No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 466: Wyndham Championship Recap

Episode Date: August 16, 2021

Kevin Kisner wins the Wyndham via a six man playoff in Greensboro to close down the PGA Tour regular season, James Piot claims the 121st US Amateur at Oakmont plus we'll break down the latest on potential Ryder Cup captain's picks, USGA future sites, OWGR formula adjustments and much more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. I'm not in. That is better than most. Better than most. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast, Sully here Sunday night in the Kill House across the table. Mr. Icarito, Neil Schuster, hello, Neil. Good evening, Sully.

Happy to have you in the KH, baby. Excited to put the PGA tour regular season to a close. Cornfriar regular season to a close, corn for our regular season to a close. We got women's Scottish show up and DJ pie is here as well. Hello. Greetings. We are, got a lot of chat about, kind of a quiet, weirdly quiet week in golf, yet there's so much golf going on.

So much golf on Sunday. Tone a golf to watch today, but it was great. We had a lot of good stuff to watch. We got USAM, we of course got some Ryder Cup stuff to talk about. We got US Open Venue announcements, new, OWGR, ranking systems gonna be coming. JR Smith is renewing pipe dream. How the hell?

That's season two. That's a very deep cut. I can't look no one beat me to that joke on Twitter this week. I was really excited. That was a good stuff, maybe life. We got a chokehold story at the Jackson Beach Thursday game. We got to get to a lot to get into. Before we do that,

of course shout out to Calaway staff for Kevin Kisner for his win at the win on the 10th staff win for Calaway this year. And nearly all Calaway six way playoffs, which is quite, I don't know what the odds are on that, but I would have almost guessed that would have been impossible to do. Five of six?

Four of six. Four of six. And I thought for a second they were gonna get the win out of it, which would have been tough odds as well. But I also wanna tell you about the new Fulto wedge that Calo is offering. It's the preference for it. It's the in-between, kind of the regular jaws M-D5

and the PM grind. If you know what the PM grind is, it just got grooves all the way up, really high toe wedges, but the full toe wedge has a little higher toe and full body design than the MD5, but not as extreme of a footprint as and offset as the PM grind. It's super versatile, amazing around the greens,

but designed with full shots in mind as well. The grind and CG location help control turf interaction and trajectory. I don't know about you guys. I love how it kind of comes off a little lower and hotter. Yeah, great, great weight to it. It just feels very, very comfy. Whatever that grind is that I have on mind just glided so well across all kinds of turf

that I've used it on so far. Multiple groove technologies make this thing a spin machine. Is available in loss from 54 to 64. Rawface Chrome and Raw face black finishes left and right hand. Cowboygolf.com slash full toe. Check those out. I promise you that they're pretty appealing.

Well, where do we start? Wind them. I assume six man playoff. Do we start with Russ Henley or do we just go straight to the playoff? Or do we start with the full toe wedge and kneel? Okay. Yeah. We got to tell that part.

I don't know if we're going to circle back to the full toe wedge and we got the very good. All right, all right, baby. Okay. It was it. It was almost a tough scene on tour. So that's that will tease it with that. Hope we remember to tell that at the end.

Six man puff without looking. Can you name all six players that were in the playoffs today? Brendan Grace, Siwookim, Kevin Nah, Adam Scott, Roger Sloan and Kevin Kizner. Kevin Kizner. You got it. Yeah, we'd licked it. Come Kim, Kevin Nah, Adam Scott, Roger Sloan, and Kevin Kizner. Kevin Kizner. We got it. We歪 licked it. Come on, baby. I watched golf today.

I did too, but the second playoff hole is like, oh, that's right. C. Wu's in this. So I want to make confession to you guys. I've had an awesome weekend. My lovely fiance has been out of town. I think it's the first time I've just been on my own for... Should be very careful putting those two sentences in the same pair of cases.

Alone all weekend, kind of on my own schedule was great. So this morning I'm doing some work, I called my mom, you know, took a bike ride, it was great. I was getting, I had my whole day set up to watch golf in the afternoon. And, you know, for the, for the pot. So I'm, I, and I turned on golf channel at 1 p.m. and I'm, it's on in the background. I don't know if they mentioned it, but you gotta check your slack, dog. I was trying golf channel at 1 p.m. And it's on the background.

I don't know if they mentioned it. You gotta check your slack, dog. I was trying to let you know what I was. I was trying to get some deep work in so I didn't want you to distract him with your baseball bullshit. So I would have tough loss for my socks. So anyway, I'm watching it.

I don't know if they mentioned on the telecast but I watched a solid four or five holes of Russ Henley T and all fun one and I'm like, what are these guys talking about? I'm like, yeah, honestly. And so then I took a bike ride or five holes of Russ Henley, T and all, fun one, and I'm like, what are these guys talking about? I was like, yeah, honestly, and so then I took a bike ride to go to Angie's to get a sub and just like happened to like put it all together. I was like, holy shit, the playoff,

there's a playoff going on right now. I was sitting there eating my lunch. So I was able to like, you know, basically like John Nash figure out the code to get into the PGA tour app to get the stream going. And so I watched both playoff holes. But I mean, I don't know. I was trying to set up my whole day around that. And if I can't figure that out, that's got to be frustrating for, like, it doesn't feel like the messaging is... Well, now it's kind of... Yeah, we don't have to jump right into TV stuff. But I mean, it also now feels like it's really stuck between release patterns where...

Like, the whole plan is to go tape delayed. So everything is online and streaming online live. And then it's all going to be taped late on TV, but then you hit the three o'clock window and then CBS goes live. And so it's just now it's like you're trying to please everybody and you're pissing off everybody. And then off top of that. It's really tough.

It's also very, I would say that to like make a, I'm not trying to be super critical. I'm just like, man, I was just having a nice Sunday and I almost missed the golf completely. Who do you need to punch? Totally. And then there was gray on NBC. They got me jumping from golf channel, then I'm on NBC, then I'm on NBC SN.

It was active watching today. It was participatory. It was participatory watching. And every time I flip to the next channel, it's like, you know, NASCAR is on and you're like, oh God, at least people are gonna hate, yeah. We're leaving this NASCAR with crazy finish to NASCAR apparently.

We're leaving for the, if you're not a golf fan, for the amateur golf, imagine being a NASCAR fan. It was very monkey mean when I saw them flipping off the NASCAR, like, oh God, if that was us on this end, that'd be a freak out. The replies to the tweet from NASCAR is like, oh God, if that was us on this end, that'd be a freak out. The replies to the tweet from NASCAR on NBC

are just priceless, like just top one from Sunny and Rainy. For fuck's sake! Like, no, and one guy, I was scrolling through those two, one guy was like, man, NBC really cares about amateur golf. Like, damn, that sucks NASCAR, and I was like, I wanted to be like, no, Trenton, I assure you. To be very clear. Sure they do not, okay?

It's, yeah, to balance all this out and eventually get back to Wyndham. Like, it's a very unenviable position. I don't know, I don't know. I don't know what else you do. I'm not trying to, I wasn't trying to be critical. I was just trying, it was just to be funny. There's too much golf on one family of networks.

Yes, for sure. It's crazy. It's an outdoor sport and you have to move T times around for weather. And if you're, it's just a, you've got this many players in the tournament. It's just a nature to the beast. What was a pleasant surprise to credit the Tor CBS is that I could get the stream through the PGA Tor app, which I don't didn't really know that. I just started pressing buttons in the app and like, like, oh yeah, yeah, cast it, sure.

And then I'm like, oh, I'm sitting there eating lunch, watching on my phone, it was great. I will say the CBS Sports website is always very good. The app is good too. I downloaded the app on the Apple TV, fired it on my TV, it was just like watching cable. I guess the assumption for me, maybe because I'm a little jaded,

is that I'm gonna have to pay, right? And like, or I'm gonna have to log in and I'm not gonna remember my freaking log in. They could have forsaken you to the cock. I know, that's kind of what I'm gonna have to pay, right? And like, or I'm gonna have to log in, and I'm not gonna remember my freaking log in. They could have forsaken you to the cock. I know, it has kind of what I'm like, already my guard is up, like, no, no, no, no, no! This might be a small thing for us, for streamers on your phone, the collapsible little window

that allows you to be on Twitter, to be allows you to check leaderboards and do all those kind of things, while the golf still plays is so valuable. Like, no one wants to just sit and totally watch something. You want to be able to check Twitter, you want to be able to text people, you want to be able to do things from your device

while you're streaming. And when you get to leave the stream and you come back in and plays and add, that sucks horribly. So shout out to the CBS Sports app that lets you just collapse it. Golf challenge. I didn't know about that.

Yes. I saw your all slack messages rolling and I couldn't respond because I thought I was going to have to leave. So that's a good intel. Kevin Kisner wins. Anyway, back to the call. Sorry about that. That's on me. It seems like the story starts kind of with Adam Scott though.

In this when it comes to this playoff or maybe in the playoff. Yeah. I was going to say it starts with Russ. Yeah. And in the in the macro sense of the day, it starts with Russell Henley. Unfortunately for my draft Kings picks this week. But with the playoff, it definitely starts with Adam Scott. And I'm sure that's going to be a big bone of contention when this undoubtedly morphs into Ryder Cup talk that Kevin Kizner should be on the team because Adam Scott missed that short putt.

But I'm sure we'll get there in these gridding. I'm sure we'll get there. I'm sure we'll get there. But I don't know how he missed that putt, man. I mean, I know a number of people said this kind of around and on Twitter, but like, yeah, as soon as he kind of pulls out the green's breeding book from four feet on a putty, twice, he just already saw, like, yeah,

that's probably not great. And it was like a dead straight putt, too. It was kind of like when you hit a great shot, you're playing on a foursome, you hit a great shot, and you're on a part three, and there's a twosome behind you, and you let them play through, and you have to sit there and wait.

You waited 12 minutes to hit that putt. You just sit there and wait, you're totally out of rhythm. Somebody else got to basically play through. You had to wait for five other people to finish. Yeah, and before we even get there, let's just start with some of the outrageousness of the six man playoff. Right, and what did you guys think watching that?

I'm glad they let him play as a six. That was huge. That was big, It was good drama. I'm really struggling looking back at the O2 British Open, how they took those four people in the playoff and played them as two twos after watching. That's time. It's kind of fun to watch a couple guys miss the green,

and then it's just like, we get slowly closer and closer. That's what I was going to say. It was one of the true joys of my golf watching season. I don't say that lightly. That like just seeing like the cause of effect, cause and effect on six different guys shots. Like yo, you drove it here.

Now this shot's gonna be a lot tougher. You drove it here, it's gonna be a lot easier. Oh, you're in the rough, you're not gonna be able to spin it. Oh, you landed on the down slope, like boom, boom, boom. One after the other, after the other, after the other. I was like, this is awesome. And it was also awesome to see the top, the best players in the world just like go into show off mode. I'm like, oh, I need to hold this chip. But watch this and Kisner like almost holds it. Kevin knock.

All right, I got to make this putt. Boom. I will make this putt. Two like 12, 15 footers had to have it. See, will you need me to get this up? All right, I don't get this up. Don't get this up. Don't get this up. Gross was that. Yeah. Flop shot. Or then I would say the whole, I think you said this on Twitter. Charlie, but it was nice to watch these guys hit seven irons in, you know, like best, the best drive.

