Fore Play - What Is The Best In-Person Sport? And Should Match Play Take Over?

Episode Date: March 28, 2023

Embracing debate today as we’re just one week out from Masters week. The Dell Match Play delivered in its final run at Austin CC which has us asking: should match play be implemented in the Tour Championship? In a major? We’ve also got: Rory and Scottie both impressing heading into Augusta; Sam Burns takes care of business in Texas; Koepka appears in a weird Florida video; Riggs apologizes for not knowing Kiz was chipping cross-handed; the Adam Scott Scramble match premiers Wednesday night. And, most importantly, we debate — is Brooks Koepka more famous than Connor McDavid?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. Oh, Rick! What's that my brother? I've got a buddy who struggles with that shot. He'll like, his name's Frankie Borrelli. So the guys actually gave him a nickname of Butternives because he's always knitled across the green. Brod him 100.

Now you've got to break 90. We appreciate what you guys do for golf. It's been really cool. Thank you. You're making it cool. we appreciate it. I was like, hey, Phil, you only fucking 2999.

And he grabs 100. He's like, yeah, I won 90,000 of these yesterday. He goes, take 100 and go fuck yourself. What? What are you guys hitting? It's ain't a hobby. Four players are our basketball sports. Brought to you by Chevrolet.

I had actually, on Thursday afternoon, we had a couple Chevy folks in town. I got a couple cocktails with them. They're big fans of what we do. Fantastic people. So there's no brand I would rather represent than Chevrolet. So we love them for coming on Chevy EVs forever. everyone everywhere. Kind of a weird week. Kind of a weird time in the schedule. Feels like we're in a

holding pattern. There's all this momentum from the players championship, uh, from Austin and the match play. And then people being sad about the match play. And it's kind of over. And that happened yesterday. And we got fucked out of the Roy versus Scotty thing and just a complete snooze fest in the final. And now we've got just a holding pattern. Because next week is obviously master's week. This week is the Valero Texas Open, which is pretty much I always view it as like the Ian Polter made the put to get into the master's tournament a handful years ago. But other than that, maybe they throw an amateur up there. Maybe this might have been where Jordan Speeth got his start when he was like 15 years old.

So they try to spice this thing up occasionally. But pretty much we got seven days till people care, probably five or six days because next weekend, we're going to have the ANW. We're going to have Tiger Woods might show up on Sunday afternoon with just his wedge and walk around and chip like he did in 2019 when he won. So we're probably four or five days away from starting to get some real juice going. but we're in kind of a weird spot. So I got quite a few interesting things for us to talk about that I dug up from the internet.

We got Succession is back. We got a weird ass Brooks Kevka video. We got Mike Trout and Tiger Woods doing a golf course together. So it's kind of a weird week. We're going to talk about some weird stuff. Before we get into that, what is the plan with match play for the PJ tour? Do they have one?

They do not have a plan. That tournament is not going to be there next year. I don't have a plan. I know. It's crazy. It's not going to be there next year at Austin Country Globe. That is for sure. As of right now,

there's no guarantee that any of the designated events will be match play next year, which would be a huge, huge bummer because, yes, the final wasn't great, but everything before the final was electric. And it happens sometimes. Sometimes you get a bad Super Bowl. Sometimes you get a bad March minus final. It doesn't mean that the week itself wasn't fantastic. And Sunday morning with Rory against Sam Burns going into extra holes and,

or sorry, Scotty against Sam Burns going into extra holes and Rory against Cam Young. I mean, that was about as good as it gets. It went out with a bang. It did, but what a bad. Bad, bad reverse of fate because I'm sitting there in my bed on a typical Sunday going in and out of consciousness, snoozing, ordering breakfast food, three different seamless orders. Actually, Uber Eats orders. And I go, I pass out at one point, both those guys are two up with like four holes left or whatever. And I'm like, great.

When I wake back up, we're going to be a couple holes in to just an iconic final. I fucking wake up. And it's like, Sam Burns is 15 up on him. I'm like, what? What is going on here? So just a big time bummer for them. I'm going to have to guess that in a shocking twist of fate for all golf Twitter people, that the same narratives about awesome matchplay are on golf Twitter are not being reflected upon on the business side,

because otherwise they wouldn't get rid of this thing, right? Because every single person is like, can't believe we're going to lose match play. I'm shedding tears. I love match play as well. It's like devastating that it's gone. But it simply cannot be just delivering on the business. business front on ratings on everything else in some, you know, uh, phenomenal fashion. Otherwise, they just wouldn't be getting rid of it.

But, but, but you can't not every single week, I think can be like, let's just slut ourselves out to ratings and like one week a year, I think can can sort of cater to core. And each one is its own event, right? Each one's its own event. It's not like the tour doesn't get to play averages throughout the whole year. You got fucking Dell technologies and Dell being like, this is our fucking thing. This is our week. This is what we're doing.

Austin Country Club is part of that one week. That's their deal. This is where it fits in the schedule. Everybody's going back and forth with designation and all the whole deal. So it's not, it's not like the tour gets to really decide at the end of the day, as crazy as that sounds, that like,

no, no, this is better for everyone. It's good for the brand. And we're going to like, you know, we're going to, we're going to understand that most golfers play matchplay.

