No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 549: Mexico Open Recap

Episode Date: May 2, 2022

Jon Rahm wins the Mexico Open for his first win in 2022. We take stock of Rahm's victory and what it means for the rest of his season plus our reactions to the new course, the latest with the Saudi golf league, Marina Alex's victory on the LPGA tour, our trip to Bandon 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 is better than most. That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different! Better than most. Solid here calling in from Boston with my guy here T.C. Hello T.C. Hola, mimi go glad to be here. Neal is joining us from the Kilaels. Hello, Mr. Neal. Good evening. Buenos Suerte. Now that's good luck. God, I I didn't pick up anything in Argentina. Buenos no chase. K lastima. Happy to be here. What a shame. What a shame that I got it wrong. Yeah, I was actually pretty good.

I did there. K. Ridekelo. Esla Baluga. Jaime Nance was putting in some work this week on some accents and things like that. He puts you in the mood. It makes it feel pretty low-wise. Ben Humming. Ben Humming.

That's your guy, the group of Salinas. We're going to talk plenty about him. I would be down to sharing some prosperity with him. Very in on that commercial, very prestige worldwide of them, but we'll get there. Neil, why don't you tell us a little bit about the the Calaway 3 wood that we got to talk about here because you got some things to say. I do. I think it's my favorite club in the bag right now. We'll start there. I've got the Rogue ST LS, Low Spin. I'm a high spin player.

So that keeps me on the planet. It's 15 degree loft. I got the extra stiff shaft in there. The reason I like it, Sali, it's the one club I can work consistently right to left off the tee, which is a game changer for me, helps me, you know, I don't have to hit driver on every hole now, and I feel very confident in taking this three wood. I find it to be one of the most forgiving three woods I've ever had in the bag. What I mean by that is my three woods have traditionally been a very spinny club for me, spinny right balls or, you know, very, very chloroformy left balls. You used to be afraid of hitting the three wood and you're not anymore big time.

And now I find myself reaching for it when I need to hit the fairway. So I love it. And we've got the NLU retro big bertha head cover on there. So if you're looking for a Callaway Rogue ST, whether it's LS or regular three wood, just type in uh, Callaway Golf dot com forward slash no laying or actually forward slash NLU, uh, to check out the head cover. And all you got to do is plug in the code NLU if you're going to buy the three wood and you get a free NLU head cover with it, $50 value. TC, what do you think of that? For the record, I love the club. It's so

good. It's a second favorite club in my bag right now behind the... The you would. The you would. You would. Incredible. I think the you would might be the best club ever made. Well, not the best club in your bag. But the three wood is become a weapon. Getting kind of inside Intel is talking to Maddie, Leisha's caddy, he's like, yeah, man, we can't even hit a ghost too far. He's like, Leisha doesn't really have a use for a 283 wood.

And I'm like, yeah, I mean, it's, it thing is hot. So I would recommend checking it out if you're in the market for a three wood. And you want to plug in that code, you can get a free head cover with it, cowboygolf.com. So, what else you got?

Well, John Rom, also a lot of cowboys have to get through. John Rom won, obviously this week, with the Rogue ST Triple Diamond LS driver and the Chrome Soft X Golf Ball, along with many, many, many other cowboy clubs in the bag. So let's start with, uh, senior Rom. Is this, uh, TCL start with you? Was this a crowning? Absolutely. I mean, shit, even on 18, which is,

that was supposed to be the ultimate crowning on 18. And he tried to give the crown back, you know, hit driver on 18. You got to hit driver. So, Kidiama's in his group. He's only up by two over Kidiama. So if Kidiama makes three, like you got to still make a play for four.

I'm down with hitting driver there. He just like, we were the only suspense left was like, is it gonna bury in the lip of a bunker and is that gonna cause him to make bogey? He should have hit his rogue ST through it. He may be pro, yeah. I'm down with driving. No, I'm not gonna suck it.

He's the best driver in the world. That's what I was gonna say. One, and it's a fade off the tee, which he's automatic with. So he even said in this post-round interview of like, I didn't expect to be stressing when all I had to do is just hit my normal shot off the tee, which he's automatic with. So he even said in his post-round interview of like, man, I didn't expect to be stressing when all I had to do is just hit my normal shot off the tee. Like that whole set's up really well for me.

Just, you know, just didn't hit a good shot. I do want to say he hit an exceptional shot into 17. Oh, that was so good. So came review for it. We couldn't really appreciate it while it was in the air. And he's like, he's yelling at it to be right. And that shot was so good. And It was kind of like watching that. I was kind of room for Fino unexpectedly. I wasn't expecting Fino to really be like this.

I was even rooting for Fino. It kind of came out of nowhere that he got in the mix. And when he got in the mix, it was kind of like, all right, what's more fun here? Fino coming to win this one, having big Randy and DJ have to lose their bet that they probably won't pay off for another year, which if you guys want to get into masses get on those two guys that still haven't paid their debt from him winning the Northern Trust in August by the well if we're gonna talk about paying debts I mean you're talking to the beluga here who's who's inner rears probably three or four different You know no there's a lot of people on the on the pouch chopping block So that we're not gonna lit we'll litig lot of people on the on the palch chopping block so that we're

not gonna let we'll litigate that tomorrow in the on the preview show let's let's keep it you know between the mustard mayo here and i think that i i don't personally don't think it was a convincing win from rom no but i thought again the post-round stuff was interesting he knows it he said he's like i i didn't put well and when you look at the stats like i don't think that I've given him enough credit for this, but he's truly like,

generationally good off the tee this year. Yes. Right? Let me find the numbers. He's number one in strokes gained off the tee. And what was the number? Like 1.29. And then it's like, okay,

and then you look at the rest of the field. He's followed by Keith Mitchell at 0.815, and then Cameron Young, and everyone's bunched up then. It's like, okay, and then you look at the rest of the field. He's followed by Keith Mitchell at 0.815 and then Cameron Young, everyone's bunched up then. It's like Cameron Young, Sergio, and they're all kind of like 8.15, 8.1, you know, whatever. And it's like, he's lifting and separating by two full shots over the next best guy over four rounds.

Yes, it's like more a cow with his iron, it's kind of prowess off the tee. And then he's second in, you know, overall tee to green. And then in putting, he's, you know, 170 second. And then, you know, around the green is 130 seconds. So it's like, and I think of Ram, when I think of him, I think of him making those bombs at the US open, right?

I think of him as a really good, I mean, the party made it, the BMW, the DJ, right? Like he's just, to me, it's like man. I a lot of times Historically or anecdotally I think of him as a awesome putter and maybe just yeah He's good off the tee hits it a long way, but I didn't realize he was that good So that's been carrying him and I mean watch out if the putter heats up because you know He is like he is that good and he's winning without his best putting. He finished 18th overall in Strokes game putting this week, but was negative strokes game

in each of the rounds over the weekend. That's where it was kind of interesting of like it kind of tells us like this tournament does not tell a different story than what we've seen out of Ram for for the most part of this year, which has been the numbers off the team and hitting the ball are just as good. He tried to tell a story of like listen, because my numbers are so good off the team and hitting the ball are just as good. He tried to tell a story of like, listen, because my numbers are so good off the team with the approach play, my stroke scheme putting has to be bad.

That's literally like the opposite of how Stroke's game works. So I don't know if he fully understands how that works, but the story has been like, yeah, he's been the same ball striker, but can't get it in the hole. And that's very unlikely to lead to wins. Even when he was rolling it, it's good as he was last year.

He only won one time. I know it's really to memorial should have been a win. And who knows what else would have happened if he did not test positive the second time, blah, blah, blah. But it feels like the only way he could win the way he played today was kind of how spieth one at RBC, which was, you know, RBC was a better field than this, but this was a very weak field.

This was like extremely shitty. Yeah, we just, we just like go out of our way to call that out. Like a hundred percent. This is one of the worst fields I've ever seen. And he, he needs to be better than that closing the tournament. Like he didn't make a putt over eight feet long until the 14th hole today. I think shout out to Kevin Kism. Yeah, Kism tried to get in my ass on on replies, just refusing to understand how time

stands work and all that good stuff. But players have been a little extra chippy lately over the last couple months. I don't know exactly why that is. I feel emboldened. I feel quite emboldened. But I mean, I think it's crazy. Rom shot 64, 66, 68, 69. He had a share of the lead after all four rounds.

Basically, when's wire to wire and we're, you know, calling it an unconvincing or. But he's good. Exactly. It's a compliment. It says something about our expectations for him. 100%. There's no way he walks off being like, okay, now I'm ready to go win a major.

It's gotta be like, I gotta play better than that even to go win a win a major. I mean, when you have Kurt Kittiyama and Cameron Champ like on your heels. That's a very different story than what we're gonna see play out over the course of the summer. But I think mentally that's good for him. Like he got a done, but when he doesn't have it,

I think sometimes you just need to see the ball go through the hoop, right? And he won kind of dirty and it's like, okay, I got, he kind of got a little bit of the monkey off his back, I think. I was like, man, you could see it in his post-round. Like he felt like I've had a great year or two, and I've only won once. Like I feel this is my seventh win.

I feel and he could see is like I think it should be more than that. You know, so he's been wearing that a little bit. So maybe this helps him, you know, get back to kind of being dominant. We'll see. Which I don't know exactly what led him to commit to this event or play this event, but I'm guessing it would be like, hey, I need to go win one. I need a W. Let's go do that.

So for good on him, one, playing the event, and two, like going out and actually getting it done, I don't mean the whole thing to be a slight, but there is a certain expectation for Rom and he's delivering to him T to green, but we all watched it this weekend. Like that didn't look like a guy that you can't put like that in win major championships, right? And that's what he's here to do. Well down, but I will say this down the stretch. I didn't see him really miss. I get maybe 17. I didn't really see him miss any puts he should have made. He had some really,

really, really comfy two puts, right? Like there was no, there was never in danger on the back nine today of like, oh, he's gonna, oh man, like that was, now he's gotta make this difficult eight footer or whatever. It was just like, yeah, missed a bunch of 15 to 20 foot birdie puts. Like the put that he, the put that he made on 14. So he bogeyed 10. It seemed like everybody was struggling on 10.

And then on 12, he was pretty much greenside and miss, you know, he had like 90 feet, missed that. And then that's what it was kind of like. Makes par and you're like, all right, you're kind of fucking around with this a little bit. And then it's the seven to nine footers. It's not necessarily, it's not the shorties, right? It's not a zalatorous thing up close

and not a speed thing up close. It's like the puts that make the biggest difference are that like that rain from seven to 10 feet or whatever. And when he's not rolling those in, like you're gonna lose, you're losing like a half shot to the field every time you do that. That's the overall point.

