No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 981: NLU Special Projects - Our Favorite Masters

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

For this edition of NLU Special Projects, KVV canvassed Team NLU with a simple question: which Masters tournament is your favorite and why? Some of the answers are predictable. Some will surprise you. All are deeply personal and reveal a unique connection to this golf tournament held each April in Augusta, Georgia  Support our sponsors: Rhoback GolfPride 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 no laying up podcast soli here We're back with another episode of no laying up special projects this week. We're doing something a little bit more Personal this time around ktv's been our quarterback on these this month. He threw out a question to our entire squad What is your favorite Masters and why? It's kind of question that is more personal than you realize when you first hear it and it turned into a really fun exercise

as he interviewed us about our selections. A lot of fun memories in here, some cool stories and anecdotes that I certainly did not know and has us even more psyched for next week's tournament. So without any further delay, here is KVV. ["The Last Supper"] In the spring of 1997, I was 19 years old, a freshman at the University of Montana. I was living in the dorms,

quick shout out to the fourth floor boys of Averhall, and trying to survive as a college football player. Golf was not a priority in my life. It was not even a flicker. My parents played the game often, and I would join them a handful of times per year, but at that point, I didn't even have my own set of clubs. The sport that would

shape the second and third acts of my adult life was, at best, an afterthought. I was realistic about my limitations as a football player. I was a step slow and an inch too short to ever make much of an impact on the field. But as someone who secretly dreamed of becoming a sports writer, the pages of Sports Illustrated, particularly the words printed on them, felt biblically important. I devoured them each week, underlining passages I admired, filling notebooks with paragraphs I wanted to remember. I did not follow Tiger Woods' amateur career.

I did not see him hitting balls on the Mike Douglas Show at age two. But I did read about him in the pages of SI. I was intrigued by his story, by what he might do. He was the magazine's Sportsman of the Year before he'd ever even won a major, with his father Earl declaring that he was about to have a greater cultural impact on the world than Gandhi. So between weight room workouts and creatine shakes and spring practices, I flipped on the masters occasionally in my dorm room.

I watched his lead grow on Friday, then again on Saturday, and I could feel the sport changing in the span of a week. My Black teammates, college kids from Florida and California and Texas, were buzzing in the hallways of our dorm, practicing imaginary golf swings in our locker room or on the practice field, celebrating Tiger's march to victory. I was impressed, but I was also 19.

I didn't yet understand that you only get a couple chances in your life to witness something that seismic. So, instead of watching what was clearly going to be a final round blowout, I turned off my television and did something else. I would love to pretend that I blew it off for something big, something life-changing, that I went to see about a girl like Robin Williams skipping game six to have a drink with his future wife in Goodwill Hunting. But that would be a lie.

I can't even remember what it was. It could have been something as dumb as playing video games while drinking cheap beer. What I do remember is that I got a phone call that night in my dorm room. To this day, I remember how my dorm phone sounded when it rang, a high-pitched assault on my ears, and how that tan plastic receiver felt against my face. In the time before cell phones, there was still an element of mystery every time the phone rang. There could be anyone on the other end of the line. A professor, a coach, a teammate, a cute girl I'd exchanged numbers with recently at a party. The possibilities felt magical.

This time, it was my dad. This time, it was my dad. I realize now he was roughly the age that I am today. He had a question that he wanted to ask me. Had I watched the end of the Masters? I had not, I confessed. It seemed like a blowout. It didn't seem all that compelling.

You should see if they replay some of it on ESPN tonight. There was a hug between Tiger and his dad behind the 18th green that was pretty special. He did not have a lot more to say. He probably talked about football, about whether I was going to class, or whether I needed money. We often spoke of those things. It can be hard for fathers to find ways to talk to their sons, but sports has always been one of those ways to bridge that divide.

I didn't see the hug between Tiger and Earl for several days, but I have seen it 10,000 times since. And when I grew older and saw my waist thicken and my beard turn gray, I grew to understand what that phone call was actually about. It was about my dad reaching out and asking for a moment of connection. The things that he could not quite express, he knew I might understand if I saw the hug. When you make podcasts for a living, it's basically a license to call up people in your

life to talk about your feelings. So this March I called my dad and asked him what he remembered. Well, I think it's pretty clearly the the joy that Both tiger and more even so his father felt About the outcome of that particular Masters, which you were not terribly interested in golf, but I was and your mother was.

We were hoping that it might create some spark in you. You were certainly a sports fan and you had to have been very much aware of the success of Tiger Woods, although that was really relatively early in his career still. And there was this hope in my mind that it would be an incentive for you to potentially take up golf and, and, uh, or if it wasn't golf, some other sport that could get you on a, on a stage, uh, maybe not of the same magnitude as Tigers at the Masters, but that something you would enjoy. More than two decades later, when Tiger embraced his own son in that very same spot, my perspective

had flipped. I no longer saw the hug from the perspective of the son, but from the eyes of my father. It can feel uncomfortable at times to unabashedly love the Masters. It's a complicated place with an even more complicated past. But each spring, it returns, and in a way, its arrival helps mark the passage of time. The 1997 Masters is important to me for a lot of reasons, none more important than that phone call. But everyone's favorite Masters is part of their own story. It helps remind you of where you were at a certain point in your life. And some of those memories

can shape how you feel, not just about the game, but remind you of why you fell in love with it. This winter I decided I wanted to survey my teammates at No Allowing Up, ask them what their favorite Masters was, and what they remember about watching it unfold. The stories I heard are a reflection of each of their personalities, which make them all the more compelling. Some memories are specific, some personal. Some are funny, others sentimental. They all feel like a testament to the way

this tournament reinvents itself again and again, and why I look forward to it every spring, no matter where I am in my life. For this episode of NLU Special Projects, we're climbing into a time machine and revisiting the masters that we love the most. You'll probably be able to guess a few of them, but a few might surprise you. They each say something about the person making this selection. Some of them we relive shot by shot. Others, it's more about the emotion of the memory, about what it said about that time in your life. You might be disappointed that we don't pick your favorite,

but that's because those memories belong to you. And that's why they remain vivid, even as the years pile up and you become maybe the kind of person who uses sports to say the stuff that you wish you could say over the phone. We'll start our countdown right after a quick word from one of our sponsors. You all know Robac best fit, best feel.

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It just hits different. It's time to load up on some Roeback now that it's spring. Code NLU at roeback.com gets you a generous 20% off your first order through the end of this week that's spelled RHOBAK.com as 20% off polos hoodies qzips and more with code nlu. Back to KTV. Sometimes, your most memorable Masters isn't about what's happening on the course, but what's happening in your life that spring. It's one of the things I love about the tournament. If I wasn't there, I can often remember exactly where I was as I watched it unfold.

There are Masters I watched with my parents growing up, masters I watched with my kids, even masters I watched by myself when I was longing for connection and dreaming of home. That's why I love this story from Neil, who takes us back to 2009 when he was truly the kid, uncertain about his future and navigating an unfamiliar world. Sometimes watching other people deal with disappointment and heartache can help but put your own into perspective. 2009, admittedly a weird selection, but I think very personal. So I was, and I remember it very vividly, I was a freshman at Columbia and I was having a bad time.

Okay. This is second semester, you know, Got to Columbia as a, I guess a cocky but unprepared cornerback. Got beat up, a quick like a cornerback that couldn't play man coverage. So I got switched to safety midway through that fall season. And I was on the scout team and I seriously, seriously considered not

going back after Christmas break. I did in that whole winter, really heavy off season program, your boy's gaining 20 pounds, he's working his ass off and you wrap around, you know, first, honestly, first winter in New York. And as a kid from Atlanta, that was really tough. You know, I think New York, I've said before, is built on two things, money and alcohol. And as a 18, 19 year old, you know,

both of those things are slightly out of reach. You know, you make do, but it was a tough winter. And then spring ball starts up and, you know, probably putting a lot of pressure on myself to, you know, hey, can I play safety? Am I gonna make it? And, you know, I think the hard of pressure on myself to, you know, Hey, can I play safety? Am I gonna, am I gonna make it? And, you know, I think the hard work ended up paying off. But I remember this was the map coming from Atlanta. The Masters is a

truly a tradition unlike any other. I mean, my family glued to the TV every, every April. And this was the first one that I did not watch at home. And I remember that week, I didn't watch any coverage. I was completely unplugged from golf at this point from Thursday to Saturday, but we had a Sunday morning practice or scrimmage. And so I was able to get back to my dorm, Carmen Hall, on the corner of 114th and Broadway. It looks like a Soviet era, like just dormitory, like in quotes.

I'm on the seventh floor, had a TV in my room, but very dark, didn't really wanna sit in there on a Sunday afternoon, so I used the seventh floor lounge, which I rarely did, you know, cause it's like a lot of weird kids at Columbia, but I'm like, I am going to occupy, this is gonna be mine for the afternoon. And I put on CBS.

I remember my roommate Nico is like, you know, full back from Boston, not, not really into golf, you just got to sit here and watch golf all day. Like what the fuck, bro? You know? And I was like, yeah, that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm, I'm like super duper homesick and I just want to watch this. And because I remember it was Tiger and Phil are paired together. So 2009, I feel like people skip over it, but I almost look at it as like the perfect embodiment of you don't realize when the good old days are gone until they're gone.

