No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 622: 1991-93 Majors Deep Dive with KVV

Episode Date: November 25, 2022

Kevin Van Valkenburg joins Soly to relive an often forgotten era in pro golf after peak Nicklaus and before the arrival of Tiger: the 1991 Masters though the 1993 PGA Championship. From Woosie's win at Augusta to Zinger's lone major at Inverness and everything in between, join us for a deep dive into all the storylines from these three years of major championship golf.    Draft Kings Disclaimer: If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800- GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/LA/MI/NJ/PA/TN/WV/WY), 1-800- NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/KS/NH), 888-789-7777/visit http://ccpg.org (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visit OPGR.org (OR), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA). 21+ (18+ NH/WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/KS/LA(select parishes)/MI/NH/NJ/ NY/OR/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. $150 in Free bets: New customers only. Min. $5 deposit. Min $5 pregame moneyline bet. Bet must win. $150 issued as six (6) $25 free bets. Ends 12/31/22 @ 11:59pm ET. Stepped Up SGP: 1 Token issued per eligible game. Opt in req. Min $1 bet. Max bet limits apply. Min. 3-leg. Each leg min. -300 odds, total bet +100 odds or longer. 10+ leg req. for 100% boost. Ends 1/8/23 @ 8pm ET. See eligibility & terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/footballterms. 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 A Podcast. This is, you know, who knows when you're listening to this, but we are recording this and releasing it here. Thanks, giving week, combining a couple episodes into one because the last time we tried

to do this, I don't know how long it went, but it went a very, very, very long time. So we have budgeted for that and we've brought in our good friend, Kevin VanValkenberg from ESPN, to talk about what are we talking about today, KVV? We are gonna finally look back at some of the majors. Like people have been clamoring for this. They've been in our mentions on Instagram, on Twitter.

It barely week goes by, they don't get someone to be like, hey, what if we did like one of those major throwback pods with you and Sally, where you research what happened? I think for, you know, I'm a little older than you, but there's a lot of us here who kind of are just in our infancy and golf fandom when some of these majors were going on.

I barely remember any of these majors, I think like only a few things were things that I could say I saw live and for you, it's probably none of it. So super fun to, like, go back and look through, you know, old clips and newspapers and spiritual straight ins and YouTube and kind of see what golf was like before we were sort of making it part of our lives. And so that's what we're doing.

We are doing 1991 through 93, which is a lot bigger challenge than the last one we did, which was 2009 to 2012. I think we did last time where it was kind of post-tygers, knee surgery, post-his-acid, as I guess is first, not really accident, post-his-life falling apart and kind of before the kind of rolling into Rory taking over and being a multiple time major champion, which there was a lot more video available than the early 90s that turns out, which we will we'll get into first off.

I was getting ready to say, I'm not going to lie to you. I'm actually not wearing a rowback for this. And then I realized I got one of our new polos in. We got some new polos in the shop or rowback collab with NLU. You of course got the rowback QZIP on, so we're not lying when we say we wear this stuff. Every single day their performance polos, they fit so much better than your typical boxy polos.

The four-way stretch is fantastic. They went through a ton of iterations with the collar. I'm seeing it pay off, and if you're watching this on, you're not watching on video. We don't post the videos, but if you were, you would see a tremendous looking collar underneath my pullover I've got on. Their QZips are a game changer and their performance hoodies are the stretchiest, softest hoodies in the game, nothing beats starting your day

or ending your day in a rowback hoodie. They're getting traction big time. You will see these everywhere you go. Now, if you know what you're looking out for, you'll see them at golf tournaments, at golf courses, you'll see them in airports. And you can use code NLU at rowback.com for a generous 20% off your first order through the end of this week. That's r-h-o-b-a-c-k dot com 20% off polo's QZips hoodies, joggers, shorts, vest, whatever you need with code NLU. All right, so how we're going to do this? Just so we, you know, we kind of traded off kind of a weird little system here where

we're even around, we don't have to go too many in a row yet You know, we wanted to alternate who got to cover some masters who got to cover some us open some pga's all that stuff So we're gonna start it with the 91 masters and I'm going to start that one and then you are gonna take the us open I'm definitely I'm hoping we didn't accidentally cover the same one if so we might have to really zoom pass but what you know it before we get into it, what's your reaction, what's the sense of the vibe of the golf world in this time after having done a little deep dive into this time period?

Kind of starved for a star. Nicholas is in his late 40s here, just turned 50, I think people were begging for Fred, even people within golf are like wishing that Fred couples would sort of emerge as that dude. I think four Europeans won the Masters prior to 92. And so not a lot of like stud American kind of like standard bears at this point. Ball's not going very far. I'm gonna to see a lot of or hear about a lot of three irons and two irons hit into greens.

Kind of a little bit of a transition period for golf. It's not exactly like a huge breakout sport. There's not exactly like a lot of youth in the world of golf at this point. No 20-year-olds are like winning majors at this point. These are all sort of, you know, older dudes, I think, you know, with mostly, probably in their 30s, a couple in their late 20s.

So that's kind of setting the scene for what was about to unfold in the early 90s. A lot of khaki going on, a lot of docker, a lot of just like extremely stale upper 30s younger 40s, your old very generic looking white guys in this era. It's just not a, not like a ton, there may have been some athleticism there, but not a lot of athleticism being shown off by the attire in any way, right? I mean, all of these guys are literal professional athletes, but yeah, you don't look like Lanny

Watkins playing a lot of golf and just be like, man, what a just marveling at the, you don't look like Lanny Watkins playing a lot of golf and just pick me. What a marveling at the muscles and the grace and the, as you know, protrudes down the fairway. That's kind of a reaction I had to it. It is definitely just a pre-tiger era. I think it's obvious, or maybe obvious, that the next one we do, one of these will be 94 to 96 pre-rolling into the cat, you know, kind of changing things from there. But yeah, it's definitely not the global game that it is today. It is definitely not BGA

Torred dominated like it is today in terms of the talent really accumulating there and we'll get to a few of the things that we're kind of shocking in that regard whether, you know, regarding who had to qualify for some of these majors. How some of these guys got invited and how it wasn't necessarily the same, not even close to how it works today. And it's only 31 years ago, as we go to, I guess close to 32 years ago, as we go back to the start of this era.

And man, announcers weren't that afraid to be pretty tribal in terms of, it was almost like a, there was more national or continental pride in, uh, in a lot of this and we'll get, we'll get into some of that as well in terms of, you know, the American is on the move and the European is, is on his heels and things like that is way more than it is today where, you know, not as much cheers for a lot of the European players back then, whereas if Roy wins a master's, it's going to be one of the great, uh, scenes

of all time. And I couldn't help but think of that as I watched it. It's this a little bit prior to the air, but I always laugh when I think about Dan Jenkins. He'd stop writing for SI in 86. He was writing, I think, for Golf Digest. And if you go back, you can still read his lead on the web from the 86 masters.

And it was basically like, no one's killed more foreigners than Jack Nicholas since, like, Dwight Eisenhower. Oh my god. It's like holy shit. Look, this was, I mean, if you know anything about Denjig and his work, it was not subtle and it was not always politically correct. And so that's kind of the era that this still was was like, oh, these foreigners are invading

our game. I forget which one, an old one that I've watched and I've referenced it before, but Gary players in the in the booth doing an interview at one of the masters and and you know he gets a question from one of the announcers like Gary what do you think of all these foreigners making a run up here on the leaderboard and Gary's like oh I mean are you aware that I am also a foreigner and one of the he gives a very diplomatic answer of well golf is a global game and I think this is great for golf but I had to just laugh at that. What do you think of these foreigners running up the leaderboard here at the tournament? You're trying to trick me into doing the

Gary player so I can't do it. I can't do it this early. It's going to be a bit of a drug history going tonight. I got a little a little bourbon as we as we got through this. We don't need to it's not going to be straight read the, somebody's, some of these tournaments do not have that much information available to them. This is a bad look for the, I'll just say it right now, bad look for the PGA of America, because I really struggled the two PGA's that I had to cover. I don't have a lot on and I'll just get that out of the way now. But the chronicling of the full broadcast of the masters, I'm not saying y'all got to go back and watch all of them, but we, I've gone back and watched the ones for the, for the masters, I'm going to cover'all got to go back and watch all of them, but I've gone back and watched

the ones for the Masters I'm going to cover. And it's a great, great time capsule and it's fantastic. And that's what we're going to break down today, hopefully helping you with a little bit of a drive or whatever commute you've got going. And I appreciate everyone encouraging us to get back in and do one of these because it might have slipped by the wayside if not. But if I can begin with the 1991 Masters, it was held at Augusta National Golf Club.

April 11th through the 14th, the golf course was 6,900 yards. The prize fund was 1.35 million trivia question off the bat for you, Kevin. How much is 1.35 million in 91 worth in 2022 dollars? Mm. So that's the total purse, right? That's not going to the winner. Okay.

In 2022 dollars, I would say, is that four million? It is $2.95 million. Okay. So inflation, yes, has more than doubled the money since then. However, purses have way more than doubled since then. And I think we, you know, Tiger, it's a lot of that credit, but also sports money really started taking off

in the 90s and a lot of different things were happening, you know, corporate, corporate America, if you will, that led to a lot more sponsorship dollars and things like that. But I just found that interesting. I didn't realize the person's, purses were lagging that far behind at that point. So going into this week and setting the scene for this era,

we're gonna cover the top 10 in the world. Do you know who number one in the world was going into the 91 masters? God, was it Ian Wusnam? It was Ian Wusnam. The Wewelchman standing five feet for it in a half inches is number one in the world. Jose Maria Olethable number two.

Nick Fowdo number three. That is three European in the top three in the world. Greg Norman is fourth. Payne Stewart was fifth. Paul Azinger sixth. Mark McNulty was seventh. Curtis Strange eighth. Bernard Longer ninth and Tom Kite was tenth.

Nick Fowdo was the favorite at Augusta. He was coming off two in a row. He was six to one, Curtis Strange and Paul Azinga were seven to one, Norman eight to one, and Ian Wusdom came in at 10 to one. I use sportsoddhistory.com. I don't know how accurate it is, and I think the British open one that we'll get to is not very accurate at all, but that's my source on the historical odds. One of my favorite things, one of the main reasons I think we wanted to start doing these is I love, love, love looking at the leaderboards of the previous rounds, the early rounds, the, the names you'll never remember if you just look at the final standings because some of them finished T 65,

but looking at the early, early names that this one's not as interesting as some of the other ones will get to, but we get to round one. Sam Sneed and Gene Sarasin get things started with the ceremonial T shots. And then Jim Gallagher, Jr. Mark McCumber and Lanny Watkins jump out to the lead at five under 51 year old Jack Nicholas shoots four under par. He's in second place with Jose Maria, a little thobble. And a young amateur is in the top 10 at minus three. Just two off the pace. Do you know who that might be? I do know this, but only because I had previously had to write about him this summer and was sort of reading the scope of his career.

That would be Philip Alfred Mikkelson, right? Is that correct? He is a junior at Arizona State and he is in the top 10 after round one. But round two, there is a new name at the top of the leaderboard that we have not mentioned just yet. Do you have any guess? It's a well-known name of who, in this era, I guess maybe a little bit past this era,

but a well-known popular figure leads by two at the halfway point of the 91 Masters. Oh man. This is why we're doing this. This is why we're doing this. This is why we're doing this. This is why we're doing this. This is why we're doing this. This is why we're doing this. This is why we're doing this. This is why we're doing this. This is why we're doing this because he is an enormous part of this story And I don't think I really knew how big of a charge he made in this charge and through 71 holes really

This is Tom Lehman is it close it is Tom Watson Watson Tom Watson is going to play a very very very big part of the story his last major to play a very, very, very big part of the story. His last major championship was in 1983 at the open championship. So he's gone almost a decade without winning a major. At this point, he is 42 years of age. He is followed by Mark Calcivecchia, Mark McCumber, Lanny Watkins and Ian Wusdom all at 600 par. He hadn't won any tournament on the planet since 1987. And on this Friday, Jack Nicholas after his early, early, 68 in round one, he makes a quad on the 12th hole

after dumping two in the water. He was quoted afterward. After I hit my second one in the water, I asked myself, my gosh, what are you gonna make here? Seven, nine, 11, 13, Barbara, can't get it over water. You know, it's going young Tom's out there. He's playing really well, and I just, you know, I thought I could chase him and I can't,

obviously I can. Tom's playing well, reminded me of myself, actually, back in 1986 when I came from a high school. Well, we'll get to Jack reminding people of himself. Two holes later, he's a four iron into the 14th hole in Jack. He called it the greatest golf shot he has ever seen of all the shots. The Jack Nicholas is hit. That's what his cat.

He said. And then on the 500 yard 15th, the old Nicholas amazed himself. He said, guess what club I just hit to that green. He said to Watson, his plague partner, after clearing the water with a second shot, a six iron. And then Watson turns, says the crowd. Jack's water with a second shot a six iron and then Watson turns says the crowd Jack's really proud that he hit a six iron in there And remember this one for later Jose Maria O'Fable twice had the ball roll back to his feet on chips on the sixth hole and made a quadruple Bogey seven on the sixth hole

Lani Watkins at a highlight reel and on the sixth hole. Lanny Watkins had a highlight reel, miss of an eight inch putt on the ninth hole, which resulted in a four putt double bogey. They played the clip in the opening on Sunday telecast. It is so perfect. It is incredibly lack of daisicle. It couldn't be, he almost like drops the club

on the ball to try to tap it in. It doesn't even touch the hole and it goes like four feet by. So he's got to make a four footer for double. Also remember that one because Lady Watkins plays a big role in this with a lot of a lot of fuck ups in this one along the way. You know, I don't think it was Lanny Watkins. I mean, obviously he was an answer for a long time as we were sort of becoming golf fans, but I don't really think much about his career as an actual like golfer. And that's what it is fun to watch with these kind of things and

think about like, oh, yeah, that dude can actually play. That's what I love about getting to interview some of these guys is I have to do these deep dives in on their career. And then you just open up this whole new world of, you know, all these things you didn't know. And when we get to Ian Baker Finch, man, that one was, that was, now he goes near the top of the list of somebody I need to have on this podcast.

