No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 865 - Who are the best 10 players in the world?, John Deere Recap

Episode Date: July 8, 2024

DJ and Soly open up tonight's pod with a look at the birdie-fest that was the John Deere where Davis Thompson won at 28 under par while Hayden Springer delivered the latest 59 on the PGA Tour in Thursday's first round. Then it's on to some fun hypothetical questions (38:30) including the best ten players in the world regardless of tour status, our current favorite course on earth, the biggest difference between our views of some of the courses on the world top 100 lists and a lot more. Link to Marques Brownlee video discussed on PGA Tour Technology 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 Rhoback Blade and Bow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. That's better than most. How about in? 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, Two Man show tonight. Got my guy DJ Pye here. Hello, Pye Man.

How are you, buddy? Hello, Solly. Thank you for having me on your program. What a great weekend here in the Midwest. Fun golf tournament to watch. And I can't wait to talk about it. Good to be with you. We're not going to talk that much pro golf this week. You know, we got a lot. We got some other topics we want to get into kind of saving a few for, for John Deere, which

I think was perfectly well timed because there's not a whole lot to take away from this event unless you have a ton, which we'll I'm sure get to. I don't have a ton to take away from this one, but this episode is brought to you by our friends at titleists, the number one ball and golf and the choice of your newest PGA Tour winner, Davis Thompson. I called it last week on the show. Maybe somebody called it on the show last week. I forget who called it. Yeah, hard to remember who that was. Davis was one of 114 players this week at the John Deere Classic, 73% of the field who

teed up a Titleist Pro V1 or Pro V1X model. It was in his junior season at the University of Georgia when Davis switched to the Pro V1 from the From a competitive model then ascended to number one in the world amateur golf ranking and has never looked back He will tell you he's a natural high ball hitter his ability to flight the Pro V1 the way he wants to and have full Control over the windows he's trying to hit has been a huge part of his success Choosing the right title as golf ball is all about flight spin and feel and comparing the Pro V1 vs Pro V1X. Pro V1 will fly lower and spin less in the long game while producing a similar greenside spin and

softer feel. That's what I'm in. Pro V1X will fly higher, spin more in the long game and have a firmer feel. That's what the pie man is in. There's also Pro V1X left dash, the choice of this year's US Open champion, which offers a high flight similar to Pro V1X but with a dramatically lower full swing spin. The best players in the world are playing golf ball that's fit to their game. You simply can't play your best golf. Otherwise head over to thylas.com to start the fitting process and find out which Pro

V1 is right for you. What are you sipping on over there? Uh pine man. Uh I got a little blade and bow. I think maybe we got a blade and bow. You know, a couple couple uh uh bills to be paid by blade and bow here shortly and And you know, I've been drinking it this weekend. It's been delightful. Thursday. A holiday is like the worst possible thing for drinking. This is I I'm on, I, it's still a holiday weekend. It's, it's the greatest holiday timing ever July 4th on a Thursday. But as golf enthusiasts, we've come to appreciate the tradition of celebrating a round of golf, the round of cocktails, the 19th hole, we're teaming up with Blade and

Bow, Kentucky straight bourbon, because they elevate those celebrations, honoring the legacy of the golf clubhouse, crafted with the same dedication and skill as the perfect swing. Blade and Bow is more than just a whiskey. It's a testament to craftsmanship and tradition offers the opportunity for a refined golf experience on and off the green. What better way to toast to 18 holes than with a signature cocktail at the 19th? The Kentucky Caddy is a favorite of professional golfer and fellow Blade & Bow bourbon lover Wyndham Clark. A blend of fresh lemonade, peach tea, mint and Blade & Bow served over ice. It's the perfect companion for celebratory moments at the 19th hole. Visit bladeandbowiskey.com to discover more about the premium bourbon

and savor every moment responsibly. Blade & Bow Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey 45.5% alcohol by volume. Stitzel Weller Distilling Company, Louisville, Kentucky. Please drink responsibly. Davis Thompson, what did you see last week to make you call out? We got a question right off the bat. I remember JP Fitz seven said, am I remembering right? The DJ pie picked the winner in last week's pod, albeit perhaps tongue in cheek. No, not this is your moment to it to gloat here. No, I'm not going to go too much. Although I am putting together a nice little reel of these bags, you know, go back and listen to the end of some of these episodes, just kind of lobbing some predictions that, you know, you

can take credit for them. If they hit, you could forget, you pretend they never happened. If they didn't, I remember distinctly lobbing up when we were having our Scotty, we're all frothed up about Scotty. I was like, he's going to win the players and he's going to win the Masters guys. And then that was like hit stop recording. Last week was like, you know, you guys are like, oh, Cantlay's in the field. And which I guess he ended up not being, but you know, Speed is in the field. Who's going to play? I'm like, guys, Davis Thompson is going to win.

No reaction from the peanut gallery, which is fine. He's a stud, man. He's a stud. He's been a stud at every level. He reminds me a lot of, I don't know why, just Harris English. He just feels like Harris English. I don't know if I'm seeing that, but just a ball striker, just a very quiet reserved guy goes about his business, kind of does everything well. It's not like he's out there bombing gouging.

It's not like he's, I mean, he made every putt today, but it's not like his, you know, he's got some duct tape together game that like where the putter just bails him out. He's just a, just a high, high level player, man. And maybe that's where the comp comes from. The broadcast was comparing him to Scotty, like hot and heavy in the open today on, on CBS, just like, Hey, this is kind of what it felt like to watch Scotty, you know, in like twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two when he was first kind of starting to knock on the door, didn't have any wins, which like is, listen, a very lofty comparison.

But I guess if I'm going to if I'm going to squint, like I said, he does everything well. He has all the tools, seems to have a very good head on his shoulders, doesn't seem to lose his mind when he gets in these, you know, big like heady situations and he plays well at all kinds of different golf courses. I mean he played well at Pinehurst in the US Open, he finished T9 and then he went and set a scoring record at the John Deere Classic. So those are two dramatically different golf courses and you know, he just seems like a guy that that shows up and

plays the 18 holes in front of him and, and, you know, puts up more good weeks than bad weeks. He's on quite a heater. Um, I mean, yeah, runner up the week before off the top 10, um, you know, he's finished runner up the Myrtle beach, uh, back in May, which is obviously an opposite field event. So he hasn't really, you know, he hasn't beaten down the door on a signature event or, you know, it's not like a quite a Wyndham Clark leap. I mean, just thinking back on some guys we've seen make massive massive leaps but it's just a very steady climb. If you look at his data golf ranking in terms it's not a dramatic it just like slowly slowly rises all the way up to his 36th in the rankings coming into this week he'll be up even

higher as of next week once these numbers go through. Not a guy we talk about a lot, not a guy that you know moves, you know, is an essential cog in the golf world. But you know, kind of should have been maybe on our radars a bit more in terms of like, hey, you know, maybe he's underrated. We've at times we try to stop in for and say like, hey, here's an underrated season that's going on. Here's a guy who's playing some really good golf. That's where I came up with my comp was like JT Poston kind of feels a little bit more where I see like his career path going.

Harris, maybe that's a little slight to Harris English. I think he's quite the, uh, I mean, let's just see guys on 25, you know, and I think that I don't, I don't hate the, the post and comp of course, the, you know, pound for pound the best player in the world as, as Tron would tell you, but I just think Davis has a little more firepower, you know, he's got, he's got that top end, top end gear to kind of like contend on bigger ballparks, whereas JT, you know, historically has been he's a shorter hitter and kind of a little more limited in in probably what his ceiling is. So I don't know, man. I don't know that he's going to go win eight majors or 10 majors.

But, you know, and I don't think he's going to save the PGA Tour and I don't think SSG is licking their chops. But hey, not every week has to be about that. That was kind of my biggest takeaway this week was like exactly what you said about the slow steady progression. I mean, it's not that slow. Again, he's 25. That used to be like a freak thing in the world of golf when everybody was hitting their peaks at, you know, 32, 33, 34. But it is one of those things. That's why a week like this is good, I think. It does clear the noise a little bit. And it weirdly felt like a throwback week to me. I don't know what it was. Maybe I was just in a good mood. Maybe the weather was good. It was fun to fire up the grill, turn on a little Eric Cole, a little Trace Crow. It

just felt like the old times a little bit this week. It was like, hey, that's a fun, here's a guy that's supposed to be the next dude and here we get to watch him go prove it out. It wasn't a faceless veteran that's been hanging around for 18 years that comes in and lingers and grabs another two-year exemption. It's like, no, man, this is what these events are supposed to be about is giving these guys a proving ground and he went out and took it. So I got a lot of thrill out of that. Do not put this take up against any prior takes I've had, you know, about course setup,

golf courses, scoring, just just let this one stand on its own. Okay. Just I don't want to hear any any. Well, how do you explain that? Dear run slaps. I know it's a freakishly good golf course, like it punches way above its weight. It's got some really interesting kind of mounting around some of the green short areas around some of the greens

elevation changes. I love that third hole that par three that plays way up the hill like that. It's just really cool use of the terrain and land. Does it fit? Does any course fit the pro game anymore? I don't know if it does. No, like 12. How many guys broke 16 guys shot 20 under par or better? Like scoring's insanely freakish. Like it doesn't hold up as a chat. I don't know, it kind of still challenges guys in a unique way. Yeah, it is a different challenge. Now again, don't compare that to some of

the other courses I've said where like it doesn't even challenge these guys because I don't know if I can fully explain that other than it helps. I've played it in person and I just had so much fun playing it like it's more of a public track than it is a great test of PGA tour players. And it's just a worthwhile fun place to go play. And it, you know, kind of more answers the question

of what would pros shoot at your local blah, blah, blah golf course than it does like who's the best player out of this group, but I it's it's uh, yeah, I mean I don't want to get too, you know wistful I don't have some like massive emotional connection to this event, but it's very comfortable in what it is It's not trying to be anything that it's not it's not trying to be the fifth major, you know even though we made that joke for a long time, it's it's not trying to be the fifth major, you know, even though we made that joke for a long time, it's, it's not trying to trick you into thinking that like, these are, this is the best possible field we could assemble from anywhere in the world.

It's just, it is what it is, man. The golf course is what it is. The tournament is what it is. The, the people behind it seem to be fantastic. The players love going there. And you know, it's just, it's one of those events, especially as events kind of are like dropping off the tour calendar that has just been around for a really long time and actually has like some tradition and identity to it. And that identity is a little different than, you know, the players or Riviera or any of

those like big time things, but it's still kind of part of the, the fabric of like, at least what the tour used to be. And the more conversations we have about, you know, 1.5 billion from here and we're, you know, ranking players Q ratings over here. It's like the more this stuff like kind of gets bumped down the totem pole, which is probably a, you know, a net loss, I think, because it seems like this is a,

this is a net positive for the tour, I think. And it again, kind of goes into that category of look, Davis Thompson won $1.4 million this week. He won a spot in the British open. He won a spot in next year's masters. He won 500 FedEx cup points. He's in the top 30 of the FedEx cup now and on track to make the tour championship.

