No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 110: Adam Sarson Debriefing 2017

Episode Date: December 22, 2017

Friend of the pod Adam Sarson joins to talk about the biggest stories of 2017. From JT’s breakout, Spieth’s win at Birkdale, the controversy at the ANA, and Brooks Koepka’s emergence at the US Open,... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 110: Adam Sarson Debriefing 2017 appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, guys, last call on PGA Tour Live for the 2018 season 3999 at PGA Tour Live.com. Order it now, and you will get the full treatment for the entire season. There's a reason we tell you guys every week that it's worth it. We've got it, and we will continue to be subscribers in 2018. Also last call on the Callaway Golf Gift Guide, got a Callaway Golf.com slash gift guide. The deals run through the end of the year, custom epic driver. Doesn't chrome soft golf balls for $319.99 with personalization. Trust me, stop by the website.

For now let's get to Adam Sarson and we're going to wrap up the 2017 season. club today. That is better than most. That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast, not probably not the final episode of the year for 2017, but did want to do a recap of what was a pretty monumental year in golf, and there's no better person to do that with than an old friend of the

podcast, Adam Sarson, who annually does his top 100 stories in golf for the year. Sarsin, exactly how much of a time suck is this process? More than I think you probably realize, I start essentially a spreadsheet back in, you know, usually in the middle of January or so every year. And I just kind of add to it, you know, piece by piece as we kind of go along. And then, you know, towards I would say October, end of October, early November, I try to start piece, I try to start piecing it together until it's off 100, you know, kind of combining stories here and there. Yeah, it's, and then I actually just have to take the time to write them out as well. And it's, it's, it's a lot of work.

Definitely a lot of work. Do you get like a fear, like an anxiety, that you're gonna accidentally leave out, like a huge story? Oh yeah, all the time. I mean, and that's actually why I usually asked, like at least three or four people to look it over and make sure that I haven't done that. Brendan Porath lifted over for me a couple weeks ago and suggested a few things that I missed. So

you know, it is a big, big fear of mine that I'm going to forget something. And you know, thankfully I've got people who want to take a look at it before it goes out. So that's at least very good for me. What is something that you kind of realized in the process of piecing together at the end, like the biggest story that you kind of realized in the process of piecing together at the end, like the biggest story that you kind of forgot happened during the year? Oh God, that's good. It might be, you know, there was so much obviously going on at Aaron Hills, that I kind of like forgot that like for like a good two days.

Like all anyone ever wanted to talk about was why they were Cut in the festue And it was just like it was just this random thing like I know you know Andy at the fried egg is you know was basically on it You know for you know given a lot of coverage over over two days You know it's just one of those things you just kind of forget you know forget you know kind of happened like you know even something like You know the all the crazy wind that happened in the Bahamas for that first, that first round on the web earlier this year, you know, Louis U stays in complete of the career runner up, grand slam, am things like that. You know, so it kind of, it's

easy to forget some of these things when you talk about the great kind of year that we had too. To for me, and we're not going to go through all 100 go through all 100, we definitely don't have the time for that. But for me, it honestly was that DJ fell down a flight of stairs and withdrew from the masters. Like, you could have told me that was last year and I would have believed it. Like I totally forgot that that happened this year.

That's my favorite part of reading it every year. It's just going back and be like, oh my, that's right, that happened this year. It's so easy to get caught up in the new cycles and the ups and downs and kind and want to brush things off. It is surprising to me too when you get the intro to the list, the first 50, not the top 50, but the first 50. I'm like, man, that was one of the top 100 stories of the year.

Jim Furek missed the open championship. It's got like, man, golf might actually kind of be boring sometimes. Sometimes it is. I mean, the funny thing is, the thing about fear too, it's like, well, you know, well, when, when you talked about the ridiculous amount of consistencies, it's kind of, it's kind of bad when he, you know, he has, he's like, missed one major since like 95 or 96, you know, when he wasn't hurt. So, you know, it. So it is kind of big. One of the other things too is Tyler, his early season schedule plan, it was actually in the beginning of January when he started out in Dubai and looked just completely awful and all that.

So he's come along way too and it's very easy to think that that was probably 2015 or 2016 at this point. Yeah, and I looked at that and I, and I, I, as somebody who, you know, does content for a living, I, I, I would imagine I would hate if like my order of how I ranked him was critiqued too heavily, but the, what, you did have that tiger's schedule story pretty far down the list. And I started thinking I was like, man, that might be, that should maybe be a more important story. But I think at that point, Tiger was pretty much a ticking time bomb. And bomb, and the back was going to go off no matter what he did with that

early season schedule. I know a lot of people blame that schedule, but I thought after what we saw at the hero last year that people got pretty optimistic, and that was pretty big story when he came out and crapped out again, three tournaments into the entire season. So maybe it turns out, you know, a 13 hour flight to Dubai commercial probably wasn't the best idea, you know? Probably not, but I don't know. That's kind of where I go back to like, all right, if a flight did that, then something else was going to do it.

Oh, I know. It wasn't the end all be all of that. But all right, I do want to get in some of those top stories. But first, I want to pick your brain and clarify a few things. I did listen to your excellent appearance on the Friday Ag podcast with Porath and Andy. There was a, I was texting all three of you guys at some point while listening to it in the car

over here about what my takes on the Ryder Cup for next year were bastardized one. And some of the, there were some straw man narratives that were thrown out So you know I can anytime you and I get together on a podcast We're gonna talk about the Ryder Cup. So I want to actually start with that a little bit And I want I want you first I want to hear what you think my current stances on the 2018 Ryder Cup I would like so the current stance that I believe you have on the 2018 Ryder Cup? I would like, so the current stance that I believe you have on the 2018 Ryder Cup, now correct me if I'm wrong.

You did a pod, I believe with Kyle Porter, where you basically, well, as you guys always do, you talk a lot about the Ryder Cup when you guys get together. And it made it definitely seem like you were predicting like a giant Rhweets next year in France in favor of the Americans. That's what my general thought was.

Okay, well, see, that was not my intention. My stance on it is that the US team, one sixteen and a half to eleven and a half over what is admittedly a very, it was a very weak European team in 2016. That 2016 team did not have Justin Thomas, did not have Patrick Cantlay, and did not have Daniel Berger. And now I know that it might be a bit presumptuous to kind of pencil Cantlay and on that team,

but I think I'm of the opinion a lot of people are of this opinion that win in Vegas was not a fluke, and it is gonna be a trend towards something pretty special and he's on his way to being a top 20 top 10 player of the world, I think. So my stance was just like, especially with the comments, Rory made and seeing what we saw out of that US presence cup team with JT, with burger and kind of even had more of that young firepower that we've been talking about up and coming from the US team, is that we have a very, very strong team. I've always been very apprehensive about the fact that, you know, the European team is

adding ROM, who is a top five player in the world. I think we can say minimum top 10 player in the world, who was not on the European team in 16, but with also some of Europe's top players entering a time period. I'm not going to say aging, but entering later half of their careers, definitely. I mean, we've seen, we've seen guys like Phil extend way into their 40s and stuff and play competitively in that event. And I'm not saying Stenson and Sergio and Rose are done by any means, but not, I wouldn't say they're in their prime prime.

I know Sergio and the masters this past year, but it's not like, you know, we're going to see anything necessarily different from Sergio next year That I think the US is set up to do very well over the Ryder Cup for the next eight years I'm not predicting a romp. I think the US is gonna win. Don't get me wrong. I think we are gonna win I think we'll be favorited the problem I've had recently is just this argument that's come out of like well Europe has 10 of the top 20 ranked players in the world. It's like, wait a second here. How much have we talked about official world golf rankings?

How much it favors the Europeans? And how much, during this time of the year specifically, it is a system that basically is designed for European players to clean up ranking points at this time of year when US players are not obtaining them. And this all of a sudden is like a good argument for why that European they're going to win next year.

