No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 57: Charles Howell III

Episode Date: November 24, 2016

Back on the No Laying Up podcast for the second time by popular request, Charles Howell III checks in to talk about his fall series, the 2017 majors, Tiger’s return (and the equipment he’ll be... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 57: Charles Howell III appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. I'm not in. That is better than most. Better than most! Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the No-Lang Up Podcast. Back for the second time. He heard the Rory Podcast and demanded that we get on the horn almost immediately. He's got notes prepared. Charles, how the third, what's going on man? Man, it's all good.

I obviously really enjoyed our first podcast, and when you throw a Roy Michael Roy at me, I just... I can't win. I'm not really trying to compete with it, but I know what I'm second fiddle, and I get it. Well, I'm not willing to say that. You know what? I think you've got notes prepared.

I don't know what you've got in store for me as I'm not willing to concede that you're going to be second fiddle to Rory. So. Yeah. I don't know. You get your head bent and you buy a note from the golf course. It's only fitting that it should follow right into a podcast. Well, you just finished the three tournament stretch.

What else is going on with you, man? You had a good fall series. You typically make a heyday out of the West Coast swing. Now you're balling out on the fall series. So is it just your time of year? Is it when it gets dark early? That's when Charles Al comes out to play? Well, it may be, or I think the more accurate it is,

is I usually just drive myself into complete oblivion and nuts during the summer, and I kind of flame out late in the summer, and then I come back home for a while and I get rested and I can come back out for the fall. So, I usually, it's a career pattern here now, and about 17 years into it, I think I need to just embrace it. You had changed equipment to start the season, about 17 years into it, I think I need to just embrace it. You had changed equipment to start the season.

I would say you had a strong season. I didn't see any major dips in your game in any part. Was there an adjustment period for switching to the new equipment? Or was it a pretty smooth transition? Well, the interesting thing with P-H-G and obviously a lot of the golf people know this, but the engineers are largely from paint. And looking at, I think the pink engineers have always been, if not the best, they're

for sure in the conversation. And if you couple that with Bob Parsons and his willingness to spin whatever's needed on R&D, I think about a pretty good team there. And the first run of PXC equipment, obviously I like it and their sales reflected other people like it as well. But the exciting thing with PXC will be it works coming down the pipeline. You've got smart people with really no budget in R&D and hopefully some fun cool stuff comes out.

And for golf, we need people like Bob Parsons involved in the game that are willing to step up and invest a large amount of money in trying to make equipment better. I think for the game it's only good. What's the biggest, the hardest thing to adjust for? It woods, irons, ball wedges. I mean what do you spend the most time like trying to get right when you do make a change? Well I'd say it's the driver if you want to just talk about in your bag and it's not so much the good ones it's understanding where the miss is all of a sudden go so So any golfer can hit any driver good,

but the more important thing is they need to know where your bat wants your going. And so when you switch equipment, it's more or less learning about, okay, my bad days, this is what's going to happen, or I kind of expect this mess, and once a player learns that,

then I think that's when he or she is really comfortable with the equipment. All right. We last spoke just before the US Open in June. You had a little stretch of period where you were injured for a while there and you've come back from that now. What would you say if anything has changed with you since we last spoke?

Well, I've worked a ton of my short game. I think that's one of one area of the game where I continue to look at what players are doing well, they did play well. And I look at what are guys doing, let's say, better than I am, and start dig through some of that. I mean, you just saw it again. I don't know if you watched it, the Australian Open, but your Jordan Speeds now putting and his ability to get the ball up and down. The game's just too hard to hit the ball great every single day. And it's really difficult to rely on long game every day.

So you've got to have your short game. And nowadays, playing against these guys, it's got to be great. That'd be the one area I think I was really focused on. Is that you you were recently started working with the new short game coach I think when we last spoke is that right or how recent is that change? Yes, I did. I did my name John Graham, yes. And then have there been significant changes in your approach to how you is it just mostly how you practice for it or any change in technique in anything specific?

You know, the biggest thing is he continually shows me stats and what the players that are winning or doing and if nothing else, it just makes me excited to practice it. And I would say that's the one thing. You look across the board, I mean, this is, I said, it's a lot more fun to hit drivers than it is to put six foot pots, right? I mean, you know, it's not very sexy sitting on a putting green and hitting 10 foot left to right pots.