Like again, mules that are super mad about these signature events, like, and all that. There's still a shit load available on all of these weaker field events. And it's still paying you a lot of money and also go beat this fucking guy yeah like how do these how do these amateurs and stuff keep popping up and coming in and taking these spots you know i mean we saw it again this week well before we get to that thomas we saw it like it's it's crazy how good these like young players are for the for the the NLU record for the Google sheet I've got going.

We'll put this in for July 7th. Does Davis Thompson win a major? You're hyping them. You're comparing to Harris English. You know, you're, you know, you're, you're notorious major Jamie. Does Davis Thompson win a major? I, I'm going to say yes. Wow.

Say yes. Why not? I think he's not? I think he's got tools, man. Last week you said no to Akshay, but who's 22. This week you're saying Davis Thompson. Yes. Yes. Correct. Correct. I don't think, like I said, I don't think it's going to be six, but I think maybe from a kind of Xander consistency standpoint, I could see him being a guy that is just around for a while. It doesn't look like there's a lot going on there that's just gonna like, I don't see a lot of parts that are breaking. Akshay like Akshay's back might explode

in like a year and a half, like who knows? That's a car crash of a move he's got going on over there. But I don't know that Davis Thompson thing looks, looks like it's got some longevity to it. This guy's a doctor now all of a move he's got going on over there. But I don't know that Davis Thompson thing looks like it's got some longevity to it. This guy's a doctor now. I'll say no, he does not win a major. I'll stick my neck out here. Just last week, like no, we're headed out too many majors here. You know, all of a sudden now we're giving what Davis tops. I've been curious. Well, honestly, a lot of this is coming from, we've got a segment coming later about both top 10 players in the world and maybe who's on the who's on the U.S.

President's Cup team. As of now, there's there's not that many good golfers left. A lot of a lot of them are aged out. So that's where I've got to like, I think David Thompson can pick one of these off and like, you know, 20, 33. I hope this isn't the case. I have no reason to root for this. But I mean, there's there's heaters like this that happen, right? Like, you know, a little several top 10s in a row, including a win. Yeah. And, you know, Riley Davis tends to do

that Davis, I still don't know which one it is. It tends to happen from time to time. Like, you know, we could look get to the end of the year back never talk about Davis Thompson when a major you never know. But I you'd make some compelling points in terms of kind of how his, uh, his career is progressing. And it is sneaky. It's not, not something we were talking about, uh, coming into this week other than you. No one else was talking about this, uh, other than you. So you know who he kind of reminds me of actually, and this is surely

just like recency bias, but a little bit like Cam Davis from last week of just like, man, that guy, like big frame has all the tools, does everything well bit like Cam Davis from last week of just like, man, that guy like big frame has all the tools, does everything well, like seems like a really proper player. And he just kind of got to the winner circle like four or five years earlier, you know, which is where I kind of think maybe there's a little more, a little more headroom. All right. He am one, I guess he's just had a long layoff, but yeah, he's a monster for sponsor up at the rocket mortgage. Hayden Springer shot a 59 on Thursday.

Excited about that. What's, what's, what's your reaction to that? All right. Massive preface here. Great. I wrote amazing round. A really good score. I wrote about this for gin and tonic. That's coming out this week as well. I don't know. Hayden Springer, seems like a delightful guy. Read a piece about him and his wife that was very emotional and compelling. I think Data Golf has him as maybe the 300th or so ranked player in the world.

And there's something I think we're kinda, God, man, I used to love 59 watches were like the best thing about golf, right? Like breaking into, we've got a camera out there. We're breaking into early coverage. We have to stop everything you're doing. This guy might shoot 59. You remember Phil had the one at Phoenix and lipped out. We were in the middle of busy season. We went down to the bar at my client. I remember exactly where we were and we watched the final hole at the bar,

went nuts when it left out. Like that was, that was, that moved the needle. Right. And, and listen, of course that's Phil. And I also don't want to pretend like, you know, being a superstar has ever been like a prerequisite for shooting 59, right? Cause he had Paul Goitos and Stuart Appleby and you know, Adam Hadwin and all the,

all these guys have done it that are not superstars. They're not all the David Duvall final round to win type of situation. But I guess maybe this happens in a lot of sports. I'm sure this happens in track and swimming and other kind of sports with very objective measurements like this, where the floor of the league just raises and things that used to be like big time milestones Fall and that sucks and you come up with new milestones I guess but man 59 was just such a nice clean round number that was like such a fun kind of stand-in avatar for like the perfect game and I

Don't know. It's just tough to it's tough to see this many. It's tough to not be excited about it. It's kind of where I'm at. So Hayden Springer, congratulations. Amazing, amazing round of golf. I think he shot 27 on the front. Like that's video game golf. Maybe better than video game golf. He parked the first and shot 27. it's not even like a blip on the radar anymore. Like nobody texted me about it. Nobody cared. It's just so, I don't know, you could probably take that in a lot of different directions, but what was your impression? So I've heard of Hayden Springer, like this is, but it's all to say like July 4th, it was on July 4th, like my mood was kind of in a bay. I was in a baseball mood. I'm texting some baseball friends and you know, whatever happened that day. And then somebody mentioned about like, uh, you know, Hayden Springer like, you know, overshadowed the day, kind of joking and I was like, Oh, shit,

I never heard. He's like a pitching prospect. Like, what do you do? Like, oh, I know the golf started out my god, hate spring shot 59. Cool. Like nobody. Yeah, nobody mentioned anything to me about it. Again, it's like a ball in hand 59 just needs to go in a different category. I'm very thankful the Wikipedia page has like a footnote on every one that is ball in hand, right? Because... And the second one in like 12 days as well with Cam Young at the Travelers. Again, it's a boring, boring, boring conversation to have of like, dude,

I'm kind of out of ways to describe how good these guys are at golf. Like it is, again, the example I always use is I've gotten to play with a bunch of the mini tour guys down here in Jacksonville and I've seen a 61 in person and I've seen just incredible golf, like what an actual heater looks like and these dudes like don't have status anywhere. Like all this to say, like there's just,

it's almost impossible to fully grasp how good this top level of players are and how many got 300 plus ranked player in the world and go shoot a 59 on a PJ tour setup. I know it's an easy golf course, but like it's just insane how freaking good the golf is. And I'm, the more I'm like into, you know, we talk a lot about distance technology,

all that stuff on this, the more I've like kind of ease my way back into other sports, the more you kind of just realize just how fricking optimized everything is getting. Like we'll talk about this in the seamstress union, I'm sure this upcoming week, our baseball pod on the trap draw, but like pitching has gotten my guy to control in the major leagues and it's affected offense in a ridiculous fashion because like the fourth string bullpen guy throws a 98 mile-hour splinker with you know blah blah blah and movement horizontal movement arm side action all this stuff and it's just like the scouting and the technology that goes into pitching all it's just like in every sport like

Formula One has really struggled with some technological advances like basketball has turned into three-pointers and layups and it's just we're seeing this in golf man where, where it's like, there's so much information, guys can figure stuff out so fricking quickly. Like it just, and it's a wildly competitive environment with a ton of money involved, which supports even more pro careers that just trickles down to like dudes

that roll off the corn fairytorrent at 259. And I don't have a comment at the end of all that, other than to say like, it's just kind of gonna be like this forever probably for all the sports. And there's some art and joy lost in all that other than to say like, it's just kind of gonna be like this forever, probably for all the sports. And there's some art and joy loss and all that. But I'm also the data analytics nerd that like says it was going to get figured out at some point. And it just happens to be kind of

getting happening in the prime of our sports following career. That was that was kind of my big takeaway too is like, I'm not, you know, I'm not getting my my torch and pitchfork out for for Hayden Springer. It doesn't upset me. It doesn't ruin my day. I wish I was more excited about it. I don't really feel much of anything. I'm trying to think of a good example where a sport just keeps ascending and ascending and ascending to the highest level. Once you see the high watermark just continuing to, to be pushed higher and higher and higher, like you just get more and more excited. And I feel that way in the majors.

I feel that way with Bryson. I feel that way with Scotty, but man, it's just, it's hard to, it's hard to golf's just weird. It's hard to say like a 59 at John Deere. Like that doesn't mean this guy's better than Bryson. It doesn't mean he's better than Scott. It means he had one great day and he is, exactly your point, he's one of 1,200 guys in the world that could go do that on any given day. And that's just like, I guess, that's almost like the coolest part of it, maybe. If you squint is like, man, the world's kind of full. That's

how good all of these guys are. And it's just a good reminder of that more than it is like, Oh man, like take the historic photos and sign the card and hold it up and let's do the whole thing again. Cause like that's kind of lost its luster, I think, as, as we've gotten down the road a little bit. Well, and it's also just like, we have these strokes gain numbers, which still are taking a long time to catch on. I feel like anytime still like the majority people that listen when

they hear strokes game, they're just like, here we go. But like you had nine strokes gained on that day, which is not. I mean, it's an incredible round of golf. Very good, like beat the field by nine shots, essentially. But like the best rounds beat the field by like 1213 shots like furik's 58. Oh, is just like, beat the field by like 12, 13 shots. Like, Furex 58 is just like, Furex 59 even better. Yeah, it's insane. And but so there's like this sliding scale, right? Like, we've all got,

have all played rounds of golf, where it's like, Oh, technically, my lowest round of golf is this, like, was it better than, you know, this round of golf that was four shots higher, but it was a tougher setup, and the conditions were different. Like, it's just weird, kind of how the curve of this has gone to the point where we get... My point being, we are extremely numb to this number, to the point where people are almost mad when it happens, instead of getting excited about it. That's what sucks. Right. That's right. I'm not at that point, but I understand why people feel that way.

And I didn't tweet anything about it Thursday because I was like, what could I possibly add? That's not like being super bitchy and, uh, what a hitter. Yeah. Incredible. It was not an incredible round of golf. Like it, you know, in terms of like the historic nature of the game. So, uh, it's just become a thing that's very frequent. I mean, there hasn't been that many on the PGA tour grand.

There's been like, what, 13 since 2010 or something like that. But I think 14 total maybe. Is that right? Since 20. No, I think total on the PGA tour. Oh, I just want to PGA tour. But like 10 since 2010 or something like that. Yeah, then there's like corn fairy

and everybody's shooting 50. 57 on the corn fairy. Rice and choc 58. We would be, you know, we'd be tar and feathered if we didn't mention that. One of the greatest rounds in history. How many corn fairy sub 60 rounds do you think there's been since the beginning of last year, beginning of 2023?