I don't know if our CBS bashing over the years is make that a little bit difficult. I know he is a listener, but I do want to talk to that guy after hearing a lot more about his career. But fast-forwarding around three in Wuzdom follows his Friday, 66 with a Saturday, 67 to take a one shot lead over Watson heading into Sunday. Jose Maria and Lanny are three back at eight under par. Tom Watson missed six of nine puts inside eight feet on this Saturday. He, I wish the rest of the game for this week

because it sounds like he painted a ball striking masterpiece and just could not get the putter to work. So now we go to the part where we have the resources. We can go to the YouTube video and see the broadcast where they pick up the leader's live on the seventh hole. Imagine golf Twitter today. and see the broadcast where they pick up the leaders live on the seventh hole. Imagine golf Twitter today if the masters telecast opened on the seventh hole. Honestly though, they run a great montage of everything you missed to that point. And I was kind of like,

gosh, I would say like three hours out of my day. That have been incredible if we could have just, if we could have done that. But by the time it opens, all the Thaba who was three back had run down in wisdom and they are tied for the lead. And they also show Tom Watson in the opening part, missing multiple shortputs, short parputs to open this. A couple of them in that first six or seven whole stretch. I want to pause here to say Ken Venturi was a really good commentator I think. Yet I don't agree with everything he said. There's a lot of things that happen in this, but we'll make fun of greatly. But he was just very direct to the point kind of of the Johnny Miller mold, if you will,

I guess Miller would be more of the Kim and Terry mold if we're going in chronological order. But just felt like golf commentary mattered a lot more back then. It was a lot more pointed and just a lot less, what's the word superfluous or whatever too many words is like I'm doing right now. A lot less like differential for sure. It wasn't a lot of, it was definitely a lot of, I don't know if I agree with this decision, Ken.

We'll get to that with Chip Beck as well, at 93. So then we flip over to the back nine and this might be where a lot of the myth of the, the tournament doesn't start to the back nine Sunday, really, you know, you make a strong case for this one, because the back nine gets bananas, right? Which if you to ask me before we started this, like, which is the crazier, more exciting masters than 91 or the 93, I wouldn't have been able to answer that question. 91 is like an 8.5 at minimum out of 10.

93 is like a four out of 10. It does not get that exciting, but this was mayhem on this back nine. This is actually a great rewatch if anyone is ever interested in doing this. Tom Watson rolls in a long birdie on the tent and the crowd just goes ape shit. Ian Wuznam misses the green just long left in the ball

as the ball is rolling off. It is noted in columns afterward that the crowd's cheered as the ball rolled off. I It is noted in columns afterward that the crowds cheered as the ball rolled off. I listen back on it, it's pretty faint, but there is definitely, if you like, if somebody, if you know, if it's pointed out to you, you realize how hard people are pulling for Tom Watson

and how very much like they're very much just okay with the in-mouse them at this point. Which I don't know what the comp would be for Watson at this point, but making a run like this the comp would be for Watson at this point, but making a run like this, but I'm guessing it's something like Phil, right? I mean, in terms of being able to captivate the crowd, it's not Tiger. Obviously, that would be Jack, but I'm guessing this is like a Phil like run in terms of everybody knows the name and everyone wants to see this guy come back.

There's a lot of like emotional connection to Watson too in that similar way, because he sort of, which is funny because they became such bitter enemies later in life, but that they had the similar kind of like, you know, people, either you're a Watson guy or a nickel sky for a long stretch, right? And then the people who were sort of gravitated to Watson who felt like, you know, he should have been, not should have been Jack, but should have won a few more majors like he came close and a lot of instances. I totally get that same sort of like feeling of that energy of like, okay, let's drag our guy across the finish line.

And so after the birdie on ten, he goes over and bogies the 11th hole and then dumps one in the water. He knew it immediately. I mean, he hasn't even finished the swing and he just says, nope, that's in the water. And the announcer, one of the announcer says, the hopes of the third green jacket are dashed as he falls for behind in Wuznam, Wuznam leads by two at that moment over Lani Watkins who is just struck in a in a par string there. And then there's a huge backup on the 13th tee. The leaders make it to the tee by the time, you know, Jose Maria and Lanny Watkins are

still on 13 tee when the leaders, the final group Watson and Wuznam get to that tee. And Lanny hits a shot around the corner and this, this shot just, like, takes you to this era because you can track the ball the entire way in that grainy 240 p resolution, whatever they've got up there on YouTube. The height that the ball went in that era, you can see it the whole way against the trees. How long do you think the 13th hole was in 1991? Oh my God. Was it 510 one yards?

465 yards. Yes. And dudes are hitting woods and long irons into this thing. But yeah, and it's just watching guys shape shots on 10 and on 13 and how low they were trying to hit it, how much run they were trying to get out of it, you know, how much they were trying to get the ball out of the wind. It wasn't this wasn't that windy, but you know, we'll get the 92 US open in that regard. But how much of a skill it was to hit it low. I hear guys talk about that a lot, and we talked to Mike Clayton about that just a few

weeks ago. And to watch it on display, it was just very much of like, yes, I mean, this is not breaking news to anyone but the game. The game that you play on 13 in that era was to hit a rope hook around the corner and have it kind of hold the slope and then roll down into the flat spot. That was like the ultimate play that you can no one would like almost no one except for maybe like couples in the next few years would like bomb it up into the trees up there.

Those guys would just hit these like really beautiful shaped like you know balls or and that that entire did some of that too back when he because he was like understanding ways to shape the ball. But that was the the play is like all right try and get it like so that lands right on that flat spot by race Creek. And then you can, you know, actually have an iron into this grain. Otherwise, balls can be four feet above your feet. Right. And that's where, you know, in modern days, a seven or eight iron with the ball above your feet isn't nearly as big of a deal as like a four or three iron with the ball

above your feet. Like holding that green is extremely difficult. Whereas if you can get to the bottom, the flatter spot with the better angle, the Bernhard longer play, that is where you can make birdies and eagles from very easily. It is interesting, note, you can see over to Augusta Country Club at this time the trees are really thin back there. And the fill spot from 2010 is not pine straw yet.

It's grass and there's barely any trees over there. Jose Maria blows one over there and he's got a pretty grass and there's barely any trees over there. Jose Maria blows one over there and he's got a pretty clear shot out of the second cut over there, if you will. Really not a lot of pine straw back then, right? No, it was mostly grass. There was no pine straw to the right of 13 at least. But at one point, this is from the Eugene Register Guard,

huge shout to them. They've got a great archive and Wikipedia loves them because it's very easy to find old articles in the local papers. The pro Watson crowd got on Wuznam a couple times saying that this was a gust of national and not some links course, which that might have happened on the 10th tee because Wuznam kind of turns to the crowd and gives a smile to them at some point and they acknowledge it start laughing with it a little bit. And then I mentioned the moment on 10 but then

Wuznam after a long, long wait, he steps up and hooks one directly into Ray's creek on the 13th. And there were audible cheers on the broadcast when he did it. It wasn't like the crowd went nuts for it, but it was a few people just got excited about, you know, the possibility, you know, if somebody else other than Wuznam winning this, he gets, he's got to go and drop in front of the water on the wrong side of the creek and he just punches one out Directly into the crowd. It doesn't yell for it's a very low seed It like stops right on the rope line, but nobody he did not yell for and it it hits somebody very very very hard So he goes up hits on the green and two puts and makes bogey out of that now

So your point on driving it near the creek, Tom Watson hugs the creek bed, steps up, hits a five iron towards the center of the green, rolls in a 20 footer for Eagle to get to 900 parries now within two after having just doubled the 12th hole. Crenshaw, that round the same time, Crenshaw Eagles 15 to get to minus nine. Almost every master's, there's that fake out. Somebody in one of the groups ahead. Eagles 15 to shoot up the leaderboard, but they have, you know, they've played the birdie holes and the Eagle holes. And so it's kind of a fake out. It's going to lead.

But he really ignited the crowd when that happened. But steps up to 16 and hits the, what I call the bone shot. The shot that I've referenced met or the the the note I've referenced many, many, many times on this podcast that bone said for some reason on Sundays, the sixth on the 16th whole of the ball goes farther. And you just watch that so many films back of guys win in contention when they're jacked up going long on 16 something about the air down there, whatever it is and They they put that theory into play at the 2004 masters when Phil won and it led to a birdie and he steps up And it hits it right over the flag it goes long every time somebody goes long on 16 How can you see pros go long on par threes they almost never do it and they do do it very frequently on 16

So that that happens and Watson so so Watson drains the eagle putt and that put him within one because Wusdom's bogeys. That was a three shot swing between he and Wusdom. Oath Abel had birdied 13 to get within one and then he steps up and birdies 14 to tie the lead. Wusdom gets up to 14 and after he's following Watson who's already teed off pounds one and he turns to the crowd and kind of mockingly thanks them for cheering. As it, like, I kind of waves at them like, yes, thank you so much, because how, how very much not righty for him they are.

And then Lanny misses a short birdie on 14 that would have tied the lead as well. He's just hanging around, but just can't get anything to fall. I had a little bit of trigger warning at this point because I'm fast-forwarding through some of it. And I hear Fowdo come in. Fowdo comes into the booth to call some golf in 1991.

Oh my God. I know. He and Nancy were there talking golf. And I was like, wait a second here. I thought we were done with this. Fowdo's inception. He went back in time and inception Jim Dance and the regular in the booth. Laney dumps in the water on 15 again after a long, long wait.

All of the football almost chips in for Ego. But now he leads alone as he leaves 15 Watson steps up and pipes one of 15. But woozy blaze blows it way right. But in that era, you still had a shot. If you blow away right, there's no trees over there. There's no second cut. It's not as good of an angle. But he hits one to the back of the green and Tom Watson steps up and absolutely

stuffs one hits its six feet left of the pin. Wuznum two puts birdie Tom Watson walks in the six footer two eagles in the three whole stretch and he's tied the lead or as Ben Wright says the United States is in it with a chance against the might of Europe. Shut up Ben Wright. It would later get fired for basically saying that women couldn't have the, like women with big boobs couldn't swing at golf club. Never mind.

That was unlucky. That was a rubber green there. But, yeah. So now Watson, Orphable and Wuznum are all tied at 11 under as, you know, Orphable's playing 16 at this point. Watson and Wuznum step up, both going after the flag on 16. Guess what happens to both of them? They, they're both, you go along. 16. Guess what happens to both of them? They go along.

They go along to the back of the green. They make great two puts. Then everybody par 17, Oath Ab on the group ahead, drives it in the fairway bunker on the 18th hole. Then hits into the green side bunker. The pin is in the back. It is not in its now traditional position. The pin is on the top shelf.

Hits into the top of the shelf. It comes all the way back 40 feet short of the hole. Does not make the par. Makes Bogey gets in the house at 10 under. Watson has the honor and he steps up and pushes his three wood directly into the trees on the right. Not good. Ian Wuznam's play on 18. I did not know this until watching this. Wuznam is the bomber here. Wuznam was blowing it past Tom Watson. Again, he's five foot four. His play with a persimmon driver and a ball out of ball, swing as hard as you can and hit over the bunkers to the left.

The same bunkers that Tiger went over in 97. There's like a practice hole over there for the members at that time. And all he's got to do is clear the people out of the way. And he's got a clear shot, not a great angle over there, but a totally clear shot into the green. It takes a long, long time to sort out clear the people out of the way and he's got a clear shot. Not a great angle over there, but a totally clear shot into the green. It takes a long, long time to sort out all the people. Watson puts it in the in the green side bunker and then Wusden puts it front left of the green, puts up to about seven feet. Watson hits his, almost holds his bunker shot, but it goes 20 feet by. And then Watson runs his par putt about six feet

by. So Ian Wusden's got a seven foot par putt to win the masters. And I got to say the booth does not set it up very well at all. Like they don't seem that interested in Wusdom winning this thing. He's got the putt and he hits it and about two feet out. He knows it's in. He's already in a crouch. That's out of a huge fist pump. The caddy comes in and hugs him. KVV, this was a muted applause around this. This was not a celebration around this. It's not quite full patch of green 2018, but it is a soft applause. Venturis call is simply this. Got it. Doesn't say, doesn't say he's one of the masters doesn't say anything as Wusem is cady are hugging before they're done hugging Kevin Churri again the next thing he says after got it is hold up boys Watson still needs to put Watson's putting for second place like Wusem just wins the

masters they don't commemorate it at all they're more concerned about Watson's putt for second place that than that and he's putting for a tie for say he misses the putty three puts it Watson before he hit his putt he second place. That been that and he's putting for a tie for say he misses the putty three puts it and Watson before he hit his putt he went over and shook wisdom's hand. He just won the frickin masters and he goes up and congratulate some uh, wisdom almost forgets to get the ball to the hole before what it's Watson's turn to putt. He goes and gets it Watson misses makes the double and uh, that's it. He and wisdom is one of the masters.

Tom Watson said afterward, yeah, I'll have it let down tomorrow probably, but in the past, whatever Tom Watson has to let down, he usually comes back to win. Always appreciate a third person reference. Thank you for that. This was Ian Wusim's, this was the fourth win in a row for a Brit at the Masters in Europeans at one six of the last nine. Wusim said afterward as he celebrated the beer at at a gusta hotel? I'm not going to change my life for anybody. I just want to be the best and do it in my own little way, drink a few beers and have

fun recapping. Tom Watson went birdie, bogey double, eagle par, eagle par, par double. Shot even on the back with two eagles and a birdie to miss out by two Phil Winslow M. So fast forward to Butler Cabin, the interview with Jim Nance and Augusta Chairman, Horde Hardin. He opens his intro to Wuznam by saying,

you made me look good because I invited you in December when you weren't eligible and you share, convert my judgment at the time. Ian Wuznam was a top five player in the world prior to in that prior December. And Horde Hardin is taking credit for inviting him to the tournament. Which was not a criteria like he was not in. You had to like want a tour of it.

I think and Wuznam won a PJ tour event between that invite and the master. So he did qualify, but he was invited in December by the by the chairman. And I didn't even ask what questions like, thank you for making me look good for inviting you remember when you weren't qualified the world revolves around the masters according to the membership well there's just no mistaking it in this era but speaking to like you know this kind of this not necessarily like perceived slight on the European at this point this is a very real thing permeating through this event if I may say nant signs off do, I would be stunned

if you can get this one right, but do you have any idea what the nances and that he goes for, for Wuzdom as he signs off and congratulates him, gives him a title as he goes to leave. What do you think it would be? The little Welsh king or the Welsh? The Prince of Wales.

