No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 994: Chevron | Zurich Happy Hour

Episode Date: April 23, 2025

Back in Houston for the first Major Championship of the LPGA season, the Chevron Championship. Join us as we run down news and notes, One-and-Done picks, fun guests, answer audience questions, and more. Presented by FanDuel. Support our sponsors: FanDuel Rhoback - Code NLU Whoop - whoop.com/NLU 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 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 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 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to happy hour presented as always by our friends at Fandl kicking off women's major championship SZN season as Grant Boone called it on the preview podcast.

Sally here joined by my guy, Mr. Cody McBride. Hello, Cody. How are we? Buddy, how we doing, man? I'm excited. You know, we only have five of these five weeks a year. I'm just kidding.

I am really excited. Uh, You know, there's so many starts and stops on the LPGA calendar that now we're finally in like the heat of it. It just is weird that it kind of feels like this major came out of nowhere and it's like at the beginning chunk of it. But I'm pumped man. A lot of stuff that this major is fighting. We can cover some of that. You guys covered that on the early part of the preview this week as well. But listen, that was a great episode. If you haven't got a chance, go back, listen to that, get you caught up on things.

Grant Boone's got great perspective on things. And if you don't have time to get to that, we're gonna get you caught up on all things LPGA ahead of the first major. We're gonna have a guest joining us very shortly. The LPGA Tour is in full swing, and Fandl is your ultimate destination for all the action, from outright winners to player props.

There's a bet for every moment on the course and don't miss a second. Live betting lets you stay in the game as the action unfold. So download the Fandl Sportsbook app today. Take a swing at betting the LPGA Tour today. You must be 21 older and present in select states. Gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. All right. Well, we got a lot to get into.

We're going to get into into our guests as I mentioned. We're gonna do some storyline look-ins. We're gonna look at the favorites and their recent results as well. Jordan Perez is gonna join us a little later to talk about some of the AMs that are playing in the field. We're gonna get to some of our picks. We're gonna do a little zerk stuff on the back end, kinda close some loops from last week as well.

But let's get into the nuts and bolts of things. And nobody knows the nuts and bolts of the game, men's or women's side. Like our guy, Justin Ray, coming to you live from the media center at the Chevron. Hello, Justin, how we doing? How we doing, boys? You're less pink than you were 10 minutes ago,

as you've mentioned. On the ground reporting is important here. It's a touch, yeah. Yeah, it's, look, it's, I grew up about 10 minutes from this golf course uh just outside the woodlands uh in the Houston area and look you can grow up in the humidity but I've been gone from it for too long. I am not conditioned for what's 93 percent 90 percent I mean at least it's not 100 right now but yeah no I'm glad I'm less pink than I was a few minutes ago. That's it.

That's the kind of reporting I needed to hear though. I mean, you can read it on the apps. Yeah, you can read it on the apps, but like there's something to, no, I just got off this golf course and there's a lot of water out there and it's very humid right now. We're calling it a gold bond, multiple pairs of socks kind of weight.

Well, I'll say that about the humidity too. Like it's one of those things that you think you can train yourself for. And then it just like almost hits you worse every single year of like, oh yeah, no, I did it last year. I could do it. And then it just like almost hits you worse every single year of like, yeah, no, I did it last year, I could do it. And then it hits you like, no, I can't, I cannot do this. There's no humans were not meant to survive this.

Anyways, lots to talk about, but I know you've got some stats and some looks into this week to prepare us for this week. What do we need to know about the field, the course, the championship, whatever you got, what do you got for us? Yeah, so I wanna start with just how significant performance off the tee is on this golf course. I mean, and it's only gonna get more so with the amount of whatever you got, what do you got for us? Yeah, so I want to start with just how significant performance off the tee is on this golf course. I mean, and it's only going to get more so with the amount of rain we got this morning and the more rain we could get coming up in the days ahead. The top 10 finishers of the Chevron championship since the move to Carlton Woods have got 22% of their strokes gained total for the week

on shots off the tee. The LPJs were average in that span is just 14%. So that gives you some perspective on the high finishers and how important driving the ball really well has been. I got to walk a couple of holes with Alison Corpuz yesterday and she mentioned that it's playing even longer than it did the previous two years. She mentioned some tee boxes that were moved back a little bit. Maybe that was just the setup we saw on Tuesday for the Pro-Am, but I mean, look, the rain we got and the trends we saw in the past, it's the longest golf course on the LPGA tour and it's only going to play

longer as this week progresses. Certainly interesting. I mean, honestly, it's hard to hear that. I mean, it's good for some of our favorite golfers, I think it's definitely how I view like the odds going into this and Cody, I'm going to quiz you as we get done the favorites. I'm gonna gonna ask you just cross off some names, but it helps me honestly cross off some rather big names that are way up there on the favorites list. I mean, Nelly won this thing last year. We've seen Angel Yin come very close to winning at this golf course. Lily Vu, like it's truly a bomber's delight and everything you're telling me about the conditions leading up into this and how it's set up so far is leading me in that direction.

If you look at the top three players in scoring here the last two years, the Nelly Corda obviously, Carlota Saganda and A-Lim Kim, this season they are one, three, and four on the LPGA Tour and Stokes need off the team. So that's not a coincidence. It's an incredibly important factor. Like you said, it might be a reason to cross

some of those names off and maybe aren't the longest in the field. Certainly interesting. All right, what's next? So I'm gonna go with a player who, a friend of your show, a friend of mine, Solheim Cupper, he's actually right in front of me. The media center overlooks the ninth green. That's Lauren Coughlin. I want to talk about how much better she's been on the greens. We all know that the key to her turning her career from, you know, rank and file LPGA Tour player to a star has been her improvement on the green.