So last year. Literally I have no idea, four? Five, there's been five of them. And then like, yeah, there's other tournaments as well. Like there's 57 on the Alps tour in 2019 and like, yeah. I think maybe the only thing that gives me a little tiny pit in my stomach is, so, okay, now we've kind of lost our golf channels breaking in, hashtag 59 watch. We've lost that

moment, which is fine. C'est la vie. It happens. What are you going to do? Bigger problems in the golf world. Right. So now it's like, okay, so now we're moving that scale to 57 watch, right? Maybe that would kind of move the needle and like people would be like, holy shit, 57. Like that would be the lowest ever. I guess where the pit in my stomach kind of happens is like, if somebody shoots 57, it's not like,

it's not gonna be, I don't think, maybe it will be. I don't think it's gonna be Jim Furyk just like ballstriking the shit out of it and having a good putting day. It's gonna be like, oh, well that guy can now drive, like now he can drive like four greens that weren't drivable like 10 years ago. And so he's just going to like drive it up there and make birdies on all of these things

that like used to be par fours and maybe like makes an eagle. You know what I mean? It's almost like a different type of, it's almost like somebody that's just like hitting a bunch of half court shots or something that ends up feeling kind of weird. And honestly, my first reaction to somebody shooting 57 will be like, I mean,

I hate to be that guy, but it's like, now we're going to do something about technology. Like it's very clear why scores are, are trending in this direction and all this. And it's the elephant in the room. And it's, it's, it's what is the lead factor of course, in diminishing this accomplishment, if we even want to call it that at this point. So I want to give a shout out to our friends at Rowback. You all know Rowback. Best fit, best feel. It is summer. We are living in it. You already know they have, we think they have the best polos and hoodies on the market. Pie Man's got the hoodie on right now. Their everyday shorts

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and more with code NLU. Summer isn't the same without row back. Can I give one more quick John Deere shout out before we move on? I had a delightful weekend down at the in-laws this weekend in Bloomington Normal, and we were driving back this morning, and I was listening to the beginning of the golf on PJ Tour radio, which is always kind of, you know, you'd always rather watch it on TV or whatever. Events like this are truly like a joy to listen

to on the radio. And a lot of it's like the same reason as listening to baseball on the radio is a fun time, but there's so much more time to fill because they're not flying around as much. And there's just fewer kind of guys walking. So there's more time to fill. They can like set up shots so much better. I feel like I truly like, this is no slide at the broadcast, but like all the ad load and they're flying around trying to get to commercials and all this, I truly almost felt like I had a better sense of the tournament from listening to it on the radio than I do from like watching on TV. Cause as soon as I start watching on TV, it's like, yeah, technically I'm watching three or four shots, but then a commercial happens and then I pull out my phone and then I'm still on my phone

and then it comes back and I miss three or four shots. And I just like am not engaged. Whereas like when I'm sitting in my car driving and listening to it, those guys do a really good job. So I just, they probably don't get shouted out enough. I'm sure it's a pretty thankless, thankless gig, but you know, Mark Wilson and Will Haskett and the whole the whole crew was, was great at bringing the noise and really like adding, adding a lot of context. I feel like it's a good way to learn about, it's a good way to learn about players cause there's just more time to fill.

So they're talking about like very specifically, what is Davis Thompson doing? Well, what is, what is he doing? That's really impressing you. What is this shot actually looking like? pull this off, they have to do this. So it was great. I wanted to make sure to, uh, to shout that out this week, cause I always get a lot out of that. Before we move off deer as well. I mean, Michael Thor Bjornsson, you know, just turned pro last month, won PGA tour.

You, um, obviously already with a T two finish on the PGA tour, even if it is the John Deere that's a real, uh, real, real, real, real, real, real, real, real, real, real, real, real, real, real, real, real, real, real, know, just turned pro last month, one PGA Tour U, already with a T2 finish on the PGA Tour. Even if it is the John Deere, that's a remarkable, remarkable accomplishment. And I'm not sure he's Ludwig 2.0, but definitely somebody to keep your eye on here in the short and long term. He had a T39 and missed the cut at the rocket mortgage last week, but it's hit so far. Oh, yeah. What did he have? Like 148 mile an hour ball speed, I think, with a 6 iron

on one of those part 3s. It's laughable. Yeah, he was fifth in strokes, gained off the tee this past week. And yeah, guy absolutely moves it. And freaking Luke Clanton, man. Luke Clanton, amateur at Florida State, tied for second, finishes four shots back. I was trying Clanton man. Clanton. Amateur at Florida State tied for second finishes four shots back. I couldn't I was trying to get an answer to this I was kind of in and out of

watching the golf and distracted by a bunch of stuff today but is he headed to the Scottish Open this week? I mean another top 10 I assume he's qualified for that I don't know if DP World Tour co-sanctioned I don't know if we have an answer to that as of as of uh right now. I don't I don't know I mean the the only thing it seems like would keep him out would be if it's an invitational and, you know, I've been wrong about these things before, but I think it's called the Scottish Open, which is not invitational. That's what I mean. So I like I think it would be fine unless there's something weird, like you said, with the co sanction like, God, I would think you would have to get in. And if not, there it would carry over to whatever you know, whatever's next so Yeah, I mean what I what I what a run man. I've been first reported by my hitters on the radio, but I Think first guy since the mid 50s first amateur system Amateur car backs back top tempers is

1958 it's just bananas and that's where again, it's like there's just so much freaking noise man, and I And that's where, again, it's like, there's just so much freaking noise, man. And I think that's where, like, I think that's why I was trying to think like, man, why am I like actually really enjoying this this week? And I think a lot of it is like, it just all ends up feeling so desperate when you get to like the signature events. It just every weekend's of feeling like, oh man, if this isn't like a grand slam, this whole thing is about to fall apart. And like, which is probably stupid, but you know, that's just like how it feels sometimes. And like, oh God, if this,

if this person wins and that means the tours are definitely coming back together. And if this person finishes, if he misses the cut, then oh my God, and it's just, it like sets the stakes to this level that like obviously the golf's never, I shouldn't say never, rarely ever going to like live up to whereas this week was just like oh man let's let's learn a little bit more about some of these young guys right like let's see what Luke Klans game looks like. Let's see what Thor Bjornsson's game looks like and it was just it

was great like I said it felt like a little bit of a a throwback week and and just a much less complicated week. It was it was fun and you mentioned this earlier but Mules you have to shut the **** up at this point. If you're letting this amateur roll up and finish back to back top tens, you can, you have no standing, you have no standing for, for putting your foot down on any, any, any tour. Uh, like I'm sorry, Nate Lashley to the back. Like you, you, this is, this is, this is, this is what's coming.

And I get you're trying to claw your way into holding the, the status that, but this wave is coming again and it's going to be, it's going to be tough because they all move it like these guys do, uh, like Thor Bjergsen and Clinton do. So don't say we didn't warn you. Uh, shout out to my hitter. Uh, and my, uh, my doppelganger, Yost Loughton, he won his court case. He's going to Paris, baby. He's going to the Olympics. They tried to keep him out justice for the host. Yeah. We should say what the court case was because that makes it sound like he's like a domestic abuser or something. His court case was that he qualified for the, for the Olympics to make the golf team or to play on behalf of the Netherlands in the Olympics. the Dutch were like no you they had a

Internal rule that's like if you're not top I think 100 in the world or whatever We're not sending you there and he took him to court in the Netherlands and won and he's headed to Paris So excited for him on that one. But yeah, that's that's great. Yeah, and especially I mean we mentioned it last week, but like Golf so freaking weird a 30, you. A 32 hole golf tournament is so weird to the fact that like our, you know, CT pan, uh, CT pan, a shock of laws as just team was calling him, uh, is, you know, he's snuck up and won a medal last year. Like Yos Loudon can win a medal. I hope he does. I hope he wins the whole thing. For sure. It's such a short sighted thing to not, not send him to, you know, basically a limited

field tour of it. Like it's, of course the guy can compete. And Mark Darbin, I hope I'm saying that right, is taking over for, that news came out this week, he's taking over for Martin Slumbers as the head of the RNA. This is from Golf Week. He held key roles in the London Olympic and Paralympic games and most recently was the acclaimed CEO of Premiership Rugby Club at Northampton Saints. Don't have a ton to prognosticate on this in terms of, you know, obviously he's not like coming up through the golf ranks to the head of the RNA, but obviously has great sports and business experience and is a younger guy. And we will see, I don't know exactly what this means

for the world of golf, but this is just noting this for obviously as somebody we're going to end up talking about in the future. And it does mark the end of Martin Slumber's tenureship as the head of the RNA, which I guess thought to you, pie man, what's your lasting impression in memory of Martin Slumber's his role of the RNA? Darvin's supposed to be a stick by the way. I think he's like a three handicap. So that's interesting. You know what? I don't have, I have a little bit. I really enjoyed seeing him and Juan together

on kind of the whole distance road show, you know? And they came on our pod. They were doing a bunch of other kind of joint interviews. Slumbers was always like extremely well-spoken and I enjoyed listening to him. I thought he had great, you know, great way with words and spoke very clearly and you know Kind of illustrated his points. Well, I'd almost I'd flip it back to you I mean you've you've probably spent more time with him around him than I have certainly I find him extremely impressive in general

I think it's a a even more challenging job at the as the head of the RNA in terms of the even more challenging job as the head of the RNA in terms of the stodgy-ness, if you will, or the kind of the history of the game. And I think hoodies and golf was actually something that he had to tackle under his tenorship. But I got the chance to spend some time with him down in Australia this past year at the Asia Pacific Amateur and had some good chats with him. And he was one of the few men that was willing to take on this technology thing. And I obviously think it's a very important thing for the future of the game. And it's something that should have happened a long time ago. And I think he would probably even tell you like, this was something that should

have happened a long time ago as well. But he's also sensitive to all of the many, many, many interests and complications there are to the technology issue, which we have a tendency probably to breeze past. Like I can definitively state it with confidence that I don't think the technology is right in the game. Now fixing it, it's 999 of the 1,000 problems are fixing it. And the easiest thing to do is say like, fix it. And he's been a part of like the team that has been,

you know, trying to get it fixed and get aligned with the USGA. And it's not been an easy task. And I, I think his approach to like, the live stuff is just extremely diplomatic of how he approached the OWGR rankings and said, like, hey, this is not, we're not like denying that you are some of the best players in the world. But like the little mathematical formula does not work for us to be able to rank you similar to all these other tours. And I just I have a great respect for

somebody that kind of has approached the job the way that he has. I don't honestly don't know enough about his record. I don't dive deep enough into this to, you know, give you the full, you know, I'm sure there are many people that think about this more than I do and give you 80 things he's done wrong. Are they thinking this? But I think the game of golf will miss him. I know this was kind of always the plan for this to kind of roll off right around this time miss him. I know this was kind of always the plan for this to kind of roll off right around this

time for him. But I like Marty Sleeps is a thumbs up in my book. I greatly have enjoyed his tenure. I agree. I mean, last week we were kind of kind of eulogizing the tenure of Seth Waugh too. So like having, you know, kind of not vacancies, but two turnovers like in in both of those positions is not a small thing.

