No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 364: Will Gray recaps the Shriners/KPMG Women's PGA

Episode Date: October 12, 2020

Martin Laird wins the Shriners, so we spend most of the show talking about Bryson's comments this week, as he tees it up for the the last time until the Masters. 48 inch drivers, the line on 13, technology/distance, etc., all covered extensively. We also discuss Matt Wolff's rise, Will Zalatoris' nearly tracking down special temporary membership, Sei Young Kim's dominant performance at the KPMG Women's PGA, Koepka's return, and a lot more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. I'm not in. That is better than most. Better than most. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast, Sully here. Most of the guys were up at Pinehurst this past week, not watching much golf. They were there for an event we were hosting. I'm in wedding quarantine mode.

I was not able to make the trip. So I tracked down Will Gray from the golf channel to recap this past week in golf. Start looking ahead, it's a lot of Bryce and stuff. I'm not gonna apologize because there is a lot to cover with him. He said a lot of things this week, did a lot of things this week, actually, we even talked about all the things

he did this week, berating a photographer shooting 62 and said he was healing it all day. He's the best in the worst and we're gonna talk a lot about that. I do want to give a shout out to a loyal listener and a real actual left-hander Josh Holman from the Lost Creek Golf Club in central Pennsylvania.

He mentioned that when Tron decides to go back to playing right-handed, he says, I know where that set of his clubs can go, which reminds us to bring up a few of the options you have for your clubs when they're being retired. We usually donate ours to the junior program here in Jacksonville Beach, the Jackson Beach Golf Association. We encourage you to find a similar local option if there is one. Or if you're looking at some new sticks from Callaway, you can actually trade them in for credit towards a new year.

So those use clubs populate the inventory at CallawayGolfPrayon.com. It's an amazing resource for a new full set or for filling in a gap in your bag or, you know, if you need it, some throwback options that you've always wanted to try. For all of you deal hunters out there until Monday at midnight central time, you can get up to 30% off with no code required at calawaygolfpre-owned.com. Take a look at the impressive inventory of use clubs at calawaygolfpre-owned.com. Take a look at the impressive inventory of use clubs at Calloway Golf pre-owned.com. Let's get to Wilgrey and let's recap an exciting week in golf.

All right, let's do a Ralph the Bat career earnings, Martin Laird. Including today? Yes. 18.2. Oh, it's 19.2, I think. It was 18 going into today, which I guess I thought that was kind of a lot, but then

he's been around a long time. But you had this one, right? You saw this coming? No, I mean, I'm just always ready. I've got my foot on the pedal here for career earnings. Well, I just meant for Martin Lair, like this week, you saw this coming. It was, he was trending in the right direction, of course. Listen, yeah, absolutely. All you need is he was trending in the right direction. Of course.

Listen, yeah, absolutely. All you need is just one top 65 and you're good to go. That's, that's all you need these days. Well, not only that, I, I'm sure I might have messed this up, but when it was a OWGR page, his only top 20 finishes in the last calendar two years since, you know, their counting points for him were an opposite field event leading into this. And he's a past champion of this event and has lost in a playoff in it in this event. I'm guessing that's why there's a couple, couple tickets floating out there on Twitter, especially from Souls Vanquish, about when he won like $18,000 tonight. I guess that's the only reason you could have picked Martin layered this week.

Potentially, I would, I would just love to know if for 18k, if you're hedging it all, once you watch him just absolutely throw up all over himself in those final two holes. But there is something we said for Martin Laird in Desert Golf. As you said, he's played well here before. He lives in Scottsdale. He's played well at the waste management before. So if you're looking for kind of a theme here, whenever you get him, you know, west of the Mississippi and in some erid conditions, you might have a shot. Really would have, that's information that would have been very handy as of last week. So yeah, yeah, look at the desert.

Yeah, after he wins. Okay, we have to talk about the whole bunker shot on number nine because the, can you set the scene for anyone that might have missed it? Uh, basically, it's a long part five. He hits a missile of a three wood that looks great. It's kind of similar to the shot that Sergio hit last week at the Sanderson that kind of bounced up and rolled to four feet for an eagle that won the tournament, except his plugged right in the face of the bunker. And he's standing with one foot in the bunker, one foot out. You really can't even

see the ball. That's how buried it is under the lip. It's one of those ones where he's going to take a full swing and you kind of expect that it's just going to pop out and drop back into the bunker and he's going to be scrambling for par. And all of a sudden, he gets it up over the lip. He's only 20 or 30 feet from the hole, but it just rolls right in. All of a sudden, a scrambling par turns into an Eagle 3 and it clearly felt like his day after that shot.

Yeah. And then when it had become, came very clear that it was his tournament to lose. It seemed like the nerves were getting to him a little bit understandably. I think it's fair to say the shot he hit on 17, you know, one shot lead and just blocks it so far right hits the cart path goes a mile right. The announcers are saying he'll be lucky to make four from there. Can you tell us about the up and down he made on 17? First of all, eminently relatable to that T shot.

The wavy fade off the cart path is absolutely in my wheelhouse. That's the one that when you're a fader and there was water left like that. There was only one way for that ball to go, honestly, under that much pressure, wind off the left. Like you don't want to aim in at the water. I wasn't surprised to see it go right, but that thing just was push right, going right off the cart path. And it would have been interesting to see if there were fans up there, you know, where that ball actually would have gone.

Yeah, that was not a kind shot, Tracer moment for Laird, but you're right. I mean, he ends up in this incredible spot where he's, he's got to go under a tree through the rough if he hits it too hard, it's going to roll into the water. They're talking once again on the, the GC telecast, They're talking about men, he'd be good to do four. He'd be good to make four from here. And all of a sudden, he hits a remarkable pitch shot, very simple or something, you might see over in Scotland and rolls it up to maybe 15 or 20 feet.

And for a guy who was struggling, that putt for part was a no doubt about it right in the heart. Yeah, a little nervy on 18. I thought with the chip and the approach shot and the t-shot really was, but drains the birdie putt on the second playoff hole. So happy for Martin Lair. That is something that's cool to see. But, man, Matthew Wolfe was 106th in the world when we came back and made the return to

golf. Now he was 18th coming into this week and obviously rising after a second place finish. I just didn't I didn't see this coming man. I've been kind of a little underwhelmed. I think with his, you know, other than the win he had, it's been kind of a slow start to his tour career, but it's easy to forget how young he is. But what do you make of what Wolf has done over the last, you know, six months or so, five months or so? Yeah, I think it's interesting coming out of that break, you always felt like you're gonna wanna see who does the break hurt? A guy that comes to mind is like Sun J.M.

who was red hot and just hasn't got and figured out since then, most of the case, he wasn't a lot of like all eight times a week for the break, but Matthew Wolf is on the other side of who's gonna use this break to really find it. And he has absolutely done that. It's funny that you look back now. One of the most pivotal tournaments of the year is going to turn out to be the Rocket

Mourage Classic. And that was one where it's Bryson and Matt Wolf, one, two, and Wolf actually had a three shot lead going into Sunday and didn't really play that great Bryson Blue the Doors off him. And you kind of wondered if is that going to be a flash in the pan or is that something he's going to be able to turn into sustained success. And clearly, it's been the latter. He was very impressive at Wingfoot. And this is a course where he played well last year, but he comes back and really validates it. Now that's three second place finishes

in his last 10 starts overall, two in a row. And as you mentioned, he's not going on the door of probably the top 15 in the world rankings. Well, yeah, it almost feels like he hasn't gotten a ton out of the good golf that he's played, right? I mean, second, you said the rocket mortgage. T4 at the PGA when he had a very legitimate chance to win that tournament coming down the stretch.

Second place, the US Open and then loses now in a playoff. I mean, obviously a ton of runner-up finishes and top five finishes and majors are going to shoot you up. World ranking lists and every list that matters, which brings me to the next question. I guess it would have been interesting to see what would have happened with him if the Ryder Cup was played in its current slot. Because a lot of this is coming on. The US Open was the week prior.