Come on, that's the worst argument I've heard. You're siding with Grace and Murray right now. It's one of those things where I like to know. In fairness, I may have, in fairness to you, I may have combined your take on the pod with Kyle, along with all the other tates that were kind of flying around in the way to the present. Well, actually, during the present, since it was such a route, you know, so that that may have been, that may

have been a mistake on my part, thinking that you were predicting a romp specifically. Now it's like, for me, it's like, you know, I wrote something probably in just probably a week after the President's prep ended. And I do think that like people are making it out to be like, you know, the Americans are going to go out and dominate, I just don't see it. I mean, it's like, I have no doubt that the Americans are probably going to be favorited and they probably should be. But I mean, like, you know, the Americans have won twice on European soil since Europe was

integrated properly in 1979. It's not like it's going to be a walk away by any means, and I mean, it's not just wrong, either, right? I mean, to your point, like, yeah, sure. I don't think any American is going to be, you know, terrified if they have to go up against, you know, Francesco Mallonari or something in a, you know, in a ride or cup single's match, but like, you know, players like Tommy Fleetwood and Tyrell Hatten and Alex Norton are legit players. Like, it's not, you know, I think the idea that, you

know, people are just saying, well, we've got Daniel Berger and we've got JT and we've done all this and all that. It's like, yeah, it's great. But like, it's just, it's a very, it's a very easy thing for people to just to overlook the Europeans as well I think yeah And and and by no means do I think the Europeans should be dismissed So I think I've made that clear here and I think kind of like when when out on shipneck wrote his the writer cup is dead Thing it just kind of People are like tagging me in that like oh see another one of you guys is getting away I was like wait a second here that isn't remotely close to what I've said

about the Ryder Cup. Like, I know why he wrote that. It was to the Ryall everyone up and piss off the Europeans and everything. And I feel like, yeah, it did work. It was too easy. Everyone took the bait. But that's kind of where, and back to your point on,

they have one twice over there in the past, however many years. To me, I honestly just throw that out because I feel, I honestly feel like things have changed with the entire Ryder Cup process when it comes to the US team and talking to Furek about it on the podcast a couple weeks ago and just talking about how they've kind of set up more of a system similar to how Europe has done it over the years, meaning, you know, a captain needs to be an assistant captain before becoming a captain and kind and the whole process that goes into selecting teams, pairings, and everything just seems to be such a unified, much more unified approach.

And a lot of the guys that we're contributing so much to those losing teams are out of the picture now. And so, and we have, and that's, that they haven't won over there, doesn't bother me a lot because I think it's a new era. Like, speed, yeah, speed and read, and we're on the team and lost in 14 But like so was Hunter Mayhan and Keegan Bradley and a lot of guys that are not gonna be there and that just that in that regard I think it's Stephen Gallacher and Thomas Bjorn and like it wasn't like you know It wasn't like a murderers were over there either on the other side though

But that team like Europe was favored to win that and should have won that and easily won it. Like that was pretty predictable in my mind. I had no hope on it. And you can go back to my tweets from 2014. I had no hope that we were going to win that Ryder Cup. It's a totally different scenario for starting for next year and Tom Watson and walking through that door. He's now walking through that door. So I just wanted to get it on record kind of my what I think we are going to win, but I'm not like just I'm it's Far from a foregone conclusion in this event. How many times has the US team been favored and lost it like very badly And yeah Chris Riley Chris Riley and Brett wetter record now walking through that door So we're we're this is a much different era and you know, just it's it's shocked me and maybe Roy kind of wants to play that under

Underdog role a little bit, but it's shocked me. And maybe Roy kind of wants to play that underdog role a little bit, but it's shocked me that on the podcast he's like, yeah, we're gonna be up against it for the next decade. And I was like, I mean, I think it's gonna get worse for Europe going forward than it is necessarily for 2018. But I think it will be competitive, but I'm pretty, I haven't decided what my final prediction is, but it's gonna be something like 15 and a half, 12 and a half US,

I think, so. So. prediction is, but it's gonna be something like 15 and a half 12 and a half US I think so So you're doing it again. Yeah, I'm predicting that they're gonna win that that's never been but I don't want people acting like my take is It's a foregone conclusion. We're gonna win. So I'll stay in here and take the take if we lose I'll take the abuse I mean come on I'll be there and I'll listen to it from the fans and everything so But all right for the reason we had you, sorry to get that get deterred there, but we had to clear the air there. But, all right, so without giving too much spoiler alert, I think we are going to give a bit of spoiler on your top.

But what do you have is your top golf story of the year in 2017? You know, it probably didn't surprise. I'm sure a lot of people listening to this right now are just going to go on the assumption that I think it's Sergio one in the masters, but JT just doing what he did has to be the number one story of the year, right? I mean, like, not only does he go out there and win his first major and show up on his first team competition at the President's Cup. Like, you know, there's a lot of things, like, so he won five times in 2017. He shot 59 at the Sony,

which somehow seems to be forgotten. It seems at least to a lot. Like, nobody's, not a lot of people seem to be talking about that right now. You know, he's number three in the world. I mean, I, you know, even you, you know, you're, you know, I hear you're a bit of a fan of his. You know, I don't think that even you probably wouldn't have predicted that he would have

gotten to number three in the world at this point, correct? Correct, yeah, I mean, I had very high expectations for him, but I've said this many times on his podcast. I think I kind of felt a bit too close to it and didn't, I didn't realize it could be this good. I really didn't. And I think, but he was always adamant about that. And that's the thing is, you know, kind of, and not in like a cocky way,

but he was just always, like, I think he was just dead serious. Like back in April when he told me he's like, I'm gonna win a major this year at least one. And he said some pretty outrageous things that have turned out to mostly be true or like very close to being true. Like after he shot 59, he's like, I can go lower. No joke, Sarsons power just cut out, which makes possibly the easiest decision ever for an ad break. And so if you haven't heard, it was an unbelievable year for Callaway Golf and they just launched

what is called the photo issue which is an amazing interactive magazine showcasing their best images and moments of the year. We've got Arnold Palmer's Augusta National Yardage book, Custom Wedges for the NBA Champs, the launch of the number one selling driver. Of course we are talking about the epic. Go to the photoissue calloway golf dot com and check it out that's the photo issue dot calloway golf dot com now let's get back to the rest of our podcast with Adam sarsan alright canada is apparently not paying their electric bills uh... we are picking this back up about eleven days later sarsan your power just went out and hasn't been as it been on since i last spoke to you it has has been on, but you know, unfortunately, the, yeah, apparently it was a combination

of the cold weather that we had just kind of got blasted with in the snow, knocked my power ever, good three hours. And then it came back on, but my Wi-Fi wasn't working. It was just this whole mess. And then of course, you know, your fancy world traveler these days. So, you know, it's kind of tough for us to kind of sync up on these things

when my power goes out and you're halfway around the world. Well, you're freezing cold takes, literally froze out your power, but we're back. We're back. And I'm still very cold. I'd like to point that out. It is still very cold here. It's 75 in Melbourne today, so. which is like 23 in your little Celsius talk.

But no one listened to this. It doesn't matter to anyone listen to this because it just rolls right for a minute to minute. But we're back. We're going to dedicate to finishing this. We got through exactly one of the top 100 stories from last year. But we pretty much did close it with JT. What's next on your list as kind of the big things that stuck out to you from 2017? It has to be Sergio, doesn't it? I mean, obviously people are going to think that, obviously I'm a big Sergio fan, so I mean, I've got a little bit of a personal connection to it, but the fact is, is that he won his know, he won his first major, he finally, finally got it done. You know, in a spectacular fashion at Augusta, it was the one, I mean, I think I can comfortably say that this was the one that evolved him, that he probably wasn't supposed to win, right? I mean, it's not,

you know, he's always done well at the open, and even he's done pretty well at the US open as well. at the open and even it's done pretty well at the US open as well. But him actually finally, finally slaying the dragon at Augusta and doing it in a different way too. Everyone always said too, the way he's going to win one is if he starts the day a little further back. He goes out and he posts 65 or something to sit in the clubhouse. The leader is trying to fall back and maybe it's an inexperienced guy at the top who kind of falters,

and you know, he kind of just gets in and he wins it by one. But like, you know, he actually battled Justin Rose, one of the best players in the world down the stretch, you know, for a good portion there. It looked like he was gonna completely blow it and be a, you know, the standard Sergio can't close a major tournament narrative was definitely bringing through my ears at the start of the back nine,

but he ended up getting a done and doing it in a way that I don't think any of us really thought he was going to do it. I love how you posting the same gift for years over and over qualifies as a personal connection to Sergio Garcia. No, that's not perfect. The first personal connection is a little strong. I mean, block.

What, so I mean, I mean, I don't need no for that. Are you still blocked on Twitter, babe? Oh, yeah. And for reasons which I'm not entirely sure. And if somebody wants to ask them, they don't feel free. But I'm actually not, I am. I am still blocked. Wow. He just hates Canada. I'm sorry. So it's easy to forget that in that Masters on the 13th hole Sergio was left of Ray's

Creek off the tee. Justin Rose is in the middle of the fairway and he's trailing Rose by two at that point. And I felt I have I don't have any regrets honestly in writing him off at that point. I think I made a joke at that point was like this is this is where it ends. I don't even regret that because the odds of him coming back to win, cover that deficit being in that spot. I thought he was going to make double there. I think he ended up making par or beret.