So we get to do a match play event. They kind of have to look at everyone in a silo, don't they? Yeah, they do have to, yes, which is why, and I wrote about this in the article that's coming out in a bit,

which is why if, and I totally understand if, I totally understand if one sponsor doesn't want to waste their week or risk this becoming their week, then let's have the tour taken into their own hands, make the back half of the tour championship match play. I mean, people have been talking about it for a long time. You'd have the same format up until the last two rounds of the tour championship, where the top 30 after BMW make it. You'd keep the staggered scoring so you reward the guys for their season long play. And then after two rounds on Friday, the top eight advance to Saturday and Sunday, single elimination.

you got eight guys you play 36 on Saturday, 36 on Sunday for 18 million or 20 million or whatever the payout's going to be. I think that would be fantastic because you already risk Sunday of the Tour Championship becoming kind of a snooze if someone's ahead by a lot. I mean, that's happened before. And so there's already only 30 players playing. So the whole like, oh, we lose all the stars doesn't really, most of the guys aren't in contention come Sunday afternoon. So I think it would add and look, it's like the Tour Championship has been a runaway success. That's why they've been tweaking the format constantly. So, if match play is going to disappear from the regular schedule for all the reasons that you

mentioned, why not have it in the playoffs? So you stagger at the first two days and then that the result of the first two days, that's how the seating goes into effect. Correct. So the guy who started 10 under, the guy who's leading the FedEx Cup. Are we still doing net scoring on Friday, Saturday or Thursday, still do net because you want the number one guy who's leading the FedEx Cup all year to be like a virtual shoe in to get in.

And I actually think like it would reward season long play even more for the the top eight and getting to the top eight would really mean something. You'd just say, oh, you know, this guy's made match played the Tour Championship the last four years. Like, that would be a new category that people could put on their resume. I just think it's such a good format. You'd have eight big names because they'd be the eight best players for the whole year and having them go go face. And the constellation matches would be electric too because the difference between third and the FedEx Cup and fourth in the FedEx Cup is like two million bucks. So it'd be like a two million dollar money match. You definitely need to do it in a way that's digestible. Single elimination is always

the way to go. Sometimes when like guys trying to get out of the groups, I think sometimes people get confused by that. But once it gets down to the last few matches and it's single elimination, that's where the money is. And again, Riggs makes a good point about business. I don't know how it's viewed if it's doing well. I can't imagine it's doing worse that like if it's doing average, I still think it's a worthwhile thing to put on television and to have on the calendar. Yeah. Yeah, I just don't. That would just be my guess. Just looking at the riding on the wall. Like there can't be otherwise they, they, I just don't think they would be, you know, getting rid of it.

Or I feel like another sponsor, if Dell's out, Austin Country Club's out, I feel like another sponsor would have pounced on this months ago or a year ago, whenever they heard they were going to be out, been like, fuck yeah, we get to be the matchplate crew. And it doesn't sound like from all the RIP, you know, vibes from last weekend. It doesn't feel like that's the case. So Chevrolet trusted company, boys and girls. It's been doing it for over 100 years. I was actually watching some history stuff this past weekend on YouTube, but,

when I tuned out of the match yesterday because it just wasn't one of the matches I was hoping it was going to be. The history of the car is pretty amazing and how the car was for a while, just not for everybody. It was basically this exclusive thing. And there's like a board that owned all the patents, like the patent to just automobiles. And the fact they've gone from that now and that Chevy's been there for 100 years and that they're doing EVs for everyone everywhere. And they're doing not just EVs, but they're doing the EVs and the lines that we've called. Come to know and love like the Cilado, they've got the bolt. They've got the blazer.

We talked about the vet. It's just a great marriage of history, of a brand that you guys have come to know and love like I have. And obviously the modern technology. They're kind of going through a similar thing now, right? With the EVs where you were saying originally where cars were just kind of like, who can actually get these and afford these? Electric vehicles went through something very similar where it's like when they first hit the market, it was like, oh, only the rich of the rich can get these.

Chevy is now proving that and they're adapting where now everyone, the electric vehicles are available to everyone. There's over 1900 certified Chevy EV dealerships. So go in, check out a Chevy EV dealership. See what's on the table. See what the options are. I think you're going to be pleasantly surprised. They've got convenient ways over at Chevy to research and shop EVs online as well.

So jump on their website and check them out. Up to now, most electric vehicles have been either too expensive, too small or too limited in capabilities for most people. not anymore. Chevy EVs for everyone everywhere. You know, we talk about this every single year, but match play is pretty much what 95% of golfers play. When you go out with your buddies, you play match play. If you can't really win the hole, you pick up as you should, you move on, you laugh. Oh, yeah, I'm right me down for a floor there, boys, and it's great. Everybody has a better time. When you go to Europe

or the UK where golf was literally originated, a lot of their scorecards don't even have a stroke play thing. They're just pure match play. And they have the strokes right there on the side that don't even write handicap. They write strokes because it's about this is how many pops you get. It's match play. That's what they want. That's what, you know, so people don't necessarily understand that, especially idiots on the internet that chirp at us about like, well, you should put everything out.

You're putting everything out. Every round you play. You're a loser. It is fun to do it occasionally. Trent does it for breaking 90 and it's amazing. We always talk about how it really highlights the integrity of what you're trying to do, Trent, because most people don't play that way on the weekend, nor fucking should day. Everything would be slower.