I don't know what they were planning to do with picks, really. I don't even remember what they were planning to do with picks, but looking ahead to next year, I mean, I thought I kind of felt a little bold in the spring. When I was saying more, Cal was going to be on the team. That obviously looks very, very apparent as of now, but his Wolfe rider cup next year, what would you bet as of right now is he on the team next year? I mean, right now, it's hard to imagine a 12 person US team that doesn't include him. It was just fun to watch him in the playoff.

And you know that Martin Lehr just feeling a little shaky and Austin Cook hasn't really been in the spot a ton. And Wolf is out there. He is revved up ready to go. Talking to his caddy, like it's a Tuesday practice round. And I just kept thinking, this is a guy that I want hitting a shot on the 17th hole against Justin Rose or Ian Polter or something like that. He entered this week 11th in the US points race.

Obviously a lot had to do with those two top five finishes in the majors, and he's been playing catch up because he's only been around for a little over a year, but you project it forward. And as you said, Colin Morecawa is absolutely gonna be there, but when you look at how far down you gotta go, you're gonna have a tough competition to make this 12-man roster,

but you have to think that you could very easily see a Moreicaa wolf pairing on Friday morning at Whistling Straits. And I think that if you're Captain Steve Stricker, you know, sign me up for that one right now, and I'll figure out the rest. Well, it's easy to get caught up, you know, with the Moricaa wolf, hovelin trio to just get caught up in whoever is, you know, coming off the hottest week to say they're, you know, they're playing the best blah, blah, blah.

But I honestly would have thought we would have seen this kind of consistency in performance from somebody like Hoveland, more so than Wolf. Is that fair to say? Yeah, I think so. I think it was pretty understandable given that Wolf was the first one through the door with the win. He has been the one who, at least until the break, he really kind of struggled to get his footing after that. And a lot of that is understandable because there's so much going on. And you have to remember, he's what two years younger than Morricawa.

I mean, we're splitting hairs at this point, but there is a difference between 21 and 23 when you're trying to wrap your head around being a PGA Tour superstar or at least close to it. And so yeah, I think that we're gonna look back at, obviously those three guys are going to be the core of a group we're going to talk about, like we talked about the class of 2011 with with speed and just and Thomas and so many of those guys, but clearly they are on an accelerated track. And you know, you throw in Havelin for the

heroes and you really expect to see all three of them at the Ryder Cup next year, which is remarkable given that, you know, we're what less than 18 months since that press conference at travelers where they all turn pro. Well, my personal, you know, Dustin Johnson can dug a basketball fact is that Wolf is supposed to still be in college. So I can't talk about Matt Wolf and not make that point at least. Maybe he could be on the Oklahoma State football team here and he could have a little DJ. You know, great athlete comparison. Oh, of course. Patrick Cannelley, what the hell happened there today? He shot a two over 73 on a course that he is. You know, I have a right. He's won twice and has

a runner up. Is that sound right? And was in the other way around. Okay. Yeah. He won once and lost twice, including last year in a playoff. It's a very short list since 1960, the the Torg Combs group put this out, of players to finish first or second, four straight years at the same event. And of course, Tiger, being Tiger has done it three different times, at three different courses. Jack did it at the masters in the 60s and then Tom Watson did it at the Nelson. And can't lay it was in that mix. He was sharing the lead with Martin Laird entering the final round, two shots clear of everyone else. He kind of felt like he was the guy to beat for sure.

And then he missed a three footer on the first hole, had to scramble to save Bogey on two. And that was about all she wrote. And yeah, it was absolutely surprising. He still finished T8. This is a result that's not going to seem that alarming next year when you're handicapping this event. But in real time, it was a bit shocking.

What do you make of this golf course? You know, I couldn't help but note, I think this cut was minus seven this event, but it in real time was a bit shocking. What do you make of this golf course? I couldn't help but note, I think this cut was minus seven this week, which I know that par is irrelevant, but I feel like I always enjoy watching this tournament. Maybe it's because it always ends in a playoff or I have some good, somewhat good risk reward holes coming down the stretch, but sometimes the really low scoring gets to me and I don't really enjoy watching it. But I have, I really enjoyed watching today and I feel like I've enjoyed this in past years. Is that fair to say? I think it's fair. It was certainly shocking. I think this is the highest score relative

to par for a 36 hole cut in, you know, recent tour history. Part of that, you have to throw an asterisk in because now they're going top 65 and ties instead of top 70 ties Like they have been in years past but still it's amazing to think you shoot 68 68 and you you're slamming your trunk. I mean that's credibly hard to to wrap your head around and there's a lot of guys Jason Duffner I know it shot that exact score and he went home a lot of guys you figure you shoot 4 5 600 par through two rounds on a par 71 track and you're going to be fine and you're still playing for a paycheck. I will say this is my my barometer is you know, do you have a couple of memorable holes?

And I don't really know that this reaches that standard for me in terms of you know two weeks from now Can I tell you one of the holes at TPC Summerland besides you know 17 is a par three with some water? Okay, so I don't have this one super high on my list, but I will say, as you pointed out, from a drama perspective, it somehow or another continues to deliver playoffs more than it probably should, including last year was a good one with Cantlay and Kevin Nau,

and this certainly proved to be at least a very interesting final, 60 or 90 minutes to watch coming down the stretch. Yeah, I don't think they're pulling eyeballs away from NFL. And my favorite are the people that follow us for golf takes. And they're like, stop tweeting about golf. Football's on. It's like, man, what do you think you're going to get out of this? Like, I'm watching.

So I don't want to be watching this. I don't always necessarily want to be watching this, but I kind of feel like I have to. Am I just not supposed to talk about it? But yeah, it's a tough, they were up against a lot. We'll get into some KPMG stuff here. They're up against a whole hell of a lot going on today. Yeah, but that's also, you know, part of the deal when you're playing 45 events out of the year and you're going to have weeks like this where, you know, pandemic or non-pandemic,

you're going to be running up against some other big events and that happens today. But I still think that that, you know, you're clearly at this point, you're serving the core golf audience. And I think from a viewer perspective and from an entertainment perspective, you know, it was fun to watch. And as I said, you know, we can make jokes about, you know, the wipe fade from from layered on the 71st hole, but I think that there was a sense that was pretty relatable to that, to see, you know, this is a guy who was one three times before in the PGA tour. He's not a scrub and he did struggle with that, coming down the stretch on 17 and 18, trying to deal with the pressure,

getting your first win in seven years and getting it across the finish line. I thought that was kind of interesting to watch. Yeah, it was good TV and also a real sneaky, not sneaky, I guess it's gotten full on attention here for Will's Allataurus. I think he needed a two-way tie for fifth or better to get special temporary membership,

and he finishes in a three-way tie for fifth. Like, it's comical how hard it has been for this guy to get on the PGA tour. Yeah, but I think right now we're just talking about semantics. I have to double check the numbers. I think he's like three or four points short of special temporary status, which, you know,

if you try and explain that status to anyone, even the 95th percentile of golf in, it's too long with conversation to figure it out. Just, you're deep in the PGA tour rulebook at this point, but the fact of the matter is, he's basically already played his last Cornfairy event for the foreseeable future. That, you know, he's only, this was the first event that he actually had to use one of his seven sponsor exemptions. Once he basically makes a cut from here on out over the next five or six events, he's going to have STM and then he's got unlimited sponsor exemptions for the rest of the season.

And clearly he has such a head start right now with, I believe, what three top tens already in the wraparound season, including a US open, which had some extra points that he's going to be able to equal whatever the top 125 is for this season. He's probably not without a win. He's not going to be able to be in the playoffs in August next year, but when you're looking at, you know, am I going to have PJ Tour status? Am I going to have a card for the 2021-22 season that starts in 11 months or whatever? He's going to be there. And I do think an interesting, you know, storyline to watch over the next few weeks as he continues to play is that top 50 in the world.

Because if he gets top 50 in the world rankings at the end of this year, that gets him into next year's Masters in April, regardless of if he has PJ tour status or not. So that's definitely going to be a big incentive for him continuing down the stretch here over these next few weeks. He's not sneaking up on anyone, but just like so people are clear. And I know this is something we talked about with the the data golf guys. I think we did. At least I've always noted on their website just how highly they have him ranked even as a cornferry tour player. And looking at it now, I'm assuming this doesn't count this week even. They have him as the 29th best player in the world.