Yeah, no, he made par. He got back on and made a putt and then rose. Rose, I believe, missed a relatively short putt for birdie that ended up and he ended up making part as well. Yeah, no, that was crazy. There was no way he should have been able to come back from that being left to race career on 13. Yeah. And then the eagle on 15 and just the way that all came together was, that was special. It was. I don't know. I feel like I hate doing this after I just won a major and had this, you know, the biggest moment of his career. But I felt like I hate doing this after I just won a major and had this, you know,

the biggest moment of his career, but I felt like it got very quiet for Sergio after the Masters. I think he might still be celebrating that. I mean, well, wouldn't you be? I know. I know. I mean, he, but in fairness to him, like, he won, he won earlier in the year in the Middle East, won, won at the Masters, and then, I mean, he won, he won his, his national open, like mean he won his national open. He won the Spanish Open after the Masters. I mean, obviously, you don't married too. Like, you know, they have a kid coming along the way.

It was a pretty busy year form. Right. No. I'm just thinking of it in terms of like, again, the way I think in Ryder Cup. Like, I don't know. I don't. You're going to correct me because I was about to say correct me if I'm wrong and I promise you will. But I don't necessarily fear Sergio don't, you're gonna correct me because I was about to say correct me if I'm wrong

and I promise you will, but I don't necessarily fear Sergio next year in the Redder Cup. I know we're a long ways out for that, but I don't know. It's amazing as that was that he won the Masters. I just think that, I don't know, I don't necessarily, like I said this at the time, I don't think this like opens the floodgates for Sergio to win a bunch of majors. Oh no, I don't think, I think the notion of opening the floodgates is flawed in the

first place, but I mean, it's also probably a little more flawed now considering the depth of talent, too. I mean, Sergio is what he's turning 38, I think this year. I mean, it's not... He's obviously not dead enough there. He's not done by any means, but there's too many guys who are in that 20 to 25-year-old range that are going to be done for their major ones too. I question you a little bit on the whole. I wouldn't be scared of Sergio with the Ryder Cup and then only because he is still one of the best players in the world.

It's not. I don't know what else he has to do in that event as well to kind of make you a little nervous about going up against them. It's a bad take. It's a bad take. I knew when I prefaced it that it was going to be a bad take that I shouldn't have said it, but yeah, it's fine. He shot 63 in the match on Sunday against Phil. He said he was like thinking about that match. Okay, I can admit it. I can move on.

Yeah. All right, after Sergio winning the Masters, I see written down here, the Jordan Speed winning the open championship. Why is that one of the biggest stories of the year to you? Uh, it's, I mean, it's one of those things where, you know, Speed, uh, I mean, obviously everyone remembers what he did on 13, right? I mean, he's tied on 13 with Matt Koocher, um, and he, he sends it so far right.

I believe, I can't, I can't remember if it was Peter Jacobson. It was somebody on the call who said that at what time it was a hundred yards right of, of where his target was. Um, Spieth, clarified that as well as like, well, no, it's like it bounced off a dude's head. Like it went into the dune. Like it wasn't that far, right. But I mean, you know, he goes off to the practice range and he ends up, I don't know how long that whole saga

took. It felt like it took about 20, 25 minutes for it to kind of get resolved. Johnny's telling them to go back to the tee and re-t for reasons which don't make any sense to me. to get resolved. Johnny's telling him to go back to the T and re-T for reasons which don't make any sense to me. He ends up salvaging that whole almost aces the next one, on 14. He's down one at this point, almost aces it. Mates in Edel on 15, birdies 16 and 17. And basically just blows the doors off a coach at the end of the tournament.

Like on top of being a major, it's just like the actual finish itself. Like it was spectacular to watch. I mean, you know, it was just, it was your typical Jordan's beef kind of moment. It was incredible. When I think back to that day, I think you get the two sides of Jordan's spieth all in one round.

You get the boat. You got both sides of it. You got the guy, and listen, we're talking about a guy who's, I don't know how many time winner at the age of 24 on the PJ Tour in a three time major winner, but it does seem he does have these moments on Sundays that appear rather shaky. And it does, you know, sleeping on the lead. It didn't, he was, he was not sharp. The first 13 holes and it took until that know, sleeping on the lead. It didn't, he was not sharp, the first 13 holes,

and it took until that way, way right shot to kind of wake him up. I honestly think that, I think he was just kind of playing protecting the lead, and it rattled him to the point where I was like, all right, I'm done with this kind of whatever protecting the lead kind of thing it is, and I'm just gonna start firing it flags, and that's when everything changed.

I know that, I think took about 20 minutes to do that that drop and all that and Kutcher had to wait, but I think Kutcher played two under par. He bogged the 18th. He needed to essentially needed a birdie. I don't he played two under par from 14 to 17 with the lead and got left in the dust. Like it wasn't fair. Yeah, there was there was nothing more that that Kutcher could have done at that point to try to win that tournament. Like he played just fine. You know, I think it's interesting. I don't know, Kyle Porter always talks about how,

you know, how speeds can kind of get like, can kind of got slapy off the tee. Like he's not, he's not the best driver of the ball. We know that, but I mean, like the thing that, the thing where you should be able to compare him to to to tighter in one regard is that, you know, everyone always talked about how tighter, you know, how great he was at, you know, winning with when he didn't have his age. Right? Like that's always one of the things that always gets said, you know, the idea that he turned, you know, around that looked like potentially a 74 or 75 and he would shoot 70 or 71 and just

trying to hang around and stay in it. You know, the speed did that same thing at the travelers earlier this year too, right? Like, I mean, yeah, so I mean, like everyone, everyone remembers the chess bump with Greller and, you know, but like that day at the travelers, like he, you know, he was kind of slapping the ball around all over the place. He didn't really do a whole lot for most of the day. But when it came down to it, he ended up doing what he always does. And it was the same thing to Berkdale. Now, granted, Berkdale was playing tough that day. Like the first few holes, everyone was trying to struggle on those opening holes.

But like, Speed kind of came back a bit, and that's, that's what allowed Cruz to kind of go up in front and it's just, but this is just what he does, you know, he doesn't, you know, like the criticism of Rory not, you know, the one with his A-Dame, I think is a little overblown, but like the fact is, is that when Jordan's not playing super great, he can still do well and win. And that's, that's something that you just don't see from a lot of other players. I know that some people don't necessarily want to get as excited about speed is that I think they probably should and it's because he's not DJ and Rory Linkh, but I think this is kind of where we get lost in the sauce on the link conversation engulf and that speed that there is a difference between

being super long and being not long enough. Let me phrase that there's a difference between long enough and not long enough, right? If you're in the middle tier and driving distance on tour, you are at a disadvantage a lot of the time. Speed is long enough. Like he is not gonna keep up with Rory off the tee, but he hits it plenty far enough to put himself in a position to get close to the hole after two shots, which is to me the name of the game. Somebody like Rory can hit it past him, but Jordan at this point in their careers is better at hitting the ball close to the hole. And once he gets on the greens, yeah, he has issues with

short putts, but from medium range, he's one of the best, if not the best, putter in the world. So that's a guy, the formula of getting, I don't know what is Stroke's game putting, or Stroke's game approach was for the year, but he really set himself apart on tour as far as guys that fire at flags. And to me that this year for speed was, I don't want to say more impressive than 15. I think 15 was just that kind of overachieving year. If we're being honest, I mean, winning the Masters and winning the US Open, everything kind of fell his way to win the US Open. And obviously things really didn't fall his way at the PGA.

He played good enough to win it. And he was so unbelievably close at the Open Championship. But to me, this was more validating. Like, 16 was, and as he said many times, it was not a bad season even remotely, but kind of people were comparing it to his 15. This was just kind of like, all right, this is where we're going to settle for what he actually is, which is a future Hall of Famer in my mind and guys probably gonna win. I think I gave him eight if I estimated, I think he's gonna win eight majors, but I don't want to backtrack off that, but I think six is like a, you know, if we're not talking Anthony Kim, disappearance or Tiger injuries,

like pretty much a guarantee if we're, if I'm being honest. So, I don't know, I thought it was just a very validating year and it kind of announced to the golf world that, like, look, I'm not fading at all. Like, 16 was first of all not a bad year, but this is the kind of player I am. Yeah, no, I think a lot of this too. I didn't have something that I talk about a lot. This is one of the things that you can definitely term as the Tider effect. Tider was so good and so dominant and so captivating to watch, but I think it's made it so hard for a guy like Spieth to actually get the proper respect that he deserves. Same as Drew of Rory, same as Drew of even someone like DJ who is more of a little older, but we don't appreciate how good speed is.

And it's just a fact, like he's a special player. Like, what, 11 tour wins at 24? Like that's insane. Like we're not, and we don't talk about it enough. Like we talk about how good he is, yes. We talk about all kinds of stuff, but like, we're talking about a historically significant player, and it just doesn't seem like he does enough credit for that.

Yeah, and I know this point gets kind of lost. When you even mention the comparison between like, speed and tiger, you get left it. And there isn't a comparison. But the thing I try to drill home is that to this point and their careers at this age, speed has outperformed tiger in terms of major championships. That's pretty remarkable. Now, right at this age, speed has outperformed Tiger in terms of major championships. That's pretty remarkable.