And it's just, it's less fun. The whole game is supposed to be more fun. So my point is when you get to watch and play match play, when you get to watch a guy scoop a put up, when you get to see the back and forth. And I do feel bad for the commentators because they just have to use the biggest cliches ever over and over again on match play. And there's no one. And I mean no one that uses more words to say nothing than no to be gay in the history of golf commentator. I mean, he just. King talks and he just says like he basically describes that like someone has to tee off second you know is like what he'll in your life true well I you know it'll be like it'll be like you know because the way that last hole went down there Dan there's kind of a big momentum issue here

where he's going to get to watch his opponent who he just was defeated by on the previous whole tee off first here and you're like okay all right yeah all right checks out that's right a whole time you're you're you're you're almost on the edge of your seat like where's he taking me with this one and you're like oh the other guy's gonna tee off got you okay all right you know what i do wish they did and it's it doesn't you know it's a moot point now because this event is going away and match play just might not exist on the pj tour but i wish they would mic the players up if they would be willing just the tiniest most indiscreet mic because i want to hear him say that one's good like there's a little bit anxiety when a guy puts it close and you don't we we don't know the announcers don't know and we're

just kind of guessing and you know sometimes the guy does the hand just like pick it up but I would just a couple of mics on the guys just to hear what those interactions are like because I I'm far more interested in that than you know God bless no to be gay but sometimes he is just telling us the rules of match play it's incredible man I agree with you and it's is there's always that optical illusion too right where something looks like from one angle the guy will chip it up there put it up there looks like it's a millimeter from the hole. And then they, they, they give you the stat. And they're like, this pot's three foot seven inches.

And you're like, I'm like 50, 50 from three foot seven inches. So you're like, that's, that's a whole different deal here. Like he's got a three and a half footer. What are you talking about? So, so, so yeah, it is, it is great. It's so unique for us as people that are pretty in tune to the golf scene. And you, and there's a event every single weekend to have one that's completely different. Uh, it's fucking great.

It's definitely a shame, uh, that it's gone. And, you know, say it every year and I was saying it last week too that I love Austin country club. I think that place on TV and the style of golf that it delivers and these T shots like the camera guy can't even find them half the time because you don't know where the fuck they're going to bounce and they kick and some guys hit one way out to the right and they're not sure and they're watching it anxiously and it goes like 375 down the middle and then another guy hits one that he loves takes it out and he's like up in a lip on a bunker he gets up there and it's like what the fuck so I love that's so unique we don't really get that very often. And then that stretch of the back nine,

where anything can happen. Is it the 13th? That's that part five that's got the whole bridge and the whole deal behind it. That hole, I've never seen more guys make bogeys there. I feel like than most par fives that you watch. I get it. There's water down the left. There's elevation change and it's tricky. But you see all kinds of crazy shots there. And then they're going for the green on the next hole. Who was it? Was it Tom Kim that hit the back, the grandstand and kicked back into the water? That was one of the worst bounce I've ever seen in my life. I get hit in the shoulder. No.

I got drilled in the shoulder, hit him like a fucking bullet. And then it bounce off him, goes about to go out of bounds. And then it hits a little stake, hits the steak and goes back into play right onto like the road right in play. Unbelievable bounces. But the guy took one off his shoulder. And he just, it was like in slow motion. It hit him right in the chest. And he went backwards.

Just an absolute weapon was coming at him. It just feels like that stuff only happens at Austin Country Cup. Like the types of bounces and. shit that you see. It's just pure kind of chaos out there. Cam Young had the one where duck hooked like a seven iron from 220 onto that hill and it kicks off the hill. Dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, goes down to like an inch. So you just see some crazy stuff there, which as a viewer, you just, you just got to love it. So I'm going to miss that place. And I think that that's something that match play allows is a break from the monotony of a

stroke play golf course. You would, like the 18th hole being drivable and Rory hitting that incredible drive early in the week, basically a walk off eagle. That would never fly in a stroke play event. You never see an 18th hole that was drivable or two drivable par fours in the back nine. It's just nice for a week to not be so obsessed with what's the winning score and how many under par are these guys? Like, just, it's a little bit chaotic. And I think in a monotonous schedule of 40 whatever stroke play events, it seems like such a no-brainer. But you're right. There's obviously business considerations. So it's not the no-brainer that we think that it is. What are the players think? It's a grind. They do. Yeah, the players like I spoke to a few this morning, spoke to a few this morning because

I wanted to get that opinion. I mean, I saw some of the quotes that were like, we really like it, really like it. I had a couple guys say, yeah, we love it. For the same reason that we like it, it's just different. It's different. They do the same thing every single week. And like, yeah, if you have to play a little bit more in match play, tough shit, man.

Like, it's an entertainment product for one week. Everyone's taken next week off to rest for the Masters. So I don't really feel bad for Sam Burns that he had to play. Right. I mean, Rory played the most holes. And like, if Rory's fine with it, you should just do it. Right. Right.

Yeah. Yeah, you know, I got to give a disclaimer. I didn't know before I picked Kevin Kisner to win his group that he was chipping cross-handed. If I would have known that, obviously things would have changed there. I had Kirk text me in just a panic. He's like, why the fuck did we not know Kisner's chipping cross-handed? We would have never taken a shocking, shocking moment. But honestly, he was making birdies in that match against Matsuyama.

and Matsiyama was just like matching him. It was fucking infuriating. And I wasn't watching because a lot of it wasn't on TV. They were just showing like the featured groups or those couple holes on Hulu. And I'm like watching on the score app because I had placed a wager on Kevin Kisner to beat Hadeki. And like he was playing really well. And then all of a sudden he'd be like, holy shit. Kids just made a birdie.

And then you just see that circle right on top of them at the same time. And Matsiyama bird. And then Kiz birdied the next hole. And Matsiyama birded the next. Like how many birdies are these guys making? on top of each other. That was infuriating. I completely agree. I actually thought overall, because I was able to watch most of his kids' matches that he actually played better than he's been playing.

Things didn't go his way in match play. And that's how it is. He ended up losing one down to Hedekie. He was right there with Max. He even had on, on like that 14th hole, no, 15th hole. That's a really tough. It was playing really, really difficult that day into the wind. Kiz hit a driver like 225 and had like 205 into the win. hit like a three iron to 10 feet and canned it. And I was like, holy fuck. And then a couple holes later, Max ended up getting up and down from this spot on the right that was not his like, it looked like it was kids his favor. And then Max ended up making a puck, kids missed a short one.

