No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 1141: Kicking Off The First Major Of The Year

Episode Date: April 8, 2026

One more day! Join us for our 2026 Kick-Off Show! Reaction to a bunch of pre-tournament press conferences, on-the-ground updates from Soly and Neil, The Big Board is Back!, news & notes, final picks, and a bunch more! Presented by Titleist. Support our sponsors: Titleist - the #1 ball in Golf! Rhoback - code NLU for 20% off at https://www.rhoback.com Lagoon - code NLU for 15% off at https://www.lagoonsleep.com/nlu Looking to travel this year, check out East Sands Golf Co.: https://www.eastsandsgolf.co/nlu Join us in our support of the Evans Scholars Foundation: https://nolayingup.com/esf The NLU email newsletter: bi-monthly updates on all things NLU: https://newsletter.nolayingup.com/subscribe Join The No Laying Up Nest: https://nolayingup.com/join 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. Ladies and gentlemen, we have almost made it. I was going to say we've made it.

We've almost made it to Masters tournament start. We've made it to Masters Week. We've been in Masters Week, and we got a lot to talk about. Welcome to the No Laying Up Live show, presented as always by our friends at Titleist. I am Sali, joined here in person. finally made it here to Augusta by my guy. Mr. Neil Icarito Schuster. Hello, Neil.

Greetings. Hello, friends. Good to be here. Mr. DJ Pye is here. Hello, Pie, man. Greetings. Hey, guys. A lot of people bogey the first this week. You know, that's okay. It's okay. Roy doubled the first on Sunday last year. He went and won the Masters. It's all right.

Tough hole. We're fine. We're totally fine. Mr. Big Radio is here. Hello, Big. Hi, guys. Excited. What are we going to talk about today, Dege? Oh, my God. Dude, we're going to talk about a lot of stuff. We've got a lot of big takeaways, of course,

from you guys being on the ground up there, down there at Augusta National. We're going to talk some featured groups, of course. We've got chairman Fred Ridley's press conference. I don't think you guys have seen any of the press conference yet. Some good stuff to get into. I'm going to do a little stats deep diving, both internal and external dives.

We're going to throw a couple internal things out. We're going to get those checked from outside sources. of course, this is the main event of the day. We've got a full beluga's big board. I didn't know this. Often imitated, never, never duplicated. We're going to, the beluga is going to rank the field. I saw a lot of power rankings out there this week.

I was like, oh, man, nobody wants to hear from the beluga. You guys insisted. I agonized over it. I hate it. I can't wait. We've got very little, but a little bit of part three talk. We're going to have, we're going to do, Randy. That was your insistence.

We're going to do a little who will win, a little who will not win. And a few more news and notes. But guys, first, before we get into any of that, got to hear a word from our friends, the presenting sponsor here, Titleist. A couple of notes. Cody went digging for a couple notes from the tour truck this week, down from Augusta. Good stuff, man. The GTS driver has some momentum.

A lot of guys even testing this already this week. 39 different players have already used a GTS 2. or GTS3 driver on the PGA tour. Like I said, guys are testing it. This week's very exciting. Seat photos of Justin Thomas. Testing a GTS2, Cameron Smith, GTS3, some fun stuff out there. They're going to hear a lot about the setup this week.

Firm conditions, firm green, small landing spots. I've heard some good stuff about the seven woods. I've seen seven woods, five woods, all sorts of those things. You know, launch it high, land it soft type of stuff. Johnny Kiefer's fishing in those ponds. He was back in Houston, bringing that to the table this week. Long Irons, going to be a big story this week. You know, like we said, we got to get those three Ds right, Neil, right?

Distance dispersion and dissent, baby. We need these balls landing soft. Titles has all their staff covered. This week, just like they can get you covered. Go to Titles.com. Check out their whole product line. Guys, let's start with the boys in person. What's the word, man,

from Augusta National. What are, you know, Saul, what do you, what do you got? What's going on? Should we tell him what we got up to today? Yeah, you can tell, let him in. Neil, Neil pulled some strings. He's done it before. He's a veteran of it. You know, he knows everybody there. They, oh, welcome back, Mr. Schuster. The reception we got when we walked into Berkman's place today was alarming.

It was. It's going to be back. The guy was in his element. I got body right off the start. No, no, no cover under cover. Baby, take that hat off. Of course. Now, the ladies don't have to take their hat off. I all discombobulated. The jacket got me right off the bat. So that was tough.

It was tough. But I got to see that and lay eyes on that for the very first time of my life, which, again, not what I'm looking for out of the master's experience, but maybe the most mind-blowing thing I've seen in three trips to Augusta National over the last three years. It's just, it's the biggest hospitality building you've ever seen. And it's just restaurants and shopping inside. And you feel far away from the masters in it. but I and I see why it's very, very, very appealing.

And I don't know if I'll ever go back, but it was a treat to do it. We got to hit putts on the mock, the replica greens there, 16, 14, and 7. They have replica greens out in front and you get to do a whole putting course out there. Sorry, D. Green himself. I did. I did de green. Unfortunately. I think he did more than it was. Massive congratulations, guys.

Well, no, I got some notes, Dege. Well, first I want to shout out is T. T.C.'s birthday. He's 40. So I just want to give T.C. a shout out. He's not with us to that. night. But that, I was, I was fired up for that this morning. I forgot about that. No wonder he's trying for Team Rose so much. Yeah, April 8th. You know, it's a big,

it's a big one for T.C. So shout out to him. I walked to some of the front nine this morning. Just, this is straight from the notebook. I forgot my watch. Still kicking myself about that. You know, I'm kind of using the sun for like, I think it's noon. Got to meet up with Sally for lunch. So I might get started. I might be a little early, but I'm, I'm trying to do it off the sky, Randy, which is tough. But God, I mean, we cannot understate how good. good the weather is, which is a, you know, I don't want to start off talking about the weather, but it's a factor because it's setting up for just a really, really good week of golf, given the setup committee, you know, the tournament, a chance to do a lot of stuff to the course.

It was beautiful out there today. It affected my pick greatly, seeing the in-person conditions and the wind and thinking back on previous masters with somewhat similar conditions and how it has affected, how the leaderboard I was, I started a different place on Monday than I eventually landed for my pick the hero. Wow. Yeah. That's a, that's a T. Stay tuned later in the episode. So I possibly have we're going for the three Pete. I can't stop thinking about it. I wake up toss and turn in the middle of the night going for the three in a row master's pick here with my guy, DJ Pie. I was going to say, I'm also also going for that. And I felt a lot, a lot less proud of myself.

But I'm like, well, I mean, it's like Rory and Scotty. It's not like, still. You know, still. The U.S. hockey team in 1980 here, exactly. But we'll still take it. We'll still take it. Can't win in a row unless you get the first two. Exactly. Do you know anybody else that got the last two years, right?

And so, you know, and look, I was, I went all out. I said, I'm one and done with Roy. It's the only time I'm ever picking him ever. I'm never picking again if he doesn't win and he won last year. Until you saw the conditions this today. You decided to pick him again. Big, what you want, do you want dumb stuff or? Give me like.

Two dumb things. Yeah, what do you got? Well, no, not really dumb. I followed speed for three holes. And guys, he was scraping it a little bit. That's dumb stuff. I'm sorry, but you know what? He was sending the elevator back down for Brandon Holtz.

Sure. Mid-A.M. Bloomington, Illinois. Yeah. Indiana State basketball player, I believe. Kind of a unit. Trampling on all my. You know, it's like, oh, that's the mid.

He walks up and he's sponsored by Callaway, Remax, State Farm, Sugarloaf Social Club. So he's getting, he's getting himself right out there. Sure. It was cool to see it was just Spieth and Holtz out there. And Spieth was just a chatterbox. So I saw Michael coming off in nine, great spirits. He said a lot of people complimenting on his rate game after the video we did with him.

So he was thrilled about that. He said he's got a good feeling, Randy. That's word from Greller himself. So I just wanted to pass that along to you. Also saw Jake Knapp playing a practice round with Xander and Cantlay. Don't love seeing him falling with that crowd. So that was, you know, another kind of thing. I was like, I don't love that.

So I'm keen off a 10. can't let put it right into the trees. But they were all taking three woods straight over that first kind of collection of trees. I think you're right, man. I think they're all doing that because the ones behind it are gone. So some aggressive lines off 10. I wanted to reinforce what Sali said on Monday. I saw that for myself today.

So yeah. Excellent. Any big takeaways from you the first three days here? How have your models been evolving? A lot of work tonight. I'll tell you that. The models don't rest. No, I always feel like Monday to Wednesday this week feels a bit like spring training baseball

where it's like it's nice that we're here. But I've given over to I just want the actual competition to start. I'm ready for Thursday morning to get here. That's what the par three contest is all about, Big. The competition has started. No, we're not watching any of that. Are we on Frankie watch? We're watching.

Frankie's about to go. Cody, can you play the under the umbrellas little snippet? This is from our friend, uh, Kira did it. Really fun stuff. We're not going to waterboard anybody with, with par three stuff. But this, this from Frankie is just, it's, it's good stuff, man. Cody's waving at me. Hold on a minute.

Bam, bam, bam, cheap famping. Frankie's the needle. I'm way in on this entire storyline. And I'm a little upset they didn't get this in before four o'clock, unfortunately. I know. He's just, he's getting iced for, for the ninth. T shot in the par three contest to try and get it over the water over the past year. A few days ago I was just in the gym with Colby and I was practicing last night for it.

Colby the trainer? Yeah. Oh wow and what kind of... It's part of the stable. Yeah. What kind of exercises are you guys doing? We did planks, side planks, push-ups. What else?

Jumps. What did I do with this one? Oh yeah, you were throwing the ball, throwing the magic. ball. Yeah, to the trampoline, nothing. I had sore ribs after the morning after. You got to get your core strength up. Yeah. Poor strength is important for good golf, right? Yeah, I think so. I think so. I'm trying. I'm not sure about my call, but I'm trying.

There you go, the Fleetwoods are trying their hardest. He's in the gym, man. He's put in the hours, Neil. You got to love that, man. I love here, and you start with body weight stuff. You know, that's good. Yeah. We just rep it out till exhaustion. that's good for Frankie yeah I agree so he's god they're just icing him man they're making him go last you got Rory we got Shane all these people have 30 kids there everybody's taking a shot it's about to happen I know it's about to happen we'll we'll see can I say I say I'm part three harmless I don't feel was anti part three is as randy and tc but I will say I do think it's a little unbecoming they make the the wives and girlfriends wear the caddy outfits I think they want to I think they

I don't know if they do I mean if you know it's like merit is that there's like two weeks like postpartum it's like I don't think she wants to put that thing on like like I don't know that just feels a little unbecoming Randy that I'll say that so I'll find community some of it is a little here we go all right he's over the ball shots away looks like he pushed it uh it's in the water it looked like you had the distance though he did uh just kind of left it open a little bit that's just Randy is that nerves you want to break that swing down you want to do that later the in the show oh I didn't see it so we're working blind here all right Let's keep moving. Let's keep moving.

Shall we pairings for the week? These came out yesterday. Got some good stuff, guys. I think I was kind of farting on the featured groups when we had the players championship. It just fell flat. You got to inject some of these live guys, man. And it starts to feel like a different world. So just in, you know, these are what I'm calling my featured groups here.

Cam Smith, Sam Burns, and Jake Knapp feels like a would love to see any of those guys play well. no idea what will happen. Just an interesting group. DJ, Shane Lowry and Jason Day. A couple major champions there. P. Tommy and Akshay. I mean, sign me the fuck up for that one. Woodwatch.

Bryson Fitz and Zander. Is that like that group versus the field? I mean, that's kind of the group you're looking at. I would have to imagine if you're picking a winner out of one of these groups, but your guys' mileage may vary. Rory Cam Young

and the amateur Mason Howell. Love that one. I love that group. DJ, I was going to go follow that group. I'm very, very, that's a lot of firepower in that group. That sounds like a really fun. 30 tomorrow. Really fun one to go follow.

I just threw this one in there kind of out of curiosity. Fred couples, Minwu Lee, and the amateur FIFA Laupaki. I don't know. Minwu Lee, I don't, this feels like kind of a shot at Midwooli. It's just kind of a weird, I have a weird placement for him, but we don't have to linger that too much. John Rom, Chris Goddorpe and Ludwig, maybe a Lubowski pairing here of just dudes.

