No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 971: Day 2 at the 2025 Players

Episode Date: March 15, 2025

Min Woo Lee and Askhay Bhatia are tied at -11 to lead halfway through The Players Championship. But today was more about JT. Join us as we break it all down. Is Rory coming? Will Z? Top 10 Tommy. All this plus news and notes, Who Said This?, and more. Presented by High Noon. Support our sponsors: High Noon - Sun's Up! Rhoback - Best fit, Best Feel! (code NLU) Subscribe to the No Laying Up Newsletter here: https://newsletter.nolayingup.com/ Subscribe to the No Laying Up Podcast channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@NoLayingUpPodcast 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. Johnny, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the NoLangUp live show, the NoLangUp podcast. My name is DJ back home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin after a beautiful, charming couple of days at the Players Championship with my guy Soli.

Soli, how are you? Great having you down here, man. It was really a lot of fun. I don't know how many times I can come on Players live show and just keep saying out loud. The Players is really fun. Players is great. That being my massive takeaway from it,

but had another just awesome day out there in the sun. Apparently I got in a lot of camera shots. I was trying to, I'm out there trying to do it, but apparently I got a lot of messages. I was very thirsty. Thirsty, so. It was very sunny out there, so I was dying of thirst. Speaking of players, we got our guy KVV here as well.

Kev, good evening, happy Friday. Guys, I wanna let you in a little secret. You guys said I couldn't come back on the live show until I made a Hole-in-One. I thought, well, it might be years. It might be a lifetime before this happens. Oh, wait. No, dunked one. Now I'm back. Congratulations. It was a full-on Hole-in-One. I wasn't even going to bring it up. That was a big upset that you got that Hole-in-One and mentioned it before I brought the Creator Classic again. That was plus 300 upset before I brought the crea you to get that one. That bills. Oh guys, here is t

vodka, real iced tea, no one. I'm not on the show rasp night and I didn't know if we were doing iced tea and I saved the raspberries for the best occasions because they are my favorite of the iced teas. If you're a hard tea lover, if you don't want to do those sugary malt based teas, they give you those headaches, they're terrible. You're going to love the non-carbonated high noon vodka iced tea. You know the deal on these 90 calories. It's great for any occasion under the sun and it is sunny. It is iced tea weather here in Jacksonville, Florida. We've got some more weather on the way as well, but it comes in four flavors that you gotta try.

Original, peach, lemon, and the raspberry, as I already mentioned. If you're wondering where to get that, you can of course go to highnoonspirits.com and you will find a pack near you. High noon, sun's up. Take us away, Dej. Guys, we had a fun Friday at the Players Championship.

We've got Min Woo Lee, Dr. Chipinski Chipinski MD joined by Akshay up at the top of the players championship leaderboard at 11 under just a real combustible top of the board there which I cannot wait to talk about JJ has respawned at minus 10 and then we've got Rory McElroy Colin Morikawa and Alex Sm, the big three there at nine under chasing those guys down. It's going to be a lot of fun. We've got some other movers and shakers down the board that I think we're going to get to later in the show, which kind of brings me to, we like to start,

what was the biggest story of the day? And you know what? I'm going to wrestle this one away from you guys. I'm just going to take the ball myself, isolation play. I'm going to go first. I'm going to say JT was the story of the day, man. Oh, 78 yesterday. Birdie birdie finish just to shoot 78 and he comes back and Pogies the last

to shoot 62 today. Electric stuff from a past players champion, a guy that, you know, I feel like we've been shouting from the rooftop, Solly, like JT's playing well, monitor this space. JT's playing well. And our platform kind of, you know, came under fire yesterday, but that's why they play four rounds. Be patient. You, you chuckle heads out there. It just, this is, this is why, uh, you know, never apologize. I was so upset to hear Neil apologizing for our,

our JT one and done pick yesterday. We hadn't seen all, we didn't have all the info, man. And now we've got more puzzle pieces uncovered. What did you see from JT today, Sal? Well, I'm not gonna, on that note, I'm not gonna apologize for Wyndham Clark, just in case he's allowed back in the tournament. As a neck injury.

I don't wanna give, I can't give up on him. I watched it happen too early. I don't think, that's not the first time that anyone on this show has given up on JT, just maybe a bit too early Got a great Was like he was mad I didn't mention this on the show last night that you know JT has missed the cut so many times the players doesn't show up at big events

He responded today say now I feel like KVV at Southern Hills because yeah, he put on a freaking show today It was vintage JT of you know, I just feel like we haven't seen the putter that hot truly, even though he's played some a lot better golf, we haven't seen him like get hot and go do something silly like that. And it kind of forget what I've kind of forgot a little bit what it's like to watch that dude when he does get hot and why he was, you know, you know, I wouldn't say JT is popularity is as high as it was, you know, five, six, seven years ago, for whatever reason that is.

And it just, he hasn't given us as many moments over the last several years. But it reminded me of 2021 when he just went lights out on that back and on. There's obviously something he loves about this golf course to, you know, when he gets it in gear and can go. But I can't remember a Friday like fun round like that. There's only like what eight to 10 guys that can make a 62 feel like that, right? Like no offense to, you know, I'll just pull Davis Riley.

Like if Davis Riley shot 62. Yeah, if that would have happened today, it would not have been that buzzy of a Friday afternoon, but it was a buzz. That was a very serious round of golf. It was. Kevin, anything, you're on mute there for a sec. Maybe your favorite shot maker, shot maker. I think that's what JT is, man. He's just like, makes it fun.

He makes the rings, the juice. Uh, I, you know, I was thinking about this when he was going on the back nine, uh, the four of the first questions I ever asked JT as a journalist was that was right after he'd shot that, uh, kind of record round at Aaron Hills under par. It's like, man, when you are on are you have your a game? Aren't you the best player in the world? And he's kind of annoyed that I did it and I can impress her. He's like wait a minute. There's no like winning answer

to that like if I say yes, I'm a dick. If I say no, it's like I don't have confidence in myself, but I honestly I still believe that take like JT's a game is as good as anybody's. It's just that we don't see it maybe enough. Yeah. I'll tell you what, we didn't see his A game was yesterday. I had some time this morning to catch up on.

I was traveling all day yesterday. And so the tour has this feature that should be public, by the way, this is a whole other thing that we're gonna, we're gonna have to lobby behind the scenes. I might have to write a letter to the creator's council to get this going, but they have this opportunity for players to see their whole rounds just strung out like just show me every shot that was captured by video cameras today. And so they

gave us access to that a couple weeks ago, a couple months ago. And so you can go back and watch. And so I watched all of JT's round from yesterday. It was not good. And it should have been worse. It was like he was scrambling his face off just to save pars. And I think he got it to he was maybe two under through seven or eight yesterday. And it like looked like it was it should not have been two under it was it was not good. He was he was hitting a lot of really scrambly type of stuff got crowned by that stripper rough. He's like his balls landing on the on the red line on 12 solid, they need to shave that rough or at least dash it or something

And then finally like the factory just exploded and you know Horrible miss on 17 horrible miss on 18 and it was just it was not good And so when he's we have seen him get on the other side of that line You know you said we don't see his best golf enough like we've kind of seen the bad version of him Enough that I'm like how this sucks We're seeing this guy again and to come back out out and just flip it like that is unbelievable stuff, man. And the other thing I'll say, we'll probably talk about this a lot today, but with the weather moving in, 30 mile an hour gusts, he's the guy that I think about that round at Sawgrass when he's hitting the little bunty ones and he's chipping things onto 17 and he's like, like, he's the guy I think of at this golf course, when I think of

players, you know, kind of playing in adverse condition. So I know he's still, you know, quite a ways back. He's, he's what seven back of the leaders. But as Dan Hicks pointed out, that's he was seven back through 36, the year he won two. So with a bunch of shit weather blowing in and a long way to go Long way to go. A lot of anonymity towards the top of that leaderboard. There's still some some big names up there as well I'm just I'm not giving up on my my JT one and done pick yet. So It just is funny. I was like, oh, he's surely he's about 15th place

No, he's T30 after shooting 62 today and birdie in the last two yesterday Just to do that. We picked him up yesterday on 18. Uh because I saw he was playing well. I was like, oh, this will be he's playing with Ludwig. I was like, oh, this will be a fun kind of group to to go in with and by the time he had gotten to us, he already put one in the water in 17 and put it in the water again on 18. He was not in great mood. We we pulled the rip cord pretty quickly on that. He's like, I don't think this is gonna go too well. Uh

well, sorry, I I peed all over that one. But you tell me back up. What was your second story of the day? It was the story of the day until that happened this afternoon, I think was Roy McElroy, I guys I followed him for maybe 12 or 13 holes today. And no major observations other than it just looks really, really easy for him right now. And it, there's a weird feeling I'm getting now when Rory steps in.

