No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 1011: Colonial musings, spirited Ryder Cup debate, 100 Hole Hike etiquette

Episode Date: May 26, 2025

Soly and DJ are joined by KVV as we discuss the action at Colonial with Ben Griffin winning his first solo PGA Tour event and the rest of the weekend’s news in pro golf before an eclectic Back 9 featuring: KVV’s recent whereabouts and a critical question about his upcoming 100 Hole Hike, Soly getting taken to task by KVV over recent US Ryder Cup team comments, the new LPGA Commissioner announcement and more. Join us in our support of the Evans Scholars Foundation: https://nolayingup.com/esf Support our sponsors: Footjoy The Stack Whoop Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. Johnny, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different? better than most. Expect anything different? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast. Solly here, joined by my guy, Mr. DJ Pie. Hello, Pie Man.

Hello, guys. Happy Memorial Day. As many people are listening to this beautiful weekend here in Milwaukee. It's good to be with you guys. Good to see you. Great to be talking some golf this evening with our dear friend, Mr. Kevin van Valkenberg. KVV is back. Hello, Kevin. How are you? Sorry. I'm great. Rumors of my devise have been greatly exaggerated. I'm very excited to be back on the Sunday pods. Very special to be with you gentlemen, as always. We got a lot to discuss tonight. We're not going to get pinned down too much on the,

on the professional golf that was played this weekend, but we are going to talk about it. And week after week on virtually all professional tours worldwide, more players trust their game to the performance comfort and style of foot joy. In fact, for 80 consecutive years, foot joy has been the shoe of choice on tour. It's almost hard to believe.

Yeah. I, I've, we've read this before and I still like, I'm like 80. Oh my God, I kind of missed that one. You would think they would miss like a one year along the way, but no, they are obsessed with making the best golf shoes in the game period from the modern classic premier series is often imitated but never duplicated to the all new hyper flex that is changing the game for Justin Thomas. It's still a little jarring to see Justin Thomas in a different shoe other than the classic foot joys. But you guys been beaten up up the, you guys have been telling me all about the Hyperflexes.

Yeah, they're great, man. I hadn't, I was trying to keep them fresh for, for Belfast. I got this great pair of kind of white and light blue gray ones and I didn't want them to get dirty. So I wasn't wearing them. I wanted to save them for this big video project we just did. And now the floodgates are, floodgates are open. You know, I'm wearing them to the convenience store. I'm wearing them to the gas station. They're there. They're great. I love it. DJ just wore them that exact model. The, the white with the light blues or 27 holes yesterday that I walked lovely on the feet. 27 holes is a lot for me to put in, but man, I thought, I thought these, these are the best shoes I got. It's less than a hundred, which we're going to talk about that. You're doing some hashtag testing, which we're going to get to here.

But foot show has many options for whenever, wherever, and however you play the game, not to mention the ton of sick collaborations that are on the way this year to check out what's new and to find the best shoe for you. Visit foot joy.com. Dej take us around the world of golf. Ben Griffin is your winner at the Charles Schwab put him on the rider. Cup team at the senior PJ on Hill Cabrera is your winner. Is that two in a row for on Hill? I believe it is. It is Pontius. Nyholm wins on the corn fairy tour beats our guy, Johnny Kiefer in a playoff at the visit Knoxville open Johnny Kiefer, you know, for throwing out rider cups spots, but them both on the ties. Come on.

We got two TBDs. I cannot wait to talk rider. I'm coming at you. Boys are going to sit out of the gate to bring it back tonight on the LPGA. She saw, is that how you say that? Sure. Sato EY wins the Mexico Riviera Maya open at my Acoba by six. Put on international crown team. Let's go. The U.S. Ryder Cup team and Christopher writing shoot 62 to get into a playoff. It wins the Sudol open on the DP World Tour. I believe he started the day in 23rd place and just came in and snatch the trophy for his first win on the DP World Tour. But let's start

with the Schwab solid. Should we Ben Griffin and Maddie Schmidt was, we knew it was going to be a hand to hand combat for those guys starting for clear of third place, Ricky Fowler. They both were starting it at a 13 under which let's just be like four clear of Ricky that was, that was so that he was five clear going into the final round. I think was what we were all thinking. That's not, that's not sporting, but yes, I do. I will agree. Uh, Griffin opens up with an Eagle at the first stuffs it in there at the first hole and pays it off for an Eagle and birdie at the second opens up a huge lead. But then I think it was all bogeys on the way in. Now that I'm looking at the card, bogey six, bogey

seven, bogeys 13, bogey 16 to give a lot of it back and kind of hanging on for dear life. There is Maddie Schmidt ships in. It was kind of one of those like, well, he's got to make. Holy shit. He did make it. Whoa. He made it. All of a sudden, Ben Griffin needs to make this putt on 18 to win his first solo PGA Tour title. Of course, won the team event with my guy, Andrew Novak, a couple of weeks ago, but now he is also a solo winner on the PGA tour. So what, what stuck out to you about, about Ben Griffin this

week? Listen, was it like the most amazing Sunday we've had? It was not, no, it was not, but this was a, I think for Ben Griffin's sake, we should consider this his first career PGA tour win, right? I mean, winning a team event is wonderful. That's like a, it's more of a silly season event than I know it's during the middle of the season. And I know there's, you know, whatever available and all that stuff. This was the real first win and it was a good one. I mean, this was a class golf course. This is, you know, it's not the most appealing golf course on TV, even after the renovation, but they had that place firmed up this week. I mean, watching guys hit shots into that fourth hole, watching it be played the way it's supposed to be played, like a long,

it's a 250 yard par three where you're supposed to hit a run-up shot was awesome. Watching Maddie Schmidt land on the front of the green on 16 and have it stopped just a few feet away from the hole. I was kind of like looking around like, why is there only two guys under par? It's a testament to the condition they had this golf course in for this tournament. So it wasn't pretty, I say all that I say, it wasn't pretty, but he outlasted everyone else.

There's a reason why these guys were kind of looking silly on this golf course. And closing it out with four bogeys after opening like that, again, didn't make for the most entertaining Sunday, but it was a really, really good quality win. Not the most amazing field, but some quite big names up there and you got it done. You got it done and you tip your cap to him.

He's not going to win the metaphorical dunk contest out there. You know what I mean? Like it's not any kind of skill set that's just going to absolutely blow you away. But if you're a real golf pervert, a real sicko, and you really like getting into how guys build careers and how they just market, like he just has gotten better every year. And he's kind of slowly, slowly chipped away. The driver has kind of turned into this weapon. It seems like where, you know, it's kind of not only at a distance, but also just started hitting it straighter, which kind of seems to be a trend with some of these guys out there.

But also his iron play has just gotten better and better. You can tell he's one of those guys that like, you know, is learning golf courses. You know, that first year, you, you don't really, you kind of get punched in the face by a lot of PJ tour courses. And it seems like he's just found out like how to, how to contend. And now finally today, like how to slam the door, uh, at a big boy golf tournament. And it's just, I don't know, that stuff is, like you said, you got to absolutely tip your cap,

even though sometimes it doesn't feel like the most exciting thing. It is just like, man, it kind of is just, he's just doing everything well and he's just turned into a really well rounded, nice PGA Tour player and now PGA Tour winner. So Kev, any other Ben Griffin thoughts? I just think the golf pervert is the best description of Sully that I've ever heard. PGA tour player and now PGA tour winner. So Kevin, any, any, any other Ben Griffin thoughts? I just think that golf pervert is the best description of Sally that I've ever heard. Thank you Deeds for putting that in. Just, you know, just getting in and just rubbing out the data, you know, just super age for the data. So thank you. No, I mean, look, I think this was felt a lot like a regular season NFL game. Like it's not like super

compelling. I don't need this to be the prime time game. I don't need to fix this shit. I just, it's on. I enjoyed it. I think market woman summed it up kind of fine in the back nine. Like I'm just desperately waiting for someone to hit a good shot and you know, Schmidt hit a really good shot on 16 and then hit that chip in on 18. And that was just enough entertainment to get me through the day. Ben Griffin. I'm, I'm trying to think of, you know, I'm not near, certainly not a ball. No, or I get all, unfortunately I get all my knowledge from the ball. No, or so. I don't really know what I'm talking about. Thank you. You know, if Ben Griffin's a quarterback, he just seems like one of those,

like totally serviceable, you know, team seven and six, but like cousins, man. Yeah. Guy's not going to get you in trouble. Can I throw some nuclear flames onto this? So it'd be like Jalen hurts if he was on a normal team. That's my TC. That's my TC voice. I do not agree with that. Take it anyway. Yeah. I mean, that's, that sounds great. I think, you know, TC huge Eagles fan. Now I think, look, is there golfers who are just like the sum of their parts? Like I think that kind of Ben Griffin, it's a, is it a cute story? Like went away to, you know, work in insurance.

That's awesome. It is amazing. Like it is like it, it, it, it, it's, it's, it's very story book and it's going to get brought up for literally the whole rest of his career. But it's a, it's one of the few like tallies in the opposite column for all the examples we have of like, dude, it's so freaking hard up there. Like I play golf with this guy, and he shoots 61. He can't get status anywhere. Like you got no shot, man. You got no shot. You have no special skill. You don't you're not longer than anybody else. You're not more accurate than anybody else. You're not that

much better than an iron player. He just like bucks the trend of all that like you just do not go from selling mortgages to winning on the PGA Tour and potentially being in the conversation for a Ryder Cup spot, it just does not happen. It's a really, really ridiculous and fun story. And he's not like, again, the most visually appealing or fun, most fun guy to root for, but it's, I have zero reasons root against him. Like he seems like a really likable guy. I don't know him personally, but I've enjoyed listening to some of the interviews that he's done and his storytelling aspect. He just seems super grateful to be out there and to be able to enjoy it.

Maybe a different perspective than he has having stepped away from the game for just a little bit, but for still such a young guy to still have this level of success, it's really, really impressive considering he had a year off. The Biden blockers, that should be his gimmick. He should just keep those glasses and roll with them. Take those all the way to Bethpage, Solly. It sounds like he's all about them. I haven't seen it. I don't know the last time we saw them without them. I know they're prescription, right? So yeah, I don't know. That very well may be the case, Kev.

I think what's interesting about a guy like this too is, I was mentioning the golf pervert perspective of just kind of watching guys slowly level up and slowly kind of go from an anonymous guy to a winner. And then I think the next question is like, okay, well, what happens next? He's done it. Coming into this season, I feel like he wasn't really the horse for a lot of the big boy courses. It's a lot of Mexico, Butterfield, Palm Springs. I would put Colonial in a very different category, especially Colonial that's playing firm as fuck like it was today.

Then those places, I would also put Quail Hollow in a very different category than a lot of those places, which those greens were also playing extremely firm. But other than that, it's like, he's played what, one, two, three, four, five majors and it's all cuts a WD last year at the PGA and then a T8 this year at the PGA out of nowhere. So it's like once these guys level up, now he's secured his stat. He's like fifth in the FedEx Cup or something they said.

So I mean, he's not going anywhere. He's got status for a while. He's going to be in all the majors and it's just very interesting. Now it's like, okay, well, is the next step there or is it not? Right. Are we going to be in all the majors and it's just very interesting. Now it's like, okay, well is the next step there or is it not right? Are we going to be Kirk cousins forever? We're going to start winning some playoff games. KVV. I don't know. We'll see Kirk cousins may have won a playoff game. I haven't watched a football game in fucking 12 years. So I, who knows, but I'm trying to think if he won one with the Vikings, that's, I'm sure I'll be fact-checked on that by the true knowers out there, but I don't

think Kirk has just won a playoff game. I think that's where my head goes. See what I don't know. The Vikings won one playoff game in his career as against the saints in 2019. Sure. Okay. He's one in four in the playoffs. That's kind of a T eight at the oil hollow.

Sounds like data is pretty important to the conversation. All of a sudden here. Wow. Here we go. Here we go. Listen, we just, we don't want you to overdose on the data. That's all we're saying. We'll get here. We go. I, if you're asking, do I think there's another level to Ben Griffin's game, I'd

be very surprised. I think this is like, I'd be very surprised. And let's say it's not possible. This is just like, this is a heater. This is a really, really, really good heater and it's, it's the flavor of the, of the season. But I'd be, I'd be really surprised if I thought like he had a much higher ceiling than this. To realize this level is like, that's what I'm trying to drive home. This is ridiculous. This is so incredibly unlikely.

He does have, he's got a lot of variance too. I mean, he's still is like, it's a lot of peaks and valleys. And I don't know if that's kind of mostly led by the Potter, I guess. Like if he just has kind of off weeks with the Potter ball striking is like really solid. I don't know. It's, it's, it's interesting to see some of these where, you know, a guy feels like he's trending and he's kind of turned it into like a really top tier sort of player. And it's like, I missed a cut of the players, missed a cut at Valspar, missed a cut at CJ cup. Like it is, it is still pretty up and down. And it's kind of been like that over the last couple of years. So I, again, I don't really know what that means or where we're going to head from here, but I'm excited to, I'm mildly excited to watch. I'll, I'll put it that. I'm a mild, you can't be,

you can't be a great player without being a good player first. Is he getting to be a good player? Yeah. Absolutely. What happens from here? Inarguably. I agree. Anybody else towards the top of that board? Maddie Schmid gave it a heck of a run. Another guy that has kind of a strange, interesting career with like a ton of peaks and valleys, a lot of like top tens and a lot of miss cuts kind of on that Scott stallings program for, for Maddie Schmid, but I can't say I have a ton. I might throw it to my analysts here to, uh, for, for some color on Maddie Schmid. Great, great tournament.