Dude or not. Yeah. This is a lot. We're going to learn a lot from that group. Speath, the great man, Justin Rose and Brooks Kepka. This is where you would find me,

I think, tomorrow morning. Sign me up for that one. There's a little speith like Rose history here. That's not the, not the rosiest. I don't know if it's still, you know,

it's many years old at this point. I don't know what the current relationship is there, but they find them, they cross-priced. has more often than you'd think. Oh, love that. And finally, Scotty, Bobby Mac and Gary Woodland are, I believe, second to last off tomorrow. So

lots and lots of good stuff. Any other kind of takeaways? What do you guys think you're going to do tomorrow morning? Just really quick and super minor. Every shot I've seen Gary Woodland hit so far this week, which is surprisingly a lot, has been really, really good. Just really good. Really good. Really good. Like, you know, he was playing the Scotty

today and I'd be up ahead on a green and like a really good shot would come in. I'd be like, oh, Scottie's finding it. And I look back and like, oh, no, Scottie's going now. That was Woodland. Oh, it happened again. Yeah, that was Woodland. Oh, it happened again. That was Woodland. So, again, it's just, it's just Wednesday. Doesn't count for anything. But take that for what it's worth. Woodland was hitting the ball extremely nicely today. Flush again. You asked me if my models are set. Like, how, how can you ever set the models when information like this comes in? Constantly trickling in. anything else kind of press conference wise shocking almost overwhelming how many guys do media

this week there's just a lot lot lot to go through rom had great stuff brison had some fascinating stuff rory had great stuff solie neal anything stick out to you guys no i haven't we're behind we're probably behind on that that's our that's gonna be our catch up here probably tonight be a lot of live from what did you get from bryson uh a lot of how do you sum that up? You piqued my curiosity there. Yeah, I mean, it's just a lot, it's just more of what we've seen.

A lot of growing the game, my responsibility in the game, that kind of stuff. But a lot of, some stuff about him and Rory, that rivalry being good for the game, you know, which I think is totally right.

Like I totally agree with that. A lot of good stuff on patience at Augusta National. You know, like where I think, I don't know, he came out and said, I regret the par 67 stuff exactly, but just like understanding a lot more how to play this golf course and how to be patient and play to the right spots and not try to win it all on the third hole. You know, it's like I think he, yeah, I think he's figuring out how to, how to tackle this place.

So it was just, it was a worthwhile, worthwhile, endeavor. I saw something from Porter that was like, he said, like, innovating as part of my, what? He's working on some equipment stuff. He's trying to do himself, yeah. yeah a lot of a lot of that as well then randy flagged a shame ryan quote which was which was good stuff it's kind of like good vibes bad vibes yeah Shane was kind of doing his own big board and he had a i have it he said good vibes youtube is thriving he's winning events on live he's smiling and millions

seem to like him plus he's writing two straight masters top tens into 2026 bad vibes nothing huge, just the unshakable, upsetting sense that everything you see is artificial and exists at top of a layer of unsatisfied yearning and incurable sadness. It's good stuff. If you haven't read Shane, kind of bottom line it right there.

If you haven't read Shane's you know, his vibes only master's preview on golf digest, I would strongly recommend it. I think that was probably my favorite thing I've read in the lead up here. Rainy, anything else kind of early week or should we get to the big board?

let's let's give the people what they want let's start with the big board i just do they do they want it you know please tell us in the comments do you want it and i'll get it either way yeah i'll go as fast as as as as slow as you want all right it coming at 91 i did get rid of phil because it was 92 uh but phil uh you know will not be with us this week uh phil mickleson that is 91 we're going back to well brian campbell uh just consistently losing a lot of strokes to the field gentleman number 90 Jose Maria O'Athabel. I just don't not not ready yet.

Decent showing last year. Sorry, real quick. Did you know your notes were going to be public here? Is there anything that? No, I don't think there's anything bad. I could,

you know, I agonized over it, but we're okay. I didn't know that. All right, all right. Hopefully Cody, you know,

he would double check it before. I didn't know that, but thank you. Aldrich Potkeeter. Guys, the data golf scatter plot is tough as a, as a course fit here. 89.

He's at 89. Larry Mise and like, I guess he's in the field. No, Larry Mise is in the field. I'm just there's some past change. Okay, sorry. I don't want to be behind Larry Mise though. I think it's an interesting question. I maybe.

I don't know. 88, Jackson Harrington. I think a big spot for a young volunteer. 87. Davis Riley. Dede, you and T.C. Despite what you guys say, we're not quite ready for you yet. Christopher Rytan, that might be unfair to him.

Danny Willett at 85. I saw him blowing. way right off of one today. So I feel really good about that. 84, Mateo Pulcini. Not much beta here on my guy out of Argentina. Randy, do you got anything on the amateur winning the lat, the latam? Just that he's 25 years old. So he's a little old for winning the true amateur. A lot of jokes about being a midam already. He was a three-time D2 All-American. He finished his career at Arkansas. I don't think this portends well to this week,

but we shall see the senior season at Arkansas he averaged nearly 36 putts per round. So I would look for our guy here to maybe not be rolling as rock the best of everybody this week. All right. I feel good about that. Let me just go quickly back to Jackson Harrington. We had mentioned Derek Ernst is going to be here caddying.

Derek's an assistant coach at Tennessee and will be on the bag for Jackson Harrington this week. Should pick that up. That would impact the big door. It's locked. You were on the show Monday when we talked about that. I know. I just forgot.

I had a lot coming at me. All right. 83. Mike Weir. No notes. No notes. 82. Brandon Holtz, former college hooper at Illinois State,

moves it pretty well. I thought he hit it well, but I don't see much out of our guy. One fun fact there on Brandon Holtz. You mentioned, Neil, college basketball player played all four years. D1, you know, like Woodland. He wasn't a D1 basketball.

player would love to challenge him in a game of horse of Brandon anytime his father jeff holtz i found this nugget in 2004 his father i don't know what the contest was but won something to receive lifetime master's badges dude i saw this he said he was he'd been there like 15 times or something yeah brandon has been going to augusta you know he makes a big deal about sitting behind the tea on number six the part three loves to play little games gambling games with people around him, has spent a ton of time on the grounds at Augusta National, obviously teeing it up for the first time this week. That's good stuff.

It's really good stuff. I should have consulted with you on my big board. This is how you twisted. Well, probably a lot of pressure on him, and I don't expect him to play well in his first master's. That's good. Take a note that wiggle out of that one. All right, moving on, Max Grazerman. I hate to do this to my guy.

Minnie Rory, God, he always, I'm always like, is that Rory? No, it's Max Grazerman. The trend just hasn't been good, guys. I mean, he was kind of vaguest a little bit at the players. But, you know, and listen, like, should he be this far down the board? I don't know. I'm trying to make it interesting, right? We don't want to go all chalk here.

Okay. Sorry to Grazeman. Aaron Rye hadn't been playing well. No notes there. FIFA La Pacti. ASU, just won a college event in March. So I've got him ahead of a few of the other amateurs. I've got him at 79.

If it was Johnny Kiefer. Can I You keep blown past these amateurs. My guy's got notes on all the am. Oh, I'm sorry. That's right. I'm just trying to keep it moving here. I know we got a lot of names to get through.

Randy, of course, Neil, of course. Our guy, FIFA, you know, what do you think of when you hear the name FIFA?

Probably soccer, right? Well, as it turns out, FIFA's real name is Pong Sapak and his father does indeed love soccer. And so FIFA is directly a nickname

from the soccer world. I read that it was between FIFA and UEFA. I think FIFA is probably a better nickname. So, kind of, yeah, there you go. He's also the first Thai amateur to be competing at the Masters.

That's a good thing. Kind of a, kind of a Nasa Hataoka situation. Yeah, better than Khan Kauffa. What is it? What's the US one? Concca Koff.

That would be a sick nickname. Why does this start going of Kankakama? Oh shit. Conca Cawks on a roll. All right. Yeah. So I got, if it was Johnny. Conca Calf, too, but you go with Conca Cof.

Sure. You know, pin, pint, same deal. But John Kiefer, I'm worried about John. They changed, as we said on Monday. Master, D. I think you said that. They just kind of take some liberties on naming. You know, he's been up and down this year.

Now, Yuki, Katoka. I was nervous about this one for you. Taka. Japan Open winner. It feels like some jet lag factors. So I got him pretty far down the big board. That's all I got for you. I don't think he's an amateur. I think he's playing with Max the first two rounds too.

Okay. Don't be pairing. Fred couples, 40th Masters. I mean, he was always kind of a contender. It just kind of feels like magic has run out a little bit. Is that you guys feeling that? For sure, which is where I'm, I mean, Pocky, like one on the PJ tour last year.

I'm not trying to linger on that. I'm not trying to linger on that too much. But I'm just, I would take, Fred couples, pod eater heads up that if you were interested. Okay. Let's, let's, let's, we'll keep an eye on that one. We do have to keep our guy moving through this section.

That's what I, you're slowing me down. There's a whole, there's a whole open ahead here. Yeah, Hal Tong Lee's missed a lot of cuts, guys. If you go, go look at the results. He is viving out there, though. Is he?

Oh, my God. He's absolutely having the most fun of anybody in the field. All right, this is a drive-by and wind him, but I got the blow pit. here tough year he's cut cut cut t 42 t 41 t fifty eight t 35 he's putting awful gentlemen uh he did have a hole in one today on the par three so uh i could this could be a potential um Shane Lowry situation for me I think you're okay there on Hill Cabrera 11 over last year but we seems to be playing pretty well on the champions tour a lot going back in the swing of things

things are called now back of the champions dinner might be might be better energy for him I don't know uh 72 Michael Brennan. Really poor numbers putting and around the green. I feel like that's a tough combo here at Augusta. Then I've got Zach Johnson at 71 and Sergio Garcia at 70 who said in his words he's playing awful. So we'll pause there for a sec. All right. Well, ZJ, a guy, I don't know if he has a ton of a ton of dog in him, but, you know, who does have the dog. Oh, you can see the dog everywhere. Everybody's got the subtle dog on. I got my aggressive, I got my aggressive colors on for for Phil Mickelson, my aggressive subtle dog.

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Fred Ridley's press conference, always kind of an event in the golf world. I think today was probably no different. He spoke on a lot of different topics. Had a lot of good stuff in his intro. talked about the opening of the patch, talked a little bit about Tiger Woods, nothing super meaningful other than we support him. We hope it gets right,

and they're working on another TGR Learning Center at Augusta. Some good stuff about the ANWA, and it's kind of role in the game. Good stuff about amateurs remaining amateur and if they need to tweak any exemption categories as guys forego master's invites to turn pro, things like that. But I kind of isolated five moments

that I wanted you and the rest of the listeners to hear from the press conference today. This first one, we talked a lot about the rollback. We talked a lot about distance. We talked a lot about how far the golf ball is going and how the game is being played. This first one is from his opening remarks here. This was just hitting it off right at the pass. Finally, I've commented for the past several years on the subject of distance. We have been consistent in our support of the governing bodies

in their effort to regulate the distance elite players are hitting the golf ball. Recognizing that the implementation of the overall distance standard test for golf balls may be delayed to 2030, I want to re-emphasize that support and affirm our position as the USDA and the R&A represent their collective obligation as custodians of the game. I also want to be clear that our position is grounded on much more than protecting the Augusta National Golf Course. We will continue to make modifications as are necessary to react to driving distances than in some cases exceed 350 yards. Unfortunately, many courses, including some iconic venues, do not have that option. Until recent years, golf has been a game of imagination, creativity, and variety. The game has become much more one-dimensional, as players drive the ball prodigious distances

and routinely hit short irons into par fours and even some par fives. This issue goes beyond competitive impacts. Increased course lengths results in more time, more cost, and more environmental concerns. The data that has been shared with all stakeholders makes one thing clear. The impact to the recreational game will be immaterial. All of us in this room and millions of weakened golfers around the world will be hard pressed to notice the effects of this change, and I do not believe our enjoyment of the game will be affected.

As for professional golf, we hold firm in our belief that the grates of the game are defined not merely by how far they hit the ball, but their extraordinary skill in all aspects of the game. Their ability to shape shots, to take on risk, and to execute under pressure is at the heart of championship golf, and is best displayed through a full spectrum of shot-making opportunities. Regulation of the golf ball is not an attempt to turn back time or stifle progress. It is an effort to preserve the essence of what makes golf the great game than it is. is pretty clear pretty clear there and actually i might just roll right into to number two because it was kind of a follow-up he's uh you know it was later on it was probably 15 minutes

after this but he ends up touching on some similar themes so why don't we roll that second one and then we can kind of loop back for a total reaction has been uh there's already been quite a lot of agreement and um i mean my you know my feeling you know on this subject is failure is not an option. So I think we need to continue to work together to come to some agreement. You know, you know, tough issues like this require compromise. And I think there has been some compromise to date. There's certainly commercial interests that are in play here, and we all know what those are. But at the same time, I think if we can look at this from the standpoint, and it's not just trying to, it's not the good old days, you know, that's not what we're trying to do. What we're trying to do is

protect the integrity of what makes golf so great. And I think I've tried to articulate into my comments. And that's, and that's, it's more, it's more than about just hitting, you know, prodigious drives. I mean, I talked to Jackson Harrington, one of our young amateurs, and he told me that, that yesterday he drove, he hit it over the bunker on one and five, and which is about 320-yard carry, and one was into the wind. And so, I mean, we cannot, I mean, I said that we can make changes, but there's not much we can do, you know, to make changes number one unless we tear down the Eisenhower cabin. So, and we're not going to do that. But, but, but, you know, we'll make changes when we can, but I think it's time to really address this issue. It's been

talked about for a long time. So I throw it to you first. It's a hit there with a couple one-liners. Yeah, it was speaking with confidence, speaking with clarity. I was, uh, let me be clear, Randy, hot and hot and bothered, listen to that as, as far as like I don't know who disagrees with with all of that you know what what sticks out to you hearing that for the first time I mean it's I don't feel the need to again I've tried for years to speak it as clearly as he just did and I wish I could I think it the question just becomes very simply is what is proposed currently and what's on the table currently will it address everything he just said because I it is very difficult to disagree with anything he just said I think where where the hang up currently is on

the situation. We're not going to go deep on this right now. It's like as the rule is written now and how it is proposed, is it going to address this, put the toothpaste back in the tube a little bit, protect what he's talking about, protecting, you know, put some more emphasis on other skills in the game, or is it going to make the distance skill worse in a way of like make it more incentivized players to even pursue distance even more, even if it's not going farther? That's where the extra strokes gain could come from that. That would be failure, I think, based on what he just said as well.