I think this was almost like peak Tiger era. You know, 2008, he wins on one leg at Torrey, kind of, you know, goes away. And then this is the first major I think he played in, or maybe he tried to play in there. I can't remember 2008, but yeah, this was the first one where he's back. And final round, he and Phil, they're teeing off like three, four, five groups in front of the, behind the leaders. But you can just feel, even as an unplugged golf fan. I'm like, oh my god I cannot wait to watch this round of golf. And I mean, this is just like Tiger is in the most

brightest like dopest red polo the the you know, just alpha red, you know, none of this like Like kind of off-red no no sweater over it I mean, it's just like red with black pants Phyll has the pinstripe pants on. He's black on black, still wearing the KPMG hat. You got Steve. Stevie Williams is on the bag with Tiger. Bones is on the bag with Phil. So like, you know, watching this broadcast is like, oh my God, this is like, this is, this is it. And you know, we haven't hit the fire hydrant yet. Tiger is still like, he's reconstructed the knee. We're just gonna pick up right where we left off is how it feels. And those guys just, they push each other the whole round. And I remember Phil, it's vintage golf from both of them.

Phil is just pimp stepping all over the front nine. Tiger is like putting on a ball striking clinic, but he just can't make any putts, couldn't make any putts. Eagles eight, plays 10, 11, 12, like a true professional, you know, like center of the green on an epic shot on 11, you know, really good shot on 12 and then 13. It hits an awesome drive, awesome shot. And he just can't make the eagle putt.

And then same thing on 15. They both hit it inside 20 feet. Both of them missed the Eagles Tiger Birdie 16. And then again, kind of vintage. Then they start pressing and they both kind of mess up 17 and 18 and, and so they finished about an hour before. And you know, Phil gets up to, well, hold on Phil. It's fantastic.

He balls out on the front nine and then he double bogeys 12 for just like no reason. Like he's one back from the lead and he just dumps it right into the, into the creek makes double and then battles back to get back to like nine. The leaders are at 11, you know, Cabrera is all over the place. Nobody knows who this guy is. And he's hit, he hits a shank on eight, you know, Kenny Perry opens up and bird, you know, pars the first five.

And so it's like, I think not only the good old days with Tiger and Phil, but I think it was a perfect CBS broadcast for like the original formula, which was they couldn't ask for a better setup. They have the center of gravity of Tiger and Phil. And the whole broadcast is built around like pre-shot, just talking about Tiger and Stevie and Phil and Bones and these partnerships and how these two don't know what rivals they are. And, and, and then they just fill in the rest of the broadcast with like, okay, here's a shot from Chad Campbell. You know, he's, he's actually

ahead of these guys on the leaderboard, but like, you don't really need to see much more than just like quick chip, quick, you know, quick approach. Kenny Perry, great. He's part every hole. He's slow and steady. I don't know. It was like a perfect... The formula worked, I guess is what I'm saying. And CBS knew that especially a casual fan like me, yeah, dude, I just want to watch Tiger and Phil. This is truly... It almost felt like match play. So then these two, they come up short on 18 and they make a mess on 18. Tiger hits a tree, bounces over into 10 fairway. And it you know, it's like, you can almost feel the air come out of the balloon. And I remember this being like, Oh man, like, okay,

we still have like an hour left. I think the leaders are on like 13 or 14. And so then you think like, Oh, this is going to be a dud. And I think it's remembered that way too. But then you get this epic, like second wind where Kenny Perry has it completely under control. And you're like, Oh, this guy, yeah, you know, Kenny Perry is not exciting. He's, you know, got a weird swing and weird putting stance and the visor doesn't look very good, but he seems like a nice guy. And then he starts wrecking his rig. You know, he gets, he, he bogey 17, he's got a two shot lead, he bogey 17.

And then he just, yeah, he just kind of gets unlucky on his drive on 18 and you get this vintage like gut wrenching finish where he comes up like two inches, like perfect pace, but like two inches low on a par putt from 20 feet. So we're going to a playoff with Chad Campbell, Angel Cabrera, like who is this guy? Player caddy convo is in Spanish on, on 18 fairway and he's all over the place. And then, yeah, Kenny Perry falls back into a playoff and then the playoff you're like, all right, great. So we got bonus golf. I mean, just nervy bad golf on 18, like Cabrera hits it in the right trees. Then he hits a tree, gets lucky, kicks out into the fairway.

And then, you know, Campbell and Perry just hit the most like bad, nervy block parties short right. Campbell hits it in the bunker, Perry hits it short right, his family's behind the green. Nance sets it up with like, oh man, it's, you know, the Perrys,

they rented a big house in Augusta this week. They got 20 people, they've been playing cards and playing horseshoes and his family's just dying behind the green and you're like, Oh my God, this guy's going to blow it. This is like, you know, he's a top tier PGA player, but he'd already blown it at Valhalla in 96, you know, something about Augusta is like the heartbreak of like, Oh my God, can this guy get it done under pressure? And I think this 2009 Masters was just like the perfect embodiment of that. After you got this tiger Phil dual

where they almost like, even once they were at a contention, you could tell they were both so locked in because they're like, and fuck this guy, I'm not going to let him beat me today. And you could feel all the energy on the golf course for most of the round is just all around that pairing. And I think when you look back on like, oh yeah, that one that Kenny Perry blew and, oh yeah, Angel Cabrera won it. It was like, no, there was a lot more. The weather was perfect. There was just enough wind. These guys are really struggling with the wind. The broadcast was awesome. And then it's kind of the introduction of like, I think to go back to like vintage peak golf, you have these like superheroes of Tiger and Phil, but you still need the auxiliary characters.

You know, Kenny Perry, you had Steve Stricker, you had Jim Furyk, you had a bunch of guys on that leaderboard that like, oh, at the beginning of the day, I wonder if these guys can get it done. And so they almost exist as like supporting actors in this, in this play. And it didn't really end the way everybody wanted it to. Uh, but it introduced like Angel Cabrera then becomes like a master's character for the next 10 years. You know, he gets, he's, he's there again later, you know, five, six years later, maybe, maybe more. Um, so it's like, you know, in the wake of tiger and Phil, you have like, you have this interest in these guys that

like, if you just tune in once a year to golf, you're like, now you know who Kenny Perry is for like the rest of your life. I was so deeply homesick that I remember this one very vividly. And I remember that ending. And I remember Tiger and Phil, but going back to watch it, I'm like, oh my God, now I remember why I was so excited to watch it that year. Because like not only am I far from home, but it was like Tiger and Phil were paired together and people that didn't happen very often you know and this was after Phil had won twice you know

Tiger's going for five like everybody thinks he's gonna pick up right where he left off there's just so many storylines and I remember even like my sophomore junior year I remember watching the Masters the next year in, you know, the Broadway lounge. And this time a few of my buddies were watching it with me, you know, and then the next year, it's like almost at first it was just me. And then as you get older,

some of my friends start to get a little bit more into golf. And, but I watched that one pretty much from start to finish alone, you know, in my, you know, seventh floor lounge. And like, I probably look like, you look like, who's that weirdo? And I don't even know if it's golf though, KVV. I think it's the masters. It's just this, it's almost like this annual, it's an annual tradition, it truly is.

And it was especially for me from Atlanta, it was just like, I'm going to do this. I don't care if people think it's lame. I'm going to watch this entire tournament. If you want to watch it with me, great. Otherwise, just don't bother me. Is it possible for one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of the game to feel underrated? You wouldn't think so. The next entry on our list didn't feel that way when it took place. It felt seismic. There were great characters, great drama, an electric back nine, and a definitive exclamation

point delivered on the final hole. It's also the only time that Tiger and Phil were paired together in the final group on the final round with a green jacket on the line. So why isn't it universally recognized as one of the greatest majors of all time? Maybe it's because it doesn't feature a triumphant emotional embrace or a chip that lingers on the lip of the cup before it tumbles into the hole. That doesn't mean that 2001 doesn't deserve its own moment in the sun. Here is Solly on the culmination of the Tiger Slam. I feel like 2001 is somehow an underrated

Masters. I feel like it should roll off your tongue faster when you think of the great masters. I mean, 86, 04, 19, even like 97, I feel like roll off people's tongues a lot faster than 2001 does. But I mean, it is the completion of the Tiger Slam. I mean, in the press conference before this week, Hootie Johnson, the chairman, said that if Tiger wins the tournament, it'll be the greatest achievement in modern day golf. Uh, not only the tiger complete the tiger slam, he also won the players a month before this.

Like he won the four greatest tournaments in a row and also the fifth greatest one in a row. And it just put this kind of capstone on, uh, this most incredible stretch of golf. We'll all see in our lifetime. And I don't know about you, but I remember after he won this one, like, Oh, tiger slam. Is it a grand slam?