It's just not. But you got to do it. And so if nothing else, if he shows me a beat into my head stats and the importance of doing it, then I can get excited to do it. And it'll spend the appropriate time. I got to say I must at least partially apologize. I'm just now kind of realizing this is Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I don't get really a Thanksgiving over here. So are you already on holiday? What are in Orlando now and my wife's family is slung down from Oklahoma

So they made it easy on us. So we're there's no traveling our kids are out of school for the week So this is this is the first sort of holiday season where our kids have been in school So and now the holidays meet a bit more of them because they don't have to go to school So thank you care less about Thanksgiving But the fact that I have to go to school there all the time care of less of my things giving, but the fact they don't have to go to school, they're all in. So are you the one that puts the turkey in the oven or how does that get done around the household? No, sir. You see, part of this marriage deal is you got to know you're going to screw

up enough. You don't let it be Thanksgiving dinner. So absolutely not. I have no responsibility in this whatsoever. So I'm fully identified for anything that's bad tomorrow. So that's a fine way to be. What are you, are the clubs put away? I think your pride next event will be Sony. Am I right in guessing that? It is correct. I'll play, I'll play the short shoot out.

Okay. You know, it's kind of a team event. You know, silly season. But if you want to call it. And, but then the next main event for me will be the Sony Open. But no, the clubs are not put away. This is a time of year the clubs come out.

Yeah. I love this time of year. I get to try all kinds of stuff and over practice and then play with buddies back home. So no, the weather's great now and Florida. This is my time of're I look forward to In between I mean I know this we're in the middle of technically the wrap around season But this is you I guess a six-week gap the only really one we get on the PGA tour season

Do you like make like a white-the-slate clean look at a fresh new start kind of thing or are you trying your best to roll Your seasons together so that you don't feel like you have an offseason? You know, I think the latter, I rather roll them together and that's probably the reason why I do play the short feud out, is it kind of leads me a little bit in that playing mentality. If your story can't look back, and not just me, but a lot of other players, when you come off the break, even if you take, let's say, two weeks off. It's always the first week. You don't really play your best. By the second or third week in a row, you kind of start playing the game again.

The scoring mentality comes back out. That's kind of the time when you see guys play their best golf. So I'd rather say there's a continuation. I've never been a guy that's sort of set my clubs down and not play. I mean, people were tired of playing golf. I mean, what am I doing? I'm not saying what happened to you. I'm just playing golf. And I play great courses around the world.

So I'm still on an employ really. You're as true Sikko as you would call it. Exactly, yes, I like to play. Maybe you've already done it with a fall series event, but with the new rule where you have to add at least one new event per year. What event are you planning to add or have you already done that? Well, I'm actually, I fall under a weird exam category. From that, I play 25 events or more per year, so I don't fit into that.

Now, if I had that in a event, it would be something to do. I could add whatever, but I play enough now where I don't have to do that. It will be interesting, though, to see what some of the top players add in there. I think it's a great rule. I was actually a proponent of the one in four rule that was proposed where you had to play every single event once every four years. Obviously, I mean, you can understand who or why would oppose that. I think just from a sponsor point of view, I think that would have been really good. Okay, so we would not expect any major changes

from your schedule in 2017 for personal or golf reasons or anything like that. No, hopefully my game will get better and I can add some world events and major's in there. I would welcome that change. Other than that, no, I'll play the same old schedule. All right, so let's see, you're the, as much as we can talk about your game

as much as we could take up an entire podcast talking about your game, but you, as you've self-diagnosed our golf sicko, you would enjoy analyzing. Part of the reason I think you've left coming on those podcasts is you have a future career in being a talking head on the golf channel, analyzing. Part of the reason I think you love coming on this podcast is you have a future career in being a talking head on the golf channel, but I want to hear some predictions for 2017 on major winners. Let's start with the masters. If I got up the hold your feet to the fire. Who's going to win the masters?

Um, well, I'm like all bad betters. I'm going to let my heart influence this one. And I'm going to say, word immaculately. I think one of the big storylines in our next year will be his preparation up to the master's, what term he plays, how he tries to get himself ready for it. His words, even he knows, it's his last it to complete the career grand slam. Every year I look at the masters and I can't think of a better guy than that golf curve. He's got his high draws with his driver. He can hit it as far as he wants to.

I mean, it just seems like a golf course is just tailor-made for him. If he were to go another three or four years without winning that tournament, I would be shocked. It part of me thinks that he could, if it was any other time of the year, and if it wasn't like an eight-month layoff before the match, and first of all, he's only, I think he's only played it twice since he, since it would have been to complete the career Grand Slam. So it's not jumping to any conclusions on Candy Ever win this thing, but I think he'd benefit so much more if it was like two months after another major or something like that where it wasn't gonna be

this build up every time. He even said like that he plays well leading up into it. He knows he's just driving the hype train. He stops doing media before it. So I don't know, I'm with you. I felt like what we saw at him in 2011, it looked like a guy that was gonna kind of dominate that golf course for decades to come.

