No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 411: Honda Classic Recap

Episode Date: March 22, 2021

We recap the week in golf, including Matt Jones' win, thoughts on PGA National, the courses on tour we'd most and least like to play, LPGA setups, the match play format, DJ dropping out of the Olympics, 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. Good evening. Hi, man, thanks for the coffee. You got it. We needed it after that. Strength of field ratings off the charts for this podcast. DJ Pies here. Hey, happy to be here. Late edition to the pod.

Brando Hagi style. We're coming in with so much flow. Let's play a quick little game. This may or may not be sponsored supported. So I'll skip the first part of the question because it'll be nearly impossible to get wrong. But that first part is what Putter Brand has ranked first in usage across all

tours since 2000. Obviously, the answer to that is Odyssey. That's not the question. That's not the question I'm here to ask. But can anyone tell me the percent usage, what the percent usage was for the most recent full year of measured reports for putters for Odyssey? What's the percentage? Like how much like market? Yeah. Tour share. Yeah. 65% I was going to be in the 40% range. Neil may have seen the copy earlier, but share. Yeah. 65%. I was gonna be in the 40% range. Neil may have seen the copy earlier, but 44.4%. I did not. I actually deleted it from the agenda here.

I know, I was scared. I didn't change the agenda. Correct answer. 44.4%. That's the percent of putters in play across the global tours that were Odyssey putters, what's been very visible in tour this year is the White Hot OG line, featuring the original White Hot insert in a variety

of the classic head shapes that have been refined with modern touches. There's the number one blade, the two ball, the Rossi, the seven, and the cult favorite, which is the number five. They're available classic steel shaft or Odyssey's stroke lab shaft, which is lighter, stiffer, and more stable this year.

Promoting better tempo and consistency in your stroke. Take a look at the Odyssey White Hot OG putters at OdysseyGolf.com. Do you guys have an OG White Hot? Like the... Oh yeah, which one? Which one? I don't remember the name of it.

I could pick it out of a lineup. Number four for me. Yeah. And Tron was number two. He played the number two forever. Do you have... I don't know if that's a good advertisement because they need like, have for like 40 puts

around in high school. It's one of the notoriously worse putters in Georgia. But no, they switched to the, whatever the sky like Futura was. It's a big satellite. Yeah, and that didn't go well. I brought it home there. Question was really expensive though.

Yeah, that going for it. Question for you guys. For all golfers out there, can we all learn something from how Matt Jones hits a golf ball? I think that's absolutely how he hits it or how fast he hits it. Like that's what I'm saying. Yeah.

How he stands up and just pulls the trigger so quickly. Because I'm back and forth on this honestly because he has such an awesome. He has such incredible natural ability, obviously, as a professional. Would this be a horrible thing for Amateurs or would this be a great thing for everyone to just stand up and hit it?

I think it'd be an unbelievably great thing for Amateurs. I think professionals are, you know, that's a different game we're talking about, but I always go back to, but they're good. You see what I'm getting at? Yeah, 100%. That's what I'm saying.

I think that, but for Amateurs, I think it just removes all the tension that builds up in your, in your pre-shout routine, right? I remember, was that when we went down and did the putting thing with Brad Faxon that was gonna be part of the US Open Doc, and he was talking a ton about even in putting, like making sure if you're gonna do an athletic move like imagine you know Don't stop from yeah, don't don't take off from a dead stop. No one's no one stands, you know

With two feet flat on the floor when they're going to try to don't go basketball, right? You got it you got to try to be in flow and he even said that with putting. And so I would extrapolate that out to the full swing for sure. I think that's when I'm swinging my best probably is when I'm doing the least over the ball and not looking like a statue ready for, okay, let's think about all these swing thoughts. Hopefully they all fire on time. Like a pilot. Yeah. Going through my log. That's what I feel like. Check. Check. highlight. Yeah, go through my law. That's what I feel like. Check. Check. It is someone who loves fast play and fast players. It makes me uncomfortable watching and play golf. Like I know it's coming. I'm, I think I'm ready for it, but having my

mind being so programmed watching golf, I'm surprised every time he pulls out. It's true. I, it's jarring. Oh my God. He's, oh, he said, now, did he mean it? But he does take, he takes a few seconds, he takes at least two practice swings behind the ball. But they're kind of those, you're so used to, or so conditioned by other golfers taking those almost like pre-warm-up swings behind the ball. And then they take, you know, then they do their whole like

waggle, waggle, waggle thing. And he just doesn't have any of that. And it's like, and there's no, there's no even like weight shift thing. It's just like spread the, you know, like he takes his stance and then he's back have any of that. And it's like, and there's no, there's no even like weight shift thing. It's just like spread the, you know, like he takes his stance and then he's back. It's unreal. And it's fun to watch.

So. It's almost like somebody hitting like soft toss, like batting practice, just like somebody just lobbing a little bite. Boom. Boom. And that's not, I don't know, that's not the biggest takeaway from this week.

The golf you played, listen, is it exciting when somebody runs away and hides like that? Not really. It's not, it's not the biggest takeaway from this week. The golf you played, listen, is it exciting when somebody runs away and hides like that? Not really, it's not dramatic, but is it at the same time just like incredibly impressive to watch a total and complete round of golf under the most pressure you can possibly have? Next to a guy who shot 79 in the final group, trying to close it out on shiny greens

on a difficult golf course with trouble everywhere. Yes, extreme hat tip to that. Matt Jones is kind of an interesting case. I came into today almost assuming in my head like, man, this guy's been around forever. He must just be super solid, never loses his card. Not really the case, you know? He's just kind of been like a very journeyman by definition almost, you know?

I think he's essentially been on tour. He's played at least 17 events. Usually it's mostly between 23 and 30 since 2008. And only finished in the top 50 that FedEx cup like twice. I mean, he's always kind of right on that 126, 127, 95, just in and out of the PGA tour and bouncing back and forth between tours. And it's just really, I don't know. It's, it's really interesting if you're able to really get fired up

about the margins and the guys who are just doing it every day and the guys who are putting in professional efforts. I don't know if that's everybody, but there's a small section of pro golf fans that really love to root for those guys. And by all accounts, a great guy, great family. It's cool to see him break through, seven years after the first one.

I saw the highlights from when he won the Vivant Houston Open. You know, it's crazy the 2014 Vivant Houston Open, which there'll no go look so much like shells. I know, it's wild. It's wild. So I feel like we watch, I watch a lot of golf, we watch a lot of golf more than the average, golfer out there.

I don't know a thing until today about Matt Jones. Who? Yeah. And I don't know. And I don't know. I don't know. I don't mean that as an insult. Now it's high.

I almost pose a question to you guys of like, it's tough when, when. Too many guys to keep track of that see answer. That is, right? It's not an exciting way that, whether it's a tour like how I Don't know it's just tough because it's like it hurts It probably hurts to tour a little bit when somebody that nobody has any idea who this guy is and they're they're like You know somebody get us the you know FedEx file on this guy quick man like what's you know

Can we you know they're they finally towards the end? It's like oh we won the Ozzy open a couple times and we got to pick with what's, you know, can we, you know, they're, they finally towards the end, it's like, oh, we won the, uh, Ozzy opened a couple times and we got to pick with the shark, you know, so I don't, I just would love to know a little bit more about him, I guess, before, I, but you're right, there's just too many guys. So I don't know, I don't really know where I'm going with that, but it's just, it's almost like a bummer. It's like, I, I wish I kind of, I've seen his name on the leaderboard the last, I don't know, three months, like this year has been playing well. And I still just haven't had any insight on it, I guess.

I think this will feed very well into the larger conversation we're going to have around this event and PJ tour events in general. And that it just comes down to the fact that the tour is structured around these 156 man field events and trying to get as many of those as possible. And like you're going to have like have like the depth of professional golf, we say it every single week, the depth is absolutely insane. Brandon Higgie was not in this event until Wednesday and he shows up and finishes in second place.

Like that's how good the guys waiting to get in these events are. So like you're gonna have time periods where even for somebody that watches as much golf as you do, we're like the guy who wins or the guy who finishes second with the guy, do you know a lot about Chase Seaford? No, I don't really either. I know a lot about Chase Seaford? No, we're not. I don't really either. I know a lot about Hege though.

He's a member of my Fred X Cup team. I said to Dej, he kind of got an early on some wireless IPOs, you know, posted a number early and that stock just skyrocketed for him. Like, yeah, well, in his 66, that would have been God. It's taken off since then.

Like, what a thrill for him, just all day hanging out at the course, watching himself climb the leaderboard. That's great stuff. And Shadow, we might not get back to him, but always love the bounce back rounds. You know, when he's playing great, and then 76 yesterday and to come back and do it on a Sunday,

that's always fun to see. 66 on Sunday. Both he and Aaron Weiser and the final group on Saturday, and just both kind of melted. Weiser at 75, he's got 76 76 and yeah, I came back and made himself a boatload of money and of course a lot of finance come points. Hey, you got a, you got a half of McKenzie Hughes this week.

He did on the anniversary. 76, 66 on the weekend for red and eight to not win to not win second place. I think the stuff that's when you talk about kind of the no name winners or no name contenders and stuff, I mean, I think you just got to point out the somewhat very obvious fact that two things can be true at the same time.

One, these underdog stories are awesome for really, really, really hardcore fans, even though I would put us in that bucket and would agree that I don't know a whole hell of a lot about match-ones either. But I think it's really great for them and their families and they obviously are hardworking for decades and decades and decades and they have an avenue

where it finally pays off. That's awesome. And on the flip side, man, this would be a hell of a lot easier if it was 64 guys to keep track of every week, rather than 250. Well, maybe that's, and maybe I should be looking in the mirror for us. Like maybe a, you know, Matt Jones or some other guys.

We'd love to hear him on the podcast. Yeah, like get, like, work, maybe work the 50 to 100 in the, and do a little research and who we think would be the most interesting guys in that, that frame. Because I, I think that is, like, I love learning about a guy that doesn't get a lot of press and then watching them break through.

I think that's what I was getting at earlier. Yeah, man, I wish I, I feel like this guy's interesting. Like we're talking about the way he hits the ball, seems like he's been around a while, I bet he's got a great story. I just don't know anything about it. It's amazing still after years and years and years of doing this, how often we still come across people

that are a total surprise in terms of like, whoa. Like I know Jason Bones was really entertaining. Like how did I fall golf for this long and not know it? And I don't know if Matt Jones is one of those guys or not seems like a great bloke, if you will. Top bloke. Top bloke. But yeah, it's just like,

you can only do so many of these pods. There's just so many of these dudes that like, some, I don't know, you, I think what makes it kind of tough. What makes it kind of tough too is when a guy like that doesn't have like one crazy off the charts skill. You know, like going back through his stats the last few years because I'm trying to figure out like, all right, how is this guy kind of just hung around in the margins of pro golf for so long?

It's like, nothing's flashy. Like, he doesn't do anything crazy. He just, well, he plays really fast. Yeah. Yeah, bring that, Johnson. He plays, you know, he keeps up the pace. But you know, yeah, bring Matt Johnson. He keeps up the pace. But you know what I mean? It's not like he hits it 400 yards.

It's not like he makes every putty looks at. He just kind of is like pretty solid through the book. And so I think it's easy for guys like that. I mean, Cameron Champ obviously has won a couple times, but without those really hot weeks, I mean, you still know who Cameron Champel is just because he hits it so far. You know what I mean?

