No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 547: Zurich Recap with KVV

Episode Date: April 25, 2022

DJ fills in for Soly and is joined by friend of the program Kevin Van Valkenburg for a recap of the Zurich Classic where Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele go wire to wire, opening the team event with best ball 59 en route to winning with a score of 29 under par. We take stock of the team event format, the Burns-Horschel drop as well as our theories on Phil Mickelson's whereabouts and reviews of the pairings' walk up music selections. We also recap Nasa Hataoka's win at the LPGA LA Open at Wilshire and a ton more.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yes! That's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. you, uh, I don't want to say the next best thing. So we'll just say the next thing. KV twice Kevin Van Van Valkenberg. Good morning, Kevin greetings. How are you? Good morning, DJ. We are the designated survivors in case, you know, someone new expanding dunes or it just falls off into the sea. We are carrying the flame or or in case that massive, you know, earthquake hits the Pacific Northwest.

Do you ever read that New Yorker piece about that? Oh my God. I think I've mentioned the Katherine Schultz piece multiple times on various podcasts of NLE origin. So if you haven't read it and you really want to stay up late at night, like fearing for the, you know, the end of time, basically go go check it out. I'll we can throw a link under the pod when this goes, but what truly one of the best New Yorker are. And if you're solid Neil Tron or Randy or anybody that's at bed with them, I would wait

to you. Wait till you leave. Don't read it now. Don't read that on the plane until you're leaving. So save that one. Let's get some business done here. Kevin, are you searching for the secret to making green on the green? Look no further, my friend. Then the moneymaker golf shoe from Quater by Travis Matthew to take your game to the next level. I think solid is deep, deep into

this scene. I'm sure he's got multiple pairs with him out at banding right now with a versatile athletic style. The moneymaker delivers the tech features you need in a golf shoe. Kevin, I can't wait to ask you about your golf shoes. You just got back from Bannon. So your feet are probably very, very achy, maybe less achy with the Money Maker from Travis Matthew. Elevated style that you'll actually want to wear, lightweight waterproof and stain resistant. The Money Maker is constructed with a versatile, spikeless bottom for plenty of traction, no matter the course conditions. Not only is the moneymaker Quater's best selling golf shoe, but it is also available in four colorways. This is my favorite part. Don't take my word for it. Don't believe us. Ask John Rom and Sam Burns,

two of the top ranked golfers in the world who wear Quater Footwear. With the money maker, you'll find the perfect balance between premium performance and elevated style. Visit Quater.com today to find the money maker and other best selling Quater styles, including these spiked ringer and recently released light gray and blue nights colors. And also if you're going to go check that out, use code NLU20 to get 20% off your first purchase. That is quater.com, C-U-A-T-E-R.com, use the code NLU20 to get 20% off. Kevin, I'm going to set this up. I think this was kind of the one of the more lackluster in a good way, kind of one of the more peaceful, uneventful weeks in the world of golf that we've had for quite a while,

very, very little news on the live golf front. We didn't have any majors, we didn't have Jordan's speed when in any tournaments. What's your, what's the state of play right now in the world of golf? How are you feeling? Good about it. I feel like everything needs a little bit of an ebb

and flow, right? If everything is great, then nothing is great, right? I remember this is just maybe a tortured analogy, but seeing the first Lord of the Rings in the theater years ago, and after the sort of long departure from the Shire, it was just like action at like a level eight for like two and a half hours. And eventually I was like, oh, wow, like this is just a lot. And he kind of was in a narrative story teller nose. You need sort of rises and falls in an emotional thing. So probably a good thing that we have kind of a week

where you can either be into it or you can ignore it. And you know, I think we probably were into it just the right amount this week, just to sort of, you know, been passing enjoy it just enough. I think set like one tweet about the entire tournament this week. So that, uh, yeah, you know, I feel we were mostly checked out. We had the proverbial Eagles come pick us up off the mountain and, uh, just really, really brought us in for a nice little Sunday of, uh, of golf wash. And you took the Lord of the Rings metaphor just right out of my mouth. I mean, that's exactly where I was going as well. So Patrick Cantlay and Zander Shoffley are your wire to wire winners at these are

classic of New Orleans. What's the takeaway from the week for you? What was your, what was your feeling watching the tournament this week? I think my feeling is Zander and Patrick are kind of exactly what you would sort of put out there if you were like a critic of golf and you were like, oh, it's all like kind of just boring dudes with no personalities. And if you are like, I think follow it a little bit more closely, I think can't really, it's like a pretty smart, interesting guy, really actually pretty good interview when you know, he's asked interesting questions. And sander certainly like pretty smart guy interesting guy, really actually pretty good interview when you know he's asked interesting questions and Zander certainly like pretty smart guy as well but they don't project a

lot of energy or charisma certainly on the golf course and so if you wanted to point to like a reason why non golf people will have a hard time maybe getting into golf sometimes I think people will have a hard time maybe getting into golf sometimes. I think those two dudes are probably a pretty good example of like, oh, it's just kind of some boring dudes who don't really exude much emotion on the course. I still can't figure out Xander in general whether he is kind of someone who should be praised for kind of always being, you know, pretty good or whether that is somehow a flaw. I hate to get like hot takey, you know, like some where you sort of, oh, like this guy's not a winner, but, you know, on some level, doesn't that why we sort of have jobs and sports is because we're able to sort of discuss what inherent

thing it is inside someone that allows them to kind of crush all others who are trying for the same thing. So I don't know if it does anything. It is a look. How long has been since Andrew want to turn them in like 20, 2019 couple of Louis, I believe, 2019. So good, I guess to see him get in the winter. I, you know, feels a little bit flawed in the sense of maybe, you know, maybe that's a great spot for Xander to be. It's just always be good in team events. Need someone else to kind of lift him up over the hump. Sometimes I feel that way, but my own golf game is I'm much better in team pairings than I am in my individual. I did have a little bit of of that feeling as well. you know the Zurich what we'll get into kind of the pros and cons of the Zurich and the team event in a minute but

Looking at the leaderboard. I'm kind of I was kind of drawn to the these zander specifically Up there just in like oh, okay, I can talk about this this guy has you know kind of no showed in events for quite a while. Hasn't gotten over the hump. And, you know, now suddenly does it with a partner, at least, you know, at least there's a little bit of a hot, takey substance to go along with that. And, you know, looking through his wins, I mean, it's, it's, uh, I think five wins now, five or six wins on the PGA tour.

Uh, a lot of them are, I won't say weird events, but you know, the tour championships of 30 man events, the HSBC in China's kind of a weird event. The Copa Lewis another 30-ish, 35 person events. And now we have a team win, which you know, juxtapose that with kind of, I think, really I was trying to, trying to wrap my head back around like why, why is there the, the, the Zander hype, right? Because it doesn't seem like we've seen all that much over the last, you know, couple of years other than, you know, we have the Olympics,

which is its own kind of weird wrinkle. We have, we just have all these things where it, you always kind of seems like he's in the picture without actually, you know, being the dude. I don't know the last time we've, we've seen him really like kick the goddamn door down and just be the dude. And I think reminding myself that he's played in 19 majors and he's top 10 in nine of them. And I think that's where a lot of it comes from, right?

Is, is it just had so much, he has had so much promise and not that he hasn't just had so much, he has had so much promise and not that he hasn't delivered on this because I mean, you know, nine top 10s and majors is big game hunter stuff. It's just, it's a really, really weird career made even weirder by a weird team win today. Yeah. I think one of the things that's kind of interesting for me to think about this is that he doesn't have any like spectacular disasters, right? Like there's no thing where like he was gonna win a major maybe the the masters that were against Becky where he hit it in the pond on 16 is kind of the closest to this but It's kind of just a lot of like weird slow fades Where he's just kind of like you think oh at the start of the day. I remember when he and speed were tied at the start of the day at the The feats was the waste management.

And I would remember like texting you something that day, like, oh my God, it looks like Zander is like the iron, Byron compared to like a guy, like trying to write a useful in spieth, like there's no way that speed is going to like, and they both kind of, you know, they both didn't win that day. Brooks, I think ended up winning that day. But it was like, Zander was just kind of like a boring non factor.

It was just like kind of a bunch of pars, but you know, he had Bogey here and there, like nothing ever particularly interesting. And it almost, I think we almost have like more sympathy or expectations for guys who like get really close and then just completely collapse in like the moment. And I don't know, it just seems to me like that's a little bit of Xander like he never makes it never makes me feel anything deeply. And so that's probably

why I feel indifferent towards some of his like career prospects. Like I this I'm not like Greek Fowler or like someone like that who has made me feel like both highs of like, oh, the God, the players are so exciting in 2017. 21 or like, man, like he really, you know, laid a huge egg at Aaron Hills. Like, there is no moment like that for Xander other than maybe the masters, but he was probably going to win that anyway. So I didn't really feel that connection. So I guess that's my feeling. I was it's like, hey, just do something that makes me feel one way or another,

whether I totally need to get behind you and like be like a zander guy or be like the anti zander guy. It kind of seemed like he was new people for a while in the press room. Remember, he was a very short-lived, very short-lived kind of expedition he was on, but it felt like he was going to be the guy who was just airing people out. For a while, I think he got very chippy after the CT testing

stuff. And I could have embraced that zander in a big way,, you know, the CT testing stuff. And I could have embraced that, that's and in a big way, but, you know, that seems to have calmed down. I'm sure as somebody who writes profiles for a living, you could also have a bit of your brain screaming, like, why would anybody ever talk to the media about anything? Yeah.

So I get, I get why he feels that way, but it's just a, it's a weird, it's a weird, it's a weird spot, man. It's a weird spot to be. My friends that I were talking, they're all most of them are journalists. I just went on a scholarship with them. And we were talking about like, why would you ever tell anything to a journalist? Like, if a journalist is want to write about me, he was like, Hey, can I talk to your parents? I'd be like, Oh, no, exactly. Absolutely. Definitely. No, actually, I didn't know if I be detained. No, if I'm not being detained, I'd like to go.