He had a couple, when it wobbled a little bit on his back nine, he would stand over up, like he had a putt to save par on the fourth hole from 10 feet, four inches after air mailing a classic Rory air mail wedge. And I was like, dude, I think this is going in the center. He just seems like he's rolling it really well. I feel like he reads these greens and sees these greens really, really well. And it just feels very cohesive with him at the moment. He's driving it, you know, I know he had a kind of tough day with the driver

yesterday, but he had 11 of 14 fairways today. So that was a very short term solution. And I was going to get a couple of my on-site observations, but one of them I'll just spoil now. It's like the course, like low key, I wish I was more on top of this going into this week. The course changes fit Rory really, really, really well. What do you mean by that? The lengthening of the 16th hole and the second hole now makes it so, it used to be that second hole was far enough back.

Both holes were just a big ass towering draw tends to play really well. Well, but it was, you know, the second hole like invited some of the longer hitters just to hit three wood because they're able to turn it right to left more and get around that corner and you just didn't need to hit driver out there. Now, now I've, I haven't seen every shot off of two, but I've seen a lot more guys hitting driver off of two and like the guy who's the best at drawing driver is Rory and he can just send that one around there. Now 16 is a lot more of a, you know, you link in these par fives and it

just becomes, I should say 16 and two used to be short enough par fives that the entire field could get there. And it's of course still an advantage for Rory to hit six and seven irons into these greens, but it's just not as big as an advantage as when you go back a little bit, he can cut that corner a little bit more on 16 than a lot of those guys can and they just less fear of the runouts on those lines than they typically was and I just I saw him play all those holes these last two days and it just feels like that fits him really

really really well and kind of takes a little bit away of like what makes TPC Sawgrass you know interesting and unique is that we always say like anybody can play, can win here, and it just is a little bit more, I'd have to look at the data at the end of all of it, but I'd be surprised if this year wasn't a little bit more distance friendly than it has been in the past. Yeah, I think that's a good take. Still enough with Rory to just scratch your head

a little bit, that's all I'm gonna say. I think in the positive column, he seems to be like mega controlling the spin on his wedges, controlling the spin on like a lot of those short iron shots, which again with a lot of wind coming in is like that's that's what you're looking for is who can do that. But just like a weird that the one on four, I don't know if you were there for that, but just kind of mega Icarito ball over that green on a four was like but just kind of mega Icarito ball over that green on a four was like you don't love seeing that the drop kick three wood on nine very weird like it is I still wouldn't say he's he doesn't seem like he's cruising but as you know you were you were there in person soty and Xander. I mean, which is rare. I've watched Rory, specifically last year, I watched Rory and Scotty play together at the Masters and just walked away being like, Rory didn't have what Scotty has.

And right now, Scotty doesn't look like Scotty still. I mean, we can talk a little bit about that, but it just felt like, again, just that overwhelming takeaway, like Rory looks the most in control of scoring. Not all parts of his game look perfect right now. I wouldn't look at his iron play today and say it was spectacular, but he's getting away with it because he's scrambling decently well right now

and it just looks really, really cohesive. And I'll say right now, I'd be stunned if he doesn't win. He's plus 360 to win right now. I'm gonna be dabbling a little bit on that because I think he's gonna to win this golf tournament. We're just slapping the face of the chef. Might be some health code violations. Anonymously dialed in this this weekend. We'll see. Kev, we've we've relegated you below

the fold here, but what's in the C block? On C block, I'm just wondering what what's every so mad at the media about? It feels like a lot of a lot of salty takes from the players. I thought we were all supposed to be in this together. We're all supposed to be rowing in the same direction. SSG was gonna tell these guys to do interviews, to get out there and put their faces, you know, got guys canceling happy hour appearances.

We get guys crying about how you're baiting me into bad takes about the course. Colin's going on a long sort of dissertation about how the guys on live from or just think we have this exam like let's Yeah, if we got that let's let's roll with it. I just want to add one more thing, you know, my bite my tongue after saying this, but you know, to the to the brand

will shambles to the Paul McGinley's to the rock immediately to the world. I don't regret anything I said, you know, I might it might have been a little bit of heart, little bit harsh that I don't owe anyone, but I I don't owe anyone. You know, I respect the fans. I'm very thankful for them. I'm grateful. You know, it makes me emotional, but it's just it hurts to hear people say this and

especially you guys, because I finished the round and I went to go sign for 10 minutes 15 minutes for all the people after not a single person for media want to go follow me because I don't know but that's that's me you know for so for people to be calling me out is it's interesting you know it just doesn't show anything I mean look I get what you guys are saying but I there. I was signing for every single person right after the round, whether they wanted it or not. I finished second. They could carry on. Really?

You're just signing kids who don't want your signing? Yeah. Just grabbing at that. All right. So thank you guys. For those that are not aware, that of course is in reference to Colin finishing runner-up at Bay Hill and then declining media, I believe. And then he kind of doubled down in the presser this week, said, I don't need to talk to the media. I'm paraphrasing, you know, I don't know anyone, anyone, anything. I'm looking out for myself. I was hot. I would have talked two hours after, but two hours after I was already on my way to Jacksonville. Uh, Kevin, go ahead. Pick up the ball here.

Look, do players need to do media? No, like you don't need us anymore. All right. You got your own sort of entourage. You got your own channels. You got your own ways to get your message out. I get it. I just find a lot of this to be, I just want you to know, like if you're a player listening out there, you have it so soft compared to how it used to be. All right, like, you know, we have done these deep dives where guys were literally like saying to Tom Watson, like, do you think you'll choke today? Like, are you a choker? They didn't sound like that. They would say, Hey, you're going to choke tomorrow. Hey, what does it feel like to choke?

Tom Watson, I don't even know. You've already had a major on your belt. What are you going to choke tomorrow? What's it going to be like? I mean, they just were so savage in previous eras. And in other sports, they're so much harder. I just feel like there's the whininess of the professional golfer has gotten to be a little bit sort of just off putting in the sense of like, Oh no, like you can't I mean, look, if you don't want to do media, that's okay. You definitely don't want me following you to like into player dining or wherever with the autograph session with the kids. That's not a relationship that you want. Might do that if it's like a major, but I wouldn't do that at the Bay Hill. Like there's no possible calculation where that is worth it for you

and for me. I just feel like if you, whenever I talk to players and they kind of ask about like, you know, sometimes the meeting is a dick. I just want to say to them, look, it's going to be so much easier and so much better for you if you just go in there and do two minutes just play the game. And you know what?? It's you don't even have to be like super insightful I promise you the questions will never be as harsh as you think and if you've seen over the history of this sport like Adam Scott bogeys four straight holes to lose the British Open sits and does media Greg Norman blows the 96 Masters by Getting one of the most awful rounds ever does does a bunch of media. It endears you to the public. It doesn't really about your relationship with the media. It's really about your relationship long term with the public. And I just promise

you the questions are not going to be as harsh as you think. You might be pissed. I get it. It would be hard, but that's kind of part of the gig. That's all part of the reason why it's like, Hey, how do we elevate this sport? Make it more interesting. Yeah. By just showing your face on there so that they can show you on live from, so they can talk to about, put context with your feelings about what happened down the stretch. I think one of the things that's like,

the two things with Tiger that are gonna age the best, one is the cut streak, because events don't really have cuts anymore. Not of Zander Brexit. That's true. And two is gonna be the fact that he talked after 99.7% of rounds that he played when he's the most famous person on planet Earth

for a decent stretch of that. And that's kind of what I go back to every time I hear one of these, like, I'm sorry, I just can't possibly go through a take me through your day type of question today. It's like, I gotta, Arnie did it. At Arnie's event, at Arnie's event. Tiger did it every day, Arnie did it every day.

Like you need to, I don't know. Yeah. It's a $2 million second place finish. And this, I would say this to Colin, like I'm not really like actually care. Like I get, I kind of get the perspective of like, it's the same silly questions. I don't technically have to do it. I get the perspective of it's the same silly questions. I don't technically have

to do it. I don't disagree. You don't have to return your cart, your grocery cart after you're finished. That's not illegal. There's all kinds of things that- It's a scummy move, though. It is a scummy move. You don't have to do it, but it's also like, it's not worth having to do five follow-ups to it. Like just go play the game. It's not worth this, like Clip did. I don't know if you thought they'd be dunking on the Paul McGinley's and the-

What's funny to me is it's not even me. I didn't even know it was me. Just Rock-O-Media. It's Rock-O-Media, it's Brando Shimbly, it's Paul McGinley. It's three fricking former players. It isn't even guys like me who are getting all worded up about this.

It's actual people who are in the arena, who did the a man in an arena bullshit, who are saying like, do your job, go see media. It's now a bigger thing that he's done this when he could have just said in his presser, I was like, Yeah, you know what, I don't love you know, I don't necessarily regret doing it. But I was super emotional in the moment. And it was just hard for me to speak on I hope I you know, next time in that

situation, I hope I you know, do get a chance to speak, but it just, you know, in the moment I didn't do it and I regret it a little bit. It's not that hard to do that. Like it's really not. And it, again, he's not, I don't think he's wrong. This is just not worth your time and effort after shooting 65.

