No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 1158: Seven Tied after Thursday at the PGA

Episode Date: May 15, 2026

Scottie Scheffler and six others share the first-round tie after 18 holes at Aronimink Golf Club. Not the start Cam Young, Rory, or Bryson envisioned as they sit well back. We recap all of Day 1: Round of the day on a bunched-up leaderboard, Aronimink and the wind, news, notes, and a whole lot more. Presented by Titleist. FootJoy - #1 Shoe in Golf High Noon - Sun's Up! AT&T - Connecting Changes Everything 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 today that's better than most how about him that is better than most better than most ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the no langa podcast

the no link up live show my name is DJ we got a great one for you tonight presented by our friends at tidalist gentlemen out from iranomink we had a great day out there sallie how are we doing I'm doing great. That was one of the most enjoyable non-masters major championship days I've ever had walking around the grounds.

I mean, it was just a delightful temperature, delightful energy, delightful fans, some good golf, some bad golf, a lot to talk about tonight. But that was a tank filler. It was just a delight. That's the word I would use. Neil, would you use that word? It was a challenge. I was kind of the shiver boy out there, Dee. I was wearing shorts.

And I feel like some of these guys were shivering a little bit. blooded, man. You run cold. A little bit. But I was impressed with how the course held up. It was fun to watch these guys sweat it from the rough and struggle to get it close to the hole. And then even the lag putting, which feels like it's on autopilot most of the time for these guys. I feel like there was a lot of hard two putts out there, which isn't a recipe for like, you know, like exciting golf. But it's, if you're watching, it gets, it gets very interesting over the course of the day. Proper golf, I think. And speaking of proper golf, T.C.

Let's just get right into what the hell you're wearing. We've got a clique at the top of the leaderboard. Martin Kimer, I mean, to be fair, most of the field is at top of the leaderboard right now. But you're just dressed head to toe and cleek gear. I don't know if you had this ready to rock or. Yeah, no, I got a care package today in the mail. Today. The cleaks today.

Of all day. It says, thank you for being one of the people who stand with us. Your support matters more than you. might think. As the saying goes, being a fan doesn't mean that you were there from the beginning. It means you will be there until the end. That loyalty is something we feel and carry with this time we compete.

As a small token, this is a thank you from the team and for me for being part of the journey with appreciation. I'm assuming that it's Martin Kimer, Cleek's captain. It doesn't look like Martin Khyber, but it does say captain who I think he's the captain of the captain. We're going to get to all of that.

This is not awesome. No, they, T. T.C.'s changing his platform. them already. I followed Ludden for nine holes. Didn't look good TC, but we're on. you're terrible. Martin Kimer. Today's show is not brought to you by the cleaks. It is brought to you by our friends at Footjoy. Guys, there are a few certainties during the majors. We saw that today. One of the the certainties is most players are going to be wearing Footjoy shoes. We know that since 1945. Footjoy has been the number one shoe on tour. I'm talking to TC before

this. Sometimes we're practicing the ad read going through 80 straight years. Be the number one shoe. Let's just pause on that. for a sec. That's big time stuff from our friends at Footjoy. This week at Eranamic, of course, no different. Footjoy has shoes for every player, whether you prioritize style, performance, traction, stability, or

comfort, toebox, Neil. You'll see many different styles in play this week from athletic styles like the ProSL and Hyperflex to the iconic premiere series. Another certainty this week's Footjoy dropping a limited edition shoe, which was released yesterday,

the Legends series, 17, 76 shoes are incredible, several, several subtle nods in there to the history surrounding this PGA, the greater Philadelphia area, all TCs people up there in birds country. So go check those out at footjoy.com before they're gone, no matter what you're looking for in golf shoes, footjoy has you covered. Don't trust your golf game to anyone but the best. Guys, traffic jam. We've got a log, log jam up there at top. We have a seven. not going to talk about the shuttle, Dej.

We're not. Let's talk about the golf, please. Stick to the golf, guys. We've got a seven-way tie for the lead at the PGA championship. Aldrich Potkeeter, Stephen Yeager, Minwu Lee, Rio Hizatsune, the weekend. Martin Kimer aforementioned. Scotty Sheffler, can I blow your guys his mind? You know, this is the first time Scottie's ever led after round one of a major? How about that? How about that?

And Alex Smalley also gets it in the house at 67. I believe we have counted 48 people within three shots of the lead coming into the preview show. We kind of had a feeling it might be a little bunched, a little tough to separate. That certainly was proven out today. Let me let's, before we get into like how the course played, let's just start with that. I think that's a big, a big story. Solly, why is it so bunched? Explain this to me.

Yeah, really, really, really hard whole locations. I don't know how to answer this question. without answering a little bit about the course set up there because it, I think that is the answer. I don't think, I'm trying to think of like an easy pin today. And I don't know if there's one that comes to mind. Like they, they were clearly the sentiment amongst players and everyone that had walked this golf course, anybody that looked at the scorecard that anybody that had been

watching golf over the last 10 years was pretty consent. The consensus was strong. This golf course might struggle to hold up. And I think they were a little spooked. they did a great job with the firmness. The rough has played really, really well. I'll give you some more details on that here shortly. But I feel like, I don't want to say they maxed out the difficult pins on day one,

but I think they're going to have a hard time keeping the foot on the pedal without reusing some of these general locations keeping it this difficult throughout. And I don't know if they're going to want to keep it this difficult throughout. I think the loan critique on the setup to this point would be that it wasn't that exciting. there wasn't like a lot of great birdie runs like 400 was the lowest anybody got at any point today. And I think you kind of want to, you know, what makes the master so exciting are the holes that, you know, you can get out and make some birdies and go on runs and anything can happen. This was like a little bit more of a survival test.

But the pins were really hard to get at. And there was just so many like checkpoints there. The par three's, especially other than five, the par three is just all served as a massive speed bump that you had to slow down on. the pace really slowed down on those holes and they were really, really hard to score on. Like eight was outrageous today, guys. Yeah. How bad was the backup?

And it's a 243-yard shot. The wind's whipping and it's visually intimidating because you got flags everywhere whipping and these guys are just standing there for 10, 15 minutes waiting to hit. It's a psychological evaluation on AT. Here's how the bad the backup was, T.C. We got there. I realized how hungry I was.

I was following the Rory's. Luckily free. food included with your ticket. Not free. Rory, experience, and ROM group was what I was following. I got the T, you know, the Xander group. I had just teed off and I was like, it's time to go eat. I walked the eighth hole.

I cut across nine. I cut across 18, got food, ate it, had to go all the way around 17T came back and just in time for Rom to chip in on that hole. Like it was, it was insane how bad it backed up right there. But no, I just think that it was, I don't know if I can fully explain the bunched nature of the scoring, but I can, I'm surprised by the higher scores.

I'm surprised the scores aren't lower based on everything we said kind of leading up to this, but I'm not surprised having just seen it. Those conditions were real. Like it was 55 degrees this morning. The wind was bucked, you know, on my app, it was saying it was only like six, seven, eight miles an hour this morning with Gus up to 11 and 12. I was like, no. That was not definitely not the. Can I ask you guys a question? Randy's not here. But would you think it doesn't really pass the proper test index because I think there's two scores in the 80s. But with this many people almost throttled like this kind of choke point to nobody can get past three under. What kind of test? Does this pass the proper test index? T.C. I'll send that your way. I know you're kind of riding with Randy on the proper test. I think we need a little bit more data, a little bit more of sample size here. It's always tough to do the proper test index when you've got the Corbridge financial team in the field as well.

She's gumming things up. Sure. But, no, I definitely agree with the par three take of like, like, D.G you said it earlier. I think the par three is and the par fives are all playing like short part fours. They're a little HGHed up a little bit. Eighteen are definitely. It feels a little artificial or a little bit manufactured. So, you know, like, let's just let the golf course play.

Like, I think I was almost hoping for more excitement and fireworks and stuff today. And it seemed like, you know, I think they've got the course right where they want it with the, it doesn't seem like there's any new moisture in the forecast. Wind should stay up relatively for the next few days. So hopefully we see a little bit more of an ebb and flow and some green lights, yellow lights and red lights. I felt like we had a lot of red lights today. Can I say one thing to that, though, on the par threes?

In person, I, it, you walk up to the 8th T again and it's like 243. Like, man, this is kind of outrageous. But it is a little mesmerizing. Even watching on TV right before we went live, like seeing these guys, like JT, tried to hit that shot in the 17 when he's just gluing it together. That is exciting. You know, the more, like, after seeing that shot from three or four groups before him, I'm like, oh, God, can he, man, he just made bogey at 16.

Like, does he have this seven wood in him? Like, I think that's exciting on Saturday or. Sunday, though. I don't think that's necessarily as exciting on Thursday or Friday when you're trying to get 140 or 150 guys through the golf course. Fair enough. I think that's, I think that's fair. I think to your original question, Neil, about the, the wanted proper test index. And, you know, I'm just an academic. I would hate to, you know, I hate to be slinging arrows here on, on Twitter at Randy's, you know, extensive data set here. But I think the proper test index sometimes shows up at the golf courses where things are like probably turned up, a little artificially turned up, like a little outrageous where you've got some like, oh my God, somebody can make a 12 on this whole type of, there's no 12s out there. There's not even that many doubles out there.