No, it is like credit to the people who are willing to open up to journalists, obviously, because that's a pretty part of my job. But I think the unfortunate realities of the media, sort of, universe is that uh sort of universes that even if I write like an interest like say I wrote a really interesting profile about zander and I think we've both been a little bit fascinated by his father. This like kind of mythic figure uh who you know trained this sort of champion and you know didn't speak a lot English and was like using all these kind of Earl Woods type methods but like filtered through like the German sound machine uh it's I would love to write about that and about Xander, but it also inevitably like that could be easily used against him. And maybe we even we would make a bunch of jokes about like Stefano being kind of, you know, kind of crazy. And

so I get why some athletes are super private because it's not just like Kevin, and we're gonna be a spin is writing this for Neus, BD audience, it then becomes like the property of everyone. And that's a weird place for extremely, extremely. And then I think on the other side of the coin, you have Cantlay, which I think we could run back a lot of the stuff that we just said. I mean, he obviously has gotten into contention recently a lot more

and lost in playoff last week. And I think he's finished in the top 10 and the half of his starts this year or something and so It's it's kind of a weird feeling where you know, I feel I feel a bit of a Tinge of happiness. I think for both of these guys, right? Like they're they seem like seem like good dudes well-liked obviously Exorbitantly talented and it's cool to see them break through and get a win winning is hard all that. But also the Zurich feels a little weird and I don't know really how to square how to square those two things, you know, I don't know if you felt they did that.

A little bit. I just don't know. I mean, I've always like, I'm a big advocate of alternate shot because I think it's like a really cool format. And then like this tournament comes around and like I don't really like make it appointment viewing. So I feel a little bit hypocritical about that. I was like, Oh, yeah, this is such a cool format. And then I'm like, Oh, yeah, whatever. I was joking with the I was on the shock and start with Andy Johnson, Phil and in earlier this week. And I was kind of saying the same thing where I feel like this is kind of the tournament that like for better or worse worse made me kind of stop

suggesting ideas, right? Where I'm just, you know, five, six, seven years ago, you know what they need to fucking do? They need to have a team event. Everybody would love that. And then I watch it. It's just like, what is it? Scott Guchewski and DA points like, I'm going to, I think I'm just going to go outside

and read a book or something. I don't either do not need to watch this. I mean, like on some level, I was just thinking this today, like, I wouldn't be cool. I went just in lower was in contention. I was like, wouldn't it be awesome if like, you know, every, like PGA tour, like player who had status had to like play with that with someone without stats, you know, so it'd be like a, hey, lift up somebody who, you know, whoever gets that win is suddenly going to mean that much more to them. It'd be like a really cool story. But like, you can't really force the players to sort of, you know,

pick out somebody on the corn fairy tour. It's kind of like the Ryan Palmer make wish exception. You know, he always gets paired with John Robb, Steve, now Scotty Shaffler. Yeah, same idea there. What a hustle. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. You know, you can't. It's, yeah, I would, it shows you like if you're kind of like a middling career of that, you know what?

I think that's a fair way to describe Ryan Palmer. Like never, not bad, but never go that like, be nice to the rookies, man. Be nice to like the young kids coming up, like embrace them, be a little mentoring. And then maybe you can get like a five more year exemption as a, as a, as a, I guess, two years with two years, uh, 1.4 million dollars going to each of the winners, uh, and 400 FedEx Cup points going to each of the winners, which again, it just, it's, it's just a weird event.

None of that is necessarily offensive, I guess. It just feels, feels weird for an event with what feels like very, very little juice, but maybe that's just me opining too much. But if this was an event where I think we've talked a lot about where if women were involved, like if it was like, you know, LPGA players playing with LPG would it have more appeal to you? Would you be into it? I want to say yes, I would for sure. That's where I'm at too.

And, you know, fully conscious of what I just got done saying about how wrong I was about my prediction for this team event. I do think there's something interesting to seeing, and you see it with some of the teams, I guess. It was maybe even with the Burns and Horsesal team a little bit where you have Burns as kind of a, you know, swinging out of his shoes, firepower, let's make a million birdies and Billy is kind of like

a little bit more fairways and greens. Let's hit it to 20, 30 feet and, you know, hopefully roll in a couple. But where you have like Xander and Cantler play in pretty much the same game. I mean, there's there's some interest there, I think, seeing, you know, two guys try to figure it out together. But I think different, like, different playing styles would just be so much more interesting, right? And try to figure out who's team off on which hole and, you know, which holes favor which player and can this person hit this shot into this green? Is this gonna make sense?

Like, God, sign me up for all of that. And that's the, you know, the comment we have been in broken record about with regards to like the president's cup is like, man, how much better would the president's cup be if it was mixed, you know, mixed teams and you're pairing men and women together. And since that feels like a massive long shot, I think doing an event like this,

like even just a one off calendar event would be so freaking cool. Yeah, I was supposed to have the counter argument of the golf kind of establishment. Be well, you know, then you're taking away X number of spots from the last 75 people on the list for on both the LBGA and the PJ right? So yeah, but do you want me to some of those names of people in the field? Because it's really tough. It's really tough man. Like this is you know, as always, no offense to anybody, but it's there were there were some teams in here where it's almost like Like a multiplier effect when you see two anonymous people on a team. You're just like man. Who the fuck are all these people? It's it's tough. It's not a good field. It's not a good field and I get almost kind of like I definitely

Lays bear even more like All right, maybe we can thin the herd a little bit the death panel like death panel might need to make a stop at these are a classic next year. This is dangerous territory to like wait and two, but like just looking over the list like, I'm sorry. I'm sorry to dismantle, but I've never heard of Joseph Bramlett who played with Maverick McNeely, and I have not heard of Austin Smotherman who played with our very Higgs. I have not heard of Austin smotherman who played with our very higgs. I have not heard of Paul barjon who played with Tom Hogi. I don't think I've heard of either Jared Wolf or Seth Reeves who shot five hundred. Yeah. You know, like a lot of dudes who obviously they're great, they're probably better at their profession than I am in mine. So it's maybe disrespectful to be like,

I ain't never heard of you, but wow, that's a lot of people who are bringing a lot of eyeballs to this. I agree. And I mean, I guess give credit to, I think Xander and Cantlay playing the event and pairing up together is ultimately awesome. Right. I mean, that's good on them for being two top 10 top 12 players and, you know, really

like leaning into this thing and embracing it and and matching up. Same obviously with Morcao and Hoveland. They seem like they had a blast. And that's kind of the thing about this event is when you do talk to guys about it, I mean, the players like almost to a man that I've spoken to love this event. Like they have a legitimate blast. And I think that's more of an existential, you know, question about how much does the promote, like the tour promote things that players really like versus things that fans really like? But I mean, I guess if it's if it's a one or a zero, right?

Like is this event good for the PJ tour or bad for the PJ tour? I probably tend to lean towards it's a one and it's a good change of pace. And you know, it's fun to watch the back nine and it's fun to watch guys play alternate shot for, you know, I can do it for about an hour and a half. It's great. But the idea of watching it on like Thursday, Friday, to watch guys play alternate shot for, you know, I can do it for about an hour and a half. It's great. But the idea of watching it on like Thursday, Friday when I got nothing else to do is, is no thanks.

It's like the potential is there for, I mean, imagine if this existed in like 2002 and you could have gotten like a, you know, Tiger and Devall team paired against Ernie and Adam Scott or something like that. Like, you know, not, you know, like and Devall team paired against Ernie and Adam Scott or something like that. Like, you know, not, you know, like down the stretch. That would have been like huge because that's basically what all the battle, big horn and all that stuff that they ended up creating was kind of intending. And so the intent is good and it's there. It's just like, you know, for the most part, the bigger stars aren't kind of,

aren't that interested? I will say, Scott and Schuffer continues to, the bigger stars aren't kind of, aren't that interested. I will say Scott and Schuffer continues to have one of the more interesting postmasters, like Victory tours around. Like he participates in this event, like he doesn't do any of the late night talk show stuff. Like, you know, I guess I don't tune in quite as much to sports, or something like that, but like it didn't seem like he sat down for any kind of big, like magazine profile or anything after that happens. It's like basically God Shuffler seems like kind of the same dude except for that he wasn't actually just kind of hanging out at home.

That's exactly kind of how I think I would would long for it to be had I, you know, if I, if I ever win the Masters, all this, I'll take that. Yeah, well, I'm gonna hold you to that. Okay, well, you know, I mean, it's gonna be hard not to, not to go on some of the shows. Yeah, well, maybe do one, one for you, one for them kind of a kind of a situation. Depends on if I still work for you, spend while I win the Masters, like I can.

Right, because then it's a whole, yeah, push for me to be on Kimmel and the whole vertical integration thing. Yeah, you gotta, you gotta cross promote. Totally. I think some of it too has to do with just, we talk about this with all the PGL conversation and everything and just the way the tour is structured. For the tour to do anything mildly innovative is just, it's just like really not going to

happen, right? Because there's just so many shareholders and so many people to keep happy and so many playing opportunities to create and all of those things to where you know this is about as outside the boxes they've gotten probably in in my time of covering pro golf right and it still just kind of winds up as like this you know milk toasts down the road middle of the road you know nobody's really happy, nobody's really offended, kind of product and, and I don't know, like I said, is it more good than it is bad? I would say yes, but is it, you know, changing my life? Probably not. And then I guess the flip side of that coin is also, I mean, these things take years and years and years to really, you know, gain any kind

of foothold as some big sea change or some big tradition. And I guess you can't really expect it to be a smashing success, you know, five years in either. So it just feels a little stuck. And I guess on that note, I mean, we are five years in. What do you think anything needs to change? They need to blow it up today? Is it something you look forward touning into what, what are kind of your overall thoughts on it? I mean, the hard part is like I would love to see a different course that was a little more interesting, but like I also understand why like New Orleans is one of my favorite cities in America. So like, do I want to sort of take this tournament away from New Orleans

and basically say like a tough luck. Like I personally who might only watch Saturday Sunday would rather see you play at Chambers Bay or Pasadilla Bowe or like you know like literally almost anywhere. And I think that like the I don't know I mean there's just like different priorities for different people. It's easy to say well this doesn't really fit my experience but like also I'm discounting like whatever charitable benefits there are, you know, to having it for and how much Zurich is only going to put up that money if it's held in New Orleans because they want to have a pro-am and they want to have, you know, the people who are coming out to sort of see it, they can smooth with that. And that's that's so easy as a pundit to be like, ah, this is stupid. Let's change it. Well, you know, the realities of business are much more

complicated than once it dudes with a podcast could ever possibly fathom. Shit, shit's complicated, man. You know, and really? And if anyone understands that, I think it's probably New Orleans. No, no. Can Ed read get in this? I mean, come on. That would make it exciting. Woodwatch. I do think I mean, I ended up doing it. It's a big golfer, by the way. I know. Yeah, he lives still Baltimore, still a member of a country club here. It would be my dream to play golf with Ed if you're listening and you want to play. Please reach out and have a read about it or that'd be awesome. We could definitely or not write about it. We could just smoke big cigars. I think I told this story.