All this. I remember like guys, it doesn't matter because he's going to win the next three majors this year anyways, he of course did not, but that's how invincible tiger woods was at this time. And it's an incredible rewatch and it almost feels a little unfair that we know the outcome when we rewatch it because there is very serious drama on this one even if it doesn't it did not come down to the last putt but man were there some moments in this golf tournament and it's Tiger Woods up

against his greatest rival and the number two player in the world Phil Mickelson paired together in the final group as he goes for the greatest achievement in modern day golf history. It just, man, it's kind of like, is the moment of the last 25, 30 years. I struggled to remember where I watched this Masters and I don't even know if, I think I've seen the highlight film so many times,

like I can tell you what's coming next, I can tell you what slow motion clips they're gonna play on this, I kind of remember what clubs Tiger was hitting into it, and I think it was just as a kid watching, every time those Masters highlights came on, this was always one of them, Golf Channel always wants to play the Tiger ones,

and I completely understand that, I've just seen it so many times that, it just has left an indelible impression on me. I mean, Tiger was borderline loquacious back in this day. He was so good at just describing golf tournament emotions, kind of before his voice changed and he turned into a dick to the media. He's willing to, he's in the back left bunker on 12 on Sunday, and he's talking about, hey, I've got this spot to land it on right here, it's a relatively easy bunker shot,

I'm on an uphill live, but if I hit this marginally, it goes in the water and I lose the tournament. And he just was willing to put all this stuff out there at that time describing what he's trying to accomplish and what he's thinking in these moments. It just, somewhere along the line that went away. But as a 15 year old watching this, or kind of being impressed upon during this time period,

it was a huge, huge draw for me in the game of golf. I mean, I couldn't get enough of reading and hearing what that guy had to say about how he went about a golf tournament. I didn't expect Solly to take us shot by shot through the final round, but the minutia is riveting. And it's also a great reflection of how Solly thinks about golf tournaments. They are in their own way, like a slow boiling novel that is building to a creative coda.

Listening to him talk about a particular masters and the joy in his voice has always made me want to go find a replay. Before we get to the final round, you know, Chris DiMarco gets out to an early lead on Thursday with a 65 and he held the 36 hole lead as well. Tiger was five back after Thursday, but shot 66 on Friday making eight birdies. And this is before Augusta National changed in 2002. He would go on to win the Masters again the next year, but it was a very different golf course when he went on to win it again, you know, too. And it's it's

gettable still in this time period. And there's a lot of holes that changed pretty dramatically in just the next year. But and Phil goes out 6769. And those two guys were tied for second at the halfway point. David Duvall is sitting just one back, you know, in a bigger group of guys. So you had this massive, massive leaderboard. And then Saturday rolls around, Tiger shoots 68, Phil shoots 69. And Tiger has the all important 54 hole lead that he famously never blew until

Y.H. Yang. And again, he's paired with Phil Mickelson leading by one, going into the final round. He's trying to win his fourth major in a row and Phil's still trying to win his first. Tiger bogeys the first on that Sunday, but he makes two classic par saving putts on nine and ten, and then steps up onto 11 and hits an eight iron from 145, and he spins it in from the right to this left hole location, and it almost goes in. And I know we talked recently about 1999 when

Norman made birdie on that hole, the audio and the sound from the crowd in that part of Amen Corner. Go back and watch that clip as well because the crowd just, I mean, it kind of has that staticky, like the gain is too high on the audio because they're going so nuts over this shot that he hits into there. And then it just, it goes so methodically from there, but there are so many rises and falls for anyone, everyone in contention. This was not one that Tiger just went and slammed the door on. Like he has some vulnerable moments coming down after that, but

comes over and makes bogey on 12. He hits it a shot towards the center of the green, goes long into the back bunker. He looks a little confused and he turns to Stevie and just gives him a smart Alec like you want me to hit it hard, huh? A comment that's very clearly picked up in the audio leads to a bogey. So that bogey put him in a tie for the lead with David Duvall, who's in the group up ahead, but Duvall misses an opportunity obviously on the par five 13th, uh, to make a birdie there.

And if you go back and watch this one. Man, this is kind of one that David Duvall really let get away in multiple opportunities there. So again, Tiger kind of shows a little bit, kind of lets guys back into it a little bit with the bogey on 12. Phil steps up on 13, a hole that he is of course dominated over the course of his career hits a nice carvey fade around the corner. And Tiger goes all the way over to the right side of the tee box with a three wood and just wails on a ball.

And I wish we had pro tracer for this one because he just hit this massive hook around the corner, leaves himself like eight iron in after hitting three wood off the tee. And this was the 13 T was a wider tee box back then like they gave you that opportunity to hit that slinger around the around the corner. So he gets he and Phil both birdie that one. They just kind of hold serve, you know, through the 14th hole. So walking off 13, you know, it's Tiger at 15 under Duvall's at 14 under through the 14th hole right ahead and Mickelson's at 13. So just 123 those guys stacked on the leaderboard and Duvall

is playing the reachable par 5 15th hole, which he does convert a birdie, which goes a little bit long, but gets up and down for birdie. So now he's tied at 15 under par at the top. Phil drives it behind the trees on the left, but hits an awesome cut shot into the bunker. Bone says great golf shot.

And then Phil slashes out of the bunker to about 12 feet and makes the birdie. Tiger hit a, did the classic Tiger, gets to the top and stops because somebody in the crowd had a camera and he's, come on guys, cameras aren't allowed out here. Then he pipes it right down the middle, has one 88 in, hits, you know, it's probably a seven iron or eight iron in right underneath the pin 25 feet below the hole and the Masters is over, right?

So while Tiger and them are on 15T, David Duvall is on 16T tied for the lead. I mean, Tiger's playing the reachable par five, probably gonna make birdie on that one, but Duvall is tied for the lead. And he steps up and he hits a seven iron and he is posing. And it is directly at the flag. And it does what would ultimately help contribute to Phil winning the 2004 Masters, it air mails the green. It goes long, like inexplicably goes long. He looks very confused. Bones would later say, you know, he'd watched way too many guys go long on Sunday at Augusta. And when it came time to make a decision in 2004 of what club to hit, he put eight

iron in Phil's hand instead of seven because of the adrenaline that we saw with David Duvall. So again, Duvall was tied for lead, makes bogey on the 16th hole to again fall one back. Tiger hits the green and it looks like it's gonna be, you know, whatever, two putt birdie at worst, two shot lead heading into the 16th hole. Tiger inexplicably three putts 15th green.

Of the many great major deep dives that we've done, we've always found these moments like, hey, Tiger missed some key putts. You know, people wanna say he never missed the key putts, but it was a really, really shaky three putt. And now it's tense. Now Tiger's walking off. He's 15 under, he's got a one shot lead

playing the last two holes. But, right, Mikkelsen birdied to get to 14 under and Duvall's at 14. So the leaderboard just goes Woods, Mikkelsen, Duvall right behind him. It just, you couldn't ask for a more tense situation. So then you get to 16 and Phil, and you see the difference in how shot shape really mattered at Augusta.

Phil hits like a draw that gets up to the top right slope and it stays there. And Tiger, hitting a draw from the right side, hits a ball that pitches a foot away from Phil's ball, but it takes the slope, goes all the way down to the bottom. Easy two putt for Tiger, Phil three putts, a classic Phil of this time period, played himself right back out of it, got two shots behind. Duvall up ahead stuffs it on 17, but again misses the putt. So recounting the Duvall opportunities here, did not birdie the 13th. He makes bogey on the 16th

hole after hitting a fantastic shot and missed a good birdie look on 17. Tiger Park gets up and down for a par on 17 and hits a 330 yard drive on 80 is 75 yards into 18 in 2001 wedges it on. He just needs a two putt from about 18 feet 20 feet. He hits this putt. It's a right to left bending putt. And he just kind of walks in a little bit and gives one big fist pump into the air. And the Tiger Slam has been done. He's won all four majors in a row. We're kind of waiting for one big moment, one big putt for him to finally fall. And it fell there on 18 to kind of put the exclamation point on it. I think the fact that he ends up winning by two contributes a little bit to people

not talking about this one nearly as much, but unbelievable rewatch of, in hindsight, it makes a ton of sense that Tiger would win it, but it was up for grabs in that back nine with everything that was on the line on that one. I don't know if we'll ever see a Masters that intense again in our lifetime. If you watch professional sports for long enough, they're eventually going to make you feel a little jaded. The newness wears off, the athletes no longer feel relatable, the conversations around money overwhelm the stuff

you actually enjoy. But there is a sweet spot that occurs before any of that happens, when you're still in awe of everything. When your favorite athlete hasn't been hardened by scar tissue, when you're more hopeful than cynical, when the stars align and you have a year you'll remember forever. Everyone's fandom apex is different, but in 2015, Jordan Spieth put together an unlikely, absurd, magical stretch of golf, and DJ got to witness a bunch of it in person.

It crystallized something that resonates to this day. You can't explain why certain players make you feel something, but golf is never better than when one of those players is at the peak of his powers. I think 2015 was the absolute peak of my golf watching life. I don't know that it will ever be surpassed.

There's a lot of personal reasons for that. I was working at the PJ tour at the time and had kind of found my footing with that role. And so I was able to travel to a lot of events and kind of got to go to a lot of the majors for the first time. Got to go to St. Andrews for the first time, had the unbelievable Ricky Fowler playoff at the Players. But the big headline, I think, is my guy Jordan Spieth making a legitimate run at the Grand Slam at the age of 21, which is a sentence so bewildering that I truly don't think most golf fans even realize that that happened or can even process that that happened. And it's only aged better and better and better as my golf watching life has kind of gone on.

But yeah, I just, I don't know that it's ever going to get better than that for me. I had met a lot of people in the game, a lot of, you know, my now colleagues for the first time. I was just kind of it was just a really fun time to be in golf media. And it was a really fun time to be watching the game, because I feel like the game still had a lot of it had a lot of this turnover going on where, you know know Rory had just won two majors the year before and looked like he was the absolute dude. Tiger still kind of hanging on the

periphery had been player of the year you know a couple years prior was still legitimate threat to win any tournament that he could play but then all of a sudden here comes you know kind of the prodigal son that's just you know for three four five six years, this guy's going to kick the door down. Then when he actually does it, it's the most satisfying thing ever. There's a weird point in everybody's life, I feel like, when your favorite athlete for the first time becomes someone that's younger than you.