And since that Sunday, we just haven't seen him play that course with that kind of dominant factor to it. It always seems like he's taking one step forward, two steps back out there. And it almost seems like now, speed is this guy that is just tailor-made for this golf course. Even though, I don't, I don't, is it weird if I say like I don't feel like his game fits that course necessarily that great, but he still seems to dominate it? Yeah, you're right. And I don't know if you, you remember the third round last year, Rory and Jordan were paired together.

Yeah. And I thought it was going to be one of those rounds where Rory came out and shot 65 or 6 and separating self-out. And sure enough, it flipped the other way. And Jordan obviously played a phenomenal round in front of Rory in that situation. And it does. And obviously, Jordan is a heck of a player. This is not in any way, not meaning that.

But I would still say, I feel like Rory McAurley's game fits the gust of national better than Jordan's but the record shows otherwise. I mean Jordan apart from the 12th whole last year he would have had another great jacket and yeah it's here exactly right I completely agree with you. People say you don't read the greens at a gust that you remember them so how can he at age what are 23 put those greens better than any other guy in that field? It's unbelievable. And the fact how consistently well he puts them. It's not as if he has one hot day and then a bunch of average ones. No, he puts them well every day.

It but he doesn't have anywhere. And he does it on different surfaces, he does it on different surfaces. It's just incredible. Yeah, I mean, it looked how well he even put a Chambers Bay. And, you know, no surfaces were not great at all. And so the guy seems to do it every day. I mean, I wish I knew what he did. That was very nice of you to say that Chamber's Bay surfaces were not nice at all. That was as good as Vacompa Menace. You could have paid those greens in position.

Well, we live in this politically correct world. Now, right, I mean, everybody gets a trophy. Or might get to rip. All right, so moving on, Aaron Hills, US Open, who you got? I've played the golf course. It'll be interesting to see how they set it up. It can be as big and long and mean as they want to make it. And you know, Mike Davis just loves doing that.

So I'm quite sure he's already planning that. But you know It's a repeat what I get those are difficult and tough. I love Dustin Johnson there for the sole reason of his driving ability Aaron Hills is extremely long you got to drive it in the fairway obviously we know that and is there a guy that drives it longer Sure than Dustin. I don't think there is Dustin's also got the mentality to endure the bad nasty breaks. You're going to get it a US Open and the odd, you know, the bokehs you are going to inevitably make around them. I think his mentality is great for him.

I can't imagine a player handling the situation that he handled in the US open the way he did. And still coming through to win that golf criminal on Sunday, there's not a better guy for it. I'm on board with that. I'm picking DJ to go back to back. So we are in unison on that one.

And for the record, I'm going to speed again for the Masters. So yeah, I can argue. I argue that. All right. British Open. Open, sorry. Open championship. What do hear you though. All right, British Open. Open, sorry, Open Championship. What do you, first of all, what do you say?

Are you a proponent of saying Open Championship or do you not care? You know, I see I'm one of these Americans that calls it the British Open and people don't like that. No. No, see, and it's, yeah, I've got to be honest. I've always called it the British Open. However, I don't know what I've ever referred to as the Open. I've never called like the Katie Open the Open.

So yeah, I need to modernize it. We'll call the Open for now. All right, we'll be sportsman. We'll call it the Open. That's correct. We'll call the Open. The Open, I love Phil Nicholson. I think he's got one more in the tank. He loves

Link's style golf. He loves a British open golf. He was one extremely hot player away last year from winning it. And it just seems to me as soon as people try to somewhat write Phil Nicholson off a little bit. He comes through into something like he did and I think it was him one after the after the Henry extensive bus on Okay, it's a mate. It's just amazing to hear you talk about Phil loving Link style golf with where where you know Imagine saying that like 15 years ago. I mean it was it was that tournament that everyone pointed like he's He would never win one of these things now. It's maybe his best chance to win another major

It an amazing everybody said oh no he'll never win the brace because it's too windy and he can't drive it well enough and yeah everybody says that I like guys he's won 42 times like he does something pretty good he's as much as people love to criticize Phil Nicholson for this or this he's got 42 wins. That's amazing. I mean in in my book, the only kind of criticize him is actively playing is probably Tiger Woods. So that actively is a loose world. I don't know why I should criticize him.

