No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 191: Waste Management & Saudi Arabia Wrap

Episode Date: February 4, 2019

Rickie Fowler has won the Waste Management Phoenix Open, and Big Randy is here to lick his wounds. We break down Rick’s collapse and rebound, the rules controversy, and everything else from the desert. We... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 191: Waste Management & Saudi Arabia Wrap appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yeah. That's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the No-Laying at Podcast. This is Big Randy. Before I bring in my colleagues DJ and Sully, I just want to take a little moment of time. Obviously with the Ricky win, people are asking a lot of questions how I'm feeling, my mindset. with the Ricky win. People are asking a lot of questions

how I'm feeling, my mindset. I wanna say I'm doing really well. I feel more impassioned and validated and almost vindicated than I ever have before. I think Ricky won, and of course I'd like to congratulate him. It's not easy to win on tour, especially with a six-shot lead, which you managed to blow by the 13th hole. A big day for him obviously and his

sponsors, you know, among others, Cobra, Crown Plaza, Farmers Insurance, Grant Thornton, Mercedes-Benz, Puma, Red Bull, Rolex, Titleist, Zurich financial services, to wonder, I apologize if I missed any. Two correctional notes here, titleist is no longer a sponsor of him and Taylormate is now and also it was a five shot lead and not a six shot lead. But Randy, thank you so much for joining us today. It is a joyous day in the kill house.

But honestly, that was the most fun I've had watching a PGA Torment in a long time. One, mostly just to see Randy squirming all over his seat and getting purking up. When that ball went in the water on 11 for Ricky, I wish other people could have seen how excited Randy got. And when he rolled into the water the second time, there was genuine shock going. It was chaos. It was such confusion. The announcers didn't know what happened. I didn't know what happened. I didn't know what he made when he made it. Roger Malti didn't know what happened. I didn't know what happened I didn't know what he made when he made it Roger Malfi didn't know what he made when he made it

I don't know of Ricky knew what he what he made when he made the putt That was wild. That was awesome. How you doing Randy? Are you okay? I'm good. Well, I'd like to point out for the folks I believe you had just pronounced the tournament over after he made birdie on 10 I started doing laundry Yeah, and then he was up by five with eight holes to play. I felt pretty good about that. God, that 11th hole was,

listen, I've never like free-based heroin or anything, but I got to think the rush, the high I got on that 11th hole has to be pretty close. Can you free-based heroin? I don't know how to do heroin. I don't know. If there's any good heroin experts out there, try them in.

I thought you free-based cocaine. I don't know, either way, I get what you're going for. I'm going to get free-based a lot of stuff. I don't know how to do heroin. I don't know. If there's any good heroin experts out there, try them in. I thought you free-base cocaine. I don't know. Either way, I get what you're going for. I'm going to be able to free-base a lot of stuff. I don't know. How do you feel more vindicated? I'm curious on that one. We're going to pick this one apart.

We're going to. Well, can we start at the beginning? What is the Ricky take? Because there have been a lot of people that are like, what's the deal? Ricky doesn't like, your rainy doesn't like, Ricky, what's going on? Why don't you start at set to beginning?

In the beginning, there was Randy and Ricky. In the beginning. So I think at first, I got radicalized. I became beligerant. He was watching some YouTube videos. Yeah. He had won the players. Yeah.

And it was possibly the most clutch finish ever. Which was a great, yeah, which was great. And all of a sudden, the big four, golf's big four. Not a good look for the return. Turn into golf's big five. Is it bad? I do not remember who the big four were. It was a bad take when it happened.

I'm not in the camp of Ricky was ever in any big number of anything. I don't know what it was. Jordan, Groy, I don't even know. DJ was he in it, I doesn't matter. Jordan, Groy. I don't even know. DJ was he in it. I doesn't matter. Jason Day. We slammed the hell out. I feel like there was a big foreign that Dustin wasn't in it. Maybe. I mean, bills around 2016 and when he won the US Open, I think. I don't know. It doesn't matter. It was bad take when it happened. So I got really

frustrated. You know, like, I felt like I was taking crazy pills, right? Like I feel like I feel like I've got to feel like I feel like I'm got to like am I the crazy one? Like his career accomplishments for, you know, 99% of professional golfers are excellent, right? Right, but to be included in the big five to be one of the best in the game I was like, no, it's just, it's not there. And that combined with seeing a TV all the time. Right, couple that with the orange and the sneakers and the joggers and, you know, every

commercial and just, you know, being ubiquitous. And really, really good. Can I make your best take you ever had on Ricky for you? Like who's career would you rather have Ricky or Martin Kymers? That was like, oh, God. Like, okay, that makes your take make the most sense. Yeah, so that was, you know, that's where it started.

Sure, those were the seeds. That's the Genesis. Yeah, that's where we germinated from. And what's it morphed into? what would we even know what it is now Well, we can't really close. Do you root against it? No, not only plaps who I Yeah, that's not on a personal level. I mean, that's that's purely I'm trying to think of Like that's that's just in mind

He's a I like I recognize in real life. He's a great guy So I want to make that perfectly clear like I'm nothing against him personally, but in my mind. It's just for the... He's a, like I recognize in real life, he's a great guy. So I wanna make that perfectly clear, like I have nothing against him personally. But in my mind, and how I watch professional golf purely as a fan, he's a big villain I root in. It's a support tape. Like people have sports hates, and you don't have to necessarily explain them.