I think Kizmer's hitting seven. Well, and it made it kind of what I was saying, but I mean, it made a difference whether you're in the fairway or you were in the rough. Yeah. Made a difference what your ball flight was coming in and whether you could hold it on that greener if it was going to run through and you're going to be absolutely bone from the back. I mean, it was, it was a heart.

It was hard to get the slope behind the green, the pin. But if you got it, you got heavily rewarded. But if it stood up on that front. If you had a great t-shirt, you had a wedge, right? It was just, not quite wedge. But what did Adam Scott have it? He looked like he had like a sample.

I think he actually did hit pitching wedge the first time through, yeah. You got it all the way down to the bottom of that fairway. It's like, yeah, that's the point, right? Brandon Grace is back there banging off the trees. He's got 230 into that same green. I mean, it was just, it was a blast to watch. And I know it's, this is not me lobbying

for like every event should be six man playoff, but there was a lot of cool stuff to take away. There is something to that. Did you tweet something? Somebody tweet again. I was just starting a dialogue. I said, maybe they should just make the back nine of the tour championship a 10 man shootout.

Everybody thought I was talking about basketball. Like I said, knockout, like a horse race. You know, like to start with 10, you eliminate one person each whole big problem with that. I don't know how, there's probably gonna be some ties. I don't know how you eliminate one person. If you are literally putting them in a chip off for $15 million, would watch, but yeah, we'd have to solve that.

Or maybe it's just an 18 hole one. To give you some buffer. Sure, but you'd have ties. You'd have more ties. I know, but you'd have more, if you had 10 guys over 18 holes. Closer to the hole. Oh, I see.

Yeah, the tiebreaker. Yeah, be interesting. I think it'd be kind of sick. There's, yeah, there was something too, just watching a gaggle of God. I think it qualifies as a gaggle, right? Sure. I would give a shout to Sejfield.

I think this was the best, we've ever, a tournament in August in, basically in the southeast, is an uninviable position to be in in terms of rainstorms and like trying to get a course firmed out and just golf courses aren't meant to be peaking in this time of year on Bermuda grass from my experience at least. And that's as good as I've seen it play.

And in the earlier parts of the week, like some of the pins they used, some green sides, like just watching top Torpro's be like 12 yards away from pins and having no idea what shot to hit because they're in, you know, kind of in thick, permutive stuff that's not as easy to play out of as thick, right, right around the greens

and their ball is stopping like above holes instead of like, just, you know, same level as the pin that we see in a lot of like summer golf and on the PGA tour. I thought the punishment and rewards for close shots and like the short grass run offs around it was just, and I don't know if I just, the whole like going backwards from the green to the team made some of the blind t-shots a lot more interesting. It kind of brought Donald Ross to life. I never feel like I'm watching

a Donald Ross course when I watch this tournament. And this time around just kind of like felt like it. The part three on the back nine, what holds that? I forget 12. It's a 220 yard part three with a two tier green. They had the pin on the front tier twice. Tommy Flew would put it off the green from the top tier. And earlier, like Colt knows was freaking out about the pin on Friday. It's like, it's pins on, it's just on like, this is fair. And the score here was like 3.2, first of all. But it's also just like, I would love to watch Torpro's. Did everybody survive?

Yeah, I think they did. I would love to watch Torpro's strategize around like, hey, this, like, maybe on the green isn't the right play here. Like, if you can get it on the green and be on the lower tier, that's great. But if you're on the top tier, like, you might get it on the green and be on the lower tier, that's great, but if you're on the top tier, you might put it all the way down the fairway. That feels a lot more golf that normal people play than the does PGA torque off, and I'm in on that.

Also love, you know, when you can see that colors, the grain and the greenness, and that was a very prevalent today. Last time I can remember that prevalent was at concession. Yeah, right, like where it's like, man, I can, like those look lightning the way that the grades, you know. Laying down shiny.

Yeah, which I, that's just brings the course to life for me. I really, I will give, I don't know if it was, was Colt falling the final, final group or in the playoff when he was talking about Kisner. I think, and basically Kisner had that shot in 18, or maybe it was 17, sorry. And they were just setting in the table, like, extremely well, I love when they do this

on the broadcast, like, this is gonna fit his eye for this specific reason, there's no fucking way he's gonna hit this outside 10 feet, and then he just stuffs it to three feet or whatever, and has that kick and birdie on 17. I was kind of sad that on the playoff. Let's play. When he hit, and I think it was, I said it's seven earlier,

I think he had nine iron in, but they're like, this fits his draw, a little five yard draw, this is perfect, then he, you know, him steps it after he knocks it to four feet. Looks like he was gonna fall over, but it was a, I think he was trying to be swan. I was walking after it. I think it was momentum going down the hill a little bit,

but kind of like the guy that's slid into home plate, kind of swaggy, that's what it kind of looks like. Which I've watched that video about. It's good stuff. 55 times. How about, they mentioned it on the broadcast a bunch, but Kizner being O and five in playoffs is a jarring stat. Well, let's go.

So going back, that's a good segue back to Adam Scott. What was Adam Scott's playoff record before this? I think it was pretty good. It was undefeated, I saw. Three and O. Yeah. Did you, any, did either of you think that putt was going in? I did.

It was very, very easy. Well, I did, especially after, I'm with you, I know he can be very shaky on those, but like he already saw the line, it looked like it was dead straight, it looked like it was directly up the hill. I can't, I just had a feeling, sit at the sub shop, I was like,

with that long ass putter, there's not going, like so Adam Scott has more. Were you telling all the boys and Angie's? No, no, I was just, I just had this feel, I was like, I don't think it's, I just, he, I guess I looked up his record, you know, 14 wins, three in own playoffs. Everything on paper says that he's clutch,

but maybe it's just the scar tissue from that British open. I'm just like, when Adam Scott standing over those short ones with that long putter, I'm like, man, that's very uncomfortable. And then, you know, it just looked like a, do you think it was a bad reader or a yank? I just don't think you ever got comfortable.

I think it looked like he was kind of trying to find some break in there. Which I like it. I can very much relate to that. You can do that on Bermuda. You can do that on Bermuda. You kind of look for, the grain is going to move this at least a little bit, so I got to play.

I see kind of what he was going for there. And yeah, I don't know. It was not a difficult putt, but we watched Russell Henley miss a even shorter one from that angle. I don't know if they were listening to Fautos read, which Fautos saying was outside the whole, uh, a couple, uh, the wrong direction. Couple, uh, you know, we should have seen this coming stats. Kisner top 10 in four of his last five starts at this golf course, which is pretty solid has never missed the cut in seven starts. He's gone T8 T10 T42 T3 win at Segefield feels like a pretty perfect golf course for him. I was saying everyone locked this away

for our next conversation at this golf course. Yeah. Well, that's true too. And also another one, you know, we like to make fun of the FedEx Cup playoffs a lot. I'm sure we will make fun of them a lot over the ensuing weeks. But by any measure, I think most people would agree that making the tour championship is about the best measure of whether you've had a good season or not. And like, Kizner's made the tour championship, I think in five of the last six seasons. Like that, that's, that's a very good player. Kevin Kizner is my go-to guy for like, when I watch Cornfairy, when I play with Cornfairy players,

when I watch Cornfairy golf, when I watch guys battling for PGA tour cards, that I just wish I understood better what makes Kisner separated very clearly from all those guys. Cause it's not raw physical ability, it's not dominant ball striking, shot shaping, not crazy, he's a good putter, it's not raw physical ability. It's not, you know, dominant ball striking, shot shaping, not crazy. He's a good putter. He's not crazy, but like he's just so

freaking solid. How, if you watch golf up close in person, I've really struggled to like explain why he's that much better than so many other very talented guys. He's the guy that makes you sound like the, you know, the sports talk radio guy. Like, I don't know, man, he just fucking gets a done. Yeah. He's just gonna say the word is in the hole. The word is grit. Yeah.

I mean, I kind of hem half serious saying that, but it's almost like attitude of he's willing, I feel like he's willing to outlast. Like he's, which is also why he's like, he's just got longevity, which is also why the O and five in the playoffs is so weird. Well, so I just look at that. Yeah, that's, that's good point too. On the his playout record, 15 RBC heritage lost to birdie to Jim Fierrick. 2015 players, Fowler won with birdie on the first hole after a three hole aggregate,

which Kisner shot three, a 100 on the three hole aggregate and then lost to a birdie. To like the greatest finish of the last 10 years. Kisner and Streb were eliminated together by Birdie on the first playoff hole at the Green Briar when he lost three playoffs in one year, Kisner did it in 2015. 2017 in a team one, he lost to Birdie on the fourth extra hole. I don't know what happened on the first three holes there, but 2020 RSM lost to Birdie on the second extra hole.

So it's not like he's a gagged in playoffs, he just like hasn't gone out and made the birdies. I just think that's worth that. So our point still stands. Yeah, he's very great. He wants it. He wants it. He wants it. Yeah. He gets it done.

It's interesting that Kisner is currently having his worst year since 2015 leading into this. If we're talking just his overall ability to get the ball in the hole this season, Kyle Porter pointed out on Twitter three top 20s so far this season. Kyle Porter pointed out on Twitter, three top 20s so far this year. Is it time to transition to the Ryder Cup talker? Do we want to cover more wind up here?

I feel like we should mention Russell Henley a little bit. Yeah. It would have been a, had all the makings of a pretty dominant wire to wire W and it just wasn't good on the back. Which would have been huge. No, no wire to wire winders. Yeah, we don't need to talk about the fantasy teams

but take it from me. I think it would have been very nice. Pick no wire to wire winners. Yeah, we don't need to talk about the fantasy teams, but I take it from you, it would have been very nice. Pick the wire to wire and it would have been a statement because Russ has struggled to close this year. And he kind of did the same. And it was kind of what we had said going into the week was like, man, there's a couple of those guys like, like, you know, I guess not necessarily kids, but a couple of those guys that are just like, man, those are been such solid seasons. And you're just missing a win. It's gonna come. And it was like,

Henley's in that category, Strylman's in that category. Harmon's in that category. And it just, yeah, it seemed like, I don't know, I got a little snake bitten again from the US open and going so bullish on Henley being a guy that closes the door because he looked a little nervy, especially kind of making the turn and missing that like two footer was, you know, would like to have that one back.

I think the one on 18 was, I think I was actually pretty good shot that he hit coming into that hole with like a six iron seven iron and just ran all the way back and hung up on that stuff. That's a pretty tough place to get down to too from, but I don't know. Any other takeaways from Henley? No, it cost me some actual real Jeff King's money in fantasy that week, that hurt a little bit. No, it just, yeah, something's just not really adding up there. It just seems like he should have more to show for this season and just

doesn't. And watching the first five holes today on golf channel. He got off to a on tape delay. He got off to a very slow start. Yeah, I just didn't look comfortable. It's like, wow, Neil's watching early. Oh, that's right. No, no, no, I watched it at about 1 p.m.

Well, just to empty the chamber on the window before we transition away, always of course that everybody's favorite stat. You're three guys who moved in to the top 125, made the playoffs, Roger Sloan, Scott Pierci, and Chess and Hadley. Your guys who moved out, Ryan Armer, Patrick Rogers, Bo Hogue. Of course, we need to give a shout out to Team Rose, three puttin' the 18th to miss the playoffs, and probably many, many thousands of dollars.