She's always been a really good ball striker, but just how dramatic it is, I don't think people realize. From 2022 through the 23 season, Lauren gained one stroke or more putting in 14% of her rounds played. Since the beginning of last year, that number is over 40%. She's gone from losing more than half a stroke around on the greens to gaining more than half a stroke. It's been a true weakness turning into a strength thing for Lauren. And it's dovetailed with her, you know, climb in the game. Like you do not have to fake you don't have to like bend yourself

over backwards to talk yourself into her winning this golf tournament, which is just like, it's, it's very, it's, it's kind of like the Max Holmer rise we've seen as well in terms of like, I mean, I know he's like our friend, but like, it's, it's very, it's, it's kind of like the max Homer rise we've seen as well in terms of like, I know he's like our friend, but like, is he really that good? That good? I kind of don't believe it. And now, like ahead of a tour, even now, part of me just all the years following Lauren through the Epson tour and LPGA, like, you're not, you know, you're not inclined to immediately think like, oh,

yeah, it's like Nellie. And then like, Lauren is like, who I'm thinking about to win. Holy crap, like what an unbelievable rise. And it's just all backed up by what you just said. Yeah, I've got one quick story about Lauren to last year coming here. I was here early in the week, I think it was Tuesday before and I met with Captain Stacey Lewis and then Morgan Pressell and Angela Sanford and we were talking about like

players that were trending for the US team, things like that. And I was like, you know, there's this player, she hasn't won yet on the LPGA tour, but like all these underlying numbers are really pointing upwards. I think she's gonna have a really big week. What do you guys think of Lauren Coughlin? And then she went out and shot 66 on Thursday

and made me look incredibly smart. And I made sure that after the after party, after winning the Solon Cup that I told her, thank you for making me look incredibly smart. And I made sure that after the after party, after winning the Solon Cup that I told her, thank you for making me look that smart in that moment, going out and lighting it up immediately after I went out on somewhat of a, it wasn't really a limb when you look at the numbers, but she wasn't a name that was bursting through the screen

saying she's gonna be on this roster. And then she was an integral part of the team winning at RTJ. She learned so much from this tournament last year, J Ray, you hit the nail on the head there first round leader and then going out, you know, with a lot of weight and some expectations that I don't think she's ever really had to deal with being in that position far as rounds of 73 71 and then finally closed with a 68 ended up finishing T third, but that springboarded her towards what the rest of the year ended up being. She

went and finally got that first victory. She immediately followed up there. Oh, by the way, she probably, I said this before, if there was any other player besides Ayaka Fudo-A that played the Evian, that was LC's tournament and she would have won that. Unfortunately, she didn't lose that tournament. Somebody just went out and took it. LC should be a major championship by now. And her being here with, I know she's not theoretically from Houston, but her parents have lived in the Woodlands

for a long time. She's very familiar with this course. She has tons of good feelings around it and history to fall back on. She's learned so much in the last year and I am so excited that you brought her up as the second person on this list. So where are we going with number three? Just super quickly just to remind people, since the T3 at the Chevron last year, one twice last year as you mentioned, balled out at the Solheim Cup, balled out was probably the best player on the US team. And

then the last two starts she's made, she finished runner up to Madeline Sagstrom in the match play and she finished t3 last week, like, and the golf course suits her that well. It's plus 2800 almost like you can talk me into that being a steal. It might be a little teaser for one of my picks later. I'm serious. I'm getting high. Sorry, sorry. Yeah, no. So I'll go with a player that's even that's higher up on the odds board and just five we saw the co favorite

going into the week last time I look. Gino Tittekoon since last September, she's made 13 starts on the LPG tour. She hasn't been as worse than 12. And that span 12 top 10s more than three strokes gain total per round, which is an obscene number half a shot better than anyone else in that span. And she's doing it everywhere. She's seven strokes game ball per round, which is an obscene number, half a shot better than anyone else in that span. And she's doing it everywhere. She's seventh strokes game ball striking that span and by far first in strokes game putting to me, the biggest storyline going into the major championships in the women's game in 2025, isn't if Gino wins a major it's when and how many she's

so unbelievably talented, a breakthrough is coming. It's the last thing she's got on this list of things to do in pro golf is to go on and win a major championship and she's playing as good or better than anybody on the planet right now. Yeah, it's it's very weird because she is so good. And I think the one thing that you know, Randy and I talk about this a lot. It's like, wow, she's really good. Why didn't she win a little bit more?

Yeah, it's kind of where I'm at. You know, crowning little crown and she gets a little crowned from up from this little group. Not you, not either you guys, but the group that's not on the pot a lot. People that like get really close to winning and don't win usually get Randy's wrath and Randy's all in on on Gino and I'm kind of want him to hold some of the same standards he's he's forced on other people to her because she's still has zero top three finishes at majors. That's a I know that's

a pretty like random poll. She has does have three top fives, but hasn't been that that close to winning a major yet. Just I mean, her, her resume speaks for itself, like she performs very, very well, very, very, very consistently. But it takes really wild peak weeks to win some of these things. And I just want to see just a little bit more before I get overhyped about Gino. So quickly, while you mentioned teammates and colleagues not on this call, I have a very concerning report for our man TC.

The big letter hats have the pandemic has permeated southeast Texas. I can only imagine. There are tournament workers wearing them this week. Shev, C-H--V. Oh! Chev, maybe the worst I've seen. Chev. What worse would be if they would have combined the, no, you know, not putting the vowels in them, which I think those are kind of going away. Like C-H-V-N or something? Shiv.

Sure. It looks like an airport code, yeah. I've seen a lot of Chev hats. So I'm dismayed to relay the report to the PC's offices. How about that? If Gino wins, you gotta buy me a chev hat and send it to me and I'll wear it on the show next week. That's my 100%.

Done. Also not very Houston. I thought you maybe there's some like P wall hats or like M Jones, something like that. You know, you got to keep it local. We're trying to keep it going here. That's you. M.D. A Carl one for Carlton Woods.

Listen, there's a member in the chat right here, Mr. Cameron Frazier. He's a member at this club, so we apologize. But hey, I like the golf. You got to let us know. I got to play it years and years ago. I mean, I've talked to Stacey about it was Stacey Lewis and I lived 15 minutes apart, never knew each other growing up. We have the same high school graduated class.

