeing off i was very surprised that like i don't know i couldn't tell if the microphones were in like a weird place they were picking up chatter or something from a different place

but it was like people were literally just like talking as tiger i was like tiger woods is teakoff what are they doing yeah so on uh tuesday i unfortunately had to go and bring the dog to the bed but it was like it was like 2 000 people talking like that just like a normal chatter with like a couple and downs on the noise level. I can see you just sitting there just like freaking up. Is anyone going to pan? Can you guys? It's Tiger Woods is teeing off.

What are you guys doing? So then when Roy made the comments afterwards, I was like, okay, good. I wasn't just like hearing shit of my brain. But again, I just think it's more of the fact that these guys just that they've never seen anything like, you know, seeing Tiger. Yeah, I think if they asked Tiger, he would say it doesn't bother him at all. I think he would say, I'm glad the fans come out. I like the people come to watch me, blah, blah, blah.

he wouldn't be like, well, this is, I mean, it's getting out of control out. Yeah, I'd be curious to see. I mean, I imagine he'd be like, yeah, it's probably, you know, it's probably a little annoying, like, for people that have never seen it before, but this is what it's been like for literally 20 years. Right, if anything, he's like, he should be like, he may be thinking it, he would never say, like, good, I hope these fucking young kids crack under the pressure. Like, fuck these guys.

Yeah. Justin Thomas is like, he said he needed a couple of Advil after the rounds because it was so bad. Like, fucking grow a sack. Yeah, he said, uh, JT said, I guess it's part of it now in 14. Unfortunately, I wish it wasn't. I wish people didn't think it was so amusing to yell at all that stuff while we were trying to hit shots and play. All right.

All right. Then golf just won't have fans anymore. They won't have people that want to come to the tournaments because that's what they're doing. They're saying, I don't like all these people of this tournament. That's not where you golf wants to go. Yeah. I mean, the bottom line is like, you know, again, if he's, he's, he then he tried to, I don't know, backpedal, but he was focusing on the simple notion of like people can't be like yelling in our back swing, which is fine.

But it's like, if you want your sport to be massively popular, which Tiger made at this, if you want droves and droves of people to turn out, which churns up millions and millions of dollars that golfers didn't have beforehand. Everything gets elevated. When you bring X amount of people to an event, they're going to make noise. It's just going to get out of hand.

That's literally just math. It is. It's crazy to me. That's the way I look at it. It's crazy to me for him, for anybody, for any golfer, whether it's Roy or Justin. These are two big names. These are guys who have a lot of, you know,

they pull a lot of weight. For them to say anything like there's too many people at this golf tournament seems like a stupid thing. And I don't want people yelling them back. I don't want people being asses. Right. But it's, I don't think that's happening consistently. And we've said it all the time, like the yelling even at right after the shots, the JJO, the Baba Booie, whatever you want to yell in all that, we think it's very dumb and very annoying and very stupid.

But we also are not idiots to realize that if you're going to try to throw massive events where people are going to drink, every tournament's trying to get bigger and bigger and bring more and more people to it. The LA Open is no exception. This week we're going to see it at the Honda Classic Where that final stretch the bear trap and all that has for the last Five years the last decade gotten more and more like the waste management Phoenix Open Because the more people that are there the more people that are interested The bigger and better the event is the more money it's going to be made And when you bring people in they're going to make noise

That's just what they're going to do and it's better to just accept it and understand it So I agree with you I think it comes off as a little whiny From JT even more so than Rory Because I think Rory was just saying like holy shit tiger has to deal with this all the time this is crazy. So I didn't love those comments. Oh, JT. says something that hurt to you guys.

It happened again. Wow. It's so surprising. It happened again. It's almost like, it's just not that cool. It's kind of what it's like. Like, what is he wanted to be quiet at his fucking Alabama games? Like, it's a fucking sport, dude.

It's a sport. Like, just evolve. Let the sport evolve. The comments after that round should have been, I got to play with Tiger Woods today. The crowds were massive. That's what our sport needs to see. That's what we want.

Like, JT's making millions. and millions and millions of dollars because exactly of what Tiger Woods has evolved the game to be. People are going all around to watch this guy play and he's just got to be like, yeah, this is fucking awesome. Yeah, you're right. He should have right afterwards, he should have said, man, people were like

falling over the ropes to get near us. People were making noise, going crazy. I'm getting paid millions of dollars to be out here. It's 75 and sunny at L.A. I'm walking next to Tiger fucking Woods. This is awesome. Recent events can show you that shitting on fans is not a great thing to do.