I can't remember if it was on the podcast or not, but Tron and I were at the tour championship. God, this had to be like six, seven years ago now. And we had left. We were there both there with our wives and Tron and I like stepped away to go get beers or something. Came back like 10, 15 minutes later. And both of our wives are hanging out

with this giant, giant dude, one of the foremost units just around. And they're like, oh, hey, this is our friend Ed that we just met. We're like, yeah, that's Ed Reed that you're hanging out with. Like, take, yeah, he's just, it was one of the truly like,

one of the most shocking moments, the last person you expect to see But what a what a nice guy and a massive golf fan so he was always you know threatened into sort of retire when I was on the Raven's beat Back when I was working with ballamarsson and and so I kind of he would never really sit for interviews And you had to kind of like kind of corner him in some ways and he would like try to sneak out of the Ravens locker room And it's like cornered him once and I was like, Ed, I hear you know that maybe you're gonna go to graduate school Whatever and he was like, can somebody's lying about me? Somebody is lying about me. Maybe I'm not be talking about me That's what I always think about

Guys always lying about me. All right. I don't know where we were Kevin, but let's That's a great segue into, uh, San Bern's Billy Horschl, your runner's up. Uh, I, I had kind of a blast watching these guys today, despite what I was kind of saying about the, uh, lack of luster tournament. Uh, first of all, I don't know why I don't bet on San Bern's every single time they play on Bermuda Grass. It seems like he can't finish worse than about fifth when they do.

But also just Billy remains one of the foremost like cartoon characters around every time you can. Like they don't even have to try to mic him up. You can hear him anywhere he is on the entire golf course. And he just seems like he's like leaning into it even more than ever now. And he seems like even more comfortable in his own skin. And it was, it was kind of a blast to watch us to today. What would be the equivalent of Billy Horswell in another sport of think about this? Like someone who is not bad in his sort of, but is not like particularly like, uh, he

hasn't accomplished a ton compared to sort of the reputation that he or the attention that he gets, Lawrence, uh, basically on Golf Twitter. I mean, like there's got to be NBA players who were just, you know, I mean, like Dremont Green is like very outspoken and sort of kind of a troll in a lot of ways, but he's also like like a team. Yeah, yeah, it's a championship teams and probably legitimate hall favor because he's so good at like one thing. Where's Billy, you know, he had that amazing like FedEx cup run, which like made us rethink the whole Ryder Cup picks thing, but he never, never has made a Ryder Cup team. I'd laugh every time I think about how he was like, well, I planned to win like four more times in my career. And

it's going to be the US Open, the Masters, the British Open, and the PGA. That's my goal. And I was like, you know, I mean, great. Cool. It looks great. And just like, you know, apologizing to Augusta last year for his behavior, but then like, doubling down on how like insane it is to like launch your club into this guy. I mean, I, I don't know. Maybe our friends in the shot come start are responsible for like generally calling attention to the insanity that is really harsher, but I think it's very unique character. No doubt. No doubt. God, that's such a good question about the other sports

I feel woefully out of my depth because I've just poised my brain with nothing but golf over the last like 15 years Let me let me think of that. I think we can come with I think we can come over the good answer there. Say what you will about him. Like again, another one that I need to file away for this golf course. Like dudes who are comfortable in New Orleans, it seems like just just absolutely ball out here and Billy seems like the foremost example of that. He won it by himself.

He won it with a teammate. Could have, you know, I don't want to say should have won, but had a, you know, a chance coming down the stretch today. Just seems to absolutely love, love, love this place, which is, you know, I've mentioned that a couple times. It's always fun to see like a true horses for courses situation. Well, it speaks to New Orleans mentality in general, right? If you've ever been to New Orleans like for the first time, it's a very nerve-wracking place. But if you're comfortable in your

element, like you can go everywhere. You are, you know, you're going to the, you're straight away from Bourbon Street. You're going to the actual good spots, you know, you're diggin' deep into the New Orleans life. So I know I'm not a massive, I don't really subscribe to where did it cross Twitter. It's one of my, one of my foremost unsubscribes, I think, but, you know, I saw you, I saw you tweak in the tweak in that, that subsection of Twitter out there today. What were your thoughts on the 16th hole? Yeah. But there's a lot more people who are into where it across Twitter than there today. What were your thoughts on the 16th hole? Yeah. Boy, there's a lot more people who are into where it

across Twitter than you realize. I mean, I know it's always also hates this because it gets into it regularly with the where it across Twitter people. But yeah, so it was 15th hole, right? Burns tries to drive the green. It kicks off of the bank, goes into the water, looks like a real low sort of shot that doesn't doesn't have any chance at all to bounce upwards. Horses swears he sees it from 300 yards away. He was doing like the JFK shit out there. He's got like the Pythagorean theorem and like vantage points and you know vanishing points on

the horizon and I wouldn't have been able to see it because of this and just fantastic audio. Get there, they're gonna take it up there. Oh, does TV have it? Oh, I don't know. I mean, I swear, I don't know, but I swear. I saw that. I saw that. You can't deny that.

I mean, look, was it, I mean, maybe they make a bogey if they take it, but it wasn't that far back. They went and take it, right? Like it clears the neck of the fairway there and then crosses the water and then comes the bounce back into water. I just, it seemed to me like a bit of a scummy drop in terms of like if you think that there's like a chance

that it hit below the hazard line, like the penalty that you're paying there is to drop it to 80 as opposed to like 301 and being a chip up there and make par so you could still get up and down and basically ensure the you're protecting the field in that sense. So I mean, Sam interestingly had no like he's just set us out there as like a passive rider and the whole thing. Billy was running the whole show and Jason Day as well was there in kind of that situation of just like, Oh, I don't know, Mike.

Whatever Mike is. It could go me it could be anyway. Just a lot of like, yeah, it's one of those situations where you all you really, your only option is to just be like, yeah, I mean, like whatever you think, man, like, you know, sounds good to me, I guess. Just just a really, really weird situation all the way through. It's like just a brief hamster, damn, detour, but like, please,

it did strike me as like, how, why are like the, the, the gentle and utility of golf makes it so hard for the announcers to be even mildly critical, right? That's why Johnny was so valuable to all broadcasts, right? Because he was the one person who was unafraid to say, like, I got real doubts about that drop. Like, you know, if you have any doubts, go back there. And there's no one left who does that. Like, it's just, they're all deferential, like, oh, well, it's inconclusive. Who could say what?

No, like, give me a, give me a tape. What do you think? What do you think? Yeah. Yeah. I look, if Phil ever, like, comes out of exile and, and is sort of allowed to be involved in the booth, that would, I think Phil would be 100% the guy who would be like, you know, I got real doubts. And let me explain to you why. Right? Exactly. I think you would love nothing more than just lay it out for you. The angle of the ball plus the humidity in the air makes it impossible for that ball to it would have kicked up. You know, that was that would fill it give us a whole thesis, a whole dissertation on why there's no way that ball could have kicked upwards and that it had to be dropped back. But you know, whatever. I just, I just feel like to golf is the one sport where

the, the people who are calling the action live are often afraid to be even mildly critical of it. Like Judy Rankin was one who was willing to do it. Now she's retired. Like, Johnny was certainly one. We're losing some of our, you know, badgers out there. No doubt. We need some, need some honey badgers to go out there and get, get into it. I, I fully agree. And it is, you know, I know we're joking earlier about talking to the media, but it kind of comes from the same school, though, as well, right? Where it's like, if these guys and gals are going to get jobs without saying anything

critical, I mean, it's, it's really hard to, to understand why they would want to put themselves out on the, the the ledge unnecessarily, right? I mean, I was watching actually we'll get to the LPGA stuff in a minute here But Jerry Foltz is still I think one of those guys who who says what he says what he means means what he says He had a great great call when Nasa hotokka was playing the 13th hole just like I don't think there's any way she can do this This is unbelievable. She's trying it and then she pulls the shot off and it like gives even more credence to like He's the first one with his hand up like I did not think that was impossible. That just shows you what an unbelievable shot it was

And it just adds so much to the moment. So you know praise and praise and the people that that do do a good job out there But I'm with you and that we could use a few more But yeah, I was a brand brand, brand is one too. Of course. It will be, you know, and sometimes even to like beyond the where it seems like performative, but love brand, I'll appreciate his takes in general, but you know, it's it's hard, hard thing to be. Maybe if I had constantly a producer in my ear telling me to knock it off, I would have a harder time being totally honest. But it's just in those situations, I don't want to like always defer to the people who are

benefiting from the best possible ruling of this, right? Right. Well, I got a producer in my ear saying that we need to take a quick break to do a read for cash app. Cash app is the easiest way to send, spend and save your money, send or request money from friends and family. When they owe you money for dinner, etc. Kevin, I'm sure there was maybe a couple of shekels that exchanged hands out abandoned at your trip. I would recommend using cash app, settle up those bets absolutely immediately.