Up until that point, I was always like, oh man, Tiger. I looked looked up to him when I was a kid, you know, Justin Johnson, man, what a, what a player he's, he's older than me. Phil unbelievable. And for the first time, I think I found myself rooting for this guy that I'm like, oh shit, he's like six years younger than me. Like that's kind of, that's kind of crazy. My first job out of college was working for Golf Week magazine and it was the best job ever and you got to cover a lot of really high level junior golf as part of what my

role was. And so the first time I met Jordan was at like the junior players when he was probably 15 or 16 or something like that. And just seeing him and knowing that even in a field that had Emiliano Grio and Patrick Rogers and all these like future PGA Tour studs in it, he specifically was the guy you look kind of down the range, like that guy's a Tour player at 15 years old, that guy's a Tour player. And so when you have that context with somebody, you can kind of watch their career and you're

just waiting, you know, again, this is what six years, which even that was only six years or whatever before we won the freaking masters, but it's for that six years, you're kind of just like, it's coming. It's coming. I'm telling you guys, it's coming. It's coming. And it's just so rare that that actually happens. And it even more rare that it happens that quick. that quick. Spieth coming in at 19 years old or whatever it was, he gets his tour card and he has like nine top 10s that year I think as a 19 year old kid, which again is shocking and again I would say compile onto all of this. The fact that golf probably has a lot of eyeballs on it because of the Tiger stuff and Rory and all of that.

So it all just feels bigger. 13, he kind of bursts on the scene for anybody who wasn't paying attention, which I still feel like a lot of fans were paying attention even before that. Just with his junior record, you know, he's a stud in college. He was kind of the guy that everybody was like, you know, nobody has a lot of time for, let me rattle off the top 10 amateurs in the world or the top 10 college players. But when a guy comes out that is kind of a stud, everybody kind of knows, all right, that guy's the next big thing.

And so everybody's kind of got space in their brain for one of those guys. And he was that guy for the three, four years before he came out. So then when he comes out, he wins, unbelievable. Coming into 2014, he obviously finished his runner up to Bubba, almost wins the Masters in his first appearance. That's unbelievable, that thing that nobody ever

even talks about anymore, but doesn't win again on the PGA Tour. And then it kinda starts building that winter, if you remember. He wins the Australian Open, he wins the Hero, everybody kinda is is like okay this this might actually happen, he wins uh what did he win Valspar I think over over Patrick Reed and then his two starts before the Masters he's finished second at Valero, he loses in a playoff

at Houston and you come in you're like man it almost feels like the Dustin Johnson year where he fell down the stairs right where it's like's like, if they play this tournament, I'm pretty sure this guy's going to win. And then what does he do? Of course, he comes out and fucking shoot 64 in the first round, lowest tournament score, like in the first round in almost 20 years, youngest person to ever take the first round, lead at the Masters. And then of course he goes on and wins wire to wire wins by four over Phil and Rory's right there. And, you know, it becomes the youngest guy to win the U S open too. And so for all the people who are like, what, why are you guys so high on speed, man? Like this guy's, he's just another guy. Like get the fuck out of here.

I don't think you can overstate. I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean,

I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean like, what, why are you guys so high on speed, man? Like this guy's, he's just another guy like get the fuck out of here. I don't think you can overstate how bananas it is. Another part of what made 2015 special for DJ who we got to experience it with. So I was only there early week, but I was there again, it's, you know, it's just like all the stars aligning, but I was there with my dad, my dad's first trip to the Masters.

So we're walking around and recreating like the bubble live right of number 10, and we're just having like the best day ever. So then I came back and I actually was watching it, I remember at PJ Tour headquarters, like the old dingy kind of digital headquarters at Sawgrass Village, which is over by the Publix, this was before the days of the Global Home and the Moat.

I just remember watching in like stunned silence. Like it felt like watching a movie because it would have been pretty unbelievable if it was in any other context. Like you said, it's just the style of play is something I can't really, I just can't really remember that from any other player. Scotty has, Scotty doesn't really have that, you know, he kind

of just lulls you to sleep with, you know, I'm going to just keep hitting it to 8 feet, 12 feet, 17 feet, proper side of the green, easy putts. Some of them go in, all of them, the rest of them are two putts. Man, you can say a lot of things about Jordan, but it was not boring. You can look at the Jordan makes a lot of 32 footers as a cliche or like a bad sports rider trope or something if you want. It's not. It is the most bewildering thing ever that all of those putts went in.

It all added up to this, yeah, very like movie like kind of experience. And one that I don't know, it's just because I guess sports move quickly or he didn't end up becoming Tiger Woods, maybe is the other reason that maybe it doesn't feel like one of those things that everybody feels compelled to talk about every single time we go to the Masters, but I just I haven't stopped thinking about it a decade. The number one thing you can do for your skin's health is to protect it from the sun. That's why we use Orr's and Alp's sunscreen. It makes you actually want to use it. It's got clean ingredients you feel good about putting on your skin.

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Guilty there. But very few people can say they watched The Masters from an active war zone the way that Cody can. The 2008 Masters might not roll off the tip of your tongue as one of your favorites or one of your most memorable. But for Cody, he represents a time in his life that will always be with him on deployment in Iraq. I was on, it was not my first deployment, but it was the first time that I was deployed in the spring. And growing up, as you know, in Montana, you watch a ton of golf, at least I did in the spring, because we were just itching for our spring to come, for our summer to come to actually be able to go watch all the snow melt away and get out there and play golf. And the Masters was always like, hey, we're in this now. And it's funny because I remember like usually the last big snowstorm we would get of the year was like around Easter. So I'm like, oh, we just got to get like,

just through these last two weeks and we're in the homestretch for summer. But 2008 was the first time that I was away for a spring. And it was the first Masters that I was overseas. And kind of the weird circumstance of it is golf wasn't that big of a part of my life. Really then I was 100% focused on my task at hand. I was very, very busy. You know, we had an extremely high op tempo and we were going out every single night running down bad guys in central Iraq and at weird circumstance, we just happened to catch a weather day, which means that like we can't fly our helicopters,

so there's nothing else to do. We got a weather day on the final round of the Masters. You know, technology's come a long way. Now deployed, everybody's got pretty much their own like Wi-Fi and you can FaceTime anyone. This is going all the way back. In 2008, I was allowed to make one phone call every 30 days back home to my mom and dad. That was as often as we could get to a phone because there was not that many phones and there definitely wasn't internet. And if you were going to consume any sort of entertainment that didn't come from, you know, I had one of those like portable DVD players that had like the 4-inch screen that came with the little pop-up thing. Anything outside of that, you would go to the main MWR center on whatever base you were at. Luckily for me, like I was in a

very secure, special camp that only our people are allowed to be in. So we had our own little micro MWR. Now, how you watch any sporting event doesn't matter if it's the Masters, it's the Super Bowl, and usually a lot of wrestling, which is kind of weird. You watch it on AFN, the Armed Forces Network. So I don't know how familiar you are with AFN, but it basically get like four different channels. A lot of them are sports, but you always have like a daytime channel as well that just continuously loops soap operas or something else like that. And the sports channels are spread between usually just playing sports center on repeat. A lot of cricket because you know,'s weird there's a very. Hi concentration and of you know if and that's available in india and the rest of that part of the world but you can bet doesn't matter what it is a major championship golf is gonna be there so we figured it out.

We actually ended up stealing the line out of the mwr we found a TV and we put it in my team tent. We were sharing it, so eight dudes sharing a reasonably sized tent, but it was pretty tight quarters. We pulled the cable from what the MWR tent is supposed to be all the way over to our personal tent. We were able to dial up and watch the Masters. Cody grew up with golf as a big part of his life, but that made him a bit of an outlier in the military.

I wanted to know, what was it like watching the Masters with a bunch of other military guys who had no context of what was going on? There's a lot of explaining. I think everybody who's been around people who are like, oh yeah, cool, that's on TV, put it on. And then next thing you know, they start asking a bunch of questions or they're loud when they shouldn't be loud. And you're trying to concentrate on here with like the player caddy conversation is and all that. But it's a ton of fun. You know, I originally, this is when I was still in a ranger regiment.

I used to get made fun of all the time because I was the golf guy and you know obviously there's like stereotypes that come with that and it's funny how as you like grow and mature those same people that were in that town with me that made fun of me like you know two years later like hey man like can you teach me how to play golf sometime like I'd really like to to learn like it seems like a real cool you know it's a cool sport can go out drink some beers with the boys when you're done. And everybody eventually comes around to it. But that's where we were at. And the reason why I brought up that it was a weather day. So that's when that's when the final round actually was going on. But you got to think I was in Iraq. I'm like eight hours ahead of East Coast time.

Right. So this is actually like my Monday morning, but we worked on what we would call I'm like eight hours ahead of East Coast time. So this is actually like my Monday morning, but we worked on what we would call reverse schedules. So my actual work hours, I would wake up in my morning, but I would wake up at four in the afternoon and I would work, go to the gym, go eat. My dinner would be my breakfast. And then you'd work all night long.

You'd have mid-rats, you know, the child halls open at midnight for everybody working reverse schedule. And I wouldn't go to bed until usually like seven, eight o'clock in the morning. And you would sleep during the day and then you'd back up at it again. Well, the night before the final round of the Masters was actually a very interesting night. I call it the night of 27 houses. The most houses that we ever cleared in my entire career, and I was in another 12 plus years after this, the most houses that we cleared in a single night,

and the only reason why we did that is because there was multiple, we kept going to a spot where he used to be, the guy that we were looking for. He was there, he was there. Oh no, we're out of cousins. And then you'd hit a couple houses that were not it. So we were leading up to this very big level target.