It was excellent. It was well done. Also, I only thing I want to say is this is exactly what we do for the Americans. Like when they have a really good result, we like do the brighter cup thing all over. And for a European, a great week. This does not move the bar at all. I have a counterpoint to that, but I'm going to wait to save it for the writer cups. It's a fluid week. This is like the biggest, the biggest teases we've ever, we've ever had. Now stick around. Don't turn it off. Don't turn it off. We'll get to that later. Guys, I got a couple stats I just want to throw at you guys. There's weeks like this where it's

like you can be cynical and say this was boring and there's nothing to take away, or you can go a level deeper here. And that's what I'm going to do. And I want to throw it out. I'm going to go, where should I go? I'm trying to pick which order I want to do. Let's go with this one because this guy finished third I think sometimes we underestimate just how often these guys get up and down I was thinking about this as I was playing golf this week, and I am just not getting up and down from from anywhere I'm almost just like playing to avoid doubles at this point. It's pretty Disappointing and so I just wanted to float this. Bud Colley got up and down 22 out of 26 times this week.

Missed 26 greens and got it up and down 22 times. That's like, that's pretty inconceivable to me as a golfer. And I guess just speaks to the power of missing the right spots and just making a ton of putts. But just, that's one for your back pocket there. Put put that away. That's that's pretty impressive on firm greens, especially. That's right. It's impressive. Yeah.

You guys know the tour average for for scrambling? Is it 60 percent or something? It's exactly 60 percent. Balno or KVV. It's about that. I also wanted to flag this one. But now has gotten up and down from the bunker 16 consecutive times. Not, not the longest streak on tour, which is our guy,

Tom Hoagie came into the week with the longest streak, had one say and save, missed the cut, call it, you know, called it a week. It's like protecting the a odd risk reward. Exactly. I can't play two more rounds. I might mess up my sand saves streak. But yeah, just again, just think about that next time you play golf. Imagine hitting 16 bunkers and just getting it up and down every time. I always think of you as a good chipper. Did this is this just reputation? Yeah, no, I have the Yips now. Highlights on things.

100% have the Yips now. It's awful. Awful, awful, awful. Not even Yips. Just kind of like, well, sort of like kind of a half Y think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a,

I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a,

I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a little bit of a, I think it's a it in eight minutes. Are you deep in the Mayo methods now? Yes, 100%. I tried the Mayo stuff, the Mayo stuff was almost working too well. Once I kind of threw the towel in and I was like, I was like, all right,

let me try this stupid Mayo stuff. And the ball was just like going straight up in the air and coming straight. Like it was, it was working too well. So then I was like, oh, well, now I don't have any idea how far it's going to go. And I'm just dumping it in bunkers. I know. I know. I know. And the ball was just like going straight up in the air and coming straight like it was was working too well So then I was like, oh well now I don't have any idea how far it's gonna go and I'm just dumping in a bunker Yeah, I think she just keep dropping the hosel back on it then that's a better approach

What my point is I don't think I could fix this game is too easy now I need to go back to my old method. This is just not leaning gonna lean the shaft probably a little bit more We'll think well, I promise you we'll fix it. It's it's remarkably simple. All right It looks like he's fixing area to tanning garden Jutanangarn. Yeah. Thanks to that, that video, our guy matches sent over enjoyed seeing that she didn't look like she was totally aware of, or like super excited about being filmed. I don't know if you guys, she was just like, yeah, cool, man. Like I've just, I've just practiced it. He's like, yeah, I've got her a riot. So I think, you know, who knows, it was like a hostage video. He came after and then made her, made her outside the ropes.

How does it not even be helping her? He just was filming. Exactly. It's interesting stuff. It sounds like my guy. But I, listen, I hope it is, uh, I don't know. It's kind of a golf course where you need those, those shots, a lot of the like long closely moan runoffs.

I don't know if they're going to firm up after all the rain we've had, but conversation for another day. Guys, I'm going to go ahead and get back to the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, where you need those shots. A lot of the long, closely moan runoffs. I don't know if they're going to firm up after all the rain we've had, but conversation for another day. Guys, I just wanted to float Nick Hardy. Ball struck the shit out of it this week. I believe he was plus 4.2 strokes gained on approach. That is relevant because he entered this week, 140th in strokes gained approach. He has missed 11 of 14 cuts this week or this one in TC's face when he was talking about all the guys that, you know, I called this guy, I invented this guy. I was like, what about Nick Hardy, man? Guy is like absolutely stunk.

And I just wanted to fly. He had a very nice week and, you know, found something with the iron. So I hope that's taken care of. Can we come up with a team, a team of TC's whiffs, just like we check in on a weekly basis? Who else? I'm trying to think of who else we have. I'm trying to think of who else we have.

I'm trying to think of who else we have. I'm trying to think of who else we have. I'm trying to think be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that.

I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that.

I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going toont, Dacia Sartre. There's a lot more. I think Mattia Schwab was on that list. I think at one point, yeah, I have turned it in pretty good players. We'll make a segment out of this.

So the future pod. All right. Yeah. We'll have to get the research team on that one. Guys, I thought this was interesting. Matt Kuchar is a top 25 player this year in strokes game putting that kind of blew my mind a little bit. Just again, as a guy who has all the course knowledge in the world, this was his 15th year playing at Colonial, and this was by so far the worst he's ever putted. He lost 1.2 strokes

per round, which is his worst by almost a full shot at Colonial, which I wanted to say like, oh man, he just was not digging the renovation, not digging the new greens. And last year was actually his best year ever putting at Colonial. So that, listen, that's just a golf. What a crazy game. Cooch is still out there doing it. I'm a little surprised. Yeah. 47. Just about to say, what, how does, how much status does Cooch have? I mean, was he, I assume he's in the 125 last year. I just didn't think you might just keep showing up and nobody's nobody's turning them away I'm supposed to be 948. I got it. I got here's the text Yeah, we'll get you in yeah, let's you play with these guys

He is top 125 from 2024 that's correct. Okay. All right. Let me float this one to you guys. Which is sick, by the way. Well, every year all these young guns coming up and he just keeps keeps beating them in golf. That's true. Except for that weird shit with Max Grazer and whatever. Listen, that was tough. Yeah, that was the worst. Aldrich Potgeater led the field in strokes gained or Strokes gained in just straight up driving distance this week. How many drives over 350 yards do you guys think he hit this week? Oh, a lot.

Six, ten. He has 10 drives over 350 yards, including a 392 yard drive today on number one. That was at the left side. I was trying to picture if there's a cart path that goes up that left side guy, just like, if you go into his kind of like hole by hole, it's just like so outrageous how far this guy is hitting the golf ball. It's kind of world-class dumper. He does just like, that's how he freaking hits it so far. He's got glutes for days. And I, you know what's how he freaking hits it so far. He's got glutes

for days. You know what? This is so stupid, but I was confusing for just a split second. I was confusing him and Garrick Hago today and I saw the video. I think Tidal has posted a video with Pac Eater. That was the first thing that sprung to mind. I was like, oh my God, Hago cut the hair. And now I didn't notice this guy's... Yeah, this guy's just a tank, man he go cut the hair and now like I didn't notice like this guy's yeah This guy's just a tank man. I guess the hair was covering that up. I was like, oh no wait, those are two different guys But yeah, anyways, our guys absolutely just shipping it out there and I think going forward week to week. I might just Look at his sheer just like driving distance because the hole-by-hole is Truly outrageous stuff and it doesn't look like he's going all out at him. No, exactly.

It just looks like there's more in the tank. I'm just going to get his. So I mean, you have the distance, but his ball speed on the 11th hole, he touched 190. Yeah, easily covered 190 in round two. He's freaking 21 years old. I mean, that's what's fucking bonkers. Yes, Spieth was winning majors at 21, but like this that's kind of like there's only upside I would think for him Do you have this ball speed from round three on 11? Because he hit that was not show it or

Unfortunately, it shows it as 150 which is not correct. Don't think yeah, we'll take that over on that Alright guys This was kind of the last one. I saw a tweet from Brandle the other day about Scotty being, no, this is good. This is balanced. You know, I'm a Brandle guy through and through. Me too. I take the W's with the L's with, with Brandle.

He was talking about how everybody says Rory's the greatest driver in the world. And actually it's Scotty. And I think he, there's an interesting case to be made for that. And one of the lines in there was like, Scotty has completely taken the right side of the golf course out of play. And there was no elaboration and maybe I'm sure he talked about it on live from or something last week. The left side of the right side. He's completely taking the right side of the golf course out of play. And I was like, that's interesting. Cause like, it seems like he hits a fade off

of every tee. And like, I wonder what he means by that. I dug into it. Scotty out of 50, what was it? 56 fairways this week, potential fairways. He hit it in the right rough three times this week at Colonial. On average, he hits it in the right rough 9% of the time.

That's it. Which is down from almost 15% in 2020. He's third on tour in that stat. And it just that that like really blew my mind for a guy that like consistently plays a cut off the tee. He just knows his start lines. He knows how far it's going to go. And it's just, again, that's one of those like put it in your back pocket. If you see Scotty missing the right rough like something something went wrong He probably wasn't wasn't looking there, you know, and I want to throw this one at you guys on the inverse I think you can get this who on the PJ tour hits it in the left rough the least

left rough the least Wyndham Clark Hmm. It's a really good guess It's not when yeah, but it is a good guess. It's not Wendham. But it is a good guess. You led me there with your, I think you guys can get this. Who's the poofiest fade? I still think you can go.

Don't underestimate how poofy this fade is. Morikawa? Yes. Morikawa hits it in the left rough five and a half percent of the time. That is nothing. That's crazy. That is nothing. That's crazy. That is wild. It's a great stat. Aaron Rice, 6.2% of the time. I would love to see and maybe you could look at this real quick, but even with that though, is that enough to say that Scottie's a better driver than Rory? What strokes gained is Scottie

picking up as a result of having a more controlled? Like I would, yes, that's great, but I would still think that Rory probably like gets more advantage from what Rory does than Scotty from what he doesn't do. That makes sense. So for the last 12 months, they are almost indistinguishable. I mean, Rory is 21 yards above average, but slightly below average with accuracy. Scotty is four yards above average, but 7% more accurate than the average player. They are plus 0.93 and plus 0.87 over the last 12 months in strokes gain. So that's, I mean, that's a difference that I would say is quite indistinguishable.

But over the last six months, Rory's got him by a little bit more. The gap's a little bit bigger than that. But, um, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I've looked to watch the space going forward. I mean, maybe Scottie is wrestling away that crown, but I feel like Rory's earned it over the last five years or 10 years. Well, last two years, Scotty barely has them. Like Rory has trended better and better because he just keeps getting longer. Scotty doesn't seem really interested in getting longer, but like Rory just keeps adding distance and nobody ever talks about it. It's ridiculous. Very true.

I mean, if Scotty wanted to, it would not be that hard to add much more distance. Like for instance, four times this week, I did my own training program and that training program is called the stack. And all it takes is a quick 15, 20 minute warmup in the backyard. You may have seen a little reel we posted this week

as well as highlighting some of my favorite stretches and warmups with it. And then it's 10 to 15 minutes of swinging. I actually had to text Sasha McKenzie, like hey, the app is telling me I can do this every two days. Is that okay? He's like yeah, if the app's telling you you can do it, you can do it.

So I did four stack workouts this week. We're getting back into it. I'm not falling off the train again. Dej, I'm gonna use your stack when we're in Milwaukee. Please. I am totally committed to this. I touched my top stack speed in my workout on Wednesday with 115. I've gotten back to it faster

than I possibly could have on course. It's still catching up a little bit. But it's incredible. It's an awesome, awesome program. You can go to the stack system.com slash nlu use code no laying up, you get 10% off any purchase. It's a great app, great training tool. It's got there's a putting aspect to it. There's a wedge aspect to it that's off any purchase. It's a great app, great training tool. There's a putting aspect to it. There's a wedge aspect to it that's coming as well. It's just an app that is going to make you better at golf, especially if your time is limited. Like almost anybody listening to this podcast probably, it's a great way if you're getting older to keep

the swing feeling a little young, keep the body feeling a little young. And man, once you get through like two or three of them, you genuinely look forward to it. I cannot say enough great things about it. The stack system.com slash n all you code no laying up for any purchase. You get 10% off any purchase. And if you're, you got some kids that are into baseball, check out the stack baseball as well. It'll help your swing speed as well on that. So, you know, I don't think you meant to, but that was a delightful T up for all of that. Kev, you know, what's funny is looking at the, uh, at the right rough tendency. I pulled that, that stat back up and scroll it all the way to the bottom. You can see a lot more

of those guys that are on TC's, uh, all time list. They took the left side of the golf course, really took the left side of the golf course out of play. Uh, last time the PJ tour, this stat, Frankie Sappen, I believe that's a, that's a TC guy 24% of the time. He's hitting it in the right rough. Who else? Nick Hardy, one 75th in that stat, your boy Wyndham Clark, one 74th. I don't remember if Braden Thornberry was ever fully glossed a TC guy, but he's down there. Chris Ventura was definitely a TC guy. 172nd, Sahith 169th, tied with Foxy also 169th and actually Rory 167th in that stat. So there you go.

