No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 835 - PGA Championship Preview

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

The PGA Championship begins Thursday at Valhalla and we kick off the week with our preview pod with a thorough look at the odds sheet, our picks to win (and not to win), a power ranking of the courses hosting the PGA during the 2020s, listener questions and more. We close the pod with a deep dive into the 2014 PGA Championship with Rory's win at Valhalla (52:30). If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining The Nest: No Laying Up’s community of avid golfers. Nest members help us maintain our light commercial interruptions (3 minutes of ads per 90 minutes of content) and receive access to exclusive content, discounts in the pro shop, and an annual member gift. It’s a $90 annual membership, and you can sign up or learn more at nolayingup.com/join Support our partners: Titleist - the number one ball in golf Rhoback - code NLU for twenty percent off your first order through the end of this week Precision Pro - code NLU for twenty dollars off the purchase of an NX10 rangefinder Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. Johnny, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different? Better than most. Expect anything different. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast.

Solly here joined by my guys, the Carter brothers. TC, hello Mr. TC. Solly, what's poppin'? Don't answer that. Jack Harlow, Louisville, Louisville native. Neil's guy, Jack Harlow. Nobody's a huge fan. No, I'm not. I just, the new balance commercial is really, really off putting for me. Anyway,

I'm also here. PGA championship preview major championship week. This episode is of course brought to you by our friends at title. It's the number one ball in golf and the number one choice of players this week at the PGA Championship. Major conditions demand that top players in the world bring their absolute best from T to green. It's why the overwhelming majority of players across the worldwide professional tours, including seven of the top 10 in the world, put their trust in a Pro V one or Pro V one X golf ball. 14 of the 20 PJ club

professionals who earned a spot this week at Valhalla will be playing a titleist. It's why in the game's biggest moments, more of the best choose the superior performance, quality and consistency of the number one ball in golf. Visit Titleist.com to start the fitting process and find out which Titleist golf ball is right for your game. First question, we had to send it to our guy Neil. We haven't heard a lot from you. You've been kind of out in the, you know, on the main pod lately. How's the sleep schedule? How's dad life? Just, just update the viewers and listeners on, on how everything's going. It's going well. I was just chatting with Sally beforehand. We're starting to get, you know, some decent sleep. You know, I got the dog. I'm kind of, I'm not the dog man. Carson's been awesome. She's handling the night shift. And he's going like, you know, nine to two or three and then two or

three to six. And so we're kind of, you know, we're doing we're doing well. Obviously, that can change, you know, heartbeat, you know, the minute I knock on wood, the minute I say that I'm gonna be full steam ahead this week on all the live shows, I'm sure little PD is gonna turn into the Loch Ness monster. But no, things are good. You know, guys, I'm so twisted around on what to do with the block party. You know, it's just Rory just making things very difficult.

I can't quit him. So lots to talk about today. Fired up to be here. Lots to talk about. We're going to preview some of our top storylines. We're going to talk a little bit about Valhalla, of course. We're going to go through some odds. We've got a couple segments. Of course, you probably can predict what they are. And then we are going to take some listener questions as well as do a deep dive back into 2014.

KVV and I usually do these kind of old major breakdowns, but kind of incorporating a little something fun in these next few where within our previews and making special episodes that are related to major championships that have been at this venue, I'm going to go back. I went back into 2014, found some very fun stuff. One of the first deep dives I've gone back into on something that existed since we've been around. We have the tweets to prove it. It's a lot of fun. Some interesting stuff is going to pop up, so stay tuned for that. But I'm going to throw it to you first, Neil. We're going to go around the horn. Each of us are going to come up with a list of the things we're most intrigued by the storylines that we're most excited about that, you know,

have us pumped up for this week. What's your number one number one thing off the board? What are you pumped about this week? I don't know if I'm pumped about it. But you know, the block party is on top of my list. What's is it just feels like the table set we've I feel like I've said this for eight straight Masters, but like Rory in a comfortable course coming off of Quail Hollowin, it's probably going to be soggy. It all sets up for him.

But I'm going to throw a curve ball at you, TC. I think the question is, fool me once, shame on me. You're not going to fool me again. Brooks, what is Brooks up to? I feel like last year didn't see it coming. I'm wondering. I think Brooks is, he feels like a massive storyline. Got a win on Liv a little while ago.

Feels like he's rounding into form. I don't know. The duel between Rory and Brooks is up there and I know I'm leaving out another big, big game. You're doing the TC thing. You gotta pick a storyline here, man. One. All right. You're doing the TC thing. You gotta pick a storyline here, man. One. All right.

You're pissing all over the whole board, just marking your territory. You know what? We're done. You're moving on from you. You blew it. You did the TC thing. Listen, I'm rusty.

I'm coming off paternity leave. What are we gonna attribute to him? I'm giving him, I don't even know. That doesn't even count. Rory, give me the block party. Give me the block party. Rory. TC, what are you? I think Rory is the storyline. There you go. TC. Man, So even worry. Give me the block party. Give me the block party. Roaring TC. What do you think Rory?

I think Rory is the storyline. There you go. TC and Sally. It sounds, it sounds like the block party is super. Yeah. We'll get into that. It's Scotty. I mean, Scotty coming back off of allegedly a birth.

We haven't heard anything. But allegedly I would assume if he's teeing it up this week that, that they welcomed a little person into their family. But yeah, that's it. I don't think I need to expand on that that much farther. Yeah, I'm gonna actually just combine the two of yours and just expand on that just a little bit, other than to say like, just don't forget about that Scotty guy. Everything, literally the only thing that maybe could stop is a huge change in life routines. But I don't know if the kids been around long enough to really change a whole heck

of a lot of that, maybe a couple nights of bad sleep. But I assume getting away from the child, I assume they're not bringing the child with them to the PGA this week. Gonna be able to sleep okay, get a little rest and he's that dude. I mean, he does it week in and week out. There are no off weeks for this guy. That's why it's just, I think I'd think of it differently. If this was like peak Rory in 2014, kind of going through something like this, like he didn't do this every single week like Scotty does. And it still goes through

him. Rory one last week, no Brooks, no Ram, no Ludwig, no Scotty. Like I'm not taking anything away from Rory. I think there's a lot of reasons to like what's going on into this. But yeah, it's still run through Scotty, but I want to, while we're on the Rory. I think there's a lot of reasons to like what's going on into this. But yeah, it still runs through Scotty. But I want to, while we're on the Rory thing, I, I, I'm very conflicted on this because I've said this many times and I've actually gone, I've, I've gone snip snap on the, the vasectomy on this one as well to say, I'm not going to try to predict Rory's next major win. Like I'm just, when it happens, I'll, I'll be there when it happens. I'll be very excited about it, but I'm just done trying to pick it. This looks like a really obvious one and it but it would take a major

reversal of a very real narrative like it's been 10 years. It's been a long time we there's been excitement leading up into majors like this one for Rory granted, Quail Hollow and Valhalla are remarkably similar in terms of the skills that they test and the success he's had on both of them. But the cop I actually came up with was, Rory has said this himself. He said, I feel like I'm trying to win my first major again.

And so, instead of trying to find the comparison of somebody that went a long time in between them, I went back to Phil. Phil won 22 times on the PGA Tour before he won his first major in 2004. And Rory has won, I think, 17 times in between these majors. And the narrative is like, can he do it in a major now? Can he do it?

And like, the question I'm now asking myself is, as bad as I've felt about him coming into so many majors, it's like, can this go on forever? Like, do we think he's done winning majors? And I don't, I personally don't think he's done many majors. It's just really hard to predict when it's gonna happen. But it's all- It seems like he's gotten better as a golfer.

I would tend to think so. And he's playing a very again, quail hall was firm last week. Like that was a little different. Val Hall has got some differences that we'll talk about a little more rough around the greens, which I don't really know if it plays in his favor or not. I don't have a clear answer on that one. But gosh, there's just there's a lot of reason to think that it very easily could flip this week. And but again, I just I remember that Thursday feeling on the live show of just how did I fall for it again? Damn it. Like how how did I possibly do it? So I'm still

flip flopping back and forth on this. I'd still like to attend the block party. There's like a mate. Can I send them maybe in honestly, the Refuge, our message board, they've already said that you were not invited. The Block Party Planning Committee has rescinded your invite, Solly. You don't have to talk to them. But I think everything you said is very well said. And what I'm most worried about is that I'm going to have too much scar tissue and the most obvious chance of like, oh, of course he's going to win is the time I'm like, Nope, I'm not doing it. I'm out. It's not going to happen. So I don't know. We'll have to get to our picks at the end of the show here. Um, to,

so just recapping, we're drafting storylines here. So far Rory and Scotty have been drafted. Like, where do you want us to go with that? No, that's, that's what I just want to talk about. Discussion points here. I would say TC, my, what I was trying to get out with my first one and I, I'm sorry that I pissed all over the board was it's nice to have, we have some big names in form playing well. It's a collision course.

That's the storyline to me. I feel like it's like, Oh my God, we've got like the dude, Scotty. We're not even talking about him. And then you've got Brooks who won last year. And finally you got Rory, like kind of, you know, back to like a little bit of a pimp step and like, he's a front runner and he's feeling good. And he's coming off a course that's very similar in a lot of ways. And it feels like, like a legitimate chance. It feels less like hoping and more like, oh man, he's he if he's ever going to do it, like place where he's won one before like this is this is it, man. This is really good.