You can invest in stock with cash app. You can buy Bitcoin with just a dollar. Comes with a debit card. You can customize and cash Apple laser print it and mail it directly to your home. It comes with free discounts on places you love called boosts. Look for the little cash app stickers when you're at your coffee shop, things of that nature. And you can also use referral code no laying up, which gives new users $15 and cash app will set aside $10 for each sign up to youth on course. We've mentioned this a bunch of times now. Each time you sign up for cash app using the referral code no laying up, cash app is not only going to give you $15, they're going to give $10 to a kid to go play a free round of golf. So do that. That's great. Basically, the more people use the code no layup

when registering not only are you getting $15, you are helping support junior golf, download the cash app, and Kevin, let's get back to it. You, we were joking about this earlier in the week and total aside here. Well, I had a couple more Louisiana things to get to, but just because you mentioned fill, what do you think Phil's doing right now? Oh, teach. I want to believe all of the most insane theories about Phil. I want to believe

that Phil has a ponytail right now, maybe a big beard, you know, looking like a sort of, you know, uh, uh, 60s. It hippie living in the village. Well, you know what I'm picturing as you're saying this, you remember that epic photo? What he first did the like the crazy fast, uh, he did that like that outrageous fast where then he took that picture in the ocean. When his shorts were all like sagged out And he looked like he had lost like 95 pounds Like sucking in a stomach and and peering off accidentally into the distance that kind of feels like

Kind of feels like we might be living in the embodiment of that of that photo right now Maybe Phil is like he's rented a boat and he like a sailboat And he's just kind of sailing around the world from like port port to port where he doesn't have to register his presence just can only pay and Bitcoin or cash or NFTs. and potentially been a hold up in the Yellowstone club. You know, in Montana, it is sort of like the place all this lebs go to, you know, rail about how they don't want to pay taxes anymore. So they want to divorce themselves from the world economy and such. You know, I don't really care about

feel like asking for contrition or feel like sort of admitting any wrongs like I'm not gonna sort of play the morality of this. I do think I'll be a little bit sad if he doesn't show up at the PGA just because I think it would be sort of fun spectacle. And if I were Phil, I would just kind of like lean into it be like whatever man. Like I've said some dumb shit and I've said some dumb shit before. I'll probably say dumb shit in the future. I'm here to big off like, you know, anybody doesn't like it. Fuck him.

Yeah. Try to start a competing league with the size. That was a real double bogey by me, guys. But you know, I'm here to, I'm here to focus on Southern Hills and, you know, next question, please. I mean, I like legend. If you did that, that's probably how it would go. Like how many more follow ups with their V. I gotta tell you, you know,

these having been a member of the golf media, it's not like anybody's gonna go frost nicks in on his ass. No, like, exactly. Grill him and be like, well, what do you mean, Phil? Like, what did you actually mean by scary mother fuckers? Right. Let's, let's really break that. That's on the back. Like, I mean, Tiger Woods crashes car and literally got like, and almost like, the loss is like, and literally got like one question that was like, one happened and the people are like, well, I guess we'll move on. Yeah. Like, low key crashes car like a number of different types.

Correct. Yes. Not just what three separate times. Yeah. But, you know, Phil, it's like, I think you could win this week. Oh, he said yes. Phil, I know you've been involved in some, some scary motherfucker diplomatic stuff here, but if you just could take us through the first hole and what you think is that

changes like your hands has made. Yeah, what club do you have it on 15? Well, I'm so glad you asked guys because that is such an important question. I have these new calorie wedges. Exactly. And like, right, we'll see, you know, what would feel just keep playing the calories? What do you show up with some other kind of, you know, like, calories, but like sanded down labels or something on them?

Well, that's that's also kind of where I, you know, I think we're enjoying the the low key week this week, because I think shit's about to, you know, it's about to get pretty turned up. And we've got a couple more things on the agenda, but of course we got the live golf event coming up in June. We've got the Phil Willey-Woney play in May. We've got, you know, it's going to be an action-packed summer, I think, in line with kind of what we've seen. A couple of things before we get there. I do have a couple more Zurich things.

One, do, so, speaking of Tiger, when Tiger beat all those people on day one of the masters after barely being able to walk, we called for a number of tour cards And I want to put this question to you here and now Should anybody who got beat by Bill and Jay Haas this week in a fucking PJ tour event have to also Recind their cards hand in their cards. I can hear Randy's voice in my head the disembodied voice of Randy just These guys stink, man. These guys, very golf man, stink.

And somebody needs to call about that. Unbelievable story, man. Oldest person to make a cut in the history of the PJ tour, finished T36 with his son, wild bill, just a couple of things to throw at you here. Jay Haas, the first time he played the New Orleans Open, you know what year it was? 1977.

Whoa. You know the number one movie in April of 1977 was? Uh, would it be Star Wars? Uh, just before Star Wars, Rocky. Okay. Rocky. Rocky. Wow.

You could watch Jay Haas, who made a cut this week on the BJ tour. You could watch Jay Haas play the New Orleans open and then go to a fucking movie theater and see Rocky. Wow. That guy went out and beat a bunch of people this week at professional golf, unfreaking believable. He has not played on the PJ tour since the 2010 players championship has not made a cut on the PJ tour in 16 years.

And I was I was born in 1977 in December, 1977. And so Jay has played in the New Orleans open longer than I've been alive. Unbelievable. I that was like, I know that gets a lot of the like schmaltcy like, oh, fathers and sons, what an amazing game. know that gets a lot of the like schmaltz, like, oh, fathers and sons, what an amazing game. We need to just, that's a truly like fascinating, unbelievable achievement. What if there was like a, like a poison pill player who entered every tournament, and if you lost him, like every, your card was like up for like review. And so, like how exciting

with that be guys just scramble it so hard at the end to get ahead of, you know, Frank Licklider. Yeah. And if that guy beats a certain number of players, he, you know, he gets an exemption or something. Oh my God, that would be so sweet. Yeah. Like that would be the kind of formula and type thing, right? Like where there's like some other element involved that you get are riveted by and like the broadcast is like, oh, let's go now to Jay Haas, who's, you know, he's climbing up the boards in 50 fast and there's a big, big drama heck and he can eliminate like six guys from the jobs for the next week. The unbelievable. See, PJ Tore and we're talking about, you know, we're talking about innovating,

we're talking about doing this. This is the kind of stuff we're talking about innovating, we're talking about doing this. This is the kind of stuff where we're talking about. Giving out free ideas, right? Exactly. It's just, that's, that's, that's going to take me a while to process. And I feel like people just kind of skipped over it or turn it into like a fun trivia question. But I mean, he went out and literally beat Kyle Stanley, Camilo Vijegas. Who else is on this list? Adam Hadwin. Don't sleep on Adam Hadwin. Scott

Stallings playing. I definitely, when I was at the Baltimore Sun, I covered J.H.H.S. winning a senior PGA tour event, a senior PGA championship at Kays Valley. I think it might have been Baltimore country got, but I think it was Kays. And he, I remember like the lead of my story, it was that he didn't think he was going to win. So he had like a flight that left at like 6 p.m. and then he shot like 63 in the final round. He had a change of flight so he could do the press conference afterwards. He was like, ah, it's worth it. You know, you don't think he's 55 or something to beat Tom Watson. Here he is making cuts. Unbelievable, man. That's a mind blur to me. And then the last thing with the Zurich, I think, you favorite. When you're talking about growing the game,

I think it's almost impossible to underestimate what an impact a walkup music has had on these massively full golf courses that we're seeing all over the country. These, you know, we've demand for golf clubs is backed up. You just can't get a T time inside of two weeks. You know, I think I think it's hard to to separate that from the massive success of of walk of music at the Zura Classic.

Agreed. Just agree. Oh, yeah, it's just so huge. The kids are talking about it in the streets, wondering what kind of trap music you're going to be playing. You know, when the guys roll out. So yeah, huge. Can I just read off a couple that I think, you know, when the guys roll out. So, yeah, huge. Can I just read off a couple that I think, you know, it's always fun. Shout out to golf week for rounding these up. We mentioned Ryan Palmer and Scotty Schaeffler, the UT

fight song. I think that's classic. That's that's not going to, it's not going to get you any trouble. listeners of this podcast would be very big fans, hopefully of the Vince Waley, I think, and Lee Hodges. That's a guess, but I think that's right. Public service announced by Jay Z. Legal reasons, definitely not the song we use for this podcast. No, definitely not. Really wanted to point this one out. One of my least favorite artists currently in the game, but just massively fitting Justin Rose, going with the human calm cast, John Legend, all of me, just what in the world?

Just look at possibly being the motivation for all of me being your walk-ups. Just an absolute brand orgy going on there, just like all the brand, just all the human brands, just really, really coalescing. Trying to get the moms on team rose. This one was interesting. Raging against the machine, bulls on parade.

That from Brendan Steel and Keegan Bradley, which was unfortunate, you know, you, I wanted to. Yeah. Not, you know, you I wanted to yeah, not, you know, that's great song and hate the hate the player loved the game. Exactly. I was actually going to say, and I hope we can play this after you get done reading these, but what would be the like most unlikely song that you would like to hear as walk up music. And I was going to say killing in the name sure I raised the machine and think that that would be like, oh, that's so unlikely that would never happen. But here, like,

here, these guys are playing bulls on parade. Yeah. And I think I would like to think that, you know, Zach De La Roca and the boys, when they when they wrote a song like that, I think that's probably the intended intent, you know, to really bring, bring joy to the phases at the Zurich, Zurich Classic of New Orleans. We should, we should tag Tom Morello on Twitter. Exactly.

No, what do you think about this? Like the official, the official investment bank of rage gets the machine. I'm sure. Have you ever seen that thing where like the high school choir or the high school like band does bulls on parade? It's like look it up on YouTube. It's pretty sick. Like it's definitely like a thing where you realize

that your generation is old enough to like influence the world in some ways. Yeah. I saw like Tyson Fury, Degenerge's father's heavyweight fight and he came out to juicy by Biggie Smalls and I was like, oh, that'd be a fun like song that would never happen

on the BGA tour, but you know, maybe it would, if public service announcement is to get in drop. Exactly, it's possible. Our winners this week, Cantley and Shoffley went with House of the Rising Sun, classic New Orleans song. See what Kim Sung, you'll know, go with a BTS song, enjoyed that.

That's kind of fun. What else we got? Brandt Snetaker and Keith Mitchell go with the Dr. John song. Everybody want to get rich right away. That's pretty cool. Like actual like, you know, regional nod there. Exactly. I believe that Horsel and Sam Burns came out to call him Baton Rouge, an absolute classic. I read it in a transcript. I kind of was one of the most jarring quotes I've ever seen, which was from Billy Horsel, which said, quote, I'm, I'm a big Garth fan, but I had never heard that song before. And then I heard it and it was perfect, which yeah, that's going to take some some unpacking as well. Discussing Jason Scrivener and Jason Day going with rock and

roll part two by noted child abuser Gary Glitter. That's a. Yeah, that's dicey there. That's an interesting one. Who let the dogs out? Just a classic from Jill Damon and Steven Yeager. I like the irony of that. I like that. I like Victor Hovelin and Colin Moore Cow. I know there's a lot of conversation about what they were going to go with. But just a classic sandstorm, the instrumental, everybody

knows. T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T everybody knows that's on everybody everybody knows that one that's fun okay you know we've got some light we've got some Rick rolling going on we've got Justin Lauer and Dylan Wu coming out to the Alan Parsons you know serious Chicago Bull song DA points coming out to pour some sugar on me that makes me deeply uncomfortable my dear friends came out during his wedding reception to the Chicago Bulls song. That's the classic. I love that.