Just kind of a fun, weird deep dive during the back nine there. But elsewhere in the Schwab, we mentioned Bud Colley finishing third, I think first big signs of life for him since the players, which is always fun to see. TC did call this as Tommy's week. He sent me even private DMs that were like, no, I'm serious. This is, I'm pushing out this time. I'm serious. This is this time.

Everything is lining up. This is put it on the record. Yeah. And it looked really good for, you know, or not, you know, looked good for a second and, uh, seemed to hit that big tone, uh, dropped in neutral there. It was in the second half of, uh, of today's round, but Scotty, just like a accidental T four, the ceiling is the roof. Sully on, on, uh, on Scotty's game, anything to take away from him led the field and approach play this week and was eighth off the tee.

Like honestly should have won this one. This one, he did not have a great putting week. And as soon as I had pointed out that he was a top 10 putter in the world in 2025, how freaky of a stat that was. Yeah, he had a backwards putting week, but he tends to, his finishes at the Schwab the last four years, second T three T two T four. Uh, I don't think he has any other events where he's

finished. Doesn't ever finished outside the top five and doesn't hasn't won it. Yeah. Like that trend is pretty ridiculous. But what if the Schwab though, what if the Charles Schwab is his Riviera to Tigers? Like you just can't win it. Like it just, it's sorry. Home, home event. You just can't do it. I wonder what kind of odds you could get on him winning in 2026, like right now. If I give you this much money for him to win next year, will you take this? Quick math, like without checking it, like I would bet his winning percentage of

signature events in the last two years is better than his winning percentage of non-signature events. He always gets Memorial last year, won the heritage last year. When the players finished second at Houston last year, second at the Schwab last year, he won the travelers too. He wants the meals to have their moment. Like he's just a good, you know, the good guy spreading the wealth around. He's just making sure it's a healthy tour. Appreciate it.

Love reading his press conferences always. And like, he was kind of, you know, he tour. Love reading his press conferences always. And like he was kind of, he was never going to ever say, you know, I'm taking my foot off the gas this week, but he came as close to that line as I think he was, he's ever going to, which like, yeah, I mean, listen, I'm not doing my full routine this week. Not exactly. You know, I'm not sleepwalking, you know, I'm still trying to win the tournament and I've said, but like, you can tell this is just, you know, you literally won a major last week and I'm sure is still coming down from that. And he's sleeping in his own, you

know, sleeping in his own bed in Dallas. And like, I'm sure this was kind of a, uh, show up and stretch a little and, uh, you know, we'll roll the balls out and see what happens. And still like, again, almost, almost kind of accidentally got a W. I think they play another what the eight holes of this tournament and he probably wins. Probably. Hey mayor. Hey mayor. You want to stay up and watch a few more episodes of the office? Cause it's not really a signature event. I can do one more. I can do one more. I can go show up an hour late. It's what's the stars game. You know, I think he's, he's just, he's, he's hanging out, man. It's great. Hannah did point out. He's like, man, it's a while that he's doing all this while,

you know, while having a newborn at home and a young baby at home. And then she kind of sat with it. She just like, I bet he's not doing the night duties. He honestly might be though. Like that's what he probably would be. He's not doing the stack either though. So it kind of evens out. So that's true. Aldrich pot Gator T six Harry hall T six. I'm just going to throw this one out there. Can we pause on the Tommy thing real quick? Just cause I, the, the, what happened on 18? I still am very, very, very confused by he hits a putt and it takes 27 seconds for it to fall in as the clip that was posted everywhere showed. And it fell in and they did not assess him a penalty. Now the rule says you are allowed a reasonable amount of time to get to the ball plus 10 seconds. Uh, and he like takes an unreasonable

amount of time. If you ask me to get to the ball around Maddie Schmidt there, he was, Schmidt was blocking him, you know, delaying his progress. Technically, yes, he took, he did not get up to the hole. My point would be what, what if you if that was not an unreasonable route to the hole, if that was not one, why would anybody ever approach the hole if your ball is on the lip? Like just walk away, just walk away. You can wait two minutes if that's the interpretation of the rule. Like we've seen it many times over the last several years where they do this and

then they later assess the penalty. I guess the rules had it timed at eight seconds instead of 10 because that's when he got to the hole. But that's a dangerous interpretation of that ruling. I would say because I felt silly. So I, because my parents are in town and they're watching me and I was like, that's not going to count. It's all, it's all, he's filled me in on this. I know that is not going to count. And they were like, Oh, are you sure? It seems like it's counting. I was like, Nope, just wait, just wait. The penalty is coming. My guys saw, he would not let me down on this. Well, they never covered on TV when it happens. Didn't happen with Michael Kim at Bay Hill or something that they just like went away.

And I was like, Hey, it's gonna be a penalty. And everybody yelled at me. And then it was one and nobody said anything. But it happened with Sewell Kim at RBC. That's where I learned the rule. Like where this happened right in the, at the PGA during the ESPN simulcast. You took a big risk going out there and being like, nope, it's not gonna count. It's not gonna count. You giraffe, you absolutely giraffe did on a national broadcast.

It's all like, I will never not be proud of you. Thank you. It's good for Tommy. I mean, yeah, I'm not like upset that Scotty got ripped out of a few more dollars. I think he's gonna be fine. But yeah was that was a bizarre interpretation of that rule. Yeah, I think I was deep into researching left rough tendency at that point. But glad you guys are on it.

Glad you guys are all over it. I just want to flag Harry Hall. This is a no offense to anyone. I clicked in there just to kind of learn a little bit more about his week and his stats and what was going on. And I'm just going to call like the newsboy kind of Hogan cap down into the right chest hard rock logo over to the left chest, a Legion airlines logo. That's a pretty unholy Trinity that our guys got going on. That's like, that's kind of a TC like worst, worst nightmare there. So I just, I had never noticed that before. Just calling that out. Rio Hisatsune T6, one of

the hottest players in the world. Ryder Copper, JJ spawn T6 and Ryder Copper, Bob McIntyre T6. I think that's going to probably just about do it for, for, uh, your, your colonial recap, unless you guys got, got too much. Wow. Shots fired at Andrew Novak finishing T 11. Huh? Well, I figured we'd get to that in our Ryder Cup conversation. Okay. I just had a couple of Ryder Cup watches, Novak T 11, Occha T 22, Spieth and JT Poston were T 36. It's posting off the team now, unfortunately. For sure. I'm glad Spieth like solidified his guaranteed position by just grinding out a made cut there

and finishing. That's wild. Who guaranteed him a spot? I don't know. It's rumors floating around. Do you get your news from Reddit, Kevin? Because I think we might need to test your, put your journalism skills to the test. You get to that too.

No, I listened to the pod. I went deep in on it after after seeing some of the comments I'm ready beef continues to drive the shit out of the ball. I will just throw up that flare as well. It he's Yeah, it's getting really really good. So hopefully the iron play You know, I'm a speed guy. I just want some standards some I want everyone to be held to the same standard here So where else where you want to go next? One question we got from go LF state. How does the tour give tournaments

the week after majors more juice? I would say like, does it need more juice? Like we can't. There's only so much juice, right? There has to be ebbs and flows to the season. I feel like we do this after every like smaller event now is like, how do we fix this? And it's just like, man, there's, I'm fine with some ebbs and flows

to the season. Totally. There needs to be weeks where you are dedicating all of your energy to a tour event as a sports fan. And some where you can't be doing all four days of energy. I actually weirdly watched a lot of it this week, just how it lined up with my schedule.

But I don't think this needs fixed. I think it's really, really hard to get a good spot on the calendar and not be a signature event currently. And I don't have a fix for this other than like, the tour is gonna keep playing every week. Like that's what they're mandated to do. There's gonna be bigger events and there's smaller ones. I just appreciate that they're like telling you

what the bigger events are and telling you what the smaller events are. And I don't think this needs necessarily needs fixing. I honestly kind of would like to see fewer signature events right after majors. I know the RBC is always going to sort of slot right into masters just because it's that's where it sort of lines up. But I don't really like that when it's like, oh, and we got to get up again. Like let's let's do it one more time boys.

Like, I don't know. I know that's how Davis love always like, I felt that his, his game was trending right, you know, and down there, but this is mentals were still in a blender from Augusta. So you'd always play well like the week after the masters, but, and I just don't want to waste a lot of energy and getting hyped up after that should be a natural come down. And it, yeah, it'd be the same thing as travelers too, with that the week after the U S open. So it's kind of a, it feels like they're trying to almost too with that the week after the US Open. It feels like they're trying to almost, I don't know, they're trying to have a mix, it seems like, because obviously a lot of guys like playing the week before a major, some guys don't. So there's

like a, having the Memorial back in its normal spot rather than kind of, it was in that first week of June, I think last year, wasn't it? And having that kind of with a gap between, you know, so it's not going Memorial straight into the US Open feels like a good thing. It's just there's so many puzzle pieces to try to Yeah, fit in there, man. It's pretty, pretty unenviable job. But a question we got from McTrees02 from today forward, who has the most PGA tour wins? Ricky Fowler, Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood. Oh, that's when I hate this. So I says amazing question. It's stopped me really, really, really good.

Uh, I would go Spieth. It's been Scott another long, he's got a long career. And there's no scenario, which I think Jordan Spieth doesn't win. More PGA tour events. Uh, many, I don't know, he could win two more and that wouldn't surprise me, but I still kind of feel like Tommy's gotta prove that he could do one,

because it just might never happen. Tommy might be the Colin Montgomery of his generation, where he's just not going to win a PGA Tour event. And Ricky, I don't know, I mean, Ricky could pick off one of the lesser events, but I don't have any more confidence that Ricky's going to do it than Jordan is going to do it. Jordan will at least probably get to play in more of the events from sponsor exemptions

and whatnot. Yeah. Ricky shouldn't be in the question, I think. I think that's right. How old is Ricky? I think Tommy's going to win a PGA Tour. I do not think he's going to go his whole career without one, but I also, the answer is speed.

That's the safest answer by far. It is. I know. Freaky question though. It is a very question. Yeah. I could like put me back a little bit. It was like, Oh cool.

Shit. That's a real perv question right there. I don't really want to be weighing it on this. I have to move that to perv corner. Exactly. Isolate all the perverted shit in one's face. Back of a video score in the nineties, you know? Exactly.

The heavy black curtain in front of these types of questions. Yeah, I'll say Spieth. That doesn't feel, my heart wants to say Fleetwood just out of like, just for fun, but I think it's Spieth. Scotty was asked about a question early in the press for this week said, on behalf of golf fans everywhere, do you have any idea where the tours are in terms of potentially merging?

So you guys might get a chance to play together more often. I fricking loved Scotty's answer. He was just not down to play ball. Just said, I mean, I don't really know. That's what the higher ups to decide. I've said it a few times this year. If you want to figure out what's going to happen in the game of golf, go to the other tour and ask those guys, I'm still here playing the PGA tour. We had a tour where we all play together and the guys that left,

it's their responsibility. I think to bring the tours back together, go see where they're playing this week and ask them just like really good. Yeah. Yeah. He said this, he's given this, this, uh, sound like quite a few times now, but it keeps getting a little bit bitchier in the best way. Yeah. In the best, he's given this, this sound by quite a few times now, but it keeps getting a little bit bitchier in the best way. Yeah. The best way of like, dude, we'll see where they're playing this week and ask them as a, is it a little bit pointed in this best Scotty way?

That is. And I think Scotty has, I mean, I, I kinda, they're very weirdly different answers, but even go back to like the driver stuff with him after, you know, winning a quail hollow and talking about that stuff. He's got a very good ability to just be extremely straightforward. You know, he doesn't like duck stuff and dodge stuff. Occasionally he'll give cliches about, you know, yeah, I'm just, I like them all and I'm just trying to win or, you know, whatever. But he, he kind of just like is pretty direct with a lot of these answers.

And I don't know. Again, I keep shouting out his press conferences and how there's always more there than you think. And it's another, another good example. Totally. I think the greatest example of all time that we didn't really talk much about it last week. Cause like when they asked him about being in jail, he was like, yeah, let me tell you about every single thing that happened in jail. Like I did my routine. Like I was watching shit. I was talking to these guys and being there. Like, are you a golfer? Yeah, man, I'm actually a golfer.

Like he went into detail over it. I thought that was so great. It's so rare for an athlete who's like in the midst of a controversy to be like, well, let me just like take you through everything I went through the whole day. Like he's good at answering questions. I beg golf media, just ask him good questions.

