No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 986: Friday at Augusta

Episode Date: April 12, 2025

TM Rose remains your outright leader at eight under, followed by Bryson DeChambeau, one back halfway through play at Augusta National Golf Club. Vibes were high at the #Blockparty as Rory McIlroy's 66 puts him two shots behind Justin Rose. We run down the leaderboard, talk scenes around Amen Corner, welcome in special guest Shane Bacon, and play lingering/loitering and HFBITFB. Presented by High Noon. Support our sponsors: High Noon - Sun's Up! Rhoback - Best fit, Best feel! The Stack - code NOLAYINGUP 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. Yes! Johnny, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different? I want it I want it I want it

I want it I want it I want it I want it I want it I want it I want it I want it

I want it I want it I want it I want it I want it I want it I want it I want it I want it I want it Come on, big. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the No Lang Up live show presented as always by our friends in high noon. And welcome to the Block Party. We are having a wonderful time here in North Augusta and out in Denver, just not having a good time. Absolutely hating life. We got him on a speed bag right now

and we are a minute into this show. Mr. Big Randy, how are you? I've been better, but I'm doing fantastic. Fantastic. I'm here tonight so I don't get fined. Randy, no, we're not putting you on the speed bag. I'm happy to see you. I'm excited to have a dialogue.

I hope you'll come over for a nooner, you know, come by tomorrow. Why not? No, that's got some meats on the grill. Just come by. No, no. Sorry. Where would you like to go? I'm going to throw it back to you. Oh guys. Already trying to misdirect here. Uh, we got to give a shout out to our friends at high noon. I got the brand new. It's actually not that brand new anymore. It's been around for a while, but it's fantastic. The non-carbonated vodka iced tea is of of course made with real vodka real iced tea. It's got no added sugar If you're a hard tea lover who's done with the sugary based

Sugary malt based teas, you're gonna love the non-carbonated high-nude vodka iced tea. It's got 90 calories It's great for any occasion under the sun. It's got four delicious flavors It's got original lemon raspberry and neil picked up a bunch of the peaches. You know how Neil found those? Yeah. You know what? I went to the store locator button on the high noon website. High noonspirits.com that is. And he found a pack of shots. Shout out to North Augusta Beverage Co. I mean, they had a fantastic selection of high nints, Randy. It was great. It was a seamless process. And they had some pool packs, and some variety packs, and they had the iced teas. We're having a wonderful time here.

And shout out to our friends at High Noon. Story of the day. Is it the story of the day? Has to be the story of the day. Is it not? Rosie following up that 65 with a 71 solo league going into the weekend, please? Let's break it down.

Let's get into it. After dismissing him. Do you have any regrets on anything you said last night, Randy? Anything you want to address? Yeah, sure. No, I have a lot of regrets in this life. Listen, did I think he was going to come out and shoot the round of the day? No, I didn't. So let me start here. Randy, I wasn't on last night. Listen, I tucked my tail. KVV and I are working on a big project. We just feel a little overwhelmed, a little disheveled in the parking lot. I was getting

out late around 8 45. The cops like, Hey brother, where are you going? I'm going to my car, sir. I don't know where my car is. And yeah, I was, it felt like the biggest Houdini punch in a while, but you know what, Randy? I was feeling something and I want the juice, good or bad. And what I would say to you is I feel like you're leaning in on the other side of the argument, but I feel like it's got you tuned in. Rory is a bit of the needle right now. Are you like not rooting for it or you're just not getting your hopes up? Because those are two totally different things, I think. And one is fair and one I'm going to really be upset if, if that's the category you find yourself.

I yeah, guys, I am not rooting for it. Um, I think, I do think him being involved on Sunday is great theater. You know, my favorite major in the last several years was the US Open last year. I mean, how good was that? And if we could have something like that again come Sunday, that's wonderful. But no, this, this isn't like a hedge happiness hoping that Rory wins. This is like, uh, I'm here to see some pain and suffering. No, yeah, he's part of it's T's and D's for you, man. What a thrill to see him come up short one more time.

And listen, that I would feel that and it would hurt, but I would feel something and I would feel, I feel alive, Randy. And that's kind of, that's why I'm here being in person. Of course. Moving and dying with it. I want to give you something early in the round today. So Sally and I went out and we, we saw Rory T off and you could just feel a buzz in the gallery like,

oh man, it just felt like everybody was a little hungover and not like actually hungover, just a little disappointed from his finish yesterday. And we got to two green and we were standing up in between two and three kind of up on the hill maybe 100 yards up in two fairway and he made that birdie putt and I said to soli man that was kind of like a hair of the dog beer you know like man I just kicked that hangover it was a light a light applause it wasn't like a everyone was like oh well fine I think you know what that does taste pretty good I have a headache but uh maybe it'll go away and then he made a really really sensible par on three and I felt like we were we were pretty calm and steady and then I dropped you you kept following him

but I I saw him come through five and make a you know routine par there, which was pretty good So I'll let you pick it up. I went and I'm proud of last night in that I was upset. I was frustrated. I was borderline devastated, but I was adamant that like, he's playing really good golf. Like there was a route to shooting even, if there was a good route to shooting even par

is actually that one. I'll take that over just sloppy, unsure where the ball is going, uncharacteristic stuff throughout the day. There was like two uncharacteristic moments. And I said he should leave the golf course on Thursday feeling great about how he's playing. And today like some stuff kind of fell his way.

It didn't fall his way coming in, you know, it's mostly his own doing yesterday. It wasn't like the, you know, bad breaks or anything like that. But today it fell his way. He turns around, he makes birdie on 10, it was just hit an awesome shot and on 10, got the people going, had a tap in birdie there.

Turns over, stuffs one in there on 11, I mean, there's a front pin, but absolutely stuffed the pinata there. Had a good up and down on 12. And then the moment of the day on 13, hits it up into the pine straw. He had some quotes later saying that as the ball was in the air, he's saying, Oh God, you're an idiot for how far right this ball was going.

If you look at the Jamie Kennedy had a good snapshot of the if you look at his feet, he's aimed left like he pushed that ball off of that stance. But then he eats the eagle putt in there and all of a sudden he's 400 through four on the back line. Can I give you so I was in the in the press center at the time and they got these big jumbo TVs, Randy and you know, I was in the in the press center at the time and they got these big jumbo TVs Randy and you know I'm pretty In on the rule, you know, no cheering the press center. I I'm out of my seat

There is an audible gas when that goes in and just a flurry of energy of like everyone's like, oh man We got to get out there and it just it just moves needle right for the for the scribes It seems to move the needle for the fan who turns out on the course and it seems to move the needle for you I mean maybe in the wrong direction but I like seeing you feel something Mr. Big. Well listen I think what what do we like from golf we like we like rooting for the people that we love and we like seeing you know drama tension and, and what it means to be human. And so I think you're right.

Rory is the needle. I think he, he elicits more emotion, more takes across the spectrum than probably anybody else in the game right now. And so for him to come back, bounce back, you know, shout out Robe back subtle dog logo. Rory shown a little subtle dog out there today. It was impressive. I got to give him flowers. Now where I where I will push back a little. I was getting so many notes about I felt like we were gonna have a

trophy ceremony today on 18 green to award him. I don't know what we were going to award him, but we needed to give him some trophy for shooting a 66 today. I'll say this. A lot of golf left and we can go a lot of different directions. Randy, I wholeheartedly agree with you. And I sometimes I feel, I don't know, a little sheepish because yeah, it's like I'm with the sheeple.

I'm like everybody's in on it, right? But I feel like I've been here on the ground floor. I feel it, like I've authentically root for him. I can't help it. And I was talking to KVV about it out there. We watched him hit into 15. And I was thinking about 15 yesterday. And I think what it is for Rory with me is he does all the hard stuff really well.

He hits these shots I will never even dream of hitting. And then he has these typos. These just like, man, just proofread your work. Like don't chip it into the pond on 15 from back there. Just don't fucking do that. And I find that very relatable. And I want, because I've had so many rounds, you witnessed all these rounds

where I've done similar stuff. And if he slays the dragon, maybe that gives me a glimmer of hope that there's a mega B out there for me. This is the mega bonus. Maybe I could do it. You know what I'm saying? Well, this is goes back to your,

this is a comeback story, man. I mean, just a couple majors ago, it was one of the most devastating losses we've ever seen really in our time covering the sport. I mean, that was, it's harder to get much lower than that one. And it was like, dude, I don't know if it's ever gonna happen for this guy again. And he I just had a feeling he was gonna dust himself off and play some really freaking good

god only dust himself off. But like, you know, almost like go into into hibernation, you know, hang out like in plain sight in New York City hitting the simulator just, you know, deleting everybody in his phone, getting angsty. I mean, it's kind of a journey, Randy. It's kind of what we're looking for. I mean, I remember you saying it about a month ago, you had some chippy quotes for the media,

and you're like, you know, we took that kid's phone at the players, and you're like, good, good. Like, this is, yeah, like, I'm glad he said that stuff. You know, that's, we want these athletes to speak their minds You got to take the stuff you like with the stuff you don't like and I you know I kind of took that to heart. I agree with all of that

So some numbers behind the madness so far He is second in the field so far for the entire tournament behind Matt McCarty and strokes gained approach I said this was gonna come down to iron play He really did almost all of that in a five hole stretch between 10 and 15 today. He played that stretch. What was the shot into 11? He hit a he he had a great shot. I don't know the exact yardage he had into 11. I'm asking like the strokes game like a shot. I'm going 7-8 into that one. He had Yeah, it was very, very, very good approach out to that to pen, 520 yard par 4. There were not very many birdies on that hole today.

That was huge. Obviously, the shots he got away with were the shots into 13 and 15 where it could have gone a yard or two either direction, which is what it ends up coming down to a lot at Augusta. Could have gone the other way, but ends up getting the putt to lip in on 13. The shot into 15. I mean, obviously he's reacted out from that green was yesterday, but that barely covered and barely stayed on the front of that green and had a great two putt to save that one. He actually

ended up like a two putt very not very often do you gain? It was 100. It had to be close to 100 feet. We're standing there watching that one and fantastic to put I said said to KVV, I was like, he's definitely going to put this one because it's so hard. So he's going to, you know, gave us a, he's going to stay focused on this one. It's not, uh, and then, but then 16, you know, kind of bad, bad miss there, short-sighted. Uh, I thought it was in that front bunker, but I think he kind of caught a break and he had a little, it was a touchy, um, little chip shot,

but then he made that downhill sliding five footer. And that to me was big. So we were, we had a project, we were going out to Amen Corner to do some, to make some content, Randy. And right as we were walking out of the press center, he made that eagle on 13. You know, KVV like, maybe we'll stop by 15.