I don't know what the question was in front of that. It sounds like, oh, and another thing. And he finishes it with this. And then it was like, hey, nobody even asked about it. Mr. Blair, how are you? Fuck Rocco Mediate, man, and all his family. It's just, yeah, it's just, Rocco called him out for the Arnold Palmer thing of like Arnold Palmer would have dragged him back in there and be like, yo, talk to the, because

like that's one of the things, like part of the reason why you get $2 million for this is there is media following people around and helping generate interest in the sport that you play. It's not life or death if you speak to them every single day and every single week. I do get that it's tiresome, but that's why you, quote, have to do it. It's kind of an all boats rise situation of players need to do their part. Just give a quote. It's a simple thing for somebody that spent their company's money to go travel to the event and have a wrap-up story. It's nice to have a quote or two in there

from you on an opportunity like Get Away. Part of why you're getting paid is because the television rights has been sold for this and the golf channel wants to be able to put that reaction clip on there. So I think that's fair. Is the media self-righteous? Fuck yes. Is the media asking a lot of tired questions? Totally. Should we ask collectively better questions? Absolutely. But come on, you still gotta do it.

I also kinda can get down with even the mental health side of things and that wasn't even the card he played. He just said like I didn't really wanna do it. Like you know what I do, I don't wanna do it every day from work. You know, you think I to go through your travel expenses You know you can sign off on all that. Come on, man. Sorry, Kevin. I just didn't I just didn't want to do it Is there some real doozies in there dude

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Minwoo Lee and Akshay Bhatia are your leaders at minus 11 So you want to talk Min Woo or Akshay first? I went back and used that tool you were mentioning to see as much of Min Woo Lee's round as I could it was really impressive We call him the unstable compound But you know, I was kind of looking for it for you know gaps in where I think you might not get it done If I'm being honest, it was quite impressive. That sounds like I'm a Minwooli hater. I'm not, I'm just, I'm worried about combustion.

I think we all should be worried about combustion. And I will say, I still feel like combustion is potentially coming, adding the weather into the mix after he's been able to be on offense. Little bit sustainability issues in terms of the fact that he's third in the field in strokes game putting so far. But he hit 12 of 14 fairways today and he bogeyed his last hole actually the ninth hole par 5 to get back to 11 under par but then we'll lose plants some excellent golf the enzyme that stabilizes the compound

might be this two iron that he's hitting everywhere yeah but he also like hit that off the hospitality right of 18 yesterday so a could you know but he's hit it like 290 down the middle of a ton of fairways, too. We've been here before, I'll just say. The first story that I ever wrote about Schaeffler winning the players for NLU was Minwoo was in that final group with him and seemed very, very dialed until it all came apart in that final round. I would love to see, I want to see Minwoo Lee take a step because I don't like automatically discounting him when he gets in the mix on things

And he's obviously a fan favorite. I don't I don't I wish I knew him better You know, we've not really had much interaction with him and gotten to know him very well But very likable guy and somebody that I want to see take the next step So I'm just I'm not gonna crown him too early because because yeah, it it's my favorite nickname that you've given DJ I think it was at the players two years ago when you first called him the unstable compound. We'll see, man. It's gonna be very fun. I truly do think, I mean, reading his transcript

and watching his round today, it was like, that two iron is different, which the natural follow-up, which I think was asked is like, well, why don't we see this more? Like, is that, this seems like it plays. If this is the thing that's kind of getting you out of, getting you into trouble is,, well, why don't we see this more? Like, is that, this seems like it plays. If this is the thing that's kind of getting you out of, getting you into trouble is, you know, occasionally getting the way we're driver.

It's like, maybe we try to, Sawgrass, I think, just by his own account, just kind of forces his hand and makes him kind of, you know, go through the speed bumps, basically. And he was kind of saying that. He's like, man, when I'm in the fairway, like I just, it's a lot easier to make birdies It's interesting

And so sawgrass I shot to sawgrass I guess for just kind of forcing him to to play the game in a different little Bit different way. What would be a good finish for Min Woo Lee this week top five need it need it Absolutely need it gotta go through the line. Yeah, he He's plus 750, fourth biggest favorite currently to win. So it goes Rory Morikawa, Akshay Minwuli, then JJ Respawn and Scotty at plus 1100. That's courtesy of Fandle Sportsbook. I'm very interested to see, again, I don't know. I just have been noticing a lot of spin control.

That's been the thing that's stuck out to me over these first couple days. The greens are a little bit soft out there with all the rain that they've had. They're trying to slow them down with, uh, you know, with all this wind coming in and it's just, I don't know, I've gotten a big kick out of the guys who can hit, especially the really speedy guys who can hit, you know, shots that are too hopping and stopping by the green or by the hole. And, uh, I'm very interested to see if Min Woo Lee is that guy this week

because he seems like he's going to hit a lot that you know into the wind that are going to just completely rip off the front of the green. Which if we're being honest, I've heaped a lot of praise on TPC Sawgrass in this tournament so far this week. It being a spin control contest is, that kind of stinks. I don't know how they, they got a lot of rain Sunday, Monday. They have all the technology to suck the water out of these greens.

It's not the subair, but it's the other, whatever the other system is called. Like that's what it's there for, is to be able to prevent just like, we've got two days of rain. I mean, it's been a very nice spring here. Otherwise I was expecting it to be relatively dialed. And I know like the little point of that system

is like when you get a deluge, like you can immediately suck a lot of the moisture out of the greens and get them back to regular condition faster, not immediately after a rain, but faster. And that happened on Monday was the last rain they got. And I just don't know why every year we're watching balls back up on these screens. And I know it's overseen. And I know, I'm not an agronomist that I just, I got to put my TC hat on here to say like, pampered fucks. I don't think they want this though. I don't think they want it this soft. That's I don't think they're softening it for for the pampered fucks. Is there any chance you're waiting to turn the levers up a little bit that you know, it could get firmer as we go on? I think that's the goal for sure. I think we say this, you know, at all the majors and a lot of the players too is like

it, they want it to get harder as the week goes on. They wanna get everybody through. They already know that the pace of play is gonna be an issue. They already know they're not gonna finish the first two days. You wanna get everybody through those first two rounds and then let it ratchet up and then you throw in

these big wins that they're expecting. I don't know. I for sure see where you're coming from. I'm not as mad about it this year as I have been in the past. The wins in speed is, the wins that they're worried about, I'm fine with the greens not being as fast based on that. It's more the firmness.

It's not about the speed. The greens have been very fast. It's just the softness. I mean, we were backing up balls out of the rough on Wednesday evening. It just seems like. I was gonna say, they also got a bunch of fucking hackers out there playing the softness. I mean, we were backing up balls out of the rough on Wednesday evening. It just seems like- I was gonna say that. I was gonna bunch of fucking hackers out there

playing the golf course. It's a pro and basically this creator classic out there. I don't know. It just been bugging me a little bit of watching balls do that on the greens. So how did you feel seeing your own strokes gain data after being such a devotee there? I saw that there was someone separated out

to stroke gain there. The sustainability models did not like, go to you there. I saw you know, I saw that there was someone separated out the strokes gain there that the sustainability models did not like. But for eight holes, I was plus 1.42 strokes putting, I believe it was it. I don't know how I'd be curious. I should know the answer to this as being the dated geek. But I don't know like how it would classify my approach. Because that seems a little harsh on my approach shots. Like is my second shot on 10, is that an approach shot?

Which makes- You also missed a ton of greens in one putter a lot. Yeah, but I mean like, yeah, I guess, but I literally don't know how you would classify like that second shot on 10, which could, you know, when you only play a whole set. I don't run into that situation very often. I know they, well, I know they do manual adjustments

for like punch-outs and things like that. I just don't know where that gets captured and categorized, but no, yeah, it was very much of like a, yeah, you were getting lucky with the putter, man. I don't think if you go run that same formula out 20 times, I don't think you're, you're getting in it plus two. Shout out to Barsel Trans Chipping. That was my biggest takeaway. You know, it looked like as good as a Tour Pro in that, apparently. Great. What did he lose? It was like just one stroke.

Yeah, very similar number to West Brian there and chipping around the green. I will say after hitting a 150-yard drive off of the first tee, getting, you know, eliminating that, the rest of it was strokes gained off the tee compared to an average Tour Pro was... That's how good we drove it. Titleist GT2. I'll say that right here. Guys, what do we see from Akshay? Yeah, just really good putting, right? I mean, when he was back up putter,

it was really kind of rolling it pretty true. Obviously, it's some really good approaches of stuff to a couple. But I just I never know what to think about Akshay because like it's supposed to be this phenom, skipped college, obviously went a totally different route and he's slowly gotten better and better. But I feel like, okay, now I wanna see the next step, right? Isn't that wrong to want this kind of next step of like,

we compete in a big time tournament because it feels like you get blown out to see a lot in some of these bigger ones. Well, that's fair. He's 23, he has won, which is what I would say. Was he supposed to be a female? I think that's kind of what people thought with him turning pro when he should've gone to college.