And but then he made that 11 footer on 14. That was the longest putty made. On the next par five, because there's three par fives on the back nine there. And that was kind of like, all right, I'm back. And then he made a, he made like a five footer, like got up and down on 15 there. And I was like, all right, like he steadied himself. Things are good. Like breezes through 16 and 17 kind of left at short. Good chip on 16 hits that great shot on 17. And then, you know, you're expecting

it to just be, you've got a two shot lead on 18. You're expecting it to just be got a two shot lead on 18 you're expecting it to be open and shot and made it a little bit more challenging than needed to be. Hey, you know the t-shot obviously left a little to be desired the punch out was extremely lucky getting over the lip of that sand but from there he had it totally fine great lag putt good wedge to the back part of that green and I appreciate him tapping it in before Cam Champ and Kitty Amid finished. I like that. It's like, you know what? Yeah, I'm not going to mark this three inch. Sometimes I, that's what I appreciate about, appreciate about Ram. It's like, no, man, I'm just going to tap this in like and I'll celebrate and that's great. And we'll let these guys finish. I know it's not

tradition, but it was like, it was kind of a real moment of like yeah, that's we don't we don't in his honestly It was a little bit of like come on guys. We don't need to really celebrate this one like I was I was supposed to win And I went wired a wire it was ugly, but he did he went wired a wire. He got the job done So I think it's you know, I think it's a quality win for him That's that's where I stand. I stand. I'm not disappointed in him. No, no, no, no, no, no, not disappointed in him. But I think the counter to that of tapping it in is like you got some guys behind you

that are putting for some huge points and huge money and like you don't want to do the whole player celebration win before they hit those puts. That's the argument against tapping it in. I'm with you. But you can't ball. So, you know, he probably could have said like, hey, you want me to, like his was like a five footer.

Like he probably should have just taken his time and finished, you know, finished his putt, right? Like, listen, I think cam champ. He was like solo leader, I think when he made a triple on eight without a penalty stroke. He did not, he was not solo leader. Rob's tied relinquish the lead. Okay. So he's tied for the lead. I don't think he makes a seven on eight without a penalty Stroke somehow and then parse 14. Pars 18. I mean on 18. He had let's see hit 319 at 217 and then ends up making

Five like it just just a backbone. I was taught bad bad golf down the stretch from Cam champ He's a ball speed and posture. I don't know how to rank Cam Champ. I really don't. It's so weird to see somebody just bomb it so far and struggle so much getting the ball close to the hole. Yet he pops up every now and then shoots 13 to 16 under and gets in contention or wins one. He's got a, not quite Martin trainer in him,

which we'll get to a Martin trainer shot. Martin trainer's beating the shit out of him in the FedEx cup. Martin Trader's coming shit out of them in the, in the next cup. Martin Trainers coming. David Williams 94 asked a great question, which I think, you know, we have to, it does just put an asterisk on Ram's win, is did Ram get to walk the course

with the director of golf first before the tournament? Because got, I mean, it's according to Justin Reed, who knows how big of an impact that might have on somebody's tournament. I think you need to, you need to ask around. You need to work some sources down in Mexico, Sallie. God forbid that the PGA Pro does his job with a guy who's a one at that course before B.

It's fucking Tiger Woods. It's incredible. It's incredible. And then also like just for people that don't know, we're afraid to Tiger Woods as other nails played with the director of golf and Use golf facts whoever that Twitter. Yeah, I have lady J had an issue with that Her sister or her mother or father. It's favoritism. You know here in simple Unbelievable. She'll be happening. I'm told that that P went out this week or last

To Southern Hills and completely clogged up the course Chippin and putting everywhere take it up way too long Completely wrecked his rig coming down the stretch not good not so he needs to you know Let's stay they need to stay in their land. They need to work on their game is what we need to do there So I thought you were going to get an air in wise. Shout out to air in wise. That was another great golf tournament. I had some plays on him this week.

Thought he, he should have won. He shot 75 in round two. Otherwise, he would have won this golf tournament. But he played three damn good routes of golf this week that it does not have to add up to a win on the PGA tour, unfortunately, but I don't know. A little hunch on him this week. Before we move on from Ram, though, I do want to give him to a weight on the PGA tour, unfortunately, but I don't know. I don't know. A little hunch on him this week.

Before we move on from Ram, though, I do want to give him a non-Golf call out. I continue to be blown away by his eloquence, his vocabulary, just like the fact that he learned English as a second language in college, and the way that he speaks the language is incredible to me, especially as you heard with my Buenos Suerte line. I don't do well in second languages, so it's even more of a uh, it's amazing. I truly think it's amazing. He's just, I find them to be very authentic and real on the podcast with you, Sally. It's one of my favorites is, is you're interview with Ram and then even with Amanda in the post round. I thought he's like, he's some little bit of spieth where he's trying to answer the

question. I think he's he's very authentic. So I find myself rooting for him and I'm happy to be one. I am struggling a bit with the total shock and just exasperation that comes with like missing putt like a 12 foot putt that maybe does something different slightly different than what you thought. Like there's no possible way you've hit all these these putts exactly the way you've wanted to. And just either that or you're like a horrible, horrible green reader and don't know it yet.

But that's not my limit with that on Ram. Like it just like that's JT, though, too. Yeah, not to this extent. Not to this extent. This is like, this is just total, I guess it's been happening for a long time. I feel like JT has kind of come to terms with the fact that you've been struggling with putter for a long time.

And ROM is like, either not going to admit it, or just like, there's no way you could be that amazed by a putt breaking a little bit more or not breaking it. Maybe that's his juice though. Maybe he's so convinced. But it's exhausting. Confident in the role and the read that he puts on on every putt that he has to be shocked to keep that persona

or that kind of code of armor on, right? It almost seems like a prerequisite for being a professional. Like, you can't be my fault. It's just like unbelievable confidence of like, no way that was my fault. But I, sorry, I go back to the post round again. One of the lines in there that cracked me up was,

yeah, I stayed really, I've stayed really positive out there, you know, just like, I don't know, I didn't watch this whole turny, but like, for Ron to be talking about staying positive and stuff, just always gives me a chuckle of like, what's positive to him is like to the outside world, like, man, you're just like, you're killing yourself out there, like that's, you know, it's like a different,

it's a different perspective on positivity, I guess. Taylor Tollover asked was John Romes dominant run at number one overrated. Sure, he was the top dog, but he didn't win after the US open. And I think his reign was defined by the fact no one stepped up until Scotty the King took the crown. I don't think it was overrated. I don't either. That was incredible, incredible golf.

I think it was even underrated by the fact that he didn't, you know, he didn't have a week that went like this for him, right? And when you're a certain level of player, you kind of price yourself out of these kind of events. Like I, again, like I said, I don't really know exactly why he played this week, but players of his caliber don't go play these events too often. And so you don't, you miss out on kind of getting those, let's just call it a cheap win. No wins on the PJ tour are really actually that cheap and it's life changing for very many people. But when you're that that much better than the rest of the field, he was four to one to win this week. This was, this was a cheap win. This was okay. I mean, it's a little bit like when Ohio State brings in the, the

Redhawks from, you know, my, what, I said it was like before they get into the real scene. Now this is like a one double A. This is like when Duke, when Duke goes in plays like the Thanksgiving tournament, it's like four teams and they go win it. It's like, all right, you got trophy for that man. But like, come on, you're like, come on.

But talk, so talking about Rams, U.S. Open, right? He basically wins the Memorial, has a WD, wins the U.S. Open, and then he goes over to Scotland finishes 7th T3 at Rural Saint George cost me so much money. Third at Northern Trust T9 at BMW Championship tied for first at the Torch Championship for the 72 whole scores. Second at Turnum of champions this year, century, uh, T three at farmers. Like he's, he's been playing out at the

right. He's the buoy personally. He's the buoy. The buoy took on a little bit of water over the last couple of weeks, but they, they, the, the crews went out there, drained the buoy and it's now, it's back of float. The Coast Guard was, was working on it. Does it change the way you guys view his major championship season this year? No, we're in major championship series, right? He could win three more PGA tour events. I don't think that would change a whole lot, but if does it make you think any differently about the majors? I mean, T27 at the Masters did more for it's still looked like he's not there, right? So if anything,

it's just solidified. Like I don't think he's I don't think he's a favorite. At this point, I know. He'll be a favorite at home. And in my mind, he shouldn't be, right? And some of that's just because of the, I don't think the venues necessarily suit him as they do last year. Yeah. Yeah, I find myself unfairly overlooking him.

Just because there's so many other good golfers up at the top of the game right now, I think I'm with TC on that. I don't there's not a venue where it's like, oh, yeah, that's a, that's a, I mean, maybe the PGA, like Southern Hills feels like a better fit than, than Brookline maybe, but I don't know. You can't, you can't win majors without making putts, right? You got to make putts.

Yes. Exactly. And the, and the shipping is not very good either. Like, to be second overall, you know, in Strokes Gay and T to Green, and then to be in the hundreds, 130, 170, and the stuff around the green, like that's tough, right? Like that's, you're gonna be,

he's been repeating that week after week. So he's winning, you know, he's winning this tournament despite that. I think if people think that his reign as number one was overrated, that's just a reflection on how deep golf is right now and you need to readjust your expectations. Yes. And like there's something to beating like 98% of the field weekend a week out, which he just did on repeat, right?

He putt it so much better last year. And so that part was not overrated at all. I did say, as we turn the page into this here, that was unsustainable. And there was no way he was going to match his production from last year. But who knows, he may end up with more wins this year. I mean, he only got one out of last year.

I know it was really two, but who knows what that means in terms of wins. But as far as like strokes gain an actual golf production, he was due for a come down of some kind. Scottie Schaeffler is due for a huge come down. That's just an unsustainable level of golf. That's probably pretty obvious. So going through the top 10, I mean, that's the crazy thing too, is like, you know, more

a kawa could get hot. I can't, can't like, could get, like, I don't, you know, I don't really believe in can't lay. Like, hovelin, hovelin could, could start fucking people up completely. I mean, it's, I don't really believe in Kanto. Like, Hoveland, Hoveland could start fucking people up completely. I mean, it's in there with him. JTK get hot. I've written off Rory. You know, Speed is coming back.

DJ's the greatest player of all time. Of course. You know, there's just some freaking dogs out there, man. And like some of them, like, like, you didn't even talk about Scotty or Kate. I know, that's what I'm saying. Aside from like the guys that we were talking about leading into the masters, like it's, it's, it's so deep.

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Love that. Can we talk, can we talk a little? Yeah, I know. I felt like I was at the Vita vacations. Uh, you know, I'm time share sales pitch. Do you want to talk about that now? Let's let. We don't.

Let's talk about the tournament first. And then we'll, can we talk about the golf course? Yeah, it's pretty good. I'm in. Dude, I was maybe this is a product of a week off from covering golf that like I totally enjoyed flipping the golf on a Thursday and Friday and Saturday afternoon watching this golf course. It was a heated a lot by the wind, but man, it was a resort course that looked not miserable to play and not lost ball everywhere.