So it is good to state all this clearly, but I don't know if it answers the question out there of like, hey, is this rollback that's coming in 2030 going to create a world like you're describing? I hope it does. I hope it, I think we, you know, it's to be determined and the rumblings from the outside are that it would not. So I don't know. I don't know how to how else to answer that without talking about it for 30 minutes. Yeah, I agree with you wholeheartedly. It's like, man, in theory and concept, like, this is it. That's exactly how I feel.

That is what's at stake and what's important. I co-sign, please let me sign your petition. That is the type of skill I want to see in the game. Those are the types of concerns I have about the game. That's everything that I'm trying to work. Like, that's everything I want to push towards is exactly what he is describing. And it just is going to become a four, year, you know, kind of volleying back and forth about what is, you know, whether what's proposed

actually gets us there or not. And I think there's going to be a shitload of noise on either side. And I think what makes, man, what makes this really hard, I think is it's, it's just is such a complicated issue that it's just really hard for me to do anything other than just be like, yeah, what he's just, what he just said. That's great. And when, when you start hearing it from both sides is like, no, that's not going to happen. And the PJ tour starts saying, like, wow, we don't, we don't see that in our data. And the USAJ says, well, we don't see that in our data. And the equipment company say, we don't see that in our data.

I'm like, well, fuck, man, that's a pretty hard spot to be as a casual golf fan who's just kind of trying to get excited about who's going to win on Sunday. I'm like, I don't really know what my place is in that other than to say everything he just said, please sign me up. That sounds great. And it's up to people smarter than us and way higher up to us to figure out how to write the rules to put that into effect. Right.

Yeah, that's where I'm like on. I don't want a bad rule. It creates unintended consequences. But I sense a bit of just more about Ridley, like maybe in patience. I mean, so very direct, much more direct this year than in years past on like, guys, we got a failure is not an option, Randy. Okay. We got to get this done. And that's, you know, hell yeah, I'm pound the table.

I'm with you. How can I help? Sort of a, kind of a Don Ray Eminem type of quote there as well. I believe Eminem said that as well. For sure. Success is my motherfucking option. Failure's not. So, yeah, I don't know if maybe that's what he was referencing there.

But should we keep moving? Otherwise, we're going to talk distance for another 45 minutes. Randy, I think you're going to dig this next one. Let me set up this. Let me set up this quote. So he was asked, I apologize. I don't remember the media member that asked him, but it was an interesting question about,

I said it was interesting, about the NFL and I believe their relationship with SkyDance and how they're they're starting to greenlight and fund and support more like scripted football content allegedly is what this question was was leaning towards. I don't know if that's true or not, but basically saying the NFL is going to bankroll like a Hallmark movie that's supposedly about football

and more scripted content that's about football. And he was basically said, yeah, I wonder what his answer is going to be to this question. and he basically was saying like do you think you know would would augusta ever think about something in that way you know more you guys are always trying to get grow the game would you ever be thinking about lending your your marks and your course and all of these things to more like non-traditional even scripted type of content this is what uh do you want to talk about a drive by a don ray this is here's a drive-by coming at you we need i think that your question really is you know points out sort of the balance and I've referred to the tension in the past between respecting tradition and innovating, or in our nomenclature, continuous improvement. So I think we do need to be looking at sort of non-traditional ways of promoting the tournament, but more so promoting golf.

You know, a few years ago, we had the Duke Perfect, you know, playing Frisbee at Amen Corner. In retrospect, I like those guys, but that's a few years ago. That may not have been the best idea, but it does point out that we try, we try things every once in a while that are a little bit non-traditional. So, yeah, we'll continue to look at things. Not specifically, necessarily what you've referred to, but I think thematically, we're certainly willing to kind of look outside the box every once in a while. Well, I might my follow would be like, why was that a bad idea? I mean, get numbbies. Cut to the dudes.

What the fuck, man? Did numb these. I don't know. I'd love to double click on that one, Dee. I got to imagine the dudes are at. You can see Fred double clutch like should I mention the dude should I mention that? Yeah, what the hell?

You know what I'm feeling myself? Why not? Yeah. Yeah, just a, I don't know. Again, agree with everything he said. You know, sounds great. I don't know. I don't get too hot and bothered about the dude perfect thing.

I mean, it was out of the box. Sure. They did what? I mean, there was like a whole spectrum of things they could have done in between the, frisbee golf and baseball bats and you know to god ready you know i i love him dropping a continuous improvement that's the kind of jargon i'm looking for you know in our parlance that's continuous improvement i think that was just like that was a whole just level level set like up way too much

continuing to improve there yeah i thought you guys would i thought you guys would like that one uh well listen let's take our cues from him let's focus on the golf should we let's focus on what makes this tournament this tournament. How about some just real golfy golf talk for you here? Give me some shot values, Cody. I don't have the exact statistics in front of me, but the

scoring average, the number of birdies and eagles has not materially changed. What has changed is the way the holes play today and I think the excitement of the hole. For example, before we added the

the yardage to 13, only about 60% of the field hit drivers. Now it's 90%. We had an interesting statistic, I do remember, from the first year that we had the added length, and that is we actually had more players going for the green than in the previous year. And when you looked at the scatter chart of where the shots were, a number of players that were hit down the center of the fairway or perhaps a little right center in the prior year had gone up into the trees and there was no opportunity to go for the green.

The first year we added the distance, those same drives stayed back in the fairway and allowed the player a decision, Bobby Jones called it a momentous decision, and so whether or not they wanted to go for the green. So we had players hitting 240, 250-yard shots into the green, which I think is pretty exciting. So I think the hole is now playing more like it was designed to play. Sure, there are going to be some middle and even, probably not short iron. but there'll be some middle irons played to that hole but it's not that's not an easy shot in of itself but they're going to be more longer irons and even some fairway metals that are played and i think that's the way we want the hole to play some good stuff there i hadn't really

considered that idea that like actually just adding more length is going to keep balls in the fairway that's uh it's maybe obvious when you think about how that kind of pinches in with the with the pine straw there but uh adding length to give guys more of an opportunity to go is either a really good spin or that's just a very good point i'll let you guys draw your own conclusions on which one yeah i i think some of the soul of that hole is is gone with the new tea and i i guess i don't love as much as what he's describing there i don't love that it's like it just hit a straight ball now hit a straight drive like there is no necessary artistry around the corner there's no like that you know the scale like what made that shot interesting was the temptation of trying to really

wrap one around there. And the effect of not getting it curving enough and getting up into that pine straw and creating all that uncertainty up there was a cool twist to the hole. Now, what was not great of a twist was when technology made a lot easier to get around the corner and guys were hitting eight irons in or in Bubba's case hitting wedge in. So I would still prefer a world where you were up closer and the technology didn't let you just cheat the corner and get around it a lot easier. Like that going back and watching all the old masters, like watching that hole, it was, it was the greatest golf, like one of the greatest golf holes in the world. Maybe the greatest golf hole in the United States.

I put the roll hole up there, but like the, the credit card nature of the hole in Neal's nomenclature of watching Bernard Longer hug that in 1993 and hit it that bottom left spot with the best angle to go up that, you know, hit the best tee shot you could have and his approach was from the best angle in the

flatest lie, hits it right on the green on the way to winning in 1993. Go to Nick Fowdo. He did not cut the corner far enough. He's up on the hill. He takes three and a half minutes to hit a shot, pulls a four-wit out, ultimately hits a two-iron, just a momentous, the Bobby Jones momentous decision existed right there. He did not, you know, he was laid on the credit card payment. He didn't take the risk off the T.R. Had to take it with the shot above his feet. On to the green is a huge moment in 1996. All that stuff I just described as gone by the, by the technology of the

of it. But I think going back, totally gone, diminished. Diminished. Diminished. I don't want to over, don't get too hyperbolic on me. Well, it's still a good golf hole. But. But to my point is, if you hit it to where Fowdo did now, there's no decision whether or not to go for it. Like, you're going to go just like because a 220 shot is a go every time for pros now. Back then, the scale of the whole fit to the point where it was up, it was not a guarantee that he was going to go from that spot. So it, you change the game, the scale of which the game has played has changed a lot.

The decisions that need to be made that make golf really interesting, that make the suspense of moments interesting has been diminished greatly from that. So I don't know. I'm mixed on Ridley's comments on that one. Sorry. No, it's interesting. Rainy, I'm curious what you think.

Because if I'm hearing what you're saying, I'm hearing what he's saying, ideally you would have it on both, right? You'd have some drama on the T shot. Can you play close to the hazard? Can you wrap it around the corner? Can you do all those things? And you'd have the drama on the second shot.

But it's almost like what he's saying is like we seemingly kind of got a pick. And it's like, well, where would you rather see the consequential shot if you can only have one? and in my head it's the second shot, which I think is what he's saying. Randy, what do you think? Yeah, I think that's right. I think it's an interesting thought.

I'm trying to process here in real time a little bit, but I think for me, the 13th hole that kind of moved from where birdie is good and eagle is exceptional to almost like where if you're not making birdie, it kind of feels like you're almost you know birdie almost felt like parr and eagle felt like birdie and so i do support anything to kind of get back to three especially being exceptional and making guys work a little bit more for birdie um yeah i i guess more than anything it's like

i think i'm going to pay attention now more to 13 after hearing these comments i'm really curious the next four days to kind of just look and and it's almost a discussion maybe for Sunday. Yeah. Uh, protect par, Dej. That's right. Quick, quick story on 13 today. Scotty, his tea shot was like kind of down low left, but he didn't get, uh, I don't know what he hit off the tea, but didn't get it all the way around the corner. And he went and laid one up. And then he dropped another ball and tried to hit a cut through the trees. Like he tried to go the left of the trees that were, uh, in the corner there,

just like messed around. I think he was just doing it for fun. And he was just doing it for fun. but the trees have been so diminished down the left. He saw something through the trees left of the one that protected the dog leg on the farthest spot. He hit it right off a tree and lost the ball. It was disastrous shot. But he did see it.

He did try it with a second ball in a practice round. I doubt we're going to see that of the Masters, but that was a fun note from today. Randy, update your feed that into your LLM as necessary. All right, last thing. Fifth moment from the presser here from Ridley. lot of a couple different questions about the relationships broadly between augusta and the pga

tour you heard uh brian roap kind of softly uh mentioned this during his press conference at the players championship you know i'm paraphrasing my word's not his but essentially pro golf is pro golf i e the pj tour is what makes a lot of these majors possible and uh let let's explore that over the next year or two and and so uh really was asked kind of broadly about those those those relationships. As it relates to your question, I think it's important to note that there are a number of golf organizations, including ours, that makes the journey to the PGA tour possible. There are a number of grassroots organizations. I won't name them all. I think you know, what they are. You know, I think about the field this year, and I don't know the

exact numbers, but I suspect that quite a few are alumni of the American Junior Golf Association. Certainly, our collegiate system is the most direct pathway to the PGA Tour and provides the PGA Tour with the best trained and best prepared players. So I think I understand Brian's comment, I suppose, or his perspective, but I think we need to really look at the entire ecosystem to get a full perspective of that issue. And I also think it points out that when we talk about collaboration, that what we should be talking about and what I'm talking about is collaboration to elevate the game of golf.

I think that's where we're all going to be successful. Got to hear a little more on this one. That feels like invoking the AJGA feels maybe a little convenient to, you know, try to dodge some sort of like, you know, rental fee from the PJ tour for their players. but broadly, I think I see what he said. As he would say, I suppose I understand his question. I suppose I understand. Yeah.

He did mention that him and Roelap had gotten together, I think either at Augusta or at the players or somewhere for a big full day or half day of just talking, and that that was very productive. So kind of more to come, watch this space sort of situation, but it feels like maybe the, I don't know how interested the PJ tour is going to be in lifting up the game of golf.

particularly in comparison to the rest of the governing bodies who's kind of mandate that that tends to be. A little up shareholder value. Yeah. A little bit more. At least, I don't know what the answers to all these questions are, but I'm curious how you guys feel about this sitting here.

But like between Juan, Ridley and Rollap, don't you at least still feel like, all right, you guys, I trust you guys, I don't have the answer right here for a lot of these questions. I kind of trust you guys to figure it out.

