No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 200: Justin Ray

Episode Date: March 13, 2019

Formerly of the Golf Channel, and now of the 15th Club, Justin Ray joins to discuss how he initially got a job with ESPN, how that got him into golf, and how he ended up... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 200: Justin Ray 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 is better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No-Lang-Up Podcast. I would introduce him as golf channels Justin Ray, but he's now going over to the 15th club to betray us and become part of Team Europe's winning Ryder Cup team. Mr. Justin Ray, welcome to the No-Lang-Up Podcast. So I'll be a long time listener, first time caller. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Absolutely. I can think it's kind of, we wanted to make nice with you before you kind of make the full transition over to the 15th club here and turn your back on the country here. Why won't you tell us a little bit about what you're doing? I mean, you know, accusing me of treason is a great way to start the interview, but that's like, I like to punch people in the face a little bit and then get them back on their heels. So, I mean, I was a golf channel for a little over five years, 15th club, as you mentioned. You know, they do a lot of player performance stuff, getting some of the top players in the world, primarily guys from Europe, better Rory McAroy's their most prominent client.

But they're dipping their toe more into the storytelling side of things, the media side of things, and they're in a really unique position in the industry at the Crossroads of really analytics and storytelling and player performance, and it was just a perfect fit. And I'm just so excited to be part of it. It's a company that is really mobile and young and agile, it's going to do a lot of really big things in the future. And I'm fired up to be part of it. Well, I'm a big fan of all of it, except for obviously the helping of the European Radicup team, which seems to be working. I wanna get into some of that.

But what exactly are you gonna be doing? I know your role there is director of content. What does that mean? Are we, am I creating a rival here by having you on? Are you guys competing with us in this, in the podcast space? What's going on? I don't, I don't, I mean, we can have a friendly rival. that's what it involves to. I mean, I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff that, you know, folks know me

for already. You're creating numbers and identify, you know, identifying trends and the stats everyone knows that I do. I'm going to do a little bit more writing. It's going to be odd. The last job I had outside of TV was at a football college at Columbia, Missouri. So, the first few days without going to a TV studio and sitting in a production meeting, it's a little bit surreal. But, you know, a lot of the same stuff, and then I'm going to want to dip my toes a little bit into the player performance side of it, helping guys out, helping them get better. But, we've got a lot of exciting stuff down the pike. I wish I could divulge everything that we're doing, but it's a really exciting time for 15th Club, and we're gonna grow exponentially from what we are now.

Well, I do look forward to seeing that. Why don't you refer to it there, but kind of your background. I wanna hear in your own words, so what you used to do a golf channel, and kind of all the depth of what you do. I know people see your stats and stuff on Twitter that are very timely and always coming in the right time.

But what else do you do for Golf Channel? What is your official job there? Yeah, so I started at ESPN. I had an internship there before I graduated college. I in the research department after school, it's right there. I was an ESPN for a better part of seven years. I was in Bristol working in the research department doing,

all sports, baseball, football, basketball, working on Sports Center. I was privileged enough to be the researcher on Scott Van Peltze radio show for several years, which I don't know if you can possibly have more fun in a professional setting. I went and talked sports with my buddies and laughed my ass off, and that was my job.

It was unbelievable. When ESPN launched Longhorn Network, the network dedicated to University of Texas, they were like, do you want to go move? I'm from Texas. I'm not a longhorn, which was very, but I'm from Texas. And they were like, do you want to live in Austin and get a promotion? I was like, yep, sure do. I'm going to get out of the snow.

I'm going to be doing that. And since it's college athletics, the summers are open. And I could still work on their golf coverage. So I did that until 2014 golf channel kind of gotten touched with me and you know I helped kind of shape what their research department did on golf central and live from at the majors and players and brighter cup and all those big events. Over the last five years or so. And now

I've been with 15 club for about 30 hours. So it's been a while, a few weeks. But I've been in this space of golf stats, it's sports statistics and storytelling and all that stuff. I've been in the booth at the Masters at the US Open, been on the live from Sets Oliver, and all the big events golf channel covers. It's an unbelievable gig. I still can't believe I get to do this for a living.

But that's kind of where I'm at. What for those, you know, you said you went straight to ESPN after college with an internship for the listeners at home, the college kids or the high school kids might be listening. That sounds like a pretty dreamy job. How does somebody go about getting an internship like that at ESPN? It was unbelievable, man. So I was told that they had about 15, this was 2007. And I was told they had about 15,000 applicants

for the research job. Oh, my God. And two got it. And I was one of them. So did you know somebody, how does that happen? Oh, I have a story. I have a story and it's, I'm going to get gonna get it's gonna be a little long when did it first But it'll make sense. Oh

2007 I've applied for the production associate Internship and the research internship so Kansas plays Missouri and a basketball game. We Missouri gets crushed Kansas destroys us But it's the week to remember the horse of Barbarrow. Oh, yeah, and this is this sounds and this is gonna sound us, but it's the week to remember the horse of Barbara. Oh, yeah, and this is this sounds this is gonna sound insane, but So it was the week that that coverage just was wall-to-wall everywhere on ESP him and me and my friends in our quasi-owned E.V.A. state that morning making a sign for the game Scrawled out on a piece of poster war like a murderer Bill self-killed Barbara, and that was our sign We brought to the Mizukensis game

So Jaron Anderson just happens to be at the game. No way. And he sees us from the core points up on our sign, thinks it's hilarious, physically walks up into the stands and signs our signs, shakes our head. It was great. It was fun. Kids is obliterated Mizzou and you know, it was a great memory. So a few months later as I'm waiting

for feedback from Tizzi if I got the internship as a production associate or in research I got an email from after I was rejected for the PA internship John Anderson sends a note to a handful of Mizzou people who applied as his hey nobody thought I was worth anything when I was a kid keep working hard it's a really nice justify him encouraging you know, us to keep moving forward and you know, doing our thing. So I replied to him, I was like, I've also applied for the thank you Jonathan of Nice Known, I've also applied for the research internship, you may remember me, you signed my Bill Self-Killed Barbarate signed a few months ago. And John, in about 15 seconds, like he's sitting at his desk without looking open, working

on the sports center. And like 30, I'm in the library, we do. And within 30 seconds, here applies to the email and all caps. I am recommending you for the research internship based on your sign-along. No way. I've never heard this story. And then a couple of months later,

I had to go through the whole process of, you got to pass all these kind of like sports knowledge tests and there's interviews and stuff but that moment of lunacy and happens to us that John Anderson you know saw my sign and thought it was funny I'll be getting my foot in my door and essentially it it helps start my career so that's it's crazy and it's it's true and John's made me tell that story to look around like four or five times. So I was afraid to ask the question

because I was afraid the answer was gonna be like, oh my dad called in a favor or so and so, because, well, I remember when I was around that age, I thought a man if I could work in sports or do like that exact job, that would be like the happiest thing in the world, but there's no way I would ever get that job. And you laying out that math of 15,000 people applying into getting it was kind of like, yeah,

that's, I felt like the deck was stacked against me. Never would have thought making a sign that says Bill Self-Killed Barbaro would have got help launch your career in sports. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And like so, in the months after that, I'm working in a foot locker, part-time job at, when I, you know, in a mall when I was in college,

and I'm like, it's from there, quizzes over the phone, and, you when I was in college, and I'm like answering their quizzes over the phone, and they would call you and ask, like, I'd be walking me to in classes and the head of research, and they're like, so what do you think of the second areas in the NFC West this season? Like who has the best bullpen of the ALEs? Name as many masters' champions as you can since 1980. It's all general sports, how to try to they have a With a nerdiest of the nerds in sports if you're a researcher at the SPN

There's just so much minutia that you know You feel like you've been trained your whole life just by being an insane sports and not like I am but um Yeah, I guess where does that come crazy? No, where does that come from? Are you just like did you look up numbers and stuff as a kid? I used to retype the box scores in baseball. From when I was like six years old, I used to retype them the day after. For whatever reason. I come from a really nerdy stat background as well. I loved saber metrics in baseball.

