No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 1069: Favorite Phil Stories + Weekly Recap

Episode Date: September 15, 2025

Randy and Soly talk all things Procore as Scottie Scheffler shoots a Sunday 67 to beat Ben Griffin by a shot to continue an absurd 2025 as he preps to lead the US team at the Ryder Cup in two weeks. We also give some well deserved props to Griffin's runner up finish and Jackson Koivun as the Walker Cup star lands a top 5. From there we go to the Euro BMW PGA as Alex Noren wins in a playoff at Wentworth, Charley Hull’s win in Cincinnati on the LPGA Tour, Greg Norman’s LIV exit, and close the pod with some laughs as Randy offers some of his favorite Phil Mickelson moments (59:30). Join us in our support of the Evans Scholars Foundation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://nolayingup.com/esf⁠⁠⁠⁠ Support our Sponsors: Titleist Holderness & Bourne SoFi If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Nest⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: No Laying Up’s community of avid golfers. Nest members help us maintain our light commercial interruptions (3 minutes of ads per 90 minutes of content) and receive access to exclusive content, discounts in the pro shop, and an annual member gift. It’s a $90 annual membership, and you can sign up or learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠nolayingup.com/join⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the No Laying Up Newsletter here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://newsletter.nolayingup.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the No Laying Up Podcast channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@NoLayingUpPodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club today. Yeah, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast Sunday, fall edition, one hour challenge, Sali here. And I got my guy Big Randy. I know he can help me get there.

Hello, Big. Great to be here, Sally. You know, a sneaky good weekend of golf, actually. So I'm, I don't know. It's going to be tough to, to hit that hour mark. But we'll give it our best shot here. It's sneaky. I don't get too, like, worked up about the NFL today. Man, I was throwing remote said your bingles got a pass interference call on Travis Hunter to go win that game and that just honestly kind of ruined my afternoon. Never mind the sweep our red legs took as well to just just continue to shoot themselves in the foot. We are going to talk some pro core. We're going to talk a little DP World Tour with a BMW PGA championship. We got the

LPJ was in Cincinnati at Kroger. We got some Greg Norman news officially out at live. I honestly thought this happened like a year ago. This was kind of somewhat news to me. So And then Randy and I are just going to talk some Phil Mickelson on the back end of that episode. We were going to lead with it, but the golf ended up being actually low-key pretty good this weekend. So we got a lot to talk about. Before we get to that, if you ask PGA tour players, one of the most important and regular equipment tuneups they go through over the course of a season is getting dialed with fresh grooves, especially important heading into the biggest weeks of the year. I can tell you our friend, Aaron Dill, who is giving me some of the best wedge advice and put me in the best wedges. I've ever had the chance to hit with my own two hands.

Aaron Dill was extremely busy this week getting a bunch of U.S. Rider cupers all set for Bethpage. This week in Napa, 57% of the gap, sand, and lob wedges in play were Voki design, including the Voki design, 50 degree F grind, 56 degree F grind, and

60 degree low-bounce K-Grine that were in the bag of the winter. That's the same setup he used to win six times in 2025. It's a little tough to play and practice as much as the pros. Most of us don't realize all the performance benefits you get from a fresh set of grooves. If it's been a while since you've replaced your wedges, you'll slowly start

to see higher launch, lower spin, less predictable carry numbers. A couple of those newkers you get out of the rough, especially if those groups are not fresh. A new set of Voki wedges will give you more spin, control, and consistency, all of which will translate to lower scores. If you haven't been fit for wedges, you should. It's one of the easiest ways to save shots around the greens, both in just the lofts will put you in, the grinds. I promise you, you're not going to guess what grind and degree of balance you should have on your wedge. Just get somebody to help you with it. Go to Titles.com to find a fitting near you.

Around the world in golf, Randy, Scotty Sheffler, ho-hum beats Ben Griffin by one at the Pro Corps. Alex Noren wins in a playoff in Wentworth over Francis Adrian Sadier. Am I saying that right? I hope I'm getting that right. Sure. Okay. Charlie Hall wins on a shocker by one shot over Gino Titikun and Sinti.

We're going to break that down. That was a very, very, very tough finish. But at the Pro Corps, Ben Griffin took a one-shot lead into the final round over Amateur Jackson, Coyven playing in the final group, and Griffin came out. Burdied the first three holes, but stalled out. He bogeed the fourth. He made all pars until the 14th, made a 15-footer for birdie on the par 515th. But that was just to get within a shot of the guy, Scotty Shefflew, who started the day two back after a Saturday 64. He birdied four of the first 10 holes on Sunday, got the par 512, got the par 515th. But couldn't birdie the 8th.

18th left the door open for Griffin who hit the green and two, 59 feet away, but left the putt, I believe about seven feet short. I'm sorry, he had just five feet, nine inches for Bertie to tie to go into a playoff with Scotty, but missed it low. Who are you rooting for down the stretch this one, Randy? I was rooting for my favorite player, Scotty Sheffler. Always a privilege to watch him golf his ball around, another win. Yeah, I, listen, Just because you were talking about Ben Griffin, and obviously he came up just short, I was thinking as Griffin was playing the 18th hole, like this is why Ben Griffin is playing at the Pro Corps this week. What a fantastic experience ahead of the Ryder Cup in a couple weeks.

You know, having to make a birdie on the 18th, putting himself in that pressure situation, hit a pretty good three wood into the green, left himself a very lengthy eagle put. as you said came up five feet nine inches short did not hit a great birdie put missed it on the low side never really looked threatening to the hole and listen that's what i mean it it it hurts the pocket book but i i think that's where you want to miss the put i think ben's going to be better for this experience in a couple weeks at beth page i think you know really getting the nerves going feeling some pressure down the stretch i think it behooves him and i just was left thinking that's why these guys are here this week. I thought it was a perfect kind of tune up.

It is kind of, it's amazing how often Ben Griffin beats a lot of names that have been considered to be the best players in the world for a long period of time. It happens very, very, very, very frequently now. And he, I mean, obviously won a team event this year. He won the Schwab. This is his second time finishing runner up to a generational player in Scottie Sheffler this year. Like, it's essentially a four win year. I mean, a true unicorn has beaten him two times. One's at the memorial and once here. at the pro core uh you know and it's it's just been a remarkable remarkable season i i just am very surprised at how much i enjoy watching him play golf and uh you know did not ever think he would

be a needle mover for me personally they flashed his previous fedex cup seasons up there it was like 63rd and 61st the last couple of years before finishing the top 10 this year and it's like yeah yeah there's there's so many dudes out there like griffin that are somewhat replacement level as far as fan interest, and he has just risen above all of that. I don't, I hate to make this pro core about Griffin before it is about Sheffler, but we can talk about that guy all the time. Scottie's gotten a lot of, he gets bloody a run. We kind of know the drill.

You could, you can kind of chat GPT what you're going to say about Scotty, but I just continue to be more and more impressed with Griffin, and there's been almost no one I can think of off top of my head that's made a bigger leap this year in terms of what I think of them as a player. I agree. I think that's partly, I think, it's a few factors for me and I've thought about this and I thought about this today like why why do I gravitate towards him why do I care about him when you know as you said there's so many guys that

could be in that position that you know are just kind of just another guy to me and I think winning helps right he's he has won but I think more than that I just dig the way he carries himself and I really enjoyed the interview that you did with him it's it's fun to kind of learn about these guys get a little bit more of that personality and yeah whether it's like as simple as the the big aviator sunglasses or not he just has a bit of uh uniqueness out there on tour right now and i appreciate that and i'm like you i'm kind of gravitating towards it like i i enjoy watching ben griffin play and i think you rewind a year ago today i couldn't imagine myself uttering such a sentence but here we are from that interview too

I was kind of like, all right, I mean, you know, you left the game for a while. You were doing the mortgage, whatever you were doing there. Like, a little party has got to be like, man, am I really one of the best golfers in the world? Like a little bit of, you know, am I supposed to be here? But he was so confident. Like there was none of it was like that was a completely different life for him. And I would just have to think there's got to be something lingering there. Do I really going to stare down Scotty Schaeffler now?