So I'll give you that. But. It's kinda, I don't know, I'm not, I've kinda, my baseball has lapsed, but it almost seems like rooting against Jeeter or something, where it's like, you know, there's not a ton of like huge reason to do it. It's just kinda fun.

Just maybe his star has gotten bigger than his actual own course. I've always thought. Jeeter though is actually good. He was good, but like never grew. Ricky's really good. Ricky's not Jeeter though. But it's the Ricky, I think the wins thing can be very,

it's not a fully baked take because he's one, like big international events as well. Like winning the Scottish Open. He's a globalist. And winning the Abu Dhabi are big worldwide events. Of course. And they're equivalent to winning on the PGA tour. So that puts him at seven right there.

You also won in Korea, which not a big worldwide event, but Ricky Rory was in that field. Rory finished runner up. He beat him by six. That's another worldwide win. And the hero doesn't even count in that total, which again, only 18 guys, but all world class players. No, the hero absolutely. Okay, I'm making the point that five wins is not the bait. It's not a true like, you know, because they're telling the whole story. It does not tell the, like, you know, because they're- Does it tell the whole story? It does not tell the whole story. Yeah.

That's what I'm getting at there. And I was ready to, you didn't come in hard with how he choked it today, but today conditions were really tough out there. They were. Well, okay, well, before we get into today, so there's another aspect, which is, like, so since I kind of plan in my flag

in the anti-Ricky territory every time he you know gets out to an 18 Which he's done on multiple occasions. It's it's just a cavalcade of oh Randy you know Ricky's so good like he's he's coming for your keyster man Like you're screwed key Keyster, adjacent. And then he always fades. And this is, I believe, the ninth,

was it eighth or ninth, 36th lead on the PJ tour? I think this was the ninth. This was the ninth time he's had a 36th lead. And this is the first time he's won. Which is damning. And he tried his hardest not to win today. He did, but he didn't. Like, he had a bad stretch there.

11, 12 was rough. It was one bad chip that he thought was gonna check and I'm not getting, excuse me. The only thing he had to do there was not chip it in the water. And he did. Like, that was an awful, awful, awful shot. Yeah. Again, the ball did not behave on the green the way he thought it was.

It, the ball, that ball skirting that bunker It was a really absurd break and then it dropping it and then it falling in the water and getting another penalty He's probably not all that familiar with with how his ball reacts Could be could be he just won with it, but I was sweet to see all the the Commercials as he was gagging away that way, seeing all the commercials, like, no, I just changed my ball. That was kind of fun. I believe NBC showed us that he's the first person

to win on tour since 1983, who made a double and a triple or worse. That just shows you how good he was the first three days. It's a 72-holt tournament and no one beat him. So what would you say? I mean, aside from that, you know, he lost two, how many shots of that cost him? Chipping in the water there, would you say that cost him two to two and a half, maybe three shots, somewhere in that range? That's how many

shots he lost on the field total for the day. So outside of the rest of the round, that's how that the rest of the round today. Yeah, yeah. He was a very, he performed field average. Yeah, he beat the field by 6.4 shots in round one, 5.6 in round two, and 5.5 in round three. And he made himself the cushion. He made a ton of putts, which doesn't really seem like, you know, second in Strokes Game Pudding on Sunday, first on Saturday. He made a ton of clutch putts. The putt for triple was like, low key huge. Apparently, I didn't see it. Apparently you made a huge putt, a par save after you like semi-shanked and iron in the front. Yeah, on three.

You're too busy chunking putts today. I did. Chunked up. You laid the sod over a putt. Ditions were tough. It's like a mallet putter. That was the most impressive thing I saw out of everything today. So you guys think you played fine?

No, no, I don guys think you played fine? No, no, I don't think you played fine. No, no, no, no. I want to meet you halfway and say, like, of course, if anybody had done what we would have predicted that they would do, at one out of, you know, 15 guys that were in striking distance had put any pressure on or kind of held it together down the stretch.

Like any press. Any of them. Yeah, and that didn't happen. So I'd say, to use the parlance of Tron and Begrainia, I'd say he got crowned. But they crowned his ass. How many did, thank you. I think it was maybe the biggest crowning I've ever seen. Okay, so what's, what is the more likely?

But he still, but he still won. What's the more likely scenario here that nine or 10 guys all really choked or that it actually was. It was very tough. Yeah, totally. Yeah, and that's what the broadcast did not do a good job of today. They were talking about how poorly the last group

was playing. It's like, guys, if all of the pros are playing poorly, all of the best players in the world, something else is going on out here and they didn't really hammer that home today. I mean, yeah, it was very different than the first three days. Guess what else is different? The weather and the conditions, like 50 degrees in the desert and it raining and stuff.

I can't. That rock is really nice. We played in the rain today. Okay. I saw how much it affected you. I couldn't. Well, to be fair, I'm not. Yeah, he still beat you by 26 today.

I'm not a world class. This is true. I think Ricky, stay with me for this one, because the initial reaction is not going to be great. The same way that people want to try to knock Tom Brady's Super Bowl record, because he's only what, five and three in the Super Bowl is, like, five and three in the Super Bowl

is better than five and no in the Super Bowl. That means you've got to more Super Bowls. Like, when you get closer, that's more indicative of being extra talented. And I you got to more Super Bowls. When you get closer, that's more indicative of being extra talented. I think people can use that against him. He has 65 career top 10s. That is a ton. He has 13 runner-ups and four wins. That looks pretty bad, but that's better than having two runner-ups. Well, let's talk about another guy who has a lot of top 10s and who played worse than Ricky today. Yeah. You coach.