We'll get to the big cat here, but we'll side note, sidebar. I asked, we did a little Ryder Cup post game podcast. I asked, will Phil make a sense of on the writer cup team in 2018 in your thoughts Okay, yes, I would say he will all right. That's the that's the easy one. That's the easy one now 2020 50 I'm gonna say no, okay simply because know. Okay. It's simply because historically looking at it, it's very difficult to state extremely competitive post age 45, 46 and golf. You can find the odd example of the VJ saying Kenny Perry, I think Fred Fulton won the player's

human tip at a late age. It's very hard to do and look at this influx of young players you have coming up. I can see Phil ruling right into a captain's hero from that, but I'm going to say he has one more right to accompany. Okay. So you're ruling out my prediction that he plays at Beth Page in 2024. See, what a great captain he would be there. Playing captain, no, that's my whole point. It could be, but now, okay, on the European side, is there a better captain at Beth Page than Ian Polter?

No, it's got to be, that's got to be Polter versus Phil, doesn't it? It has to be E.M. Polter. Like there's no the venue Everything it was tailor made for E.M. Polter to be a captain at Bethpage. It's perfect. It's set up Who is I guess the front runner or the rumor? Maybe you know too much and can't say it. The likely captain to be in 2018, is it Furek? You know, I honestly don't know, and I haven't heard a word of it, except, I guess. I mean, the rumor is that it seems like pointing right at Jim Furek. He would be a good captain.

He's a lot more competitive than people think he is. You know, he's obviously a fairly unorthodox guy, but you know, he does things his way. He's a bit of a sportsman. You know, I mean, he's a Steelers fan and you know, he's playing the, the, the, uh, probably he's probably with wins lawn and he's kind of, he's a bit of a sports guy that people may think so. Um, yeah, I would say that would make a lot of sense to me.

Okay. And I mean, everyone's assuming stricker in 2020 I would assume up in Wisconsin 2022 any thoughts any predictions there. I mean, I really as I've heard some rumblings on the big cat for that but I'd for one I'm not sure how interested he is in being that the the head captain the the number one guy doing all that media obligation But you have any insight is that whether or not you think he would be interested in that? You know, I still can't believe that he signed up as an assistant accountant. Really? No, and I just know, I just, and maybe that's part of me that still wants to see him winning

golf tournaments and put that red shirt on on Sunday. Patrick Reed's red shirt now, you know, it's like, get back to the cat. But I just, I, I, I know kind of want to be seeing that. And I just can't believe that, I think it's wonderful that he did it. I'm just still, so, so no, I really don't see him as being a captain. I see that more in the likes of a, like we saw with Fred Couples being a captain of a president's cup and then you see the Steve's tricker and Davis love and I see kind of that fold of guy come in right through to Phil Nicholson and maybe I'm dead wrong and maybe title be a wonderful captain but I still, I mean I still see that guy play him.

Yeah well I guess we can transition into that because that guy's supposed to become back playing, is it next week the hero I lost track of thunder. Yeah, I believe it is. I think it is next week. Yeah, it is next week um A if you're putting money on it right now, is he playing next week? Yes, he's playing and to support you from earlier. He's gonna play a tailor-made driver. Okay and a tailor-made three wood um and a bridge-made driver. And a tailor-made streetwood. And a British don't call for all.

So I think part of him is excited that he can try new equipment. He's obviously played the Nike gear for so long that I think now he kind of looks to him as a big open world out there of trying equipment and you know seeing what's out there and what not. You know he's still only 40 years old and you know let's say that golfer start to teeter out at 45-46. I mean let's hope that he's healthy. He's got five healthy years ahead of him. I still got to think the guy can come out and win. I really do. Knowing him and his competitiveness he is, and even these situations when he's backs against the wall and people start doubting him, I mean, he feeds off all that. And I hope he comes out next week and just has a solid event.

He doesn't need to win it and do anything heroic, but just start building his game back up in a competitive sense. And man, I'd love to see the guy win next year. And that's what I try to tell myself when I'm watching broad pampling win, you know, it went an event. They were at 48, I think, pampling is you're telling me at 40. I know Tigers been through a lot of health issues. I just, and maybe that's just when I start throwing logic out the window though and start thinking, fairytale, I just refuse to believe that he's done done, you know. I just don't think that it doesn't, it doesn't add up to me unless he truly can't get healthy. The guy still has a boatload of talent to tap from and if it's, if it's really health that prevents him from tapping

into that, I can understand it, but that talent just does not completely go away. Do you still have a lot of communication with them? Have you played with them at all or any indications of what his game is like in the last couple of months? I haven't played with him. I saw him down at all, but he at the very end of the summer, down in the Columbus, and he looked great. He looked fit as he always does.