Now, right at this age, the coming season for speed is when Tiger won the Tiger Slim. So that perspective is going to change. And what Tiger obviously has done in his career is never going to be matched. And I'd use impossible to hold speed to that standard. And I don't want to do that going forward. But I think to this point, it's just noteworthy that like, hey, he's outperformed what Tiger did. Again, what made Tiger really special is what happened in one five of the next six majors, if I remember right.

And of course, four in a row. So that's just the kind of perspective on what we've seen so far from him that I think is sometimes lacking. I know Speed started his career younger and all that. But I think I do think that definitely means something. So all right, what's next? Did you want to talk about Tiger? I mean, let's do it.

I mean, I know you went pretty deep with KVV, and I know you're pretty optimistic about where things are kind of sitting as we go into 2018. No, I think it's good to drill home. As often as I could say it, I just want to preach patience. And I'm going to lose the patience. So again, maybe I'm doing this as a self-restraining exercise, but I'm going to get overly excited if he starts playing really well at the farmers or whatever he shows up at next. But the more we can emphasize that this thing is going to be, it's a process, as he says,

and it's not going to be a short one. And if you miss the cut at the farmers, my stance is not going to change. If he makes the cut, I think I'll be very encouraged, but again, just knowing that there's going to be some ups and downs going forward. And as long as we can, which I know we can, as long as we can restrain ourselves for the ride and kind of keep perspective on it. I really appreciated the things that KVV had to say about just the way we cover Tiger

and the people on the ground. And how I wasn't watching his 75 or his poor round on Saturday, but reading on Twitter made it sound like he was gonna shoot 85. And like people just lost perspective on what was actually happening. And it was, it's kind of like, man, all right. So, but he didn't even like lose much ground

Like the rest of the field struggled on this day and we were freaking out of tiger struggling and I don't know So it's gonna be it's gonna be it's gonna be ugly It's it's the part of the of Covering and watching tiger that I don't enjoy and I'm not I'm not trying to act like I'm the master take guy on tiger But it's I don't know I just it's moses me how fast people lose their perspective on it And you can throw that back of me whenever I say, Tiger's back when he birdies the first hole at Tori Sal. Exactly. No, I think, look, it's, you know, this time, at this time last year, like I think,

I think we were all actually not as optimistic, you know, come as we are now, but like back then too, like it's, it's hard, it's easy to forget that he played pretty well at the hero in 2016 as well. Granted, the Swindon looked as good. He still looked like he was dealing with some kind of pain and all that. But there was optimism back then, too. And then, sure enough, he ends up coming up with that ridiculous, schedule plan that he put together for himself, where he would play Tori and he would fly over to the Middle East and then, you know, he was gonna play, I believe something, he was gonna play Riv

and he was playing like four tournaments and like a six-week stretch just off a back surgery and like, you know, it's easy to kind of forget that now in this new era of unbridled enthusiasm. He ends up throwing his back out again, probably somewhere on the flight. Maybe he was working out too much and know that something you've talked about. It's very easy, seemingly, to forget that too. He had another surgery, the DUI that happened. He had some unfortunate hacked photos that came out during the year too. You had another surgery, the DUI that happened. He had some unfortunate hacked

photos that came out during the year too. It was this weird year for him, even before we talk about the fact that he actually looks like he could be a competent golfer again in 2018. I had forgot about the hacked photos until you just said that again. The DUI does get kind of forgotten about, which I'm okay with. I think that kind of, I don't know, that had to be a bit of a wake-up call for him to say that's something, and I don't know what the updates are since then, or what, you know, but there's obviously some issues that he had with substances that needed to be addressed, and I don't want to assume that those are all addressed,

and KVV also made the point about, you know, now he's going to be playing this time around. I don't know if he's off-paint killers completely, but it's definitely a factor in that, like, he can't be using them at the pace that he was, which again, I don't know what it was, but it obviously wasn't good, whatever that combination was. So, but again, again, to me, this comeback felt different. The ball speed and the swing speed being in what it is, and not, it just didn't feel like he was hanging on a string. It kinda did even at the hero last year and definitely obviously when he showed up in January, looking all swollen, but I mean, I don't know.

It just kinda felt like, I felt like last year, whatever happened, it was gonna happen with his back at some point regardless of what he did. I don't wanna think that the flight and the lifting and everything necessarily, it may have expedited that process, but it felt like this was going to happen again, no matter what. This fusion surgery feels different and hopefully, again, I'm obviously no medical expert, but it does feel like this time around could be different and the only way it's going to work is if he's swinging his ass off like he was at the

hero. So let's hope for some good. Actually, I myself, Brendan Porath and Andy Johnson, we jumped on the Friday pod. I guess what a few weeks ago now. And Andy asked us, if he's healthy for a full season, say he plays, I don't know, 14 or 15 events, how do we think he does? And both Brendan and I said that if he's healthy for those 15 events, you know, how do we think he does and both Brendan and I said that you know If he's healthy for those 15 events, you know say he doesn't he doesn't withdraw from any of them He he stays in you know

Maybe Mrs. a few cuts here and there I wouldn't be shocked But we both kind of said that we thought he was doing a win-at-turn And is that does that kind of jive with what you think or or do you think something different if you asked me alone? I would say no, he won't win a tournament. But the thing I keep going back to is Phil, who was on the golf.com podcast around this time, last year, around January last year,

when I asked, like, Shipnank asked him, do you think Tiger wins again? And Phil, the way he answered, like, oh yeah, but it wasn't fake, it was just like, oh, well, of course he's gonna win again. And to get that kind of recognition from somebody like Phil, that's just been around the game so long and knows Tiger so well. And that, to me, is the encouragement that I'm holding off on that. One of his peers, like his longest rival, maybe ever, just thinks without a shadow of a doubt that he's going to win again.

That's what keeps me going with it. Does that make sense? Oh, yeah. No, for sure. I mean, my whole thing, and I said this to Andy as well, is like, we can all talk about the reasons as to why he may not have played well over the last few years since I just 2013. My thought has always been like, the last time we probably saw him fully healthy was 2013. So we can talk all we want about.

Was it, how is he mentally, or does he have the yips or whatever? And it's like, okay, well, step one, let's make sure he's healthy. Like, if he's healthy and able to play, that's, that's step one. If he can do that, then we can kind of debate from there, like, what, what is ceiling is potentially, you know, and, and so it's, it's, it's one of the biggest, obviously, one of the biggest stories of the year. And I'm super pumped to see where he goes from here, even though I'm being cautiously optimistic about where he stands growing forward. Yeah, it's going to be fun. With, you know, I think I feel like golf was hurting a bit in 2014, around 2014 when he

really first vacated for a long period of time, but it's been a really strong year over year. The golf has gotten stronger and stronger. Now, if we were able to add a healthy tiger to that mix, it's gonna make for pretty great 18. I really do think so. So yeah, if we get 15 healthy tournaments out of them, that's just a peak in interest for 15 more events

of the year without a doubt. I mean, we saw you. Are you adding him to your preliminary rider, Cup Roster? Is that what's going on too? I do think that being a part of those teams has helped him. Like, I really do think that's kind of helped motivate him. And kind of, I think he spoke to about how the things the guys have told him and like,

trying to get him back out there has really kind of motivated him a little bit. So that's, that does encourage me. No, I'm not, I'm not penciling him on the team with Peter Uline who you think that I put on the team, but I did not. So you may have done it. I may have mentioned that he is like a consideration. A lot of things would have to go right for him in 2018. Obviously that to happen, but again, lack can happen.

All right. You wrote down on here Lexi at the A&A about the ruling incident that happened there. To be honest, you have a lot of LPGA stuff on here and it's, you know, now that this is a full-time gig, I need to be infinitely better at covering the LPGA. But why did this story stick out to you so much to rank probably what's going to end up being in your top five stories of the year? Yeah, I mean, for a couple of reasons, right? I mean, obviously, you know, the first thing that, you know, we've talked a lot about the ridiculousness of the rules of golf, right?

And then how like, you know, there's always, there's always some kind of rule that can contradict another one and the other, no one through all these big rule changes every few years and all that. Just the idea that someone can actually call in when Lexi, I believe at this point, had six or seven holes left to play, and she did actually get a penalty from something that happened the previous day. You know, this the idea of it is ridiculous. I mean, not only did she get penalized for,

for, you know, the coin being not, you know, put back in the right spot. It was, it was, one of those things where like, yeah, she gets the two-store penalty for that. And then on top of that, she gets an extra two-store for signing an incorrect scorecard. When the scorecard she signed was correct when she signed it in the first place.