You're comes the drizzle. Yeah, that was tough. I mean, Chess and made a hole in one today, and Chess 62 to get in the drizzle. Yeah, that was, that was tough. That, I mean, and Chesson made a hole in one today and Chess 62 to get in the place. Well, and got a million windum reward points for that hole in one. Really? Yeah, that was, that's pretty cool, right?

First one in competition. I love, he got Jeff. What is the room cost? I have no idea. 15,000, that's just kind of heard that in passing on the telecast when I was watching, again, when I was watching. I'm gonna look at it.

Okay, for a, I mean, for some of the last time we saw Ch telecast when I was watching again when I was watching. I'm gonna look at that. That's you. But I mean, for some of the last time we saw Chesson, it was like the most painful possible collapse at Palmetto. And to have him, you know, which would have given a two year exemption for that win and to have his status hanging in the balance to shoot that round, the final round, shout the Chesson and shout the team rose

for three putting the 18th and let it go in. Rose has all the riches we could possibly imagine. And so I don't feel bad giving him a shout out for that. And a great team, which DJs part of for sure. And I want to give a huge shout out to David Lingmerth, who with his career basically in the balance, he's been battling injuries, batting elbow injuries has, you know, has just been trying to find it here for a couple years. Monday qualifies for the windum needs a top 40

to get inside the top 200 to retain corn fairy status for next year and get in the corn fairy finals, which could get him a PGA tour card here in the next three weeks. And he did it. He made it eagle and a birdie in his final five holes to get inside the top 40. And that just takes some serious, serious stones.

Like, I'm very used to rooting for, like some of our friends here in Jacksonville and just getting our hearts ripped out. And it felt like that was gonna happen a little bit today and it did not. So very, very happy for him and his family. And I'd also like to, we didn't talk about Brendan Grace. I feel like what a resurgence he's had.

What one in Puerto Rico was kind of just on the fringes and he's a bonafide dog. And just, how about the birdie on 18? No, I was like, we only got a birdie 18 to get the play. Like, 28 foot putt, like he's so solid and tough. Teeshot of the playoff. Like, I like watching him play golf. I feel like he's, uh, he's also gritty.

He is. And what was the stat, the in Baker Finch hat on the telecast this week? They said nobody has closed out a, nobody's converted a 54-hole leads since Phil Mickelson at the PGA, which I don't know if that's true or not, but thank it is.

Outrageous. I almost like, no offense to even make her finish, but I was almost like so preconditioned to be like, oh, that's not right. That I actually started thinking about it. I was like, no, shit, I think that is right. That's wild. Hard to win, man.

Very hard to win. Very hard to win. Just to follow up It looks like I'm searching Greensboro hotels tonight. I'm winning them. It looks like you can book a kind of a sketchy room for about 15,000 points so a million points. That's a lot of hotels. I mean think about you know, he chest on the road That's we're gonna help with expenses. No doubt a good help away a room for his family if he's traveling with kids and a room for him I thought that was I mean first home one him. I thought that was, I mean, first home one ever. And I thought that was, his reaction was awesome.

So that's why I shouted it out. I also don't get, I don't feel bad given winning them a little bit of free run on the potty there because I feel like they just got absolutely bodied with the, the win-to-rewards top 10. Well, it's not even, there's anymore. The last couple of years, yeah, I think they've

probably tried to get out of it. So speak, can we talk about that? Give them a little bit of a make-. So speak, can we talk about that? Give me a little bit of a make good. Sure. Can we talk about that? Shout out to Matt Wolf. Or no, that was a different one.

That was a ion risk reward. That was not even a joke or a bit. That was a ion risk reward. Which we can talk about that too. Yeah. Yeah, no one, no one on the top 10 showed up. If I had, I believe I have that right. And that's the only one.

And that's the top. The fish and now the Comcast business. Yeah, top 10. It is tour top 10. I totally understand why, but I just love to have this example in hard proof of like, what actual money is to these guys. Speed would have needed a top 25 finish this week, and he would have won the business to Comcast Business Tour business top 10, what extra $500,000 for a top 25 and didn't play.

Which I don't blame them like no five in a row. That's what rest is worth to go in and play off because there's so much more money online there. But it could have been also number one in the points going to the playoffs too, which is a points, which is a boost, which could have been worth a shot or two with a torch championship by the end of it. But you can't play five weeks in a row. Just there's no point in doing that, you know, with as much as it's going to be on the

line here in the coming, coming weeks. But it just, yeah, it's just as stunning to me. Maybe all the players just come to a secret agreement, like, like if Speedplayde more cow would have played in the both of us. Some star tell stuff. Yeah. Hey, dude, can we, can we please not, like, I'll buy you a boat if you don't go play or something like that.

I don't, I don't know how that works, but it is weird that so many of these guys skip. But I can't imagine that little prize is gonna stick around for too long if guys keep skipping. Maybe that's why I went and bailed on it. But all right, ready to move on from... I'm gonna talk about the Aon. Are you guys doing it?

No, I think we should. I think Matt Wolf, you're Aon Risk Award Challenge. You want a guy? Guy won a million dollars. They kept calling him the best decision maker of the season. So I want to, the A on risk reward segment on the broadcast. We've, we've shouted it out here.

Two thumbs up. I get a lot of more hands. I get a ton of value out of that. You could, you could do that for all 18 holes. Kind of what they were doing during the US and today when they were showing you the next hole while these guys were finishing out. Obviously, they have a lot more time to fill. I get it. The problem with the A on risk reward for me is I have no fucking idea what whole it is,

like how they're like, I can't follow it. You know what I'm saying? I don't think it's meant to be followed though. I think it's a total like, hey, we're going to make some money for the players doing this. Aon's gonna spend this with us. It's gonna go in the broadcast. You don't need to track it week to week. Like, somebody's gonna get the prize at the end and it's just kind of like- But what just seems like such an arbitrary outrageous prize?

Yeah. It's on the men's side. And that's what I know I've said this on the podcast a couple of times, but go to an LPG event. They know exactly what the whole is. They're thinking about it during the round. Like, it's a million dollars also for the woman who has the best aggregate score on those

average score. Sorry, average score on those holes throughout the year. So that's how I was gonna put that in the positive bucket as well. It means a ton, I think, on the LPGA. On the PGA tour, it feels super arbitrary and just like someone's gonna check their bank balance and be like, oh, there's an extra million here for some reason.

How did that happen? Whereas I think there's so many awesome positive things to take away and it's super additive to the broadcast and it might as well just be like an ad buy. I don't know why somebody has to win a million dollars for it. It seems like super random. Yeah, I guess if you're gonna tell me it's a competition, I would like to follow along. And it's similar to our FedEx cup. Like I don't know how you calculate the points.

I maybe I just need to be a better fan and look it up. Like work hard. That's what your condition does. It's like you work hard. Like this season long race, both of these things are season long races and I just struggle to like, take interest and understand how they're calculating it. And it's tough in that, this is hard when you're trying to,

you know, it's not always gonna come down to the wire, but it's hard when you have these two season-long races. And in one of them, all 10 guys skip the event. And in the other one, the guy who won the million dollars missed the cut. Yeah, it's like two, that's, it's like fastest lap kind of thing in this one. It's, I enjoy it now that it's like, for one of the holes in the tournament, they're

gonna be like, hey, here are the spots you should hit it. Here's where you can't, here's how this works. If you play it here, you're gonna lose shots. If you play here, you're gonna gain shots. They should be doing that on holes to begin with. So that for that will reason I'm like in. That's kind of, it's just like a big ad buy on the telecast. Yeah, whoever that, I don't know if it is the telecast doing that video or that segment or if

it's a separate third party production house, keep it up. That's really good stuff. Before we get on to some Radar Cup stuff, everyone's favorite time of the year right around the corner. College football season and to celebrate the Draft King Sportsbook America's top rated sportsbook app is putting new players in the center of the action with $200 in free bets instantly. If you bet $1 or more on any college football game, take advantage of this limited time offer now.

You heard it right. Draft King's is giving all new players $200 in free bets instantly when you place a bet of $1 or more on any college football game. No matter what, hear that? Any college football game. Head to the Draft King Sportsbook app now to check out all of the great promotions and daily odds boosts there offering. DraftKing Sports Book is safe, secure, and reliable,

located right here in the United States. So it's easy to deposit and let's draw your money at your convenience. So download the top rated DraftKing Sports Book App now and use promo code NLU to receive $200 in free bets when you place a $1 bet on any college football game. That's promo code NLU to get your free $200 and free bets instantly. For a limited time, only the Draft King sportsbook must be 21-year-old and New Jersey and they

are in Pennsylvania only. New customers only, your restrictions apply as he draftkings.com slash sportsbook for details, gambling problem called 1-800 gambler or an Indiana 1-109 with it. I don't even slight word. That was great. I like it. I need some more. Give me some more legalties, Draft King. That was great. I like it. I need some more, give me some more legalese draft kings, alright?

Make it challenging for me. Let's roll this right into our BMW Ryder Cup section here. We're not going to have two sponsors here with one. BMW, of course, a global partner of the Ryder Cup, a partner of ours. I've been all year long sponsoring these Ryder Cup segments, which we would gladly have done even if they weren't sponsoring them. So thank you for that. But a lot of kids and stuff going around today, a lot of kids and stuff. Where do you, before I have my, my, say my piece, where are you guys at? I mean, give me

Steve Sink over kids. Whoa. Two time winner. Two time winner. If we're going by wins. Really? No, what I'm saying is if we're going to make a point're doing, I'll try to make a point here. Yeah, I see what you're doing. If you're going to buy wins, then why isn't Stu Sink in the conversation right now? Because it happened because of a recency bias. So, I actually, that's respect, Neil. That's very enjoyable. I like, thank you for that. You're welcome. I think I don't feel super strongly on this and there's probably a lot of reasons for that, but I think if you want to pick Kevin Kizner, that's totally fine. And it's something I would listen to,

based on everything we just got done saying about him, and he just seems like he kind of breaks the mold, and he seems like he's a good guy to have on the team. Seems like people like being around him. Intangibles. He's got the intangibles. If you're gonna pick him, because he won the Wendem Championship,

I think that's very stupid. Incredibly stupid. I'm with you. If your case going into this week was like, Kizner should be on the team and here's why. This week helped. If he finished T2, it would have helped. That's where I think you can use the wind him as an excuse.

You can use it as validation. If you already had your mind made up, I think it's very easy to be like, no, listen, he won the wind him. He's great. He's in great form. I think people are also, you know, he won the match play a few years ago. I think I don't know what his record is in the Ryder Cup, but he's always seemed like it's never played a Ryder Cup. Just presence cup. Presence cup. Sorry. It seems like he's, you know, a positive in the history of team matchups.

But I think a lot of people lean on that match play win. It's like, oh, well, he's great at match play. It's like, well, maybe he was just hot that week, you know? It's tough to, and that was also like four years ago. It's like eight years ago, as well. So I don't know. If Kizner was on the team, it was two years ago in his, but fair enough. I kind of think he would be good on the team, but I don't think that the groundswell of support for him just because he won is stupid.