Whereas he's kind of mostly toiled in obscurity, golf-wise, for a year or so now. And you know, like, what a huge takeaway from this week is just the consistent and crazy grind of pro golf that like 174 times he traveled to a tournament, he'd have and played and like stayed six nights in a hotel and then traveled home and then traveled in that. 174 times he did it in between wins. Well, I would add to that, I think there's an extra bit of interest for me. I find it fascinating, a journey meant from Australia, being so far from home,

like I don't know if he lives in the US anymore. I think you're not happy. Yeah, he went to school at Arizona State. He lives in Scottsdale, yeah. Well, okay, never mind that. I was gonna say, But I was gonna say, like, so, but a guy that comes over from Australia and then kinda has to, you know,

if you don't make it, like you stay, do you go back, like that's a whole other dynamic, I think that I find interesting. So. So I'm like, there's totally random, but fellow Australian Cameron Percy saw him at the players last year and like, oh, this is his first players.

I'm like, what? Isn't he like 43 or something like that? Like he's just been doing this forever and to not even make the players. Like you just must be so on the margin. That's maybe a better example of someone who's real. One foot in, one foot out kind of a vibe. Aaron Wise once held a six shot lead on Saturday afternoon.

And he finished in a tie for 13th. Looks like eight shots behind the eventual. So that's a, do the quick math on that one. Somebody does a mind that's 14 shots of, I think that's right, or is that azing or math? Something like that. He fell 14 shots from Saturday. I don't know how many puts he had today.

All of them. It was not that many. Honestly, his putty was actually very neutral for the day. It was a very bad foreput that he had. Yeah, three puts from inside a four feet on, I forget which hole that was. 10. On 10, that was tough to watch.

And they were ready with the graphic that showed the issues he had with putting at TPC Scottsdale, where he had a five putt and two foreputts. That's not a bad putting week. That's some demons that are going on there. I said to Dee, he's like a little bit of a no block Chuck no block situation going on. What you hate to see you hate to see. You know, if you find if he finds out like that's becoming a narrative, right? Like that's a self-fulfilling. But he put a growth this week is what I think they kind of hammered him a little

Yeah. He was 20th and strokes game putting this week. But that's I'm with you. Yeah. My point is almost the narrative is worse than yeah, then what like you're saying, well, he's like, you know, the stats show that it's not even that bad, but like once someone picks up that up as a story, almost like the way Tron's been with Morca was put, you know, like, what's worse, like the fact that everybody thinks you're a bad putter or being a bad putter? Yeah. But I think you can have, you can be a bad putter and have really good putting weeks. Sure.

Share a point. Like it, it, Morca is overall putting stats are not great, but at the concession he putt it fantastic. And why is that a good putting week still had a bit of issue? They did a great job though of showing the, I guess talking about explaining the green surfaces and how that was going to lead to some issues coming down the stretch and how Matt Jones told bones in the middle of the round. Like, yeah, these greens are getting pretty dicey. Like, it's just kind of gliding on top of them. And they were all over it too.

Like, man, I would not tell that to a podcast on this round. Like, I think learning what I've learned about mental golf, the last thing you should do is like hammer in negative thoughts like that. Say that out loud. I'm like, never say I don't want to. And be like, oh, I always hit it left on this whole.

Sure. Never say there and be like, I can never part of this whole blah, blah, blah. Matt Jones in the a tee and be like, oh, I always hit it left on this whole chair. Never stay there and be like, I can never part of this whole blah, blah, blah. And Matt Jones in the middle of the round says, like yeah, these greens are getting a little dice from then on cue, he missed like a three foot putt, but he didn't really bother too much. Yeah, how about that quote coming from the guy

who went on to win by five? Like, it's, you know, kudos to Matt Jones. The wise putting stuff is, I mean, it's very real. Like it's, you know, it's not a, this is just a narrative. He was, I think, a hundred and thirty second in putting in 1971, last year. And he's just, again, like a very weird career where he seems almost like a very, very, very off brand

version of Hideki, right? Or it's like, yeah, weeks where he makes putts, he's gonna be up there. Cause it's that bad when he doesn't, you know what I mean? I think he stands over putts and thinks about that moment when he won at AT&T and tried to kiss his girlfriend or whatever, and she wouldn't kiss him. Like, I think that's the,

it's the has to be what happened. It was the most, oh, it was the most awkward moment ever. It was tough. It was just like, it was extremely, so I, so I was creating a new narrative. The most cringey post-round celebration I can recall. And I think that's what he thinks about when he stands over putts.

That's what's so interesting about, you know, this number of guys that we're trying to keep track of here. It's like, Aaron Wise was, I don't know if he won the individual NCAA championship, or I think he was at least on the team that won, right? And, you know, tremendously accomplished player, a winner, all these different things. Sounds like he has kind of a cool backstory

and 100% solid. The one thing that if I was the broadcaster, the one thing that's like him and, you know, the equivalent of, he's actually really good buddies with Jordan's beef, was, oh yeah, remember when he tried to kiss his girlfriend? I totally rejected it. Yeah, you've only got to ruin your brain

for one or two things about a lot of these guys. So careful what you wish for about one. These guys wanted to know, have you no more about them? Make sure it's a good one. Well, maybe Aaron Wise wants to rewrite the narrative a little bit. Open invite, come on, let's talk about it.

Somebody tweeted on Saturday, like Aaron Wise and and his girlfriend, a Jeff of like two people kissing, like Aaron Wise and his girlfriend practicing kissing for the celebration tomorrow, maybe laugh. Jamie, he kind of had like, Aaron Wise had two or three Icaritos in this turn of it. Like, I flipped it on Saturday and yeah, I mean, he was up by six, flipped it back, he's trailing by four. He's called this the Icarito invitation ball. I mean, he was up by six, flipped it back, he's trailing by four. He's called this the Icarito invitation ball.

Just with like, he just saw balls flying. And they had, I will give the shout out to the tournament, whoever or the balls of the water counter. That and the just, they miked the ball. The mic was awesome. It was awesome. Just, I mean, just sound effects of balls getting, you know, splashing.

It was awesome. They should just change it to a toilet. Like I turned on golf channel this morning. And first thing I see is feel like, you know, rope, I guess you have rope hook one. I don't know what hole it was on. But it was like into the reads. It was like, you know, it was a Moses ball.

But it's still like the sound of the splash was outrageous. I was like, is that real? There's no way that's real. I always loved doing this. Aaron on the back nine this week, Aaron Wise did not shoot thirty two, or sorry did not shoot thirty three, thirty four, thirty five,

thirty six, thirty seven, or thirty eight. He did shoot thirty one, thirty two, thirty nine, forty one, which is sick. That's tough. How about the amount that NBC was all over JB Holmes today? And it didn't, JB didn't stick out today, especially on slow play, but bones got on him at one point. He was called deliberate, which we've established. You're only deliberate if you're playing well. You're just slow. If you're, if you're taking

a long time and not playing well, bones got on him for like, yeah, for as long as they're waiting for on the green for these guys to clear, I can't believe he hasn't pulled a club yet. And it seems like they were homeless, went out of their way to get after him on the pace of play stuff, which makes me, what makes me think that there's a lot of chatter out there. Yeah, the reputation precedes him, right? And what a juxtaposition playing with that joke. Yeah.

Somebody make a guess at JB Holmes World Ranking. He's been off 86. He's been in the wilderness since basically since Rive. I'm not looking. I would definitely say it's in the hundreds. 307. Holy shit. That's about 200 higher than I would have guessed. Yeah, well, he almost sounds like he's had some injuries. That's what they do.

Yeah, which I totally missed. You know, again, there's just so much to keep track of and so many players and stuff. I don't envy the broadcast for trying to keep track of all that stuff because there's, you know, we get on them for missing stuff or being repetitive on stuff. But I mean, there is a lot of guys to keep track of. And so, we get on them for missing stuff or being repetitive on stuff, but I mean, there is a lot of guys to keep track of.

And so, yeah, the whole shoulder surgery, or I don't know if he had surgery or just an injury, but can't practice, can't play. You just, you get laughed. So a couple things on, I have on JB Holmes one, I want to give Faraday a shout out because he had a great line. He said, it's always, you always want to shoot nine over on a par 70. Which I really spoke to. I feel that. And somebody who shot seven and nine over on a par 70. Which I really spoke to. I feel that.

He put somebody who shot seven and eight over on a par 70 this week. I really really feel that. You know, it's like, keep it in the 70s, Hell yes. You know, nobody needs to know. Nobody needs to know it was a par 70. And then I, you know, I struggled to watch JB Holmes less the pace of play stuff, but his, like personally, like his swing and his the way he hits the ball,

is like, it's almost like me looking in the mirror sometimes where you're like, man, I hope, like God, I know that's probably what my, like he doesn't look good, and I feel like that's how I kind of hit the ball, you know, like the, it's wipey, little bit. It's wipey, yeah, and it's like, but then also, like credit to him, like he, you know, when he's playing well, like that's a very controlled golf ball.

You know, he's like, he doesn't care how it looks. It's a heavy golf ball. He's playing well. It's like he knows exactly you know he's playing this ugly cut that that is really consistent. So I kind of go back and forth on that it's but it's not it's not that you know like oh god that's probably what I look like hitting the ball and it makes me makes me mad about this. No top 10s in two years. How about this? Let's finish T46, which pays out $19,000. Oh god. You started the day in second, which Brandon Hague got $763,000.

That's a lot of money dumped in those. That is. Many 16 holes of retention ponds that they have there at PGA National. You remember when you used to have the bid on Twitter about JB Holes trying to fight a rental house with an above grab pool in your dreams? Oh, I forgot about that.

That's what I know all time. Great stuff. I was back in the day with those things were appropriate to say. Can be a little bit too. That was part of a journey too. You know, I want to go work for those guys. I think I saw his losses fastball. I don't know. I'm just not throwing it. The J even racing. I think he was the highest man on the leaderboard

that has an above ground pool. I think that was the thing. Well, I think it was when, yeah, maybe when you got vaporized at the British Open, you said there's just no way you could find a rental house in the UK with the above ground pool. What do you think it wears on him though if the slow play stuff or he just doesn't care? He doesn't appear to care.

That's what makes people upset about it. That's why I think it continues on is, you know, we can beat it to death, but like he's shows no remorse. That's why giving Kevin Naush out about like he was known as the slowest player on camera and like does anybody talk about that anymore? And he is addressed it and like owned it and like felt a duty to his other fellow pros to pick up the pace and to have somebody not do it, I think is what frustrates a lot of people.