But he's just remarkably confident. We could all learn something from that. I think that's part of it, though. I think that little seed of doubt, at least in our minds, is fun, right? It reminds me so much of, well, I guess a lot of guys have kind of gone the route of not a lot. That's the wrong way to phrase that. But it's fun to see a guy that left the game of golf and is now back and playing at a super high level and just wondering, is this real? Is this a heater?

what do we make of this guy? And, you know, only time will answer that, really. And I think that's part of the fun is we don't know. We get to watch week to week. And I look forward again to the Ryder Cup in a couple of weeks, seeing Ben Griffin in that environment is one of the big reasons why I'm so looking forward to this year's Ryder Cup is seeing guys like him under that pressure in that environment for the first time and seeing how they react.

well and it's i mean i don't have a specific you know if you're increasing your swing speed this is not a transition to a stack read believe it or not if you're increasing increasing your swing speed you know it's not a linear you can't like go to a cutoff date to say like oh yeah as of this date this is when he became a long hitter and that's what has made a big difference for him but if you just go back to like if you just query back from the beginning of may uh in terms of being like one of the best players in the world he is if you basically just go back to beginning of may around when he started his hot streak and got you know was getting up there in that 180 ball speed he's been the fourth best player in the world like you know and been 60 only 68th off

the T 58th in distance but it was a rise uh you know to get to that point and he's 19th in approach 35th around the green 8th in putting since then that adds up to being the fourth best player in the world it's just ridiculous but uh yeah On the Scotty front, I feel like we should probably talk about the winner here. I also think we, the wine glass situation, the ravioli situation, has kind of thrown off the ridiculousness of the numbers. Again, if you just go back, and it's cherry picking, going back to beginning of May when he won his first tournament of the year,

which was the Byron Nelson, that's his sixth win in 12 starts. That's a 50% rate. And if you look at what he was doing to close out 2024, like he won, three of the last five tournaments. One of those is the hero. He won four of the last seven tournaments. He won five of the last nine tournaments he played. He won seven of the last 13 tournaments he played.

So if you take out the ravioli period, he's won 13 of the 25 starts. Like if you just take out this winter and early spring? Yeah. It's really, it's stupid. Because the wins are one thing, right? And I think what keeps impressing me over and over again, though, is even when he doesn't win, he's been right there. Like, again, going back to that Byron Nelson in May, shit, you can go back to the Houston Open at the end of March.

And his worst finish is a tie for eighth in that time period, which is just, it's, I truly didn't think we would see something like this. having lived through the Tiger Woods era, Sully, like I was not prepared to have a player put up results like this so consistently. And I was really curious about Scotty this week, coming to the pro core where like, obviously he's just here because of the Ryder Cup. He would never be playing this tournament otherwise.

And so I was curious, are we going to get that same Scotty Sheffler that we saw week to week during the real PGA tour season? Or is he just going to, be kind of out here knocking off some rust you know kind of shooting the shit kicks and giggles and and off to beth page he goes and the lesson is man he if he's showing up he's he's shown up to win and it just is so impressive how he he he's inevitable he is he is just a top 10 like he's a walking top 10.

Randy, I might have, this might be the most mind-bending Scotty thing that I've found so far. I'm going to go back to, let's go back to November 1, 2022. Okay? It's a lot of golf tournaments between now and then, right? So we're coming up, we're just shy of three years. Correct. People keeping track at home. This is 34 months.

Correct. Okay. How many times do you think Scotty has played a golf tournament and finished outside of the top 25 since November of 2020? Well, I know he missed the cut at one of the majors. Oh, I might. It's like, it's like almost I can name him like specific. Didn't he miss a cut?

Or am I thinking of he just had like a shitty week and finish like in the 30s or 40s? He finished first at Pinehurst, I think. Maybe that's the one of what you're thinking of. Yeah, that's the one I'm thinking of. He has not missed a cut since the 22 PGA in a major. Okay. All right. There we go.

Outside the top 25, let's call it. 34 months a couple of year I'll say six times that's high it's three times none of them in 2025 his worst finish was T25

at the Phoenix Open this year he also yeah he's hadn't finished outside the top 10 since March 16th of this year he finished T33 at the BMW last year T-41

at the U.S. Open last year and then did not finish outside the top 25 in 2023. Except for once at the FedEx St. Jude. I'm sorry, T-301. It's absurd. That's so fucking absurd, man.

Do I make too much of this? Like, I feel like I'm, I need to know if, like, I'm going too far in on this because, again, I just never thought we would see this. No. After Tiger. And that it's happening,

I'm truly making, like, a real concerted effort to, like, you need to watch Scotty Sheffler right now. This is as good as it gets as it's happening. And I get, you know, he might not be your cup of tea personality-wise. He might not be your cup of tea with, you know, kind of the lack of emotion, whatever. I just would encourage folks to appreciate what we're seeing week in and week out when he tease it up. We always kind of do this. Like, he's not, he's not tired. He's not tiger.

he's not tiger okay he's not tiger but he's the best since tiger all right and we always preface at that and i'm kind of kind of getting the point randy where i'm like we we're positive are we a hundred percent positive he's not tiger like he's still not but are we are we a hundred percent positive that he's not tiger a hundred how many more of these types of seasons would you have to string before it's like he's there with tiger like i don't i'm not interested i i think we're a long ways from like Scott is scotty better than tiger that that that doesn't interest me right now and frankly we're a long ways away from that but how long until it's like yeah like this is he he's kind of in this class where we all just know it and we say it and it doesn't sound weird

because it's like if he throws up another season like this like we we got to be getting close at least over a four year period like put it up against just about anybody so you know of course data golf's got a stat for this and tiger does have the six best seasons of all time right 2000 2007 2006 02 99 and 2009 just in terms of strokes gained now if you look at like um again they use a data golf uh points system for more based on the outcomes which i think is probably more up your alley if i have it right uh i think three tiger seasons were better than in scottie season last year and that's it. So I don't know if we're going to get a Scotty season better than last year. Like I think that was super, super absurd. And so I think Tiger's still going to keep the three best seasons

ever. But I think Scotty might stuff the stat sheet from that like four through 10 in terms of best, best seasons ever between those two. Because Tiger had some ups and downs, had some injuries, obviously, and didn't quite have a ton of longevity. We'll see how much Scotty has. But, man it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's a conversation man it's a conversation and that's what you're to your point i don't think we ever thought if ever thought we'd even consider having it no and i feel like that's part of the fun of i don't know that's what i love about golf that's what i love about sports is you get to have these conversations i feel like that's as a fan that's what you want i and i will say to your day to golf point like

i recognize the strokes gain seasons and what they are but i would i think i I would lean more towards results-based just because, you know, Scotty's competing against a deeper tour. I think, obviously, this game is built on a lot of what Tiger did. And so to expect Scotty to separate himself from his peers in the same way that Tiger did might be a tad stretch. But, man, it's fun. Do we think Scotty comes back to defend this title next year?

I hope not. I think he's probably excused from that. Everybody else hopes not either. Like, dude, let us like, let us just have a week, man. Was not joking in his poster and interview when he said he wished Scotty was not here. That was not a joking comment. I did not. I would be joking either.