Him winning on a short, Donald Ross driving accuracy matters golf course in a stroke play tournament does extremely little for me at Wistengstraight on a different grass type on a completely different setup in a completely different format. He has a great match play record, no one's denying that. But a lot of that is at Austin Country Club, where it is a quirky, fun, awesome match play course, interesting Pete Dye design that is very different,

very different than Wisting Straits. It is not, Wisting Straits is by all accounts of a Bombers Paradise. What did Kisner say a couple weeks ago when, you know, someone asked him a question and he said, yeah, Beth Page and so, and whatever course, like I can't win there. He basically said, like, yeah, there's only, I'm playing for 20th, I think. Was that what he was saying?

And they pay a lot for 20th, that's why I showed up. There's like five weeks a year where I can compete. It's probably more than that, but there's certain courses where he's like, yeah, I can't compete here. And Wishing Straits, it falls in that category for me, right? It's probably more than that, but there's certain courses where he's like, yeah, I can't compete here. And WishingStraight falls in that category for me, right? I mean, if we are just trying to think about this, right? And learning like what analytics mean.

And I know a lot of people want to roll their eyes at analytics and say it's, you know, this isn't about stroke scheme, it's about, you know, this emotion, all this kind of stuff. But just like, just picture like a long golf hole. And WishingStraight's, by all accounts just picture like a long golf hole. And Wistengstrades by all accounts is gonna have long golf holes, right? And picture a just total dispersion chart

for Kevin Kisner. And picture it for somebody like Tony Fiena. How many shots is Kisner gonna be giving up or the T? Or even like Harris English. Yeah, off the T. On almost every hole, he's gonna be behind the eight ball

in terms of being in position to score well. And do you want to take the chance that he's going to have one of these hot weeks? Was anyone saying anything about him at TPC Southman last week? You can't just cherry pick the best events for any player and say like, this is what you're going to get in the rider cup. You have to balance the likelihood that they're going to perform well, right? And I'm looking shit. I mean, at the, just looking at his last month or so in strokes gained rounds, he lost six and a half shots in round three at the open championship. He lost almost three shots in round two at FedEx. He lost one and a half shots, around three at FedEx.

And then the final round FedEx lost seven shots. That was last week, right? And he won this week. That's great. Like he's an extremely good player. We've documented that. I think I am in on thinking outside the box on who we pick, right? I don't think it has to go seven through 12 in the rankings,

but it is not adding up for what we're about to do. JB Holmes was a captain's pick in 2016 for the US. Like think about that. That was a good pick. They're gonna play a long golf course with mode down rough and we are gonna hit it far. That's what they said they were gonna do. And they did it and they won.

Kisner would have made a lot of sense in France. He would have. They picked Phil Mickelson who went on three and conceded his last match from a T-box, but it's not adding up. We don't need Kisner on this team at Wishing Straits. There is a situation where that wouldn't make sense. It's not this year. Kisner is not having the year that some people are thinking that he's having and it's not a great course fit. And that is

my case. And again, this week didn't really change it. If he goes and beats the door down the playoffs and does the Billy Horsel thing and he's coming in hot, like go ahead, put him on team. I'm fine with that. If it's the putter stays hot, I think it is his playing style, like matches up pretty well for match play. But so then you're open to that. If the putter stays hot, I think his playing style matches up pretty well for match play, but so then you're open to it. If you keep it. Sure, he's got to beat the door down. You're just saying right now, if you have to make the picks tonight. Yeah, if you had to make the pick, I don't agree with you.

But there is time left, so if he keeps, I was not sure. At this point, I was not screaming for Horseshal to be on the 2014 team, but by the end of the playoffs, did I want him on that team? Absolutely, and they'd already made the picks. So they were kind of screwed. And if he goes and does the same thing through the playoffs, like hot hand, go ahead, like by all means, but this, this doesn't really do it for me. If he goes and does it on some different golf courses, some Bombers Paradise golf courses, like that's a different conversation than what we're having. Also, the top players weren't there this week. He wasn't beating the top. He beat everyone that was there. That's a different conversation than what we're having. Also, the top players weren't there this week. He wasn't beating the top play. He beat everyone that was there.

That's great. But like, none of the guys he's going to be up against in the rider cup. We're there. Right. You know, and that's a different ball game. I wish, I wish people could see DJ and I were sitting across from solid. I'm like, yo, dude, I, I wish I could draw more on you.

But yeah, I don't know what, I don't know what follow up. That's one of the boys. That's surely that has to come for something. I mean, you know, it's not a hobby for him. So we should automatically make the Ryder Cup team. I think also you got to look at, you know, who you're picking him over, right? I mean, that's the whole other thing with these that's very obvious. I know, but there's there's not unlimited spots like picking him means you're not picking

someone else. And so when you're doing that exercise, it's it comes down to like, all right, you not picking Like picking him means you're not picking someone else. And so when you're doing that exercise, it comes down to like, all right, you're not picking Jordan Speed, you're not picking Harris English, or you're not picking Patrick Reed. You know, Patrick Reed or Kevin Kizner, who are you taking? Whoa.

And that's where you're talking about. That's not interesting. That's not one or the other, right? There's a bunch of other guys to slot in too. Yeah. But it is interesting. I think that's almost kind of like where his, that too. You know, so, but it is interesting. I think that's almost kind of like where his, that's almost like the best case of the day.

Where's Billy Joel at on the, in the standings? Here's what I'll say. Is that Jason Coker? Yeah. Is there a, okay. Is there a, it's a piano man. Yeah, where's piano man at? Incredibly specific situation where this would make sense,

where he's gonna play ForSums, he's gonna play with this person, and he's gonna tee off on the even holes, and removing the even holes up a box, and he can cover the same bunkers that John Rahm is gonna be covering. Like if there is a very specific situation that they're gonna lay out,

that would make sense to play him in, do you think the captain's are playing chess like that? God, no, absolutely not. The captains have not opened the checkerboard and they are playing. They're not. They can't find the box in the closet. Yeah. I know. It should be here. They're playing travel. I don't know where to put the checkers. It's not. They're not that far advanced. So in that situation, yeah, that's where I'm at. That not to downplay his win at all. I just, I can't do this another three weeks,

like every good shot that gets hit, Ian Baker finished this at one point today in the same sentence, nominated two guys who could be picks based on how this whole place out. I'm like, this is a predictive exercise, right? You can't just look back at past results, and I know you can really rise that because I'm a big stroke-skinned guy,

but like, stroke. Skane is really predictive at your ability. It's like your ability to get in the ball in the hole, but like you can't cherry pick top events and project that out. It might be, it might work out, but if we're playing the odds on how to do this, that is not the best way to form a winning team. What about a guy like Webb, who's higher in the standings, probably has a much better all-around game, Ryder Cup experience pairs well with everyone,

but finish one stroke back of the lead today. Yeah, I think Webb is an interesting discussion point, but I think he's a more interesting case than Kisner, probably. 100%, as of right now. But I'm with you that, part of me kind of, I really like watching Kizner and I like these got a very different game.

I like that he's got like, again, we're spouting cliches but obviously it's a very fuck you kind of attitude that he has. It's fun to watch. It would be super fun to watch at the Ryder Cup. Like part of me like hopes he gets picked. If I'm kind of, you know, removing myself from really, like we're just saying downstairs,

like do I really care who's on the US team from like a RAH-RA US perspective, or do I care from like an entertainment perspective? And I think Kizner would be about one of the more entertaining guys you could pick. No, you mean not from a RAH-RA from a, like, give us the best opportunity to win versus entertainment.

Yeah, like us equals United States, right? If I'm like putting that head on of like, our best, like, come on boys, like we need to go do this. That's not totally how I watch the Ryder Cup and like I don't know, I can't take it, like I do. But like the European team, like the European team is way more fun to watch, they're more compelling. Like we watch all these guys, we watch them.

Yeah, first time I'm sure I've said that on this podcast. You think I'm gonna argue with that? Yeah, Bryson Reed. No, I'm not. You're in Tron, right? Riding for the, we've been saying this for like four years now, but it's, yeah, Bryson Brooks, JT. Right, right.

The Lads, excuse me. JT, Xander, Harris, English, Pat Reed, Daniel Berger, Cantlay, Fina, Webb, like you want to root for those guys or you, or is it a little more fun to watch, like, Rory, John Rom, and Sergio's probably gonna be in there, Polter's probably gonna be in there, like, let me say this. Let me say this.

They have more wild cards, yeah. Which is definitely. So where I'm getting at with all of this is like, if I'm with you, Salih, and I'm like, we the US, I'm with you, I'm like, yeah, Kizner pride doesn't make a ton of sense. If I'm like, the golf fan who just likes tuning in and watching like exciting stuff,

yeah, kind of would like to watch kids. Oh yeah, there's Kiz. Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. And I think that brings us to Phil Mickelson. Well, before we get to that, it's gonna make the segue if you didn't. Before we get to that, a lot of people wanna do,

like, this is what the Euros do, like they do like the swag and the grit and the, you know what the Euros do, like they do like the swag and the grit and the you know what the Euros do They do the analytics like they laugh at our pairings from the 2018 Ryder Cup Littlely the analytics group that put together the pairings for the European team laughed when they put the US put their four sums out there because there was just no Scientific add up for how this was gonna play out when you start like Again, if you want to get in the real nerdy stuff this shot dispersion thing is like where this thing is won and lost.

And like the Europeans were playing, God, they were playing, what's the game from New Girl? The, the, the, the, uh, true American or whatever that game is called. You're selling yourself there. Yeah, I know, I'm not sure what that, I can't go down that road, but I don't know what that, that game,

you've never watched New Girl? No. So additional sucks. Yeah, she stinks. Oh my god Anyways, they play an extremely complicated drinking game which he cooked Joseph Gordon Levin in a horror 500 is summer or Unbelievable anyway, that's that's damn I have heard of this drinking game that you're talking about though. Yeah, yeah It's it looks really fun, but it's looked true American is what it's called. It's a very complicated drinking game That's what the Europeans are playing while we can't figure out travel checkers. So we can't figure out. Don't roll your eyes. I was trying to drink out of the boot as fast. Come on man, you started too soon.

I can say don't roll your eyes at this analytic stuff because it is how the Europeans have gotten a leg up. And again, I think the Americans like kind of like fake their way through the analytic stuff and kind of look for the stats that are convenient for it and look for it to support opinions they already have rather than to make the decisions that they wanna make. Doesn't sound like Americans. Yeah, all right.

I've got a, I've got a, I've got a direct question. It's actually another example of that. Sorry, I have a direct question for you. I'm listening. And this is not who you think should be on the team. Do you think, yes or no? Hell yeah, do it.

Do you do it? That the, Bob! United States of American captain's team will pick Phil Mickelson to be on the Ryder Cup team? I do not. You don't think they will. Don't think they will. Honestly, I would have put the chances at 0.01% going into this week. Jeff Shackleford had to write up in the Quadratlado this week that said, basically Phil's gonna be on the team and I,

it's like through me for a loop for like two days. I haven't really fully recovered from like even the thought of that. From an entertainment standpoint, you have my attention. And I'm not, this is not hyperbole, I promise you when I say this. If they choose Phil Mickelson, it will release a huge burden for me because I promise you, I will no longer care who wins the Ryder Cup. It will unshackle, Sully. You guys are gonna fucking try to win

that I would do charity work. That's exactly where I would net out. Like, okay, it's just like a showcase. Like this is in a real sporting event. We already make like 90% of our decisions horribly. And if we do that, then it's like, okay, well now I just don't really care. It's WWE.