So he was like, he was still right there with the crosshaded chipping stuff. He could have, those matches could have gone the other way. But disclaimer didn't know that. So I know people were upset like what, how come we're taking kids? He's chipping cross-handed like a lunatic. I just didn't know that. I will say that he was chipping cross-handed. And on the 7th, 16th hole was the first time I saw him chip cross-handed.

And he chipped it to like two feet and got up and down to tie the hole because the deck he did what Frankie was talking about and made another circle. So it wasn't like he was boning these chips, but that's never just a great sign. So the only thing that really saved me was Scotty Chef where I had him top eight. It was like plus 125 or something. Shout to the guy on Twitter that called that like the worst bet of all time after it. hit, which is a very funny concept. I just don't think that guy gets how betting worked, but, uh, he just was like, this is a, this is just a horrific bet even though it hit. I was like, well, I mean, it was plus money. Oh, no. I don't know how to have a, uh, rational conversation with

somebody. Right. Unless he's like, you didn't, unless he's saying you didn't bet enough, then there's no point to be made. Thank you. That's exactly right. He's like, well, the odds are like actually way worse than that. And I was, I want to be like, well, no, the odds are 100 percent. I, I guess. Because it hit. That's like this guy. So that's great. And then we're going to get into Barstable Sportsbook later. We got an ad read for the Barstable Sportsbook.

But Mr. Ice, I got to give a huge shout out to Mr. Ice. Leo, Dave's buddy, who is the hockey overs guy. We've referenced him a lot.

He was just on fire this last weekend. I think it was Thursday maybe that he did a, he declared a three unit, uh, syndicate play of the year. And it hit the. over with like a couple minutes left in the third period. We were sweating that one out hard.

That was massive. And then throughout the weekend, all his hockey ones for the next like two days were just winner, winner, winner. I think last night finally he had a loss. So out of like seven different units that he kind of was putting on hockey over the weekend, six of them hit. So shout to Mr. Ice.

He was fucking massive this weekend. Yeah, he's hilarious. And then now they got the brain freeze between him and Stephen Che that that one hits. So they've got a lot of things. They got a lot of juice going on in the ice world. A lot of juice. So I was up this last weekend, even with our match play picks not being great, kids of the cross hand, the whole deal ended up being up because of Mr.

Ice. And then I got out of all people, Riggs tracker was DM& me tennis picks. And he's pretty good tennis handicapper. So he had me, I got a little juice out of him this last weekend too. And then he pulled a move that I loved on Saturday, I think, where I was going back and forth with him, like, I'm thirsty here. What do you got? He's like, I don't like anything today.

I'm not, I like to pick my spots. I was like, I fucking love that. That's nice. Yep. Take a little breather. Don't, you know, don't force anything. So, so yeah, Barstall Sportsbook was just,

I had a lot of fun on that this past weekend and Mr. Ice. If you're not following Elio on, on Twitter, he's a must follow. He's on Instagram now, too. He's posting this stuff. He's trying to figure out Instagram. So I love that guy.

He's great, and he was red hot this weekend. Brooks Kevka at the Florida Panthers game. with like a pylon kind of a weird video you guys clearly going through something i don't know exactly what it is but i also don't know he's like surrounded himself with a bunch of guys in like track suits that were probably bachelor party i'm assuming is it something like that had to be like that's the new thing everyone gets in like an outfit and they all go to a game or something and like they're wearing tracksuits i'm sure it was funny to them and then probably would have been funny had he just not been a dick i mean it's a really weird video super strange he's holding

the pylon trying to get erin ekblad's like attention from like the sweet level which is like whenever i go to island again i know i scream a lot during games it's more just like rooting on the team and like cheering for goals i don't say like brock brock hey brock never never not once never once i ever thought the players were going to hear me on the ice like it's insane so the fact he's doing that is like crazy lack of self-awareness i mean jesus christ brux i mean really bad looking but we've all, I think maybe we haven't been there, but we've all been drunk and it is tough. Like I'm about to go on a bachelor party this week, my own. And it's like, you just don't see.

You just, you just don't want to be filmed when you're drunk. Like you don't like want a camera on you and you're drunk. I was talking about this with someone this weekend at like a family party. They're like phones like they were saying when they were, I was talking to the guy who was like 40s. When I went on bachelor parties, there was just where there was no such thing as like cell phones and everything on Instagram.

It's just like I don't want to be filmed when I'm like singing karaoke. drunk and like I got to go back to my work my job on like Tuesdays it's like unbelievable it's just a weird culture that we live in now that you have to kind of look over your shoulder every two seconds like not saying you do something bad but like just being drunk like he was just being a drunk idiot at a at a game and like to the people to his left and right that probably didn't even feel weird but when you see it head on in a video you're like Jesus that guy is in a rough spot he must be going to do things in life it's like no I was just having a lot of like pub lights yeah and it's all about the lens that you're viewed through like if that were grunk

people be like, this is awesome. You know what I mean? It really, it really depends on your reputation. So like it's, you know, he's done what he's done and he's been, you know, he's been in controversies all over the place. But if he's, if he's, if that's grok, everybody's like, this is the best video ever. But we've said that, we've said that were rooks with, um, uh, Rory McElroy and fucking Patrick Reed in the same tournament.

They did like the same thing and everyone fucking called for Patrick Reed's head. And they were like, that's an amazing move by Rory. Right. What is Brooks Kepka's reputation right now? How would you guys describe it? Well, I think on the heels of the full swing where he was basically being held hostage by Jenna Sims, it felt like that like he just seems probably like he's, those two things coming out, you know, a few weeks or a month or so apart from each other. It just adds up at people's mind. He's like a wet dog right now.