And I wonder if, you know, I'm trying to think like I'm putting you guys on the spot here, but has he had quotes? He hasn't really had any quotes like blow up in his face. I don't think. And I don't know if some of that is just, he's pretty direct and pretty honest, but not never like controversial. He just kind of tell it seems like he just kind of, you know, gives you the plain truthful answer on, on a lot of this stuff. And I don't know if maybe he's not, he just doesn't seem gun shy, I guess is what I'm getting at. And I'm trying to think of why that is. And maybe it's cause nothing's really blown up. But I mean, we talk about Rory.

He shoots hard and doesn't get it to pull up. It's like, yeah, maybe he's got some interesting things to say. The only thing I'll say is he gets a little, he got a little defensive during the putting stuff when he was like switching putting and he was like, I don't really want to talk about this anymore. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not a bad putter. I don't know. I don't know what you're talking about. Don't you fucking write that I'm mad. Fucking motherfuckers. I'll kill you all. That kind of love is like laughter of like, I have this chicken, but I fuck you.

Yeah, that was like evil, man. Yeah, that's true. It turned into Chucky there a little bit. You know, just watch next time he gets a little annoyed and then he diffuses the tension immediately with like a little laugh. It's one of my favorite shuffler. Like sort of, I guess idioms or whatever quips or whether he does. Lastly, Roy skip a memorial. He's playing RBC, which obviously he was not going to go four in a row. What are we, what are we doing here? This is the guy that was like leading the charge for all these signature events. I believe he's skipping three of them so far this year playing five of the eight.

Is this still in line with Roy's weird protest that I don't really still know what he's protesting at this point is this fair game? What do you guys think about this? Well, he likes Canada. I think he, you know, is probably it's, it's good for the tour that he's going to Canada, right? That it's like an event that they want to have. And he's continued to play well there. So I don't want to sound like I'm making excuses for him. I just think that the landscape is different than it was after a Delaware where it was

like, okay, like we got to do everything we can to like hold the shit together. So please like everybody commit to like, you know, doing this all and we all have to go to these things. And now it's kind of different. He's like, ah, whatever. Like I've, you know, I don't need to be the person who solves this shit anymore. So you guys figure it out and I'll do what I want. My legacy is kind of secure at this point. Yeah. I mean, I think the tour would probably rather have them at Memorial, just bigger swing and bigger tournament and all the, you know, he kind of got turned into a bullet sponge for all of the like press conferences and then, you know, had a bunch of stuff kind of go down behind his back and now we're merging and now we're doing this.

And now we're not. We're not. We're not. We're not. We're not. We're not. We're not. We're not.

We're not. We're not. We're not. We're not. We're not. We're not. We're not. We're not. We're not. I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing.

I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing.

I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing.

I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. I think I'm just going to do whatever I want. It feels like a pretty fair takeaway from some of this too. I think the most optimistic lens is like, what am I going to do that's going to be the best chance of winning the US Open? His answer is probably play the week before at the Canadian Open. Was it last year that the memorial was actually before the US Open? The week before? It was. I think so. So yeah, maybe if that was. I mean, he played.

This is the first time he's missed since 2017, I think, at Memorial. Yeah, I think he had a size. He's played like 13 times or something like that. Yeah. He's never won. But talk about Riviera. That's kind of his version of that.

He played really well there. Seems like the golf course would fit him, and he's just never quite gotten it done. Yeah. I always think when you look at the totality of Rory, it's like sometimes when he does something and totality of Rory, it's like, sometimes when he does something and people are like, man, like what, you are the one who should be doing this the most.

But then if you look at the whole body of his work is like, dude, like if anybody deserves the benefit of that out, it's probably him in some ways. Like that's how I feel a little bit about the skipping media. Did it, did I like it? No. But like, has anybody done as much kind of open media as Rory over the last 10 years? Like probably not. So like, I guess I'll kind of give you as Rory over the last 10 years like probably not so like I guess I'll kind of give you a pass even though in the end

I feel like you have a greater burden on you and should should be the one who sets the example Anyway, it's it's fine. If I look at the totality of it all Yeah, I mean I do I see at least a little bit from where he's coming from of like dude He was pushing the one pushing for like these these are not skippable. And that did not get pushed through. And I think he was probably a little bit bitter about that of like, okay, well, I'm if that's the case, then I'm not going to be dedicated to playing all these things. And so yeah, it is. Well, yeah, we also got asked the

question, like, you know, does this should from Sir James Niner, should signature events be scrapped? The whole idea seems to be diminished with Rory and Scotty missing events. I don't know if I'd go that far and like throw the baby out with the bath water. Like I still think it's a better system than, than what it was. I think it's interesting. Like if you're the tour and you can't get guys to show up to limited field, $20 million events with a $4 million like winners prize is that seems like a bigger problem to me. Like I still think on the whole, like the fans are still getting

a better product by having these things, you know, be elevated in the way that they are. But it doesn't look good. And it just is, again, everything just feels so duck taped together. And as we've said a trillion times, we don't need to go into it again tonight is like, as soon as it became like, no, just wait till 2023, man. Everything's gonna be totally different. No, no, no. We'll just wait till 25. We'll not, we'll just wait till, till 27 is going to be choose.

You're not even gonna believe it's gonna be so different. And now I'm just like, cool. Like, it woke me up when it, when we're there, man, I fucked this. Like who cares? And it's kind of like, if you know, some memorials a little better than it was before, then great. You know, if Travelers is better than it was before, great. The Heritage, you know, etc. It's like, I think all those events have, you know, leveled up significantly because of this. And I don't think, you know, to our whole point about Colonial not really needing more juice or even Byron Nelson, like

Scotty winning that. I don't think those kind of in-between events have necessarily been put on a death sentence either. So it's like, I think we're still on the whole much better than where we're at. But to the question askers point, like, yeah, it's not great, but I wouldn't say anything really is right now. I'll forgive Rory if he calls Sully's family personally and apologizes for not showing up for Sully's home event. Yeah, it's killing. It will take.

If you think about it, killing the real estate value of everybody around there, that is one visit a year. Before we get into the back nine here, this podcast is brought to you by our friends at Whoop. The new Whoop is here, that'sop. The new Whoop is here. That's right, the new Whoop 5.0 is here with tons of new features to include a 14 plus day battery life that makes two Whoop options for you

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That's commm-nlunlu. On to the back nine. First hole in the back nine, number 10, where has KVV been? Where have you been, man? You've been, you've been out to pasture. Did we get canceled? Did you get silence? What happened? Yeah. I've been in a lab with a pen and a pad trying to get these narrative pods off. Yeah. I saw, I've been getting a couple of emails being like, Kev, what the fuck? Like, are you, are you still employed by NLU? Like what's going on? There's a whole Reddit thread

about like, where's KVV? Which I enjoyed. I listed some of the things that were listed on here that he must be. This is some, some, some guesses of what's up to, as he putting together an extensive Excel spreadsheet of Phil's history of gambling debts. Presumably after Phil said that Scotty would not win for the rider cup. I think that would take a long time and I don't do Excel very well. So no, that is not it. The number two entry was an investigation into whether the TGL results are fake. They're faked on a green screen, which yeah, why not? And Patrick Cantlin knows ahead of time. That's why he never throws the hammer. So that was clever. Maybe the results are fake in my team. The jupyter links is that bad

with tiger on it. Then I'm going to be really upset. Yeah. Maybe Gary player was putting me through a grueling training camp. I wouldn't let me leave until I could do a thousand pushups a day. Maybe, you know, that's, that's, I can't confirm or deny that one. It's like stall or maybe, yeah, maybe I was undercover, undercover into live golf, traveling around with them, which someone pointed out, I would stand out like a sore thumb because I would be the only non-player who's always there traveling. That could still work.

There's no way everybody knows who all those players are. Yeah, that's true. Well, Alex Podgeater was 47 years old and grew a big beard. He might look physically like me. Never know. All right. Is that all the one evil twin brother? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, the one I threw in there was maybe I was in witness protection after the Nicholas family put out a hit on me for revealing Barbara's prairie dog murder chronicles in the 2000 major pod. I've gotten more prairie dog comments from people than a bunch of about

anything I've ever done in L.U. So one comment said that I look, I seem kind of despondent lately. I don't even know how you would come up with that if I hadn't been on any pods. Like, is this just like a reading of my Twitter account? I think everybody's despondent on the, on the everything app these days. So I don't know. In actuality, I've been working on a couple of narrative pods that are coming out in the next few months, both of them related to public golf, our public golf series, which I'm excited about. DG got to see the script and one of them recently and stuff. So we'll keep, keep grinding away

at those. I'm sure you can guess that one of those are, if you follow in our socials closely when I was in St. Louis during the PGA championship, we're visiting some, some friends for a good father got to play some cool shit there. Glen echo country club. And if you guys have been there, very cool place was hosted the Olympics back when St. Louis had the Olympics. It's one of the only few golf course in the country that can say that they held the Olympics. That'd be like 1904 or 1908 or something.

Was neither that or 10. I can't remember exactly, but somewhere in the early turn of the century, teach was a lovely afternoon. That's kind of a fun like it's just long enough enough technology was bad enough that you could see whatever the like the metal score, you know, was it that day be like, I wonder if I could go out like earn a bronze medal today. Yeah. You know, shout out to my guy, Steve, who was our host for the day. It was awesome. Awesome, dude. All right. So I did get a ton of just speaking of our narrative stuff, we get a ton of like, signal signal boost from people be like, Oh, please give mr. KVV come solve

my bot problem. The San Diego folks are reaching out. They're desperate for me to take on their bot issues. And look, I want to, but I'm only one man. All right. I want you to get out there. If you're listening to treat this like you're the part of the rebellion and Andor, I need you to like join the cause and take the fight to your galaxy. I can only support you in so many places. I hear you. I want to come and solve your bot issues. Like I did with Beth page, frankly, LA, we were just kind of piggybacking off the work of others, but I don't know if there's just so many hours in the day. I can't, I can't tell DJ. I'm going to do like 50 narrative

pods and they're all going to be bought related. I think the, I would get a little old pretty quick. I would still try to tell stories here. Right. Do you? Yeah. I would say KVV is not like a computer hacker. You know, he's not going in and like fixing the system. It's just, you know, making some phone calls, putting some pressure, call your elected officials, man. Exactly. Exactly. You know, also a lot of people were doing shit on the Beth page front before you got there. That was kind of the story was like, here's what's going on here. Yeah, we're fighting the good fight. I will say there's people. Easy to just not do anything because it's just nice. And you could like either go fight city hall or you could just go have like great tacos or Padres game. Like it's, I get that.

That's understandable. Somebody sent me an example that in Wisconsin, like up in Lausanne or whatever, that people, they were adding, you have to pay five bucks ahead of time. So I feel like the Bethpage stuff is like spreading slowly. We'll not, we'll not get the credit that we might deserve for these things, but it's the good is being put out into the universe. Right. So join the rebellion. I'm also doing the hundred hole hike coming up for the there's part of the National Links Trust. That's why I walked 27 holes in my Hyperflex yesterday and I'm in like last-minute panic get in shape plan. So related to that please donate. I've pinned the thing on my my ex profile. This is meant to raise money for the

National Links Trust. So I was I got kind of like bullied into this by Randy who just like volunteered me without even a heads up and for the National Links Trust. So I was, I got kind of like bullied into this by Randy, who just like volunteered me without even a heads up. And then the, the National Links Trust people were like, yeah, you're doing this right. But it did bring up an interesting point that I wanted to bring up in our Slack this week. I mentioned there was a bunch of people reached out to me and said, you know, I'd love to caddy for you during the 100 hole hike. Can I please, you know, walk along with you? I'd love to carry your bag. And I sort of mentioned to this and TC and Casey and Cody all made it clear that it would

be a disgrace if I used caddies during the hundred all hike that having someone carry my bag was just disgusting, almost as bad as riding a cart. TC said he could never, he hadn't been so disappointed in me. I think it'd be more disappointed to be using caddies than if I played the whole thing in a big letter hat. Casey said, I thought the whole point was to get in shape. So I think she must have envisioned that I was like going to be doing like CrossFit runs between the holes with like a 50 pound vest on my bag. And then Randy threw everyone into a blender by admitting that he had used caddies during his hundred all hike. And TC said he felt like everything

he ever believed about Randy was a lie as a result. So I turned that to the jury here, guys. What say you, would you use caddies during your hundred all hike? It doesn't invalidate the exercise if you do. I feel like wandering is going to be the opposite of one of Scotty's answers in a press conference here. Cause I feel like the, this feels like wandering into a courthouse and just, you know, really riding the line of here. And yeah, exactly. I don't want to say anything that's going to end up with me doing a hundred hole hike is what I'm getting at. Uh, I, in my head, the goal is walking. Carry Neil,

Neil walked and carried, he's got this sweaty ass t-shirts to, to prove it. He was, he was, he did that down Sweeten's Cove. We made a video about it. So that's been in my head 12 years older and like 60 pounds heavier than Neil. Sure. Sure. But I don't know. It's your journey. I mean, I think like, I think meeting in the middle and doing a full size golf course is essential. Again, I don't want to throw any shade. I've never done this. I have no plans to do this. But there is TC's all fired up. He's been sending me all these emails. He's like, look at all these, look at all these part three courses that they're hosting these 100 whole hikes at. There's so many people doing it at part three course. They're doing it. The hay they're

doing it. I'm like, man, yeah, that's well, we do need to listen. We do need to raise the money. That's great. We need, we need to get people out here doing it and raising the money. Maybe that casts a wider net. But also the point is I think like a full golf course and carrying your bag and yeah, it is, it's a tough one. So I'll, let's say you. I don't have a strong feeling either way. Uh, I think. I was leaving too often as TVD. I think from, from where you're at, for if you're just a played 27 walking, I think that's the extent of your training.