And yet the tourist, the the tour pros did not take it super deep. Part 72 on a resort course and winning score was 17 under like that is a strong development. That's a testament to an interesting golf course I thought I had a blast watching this tournament. I missed the old venue It was awesome that whole event had a entirely different energy to it and there's not the same on course fan experience and kind of that Energy does not resonate on TV, but I don't know. I enjoyed it. I maybe that, like I said, that's a product that's taken a week off though.

Yeah. I'd rather watch this than Zurich. There's a lot of tournaments like this over AMX, this over 3M. I could name several more. This was not, when I saw it on the counter, I was like, this is going to be a waste of a week and it was not a waste of a week. Yeah. Plus you get to see some new names too. It's and it's nice to just have eyes on a new course, right? You got so much sense

Like we got a lot of context, but I was like, am X you know, you've seen that course for the last 20 years You're like, okay, I'm good on the I'm good on the birdie fest like same thing with like up in Minneapolis with three em It's like, okay, you know, it's the land of the lakes up here. Like, there are certain courses that just, I don't need to see year over year. So I hope, and it looks like with the, I don't know if they're going back there next year, but doing some research on the Mexican open.

It's been all over this. This is the Mexico. Mexico open, not the Mexican open, which, sorry, I want to be that as well, but it's not. Neil, and you better, you better apologize for glossing over all the good golf up in up in Minnesota, all the, all the, all the upper Midwesterners are going to get all a reef for, for at no, I have, I love that region of golf.

I just don't the where they put the core. Yeah, but it's a typical for the region. Yeah, yeah, that's, that is not a slight at golf in Minnesota or Minneapolis. Come on. I know. I'm looking at how to do that. Looking out for you. No, it's just it's just what is it TPC like twin lakes or twin cities?

Like I just think that course stinks like the drone shots of it just, you know, it's just it's not not for me. It's miserable. Three. I'm catching some strays out here. But I thought there was a lot of interesting golf holes that super long par five on the back. I believe that was 14 660 yards was playing down a win. But I had a center line bunker and really cool angle to the green.

The guys had to play around and solid a couple times was like, hey, they should put like a really deep pop-up. And they're like, it's a fucking resort course, man. Like you got it. You can't go over. In front of 18, I was like, all right, that bunker in front of that greens is a little too easy. But that 10th hole was fascinating. A dog leg right into the wind. Guys had with a little pond right exactly in their landing area. For once the course, a course that had center line bunkers felt like they put them perfectly in range instead of like the Tor Pros hates in line bunkers when they played at Trinity

Forrest several years ago they moved T's up so they could avoid the exact design purpose of the whole and felt like these were like right in the way Of where these guys wanted to hit it and that was that was entertaining I thought I mean well some of it feels like They have enough room down there right like it's a par 73 for resort guests and they're able to tweak it. I think they added 200 yards to the course before the tournament showed up. They added a bunch more bunkers. Like they almost got it like like a little bit like tour proofed before those guys showed up. It's also a pass bound. Yeah. So it's almost yeah, it was like it was kind of made for this, right? I'm like, okay, cool. We can we can stretch it to what 7400 or 7500 yards. And I think that

has a lot to do with why, you know, making a 7400 yard course of par 71. Like, yeah, I think that's going to stretch the pros a little bit. Five par threes. Well, and it, but it didn't feel like just a total bomb at Gaujfest, though, at the same time. Like it felt like I saw a lot of five and four irons and I saw some lumber into par fours and stuff like that. I don't know. It was, uh, it didn't feel like I saw a lot of five and four irons and I saw some lumber into par fours and stuff like that. I don't know. It was a it didn't feel like a total bomb and gouch fest, but then at the same time, like, like, Fino distance played out there. Yeah, like, I mean, what was his strokes gain putting for the week. It was not great. I don't think, but he was like minus five or minus six 36 holes. And I think he was minus two basically overall. But yeah, he was, he was minus five or minus six 36 holes and I think he was minus two basically overall, but yeah, he was he was minus five Look looking at the leaderboard. It looked like a bomb and gouge fest I mean like if you want to go to the more than the years up there

Well, I mean even even Kitty Yamas like he's pumping it out. He's like 35th and driving. He's pumping it He's carrying like 300. Yeah, well me. He was a bomb fest. I when I say bomb and gouge I mean like driver wedge. Like just find it and hit a wedge on. But that's what I'm saying. It's like you still had to hit iron. Yes.

It's almost like this course is so new. They're like cool. Check it out. We're going to be able to stretch this thing out so that you know, like 7400, like all you can handle, par 71, like that's a long golf course. That's a really good golf course. Especially at sea level with us.

Yes. And I think, but on the flip side too, you had some guys that aren't bombers up there. You had Ches. Ches finished T13. Ches got a bald out. A lot of bombers. A lot of bombers. Kelly, a lot of bombers are at T15.

Bond, T15. Bond's back. Bond is back playing some golf. A lot of bombers around. 15. Bond, T 15. Bonds back. Bond is back playing some golf. Shout to Brandon Wu, T2 finish. Tied the course record with a 63. Tied Female of course today. And then before that, Martin trainer. Oh gosh.

Set the course record. Prior, like earlier in the day, Martin trainer and somebody else shot 64 today. It got broken. David Lipsky and Martin trainer trainer and somebody else shot 64 today. It got broken. David Lipsky and Martin trainer and Aaron Wise all shot 64 today. Which again, we I tweeted this out, but shout out to to Martin trainer. We've had our, you know, we've had our fair share of jokes at his expense over the years in terms of these missed 68 to the last 87 cuts or something like that.

Yet has his third almost his third top 10 of the year. He finished T 11. He is currently one 20th in the FedEx cup as of right now. And famously won the Puerto Rico Open and proceeded to miss 20 of 22 cuts the next year. And it's starting to play a little bit of golf every now and then and it's impressive. I want to give that. Well, solid. I don't I can't remember if it was Houston week. Yes. We were on the pod right and he came in second and He finished fifth. I think but yeah or fifth right top 10 and it was like we went through it

You you listed like you just went through and said cut, you know Like every week that he's and then he comes out and it's the top 10 I got so much respect for that like the ability to Mentally stay in it all the hotel rooms, all the travel expenses, you know, it would be so easy for a guy like that to just hang it up. You know, I lost that love and feeling, but, but he hasn't. And that's, that's good to see. So I think Martin trainer, well publicized win at the Puerto Rico open.

Uh, he had a cornferri tour win in Springfield, Missouri. We're going to set that aside. He had, he, he won the El Bosque Mexico Championship in 2018. T5 at the Houston Open, a lot of Spanish speakers down in Houston. won the Mazel Lawn Open in 2016 on the South American tour. I can see a trend here. T11 at the Mexico Open at Vidante. I'm just going straight down his best finishes on OWDR.

Seventh, the Corellus Puntacana Championships. T-7, there, what, porcelain. Solo second at the Lexus Peru Open. Oh my God. Presentado, poor diners club. See, caro. You know, I'm just saying, you know what, it's like the shlong. The shlong plays well in Mexico as well.

So, that's incredible. It's great stuff what it's like the shlong the shlong plays well in Mexico as well so that's incredible it's great stuff speaking countries only that is an interesting thing to to track going forward that's a that's a trend to watch for you know for the for the dk preview show I will be keeping an eye on that I do think there's a there's something to be said for we can talk all we want about we can make fun of them. He's a narcissist. He's a third-legged Greg. You can't fake your way around his golf courses. Correct.

Usually it's like, I don't ever want to play there. This one was very much like, dude, I think I would like to play this golf course. But they actually turn out to be like, I always enjoy watching the one down in my Acoba. Yeah, my a coba. Yeah, like I was enjoying watching that. I was enjoyed watching TBC Sugar Loaf. Like it's not a course that I I ever liked playing. It's the worst walk in all of golf. But it there were some

really interesting holes out there and like, like you had to hit your irons well. Good iron players played well on those courses except for Martin trainer. There are some people that came out of the woodworks to criticize several other third leg Greg golf courses that there's plenty of bad ones. There's plenty of bad ones out there,

but this one listed. That was just a surprise to me. When I heard they were going to this course, it was like, all right, this is gonna be a nothing tournament. But it turns out, I don't think we're gonna be making any visits to Vidante based on what you found online T.C. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I just kinda, you know, I'm like, hey, what's this place all about, right?

And I guess, you know, we had gotten some DMs from people saying, hey, I've been down there, Ben Rector. So I went down and filmed what Bachelor in Paradise or something. And he said, like, man, it was a pretty, pretty, like pretty surreal experience. I guess they're doing all sorts of timeshare shit down there. They've got kind of the big shiny object there

on the main beach and then they kind of... Sounds like the model homes look really good. Yeah, they kind of bait and switch you. So I tweeted something out from consumeraffairs.com earlier. I believe there were... What was the rating out of five? It was a 1.4 out of five on 232 ratings. That's so many ratings.

And I scrolled all the way down and it's like, you know, I really wish I took a look at the reviews prior to meeting with the Vita staff. They're sales, and granted, this is Vita vacations, which is a part of Vitaanta or whatever, but their sales practices are deceitful and should be deemed criminal. Let's see here, next up Tiffany of Orman Beach, Florida.

Don't buy here, the salespeople are scammers. Well, no TC, I read through a lot of those, I honestly couldn't look away. It sounds like what they do is they catch them in the airport and they've got like margaritas and surveys says, you're like, hey come with me, like we got a free breakfast for you. You only got to sit through an hour presentation for the time share. It's no big deal, but like, you know, they give you all these free perks and then they get there and

they keep them for like six hours. And it's just like, they just level down on the sales. So they try to sell them like the, you know, Kapua suite and then it goes down a level and then down a level and then people are like legitimately like, I need some water and they're like, well cool, here's some tap water. It's like, obviously you don't wanna drink that. You know, so they're like, all right, fine. What do you want me to buy?

I'll buy it so you'll just let me leave. Like they won't let, they just legitimately won't let people leave until they buy something. Who shows up? Like buy a time-share. At the airport without having a reservation on where to stay. Or they're just like shopping. No, I think they're just showing up.

They were like the tourists. They think they're like the welcome committee. You know, like the tourism, you know, it's like, oh yeah, these people have been super nice to us. Like, oh yeah, I'd love a free brunch with, you know, bottomless mimosas. That sounds great. Like people are looking for deals, man.

And they're down there staying at like all inclusive spot or somewhere else like I love it down here I would definitely look at buying it I think Puerto Vallarta has gotten a little bit you know tough over the years like I think you know Cabo and Riviera Maya and all that's kind of been on the up and up I think I think Puerto Vallarta had to resort to some of these all right, I guess this is new wave of Iartha, which is up the road, but I don't know I'm you know what who am I to speak? I've never been to Mexico before I'm sure that I know there's there's Like hundreds of wonderful resorts in Mexico and but like even the CBS guys It's it sounded like there was a little bit of like not Stockholm syndrome,, but like, hey man, like, you know,

you got to, like, here's the shots you're going to show of the beach, of the resort. You're going to say great things about, oh my gosh, like how, you know, it feels like we've been here for eight days. We're so relaxed. I don't know. It just, it just felt a little wink, wink to me. Tough look for group host Salinas, which I know you hate. T.C.