I know. He's like, I'm sure the fans love it, but I wish Scotty wasn't here. Kind of like, come on, dude. This is for the mules, man. That is like a tough break. That's a tough break for Lonto. Like, if Scotty just doesn't show up for this event, he ends up second place instead of, like, he gets majorly dinged in points that he desperate desperately desperately needs but yeah to your point randy i think this win for scotty

depending on how they classify it he scotty will pass tiger woods's 2009 season for this will this will be a top 10 season since 1983 okay and his and his season for 2024 was the fourth best behind tiger 2000 tiger 2007 tiger 2006 so but this would be kind of the second top 10 season for Scotty. Correct. And really like no signs of slowing down at this point. No. The Jackson Coivin thing is getting pretty real, pretty quickly.

Just coming straight off the Walker Cup where he went three and one, lost his first match and then won his remaining three. His last four PGA tour starts. Again, he's still in college. T11, T6, T5, T4. some of the jokes about him being on the Ryder Cup team are looking a little bit he probably could have been on this team

if they really really needed him I don't know if you have to be a professional to play in the Ryder Cup or not I think you'd have to be a member of the PGA but that's a great question I don't does he a needle mover for you it's does having the A in the in parentheses in his name on the leaderboard

get you get you super I know Dick Dunlap kind of ruined a little bit of that having one and it didn't seem like there was a ton of hype for him to potentially win this one, but he was obviously right there in it in the final group.

Yeah. I love seeing, I love seeing the next generation, the next crop. I think it is, it does catch my interest. It peaks my interest, whether it's Jackson or Nick Dunlap,

what was it, a couple years ago. I enjoy seeing the best in the college game, get the opportunity. And yeah, man, he's impressive. I know I'm not breaking news here but just doesn't look out of place

doesn't you know there's nothing that seems like he's freaking it like he just he looks like he belongs and I guess I would ask you Sallie I feel like you mentioned Nick Dunlap I mean does it feel like the men's game is starting to get a bit younger

where these guys I mean do we credit it to the PGA tour kind of you program? Do we credit it to these colleges and their training facilities and how much money, you know, are invested in these guys from an early

age and their game and their bodies? Is it, you know, we're getting further on from the Tiger Woods effect and these guys are athletes and they're all trying to maximize like, do you, is this shift, it feels like we're getting younger in the men's game. And I guess that my long-witted

wind up to this question is like do you think that's right or is this kind of like an aberrition or do you think the game's kind of going to keep getting a little bit younger and younger where we see guys really break in and have real success right away you know we we had this break in with that you know whatever that class of 2011 you know the speed the jTs the guys that like rose truly to with like top 10 top five even number one player in the world and we've had a little gap in that on the U.S. side. I'm sure there's names I'm forgetting about here. Morikawa, Wolf.

I was going to say the other big class would be, yeah, that's the one I always think of, too. You know, but we've seen some guys come out and just kind of be good, be fine, be okay. And it's, if I'm really thinking of people that have made like breakouts towards the top 10 in the world, it's actually kind of come from a weird middle, with the Ben Griffin conversation, the weird J.J. Spawn, you know, leap that I would not have anticipated seeing. it's a good question Randy I think it is I think you're going to see guys with amateur players that now that you can get sponsorships in college like the incentive to rush out to play professional golf to start getting a lot of money isn't as it's not just not as prevalent right it's just easier to stay in college have some fun play on a team and make good money exactly and so he's kind of maybe an amateur in name only and is like quite quite clear of the level of being a professional golfer. My question is, is what does a ceiling like that for some,

for like Jackson Coyburn look like, right? Because I watched him all week, last week at the Walker Cup. I followed him more than I did anyone else. And he's really, really, really good. He reminds me a lot of JT, just in general, in the way that like high 170 ball speeds, but there's not like a particular skill that leaps off the page at you. I've heard he's an excellent, excellent putter.

But it's not like he's, you know, the most he just the sum of his parts is just really good right so if i'm projecting out a talent like that can he be the number one player in the world that would surprise me right that there's not a well let's just say number two player in the world and ignore the other uh number one that would surprise me when you don't have in particular you know specific tools that i think could could could make you elite elite uh does that make sense yeah yeah it does i yeah your your guess is as good as mine but i don't want to get distracted with the tools thing and like Dude, the guy just gets the ball in the hole, right?

He's proven at a lot of levels. So, you know, it's, it's, it, uh, I, I don't want to write someone off. And it, by any means, if they're not a, of a true, true bomber, it's almost like you have to be a, if you're not a bomber bomber, bomber, you get dinged a peg, but you can get yourself right back up if you have elite iron play, right? And I, we just don't have enough data to say, do you have elite, elite, elite iron play? Uh, because we've seen the putting thing kind of come and go for even some of the best young putters in the world. Yeah. Um, so I would, I would, sorry, just going back, I think probably Ludwig would, would be one that would belong in a conversation like this, somebody that, you know, Haskins award, good college player comes right out and pretty quickly a top 10 player in the world. You're, you're making me, I mean, he was, he was the old college guy, though, remember? He was like 23. Right. Right.

Which, yeah. You're making me be that. Ludwig's going to be 26, uh, this October. So, yeah, I got to have some fun with that one. So do you have any kind of macro Rider Cup takeaways from this event? I'm going to run through the U.S. team on this side. Scotty, obviously, one, Ben Griffin's second. JJ Spahn finished tied for ninth. Sam Burns finished tied for 13th. Russell Henley tied 19th.

Patrick Cantley T.30, Harris, English, and Morikawa T.43, and Justin Thomas was in 69th place. One, did you think anything of 10 of the 12 American players? being there. Obviously, Bryson cannot play in PJ tour events. And Zander just welcomed, and his wife just welcomed their first child. Do you put any stock in the team getting together for a competitive rep this week? And we haven't really heard from you in general in recent weeks on how everything has played out in putting these teams together. Where's your even, even your rooting allegiance at this point? I know you've rooted for Europe in the past. Who knows? Who knows, Tully? Yeah, I got to think about that myself. I've really enjoyed

you guys is bantering about the Ryder Cup. I think it's very prudent that Keegan did not pick himself. I think he made the responsible decision there. I love seeing a guy like Ben Griffin on the team. I get a big kick out of seeing new faces, guys that have had good years, breakout type years. I love then if they can get on the Ryder Cup team because, yeah, it's seeing a guy in a pressure situation.

that we really haven't gotten to see before. So I dig that he's on the team. I quibble. I'm glad Cam Young's on the team too. I really enjoyed watching Cam Young down the stretch, the playoffs. Like if I had to quibble, it'd be maybe Sam Burns. I would sub him out for a Mav McNeely or something, but that's just my personal bias. I think this U.S. group is a bit more likable than I feel like some past iterations.

have been. I think that starts at the top and what Scottie's doing. JJ Spawn, awesome story. So I'm like, God, is Tron going to listen to this? I don't know who I'm rooting.

I'm kind of like, let's just have a good match. Let's get to Sunday singles. And keep it tight. Yeah, I want both teams that have fun. I would love it to come down to the last one or two singles matches.

Like, that's truly what I hope for because I look at Team Europe. I'm like, oh, they're super likable too, you know? It's guys like Vic and Ludwig and obviously big shot pop. And so it's not like I, you know, I like this group more than that group. I truly, I think I'm just going to sit the fence for as long as I can with who I'm rooting for. Now, to your question of do I make anything of the U.S. 10 of the 12 guys shown up at ProCore, I like it.