You got a DJ, Matt. My boy. I don't know where that. Don't try to start. Don't try to deflect. This is about you today. Can we go through your replies? Well, hold on.

Like, I guess I'm saying Ricky is more. Coacher. He's more like there's just not a. I don't, I don't hate that take. The top gear isn't the same as maybe some other. Oh without a doubt. Top gears. I was out of doubt.

But I kind of had thought the 2015 players was going to put to rest some of this stuff, but the fact that it didn't open up the flood gates like some people thought is probably. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. You could win. I still go back to and he is not Phil McIson. I don't know how many Phil had won 20 to 25 tour events before he won his first major.

But again, a reminder that Phil won his first major when he was 33 years old and like Ricky's 30. And like I don't think he's gonna win five majors and he's not on on path for Phil's career, but like he's more, I think the more the better comparison is Sergio. I think he's Sergio. Well, we can,

is that a single? There's some. I was gonna say, I don't know if that's a segue, but hopefully, there's some noticeable differences between there. I don't hate that take. I don't, and I would like to say, from the start, I've always thought, you know, will Ricky probably win a major one day? Yeah, probably.

Yeah. Yeah. And how fun will that be? But it'll be a lot of fun. I think that, I think what gets hard with this conversation is, and we said this a couple of times, but there are so many, this sounds so stupid, but there are so many good players that like every week we do a podcast and it's like, oh, Dustin one, man, Dustin, like he can go on this tear. We're just like nobody can beat him.

And then Jason Day was next week. Jason Day can just go on this tear. We're nobody. And it's then you add rom and spieth and Rory and JT and you know, Bryson and Tiger and all these guys and like, there's only four majors a year, man. I don't know. There's not that many to go around. And look, it wasn't pretty today. No one's going to argue that it was, but knowing how hard and just kind of I think helping put in perspective is being able to hang with some of the web tour guys that live around here. And some of the PGA guys that live around here and some of the PJ tour player

I hung out with a PJ tour winner this weekend who is kind of Struggling to get his eligibility back and to see like Ricky win and kind of be like, yeah, but it wasn't really pretty It's like no dude. There's a four-round tournament and he won it like this is a like it's that but that's my point Like if we want to talk about him like he's just another kind of guy and tour and he's it. Like this is a, like this room is arguing that he's, I just think he's a really, really, really solid player who occasionally wins, probably should win more often. His record shows that he's put himself in an in position to win a lot more

and hasn't been able to close it, but I think that's a good call. Like he has earned his way onto all of these international teams. It's not been like a celebrity pick of any way, and I think that's kind of where, I don't know. He's in a unique category. I don't know who else is in that with him.

One thing that I think we should point out as well, and Randy, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I would guess that at least some of, at least some of this whole thing is a tiny bit of performance art at this point. A little bit. And I think if I was to ask you, you would say that's about as much fun as you can have

watching a golf tournament because there's such a rooting interest, whether it's because you're rooting against them or not. And I think that's where like a lot of the, I mean, you just, you have to do what you have to do in order to create villains is a strong, a strong word. Like I don't think Ricky Fowler's a villain. I don't know. But it's like, Rainy, I see where you're coming from here because it's kind of creating your own reality,

a little bit, right? Yes, I, 100%. And I think I told you, Sully, while we were watching, on the 14th or 15th, I'm like, man, this is a lot of fun. I don't know how it's gonna end. And it wasn't, you know, it's Ricky coming back to the field, obviously, made it more fun.

But, and I think you kind of knew it was going to happen, right? Right? This is kind of an unnecessary shot at CBS, but I feel like it felt like NBC was better prepared to be able to handle that kind of drama than CBS would have been. They went to double box a couple of times and did it live, which adds a ton. I mean, Ricky was birding 17 as brain and grace was shipping on, it was cool. Chipping on 18 or holding out on 18. I was like, that is how you present the situate. Er, it was maybe 16 and 17.

But to your point, DJ, as a sports fan, to make an analogy, I'm a big Cincinnati Reds baseball fan. And so I hate the cubs and I hate the cardinals. Yeah. And we'll root against them and it's fun. Oh yeah. It's, you know, I take pleasure in. It's pretty harmless. Yeah. And we'll root against them and it's fun. Oh yeah. Thardic. It's, you know, I take pleasure in pretty harmless. Yeah. At the end of the day, it's harmless. Now that said, there are a lot of great guys on

this team, right? Like it's that personal. And I feel like, you know, having a little bit of that in golf, it's fun. And that's what makes the writer cup so much fun. Totally. I forget who I said this to. I made it even said on this podcast. I kind of miss being able to hate golfers for no good reason. Like, kind of now that people actually listen to what we say, it's weird to just like, why do you hate so and so, actually don't have a good reason. You can't really get away with that anymore.

I do miss just like, yeah, I don't like how web sentence swings the club. I don't root for him. And that's kind of, so I think that's kind of where that lies. Can we please get to your replies? I want to hear some of these. What, yeah, so of course,'s kind of where that lies. Can we please get to your replies? I want to hear some of these. What, yeah, so of course, you know, people are coming into the reply.