So we talked about like, can you imagine a major championship being here? Like when we were growing up and she was like, the golf course wasn't even here when we were growing up. So I think it's a beautiful course and I've enjoyed it a couple of times I've got to play it. So hey, J. Ray, yeah, but the hats are everywhere. Speaking of golf course and kind of the evolution of this,

you know, a lot is said about, you know, changes of venues and Palm Springs to here. But nobody can say that Chevron is not putting their money where their mouth is. They've not only invested big time in purse, everything else, laying new traditions, champions dinner, you know, making a big deal out of this major championship,

including putting a ton of money into this golf course. Last year was the first year that we saw with new greens, new bunkers, and some new tee boxes that were out there. It was very firm and fast. Now this week we got a little bit of moisture. Are we expecting it to play, you know, as firm as it can or has it softened up over time? Yeah, I think it's gonna be impossible

with the amount of water that we got just this morning. I mean, to be honest, it was a day lose. We got a lot of rain from 8.30 in the morning to almost noon. It rained pretty consistently and there could be a little bit more here in the coming days. So I don't think it's gonna play. It's not gonna be as fiery as maybe they anticipated

or planned or expected it to be in the weeks leading up to it. I'll give you other examples of the buy-in, you know, the $8 million purse, the biggest that we, it went up another, I can't remember what it was in A&A, but like a huge increase in purses. Walk in the player's parking lot. The past champions all have Bentleys and everyone has an Escalade who doesn't have a Bentley. Those are that's the

that's the player courtesy car situation. So I was walking I was I felt very poor walking to the media shuttle. But they're treating the treating the players great. I've you know, I love the champions dinner idea. Really envy that menu that Nelly put together is pretty great. But yeah, the investment Chevron's made into the the event, the golf course, everything involved is top notch. Yeah. And this this these players on LPGA Tour in the

last month, they've had courtesy cards. They had that F-150s and Mustangs to escalate. Look at me now, okay? Up the game a little bit, Yeah. Different insurance bill. Yeah, we'll circle back on some of that, Cody, but I want to get through J. Ray's list of things here before we before we move on. Okay, our defending champion got to go with the world number one Nelly Corde here. The last two years at Carleton Woods, 19 and a half strokes gained Tita Green, 10 and a half strokes gained putting the only player with 10 or more in both of those statistics. And she has nearly 20 in one of them. That's how good she's been. Eight shots better in relation to par than any other player of the last two years.

I think if, if there was a golf course designed for her to give her an inherent advantage in terms of her ball flight performance off the tee, it's this place and no one should be surprised if she's in contention on Sunday afternoon. Yeah. I think if she was coming in playing just a little bit more Nelly golf, the hype would be a little bit out of control for this one. But yeah, still the favorite with with Gino at plus 800. And if she does go on a win by four, we'll sit in

just like, well, we're idiots for not just talking about this for 30 minutes leading up into it, because it should be kind of obvious. And she's not on the scorched earth tour she was a year ago coming in. Right. But her putting numbers are actually they weren't great last week. She didn't put well last week. But overall in the season, they're really good. Her approach play isn't quite as sharp as it was at this point last year. But at that point, you're just kind of you're picking it really you're just really nitpicking at a player whose numbers across the board are still outstanding. And I mean, she's in perfectly good enough. She leads the torn scoring average. I mean, you know, she's not playing very well. Yeah, she's really taking a step back. She's got the best scoring average on the LPGA Tour. So but yeah, no, I, I like her a lot this week. She hit more greens in regulation than Ingrid Lidman last week. She just had six three putts. I mean, and that was,

that was basically the reason why she wasn't a big factor coming in down the stretch. All right. All right, one more. One more off a little bit off the beaten path. I don't know if I can say that because she's been playing really good golf recently. What do you know about Aki Iwai? Fifth on the LPGA Tour and Strokes game total this season. I was surprised by this fact because she's just getting her major career started. The majors the last two years, the by this fact because she's just getting her major career started. The majors the last two years, the only player with more strokes game ball striking for around than EY is Minji Lee. That was really surprising to me because she hasn't had the big flashy finishes, but she's really had some good underlying metrics.

Second in Los Angeles last week, despite finishing 77th for the week in strokes game putting when you incorporate the whole field, including players who missed the cut. Plenty capable in terms of distance,th and driving distance top 20 strokes, clean up the T. This is a name you need to have. Front of mind coming into this week. I think she was plus 3500.

She just just outside of the top favorites on there. I saw that one. I was like man she. I was like she must not hit it far enough and as you as you answered my next question was, does she hit it far enough? And that's the thing I looked at too. I was like this is too quiet surrounding her based on everything she's done in the last few months. And that number with the ball striking the majors speaks to her game being able to translate to a lot of different places as well. Love that. That's got me. Got me quite you're helping solidify a lot

of thoughts I had coming into this J Ray but putting some you know if I could put some data behind my eye test and gut feels I'm going to start feeling myself a little bit here. Absolutely. Any final parting thoughts before we kick off the week? Another name to look for is A-Lim Kim already won on the LPGA Tour this season one of the longest players on tour tied per second in terms of cumulative score to par here the last two years and remember she won that COVID US Open in the Houston area back in 2020. So that's the other name that I'd be remiss not to mention going into this week is somebody I like.

Love it. Very good. Hey, J-Ray, you mentioned Ake, you mentioned Ingrid just strictly because she won last week, the incredible rookie class this year. Anybody else you think you got to keep an eye on? Oh, man. Those headline it. I'd have to dig a little bit more into some of the numbers.

You know, a player who I'm not even sure if she's technically a rookie because she's won six, seven times in Japan. I love Miyu Yamashita. Her game across the board is so impressive. I mean, I remember when she kind of popped a little bit at Sahale last year. I was in the booth with Golf Channel

and Morgan Presle was like, oh, what does she do well? I was just going through it well. She's top 10 in green regulation and scrambling and putting. So it was basically everything across the board she was really good at. I don't think she's necessarily long enough to be a good fit here.

But if some of the other major championship venues this season, she's someone to keep an eye on. Very good. Awesome stuff. Awesome stuff as always, Mr. Justin Ray. Have a great week out there at the Upside Down Chev. And we'll catch up with you as Soon as we're pushed. Really appreciate your time.