If I'm correct on that. That's just part of the training. I've been walking all the time. I've been like, what is the hell is going to say? Considering it doesn't seem like you've put a ton of training into this. No, no, I'm not judging. Thank you for the slight comments on my physique, but thank you. I just have not heard updates from you. Like I'm

training my ass off. I'll be out this way. I'm training to this after the In your own words, you said you were 60 pounds heavier than Neil. I didn't say that. But I'm considering that. It's like not out of bounds to consider using a caddy. I think if you I agree with the sentiment though, that of like, I thought the whole point was in to work up to build to be able to do this all on your own,

which again, I'm not signing up for that. Like I do not, it would take months and months and months of physical exertion for me to feel like I got my body into shape to be able to do that. So I'm not judging from that perspective. How far would it be? It'd be like what? Figured it's like 30 miles, six miles probably at least.

It's like 30 miles at least. Plus bending down. I mean, it's a it's a lot. Well, it's a lot of Neil had a lot of hacks where he was just I don't even think he was he would not tee up the ball. He just hit three would no teeing up the ball. You can probably get one of those little plungers for your. What does someone see the ball for me? Here's one that might be worse. That just feels like a slippery slope, man. Yeah, you got all these blood boys coming in trying to give you an advantage. What a lovely day.

What a lovely day. Well, I was thinking one thing hack that I thought was like, could I have one of those electric carts that like walks with you so that there wasn't someone else wasn't carrying my bag? That's interesting. That was sort of a cheat code that I thought. I don't know. Well, listen, our friend Lane has said that he would like to be able to donate via wager

of what hole I'm forced to quit on. And then Michael Kim, a PGA tour golfer said he would donate a hundred dollars for every shank that I hit as long as they were not on purpose. So I have to keep track of those during the route as well. Those are good. When is this? June 9th week of the U.S. Open. Okay. When is this? June 9th, week of the US Open. Okay, it's coming up. Well, listen, keep us posted. I think if you're out there in the, you know, I don't know if people have opinions on social media or not, but we could try and see if maybe anybody wants to weigh in on this. Listen, maybe me being something of a lighting rod in general would help to derive the donations. So hopefully that will, you know, my haters and my supporters will get out there and throw some money behind

this. A good cause, because I'd like to see the National Links Trust courses live to sort of become what they should be. I play Langston a lot. The Waterhawk will actually be at East Potomac, but Langston is sort of my favorite of the courses over there. So here's where I'm kind of talking myself in circles on this is a lot of people will just do it with like three clubs, right? Like you have three clubs and a little tiny, like not even a Sunday bag, even smaller than that. And so then I'm like, well, that, you know, that's, that's not all that different than just not carrying your clubs, right? Like that's, that's pretty easy. So then I'm like, well, is that really, you know, does it have to be a full bag? I don't think so. So then,

yeah, I don't know. It's much to think about here. KVB we're going to start with like 10, 10 clubs, maybe nine clubs. Uh, title has hooked me up with a nice little Sunday bag, uh, that I'm going to go with. So, uh, we'll start there and just sort of see what happens. The hard part about the Sunday bag is you just gotta bend down and pick it up each time. And you don't want to fuck with like the trestle sticks and getting those all sorted. Oh, fuck that. No.

Trestle sticks are the dumbest thing ever. I love, I mean, free shout out to the titles here, but I have the players carbon four, I believe, and it's like as light as a Sunday bag. It's awesome, but it's got- I have that too. So I'm kind of in between. I might start with like the Sunday bag and then the bending down would resort to all right. Well, there'll be several changes throughout. Neil said he would like,

basically I just dropped clubs as you go. Like, you know, like someone like in war, like falling pieces of his armor. They're just weighing him down as he's trying to, you know, I feel like I could get down with not a caddy necessarily, but somebody who's there to just like hold your Sunday bag up, you know, like a human trestle stick, somebody who's there to just like, here, I up. You know, like a human trestle stick. Somebody who's there to just like, here, I'm not bending over to pick this up each time. But I think that's, that feels inbound.

Well, be sure to leave some comments on the Everything app, letting us know what you think I should do. Number four on our list, the back nine here. Mark Dull made a solo run at the USJ four ball after his partner had to bail. Uh, and his daughter's graduation, uh, one, one of his matches ended up losing on the 18. I think of the other one, nothing to really add about this, just like that was a fricking bad-ass. I did one of my favorite Twitter comments was a man graduations come and go. What a terrible partner he had, uh, stuck around for that. Um, it was round of 16 that Chip Rook, so both these guys are from Florida.

I've played a lot of mid am events with them and got to know both them decently well. And these guys are unbelievable at golf. I think this is their seventh straight four ball that they've been exempt for. Like they've made, I don't know if they've made the finals, semi-finals. They've been remarkably close to winning this thing. And they both play in the Gasparilla usually every year chip wanted a few years ago. And I just saw this coming across my timeline of like, uh, you know, this guy's leaving. I, I follow ship

on Instagram. Like he's, he's a friend of mine. And like I've watched his daughter grow up and it's like, Oh shit, his daughter's grudge. Oh, it's chip that's leaving. He's leaving in the middle of the four ball. Like how did they, how did they game plan for this? And Mark goes on to win that match after chip leaves and then has to play the quarterfinal mass entirely on his own and lost to a birdie on 18. Like he almost won the match completely on his own. And it's just a bad story. I think he shot several under par on his own ball and Carson Looney and Hunter Powell beat them one up with a birdie on the 18th. Yeah, that would be my dream for you for you and TC someday.

So you have to miss a TC just makes, you know, there's a dog. It just plays his way through and you're watching them through from Sophie's graduation on your phone. Tears in your eyes. TC birdies the last to get you guys through the next round. That's the dream. I, yeah, that's, that's so wild. I can't imagine being the guys like the, the two in the two on one because at first it's just like, ah, ha ha. That's funny, man. You know, how tight at the turn. Oh, let's see. And it's like, as soon as he gets to like 15, six, like, well, fuck it. We can't lose. Come on, like make this. Let's go. Let's go. It's right edge.

Good to see you here. Exactly. What a story. I want it. Can you sign up for a ball as by yourself? I don't think you can. I bet. I don't think that is interesting that you don't R's DQ if you just drop out, but you let you play after. Yeah. Be kind of a good bet. If you lose, you have to have to play a four ball of it by yourself. It's like a good storyline for that Owen Wilson show. I know that's about, that's about the pro golf, but that would be a good like, Oh man, my partner's hung over. I got to win this match myself. Guys. I've made

several of my four ball partners play this event by themselves. So it's not a laughing cards. All right. And item number five guys, uh, DG actually put this one in here. Uh, but I am a giddy for this one. Uh, we want to leave some space here for the, from Ryder cup. I put this in here. First, first mistake you've made. There you go. Let's go. Okay. Let's let's get right. Let's do it. Uh, I'm willing for what his position is that he's just like, you guys got any ideas? Why don't you guys? I am in a blender. I'm in a blender about what exactly is your position and who should be on the thing. Here's a, I sent the pod to a friend of mine and this is the sort of

summary of your position. It's all about the data, but the data doesn't matter and intangibles do and we're trying to find the right guys, but I'm not sure we're looking for someone in who isn't in the top 12 already and the recent data golf ranking. So he can't be considered, but we do need to think outside the box and change our process. But we couldn't possibly choose JT Poston because people would judge us. We just need to trust our process, but we don't really have a process. So I guess we'll just go with like what our gut and the boys club. So I like, I'm friend. Who's this friend by the way, this was rock rock to summarize your positions. Listen, I admittedly, you know that I am mostly on your side when it comes to this stuff. I'm mostly an American supporter, but as a journalist,

I cannot let you continue to say things like you did in the pod. Keegan cost them the rider cup at Medina. I feel like overall your position would be so much stronger if you just admitted that you do not like Keegan in any capacity, that that would solve a lot for this stuff. If you just like come out and be like, yo, I do, I don't support Keegan one way or another. Like as a captain, as a player, as a person, whatever, Tigen did not cost them the fucking rider cup at Medina. All right. There's like 15 issues here that we're, we're all under the blender. I'm just, I, again, I said I was in a blender. The number one player in the world showed

up 10 minutes before his seat time. Yes. And beat him on the 17th hole two and one, but then a whole other bunch of shit happened for the Americans. Just pause it, just pause it. Cause you've already lost the plot. You've already lost the point of this, which was like the Keegan gets back up quarterback treatment. And the point was like, he's not like this rider cup hero. And listen, do I wish I chose this bed Griffin guy out there? This guy, Keegan, you see Keegan's arm. I wish I used a different word so people wouldn't hone in and lose track of the overall pointer. Yeah. Do I blame Keegan Bradley for the 2012 rider cup? No, I do not. That would be the closest possible interpretation of what I said. It is so unserious. Like, yes, I, I, my point was that Matt, if he wins that

match, they win the Ryder Cup. So like that match, doesn't Bernie the bogey last two holes against Sergio, then they win the Ryder Cup as well. But again, you're missing the overall point, which is not that he, which is not, is that he's not some crazy Ryder Cup hero. Again, if he shows up and wins a singles match, they win that Ryder. Yeah. There's way worse stuff that happened in that Ryder Cup hero. Again, if he shows up and wins a singles match, they win that Ryder. Yeah, there's way worse stuff that happened in that Ryder Cup too. Now, if you want to point to one where it did really matter, go to the next Ryder Cup where he was the losing point.

It's Jamie Donaldson. Okay, off of this shit, I'm just tired of hearing Jamie Donaldson's name come up all the time with you in this because you hold that match up like it's some big fucking thing and then give JT and Spieth a huge pass for shit that has happened more recently than when Jamie Donaldson happened to be Keegan. When Tom Watson was the fricking

captain of that thing. I'm telling you, you, you keep like, you keep holding that match up like, well, he lost to Jamie Donaldson, but yet totally give change JT and speed the pass and put them on the team regardless. Despite the fact that huge egg that they laid in Rome, which was way more recently than that Jamie Donaldson shit. Like you have to hold them to the same standard. You can't just be like, well, you know, Keegan's not a Ryder Cup hero, but like JT and Spieth kind of are, and that's why they kind of deserve a spot on this team.

Like Keegan is playing better than Jordan Spieth right now. You should absolutely be saying, you know what, like if I'm gonna take the best dude and someone who has actual good success in a Ryder Cup, that's Keegan in your eyes. I don't think you're, I think you're right. He shouldn't take himself because he's the fricking captain. That is a very fair point. He needs to, what are we doing? Listen, I'm just, I'm, I'm find it maddening that you keep shifting the, like the goal. Yes, you are. Yes, you are.

Maybe we can come in and shoot first, Abe later here with it. Exactly. I'm so hot, I'm getting a lot of takes that I had to get off. That is such a genius opening because I truly have no idea where to go with how many bullets you just fired up into the air. I'm saying stop shitting. Listen, it's a win-win for you because if the US wins the Ryder Cup... Can I just say what I want to say or no? You'll be like, you know what, it was a home team, doesn you because if they, US wins the Ryder Cup. Can I just say what I wanna say or no?

You're just putting words in my mouth. You'll be like, you know what, it was a home team, doesn't matter, Keegan didn't matter, and if they lose, they're gonna be like, well, fucking Keegan, man. Like, he didn't, he shouldn't have been the captain. That's so not true. I've said I'm in on the Keegan captain seat.

Like, you're not even, you've said it. I can't, I don't think it's in your heart. 65% of what you just said is not what I've said at all. Like, that is your, you're on the offensive with just bullshit. You've literally brought up Jamie Dawson in this podcast as if that's relevant to any of it. It's not. But again, Keegan gets painted as this like the Ryder Cup guy. He's like, you have to have Keegan the Ryder

Cup. Remember what he did back then? I don't know who's painting this painting. Literally, is it George W. Bush? Forget about it. You did this in 2023. Like remember what he did in Medina? Like that was 11 years prior to this. The whole point, he gets remembered. No, let me do it. He gets remembered as a Ryder Cup, the energy guy,

everything they ever needed. And it was 13 and 11 years ago that he played in two of these, and his record was four and three. So my whole point is that memory of him being the savior in that time frame wasn't even accurate. Does it matter? No, it doesn't even accurate. Does it matter? No, it doesn't also matter. But it's also not accurate to have pretended like he was some Ryder Cup hero in

this time period. Went away for 11 years, now all of a sudden- Deuce Spieth in the same standard, who's been a liability in singles in every sort of thing that they've been in. He was a liability in Rome. He was really bad in Rome. He should not have been on that team having a baby two weeks before. He was okay in whistling.