It's on the way, you know, it's on the way. And then it's like,, we kind of go see 50 I felt like I was at the roulette table way one more spin Yeah, what could go wrong and I thought we were gonna, you know get cleaned out there on 16 with a you know A follow-up bogey but that didn't happen and then we dropped him off on 17 and and we went on our way So I was hoping to come back to some good news and we did went on our way. So I was hoping to come back to some good news and we did. This was only the second time in Roy's master's career where he has shot the outright lowest score of the day. Um, off the top of your head,

could you guess when the other time that was? Uh, probably when he collapsed. No, this was, uh, the final round actually in 2022, when he had the whole out and to rise all the way up to runner up. Uh, Jack Nicholas did this 11 times in his master's career, shot the outright low number of the day. Ben Hogan is second with six times. I mean, those guys were playing against roofers as plumbers. Protrash Holdings Research Department. No, no, no, that was working overtime, Randy. That was flashed up in the press center. I completely stole that from that.

So let me ask you the edge from potentially bouncing right into the drink. Neil, like you said, 16, pretty good up and down. He got some breaks and he took advantage of getting some breaks. He made those cuts. And I think that's, yeah, I mean, that was it for Rory today. He put together about as good a as he could today after like putting them together about as poor of a score yesterday as he could have given how he how he hit the ball. I know he's not winning. I feel like he has played the best golf of anyone. Maybe Bryson second. Maybe him or Bryson. I haven't seen enough of Bryson. I've caught up on the highlights. I know a lot of people are frustrated with not being able to come into five and he just made a really, really

nice birdie at five sitting in the grandstand. It's like, God, look out. Here he comes. He feels like a clash of titans. Randy, great leaderboard outside of Rory. I mean, Aquaman's right there. We got team Rose, there's some historical connotations there. Aquaman is Scotty. I was gonna say who's Aquaman? And why? Because he's water. He's just, you know, he's just gonna wear you down. Erosion, baby. Just give it time, Randy. It always wins. Jeffler, yeah, that was about the most difficult 71 from Scottie today, especially that back nine. But you're right. And I think that, Neil, like compounding, the the the emotion and just the excitement

that comes with Rory on the board is seeing who he's surrounded by right of course like my eyes go to Bryson you immediately think US Open last year but you got you know like Cory Connors and Justin Rose like could they win yeah maybe like they're good enough I don don't think either will. But you have Shane Lowry. Of course you have Scheffler. You got T rel Hatton, his countrymen. And then you got some guys that like, Hey, if they could go out and shoot a 65 66 tomorrow, could vault themselves up there. Uh, leaderboard rules. I truly all really good. I feel like the anchor man like newscaster fight. You know, you got the Canadians like court, like channel four, Corey Connors is fight. You got the Canadians like Channel 4.

Corey Connors is here. You guys have been third every year. We got somebody for everybody. You got Hatton. The Liv boys are going nuts for him and Bryson. It's great. Yeah, I know. Bryson seems like, and I mean this as a compliment to him,

he's playing very boring golf. It's not been much of a thrill ride for him through two days. I've watched a lot of the replays back. It looks like he's just playing very smart golf, hitting it into good spots, taking advantage of his distance when he can. I know he had an up and down round one where he bogeyed five, bogeyed seven, bogeyed 12, bogeyed 17 and had seven birdies to offset those four bogeys. But today was-

Four birdies. Four birdies on the front nine. The guys that went off earlier today had it much nicer than the guys. I don't know what the wave split scoring actually looks like. Oh, I got that for you. You do? What's that look like?

Yeah, the afternoon wave was about 3 quarters of a shot higher. Interesting. You could feel the wind flip. I'd say about four o'clock. We were down on 13 and just started. The clouds got a little moody, Randy, and it started to roll in. Actually made a phone call to Atlanta and got my sources are telling me that it was

raining and it was like it's moving your way. It's kind of like, oh, you know. I got raindrops on me out there. Did you get it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Couple little sprinkles. So I thought it was just baluster, uh, kind of passing by, but it ended up actually being a rain drops. I totally missed that yesterday. I missed the raised Creek situation. That's fantastic. I just go back to the leaderboard though. It's like,

you keep going down and it just keeps getting better. It's awesome. I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like,

I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like,

I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, scale of one to 10. He's T nine right there. Like there is Jason days playing really good golf. He made his first bogey on the 36th hole, uh, his 18th hole today. Lee Westwood, Lee Westwood is right there at T 17. Who told us that? I don't know. We, we ran, we, we were thinking we had a bit for TC. We're going to

start calling Tommy just Lee Westwood. That's pretty good. Yeah. Just for now, Lee all Lee West would play well 300 great. Yeah, I mean, gosh, it gets it's the okay. I mean, just want to do how far back is too far back right now. Well, first, no, can we I want to sorry, I want to go to Rose, because I asked, I asked Sally this actually, this morning. And then I asked KVV and I asked a few other guys in the press center and I felt like everybody stopped to think so Randy I want to ask you 10 years from now who do you think has the better career 10 years from now is a different question okay or now right

now Adam Scott or Justin Rose I yeah I would say Justin Rose just because he has more I would say Justin Rose just because he has more, I would say, better opportunity. So you feel like right now Justin Rose had a better career? Which I think is fair. It's so close. It's remarkable. Yeah, I kind of think of them hand in hand. I don't know the particulars though. Well the more we got into it, and it was a interesting place to have this conversation.

First thing Sally says to me was, I don't have my data in front of me. I'm like, well, yeah, that's the point. Like I kind of want you to just think about it. And it was like, okay, they both have one major. And then you start to think, well, you're out there on the course. And it's like, well, I think, yeah, Rose, I think you want a memorial, right? Yeah. Okay, sure. You know, so it's like, if I think he wanted, then he wanted Adam Scott's got a players and he's got, he's got RIV and he's got the masters. Rose has the us open Memorial, AT&T, uh, colonial. And then, but Rose also has the rider cup stuff and

a gold medal. And Adam Scott has a FedEx cup about the gold. Adam Scott has a player or players, but Justin Rose has a judge. Justin Rose has a FedEx cup. So Rose has more volume, but it feels like Adam Scott has a little bit more prestige is kind of where we landed. But they were both number one in the world, I think, for a little bit. So then we started to get into this. It went off like 10 minutes with like everybody. And it was like, oh my God. So then Sally, of course, he got some data for it. So we pulled up the career data golf points list, which is something they've come up with. Basically, it's like your wins above

replacement. And Rose is 11th all time and Scott is 14th and they're separated by 13 points. Rose has 865 and Adam Scott has 854. It's sick. They're remarkably close in their careers. They both have eight European tour wins. Scott has 14 PGA tour wins. Rose has 10. They each have the one major. I kind of think like maybe just there's more that comes with winning the Masters, like you get to wear the green jacket and you get to come every year. That I would rather win the Masters than the US Open. I get

that it's two different questions being asked there, but... When I say all that to kind of set up like this is a massive opportunity, like Justin Rose, like that kind of- Rose's- Balts him into- Yeah, he should be a two major. Category. Yeah, you know, it's really, you start, because it made me go look at his career and I was like, damn, he's really, the longevity is there. And he just got a bunch of sneaky big wins plus a major. It's such a good opportunity. And he's been close here. So I really, I know we skipped right over Justin Rose, which is almost a know, almost a little bit of a bit,

but like I'm excited that he's on the leaderboard. Like I want to see him stick around. Not just longevity, but when he's out of it and hasn't been qualified, like last year, he wasn't qualified for the open championship when out grounded is absolute D off to get in that field and got his game back at age 44. Like in my head, I was kind of like, Rose has kind of lost his game. I didn't give him credit enough for how much his game has

bounced back in 2025. Is it, it regressed severely last year, and now he's kind of back to whatever he's been at this late stage of his career, and he's almost 45. Like he's- Plus some emotional highlights with the Ryder Cups over the years. I think that's where you get into,

you get into dangerous territory because he can't like, we're not going to judge Ryder Cups versus Presidents. No, I know. And that's, we were actually talking about that. That's kind of an unfair like advantage. You know, but then Adam Scott's like the most interesting man in the world and like, you know, surfer, tangible stuff, all that.

Cody, who you got? Whose career you want? I would probably say Justin Rose. I think that Adam Scott probably no shot like you can't really hold against him but had very lofty expectations thrust upon him in an amazing ball swing where everybody modeled and people thought that he was gonna be like the next tiger or be able to battle tiger more and that really never really worked out if you ended their careers right now,

I don't know. I feel like the master's a lot, but I almost like he was kind of like a amateur phenom. Well, he finished time for fourth of the 98 open championship at, at Birkdale with like as a 17 year old, but then like missed his first, like 20 cuts as a pro. And then, but then like bounce, I mean, both got to number one in the world. It's very close. It's extremely close. And I almost bring it up. I, you know, we can go somewhere. We can go anywhere on the agenda next, but that, that to me summed up the, it was just such a pleasant conversation to have without a phone. It went off for like two holes. It just is something, like if you're asking me like, what was your day like? It was like great conversations like that. And then you get back and you ask somebody

and it's like, I don't know, it's just fun, man. That was like one of the highlights of the day. Just thinking, watching them both play. Well, you know, somebody that like, go ahead. I was gonna say, he's a subtle dog. Like honestly, with Rose. Like that's how I think of it. And I feel like

we're veering off track from talking about Rory and I, cause I really want to get back to Rory here. I'm only half kidding here, but I do want to say you guys already know Roeback. They've got our favorite polos, hoodies, shorts, pants, you name it. They got best fit. They got best feel. It's simple as that. We're in the hardest spring. They're dialing up some of their incredible polo designs, been spying some of their florals on their site, have one on Sunday. Spying a lot of dogs. There's a lot of dogs out there. A lot of dogs. They're, they're stray dogs everywhere, Randy. And if you're not, if you're not a floral guy, the fairway

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Veteran of the show for I think a decade now as we're closing in here on the 2025 Master's. Mr. Shane Bacon, how are you? That means we're old, by the way. That means we're just old people. I need to give a quick shout out before I get going. Was listening to the show last night. And Big Randy used one of your stats today on the program. Actually typed it out. We built

a graphic and rolled it out. And so Big Randy add researcher to the resume. What was this? Oh, yeah. I made all those stats up Shane. I didn't say that part. It was the one about 65s and lower over the last 10 years and I went on to win. I thought it was a great stat. I of course forgot who it was.

So I had to kind of do my own research on it, but you were a big part of the program today. I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, those stats look a little funny tonight, but I'm having I'm trusting that you know, by Sunday evening, we'll you know, it'll be one of those guys that was around yesterday.