It's, yeah, it's gonna be a lot more fun to watch this meltdown actually, because that would be, I don't even know where you'd rank that like in terms of like of bad decisions. I, so you remember when Ted Bishop called, tweeted a whole, no man called a whole girl. I got a gut feeling, man. Ted Bishop tweeting that at, at, at Polter was like a better move than Selecton Phil, I'd say. Like that makes more sense from a winning rider

cut perspective than choosing Philwood. Such an underrated moment at golf history, yeah, no one talks about that. No, you do have America president fired because he called Polter a quote, little girl. End quote, like on over three bottles of wine or something after a dinner or something like that. Real.

Neil, you think he's gonna get picked? Oh, man. Because I'm happy to ride on this block that I do think they're picking up. But do you really think so? I do. Yes. I do.

I think it's one of, I'm with you. I couldn't agree with you more. Because I think that I think they want people to tune in and I think Phil, they will justify that Phil moves the needle. Do you have, you know, somebody else like, I don't think it makes any sense and I couldn't do it. I couldn't have laid out a pair of gifts.

No, no, and I agree with you. Do you have any idea how much of my golf energy is propped up by this event? Like my energy to do this every week. For sure. Do you have any idea what, like the death of this event would do to me personally? Do you have any idea?

How hard I'm trying to prepare you for this death of what the head of time. I'm with Siege on this. I think just because it's all, it's a cash grab in a lot of ways and he, it's viewers, right? And I think that the justification would be, you know, Phil's gonna, he played and they, you know, you can make the case that he won the PGA. He's still got it.

He's, you know, experience. Yeah, he's experienced. And young guys on this team, we need somebody, you know, we need like a player captain. Last rodeo. Phil, I talked to Phil. What Calgood Tiger did is the, as the, you know, captain slash player at the president's cup, you know, all these argue, I can see all of them, these conversations being, I talked to Phil and I just see, you know, he wants one more go around.

And he's earned that, Sully. Exactly. Sully, he's earned that. God damn it, I swear. I can't say. Okay, we owe him that. I can't say anything because you guys are saying a lot of things that they would say. Well, that's where I'm like, dude, if you think nobody loves Steve Stryker, more than

me, a huge Steve Stryker guy, but does he seem like the guy who's gonna go not pick the guy who won, the second, the most popular active player considering Tigers current status. Like the guy won the PGA and Steve Stryker's that could gonna be the guy who puts him out to pasture. But I wouldn't even think he would be in consideration. Like we're not even in the ballpark.

Like we're talking about the war. He's not even like he's, he's, Phil Michaels. So I know the staff. He's number 19 on the rankings right behind Kevin Kisder. Phil McElay has lost to his, Kisder or Michael. Phil is not batting 50% this year in beating other professionals. He has lost to more people in tournaments than he's beat. Like, again, your case is a great one.

And I agree with it. But do I think that Stricker and Co are gonna be like, let's pour over these charts. Let's just keep it. You don't even have to pour. You have to open the pour. Are they gonna be like, I got a feeling and I think it's intuition.

And this guy has so much experience. You can't teach that. There's no data in the world. I think you's intuition and this guy has so much experience. You can't teach that. There's no data in the world. I think you can teach that. Well, I wish Randy was here because Randy is so, he rides so passionately for this take on ironically that like, yes, they should take Phil. Of course, they should take Phil.

He's so good. He's one of the best players in the history of the game. Of course, they should take him. And he was very fired up earlier this week. He was fired up. On Slack and Solid was throwing a lot of data at him and Randy just kept saying like, listen man, it's not the strokes game cup. It's, it's the rider cup. And Randy is very, no, I threw zero data out there. Randy's a patriot though. So, you know, that makes a ton of sense. What did, Randy had a good lot. What did he say? Something like,

you know, yeah, I guess whatever you could get Daniel Burger and Cocrack, you just got to take that chance. Hey, take the piano man out of your mouth. Anytime you can get those guys out of the team, I guess you got to chill fat it. I mean, yeah, sure. I'm riding for the piano man. I want Cocrack swaggering all over the place up there.

I just, I don't think that's gonna happen. I know, but the guy can dream, right? If they do take Phil. Like, it's the same thing with the, with the, with the Kizner thing, they have to leave someone off, right? And so that's, I think the best case is, there's four guys that they just absolute, six guys that they just absolutely can't.

Unsubstitial rumor has it that Tony Fiena was up there for a couple of days this week at Whistling. So I don't know if he knows something that we don't know. Now I would, there's a case to be made. If Fina was on the team, there's no spots. There's an interesting conversation about whether you'd rather have Fina or Phil that I would talk about, but sure. Maybe we'd say that next week.

It'd be a change in the guard. I mean, because Fina does have a good record. So same, you know, he's been stinky lately. He's been stinky lately, but if you go on Ryder Cup experience and like, oh, he's got a great record and you know he's a player and then you could, you could talk me into Fina. I, I, I, I didn't even want to let myself get to that.

That was be a good reputation of it. It's not about wins. That's a take of it. Yeah. It, I've been holding off on like even trying to make this case because like Phil doesn't even enter the conversation for me at this point, but Phil hasn't even been a good Ryder Cup player.

It's one thing if he was like Polter who finds some in something every time a Ryder Cup comes around. Yeah, but you just gotta give it one more chance. He's three, his teams are three and nine in all the cups. When the bell goes off, something changes. Earned it. He is a losing record in rider cup matches.

He's like the second best player, the generation. Like that's not what we're not talking about. Anyone that's been a positive for these teams, he dominates the team room, dominates the decisions, over and certs himself in every possible way. He brings the competitiveness up on the ping pong table. Exactly. You know, like in those team rooms though, you don't know.

You have already stand. Fucking eviscerated Tom Watson. Just drove his car over him. Who do you think's been worse from a vibe standpoint, feel or p-read? I think feels been great for the vibe. On ironically. Great for the vibe, but like, hasn't necessarily translated to wins.

Yeah. Right. I think everybody's had a really good time. Except for that match that he had with Sergio. That was great. That was epic when they, and you know what, there's unfinished business. There's the Erndit.

He's earned it. And I'm going back to that. That's right. So this was Phil's match. Do you remember that? Yes. Something happens that he's a fan. He was a spot.

He just changes. So when the captain's got super jolly right after the PGA and Davis love is talking about like, you know, we were going to talk to Phil about what he wanted to do. I'm glad we didn't do that. And sinewating like he's going to be on the team and Phil replied and said, if I'm the captain, I'm not going to want a guy that plays well one week in an entire year. Just because I played really well last week and won a big championship.

That does not warrant a spot on the team by any means. So like I can't picture Phil like beating down the door right now. Like I need to be on this team. Like I deserve to be on this team. I want to be on this team. What if he knows he's not playing a good golf for it to him. He refused the crown. That would be the perfect end.

That would make everybody happy. Yeah. I mean, he's an average PGA tour player at this point that had a miraculous week. But this is the first year in his career that he's ever lost Strokesgate. He is below average. Come on, you know he's going to snap back. So listen, that's maybe it's not even a real topic, but I got me fired up. We ruined Sully's night.

No, you didn't ruin it. D railed you. No, you're the look at you. It can't happen. The Paul that's come over you. It can't happen. If there was no one to select, if we weren't in the deepest era of American golf that we've ever been in, it'd be a different conversation.

But like, if he gets the pick over Scottie Shephler, like, I'm out. I'm out. Do you think there's anything to the idea, though, that it is an exhibition? If it needed attention, yes, but it gets the maximum amount of attention right now in the golf world, right? And if they want to turn to the circus that reaches other people, then that, again, that's where you lose me.

Like, I just won't care about it. Like this is the golf competition. I actually care about the result the most. Like it's the most fun, it is the most spirit, it's the most shit talking that happens, it's the most, the only time actually feels something towards who is actually competing in it, you know? It's the only time you get to play

under like your country's flag, like it means the result should mean something. So take that to heart Captain Stryker. Don't take this from solid. The president's cup, that's an exhibition, right? How does that feel every year when it comes around? No, I, I totally agree with you, but like, I, I don't know. I'm also not like a very casual fan, and I'm also not a, you know, the event organizer, right? So I, I don't know what they're, I don't know what their goals

are, I guess. The cell, the, the The sell out nature of golf is it is so deep. That's what makes me think they're gonna pick them. And that's where I'm like, if the rider cup is already a huge corporate thing, but if it stops becoming about who wins, then like, then I'm a part of me will die. God, what if they pick them and he plays great? Whew, honestly, you could make a somewhat of a case

with the golf course. Yes. It makes more sense golf course wise than Kizner. Yes, but hitting bombs. It doesn't make sense from a logical standpoint. Anyways, across the pond, women's Scottish open, Ryan O'Toole gets her first win, and got her first look at Dunn Barney,

a new, I'd say, more American style, more modern, links course than a true Scottish links. It seemed okay from the golf I watched on that. It seemed fine, seemed King's Barney, but it didn't quite scratch the itch that I think we're going to get in the coming week with the AIG Women's Open at Karnusty. That's what I was going to say. I didn't get to watch a ton of it.

Rhino tool, cool story, first win in 11 years as a LPGA grinder. Sounds like there was from this, of course, always getting my news from the great Beth Ann Nichols from Golf Week. But it sounded like she was ready to, you know, kind of entertaining some thoughts about hanging it up, maybe having some kids, having family, relaxing, and yeah, it's just cool to see like, you know, someone break through after that long.

That's always, always fun. In a week, kind of full of those stories, it was cool seeing that on the LPGA as well. And Liddy Co. runner up again. She's playing for the Baltimore. And another strong finish from Lyona McGuire, the boys have been, you know, shaking over rooftop. Ever since we went to the KPMG,

I feel like she's gonna break through here pretty soon. I cannot wait to watch at Carnegie Nuzzi this week. It's gonna be incredible. I think it's gonna be really, really fun. I think we kind of said this on the pod whenever I was on last week or two weeks ago. But I think women's golf is, it seems much more one-dimensional than the men's game for a lot of reasons.

I think a lot of that is just the way that these women are so freaking consistent in what they do. I think a lot of times it's just when they have one 32. It's hit at one 32. They play a lot of fairly soft golf courses and I'm just really, really excited to see kind of some imagination on display and just see a different style of golf.

I can't wait. You said that earlier, I kind of disagree. After watching KPMG, I feel like the way that they are able to hit the green with five woods and long irons, like all day long, like automatically is less one dimensional than the pros that are bomb and gouge. Totally, that's also a major setup.

Like it's a different type of week. I agree though, but I think that, I think that kind of almost proves what I am saying that like that shows how much is there that's probably not being utilized. You know what I mean? Seeing them constantly do that over and over and over is like, dude, what else can you do?

Like what if you guys were playing like good golf courses? Like holy shit, that would be fun to watch. I just feel like there, but to me there's more dimensions than one when you're approaching the green. It's not always long irons. They're doing it with wedge. They're doing it through the bag into the green. And I don't feel like I see that as much on the PGA tour.