Well, so that's what I was going to ask. Do they own VDonta? I think they do. Is that part of it? Because what the sales tactics don't sound like shared prosperity? Well, I'll tell you this. Just sounds like they're trying to get other people to share their prosperity with them. That's what I mean. That's not good. I hate that for my guy Benjamin Ben, Ben, Ben, by the way, but I also don't know like, how did you not gather that from their commercial where they say they have an inclusive business model to

Share Prospect the most vague description ever of their business. They had 30,000 commercials this week I still don't know what they do. I've looked it up And I still couldn't explain what they do. I know it's conglomerate of some kind But it just amazes me the worst salad that are those commercials It's the best it's's procedural. It's awesome. And they've been doing it. Sally, how long have they been doing it for? You know the answer.

Since 2018, I think. Over a century. Oh, I know that. I mean, 16 years. 16 years. And golf. The group of Salinas is a group of fast growing businesses. That's true.

It's shared prosperity. They're improving Mexico's image before the world. Which I would argue is maybe they're not. It's not. It's watching. What's the name? Ben, I mean would argue is maybe they're not watching. What's the name Ben? Ben, I mean Ben him in Salinas Salah. Shout out to the to the vice president of I think they're embroiled in all sorts of tax evasion.

Allegedly all sorts of tax evasion suits flying back and forth between them and the Mexican government right now as well. Closing out the top of the leaderboard here. What do you guys think of watching Kurt Kittiyama play golf? You, you, you said it today. It's, it seems like he's trying to save everything. It's like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's saving. Slipping it at the end.

Well, it's, I mean, that fall through, you know, just kind of saved too, right? And he looked to me. I kept, I kept looking up at this screen when he was teeing off me. He's like, is that Chez? Because he's got that flat bill. It kind of looks like if Chez and, uh, Chez and Sun canning had a baby. Yes. That's good.

Until the back, until the follow through. He's a, he's a total power plant, man. He's, he's carrying it like 304 off the tee 182 ball speed like when they were putting the track man on him. He moves it but seems like he strikes it pretty well. He's 38th and Stroke's gained approach to solid but like deep deep in the field and everything else. Not not great off the tee. Not great around the greens. He does swing it like Sun Kang that was the reminder and it does. It's it's it's It's kind of thing that if you watch them play in person, I'm sure it would be like awesome

because you can see the ball flight. You can, you know, see how he's in control of it. But golf swing wise, it doesn't look like he's ever in control. And that can be taxing to watch. He's certainly a cat. He's a band-in. How about that? Really?

Certain swings like look really good on TV and you're kind of like, hey, how do you ever miss a shot? And that's Kurt Kityama's is not one of those. I've but I've got no issue with I would like to see more swings like Kurt Kidiama's and not less like guy that he's just trying to he's he's you're like you're right you're saving at the bottom but I find that more interesting to watch like man can this guy close it out like with that swing you know is that is that uh is that sustainable over four days I don't know but I can't wait to see it's better than just like the automatic like track man stuff that you see like I don't

know like a guy they were track wins fluffing um Davis Riley on the broadcast like all kids if you want to copy a swing copy this guy and listen I like can't lay but he's like he's like Kirkland signature can't lay for me just like what I don't know anything about this guy very very perfect golf swing very big don't don't don't need to watch it I'm gonna get Sally all round up no no what's the highest Kirk or like the the best that Kirk he I'm has been written been ranked in the world of all. Did he get the top 50? I think he got 48. Yeah, he's not in there.

He's a manipulator. I don't mind calling out the Americans that are also manipulators. He knows it, because all credit to them for going overseas. Sure. And it's smart. Playing the game. It's smart.

I don't play him. They just end up over and over and played at OWGRs, just like anybody else that plays. We'll say he also got crowned by that. I don't know if it was a later guy, the leg. His ball was trundling towards into the water. Yes. Was that 16?

I think it was earlier on. And it was trundling towards the water. And, you know, it was like a Bob May Tiger type thing. Well, the curb helped too. Because there was a couple balls that sort of got caught in the curb. It was on 14. Yeah. What you know they're going to have good car pass out there, people got to take advantage

of the shark plus the shark. I mean, the shark's trying to like, he, he spends two to three X when he's building a golf course. Like, you know, your, your bill is going to come back two to three X. What anybody else is golf course is going to cost because of what? Carpenter. No, just like he just uses like the most expensive contractors and just pumps the bill up like crazy.

It's just over engineered. And another thing I hated admitting is the shark experience. It was quite a nice experience when we did it. I don't know how I value it. It was an upset. An upset that I could not have seen coming, but I have to call it like I see it.

That's what we do. They're giving you a lot of entertainment options with the charts. Maybe too many, but almost too many. But DJ wanted us to discuss a question which touring professional would get scammed on a time share in Mexico? I found this one a tough one to answer.

I went down the leaderboard just so in my head I could think about like, okay, these guys are there for the week, like who on Tuesday? You know or or Saturday stayed an extra day and they they missed the cut. I had a few names on the list. I had Doug Kim and his dad Feel like maybe they could get you know, you know, Doug get mainly because Doug Gims dad might I heard it's like Which I hate here. All right. Well in my head. That's how I was thinking I have Kevin Nah I feel like Nah might get get looped into something like what a great investment. This is you know he seems to be You know kind of

Abel to be sold on some things if it's the right price. I've got Matt every also barely missed a cut I know but I could see every get off the plane and be great spot. I mean, I know, but I could see every getting off the plane and be like, dude, I mean, they had these like, girls waiting at the airport. Like they had like, survey says and we were, we were partying and we went over to this, to this model home.

It was great and they were like, yeah, you should buy a place down here. I was like, hell yeah. I got two guys in this field. I can see, I got Grayson Murray. Yes, of course. And then I've got Peter Monotti because I think he's so nice that he's not going to,

like he's not going to say no to somebody to their face when they, when they ask him about the, you know, setting up the time share appointment. Which speaking of Grayson Murray, we also have a little dust up that happened apparently this week between him and Kevin Nah, which again, the lamest fighting golf history continues on. I'm firmly on team Grayson here. He might be too. I am too. And Grayson a good week.

So it might as, you know, he was what, T.O.L.A. A little bit. T-13. Yeah. Something like that. He had T-13 with, it was just Grayson and Chess. Wow. T-13.

Birds of a feather. Got heavyweight, heavyweight final. The T 13. Birds of a feather. God. Heavyweight. Heavyweight. Final. Final two. What happened? It was just there was the same, right?

Kevin Na, we only heard Grace inside of the story, which is Kevin Na came up to him swearing at him. It's the first time they've run into each other since Grace and Murray tweeted like, you know, somebody tweeted, watching Kevin Na walk in, Plets never gets old and Grace and replies like, him, what, taking three minutes to hit every putt gets old watching Kevin Na'al walk in, Plets never gets old and Grayson replies, like him, taking three minutes to hit every putt gets old, and Kevin Na'al replied, watching you miss the cut is getting old, and it was,

And then Na'al was like, yeah, even Brooks, everyone's texting me. It was, many, many people texting me, how funny he's such a funny tweet. And yeah, apparently Kevin Na'al got in his grill or something about it while he was chipping, and it sounds even, even laimer. So, congratulations league man. Yeah, this tour. But let me ask you this on the time share question. I want to go back there. Which announcer do you think would get roped into

a time share scam? What most likely on the broadcast crew? I think they're all pretty savvy at this point. They travel. Which announcer can I say? I've got Ian Baker-Finch. I was just saying Baker-Finch. Along the lines with Maul Nadi, being like, oh, you know, it just seems like such a nice guy. Like, I love a free breakfast.

Like, well, yes, I'll listen. I'll look at some literature and then all of a sudden he's there for six hours. Can't get out. I think Fado is probably doing this all of a sudden he's there for six hours. Can't get out. I think Fado is probably doing this as we speak and he wasn't even on coverage this week. So I didn't even notice that. Maybe that's why I was a nice one.

Well, that's why I'm wondering. I can't understand that. You got not like, why is not? Why did not go to Mexico? Or what was the purse this week? 7.3 million. So it was like a full, that's a smaller purse on tour, but yeah, I mean. So winner got what?

One point three. That's pretty good. I mean, that's like a, that's a legit week. One point three, one four for Rom, yes. Yeah, that's pretty legit week. Yeah, so, okay, so yeah, that's why I know I was there. And then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then,

and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then there and then and then nants same thing like what's the answer? Well last week maybe I don't know maybe wanted a little vacation this seems this seemed you know kind of Listen nobody wants to support the Mexico open more than me I think ROM should go north of the border next week or in a couple weeks and go up to Canada and try to hold all three US open Mexico open Canadian open all at the same, even if it was just for a week, because that's I think the week before the US Open. That'd be sick. You know, but listen, national opens are sweet. They are. I agree. Guys, can I make a confession?

We've been traveling a lot, haven't been watching a ton of golf. It sounds like an adry, but it's not, continue. It's not. So we know we did our picks on Monday. You don't have to confess this, we all saw this. Got to scroll through. It's like, yeah, okay, it's a Mexico. Ah, I guess they moved to WGC later in the year, but cool. All right, so we're at altitude.

We're at triple to back. I'm in, let's go. So I'm making all my picks, thinking there at altitude, thinking it's the WGC, it wasn't. So I wanna say this, I decided then, as my penance, I did some research, I learned a little bit about the Mexico open. Do you guys know how long it's been held for?

Since what year? Over 100 years. No. Okay. 1944, so not as long as I thought it would be longer as well, TC. And there's been two separate times within those, I don't know how many years that is, what, 70, 60, something.

So World War II is raging on. There's like, you know what, we need, we need a golf tournament. It's time to start a pro golf tournament here. Exactly. And there, but there's been like in the 80s, there was like a five year stint where they just didn't have it, just didn't exist. And I think the same thing in like the early 60s. But there's some kind of, there's been like in the 80s there was like a five year stint where they just didn't have it Just didn't exist and I think the same thing in like the early 60s But there's some kind of there's some heavyweight

We're that have gone down there and and and and dug it out of the dirt We've got Tommy arm of the third one in 1983 the profit Troy Merritt won it recently like 10 years ago love that Esteban Toledo TC He won it. Toledo. Jay Haas, Fred Funk, gentle Ben in 1981. Leach Reveno won it twice. Mary Max Roberto D. Then Chenzo, three time Mexico open winner, Tony Lima, Randy's boy won it twice. A guy on the broadcast. Can you guess who won it? Frank Nobolo won it in 1997 and Lima, Randy's boy, one at twice, a guy on the broadcast.

Can you guess who? Frank Nobolo. Frank Nobolo, one at 1997, and Stu Sink, one at twice in the 90s. How about that? And who do you think holds the four round scoring title, tied for it? Justin Huber. Justin Huber.