And you get the outpouring of support that she got from all kinds of people. And it was just, it was one of those days where like, it was one of, you know, if you tried to explain that to anyone who wasn't a golf fan, they would have no idea why that was such a big issue. And it was very, it was one of the, it was absolutely one of the biggest stories of the year. And, you know, the fact that she handled it really well, and you know, she almost won,

she ended up losing an apply off like, it was a big deal. It was, yeah, I mean, it was for, again, for the wrong reasons, that's what sucks. It's like the biggest LPGA story of the year that we can all agree it was, you know, this horrible app. I don't wanna say horrible application of the rule, but just the golf getting in its own way,

we've seen so many times, and you know, DJ at the US Open but just the golf getting in its own way. We've seen so many times. And you know, DJ at the US Open was obviously a huge story in 16, which was somewhat, somewhat similar. But this one was especially brutal. You come up to you in the middle around with as hard as people work for strokes and just say, Hey, we're taking four strokes on four shots while you're leading a major. Like that is the worst. That is just the most brutal way

for rules to insert themself on a Sunday afternoon. And how, I guess, what do you feel about the new rules, USG air rules and the changes that are being put into place for 2019? Do you think this fixes a lot of issues? Or do you think that, I can't kind of mix reactions from some players on some of these things? I mean, I think what, I think a lot of what they did is, I mean, it's likely going to be

positive, but I don't see how they're not super big, you know, but they're not big changes from what I can tell anyway. You know, yeah, sure, the thing that affect the DJ, you know, at the US Open, you know, last year Open last year, that's a big one. The funny thing is, and I wrote about this recently too, is that they put in this giant 22-month period of commenting where they're like, well, we're not going to do anything until the start of 2019. It's like, well, but now the Lexi thing is basically, you know, they've put in a rule now where the TV viewers aren't going to be able to call in and change anything for

2018. So it's like, well, why did that one get bumped up? And it's just like, it's this whole thing where it's just, it's, it's confusing. And I don't, you know, I don't quite understand why, why they, why were actually waiting until 2019 for all these changes in general Um happy to see that they actually you know used their head and and put this one up to the to the front of the Q1 2018 um Just the idea that people can actually call in and get something changed like that it just it's always it's always sat poorly with me

So I'm happy that they're actually gonna go out of their way and change it right away Yeah, as a change that needed to be made, it should have been made many, many years ago. Mostly just because I cringe when I see something on TV that I'm like, oh, oh god, somebody's going to call in about that. Like just a little minor thing, even if it wasn't a violation, it'd be like somebody's going to think it was a violation. It just adds this such unnecessary drama to the game And I'm excited to get kind of past that part of the game. But you have on this list as well, Phil's weird year.

I think that's a good way to put it. And what do you stuck out as the really weird things about Phil, Michelson's season? So many things. He was at the, he was in Memphis. He was playing, he was playing the St. Jude. Um, and he, and he said he got nervous when he saw his name at the top of the leaderboard.

Like Phil Metalson said he was nervous seeing his name at the top of the leaderboard. Like, I know, I know he hasn't won in, you know, four years, coming up five years, coming up in 2018, but it's so out of character and bizarre. You'd expect that from say like a 21 or 22-year-old just off the web or something, coming up on the back nine on Sunday of a PJ tour event, but that would make sense to me that they'd be nervous

and they'd see their name at the top of the board. But Phil Metelson dies one over 40 times on tour, probably the most a rationally confident player of all time was nervous when he saw his name on the leaderboard. It didn't make any sense to me. I don't... And that's the thing is he's played good enough to win since then. Like the 2016 open was, you know, Jake Nichols will tell you the fifth

best major performance in the history of the game. And part of me, and you know, kind of, I feel like that really rattled him. I feel like that, that, you know, with the way the game is trending with, and it wasn't a young guy that beat him, but just with how competitive golf has become to put that performance out there and to have not won, I think is just kind of like, all right, this is not the same tour that I won on 40 times, you know. And yeah, and it was just kind of a weird, weird season. And it seemed like he had trouble really maintaining his energy level for four rounds.

He had a lot of flashes. Obviously, the bone split was quite odd. A lot of people still asking a lot of questions about that. From everything I gather, there's nothing, there's not much to it. Again, I've talked about it on this podcast, but 25 years is the exception to the rule. It's not, you don't necessarily need one big incident

or a specific reason to split after being around each other for that long. And I've not had one single hint from one single person that there was anything major wrong or anything that essentially bad that happened between the two of them. And from what I gather, they're still close. So I know people are still asking a lot of questions about that,

but it was bizarre to change gatties like in the middle of the season after skipping the US open. Well, and that's the thing. So that's the other thing, right? So he skipped Aaron Hills. Bones was at Aaron Hills doing his regular scout into the course in the event that some kind of massive weather event happened and Phil was able to attend.

And then just I believe it was just a few weeks later, like it was over. And it's like, it was bizarre. And that's leaving out things like the round he had in Mexico on Saturday at the WGC where he was hitting it all over the yard, which is obviously a very filth thing to do. He got two rulings on back-to-back holes where he found sprinkler heads inside the forest. It was just like this. Him trying to talk to the rules officials about those things was just, you know, as your classic film moment, but like, you know, he's he is still good enough to win, but I don't think there's any doubt about that. And I mean, I don't think anyone would be shocked if he ended up winning a tournament or to this year, I don't I don't think that that anyone would be shocked at all.

you know, and you have to think that he's basically a lock for the rider company unless he has this disastrous season. But like, it's just, it was just a strange season. Like, I don't, I don't know what else there really is to say about it. Then there's just really weird the way the way he kind of played and the story is trying to surround him. Yep. No, it's, it's a weird, weird year is the way is the way I would phrase it as well. So, all right, I want to move on to yet another young, exciting American player, winning the US Open this year, which is Brooks Keppka. You have that as one of your top stories of the year. Why did this one reign significant with you? Well, I mean, obviously, just winning a major is the, you know, it's the, even though I'm personally independent, we overrate them slightly. I mean, obviously, it's the four

biggest tournaments of the year are the Maker Championships. So anytime that you get a good young player coming out of, not coming out of nowhere, but just a good young player coming out and winning the tournament, he basically just, he dominated Aaron Hills. It was a course that everyone kinda thought was tailor-made for a guy like Keppga, and he proved exactly why.

I mean, anytime you see a young player breaking through, it's good. Aaron Hills was, I thought Aaron Hills was fun. It wasn't the traditional US Open that I think a lot of people would like to see, but I'm always of the opinion that watching the guy struggle for four days is not exactly my idea of a fun golf tournament. I, you know, I just, I thought it was a lot of fun to watch. I could go out there and dominate. It was, it was great to see. Yeah, I mean, Aaron Hills is kind of a glimpse into what I think. And Andy, it was probably a better source for all this stuff than I am.

I'm kind of piggybacking off of a lot of what he thinks he says. But he's kind of changed the way I think about the game in the way I see the game progressing with the emergence of technology and that the courses that they're going to play are going to have to get more creative on how they challenge them, the players. And that kind of creating this wide open space with wide fairways with the angles, I don't want to steal the exact phrase, but it's going to be how they're going to have to challenge guys into the future, and that, you know, if you can just play the aerial game, lob it off the tee, lob it in close to the pin, then, which is what a

lot of PGA tour courses are, golf's not going to be that interesting, but if you can get creative on how you challenge guys and Jaime Diaz wrote an article about, you know, the changing of, I think, the twelfth hole at TPC, Boston, and how, when you renovate a hole with this, or kind of trying to design a challenging hole in this era for the best players in the world, is so difficult because you essentially will kind of ruin the hole for a pro and have it be playable for an amateur with how far these guys hit it. Even by playing from white tees, it's just a totally different style or way of playing a whole. So I think that if you're going to, you know, not necessarily punish guys for being in the wrong side of the fairway, but creating advantages for willing to take on certain bunkers, certain hazards to get yourself the best angle to greens and pins.

And having it play firm and fast to the point where you're not, you know, if a pin's tucked on the left and you're on the left side of the fairway, you're not going to be able to get to a pin because you can't land it right next to it is going to be hopefully the way the game trends with challenging players and not knee high rough 22 yard wide fairways where guys are just hacking out into it. There's not much creative energy that goes into or strategy that goes into playing a course.

Well, shouldn't it be interesting on that point though? It's gonna be interesting to see what they do with Shinnah Talk, right? Yeah, exactly. It's like you're not going to find a much more different course from Marin Helsen Shinnah Talk. So, it's gonna be really interesting to see what they do. I mean, that's typically, I would say that's probably not the type of course that you'd figure that Brooks Capka would do well on, but who knows, right? I mean, it's going to be really interesting to see the contrast and on our traditional

US Open venue this year. Well, to be honest, I don't know a ton about Shinnah Conchters. It's been 14 years since they went back there, but I think from what I gathered is they've, they've widened the fairways a lot there, but I don't know if it's based on the reaction from Aaron Hills, they are bringing them back in some. In talking like with, with Zach Blair, like he's kind of in support of bringing it in some, because in some places, there's 60 yards wide and just, just probably too wide

for how that course sets up. But I don't know if, I think it's still gonna be kind of more of that exercise of angles and whatnot, and hopefully that playing fast and firm, just not at 2004 levels, that is gonna be a very, very unique challenge. And I think just these classic courses that, they just don't get met with the same criticism

and the same bad attitudes going into it. I mean, people who are pissed about chambers going into it and people were ready to rip on air and hills before they even got there. And the low scores drove some people nuts. It doesn't bother me even one, one bit. But I mean, I think Shana Kaka is just going to be better, like just more well-received because of the fact that it's a classic course and has so much history. We'd be great to have KVV on right now just to give his Gary Player impression about what a travesty Chambers Bay was. It's just you're right though. People aren't going to rip in the Chinatown. They're not going to rip in the Riviera. They're not going to rip in the Pebble.