You know, right. Yeah. It's been a lot of change. Yeah. Right. I think the other thing that, that just is always worth shouting out and it's relevant to the new guy taking over as well. Jeff Shackford was writing about this in his newsletter, but it's, it's a lot like Augusta where, you know, Mike Wan at the USGA is in charge of the USGA and he's in charge of running championships and running membership and, and you know, the green stuff that they do and some technology stuff and

whatever. The head of the RNA also has to run like a club. You know, you're also like a club secretary, which is always just like a really funny wrinkle to all this. It's like, yeah, we need you to run the British Open. And you're also like in charge of what you're like our club secretary as well. There's no like USGA golf club that Mike want has to run. So it's just, I don't know. It's always something to like, keep in the back of your mind that like, not only are they worried

about, you know, parking at the open championship, they're also worried about like, the politics of running, you know, among the most snooty clubs in the world. So, Godspeed to Mark Darwin. I hope Marty gets to go enjoy the golf. Play a bunch of golf, travel. I'm sure he's gotten to see a lot of places, but go enjoy retirement if that's what's next

for him. Closing the book on pro golf, Chimpo John C. said, will you apologize for jinxing Ry? I will apologize for that. He was part of my parlay. Uh, and ended today. I should have just gone with Davis Thompson. Obviously, uh, I will not apologize for picking the tigers over the reds. That was the easy, that was the only way that game was ever going to go today. Uh, I know my ball club, they were not going to be Tarek's school ball, uh, and they were not close to doing that 13 strikeouts for him. So,

congratulations, maybe. I don't know. I don't know how you want to feel about that. But yeah, we'll talk about them. The seamsters, uh, G I thought I tried to warn you last week about the whole Rye, the whole rise situation that you're, you're on your own. I'll be consulting you and you only any updates of my, uh, my golf buddy will come from the pie man and pie man only G underscore PNW. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that.

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

I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to I refused to call it T 26 of the John Deere, a trending moment for our boy,

a beautiful boy, George. He shot 70 today. He did have a 63 on Saturday. Yeah. I'm going to say, I'm just going to say no, man. He was once one of the best players in the world. And I just don't, I just don't think he is anymore. I think that's kind of more where I'm at is like, I don't know what, that's a big question. I don't know what trending means. Technically. I don't know kind of more where I'm at is like, I don't know what trend. That's a big question. I don't know what trending means technically. I don't know where our floor is right now. I don't know where our baseline is. It just is. Yeah, I don't know. It's just, it's not good. This is a perfect transition.

Feel good. Go to the data golf page. It's just, it's blood red. He's just doing everything poorly. It's just, it's not, it's not fun. It's not, I'm not having a good time. It's a perfect transition into a topic that I'm very excited to discuss with you, DJ. It is one of our, we're gonna finish the rest of today's episode with a few segments, three main segments on here.

And the first one is, I'm gonna call on you to go first on this one. Oh God. Or I'll go first, you tell me. No, no, no, I'm happy to. I'm happy, I think we should go, you know, beat by beat. I'm sure we're gonna be similar. So anyways, let's set up what we're doing. We are doing. The question is, the question is from from Sally. I think you threw this out on Slack or maybe in a meeting you just say, Hey, who are the 10 best players in the world? I was like, Oh my God, I don't, you know, I don't know. Like the crooked OWGR has led us so astray. We can't trust that. You know, data golf is too rigid in some areas. It doesn't, you know, totally neglects the eye test. What is the best, what does best golfer even mean?

So we decided we're going to put together a list, you know, kind of your, it's more of a power ranking here probably, but your 10 versus my 10, I think. Can I, is there a difference? Cause I was approaching it as the best golfers. I know I typed players here in the agenda. Is there a difference between golfers and players? Is it?

Oh yeah, for sure. So here's what I said. I said we should have to come up with a definition, like an organizing principle for our lists. And here's what I said for how my list is defined. I said, majors are what matters. If I were playing a major tomorrow, this is the order of guys I would want on my team. So I guess you would say

like, most likely to win a major. Okay, mine is similar in order. It is a it's a power ranking. It's not necessarily a strokes gained ranking. It's not necessarily who I'm going to take at the open here in a couple weeks, because that's a kind of a different major championship. But it's not necessarily based on accomplishments to date. It's really hard to define. But if I was to define it, it's if we based on accomplishments to date. It's really hard to define. But if I was to define it, it's if we're getting ready to host a big

time golf tournament, right? So call it a major. Well, I mean, higher on your board than mine. Sure. A big time golf tournament where we you know, maybe it's a brand new invented tournament, but it's you know, it's a longer golf course is what I would assume on this right? Major championship like setup, like if they just stood up a golf tournament. And if you got to pick 10 guys and you got a million dollars for every guy on your list that finished in the top 10 of that tournament, that's how I filled out my list.

So that's how I set my standards. Does that make sense? Yeah, I think we're very similar. Yeah, I think we're very similar. Well, yours was win, right? Which I think is a slightly different thing with some of the guys that may be on my list, but it was, if I had to bet on you playing a great golf tournament, you are a great golfer, you're going to play a great golf tournament, you're going to be in the top 10 of this 150 man field. And I get win a million dollars for every one you pick. Is a

good litmus test for who I think the best 10 golfers in the world are. I think that's right. I'm bumping on that word golfers, because if we're saying the best golfers, I mean, I think JT Poston's in there. I think, you know, Brian Harmon's much higher. Oh, you're saying that you're- You know what I'm saying? Okay, yeah. I'm not saying like distance agnostic, right?

I think distance counts big time here. No, I think we're on the same page. I think our list is gonna look very similar. I'd be kind of shocked if it doesn't. Let's just go. All right. Number one, I think we can on the same page. Yeah, exactly. All right. Number two, people are going to fucking hate that. Hate it. Oh, I'm right there with you. I think. Yeah. Really? Rory? Oh no, I'm Zander. Oh, I put Rory ahead, man. Just again, I'm going on majors. Everybody can throw this back in my face if they want, but to your exact point, I get a million dollars if he finishes in

the top 10. He's finished in the top 10 eight of the last 11 times they've had majors, eight of the last 11. That is three careers for most PGA Tour players. And he's done it in the last 11 majors. I still think, fool me 155 times, I still think he is, he's the guy I would trust more than anybody else. He's my game seven guy. Yeah, it's a tough one with Xander. Game six, Scotty's my game seven guy.

Xander's putting is so freaking elite and I mean Xander's just taking a massive leap this year and it's kind of hard. I didn't want this to be like just who's hot, like who's the hottest in the power rankings, but Xander was all, his floor was already like over two strokes game player. Like it's just such a massively good player.

And he's taking a leap this year. He's won a major on top of that. Like not a lot of people are gonna list him as the second best golf in the world, but I really truly believe he is the second best at golf in the entire world. I had him at number three. So I obviously with you, I got Rory at number three. Yeah. At number three, which means surely we both have Bryce at number four.

I have John Rahm at number four. Ooh, interesting. It's not been a great year for John. And I don't even know if this fits, but my actual definition of like, I think this feels like some eye test coming in from solid. Rom is, is like, Rom's an incredible golfer. Like he's, he's got to had a lot going on in the past year. And I think it's contributed to him playing not so well in some ways, but I don't think he's going to stay down forever. I don't think he's going to stay down for long even. And I just don't want to,

the last six months do not change what I think of him as a golfer. And it's, it's remarkably one of the masters last year. Uh, and he's just a fricking force when he's very good. And he's not tapped into that enough lately, but I, I think he's the, he's a's the fourth best golfer in the world. That's my thought. I love it. You think it's Bryson? I had Bryson. Yeah. I mean, we're living in a ball don't lie era here. I think he just keeps showing up at all kinds of different golf courses. He seems like he's in as good a command of his golf

game as he's ever been in his career. So I's, uh, I think adding all of that to the distance that he has and the advantage he has basically everywhere except Sahale, you know, it's like, I just, uh, I don't see where he's not. Uh, I don't know. He just, he feels ahead of, ahead of Ram, but I, I respect your ranking, but that, that's where I'm going different. As weird as it is, like if I'd have seen more, if I'd seen more stuff week to week on live, I think I could get there. He's just not that consistent in these events

that he should dominate. I mean, he didn't even finish top half of the field in Adelaide or Singapore. He was 18 out of 54 guys at Houston. Maybe he's shooting YouTube videos or something. I know. It just seems like. It's a bad Epson. The ballspson saw the balls are floating, floating in

opposite direction down in, you know, Adelaide. I haven't been number five, right? I mean, I still think he's, I just, I still think John Rahm is a better golfer. I think Piners really fit his game in a lot of ways. And he's never finished top five at the Masters. Rahm's won the Masters. I, I don't know. I don't, I don't have a definitive way of it. I just feel like Rom's a better golfer. I think he's more skilled.

That's it, yeah, it's interesting. I think that's gonna be- But if it's like a true like Bombing Alley golf course, do I think Bryson has a better chance of winning than Rom? I do, but I just think a more balanced setup. Kind of all are though. I don't know. I almost, I guess maybe that's,

honestly that would be my pushback. If I was trying to win this case in the court of law is like, you know, we're going to go to more courses that fit Bryson better than Rom. And you know, it's like, yes, if we're going to rock hard Riviera or LACC or, you know, I was, I almost said Pinehurst, but then I'm like, oh yeah, I wonder who won there. You know, it's like, I just, I feel like there's fewer courses that ROM has the advantage than Bryson,

even though I agree with what you're saying. Yeah, I agree as well. And this is not how I created my list. But if it was like TBC Sawgrass, who would you take, ROM or Bryson? Unfair question, because more golf courses look like the way you described than what I'm saying here. But I'm curious your answer there.

I still right now. I still think I would take Bryson. It might be. I don't know if I love my ranking right now. Well, I think it almost is like the Dustin Johnson. Like remember when Dustin Johnson was the longest player in the world and it was like, oh my God, he's going to Harbertown. Like, can he still compete there? I don't know. It's a different golf course. Like, yeah, because he just hits a fucking four iron. Like he'd still like hits it far in. He can hit less club, you know, it's not like he all of a sudden just loses his advantage. It's like, no, that is the advantage is that he can hit less club and be a little more tactical. And I think, I don't think Bryson

gets out there and is just like swinging for like, he's still a smart player. Like I don't think he's just out there swinging for the fences no matter what. I may have betrayed my own kind of system here, but I think again, a different question a year from now. If this tournament is taking place, do you think it's more likely that Rom is the better golfer or Bryson's the better golfer? I don't know. It's a kind of a coin flip, which I think is really exciting. That's like kind of one of the more exciting questions in golf because I can't wait to see what happens with Rom. It's a good topic. Yeah. Where's Rom for you? Or who's your number five? He is not number five either,

which I cannot believe that I'm saying this. I wish I could I could smile down on myself at that Sheboygan, Wisconsin RV. Oh my god. But I'm going to say Ludwig Oberg at number five. And a lot of that is, you know, this is a very driver focused list, I think, but that's the biggest weapon in the game probably is, you know, he doesn't hit it that much shorter. I mean, he hits it shorter than Bryson, but he hits it a hell of a lot straighter. He's in every, it just seems to be in every hole. And I don't know, know man he's got like maybe the best head on his shoulders of anybody other than Scotty and it just is he's a predator there's no denying it. Well I'll get to love it. Love is in my top 10. He's not my uh he's not my number six is Colin

Morikawa. Okay. He's had a great uh kind of return to to be in Colin. He's been very competitive in major championships and- Wait, sorry. Was Bryson five for you? Bryson's five for me. Yeah. Okay. Got it. Bryson's five and Morikawa is six for me.