Yeah, thanks for having me guys. Cool. Thanks, buddy. I'll give a shout out to our friends at Roebeck. You already know Roebeck. They got our favorite polos, hoodies, shorts, pants, you name it. Best fit, best feel. We're in the heart of spring. Roebeck is dialing up some of their incredible polo designs. Got some of those great florals on the site. They're just so good for the spring. If you're not a floral guy,

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whole point. It's it's a sign of quality. Time to load up on some Roe back now that it's spring code NLU at Roe back dot com for generous 20% off your first order through the end of this week that's spelled R H O B A C K dot com 20% off polos shirts and more with code NLU. All right, Cody, what are your three, four, I don't know how many you got for me. Your biggest questions, storylines coming into this week. Yeah, Justin mentioned a couple of them, but Gino Titicum,

can she do it? It's to the point now where she was even asked this in her press conference. You know, it's kind of getting to the point here where you need to be contending in majors more than you have. And I understand that you've been a full-time member on the LPJ Tour for since 2022. You have 46 top 10 so far, but you also probably need to be winning a little bit more.

I think this year and how she started this year so far has been absolutely on fire. Super, super impressive. It put herself in positions. And I think now this run up to the first major championship is definitely Ken Gino get it done. She is in the best form out of anyone. If you look at who the top five are in the world right now, it's her. And I think it's a big question for her. Now I say she, she was asked that question and her, very much brush it off as like, yep, with my record and how I know how long my career is gonna be if I retired without winning a major championship,

it wouldn't affect me at all because there's still all this amazing stuff that I was able to accomplish and more that I'll be able to do. But I think that is a little bit of deflecting and I think she is finally starting to feel it and you know hopefully this year is one of them because we have a great lineup of major championships but really her game her her and Nellie are they're made for this golf course you know and they're

so consistent not only off the tee you have phenomenal short games and everything else that goes along with it where they're not just pure power they have the accuracy and putting when they need it. She's definitely the first one. The second one is Nellie who absolutely has is the most comfortable on this golf course than anyone else actually going to come back and you know we know she's going to be in the top 20 here okay but is she going to be able to top 20 here, okay? But is she going to be able to contend as she tries to defend this major championship? I know that she doesn't like thinking about it, but the year that she had last year, her major results finishes and the fact that she's still sitting there with only two

majors, Nellie wants to do a lot more than that. And I think now the focus is a little bit less off of week in week out LPGA tour events. And the focus is going to be, hey, how do we best prepare ourselves for the five majors that we get a year? And I think we're going to see that this week from Nelly. The third one is it's LC. Let's go. You know, I think it's very weird because we joked about this, how Max had that incredible run in California. And then we got to LACC where there's a course record hoarder or shared the course record until big Stu came and took it away. But you know, this is one of those

things where I've never felt like I don't feel sheepish at all saying like, LC is like like top three on this golf course. There's nobody playing better, more consistent and as familiar and the game to back it up with if you look at strokes game and everything here at Carlton Woods and I cannot wait to watch and see what happens. I don't I don't feel like anxious or nervous for her. Like I feel like she just uses as a great opportunity and I don't don't think she's one of the types to put too much pressure

on herself in this situation with like the stars kind of aligning for this week. It's, it's really, it's really got me that hyped. All right, Cody, if somebody hasn't followed the LP J tour closely over the past several months, not really knowing how games are trending leading up into this, we're gonna go I think I found about 15 names, the top 15 favorites. I'm gonna give you their recent results. And I want you to give me a quick, quick buying or selling of their

chances this week. I'm not going to audit you, but I want them to be about even. You can't have like 14 buys here. All right, I gotta, I gotta hear some sells. But Nellie, top favorite, she's T16, T28, T22, T7, and second are her last five starts. The second being fifth longest ago, most recent being the closest one. Buying, selling, Nellie, plus 800. Yeah, buying. Give me all that. Gino Titskoum plus 800 as well, but she has finished T9, T5, fourth, T12, T2, and third in last six starts. Bind. Yeah, gotta bind. Lydia Ko plus 1400, T35 last week, T6, win, T48 and sixth

in her last five starts. You know, this course doesn't sit up very well for Lydia when it plays firm and fast and now that it's wet, no. Plus early reports, she got something going on with her neck. So she got a bum neck, it's not good good I'm gonna sell I'm with you there NASA Hataoka fourth pick's favorite that was surprising me plus 2200 I know she's a major killer but 6th t17 t17 t8 t14 buying or selling NASA I'm selling very

very accurate doesn't have the power to get around it. Jin Young Ko plus 2200 as well T7, T53, MC, T18, T45. I'm selling here. Jin Young Ko, that T7 I understand that but really that's an outlier for how her, if you look at like the last six months at how she's trending. That's so much respect for Jin Young, that odds, I mean she has not been the Jin Young Co of 2021 in quite some time. Minji Lee plus 2500 T7 T35 second T11 T28. Yep I'm gonna sell here too I think if it was firm and fast I would change that a little bit just based off of last year's performance but nope not gonna happen this week. I'm right there with you we are locked up on every single one of these. A-lim Kim plus 2500 T9, T13, T17, T7 sixth win. I'm buying. Okay. I know what J-Ray said. Well, not only that. I mean, she's outside of really Nelly. You can maybe add in Lily Vu who didn't play last year, Angel Yin,

but A-lim Kim has played phenomenal at this golf course the last two years. Both top tens in both years. Heyran Yu plus 2,500 as well. Missed cut T17, T17, T18, T14 in her last five starts. This is a good course fit for her. She just isn't really playing that well. I'm gonna buy or sell. I'm actually gonna buy on this one. This is our first one we've missed there, but, uh, Charlie Hall also plus 2,500 T 28 to 11 T 14 19 in her four starts this year. Yeah. I honestly, I have no clue. I don't think this is going to happen. I'm going to sell here. Uh, yeah, I, I understand that might be a shock to people. She just isn't really, you know, she has a weird schedule. She picks her weeks

very sporadically and who knows? Last week she showed up in her last tournament, excuse me, when she showed up in Arizona, I believe it was, she decided to run like a 10K or something like that the Tuesday before and like completely tore up her feet and then played decent, but not so much. I don't think this is going to happen. This isn't Charlie's week. It's all information I wanted to have before making a decision, but I'd already made my decision to buy. So I kind of am stuck on that one. I got to just ignore what you said.