I really engaged in stroke scheme, saber metrics of golf. I feel like I can kind of relate to you on a certain level. I just wanted to, where does of foundation of sports knowledge comes from? I've just always been obsessed with it. I mean, it's one of the only things in life that has an ultimate outcome, you know, sports is there's a winner and a loser. I don't have never really get that in any of the fastative life, whether it's, you know, real world events or relationships and what it is. I don't know if I was I was drawn to that. I was always drawn to the numbers in it. I was a my dad tells me I would sneak out and steal the Houston Chronicle sports paid before

he could get to the pay point in the morning. So, you know, I just voraciously read that all the time. I've been into all sports always. I mean like I'm an NBA league pass Joaquin. I'm an huge NBA guy. Love football, grew up playing select baseball. Actually, me and Kyle Porter, CBS realized about a year ago, we grew up in Houston about the same time and we played against each other in select baseball in the late 90s or at least 1000s. Yeah, it's a small universe man.

You never know where you'll end up back then. I don't know why, I was the kid who kept his baseball stats in an Excel file on a stats computer. See how exact things. Correct. So that's kind of the way I was always wired. Every sports project was, you know, I was in a, it was a, every school project was always about, you know, a call for baseball player, you know, Queen of Dolce Bar, whatever it might

be. So. Did you ever reach base via error? Cause I never did. If I reached base, it was a hit when I was keeping my own statistics. So I was pretty generous with my earned runs as a picture. Exactly. But the fielders behind me let me down a lot too back in the day. I want to go. I want to know a bit about kind of what your process is like, specifically, I guess,

more so with golf as to what your database looks like. And because I mean, we're all amazed at how, where you pull these stats from and the timeliness of it and how you even go about looking it up. Do you just have like the mega Excel file with every, you know, PGA tour shot ever recorded in it? How does this work? Um, so over time I've built my resources. You know, I've done this for, I've got 12 years now.

So over the years, I've been able to create a whole bunch of different databases based on my own manual intern going through meeting you guys and records and stuff. And then also the PGTore is able to provide through, I mean, they have so much information that I've spent, I spent every day of my life on the site and I feel like I've still find new stuff. So it's a combination of those two things, but like over the years like I built, the first big project I did at ESPN and golf was a big Excel database of every major champion since the 1860 open. And like they're positioned by round, they're age, shots back, you know, all that stuff. So that,. So that when Rory wins his fourth major at Dow Hall at age 25,

I click three things and I have the list of guys to do that. Wow. To win four majors by 25. Just like pivot tables or what? Yeah, yeah. So I'll say database, but I mean, I have eternalism degree, man. It's not, it's not like computer programming stuff.

It's just a basic Excel file and knowing how to sort it and what you're looking for and all that. And I've done that too with like PGA Tour winners with 54 hall leaders on the PGA Tour, I have an LPGA one, I've got every top 10 in major championship history in a file. But this has taken time. It's like, you know, it's like your old man

would set a tool. You know, you don't just get the whole toolbox right away. Like you build it over, you know, over the years. You don't have the whole collection right away. So, and now I'm at the point where I've got, I've got pretty much everything that, you know, that I need, you know, I try to challenge myself and come up with new things.

Like, the thing I'm working on right now that I'm going to have for the Masters is the stroke game against the field for every round of Master's History. So I'll be able to tell the most accurate story about, okay, Jordan Speesoff to an amazing start in his Master's career. Here's how it ranks in X-Windsey. So I'm always trying to come up with new ways to get better at my craft and get better at telling stories and giving

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Calaway and Ojo have invested in the technology in these things and it is the most comfortable golf bag you will have ever put on your shoulders. So without any further ado, let's get back to Justin Ray. What do you, you know, when there's broadcasts going on at golf central or, you know, during an actual live event, what, are you the one that kind of triggers, you know, the stat process

or to somebody say to you, hey, we need to know how often this has been done, go, figure it out, and you do it in 30 seconds or what does it look like when you're live and kind of on the spot? It's kind of a combination of things. If someone has a, like what I said, golf channel, if Braggel has an idea or Frank Noble has an idea, I'll look something up for them and we'll come and put the way to put it together for the show. But during live action, I'm usually just looking for things that are interesting, something that's going to be relevant that we can create into a graphic or a font for the text on

the screen. I just kind of engineer it myself a lot of the time where you just see what's going on and try to contextualize it and you know like You know when Ricky Fowler is coming down the stretch on the back nine at Phoenix, you know What's the what's the best story we can tell in this situation? You know on the screen whether it's in our highlight on golf central or It's a note we can get to the guys in the tower whatever it might be so You just kind of always, it's kind of a way to think about sports as you go where you're kind of always looking for what's next, anticipating what might happen and, you know, kind of sensing what's going to be most interesting.

And then, you just dig and dig and dig until you get the end of the earth basically. So, this dirty secret about it, and I've had people make fun of me about it, is that I'll be in a production trailer working at the Masters of the US Open. And I feel like I've seen about 10 shafts the whole week because I'm just constantly digging and looking things up. So that's a slight downside to it, is that maybe I don't always get to be in the moment

because I'm always looking for something new and trying to provide more context for people, but it's just kind of like a relentless digging process that you know, it sounds really dorky to say, but I get great joy out of it. I love doing it and I love finding the answers to stuff. Do you ever get completely stumped like do you have an example of something like you wanted to find out and could never do or something that still just like picks eats at you that you can't figure out. I wish we had more detailed statistics and major championships going back historically. They just got the shot tracker technology to the BGN championship like five years ago.

And you know you would love to know what Tiger Strokescape putting was at Pebble Beach in 2000 where he blew everyone away. Something like that, it's just numbers, there's just numbers that don't exist. So that can be frustrating at times, but you know, that's kind of where that process comes in to where okay, we're at the Masters in 2017 with Sergio one and I want to know the guys who have had X number of top 10s before their first major win. I've got to create my own new tool to try to answer that question by making the, that's the top tens and majors database thing I mentioned. So, usually that kind of spurs more creativity.

If I get stumped, then maybe, you know, I can come up with a way to answer the question and usually falls a lot of work at building my own tool to answer that question. But, so, in a weird way, I kind of like getting stuff because it gets me into another thought process where I can dig deeper and try to come up with a way to answer the problem. Do you have a favorite stat you've pulled or favorite tweet of yours where you're like, all right, that is my favorite thing I've ever accomplished in all of the statistical analysis? Yeah, the crazy tiger stuff always gets the most reaction obviously because you know, he just crosses over every sport and what's great about

Tiger is that he's just so his numbers are so absurdly dominant that you can keep coming up with ways to articulate how incredible he was this peak and There's really no into it. I mean, it's it's amazing the things that I still come up with stuff now, even after, you know, I used to, they used to make fun of me. And ESPN, you know, a lot of times, there's one golfer in the world, as we all know. So the joke with me was that I was the Tiger Woods researcher for a long time, ESPN. And I still come up with stuff.