No, for sure. That's definitely true. And modern men's golf at the top level, like these links courses just get so shrunk down to like, it's so many wedges now in that guys can hold greens with spin pretty easily. And the scale at which the women play it is just different. And that ball is going to be coming in lower with less spin

and those factors of links golf. If the conditions are right, I haven't seen pictures of car news to yet. If it's soft, they will have no problem and they probably won't have a problem anyways, but it's just going to require different shots. It's going to require shots that land short. It's going to require shots to play away from pins and require just a positioning game that is so enjoyable to watch at major championship level. So I think these kind of top, you know, links courses. There aren't that many left that fit both the men's and women's game. And it's going to be really interesting to watch the women play this one.

And I'm very excited for it. I'm my viewing schedule is going to be a little tight this coming week, but I'm going to be catching as much as I possibly can. So DVR, baby. Yeah, I'm going to be gone. Oh, that's sure. I'm sure it's full this week. USAM, James Piot wins the United States Amateur 2 and 1, 5th year senior at Michigan

State. Gosh, it turns out venues really, really matter in golf television viewing. Well, just in the vibe of the whole thing too, it was almost lucky that the PGA got moved up today because it just teed up. It was almost like an apple pie. It was almost like an apple pie. And then, oh, man, USAM's on all afternoon. This is great. It just teed up. It was almost like an apple pie. It was a long answer. And then, oh man, the US Amazon all afternoon, this is great.

I had undivided attention, you know, watched the whole, like the all 18 holes and, Oakmont, God, with no bleachers, no, like they'd taken these big shots. And it's just such a good vibe when everyone just milling around. Just milling around and it just felt very authentic. I loved it.

I think I'll also concede to knowing intellectually that Oakmont's one of the best golf courses in the country, slash world, but not probably being able to articulate in a great reason, like in a great way, why? And I think a lot of that is what you're saying. I think it's a lot of grandstands. It's a lot of high angled TV shots. It kind of, like TV for a lot of reasons, like it's very consistent in that it's going to make a lot of golf courses look the same, right? And seeing all the on the ground stuff that they had there, seeing like shout out to Jim Gallagher Jr. was doing like kind of the whole ahead of the championship match and just showing like all the different

slopes and what's going on with different bunkers and like holy hell, man, that just you saw you said it on Slack or whatever, but like what different bunkers and like, holy hell, man. It's all you said at Onslack or whatever, but like what a great illustration of like why you'd go there and shoot a million, right? And like it just doesn't, you don't get that from the air. You don't get like, you know, there's no crazy water hazards. You gotta drive over. There's nothing that's like, man, I don't, you know,

what's all the teeth. And then you just see on the ground stuff and like all the different land movement, all the different slopes, all the different greens. Like positioning. Yes. And match play especially just positioning. How you can flip the tide of a match, how you can flip the tide of a hole with one great shot,

despite somebody out positioning you throughout the hole. The control you have to have around the greens when you are at a position out of uncertain lies on some of the slickest and slightest greens I've ever seen golf played on watching some of those balls roll out. It is so great. It's also like dumb so great.

So difficult, yes. It is just so, so difficult like that style play. I would be, if I broke 90 at Oakmont this week from that set up, I would have been pretty thrilled. Well, also, I think actually the aerial stuff for me helped, but it was because they had so much time to fill that it was like strategic aerial stuff. Like when they're walking down the fairway

and they're just kind of killing time, they were showing these drone shots, just kind of hanging up there. And after you've seen them hit the shot, you're like, oh my god, look at that. Now after I've seen the down the line view of where that bunker was, like on that 690 yard par five, and you're like, where he's trying to lay it up to,

and he puts it in that bunker. I think that was 12, can't remember which hole it was, but then they show the aerial shot, and you're like, holy shit, what a tough layup that is. You know, like that's great stuff. It's good golf, but it's, yeah. It's also they have to fill the time. Yeah, and in a US Open at Oakmont,

they're just bouncing around, you're just getting golf shots so that they don't have the ability to give you that. But it was a joy to watch that. It was, their graphics even have the slope of the can't of the fairway in them, which as soon as I saw, you could see a flyover of a 360-yard par four and kind of roll your eyes. And then you see that slope of that fairway being

ball above your feet right to left that changes the entire dynamic of the shots you have to play. And it is just I mean, I mean, we go ahead. I will. I'm I just want to get the telecast in the shot. I thought noda and bones were awesome. So good. The fact that they were both it was they felt like they were so comfortable. They it's like they'd been with these guys. They're ones falling one guy ones falling the other and they're just like almost part of the squad. You know, they're just listening to every conversation and it was just it was like everybody was in a groove. It both the players and the telecast.

It's like, man, it probably has to bottle that up and take it somewhere else. That bring it with you to the next place. Well, it has to. It's yeah, it's a little like contradictory, I think, because we're we're always getting on them so much about show more shots. Show more shots. Show more shots. And it's really hard when those guys got to get in and out so fast.

So when they have more room to breathe, and you can hear bones explain like the lie, you can hear them explain the trajectory that it needs to be and what's going to happen and what is going on from a match play perspective and all those things like I'm with you, it's captivating. So then maybe like, and we've talked about this before and how it's tough for TV, but different formats, like could we get more match play? Where that could be possible. Like, that was a joy to watch.

Is it only because it's the USAM? And it's like, I think it's tradition. Or it's venue two. I'm sure that venue at meant so much to what, what I'm played today. Like, it really did. Like, the value of those shots and like, the, again, I can just go back to positioning.

Like, watching, watching like, top level amateurs know how to play a really difficult golf courses. Like, at an age where they, like, I probably shouldn't have as much discipline as they do. It was really interesting to me and they did such a great job setting up. Justin Leonard was great too, just in talking about as soon as a ball landed, exactly what the considerations would be for the next shot. There's a reason why, first, however many years on this podcast, we've talked so much about golf courses, like the setting in which these are played matters a lot. And bringing that to life is a challenge for broadcasters and the format

lended itself to that and no commercials lended them that itself to being, you know, telling the story of Oakmont and keeping you locked in. So congrats to them on that. I think it was fantastic. I got a question for you guys. Tough channel flipping. Well, yeah, but also kind of sweet. Just the cultural spectrum of going from NASCAR

to US amateur golf was very, very cool. Well, peacock to golf channel earlier in the week and all that is really freaking annoying. When you flipped it on today, like I didn't have any, maybe you had more context, but I didn't watch a ton of the USM before today, caught up on some highlights, had no allegiance to either player. Who did you, it's always a funny experiment for me.

Like, who are you attracted to? Like, who are you, do you find yourself rooting for and why? I couldn't tell if I hated or loved Austin Greaser. I couldn't really. I think I'm in, but I want to reserve. If he turns out to be really punchable, I want to be able to flip on him. Like I'm in right now. I kind of like this way.

I kind of dug his vibe. Yeah, it's hard to, I don't know. I kept kind of heat checking myself. I'm like, you know, these are just like really nervous, like 21 year old kids on TV. So it's hard to judge too much. But yeah, the Austin Greaser DJ impression was a little much for me, probably.

But I was more glued to the guy who won. Piot just with some of his backstory, I thought was cool and playing at Michigan State is kind of an underrated. Like, you know, he seemed kind of chippy, a little underrated. Like what do they say? First big 10 guy to win since John Cook,

which is kind of shocking since Big Ten is a number of good golfers, good amateur golfers. But yeah, I don't know, I had no real good reason. It was just, it was a true, like it was kind of fun not to have a rooting interest. That's what I mean, and that's what I mean. But naturally you're gonna start to... I wanted it to go to 18.

I didn't take black. Which I had the same vibe, but I found myself, I like Piot's vibe of like, he'd throw the shades on in between shots and then take them off, I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it.

I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it.

I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't take it. I didn't, it wasn't. It was just a local kid. And you know, it was just like, the caddies vibe was cracking me up

because he was kind of like kinda reading puts and not in the first like 30 minutes. I was like, oh, that's just like a little brother. Like that guy, he must feel so overwhelmed. It's like, no, he's just a local caddie. He just been on a heater of that. Did you guys see this tangent? But did you see the story on the Champions Tour

about the guy who caddy for VJ this week? No. It was like a guy working in the golf shop in Calgary at the course that they were playing and they're like, yeah, we need some guys to get on some bags and this guy got VJ. And the Champions Tour, it seemed kind of random. Maybe the Champions Tour is doing this all the time, but they did like a produced video about this guy and VJ working together. And it was so captivating.

Shout out, I think I saw it in the golf digest newsletter, email newsletter. But VJ is just like farting on this guy completely, just like, like the guy like is so clearly like petrified to be working for VJ. And VJ is almost like toying with him, just like, you know, they're almost kind of like miked up, but he's like, how far is it?

It's like, oh, guys like shooting his laser, he's like, oh, it's 200 features, like there's no ways, 200. 186, he's a cat. Well, good thing, you know, good thing you're not allowed to use the laser during the round. And just like, oh, local knowledge, like, what do you think this one's doing?

It's like a 60 foot pot. Like, what do you think this one's doing? Like off the fringe from the front collar, he's like, oh, I think it's left edge. He's like, really? He's like, you think it's that vibe of a fight, you think it's left edge. It's like, that's pretty specific.

And he's like, what do you think? He's like, I think it's gonna go a lot more than that. And it's just, it's really captivating stuff. Would watch a Netflix series about these two guys working together, because it was great. I was gonna say, I love the USA. Like five minutes ago, I was gonna say, That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious.

That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious.

That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious.

That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That's serious. That is why I think they're gonna pick filming for the writer's content. Greaser, he was making me a little anxious. Like he had kind of a wild follow through and off the tee, but he got to hit a mile. He actually, his game though strikes me like the lengthy hits hit and he rolls the potato. He's got like, tour player written all over him.

Definitely. It's always hard to project. Like, the US Amener is not, I would not say is great at identifying the top Amener player. And that, I agree. And that's why I kind of, I'm pointing that out. I was like, man, his game looks like it could, it could translate well to the pros.

What did you guys think of guys playing up opposite fairways? That it was awesome. It's great. Sign me up. It's complicated. On the surface, I, for some reason in my head, I'm like, this is horrible. They're defacing the golf course.

What have they done? This is terrible. And then I think, I think one me over on this conversation where it's like, dude, we can't, you know, you can't celebrate this at the old course and all these links courses is like, oh God, it's just great strategy. And not, you know, acknowledge it when it happens over here.

So I actually, I thought it was great. Yeah, with, if you don't like it, I also wanna hedge play both sides. Say, if you don't like it, I would also be fully in support of them putting in course out of bounds as much as they want. I thought it's fun. I thought it's fun.

I do think it's fun at the end of the day. I think it's fun to see, at the, the most stuffy of the US GA championships. Like I think it's fun to see the ball going 500 miles in front of the US GA's face and just like. Yeah. Yeah, we're at fucking Oakmont, dude, we're just gonna hit it in other fairways

because that's how far we hit it. And it's gonna be a little flip wedge in here. From high ground. Yeah. Yeah. And for the players sake, like if I'm playing for the USAM and that's the best angle, like in my competitors doing it, 100 if I'm playing for the USAM and that's the best angle like in my competitors doing it 100% I'm totally the other fairway. So a lot of

Leopard's ate my face Some people that were like didn't need more trees out there or maybe the ball shouldn't go that fucking far like Are you kidding me? It's pretty simple because this is what you get when the ball goes really far It's pretty simple. Like this is what you get when the ball goes really far. Yeah, I need to add trees into this. That solves the issue here. For sure.