It's just the way it is. It like, yeah, it's gonna be really interesting to see what they do with that next year. Roy McElroy 2017. Why is that considered a big story to you? It was just, again, kind of like Phil, like it was just not so much, not so much weird, just kind of underwhelming, I would say. Like it was just, you know,

he actually started off the year really well, right? Like he was in, you know, he was in the playoff, I believe in South Africa. Like he finished and second over there. But then, you know, he ended up, you know, re-endering the rib, you know, he missed some time. You know, I don't know, I don't know how much of the injury caused any kind of issues. I mean, it was like 2017 was the first year that he hadn't won a tournament since 2008. You know, like it's, it was, it was just strange. No granted. He played less tournaments this year than he had in pretty much any other year.

He played 18 times worldwide. And he didn't have a horrible year. Like you finished in the top 10 or I think five or six times, you know, he's still one of the top 10 players in the world. He, it just, it just feels like, you. It just feels like Rory's actually the guy that we just talked about, Spieth, about how unfair it is that we always compare these guys to Tiger. And then Rory probably gets at worse than any of them. And we see the potential with how good Rory can be.

And then when he doesn't end up winning two majors a year and doesn't win six starts, all of a sudden, we think he had a horrible year. I mean, he didn't. It was just the rib injury. He changed equipment again. He split one of the many top players who split with their caddies this year. It was just kind of weird and underwhelming again. Obviously, got married, too.

So obviously, there's a lot going on. So I would think that there's a lot better in store in 2018 to be honest. Yeah, I think Roy also gets victim of being compared to Roy. To have won four majors by the time you turn 25, people just expect that pace to continue. It's just not always the way the brakes fall and not to say he's been unlucky in recent years to not win majors. But this past year just felt like kind of treading water and just couldn't really get going with the injury and all the uncertainty around the equipment and kind of that's essentially how

he injured himself was testing equipment for hours and hours and hours and having too much too much freedom there and kind of really unsure to what to dial in or how to dial in all of the freedom he had there. But you know, he viewed it as a transition year and I think he's, I don't know, I feel like we go through this with him where we, I keep trying to convince myself, oh, he's super motivated now. He's motivated now. But it really does, he says he's playing like 30 events next year.

I think he's going to make eight starts before the masters next year. Yeah. He's crazy. He's adding pebble. I think he's committed to the travelers again, right? I think. Yeah, I guess. And so it's gonna be, we're gonna see a lot of them, and it's not gonna be this kind of question mark of his health. I don't think. I mean, I'm spoken with him. I don't know what the status of the rib is, but I would imagine with this time off that it has healed, hopefully fully healed and is no longer gonna be an issue going forward. So if that means we have a happy, healthy, worthy. I think there's a very reasonable take

to suggest that like, if you really think about everything that we just talked about, right? So it's like, was he ever really fully healthy all year? Probably not. The equipment change, obviously there's a lot that goes into that. We've seen a make equipment changes before and kind of, you know, wrote in quote struggle in the aftermath, like every player

seems to do and you have a new gear, you know, going through a caddy split, you're getting married. There's just a lot of things going on. And it's like, I just wonder if like, you know, you have a much clearer head going into 2018, you finally got yourself healthy, you've gotten dialed in with your gear, and all of a sudden, the guy that didn't win a tournament in 2017 ends up becoming that guy that does win again three or four times in a year, maybe one's another major, and not that he's not in the conversation, but kind of gets himself back involved again with your Jordans and your DJs and all those guys. I think there's a very reasonable take to suggest that that's it's after what happens next year.

Yeah, he's kind of hurting the, uh, the NLU podcast bump ratio, you know, like a bunch of appearances last year and didn't really get the bump. So that's why you have to, uh, they're guns like me now, you know, I know. This is going to be a huge bump for, for Sarsin's 2018. John Rom, he made your list of top events, top stories of the season. What's the big takeaway from John Rom? That he's absolutely terrifying. He's, you know, I think, you know, you mentioned Andy already. Like Andy, Andy was on John Rom way before anyone else that I at least I saw anyway. And actually when I did my comparison of golfers to people on golf Twitter, I actually compared Andy to John Rom, because he just kind of exploded out of nowhere and all of a sudden it's

like, yeah, this guy is the guy that you should be watching and paying attention to, right? He won three times, I think, in 2017, like you won the farmers, just a ridiculous approach and chip onto the 18th at Atari, won the Irish Open, which is obviously huge, and then won again at the end of the year in Dubai, like he's a stud, like he's what, third or fourth in the world right now, he is the guy that everyone points to that,

makes you believe that the European Ryder Cup team is not as much of an underdog, as people like you might suggest. I knew you were gonna do it. I knew you were gonna do it. Oh, sure. I never said they were a huge underdog. I think he was his favorite.

All right, one of the best players in the European team has already said that as well. All right, we're not going back on that. But no, like, but like you can clearly see the trajectory here. Yeah. I mean, he terrifies me. He terrifies me. He really does. But I really, really enjoy watching him. And I'm a fan of him. So he terrifies me that one week of the year, the rest of it. I'm pretty much a fan boy. And we'll be rooting for him. We had a blog. I really enjoyed kind of chatting with him at the BMW this year because playing the pro and the other and he's just a good dude.

He's just forget how much of a kid that guy is and a lot of these guys are. I think he's 22 or 23. He was 22 at the time. I don't know if he's turned 23, but he is just a kid and people, I've said things to about his maturity level and his angered levels and stuff and it's easy just to forget how young 22 is and thinking about how immature I was at 22 and how immature I still am, it's really hard to be that critical of guys that they grow up in front of your eyes and you don't really, you kind of forget that they still have a ton to learn and

you know four years ago, not even four years ago, like let yeah, maybe four or five years ago, he's like a freshman in college just coming over from speaking and stuff. And the fact that he's learned English to the level that he has and kind of has the personality that he has, he's definitely going to be an exciting guy to watch going forward. We talked already about the US team event success at the top. That's one of your top stories. But then also you mentioned DJ's dominance.

And again, a story I forgot happened. I just forgot that he wasn't at the masters this year. Yeah, he slipped down the stairs and just ended up having to pull out. It's one of those times too. I'm not ever 100% sure that Augusta is the place for him to win. Maybe I could be completely wrong on that and he could win next year by seven and make me look like they're completely idiot. But like it never it never feels like the place for him. I know he's had some

breeders at S.S over at there the last few years. But like coming into the coming into the tournament like he was very like clearly like the guy to be watching. He won three tournaments in the row, I believe it was RIV and then WGC and Maxardo and then the match played. He was coming in as hot as you could humanly imagine. And then just to see basically, the air doesn't get deflated out of the tournament, but the masters regardless of who doesn't show up. We've seen it over the last few years. You know, Tiger hasn't been playing or whoever. Like, you know, the tournament's always going to be great. But like it just felt like it felt like we were kind of deprived

of something there. You know, like he was known for his fourth win in a row, going for his very second major championship. Like, you know, winning at a place at like Augustus is obviously like a huge, a huge deal. So it just kind of sucked that he wasn't there. And it's just, you know, and the way that it all kind of, the way that it all kind of happened, you know, it's just, it was just kind of, it was just unfortunate that he couldn't see it through.

Yeah, if there was every year that DJ was going to win the Masters, it was this year. Like, he had so much momentum rolling into it. And it was, you know, the big story here is how much of a setback this was for anyone like myself that argues that golf is a sport because golf is the best athlete. Fell down the stairs the night before the masters were supposed to start and couldn't play in it. Like, come on man, you're killing me. You are killing me here.