And we were so close to being right there and being able to capture him. And we had a weather day and that's where Trevor Lammon burst onto the scene. I don't know if you remember too much about that. Nobody expected Trevor to win. Nobody wanted Trevor to win. If you go back and like listen to the telecast,

all our guy Jim Nance is doing is like just trying to will tiger to win the 2008 Masters. And rightfully so like he was like beating up the world again at the beginning of that year wins leading up to it and Trevor was like a relatively, you know, no name person he had a PJ tour win. He's won on you know, no name person. He had a PGA Tour win. He's won on, you know, the European Tour a couple times, but he was just kind of the guy that shot from nowhere and he put up a fight. It was a windy, weird Augusta day where it's not like crazy weather. It's

just extremely windy and nobody could really figure out how to control it. Trevor. I think he shot like seventy-five in the final round but he still won by three. He doubled sixteen. Um I don't know why he like you know clearly was trying to hit like a high draw back to that Sunday left pin and just hit a dead straight and like way too heavy and uh he thought he hit in that bunker but it ended up going in the water doubles that hole. But you know he had a four stroke lead leading into 16 ended up winning by two or three I think but it was crazy. I'll always remember it because

it felt like Tiger was back for like the third time. He was runner up like the year prior T third the year before that and of course course, you know, everybody's just hoping that he's the guy that's back. And so far earlier in that year, that's what it seemed like. But it was one of the rare occasions, you know, obviously we can look back like the PGA championship where people have like stood up to Tiger

and like actually gotten the job done. And Trev Trevor Immelman, who your guy, Gary Player, it's a good quote by him, said, Trevor is the finest striker of the golf ball that I've ever seen since Ben Hogan, which is so true. And as great as the moment this was and the highest of highs, this was kind of peak Trevor and he was gone and he battled injuries for a long time after that before he ultimately retired and became the Trevor that we all know now which is an amazing analyst for CBS golf but also somebody who's like

you know he's a major champion that like mixes it up with people on Twitter and it's like you know it's weird that champion that mixes it up with people on Twitter. It's weird that now that I've met him and I've told him the story of this before and he was very, very generous and actually sent me a signed pin flag right up there. It's Trevor's from 2008. It meant an awful lot to me. It meant the world to him. And it was kind of cool to go through and live that full circle moment with him.

Cody obviously had a very stressful, hard, and important job for a long time. I was curious, when he would sit and watch those golf tournaments, would the rest of the world kind of fade away? I could sit here and tell you yes, that it fades away, but it doesn't. There's a, it's a nice temporary distraction

to what is constantly going on in your mind. I think that's a, that kind of describes not just the masters, but a lot of golf for me is that, you know, there are some, some incredible like mental health advantages and things that golf provides you, which is so weird because it's one of the most frustrating things that you do in the world. But yeah, it for a small moment in time, it definitely makes it seem like this is the

only thing that kind of matters. Because you know, we're all at the end of the day, we dream of going to Augusta National, we dream of playing Augusta National one day, and every time you watch it, you just kind of sit there and daydream and think of the what ifs. You can't tell the story of the Masters

without Jack Nicklaus in 1986, so I'll cut through the suspense and tell you, of course we have this one on our list. But most of us, yes, even me, were too young to have seen it unfold live. We needed an actual eyewitness to Jack's magic, so we tapped our hitter and in-house historian Michael Wolf to explain what that Sunday meant. Not only to him, but to his father, the man who introduced him to the sport. 1986, I was a 14 year old caddy on the west side of Cincinnati, the best side of Cincinnati. I had started caddying when I was 12 years old, got cut from the seventh

grade baseball team, much to my dismay. Started caddying really just at the suggestion of my strong suggestion of my parents. It's just something to do to pull the time. I had three sisters and I was a handful at home and I think they were just trying to find an activity for me in the summer. And it was just, you know, my dad was a really good golfer his whole life. He was a scratch player for 40 years and so he played. I was starting to tag along with him to the course and stuff and played the par threes but the 1986 Masters intersected with my love of the game and really when it kind of exploded and all of a sudden golf became everything to me. You know girls hadn't quite kicked in yet. At least the interest was still one

way in that regard. And baseball and Pee-wee football and stuff like that were winding down and golf was becoming everything to me in life. And it was kind of the perfect meeting of the time in my life and my father's. And then all of a sudden we were given this wonderful gift that was the 1986 Masters. The Masters was really, it wasn't on TV very much. The early rounds and even the Saturday round, Nick Price had shot a 63 on Saturday, which was the lowest round in the Masters and the lowest round in the major,

or tied that record. He had this incredible horseshoe putt on the 18th green that went 360 degrees around for a 62. And so there was a little bit of a buildup. I was watching it. I remember going home to watch it. I'd caddied that morning. I went home to watch it with my dad.

And you wanted to soak it all in because it was only on for like three hours. I think it was on for two hours on Saturday and three hours on Sunday, something like that. And not huge expectations as far as what was going to happen. It was more of just to see the course. It was so green and the same thing is true today. But I remember it was different already

than all the other big tournaments. The announcing crew, just the visuals and the players. I was probably like every other 15 year old, kind of rebelling. My dad's favorite players were the Tom Watsons and the Jack Nicklaus's. Mine were the Seve Ballesteros' and kind of the cool young guys. And so it was really, I'm sure everybody feels this way about when they were 15 or 16 years old,

it's that time in your life where your dad's your friend, but you're kind of also starting to figure out your own thing and eagerly looking forward to getting a driver's license and stuff like that, to step it on your own. So it's not that we were rooting for opposite guys. It was just we were kind of interested in seeing what was happening. And that was the only chance, there were only four chances

a year, five chances a year to see Seve Ballesteros on television. He was not playing on the PGA Tour. Greg Norman was not playing on the PGA Tour. You heard about these guys. But most of the information you were getting about the foreign players was through Golf Week magazine and reading the European Tour results in the back.

You knew who Sandy Liao was, but you didn't get to see him play. So it was really just the anticipation of a great afternoon of golf and seeing what was going to unfold. Watch the broadcast replay that's on YouTube. We just put in 1986 Masters. Don't watch the hour highlight. The hour highlight is because they know, you know, they edit it and they know what's going to happen so you know Nicholas wins. But the broadcast is incredible in that there's no mention of Jack Nicholson for the first

hour. When they scroll through their leaderboards, he's not even on the first two pages. It is, it is, you know, Greg Norman and Sete Ballesteros and Nick Price and Watson. I mean, it's murderers row, but Jack's nowhere until even they show the putt going on nine, he birdies nine, 10, 11, but really on nine is when it first goes in and then they just kind of cut back to Norman because Norman Norman made incredible up and downs and early holes Yeah, my memory was just kind of that it started slowly and then it just all of a sudden turned to this whole other thing about an hour in the broadcast When when Nicholas he birdies ten in the roar was just, I mean, compared to everything else

on the television, like the sound, it was just like this explosion out of nowhere. It was just kind of this sleepy, you know, you hear the birds chirping and the, you know, the dulcetone, you know, tones of Bob Murphy and Steve Melnick. And so it's kind of a sleepy afternoon. We were kind of waiting to see, you know, the leaders were kind of feeling themselves out in seeing whether it was going to be Norman or whether it was going to be, uh, Nick Price or Tom Kite or, or, uh, or Seve, who I was pulling for. And then all of a sudden out of nowhere, there's this guy named Jack Nicholas,

who my dad had been talking about for years, but I'd never seen Jack Nicholas win a tournament. I had never seen Jack and listen contention I'm sure I'm biased and I'm sure my memories are heavily covered because it was you know I was 14 years old at the time, but I remember how excited my dad was You know He was a guy who kind of watched sports and enjoyed him But he'd sit in there recliner and watch the Bengals games on center every stuff

But but I wanted them to win but was not a guy who was like gonna like yellow TV or cheering like that and for The next two hours it was you know, it was something we kind of got to share together and with my mom was there too and just it got so exciting in the twists and turns and There's probably some revisionist memory as well because I've watched the you know I had the VHS tape and I watch it all the time and so It's hard to even keep straight in my mind now what what I remember from when it was happening live versus when it was happening in the hundreds of times I watched the VHS replays. But yeah, just the twists and turns in the drama. I mean, my wife was asking last night, like when Seve stand in the middle of the 15th

fairway, he's eagle 13. He shook his caddies hand after the eagle on 13. It's a great drive on 15. And he's got 198 yards in or whatever on the 15th hole and he's got a four stroke lead over Jack and you're like, she's like, like how does this, you know, how did he win this tournament? Like is, you know, like she's still thinking there's gonna be a playoff or something like, well, hang on, give it 20 more minutes and the whole thing is gonna change. Over the years, Jack Nicklaus has come to represent a lot of different things to different people.