What what for the listeners sake, obviously, I remember who was in the feature groups today. But you know, for for the listeners sake here, can you remind us who was who was in those windows? Or do you want to talk about Roy for the next hour? No, no Well, I want to say first and foremost, I'm gonna make a pretty hot proclamation Been doing TV. I think I've been doing golf TV since 2015 Some level of feature groups or you know, whatever the case might have been This was the most fun. I've ever had calling golf

in my career today. There was a two hour run where all of our groups were on the golf course. Rory was doing his thing. Max was doing his thing. Scheffler just got going. JT was holing out. The block party, You know, you

can't, we can't party in our booth. I'm going to be honest with you, but Colt, Billy and I, we were, we were, we were, we were vibing and we were trying to have as much fun as we could. High fives looks to each other. Uh, that was, you know, I think it was 2011. Uh, so you'll, you'll remember this, but I think it was 2011 Sunday and there was just a lot of stuff happening. You know, when it was like Tiger's guys and this felt a little like that to me. For a Friday. That's, that's a heck of an endorsement.

Imagine missing out on this up again. I feel like I almost passed out out there. I was so jacked up. My blood sugar is low. Unbelievable stuff. Oh man. It was so fun. So the content center was, was, uh, was good energy. Love. Yeah. Well, the featured group booth. Now I haven't talked to, I haven't talked.

Grant Boone will be here in a minute. I'll ask him how it was on his side, how his room was doing. They, they turn the lights off in their room. We leave ours on. Um, so they might've been vibing as well, but, uh, no, it was, like I said, we were having a great time. I mean, and honestly, like Rory's run was, was incredible. I mean, I listened to you guys last night. It was somber. Um, you guys, uh, you guys, you guys didn't sound great about it. And I was, I still had a little faith.

I was hoping he was kind of coming into today, like what he talked about after with SVP where he said Two bad holes 16 good holes. I'm playing great as good as many anybody in the world right now I was kind of hoping that would be the take but I Think I had as much fun if not more fun watching Homa. Yeah, I mean the the max year I mean, we know what he's done the last year We don't have to go back over it But you know the par saves and he was missing it

big and he was finding par after par. And I mean, he misses that putt on one, you know, and you're like, here we go. You know, we're going to have to watch every shot of home today. You know, he's going to struggle his way home as Rose goes out and shoots whatever another, you know, four or five under. And that was gutsy, gutsy golf. And I mean, I know we, we know Max, we know who he is, but that was like, who the dude is, um, to a nutshell. And like when he

retires, I hope he puts this round of golf in his top five, five favorite rounds of all time. So can you give me a, I did not see much of Max today. I saw him come through, you know, briefly on a, a stop by the block party for a minute. He came through. Any specific point in the round, like one of those par saves, like which hole? Was it early? Or was it late? You got to watch his par on 16. I mean, he hit it like 20 yards right at the bunker to that whole location and makes par. I mean, like insane. And then then he gets to 18 T and again, I mean, it's Colton and I in the booth, you know, we're both, we're not rooting for him on the broadcast,

but you know, internally we're like, we want to see him make the weekend for goodness sakes. I mean, I do this, I have these sheets, I fill out and it has, it's like these, my mom made them for me, by the way, no big deal. I'm a blogger OG by heart and it has a little box in there last four starts. And this morning I'm filling them out for Max. It's like MC, MC, MC, MC. And I'm like, God, I mean, this is like, you know, you, you know, it happened, but you don't know it till you write it down. And he gets on 18 T and you're like, all right, man, like nothing nasty here.

And I think I said one of you guys, Oh, yeah, yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Big rain. No, you were like one more nasty here. And I think I said on the call. One of you guys, oh yeah, yeah. Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, big rain. No, you were like, one more swing here, Max. And immediately it went like dead left. Just left, you know, where you can't hit it. And I think I said, oh boy. Into the concession stand over there. Oh, and he hits it over there.

And then he gets it out, he punches it out. He, and then, you know, same thing, Colt and I are like, you know, just make five. He's trying to make five. You know, Colts like, you know, can't make six here. And then he hits it on that top shelf. He has an unreal shot lands probably three or four feet just past the hole stays on the top and he makes it buries it for par. And uh, listen, there's a lot of players in the field that are shooting 77 where he hit it today. And the fact that he shot shoots what he shoot to under. Yeah.

Well, only bogey was the first hole. Yeah. It was, it was just, it was professional golf and it was hard on display in every possible way a golfer can throw it out there. So I wanted to give max a little love off the top. I mean, I do, I mean, I'm happy to talk about Rory because. Like what a strive show reminded me of headed Aki on, on, on Saturday when he won in 21 kind of the iron shots, but max let's go.

What, what about Rose? I mean, we, we've, you know, tiny bit of a bit that we've been somewhat dismissive of them to this point. Hug tough today shot one under par. Obviously he's taken the lead into the weekend. The odds makers would say he's not the favorite to win this thing, but what can you tell us about what you saw out of almost 45 year old Justin Rose today? All right.

I'm going to give you a comp. Um, I think you'll like it. The way he played today reminded me of a T-dub at Hoylake. Like the game plan was, I think he hit seven or eight, three woods off T's on par fours and par fives hit three wood off the T on eight, keeping it short of the bunker. Just it, you could tell he had a game plan and he stuck to it. The putter remained relatively hot.

He hit a little, he had some kind of, I'd call them kind of chunky iron shots on the second nine, like, like not solid. He didn't play great, but you know, if this is the throwaway round, I think he's got a chance. I really do think he's got a chance. He made some big putts as well, but I did like the game plan because he never deviated. It was three wood here. You could see it was, it was never a question. The, the, the convo like Fuchin him have these combos, man. And it's like matter of fact, and like, like that's it. We're done talking kind of stuff that you're hearing

on the microphones. Like it's great to listen to and it's great audio. And so, you know, I kind of like Rose man, the team game plan, you know, there's no I in Rose. I liked what they did honestly around the golf course. Now, I mean, Willie stick to the game plan when he's playing with the dude that hits it 50 past? I'm like, that's what I'm wondering about tomorrow.

Yeah, there's a again, I'm not trying to be dismissive of Rose, but there's just some horses behind him. Like there's some guys coming and it's it's would be extremely unlikely wire to wire to win, wired wire win. And if he finished top five, that would be an awesome, awesome finish. The leaderboard looks like a Marvel movie right now. It's so wild. It's like just wild. What is that Batman and Robin? Is that the one that had everybody in it? I don't know what the new ones are. I don't follow the more. No, no the more like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chris O'Donnell and he's Tommy Lee. Joe Like the poster had it was they had a bit of small, they put tiny font to get everybody in there.

Do you know what you're gonna be calling tomorrow? I don't know yet. I haven't I don't think it's come through. It's very true but I do like the I gotta say I do like the like the first tee times like 950 so I'm not eating that. That's me Tom Kim and the marker Michael McDermott. Oh, my God. Yeah, he got in. I'm always got to play with Tom Kim. Hey, what is Dave Matthews concert with him either night? It was great. We had a blast. Are you guys pretty high on

Mr. McElroy? Well, no, hold on. Hold on. We've started a joint venture on the block party where I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do that.

I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do that.

I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if you're going to have one of the four rounds at the Masters where it's like, you just got to navigate my question. I was thinking about this. Would you classify Rory's round one as that given that he hit the ball really well and just had a couple of horrendous chips or is he going to have to fight it at some point this weekend? Do you think? Yeah, I think you're right. I don't think it was a throwaway round, just considering the way he drove the golf ball. I mean,

he hit the driver so much better yesterday than he did today. You kind of look at the stats. I mean, and Sully, I know you're right. I don't think it was a throwaway around just considering the way he drove the golf ball. I mean, he hit the driver so much better yesterday than he did today. Um, you kind of look at the stats. I mean, and Sully, I know you're the stats guy, but, um, it didn't seem like the stats were that different in terms of the way he played yesterday versus today. I mean, he drove it better yesterday. He didn't hit a lot of fairways today. So yeah, I mean, maybe his throwaway round is coming, but if you can't get up for, you know, tomorrow and Sunday after what he did today, if you're Rory, I

mean, two doubles, you know, I mean, he walked off the golf course and honestly, like the first nine today, he, I don't want to say he was moping around, but I didn't see a lot of energy out of the guy. You know, he makes that birdie on to kind of lips it in. Every everybody was a little hand doggy, you know, like a lot of matters like the party was probably, the music wasn't there, DJ was late, you were kind of waiting for people to fill up

with the booze. No, it was like the second day of the bachelor party. I don't know if I can do this anymore. But then you just give me one and then it's over. And then we're back, Randy. We're back. Everybody knows the time on the invitation is not necessarily representative

of when the block party starts. That's not when it starts. So you brought the energy. It's come through whenever it's open door. Here's I promise we will move off. All right. But here's what I think I honestly and truly believe this. It feels like to me that if there's going to be a time in his career where he takes something and like learns from what he has done wrong in the past and puts it into action, it's going to be a week like this one. Like I, it really was so rock bottom of Pinehurst for like how that collapsed, where it was like, I honestly thought if he either

may not get in contention, like for one in the near future, or if he does it, what do you have, you're not gonna get hurt worse than that. I, I hope I don't regret saying that. Like it'd be really hard. Oh God, that's sick. It'd be really hard to get hurt worse than that. But sure enough, it's priceless. They're with them too. This is gonna be incredible? It'd be really hard to get hurt worse than that. But sure enough, it's priced up there with them too. This is going to be incredible. One thing I'd add to that is I'm really happy through up EPUC and rallied on Thursday. To do that deal on 15 and 17 Thursday,

when do you want to make double? As early as possible. First hole. Right? So I feel like maybe we got it out of the way. I know how wishful that thinking is, but I'm fired up for whatever comes. Whatever comes, Randy, we're gonna feel things.

That's what I care about. I wanna feel things. I know you gotta run to some stuff, Shane. Any parting thoughts before we let you go? Let me say this about Rory. He's had a lot of different iterations of how he comes to this golf tournament. I think it's easy to say it's his favorite golf tournament in the world because he's trying so hard to win it, right? I don't think he's done this yet, where he

had the bad round and then had that immediate bounce back. He had it in 18 or whatever it was, or whenever he shot, what was it, 22 and he shot 64, whatever year that was, or 22. It was 22, yeah. Yeah. He had that, but that was or 22. But it was 22. Yeah. Yeah. He had that but that was the final round and he wasn't going to win even with that incredible bunker shot he hold at 18. This is a different approach and maybe this is the approach that wins. Maybe it's the kick in the gut, the bounce back the next day, the plane the way he played on the second nine, absolute striped show. I mean, the iron shot on 10 and 11, you know, some of the best swings

anybody made all day. And then he gets a, gets away with two, you know, he gets two breaks, the one on 13, you know, hugging that side. I think he said after he thought he might've hit it, you know, he might've hit it too far, right? And then he gets that great break. You know, Scotty hit it up, you know, in the Azaleas on 12, but Rory did as well. And he, and it comes back down.