You just want to bring him inside and just dry him off. Well, I also think it's, it's, you don't see him very often anymore. And it used to be he would play great golf. He would win a couple of majors. in a very short amount of time. And then you would see him and it'd be like, oh, that's the guy who wins a ton of majors.

And that's how you would view him. Now he has disappeared from the public landscape as a, you know, other than, you know, people who are really tuned into the CW. But if, if you're not,

then you don't see him that often. So now when you see him, you're like, oh, that's Brooks. What's he been up to? What's he doing now? Why is he holding the cone? Like,

that's the way he's viewed now. Yeah. Yeah. I agree with that. I agree with that. And it is much, you know, remember he was super quiet.

even after he won his first U.S. Open at Aaron Hills. He was quiet. He didn't do the media tours, right? He didn't do New York. And then even when he won his second one, a year later, he wins shit. He wins Shinnock. And it's like, he's still pretty quiet. And then like that offseason, he like found his voice.

Remember and he started doing the interviews where he even said like, yeah, I never, I never really thought I was like worthy of having all these takes. But now I've won a couple majors. I am. And at that point, I think his stock was about as high as it could be because then he actually came on our show like a week before. and then he won the PGA at Bethpage. And you're like, this guy is sort of like saying whatever the fuck he wants to say.

He's putting up like dartboards of Brando Chambly. And then he's winning every major he plays it. And you're like, that's legit. And the minute you go like not legit and you're like not finishing, you know, you basically wouldn't make a cut if there was a cut on the live door. And then you're also doing that type of stuff. Your image starts to slide a little bit. And you are right, Frank.

of like it is funny to look at it through that lens of like people at the game and stuff probably didn't even you're like yeah there's there's 20,000 of those people in here doing the same thing like whatever who cares but yeah I'm just like being in that sweet and he's probably like oh like they probably hung out with Ekblad the night before something and he's probably like shitfaced me like Epblad you're a fucking pine cone or whatever pine cone you're whatever traffic cone and and you're and like everyone who's left around just like continuously drinking and having their conversation but like on our view it's like, what is that guy doing up there?

He's a shit show. He's, he's, he's in a bad spot. He's in the darkness. He's got to get out of this dark place. We got to bring him back. But really, he's just like on a bachelor party. I don't know. It's hard to look through it on certain lenses.

But he's, he's always been a dick to us, unfortunately. So that's why I've always had, like, no, not always. He's pretty recently. We interviewed him. He was fine. Yeah, but he did that for like an ad for like Mikulab ultra. True. I never agreed to it.

Yeah, but I will say we saw him. when we saw him at the PGA, he was cool with us that year that he won. Now, that was also fucking four years ago. But he was, remember he's like fistpott? We were around at us and stuff. He wasn't like giving us. It's not like he gave us an interview. He didn't like, he was definitely like cool, but he was also winning the PGA.

So he was probably in good spirits. Did you know that 80% of people are not drinking enough water to stay fully hydrated? If you're hanging with the boys on a Friday night playing 18 on Saturday, you're definitely one of those people. and you absolutely need biolite. Biolite is IV and a bottle. A lot of products come across our desk. I cannot tell you, fellas, how crucial biolite has been to me to the point where

anytime I have buddies come into town or we go down to Pinehurst for a trip or we went over to Pebble and did the Dad Bug Classic, I hit up our tube and I say, I got to have biolite for this trip and all my buddies are on board with it now as well. It's just, it gets you back to where you need to go when you just like forget to drink water. It helped me so much. I had a lot of family in this week and, you know, drinking some whiskey, drinking a lot of beer. You wake up super dehydrated and you're just like, why did I do that to myself? Why am I so far behind right now when it comes to my thirst and my rehydration?

And you just, I go into my refrigerator. I get the biolite. It is just such a good feeling knowing that you're skipping over drinking. How many sports drinks? Is it like six and a half? They get six and a half times the electrolytes then supports drinks. Right. So you're just skipping all that.

You're skipping all that liquid going into your body and you're just getting super hydrated. It's an amazing. It's an amazing, amazing invention. Plus it contains key vitamins and minerals that help promote balance in your body to get you feeling your best on and off the course. Great for after you've had one too many. Fatigue, nausea, muscle cramps, whatever it might be, just the overall wear and tear on the body suffered by us weekend warriors.

Biolite comes in five hydrating flavors. all formulated by an anesthesiologist and pain specialist from Atlanta, Georgia. Check out there's newest flavor punch. Go get 10% off your first case of Biolite's newest flavor punch. Right now, if you visit DrinkBiolite.com, use the code classic. Obviously, they're big into the Barstallet Classic, which we appreciate. So go to DrinkBiolite.com, use the code classic and get 10% off your first case. But like the time that he just blew off the match with Dave,

And like leading up to that when we were supposed to do that match, like, I remember we were at Liberty National and I was like trying to get some video of him walking by at Liberty National. I was like, yo, Brooks, like, I was like, I was like, Dave's been practicing. And he just looked at me and goes, what? And just like kept walking. And he was like, and just like looked at his friend and just kept walking. I was like, and I literally said, sick, Brooks. You're like too good to like do a little video here for like the Dave Portnoy match.

We're like putting all this money into it. You can't even like come over and do like a funny video. Like Max, like Homo, would eat like eating that up. He would have come over, done a whole thing, a whole bit, a whole buffet of bits. But Brooks was like, who is this? Like, who are you again? Like, you know exactly what's going on here. You know exactly what I'm trying to do here.

