No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 985: Thursday at Augusta

Episode Date: April 11, 2025

TM Rose finds himself front of the pack after an opening 65 to lead Scottie Scheffler, Corey Conners, and Ludvig Aberg by 3. We talk Rory and the block party, TC serves a lengthy run down the leaderboard, discuss shots of the day you might have missed, bring in Big Randy and KVV from the bullpen, and more. Presented by High Noon. Support our sponsors: High Noon - Sun's Up! Titleist - #1 Ball in Golf Omni - Play the Possibilities 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 the end? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the no laying up live show presented as always by our friends at high noon round one in the books, Sally here. My guy TC is here. Hello, Mr. TC. Hello, Sally. Great. Ludwig back. We rocked him.

Sell it flying the flag on a Thursday like only he can I appreciate right on schedule baby DJ pie is here hello pie man hello guys the voice is is trending in the right direction we're a little less wounded you know physically today but emotionally maybe a little bit of a different story I look forward to getting into it so just took a sip the first sip of the night first sip of major season of the peach vodka iced tea from high noon. It's made with real vodka, real iced tea. It's got no added sugar.

If you're a hard tea lover who is done with the sugary base malt based teas, you're going to love the non carbonated high noon vodka iced tea. 90 calories. It's got 90 calories. The high noon vodka iced tea. It's great for any occasion under the sun comes in four delicious flavors. The original lemon, raspberry and the peach Neil went out and got us some he got us a couple of the of just the peach packs right here which we're

is that being served at the block party? It is. There's a lot of leftovers. Okay, because everybody kind of cleared out at the same time Neil actually I was sitting with Neil, he went to high noon spirits. comm to find a store to go by the the the iced tea That literally actually happened and you can do the same high noon suns up DJ I took care of ads you're gonna take us from here. You know, you're on a you had an opener for tonight. That's right Looking forward to getting into the agenda. Listen, we're gonna talk about it We're gonna get to the thing that everybody wants us to get to, but before we do, we're gonna talk about

Justin Rose shooting 65, because that's my guy. You guys know that. For the fifth time, Justin Rose takes the first round lead or co-lead at the Masters, a Masters record. Fifth time? Yes, fifth time. Which, ATC, like you said this earlier earlier is like this was the most written in the stars First round leader bet ever. You called it out. We named it after team Rose. I believe

John the program I think was I think was on that one What'd you guys see from team Rose out there today TC? I'm sure you watched a lot more of it So I know was out on the grounds. Yeah, I mean, him and footsie were absolutely in the process today. Just all sorts of proper, you know, proper conversations there. He was a little touchy down the stretch with some photographers and you know, kind of some Monte ears going on down the stretch, a little loose with the with off the tee those last few holes, but otherwise

starting to get a little real, maybe the last four or five holes. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think he's gonna win. But it's a fun it's a fun a moose bush for the week, right? What are you guys willing to put up that he won't win? I was trying to come up where as I was leaving the grounds here with KVV I was like, Yeah, I mean, I'll confidently say he won't win tonight. But now I'm not gonna I'm not gonna volunteer to chop off a pinky if he wins, but what would you be willing to risk?

Deege offered a similar question earlier to me of just like, what do you think Augusta would like offer him to just buy him out of the tournament? Five million? Six million? I don't know what the number would be. And I do think, yeah, listen, would it be as popular as another Scotty win, a Ludwig win? No. But I think there's a lot of people that would be down with a Justin Rose win. There'd be worse winners. There'd be a lot

worse winners out there. It's a career achievement award for a guy who has balled the fuck out at the Masters for, you know, what, two decades now? Like, it's quite a career that he has at the Masters. And I, I would love to, you know, I don't want to start I don't want to start with the he's not going to win stuff. Do I think he's gonna win? No. But I want to give him give him some flowers for playing some very serious golf today. And I feel like we've had the team rose conversation quite a few times of just, you know, kind of coming a little bit full circle on this guy, Cody, I don't know if you have it kind of ready to roll, but I went back through his Instagram today. TC, this has been a rich, rich kind of reverse reverse chronological. This is so much a collab post.

It's like he's a juror at the OJ trial. Why the OJ trial? I don't know. Good trials. This was posted by the Wimbledon account which which I just really like. What, what else we've got? Here's, here's him. Just like so much workout content. Here's him just kind of mafia. Yeah. That's obviously why I put that in there. Of course him at the friendly confines, throwing out a first pitch, very on

brand. I don't think we need to say much more about that. Uh, Oh, him with the great Pele, I just love this. He's a man of the world. He's got I didn't put any of them in there. So all the Brits get get pretty touchy about this. But so many photos of the queen on his Instagram, like before she passed away or anything just bought a happy birthday to the queen. Like his own pictures. King pictures with her no images of

like, it's wild. Here's him carving a bonobos pumpkin. This one's really good. I really enjoyed this one. This one was kind of his influencer era just like garden having a having a garden. Yeah, maybe an afternoon cappuccino and maybe catching up on some emails here. Breaking him breaking a mental sweat as well, you know, is always good too. What was this one? Back after it this afternoon. I thought that was a good caption. I think the cryo chamber. It is I think this is the one that really tipped me off to

his instant in the first the first place. This one's from 2019. But anyways, I think this is all the cut. This is the mental texture that's been in my head when we talk about Justin Rose and Team Rose and why don't you take this guy seriously? It's like, well, it's just because of all of this stuff. But as I've said many times now, you can't deny what he does on the golf course, man. You can't deny how hard he works. Can't deny that he just keeps showing up at these majors and he just he really wants to uh,

He really wants to polish another one of these off man. And so my my hat Is off to my guy team rose. I hope he keeps pulling out unlike you bullies I hope I don't think I don't think anybody would was ever made To embrace the champions dinner like so well rose but so he would he would he would show up just that would be the highlight of his year every year just to be included in that and you know who knows what he would see maybe some scones for dessert or something like that maybe was the drizzle? I just obligated to report sustainability models are worried. He gained over five shots on the greens alone today more than a shot and a half better than anybody else in the field. All that to say that is of course unsustainable. That's not to say he can't win but it was a freakish day on the

greens especially on that front nine. So just just again, of course just reporting that what without looking, it's what do you think? That's moisture. What do you think is odds to win the championship are without looking for it? Probably, probably plus I'll say 2200. No, better than that, right? Yeah. 400. He's plus 750 to win currently. Scotty is the favorite at plus 200 Ludwig at plus 600. Top of the board there. So they did say on the broadcast, he was in full bloom,

you know, which I'm sure he would want to be in full bloom on Sunday. So I don't know if that means that was the peak. And now it's going to go down. But we shall see. But so we got any other any other rose content that we want to well I think yeah there was you know I was down there at around Amon corner when he went on his big run got all the way to eight under par I don't know why you're asking me specifically but there was a report I know I believe we got a phone in report from the grounds I don't think it was me but I don't know if that is as available Cody but there may be

a little bit of content in there. The British are coming. The British are coming. One if by land, two if by sea. Team Rose is here and he leads by three. I don't know. Neil wrote that one. Either credit or blame him for that one.

It rhymes. You can't deny that. Neil was insistent that I do one that rhymes. It had to be Revolutionary War theme and he would not let me get past the phone booth without trying that one. So I had to, that was the last one I sent in, the first one that's played, but I believe there'll be some more later on.

I mean, the redcoats are here. We got team Rose, we got Hatton, we got Aaron Rye. It's a throwback masters, baby. Well, you know what is kind of funny about Rose and like the throwback masters thing is, that I was thinking about today is I remember growing up and it was always like, you know, especially when you, you know, when you get into like high school age, when Fred couples would go on like those couple of runs and you're like, I don't know, you know, and then it became Phil and now it's kind of becoming like these dudes that we watched like their

whole prime and their whole their whole careers. I'm like, oh, yeah, Justin Rose is like, kind of turned into one of those like old feel good stories. That's kind of weird from my own mortality a little bit, but such as it goes at the Masters. I think that should just about wrap us up for the day. I don't think there's anything else we really need to cover. That was the big one.

That was the big one for sure. We should, we can touch on the Rory thing Before you know before we get out of here. I think in order to to do that This brings me no pleasure, of course, but it's only fair to bring in my colleague Uh my business my business associate big randy, uh into the chat randy welcome Hope you had a great day today. Uh's up with you, my man? I'm great. I'm great, guys. Anybody see those Rory doubles coming from where he is?

Can't believe it. How do we do this year after year? This is so supporting. Randy, I had time to just pause and just go make popcorn because I knew exactly what was coming on 15, and especially on 17. Like, just credit to you guys. Oh, I was careless, man. The one on 15, and especially on 17. Like just. Credit to you guys man. Oh, I was careless man.

The one on 15 was great, because we had just seen Patrick Cantlay do that twice, you know, a few groups up ahead, and it was like, surely Rory's not gonna make that mistake. And lo and behold. So, horrible mistake. In amateur, you wanna win a Masters, you're gonna hit chip shots like that Rory?

Okay, yeah. Okay. Such a ridiculous. That's what I think I'm most frustrated is it was a it was a good round of golf from him. It was really, really good. It was a good good 14 holes. It didn't get back to go well. Yeah, it didn't go well. 17 was so much more infuriating than 15. Yeah, it didn't go well. I mean, 17 was so much more infuriating than 15. So we were talking to a, there was some insight in there as to like 15 green is firmer. It's one of the newer greens and it is like a trampoline.

And like wedges we had heard from people were like bounding like trampolines on that green. So I don't know why a flat, I assume that was four iron from 231, maybe it was five iron. Why he thought that would hold with that trajectory? I know he can hit the ball higher than that. And I don't know if he was worried about it coming up short, whatever it was, but where he hit the second shot to was a big problem. And from there, dude, you just got to take your five. You've seen clips in the past, Tiger, you've seen clips in the past. Tiger has putted off that green into the water before.

Like it's, it's, you know how sloppy that is. They shaved the bank extra this year. You knew that was a risk. And if you knew how firm that green, you've made trips up there, you've played practice runs, you know how firm that green was. That was just such an inexcusable mistake for how smart he played, how many times he got himself out of a little bit of trouble he was into up at that point. It was just so deflating because it was, that feeling I had coming in, like feeling like this felt like a different Rory.