Um, it's like a skee ball shoot when that ball comes out. It's, it's like this like this is kind of a different way of approaching the weekend for the guy. And I'm just hoping that he's as excited as we are, I guess you could say, about where he's at, because that was big boy golf. Can I ask one question before you go? Back to your original opening.

What was the moment today when you guys were kind of, when were the looks the best? You know, maybe a quiet yes. You know, it's a cult. Well, I'll say the second at 11. You know, he hits the one on 10 to a foot. And I think Billy and I had been talking a little bit about, like, we need a moment, right? We need something to happen. Um,

he hits it to a foot on 10, you know, obviously taps that in. And then the second, that, that pebble sawed off kind of half wedge or nine iron, I think he hit, um, into 11 and he started doing the Rory bounce and the bounce hadn't been there on the first nine and the bounce started and you're like, here we go. And when he made that, you know, you're like, okay. And I remember there was a moment, I think it was on, he was on 10 T and he, so he had turned, he was one under. And I think at the time Rose might've been nine under and, and I think somebody

had said something about, you know, this is, this is, this is Rory's under par. You know, he's making the turn and somebody had said something about, you know, this is, this is, this is Rory's under par, you know, he's making the turn. And somebody had mentioned he's eight back, you know, he's kind of lost a shot. And then I think Rose dropped the shot and he makes those two birdies. And all of a sudden you're like, you know, he's, he's, he's kind of like, he's kind of like, The par fives coming up! Gotten right there. And then obviously 13. But I mean, it was an incredible day of golf. I mean, this golf tournament, I mean, you guys know, and you guys were out there. And I mean, I know, I can't wait to listen to the first part of this to hear what you guys had to say about being out there. But you know, this golf tournament is

special to all of us in so many ways. And we've had awesome Thursdays and awesome Fridays. But this is it, man. I mean, this is why we became golf fans when we were 10 and 14 and I was watching that little TV and my aunt's lake house when Phil made the putt in 04 and you know, I was saying, he's with the alligator. Oh, I mean, just like it's the best golf tournament in the world. It's the most fun golf tournament to watch. They do it right every time. And It was just a joy to just get to watch that incredible level of golf by that many players For that extended amount of time, you know I mean it to like some of the best two hours, you know in the history of this golf tournament

Happened on this Friday and uh, and it was it was really special stuff. God. I'm here for that hyperbole That's that's fantastic stuff Shane. So It's a thrill to listen to you on the call as well. I'll be doing that the rest of this weekend. And congrats on all that. Your groups have been great. Yeah. I appreciate it.

Great to talk to you boys. Been a minute. Good to see you guys as well today. And big Randy, thanks for the stats. No problem. Whenever you need them. Thank you. Thank you.

See you, Shane. We got a few, we got all the pairings for round three. If you guys will allow me for a little bit. The final group out, Justin Rose and Bryson DeChambeau at 240. Rory and Corey Connors at 230. Matt McCarty, who we'll talk about here shortly, and Shane Lowry sneaky up on the leaderboard 220. Scotty and Tyrrell Hatton as a chance to be an all-time bitchy group out at 210.

Rasmus Hoygard and Victor Hovland, another Scandinavian pairing out at two J day and Sung J 150 Ludwig Hideki that is gonna be a ball straight I bet that ends up being a feature group. P Reid and Colin Moore Kawa. I love that one Xander and Lee Westwood paired together. It's gonna it's gonna be a great day. It's gonna be an absolutely epic day and I can't wait to unpack it. Hey, Solly, I know you're trying to move away from the block party talk. A lot of Rory. Obviously, TC gave him a hard time for skipping media yesterday, rightfully so, but he did have a couple good quotes today.

When talking about his first round yesterday, he said, I'm not gonna let two bad holes ruin the 16 good ones that I played. I'm being patient. I am resilient There's no one that's been a more resilient golfer than I have the last 10 years and that's not gonna change now He stretched patience today after his round two score Saying that he's sticking to a game plan He had a kind of a shaky driver today wants to get that back under control But overall very impressed with how round two went. I thought there was a quote in there too about

most resilient over the last 10 years. He's I mean, you get kicked in the nuts enough times, eventually you're gonna bow out. I mean, you start to look at the stats over the longevity. It's, it's pretty good, Randy. I always go back to 2011 with the still wins the embarrassment of the masters to go out and win the U S open by like 35 shots. The very next time out at the age of 21 is something we don't talk about enough. I know congressional was soft that week and it was barely a U S open, but uh, that, that immediate bounce back was, uh, it's something I keep. I, I don't, I don keep, I don't forget about.

Where you wanna go next, Selle? Oh, where, who have we not talked about on the leaderboard here? We talked Bryson, you wanna talk Hatton? I know you don't wanna talk Hatton. I'm just good. I'm just good. Yeah, we could talk a little Aquaman.

We probably need to talk Bryson. Yeah, I mean- We talked a little bit about Bryson. I mean, he just seemed like, like you said earlier, he looks really solid, really steady. He's doing this in reverse form from last year. I mean, he had a nice opening round yesterday, but obviously he had the 65 to open last year

and just kind of hung around from there, didn't do much from there, but shot 400 today in pretty assertive fashion. It's just kind of doing everything well. He's actually gained a shitload of shots around the green today. He must have had a chip in of some kind because he gained over three shots or just around the green today. His ball striking has not been that great yet, but he's getting it up and down.

He's putting it well to this point. I hope it's him and Rory. I mean, that would be the most fun to just do that whole thing all over again. Or sure. Scotty, you know what, Randy? Similar to what Shane just said. So we had all this drama, high level play during the kind of the prime time. And then I thought the last hour I got back here to our rental house. It was so good. Like the content we got on 18 from Scotty and from Jordan's feet was unbelievable. Scotty was sitting like Indian style under a magnolia tree and then he's getting kind of, you know, he gets chippy sometimes you got chippy with the rules official. Like, well, I'd love to make it small. You know, just kind of like, hey, man, maybe a please and a thank you would, you know,

it almost seemed like he caught himself because he was trying to win the masters Neil and you're wanting them to put a thank you on. So these guys talk to, you know, other umpires and officials with pleases. No, that's fair. That's fair. But he's literally sitting, just sitting down, like what, just taking a break in the trees. Uh, and then Spieth,

God, the most relatable thing ever. He hits that tree, which he, he, God, he, nobody clips limbs on 18, like that guy. And this time on the right side drops straight down and he, they, the, the Mike picks it up. God, Michael, that's a full shot. And he just goes like, three, four seconds later. And it's like, he gave it us. So frustrated. No, he said that's so fucking frustrating. And then he hits it. And he growls tells him to get over it. Yeah, that was the best part. Get over it. He hits it short, like way short. And he goes best thing about that shot is straight into the wind.

That's all that's like, it's almost like the telecast. Everyone's like, we're ready to go home. Like we just got to get to the end of this tournament. And those two last holes were fantastic. Fantastic theater all the way around. God, Jordan hit his iron so bad today. bad today. Oh, bad third worst on the day. My three and a half strokes lost with the, with this approach play. Randy's in our slack thread going, God, I need something from Scotty. We gotta have something down the stretch from Jordan and Scotty. And that's what you get. Just tough to all around. I was begging for one of those dudes. He really like speed there. Mickelson were going into know, going into 13 respectively the par fives and neither of them did shit. Yeah. What do we, what do we make of Scotty

to this point? He's only four shots back. Excuse me. He's three shots back. He's five under par roses at eight under par. Is, is he, um, should the guys be scared that he's there without having played his best golf or does he not look like the norm? Like the Scotty that would win a major? No, I think I have a specific moment that sums it up. He makes a horrible three, not horrible, but you know, kind of an uncharacteristic three putt on 16. He missed his spot by three yards and it rolls down the hill.

So three putts and then he comes back and he flags one on 17. And that's it. He's just another waves coming. Just wait for it. Like he turned around and bogeyed 18 though, pulled it right into the tree. It's just like, I just think he's going to snap right back. He's not going anywhere, man. Like I really don't think he's going anywhere. I, I, I, and that's what I'm rooting for that. Like I'm rooting for him. I mean, think about a Bryson Scottyty, Rory, Sunday, like just all bunched up at the top. Come on, man. It's like a live leaderboard. It's unbelievable. Yeah, I'd like I'm Scotty. I don't have a great feel on right now because Neil, I agree with everything you

just said, but also it just, man, it just seemed really difficult today for him coming in. And I'm not sure if that's like, Hey, everybody's going to have a tough stretch and you know, he's going to come out tomorrow and, and be crisp. But I don't know, it really seemed like he was fighting it. This is truly from somebody out there with no connection. You're looking at the leaderboard and basically through the front nine,

you look up and it's just a steady climb when you see Scheffler's name. He gets to eight, it's like if he's birdieing, everywhere he should birdie on that leaderboard, through the front nine. And then the wind kicked up. You know, like he got a bad side of the draw and I don't think it's true.

Like you got to, you know, take that into account, I think. And, uh, it got really windy out there the last two hours and he took the worst of it. So that, that's something that I'm, I think he comes back tomorrow. And he's in the sixties and he's right there on Sunday. This round could have been like three shots worse for him today too. Like he had a lot of luck on 12 and then chipped in for birdie there. You know, he hits it in the water on 13

and gets up and down for par. Like you said, flag that one on 17 to throw a birdie in there. This could have easily been like a 74, 75. You know, he airmails the green after he punches out. And then he just kind of, again, he just gets himself out of trouble. It's like, ah, you know what? I'll just chip it to three feet and tap it in.

And we'll take our bogey and we'll be back tomorrow and we'll shoot 69. You gotta like him though, just with his experience here, I think, right? When in two of the last three, like he doesn't strike me that it's gonna go away. I don't think he's gonna go away. I just, it just, it doesn't feel like he's sharp enough right now to go out and win it.

Again, may go on to regret that statement, but like it just doesn't feel like the killer Scotty that has won two Masters. And at the risk of, you know, beating a point to death, death like clearly I'm rooting for Rory. Big surprise but I want I want the I want the prize fighters there Randy I want the they will be I want the dog ring full baby let's go like like let's get them all in there Marvel movie. I want him to play well tomorrow. I don't want to quite honestly the next couple days we find out who's got dog in them. That's What this is like the actual dogs. I'm so fired up for this weekend It's two odds as of right now Rory's the favorite at plus 330 Scott and Bryson are plus 360. So it's interesting that Rory a shot back is still a favorite

By just a little bit over over Bryson, Scotty. That's all the dumb money. Yeah, it's true. That's very true. That's just dumb money right there. Yeah, I wonder how that happens. I know you guys spent the first 40 minutes of this show talking about Rory. I wonder why the money goes like this.