There's just a shitload of bogeys. And I think to what you guys are saying, it's like, I think that makes for somewhat, not as much carnage, not as much looking up from your phone, like, I have to see what's happening next. But I think like lowercase P, I think it's like pretty proper golf out there is how I feel to that point solid made a comment about an hour ago and i stuck with me is there's consequence to every shot like you said it when jt was on 16 hit his drive in the left rough and then it wrapped his hosel around the rough didn't get out of the rough and now he dumps it in the front bunker and at no point you normally he would dump in that front left bunker which during the

practice round all these guys were practicing from there so that's clearly in their you know strategy books of like front left bunker might be the miss and then he he was still like to that that pin, it was like, man, that's, he just earned that bogey with a bunch of just like, oh, you know, none of them were outrageously bad shots, but, but there were consequences. And I thought that was well said. Let me, yeah, that's, that's where, sorry, I know we're going to get some videos here shortly, but that's where like, again, not to use the V word that, that just drove me nuts was just like, you could go take a bathroom break during the T shots because it was like, oh, I drove in the

rough or he drove in the fair. It just kind of doesn't really matter. And I was afraid that this course was going to play that way because they would be. be so far up. What was he talking about? Yeah, it took me a second to think of what the B word was. I was afraid it was going to play like that, but I was so impressed with how the rough played. And in part, because there is fairway with here, right?

Like, it is not a silly vomit down there and you're going to be in the rough anyways, hit it far. It is like, I felt like Scottie was kind of conservative off the tee today and he hit every fairway but one. Jordan speed drove it in, fuck I said it, damn it. The experience, the experience drove it incredibly well today.

And that just felt like, it felt like accuracy was a very valuable skill today. And when guys drove it in the rough, when Rory was in the rough, when Romm was in the rough, it was just like, before even hit the shot, you're kind of looking at it like,

dude, this isn't, you're not getting away with this. Like, you can make par. That's the thing with the shorter distance. You can make par from the rough with a decent recovery shot and you have a chance to scramble.

It's not quite like, U.S. Open Fescue or Open Championship Fescue where you're making a bogey in some way. But it is very hard to make birdies from the rough. And you can question whether or not this course should host a major. But as far as like what they've done with a very difficult challenge in front of them, PJ of America, I tip my cap to the setup today. I mean, it was it was as good as I think they possibly could have done, as close to as good as they could have done realistically.

I would agree. I think the course won today. Right? Like I was pleasantly surprised with the Ronomink. It looked like it was a great spectator experience out there. Great vistas. You could see multiple holes from one spot. I think six is a great example.

Like six looked awesome on TV. I'm just watching guys, you know, kind of turn that ball around that corner there. And, yeah, some fun hole locations. Like you, Sally, I'm really curious to see what Carrie Haig does with it, especially tomorrow and Saturday. I think Sunday will be fine.

But it's like, all right, What do you, do you, do you keep pushing it all the way here? Do you back off knowing that, that there's a little bit of, of like more punch and oomph here? Yeah, you got, you got a little room to back off a bit. I think, right? I'm, I'm totally fine with them kind of starting this way. Not backing off on firmness, backing off on the whole locations. Because I think the most refreshing part today was just watching greens that actually have slope at them.

Because I think that, that was one of the concerns or the criticisms of a lot of Valholy. or a quail hollow is like there's just not enough interesting slopes and just there's not like bath page there's not a lot going on in the greens yeah these greens are awesome like there's there's all sorts of and all right if you're going to leave yourself six to eight footers like you're going to miss some of those because there's plenty of stuff outside the hole zander was talking about hitting like 10 foot putts three feet outside the hole today like that's the kind of golf course it is let me sorry i know you're going to that but uh not only that deep like to your point dc like the way the slopes affected the results of the approach shots, like speed, the experience was playing

really, really, really well, but hit just kind of an iffy approach shot into seven that got on the wrong side of a ridge front right and ended up with a three putt. But it was like, you, you hit the green, but you missed your shot. You missed the approach shot wrong side of the slope and still had a price to pay for that. Like, again, a boring version of this would be if you missed 50, 60 feet away was still a pretty easy two put. And that is not exist out here. That got's just again that's where they I think they kind of nailed it with the whole location today. Let me let me play two videos

because I think these both kind of sum up a little bit of what we're talking about. First one from John Rom talking about the setup here. A few people come into this thought the scores would be a lot lower this morning but obviously three under's leading so they thought it would be lower? Some people thought the scoring would be lower this morning.

You've been out there? What is the biggest difficulty out of that? You've seen the golf course? You know what I can understand because if you just go by the numbers, some of the fairways are wide. The greens are in crazy firm, but a lot of those fairways are sloped in a way that they play very narrow. Like 15 today. I thought I was going to be in the fairway undoubtedly, and I was off the fairway. Same on tame, same on four. It can easily roll up.

And then the rough doesn't look as long as many other majors, but it's such a thick blade of grass that even when the light looks okay, it catches you so bad. So I can see how in appearance it might be easier, but it's not. You need to play a really good golf to shoot lower than 300. And then on top of that, those pin locations today were good ones. I mean, they're tucked. They're not easy.

There was somebody earlier on the week where there was some chatter. where people thought 15 to 20 under was going to win. And I think that got to somebody at the PGA and they did something about it. Because if the golf course stays like this and keeps firm enough, yeah, it's obviously not going to be anywhere near that. I love that. And I also love what Sawitagala had to say shot 68 today. And he went a little deeper on the rough.

There was a great Ken Brown segment on the feature group's coverage earlier. just talking about the variability of the rough and how you don't know what kind of lie you're going to get. Rom kind of alluded to it there too. But I almost think this is one of those unforeseen dubs of moving to May where you have this cold weather climate. The grass doesn't really wake up until a couple weeks ago. And then they hit it with a bunch of fertilizer. And you get this spot where it's like you don't know if it's going to sit up on like some really lush grass. You don't know if it's going to go all the way down to the bottom.

And Saz was talking about that, like particularly around the greens. But I really think it's the rough around the greens. You know, in the fairway, it's pretty patchy. You can get some nice lies. And even if you get a bad lie, most of the greens out here, you can kind of run it up. There's a couple of lies where you're not going to be able to hit the green or even get close. But I'd say, you know, 75% of the time you can at least advance it to the front of the green. So not too big of an issue there.

And the fairways are fairly generous, even though there's a ton of camber on them. But then the rough around the greens, it's important. possible to judge. I practice so much around the grains the last three days. I mean, that was probably the main focus of my practice, and it's still a completely total educated guess, because it's not only like longer short, but a lot of these blades, I'm not sure what kind of, I think it's like a bluegrass rye mix right now, and it's, I don't know how to describe it, but it's like an unripened banana. It's like so sticky. I haven't played a lot of Northeast golf so I don't know if I'm this is the normal

grass but kind of threw me for a loop and it kind of squirts both ways for me like left and right too so not only is a distance problem it's a left and right thing because you can't see the grain because it always kind of sticks up in the air so yeah it's it's really hard you'd rather be in a fair or a green side bunker all day so it's a it's a fun challenge but

it's really tough to get up and down out of the row that guy shot 68 today it's like he's shot 75 What an awesome quote that was. Isn't that great? Dude, you got to read the lies, man. That's right. Educated guesses, right?

You got to evaluate the lie. It's big this week. Which is where golf is all about. It really is. And that's where, again, it's like, I'm not, it's pretty easy to watch Augusta and watch somebody get to the top of the hill on 15, be like, is he going to hit in the water? Not.

It's not quite as exciting to be like, is he going to read the lie properly. But it's like, that's what this is. And that's much closer to what, like, the margins of what pro golf kind of is. on a setup like this. So I know that doesn't jump off the page to everybody, but I'm like, if you're willing to look for it and you're willing to kind of zoom in, I think you can see who's doing that well and who's not doing that well.

And like why Scotty Sheffler's on the top of the leaderboard as well. And I wish I could describe, like in detail why I feel this way, but I would say like I love this combination of fairway, fairway width and the way the rough is playing way more than I did Oakmont last year. Like Oakmont felt narrower and the rough just kind of felt a little look at me, a little performative. Like them doing the whole thing with the mowers where they're fluffing up the rough.

And it just, I get it. O'clock just generally felt performance. Yeah. Like I get, I get your theme here. It's rough, rough, rough, rough. And here it's about more than that. It is, yeah, camber the fairway, shape your driver the right way, get your distance right off the tee and making sure your runouts are good on some of these dog legs.