I felt that way the whole round of just being like really impressed at the shots he was hitting, getting himself out of trouble, and he was in it kind of covering up some of his deficiencies. It's nice half-wedges. This felt like the weirdest route to a disappointing round we've seen so far. And it wasn't bad enough, it wasn't like a choke, it was just like a dumb ass mistake that unraveled him and that had to have led to the double on 17 as well. I really think so. Yeah, that's where like the double on 17 is just, he's in a good spot.

He airmails the green, whatever that happens. Long's not dead there to that pin. And then he hits one of the most careless, sloppy-ass chips. And then the lag putt was even worse. And then he missed the shorty. That's the one that's like, that's just such an inexcusable six there. Like 15 whatever. That happens. That's Augusta.

That green's firm as shit it's you know it runs away from you you're pitching to a tabletop there but and like I guess 17 like I guess it wasn't even close to like the right approach club in there either the approach yes I will say as much as I'm kind of with Neil on on Indiana being stinky that green is the one green at Augusta that you see in person that you're like, wow, man, that does slope away in the back there. And we saw some guys go long of 17 today and just be like, fuck, that is a really, really, that's a more

uncomfortable shot than I probably would have recognized on TV. And that putt that I mean, again, bad shot to get it there. Bad chip to get that far down because you're left with a downhill, tricky putt That's really hard to stop Okay, it all it wasn't the even the lag putt wasn't necessarily careless Like you just shouldn't have hit it in all the the compounding errors here to lead in this spot to leave yourself with that six Footer he did bail himself out several times on the front nine on putts of that length to make up for bad I putts That I've but you just can't yeah, you can't do that all day long.

And it finally caught up with him. And I'm not writing him off. I'll let you have your victory lap here tonight. I don't know how your pick to win ended up looking out here today, Randy, but if you wanna go ahead and celebrate and dance on his grave tonight, I'm not giving up just yet.

So that reminds me of a quote I heard. I can't remember where this is from. I have it pulled up here. At a certain point in someone's life, someone doesn't wanna fall in love because they don't wanna get their heart broken. People I think instinctually as human beings, we hold back sometimes because of the fear of getting hurt,

whether that's a conscious decision or a subconscious decision. Once you go through that, once you get through those heartbreaks, as I call them, or disappointments, you get to a place where you remember how it feels. You wake up the next day and you're like, yeah, life goes on. It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Actually, just that was from Rory McIlroy two days ago. And that's how I feel. You know, it was pretty, shattering though for the reasons that you were describing solid that I was just

Ticking off in my in my notebook every hole that goes by I'm like, yeah solved it solved it. We're good The guy we're the guy I'm sending all kinds of horrible horrible stuff to Randy just not fit for bread regrettable And he was he had a he had 171 yards in. I mean he drove it. I don't know if the stats bear this out. This could not be more eye test. I don't know if I remember him ever driving it like better than that. Everything was like dead on the nuts.

Just like perfect position. It was crazy. Second strokes gain off the tee to just Ludwig. Who's a machine? position. It was crazy. Second strokes gain off the tee to just Ludwig. It was bad. And that who's a machine. I mean, seven. He was doing even better than that. When he I mean, he lost. Gosh, yeah. A bunch off the tee on seven or I have to look at that. But he lost a little bit on 1718. He lost shots coming off the tee there. But

but I mean, he was like in just perfect position deep all day. And it just to your point, it's always like, in a weird way, it almost like, be more, it almost be like more understandable if he just went out and shot 81. And you're like, Yeah, well, thin his head, what are you gonna do? Yeah, but to like have this juxtaposition of just like it going so well, and just out of nowhere going so bad was where I'm like man That feels like I just got hit in the face with a shovel. So Randy TC. I just I couldn't be happier for you guys Congratulations. This is what it's all about soak it up And not rooting against him. I'm just

We just hate seeing you guys go through this so like I. Like, I don't know why, why do we do this every year? That's what I don't get. I don't do this every year. As your friend. Neil and DJ do it every year. You've done it a lot, Solly. And you know, I hate that this is your last one too. It's the one I feel.

I feel bored. I regret nothing to this point. I regret absolutely nothing. Maybe my Russ Henley first round leader play. He beat only Nick Dunlap that I regret that one. That's I regret nothing with almost I don't think you even need to regret that shit happens kind of fun. Yeah. I think just just generally speaking like does Rory come out tomorrow and feel like he has to press a little bit to get back into this thing with with with Scotty ahead of him

I hope a lot of golf left. Yeah a lot of golf left again. I think I would feel it's those seeds of doubt, right? It would honestly I would sit it would feel differently if it felt like he was hitting a bunch of shots that just left him Like but we've seen that Rory round where he's befuddled. He's confused on approach shots He's messing up from the middle of the fairway, hitting bad wedges, making sloppy scores out of nowhere. And we got like at least a sustained 14 and a half hole stretch today that was him in control to the point where he has to go to bed and say, I'm playing fine.

I'm playing totally fine. I made a dumb ass mistake. Then I made another dumb ass mistake and it cost me four shots. It probably should have only cost me two but I What my talent and my playing ability and my control of my golf ball is pretty darn solid right now I would it would feel worse if he was blowing it all over the planet or hitting snap snap pole irons I find if I'm him sitting here right now

I'm not I'm set with how that went but you got to feel good at your core about how you're hitting it and how you You know, you can score that about how you're hitting it and how you you know You can score that's how more you're more excited about this having seen the how many birdies do you make you know the? six birdies or whatever versus if you would have just gone out and shot like a really really boring like One one under par like who's another guy even though? I wouldn't feel as good about cam cam shot one under I think and hit six screens and he had 22 pots. Yeah like I would feel better than Cameron Smith right probably about my future chances right now if I was Rory that's just that's just me I mean

I can feel I can hear it I can I feel like I should be putting the clown makeup on as I say these things but uh I'm going with the gut here. I don't think you can shoot himself out of it tomorrow. That's good to hear. I think that's where the frustration is though. I'm with you, Sal, he's playing great. I think he's probably going to finish in the top five, maybe. But I don't think he's going to win. He's going to be at least three shots back. Let this be the first time of the night we say there's so much golf left. So much golf left. What are haters and losers think you think he's done or is he still got a chance to

win? I mean, I think he's not gonna win. He could go shoot 65 tomorrow and like and then what do we also like he's got he's got he's got killers in front of them. Killers. I mean, a nice finish, but no, he's got so many bad historical stats working against him now. Like the double bogeys thing like he didn't know he's what he's just gonna make a three round charge

after you know, this is 11th try going for the career. Like what are we talking about? Who are the killers? Like the multiple Scotty that I'll give you that one for sure. You know, you want to see, you want to see what a killer looks like? I mean, I don't know. Bryce, he killed him at Pinehurst. Okay. You guys saw that in cold blood. I would say Ludwig. That's what I'm one shot 73 in the first in the first round last year and came back and damn near one one the thing last year and Ludwig

Came picked up right where he left off. He hit an excellent shot on 11 today from the right trees. He hit You know, he hit the shot that Rory couldn't hit on 17 today and then he and then he it's a lovely one on 18 to birdie it it was a exceptional round of golf and he said afterwards that he was between clubs all day and Joe and him had to think his think their way around so just be clear 73 in the opening round and coming back to finishing solo second is killer men is killer tendencies. In your in your debut. Okay, first major ever. I mean, I was trying to get all that. What he wanted to masters very open with 73 and finished,

finished solo second was just just was the parallels there were very interesting is all I was noting. I don't know. I think I don't think Ludwig has all that scar tissue there. Ludwig was awesome. Straight up. He was great. Playing alongside Rory too. And like, I'd say it's a big spot to be.

And he showed up. Especially coming off of bad week last week. Hasn't really been in great form. Didn't know what we were gonna get. Just kind of the calm, cool, confident guy that we've gotten to know over the last couple the calm, cool, confident guy that we've gotten to know over the last couple years. So their best ball score had to be so freaking good. I mean, he went out in 36 came home in 32. He birdied 15. Well, Rory made double. He parred

17. Well, Rory made double. He birdied 18. He buried 12 as well. They probably were, they were, they had to be the 60s. Like I was just so impressed. Such a patient round of golf. I mean he birdied he birdied three but otherwise pars from four through eleven and then just starts working his way through the back nine and it was surgical and I'm running through a wall baby. I love it. I love it big. Well, it was surgical. I mean in part because of you know, he just seems to be very in control of the golf ball. And we know what the challenges are this week.

There's tight fairways, there's uneven lies, there's swirling winds, there's firm and fast greens, pins tucked on tiny shelves. And like to play your best at Augusta National, you have to be confident, precise, consistent. And it's why today at the 89th Masters Tournament, the overwhelming majority of invitees teed up a title as Pro V1 or Pro V1X. It's why at the game's most historic championships at every level of competitive golf, more of the game's best choose the number one ball in golf. I brought my major championship heat on that one.

That's as smooth of a transition as you're gonna get from me. Also, Justin Rose happens to be playing the new 2025 Pro V1X golf wall. He made the switch to the new model at Bay Hill. They actually sent us over a list of all the players in the field playing Pro V1, Pro V1X, or Pro V1 left dot. It might take me six minutes to get through the entire list. So just assume as we get down this leaderboard, an extremely, extremely, extremely good chance that the name near the top is going to be playing Titles Pro V1.

We obviously know that Scottie Scheffler plays one of those. We know that Corey Connors does as well. So anyways, shout out to our friends at Titles. Shout out to me for that transition because that's as good as I can do, but back to you, Dej. Well done. T.C., you mentioned Ludwig's surgical round, and I think that brings us to Scotty because that looked like about the most boring

front runner type of golf that we've ever seen, that we've kind of gotten used to watching from him. That was like, I don't know, Saul, did you catch any of his, either in person or on TV, but a little bit, a tiny bit. Um, just, yeah, I mean, what, what, what can you say? I don't have a Scotty take other than he looked better than he has for the most part of the seat, a better part of this season. It is like just a free combo of a dude that's obviously is extremely

comfortable in this golf course, knows exactly how to play this golf course, has all the shots and just made that look extremely, extremely easy. Putted really well today. Still like a smidge concern about the ball striking. Like it's not Scotty level, godlike ball striking that we've seen last year. And can he putt this well for four rounds is something we have not seen out of him, especially in major championships. He's going to ball strike the place to death and wear people out that way. It's typically how we've seen it. Over two and a half shots on the field ball striking? No, he gained about a little under a shot and a half on ball striking. It was a shot gained off the tee and about a half shot with approach play.