But it's like we saw him. He was warming up on the range on the Thursday morning. Like we're looking like he was going to be ready to go And like I'm watching it. I'm like man, he does not look like he is ready to play golf today like it was just it was just it just kind of sucked that he wasn't there Can we talk about Patrick Cantlay? Sure another one of your Ryder Cup players from what I understand that one. I'm committed to okay I'm willing to protect these gonna be on the team because I think yeah Even though he got zero points for winning in Vegas. I think I think he's gonna be on the team. Because I think, even though he got zero points

for winning in Vegas, I think he is gonna be a rider couple next year and I think, I mean, again, I think we talked about this at the top of the show and that was 11 days ago, so I don't really remember. But the guys that are even more die hard than I have been all over this guy and I'm jumping on the bandwagon that he's top 20, top 10 future player in the world

And is going to be a superstar and guys are just now starting to Starting to see that actually come come to fruition and guys been through a lot to get to the stage But that win in Vegas. I thought was big You know a lot of guys like JT of one in the fall series to kind of really get there The first win and get their careers jump started. So I wouldn't be surprised to see them win multiple times in 18. I think that's a not unreasonable expectation. Am I getting too far ahead?

Oh, no, not at all. I think Andy, again, on top of all these things much better than you and I ever could be. Andy's been on this for a while about how this was the know, this was this was the guy that made, you know, that made Jordan's Beath look like a relatively pedestrian college player like this is not this what we saw in Vegas was always what was supposed to happen And then you know all of the stuff that happened to him, you know, personally with you know some he's devil some tragedy and then his you know his back injury Obviously has been the big the big thing like you know, just in case anyone's wondering, he has not come in to 2017. He had not played in an event that awarded World Rankin points since 2014.

And he's 40th in the world. It's insane. He played 14 times, and he was able to jump from not having any points whatsoever to be in 40th in the world. He is a stud. He made every single cut. Yeah, exactly. It's made every cut. He won once. I believe he finished runner up at least once. I think this is a vowspar. He is absolutely a guy that we should be paying way more attention to going into 2018. Is he going to be on that Ryder Cup team?

I would not be shocked at all if he was. Let's talk about a guy who made zero cuts in 2017. Very disappointing. Steph Curry just couldn't get it going. Just couldn't get it going from distance. No, yeah, there's just no no, no commitment to the game whatsoever. He did, he did show out shooting, what do you say? 74, 74, is that right?

Something like that. Something to that effect. Yeah. He beat some professional golfers in a professional golf tournament, which I thought was not insignificant. It was really cool. The way that played out, I was doubting he break 80. I do think he kind of teed a green from what I heard from not insignificant. It was really cool the way that played out. I was doubting he'd break 80. I do think he kind of teed a green from what I heard from guys there that he was all over the place and just got up and down from everywhere. I think he was, you know, over the course of time,

it would get more exposed. I hate it. The only thing I disliked about it was it, what I wanted to see was the true gap between like a scratch player and a professional and I think you probably played scored about as well as he could have and didn't fully show that gap which again I wasn't rooting for him to fail but I do just think like kind of wanted to gain the full appreciation for what it's like to go up against against these guys and I've been fortunate enough to play with you know some pros in the past couple of months I I play off like two or three handicap.

And I think that I'm yet to get with, I got within 10 strokes of ZB at Royal Melbourne. And that's the closest I've been, which it's just demoralizing how they're just, just how they're always on the green and two and always putting for birdie. And when they're not, they have a six footer for par that they always make. And it's, so yeah, it was, it was cool It was cool to see the web.com guys take a risk and be available and open to that criticism and see it pay off and see the interest in that event. Why can't I think of it? Somebody has committed to a 2018 event that's even more outrageous than Steph Curry.

Was it Jay Goen? That sounds right. Yeah. Thank. That one. I'm not so sure. We'll see. Yeah, I'm not. Yeah, I'm not. I was I was I wasn't overly optimistic about Steph's chances. I mean, he blew my mind. Like I never would have thought I thought he was going to miss the cut. Obviously, but like the fact that he was actually, like he was just as busy as was was just in St. James' home, I do not have the same level of expectation for it and honestly so.

But I mean, that was, I mean, I follow web.com toward definitely not as close as I should and but I was like checking whole by whole updates. Like that's the point of these things. Like I was interested in it and to see golf kind of, you know, a lot of golf ideas are just bad. Like we talk about this pretty much every day in our group chat and that you just kind of roll your, for every, you know, one good idea like this, there's 5,000 bad ones and it's just planned,

corporate and marketing attempts to do something creative and trendy and whatnot. And it's all made, the decisions are all made by the wrong people that just don't have the sense of how things actually work on the ground. This was one that came together, and it's not worthy with that happens in the game of golf, to be honest. It was just really cool.

It was one of those things that we always talked about. One this golf get on PTI, or one this golf get on sports center or when does golf end up, you know, end up going aside from outside of, you know, basically the regular channels and the regular podcasts and all that stuff. And this, and it's usually only tiger related, but this, this is what got it done. And like, it's just really, I was shocked at how well he played. I'm hopeful that he would do it again. Like, I don't know, like you said, maybe at some point he gets exposed a little more, but like it's just it's incredible that he can be as good as as good as he is. I

mean, he's obviously one of the best basketball players in the world, but like, you know, the fact that he's this good is actually just it's insane to me. It's really is remarkable to play a professional sport, you know, nine months a year and show up at a professional golf event and play as well as he did. It's it's really most remarkable. It's impressive. So I'm glad that made the list. Is Bubba done? No, I think. No. No, he's, there is no way that he can have as bad of a year as he did in 2017. as he did in 2017. Like, I believe I've mentioned this in our chat a couple of times, but like, he is actually in like uncharted,

like, World Golf Riant in territory here. Like, he finished 2016 as the 10th ranked player in the world. He is now the 84th ranked player in the world. After missing, I believe seven or eight cuts, he didn't, I think he finished in the top 10 a couple of times in 2017. But like he, I believe what the research have done so far is that no player has ever finished inside the top 10 at the end of one calendar year and fallen as far asba has fallen in the next calendar year.

It's actually, it's crazy to me that he's fallen this far. And obviously, tons of reasons why I'm sure you want to talk about Bulkirk before, you know, I have to thank the primary reason. It's a good point to bring up that this podcast is brought to you by Volvik. I'm going to swing on by your local adventure golf store to pick up your dozen Volvick golf balls. I just don't know how you could play golf your entire life, right? And play professional golf for a very long time to play professional golf at a very high level for a long time, to be a two-time major champion, and to walk away

from a, obviously, what is a very strongly performing golf ball for you and play colored golf balls because somebody wants to give you a million dollars for it. It is one of the more baffling decisions that I can remember in modern-day golf. I really can't. I mean, equipment matters. At a certain level, I'm not sure how much the equipment matters to the professionals and that they can get things tuned in and dialed to certain ways that fit them. But your golf ball has to be at least one of the best

performing golf balls in the world, not a colored golf ball like from Korea. It's mind blowing that decision. I was not surprised to see him struggle with it. I don't know if that's 100% of the blame, but man, you have to think that as a strong, strong influence on it. Maybe the best commercial for Titleist ever that he's back to them without even a ball deal. Like, if he, like, would, if I crazy, like, would Titleist or anybody else, would they not be willing to actually make him a colored ball Like I might or am I just like like I just don't get it like if that's like obviously it was about something financial

But like I just don't understand like I don't understand I never understood it. Oh, it's so funny We're talking about what was a top-tier in the world needing a colored golf ball like that being a criteria Maybe maybe his play had something to do with the fact that I compared him to Tron. Maybe he was just upset about that too. I don't know. Yeah, that could be it. I'm guessing that.

I think Tron's performance dipped because of that as well. That was a danger. That was a big hit to Tron. You have Polter getting his card back and playing well as a top story on here. You're gonna have to convince me here. And it's not just my dislike for Polter. I just didn't I didn't think that was a huge story I will I will partially admit that I put this on our top at list just to talk to you about Polter He he it is in I can't remember where I've got it ranked right now. It's in the top 30 on my list

Just because like you know, it was obviously, what we're talking about here is, you know, someone just like Bob is well, like, guys like, I know you're not a huge fan of either of those guys, but they are ultimately, in my opinion anyway, they're good for the game. Like they're, you know, they are characters, there are people that, you know, gain some level

of interest in its time and when they play. And Polter fell in the world ranked him mostly because he was hurt. It wasn't like he couldn't, he wasn't playing all that well. You know, the fact that he'd managed to get his card back on a technicality, that the tour made a mistake on, and Brian Gay had to get him his card back essentially. It was just this weird thing. And then like, he actually gets his card back and then he starts playing well again. If I, so right now he's inside, he's close to the top 50 in the world.

But like, he almost won at the players. Got beat out at the end there by Siwu. He played well down the stretch. And I mean, I don't think it's a stretch to suggest that you're gonna be doing with him again at the Ryder Cup next year either. I'm fine with that. I'm not afraid of that.

It's been, it's been six years since Medina. He was bad at the Glen Eagles. I wanted him to be on that 16 team. I wanted him to, I wanted him to be on that team that got beat by five. Okay. That's fine. Pulitzer, I'm fine with what you said. He's good for the game and whatnot.