And he has one of the largest deltas between their rank and his official World Golf ranking, which I think was 71 going into this week. And so he might be, and he's going to get the starts, as you just mentioned, and he's, you know, every time you get it finished in the top 10 on the PGA tour, and you don't have status, you can get in the next week, as long as it's not an invitational. So I don't think you can get in Zozo or the CJ Cup,

but he'll be in, is it permuda? I think that he now gets, but he might otherwise have been the biggest victim of the mega wrap around season. And the fact that no one is graduating from the corn fairy toward the PGA tour this season, is that fair to say? Oh, absolutely.

I think that he's definitely the guy, you know, what, last week at Sanderson, he missed the cut and that's the first time since the break that he's finished outside the top 20 at any golf course. I mean, just just showing up 10, 12, 14 straight weeks on, you know, some courses are going to be hard and fast, some are going to be soft and it's, you know, a wide spectrum when you're talking about even just wing foot to Puntikana, to Summerland, you need a lot of different shots to be able to contend on each of those golf courses weekend and week out and he's figured it out. But yeah, I think that he was absolutely the guy that you looked at and you're like,

he's basically been put in a one year penalty box and he's not going to be able to get up outside of, you know, the tour had offered some limited availability to the top corn fairy guys in terms of getting into events like Puntigana or like Bermuda, but now clearly because of his fast start, because he had a timely top 10 finish at the US Open, it looks like he's going to break through and nature finds a way. And he's definitely found a way. It seems to basically turn him into a de facto PGA tour player this year, even though he's probably not going to have the PGA tour card in his wallet until next year.

What do you think of, is the route to getting on the PGA tour a bit too difficult for some of these top players? Does it feel like the tour is eating its young in a way? Potentially, I think that the tour is a member-driven organization, and there's some incentive to protect, you know, protect might be a strong word, but to make sure that the guys that make it through, that have made it through that gauntlet before, that they have a little bit of margin for error. And, you know, we talked about 7 under was the cut this week at Somalin. Well, 6 under was the cut at Orange County National for the Corn Ferry events.

You could shoot another, you know, 68, 69, and you're going home for the Miss Cut at the Corn Ferry event. So it doesn't necessarily get a ton easier when you drop down a level and clearly Zalatoris is displaying the inverse by taking a great Corn Ferry game and making it into a great PGA tour game. But yeah, it's hard because personally, as a fan, I love the drama of Q-School and give me one week a year that I can circle eight months in advance and know that if I have my A game during this specific week on that course I'm gonna get a PGA tour card and even if you have to limit that to five PGA tour cards or something like that

I would love to see that introduced as something down the line but you know the tour has created this huge structure that you know they've got from the ground up when you include Latino America and the McKenzie and all the way through the Corn Ferry. They have created this system that they've subsidized to create the pathway to the PGA tour. So clearly it works for them and it's certainly something where once you're there, you've got some staying power more often than not. I think there's got to figure something out with, and this may be a separate conversation,

but early on in the season, you can be a really high up on the FedEx couple list and not making it in the tournaments. You can be top 10 in the FedEx cup, and if you don't, you can get bumped out of tournaments once the big guys come back. Corey Conner's in Matt Everett in the last, I mean Conner's, you know, was the Monday qualifier, but he was, he was like 60th or something in the FedEx cup. And he just, he had the wrong status and couldn't get in. I will say, I think it's interesting.

Now you add, you know, this week's event, you've got Sergio last week, you've got Hudson Swofford Stewart sink. You've had, you know, take the US Open Out because I don't feel like that counts. But all four of the early season events have gone to veterans who have, you know, gotten redemptive victories, guys who have broken multiple year victory droughts and they've gotten it done. And I think that there is something we said that you don't have this young fresh blood coming up from the corn fairy tour. You don't have 25 or 50 guys that just got their cards and they're chomping at the bit at some of these these fall events that essentially offer a three-year exemption and I

think that maybe in an ordinary world we might have seen someone of that Elk or or a Will's Allataurus type player come up and snatch one of these first four events and instead because it's a situation where hey if you had a card last year you at least got some status this year I don't because it's a situation where, hey, if you had a card last year, you've at least got some status this year, I don't think it's a surprise that the biggest beneficiaries thus far have been the veterans. Yep. And a sneaky top 10 this week for Justin Saw,

another guy who's doing this on sponsor exemptions. He finished two shots out of the top 10 at Corralis a couple of weeks ago in Apute to Canada. So another guy to another young guy to keep an eye on for trying to cause way onto the PGA tour. A quick break here to check in with our friends at Woop gotten a lot of questions lately about what is our code, what's your Woop code?

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use the code, no laying up at woop.com, whop.com, sleep better, recover faster, and train smarter with woop today. Let's get back to Wil Gray. All right. Big deep breath now. Are we ready to, I've put it off as long as possible. I would have started the show with Bryson if I could have. Maybe I could have, but I feel like even in a week where, you know, he finished time for eighth, he finished five shots back. I feel like he was all I could, I could, I could really gather my, the majority of my interest coming in, coming into this weekend and whatnot. Where do you want to, where's the best place to start with Bryson?

I think let's let's start with the Fitzpatrick comments because I thought it was interesting just to have this back and forth where you know maybe this is part of the pandemic media setup, but I love this this you so rarely getting golf of hey player A player B said this exact thing about you. What is your reaction? And they basically, they're playing eight times on the part and they had this back and forth over the topic of distance and where things stand this year. Well, and shout out to whoever asked the question, I don't know who it is, I read the transcripts, but this is what I've been begging for with the Keppka thing,

is like after Keppka lobbed a steroid shot at Bryson, nobody asked him about it. And I know, can you speak to some of that? I know you're one of the guys that goes and goes to these press conferences and actually does ask questions. And I'm not one of them. So I don't, I don't, I don't enjoy lobbying shots at that. But I, I, does it feel like, I don't know, I feel like writers and stuff need to steer into this stuff more often say, Hey, this guy said this, what is your reaction? That's like WWE Formula One stuff. Yeah, yeah, potentially. As you know, I've certainly asked

Bracent a few questions this summer that have gotten from the United States. Yeah, I was, you know, he and I had a discussion in Detroit when he had his cameraman issue and basically he explained that the cameraman shouldn't have been in his face because it could damage his brand and that's something that we saw flare up again This week when he kind of started chirping it at someone as things were going south on Saturday, but you know personally I don't I don't mind it. I'm fine to jump on the grenade so to speak it if it's a fair question. I do think that there's some

You know intricacies to the media game in terms of balancing your long-term you know, intricacies to the media game in terms of balancing your long-term relationship with a player that you're going to see later this week, three weeks from now, that you might need for a story a month from now at the Masters of Things like that. And that, you know, it's easy to, you know, roll into the WWE mentality if you don't have to see the guy two or three weeks from now. But, yeah, I think that there is something we said for potentially just when you have a situation like this where you say listen, Matt Fitzpatrick is a player who has great standing in the global game. He's probably top 20 in the world. And so he

has a voice in the game and he thinks this very specific situation based on what you specifically are doing in the game and how it's affecting the game overall. And so I think that it was definitely a fair game to come at Bryson and Kudos to him for answering the game and how it's affecting the game overall. And so I think that it was definitely fair game to come at Bryson. And Kudos to him for answering the question and saying, hey, I appreciate the comment. And here's my retort. And here's how I think that maybe a few things a little different than Fitzpatrick does.

Well, let's unpack it a little bit. And I'm going to, I don't know who, I forget who asked the question to Fitzpatrick or where the original source of this was. But Fitzpatrick said, I'm biased because I'm not quite the longest, but in the US open at Wingfoot, fair played a price and he won and shot six under. But the fairways were tight as hell. I drove it brilliantly and actually played pretty well in imprennities despite missing the cut by one stroke. But I was miles behind. He's in the rough and miles up and he's hitting wedges from everywhere.