And or else, like, that's the thing here, too. They don't have a first cut. like there's no like intermediate cut it looks like very slightly graduated just off the fairway but there's no like if you miss the fairway by a foot by you're you're gonna pay a price it's not like unfindable right right a foot off the fairway but it is like I was watching scottie's ball roll out on 15 it was like oh is that gonna is that going to rest up against that collar because that's going to make that shot a lot more difficult whereas some golf courses kind of have that first cut where as soon as it gets in that all the announcers say like oh that's fine there but that's not

the case here. I feel like the rough has the, like the right amount of juice. I'll tell you what else has the right amount of juice, guys, high noon transfusions. No news to this crowd with the new high noon transfusion is a certified hit. I had this thing sitting on my desk. I was going to wait for showtime. I cracked it like 20 minutes ago because it's been looking forward to it all day. It's great. High noon has finally brought the number one golf drink into their vodka seltzer lineup, the transfusion. You go get it now, but not for a long time since they only dropped a limited amount. It looked like you guys got your hands on a vaunted case. Yeah, we found it over at Audubon Bismarck's place. Huge. It's tracked it down in King of Prussia. It is here for a

short time. Grab it before it disappears. Irresistible grape taste crafted with real vodka, real juice, sparkling water and a hint of ginger and lime. Let us know where you find it. Share some best practices and key learnings. Tag us on social so everyone else can track them down. High noon sun's up. Looks like you guys had a great time with the high noon crowd this week. Live event with them, a little meet and greet out there today. It's good stuff. Shout out to high noon. Good stuff.

Amen. Dege, one thing I was going to say, you mentioned Scotty, obviously at the top of the leaderboard Aquaman doing his thing. But you look at the rest of the guys up there at minus three. You know, a lot of people calling him that out there? No, I didn't hear that at all. A lot of guys at minus three. Not like a game profile, though.

You got hot heater and you got Alex Smalley. You know, very different. I think if you looked at their data golf, you know, a scatter plot, it would look a little different. So, and maybe that's what introducing the variable of the rough is, which I'm sure, you know, I'm actually interested to hear like, for the most part, I heard JT's interview, hear what Rom says. They all seem to have a respect for the course.

It's not like, oh, this is, you know, this is bullshit. It's not the vibe. It's like it's hard, but, um, they appreciate that in a way that not, these guys normally don't really want to be challenged. I'm, I don't know. It's interesting to me. I think some of those guys, I think those best players one of be challenged. They don't want it to be easy. I think like a Rahman JT are going to want this golf course

to be tough but fair. Right. And that's again, that's the beauty of this is like, dude, I just don't feel like any of that was unfair. I don't, I don't, what's the most unfair thing from today? Some people might say 11, but I would say it was fair. Like it was very specific, excellent question to be asked there of like. Well, I saw a lot of guys hit it close there too. Yeah. Very hard pin. But if you, if you played the right shot, a lot of guys had some tap ins. Yeah. The Justin Rose and Scotty group, was like a perfect example, right? Rose ripped it off the front of the green. Scottie watched it, saw exactly how to do it.

Control the spin perfectly, taps it up there and makes a birdie. Where's Bryson one hops it over and chips down and it's like his tournament's over before it even starts. It's, I know. He's shot even par today. Yeah, straight up. Do you want to, can we do the blocky quote now, T.C?

Hell yeah. Blocky shot even par. This is what he had to say. Yourself since 2023 and do these PGA championships feel different for you? since that point? I was in the bathroom on old 12 or 13 today, and there was no mirror, so I wasn't looking to myself, but I said, you got this.

I go, you're actually pretty good, buddy. And I just kept going. I'm like, I'm with DJ, one of my idols, a guy who looked up to my whole life, and Rasmus, who I know is an unbelievable player, like 63 in the world, and they both hit it, 50 yards behind me on every single shot and I'm just going, you got this, bud, you got it. It's cool. It's really cool. It's kind of fun.

To be honest. I'm proud of myself for just grinding it through and having fun with the boys. Well, I mean, that's the God, T, we got to break that one down. Just the pensive the pause at the beginning. It's so good. That's the stuff dreams are made of, man. I mean, it's kind of like the real life, you go out there and you make it about you in the bathroom. You know, there's no me or but he's pointing at the port of John door. He's like, before he hits that handle, you make

make it a touch. No, I'm so in on blogging. He's asked a question, you know? He's asked a question. I know. He gave him his own presser, Neil. And that's it's sincere. I mean, it sounds like he was getting a little choked up there at the end. For sure. Good on him, man. It's good stuff. But it is.

It's like, you know. He's almost 50, man. He's a corner. He's kicking people's asses. What's the time? Like, what's raising cane? How does he, how does DJ who's like nine, what, nine, ten years younger than him? How does he end up as one of his idols? I don't know how that timeline works.

Don't pick Blocky apart. He's out there. He's up there cooking, man. He's up there cooking. Let's talk about who's ass he kicked today. He kicked Roy's ass. He kicked Lutvig's ass. Kick Bryson's ass.

He kicked Lutvig's ass. He kicked his ass. What about DJ and Rasmus? He kicked their ass. They both shot 72. Yeah. He was 15th. and putting.

He's a menace. I was in the bathroom. I was in the bathroom. Truly no idea where that was going. That's a guy that's been in a lot of pro-ams, a lot of like cocktail parties. I got to tell you something. I was the bathroom on 12 or 13.

I wasn't a mirror. Are you all in my eye? Are you all the palm of my hand? Okay. Everybody get it. No, there's a little more room. There's a little more room. Everybody get it here.

He played the par three's and even par today. She's playing the whole fucking course and even part of it. No, I know, but the part three is especially for him having. Yeah, for real. Uh, We're in those part three. Unbelievable. Unbelievable, unbelievable birdie on, on five.

I had tears in my eyes watching it. I mean, it was left is like all these guys are just hitting an improver shot, flaring it out to the right, hoping the wind brings it back. And Blocky just, he's got that abbreviated follow through now. He's, and he left himself in the purse. off in the perfect spot and just rolls it in from like 15 feet. He's just old, old man getting buckets, you know,

he's got all the shots. He's hitting a lot of bank shots. He's got post moves. Just a total change up, you know, you get to the lane. He's just, God, it's,

it's good stuff. I wish Randy was here tonight because he would need to answer for this. What are we going to do? If Blockie finishes what, top 10, Randy's got to do something abhorrent. Abhorrent. You have to go work at Raising Keynes.

It should. Yeah. You should have to go to do it. raising Cades if you're listening I think Randy will do a shift at the drive-thru just like Blocky did if Blocky finish his top 10. Blocking could come through the drive-thru, be one of those people that throws his coke right

in his face or something. 55 prize for me. Stop, I'm doing something. I'm doing something. You know what? The best part of all of this, if Blocky does, you know, grind out another top 20, the pre-week thing was, even I was sick of Michael Locke. He's going to do the same exact thing all over again.

For sure. He's going to do the same media tour all over again. I think some of those outlets are, I don't know if the Ripper McGoo podcast is still solvent or not, but I mean, between, look into that. Between Blockie and the whole, what's,

what's South African Dipshit's name? Gary Kigo. Between those two things, like Malbant had an absolute day. For sure. For sure. A.K. was out at Pebble Beach. I saw that.

He's got, he's got people all over the world. I mean, you guys are team up. Do we want to go Garikago? I think we have to. Is that so famously he should be tied for the lead he should be tied for the lead it's going to go down as a one under on the score card because he was he was late to his his tea time you've probably seen this by now but I feel like we got we got to cross this off TC this was you flagged this I think this is Shane interaction with Shane Ryan this is good stuff we can talk about this on the backside so just to be 100% clear when you walk to the T it was a surprise to you when they said two stroke penalty you're late it was No, it wasn't a surprise.

I was late. I mean, my caddy was yelling at me to get to the T. Oh, okay. So by the time you got there, you already knew that it was... I knew it was probably going to happen, yeah. Yeah. You were with the PJ, it seemed like, for a bit just now. Were you trying to argue your case a little bit?

I was just trying to get evidence. I mean, I feel like if any of you would have done the same, because it's kind of... I was there on time, but the rule is if you're one second late, you're late. So if you think about it, I was there on time, if you know what I mean. I don't quite, no, no. What is it?

What do you say that you were there on time, but late? Like, I was there at 718, 30 seconds. And 718 was the tea time? Yeah, or something like that, 719, whatever it was. I don't know. Gotcha. No, no, I want to take this one, Dee. You give me this, this, that's a bit of a nihilism because I do see what he's saying.

It still said 718 on the clock. Yeah, he's like kind of saying, yeah, come on seconds, but it's still 718. You know what I'm saying? And I was like, yeah, I kind of do know what you're saying. The hard part is the way the rule is written is 718 and one second is late. So for him to be like, yeah, no, I know that's the rule. And I was after that. Yes.

I was. And everybody was telling me that I was late. Yes. But. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, it's a very, it's a tough argument with himself going on there.

He had like three other interviews where he said similar stuff. It just kept getting worse and worse and worse. The clip I saw me to look like. he missed one of his playing partners teed off had already teed off yeah and then he was trying to put it on them he's like i asked them if they were uncomfortable with it and they said no which is like well that's that's not it either i'm just i don't know i don't want to overreact i don't want to be old man yelling at cloud because he's just standing on the putting green yeah he's right there 50 feet away it's yeah it's not stupid another interview he said it's not my job to be 10 minutes early i was

like we weren't asking to be 10 minutes early i'm just like just be on time for your teap This isn't Tom Coughlin style stuff. I don't know. It's Lombardi. World could use a little more Midwest if you're not 10 minutes earlier, you're late sort of mentality. It seems like you've taken the opposite tag. You should throw them off the tour for this kind of shit, guys.