For many dads, 1986 was a living reminder that you are not as old as you might feel. You might not be able to win the Masters in your 40s or any golf tournament for that matter, but Jack could serve as your avatar. Together, you could fight off father time for an afternoon. For Wolfie's dad, however, the connection was even more personal. We were Ohio boys. My dad's the same age as Jack. He didn't know him, but the guys on his high school golf team played against Jack Nichols

when Jack Nichols was at Upper Arlington. Jack was so famous so early on, he was an Ohio State boy. He was kind of upper middle class, I guess, but at the time it was perceived as he was just this kind of, my dad even looked like Jack Nichols. He was a little bit heavyset and then lost some weight, you know, as the kids got older, my dad started jogging and stuff like that and like trimmed down when he was, you know, my age now, 45 years old. It's fascinating now behind the scenes what we didn't know as far as like Jack's financial

problems and stuff that were going on behind the scenes as it led up to the 1986 Masters. But yeah, I think just, you know, my dad was a family man. We had four kids. I think he appreciated that Jack liked the same things that my dad liked, you know, which was spending time watching his kids ball games and watching Ohio State football games on Saturday afternoons. Even the kind of golf that, you know, you play, you know, you, you, you tend to like try to play like you're like, you know, the people you watch on TV. And, and my dad was kind of the same. Millions of words have been written over the years about what happened in 1986. Even now I get emotional watching the back nine and I already know the outcome.

Rick Riley's game story is one of the reasons why I became a sports writer and I didn't even read it until a decade after it ran. But I wanted Wolfie's take. Why does he think 1986 resonates to this day? It gives you hope that I can do it. You know, I'm 54 years old. I'm not going to win the Masters, but like, hey, maybe like if I start just like jogging a couple miles every morning and I lose 20 pounds and I finally get the right shaft for my driver and just, you know, start hitting balls like two or three days a week, like this is the year I'm going to make it to the semifinals of the club championship. Like I know I'm 46 years old. Like I realize, you know,

I've got to beat three guys from Auburn and the University of Alabama golf team to get there. But like Jack did in 86, like, you know, maybe everything will come together, you know, just that one day when everything is perfect in life. And, uh, you know, for Jack Nicklaus, that was the afternoon of Sunday afternoon of Augusta in 1986. You know, his son was on the bag and it was 84 degrees and sunny. Say what you want about Jack and what happened, you know, what's happened over 40 years since then, but he's the best ever.

And he proved it on the biggest stage on the biggest day against everybody else that was trying to stake a claim to the throne and for one day he rolled back the stone and showed why. A Great Masters isn't necessarily about a triumphant success. It can also be about disappointment, about heartache, about humility and failure. For every Masters champion, there is someone who believes if things had unfolded differently, they would be wearing a green jacket. And that was never more apparent than in 1996, when a young Todd Schuster watched Greg Norman's anguish, Nick Faldo's grace,

play out over the course of four hours during the week of his 10th birthday. The 1996 Masters for me is a snapshot of the beginning of my golf fandom, I think, and that's really why it still resonates with me. That combined with obviously, it's one of the most memorable tournaments, not just Masters, but golf tournaments of all time. But for me, we were living in Canada for a couple years in like 94 to 96. And I remember watching, you know, few Masters prior to that, like, like, I remember the chip back stuff. I remember vaguely some of

the Freddie couples year, Olathebole, Crenshaw, that sort of stuff. But I think where it really got seared into my memory was 96 and kind of set the stage for... 97 or 98 was the first year I attended and just really set the stage for my golf fandom. It was pre-Tiger. Tiger kind of came on. He was playing in this one. I think he had beat Buddy Marucci in the 95 USM. But yeah, just really as much for Greg Norman and Nick Fowdow as just for me. It was my 10th birthday earlier that week, I think on that Monday, April 8th. I just remember we were living in Canada and it's cold.

We had been in Atlanta and my parents, I could tell they were pretty homesick. Toronto, we lived there for two years, but it wasn't home. We knew we weren't going to be there a long time. My dad's job took us up there. And so we're up there and there's snow on the ground. Like I think that year it didn't snow on Christmas, but it snowed on Easter. And like, it was just a really bad spring.

And so I remember like flipping on the TV and there's all these beautiful flowers and blossoming trees and everything. And that kind of manifested itself later on in my life when I was in school in Ohio. Like I remember feeling those exact same feelings when the masters would come on early April and I'd be in Oxford, Ohio and the weather would suck.

So this is all kind of from my memory. I've watched the Saturday know, the Saturday Sunday so many times and obviously everybody knows what happens with Norman. And I think the thing with Norman is like, it's very much he, like he's got what, like a six shot lead, I think, going into the final round or five shot lead going to the final round. And like he'd blown it by like the 10th or 11th hole. Everybody talks about Amen Corner or 15 or whatever. It was done and dusted by that point. I know they were tied by 10 or 11, but I think he lost by five. It was one of the most staggering. I don't know. I love volatility. Obviously a lot's happened since then with Norman and our three-legged friend,

I think, and Faldo too, to be honest, but it felt human. It was a really cool introduction to golf. And then the following year, it teed up. I was already, I was absolutely locked in. A few months after the 96 Masters, we moved back to Atlanta. And I remember the following year's Masters, even independent of Tiger, I was just absolutely locked in for like, oh my gosh, I cannot wait. I remember getting home from school the following year and it would come on at, on what, USA at like 4 PM or whatever, and Tiger had shot 40 or whatever. I was on the verge of tears that Tiger had shot 40 and then he shot 30. We're watching it live and all that. But

I don't think that would have been even possible for me if I hadn't have locked in, really fallen in love with it in 96 and seen such a menagerie of different personalities. And you know, you've got Faldo and Norman, obviously, but then you've got, you know, Mickelson finished third. You got Duffy Waldorf up there, you know, Corey Pavin. You're just kind of learning about like all these different, you know, all these different guys and seeing kind of the international nature of it too. And just seeing, hey, there's,, hey, there's all these guys from all over the world playing in this tournament that's in this random city in East Georgia. So yeah, I mean, long story short, it's just such an iconic thing. I remember them walking across,

like I think the indelible image for me is Norman walking across the bridge on 15. That's kind of the one that I'll always remember. That's probably my most enduring early master's memory. In the years to come, TC would delight in poking fun at Greg Norman. But viewed through the lens of 1996, there is no doubt in his mind that the entire Schuster household was rooting for him. Because he'd suffered so many heartaches in the past, Norman was the sentimental favorite. I know my parents were rooting for Norman. It was kind of like the, not the underdog

story, but it was like, oh, you know what? Everybody's rooting for him. It was like when Phil finally won one. Everybody's rooting for Phil to get it done. You want to see the unlikely snake-bitten guy vanquish his demons. I still watch that and Norman's Norman, right? Obviously, you can take him or leave him at this point but like it's tough to watch that and not feel empathy even today. I would say even just the way that that tournament went like he shot 63 in the first round and you know I mean one of the greatest rounds of golf of all time. of the greatest rounds of golf of all time.

I'm just at that point, I'm just relying upon my parents to kind of set the stage or set the context for me where they probably undersold Faldo's, you know, resume based upon, you know, just like he's he's won a few of these, but he's he doesn't have the gravitas or he doesn't have the crazy hat and the swashbuckling swing and kind of that overdose of power, basically that, you know, and like masculinity that Norman played the game with. And I think that, you know, looking back, it probably feels like Faldo was this scrappy, come out of nowhere guy when really like, all right, he's multiple, multiple, multiple time, major champion, master champion, and probably a better legacy than Norman as far as Encore stuff goes. So I think it just goes to show you how important how you play the game is and not just what you

win or when you win. Because I think that's the thing. It's like Norman had all the swagger and the hat as the calling card and the shark and all that. That stuff is easy to gravitate to or easy to have seared in your memory as a 10-year-old. TC's parents were supposed to be in attendance for Jack's victory in 1986. They had tickets in hand, but it turned out they had something more important to attend to. And I was born that week. And so I think they ended up going the following year, I think, when Larry

Mize won, I think they went in 85 and 87. So they saw Langer and Mize win instead of Nicholas. But yeah, it was just kind of like, I don't know. I could tell it meant something to my parents too. There's just, my grandpa on my mom's side was kind of who helped get me into golf as well. And he loved the Masters. And so my mom would tell me stories about them watching it growing up and that sort of thing. And then I remember, and my grandma on that side had just passed away as well. And so we would go down and visit my grandpa a lot. And that was kind of like, I started playing golf a lot with him when we did that. But yeah, he was a big, he was a big Arnie guy, big, big

Arnie guy. So he would tell me stories about Arnie as well. So, you know, all this stuff is kind of coalescing at the same time in 1996, you know, early 1997. You know, it's like my personal development as a golfer plus just this, you know, historic choke job, if you will, is kind of all just combining into this superstorm. I mean... The truth about being a fan of a specific golfer is you're gonna be disappointed more often than you realize. Even the best golfers like Jack and Tiger would bring home a trophy less than 25% of the

time. Heartache and close calls are part of what you sign up for. Delusion or the belief that this time will be different is a necessary stage of bargaining in order to keep going. But every so often an athlete will deliver. They'll do something so spectacular, so riveting, will make a decade of angst feel worth it. But Phil Mickelson took the lead on Saturday, going into the final round of the 2004 Masters. There were a lot of people convinced that he was about to falter in a major yet again. Our guy Big Randy didn't know what to expect, only that he was as invested as ever in his favorite player. And every so often in sports, you get a moment like 2004,

when your faith, even if it has at times wavered, is finally rewarded. It's everything for me. It's the quintessential masters, and I'll get into why I think that is. And it was also a time in my life. I was 20 years old. I was finishing my sophomore year of college. I vividly, vividly remember being on spring break

with a group of buddies down in Hilton Head, South Carolina and just being so excited to watch the final round and to see if my guy, Phil Mickelson, could finally win his first major. And so, spoiler, he does. I truly believe it's about as good of a master's tournament as they can put on the course was absolutely mint. You rewatch that final round broadcast. I mean, Augusta National is playing exactly how we all think Augusta National should play year in and year out. The balls were rolling, the green was fire. You had a bunched leaderboard and it all comes down