The Prince of Wales. Foudeau puts a jacket on him as being super awkward and like ducks down to Wuzdom's height The Prince of Wayne. The Prince of Wayne. The Prince of Wayne. Foudeau puts the jacket on him as being super awkward and like ducks down to Wusdom's height as they do that awkward little zoom in shot. It's very, very awkward. I love, I love like reading

like stuff from this era like every single sports writer it was like you had to mention like how the little man who with the packs of pugnacious you know, like every single you had to reference how short know, he's like, every single, like you had to reference how short

Ian Wisdom was in every single story. I'm sorry that you know, every time. So that one was my longest one probably. That was the most interesting though. I, I, we, you know, we remember that for Ian Wisdom winning. I, I did not know it for Tom Watson's very, very, very close call and dramatic run at it.

I had flashbacks to 2018's spieth of, you know, that, you know, just making everything on the back nine and Rockus cheers and coming up short on 18 in that regard. But yeah, that was a surprise to me. Before I turn it over to you, I want to give a shout out to our friends at the Draft King Sportsbook and Official Sports Betting Partner of the NFL. It is the go-to when betting on the NFL this holiday season.

Right now, new customers can bet just $ betting on the NFL this holiday season. Right now new customers can bet just $5 on any NFL team to win their game and they get $150 in free bets if they do and check this out right now. Everyone can earn up to 100, up to a 100% boost with draft King stepped up. Same game parlay. You can go to the draft King sports book app. Place a same game parlay and combine multiple bets like which team will win. Player props, point totals, and more, the more legs you add, the bigger the boost, the bigger your shot to win big and if sports book is not available in your state yet, you can play daily fantasy, I played both football and golf daily fantasy every single week now. It's fun, it's extremely easy, it's satisfying to have the red zone on and just see Chris a lot of a score to 60 yard touchdown

and you got him in your daily fantasy. It's very fun, especially if your fantasy season has come to an end, I would recommend checking that out. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app now, use code NAU, place a $5 bet on any NFL team to win their game and get $150 in free bets if they do. Only Draft King Sportsbook with code NAU minimum age and eligibility restrictions supply, C show notes for details. All right, we're on a bad pace. If we're going to keep it, I promise not,

I'm assuming not all of them will be as long as that one, but I'm gonna turn it over to you for the 1991 United States open. So, like, what do you remember about the US open in this era? I mean, you're probably like about 10 years old at this point, but when you're starting to kind of become a golf fan, what do you remember about the US open? I would think that 91 would classify as a back in my day, US Open in terms of thick rough narrow fairways, firm greens.

Nobody gets to double the dits under par. It just doesn't happen. Like we're here to beat you up. This is, this is Curtis Strangest era, US Open, all right? This is, I don't like this wide fairways and all this air and hill stuff going on here. This is, this is your grandfather's US Open. That's my impression of it. This is, this is the US open era that Randy and Tron

are always calling for, or any particular, a lot of boring-ass, you know, slap-dicks, just, you know, bunting it out there, finding fairways, hitting it somewhere around the green, scraping it up and down, shooting 75 and moving up the leaderboard. Go into Hazeltein now for the US Open in 1991, not a place that has hosted a major championship

prior to this point. It plays pretty frickin' long, say almost 7200 yards, 7150. I think they did have a US Open back in the 70s, if I may just correct you on that point. I think there was one that players hated it, and they did not go back for a long time, if I remember right. So I spent some time in the 70s if I may just correct you on that point. I think there was one that players hated it and they did not go back for a long time if I remember right. So I spent some time in the Hazel team archive room.

It's all some photos of that if I remember right. That sounds accurate now that you're saying it and I we regret the air. Hey, we regrets here. We'll not be our only error in this. I promise you that. This US Open is the final US Open appearance for Lee Trevino, one of the great US Open players, really of all time, was in it and a lot of them and one, two of them. This was the first sort of US Open or the first major where lightning was like a big thing.

And at one point during the first round, lightning struck and actually killed one of the spectators. Oh my God. Yeah, is a lot of stuff now, like whenever you hear, like, hey, if the horn goes off, you actually gotta like seek shelter, you gotta go into the clubhouse or whatever. A lot of what they're referencing when people sort of say this, that golf courses is what happened in 1991,

not just at one major, but at two fucking majors. What? There will be two different lightning strikes at two majors in 1991 that killed people, which is kind of hard to believe. It actually, it doesn't even make like the sports illustrated article in one of them, because it's just like, oh, like,

oh, lightning killed some people, what? I mean, but they're like the, when the tournament came back to Hazeltein, when Tiger and Y-Eang were played the PJ there, it was like a big look back of what could have been done differently, how did we screw this up. So a big major thing that has happened to tragedy at this use open during the first round.

So we're going to play, as we sort of get onto the golf, you hinted at this, but I feel like you didn't play the game properly. I get to give you the first name of someone who was a first round leader, and you have to guess what's their second name is. Okay. So if I told you someone named Nolan led the first round of the 1991 US Open, could you tell me his last name? I would, I've just watched the Nolan Ryan documentary, so I'm just going to go with that. He accomplished a lot in his life and maybe they left that out though. It was Nolan Hainke.

He and Payne were leading after the first round. I was not aware of a Nolan Hainke, but a fun deep die. He was, they both shot 67s in the first round. Nolan, you know, he was, he actually, he only had four top 10 made is four top 10s and majors in his career. But that's like one more than Patrick Cantley. Oh my god. First of all, I would, it's like, that's a lot of top 10s and majors for some that I've never heard of before. That's, that's, that's, that's, that's impressive. I would

have, I would have known more about this guy., Nolan Henkey actually won the BC Open, uh, in 1990 and the Phoenix Open and the Bell South Classic, uh, over the course. And so we won three times on, on the PGA tour. This shouldn't surprise me because there are tons of tour winners in that era that I've never heard of. Like it's just, it's still a blind spot for me. So the media asked, uh, Nolan, after the first round, if he was surprised, was surprised that he was here and could he win? And Nolan said, I'm very surprised and no.

But he said, are you sure you really feel that way? And Nolan said, well, I guess if everyone else on the field broke their leg, we're just super sick. This guy might be a favorite player. No, and if you're out there listening, I really appreciate the candid honesty. And you have a special place in my heart. So this is kind of the era when painstead and Scott Simpson are sort of always in various US opens and Lee Jansen will sort of emerge later in this.

Painting one the US Open in 1987, Scott Simpson had won it, you know, one of those previous years that don't happen in front of me, but. So they ended up paying in one in 87? Sorry, Simpson won it maybe, maybe six and pain one in 87. I think that's right.

I thought this was pain's first major win. Am I not remembering that right? No, this was his second action. Gotcha, okay. So most definitely nothing. Yeah, and so, paying at this point is like, you know, he's thought of as like a, he wanted to be paying one of the 89 PGA.

Yeah, and then when the US Open 91, and then the 99 US Open, that's what I want to remember. So Scott Simpson did, who ends up sort of dueling with paying in this, did one of the 87. He wanted to back. So, paying at this point, like, he is thought of as very much like, you know, a golfer,

scoffer. He's wearing all the NFL gear at this point, I don't know if you remember this at all, but in every town where pain would go, he would wear the colors of that team and wear the knickers and, you know, the, the, the Hogan cap and everything. And that was kind of his style. And I gotta tell you, when I was 13 or whatever, I thought this was completely, if you thought like golfers were dorky,

I was like, this is the height of stupid, like this guy sucks. So yeah, I was younger in the 90s, it worked. Like I was all like, oh, he's got bingles on today. Oh, tomorrow he's gonna wear browns then. That's why he does it for both, because Columbus is right in the middle. You got to think it's sort of funny.

It says a lot about the NFL that the NFL was like, yeah, well, a little bit gulf or take our like our sponsorship. Like, well, you know, see if we can promote like our gear through golf, uh, that the NFL wasn't the behemoth that it is now where like the NFL would sort of laugh if someone was like, well, yeah, we're going to pay us a lot of money to be where your logo's on our stuff. So. MLB's still in that strategy now, with Adam Long and Cameron.

Yeah. Love it. So, paying at this point is like, he's physically kind of falling apart all the time. Like his back is hurting. He's had a herniated disc in his neck. He hasn't quite lived up to his potential because he's always sort of has some sort of lived up to his potential because like he's always sort of, you know,

has some sort of malady. And he's also seeing like a psychiatrist daily. But one of the things that was sort of funny is that like about this, Cory Pavan was seeing the same sort of sports psychiatrist. And Pavan had it written in his contract that the sports psychiatrist had to stay be with Pavein

during all the majors. And so Pavein was like sort of left in the dark, unable to sort of like have his Sports Psychologist because he was basically on retainer with Cory Pavein during the majors. Pavein was like so, his body was so breaking apart and one down he, at one point, he was like sleeping in a neck brace

during the tournament, and he was getting daily massages and chiropractor treatment, and his bed was so soft, and he was so uncomfortable that he booted his own the nine-year-old son out of bed at two in the morning, and it was like, I need to sleep in your bed. This is what I need to do. So he could stay and would never have this problem. It would never.

So, it becomes kind of like, I can't take us like through shop or shop because it was basically be like, and then he bogey to, then he made a par. Pain Stewart and Scott Simpson are sort of grinding down the stretch and it's, they're both like playing like just really kind of blah golf. At one point, Payne goes 30 holes without a birdie. But at another point, like Payne sort of, you know, enlate in the round, he hits a shot that's, I think it's on the 16th where it's going in the water. And it's like,

at this point, like Simpsons up like two and he's basically going to, you know, Payne's going to have Chuck this way, it hits a rock, like in the water, like a submerged rock and kicks forward onto the bank. And like makes, and pain ends up making a bogey out of this. So it's not, it doesn't end up being like one of the most memorable shots in history, but it's like sort of insane that during a major, somebody like dunked it in a lake hit a rock

and it bounced up onto the green. Whoa. Yeah. Simpson was sort of framed as like kind of a choker in this era. He had won a major, but he was always sort of someone who had kind of gagged it away. And basically, these two guys were sort of like trying

to gag it away back and forth between the two of them. They end up going into a playoff. And what sort of ends up being written is like, the playoff is so kind of bad the next day that everyone's like, did this, this sort of started to plant the seeds of like, maybe the Osobin shouldn't have an 18-hole playoff. Like, it wasn't like prominent until like later,

as of now, obviously we don't have an 18-hole playoff. But like if Tiger and Rocco was sort of the end of the like, hey, like this isn't that exciting as do that. This was the sort of butterfly flapping its wings that started the whole deal because Simpson shoots 77 in the playoff and pain shoots 75 and still wins by two strokes. So it's like, oh man, like what a what a miserable sort of grind that was.

Just like thinking about how much shit goes into a golf tournament and how you have to like have an emergency plan to keep all the volunteers, all the blah, blah, blah, all the TV networks. Like, yeah, move the slots around. You got to be able to broadcast this live. Like, probably a good move to stop that. Yeah. And also, like, there were still three hours of sunlight when they finished on Sunday.

So it was like, you know, to make everybody basically like go home and come back the next day, everyone was like, what are we serious? Are we really doing this? I had to, there was a stab that of the 30 US Open playoffs between 1901 and 1990, Payne's 75 was the worst winning score of any of them. The 30 US Open playoffs between 1901 and 1990, Payne's 75 was the worst winning score of any of them.

But you know, he got it over the line. That's kind of all I have from that US Open. It was pretty, pretty blah. I mean, like, there's some blah-winding strike with sort of the most, like, you know, not means I mean, memorable, but like, thing that people like most remember from that, uh, US Open, which is that like literally someone died in the first round.

Well, and this is, you know, pain is, as we mentioned, was a top six, seven player in the world going into this year. It does not had not had a major, right? And he was, he and Azinger were the highest ranked Americans and he, you know, bags his first major championship. When he had very popular player, I mean, I assume that was the case in this time. Sorry, this is just second major. You're right.

This first US open, which he like his career is pretty much defined by the US open. I would say like the, at least the memories I have of Payne Stewart are watching him, you know, obviously, it pined hers, but also Olympic. And yeah, he was just kind of when the conditions got really hard, he was the, the American that would, would hold court basically at the US open.

But I mean, he in the in the like so painting had a T5 a T6 T10 a win a second place finish of second place finish and a win all in the US open during that sort of like from 99 to 85. So like this was a dude who was in a lot of US opens. So let's head to the 1991 open championship, which took place at Royal Burkdale in Southport, England. This was July 18th through the 21st. The prize fund was 900,000 pounds, or $1.5 million. Interestingly, the winner share only 10%.

I don't know if that was a thing at the open for a long time. Usually it's 18% to the winner. But the winner only got 90,000 pounds for winning the oldest championship in golf. Ian Wusdom was the favorite at plus 500, Fowdo plus 600, Jose Maria, Payne Stewart and Sevy at plus 800. Sports Illustrated article I read said Ian Baker Finch was 50 to 1, which on my little website it said 12 to 1. So I would probably believe the 50 to one because he was the 39th ranked player in the world as they head to Royal Burkdale. Severino by a Starros jumps out to lead fires at 466

followed by chipback Martin Gates and Santiago Luna on his heels at minus three Faldon Gary Hallberg Mike Harwood Barry Laneoulin, Mike Reed, and Constantina Roca. T-5 at minus two. This championship was heavily, heavily, heavily bunched for a very long period of time. We'll get to that here in a second as we get to round two. This is from Rick Riley. After Friday's round, you could have sworn somebody had mistakenly listed the players who missed the cut on the leaderboard.

Tied for the lead, where Gary Holberg of the U.S. Mike Harwood of Australia and Andy Oldcorn of England, three guys who wouldn't get autograph requests if they carried their clubs on Oxford Street. Nobody was trembling at the side of that threesome at the top. Even Harwood wasn't impressed with themselves, saying, well, I'm not one of the great players in the world.

I'm just a grinder. If nobody else wants to win it and I'm still hanging around, well, maybe. So, I'm not one of the great players in the world. I'm just a grinder. If nobody else wants to win it and I'm still hanging around, well, maybe. So Andy Oldcorn. I did not have not heard of either of those three guys. Sevy Elkinton, David Gilford, Wayne Grady, and Marco Mere and Mike Reed were all at one under par, which I had heard of all of those guys. But rounded up by Richard Bauxhall, Roger Chapman, Howard

Clark, Mark James, Barry Lane, Monty, and Vijay at even par. But I don't feel bad for not knowing a lot of these names again, like what we said at the top, like remembering that this was like the golf world was divided at this point. Like this is not there's not a ton of American representation in this event. And it's just probably a lot of European tour players that, you players that we'd not heard a whole heck of a lot of, you know, all right. It's not like we could watch, we don't like who could watch the European tour

or television at all. Like basically you could maybe find it in the Aggit results of your newspaper if you were lucky. Like there was the open championship, it was literally the one European tour tournament you could watch all year. That's it. So only nine guys were under par at the halfway point. The cut was at plus eight because of the 10 shot rule.