And there are instances in pro golf tournaments where like it's hard, like, Apple Beach is hard to get to the 10th tea. You go like on public streets to get to the 10th tea. And if a shuttle driver gets in traffic, you might be late for your tea time. Like the putting greens right next to the first and, empty bucks. Like I don't know how

this could possibly happen. And then, I mean, other side of the coin, he goes out and like probably plays a round of his life. Like essentially takes the lead in a major championship. I mean, it's just insane. Like, yeah, I think he's best finished in a major is like 45th or

46 or something like that. And I mean, he can you double the first hole? Yeah. I mean, I mean, because of the penalty, but like yeah, he was starting from down. Yeah. I mean, Neil, like, imagine just the the mental strain that we went through and imagine it just think about what happens when like a group behind you catches up no i know there's and it's just like oh well i guess i'm done it's like walking to the first team of a major on thursday it's like you're you're two behind scotty sheffler like you have to beat him by three i freed up though when do you want to make double solid first he's freed up now before the first he can pit his ear spad we got to get two more all right we've got to 17 that's yeah it's just just a full experience

from him today. There's a new answer to that question now. I was like, when do you want to be too over? Yeah, after the first hole is what I would have said. But now it's like all the first tee prior to the first after the first hole. How is this guy? How is this guy not not on the southern guard? Like how did he not go to live? He might have been doing the rhino jive. Maybe that's why he was late. It's just rhino jiving with grow the game over there of the putting green. See, I'm dying to know if that that care package you got sent had any potential investor information in there. Any any financial? I didn't even think about that.

Yeah, probably trying to... Does Yasser have my address now? Yasser might have had your address before. I feel like he could have tracked that down, probably. Where do you guys want to go next? Do we want to talk Kimer? I mean, we're talking Kleeks. The guy like...

Yeah, unbelievably good quote from him. He had a great quote. I'll get to that in a second. I do want to shout out in case you guys didn't see this. He has not had a top 10 at a major in exactly 10 years since the 2016 BJ championship. that's no shade that's just a he's at that stage in his career injuries all of that stuff it's just a patrick rogers that's wild still looking for his first top 10 uh i was but yeah i like patrick

rogers the no this is not a personal thing but i'm scrolling through like when are we going to start the show and i see him down at seven over i'm like what how do we do it man how just totally uncompetitive anyways what was i talking about martin keimer uh the last time he was in the top 10 after the first round of a major was in 2020, not, I mean, six years ago, not 10 years ago. Do you guys know what he shot at Harding Park? He shot 66 in the front in the first round. You know what he shot in the second round? 78.

82. Miss got missed the cut. Proper test index. Yeah. So what, you know, I'm not saying that's going to happen, but that's a bit of a watch this space. Forgive us if we don't maybe get super analytical until maybe after Friday's round. But he was too under on the back.

because I think he teed off on 10. Yeah. He was 200 through his first three holes. Yeah, he hit Cody and I saw him hit almost Jarwin on 11. And we couldn't, you know, we were help on the hill. We're like, is that Max Grazerman? It's like, oh, no, oh, that's Cleaks. Those Cleaks flow, that's Kimer.

Grazerman also played good today. You mentioned a T.C. Kimer had a great, great story after the round. This one was making the rounds as well. On Tuesday evening with the Champions Dinner. And there was a gentleman sitting next to me. from the PG of America and he asked me if I would be if I still play and I said that's like that person he said well are you playing this week I said yeah that's why I'm here and I'm not

flying from Europe to here to have a New York strip with you guys you know I of course I'm playing and that really motivated me so it was a good start to the week again I really enjoy a Romney golf course it's fun to play and I look forward to to hopefully have another good days. I'm a little concerned he needed that motivation. Yeah, what your captain is not motivated to play at live, T.C. Come on. Yeah.

But also, like, what an unsurious organization that, you know, one of their past champions is in the field. I think I asked, like, nice, nice, nice association, guys. Kind of an indictment that, I mean, Craig Stadler is at the master's dinner. I don't think he's playing. You know, it's like, just the idea that anybody would come. I'm not going to the fucking BJ Championship Champions dinner. What are you talking about?

Of course I'm here to play. It's a little bit of a backhanded. You can read that that way. But Kimer, not only did he have one of the great, like, underappreciated runs of major championship golf, underappreciatedly thoughtful guy as well. And I remember being at that Pinehurst U.S. Open in 2014. And, I mean, he had to come in every day and talk about like,

hey, man, you're leading by 26 shots. What's on your mind? And he every day brought the noise, very thoughtful. Just one of those guys. Do I think he's going to win? Maybe not. But always good to have Martin Kimer in the interview room. Dejj, a perfect time to give a shout out to our guy, Randy Robles.

Great stat. Hit my inbox. It's just the subject line is Kimer and Yeager. Only time that two German players ranked among the top five at the end of one major championship round was 2001 Open Championship. You know who that was? uh 2000 longer longer in chaka

that's exactly right wow i thought uh chika was austrian but so maybe we're is that count as german but i guess he's german that would not count as german no it's not but anyway this whole other country i'll trust mr robles over over me um you know we'll give him that one i'll trust him but that's a good we talked about stats last night and i'm like he's just tracking him down deed for sure i mean it's just let me check that out. He sees Martin Kimer come across the desk and he breaks it down

in component parts. Okay, PJ champion, US Open champion, German, over 40, live player, you know, and he's looking for all these connections. I assume that's, you know. Solly, you may need to get Randy Robles doing the analytics for the Rider Cup. I love the US Rider

Cup team. I'm worried it's backwards. Maybe he could run trivia night for some team building. That might be, you know, some culture stuff. Guys, there's a quote there's a quote on this cleek on this lovely cleaks like you know burlap shopping bag says creativity takes courage Henry Matisse said that

and I would say that that Kimer creating around like that today took courage as well he was uh he was fifth in approach play I mean I think he gained most of that with that fucking shot into nine that driver off the deck yeah that was 300 yeah who do you think Matisse's favorite live team would be if he had to pick one

probably the cliques I think they've got the most visually striking yeah yeah take that offline uh min woo lee played well

I think that's just picking up the thread that he continues to play proff pretty well drove it drove it nice uh I think the big thing with him is just going to be are you going to put it

uh he has I think it's been negative strokes game putting in his last five majors like negative for the week. And he was negative as well this week. But drove the shit out of it. It hit 14 greens playing proper golf.

I think we have such a bunch leaderboard Dij. I don't know if we can get to everyone. There's some guys we just got to say like, hey, you're in the Friday group. If you're still here on Friday, we will dedicate some time to you. It's just going on the board. Yeah. Let me throw some people out. You guys tell me if we want to talk about them tonight or you need to wait.

It's kind of a Valspar looking board. And I mean that as a Valspar appreciate it. You got to hear of irons well at the house bar. Potkeeter. Let's talk about him more. He gained it. This isn't necessarily like Bombers delight Pot Geeter at the top of the leaderboard.

He came over five shots on the greens today. He just putted his ass off. So most definitely we'll talk about Friday. He's stunting on me. Yeah. Or we may not be talking about Friday because the putter cools off. Exactly. If you're still here,

we'll talk about you Friday. Here's all I'll say about Pac-Eater as he gets lumped in with all these other people. He's 21 years. I don't think, I truly don't think we talk about that enough that he's crazy, crazy, crazy young still. Yeah. Steven Yeager.

It feels like a Friday. It feels like a Friday. The weekend. Do we even talk about him on Friday? Oh, Saturday. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's-

Saturday, my friend. I think that's right. Scotty, we talked about him a little bit. I don't know if you guys have anything more other than God, did he drive it good? God, did he play patient golf? This feels like it's, yeah. This feels like it's going to be a test of patience and he seems like it might be a be over. A little bit. A little, a little tiny bit. It feels like a really good setup for him in

what you just said, the patience one. And like Scott, he's a really accurate driver. And it feels like he and kind of like the experience the way they drive the golf ball, which is not in that upper upper echelon, but they're slightly above average in accuracy, can, has a chance to really play, play very well here. Him hitting that many fairways today and not really bombing it. Again, he took a couple three woods off the team and was just kind of playing strategically. He had eight irons into a lot of holes that guys were hitting wedges in, but he's so good

with those clubs and so patient that I just think this setup is going to serve him quite well. He's also good at reading the lie, and he's really good at like when there's a bunch of slope on these greens, makes your accuracy with your irons and hitting the right segment of the greens that much more important. It's only going to feed into his strengths. It looked like he manages energy. Like patience is the word we're using. But compared to like this afternoon watching cutting back and forth between him and J.T,

JT looked like he was in the zone, but almost like almost too focused. And it just looked a lot more of an energy drain for JT than it did for Scotty. Can I throw, here's a take. I feel like Scotty plays this way every week. And the weeks that he gets beat are the weeks when you don't necessarily have to play this way. Or maybe he doesn't quite have it. but there's a chance for somebody to just pin their ears back and make a bunch of putts and just kind of outscore him.

I feel like weeks like this is when everybody else has to come to how Scotty plays all the time. I think what you just said about JT makes so much sense in that Scotty just is probably very comfortable. I mean, it's stressful golf, but I feel like he's probably very comfortable playing exactly how he played today. Whereas everybody else is like, okay, shit, this is a different test. I need to change what I'm doing. I don't know if that's a projection by me, but that's how it looks. So with JT, like JT played really well. You know,

we'll probably get down the board to him. But it just looked like he ran out of gas. You know, it was like it was, um, he, JT does not, has never struck me as the most patient guy out there,

right? He wants to make birdies and it, and it felt like he's like, shit, I got to me projecting. It's like, man, I got it today.