And you're just being a fucking cock. Yeah. I agree. That's always kind of been our, our issue with it is like you're more aware than, than you try to act like you are. And that's not cool that you act like you're not aware. You know, like we were never, that was sort of always our issue with him. He had that same approach to golf of like, yeah, it's like golf's,

golf, but like I'm kind of a different athlete. And that's like, dude, you went to fucking the Asian tour wherever I went to try to make it. When you love part of my team. You like, I hate golf. I just happen to be good. It's like, no, you're litur legitimately like the most obsessed person with golf of all time. You're a golf nerd. You're an absolute golf nerd.

It's like golf is the reason that you have, you know, hot wife and $100 million. I also, I remember he would say that he didn't practice. And I remember one year I asked him. I think it was in Phoenix. And I was like, yeah, like, you know, have you been practicing? He goes, oh, I'm a range trap, bro. I live on the range. It's like, you just spend.

the last two years telling everyone that you don't practice. It feels like he kind of says things. He just kind of says this. Full swing. He's like grinding over the putting green missing like four footer after four footer practicing all day. And you're like, that's fine. That's cool. You're golf.

That's what I do the same thing. It's called daily not. Like we're trying to get fucking, you love golf. We love golf. What's wrong with that? It's cool. It's a little. There's two school for cool, if you will.

There's just no way you win the stretch that he had in majors. Four majors. You go back and look at it. It's fucking insane. Like the whole swing they really hit it with it where they're like we hadn't seen this since tiger woods like they were legitimately saying this was the best stretch of golf that we had seen in years dude it is it's like it's hard to wrap your head around and you just you can't get that far without being a range right you have to practice you just have to there's no way you can win that way and not practice and the ones he didn't win in there there he was right to the when tiger won the master if you go back that whole final round brooks should have won that master's like yeah I'm looking at it right now starting 20. Starting 2017, he goes win T6, T13, win T39, win T2, T2, T4, T7, cut T2 T2 T4 T6. That's insane. Yeah, right there, every time.

But, yeah, I mean, at Royal Port Rush, I remember he was like in the last, whatever, a couple groups. And he obviously said the one, the PGA that Phil won. He was in the final group with him, the one with Tiger. Crazy. He legit on 17 and 18 missed like short birdie puts. And if he makes those, he just wins by a stroke. hit one on the water at 12. It's like if he just plays like he normally plays on that back 90,

he wins about like two or three that master. So it's like he was fucking unstoppable. So yeah, to go from that. Dude, I remember when he was on, when we were on that boat and I almost threw up and we interviewed him, he said something like borderline controversial where he,

he basically broke majors down into a math equation where he's like, oh, was that on the show? That was our show. Yeah. He was like, this amount of guys can like can't handle the pressure. So you knock the field in half.

And then you take that and half of those guys can't handle the pressure once it gets into Sunday. yada yada yada i don't remember it exactly and then he fucking won it and everyone was like this is crazy he is now proving what he's saying he uh i remember he said that on our show and then we got fucked because like a couple days later like we aired the pod like three or four days later and a couple days later i had somebody had like at at you know golf dot com or somebody was interviewing and he said the same breakdown basically and then everywhere just quoted that one i was like no no we have them like on video i say that because i remember i remember sitting there with you trant when you

almost threw up and thinking like, holy fuck, what he's saying right now is an incredibly bold thing to say and how much easier these majors are and how other people are just going to puke all over themselves. And now there's only 10 people you have to beat. And then he fucking, like you said, he just down the stretch beat DJ at Beth Page. We're like, this guy's a fucking unstoppable. He's going to win 100 majors. And now here he is, you know, dancing around with a pylon in his hand. So you just, you never know what to expect. I feel like there's a resurgence from Brooks coming. I don't know how long it's going to be. It's not. that old, right? What's he like young 30s?

32, yeah, I would say 32, maybe 33. So I feel like there's probably a resurgence coming from Brooks. It'll just be a few years. It feels like at this point. It has to be in the majors now. I mean, that's he has no, like before it was like, this guy doesn't play me any PJ tour events. Now he doesn't play any because he can't. And he, you know, if you start to win in majors of that same clip, that would really be something. We got Mike Trout with a video he put out today announcing that he is, opening a golf course, 2025.

It'll be called its Trout National, the Reserve. It'll be designed by Tiger Woods and the TGR Foundation or, you know, group, TGR Group. Is that what it is? TGR Designs. I think, yeah, TGR is like the holding company. I think there's TGR Foundation, TGRD design. In New Jersey is hometown of Vinland. Is that how you say it, Vinland, Vinland.

New Jersey is scheduled for 2025 opening. you know, pretty fucking awesome, if you think about it. Like here's this guy with unlimited monies, you know, one of the, one of the best athletes on planet Earth, clearly loves golf. And he's like, I'm going to open a golf course. I'm going to do it however I want to. It's, I like the quote that came out. So you see this kind of, especially in the golf world a lot of sort of people gassing up their own games or their own distances. This one I actually believed when it came out says trout carries an handicap of around seven or eight averages three.

30 to 360 yards on his drives. And then he said when I'm not letting it go, it depends on the moment. I try to dial it down to keep a little bit straighter. I believe all of that because he's such a freak athlete. So I believe all that incredibly cool that he's doing this in my opinion. Have you guys seen the video of him at Top Golf? Yeah. You'll believe that he hits at 350.

The name is bold. Naming it Trout National. I mean, that's a lot of people, a lot of people have built golf courses. Not many have just gone. I'm going to go last name National. Yeah, but it's kind of, I mean, if they have trout. Is there going to be trout running through any of these streams or? It got to be.