I think it's a good thing. Like I said, I think Ben Griffin specifically, I'll use. him as an example again, getting to, you know, have some real pressure down the stretch. I think that in my opinion, that can only help him going into Bethpage. I think a guy like Scotty, you know, obviously we see he's still sharp. He still closes a tournament. I like to see those things if I'm Captain Keegan. So, and then I think at the same time, you know, a guy like JT who didn't really have a good week. I, listen, JT's got a long enough track. record. I trust him that he'll show up and he'll be in the best state of mind that he can be in at

the Ryder Cup. So I really look at this as kind of an all-around, a very positive week for Team USA, and I'm glad that these guys came and played. Do you feel differently at all? No, I'm a smidge worried about like the JTs and Morakawa, just a smidge, not panicking at the moment. You know, Harris English, I'd like to see a little bit better form there as well. But, I mean, somebody like Spawn who qualified and I mean he ended up beating down the door I mean being in the playoff obviously at FedEx he would have been a captain's pick even if he didn't automatically qualify but I was worried about obviously getting all the points in the US open and losing form by the time the Ryder Cup came around you could expose the flaw in the system but obviously

he had a great week this week and Griffin you know was you know not a not a it shouldn't have been a surprise pick it shouldn't have been a you know I don't know what an underdog pick of any time, but I want to see him back it up too. You know, as a rookie getting a captain's pick, like you just want to, you don't want to see him playing poorly coming into it. Cameron Young was picked because of a late hot streak. Did that continue post being selected? Yeah, he finished his top 10 again this week.

That's a good sign. Burns T13, that's a really good sign. Henley in decent form. Just can't lay more cow at JT. Just haven't done a whole lot this year in general and just wouldn't have hated to see, you know, they haven't done a lot in the second half of this year, really. JT had a great start to the year. Wouldn't mind to have seen it.

I mean, the U.S. has a ton of guys playing well. I think, like, if you're comparing how the U.S. team did this week to how the European team did over at the BMW PGA, I think it's, you know, as Europe would like to say head of the match, U.S. won up after this past week, put a point on the board for how they played these stroke plate tournaments. Yeah, I think that's a great point about guys like J.J. Spahn and Cam Young. I think, listen, it'd be very natural for there to be a bit of deflation. after the tour championship.

And maybe there was, and this was farther, far enough along that, you know, they could kind of take a breath, decompress, and then get back at it. But to your point, it's good to see those two guys playing well for the reasons you stated. So, yeah, I, and listen, I think it just made it a better tournament selfishly to watch this week. Like, that's the other thing. It's fun to see these guys play this golf course, too. Silverado always sneaks up on me. This tournament every year, I'm always like ready to transition into fall.

in the less serious golf tournament. It's Kurt Byrum, SCN. I love Kurt Byron. He just gets, he gets after it in these fall events. And it's good watch, man. They up the production value a little bit on it this year.

Had some drones out there. And of course, always plays firm. It's just, Max usually always plays really well here. He had a good week as well. He finished T-19. But it's just,

this has been a, this is a sneaky good tournament. It gets me every single year. I'm like, oh, yeah, I kind of forgot how much I liked the pro core. It's like I always, you're right about guys like Max and like Matt McNeil, you know,

like whiffs of that home game a little bit. Mav was T-13. So, yeah, it's fun to kind of see what looks and feels like fall golf because probably my favorite time of year to play. I know down in Florida, you don't, I mean, there's, we're getting there. You're getting there, but it's like you really have to wait almost like December for it to like really change, I think, when you go outside. But like this part of the country, it's like, oh, yeah, no, fall's coming in.

It's such a fun time to play golf. So I do get a kick out of watching it too. Yeah. We'll give a shout to our friends at Holderness and Bourne. They got new colors in the Harwood short. They got the Ivy and the Andover. Their shorts are quickly becoming one of their best sellers. They're versatile for off the course as well.

Some of the highlight colorways, the Amherst Colorway, the Bedford colorway and the Cape one. The Amherst is a soft purple. The Bedford soft dusty blue and the cape is a faded coral. Love the Maxwell shirt. It's got the iconic peak style. Great in the heat. It's updated with the new colors as well. not too early to start thinking about that cashmere too randy cashmere season uh is coming around i got

one of these hoodies i don't know if you can dj like called this hoodie out he sent me what he ordered from our shop here for the walker cup he's like you're not allowed to wear this out there like i'm wearing i'm wearing the h and b hoodies all right i've been i've been waiting for this one uh yeah so i've been waiting to be able to throw this on here once i got back home looks good it's a really really really nice hoodie so i was just going to say on the cashmere i don't own cashmere that that should be a personal goal of mine to own a piece of cashmere i think you would look really really good this is the hamilton hoodie that i have on right now also the jackson hoodie is what has been flying off shelves as well so nl u 10 at hbgolf dot com get you 10% off your first

order this and the trap draw discount code are the only ones on the market for holderness and borne again nl u 10 at hbgolf dot com for 10% off your first order uh Alex noren our guy uh wins yet again, a second win. He wins the BMWPGA, second win since Team Europe has announced their captain's picks. I think that actually the first one was before that, and he still got snubbed. It shoots a final round 68,

wins in a playoff over Adrian Sadier. It's his 12th DP Tour World Tour win, his second BMW PGA championship. It was a fun playoff, fun battle with him and Sadier. They kind of separated themselves there on the back night. And then the playoff, they both went for it.

it from like 260 over the water into the wind in a cold wind the radar was just all over this one rainy like what do they do like what is the goal here they both hit woods uh saddieer got to take a drop into the fairway came up hit it so bad it came up short of the water and then noren steps i i would have thought noren would have seen that and been like okay well let's just lay this up he tries it again he does the same thing but he ended up uh in a really good lie and he uh hit a nice chip up there and it was able to make birdie and Settier hit it past the hole and was unable to make the birdie.

But another, stacking another win for Noren, he was asked about the Ryder Cup thing right on the green. He kind of said something about, yeah, the other guys were playing better than me. He didn't start the controversy. But I'm willing to start the controversy. Yeah, you're looking for a little controversy around Team Europe.

This is a disaster for Team Europe. What a disaster. He whipped all their asses yet again. How could they leave them off? I know, I know. Well, listen, if Team Europe doesn't get it done at Bethpage, I think let's put this near the top of the list. of uh not not monday morning quarterback we're we're quarterback in this one prior uh all i think about

when noren wins is like man i'm so glad he's going to get to go enjoy some weeks in uh in sweden on you know in visby this summer and way to way to cash some checks here so you can go enjoy the summer at visby how did uh i i did not get to watch any of the dp world tour so i my question for you is uh was the weather kind of sketchy throughout and and how did wentworth look what was kind of your your takeaway as a venue i didn't watch a tonne until jill really sunday and i have to admit randy it was quite distracted viewing a lot of phone viewing with with kids screaming at me so uh but it was it was a wet and cold finish um there was a lot of ball and i think it was ball in hand the last two days at least um so fair amount of that it was not crispy crispy

wentworth uh i enjoy watching that golf course it's not the greatest golf course in the world but i've always enjoyed watching this tournament and that that final hole always produces some draw I mean, pretty much every year in this tournament, it produces something that is worth watching. But those two finish. No, sorry, real quick, Wentworth, for anybody listening, if anybody played the old European tour golf game on Sega Genesis, I probably knew Wentworth as well as any golf course in the world when I was like 12 years old. We played so much Sega European golf.

and Wentworth, I always remember, like, Cron Surcierge was another course. But now it's been so long, like I don't really know the course and well. But there was a time, like 12-year-old Randy knew, probably could tell you every single of Wentworth and every single feature, just based on the video game. I had no idea you were a golf gamer back in the day. I never knew that. That's super interesting. Do you ever play it like any of the Tiger Woods version on PS2 or?

Yeah, gosh, what else is there? Xbox. I was a PS guy. I kind of made it and with Tiger Woods game specifically. I was like up through PS1 and PS2 and I don't think I've ever played anything beyond the PS2. So whatever date that is. But yeah, the PGA European tour, I'm looking up now, it was a 1994 golf video game by EA. And God, me and my buddies played the shit out of that game.

So I probably was never as good as you at Tiger, but I would put my skills up on that PGA European Tour Sega game against just about anybody. One of my takes that I think is probably, it will sound like the worst take I could come up with about golf that I don't know if I've ever said this out loud on the pod, but playing like Tiger Woods, I think it was like 2012, whenever the first year they had the masters in it, like they had Augusta in it. Oh, yeah.