And, you know, I agree with you. I just don't believe that Tiger Woods, it's one what 80 gold tournaments is all of a sudden not going to be able to win a tournament again. Unless, as you said, he just can't do it. Unless his back is that bad, or if his knee gets bad again, and I know he said something, you know, what shoulder neck. I mean, if he has a health element, I get it. But I'm telling you, it's a guy's healthy. If he comes out

and plays a run of four or five events in a row, I just have to believe by the end of that stretch, he's going to be right there on Sunday to win and Man, I mean, you know part of me I guess is is helping this happens as much as being a You know an observer here, but I just I'm just got to think that the guy can do it. I really do I think the hero is a good event for him to come back at Pretty wide fairways from down there. And it's in Bahamas, right? Yes, it's in Albany.

It is in Albany, correct. Wide fairways down there, it's not, I mean, anytime he's gonna show up, there's gonna be a ton of attention. I would think the vibe is gonna be more relaxed in the Bahamas than it would be out in California, first PGA Tour event in the season. Would you think that factored into him

maybe withdrawing in California? Yeah, that's interesting. I was shot he would drew out there, especially committing on Friday, then we'd draw him on Monday. But obviously Tiger knows what's going on as far as that, so a lot more so than I do. Yes, I can see, I mean,

the hero, one of the limit ticket sales down there, and it's not gonna draw a ton of people, they're in person. But yes, I mean, every move the guy makes is kind of peace scrutinized in every shot he hit. You know, the talking heads are gonna talk about every single shot he hits, and whatnot,

but yeah, I think if he just comes back, he completes four rounds, he's healthy, he shows some good signs and I think worth anything, that'll calm him down mentally to say, okay, I can still do this. And I know that Tiger Woods is Tiger Woods but he is still human and once he goes out there and shoots a 68 or 9 and that will do more for him mentally than anything to say okay I haven't totally forgotten how to do this this is going to be fine and all of a sudden if he plays San Diego and he gets in the hunt where he's won multiple times then those feelings start coming back again and I've got to think the guy can hold up a trophy again.

Oh you got me excited. I usually don't like to talk a lot of tiger Just because I feel like we but this is a scenario where I think it's very justified Because as far as I and I haven't looked this up this feels like the longest period of time off We've ever really had him do or you know that he's been away from the game And I think we've been clamoring for this time away like me man If you're hurt and not healthy take as much time as you need, stop trying to rush it back. But how much are guys out there on tour talking about these kind of things?

Like when he withdrew, was that a big conversation out in California? And like, is it all the buzz on tour right now? You know what, no, not really. And it wasn't really that big of a story. Guys talked about it for a little bit, then it was over and done with. And a little bit of that is the changing of the guard though, of the younger generation coming out.

You know, these guys are ready to win and they're competitive. And look at McKinsey Hughes last week at McLattery. I mean, he made a triple bogey. Their own was it Saturday. And I mean, he did the things you could do when you would think he was gonna kind of fall away and not when the tournament and the guy still sucks it up when the tournament to play off.

So I think this young regeneration is a lot different. You know, they haven't had their head beat in by Tyler as everybody else has. I haven't seen that putter bump in the air and that's certainly for him to start dropping. And these guys are not only ready as everybody else has, they haven't seen that putter bump in the air and those surface thunderstorms drop in and these guys are not only ready to win, they are winning. So I think it's a little bit different now and one last thing on Tiger 2 to the people that say that maybe he can't win again. I look back to when he

went through his personal stuff and he took all the time off and he disappeared and he was a ghost and people were wears tiger and what's he doing his first event back was the masters and he finished fourth. Yeah. I mean they're guys I mean they were gonna hold career and not finish fourth and the masters and are great players okay he did it when he had everything stacked against him that week and the guy almost won the tournament and this is the masters. So I just have I just keep referencing back to that and think that he will still win another regular event again with pretty good

certain. And on top of that I also always refer back to that but on top of that what I even refer back to more recently is that 2010 near the top of that, I also always refer back to that, but on top of that, what I even refer back to more recently is that 2010, near the end of that season, when things started going really poorly for his game. So that was his first tournament back, was what was that, Masters? 10, his game went to crap, and then 11, is when it really spiraled out of control. And from that, he returned to number one in the world

But he is game it not falling off to this level of a tent But it was it was completely off to the point where I thought he was done like I just I was an idiot And I was not experienced enough to know that that guy you can't ever count that guy out So when he when things started to go bad in 2014 I was I kept saying like I'll be fine. He'll be fine Here we are in late 2016 and we haven't seen a good finish from him in almost three years. But I'm leaning on those two things, the one you just referenced and his comeback from that tough 2011 to make me say, I don't think I'll ever count that guy out again.