Like, I don't know who I'm nominating up into a lot of those spots. you know, above those three in particular to figure it out. It's worth noting two years ago I felt like there was just a vacuum of leadership in just golf. And now I feel like, I'm like, okay, there's some adults in the room. All these clips from Ridley, some of, I agree with some of the clips more than others. But it's like all feels authentic and he's speaking his mind, which I appreciate it. It feels less political and less scripted than it has in years past, which I'm like, okay, good, man.

Like, it feels very candid, and I appreciate that. And I like them kind of using the press a little bit to, to further their, their agendas a little. For sure. You guys, I mean, you guys know this. You guys are all about that. You guys are always covered this. It's great. Neil, real quick, Ridley, Juan and Rollap.

Dudes or not dudes? Great question. I would say Juan, Juan's a proven dude. I feel like he's got a track record as a dude. Rollap feels like a dude, but I need to see more. I'm not as bought in. I wasn't, I wasn't inside the moat.

These guys were just lapping up Rolap stuff last month. I was like, I'm just not sure yet. Okay. He feels like he has dude traits, Randy. And then yeah,

Ridley's been a dude for sure. I think he's, I think he's almost growing into like veteran dude stuff, though. Like he feels like he's, he's almost like getting pushed by these other two, it feels like, because this just feels a lot more assertive than this press conference did last year or years past.

Do you guys feel that way? Well, I think some of the, like, I think a lot of this stuff starting to come to a head. That's probably why, right? It's like the rollback stuff. I mean, we, right after the presser at the players, like, didn't he head into the role, like the rollback meeting with all the other members of the governing bodies and all that stuff? I mean, they're talking about a lot of this stuff in pretty real terms, I think now, which is where, again, longer conversation, probably not for Masters week.

but the more I hear how authoritative and I don't, you can say, you can believe or not believe that Augusta has the best interest of the game of golf in mind. I know that feels a little bit naive, but I do think they have it more than the PJ Tour. And particularly the people in the strategic sports group, I just don't think they give a fuck about the shot values on Augusta National 13th pole.

You know, I think that, which they shouldn't, right? that's not their job, but it is the job of the USGA and the RNA and Augusta National to an extent and PGA of America and these other governing bodies. So I hope it, I don't know, I hope it stays in balance and I think what's going to help it stay in balance is someone very smart and eloquent, like Fred Ridley, to having press conference like this, at least helps. You know, who knows what goes on behind the scenes, but I think at least, I didn't see a lot of people that were just like, man, this guy's so out of touch. He doesn't get it at all today. I think, It's pretty much like, yeah, I don't know who's not down with what this guy's saying here.

I do think this thing is not going to be resolved via the press, though. You know, it is like the next part's about the science, and that's the part that I feel very blind to. And I don't feel comfortable like weighing. I don't know how to answer the question. But like, there's also a world where this path ends in a bad result. And I don't. I'm curious, what would a bad result entail? A bad result would be like the ball doesn't go as far.

but the importance of distance and like the punishment of the new ball is like only going to reward chasing speed more like distance is still relative right so if you take a long drive from 3.30 and make it 315 like it that only that only is only going to affect the competition you know it's going to maybe potentially bring some more bunkers into play but overall it's all going to be relative and if like the punishment is only is higher for the shorter guys than it is the longer guys and what we're hearing about spin and the effects of spin and how that's not captured the test and all that can lead to a world where like the pursuit of distance is just going to get higher and higher and that i think is it's already trending in a very tough direction the speed is

increasing by a mile an hour every single year if that is further incentivized that's a bad result even if the ball's not going as far you haven't really addressed like the risk profile of hitting the ball far that i think is way more important yeah uh so i agree with that big yeah Yeah, yeah. And I wasn't, I didn't have a got you there. I was legitimately curious. Yeah. That makes sense. Well, speaking of science, Sally, let's get back to the beluga's big board. Of course. Oh, I thought you're going to say speaking of smart and eloquent. Let's get back. For sure. Thanks, Randy. Yeah. That means a lot to me. All right. Let's go.

We did number 70, I think, was Sergio. Yeah. We're going to hit 69. We're right. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. driving in 2026. I just don't think he's going to be much of a factor this year. Tom McKibbin at 68, first master's jitter. Randy, we know how those jitters can get you on the first tee. Now driving Tom McKibben. 67, Kurt Kittiyama. No data here.

Just don't feel like he's going to play well. Stop feeling it, man. Brian Harmon at 66, only made three of seven cuts at the Masters, which was an interesting stat for me. Kind of a home, a bit of a home game for the Georgia boy. And a lefty. And a lefty. So that was interesting.

But I'm going with history here, big. 65, Dustin Johnson. I think he misses the cut against. I'm on the range. He's hanging out with Claude. Butch and Claude were holding court out on the range with DJ today. Just doesn't seem like he's super interested. 64, the Forgotten Man, Sung J.M.

He will likely burn me this week because he's my calling, Randy. When I pick him, he plays horrible. When I don't pick him, he plays well. And then we've got 63 Ethan Fang, the AM winner. Seems like he has plenty of game. Randy, you got anything on the AM? You know, this was the hardest AM to get anything interesting about. Of course, started his career at Cal is now at Oklahoma State. I guess the one interesting thing I did find, and I can't confirm whether it's true,

but I'm led to believe it is. When he went over and then won the AM, that was his first trip across the Atlantic, first time kind of playing. Dean is golf. So it makes it, I guess, impressive. Just for the historical record's sake, there was a 0.0% chance there were going to be no typos on the

Belugia's big one. It is F-A-N-G spells. I was going to say. I might have been, it's hard to find some info on this guy. Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay. It's okay.

Surprise me off to the 60s before. It's okay. Again, I didn't know we were going to put the full graphic up. Cody, God damn. No, I'm just kidding. That's on me. I got to edit myself here. It's fine.

You just got to wear this for the remainder of this. like that. So now driving. All right. Where are we? I lost my spot. Ball nor no back. No back.

I hate doing this. But you're a hater. You have to. No, but based on our interview with him at Pebble, he seems like he's going to be really nervous for his first master start. And I'm just, I'm nervous for him.

So I got him at 62. And Cam Smith at 61 doesn't seem to care. Exclamation point. There was a, there was quite a, just a linear graph. I haven't seen anything quite like it. Cam Smith's iron play since he won the open in, what was that, 22?

Just if you look at like his iron play since then, it is just a, just a straight line down. It is, it's not. I would have to right after he won the other. Right. Yeah. I do want to know it. I almost, it's like, he seems happy, though. Totally.

Like, if he doesn't care, I was like, I support that. Like, I don't, I don't mean that to be a diste came. But, or Cam Smith, I just don't think he's going to, I just don't think he cares. I'll say this, hearing about how. crispy and awesome the setup could be this week. It's a shame we're not getting the Kansmith of five years ago who has one of like the dirtiest

little short games in the world. So I guess from that standpoint, maybe we're all robbed a little bit. But yeah, if my man's cash and checks and living the good life, like, so be it. I think Cam Smith is sleeping just fine at night.

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And this lagoon pillow is good. So, Neil, take us to, take us to number 51 real quick. You mean, 51, 60 to 51. Okay, all right. I was going to say, I'm on 60. I got Gary Woodland at 60. I think he struggles around the green a little bit. And I think we talked about it on Monday.

That's a factor out here. I know you said he was hitting the ball guy. I wish I had that intel yesterday. I wish you had a whole day together. But if he can't chip, it doesn't matter. I already locked in the big board this morning for graphics. But he also seems to be probably on cruise control, man. He's in honeymoon phase.

Like, what a big, you know, big win a couple weeks ago. So I got him at 60. I got 59 Sammy Valamaki, decent ball striker, which struggles around the greens. Charles Schwartzwell, 58, 57, Rasmus, near guard Peterson. 56. Kagan Bradley, still devastated by the Rider Cup, of course. 55, Nico Etchavaria.

That's a typo. I just have Chavaria there. That's on me. It's going to happen. Also struggles a bit around the greens. 54. Bobba Watson always seems to play. well here, but I believe he missed the cut last year.

I don't know. He finished like T-14 last year. Yeah. Oh, no, that's in my notes. That was, I think, maybe his only good finish in a while. Yeah. And he seems to be just like marooned over on live, not playing well week to week. So, 53.

Randy, I struggled with this one. I got Matt McCarty, sneaky Matt McCarty, as you called him on Monday. I had a great finish here. Last year, good course fit. I just, yeah, for some reason, I decided to put him at 53. I think, I think, Neil, I think Matt McCarty or Max Homa, I view them very similarly this week in that they both played well here last year. I've not been playing particularly good golf out on tour. I think one of them has a pretty decent week this week. And I'm not sure which one.

You be the judge. Yeah, we'll have to wait and see, Randy. 52, I got Rasmus Hoygard. It's kind of just been bobbing along. Nikolize's doing all the heavy lifting of late. their data golf profiles for these two are just they're almost identical with one being a little better approach play and one a little better putting but like they're just it's it's almost like a they're twins to be twins wild it might be twins uh it's crazy uh and then 51 harris english his putting stats i was digging in on on uh h e putting stats have kept him relevant uh with he's kind of just in the top 20 it's weird so he's he's relevant but he's just like playing that good B-29 like every week.

Yeah. So I feel like, you know, I struggled putting them here, but I just don't think the ball striking's there. So I got my 51. I feel good about that one. He's not flushing it. He's not. Randy reports out of Sea Island.

He's not flushing it. Wow. All right. Well, before we get to the top 50, we got a lot of videos today, a lot of assets, a lot of media. I thought you guys would get a kick out of this. Our good friend Justin Ray,

I was sitting at the coffee shop, doing my pre-work, checking my notes. Always reading Justin Ray over at the athletic, wherever he's being published. And I had a bunch of stats. I was like, well, I don't feel right just reading these stats. I texted Jay Ray, see if he could just go right,

if we could just go right to the source, get some real good stats from him. What's the best stuff you got? proprietary stuff. And he sent me this. Happy Masters Week, y'all. This is Justin Ray. I'm in the CBS TV production compound, getting ready for rehearsal leading up to tomorrow's opening round.

My friend DJ from No laying up asked me, to provide some of my favorite numbers and stats, most telling things heading into the Masters. Let's start with Approach play. Since 2015, winners at the Masters get 38% of their strokes gain total from approach shots. That's higher than the PGA Tour average, but compare it to the other three major championships as well since 2022. That number's about 28%. So about an 8% uptick in terms of the significance of Strokes gained approach. If you look back at the last seven Masters champions, six have ranked in the top six that week. in strokes gained approach. I'd like to call it the second shoddiest second shot

golf course that we have amongst the majors. So I'm talking about keeping your card clean as well. This is kind of an obvious one, but short game is important at Augusta National. The last five winners have scrambled of a rate of 71%. It's a really high number. Strokes gained around the green, I would say, is the second most important data point for players entering this week because everybody is going to miss greens and regulation. It becomes a little bit more important. I wrote an article for Golf Magazine came out a few days ago about some of the advantages left-handed players empirically have at Augustin National. Now, certain holes, especially the 13th, have favored the stock T-shot of a modern player.

It turns out since 2015, left-handed players hit the fairway at 13, 11% more than their counterparts who hit it right-handed. And that's parlayed into almost an 11% higher rate of birdies or better for left-handed. of players at 13. So any of those right to left tee shots you see throughout the week, keep in mind that there's going to be a little bit of an advantage there for lefties. Experience really important at the Masters. The average winner has made six and a half starts going into the Masters in their career when they've won. Of course, we've had so many experienced winners recently. Tiger obviously in 19, Rory last year, finally breaking through Sergio Garcia in 2017. But there's no.

golf course in championship golf that favors previous reps, I'll say, than Augusta Ashford does. So lean towards the veterans. Obviously we haven't had a first-timer win since Fuzzy in 79. We've got a couple contenders since then. Lubbigh Oberg in his debut a couple years ago comes first to mind Jason Day when he made his debut. But we haven't. Experience is extremely important on this golf course. Probably forgot a couple. I'm trying to kind of freestyle this thing. But those are the first ones that pop into my head that I've said about 300 times. It feels like over the last few days.

I appreciate this opportunity, DJ, to speak to the people ahead of the season's first major championships. Follow along all week at the athletic and at Justin Ray Golf. Enjoy the Masters, y'all. There we go. One of my favorite people in golf, Justin Ray. The Baluga's been fishing in some of these ponds. I love it. I wanted to sprinkle this right in the middle so we could kind of see how you've done

and we'll see how you're going to do going forward here. And of course, Randy, I do stray from my model sometimes if my gut tells me to. But you have to. You have to. Right. Yes. So we'll get there later. You're gut in your eyes.

You got to trust them. I really loved that lefties, 11% more fairways on 13 thing. I know it's a smaller sample size and yada. But it also includes like we're in past champs that aren't in great form. You know, like that's, that's, you know, I was thinking a smaller sample, but it's also got some noise in there of like some guys that aren't the top players in the world currently.

That's interesting. Especially with like the other thing you hear about Augusta, just at every turn is like it's basically only about the par fives. You know, it's like, can you just wreck the par fives? And it's like, well, there's one par five where you already have a, essentially a 10% you're going to make 10% more birdies just by being left handed. More to come on that.