I'm like, wow, that's unbelievable. I had no idea. You come and play start to articulate what he created. It's tough to say what tweet I might be most proud of or what number I might be most proud of. I think any time I work on something that gets picked up, I people I respect whether it's like Dan Hicks in the booth or you guys or like Ken Van Vaalkenberg or anybody in golf media who I really have a lot of who I really you know perspective and admire if they run with it. I mean that's what I'm most proud of what I've all the people at golf channel

Who picks your brain the most who wants like who who look goes to you for information to kind of formulate something They're gonna say on TV or kind of who who makes you work the hardest well It's definitely Brandyl. I knew that was the answer as well. I asked. We love doing it. I love getting into a room with him.

He's got an idea about something. And I've got an idea about something. And, you know, Brandyl is amazing. His work process is, he has these yellow legal pads that are basically legendary at golf channel because he has this beautiful, cursive handwriting and it's just all over these legal pads. Just like tattooed the entire, and it's just page after page after page and it's stuff

he's tracking and you know, things he comes up with. And one of my favorite things when I was at golf channel was, brand will have a thought and he would have a million words on his legal pad. And my job would be to talk to him and create something that we could turn from that into a graphic We could put on the screen and you break that because you can't have 10 zillion characters on the screen You know, you've got to tell the story from the fans. So that was one of the things I love the most working a golf channel was You know just being able to to hang out out and talk off of those guys is unbelievable. People like David Duval and Frank Noble is one all over the world and Jim Calgary Jr. is a great

guy to hang out with. He want a tour championship, beat Sevi and the writer cup. These are really accomplished pros and just, you know, in some cases like David, these are like Titans in their era and to just be able to sit there and and Kick it and talk about the sport we love and things that are happening. I mean, that's I mean you can't you can't price on that Well, I did send you send you some homework because I wanted to kind of pick your brain on some of your favorite stats But I didn't want to put you on this spot We're gonna get to some of those but before we do is there something you think like people get wrong about statistics in general Or something that you think that you wish

You could hammer home to listeners or people that watch golfer, you know our golfers that they don't really fully understand about the game Yeah, the joke that a lot of like my college buddies you don't work in TV make or like somebody who's not real familiar with like Oh, yes, so you can tell me who has the best Power for scoring average when it's blowing wind 10 to 12 miles an hour on alternate Sundays like they come up with some convoluted nonsense that's really specific and I never want to do that. I'm going to tell what the story that's most important. It's not just minutia for the sake of minutia, it's all part of the storytelling process.

And the main thing I have to hand my home is that, you know, without accuracy, you really have nothing in this job. And you can lose your credibility really, really fast. I could come up with 200 incredible statistics, but I'm going to remember, and people are going to remember the one I messed up. So I wouldn't call it pressure to always be accurate, but it is something that's incredibly valuable and important. And you can you can

ruin a reputation really quick because people rely on your information and if you if you get it wrong I mean you've got to earn up to it and and get better at it because you know then you if you lose your credibility you know it doesn't matter what you come up with people I'm gonna believe you. Well if you may if you made an error the tweet I would feel I would still think about first would be I don't remember it exactly but it was about counting the number of days in between like 21 year old winners of the Masters. Is that jogging?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it was like, sevy. It was sevy, tiger, and Jordan, and it was like some insane parallel between, it was the Saturday of the 2014 Masters in Jordan, was in the final pairing with Bubba and Yeah, no, I remember that. Yeah, that was that was pretty cool like the BBC grabbed onto that and it was yeah This the amount of days since there had been a 21 year old winner was the same as the previous time in between 21 year old winners I'm like do not you that was one I was right, what the hell does this database look like? I mean, honestly, man, it's just if you just keep mining and digging and going,

eventually you come up with something like that. Like when, when Phil won in Mexico last year, it was a similar type of situation where Tiger was going to play at Bay Hill and, you know, he had one yet since he had come back. And it was the same thing. I could was like Phil went 1487 days between wins. Sunday at Bay Hill will be 1487 days between Tigers wins or something like that. Some insane coincidence. There's no way I could,

you just happen to fall into it because you're immersed in it every day and you keep digging and working hard. And then eventually you dip through the cave long enough and you find a diamond. All right, so let's get to some of the homework I gave you. And I don't know how many, I hope you have just a full database of your favorite tiger wood stats,

but I ask you to accumulate your 10 favorite tiger wood stats. Do you have that for us? I do, absolutely. I love pulling this together, because I had to whittle it down from like 25. Hey, You could hit people with this. One thing I learned you can hit people is much tiger stuff as you care to and they will keep coming back for more. I think you'll probably agree to like I think the more we talk with with you know pros and other people it's it's that tigers

somehow underrated and everything he's accomplished. I've always said for years that I mean it's like going through the NBA record books now and seeing Wilk Chamberlain's name everywhere, you're like, Wilk had a 50 and 30 season, you're like, how is that even possible? Like we're going to go back and look at Tiger 25 years from now, I'm like, how did he do this? Like this, he was playing in other sports, so I always kind of compared him to Wil in that regard because you just combed with like the NBA record books and like the James

Harden 30 point straight that ended the other night he got to like 30 war I was only like 60 behind the whole part of number so ridiculous total and that's really what Tigers done to the PGA to record. All right hit me with some. Okay number 10 I've got an in count down format. From 2003 through 2005, Tiger had 1,543 puts from three feet in it. He missed three of them. The other thing too, you were asking what one thing

you would lay out to people, the way you present the information to him can make a big impact. So if you just, if you say in a sentence like that, it can be more impactful than just, you know, listing it or what it might be, but... Right. If you just say Tiger Miss 3 puts for, you know, over three years from inside 3 feet, doesn't mean as much as yet. He did it 1,500 times and only missed three of them. He was 1540 for 1543.

That's a tough one. All right. Number 9. There are 8 BGA Tour seasons since 1983, in which a player beat the field average by 2.6 strokes per round. All eight of those seasons belong to Tiger Woods. Yep, that makes sense. So basically the eight best stroke differential seasons ever in this modern era where they have all the numbers.

They all belong to Tiger. I think along that line, I asked Mark Brody last year on the podcast his favorite Tiger Statter, the most impressive Tiger Stad. He said at one point Tiger beat the field average in strokes gained in 89 consecutive rounds. Yeah, it's insane. It's absolutely mind-boggled. That was a great pod with Mark. All right, number eight. Tiger is the only player in the US junior armoured, US amateur and the US open in his career. He wonnings for the first time. Oh my god. Number 7.

16 rounds in the 16 rounds of the Tiger Slam, Tiger beat the field by an average of 5.4 strokes per round, which doing that once is incredible in a major. That was his average over the 16 rounds of the Tiger Slam. That means that during the Tiger Slam, he beat the field average by a combined total of more than 86 shots. I think the Tiger Slam is somehow under-appreciated or forgotten. I feel like one that 2001 Masters was one of the best. I mean, was Tiger in Phil and DuVal coming down the stretch for the Tiger Slam and it was truly biting nails all the way to the very end. And somehow I don't feel like that accomplishment got the same appreciation that it should one because I remember being that age and thinking, well, I guess doesn't really matter.