I'm getting, I got more text today about you and Ricky than I did like when we interviewed Tiger and Prisha. You know, Andy K told me to eat it. Ricky she-han, Ricky forever. Patrick Walker said there's, that's equating to taking a few hundred, I don't know what but the house he was equating like Ricky to the house in Vegas he always

wins this stretch I'll give it to that's a reach yeah Tucker Fox is looking for a formal apology from me that will not be forthcoming and then my guy, Mr. Woo Lee, at Mr. Woo Lee, who earlier in the day, you know, told me he had this tweet all ready to go when Ricky won and now he had to delete it because life's coming out of him fast. When Ricky did actually when he goes, never mind, knew it all along, suck it, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, And you know what, I appreciate this. Come on, sir. Make me laugh. Twitter's how big this more fun.

Tucker Blankenship asked, does the 74 actually change anything in terms of playing with 54 whole leads? I don't think it necessarily changes anything. I think, listen, he's got a damning record with playing with 54 whole leads. We're not going to avoid that. I don't think that winning today really changes any of that. I don't think it really validated anything, but he just had a big enough lead today

where it didn't really matter how I played today. That's a good question. What'd you guys think of Zinger's little sign off there at the end when the winning putt went? Oh yeah, he said something like that. Kind of pretending a lot of stuff to happen. Essentially like Ricky, the rap on Ricky is that he can't close

and today he proved it all wrong and got the monkey off his back. Yeah, not as bad as this. Yeah, I'd say. I think it was a new response. It was a new response. It might be. Yeah, and that's not his best. Yeah, I'd say I think it was a new response will take. Yeah, it might be. Yeah. I'm with you on that one.

And I, Johnny really did retire a day early. He would have had a field day today. A lot of choking and gagging going on. I would like to throw a quick shout out to Strap and maybe the tweet of the week, which was a friend of the program, Bunky Perkins, calling him Rick Orido. Which I thought was Rick Orido. Yeah, which I thought was really good. He flew very close to that.

There were a few Rick Orido's out there for other people who may have gotten to it on their own as well. J.N.E.L. 11 just wants to ask, what does PMI even mean? That's a great question. I think we're still figuring that out. The 2019 golf digest hot list results are in in our friends at Callawayaway cleaned house and for starters. Out of all the drivers and irons tested,

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An epic flash woods with flash face technology which officially hit stores this past Friday February 1st. We have ours now and we are absolutely loving them, and we can't wait to take them out to California this week. Now, let's get back to our waste management wrap up. Are we ready to move on to a little bit of the rules controversy that happened at waste management this week? Sure.

It's great. Danny McCarthy was penalized two strokes for his caddy. Similar to how Song Lee's penalty last week in Dubai, he was penalized two strokes for his caddy standing behind him as he's penalty last week in Dubai. He was penalized two strokes for his caddy standing behind him as he was taking practice swings next to his ball. Then as video surface of Ricky's caddy Joe, Joe, Joe Skovron doing a similar thing and then Jimmy Johnson who's Justin Thomas is caddy doing a very similar thing on a, on a JT chip. And all of a sudden, the tour decided this is no longer a penalty and went back and retroactively reversed

Denny McCarthy's penalty. Shout out to my Fred ex-Cup team. We appreciate that a lot. What triggered this? What do we think triggered this happening? I think just seeing the impending landslide of A, how often this was gonna happen and B, what it would look like for this to happen to.

Big names is just I think it's, I don't know, it's kind of, it's almost commendable, I'd say, like looking at it and being like, okay, I can see, I can see what this is going to lead to and this is mega not worth it. So let's just head this off right now. And Tron made a similar comment. He's actually out in California. He would love to be on here tonight. But the point being, like they were fine

letting this happen to Denny McCarthy. Yeah. And once it was gonna happen to their two crown princes at the top of the leader board, they changed the rule in the middle of a tournament. Very topical. They changed the rule. That's a Saudi Arabia.

They changed the rule in the middle of a tournament. Like what would have happened if Denny McCarthy missed the cut? Would they like brought them back, flew him back in and said, oh, now you're playing Saturday. Like, man, what a disaster. I think this is kind of, it is a rule that truly really only applies to the top level. So the PGA tour taking kind of authority on this makes a lot of sense. Cause I mean, we don't have caddies lining us up.

So it doesn't matter for every day play. And I don't know if this is something that's going to be bifurcated, truly bifurcated. But man, this was, I know the players were absolutely furious. P.T. players have no hesitation to take on the USGA on Twitter. Like they just, at them, they mentioned them, they have no reservations at all. I know players were blowing up my Davis as this happened before the weekend even happened. And dude, it's kind of a disaster. All these rules were supposed to simplify the game. And at least they seem to have addressed this and gotten it right, but it never had to get to this.

Powered to the people. Yeah, yeah, I got it. I got it. Oh, my gosh. Are we calling this the first amendment to the first amendment to the new rules? The freedom of speech to light up the USGA. It's not good.

Anyways, it seems to be resolved and be interesting to see how it plays out. I'm still struggling to see how a lot of these rules simplify or speed up or whatever. The flag stick thing has, if anything, definitely slowed things down, just in casual games because people are taking it back in. Putting it back in and stuff. Yeah, you got to, like, instead of just reflexively going up and taking it out, it back in, putting it back in. And stuff like that. Yeah, you gotta, like, instead of just reflexively going up and taking it out, it's like, oh, wait a second.