113 guys made the cut by the week. This is from the Eugene Register Guard. Again, our hitters at the Eugene Register Guard. An Australian who missed the cut in his previous two tournaments, an Englishman who spent most the last three seasons recovering from a viral infection. And an American without a permanent address lead the British open after two rounds. Mike Harwood had less than 20,000 in earnings for the year at that point. Poseid Maria at the halfway point said, I don't think there'll be many great rounds in these last two days, which he would be proving wrong on that.

Lee Trevino shot a 72 on that Friday. He made a triple bogey on the 18th. He lost a ball in the trees and said, I didn't even go look for the ball. I would have got scratches all over my back. I would have had to explain them to my wife. God bless. We've got less Lee always sneaking in. They kind of like sexual jokes. I wish we lived in there where we could have covered that guy. I mean, that guy, he just always, always, always brings it. Well, don't hope that you can get Lee on the pot someday.

I mean, he would still be, he's like 86 now. We worked on it. We tried. We can't get a hold of him. But Sandy Lyle walked in on 18 when he couldn't find his ball on 18. He was going to miss the cut anyway. I just decided to not go back to the tee. Mark Calcivecchi gave his irons away on his way out of town when asked why he said,

because I hate him basically. Uh, you just gave him to one of the rake attendance on the 18th hole. And yeah, that's it. Round three, a name we have not heard yet to this point on the leaderboard. He had not cracked the top 10 in the first two rounds, shoots a Saturday 64 to surge into a tie for the lead. One Ian Baker Finch. He is tied with Marco Mira at 400 par who's battling horrific. He had a horrible back a week with his back. He was in in near tears after round three was maybe even he was fortunate enough

fortunate to even get it in the house basically. Aiman Darcy and Mike Harwood were one back, Sevy two back, Mike Reed and VJ were three back. Again, Baker Finch was 39th player in the world. He had one PJ Tour win, one European Tour win, and eight Australasia Tour wins. A very fine player, but by his own definition, you know, not a superstar player. Another note from Round 3, Richard Boxel. Broke his leg hitting a T-shot on the ninth hole on Saturday. Like, everyone heard it, and it was horrific sounding, apparently, and obviously I had to withdraw for the tournament,

but I don't know how you break your leg hitting a T-shot, but that's rock bottom there. There was some winging going on on the greens in Wusnam said, I don't know what the trouble is with the greens. I'm not a greenskeeper. They've been cut down and shortputs are all over the place. You feel lucky if you can get down in two from 15 feet, they have to do something. Uh, Nicholas said, you watch your partner, his brakes left and then yours breaks right. The

greens are too soft and I'm disappointed. Um, Jack getting a little feisty. It is worth noting Ian Baker Finch had been in the final pairing of the British open twice to that point. He had a 73 in the final round, the prior year at the old course and also a 79 in 1984 in the final round. I went into it after he entered it tied for the lead also at the old course. And you can watch all of Ian Baker's shots on this

Sunday, on, for his final round, it's on YouTube. It is a total and complete clinic. It is a, just a ball striking savant. It is so enjoyable. It is so weirdly pleasant. And, and I don't know what the right word is. It's like an ASMR almost for the sound of these strikes. How well he's following through and all these strikes looks extremely repeatable, which is very Confusing when you know what happened to happens to Ian's career in the years shortly after this But he gets out and birdies two birdies three to get to six under quickly He's got his big glasses on. He's puttin with his glove on goes out and birdies the fourth He's opened up a three shot lead on the fifth. He's got one fifty five and he hits a six iron in there. Hit's a great one in there. Hit's the green on the sixth. Rolls in another

birdie on the sixth. He's really starting to stretch out. Now, stuff's another one on the seventh. It's another birdie. He's five hundred through seven after shooting sixty four on Saturday. And it also could have been lower. Like the two birdie, holes he didn't birdie, he definitely could have. He leads by five after not being in the top 10 at the halfway point, 23 or 25 holes later, he leads the tournament by five.

After where he said, when I got to four or five ahead, I thought, boy, you better not stuff it up now or you'll really cop it. I do think this speaks a little bit to what happens after this event. But it's another seed into the eighth. He's painting a Stroke's Gained Masterpiece at this point. Hits the green on nine, two puts.

Hits every green on the front, shoots a 29. It's a part of 34, 29 on the front nine after shooting 64 again the day before. Best opening nine for a leader in the open championship in history in the final round. The announcer sounded very non-committal about that. He was guessing that was a fact, but I had to note that one that he might have been the best route ever. He's just like, oh, he just like says it and at the very end, he's like, I assume so.

That has to be drives in the bunker on 10 and makes Bogey and like has a brief moment of like wondering if this is going to happen But the striped show continues he almost holds it on the part 312 has a bunch of two putt pars Gets really close to getting on the 15th and 2 And then birdies the 17. He's got a 3 shot lead heading to the last and he hooks in the 18 But he's totally fine. He chops it out in the fairway about 40 yards short almost holds the chip two puts to win the open by two It was just a tremendous tremendous round of golf. It was smooth. It was free-flowing It's again, I just I I'm amazed after watching that some of the reading I did after that But when afterwards

He's announced as the champion golfer on the year on his way to get the trophy a fan comes up and tries to get him to autograph something He's literally walking up to accept the trophy and he looks like he couldn't have been nicer to the guy again, which is like incredibly consistent with how the rest of his career in life has been. Handles it with total class, but the guy literally comes up with a sharpie. He was like, hey, will you sign this?

He's like, hey man, I gotta go get the Claret jug. Will you give me a second here? Maybe I'll sign it afterward. But, but. Wow. Security a little more lax in those days. Hey, when they wouldn't even let us, when we were a Burke Daily,

wouldn't even let us walk up the rope line. That's right. 18, you know, with speed one. Yeah, that was probably for good reason. I might have been the one trying to get the autograph at speed. Excuse me sir, excuse me. John, John, John, John, Chris,

out of the boy's back home. All the boys back in Jacksonville. Well, they've been pulled by hot. Thanks to being an inspiration for us all, John. Eugene Register guard remarked this is the first major championship for Baker Finch 30, a bespectacle six four, painstakingly deliberate plotter of a player who has become part of golf's Australian revolution. The 272 that he fired was only beaten by Tom Watson to that point, who had also done it twice. There's also a note from our old pal Bernard Gallacher, the captain of the European

team that year and notorious complainer. Please see Captain 1991 rider cup deep dive from more details on that. But he can check he conjectured before the open that no American would finish inside the top five. Weird, weird thing to just go out and say before the tournament starts, but in fact, Marco Mira did finish with in a tie for third with Fred couples. So also, Jody mudutt and Bob Twey finished the top five as well. Take that foreigners.

Super close on that. Mr. Calaker. Yeah. Man, that guy was not afraid to make some headlines. He Omira's back injury was so bad it got exacerbated by spectators repeatedly pounding on him on the back in encouragement in between holes. It was also knocked to the ground near the 10th tee as they were making the way from 9 to 10.

A rowdy era of golf fans. It seems like they always comes up in these things that the golf fans are misbehaving. Yeah. This one, I don't know, hit a little home for me a little bit just because having been at the one in 2017 at Berkdale and seeing how much that tournament's grown up grandstand wise but still some of the same images of people just up on every dune possible trying to get vantage points and incredible crowd out there in atmosphere. It just I could place the whole thing right.

I can see the scenes of the people cheering on the players. Come on, Roy Ladd. Come on. And so rewatching it through that lens was super interesting to me. Mike. And so rewatching it through that lens was super interesting to me. Mike, so Baker Finch gets 90,000 pounds for first. Mike Harwood gets 70,000 for second. Usually that gap between first and second is way bigger. But winning the open championship gives Ian Baker Finch

a 10 year exemption. 10 years. I still don't understand what the purpose of a 10-year exemption is because what would happen, and this is detailed, in great detail, in a Rick Riley article. I don't really know where to start with this because he kind of zooms all over the place, but after he said after that, I felt I should contend in every major. I always thought of myself as just a farm. But the Baker Finch is kind of all over the place. I never believed in myself enough. I didn't like my swing. I always trying to change. I never saw myself as the equal of Nick Fowler or Norman.

I never thought I had that kind of talent yet in the same vein. He says I felt I should contend in every major. And I think he gets extremely, extremely confused and he's got this devastating paragraph in there and that he tried to get longer. He got overbooked with sponsorships, got involved in a hat company, a golf school, a golf course architecture. He said yes to every interview, practice habits change. He put too much pressure on himself.

He got 4,000 letters and answered every one of them. Nick Price told him to grip it stronger. Sandy Lyle told him to point his elbows toward the ground. Fowdo told him to swing his eyes closed. Ian Wuzdom told him to grip it tight and rip it. Sevy told him to hit shots as softly as he could. Greg Norman told him to study Zen. Pain Stewart told him to keep his knees moving.

Ozzy Moore told him to keep his knees locked. He lost all of his muscle memory. He top 10 at the Masters in 94. Had the scariest free fall you can think of. At the World Series, he lost 10 balls in the second round and had 21 puts. He shot in 82 losing 10 balls. His caddy had a spare ball and his overalls or else he would have been disqualified here.

He went on to miss every cut in 1995, all 24 of them. He averaged four penalty strokes per round. He made one cut in 96 and the line in here from Riley was the 10 year exemption was a 10 year invitation to humiliate Themself around the world. I'm not saying this laughing in any way by the way like this is like it's really hard bridging It's nightmare fuel. It's it is and so and and being a major champion He kept getting paired with other major champions So he goes and shoots an 83 82 with Jack Nicholas at the US Open and Jack felt so bad for him. He invited him to his house for two weeks.

Baker Finch declined did not want to go. And then of course playing with Arnold Palmer in 95 at the old course, enormous crowd gathered on the first tee. Of course, he'd almost won the previous two iterations of the open there. He goes OB left at the widest fairway in golf, just a complete horrific hook. He like again, it just keeps coming back to like the fact that he was like too nice. David Lebetter said he can't tell these people to buzz off. Said to win today, you have to have a bit of bastard in you. Ian doesn't. In a 93, he said he was too proud to hit two errands off the tease.

And that would be like giving up too much of his father to take three months off and give his poor nerves arrest. He watches game unravel, like a cheap sweater. I said, I'm at the bottom of a pit. He said at the time, and oh, no, sir, you were not. You had a lot further way to go. He said, your golf swing lives in your muscle memory, like your ability to tie a Windsor knot while looking in the mirror. by the time Baker Finch was done trying swing suggested

by friends, players, coaches, fans, strangers, articles, books and tapes. His muscles had purged the original. My muscles have no memory of that old swing. It is gone forever. It gets worse. We're not done. He takes some time off and then in 90 set, but he takes some time off from playing tournaments, but in practicing, been practicing a ton and right before the 97 open at Trune, Peter senior talks him and it's teaming it up. Plays Monday plays well, takes a bunch of money off people in the practice round on Tuesday, plays fine. I think there's a pro am on Wednesday, even at the open. I could be wrong on that, but plays final Wednesday and goes out and shoots a 92 in round one.

He from 60 yards away on the final hole. He pulled an eight iron out and chipped it onto the green instead of like risking embarrassed to hitting another skull or blade or you know, or chunk or whatever it would have been with the wedge. He went into the only place. He knew there would be no one else in there at the time. The champions locker room, and he collapsed on the floor and cried for 45 minutes and then went out and answered questions. And he said he can't get any lower than this. He withdrew and that was essentially it for his

career. He played a couple more events after that. And sparingly and did okay, not horrific, but it's just like a truly heartbreaking tale. That's truly the Cliff Notes version of the story. That is a trimmed down version of the depth of that story. Yeah. I mean, truly nightmare fuel, like, to think that, like, you could, you know, fly too close to the sun and, like, touch greatness, and then all of a sudden, everything would come

unraveling. Like, and to be like, one of the nicest people I touch greatness and then all of a sudden everything would come unraveling. Like, and to be like one of the nicest people, I know, this has got it insane. Like, you know, you could almost kind of snicker if it was like an asshole or whatever, but like, I don't think anybody who has ever met him or hung, you know, just even like, listen to his commentary on CBS over the years

would like revel in any of that. No. It's that that rather the article is one of the most memorable articles that I kind of maybe want to write about golf growing up because it's just so like compelling in the way that it you know, catarized like catalogs his descent into nothing. And the last line in the article is like you know know, believe in a in-be-agrefinition, you'll find it someday, like show him how much you believe when he steps up to that first, he stand on the left. It's like, whole fuck.

Yes. You know, what a, what an interesting way to sort of show sympathy and empathy for someone, you know, that stuff like that. So yeah, it's a, I didn't know the depth. I knew what I knew was Ian Baker finished the lost his game, famously lost his game. Like that was what I knew to be true.

And you watch those highlights, you watch that final round and you're like, this guy loses it, like this guy, this looks like the most repeatable swing you could ever imagine, but it just goes to show Al fragile and freaky golf is. It's kind of scary. It's interesting how many, like the story in golf repeats itself over and over. If someone has success and then they think like, okay, I have to change something, you know, and I get it.

It's why people thought that Tiger was like kind of a crazy person when he was like, ah, after 2000, he was going to tear his swing down. I mean, there were so many people that worried that he was going to just rip up his DNA. And he's because he's one of the few people whoever was really able to sort of not only tear it down once or twice, but five times whatever he did and still be good. Because he just shows you, like, if you start messing

with your natural rhythms of your golf game, you might never find your way out of the forest. You might be stuck in it forever. It just was heartbreaking to read the part of like it's my most memories gone like that swing is gone forever. And yeah, that's the reality of golf. I'm going to give one final break here. And then we are clean sale and the rest of the way through thrilled to have

these guys back in the boat. You've heard me rave about good or sunglasses in the back. G O O D R. I told this story in an earlier pie, but in case you missed it, back in the boat, you've heard me rave about good or sunglasses in the back, G-O-O-D-R. I told this story in an earlier pilot in case you missed it. They are super kind to us. They send us free pairs of sunglasses whenever we want them. I wanted more though, and I was so embarrassed to email them to ask for more pairs of sunglasses, like free ones, because of how cheap they are.