So Camilo Fajegas needed a T3 or better to maintain his status coming off of medical, finished one shot out of T3. I don't know if a six-way tie for T3 would have done it though. So you may have been two shots out, but that was tough to see. I know a lot of people were rooting for him myself as well, but I know I keep, you know, we're just kind of talking to ourselves here,

but we'd love a Camilo pod similar to the Mayhan pod that you just aired, because obviously I mean, he's been through horrible, horrible family stuff, but it also has to have a super unique interesting perspective on golf after the last 10 years, five years, you know, 15 years even, just coming up as like a total rock star. And I don't know, you just hear, you hear a lot of really good stuff with him, you know,

as far as rookies and him kind of taking him out for practice rounds. And he just seems like a very, a very solid guy. So yeah, that's a bummer to see him miss by one. One of my big takeaways from the Mayan pod was, you know, we do this with every really, really good player that falls off at some point. The question is, what happened to so-and-so? And like, the more I researched that before that

and listening to him, the more ridiculous thing is, yo, how is this guy doing it for this many years? It is not normal to have eight straight years of prolonged success. Like the stuff that Kevin Na, Charles Howe, Pat Perez have done about being good and being on the PGA tour every single year is absurd. And like the fact that, you know,

Mayhands game that has fallen off from being like world class is not, it's not as surprising as like the dudes that keep it going Mayhands game has fallen off from being like world class is not as surprising as like the dudes that keep it going for a really, really long time. Or even, I mean, to make it, you know, very recency bias, but even like Matt Jones, or it's like to you, when you're kind of half in, half out, like just to the idea of these 40 years old too, right? Just grinding and grinding and grinding

and not knowing if it's gonna come back or if it's gonna ever be at that level again I mean that's that's the stuff that does make it very very cool on afternoons like this, you know, is that does that outweigh You know making it into a product that is easier to follow and more has more superstars and all that stuff I don't really know but you know it's interesting. Well the the jagas Story kind of reminds me of Chris Kirk earlier this year. And then and also like just a shout out to Chris Kirk like what he's done like gets his you know Sementis status and then he's just been on a tear right like he's been all over every leaderboard and every term

He's played in so that's awesome to see little out of money on fire on the back of the world I need we needed that one. We need a top 10 Don't worry. He let me down. Shut up, take a moment. He let me down. Very important question for you guys. How are your brackets? Don't care. Don't care.

The tournament, I do care though, that the tournament is in full swing and the action has most definitely not disappointed although as we're recording this, my mountaineers are down by six to Syracuse. So don't care, I'm not care, don't care. Truly don't care. But I do love Hug. Don't care. Truly don't care. But I do love Huggy Bear.

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New Jersey, Indiana or Pennsylvania only, new customers only, restrictions apply, see DraftKings.com slash sports book for details, gambling problem, call 1-800-Gamber or an Indiana 1-800-9 with it. Oh, well played, sir. Absolutely. Buzzer-Beater nailed it. Can I say one basketball thing before we get back to golf?

Please. I surely would not paint myself, misrepresent myself as a massive align I fan by any means. But I do love, I just wanna give a shout out to all the loyal of people because of how upset Trong gets with Sister Jean gets on the telecast. Thirsty fucking Sister Jean out there again. The deeper of a run they can make the better

because it makes me so happy to see how upset he irrationally gets about that. Oh man, that's good stuff. I wanna bridge this next topic with just some brief memories I have of the Honda Classic. We have, I remember in 2018, this being like the lightning rod event of the Florida swing when JT was kicking people out and yelling fuck yeah after winning on the 18th green. And I remember that the buzz around that event in February of 2018.

I remember we had Ricky winning in 2017. Brooks making a run at Keith Mitchell. We had him Scott Tiger shooting the Sunday 62 that one year. Rory winning. Rory hitting bomb five woods into the 18th green. Now it's opposite March madness and nobody plays it. Honda has sponsored the event since 1982. Wow.

Been at P.J. National since 2007. And now it is just been absolutely punched in the face by the new schedule. And we are coming off an incredible stretch. We've been, you know, kind of lamenting as we, you know, go to record every week just how great golf has been for the past two months. It's been very easy. And like today was just a total incomplete this week was just a total stinker. I thought, I don't know if you guys felt the same, but I got that sense on Twitter as well. I thought, I don't know if you guys felt the same, but I got that sense on Twitter as well. Yeah, I mean, the strength of field didn't, it's not good.

It's not good. I mean, that's to me, that's the simple answer. I do want to say one thing, JT Kicking that guy was bullshit. So just so, I don't see that as a fun memory. I was like, that was a great memory. That was really lame. It was lightning rod, though.

It was like controversy. Sure, no, I guess not. Yeah, it is a memory. Yeah. We're a streaming of a patron since Jungle Bird. For sure. For sure. Unnecessary.

Unnecessary. Yeah, I mean, it seemed like they were struggling to find some story lines today, for sure. I think we've been, we talk a lot about wanting, like I loved Bay Hill last year or watching Bay Hill play really hard and in the wind and it's almost like it works there, but it doesn't work for me at PGA National, right? Like I almost feel hypocritical saying like, yeah, it just wasn't fun golf to watch, but

like in theory, it should have been what I was looking for, right? Like, oh, it's a course is playing really hard. Like, I like watching these guys struggle, but for some reason, it doesn't click there for me. So. Yeah, I think there's two different topics. There's, you know, what's happened to Strength of Field and all that stuff, which we can definitely get into.

But I'm with you. I felt a bit like a hypocrite halfway through where it's like, you know, we talked about how much carnage we love and how we want to see hard golf and all this stuff, you know, 51 weeks a year. And this week comes around and it's kind of like, God, this is boring. And I think my answer to the second one would be it, PJ Nationals, like, it's not the good kind of carnage, I guess, if I was going to get really specific in that, you know, what I love is guys missing it in the wrong spots and they just absolutely can't get up

and down or guys hitting and landing it in the wrong spot in the ball is going to release through and go off the back. Not just like, yeah, are you going to hit in the water? Are you not going to hit in the water? It's not as exciting to me. Not like on repeat. Yeah. This one is and just no, I don't know. We're going to talk some golf course stuff here in a minute. But a couple of questions we got that I want to get to. This is from listener Max in Arizona at Max home of 23. Do the money games at Bears Club slash metalists during the Honda give out more OWGR points than the turning. First of all, I want to give a shout out to both of those places.

Always can get stop by and get a game. Let's get the game through players club. Yeah, really, really, you know, green is a problem. We're there. First off, right faster there than the Honda class. You should see the member guest at those places. Unbelievable. The strength just the member guess at this place. Unbelievable.

The strength just so just I tweeted this, but I could not believe how far the strength it feels has fallen in this event. And that literally it has gotten weaker every single year since 2014, starting at 494 ending at 179. And this year just being miles below any other year. Those numbers don't, I mean, we can break down what those numbers actually mean, but it's no secret. There's like no top 10 players there.

Dinnah Burger was the top 10 player in the field. Apparently he showed up to hit balls like on Wednesday this week at the Bears Club and was like, no, I don't have it. And withdrew from the tournament. So that, the real jupe life is living in Jupiter and not playing the event that's in your hometown. Like that.

Which is, yeah, it's a poor local business. Yeah. It kind of starts to see, you know, it starts to feel like the, it's very uncool to play there. Well, I thought, no one goes to that place anymore. What are you doing? I fault no one for playing. No, totally.

Like, well, so explain why. Well, I mean, it's, you're among the, this crazy, crazy, crazy stretch of really great events, which have been really fun to watch, but somebody pays the price for this. So we have the WGC, or I'm sorry, we start really with the Genesis invitation at Riviera. The next week goes WGC Workday Championship at the concession, brought to you by Workday. And group of solitists. Honorable Palmer Invitational, which is an elevated event, players championship, biggest event, flagship event, the PGA tour. which is an elevated event, players championship, biggest event, flagship event, the PGA tour. Honda Classic is between the players and next week's WGC match play. So why the hell would you, if you're playing, why would you play this event?

And then another event and then the masters. Also, right? So it's like there's a bunch of different schools on the guys who have to play the week before or major, the guys who don't want to play the week before or major, you know, there's all kinds of stuff. I mean. Yeah, I'm with you. It's a zero sum game, I think, as far as scheduling goes. And this is where I, you know, certainly wouldn't tell the PJ tour like, what's best? Cause who knows, you know, like, I don't know if it's better

for them to have a bunch of really, really, really top heavy, great high ratings events. And then almost feel like you're kind of punting during March madness. Like maybe that's a better strategy. I don't really know, but as far as for title sponsors and all that stuff, I mean, we've talked about this on the pod before, but it's got, I mean,

Jay Monahan has to just be playing whack-a-mole on a lot of this stuff. It's what we always joke about where it's like, oh, you know, the fall events you guys aren't happy. All right, we'll do a- Can I get a question in from this? This is from mw tweets Does the tour have a prestige inflation problem for various reasons that is dulled out prestige?

Ultimately resulting in three WGC's three elevated events four playoff events the players plus various exclusive limited field events in addition to majors But I guess that's where I'm you know as a fan like what would I prefer that they make those events that have all gotten really Fucking awesome like Riviera and Bay Hill and all these, do I prefer they make those worse to make the Honda Classic a little bit better? Like, no, probably not, right? It kind of almost feels like those top heavy events have gotten much, much better, right?

And I just, you know, someone's gonna have to pay the price. And that's where it's, I feel like AT&T is kind of in this boat with both the Byron Nelson and Pebble, those events have kind of been notoriously weak the past few years. And it's just, I don't know how you keep kind of, you know, I guess that's kind of the whole job, right?

It's just like churn of sponsors and keep plug and holes and backfilling people, but it's just, I don't know, it's really interesting stuff. Barbara, no one's playing around that. A joke, Fick had had a great, read his question, because I think he summed it up for me. I was thinking the exact same thing earlier than that. Once Honda and AT&T decided they're done being treated

like stepchildren despite being two of the TOR's longest running sponsors will work day by sponsoring 10 plus events. I think Honda and AT&T are the first two that jump to my mind and there are almost two businesses that they sponsor so much stuff outside of golf. I mean, they just, you know, they have huge, huge marketing budgets, huge teams.

It's almost like they, you know, it's not a, I'm not gonna say it's not a priority for them, but it's almost like the Tours able to be like, okay, let's just see how long, long these guys won't notice, right? Like where, you know, they're distracted with March madness or whatever else they're sponsoring. But those two companies, to me and those two, and AT&T has two events,

and both of them seem to get the shaft every time, right? Like the, you know, the Byron Nelson is just kind of a, in-guy-ent. Well, like what's going on with that? And then Pebble, yeah, Pebble has become, just not as, it is falling down a tier, even though it's, you know, that one of the top five, 10 golf courses in the world.

So, you know, I think that, you gotta wonder what those conversations are like with the, you know, both AT&T and Honda. They keep putting up the money, which is crazy, but I would like to know if they get a discount on this in any way, I don't think they do. I think it costs them between 10 and 12 million to sponsor this event.

And the purse is only 7 million for this one. And it's 9.3 for Bay Hill, and it's 9.3 for Genesis. And the players is 15, and that's different. The WGC is a 10.5 million dollar purse. So it's like half the purse of the players less and less than that really. But still it's not like a cheap sponsorship for them. I don't know how they keep tricking companies in doing this. I would say this too. I look at Honda, even the logo to me, everything feels a little tired with this tournament. Right? Like the logo feels like it's been this logo since the 80s.

Right? And it and the course looks like it could use a refresh. I mean, they had Jack on for probably 15 minutes too long today. Contrary to what a truly awful thing. God, I got Gerald Ford. I didn't know where he was going with that. DJN are both kind of flimics there. Listen, hand up for anyone who hasn't swandered

into a story they realize they probably should have started. What? I do that every week on this podcast. But even they were like, Jack, why does this course play so hard as the answer was, I don't know. The win, I guess the conditions. I mean, we've made a lot of changes and it was kind of like in his head, you could see.