And I know we've probably said that before, but it's exciting. It's got me jacked up for the week. Totally. We're gonna have a lot to talk about either way on that, right? That's that's how you know, you've got a good storyline. Can I toss out another storyline I'd like to draft? And I want to give a shout out to at Sammy Johnston. He asked like, who are we monitoring for the Stu Sync unfinished business tracker of the week? I've got a few here. I mean, the easy answers would be Ricky and Phil.

I feel like JT, maybe some unfinished business from childhood. I don't know. But I think my answer would be Xander, just ongoing unfinished business on Sundays in contention. You can go ahead and log my top five play for Xander this week. It's, it's might be the safest bet in golf right now. But he's playing great golf. You look at the numbers, he's right up there with, with Scotty. And it's like he, Scotty Rory and, and Xander are just kind of, uh, pretty far ahead of everybody else from a Strokes Gain standpoint. Yeah. I mean, I'm getting to the point with Xander where it's like, there's so much unfinished business that he's starting to get liens piling up against him because he's not finishing projects. No, he's like a contractor. He finishes the main stuff,

but then he's got like these little, he's not doing the punch, the punch list. There's like a contractor. He finishes the main stuff, but then he's got like these little, he's not doing the punch, the punch list. There's like little ticky tack cabinet issues. Oh no, I'll come back in and put the, the, you know, the knobs on the drawers. He's just not doing that stuff. It's tough. Kind of what I was getting at with, with the Rory thing here of like with, with just because it's been a certain way up to a certain point, doesn't mean it's going to be that way forever. Right? Like again, do we think Xander wins a major? I said this last night on the show, like I do think he wins one, right? So it's a little interesting to note again, he's

playing the best golf he's played in his career. He's longer than he's ever been. Like he's still taking like a newer approach into majors of like this length at a place where length is really going to play. He's kind of got this newish style of play like it's very different. His ball speed compared to how it's been in prior years. And also what Valhalla does is it moves on a regular PGA Tour round of golf. You know, you would expect to hit, I think the numbers like six shots between 100 and 150 yards. Valhalla takes two of those out and adds them

to the plus 200 category, meaning you're going to hit more 200 yard shots compared to a normal PGA Tour round and less sounds like a Luke Donald setup. It's less to a 100 to 150. And Xander is literally 99th percentile from outside of 200 yards. And so that's to say, like, this is going to be a really, really freaking good course fit for Xander as well. A lot of guys as well, a lot of the most, like, stereotypical profiles of the top pros are going to play well here. But again, I don't think people have talked enough about how much longer Xander has gotten

and to like his approach play has been ridiculous. So do I think he can like stare down Scotty? I'd be really surprised. I really would, but I'd be stunned if he doesn't play great this week. Yeah. It kind of gets to like, you know, at some point you can get yourself in the battle, but do you really want to be in that battle? And, and I think we saw that a little bit at the Masters with certain guys, right? But yeah, I mean, it's solid. It sounds like a

European Ryder Cup setup. They're trying to, trying to get some of these American guys outside of that, that, you know, wedge distance and get some real golf clubs into their hands. You know, are you leading, going distance and get some real golf clubs into their hands. Yeah. Are you leading going somewhere with that or? I wasn't. I just wanted to throw that in there. Just ask. I just want to say it twice. Not even ask you questions.

Just, just make it statements. We've talked, we've talked to Brooks. I think somebody who's primed, I think I'm going to get on this block early. Jason Day. I think Jason Day is playing really good golf right now. And I think this place should place should fit him quite well. You know, the Zoysia fairways, there's not going to be a lot of bad lies out there. It's going to be Drench City USA potentially as well. Like the weather forecast does not look good. A lot softer than last week at

Quail Hollow. But I think they, you know, with the, I don't know, he just seems like he's due for something good to happen in one of these majors and close enough to home, you know, not too, too far from Columbus. It's kind of Midwest adjacent here, Louisville, I'm sure. Kentuckians and Southerners will, you know, be jumping into my mentions for saying that, but I don't know, I feel like we're gonna see something from Jason Day this weekend.

It seems like he's kind of a PGA specialist. And was in the hunt back in 2014 here as well. I don't know if he'd draw anything from that 10 years is a long time ago. But yeah, I look forward to discussing his outfits and fits all week as I'm- You should dress up like Colonel Sanders. What he should do. Malvon, like free idea. Give him some Colonel Sanders. I think I'd be in approval of that. I just want to throw this out that we did talk Brooks for a second. I just, just again, want to flag this for like, he's won three of these

all with the same exact format of like the thickest rough, the narrowest fairway. Thalho doesn't have the narrowest fairways, but this exact style is why Brooks has been PGA killer. And he hits it to the fat parts of these greens. Like, again, this is, I was, you know, he was all over my radar and ahead of the Masters just because I was promising myself I wasn't gonna do it again, where he snuck up on us. And I just will triple down of like, dude, this would, he's actually playing good golf leading into it one his last start and coming in at a venue

that again should be great for him. It's why I'm so jacked up this week, man, like I Val Halla is a golf course. And again, we're gonna say this for the next segment. But like, it doesn't get me excited from an architecture standpoint, but like what it's promoting from a even the style of play it promotes doesn't get me excited, but who it's probably gonna we've seen that in the past, like the leaderboards have been insane at this tournament

has produced incredible drama, like I think we're set up for that again. I really do. And I really would be surprised if we saw something fluke-ish happen this week. TC, I'd like to throw another storyline at you. Ludwig, is the injury a concern? We missed last week. We've had an awesome breakout the last 12 months

or maybe nine months, but have we hit a speed bump here? Possibly. I think it was more of a maintenance thing than anything. I mean, it's kind of a, are you hurt or are you injured kind of thing. Seems like he might be hurt, not injured. You gotta be pretty damn hurt to sit out $20 million tournament with no cut.

Yeah, but leading into the week before the major, like, you know, if you're at all run down or at all, you know, when you've accomplished what you've accomplished in the game for Ludwig, it's, it's all about the majors, right? You know, he has nothing else to gain from, from winning a PGA tour of it. Especially when you're as old as he is and it's late in his career. I wasn't going to say that. If you say, if you want to say that, Neil, that's interesting.

Kind of a pulse check on Ludwig. We'll see what happens. You know, he could be, he could be getting hurt up in his career. I wasn't going to say that. If you say, if you want to say that, Neil, that's interesting. Kind of a pulse check on Ludwig. We'll see what happens. You know, he could be, he could be getting hurt up in his old age. The other one I'd throw out, I do think, I don't know if it should be a story, but I think we might be fed force-fed a JT storyline this week. I can't really figure out where he's at. He kind of, kind of every other week, I feel like he pops his head up and you're like, oh man, see finding some form. And then the numbers don't look great, but I gotta

think some home game models are popping here. A lot of experience on this golf course. And it would be a fun storyline if he comes home and balls out at Valhalla. So I don't know, what do you guys think? He's banging the ball right now. He's hitting it a little farther than he has been in years past. It's the putter, dude. The putting is the worst it's been really

in his entire pro career so far this season. Not a full season, like there could be a lot of noise in that, a lot of different grass types. I'm assuming he'd be pretty comfortable on this grass type being from Kentucky and whatnot. But I don't know if I'm buying or, it depends where the stock is. I'm not like hoovering it up right now. I think it's like a hold for me. I'd be surprised if he did get in the mix. I just kind of the same way I feel about Spieth right now, I just don't see like his profile lasting 72 holes again. I just view all this so the Scotty you put everything through the Scotty test and it's like we're in a different kind of class of golf that we've talked about Phil since we've had this podcast of like, dude, you got a fucking ball out if you're going to beat that dude over 72 holes and JT I don't want to say he lucked into the 2022 PGA but he kind of did like if you look at like his strokes game number for that week, almost never wins a major championship like that. By definition, that was a lucky

win. So do I see him like pressing the gas pedal down and doing like a five strokes game per round that it takes probably maybe to win this championship? I struggle to see that. Like what you're saying there, Sally, you know, it's it's in my buying or selling. It depends on the price. Yeah, I got it. I got to know where the stock price is at right now. I feel like it's, it's pretty low with JT. So, you know, maybe, maybe you buy them for a solid finish, but I'm with

you. I think it's a massive long shot. But I'm, I think, you know, this, it's a, it's a layup storyline for the, for the telecast. So I'm sure we'll get some of that this week. I think it matters what else is in your portfolio? Right. When are you trying to retire? Are you, you know, are you trying to force what's your time horizon? Tc. Well said. It's good stuff. Scotty is Bitcoin, right? Because it's just, it's number of grow up technology. It's only going one way and there's never a bad time to buy. Like you just could get shut down at any point. So it's all you need to, I think you need to put a disclaimer on the end of this.

I don't know whose turn it is. I've got a loss. Oh, I'll go. I would like to see like Colin Morikawa. Are you for real? You know, I think we saw some signs. We were kind of surprised at the masters of, Oh, you know what shit, Colin's playing nice. I think long iron play seems like that's Colin's strength, right? Like very accurate, very good iron player, accurate driver of the golf ball. You know, very curious to see if he can kind of keep raising his game or if, you know, this would be major number three for him.