I got super good at the game, and then I would turn off all of the help systems. All of the, like, you couldn't, it was not telling you how to read the putt. Okay. It wasn't, I think it would tell you your wind direction, but you couldn't spend it. You couldn't do anything. And like, I learned how to play Augusta. Like, I learned how the putts broke at Augusta. I swear to God, it was like with the, I played it so much with the different pins.

I knew where to miss and all this. Yeah, yeah. I was like, oh, my God, this is so crazy. I think I know how to play Augusta. I can't actually make the, ball do that but uh i would i i i got really obsessed with it for if you can't touch i listen i've had thoughts in the last year so i'm like do i need a video game system just to play some of these sports games that i used to love um i don't think my wife would like that but i've had the thought

just can't pull the trigger yeah i don't have time for any personal hobbies as it stands now i don't know how i would ever get a chance to to use that one uh wrestling board erin rye and Patrick Reed finished, he three. Aaron Rye, another snub beat the entire U.S. Adam to the list. Add him to the list. And for the record, I'm just being snide here because of the way that things get picked apart on the American side. I totally understand the Europeans not taking Alex Noren or Aaron Rye, but doesn't mean I'm not going to have some fun with it. I mean, Aaron Rye, though, was 15th, I think, in their points list. Obviously did not get picked, but not an out, you know, wouldn't have been outlandish.

Not outlandish, but not a great course fit as well for Beth Page. but um fits hovlin tyrol hatton siwu kim part of a big group at t5 the other rider cup finishes ron was t13 ludwig and rory t20 uh fleetwood and lowry t 461 robert mackintyre and rasmus hoygard missed the cut step straco was not in the field this past week so not great form but again neither that that just doesn't matter it just doesn't matter they're going to play match play here in about 10 11 days whatever it is And it's just, I've fallen into this trapway too many times, Randy. I'm not falling into it this year. Okay.

I know we're going to do a ton of Rider Cup preview. So I'm not asking you like a very specific question, but I am asking you this question. Right now, do you anticipate a close Rider Cup? Would you be more surprised if it was like very tight on Sunday afternoon? Or would you be more surprised if it was kind of a bit of a blowout? I'd be more surprised if it was tight. That doesn't mean I necessarily think the U.S.

going to blow them out i just like haven't i've never been to a close rider cup they're all blowouts whatever i've gone and like i if it goes bad for the u.s i think it could go really bad uh you know but i also think like they're home and they probably should win by a lot so i'd be surprised if it was close either way again that's not me predicting u.s is going to wipe the floor with them it's just like the u.s gets beat i also don't think it'll be that close um so i think it'll be like more than 16, 12, either way. Okay, makes sense. Well, then I'm going to double down on my rooting

for a good close match, a fair fight. I might be room for that too. Yeah. I've been the least passionate I've ever been about a U.S. team. I know that, so I might just be rooting for a close one. Randy, what happened on the LPGA tour this week? Great tournament. In my hometown of Cincinnati,

it was the Queens, the Kroger, Queen City. What do they call it, the championship? It's played out at TPC River. bend at the moment. Charlie Hall is your champion. Gosh, you have been the bridesmaid so often over the last couple years. Nearly three years since her last LPGA tour victory, but she wins by one shot over Gino Titicum.

Solly, this one came right down to the wire. It was actually a fantastic leaderboard. I mean, if anybody looked at the leaderboard after Saturday, it was like, you know, you had Charlie, Gino, Nelly was there. you had Mio Yamashida, who won the AIG, you had, who else was in there, Lottie Wode, it was dynamite. Charlie and Gino kind of separated themselves a bit late, so it was a two-woman tournament, and Charlie got a bit of a bad break on the 17th hole. Her drive rolled into a fairway bunker, kind of rolled all the way through the bunker right below the lip of the bunker.

And so that forced her to just pitch out. and she couldn't get it up and down from the fairway. So she bogeed 17 to drop a shot behind Gino going to the par 518th. Both women found the fairway. Charlie was a little sketchy, but she was on the right side of the fairway. Gino played to the very back of the green. It was a long second shot. She couldn't really get it to stop.

It rolled out and leaving her a lengthy eagle put. Charlie played kind of pin high just to the, like, I think it was just off into the fringe on the left. part of the green but where she could put from and so you're thinking unless charlie pulls something spectacular this this is gino's tournament gino hits a pretty good eagle putt uh it goes about five feet past the hole and you know gino's one of the best putters on the lpGA tour so she's standing over a birdie putt to win she blows it by like four feet and so not only does she not win and she's left herself this, all of a sudden, you know,

a little nervy comebacker. Well, she missed that put left is of note, the birdie putt left and firm because then the four foot are coming back. She also misses. Sorry, did she miss left on that one? She missed right. So that's where like the stroke is like she puts an anti-left stroke on it. I've seen that stroke before.

I think I just got off the putting green trying that on this afternoon of making sure I wasn't hitting the pull putt. So she ends up for putting the 72nd hole of the tournament to lose by one. Because Charlie who hit her eagle putt, like, and she said in her post round interview, she's like, yeah, I pretty much thought I had to make eagle. She did not blow it too far by. She had a couple feet coming back for Bertie. And it was interesting watching Charlie.

And she admitted as such, she was like, I was really nervous all of a sudden. backed off of it and even her two footer kind of caught the edge and it kind of spun around the cup a little bit it was like inside the cup but it spun you're like yeah she she did in the flagstakes and it was just all very uncomfortable but it found the center of the bottom of the cup charlie hole is your winner uh did you see her when she picked her ball up out of the hole like she like towards her caddy like showed her hands to her catty and she was like her hands like shivering yeah yeah that's what i mean like and and she said and she was like yeah i was nervous she was like i was not expecting to have a putt all of a sudden to win the golf tournament she was like i am yeah i'm

very glad i made that because yeah yeah she she was nervy um so it's her third l pga win as i said it's her first since 2020 so she breaks a a pretty long drought there but i do want to note going back she finished charlie finished uh i think it was t second at the aig and then her next start she played the aramco event in houston finished t-second and and now she's won. So she's playing some really good golf at the moment. Charlie is. But,

I think we need to talk real quick about Gino. And this, I think it's a little bit more fuel for the fire that like, Gino might not be a killer. And that's hard for me to say out loud. But when you four put the 72nd hole to lose by one, you're the world number one. Like, that's not good.

There's no other way to spin. that. And listen, you can, we can zoom out and she's having a very good year. This was her ninth top five finish on tour this year. She has four runner-ups, just one victory. She's got 52 career top tens as a 22-year-old. I looked up, Michelle Wee West had 49 career top tens in her whole career. So Gina's already passed what Michelle was able to accomplish. But I guess my question, Holly is we nervous. Is it, is it, I think

I think we got to start talking a little bit about like, why isn't Gino winning more of these? Because you got to start talking like that. Because you've done this with every player in history. So I appreciate. I appreciate you doing this. And no wonder Scott is your favorite player ever because he wins everything. First of all,

I just tried to, I was going to look her up on Wikipedia real quick, type in Gino Titiku. And there's three different searches that show up immediately for this four It's genotidical four putt with the number four, then genotidical four putt with the word for genotidicun four putt video. So this is going around. People are looking this one up very quickly.