Shitting on your fan base is never a good thing to do. Great. No. So, yeah, that was very nice. You've had this piece of glitter on your, like, on the side of your eye. I would do a strip called this one. Where did you get that? I don't know.

Where would you get that red piece of glitter? Tred, turn your head a little bit. You see it? I don't see it. I guess I'd have the long. Am I going to make you? Well, you're getting a shine. I think Frankie's getting a shine angle.

I don't get it. I'm not kidding it. Right here. Trent's turning his head like a madman. I just like a matter where you got that piece of glitter from. Where could that piece of glitter come from? I don't know. Okay.

I haven't done anything different than any other day of my life. Another thing I'd like to comment on from this past weekend, Patrick Cantlay's pace of play is horrific. He gives me anxiety. It's terrible. He's got an incredible, very emotional backstory, so everybody's rooting for him. However, it's just infuriating watching him play. And you can tell that the camera crew is trying to get to the point where they would cut to him at the right time.

They can't time it. But they can't time it. They just can't do it. When I turned the channel when he was when he was in one of his things. I was like, no way, no way, no way. And he still wasn't doing it, I just turned the channel. He just didn't hit the wall. Our guy friend of the pod, Keegan has had the, he does the same thing with the cameras where they don't know what his pre-shot routine is going to be like.

So they're just like guessing. Cantlay is like that and it can be a little too much. And the poor TV crew, because you have to air on the side of not missing the shot, right? Like you have to air on the side of seeing the shot. You can't miss it. Yeah. And so they always cut a hair too early. And it's just, it's in.

infuriating. You're sitting there too, and it's like, right before you think a guy's going to hit the shot, like, whoever you're watching too, you're all kind of quiet. It's just like instinct. And so we're just sitting there and it's quiet for like 15 seconds, 20 seconds. And all of a sudden we're like, is this guy going to hit the fucking ball? He does the, when he's putting, he does the weight shuffle on. He's got back and forth, 11 times. I bet if we brought the producer on, they would never do it, but they would be like, first thing we brought him on, we're like, what do you think about Patrick Cantley? They're back, oh, this guy, he can't fucking hit a ball. And I like Patrick Cannelly, but sometimes it gets a little eerie.

Yeah, that was, you know, he hasn't, he was out for a couple years. He had back injuries. He had personal issues, tragedy and all that. So he hasn't necessarily been in the spotlight like that a ton. But he, yeah, but he does find himself on leaderboards pretty frequently. Yeah. No, he played great in an unbelievable year last year, a sneaky unbelievable year. But that was the more and more he's in the spotlight in one of the final groups in a big tournament like that.

He's going to have to clean that up because Kevin now got roasted. when he couldn't pull the club back of the players' championship, people like still hate Kevin Igo on his Instagram sometimes. Yeah. And people are still like, oh, when are you going to take the club back, dude? Like, they're yelling at him and chirping him. So hopefully Patrick Kentley doesn't get into that. Trette, your guy, John Daly, holding one this week.

Huge. And I, you know, it's going to sound crazy. Sometimes I forget that John Daly is walking amongst us, but then he'll do something that's just awesome. Like a hole in one, that's the way I wanted to be reminded that John Daly is still like a route. Yeah, I agree. And I couldn't help but think about what the clubhouse is like after that. He, yeah, because he had, like, it was like four or five, six months ago, too, that he won on the Champions Store.

Yeah. And he just, like, when he pops up again, you're like, oh, and it's JD. And, you know, as a late, it's been pretty positive. Like you said, he won, he got a whole in one. He seems like a happy guy now. So, yes, I was very happy to have that come across my Twitter feed on Sunday. Yeah, you got to love John Daly. He looked good, too.

He gave a little fist pump. Hugged his catty, high-fived his smoke girlfriend, fiancé, wife. I'm not sure what she is at this point. But it's just John Daly is John Daly at all time. times and that's what people really like about him. He knows how to celebrate a whole one while. Yeah. Although in my blog, so when I first got the video, the person who sent it to me cut it short.

And in my blog, I was thinking about what his celebration was going to be. And I had said that I didn't think he would do much because he's a guy who's seen it all at this point on golf course. Right. So a catty hug and a high five is about what you're going to get from him at this point. Well, he's also a cool customer. Yeah. You know? He's like, yeah, of course that's what I'm trying to do.