That might be fair. I think even in his own words, if I remember right, we interviewed him way back in the day around that time, it was just like, it wasn't that he thought he could take over, he just thought he'd be in a better position around this age, I'd say, if he spent years 18 through 22, you know, instead of playing college golf, he was making his own way in professional golf. Which again, I think if you asked him, hey man, you got

two PGA Tour wins, like, would you take that or not? I feel like you'd be like, yeah, that sounds pretty good at age 23. Honestly, his answer then impressed me. I've been team Ocche ever since I heard that of like, yeah, he's not like trying to take over the world here. He just like sees his best path to being successful, like just getting out there and like he, I don't know, even when he was an amateur, he would he would pack the clubs up and go play qualifiers all over the place, man. I just always always put himself out there. Never seems afraid of the moment.

And you know, he's a clearly like a stroke better per round than the average tour pro at age 23. I'm in on oxygen. He's such a sick. I don't know if you guys saw the approach he hit to finish off his day into nine. He was kind of a little bit behind that tree, had a little way, and it was a front left pin and he hit this little shot through a little gap in the tree. It was controlled to keep it under it and cut it in there and stuffed it in there to five feet four inches and made the birdie to get to 11 under par. Again, kind of the same

Min Wu Li category of like I'll be very curious to see him do it in the conditions this weekend. So sick that we get, you know, we had these two easy days, get some interesting names up there and then we get to go put them under the gun and see what happens this weekend. But another one I'm super, super curious to see how this one goes for. he won the drive chip and putt i don't know why you're talking about not a phenom i mean that's his phenom all over it so that's true uh the first time i met him was at the junior players uh if you want to feel like the aging matt damon uh saving private ryan gif there there you.J. Spawn in third place. You guys gotta be sweating this one. I mean, after your guy,

Keegan moved all the way up to 15th in the standings. J.J. is sitting at 17th right there in a massive money and points week and he's just gonna blow right by your guy. That's gotta have you guys. This is really tough on me. I'm sure. Yeah, it's definitely. Yeah. Okay. Actually, you know what, KV? I'll put you up. I'll take you off. You actually said you don't think he gets going to make the team but DJs kind of backed himself into a corner on this.

I don't know if you if you actually want to do this. I'll do this. We I don't think this is the best listening experience for the fans here. But I just see you peacocking at all is is truly, truly stupid. I think. Yeah. You have to apologize after your little back last week about the Vaughn around of Bay Hill. I'm going to do it all year long. I am riding this one all. I can't embarrass myself more than I did at Bay Hill, so I'm just going to ride this one

all year long. When my captain gets up and down for birdie on number nine to make the cut on the number now the conditions are going to get off you know he's going to be a mutter out there let's would you like to do jj spawn versus uh keegan straight up the rest of the week who finishes higher than this tournament sure absolutely do you think keegan is going to get the camilo parent or do you think do you think there's any coming back for this i cannot wait until saturday night at bethpage when the Americans are down three points and you are looking at the sheet trying to figure out who JJ spawn is going to play on the euros. And you're like, doing the math, trying to figure out

what we can see when we get this. And then JJ pulls off an upset here. You're going to be wishing the king and could rip off the shirt run out on the field. That's Kroy McElroy. You got what you wanted. 2.0 right there. Congratulations, Sully. I'm playing JJ Spawn in singles today. My point was not that JJ Spawn was going to be on the team. He's right next to Keegan on the point standings. That's what makes the Keegan thing as silly as it is. I still think you were talking at some point about taking Brian Harmon again over Keegan. So I'm not sure that you get to- I don't believe I was talking about that and I will regret that if

that was the case. Alright, let's see. JJ spawn at ten under Keegan at at two under. My man's gonna spot him eight shots here on the weekend. Just follow just follow that one. Maybe star those two on your leaderboard loyal listeners. Uh let's just see how this one ends up because I got nothing to risk on that one. No one's gonna remember if Keegan loses. Everyone's gonna remember if Keegan wins. That's that mistake in this conversation, Sully, is just hitching your wagon to the wrong people. Moving on, Alex Smalley. Got nothing to say about him. I don't

know if you guys do. Other than we brought him off last night. I gotta give respect. He shot a very, very good 67 today, but I will still say he does not have the same power through the weekend, but we're about to find out. Lucas Glover did TC shout out seeing him at the at the bar earlier this week we just grabbed it we grabbed a cocktail and Lucas Glover is just chilling there having a martini looking locked in and just Zen and I just I should have taken that as a sign and I didn't so shout out to Lucas always love when he's when he's playing well.

Zala Torres seeing him up there is exciting Tommy Fleetwood of course I didn't. So shout out to Lucas. Always love when he's when he's playing well. Zell Taurus, seeing him up there is exciting. Tommy Fleetwood, of course, that's tune in Sunday. That's going to only make that more fun. We know that. I was checking by every every message in the Slack is like the Tommies and asses. He's Keister adjacent. All this stuff from TC. I thought he was winning. Turns out, yeah, he's he's four back. He's team nine, which is very nice for Tommy lad. But yeah Last personal shoutouts Jake Knapp just going back to our cognizant recap I love seeing this dude flight the ball and I'm really excited that we get to see that in some windy Conditions this this week. I think that's gonna be super super fun seeing him keeping it down below the trees

You know shout out to him. He seems to, for a guy that won the Mexico Open, he seems to also be playing hard, albeit over-seated golf courses really well. So that's exciting. Soly, why don't you take us to a couple of on-site observations. You were there today. Most of us were not. What did we miss? So a couple things followed the the the Rory, um zander and Scheffler pairing for for almost the entirety of the day. I watched a fair amount of golf outside of that yesterday. Very, very, very silly point to make other than like, it's very cool to watch a lot of a lot of other players hit shots. I watched a fair amount of Danny Walker just because he was with Jordan and uh and Wyndham Clark yesterday.

And then flip over to watch the best three players in the world and just immediately see the difference and hear the difference and feel the difference in all of their games. Was just jarring to actually see in person. But funny moment on 18, I would consider this somewhat funny. Rory hits his tee shot on 18. Instead of the light the candle and whatever, immediate yell from the crowd,

where's my phone? Which I kind of heard, I kind of heard in the Harrison Ford voice of like, give me back my son. A little bit, it was, it was really good. Get off my plane. I would say honestly, like quite surprising. Roy went on to birdie 18. And I've watched a lot of a fair amount of Rory golf in person, I would say legitimately like muted applause for Rory for birdie on 18. Like while making a run near the top of the leaderboard. And I don't know, that just kind of like surprised me. I asked somebody who was walking, I was like, Does that seem like a little a little quieter to you than usual? And yeah, kind of felt like it was it was buzzing, like, massive crowds out there following this group. And I don't know, for once, it kind of felt like people were like shouting. It was Mel Gibson, I'm being told, not Harrison Ford, that said that in the comments, but kind of shouting more for Scotty than Rory than usual. And I don't know, maybe that just

stuck out a little bit just kind of with kind of the weird energy we were talking about last night that Rory has been putting out recently. But that was just a noteworthy thing. So I'm still team Rory. I explained this in our Slack. But I just find it so bizarre that if you're someone in your own profession that you would try

to like troll another person on the interpractice round like instead of being like oh yeah I'd love to like watch how this person like plays golf be like oh you're a dipshit like straight out of 2006 masters bro that just such that's a weird energy to me like did Rory handle it well I don't know man like at some point I think you get so many of these interactions with people finally that you're just like Really like you are doing this too like yeah come here I'm gonna just take your phone put it in timeout for a few minutes, but along the same vein of the Collin thing is like dude like you're gonna

This is gonna be a story if you walk up to some guy and like take his phone and walk away You know 50 other people are recording this. You know the press is gonna then ask about it and then you dodge questions in the media about it. It's just like all of us, yeah, I don't know. Going back to your point about the players being weird with the media lately is like, you've done this long enough to know

how this is gonna play out. Like you can't do that and not expect to be asked about it. Like I know you're probably sick of every little thing you do being newsworthy and being discussed and picked apart the way that it is. But like, that's certainly not going to change if you do things like that. And I don't know, it's just the same vein that I went back and zinged Colin for it. So I'll keep the consistency with Rory. I think you should have just said, yeah, look, I probably should not have taken the guy's phone. I was annoyed. I, you know, in the moment, I thought it was kind of a trollish comment.

You know, did he know it was a kid from Texas or not? I don't know. But just like say, like not my best moment, but I just feel like, you know, that's a, that's kind of an online like live way to live. And we're sort of in the real world here. Like I wouldn't say that to someone else. Can I play devil's advocate?