But it's all about the back though. And it's a lot of people think it's all about the health. It's not the golf is the health. A lot of people think that it's beyond repair and we'll see. We'll see. The swings that we saw for this last couple of weeks on the practice range, it didn't weren't the most encouraging swings.

It didn't look like the old tiger thrashings. Not sure what to expect from that, but we'll see. We talked briefly about the Ryder Cup, and I know we're almost two months removed from it, but being the sickle that you are, how much of the Ryder Cup did you watch? I watched almost all of it, especially the singles day. I love the singles, and the fact that Roy and Patrick Reed played on the singles, I think there couldn't be better TV drama. I don't know, you were there and you got to watch it. I thought that was a wonderful day for golf and even just that match alone.

I was just fantastic for the game. And do you feel like the tide has turned in the favor of the United States in the near future for winning Ryder Cups? Maybe slightly, but it's hard to count Europe out. You go down the list of their talented players and those guys are going to be getting more comfortable in the format and that that match was played in the US and for us, the rookies that were on the U.S. team, that's a very

intimidating place to start. So Thomas Peters is going to be a Ryder Cup stalwart for many years to come for Europe. You're able to keep like Matt Fitzpatrick, you just wanted to buy. Obviously he's showing that he's a heck of a player and extremely solid. So yeah, it's going to be hard to count those guys. And I think they're going to be close for our cups for a long time. I did mean to one, ask you one more question on the fall series that I've forgotten. You may have already mentioned one with Mackenzie Hughes, but did you see any new freaks out there this fall to use the word that you used last time on the podcast? Any new guys coming up from the web.com show that maybe whose games you weren't familiar

with that you saw hitting balls or play with that you were like, uh oh, here's another freak out here. Well, not any in particular because I didn't really get paired with any. Yeah. And it wasn't bad too because I played one of the events in Malaysia, which is a small field. And then Vegas, not a lot of the young players get into that field. So, and I didn't see a ton. I know they're out there. I just haven't seen them yet. I keep hearing about this Ryan Brim that he's going to be the longest hitter on the tour when it's all set done. So I look forward to that thrashing where we get paired together. But, you know, I'm also just impressed how these guys just come out and win.

I just, you know, and I mean, granted, obviously looking back on my career, I wish I would have won more. And it's always impressed to me when a guy steps out there and and sucks it up on Sunday. It gets the job done right away. I think that's really impressive. Yeah, that's a great, what's really cool done right away. It just, I think that's really impressive. Yeah, that's a great, what's really cool

about the fall series is just, those guys aren't just gonna have that same opportunity come. You know, once Riviera rolls around and Tori pines, like that's just when it gets real serious. Not saying those wins aren't impressive, it's just, they just don't have that, you know, 10 of the top 20 guys in the field or whatnot. And you're just, it's your time to shine.

And see these guys take advantage of it. It is kind of mind blowing just because I'm always a big proponent of saying how hard winning is. You've got a stroke play event. You've got to just have so much stuff go your way. I mean, just looking, you are all over the leaderboard, you know, for the better part of the fall series. And, you know, just seeing how many things got to go your way come Sunday to win it.

It's just, you see the odds, like, there's a good Twitter account that I follow that just updates the odds every hour, so you have to win. And somebody might be a shot back with nine holes to play, and their chance of winning the tournament is like 9% or something like that. And that's what people don't realize. I feel like you could be one shot ahead with 9 to play and your winning percentage might be 30% or something like that. So no it is really interesting to see guys like Hughes and whatnot Kaufman last year, guys

that win in this fall series and take advantage of these opportunities. And it gets them into the Masters right, which is a big deal. And it all of a sudden it thrusts the back on that right right on that big stage I think it's wonderful and and to win to win in this time period You basically get a three-year exemption on tour your sets for the rest of the year and then you get two full years after that It's almost like the best possible time to win other than you know if you're winning in the FedEx got playoffs or major obviously But yeah yeah no question. Random question.

No idea if you have any insight on this but do we ever see Anthony Kim play a PGA Tour tournament again? Man I love it. Had I been Ryder Cup captain my first two picks would have been Daniel Burger and Anthony Kim. What? You got a throwing out there.