That was pretty funny. Scott Pierci coming out to careless whisper also deeply unsettling. Yeah. What else we got? GMAC, a little bit of a deeper Oasis cut, supersonic. Not a deep cut, but not a wonder wall or champagne, supernova. How much would you pay to sit with G back and Liam Gallagher and like sit and talk about just like, you know, the state of England, the state of Northern Ireland and all that bring that on. Yeah, that's so many beers would be consumed at the blue known with Liam Gallagher throwing things with the help. I would love that. That would be an all-timer. And then we've got David skins coming out to you. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. things at the help. I would love that. That would be an all-timer. And then

we've got David Skins coming out to we are the champions, spoiler alert, we we are not. What did you would you pick us like a song if you are when you play in the Zura? Sure. What would be your choice to sort of come out to God. That's there's just no good answers. And I would expect to be fully, you know, I think it's kind of a social contract that whatever, like there's no good answer, right?

Whatever you pick, you're gonna get absolutely lit up. So I'm totally fine with that. You know what I really enjoyed? Neil came out when he did his boxing thing. Neil came out to Tom Sawyer by Rush, which was really, really good, which actually Adam Hadwin and Adam Svensson before they had to give up their tour cards. We're getting beat by Jay Haas, picked a rush song as proper, proper young Canadian boys. I like that.

Man, I don't know. That's a really, really tough one. So what do you got? Well my buddy Adam Kilgore who covered the The Nats for several years We're big drive by Truckers fans shot my guy Jason is a former Truckers guy and but Patterson Hood has a song look out mountain and we used to always We're trying to convince like, closers to come out to Lookout Mountain, because it starts at this like,

all amazing. You should look it up. Anybody out there has never heard Lookout Mountain. And imagine like a Ricky Vaughan type closer, like kick and open the bullpen door and coming into pitch the ninth inning, whatever with runners on. It's a pretty sick opener. So that that would be up there for me is like a definitely like, I can see like sabotage by the B B sts would be a good one to do for sure. You know, I mean, you can do like purple haze has a really like sick opening riff that Hendrix song.

Well, it's hard about this though is you got to you got a picture that there's like like 13 people in the stands and it's like 92 degrees. 400% humidity. And it's like 8 30 AM on Saturday. So, you know, it's like what are you going to play like the whole steady or something? It just really get everybody all whipped up like, you know, I just I don't know what I pick

Maybe the national I don't like thick is a brick which other That's a really good or bug bungalow in the jungle. I think it would be my answer actually if I go with that You know what I was I was disappointed not to see was the Just terrible to some of Robert Gargis and Tommy Gain. I think Tommy Gain should come out to Nookie. I think, I think would have been an absolute all-tiver. Oh, and she just leaned into it if you were Tommy Gain. That would be sick.

So, yeah, I don't know. Thus, thus concludes your, your walk up music analysis for this year. I look forward to, to doubling back next year. Anything else from the Zurich from you? Yeah, I don't think so. I mean, just, you know, look, I appreciate that it exists. I don't pretend that it's like an appointment golf viewing for me, but, you know, it's fun to sort of have around. And there ought to be more different kinds of events that aren't just stroke play.

So I'm not going to knock anything about it because it sort of lives up to one of the things that we preach that there needs to be more of. So it's just because it doesn't get it exactly right. Or isn't like super compelling. Doesn't mean that it's not good. Here here, moving to the West Coast, the LPGA Nasa Hataoka is your winner at the LPGA LA Open. It is her sixth LPGA victory and just a dominant week. She won by five. She has a tendency to do this. She has six wins now. You know, this one was by five. Two of the other ones are by six. One was by three. And I think if

you watched much of that round today, it was, it's pretty easy to see why when she gets on autopilot band. It is like, starts to look pretty impossible to, uh, to make a bug. Yeah, I had a blast watching this tournament. I don't know what your, your, uh, history of watching this tournament is or how much you watch this week, but what were you to take away? I like this golf course a lot. And so it's always like a enjoyable to sort of watch a little bit. I love, you can probably say this about 96% of LPGA players. Maybe like Lexi would be the only person I wouldn't say it about was like, it's just such fun tempo to watch.

And like tempo is such a cool thing in golf because it makes golf a little bit seem like a little bit closer to art than it is enough athletic endeavor. Yeah. And so like, she's another one of the players who has like such sweet tempo, you know, it's, and it's funny to like see her. They're talking about a camera, which whole it was like, oh, you know, like, she's just going to hit this on the green and, you know, maybe two putt and kind of, you know, maybe, and she, you know, flushes it and hits makes the eagle from 25 feet or whatever.

She's like, oh, okay, well, she's obviously like pretty sick. You know, so she made, gosh, she made everything. She looked at it. It's just fun to, I don't know, it's just fun to watch any player get into God mode like that where they're just, they cannot miss a fairway and they seemingly like, can't miss a putt. And when you combine that with a golf course that, you know, you're actually playing against, right? Like a lot of that, a lot of watching the Zurich just, it kind of feels like they're playing against each other, right? And it's, it's truly like, I'm going to try to make more birdies than you are watching the LPJ today. It felt a lot more like,

oh man, they're playing against this golf course and kind of hanging on for dear life. There's so much break, especially in those puts inside 5'10 feet even, like seeing some awesome camera angles of how much those puts were snapping, like crazy. Wilshire's awesome, man. And I don't know if you can eloquently put kind of what makes it so awesome to watch into words, but this is kind of like quickly rising the power rankings. I know it's a fairly new event.

I think they've really been going there for a couple of years now. But I mean, it seems like it has the potential to become like a premier marquee event just based on nothing other than how fun it is to watch. Right. I mean, it's it's a blast. Yeah. And there's obviously danger out there as a guy, yeah, and co found out, uh, third round, it seemed like she was sort of maybe the one person who could challenge, uh,

not so, but, uh, you know, it's, I, I will say a quick diversion before maybe we talk about, uh, Jean and co, should be worried about Maria Fassi at all. Like I saw, you know, she had another sort of, didn't make the cut. This is, you know, like, I think she made one cut in the last six events this year, like, this was maybe like we sort of thought because of, you know, when she cut, showed dual that the Augusta invitation all that she was going to be like the next star certainly like has an amazing swing to look at, but just seems like seven a little bit of struggling as a pro trying to find it. Yeah. And which is a bummer because it seemed like she was kind of flashing some some form late last year, right? And it looked like she was kind of hopefully going to turn it around.

I mean, it's one of those things that I feel like so many of these women like they just get on such a big stage at such a young age. And it's, you know, you want to give them plenty of time to figure it out. But at the same time, they're trying to kind of cash in as quickly as they can for as much as they can, because you don't know how long your career is going to be. And it's just a, yeah, I always get a little, how's it get a little bummed out when you see, you see a player like that. I mean, she went back and finished, finished fifth in October.

She's like fifth, I mean, she went back and finished finished fifth in October. She's like fifth T 25 T 22 And I kind of had it had it moving a little bit going at the end of last season and then yeah this year has Missed every cut except one that one T 56 and Yeah, maybe like a victim of The on what kind of like cutting both ways almost, you know, where it's like it immediately thrusts people into like super duper stardom before they almost like have a chance to kind of toil and anonymity for a while and really kind of earn their stripes on the professional world, right?

Which it's I had never really thought about it like that until that kind of was just coming out of my mouth. But the, that's an interesting rickael that's gonna come along with the Anwa. Sure. I think it's also kind of, it's weird because like, in a lot of respects, a lot of the younger, like, I wanna win at times when LBGA players, I don't wanna say peak, but like,

they have success like really early when they're young. And Liyakao is like a good example of sort of Lexi like some of the like best players who sort of been predicted to do great things were like kind of at their best when they were like teenagers. And so when you get to be like 24, which is like super young as a professional athlete and you haven't quite figured it out. It seems like you're sort of a disappointment in the LPGA, but it's kind of not really how it works. It's maybe like the sort of exceptions are the ones who find superstar don't really young and, you know, maybe the point is to just not burn out, I guess. But anyway, I, let's just want to give a quick shout out to you. Let me know who's like one of my favorite young players. She like has a speaking awesome tempo.

She finished I think 10th one of. I just love the watching her play golf and it's like her best finish in a year. So I hope that sort of leads to bigger and better things because I think she's a super promising young American player that would love to see be a star. Crazy young also. She was, she was just on the podcast with Big Randy a couple of weeks ago. Really, really enjoyed. Just turned 20.

Yeah. Really enjoyed listening to that. And Nasa still is 23, I think. And you know, she seems like she's been around for a little while. Was in a playoff last year at, what was that? US Open, I think and you know she seems like she's been around for a little while was in a playoff last year at What was that US open I think yeah, I mean 23 years old and six wins is you know It looks a lot different in the in the women's game than it does in the men's game, right? I mean it's it's kind of crazy how the how the numbers get shifted

But I'm I'm massively in on watching Nasa. I have a blast. I love the I love the jump up and down pump up That she does before she before she's hitting drives. I love a blast. I love the I love the jump up and down pump up that she does before she before she's hitting drives. I love that stuff. I love like just her game was like so fun to watch. It's you know like I said when a player gets into that kind of god mode. It's it's kind of fun to watch anybody but just had a blast watching her on that golf course is is a very cool combo. So can't wait for this event next year. I gotta go take it out, be a fun one to go to in person, actually, and seeing like somewhere

some of these balls land and seeing how hard it is to keep some of these chip shots from above the whole close and how hard it is to hold some of these five footers. It's just a really, really, really proper test that we don't really see on the men's side, outside of majors in a small handful of other golf tournaments as well. So. Sure. Speaking of, do you have you? Have you had any holes like, like, like, genuine coded recently or like, tronded in the death bunker in the whole course where you just

couldn't, couldn't get out and it was like, felt like you, the club was a foreign object in your hands. Yes, I hit it into the bunker on right in the front of the green on number 12 at the old course, the kind of drivable when it's downwind, drivable par four, and just couldn't get out. Just all my bunker yips from Taurus sauce came flooding back and just completely evacuated myself. What about what about yourself? People at summer saying that bunker gave you COVID. It's possible. and the for two days, kind of day where a couple of days where you had to have multiple rain suits and they changed it out and I hit it for anyone familiar with Pacific dunes into the hit a really good shot into 17 that like was maybe three or four feet left of where it needed

to be and it bounced into the gigantic massive bunker in front of 17 and I took 10 swings and could not get out. Like, I don't like thinking myself as a bad bunker player. For like, I usually, like, pretty decent. I just got nubbed down a couple of times that day out of hard bunkers, but the sand was so wet. Just, I mean, how do you elevate the ball? Like, 30, 40 feet straight up in the air when the sand is like just clumping everywhere?