It just makes a bit of a mockery of the game. And he continues, I looked at ShotTracker yesterday to see some of the places Bryce and hit it, referring to D-Shambos first round in Vegas. He was cutting corners and when he's on, there's no point. It doesn't matter if I play my best. He's going to be 50 yards in front of me off the tee and the only thing where I can compete with him is putting, which is just ridiculous. But we're going to see people going harder and harder at it.

Look at the college kids coming out now. Matt Wolf, Victor Hovland, they just smashed it basically. Matt is a great player, but it seems to me the game is smashed it and get after it and play the next one from wherever it is. And then there was another question. I was asked how many says I really hope they do in my opinion. It's not a skill to hit the ball a long way. I could put on 40 pounds.

I could go see a biomechanist, I could gain 40 yards, that's actually a fact. I could put another two inches on my driver, but the skill is to hit the ball straight. That's the skill. He's just taking the skill out of it, in my opinion. I'm sure lots will disagree, but it's just daft. Lots of back there.

Some I agree with and some I don't. What's your reaction to? Putting Bryson's response to it aside or it fits Patrick's statements in general. What's your reaction? So overall, I think that there is some merit to his claim, but it does strike me just not necessarily in the wrong tone, but I just kind of bristle a little bit at this, especially the notion of like, well, I could go out and put on 40 pounds and I could hit the ball

super long. Well, yeah, and everyone could and that's what Bryson did and you know I am not a Bryson hitter by any stretch of the imagination and I think in this in this situation he deserves a lot of credit because he took he called a shot a year ago and he's he's using things that are available to any other player and if you want to gain 40 pounds and drink eight protein shakes a day and swing out of your shoes and chase 200 mile ball speed, anyone on tour could probably do it. And he has found a way to do it and limit the variance at a very high level. And that's what's really proved to make the difference. You know, I went back after reading these comments and I checked the scores from Wingfoot and Matt Fitzpatrick hit 14 out of 28 fairways

through the first two rounds. Bryson, 14 out of 28, they both hit the same number of fairways through two rounds at Wingfoot. So I know that Matt says he drove it brilliantly and the fairways are super tight. And yes, Bryson has an inherent advantage from the rough because he's hitting a wedge and other people are trying to hack out a six or seven iron.

But the fact is he's able to add multiple standard deviations or whatever and really not lose a ton in terms of control. I think that that is really what puts him over the top or at least has in the short term and I think that he does deserve a lot of credit for calling his shot, finding a way to break the mold and then going out and doing it without totally spinning his game in circles. How many times have we seen guys chase three or five yards extra in distance and absolutely lose their game or trying to change it, a fade into a draw or things like that.

And here, this is a guy that was top 15 or top 20 in the world had won four or five times already on the PGA tour and he said, I'm going to break it it all down and rebuild it and he managed to do that in a matter of months and not years. I think that there's a lot of elements to that that are really really respectable and deserve a hat tip. Now the original claim on Matt's part is this kind of changing the game and taking some of the skill out potentially but you know I think that everyone has that they're disposal what Bryson has been able to do but he's the one that went and did it and pulled it off.

Yeah, he mad had me until the end, really. Talking about the setup and how basically it was very favorable to Bryson and all that, I'm totally on board there. He really didn't make the point enough about technology, which I think the point is, and I am a million percent on board with everything you said about Bryson. The steps he's taken, everyone has the current opportunity

under the current rules to do exactly what Bryson is doing. Okay, and Bryson, I will say, I think, and I said this before, he's the only guy capable of doing this. Phil's kinda trying to do it, trying to hit bombs, do whatever, and it hasn't worked out well. And Bryson has hit it so unbelievably straight.

Again, the numbers aren't gonna check out for that as far as fairways hit, but just the natural dispersion patterns when you hit it, 380 yards, are gonna mean you're gonna miss some fairways. What he's been able to accomplish is incredible. I think there is a ton to the point where, and this is where Matt kind of lost me is like, the case is against the technology

that allows you to do this, right? If you had a spinny golf ball that was 300cc instead of 460, do I think Bryson would be taking this approach? Would the balance be there? No, and that's where I think he should have gone with this other than like, hey, I could gain 40 if I wanted to. And you know, the skill is to hit the ball straight. I think the overall thing that's been diminished is like, it's so much easier to hit it straight with the current setup in technology, which is why we are going to see. And I think we're

starting to see guys inching more and more towards this setup. I don't want to shift into this just yet with Rory, but we're seeing some Instagram stats coming out from Rory and some numbers that he's been posting. But it seems like the Fitzpatrick's comments honestly kind of set the debate and the discussion back a bit because it does come off as sour grapes to me. And to your point, I think Bryson handled it very well

with the answer that he gave and whatnot. But my beef is 1.0% with Bryson for everything that he's done, the approach he's taken. Look, is he like a tool with 99% of the things he does? Yes, that's a completely separate topic though. And like, yes, he has every right to do this and he should continue to exacerbate it. I want to see how far he can push this because I think he's truly going to be the one that starts the drive change in the game.

Yeah, I think when you talk about the equipment stuff, I tend to agree. That's kind of where it's more eye popping for me in a negative way. When I hear him talk after the first round, I think it was the Series X, MpJ Torque-Eyes Ashton. What's the longest club you hit in to a green? He said, I hit a six iron, but that was for my second shot on a six-hundred-yard par-five. I think the longest club he had in a par-three or par-four

was a nine iron, which he hit from like 205 and hit it to five feet. And I believe it was Jamie Weir, said it's on Twitter, where he said, you could almost see Bryson getting to a point where you don't need the long iron game that he's taken this area that is fundamental to the game and he's eliminated it entirely, that you could absolutely see him functioning

with a setup of, you know, fairway woods driver and like seven different wedges because you don't need like where in what world is Bryson hitting a 3, 4, 5 iron into anything? And, you know, if you're hitting your 6 iron 240 and your 9 iron, it's going 200, you can just kind of calibrate it from there and put in as many wedges as you want. And so I think that when you get to something like that,

and again, no fault to him, if those are the clubs he needs to hit the ball to five feet, go for it, more power to him. But I think that that's when you might reach a point where you really start, the phrase gets uttered a lot, but it's like, this is a game with which I'm not familiar. I feel like that might meet that test. Is it, I don't want to get into a gust of just yet because I think there's a lot to discuss there,

but do you think it's a possibility that he comes out with two different drivers? Sure, I mean, why not? I absolutely think that for as much as he's teasing it right now, he's gonna at least try with the 48 inch driver and that's the maximum allowed I believe it's an inch and a half or two inches longer than what he currently uses and you know I thought it was a little you know tongue in cheek where he came out this week And he said I don't want to talk about how far it's going. I don't want to ruffle any feathers. Okay got it

Yeah, but the statement was I will not disclose that right now I don't want to ruffle any feathers like that was actually you were not really paraphrasing there Those are the words he said He's not in front of you know a house judiciary committee or something We can just it could just go ahead and say what you're saying and not really kind of puff it up a little bit But yeah, I could I could see him doing a lot of things and he said after the round today He's basically yeah He's not playing the rest of the way until the masters and he's gonna first of all next week He's going back. He said I'm just gonna bulk up. I want to hit 245 on the scale for the first time ever

Which I think goes we can have a larger brace in discussion But I think that the the the issue with brace and might be I don't know There's any point at which he would ever stop like the guy just the he just won the US Open by six shots And there's a bit of this that's kind of the tiger comparison and everyone goes back to, well why didn't tiger just stop with the swing that he had in 2001? He won the Grand Slam and just keep playing that golf forever and he made changes from there and I feel like Bryson might fall into the same situation where it's never going to be enough.

It's never going to be fast enough far enough. He's never going to be big enough and that chase is going to continue. Part of that is what got him to this point, but I think part of that is gonna be something to continue to watch. But yeah, he said, I'm gonna go back and hit 2000 drivers over the next four weeks. I'm gonna try and get more swing speed, you know, tinker with the 48 inch driver and see what he can do. So all bets are off right now in terms of what he's gonna show up in terms of equipment

once he gets down Magnolia Lane. Yeah, and I felt like I got a little sense of, you know, see, see it doesn't work. We don't need a rollback, like look, he's in the woods this week, or he's like, look how many balls he lost on Saturday, like, oh, he's gonna break the game all of this, but it's like, oh my God, God, are you guys paying attention to what's happening right now?