That's exactly right. Minus 23 and 2015 at Agua Caliente. How far above sea level do you think Agua Caliente is? That means hot water, right? Yeah. Probably five feet, is it pretty close to sea level? 6,100 feet above sea level. Oh god, okay.

Can you imagine if you were playing at sea level? You were at sea level. I can't, that's what I was laughing about. It's like, God, he's probably driving the green on every hole. That's unbelievable. It's like Brandon Matthews down in Columbia. Yeah, man. So just a little, just a little history there.

I thought that was, it seemed like they bumped it around all over the country, but here we are at Vidante. It's just such a bummer that, so I think our hitters allegedly, a group of Salinas, they were trying to wiggle out of their contract with the WGC, and so they got, but basically the tour was like, hey,

you gotta keep having, you gotta keep sponsoring an tournament. I mean, we must have seen that commercial. Oh my gosh. 60 times today. That was incredible. And no different on Thursday through Saturday as well. They've roped in this Vidanta company.

They've, they've, but they're still involved kind of begrudgingly, I think. And they were charging Shackleford Post at something today. They were charging I think 130 or 140, you know, the equivalent of 130 or 140 American dollars. There's no fans out there. Which it sounds like it's in line with their overall business model. Not the inclusive business model, Group of Salinas, but Vedante in general of just, you know, just got people that they got by the balls, just ringing out every every every dollar they possibly.

I was just looking if Group of Salinas owns Group of Vedante. And it doesn't look like they do Group of Vedante partners with Group of Salinas. So it sounds like a partnership of shared prosperity definition of right to to. It's just I guess it's kind of a double edged sword right because you know the tour probably said hey well you know what we're gonna make an exception here or we're gonna go with a group of Salinas type company that you know nobody's really sure what they do. I know they own TVS, Tekka, and some of the multimedia companies down there. But they can't get out of this deal,

or they don't wanna let them out of this deal, but you've gotta make sacrifices to getting these new markets sometimes, and it's kind of a double-edged sword. So I don't know how to feel about it, because I don't know if the tour kind of sold them down the river on this one or they were just a bad partner to begin with. Yeah these guys look like a little bit like Comcast in Mexico. Like they own the internet service provider, Telecosmo, they own

Mazatlan FC football club uh... group of electra uh... products include finance home appliances consumer electronics furniture motorcycles mobile phones computers sounds like g e s exactly before g-sold and then t.v.s tech a television and radio network so yeah i guess g might be a better a better comp uh... founded in nineteen oh six inerey, Mexico. How about that?

Real quick. I think Alex Smalley. I didn't see much of him until this weekend. Impressed with his tempo. Love that golf swing. He has low arm tension. That's what everyone should be emulating out there. Davis Riley. Always good to see him on the board. Yeah, I feel bad. I kind of did a drive by on Davis Riley, but why? What I was saying about a swing, a stock one. He just, like, I just feel like he's so good. Well, that's the, I get that, but my point is I, I find it more interesting to watch, you know, a guy like Kittiyama, try to get it around

than I do watching. You just described your golf game to a tee, like, oh yeah, the adventure's more fun than, like, just doing it the smart stock way here. Yeah, for sure. As way here. Yeah for sure. As an entertainment product for sure I wish more swings on the PGA tour were unique and I think in the age of the track man were getting away from that there's just not a lot of homegrown golf swings out there like I hate that Matthew Wolfe is in the wilderness

because I love watching him swing the golf club. I think it's crazy and it's fun. You know I hope he gets back like that that's the furex I love watching f swing the golf club. I think it's crazy and it's fun. You know, I hope he gets back. Like that's fioraq. I love watching fioraq hit the ball. I think it's fascinating. So that's just my personal, my personal feelings. Every player has their own unique style of play.

They've own unique way of swinging the golf club. That's part of what we love about golf. It also happens to be what we love about bourbon. Like Elijah Craig, for example, Niels got some sitting right there. That was totally by accident. Elijah Craig, you are smoother than Elijah Craig with these trends. This is a fun stuff, Solid. I got the ride tonight actually. Yeah, so the, I think it's, I sound barrel proof, but it's the, it's the kind of, the ride whiskey, which is good stuff.

Great description of that. Every bottle there wore a Lord winning small batch carries a signature warm spice and subtle smoke flavor. I like to drink it on the rocks or in an old fashion. Elijah Craig won double gold at the San Francisco World Spirit's competition last year. So whether you're watching a tournament at home, playing a few holes with your buddies, make Elijah Craig your signature

sip. You can pick up a bottle today at Elijah Craig dot com slash NLU. No, laying up is brought to you by Elijah Craig Kentucky, straight, bourbon, whiskey, Bard's town, Kentucky, 47% alcohol by volume. Elijah Craig reminds you to think wisely and drink wisely. That was, that was smooth until he had the right, you had the right there for the bourbon read. But listen, they've got a lot of great offerings there to Elijah Craig. Well, I know. Yeah, I just, that was what I, I was feeling right there for the bourbon read. But listen, they've got a lot of great offerings there to Lysha Craig. Well, I know.

Yeah, I just, that was what I, I was feeling tonight. But I, come on, the bourbon's just as good. It's even better. How about that? All the awards would say so. And also, just got back from band-in. You may or may not have left a couple bottles of Lysha Craig. Somewhere special out on the golf course.

Oh, what about that? If you stumble upon a tree somewhere, you may find something. So how about that? And talking about thinking wisely, a guy that doesn't think wisely, you see what I did there? Nope. Wayne Player. You see, he spoke to Joel Beale and golf digest.

I did not. Basically, just, you know, went on the record for like 60 minutes, took him through the whole encore saga. You know, he said he legitimately just wanted people to know what kind of golf ball his dad was playing. He said like people were curious and he just he out of the kindness of his heart. He just wanted people to know that he said allegedly that Lee Elder forgave him. I love you Wayne. I've always posthumously.

Exactly. I was like, I don't think you get to do that after the guy died. No, always. Postimously. Exactly. I was like, yeah, like I don't think you get to do that after the guy died. No, that's not how it works. Yeah, and then yeah, Augusta did ask him never to return. Thank God. So. Well, I think I speak for all of us when I say when we get to this next part of the news, is holy shot.

Because shot just got real. It's been a little minutes since we've discussed the Saudi golf league that they don't want you to call it. Otherwise known as live golf. Some things have happened over the last couple of weeks. Studio 54 is what I'm calling it. At the top of the list, and a lot of this comes from Bob Herring at SI dot com who's been absolutely killing the beat on this one. Shout out to Bob. Bob's been crushing it. He's been working. And SI working the phones. Phil Mikkelsen has sought a release from the PGA tour in order to play the first live golf invitational series event outside of London in June. Mikkelsen's agent Steve Lloyd released a

statement in which he said the six time major winner who has not competed in more than two months has also submitted his application for the PGA championship and US Open. He said our client Phil Mickelson is officially registered to play in the PGA championship as well as the US open. Again, this is coming from Lloyd. We also have filed a request on his behalf for a release to play in the first live golf invitation on London June 9 through 11th. This request complies with the deadline of April 25th set forth by the PGA tour to compete in a conflicting tour event.

Phil currently has no concrete plans on when and where he will play. Any actions taken are in no way reflection of a final decision made, but rather to keep all options open. When do we see Phil next? He's got to play the PGA. PGA. Yeah. I was just looking at the date just to make June 9th to 11th.

So definitely the PGA. I think he's 100% is playing. And it sounds like the tour is going to potentially grant releases to the London event. I think they have to basically. I think they will do something very similar to. So other things, a lot of the other things that have happened basically is now the the live golf is not going to be a breakaway league until at least 2024. It is a series of events. I believe it's eight this year. I believe it's 10 next year. I could be wrong on the number of events next year. It might be more than that. They got coalition of events. Coalition of events, but it's not a breakaway league.

And my question is, does that change anything legally for the tour? Does that change anything with what they've told players? Like, if you go join this startup league, you will be banned. Okay, well now that it's not a league, how do we do this? To give an understanding and we covered this on our player handbook pod last year, but the tour is not willing to grant releases for other events that happen in North America.

That is a strict rule in the handbook that says, like we're not gonna give you releases for those. Now, so the first event being in London, I don't know if that's by design, but I think they're going to release players for that. I think it will probably have stipulations similar to the Saudi international that said, all right, if you're going to skip AT&T or whatever it was opposite this year, like you have to come play this event at some point in the next blah, blah, blah years. So you can go play this now, but you got to come play this one otherwise.

I don't know what that other, you know, that stipulation will be. Is it going to be for the Canadian Open that this is opposite to say you must come play the Canadian Open next year. If you want to play the Centurion event this first year, it's all, it's going to be interesting how it all plays out. But I would guess that how that's how that's going to work. I would think that like this would would seem like a prime week for the live golf guys to get underway if they're confident in their product.

Do something against Mexico or do something against you know is going to be a very weak field and just a very blase telecast. Just throw something up against that instead of you know like I'm actually kind of excited about Canada I think it'll be a good golf course. I think they were going for as soon as we can actually get organized we're gonna do that's what I mean I T.C. I bet they they probably circled this and said yeah we can't make it right like we don't have we don't have a ducks in a row question Sally is now that it's just a series of eight events this year and maybe 10 next year is it still part of the Asian tour?

This is not part of the Asian tour. So they are also investing $300 million in the Asian tour in a series of events on that tour, but this is a separate series of events. Like they continue to just kind of shift their model around. I don't know. But before it was, there was an Asian tour, like the original plan was that of shift their model around. I don't know if it's for it was there was an Asian tour. Like the original plan was that they're still doing that. They're still the Saudi national included.

They are doing investing a lot of money in a bunch of different Asian tour events. This thing they set up live golf tour was originally a breakout league and now they have come out and said like this is not going to be a league until 2024. This is just a series of events. You can play one, you can play eight, you can play four, you can play however many you want. These are just options. Basically, how I read that is like, we are going to test the shit out of all these statements from the PGA tour. And if it comes to it, we are going to test, we're going to have these

players test the legal system that the legal state, I guess, in legal grounds, the PGA tour saying, you can't play in these events. And so the team stuff is out for now. It's just straight up. Team stuff is happening. They're gonna make individual teams every week that they have the tournaments, I know. But it's not a league of set teams

that's gonna show up for each event. God, this is, what the crazy part is. It's going to be a beautiful disaster, right? But when these guys on the P.J. start seeing exactly, like when Robert Garagas and Jason Cokrack show up and make $6 million, and it's no cut, like, man, that's going to get some dudes to think about it big time. That's 100% their play.

And there are gonna be people that get way out, way too early and say what a disaster this is, like they have the money, they have the runway to wait this out, okay? They do not look at this, like the first event is gonna be a shit show. I still don't know where we're gonna watch it. They still don't have a television deal.