Like, would you like it in or, you know, it's annoying. It's more annoying than it is a convenience. The drop thing, I didn't see Ricky's actual drop. I just saw the ball go in, but I would think that if you tried to drop it from shoulder height, it wouldn't have stayed on that bank in the first place. Well, then he would have placed it. Which probably would have been more stable than

dropping it from the knee. Yeah. But the rule about the ball rolling in would have been the same out of the old rules. People were saying, you know, now that, you know, he, whatever he didn't cut the balls in play, he didn't cause it to move, whatever. The rule it falling in the water would have been the same penalty. Yeah, it might have stayed there. Correct. Correct. But now, not a penalty had the ball been on the green and moved. Correct. Correct. Yes. Yeah. What do you think about the one I can't get over is being able to pat down spike marks and it seems it I don't know what the are they trying to take kind of the quote unquote rub of the green out of it. I guess I think it was one of the best takes is like well, why can't you roll the ball in the fairway out of a divot? Why can't you? Yeah, yeah, totally.

Prefer your line of fairway. I like the spike mark change because I think how it was being not enforced, I guess not enforced is the way to phrase it because if a player goes to another player and says, hey, this is a ball mark, can I fix it? The answer to that was yes, like 99% of the time. So guys, we're kind of already doing this. Now it kind of takes kind of a scuminess and nature, I guess ill intent nature out of it.

The divot thing I'm actually okay with not changing because I think the definition of a divot would get really hairy. I mean, is it a slight imperfection in the fairway? Is that a divot? What defines that? I think you would have to go out and you're not gonna go out and put white spray like you would have ground

under repair out of every divot in the fairway. So I get it. I think it is kind of screwy. I mean, you think it's kind of like, I don't know what the solution to that would be. I mean, I know when guys play at ball in hand, the scores go absurd. So I wouldn't recommend playing it up in the fairway. But I do agree if you drive right down the middle and it goes in a divot like that sucks. But it's a rubber. The green. I'm kind of way in on the rubber green. I kind of like you and Tron celebrate the rubber. We celebrate the rubber the green.

Overall, like everyone is gonna get affected about the same by it. Like it might happen in a key moment, but overall the course of your career, you are not gonna get unlucky with divots. Like every, it's all gonna even out and yes, it could happen at a bad time. But when I think philosophically,

when like golf, I think should be played, I do like play it as it lives. Yeah, he played it down. Yeah, make it work. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Johnny signing off for good. I don't have a whole lot to add on this other than he will clearly obviously and sincerely

be missed. I think people are going to be very 50, 50 on Zinger. I don't think it's going to be a true loveinger. I don't think it's gonna be a true love fest. I don't think the players will like it. That's what I was gonna ask. Do you think fans will be 50-50 or 50-50 fans players? It just kind of felt like today was pulling a little bit of stuff out of his ass. I mean, some of the JT's misses were, and it was kind of like,

I mean, really? Well, that, yeah, and that's kind of been my reluctant Zinger take because I do think he, I don't know, tells it like it is. It's a very cliche, but he, I think he's great when you had him for one week a year at the, at the US Open or the British Open or, you know, whatever. UK British Open presented by Herman Agistase. Sorry. But it was always by the end of that week, you were always kind of like, man, is what he's saying? Like, that makes sense.

Like, this seems like he's really shooting from the hip here and I have a sneaking suspicion that when we see him now, like, seven weeks out of 10 or whatever, it's gonna be like, yo, this is, this, bit of a first book. Or maybe he'll get back into it and he'll do more research and he'll, you know. Cause Johnny was well researched for like everything.

And I know, still, there's people out there that really dislike Johnny and I think that's kind of, I respect your opinion, but I also don't. I think I think it's also like the same people just hate Joe Buck for no real reason. I like Zinger. I think he's a good broadcaster. I don't think anybody could really fill Johnny's shoes. I think I would nominate Zinger to fill him the best, but that job is really, really, really hard. Yeah. I mean, are we taking Zinger over Fowdo,

like 11 times out of 10, of course? I don't know who else I would nominate for it. So I think he's fine for the job, but I wonder how players are gonna react, because Johnny had this kind of aura and natural respect from the guys. And you know, there was some beef with some guys back and forth, but I don't think, you't think with this fresh announcer now in the booth, I wonder what they would think

of what he has to say. I was shocked to hear Jeff Oglevy talk about wanting to become a commentator. He would be the guy at the top of my short list on someone I think is obviously crazy close to the game still and has an awesome perspective and is a super smart guy. I kind of figured he would say, like, yeah, and I made a ton of money and playing golf and now I'm not really interested in traveling that much, but immediately he was like, yeah, cool. I think that would actually be really fun. And so I think he would be, he'd be on my short list if we're nominating people.

He's got a true love for the game, I think, that kind of takes things to a whole different level. I do think that Johnny thing, the only other thing to add is just, God, some of the tributes and stuff that they were rolling out, like the tributes to his playing career, that is. Some of the canned teleprompter tributes were not so good, but the stuff, like the packaged stuff about his playing career with highlights and stuff

was so awesome. And I think that one of Johnny's biggest curses almost is that the longer he was a broadcaster and the more prominent he was as a broadcaster, it was like people forgot about how good his career was. Correct. And it's, I don't know. He played some amazing, amazing golf. It just didn't span a huge long stretch like Nicholas did. Like Nicholas's stretch did, which attributes to Jack's greatness. But yeah, some of the best golf ever played was played by Johnny Miller. And as much as that 63-Docman is a punchline,

like that is, there's a reason why I talk about so much is. What was like two other people broke par that day or something? It was an absurd, absurd, absurd round of golf, and it's not in today with today's technology. And yeah, so I hope that it is kind of, I wish you would have signed off by saying, I shot 63 of that. That would have been building up for 30 years.