I don't know what they are. And they were back in 2001, and then we've done little stuff since then. But even the rock retaining walls around 17 green, they just, it doesn't look very good. You know, it reminds me of, you know, when golf was expanding too much in the 80s and 90s and there's, you know, too many development courses, that's what this place is like the flagship version of that for me.

Can we do this now? I don't, I think a huge effect that can have on a viewer's experience watching golf is like wondering whether or not you wanna play that golf course, right? I've never, ever, ever desired to play PGA national. And I wanna throw this out there, what are your top golf courses on the PGA tour that are top regular stops on the PGA tour

that you have no desire to play the golf course? What's your power rankings? I don't know if we can go around the room and pick them off one by one. Because honestly, I think PJ Nashel's number one for me. There's not a shot down the line. It would be on my list as well. And I have Firestone has always been on that list for me.

There's something about, I don't know the long switchback par fours when they had the, you know, any C, the WGC there, it was always just like, you know, it just never appealed to me. That course is never from the air. It just always looked very like long, long rough, boring golf.

I was thinking fire, I would agree with you on TV. I think fire sounds a little cooler in person. I agree with in person. There's more land movement and stuff. That's kind of the question, isn't it? Right, like that, we're talking about it from a viewer's perspective. So like fire sounds always just made me like,

glaze over a little bit. And I honestly, I feel that way a little bit with Tory Pines, because more so, because I'm like, man, every time I see that course, I'm like, those holes aren't even on the ocean. Like, you know, it's almost like, it's close, but it's not there for me. The other one, East Lake.

East Lake is, which is weird, I'm from Atlanta. I've been out there, I don't know, twice. I've never played there, but I've been to the tournament and it's never done it for me. It's always just been like, man, that place just doesn't, it looks a little hollow. It's only a corporate membership. It's never really felt like a golf course

that I wanted to go play. And then, unfortunately, a lot of courses that have TPC in the name. Yes, I got a lot of things. Right, like just, that's like almost like, that's putting you to disadvantage me. I'm like, they're like TPC San Antonio or TPC Southwind in Memphis.

And you know, I don't want to take some heat from the Memphis people. Like I've heard that Southwind's good, but when they play that tournament, in July, what makes you want to play it? It doesn't make me want to play it. And it's also like, God, you look at that tournament. It's like, how hot is it?

It's so huge. You just can see how miserable in the heat of the summer. Memphis never gets worked up on Twitter though. So I think you'll be totally fine. Yeah. But I would say TPC Harding Park and, you know, sawgrass, I've probably, you know, I love both those places, or like both courses,

but I've been there, I've played them, so that helps my opinion of them, right? But TPC is kind of like, usually, it's not putting in the wind column for me. What's on your list, dude? Listen, this is all relative, of course. I want to be Vaughn Snootington, I would never step foot on any of these places,

but when you really start thinking about the idea of shelling out the kind of money that they're talking about on any of these places. But when you really start thinking about the idea of shelling out the kind of money that they're talking about for some of these places, I think that's where I would say, surely there's somewhere else to go play. Yeah, that's a good way to frame in. I think, yeah, I didn't say about that one. Do I want to go, if I was a resident of Tory Pines

and I could go, or of San Diego and I could go play Tory Pines for $50 and, you know, would I be triggered that the architecture wasn't up to snuff or would I just enjoy paying $50 and, you know, would I be triggered that the architecture wasn't up to snuff or would I just enjoy paying $50 to go look at the Pacific Ocean all day? I would probably have a fine time out there. But yes. And I would say Tory wasn't on my list.

But it's a clear fight. But I'm just, sometimes it's, it's close, it's listed Jason for me. I'm laying down cover fire before I lay out a bunch of, you know, golf courses that people have probably shelled out a lot of money to go play. And I think to all of these, you'd probably say, if the option is, or maybe something up point of clarification, is the option not playing golf tomorrow or playing golf at this place?

Would you choose like truly, no, I don't wanna play golf tomorrow? PGA National would be a... It'd be close. I'm good, yeah. Yeah, I'm with you now. I don't have enough golf balls. I don't, you know, my pride doesn't need it.

No thanks. PJ Nationals on my list is like. PJ Nationals the wrong kind of hard and challenge. Like for amateurs, it would be like the nightmare. Good tournament golf course. You know, it's fine to watch tournaments there, but it's, it's not for me. Also, I'm gonna give a triple header

to the TBC network here as well. Shout out to the shark, TPC San Antonio, specifically VAT and T. Oaks course. Yeah. Which actually I've heard from some people is better than it looks on TV, similar to some of the other courses we've mentioned, but never ever has crossed my mind

that that looks like a fun place to go hang out. TPC Louisiana, I have played. Saliah, I always love coming back to your existential debate. Don't know if I played it or not. Dad and I think we played it on a trip, but we don't remember. Really, we like debated, I think we did play it, right?

And we don't remember if we played it. What are the other options? What else could have been? Don't know. Like I'm pretty sure we played it. You definitely played golf while you were there. Yes, you just don't know if it was at that course. Don't remember, hell yeah.

That's sweet. One that long ago either. It was like so sweet. The 11 years ago or so. Yeah, played there once and it was, you know, it's a cool place, but it's, if I'm in New Orleans, I would, if you told me, would you like to go play TPC Louisiana or just drink your face off?

Or Autobahn Park, you know. Yeah, oh yeah, exactly. Right, like there's, yeah. Would you rather go find some dank at two-face somewhere? Like I'm not playing golf that day TBC twin cities doesn't doesn't do a lot for me. I had that on a short Are you looking off? Did I Google share my list of you because we are four for four right now really and then the last one They'll see if we if we locked it in a controversial Seemingly fun tournament golf course Bayhill. Oh my god fine for really. Yeah, Bayhill's good. That's that that doesn't

Oh my God, fine for real. Yeah, Mayhills good. That doesn't, I don't, doesn't make me want to go play golf. Yeah, I'm sure it's in a macular condition and I'm sure the greens are excellent and the fairways are awesome, but yeah, it just feels like I would be hacking out of the rough all day and shooting 115 and just not, not having a whole heck of a lot of fun. So the people that say this is an echo chamber on this podcast, screw you, and that is evidence right there that this is not. Yeah, I don't even need to go through my list.

Did you write down courses even most like to play? I did. This was tough one to do because, you know, it was like, I would probably try to pursue a course that I haven't played rather than a repeat, but like, honestly, if I was power-ranking the five courses that are regular tour stops that I could go play tomorrow if I could, that's what I went with. And I don't even know if I love my list,

but I would love to play all five of these courses. Riviera, of course. Yes. That's, that's, I would imagine you, you'd add a missile. Yeah, that's, that's on there. Controversial one, Pebble. Love Pebble.

I had that on my list too. I had that on my list as well. I would love to. Never played it and I'm dying to go. And I'm dying to go. Monoray Peninsula and Spyglass. Like all, you know, you're just like, would you get all three for that one if you chose?

I think so, it's the tour. It's the tour. Stop, right? That would change. It's a three for one. I have plantation at Capelua. Also had that. I had that one too.

And I think that I should do with the time of year as well. I think I'd played any time of year. I think it would just be so cool. It's so fun. But I'd play it once. But it would do you, it helps like in January, you're like, oh my God, I wish I was in Hawaii. You know, that's awesome.

It's true. Austin Country Club. Ah, that's a good pick. I didn't, I didn't pick that one, but that is a very good choice. You're a field village. Really? That's a golf course. I go to that.

I've played three times in high school, but like every time I'm there, I like see the shots and I wanna hit them. Like it has a little bit of characteristics a lot of things we don't like about courses. So it makes, but it's like the fairways look pretty wide and it's so pure, I would love to hit off that turf and I crave playing golf.

I had the stopwatch over under, what do you were gonna say turf or turf conditions? Every time I go there, I'm like there for like an hour and I'm like, okay, I gotta go play golf somewhere. Like it makes me wanna play golf every time. So my uncle Jim is a member out there, he's been sending me some updates on the redesign. So I'll keep everyone abreast of it.

Cool, for my- The people here- No, I say that'll be first to know. I'm actually, I'm really, you know, I'm looking forward to seeing what the course looks like this year. Any courses I missed on your guys list? Well, I had three for five on my list that you named, but I would have sawgrass.

Sawgrass is it is fun to play. I mean, it's it's awesome. It only gets better as the players gets better. 16 17 18 is, you know, as much as we like to dump on the commercials and the over marketing of the tournament. I mean, it's really fucking fun to go play 16 17. That's one though that to your price point. So I think this would be, do you think that,

do you think it's worth the money? Would I go play it like pay my, I have the chance every day to go pay my own money to go play the golf course and I have never done it. So no, but if I had never played it, yeah, would I go pay to do it one time? Like, yeah, I think I probably would. Okay.

Probably not two times, but one time. Sure. I'm a big believer in almost. I want to try to get you? Like yeah, I think I probably would. Okay. Probably not two times, but one time. Sure. I'm a big believer in almost. I wasn't trying to get you there. Sorry, I got you off. I think almost every golf course that is like a well-renowned golf course is worth the one-time cost to pay it, to play it. Yeah, I would, I've paid $550 to play Pebble

and I don't regret it at all. Cause like I want to play that in my life. That was the way to do it. So, if you want to play Sawgrass, do I think Sawgrass is worth $500? No. Like do you want to play Sawgrass in your life? You that was the way to do it. If you wanna play Sawgrass, do I think Sawgrass is worth $500? No, do you wanna play Sawgrass in your life? You gotta pay $500 to do it. Also, it's completely full all day every day,

so apparently it's worth that. Last one I had was a total random one, but I just love me and who I would say why lie. Would be a very relaxing place to go play golf, I feel like. I have two, Y-Li would be a very relaxing place to go play golf, I feel like. I have two, well, I had a couple of bonus ones. A lot of ways I could go with this one. One though that you guys didn't have his heritage. Yeah, that's good one.

Being on site, I've never played there, but I've been to the tournament. I've walked all 18 holes, and I think it shows up really well on TV. I love the trees. I love the way that guys have to shape shots around there. It makes me want to get better at golf. You know, it more so than just go play. It's got I need to get better to play well on a Pete die course like that. So that's one of them. Colonial have a similar feel for that. And actually, on the other

end of the spectrum, a Beth Page Black. I played there once, but I kind of like how challenging that place looks on TV. And the true test of like, are you ready to go get your ass kicked out here? I think Beth Page has a place in my heart, but you better be prepared for that, because it's an absolute battle when you go play there. So those are my choices.

Quick hamstered him for me on this week. Just want to make clear this is direct at the tour and not NBC, but just an absolute total disgrace of commercials. And the players really highlighted it. We mentioned it last week and just like coming back to it this week. It was just a just absolute disgrace. You know, at one point that we went commercial, shot from Matt Jones, replay from Matt Jones, Pacific Life Summ summary, putt from Henley, putt from Sam Rider, promo,

putt from Henley back to commercial, came back and did another promo. That was a sequence. Two things I would add there. One, it's shot out to Bruce Hornsby. Shout out to Bruce Hornsby. It looked like they were trying to do a few make goods there to Honda. There were a lot of man.'s been they've been such a good sponsor. They were they were you know they worked in some some great shots of the cars. You know that you can win the hole in one the Ridge lines. You know really don't know if the Tor Pros would be driving those but that was a discussion question. I of course had it does feel like this is no judgment to any of these cars. They all seem like truly tremendous vehicles,

but yeah, it always seems like they're given away a lot of cars that I don't really picture like a tour player driving. Well, to people that don't need the car. Yeah, it's also funny. It's a very like, you know, now that I'm rich, I get free coffee kind of a situation. It brings up the,

like, dude, why do you need a car? It's all the Tiger and Buick. It's like, no way, was Tiger, he went driving Buick? Wasn't he? Like, he went in the Buick like eight times. It's like, no way, was Tiger, he wouldn't drive a Buick? Was he like, he wouldn't be Buick like eight times? It's like, what do you do with those eight Buicks, you know? Great idea. You sit a fan is a winner, right? And they sit, get the best seats in the house.