Surprised this guy's still on the board playing good golf. And again, I think should be a really good course fit for how much driving distance is available here. Play good at the masters and kind of surprised me. Seems to be in a great head space. Give me Bryson, man. I want to see it. I want him in the mix. I think this should be a good week for Bryson. I would be I'm by, I don't know what the price is a price, but I'm buying that. I'm not going to see Saul in that one. I give me, give me, give me some more is of Bryson, but I'm buying that. I'm not going to see Saul in that one. Give me some more Bryson stock here. He's like Ethereum right now.

It's again, still a great time to buy. I don't even know what that means. I don't really either. So I think that's about as good for storylines. I've got one. I've got one. What will golf do next to stab itself in the chest? You know, of like, all right,

like we had the Xander ruling last week that turned out like, yeah, possibly the correct ruling. Does it still suck and feel unsporting? And like, you know, ridiculous? Absolutely. But you know, there's just, will it be, you know, like what next, right? What next?

So I'm just waiting with bated breath to see like what next. We got it. I need a couple more opinions on this based on the show last night, which got pretty contentious of this TIO thing. Like Brandi and KV were seriously advocating for no relief ever from any kind of TIO. Like, will you guys vote for that?

Yes. I mean, my, I think the solution is simple. You just take a penalty stroke like you would hit there. And you hit it in the wrong spot. You can either play it and play around or over the immovable object, or you could take relief on line of sight, and you could take a stroke. I think that it shouldn't be

Can I can I throw this? Basically, what what you're saying though is that you should that every single hole that has any kind of structure is adding a hazard like around the grid like that's not the design of the hole at all. But like we're literally going to put a hat like manually put in course out of bounds almost around like almost each screen out of bound. It's not each. No, it's not. It's not an out of bound. It's not that literally but like that's the course set up isn't part of the strategy or

the structure the whole either. I can't think of anything like, all right, maybe like a shot link tower or something like if there's any of these grandstands though, like yes, that should be a penalty. If you're over by the grandstands, and you can't play it as it lies, I think you deserve to take a stroke. And it doesn't to me, it's like if that makes the course harder for the best golfers in the world, I'm okay with that. But the relief they get from sometimes is like, Oh, my God, I wish I could take that relief as a shitty golfer.

It's it's outrageous. And then it encourages them to play, play to it and do things that are just not, that shouldn't be rewarded, I guess is what I'm saying. So no, it's hard to answer your question directly. I have no issue with every hole. Yes, there's an added, an added penalty area. Cause what you're saying is already happening. Like guys are playing the whole, the opposite way that it was intended in certain cases where they're purposely going long or purposely take certain things that are short out of the equation.

A lot more infrequently than you guys would lead people to believe. Like it's, yeah. I'm sorry. Like, all right, then maybe then they'll have to figure that out a little bit more when they set up the golf courses as well. That's fine. Yes. But like at some point it's like, come on guys, like it's you guys are the best players in the world. Don't hit it there straight up. Like I struggled to look like when I watch on TV looking at a grandstand,

it's like in the truly in the field of play. And maybe, you know, you could look at some, some behind greens, maybe. But like what I'm talking about is like, yeah, if somebody like it's when I have a problem is when someone hits it over a grand stand and they get line of sight relief, like that's bullshit. Like if you bounce it off the back and you get a club length, like maybe we can like, but it's just, it's unbelievable to me. Like the, the, the relief that they get with no penalty and the line of sight things outrageous. Sometimes like 50 yards. It's unbelievable. And sometimes, you know what? Hit the shot. If you hit the little shot link thing, cool. We'll play the shot over or whatever, but you hit it

here. You're going to have to deal with that or play it as it lies, man. Like Phil hit it out of the hospital. That's what I mean. Hit it over it. They can, they could always play it as it lies. Yeah. We're hitting from, from inside of it. We're digressing. There's a pay. I'm probably, I don't agree with Randy and KV of like no relief at all. Like, yeah, okay.

That might be a little extreme, but there's gotta be a better way here. I would agree that there's a better way. I said this last night, but it's like, you can classify, like a shot link tower should be a different classification than like a bleacher. Right? Like if shot link towers, like if you hit it, replay the shot, like it's like you can classify, like a shot link tower should be a different classification than like a bleacher, right? Like if shot link tower is like, if you hit it, replay the shot, like it's electrical line. Like that is a different category than like that, that thinking does not apply when it's a bleacher right

there of like, yeah, if you dome this 72 year old guy in the front row, just hit it again and like, hope you don't dome his wife. Like that's not a realistic solution, right? So, yeah, but I don't know though. All right. Let's play out of the, hold on. They play out of the crowd all the time though. Like, and they don't, you know, like when the, the, you know, hit it in the crowd and they're lining up like 10

deep and you're like, Oh my God, somebody might like makes me nervous. They never, you know, it's like people just get out of the way naturally. That's a golf tournament. So like if they're going to hit over the bleachers, like, yo, everybody clear out, we're coming over the top, like it already happens. It's gonna add to slow play. Anyways, you all know rowback best fit best feel it is now the spring. There's nothing better for the season. Then rowback they've been pumping out new

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This is, we'll probably need to tread lightly here or speak clearly on our stance on Valhalla. And I'm guessing it's gonna come up every single day this week as well, but take me to Valhalla. It's similar to my stance on Quail Hollow. It's fine. It's a fine canvas for, you know, I actually, I'm excited to see Valhalla,

much more so than I was excited to see Quail Hollow last week. Apologies to our good friend Johnson Wagner, because we haven't seen it in 10 years. You know, it seems like a really good canvas for professional golf to be played. There's some, it's small greens. It's Zoysia, you know, it's probably going to be soft and soggy. They're going to have good fans out there that, you know, like rabid golf fans, which all adds up to, you know, a good atmosphere for professional golf. So, you know, there's some, there's some cool holes, you know, there's some, there's some dynamic par fives as Jack does. And I think there's more width than you would think, right?

It looks like there's, you know, I've never played it, but just from looking at previous things, it looks like there's like some narrowness off the tee until you get up there and you're like, oh shit, you know, it's a lot wider up here. So all that, it just, yeah, I'm excited for it. It should be like, I think this season seems like the theme on men's pro golf majors are, it's a good canvas for the best players in the world to play it. It may not be the most exciting golf course in the world,

but it's gonna test every facet of the game, whether that's Trune, whether that's Valhalla, or Pinehurst number two. Like, I feel like it's, you know. I'll push back on the last part. I don't know if it's going to test every facet of the game. Like that's kind of the main beef of it, right? Is, you know, it's kind of the, it's a little repetitive.

It's a lot of driving distance stuff and it's a repetitive around the greens of just kind of thick rough around the greens. Whereas I put miners in a totally different, you know, different category because of the crazy different undulations around the greens and the short grass and all the different strategy that goes. I'm just saying it seems like more it's more long irons than guys would hit week to week and that they're going to hit in a lot of other majors even too. So it's a different test. You know, you're right to check me on like, it's not going to test every club in their

bag or not going to test every facet of their game. But you know, again, it's kind of, it feels very Roryish, right? Like, you know, is the block party rain or shine? Cause I think, I think it needs to be set up for some really inclement weather because that's where, you know, Rory's going to thrive as if it's soft and long and soggy out there. We'll have some ponchos ready for people, trash bags. Great question though, from Jake Desnake 07.

He said, can the sheer number of patrons, which is 200,000 on the ground, raise the anticipation experience and atmosphere for what Valhalla lacks? To that I would say yes. I think like that's a ton of people. The atmosphere has been fantastic for this and that has shined through on TV. Like you can kind of feel some of the excitement. That's a huge part of what was missing out of LACC. Like there just was no atmosphere. It's a really, really good golf course

that the conditions didn't like really work for them in that favor and didn't translate to exciting golf. That's all we really want. Yeah, at the end of the day, you want exciting golf, right? I think that atmosphere, the kind of style of play that's going to get rewarded here, it's probably going to give us a good leaderboard is probably again, I'm anticipating a good major this week. Do I think it's a good design?

That's a different question. I don't think the answer to that is no. I don't think it's especially good design comparative to other major championship courses. But I'm kind of willing to say like, does this really matter for this week? Like, does it really, really matter? I'm kind of in the boat of no.