Don't love it. Don't love it. I feel like we, you know, once we get past five, it's a different- I would offer you to trade Ludwig for Morikawa right now, if you want. Look, I mean- You can pretend that never happened. Ludwig is, watch him hit those little poofies out there all the time. Ludwig hits it out of one of those.

I think we're crowning Ludwig a little bit, a little bit. I mean, it, more cow I had one, one, two majors by the time that had Ludwig's age. Right. Um, I think we're crediting with 36 hole lead at Pinehurst. That didn't go very well over that weekend, right? I mean, Ludwig's won my top 10, but I just feel like more cow, you know, runner up the Memorial this year, Charles Schwab. He was fourth PGA, he finished fourth.

He had a very bad Sunday. It was not good. T4, I mean, even when he's not competitive in majors, you know, still T14 at Pinehurst, like he's just a really, really good golfer. He kind of had a little dip in his game there, but I think he is a tremendous, tremendous player, incredibly accurate, kind of breaks the mold from a lot of other players on this list. But I just think, I think we're, we're sleeping on Colin just a little bit.

Well, I will continue to snooze because he is not my number six, who is John Rahm. And he's also not my number seven, who is Victor Hovland. And again, maybe I'm looking more forward than past. Which might be, I'm sensing a slight difference in our lists. I think right now, if it's like, hey, two cars starting on the same starting line, do you want to get in Hovland's car or more cow's car? I, I don't think it's particularly close, but maybe you feel differently. I still feel very uncertain about Hovland. I do not think it's a guarantee that it all

gets back on track from what we've learned about his curiosity. Maybe being what kills the cat here. Uh, granny had a great Valhalla PGA, which was barely a major. Exited hard at Pinehurst. Right now, I do not think he is a better golfer than, I mean, Hovind's on my list, but I don't think he's better than a couple of these names first. All right, I did have Morikawa at eight.

You do gotta hand it to him. I respect his career. You know, that's about all I could say about that. Number nine, it pains me to put Cantlay on the list, but I'm sure he's, he's in the same neighborhood for you. Just go ahead and finish yours. Cause I haven't done my seven yet. Well, no, I haven't decided who 10 is yet.

You go ahead. I've been tweaking. I only wanted to give out eight spots, honestly. The last two. I, this was my whole point with Davis Thompson is like, once you get down to like six, seven, eight, nine, I'm like, dude, could he be better than some of these guys in two, three, four years? Like, yeah, I think he could. Could be my seven. I hope he's in your, in your top 10.

Brooks Koepke. Yeah. Well, he's, he's vying for the last spot. Okay. Weirdest one to put on this list. Still don't know how to define him as a player, but I think if we were playing a big time tournament next week, he would not get outside my top 10 of guys I think could win or finish in the top 10. I think famously does not do much of anything in between the majors. You still don't know what majors he's going to show up for and which ones he doesn't. But when he does, you're like, that's the best golfer, you know, of this generation, which I think he, again, a very weird career to define, but I would understand the case for him being number one on this list. I would understand not him, him not being in the top 10. Honestly,

I don't care where you put kept good, but I had to put them in it. Honestly, in no world is he like seventh. That just feels like a good hedge, right? He's either should be like in the top two or not in the top 10, I think. But seven is my hedge on that one. Okay. I've Ludwig at eight. I got Ludwig at eight. I've Hovland at nine. Okay. So 10, I mean, I mentioned, I mentioned Cantlay at like superstar some weeks and like has, has shrunk from most of the major challenges. Seems to have found it a little bit this year and made some steps forward.

So it's too good of a player to not do that. And also, listen, has a lot on his plate these days from everything you hear. Number 10 is a true, the data boys versus the eye test for me is, it is Brooks Koepka from a like, Hey, this, this guy has literally five majors. Uh, it seems like he should probably be on your list and like the guy who has

consistently shown up at majors, uh, I won't say at the trophy ceremony, but he is, he has played well. And maybe it's just like a lot of back doors. I don't know. Tommy Fleetwood is, is like, is up there. And it's everything kind of like points to that. But like, again, if I'm going with my, I think it's my head and my heart, I'm going Brooks in that last spot.

How different would your list have looked a year ago this week? Because I think Cantlay and Fleetwood would have been easy shoe-ins for me last year. And they just not played good enough golf this year to make me believe that. That's a good question. A year ago is interesting. I mean, I think, I mean, honestly, Max has fallen off quite a bit. I think Max was playing exceptional golf last year around this time.

I mean, Fleetwood was 12th in the data golf rankings a year ago. He's ninth now. Maybe I'm not, you know, given it, but Fleetwood has elevated in big events and he's not elevated this year in big events. Yes, agree. I mean, Cam Young might have been sniffing on that last spot. I know that's kind of a that's kind of a future play. In my defense, I did not remember Fleetwood finished T3 at the

Masters this year. Right. Yeah. Keegan probably would have been kind of sniffing around last year. So I don't know. I don't think it would look like wildly different. I'd like to change my answer. Tom Kim, I noticed is not on your list. I'm going to put Fleetwood at number 10. I'd like to change.

I've underrated his year this year. I did my ranking without looking at data golf. That was a goal of mine of we're not using any crutches or anything here. It's like who do I who do I think my my top players in the world are which I should have looked that up because I would have I've disrespected Tommy in this one. That was the only reason I would kind of flagged him. Otherwise, I would have been in the same boat. I was like, yeah, he has

actually been really good. Yeah. That's a fun exercise. I'd be curious for people to send in their lists as well. And the YouTube, drop them in the comments here and subscribe while you're down there. That's something you want to see. I think the next list might have to be best golfers, like capital G golfers, like actual golfers. Yeah.

It's a very different list, of course. That's interesting. It's very interesting. One other thing I wanted to do here is we're doing lists. I mean, who's your who's your US President's Cup team as of right now? Dude, this is such a weird exercise because I I like you know what it was was like I started going through and I was like, alright, let's let's think through this like who's

even on the list. Oh god, that's right. The live guys can't play. Oh man. So then like we get to like number eight and I'm like, okay, yeah, all of those like look all right. And then like after that, I was like, honestly, I don't even really want to like think about this. Like this, this list is, this list is bleak. Like pick up whoever you want. I honestly, well I'll go through it. So here's the current, the current rankings. This is not my list, current rankings. Number one, Scotty, number two, Xander, number three, Morikawa, number four, Wyndham Clark, still just put a lot of money in the bank and is just watching that compound interest grow with those points.

Number five, Cantlay, number six, Sahith, number seven, Big Tone, number eight, Max, number nine, Brian Harmon, and then we get to number 10, Akshay. Number 11, Chris Kirk. And number 12, Russ Henley. This is before David Thompson's win. I can't imagine he would crack the top 12, but I do think he should be getting a look for all the reasons that we always say about, you know, give these future Ryder Cuppers a potential, you know, all the reasons that we always say about, you know, give these future Ryder cuppers a potential, you know, a potential sniff at these team events before they, before they have to go, you know, prove it for the, for real the first time. So like, I honestly like the bottom of that list is so, I don't know, no offense to anybody, but like the Chris

Kirk, Russell Henley, even Brian Harmon kind of triple down there is like not doing much for me to the point where I'm like, I don't care, man, take whoever you want. Like this is a leak event. Do you default to like JT Spieth again? Like probably that's probably what they'll do. And that's where I like, I think this year I would finally be like, guys, we might be good. I don't know that like you guys are, I don't think that worked great.

Like I'm happy to have it put my hand up on on that one. Like I, is it a proving ground training ground continuity ground for the writer cup? Like that for those guys? Yeah. For any like for the final picks, like are you approaching it in any way that way? I mean, that's always what I would say. Like, but they never do that. I don't know. That's where I'm like. I don't know. So we're getting we're

starting to face our own mortality here. And like when we're talking about like these young guys and giving guys a chance and, you know, replace the old buddy system, like the old buddies are the guys that like we've kind of grown up watching on the teams here. So, you know and Speets might have turned into the Jim Furex and Stuart Sinks and players like that that we wanted to see kicked off back in the day.

I think it's worth noting the difference in JT and Speets at this point. JT's been better. The difference between those two. JT's been better than maybe you're maybe you're giving credit, I think. I think speed's in a different category. Dude, JT has been bad. I mean, bad, bad. I mean, JT is at like this year's 1.5 strokes gained.

Last year was 1.09. Like it was, it was bad. I mean, he was 1.97, 1.92, 2.3, 1.9. Like he's been a half stroke off of like what he was the previous four years per round, which is not a small dip, but it's not, that's not bad. Like it's not been memorable this year and it's not again what he's capable of. But like Spieth has been 0.81. Like Spieth is like seven tenths down from JT.

That's where I think it's just two different categories, right, where I think is JT is, you know, he was not good in Rome, but like he has played a lot better this year than he did in 2023 and he still made that team. Like he's probably making this one. I think based on what you're saying as well, he's making my team at the bottom of this list as well.

It's just not, there's no kept good in the equation here. Ricky's not in the equation currently Sam burns isn't sniffing in the bottom around there. He was on the radical team last year, but like that went so poorly. And he's not really knocked anyone's socks off this year that he's not beating out. J they just going to take a lot to bump JT off. I think even with all that consider from last year, so, especially since like OXA and Is already in like even the guys that like are like bumping people out like it's like, oh, yeah No, we've actually got three or four spots like we're fine. You know, that's where yeah

Call me a speech Homer. I wrote for him to be on the Royal Melbourne team that he was not on which he played was playing very poorly in 2019 and I don't know enough about the golf course. Honestly, the fit I do seriously think as someone who was recently experienced what it's like to upend your life, to have a child come in, uh, like him having a baby two weeks before the rider cup should have been assigned to not put them on the team. Like it really should have, like he should have, you said like, Hey, I've

got other things I'm focused on. I'll come over and, but like, I'm not getting my work in. Like I'm not prepared to like play competitive golf on this stage with all the changes I've got currently going on in my life coming in clean with, you know, not having that happen right before a team event. Like I'd be curious. I don't want to call it a training ground for him, but like, you could talk me into that again, just based on the fact there's no, who are you taking Brian Harmon or Spieth? Like that's kind of what it may become to do Cam Young or Spieth at the bottom of this.