He cleaned up well around the greens. But again, like in a small sample size, that can be a credit to like leaving it in the right spot. And like being a proper miss that isn't necessarily captured in strokes gained is a major quality of Scottie. And you just don't, to the point where Tom Mothroy, you just don't ever see him do make that mistake and cost yourself

a chance at winning a tournament like that. It would have been boring to pick Scottie, it would have been the right call. I was not going to have fun if he was going to be my pick this week. It was the mathematical play, of course. If I could change it right now, do I think he's- Oh, you're going to have a perverted kind of fun. If I had to choose right now, do I think he's Oh, you're gonna have a perverted perverted kind of fun. Do I think it like if I had to choose right now, do I think he's a better chance of winning than Roy? Of course, but I'm sticking with what I've got. And it does seem quite likely that

we're destined. It doesn't feel as likely as last year. I'll say that though, like the Ludwig thing seems like a even bigger threat to Scotty this year than it did last year, which is an awesome shootout. Like Ludwig versus Scotty is good, good stuff. Like we don't know how good Ludwig is yet, you know? It's true. On the Scotty front, can I, you know, we would have the same conversation that we've had 150 times, right? Like he, he drives it great. He hits the right side to the greens, he controls his speed well on the greens, etc. One thing we shout

it out occasionally, but probably not enough and especially not enough at Augusta has to be the Ted Scott effect as well. Right? I mean, I think I heard Bacon say on the featured groups broadcast, I think this would be the first time a caddy has ever been on the bag for five green jackets between Scotty and Bubba. And when you think about that, and not a causation correlation thing, but particularly like Scotty's performance at the Masters versus his performance at other majors, like, I don't know, maybe there's a, that's how good Ted is at this place.

You know, like there's gotta be a comfort level between how they work that has to show up every year at this place too. So I don't know, just worth shouting him out. I feel like it at most turns cause he's like, you could hear it on seven today. If you guys were watching in like before the ball even apex is it's going up that left side and Scotty doesn't know like, Oh God, am I going to be behind a tree? Am I going to be in the rough before the ball even apex is Ted's like, Oh, don't worry. It's going to bounce, right? You're going to be in the

fairway. It's fine. And sure enough, hard right bounce kicks in the exact right spot in the fairway knocks it on the green two puts for bar and we're moving on. And it's just, it's, it's really fun to watch those guys picking apart. Well, it was for me, I watched a fair amount of golf. A lot of the early morning guys come through the second hole. I cause I love that left pin on two. I just love watching guys dissect and figure out their way around that because if you go all the way back into the archives like

with Patrick or I'm sorry, Tiger Woods, Patrick Reed, Tiger Woods, played a practice round with Raymond Floyd either in 95 or 96. I forget when it was and like just pick Raymond Floyd's brain on where to hit shots, how to do it. And then his whole thing was like when the pins left on two, just blow it into the into the gallery on the right, like, don't worry about trying to hit it at the pin. Anything around there to the left is trouble. And like, Scott, he didn't blow it into the gallery. But if you just pull up, like where he hit his third shot from on the second, you will see one why

angles matter a shitload at Augusta and to how he earned like no one in that earlier men we made a birdie in that early group. He had a hit a wedge from about 100 yards, but anybody else that hit it up near the green within 50 yards, but didn't have the right angle could not get close to that pin, like absolutely could not get close to that pin. Jordan Spieth did hit a very sick spinny pitch that is worth looking at, but couldn't get it up and down. Scottie played it down the right and hit had the angle had 43 yards in, hit it right up there and made just like an easy birdie. And I watched him. I don't remember how many times he birdied number two last year, but that was a whole, he gained a shitload of shots on the field on.

And just to watch him like take care of that one from the jump off the jump was just kind of like, I probably should have picked Scotty. But again, that's what's just interesting about this golf course and watching like the champions dissect it is and why there's such strong course fit and course history here is I mean, it's something that's known by the whole field. But again, we watched I watched 15 guys come through that and he was the only one that executed that one properly. Oh,

I just I just feel like you guys are just trying to explain away this Rory thing when what are we trying to explain away this Rory thing when... What are we trying to explain away? He was four under, heading to 15, he's got green lights special in his eyes. He's trying to go for the jugular, get it to six, seven, shoot 64, 65, be in the catbird seat, stunting on Scotty and it completely backfires on him. I just, that's gotta backfires on him. I just

That's got to be wearing on him. Did he meet with media afterwards or no? I Don't know the answer that KVV. Do you know the answer to that question? Did Roy meet with media after the round today? Do you know? He is our field researcher is gonna is gonna look into that but I don't know the answer to that I wish you just blown the drive off the planet on 15. Pitch out and wedge on and it would have been an easy five. He was just, he fell into the trap. It is, I didn't, I haven't liked how 15 has played since they moved the tee back. Like it was almost like too hard last year when it was back into the wind.

It felt like a lot of the drama's taken out of it. But now that, now it's like a par five where it's, you can't just, you know, you're not just hitting five or six iron into it and being able to easily hold it like you got to figure out a route in there. Nobody likes to lay up to that downslope, especially that front pin. That's just really not a fun shot to hit. But man, I don't remember I don't recall seeing

balls go that far over 15 like we saw today. I mean, there was who was it that hit it all the way into the water? I think Schwartz will hit it over the green even into the water and can think Schwartzle hit it over the green, even into the water. And Cantlay hit it over the green and chipped into the water twice. I believe we saw Morikawa hit it way over. But like, as soon as he did that, I said, we were watching TV, I was like, he's got to lay up on this next pitch shot. Like you can't get on the green.

And he chipped, sure enough, he chipped it up to the fringe. And he was laughing about it because I was like, that was probably, that was the right shot. Like that was your path to making 5. So that's just a, 15 is a different hole with this firmness of this green and the new length of this one. Which I'm all for. Yeah, it's sweet. Totally. Also, like, a number of people in the comments saying, What about Tommy, TC? What about Tommy? First of all, I didn't pick Tommy this week. Secondly, Tommy finished one shop behind Rory and didn't like didn't really play well today. So we'll see how Tommy finishes this week. Okay,

give me the cap. He's in po well, getting word Roy did not do media afterwards. I don't know if he or did not do it. I also will have no comment on that. He's gonna go skip John Grisham's The Firm or another John Grisham book tonight. Was he reading The Reckoning?

Got a bit of a reckoning today. The client. Let's go giraffe section, stick your neck out. What's the rate you shoot tomorrow? 69. I'll say 68. 68, I'm on 68 as well. Yeah. 70. Yeah. It doesn't matter. Doesn't matter.

One more thing on that group too, because we've talked about Ludwig a little bit. Props to Akshay. Akshay was in a big spot today and hung tough. I think he made a ton of birdies. He made a ton of birdies. He made a ton of birdies. He made a ton of birdies. He made a ton of birdies.

He made a ton of birdies. He made a ton. Akshay was in a big spot today and hung tough. I think he made a ton of birdies. He made six pars. Yeah. And it didn't hit his irons well. I think he was kind of even in iron play. And just, you know, like, I don't think he got as much as he could have out of that round, but he hung tough, shot two under par 70 and closed with, you know, birdie five out of his last six holes, which is pretty telling, I think. So shout out to him. I'm surprised only 26 guys broke par because that was, I mean, just especially compared to last year, that was so benign. I mean, there was a little bit of wind in the afternoon, but just did not seem like the golf course was set up that difficult and the pins were not

especially difficult and the wind was not up that much. But just surprising that scores weren't a little lower to me. Let's let's run through a couple of the other heavyweights on the board. The big golfer, maybe the heaviest heavyweight T5 after a 369. Always good to have Bryson in the mix. I can't wait to see what the driver does over the next the next three rounds What'd you guys see out of Bryson? Good round kind of a he was it was a grindy round from him He was a little bit befuddled at times and and I don't know I was impressed

It didn't seem like he had necessarily his a game and and you know ended up shooting 69. So Yeah Love having Bryson involved that's not gonna say it's like maybe the guy that that just makes every every leaderboard better i was gonna say this is a nice leaderboard this is there's there's gonna be some good action even not even into the weekend like into friday there's a lot of stuff that's got me very excited for the gulf tomorrow Bryson included he was nice day with the putter, really solid day with the irons as well. Like didn't overpower the golf course necessarily. He led in driving distance, at least on the measured holes today is very predictable in there, but just very, very solid controlled round of golf.

He had three bogeys on par fours today, which I mean, yeah, his round could have honestly been Feral a little bit better birdie to birdie three birdie six birdie nine and then also birdie 1315 and 16 seven birdies. The big golfers most definitely definitely lurking. We had a Zander and more Kawa I think we're probably the next favorites on the board 73 and 72 respectively for them. Morikawa's got to feel like he let one get away today. For sure. That was an interesting round man. I don't know how

much of him on the feature groups you watched but it was very grindy early kind of fighting it a little bit. Really steadied the ship was playing some really nice golf and then yeah I don't know if he was kind of couldn't couldn't quite close. Eagle on 13 and like you know awesome awesome eagle on 13 and then yeah just kind of stalled out bogeys on you know 15 16 and 18 just not a great finish 16 seemed like it was giving some guys some trouble today too was that green firmer as well Solly? So it was as an interesting for a Thursday. I don't recall ever. It's farther left than the actual Sunday pin. I do think it's a different shape and it looked like balls were rolling out on that green more. So

15 and 16 are the two of the new greens allegedly, along with one and two is what we've been told. And for the, I guess the descent angle of clubs that were seen into 16, to me it looked like balls were rolling out farther on that one. A lot of the players earlier in the week had commented like you almost couldn't tell what the new greens were because they do such a good job matching up the firmness. But as we got close to tournament time, it kind of felt like to me, I'm sure

some agronomists could measure the gravities in the soil and tell me that they're exact same, but it just, it looked like it played a little bit differently and it didn't funnel as much. Randy, I don't know how much of 16 you got to watch, but it definitely looked different back there. Yeah, not quite as funnily there. You know, we'll get our fair share of that. I do look forward though to the pin on the shelf on 16 with a super firm or more firm green. That could be a lot of fun. 16 was the fifth hardest hole today. Played 3.22. Had only nine birdies to that, you know, somewhat gettable pin there in the back left and had seven doubles or more on 16. So that tells me something was playing just a

little bit a little bit different there because it was only 185 on the card today. Maybe that's that's better than you know, worrying about some sort of equipment rollback, just blow up the greens every every year and just, you know, make them all brand new. I'm kind of in on that take. You know, if if your budget allows. Last one I wanted to mention before we let tc cook down the

leaderboard a little bit it's just john rom i think the whole thing uh coming in was you know we don't know how he's gonna play what's what's gonna happen what's john rom gonna do he's gonna shoot 75 and he's gonna look pretty pissed off uh while he was doing it uh it could have been a lot worse randy i know roms your guy uh Any thoughts? Any thoughts here? No, I actually didn't want I wasn't paying as I know that he was in a feature group, but I had switched it over most of the afternoon to the main telecast. So I didn't candidly I didn't watch a lot of ROM, but yeah, total, total wild card here. I don't know if somebody had more eyes on them.