Is he just didn't go far enough. I think the problem was that he got stuck in the middle. Wasn't the whole Jason Kelsey thing like, didn't he grab the kid's phone and smash it in the ground? Well, that was kind of sick. Like that guy got what he deserved. That guy was like verbally harassed, following him and verbally harassing him in the street in public. Yeah. No, of course. Of course, the answer is nonviolenceence. But if you're gonna step over the line, I feel like throw the phone in the water would have been easy. I feel like there's a couple

other, you're already gonna get in trouble if you take it. Pull up his contacts, call his ex, be like, hey, what's up? Call up his dad, be like, this is the kind of son you've raised here, come on. I know, but now we just kinda get stuck in the middle. But anyway, Solly, what else you got? Last last one or I got two more here, but Scotty's putting woes They're creeping back in a lot of getting the fastback man. I know a lot of bitchy energy from Scotty He missed a putt on a Excuse me. He missed a putt on three a par putt on three and I just overheard him talking to Scott

He was just bitching just like I would fucking love a lip out just one fucking lip out like I wanted like I want Yelling about one actually being close. I can't even sniff a lip out And it was like oh my god that is People there were cameras and mics nearby. He was not trying to be quiet with that one at all I let it go man. Let it flow Scotty hit a horrible second shot on seven from the right bunker and went way left and he just has a massive Club slam into his bag like wound up prepared for it. It wasn't like even like a quick one It was almost like he got grass out of the way to hit the bag and it just hits one of those Aluminum water bottles the top just explodes off and water goes everywhere.

And he like picked up the water, the water bottles, like to take a drink of it. There wasn't anything left in it. He like didn't know what to do with it. So he just like, hey, Scott, but it was a tough moment. Can I pause real quick? Cause I don't know where else we're going to get to this. Just objectively very funny that out of nowhere Dustin Johnson popped out shot 63 in the first round after finishing DFL in the last live event. I just love this take from TC. DJ 63 at Sentosa is far more impressive than JT 62. Just wanted to get that on the record. Thank you to listener Tron Carter for weighing there. So what else?

Last one, predictable one here. I wish it wasn't the case because I would think that these guys could handle something like this. The overreaction to hole six and the T is blowing my mind. Like I don't, I don't think these guys, I think you guys have to legitimately try to hit this branch. All right, I went and photographed and I took burst photos of Scotty, Xander, and Rory and where their balls went underneath this tree. Now, Scotty kind of pulled one there in that previous image.

And the left side of that actually became a little bit of a problem because he hit it way left. But Rory was not even halfway between the ground and the tree, not even close. And I'm sure these guys are trying to flight it down a little bit. Xander hit iron not even in the realm of hitting this tree. And I honestly and truly don't get how, why, the whole

literal point of a Pete Dygolf course and what he does all over this place is just to play visual intimidation tricks on you. And I'm just very surprised to watch some of these guys get tricked. Matt Dispatriot called it the dumbest tree ever or something in a video earlier this week that was picked up on the PGA tour cameras and all this. I'm like, it is such a non-factor. Even if they see all the way back, I wouldn't even have to think. I'm sure they hit the ball

higher than I do, but there's not a club in my bag I would ever dream of hitting off that tee that I would dream. I think about hitting that branch. I want this tree to get lower each round. I want like the mechanical arm on this tree that like, you know, they got to really hit a little tiger stinger last round. That would be sick. Kind of had one of those somewhere where why can I not think of it that had like a ratchet? The head like it was basically there was a cable

that was massed Augusta left. Yeah, 13. Yeah, yes, exactly. And they can kind of raise and lower it. Like, I'm with you. It would raise it during the practice rounds and then when the How many times guys have a little chalkboard on the front? Yeah. How many times did we hear? Well, you can combat distance with things to do the golf course. Trees. We're going to stick these trees in your way. Trees. Yeah. What a bunch of losers. All right. Anything else, Sully?

Thank you for stomping around out there all day today. It looked like a great day to be out there. I say that as a very bitchy golfer myself too. Hey, true. Of course. All right? I have experience about bitching about dumb stuff on golf courses.

Anyone else you guys want to shout out? Any kind of going down the leaderboard? Any news and notes we need to read into the record here? We kind of did skip over Morcow. Morcow, I was going to say. That was on me. He had had chip ins on four and five and continues to just play excellent golf without you know, really in having this top level of ball striking. But I was gonna have

give you this one. I'll give you guys $100 if you can tell me who led the field and strokes game off the tee today. $100. Yeah. Two. Oh yeah. Hmm. Two, uh, first English. Substract. Okay. Your boy, the TI 83, the calculator, Aaron Rye led the field.

It's just came off the T I was just like, huh? Uh, and Kurt Kitty Yama is leading for the week, but I also want to call out leading so far in approach. So he's in the top 10. Can you guess who is leading the far in approach so he's in the top 10 can you guess who is leading the field in approach so far at the halfway point near the halfway point more cow looks clever it's Willie Z note take note it's a fun it's a fun leaderboard man that's a fun top 10 there man. That's a fun top 10.

There's a lot of different stuff going on there. I just want to say not a great showing from Ludwig. He was my pick to win this week. Thought this would really suit him. And Victor still lost in the South to see. It's not looking great. That's not fun. Not fun.

What else? Ludwig shot three over day and missed a cut for those that did not know. How'd Max do today? I haven't seen Max shot one on Earth. Yeah, one on Earth. Still missed a cut but a little bit of a bounce back for him. Michael Caine, hottest player in the world. Missed a cut. Ricky Fowler made the cut. Join us. Nine is five.

Yeah, I don't know if we need to, how much, how much oxygen we need to give to happy hour, but I just truly couldn't believe that. I think they, they left the 2015 players and came back to it like three different times. Like I was honestly like, did that, did my YouTube TV like, like auto rewind here we're doing this replay again. It just it just seems a little. Do you think it more that or better than most? Which which did you on first today? Because there's a lot of both. It's a lot.

I liked having Gary Coke and Raj back like it is like always it it is a it's a weird thing with with golf announcers and how it how it voices from your growing up phase or how you learn the game how how much it like has an impact. I don't know whether they're great announcers but they're so familiar that it just makes it feel like a bigger event and it's just great to great to hear them covering it again. So I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Big Tone, little double centennial 76-76 for him. Anything of note there?

Just unlucky bad side to draw, and we'll be back, I'm sure. Guys, they finished. I didn't think that was a possibility. They got everyone through. Because they saw it from the greens. Yeah, DJ tried to get the cut to move to minus one, or minus two, and it was never gonna do that. You wanted Tom Kim. Cuz they soften the greens. Yeah. DJ tried to get the cut to move to minus one

and or minus two and it was never gonna do that. You wanted uh Tom Kim to miss the cut so bad but that's. Did you see him leave that like leave that one in the bunker at nine and then. He had a shot to play with. He had a shot to play

with. Why are we worried about that? Disgusting. Uh alright, where are we going next? Uh alright, this is a good one. We've been talking. We've been talking about this incoming weather, right? We've got all these gusts coming in. Luckily, we've got a premier expert source on the ground, one of the

foremost weather people in the the floor and Florida's First Coast. Our guy Lou Turner sent in this video just to give us a little overview of of of what to expect over the next couple days. It's good to see you everybody. It was good to record this out here. My allergies are killing me. And Bill's out here mowing the damn yard, so hang on. Damn it Bill.

So I'm a meteorologist here at the NBC affiliate in town. Love sharing information and computer modeling with my dear friend Tron. Looking at Saturday Sunday. It's just for me. So truly Saturday gonna be the window, dad. It's a nice day to get out as a fan. It can be tough as a player though.

You're talking about 25 30 mile an hour gusts around that stadium course. Now generally out of the south, but you know how things will swirl in some of those pockets because of the stadium nature the mounding the hills the infrastructure built in so pretty strong winds coming in on Saturday. Sunday's the day to watch though. BackStorm Prediction Center has us at that slight risk of severe and looking at about two to five to even after eight. And we can see that weather which of course can cause some issues. Right now, so with my computer modeling, this is two o'clock into the five o'clock hour and if you look in northeast Florida by 8 PM, you can see that line moving right on through.