to that second nine on Sunday, right? Of course, I like to joke, you know, and it's become such a cliche, the Masters doesn't start until the back nine on Sunday, but it's absolutely true and no truer than in 2004. As you get further on, you don't know what you can really trust or not from your memories, but You don't know what you can really trust or not from your memories, but I just think I have a predisposition to root for underdogs, to root for level the losers. I grew up in Cincinnati where my two favorite sports teams, my beloved Reds haven't won a playoff series in 30 years. The Bengals went a stretch of 30 years without winning a playoff game. I mean, I've chosen to be a Sacramento Kings fan and not when they were good in the Western Conference finals. I mean, when they were drafted Marvin Bagley over Luka Doncic. I think I'm just drawn to the underdog. And I really don't think anybody's bit in that role as well as Phil Mickelson, certainly not in my

lifetime. And I think what separates Phil from a lot of other guys, tough luck losers, or perhaps guys that haven't won major championships, and who we've labeled as such is Phil would show you exactly what he was feeling at all times on the golf course. And I just really liked that. And so when you combine that aspect with a guy who oftentimes was his own worst enemy, couldn't get out of his own way, I think it just added to the heartbreak, but also the love and investment

that I feel for Phil Mickelson. And so going back to 2004, you know, he had played in 42, I think, career majors without having won one. He had won 22 times on the PGA Tour without winning a major, which at the time was third most in history. He was just a guy that we were constantly wondering will he ever get over the hump and he'd had near misses and he'd giving great quotes and he'd kind of worn his emotions on his sleeve throughout it all. And I just really gravitated towards that.

I love it. I think that's what makes sports fun. Like if you can't get invested in that, why am I supposed to watch sports? It's the human element at the end of the day that really makes it for me. And so, yeah, 2004, he comes in to Augusta. He'd finished third the prior three years.

He'd had eight top three finishes and majors up until this point and had put himself in a position again in the final group on Sunday. Could he do it? Could he do it? And again I'm 20 years old. I'm growing into my love of golf and Phil's my guy. You know that the lines of demarcation have been drawn. Take yourself back to that late 90s early 2000s. You were either a Tiger guy or you were a Phil guy. And again, I ride with the underdogs. And so I was a Phil guy. And this was the moment, maybe, maybe that our guy could do it. And so I was all in.

When the back nine began, it did not look good for Lefty or for our guy Big Randy. It felt, in fact, like another sad Mickelson fade was unfolding. That the air was once again draining from his balloon in a big moment. But what played out was arguably the most exciting back nine since Nicklaus in 1986. So Phil's paired with Chris DiMarco and Ernie Els is a few groups up ahead. I believe Ernie started the day maybe three back but played really well on the front nine which was playing difficult that day. Phil ended up shooting two over on the front nine. DiMarco was three over on the front nine and so you get to the turn and I'm looking at my notes here. I believe

Els is one up as he's making the turn and Phil has a few holes left on his front nine. But I just rewatched the final nine holes on CBS. And I do want to say, you know, I mentioned earlier just the quintessential masters, but the roars. I'll even shout out the announcing crew. You know, when you close your eyes, at least when I close my eyes and think of, you know, who's on the call, you have Lanny Watkins and Jim Nance. You have Peter Costas, Bobby Clampett, Bill McAtee, you know, Faraday's there. Vern Lundquist is at the height of his powers. Peter Oosterhaus.

I mean, it just is a murderer's row. And so that's what you're getting into, right? So on 10, watching it back, you don't realize, and I wanna give Watkins credit, cause on 10, Phil has a chip from the front of the green and the pin's kind of back right on that nasty 10th green. And Phil hits his chip by and leaves this really ticklish kind of left to right downhill slider to save par.

And he just lips it in kind of on that low edge. And Lanny, as soon as that puck goes in, you see Phil give a big fist pump. And Lanny Walken says, maybe the best thing that could happen to him is somebody ahead of him. He knows exactly what he has to do and I thought that set the stage brilliantly for what was to come. Ells is playing the most steady golf. He's saving par, He's saving par, makes a comfy par on 10,

makes like an eight foot par save on 11, just a real eloquent par on 12. He gets to 13 and Eagles it just textbook, driver would makes like an eight foot Eagle putt I wanna say, Bill plays a stress-free 11 and I Want to point out a moment as Phil standing over his ball on the 12th tee you hear the roar of L's making eagle on 13 and We know how stressful that 12th shot is anyway, right? On Sunday at the Masters, Phil has addressed his golf ball.

Here's the roar, does not back off and proceeds to hit his iron to about 20 feet where he then goes up and makes his birdie. And again, I want to give Lanny kudos. I mean, Lanny was on top of his game. He said, as that putt goes in, you know, the crowds roaring and in an excited voice, he goes, I think the game is on Bobby. And it just got, I think those guys were in their element that day, the announcing, they helped just build the drama of the Masters for me. And so you fast forward, Phil plays a very sensible

13th hole, he misses an eagle putt, but taps in for birdie. So he gets another shot back there on Ells. He goes to 14 and this is the shot that really is still seared in my memory. You'll remember he splits the fairway on 14. That pin is kind of back left of the green, almost in a little funnel spot near the back edge. Right as Phil makes contact, you get a, oh, B right. And as a Phil fan, I'm just like, Oh yeah. Let's see where this ball ends up. And God, that ball was close to going in for an eagle too.

Bill McAtee's call was fantastic as it just slips by, but Phil has a tap in birdie on 14 to get to seven under par now. So he's birdie 12, 13, 14. Els meanwhile has added a birdie on 15, the par five 15th. He hit his second just long, nice chip, kind of a routine, if you will, stress-free birdie to get him to eight under. And yeah, man, it's on at this point. It's it's you have KJ Choi You have Bernhard longer who are kind of hanging around KJ Choi more So is making a little charge who he's playing with Ernie. You're not sure you know, it gosh is is he is this gonna happen?

So Phil gets to the 15th misses his his drive left, kind of blocked out by those trees. He's forced to lay up. So he hits a little punch iron down the hill. He leaves himself 75 yard wedge shot. Just hits it a little long of that, kind of if you're looking at that green, the back right pin location and is not able to make a birdie putt.

So you're thinking, at least I'm thinking this You know would have liked to have a birdie there Phil. I hope that one doesn't come back to bite us As all this is going on L's on the 16th and now the 16th, this is like peak, peak funnel pin on 16. Podrick Harrington has made an ace, Kirk Cripplett has made an ace. You know, it's the disgusting 16th pin location that you just catch the ridge and it funnels down and you have anywhere from like four to 12 feet for birdie.

Well, I didn't remember, Els left his shot up on the ridge, which is kind of the first crack in his armor on the day. He makes an excellent par saving putt, so he doesn't drop a shot, but that's one where, you know, I'm sure looking back for him, he needed to catch that ridge and he needed to give himself a birdie opportunity. Bill, as I said, par is 15, he's going to 16, Ells is playing 17, Ells has 115 yard little wedge into 17, so he's still dangerous there. You're thinking, God, he could easily birdie that.

Bill had doubled to 16th on Thursday in 2004, but he hits the shot he needs to. He hits the middle of the green just under pin high. The ball takes the ridge, leaves him, it's a little longer putt than I remember. On the broadcast, Vern calls it 18-20 feet. I'm struck by a couple of things on the rewatch. Phil is, and these play a theme over these last three holes, Phil does not look like a guy under any sort of pressure. he is the most talked about man in golf for what he has not done. And I think that's striking. He's all smiles walking up to 15 or excuse me, to 16 green.

He just is in a state of mind where you'd think he'd won 10 of these before. And it's incredible, honestly. Phil lines up the birdie putt, sinks it, okay? So you start to see, you know, I think Ells gets a lot of credit, and he should for playing really well in this Masters, and he had a really good final round, but you start to see where Phil went and got it from him, and where Ells just didn't execute when he had to.

And this is a great example. Verne gives a fantastic call on 16. I have it quoted as, there you have it. He's tied for the lead at Augusto with two holes to play as the crowd is roaring. Phil at one point after sinking the birdie putty walks over, DeMarco still has to play. Phil takes his visor off and kind of like taps his heart to the crowd. I mean, he is playing to the crowd while trying to win his first major championship. It's amazing. So we go to 17 and you know, this is where as a Phil fan, KVV, I know you know this, you're always on the lookout for what can go wrong. And so any tee shot, anytime something has gone really well, you're just waiting for that shoe to drop. And so the drive on 17, I can remember being pretty

nervous because it's just like, man, just get it in play. Don't, don't give it back, you know, and Phil hits his drive immediately grabs the tee. And that's, you you know I can just think that the excitement's building in me right his approach looks great into 17 the adrenaline's pumping though and it goes long leaving himself a really delicate to putt for par it's a great first putt leaves himself a stress-free par. And so now he's off to 18. During all this time, Ells again had 115 yards into 17, isn't able to make birdie, left his approach shot about 25 feet, can't make the putt. On 18, Ells drives it into the fairway bunker, plays his second wide of that traditional Sunday pin, can't make the birdie putt. And so the drama now is

coming down to Phil. And again, this is where it's like, man, if there's going to be heartbreak, it's going to be Phil, you know, hitting an errant drive here, finding a way to make bogey. But Phil pulls three wood, which credit to Lanny again. He pulls three wood, he splits the fairway. He makes the fairway bunker unreachable and Lanny's all over it. He says, perfect, absolutely perfect as the ball's landing. Taking the bunkers out of play,

I'm not sure he would have done that earlier in his career. And so I want to credit Lanny. He was great on the call all day. They go to commercial on the broadcast and then they come back and Nance, who is also fantastic. I think Phil's 18th hole here is probably some of Nance's best work. They have Phil walking up the 18th fairway,

kind of by himself, he's smiling. And Nance says, quote, "'The thing I've noticed the last two days is the joy all across his face. It's not a face of pressure.' And Lanny immediately chimes in, no, he's having fun, Jim, seems to be savoring,' this is Nance again,

he seems to be savoring the moment as if he knows the outcome and man you want to talk about an awesome freaking call with the way things turns out kudos to Jim Nance we all know Phil hits his approach shot you know he's in the fairway he he puts it just long of that traditional 18 pin. It's the Sandy Lyle putt as Jim Nance excitedly tells us. And it just is my biggest goose boat moment as a golf fan is watching Phil line up that putt, the putt as it's going, you know, Nance makes the great call, is it his time? watching Phil line up that putt, the putt as it's going,

Nance makes the great call, is it his time? That putt catches the lip and curls in, and you just, yes, at long last. And 20 year old me, KVV, again, going back to the house in Hilton Head, South Carolina, I jump up. This is my enduring memory. That putt goes in. I leap up. I don't know what to do with myself.