He's going to win the next three anyways. He's going to have the Tiger slam and the Grand Slam. He's going to win seven straight. But looking back at that, that is so absolutely absurd. The one four majors in a row. Yeah, beating Pooftoo wall at that time in 2001, in that cruise pool of all that attention on him, and it was just like, it was just assumed

that he was gonna do it, and he did it. I mean, it's unbelievable. Nice. All right, number six, Tiger during the 2000 season had one score worse than 73. It was in the first round of the Masters when he shot 75. He still beat the field average why more than half a shot that day. And that's probably what cost in the Grand S when he shot 75. He still beat the field average by more than half a shot that day.

And that's so that's probably what cost in the grand slam that year then. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Basically it was and he was still better than average. It was a blood round worse than 73 in a whole season. That must have been just blustery as hell that day or something. Who won the 2000? Is that VJ? Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Okay. Number five during a stretch from May of 99 to the end of 2000 Tiger played in 34 tournaments worldwide. He won 18 of them. In that span, he had seven wins by four or more He had four finishes outside the top 10. So he won Seven tournaments by four shots or more and finished outside the top 10 four times in the top 10 So he was as likely he was more likely to win by more than four than finished outside the top 10 four times in the top 10. So he was as likely, he was more likely to win by more than four than finished outside the top 10.

Almost twice as likely to win by four more. That's wonderful. And somehow I still think like some of his hankany years are even more impressive, which I think you're gonna probably tap into at least some of that here in the coming facts. Yeah, definitely. Number four, Tiger is one five straight PGA Torch starts

three different times. He's the only player in the last 60 years to do it once. 60 years? Yeah. Think Hogan's the one before him. I was going to say, who is even one like three straight starts? Um, I had that one. That one's, that was not on your homework list, but that would be one to take home with you.

That's like, I can't think of one over, you know, since I wouldn't even know where to guess on that. I want to say Watson did it. Okay. But, I mean, yeah, no, I didn't have that handy on my homework list. Unfortunately, but yeah, no one else in 60 years has done it at all.

He did it three different times. I think that was important for you reputation wise, the people knew that you don't have all this memorized. I think that's a good thing. And then I get it's important for everyone to know it. It probably need to lock me up if I had all this more. I'm actually, I think I'm really bad at memorizing things.

I just kind of dig and keep going and know where to find stuff really quickly. There you go. You need to, you definitely need to institutionalize me if I knew all the stuff I had. Though I do have a buddy who I worked with at ESPN who can recite the final out of the World Series every year since like 1944 or something. It's insane rainman stuff and I am not on that planet. We heard flex but okay. Yeah, exactly. Number three, Tiger won nine times in the 2000 PGH or season.

No other player left after nine rounds that year. Yep, makes sense. Number two, I love this fact, even though it's probably been heard several times, but I just, the sentence itself is so absurd. Tiger has 40 European tour wins, third most all time. He's never played on the European tour. And I know people will be like, oh, but they count majors and WGC's.

I'm like, yeah, that just means one half of those starts during that span. And he did, he did so prolifically, they got to 40. It's ridiculous. Third all time, gosh. And Patrick Reed is a lifetime member of the European tour and, uh, and Tiger is not. And number one, this one, it's numbers intensive, but I think it's crazy. It has to be the top one. From 97 to 2008,

Tiger was 126 under par in majors. All right, there are 138 other players in that span with at least 40 rounds in majors of that group second place is Joe Oglevy at 63 over par Joe Oglevy not even Jeff correct Now that speaks to the fact that Joe probably played like 40 to the minimal number of rounds of majors in that span But if you go the same amount of major rounds Tiger is like more than 200 shots ahead of Phil and Ernie. 200 shots? Yeah. Yeah.

Oh my God. 26 under and majors and that is nearly 200 better than anyone else with at least 40 rounds of majors. And that's been. Oh my God. So that is. That's just never having a bad round. I'm trying to round my head around that too.

And I think it's like, I wonder what Nicholas's numbers all would look like. Cause I mean, we're gonna get this with Tiger too, like the latter half of your career, like you're gonna just like shoot higher numbers. And those totals are gonna creep up. But I just wonder kind of how that would have compared to Nicholas like in his prime and what not. Cause he, I mean, what's amazing about Tiger to Nicholas in his prime and whatnot.

What's amazing about Tiger to me, one of the many things, I think he only has maybe five runner-ups in majors with 14 wins. People love to cite. It's well known that Jack had 19 runner-ups to go with his 18 wins, but also had 17 third place finishes or something absurd like that. But when Tiger got close, he made sure one of my numbers later on. It wasn't. Okay. That's really good. We're not done with the full David Letterman style

here. But I don't know what that means. And Roy's kind of the same way. Like when Roy gets close at majors, he wins it. Like he doesn't have like a bunch of close calls. It seems like. I don't know what that means. Right. Yeah, I don't have a great answer for that either. But the sheer consistency of jack throughout the course of his career in those big advances is mind blowing. Like I said, I've got one of those legs. All right, let's go right into that. What are some I asked for your five favorite golf stats in general in the non-tiger division?

So I've got a top five in an honorable mention. An honorable mention is she hasn't played great golf recently, but Lydia co-aged at the ridiculous. She won 10 LPGA tournaments before she turned 19. The previous record was Nancy Lopez to get to 10 wins at 22. Oh my God. There are eight LPGA wins all time.

Just instances of it ever happening. There are eight LPGA wins all time. My player 17 or younger and Lydia has six of them. So, I mean, just what she did at her age, absolutely incredible and people forget how, she's like, 22, 21, something like that now. So, you know, what she did as a teenager

is just completely unprecedented in this sport. And that's what, I mean, we without a doubt. And that's what, it's hard to really understand what really happened, you know, why that went away. And I know she's made so many changes, but it also, you know, not to bring everything back to Tiger, put into perspective, like not only did he burst onto this scene, but he maintained it for a really long time.

And of course, he has one major in, you know, 11 years now, but he did this for such a long period of time that's so hard to maintain this top level. We see guys, I mean, DJ has been on a three-year run of, I think he's won 11 times in the last three years, but Jason Day had his like 18-month run, but then it went away, and like Justin Rose has had an incredible run as well, but just no one can really sustain it for a really notably long period of time. Tiger is number one in the world for more than 13 years.

That's not telling me when he was like two or three, like right behind VGA or Ernie or whoever, that's just as number one for 13 years. This prime was, that's 97 to, to 08 and then you throw in 12 and 13 a little bit too. I mean, it's absolutely incredible. Well, along the same things, age is very different on the LPGA tour,

but I was looking, we did broadcast with the Anika Sorensim a couple weeks ago, and she won, I forget now, I think 10 majors, whatever it was, and she didn't win her first one till she was 24 years old, and that's the same age as Michelle Wee was when she won her first major, and that was like, finally, she's won a major.

She broke through. Yeah, and so it's, you can't run a car yet. Yeah, and so it's. He can't run a car yet. Yeah, and so like, you know, people are really quick to rush to judgment, I think, on like Ricky Fowler. And you know, so he's never won, you know, if he doesn't win a major now, he's never going to win once.