That would have been absolutely perfect. But, but congrats to Johnny on his retirement. We hope to get the chance to sit down with him. Yeah, hopefully, well, that's what I was going to say. Hopefully, I'm sure we'll still hear from him. Yeah, he'll be around. He'll be around. He's not leaving the game.

Are you guys ready to do Sergio? Are you, what do you want to start with anything else with Saudi Arabia? We kind of covered it last week. I don't think really a whole lot changed. Did you watch any of it? No, I had one shot. That one shot. That one shot.

DJ apparently won. Yeah. Like it didn't look like there were any fans there for a little bit that I did see. Bryson had some spectacularly back. Oh, it's about growing the game. Oh, Lord. And how the regime was growing the game.

Bryson to Shamboh had this to say about the European tour and playing this event in Saudi Arabia. What the European tour is doing for the game is beyond my expectations. I think a lot of other people's expectations as well. They're growing the game internationally and especially in a place like Saudi Arabia. It's fantastic to see the world opening up

a little bit to them. They're showing us, hey, we're a place just as beautiful as the rest of the world. So I think it's amazing what Saudi Arabia and the European tour are doing. Yeah, something a lot of that. Listen, I think I'm sort of think speaks for itself. Professional golfers might not be that into it. Yeah, I think that's probably accurate.

I think the only good thing to come out of that, I tweeted something similar to this, but I think the only good thing to come out of that is that hashtag grow the game has now been used to sum up everything from like foot golf to murderous government propaganda. When you hear grow the game, your instinct should be to fight back. You are selling me something that I'm not buying and like I want... I think the follow up should be how. Yeah, you know, they're out here growing the game. How?

Like, be specific. Tell me exactly how. What does that mean? like that? Well, we're here. Yeah Let's challenge the listeners without the anytime somebody tweets something about grow the game I want you to play how how how is that happening? Yeah, I asked I was curious I asked a pro around here this week I said, you know, if you were at a chance to play in Saudi Arabia, would you play and like his mind went you know I like if I was proud if I was already over there, I would play it.

Yeah. Like his mind just did not trigger to think about the political ramifications. And these guys don't think of that. And it's, you know, it's just not, they're not wired that way. They play where the money is. And that's, you can argue whether that's right or wrong.

And in this scenario, I think a lot of us argue is very wrong. Do we think this event comes back? I mean, is it gonna happen again? I mean, I would a lot of us argue is very wrong. Do we think this event comes back? I mean, is it going to happen again? I mean, I would think this year would be the hardest here. Yeah, I was going to say it's going to come back. Okay. Well, I would say I don't think Sergei is going back. Well, along those lines, it's kind of amazing that this did happen

in Saudi Arabia, but Sergio Garcia was disqualified from the tournament from damaging five putting greens. You know how hard you have to damage a green to get de-cued for it? I didn't even know this was a rule. Did you guys? No. No, I didn't.

I read something that basically the only other person that's been de-cued under this rule is Simon Dyson for fixing a sp- like blatantly fixing sp- Oh, I didn't know. I was the same, okay. I guess the same rule. He got suspended. He got suspended for like three months or something.

He got like sent to Guantanamo Bay. Like that was, he got extremely punished for that. I, I think it is an absolute disgrace that Sergio's not suspended. If you damage the, well we don't know, maybe he will be. They've already announced it's not. He's not, he's not.

Okay, we already know, he is not. How do you, how can you act in that manner? Like you are, it's one thing to cheat. It's know, he is not. How can you act in that manner? Like, it's one thing to cheat. Like, I'm in Dyson cheated. Like, he tapped on a spike mark, which only really affected him. Well, how is affecting the rest of the field not cheating? That's what I mean.

But that's what I mean. Simon's only affected himself. Yeah, yeah. And he was affecting the cutting surface for the next bomb. I'm with you. That is like, it's really hard. He has a history of this. It's what makes it not this in particular,

but like spitting in a cup and other things that have not been fully reported. There's some stories from the open championship that I can't go on the record and say some stuff. Yeah, I heard some stuff. And I want to get a person to tell that story on this podcast at some point, but some other stuff that would shock you that a player would do that during a tournament.

And I think it's, I think it's awful. I think it's, with this as much history as he has. And in this, I don't know what, how this ties into the event, but there's no footage of it. There's no interviews from like he released a statement about it that was clearly an agent PR statement. And I don't know. I don't know how he doesn't receive more punishment than DQ.

If it was bad enough to get DQ, then I think the punishment should have been more severe. I agree. What do you think would, what do you think the punishment should be? I think he, I think you get three months, if you got three months to spend you from the European tour, one, you can go play the PGA tour the whole time. So it wouldn't be that big of a punishment. But I mean, I don't get, like I said, the two things just don't align. I, I want to come in the European tour for having the balls to deque him, but how does that

not garner a more a more severe punishment? Kick him off the tour, Doug. Well, I was surprised. I think Jeff Shackleford was the most vocal in saying he should be suspended for the rest of the year. Yeah, I could see. I mean, rest of the year. You're kind of surprised me when I first just saw it and then thinking about it more

and knowing what the penalty they gave to Dyson and maybe. I don't. Yeah, it's hard because for exactly the reason you're saying it's always because we haven't seen photos of what it was and we haven't seen like. It's kind of like the NFL stuff. Exactly.