Like I think you're gonna be streaming it somewhere on like probably on Livgolf.com or something like that. It's gonna be a disaster. It's gonna be horrible to start, but don't dance on their graves. Chocolate away. It's, it's part of the plan. And I don't know if it's a good plan or not,

but they are one of the few entities that has just a limitless bucket of cash to throw at this problem. And they don't necessarily have to think that strategically. Especially with the price of oil right now. Like, this is like a rounding error in a, you know, days of oil, like they just, like they can throw even more money

at this now based on their original projections. And honestly, like there was another article from Bob Herring that said 15 players in the world top 100 have registered for the first live golf tournament. I'm not in that article, but I've seen rumored names of a lot of the names we've thought we would see Lee Westwood, Ian Polter. I think Sergio Garcia. I saw rumored in there. I assume Kevin Naugh and Kochracker involved in that. I don't know about Bubba and Varner that were. I would assume team Rose. I would assume that as well. that were I would assume team Rose I would assume that as well. So yeah, again, not a haul of like the top guys that they were hoping to get but that's not nothing for the very of just the ones that are willing to test it for this very first event. I think that's that's interesting. So I'm get your popcorn ready. I love it. I love that

they're that they're inching towards some sort of concrete action on either side, right? Like make the tour act, make the tour put their cards on the table a little bit, get the lawsuits flying. I just don't think it's gonna be good for golf fans though. I don't. I'm interested to see what happens, TC, but I'm with Solly too of like, man,

it's just like, I don't think that's good long time. But I think it's better to do it, like it's better to get that shit out on the table now and then to draw this uncertainty out and not knowing what the tour is going to do. Like then each side can kind of act decisively moving forward. And the average golf fan probably knows which side they can choose. You know, or yeah, I just think we're going to just going to get it. We're already, it's going to be a fracture golf world.

If that's the case, and it's going to get worse and worse, I don't think they're ever going to get everyone over. But if they get like, I'm just going to pull a name. If they start getting somebody of like Zander's quality, I'm not saying Zander specifically. If they start getting players of that talent, then the golf world, it's already like, how often do we get these top guys on the same course at the same time, not frequently enough? And now we have another league option out there, or event series, like it's just going to, it's going to make for a, we don't need more golf tournaments.

We don't, like we absolutely do not. And there's going to be even more that are going to be even less interesting. And now the ones that we do care about are going to have less good players in it. I don't think that's good for golf for golf fans That that's just the angle. Yeah, but I think we've already where I'm looking at it is we've already passed that bridge like this is happening One or another like we might as well have some clarity on it. Yeah, I'd rather be Robert Gargis goes and how about carrying us had the the lead in the first Come this week and last week or the last week. Yeah. That was great. With Nadi Santa, Tommy Gainey.

But what do you think? What do you think they're going to do with the television stuff? Like if they're paying 20 million bucks and nobody can watch it. It's not part of the model. Like that because I don't think they need to have people watch it. Oh, man. It's not even about the golf, right?

It's just an entertainment product. Nobody can see. That's cool. And it's crazy expensive. Yeah, it's not even about the golf, right? It's just an entertainment product. Nobody can see. That's, well, in the ticket, it's a crazy expensive, I guess. That's ticket prices came out this week. They were, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but they were comically expensive, which I didn't even bother me that much.

Of course they could be, what do they, you think they're gonna like, just try to, you know, make it easy for anyone off the streets come watch it, they want this to be a big money showcase event. Like they're trying to do the Greygoose model of taking it from the bottom shelf and putting it on the top shelf. Even though it's the same product and charging more for it and like making people think it's elite golf and elite tournament.

And it's just listen to Sally's a, he's a well vodka guy. I love that about you, but it's sure. Come on. I don't need those brands up on the top shelf. It's all I'm saying. That's like, literally, I could be dead you, bud. It's sure. Come on, I don't need those brands up on the top shelf. It's all the same. No, I'm saying that's like, I could be dead wrong on this. But what Gregus was struggling,

they just literally took their bottle and put it up on the top. They just raised the price of it and they started selling a lot more of it. And they don't even sell it in France. Okay. It's like French vodka, they don't even sell it in France. That tells you something right there.

It's the official vodka, the PJ Tour, I think as well. We're out in Oregon. Some of the people out in Oregon, we're here through the grapevine that people out there dropping their memberships at Pumpkin Ridge, although I guess it's kind of a long simmering festering. This is the latest thing that's happened out there. It sounds like a pretty mismanaged place with with our friends at Escalante golf, but yeah a lot of people drop in their memberships out there and and they're making a lot of changes to the golf course, you know, adding teabox and things of

that nature. Yeah. So again, we'll wait and see Amon Lentro another article today just talking about how the dates all line up in terms of when waivers need to be or, you know, releases need to be filed when tours going to decide and how that's going to affect major championship golf this year. And it's a weird, weird distraction. But it's not over. Barely just begun.

And Trump and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump,

and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, and Trump, Trump, and Trump, and Trump, Trump, and Trump, and Trump, workout that course too. Also say, I mean, take your prices, we're released, people were mad about the prices, 80 pounds for a grounds pass, I think. That's cheap compared to the Mexico open. Well, that's like what, 100 something USD.

Probably a hundred and yeah. 110, 115. Which, and I don't know if the Mexico open was not like day of, that might have been like today's price if you wanted to buy it today. I don't know. If you didn't want to sign up for a time share, 115. Which, and I don't know if the Mexico Open was not like day up. That might have been like today's price if you wanted to buy it today. I don't know. He didn't want to sign up for a time share, yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly. If you get a time share, you get free tickets to the Mexico Open.

That was definitely in the present. We need to get Randy's take on this time share situation. Because I feel like he's, he's, he's the only one amongst us that's, that's truly lived, lived and breathe the in embrace that the time share lifestyle I don't have much more on this one other than the cat flew up to southern hills and played a practice round this week This is less shocking after playing in the masters and he obviously played the director of golf as we mentioned But obviously you got to think he's playing he won here 2007, and I do not think he's making this trip and then coming back and after playing in the Masters,

he's not going to make in this trip and be like, no, I can't do that. I'm so stoked to see Southern Hills. Yeah. You know, between the Hans Wagner renovation and just all the, you know, like I have very little recollect, I've watched two or three majors from there now, and I have very little recollection of the course at all.

And I think that's totally going to change this year. No, I'm very excited. We got what is your other than non tiger division? What are your last team memories from the? Oh, God, I was like, what like Mark, is it Mark Brooks? I think. And Rateef Kusin. Yeah.

I remember also there's a clip that I mentioned this several years ago and somebody sent me the clip, but I think where Tiger really actually heard his knee was fist pumping at Southern Hills. He like, yes, I, I, I, he steps on a sprinkler head and starts limping immediately afterward. And I don't know if those, those dots were ever connected, but I remember that and it was so hot. It was Augustin in Oklahoma. And it was just drip fest.

It's just a total drip fest. I just remember too, like the, like, because that was a US open, right? The Ritef Mark Brooks one. That, oh, you're right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and so I'm thinking, like the whole time, I'm like, wait, that was too sink too, yeah.

I'm like, these guys gotta go play 18 holes. It's hot as shit. These guys, like, like, nobody wants to watch these guys play 18 more holes. Can we just play two or three and give one of the trophy? The four putt from from stew sing. It was a three putt But it was from he missed an inch or but yeah, that was tough man. Commiss to play off. That was really tough That was my last thing. I can't cat talking shit about Tulsa. Yeah, Bunky can't be I tiger jam the shout to tiger jam

Of course went off her does rave reviews, but tiger jam rules Who is the music like I don't know I think well I we saw Steve a oak he was there the air to the Benny Hanna throne He and he and tiger getting a nice photo op together. He was an interview with Phil Helm you There's a helicopter out there following you tiger. What's going on Tulsa? Not a lot their follow you Tiger. What's going on? Tells us not a lot. I just can't promise. Can you practice?

I'm looking up who the who the the musical act was this year on the LPGA tour this week at the Palo's Verde championship, which was fantastic viewing, if you will. One, didn't go up against PGA tour viewing to West Coast golf in the in the evening. Favorite time to watch golf. Three very interesting golf course. This is a new championship. I knew nothing about this golf course going in, but up and down tons of elevation

change, tons of slopes going on around the greens, really good camera angles. They had gone all week. Marina Alex storm from behind to win to win the palace verity championship. I won. I believe over Lydia code and look at the final leader board. Lydia had a chance to hold out on 18. Marina Alex storm from behind to win to win the Palace Verde Championship by one. I believe over Lydia Cohen and look at the final leaderboard. Lydia had a chance to hold out on 18 to tire, but awesome tournament. The LPJ has been on a nice little West Coast heater. Two weeks in LA is great for them.

Looked like a big walk this week. That's a pretty hilly terrain out there. Wild Bill Bell, I believe. Wild Willie Bell. Friday I get some nice stuff on the course. Had some pasta tempo vibes to it. Like a little bit some of the holes that kind of weave in and out of the trees. And seems like Pau's vertices.

Total blind spot. Total blind spot. But like I was looking up on the map, it seems like there's some other golf courses down there. There's a Trump course down there. There's a, I think a public course. It's pretty nice down there. So maybe something that we, you know,

I have to get out and see at some point. And that was the, I've never been, I've never really been south, I've been to Orange County, but I've never really been to Manhattan Beach and Redondo, like the stuff south of LAX. It's always, I've always kind of gone north of there. I mean, man, how in Beijing, Radondo Beach are very similar to like Venice and Santa Monica and all that. It's when you get like, it's like this little spit of land that just

like goes way out in the Pacific there and it's crazy hilly. That was where the cat got into his car accident. Out and promised various apologies. Lydia co-missed the Pub on 18. She finished two back. Virginia, Marie now, it's finished one shot clear of Jinyoung co who shot 66 today. And Jinyoung co-made an eight on Friday afternoon on the 18th

whole, which I believe would she would have won the golf tournament. If she does not do that, I believe it was Friday. Marina's so good. Like she's, she's just immense self belief. She works hard. Like if you follow her on Instagram, she's posting pictures of her swing, like just basically of her practicing.

And not for like, showy stuff, or just like it's like the stuff that she's working on. And I always, she's a great Instagram follow. I always love kind of tracking her progress with her golf swing. And she's just delightful to be around. So always happy, I think this was her second win, right? After she won Portland maybe two or three years ago, three years ago. I think don't ask me because it's also a great pandemic.

Janiel coded out making eight. I don't know where I thought I read check. I was going to say something where she did that. So I apologize. I was also an error. God, I cannot get any intel on who the concert was at Tiger Jam this year, which I know in the past it had Bon Jovi and you know acts such as like Cystria Hazel and you know very very you know high profile acts. So well I thought it was Steve Aoki but we can continue to ignore that. He was there for sure. Yeah I well I don't know why else you would I see just invited a Tiger Jam., is he just invited the tiger jam? Like, he's trying to get all the slip.

I mean, why was he helping me? He's there. Because I think they were doing the poker thing, weren't they? Oh, that's right. Okay. No word of whether or not Cokrack got the invite. Something else to follow up on. So Rainy just sent a text.