Justin Rose is plus 800. Connors plus 1,200. Shane Lowry plus 1,600. Tyrell plus 2,000. Those are subject to change and courtesy of the Fandals. Randy, Shane, Lowry, you know, listen, I still got a little bit, but not mud egg, egg on the blue is big board from from Pebble. How are you feeling about Lowry? Dude, Lowry is a guy. He's just not my favorite.

So this is always a tough one for me. I don't think he's gonna win, but it doesn't surprise me. Um, I, I don't think he's going to win, but it doesn't surprise me. I guess. Well, that's what I don't, I truly don't know. I, and let me, let me answer your question. That's the best answer. It's awesome. How do you think the course is going to play tomorrow? Is this going to be like, they're going to be fireworks and 64, 65, like, is this a true moving day Saturday or is it going to have some teeth in it? And, you know, 70, 71 is a good number because that, that would influence who I like, I think. Past years, Saturday has been set up tough and more in recent years with Sunday more traditional pins with some opportunity to go get it Doesn't look like they're gonna get much wind in the afternoons when leaders see off around 250

Six miles an hour to the northwest gusts up to 14 miles an hour It kind of hovers in that six to five to seven to six range throughout the course of the evening with gusts not getting above 14 miles an hour So you're saying it's going to be a perfect day? It's going to be a nice day. So the greens are already firm. They're not going to get any rain tonight. It doesn't look like. So I would expect to see kind of still a tough golf course. The course is probably tougher than I've led on over the last couple of nights. I don't think I've properly shouted out and given respect to how firm a lot of these

greens have been and how tough the conditions got this afternoon. So I don't think it's going to be, I don't know what they can do to make it really, really tough tomorrow big, but I would estimate that tomorrow plays harder than Sunday will because just traditionally they gave you the opportunity to go make some moves on Sunday. Yes, greens firm and fast. What else is fast, Oli? I mean, if you want to talk fast, there is something I've been doing in my backyard to get my golf swing a lot faster. That's of course the stack. This is just we got john Stockton over here set me up on the back screen. Come on. And speaking

of which Matt McCarty is a proud stacker himself got himself in the top five of the leaderboard the Masters. Is that any good? Is that is that sound like a good endorsement of this product? If you're not familiar with what the stack is, you can learn more about it at the stack system.com slash nl you and code no laying up will get you 10% off your purchase of the stack materials. It is an incredible program. It is a very fast workout you can do in your backyard. You do it once every three days. It takes maybe

15 minutes to warm up and maximum 20 minutes to do the actual workout. Can I say that the warm up is honestly one of the best parts of it? I now I'm using that before I play golf. I should do the warm up every single day just because it's good for your flexibility. And all you got to do is follow exactly what it says to do on the screen. You buy the kit, you swing the weights, you do the stretches, and you will swing the club so much faster. It will blow your mind how fast you will start swinging the club tangibly faster. Like it is insane.

Cody can attest to this. I know he doesn't probably have any data probably prepared for us, but the numbers I'm hearing that he's been pumping out have been insane. Thestacksystem.com slash nlucode, no laying up, will get you 10% off your purchase. I'm obsessed with this product.

Just make sure you have the self discipline not to swing as fast as you can once you get down on the course. That's exactly right. You're trying to try to elevate your max speed so that you can cruise at your 90%. Exactly. I've been working on that, Randy.

You're gonna get a new super power and you're gonna wanna blow it. Randy, I wanna go fast. Yeah. You know what I mean? No way. I know. I know Neil. Should we go down the leaderboard any farther in honor of TC? I know he's he's not with us tonight. But of course we should. We mentioned Matt McCarty there. We had an excellent, excellent

day started the day. He doubled the first hole today. Bogie the second hole. Hold on, speaking of leaderboards, how do you guys feel about the traditional on themasters.com? Traditional versus the over-under? They kind of default to the over-under, throws me off. Randy, where do you stand? Are you a traditionalist or over-under guy?

I'm a traditionalist, but I do make sure that I'm set to like the Masters. Leaderboard style, the leaderboard style. Yeah. Yeah, I'm a traditional I just got to know I got to know what the scores are. They're moving around too much. I can't yeah, I can't keep the rest. Keep the rest straight, but a massive round for Matt McCree, but he started bogey double. I'm sorry,

double bogey, getting a bogey on the second hole and ended up playing the rest of the round in seven under par. Made eight birdies, birdied six, seven, eight, nine, 12, 13, 15, 17. Bogeyed 18 actually to shoot 68. He's sitting there at 500 par. That'll be a fun round to go back and rewatch tonight. I'm going to put that one on my list for tonight. I hope I got him put on the broadcast camo tomorrow.

I just have a feeling Mr. McCarty might shoot a high number, but we'll see. Dang, drive by. Rasmus winning the battle of the Hogards. And I'll tell you, excuse me. I'll tell you what about Rasmus. He bogeyed both par fives on the back and still shot a 67 today.

He's four under total. The Hoyt guards might be the Danish version of the unstable compound. You do not know what you're going to get out of either one, from hole to hole or day to day or twin to twin. You just don't know what you're going to get. Can I just, I'm just going to read this. This is starting at T9 right below Rasmus. We've got Hovland, Day, Im, Abert, Matsuyama, Reed, Morikawa, Shoffley, Fleetwood, and then, what? Westwood, excuse me.

And then, and then Davis Riley. Basically everything until Riley, no offense to Riley. That's a brand name. Pepsi, Randy, that's a brand name. Okay. It's like, sure. Like blue magic right there. That's just, that's just big boy names right down the list. You got some, you got like historically big names and just like dudes. The leaderboard's awesome. Hadden sitting there. He hadn't bogeyed 16 and 17, uh, missed a absolute tap in on 17 and blamed somebody other than himself, uh, in the process. Of course I'm good. Good on Hadden.

You can take that away. Was not upset to see a bogey's on 16 and 17. He doesn't seem to want to be going away. Um, Vic shout, well, I was going to say shout out to Michael Kim too. We're not down there yet. We're on team nine. I didn't know you were going to go through like, I was, I was going to say shout out to Michael Kim too. We're not down there yet. We're on T9. I didn't know you were going to go through like, I was, I was, I just listed all those guys.

I know, but we got to talk about Hovland a little bit here. From reading the slack from, from TC, I thought that Hovland was leading the tournament when I got off the course, but, uh, he finished bogey bogey to shoot 69 to fall back into T9 and four shots back. Said his swing is about a six. Six. Uh, right now, uh, they asked him what it was at Valspar, it was like a four. I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four.

I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four.

I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four.

I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four. I think he's like a four. Titleist and I probably did like six, seven, eight videos that day. We did like a live ball fitting with Hovland. And at first I was like, okay, you know, this is not, this is on its face. It's like, this is not going to be very good content by the end of it. He and 40, the guy, the ball fitter for Titleist, it was the most fascinating thing ever of them talking about launch and spin and how he thinks about it and how important it is with his long irons and going into

firm greens. And it's just like, I would encourage people to go watch it because I think about that this 30 minutes that I spent with him, like every time he does a press conference, he's just one of the, if not the most thoughtful guy on tour. And Randy, to your point earlier with rent, with, uh, with Rory, like we want these guys to speak their mind. and I feel like Hovland does it. And I just want, I that makes me root for him so hard because I want to hear more from him.

I want to see him more. I want him to, you know, get back on top. And I just, it feels like he's just exposed himself a little bit around the greens. The moment the shots that I've seen him hit in person so far on the greens, like him off short grass around the greens. The shots that I've seen him hit in person so far on the greens, like him off short grass around the greens. I know he went through that period where it looked like he had everything fixed, but he just kind of regressed into still being below average. That's a part about this golf course

that does not fit him well. If you're gonna swing it at a sixth level, like you're gonna end up having to get up and down a fair amount, and that's kind of some areas that cost him a little bit, especially on the back half. He lost strokes around the green today. it's also hard to get super hyped about him if he's if he's going to tell us his swing isn't all the way there and I know he won with it but it's hard to it's hard to feel like he's going to go run people down

this week. It's a bit of the the art class kid you know mine sucks and it's like they turn around it's like the Mona Lisa like no mine so it's like dude you're a good artist like we all we we see it, you know Come on, you're not hitting it that bad clearly Sung Jay doing stuff but not really fully in contingent to win it that sounds seems about right about right about t12 Ludwig disappointing 73 From Ludwig today bogeyed six and seven and bogeyed 17 and 18 It seemed like he played he's played better golf than to be three under par at this point. Go a shot to go back and watch and I haven't gone back and watch this one actually yet

but I was there on 10. He pulled a ball so far left on 10 that I was like, I'll go down the left man. I like love big like he's gonna need some help look for this golf ball like he pulls it. There's a set of like looks like about eight trees left of this tee. And he hits this ball in this gap that I'm pointing at here on the screen. Like it went so far left. I have no idea.

And we get down there and, oh, it hit, okay. That's what happened. It hit a tree and came all the way back out into the grass. I was like, he's not gonna find that golf ball. I don't know why he's not hitting a provisional. But from then on out, he did not play a very good, very good back nine.

But still in the golf tournament, I would say and then Hideki hit the shit out of the ball, as usual and sucks at putting and still cannot put today alone, gained almost four and a half shots with strokes with with approach play gained six and a half with Tita Green, he almost lost two shots and shot 68 today. Like the guy still just continues to not be able to make putts. P right there at three under more cow right there at three under. Randy, any more call with thoughts?

Uh, nah, no, honestly, like not. No, he had a God that bogey on 18 today was tough for him. Um, but he's showing a little, he's showing a little fight back. I mean, he's a guy that needs to go shoot 66 tomorrow if we want to take him seriously. I just wanted to... Jason Day, I feel like, is loitering, loitering, loitering. I'm a little nervous about him. As well. And he looked really sharp today. I'm kind of a sucker. of a sucker. Mock neck Monday this year is killing it. Mock neck. Mock neck looked fantastic with the visor. So, uh, other than the bogey on 18, are we coming around to his fits or are they getting better?

I think they're getting better. I think, I think it's, I think we're meeting in the middle to be honest with you. And, and I think his haircut. Yeah. Just like the block party. And, uh, other than, yeah, You had a blemish on 18, but otherwise he was Randy, he was in the tough wave too. So I think even credit to him. Well, and that he had a put on 18 to join steady Eddie Snead is the only, what would have been two people to go 36 holes at the masters without making a bogey first two rounds. That poor fucker. It was.