There's a pool in the back of the house. I skip the pool. I'm delirious. I'm running out back. I'm making noises. They're animal noises. I don't know why I don't jump in the pool. I opt not to jump in the pool. I go back to the lagoon in the far back of the property and cannonball into the lagoon and I'm just splashing around in there. I don't know how much time has elapsed but I do remember eventually the neighbor coming out and being like, hey get out of there that's not a good idea to be in an alligator infested lagoon. The thought never crossed my mind. Truly to this day, you know, you think about those forks in the road where like, man, with

a little worse luck, things could have turned out way different. Like this is one of those moments for me. What the hell was I doing? I get out of the lagoon and it's just, it's, it's a feeling of joy that up until that point, I don't think I had ever experienced as a sports fan. And honestly, I'm not sure I felt that much joy as a fan of sports since. I hope to experience a Cincinnati Reds World Series,

perhaps a Bengal Super Bowl. I root for a mid-major college sports team, so it's like, you know going in each year, you're not going to win a national title. And so Phil Mickelson winning the Masters was truly, I mean, it was the height of my sports fandom at that point. And I just, the manner in which he did it, coming from behind on the back nine, making every shot he had to make, it just was, it was perfect, man. And I thought the canvas of Augusta National could not have made for a better day. It just, man, you put the 2004 Sunday Masters in a time capsule and you dig it up a thousand years from now. I want future generations to know like that's what the Masters is all about. Golf Pride has won more major championships than any other grip brand with more than 80%

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of up to 13 swing grips and one putter grip with the one-time use code in your member profile. Performances in your hands with Golf Pride, the number one grip in golf worldwide. Back to Kevin. It can be easy to get a little carried away about the Masters. It is, after all, just a golf tournament put on each year by very wealthy people. A cynic might tell you that it is not worthy of the model and prose it annually inspires, and that we ought to dial back the soft piano music and slow motion montages.

But every so often, maybe once in a generation, you get a moment that washes away your cynicism and reminds you that sports can be a vessel for joy. Sometimes they even manage to deliver a moment behind the 18th green that brings an athlete's life full circle. For our final entry on the list, Ben Hotaling takes us back to 2019, where we got to see another version of the hug that will forever be part of Tiger's story. Man, 2019 Masters, Tiger Woods comes back, you know, from a lot of different places. The grave might be one of them and wins. It was kind of a culmination of all of my golf fandom from being a young kid sitting there watching Tiger on Sunday, just like suck the field back to win every Sunday it

felt like and not seeing it for so long. It's my first time as an adult watching Tiger win a championship, win a major, and it just happened to be the Masters. A lot of lead up to it. I was actually with my dad driving back from my first ever golf trip during the 2018 PGA where Tiger was running and was constantly checking the now defunct TigerTracker account on Twitter. So that was big for like, oh my gosh, he might be able to do this. But I think the thing that makes me think about it the most

is that at work, I was at my first ever job and everyone at work, including like my boss, was a huge tiger hater. Very much like, tiger's never gonna win again, definitely not gonna win a major. And I was just convinced that like, he's gonna do it. He's gonna prove you wrong. He's proved everybody wrong forever.

And this one, you know, I'm gonna look like the smart one in the room here. Tiger was my Michael Jordan, like without a doubt. He showed that like, you know, not only can you be like dominant, but you can actively work your way to being the greatest ever. I think that's one thing that really stuck with me. And it was certainly my father that kept hammering that home. It's like, no, he tries the hardest.

He works the hardest. He is the best because he works the hardest. My family's always been like, hey, the harder you work, the better your outcome is. And he's just the example of exactly that. I watched the 2019 Masters really all throughout the week, you know, sneaking it on the laptop, you know, Thursday and Friday. Luckily, you know, we were very golf friendly office at the moment.

So like it was on the TVs. Absolutely not, you know, doing any sort of work during that period of time. Just, you know, watching the coverage passively, but you know, very very invested in what the cat was doing. And then come Saturday, it was like, hey, cancel Christmas. I'm going to be sitting on the couch for the entire round. Things were going very, very well. And then got the alert, hey, we're pushing tee times all the way up into first thing this morning.

I believe they did split teas and everything for some impending weather. And that really threw me for a loop. I was not expecting that whatsoever. So I get out of bed, first thing, we're central time zone, so I think I was up seven, six, something like that, and watched the entire thing. At that moment in time, my sister-in-law

was actually living with my wife and I. And they all kind of came out of their rooms and sat on the couch and we sat there and watched and I think from the approach shot on 12, so from the tee shot on 12, onward, I never sat back down. I was just constantly pacing, you know, like a dog just running in a circle. I think there's still, I think we had to throw that rug away after that.

Just couldn't stop moving. Hands behind my head, just pacing like crazy, super wracked with nerves. You know, but also there was just like this inevitability about it. Just, oh, oh my gosh. You know, but also there was just like this inevitability about it. Just oh, oh my gosh, you know, Frankie just dunked one in the water. And then oh my God, he did it again on 15 on his approach shot. It's just like dude, Tiger just looks unflappable.

Not to mention when we get to 16 and you know, I think everyone thought it was going in after he hit that. You know, it got the caught the slope and saw it kind of hooking into the hole. The fact that it didn't was almost shocking. And from that point on, I was like, oh my God, he's gonna do it. This is gonna happen.

And then we got to 18 and then I started freaking out again because he's just slapping it up there. I know he was doing it intentionally or, so Joey LaCava says, but I mean, he left himself like 50 yards in and I was like, dude, really, really, you're going to do this to me. And, you know, once he got it up there and got it close, it was like, holy crap, this, this, this just happened. I just watched like,

the greatest golf tournament ever. And not to mention, like, if you go back and watch and see the names that were chasing him, who's in second place, Sander DJ Brooks. I mean, it was just like the dudes. And there he goes. He did it. He not only did he like prove he could do it again, he did it against like, everyone that was good. And of course, one of the lasting images from that day only came after the final putt had dropped. And Tiger met his own kids at that same spot, just behind the green, where he hugged his

own father as a 21 year old. You know, seeing the video of him walking up 18, hugging Earl in 1997, a million times iconic. And when he was doing it again with Charlie, it was just, you know, just chills, just goosebumps everywhere. With Charlie it was just you know, just chills just goosebumps everywhere could not Imagine like being in that situation, you know As they said in the broadcast like you're not human if you're not crying right now, like I'm human which is cool It very much it meant a lot. It means like even more now now that I have a son

It hits differently now in you know much deeper sense of the word, which is just truly, it makes me want to be a father that can do that, that can show my son something, that can be impressive, that can do something that makes them proud. And not only that, but to share that with them in a way that's meaningful for them and their future. I'm really looking forward to sitting down and watching this major with Harrison one day. I think it's going to, I think sharing what's been super meaningful to you and the people that have kind of shaped your life and your desires to be good in this world is super valuable. And I think hopefully he's going to see that not only was this like a figure that was extremely good at his game, Like he's a he's a world figure. He's somebody that proved something and did something very, very difficult.

Not once, but but, you know, for a 15th time and not only for a 15th time, but with an 11 year window between the last one. I don't know how I'm going to express like how freaking difficult that is or like why that matters. But hopefully, you know, we can get into, hey, these guys have a 10-year career and this guy, you know, was able to do that longer between them than what most people's great careers are. And just really just ideally, you know, showing him like, hey, hard work, dedication and like the right mental attitude, you can truly conquer the world and do anything. I hope I'll be able to get that across to him. I'm Kevin Van Valkenberg, editorial director for No Laying Up.

This episode was written and conceived by me with production, editing, and sound mixing by Justine Pajowski. Additional editing by DJ Pajowski. A special thank you to my dad, Fred, for calling attention to that hub between Tiger and Earl all those years ago. I love you, dad. If you're enjoying these narrative podcasts and want to hear more of them, the best way to support this kind of content is to join

The Nest, our community of avid golfers. Nest members get an annual gift, a 15% discount in our Pro Shop, access to exclusive content like our monthly Nest podcast, as well as the chance to sign up early for our Roost events held around the country. Go to nolayingup.com slash join to get started. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.