Nothing more than the broadcast for me, but it just, I mean, just looked uncomfortable missing a lot of short pots and just never never got settled. It seemed like that putter. Yeah. Yeah, I'm so torn on what we're supposed to do here because people get mad if we say out loud like, hey, John, we're going to hold you to a ridiculously high standard on

major championships. You won this tournament major championships. You won this tournament in 2023. You've won a US Open. We really only get to see you play four ish serious golf tournaments a year now. So like we're gonna hold you to a pretty high standard out of expectations that we have for these tournaments. People get mad if you say that. But then also like, seems more insulting to Rom just to ignore this and pretend like it didn't

happen and not dissected and not hammer him. Are you one of the three best players in the world or not? Totally. If Rory shot 75 today, we'd be fucking crushing him. Like and so it's it's just more frustrating when it comes to right. He's done this. He did this, you know, he started at bad start in majors last year. And if you looked back at his major year last year, probably wasn't as bad as it

felt like in the moment just because you wanted him to pop up and you wanted him to remind everyone that he is this player. And this whole thing isn't a giant waste of everyone's time and energy, but it is disappointing. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he goes out and shoots 66 tomorrow. I'm not writing him off as for a top 10 or top five in this tournament still, because we've seen him do this plenty of times, but it's another annoying finish. There's no part of Rahm that's fun. Nobody wants to see him suffer. Agree or disagree with his decision. There's no joy to be had

from him playing bad golf. So that just makes it that much more frustrating to me. It is spirited discussion on live from,, life kind of the range before the round today and talking about, you know, how it's just like, you gotta just throw the world ranking out and then how they didn't know how to treat Rom and then Johnson Wagner was like, no, like, he's clearly a top five player and it was just a really interesting juxtaposition of like all these emotions getting thrown in on one player. He truly is like, he lived litmus test, right? Yeah. And it's simple. The official World Golf rankings is not representative of the most talented golfers in the world. And it honestly never was,

but it certainly has not been over the last several years. There's better ways to determine that, but it is a measure of the the measured golf tournaments of That you have to qualify for and that's what we have going So it you know, you just end up arguing with a wall and some of that stuff like nobody actually whatever roms official world golf Ranging is nope. There's not one single person that thinks he's uh, you know The 80th ranked player in the world or whatever is so wgr is at this point And we didn't talk much zander, but I don't think there's much to talk about with Xander today. I think it's just kind of like wait and see what he does tomorrow. Yep.

I think that's I think that's right. Yeah, just kind of, it's weird being out there and how quickly again, if your name's not on the board, how quickly you can forget about a person I was kind of like, what, what, what did Brooks do today? I have absolutely no idea what Brooks did. Like Xander kind of fell on that kind of very forgettable category. His name came off the board out there and it didn't really do a whole heck of a lot of note. Didn't see Dustin Johnson today.

He was a complete non factor. It's just it's very weird being a person and just how, one, the guys that suck up the energy on the course and two, if you're not doing anything, like nobody knows anything of it TC you want to go down the leaderboard? I'd love to yeah Let him cook for a little bit. Yeah a couple of my vendors couple of our you know our suppliers came with some fresh seasonal ingredients today and

You know, I'd love to whip whip something up for you guys. So First guy t5 I want to talk about him, Tyrell Hatton. We haven't mentioned him yet. He was in a pairing with Spieth and young Tom Kim today. Loadblemish on the card was 17. He birdied his first hole and a couple other good birdies in there. So wanted to shout out Hatton and I'm here for Hatton being in the mix. Hatton and Bryson good for content, good for entertainment

value through the weekend, two thumbs up, getting it started in a really, really exciting way. We're gonna go a little offbeat for the next selection, guys. Aaron Rye. Aaron Rye, who's solid just absolutely drive by with a drive by earlier this week. What did I say? I missed this. You were talking about... It was on the Monday preview. Yeah, we were talking about like not that many people can win and Sally said something like, yeah, like Aaron Rye. This is a really hard golf course. Like Aaron Rye Just doesn't have the skills to contend on this golf course It's a hard golf

I think I said it was a hard course for him to compete at and I stand completely by that and it is Thursday and he Had a wonderful day if he finishes in the top 10. I will may a couple of that one I'm sure but that was a name I pulled at random as an example of some it's gonna have a hard time competing Yeah, 72 holes of Augusta National. I stand by that completely And so yeah, he just you know, he came out digging. He was four under through eight, you know, threw in three. He bogeyed his way through a man corner, 11, 12 and 13. And then kind of got it back on the horse, 15 and 17.

So. T.C. I threw this in my maybe something, maybe nothing segment later on. How many balls do you guys think Aaron Rye hit on the range before his round today? Either a billion or like none. Yeah, I was gonna say, isn't he like quite analytic, I would say like 300.

I'm gonna guess 39. 15, that's it. Wow. He's in low power mode. He's like the process. It was crazy. That blew my mind. He was the only guy I went through and I watched the shot trails for each one and it was like,

yeah, let me hit like three pitching wedge, three eight irons, three six irons, a couple of fairway woods, a couple of drivers. Let's go. I've got a source DJ that is saying 39. So that's why I pulled that answer out. So it was 15 while he was on the golf course, a lot of the haters and losers on the range stats don't realize that when the players get done and they go hit more balls,

wow, go eat a Dick's always what I would. Wow. Interesting. I don't plan to go to the head, but I'll check. I'll check how they came up with the block. Parties getting shifty, angry, leaving the block. Yeah, you better kill me. I've already had a half dead, man. I'm not that hard to take down right now. Man. Next.

Speaking of not bad, not bad. Harris English, H.E. God shoots a two under 70 today just a stalwart round from the big fella He hit his irons remarkably. Well, he was he didn't didn't do a whole lot with the putter Didn't know a whole lot off the tee, but he hit his irons. Well approach play was off the chains and I expected to continue Jay day, you know pretty pretty tame with the scripting. J-Day minus two. Michael Kim, 71. Love seeing that.

J-Paw is playing the world, TC. It might be one of the most tired players in the world, too. Ben Griffin's been playing a bunch, too. Those guys are just beating it up out there on the circuit. So love seeing Michael Kim play well. Who else? Davis Thompson. I don't have a whole lot here for Davis Thompson. Cam, we talked about him earlier.

Freddie Couples, 71. How about that? That's insane. Had a hole out on 14 with a hybrid, which was sick, which was very sick with the color golf. Did you have a color golf ball today? I know we sick with the color with the other color golf ball today. I know we did in the color. It was yellow today. It was orange yesterday. Yellow golf ball. Uh little Brian Harmon doing stuff minus one P as the prophecy foretold P playing

well. If he played great down at the rally playing well. Another debutant Max Grazerman minus one 71 Min Woo Lee my fellow culinarian Choosing 71 played well Baba 71 Matt McCarty another another debut 71 Matt McCarty I think I would I think he's gonna start ramping back up here He was playing some of the best golf in the world former hottest player in the world exactly Who's playing some of the best golf in the world? Former hottest player in the world exactly Danny McCarthy, I know we got a lot going on with the with the whole JFK

So at least a couple weeks ago, Danny McCarthy Yeah, I named dropped a few guys that we ran into out out on the grounds today of all the guys I mentioned guess Can you guess of any of those who is friends like apparently legitimately friends with Denny McCarthy? Jack Ruby Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Denny McCarthy our friends We've we've found this information now via a source who was we saw Service Brett Kavanaugh out on the 11th hole today. Randy was close with who are the other guys, Tobin and Squee? Well, I was gonna say Denny might be too. Denny like-

As I haven't seen him at one of the parties. Anyway, D.V. with Ivan. Ivan a little bit minus one. Matt Fitzpatrick, some signs of life. Minus one. Sungjae, guys, Hovland put it off the green on nine, went kind of deep, put it off the green, made double, and then followed it up. Birdie 10, Birdie 14, Birdie 15, Birdie 18. Hovland did not play a great round of golf today and still finished under par.

I'm going to continue to buy stock. What do you call that, Sully? Dollar cost averaging? I'm dollar cost averaging with Sully. I love that move. I was standing on 10 when he hit, he absolutely stuffed the pinata to a back right pin. A pin that a lot of guys were having a lot of trouble with. That was probably the best shot I saw in person today. And I thought his outfit was good too. No stride across the back.

The red armpits. Kind of a faux camo thing thought his outfit was good too. He had the red armpits. Uh kind of a faux camo thing going on. Uh all good there. Uh Shane Lowry, Kim Young, Zach Johnson. Zach Johnson was out to an early lead this morning. Uh Zach he's got some hair coming out the back of the hat now which is which is kind of crazy. Uh it seems like he's kind of rubbing us off. Guys who do you think is the low Johnson this week? Zach or DJ? I'm gonna say Zach. Do we have, I think-

I'm gonna say DJ gets him. We may have some on the ground reporting from the early goes of it with Mr. ZJ out on the ground. I don't know if that's readily available. Oh yeah? I think, yeah, I think it was- I think it was- I think it was-

The national golf club and a familiar face at the top of the leaderboard 2007 champion Zach Johnson, the patrons love him here. And he famously rewarded that love last year by telling them to quote F off after a triple bogey. He's up at the top of the leaderboard. They're screaming the name and I'll cap it done. I'll cap it done. He roams the fairways here to go to national. Thank you for all you did in Rome. This is EJ. the captain, the captain of the Rooms of Fairways here to go to the national. Thank you for all you did in Rome. This is EJ Kirk Hong. God, that's some of

your best work. That's really good work. Whoever that was, whoever that was, whoever that was. Yeah. Uh that was so sick. We don't talk about that moment enough. We don't talk about what he did last year enough. Like he they they clap for him after he made triple on 12

But he turned around and told the pageants to quote fuck off like audibly and then denied that he did it like a baluster deal today We'll get there. Uh What else we got? Sorry when there's some concerning reporting about ZJ Discarding a water bottle today. Yeah, yeah, we did. We got a we got a one that was the one source story.