Like I'm excited to see this. Does that make sense? Like, I- Yes, I'm right there with you. I'm in the kind of in the boat of no, like I'm, I'm excited to see this. I, does that make sense? Like, I, I'm right there with you. I'm right there with you. I think it, it also like with the, there's some outrageous, you know, ponds and lakes and water features like, you know, the 14th green manufactured. Yeah. Yeah. So, but that kind of looks good. It looks like a movie set on, on TV. And if you get like the, the horses going at each other, like are we, if we're running man, it's like, yeah, it's the Kentucky Derby. It's like, let's, let's do it. Let's, let's, it might be more than Kentucky Derby. Long track. Sure. That, that I love it. Um, I also want to call something out. I think

Valhalla it's a sweet name. And I think that does a lot for this course. You guys know what, do you know what Valhalla means? Like't it like something about heaven or hell or something? It's from Norse mythology. Yeah. And it's roughly translates to the hall of the slain warriors. So basically like it's where the Viking warriors who die in battle go to the afterlife, which I think is just like,

it calls to mind some cool stuff and- So Bob Mays up there just waiting for this thing to get started. For sure. Kenny Perry, you know, to mind some, some cool stuff. And it's a Bob Mays up there just waiting for, waiting for this thing to get started. Kenny Perry for, you know, there's some, there's some homies up there waiting in the hall. I think one thing I'm curious to see my memories of Valhalla, obviously Tiger and, and then Rory in 2014 is that dusk that, that late summer light of like, Oh my God, this is the end, the culmination of golf season, you know, what is it? Glory's last chance or whatever they used to call it. Is it going to look a little different now in May? Is the light going to hit a little different?

Are we going to get those late, that same late evening light? Because that's when I think about Vahal, that's the first thing that comes to mind is like, play off golf or like it coming literally down to the wire, when it's a lot darker than the cameras make it look. I'm curious to see how that that finish looks this time around in a different part of the calendar. We can get into that a little later. I tasked you guys with you know, as we're discussing golf courses to power rank the PGA Championship courses of the 2020s. I think I listed 11

because I think I did included 2030 in here. But so from 2020 to 2030, here are the PGA Championship venues. It goes Harding Park, Keowa, Southern Hills, Oak Hill, Valhalla, Quail Hollow, Aronomic, PGA Frisco, Olympic, Baltus Roll and Congressional. We're going to go through this quickly, but I'm gonna give it to you TC to your power ranking is of these 11 courses for I should have prefaced this when I tasked you guys with it like for watching a PGA championship right not

necessarily both design like what which courses get you the most excited to watch PGA. Some of this is just maybe like recency bias against stuff I've seen lately. I put Southern Hills just because I'd like to like I want to see it go back there. I really enjoyed that, that tournament. I think with a set of eyes, just having seen it prior, like knowing what to expect, I would put that up top. I think that one deserves another shot here. I'm going to put the new Olympic club.

Like you know, like that's, it's, I've never been a big Olympic club guy, but from everything I'm hearing, like, hey, having played there I've never been a big Olympic club guy, but from everything I'm hearing, like, hey, having played there, you realize how much more variety is out there. It sounds like Hanson Wagner have done a wonderful number on the place. And I like a West Coast major too. I mean, that's especially, you know,

May timeframe, that's delightful. I'm gonna go with PJ Frisco next, just cause I'm really excited to see what the players do on a course that was purpose-built to host major championships and test some really interesting shots. Like weirdly, I think there's some, some holes out there that are going to play more like LACC than LACC did. This is, this is crazy for me to say. I'm going to go with Baltis for all next. Whoa. Whoa. You know, I think the renovation, I think the weather was awful last time. It's just, I don't know. Maybe I'll come to regret that. And some of it's just like, I just hate these

other golf courses. Like it's getting bleak in a hurry. Go with Oak Hill next. Oak Hill's fine. I'm going with Kiowa next. It's kind of neutral for me. Like I don't really enjoy it. I don't like the pass palom. I don't, I don't know. It just doesn't really do anything for me. Oranaminck, I think it's a good golf course.

I just don't think it's going to be necessarily exciting for these guys to play or to watch some on it. I don't really don't understand like how they're going to play their pre roll back ball too. Like it's, it's not a big ballpark and they're going to have to trick it up. Harding parks next. I think Harding park, you see weirdly just kind of slaps a little bit. Like it punches above its weight a little bit with that short par four and, and you know, again, west coast open, right. Or west coast PGA. And then I'll go Quail Hollow next. Just overexposed. People with Charlotte don't come at me.

We're not coming back to Valhalla every year. Otherwise I feel the same way about Valhalla. This could be the last time we see a major championship at a Jack Nicholas golf course, by the way too. And then last time going with Congressional, just because I fucking hate that place. Can't stand it. Where did fall hollow rank? I missed that.

Where that pops in there. Uh, we'll put that between Harding park and quail hollow. Okay. Neil Harding. Yeah. I thought you'd give a little more love to, uh, this is your chance. Let's go through your list. Maybe a little quicker than TC did.

Let's see. I got you. So I'm going, I love Keowa. I love watching the pros play Keowa. I think it gives you a chance for there to be conditions. I know what, there weren't a ton of conditions when, when Phil won, but I thought it produced an awesome tournament. So I got that number one, I got Harding park to Southern Hills, three PGA Frisco, because I'm excited to see something new. Um, and I kind of liked the, uh, you know, the, the

Texas open country vibe. I enjoyed seeing that place in November. I've got Olympic, what is that five, Valhalla, and then I've got Oak Hill, Arana Mink, Baltis Raul, Quail Hollow and Congressional. TC, you made a good case for Baltis Raul. I think with the redesign, maybe it should bump up my list a little bit. And, you know, New Jersey fans would probably, you know, create an electric atmosphere with some good weather. So maybe I need to bump them up the list. Yeah. And really it'll be the first time we've seen Baltus for all in decades, right? Yeah. Other than KPMG last year, which is, which we didn't really see much of it, but I went Southern Hills one. Exactly. Between Jimmy Walker,

which we didn't really see much of it, but I went Southern Hills one. Exactly, between Jimmy Walker, soundstage victory, and then, you know, women's PGA last year, they had one or two cameras out there for, it's been since 2005, Phil winning there, since we've really seen it. Southern Hills, number one for me, Keel with two, Arana make three, just in that,

I do think it's a wonderfully designed golf course, and I'm just curious to see what the hell is going to happen with that because we walked away from the BMW and like, do these guys are going to eat this place alive? And Philly will show out too. Yeah. Frisco, PGA Frisco. I'm not, I'm not like convinced it's a great golf course, but I'm intrigued to see how that works for major championship golf. It's definitely interesting in terms of some of the small greens and the way they're angled and things like that. So they should make the guys go play the,

play the West course for one of the rounds. Olympic club is five for me, Harding park six Oak Hill, seven congressional, eight Valhalla nine, Quail hollow 10 and Baltis roll 11 for me of congressional has been redone. I think it is just, it's more interesting. The Greens are a little more interesting than Valhalla, but it is, I mean, honestly, just kind of a not the most inspirational list of courses this decade for PGHF. You guys are both kind of down on Harding. I hate that.

I'm not down on Harding at all. Literally middle of the road. That's a fair ranking. Come on. And you know what, any member that wants to reach out from Congressional, just don't even bother. You guys are dead to me. Congressional has been heavily changed, TC. Like, very heavily changed. Also a good point to my naming convention.

I mean, Valhalla just has a lot better name than Congressional's a little boring to me. Valhalla awakens some stuff. Before we get down into the odds, wanna give a shout out to our friends at Precision Pro. Season 9 of Tora Sauce is presented by those particular friends, our longtime partners, Precision Pro Golf.

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inspired by a jar of Vegemite. The NX 10 is fast, it's accurate, it's a reliable rangefinder. It's got all the features you would expect in the added touch of an NLU design. Also, if you have an older Precision Pro model like the NX 7 or NX 9, you can trade up using their trade up program. Returning customers receive 30% off a new rangefinder purchase

when upgrading to the latest and greatest that Precision Pro has to offer. You can use code nlu at PrecisionProGolf.com to get $20 off your NX 10 rangefinder. You can support the brands that make content like Torasos possible by going to PrecisionProGolf.com shopping for your next rangefinder today and once again code NLU will get you $20 off. We thank them for their long-time partnership. This week's episode is an all-time banger. I would encourage everybody to hop in and watch live. Thank you to PrecisionPro for making it happen but King Island is not to be missed. King Island, Wallabies, some epic golf.

A lot of slapping going on. So this one slaps. Odds run down for this coming week. Of course, these are courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook. Odds are of course subject to change. Scotty is plus 400. Rory plus 700. Brooks plus 1200. Ludwig and Xander are plus 1600. John Rahm plus 1800. Rahm with less odds to win the PGA than Xander, it's interesting. Bryson and Colin are plus 2500, Max Homa plus 3300. Joaquin Nieman, Cam Smith and Vic Hovland plus 3500. Wyndham Clark, the blow pig, Tommy Fleetwood, Patrick Cantlay and

Cam Young plus 4,000. TC, what do you think about that classification for, for Tommy Ladd? I mean, if we're talking, I mean, it's disappointing. It's insulting. If we're talking about some of the best long iron players in the world, Tommy needs to go in that camp coming off of T13 at Wells Fargo. Here we go. Masters you feel me? When the Clark's too low. That's that feels like like he should be the one that's insulted not Tommy. When didn't didn't play well last week. One one market I liked this week was and I put

it up on our weekly plays which you'll hear but the the, the Max without, let's see here, what was this? Sorry. Max winner without Scotty Brooks, Xander and Rory. Max is what plus 3300. He's kind of been vacillating between plus 3000 and plus 3300 plus 2200 for that one. Taking out those four guys and still plus 2200. I think that's a pretty good, pretty good value play right there. Going a little further down. JT is plus 4500 Hideki plus 5000. Spieth, Zala Taurus and Jay Day are plus 6000. Sung J,

DJ Minwoo Lee and Tyrell Hatton plus 6500. So let me let me stop you right there too. Sung J is another guy. I think you want to talk about great long iron play. Drives it pretty far accurate. Sung J, Zoysia plays on some Zoysia both in Korea and you know, there's some Zoysia around Atlanta as well. I'm not buying it. Yeah, I got to see more, man.