I remember it was really early in Anthony's career What? You got a throwing out there. I remember it was really early in Anthony's career and it was at the Texas Open but it was at a different golf course than what we played now and I played a practice round with him. He had just come out and I knew of Anthony because he played college golf at Oklahoma and I played at Oklahoma State and I heard people say This guy's a great player and I played nine holes with him and this guy has got the best golf swing out here He's awesome and not only that he's got the attitude to back it up He's not afraid to tell you how good he is and he believes it. I mean, this guy is awesome and

The course he you know he comes out and he has a really nice run there. And obviously some injuries and what not let around. But I would love to see that guy come back. And yes, as Ryder Cup captain, it would have been Daniel Berger, Hanson, and Kim. I've thrown them all first on Friday morning. They'd have been right out there first. And so with those guys, I have those cells

and their confidence and the cockiness, I love it. Do you have any any of any insight info at all that what his current status is practicing? No, nobody knows anything. No, no, no, it's a ghost. Yeah, it's, yeah, yeah, it's, yeah, nobody knows that thing. Nobody said I know, but, but no, I don't know anything except little bits and pieces when he showed up in the news. Was it a few weeks back with some charity events? Yeah. Other than that, not a thing.

But man, I'd love to see him come back. It's yeah, it's where we're hanging on a string on just that charity event or any news we can get. I feel like. Right, you're just shaking your desk for golf, says, or it's like, oh, God, he played a charity piece. I'm about to, what in the mask would you?, God, he played a certain piece. He's coming back. He's winning the last week. Just wait till we get shot by shot of Tiger's practice rounds, getting tweeted.

You know, oh, well, he hit six times off this team. Oh, blah, blah. That's coming. You know it is. That's next week. That's next week. So are you willing to come clean now on this podcast that you are in fact on Twitter, or are you still going to maintain that you're not on Twitter?

No, I'm not on Twitter, but the sole reason is that I would say to people you are in fact on Twitter, are you still gonna maintain that you're not on Twitter? No, I'm not on Twitter, but the sole reason is that I would say that people all night long and it wouldn't be healthy. I wouldn't do it. I mean, people say some things. And when they would say something that was just blatantly wrong or dumb, I would argue with them. And then I would realize that I'm laying here in bed. It's 9 o'clock at night and I'm arguing with a guy

on Twitter who I don't even know. And you know, plus, you know, I've had some guys, some buddies of mine too, they put things on Twitter, they don't mean them a certain way, but they can be read a whole host of different ways. Yeah, that stuff kind of scares me. So I get that. You don't want to be on, you know, as Charles Howe, but like, you haven't convinced me that you don't have a secret account out there just to monitor what's going on out there. Oh, no, no, I don't, but I've got so many friends on my own Twitter and they screened shot stuff and sent it to me all the time.

Okay. And yours is the most screen shot and stuff. I will say, not, you know, President Cummings, good at you are. Yeah, you're the most popular one. Most guys get the most laughs out of your stuff. Well, I try, so that's good to hear. But do we get to everything in your notes? Or do you have some bombshells

that you're ready to drop on us? No, I'm interested to see how the Zerat Classic came format, thanks goes out. You know, I've been a little bit surprised at how so many people have embraced this idea of it. I'm not convinced yet it's a great thing. Why is that? Well, I'm just a little bit concerned that the tourers now open themselves up to alternative format events and then the possibility of having to tell one sponsor, no, when you've told another sponsor, yes.

Let's hypothetically say that Valero deems their struggling by whatever metric they may use and they want to go to an alternative form out of it and now the tour tells them no but yet they've told Zurich slash bombers yes. Now you could have a potential problem and I just you know the other thing till this team event but I know I'm not comparing apples to apples here But do you watch the shark shoot out? That is exactly what I said I did the torque confidential engulf.com couple weeks ago and I As soon as the news came out about Zurich I said

I'm pumped. This is great. And then I was like wait a second. I there is a team event. I don't watch it So I did a little bit of homework on this. The ratings best we could figure out and find out for the shark shootout. It draws about a 1.0. Zerik roughly gets about a 1.5. So now I understand that it's December and whatever, and I understand Zerick is more in the swing of golf things, but the shark shootout field is really good, okay? You could build an argument that the top, let's say 24 players at it, shark shootout are equally as good as the top 24 players at Zerick. Now, I understand that Jason Day plays Zurich and Ricky Fowler in Justin Rose. I mean, I get it in some of those names, but if you really take a look at the chart, shoot out field, it's pretty dang good. So, I'm just not convinced yet that

a team of in is all of a sudden going to make this a very classic what they may think they should be. Now, listen, I hope it works, right? Because I mean, this is my job. And whatnot. But I just, I mean, all this excitement over it, I'm very nice. Wait a minute. I mean, it's only November.