I want to go back to the last thing on the USA and it was, I was loving was just the fans being just right up in the real all day long. And I thought on that, 95% great, 5 percent like what the fuck? I thought when like you're like 20 feet away from the flag. But he hit that bunker shot on 17 and it rolled into the back bar. I was like, for sure somebody's like immediately thought

someone was going to, you know, stop it with their foot. And they didn't. So you know, it all worked out. But like I was ready for somebody to search this. In the story drama. And maybe that's because I was just on the lookout for, you know, I was ready for somebody to insert themselves in the story. And maybe that's because I was just on the lookout for NLU, like elephant shirts and stuff. So shout out to the guy we're in the elephant shirt, but having the crowd in there, not inserting themselves,

but being, it just, it looked like an enjoyable thing to go watch. Oh, I wanna go to a USM so badly. And so as a TV viewer, when it looks like it's fun to be there, it makes you more interested in it, I think. I'm gonna keep practicing. Some strange venue choices coming out, I think, or just kind of, what are they?

Ridgewood in New Jersey, which is sweet. That'll be a fun one to watch. Cherry Hills, which I think would be fun. Hazeltein, which is, you know, we've seen Hazeltein. Olympic Club, kind of seen Olympic Clubteam Olympic Club. We know. Kind of seen Olympic Club. Marion, which would be great. Oak Hill, kind of seen Oak Hill. And the honors course, which would be cool.

Which we haven't seen. Which we haven't seen much. Ridgewood, I might have to get up to the Ridgewood. I think it'd be far as you know. And to your point on like whether it's a good predictor of kind of stardom, it is, it turns out an interesting type of player. I'm just going to rally these off for people who don't have them memorized, but kind of the last like 20 going

back to 2000, just kind of mentally making note on on which of these guys kind of popped and which didn't because it's an interesting mix. Jeff Quenney, Bubba Dickerson, Ricky Barnes, Nick Flanagan, Ryan Moore, Eduardo Molinari, Richie Ramsey, Colt Nost, Danny Lee, Ben on Peter Uline, Kelly Kraft, Stephen Fox, Matt Fitzpatrick, Gun Yang, Bryson, Curtis Luck, shout out to Curtis, Doc Redmond, Victor Hoveland, Andy Ogletree, Tyler Strafachi. It is like half and half. Yeah, there's it's almost split. To me, my head, I'm like one, it's like heads and tails.

One guy's, yeah, player, the next guy's like, ah, he struggled. Most, most guys, I feel like you've, you know, maybe that bottom quarter, maybe, you know, you could throw up, but it, most guys, you've, you know, you've heard of. Yeah. They went on to have careers. So it, it's not like it's, there's a lot of fluke fluqueners. Yeah. Announcements from the USGA as well this week regarding Oakmont and Marion. 2025, Open, I believe it was already announced, it's going to Oakmont. 2028 US Women's Open going to Oakmont. 2033 Walker Cup at Oakmont, these are all Oakmont.

2034 US Open, 2038 US Women's Open, 2042 US Open, 2046 Women's Amateur, 2049 US Open. She says Mike Wann, all at Oakmont. 42 US open 2046 women's amateur 2049 US open. He says Mike Wahn, all it open. Two and some big things early. He did a deal. He's like, let's sit down and look at the calendar. First month on the job, I want this shit planned out till 2050.

And then the more interesting, I think, Marion Golf Club, who is also hosting the Curtis Cup next year, 2026 USAM, 2030 US open, 2034 and 46 women's open, and the 2050 US Open is going to marry it. 29 years from now. Which makes me bullish that they're thinking about fixing the golf ball. That's exactly why I want to introduce this.

I don't know that they're going to marry it in 2050. No where to go at marrying.. Yeah, where to go at marion? Yeah, there's nowhere to go back. Like the golf ball will have to be resolved or that golf tournament will have to have moved by then. And on that note, when Mike Wann came on on the USGA, like, you know, the makeover kind of jacked up. I don't know.

I thought that's a home or take, but I was like, I was like, hell yeah, I'll ride with you. Like, you know, let's go. It made me feel it's a very, it's something. It's quite a departure from the past. It's just like, oh shit, this guy's in charge now. This is great. So I think it's just been talked about that last week,

but I, you know, just wanted to point that out. Like even his, like coming across the TV, maybe, you know, feel positive things. Yeah, some heads have already rolled at the USGA. The chief commercial officer was out. The chief commercial officer was out, the chief brand officer, whatever, no longer there. Like it seems like the Mike one plan is being put into effect very, very quickly.

And yeah, it's, the guy does not fuck around. Like it's gonna be different. Oh, the next however long his tenure is, it's gonna be very, very different. And gosh, it's hard to like, I was trying to find his quote here of just like, what he was looking into regarding the distance issue of like it's hard to look at this basically.

Well, that was from the Beth Ann piece with her interview, which was really good on golf week. And I'd, right, my people go read it. He said, I've said this many times but the last time really the USGA looked at distance and an attempt to establish a maximum distance with perfect launch conditions was 1976. So yeah, an outsider, I wonder if the the powers that be that hired Mike one knew what they were getting into in terms of like this guy is going to ruffle it. Like he is going to do things differently here.

So, I don't know. It's getting that far ahead of it and saying we're going to marry in in 20, 49, does give me a little bit, or 2050, does give me a little bit of confidence. But one, maybe stupid question there. Who is responsible for that hire? Like the, is there's a board?

I assume so, yeah. Yeah, like I just wonder who the there's a board? I assume so, yeah. Yeah, like I just wonder who the power's to be. I assume so. What's interesting and I was, maybe it's a future pod topic is like the coup that was attempted to happen in like 2013 or 2014 at the USGA, like some weird shit went down with people trying to assume power and.

It was Glenn Nager in the boys. Yeah, it was a very weird time period. You guys, she has a weird organization. I'm like, yeah, look into that this week. Just like, who's responsible for hiring now the guy in charge? Yeah, this is Shackleford's block. Is it?

Oh yeah, dive in on. All right, maybe I'll go to his background. I'll backhand him. Yeah. New OWGR rankings coming up here. As one person, gladly, are very astutely pointed out on Twitter. What are you guys gonna talk about now? No, what are you gonna talk about now?

So basically everything we said about the OWGR, we knew. That's their trash. Yeah, so basically everything I said was right. Well, it's interesting on the Mark Brody podcast. He's like, yeah, when I came out with Stroke's Gain, the driver said, driver's show, Puffer Doe is total trash. Everyone kind of fought me on it., when I came out with Stroke's Gain, you know, the driver said, driver show, Puffer Doe is total trash. Everyone kind of fought me on it.

And when I came out with my point, I'm like, yeah, Odobe, G.R. is really biased. Everyone was like, yeah, we know that. That's very obvious. So it sounds like everything's going to be changing. About a year from now, the, I won't bore everyone with the details, but minimum point levels, which is the thing that over inflates all the European and Asian tour events, that's going away. Flagship tournaments and home ratings are no longer needed, which removes a bias that can result from their use.

And there's going to be a stroke-skinned world-rating element. I honestly haven't read enough into it to know how that's going to work out. I just read that on the surface and said, that's a good development. Well, the thing that sticks out the most is that there's 5,000 plus players included in the system. Right now, that's a lot of cultures that are ranked in the world. So my big beef with this has always been that you can get into a very high top world ranking without going head to head with any of the guys you're passing.

That seems to be closing and that opportunity. So many people crying foul of, oh, now it's a closed system and all this stuff was like, it was skewed in your direction for a long, long period of time. This is evening the scales. It's not even retipping it in the other way. PGA Tor players have been at a huge disadvantage on the world stage in terms of earning points because of how many points were being given away in other events. So I don't know if the strategic alliance

between the PGA tour and the European tour is kind of help driving the change of any of this. I really don't know, but a year from now the world rankings are gonna look a little bit. It's not gonna greatly affect your viewing experience. It's not gonna affect a lot of things at the top, but like the way they're deciding who kind of the bottom guys are getting into

a lot of these world ranking events is gonna change. So it's a good development. Does anybody make, who am I gonna say this? Like, I'm talking about the strategic alliance. Does anybody like create more faux regality for their like league than the PGA tour? Like, everything they like talk about,

the what's the headquarters called? The Global Home. The Global Home. You know what I know? It's different organization. We're talking with PGA America. Everything they like talk about the the the what's the headquarters called the global home the global home You know, just like I know it's a different organization. We're talking with PJ America We're talking with the PJ tour, but this is why I think they're gonna pick film it because I'm for the right Literally the strategic watch the broadcast for fucking 15 minutes. What tell me they're not gonna What should we call it? Let's call it a the strategic alliance the global home. It's just this Oh, it's called the strategic alliance. The global home. It's just this, it's, oh my God, it just cracks me up, man.

Sorry, that was a total digression, but. I don't have a lot to add with this one, but Jay or Smith, as we mentioned, is enrolled in North Carolina A&T and intends to join the historically black universities, men's golf team if he gets cleared by the NCAA. He is clocked to compete as a collegiate athlete as not started because he went to the NBA

after high school. Athletes in most cases get five years to complete four years of eligibility. Fun little cad in it. I hope Stan is able to approve it. Yeah, you know, even though he went and made millions of dollars. Well, a lot of people go pro and support something. Well, yeah, in sports.

And it's something other than this sport. Right. Now, that's great other than this sport. Right. Now, that's great. I think that would be must see. JR Smith, I remember vividly being at a PJ Tour event one time where he was going, remember he was going to like PJ Tour events all the time? It was like very social media catnip,

but he was out there on the range and he was hitting Dustin Johnson's like gamer driver on the PJ Tour range. And everybody's kind of standing around like, oh, you're gonna let this happen? Well, that, but also Dustin probably has the XXXXX flex. He has a PJ Tour player driver, not just any PJ Tour player driver

as Dustin Johnson's driver. Jared Smith was fucking nuking the ball. Yes. Dude, he moves it. The picture of him at Pine Valley when he cleaned out the pro shot there is awesome. So I can't wait for somebody. I mean, obviously I think he's probably only doing this

from like a content perspective. And I hope somebody's there to capture every step would watch the shit out of this experiment. I can't wait to see what's down the pipe on that one. Ah. Ah. Hitting boss. experiment. I can't wait to see what's down the pipe on that one. Hitting boss. Maybe one of those underrated moments in sports history.

Do you want to relate that in case people don't know? I kind of don't. No, so people just search Jaros Smith and just just just share Smith the pipe. Moving on, next topic. A cord fairy regular season finale. We just finished watching the end of that. Austin's mother meant sneak sin. She's four over in the final round, but sneak sin.

Good enough. Good enough. David Skins wins to get in on the number, or he needed a win to get on the PGA tour. How did he do it? He banked one off the grandstands on the final hall. He's going to fit in really well. Weird. Man, I was just training for the PGA tour. I was kind of disappointed.

I was trying to get Toronto riled up about this. I know this is one of his favorite tournaments of the year, trying to get him, trying to really stoke the flames on backboard, I get all kinds of stuff and he just wasn't taking the bays. Like, listen, man, at this point, you know, you can't blame the player. No, he said it was all in the game.