They're literally a $25 sunglasses. It makes absolutely no sense. They're 100% polarized. I wear them everywhere. I keep a pair in my car. I keep a pair in my golf bag. I keep a pair on my desk here. I got one here.

I never have to look for a pair. They're always somewhere around. I still somehow spend less money than I would spend on a fancy pair of sunglasses and they're just as high quality. I've never had a good that makes less scent, the price makes less sense. It blows my freaking mind. They're a perfect stocking stuffer.

I can't tell you how many times I've wasted $160 on a pair of sunglasses only to break them whereas these things are durable. They do not behave like gas station sunglasses. This is one of the greatest products we've ever had the pleasure of sponsoring this podcast. So you can go to gooder.com, geoordr.com slash NLU and check them out. And again, I know the prices don't make any sense, but I promise you they really are that good. They're taking over the Northeast from what I've heard and we need to let we need to get

that spreading out around the rest of the country because it's a tremendous, tremendous product. Gooder.com slash NLU. All right. Let's close out 91. What do you say? I think this is a fun one. around the rest of the country because it's a tremendous, tremendous product. Gooder.com slash NOU. All right, let's close out 91. What do you say? I think this is a fun one. Well, we bring us now to the 1991 PGA Championship, which is if you know already, is one of the more memorable majors, not really because of the drama,

but because of what unfolded. So we take this now to crooked stick in Indy Dappless, essentially, or in Carmel, Indiana. Pete DiDesign, at that point, the longest yardage of any major championship, the usual suspects are looking around in wisdom as one of the guys who's gonna contend. You got your Fred couples, your Craig's dad there, your people of that era.

But the course is so long and so hard that a lot of guys start looking at it and saying, I don't know that I can compete here. I don't know that I wanna do this. Some of the older guys, Trevino pulls out, says, you know,

the hardest part of our play in my life. Mark James pulls out, Gabi Gilbert pulls out, all these guys start withdrawing. And from a major, what are you guys doing? Exactly. Yeah, weird scene, but you know, kind of maybe evidence that the PJ Jam chip was not quite regarded

in the same way that some of the others were at the time. And this is even more evidence of this, is that Nick Price, who was one of the best players in the world at the time, was there in Annapolis Ready to sort of earlier the week and his wife looked like she was about to have a baby and so he flies home. She goes into labor on Wednesday and at this point the tournament director calls a little known sort of guy who's been bouncing around on the Ben Hogan tours named John Daly who

is the ninth alternate, Burley Bomber from our University of Arkansas, who's never had never won a single college tournament, had won a little bit on the sort of Hogan tour, maybe in one time, but nothing sort of particular. No one really sort of thought, and at this point, John Daly doesn't even know he's going to be in the tournament

because he's still like four slots away from being able to get in the tournament. So he starts driving in the middle of the night, leaves Memphis and starts heading towards the end of the episode. It's like eight hours or nine hours to go. And so at this point, Mark Lyle, who's the seventh alternate, he pulls out and Nick Price officially pulls out. And so Brad Bryant is chilling at home in Paul Azinger, excuse me, pulls out this point after playing a practice round of Wednesday because he's

surgically repaired shoulder is not up to necessarily playing. He decides, you know, I just can't, what am I going to do? Bounce around here and meet Mr. Cut. So Brad Bryant is the eighth alternate. He's sitting home in Orlando. He gets a call like four in the afternoon and they say, you know, Brad, is this spot for you in the PJ or Bart Bryant? Is there other two?

This is there are two the Bryant brothers. Oh, I did not know that. Yeah. Brad Bryant is chilling home in Orlando. He gets a call and says, you know, you want a spot in the PJ championship? It's open for him. He says, this is too late. Like, there's no way I can get there.

I can't play a practice round. Why would I come up there and miss the cut? So John Daley rolls into Indianapolis at 2.30 in the morning and gets up for an 8am T time and is in the tournament and opens with a 3 under 69. No one really notices at this point that John Dele is slowly creeping up about to capture one of the great upsets in golf history. Ian Wusem is our first-round leader, but he is tied with another person who I'm going

to play the game, so I'll be with you. His first name is Kenny. Do you know who could possibly be Kenny? Well, it wouldn't be Kenny Perry if you're asking it this way. It can't. No, no, I don't have it. It is Kenny Knox. Another person who I was sort of very unfamiliar with. Jeff Knox. Kenny Knox, you know, Kenny Knox won three times on the PGA tour. Again, one the Honda, one the Hardee's golf classic, one the Buick. So, you know, another one of these guys who just filling up stat sheets in the late

80s, early 90s, you know, being kind of on athletic and whatever. Kenny Knox was a notoriously amazing putter and a truly terrible ball striker could not. He had the whole, he helped for a long time, he held the record for the least amount of putts in a single tournament with 93 for the whole tournament. But I think a lot of that was probably attributed to the fact that he missed a lot of greens and then would sort of chip a close. Which is why I good, like, it took a long time for sports writers to figure out that like total puts was not a particularly good indicator of what a good putter you are but but through that era he was thought of as a truly an excellent putter. Do you know who broke so record by the way?

I do not. I think as those Patrick Reed, I think Reed had 92 putts in one of his you know in sometime the last couple of years before his final, before he left for live. Oh, interesting. Well, hopefully Patrick will just not have that record expunge from the books and you'll hold it. I might have totally made that up also, but please continue. Well if you use golf facts as out there listening, perhaps that person can, please don't

see me like I've not. Yeah, I'm not saying I even know who you Skullfax is, just an interested listener, a friend of the golf world. So this is, again, we pivot back to tragedy in golf. For the second time that year, lightning strikes and kills a fan during a major. Like you think that this would be like a bigger deal that like in literally one year,

two people at different terms, it's died. You know, it was like a freak sort of electrical storm that happened. A guy named Thomas Weaver died after, you know, from a heart attack after lightning had sort of struck away. John Daly actually said later, at one point, I almost felt responsible for him being killed because of like the big crowds

that were sort of gathering and following. But as we get into because of the big crowds that were gathering and following. But as we get into the second round, this is where John Daly starts to really emerge as the person who is going to change a lot of the face of golf. John Daly basically is playing at this point what I would consider as like video game golf or the kind of golf that like Rory plays all the time now where every dog leg is just basically like a suggestion for like lesser men. He's cutting the corners on every dog leg and basically like all these like old unephotic dudes are or even young enough like these are looking at him and they're hitting like legitimately two and three irons into greens where he's like eight eight and

nine iron. And like they're just, they're, the hyperbole is like over the top. Like it's just, oh my god, like this guy's, you know, it's just crazy. Like it's, there's no way like this is happening. Like Bruce Litzky, who ends up finishing second, says like, you know, the first two drives, two, first two or three drives that he saw that he hit, I wasn't even able to see because the ball came off the club face so fast. So, daily starts, he's just absolutely like, nuking balls, like, you know,

I mean, I'm literally cutting off like 100 yards on a lot of holes. And was this like, was there any uproar or anything like, hey, we shouldn't be having titanium drivers. Did you see anything along these lines? Because this is new at that time too, right? And is that a storyline in anything you read of, like, whoa. It really isn't.

Yeah, you know what, daily just, he's basically like so, his turn is so big, his shoulder turn is so big, is getting the club so kind of like a cross line, you know, and just thundering through it that no one really thinks of like, oh, maybe the metal driver is like part of it, but there's still guys who are obviously playing like there's a lot of persimmon woods. But the difference in like distance between them wasn't so enormous. I did look it up like that year, it daily ends up averaging like 289 yards off the tee when the average of the on tour was like 261.

So if you compare that to now, like Rory average is like, he led the tour in driving this last year and was averaging like 320, and the average drive was 300 yards. So daily's like 10 yards longer based, you know, you know, against the average then like Rory is now.

So that shows you like, what an higher percentage off a lower number. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it shows you what an advantage it was. It was, you know, had more of an advantage with driver than Rory has now against like the average people in the field. So I'm trying to say,

and it wasn't until, so daily led the driving, led the PGA Tour in driving distance this year. It was not until 2003 that someone from 1991 to 2003 that someone played like that daily play to full season. There was one season where he suspended basically that someone dethroned him as the longest driver in the game. Can you tell me who that might have been saw in 2003?

Hank Keeney? That is right, as well. It's really done. Oh, I'm just gonna say, I feel weird for no in the answer to that. So, I mean, there wasn't like a ton of drama in the tournament just because everyone was sort of like star struck by daily sort of, you know,

going around the corner, everything. He was basically like, you know, in control for most of the tournament. It was weird because he had never, he felt like he had never really actually driven the ball straight before, and this all of a sudden things kind of just sort of locked up for him.

And there were crowds, were sort of huge throngs. And he was become like this, this hillbilly-pied piper where people were just all, just fascinated by him. There was a weird, like, stupid moment in the Saturday round when a person at home called in a rule violation that Daly's Caddy,

who's actually Nick Price's Caddy, Daly got Nick Price's Caddy when Price pulled out, had violated rule eight to B. Do you know what, rule eight to B might be solid? I'm trying to think of like, is it something with a pen, where if you touch the green with the pin or something like the good. Very nice.

Is that right? He yes. He briefly in sort of kneeling down to like read a putt rested the flag behind the whole for a half second and someone called this in and said that it was assisting along the line of putting. So there had to be a big sort of, you know, kerfuffle and basically the rules in the term that no daily was aiming at the high side of the whole, about the low side and the flag had touched on the low side. They literally, you know, TC for those that don't know, Tron, caddy for Zach Blair and a web.com event at the time. And I actually touched the line, was reading a putt with the flag, touched the line with it and God's Ack a two shot penalty.

So that's why his nickname out on the Cady circuit is two shot draw. And they did change that rule of the offseason after that. But not before TC picked up a two shot penalty, which let that would live it in for me. Nice. So, as daily walks up 18 with a two shot lead, three shot lead, I think he's doing the Arseneo Hall fist

pump, you see this thing a lot. And they asked about it like years later. And he was like, yeah, I know, I've watched a lot of Arseneo, I guess, and I just jumped into my head. I didn't really know why I did it. But when he, when he sort of finally puts out his fiance at the time, Betty Fulton, I believe is her name. I mean, have it here. So she runs out onto the green and she'll come up in my next segment here. But one of, one of John's many wives and many sort of,

I guess ill thought out romances that she's in memorable in all the pictures because she's sort of a big part of the kerfuffle. But a star is sort of born at this point that John Daley is suddenly the sort of talk of the town and golf and there's all this kind of prediction and jack necklaces. I don't know if I've ever seen anyone swing the club like that.

He plays a game which I'm unfamiliar with. And it's just wonderful to see. And so Barbara, you're not gonna believe this guys back. Yeah, it's not. The club's almost having his toes. It's unbelievable. So John Dealey, you know, at this point, he's

arrived on the scene, and there will be a lot more to come. But this was sort of the height of John Dele madness. Fantastic. That takes us through 1991. I do think we will go faster through the other years. I certainly do hope. But I think my interest in Woods are out of the way, actually, now to this point.

But you are also in charge now of the 1992 Mastas tournament to take us there. So even though the arrival of John Dele has sort of brought power back into the game, the most important thing I think to remember in the 92 Masters is that Fred Couples has kind of established himself as the best player in the world. He's the first American to reach number one

in the Sony World Rankings, which have debuted in 1986. And someone, you know, say, European has basically held the number one ranking all this time until Fred sort of takes it over. And so everyone thinks like this is finally Fred's, you know, masters. He's going to win this tournament. He's the dude.

But there's a lot of people in this tournament who are also forgotten history. Craig Perry of Australia, who shows up here and there, very strong eyebrows. If you look at Perry, like a very strange looking dude. Even when his hair went white, his eyebrows were all still very dark. That's neither there. Fun fact, he kind of was playing with John Van Devellt in the 99 open in that final round. He hold a bunker shot from the spot where Van Devellt needed to hold it for a six and it would have won it. But fun for Craig Perry.

That is right. That is right. Yeah, Craig Perry actually ends up leading the masters through most of the tournament and believes everyone's still kind of is thinking, oh, obviously Fred Couples is the favorite, but not the Australians, of course. They fully believe that Craig Perry was not only going to witness

but that he was cheated out of winning this as I was sort of... At some point in the final round, someone coughs during one of Craig Perry's backswings. He is so rattled by this that he just goes on to shoot 78. And for years, then years later, like told some sort of Aussie media person, I was shocked that they wanted their win man to win so badly, I should be doing this in Australia,

and I said, they wanted their win man win so badly, I was almost assaulted on the course, I was very upset. So like with the, like with the wisdom thing, he felt very wrong. Instead of like wisdom who just kind of played it up and laughed at the crowd, Craig Perry was very upset. And to the point where this Australian journalist wrote that if the day that Perry should have won a green jacket, he was sort of wronged from winning

a green jacket. I was like, I don't know if like, you know, when you got and shoot like 78 in the last day, like you really should have won a green jacket. It might have been like some of the other things are going on there for you, but you know, he Greg Perry, Bertie the second hole, but then Bogie the third, the fourth, the fifth, the seventh, the tenth, the 16th and the 18th.

It's a lot of coughing going on out there. Let's get that fans. Now the golf course, he's got a, he's got a, the whooping cough. Just minor notes here, my man Larry Nelson, who every now and then on the pod, I bring this up that Larry Nelson got completely screwed out of never being a Ryder Cup captain.

Larry Nelson self-reported in the first round of this master's that he had played with clubs that he thought might be non-conforming because they had like a decorative design on the face of his irons. So he turned himself in and disqualified himself from the, uh,, got to love it. Classic. Jack Nicholas finishes 40 seconds in this master's side. Do you know why this

would be significant? It was the first time he finished outside the top 40 since 1961. 67. Oh, I just made that up. You nailed it. I feel like you're just looking in the eye notes here, but God damn it. Yeah. The only time he would have a worse finish in the masters with where he made a cut was in 2000 when he was 60 years old, Jesus. So a pretty stunning run by Jack.