Now maybe after five, they can get play going again but there will be lightning in the area so I can see folks having to get ushered away from the golf course and having some suspension in play. That's the latest right so that 2 p.m. really the 6 p.m. corridor we'll watch very carefully and hope it's a lovely one. Guys, I appreciate you allowing me to give my input. It's great. I just had to say, so sometimes my kids are like, when I'm like bitching about, wow, my beard is so gray. They were like, oh, why don't you like to use that just for men's stuff? I was like, can you imagine what the people would look, would say

if I showed up with a brown or a red beard on the live show one night? You'd be like, oh wow, Kev, you're just magically younger. So shout out to Lou for just putting the chest of the man in the frame. I love that. No play for Mr. Grey. Lou might be one of the funniest people I've ever met in my life. Just quietly, subtly funny. He did a whole broadcast a couple weeks ago about

just working his many lines from there will be blood into the morning weathercast. It was just, oh god, it's so good. You guys did North Florida. Just don't realize how good you got it. Who's the win gonna affect most? Who are you most bullish on? Who are you most bearish on? Let's say in the top ten. I told you Rory I'm most bullish on. I think it's time for the Rory show. I'm sorry. I gotta see it from the from from Minwooli in the wind. I will I will serve pro Mulligan layup on Sunday night if he gets through uh this cauldron this

weekend but II need to see it. I'm I'm bearish on that. Just because I can't afford to be on the wrong side of this one. Tommy top ten. Yeah. Conditions are about to buck. I don't know. I don't see. Can be a huge indictment of isn't this like about time that like that's either like put up or shut up the time TC like you're you're saying your guys poise to strike. You said it's like eight times. It's been time to shut up for a long time. Let me stop you right there. I'm with

you though. It I don't know man. It feels pretty. The deck feels feels feels like he's got a nice hand to play with here. Okay, I'll say I want to see it from Colin. He is struggling some wind in the past. So like if you go out and and win big like then I'm I'm in I'm saying like alright, you're gonna have a good year this year, but if you if you get blown away again, then it's like well, you haven't really showed me that you you aren't you, then it's like, well, you haven't really showed me that you aren't,

you're sort of a dorm guy, a dome guy, excuse me. I don't think this is what Colin is trying to get out of his post-round mic drops here, but the more shit like that he does, the more interesting he gets to watch, I think. Not for the reasons that he's looking for, but the more close calls he gets, the more chippy he gets,

the more I'm kinda leaning into my screen like, ooh, what's about to happen here? And so again, like you said, Kev, throw 30 mile an hour wins in that, and I will be watching. I'm excited. Guys, I was parsing through the transcripts today. Just kinda going around, looking at some quotes.

I thought we'd play a little Who Set said it if you guys are up for that. And Cody, I've got them in the same order that I sent them to you. So here we go. First of all, question overall, how would you assess your play over the two days? Answer really bad, just not very good question. What's keeping you from scoring? Answer, everything. Not hitting it close enough, dumping chips, missing every fairway, hitting fairways to

missing greens. It's pretty gross to be completely honest. Who said it? Ooh, Victor Hovland. I'm going to go Keith Mitchell. That was Xander Schauffley, whose cut streak was extended just barely, he was not the kept getting pressed by reporters Like don't you think you're being a little too hard on yourself? He's like, no, I'm not I know what I'm doing Like this that's how bad it is. They're like, oh do you have practice limits? Like you probably can't go pound balls like yeah, I'm about to go blow through them all this afternoon It was actually really funny. I would encourage people to go go look at it

Next sorry, you're to hate this one. Oh, no. I'll usually check statistics just more out of curiosity than anything. I usually have a good feel for what's going on. Sometimes I check the statistics just to make sure. Oh, is that BigTone? Spieth.

Scotty Scheffler, the world's best player. That was his statistics. Just a big eye test guy. I don't need the pros deep in the statistics. That's not what I'm after here. I got no problem with that quote. They got people for that. The good Lord didn't use statistics.

That's a good voice. Shout out to Luke Carter. Once a month my beard is absolutely I'm not a good voice. The real. Once a month, my beard is absolutely jet black. That's good stuff. Once that I should show up with a Ryan Day look. I like that idea. Maybe a little on course bet for a beard. I bet if Keegan wins this year, you got to show up on the Sunday show with a jet black beard.

That doesn't seem, I think you should show up with a jet black beard. Keegan wins! That's a long beard. In celebration! The Keegan character could get even cooler though. If I wore the aviator glasses and had a jet black beard, I don't know what the purpose would be, but I'll be sick.

Kev, if he makes the Ryder Cup team, I think we're all dying our beards black. Anyone who's not, anyone who's not at least at least mustaches. All right. Question. Why don't you avoid looking at leaderboards? This was a person, you know, kind of trying to go this person to like, you know, why don't you just play your own game? I tried when I was in college, I just didn't like it. Basketball game. Guys are going to know if they're two or three points back with 10 seconds to go.

I feel like golf should be the same way. A real athlete here. Is that Wyndham Clark? Athlete here. What is that supposed to mean? Oh. That was Jake Knapp. That's who said that. I just like that quote from Jake Knapp. I'm sorry. The more I read from him, the more I watch him, the more I watch him hit balls, the more I like him. So here we go. Next one question. What do you remember about the COVID year at the players five years ago? Answer. It worked out alright because I played like shit in the first round. The Hideki went out and shot 64 and we got paid the same. Somebody who isn't afraid to get a little salty on it. Billy Horschel. Justin Thomas.

Against all odds, this was Ricky Fowler. Whoa, I just had to throw that in because you know, we had did a whole podcast about this guy has no good quotes. And I just really really made me laugh today. I also think Ricky might be the perfect like post golf, not the perfect post golf TV person, but the perfect person to be hired post-golf to do TV Oh, I was thinking that exact same thing DJ. He will be hired very much to sit there and say a whole lot of nothing In the booth that's that's like a lap but it felt like there were probably a lot of other people who did

Long one here, but you know, I think this one's probably gonna hit close to home It's dawn on me that golf is just golf. You hear a lot of people say that when they first have children. I didn't really think like that. I was still like golf, golf, golf. But now that my oldest one is four, and you know there's a lot of emotions when I leave

and when I come back, it puts things in perspective on what really matters, shadow perspective. I don't know how to deal with it. They were talking about, do you feel guilty going out to practice? He said, absolutely. I don't know how to deal with it. They were talking about do you feel guilty going out to practice? He said absolutely. I don't know how to deal with it I try to talk to them as much as I can FaceTime But when you have a little one that's just always asking where you're at and telling you how much they miss you and to come

Home, it's tough That's gotta be Jordan speed Yeah, really good guess that was JJ spawn I'd heard JJ spawn kind of going off like that. Uh, and it just, you know, we're just dimensionalizing these players a little bit. Guys got a bunch of little ones at home and I just found that to be really interesting. JJ spawned low key great quote. Yeah. Like you go up to him and ask him about anything. He will give you like a really good quote.

Agree. Uh, all right. Couple more. Uh, sorry, I don't know if we lost you, but fairly well. Can you hear me? I can hear you. Yeah, yeah. Okay. All right, next one. This place is a big learning curve, speaking of TPC Sawgrass, especially the fourth hole. That's probably one shot that I regret in my career. It was a wedge that I got steep on and it's been the narrative for a long time. It was a wedge that I got steep on and it's been the narrative for a long time The narrative Which I got steep on I'm so glad you guys don't know what he's talking about either. This was Min Woo Lee. I have no idea what

I have no idea what this narrative is I remember In like towards the I of one of these rounds, but I don't remember ever bringing that up again. He hit it in the water out of the rough, I think. I'm pretty sure I was there. The fourth hole is the one that's pretty short and there's the water in front and the kind of tough green. Yeah.

He hit it like a shot up on the hill and went for it and he was leading and dunked it and then Scottie just basically boat basically quote raised him from there. So to well to all the narrative writers and readers out there just know that we're changing that this week. You've been warned. You know you guys gotta stop writing about this thing man. I mean everybody all I get is questions about this steep wedge all right. I gotta look back on that one. I just I don't remember that being the narrative. I think I think the net like six he's done that like 100 other times. Yeah. narrative was Scotty just fucking was amazing. Yeah, I'll tell you you know what I'm gonna tell you guys up front because I kind of am doing a

dirty here. This is a second Scotty one. So that's been duping. But it's just a really good quote and something I hadn't thought about. Speaking about the wind coming in this week, quote, the wind moves around a good amount out here. If you go to a course like where the open championships usually are, you can play the ball on the ground and around this place, you can't really. The fairways are fairly soft. You've got to get the ball airborne and you've got to make sure you're controlling your spin, hitting it really solid. At times it can feel like you're guessing a bit on the wind and hopefully you guess right more often than you're wrong.

I just thought that was really interesting like when the wind gets up here, it's not like you can really like scoot it around this place. Like it is so, such a vertical, you know, airborne golf course that it really is like, Rory had some quotes about how the wind doesn't really hit it until it gets above the trees, but at a golf course like this,

like you have to get it above the trees you know you can't just like flight stuff in there because the greens are so there's so much shit going around the greens there's very few run-ups it's just a that's a pretty simple but very interesting insight to the golf course I thought yeah it's not it's not a place with a ton of like just options in general like it's not that's not what makes it special and makes it really good. It's really just, they say there's all these risk reward shots out there, but really it's just a ton of risk

in a lot of them. And yeah, you just have to decide how much, I guess this is the definition of risk reward as I'm saying it, but you gotta decide how much, it's a big execution test and the whole thing is just like how much are you willing to bet on certain things and it's why you see these spectacular car wrecks that blow up to exponential proportions here.