We talked about her Mew Yamashita plus 2800 T3 Mist Cut T8 T21 T4 coming in. Yeah. I mean, she's theoretically still a rookie, but I'm gonna buy she has so her floor is so high, Sally, like the results just haven't really gotten there yet. I know there's a miss cut in there, but like she is going to be an absolute stud. Love Angel Yin plus 2800 T 37 T 3 T 13 withdrawal and a win to start her year on top of close call here.

Buying 100% this is like jumping off the page unfinished business here still kicks herself about that playoff to lily of who yeah buying she just got a gear with her driver to that not a lot of players have and it's a place where she can actually flex it like it's I'm all in on that Ayaka food away plus 2800 t 20 t 35 t 17 third tie for second. I'm gonna sell here. Again, accuracy. Yep. Check. But nope, you got you got to be able to hit the big ball around this place if you want to be able to keep up with Gino Nelly, all those I hate to be so one note about it, but it is like, it is a prerequisite. It certainly seems like, um, we, uh, do we need to do the next one? Lauren Coughlin plus 20, 100 T, three seconds, 44 T 18 T 50. We're we're buying that one.

We know that last one Rio Tequita plus 2,800 T 11, this cut win T 21 T nine. Selling not it. Any reason? Well, yeah, I mean, she does hit it far. She struggles with consistency and accuracy. Um, but ultimately just if we're looking at form where she's at right now, it's just, we're, this isn't going to be it. Um, because honestly, because we, yeah, as an outlier, if you have T11 miscut T21, I mean, this is one of those things where major championship, I think there's a different

feeling when people, you know, show up and there's different expectations. I just don't think this is gonna happen. Okay, that's why I asked for your take on it. I appreciate that. Let's bring in Jordan Perez. She's our resident amateur golf experts. There are eight amateurs in the field this week at the Chevron. And if you don't follow women's majors that closely, I would certainly say the women's amateurs are way closer to competing at the highest levels of the professional game than a lot on the men's side.

So, JP, what's your over-under on what you Like the top amateur finish might be this week at the Chevron. Ooh, I love this question. Sally, first of all, gentlemen, very, very happy to be here. Great week for amateur golf. My over under on a finish. Hmm. I would say our low end finished 13th last year. Um, I don't know. Am I being ballsy enough saying 10? Who would it be among this group if you were like, I wouldn't surprise me if a couple of these names on here were legitimate competitors to win this thing. I don't think that's that outrageous to say. No, and honestly, I'm so stuck between Lottie and asterisk because I think they're

going to have a field day out here. Do we have enough data to be able to like is asterisk long? Like is she a long hitter? And I mean, I think she's like it, like the coming here very soon. It might be a little bit early, but also it just like would not surprise. It seems like I know she run her up at the Augusta National Women's Amateur, run her up at the US Women's Amateur. She hasn't won the big titles, but it just, it seems like to me her game is just like, I don't care what the level is. I'm going to be competitive at the very top of any tournament I enter.

Yeah, she is long. She was hitting it above average last year at the US Women's Open. I don't think there was really any nerves there, which is why I say I'm really between Lottie and asterisk. I mean, it's so crazy to think about asterisk in the context of these big stages, because it's just like, yeah, you are literally like a sophomore in high school. And none of this is just 16 years old. Like, I said, she's plus 27,000 to win. I am getting a little carried away. But again, we see here like on the leaderboard. Great value. I would not be surprised. I would

not be surprised. Maybe for a top 20. Not necessarily to win. But it's interesting. Don't for sure ski. Um, yeah, do we want to get into like, I've got a couple of like twos and maybe threes for like broad, some broad insights on our AMS. Absolutely. You're probably stepping on what I was getting ready to say on some of these AMS, but please go take it away.

Alrighty. So we got two on the Anika award watch lists, which just came out today. That would be Lottie and Jasmine Koo. To play this event last year, Lottie and Jasmine Koo as well. Three with major championship experience, Lottie Wode, Jasmine Koo and Asterisk Talley. Two Anwa winners in Lottie Wode and Carla Binesque Escudar. And then I've got some twos for the juniors. I didn't leave them out even though I just said Asterisk. Two runner-ups at a US girls junior, which would be asterisk and Gianna Clement and two of the best players

in the AJGA asterisk and then Gianna Clement. Interesting. Interesting. I can go into them one by one if we'd like. Well, who again, I hate to be so one note about the distance thing, but of these eight amateurs who hits it far, who is like a bomber that again, we're talking about 6,900 yard golf course that's going to be wet, which is mean that's equivalent on the men's side of over 8000 yards of distance that's why we're I'm so one note on this but like whose game lines up the best of all of these. going to play as firm as it did last year. I would also say Jasmine Koo as well has the distance too. The further down the list I go, I don't know. Carla Burnett, I think, could get around here as well, but generally speaking, the further down we go, I don't know. But I would say those three names I feel the best about. Cody, anything you got for JP?

No, I was going to say I'm glad you mentioned Jasmine obviously has been on this podcast before is the one that you referenced it was a top 20 in this tournament last year, I think does have the distance. If you want to talk about course knowledge and history, I think this is a big time spot for that, specifically how this early week has been for them. You know, they didn't, nobody really got to play a full practice round today. Yesterday, obviously, probably not for the amateurs. They probably didn't play in the Pro-Am, but there's a ton of other commitments and everything that they have to do. So really only like a day, day and a half for them to prepare before this tournament,

which is kind of unheard of before a major championship. But I don't know, if you go back up just history experience, I love where you're going with Jasmine. I love where you're going with Lottie. I think Lottie learned a lot last year, but everything was coming so fast at that time. I'd understand this tournament is a week further back this year than it was last year. It was immediately following the Masters and, you know, a week removed for her annual win. So she had to shuffle everything around. She was missing college tournaments and not really understanding where she was currently at.