I still want to know, like, we got to do a deep dive into like what the fuck happened in 1967 where Jack and the coast missed the only cut after winning two consecutive masters. Like I feel like I needed no more about the 67 masters. What went down? This is a total guess, but I feel like you had something to do

with you had recently had a kid. If I, if I, that's a total guess though. Before we get into Fred, I want to tell you one of my favorite details here that I unearthed this is that we go back to our man, John Daly, During a practice round on Wednesday, John Daly was walking from between the 9th and the 10th hole when a process server came up to him and slapped him with a lawsuit and a paternity suit that was served by his fiance, who had

just been running out on the green with him literally not that many months ago, Betty Fulford. who had just been running out on the green with him, literally not that many months ago, Betty Fulford. She basically was like suing him for, because they had broken up and that she felt that she was, she was four months pregnant at this point, wanted him to sort of pay for their paternity, alimony, palimony, whatever. So right before the master,

it's probably a couple months before the master's, Daily had given an interview to the Dallas Morning News, where he said that he'd broken things off with Fulford because she was a serial liar. This is a quote. It turned out she'd been married the entire time they'd been together that she was 39 and not 31, that she had been married twice previously.

I found out she was a pathological liar, Daily said. It was like a death in the family. I still love her. I'll always love her. But this hurts, and it feels like I have to start over. I'll never trust a woman again. Well, it turns out the Daily would trust again. In fact, when trust this woman again,

because you would get married to this woman after giving this interview like a month after the Masters in May. So I feel like I will fully ignorant to so much of the daily stuff. Like it kind of breaks my, like so much of the gambling stuff breaks my heart, so much of the romance stuff breaks my heart. Like I just, I can't do it.

I want to like not know about it. Yeah. A hundred percent agree. It's funny until it's like sad and you know and I'd never know quite where to fall on that, but I would like to read to you a section from this story that ran before the masters about this deceitful foverd. Daily's representatives checked into foverd's background

and the PGA tour received calls from people from Georgia saying, John needs to be careful because Betty is not who she says she is. PGA Tour officials have also had discussions with daily about the dangers of alcohol. Concerned about a possible hard liquor relapse, they have suggested that he undergo counseling. He was hospitalized at least three times over the years

because of a debilitative whiskey problem before he joined the PGA tour in 1991. He and several people close to him steadfastly maintained. He kicked the problem in the summer of 1990 and hasn't tasted a drop since lapsing into a coma when hospitalized in Maine on the Hogan tour. He's not like a drinking prom, but a whiskey problem. Daily, however, said,

I'm not going to quit drinking beer. You can't take everything away from a person's past. If people want to live my life by the past, then take away the damn PGA trophy. I don't know if that makes sense. No, I don't know either. But I just think it's like in this era, like our sort of vague understanding of alcoholism being

that you could have a whiskey problem, but not an alcohol problem that you can't take away. Basically, like, oh, the, like, you know, the Tim Fischer, or whoever was like, hey, like, you don't need to be drinking whiskey anymore, but beers are fine. Like, just, just rain it in on that. So, so a couple of the notes before we, we get to Freddie, because there's really only one truly memorable thing I think that happens in this,

and you can probably guess we're going, but one person came the first ever player to break 30 on the back nine at the Masters. Do you know who that person would be? I do not. Mark Calcovecchia, who came the first person to shoot at 29 on the back nine. Only one other person has matched that score.

You know who that might be? Anthony Kim. David Toms, did it in 1998. So Fred couples ends up winning the tournament. He's really kind of plays really kind of great throughout, but there is sort of one pursuer who is kind of an unexpected person who... Damn, Nier could have won if something one thing had gone different for Fred. But there is sort of one pursuer who is kind of an unexpected person who damn near could

have won if something one thing had gone different for Fred. And that's Raymond Floyd. I feel like Raymond Floyd's like greatness has kind of been lost to our generation. Like even Fred was like a bad ass dude. He's 49 in this master's and just watching him like strut around the golf course with his crazy ass swing is like a sight to be hold. There's so many good, literally, Floyd stories out there. I got that he's up there with Trevino too is like podcasts. We've efforted that we would.

Yeah, if anyone has an in, let me know. There's literally no one playing professional golf these days who swings like Raymond Floyd. It's like sick. He sucks the club like way inside, like right on the takeaway, and comes like hard over the top with like a super strong grip and just flushes the ball. It's like holy cow. Like a, and his short game was filthy.

Like this, this is the era when guys didn't like open up a sandwich and like hit little spinners, whatever. This is the era where like, Raymond Floyd was the king by like hitting eight irons and nine irons. And hitting, you know, he hits a shot on the 14th on Sunday this where he basically has to hit it into the mound with a low sort of skipper to take all the speed off of it

and chips in on the 14th when he missed the green. And it's the first point where everyone's like, holy crap, Ray Floyd could really win the masters. Like this is sick. And he, Rimm Floyd was actually one of Freddie couples mentors. And so Floyd was like competing against the guy who he also sort of wanted to win. And also just as if you ever want to watch this on YouTube,

you get a really fine glimpse of Ray Floyd's caddy and his much younger years, which is Steve Williams. Looking very young and sort of trim. And with literally like's caddy and his much younger years, which is Steve Williams looking very young and sort of trim and with literally like his caddy bib all the way buttoned down to his belly button. That's kind of sick. The one thing that everyone really remembers from this master is that when Fred Couples steps up on Sunday to the 12th hole, he does what you are absolutely not supposed to do, what Jordan Spieth did many years later, and he blocks it right at the pin.

And the ball hits the bank and starts trickling down the bank. And almost, like if you watch the broadcast, the guys still cannot really believe. Like there's a full minute of silence before they realize that the ball has hung up at the bottom of the bank. And what I mean on the bottom of the bank, I mean when couples go to hit his shot,

he's almost standing in the water. Like his right foot is like a couple inches above the water, but somehow, some way, like the ball, like he's caught up in a sort of a tuft of rough there. And there's just, I have, you know, we've been watching the matches a long time. Kevin jury says on the broadcast, like I have literally never seen a single ball stay up there. And there's just, I have, you know, we've been watching the matches a long time. Kevin jury says on the broadcast, like, I have literally never seen a single ball stay up there. It's just madness. And it's like, no one knows how that ball stayed up.

Like, if this happens to Jordan's beef, like, he's probably got four green jackets. It's somehow stays dry. And what's crazy is like he's, couples like is in disbelief, like he walks over there and he gets down there and like literally there's a, there's no replays in this era of like, you're not getting like a, you know, a slow motion capture, whatever.

It's a full minute before Vern is on the air everyone's like, and that ball is dry. It's like, Craig Perry's like stepping up to hit his own. That ball is dry. You're like, what? What? What was that ball hanging up? Then only then did they flip the camera and show that the ball is like sitting up there.

So, couples chips it to like within a couple, you know, like a foot, makes a par, and ends up, you know, winning the Masters by two strokes. Where like he, he and Floyd would have almost certainly been in a playoff had this not happened because he there's a like really good chance that he makes double there. So you'd think that this point that couples was going to win, you know, a half dozen majors that he but this is really the only the only time that Fred you know when it wins a major and it's it's hard to believe like someone could swing at that suite for so many years and this would be their only chance and that they had to get this kind of crazy break, but it's a good sort of evidence that

golf is just kind of cruel and fair. There was one other thing I noticed is that couples are the only masters winner. He was reading this like in an email, like it was in like a, you know, Augusta notes that they like send out to media and champions over and he was reading through it like, you know, in 19, I want to say it was like in 2018 or something that he was the only master's winner who didn't donate a club that he used to win during his win. And that was because he didn't know about it. Fred was like, holy crap, like, what a dick. I must seem like I didn't donate one of these clubs. I didn't know that was even an option. So he went and knew his garage and he dug out his McGregor persimmon driver and he gave it to the club and someone was asking

like, Oh, why didn't you get, why didn't you give him the wedge that he used on 12 to sort of hit up and make that party. He's like, I have no idea like where that wedge is. Like that is totally gone. And he's like, I don't even know what wedge I used to be on. It's like, it could be in one of my garages, it could be lost. So like, if you are out there and you have like It could be in one of my garages, it could be lost. So if you are out there and you have Fred Couples' old Wilson wedge, you're holding an artifact that is more valuable than you're probably realized. Whoa.

I was the cracks me up about donating the club. It's kind of like, you just use this to reach the pinnacle of your profession. Yeah. Can we have that now? Can you go find a new one? We want to put this one on this play here. Can I keep it the rest of the season at least?

And you know, I wonder what Patrick Reed donated. I got a. I'm going to bring us to the halfway point here through the 1992 US open, which is of course held at what golf course, Kevin? The 92 US open. Is that this? Oh God, what is this?

Wrong. No, you're going to pebble beach we are going to oh my goodness we are going out west one and a half million dollar first uh... uh... purse i'm sorry one and a half million dollars first with two hundred seventy five thousand going to the champion the fairways are averaging thirty five yards wide which is wider than i would guess but pebbles fairways are decently wide green stamping at ten point five primary rough at five inches,

secondary rough at two and a half inches, want to give a shout to the USGA for, they got a wonderful film on this one, 55 minutes or something like that, documenting the whole week, which makes this part of the job a lot, lot easier. So I'm interested in qualifying drama, a big name that is not in the field is one Greg Norman,

the seventh ranked player in the world had to go to Qualifying he ends up in a playoff at the lakes in Columbus and my dad was actually a corporate member of that club back in the Back in the day for a hot minute He did not advance out of the eight for four playoff You'd say after I'm disappointed, but at least I tried Asked if he agreed with having to go through a qualifier to reach the open field. He said, that's the conditions to get in their tournament.

You've got to do what they say you have to do, which I think he thinks differently now about getting into some of these tournaments. But at that time, that was before he was getting paid millions of dollars by the Saudis, that's what he believed about qualifying for major championships. This is honestly the pauses for just their brief, brief, live, interlude here. But this is one of my big beefs with this whole thing of like, what we deserve, we should be owed to get in the majors. No one's blocking you from like three of the majors. You can find a way to at least two for sure, the two opens, that you can find a way to

sort of get into those majors. You can go through qualifying. And I was like, I want to say, like, are you scared that you can't like win the Columbus sectional? Like, if you were, you know, Patrick Reed did this like his whole life. That's how he became a PGA tour player. It was Monday qualifying into things and earning his tour card that way. Like, if you're Dustin Johnson, and even those guys aren't even don't have to worry about it, because they're exempt anyway. So this, this, this, oh no, we're being wronged or being inconvenienced. Just get your ass out there and qualify and then go win those majors.

That that'll show everybody like, it'll stunt all over my face. Former US Open Champion Johnny Miller missed out at Lake Merced Tiger Woods, also of Anaheim missed out on qualifying. He said, oh, I need an hours practice. I only got an hour. So you could see it in my potting. The putting is always the last to come back. If I put it well, I would've made it no problem.

I gotta take issue with your tiger at that point. Because that tiger would be like 16 minutes, but like, oh, yeah, I need it. I gotta work on my ass. He's set a little bit more like, jack dickless at that point. I didn't do it. Well, you know, I gotta work, I know my game. He talked kind of like Michael Jackson Dickless at that point. I didn't do it. Well, you know, I got to work.

I know my game. He talked kind of like Michael Jackson too, like that too. It was like kind of that kind of light with, well, you know, I'm here to play. You know, just really excited about the opportunity. That's pretty good. You're a pressure like I'm amazed how fast you could change between them. It really is remarkable. Phil Mickelson tunes as a kid.

Phil Mickelson makes his debut as a professional this week. Jumping out to the lead in round one is one. Dr. Gil Morgan, a 45 year old non-practicing optometrist, gets out of the early lead with a six under par, 66, little bit on Gil Morgan. He graduated from East Central State College in Oklahoma in 1968. In 1972, he earned a Doctor of Optometry degree from Southern College of Optometry, then turned to professional golf. He won seven times on tour. He was known for playing tournaments with little or

no practice. He was exceptional at playing cold. This is straight from his Wikipedia page. He would go on to win 25 times on the senior tour as well. So a bit of a late bloomer. Curtis Strange is at 500 Andy Dillard, who looks a little bit like Tim Heron, playing his first US Open. He's basically like a broke mini tour player comes out. Birdies is for six holes, wearing no glove.

And he would go out and shoot four under parries, tied with Phil and Steve Pate. A 69 from Gil Morgan and round two puts him three out in front and five clear of third place of Raymond Floyd and Wayne Grady and to start round three Gil Morgan again we have not said the name of the winner of this tournament yet I don't even know if you know who wins this tournament just yet but after a birdie of the third hole the third round Gil Morgan is 10 under par becoming the first in US Open history to reach double digits under par. He got as low as 12 under after a birdie at the seventh hole and opens up a seven shot lead at the US Open. And of course, cruises straight to victory, just like Ricky Barnes did at

death page. There is nothing more to report from that one. Unfortunately, he did go full Ricky Barnes and he doubles eight and nine immediately also doubles 14. He played eight through 14 and nine over par on that Saturday, but still holds the one shot lead going into the final round over Tobkite. He had losedom and Mark Brooks, his final tally and round three shoot 77 with three doubles, four bogies, six pars and five birdies, the five birdie 77 been there, Mr. Gilmurget. That sounds a lot like my style of golf. Tom Kite plays three very unremarkable rounds of 71, 72 and 72 to enter the final round one shot back. 72 and 72 entered the final round one shot back. Posing for a second here on Tom Kite, he was already the all-time money leader in PGA tour history.

He was a six-time writer-couper already to this point. He's 42 years old. He had won 16 times on tour, including the 1989 players. I was struggling to come up with a comp for him. He's, what, Well, who do we know as like a 16 time PGA tour winner in their 40s who hasn't won a major? Like I literally went to the all-time money list and tried to find one and I couldn't come up with one. Eventually landed on a looking back on a comp for Tom Kite, but I think he had to win the major to reach this comp. But let me get there for a second.

From 1975 to 1986, here's Tom Kite's finishes at the Masters. T10, T5, T3, T18, fifth, T6, T5, T5, T2, T2, mist cut, T2. Tom Kite, absolutely a Master's Morris yet doesn't come up. I don't know if they'll ever come up on any of our of our shows and recaps about the about the masters. But he also racked up another fourth in 1994 and second to tiger in 1997. He finished tied for

eight at the 1975 US Open and tied for fifth at the 2001 US open 26 years later. He has 16 top five finishes and major championships. So the comp I came up for for him is Jim Furek. Furek had 17 tour wins, kite had 19. They both had one major, both had 16 top fives and majors. It's just a, that's that always blows my mind. Johnny Miller called him the greatest short iron player. The game has ever seen.