If there was video of it, I think it'd be like, oh, no, okay. Exactly correct. Yeah. Which is why I think they didn't act on it. Cause I think if, you know, you, whatever, you heard stories about him hitting with the putter and dragging his feet and Patrick Reed was involved somehow,

he was the guy playing behind him. Playing behind him. So like, I don't know if anybody got any quotes from him on it. But yeah, I mean, I think that if, if there was something visible that we could see like, Sergio did this with his putter, there's like, it would be. It's kind of a crazy commentary on our media landscape. Oh, imagine the hurdle. Yeah, see it to believe it. I'm gonna say. The hurdle that you have to clear, like again, if this happens to somebody like Simon

Dyson, they would have no problem de-queuing the hurdle that you have to clear to, like one of the guys that clearly got a appearance for you to come play in this tournament to kick him out of it. Like that's a big hurdle to clear. They're handing out lifetime exemptions, like they're going out of style soon. So I can't imagine they're going to spend surgery after a year. Did Patrick Reed get the lifetime exemption

for reporting this? Wait, can we go over who? Maybe they gave him a lifetime, it happened before, right? Lifetime exemption, I would like to say maybe they gave him the lifetime exemption so he didn't talk about the surjev stuff. That would have been a cool trade off.

I think that would have been very neat. So, can we name the three other people that have ever gotten, the three other Americans that have gotten lifetime member exemptions to the European tour? Jack Nicholas, Arnold Palmer, and Tom Watson. He's finally in that top five category. He's finally getting the recognition

that he's so desperately deserved. I think that makes sense. That makes totally. What does he, he's won two European tournaments like that. The masters, I think the masters, the masters counts as one. What's the play here to get him to join the European and get a team once he's done?

I don't know. I have no idea. It's almost like a big sports contract or something. Like just paying someone like, like some baseball owner has ignorance amount of money. Just paying someone way too much to basically troll another fan base or something. I don't know.

I don't know what the hell is going on with that. That is so weird. What a weird week for the European tour. Yeah. A good question here from every commie is a public education failure. Is the name of this Twitter account? Okay. Will the European...

I'm not sure I follow that one. Or is Twitter's at-house sacco? Oh, yeah, actually I do. Yeah, he's actually pretty good. Will the European tour have a tournament in North Korea? I'll take that. I'll say no on that one. I think that might be a great...

Is that where the line is drawn might be a bridge too far between Saudi Arabia and Korea that must be it Zero puts give probably only because North Korea is not interested in it that might be it zero puts given said how many Greens would sir would sir do you have destroyed if you got that break that Ricky got on number 11? That would be tremendous. What do you guys think about it? I you know Ricky guy handled it so well. Just like a dream.

Well, I think a lot. Yeah. He handled it well. He's fighting off the adversity. He even said thank you, slugger. I think there's something to that. I think it would have rattled people a lot. Like, like something like J.C.

Yeah. Well, I do. I do. Foggy 12. It is kind of a broadcast. Part five, thirteen. It's kind of a broadcast part five 13. It's kind of a broadcast cliche But I do buy into the Ricky is Calmer and more collected than then everybody else take almost I think that and I think part of your take is like He almost is to a fault. Yeah, it doesn't seem to have that that

What if they rage inside of them? I guess whatever you could say well, yeah, I think that's just like his personality So I guess no, I don't know, what makes that better than somebody just getting it out in the moment and moving it on. You know, yeah, I guess what I'm saying is zero points given. Caleb Helms asked when will Ricky be on the pod? I think we've been over this. I don't think that's gonna happen.

Their management has made it very clear that they're not interested in that. And then West Hamilton said, will we see a midseason rules change with the outrage at the new rules? I think we already just did. I don't know what else will change though. I think if they're going to change this whatever Catti lineup rule, I think they may change the flag rule.

I think they may say. I think so. I think it will take like five years of stroke, skin, putting stuff. I don't think they'll go back on that one so easily. That one, it feels so, like the caddy thing has so much interpretation to it and intent and all of that stuff that is hard for them to kind of quantify or hard for them to decide,

you know, what the intent was versus what the interpretation was and all that stuff, whereas the flags take it so black and white, for them to get that one so obviously wrong, like we're only 32 days into the new year. They're not gonna change that one so fast. I think if they had three years of,

hey, Stroke's gain putting, or I guess Stroke's gain putting would be an average, that would be a hard one. But guys are making more puts from 20 feet, or guys are making more puts from 40 feet, or whatever, maybe they would change it. But I think we need to do some data and some testing on that one. First time a long time, quick question for you guys.

Sure. What stands in the way of the PJ tour, instituting a policy whereby they take over and implement their own rules? I don't think anything stands in the way other than just wanting to have everybody be one happy family. Like I they certainly could and that's basically what they did here, right? Like this was the PJ tour making a separate rule apart from the USGA about the the Cadi lineups thing, correct? No, I think that was the USGA.

The USGA went back on there. I think the with pressure from the tour, like they basically called the USGA and said we're putting a moratorium on All penalties until this gets clarified and I think the usj is maybe gonna update the rule is how I understood it It's like all right no more penalties. We're gonna figure this shit out Hopefully and get back to you on this one and then I think just today. I think the usj added more precise language Well, I want it least we were kind of hard on the tour earlier by saying, you know, they were fine letting this happen

until it happened at Ricky and JT, which I still think is kind of messed up, but I mean, it's kind of an entertainment product, and I get what they're going through there. Command them for getting one right. Like, for, I thought when I read it, that they were going to no longer penalize them, I'm like, oh, so Denny McCarty's still getting screwed.