The logo's got to be a trout. Right. He got lucky with the fact that it's a pretty cool name and it is his last name. Like if you wouldn't, if you didn't know anything about baseball, you just think that's a great golf course name. True. Is he,

has he leaned into the trout thing at all? Like, is that like a known thing? Here's the weird thing about this relationship is I never in a million years would have put them together. I would never have put Mike Trout and Tiger Woods in the same room. I don't see Trout as being anyone that wants to like, like be out in the limelight and doing something like this ever.

Um, he's a Philly guy that just like loves to go to Philly, Philadelphia Eagles games. And I don't know. I just never saw this. Where is this being built again? New Jersey. His hometown is being built in Jersey. New Jersey. Yeah, it's bizarre.

It's a bizarre combination. And it definitely, it stunned me when I saw it come across my desk. I mean, we've never seen the two of them interact. I never seen Trout interact with anyone except for when he was sitting in front of us at the Super Bowl when Dave, uh, when, when the Eagles beat the, Patriots, Trout was just right in front of us sitting there and he just looked like a regular person. It was fucking bizarre. It is funny. People talk about this a lot with Trout where it's like nobody, like you don't really know what he's about and he's like might be the greatest baseball player ever.

And he's playing in L.A., which is not in Anaheim, whatever. I mean, I don't really know the, like, what's the between L.A. and Anna. It's just not L. It's like an hour east. I mean, it's just not L.A. The fact that there isn't everything in L.A. Isn't everything? No, no, but that's like, that's like actually, it's Orange County. It's like it's a different area. The fact that they're still called that Los Angeles Angels is absurd. My point, though, he's not playing in fucking Kansas City. He's not, he's playing in a major, and I know we don't consider that to be a major sports market, the Anaheim Angels, but like, it kind of is.

He should be bigger than he is, but they're just such a fucking dog shit organization. They have Shoahatani and Mike Trout and nobody cares about them. That's fucking nuts. They were the biggest state, they were on the biggest stage at WBC. It was Otani versus Trout. and it was like the most watched pitch of all time. Like how you, whose fault is it though?

I mean, it might, it's got to be ownership. I mean, I've heard horrible things about the angels that like their owner just treats them like shit. Like, someone was telling us like behind the scenes like, who was like the food that like there's like in their clubhouse was like it was basically like prison food.

Like they just like it's not a good organization to play for compared to all the other. Yeah. But I don't know. I mean, it's a combination of everyone's fault. It's definitely his for not being. cool he makes he makes 47 million dollars a year yeah it's that's actually go look at his no he's another one where it's like he is worth every penny of that because like I said before

there's an argument and I'm not going to make it because I haven't followed baseball in a long time but that he is maybe the greatest player ever too he's even the best on his own team his stats are disgusting but his stats of the last like 10 years you wouldn't believe them if you go to baseball reference sometime and just look you you won't believe what you're seeing He is probably considered pound for pound like the worst marketed athlete in the world, right? We have this issue with Connor McDavid, too. If Connor McDavid played for like the Boston Bruins or fucking the New York Rangers or like

one of these East Coast huge market teams, he would be on every billboard in America essentially when it comes to hockey. But fucking Edmonton Oilers, we barely get to see him. He plays at 1030 at night. when we're watching it on the East Coast, you just can't see him. Same with Trout. Like, I don't watch Mike Trout play at 10 o'clock at night against Seattle Mariners. I'm just not sitting there watching it.

They're barely on national TV. It sucks. It's one of the great advantages of living in Phoenix Castle area is you get to see Connor McDavid play all the time because it's like right when the sun goes down here and you finally get in and you sit down for a drink or a bite to eat dinner or whatever. And it's 7 o'clock here and it's 10 o'clock there. That's when his game starts and all the other games are over. and it's like the only thing on.

So that's the biggest thing I noticed here. I tell people all the time is like from a TV standpoint, I get to watch Connor McDavid play all the time and it's amazing. I have a dumb hockey question because I was thinking about Connor McDavid the other night for whatever reason. Why doesn't someone just give, who is it, Edmonton, just a godfather offer trade literally everything to get him and then figure it out from there.

Because the way that you guys talk about Connor McDavid, it's like when I was, I was talking to Brennan about him once where it was like, If there was another, like if there was a better league than the NHL, that's where Connor McDavid should play. What he's doing this year is hilarious. And he's, he did this last year.

Is he the highest paid player in the league? Oh, I don't know. I don't think so. Probably not because he signed his deal of a little, a few years ago now. So somebody's probably signed one based on the market since then, you know what I'm saying? But he's up there for sure. The reason I would say, Trent, is because if it were basketball, that would work.

But hockey's so like, Connor McDavid probably averages what under under 20 minutes a game that is on the ice maybe maybe just over but he and there's 60 minutes in a hockey game so he's only one of six players on the ice if he count the goalie for a third of the game and so it's like even if he's that dominant when he's out there and stuff if the rest of your team stinks at all you just can't that you don't make up enough in that whereas a basketball you know one out of five guys on the court and you're out there for most the game like you could just kind of dominate and take it. over whereas in hockey I think it's just like the scales are just enough tipped in having more of in depth than it is having like a dominant player that I don't know it would work and I think that Edmonton's been a good case of that because dude they've had they've had some of the biggest stars that they've had on their team for like five, seven years now it feels like and they pretty much had stunk a lot of those years last year they finally made it pretty deep in the playoffs and people are hoping that they do but it's kind of

of like you would hope that somebody would just do that, especially some owner that's like, dude, we're rebuilding anyways. So why don't we just start by doing everything to just get Connor McDavid and figure it out from there? Because from a marketing standpoint, you sell tickets, jerseys, you start to make up that money. People get hype around it. But yeah, he's, he's fucking unlike anyone else to watch in hockey. It's like, it's like he's playing against children when he's playing.