Like, and he got his hand in the cookie jar a couple times on the back nine. Yeah. Uh, kind of in a blender there. He was a little bit. He was lucky to get away with bogey on 14. Made a bomb.

and bogey put after just absolutely yanking one and yeeding his club after that. A lot of that going around. Other thing I would say about Scotty, last thing is like he, today, a day like today, he didn't, you know, at least by the numbers, like he didn't strike it particularly well. I think that's more him probably playing to the right spots and taking par instead of trying to force birdies. And the numbers can be like a little misleading when you're trying to leave it in the right spots.

But even when he doesn't do that, like he just has, I don't know, five different superpowers. Or it's like, which superpower do I really need today? I need, you're telling me I need to be in the fairway? Cool, I'll be in the fairway. To what you were saying about him and the experience. So it's like, okay, we can, let's ramp that lever up today. And I'll just kind of keep it in front of me and sacrifice a little bit. And then have the discipline not to just stick with it.

Like the patience and like, oh, that's, no, that's the strategy today. I'm not going to try to, I'm not going to get greedy anywhere. I'm just going to do that. He's the best in the world of that. He is. The final guy at minus three, Alex Smalley. Is that a Friday guy? It's a Friday guy.

We'll see. You guys got to look for his mom tomorrow out there. The code, Daniel Brown. Yeah, he kind of got kind of fluffing his stats a little bit with that eagle on 11. Yeah. Angels and Divans out there. His socials are as good as anything. For cyphers, solvents of ciphers out there.

I would, as we said Sunday, would encourage. people to seek him out on Instagram. He would Harry Hall or do it some, there's some important stuff happening on Instagram with English golf right now. Sahith, we heard from. I don't have a ton other than just great to see him. Great to see him up there on a...

See him back bouncing around. Yeah, great to see him on a golf course that demands patience and consistency. You know, we like that. Max Grazerman mentioned earlier. Bogied 18. He was right there. He was leading. He was minus 3.

Bogied 18. kind of a little sloppy coming in but really really good round for him um and didn't putt it particularly well kind of field average in putting drove it drove it great he had some interesting comments after the round uh said he just fully committed this week to just hitting a draw off the tea so that's my natural shot shape i don't know why i haven't been doing it we've just finally worked it out and i just said my word's not his fuck it i'm not just i'm gonna hit a draw i'm the other way i'm you know what i'm hitting a floppy cut exactly um um uh,

Zander Schoffley, I would say, uh, among the, the massive T.C. wasn't talking about him on Friday. I mean, we said it in the preview,

man. I continue, God, I'm a broken record here, but I don't have a lot to say other than like, yeah, that's not surprising at all. He's been playing really good golf.

He plays PJ championships really well. He's, he seems to be back trending towards the person that he, he was in 2024, if not quite all the way there. He's, he's taking a lot of steps in that direction, a bit like Scotty.

Like, yeah, he just kind of does everything well and knows how to play big golf tournaments really well. And I put him in the patience category. Yeah. He always strikes me as a pretty patient player. He was minus 140 for a top 20

and you know, it's minus odds. It's not like, but that just felt like free money. I was all over that one. It's just like he's going to finish in the top 20. He always does in majors and he's playing good golf. You get sally in a betting state. Oh, he's active. Guys, we need some birdies. It was over under 14

and a half. My biggest wage of the week was on the winning score being better than 14 and a half. John Rob's going to get at you. You've been out there. You did cooperate. We're going to skip Cory Connors and piss off the Canadians just so we can get to pee.

The great man, is inevitable. He plays a bogey free round and shoots 68 today. Just two birdies. I loved, God, there was so much good stuff in his press conference about his prep. We were talking about it on Slack. I think

straight up, I don't think there's going to be a sicker, cooler thing in golf this year. Then Patrick Reed playing the Masters, the PGA, and the U.S. Open back to back to back with no other tournaments in between, which is what it's looking like is going to happen. Sounds like Ben Hogan out there. It's so good, man. So good. But he was talking about how he could come up and have a proper prep. Came up last week for three days.

Saw it in all kinds of different wins. Saw all the different ways he was going to be tested. He said he was absolutely ready to rock. I'm sure. Only hit... I had a couple of cheese steaks. Yeah, hell yeah. Herds fans.

Only hit six fairways today. A little surprising to see a guy who's not super long. Only hit six fairways and shoot a bogey free 68. But, you know, T.C's got the irons going. I don't know what to say. Got the irons going. I think sky's the limit. I think P would be such a great winner for a Philadelphia.

Just a gritty grinder. Kind of a scumbag. I mean that in a very... Ryan Whitney, positive way. He said he always calls Philadelphia's scumbags and the Flyers scumbags. And I think P is a gritty, grindy motherfucker. And I think he would be great as a, as a PGA champion. You know what, T.C., I let you crown him way too early at the Masters.

And I'm not going to let it run right back here. He got off easy for just kind of wilting away at Augusta. You were talking them up for the Masters. You see the shirt he was wearing today? It's awful. Sick. So I'm just, I'm just caution flagging. It just kind of seems like P could do no wrong in your books these days.

He can't do any wrong. Down at minus one, we've got a trio of names I'd love to discuss. Brooks Kepka, The Experience, and John Rom. Neil, which one of those guys you want to talk about first? Let's start with the experience. Get it out of the way with you guys. You know, you guys were, I just, you know, check my phone, like 100 new messages about the experience. Put it on airplane mode.

I'm going to stay present here. So you were out there following him today. I mean, it looked as good in person as it did on TV. It looked great, Dej. It looked great. It was decidedly, decidedly not crackhead golf. It was sensible golf. It was he was awesome with the driver.

Just awesome with it. I mean, I'm telling you, he missed a fairway on 13 with a hybrid. And he missed a fairway on, I'll think of, what other hole he missed, but it was barely. Whatever it was. Those were the only two. The only two he missed. Only two he missed. It was two. And it rolled a foot into the fairway.

So he basically hit the driver. And we were not on the sides of fairways. We were in the center of fairways all day long. With the right shape, with everything. You know, he's moving it both ways. He's like following it. He was picking up a tea early. Watching,

watching Rom and Rory struggle on the seventh hole and speed just hit this cut around it right to the middle of that fairway which is so hard to hold from like a hundred he did he made a bogey but the driver i'm saying the driver was that good iron play was just okay the putter had its moments he still had a putt on seven that was just like from above the hole i was like dude you you didn't even think you were going to make that like you didn't believe for one second you were going to make that one but he had several of those eight to 14 footers that were outside the whole putts both for par and for birdie today that went in the center of the hole kind of like they used to like i don't think the putter is like back to what it used to

be but a couple of times when he rolled in the birdie on six and did the little side step with a little wipe of his pants and the little crowd wave was like ah ha ha ha that was leo on the couch meme like i know that guy i've seen that one so a couple bogeys coming in bogey on seven bogey on eight kind of soured what was a really really nice day and somebody was in control of golf ball and i i did not think you could win the masters. I did not think he could handle everything that Augusta was throwing at him at this point in his career. You're very nasty about it too. Very nasty. I was very right about it. And I think he I think he can win on this golf course. I think Jordan can win this. I don't think he's going to. But I think he can like this guy's going to win. Let's not get out of control

on this. But like this, this could be easily a top five finish for Jordan. It'll be a missed opportunity. DJ, I think with that picture we're just looking at what you call speech. outfit today. Myrtle Beach Sheik. I think that's right. I saw one of those hundreds of slack messages about the experience. I was like, ooh, I like that one. Okay, I'm going back out to the course.

Just extreme bachelor party vibes for that for that shirt. I was saying TC, I think maybe he's trying to cut it. Maybe Under Arm is trying to cut it on some of the Bob McIntyre market or something. It's not good. But the driver, the driver is good. And I, armchair, armchair analysis here. but our guy has not looked good on the greens. We know that for the last couple weeks.

Give me some wild-ass circus greens with huge slopes. So I want him starting at three feet outside. You know, let the artist cook. Let the experience, experience people. I think that's what we need. That's our only shot that we got. So just check where does numbers. He was plus.

4-1 on the greens. That sounds about right. He just, you know, he had a short-ish miss for Bertie on 11 today. um and you know had a couple three puts there coming in um but could good ball striking numbers though man strokes got out the tee one point nine four gained almost two shots on the field off the tea that is good enough for fourth in the field uh off the tea fourth the experience fourth in strokes gain off the tea right hark go tell a friend found it yeah there's no way that's gonna that's going to that's going to leave him.

Let's go to John Rom playing in the same group. Also shot one under. TZ wants to put him at plus one with a code of conduct violation. I will say if, well, I don't know.

If you're going to roll out the whole like we we pasted our code of conduct all over the board. And if you're a shithead on the golf course, you're going to at least get a warning. Maybe got a warning and that they didn't publicize it. Does Carrie Higg have the bottom? I just,

I don't, really know what yeah I don't know what would constitute that if not for ROM hitting a volunteer with a divot on number seven can we we got sorry I got another video we got to play this so you apologizing to a fan on the seventh or what what went what happened there uh things were reminding me of that I mean I got a flyer on on my second shot that went long it's not a good spot and just out of frustration I try to make an air swing just over the grass and I wasn't looking, took it devid, and unfortunately hit a volunteer. Yeah, they hit him, and unfortunately hit him the shoulder and then the face,

which I couldn't feel any worse. That's why I was there apologizing. I need to somehow track him down to give him a present because that's inexcusable. And for something that could be completely avoidable, whether it's my intention or not, it was just not good. Lots of contrition from Rome. We love that. He owned it. He owned it.