I think I'm there with Jordan is that I think it's Lottie for low amateur. Honestly, wouldn't be surprised if she contends in this tournament. She has everything that you need to get around this golf course. She, it seems to have like nerves of steel and not a lot really, you know, can mess with her, but such it's really good to see the amount of amateurs that are in this. No Gianna Clemente really mentions at all, which still I think just needs more time and more experience here. And that's something that Nellie touched on in her, you know, press conference this week of like when she qualified for the US

women's open at age 14, like she was just kind of blown away by seeing all these professionals that she sees on TV. But you know, year after year, you keep going and you keep putting yourself in those positions and having those opportunities. You start to feel, you know, kind of natural being there. And that's the experience that all of them can fall back on. I will note Gianna has had some really good professional experience, even though this is her first major championship, which I couldn't really believe. But if you guys remember that crazy stretch of Monday qualifying for three events in a row in 2023, that was bonkers. She also made the cut at ShopRite last year, and at Honda this year, she had a good finish.

So I'm curious to see how she plays this week. I think, yes, being in those bigger positions the bigger spotlight, when the stage gets grander, I would like to see her level up. And I think that's where we're seeing that a lot with asterisk, but I don't know. One thing, Cody, going back to Jasmine is what I would like to see is, I kind of want to see her shake off, you know,

and I don't think there's any real scar tissue here because she probably impressed herself with the way that she played last year. But I'd like to see just how she does returning back to a place like this. You know, I think Anwa that week was a bit, you know, there was a lot more pressure on her than she expected to have. And I think that certainly took a toll on her performance, not that she had a bad finish by any means, but I think she expected more out of herself. And same with Asterisk too because she played last week at J Amiegel and at a course that she performed extremely well at the US Girls Junior last year. So you know I'd like to see how some of these girls shake off the scar tissue a little bit and perform but that's where people like yes like Lottie come in with nerves of steel and they wipe it off and they say all right I'm

here to contend. Need Lottie to have more fun than she had on the back end of Augusta this year. I would love to see her have a little more fun. All right thank you JP any parting thoughts before we let you go? My one parting thought is I'm sorry for having no vowels in my username, their handles, I will never change my username, but I will never wear the hats. They are really cringy and terrible. The vowel thing is not that big a deal, just the hats is a way bigger deal. It's totally, totally fine. We're fine with that. So, thank you as always for your incredible insight on the Women's Amber Game, Jordan, and have a

great week following the first major of the year. You got me excited to follow eight more storylines that I was not on my radar to start the day. That's the point of this show. So thank you. See ya. All right, let's get into some of our plays and picks. Obviously we're light on staff in here, but we are not light on the plays

and everybody submitting their plays. Wanna give a shout out to Fandl, the official sports book of no laying up. You can check out all of our plays on the no laying up tab on the FanDuel Sportsbook. And I don't need to tell you guys this, but you know this. Odds are of course subject to change on there. But our big NLU parlay this week, everybody nominated a player here. We have Yelimino, Angel Yin, and Lilia Vu all to top 20. That one's plus 340.

That's one of my favorites. I'll claim it Angel Yin was my nominee there. And as you can see up on the screen right now, a bunch of our plays are in there as well. Also want to highlight the NLU mega bonus all of Nelly Korda for a top five finish. Lilia Vu top 10 and Angel Yin top 20. That's plus 2000. That feels fantastic. Like that is a mega mega bonus opportunity there. So a fun one to follow. We got a tap in up there. We got a Peloton play. We got the stack and tilt. Check out those out on the Fandle Sportsbook, the LPGA betting odds tab. We got the no laying up specials on that. We appreciate them putting all those together as well. We got some one

and done plays as well. Everyone submitted these as well. DJ is taking Lauren Coughlin at plus 2800. TC is taking Rio Takeda at plus 3300 after Cody sold her. I am also gonna be on the Lauren Coughlin train with no fear of being the cooler here at plus 2800. Neil might be trying to ride out a different bet of his towards the 11 majors. He is going to take Nelly at plus 800. Smart play for one and done. I don't know. We might have over thought this with all the odds and all that. KVV not

sure if he knew what he was doing with this. I think he was trying to pick a top 20 play but he ended up picking Lottie Wode to win at plus 11,000 which if that hits, get an all time giraffe call. This is the giraffe actually making a move right here. I love it. It's sticking his neck out here for a champion. Randy has Gino Titicune at plus 800,

which I'm going to hold Randy to the fire on Sunday night on this one. If he's going to hold TC's feet to the fire on Fleetwood, he's going to get this turn right back, and mine on Finau, he's going to get this turn back on him on Sunday if that's gonna be his his play. So who's your pick to win Cody? Ah come on uh I'm Lauren Coughlin come on that's not even from the heart that's that's just straight up that's where I'm at. I'm gonna join you guys it's gonna be uh awesome. I will say I also have another writer on this though because my early season pick that Randy

and JP and I did where we go through each major of the year. I already had Nelly on the book so I'm feeling pretty good. I've got the board dotted like TC does. I honestly think like the winner will come from Angel Yin, Nelly Cordero, or Lauren Coughlin. Like if I had to pick three people to dot the board with, that would be my picks. But who won't win? The game we always play around majors, it's got to be a high name up there on the list on the odd sheet. Who will not win? Yeah. Well, the first one that's not going to win is strictly because she's not even in this championship. So there's 24 of the top 25 in the Rolex rankings that are teeing it up for this first major

and Rose is missing. So still nursing a bum neck. It stinks because I know that, you know, she wants to shore up and get working on her major record. You know, we're talking about a lot of other players here and hey, you kind of got to show us a little bit more and roses to that point now, too But she's definitely not gonna win It's also I

Am very concerned about Lydia I know the next thing I was riding so high like coming in here I was like, ah man, she's playing so well, you know The distance could be a concern and she gets her putting going and like nobody hits her hybrids and long irons better than her. Doesn't really matter how firm the surfaces are. And then I started thinking about it's like, Oh no, like this just, I don't think it's going to happen. So I think you can throw Lydia out there. The other one that's playing really, really good, had a tough week last week, uh, two time defending her championship out in LA, but that's Hannah Green currently fifth in the world. It shocks me that Hannah is that

far up there, but she like has won a lot and puts herself in a lot of really good positions. I just don't know if it's going to be this week for her. And then the last one is really running in is that, you know, she won the KPMG two years ago and has really been struggling with her putter and it just is not good because she is like, you know, seems to have nerves of steel, doesn't back down to any big shot, wants to be in that moment desperately and just is kind of have a botchy putter going right now. It's just, it's tough timing.