Kind of sit next to the car the whole time. And if any player makes an ace, you win the car. So like, you're trying to hit the shot for the guy that might win a car. That beat, that's awesome. That's better than the Torpro getting the car. Yeah. Yeah. I would totally be.

Or a colonial, like Noggie was caddy, the, yeah, the chow, that was great, right? I think they could, they could spice up that whole sponsor bit a little bit. That, that's where it's like, let's get creative guys. Come on. That goes along with feeling, the whole vibe, feeling very dated. Yes, very dated. It's just like, they're just going through the motions. I do love, I mean, of course, this is a sponsor of ours, but I do love when they're given away, like, badass cars.

Yes. Like, the BMW always has, like, some crazy eye-ate behind the T-box or something like that's interesting. But yeah, just the one thing, here's like a car to take your kids to soccer practice. I don't give you, it's like, doesn't jive with, doesn't jive with tour player life. I will give Honda credit. I do like it when the cars are floating on the wall. Of course, but that's,

they do a good job with that. When they sit on the bus, I'm like, whoa, it's just out there in the lake. It feels like we've seen that one before. Yeah, I got it. It's a cheap throw for me. Come on, I got super fake excited about that. Watch you get to that.

I was like, whoa, the cars are going to water. My wife was like, yeah, they've done that for like, I know, but it's still a cheap throw. Come on, like that's good stuff right there. You know what, quick interjection, this might be the jack, you know, yeah, so we raised, you know,

gold instead for years. Story, but. But for the gold chair, you have 40, you have 40, you have 40, you have 40, you have 40, it's a dog. What are you want me to say? You remember the EA Sports Commercial where Tiger walks in the water

and then hits the shot from like like the Willie Pat or whatever? He had, they filmed that like right after the 2008 US Open which knee was all fucked up. And so they like everybody at EA Sports was terrified. They're like, oh my god dude, he's gonna, he's gonna slip on the Plexiglass spoiler. There was Plexiglass, he didn't actually walk in the water. He's like, yeah, he's gonna slip and he's gonna

ruin his knee even worse. This is gonna be horrible. So I always think about that whatever you see anything walk in the water. He's like, yeah, he's gonna slip and he's gonna ruin his knee even worse. This is gonna be horrible. So I always think about that, whatever. See anything floating in the water. Going across the pond. Oh, great man. Yeah, cool story. Well, one more thing, back to Tiger and the Buick's.

If I ever got to ask Tiger a question, I think that might be it. What'd you do with the Buick's? God, that feels like a waste. Yeah, probably. But I think, all right, two quits. You know what it would be? It would probably be one of those. No, you're warm up questions. Yeah, yeah, it would be one well, all right, two questions. You know what it would be? It would probably be one of those.

No, you're warm-up questions. Yeah, yeah, it would be one of those. Hey, last question, Tiger. Okay, I got one more. What happened? Yeah, what happened with the fire at Hitchert? Yeah. Before you go.

And one more. What'd you do with all the Buick's? I still, like, will sometimes just wake up in the middle of the night be like, did you really like accuse Tiger of lying about his wrist? Would you actually got a chance to interview him? Yeah. Gosh. Tiger, did you really pop your chance to interview him? Yeah, gosh.

Tiger, did you really popular join that place? Yeah, I did. I really liked the comics. I didn't really. I don't like it for months. So in Kenya this week, I, listen, I'd be honest, I've been falling very behind in watching European tour for, for many months here.

Apparently the equipment for Sky Sports or for the World Feed did not make it to Kenya in time. We got held up at the port. It sounds like they did not broadcast the first three rounds of the tournament. Watch the choke points. Seriously. So they had to come out, yeah, they confirmed Sunday

and we're able to broadcast Sunday for the magical Kenya Open presented by Johnny Walker. I just was, I don't know if I have any comments on that, but it felt like a newsworthy event. Worth mentioning. What? Especially since they're Kenya back-to-back weeks. And I asked Dej about this though.

I was like, the statement was so vague. It was like, what's going on? It was like, is this a geopolitical issue? Is it just stuck on a boat? Like, are we not paying the right customs guys? Like, what's going on here? Yeah, they said like, dude a logistical issue. Yeah, which just sounded like it was, you know, or they covering, like there's something

really bad happen. So I don't have, there's more to, maybe more to come on. Yeah. I'm surprised this stuff doesn't happen more often with the places the European tour goes. Like they got to lift up and go week to week, you know, shipping from continent to continent that, you know, more stuff doesn't get held up in customs or it's so much freaking equipment. I always think about the image of like

the golf channel putting everything on the boat. To send it to, yeah, to float it over to Kavelu. Yeah, to leave from Hawaii whenever they're done with the Hawaii swing. Like it is an enormous operation, but that was pretty wild. Dej, why don't you introduce our next topic for us? Sure thing. So Bethann Nichols, friend of the show, former colleague of mine at Golf Week Magazine,

wrote an interesting piece this week for Golf Week about kind of just disparities in setup between the men's game and the women's game. And I think her, the crux of, you know, it was kind of part investigation, part editorial almost, kind of setting up that, you know, I think the premise was essentially if you want to see more fireworks on the LPGA, then we need to see more reachable par fours and reachable par fives. She had a lot of comparisons to the men's game and some of the clubs that the men are hitting into par fives on the reg and versus, you know, how there's a lot of weeks where

in Van Dam or someone like that who is drastically, shockingly longer than most of the players or the average player out there can only maybe get to one or two par five, whereas most weeks on the PJ Tour the longest guys are going to be able to at least get to three probably four. And so yeah, I guess all that's kind of the setup. I'll leave it to you guys as far as what you thought of that idea, because it was candidly something I had not really thought about very much. I would add, just as I pulled out a quote from the piece that I thought was kind of the

thesis, it's, there is no more cost effective way for the LPGA to immediately increase the entertainment value of its tour than the setup more courses that are conducive to low scoring, which was, you know was like third or fourth paragraph in. And I thought that kind of summed it up for me. I think it's tough, because we kind of rail in the PGA a little bit about that. That's where I want to get to. Yeah, I don't really know where I net on this.

I think it's an interesting discussion. And I think the most interesting part of this is how it relates to like normal Ammon or golf. 100%. And I think we can get to that. So I don't even necessarily agree that like, just low scores is gonna be more exciting. I think that's a massive assumption

that this operates under. And I think it's always more exciting to watch Riviera than Palm Springs, right? And that has nothing to do with, you know, under kind of the assumption, it's like, oh, well Palm Springs, they're making so many birdies and eagles that must be so much more exciting. And it's like, yeah, no, that tournament sucks.

Like the, you know, Riviera is more exciting. Like, I think, yeah, that's a very big assumption that I would take a little bit of issue with. But to that point, I think, and I don't, I probably don't watch enough LPGA to know if there is this, but I think the PGA tour has courses that have identities. Like, you know Palm Springs is going to be a birdie fest. You know Sony's going to be one of those tournaments where they're going to go super low.

And then there's other courses where you know that that's not the case. Maybe the LPGA needs to carve out some of those identities. Or maybe there needs to be more variety in the score in relation to par a little bit. I think variety is another big word that I took away from this, which is I don't think there's any arguing her premise or a lot of the people quoted in here's premise that there needs to be more reachable par fours. And yeah, there does need to be more reachable par fives.

Right? Like that, I think as a no-brainer, to your point, Neil, I wrote down the same quote as far as like, yeah, it doesn't cost any money to do this, you know, to make it a little bit more interesting. But, like, candidly, do I watch a ton, ton, ton of LPGA golf? No, I don't. Does it, like, lower scores make me want to watch more? Like, I don't know, maybe that would help a little bit,

but I don't really think so. I think it has much more to do with a lot of other factors. So it's one of those things that's like, yeah, maybe it won't hurt, but I don't know that necessarily it's a massive game changer. I think the key takeaway I guess the Bethan makes is, it's the most cost efficient, right? It's the most, her case is that it's the most realistic and easiest, fastest way to it.

I think the longer route and the one that you can't count on because you never know when this is gonna come, is greatness. Like people tuned, I tuned in as a kid to watch Onika. Like I did. Like when she would go on a tear, when she was gonna win, it was like, Onika's winning on the LPJ tour,

Tigers win on the main tour. I know I have my touch points of like, what I wanna go see when I watch golf. And it's interesting whether they win or don't win. Correct. But they're the focus. And they kinda had that go with Lydia Co. There for a little while that I feel like people tuned,

I felt like golf Twitter got really excited when Lydia Co. was closing on another tournament. She was so young and like absolutely dominating out there. And they don't currently have that. It's a effect of honestly probably of Anika, like the strength of the LPGA tour in the talent that's out there right now. It's a rotating cast of characters

that are winning on a, it's spread out, just like it is on the PGA tour a lot. And there's not that person that is creating this insane goat legacy, which you can't count on. But that would be the true way to really draw eyeballs is to watch somebody go strive for greatness. Which I would, you know, I'm just kind of guessing at this, but I would almost think making the courses

quote unquote easier would negate a lot of that, right? Like I would think the harder the golf course, the more parity you have, the more the best player can truly identify themselves, right? I mean, that's, I think that's why the best players tend to win majors, right? It's because the golf course is set up the hardest and it's the biggest, the hardest test. But a key piece of her argument was, you know, what's the quickest way to get someone to

tune into the LPGA or get the network to do a cut in? It's 59 watch, right? And being able to put someone on a platform to do something historic. I think going back to the PGA, like we've kind of argued like, man, maybe the PGA doesn't need it to be such a birdie fest and be so under par. But if they are, the LPGA is a business, like I kind of agree with her that like that would be a good thing to get it more in line

because like if an average golf fan tunes into the LPGA and they're all, it's a birdie fest. They're not gonna know that they moved the tease up or that they made the course short. Like, no, that context is in there. Like she had a quote at the end about, there's a common belief among amateur women, even pros that when they moved up to a shorter tee,

they're somehow quote cheating. That's suddenly having a wedge or a nine iron in front of a pro-shot means it's too easy. Did anyone ask then 46 year old Jim Furik if his 58 came too easy after he hit three eight iron six nine irons and three wedges into par threes and par fours and nearly drove a par four at the travelers championship. Great point. Right. So it's like nobody questions like that 15 travelers doesn't count though. What a what a achievement that is from Furik, but then it's immediate with like, oh, well, they're playing from a shorter tee, right?

Like if they made it even shorter, I don't think anybody would realize it in a way. I totally agree. But I just don't want this to, I think where my issue would be, and maybe this isn't what she's trying to say, but, you know, it gets a lot of weight because it is a pretty big, you know, quote unquote, weight because it is a pretty big, you know, quote unquote investigative piece that took a long time clearly and was very interesting to read through.