He's 30s like, all right, guys, like, I know we did this with Phil, but Phil was 33 years old when he won his first major. And so it's, I don't know, I hate when people give, and I'm kind of all over the place here, but I hate when people are like, you know, Aaron Badley has the same amount of wins as, you know, Ricky Fowler. It's like, guys, you compare to people his own age at least. I mean, the guy's not even halfway probably through his career.

He's got a lot ahead of him. And Tiger spoiled us, and then I've got a mention of him later, but Jordan Speet's spoil us too with his young six. So what Ricky's done at his age is pretty commendable. I know that people want him to do more, but he's got a lot of time. He's only 30 years old. So. Correct. All right. Number five on my five favorite non-tiger golf statistics. I don't think people realize how tough it is to convert 54 whole leads on the PGA tour. Yes. Players with a 1, 2, or 3 shot lead. So, one shot, two shot, three shots. They went 33% of the time over the last six years. I mean, it is so hard to close a lead. So, the label of somebody choking or even like, you know, Rory being in the final

pairing last week in Mexico, I mean, it's still four back. It's really, it's so tough to win one of these elite golf tournaments. And I don't think people, you know, I don't think they realize that. If you take the number down to just one shot since 2013, it's 26% of the time. Players convert. Cheers. That's what I love following. I think it's Kim Palm Golf or Ken Pomeroy Golf Odds. I think it's just a computer that tweets the stats out, but as things go along,

I mean, it'll show you your percentage chance of winning like when you tee off. So like Roy tees off of the one shot lead. It still might show. It's depending on how many guys are close to him and how many shots back, obviously. It's show. And who's close to him?

Yeah, exactly. He's got a 17% chance of winning right now or something like that. It's like, wait a second here. That is so different than how it's presented about these over. You know, he's only closed two of his 64 whole leads. Like, actually, that's like pretty good percentage. That's on pause.

Yeah. I mean, unless it was a five or a six shot lead, what's kind of crazy is that when I made the 54 liter database on tour, when you look to four shots, it astronomically jumps into like the 80% range. Now, I know we're a few weeks ago JT Blue four shot lead, but I don't know if that speaks to the elite level of player who can get to a four shot lead through 54 holes and a combination of that and obviously it's got that much of a gap. But one, two or three shots since 2013 is just 33% of the time. Well, and that's where Ken Tiger kind of screwed things up for us and that his numbers looked

like Mario and Rivera in his prime closing tournaments out and kind of screwed up what we thought was a normal percentage of conversion of 54 whole leads probably. I think, yeah, I think Tigers 46 for 48 women out right 54 away. Are you serious? Yeah. I thought he had given away more, more PGA. Well, a couple times he was, a couple times he was tied to the lead.

Okay. But yeah, I think it's, I'm pretty sure it's 46 for 48 after East Lake last year. And just the one major that he had the lead and didn't win. Correct. Oh, nine PGA, I think. Correct. Correct. Number four, nobody is ever won the players in back to back years.

Hmm. Only two, yeah. And I think this is fascinating. Only two defending champions at Saga Rasta have ever even finished in the top five. So why this has never happened on that golf course. We did a feature about it last year for life in the players and asked them what your players about it and they were all kind of stumped by it too. I don't know if it speaks to the kind of equal test that Saga asking me or you know there's been all kinds of different winners the

players from I mean Fred Funk and you know Adam Scott won in a span of three years you know so I've always been interested by the fact that they've never had a back to back when that's interesting yeah there's no real like I guess horse for course you know we see it every year it's such a highly emphasized tournament. And we were never like, oh, he plays really well. It's all grass. Like no one, we never say that. I really about anyone that is interesting. Phil, I mean, Phil won there and it couldn't, but what do you say?

A couple of years ago, like, I can't believe I ever won here. I can't believe I won on this golf course. Yeah. It's one of, so every big event and even like week to week, I'll do, you know, best scoring average on this course last five years. You20 tan or whatever it might be. The players is the only one where there's never a guy who's in the 60s over the last five years. It's always 70, 70 and a half, 71 and that's the guy with the best scoring average in that span. It's pretty incredible. Also, side note to that, Colonial has not had a back-to-back winner since 1953, which I think is really interesting because we always pick Colonials always the will we go to. All that's a course act. Johnson can win on or generic can win on, but they haven't had a back. It seems to fit a style player

in our minds, but they haven't had a back-to-back winner in almost 70 years. So are we safe to say? I'm sure you don't have this handy, but like for most PGA tour events, we've had back-to-back winners that pretty much all of them since then. Well definitely all the ones Tigers played. But even like Pebble Beach was had a handful of them, usually you'll find guys who've won back-to-back. But I guess on the really on tougher courses it's harder to find. This week at the Honda, you know, Jackson the only guy it wasn't at PGA national, but Jackson the only guy to win that tournament back to back years and it's always been on a pretty But most part a pretty difficult course. So it's just always been interesting me when you

We dig for trends and you find that you know at a place like that nobody's ever done it back to back is Matt Every at Bay Hill the last guy to go back to back at a PGA Tour event? I'm trying to think off time, my head. I don't know if you have that handy. I doubt it, but that's the last one that may be the best back to back win of all time. Most incredibly unpredictable one. Correct.

That's for sure. Yeah. Keppga, US Open. Oh, God, that's right. Maybe Keppga's kind of on to something about being forgotten about. Well I mean our own time it's a major into the different vineyards. Yeah it's true. It doesn't feel the same. Brennan still won the safe way back to back years to 16 and 17. That's right. You're right. I did not have that

handy. I found that that quick. That's an example of you know what you've got to do if let's say you're in a commercial break and Ryan versus the last guy to to win this tournament back to back, and you've got 11 seconds to answer it. So, that's a symptom of the sickness right there, as we just displayed. Yeah, but, uh, truthfully, too, and it is a sickness. That's the fun thing to me. I get a rush out of that. So, awesome. Anyway, yeah.

Alright, number three, we're going to the Ryder Cup. The last four Ryder Cups on European soil, so this is 06, 10, 14, and 18. American players ranked in the top 10 in the world at the time have a combined match record of 24, 42, and six. So the top 10 players in the world for the US last four rider cups in European soil, that's how bad it went. I love you included 06 because I can't tell you how many times 06 rider cup has come up on this podcast I think that I know that that That was tiger fill and furek were one two and three in the world, I think and I think maybe they won like two matches Between all of them at that point, but but definitely impacts that number. Yeah, at certain points like all right

If our top our guys ranked in the top 10 aren't winning matches, then like, what are we actually trying to figure out? You just got to go out and play some golf at a certain point. Yeah, it seems like a pretty easy equation to solve. Yeah. You just, hey, Dustin Johnson and Paris wins a matches and maybe you know, it'll be different. You've made the full convert to 15th love here pulling just your P&C rider cups there. That's, that's well done. That's my only, I'm not anti-American obviously,

but that's my only, that's my only, you know, negative US Ryder Pips that I have. There's probably more if you keep picking at that one, but yeah, I can do it. Like I said, I've only had this job for about 30 hours. That's right. There's still time. My number two is Jack's ridiculous consistency of the majors. So Jack has 73 top 10s in the

majors. 73 since the first masters was held in 34 that's 25 more than anyone else. Sam's knee is second with 48. So to put that perspective the following players have less than 25 top 10s in majors in their careers. Billy Casper, Vijay Singh, Lietra Vino, Hale Rwim. So basically it's Jack. Yeah, his top 10s are equivalent to Sam Snead plus Billy Casper. And I definitely don't wanna take away

from anything that Jack accomplished, but it is a symptom of a different era in that there just was not the same depth and he would probably tell you like, if I played an average, you know, if I played very average in a major, I may be fell out of the top 10. Yeah.