And then on this final day on the Sunday, the sun comes out for the first time all week, which is not a good thing for the players because the wins are absolutely whipping by the time that Gil Morgan heads to the first T. It's kind of like one of those, it's either inflation or if it's just years of telephone of the story being told, I think we're up to 40 mile an hour wins. There now was on that on that Sunday. I saw 45 in one of the articles as well. It was absolutely whipping.

Come on, come on, come here goes out in the early wave and post a 70 shoots 200 par and jumps 25 players in the leaderboard. Per John Gerdy, Jack Nicholas told him congratulations on your first US Open victory Uh, it turned out that Jack had not considered the effect of the mail-in ballots Uh, maybe maybe a little Oh, that's a good one. Yeah Maybe declared victory a little bit too soon. On that one.

Stop the count. Stop the count. Mondays you mean the winner. The footage from that Sunday is just a comedy of errors. There's balls blowing around on the green. Fowler goes into the water on seven long left. He tries to hit like a six iron through the wind pulls it and it goes long left. Tom Kite birdies the first hole, but makes a double

on the fourth hole. He birdies six. He's left of seven green. The win he's right by the seaside wind, absolutely whipping chips it in on the seventh. And again, this is from John Garedy, sports illustrator at that very moment, Tom Kite, who was leading Montgomery by three strokes, stood in the rough off the C side of the seventh green trying to keep his balance in 40-mount hour wind he was surrounded by calamity third round leader Gil Morgan Had just hit one over the cliff on number six Raymond Floyd and Paul A's here were in dire straits somewhere up on the cliffs of doom Otherwise known as the eighth ninth and tenth holes on the ninthway, spectators were buzzing over double and triple bogies. Balls flattened by the wind, balls knocked onto the beach below, putts missed from inches

because of rock hard greens. And the par-4-10th had become a par-6 with the last seven parings having produced seven double bogies and three triple bogies. Gil Morgan doubles the fourth and the sixth hole and then proceeds to completely light himself on fire He shoots a final round 81 and finishes in 13th place He touched 12 under par when he left the seventh green on Saturday and finished at plus five 29 holes later

17 over par and his final Final 29 holes Tom kite make he good. you think at any point, Gill considered, like, you know, changing his prescription? Oh, that's the kind of sportswriter joke that would have made it. I've got the four shot lead. Jeff Sloomin is playing the 18th. He's even par. He makes birdie on that one and gets in the house.

Some and Monti's already in that even. So Sloomin's lead in the clubhouse and everyone that's left on the golf course is getting absolutely vaporized. But Tom Kite makes it great up and down on 14 to make another birdie. Bogey 16 and 17, but he's up by two on 18 plays it perfectly. And almost makes the birdie, but wins the US Open at age 42. Morgan has mentioned shot an 81, Wusdom, one back of the started day, shot 79. Mark Brooks, one back shot 84.

Nick Fowdo, two back of the started day, shot 77. And this was also Monty's first US Open, by the the way he finished in that in a tie for third place. Jeff Sloomit shot a Bogey free 70 on that day for a solo second in Outrageous Conditions. More from Gary on Thursday, Ken Green threw his putter into the ocean off 18 after shooting 76 three time NCAA champ Phil Michelson playing this first tournament as a pro missed the cut with a 68 81. Uh, still he finished with flare on Friday using his driver to hit the ball 270 yards in fairway onto the 18th green for a birdie.

Final round scoring average 77.3. Third highest in post World War II, U.S. Open history. Um, I think a second to call out the old school picture and picture that kept the players face on the screen while the ball was in the air and the suspense. That's got to come back. I don't know why that way. Our TV screens are huge these days even I've got a big TV screen here after years of being ridiculed for my small TV. There's enough space on there to fit the players face in picture and picture. That was fantastic back in the day. Remember the very famous shot of Nicholas in 86 when it hits the into 16, like his face is like in the corner, right? Like in that thing.

So 100%. Why do we do away with that? I don't know. Take us to across the pond for the 1992 open. Kind of a painful one to recap if you are the runner up. I did not know. I actually watched this full final round on my computer earlier today just to sort of, you know, get a full, I did not know, I actually watched this full final round on my computer earlier today,

just to sort of get a full, I guess, look at, Fallow makes a very, Nick Fallow, I'm gonna spoil it real quick here. Fallow ended up being the winner here, but this is like Nick Fallow's, like hit him up of like victory speedness at the end of this. It is some truly fascinating awkward shit at the end of it. So anyway, Faldo at this point is kind of,

there's a bit of controversy kind of coming in because he hasn't won in a few years. You know, he's the best player in the world for a lot of it, but he's kind of tweaking with some swing changes and he and Ledbetter had sort of been going through some of those swing rebuilding and he'd been criticized by various people for doing some of this, and he was very, you know, annoyed at some of this. But he was still the favorite coming in, because he had like nine consecutive top 10s going into this thing. But can I just say real quick, one takeaway I've

had from researching this is how much, like the golf world kind of orbited around Fowdo at this point. Like he, the master's coverage that I watched, like even when he's off the pace, they're checking in with him. Like he was like the guy. He was the story. Like they followed him way closer than they did Norman at this time, which, you know, Norman's name is often mentioned in this era. And like Fowdo was the guy and he had won a bunch of,

he had won a bunch of majors to this point, but it was, he was the orbit, the thing that the golf world orbited around at this time. Yep. He was the straw that stirred the drink, essentially. So this is at Mirfield, in which many consider to be the most fairest of tests in the hoop and championship, because as you know, the holes are all in different directions, and the wind blows differently. And so the bunkers are the main thing,

having to figure out the wind and the bunkers. It's, you know, the Raymond Floyd, my man, Raymond Floyd, who is 50 years old at this point. He opens with a 64, is the sort of, he and Steve Payt share the first round lead. And in Wuznum and Gordon Brand, Jr who, but due to I'd never heard of, but apparently one like, you know, several times on the eight times in the European tour. But, you know, it was another one of those names.

I forgot to play the game with you. Could you name who was Gordon? A young Ernie L's makes sort of one of his first appearances that on the leaderboard and major championship open with a first round 66. But it's in the second round when Nick shoots 66 to open, so he's kind of in it, but not quite the top of the leaderboard. It's until the second round when Fowler just completely

sort of blitzes the field with a 64, and he's leading by three with two rounds to go. Extends that lead to four in the third round. And now the pressure is on Faldon to bring it home. He's gonna be this sort of, he's that dude. And on Sunday, everything kind of feels a little bit off for Faldon. He's struggling to find his rhythm, his swing, all over the map with

his irons. He can't make anything. And John Cook, American John Cook makes a big charge up the leaderboard by eagling the fifth hole. He basically climbs within a shot of Fowler, who had led by three or four the whole day up to that point. Jungkook double bowies the ninth to fall back to how you know, foul has is now up three up four, excuse me, with nine holes to play. And you think like, okay, like finally, like, Valle is going to waltz to victory. Like Norman's nowhere in sight. Like none of the real sort of like great players are going to be around. But Jungkook birdies the 12th, birdies the 15th,

and birdies the 16th. And all of a sudden Nick is like, he's basically like shook. I mean, he cannot, he's totally out of sorts. Like he and Fanny are staring way too long over shots. He makes three bogies and four holes. And he goes from being four up on the ninth tee three bogies and four holes and he goes from being four up on the ninth tee to when he basically is on when Cook makes his second straight birdie on 16 Foulos a shot down and He's looking like when Cook drives his ball in the middle of the fairway on 17

You know the famous 17th-all at Mirfield where you might remember Michelson drove it on it to To sort of seal up that open championship. John Cook flushes a two iron into the middle of that green. And so he's on the green on 17, basically two shot lead at this point. All he's got to do is basically like two putt from here. Cook hits an honestly like an incredibly good eagle putt that looks the entire way like it's good.

It basically runs right over the edge of the hole, goes maybe two and a half feet past. So still, if John Cook makes this, he's up to with one hole to play. Fowl those on the 17th to the point. It's hard lip out for John Cook. Mm. So, it basically like, he choked away the open chain. I've never seen this. Yeah, there's really no way it's just sort of describe this

other than like a choke. Cook hits his drive in the middle of the fairway on 18 and then hits his approach like into the crowd essentially. Like blows it way right. He gets, you know, a drop from the sort of thing there and hits it on the green, can't make the putt. Bogue's all foul though has to do at this point. Fowler, Fowler told himself with on the 15th tee, you have to play four of the best holes of your entire life if you want to win this championship.

And into 15 hits like one of the sickest five irons, like I think I've ever seen, like just carves it through the wind, ball lands in the exact perfect spot, rolls out, you know, a good 25 feet and stops within maybe a foot and a half of the pin on a hole that was like playing pretty hard like the entire day. Fowl to gets on similar thing to on 17 does two putt and then makes a sort of a pretty routine par on 18 to win. And so it's like the whole script has been flipped. It looked for a second for sure. Like, Fala was was going to win. Then he had blown it and then all of a sudden cook blew it. And so then Fala comes back. It's obviously like cooks the way that cook

sort of gagged it away is like one of the more underrated chokes that I consider to remember in this. Because like you're on 17 green, you know, in two with a one shot lead, all you basically have to do is two putt this point and you're gonna win the open championship and he couldn't do it. Like he just wanted to basically like slam the door with that eagle and it wasn't even about the eagle putt.

It just ran a little bit by. So the fun part is though, this is Nick Fowler, this point is a five time major winner. And this is kind of him at the height of his powers. He'll have the masters win in 96, but this is really Nick is the sort of the king shit. And so he's kind of manic in the post-game thing.

He's all over the place. He's sort of trying not to, he's this is like stoic Nick, but he kind of manic in the post-game thing. He's all over the place. He's like sort of trying not to, is this like stoic Nick, but like, he kind of almost is like in tears at one point, and then he's sort of like, he, they give him the mic and they get into sort of, give a little speech. And it's basically like his chance to sort of

to tee up all of his haters. So he starts out by saying like, you know, I want to thank everyone who wrote me led as saying them, but but putting was all wrong. I wasn't using me caddy properly I want to thank all the TV commentators for telling me how to practice and what not to do What can I say about the press? I want to thank the press from the bottom of my heart or really from the heart of my bottom I guess is what I mean to say it's like the equivalent of someone in now like winning a major and like going through their Twitter mentions, be like,

oh, what's up now, anti-Fauto? Thanks for the motivation, Bunky Perkins. How about these nuts? And then he gets the crowd to sing like along with him as he sings Frank's, like a line from Frank Sinatra's Myway. And the crowd is like kind of like, what the fuck is going on? Like you could see all these people were like, what? He's like, and once you'd all sing along to his Frankie Sinatra's My Way. And the crowd is like, kind of like, what the fuck is going on? Like you can see all these people are like,

what? And he's like, I want you to all sing along to his Frankie Sinatra says, like, I did it My Way. Oh my God. It's so, it's so bizarre. He had thought of being awkward. It also permeates through all of this era as well.

Like it just is, so whoever, whatever article it was that described it with one of his ex wives that described him as a socially, he's a 24-handicapper. I've never been able to get that out of my head. It's stories like that are exactly why. Yeah. So Nick makes a big point to thank his wife, you know,

and she's there. Greenside, he will later cheat on her with a 21-year-old Arizona State golfer leading to one of the great quotes of all time in Sports Illustrated where the Arizona State head coach said, yeah, we lost like four players. One to graduation, one to injury, and one to Nick Falter. It's last year. So, Nick's personal life will be, it's like in the midst of just starting to fall apart, like in the next few years. And he can't feel too bad for his wife at this point because he had cheated on his previous

wife with her. So when he reached on this wife with the next one, that's sort of just like, you knew who he was. Pay it forward, right? Yep. Exactly. So that's the 1992 Open Championship. I it's hard to describe how brief I'm going to be about the 1992 PGA.

Yeah, I don't I don't believe you know who you want it or where it was. I do know who won it and only where it was because we had to sort of crack jokes about this for but if you had asked me before like oh let's do play a trivia game of like who won the 1993 Like PGA no idea and I've been to Belreve So I know Belreve in August, but apparently it was cold. Legally there were sweaters worn I don't know because there is nothing on YouTube not a highlight not anything PJ of America Get it together. There's absolutely there's not one single thing I found some photos from it if you Google like PGA championship 1992, the players comes up for that year. So you can see where some of the confusion may have said in favorites were Fowl.

Couples in Norman gene. Sowers shoots a 70 and round three continues to lead at 7 under while Jeff Maggard and Nick Price are two shots back. Sowers makes a double in the sixth hole on Sunday. Then Bogie's 9, 10 and 11. Jeff Maggard had the lead with eight holes to go but gave five shots back and finished sixth. Nick Price shoots a final round 70, while Sowers caved with a 75. Price wins it by three. There's four, four sentences on this entire tournament on the Wikipedia page. Everyone that thinks the 2016 PGA was faked. I think the 1992 PGA might have been faked. It is the first of three majors for Nick Price, he picks up another 10 year exemption.

The first one was for winning the World Series of Golf. He credited winning. 10 year exemption for the World Series of Golf. I know, I don't know what the hell is going on with exemptions back then, but. Can you stack them like Shopify codes? Can't stack them like that. He had, I didn't know this, we'll get to this.

I'm sure by 2030 when we do these deep ties, but he had blown a three shot lead with six to play at the 1982 British. And he also pitched, uh, pissed away the 88 British. Um, this, this was back to back major wins for his caddy, squeaky, squeaky medlin because as we mentioned in the net previous one, uh, Nick Price was the, uh, the last guy to withdraw that got John daily into the tournament. Gary is calling for sports illustrated.

I think he'd already written most of it beforehand because he spends most of the time talking about John daily in the column more than he does Nick Price. And he says, whatever he does with the money price figures to wear the mantle of PGA champion more gracefully than daily has, the legend of cook and stick played kick the can

with sudden celebrity all year long. And by the time he got to Bel Rive, he was damaged goods. He continues telling stories of Daly's tumultuous year, which takes up a way more column space than Price's win, which is kind of bizarre. But that's all I've got for the 92 PGA. I truly wish I had more. I worked relatively hard on that.

No apologies, this is very, I was at the PGA at Bel Rive in Brooks one and you know I took a lot of shit from the the Bel Rive, the St. Louisians after kind of making fun of it even though I said how nice they were and I stand by those words. Really lovely town, lovely people do not want

more majors at Bel Rive. Would let's go back to Persimmon and play it at St. Louis Country Club or something like that because no, thank you. Well, speaking of persimmon, let's go to the 1993 masters and I'll take you there. The golf course is still 6,900 yards and they reach there. The person's up to 1.7 million or three and a half million in 2022 dollars. The world ranking as we enter 1993, it's Fowdo, couples price, Norman Langer, Wusdom, kite, all the fobble, Azinger, and Davis love the third.