You know, got to be careful. That's true. This is all legit. Yeah. Allegedly, can I can I ask you now that you're down to who do you say? Steven Yeager, did you skip Corey Connors T2? Oh, I haven't talked about Corey Connors. I believe I brought it up earlier. I said Corey Connors, you know, many people are saying he could he could win to reign of terror is over. So we'll see. We'll see what happens with the new guy. But yeah, Cory Connors playing great golf, like kind of as expected. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Right? God, he loves it. It's crazy how good he is here. Yeah. Yeah. Allegedly, ZJ through

through an empty water bottle and the Azalea is coming down the hill on six. Allegedly, probably cameras on that. So anyway, we'll keep this going. Neiman, if you want to see a great shot of how above your feet the ball is on 13, fairway, Neiman on 13, go to the highlights of that. And then he hit it in the creek and then he hit it out of the creek. Really good shot out of the creek. Even Parr today, Matt McNeely even par today in his debut. Ben Campbell even par. Probably the shortest guy in the field, or sorry, Brian Campbell. Yeah. Is this Chad, Chad's brother? Ben Campbell's his brother. I think his brother's actually the head football coach at Iowa State, Randy. Matt Campbell. Okay. Same. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Andy. Matt Campbell.

Okay. Same. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Tom Hoagy. Electric.

Electric round of golf today. Made a bunch of birdies. He didn't make a par after 12. He finished birdie, birdie, double, bogey, birdie, birdie. Hoagy coin. Very volatile these days. Volatile in the market today too, guys. Hoagy coin lost 4.14 shots around the green.

Did he also chip into the water on 15? Because he lost two shots there. I'm assuming that he did. We've got Serge. Sergio just kind of loitering, lingering, loitering at even par in his outrageous outfit today. Looking like a true fireball. I think we'll get the outfits later on saw it Also at even and then just some quick hitters JT JT. Yeah, we got an early morning tomorrow Yes, all right JT spieth young Tom Kim Fleetwood after mentioned all at one over Sam Burns as well

Zala Torres at two over Postman I thought we're gonna see a little bit more from him today than a two over. The pro, Max Holma, two over. How do you guys feel there? Wild round of golf for him. He was kind of all over the place too. It felt really good in the early going and you know, just seems like he's fighting it, right? I don't think it's, yeah, obviously the double on 13 is where a lot of the strokes went, but it's signs of life. Birdies are signs of life, right? Can you imagine there are a few guys like this having to play Augusta tomorrow, like totally fighting your swing in your game? Like one of the worst things in the world.

Well, hold on a second. Did you guys not watch the video that Sully sent over from about Max? It's like one of the top videos I've ever seen from the Masters. He pulls it left. So we're gonna go do a little section later of shots you should go back and watch at masters.com. Max's second shot on eight is must watch. He's in the left. He's punching out through the trees. You know, they had the caddies that stand out there with the flags to alert like, you know, the blind shots like don't hit yet. But he's punching out and there's a caddy standing out in the middle of the fairway. It like two one or two hops and hits the caddy

right in the back standing in the middle of the fairway. That's tough. Kind of a Denny McCarthy special, huh? What do you think they did with the caddy? All right, TC. of a Denny McCarthy special, huh? Oh, do you think they did with the caddy? Alright, TC, that's gotta that's gotta be Brooks Brooks to over Matsuyama was one over. I want to say big shot Bob disappointed there. Randy, we had some high hopes for Mickelson. We did with the three over there. So I apologize. Big tone and Rafa compost are tied.

They both shot 75. What else? To me on Straka, will anybody want to apologize to me? Yeah, I think Straka, we were expecting more there. The Blow Pig plus four, Pendrith, this is the kind of the BSI, a jade category.

What else we got? Lucas Glover, Salih here. Oh my God. I think that might bring us to our next segment unless you had any more, although it feels like we're at the bottom of the leaderboard. No, we're at the bottom of the leaderboard. We're emptying out. We're worried about some storms tonight. The fridge, the freezer might go out. We're just throwing it all away. We're just going to have to get back to the top of the leaderboard.

We're going to have to get back to the top of the leaderboard. We're going to have to get back to the top of the leaderboard. We're going to have to get back to the top of the leaderboard. where we are emptying out. I think we're worried about some storms tonight. The fridge, the freezer might go out or just throw it all on the stove. TCR is exceptional stuff. A lot of flavors in there I didn't know that I needed. Maybe you needed some editing. But it's good.

We can refine and keep reducing and just make it better. I gotta get a word in from our friends at Omni Hotels and Resorts, the official hotel of no laying up. I've been trying for a transition here for about 13 minutes. We love this week, the azaleas are blooming, the pimento cheese is ready.

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Thank you desperately needed a nose blow there. Originally, we were gonna bring Randy in as a as a closer today was gonna be a I've been getting warm since like the top of the second we're trying to stretch you out man is injuries are the hiddennings. This is how you ruin your elbow and shoulder. But we do need to grab the peach one by the way. We need three more for the big. You know I know you had three takes holstered. We probably haven't gotten to them yet. So let's hear it. Okay yeah we got three things. One let's address the Lucas Glover pick. Let's just get that out of the way. He was the pick to win this week.

Do I regret it? No, I don't regret anything. Why did I pick Lucas Glover? Thousands of people have asked me that today. I was out on a walk earlier this week. I love nighttime walks. It was very quiet. And I just had a premonition that I started thinking who's gonna

win. And like Lucas Glover just like jumped into my mind and took a hold of it. I remember solid said about, was that frightening? Was it electrifying? I mean, it was startling. It was one of those things where it was startling. And then I truly talked to myself into like, oh my God, no, this, this could be the call of the decade. This could happen. You know, Solly was making a point on Monday about how important approach play was from like 150 to 200. My guy Lucas is great there. He's a great iron player.

And then I found out TC had a similar premonition about Lucas Glover. And I thought we were cooking with grease there. I thought this was Lucas's tournament. Well, he was birdie free, shot 78 today. So I tried to explain this to Neil today because he didn't listen. I was like, yeah, Randy and TC both claimed they had a dream that they saw Lucas Glover. Wait, hold on. Wait, wait. They both had a dream. It's like the ZZians, Randy. It came to us. Yeah. TZ saw him in one of his pancakes that he cooked or something. That was tough. What if it's not? Yeah. Lucas is not gonna win.

I just sincerely appreciate you riding for the premonition though. I like that. That's good stuff. Yeah thank you. I got two real things before I get out of here. Well, no, Lucas Glover had a great a great presser too afterwards. Shout that out, right? Can you read the transcript for us here TC? How would you assess the overall conditions? Course was perfect. How would you describe your first round here? Awful. What's the key to turning that around? Not doing anything I did today. I actually watched it too on the master site. It was great. He was like, man, I'm sorry I don't have more for you guys.

It was just a bad day. The presser, it's got to be so odd. The quick quotes area is over by the clubhouse and there's no technology around there. So unless the people there asking the questions couldn't have seen much of your round. Like they're just probably guessing like just fill in the blank on some of this. So if you get some kind of empty empty quotes or weird questions in there, that's probably why. Lucas was minus four strokes gained on putting today, which I believe was the worst in the field. So that's tough, but there's nowhere to go but up tomorrow.

Maybe you'll miss the cut. Maybe, maybe magic will happen this weekend. You never know. Guys, two real takes before I get out of here. I think we did mention Occhet, but I just wanna, I wanna zoom in real quick on Occhet. It was one of the more fun rounds I've watched at Augusta in many years.

Six par, seven birdies, five bogeys, was playing some of the most outrageously gross, like nippers and scooters. You know, got up and down behind number two for birdie. His chip on three, sorry, I know you. It was like the coolest shot I saw all day. Flagged this, like a total, I don't know how far it was, 35, 40 yard, or maybe 30 yard pitch shot that just checked, took the side spin on the slope, went down to the hole,

that was awesome. I mean from the angle, from the angle like on the camera, it looked like he threw it like 30 feet right of the pin on a 30 yard shot and he just absolutely like ripped it to the left. It was so cool. Caught the slope perfectly down to tap in. It was it was awesome. Yeah, he got up and down that back bunker on seven, which looked dead. That was a gross up and down. And like all this

from a guy, I was like, Oh my god, how good is actually truly like, I know him hasn't been on my radar. I don't think as much as other people. He's 142nd in strokes gained around the green on tour this year. So I just thought it was unbelievable performance today. And guys, I have a take with Akshay. I truly think he's got every shot you need at Augusta. I think he's going to be the next

left handed golfer to win the Masters. And I think he does it in the next five years. I like that. I mean, why do we need a giraffe section when we got the big guy? I really watched him play and I'm like, what can't this guy do around here? He he's going to give him a little experience, give him a few more years. I truly think he's going to win a green jacket. Um, one, I love it too. I don't know if you guys heard this on the broadcast, but trivia question. Do you know how many lefties are in the field this week? Wasn't like eight or something.

Eight. Yeah. High Smith. Yeah. I tried to get to eight. We couldn't get there. We got to seven in the car all right McIntyre Occha high Smith McCarty Harmon McCarty we're and Phil Phil got that

was good I missed McCarty that's what we couldn't get we rocked them baby TC you name all the righties he just did and down the leaderboard last uh uh Not only do I love that take, I also think like next lefty to do X is also just a good running maybe tally to keep. That's a fun page in the notebook. And guys, I'll leave you with this. It's left hand Thursday too. That's true. It kind of goes back to our Rory discussion I was I was very curious as Justin Rose got in the house at sixty-five. You know, he's got a three shot lead. I was curious what happened the last several times the first round lead had been at seven under or better.

So I went back 65. So 10 times, all right, your first round leaders at minus seven or better. Okay. Three of those times the leader went on to win. That would have been speed 2015, speed 2015. That would have been DJ in the fall one of 2020. And then that would have been Rom part of that trio in 2023. Seven times that means that the winner has not been that low guy after round one. The average, so I went through and I tallied the average round one score of the eventual winner in these 10 instances where the first round leader

was seven under or better. The average score was 68.9 and there was a low of 66 that was last year with Scotty and there was a high of 71 that was Sergio in 2017 was tied for fourth that one under the year Charlie Hoffman went out and shot 65. The average round one position of the eventual winner is sixth. And the low guy is second. The high is tied for 15. That was Tiger in 2001. Chris DiMarco shot a 65.