And like he's crazy. And he's playing against guys that are just the best at their position on earth. It's insane. So he has the top cap hit. They do weird things with the cap hits in the NHL, but he has the top. I mean, he's making like $13 million a year. And then Panarin's second, awesome Matthew's third. Yeah, I mean, he's the fucking goat.

He's, he's unbelievable. That's a lot in the NHL too. Like those, dude, those guys, I remember, what was it, Kainer and Taze when they both signed like the same deal? It was like around 8 million a year or something. And that was on the Rangers. No, he was on Rangers. He's fucked.

God McDavid is 26 years old. I just think, and you make a good point about how much time he plays. Because if you look at it with. basketball like a yeah i remember a very young lebron on the calves his team was garbaggio like terrible they were really bad he carried he carried them to the finals like a couple of years and it was like this is wild but also he's playing 47 minutes of a 48 minute game so it's like he affects every single thing that happens dude yes 139 points this year the next closest is 112 and the guy's on his line it's it's it's on his team it's dry sidel so you have two guys that

And Drysettle directly gets all those points because also McDavid's got 139 points. And it goes vice versa for sure. Drysdale is one of the best players in the league. But you can't say that that's not mono-e-mono. That's the reason why that's happening. They both go head to head on power play. And that's why they're racking up so many points. Then the next is Kutrov on the lightning with 102.

So he has 139. The next in the league that's not on his team is 102. Postronach scores every single night. He's got 97 points. Connor McDavid has 139. He's got, he's got, I mean, 40% more points. And these other guys are,

he's played 73 games this year. He's played 73 games. He has 60 goals. He has 79 assists for 139 points. 60. I tweet out Brock Nelson, American hero every single night. And he has 32 goals.

That's like, those are on, those are close to the Wings numbers a few years. And they had like, the goalie was just a toothpick in the net at the time. And the fact that he's doing that now against these guys and how good everybody is. But yeah, just look, I think Connor McDavid last year averaged 22 minutes per game of a 60-minute game.

Yeah. And so it's just like when you look at it that way, it's, yes, you can dominate and scores as many points as he is. And your team's going to be, you know, it's going to help. But it's like it's not necessarily enough to overcome. Whereas like if a team like when the Cavs would just pretty much bring in brought in LaBron and they're able to win, like you got to have a little help for sure. But it's just not as it's not as impactful. Yeah. We talked about this rigs when you were explaining that to me because I was pretty much a hockey novice before joining this podcast.

That is still astounding to me that there's not one guy who can play like more than half the game. I mean, I get it. That's what it's been forever. But it's just, it's so hard to wrap your head around that there hasn't been one cyborg who's like, I'm just going to play 40 minutes. It's just a, it's like the best way to describe it is like a shift in hockey is like riding a bike straight up the side of like a hill or a mountain the whole time. So it's like you can't, no matter who you are, you could go pretty hard for like 45 seconds at a time. And then you're pretty much gas and you need to sit out for half the game or, you know, two thirds of the game. And it's almost like defensemen are, you know, traditionally defensemen are more valuable really to like a Stanley Cup winning, contending type team because they're on the ice about half the game because defensemen, you know, they kind of hold it down in the defensive zone.

and they're not like chasing the puck all over the ice, like a four, they're not forechecking. They're sort of like controlling the game from the defensive position. You get like a big fucking guy like Charra back there who's not as skilled as Connor McDavid. He's not as marketable. He's not as known. He's not scoring a million points. But Charra playing the NHL forever and like Bruins are phenomenal. He's like fucking six, nine back there just on the ice for almost 30 minutes a game.

He just is able to help your team out throughout the entire game or half of the game. or half of the game more so than even a forward that scores a ton. So hockey's very unique in that sense of like it's almost getting a really good defenseman in there who nobody on earth has even heard about or no average sports fan even hears about is like more valuable a lot than even have it, Connor McDavid or something. And the second you take your foot off the gas, the second you take your foot, the second you take your foot, the second you take your foot, the second you're just going to get blown by you and it's a goal.

So like these guys have to go 100 miles an hour every single second. And you'll see it because like the more you watch Dan, it becomes strategy. to like hem these guys into the defensive zone and like make them kind of work hard. And then all of a sudden like you know a goal is coming. Like it's as it's as evident is that you literally are like, holy shit. These guys can't get off the ice. And they'll put it's so it's so obvious that actually the broadcast will put up like like,

Brock Nelson has been on the ice for two minutes and 10 seconds. And you're like, holy shit. And you watch him and he's just standing still and he like can't move. And like they'll just keep like peppering his side and like they'll keep passing to the forward that he needs to be on and like they'll move the puck around that guy and you can just tell like these guys need to get the puck out of the zone they need it and all of a sudden a goal comes and you're like fuck we couldn't clear the puck once like you just knew it so they'll just take penalties on purpose dude like a lot of times in that situation you've been out there for like over

a minute you guys are gas like trip you'll just trip you'll just yank a guy down and they'll call penalty and it'd be good if their power play scores you know 80% of the time we're going to get scored on a hundred percent right now so let's just fucking yank a guy down and get off the ice because then you ice it you have to stay out there it's crazy that was fucking that was a new rule like I don't know how long it's been now you can't change on it ago but you used to be able to so guys all the time when you get gas like you get the puck or you're still you just fire it I think yeah icing call and change and then they changed that it was probably might be fucking 15 years ago or now or longer but like that was a huge difference in the rules but yeah I think if people got out there

and like actually skated you'd be like you'd get it in two seconds like we're saying one minute for the best players in the world is like a long time. Yeah, it is. It's forever. That's astounding.