It's hard. It's, it's, it's, I'm trying to think of what the comp might be for somebody that's just always, maybe it's, it might be like Scotty 2022, like just always was around never, like it took him 70 starts to win his first tournament. And maybe it's more 20, one, Scotty. like, dude, this guy is always on the leaderboard. Always, why does he step on next and start winning? She's massively talented, and I'd be surprised if it's not like she hasn't won,

but it's just not happening in the majors, one, and she got completely robbed of the Evian with Grace Kim's hole out this past year. That one got stolen from her. That was tough, but only five wins is just like, it just doesn't match up with her talent and ability. So I'm still, I'm in. I'm in. I think it's going to turn at some point,

but that four-foot putting stroke with the anti-left ball was not what we wanted to see from somebody just needs to just kick the door down. Yeah, not good at all. I was going to say she had a tough 72nd hole in 23 at the Chevron. She rinsed her approach shot. So, yeah, there are some, this was kind of the most shocking, I think, giveaway for her. Just because she is such a good putter, you would never expect the four putt out. of her. So I don't know. Something to keep an eye. And like you said, she has one. She's won five times

on the LPGA tour. If I have some like free time, I would be curious five wins to 52 top tens. Like that's a 10% you know, wind top 10 or whatever. I'd be curious how that kind of stacks up against some of the other elite in the women's game because it seems like she's putting herself. She's always up there. She just has not figured out a way to. to kind of slam the door. More so with the women's game, So I wanted to ask you this, too. With the win,

Charlie Hall continues this unbelievable streak on the LPGA where they, Charlie is the 25th different winner across 24 events this year on tour. Still not a typo. They have not had a single woman win multiple times. Nellie has not won at all. And I think,

the more I think about this, I'll ask you a leading question, but it started out. out as like a fun stat, I really think this is like kind of to the detriment of the women's game. Like you need somebody pushing things. I think you need people winning somewhat consistently to not only drive some fan interest, but like I think golf is better when when the rest of the pack is like really chasing somebody. 100%. I mean, I think especially for a league that is not, you know, it's not the number one professional golf league, right? Like people are going to

a default to the PGA tour the numbers just just say that right so for a secondary tour i hate to use that word but like just for her most fan interest if there's not a storyline that's easy to latch on to it's even harder to to kind of drum up that interest in the the conversation right so Nellie made it very easy on all of us last year winning as many times as she did and this year just that that parody introduction is just not it's not been a not been a good thing is it my custom flipping it back on you. We've long talked about setups on the LPGA tour. They're, you know, kind of setting up for close golf tournaments, birdie fest a lot, not necessarily the greatest test of skill for a lot of these events. Is this something that is solvable? Is this something that, you know, could change

with a different style of setup? Or is this kind of just a statistical anomaly? I think there is something to the setups week to week on the LPJ tour. I don't think they push the setups. very often, I think by and large, you know, I think the women's game, you have a wider variance in like distance off the T. There's just a wider variance in how far the women are able to hit it from like the first player to, let's say, the 144th player, whatever it is an event, right, compared to the men's game. And so I do think they have to take in some of that when they're setting up a golf course. They're not week to week looking to embarrass. people but I think if they did concentrate more on setups that were perhaps more demanding of

certain facets of the game you would you would probably see some certain names you know week after week and and in all likelihood they would they would win more often so I think it's listen and I also think it's like it's just a bit of an anomaly and a bit of a lucky street that we're in right now but yeah I honestly that's something I'd love to ask the new commissioner, Craig Kessler, when we get a chance eventually, hopefully in the next month or whatever it is to talk to him. Because I do think that there is something to that. I'm just, it's tough to, it's tough sitting at home to like quantify it. For your stat, just for the, for reference, Nelly has 15 career LPJ tour wins 73 top 10. So her ratio is probably

more in line of what you're hoping for. So for that same ratio, Nellie would have to have what like 75 top 10s without a win to be at that, you know, one win for every top 10 or one win for every 10 top 10s. Yeah. So, Gino's got to win a little bit more. That's the big thing. And yeah, I'm bum because I was calling like a huge breakout season for and it's not going to be that. So that sucks. One quick note on this tournament, I mentioned that when I started talking about it, it was at TPC Rivers Bend, which is north of the city, kind of really like suburbs. Well, I can report that McAtewa Country Club has passed a vote, and this tournament is headed to McAtewa Country Club, which is very much within the city of Cincinnati. It's a kind of classic,

not a huge plot of land, but I think it'll be a fun test for the women. My brother-in-law, Eric, is a member there. It's a golf course I know really well. The tournament's also going to be moving to May, I think we're going to see a pretty different 2026 LPGA schedule when they do release that later in November. But I'm excited about this tournament going to McAtewa starting next year. This is Goodbar, who from Taurus, Michigan that you're referring to as a member. One of my favorite stories about McAtewa is how we've long told stories about how faster brother-in-law plays golf. Like, it's truly something to be seen. I worked a half day once in Chicago, drove, lost an hour in the time change, drove to Cincinnati and met up with him.

I forget why I was going to Cincinnati, but I was met up with him to play some evening golf at Makotihuah. We played 36 holes. It's like a five and a half hour drive from Chicago. We played 36 holes between the hours of like 4.30 p.m. and sunset. We just got in a car and just whipped around. It was incredible. But McIntyre was a lot of fun.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's the home of Xavier University, their golf team. They've hosted like U.S. Open locals. So I'm personally, I'm stoked. I should mention Lottie Wode finished solo third. Another great result for her. Miyu Yamashita finished solo fourth. She was your AIG Women's Open winner, which has had a very, very nice breakout year. And then Nellie ended up in a group tied for fifth. You had Chisato Iwai, also in that group. Maya Stark. week for her. I think cutting the ball better. Who else? Say Young Kim. So Lydia Co. Last one. Your defending champion, Lydia Co. finished tied for 14th. So not a bad effort there. On the Live Golf Corner, Greg Norman officially out at LiveGolf. I feel like this was news we were at one point waiting for quite some time. He had a statement on social media saying after

Four Unforgettable years, you're going to love part of this, Rainy. I don't know if you saw this full quote yet. Have you seen it yet? No, because I've self-blocked from social media for like the last couple months. Good for you. Good for you. That's fantastic. It's been nice. After four unforgettable years, I've officially closed out my time with Live Golf and reflecting

with nothing but gratitude, pride, and achievement. Together, we built a movement that changed the game globally. We created opportunities for both players and fans and broaden the ecosystem of golf. We truly globalized the game, expanded golf's reach to fans around. the world we brought entertainment innovation and private equity into golf including to the pGA tour positioning the sport as an asset class it's been an incredible chapter i'm so proud of what we accomplished my commitment to do what was and still is the right thing for golf the players and the fans never and fans never wavered blah blah blah blah positioning just just just the asset class

line was just like thank you mr norman that that we were all asking for this yeah Yeah, I'd be really, it just seems like not a great return on that specific asset class, but what do I know? I, you know, I don't know. It does feel like an end of an era, though, Sali. I mean, Greg Norman was kind of synonymous with live golf there. It's been so boring without him doing anything. Again, I thought he was kind of, I already thought he was gone, but it's been just no, we just, we need those quotes. Like some of I, just trying to think back on some of my favorite moments of the era, the Shirley, you just let her.

uh to monahan was just fantastic the lawsuit uh the opening ceremony that first one where he was just like looked like a true villain uh like a villain motivational speaker in front of that entire room uh it was just a true clown show for for four full years i always i was think of the when you know when he gave shipnuck the boot i forget what specific that was but it was the first one that was the very first one that's right yeah kind of the meme there of him Darren daggers at Chibnock, yeah. It was truly the only guy for the job. And if people wonder why we were soured on live golf from the jump,

it had a lot to do with that guy running the show and then trying to present themselves as a serious sports league while having Greg Norman just be a complete clown at every walk. It just lined all the players saying they were going to get OWGR points. It was a truly, truly epic performance for Mr. Norman. Moving on to another part, of live golf. And I lured you into this episode with a tease

that we were going to talk about this guy tonight. But I'm going to work this way in with a shout out to our friends at SOFI, the ultimate finance app for sponsoring today's SOFI, get your money right moment. Go to sophy.com slash NLU to learn more about how you can get your money right with SOFI plus. I'm taking it this week.