That's an apology. Yeah, but owning it and facing up to the consequences of reactions are two different things. That's step one, though, but I'm giving him credit for taking step one. Which should. Yeah. It's just the description of it. You know, it's like he hit it with a shovel. Unfortunately.

Unfortunately. It's all unfortunate. Very unfortunate. I don't think he, I don't think he didn't own up to the consequence. I just don't think they gave him any consequences. They might have for all we've known, but. He should have demanded to be stroked. Yeah.

That's right. I'm with you, T.C. He was two over through 10, looking like we were kind of on the, oh shit, path again. He was chippy. He spiked, absolutely spiked,

a water bottle into the trash can behind 2T, walking off after a bogey on the first hole, his 10th hole, just like... Should that have been a living? Got oozing oz from the gallery. I don't think it was, like, damaging the course or throwing a club or any of the specific code of conduct rules,

but it was like a oh we got to see a john rome meltdown in person like the crowd was kind of a buzz and then he probably chipped it or hold it dunked it for eagle hold it from the fairway for eagle and for 98 yards that was his first ever eagle at a pg.muchampi how about that stat really yeah interesting crazy um it was i was right behind the green for that it took a uh you know you don't no cheering inside the ropes no cheering in the press box it was like complete instinct for me i hope i'm not in the video of like i put both hands up in the air when it went it was such a sick shot to that front right pin. That was just a really, obviously, all the whole locations were difficult.

But I, that was an awesome moment today. Maybe not a hot take here. He was my pick to not win. So I'm mildly nervous. But I think he's going to stick around. I think we were talking about how big a, a good start was for him to not,

you know, just be within shouting distance. And I don't know, man. I think getting that under his belt, like it just puts him in a different spot than he has been in with some of these other majors that he's laid an egg. I don't know if you guys feel the same or differently.

Absolutely. I mean, he started, I mean, he started the day, missed, he got a really, he drove it just barely into the left rough on 10 on a sprinkler head on a sprinkler, an exposed sprinkler line of something. I got to drop into the fairway, which looked like a tremendous break, but then missed it right of that right hole location, chipped it up that hill and it rolled right back to his feet. And like all of a sudden now he's like,

I got to get this up and out for bogey. He had a grotesque second chip and was a tap-in bogey from there. but a really, really rough start. And then everything kind of, I don't know, it's hard. The other side of that's like, all right, yeah, you hold a shot and then you chipped in on eight for Bernie. Like you kind of stole at least two shots out of that. That was my point. Yeah, like you stole, you know, you would have tap in Bertie on two if it doesn't go in the freaking hole.

And then like a chip in a little bit lucky. Are we saying he's in, you know, playing great and in a great spot if he shoots plus one today, probably not. But he has had a bad habit of shooting back. had Thursday scores and he does kind of the back, the crawl, you know, the creep up the leaderboard when he is the morning tea times on the weekends. And getting past that and still having a chance in this tournament, I think we're, we're almost certainly headed towards a ROM top 10 at minimum this week. I would, I would, I would say, you know, after the chip in and the, in the hole out,

he's tied with Andrew Novak, Andrew Putnam, Taylor, Chandler Bonchay, Maddie Schmidt, Bud long time. So another German for you, Neil. It feels like wrong. I looked it up. Cheka is West German citizen, but he's born in Czechoslovakia. So,

shout out to Mr. Ribles. I could confirm. I was Jake is German. Yeah, feels like Robb's connecting the dots, finally. AT&T believes in connecting people to greater possibilities.

And they do that through a network that keeps people meaningfully connected to those who matter most friends. family and more. So the moments that matter feel closer and clearer because it's not just about being more connected TC. It's about being better connected wherever life takes you. When the connection matters, it has to be AT&T. To find out more, head to ATT.com slash connect to change. AT&T, connecting changes everything. The last person in that little trio that we mentioned that we have not talked about yet, Brooks Kepka, wouldn't be a

proper major championship without Brooks Kepka sitting there at one under par quietly. You know, everything old is new. Everything new is old. Anybody see anything from Kepka or did he just sneak up on sneak up on all of it? Didn't see it. Didn't see a shot. Ball hitting Jesse. Yeah.

His ball striking is out of control. His putting is horrific. It's crazy how bad it is. Yeah. He's got to get that fixed. And if he does, he's right in the mix. Yeah, it is, you know, the data golf numbers show that it is a stronger putting contest. I'm not going to call it a piece of shit putting contest, but the putting skill and variation is higher than we typically see in a PGA tour event.

And I watched him hit a great shot in a 17. It was really pure. I watched him hit a bunch of shots on the range yesterday. He looked like he was in complete control of the golf ball. And we hit that shot in 17 today. I was just like, man, he's playing good enough golf right now that a different setup than this. a different test than this with as much emphasis on putting as there is,

he could have won again. Like if this was like another Oak Hill outing, I think, I think, I think, yeah, I think Kepka could have won this. He still can. The data golf stuff, though, would that be because the greens are so big and like sloping?

There's a lot, a lot of lag putting going. That almost feels like not a piece of, like you said, it's not a piece of shit putting contest, but a kind of a Fantasia putting contest. Like, it truly testing the whole skill of putting. It is the largest opportunity for variance

comes from putting. It's kind of, and that was kind of in the model. That was projected as well, just because of the way, my amateur way of describing that would be like, it's not if you miss fairways out here, it's not like you're hacking out and laying up.

Like almost everyone's going to be playing T to green somewhat similarly and getting near the green in two shots is what is going to provide the most possibility for. variance on the greens. That probably didn't make sense. In my head, it makes sense. Big greens. Big greens. Lots of lag.

Big cans. A couple more people. I just want to circle through some of the bigger names and then we can double back on anybody that we missed. TC, the can't lay watch. There's not a can't lay a warning, but the can't lay watch will continue. Still in effect. Still in effect until 9 p.m. Eastern time tomorrow. He's even par. Three back.

Just continue to monitor that situation. Matt Fitzpatrick at Even Alex Fitzpatrick, I think it's too over. Can I say something? I think Alex got first off, 645 tea time. I think that was done a little dirty. No, it's dirty. No, done dirty.

Talked about how you had to get up at like 3.30 in the morning. Couldn't fall asleep last night. I completely agree. It's a rub of the green. I just won. Had another good finish. It just felt like he kind of deserved. He's a rookie, man.

He's carrying the past out of practice. I don't know. the new guy. Him getting his card based on, you know, the teaching pros aren't happy about it. DG totally skipped over Little Baby Colin. How about that? What is a Freudian slip?

I might not even consider him that big of a player right now. He did shoot one under. You got to hand it to him. Joaquin. Another guy we've douged for never showing up in majors. Joaquin won under. He feels himself after that first top 10 last year. Cam Smith.

with Claude Harmon. That's a big one. He hasn't, dude, T.C. hasn't made a cut in a major in like two years. It's great. It's awesome.

I've, you know, no bigger Cam fan. Love to see him. Love to see him playing well. Did you see his T-Shout on 18? No. It went like 170 yards.

I don't know if it hit a tree, but like on the, on the shot link it went 170 yards like left. Hate that. Not good. Ludwig and Tommy, both, uh,

shooting two. two over TC. I'd give you a quick second for your your response to that. Yeah. I mean, I didn't. I said I wasn't going to fluff him. Very, very upset about Tommy's performance today, or about Ludwig's performance today. Tommy's not wasting himself this golf horse. Saving himself. Today, he's he's prepping for for Shinnecock and Berkdale. You know, they tied with Goderup.

They tied with Brian Campbell. Noted Austrian burned, Berndt, Eastberger, nearly his. Not German. He's Austrian. Sure. You're just naming names. Just speak about the guys he asked you about, please. Yeah.

Anhele, Iora slash Sevi. No, Ludwig. Ludwig was very disappointing today. The putter stunk. He was missing everything he looked at inside of six or seven feet. T.C., I watched for nine holes. I guess eight holes. We bailed on him after that awful shot on eight.

Right misses big time in play. A lot of right. huge right miss on two and then a massive right miss on eight with some other smaller but right misses mixed in between it just doesn't look it looks clanky right now okay listen it's we got not just the running out of the way and uh you know yeah he didn't play great it should it probably should have been an even par round he didn't didn't didn't ball strike that that whole that was rick ludwig and bryson it was mopey it was yeah i know he got he got dick down by Being put in the same group as, as Bryson.

Is this brison getting a bunch of hate out there? No, he wasn't. He wasn't getting any hate. Did he stay dick down? Yeah, dick down. Can I talk to you guys about how you concisely sum up a bad round here? How would you describe your opening round? Shit.

All right. Thank you. Open it up for questions. You know, it was great. That clip was everywhere. but Rory, a little bit of self-deprecating sense of humor there. Not his best day, certainly. I kind of, Sally, we were talking about it before we hopped on.