Yeah, I think it's like 36 for 40 in the 70s, finishing the top 10 in majors. Right, he had more wins than finishes outside the top 10. It's just insane. Yeah. I think you're gonna like my number one. So there's a player that is a fan favorite,

flashy, flamethrower, burned out quickly, and we've all been searching for a number of cents. And every once in a while, when I dip through numbers, I find an Anthony Kim, piece of gold. And there's a buddy I work with at Golf Channel who always texts him when I find it because he gets the biggest kick out of it. So over the last 40 years, there are more than 300 players with at least 10 rounds at the Masters. Okay. Four players

have gained 1.8 strokes or more per round on the field in that group over the last 40 years. Those players are Jordan Spieth, Tiger Woods, Phil Nicholson, and Anthony Kim. Oh my god. No, it just makes your hands... That day when he made that, it was a nine birdies or ten birdies, it was some unbelievable room. I think he made 11 birdies one year. Bill, you had him, it was 11. Yeah, I think it was 11. You're right.

He only shot like 63, I think, with it. He had a double or something like that. That's the one up. That's more reason to love the guy. Yeah, seriously. He might be the original Icarito. He flew too close to the sun. Yeah, I think he actually touched it. And melted back and came back to Earth, seriously. He might be the original Icarito. He flew too close to the sun. I think he actually touched it and Melted back and came back to earth man. We miss that guy. We're gonna do we're gonna figure something out on that front

We're trying so hard to get them on the podcast one of these days We're gonna just force our way in the door and get it done I'm not gonna promise but I have a good feeling. I'm gonna listen to the moment you tweeted I'm gonna My dad played golf for Oklahoma, so it got a little bit of a, you know, I've rooted for him really hard. When he came out, I mean, my two favorite players at that time, since I go seven, away to nine, Tiger and Anthony Kim.

Those are the guys I root for, so I love it. Every once in a while, I'll fall into like most wins before 26 since X and like, it begins at the bottom of the graphics. Don't break my heart like that. I don't need to, I don't need to, I'm gonna start pacing around the room here pretty shortly. I just love falling into the Finding AK on one of those lists every once in a while. Is there a player that you think doesn't get the respect they deserve, like in your opinion? We may have already, they might even be Tiger for all we've talked about him,

but is there anybody that sticks out to you? I think the guy who's at the top of the sport now, that kind of fixed that bill is Justin Thomas. Yeah. He spent the first to use it as career and joy to speed. I don't know if you've ever seen the photo of them, but the junior rider cop eating a hamburger, you know. Was that one in France?

I feel like I saw that a few years ago. Yeah. I think we've got a more touring on that photo like nine months ago. Okay, we get it. We're not showing it anymore. And the truth is, like, he's getting up in the shadow of him in record books too. You know, Thomas, if he were to one at Riviera, he would have been, it would have been just over the last 60 years guys to get to 10 wins at his age. Tiger, Jack, Speak, and JT.

So it would have just been Tiger, Jack, and JT, but Jordan did it right before him. He's always going to be associated with Jordan. And I think that lessons a little bit, kind of how we view what he's accomplished at such a young age. So he definitely fits that mold for me. Hmm, interesting. You must have had that one ready to go if he won and he didn't win, so you just had to jam that one in somewhere, huh? Yeah, I already did.

It took a lot of taking at Phoenix, so you've got to go back six decades and he was in contention there, so yeah. Do you have a most like most random stat you've ever pulled out of your ass? It's always kind of circumstantry and you know when something is happening and you figure out this guy's gonna be the first since Tiger or Jack or you know Phil or somebody like that but like a few weeks ago the camera champ was contending in Maui thing was Friday and so if you would have won that week I've got to look away ahead I don't Friday he's you can't win

the tournament that day but if it's some big note, it's going to take me a long time. You know, I got to look at find it a couple days in advance. So I wanted to find, all right, who's the last guy to win twice in this first 13 career starts? You're thinking, I was probably going to be tired, you know, maybe going further back, maybe it's Jack. And then you dig through it and you find out the last guy to do that is Robert Gomez. Oh my gosh. Yeah, exactly. So you assume you're going to come up with this, you know, big, you know, enormous historic name and it's Robert Gomez. Another one was from recently, DJ at Shinnocock, he played by four after the second round.

And so that Friday night, I'm thinking, all right, who's the last guy to lose a four shot, 36 hole lead in the US open? And you think, I mean, Arnold Palmer must have done it at one point or you know maybe Sam Sneen one of the times he was running up. No, it's Tom McNamara in 1908. Oh my god. So I love you. It's always kind of in the moment and like I said circumstantial, but you'll pluck out

some name and you're like, no, I didn't have no idea, you know, so that's, I mean last week I tweeted that, I was the name of the guy that won on the web.com tour. Oh, I was a heartily trainer. Yeah, Martin Trader, that was Puerto Rico. I'm sorry, Puerto Rico, yeah, he's great, great grandfather, and then at the college. Where did you find that? So the way that is total luck to come up with something like that Like we'll have in the show that are we're gonna do a Martin trainer career notes out of the highlight of his winning Puerto Rico

Really sorry, then I said web com tour Martin. I'm the oops a PGA tour win absolutely. I did not mean that But we're gonna do a graphic and career notes and so you're looking through like bio information on the PGA tour and you're like, oh yes, is dad played professional basketball in France? That's cool. We'll get that on the graphic. You want twice in the web.com tour last year and there's like a blurb somewhere in there. Great, great grandfather invented the cotton gin.

You're like, what? So it's really just kind of happenstance to come up with that. And like I said, you keep mining and digging and eventually you find some absurd notes like that. Wow. We're going to get a few more stats out of you than we're going to let you out of here. But I gave you three guys that I wanted to learn more about or something that I don't know about or the listeners might not know.

So tell me something about Rory that I don't know. So I don't think his accomplishments at his age have been celebrated enough. I know I've harte gone age and wins and stuff talking here today but I mean there's just so many guys who've done so many incredible things at such a young age recently that you know I don't think we've celebrated Rory enough the only guys before majors before the age of 26 in the last hundred years are Bobby Jones, Jack Deklas, Tiger Woods and Rory McElroy. That's what he did at that young of an age four majors before 26. I want to do a good and a bad. So that was the good. The bad, so Rory, he's been the top

six and scoring out of the PG and Sauron each of the last five years. But in that same span, his strengths can approach rank has dropped every year, with 12 to 23rd to 29th, 48th, 56th last season. So he's by no means a bad higher player, but I think that's just the testament to how remarkable his driving is. That's going to say. He's able to still be in a leech score with his iron plate diminishing here by year. Man, it's so refreshing to have you here talking to me. The last podcast we recorded, I had to answer questions as to whether or not Rory was dead.

That was the question that was asked. I had to say that Rory is leading the, so we're recording this before the end of Honda. This is gonna go up after Honda, but he's leading the tour in Stroke's gain total for the year and I had to convince the guys around me that that was a good thing somehow. So you're welcome to come back any time.