If you are a golf nerd, Scotty is truly good at explaining golf shit. Like he has become, all this talk about he's boring, now you just ask him a good question and he will get deep in the weeds on what the golf nerd shit answer is in a really fun way. And I thought that a couple months ago when he was talking about doing more stuff for TV

and being mic'd up and TGL and all this stuff where he's like, ah, that's not what I do. In media, I will answer questions after every round. Shout out to our earlier conversation. And I will, you know, in that period, I'll answer anything you wanna know. I'll try to convey it as much as I can to you guys or anything you wanna know about me,

anything you wanna know about the game, but like, that's kinda where it ends. And in that period, I'm like, yeah, he does a great job. So, all right, last one. Let's see how much confidence you guys have in this person. Question, why are you looking forward to the wind tomorrow? Answer, just trying to control my ball flight,

trying to hit different shots, trying to play with some creativity. That's something that I've gotten a lot better at over the last few years. Justin Thomas. Actually, Batia. Rory McElroy is talking about how he is going to be an artist out there this weekend. You guys, you were right there.

I was T&M for that one. I thought that's what you were predicted, man. We'll see if that's what we see. That is... Rory seems like he's playing golf, right? We've lobbed the, he's a thrower, not a pitcher accusation him right now. He seems like he's pitching. He's got some more IVB on the fastball.

He's added a cutter. It's huge. You know, and he's even throwing a kick change, mixing the kick change in there from time to time. He's really expanded his arsenal. His arsenal plus grade is really, really good. I'm ready for baseball season. Me too. That is. So I keep, I don't like keeping live from on while we do our shows, but I literally do. And during the big weeks, because we don't know where Johnson Wagner is going to be next. He's somewhere in the pine

straw in the complete dark. And I don't even know what he's, uh, what shot he's going to try to replicate right now, but it's gotta be the spief left-handed yeah it's got to be it. That's almost certainly gotta be it so how about that if you're listening to this on replay yeah you've probably already seen this clip but he's about to this is about to unfold in the complete dark like it is totally dark here all right that is this this week's edition of who said it thank you for playing along. KVV bring us home. You were calling for the ball on this one.

Some strange names. Strange isn't fair. You know, some lesser-known names on the top of this this player's championship leaderboard, which people can get all up in arms about but any real ball knower knows this is the players every year, man. There's always there's always strange names up there. This is what this tournament is about. A lot of the Roberto cat shout out to Roberto Castro. A lot of Roberto Castro sixty threes out there in the first round. Troy Merritt go is going to go hang up a sixty four every now and again. That's just kind of what this tournament's about. And so you kind of took the ball and ran with it a little bit I believe on some of your favorite examples of this.

ball and ran with it a little bit, I believe, on some of your favorite examples of this. Well, did you your comment about this is why the players used to be like when I worked at the tour was just all these kind of like, nobody's halfway through, everybody's freaking out. I felt like you know what I feel like that history holds up to that. These guys don't end up winning the players with, you know, a couple exceptions here and there. But there are it always is a tournament where you know that the Tom Hogan's of the world pop up and buck for a little bit and everybody freaks out and was like what what's be happened? To the tournament that I love and hold dear and this kind of works itself out. And so I picked four players Excuse me from the past where you know the 36 hole leader was not someone who you would think

Would be a sort of household name someone that you would really think of as a, you know, kind of a major champion in some ways. I want to take you back first to the 1998 players guys. Joe Ozaki opened the weekend. Joe, don't call me jumbo. Don't call me jumbo. This is his younger brother, Joe. What was subject of one of my favorite golf pictures of all time. Joe Ozaki made the Presidents Cup team in the one time that the presidents the internationals won the

Presidents Cup. In fact, he subbed in because his brother jumbo could not did not want to play the Presidents Cup and so they just put Joe on the team instead. So Joe was was tied. Jumbo jumbo was worried it was going to hurt his manipulated play the President's Cup. And so they just put Joe on the team instead. So Joe was was tied. Jumbo was worried it was going to hurt his manipulated OWTR. He's going to change his divisor. Joe was tied for the lead halfway with Lee Jansen. He was kind of like a horses for courses kind of dude at the players. He had three top 10s in his career at the players. I do want to say I believe that a Shigeki Maruyama is wearing the

President's Cup trophy. Is that right? I feel so stupid now if that's true. Are we sure? I think Joe Ozaki is in the background of that photo. Okay, God. What a... Listen, I apologize. A complete whiff by me in that sense. The point stands. The point is in the photo. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not

sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure.74 on the weekend to finish T 18th. So but three previous times or three other times he managed to finish in the top 10. 1993, 1995, and 1999. But unfortunately he did not, the 1998 performance was not one of his top best. Guys I don't know if you know this but Joe Azaki won 38 times on the Japan tour. He's the fourth most wins ever. Never won on the PGA Tour, but did finish T2 in the Buick Open in 1997. So shout out to Joe, the lesser known Ozaki.

Really a great moment in golf history. How about 1995? Quite a top four there, I'm looking at the. Yeah, we'll go back to 1995. Now, do you remember the name Gene Sowers? Know the name have read it. No, I just think I could have picked him out of that presence. Good lower level SEC coach at some point, maybe an offensive corner. This is why we do these history things. All right. It's important to remember history. This is Gene as he got a little older. This is why we do these history things. All right. It's important to remember history.

This is Jean as he got a little older. Jean was tied for the lead at the halfway point of the 1995 players with Corey Pavin at five under par. And I believe there was some talk about whether he ever great run the players last night on the show. Yeah, great run down on Pavin. Whole 0405 career as I believe from the airport yesterday. Believe this photo.

This is Jeff Slooman actually. as I believe this from the airport yesterday. Leave his photo. This is Jeff Slooman actually. Blank and Google if that's true. I don't think it is. I think this is actually Jeans Hars players were not happy in 95 because the winds in the third round were gusting and everyone was struggling. Bernard Longer said they must be very close to losing the greens and Lee Jansen, who won the players twice, actually said the greens are very close to going the greens. And Lee Janssen, who won the players twice actually, said the greens are very close to going extinct.

I'm not sure extinct is the right word here. I feel like this is why we need good English teachers. The greens, if they went extinct, I feel like that would mean all greens everywhere would die, like the dinosaurs or the saber-tooth tiger or wooly mammoths. But no one's- Maybe not wooly mammoth, KVB, they're working on that one.

Chet, let's do a trap draw. That's right. No one struggled more than Sowers who shot a third round 78 but there is an inspiring story here. Sowers came back after shooting 78 and was 10 strokes better shot a 68 in the final round. The best score of anyone in the top 10 and finished T3. Hey, Sowers is actually a very fascinating story. He played on the PGA Tour from 1994 to 2005, save for one year when he lost his card. But he actually, he woke up one day with pain in his left shoulder. And the pain started to kind of like ping pong all over his joints in his body. Doctors initially thought that he had rheumatoid arthritis, but something did not sit well with his wife, Tammy, especially when they began to sort of treat

his rheumatoid arthritis with like a chemotherapy drug. It was used to treat cancer. She started asking all these questions and the doctors were pissed. They were like pushing her out of the office saying like, you're asking too many questions, but she demanded that they do more tests and they did a bunch of more tests.

And it turned out that he had Stevens-Johnson's syndrome, which is a rare disease that attacks your own skin and basically makes it feel like it's burning, it's on fire. He was given only a 25% chance of living, of surviving. When he would stand up, it would be like burning pain. He said he felt like he was being burned alive, but they were able to treat this rare skin disease and it was destroying the blood vessels in his arms and legs and eventually came back to pro golf after five years away And he won the 2016 senior US Open

Wild story a lot of great stories written about that at the time so that's being sour So what a really inspiring comeback? I want to talk to about 1982 as well. This was the first year it was held at TPC Sawgrass. Go read some articles about that year, man. Oh, people really needed it. Yes, a lot a lot of we should do a deep dive on that side because a lot of truly great quotes about that. The leader at the halfway point was Vance Hefner.

A person I definitely knew existed before I did research on this this morning. Hefner, he didn't mind. Like Hugh Hefner? It's H-E-A-F-N-E-R. So Vance Hefner. Is that a yellow pages? Like a yellow page? Could a little yellow sponsor on there?

On his chest? I don't know, he's like a handsome guy. Looks like one of the Duke's brothers. Is that a yellow pages? Like a yellow page? Could a yellow sponsor shoot him on there? I don't know, he's like a handsome guy. Looks like one of the Dukes brothers. Or the Dukes of Hazzard, you know? He's kind of a charming looking guy. He didn't mind shooting 73, which after shooting two good rounds in the 60s, because he was only a stroke back at that point. He said, I think I'll be better coming from behind.