Right. Like he's not a super emphatic, like crazy guy. He's kind of always been like a pretty. Unless he hits his ball in the water bunch when he throws his club. But even when he throws his club, he, like, right afterwards, he, like, you know, he kind of, like, saunters pretty, like,

you know, he doesn't throw his club and then, like, run and start slamming shit. He throws his club into, like, Lake Michigan or whatever that was. Yeah. And he just, like, slowly walks up in the green. True. It's just very quick.

And then it's done, and he's back to be in JD. Yeah, I also love, too, when he won the PJ and he was walking down the in the middle of fairway doing the over-top helicopter fist pump. Yep. Yeah. It's a great moment. Yeah, JD. He's a legend.

All right. and from the gallery. A quick reminder to anybody out there. We're now into 2018. We need as many from the gallery submissions as we can get. Email us, 4Play at barstoolsports.com. We want to hear your questions. We want to hear your concerns.

We want to hear whatever stupid little nuances or tricks or traditions you have with your group of buddies or gals or whoever when you go out and play golf. So email us forplay at barstoolsports.com. Let's talk about Eddie had just a comment that resonates with everybody. he said, is the first month of golf you play after the winter break is over, the best that you'll play all year? The answer is obviously yes. The answer is yes. Yeah. Why, though?

There's just something about this dumb game we play that, like, when you don't play for a while, you lose all this stupid stuff that, like, you gather throughout the entire year. It goes against logic. It just goes away, right? And your first time playing in a long-ass time is always your best round. It's because you're not thinking about anything. Because you're not thinking about anything. So it's like, when I'm playing, when I'm on like my fourth straight month of playing, I'm at the end of the season for me, I'm thinking about all the shit that I've done all season

of golf. I'm not bringing the club back the right way. I'm cuffing my hands on sand shots. I'm not doing the right. I'm putting weird. I'm all in my head. But when I play for the first time of the year, I'm just happy to be out there. I'm like, oh, wow, my swing is like, this is what I do.

Like, this is, oh, yeah, like everything you do is the right thing. You know what I mean? Because you don't have the time to correct it. Your first swing is correct in your head. Because you haven't done anything wrong yet. Once you get into the later part of the year, you're working with a band-aid swing. Right.

A heavily bandaged swing. There's shit falling off, like sticking on here, sticking on there. You're trying to piece together to get through the golf ball. You've been working on this. You're bringing the club this way. You're bringing the club that way. You're shifting your fucking weight.

It's all coming together and kind of a disastrous way towards the end of the year. The beginning, I mean, you just been sitting in your goddamn apartment or your house for four, five, six months. You've been watching these guys. They're out of Pebble Beach. They're in L.A. Now they're going out to Florida. And you get out there.

And you're like, you know what? I just get to swing a fucking golf club and see you go. In that first time you see the ball go. And you're like, you're shocked by it. You're like, oh, did you see that thing? Like the first time you hit a driver just takes off. And it just you just don't. Oh, yeah, I can do this.

That was me. I can hit a ball into the air. I forgot. I forget, like, when I'm taking my first couple of practice swings or if I'm at the range of the first time, I legitimately think I'm never going to be able to hit the ball, right? Like, you're like, there's no chance that I can hit this ball straight because I haven't played in four months. And then you crush one.

Yeah, oh, fuck. I'm ready to go. I do it just around, like, right around this month. Like, I'll start going to the range, like, on a nice day. It's supposed to be, like, 65 on Wednesday. Yep. And, like, I'm definitely going to try and hit some balls with my, like, new clubs that I'm, like, starting to piece together.

And I'm going to get so hyped for this next upcoming season. And I just know it's the same thing. I go to the range. I hit great. My first round, I play great. Then as I start progressively going, I start hating myself and hating myself and hating myself until I don't want to play anymore.

And that's a never-running cycle. It's crazy because logic should dictate the other way, right? Like if you don't do something for a long time, and then you do it again, you're going to be bad at it. It's actually golf is lucky that, you know, we're so good the first time out. Because if we still stunk the way we stunk when the season was over,

people will just quit playing golf. My dad will specifically not. play for long periods of time, even during the season, because he thinks that it'll just reset. I wonder what do you think the period of time for the reset is? I don't know if he has anything, but I just know, like, you know, like, you know what is? You know what I mean? I'm saying, like, what do you think it is, though? Because, like, if the winter always resets us, right?

There's got to be, like, that window's got to close at some point. Is it like three weeks? I think if you play pretty consistently, they just take a month off, completely reset. I always even, like, if I'm playing a lot, if I'm playing, like, at least once every weekend, and then I take even just one whole week, like, so it would actually be two weeks off because I take one weekend off. So it basically be like 12 days in between rounds. I'm like, I get that same feeling.