And you know, I mean, Zurich, it listen, I mean, they do a great job with the tournament. And obviously they pay a lot of players to be their quote ambassadors. But, you know, one of the arguments too was that it may draw a better field. I mean, while you already had Ricky Fowler play, you already had Jason Day play and you already had Justin Rose playing. So now because these guys have teamed up, is it going to draw that much more interest

in viewership? I don't know. I mean, it might hold the cards. I think, I can't disagree with anything you said. I think some of the excitement may come from the willingness to break the mold a bit mid-season, right, and kind of through a silly season format in the middle of the season. And the Euro Tour has been kind of a leader in just kind of taking half-baked ideas and throwing them into events. And it's been fun to watch. And I think in this kind of social media age where

these kind of things attract attention and you're trying to attract a younger audience. Because let's face it, the main audience in golf, there's a lot of a lot of Iager commercials on golf broadcast because the audience is quite old. So it may attract some younger attention and kind of open up possibilities for more fun stuff like this and so I'm encouraged by just hoping that it's gonna open up the floodgates on stuff like that but agree I don't think that the format is gonna necessarily make me tune in for it with great excitement but also I'm thinking and maybe I'm thinking way too hard into it.

And another PJ Tours not had great correlation or great relationship with the Olympics so far. But there could be a potential for team event in the Olympics in 2020. Could that could guys use this as a chance to practice play together for the Olympics? I don't know. Again, I'm maybe. No, don't think it would even render cup captains, make certain guys to play together. Yeah. I mean, you don't throw that Again, no, no, don't they could even run our cup captains and make tell certain guys to play together? Yeah, I mean you don't throw that out of the realm is that's hey, like listen to you know, we Westwood Anywhere, why don't you guys come over and play the Zurich and I want you guys to play together and see how to do it? So listen, I mean there's a lot of positive on it. I just I just hope we don't get to the point where we're Where how do you tell let's say zero? Yes, and John do you know? Yeah're, how do you tell, let's say, Zürich,

yes, and John Deere, no. Or how do you, you know, that could get a little bit tricky. Does the sponsor come up with the form, or how does, I guess, who gets the call there? Well, I don't know. That's interesting. And I would say, with a sponsor's pointing out, you know, let's say, seven to ten million dollars. And I think if they go to the tour and say, we want to do X, know, let's say, $7 to $10 million.

And I think if they go to the tour and say, we want to do X, well, I mean, in my mind, they hold the cards. Yeah. You know, actually, another interesting thing, 10, which Europe has done this Rolex series. I think that is going to be really interesting. Seven tournaments in a row, $7 million per se,

that's going to be interesting to watch as well. Just to see how that correlates with PGA Torsies, and you mean? That's the question for me. Yeah, and to see if a guy takes up a dual membership and tries to play both. Yeah, that's going to be fun to watch. Yeah, that's a lot of golf. So, all right, what else you got in your notes here? What else that we did, and did we not touch on? You know, I think that's actually about all the therapy sessions work. I got over the Rory beating in the podcast. I hope we've done something here to redeem myself. Something to the degree, but I'm sure R'll come back on here and just hit another high bomb.

You got to beat you go to beat them off the course and maybe even on the course of 2017, but Yeah, or if you say, you know, I can't beat that guy on the course, but can I get him in the pod? Yeah, that's like, let's start going that direction. Well, next time you come on, we need to just have you host it. We need to have you be the host and you're gonna dictate the whole thing. I'm just gonna sit back and watch you run the thing if that works.

Oh, that's fine. Oh, I can definitely do that. Yeah, I can talk golf and stuff all that. All right, man, well, I'll let you go. It's holiday season. I want to enjoy your Thanksgiving with your family, kids, and whatnot. Best of luck, the shark shoot out.

And with your practice time, the rest of the year and we'll catch up with you probably sometime not too far in the distant future if I have my way about it. Well, you've called me anytime, I appreciate it and have a wonderful Thanksgiving over there and stay in touch and enjoy the holidays. Thank you, Charles. Alright, my friend, have a good day. Give it a big club. Be the right club today.

Yes! Me neither! That is better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most! for the most.