Like I'm probably still rather see Spieth in it. Cause I, he does have some magic in these team events that didn't come out in Rome. Do you really just, do you write them? I don't fully know the answer to this. My gut says, no, you don't write them off based off one really bad event. But I think it doesn't matter either.

Like I still just rather have an answer to that. I'd rather get an answer to the speed thing than like do the Brian Harmon thing again. Yeah, I'm really thinking now because I think in your, I was kind of with you until you said Cam Young or Spieth and you know, maybe it's just Cam Young's had like two straight top tens and has, you know, all the firepower and all the things we've talked about. And if he goes and play, like continues to play well the next couple of weeks, I'm almost like take Cam Young. And then if I don't know this all, there's still a lot for Jordan. If you take Cam Young, it's a flawed premise too, because like, I don't give a shit about the president's cup. So it's like, I don't, I truly truly don't, it's almost like an exhibition.

I don't care if they lose really. And so that's where I'm almost like, it's all geared towards the Ryder cup. Totally. Right. And so that's where I'm like, okay, well, I'm not thinking clearly like the same as like the captain would be thinking, but my thinking would be take Cam Young, get him on there, get him more experience in these types of events. And then if Spieth finds it in a year and he's in like halfway decent form for

Bethpage, like then we could take him for that. But like, I, you know, I don't think the world's at like a great loss if Spieth's not on the president's club team. I don't either. I just, I just, I don't think that means like it's over forever. I just mean like, it's almost easier to take him. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I'm talking about time on this to figure it out. But just this is an interesting touch because nobody's talking about the President's Cup all year

long. I just think the team formation is still an interest even if the event is not that great. So I think it usually when it does come actually come around the build up to the President's Cup is nothing like the Ryder Cup. But once the week actually comes around, it's like, I mean, this is kind of fun. Like this is fun team event. It just does not have the same, nearly the same buildup or interest built around it. So.

I agree. All right, last segment, a couple, actually a couple more segments here, sorry. Shout out to Andrew Evie on the Refuge. He posted this a couple of weeks ago or a month ago, just some topics he'd like to hear us discuss on the Nest Pod. And I was like, dude, let's do this on the main pod.

These are golf topics here. And he threw out six different questions here. We'll go one by one on this one, but, Piedman, I'm gonna ask you, you're, again, kind of, you can define these in any way you want. His first question is, what is the best golf course in the world, capital G, capital C? Okay, which to me is just like, we're judging every square'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like,

I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, like, we are at the like hog judging contest here, right? And just like, let's look at every, every inch of these things. And yeah, tough metaphor. Anyone who didn't grow up in the Midwest, right? Thinks I'm talking about something else. But the, I think it has to be Pine Valley, right? I mean, I know that's not controversial, but I think that is like one to 18. Every hole is kind of better than the last.

And that would have to be my answer. There's one more in the running, but I kind of saved that for one of the other questions. I am going to say it is the Royal Melbourne composite court. Obviously that was the other one that was in the running for me. Yeah. The composite is, you know, my three favorite golf courses in

the world are Roa Melbourne, the old course in Tara Eady. And like the best golf course in the world. I don't know if I can say the old course is the best golf course in the world. I think it's the best golf experience. Like it's it's so many other things go into that that make it just the best and the most fun. Tara Eady again just hits all these different senses in a way that is just spine tingling. But I don't know make it just the best and the most fun. Terra 80 again, just hits all these different senses in a way that is just spine tingling, but I don't know if it's the best golf course in the world.

It's a fantastic golf course, it's the best. I think rural Melbourne doesn't have that setting, doesn't have like that ocean setting, doesn't have that 500 year history of the game that St. Andrews has, it has a great history, but it's just a remarkable, remarkable golf course with just incredible holes that just like is the exact way I like to play the game of golf. And I think it's the best golf course in the world. So that's, that's my answer there. Yeah, they were neck and neck for me, but I can very much co-sign that one. All right. You

are told you are dying peacefully in two days. I'll tweak his question a little bit. You're dying peacefully in two days. You get to play tomorrow. And total fantasy with weather, travel, like don't even worry about that. Who you play with, don't worry about stodgyness and membership or how hard it would be to get on any of this. Like you can play with whoever you want

and don't, you know, who cares about the force and part, but what course are you teeing it up in for your final round of golf tomorrow when you pass away in two days? I will let you take this one because I'm sure we have the same one. I don't know if we do. Oh, maybe not.

I TC'd this one. I have got like two answers on this one. I'll go one. I'm surprised that this is my answer as of more than a couple of months ago, but I think I would choose Augusta. I think that was such like a, it would be just a great bookend of, in a way of getting to play it this past year was like a bookend of my golf pursuit. Like if I never got to play another top 100 golf course after that, I'd be okay. Like honestly would. And I think if I just had, if I could go play anywhere

tomorrow, it was that fun. Like it really was that fun to just unlock all that with all that extra layer of context of all that. Um, so I think that's my answer. So, uh, I'm shocked. I, I, I obviously that makes a ton of sense. I thought we'd both say the old course, um, which feels like, you know, again, like you said, I don't, I don't think for the first question, like, oh my God, every shot into every green and every plateau everywhere and every tee box, but like the sum of the parts and, you know, making the turn on 11 green and coming back into town and all the things we just talked about in our, the last podcast we did together about playing golf in Scotland

is like, yeah, that's, that's it, man. Enough said. People have heard that one for me. Maybe it's just because I've gotten to do it enough times and it's just so accessible and all that. I'm not sure exactly why, but again, if I had to pick somewhere to do it, I think that would be my dying wish.

So this is a fun one. Course that you feel has the biggest delta between its ranking and your opinion of it. Could be a negative or positive Delta. I say let's do both of them. I think we should do both. Okay. Yeah. Oh God.

You wanna go first or you want me to go first? I'll go first. I'll go first on my positive Delta. West Lancashire in England is, I've not played 50 better golf courses than that one. I struggled to maybe come up with 30 better golf courses I've played with that one. It's ranked as like the 44th best golf course in England. That's one that just like has never

I've never understood it. And every time I've gone back, which is not that many times, but I'm like, okay, like, it's probably not as good as you remember it, dude. And it's like, every time I'm like, what the what the hell this place is absurd. It is so freaking cool. And there is a litany of great golf in that area. But it just fits so far up my alley. That's the one that I I mean, that place is absurd. It is so freaking cool. And there is a litany of great golf in that area, but it just fits so far up my alley. That's the one that I always am like so confused

as to why it's not more internationally recognized. I've got, man, I wanted to pick like some, some interesting ones. And I think, you know, I mean, I could say like, Oh, well, Karn's not in the top 100. And that's like one of my favorite places on, on earth, or like, you know, while Sonya links, I think is like the 10th course in Wisconsin. And I'm like, no, that's

like one of the 20 coolest golf courses like in the world. Like that's, that's ridiculous. I'll say band and trails. I mean, I know that's kind of basic, but like that's ranked number two. So we're kind of working both of us, I think mostly off the most recent golf.com top 100 list. Band and trails is ranked 90th in the world. I it's like almost a perfect golf course, man. Like I don't know. Like that's, that's shocking to me that there would be, there's a world that there's 89 better golf courses than that one, because that is just, it's so

freaking good, man. It's just, it gets all the, you know, it's at Bandon and it's almost like the song that you've heard so many times that you're like, Oh, this song actually sucks. But it's like, no, it doesn't, man. It's that popular for a reason. It's so good. It's so good. The one that I threw you out on Slack, I was trying to trip you up.

I don't know that we've talked about this top 100 golf courses in the world. You know, it's not on that list. TBC sawgrass. That's shocking to me. And like, I can't, I can't make this like, oh my God, like that's such a travesty because like, I don't know, man. I'm not going and paying $800 and playing a six hour round of golf and it's going to be a million degrees and like all of that stuff.

But like pound for pound, just like golf course, like, come on man. That place is so good. Every hole is so fucking good. I've never, I did not even notice that it's not in the top 100. I know. I scrolled all the way through the whole thing. golf course. Like, come on, man. That place is so good. Every hole is so fucking good. I've never, I did not even notice that it's not in the top 100. I know. I scrolled all the way through and I was like, oh, like, okay. I didn't put sawgrass on my initial, like, you know, kind of cut list. I wonder what number it was. I must have scrolled past it. I had to look like four times. Not on the list. It's nuts. How was that? How was that possible?

I felt like I was taking crazy pills. That honestly seems like an omission. Right. Lofoten links. No, I don't like the Rock Creek Cattle Company. Is that better than TPC sawgrass? Like I haven't played a peach tree. Is it better than TPC sawgrass? Like, that's wild. I did not. Nine Riches is not.

I've played both of those golf courses. It is not. I looked like five times. I was like, God, I really hope I didn't like make a mistake here, but that that's jarring to me. Royal Melbourne East at 92 is insane too. That is there's not again better, better than. Yeah, it's just crazy. We might have to audit the whole the whole top 100 listed in a pod at some point. It's the up or down. When you put this course up or down. That would be like giving out majors though. There'd be like, you know, the 27 courses in the top 10. What's your negative Delta?

I hate this. It's not, it's not fun. It's the list- People are gonna be so pissed. I would say I went through that list with great scrutiny and the top is very well done. Like there's, it's hard to really critique, but I'm very curious to what you're gonna say.

So I think everybody knows the rules. This is I'm not saying this is a golf course. I'm not saying that this golf course shouldn't exist. I'm just like 17th, 17th Chicago golf club. That's fair. Very unbelievable golf course. Unbelievable golf course. Unbelievable history. Just what a place. But I'm like, ah, 17th? I don't know. Maybe I need to play it another, you know, I'm sure people who've played it a hundred times are like, oh, you're missing this, this and this, and you don't get this and this

angle and here and blah, blah, blah. But like, I only played it once and I'm like, ah, I don't know. I just, I feel like there have been at least 17 golf courses that I would, I would personally in the DJ PI rankings, but ahead of that one. And that's where I'm at on this one. Again, I'm merely looking at where it is ranked on the list and is actually in the top five.

And it's not, it's probably not, and we played it together. And I'm curious as to what your reaction to this will be, but it's probably not in my top 20 that I've experienced. It's Shinnecock. Yeah, I don't think there's anything wrong with the golf course. I greatly enjoyed our day. It's a wild experience. I hate it. But like I would I rather play at LaHinch or Shinnecock. My answer would be likely like I would keep going along that that along that

thread more That would bump it pretty far down the list for me again. It's not like a flawed golf course in any way It's a brilliant golf course It's just for like what I'm looking for to scratch my itch I would just intend towards a lot more links courses that would put it pretty far down the list. I loved loved Shinnecock. I'm I see where you're coming from I I loved Shinnecock. I see where you're coming from. Number four is very, very high. And I think you would have to probably

play it a million times in order to have that much like. Affinity for it. Yeah, which I'm sure the people who have done that, again, it's like Chicago Golf Club. I'm sure people would be like, here's 150 things you're missing, which I would welcome. Please, shoot me an email. Would love to come back. That was. We'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that.