He was not great in whistling. They blew him out, so It didn't matter. Correct. Listen, I'm just asking you to hold speech to the same standard that you hold Keegan, which is a very high standard. And I keep hearing Jamie Donaldson's name brought up every time someone sort of gets off. And also I want, I want to respond to someone who's not here. All right. I'm going to pivot off of you for a second. Jamie's insane contention that Americans are only good at team sports. We invented is just didn't want to get bogged down in this. I'm just going to go through this very quickly.

Yes. Individualism is built into Americans DNA more than Europeans, but Americans are way better at fucking team sports than Jamie. I can't believe you guys let him slide. I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to get bogged down in this. Like we just got bogged down for the last 15 minutes with just this has been a very cathartic discussion for me. All right. Americans are very good at hockey at softball and water polo at basketball and American football, which is the ultimate team sport. The idea that like just because Americans aren't good in soccer, that they're bad teammates,

like the sweeping statements that people make about the Ryder Cup and the Americans can't do this because they're not like good collaborators or they don't have like a sort of collaborative socialism spirit. It's just nonsense. It's total nonsense. And I won't stand for it. I don't think it's total nonsense. I don't believe that you can make sweeping state like they had to change the fucking rules of the Ryder Cup because the Americans were kicking the shit out of Europeans so bad. If Europeans were such like scrappy, good teammates, like why didn't it work out? It's kind of about like talent in a lot of ways. It's not just about like, everything changed with Seve. Like why didn't it work out? It's kind of about like talent in a lot of ways. It's not just before it's heavy dog. Everything changed with Seve. Like they put

a system in place more fricking four ball. That's all that they really need to do. Like they Americans need to figure out how to play more four ball growing up. That's what it comes down to. All right. I want to jump in here. You mean four sums, whatever four sums. Yeah. Excuse me. Four. So I can't even get a name. We play it so little. I feel like we batted around the order there. I want to go back on top of the order. KVB's friend who summarized, it's all about the data. It's all about intangibles. We need to change, but we can't change anything. I co-sign that. That's what I took away from your position as well. Your reaction to that. Sure. I mean, I'll, I'll do the same exact

thing again. I'm sure this will be the last time you have to go through it and won't have to do it every single Sunday from every there. I don't have a secret. Like I don't think there's like a special formula here. I don't have like, I think it's very disingenuous that you could summarize that entire take into a sentence or a paragraph

that I would say that there's just some formula that you can apply to any person in your scenario. I don't know how many times like we have done the whole like, but you said it's all about the data. Like we're getting up to double digit time periods of having to go through this whole part. Like here's what I'll say. Data of course like plays a part

in putting your team together. Strokes gained is a great reference point for us like at home to talk about this stuff. It puts some information up against like gut feelings people have about certain guys. For instance, on the last pod, Jamie's like Jordan Speets falling off a cliff. It's like, if you look at the Struck's game, like that's not accurate, even close to accurate. Like that's the whole point is people can tend to do this thing every week, which I'm now going to make it a weekly habit of making fun of when somebody rises up the leaderboard of there you go there's bud collie up on the top of leaderboard forget about

I would love to respond to that I'm not going to interrupt you but I would love to respond to that thing and you're done I believe that was an interruption to that thank you very much mild interruption but I'm letting you keep going please I see the chair back floor back to you again go back to keegan for the 2023 rider cup like keegan was 11th in strokes gained in the three months leading up to it and the 11th in strokes gained in the three months leading up to it and 11th in strokes gained in the six months leading up to the last Ryder Cup. I contend like when you get to toward the bottom of that strokes gain list, the differences are so small. I would never campaign for somebody to be on the team because they have 0.08 strokes

gained better than the next guy over the last six months or whatever, because it means very little at that point. But what happened with Keegan in 2023, he won a tournament and everybody freaked out about that. And when someone wins a tournament in a Ryder Cup year, people lose their fucking minds. And it was his only top 20 finish dating back to April of that year. But for a lot of people, that doesn't seem to matter if you win a tournament, like you should be on the team. That's kind of what I tend to find myself fighting against to say, well, hey, all the golf counts, like you don't get to just point at the best result because a lot of guys have great peak weeks. To me, it does. If you want to, if you feel differently about that, please feel free. I would say Keegan was very clearly considered for a Ryder

Cup spot in 2023. Probably the last man out. His numbers were astonishingly close to Sam Burns to the point where it's not a big differential and Ricky and Ricky who got big part of Ricky's numbers blew both of them were not bleeding out blow them away. We did this last year and it was it was close. It was a site you're talking about. If you want to interrupt me to do it, I'll pull up the numbers. I was astonished when I looked this up earlier today, how good Ricky's numbers were because I regretted supporting Ricky for this one. And do you want me to go back into it,

or you want to admit that you were wrong? I can pull up. I think just going to admit that was close. I know Ricky's numbers were better, but I don't think it was significantly better. I think that you're, he's like, well Ricky's got it. You were half shot better over a six month period.

That's significant. Ricky was the sixth best American over the six months leading up to the Ryder Cup. Like Ricky put together a really strong 2023. Paid off and roamed in it. Not the point that I'm waiting for you to finish. Well, you can say that you were wrong about that. No, a half shot difference for for those keeping score at home is the difference

between Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas right now. Yeah. It's a big gap. It's a big, very big gap. So thank you for that. Pause on that. Cause I'm not talking about 2023. I don't give a shit about that. And actually you're making my point, I think, which is that that team was way better, had way more weapons to choose from Keegan was the first man out. I agree.

Like all of that makes sense. My only point, and then I will duck out of this conversation because I don't know how anybody could disagree with this part is every time we get done with a Ryder Cup, we go into just, oh, they moved this mo line on 13 here and that cost 0.05 strokes when they knew that this was going to be different here and they made guys hit from 185 instead of 180. And like, that's how you win these Ryder Cups is just all these little teeny tiny advantages. My point, I do not give a fuck about Keegan. I don't really like Keegan.

I don't really I don't care if he's the captain. I don't care if he's not the captain. My whole point is like he's definitely in the conversation as one of the players. He should be like if you're putting he was not the captain. He's definitely in the conversation as one of the best available American players and to say that the margins are so thin and we have to look for every possible

advantage and then to just like completely rule out a player or for a player to completely rule out themselves is where I'm like that is so fucking stupid and that's all I'm sure that we can agree on there is just like it would be better to have 15 possible options than 14 because if we're looking for all these different player combinations and stats, Inc. and all the, all of these things, it's just like the fact that you can just like flush an entire like literal player from like, well, he said eight months ago, like he wasn't going to pick himself. So I don't know, you know, despite the fact that circumstances have changed, despite the fact that we might not have, you know, a 12th guy,

like we just, we gotta honor that is where I keep coming back to the Armageddon thing of like, wouldn't it just be easier to teach somebody else to be the captain since Keegan would therefore already be in the fucking room and already be involved in all of these things. Like we can't get another sweatsuit and another golf cart for somebody to like, the easiest answer that is just Davis love, make Davis love the assistant captain and basically say Keegan is the captain, but he is also playing. And like Davis love can handle any decision

that needs to be made. So I'm not saying that's going to happen. I'm not saying Keegan has beaten the door down. I'm not saying he's the fifth best American and all my, if it's a travesty, if he's on this team, I'm just saying it's like the fact that if it's even close at you're like completely ruling somebody out, it feels very stupid.

And I'm sure you can agree with that. Sure. I think, I would think that of the six captain's choices that are available to somebody and the captain, like one of six captain's choices and the captain, the role, the biggest role is a captain. And you can agree on that with that or not. Not a lot of people would,

but like I am of the hope and belief that I, so I walked away from Rome thinking this. So like talking to a bunch of players, talking to the scouts guys, talking to assistant captains about what happened and everything there. I walked away from that feeling of like, the US does not have a Rory or a Ram

or any of these guys in the room that will like, just buy into team USA, like those guys do Team Europe. They do not have a player that's willing to be like a leader and just like lead by example, not be afraid to look stupid, not be afraid to play if somebody's asked to play twice in foursomes instead of playing all five times not being willing to accept that that was a feeling I had was like, dude, there's nobody in the room is going to do that. There's a rift between captaincy and players

like the players are trying to tug more control away from it. And I've told one of the players in there was like, dude, I think you have to be the guy I think you have to be like, the dude that's willing to just look stupid, like you have the resume and the criteria to do that. Like they went and chose Keegan, I was shocked initially, but I was like, honestly, that's probably like the best chance to get like a player that's not on the team, but like a player amongst this core of guys.

That's not ZJ, that's not older than them. That's not Stuart Sink, that's not Jim Furyk that they view as a peer that is willing to be the leader and be the one that looks dumb and to evoke energy and get everything out of all of the guys on the team. Like that's where I believe that Keegan can be that guy. I know none of the details. I of all of the guys on the team. Like that's where I believe that Keegan can be that guy. I know none of the details. I know none of the backstory. I'm going in totally blind on this. I thought ZJ could be that guy and that couldn't have been

more fucking wrong. So all that to say like I think DJ, I don't disagree with your point. I think the difference between Keegan and the 13th man right now is not enough to like unwind all of that and just like throw someone else. If throwing somebody else in as captain is a total panic move, it is such an unnecessary risk at this point. I think the captaincy is a way bigger job than you're describing it as. I'm not saying that you understand. I think you understand it better than you're describing it as. We can't sit here and praise Luke Donald and all the genius European captains and totally dismiss that role on the US side is kind of where I come at. You make some good points. Here's what I'll say though, just in sort of a slight rebuttal. Part of the reason that we praise Luke Donald is because when some like European player who's like the 12th or 11th person or somebody automatically qualifies, who does not seem to have the resume back when they did the point system a little different when like the sixth person on the European tour, whatever made it Europeans like rally around

that person. They're like, all right, Victor Duby, son, you are a weirdo. We are going to take you and Graham's going to figure out you make this point all the time with Graham McDowell. I feel like when the JT post-ins or when the JJ spawns are kind of in the mix Americans like, Oh God, I cannot possibly have JT post-in on the squad. Like we could not have like some of these guys. We got it. We got to just take what we know or whatever. And I think that's the difference there. And is that like to be like dismissive of some of the guys like a JT Poston or whatever is I think sort of like it's shows the American mentality of like, well, you're not kind of

really with us. You're not really like one of our people. Whereas the Europeans are like, no, what fuck it. If you are close to it, we are are you are one of us. We will make you one of us. And that's therein where it's like when you make fun of like, oh, but I want a tournament. Fuck it. I don't know. But Collie might be a good Ryder cupper. Europe would probably make the Bud Collie equivalent into a good talk at Thomas Leve or whatever. Some some Frenchman who ends up winning crucial points for the Europeans

in that stretch run that they had. I would also say I think there's multiple ways to skin the cat here. And I don't think that Team USA is going to wake up suddenly, no matter who the captain is and be like, guys, it's time to buy in. Like, I think they are who they are. And it's all about just getting the best golf out of them. You make this point all the time, too, is like, why did Scottie show up and lay a complete egg?

And I don't think it's nothing that it's just like, like I think at least some of that is just infrastructural stuff. And just like, we didn't prep correctly. We were jet lagged. We were like all of those things where I'm like, dude, that doesn't take a rocket scientist. It doesn't take a current player.

It doesn't take, that's something somebody else over the next six months, five months, four months, whatever, like can probably figure out. And that's my point with Keegan is like the counter. I think is Steve's tricker is like, do you think he's in there like playing inspirational videos? You think he's in there like giving big raw raw speeches? No, I think he's just like getting the fuck out of the way and just being like, Oh, you guys are like the best players in the world. Like, please, do you need a sandwich? Do you need like who wants to know that's what I'm just being like, oh, you guys are like the best players in the world. Like, please, do you need a sandwich? Do you need like who wants to play with who?

Like, let me know. That's what I'm saying. That group is different than this team, though, like the talent level is like it's different, right? I mean, it that it is different. I don't think the mentality is that different, I guess, is what I'm saying. Like, I don't think there's enough blood turning over that it's like, oh, man, there's all these young guys coming up and they're built totally differently, man.

And they're just like a big raw, raw squat. Like they're all, they're all pretty much the same is what it seems like from the outside. Look at it. I feel like the 2021 team, the home field advantage, the COVID advantage and the talent gap between those two teams roll the balls out and play. You don't, you can lose on the margin. That team was still going to win. Yeah.

I don't think this team can afford that. I think that like, they're going to have to figure out the best way to get something out of a Mav McNeely or a JT Poston or an Ocche. Like they're going to have to figure out that part of the equation. And those guys are going to have to go play singles matches as well. Like it's a different formula. And like I, all of this Keegan application all works. I just think that decision has been made. Like all of this, that application works prior to deciding on a captain, right? Like I think we could have had this combo of like,

should it be Keegan or Tiger? I think he'd be like, well, fuck what happens if Keegan plays really well and you got this whole storyline. Like that to me just seems like it's part of the path. Like it's, it's, it's been decided on. Can we get you to agree that the Keegan thing was a bad decision?