Now the Band-Aids fucking come back on pretty quickly. Right. But I'm like, that first round after like two weeks is like, golf is the most fun thing on planetar. Plus, I love the mindset when you come back to golf after a long period of time off. You can just play anywhere. I always play like, my buddies will just ask me, you want to go play this really shitty public course?

I'm like, yes. Like I just want to play golf. And then towards the end of the season, I have standards. I'm like, I can't fucking play that golf course. Totally. Crazy. This place is a dog track. What do you think you can bring me out here?

The difference between me from the beginning of the end of year is in the beginning the year I play that course that I hop the fence and leave all the balls at, I play it. And at the end of the year, I leave a bucket of balls all over the green. That's the difference for me. I respect the golf course. I'm playing it. This is a tough course. This is awesome.

Look at this. They have golf carts. I remember the feel of the breeze. Then towards the end of the season, I'm just spraying balls over the place. I'm just literally taking a shit on the green. I was like, I just hate this place. The other thing I want to say is to all the platrons out there, everybody listening, this is actually sneaky. Okay, it's February 19th now.

We're about, what are we? We're nine, ten days away from jumping into March. March is really, you know, kind of the beginning of spring. You're going to be able to start sneaking in some rounds, whether it might be a little, might be a little chilly. The course would be a little brown, but you'll start sneaking in some rounds. This right now is the best time of the year for golf because, For any golfer, especially in the Northeast or, like, in a colder climate, you're excited.

You've got all these golf balls saved up from Christmas. So many balls. I have, like, four dozen golf balls that haven't even been open. I've been, like, every now that I, like, just start marking golf balls in my fucking apartment because I want to see him. It's like, it's like I'm pulling out, like, new shoes. Like, a new smell and stuff. Oh, yeah.

Pulling the golf balls out, you're marking them. I'm looking through. I got, like, four or five fresh gloves that haven't been open. Oh. Oh, Mr. Rotation. It's like two years worth. It's like two years worth. Ready, just a fresh, fresh rotation ready.

I know everybody's out there. I know they got just a stockpile golf balls, new teas, all kinds of shit. New shirts you got for Christmas. You haven't worn yet. New shoes. Everybody's all jacked up. So this is about the most exciting time of year for golf. I'm excited.

Send us stuff from the gallery for Play at Marshallsports.com. Is that right? Did I get the email right? Yeah. It's kind of blacked out there. Real quick. Is it too late to like work on your golf swing right now? Have we already missed that winter period?

Yeah, I think so. Really? I mean, I set it to myself in around November. I'm going to fix my swing with my irons this year. I set it to myself. You haven't done it. And I haven't swung a golf club. Not once.

Yeah, I, um. Is it too late for me to start? I was thinking about going to see, like, get a lesson. No, I don't think it's too late for that. It's not. Because you still got like, you still got a good month or so. Okay. Until we're like consistently golfing.

I think so, but you have to commit to it. It's like, it's like going to the gym. You're like, I'm going to get a good body before this stop. and then all of a sudden June's around and you're like, totally. It's the exact same thing. I did the same thing. I was like, I'm going to, because my goal has always been to ingrain just like I want to like,

I'll change my whole life for like six months to ingrain a golf swing that I can then have for the rest of my life that makes me like around a low single digit handker wherever. And I've never ever done it. But I did read like seven years ago. I read a tweet from Hank Haney because he used to do Q&As and shit on Twitter all the time. Early days of Twitter right there. Yeah, this is a while ago. And he would always tell people do 100 shadow swings a day in your apartment or your house or whatever.

Take a club, any club, and just do 100 shadow swings. And people would always be like, well, what if my swing sucks? Well, he's like, it doesn't matter. You're ingraining like muscle memory that will benefit the hell out of you when you get out on the course. So I still do tons of shadow swings during the winter. So at the beginning of every season, I feel like I have a brand new golf swings because I've been like working on it. Got it. So it's going to be really interesting to see what I got.

I'm really excited to see how that turns out for you. Me too. All right. Next up, we got our guy, Austin Cook. Enjoy this interview. All right, we are now joined by Austin Cook winner on the PGA tour this season for the first time. We were just talking a little bit before the show, but Austin's taking a little bit of time off. Just got home for the first time. I believe you said you're taking down Christmas decorations still. Is that correct? Yeah, well, we had them all down, but we haven't put them up in the attic. So that was today's task. I'd say that's better than most people. Some people keep them up until February and they keep them all the way up. At least you got them in the boxes. Yeah, we had them in the boxes. I guess when we were home for a week after the two Hawaii events and then Palm Springs,

then we took everything down, but we just said, Hawaii didn't get them all the way to the attic. Yeah, one of my buddies's girlfriend sent me a picture of him taking the Christmas tree out like a week ago. So I think you're doing all right. Yeah, we're not too far behind a lot of people. So let's hop into it. Let's start from the beginning, you know. We're obviously, our podcast, sort of the common man. We've had all kinds of different people on.