Tiger shot 70. It was only good tied for 15. So I say all that, guys. I know it's Thursday. But if we're going on what history has taught us, I think we're really looking at everybody tied for seventh or better is where this championship is. Randy's making his play how nobody's coming that far back history tells us somebody around two three four under par and it's tough to get past scottie sheffler and it's kind of exacerbated by like the the quality the dudes at the top yeah right uh yeah i'll the only challenge flag i throw is the

big gap between first and second is like my eyes go to like the leads kind of at four under which makes me think like I know there's a big amount of guys in there but it's it's it feels more bunch than normal after there's so many guys at one under par. 65 the deckie your eventual winner was tied for second he had shot a 69 there was there was that big four-shot gap between Hideki and Rose I guess what struck me more than anything was like nobody's coming from tied for 40th Nobody's coming from you know, let me try to 65 65 day one Yeah, it's like if you didn't play well today, I'm not sure we need to worry about you. So I think it's sound from what it sounds like. Randy, are you saying that even is too far back? Yeah, I am TC.

In fact, I'm saying one under is too far back. Man, I mean, that's, that's 98 up in the zone. Big, they're swinging at that one. That's, that's the out we needed you to get right there. We got 10 guys right now that can win this Big. They're swinging at that one. That's that's the out we needed you to get right there. I think we got 10 guys right now that can win this. Really reach back and and flung that one. This

feels like the the Arrested Development Move meme where it's like, well, did it work for those people? No, it never does. These people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might but it might work for us. Uh that's how I feel right

now. Well, those those are the stats again. That that that the You're the data guy and I'm ignoring it. This is all backwards. I know. It was up is down. Big, thank you very much. I appreciate the lengthy start today. It's great to have you. Thank you. I'm gonna go have a cold beer and hit the showers. That's all right, you earned it. Soly, what else did we miss on the ground today?

Take us on sighted at the national. I saw a shot early in the day that at the time I considered funny. It was a shockingly offline tee shot. It was from somebody that had quite a tough day. It's not as funny once he got through 18 holes, but a tee shot we saw on the third hole from a gentleman that ended up

shooting 90 was unlike anything I'd seen and I think we were able to get someone our on the ground reporter to give us a look back at this one. Oh no. I could not believe my eyes on the third tee the young whippersnapper Nick Dunlap tee'd off the tee shot started on X the everything app and landed on truth social in the middle of the second fairway. I've never seen a ball in all my years here. Go that far right. My word.

Another one that you need to go back to your on the plot. It was tough. No, no, no, no, no. The tracker on the on the plot does not accurately depict and pick up where this ball lands. So there's three guys in the second fairway and they're all at their balls, but there's a ball right behind them. And I'm like, man, did somebody drive it all the way down there? There's no way somebody's already laid up their second shot. Go back and watch the replay in the app, not the tracker, and see where he plays his second

shot from. I have no idea how his caddy got a yardage from this spot because he is in the middle of the second fairway after hitting driver. I agree is theorem baby. But I mean, he had to move so much crowd out of the way it took forever for this to happen. And he like, I just cannot imagine a professional golfer like going into another fairway

to this this spot. I mean, you drive into other fairways all the time. But this is just honestly unfathomable. It's close to a shank driver. As we've ever seen. We've been tracking kind of Nick's struggles off the tease for the most part early part of this year's speeds way down and accuracy way down. And unfortunately, I don't mean to pile on on his way to 90 like did not withdraw like I you know, I haven't been there

brother when you're having just like the wildest most embarrassing like did not withdraw. Like, I, you know, I, this has been there brother, when you're having just like the wildest, a most embarrassing possible round of golf, but it honestly was stunning to see in person of a ball go that far right off of a professional's driver head. It was, it was insane. Yeah.

I kind of went through and just like before even, I didn't realize he shot 90 until a few hours afterwards, but like I was watching him front nine and just, and then like 13 13. And he had one triple today. He just had a bunch of doubles and it's not like he had just one awful hole. It's just struggle throughout. And the one on 13, where he probably should have chipped it back into the creek. He was lucky that it didn't roll back into the creek like he was lucky that it that it didn't roll back into the creek after the drop too so just some pretty bleak stuff there yeah i hope he gets it together

i hope he has a great day tomorrow but um it's that was had to be had to be a tough one i think he had crazy between him and and gordon sergeant sent through a stat that there was he shot 90 with no three putts as well which again, I don't Mean to pile on but I'm like that's that's wild man. That seems impossible. But uh, Sorry, tron No, i'm just gonna say between him and gordon sargent's game right now. It's it's kind of a wild deal, right? Yeah I know it sucks man because you're like, yeah Yeah I there's very few uh wins more exciting than that one over the last

couple years, you know, to see an amateur win on the PGA Tour and you want to, I don't know, actually up with another one. Right. And that's where it's like, I don't mean to shoehorn spieth into everything. But it's like, that's why that ride was so fun was because it just kept going and going and going and going. And I think that's why, you know, we all have it such a, a special place in our hearts for it is because they're so rare. But it also seems that he was just off the green on one and he three potted. Okay. So there you go. Technically not, but not a great start there. So, um,

Sally, what else? Uh, we spent a little time, uh, down in Amen corner. I was going around, uh, you know, or one of our sources was going around, I guess, with another one of our team members down there. And I think we ran into a couple of people, I think. You would not believe the razzmucca's in Amen Corner this afternoon. I'm walking down the 11th hole with Neil Schuster, the kid himself. First person we run into, Jim Bonesay, I walk him with the patrons talking about Amen corner. Next up, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, while taking in the action around the 11th green and finally, I'm with the kid and we see the original kid himself into Ken Griffey Jr. Breaking news, he is a credentialed photographer here at the Masters

Monument and he is photographing shots on Golden Bell, this treacherous 155 yard par three. What a scene. It is a splendid day here at the Augusta National Golf Club. How about between him and Randy Johnson? In the big unit. Yeah. Unbelievable.

I couldn't figure out why he was in the press center. And I went up to another fellow Reds fan, Joel Beale in the press. In the press, and I was like, King Griff jr. is here. He's like, yeah, he's a credential photographer. Like, whoa. And then we go out to 12 and sure enough, there's a guy with a

camera just like taking a bunch of these pictures like, man, I think I get a camera in here. Sure enough, it was Ken Griffey Jr. out there just taking snap of the ton of photos. He got him to rainy Johnson, but they get he goes to football games and as a as a photographer, and it's a serious hobby for him. I want to talk I went up to him, told him I was a diehard fan. He even he wasn't ready to talk ball, you know, he's at work. I should go off.

I don't want to talk baseball. I used to talk to him, uh, when I worked for the Reds, it was his, he was, it was his chase for, what was it? 600. And, uh, I would talk to like him and his dad was coming in for some of those games when it was a chase for 600. And like the last thing he wanted to talk about was baseball. I just talked to him about like fishing or golf in the in the tunnels. He really thoughtful guy like Ken Griffey, dude. Yeah, that was a cool way. Neil's guy. I don't

want to spoil some of Neil's content. I will anyways, but he loves keeping a list of like the not super famous guys we run into, but just like the mid tier famous guys. The most excited he got at any point today was like Clark Kellogg. That is perfect for my list. Oh my God. That is perfect. Bijon Robinson, Vince Carter. He had a, the Masters is insane, dude. It's just wild who you, who you'll see just walking around, watching some golf. That's it for voicemails for today. Allegedly from, from the source. Just a couple of

things, just some quick notes from from being out there in person. Aimpoint is that much worse in person. I mean, on TV, you can kind of edit around it and some it's awful. Take it all the way. Ban it right now. It is absolutely slower than normal reading putts guys are pacing off putts and still doing all the razzmatazz and the scallywagging with the fingers. I can't have it using those words that sounds like the other guy. I know that it's in my head now. But I don't know that that other

guy but he just has such great work. I want to imitate him. But are you sure you want to have this next take? By the way? What's that? I just saw the photo that Cody's getting ready to pull up. Tea time gaps help the flow of traffic so much. Oh sorry, maybe I'm looking at the wrong one. I'm looking at the one after that, I'm sorry. Yeah, so they built in these, they have a luxury with the limited field

to build in some tea time gaps, and it is one good for pace of play for a lot of the reasons we've talked about with how rulings, especially when you're in threesomes, that doesn't necessarily snake back all the way through the golf course and it doesn't guarantee you're going to have a slow round of golf. There's some natural kind of, you know, log jams on a golf course and all that, but it's also just good for fans getting around too,

of like, especially when you got to cut through walkways, there was always a way to cut through a fairway when there was a tee time gap, like before, I think the Scottie group had a gap right before it today. It was just a small tiny note that helped the flow of things that I noticed really well in person that probably doesn't stick out. Salih, I think it's time for the Riddler to stroke someone this week. It's going to be time. I think tomorrow's the day. Salih, are you sure you want to do this next take? I do. I do. I'm in I'm in on Sergio's. It was I it was great last year. This looks phenomenal. I I'm way in on this. At least if you're gonna do the lifting at least make it

interesting and give us something provocative to talk about and the yellow just works with the green. We know that and it weirdly works with the red. I'm in on this fit. And I honestly don't want to hear otherwise from, from anyone on this. I'll like, and you know what? I'll take Sergio's social game with his wife versus big tone social game with his wife and family this week too. It's weird dig at my guy, big tone, but yeah, I don't know if those are in conflict with each other.

Team. All right. I just, I, this is one of the worst things I've ever seen. Like truly, I don't, unless you're saying like it's so bad, it's good. And I the worst things I've ever seen. Like truly, I don't, unless you're saying like it's so bad, it's good and you know. No, I legitimately think it's cool. No, it's working.

That's so jarring to me. In person it's even better. It's like, oh fuck yeah, like there goes Sergio. Like I love it, I'm waiting on it. I feel like if you could have worn it or something, I'd be like, whoa, hell yeah. But like. Ollie, that's a brave take.