And you know, lefties are 11% of the population, Dij. How about that? Is that right? Yeah. How about that? Wow. A lot of 11's going on.

Yeah. It's interesting. Whoa. Linger on that for a little while. Let's explore how that could be. Let's talk about this IBM vault, should we? Because you were pumped about this. So I got an opportunity this week to visit the Augustin National Data Center, which the journey to this place alone is worth the price of admission.

It wasn't until I got there that somebody pointed out. It's like, yeah, you go through a tunnel. There's a lot of tunnels here at Augusta National. A physical place. A physical place. Yes, this is a real place. we went under a tunnel and it wasn't until we got there that it was through a tunnel or under a tunnel both that we went under Washington Road like I didn't even realize that they built a tunnel

that goes across or under Washington Road never had to shut Washington Road down to build this tunnel to get to this I believe where Jay Ray sent that video in from they have all the broadcasting trucks and everything there and all the content work goes on over there it's a massive massive facility there's so many things that happen just outside the golf course that will just blow your mind about the scale of Augusta National. And just the journey there and getting to see this place physically in person was one of them. But two, we get there and we got, I got like a tour of from IBM on a ton of whole insight

stuff, a bunch of specific like mapping and showing of every shot that has been recorded over the last 10 years, every shot that's been hit at the Masters has been displayed right here that Cody's shown right here as well as messing around with the vault, the actual vault that is publicly available to everybody where you can go and search, you know, highlights and basically learning like, hey, you can like search for phrases of broadcasts and highlights will come up. Like if you type in, yes, sir, in the vault, like the clip shows up of, you know, of Jack, obviously in 20, in 1986 his putt. It also shows the Phil Mickelson putt, which I couldn't find the yes, sir part of it. But again, it goes to show, like you go mess around on this and you're going to have a lot

of fun clicking through a lot of highlights. We'll get to a little bit that later. But one of the things I got from the folks at IBM was a hole inside. So in particular whole inside. So the first thing they pull up was the ninth hole and just showed a graph of where T shots are going now versus they have over the last 10 years. And players are driving it 20 yards longer on the ninth hole than they were in 2016 compared to just 15 yards longer overall on the rest of the core. Scoring average on the ninth hole has dipped 0.17 shots due to,

I would assume, due to the factor of getting past the down slope down. down there and getting even farther down there, but 20 yards longer than just to 10 years ago on that hole alone. And then we were, I was really curious about digging in on some pin level data. I mean, what makes Augusta National really special are the quadrants of the greens, right? And the historic nature of a lot of these pins. We know what the ball is going to do with some of these pins. We know Randy hates the funnel pin on 16. Actually got a little worse.

Something to report there, Randy. It looks less funnily to me with the resurfacing of it. We can talk about that later. But one thing I think that is interesting and underappreciated from Rory's final round last year was the shot he hit into the back right pin on Sunday and how changing that pin on Sunday had a, you know, it didn't directly affect the outcome of the championship. But the risk he took to get it on that back plateau, what felt big in the moment. And I went digging on this to say it is the average score from the bottom of the slope. So like the safe shot in the, you know, if you hit the slope and it funnels down to the bottom, the average score from down there to the back right pin is three. And from the back right bunker, it's 3.63.

So there's a 47% chance of making par from the back right bunker versus 80% if you play out to the safe part of the green. And he took on that risk to hit a back. He missed the put, but he took on that risk with a less than full shot with an eight iron to get it on that back right part. Maybe we would be talking about that differently if he had he made the putt, but he executed the shot. And like that speaks to the risk that he took on in that moment. He makes bogey, hits in that backbunker makes bogey. He's probably, you know, if it played up, if the 17 and 18 played out the way they did,

he would not have been in the playoff and would have not won the Masters. So team roses. Green Jackson. And again, I am going to, I'm going to wrap this up the whole stuff after this next hole, which is the third hole, but I could do this for all 18 holes. I would challenge them on that.

Send me all you can on this because I, I was curious what the effect is on the front left pin on the third hole, right? You think about Sunday setups and you think like, all right, set up for birdies, you know, go out and get it. but it is indeed the hardest pin on the third green, the front left one. Bogey percentage is 21.6% to that pin versus just 12.1% to the middle back pin.

And I was thinking about that. I think that 12.1% includes the whole field from the earlier rounds. Usually they put it back there in one of the earlier rounds. So it has a big effect. So scoring average goes from 3.91 to that back pin to 4.14 to the front left pin. And the birdie percentage gets cut in half for that traditional Sunday hole location. So birdies, if we see some birdies, on Sunday on the third hole.

That's earned. Like that is an earned birdie and that is the hardest one to get. Which is where Rory, you know, right of the ship last year too. Exactly. Exactly. So all kinds of fun stuff on, you know, they have all of this data and information,

which is just not exist for any other tournament about what, you know, balls are here in two shots on two. This is the average score from here on this golf hall. And this is exactly how many shots have been hit from this region and, you know, what the effects are to each and every pin. And it's just amazing. So. But does the PGA tour have?

this with Shotlink? They have they have uh, I don't know if they aggregate it in this way and present it in any way. And they I know ZAN so what's what's interesting was this next part is the ability to look at all of the shots from the last 10 years and toggle it. They have a little dial

in there. It's a massive big curve screen and that presents all this information. The graphic Cody showed there of all of the shots is like interactive map in there and you can go and toggle it. I know Zander went and did this and I was literally telling every caddy that I talked to that has a player that has played in the Masters a lot,

you should go look and visualize this. Like I'm sure you could say like, yeah, we've struggled with 15 in the past because we struggled with that fairway, but to see the actual shots and like the takeaways I've had on just a few players on where they're messing up and where they're gaining shots, it was kind of mind-boggling. Like I tease this with some of you guys, but it only has the last 10 years.

So it doesn't have going back to 2011 when he made a mess on this whole. but Roy McElroy playing the 12th hole at Augusta National. How many times you think he's made bogey or worse in the last 10 years, which would be like 38 or so rounds? I know he missed the cut at least once, but how many times do you think he's made bogey on that hole or worse? Four. About a quarter.

I would say nine. Two times. He's never been in the water in that time period. He bogeed it in round three in 2022 and round two in 2017. He's never been in the back bunkers there anytime. in the last 10 years. In fact, he, Rom and Bryson

had never been in the back bunker on that hole in any time in the last 10 years. So impressive. I know, right? So impressive. Then you toggle it over to Speeth playing the 12th hole and it told a very, very, very different story,

not just from the year that we remembered. But, and then you toggle over to Speeth and you look and it's like, man, it turned blue on four and five pretty quickly. Like Jordan Speed struggles, blue is bogeys or worse. Jordan Speed struggles on that part of the problem. He struggles on four and five, struggles on 11 and 12.

His success is pretty obvious on a lot of holes. Like he made more doubles on five and 18 than anywhere else, but plays two, three, eight, and 14 really well. Like the easier holes out there, he cleans up on those holes. And in fact, Jordan has gained strokes on every single hole at Augusta National on the field except for the 12th hole. And then like, all you do is flip over, be like, all right, this is speeds. Now let's see ROM.

And you flip over to ROM and you watch five, like turn white. like ROM pars the shit out of number five it's incredible and just like to compare those two and like you have enough data in there of how many times these guys have played it to see like very obvious trends uh in that one and um i can keep going with more takeaways if how about speed just not being an iron man just going after the easy holes i hate i know or 511 to 12 yeah that's like the the the gauntlet just can't can't handle them i hate that for your boy randy i could have used you going to the data center maybe a week or two ago, I think it would have

helped me a lot. But again, he's the hole he's gained the most strokes on the field on is number 10. That is the best hole he's played for Augustine National. For speed, yes, for speed. He has a 3.89 scoring average on the 10th hole. He averages gaining 3 tenths of a shot on the field. In total, he's gained

13.26 shots on the field playing the 10th hole specifically. 10, 18, 11, 2 are the holes he's gained the most on. So, like, it's not, you would think some of these would be really obvious. I'll get to Bryson here in a second about how it's kind of surprising what holes he

struggles with and what he's done well. But of course had some phone with Scotty as well, has not bogeyed the second or the eighth holes. If I had this right, ever in the Masters, neither of those front nine par fives, he's as he ever bogeed, which I know they're easier holes, but that was the only guy I saw something like that stick out on.

And only made one bogey on 13 ever and one bogey on 16. So that's four holes that all the masters that he's played. I guess I forget what his first one was. He has only made two bogeys total on all of those holes. But he has made a bunch of bogeys on 12 and struggles on 7 and 17 for whatever reason. And the 18th hole is clearly like his worst hole. I mean, we remember the four putt in 2022.

We remember him hitting it over there on that Saturday. Like there's just a lot of blue showing up on that one. But also struggles on the 15th T shot. Like he is, you know, that's an uncomfortably straight shot at Augusta. And you see balls go left and right for him off that T. And that is not one of one of his best holes. Gosh. This is.

Give me some, give me some Bryson deeds. Yeah. So Bryson, again, you would think like, all right, Bryson, long hitter. He's got to be one of the guys that takes advantage of the par fives. And he actually, like his worst holes, though, he, again, I said, Spieth only loses strokes to the field on. one hole. Bryson loses strokes to the field on six different

holes at Augusta. 15, 13, 4, 12, 10, and 3. So three of those holes in there are the, in the par 67 part, like the even referring to the par 5s. Sorry, say that one more time, 15, 13. His worst hole is 3. His second worst is 10. His next worst is 12,

then 4, then 13. And the 32 times he's played them. those, he's losing strokes on, on all of those holes, all the way up to, all the way up to 15. His best holes are actually 16, 18, 11, 9, and 14, which again is just like kind of opposite. Then you go to Scotty, like, what do you think Scotty's best actual holes he's gaining the most on 14, 2, 15, 13, 8, like pretty obvious ones. So I feel like you could view this as an anti-Bricon sort of take, but I don't think it is. I think it's a pro-Bricon take in that like he's obviously going to flip that.

round. That's what I was going to say. Continuous Improvement. Shout out to Ridley. I feel like I would love to see the stat on how how does that change the last two years? How was that change exactly the last three or four years, I'd say. I'll look into that for you. Okay. Get back to give you, give it their team and let it back to your call on this sake. But thank you. Thank you for your question there.

I've got a quant now. God, I love it. This is great stuff. Yeah. I mean, what other place, though, could you actually like dig in in this be super, super super interesting. I mean, it's interesting to me. I hope other people find it interesting as well. But the holes that tell the story for guys' success, I could keep going on that, man. It really is something I find endlessly interesting.

I need to do a little social post this week about that, rounding up some more of your favorite little nuggies. Lastly, if you haven't messed around with the vault, I would highly encourage people to go do that and just mess around with it. A good time killer if you're at work in the next couple days. You just keep going. You really do just keep going.

If I can shout out one thing in particular, uh, 1885 final round. If you can search for Curtis Strange, uh, on the ninth hole, uh, there's just a,

there's just, you got to go see it. You got to go see it. There's a guy in a John 316 shirt, uh, with a huge repent hat on that is like boxes a lady out to make sure he stays in the camera shot. I just got a huge laugh out of that one.

That's kind of what I was, look. I got into just looking up, uh, 16th T shot and just over the last, 10 years. Your woman in the back. Yeah. See, the lady with the dangly earrings, the guy with the

the tiger shirt. I mean, there's just Michael Phelps was back. Michael Phelps. Just a lot of thirst behind 16 teams. It seems like they've cracked down. They've shrunk the camera angle as years have gone on. I think that's been addressed a little bit, but that's a fun to see how things progress

with the broadcast. I had one. I was digging in there earlier today looking for some fun stuff. I sent this to Cody that I was like, I don't know. It's just like, oh, let's watch some collapses. Let's watch some like real just flames. And so I searched quadruple bogey. And this was the only thing that came up.

Oh, no. What is it? Oh, God. That's tough. Of course, George Speed 2016, T-Shout number 12. But, yeah.

It's disrespectful. Sorry, Randy. A couple other ones, Craig Sather's T-Shod on 18 in 1982 is from a really unique camera view, like kind of to the left of the T. And they really rushed into the shot that the production was a lot different back then. But you just see.

a persimmin-shaped shot around that corner from a really, really cool view. There's another one from the 10th hole from that a year. And I know it's a famous shot, but Nancy and Weiskoff in the booth in 1986 when Jack is teeing off on 16 is, well, I wish golf announcing could be like this. You know, Nancy comes in, it's his first masters and he says, if anyone has ever owned this hole, it would be Jack Nicholas. Tom Weiskoff, what is he, what's going through his head right now? What's he thinking about? Weiskoff says, if I knew the way he thought I would have won this tournament, he is going to fire this right at the pin.

He's going to think, Jack, this is my time right now. Make the swing that you are capable of making. Stay down, accelerate through the ball, make a good golf swing. Your destiny is right here. It is incredible. And if you listen back to that, there's somebody, I think, in the booth with them in the background, like a production guy, that freaks out in the background. Listen to the audio of that.

me, he goes, oh, geez. Like, it gets, it gets picked up on the mic after the ball almost goes in the hole. And it is just, it's epic, man. Yeah. That was beautiful, Todd. That's beautiful. Oh, gosh. That's great.