He's burned me. He played really well last week. It's fine. I'm going to step up to the plate and do something. I've moved on. Sahith Fitzpatrick plus 7,000 cough syrup been on plus 7,500 big tone. Allegedly plus 8,000 Sam Burns plus 9,000 Taylor Gooch, Shane Lowry and Corey Connors plus 10,100 to one. All right, let's do it. Who is your official

pick? Tossing out the odds. No odds involved here. Your official pick to win the 2024 PGA championship. Neil Rory McElroy. Oh my God. He did it. Yeah, baby. Come on. You knew I was just throwing people off the set. I'm all in. Let's go. Oh my God. I can't believe he did it. TC. I'm gonna go with Max Holma. All right. I think, you know, I said just long enough, really good long iron player, small greens. Give me Max.

Dude, it's all I pick. Xander. Do you need me to say who I'm gonna pick? Like, can you guys? You're gonna pick Scotty. Again. Brooks. No, just emphasize like, I tried at every possible stop to be like, yo, this is different, different era. Rory. No, it's Scotty. Like it. Let's not mess around

with this, right? This is a different era, different dude. And I'm probably gonna pick him. I don't know. So I think he's gonna win the Grand Slam. I don't think it's out of the question. But I probably have to be your KVV stick your neck out prediction. I'm gonna know I'm gonna stick my neck out. I don't think it's out of the question, but I probably have to be your KVV stick your neck out prediction. I'm gonna know I'm gonna stick my neck out. I think the favorite, I think he's a different favorite, dude. I think he's a different guy. He's my pick to win. I picked him to

win the Masters. Looks like a genius for that one. Nobody believed him as Augusta. And he managed to eke that one out. So I'm gonna keep riding man. I'm probably gonna pick him individually to win each major. I don't think he'll win all three other remaining ones. But I would be stunned if he doesn't win each major. I don't think he'll win all three of the remaining ones, but I would be stunned if he doesn't win another major this year. And I think this one sets up still great for him.

So Scottie's my pick. Who won't win? Neil, who will not win? It's got to be a top player. Or if you go kind of too far down, you got to pick at least two guys. That's kind of the unwritten rule here. Well, I'll probably make a little bit of money

on Xander not winning again, but getting the top 10. Xander is a, you have to pick two guys if you pick Xander. No, I know. That's why I was just saying like, of course, like that's like filing my taxes. That's, you know, I've been playing that all year. It's been awesome. I think Ram, Ram does not win. I'll say Rory. I think Rory does not win. Don't be showing up at the block party, TC. I want Rory to win. I just, I've seen this movie so many freaking times guys. I'm going to, I'm going to join, is Morakawa count? I don't think Morakawa is going to win.

He's plus 2,500. I'll take another, I mean, I'll take, I'll take a bunch of names below him as well. I mean, Victor obviously not going to win. Cantlay not going to win. Sorry, I got a bad feeling about Cantlay this week. Okay. Weirdly. I just, I have a bad feeling that he's going to win. Can't lay. Not going to win. Sorry. I got a bad feeling about can't lay this week. Okay. Weirdly. I just I have a bad feeling that he's going to rise to the occasion and you know, might not win, but he's

going to play really well and and yeah, he's had a bad I did. I just woke up in a with a in a weird mood. We're going to have a separate picks video where with a bunch of odds factored in on our, it's a Fandl video. It'll be on our YouTube channel, on our social channels, check that out. But, you know, in honor of that,

this is kind of more of a philosophical prediction. You can make it about anything you want, but in honor of KVV sticking his neck out at the Masters this year, and saying he thought Rory was going to top 15 and then that played missing. This is the KVV stick your neck out prediction. Neil, what are you sticking your neck out on?

I think Blocky is going to make the cut. Oh, wow. I love that one. And we're going to get showered in some more Blocky coverage this year. I asked our friends at FanDuel to set up a blocky versus Zach Blair market. I got to check if they did it or not. But the stick your neck out prediction is that we're going to see a lot of blocky. Right?

It's, it's, I can't believe we're 47 minutes into this thing. We're just talking about blocky for the first time. Oh, we'll get there. We'll get there. I think Tommy, Tommy Fleetwood finishes top 10. You guys believe that shit? Tommy Fleetwood finished in top 10 in a major. That's sticking your neck out. I could believe that shit? Tommy Fleetwood finishing top 10 in a major. That's sticking your neck out.

I could believe that. He does that a lot TC. That's the point, right? I'm supposed to pick something. No, I think you're actually supposed to stick your neck out. Like we were, if you want to. I was taking it very literally. I am going to go with Scottie Scheffler to win by four or more shots. That you're gonna run away with it. That would stink. That would, that would be,

I said that two holes into the masters and he won by four. Just for the record. I said before the year he's going to win four times, including a major and a positive strokes game putting. He's done all of that already at this point. So I'm sticking my neck out again on Scott. He's going to win by four or more. I think he really is that dude. Real quick, they did set up the Zach player versus Michael Block, 72 hole match bet. It says loser of tide. And I assume if both guys miss the cut,

then it's, you know, whoever finishes better score wins. So Zach, oh wow, it just moved from minus 185 to minus 210. People are hammering Zach. A couple questions here, then we're going to get into our deep dive into 2014. John Deschante, he said, do you like it in May or prefer August? In bigger picture, what's the best calendar scenario for the majors in pro golf going forward? I don't really like it in May. It feels, but then again, there's a massive gap in the golf season then. And I think I like the players better in March

than I do in May. So I don't know. I don't know how to make it work, right? It's just everything- You just answered it for me too. Like I could start the answer with, yeah, I like it there and end it with, I don't like it there. Or I could start with, I don't like it there and ended with like, yeah, it's fine

there. It just kind of, kind of is what it is. I think I prefer the players in March in May, because it's just Bermuda and firm and not the oversea shit out there. But it also gets really hot. Like it was been crazy. It was supposed to be last week would have been the old players day and it was really, really hot here. So I think, yeah, I just get so frustrated when I look at that future set of venues too. And then knowing, all right, if we're going to keep it in May,

they're going to stop choosing the Northern, you know, all the Northern venues as well. And I think about it, I'm like, all right, you guys are the PGA of America. And I know you got the club pros and all that stuff. But this is the one major that should go internationally. This major should go, go to the best places in the world for golf. And there should be major, and you link up with the Australian Professional Golf Association or whoever. Your job is literally to grow the game. I feel like they could make more money making a traveling road show and making it all about TV windows. And, you know, and you pay for all those club pros to go, go down and go on a cool vacation. I think in theory, I like the PGA now,

but after the open championship, I always feels like there's like golf season ended too soon, which the PGA tour hates me saying that I'm like, no, but it's the playoffs. The playoffs just don't really do it for me. So that's when I go back to like the memories of like the late afternoon, like late summer in America is a magical time. And I think this tournament probably worked better on that part of the calendar. Two things against it, swamp ass and thunderstorms though. Yes. No, a hundred percent. Cause like everybody, you only remember the good stuff.

But like Atlanta Athletic Club in August was one of the worst golf viewing experiences of my life. Yeah. Who would put an event there every year, maybe in August or September in Atlanta. That's insane. It's crazy. Yeah. Well that too, but just cause you're right. Cause then on the flip side, it feels condensed. It feels like trapped between it's, I wouldn't say this a weird spot on the calendar. It just feels like crowded and maybe that's our own personal calendars, but it feels very crowded

here in May. And like, so it almost gets passed over like real quick and you're already onto the, like thinking about the U S open, like, so it almost gets passed over like real quick and you're already on to the like thinking about the US Open, like, and I think what the PGA had going forward on the old calendar slot was like, because it was the last one, it was a lasting memory. Yeah, where you thought about it. I think that's a big reason why I have so many PGA championship memories, because it would sit with you for like the whole fall.

Well, question we got from outside the cup, what is the identity of the PGA? Is it major without an identity? Does it need one? What should it be? I mean, I feel like it's probably stronger this year than it has been in years past because it's one of the few times

that the best players in the world get together. I was gonna say, they've got the identity. It's the best field in golf. This is the best field that takes place annually in the world of golf. And that's clearly the identity. They don't promote that maybe enough. Players used to promote that and it used to be true and it's not anymore. And so walk me through that. That's because

Masters is limited field like it you know, it's it's got a bunch of past champions and it's less than 90 guys usually play in that. US Open is top 60 players in the world and a bunch of qualifiers and a few exemptions in there. But plumbers, environment, literally, insurance salesmen, open championship has a you know, a wild group of qualifiers as well. Only I forget how many are exempt into that one. So PGA is like, they usually have like literally, again, depending on

what ranking you look at, like literally every player in the top 100 is almost always there. And they have the club pros, but like they'll go. I mean, like C.T. Pan just got in the field this week. Like that's how far down the list they go of like inviting, you know, top players. So it's it's the deepest, strongest field of any tournament outside live Adelaide that you'll see on the on the annual schedule. Ben Smith, 77, will gooch lay an egg over under 35th place for Taylor Gooch? It's an interesting number.