Seven-year-old out there. It was great last year and it's working. I hope he golf team. I hope he pisses you off even more tomorrow. This is working for me. I mentioned a few other shots you should go back. I always love doing this asking people for for shots that we should go back and watch on masters.com or your app or whatever. I mentioned the dumb out t shot the oxygen second shot on three and Max's second on eight but Phil I was making all these I was talking about earlier about I love watching guys take that angle into two. I get up there Phil has hit the same exact spot as Scotty he's like I'm like, oh Phil 54 years old, finding the angle to play. I love this man. I'm jotting

all this down. Phil steps up and just chips it directly into the bunker. The left bunker from this perfect spot. It's worth going back and watching. And then Spieth had totally boned himself with his angle, but he had this tasty little spinning pitch over the bunker on two that was perfect. And also want to shout Roy's third from the bunker on 10. Like that was, he had a bad second shot into that bunker super deep bunker, back right pin up on a top shelf. It was like looking like a surefire bogey and he had like a bucket of balls shot that was like, you know, he could get a whole nother bucket of balls and not

hit it as close as he did on 10. Those are a few good, good, extra ones. Good stuff. I think just like one of the underrated things that at at Augusta is how deep the bunkers are as well. Like that's something that I kind of forget about every year and then like there's certain bunkers where you're like, holy shit. It's like, they're just so vast, right? That was one of my favorite details from Golf Digest's practice facility video was like that was their natural inclination was to make them that deep in the practice area too. And all the players like don't dude we just can't see out of these bunkers we got to like be able to see how the ball is actually reacting

on the greens like we got to make them a little a little shallower than what's on the course which maybe last solid one other Sergio thing to Sergio is like fifth or sixth to last in putting today, lost almost three shots on the greens. So I think if he can get that, at least turned around a little bit for tomorrow, he should be should be pretty good shape. He gained four and a half shots on the field, he'd agree. Kind of like with some egg on my face on that first round leader

bet. But that's okay. That's fine. First round leader bets are you don't want to be close on the first round leader bet either want to win it or be way off. So unless it's Justin Rose, the guy who historically has had the most first round leads is where it's like, Oh, yeah, I probably should have got that one. Yeah, I'm gonna believe that was a whiff on ours. But maybe we should just spend 30 more minutes on picks in the preview

show. Yeah. One good overhead moment. We're on the sixth hole and, and one guy like one guy clearly not a big golf fan but was like asking his friends where is he? He but was asking his friends, where's Phil? He said, Phil's coming through, where's Phil? And the other guy's like, that's him right there. He's like, that's Phil? Somebody found Ozempic. That was just a great, a great overheard moment.

I'm gonna leave you guys with this. Neil and I had a great cart ride back to the press center with Tara. And she had some of the best analysis that you're going to hear about this. She's a big Scottie fan, she's rooting for Scottie and her quote as we were getting out here, I got to go find it here, but whoever is meant to win is meant to win. And that was the parting thought that she put on us before we went back to the press press and I could not have some succession stuff. That's, that's yeah. I just, I stand, I stand with Tara.

Uh, God, it's all, it sounds like a great day out there. It was awesome. I mean, Neil and I were just out there talking like, man, it's just so fricking hard to take like this day where you can't take any devices out there at all and like bring, bring it back to the podcast of how fricking awesome it is to walk around like that sporting event. And the weather's been even better this year.

It's been like high 60s and just everybody's truly just brains melting time of their lives out there. And it was just, it was fun to experience that too with Neil who'd never been to a tournament round before today. Well, we're gonna bring in- Neil had never been to a tournament round before today. He'd only been to practice rounds at Masters. Yeah. Yeah. Whoa.

We are gonna bring in KVV in a little bit before we do. Do you see we wanted to cook on something here. Just call it maybe something. Maybe nothing. You know, just a couple of things. Just to present. Yeah just yeah dude this is kind of an industry spot they're like we're you know we closed down the kitchen after the main one we're going to a spot where you know a lot of bartenders and hold a drink we're just gonna throw some stuff out maybe something I might drink some for net maybe nothing or that in our high noon you know let. Let me kick it off. Masters put out, you know, a very highly polished video with your guy, John Legend.

My guy, John Legend. Your guy, John Legend. And it was called Nerves. Very nice video. Just probably, I don't know, two minutes, two and a half minutes, something like that, of John Legend playing the piano and all everybody crying all these past champions, a bunch of current players, a bunch of obviously archival footage. And my guy P is just absolutely nowhere to be found. I had to watch it twice to confirm. Big Tone has a speaking role in this video. And they just they won't even give my like Patrick Reed like even a a not even like a tapping in for the green jacket type of, you know, archival shot. It's just it's it's crazy the how much the club like just does not seem to be down with this guy. Maybe

nothing. Maybe something Sergio in it. I don't know. Oh, yeah, Sergio is in it heavily. Okay, fills in it. I didn't watch it because I just I don't like John Legend stuff and I kind of keeping up with the some of the Stuff that Augusta seems to be doing this week from the socials But man P I mean I'm mad as hell about that agent and I know lady Jay likely is as well So who knows maybe an oversight TC? I don't know maybe maybe something maybe nothing. What do you got? Yeah, I got I got Tom Hogan's

Poker-chip Ballmarker Neil and I got to play with him last year in Colorado and I don't really remember him having a poker chip ball marker. I know his name is Tommy tables Obviously, but in this poker chip ball marker. He's playing, with Matt McCarty today. This was on 10. This is Matt. This screenshot is Matt McCarty's ball hitting the poker chip, going airborne and then, you know, stopping nearby the hole. It was backstopping off of a marked, a marked golf ball, a ball marker. It was, it was incredible. I've never seen anything like it. I mean, it hit a dead on. So.

Poker chip that Simply cannot be allowed Things that are Probably shouldn't be allowed on the PJ tour level Jose Luis Ballester Apparently pissed in the creek on 13 There were some great quotes about this Basically him saying like yeah, you know the officials they me do it. If it was up to me again, I'd do it again. I don't know if I'm gonna get in trouble or not. But, you know, it didn't, it basically

didn't hurt anybody. And he got a huge round of applause as well from from the fans who very clearly could see him down by the bridge on 13. I think JT was getting a ruling. He's like, you know, he said he forgot. Oh my God, that's right. I forgot. So that's Ray's Creek. That's not the tributary.

That's Ray's Creek on 13. I think the reporting was that he pissed into one of the tributaries. I don't know if he pissed directly into the creek, but I can confirm that down the line. What else you got? I just wanted to shout out just a couple of outfits here. Jose Maria Olathobo.

He's one of the OG Tanimals. Like maybe the best to ever do it. And just a really, really solid fit today. Bringing in some tan with some stripes and then the matching tan trousers, I loved it. Is there a tan on the premieres there too? It looks like it, it looks like it. Just yeah, and actually a pretty tidy round of golf today too,

I may add. I think Jose Mareola Thabel might be due for a deep dive into his career at some point on the NIU podcast. I think he's a really underrated, underrated dude. What else did I have? I sent over a few other things. Cody, just flash them up, man.

This is ZJ with the elbow thing going on. Look how far down he's choked on this wedge here. And then he, like I said, he's got the hair flowing out the back. He's starting to look a little bit like, he's kind of taking on the persona of Charlie Hoffman a bit. You see that? Wasn't where my head went, but I'm gonna keep an eye out for it.

Cody next. Bernhard Langer, Solly threw this in here. Red on red, this is kind of evocative of what's all he's doing with the blue on blue, white belt, uh, red on red with a white belt. And this is, this is an homage with two, one of his, one of his masters wins. So fantastic stuff. And this guys, this every day we get farther from God's light. The egg salad hat. This is one

of the worst things I've ever seen. Are they selling these? Can we bring in our next guest here? We can and if we're gonna do that I have a little bit of a ceremonial intro here. I've been holding this in my email for quite a while. This is from my guy, Charlie Van Kirk, maker of the famous Big Cans remix. If anybody listened to our eBay podcast where KVV purchased that Gary Player, Gary Player sings record. Charlie, I truly don't know how he was able to make this, but he wanted to make KVV some intro music I thought it was very very topical finally for something. We're gonna talk about so

Cody hit it and and and bring in our guy When KVV Comes marching in when KVV becomes marching in How I'm on to make for buddies baby when kvb the smart

and and now welcome to our guy kvb i don't know i don't know how to do that trains of a really like very player but Welcome to our guy KVV. I don't know how he I don't know how he did that. He had to train some AI like Gary Blair, but real quick. Great to see you. I want to ask you is this was that egg salad hat? Is that a real hat? Are they selling these on site?

They're selling pimento cheese hats. I have did not see an egg salad hat. I know I didn't go through all the 89 hats that are available in the merchandise pavilion TC. I'll tell you what, I'm gonna do some investigative reporting. I'm gonna get on that because I feel like that's too important to let go. Please, because I think, yeah, I think obviously if you're selling pimento hats, you need to be selling chicken hats.

You need to be selling egg salad hats. You probably need to be selling peach hats. You need to be selling egg salad hats. You probably need to be selling peach ice cream sandwich hats. I mean, I feel like domestic and import hats would crush. Cola hats. Yeah, exactly. Kevin, how are you, man? Yeah, I'm doing great. What a lovely weather day at the Masters. You know, we'll get to some of the things that got me a little down to each, but otherwise I'm having a lovely weather day at the Masters. Uh you know, we'll get to some of the things that got me a little down to each but otherwise I'm great. Yeah. Well, first off, you know, I hate to I hate to

hit you with this upfront because I'm I'm in your corner here but uh how are you feeling about the the state trooper, you know, cosplay enthusiast Keegan Bradley, your boy uh shooting 74 today. I know you had that. Yeah. Was it plus

22000 ticket? That's correct. Yeah, I was going make a lot of money if it's delivered and and I'll tell you this. I was gonna it was he was the first round leader. I was gonna show up tonight and I was gonna have shaved off everything but my mustache. Uh I was gonna go full state trooper on that **** Uh and then and it turns out I could. That might be something for later in the week but uh it turns out you know there's been like you know TV shows are sometimes like a state trooper who's like a nice guy turns up to be the hero.