First of all, as we're talking about, he only getting started and two like it's no one is saying This is gonna work and win every single week. We're saying that like to use some of of you know Fits his words and what I think at the point he was trying to make was like he is making a mockery of the current setup of the rules I don't think he's making a mockery of the game. The mockery of the game comes from the fact that they have not done anything in reality to rein in the incredible distance that the ball has been going for the last 10 to 20 years. And it's gonna take someone like Bryson

to really get it to the next level of saying, like, all right, does Bryson need to chip it well, hit great approach shots and put it well, add Augusta to win it? Yes, but you know what also helps is if you have wedges into almost every single hole and you're hitting nine irons in a number two. And if you get it to the downslope on 15, again, we're talking about numbers that, you know, and again, to his point, and another quote he has about the 48 and striver, you know, in what he's going to be doing, he says, I'll be home testing shafts and driver heads trying to get the exact right combo for the 48 inch driver.

I will say I've already tested it. There are speed improvements, speed gains, and it's exciting. It really is something crazy that I never thought was even possible. The numbers that it's producing are staggering way more than what I'm doing right now. So if I can get it down and get the mishits working correctly, I feel like I can easily put that in play at Augusta. It's a I feel like I can easily put that in play at Augusta. It's a golf course. I can definitely put that in play.

There are some golf courses at the 48 inch drivers not going to work at so I can see myself using different drivers for different weeks for sure. It's like, okay, that statement right there, if we hadn't seen any of this so far, can come off as kind of like, okay, all right buddy, we'll believe you when you see it. We've seen it, all right man, we saw Wingfoot,

we saw Rocket Mortgage, we've seen what happened at Schwab, the line he was taking on that, and if he's truly saying that the gains are really there and that he's saying it's having a higher apex, which means the trees on 13 are gonna be more coverable. He says it looks like I'm missile coming off the face, like how is this isn't sending alarm bells at the regulatory bodies?

I've talked enough about this. What is your stance on this? Tell me, and feel free to just take the polar opposite view if you want to just for sport on this, so what needs to happen with technology? This is something where I feel like you can, I agree with you, you point to it and you say clearly there's something that needs to be done

about equipment technology, what have you. And then I think when you follow it up is when you run into issues in terms of, all right, so what should be done and what should it be? Is it rolling back the ball? What does that mean? Are you going to have a tour ball and then you have an amateur ball? I don't know. I think that if you're playing a ball at 70% or 80% capacity, well, Bryson's still going

to be for standard deviations ahead of Zach Johnson. And so now what have we really accomplished, other than just, you know, changing the numbers on the scorecard like you changed par. But so I think it's a very nuanced topic, and I think that it's one that to your point is the result of 10, 15, 20 years of, you know,

something where they just were willing to look the other way, maybe a bit strong, but I think that it didn't become this boiling topic as it has over the last couple of years. I think that it took with the anchoring band, it took a couple of guys winning majors for them to make substantive changes. And I think that maybe you'll see something similar to that given what Bryson and some other guys are going to do. If, as you said, Rory starts leaning into the trackman and we've seen Phil do it. And maybe this is just the start of a groundswell movement. But I think that when you're talking about Bryson and Augusta,

I go back to what Fitzpatrick said. And the part that really rang true for me is say what you will about everyone could have done it. But the fact of the matter is the Bryson, as currently constructed, when he is on, he's almost untouched. Like there's only going to be three or four, maybe five guys in any field that could potentially hang with him and that's what we saw at Wingfoot. And, you know, you go back to Detroit that yes, he led the field in Stroke's Gain T-Degrean, but he also led in Stroke's Gain Pudding and he did have that all around

in Stroke's game T-Degrean, but he also led in Stroke's game putting. And he did have that all around a game at Wingfoot. And so I think that when he's clicking, he's going to be really hard to stop. And as you start to look to Augusta National, as you mentioned, he's going to be high variance. That's what caught him up in the third round in Vegas. He made a couple of early double bogies and that was about it. But you think about Augusta National. I mean, Tiger was spraying it off the tee everywhere last year and won the tournament. Bubba, high variance, you know, when I think of high variance, his

name pops very quickly to mind. He's won twice there recently. So of all the courses, you feel like a gust is the place where you could get away with spraying a drive 60 or 50 yards right or left given the hole in the situation, you can still get away with it. So yeah, I think that it's going to be a lot of green lights for Bryson and a lot of trajectories and shot traces that we've never seen before there. Well, I was listening to Jordan Speeth on the golf subpar podcast and he mentioned that like Bryson's landing zone on number nine at Augusta is going to be between the scoreboard on one by the entrance and basically where the buy hole used to be

or was scheduled to be when Alistair McKenzie designed the whole, the big area left of 18 where there's just a big grassy area. Like his fairway is legitimately like a thousand yards wide, maybe like 600 yards wide on nine for the line he's gonna take. And again, like we haven't even seen what he's gonna be capable of.

And I kind of somewhat cheeky, but somewhat like posted on Twitter some images of just saying like I went and did like a tracing line of if he had a big high sweeping draw around the corner on 13 in the right wind, in the right conditions, blah, blah, blah, conceivably he could get within 100 yards of the green on 13.

And like, do I think that's the line he's gonna take? Or, you know, I know he's talked about blowing it into 14 fairway and all that stuff, but like, blah, blah had what 132 in when he hit like a push cut in 2014. Like, Bryson is gonna blow it past that if he wants to or if he wants, if he think that's worthwhile,

like, it is going to be absolutely nuts. Yeah, absolutely. And it's going to be one of, if not the biggest storylines, you mentioned how this week you felt like it was all bracing even though he finished eighth. And I feel like that's for maybe, except for a three or four week period around the PGA. Since the break, his bracelet has been the number one storyline in golf and for good reason.

And so yeah, I'm absolutely gonna be captivated to see what he does. I do think it's gonna be interesting to see how the course plays. All the talk we've heard so far, because very few people in the world have seen what a gust of national plays like in November, but everything we've heard is it's gonna be longer,

it's gonna be wetter, it's gonna be a little cooler. So potentially, he's not gonna be able to get it's going to be a little cooler. So potentially, you know, he's not going to be able to get quite as far on some of these as you might expect in terms of normal landing zones for April when it's a little bit warmer and the grasses are a little bit different, but, you know, even turning the page to next spring, you're going to absolutely have a lot of things

on the table that aren't there for the other, you know, 95 or 96 players in the field. Well, honestly, you say that, and it is a alarm bells for me for like bigger advantage, to Bryson, because he carries it the farthest. Cam champ hits it far, but he hits it way lower and relies a lot more on run out. And if the fairways are going to run out some and they haven't in many recent years, I don't remember when they started mowing the fairways back towards the tee to kind of limit distance, but it's not Zach Johnson in 2007 anymore

when it's firm and you're able to run it down there and keep up with some of these longer guys. Like, if it's soft, if it's wet, if even if it's a little cool, like, what, how it worked at Harding Park when it was cool, man, he was still bombin' it. It was still out there and he still had an advantage. And so I that I almost think that the softer it is the longer it plays and all that is going to be even even more of an advantage to him. I know, you know, for before wing foot, we kind of thought that setup wasn't going to be great for him. And I'm not falling for that again. Like this, it's it's jumping off the page for me as a I get the people, the reasons why people say he won't win and

how much more emphasis there is on the second shot on that golf course and, and the no greens books and all the, all the reasons why not. But man, just the, if he finishes outside the top 10, I'd be stunned because of how far down the fairway he's going to get. So, um, he also, some more quotes he had about Augusta. Of course he leads with, I don't want to give too much out. Uh, I feel like at Augusta, if you're in, if you're past three 20, if you're like, there's a lot of opportunities to have a wider open fairway for me. You look at 13, that's the most exciting hole for me. If it's not into the win, I feel like there's a tremendous advantage to be gained. Look at number 15,

even that's going to be a tremendous advantage. 17, even 18. If I'm able to clear those bunkers on the last, that would be pretty cool. So we'll see. I'm not exactly sure yet. He goes on to have a bunch of qualifiers about the conditions and all that stuff, but blah, blah, blah. But like, he's tipping his hand right there to say like, where I am able to hit it and the apex and maybe I'll get it at. I know there's a lot of people shutting me down on Twitter saying you can't get over those trees on 13.