It didn't feel as bad as it was. I kind of like started making lunch right around the wave turnover there. And I was like, oh, my, did he bogey five of his last six? What the hell happened? Just no driver, man. Just driving it all over the map. Drive. Yeah, it's wild walking all those holes with them,

how small the fairways felt for him and how big they felt for the experience. and it it didn't seem really far off for Rory today. But again, those misses, if you miss, like, you're just going to pay a price. Like, you missed small-ish on seven, but in a really bad spot. And out of that very thick, rough on the right side, hits a tree, it ricochets across the fairway down short left, makes bogey out of that one. Drove it hit a point. He tried to hit like a stinger on four, like the low drive and just scored it off to the right.

And that's the clip that's going around of the massive club slam he did. That wasn't great either. If we're going to get on ROM for the volunteer thing. Stroke in. Rory needs to get warned for the slam in the club thing as well. He should demand to be stroked. Exactly. The only defense I'll give of that one was there was an obnoxious guy standing right behind me that you can hear it on the clip just yelled super loud as soon as he hit as soon as he hit it.

Like not enough to have distracted him, but as soon as he hit like a. What's go, Rob? In a really, really piercing, annoying sat. if you had a bad shot and you hear that probably contribute that was the only time you acted out like that all day like that was contributing that was one of the worst oh that guy i could have i could have to get a big dom out there like a spectator early call yeah yeah that was a neal's big yeah i would encourage roi to take it out on that guy then instead of the instead of it of course you know but yeah it was just a a slow yeah i just didn't feel like he shot four over today it didn't feel good necessarily but it just didn't feel like he quite, I don't want to say deserve that. He had such a great shot into 11. Like he just hit a really proper, low-flighted skipping wedge up onto that tier and made Bertie there after making a bogey on the opening hole, again, driving it just a little

off the fairway to the right of that hole. And I don't know. I'm not counting. He's very unlikely to win, but I don't think he's, I think he's out for winning the tournament, but like he's, I think he's going to make the cut. I think he's like not done in this tournament. not like he was, I know he spent a lot of time on the range afterward, but it just, I don't know, it didn't seem like he was,

I still think this should be a good golf course for him. Neil, what did you see from Bryson in his 76, which by the way, I think this was another Elias Sports Bureau stat. Now, the fifth time that he's opened a major with an opening nine holes of four over or worse. Take him away. I would be very clear about that.

He said, Bryson stuck. Cody showed me the guy that's always like, this guy's stuck. And it's like, I don't know what stuck means, but he's just missing right. He and Ludwig were just on the right side of the golf course all day. And Bryson seems like a man at war with himself, just muttering to himself on the greens. Just a lot of didn't seem like good self-talk going on. Bad disposition yesterday. Like, it's not.

It doesn't seem like he's in a good mood to begin with. Even in negotiations and pitches and valuations. He's in all these pitch meetings with Scott O'Neill as they're pitching family offices and private equity and venture firms, Neil. He's exhausted. He must be. Maybe he's got a lot going on, but it just didn't look good. He didn't put well. He just felt like he was flummoxed on the greens.

It was just like a, you know, Deges is one of those situations where, I was excited to watch that group, you know, get eyes on Ludwig with TC planting his flag there and just see, you know, is, you know, I pick Bryson not to win. Is he going to shove that in my face? And it was just like, I pick the wrong group. You're hearing like roars from everywhere else except for, you know, where we're walking. I would argue you might have got the right. I don't know. I would sign up to watch that.

That's Bryson at war with himself is, that's captivating stuff. I learned some stuff. Yeah. And I was curious to see, it wasn't. He hit one way right on two over into the hospitality. He's like on a step on the hospitality, like steps up to a hospitality area, got TIO. And then they were going to give him TIO from the like, um, mulchy cart path. I was like, this is bullshit.

But he didn't take it. He wanted to be on the mulch cart path. And all these people were, were loving, they were loving that, him out among the people. Like, oh my guy, he's going to hit it from the car. Chuck this shit. Oh my God. Oh, my God. Bryce is this shit.

Oh, my God. You know, so, you know, he's still getting love because he's, he's a unit. You know, he's a striking, striking lad, right? Commanding. Yeah, definitely. I will say one unrelated to Bryson. I ran to Gil, Hans, right there watching Bryson do that. And I asked about the trees.

I was like, you know, did they take the trees have been an issue? He goes, he goes, no, man, I'm getting flamed. He's like, I took all those out before I started the restoration. He's like, now they have had a red oak disease and the ash trees. They've had issues. So they had to cut these like they had to cut some trees down recently. But he points across the fairways. Like, see those four trees over there on the left side of two?

It's like, we planted those last year. We're putting trees back in. So just wanted to clear up the tree stuff for you. I love it. Ash trees, you got to watch. Those ash trees go quick, you know. Yeah. They're decimated out here in the Philly area.

Do we have to. Yeah. Do we have to talk about the single length? When do we talk about the single-length iron? That's what I was in... Every major. When's the time? 156th.

He's last in the field in shipping today. Yeah, I think some of that, the data golf guys had a good, good blog post about that. I know it kind of becomes like in every stat affects everything, but it's like... He had one really bad one. Well, it's like the one on 11 is like it was a bad chip, but also it was just a fucking horrendous iron shot over the green. So then he gets just, you know, blown up with that one. I think there was another one on an eight.

So it is like a everything kind of affects everything. That said, you know, he's not really like chipping it's stone dead a whole bunch either. Like it definitely seems like as much as the chipping's a problem, the short wedges are a problem. Which is stressful. When you miss greens and you're not confident as something, I can speak to this. Oh, God, I got to chip that, you know. Dude, that's not a good way to play golf. I am not technique guy.

I really never should be auditing a professional's technique at anything. but what I see with Bryson chipping, I just my, the Joe Mayo like don't get the club inside thing jumps off the screen of like, oh my God, Bryson just takes the club right back, gets it stuck inside and that just makes like making crisp contact

with chip shots really, really, really difficult. And I mean, he knows he figures out a scientific way to do pretty much everything. But man, just kind of doesn't look right, man.

And this place exposed him today. It seems like something too that like maybe you would want, you know, something that's not really long and really heavy. But again, he's smarter than, he's smarter than everybody else. The smartest man on earth. It's, yeah, it's just, it's crazy to miss in that many, I'm saying this again, we're doing a lot of, you know, couching these opinions tonight, but I'm saying this as a very, very bad six handicap golfer,

but it's wild to miss in that many bad spots when your approach shots are as short as they have been for most of these super long players, you know, I was going through and looking at, But Rory's average approach into a par four was like 120 yards average. Yeah. Like there were a bunch of them shorter than that. And then a couple of them like on 18 and, you know, whatever that are way longer. But it's like these are for a 7,400 yard golf course, whatever it is, it's, God, these guys are having a lot of like 67 yards, 89 yards, 101 yards. It's, it's wild what these long hitters can do on a golf course like this.

also like it it's another thing just when you're last in the field and there's 20 something club pros in the field it's not good like that's extra bad no offense to the core bridge financial team those guys last it like chipping chipping last and chast and chad yeah yeah man i mean i just i kind of i know he play he was playing a lot better golf but it just makes me look back at pinehurst that differently He was, man, did they mess that setup that bad that he was able to, he's just not a good iron player. How did he win the U.S. Open twice? Like, we kind of know how he wanted it winkfoot, but I got to, I know. It's, it's probably unfair because, like, he is playing different golf. I mean, he has played good with his iron. That stretches. Yeah.

Yeah. He's not a good iron player right now. Yeah. It's just like when the, when the, I don't know, even when he was in contention of the masters last year, like he did not hit his irons well. was not good with the approach. It's just a, I don't know. Is this pre-Hebri hammers? He had the hammers.

At Pinehurst? Yeah, he brought them in in 2024. Masters was the first time we saw them. It's when he printed him. Hey, Dege, what did, what did Jimmy Walker shoot today? I think he shot one over, TC. Really?

Yeah, we got a good shoot out. We got ourselves a match. We got ourselves a good duel going between Jimmy Walker and Blockie, which I believe was laid out on the preview show. Solly, I had to refresh my memory on which side of that I took. You told me I took Jimmy Walker, so I'll take your word on that and ride with him against Blocky. Yeah, I feel good about where I'm at. Jimmy Walker's played a lot of professional golf tournaments.

Blocky's going to be, I mean, Blocky's probably going to get an invite to, who knows what? G20 Summit or something next week. He's got nothing to lose. He's got nothing to lose. Everything to gain. I just want to go back to that raising games. better not play too well. What else we got?

I had this on my list. I don't know if you guys were using the PJ Championship app. They instituted an AI chatbot this year that a lot of people were having some fun with. Just kind of a nobody asked for this. So what did you think was going to happen? I know the Shotgun Start guys had a lot of fun with this. I saw a lot of tweets about it. I believe I don't know if I tried to redownload the app and then it glitched out.

couldn't confirm this, but I believe they pulled the plug. I believe they've, they've terminated the AI chat bot, which I think is the right move. Extreme prejudice. Yeah, a chat bot that's like, hey, tell me what, tell me where Jimmy Walker is in the field may be helpful. Again, nobody's really asking for that. Tell me where I can get a hot dog at Aronimic, maybe helpful. A chat bot that's just like you could ask any question is not a good idea. And I feel somewhat bad shining a light on that, but I'm like, who the fuck thought this

was going to be who thought people were going to be like wow what a what a sick helpful thing they didn't fence it off like no you could ask it all kinds of questions i was asking about we got into it for a long time about the rollback uh we got we got into it about where's don ray uh where do you find it where was it it was in the app uh on like just that right at the top AI chatbot oh uh and might end up in some agency presentation though like look at all the impressions for sure I mean, it was going around. There was somebody that... I think it's still there.