Man, you claimed a lot of players in there, but I'm going to join you on Lydia. I don't, I don't think this is going to be a, going to be Lydia's week. And if you made me throw a second name in there, I'll throw in Minji as well. I'll say those are, those are, if you want me to get cocky and feel myself,

cause Lydia feels a little cheap with the, with the neck injury and all of that. But those are my two, two not winners this week. So do you know what I want to say? Like flyers that you got to look out for that have, are trending and have big, big, big time games. Esther Henslett, somebody in the chat mentioned her earlier, power player, hits a high ball, can absolutely put the lights out of it, has really good year going so far and is starting to get more experienced in these big moments. Like definitely, definitely can do that.

Most people remember her if they watched the Scottish Open last year, that's where LC ended up taking down. And Maya Stark played so good here last year, was the only person that really put a ton of pressure on Nelly. Didn't have the best start of the year, but came back and match play played really good and is now like finally putting it all together. So there you go. There's some, some outside of the top, uh, 15, 20 picks for you guys, but yeah. Pumped. Love it.

All right. Let's get to a couple other stories around the world of golf. So far this week, of course, this podcast brought to you by friends at whoop. We've been wearing whoop for a few years now. I left my charger in Augusta, just got it dropped back off at my house. It died for a week. I was missing the daily insights, man. I make better decisions when I'm wearing the whoop, when it's all charged up. If you're not familiar with it, it's a fitness wearable. It does a lot more than just activity tracking. You see people wearing on their wrists or their biceps out on tour, like, and we're not pros, but we all use Whoop to help us hit our health goals, whether it's sleep, recovery or fitness

related all year long. Honestly, I just like I love to see wake up in the morning, be like, Oh, you went to bed at 915 last, you didn't scroll your phone until 1145. Like you went to sleep at 915 and you got eight hours of sleep. Good job. I feel way better about myself. And you can do the same as well. You can head to join.woop.com slash nlu to get started with whoop with a free one month trial. It includes the hardware and a completely unlocked app experience. If you don't love it, you can send it back. No questions asked. If you already have a whoop, you can join our whoop group with code com at comm dashnlunlu. That's comm-nlunlu. We got the Zurich as well this week.

We got Chipultepec, that's kind of sneaking up on me. Live Mexico. Always enjoy watching that golf course. Couple highlight pairings at Zurich. We got Rory and Shane Lowry of course defending. We have Carl Willips, Michael Thorbjornsson, Sahith and Aaron Rye are playing together. This is Sahith's fourth partner and four parents.

Is this Sahith's personality issue here? Do we not find out apart? Who is the guy that always was like, God, who was it? It was Ryan Palmer. Ryan Palmer. Best pairings ever, yeah. Yeah. We've got the Postman JT Post and the Keith Mitchell. That's a vibey pairing in that group.

The Hoygard twins, of course, playing together. The Fitzpatrick brothers playing together. Harry Higgs, Joel Damon. I hope that's a feature group this week because that is an easy group to follow as well. Andrew Novak and Ben Griffin playing together as well. And then Conmore Kala and Kurt Kitayama. That was an interesting pairing. I know more cows played this in the past. I forget who he's played this with, but that name just not a lot like Ryder Cup stuff going on in this one other than really Rory and Shane and knows Andrew can't like call and play with Max. I think that's right. Yeah.

I think you're right. The other, the other one group that didn't make the notables, but notables in our hearts, ZD and Patrick Fishburne, you know, they gave it a run last year. BYU boys, you know, you got to watch out for them. We'll see what they can do this year. But it's I think it's going to be difficult. I'm very interested to see what game Rory shows up with because he's kind of had a whirlwind the last, I don't know, four or five days, there's been a ton going on all over the world. But now New Orleans with with Shane and you know, as long as they. There's been a ton going on all over the world, but now New Orleans with Shane. And you know, as long as they can make some putts,

they can hit the ball a mile. I'm pretty sure you're gonna see them there on Sunday. Good vibes. It should be fun to watch. Massive ratings at the RBC last week. They had 4.36 million viewers on average for the final round event the largest since 2002 In the weekend the weekend CBS average nearly 3.3 million up 62% from 2024. That's from Josh Carpenter

Can you explain this massive number? I mean like I know is Easter which you know, Bob Herrick was reporting that Easter is actually usually a bad day for ratings I was absolutely stunned to see this rating. Well, I think it's one of those things where, you know, a lot of people really excited about golf coming off of Rory's Masters win. And I think if you drift, if you're drifting behind a major championship like that, I think that I would be very interested to look at like the five year outlook on it that that shows because, you know,

it was an exciting tournament. I don't, JT is such a, people are either really in on JT or people are like, nah, I don't like that guy. You know, it's very weird. So I don't know where these big numbers are coming from exactly outside of like, people are just fired up for some golf. And I mean, the early round coverage drew 536 on Golf Channel, which is a record for the event as well. So it's not

just a fluke pop up on the weekend. But I think it's a good thing for golf. Good thing for the tour. I would hesitate to celebrate it too much and say all the problems are solved. A lot of problems I think are definitely still there. But a few other interesting JT notes. He said in an interview, I don't remember who this is with. Sorry, I can't give credit here, but that Joe will not remain on his bag

once Matt Minster is back and healthy, which was an interesting note, but that seemed like he was kind of committed to that and almost like there wasn't much more thought into it than that and that all parties of that Understood that as well. So thought that was interesting based on our conversation We had last Sunday also PJ tour put out a clip from his interview talking about how he had Called up Xander and like said he wanted to go spend some time with them on the putting green and pick his brain about

putting And I don't want to like sit here and paint like yeah to two hours was Xander's gonna flip you from a negative putter into A very big positive putter, but I find that super interesting of like two top players in the game Zander's sharing some putting tips and like a very serious improvement on JT's putting this season very noticeable Whether or not it sustains through an extended period of time We will see but I just found that interesting of like this many years into his career JT as much as I like him