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

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

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

I'm not going to go into that. I'm not going to go into that. I'm not going to go into that. I'm not going to go into that. I'm not going to go into that. I'm not going to go into that. I'm not going to go into that. I'm not going to go into that.

I'm not going to go into that. I'm not going to go into that. I'm not going to go into that. I'm not going to go into that. I'm not going to go into that. I'm not going to go into that. I'm not going to go into that. I'm not going to go into that. I'm not going to go into that. I'm not going to go into that. I'm not going to go into that. I'm not going to go into that. I would maybe swap that in Chicago golf club. Lofton links number 88

like would love that place would absolutely love that. Like absolutely love being there. Probably shouldn't be on the list. Uh, and no Aaron Hills on the list. That was my other, my other complaint. That's tough. I shouldn't go back to this, the well on this one. Uh, but I'm going to, it's, it was misunderstood the first time. It's definitely misunderstood. The second time. Great. I'll clarify something for the first time. It was definitely gonna be misunderstood the second time. But great, I'll clarify something for the first time. But Kingston 22 on the list, that doesn't do it for me on there. I said on the pod I'd rather play World Melbourne East

than Kingston's and World Melbourne East was like 93rd on that list. So I would definitely, so on the recap pod from Australia, I meant to say, it was the end of a three hour pod. I missed this one. I compared it to like what I rather play Kingston Heath or Metro. I meant to say Victoria I was getting confused by the world class golf they have there but like Victoria's back nine like blew my socks off and I still think about that. And

like I it's it just kind of fit my eye better than Kingston did I I've never seen a list that has Victoria above Kingston, but in my own personal rankings, I would tend to edge toward Victoria. I've played it twice in Kingston three times and I've had more fun playing Victoria for my style of play. But that's not nearly a reflection of the quality of the golf course or what anybody else thinks. No, you hate it.

No more Seller League Busters for you, buddy. I didn't get any. And so yeah, that's just one that just doesn't quite match up with my rankings there. But that's just my personal taste. Nobody has to get mad about it. People have apparently gotten mad about it, but it's just how that's fallen for me. This is an obvious take, but I just want to state this for the record. Rankings are so sweet. I'm so out on that people are like, you know, rankings are so pointless. Rank. This is such a you know, what a bad exercise. It's if you can have the right opinion about it, you know, or the right like the right point of view, and you're not going to get upset.

And it's like, no, these just exist to like drink beers and have arguments like it's the best thing in the world. I'm so happy they exist. So while I may have some flaws, I applaud all of the Raiders and the Rankers and all the people who are behind putting these things together because I fucking love them. They're great. As many beasts as we may have

with some of Doke's ratings on some of these, I like the way he does it better in terms of like tiers. Like I just think that like there is a tier one for me. I said that earlier, but it's Tara Eadie, it's Ro Melburn, it's Old Course. I guess I should put Augusta in that too. But like that's like tier one. And like everything else will be a ring

below that. Like those are my 10s. Like there's a lot more nines and there are 10s. But like there's, you know, almost tiers of golf courses more than rankings, because there's something just like interchangeable. Like I don't know how I can rank Sunningdale versus like St. George's Hill. Like they're just both frickin amazing freaking amazing. I can't rank one above the other. But best course you'd want to play every day? This one surprised me a little bit.

I've only been there once, but when I was there, I played it probably five or six times, and that's kind of the point, I guess. Sandhills. Again, not a hot take. It is one of the best golf courses in the universe. But holy smokes, man. We played it all day, every day, every round. It kind of felt like Sweeten's Cove. Every round feels wildly different. You're always playing different tees. It feels

like you're playing different angles. You've always got different shots in the greens and it completely changes everything. I think in a lifetime of golf, it would be impossible to ever even sniff getting sick of it. And if you ever did get sick of it, you could just sit on the porch and you could, you know, eat hamburgers and drink cold beers and look out at the, at the chop hills. So it's just truly, truly magical place. That's well said. I went to the top 10 list and just like was looking for the first course that I would just consider an everyday court like I just don't think like

Palma Sia. Well, I landed on Dornick. I just think I it's a grand experience. But like it's Cypress Point, I just don't view as like an everyday golf course. Like it's just this sensory overload experience. But like Dornick is a top 10 golf course that like, still feels quiet, still feels quaint up there. And granted, there's a lot of American tourists that come through there. But it's just a magical, magical place.

And it's just a place to kind of feel connected with a little town there at the beginning, but then you get out towards the ocean, and you're just like in the whole nother world. And I could I could play there every day. Westlanks made my list as well, honestly, of like, I would just I could play there every day. West Lanks made my list as well, honestly, of like, I would just love to play that course on repeat. But I mean, I feel like the weather alone, like it would, it, you know, cuts both ways and you could have some very, very bad days, but it's like, uh, the weather alone would just make it a different golf course every day. I'm very curious

if we have the same golf course for the next one here. This next one is the shout out to TC course you'd head out to and not even play golf. I almost, I'm almost positive we have the same golf course for the next one here. This was the next one is the shout out to TC course you'd head out to and not even play golf. I almost, I'm almost positive. We have the same exact golf course. But it's kind of, Oh no. Oh really? I'll say pebble. Oh yeah. That's a good answer. 98% of the pebble experience is just being outdoor on that. Honestly, I've never played the golf course. I have been there probably 12 times and I've never played the golf course.

So I like, honestly didn't even think about that. That's that's a, yeah, I've been there probably 12 times and I've never played the golf course. So I like honestly didn't even think about that. That's that's yeah. I've been living that. Visby is a great one, but that's a top five golf course in the world, according to T.C. Randy. But that's how good the vibe is. Yeah. It's like it's still that good and I don't even need to don't even need to play. I hate that. Yeah, we did. It's now it's been a couple of years and we need to like go back and audit. So I tried at the time like, oh, hey, whoa, guys, let's, let's do this.

Like especially going down that list. Okay. Better than sandhills better than Cypress point better than wide Valley better than better than the old course. This is not on the list, but what's your number one course. You like haven't played that you're like dying to play. I mean, Cyprus probably. I know like I'm kind of bangers only here on this list,

which I'm trying to, I was trying to get away from, but you know, what are you gonna do? I hated this last one. Cause there's, there's, this is the hardest one to get figured. I've, I've, I came with five here and I don't even think I've probably left out the five best ones, but the best 36 whole day.

I don't know if this was best 36 all day you've had or the best possible 36 still all day. I took it as best possible. Okay. Which I did not get nearly creative enough. I mean, I know everybody, everybody says the, the Chinacocke national with the big lunch, like that's, that's pretty undefeated.

I have never done that. Actually, you know what, honestly, national might be on my list ahead of, ahead of Cyprus. I think it's my number one. I haven't played national Yeah. We should, we should go. I, you know, you could, you could convince me sand playing sand hills twice. I think what actually like rejiggered my list. I was like, Oh no,

I need to put sand hills as the everyday. I ended up with Rome, Melbourne, East and West. That's why I didn't put it as the first answer, capital G, capital C golf course. I just, that's about as good as it gets, man. And I'm sure there are other places you can throw a blanket over and courses that are across the street and Long Island type of, first we're playing here, then we're playing here type of days. But I was lacking in creativity on these. I was disappointed in myself. I put this, this one first because it's easy to like forget about this place, but like you literally go to this place and you play multiple, like 36 whole days, but like you can't slight band in here because like band and abandoned

trails is like way up there for past 36 whole day. You could have, it's an exhausting one cause trails is a tough walk, but like you get the band and trails, which is incredible golf I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one.

I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one.

I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one.

I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I just thought of this. I don't know how I didn't say this first. And it would never happen unless you had a serious thumb on the scale. But playing the old course regular and the old course backwards in the same day would be. That would be as good as it could be. I don't have that one on there. We were close.

We did it back to back days. But doing it the same day would be epic. I've done old course Kingsbarns, and that was pretty freaking pretty cool balance. I feel like somehow this place and this day that we had doing this has gotten slighted and bumped down over the course of the years. And I remember it being wildly fun experience

and one of the best I'd had to date. I've had several really good ones since then, but like barn boogle and lost farm one, two was fricking epic. I feel like you guys were too down on barn boogle. I don't know where that came from. And lost farm was just fricking phenomenal, I think that's a good one. I mean, you could throw honestly, but as long as you're down there, you could throw Cape Wickham and ocean dunes in there as a 36 hole pair, get catch a long day and God, that would be a blast. I've never played Muirfield, but North Baric Muirfield, commonplace, I've never played

that. I've never played that. I've never played that. I've never played that. I've never played that. I've never played that. I've never played that. I've never played that.

I've never played that. I've never played that. I've never played that. I've never played that. I've never played that. I've never played that. I've never played that. Cape Wicom and Ocean Dunes in there as a 36 hole pair. Catch a long day and God, that would be a blast. I've never played Muirfield, but North Barrick Muirfield combo seems like it would be pretty difficult one to beat. The rural Melbourns are on there. And then the Shinnecock National, that's two of the top five courses in the world,

literally butt up against each other. I don't know if that gets talked about enough. And granted, I know they're not public access golf courses, but that's kind of what I come up with. Good question. Yeah, uh, great. I know they're not a public access golf courses, but, um, that's, that's kind of what I come up with. So good question. Yeah, it was fun. That was a shout out to Andrew for that one. That was, uh, that was really fun. We're going to wrap today's show with just section. We're calling shout outs can be literally anything. I have no idea what the pie man's going to come up with.

I got some random stuff, uh, on my list as well. I'm going to call on you to go first cause I think we're going to share it kind of our final one, will be the same thing. Sure, I will start with Brendan Quinn from The Athletic, good friend of ours, wrote a profile about Lillia Vu. It's really more about Lillia Vu's family and where she came from.

And I think this gets thrown, you know, to the fault of no one, like on the broadcast or whatever, you don't have much time and things kind of get simplified and like, oh, Lily Vue, like, what a story with her grandparents coming over here from from Vietnam and how they got here. Like know that sounds weird because it's a 50-year-old story, but I said on Twitter, it's just such a propulsive feature. It feels like you're reading a novel and that's because the subject matter is absolutely incredible. It is about Lillia's grandfather I mean essentially building a boat by hand to escape South Vietnam and sail across the South China Sea in the hopes that they would find somebody

who could give them. With a lot of people. Not a small boat. 82, 83 people. 83 people I think, yeah. On the boat. It's one of the most unbelievable, like I want to say like golf stories I've ever read, but really like most unbelievable, I want to say golf stories I've ever read, but really most unbelievable news features. Brendan did such a great job.