Well, yeah. Solly, that's, that's good stuff. Shout out to you. All right. Just so I'm clear, this is a mass, in the data center, there's a massive screen. Like that show devs where it's like this. Yeah. They take clients and stuff on tours in there and players can go.

can go look at and I and again I would if I was playing in the field I would want to go see the information of like the actual visualization of where your bogeys come from when you do make them where your birdies come from some of might be obvious but you there would be some trends you would absolutely see of how often you miss in certain places so it was really cool I would use this as a small chance to just point out how far behind and a lot of this is just it's fractured but man we need some better public golf public facing golf tech like this you You know, like I would love to mess around with this all day at my, at my desk. This sounds awesome. Good stuff. And these are the folks that are in charge of the app, like the master's app being the, you know, incredible thing that it is. Like, it's just a wildly impressive operation, like pretty much everything that goes on with Augusta.

So thank you for human me for that. Oh, I'm glad you had a good time. That sounds great. Thank you, solid. Neil, where are we at? Number 50? Yeah, we're at 50. I got Alex Noren.

He's playing pretty good coming off injury last. last year. But, you know, right in middle of the pack. I got Samuel Stevens. I think Sam definitely makes the cut. I think Samuel is on the cut line. Until we mess with names. 48. Jason Day.

I think he's worried about bird watching, you know, just a lot of going on around him this year with his outfits. And I've picked him as a, I've wanted Jason Day to win the Masters personally for like a decade. And I'm just kind of maybe waving the white flag here. He hasn't played that well this year. just don't see him being a threat this year. So I've heard him tossed around a little bit as a, you know, a sleeper pick.

I'm not buying that. Sam Burns at 47, T-46 cut, T-29 cut in the last four masters. He doesn't play well here, which is kind of surprising to me. Only thing I had on him was, you know, if it's getting... Overseed, though. If it's getting hard, if it's getting firm, play really good at the last two U.S. opens. That's the only counter I would have. I hate that, but you're right.

46. Ryan Gerard. Poor form the last month, even if he is one of the hottest players in the world. Great ball striker. One of the best ball strikers in the world of Meritus at this point. I think he's tossed in there. It's like a permanent title. He's got 10 years.

It's lower third. Former hottest player of the world. He's got like 10 year as a potential Fedora 5 member. I'm not buying it. 45. Benjamin E. Booms. We've talked about it. Form is just kind of meh in 2026.

44. I believe this is the flashy wide. boy. Marco Pange. I don't know why we call him the flashy wide boy. I don't know. T.C. I think keeps asking, like, he keeps saying it, like, wait for one of us to ask. Yeah, I just don't get that. But I'm, I'm the flashy wide boy. First Masters jitters, Randy.

I'm putting him at 44. 44. 43. Shane Lowry, Rether looks good. So we know he's not playing well because he is a mutter. Weather looks too good with a typo. Yeah, that's a typo. Whether looks too good. T-42, T-43, the last two years. Hashtag Fook this place. Another good, Shane Riot thing. He was going for the fuck this place.

Slamp. That's what I'm hoping for. The calendar year slam. It's good stuff. 42. Dege, this going to hurt you. Daniel Berger.

No, that's fine. Other than API, his results have stunk. He doesn't, he does not chip it well. That sticks out big time on his data, data golf scatter plot.

And he hasn't played any golf in like the last month. So I'm just not buying this one. You were, you were fluffing him on the Monday pot. I'm not buying it. It's an immense ball striker. You know, you can't get too lost.

in the data. It's not, you know. Ball striking plus, you got to get up and down. Sure. Not if you don't miss any greens. Uh, 41. Vijay Singh. Guys, I'm expected big things out of VJ. I saw the little, little like just tight. I saw him on the range. He's over on the far left side. He got his spot.

He loves the end. He's wearing trail running shoes. He's got a little white goatee. Yeah, Cody, I see a picture of this. Are you guys up on this? Randy, you see, are you, are you up on this, uh, this facial hair thing that No. No. You just got going on.

A little white. teeny goatee. It's so good. I'm in. You know what? The Champions Dinner picture, just speaking of that, like some guys have some massive dome pieces. Rob,

like the guys in the back row, Fowdo, Rob, just got big heads, man. I'd put VJ in that category, too. They're just units. But I'm really liking what his experimentation with the facial hair there. Cody suggested this as a,

whoever finishes last at our giraffe this week. Oh, God. As to support this. I probably just do this for fun. You'll could have that tub by the end of the weekend. If I win, I'll do it. I've gotten stuck just looking at it for like 20 minutes today. It's so sick.

It's really captivating stuff. Experimental stuff. Yeah. I love it. Do you think it's like shaped into a V or is it just like twisted up? He's definitely edging that thing. I mean, that's, that's serious. He's working on it.

It's good. I got it. Got to give it credit. It's not a blade of grass out of place there. That's right. The first cut. Second cut. VJ needs to release the mohites

of his, all of his facial hair. All right. That's 41. You want me to keep going? Yeah, keep going. We got 40.

Chris Godderup. Another sweetheart for people. First Masters, Randy, we know about the jitters. Oh, God, the jitters. I just think, I know he could be a potential dude.

I'm worried he's got the jitters. I can see him get in his hand in the cookie jar. You know, it feels a little, Godderup feels a little unstable to me sometimes. Just the way, way he swings it. It could get him into trouble around here. I'm kind of with you.

I don't know what we're going to see from him, but I 48 doesn't offend me. Okay. Ryan Fox, 39, I get no notes here. 38, Adam Scott, hitting it well, but missed the cut last year. I don't know if he's got, I got a lot of typos in this line, but I don't, I don't know. I did this one on the plane. 37, Seth Strachad, not a great record here.

Don't have any other notes for you. 36, Michael Kim hits a draw, which could bode well, you know, which you can't. an overdrawn out there. I wanted to put him higher because he's coming in after a T2 at Valero. Watched him hit a couple shots today. He looks comfortable. He looks relaxed. So, you know, wish we had that intel, but I got him at 36. Harry Hall, hell yeah. The true flashy Y boy, Dij. I love this. I think first master's jitters, but a respectable showing for Harry Hall out there. Can't Lay, joining Sung Jay in the

Forgotten Man territory for me. I don't think he's a factor this week. And then I got 33. I got Mason How is the low am. I'm buying a lot of Mason-How stock long-term. A lot. I really am. I think I played 18 holes with him like three weeks ago. I was just really impressed with his maturity, the way he hits the ball, his Walker Cup performance, the US AM stuff.

He just feels like he's ahead of schedule. Is he impervious to the first master's jitters, though? I, you know, I mean, I don't have them in the top 10, but I have them making the cut. I think 33, like this is a, you know, I'm, This is a giraffe play here, Randy. You got any notes on them? I do, Neil. Actually, great set up there.

As you know, a Georgia commit, Georgia boy. But when he was growing up, his family moved to Tallahassee to accommodate his sister, who was an elite swimmer. And so Mason actually played varsity golf at his school in Tallahassee as a sixth grader. I always get a kick out of that. The best. for Halloween at age four he dressed like Mr. Jones

County Crows and then this one Neil when he was 14 back at his home club in Georgia called Glenn Arvin which I don't know if you know of Glenn Arvin I do not Thomasville Georgia He's an honorary number there

He shot 59 as a 14 year old He's at the club records So he actually told me this story when we play He said that he was supposed to only play nine holes because they had a family dinner. And he made the turn at like, I think, 28 or 29. And I think the assistant pro came out and told his parents like, hey, he's going back out on the back night. Like he's got. It's going to ballistic, man.

It's going to vertical. Okay. So he's going to be late for dinner. Good scuba diving. There was a small crowd that gathered at the end of that round. And he actually made a 30 footer for Birdie on 18 to shoot. How about that? That's good stuff, big.

I like it. Moving down the list, we got Mab McNeilat 32. He's been playing really solid, but the results haven't been that good. I feel like he's been getting a lot of like, oh, look out for Mab. But it's just not, you know, we trust the process, but it's not showing yet. So I don't know if he's popping this week. It always, you know, it always looks good on the West Coast, right? We would love to venture.

I feel like same with Keith Mitchell a little bit is another guy where I'm like, oh, I see him on the leaderboard early in the week, early, the season and then he kind of tails off. So rooting for him though. 31, Hideki Matsuyama has been average the last three years out here. I just feel like he's been a little bit in these 20, 30 range this season.

So I've got him at 31 and I've got Nikolai Horyard at 30, but that's not on the screen. That's all right. Keep going. Let's take us to 21. All right. I'll move through here pretty fast. Nikolai, he's showed some good form. I got Brooks at 29. Good finish to players, but I don't think he's going to pop. I'm not, I'm not

selling all my Brooks stock, though. He seems like he's in a pretty good headspace. He's having great time at the par three today, Randy. But I don't think this is the week. We're going to get a lot out of him. I got Max at 28. Desperately want to believe, Randy, desperately. But I don't think that I don't see it this week.

I mean, I would say if he finishes 28 this week, like that's a pretty good week for our guy. Yeah, I feel like that's a fair spot, right? He's good course for he played well here in the past, but there's no form to speak of. So top 12 or bust for Maxis. That's right. Let's see what else we got.

Victor Hovland seems to be playing well, but I don't know if we're getting like a Valspar situation where he just jumps out. I mean, he played well at players, but we hardly saw him on the coverage. So I don't really know. I got Carlos Ortiz at 26. I don't know why. 25, I got Siwu Kim. Feels like a good course fit. He was hot early in the season, but he's kind of cooled off.

I got Russ Henley. He's been just abysmal of majors, hasn't he? I feel like another one that I'm like, come on, man. Like, I really want to, I want to see it. The guy strikes the shit out of it. So, you know, you want to be like, based on the data, I want to say yes, but I can't. I got Russ Henley, missed the cut last year and last week. But I think, you know, he's a pro.

He's a pro. So I see a respectable top 25 in his future. This is going to hurt some feelings. I've got the great man, Justin Rose, at 23. I just don't, I'm not sure the great man has it in him this year. I got Min Wu Lee at 22, another kind of sweetheart pick for people. Do you see him more stable? But I see him cooking and doing the whole.

in the chat. I think we're flying really close to the sun on some of this content stuff. That's all I'm going to say. It's a future Ridley, the presser in 2020. Yeah, that may have been a mistake. Yeah, I don't know what I got I talked to somebody after that. We don't need our players cooking, but we get a third of it. Why don't we just

focus on the golf guys? We're just getting close to the sun. That's all of it's all I'm not saying anybody's doing anything wrong. I'm just, let's just watch it. And then I've got, I've got blow by Bridgman here at 21. First Masters jitters, Randy. We know about those. Okay.

And I just got the putting is unbelievable. You've got to think the putter is going to cool off. It's unbelievable how good that guy puts it. But listen, we heard from Justin Ray. We need more than that. Somewhat of a home game for him. Yeah, sure. I believe he's a Clemson kid, not too far.

I love what he's pretty good. I mean, now we're getting into like, you know, these are all good results. I haven't heard Speets name yet. Haven't. I haven't. Oh, that's great. All right.

We got to take a breather, let everybody catch their breath. I just wanted to cover down on any other any other notebook. items. Sali, this is kind of the first thing that I can't believe we're this deep into it. I got a report yesterday that you met one of my true idols. This is without hyperbole. DJ Kilmore from the band Incubis. You apparently met at Augusta National. Is that true? And did you know who he was? Are you an Incubis fan? This is a huge deal. I did not know who he was. A mutual friend of ours, our agent introduced me to him. And, you know, we're talking to him.

in. I could tell something was up. And we walked, as soon as we walked away, he's like, do you know that it was? I was like, I have absolutely no idea. It's like, that was the DJ Kilmore. He was like, that was wasted on you. Neil would have freaked out if he was here for that. I just can't tell you how much, how much my life has been dedicated.

I mean, DJ, our DJ has always been a bit, he's a DJ Kilmore guy. I've always been little Jose Paseas, the drama for Enki-Biss. If I saw him, I'd freak out. Yeah, I mean, but yeah, if I met Kilmore, I'm using her, you know, Brandon Boyd, of course. But, you know, he's too cool.

He's not going to be there. But that's a big deal. So I'm glad you, I'm glad, I mean, if you run into the rest of Incubis, you got to keep them, keep them there until I can get down to Augusta. Let you know. Anything else kind of going on in the notebook? A really random one. Have you said Casey Jarvis's name yet?