Over is like higher, a worse finish. Over is worse, I'll say here. I'm going over. I think he's got too much going on. I think this is not going to go well for him, will be my prediction. God, I hope he balls out and people are chirping you all week. Go ahead. They're going to be chirping anyways. For sure. I know that's what I'm hoping for.

Otherwise, I mean, if I get this right, then that'll just end the whole debate. Right. Everyone will apologize and say, you're right. And, you know, we'll just, you know, we can all move on from there. I'd like to real quick take this opportunity to talk about something that has been bugging me for a couple of weeks here. And everybody talks about the gooch asterisk thing. Ha ha, it's funny. But I think there is a real asterisk

and it relates to the senior PGA championship. I think Blandy needs to start getting into these. Cause he's one of the preeminent olds in the world right now. Of like, he's beaten up on all these guys, KitchenAid, PGA of America, they need to get him in. I guess he's not eligible. He's been suspended from the European Tour, so he's not eligible for the senior open championship. But I would like to see Blandy get a look for both the US senior open and the senior PGA if they're

trying to be like the you know the best field in senior men's golf. So thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Are you guys ready? I have done a little deep dive research into 2014. I have a presentation for you. I have some videos for you. You know, I usually do these with KVV and we usually make each other, you know, tickle each other and make each other laugh. I hope you guys are ready to go back into the world of golf in 2014 as we revisit

Roy McIlroy's Triumph at Valhalla. Please. All right, around the horn, I'm gonna have you guys go stump the Schwab style back and forth and you're gonna each try to name the top 10 players in the world going into Valhalla in 2014. All right, Neil, you can go first. And then you're as soon as you get one wrong, you lose to the other guy, right?

Okay, so you're gonna name a top 10 player in the world and then TC is going to name one until you've exhausted the list. player in the world. And then TC is going to name one until you've exhausted the list. All right. Um, I will say Dustin Johnson. Yeah, you've lost already. Really? All right. Start over. Sorry. I'll say Rory. Just be Rory. McElroy is accurate. You've got that one. I'll say Phil Mickelson. Phil Mickelson is 12th 13th in the world. TC. You've got that one. I'll say Phil Mickelson. Phil Mickelson is 12th, 13th in the world. T.C. You have

all right. Let's start it all over. You got to give us a couple of strikes and RIP Schwab too. I mean, I know we're still up. He was 13th in the world at that time in 2014. All right, T.C. You get round two was what you get to get one strike. You've used your strike. Yeah. Roy was number two. So who was number one? Roy was number Yeah. Roy was number two, so who was number one? Roy was number one. Roy was number one, okay.

2014, gosh. Feels like forever ago. I mean, this is bad, man. Well, I'll go. Please. Ricky Fowler. You guys are not good at this game. Are you serious? Sergio. I'm gonna lead, I'm gonna to reach you the time Sergio is correct. Ricky finished second in all of these, these majors that year. Didn't that was a year or two after this was this year.

You are correct. How the fuck is he not in the top 10? I can look it up. I can look up his ranking. Yelling, yelling. All right. I'll say, I'll give you a bubble Watson. He won the Masters in 2014. He was correct. He was seventh in the world. I'm going to leave. I'm going to reach you the time Sergio is correct. Ricky finished second in all of these, these majors that year. look up his ranking. People are yelling, yelling. I'll say, I'll give you a Bubba Watson. He won the Masters in 2014. Bubba Watson is correct. He was seventh in the world. Adam Scott was second. Sergio was third. Henrik fourth. Justin Rose fifth. Matt Kuchar sixth. Bubba seventh. Jim

Furek eight. Jason Day nine. Tiger Woods 10. Spieth 11. Kymer 12, Phil 13, ZJ 14, GMAC 15. Just 10 years ago. You would have told me Tiger in 2014 was like, I've got that all mixed around in my head. Like when Tiger got hurt and then started coming back. And when Phil, like the fact that Tiger's in there and Phil's not is crazy. That's why we do these deep dives, TC.

We're learning, we're all learning. Kymer 2014 was the Pinehurst U.S. Open. So he's only 11th. He won the U.S. Open by eight shots. And the players that year. And he was... So what the hell? How common is it for two majors to be like run back

in the same year again? You know what I mean? That's interesting. Yeah. I hadn't really thought of that. It is interesting where that is. That might be a? That's interesting. Yeah. Yeah, I hadn't really thought of that. It is interesting That might be a question for Wolfie. Yeah Rory's the favorite going into Valhalla at plus 600 of course one the week before at Firestone

Adam Scott is second at plus 1200 Justin Rose and Sergio plus 1500 Mickelson Kuchar and Fowler plus 2000 and Stenson and Keegan are plus 2500 as we go into this is in August. So we're pretty far into the year. But in 2014, if you remember Jason Day beat Victor Dubuisant in extra holes at the match play in a thrilling showcase of golf. Patrick Reed won the Cadillac championship at Doral and declared that he was a top five player in the world, setting Twitter ablaze.

Bubba Watson defeated Jordan Spieth to win the Masters in heartbreaking fashion. Matt Kuchar won the Heritage with us in attendance on the site of the first ever No Lying Out podcast. Again, Kymer won the US Open at Pinehurst after winning the players in May. Roy won the Open and of course Bridgestone, this was the famed year where he won Ashley Bongiovanni, was trying to get his attention up on the ropes there just the week before.

Dustin Johnson would be stepping away from the game for personal reasons. He'll be missing the PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup just a few months later. Was this the jet ski accident or a separate one? I don't think this was jet ski. This was just, this was for personal reasons. This was like, all right, well, I'm suspended, dude. I'm not even trying to, trying to hide this one. Also going on around the sports world, Oscar Pistorius is on trial at the moment. LeBron said the Cavs are his final team that he'll play for.

Donald Sterling is appealing the ruling of the Clippers sale. And Johnny Manziel is fighting for a starting spot with Brian Hoyer with the Cleveland Browns. This is some stuff I found in newspapers along the way. Field Notes, PGA professional Michael Block will be making an appearance after winning the PGA professional national championship at the Dunes in Myrtle Beach, which just held a PGA tour event last week.

In a headline title, Block is noted that he'd be playing alongside Sean McKeel and Colin Montgomery. He said I grew up watching golf channel every morning. Wait, are we still in 2014? This is 2014. Okay. God. I grew up watching golf channel every morning right before I go

to work. I'd watch the European Tour. Colin was just always dominating. I've watched Colin play hundreds around of golf on TV. And now I'll be teeing it up with them. Teeing up with Colin is pretty surreal. No, no word of whether or not he did that. Blocky pointing at himself. Me? Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Roy, did that go in? Colin, Colin, is that you gonna eat

that custard? Come on. He would unfortunately go on to miss the cut at this PGA. Tiger Woods did not arrive until Wednesday due to back problems he'd been having all year. He actually got a bone popped back into place in between Firestone and this Wednesday when he showed up his sacrum, sacrum, a large triangular bone at the base of his spine.

It was jarred loose when he fell backwards and landed in a bunker on the second hole Sunday at Firestone and he had to withdraw. And then it gets, got it popped back into place. Never knew, never realized that, that he popped two bones back into place to be able to play in majors. Phil is also coming in having zero top tens on the year

ahead of Valhalla. So, few random things. Do you, this year was known on Twitter for something that was mind numbingly frustrating on the telecast. Do you remember what it was? Oh, standing in the hall fame. You can be the greatest, you can be the best. You can move a mountain, you can break rocks. You could be a master, don't wait for luck. Dedicate yourself and you'll go find yourself. Standing in the hall of fame. Yeah.

And the world's gonna know your name. Yeah. Free ad for Omega there, but they play that literally every commercial break, sometimes twice per commercial break. And it still haunts me as soon as I hear that song. It reminds me of the 2014 PGA. And that Nike grout fit, it's just everything of it's, that's a time capsule. This was right on the kind of front end of our, our cold war with CBS at the time too.

You know, things were, Things were deteriorating rapidly. This was the Cuban Missile Crisis. This was the Bay of Pigs. 15, 16, it didn't get any better for a while. And then we kind of established a detente and now we're the closest of allies. Best of friends. Do you also remember what happened in the early part of this week that had golf Twitter irate? Just somebody being being being himself in the early part of the week, just being needlessly unfun. It's a simple little fun thing they were doing earlier in the week that a guy refused. Oh, Baba didn't want to do the long drive contest in a practice round. Baba refused to hit a driver on the long drive hole, which was a par five, the 10th hole.

He hit a three iron before they were even done announcing his name on the tee. He would later say, I'm here to win a championship. I'm not here to goof around. Just a reminder for people, this was Bubba Watson at the prior year's PGA championship, if you're watching on video, hopefully, at Oak Hill. Remember, he said, I'm not here to goof around,

but this was Bubba last year, the year prior at the PGA. Bubba here in Rochester, New York, PGA Championship practicing a little golf. Main man Micah shagging my range balls. Time for a little Here we go. Hey guys, down on that. You're welcome. I don't know. I'm all set on that. I'm all set on just Bubba generally.