And again, I don't want to spoil it, but the people he talked to for it add so much. Man, it just, I don't know, maybe I'm just getting older and the Onset Dad stuff is starting to hit me, but just 4th of July, thinking about like, you know, America and the Olympics and like, I'm so like cynical and eye rolly about all of this stuff and the over commercialization and whatever. But the fact that all these, you know, Vietnam, Vietnamese refugees got plucked out of the ocean by a US Navy ship. And now one of the byproducts of that is a fucking US Olympian. It's like going to Paris to represent the United States is like, man, that's just like,

what an unbelievable, like unbelievable saga. And Brendan did it total justice. So that like cannot shout that out enough. It's on the New York Times, the athletics websites. It's just fantastic. So congrats to Brendan and thanks to Lillia and everyone in her family for making that happen. It was fantastic. That was on my list of shout outs and you did it way better justice than I would have. Random one, but this is something cool

I've heard about in the golf world. I'm guessing you've not heard about this, Pymann. I think the world should hear at least something about it. Try Golf, have you ever heard of this place? I don't think so. It is, the best way I can describe it is a golf facility located in Raleigh, North Carolina. It's the home of the first T Raleigh.

There's gonna be a grand opening of this place in August of this year. It's got a Gil Hans design short course, got a top tracer range with 28 outdoor bays, 32,000 square foot Himalayas putting green. It's got a playground. It's got a covered area for events. It's gonna be home to 2,000 first tee participants annually.

There's membership options, there's event booking. It's a place the public can enjoy seven days of the week. And you can also have events there and all that. It's just gonna be a great thing for golfers of all levels. It's a great thing for newcomers into the game, great thing for golf in terms of like a community builder and as well as just like an alternative golf location that doesn't require full length green grass golf

that takes up a lot more area and maintenance. And just seems like it'd be a great freaking place to hang and just all the work that they're doing there with the first tee, Raleigh. It just seems like, you know, kind of they're pitching it as well as like this option of if you're flying into Raleigh to play at Pinehurst, like, and you don't just want to zoom straight to Pinehurst when you land if you're flying from across the country, whatever that may be,

like spending a night there and you hitting some balls with your buddies on the top tracer range, playing the short course, playing the putting green, and just kind of general hang of kind of like a, we had a takeaway we had when we went to Goat Hill in San Diego there of just like, just the whole hang around like the range and the bar there and it was just kind of like, dude, we don't have really have that where we're from. This seems like a way more modern version of that,

but Gil Hanson's short course along with it just seems like something that should be and could be a model for one, getting juniors involved with the game, game to just like serving a golf community, three serving beginners and also serving challenge, uh, you know, lower handicap players. Just I've not seen it in person. I'd like to, uh, they, you know, they can host, you can host events there like roosts that should be getting involved in

hosting events. There just seems like it's going to be a really cool place when they're done with it. So I want to shout that out and say for anywhere else, looking to look into, you know, anywhere involved in any committees or anything looking to bring something like this to their community, that's something that they should maybe check out. That's marvelous. I love it. I love it. Definition of the shout out section. All right. My next one. This is one Cody has has gotten some boots on the ground reporting from. I have never been to it. I would love to go to it. But the third US adaptive open kicks off this week in Newton, Kansas, Sand Creek station,

chance for the USGA to give the world's best golfers with disabilities a chance to play ultra competitive golf and go out and hit cups and compete for a USGA title. It just, it feels like there's a, there's probably a massive conversation coming. It's probably already here in the important circles, but it's coming to the larger public probably just about purses with the majors and who's getting what and is, you know, is the USGA bow guarding this stuff and should Patrick Cantlay get a bigger piece of the pie and all of that stuff. And like, man, this just seems like a better use of your time to focus on the things that the USGA is like doing with a lot of that money, like putting on championships like

this, which it's very hard to start things like this from scratch and do them to kind of the standard that the USGA does all of their championships to. And so just a shout out and I commend them for doing so. I'm looking forward to following some of the videos and the onsite coverage because those guys are unbelievable. It's incredible stories. We need to do a film room with one of those guys or something because when you get to see them play and the way that they are able to get around the golf course

and manage their game. And it's just like, it's like real golf, right? It's not like bomb and gouge and just like nuke it and find it. It is like, no, I'm like thinking my way around the golf course and I'm making it work. And it's just, it's really inspiring and awesome to watch. That is very well said.

I want to give a shout out to, I hope I'm saying his name right, Marques Brownlee, who is a tech reviewer, I think is the best way to describe him. Kind of the tech reviewer. Yeah, like the dude. And he just makes really, really good content. Like, if you're in the content creation space,

you can kind of sniff out who just the fakers and the pretenders are and the, you know, I don't know how to describe it, other than like, seems like a super serious, like super curious dude and just like, like is intent on making like really honest, you know, product reviews and just as like a tech wizard. Anyways, he did a deep dive with the PJ tour at Travelers on like how their Shotlink and technology systems work

and somebody who is a data nerd and follows this stuff very closely. I learned so much in that video. There's, I was a shot like volunteer like 20 years ago when it was like first coming out. And let me tell you, it has advanced a long way from when I used to do it. But it looks like about eight feet. Super, super impressive, like all the stuff that works with the betting and like the timing of the volunteers and it's well worth your time. It's on his

channel, Marques Brownlee, and I should have tweeted, we can put a link to the description as well. But I'm gonna put a link and like the timing of the volunteers. And it's well worth your time. It's on his channel, Marques Brownlee. And I should have tweeted, we can put a link to it in the description as well. But very worthwhile 13 or so minute video, just like talking about how all that stuff comes together. And it's, if you like golf, it's worth your time. All right, quick one for me.

There's kind of a story like this every year. I was reading about this in Jeff Shackleford's quadrilateral coverage of the open championship final qualifying. But I would have loved our guy, Michael Stewart, to make it through at Troon where he kind of grew up and plays golf and is a member and knows all the people. But a similar story, Jack McDonald qualified. He's like a local guy,

lives just like a couple blocks from, from Trun, I think. I think he was like walking his dog on the beach. Like I think he like walks his dog on the beach near the golf course and was like watching all the grandstands go up and had all these great quotes about like, Oh my God, like, what if I got to play the open there? And then he got through in a playoff. So like just cool stories. I love, I love stuff like that. It seems like that kind of stuff kind of happens. Just seems like it happens at the open more than. It's the best.

More than the open. We're kicking off Lynx SZN baby. It's time. My last shout out, this is actually from a couple, a couple of weeks ago, but I'll give a shout out to Justin James from T title's performance Institute. He's a power instructor with them. I went out and saw him here

outside Jacksonville. I drove like an hour and worked out with him like in some barn in the summer in Florida. It was hot. But we got it gave me a bunch of stuff to like work on and I'll work on profiling this and maybe some social content down the road. But just like flexibility mobility related stuff. It's I think it's already helping me with my golf game. I've not been overly religious in doing it. But he spent you know, he took an hour, hour and a half out of his day to just show me

how to like work out and focus on some things with hip mobility. And he's a long drive guy and obviously is very, very talented at that. But just, you know, I'm not looking to be a long driver, but just like tap into some some more mobility to help me swing the golf better, swing the golf club better. And that's been really, really helpful. So I would not recommend cannot recommend TPI experience. I know you've had great detail experience on that, which I believe will be profiled in the

coming weeks, months. I don't not sure the timeline is there. But it's really exciting. It's got me excited. I do the exercises on my back porch and sweat my ass off back there. But it's good workouts at home. I don't think we had heard about this. This is breaking news. I sent you guys a picture of me at the barn, tracing speed. Really?

Yeah. I must have missed that one. I saw you were working in the garage with the stack system. I thought you were going to do that. That's another thing I'm doing. I missed the genesis of it. Yeah. I love it.

It's more like, I just got to get some athleticism back, man. It's just gotten, it's gotten bad. I used to be pretty athletic. I'm just not. Last one I had very quick was just everyone who sent in emails, messages about the Shanks pod. KVV compiled a bunch of those and they're very long. Like, And I was, they're very long. Like I, what I, my main takeaway was like people felt so compelled to buy this podcast to like drop in and just kind of share their like lengthy stories with, with KVV, which is like a very cool response. And if you haven't listened, if you don't know what we're talking about, KVV did like a deep dive episode into the shanks and interviewed a bunch of players and just like wrote a whole story about it basically and did it on a podcast episode, which you should listen to. And the people who got pissed off about it were, I think, my favorite, just like, I'm not listening to this. I can't believe you would do this episode. Like just true, like mentally weak people who just refuse to listen to it is

is really funny, especially since it's like that's obviously like the whole fucking point of the podcast is like how it messes with your brain and what to do and yada, y yada yada yada. But anyways, so many messages and emails and texts and just a massive response from that. So look forward to the next one because that was great. Last thing for me is just what I just mentioned of shouting out to this link season. We have the Scottish Open this week. Of course, not not our favorite golf course, Renaissance, but it's a good appetizer. It's a good warmup for what is to come at Trune.

We've not heard from Rory, not heard anything from Rory since the US Open. Do you think his presser gets interesting at all this week? Or you think it's like, hey, man, can we talk about Pinehurst here? Are you ready to give some answers on this? What do you think happens this week? I don't know. I don't see a world where he, and this is maybe a reach on my front, like my part, but I just feel like with the family stuff he has going on with the, we're getting divorced, we're not getting divorced. Like I just feel like the overall vibe

is gonna be like guarded, right? Like I think maybe he's going to want to talk about, like, maybe he, he has a little bit of a cathartic, like that one really hurt. That was really tough. I'm happy for Bryson. Like, let's move on. I'm sure he'll give one kind of good answer about that, but I don't think he's going to be the like, yeah, how much time do you guys got? I'll tell, I'll tell you any answers you guys want to know. You know, I think he's going to be a little bit of like, I'm here to win the golf tournament. What's next topic? Which is very understandable.

Yep. It's not what I want, but yeah. Yeah, of course. Maybe there's, you know, hopefully someday we get a little longer answer. We'll have a Trune deep dive, the past Open Championship at championships at Royal Troon deep dive with me and KVV coming out later this week as we roll into Open Championship week next week obviously we'll have preview podcasts out the following week and happy hour and shows live shows after every single round of the Open Championship Final Men's Major of the year. Make sure you're subscribed to us on your favorite podcast feed subscribe

to our no laying up YouTube podcast channel. A lot of people are watching it on there, but you're not all subscribed. I promise you subscribe to it. We greatly appreciate it. What's anything else we need to shout out what's coming up this coming week? The video hopper is full man. We're cranking. Our machines are cooking at capacity right now. So we're going to have a lot of content soon. We just need people to be patient with us. It's coming. It's coming. It is coming, we promise.

Thank you everyone for tuning in. DJ, thank you for being here on a Sunday evening. Enjoy your cookout tonight. Everyone have a great week. Enjoy the Scottish Open. We'll see you back here soon. Cheers. Be the right club.

Be the right club today. That's better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different?