I'm like, man, we saw a bubble do it. And this is going to be something even more of a launching pad. Yeah, I mean, they, the reporter spoke to him today, after in Vegas, after his round and kind of went through it. And he said, basically outside of the par three's, the only hole where his, his, you know, line or approach or whatever off the tee is going to be the same as it was last year. It's going to be number 10. He said, number 10, I'm hitting the same shot as I always do. Other than that, I'm absolutely

gonna be taking new lines, new trajectories, gonna be rewriting the book. And so, yeah, to your point a few minutes ago, we thought at Wingfoot, you know, narrow fairways firm, thick rough that that would do it, that didn't do it. Now you go to the other side and it's gonna be wide open and soft and you feel like, as you said, it's going to give him an advantage as well. I have a tough time concocting any sort of theoretical setup that would really mitigate the advantage to what he's able to do right now off the tee and into the greens. It's really going to come down to the one high variance round or the nine-hole stretch that we've seen so often, you know, guys like Rory have succumbed to, you know, you can have, you know, an eight-hole stretch where you're four or five over and that ends your masters. And double bogey lurks around every corner there and it's going to be lurking for him as well, even if he's 50 yards ahead of

everyone. But if he's going to be able to mitigate and limit those mistakes, it's going to be very hard not to see him at least contending. And I don't want to get too far down a distance wormhole here. I feel like I've made the case a million times, but I still get people asking questions like I don't understand what the big deal is with the ball going so far. And it's essentially for me as best as I can sum it up in that it's become just too, too emphasized of a part of the game. And it's become too easy to hit it long and straight

because of the current technology. And I have no doubt, as I mentioned earlier, with a spinnier golf ball and a much smaller driver head, there would not be this. Bryson would have made a cost-benefit analysis to try to figure out how to be most efficient and get the ball in the hole. And this is not what he would have landed on.

And there could have been changes made in the past to have prevented it getting to this point where the mode, the best way to get a golf ball in a hole is to rear back and hit it as long and far as possible. Do I, would do a, does a long hitter have an advantage in every possible era of the game? Of course it does. The point is that the technology has made it too easy to hit it very long and straight. And again, we can unpack that for three more hours if we really wanted to, but that's where I think things need to be restored. Yeah, I feel like the argument of it's too easy to hit it long and straight is one that was probably made in 1995 and 1972.

And you can go back with different iterations of technology, but to your point, I feel like this, it just feels different. And maybe this is going to be the start of a tipping point that really does enact some fundamental change, but maybe in a world without Bryson, it still would have been, you know, you sort of seen these numbers start to creep up. Maybe you need someone, you know, shattering the ceiling like he is in real time to get things to change because otherwise we might have been just drifting along, you know, pretending that the problem was not as significant as it's become at the same time, you know, when you're talking about 99.98% of the golfers in the world don't have it as a

problem. It's just for the top, you know, 10 or 20 guys, but even now, Bryson is becoming an outlier of the outliers. And I think that's clearly what's making it a more significant, more germane topic. I'm just for the record pro bifurcation. I don't want to take big drivers out of, you know, every paying customers' hands as far as the people that pay to play golf.

You know, I don't think that's the answer. I think a lot of people get enjoyment out of the lot of this stuff. And I will never understand the argument. If like, well, you know, I'm an Amher G the answer. I think a lot of people get enjoyment out of a lot of this stuff And I will never understand the argument If like, well, you know, I'm an Amhert golf. I got to play the same equipment as the pros play one It's not the same to like you use a rangefinder pros don't use rangefinders like you don't follow the letter of the law to the T To as the same way that you know pros do it's's just this, I don't know, the people will bend over backwards to come up with these crazy reason, like oh, we gotta play it more trees.

We gotta grow the rough up. We gotta make fairways even narrower. We gotta lower the T boxes. We gotta do all the things that people will suggest that should happen before just saying, like hey, let's just fix the equipment. Like the equipment companies are the ones that are benefiting, I guess, that people

are bending over backwards to protect them. I just don't understand it. Yeah. I mean, I think to your point that, yes, you know, pros are playing with prototypes and very different clubs than we're used to, but how clubs are marketed to amateurs is, you're going to use the club that, this is the club that Bryson won the US Open with, put it in your bag for X99. And so I think that that has become such a focal point of the equipment industry in golf. And I think that that is difficult to take away.

And that even if you do have a bifurcation situation of the pros are playing this ball, that there are some people that say, hey, I want to play what Dustin Johnson's playing. I want to play the game like Rory does. I want to stand on this tee where he did I want to play the game like Rory does. I want to stand on this tee where he did two weeks ago and try and hit those same shots. And then now we're getting really deep in the rabbit hole,

but you get into elite amateur competition, like the state golf associations and the mid-AM and things like that, what equipment do you use there versus your men's club championship and things like that? Where is the line in the sand going to be between, hey, these are events where you use pro equipment, and this is where you can use the juice ball and things like that. Not to play too much devil's advocate,

but it's a lot to unpack. It's complicated, and I think it now, it's become especially complicated with how long this has gone on. I don't have the easy answer of like, let's do this, this, and this, and I don't have the easy answer. Like, let's do this, this, and this. And I don't have the answer to the questions you just asked there. And they're very valid questions. And like, is if the reason's like, you know what,

you know, we've screwed up so much to this point that we can't undo it, then maybe that's one of the best arguments for keeping things the way it is. More so than, you know, lowering T-Boxes and planning 200-foot trees or some of these things that people are talking about. But I didn't want to wait this long to start talking about a women's major, but it wasn't the most exciting viewing today.

I wouldn't say, but how much of the KPMG women's PGA did you get to watch? Yeah, I got to watch some. It's certainly a fun course. It was a little bit jarring to go from watching Brice and Play at TPC Summerland to then seeing in B part, feel like she's swinging 40 miles an hour at Aronamink and just just hitting every single fairway at and doing what she does. Obviously, you know, Se Young Kim was unstoppable on Sunday and I think that there's really something special about watching a player that just goes on a heater at the exact right time

where you just sit there and you're like, man, there was no way to beat her today. And that's what was the case at Aronomi, but I think certainly from a viewer perspective and just watching different golf shots being played and a lot of different challenges, off the tee, into the greens, around the greens. That ticked every single box for me this week. Yeah, and it was, you know, not to bring it right back to the distance to discussion we just had, but the contrast in terms of, you know, I don't think the women's game reaps the benefits of the of all of the equipment, you know, similar to Amiters, they're not getting the same compression that the top level tour pros are getting as far as, you know, the separation distance wise from the average player. They're just not getting those gains with the swing speeds that they have on the LPJ tour.