For anybody that doesn't know, Austin Cook, deep down, when did you start playing golf, when and where, how did you get into it and really start kind of loving the game? Yeah, so it's come down a family sport. My grandfather played on the PGA tour, I think he played just shy of 100 events back in like the 60s and 70s. And then he was a club pro for a long time in the Minneapolis area at a few different courses. And so, you know, my dad has two brothers and they all played golf kind of growing up. And, you know, in their 30s and 40s, they kind of got into the game, you know, a lot more. And whenever I was two, my dad would start taking it.

me out on a course with them and he'd be playing real golf and I'd be whacking a little plastic club and plastic ball around just trying to be like my dad oh man that so you got some you got some good genes that are helping out it sounds like yeah definitely um so then you know you're you're an arkansas guy you played college golf at arkansas um are you one of those guys we've had some people didn't love their college golf experience are you one of those guys that did love your college golf experience? I absolutely love my college golf experience and college experience. It was always a dream to be able to play and represent my state at the University of Arkansas.

And whenever they called and offered me a spot, you know, it was a kind of no-brainer to me. But, you know, being up there for four years and getting to plan on those coaches and go to, you know, all the activities that Fayette will have to offer. I wouldn't trade it for any other experience. So you're a pretty smart dude, it sounds like, study biology. I heard a rumor you were going to go to med school if the golf thing didn't work out. How, you know, I mean, how intense was it for you being somebody that it seems like, from what I'm hearing, took school pretty seriously, took golf pretty seriously?

I mean, was your college experience pretty hectic or what? Yeah, it definitely made me grow up a lot. time management became a huge thing for me in college and just kind of managing golf and all the studying and academics that went along with it. It felt like a full-time job even though I was getting half the time of my life. There was a lot of long hours throughout the night and long days of the coach letting me leave a little early whenever it got to like finals season, I guess you could say, for the end of the semester. But, you know, both my coaches and some of my teachers who were willing to work with me for missing so much, you know,

it made for, I guess, as easy as it could have been, just managing both of them with how, you know, teachers and my coach would work with me. Did you have any fun in college, Austin? Yeah, I definitely had fun. Probably not the fun that most college students have. but I, you know, I really enjoyed my college experience. It's right. I think it's paying off here in the long run.

I think he's the right thing. I was going to say, now you're PGA tour winner, so jokes on all those clowns that didn't, had maybe too much fun in college. So you turned pro 2014. Talk about, again, you know, you're smart guy. You know, you kind of knew what you wanted to study. Talk a little bit about that decision, deciding, you know,

okay, I'm going to give this golf thing a run. this is what I'm going to commit everything I got to. Yeah. You know, my, I guess during college, I wasn't 100% on, you know, whether I was going to do golf or 100% effort on academics. I was kind of, you know, trying to split it between the middle and focus on both of them. But I think, you know, looking back, if I could have done it again, I probably would have put an emphasis more on one or the other.

but it worked out for me I guess my last semester I had to go an extra semester with the biology major in traveling so much so that last semester there was a lot of thoughts and prayers and just thinking about what's going to happen next in my life

and made the decision to turn pro and attempt that route and the Memphis St. Jude came up later that year in 2014 and that was a moment when I was like okay let's do this Monday qualifier it's close actually I had to do this Thursday qualifier then as well and I won both of those and got into the event and finished 13th or tied 13th and you know made a nice big check for four months out

of college and I was like okay well these are kind of my prayers that then answer this is kind of the direction that I need to lead and that kind of leads into the diverse that's on my golf bag It was something that I relied heavily on, which was Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. And so it was just a kind of cool experience and a cool moment where I said, okay, this is kind of, this is, I made the right decision. This is kind of the path. I feel like I need to be going on. And, you know, I still believe that to the day.

So you're kind of a Monday qualifying warrior out there. What do you got that, you know, other guys don't? Or what was your approach? Because Monday qualifying, you know, has that reputation as being. almost harder than any tournament anybody plays in. It's definitely hard. I was just very fortunate that I was able to play, you know, some of my best rounds whenever the time was needed.