I guess Jerry Foltz was asking Lydia about her round and her week and everything. Lydia was brutally honest and said, it's just that time of the month. I'm not feeling very well. Jerry's like, oh my gosh, okay. But like, props, I mean, I've always wanted that about women's golf. I never know like how to ask that or whether it's appropriate. I've talked to Lauren about that before.

Yeah, I never have. And I think that is a super, like that is a relevant thing thing for women sports. Is it something where like you got to sink that up with, with also when your game's feeling good and then your whole model was like, I can't imagine having to deal with it. Imagine that happens like during major week. Like, yeah, that's an insane thing. Well, she also seemed like her, her left hip was bugging her, you know, she's the physios out there. And it's tough. I mean, Lydia had that left miss going like the drive sheet on 16 on that, which was a sweet. That was the A on risk reward hole. And it was awesome. Is that blind par five up the hill with the with the

pawn short left, but Lydia kind of chloroformed one down, down left hated hated see tough to tough to win down the stretch when you got that quick left ball in the bag. Solly, I believe you played a mid-am qualifier had that had that ball working. Well tough qualify was six pure just snap hook three woods like six of them counted three on one hole actually by time the first ball. There may not be a more alarming shot in the golf bag like the the right miss is like it takes a while.

It's like oh no it's like a slow bleed. not be a more alarming shot in the golf back. Like the right miss is like, it takes a while. It's like, oh, no, it's like a slow bleed. The quick left ball is like, it's just jarring. It's like getting, you know, getting stabbed. It's an option. Because the next shot after the left miss is not one down the middle. It's a quif right.

Like, there's no like in between. Like you're doing everything just to miss right. And like, well, shit, that's not a good place. That was, that was, you're like, oh my god, that got out of hand fat like that. I can't, I can't do that again. You know, like we can, we can survive for a while with the right miss. We cannot survive.

Yeah, it's like, it's a quick death or a slow bleed kind of thing. Uh, I mean, Neil, I was fighting the left miss when we played at Belvedere. Yeah, it's a alarming. It's so alarming. It's like, it's just, you're like, you're on edge from that minute forward. See, so your irons and then your putting stroke, it's quick. It's not good.

I also want to give a shout out to Lydia Coe and her caddy. The guy every shot he's hitting her with, stay in your posture. Right before she swings, it was like they had a mantra. Like every shot they had the mic on. I was like, all right, stay in your posture, stay in your posture. It was like, she told him, tell me that before every shot. Fucking tempo. Which you wrote on your drive.

Like fucking tempo. Which I think I need to find a new mantra. Maybe I need to get back to my mantra, but that was like, God, I respect that. You know, one of the best players in the world has a mantra, I'm on the right track. Couple shout outs for LPGA, Megan Kang playing well. Good to see that.

Any park. Hell yes. Any parks playing some any park. Excellent golf. The last what, like five weeks, six weeks. She had a good run at the Chevron a few weeks ago. Yeah, yeah. She's probably been tearing people up in Fortnite in the meantime.

And then, and then Madeline. Madeline. Another top 10. So very normal. Starting to, starting to feel a little bit. I mean, LPJ, they're off next week. They've got the Cardinals and Founders Cup at Upper Montclair Country Club in New Jersey. What can you tell me about upper Montclair Country Club? I don't know much about it. I've never played there, but nice part in New Jersey. So tune in. How about that? We just got back from a trip out to Band-In Doons.

We have made a flurry of Band-In-Dudes content over the years. I think we've done two separate podcasts even on our band and experiences, which we're not going to relitigate everything here. We also have a YouTube series, season six of Taurusos, profiled the Oregon coast, and a lot of other spots in Oregon that featured a lot of golf highlights. I'm curious to ask you guys, if anything changed,

we had a big group of people of the Ness community. If you're interested in joining that, knowlayingup.com slash join, where we hosted 64 people, I believe total out there at bandin was not designed to go, Scotland straight to bandin. Like it, like it worked out, but we had a lot of fun playing golf this month. I'm wondering with, in this trip, does anything change in how anything you have, I've thought of any of the bandin courses? I would say, they, and I, I feel like there's a couple things I'll say.

One, that banding gets better each time I go back, which there are other places that I go where I don't feel that way. I feel like I have context for the courses and each of them rises almost equally in my rank. Like I like all of them more. There's not a course I've gone to and I've liked less. I've seen some certain flaws. I think that band and dunes has risen in my rankings.

Or I've come to appreciate it more. I think it's a, it's just as devilish as Pacific dunes or it just is hard in a lot of ways, but it doesn't look as hard. So it's a little almost trickier. It's a bit more of an onion. It's harder for better players. At the... Sure.

I've come to appreciate it more. I did, that was the one course. I was like, I know, this one's fine for a while, but the more I play it, the more I appreciate it. I still love Pacific Doons. I like Pacific Doons. And I think I like Pacific Doons because, no, because I only play it every three years or two years

and I look forward to the challenge and I think that the challenge is right out in front of you. There's not really a lot of tricks on that course. There's not a lot of blind stuff where you could argue with some of the other other courses trails and bandin specifically, there's more that you can't see out there that you have to avoid. And I think that became more apparent to me this time around because I did not take a caddy on this trip. And I'm glad I didn't take one because I will never do that again. It is truly a three or four shot difference if you have a caddy and just having them keep

you in it, especially if you're playing all five of them day to day, almost being that like second mind out there to snap you back into reality when you're when you're zoning out on sheep ranch or you're you know you're just tired from from a bunch of walking and I think but I played my best golf of the trip on Pacific dunes and without a caddy I think that's because everything's right out in front of you now if you do hit it in some of those bunkers solid I think you're absolutely right when you say it's overly penal like it's like hey man I didn't miss that one that bad. That should not be an auto double, right?

From that bunker or I think that the resort could do well. It takes some sand out of the bunkers. I think the sand is brutal because it's so loose and there's so much of it. So I think that gives high handicaps such a tough time. Like those bunkers are overly penal, especially on Pacific. But that was the one course we're playing alone. I was like locked in. I was like, okay, you can't miss here.

You can't miss here. Like it's an execution. Like, let's, like, can you do it, right? And I like rising to that challenge. So that course, I know you guys don't like it as much. I still really, really enjoy going to battle with Dogue on Pacific Dins. T.C. any new thoughts? Yeah, I think trails gets better for me every single time.

If I have 10 rounds between the resort, I'm playing at least five of them on trails. Oh, shit. Like I like it that much. I, it gets you away from the ocean and then like, like I'm dying to go back. I want to go banded by myself sometime and just hang out and like reflect and relax and rejuvenate a little bit and I want to take a couple days and not play some golf.

Like that drive down the coast from we went to Gear Heart first for a couple days and then shout out to Matt and Jason and Forest and all the guys out there. I mean they cooked razor clams for us and it was just like an outrageous experience and that place just rules. But like going back like going down the coast of band and like that that drive is just as good as as anything and big sir in my opinion. It's awesome. Brandy got to see the dunes. He finally saw the dunes. But I think it banded. Like sheep ranch is what I thought it was.

It's just a great, great walk. You know, I don't think it's not a great role player. Yeah, yeah, it's like it does what it's supposed to do, right? I think the one thing I want to say about sheep ranch the BLT up there It's one of the it's like a top two or top three BLT I've ever had my life and I love BLTs They just they do it right up there the pastrami sandwiches really really good to but I got three BLTs in three days up there like You heard it here

TC BLT commas or theth whole day that we had. So, so we played 36, 18, 36. The 18th whole day we had finished up at Old Mac and Bunky and Cody and I just drove up to, to Sheep Ranch and just had a beer up there and ate up there and it was great. I love that little clubhouse. Awesome little patio out there too. Yeah, so I think Old Mac got better for me this time. I, I appreciate it old Mac.

I potted better on those greens. It still runs out of gas for me a little bit. You know, and that kind of early part of the back nine, and then starts to get better down the stretch again. I'm trying to think Pacific. I mean, band is great. I think Pacific, listen, I respect the course. I just, it's like objectively,

it's a really, really good golf course that I just do not enjoy playing. And, you know, left-handed or right-handed now. And I loved it the first time I played it. Relatively speaking. Yeah, yeah. There's some just absolutely world-class, exhilarating holes. I mean, I would say probably four or five of the top ten best holes at the whole resort are on Pacific dunes like there's just some like like un

unmistakeable greatness there, but there's also just there's just some really flawed holes there's well and we caught it like all of our Conditions, I mean April you know been there twice now in April and it's you know granted like some friends of ours were there a few days before and they got dumped on and shit on. And like it was like unplayable for two days, but we had no wind. Unbellied. Like zero rain. We had a little like 10 minutes squal

to kind of run through. But yeah, like for me, it's just, it's trails, man. It's just, that's, I love it so much. And it's just such a great walk. And it, it's the perfect mix of a great hike and a great walk while also like I get to kind of get in tune with myself a little bit. This was basically I kind of just every time I walk away from it I look at the rankings and I hear some people talk about these courses and I'm like am I missing something between

band and impact and every time I, am I missing something between Bannon and Pack? And every time I walk away, I feel even stronger. Like I want to approach it with like, all right, we got Pack and like really benign conditions. And the last time we got it, it was a North wind that I, we came off being like, dude, this is the prevailing wind and that course cannot be played in that kind of wind.

And that's, that was made, well, you came off saying, well, I should've said that. Because it was unplayable that day. Well, I did. No, I did play. I played it great that day. That's that's what I'm saying. It's like you you got to rise to the occasion. It is there are some there are some not good holes. I agree with that. There's two or three of them. You just playing. It does not change the fact that the course is not play good in that wind. You feel like you're on a razor's edge. Yes. It to the point where like I, which I don't mind that.

If you're ready for it, I think that's a mindset thing. That's my point. I think it is. But you're a good player. And over the penal. And it's not personal for me. Like I shoot my lowest scores at pack. Like I have no problem playing the golf course.

It is the widest separation amongst not as good players and good players. And that I don't enjoy. Like I don't, I like playing with people that like, well, I don't like watching them get in trouble and not be able to get out of it. Like I enjoy band-in-doons the most because it feels like the lesser player has a better time out there.

It's friendlier, it's wider, yet getting close to some of those holes and the chess match that the better players have to, you know, go through to avoid the bunkers. And like the risk reward that comes with getting after some of those pins and the slopes around the greens, there's always an option to do something pretty safe. And there's like, if you want to go for birdie,

like go for it, man, but this is going to be really hard and you're going to pay a price if you miss. That is, I don't feel that at pack. It is like, dude, hit this shot. Here's a shot you got to hit, go hit it. And a lot of the times, I made like six birdies at pack. It wasn't that difficult for me. I just walked off like looking at some of those pins

being like, this is silly. Like this is not, if Doug's gonna call this course at 10 and maybe that's just, I need to stop looking at it through that lens. That's the thing that gets me all round up. Yeah, him considering that a perfect golf course, I'm like, no, this course is flawed in very obvious ways or several holes that are extremely flawed and bandins flawed too

There's some bad holes out on bandin I think as well. There's some okay holes I would not call any of them bad. I don't think I think you guys got you need to get out of like like I don't look like I'm just I haven't I haven't looked at docks rating of his own But I just I can't separate it. Like it's the number one rated public guy. I like America. And I'm like, wait a second here guys. Like it's not even the one on that strip of land that I would rather play. And I feel very confident in that. But that's what makes the resort beautiful.