I'll back you up whenever you need it, man. So I mean, look, he's he's had a really accomplished career so far. This is the first time he's had four strength top five finishes. I know with Rory, the barometer is win or it's a failure sometimes. And I think that maybe he's a victim of his own success in that regard. That's what I was going to say. I wish I would have said this last week on the podcast was if Tigerids can come out with four straight top fives this year, think how excited we would have been about it. You know what I mean? They'd be blasting fireworks off the top of golf channel

at the top of every hour. Exactly. It's like, all right. Let's get excited about it. And I know why it feels frustrating. We just feel like Rory should have this gear that he can enter into and win tournaments and hasn't done it in recent years.

But I think, man, my rather, be in Rory's shoes right now than the next guy we're going to talk about. I was going to say, tell me something about Jordan's speed that I don't know. All right. I got another good and bad for him. I want to talk about how unbelievable the start of his master's career is. He's the only guy in the history of the masters with four top three finishes in his first five career starts. Jack didn't do it, Tiger didn't do it, Sarah's in lots of name, name a guy, they

didn't do it, he's the only one with four top threes through five starts. So through 20 career Masters rounds, Tiger had gained 37 strokes on the field collectively. That's total not per round. 37. Jordan has gained 65. Oh my God. Yeah. That is how unbelievable the beginning of his master's career has been. Well, I got tired of updating it because I could I always screwed the math up. But like his record against the field like was like 376 and four or something like that through three four years or something like he'd only been beat by a couple guys and in the span of four years, which is just absolute,

absolutely nuts. But I'm afraid to hear what the bad one is. So we all harp on his putting. I know in the last podcast, you listed the Putsy Mist that took on his second nine on Sunday at Mexico. And it was just a horror show. His putting is not good, but it's not his biggest issue. He's 116th in Sturks game putting. That's like you said, it's entering the Honda, but he's 116th in Strux game plotting, that's like you said, it's entering the Honda, but

he's 170 second in Strux game TD grade. When he won the open two years ago, he was second in Strux game approach. He's 113th right now. So that narrative, I think, I don't know if it's because we saw him make so many big puts in big moments when he was at the top of this game, but the narrative that it's his putting that's completely letting him down. Look, it's not good. And it's easy to clip together or string of plots that he's emotive about after they don't go in. But statistically speaking, it's his iron blade. It's dropped off more. Yeah, I mean, I was screaming it from the rooftops

back then that, you know, even that year that he let the masters get away. Everyone's like, his ball striking has been so bad. And he was like leading the field in Strokes Game approach for the week or something like that. It's like, I don't know if it Everyone's like, his ball striking has been so bad. And he was like leading the field and Strokes came to approach for the week or something like that. It's like, I don't know if it's because like we think he's some dominion of guys. I know. I just don't understand where that narrative comes from. Which by the way, you stay next to a person like he's he's solid six feet tall. Like he's not a tiny guy. So he's way bigger than Rory. Yeah. I don't know if that perception. He's into that or what it, but it's a desire in place so far this season that's let him down Yeah, I mean is he was one of the best ball strikers in the world. He just wasn't the super long bomber

Or he still isn't but now that ball striking has come crashing back to earth and on top of that I feel I don't know who's to say but he might be pressing a bit with the potter and there does appear to be issues there But yeah, if you don't get it on the green and get it close anyways, it's not going to matter much. Correct. All right, tell me something about Dustin Johnson, then maybe I don't know. So we all know he's amazing T-Degrean, but I think it's actually underappreciated how good he is. Last season, he played 15 tournaments where Strikes gained T-Degrean was measured all four routes.

He never ranked outside the top 25 in that statistic in an individual event. He never thought about it. Even his bad weeks T-Degrees, he was still gaining more than a shot per round on the field T-Degrees. I mean, that's unbelievable. If you're that consistent of the ball striker, I mean, he goes out there with his seagull ball striking and he's still better than the field. There's something I think about with Dustin more often than,

it honestly kind of changed my perception of him. I mean, I know we kind of view him as this robot and no emotion. And we all saw his fist pump after he won Mexico. It was almost like, what am I supposed to do here? Oh, I'm supposed to fist pump, that's right. And you kind of think he doesn't care. I remember when I was in Abu Dhabi.

He clearly had gotten an appearance fee to play in Abu Dhabi, and I was out following him and Rory. And I think maybe Fleetwood was with him. And they made the turn and I think he's on the first toll. I think it was their second nine. And he had like a very average chip. And he kind of is kind of near me and he just under his breath. He's like grunting under his breath.

And it was very like he was very upset about that chip that he had just hit. And he wasn't playing poorly, but I was just like, oh, maybe there is more to his grind than people really fully appreciate. And you look at his numbers, like you just mentioned, he doesn't bottom out. Like he doesn't, I forget where I heard this, that somewhat recently about how he doesn't miss cuts like he hasn't missed cuts in the

last however many cuts he's missing the last several years with with shock you I don't know where that number is but it's not he's not like this crazy high crazy low guy bombing gouge wild all over the place guys incredibly long incredibly accurate and so unbelievably skilled that it's like it's time for that to really start translating into majors. He has five mishcuts worldwide since the beginning of 2060. That's absurd. That's crazy. That span, he has 12 runs. And we again, Tiger has ruined what mishcuts mean.

You know what I mean? It's like he missed his, but my miss 15 or so in his career. So that, you know, that made that. Most of them are in the last couple of years. Exactly. It's an alien number the last couple of years. Exactly. It's an alien number that's, it's a will. Like I said, it mean, you know, distorted everything. Was there a good and bad with DJ or only good?

No, I've only had good. OK, good. And we've won the only only two guys in the last 35 years or so have led in a season in par 3, par 4, and par 5 scoring, which I think we could call that Nolfe's triple crown like the doing baseball. I like that. The only other guy to do that is Tyga and you did it twice. So even when you do a great DJ stat, you're working in that type of a tie. Yeah, it's like any other any TV show. Oh, Simpson's have already done that.

Yeah. We may have covered this one most historically underrated player. My favorite, I've got a from the men's side from the men's side, from the women's side. From the women's side, I think Bage the Harius is one of the most underrated athletes in history. All right. She won two Olympic gold medals in track and field and 10 LPGA majors. That's a sequel. She played in men's professional golf events in the 30s. I mean, this is so far before

a time. She was so beloved. She was up there in terms of popularity with like in her day in the 40s with, you know, the big Yankees at the time. Like, she was a star. And the fact that she won't, one of my, it's kind of gross, but she won a US Open, US Women's Open after beating cancer, wearing her colostum back. Oh my God. I, I, I encourage anybody anybody to read i'm a little by she's a text is here i'm from great state of texas but i love babes areius

her accomplishments on and off on the course and other sports are crazy she pitched in like minor league baseball games like it she she's an unbelievable story so i'm here to read up about her on the men's side i think body lock is a story one of the most underrated players. He won a PJ Tour event by 16 shots. And then there was essentially banned from the tour. Why? He was too good. Really? I got this conversation with with Brandal for years. I mean, we breed into it. And like this quotes from like Claude Harmon, who was the master's champion, unsolicited saying, yeah, basically Bobby Lott's been banned from the tour. And you know, there were

publicly, there were other reasons for it. I don't know all the specifics, but when the band was eventually lifted years later, Lott just shows not to play in the United States. And I think that if they had allowed him to play his career in the US and circumstances worked out differently, we would talk about him historically in a completely different way. Man, wow, you brought the heat today. I'll give you that. Thanks, man. I forget if I sent you, did I ask for five more fun ones?