They reversed his penalty. That like actually made sense, and seemed like something they couldn't do of like, oh, well Danny McCarthy's still getting screwed. They reversed his penalty. That like actually made sense and seemed like something they couldn't do. I'm like, oh, well, he signed the scorecard. No, we're good. Right. Then going back and actually making it right. How everyone knew it should have been. That was good. So that was refreshing.

That was nice to see. So the official statement that the USGA just issued earlier this afternoon, following an ongoing dialogue with players and in cooperation with the PGA tour rules team, the USGA and R and RNA revisited the penalty assessed to Danny McCarthy after additional review of available video this morning it was determined that the penalty would not apply in this instance nor in a similar instance involving Justin Thomas oh I'm sorry no they just the USG and RNA recognize that further clarity on how to appropriately

apply this rule is needed. We are committed to assessing its impact and will provide the necessary clarifications in the coming days. Yeah, so they didn't change anything. They just said that it doesn't apply here. Yes. Okay. I misunderstood. I thought it was like, yeah, we changed the rule and this doesn't make sense, but no, it's just no, no, here it doesn't. Essentially, they're going to have to like, oh God, how can we create super specific language that is gonna carve out not only Denny McCarthy or Justin Thomas? I think it's pretty easy.

I think it's until, like, while they have, until they address the ball, that the rules says now, like you can't, your caddy can't stand in the line as you take your stance, which can be so, that's such a great area, but I think it's addressing the ball, settles it. As long as you can, he's not standing up there

while you're addressing the ball, lining you up, that's the intent of the rule, I think, is to prevent that. So let's just change it to that. There you go, free advice at USGA. Sometimes I think, isn't golf like a game of honor and trust and it's like, can you just ask, like, hey, man, did your caddy give you advice,

lining you up? And then if the guy says, no, okay, no penalty, let's move on. Like, why do we need that kind of a whole, I feel like a, no, especially the new rules we're supposed to have intent. And it's like the tax cap. Right.

The whole rules were supposed to, yeah, like, maybe more intent. Right, think about it. It's like, why don't we just go to like five rules in the game and golf? I'm good. I think that's kind of how they presented this rule change. And it's not how it's playing out at all.

Like most of the rules have what's a new rule that's like, oh, God, that is changed the game dramatically. That makes so much sense. I've said it here repeatedly. I don't really know what the new rules are. I kind of refuse to let it to learn. I don't understand know what the new rules are. I kind of refuse to let to understand the whole Pin, penalty area stuff now. I really don't understand what I'm allowed to do. What? We're about to go in a big golf trip. If I break any of the rules, you guys, it's on you to call.

We play a hybrid of the rules. I want you to know that I have no intent to break any rules. Well, there's still a rule about there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there never hit it. On that note, never hit it. I know I see you changing your head cover. That's not true. We are headed out tomorrow. Tron and Neil are already out in California. The recon team, the recon team, the A team is out in California. We are heading out there tomorrow to film season three of Taurus sauce. So there will not be a podcast next week that's wrapping up Pebble Beach. We will have a player podcast that will come out midweek this week, as well as another player podcast that will come out on Sunday night of next week. So we got some stuff scheduled out.

We're gonna, you know, we're gonna get you through to next week, but we are not gonna be around watching PGA tour golf, because we're gonna be in RV up a mudslide for a highway one on the west coast and playing a lot of golf along the way. So, it should be fun. Which should be great. I'm excited.

I'm a little nervous about how the RV is going to feel and smell by the end of a nine-day trip, but we'll see. It's going to be part of the contest. Yeah. It could be glorious madness in there. And we're also ready to reveal season four of Taurus sauce. Season four. April. Um, dates are late April into early May.

Correct. We are going to Ireland. We're going with experience Ireland golf actually is helping us with this trip. And we're going all down the West Coast, playing a variety of some of the top courses and some maybe lesser known courses and getting our links golf back on.

I miss it. I miss it really, really badly. Yeah, and major ups to Tom Kennedy at Experience Golf Ireland, Experience Ireland Golf, Experience Ireland Golf. Yeah, gee, yeah, gee. Who there's a ton of tour companies that specialize in Ireland and Scotland and kind of help you plan these things from start to finish.

I don't think anyone's wanted to drive in Ireland. I think that would be something that, you know, we're, we would all be very scared to do. I think Sol and I have done it. It's not the best. So, anyways, there's a lot of kind of packages you can go through and do all this stuff, and they'll set you up with a driver and all these courses and everything. And so, Tom Kennedy was kind of the one that reached out to us about, hey, you really should do one in Ireland. And he's been helping us plan the itinerary

the whole for gosh, a couple months now. And yeah, I'm incredibly, incredibly excited for that trip. It's hard to think about that one when we have this, this big one, Looming Tour. I hope these courses are an all washed away out west with all the rain you've been getting. But on that note, we're going to wrap it. I think at that, we're going to go to the Super Bowl.

I think it's the second quarter right now. Going to watch the rest of that. And thank you guys for tuning in for a fun week. That was really fun. That was a blast. That was very fun. Could have been a little bit more fun. All right.

You needed to win one. We needed that for. Can we get one more raky hot take on the way out the door You got one cute up. Is he gonna win again this year? My back it was No, he is gonna win one. Yeah, he's gonna he's gonna he's he's got a low-way the field at the rock mortgage class That's the lock of the year. All right signing off on that. Thanks everybody everybody for tuning in. Hope we survive our trip out west, and we will see you guys soon. Cheers, cheers.

Cheers. Let's get right club. Be the right club today. Yes. Be the right club. That is better than most. How about in? That is better than most. How about in? That is better than most.

Better than most.