As you can Randy can have old Mac as his favorite. And it can be my fifth favorite. And neither of us are wrong. It's just like what your own personal tastes provide. Well, I think you now that was sheep ranch has like the each course is so different that that's they all work together so well. It's like the it's the whole tapestry, right? Like if you go play there, you get a little bit of something from every course.

I don't I go play, you know, it got it. So if you maybe roll a dice to see which one I would play, I would be happy with any answer. Like, oh great, we're playing old Mac today. That's awesome. And if that was the only one I got to play while I would play, I would be happy with any answer. They're like, oh great, we're playing an old Mac today. That's awesome. And if that was the only one I got to play while I was there, I'd be totally fine with that, because I love that golf course, too. That's my favorite.

And I would travel to Bannon just to play old Mac. Like, that's a level of golf or something. I just think Bannon, Bannon, Dune, it's just my favorite. I have more appreciation for it every time. My scores keep getting higher on it. I'm getting further away from actually cracking the code. And I don't know why it's just like the, it's my Western version of the old course in terms of just trying to crack the code of it is a challenge of the mind that I greatly, greatly

enjoy. I think the just worth noting too, I like I know band and like everybody else is struggling with labor shortages and staffing and and you know, I'm sure sourcing and all that and Yeah, I mean you notice in certain spots like the trails trails wasn't open for dinner or whatever but like On the whole like I thought they did an exceptional job like the the experience was was 95% of what it was pre-COVID over during. It's a wonder of operational excellence out there. We'd tell you to go book a trip, but they're booked way in advance,

and you've already brought your booked one, because that place is one of the busiest places in all of golf. But just an awesome week. Thanks to everyone there for the hospitality. Thanks for everyone. Part of the group that made the trip. It was a very memorable one. And it's just, I remember walking group that made the trip. It was a very memorable one. And it's just, it's, I remember walking around that place and just thinking how fortunate we all are that this

land is used for golf because it did not have to be and it is and the golf road is much, much better off for it. So, Aussie open, little house keeping here, Australia, and open will be held at Kingston Heath and Victoria, men's and women's at the same time same championship also uh... kinks and heath is putting in a part three course party panther and the guys were trying to get that you know the last three or four years they had some they had some old guys that were that were dragging their feet didn't want to spend the money

that's happening in December the australian open uh... scottie shetler did the green jacket tour with the Dallas sporting event throughout the first pitch, dropped the puck at a star's game. How was, I didn't see the, I saw him at the Rangers game. Don't high heat. A little high.

Better than, better than Barry in the dirt, but you look like an athlete. Could he pitch for the Reds? OK. He could definitely pitch for the Reds, which I do want to say we are 12 games since Randy had a rant on this podcast two weeks ago about the current state of affairs for the Reds. The Reds lost 11 of those 12 games since Randy's rant. So things are going great.

3 and 19. Now after the 10 to 4, 10 to 1 loss today. So they're truly, truly a disgrace. It's incredible. Careful what you wish for. So Ali, we are headed to TPC Potomac this week. We are not. Not Quail Hollow. No, we are not. The tour is heading to Potomac. Not Quail Hollow. Remember that as we had to Wells Fargo week.

So so pumped we get to go back to Quail Hollow in the fall. I'm just glad we get a look at that storied course. You know what? I mean, I'll say TPC Potomac. go back to Quill Hollow in the fall. I'm just glad we get a look at that storied course. You know what? I mean, I'll say TBC, the story Green Mile. I think last time they went there, was that the time that the steam Britain

and the boys burned out the greens and had a time of it? I don't remember. I think it was, I don't remember, was it the Joel Damon Sun Kang year with the last time? Yeah, there was awesome. It was like, it was hot, it was firm, it was fast, and they did a great job with the agronomy.

I hope we see something similar. We'll see. And we have in here in the agenda, the shop is back from TC. Tell us about what's going on in the shop. The shop is back, it's been back. We've been kind of slow playing it. Pretty shop.

Yeah. Oh hell yeah man. Shopped on the left. It's like in February. We just didn't have any inventory. That's true. February was February stuff. But it is back. We got we got big things, big things going on in there. Lot of honestly, lot of like basics back in T shirts. We're working on some new hats, which I'm really excited about. So May should be a big month.

We got some strapped posters coming out this week. Trying to get those live by Thursday. It's part three of of strapped in the low country. Premier's Wednesday at 9 p.m. Merdle Beach, huh? So tune in for that. Merdle Beach, baby. Party, party boys coming out to play. We'll see. I feel like Vidauta should open up a Myrtle Beach outpost. The shop is store.nolangup.com, by the way. Or shop, I've got to redirect on to shop.nolangup.com now works as well. Which is really, really cool.

Incredible. Just in case you forget. Holderness and born pullovers and pullos and all new sweatshirts. It's fantastic stuff. You guys, we're starting to work 9, 12, 15 months out now. It's taken us some time to get our feet under as a just to the new world before us. And we're still playing a little catch up

the next two, three months, but we got some big stuff come in July, August. So we're kind of filling in the gaps right now. Guys, I have a Sunday soapbox that I'd like to to run by you Go ahead or just just to cap things off. I want to give a shout I want to go to the to the old guys to the champion store. Please I want to talk about a guy Steven Alker he won today you won the disparity in Houston and the woodlands, I believe Do you guys know anything about Steven Alker? I know you missed the, he was in the wilderness pretty bad, right?

So he's from New Zealand and he just turned 50. And he's, I started seeing his name pop up because the blue guy's really been thinking about focusing a lot more on the Champions Tour. I think there's some lines we can take advantage of. It's like the WMBA. My buddy, when he was working for ESPN, there was this guy that, there was a producer working for ESPN, there was this guy that there was a producer

there at ESPN and he was like, man, like, he's like, why do you watch so many WMBA games? And he's like, oh, because I bet on all of them. I made like, I made like close to a million dollars betting on the WMBA last year because the lines are just so off. Same thing with champions tour, right? So this guy, yeah, so, so thank you. But Steven Alker comes on the scene, turns 50. I think this is the second,

might be the third win of the season. He just turned, like I said, he's just turned 50. He's won 710K, not including today's winnings, up to this year. How much do you think he won in his career on the PGA tour? I wouldn't even know where to guess. 841K total. Never won a tour. Seven top 25s in his career on the PGA tour. No top 10s. Best major finish was T19 at the open championship and I can't remember what year I think early 2000s. He's won 13 wins worldwide. Three on

the PGA tour of Australia. Four on the web.com tour. T.C. you'll like this. He also won the Fiji Open and the Tahiti Open in 95 and 96. Shout out to National. I'm doing some very cool. Doing some Captain Cook shit down there in the South Pacific. Yeah. And so here's this guy. I've never heard of him, right? And he's out there and, you know, you got Miguel on Hell. Heminets is the mechanics tearing things up. He's been number one on the Schwab Cup this year. Langer's doing his thing. Scott Perrell, like, Scott Perrell is kind of another one of these guys where Scott Perrell's I had a He's so good. No, but no, this guy has no like PGA tour. He was like career to speak of. No, I'm talking about

Alker and this guy's out here like turns 50 and just goes gangbusters on the champions tour. And I think that's incredible that a guy could just basically like almost take, you know, I just probably wait and since he was like 45. All right, once I get out of this champions tour and then he's just, he's just going ham and I just, I've never heard of the guy and I looked him up and I, you know, it's a name that I'm just like, man, who is this Steven Alker guy? I've never heard of him and turns out he's just having like a, he's just a late bloomer, I guess, but he's doing big things out there this year. So through the club court classic, which they don't have it announced, uh, or updated

through this week yet, but it was him and his Alker, Goosen, Longer, Scott Parall, Jerry Kelly, Lee Janssen, Tim Petrovic, Stephen Ames and KJ Choi. And of all of those guys, all of them had substantial PGA tour careers, right? Like known entities, household names throughout the 90s and 2000s. And then this guy, Stephen Alker, he's about to be number one in the Schwab Cup. He's just doing crazy stuff for someone that, I mean, I guess, yeah, he's one 13 times

worldwide, but none of those wins seem like anything special and just had zero success on the PGA tour. So I think that's an interesting wrinkle to the champion's tour. I would have thought that that kind of thing would be so much less likely to happen when guys like Michelson are out there playing. Furik, David Tom's like some of these big names. They're almost like licking their chops waiting to get on the champions tour. And here's this guy that has he's just a total no name comes in and he's you know he's

winning the Schwab cup. So shout out to him. That's my soap box. I'm going to step down now. Solid would have probably labeled him a manipulator. Back the shot 20 years ago. That's the end of the show. That's it. If I got to defend Steve, like a hypothetical Stephen. But back, yeah, that's 20 years ago. That's the end of the show. That's it. If I got to defend Steve, like a hypothetical Stephen Alker take, that is the end of tonight's show. Well, it gives me hope though.

It's never too late, Sally, you know, I talked about it on the Nespot a while back. It was like, what's your, you know, what's your golf goal? So I was like, I want to play in the Masters. Basically, I want to win the mid-amp. You got it. And I thought that was sick though. I thought that was it. Like, yeah, if I could get into the match play, anything could

happen. And I think that's when you laid it out like that, I was like, dude, that's kind of sweet. You imagine something. I qualified this shit out of all of that for the first time I've heard of that. No, no, you did. It was on the Nespot too. That's behind the paywall. So nobody, nobody, you know, just give me that.

You want to hear that. It's like, I know I can qualify for the mid-amp. So once I get there, why show up if I, you know, it's just like when Tiger shows up in the event, it doesn't play unless he thinks he can win. That's exactly right. Exactly. But I was stroking the guy in 50.

But I can match my guy in 50. I had 50, like playing the best golf of his life, was first year out of the champion store with zero, zero resume that he would be doing that is like, I think that's awesome. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. Scouting doing some scouting Neil. I'll sell you some intel for some so yeah, yeah scouting report You got it. You got to sit through a time share presentation first Like where are you going with that? I don't I don't think I'm gonna play the Guys I think I think Scotland and band and back to back like melted my brain. It's good

I'm close to being broken. You got a power through and then and then the NFL draft Like I got home and watch I stayed up till, you know, midnight watching it. And that seems on with us. That was that was anyone that's with us is playing the world's smallest violin for for all of us right now. Okay. I'm sorry. You had to go to Scotland and banded that first round was nuts. All right. It is bedtime. It is time. Thank you everyone for tuning in. Neil. Thank you for calling in TC. Let's get some rest. Let's play a little golf tomorrow. And thank you for tuning in.

We'll see you back next week. Cheers. Adios. Get a right club. Be the right club today. That is better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most.