I think, you know, my mindset going into all the Monday qualifiers was to give myself as many opportunities as I can, you know, for birdies or eagles, whether it was from, you know, two feet or 50 feet. Just put the ball on the green and, you know, see if your putter will get it. hot and I was lucky that a few of those days my putter did get hot. Ball striking was well and I think I'm Monday for four or five events and, you know, won a season and a half.

So it was a pretty cool run and, you know, definitely helped me get to where I am today. Yeah, is it kind of liberating to some degree, you know, being able to just, just fire and Greenlight City in the Mondays because, you know, you know, you got to go low to get through and, you know, even just past weekend at Riviera, if you grind through, you know, an even par around, that's going to be pretty damn good, but that's not going to get you anywhere in a qualifier. So I feel like I've always wondered,

it's got to be in some way a little liberating knowing you can just fire and everything. Yeah, definitely is. Definitely get to them when you go out and shoot, you know, 8-under and a qualifier. You know, guys can really lose confidence in their games who are chasing Monday qualifiers and they're shooting, but they're shooting like 68, 65 every time and just not making it through

because somebody, you know, four other guys beat them. It's just kind of, it's a tough route to do Monday qualifiers because, like I said, you can play great and not get in and you feel like you're not getting anything accomplished, but you're actually playing some really good golf. And if you were able to do that for four days in a tournament, you may, you know, have won the tournament. So it was definitely a great feeling to be able to go out and do that and play well and get into those Monday qualifiers. So let's talk a little bit about the win, the RSM Classic, C. Island this past fall. Let's take us, why don't you take us through the whole week?

I mean, you know, you'd obviously been playing pretty well, but it's, you know, it's not like it was overly obvious that, you know, hey, Austin's going to win this week. I think you had a, I'm looking right now. you had a T25, a T20, a T50 leading up into it. Anything early on in the week or anything like that that clicks on the range or that, you know, maybe the final round of the previous week that you thought, you know, all right, maybe we're on to something here. Just talk about kind of the beginning of that week when you finally won.

Yeah. It definitely wasn't the final round of Mexico. We had, I didn't realize that, or I guess I did. when I had originally booked my flight, where I was leaving on Monday, from Mexico to go to Sea Island. And I was getting there late enough before I wasn't going to be able to play a practice round, and I didn't realize at the time of booking that we played both the golf courses. So that only left me Tuesday to play, you know, a practice round because Wednesday there's a pro-am, and I didn't get into that either.

But luckily, I had played, we had played the Seaside Golf Course for SECs all four of my college years. So I had seen the golf course. I'd gotten to play 16 rounds on it. But I've never seen the plantation. So we decided on Tuesday to play the plantation and just rely on, you know, memory for the other golf course. Yeah, there's probably no way you had any yardage books on you or anything. Yeah, well, you know. We were able to get more of those, so that was nice.

There you go. But, you know, those books do a pretty good job of giving the outline of a golf court. But so I didn't get to play Seaside until Friday of that week. So that was kind of unique where I didn't even play it, but I was able to play really well on it. Kip will actually say that that was probably one of the worst warm-ups that he seemed. me have was the Thursday before or the third day of the tournament. He's just like, oh my gosh, we're going to go out there and shoot 80. Because I don't think I hit a single straight ball and there was no win.

So definitely me, not the wind curving my ball. But I'm going to click and we got on a golf course. And, I mean, we played the best ball striking week in my life. And, you know, I didn't have a bogey until my 50th hole or, or maybe it was sooner than that. But it was fun. The putter was clicking. The ball striking was clicking.

Kip and I were doing, you know, reading the greens well together. It was just kind of one of those weeks where I don't think anything could have stopped me. Yeah, it's funny, man. It's almost, you seem like one of those guys were kind of the, you know, the more that things seem to be rushed or hurried or, you know. Seems like chaos. Yeah, you had the poor warm up and you kind of, you didn't, you didn't. didn't realize it's two different courses. You hadn't even seen it in a long time,

and then all of a sudden you win that tournament and you're winning Monday qualifiers. You might be on to something here. Just do that every single week, Austin. You show up Wednesday night everywhere. Right. I would love to do that. Come home for a couple days.

But, yeah, no, I'm a fairly relaxed guy. You know, I'm pretty easygoing. And, you know, things that, you know, if my schedule starts getting messed up a little bit throughout the week, I don't really freak out about. that and I just kind of go with the motion a little bit and I think that helps me with times like you know sea island or whenever like flights get canceled or delayed and you know I'm not worried about it and if I could get there by Wednesday you know I'll be okay I'll be

able to play the event you know Kipps played all these these courses many times or cadets these courses many times so you know I should be okay and life's good we're playing golf for having sake, you know, for a living and you can't take it too serious. I mean, you know, a great thing to be able to do and you can't, you know, you just got to enjoy it. So we're going to, this is a little note for all of Austin's team out there that's booking all of his traveling stuff. Just feel free to just sabotage some of his flight plans. Let's get him in a little later than he expects.