This was peak like pray for Ted Scott Bubba just being a very unlikable person. Dave Kindred at Golf Digest took Bubba to task. He said the first item on Bubba's personal website appears under the words, who is Bubba Watson? It reports Christian loves Jesus and loves sharing his faith. So after the F-bomb episode in Friday's second round of the PGA championship, I got to wondering which biblical character Bubba may have had in mind. You think Noah, all that rain or Job, all that suffering? Wait, Noah and Job existed before old Tom Morris. So they never went through Bubba's

version of a living hell. He had to play with raindrops on his driver face. We all know that's Satan's work for surely the Prince of Darkness diverted the raindrops from other players and caused them to settle only on Bubba's sticks. Raindrops everywhere all morning beginning at 6 a.m. and falling even through Bubba's tee time at 8.35. For hours, raindrops kept falling on Bubba's haircut causing, me thinks, reverberations in the vast empty spaces beneath." It was a surge that got taken out of Bubba that week. That stuff just legitimately puts me in a bad.

So that was that was water on the clubface, bro. Yeah, that was that week as well. And the pink driver, I forgot about that. Just all the. He's here to win golf tournaments. He was trying to move the crowd at one point on the Thursday. He said nobody wants to move, man. You think I was speaking English, getting mad at the patrons that would knock it out of his way. Anyways, Kevin Chappell, Ryan Palmer, and Lee Westwood bust out with Thursday

65s to take the early lead. Furek, Rory, Eduardo Molinari, your guy TC, Henrik Stenson, and Chris Wood are one back. We open up Friday with 50 minutes of a delay as standing water was being removed for the course something we might see this week as well. This was also the year of the Freaky Fridays with Rory. He weirdly sucked on Fridays all year long, but he followed his 66 with a 67 to take the lead into the weekend by one over Jason Day and Jim Furik. Ricky is T4 at minus seven and Phil and that Viesberger guy are minus six. There's a moment in this round where Ricky stuffs one on the 11th hole and Gary McCord

goes look out for little Ricky, which sounded like something Big Red would say at our slack if he was on the move. Bubba has a couple freak outs on this day on the Friday, one of which it says, it doesn't matter what I do. It's fucking horse shit, which I don't really know what that was referring to or what that meant. Both Tiger and Jordan Spieth would miss the cut at six over par at the halfway by that might be a repeat. Yeah, it very well might there's more

rain on Saturday morning, the squeegees are out. They move the tee up on the fourth hole. A bunch of people are picking it apart. Rory actually hooks a ball with a fairway wood badly into the creek, but he managed to scramble for a par save. At one point, Colin Swanton had to forward the river to go find Jason Day's ball, and Jason Day had to walk through this river as well to go find a ball. I think this was left of the second hole, but Rory birdied three of his last four holes for a 67 to take a one shot lead over Wiesberger who shot 65 after making birdie on his last three holes.

Ricky of course in third at 11 under, Day and Mickelson are at fourth, but Ricky and Mickelson would of course be paired together on that Sunday. Now, this is where it gets a little interesting. There's an hour and 50 minute delay before the leaders tee off, but the PGA of America did not move up tee times because despite the bad forecast, and this was like the PGA tour, this was very much speculation of like CBS put in

there. You know, again, we're railing on CBS at the time, but there was a tie. This was everybody was aware of this, like this did not sneak up on anyone. They decided to go for it, which would cause some complications later on. Again, this is probably part of the reason why the PGA ended up moving out of August is rainstorms like this that happened where there's ducks out there drinking water off one of the greens. I mean, just standing water everywhere. Like it was, I remember watching this and being like, dude, they're not going to finish today. They're not going to play today.

There's no way they can get this course ready. So when they do finally start up play very late in the game, it's very obvious like this is going to come down to the wire in terms of getting it in at a time. Nick Fowler, of course, when the Austrian burnt Viesberger tees off, he says, starts up with, he needs to avoid that von trap to the left. So in case you wanted to remember what we were between,

between the hall of fame commercial, the bubba stuff, it was not good. Yes. In general, like you're I'm getting like legitimately angry, right? Like these flashbacks were like, holy shit, this is a very different time. I'll also say very different time and golf course setup. Like a lot of these pins don't look like they do in 2024. They're pretty darn accessible. If I may say it just the golf course did not look very different, difficult. I should say I mean, it's it was soft. And like guys could get it a lot of pins. But I mean, this was like pin your ears back golf on this weekend.

It's some of that could be like, hey, we're trying to get it in relatively benign spots, because we know there's going to be a bunch of standing water and, you know, wetness on the greens. Also, Carrie Hague's not known for like trying to challenge the hell out of these guys. Like this was still coming out of the birdie birdies birdies PGA, you know, like PGA championship. I'd say the strategy identity has shifted in the last 10 years though. Like I think we're going to see a lot more difficult to like, oh,

kill those pins were talked all last year. Like that fell. Hall was not like this, which was kind of a reaction I had of like, again, it's gonna rain this week. So doesn't really matter. But I was like, dude, Rory got away with a bunch of stuff, like a lot of stuff, like a bunch of misses that this this miss on the seventh hole ended up on this downslope and like, out of the rough over a bunker, and he was able to spin it to a short sided pin and keep it close and make the birdie was like, dude,

he should have been punished a little bit more severely for that, but. God, I wish they dress him like that again. That's just block fits, block shirt fits. Block sleeves. I kind of like the whole flat billish era for Rory looking back. I know. Yeah.

Rory comes out, he actually stumbled, made bogeys on two of his first six holes. Like it was really not going well for Rory early on. Ricky is going ape shit. He birdies three, four, five, and seven to get to 14 under. And of course, after his birdie on the fifth hole, Mickelson hits him with the first fist bump of the day. Just has Randy just incensed at this,

of these guys just chumming it up out there, I'm sure. Although he was a huge Phil fan at this time. He might've been okay with this, but he- I remember that, Solid. I remember this being such a comfy pairing. You know, they're both playing good. They're they're hamming it up. Fist bumps.

That's that that's coming back to me. Look at all that containment mounting drainage from Nicholas and Co. Inspirational design. Phil narrowly missed out on an eagle on the seventh, but he tied the lead with Stenson and Ricky. Ricky would very quickly make a birdie on top of him to take the lead at 14 under. Stenson, I don't remember this part, Stenson shot a 30 on the front to get to 14 under par,

like he was going absolutely apeshit. Rory pulled off that pitch on the 7th. Mickelson birdied 9, again, controversy breaks out when he hits him with the Lemmy Valhalla at your bro with another fist pump walking off the green. This is the one that Rory would see from the fairway and later comment and say like this actually really pissed me off. Like these guys are up, you know, we're supposed to be competing as each other for major and these guys were up here fist bumping like I don't know why I just got under my

skin and it really motivated me. Ricky drained a bomb birdie on the 10th hole to get to 15 under par and here's where things stand Ricky's at 1500 through 10 Stenson at 14, Mickelson at 14, Miko Elinan. I looked up an old tweet of TCs from back then, the Formula One driver, I believe, is what you referred to him as. He's 12 under and Rory's 12 under,

but three shots back as he goes to make the turn. These graphics are sick by the way. Yeah, they were pretty cool. But if you'll remember as Roy makes the turn on the back nine, he hits a necky three wood into the par five tenth. It runs and runs and runs and runs and runs. And it goes up to within 10 feet of the hole. He would step up and pour in the Eagle to get to 14 under par. Phil birdies the 11th to tie Ricky at 15 under with roaring sense of just one back. This is when I remember just

like, holy shit, dude, these four guys are all within one shot of the lead. Again, since it was like, I think a top five player in the world at this at this point as well. Rory birdies the 13th to tie the lead at 15 under Rick makes bogey on 14. Phil lips out a chip on 16 then also misses the comeback or it makes a bogey it was coming hot. It was coming hot. It was coming in hot. Like it wasn't like it stopped that close to the hole. But the things are

really honestly starting to move very quickly. Roy leads by one on 17, but he blocks a drive into the bunker and it's like it's already dark. Like it's really dark. It's an awesome bunker shot from the right bunker on 17 to 10 feet right of the pen drains it two shot lead. Faraday says he's turned into a baby faced killer. And if you remember, he pulls up to 18 T and Phil and Ricky have not teed off yet. Like they're still like they're on the tee right there and Rory is hustling. He's ready. Phil and Ricky hit the

fairway and Rory hustles up to the tee. Faraday of course hits everyone with a Jimmy. Our cameraman have their irises wide open. It's a lot lighter than it actually is. It's a lot lighter than it actually is. It looks a lot lighter than it actually is. And after they tee off, Phil takes off towards the fairway. But nice guy Ricky sticks around on the tee, and Rory makes it pretty darn clear that he'd like to hit. And official catches up.