No. No. Oh, interesting. That's really interesting because today I saw him hit two balls in the water on 15. get him out now and then he hit someone over the green with his shot him to 16 and then he went to skip it and he missed the water and just airmailed the water over that so that was an immediate crossoff that was that was that was all yesterday that was today okay all right well are people still loving the skipping what's that are people still loving the skipping it's all anybody in the gallery talks about skip skip skip skip I'm serious Randy it's all that matters out there practice rounds. It's, it is like, you know, we, we watched it for a little while. Everybody harasses that, you know, you sco, boo, if you don't do it. We walk sort of walking away up

17 and everybody's talking about, what are they cheering about down there? Oh, the pros, they're skipping their ball across the green. It's all anybody cares about. Fun, harmless tradition. It is. Relax. I love it. I love it. That's the stuff I love. Start putting it on hats. Start making it big. I don't know. I don't hear anybody talking about the shot values in 13. That's what I do. How a show. shot values. That's a good, it's a good one. We need to make one of those.

God, I didn't, I didn't have too much other stuff in the, in the notebook here. We had, the Roy pencil drawing. Do you guys see this? Roy had this pencil drawing of the 18th green, the scene as he, as he won the Masters last year, commissioned. Pretty epic, pretty epic stuff. Took the artist six months, it sounds like to work on it. he got a bunch of prints for the Augusta members.

Very cool, cool gesture. I had Davis Riley, I was going to bring this up earlier, doing the logo during the par three contest. It's just not something. Back into the board. Yeah, it's just not something you want to be seeing. And then the last thing, I just don't think we've read this into the historical record yet. The Augusta Hooters is gone.

You know, that was an iconic, a tradition unlike any other, was John Daly pulling up in the RV, sign and stuff. and selling merch at the Hooters and the Hooters has been bulldozed. I think he's at the top golf now. I think Top Golf and then another restaurant, Top Dog, I believe. I've seen that sign out there. If you're looking. I did a little digging.

I forget if this was a maybe golf.com or golf digest or something. But his team claims he sold $780,000 in merch in 2024 at Bad Hooters. So maybe like a legit financial hole in the bucket for daily with that, hooters going under but just you know just just covering it down for what it's worth uh one other thing that uh i think's important that i met ray floyd uh in person and and spent some time talking with him he actually lives on a cruise ship now uh which is cruise of the world which is it's it's called the world like it's it's a it's a he has like a condo on a on a boat it's like it's something that you know uh you know wealthy people do like we live you cruise the world in like your own house

It's incredible. He just got back from Antarctica. He actually had to leave the Easter islands to make it to Augusta in time. And he's picking the boat back up like somewhere near Tahiti. And like that he did the Panama Canal. He's doing the Northwest Passage this year. Like the dude is absolutely living it up. And it's the 50th anniversary of his 1976 victory.

But I spent a little time with him yesterday. And that was I wanted to hear more and more stories about what he's at too. Solly was Ray. Morgan by that. I was a great floor. Oh, that's incredible. That's a good note. All right, Neil, what do we got?

We got 20 left? We got 20 left. Yeah. Let's take it up with... Let's take it to 11. Okay. We'll pick it up with Mr. 150.

Big Bob, the other flashy wide boy. Maybe not so much flashy, but the wide boy, big Bob. I think he's worn out after a big week in Texas. I got him at 20. I got Casey Jarvis at 19. No doubt he stays hot after an amazing tour of Africa. It is first master's jitters. We're going away from our models on that one.

I got Matt Fitzpatrick at 18. I think it's a respectable top 20, but I'm not on the Fitzpatrick train here. I do need to mention this. My wife, Hannah, is adamant. I've never been seen her so adamant about anything that he's going to win the Masters this year. So you can get that on the record.

I love the factor that into the big boy. That's a bit of a draft. I wish you would have told me that. I'm sticking my neck out on that one because I know he's a he's a favorite he's going to play so good I think this week okay I got 17 it's going to hurt some feelings I've got ludwig at 17 I think it's a respectable showing but I don't think he lives up to the hype this year that doesn't mean he's not going to have success here in the future but I don't think it's going to be this year I've got colin morikawa at 16 Mr. Big is fading him I'm going with a reverse Kramer here I'm buying baby okay if Randy's selling I'm buying morikawa It hasn't failed the last three years. We just need him to play. That's going to be big. Yeah.

And it sounds like he was, you know, making swings. Yeah, Paul, how do you say his last name, Hedonowitz? Houdonika. Houdwanick. I was super close. How come I get shelled for? That's a tough for, yeah, a lot of them are tough.

I panic on that one. He was reporting that he was only around 174 ball speed, I think, on the range. But he's already, he already kind of puts it. But a little down from his max, is like, normal-ish speed. I mean, that could mean, that could mean, It's a sample size from the driving range, but it doesn't seem like it is completely gone. Fair enough.

Moving on, we've got Teryl Hatton, Lowell Teryl Hatton. Another good finish of Augusta. I see, no one's talking about Teryl. First time I'm hearing his name. I think he was,

I was thinking about putting him a little higher, but I haven't really seen much from him on Live lately. Tommy Fleetwood at 14 finishes just outside the top 10 with the final round 65 this year. J.J. Spawn. 13. We'll continue to stunt on Sali. His ball striking looks fantastic this season's fun. And he seems to have found

something with the putter after last week. I think Justin Thomas is going to play well this week. I have him at 12. No one's talking about him. You said he had a... Somebody told me he had a bad attitude out there today. I hated hearing that, but I'm expecting some good stuff out of Justin Thomas. He made an ace in the Part 3 contest. Does that affect

your rankings? I like that. That's good beta. Thank you for sharing. Sure. We've got... We know that. At 11, I've got Corey Connors. I had him. I think I moved somebody up. He was supposed to be 10,

but I think I made some changes. I said it looks like a very non-competitive top 10, but it will be an 11th place finish for Connors is here. Oh, good stuff. Should we do who will not win before we get to the top 10? Well, I think we should do our winners. Tell me, is this Neil going to unveil his winner live on the, I can take you right into the winner stuff.

Is number one your pick to win? Yes. Okay. Then let's do, let's do who will not win. Let's go around the one here. And do who will not win. Cody, is that all right? Is our who will not win separate from our who will win?

Or do we got to do them with both at the same time? No, you're fine. You can fire away. All right, let's do who will not win. Randy, who is not going to win the Masters tournament in 2026? I mean, so many people, 90 people. It's like, where do you even start? Cody, I kind of forget who I sent you, but I mean, I can just name Rom, Bryson, Ludwig, Tommy.

probably Speeth won't win give me all of them his official his official not to win was Bryson that's right Bryson okay Neil

I have Rory not to win I think he's just kind of I think he's chilling that's also not the official pick that was sent in he hasn't Cam Young not Oh I came young That's right.

I don't think Cam Young's going back and forth when I sent those in. Did the block parties end last year? Are they over now? What's the status with any block parties? Come as you are, you know? No, no, I don't need to be there. I was just wondering. It's not true.

Big leadership has been asleep at the wheel. They've still riding high after that win last year. There's been no guidance put out at all. You're right. Very much like, you know, Ray Floyd just kind of out there on a cruise, I guess, doing their own thing. Making their rounds. There's people that have been waiting, wondering. No, we sold L'Cardt last year at the Open Championship.

We sold it to private equity. Sorry. They passed it off to Blackstone. Now it's a to Tommy thing. That's why we contractually had to start with Frankie today. It's kind of a mess right now big. Is Frankie still banging balls on 19th or no? They said the Versaq.

I said they'd hire us his talent to come back if things are popping off. We'd come back and do some, do a Q&A. All right. I'm also going with Cam Young not to win. And the point of this game is to get as close to the winner as possible without winning, right? And I think he's going to play really freaking good. Yes. Really, really, really, really, really good.

Cody, the difference for me is going to be, you know, how much he relies on that, that caddy for green reading. Caddy's first time there, right? This Augustus stuff is, it's no joke, man. experience at Augusta is real. I think he's going to hit it great. I think he's going to drive it great. I know putting is a little less valuable quote unquote at the Masters than some of

those other skill sets, but I don't know. That was the tiebreaker for me and that like I feel very confident he's going to finish second. Okay. Sally? I'm, I think I could go safe with this one with Xander, but I'm not going to. I'm going to try.

I felt that way until I looked at all his numbers and I was like, oh, fuck. He's, you actually played really good. He is, but I don't think he's going to win. He might, but I don't think he's going to. But I'm, I'm, I'm going to try to fly a little closer to the sun. I had not lost one of these before, but I don't believe. And there's a lot of momentum for this, but I don't think Bryson's going to win. And I'm, I'm ready to steer right into that and own that one head on if he does. I've already got capital invested in this and him not winning. It's going to already hurt. So I might as well double down with that. All right. Neil, let's let's run out the top 10. Cody, don't put them up on the screen. I don't want any spoilers here. All right. I do have one more before we get there. Of course, T.C. Not here. But he did, of course, send in who he does not think will win. And that would be wrong.

Wrong. Yeah, we do. Okay. I've got Rory at 10. I think he's in the top 10 this year. But again, I think he's kind of, I think he's chilling right now. And that's fine. That's fine.

That's okay. I think I got Jake Knapp at 9. I expect the course record on Thursday or Friday, but I don't think he's going to win. I think he top tens again. He shoots at 62? Yeah, for sure. He does it everywhere else. Or it's a bit like,

like 30 years or something since someone's shot 63. Yeah, I think it, NAP just hasn't, he's got loud traits, Randy. He's got a knack for it. I've got Cameron Young at eight, and he's finished eighth here. I think T8,

twice T-11. I think that I see him kind of in that top 10, that eight range. I like that. It's just tough to do that players, master's double. He hasn't played since the players. Some of that just,

feels like that would be epic stuff i've got zander at seven um eighth for the third year well i had him at eight and i moved somebody so i was going to say eight but why not he's at seven sometimes he's you know messes up my notes uh i should have edited that six low lefty i've got oxhay i'm expecting big things out of oxh i watched him for a few holes today joe great chemistry this catty they're fired up to be here uh i like oxhay this week i got rom at five uh dangerous but i think the narrative's going to start picking up here a little bit on, you know, what are we going to get historically out of John Rom? I've got Jordan Speath at four.

Wow. I'm buying in on a good week. Wow. I'll buy some stock. I'll buy some stock. I think he's going to tease the boys a little bit. You're going to be following him? Yeah, I love to follow him.

I mean, you say it's the best, man. Even too old, you see him. You get excited. Oh, there's speed. You know, you just get excited. Who knows what's going to happen? I got Patrick Reed at third. Sheesh.

I would love a greasy Masters. I've got Scotty Sheffler at second. He'll probably win. And then I've got Bryson D. Shambot, the artist formerly known as the big golfer. I believe it's his time. So I will take the other side. I hate this guys. It's like betting on the under.

You know, I feel like I'm rooting for something that I really don't want to happen. But I just have a feeling I have to trust my gut here. Randy, that is my pick to win, Brise. Wow. God, that's a great big board. that's what I got. It's a regrettably great big board. Put it in the vault.

We'll send it to the IBM. They can put it in the vault. You can go back and analyze it. Everything just glitches out and starts just flashing. Yeah. Or your infographic guys, Dej, wherever you found those guys. Yeah, exactly. How I'd do against Watson.

Who wants to go next? For winners. Winners. Not like winners despite the odds, not who I think this guy, but actually I'm going to go with this guy. Who do you think is going to win the tournament? Deid, while you figured that out, I did run. You know, Neil graciously offered me some codes for the week to the NLU Pro Shop.

And I've been running a giveaway during this show. I'm going to do the drawing now. So it was hashtag Big Board. Neil, thank you so much for the hard work. I know you think an awful lot into it. And it takes multiple days. So I appreciate you going through such a lengthy list. But drawing, again, I can't remember how much we actually.

made these codes for, Neil? I don't know if you remember? I think 100. 100 bucks. There you go. Jackson Hearst, 3, 4, 5, 8. Winner, winner. Send me an email. Cody at nolayingup.com will get you hooked up with your code.

Appreciate it. Excellent. Nice. So who's going to win? I had two names that I thought I was deciding on Monday, and I'm not picking either of them. Wow. I'm just catching myself from,

do something really brave here. It's not. It is very much the meme of like the 0.1% say this. Well, actually blah, blah, blah, blah. And then the 0.1% say this to say conditions are what they are. The guy won two majors last year. And we just kind of lulled to sleep on both of them ahead of those majors last year. And it's not been great in this lead up. But he's amazing on this golf course. And I think this golf course is going to bring out every single feature. And it's a long tournament. I don't think it's going to be obvious from day one. I think it's going to be like a slow rise and just makes it happen on Sunday.

But I'm picking official pick as Scotty Sheffler to win his third major, third masters in the last five years. Super brave. I hit you saying that. I'm playing the board. I'm trying. I want the three Pete. I want all three in a row.

And I'm out on this limb. It is a little bit more out on the limb than I feel like it is almost, but he's being slept on a little bit. I do. No, I think he's being slept on. No one's talking, but everybody, you ask everybody on site. No one is picking him. I haven't talked to a single person.

Everyone's picking Bryson or blah, blah, blah. There's not a lot of people that I've talked to that, like, are on the Scotty thing right now. So I'm just not, I'm refusing to get off the scent. I'm going to stay on it. Yeah. No, no quibble. So, I mean, it's, it's great. It's a great pick.

It's a great. It's a great. We're like, we're proud of you. Of course, he's going to play hard. Appreciate you being vulnerable. It's big of you, man. I think it's great. What do you think, Randy?