Did you bring... I do have a few more fun ones. Yeah. A few more fun ones, I'll let you out of here. All right, Jason Day in 2015 was ridiculous and we didn't celebrate it enough at the time. He averaged 4.71 birdies per round. The only player with more per round in

a season last 30 years 2000 Tiger Woods. Oh my God. That's how good Jason Day was in 2015. Like he won the Canadian Open July through September won the Canadian Open on the PGA by 3 and then two playoff events by six and six shots. I mean he had an unbelievable year and of course he was player of the year and everything historically, we're going to look back and say, man, his peach is otherworldly. Tiger only beat that number one time. Yes. Correct. That, that, that, but anytime, anytime you could say that, yeah, Tiger only got it one time. He's like, whoa, okay, that is, that is special. All right, that's a good one.

Ricky's heartbreak, I wrote in my notes, Ricky's heartbreak index in the majors is astronomical. Since the first masters in 1934, only three players have more top fives in majors without a win than Ricky does. That sounds bad. I mean that he's gotten that close that often. And then you look at Lee Westwood. A guy's one of my favorite players for the last 20 years. He has the most top fives in the modern era of anyone without a win.

He has 11 top fives in majors and doesn't have a win. Just an unbelievable collection of, I mean, he was one of them was the US Open, it's Tory Pines, the Tiger one, and even recently, as recently as a few years ago, when Danny Willett won the Masters, he was right there after Jordan collapsed, just an unbelievable string of accomplishments in his career and got so close so often in majors and it's just never broken through. Yeah, and I've said it a million times on here. I hate when people make that out to be a bad thing in someone's career.

Like, they've been so close to having... It's not something that's how great you are. Yeah. I totally think that. I think that's the same thing with, I said heartbreak index, but that's a testament to how great Ricky is. Correct. The fact that he keeps putting himself in that position time after time.

Yep, all right, three more. OK, we've had a really unprecedented run of elite players winning majors. 28 straight major champions from ranked in the top 50, which is crazy. Wow. I mean, to put that perspective, from 09 to 0, it's 2011, right before that run started.

Half of the major winners were ranked outside the top 50. That was like Keegan Bradley, Darren Clark, that round of major champions, Y-E-Aing, of guys who were outside the top 50 of the world. We've had 28 straight. Like the lowest ranked major winner in that span, I think is Jimmy Walker, one of the PGA's in the 40s. But Jimmy had won like five times in the PGA

to earn in recent years when he done that. So, I mean, it's a really, I can always go to a major now thinking, man, we're really do for like, that's exactly, we got a group text and we're like, oh, this is this finally, we're do for Aaron badly to win this, that's twice a reference here and badly. But yeah, we're do for so and so to win a major, aren't we, this week? And it just keeps not happening, it's really, it's a reference here badly. But yeah, we're due for so and so to win a major aren't we this week?

And it just keeps not happening. It's really, it's a test. Especially when we've got three straight opportunities to someone to complete a grand slam, you know that it's gonna be, you know, I mean, Mal and Ari wasn't really a dud. I mean, he had played a leap goal for that one. Right, correct.

It's he's fun to watch too, but we're kind of doing for a a Ben Curtis. A Ben Curtis, yeah. Yeah. Todd Hamilton, somebody we're kind of doing for a Ben Curtis. A Ben Curtis. Yeah. A Todd Hamilton. Yes. Somebody we haven't had one of those in so long. We've been really fortunate for that.

Correct. All right. OK. Every year, for the last four years, I've picked Justin Rose to win the Masters. And because all his strengths point to doing it, He has the second-go stroke gained against the field and the master's the last five years. Only Jordan's speed has more. So I'm gonna do what I normally do

and going in Augusta, dig through all the numbers and I'm gonna land at Rose and Rory. The only guy who's been the top 10 to the last five years, and I'm just gonna be frustrated that that's when I come to the conclusion too, because I end up doing that every year going into a guest. It is time. I was beginning ready to say out loud like if I didn't lock in speed is my

pick. Now would be a good time to bail. I'm still not going to, but if I wasn't going to it's like I'm gonna pick Justin Rose and I remember he's ranked number one in the world and then like that's not that bouldiful call anymore, but no, not at all. Especially like he's sneaky is really consistent on the guest. I guess we don't put him in that same you know he wasn't in contention that crazy Sunday last year when Jordan won by a million he was tied for second fill so I don't know if maybe we just don't look at him in that way but his number is point to it. Yeah and my last one is gonna be Tiger Tiger like the last few weeks. Wouldn't have it any other way. All right so

You guys talked about and this is a point Brando was making and you dressed on the last podcast. His approach has been really conservative on par 4s and par 5s. The PGA Tour is a stat called percentage of distance covered by T-shirts. So basically, how much on par 4s and par 5s, how much of the hole are you taking out a play, you know, distance wise with your T-shirt. Tiger is 186 in that statistic. how much on part four is in part five's, how much of the hole are you taking out a play any, distance wise with your tee shot. Tigers 186 and that statistic. And the guys that are around him on that statistic

are like, Ryan, Gaines, guys with, with much slower club at speed, Tigers 35th and club at speed. And he's 186 in the percentage of distance covered in tee shot. So, I mean, he's playing back and trying to compete with the best part of his game. He's second strip skating approach this season. He was third last season.

There's reality based in that, you know, that theory that he's playing conservatively and it's, you know, leaving him with longer approaches than others. And even though he's doing that, he's so good with his irons, he's still second on the towards drivetrain approach. There you have it. I mean, that's, so I'm actually okay with it. I feel like for years, and I said this last week, like we've been yelling at him to put the driver away. And if he actually listens and gets on and plays well, I think that lowers his ceiling a little bit, of course.

But if he truly has not driven the ball great, I know he's actually, when he's pulled driver, he's actually driven it pretty well this year. But he's historically not a great driver of the ball. And we wanted to be in place. So you can hit irons on the green, make a ton of bars and sneak some birdies in there. Like he's going to be competitive playing like that. So absolutely.

And to that point, when he wanted to dislike, he was 23rd on 30 players in that percentage of distance. There you go. By two shots. Yeah. And the worst thing he could do is try to keep up with DJ and Rory and try to cut the same dog legs as they are I think he's he knows that I don't think he has that kind of pride or ego that goes with with the driver anymore

And I think that's kind of a big step he's taken last few years. So Completely agree awesome J Ray. Thank you a ton for all the background on everything you've done and for bringing the heat on the fun stats and Keep up the great work on Twitter. Is your Twitter account changing? What is your Twitter account? Just Justin Rageoff now. We took GC off and made it golf. All right, Justin Rageoff, I'm sure most people here are already following that. But if you're not, please follow that.

He is one of the best follows on Twitter. So Justin, thank you for taking the time for coming on and for all you do for the world of golf. Thank you brother, you too. Cheers. Give it a big club. Be the right club today. That's better than most.

How about it? That is better than most. Better than most. That is better than most. Better than most.