And we're going to talk about Phil Mickelson. Now listen, a bad break for Phil, Randy, and that he was removed from the PGA tour all-time money list okay i don't really understand why i know he's not a member anymore i guess because he's suspended his membership but like i don't understand why they took some guys from live golf off the the career money list and and and uh left some on i don't understand it but that's not the point because phil got his money right raney and i'm i'm referencing a tweet that he sent on june second 2023 uh he was responding to somebody it's to a now deleted tweet so i don't know who

was a response to but he told this person could have been you he told this person haven't gambled in years almost a billionaire now thanks for asking uh so phil has got his money right but that's not that's not to get your money right moment of the week okay i don't know if you've been following you're not on social media so you've not been following how invested phil is in sable offshore and i don't know i do know this because tron shares it in our slack channel that we use for like the trap draw stuff so I've caught bits and pieces of it. He uses the dollar sign sock SOC on Twitter. I believe he's used it somewhere around 32 times in just the last year alone.

And Randy, I went searching. I don't think he's tweeted about the high flyers even one single time. Like all of his, all of his captain for God's sake. But again, get your money right moment of the week. Sable jumped 22.5% on Wednesday as investors repositioned portfolios. on optimism for the Los Flores Pipelines restart this month. Again, if you can get all the updates you need

from Phil's social media channel, but I'm nervous about how much he has invested in this thing, and I don't know what happens to the world of golf if it does go wrong again. But he's got his money right this week. I don't want to say thanks to get to our friends at SoFi, the All I Win Finance app for sponsoring this week's get your money right. You go to SOFi.com slash NLU to learn more,

but you can get your money right with SOFi Plus. And if you want to nominate for somebody, let us know as well in the comments. Randy, I wanted to do just top Phil moments. You're the biggest Phil fan. We talk a little Phil. You have a personal spotlight pod that's going to come out later this week as well. We talked a lot of Phil on that. I didn't realize we were going to have this overlap when I threw this out there.

But I don't want to do a draft or a list of things. I honestly just want to shoot the shit with you and think of it, see how many Phil moments, both on course and off course that we can think of. Because in diving into this, I thought I was going to come. up with the list of like five things and I just could not stop because the guy was just a complete thrill ride. Where do you want to start? Well, that's what I was getting ready to ask you. Let's go. Let's try to go as far back. Like what's the first film? It could be on course or off course. Like what sticks out to you the most going back? Well, this is. And it's like we all know

we want as an amateur. We know like aside from like the stuff he can easily. reading his wiki profile. Again, I didn't even write this up on my list, but in his U.S. amateur match when he gave his opponent a 15-footer on the first hole because he wanted to motivate himself and then he made the putt and went on to go and win the match.

That might be as far back as I could think for a Phil moment, but I also think to, I think Scratch always post that video of when he has his collar popped in class when he's taking the Spanish class at ASU. That's maybe the earliest image of Phil that I have. What's the first, we're just calling these film moments. And I don't even think you need to define that. We all know what a fill moment is. Yeah. Honestly, those are good ones. And that was part of the struggle for me. I really had a

hard time going further back. I kind of think the beeper at Pinehurst is, is almost, it was hard for me to kind of get further back than the beeper at Pinehurst. And the beep, everybody knows about the beeper at Pinehurst. But that was kind of like a big one. in the in the fill story arc I had forgotten about we don't have to go chronological but here's one that I had forgotten about in 2000

I think it was 2003 do you remember when he was trying out for the Toledo mudhens with the goal of perhaps getting a one day contract and wanting to pitch for the AAA Toledo mudhens I think you threw it like a 68 miles an hour

or something is his fastest pitch was. He didn't end up getting the contract and I did find A.J. Hinch, who was a big league ball player, went on to manage. He actually caught Phil because he was down there on a rehab assignment at the time. And I found these quotes from A.J. Hinch talking about Phil Mickelson's stuff. He said pretty soft, quote, pretty soft with a smile. Pretty soft, a little light. Intent was really good. Competitiveness was really good. But a little below the hitting speed of what we were used to. I don't think you could really tell the difference between his primary and secondary pitches. He gave a valiant effort, though.

I'll give him that. And so it's just like, yeah, man, Phil tried it out for the minor league baseball team that one time. There's Dean Foods insider trading moment, which leads to Billy Walters. Massive, massive, massive deal that was, Randy. I kept seesawing back and forth on things that happened on the course and things that happened off the course but when he showed up in the Mizzin-Main

full dress shirt for the first time and everyone was wondering what the hell we knew it was an activation but we didn't know what yet and then he shows up in the commercial dancing at the balls that were hit at him like he's just one of those dudes and I'm like dude you how could you

have so much of this of so much money how much could Mizzan-Main have possibly paid you at that moment to you know to do that to make that worth your while to like yeah i'm going to show up to players in may in may in florida which is hot and wear long sleeves uh and play a practice round with tiger woods leading to the match yeah that was uh that was one the well you mentioned the billy walter stuff like the the allegation was he had bet over a billion billion dollars with billy walters over like a six year time frame and had losses totaling a hundred

million dollars or so so he was placing like 42 bets a day on average he may have needed that mizzen in Maine good point but he's a billion almost a billionaire now that was that was 2023 he probably is a billionaire now I should have checked him with him before I I went looking I vaguely remembered this story and I don't know if you remember do you remember what ties Phil Mickelson to our alma mater Miami University at all I have no idea other than probably a fair amount us bets. Well, this is actually a great thing that Phil did. Phil, there was this random, I think it may have been like a ESPN thing. There was some profile on an old football player named Conrad Dobler, who was in really bad physical condition and his wife had sadly been paralyzed. They had

a daughter, Holly, I believe is her name. And she went to Miami. And anyway, Phil was just like watching this profile on Conrad Dobler and ended up getting in touch with Conrad and paying for his daughter's tuition at Miami University. So that was, you know, as much as we want to bag on him, there's things like that too where, you know, he just a very nice thing. And the Dobler, I mean, they said they're like, we don't know Phil at all. He just like, this was out of the blue. So that was really nice. The first chapter in Alan Shipnook's book on Phil, the unauthorized biography, is just like a seesaw of those back and forth of like, dude, Phil's the best. Like, that's a great story.

Oh, man, Phil is the worst. Like this dude stinks. Man, Phil's the best, though. Like, he's the absolute best. I cannot ever, I don't know if I'll ever get the story out of my head of Phil playing with Tom Lehman at the President's Cup and playing so bad. and like being at the turn and like you know they were they were playing horribly and they're down a bunch and like Tom sees him sitting on like a tree stump or a stoop or something over by the clubhouse net around the turn like hunched over he just sees him from behind he's like oh man I got to give a pep talk to Phil and goes up to him and like as he arrives on him he's looking at his phone checking NFL scores halfway through the president's cup match it was like That's one of my all-time favorite, like, all right, during the president's company. I know you got the full slate today.

I know you do, but you can check the scores after. Well, that brought up one of my, I mean, when not only, you know, him and Tiger got paired up in 2004 at the Ryder Cup by Howl Sutton, but I don't know if people remember Phil did a full equipment switch nine days before that Ryder Cup. switching from he had been with titleless he went to callaway and yeah it was just kind of a disaster he went one and three the u.s got killed it you know so again it's just like dude like was it the best time to switch equipment probably not but of course Phil you know he totally was like he was never going to admit even a breath of like doubt about the decision and then i love that he, in 2016, he brought up the House Sutton thing all over, like ran over

House. He'd just run over Tom Watson two years prior in the press conference. And right before Hazeltine, he brings up the, and Sutton was furious. He was super pissed off about it. And, you know, brought her back up about how bad that was, the captaincy. Remember at the President's Cup whenever, like, they played out of turn, they did, they made some faux paw or whatever. And they had to, like, lose two holes.