This guy looks more like this kind of the sketchy stage. You were perved and it didn't didn't have like that round at all. So he and it was it could have been worse because he had chipped in on 10 for birdie from like like 20 feet off the green. So it wasn't wasn't exactly dialed. Listen, not not all state troopers. All right. Just for a little bit of a goodie. Thank you, T.P. That birdie on three,

we got the hype machine revved up in Slack, but it didn't sustain, unfortunately. Yeah, I said solid nervous when that happened, but that quickly went away. We're doing, oh, playing captain, my playing captain. This is bad. There's still time left. We can still get a bunch of Ryder Cup points. Yeah, for sure. Uh what

are you guys working on this week? What's what's what's shaking a little different format this week? Yeah, we're not uh we're not writing daily gamers uh this year. I don't know if uh if I heard that print media is dead. Uh no, Neil and I are working on a a narrative podcast that is being built throughout the week. Uh we are gonna deliver this early next week, god willing. So we are talking a lot of people are basically like you know if you

see us out there, come up and say hello. You might end up in a piece of NLU content. So stay tuned for that. I mean, Neil and I are very very very. Fair warning might be wearing a wire as well as what it sounds like. Exactly. Yes. So anything you say could end up being. Are you want to get to the details. see we've been asked to ke of on the down low. So we' can't say. Yeah, it's like

of it, he's gonna have to not my job to inform you prior to the investigation it is Miranda's right to s you know, if you talk to a state trooper, you know your rights. It's not my job to inform you of your rights uh prior to the investigation. Exactly. I I believe it is. I think Miranda rights are. It depends on the administration in charge, DC. Uh well, you

guys, you know, as part of that project, you were, you were out with the ceremonial starters this week, I believe. Uh early morning today. What was, what was that like? What were you doing out there? Uh you know, I've never been big on the ceremonial starters. Uh it's uh but decided that we wanted to get

out there and and see um see what it's like. Uh you know, I was I was thinking about this stage. I don't know if you remember this at all uh or UTC but uh probably I wanna say it's 1015 years ago. Uh Sam Snead uh sniped one right off the first tee in the and then get blasted right in the guy's face. But keep like knocking guys glasses on. Or a little bit. Uh, yes.

Blood, audible bone. And that would have to use the GX while you have the glasses on today. Yes, exactly. I want to make sure. Maybe it's just because I'm heavily drinking. No, um, there was Snead's last time ever to be a starter and, uh, Porter and I looked it up cause I was telling him about it and he had never heard it. So he found the piece in the times and the best part about it is right when it happened,

Hootie Johnson said, oh boy, that's what the Times quoted him as, like as the ball was ripping through the air right into the guy's face. So part of the reason I went and was like, well, you know, what if Jack or Gary or Tom blast one, you know, a quick snipe left and it knocks somebody out. I don't want to be there to be on the ground reporting but uh luckily you know they all three uh managed to square up the ball just fine. Well, uh I think we should probably get to the main event.

You know, speaking of the the uh opening ceremonies, it sounds like uh, you know, I guess the setup people will remember last year you you talked to us about Did a little impression of Tom Watson. I remember asking asking Siri. What was it? What year primary? Hey Siri, what what year did Winston Churchill resign as prime minister? So you're back in the old man beat what what question did you throw out at at mr. Player today? Yes, well, so, you know, it's I don't know how this bit became reality where I

do these things to Gary players face anymore. But it was kind of kicking around. What question can I ask Gary to kind of get him going? And Neil and I were talking a lot about asking press conference questions because Neal's never asked a press conference question and he was really trying to sort of get up the nerve to do it this year. But he was kind of nervous about it. Now I was like, just run your own race, man. Like anybody can ask anything. And so to kind of prove that to Neil, I said to Gary, you know, Gary, uh, in 1997, Tiger Woods famously went to Arby's every single day during the championship and ended up winning by 12. When

is the last time that you went to a fast food restaurant? Knowing that it was unlikely to be answering this question, but would give us some sort of delightful answer. And what began as, you know, I don't eat crap, pivoted quickly to, you know, I've got a girlfriend and and so does Tom Watson. Tom, you've got a girlfriend, don't you? I learned from Tom. And then, you know, a girlfriend, don't you? I learned from Tom. And then, you know, my friends are all dead. And I went to a, you know, a shop. What is it like?

I can't read the answer. One of his spouses are going to die? Yeah, well, it's not the end of life. All of you in this room, one of your spouses is going to die. Or you will. It's not the end of life. Keep going. It's a beautiful message. So, you know, and they said he went to a guy in India who gave him 11 tenets that he should

follow and, you know, the room was bustin' up. You're an oncologist? Mm-hmm. Yeah, the room was. Eleven things to work on. Bustin' up, laughin' and, you know, Gary gave me a good nod at the end. So, you know, it's when the mask becomes a face. Can you just read the whole thing?

I can't. I have to take off my sunglasses in order to do it here. Let me lean forward here. Well, you don't need to eat much at 90 if you're going to eat a bunch of crap. I can tell you that. But that's your choice. Everybody has a choice. I want to live to 100 because I love people.

I love golf. I just love life I've got a young girlfriend. I've changed my life. How about that at 90 finding a girlfriend? Tom is as old as not as old as me, but he's also found a new one I'll tell you what you guys you all you or your wife is going to die One of your spouses is going to die. And it's not the end of life. So many people, they don't happen to get so disheartened that they don't think they should continue life.

The greatest gift, the greatest gift bestowed upon us is the gift of life. So in my ambition, I want to reach 100. So I went to India and I talked to a gerontologist and he gave me 11 things to work on, which I adhere to. So I might drop dead tomorrow, but I'm going to give it a try. No answer though to the fast food question. Believe the question was, was that your handwriting, sir? Oh, man. Well, believe the question was was that your handwriting sir oh man well a little detonation of live in his and Phil yeah yeah I only seen playing much not really I don't see him out here so yeah Jack was you know it's said Jack subtly

sliding the knife in he clearly not a fan of some of that stuff. It also just kind of, you know, old, probably doesn't tune in. Doesn't, doesn't know how to get the app. Uh, Jack's one of those users who probably would watch live, but can't download the app. So it's out there. We think. Or Milstein's got his phone locked.

Took his face ID TC. They get to win back as iPhone passcode. God, that's good stuff. Kev, any other takeaways from the day? Otherwise, I think we might be at the end of the agenda here, fellas. I'm licksin'. I said Scottie was gonna win.

It's always trying to get out of this by saying, well, it would've been a boring pick. Yeah, like, you're also supposed to pick the person who you think is going to win, not just because it'd be a fun pick. I can't believe you guys fell for it with Rory again. I was trying to warn everybody. Thank you. I just I can't believe it. Yeah. And yeah, and Keegan. Yeah, hopefully we'll really believe he was gonna he was gonna win.

That was a fun. Yeah, that. Uh that was a fun pick. Yeah, that was definitely. You can still make a fun pick but you're I listen we had to make our fun. You know, yeah. Yeah, I straight up gave my I don't know if I got passed along but I put in the slack that truly

I actually thought Scotty was yeah. Yeah. Uh yeah. Lesson learned. We looked at for tomorrow. How we how we look in TC. Yeah, I mean, KVB. What's the word from on site? I've got some models to share, but what do you hear? Yeah, seems like it's going to be sunny again. Didn't didn't get into deep dive models TC, but everyone seems to think like the way it was pretty clear it looks like most of it should pass north of there there's some very severe storms heading through atlanta i think the airport's going to be a fucking disaster this evening from about nine to midnight uh but already i think

otherwise i think we're we're mostly in the. And tomorrow looks like we're going to get some winds kind of out of the west, gusting up to 25, 30 potentially. The models are in disagreement about how severe, but between like 10 and 15 sustained into 2025. And then weekend looks awesome. So we're going to get, I think, we get all four wind directions over the four days this week too, which is pretty cool as well. But I think- Proper test.

Yeah. The guys, it looks like there's going to be a little bit, I think the guys that can like the late early guys, I would think I'd rather be in that wave. Like Scotty talked about it in his press conference or in his little after the round interview today of just like, man, it's getting like it's firm already. Like this is going to be a firm masters and it's getting firmer. And it sounds like they've done a bunch of top dressing the last few years, which is awesome. And so I think the guys that can get in early tomorrow and kind of go post one and then go kick their feet up and sleep in on Saturday and you know go take their mind off it tomorrow afternoon and watch some carnage. I think that's going to be a distinct advantage which

Ludwig's in that group, Rory's in that group as well. So. Can I add one thing? Please. Since I was shit all over Mark Howard for not doing media, Rory didn do media today. And so I want to keep that same energy like that stinks. Did more call it do do media today? He's a top five player. So I hope they, I hope they asked him all sorts of questions. I don't know. I think Rom did media too. So it's just good.

It's just bummer. They don't, they don't often skip media at masters, but Roy's done it a couple of years now. So don't, don't often skip media at Masters, but Roy's done it a couple of years now. A lot. Yeah. So don't don't love it. Yeah. There's a lot a lot to not love from today on the on the Rory front KVB. Well, guys, it's not your fault. That's right. Exactly. It's not your. All in all, a banger of a day one at Augusta. Before we get out of here, I want to remind everybody the NLU Pro Shop is heating up with goods to get you through the spring. Celebrate spring by getting a warm NLU, a free NLU custom performance hat with any purchase of $75 or more now through Sunday.

Fill your cart. This is important. Order of Sunday. Fill your cart. This is important. Order of operations. Fill your cart. Choose one of the four custom performance hats and enter free hat at checkout to make sure the hat is free at store.nolangup.com. Gentlemen, I will not be with you Saturday or tomorrow or Saturday. I'll be back on Sunday. My brother's getting married. Wow. This weekend, which should be a thrilling time. Love is in the air. Full blooms. Love is in the air. God. You gotta put your heart out there. If it's been heartbroken. Get back out there. Couldn't have said it better myself. Roses are red. I will be back on

Sunday with a full voice. And guys, great, great being with you. Thanks to everybody for hopping on. Thanks everybody for watching. Thanks to Sully, Randy, our friends at Titles, our friends at High Noon, of course, our friends at Omni. Just a great day one. Let's keep up the energy. Yeah, I will not be here either tomorrow night, but listen, Godspeed to everybody.

I do have a request. I heard a stat this evening. I don't know if it's true. Scottie Scheffler has never made bogey on number five at Augusta. Which is true. That's that whole is so hard in its current iteration. If that's true, that's that's outrageous. That's one for the back pocket. That's like a that's like a just ray.

If you're listening, data golf guys, if you're listening, Lamonia, whatever, just look it up. Plenty of time to get into this, but like Scotty wins. We got a Scotty proof the course. Like what's gonna stop him from winning like eight of these? I don't know what you do. I mean, just make it way easier, I guess. Yeah. Right. Or his brother gets married on master's weekend,

like DJ's brother. True. I mean, he can't come. Doesn't have any brothers, he's got sisters. He's got a sister, all right, his sister gets married on Master's weekend, right? Guys, we will see everybody again for round two. Thanks for bearing with my voice. That'll be better on Sunday too, I promise.

Thanks to Cody, thanks to Matt behind the scenes. Cheers, everybody, we will catch you all tomorrow.