Taking red eyes. Yeah, get him a little uncomfortable out there. Oh, that's funny. So you mentioned Kip, we had Kip on the podcast. God, I think it was a little bit after the players championship. Yeah, that sounds right. So it's been almost a year now. He's obviously a great guy.

What's it like having a guy like Kip who's outspoken. He's got a pretty big digital footprint. He's on Twitter and all that. What's it like kind of having a guy like Kip on the bag? He's definitely on Twitter. It's nice. He's definitely a veteran out there. I was one, you know, coming into the season,

I was wanting to find somebody who wasn't, I guess, new out there as well as a caddy. I wanted somebody who established and played a lot of the golf courses and kind of knew the ins and out to how to navigate places. But I think it's been very well. I'm not so outspoken as Kipp is. And it's been nice whenever we walk down ranges and whatever. He knows every single person there, and he's talking to every single person there. I think, and he's introducing me to everybody.

So I think if it was, you know, if I brought a buddy out who, or somebody who came off the web who's never been on the PGA either as a caddy, I think we've been walking down the driving range and just kind of still beat ourselves and not, you know, introduce and get to know all these guys who've been out there forever. So it's a very comforting feeling, knowing that I already have an end with a lot of the guys thinking, you know, chat with them. You know, Kip will introduce me to them. and then, bam, you know, I've met somebody that I've idled for, you know, 20 years or something.

So, you know, I've really enjoyed him being on the bag and working with them, and I look forward to, you know, hopefully many more events and many more wins. So we're inside of two months now away from your debut at the Masters. First thing, we were just kind of talking about Kip, you know, how much you're going to kind of rely on him at a place like that, how early you're going to get there to kind of check everything out. Have you ever played there before? Give us kind of the quick scoop on how you're standing with Augusta.

Yeah, I've never played it before, but I've been. I went to one Tuesday practice round, I think, about 12 years ago or so. But I don't remember a whole lot from seeing it in person, but on TV, I watch it every year. But I look for, you know, I think I may try and go down, you know, sometime in the next couple weeks and play it, but then if I don't get into the WGC in Austin, the match play, then I plan on going down there for a day or two and playing the golf course once or twice and getting to see it before the week of the Masters. But it's been a lifelong dream to be able to get there and to get there and to be able

to do it. My rookie season, you know, I couldn't ask for anything else. So talk a little bit about that process of trying to go play even like in the next couple weeks. I feel like it's not as easy as, I mean, or is it as can you just call Augusta and say, hey, it's Austin. I'm playing the master's like, I want to come out and play. Talk about the process of trying to get out early and see the course. Yeah, from the letters that I've received and looked at, I think it's, you know, at this point, I think it's fairly easy. make a few phone calls to be made to, you know,

the head pro or somebody down there to schedule a day, you know, that I can come down. I don't think that I need a member to take me, but I could be mistaken on that. But I think it's not the hardest thing to do if you're getting to play in it in a couple of months. I think you just have to make a couple phone calls and set up the day and let them know. I don't think you can just show up at the gates and go, hey, I'm, you know, so-and-so I'm playing in the Masters in two months, let me in.

I don't think that's how it works. But if you, you know, calling up in advance and plan it appropriate, then I think it's pretty easy to get in there. So there's still plenty of golf we played before the Masters, but just curious, you know, you've been playing some really good golf. You've got a bunch of top 20s, top 25s in here. You've obviously got a win in the wraparound season already. What are your expectations going into the Masters?

every week I want to compete. I want to be in contention at the end of the week are coming in on Saturday night and Sunday. So I like to make the cut and put a good showing for my first time at the Masters. I don't know how many first-timers have won, but it's not very many. And expectations would definitely be make the cut

and finish top 10. I mean, I want to win it, but I know that's very difficult. that's a golf course. The more rounds you get on it, the better, you know, you know the golf course, and you should be able to play a little better. But I'm just excited for the whole week, and, you know, I don't want to, and I think the first couple days, I was like, holy crap, look where I am.

I'm at Augusta. Yeah, I hope by Thursday that I'm settled for and comfortable, and I'm ready to go out and perform. So we're just coming off the Genesis Open at Riviera, made the cut there, finished T-49. We've got to ask your thoughts on the 10th hole. It's always one of the most talked about. Some guys love it.