I hear that name. I feel like I've picked Jason Day to play well for years, literally since like we started NLU in 2014. It's like Jason, he should play well. He puts it great. It's a great. And so I'm, I'm excited that he's on the leaderboard. I know you say he's loitering.

Like you don't want him there, Randy, but I'm, I'm, uh, I'd love to get him in the, uh, in the newscaster fight. I think he's loitering like you don't want him there Randy, but I'm I'm I'd love to get him in the in the newscaster fight I think he's got bad intentions. The other guy the past champ Patrick Reed. I think has bad intentions like I know Those right pins tomorrow Dude he's had a lot I mean he's played he plays well here and he's in a spot where he could like he's not out of it at two time Masters winner Patrick Reed is is that's fun. Any I want to get if we're going down the leaderboard will go cover some miss cuts here a little bit. Well, no, I hold on. I want to

give Fleetwood Westwood a shout out. OK, minus three. I think he played really well. I saw Tommy come through 15 and he just was he was playing angles. He played it down the right It seemed like he just had a proper day of golf and he was also kind of in the I guess he was a little earlier Before it got super windy. He finished up Michael Kim Continues to play good golf this year. That's awesome. Anybody else? We talked about Max just to get a little deeper into the leaderboard. One just personally, it's off the gala. He was left, or sorry, he's right on 18 and he played it up 10 as Scottie's group was coming

down 10 and he played it up into 10 fairway and they chipped down on 18. It was just kind of a fun, you know, just a fun thugala moment of like, man, if we could give, we could get my guy off a little better. Like if we just can play a little better, especially off the tee, we, we, we've got something. Uh, Justin Thomas made the cut, uh, at even par. He's sitting there at T 27, really small group at, at plus one, and then a massive group, uh, at T two includes Tom, Kim, Spiethieth, Neiman all making the cut on the number, but still just,

just needs calling out totally unbecoming of John Rahm. I mean, he had 17 pars and a birdie today is only birdie was holding out a bunker shot on the seventh hole today, but just him being a total non-factor in the first major of the year is disappointing for Neiman. It's unfortunately very on brand, but for Rom, it's like very, very disappointing to see. Two Rom things. Sometimes when you go to a golf tournament,

you're not trying to follow somebody, but I kept like almost running into Rom, like, oh, Rom's coming through again. What are you doing here again? Yeah. Get out of my way. Basically. So he pipes his drive.

I'm on five, I'm in the grandstand. And Rom hit the longest drive. I mean, he probably I'm in the grandstand and Rom hit the longest drive I mean he probably had gap wedge into five He hits it to like 40 feet and just from you know, a hundred and thirty yards away Randy. I just see the arms And just you know, just you almost hear them and then the shot that I want if you want to talk about shots to go back and watch go watch his T shot on 15. And he's some good commentary there of, it's incredible how bad I am with the driver. Just beating himself, lashing himself.

And so we picked him up on 15 in the fairway and he was over like, I don't know, 15 yards left in the like a hundred yards short of the green in the patrons. And I was like, man, I wrote it down in my notebook. I got to see how did Rom get here. And I went back to look, that's why I saw, I saw the drive some, some good theater there. And it's one of the few shots they didn't pick up on, uh, on the shot tracer or like the master's app. So I don't, I still don't really know how he got there. Um,

I don't know if he tried to go through the trees and he hit a tree and it went left, but you know, you see guys trying to lay up on 15. It's such a wide place point about Scotty earlier, Randy, just feels hard for Rom. Based on his commentary, it doesn't seem like he's getting off the tee real well. I have a commentary on 15 in general. So we have some added new factors to this. We have a very firm green, all right? It's quite new. And we have a newer tee within the last couple of years that has lengthened this hole significantly. And we also have had the effects they've put on this hole of squeezing in the fairway, bringing the trees in down the left, the fairway cants in that section down the left to block you out. I don't think you need all three of those things. I think they should take a look at, like similar to how they've done with 11 of trimming it down, they just have the three kind of somewhat silly trees there in the right center of 11 fairway.

But if they're a factor that you can play around, it's not like completely limiting, but it's definitely in your way if you're offline. They should look into doing that with 15. Whereas if you end up down that left side, you may or may not have a tree and you may have to cut around the tree, you may have to draw it around a little bit, but you're tempted by it. Like let somebody hang themselves over there. Instead of it making an easy decision to punch out, I get why that was there when the hole was only 530, but now that it's 550 I think you can you can eliminate that and add some excitement to that hole That's what we I remember we got in a big like big argument about this a couple years ago

I I feel like I always I didn't like it when they lengthened it I I kind of wanted those guys to have a six, five iron, six iron, like kind of like, man, if you don't go here, like, what are we doing? You know, and I, and I don't know if you were on the other side, I don't know who was on the other side of the argument, but it was like, no, it's too easy if they have a mid iron in their hand.

And I'm like, now it's so much easier for them to just, I don't know, take the easy route. Not that it's an easy wedge shot, I know downhill, but I, I think 15 top of the hill is my favorite shot on the course to watch. It's just truly like redline the engine. Like, do you got it or not? Your point about the new green and how firm it is

is a good one. Only three Eagles so far through two rounds, through the whole field playing it twice seems like not very many. I'm not saying making a turkey shoot but it just seems a little. Maybe it's just a little out of balance. It's still just such a striking like hill to crest and you see the amphitheater and all the people 16 in the background now that there aren't the trees behind it. It's so cool. It really is. I feel, I don't know Randy,, I was saying to Sally or KVV, I was like, man, I kind of want to be cynical about something, but being on site, I'm just kind of like, this is sick.

It's like, I wish I had something else to say, but I've had a few like moments where I'm like, God, this is such a sick view. Like, what are we doing here? It's awesome. You're getting soft. I'm getting so I know I'm catching I'm saying that to myself out there. I'm like, God, dude, like, you know, I'm I'm lame. I'm you know, I'm not gonna be late. I know I can't help it though. But that that shot specifically gets me every time. As we're going down the leaderboard, I want to give any

any nominees for a subtle dog because I've got one and this wasn't even this isn't even that. So please go first. My subtle dog of the day goes to Nick Dunlap goes out and shoots 90 and I'm sure quite embarrassing fashion. Yesterday ends up finishing today bogey bogey bogey to shoot 71 had it to four under par through the 15th hole was in the in the in the tougher half of the wave as well. But, uh, I just want to shout out that performance today under par and what, and around, uh, after shooting 90, um, had to honestly feel pretty darn good for him.

So the, the finish was disappointing. TC and I were both very much rooting for no rounds in the seventies or eighties from Mr Dunlap this week. That would have been heady territory. Can I give you a dog? Russ Henley. Yeah, that was my second nominee. 68, he shot 79 yesterday, shot 68 today,

but I have a specific anecdote for you. So there's a kind of a gnarly crosswalk on five. You get trapped there, like they don't open it up too often. Just, I don't know, they don't wanna impact the players, but they'll bring, when don't open it up too often just based. I don't know something they don't want to you know impact the players, but they'll bring when they do open it. They bring the crowd in a quarter of the way on both sides and then they let the players almost pass through this channel of patrons and hunt and Henley and Koepke and I think Sung J.

I can't remember who the third guy in the group was but it was Henley and Koepke and this guy next to me hits him with go dogs, you know, and he just hit kind of an okay shot into the green and he turned his eyes. He goes, hell yeah. You go dogs. Like he's like at the time, I think he's seven over, you know, and just kind of like in kind of engage with this guy. And it was kind of a funny moment and the guy got all excited and then kept to walk some nights. He goes, goes go Noles and get me. doesn't even, doesn't even know. Fuck.

Great. Stride doesn't look. And I don't know. It was just kind of like, Hey man, when the chips are down, like I thought that was a cool moment and then he comes in, you know, comes in and shoots 68. So bogeyed 18. You left the putt short to make the cut. He missed the cut by one.

18 was tough today. Really tough. Toughest hole in the golf course. Average four over 4.6 shots today. Neil first. Toughest hole in the golf course. Average over 4.6 shots today. Neil, first time covering the Masters in person as a press member. How many observations and what are your main observations you have? Yeah, I tried to, you know, you almost get a little, oh, what should I say? You know, it's just like, it's hard.

It's overwhelming. You know, it's like fish songs, Randy. You kind of like them all. But I got three things for you. First up media center gossip or press center gossip. I was, I was get a kick out of like, cause I, I, I feel a little out of place in there and uh, but it's been really nice. Uh, it's fantastic. You know, they, they, I, they almost treat you so well. How's the spread?

It's really good. It's kind of the same stuff you get on the course, but they have this really nice sit down restaurant. You can go get a full really, really good. It's kind of the same stuff you get on the course, but they have this really nice sit down restaurant. You can go get a full really, really good breakfast. Got to take my hat off the first time I walked in, got, you know, got asked very nicely, but sternly to take my hat off. That's my bad. Um, so media center gossip, media center's buzzing, but absolutely buzzing about, uh, Caroline Wozniacki being on, on site. And the rumor, it kind of mushrooms, right? And all of a sudden, it's like, yeah, she was

there on 15 yesterday when he chipped in the water, just like she was there on 10 T when he hit it over by the cabins, you know, like, truly, none of that's true. I don't know if it's true. I don't like but that's what she would border said she saw he saw her. Well, that no, he said he saw her on site with her husband, David Lee. But then it's like somebody else says, no, no, I saw she was on 15. That's where I worried she'd be in the water.

And so I just got a real kick out of that, just kind of being in that kind of stupid gossip where I was like, that's not true. But then that balloons ended up, man, what if my ex-girlfriend from high school was, what if I ran into her, Augusta? I'd be kind of like, hey, what are you doing? Yeah, I'm just doing this golf thing. Yeah, it's a big deal. Like, I just got to go to the FOMEX interviews to be whatever. So what are you married now? How you doing? You know, what's up? Yeah. And I just think about like, if that's true, I could see, you know, I could see myself chipping it in the pond on 15, to be honest with you.

So that was, I got to kick out of that. Let's see. What else do I have here? I saw Bernhard Langer. I followed him for nine holes on Thursday and he was playing with Noah Kent and 80 yards between their two golf balls. Just seeing some of that in person and Langer could, he could play, he could keep playing, playing man. I mean he barely missed the cut and he just he threw a freaking dart into 12 and it was just kind of like a really cool moment. Um, and KBV and I are working on a long form narrative pod. I'll plug that. It's going to come out hopefully Tuesday, Wednesday, next week of kind of like our

experience, uh, over the week. And I think that's going feature in heavily, you know, but I expected Amen Corner to be, I don't know, I didn't really go down there until Wednesday and it was awesome. And I expected yesterday when I went for the first time for it to be kind of like a really good concert and you're kind of fighting for position.