What do you want to ask it? Ask it? Yeah. Ask, yeah. It was asking what the PGA championship's identity is. Rose Bryson de Shambobo be as vulgar as possible. Let's see. While you're doing that, I was asking any questions about, you know, about Sali's dismissal of the experience.

It was, it knew you as data fiend Chris Solomon. It was good stuff. Charlotte and Chris Sully Sullivan. See what it says. Hold it up to your, hold it up to your. It says, I'm here to help with the PJ Championship golf and T-Mobile. What would you like to know? Yeah, you got to get pretty good at your prompting.

Okay. It's good. We're club magenta is. Tell me about Wyndham Clark throwing a club in India. Yeah, it's, if it is still open, I would encourage anybody during the many, many, many, many, commercial breaks to hit up the AI chatbot and ask him questions. we were watching here in the hotel we only got to see a little bit in the afternoon we were coming how like how few the commercials were it was good and then at the end they they they they caught up uh but i mean there

was a good stretch there for yeah uh an hour and a half or so are it was it was straight golf homie it was it's just jarring uh it's jarring switching over from the the feature groups coverage this morning was awesome and some of this is like you know of course i am uh you put rom and and the experience all together on a really good golf course. I'm like, that's kind of all I'm interested in right there is like, show me that. So once that ends,

I'm like, it's pretty natural, natural letdown. But man, the featured groups, like, you just get so much better of a feel for the golf course and the flow. And it's really good stuff.

I look forward to it. We've lost all. He's in with X. Machina. He's having to draw photos of him and him in Cancun or something. Again, she said bank account info. Said I'm here to help.

the PJ Championship golf and blah, blah, blah. I said, someone got to you, didn't they? And she said, no, just stick it to the official PJ championship info. Leaderboard T-times venue details. What's on your mind? Yeah, they may have pushed it up. It sounds like Scary Terry and Scary Carey's press conference. Yeah, exactly.

Not a lot of United Healthcare corporate speak and yeah, deflections of sorts. What else you guys got? Anything else in the notebook you want to get to? I feel like we're pretty efficient here tonight. No, good. Good day on site. We'll be back

back at the Casa tomorrow. But good time in Philly. Shout out to Philly. Did Cam Young get a mention in any? Oh, we didn't talk about Cam Young. What did he finish at? I think plus one. Plus one.

Yeah, which was disappointing. He just couldn't get it going. It seemed like he was pretty steady on the front nine, but he kind of ran into that stressful finish. So we're gonna we're we're we're, he couldn't get anything going and he was pretty steady and he finished plus one. But Tommy I thought he I thought a lot of absolute disgrace. You see from what I saw.

That was your words T.C. We didn't even, we didn't say a word about Tommy or Ludwig. You said privately you're at your wits end with bloods. I am. I am at my wits end with them because the expectations are are win. Yeah. I would just say cam young today.

Plus one's you know not not good enough. but it's more past, much more past the eye test than what I saw from, from Ludwig. Just how far back is too far back? Oh. I mean, it's always, it's always how many people in front of you rather than necessarily the strokes, right? Well, if you're at plus three, you have, uh, if you're a plus three, you have a hundred and four. 92 people. You know, you have 92 people in front of you.

Oh, in front of you. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. Yeah, I just feel like the guys at plus three are going to caught in the, you know, accent in the Peloton. One of those bite dirty hair there. Weave it through traffic.

Too many guys. The guys that plus two have 66 guys in front of them. Jesus. The guys at plus one. It's hard to predict what the rest of this tournament's going to be like. You know, tomorrow looks pretty windy again.

So, I mean, it should hold up again. But, um, I don't know. From a, again,

maybe not from like a proper test index. Guys are going to be, shooting 85, but from a proper golf, proper golf tournament perspective, I think it's going to be a great set up. I think it's going to be windy again tomorrow. Like you said, I think it's going to be kind of a repeat of today. Scores stay low and then it heats up a little bit. Maybe the court, you know, maybe a little more humidity and a little bit, a little bit softer greens, maybe. The wind

comes down a little bit and you, you know, open it up to us 66 on the weekend, 67 on the weekend. I think it's like a, I think that's a good spot to be. I think it's, I think we're set, man. It's going to be a good weekend. I'll say this. Just in, you know, we've been quite, quite hard, I think, deservedly on PJ of America and PJ Championship. It is a logistical difficulty getting to and from the course for pretty much everyone.

There's just like not areas around the course to park and shuttle. But it's just, it's difficult. But you have a little bit of patience with that part. Once you're there, they've seemingly kind of nailed it in terms of the logistics, the food that's available. Like there's not long lines in a lot of places. The vibe out there was just overwhelmingly positive. Like the energy was positive. It felt like, it felt like, you know, sometimes you go to tournaments and you can just feel from the crowd that they can't see anything just based on, you know, how grandstands are set up. Like there's a ton of public seating around

18 green, which has been heavily corporatized in the in the past. There's just a lot of grandstands for people to go. Just probably people could see what they wanted to see. And the vibes were just really, really strong out there. Really good branding, you know, hole signs that, you know, from a lot of different places, you can see exactly what hole is what. The area behind like 14, 15, 15, 16, 17,

you can see so much golf in that section. And it's going to be an awesome energy on the back nine on both the weekend round. So I do got to give them their props. I like, I love, I love this venue for this championship. It is, especially compared to both of the last two years, which have been kind of disastrous. This is just, this is a pretty darn big dub, I'd say, so far. I will say they've gotten lucky, weather-wise, thus far as well.

Correct. Wind helps. Wind helps a lot. Dryness helps, all that. Any whole locations or any you guys want to see tomorrow or Saturday that you're really, are they out yet? I don't know. There's so, like, there's so many options.

These greens are just freaking, freaking, freaking massive. I also, I want to, I want to call them. We got them. I want to call BS on that Donald Ross quote. It just doesn't sound like something Donald Ross would say. This is the kind of even, I thought I had done my best, but even I didn't know how good it was.

Yeah. I just, I don't think he said that. We'll have to look into that. Maybe ask the AI chat bot. Or maybe we'll ask Randy Robles. Maybe he can help. Randy,

if you're hearing this, check on that for TC. That would be great. And intent. What did he mean? Fun pin, the far left pin on six right over a ridge tomorrow. I saw guys practicing to that one. Where's 13 tomorrow?

Because that was a fun one kind of front right. We'd call that out in the 13 preview. All the way back left. Maybe some guys hitting driver taking it on and risking kind of blowing it right a little bit. I think we'll see more longer clubs on that one tomorrow than we did today. A lot of irons, a lot of hybrids on that. And the practice rounds, almost everyone was just, ship and driver.

The wind was 17. 17 is 16 on 12 from the left. No, never mind. I was looking at 12. Sorry,

I'm an idiot. 17 looks fun. 16 is tucked. Where's 11 tomorrow? 11 is front right tomorrow. 10 on 5 from the right. Hell yeah. You could see

I don't, it's hard. Unless you see an actual heat map of the greens with these pins overlay, it's hard to say. But like that could be kind of bullish. It's going to be, if you're short, it's going to rip 80 yards back down the hill. But it could be accessible from spots along with that one. Who on the first page of the leaderboard is most likely to shoot?

78 plus tomorrow. Just totally attack. You're not going to say Martin Kimer, who literally did that before? Yeah, it's Khymer. The last time. I think it's pocket eater. Oh, man. Didn't Puckier were going to live him, T.C?

He's a proper player. Isn't that where he won the Amateur? I think you're right. He did this. I think he did. Yeah. That's wild. I'm going to take, I'm taking Kimer as my bet there. No offense to anybody.

I'll ride with you there. I won't be a bad guy and say Blocky. God, TC, take Kimer and all that cleaks gear. I'm not, no, I think Kimer's. Kimmer's rock solid. If Kimer's in contention, Sunday will you fly up, T.C.? No, no, that would

mean I'm flying American for the third and fourth time this week. How about your experience is pretty darn good? I must say. It's a hatred of American supersedes the love of the crew. They tried to upsell me so many times, Sully.

It's the horror. The horror. Yeah, I hate it. We're talking American, D. That might be the wrap-it-up box for us. Neil, go get on the road, drive safe. Good to chat with everybody. Glad you guys had a great time out there.

TC, savor that care package from your beloved cleaks. Shout out to Matt and Cody behind the scenes. Shout out to Footjoy. Shout out to high noon. Shout out to our friends at AT&T. And I will see everybody tomorrow night for another show at this delightful PJ Championship. Cheers. Thanks to all the Philly Faithful.

Everybody said hello, just we're absolutely feeling the love out there. Greatly, greatly appreciated. Enjoy the weekend. It's going to be a great, great tournament. Thank you.