Not yet. No, absolutely not. I'm willing to, I think he's, I think he has maybe the best chance they have at being like a really good cornerstone captain. Like I, I do. I don't know any details on that. I just don't, his play has not been like, again, similar to 2023.

It's not like beating the door down. The discussions we've had around like trying to get like guys onto the final spots on this team. It's almost like Keegan gets compared to 2021 Scottie Scheffler, which I think was one of the tougher debates I've ever had to live through. I just feel like, listen, I part of the reason that I came around to this position is I felt like I put my neck on the line for short JT. I wrote two freaking columns being like,

you got to take this guy like reputationally, like it doesn't matter if he sucks like and, and now I'm like, you know what, screw it. Like that, that whole like reputational thing didn't mean shit. And so I don't really feel like I want to ride for the same dudes anymore. I feel like you go out and prove it. And like, if Keegan's one of the 12 best players,

then I think maybe he should get to go. Like instead of being like, ah, well, I don't know. We got to take the guys that we trust. And like, you know, I just- Is it one bad Ryder Cup and you're out though? Like that, JT's had one and two- I don't know, you told Keegan to that we trust. And like, you know, is it, is it one bad writer cup in your out though? Like that JT's, I don't know. You told Keegan to that same standard. Like you had, he had one great writer cup and one writer cup in a disastrous captain with Phil who like was like, wow, we don't want to play in this,

in the fricking slate sessions today because I'm so tired. I'm putting everything I have in this match. So don't put us out again. Like I don't, I don't feel like Keegan should be held entirely accountable for what happened in, in Glen Eagles. Like it's, that's what frustrates me about the Keegan analysis of like, well, he's only four and three. Like he played pretty well in two Ryder Cups.

That's the, that he, JT played pretty well in two Ryder Cups and bad in one Ryder Cup. So I feel like, you know, the standards for, for two years ago aren't quite the same. Keegan was definitely playing better than Justin Thomas prior to Rome. Maybe one playing better in Ricky, but he's playing better than Justin Thomas. Justin Thomas got to go and Kevin men, Valkberg stuck his neck out and said, God, you gotta bring Justin Thomas. And he, then he let me down. So I

feel like, you know what? I'm done with the boys club for a little bit. I mean, JT was one, two, and one in, in Rome and he was anchored by Spieth. I know there's a lot of noise in the strokes game stuff when it comes to like Ryder cups because it's alternate shot and all that stuff. But he was statistically like one of the worst players in Rome. I remember we talked about this and looked it up. He was, especially in putting, he putted very poorly, but it was like also Spieth was the worst. Like he was completely anchored. And again, we where a lot of that, and I'm making excuses for him. Sure.

None of this is going to register for people. That's fine. Like where's like, there was an instance he whiffed on a shot, I think, because Spieth put him in such a bad, he literally put him in like the, in the biggest taste. So you get like a negative one right there, right? Like if you follow those matches when they played in foursomes, Spieth was awful. And Spieth wanted to sit and they didn't have enough guys to put. They didn't have enough guys to sub in for them. They didn't have a plan. They didn't have a

backup plan for what happens if one of these guys cannot find the clubface the guy that just had a baby two weeks ago. They didn't have a fucking plan for it. Like that's where I go back to like, I speak JT was six, two and one in Ryder cups going into that one. Like I was totally willing to give them the give them the benefit of the doubt. And like, did the numbers support that? No, but it just comes down like how he was playing support that. But do I regret that? I do not I really don't for him in particular. I because to me,

again, despite I were I get frustrated as it comes down to like, wait, when is it about the data? Or when is it not about the data? It's about the data as like a talking point for when I hear this, like he's playing that much better than this person. It's like, well, can we at least reference this around some points? Can we pin ourselves around this? I've never once advocated for printing off the top 12 in Strokes Gain and going with that team. To me, it comes down to who do you want in your foxhole? There's some guys like no matter what their Strokes Gain says, I don't want in that foxhole. I don't like, I don't want in that foxhole.

I don't like, I don't want Patrick Reed. All right. We've done that. I'm good on that one. Brian Harmon had a great summer. I thought that was a bad golf course for him. I did not like that format at all. And he did not play very well in that one.

Justin Thomas, again, who has carried this us team since he's been in red, white and blue and president's cups and in writer cubs, I do want in that foxhole is willing to find out on that. When he went one, two and one still don't regret that one. Even if you know, his play did not stack up against the other guys in strokes gained. I got tricked into believing in Ricky and I shouldn't have been that guy for you. You should have been like you even could have been that guy. He cares as much as Justin Thomas does about the writer cup. And I just want wanted you to come around to that position of like, you know what? Like

I want him in my Fox hole and you didn't't want Keegan in your foxhole back then. And I feel like that was an error. So listen, I'm sure we'll talk about this many, many times. We can, but pause on this. Like to this point, Keegan also said like, I don't get a lot, essentially I'm summarizing. I don't get along with a lot of those guys. I've treated all of my opponents like enemies

since in my entire career out here. Like he was not a popular, like it's a tough sell to in a locker room of guys that like you're not friends with, you know, and I know this is where the boys club parts come comes in, but like it comes down to like whether or not the guys that are going to be on that team trust you as well or like you or want to be around you or want to play with you or want you to be part of the team. And he failed on that test. And like he admitted that like that's's that's and I think he's been like a different person towards a lot of these guys since then. You know what Victor B. Debesan was a pretty effective Ryder Cup player for Europe that time when he stuck him with Graham. He was everybody didn't like him. Sure dudes would have loved to hit balls out of the middle of the

fairway in Rome and Keegan's a really good driver of the golf ball. Would he make every putt? No, but like it would have been pretty good to pair with someone who can make a lot of putts. And we can do that, but it's also like Max Homa and Keegan playing together instead of Brian Harmon. That would have been a great, I know Brian qualified, so that doesn't quite work. But like, you know, Sam Burns, like, you know, Scotty can play with anybody. So anyway, it was over in the first set. You know what I mean? Like it, Scotty didn't show up. Xander didn't show up more. Cowan didn't show up. Like you're, they were not winning unless

those guys played serious golf anyways. If it had been, if they'd gotten down to half point or a point loss, and then it's like, then you get down to those captain's picks and you're like, we, Oh, this could have been very, very different, but that's not what happened. Thank you for letting me have a writer cup put within the pod DJ. Go ahead. If you have one more point. Last thing I just wanted to flag because I thought it was like big, bold, circled in my notebook. Good take from Tron and Jamie is everybody likes to foist a lot of the credit

on Luke Donald and oh my God, he cracked the code and he read all these leadership books and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. All of which is true. But also he has an entire infrastructure around him of people that are all swimming in the same direction, all rowing towards the same goal, all adopting the same mindset. Dota Molinari is the most outspoken kind of visible of those, but there's a bunch of other people in the same way. The DP World Tour people, player relations people, media people, all of those people kind of like seem to be playing from the same playbook. And I just want to circle that like, I don't know what's going on behind the scenes. Who knows? But it does not seem like that's what's going on for America.

So to your point about how important the captain is, I think there's some diversification of that stuff that could probably, that seems like it could probably happen. To say it in a much shorter way, like I don't know who Keegan's number two is. I don't know who his Dodo Molinari is. Maybe they're keeping all that secret and they're doing it with Stats Inc guys or who knows, but I know it was John Wood. I know that was a big to-do was announcing him as this player liaison, we're going to get this thing right type of thing, but haven't heard much from him. Don't know really what's going on. I don't know. Maybe the Europeans are just more outspoken about it. But I just think that is like a very interesting thing to try to, it seems from the outside looking in, like you're going to just foist it all on this captain to like go rebuild it and change it. And I'm very curious what the, you know, what's below the tip of the iceberg there.

And that's where I think like, if you pull back on this, why I'm so invested in this whole thing is like after 2014, the weird task force, as much as we made fun of the task force, it was like, I was super intrigued just to this whole this mechanism of this, this team that is allegedly less talented on paper keeps beating this other team, like how do they solve for this riddle? And it felt at times, like they really had gained on it, it really did. And then they go on the road, and it just seems like everything goes backwards again. And then it's like reset in some way. And they come home and they usually take care of business. And then they

forgotten about the road problems and they end up doing falling into the same traps they always do on the road. And maybe Keegan goes and wins this one. He says I'm doing the next one too. And like, here's how we're doing it for the road. That's what I guess I'm pinning my hopes on at this point. But, uh, also CJ just left, like CJ legitimately hindered my love of the writer, like the way that all went down and that lack of leadership made, I'm way less excited for this writer cup than any writer cup I've ever.

I legitimately don't think we've spent enough time talking about how bad of a captain, uh, Zach Johnson was. Like, I think, I think he made a case that he was worse than Tom Watson. I know that's like a big bold statement, but I think he can. Like, so last is we like, for the record, I think also each year, like putting your team together is different. Like in a year where the bottom of the U S team looks as weak as this one, I'm probably less inclined to get

twisted up in the data again, compared to 2021 when we're fighting off the Kevin Nas and Kevin Kisner's get Scottie fucking Scheffler on the team. Like, the information is telling us right now that there's not a Scotty like talent at the bottom of this list that needs to be considered that needs to get favoritism over a veteran that is a more recognizable name and like, What's the Klin. Maybe, sure, he should be on the radar. And if he has an incredible summer, then we can we can do

that fight. But this would have been a great year for Keegan to not been the captain. He's hitting the ball way better than he is in 2023. That's another thing with looking at data for me is like, who's just who's on a good putting run versus who are the true like who has actually evolved in their ball striking. That's what these match play events especially tend to really get get get come down to like, if it if it had been like what Andrew Novak or what Ben Griffin are doing right

now, at the end of 2021, I still would have like written for Scotty because like at his core, I believe him to be that much better of a player. I would be really surprised if I got twisted up in even one single guy being like, yo, this is a major talented guy that has to be on the team ahead of guys that are hot or whatever it might be. I don't know if that makes sense at all, but it's a relevant point.

It's almost like if you gave a point system to like, all right, is your golf on a one to 10, if it's seven, and your personality's a three or like your match, your ability to rise to the occasion, a big events, a three that goes into the equation. And if there's another guy who's golf is on a one to seven, it fits in like a six. That's a, probably a stronger candidate for a team if you ask me. So, well only the true perverts remain. So let's move on to item number seven guys.

We have a new LPGA commissioner, Craig Kessler. He is 39 years old and was recently the COO of the PGA of America. Guys, perhaps without coincidence, the LPGA parted ways with its chief marketing officer yesterday, Mark Chamura. Earlier this year, they also parted ways with Nicole Metzger, who was in charge of chief partnership in sales.

Seems to be like, you know, they're trying things. This is a question maybe best answered by Cody and Randy, but what does Kessler need to focus on in his job? And why hasn't the sport done a better job of marketing the fact that it has an American who is probably the best player in the world in the course Nelly Korda? I think you're right. I mean, I think this is probably a Cody and Randy question who follow it much, much, much closer than I do. But I guess I would throw out, it seems like in talking to a couple of players, Molly did a lot of things that probably aren't going

to be super, super visible. I mean, I know there's health insurance stuff, there's different traveling staff that got accounted for. Like There's a lot of different things I think that she did that was like, let's take this from, let's not treat this like a women's sport, let's treat this like a sport. I think there was a lot of infrastructural stuff that got done that seemed like it was pretty popular and pretty overdue. And it seems like where things kind of floundered was just on the business side of things and specifically golf connections and just like making a really solid golf core with those partners that are essential to build up the LPGA. And so a lot of it, I think the business was just in really tough shape by the time Molly was kind of sidelined. And so I think it's just kind of like,

once you get the train back on the tracks, or maybe it is part of getting the train back on the tracks is identifying what your strongest assets are and how to break through. I just think it's really hard to ask, man. And if I had a great idea, I would share it. But I think it's just very easy to huck it as like, why don't they just do a Caitlin Clark? And it's like, well, yeah, that's not how it works, man. That's a pretty like And it's like, well, yeah, that's doesn't, it's not out. It's not really how it works, man. You know, that's, that's a pretty like once in a, like, five generation type of type of moment that women's basketball had. And so I don't know, man, I don't have a lot of great answers other than to say a lot of the things that we say constantly on this podcast, which is like, the women's game has some really great assets to it. It's a great,

great, great in-person experience. It's a great way to, you know, I know people sometimes don't like the relatability thing because they can think it's patronizing. It's actually like the complete opposite. It's just, it's the same scale as most of the people listening to this podcast. It's, it's the best in the world that are also playing the same scale of a game you are. I just talked about, you know, Aldrich pocket or hitting the ball three 90, like you're not, if you're listening to this podcast, you're probably not hitting it. Three 90, what you are probably doing is hitting it to 65 to 70.