He could be a bit of a know-it-all at times. And just to kind of like raise your hand and be like, you know what, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to get some advice on some of this. And I mean, he went from negative 0.28 per round last year to now positive 0.55. That is a massive improvement, like massive, massive, massive improvement. And I hope it sustains. And like, honestly, like hearing that made me think a lot more like that might be able to like that, that makes me feel better than, you know, just thinking that it might be a fluke run of some kind. It's wild to hear what these guys when they start talking,

like golf and their golf games to how they break it down in there, it truly just goes back to like the simplest fundamentals you possibly can ever hear. Okay, we always hear Scotty and how he's just like constantly working just like on the grip, making sure the grip's the exact same every single time. All Xander and what JT said was like, yeah, they met up in South Florida. I don't know what, what photo shoot or something they were doing it, but they decided to spend a half a day together and really focused on putting for a couple hours. And Xander asked him like, Hey, talk me through your routine. Like

how do you do this? And, and a lot of the things that JT said, he's like, well, like back in the day, I would like set up my station and like make sure that, you know, my stance is the same. My grip is the same. My eyes over the putter are the same. My stroke is the same, but like, you know, that's all dialed now. So I like, don't really have to do that. And Xander's like, well, it seems like you used to putt really good. Like maybe you should go back and do that.

Just straight fundamentals, one stuff. It's wild. And how quick, you know, you get somebody that can, a differing eye than your dad or whoever else is looking at your game all the time to put you back center and look at him go. I mean, yeah, we're talking about somebody who's been one of the best putters in the world, worldwide, since the start of the year. I mean, that's just where it's like, okay, we might be talking about a serious career bounce back here. Amon Lynch mentioned this. I did not watch the full clip, so I apologize if I'm taking any of this out of context. Just saw some of the social media reaction. Claiming that JT was potentially the top American player of this generation or did claim that he is the top American player of this generation, that's an interesting thought starter. What's your reaction to that kind of claim? potentially the top American player of this generation or did claim that he is the top American player of this generation.

I mean, that's an interesting thought starter. What's your reaction to, to that kind of claim? Uh, it's interesting for sure. I mean, I think the whole thing about last Sunday was like, Oh yeah, JT hadn't like really done anything since that lapse major that he won. And Oh, before that, like he was also kind of in like a slump. Uh, but best American of this generation, that's, that's kind of wild, man. I think it, what jumps off the page is Brooks Koepka's one five majors

as, uh, as fast as we are to forget that. But like, I would definitely say Brooks Koepka a more accomplished, like if, if what matters is majors Brooks Koepka is easily more accomplished than JT, but like who has been better at golf in this generation, like more consistently, it's definitely JT over Keppke. Would you trade JT's career for Keppke's? Probably not. Not many people would, but it's an interesting conversation, at least. But yeah, he's not one, I mean, even Jordan has more majors than, than, than Justin does. It's hard to, hard to say that but I just

Comment to be interesting. Hey, don't forget to the Brooks first JT comparison They both also are just one-time golf course co-designers. Okay, so Panther National and Memorial Park. You got to give him credit for that That's very true Yeah, I got mentioned we have lived to pull to peck teeing off on Friday and big news this week Like I mentioned, we have lived to pull to peck teeing off on Friday and big news this week. Xander Shafly launched a new app, which finally, I mean, they've just been waiting for this really for since, since we got into the business, been waiting for Xander to launch an app. But I'm sure there's a lot of big stuff dropping in that one, but that was the big news of yesterday. I'm sure, I'm sure everybody's rushing to download the Xander Shafly app.

It sounds like an incredible write-off to me. I remember a couple of years ago when people were like, finally talking about how much money these players are making and things like that. And they're like, oh yeah, but they're paid out to charities and separate LLCs. And somebody did a deep dive on the Xander Shofley Foundation. And they found like a, I don't know,

it was like a 2013 Toyota Tacoma or something like that as the only asset listed. Like like I wonder where that trucks at man Maybe we can find out in the app now It's interesting. I have to look into that Alright, Cody any parting thoughts here as we get to kick off major week here and a busy other week around the world of golf No, I'm pumped. Like I said, we only get Five going up support. That's of course a joke. We're going to see. I think I might hit the road tomorrow morning, go down, spend tomorrow in Houston, and maybe Friday morning before I come back.

We'll see what the kids' mood is in. But I'm pumped for the Chevron. And last year, well, actually the last two years, me and the big fella, he's going to be back from vacation on Friday. But we usually do a 36-hole update. We have changed that for this year We're trying something new So we're actually gonna be live Saturday night at the conclusion at the 54 hole mark To see we're gonna have more golf to be able to talk through and

It'll be closer to get people fired up to go into that Sunday round. So we'll be live big and myself We might have a couple guests come through around so we'll be live big and myself we might have a couple guests come through Saturday night right here on the knowing up YouTube channel and X account not the Xander Sheffley app but the X. Exactly. But yeah I'm pumped man very very excited go LC. Great job with all the preview contents got me very excited as well. Thanks Justin Ray Jordan Perez Cody one of the ones in twos. As always to our friends

at FanDuel, Roeback and Whoop. Looking forward to watching some major championship golf this week. Thanks everybody for tuning in live here on a Wednesday afternoon or if you're catching up in your car the next day, get to your TVs and watch some golf this weekend or go play some golf. Just yeah, someone have some golf in your life this weekend. How about that? Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you back here Saturday night. Cheers. Cheers.

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