I just don't, I don't, I don't't I don't fear him the way I used to so You should you shouldn't fear it's just it's but it is it is interesting to see him kind of play better and and kind of get himself involved again It's just the whole story was just bizarre and it's just you know It's just one of those weird things that happened this year You have written down here something about the super low numbers that were shot on tour this year. Why did you think that was especially significant to last year? Well, we saw what three players.

I think Shoot 59, like JT Shot 59 at Sony, Adam Hadwin Shot 59. And I believe Samsung's Shot 59 somewhere as well. We had a bunch of, we had a few major 63s, we had a major 62, we have a new 62 in a major. Like, it just, it's, you know, we kind of talked about this earlier too with how courses are gonna have to adapt

to how the players are playing now. The ball obviously goes super far, probably too far at this point. And it's just one of those things where like, you know, the old course got demolished a few months ago. Like, by Tommy Fletwood and a few other players who were playing at the Dunhill, it's one of those things where we're just gonna keep

going down this path, right? I mean, the numbers just, it feels like the numbers are gonna keep getting lower. I know you've talked on the pod before about, by what players like JT think, they can go even lower than 59. And, you know, Jim Fierce, 58 last year, like it's, you know, it feels like we're going down this path where the numbers are just going to get lower and lower on a pretty regular basis.

Yeah, no, I think it, I don't have an issue with it. I have an issue with what that's going to mean for course setup, right? And that things are going to get done just to prevent kind of these hilariously low scores that I don't think are good, you know, like tricking up pin positions and, you know, putting, putting holes on knobs and making greens un-holdable and stuff like that that I just don't. It's, you stop rewarding really great golf shots when you get to that level. So that, that's the only reason I dislike it, but, you know, it's just, you stop rewarding really great golf shots when you get to that level. So that's the only reason I dislike it, but you know, it's just, you know, until something

happens with the technology, at the professional level, guys are going to keep taking it deeper and deeper. And you can, you talk to guys that say like, make it 8,000 here. And it's, we don't care. Like the length isn't going to stop us. So we're still going to be, we're really good at golf. And if it's, if it's, if it's soft, no matter how long the course is, we're going to shoot low scores. So I'm fine with it just because again, I don't, I appreciate tournaments that, you know, you can have a birdie fest and have

it be a really good championship. If, if, if, if they're strong, challenging factors that, that separate the really, really good shots from the average shots then I think that makes for a good championship. Turn them into the career builder and stuff that are just straight birdie fast and not a lot of the element to it and there's always huge bunches at the top. That doesn't really do it for me but I know I'm with low scores at Aaron Hills and you know the open change ship we never talk about the issues with low scores. I mean, she's a course, Hoy Lake. All those courses have been 18 under, 20 under, have won there and it's just not nearly as big of a deal the conditions dictate the scoring there.

So, yeah, I don't think that's necessarily a problem. I just think it's definitely notable that like we saw these pretty significantly high number of low scores that were shot this year. And it feels like it's just going to keep going down this path. And like you said, I don't want this to get to a point where like, you know, Marion in 2013 where the USGA felt the need to trick it up to such ridiculous levels. And like, I don't want it to get to that point.

But it feels like that's what might end up happening if they don't figure out some way to rain the ball. And so did you think that Marion was too tricked up? I thought Marion was, yeah, I think the Greens were off. I think, I mean, I know a lot of players talked about that too, and I remember Zach Johnson was visibly obsessed with the whole thing. Well, that makes me appreciate the setup then,

if it made Zach Johnson upset. But I actually, I point to Marion as a good example of, and maybe I don't remember it that well But just how it was a golf course the ton of mid 300 yard par fours that were challenging that challenged the players And it was it was hard to get close to the close to the pins and I don't know It was kind of a bloodbath near the end. I think Rose wanted it plus three or something like that, but I thought that was that's kind of a nice alternative to 7,500 yard just slug fast.

Oh, yeah, I have to dig back in on 2013 on that one. But all right, a couple more is we're over an hour here. Jason, Dave's struggles. Significant story to you? Yeah, I mean, like he, I think mostly because, you know, he was so good in 2015 and 2016, that like, there was bound to be a bit of a regression, right? I mean, like, he sit in the stroked named era, like he actually had the best putt in season of all time last year. He's the only player to date that has actually averaged more than a full stroke

gained per round on the greens over a full season. And he did that in 2016. So yeah, there was going to be some regression, but it just felt like he didn't really get himself involved at all in 2017. And it's just kind of bizarre when you consider that we were looking at him and Rory and Spieth as like this, you know, this de facto big three for whatever that means. But like, you know, he just didn't seem to get himself involved at all. I mean, and obviously there's a lot of, there's a lot of reasons for that, right? I mean, you know, he's got perpetual back pain. Like he's apparently even at times, it's so bad that he has trouble walking. You know, his, his mother was diagnosed with cancer and obviously that played a large

role in his mindset, I would say, throughout the, throughout a large portion of the year. He split with, he split with Colin Swatt in his caddy. Like, it was just this, it was just this up and down here. It was just really strange. He played well towards the end. I mean, he's, he's had a good run here towards the end of the year. But yeah, no, it's just, it was just weird that he didn't kind of did himself involved more throughout the season. Yeah, I think you kind of hit it with the progression to the mean on the putting.

And I think it, I don't know, I don't wanna say to generalize it, but it could have had a trickle down effect on his ball striking, right? He didn't have the same confidence in the putter as he did in the prior year. I don't know, I just thought that stretch he had was so unbelievably great that

Yeah, didn't feel that authentic. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know I don't even know what that means, but to me it didn't feel like it definitely didn't feel like something It was gonna last and it was unrealistic to expect it to last So I'm not surprised to see him come back down to earth from that stretch But just to see somebody fully reach their potential for extended period of time like that was scary. It was scary and it's kind of jarring that it came back down as extreme as it did. And I mean, I mean, he wasn't like missing a ton of cuts and stuff like that,

but to go from winning seven events in 13 or whatever, he wanted whatever that ridiculous percentage was to, you know, not really winning anymore. In recent history, it's kind of jarring. Yeah, I think I'll have a bounce back somewhere to Rory, you know, not really winning anymore in recent history is kind of it's kind of jarring. Yeah, I think I think he'll have a bounce back somewhere to Rory next year, like maybe he'll win again next year and we'll kind of forget that this whole thing even happened to it, so not you're not going to Kyle Porter it and say never wins again. Uh, no, that's a ridiculous thing from Kyle. I've been on the record repeatedly. I've told

that to Kyle. It's insane. He's done it one again. All right. Last thing on the agenda, 2019 schedule changes. We saw the players is going to move. PJ Championship is going to move. What is your reaction to the changes? I mean, I like them. I mean, I like the idea of basically the early portion of the year, the way the players used to be earlier in the year, it gives us a nice little run there where we go players in March, Masters in April, PGA in May, US

Open in June, and then the Open in July. It's a nice little stretch. Hopefully it allows them to maybe get the season done a little faster ahead of the NFL. The President's Cup is going to Australia in December in 2019, so that's a big one. The Valero, I believe, is moving to be the tournament before the Masters instead of Houston. There's a lot of things going on. Any kind of massive schedule changes is a pretty big deal. But I think it does give a lot more balance to the actual schedule.

I think it's going to make things a lot more evenly spread out. It's going to be more fun for people who want to watch. I think it was apparent that changes needed to be made. The things guys are saying about how long the season is and everything. There needs to be some kind of effort made to it to kind of preserve the special nature of a lot of these events. So yeah, I think, yeah, it's at least a step in the right direction. It's really hard to shake up the schedule more than they already are. So in that regard, I think it's a good solid change. But all right, with that, let's put a wrap on 2017. That was a fun year.

I don't know about you, man. I'm even more excited for 2018 I think adding Tiger to the mix like we talked about and kind of seeing a 1 it's a rider cup year and seeing seeing kind of this emergence of these young guys the break the real breakthroughs we saw the last year kind of watching these guys take take to the next level is going to be Interesting to watch so look forward to where can people find this top 100 list and when are you going to have it all done? I'm still writing it. It's one of those things where like I ended up writing it earlier in the year and then you know all the sudden it was mid-December and I was like oh my god I still have way more to do than I want to. Yeah, you can do it on my website I'm sarsin.com. It'll all be there. I've got four posted already. There can be more throughout the end of the year

and then leading into 2018. So looking forward to another fun year. It was great in 2017, but I'm actually even more excited for 2018 than I was for 2017. So I'm excited to see where it goes. You're a better man than I am to be able to put together that list and dedicate that amount of time to it. So for that, we thank you and make sure you guys

check that out. Sarsin, we will be of course checking in with you throughout the year. Enjoy the holidays, up north, stay warm, keep that electricity on and we'll speak soon. Sounds good man. Thanks for having me. Got it. It's gonna be the right club. Be the right club today. That is better than most. How about in?

That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different.