Really good camera work from CBS in this section. There's a guy following Phil and Bones as they cross the bridge, and an official's coming up and telling them they'd like to hit up. And Bones is they cross the bridge and an official is coming up and like telling them like they'd like to hit up and Bones is like alpha the situation is like, tell them they need to go now that that's going to be the case radio back tell them to be ready in 30 seconds we'll pull off to the side but they got to go now and that's exactly what happens

where he gets like a thumbs up from back there and like 10 years on man Rory Rory inviting himself into the proceedings after as it's getting dark, things are looking bleak and Rory's like, Nope, I'm going to jump in. I'd like to play through it. I remember thinking this at the time too. And even on the replay, it's like, he's incredibly casual about this whole thing. Like you have a two shot lead. Would it be the end of the world if it was if you to win a major, if you just

need to come out and make a par tomorrow morning? Like is it That's what I've always wondered. I never really got an answer for that. He did he just say he didn't busy, dude. He just wanted to be he just like truly wanted to be out of town. Like that night. Yeah. You know, I mean, maybe it'd be different this go around. But this is four majors in four years from him. I think he probably thought he was on his way to 10 at this moment. And this was just kind of an obstacle in the way. Rory hits

it. And it's drifting, right, drifting, right. And it's dark, they can't even see where it's landing and CBS gets a little confused but his ball holds up on the right rough and they said like if it had not rained earlier that ball would have gone in the water. Like it was again just very casual about this whole thing. I laugh CBS didn't even show Viesberger shot like he's the only golfer left playing at the moment like Phil and Ricky are walking up and they don't even show Viesperger hitting. Kind of a cool moment as they're walking off. Rory's kind of laughing. He's like, yeah, we all played in this stuff when we were young. Like he's excited to be out there

playing in the dark. They, you know, they showed the ball dangling and he's like hustling. Like Rory is hustling up towards his ball. He's walking very quickly. It's a very bad shirt. Like it's a really tough shirt to try to win a major in purple sleeves and gray. It looks like something like a Kansas state. Yes. Or TCU, TCU uniform. And then went to the white pants have like blue stitching. I like trim around the pockets.

Yeah. Just tough, just tough all around. I love it. Faldo is like just cracking a bunch of horrible jokes. There's, you know, another note about the irises. Phil hits his shot. It's actually a really cool background up against the dark skies.

You can follow the balls. It goes up there, but he comes up short right. The pin is back middle. And then, yeah, there's just like this ridiculous 70 second hole water feature. There's a true waterfall coming back down. Shout out to the Fahs, of course, there. Ricky puts one on the front right part

of the green. And then so Ricky and Phil take off and Rory's just like standing there. Like he's like, he's made his way to them by the time that they like hit their shots. And they take off and Rory's like, yo, like, can we like hit up and this camera guy that's in this shot right here, photo bombs here and the other cameraman, you know, from the view that you're seeing yells at him. He's like, Hey, I'm on dude. And he's like, Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Like the CBS camera guys are absolutely scrambling at this moment. Ferdy then reports that they're going to get waved up once Phil and Ricky get to the green. And they say there's bad weather in the forecast for Monday and storms on their way right there. That's like a lightning strike that hits not that far behind the clubhouse.

Apparently as all this is going on, this is a scramble to get this in because they're worried about even be able to do it tomorrow. Who's running the PGA of America at this point? Like Ted Bishop? Yes, Ted Bishop is the guy that they see when you walk off the green there. This is again, Tom Watson, PGA, Ryder Cup year as well. Probably not a lot of leadership. Nance adds that Phil does not appear thrilled with how it's playing out. Rory hits up and hits it into the front left bunker like a really long bunker shot. They're kind of a little concerned by the result after it happens. Bones tends the pin as Phil is chipping up and he almost holds his eagle chip from the front right.

It's actually a really exciting shot. He taps in for a birdie, he missed it by like a cup. Final round 66 for Phil, he's in at 1500. Rory has to make par to win. Ricky three putts like in the dark like he lifts out a birdie putt that would have put him in a tie for second. Great moment. As they're all shaking hands here. There's a cameraman that crowds Phil and he shoots this look at the cameraman which is just very concerned with how

close the cameraman got and as soon as they shake hands he like yells to the cameraman it's like you're like a foot away from me, man. Like, dude, you need to watch that. I do not remember that part about it, but he was very much on edge. This entire thing just, maybe this is why Phil took up chess and started playing all of those chess moves. That's interesting. You know, also just seeing these like screenshots, it makes it feel like you're watching like a member guest or something, but with thousands of people gathered around like with the architecture and yes, the clubhouse in the back. Like it just feels somewhat familiar of like, Oh, like this looks like a regular course.

It felt very Mickey Mouse. The whole operation of like rushing to finish a major was truly amateur hour, but they give us the look without the irises open just to show how dark it really is, which like it's really fucking dark and Rory's got like a 40 to 50 yard bunker shot from greenside up to a top tier and like very clearly, I mean, it looks unlike any of his shots on this day. I he like chunks it out of there. It's very clear like dude, my depth perceptions off and I'm not bleeding this one. All I need to do is get this out of the bunker, but he hits it

onto the lower tier. And he's got like a 40 footer up the hill that he has to to put in the dark to win a major. And again, I'm like, dude, why wouldn't I mark this and put it in the morning? Like I know you want to finish tonight, but at some point, would that be you know, would that show Rory's ass of like, I've, I've said I wanted to do this, I wanted to do this, I want to do this. And then I'm gonna probably go back

on that and change my mind. Like again, you know, probably, it means nothing because he rolls it up to 10 inches, taps it in to win the, when the PGA championship is third straight win two majors in a WGC. Phil and Ricky said afterward that it was the second shots that took them off guard in terms of what they were kind of miffed about upset about Phil. Ricky said we were cool with hitting the tee shot we were we weren't expecting the approach shots. Phil said it didn't affect the outcome of the championship at all. I don't think it's not what we normally do. It's not that big of a deal either way. So I think he was initially pissed,

but he was just kind of like, look, I'm not gonna make this a bigger story than it actually is. So just I'm sure he's he's got a different tune these days, right? Only quick thing on the aftermath. There's an AP article that comes out playing playing ball down tease off players at PGA as GMAC cause up cause a big havoc afterwards about it was the wrong call to play the ball down simple. Poulter was upset about having to hold in place on the 12th angry about it said he

needed to need a canoe to get back in. Yeah, the big theme of assholes here. I'll have one thing in common about current day golf for the guys that caused a stake on this, including the next one. I swear I'm not picking these out because these are live guys. I do not remember this.

After the tournament was over, Cam Tringale asked the PGA of America to disqualify himself from the tournament several days later. This is from an ESPN article. He said, Tringale, who was in his fifth season on the tour, said in a statement, he failed to record a stroke on the 11th hole on Sunday at Valhalla. He contacted the PGA of America and asked to be disqualified, an unusual occurrence so long after the competition had concluded. He said, while approaching the hole to tap in my three inch bogey putt, the putter swung over the ball

prior to tapping in, realizing that there could be the slightest doubt that the swing over the ball should have been recorded as a stroke. I spoke with the PGA of America and shared with them my conclusion that the stroke should have been recorded. I regret any inconvenience this has caused the PGA of America and my fellow competitors and what has been a wonderful championship. What did he finish?

He had finished type 33 and got DQ and forfeited $53,000 in earnings. Okay. Very, very bizarre. Good for him. I guess but you knew at the time man, I guess I'm just weighing on his conscious. I kind of failed to paint him as a hero on that one. But it's a great rewatch is a great time capsule. A lot more has changed in golf than you'd think just looking at that top 10 list and seeing kind of Rory being the only constant that's still left in the top 10 is all pretty fascinating.

Yeah, I need to go back and watch tiger and I need to go back and watch the the Brooks, Mark Brooks, Kenny Perry, because like Kenny Perry winning in Kentucky would have been all time. Excuse me, too much time in the booth. We did a deeper, if you want that one, we did a 1996 majors pod and talked about that on the back half of that, if you're so inclined to find that one.

But yeah, that's about it. That it is important to have some context and some history on these major venues. Like it just, it does add another layer of excitement instead of uncertainty going into these events. You know, even if it's not the best golf course, gosh, we have some great memories of PGA is here and it's got me, got me stoked for the week, guys. We're going to have a happy hour show coming this Wednesday at 4pm Eastern.

We're also going to be on ESPN plus, or I'm sorry, ESPN two on Thursday and Friday from one to 3pm Eastern doing a mega cast alt cast with Omaha productions. Uh, we're also going to be on ESPN Plus Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. I'm sorry, that's 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday on ESPN Plus. Also same thing, Mega Cast with Omaha Productions. And of course live shows after every round

right here on our YouTube channel and whatnot. So anything else? You guys ready to get this week started? I'm ready to get started. I wanna see what kind of form block he's in. I'm a little bit worried. He played in the easy go four ball out in his section. He played in the foundation classic pro and he's played

the stroke play classic number one and the stroke play classic number two. Finished T21 on April 15th, $93 and 75 cents. He shot 74. So a little bit worried about his current form right now. Okay, thank you. Thank you. T.C.

Fired up. I'll see you guys in the Hall of the Slain Warriors. A lot of content coming this week. We thank you for being who you trust to go to during a major championship week. And we thank, of course, our partners, Titleist. We thank ROBAC Precision Pro. Tune in to our sauce this coming Wednesday, 9 p.m. Eastern time as well as well as our happy hour at 4 p.m. Eastern. So much content this week. Look forward to

bringing it to you. Thanks for tuning in. Cheers. Be the right club today. Better than most. Better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most!