But I just don't want this to get painted as like that's the one thing like holding the LPGA back. I totally agree that it's, there's a middle ground and like a very cost effective way to make some more fireworks would be to introduce some better, more interesting setups. But you can't take your eye off the ball as far, like that doesn't mean people, I don't think,

that doesn't mean people are just gonna, you know, not gonna open the floodgates to casual viewers. I think there's a ton of other things that are much, much less cost-effective that would take a lot more investment to do. I think there's, it's a, fallacies maybe not the right word, but low, just low crazy scores in the LPJ Tour

isn't gonna necessarily bring viewers. There's that avenue, but also her point of like 6400 yard golf course on the LPJ Tour, what that's equal to on the men's tour, was kind of jarring. Well what she said in there was a 7300 yard setup for the men plays the same as a 6,000 yard set up

for the women, which I will say like we've all played with LPJ players like I am a you know a pretty average male golfer I would say distance wise and I hit it about exactly the same as a lot of those LPJ players right I think maybe the irons a little farther the woods maybe a little shorter than some of the longer players, but I mean, it's, it's pretty comparable. And so when I think about going and playing a 6,000 yard golf course, like, would that be better for me as far as pace a play and making more birdies and having more fun? Totally. Absolutely. Does that necessarily do I always walk away as like, man, that was a really proper test of golf? No, I'm hitting driver wedge into the vast majority

of the par fours, right? And so that really drove it home for me is like, whoa, if that driver wedge kind of feel is what a 7,300 yard golf course feels like on the PJ tour? Like, that's fucked up. That's my takeaway from this story is that, whoa, like the whole thing everybody was joking with shiplock about 9,000 yard golf courses

and all that stuff a couple of years ago. It's like no, like if that's the case, like yeah, we probably should be at like 8,000 with how far the ball is going for these guys in order for it to be a, you know, a quote unquote test, which you can debate if that's important or not, but that was my biggest takeaway from the piece was, you know, maybe it's, uh, shouldn't play like that in the men's game.

I think that it's a whole and not to unpack the distance. Like we can't fit the distance part into this, but where I don't want to see tour, of course, it just goes for more length is that the way skills are rewarded now, the relative risk of pounding driver really hard is low. So it becomes even more distance, distance becomes even more of a prerequisite that further you stretch out a golf course, right? I think golf works a lot better with equipment that where balance at 7200 yards is rewarded more than it becomes driver wedge, right? So I think with LPGA setups too,

and I remember this from the Kemper Lakes Women's PGA in 2018, somebody pointed this out, like round three setup. There was something like 10 par fours between like 390 and 410 on one of the days. And it was like, yo, that's not like a unique setup. And the Karen Stuppel's quote from within the piece was like, most golf courses are not designed with good women golfers in mind.

That's the cold hard truth of it. And like that's what I, you kind of feel that when you go to an LPGA tour event. And you know, I don't know how you address that when it comes to setting up an LPGA event. But like, it's worth, I guess, thinking about and discussing and. Well, I think my biggest takeaway was the lack of,

like shot data that the LPGA has. And the comparison of, you know, DJ, to say on Kim, to say on Kim. And it's like, she's hitting six, five, and six iron instead of eight or nine. But when she hits eight, she hits eight and nine iron just as well as he does, right? Her proximity to the hole.

And so, I mean, maybe a good place to start would be, how do you get the women in, like, what the college coaches were doing in the piece? They were kind of trying to set up college tournaments where the women's team and the men's team were both head about the same amount of distance on their approach shots. Not so much like thinking about like the... You're hitting the same club. You're hitting the same... Exactly. You're hitting the same, you know, every, every hole was kind of the goal. And then the scoring ended up being like right around the same for men and women.

They talked about that in the piece too with the US, the US open at Pinehurst number two. Yeah, yeah. The men's the first week and the women's the second week. That was the whole goal of the USGA was let's make sure for the most part, you know, the men are hitting the same club. Club into the greens is the women and the scores were, you know, sure for the most part, the men are hitting the same club, club into the greens is the women and the scores were roughly about the same, right? Like same and they played at 6200 for the women.

Something like that. Yeah, so that seems like, I don't know why I agree with you that maybe it's not the answer for the LPGA, but it seems like if the players want it and that's something that they think will make them more excited to play. Like it was, I want to call out Laura Davies, goat.

She said every week she writes the same thing on the player's surveys. Par five's too long, Par four's too short and similar. Par three's too much the same. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's what they want. It's like reward them.

You know, like it's a player-run organization, right? Like why isn't there more feedback? It seems like the PGA tour takes in a lot of feedback from their players. I don't think it is, I don't think the answer is, hey, just make it shorter. I think the answer is more variety, right? It is, you know, there might be two par-fives that like,

hey, you gotta have a distance skill to reach two of these, but like the rest, hey, we're gonna set up an exciting shot, but I think Karen Supple's point is kind of haunting about it, is like that's the truth of it, is like the and the, and the way that women, the top women players play the game, no golf courses are designed with that in mind. Like that, they are using courses that are designed either for members or maybe designed for top male pros that are no longer applicable to the male game.

And it's just, there is not a golf course that, you know, that I'm aware of that gets built that's like here, we're doing this for the distance and the skill that LPGA players have. Well, I think it's different. I think that quote carries a ton more weight with women's recreational golf, right? Where I think that the LPGA, like I said, I mean, watching, you know, we're out at the game bridge for a week, last week, and watching all of those players play, it's like, no, you guys, yeah, you pretty much have the same game as me

and like, or not same game. You know what I'm saying? Distance-wise, we're hitting about the same clubs. And like, I have the luxury of like every golf course on planet earth was designed for me to go play, right? Like isn't, and so I think the LPGA, there should be a lot of variety because they're hitting it, you know,

probably pretty similar to, you know, single digit handicap men players. But for, you know, the women members, the women recreational golfers, like I totally agree that yeah, they're usually like, yeah, oh yeah, just build another T-Box about 30 yards up. Like it has nothing to do with the greens, it has nothing to do with, you know,

landing zones and the fairways, all that stuff. So it's, I don't know, I'm glad, really glad Bethan wrote the piece it has nothing to do with landing zones and the fairways, all that stuff. So I don't know. I'm really glad Bethan wrote the piece because it was something I had not really thought about enough. Last thing I'd add there is, and you told me this coming back from Game Bridge is how important the Aeon Risk Award challenges on the S.

I think that's awesome. It was crazy. Watching a lot of the caddies, I mean, they know, we joke about it all the time, but like the tour players don't know what the hell. They don't know what hole it's on. I don't know what the hell it is. I'm sure it's posted all over the locker room

and it's all over the telecast, but like the players have absolutely no idea. They're trying to win the tournament. For the women, there's an equal million dollar prize on the line for the season winner. And it was like one of the first things we heard when we showed up, like, all right, 15, the part five, that's the a on hole. So they're probably going to move it up one day. So make sure you hit an extra T ball from that spot yada yada yada. It was just they were locked

into that's that's great stuff. It's one of the few things that is equal pay in mountain moments golf. So let's talk a little Olympics. I'm not sure this conversation is going to be much different than it was probably in 2016. But Dustin Johnson has announced he's skipping the Olympics. Web Simpson's made some comments about it, you know, not sure if he wants to travel across the world at that point in the season. Will other players follow you think DJ skipping the Olympics and should pro golfers feel any obligation to play in the Olympics? This is not going to be a fresh conversation, but I think it's time we have it again.

What do you think? I listened to Max and Shane talk about this on the Get a Grit pod this week and Max made some great points of like pro golfers not growing up dreaming about this. Like you dream about playing in the master's dream about playing the OS Open. This has been a late addition. I think that they screwed up the format

of this thing so bad that it's really hard to ask pro golfers to be like, hey, you have all of these other events that have all of this prestige, pay all this money. You do this week after week after week after week. Can you put a pause on that for now? Go travel across the world, play for no money, play for your country, play for the honor of playing the Olympics, but it's going to be a smaller tournament than

the biggest ones you play in. And you know, you're representing your country, but you're just on your own. You're playing an individual event. It's not a team event. There's no form. There's no match play to it. It's a stroke play event like you normally play, but like honestly, like way less prestige than all of the other golf events. Like please go do that for the sake of your country. In the middle of your season right before your playoffs, we can make fun of, you know, the being actual playoffs, but like a lot of money's about to get decided, your whole year's about to get decided.

Like hey, go do this out of your way. Tough, that's tough case, I think. If you think it should be a team event. Oh my god, yeah. I do too. Okay, they totally blew it. It could have been a two-man match play event. It could have been, they could have done so many formats. They could have done an alt shot, four-man alt shot.

They could have done, they could have made this so interesting. They could have done multiple events and make this way out of interesting. But apparently it was like, which devil's advocate on that. I think a lot of it was, the Olympics is supposed to be the absolute pinnacle. Let's identify the best athlete in this given sport. And so I think a lot of it was the Olympics is supposed to be the absolute pinnacle. Let's identify the best athlete in this given sport.

And so I think a lot of it was looking at how do they identify the best athlete every week. It's 72-all-stroke play. Yeah. So if we're going to identify the best athlete, that's what we need to do. So, anyways, I totally agree. It would be way more fun to watch. But that's why it is the way it is.

Yeah. And that's why they're going to struggle to get some of the top players because they get asked this question almost every week. It's not like a lot about the other sports in the Olympics. I know there's world championships for skiing and gymnastics and all that stuff and track and field and all that stuff,

but they have a pinnacle and the pinnacle has always been the Olympics. You can't just throw golf in the Olympics and make people pretend like that's the pinnacle. Well, it goes back to the zero sum game, right? Like, you totally could do that, except you already, you already did that with the WGC's and with these elevated events and with the playoffs and the tour championship and now the majors and the players and like, dude, you can only, you can only go to the well so

many times here for, there's only so much prestige to go around to the earlier person's question. I think it's very much a nobody. Golf is an Olympic style. Especially when there's other sports that are dying to be in the Olympics. The fix for me, I don't know, maybe this is just me and it's kind of, you know, nostalgia for an event I didn't even watch, which is the miracle on ice, but what if it was amateur golfers?

I was thinking about that too. Right, what if you almost made it like a, you know, a really souped up world version of the US Am, right? Where it's, it's like, I would get so far behind whatever American amateur was playing in the golf tournament. It still would have to be team for me. It's such a good idea. Well, sure, but I mean, as far as like, if those are almost the two options,

if it's either, you know, you have like this event where clearly the best players are skipping it, but like awesome Justin Rose sick gold medal that that that was really cool. You have that and you have everybody just constantly telling you how great it is when, again, a lot of the best players skipped and it didn't really feel quite as big as it probably should have or definitely not as big as it does in other sports. Or you have like, all right, wipe the pros out completely or at least, yeah, I don't know.

It's just tough because so many other people in different countries feel so differently, right? Like there were, there are a ton of guys who are so jacked up about it. I thought, I don't know if you saw Thomas Bjorn had a big kind of Twitter thread about this and how like he probably would have skipped if he was of this age, but now looking back, he just would urge everybody to go do it

because it's so cool it's something you're never gonna, you're only gonna regret skipping this, you know, you're not gonna regret missing the playoff event or missing a WGC or something like that, but I don't know, it's a really tough one. Yeah, I don't know. I don't feel much towards it.