Like, they, they, they made some mistake and they had to, and he just stands up the press conference and he was just like we spotted their best team two holes and they still couldn't beat us just saying there's a gamble you know there's like every gambling story if you go looking for it but there was some story well just kind of reminded me there was some story who was it um hegan maybe it was like phil and ricky against two other guys and they were on like the 14th hole and Phil has a birdie put from like just a little further than this other guy

and Phil is kind of like standing over his put and he backs off and he goes oh my gosh do you guys realize like this putt I have is pretty much for the match and again it's like a tight match it's the 14th hole let's say and they're like what Phil what are you talking about he's like well if I make mine

it's going to put a lot of pressure I'm just going to say it's Keegan it may have been somebody else he's like it's going to put a lot of pressure on kegan he's going to peel his off on the low side miss it you guys are going to be pissed you're going to birdie you're going to bogey probably the next hole will win that one you know ricky and i will have confidence we'll make a couple birdies coming in and we'll probably win like two and one or something and they're like dude whatever man just hit your put he steps up over it he drills it and then the exact thing he said unfolded and he and rickie won the match two and one and yeah it's just like that like Phil lives for that type of shit and I like that's part of why I love him didn't he get fined for something like for betting on Furek when Furek hold the bunker shot at the tour championship like in 2010 he like he was like offering up odds for for to people uh on that one and somebody took it and he got like fined because he cleaned up from from somebody on uh on the bed on that one I'm going to look that one up because I knew this was going to happen I

looked up like 30 different things. I knew as soon as we started talking about stuff. They all go to gambling stories. Well, it's going to remind me of this one. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. There was the, there's the other. It was a, he picked, it was a 500, he won 500. It was 2001, uh, Mickelson and Weir, it was the NEC invitational.

Mickelson bet weir, $20 at Furek would hole a green side bunker shot at 25 to 1. Fieric holed a shot making him 500 bucks. And he got reprimanded by the PGA tour for Violin. a rule against having a financial interest in another player's performance. Yeah, yeah. There's a good one too. I think Phil was young.

He was playing in a game with like Aisinger and Crenshaw and maybe Payne Stewart at one point. And I think it was on the 18th. And Phil had like this snaky little downhill putt. And I think he was teammates with Crenshaw, if I have it right. And essentially they were up. So it was like, you all can either like forfeit the bet now and cut your losses in half or you know if i make

this you're going to owe me a lot more money and i think it was either pain i think it was pain that was like yeah i'm cutting and crunch i was like i'll jump with him so like those two evened out and azinger like turned to mickleson was like put it bitch and phil stood over it drained it and just like won all the money and alexer was like yeah from that point i knew he was probably going to have a pretty good career. But it fits. That was a good one. The Tom Watson thing is so good, man.

And we're going to have another pod that goes into that on Tuesday this week. But like not only what he said in the press conference, but also just like what he did the night before in the team room of like after Watson gave one of the worst pumpups. Like take over the captaincy almost. He was essentially the captain. Yeah. Like Watson gave like one of the worst speeches of all time.

And he just like he got it. He got between Watson. and the team and gave like a pump up speech and said something positive about every player like I that's where I it does stink that he's never going to be a captain uh it it does think this was one I kind of forgotten about but going back to Marion and I think this was 2013 of course Phil ends up finishing second one of his six runner up finishes

at the U.S. Open do you remember what happened early that week was there no that was wasn't a graduation. No, that was 2017 here. Was there a graduation of some kind? There was. Oh. It was Amanda, his oldest daughter's eighth grade graduation. But this occurred on Wednesday. So he flew, he went to Marion. I think he went to Marion like Monday, maybe part of Tuesday, flew home, attended an eighth grade graduation, which don't get me started on eighth grade graduation. Those are not a real thing. And then took a red eye back to Philadelphia, got in. at 4 a.m. had a tea time at 711 a.m. Thursday and ends up going on to finish runner up and should have. That's the one like I know wing foot's the one everybody remembers, but like that's the one I think he really gave away that awful wed shot on the par three. That would make sense that's the eighth grade because Aaron Hills was 2017. Or years later exactly. That was on Thursday.

So he had to withdraw. Yeah. And I don't know what he like waited to withdraw like in case there was weather or something in his tea time got delayed or something like that yeah yeah i think you tried to have the the uh the uh the the uh the graduation moved even or they're like yeah we schedule these things like three years in advance man yeah i i don't i respect listen i don't blame it at all for the high school graduation i just no no no you can never convince me that there's a real thing as a junior high eighth grade graduation uh late do you have kids i mean you might think differently Listen, he's the guy that brought us, he gameed two drivers. And then no drivers.

Yeah, I don't think that gets appreciated enough. The guy had two different drivers in the bag. We haven't even talked about the fact that he won six majors. He won the Kiowa major when he is 50 years old. We haven't mentioned him hitting a moving ball at Shinnecock Hills. That was another, yeah, that's a sneaky one where you're like, oh, yeah, that did happen. Pottie made in 2004 at the Masters is truly one of the greatest golf moments. ever experience, I'm sure you, you as well.

Probably my favorite, yeah. The selfie he took on the first tee with Obama, W, and Clinton at the President's Cup and cut himself out of the picture. That came up. Yeah, when he showed up at Augusta looking like an XFL coach and finished in second place in 2023 when he was like 51 years old, 52. I was going to say this is non-golf, but remember he had the psoriatic arthritis. And so he would show up in those ember.

pharmaceutical commercials all the time. I feel like he was a little bit on that leading edge where now we're like inundated with the ask your doctor about this. But it was like Phil Mickelson for Embril and his psoriotic arthritis, which I think it really did help. A bunch of like, you know, made for TV quotes.

I didn't want to tell you about the gap I had at the players with bones. We're trying to hit it out of the bunker on the 10th hole. I just saw this one on YouTube, but he turned to the camera at, at the memorial when he's right of 14 fairway. He turned to the cameraman and said, you're going to want to get this one.

It proceeds to try to hit a cut around the tree, hits the tree, and it skips off the water onto land. Also at Memorial, I think it was. He hit a guy in the head right of 15 fairway and it bounded all the way across the fairway and went up to him and said, I wish your head was softer

and it would have stayed in the fairway. But he played from the wrong side of the fence at Tori North. Remember when his ball was like underneath the fence and he went to the other side and hit the shot. Yeah. backwards shots hitting the flop shot over roger cleveland uh you know it just how many more you got i mean well i was got i thought where you were saying at tory i mean the the infamous bones go up there and tend the flag on my on my wedge shot like got one at every course man yeah like oh my god it

he truly he he is such an interesting person he is a content machine I love him. It was just such a bummer to, like, lose him, you know, in the way that we did. We could do a full. I do think we're going to get him back someday. There's got to be some type of reconciliation at some point. Like, he needs to be announced. He needs to be in the booth announcing golf is really where the next phase of his career should be. All right, Randy, we tried. We tried to get under an hour, just had too many too much fill to get to. And Loki good week of golf. This was the wrong week to try to do the one hour. challenge. But thank you so much for spending a Sunday evening with me. Thanks to all of you who tuned in listening. Special thanks to our friends, Titleist, Holderness and Bourne, and SoFi.

We'll be back. We got a great episode coming Tuesday night. Took a little deep dive into captaincy at the Ryder Cup. This is a little different, different style of podcast than our normal one. This was a lot of effort for myself and Mr. Charles Van Kirk, who helped me put it together. And I think it's going to be an enjoyable listening. And we'll have a brandy personal spotlight pod coming later this week. Recap come Sunday. then it's rider cup week we're almost there man it's it's it's really happening yeah it'll be good uh thank you for the trip down phil mickleson memory lane if anybody wants to get my top 10 golf courses you can listen to my personal spotlight and yeah i'm excited for that rider cup captaincy pot

that's going to be that's going to be awesome thanks everyone to tune in see you next week cheers Cheers!