Some guys hate it. What do you have thoughts on the hole? And do you have, I'm kind of going off of your boys' Twitter there. Of course, Kip was talking on Twitter. But he was saying, you know, you guys just kind of decided, I guess, we're just going to rip driver and see what happens. Yeah, I think, you know, if the win, allow you if it's not too strong i i like the driver play every day no matter where the pen is

because if you can get it past the fairway bunker that's about 20 yards short of the green on the left then that angle going up the green is you know the whole length of the green right um if you're short if you lay it up short of the fair you know short in the fairway the the front lip of that bunker on front of the green has been built up over time by everybody being in it and hitting sand up on it. It should get top dressed every day. And so slowly over time, it's been raised and you have to hit a really, really good wedge shot, you know, 60-yard, 70-yard wedge shot in there to even hold the green. And so I think if you can get it up, you know, just short and left or just long and left, you're chipping back up the green uphill and you've got a lot of green

work with no matter where the pin is and I think for me I felt like that was the best play yeah it's funny I can't decide watching if I want guys to go for or want guys to lay up because it's you know sometimes you see you see a guy hit a pretty good drive ends up in a horrible spot makes bogey and I'm like ah should have just laid up and then I do see a guy lay up and just hits a wedge in the middle of the green and I'm like well that sucked I don't want to watch yeah I mean there's you know I thought Rory went with it with an iron you know I saw guys the three woods. I was hitting driver every day. I think the only day that

I didn't have a good birdie putt was the day that I kind of hit a cut with my driver into the wind and it came up short of the front bunker and that was in the rough and that was dead. So I decided to chip it long of the green where I was trying to hit my drive and then get

up and down from there. Yeah, it's a tricky little hole. It's fun to watch, obviously. So Kip told me that every time you guys go out to dinner at a table he said that you turn into an astronomer when the check comes what does that mean i don't know what he's talking about because he does too no him and i we've never gone just him and i and my wife he made plans to do it but usually

somebody else um ask us to go and won't let us pick up the bill but i'm guessing he's calling me cheap, which I'll agree with my M. T. Good old Kipper, you got to love that. So when are we going to see out there again? When are you teeing it up next? I'll be in Tampa at the Valpar and then Bay Hill. Those are my next two events. So I'm going to take off this week.

I have the chance to get into the WGC in Mexico next week, but I needed to remain in the top 10. of the FedEx Cup point after the Honda and my body's just kind of fighting me right now. My wrist is hurting. Last week it was hurting pretty good. So I pulled out of the Honda to give my wrist some rest. And I think it'll be good. You know, this WGC and maybe I, you know, hopefully I'll come out in Valpar and Bay Hill

and be able to put two good weeks together and get into the next WGC. Yeah, that had to be a little tempting, you know, with the way it works getting into the WGC for you to kind of say, maybe we'll play the Honda anyways. Yeah, it was. I was signed up until today and decided that, you know, my wrist is still hurting and it's probably just best as I did. And, you know, Kipp sent me a message this morning. It was like basically saying that it was really hard to pull out and not go, you know, knowing our circumstance. But, you know, I think it's the right call. I think, you know, we'll take these couple weeks off and show up at Tampa and hopefully, put a hurting on people. I like that. I like that attitude a lot.

It's, you know, it's funny. I was just thinking back to when we had Kip on, and he had said, you know, he made a pretty good point that he was like, you know, I'm really hungry to get on the bag for kind of a new young stud out on tour and kind of get revitalized and all that. And then, boom, he ends up with you and you guys win and all that. So it's been, it's been really fun to watch, man. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely.

And we appreciate you taking the time. We know you're busy. We know you're enjoying some time at home. So rest that body up and we'll be rooting for you the rest of the way. Thank you. I get to get back to putting these Christmas decorations. That's a good man. That's a smart husband right there.

Yeah. All right. You all have a good one. All right. Huge thanks to Austin Cook for hopping on with us. Shout out. A quick reminder, we will be. We are scheduled to be.

Again, nothing said in stone. But, yeah, morning drive. It's over here, boys. Don't do it. Monday, or not Monday, Thursday morning, morning drive, golf channel. We're going to be making our, again, hopefully our TV debut.

Yeah, it's slated to air at 1040 a.m. Eastern time, the four play boys on golf channels morning drive. Tigers back this week, Honda Classic, all kinds of good stuff. Great show this week. That's all I got. Hit it hard.