You or me? I'll go. I let me just get something off my chest. I don't know where all this Bryson stuff is coming from. Yeah, fuck. That guy is out of gut now. I got a feeling. Yeah, I don't know.

He was in the last group last year. He's played really good the last two years. He won the U.S. Open. He's coming off back-to-back wins. Yeah, some of that factors in. This and that and two good years. Yeah. He's also had some really stinkers here.

So I just don't see that. I'm going with a guy who does consistently play well here, has not one here yet, has two majors, finished third at the players, has plenty of firepower. I'm gone Zander. I think it's his time.

Really fun pick, Randy. Yeah, it can't make fun of my pick. I think that's a really good pick. I do. I do too. It feels like one of those years where it,

you know, we talked about this a lot on Monday. it's no horse is lengths and lengths ahead of anybody else it's kind of just all those guys everybody was complimenting your your horse noises the other day too yeah just one of those years where it's probably

going to be like six guys that are close and you know can Zander win a one out of six like yeah of course you know I think it's a good it's a good bet Randy thank you all right you send it up on Monday Dij you're going to follow through so I did a lot of I had a lot of soul searching going on today.

Solly, I thought every thought that you just spilled out, I was on the same page. You know, it's the harder it's going to get, the more of the best players probably going to win. It probably is going to be Scotty. Sure. I thought about fits, you know, it's my head is saying fits. He chips it great. He puts it great. He's driving it awesome.

His iron play is out of this world. He's played here a bunch of times now. He's made the cut like 10 straight years. It's just a lot. Neil, you said. and this is no disrespect to anybody. We might be due for a little bit of a, I don't want to call it a stinker,

but maybe a little, you know, I don't know if we're going to get too, Rory winning the Grand Slam two years in a row. Like Fitz, Fitz would make a lot of sense. He's playing awesome, awesome golf right now. I think he's a really good pick. And then I think about how I felt, Sully,

picking Rory McElroy to win the career Grand Slam last year. And how much fun that was. And I think, about, you know, is, I don't pick this guy a lot. I don't do this flippantly as like a, you know, like this isn't like a, oh, let me just pick my favorite guy. I'm picking Jordan Spieth. And the reason is he's playing just good enough to be interesting.

He plays this golf course exceptionally well. It's, I don't know, man. Like, do I think Scotty has a better chance to win for sure, of course? But if Speath's going to win another one, this is a legitimate, it's a legitimate chance for him to win another one. I want to live in your world. It's fun. It is fun. And it's very much, let me ask you guys. You guys think Speed's going to win another major in his career.

I used to. Yeah, I'm with Randy. I just don't. I don't know. If you don't, that's fine. That just, like, hurt the soul to hear that. I don't want to say that out loud, though. That's fine. You guys don't have to. I think he's going to, and I don't think he's going to have a much better chance than this. It feels a little bit open.

It feels like he's got, his games trending in the right way. He seems to find. it here even when he doesn't have it going. Listen, again, Scott, he's probably going to be the guy. But it's going to be, I'm hitching my wagon to Spief. Come what may. And we'll see what happens.

I don't need to pick Speed to still like want, like if it gets anywhere close to spit, oh, fuck my I don't give a shit about my pick anymore. Like, I want Speed to win. I'm going to ride this all the way out. So I don't need to, I can dot the board a little bit. I don't need to put that in motion. I'm already emotionally invested in that.

And when, if we get here on Sunday afternoon and he's putting on the green jacket. then I'm going to be the only guy up on the mountain tops saying, you know what? You guys, you fucking cowards. You want to set up like a seance or something, like not a block party,

but like something like one of the like push from the best master's draft, like the weird party where, you know, everybody's smoking doobies. I'd come to that party for speed. That's what I was kind of going to say about the block party. The block party is like we accomplished it, man. Yeah.

Like we did. Now we're on to the next thing. And the next thing is like, so clear to me that this is the next thing that needs to happen. You got to get Jordy another one. Yeah. And so that starts now. And if we're not, if we're not believing in it, it's like, why are we even, why are we even watching this?

God, I love it. I really do. I love it. And I'm proud of you. Thank you. I'm proud of you. In all sincerity, how does the knowledge of- You picked the second favorite, by the way, just for the record. I don't feel, I said, I don't feel good about it. I hate it.

I can't believe I did that. You know what gives me pause with Jordan as if it is playing more difficult. I like, how is he going to avoid the, the double, the triple? Go look at his,

I think where he gets into those issues is off the T, which I don't think he has those problems as much here. Go look at his bad shot avoidance stuff on, on data golf. Like, he's not hitting as many, he's not flagging it as much, but he's world class at avoiding horrible shots with his irons.

He knows where to miss on this golf course. He knows how to get up and down. Pudding is kind of, kind of good enough, you know, and it's just, I don't know. You're right. Like that, that is the knock and that is kind of the, again, why Scotty's probably going to win, but that's my case. If you look at, like, I did this earlier today. If you look at the data golf, like the data golf, just the model, like odds, odds to win, right? Here's the people that are ahead of him, okay? And you tell me, like, how laughable it is that, like, he can beat these people. Rose,

I think he can beat Rose. Henley, I think he can beat Henley. Morcao might not even play. Siwu Kim, I think he can beat him. Bobby Mack, playing nice, but like I haven't really seen it all that much. Min Wu Lee. Minwu Lee, I think he can beat him.

Hideki, who the fuck knows what we're going to get from him? Cam Young. Sure, that's hard. I mentioned some potential concerns there. Ludwig, plenty of potential concerns. Fleetwood, don't have to tell you guys about that. Fitz. Now we're just getting into like a different class.

a boxers. It's like a welterweight versus a Yeah, I just, sure. A little far down starting here with speed. But that's what I'm kind of getting at is like, I think there's like eight guys realistically that are like, okay, you know, that's that's only eight. Yeah,

but I'm like, all right, well, it's a one out of you know, I don't know. I don't think it's to happen so badly. I want you to win. I will eat all the crow. No, you won't. That's the problem because nobody else nobody else is getting in line for the crow. You know, if he wins, Steege, I'll do the VJ. All right.

The VJ goat. Just because I wasn't because I didn't believe. I feel like that that's, that's fair. You know, I want to be there with you. I can't go back on my pick, you know. Sure. Of course. I want to be wrong.

I want to be wrong. God, there's just nothing about him that says managing the golf course to me. Sure. Yeah. I'm, we're looking at. Watch it hit off 18, dumped it right in the bunker. TC said this about about data golf earlier this week. You know, you guys are looking at who these guys have been.

You're not looking at who they are. And that's what I've arrived with right now. I do just want to note for everybody out there, you know, I ask a very simple question. Hey, please, everybody send me who will win and who will not win. This was not DJ's original pick. And he went back because he had a feeling. Yeah. No, I was going to pick fits.

And I was like, that's fucking stinks. I don't want to do that. Somebody who also has a lot of feelings here. So this is what T.C. sent me. Ludwig. a little bit later. No, team rose. A couple minutes went by.

Maybe Jordan. Probably 20 minutes. Okay, I'm going to stick with Jordan. Don't expect anything else for me. Cool. 20 minutes later, Ludwig's going to win. That's the final. So T.C. in-house with Ludwig.

Like two hours go by, and he sends me, he's like, I just want you, because I know you're going to do this to me, make sure that I said the name P as well. So he also wants P included on that list of everybody. Yeah. I think we'd throw that out.

He doesn't respect the game. He has no pick for the Masters. The other thing, Kyle Porter, he just tweeted something out a little bit ago. He said that he counted 67 official pre-tournament interviews with players, and not a single one of them was with Brooks Kepka. He's going to win by five. Wow. Wow.

Good. He didn't do a presser? I thought he, I thought he, no. That would be big. This is worth nothing because I didn't pick them, but I just will say, I could see a world where Bob McIntyre wins this Masters. I'm just, that'd be like a little 27 to 1. He's not like a down the board sleeper,

but playing really well, lefty, tough conditions, has played really well in major championships like that. If you, that would be in the quote stinker category, I think in some way. And like that's an extremely reasonable and feasible result. I agree. Brave. I agree.

So I was getting that large cap, small cap, ETFs going on. Anywhere else you want to diversify international funds, maybe? I think Rom could win this thing too. Sure. All right, guys, let's wrap it there. This is good stuff for a Wednesday. I asked you guys to shout out a piece of content. Any of the preview content you guys want to,

you guys want to shout out. Randy, what did you have? We already mentioned it. This isn't my answer, but the Shane Ryan vibes preview is good for a laugh. I did like that. I wanted to give just a shout out. The Athletic, I think, is doing a really good job with their golf coverage. And there was an article posted early this week by Jerry Brewer talking about the subject is Lawrence Bennett, who was a long time Augusta National employee. His father was a former caddy and caddymaster at Augusta National

Lawrence himself was a chauffeur starting at age 17. And I think it just, I like getting a little peek into the people that make the place. The people that aren't really, you know, Lawrence, he doesn't even know if he'll go to the tournament this week. But kind of the place as it is, the other 51 weeks of the year is always interesting. And Lawrence is a black man. There's a lot of stuff that's like really cool. Cool and a lot of stuff that's like, oh, God, there, you know, you can't get away from like the history of Augusta as well. But I thought it was a very nice profile, well worth a read from April 6th in the athletic.

That's good stuff. I miss that one. I got check it out. Uh, solid Neal, you guys got anything to shout out? Phil woefully behind on anything with a screen, which has been the beauty of being on site to be very honest with you. Yeah, but on the flight yesterday, I read a quick data golf piece on ROM that I really liked. I think I sent it through the Slack, but it was. It was just calling out that he had, it was kind of supporting both TC and Salli's arguments of like, no, he has played really well, but he hasn't on the data golf like total points list.

He's not playing well in big spots and just seeing them like highlight the graph compared to Rory and where he's at in his career. And it's, it's trending really well. Strokes gainwise are like identical, but he's tailing off a little bit on like BDE's, I guess you could say. And if I may say, that would be, you know, that would be profiling what he has been, not what he will be. Which is my, actually my stance on. He's unburdened by what it. Which is that, yes, no one is debating that he has not been good in the big events. My stance is I do not think that will continue.

Sure. But I thought, you know, data golf's like, I don't know. You're such a data boy now. I like it. I like it when they put, when they put words to it. You know what? Like, help me. Yeah, when they visualize.

And they have a perspective sometimes. Not always, but like, I appreciate the takes when they put them out there. They're live blog during majors weeks. I'll send people there. They've always just got one of the first things I check is they get 8 to 20, sometimes little nuggets along the way, how the course is playing,

you know, what affects the different conditions have on different things. It's always great to follow along during Master's Week or any major week. I will shout out a little different tactic. You guys may not have seen this yet. This went up today. Just I want to shout out my guy,

the bird guy on Instagram. He had a great post, break it down all the different birds on Jason Day's Malban outfit, but he actually came back with this one today. Solly, have you seen this yet? I have, yes. This is a good buddy of mine. This is just another good, good stakes for today for this week.

Really a good buddy year? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'll play a logo. Solomon and no laying up hates birds. He knows me and I know him. I'm going to make you a deal, Sally, this week.

But first, y'all need to hear this. There's like five different, given any given week, like bird Instagram reels. Please stop sending you this shit. that you possibly can. All right, but please stop so do the bird stuff. I don't care. All right, Sally, I'm going to make a deal with you. We don't live too far from each other.

So this one, you might take me up on this one. All right, I got $187 left in my Hard Rock Betts account. I'm going to take all $187. And I'm going to spread those seeds across any line that has Jason Day in it. That's matchups. That's winter bets. That's first round leader. Top tens, top 20s, top 30s.

Any money that I make, I'm going to take that money. and I'm going to hook you up with the best bird feeder set up in your backyard. I'm going to come over and I'm going to do it for you. There you go. I know. I mean, that's like a, what a dream. That's a win. I might become a bird guy.

Guys, birds were out before today. I saw two separate flocks of birds. They're out there. I saw five different types of birds today. I can't confirm the birds are real at Augusta National. That hurts my heart too, Sally. I already have you a damn bird feeder. You do that respect.

I'm like I am beyond halfway setting it up. I have not fully set it up yet, but I am beyond it. Set it up. I had to pay the year subscription for it. So I'm already 300 bucks in the hole. Clock sticking. Clock sticking. They've subscriptionized the bird feeders.

Well, yeah, because I want to watch it. He's got to watch the video. He's got a trail cam on it. How about that? We can break that down on the trap drop, maybe.

Guys, big week coming up. We're of course going to be live after every round right here. The Noling a podcast YouTube channel following the conclusion of play. Solly and Neil going to be on site all week. Look out for more fun stuff from them.

We'll see if they run in scoops out there. Or what is it? Spiel. Spiel Schuster. Neil the real Spiel Schuster. And with that, let's let's get this thing started, man. Let's get this turn on the way. Anybody who wants any more, Jordan Spief,

thoughts, those are going to be on my substack. You can subscribe to that. And we will see everybody tomorrow. Cheers. Like and subscribe. Crack on. Thank you.