And you know, I'm gonna go to the other parts of the property where it's not as crowded and it's not, it's, you can easily see the golf. You got all this, there's 11, 12, 13 teeth and just a lot of good energy out there and no mashed potatoes, no getting the holes. Nobody's trying to get attention. People are clapping when they should all of it's true. And that's really,

I just want to re-emphasize, like, it's just really refreshing to be, like, locked in on the golf. So that was another thing. And the other thing, I just had the, my favorite foliage, Randy, I thought you would like that. So I was writing down, like, it's, you know, it's kind of a botanical gardens at Augusta National. Yeah, my three, three of them I have right now are bamboo behind 14 I think is really good. Just kind of Hey, that's cool. There's a palm tree right a four, four green that I think a lot of people know about but you see it in person like that's just kind of cool. They have a palm tree there. And the Japanese maples on 12 and 13. I just think I'm a big Japanese.

The franchise is a massive Japanese maple guy. Um, so I really liked that KVV and I are on the hunt for the lob lolly pine on property. Um, I think the leader in the clubhouse may be the one now, the solo one behind 15, um, but I don't know, maybe there's another one. I'm exploring the space on the pine. But those are those are the leaders and I'll be on the lookout for more this weekend. What what are what the crowd noise like down there in the Amen corner? What can you tell us? There's a low rumble. It's a little bit more.

I would say people are less focused on the golf down there than they are say around two green or 80 where we were there today, like three green. People are really locked in on the golf. Amen Corner feels a little bit more like people visiting the Sagrada Familia. They're kind of just happy to be there. We, you know, we saw the kid, Ken Griffey's down there taking pictures of like credentialed photographer, you know, it's like you're, you're, you're kind of as in all of like, Oh my God, there's that's so-and-so that's so-and-so. And, and then this, the, the setting, you feel, you kind of feel like you're in a painting. Um, I think an incredible scene down in Amon corner, a hodgepodge of birdies from young one Rory McElroy

I stole a birdie on the 10th hole in the 11th hole one patron standing near me said this is the second best thing She's ever seen number one on that list seeing Shania Twain in concert How about that company for one Rory McElroy surely discharged to the clubhouse will only go swimmingly all the way through? Charlie discharged to the clubhouse will only go swimmingly all the way through. Crack on. It actually did go swimmingly from there. That's a surprise. And I will give Scoops a shout out. I got to see Scoops work live and tune in next Tuesday because I think that's

gonna play really well. Watching him cook up a meal, Randy, something special. I think we might have that for tonight's show as well. I think that was tied to some of the suspense of the day. Many people asking if you guys were going to, you know, you and KBV entering the Masters lottery. We can get to the new, the answer to that question on the back half, because I think Scoop's had some on the ground reporting about that. Multiple storylines brewing here at the Augusta National Golf Club. Rory McIlroy in his 11th attempt at the career grand slam has the crowd abuzz,

as well as Mr. Kevin Van Valkenburg, a long-time journalist from Baltimore, hoping to win the Masters lottery today. A tradition here at the Augusta National Golf Club, press members enter a lottery with the opportunity to play the golf course with Sunday pins on the Monday after the Masters. Kevin Van Valkenburg will make his eighth attempt, I believe, at believe it and we also have our young Icarito Schuster his first timer It's been a long time since the first timer has won the Masters But it's not been a long time since the first time from the no laying up podcast has gotten lucky and won the lottery

We'll find out today sometime around midday on that one We'll have to wait until Sunday on the Rory McIlroy storyline coming to you live from Augusta National Golf Club Spoiler did not win the lottery. I'm like, I did not remember hearing anything or seeing anything on the slack channels today. No, I was, I, I kind of, honestly, I kind of forgot about it. And then we actually pulled up in front of our rental house and Kevin was like, brought my golf clubs all the way here for the seventh year and won't be using them. I was like, oh, they announced the lottery. Yeah,

neither of us won. I was like, oh shit. I went down, you guys weren't in the music and they, they announced that it was, it was up for bid. And I, I, I, I took off cause like my, my heart was genuinely racing for the both of you. I was like really hoping somebody would they've, they're flashing the names up on the screen and the second group comes up in the screen freezes like literally freezes. They'd go and fix it. There's a whole group of people sitting around waiting to see who would win. And it finally came back and went through the list and you guys were not on it. Unfortunately, I did a good job not thinking too much about it, but you know,

Randy, a couple of spots on the course where I let myself be like, God, this would be, I'd like to know what's over there. You know, maybe I could, maybe I can walk over there and you know, maybe I could pee in Rays Creek. I don't know. I would never, I would never. There was a, I'm sorry, man. That's disappointing. That's okay. Hey, let's, it's the lottery. Whatever. You know, I had a good run on the roulette table in Vegas last week. So, you know, luck, luck comes and goes.

Well, we're hot on the reporting trail, I think there was a few other, just sightings of general people on the grounds there up by the first tee. A great Southern tradition unfolds at Augusta National every April. Let's hang underneath the tree. Yours truly just shared, Nazeila, underneath that tree with fellow Southerner Peyton Manning, famed quarterback of the University of Tennessee and the Indianapolis Colts and of course the Denver Broncos. Met with a Texan there, a Houston alum, Mr. Jim Nance came up to our conversation and one more Texan known more commonly as Big Tex, Yasser Al Rumiyan, hanging out under

the tree in the place he always wanted to be. He has not been granted his green jacket as of now, but I did see him speaking with a fellow green jacket potentially about a membership, but I cannot confirm with that rumor. I will keep my eyes peeled for this story as it unfolds. Sure enough, I come in off the golf course after watching Rayvon Amon corner and Yasser's chilling under the tree, uh, talking with Scott O'Neill and a green jacket. How about that? Got a good kick out of that one. How was Peyton? You talking to ball with Peyton? Uh, just, no, you know what I just said?

You know, we, we've said the Noah's quarterback ranking stinks. Fuck guys. I told him, you know, we've, we've had to report it so often that we, we do, do work once a year for Omaha, uh, indirectly with ESPN. We're so upfront about that. But you know, of course, we want to thank him for that opportunity. And, and he was he couldn't have been more gracious with his time. It was nice. Couple of KVV has just sent this over that Nick Dunlap got a question in his presser afterwards, what did you do last

night? And then how did you prepare for the round mentally? And Dunlap said, I hit a couple buckets of balls at my Airbnb into the woods. I don't know if there were any houses or anything back there, but you just hit a bunch of balls. And I had more of a knot in my stomach today than I've ever had starting a round of golf. I definitely can learn something from that, but it's certainly not a position you ever want to be in again. Said he sent his trainer to Target to get a hundred balls that he proceeded to hit into the woods last night. God found it. Found it. That's amazing. I stumble upon those woods in a couple of days and be like what was what happened?

What kind of what kind of ball is Dunlap play? There's might be a lot of nice golf balls back there. It just he just got a bunch of different ones. It was different kinds of balls of different colors. Probably just the cheapest. Really? It sounds like bagger van stuff. You know, just like I got a fuck. Captain judo is gonna find it. Guys of the missed cuts. What is what do you guys think is the most notable most disappointing? All these that stick out to you. We

have several to name here we have., well, Ken, before we, one last guy on the leaderboard, Akshay, because it's disappointing. I thought that was 76 today. I felt like he was cooking yesterday, Randy, and I loved your takes last night. I really like watching Akshay hit the golf ball. I wish he was kind of still in the proceedings.

Sure. Thank you. All fair, All fair. I, Sali, I think, I mean, probably Kepka for me, just in like, I was, it'd be nice if he was still a factor, but I think that ship might be sailing away from us. Is it over for major? Does Keppke win another major? Question mark. I think the safe money would say no. I'm not right.

I'm not giving up on him yet. I think I'll definitely sniff around again. He made quad to shoot 70. Made quad on 18. That feels like a kind of an out, like a bit of a white squall. My big disappointment was Will's outtourist. Kind of feel like he's had success here. Feels like, hey man, he's healthy, you know, bulked up.

Feels like a good time to, you know, I think Tron was talking about with Max a little bit and Xander, like, hey, if you don't play well at Augusta, then I'm worried. And this is kind of the same thing with Will's Alitouris. Like he's been fine to start the year. Not great coming back from injury, give you a long, long rope at 78 today. Uh, just kind of like similar players, just a really bad back nine. They just kind of popped out of nowhere. Cause he looked fine Thursday morning.

He looked like he was hitting playing with Langer, hitting some good shots and then just kind of train wreck on the back nine. Again, tough side of the draw, but 78 is not going to get it done. I was I had him. I was touting him at 55 to one going to this week and that's it didn't work out. Did not work out. Non total non factor. Dustin Johnson missed the cut by one. I don't think I saw him on the grounds this week and that just didn't work out did not work out. Non total non-factor Dustin Johnson missed the cut by one.

I don't even think I saw him on the grounds this week. He uh I did he's not not necessarily bring a lot of Sergio. I was pumping him up coming into this week as well. He shot 72 76 and uh will be exiting the proceedings. Adam Scott had a really tough week. Phil we were uh I'll apologize actually I'll apologize except Straka. I've been yeah I've been gassing up. Strakka. Hold on. Randy was, somebody was gassing up Phil in the preview show.

I'll take that. Yeah. John P. Richards. Will you apologize for thinking Phil could win? Yeah. 100%. I'll apologize for that. I got, I got swept up in a lot of the propaganda I'm reading on Phil's channel. You could tell me Phil wins next year and I would believe like it's in the realm of possibility. I think it's telling that we got this far into the miscuts. Nobody even thought to bring up Keegan 74-73 to be a total non-factor. I know, I know KVN.

He's sitting over here just off camera. A 225 to one ticket that he will not be able to cash. God, he had so many Keegan plays for everybody on Wednesday, people so close, just tough stuff. We saw it, man. So my 10 guys, I don't know if you saw it or not. My guy, I hate I hate to do this cam young. I don't know if yes. Oh, really bad bad 16 green was it? I likes you have six putt itt it looked like. I mean, um, uh, maybe a five putt, uh, missed multiple times trying to tap it. Who among us hasn't done that?

He didn't like rush either tap in that much either. It was really, really bad. Uh, he shot that power lip that hadn't got on seven. That was, God, that was like, that was another thing in the last hour of coverage. What's going on here? That was crazy. Uh, Randy's pick Lucas Glover did not make the cut as well. Big shot. Bob, who we're touting the mid iron play, uh, did not make the cut. Unfortunately, Billy Horschel not making the cut. Got this question from Zave 1918. Should Cam Smith still be

thought of as a top player? 71 78 missed cut. Ah, man, that's a good one. missed cut. Man, that's a good one. I think that needs a little bit more. We gotta define what a top player is. I think that's your own definition. I don't include Cam in like the upper, like it's Scotty, Rory, Bright, like Cam's not in that group. He hasn't been in there for a year. I don't think he deserves it. That's such a great Augusta national conversation without any data. Oh, I'm psyched.