So the game looks a lot more like I think golf should look like just in terms of the clubs that you have hitting the greens. Matt Wolfe hit a wedge into a par five today and you saw like Brook Henderson and Seyoon Kim and Anna Nordquist playing the 500 yard par or five ninth hole and none of them could get there and two despite hitting it, you know, Brook had a good drive. She couldn't get up there like the balance just seemed to be restored and how you had to chart yourself around that golf course, you know, you slopes making sure

you weren't behind certain slopes, how the ball rolled out with the level, you know, that they spin it at. It was like, it was amazing golf to watch in terms of that and what I think golf could and should look like. And I'm just, I'm so pumped that a lot of these events are heading to a lot of these great sites, you know, the KVG Women's BGA in particular. You know, they're going to land athletic club next year, congressional, the next year, Baltas Raw, which is just going to be, you know, courses that were used to seeing top men's championships at, but a totally different style of play that I think is, I really do think it's worth people's time and effort. In December, the US Women's Open has a great opportunity to be one of the few things

that's on TV during that time period and not up against other men's events and all kinds of things when they go to a Champions Golf Club in Texas there for the US women's open. But say on Kim's final round 63 Absolutely flawless. Just hit it every spot she needed to and she was I mean she only won by five Which it felt like she won by more than that but MB Park was just knocking down the door It was really weird how the top four than that, but MB Park was just knocking down the door. It was really weird how the top four separated themselves from everyone else in the field. I think she was 10 shots clear of fifth place

by the end of the day. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there was definitely some separation, and then she separated from there. But yeah, to your point in the rotation, I agree. I think that it was a lot of fun to watch Aronomake this week. I think I saw Will Haske put this out on Twitter that it was just a couple years ago, the BMW was at

Arona make. And this golf course looked nothing like that because they got absolutely deluge by rain that week. And it was a Monday finish, I think, with Keegan and Justin Rose. And so it was great to see this course kind of play how it's designed to play. I'm a Donald Ross Homer. And so I really loved enjoying it. I think it was Ann Van Dam that hit this 50 or 60-yard chip shot where she played it up this huge slope behind the grain and rolled it back to about six inches and some of the imagination that you were able to see this week was just really fun to watch from a viewing perspective. But yeah, it seemed like with six or seven holes to go that NB might be chasing down

Say Young Kim. It's amazing to think that this is her first major, given how accomplished she has been on the LPGA and on the global game. She's won a bunch of times on the LPGA tour. She won the tour championship last year, the CME group. And so she is absolutely accomplished, but she picked a great day to have a great day. And as a result, as you said,

it's a five shot win that feels like it should have been more. Yeah. And to that exact point, I was at that BMW championship in the grand. It was extremely different conditions, but like if you, if you just put, I would love for somebody to just make a highlight tape as if they're playing the same golf course right now, you know, all right, let's cut over at Keegan Bradley one. Let's cut over to Keegan Bradley, his shot, and then cutting over to say on Kim's shot. And just like watch the difference in how those golf balls played in terms of guys blowing it over bunkers. And just I played aeronomic before the BMW. It's like, man, I can't wait to watch the pros play. So this would be so cool. And was out there that week. And then

it was like, actually, you know what, this isn't that cool because these fairways are too wide for these guys because, you know, they're bombing it over all the bunkers. There's no real risk in the tee shots. It's driver wedge and the scores were crazy, crazy low. And this, this week it was like, yeah, there were eight players under par for the entire field and they didn't even play it that long. So I know it's, it's a lot to ask for people to, to watch some, you know, with all the other

sports going on. But hopefully people were able to tune in and see some of that because it is, it's a lot to ask for people to watch some, you know, with all the other sports going on, but hopefully people were able to tune in and see some of that, because it is, it's a championship we've been able to attend the last couple of years, and, you know, we've kind of been able to see it up close and personal. So it might be, I might be a little biased and tied to this event, but I really have enjoyed watching this over the last couple of years.

So big money event too for the women. I mean, it's 645K for say on Kim, it's one of the true big money events up there and Jennifer Cup Show with a sneaky T7 after she had a second round 65 and then have you watched any this? I'm gonna mess up her last name Bianca Do you know how to say last name? I'm gonna let you hang on it there Packed in on I'm not sure I'm gonna get it, I promise. Yeah. She's got some major swing speeds.

I don't know if she's got like, Bryson level separation in terms of distance, but it's gonna be very interesting to follow her career. She finished high for ninth. Yeah, absolutely. I think she shot 77 in the opening round or something like that. I mean, it was 77.65, first two days. Yeah, that catches my eye.

Anytime you do that on a major at a level like this, that is something to tuck away for six months, 12 months down the line because that is really a big sign of what's to come. Tiro Hatton wins the BMW PGA championship. You know my first move, I got to get a little dig in on this. He got 64 first place points for that, for the official World Golf rankings with a strength of field of 258. It would have been 46 first place points without the points boost that comes with it being

a flagship event for the record, the Zozo, had a strength of field of 526 last year and that's what it took to get a first place. For first place to get 64 points out of that. Strength of field was 392 compared to 258 for BMW and Martin Laird only got 54 first place points for winning that one. I saw you poking the bear on Twitter over this, so I knew this was coming.

Okay, first of all, I will again play Devil's Advocate. It's a flagship event, so you only get this booster one. Yeah, but what does that mean? Okay, if flagship should be like, it shouldn't matter because it should be a great field and that's where you get all the points from, you shouldn't just get a big points boost for saying this is a flagship event. Right, but I think that if you go back historically over the last eight or 10 years, I don't think that the BMW has needed the boost.

I haven't done the deep dive on the strength of field, but I feel like more often than not, this tournament delivers a big field. And I think that this was something where the pandemic and the international travel and things like that especially heard it. And so in 2020, I don't have a problem with them getting a little bit of admittedly artificial boost. And you know, they had a good leader board. You had a lot of decorated champions.

Shane Lowry was up there through the first couple rounds. Teryl Hatten is a guy who now is in the top 10 in the world ranking. No one is accusing him of being, you know, a 400th ranked also ran that now is gonna play his way into majors. This is a guy who won already this year on the PGA tour. He's a very good player. He's played on the Ryder Cup and probably well next year. So I think that given all the circumstances

going on with the pandemic, going on with the fact that you only get one of these flagship boosters in the entire year. I didn't have a big deal about it, but I appreciate that you were staying true to your soapbox. Well, I got bad news for you because I did dive into this

and I think this was back during the quarantine we did a pod on the official World Golf rankings, but 2018, the field strength was 283, which is pretty much, not enough. Not enough. The spasphic doesn't help you much there. In 2019, I believe the field strength was 412, so a lot higher than 18.

But it's not necessarily. And that was with the date shift, right? I think last year was the first year it went the fall. I might have some of the years wrong a little bit. So it was a weak field in particular this year, but it's dipped down in the 200s in the past. But it's a, I just, with all the win-giding that happened when the PGA tour started back up their world ranking points.

I was waiting for this week, because I knew this was gonna happen, how the Shriners got a much better field than the BMW PGA, and they still got a ton of points over there. But congrats to Tural Hatten. I say that a somewhat tongue in cheek, but he has now moved up to 10th ranked player in the world

with that little boost that he got. And I know it's a big win for him. Yeah, I will say Tural Hatten is very quickly rising at my power rankings of guys I'm most interested in watching on live television, because he is one swing away from a Tomahawk or a flip the bird, whatever a Tirol hat and meltdown is world class in and of itself, and the fact that it doesn't take much

to go from zero to meltdown with him, makes him borderline must-see television, especially when he's around the league, like he was this week. I'm with you there. I enjoy watching him because he is theater, and it is every time he'll hit a shot, he'll say something in the commentary,

he'll say, well, we don't need to say anything. When Tyrell Hatton's playing, he'll do all the work for you. They do do that every single time, which I do get a little bit of a kick out of. What happened? I was kind of out on this where people talking about hoodies this week on Twitter, where people upset about, well, can you catch me up there?

So I feel like I might be dating myself here, but if David Letterman used to do a thing on his show where it was like, is this something? And I don't know, like, the hoodies debate, is this something? Maybe, you know, golf Twitter, it was a little light on the schedule this past week. There were apparently some people that were ruffled up about, you know, multiple people playing in hoodies, Tural Hatten wins. I think Daniel Kang was wearing one at some point this week at a run-and-make, but personally, listen, I don't care. I think you wear whatever you want. I'm of the mind that if you want to wear a t-shirt at a public course, you should be able

to go play. I went over to the cradle for the first time a month or so ago and played with people that were barefoot and I had a great time and it was awesome and I am very much of a mind that golf as a macro level sport needs to be more inclusive and you don't need to be drawing these lines of no you don't you get you get finger wagged away from the first T because you know your shorts are too short or you're wearing a hoodie or things like that. I couldn't, I couldn't even muster up any take that's any different than that. I was like, yeah, you can wear a hoodie on a golf course. Come on. Let's, that, that's open and shut case Johnson and move on from that one. And this is not the first time, like Tony Fino has worn it in multiple fans, Justin Thomas is worn it. This is not like, Tirol Hatten was not the first guy to show up with a hoodie. It's just happened to get some traction over the first few days.