He was planting flowers in the yard today, he was cleaning out his office. What's who's the lady? A Marie condo. He was getting his Marie condo on trying to get some sparks and joy through some stuff out. So no, you weren't going to interrupt his speech. No, it's the speech way.

Good for him, but he was saying he's like, listen man, that's a game. That's the game these days. That's the arena he's entering into, so to speak, on the PJ tour. It's all in the game, you know. But no, on a serious note, very cool for someone like that. We're all talking about how, you know,

I mean, I think internally we're all kind of having a debate, like should we watch the end of this? Should we fire up the pod and just kind of keep an eye on who wins? We all got sucked in to watch in. It's very cool. It's very cool to see someone like David Skins, who, you know, is someone who whose name you've kind of arbitrarily seen on leaderboards for a long time. If you've followed the corporate tour closely

and 39 year old guy from England, never had PJ Tour status. Like, I was saying this all the earlier. It's like, imagine standing on that 18th tee or really like 15th tee, 16th tee, where he was kind of like starting to wobble, basically making it as hard on himself as he possibly could. And just having that in the back of your mind of just like, hey man, you know that thing

that you've been trying to, like the number one thing you've been trying to do for your whole entire life. Like you might let that slip away right now. Like we're really wobbling. And he didn't, he held on, made the par on 18 when he had to make par. It's been a weird way, he made par by, you know, I think that ball

would have been what, 50 yards over the green, like shipping back to a downhill I, but bangs it off the grandstand, gets it up and down for par and had, you know, always fun when you come into an event like that and someone knows like you have to win to get your PJ tour card. And then he won.

He won it. You know, it's always fun to see somebody do that. So good for him. We had a little incident at, it's always fun to see somebody do that. So, wow. Good for him. We had a little incident at the Jack's Beach Thursday game this week, Neil. We did. Or we didn't. No, we didn't.

We didn't have to. Well, it's all he had nine birdies, so I want to shout that out. Oh, that's not what I wanted to talk about. But I only lost like five bucks, so that's good. We still battled, you know, we had a little two man match going and to not lose my shirt when you made nine birdies was strong. I had to make an A-flitter to break something.

We walk up to scoring to the clubhouse. And so I'll let you tell a story because I didn't stick around. All right. The head pro there. One of our one of our friends there pretty casually just mentions that he was in a great mood. Yeah. Great move that there was an incident that happened right

before we got in and some players that local university nearby sometimes play in the Thursday game. And it turns out they played the one-up tease that we all, us, Normie's played in. One of their teammates made it to the semi-final with the USAM, is that correct? Yes. And a someone in the Thursday game took exception

to college players playing the blue tees, which is 6400 yards or something like that, 6350, whatever it is. Which, I can't agree with his methods that how he went about the problem, but you know, something we've all talked about. And goes in the pro shop, asks them behind the desk, like, hey, what, what tees those guys play? I don't know. I think the blue and proceeds to utter some slurs and then goes out

and harasses the guy in the bar. And then when they step outside the bar, outdoors, he tells the cash him outside, I believe. Put two hands on his neck and has a rage in his eyes. And it was, I didn't, again, I didn't see in this all this alleged. Was that when we were told it was kinda like, yeah, I just had to pull some guy

and put one of those guys in a chokehold and he said it very matterfully. I was like, oh really? Yeah, I just had to call the cops. No, they hadn't called the cops, yeah. They hadn't called him. You left and then I was just kinda like, I didn't really understand.

So I was sticking around to CV one or not. Well, I did, of course. I had to collect some money. So that guy's the cash guy apparently, and I didn't get my money. So now, somebody else could be in a chokehold. No, just to be clear, legally, that was a, that was for comedic purposes only.

One thing I've just put together though, is that one of the assistant pros or one of the guys in the golf shop, when we were on the 16th or 17th hole, it would have been, we were on seven fairway. We were playing the back first. So we're on around 16 you could say He came out in a card was like what tease you guys play today

You guys play the blues and we're like yeah, it was just like really random for him to do that And now it's starting to add up that I think he was you know checking on You know listen they need to run a guy run a tight ship in the Thursday game, you know their skins on a line Well, I'm just glad that the guy had he he had skedaddle about time I got in. If you found out I made nine birdies and I was playing the blue tease, I don't know what he would have done to me. Sure.

Anyways, they come in and they're just like, yeah, I don't file a police report and the head pro, they're very casually just, oh, yep, all right, we'll call him right up, calls a guy. Hey, do you mind swinging by the club here? We're gonna deal with choke holdings. Yeah, I'll be right over. Just kinda looked around like,

yo, how often does this happen here? He's like, I have three years to this is a first. So, anyways, a lot of people that try and post about it on Twitter, I post about an Instagram, a lot of people are asking for a recap of it. It's not that great of a story, I think, but always some drama in the Thursday game. It was a fun one. Thursday game remains good. Good. Good. Well, you said that's a first, clean, fun. That was just good fun. That is the first. Last thing, last note I had Mark Russell retiring. This is his last week as a rules official

in the PGA Tories now going to be focusing on his cameo career. He truly dropped the mic with his cameo on, on Tron Carter. Detonates Tron Carter and just exit stage left. Come on, man. He gave a great interview with Golf Week and kind of, you know, just gave some takes.

Gave some takes on the size of the tour, if you will. This is gonna make no sense to have 156 man fields with so many tours for people to play, which hard to disagree. Well, it's weird timing with this week where guys are fighting for the last spots and we're kind of celebrating them in a lot of ways to be like, yeah, trim the fat off the bottom.

It's because I think it's all arbitrary, right? But it's like, we'd be celebrating number 120 if it wasn't. It was interesting. That was a Q&A with Adam Schupack, I believe. So yeah, seek that out. There was some very interesting stuff in there. Yeah.

Anything else before we wrap? Playoff time. The wedge story. Oh, that's right. That's right It's yeah, we're overhyping this in a little bit, but go ahead, but we might as well. Yeah tell it so we got the Calaway jaws full-toed wedges early and I guess there's a bunch of gear heads out there that if they they see this stuff early

They'll put pictures up on you know golf WRX or whatever and That's that's bad for club companies. So you know, it was very clear like guys We're gonna send you these wedges just do not like don't leave your bags around don't let just try not to let this happen because that would be not good Don't post any pictures if you guys use them. And I was like, yeah, of course. That's easy. I would never do that. And so, sure enough, about halfway through the tour of Sasha trip, we're playing. And on the 16th hole, I left my wedge on the side of the green.

And I actually went back and got it and was like, oh my god, what if I left it? Almost like mocking myself a little bit. Like somebody would take a picture of it. What if I left it, you know, like, almost like, kind of like mocking like myself a little bit, like, you know, like somebody would take a picture of it. Next hole, I made a long putt for par. Not the brag. Not the brag. But I got jacked up because we were in a match.

I left the wedge in a bad spot. Shhh, shout out to Cortez. And I left it. Next hole, I leave it. Burn in the boats, baby. We're out of the next hole. Sure enough, there's a group behind us. And I don't realize it until we get to the next hole, it's a drivable par four, the 17th hole. And we get up to the green, I go to my bag

because I had driven it in the back rough, and I needed that 60 degree. Sure enough, it's not there. Crap, I left that way, it's on the last hole. Those guys are already on the tee back there, I'm like, oh, okay, well, they probably have it. So I drive back there and these guys are like, you know, one guy's like waving in the air.

He's like, yo, you forgot something. And I was like, thanks guys. And then they kind of gave me shit about like, you guys laid up on a part four. We just tweeted about it. You leaving your wedge and nothing lay up on a par four. And I was like, well, first off, I drove over the green. Randy, Randy laid up because he couldn't get there.

So that's stupid, but whatever. And then I was like, oh, see, Tweetie, Tweetie, I was like, can I have my head like, oh my God, you know, really? What would you Tweetie? Yeah, I was like, oh, cool. Like, you know, I'd love to retweet that. What's your username? You tweet a picture, they're like, no? Yeah, I was like, oh cool, I love to retweet that. What's your username?

You tweet a picture, they're like, no, no, I was like, okay. And so I get back, you could have had some house of cards. I mean, shit going on. Truly, truly was like, oh my god, this thing that I had just said on the previous whole, I had just been mocking, oh, someone might take a picture. I was like, oh fuck, I haven't.

You didn't get it? Like it couldn't have flipped on me any quicker. And I get back to the next T-Box and it's always like, without him hearing any of that conversation, it's like, yeah, this guy's already tweeted. Like, I was like, and I was like, dude, is there a picture? And he's like, no, I was like, fuck, thank God.

But it was just one of those moments where you're like, God, I can't believe that that could possibly have happened after I had written it off. So anyway, that was a story. That's it. Anything else? That's all I got. Neil, I'm so freaking excited for the finale

of the White Lotus tonight. I kinda wanted you to give your analogy today for IVF. Oh, God, if anybody's watching the White Lotus on HBO, our, our mon, the fucking wrecked me with that. Our mon, the, the hotel managers is Ian Baker-Finch. So I hope Ian Baker-Finch doesn't have the same kind of demons lingering, lingering underneath, but it's, it's invoible.

Inseparable. The voice is, inseparable in my mind. It's spot on. I also want to, I'll get you that number, I'll get you that number. I'll get you that number right away. Quick, white lotus digression. We need to start every interview with guests on the pod

with what are you staying for? Yeah. I don't know why we're not doing that. There's some good takeaways. I mean, yeah, like everyone can agree in periods of the path. All right, let's cut it off. Otherwise, this is gonna be a long digression.

We got a Harris English pod is coming out Tuesday. He's staying for it. He cares, a really good interview. If you're still, if you're sticking around there, if you think Harris English is vanilla, I was really excited about this one. It's gonna come out tonight. Any confirmed is flushing it.

Got tune in to see. You'll have to tune in to see. What else go on this week? I am deep in the edit, working on strapped. Very excited about that. Got about one episode done, really pumped for that. Headed up to Pinehurst for just a quick overnight trip, this weekend, which would be very fun.

And then we'll be back in the edit, bay after that. On my, kind of mind, the pro shop's absolutely booking. Lot of hard work the last three months. Store.nolangup.com. Some stuff about to hit the shelves. Already has, some already has. We got some all over print hoodies. We've got some sweepstakes, polo.

I want to congratulate you on me seeing an elephant shirt guy out in the wild. That was awesome. That's the USA. Someone decided to wear the elephant shirt. A true shirt that I think, I think we've joked about for years and years. And the fact that you made it happen

and somebody was wearing it At our national amateur championship at Oakmont. That was a challenge That's it. Whoever that is if they're listening, please please send me a note. I'd like to like to chat with you with some proof Yeah, of course proof of life now. Now we're in ambush marketing territory. Well, I didn't say I'd reward him Okay, I just want proof of I I just want to talk. Just looks like an interesting interview. We would never, we would never reward an individual for wearing our stuff. I just want to talk to him at the event. Just want to talk. That's it. All right, thanks everyone for tuning in.

We'll see you at this time. Next week, cheers. Get the right club. Be the right club today. be the right club today. Yes! We need to win! That's better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most!

Expect anything different? Anything different?