It did not. It was, it was pretty shameful. I wanted to just kind of lay down and sort of. You know weep a little bit. So that's one of the ultimate shots where I've had had the specific thought in that specific point of like, Hey, Tom Doke, like, why don't you come hit this shot, man? Yeah, let's see you do this. Yeah, I know I wasn't supposed to hit it. I know. I know that wasn't I was supposed to avoid it. I know. But like what the what should I do now? Yeah. Should I take a seven iron and just launch it into the course behind the green and take a drop up there? Is that work for you? Exactly. Exactly. Couple more LPGA things. Just a quick shout out to Madeline Sagsdram. I believe her best finishing. Yeah.

Of the year are are very esteemed young hitter. T3 round of the day today 66. Minji Lee, great socks to great socks. You see, of course, of course, great socks. Minji Lee playing greats also T3 and in B Park also T3. Just a blast to watch in B Park as well. Kind of, I mean, it's, that was my wife, Justin is getting much more into the game. And every time I am constantly trying to say,

like, you don't have to swing hard. You don't have to swing hard. I promise you don't have to swing hard. Like every time in B would come on the screen, just like, okay, watch this. Please, just file this away. She looks, she's not even swinging at all. And it's just great to watch her.

Wouldn't you see, that's the thing about the cross-evident of the Zerk, if you had like, say, men and women together, like, how sick would it be to like, unbelieveable, like, amingely paired with Adam Scott or like, a, in B Park paired with like, another, like, crap putter, like, you know, it would be so sick. It would be great. I know. Uh, Kevin, let's take one more break, should we? Let's talk about a place that you and I have both been both love Pinehurst Resort for 125 years Pinehurst Resort has been the home of American golf.

We're going to talk about the home of Scottish golf, but right now we're going to talk about the home of American golf. And yet there has never been a better time to be there. The championship legacy of Donald Ross's masterpiece Pinehurst number two. Endurs as the US Opens first anchor site with five count them, five US Opens scheduled to return over the next two decades. Add Gill Hansen's redesign Pinehurst number four or number six, home of the first US Adaptive Open. And those are just three of the nine championship golf courses to experience Pinehurst. And of course, after testing your game there, grab a few wedges

and enjoy a loop on the cradle. I'm sure you played the cradle. Oh, many times. No, actually just once, but it was really enjoyable. So it is during an NLU event. We won. We were that's, I mean, my boy Patrick Smith were paired together and made some sick up and downs to like to basically like take the I think

we might have tied for the title, but I was also like three or four transfusion steep. So cradle sick. And that's yes, that's the underlying thesis. Cradle is sick. Many people call it the most fun 10 acres and golf off the course indulgent in a ray of craft beers brewed onsite at Pinehurst Brewing Company. I'm sure you've had many of those craft brews as well or relax with your buddies in the stylish north and south bar.

The north and south bar booking rules, by the way, if you haven't been there, it is an awesome, awesome little whiskey bar, massive fan of the north and south bar at Pinehurst. Pinehurst continues to evolve, making it much more than a bucket list destination, but a place to return to again and again, go to pinehurst.com now to plan your visit. Just a couple more kind of miscellaneous notes I wanted to get through here. First one. Guys in the news a lot. What I did not did not see this coming. 67 year old Greg Norman set his sights on a return

to competitive golf at the open championship at St. Andrews, the 150th open championship. He did not have any plans to qualify. He was just purely launching a triad balloon trying to get a special exemption in the RNA, put out a loud and quick, NAH, Doug, not gonna happen. That's gonna be a no for me, Doug. That's gonna be a no. Just a little pitchy for me, Doug. Your thoughts on the gray white shark being denied, a two-time winner being denied,

just because he hasn't played competitive golf in like seven years. I mean, on one hand, Craig Norman is a knob and perhaps a destructive force in golf in general. On on one hand, Craig Norman is a knob and perhaps a destructive force in like golf in general. On the other hand, I do kind of feel like if you won the open twice, yeah, twice, particularly twice, that they should sort of honor that and be like, all right, you can go play the open, like whatever. We'll look, you create an extra spot for you, some poor, you know, Englishman, and whatever is going to get bummed off. Because like, you know, I did like the, the pre sort of, like, oh,

65, you get phased out sort of thing. Cause you know what, it was, it was 50, right? When he made that run, I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Was that St. George's? I can't remember exactly. But he led going into the foreground, I believe.

Uh, so, you know, it it's a lot it's clearly another in general like Greg Norman man loves him some attention and I don't know that anybody's dying to go see him shoot 82 78 but who knows like it's the old course I mean he could sort of probably plot his way around there and yeah it that's a bird. I had a weird tinge of, I don't want to say like, um, sympathy, but I'm with you in that like, man, the guy was a legend. He's number one player in the world. He won the British have been twice. And now, you know, probably just like what he all he wants is like to go stand on the spoken bridge and do the wave goodbye and 150th open and yada yada yada. And it part some very teeny tiny shred of my brain is like, oh man, that kind of sucks.

That he's he's not going to get that. And then another much larger part of my brain is also like, well, yeah, man, this is kind of a, a bit of a me reaping me sowing thing. You can't just like be kind of a dick for, you know, the better part of 20, 30 years and then expect everybody to kind of roll out the red carpet as well.

So it's, yeah, I stand with the RNA, I guess, bravely. No, we'll have you. Yeah, I mean, just, you know, I've tasted their the RNA, I guess bravely. No, a lot of you. Yeah, I mean, just, you know, I've tasted their wine and ate their bread. Exactly. And they're mincemeat and their spotted dick in the dessert department. Which if Greg Norman had not been such a dick over the last. Spotting thing. Would you would you think he would have gotten the exemption?

Do you think it would have been a sort of a set up? Because like, remember Jack, like retired once and like did the whole wave. Yeah. And then like came back and did it again. Tom Watson did it like 12 times. Yeah. So yeah. No, I'm sure there isn't precedent for this.

No, it's probably like Greg Norman was like, you know, come on mate, like what the hell? I've won this thing twice. So yeah, I don't know if I don't know. I would have to assume, right? Like I think if he is just laying low and is just like, yeah, I don't know if I don't know. I would have to assume, right? Like I think if he is just laying low and is just like, Hey, I understand the large place that that St Andrews holds in the game of golf. And you know, I would love to really cap my my legacy and my career by standing on that bridge. It would mean so much to me. I'm sure they would do it. But like,

when you go around, did you watch the shark documentary? I haven't yet. Obviously, you're talking with a 30 for 30 years, being about a regular man, which would encourage everyone to watch, even though I have not yet watched myself, been a band in all week, hashtag problems, golf problems. But yeah, I heard it's great. I heard it's like very entertaining. It's really good. Yeah. And there's just a great line in there where, you know, it's solid. Talk to Jason Hare, the director, and they had a great conversation. If you haven't listed that podcast, it's, it's really, really good. But, you know, they were kind of unpacking this, this line of, you know, Greg's defense mechanism of every time somebody would, you know, quote, unquote, like stand against him. you know, it was like this, well, they're jealous of my accomplishments.

It's like, yeah, I don't think the RNA is jealous of your accomplishments, man. I think maybe you just might be kind of a dick. And this is a good, uh, there's a pretty good indicator of that. But it is, it's, it's, Greg's, Greg's an interesting study in like, whether you believe in karma, right? Because you know, he is kind of obviously like an arrogant, you know, knob and like, but you watch some of those like majors where he clearly should have won, right? Like Larry buys chipping in across the ridiculous chip or like Paul Azinger, like if you watch that one where he lost a PGA to Azinger at the O.K Twain. It's no Bob Twain, maybe. I'm thinking of the one who, I forget which one he lost, Azinger, where he's like, he could have made, you know, it's so close to making like three puts, like that are like

really hard putts or like that Azinger, like, rolls one in from nowhere, Ville, to sort of, you know, get into a playoff with him. It's crazy. Like, you think like, oh my God, like Greg Norman probably should have like six majors easy and some of these sort of things. And that's what, uh, and yeah, sorry, you were, I think you're right. Bob toy was it in Brunez, but the, uh, there was many things that you was from. Exactly. Well Peter costus. Peter costus does it again. She watched the whole documentary. It's really good. But Peter costus does a pretty good job of putting him in a bit of a body bag where he's like, oh, yeah, all these like, oh, man, Bob Tway, the holes of bunker

shows a Greg shop 40 on the back nine. And there's just like all these modes. He was like, yeah, he did that. He shot 39 there. He bogey the last two. He hit a horrible shot at a gusty. He's like, come on, spare me some of the like, oh, what a what a unlucky guy, which, which was pretty, pretty point blank execution, which I enjoyed. How sick was it though in 1986 that the guys had it four ironed into 18 great. So good. So good. I know.

And just even just the moment of Fowl though, like getting deep in the process, figuring out what was the, I think he had a two or three iron into 13. Oh, that's just it's really good stuff. Uh, to go back. Yeah, I know. We have to. Well, kind of a Greg Norman adjacent news item here as well. But according to golf week, Robert Gargis became the first publicized player to request a release to play in the live golf event in London in June. This is the first of the eight event series set up by Greg and live golf. The release these these requests for those that don't know need to be filled out 45 days before competition, which means Monday is the deadline.