Yeah, I thought we were past this. That's why I was like, wait, why is this, why is this a somewhat trending topic? But looking ahead, CJ Cup, it's sure with this week, we have a Brooks Keppka. I feel like you're the man on the Brooks Keppka beat. I feel like he gets forgotten about by a lot of people at times and I feel like you are just closely

following the Keppka story at all times. Perhaps, I don't know, I was, I happen to be at the window, I was out there with him when he came up lame, so to speak, that he was definitely more injured than he was, he was letting on, but yeah, I, I think that it's, it's going to be interesting to see, there was a part of me that thought when he didn't play the US open, I thought he might not make the masters and still there's going to be a lot of questions about his health going forward in the next few weeks and it seemed from talking to him and kind of reading between the lines because he was addressing it like a hockey player where he just would say, I have a lower body injury.

He wouldn't say if it's his knee, if it's his hip or what's going on, he's playing very coy at the time and then miss the playoffs, missed the US open after that. So, you know, I want to see if he's going to be able to get back to 100% or even close to it without potentially having a surgery or a procedure that might knock him out for a little bit longer. Clearly, the, you know, he had arthroscopic surgery in August of 2019 and whether that didn't do the trick or whether he re-aggravated it at the CJ Cup when he slipped on some wet cart path a couple months later. Whatever the case may be, he was far from 100% for the entirety of 2020 to this point.

He said that he has rested and rehabbed over the last few weeks. And personally, I would have loved for Bryce in the play. Next week, just so we can get Brooks and Bryce in the same field for the first time in a while. It seems like we're going to have to wait until the masters for that, but absolutely. You get the top five in the world all playing next week

at Shadow Creek, but Brooks Capka is a guy to circle for sure. Yeah. No, I feel like he is easy to kind of forget about, but I'm super keen to see what kind of, what his game looks like here. Not to say that he's bulked up to keep up with Bryson, but the Bryson, you know, kind of poking fun at him and whatnot, that period might not, might have, that should might have sailed, right?

It might be Bryson's world that we're living in. I know it's four majors to one, but he can't be feeling himself nearly as much as going into, going into this little stretch here. Phil's team. Yeah, absolutely. And I wonder, sorry, before we get to Phil, I wonder how much of that is going to affect nearly as much as going into this little stretch here. Phil's team. Yeah, absolutely. And I wonder, sorry, before we get to Phil, I wonder how much of that is going to affect Brooks

because it felt like so much of his aura is this self-belief of invincibility that he does have that swagger and deserves it. Now, how much is he, if he gets knocked down a peg or two while he's watching at home on the couch, how much of that is going to impact his ability to get back to that level that we saw? Yeah. Yeah. Phil's teed it up on the Champions Tour. Don't have much more than that. I know we kind of teased it earlier, but saw some numbers popping up from on Rory's Instagram that he's hitting 190 miles an hour ball speed.

I mean, there's no way to say it any other way, right? This is a this is price and driven, right? Potentially, I get to go back on the timeline. And so I feel like Phil might have been doing these whole, you know, bombs and halacia seed stuff before, or around the same time the price and started doing it. But I do agree that it's all of the same mindset of really trying to push the envelope and get whatever he can out of it. I will say, are you at all surprised

that Phil did not get his sponsor invite into Shadow Creek? I mean, it was two years ago that he and Tiger, you and Tiger effectively put Shadow Creek on the public map with the match. And now you've got six or eight sponsor invites. I know it's a tough race to get these sponsor invites for this event. I think Speed, Fowler, Justin Rose, Polter, I believe has one. So, it's not like they're going to also rants. But I thought it was interesting that the reason Phil's playing the champion's tours because he's not in the field at Shatter Creek this week. How do they feel the field this week?

I mean, I had what speed needed a sponsor exemption? Rose needed a sponsor exemption? Yeah, I think I got to go back and see, but I think it's like top 60 on the last year's FedEx Cup got in. And then they kind of go from there and, you know, usually this is one that they've got, you know, eight or ten spots for top You know Korean players or Asian tour players and I think they've they tweaked that a little bit this year because of the relocation But yeah, it was it was one that is not especially easy to get into

Huh, I can't imagine Phil not being able to get a sponsor exemption, but that is I had not had not put thought into that you're you're way closer to that beat than than I then I might be maybe He just wanted to go and you know beat up on the over 50 guys in North Carolina I don't know but I feel like knowing Phil I think he might have enjoyed a week in Vegas at Shadow Creek I've got a couple Bryson just quotes in here in my notes here that I wanted to tie in and one here relates to Rory but the way this quote starts I had to use which was you know Einstein was always called a crazy man or somebody that was defying what was actually possible until he started He relates to Rory, but the way this quote starts, I had to use, which was, you know, Einstein was always called a crazy man or somebody that was defying what was actually possible until

he started to prove or people started to prove his theories correct. Then everybody started to love them. There will always be people that when they're pushing down the road and they're trying to get ahead of the curve, there will be naysayers. But I think it's a tremendous compliment with Rory posting his speed numbers. It's super cool. And I can't wait to battle him with those numbers. It's going to be great for the game of golf and everybody in general, hopefully the next generation that comes up, it will be some inspiration too.

So he definitely thinks it's related to his speed bump. I feel like I'm going to, anytime you have a quote that starts with you know Einstein. Dot, dot, dot, I'm just immediately just gonna bristle and it goes back to Just just playing the entire PR game of like we're past this point like we're not talking about the one-linked irons We're not talking about you floating balls and Epsom salt anymore You can move on from you know the previous chapters of the Bryson anthology and just just talk about what's going on? In the current game and what you're doing to it. And that's one where I just kind of I roll my eyes a little bit when we go back

down that rabbit hole. He's just a content machine, man. I know you got some as we go to rap here. I know you got a little bit of news to share. Yeah, yeah, so there are some changes going on right now at Golf Channel and my role is changing. I'm excited for it. I'm switching

teams a little bit but staying in-house with NBC Sports and they're getting much deeper into the last few and they're coming a few months into the world of sports betting and I'm going to be a part of that where I'm going to continue to do golf content and things like that but I'm going to be managing all of the betting related content as it pertains to NBC Sports and I'm also adding Premier League Soc soccer and NASCAR to my portfolio. So I'll be brushing up on a couple of new sports. But I'm really excited to get involved in that and still stay very much within the golf sphere.

And clearly with the PGA Tour embracing sports betting with open arms, I think that it's absolutely a great time to get involved in this sector of things and see where it goes from here. But yeah, it's certainly been, it's been an interesting summer, but I'm excited to turn this next page and get into a new chapter. As we approach midnight here on Sunday night,

is this the last official thing you'll be doing for Golf Channel, this podcast? This is it, you got me. I've followed my last blog. I will say there's a chance that I will still pop up on the Golf Channel blog here and there, know once you get to Masters, we can things like that. It's all hands-on deck. But yeah, I think that if you're listening to this after about lunchtime on Monday, you can probably see the tweet that I've

sent. And now it's a get and I do think it's gonna be a great opportunity to get in with the folks at NBC Sports and you know continue to stay within the golf sphere that you and I have come to know and love and add a few more errors to my quiver. Well, I can't wait to see it. I'm excited to see you the next step for you, but keep staying on top of things on Twitter, man. You're the UNLavender, like the guys I go to for what's going on in the golf world.

You stay on the pulse better than I'm able to and whatnot. So thanks a ton for your time this evening and Sharon's mid-sides on pretty pretty decently decent weekend in golf aside from Pushing football aside for a little bit. This was this was a fun one So thanks for your time Will and look forward to see what's next for you Yeah, sorry always good to be with you. This was nice It distracted me from the deck press got injured. I didn't have to scroll through much of that in prepping for this

I haven't seen it yet. And I'm avoiding it at all costs. And the Lakers won the title as we were recording this, which I think we saw coming. There you go. Yeah, tough night for the LeBron haters. But yeah. LeBron haters, Bryson haters, they're, you know,

it's tough to be in the Hater industry these days. But yeah, it's always good to be with you. Enjoy your stuff. Keep it up. I'm sure I'll see you down the road. Alright, cheers brother. Give it a right club. Be the right club today. That is better than most. How about in?

That is better than most. Better than most. Better than most.