I get a little momentum, things shift my way. Got a good chance of winning. He was only one stroke behind Bruce Slitsky and Brad Bryant, but he shot 77 in the final round, dumped two balls in the water on the 13th hole, which ended his hopes. He wasn't the outright leader halfway point, but I want to give a highlight to golfer named Skeeter Heath. Some great golf names back in the day. Skeeter shot a first on 68. It was just one shot off the lead and so I put this quote in here for you because they asked Skeeter how he felt about his game coming in and he said until two weeks ago I was just pathetic. It was an act of God when I made the cut. I was hitting it in places that even the greenskeeper

didn't know were there. My golf future didn't look too bright. It was a dark, dark tunnel. And then he came out, shot a 68, you know? So sometimes this course does magical things. Skeeter went 68, 79, 76, 76 and finished. He's 62. First of our players is he here's a great trivia question. Who is the first person to ever hit the ball in the water on 17? That would be a gentleman named David Thor, T-H-O-R-E, his group, which included Peter Heath, teed off on 10. And

so they were the first group out in this first year of the tournament. And the first ones to reach 17. And he dunked one and then made three putted and made triple. So that's a good little trivia thing. Dave Anderson, a famous columnist from New York Times grabbed him, tracked him down and said, How does it feel to hit the first ever ball in the water and competition? He said, Well, I'm also the first ever person to three putt in competition on 17th.

So it's kind of feels like Chad GPT might have been reading one of Dan Jenkins novels or something and presenting it as, as he's smoking cigarettes behind and said, it's your team time. Sorry. Skeeter, Skeeter hot cuts has to be really good. Yeah, that's exactly what it was. Double O Stefan.

Guys, what do you think it cost to join the Players Club tournament in 1982 and also play there for your daily greens fee? $500 to join. Yeah, that sounds right. I'll take the under. I'll say 375. And the round of golf was probably $59. It was $52 to become a member of Sawgrass back then. And it cost $25 to play the course. In today's dollars, that would be eighty-two dollars uh to the Daily Greens. I believe the the actual Greens now is over a thousand uh to play uh I think

it's 850 is what's going on. So it'd be $47 a whole uh currently. So you get two holes uh for for that for that price today in today's dollars. Sweet. Uh alright, I'm gonna close here with the 2002 players. You might remember that Craig Perks won this tournament. We've made some jokes here and there over the years about Craig Perks over the years of how this could never be a major because someone like Craig Perks could win. But I bet you don't remember who led this tournament for three rounds. That would be, can you guess? Tiger Woods. A gentleman named Carl Paulson.

Oh gosh, serious like that PJ Tour. Radio exactly yes, he opened with three straight 69s and led by a stroke over perks in the final round. Sadly, Paulson fired a pair of hockey sticks in the final round to shoot 77, but he only tumbled down the board to finish T4.

Paulson played in six major championships, never made a cut. He played in 215 PGA Tour events and finished in the top five just five times at one career runner-up. He almost hit the 300 career starts and then lost his card, Deitch. That's right.

Right, exactly. So I really wanna do a deep dive some way about Craig Perks' victory because in this research, this sentence is wild. Perks made only two pars in his final 14 holes. He also missed two par putts inside two feet on his way to victory. On 16, he chipped in for eagle.

He made a birdie on 17, and then he chipped in on 18 for par. After hitting his drive into the trees, he pitched out at a two-stroke lead, hit his ball way over the green. Everyone was freaking out, it was gonna chip back in the water. Then he chipped in from 29 feet. Tiger, who used to have the previous winner

go to the trophy ceremony after, and Tiger said to him in the trophy ceremony, oh, you are unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable. I remember watching that one. That was just like, wait, what is going on right now? I'm talking about Dr. Chipinski. There you go. Shout out. Exactly. Shout out to Craig Perks. Craig Perks rules by the way. Always, always good on TV and on the coverage. Cody, what do you got? I just want to say a quick shout out again and a sincere apology to the entire

Ozaki family. That was not my doing. I understand I'm the production arm of this year's show. That was on me. That was wonderful. I only provided the tools that I can. So Kev, thank you for taking that one on the shoulders. I was just trying to have some fun here. If you want to cancel me, you can cancel me. I'm sorry. Okay. Apologies. It's kind of funny. Oh, you can cancel me. I'm sorry. You can't. So we're, well, jeez, what is this? Kind of funny. Maybe that's why I should show up with a, with a, my beard died as punishment.

Uh, guys, I think that's about it. That's, that's probably going to do it for Friday. Uh, Friday at the players. So all these cameras trying to get out of here. I know it's too hot. It's too hot. It's too, too much, too much warmth, uh, too much heat to me. Firetakes. Before we get out of here, let me tell you about the Nest. Guys, the Nest is NoLangups community of avid golfers. When you join the Nest, you're supporting all of our NLU content from Strapped to KVV's Deep Dives to special project pods. You also unlock access to all of our Nest exclusive content, including the monthly Nest podcast, extra

videos and every thread on our Refuge message board. On top of all the content, you get 15% off every order in the NLU Pro Shop. And exclusive Nest member discounts from our sponsors. Current offerings include 25% off a set of grips from Golf Pride and $25 off any order from HMB. Head over to NoLayingUp.com slash join to get involved and join the nest. You want to throw out some picks to win? You want to get him on the record now or do you not feel comfortable talking about that publicly? Rory. I said it already. I'll triple down. Man. Yeah, I'll go with Rory.

I mean, yeah, it's not very fun. Pick Tommy. I'll pick Tommy. Pick Min Woo Lee, you won't do it. No, I won't do it. I've said a lot of stuff in the Slack about Min Woo Lee maybe not being a proper player. That would really upend my whole platform. I would love to see it. I would love to be wrong about that one. I mean, Rory's probably going to win. my whole platform. So I would love to see it. Would love to be wrong about that one. But

I mean, Rory's probably going to win. But can I just say this is another chance for my platform of that the tour should use some abilities to manipulate some tee times on Saturdays. We have Rory and Morakow are tied going into the weekend. Morakow is going to play with Alex Smalley and Rory is going to play with JJ Spahn. Just based on the fact of where the time of when they finished their second rounds. And that's just, it's just, you can't change that. Like you just can't possibly change it. That's the truest and best way to set pairings and there's no way you should ever make it tweak in that one. So can the Creator Council get on this teach? I am in staunch opposition to this take.

I have been for years. Yeah, he's just a huge fan of it based on... No, if you're Alex Smalley, man, you played your way in. You don't think Alex Smalley's fans want to watch him play with Rory? He didn't play his way in. That's based on what time he finished his round. That's not playing your way into the pairing. There's got to be some system. You're talking about just truly hand-picking. No, I'm not. I'm just talking about moving around within the same scoring group. Yeah, playing God. A better way of doing picking. No, I'm not moving around within the same scoring group. Yeah, playing got a way of doing that. Yeah. Playing God is better than just like, Oh, you finished at 352. Okay, you gotta

have a system man need to need to have law and order. Sorry. That's that's all I'm gonna say. And I all these family and friends, they're all texting each other. Oh, you're playing more cow tomorrow. Go beat his ass. That's cool. JJ spawns kids are probably like, who are you playing with? You know, it's it's cool. That's gonna pay the bills. It's

gonna be I don't know. Then then who knows? Then they maybe learn something from Rory. Maybe then they go on and win. Oh. And then maybe I think you're I think you're you're doing some un unholy **** here, Sully. I can't get down with it. Cool. Is there a better way maybe than the time you finished your round? No, I'm lower second round score maybe. there a better way maybe than the time you finished a round? No, I'm lower second round score. Maybe

work for 200 years. Let's just keep it going. It's it's what they've done. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Guys, how far back is too far back? Uh great. Great question, Cody. I don't know what this is, man. I think JT's absolutely in it at four under.

Okay. So, four under is it four hundred but just for JT is in it or is for all the 400s in it? Nobody at 300 or worse can win. It's my take. Okay. Not even Jordan Spieth? Of course, other than Jordan Spieth. I'm just kidding. So that would eliminate Foxy, Benon, Kirk Keniyama,

E.J. Gagas, Keegan. Joel Damon. I feel like the wind is winds almost makes it too hard to call. I feel like we're gonna have strokes leader Aaron Rye. If Keegan wins, I will cut I will do Sunday show and up with a mustache 100% blonde mustache. Alright, you're here first. That's gonna be sick. If like I have to like the show because I gotta run the target. It's so nervous. You got to like, like bleach it here first. That's gonna be sick if like I have to, I'll blame the show because I gotta run the target. You're gonna be so nervous. You gotta like bleach your mustache first

and then make it blonde. You can't just like go and get some like blonde hair stuff and then put it in there. That's gonna make it like kind of pinkish red. I want Hannah in there with like a mascara thing like bleaching your mustache first before we tone it up, make it actual blonde. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Alright guys, fun being with you, the