I I'm in a bit of a bind here where it really seems like somebody, I don't know if it's the PJ tour, I don't know, I don't know who it is that kind of leaked this to, I think it was Aiman Lynch that wrote the story for golf week, but it seems like Gary gets got put out on an absolute island and I would bet pretty strongly that he is not the only person to have requested a release. I think there's a pretty lengthy line behind him. And just the, I believe the way I put it on the shock and start earlier this week was like, what a corporate, like get a load of this fucking guy moment, which is just to have like no

sympathy for Robert Gargis. I don't, I don't give a shit one way or the other, but what a what a brutal court of public opinion here. Totally. I think it's a poor athlete said like, you know, when when they threw when Bryzen and Phil, through what's his name out in front of this like cannon fodder, right? Like it's a total just an absolute bullet sponge. And it take the just take all the bullets for what's to come. Yeah, exactly. Go ahead. Revenison of the Charlie off with no production. Although that was that was self-inflicted. But what? True, but they were cheering him on as he ran towards the the English astringency, charging the the front lines and stuff like in Braveheart.

I think we're going to find out. I don't know when, if and when and how and, you know, I'm sure we have our own work to do on this front to try to get some of this information, but I mean, if this deadline is tomorrow, I got to think a lot of these requests are in. And again, I'm going to reiterate very, very strongly. I know there was a lot of like dancing on graves and spiking the football and like, oh, that's the, all you have is Robert Gargis I really don't think that's the case. I don't know how you how you feel about it No, for sure and it would mix laugh is like

Who did Robert Gargis annoyed to like have his name be leaked or whatever right? Why did someone offer that up to you know the newsbreakers of the world? But yeah, I mean you would think that the people who would like have a naw wearing like golf Saudi on his, you know, shirts, you know, a collar would be up there and that, you know, the guy is like Westwood and Polter who've been sort of rumored for a long time to do it that they would certainly this would be, you know, unless, unless somehow like this is the London event, it's going to be like a trial run for the legal battle and live golf is saying like, all right, we'll cover whatever legal expenses that it would cost you to sort of fight to stay in the majors, you know, if they tried, if the majors try to ban

you, then, you know, but you would think there'd be more prominent names. It would be coming out very soon. One would think, watch this space, watch this space for, for, for their updates. Uh, we're going to, we're going to temper it. We're not going to do too much saudi live golf stuff. One would think watch this space, watch this space for for their updates. We're going to, we're going to temper it. We're not going to do too much saudi live golf stuff. I'm sure there'll be more to talk about next week. A couple more items I had. Steph Curry.

Do you see this? The Steph Curry announcement. I did not see this, but it was here because I'm always interested in the Steph Curry's golf game. Believe I read this on golf. I just Steph Curry announced plans this week to host a five tournament to host five junior tournaments. I believe in partnership with the AJGA for underprivileged players planning to cover travel, lodging and entrance fees. I still am a little hazy on the details of how it all works.

If I think it all feeds up maybe to existing age AGA events or maybe they're doing their own separate events. Long, you know, the long and short of this is, this stuff always remains kind of funny to me that like some of the most forward thinking, innovative, impactful stuff in the game of golf and making golf more accessible is coming from Steph Curry, not from the many, many dozens of organizations that seemingly exist only to do this exact thing. So continued good on him for, you know, what remains just some pretty awesome stuff and interested in following how that, how that goes.

Like this is legitimate that we're talking about. we're talking about grow the game, you know, like instead of pretending that, you know, you're helping women get the right to drive or eat in restaurants inside your area, which has literally like a such a non-sequitur in terms of like natural growth of golf. Like how about buy a hundred sets of golf clubs and like drop them off near me in Baltimore and Clifton Park. Right. And basically be like, all right, Wednesdays are youth golf cars day and every four some of kids is going to have like a actual golfer will, you know,

teach them rules and etiquette and how to play and how much fun it is to bomb driver or whatever. That might legitimately turn 10 kids out of, you know, 50 into or 100 data into golfers. And that would literally grow the game. But the other stuff is just like total smoke screen lip service paid to this stuff. And so I would love to see every every time someone specifically says, like, oh, I'm going, I'm just trying to grow the game. Like I would love to, you know, press them a little bit harder on the what exactly do you mean? How do you think this legitimately grows the game because there's like legitimate ways for like a basketball player is out there like actually doing that and you're just kind

of trying to make more money for yourself and using this as kind of a shield. Yeah. And it's the same. I mean, it's the same with, you know, an organization like youth on course, right? We talked about that. And earlier in an ad read, we talk about them all the time. There's just so many things where, you know, there's no shortage of identifying the problem, right?

Like, oh, golf is inaccessible. Why is it inaccessible? Well, I can't really afford to play it. Okay, cool. What if we help subsidize your rounds? Awesome. Problem solved. And the knots that some of these organizations just tie themselves up and trying to either answer questions that nobody's asking or just put 15 layers of stupid, you know, needless bullshit in between them and the actual golf being played.

It's just, it's refreshing to see like, oh, what's that? You want to play tournament golf, but you don't have the money. What if I gave you the money to do it? Let's just, let's cut right to the core. So good on Steph Curry. Last thing I had before we get into maybe, maybe we talk a little bit about your band and trip. I'd love to hear about that. I got some horror stories from Scotland. I'd be happy to share. Dustin Johnson and Paulina Greski.

I know this is a big one for you. I know this is, you know, you wanted to get one thing on the agenda. This was it. Tied the knot this week. Love is not dead. And I just only wanted to put that out there for two reasons.

One, just to remind everybody that they got engaged in 2013, nine years ago. And just so sick. It's just one of the, one of the foremost mysteries of our time. I don't think anybody's really asked him why did it take nine years. I don't for one of the most public couples around. It's just it's it's wild to me that that is it's just a just doing it their own way.

So good for them on that. And two, I wanted to ask you if you if you knew who which we talked a lot about music. Yeah, which mute which ask you if you knew who, which we talked a lot about music. Yeah. Which musician you think performed? Oh my god. Could it be, I would say, some country artist would be my guest. Uh, in a sense, I would say he, you know, he certainly panders to that crowd as well. Kid Rock.

Kid Rock. I should have known that that would be the American badass himself. Oh, wow. Do you think he's saying a picture? That would be like for the most kid romantic kid rock. I don't know. I guess he couldn't get Cheryl Crow, but hopefully you say, you know, I think I hope dust is a big oldie God does why that would be my might be my walk, I don't talk, actually. That's like sweet. If Kid Rock does a wedding, does he do like, ball with a ball? Like, that's a deeply fascinated by this question now.

Like, what is Kid Rock's set list? Yeah, I'm gonna dive into that. Once we hang up, I saw there were some Instagrams, Instagrams going around, I gotta say, I kept a pretty surface level, so I didn't hear Specifically what he was playing I know we had a new song out recently where I saw in the music videos riding a giant middle finger I don't know if you saw that or not. Oh, of course, which you know kind of puts it all in perspective

But yeah, just wanted to pass that along to you and the other interested listeners So heart heart felt congratulations to dust The the note that Pauline Uh sort of Instagram. I did unbelievable penmanship. I that like Shout out to the South Carolina school system if that's truly Dustin's penmanship I mean, I don't think you could have somebody else write that note. Could you? Could you have somebody else for those that don't know? I can't believe we're talking about this. There was a

There was a I have it in front of me if you'd like me to read it. Yeah, please, please Paul Paulina. I'm gonna try to do my best DJ Paulina You are the love of my life. I'm counting the seconds until I marry you. I love you to the moon and back exo Dusty, but it's written in like the the most like beautiful pen. Yeah, very Yeah, I would love to see any other example of looks like Oscar Wilde wrote it. Oh, yeah So like awesome again, like shout like shout it to this subcarolina school system if they taught DJ that kind of

end of chip growing up because could not have expected. And if it was a a first person letter to your wife written by somebody else, that's that's one of the most depressing things I've ever ever come across. Just ask the publicist to do a quick pen that are all dictated. That's a tough one. That's a tough one. You ready? Uh, like crazy that took up nine years to play in this tough. That's a tough. Are you ready? What like crazy that took up nine years to play in the sweating. I mean, I'm sure they were just waiting on the venue to be available. Well, I think I think kid rocks been busy too. I know he had that.

Yeah, yeah. He was down with the congressional run, I think in Michigan. And you know, I think his schedule is probably been pretty jammed up too. So I think did you see I think Trump, we don't have to get into this. Trump was asking for his opinion on North Korea. I don't know if you saw that headline that was good stuff. Oh, yeah, yeah. Kidrauga. I thought maybe you were talking about DJ. Possibly. I know they've played, you know, played some golf.

So it's probably come up. We definitely want DJ near the nuclear football. Honestly, you know, he seems like a pretty cool customer. I'm not sure if he's going to be good at it. Well, we definitely want DJ near the nuclear football. Honestly, you know, he seems like a pretty cool customer. I think he could definitely make some rational decisions. If there's anyone who's going to be okay on the pressure, he's probably

pretty high on the list, to be honest. Oh, no, Vladimir. You just need to chill out. It's just not. This watches chill out, man. This is shut up. Uh, I don't know what to use this crap right now. Stop it. I think the, I think the DJ imitating, you know, nuclear discussions with Vladimir Putin has brought us

to the end of what I would say, the golf news of the week. Tell me, tell me about your trip. I know. So actually, let me, I'll preface all this with, we mentioned at the top, all the guys are at band in this week, I was supposed to be out there as well. I do do an absolute comedy of errors and misforechan. I had to skip that trip.

I ended up getting COVID on the back half of our Scotland trip. I ended up getting food poisoning. I don't know if I told you that part. I ended up getting food poisoning. I don't know if I told you that part. I ended up getting food poisoning on my flight home. Tough, tough scene. Maybe the worst day of my adult life, I would say. And just the idea of getting back to bandin

would have been a bit of a bridge too far. But I know you were just out there last week at a great time. What was some of the highlights? Yeah, super, I mean, it's hard to have any kind of trip at bandin that isn't really like an A minus at worst. So, but I had the some of the worst weather that I've ever golfed in wind, like 50 mile an hour wind. So those were some tough tough days. Definitely had to bring a couple different rain suits to swap in and out between rounds. And as you might imagine, those courses are pretty hard in those kind of conditions. But other than one afternoon where there was kind of water on the greens at Ban

and Dunes, like still ridiculously playable, it shows you like how well they're designed to drain and everything. Love, I go back, I've only been twice, but I keep going back in my mind to sort of thinking about what parts I love. And I just, one thing I just love about Bannon is like they make you feel like they are grateful to have you there. Instead of like they are doing you a favor by letting you pay thousands of dollars to go there. And that is such a huge thing when you are paying thousands of dollars that you've probably saved up over, you know, course of a minute. There's only some so many people who are allowed to go every year. I'm not one of those people. I need to kind of bank up for a little bit of time to plan it out, but I just always feel like

everyone there actually wants me to be there instead of as kind of like begrudgingly accepting my presence. And yeah, the golf is just so fun. There's so many different kind of shots. I came away with more appreciation of Old Mac than I'd previously. Played a scramble at Old Mac, which I think is like, it might be the goat scramble course. That's really good. Yeah. There's no, you don't have to grind over, necessarily shots, then you can take on risks

that you might otherwise take. You got a lot of, I won't say funnel pins, but like a lot of ridges you can use that one guy might catch and all the other guys might miss. Totally. It just makes for a really all the other guys might miss. Totally. Just makes for a really fun day. I'm sure. Totally.