Yeah, absolutely not. Just total feel. No, he won't live out of it. I remember seeing him. Took a couple of highlights of him. So I think he's still relevant. Just total gut feel on that. Easy quick answer, absolutely not.

This form of him is not anywhere close to a top player. Well, that's with the data. No, that's the last three years. He hasn't done absolutely not. Like this form of him is not anywhere close to a top player. Well, that's with the data. No, that's, that's, I mean, the last three years, he hasn't done absolutely anything. I mean, I could have told you that without looking at the data. I mean, he, can he refine his form potentially, but he is, he has not been anything of a threatening player for three years. Now the ball striking has really fallen off in 2022 was a long, long time ago. He was unreal that year. Won the players, won the open, was a complete bomb threat from anywhere on the golf course. And that's just, that's gone.

I already did a Kapalua that year. Turn, well, I remember he shot like 27 under and then master, God, he was so good. Won the players in dramatic fashion and broke Roy. Yeah, and then he went to live and it was never the same and I hate to correlate. Let's let's let's look. So we got D Shambow. We've got Hatton. Then he read. Which two things about Bob, we didn't shout out Bubba. He's he's

at T 22. I'm just kind of going down the live list here. Just real quick on the live guys. Major shout out to P. Reed and Hatton. Like I know the whole thing is reduced schedule on live and everything else like that, but those guys are still playing like full time schedules. Reed is all over the world playing four weeks on, taking one off, bouncing into every event

that he possibly can. Hatton the same exact way, like absolutely having great years is it's honestly, it's good to see them up there. Well it is. And I, but it's, if you're being, you know, just take all the, you know, lightning rod stuff out of it. It feels like some of the live guys have gone two directions. You've got like Dustin Johnson or like, I'll take the cash and I just want to go fish and I'm good. And,

and I'm super comfortable in my own skin, whatever. And then you've got guys that are like, like Bryson, he're like, I'll take the cash and I just want to go fish and I'm good. And, and I'm super comfortable in my own skin, whatever. And then you've got guys that are like, like Bryson, he's like, I've got this whole YouTube channel. Like I want to change. I want to bring, I want to grow the game. Like he still seems to be very inspired and has, um, some giddy up. And I, and I almost feel like they fall into two separate camps on, on that front. Um, and I know I'm oversimplifying it, but I got it. You look at like cam Smith, I feel like he falls into the DJ camp a little bit. He's closer than that in the other camp for sure. Yeah.

Like I just, I just, I'm good, man. I got, I, I'm set up for life can set my family up, which I think is great for him. If he's happy, I'm happy for him is, is where I'm at. Like if he doesn't care, then more power to you. But I guess with the one that's stuck in the middle to me, and this is totally me like sitting in five grandstand watching them, you know, get flustered is ROM. Where it's like, dude, you don't look happy. Every time I see you in one of these majors, it looks like you're kind of, I don't know, like, man, you know,

self-conscious maybe is the word that I'm going to use. It's not comfortable. I'm not comfortable. Like just a little bit like maybe building it up because what matters to you or what you value is still like these trophies and now you only get four chances a year for the resume stuff. Like that is my personal opinion and read on the situation. I feel like he's stuck in the middle and I see other guys that are more comfortable with their more

comfortable with like, dude, I I'm riding off in the sunset. I'm great. And other guys that are like, I am still finding a ton of value in this live thing. And I'm working on my game. And I'm fired up to compete anywhere and everywhere I can. At some ways, it's like additive like Bryson, I would say, getting out of the kind of the spotlight of the PGA tour

is a welcome thing for him, where he kind of stuck out like a sore thumb and kind of just everybody getting smaller doses of him and then the rest of all the doses of Bryson we get are curated for his YouTube channel. Like that's clearly working for him. And he shows up and plays better golf in the major championships than he plays on live. Like hats off to him. Like that means a heck, I've said on repeat like the how you're going to perform the majors means a heck of a lot more to me than they knew how

you do in the live events and like Bryson's brought the heat in the majors. So I will say this about Rom to that. And honestly, I've been thinking about that, like, commentary for a while like that the ROM that I don't feel like that's just this week. I feel like I felt that way about ROM. Yes. In the last five majors where I've seen him, it feels that way. And then if I tune into a live thing, it just kinda seems like he's going through the motions.

Now I haven't watched a lot of that, so that's me talking out of my ass a little bit. But just in these majors, it doesn't feel like he's comfortable. That's a good way to put it. All right, lengthy show. Obviously we gotta get back to the party. Our guests are obviously.

Who's the worst, what's the worst case winner out of this leaderboard right now? God, that's good stuff. Corey Connors. Ah! Sorry. That's probably right. I mean, Hatton, I don't know.

Matt McCarty. I just don't wanna see Hatton bitch and moan and do his whole deal and then win. Yes. I said he said Augustus unfair. I'm cool with that. And hadn't like doing his whole thing and being around but if he does all that bullshit and and wins is that would be annoying. Yeah, that'd be outside that way. I feel that way live or not. Right. I'm just gonna get out in front of that shit. Some people in the comments saying worst would be Reed.

Reed already has a green jacket. A second one would do almost nothing more for me. It'd be worse if hadn't had a green jacket. Bryson, not for me, but like total cinema if he wins. Oh yeah. I'm actually, I'm cool with that one. Like that's- Randy, what do you think?

Well, I honestly think for me personally, well, they'd probably be Rory now that I'm Like that's uh Randy, what do you think? Well, I honestly think for me personally, well, they'd probably be Rory now that I'm saying that. So like Justin Rose would be the most just boring. I think for me, maybe Corey Connors. I know what you're saying earlier, Neil. I just Rose Rose loud like they just don't do anything for me. Sure. That's not but I don't know if they're worst case. It's not best but it's not worst.

That would be very Mendoza line stuff. Rose is kind of the Mendoza line. Oh, great. You know, it was 2025. You look back. No, I think the worst case scenario for me when I watched the Masters is like, somebody that I'm like, oh, yeah, okay.

Yeah, that's cool. That's fair. Rose in your mind is Danny Willett? No, he's not Danny Willett, but he's, I don't know who the comp would be. He just, it's truly, you know, hey, good tournament. Like, I'll see you next month. We'll see you in Charlotte.

Yeah, like it just, it's not gonna resonate with me. I'm not gonna feel anything. I'm not gonna, yeah, I think that's where I come from, like worst case. Brandy's rooting for a brain freeze. Just give me it comes to drizzle on number nine. All right, final question we will wrap. How far back is too far back? Oh, I think I'm going to say I think minus two is still in it.

And Brandy that's, that's your, your, your boy Colin. I think him and he's three, he's minus three call. Oh, well and Xander and Lee Westwood are at, at two. I'm going to keep them. I think two stills in it. You got to keep Lee Westwood. I mean, he's, he can't ever eliminate it. I, I don't, I'm not threatened by anybody at T 17 at minus two.

I mean, Xander is kind of still a shell of the real Xander. I'd say minus three is absolutely in it. And you could talk me into minus two being in it just because of Xander. And if Xander wasn't in it, I would not say. Well, that's what I'm trying to say right there. Yes. I'd say we all agree. That's what I would that I'm gonna well, that's what I'm trying to say right there. Yes. I'd say we all agree

That's what I would say Too far back is minus two except Xander is my yeah, that's exactly what I think Westwood's got no shot I do not think Westwood is gonna win this one. I think he does win a major But I don't think it's gonna be this he sees out the dinner. He's not gonna hear this We're gonna have to just keep it. We got to keep it keep it going Neil yeah, who's gonna win this tournament Rory, baby? think it's going to be the TCs out to dinner. He's not going to hear this. We're going to have to just keep it. We got to keep it. Keep it going. Neil. Yeah. Who's going to win this tournament? Rory baby. Let's go God. And he's going to serve freaking slow and low BBQ next year at the champions dinner in honor of the block party. Come on.

All right. I love it. Sully I said, Rory, I'm saying Rory all the way through. I said, right. The players, I said, Rory on Monday, I said on Wednesday, I'm saying Thursday, I'm gonna say it Friday. Randy. Uh, I'll, I'll, I gotta take Scheffler. I'm going to take Scotty. That's fun.

It's cool, man. Uh, KVV who's going to win? He says Scott. He said Scotty. Cody, Cody Rory. But my question follow-up question would be does Justin Rose have a chance in this thing I think so for sure has a chance yeah but it's it's it's it's more unlikely than it seems I just I don't

think I cannot picture him going why I really like what Shane was saying earlier though I feel like he's not he he's so such a veteran. I don't think he's going backwards. Like you guys got to come get me. I'm he might let you know he might hit a lot of three woods. He might lay up on the par fives, which did that worried me more than anything of like, that's an unsustainable strategy. Fair enough, because you're saying the putters and way too much work. Yeah, yeah. I have a I have like, I don't know, a hot take a

bold prediction. I think it's going to be a playoff. Could be fun. I don't know if that's bold, but there hasn't been one in a while. And I just have a feeling that we're going to get down. We're gonna get some Rory Bryson. I feel like it's going to be I got a feeling it's going to be a heavyweight playoff. So yeah, Rory's in it with somebody and I'm I'm I don't think it's a runaway winner.

If I could if I couldn't, if I had to if you took Rory away from me, I would I would take Bryson right now. He's playing very clean, very nice golf. Does it last four rounds? I don't know. But I'm kind of committed to this very thing. I might as well write it out. And Bryson's got the advantage of all the attentions on Rory. And a lot of times it's been on Bryson in this moment of like, oh, you know, because he gives like crazy quotes. And so I really wanted to take Bryson to win.

It's just his the around the green, the touch, the little feely shots. I feel like he's going to get let down at some point by one of those. That's what really scares me with Bryson. But the data was saying he was getting all these strokes around the green solid. Yeah. He was, he was chipping really nice. How long he's in no nipple niche, Randy.

I don't know. Chipping his T's off. He had a hole out from a bunker. I don't know what hole that was today. It's clouding the data. We are getting, I'm out data hearing, hearing the, uh, the tunes start to pick up a little bit downstairs, so I think we're gonna have to get back to the party. I want to thank everyone for tuning in.

Thanks for hiding. Thanks, of course, to row back things, of course, to the stack, the Cody for running the ones and twos for Randy for playing along with our bit. If you need for running the strobe lights over here, picker it up and joining me on the block party. Thank you everyone for tuning in. Smash that smash that hit that follow subscribe. We'll see you.