I wish I did. You know what I really, basically any format but the one they chose would work, but also I think about like track and field. There's a 100 meter, there's a 200 meter, there's a 400 meter. What if there was different kinds? We have the par three contest at the Olympics. We have the par four contest. We have the long

drive. We have the high drive skills competition. I mean, like, that's a half-baked idea, but it also would be more interesting than it would, like, than this would be. If you, I don't know, you just, if the Olympics is like a, I don't know what technically the Olympics are, but I feel like it's like an athletic feat competition, right, within your sport, within, and I just don't think like doing the same thing that you do professionally, there's a reason my basketball feels kind of weird

in the Olympics, but even that's a little different. The rules are different, the format is different, and like, you know, it allows a lot of the international teams to be able to compete with the US that should have superior athletes, but the way the rules are and the the format is different, and it allows a lot of the international teams to be able to compete with the US that should have superior athletes, but the way the rules are and the three point line and all that stuff, the game changes. This is not different.

I would say I'm weighing on the amateur idea. I'm also, I think it should be match play, even if it was individual match play. I think that fits better with the kind of mono-y mono. It just feels like. It just feels like. You got. But like, yo, what if you got X country going up against Y country? Like there's a lot more story lines

and it just that feels like, and it's an opportunity there's not enough match play in pro golf or in high level golf, I think that would be a really good place to showcase it. Which on that note, well, which everybody would say, like the match play is bad for TV and I think, you know, again, speaking of my ass here, but it say like the match plays bad for TV. And I think,

you know, I'm again speaking on my ass here, but it seems like the Olympics is mostly for TV. Sure. At this point. And so, I don't know, man, I would say if you had, I get why they didn't do match play because if you A have, you know, the best players in the world skipping and you end up with, I'm not even going to pick two guys, but you end up with, I'm not even gonna pick two guys, but you end up with two very middle of the pack guys playing 18-hole match play for a gold medal. Like, that's probably not a great look. So, I don't know. The amateurs would be sweet, and I also want to, you know, we're talking a lot about this, but the, I think the women's competition will be cool. I think that you're not going to see any of this on the women's side, right? I think the women who qualify are gonna be completely stoked to go do it and all in and excited to be there.

So I think that's worth commending as well. I want to answer your question. Do I criticize Dustin Johnson for not going? I wouldn't say I criticize him. I wish he wanted to go for one. But he doesn't and I have no problem with that. And he should, if he doesn't want to go, he should give up, you know, he should say that now and then they can,

there's enough good, you know, US golfers, he's not gonna put the country in a bad spot. Right. It is a bummer. It would be, it would be, like I feel like I would be hyped to go. You know, maybe I'd feel differently if it was, you know, millions of dollars and this and that. But, you know, but DJ probably feels like he's got a, it's a big year for him. He's number one in the world. I feel differently if it was millions of dollars and this and that.

But DJ probably feels like he's got a, it's a big year for him. He's number one in the world. He's trying to strike while he earns hot on his career. But you're asking a guy to do that once every four years, which is where it gets a little bit like. You know what the big problem is that he went and played Saudi Arabia and won't go to Japan. So there is that you can roll your eyes at like, I don't wanna go across the, you know,

the un-ocean in the middle of my season, but like, they went and did it for a paycheck for that. So that's disheartening, but like at the same time, like again, Devils Advocate, that's different than, it is a different time of the season. It is, it's well before the major years. But it's still sucks, but it does suck and it's very, very worth pointing out.

So like right now with DJ out, it would be JT, Moira Kawa, Bryson and Xander with Reed Nippon Xander seals. Bryson at the Olympics would be a content factory. He's gonna enter more, he's gonna go enter some more events. Can you imagine him in the weight room with the power lifters? It's possible. Taking out some tips, he could nuke our entire squad, just by talking to everybody's ear off about,

you know, different ways they could do things better. Is he gonna survive the night before their competition? Did you ever think about doing it this way? I was reading some stuff last time. He's talking to the marathon guy. That's our hydration strategy. So you should really try some orgain. I think you need to pack on a little bit of weight.

Is he gonna survive WADA? That would be the question. That, that, that, question that that that's interesting. That's really interesting. Speaking of match play, uh, aiman Lynch over at golf week, a lot of shouts shout outs to golf week this week. Good. They're doing great stuff. Aiman took a torch to the match play format, which obviously stinks. The, the pool play is nobody was asking for this.

So it's a sponsor's in TV, but again, I think those, those folks have gotten their way for a long time in golf and the fan, we're the voice of the fan. That's what we're doing here. Not Dr. J asks, what's the best format for the match play? It's clearly not 64. Actually, I don't know what he means, but it's clearly not 64, but what is the best format for the match play?

Maybe it's not for because of the pool players, because of the pool play, which kind of makes it difficult to... I would say it's definitely not the pool play, because of the pool play, which kind of makes it difficult to... I would say it's definitely not the pool play, because the first three days the tournament have lost their lustre, not completely, but... I loved, I mean, hand up, I did not read AIM in space yet, so maybe this is what he was... I don't know, was he just suggesting going back to the old format?

And then... That's what I was gonna say, is the old Wednesday used to be one of my favorite days in golf. Yeah. I'm sure I'm fairly outnumbered in that that as far as, you know, I don't feel so. Well, it feels like another one of those things. It's like hard, hard, hardcore golf fans fucking loved that day, right? And I don't know if maybe this is just crunching the numbers on, you know, there just wasn't enough people watching in the middle of the day on a Wednesday

because that's a big ask of people. But it's, I loved that day and I wish they would bring it back to, but I clearly they thought that there's was some way to make TV happier and it just feels like a lot of these decisions just, they get designed by committee, right? And then they just end up being kind of soulless blah. Like, yeah, we're checking the boxes.

Why do you not like this? It's like, it's fucking soulless. I got a question for you guys. What's the defining like series would you say, entertainment piece of television in the last? In the month of March. In the last like, specifically. 10 years or so.

No, no, I'm not going to say that. That's my way of getting it. Like entertainment TV series like HBO Netflix, well, that, what's like the defining show the last 10 years would you say? Drama-wise. I don't know where you're going. I don't know where you're going.

I've been trying to assume you're going with Game of Thrones. I am. Okay. You know why people like really ride for Game of Thrones is like, I'm sorry, I'm going to spoil part of it. Like one of the main characters gets this fucking head cut off in the first season.

Like the guy you think the whole series is about. I was going to say to make them self-sense smart. And you feel things when that happens. Like you feel the pain of that March madness, like that is an obvious comparison. Like what's the best week in a March madness? The beginning, the first part, where, like, first two downs.

Ohio State gets asked, my mountaineers, quick update, we lost tonight. Like, it's not great. I hate that for hugging here. But that, like, makes you feel that pain, that finale of it. Because there's something on the line. Exactly.

But when you do three rounds of pool play, and then you get to the sweet 16, I don't feel anything. If whoever loses in the sweet 16, I'm like, okay, well, you want a bunch of matches already. And then, I don't know. Well, it just turns it for like so many other things in golf, and I understand why this is the way it is. But it just turns it from like a competition to like a cash distribution mechanism.

A reward, you know? That's exactly what it is. It's like, oh, we don't want these guys going home because like that'd be a waste of their time. We need to give these guys that we need to reward. Yeah, how do we just give them the most money possible? Let's try to get them through this first couple rounds so that they, you know, they're happy.

Yeah, that's fair. I think it's totally neutered it. I have not been able to watch it the last couple of years. It's not interesting. I don't know. I remember watching the, I know that he kind of goes on to site the Mayhann and Dubuyson years as like down years, but I remember those being exciting as hell, that golf course sucked ass, but Jason Day and Dubuyson in that match.

That was awesome. I was there for that match and I was running the PJ Tour Twitter account and left my phone on one of the greens. Heralding, harrowing day. It was very, very scary. Just left it like wide open PJ Tour Twitter account, just up for grabs. I borrowed other people's cell phones to log in because I was supposed to be like live tweeting. It was a borrowin' other people's cell phones to log in because I was supposed to be live tweeting. It was complete nightmare. I was sorry, I make it fun. I was like, why have they tweeted about this?

What the hell's goin' on there? No, but seeing those shots in person, that was one of the coolest live golf moments I've ever seen. And again, it comes down to what I think 99% of this podcast is about. It's like, I get why it is the way it is, but it sucks. It sucks.

Not a fan, I'm a lot of say that. So, it's not a play week, so a lot of say that. So, well, two, it's my week. So here we go. Well, two, his question on what is the best format? I mean, it's really hard. I mean, I know that they've obviously been looking to tweak this and try new things. But to the earlier point on, you know, maybe if Wednesday is not easy enough, I mean, maybe it's just, it gets cut down to a 16 player match play.

And it's all kind of self-contained Friday through Sunday or something to make that first winner-go-home day a little bit more watchable for people, you know. I don't know. Something like that. I'm trying to, trying to think of another form. Cut off their heads. No, I agree. But I'm saying, if you cut off their heads on Wednesday morning, I get why that would be a tough thing. You know, people have jobs. We're not, we're not the other people that watch golf. Right. But again, I think it's more of like, well, the guys traveled all the way here, like, that

you want to be done in one day. It's also one tournament. They do it once a year. Yeah. Dude, I, listen, I agree. But we're not paying. We're not paying. Why do you love this format?

Yeah, exactly. I know, but to your point, like, I did, this used to be like my favorite event. Yeah. And it's definitely not anymore, which is a bummer. Golf course is sweet. Yeah. Austin is great, obviously, just in general. I hope we see some party boats out there.

That's always a great scene down there. I want to see the whole. I want to see the whole. Just get jolly on the lake, or on, is it a river or lake? It's a river. River. Yeah. You could have this TPC sawgrass if you is it a river or lake? It's a river. River. Yeah.

You could have this TPC sawgrass if you wanted it. You could. You could. Alright, connect the water with. Build the kiddos. Putting a bow on this week, I think unless you guys have a lot more, I just want to give a shout out to Brian Stewart for going birdie, octopl birdie finish on on Friday. I think that's good stuff.

Our guy, the rare, birdie octopl birdie. Our guy Barry compared to shot tracker to Ursa Minor, which's good stuff. I can't bear the rare, pretty octopple birdie. Our guy Barry compared to Shot Tracker to Ursa Minor, which is incredible stuff. Question from 13 Fetch, have you watched all of season three of Drive to Survive yet? Only episode four right now. I've only watched the first one. I got, I fell off, I had tough time following last season.

So I'm in that perfect position where I know all the characters and I kind of have a much better understanding of F1 now But all of it's a surprise to me because I don't you know I'm not watching the drama that I watched on full-last season. So it's yeah god that is it's so good It's so good show they do a really good job So I was after watching seasons one and two I was afraid a little afraid to get into Formula One to watch a race because I assumed like I was like all right I like this little afraid to get into Formula One to watch a race because I assumed, I was like, all right, I like this little hyped version of it,

but am I gonna like watching a race blown away by races, incredible viewing experience. So now, huge race fan, of course, big time race fan, but I actually really do love Formula One. So now getting back into season three, I was kinda like, you know, thumb of my nose a little bit at it, like I mean, I know racing now.