I mean, it was so hard to hold certain greens in the window, whatever, but I managed to make a par on the road hold there that I was so proud of like on my own ball because you know, hit a hit a like a pitching wedge from like 140 that I knew would hit short and bounce up and it held the green. I was like, God, that is exactly the way you're supposed to play this. This is so cool that I did that. But as I said, you know, when in the death bunker and pack and that's a tough one. And love, I mean, is to me, and this may be influenced in your own mind by your

tremendous, like this legendary performance of making three birdies on the four or threes, but trails is just the best vibe for me. Yeah, I could play trails every day all the time. 13, I kind of was less enthusiastic about this time than the last time. Even though I think I had a six full times that I played it a lot four years ago in this time. But other than that, I just I love almost every holiday trails. I just think it's such a fun walk and had a great back nine there to sort of win the match that I was in with a and I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, uh, the to sort of move up a tee, uh, there if you're like the wind is blowing. I mean, when was the wind was blowing in 50, 60 mile or gusts at Pac-Beans. And so like,

trying to play that from the green tays or back was like a bonkers proposition. So, uh, we played it from the golds and it was perfect. Uh, it was, it made it acceptable and playable. So, uh, I let it, I think I would play it 147 holes in four days, which is just a lunatic behavior. But it's hard to like, after you play 36, if you played really well in the afternoon, you're like, well, why wouldn't I go out and play one of the 40 best golf courses in the world for free? Like I can, you know, do all kinds of cool stuff on the front nine abandoned or sneak out the back nine abandoned or play an 11 hole loop

at sheep ranch. In the next two hours, that's what makes band and super fun is like that extra bonus on golf. Like, could anybody possibly play sheep ranch without like walking with the smile on their walking away with the smile on their face? Like it's just seems like an impossible thing for me to do. It would be tough. It would be tough. The moving, the moving up a tee is the, you know, reminds me of one of the great detonations I ever heard in my life, which was I was there with Sean Martin. And we had very similar, similar conditions for like four straight days. It's just absolutely brutal. Everybody's getting their ass kicked.

And finally, one of the other people I was there with suggested like, well, why don't we just move up a tee and Sean was being a little, it's been a little pouty. And the caddy just puts a absolute bullet in his head, just like, Hey, man, if you're making too many birdies and you're not having any fun, then we can all move back. It'll be totally fine. Yeah, because anytime too much fun comes into play, we'll just dial up the intensity. Yeah.

So that's a, I've said that I've used that exact phrase that you have shared a couple times and it's impossible to not like laugh and be like, not at the logic. Yes. And be like, Oh, right. You're, yeah, that's a good point. Exactly. I mean, who exactly are you going to yeah, that's a good point. Exactly. Who exactly are you going to put?

That's the thing too, is people are always like, yeah, but I want to post a score or whatever. And even that sort of thing in your mind, it includes the idea that anyone will possibly give a shit, which you're shot. Yes. If you're like, yeah, I know, I shot 74 band of dudes, like no one's going to be like, well, yeah, what he's doing. Yeah. That was there's

going to be, oh, that's awesome. Cool. That's so good for you. Like I'm really impressed. And even as they say that, they're already thinking about their own round. It's yeah. Oh, other people are doing a lot of heavy lifting in your own head in that, in that instance. Yes. I, you, you, you, you know, you got to spend some time at Scotland's playing a lot of different courses. There was anything that stood out in your mind that you would have, how would it ban a trip compared to a Scotland trip? Uh, it's, it's interesting, man. I mean, it's, it's, uh, from the East Coast, honestly, probably like, I would say way easier to get to Scotland, honestly,

like, you know, fly to New York, fly to Edinburgh and you're there, right? And you got a little bit of a drive to whatever golf course or whatever region you're looking to post up in, combine, you know, compare that with getting out to bandin is usually a, you know, at least a couple flights and at least a couple hours in the car. So it's, when you kind of put it that way, I mean, I think the scenery abandoned is unbelievable. The golf courses are unbelievable. The food and the accommodations and all that stuff's great.

But if you have a chance to like go, you know, kind of settle in and live temporarily in another country, right? I mean, especially when that country is kind of the place that invented the game. If you hadn't done Scotland, I think it's it's pretty hard not to not to put that at the top of your list. As I mentioned, I loved it so much that, you know, I was mandated by the by the government to stay a little bit longer, even. So it was, that was, man, what a weird, what a weird week. I like I said, I end up

getting COVID and couldn't really fly back to the United States, obviously, until I was just a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a

little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a quarantining my appropriate time. And once I once I got out and moved around, I mean, I was there on a Sunday in St. Andrews when the most famous golf course in the world is famously closed and turned into a public park and just walked around the old course for like literally three hours, just looking at every single hole and every single green from every single angle. And I had my yardage book out and a cup of coffee and just walked around and tried to stow away as much stuff for the open as I possibly could. I've never, I don't know the last

time. Like well, actually I could tell you the last time I was as excited for a major would have been the 2015 open. Also, it Tane Andrews where we all met and frequently blacked out and had just in all time possible in my favorite week of traveling in whatever it is that we do. That was that was good stuff. But yeah just a and that's a rambling answer, but it was a it was a trip full of multitudes. Certainly played the old course a couple times. I played Neil in a hickory match at the old course, which was a kind of a bucket list item.

We've done that in a couple awesome places. We did it. Pinehurst number two was up there on that list. We did it at a washkimo in Michigan on Taurus sauce. And being able to like play the old course with hickories. I know how hipstery and all that stuff. It sounds but it was a fucking blast is just be able to try to think your way around and like the bunkers are so much more in play and you're just desperately trying to avoid them at all costs and kind of playing chess against yourself. I at least had to play chess against myself

because I certainly couldn't play against Neil because he beat the shit out of me. So here, here, on that one, who could have envisioned that back in 2015, one day you would play hinkery's on the old course in a match or Neil would just not only like dominate you athletically, but intellectual. I know. Because what a world we were living in. It was a tour de force. Tour de force. It was, it came on the heels of a very long, long story,

but we got locked out of our Airbnb. So we, we had secured a tea time on the, you know, with the ballot and we ended up very, very generously got invited to go have a lunch at the RNA with some members and just having like the kids are just having an absolute day, unbelievable day, right? We have lunch at noon, you know, have a bunch of drinks. Everybody's feeling pretty loose and up. We're having Airbnb that's like 90 seconds up the walk up the road. And we're like cool, we're just going to pop up real quick and grab our clubs change.

And we'll be, we'll see you guys in the first team in a minute and walked back and ended up getting locked out, which was absolutely brutal, bad luck. There was a storm door situation. Somebody had pulled the clubs, not good. I got shit on by a bird while we're standing there, waiting just absolutely like, desperate, whether we're gonna make the tea time or not.

Many people say it was good luck to not end up being good luck. And then we ended up missing the first three holes while we're waiting to get to get let back in. So Neil's first instance at the old course. That was pretty devastated for him, but we're just like jogging up number one, two, and three with our little hickory bags on our shoulder trying to catch up to the rest of our two, some on number four. So we started on four, and I think through those 15 holes, from the back tees with hickories,

Neil was like four over or five over, something like that. It was just astronomical, Google. So good for him. But yeah, then we ended up meeting. I think the boys kind of covered it on the podcast last week, but great trip with awesome people. You know, if you're, if you're so inclined to meeting some of those people, I would encourage you to join the nest. That's where a lot of those people all meets and came from. uh, any I mean, it was, it was really good until, you know, the whole COVID situation, but, uh, we're back and we're better than ever. So ready for, uh, ready for the next one.

Went from like a, you know, lost in translation type film to like a, you know, like a Wes Anderson situation of like running. Yes, very much so. Yeah, jogging down. Nice of the RNA to like, you know, not the, I guess, you know, just basically would have had that T time would have been empty going forward through the three holes so you could still run up and catch that. So I, man, the grandstands are up. The golf course is playing awesome. I like, I could not be more excited for the open needs to needs to get here tomorrow. When the cat goes and plays, you'll, you'll know where all the putts break and, you know, it'll be, you can just take us through step by step. All right, well, here's why Tiger hit that shot because the last time I saw the cat, remember not the last time, but the first major I think I saw him play and was the Open Championship at 15 and I walked with him for like last four holes and wrote what I thought was like the cat

obe. Yeah, like one of many. Yeah, and it's like really like one of my favorite things I've ever written and it like ended in this sort of beautiful pointy way of like, you know, isn't it, isn't it pretty to think so, the Hemingway line about like what this could have been. And then he went and, you know, dunked on my face in one and one in 19. So maybe he can do it one more time. I hope I love to be there. Wood watch. Wood watch. Wood watch. Wood read. Kevin, what a treat, man. Good to, good to catch up. Appreciate you filling in. You know, the bit of a replacement's podcast tonight, but you know, I'd have it no other way. I will always willing to, you know, jump in and, and be the session player, you know, the wrecking crew. Absolutely. You know, why not? Sometimes you end up on a famous album. I know if you're just in there, you know, it's contributing. That's right. Well, yeah, I think we've got we got a couple cuts that might make the record tonight at least, you know, I think we did some good work.

As long as you know the head man, the George Martin doesn't, you know, this overfill them with an orchestra or something. Yeah, fingers crossed. Yeah, all right, man. Well, we will catch up with you soon. Thanks to everybody for listening and we will be back next week. Cheers Be the right club today That's better than most That is better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most.