And with the similar ball speed to what they're doing. And like, if you want to see what it looks like to completely max out abilities at those speeds and in those dimensions, that's what the LPGA is so great for. That's why I can't wait to go watch this week at Aaron Hills. And so, you know, how do you bottle that up and make that a great television product? Like that's, that's a hard answer. I don't know, because I think everything on TV does end up getting flattened out and a 390 yard drive looks the same as a 270 yard drive, you know? So it's a, it's a really, really tough challenge. And I think where I've always struggled with the LPGA, I'm kind of rambling

into some different territory here is like, they've kind of always tried to make the same broadcast as the PGA tour with less resources. And it kind of just is like what if we just try to copy something that's already pretty broken with commercials and is way more boring than it should be and we just make like a like a worse version of it you know with like less cameras and less talent and like like on-air talent and It just ends up being like pretty tough to watch candidly. I'm sure you guys wouldn't disagree with that and so what I would love to see is just like experimenting more with different formats. Like I don't think it's that precious of something that, you know, especially like a Thursday, Friday, even Saturday sometimes broadcasts like, man, just push it. Just Mike people up, follow one group,

post produce stuff on YouTube in a different way. Like there's just so many different things that it seems like you can do. And instead it's just, you know, kind of trying to do this, like the same, but worse, uh, sort of playbook. And so I don't know, long answer, but I guess what I'm saying is like, it seems like there's a core of golf that is probably very interested in, like, would be very appealed by the women's game. And I think it's going to take some very outside the box thinking to figure out how to apply that to casual fans

and continue just like souping up the in-person onsite experience. So what am I missing there? No, my answer was a lot more defeatist in terms of just like, I mean, until this TV deal is over, there's not much you can do to create the buzz. Other than what you're talking about, the supplemental stuff is where it's got to come from. I mean, thinking out, it should not. Yeah, you said it

perfectly with just the you can't do the same version of something that's bad and do it worse. Like you just it and you can't like rig the events to be, you know, I want to say like, part of the problem is there's a lot of parity and a lot of fluctuation and a lot of unrecognizable names on a lot of the leaderboards for a lot of casual fans to the point where you can't change that. It's a meritocracy and it's a golf tournament. How do you change the way you present your product and make it a lot more interesting

from a presentation standpoint? A fresh regime should say nothing's off the table, like completely nothing's off the table. But it seems like there's a huge difference in like what I think Kessler's job is and like what is best for fans, right? Because I think you can be the LPGA commissioner. If you get your sponsors, keep the money going up, get the sponsors in the door, keep the players paid, keep signing up tournaments like the show keeps going on, right? It's not dissimilar to that on the PGA

tour as well. So like even if it's not getting a ton of fan interest on television, like the price range that they're operating in for sponsors, they're still going to be able to find them hopefully and put on tournaments and get players paid. Like, that's what a member organization is. I think we, we as fans would have a different viewpoint of what would be considered successful in that regard. And I hope that it comes in with a fresh consideration,

but I also think they're stuck in a TV deal. That's not going to get better anytime soon. So not to be the, the, the, the pessimistic view, but that's how I feel. When does the TV deal end? So like, you know, or Tisha, you know, whenever the PGA tour deal ends that's all I feel. When does the TV deal end, Sully, do you know? Whenever the PGA tour deal ends, which is 2029. The number one thing I think I would want,

and this is again a wish thing, is somehow get ESPN involved. ESPN's really good at being promoting at the WNBA. They've shown that there are different storylines there. I would go to Netflix and be like, you know what? How about we do a women's version of Full Swing? Like there's kind of diminishing returns on what you guys have done with the BGA tour.

Like we would love to get the women involved and just introduce them to the general public as characters in some ways that you'll feel more invested in. The TV product is the whole thing. They just, it's gotta, I think why, the reason why I say get ESPN involved is because whatever you say about ESPN, they take a lot of pride in their broadcasts and what they do. They don't short shrift stuff really, like even if they have fewer resources on

stuff, they try really hard to present. They have shoulder programming. They have people at events like they, like live from at a women's major is like unimaginable. Like they wouldn't even consider it. And you know, getting the people on first take to occasionally talk about the LPGA. That's what ESPN does, right? Is it feeds into its live stuff?

I think that would be super helpful. So I would take less money to be able to get it onto a network that cares whenever the deal comes up and comes around. I was at the US Women's Open Media Day. I think they do have live from at the, at the women's open this year. So that's a one off case. USGA event. Yeah.

Well a one off like KPMG women's PGA, I think one year was on Peacock for the back nine. Like it, it, it's Chevron. They're some of their, like their majors, they don't have, yeah, there's one major that they do have live from on, but it's not, it's not, it's not a constant. That's for sure. Uh, guys real quick, I'm not gonna spend much time on this, but, uh, Bubba Watson was in

studio with a solid buddy, Pat McAfee this week. And he let Pat know that he really likes live way more than the PGA tour because he doesn't play as much. And when he does, his kids can be inside the ropes on the driving range. Uh, his kids are getting older and he just loves to have them around whatnot. I don't think we need to debate live again, but I kind of remain baffled that this is somehow something that they live. Guys still think is a selling point for fans. Like, yeah, man, like we just kind of take it easy out here. It's like so great. Such a good

lifestyle. This just wouldn't apply in any other sport. If NFL players were like, yeah, we joined this league, like this China funded lead, because like, we just don't hit as hard and we just like, don't have to run as fast. It's so cool. Like I just don't know why like that continues to be the marketing for live. Like just it's kind of a funny one too with the LPGA conversation that we just had. Cause if I was one of the top 10 players in the LPGA and I heard a guy like that be like, yeah, man, we just like don't work that hard and the kids are running around and we play for like 25 million bucks a week and it's, it's good. You know, it's a nice life that we've got. I would be like pulling my fucking hair out. Like really? Okay. Cool. Well, I

guess I'll, you know, I guess I'll, I'll go pay my caddy who's, who's making like $12,000 a year and sleeping with, you know, three other caddies in a hotel room and trying to, yeah, I guess we'll just, we'll go try to win the tournament tomorrow. Sounds good. Yeah. It's, I don't know, don't have a lot, a lot more to add other than I'm glad he's, he seems like he's doing great. It seems like he's, he's, uh, he's living life to the fullest. I think the best sell for live going forward is it that becomes a retirement tour like that or becomes like the champions tour like that.

Everybody above 45 goes and plays that instead of the champs. That's the best possible solution to all this. So I support Bubba in his endeavors. Thank you. So guys, number eight on our list, the blow pig, Winnem Clark, he he sent out an apology for throwing his driver through the wall at the PGA championships and nearly decapitating a Marshall. And this turned into an activation for T-Mobile T-Mobile put out a tweet that said, Wynnum, you've got our support. And the good news is that our five G network is ready for almost anything. Even if our signs aren't, I, you know, very funny to me that this turned into an activation considering that Wynnum was like, I really let everyone down. Like I'm

I know I need to be better. I need to get some help, whatnot. I just, it made me think about what some famous meltdowns in golf history could have turned into activations. The one that kind of struck me is when Sergio took off his shoe at the world match play and threw it into the stands or whatever, a lot of Sergio would have been a great opportunity to like switch shoe companies there and be like, you know, now I have shoes that don't slip. And a couple of years ago, I wouldn't want John Rom was like just a rookie. I was actually there at the US Open watching him freak out, throw a rake and punch a sign like several times and just completely, uh, this is like Ram and

his best lunatic stage. In fact, this might've been the beginning of the Rom impression. I think it was be great for like an anti-rage medication. All the pharmaceutical ads like Ram's helium or something would be like an anti-rage drug. And that's why I take it every week. And I was like, let me see. Don't play my best. So I don't know if there's any others you could think of, but just a laugh, maybe laugh that, that, that turned into an activation for T-Mobile. I think of, yeah, first of all, that you can kind of just cash me out on all of the, on

all of that. I got a very Bo Burnham as I got the press release about that TC and I were talking about that. Like the kicker of the press release was just like follow up if you want to know what's next for 5g at golf. But I was like, yeah, I just, I don't have that question. I'm really worried about this Ryder cuff stuff right now. If I'm being honest, I just, I don't, maybe we get to 5g next time. But Rory Huckin is, you know, what was it, foreign or something into the lake at Doral. And then Trump had that guy go swim out and grab it and present it back to him on the driving range. I'm sure there's some sort of scuba gear or something like that. You could hawk around there. I'm trying to think what else would be up there.

The Vandeveld one I kept thinking of, I couldn't quite get what that would be or something, you know, waterproof shoes or something would have been a good moment for that. Not really a meltdown, but I'm kind of shocked Callaway, like it would have been kind of good to talk about the bounce on Phil's wedge when he hit that shot from the hospitality tent and how like the bounce on that wedge like allowed him to clip that perfectly off the plywood of that hospitality tent up in New Jersey. There's something inappropriate I could do and I haven't like merged all together about

Sergio having the meltdown in the bunkers in Saudi Arabia that got him disqualified and a very inappropriate comment that he made about those bunkers. Google that one. Speaking of Phil, guys, then our final entry on the back nine. Is this going to be Phil's last US Open? This is the last year of his exemption from winning a key. I feel like this story is almost irrelevant because he's sort of turned into a four Chan type figure on the X app. But I'm just wondering if you have any feelings about Phil.

You know, I contend Phil one of the great US Open players of all time, even though he never managed to win one. And I'm not sure he's going to get any exemptions going forward after calling Mike Wan a dick on Twitter multiple times over Taylor Gooch's exclusion from the 2023 US Open. But just would love to hear any of your thoughts on whether this is the last ride for Phil in our greatest international open. I mean, like truly, I hope not. Like I want them there, you know, especially if you're giving like, especially given Ricky

exemptions and like, it seems like they kind of are, that was a PGA. I'm sorry. I take that back. But yeah, I guess the US Open doesn't hand out as many. I kind of have PGA on the brain, but they don't, they don't hand you finished runner up there twice, right? At least once. Yeah. Yep. And then Pebble, which feels very fit, like legitimately could win in 2027, like who the fuck knows? And then Wingfoot in 2028. It's like, well, come on, we got to have a backup

Wingfoot, right? Like 57 years old, 58 years old. Yeah. And then, I think, I think, I think, I think, I think, And then wing foot in 2028, it's like, well, come on, we gotta have a back of wing foot. Right? Like 57 years old, 58 years old. Like it's 53 now. Is he really? God. I keep thinking. Yeah, I guess. God, remember how he did play in that one already. I think it was 60 something when he played in that one with the OJ OJ

chase. Well, then we got, it was at Oakmont and then we got Pinehurst after that. And then we got Marion after that. Listen, he's had a lot of places. He's been a great US open player. He just hasn't gotten it done. Phil's 54 turning 55 in June. And he's only finished second at Shinnecock the one time. But you can't keep inviting him to all the places he's finished second because they'll just be playing on the US open circuit forever. It's really like pebbly finished second.

Right. Wing foot. He definitely did. No's really like Pebble, he finished second, right? Wingfoot, he definitely did. No. Did he finish second with Graham McDowell? He finished second in 99 at Pinehurst. He finished second in 02 at Bethpage. He finished second in 04 at Shinnecock. T2 at Wingfoot, 2009.

That was also Bethpage. He finished second. And then Mary 13 was Mary. Maybe Mary in 2030. That's the last one. Give him an exemption until he's what? It'd be 60 years old. Let's love it. Let's send him off. All right. Let's for every second that he's got. That's why I like that. I like that. Put some data behind it. All right. I don't know if you guys want to do any more, but you know, on hell one, the senior PGA, I don't really think we need to spend much time debating other than just a nice tour. The guy comes out of jail and wins your two wins, two majors back to back. Scottie basically did that to you to be fair. Nice, nice tour. Big, big moment for the felons. You know? Yeah. Yeah. This shows that like

it works. You know, you can, you take a, put a guy in prison. He doesn't think about what he's done. Comes out and his room works changed man. Very Shawshank story. As mentioned, the us women's open is this week at Aaron Hills. We'll have a preview out, I believe Monday night, maybe Tuesday with the holiday. I'm not positive on that. We have a happy hour show on Wednesday of a live show on Saturday night teeing up the final round as well as of course live on Sunday as well. We have some new level wear items in the pro shop new lightweight hoodies for men and women new t shirts as well including new youth options. You can check out the Luxe T a streetwear inspired premium unisex t-shirt with no laying up embroidery. Neil had one of those on immediately

was like, Oh, come to the store. And that store is at store.no laying up.com swing on by there and stock up for summer. Also gonna be doing some filming this week. Slly and Randy are coming to Milwaukee. We're going to be doing a little video bouncing around town. Got some great, great spots lined up. I think the weather cooperates. We're going to have ourselves a hell of a hell of a trip and I don't want to jinx it. I don't want to spoil it, but just maybe watch it. Maybe watch the Brewers game. Maybe watch the Brewers game on Tuesday. That's all. That's all I'm going to say. Watch closely, watch closely. That's all I'm going to say. That's all I'm going to say.

But it's going to be great. It's going to be great. I'm packing the footjoy waterproofs just in case my, uh, my doom, my doomsday app is right about how much raid. It's going to be fine. Thank you everyone for tuning in KV. Thank you for all spirited, lively writer cup discussion, DJ pie as well on Memorial day weekend. Everyone enjoy the long weekend. Don't forget, of course, to remember what Memorial Day is all about those of lost service, lost their lives in service of the United States of America. But thank you, everybody for tuning in. Thank you as well to Footjoy, to the stack, to Whoop, and

the No Lying Up Pro Shop. Crack on. Cheers.