Like, I don't need to watch drivers, right? I watched the season, what do I need to see? And like, immediately within three episodes, it was like totally drawn in. I appreciate the series even more. Like, cause it brought me in as something that do absolutely nothing about it. And now that I know 10% about it,

it has me even more engaged. Like, it is truly for die hard, formula one fans, and just the most basic intro formula one fans. It, yeah. Listen, I know, of this conversation is going to lead to the same place it always leads, which is why the fuck does golf not have one of these things. And it, it's just context begets context, right? Where it's you, the more context you have going into a race, the more you enjoy the race, the more you enjoy the race, the more you enjoy seeing more behind the scenes stuff about the race and it just snowballs into making you a bigger and bigger fan of a sport that I had never thought about a year, you know, a year prior.

And more content to come, a little playing through here, to a little trap draw F1 draft and preview next week. And also, if I may, we've hinted at being at the game bridge a bunch, I think that's gonna be the closest we can possibly come with a two and a half man crew for the week at doing our own kind of drive to survive. We did a week in the life with Madeline Sagsstrom. We followed her all the way from really Monday to Sunday and just everything that goes into the week, hopefully a little bit of context and some behind the scenes stuff.

So look forward to that, which very quick, I had this in my kind of notes, but going through that footage and just watching all the footage of her on the range, all the footage of her in player dining, of her due and media, of her putting and practicing, chipping, and then finally getting to the tournament. Then finally seeing what happens in the actual tournament. The fact that Tiger made 142 straight cuts is the most unbelievable thing, that not nearly enough people.

That should be what we lead every episode with. It's just, you were thinking about that, man. He had 142 straight times. He did all that shit, and he made the cut every single time. It's crazy. It is surely to be every bit as exciting as drive to survive the sports of the exact same. I do watch it, of course, through the lens of golf and wondering if it could be 10% as good as racing, because obviously racing is just way more exciting than golf is.

They're on complete obscenity of the spectrum. But I do think there's obviously storylines there that could be followed and tracked and uncut. 100%. You're just hearing her talk on the range about, you know, hey, I'm really worried about a left miss on Tuesday. And like, yeah, spoiler alert, like there's a couple of left misses in play, you know,

throughout the tournament. It's like, it's just that's a miniscule example, but just hearing these guys say anything other, hearing them say anything outside of a press room is extremely captivating. And it can be seemingly very boring, nitty-gritty golf stuff, but I promise it's really interesting and people will find it interesting to use that word again. At Shipman Carter asks, which team is the Fienauss slash Westwood of March Madness? It's just a cold question.

It's obviously Gonzaga, right? Yes. Close so many times. Incredible team. Hell yeah. Never won the title, even though Fienauss won one and Westwood's won two on the PGA tour and many others in European tour,

but I'll just give people off us. It's obviously Gonzaga. I think that's the easiest. That's a good answer. It's a good answer. It's obviously Gonzaga. I think that's the easiest. That's a good answer. I would say I'd also say a Bob Huggins coach team. Hey, Cincinnati, West Virginia. He's always got the talent. He's always highly rated. I was also thinking, back to Formula One, Alex Albon. It's Fino. So much for Red Bull. So much talent. At least so much like right now, because he keeps getting Lewis Hamilton,

just keeps blowing by him in the first few episodes. He keeps running into him. Yeah. But he keeps, he can't close. I'd say they're on different ends of the talent spectrum, I think, but listen, I see where you go in there. Dej, why don't you tell us about the East, you kind of tip us off on the ESPN Master's documentary,

which I watched that today, it was just splendid. So I forget, I know you had it written down the name of the production company that made it. I wanna say Bluefoot, I think that's right. Yeah, so the Masters, Kudos to them for having the foresight to do a little mini documentary, 30 minute piece on ESPN about, I believe it's called the one in November, and just kind of a time capsule. It's a little almost kind of arty, very restrained.

That's the word I was going to use. Very subdued, much like the Masters itself, I guess. And just a very cool look at some of the changes that went into November, some of the... I walked away from it, feeling like it was just a very good, just a time capsule, right? And if you want to be a cynic, which we very often are, I'm not about this, but we very often are. I think the cynical version would say, of course, it's, it's very hand jobby of a guesstinational, it's very controlled, it's very state media,

it's very making them look as, as possible and highlighting their charitable initiatives and a lot of those things. But I also think it's one of those things is so much better to have than not have. I think if this is made available or put on YouTube or whatever, go back and watching this in 10 years is going to be absolutely wild. I mean, even like in watching the first couple episodes of driver to survive before the masks are in place and here and everybody kinda talk about like, oh, I don't know, I hope no one does positive.

Yada, yada, yada, it's like, whoa, that feels like it was a thousand years ago and watching this masters and, you know, seeing it with no fans and seeing some of the preparations and all that stuff way far removed, hopefully from everything we're going through now, I think will be, it's just a really, it's a cool piece, I'm glad they did it.

I actually had a little different takeaway than the hand job part. I thought there was almost as close as we're gonna get to like an admission of guilt in terms of the racial history of the club. Totally. It was very clearly. For the problem get to like an admission of guilt in terms of the racial history of the club. Totally. It was very clearly- For the problem is there's a lot of guilt.

So there is. People can never square, you know, go ahead. I want to talk more about this here. Yeah, it was very clearly a promotional efforts for, or I guess, promotional peace for their efforts in equality, that what they're doing for pain college, pain university. Sorry, I don't, you know, basically starting the women's program there, historically black college. And all of which is awesome stuff.

It is, it is. Yeah. But they at least addressed like the, you know, some of the things that have happened in the past in terms of, and they included the question that they got to press conference on like how comfortable are you with the diversity of the membership. Totally. And it really kind of gives a roundabout answer to it, but it was interesting to at least steer into that

to the point where it's like, can no longer be ignored and it's time to make, like very clearly their efforts are in response to, not, I don't wanna say in response to criticism, but like in response to what they've done in the past and how they've been perceived and the reality of that situation. And I find it interesting that they are,

I'm not surprised that they are congratulating themselves on this, but interesting in the transparency of like, yeah, there's been some things that have not been as we'd like to be known as for the time going forward. Yeah, and it's really interesting in that, I feel like every, your spidey sense always goes off whenever Augusta's saying anything great about themselves because you instantly flash to a million horrifying stories that you've heard or the Billy Pain lecture or any of that stuff.

And I think where I've kind of got to it, this year was a big part of it, it's like, dude, what, you know, what do you want these like current people, what else do you want these current people to do? The current kind of leadership of the club, right? And they're clearly taking really big steps in writing some of these wrongs. I don't think if you went around the clubhouse, I'm not sure that you'd find anybody who says like,

no, I don't know what you're talking about. We've totally nailed it over the history of this place. And have they been quick to address some of those things? No, absolutely not. It's taken way, way, way, way too long. But to Ridley's credit, I mean, a lot of the stuff that's mentioned in this documentary is really concrete, awesome steps, right?

The anwa, the women's tournament, is it really concrete, awesome step towards making all of these things, hopefully correcting some of the wrongs that their predecessors were responsible for. So I agree. I had the same takeaway that it was like, yes, this is a lot of Augusta National, you know, here's what we're doing, but it also was like, well, what you're doing is pretty cool stuff. So good for you. It was just a cool peak behind the curtains, too, of like, I don't know, for a long time growing up as a kid, I

imagined that basically it was a team of secret agents that put on this tournament of like CIA agents and the trees and stuff. And it was just like, no, this dude's like training like the help the help staff for the locker room for a week, like these kids that come in and basically help out. And it's like very normal people that are doing these jobs and trimming the flowers and cutting the edges of the cups. And it was, I was, it's got been pelts so good in it. Like he just like delivers lines.

He's just a total pro. And it was very much, it made me remember that 2020 Masters more fondly than I do actually watch in the event. Yeah, that's what I said. One of the things I really, really loved, I think it was Steve Ethan, the communications guy for Augusta that said it in the doc was,

you know, everybody raves about what a great job the master's does and all the fan experience is so good. And Yada, Yada, Yada, Yada, he crystallized that in a really great way where he said, I don't know if this is word for word, but he said, imagine if you had 51 weeks to plan your job for the year and you only had to execute your job for one week a year. That's why we're allowed to be, like I would hope we'd be pretty, pretty good at that. And I was like, wow, I didn't really thought about it that way. Any final shouts as we go to wrap this? I want to give a shout to John Wood of fascinating little tidbit on the broadcast this afternoon. It was kind of a sleepy part of the broadcast, but when you were talking about Sam Ryder switching to a crosshand putting grip today,

after three rounds of the tournament and coming into the final round and switching from conventional putting grip to a crosshand grip, that's... Honeymoon Face. He needed a spark. That's wild. Reminds me of a friend of the program, Big Play Ray, trying to go stack a tilt for nine holes of an 18th of an 18th hole around. I did it go well, but that had to give a quick shout out to that. Don't hear that very much on the broadcast.

I would give a shout out to young here to Lauren Kaughlin, T.C. Check it out. It's Coglin. Coglin? Yeah. Oh, sorry Lauren. No, she didn't correct me for like a year and a half. Lauren Kaughlin. It's totally fine. Like I met her dad and he's like, hey, I'm Mr. Kaughlin. Coglin? Yeah. Oh. Sorry Lauren. No, she didn't correct me for like a year and a half. Lauren Coglin. It's only finally like I met her dad and he's like, Hey, I'm Mr. Coglin.

Like, okay. Is it Coglin? Are you sure? I've been saying Coglin this whole time to your face. You're cadding for her. I know. I know. Well T6 and her first event this year, Cometrator, I believe it was in a longbow. That sounds right. Yeah, which I actually played a long time ago. Fun course. Anyway, hope she keeps the momentum rolling. That's good stuff. So great, great to see. I want to give a shout out to Neil

for saving me from the pouch this week from our draft Kings picks. I had my first 0 for 5 this week. And Neil also had an 0 for 5 and has lower on the points rating. So he is in the pouch of misery again for our draft Kings 5 this week. And Neil also had an 0 for 5 and has lower on the points rating. So he is in the pouch of misery again for our drive Kings picks this week. So thank you for your service for that.

I'm Williams right now. Just struggling. I'm at the back of the grid. You're gonna get a point. You're gonna get a point sometime. So. Well these other teams, they just got such better models. You guys got a lot more money than me.

You know, we've got the data golf premium. You guys have so many more nuggets than me. I don't know data golf premium. You guys have so many more nuggets than me. I don't know what to do. One of your racers is gonna get a point racing for another team. George Russell did with Mercedes. You need to hire some of these oligarchs kids. I do.

I need to find them. Try to get you on the right. No, I have to do some backshaling, find some picks. Or I might have to go with focus stands of this week. I don't know. We gotta just pick the offices. Yeah, I'm gonna make picks and then just cool. Total awesome. Flip cool. Flip them.

Like flip them. Like try to find the opposite of whatever I'm picking. See if that helps. Is your only win for the season when you spread it out over the... No, I've had two other wins. The Mike and Drill, where he picked. The Mike and Drill worked well. When I arbitrage the...

Yeah. It will be a playoff. It will be a one-stroke. One-stroke, one-stroke. It will be a two-stroke. That was pretty solid. All right, well thank you for distracting me from the WV loss tonight, and so I didn't have to watch that.

And thank you everyone for your time. And for listening, cheers. Cheers. Be the right club today. Yes. Be the right club. Be the right club today. That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most.

Better than most. Expect anything different.