Chip Beck is 40 to one on this tournament as we come into it, which I will hear his name here shortly. Lee Janssen, Tom Layman, Larry Mies, Jack Nicholas, and Corey Pavan jump out to the lead at five under par on Thursday. John Houston Raymond Floyd and Bernard Longer are at four under par. Jeff Magritz shoots 67 on Friday to get out in front at seven under Dan Forzeman has entered the scene as that's Dan Forzeman's music that you're here coming in Langerie and Langer sit one shot back and then chip back Russ Cochran and Ray Floyd at five under.

On round three Langer shoots 69 to race out to a four shot lead going into the final round over chip back and Dan Forzmann. So checking in on Bernal Longer. He is, this is 1993 again. He's ranked fifth in the world. His 27 European tour wins. He is also won the 85 Masters. Was famous for battling yips over the years

in his own words. He's like, I actually had them four times. One time I four-potted from three feet. Several times I double hit putts, which is much harder to do than you might think. I overcame them with different putting methods and lots of willpower. But to this day, I'm not sure if it's physical or mental. I'm not sure anyone else has figured it out. He said, if you and I went to the practice screen and had a putting contest, uh, conventionally, I probably would beat you. I'm not saying you're a bad putter just that I have good touch, great hand eye coordination and sound technique.

But if we were playing together against each other in a tournament, there is a good chance you would beat me badly. The Yips are a tournament disease and they show up at the worst time. So uh, going to round four, Dan Forzman,zman makes a run at Bernhard Longer by birding the second, the fifth and the seventh. He pulls within one and he's still within one when he gets to the twelfth hole at a guesternation. I got to say, you could tell me that Dan Forzman is like a folk singer.

That's like somebody that the pi man knew and I would be like, yeah, that sounds right. I've heard some love. It's like, it's all the second album. It's new stuff. I'm not a fan. Whisperers in the willows. That was a good. This is from the spokesman review.

There are so many dead challenges lying in that creek bed. Forzeman had heard the veterans say never, ever, ever, ever hit for the flag on number 12 when it's on the right side of the green. It's too easy for the ball to drift the fraction of the right into the creek where it tucks in back there, especially if the wind helps it. Forzman's final round playing partner says he never looks at the pin on 12 just gets his yardage hits for the middle of the green and starts walking. That's Lanny walk. Forzman had heard all that. But when he walked to the 12T, the huge crowd gathered on the hillside, cheered and clapped. He had saved par from the bunker at the treacherous 11th, keeping the heat on Langer and the gallery appreciated.

He said, my spine was tingling. I was feeling the pride, the aura that's such a part of this event. I tried not to get caught up in it, but it's hard not to do. It's such a beautiful setting. There's so much excitement down there. And 12 is such a great hole. My mind was racing. I wasn't able to calm down. He lined up towards the left edge of the bunker, fronting the middle of the green, where champions aim when the flags on the right, but his subconscious made him shove a shot a little to the right. and he knew immediately it was gone into the water. It's another one in the water. Quadruple Bogey Dan Forstman goes from eight under all the way to four under and is no longer in the tournament. All right, Pete. It's amazing how many people get dunked like 12 like 12 continues to be a

menace in every single era, every single like great players, bad players, whatever, like it's, you know, the cat made a 10 there, like the last time we played in the masters, like it's just, it's insane. It's, it's incredible. It really is. I'm obsessed with the history of this whole I'm obsessed with like the, like the literal like read that, that whole thing back out loud and think of like his subconscious pushed it towards the right Like that's literally what Jordan speed said happened to top of his wing and it cost him the masters like it's just you can know it like like Frank on our e yeah brook skupka everything tells you that's gonna happen and you still can step up and do it camera Smith this past year I mean was very much in the hunt at and

this past year. I mean, it was very much in the hunt at and given Scottius a scare and he made triple on 12 like it just always continues to happen. I remember a speed saying in that year like, oh, it was between like I could hit a cut there or I could hit a hook or I excuse me, I hit a draw, but a draw would go long, whatever. And I wanted to, I almost said it like, dude, why not hit a fucking draw? Like, who cares if it ends up in the flowers? Like, you get to better there than like wet in the middle of the freaking pond. But, you know, they just, they can't bring themselves to like, be long there, especially when you see now, like, balls trundle through the flowers and stuff, like down into

the back fringe there. I mean, if I ever get the chance to like gust, uh, and caddy's like, that's Nate. I mean, I got, I had no offense to you, but I think I might hit seven. I'm gonna hit the four-iron. Just say it. I'm not ended up in that creek. Well, the hard part is if you hit the right line, if you hit it in between the bunkers,

right in the middle of the green, it's a different club than if you want to hit it at the pin. And that is what makes it super, like if you have too much club towards the middle of the green, you want to inch it back towards the right and it's just a incredibly, incredibly difficult hole for a right hander and it's not going to change. Longer drives it down the left side into the into the perfect spot on 13 hits it up on the green and eagles it to open up a three shot lead.

I want to take a moment to pause here to highlight a couple shots from chip back. They he went after the pin on 12 and lived to tell the tale. He did not birdie hit a great shot. It did not make the putt. He also hits it in the fairway on 13 and steps up and hits a fantastic looks like a forward fantastic bold shot to the center of this green and two puts to make birdie. I just want to note those two shots before we get to the 15th hole because Langer has already laid up on 15 and chip back is three back playing the 15th hole 240 yards out on a bit of a downslope. Why don't we check in with chip back himself to tell us the story as told in the no laying up podcast episode 404. They they slayed me.

Ben Trey slayed me, you know, about being a coward. That hurts when Ben Trey called you a coward. I want to pause it just for a second. Some words in this chip x2, it might not, they might need a fact checker on some of this part of the story that he famously lays up on this shot, despite having 240, and here he is describing this. I'm thinking, wow, what has he ever done? You know what I mean? I didn't know him that well.

Fortunately, I got to know him a little bit better as time went on. One of my good friends is one of his best friends. So I've got over it, but man, that hurts. You know, when he's calling you a coward on national TV, I want to credit the journalist doing this interview for for following up on this next point because I watched the telecast. I did not hear that word set the scene for us. What what was the scenario that that led to him him saying that did he use the word

coward? I wait a little bit back and watch it last night. I was kind of flipping through it. And I he had a lot to say about it. But I don't remember if he actually said the word coward. Yeah, I think he did to my knowledge and I he had a lot to say about it, but I don't remember if he actually said the word coward. Yeah, I think he did to my knowledge. He did. That's what stuck out to me. I know why that's really amazing. Narrator, no, he did not.

He did not. You know, I put a new three wood in that week because you needed a strong three wood. I was 10 yards behind my go point. And you know, it was really funny because I was playing the Scott Corson Boston Old Sandwich. Tim Near was an Augusta member. I said, Tim, on that particular year, there was a mound in the fairway.

They put these little mounds in the right side of the fairway and I was right behind one. He said, oh, yeah, the gum drops. I said, you called him that. I said, you're kidding me. He said, yeah, they were in there. And I said, yeah, they were only in there for that one year. He said, yeah, they were the gum drops. We called them. I said, well, that cost me the tournament because I got behind one. The wind was kicking up about 25 miles an hour. I was 10 yards behind my go point and going at the middle of the greener at the flag, I had to go right into the teeth of it. Again, couple of fact checks here. Look like the gum drops are there also in 91 when I

watch those highlights. The commentators also note the win was not blowing at that point. It was another reason why they were adamant he had to go. Also did not cost him the tournament because he was also down by a lot of shots. But interesting to get his take on this because he was roasted pretty hard for it. They're getting raised, get ready to hit the shot. Kim Venturi is adamant. He's got to go for it. He says there's no doubt. There's no laying up here now, which I had not heard that yet.

And we might need it. I don't know if a gust of a lettuce use audio at our intro, but it might have to go. But he and his caddy mull over it, ultimately conclude, let's lay up, let's be smart about it. And there's a lot more context of that conversation if you do wanna go listen episode 404, about 47 minutes in for those that wanna listen. But again, I want calling back to like,

he hit ballsy shots in this round. Like shots that like, you're not trying to protect second place, and that's the thing. Venturi says, I'll say it, he's playing for shots in this round. Like shots that like you're not trying to protect second place and that's the thing. Venturi says I'll say it. He's playing for second place right now. And if you look at the shot on 12 and the shots on 13, like I just don't think that and again, in that interview, he says a lot of things just about like, you know,

I wasn't like, I'm not a Greg Norman player. Like I'm not like I had to minimize risk where I could. I was not a tremendous player in that regard. And you know, he was uncomfortable with the shot. If he was in between numbers or whatever it was, he was never going to hit a great one. He laid up, he didn't make it par, but he got absolutely roasted for it.

And here's a little bit more of his description about that. It never entered my mind that I wouldn't hit a great shot. When I never, it never entered my mind. I wouldn't hit a great shot. When I never, it never entered my, I was not afraid of that shot. I wasn't concerned about missing the shot. Nothing. I knew I was going to hit a great shot. The problem was if I could hit a great shot and come up short, that's the part that I was concerned about.

So it is again, a different era. I mean, you know, he only had 215 to cover the water and three would probably does cover that But if he is uncomfortable with it, he laid it up. So So I let the record show that in the Jacks, you know in the NIT when you were on the gum drops there around the 15th hole it had to Actually, so we were all go you and me we were like the whole time Like you're gonna you're hitting three went over this. You're going for this great. Got to. Got to. You know, did the shot did it work out? No. Did it go

like 25 feet? Yes. But we went for it. We knew that there was no no cowardly play there for us. After the tournament, here's what went down the chip back at his caddy. And Ben Tury came up in his cart right after I hit that shot and say, hey, Pete, Chib had gone for it. And he said, yeah, he should have. And I said, Pete, you're out, man. I already'm telling. And because I thought, you know what,

whether you like me or not or whatever you think, your boss, the way I looked at it, and I'm the guy that you know you're there fighting the battle with. So that's that story, Chip Beck goes on to finish second place in that one. He said, I felt, I felt the win was too strong. I didn't want to throw the tournament away on one shot. I don't forget the decision at all. I felt like I played well and that Bernhard won the tournament. Langer later said, I thought he would go for it, but I wouldn't mind if he

laid it up. If I was in his shoes, I would have gone for it. So Langer goes on to easily win. He says, obviously, you start to wonder if you can win again. I really felt after I won the first one that it would have been a lot easier to win the second one. This is from Sports Illustrated. He said, how again, speaking to the tribalism going on at the time, however, what Langer earned with his 11 under par 277 at Augusta was respect from American fans and from American television, both of which he believes have long abused him. Only three weeks earlier, as he was watching his iron shot fly at the famous island green

17th in the heat of the players championship at Sawgrass, someone in the gallery hollered, go in the water. That made his blood burn as bad as a comment I've ever heard in my life on a golf course, you said, but not much worse than it does when he ponders US television. In the past, when I was in contention, they would only show me two or three times, but they would show someone five shots behind me 10 or 15 times. Again, there's just very much like an us versus them mentality that existed in golf. And there's a way, way, way, way more connectivity in it that that we, you know, maybe didn't have at that point. So that's it for the 93 masters.

Second major win. The second masters went for Bernhard Longer. Professional golfers are sort of sensitive boys. I don't think so. They are. As a sensitive boy myself. I understand. You know, I've also spent my life covering like other professional sports.

Yeah. And like this idea that anyone in baseball or football would be like really but hurt by someone sort of saying like, get in the water. Exactly. Does this bring us to the 1993 US Open? It does. You got the next two, my friend. So I watched pretty much the entirety of the the final round of the US Open of my phone today, Sally. And I have to say that if this is what like roll back

the ball brings me, then I don't really don't want any part of that. This was like such a boring-ass pillow fight. Almost like worse than the painstead Scott Simpson won in 91, but like, like watching Lee Jansen play golf is enough to make me want to drink like John Dele. But of course, I can't, when I'm watching Lee Jansen,

because Lee Jansen was famous in this era for wearing a sharps non-alcoholic beer logo on his hat. I don't know if you remember this, but yeah. Even as a kid, I remember thinking like, well, that's kind of lame. Like, at least have like a real beer hat on, man. Like a non-alcoholic beer. Probably could.

This one took, can do alcohol, maybe couldn't do alcohol ads at that time. That could be wrong. Interesting. I don't know if you can now either. Who knows? But very weird that he was just rocking the non-alcohol. Like a big push, I guess, in A beer at this time.

So this one took place in the green screen that is a ball straw where Jack Nicholas once held the Oslo open record for scoring. I'll pause briefly here again to play the game where I ask you if you can name this first round co-leader. His first name is Joey Sindalar. Yes, good job.

Joey Sindalar actually won seven times on the BGA tour, including which I was stunned in 2004. Like Joey Sindalar went in deep into the Tiger era. That's impressive. I don't know why that name. He was in some highlights that I had seen in this era. And that name sticks out to me. I knew the name Joey Sindalar for sure. Almost as like a meme for like the stereotypical or prototypical PGA tour player this time. Like Scott Hoke and Craig Perry again are sort of also in the first round lead and Fred Couples does in in the mix and Raymond Floyd's in the mix.

But this is basically a shootout between Payne Stewart and Lee Janssen like Tom Watson gets an actually an exemption to this US Open because he was not exempted into it, but the USGA gave him a special exemption. They actually played sort of pretty darn well for being 43 and sort of having to be invited to the tournament. But this is basically like the two US Open boring ass players of this early Jetson and paint Stewart, Cory Pave and also being, well, I guess I would put him

in the tremorant of the boring ass players that I really, we call him paint Stewart, Cory Pave, and also being, well, I guess I would put him in the tremorant of the boring ass players that I really, we call him paint Stewart-Boring. I think paint Stewart was kind of a boring player. Paint Stewart was like a good personality, but like paint Stewart's game to me was not super inspiring. Apologies to all the paint people out there. So they kind of,

Jensen actually becomes the first guy since Lietrino to shoot all four rounds in the 60s in the US open at this. Rory would later do that as well at Congo, but it's not exactly the most riveting sort of shooting in the 60s, but it's very methodical. I mean, I bet you, I couldn't find the driving distance of the Jans in that year, but he'd not hitting it more than 260 on I would say most of the holes here. I mean, he's

got there's a lot of 400 yard part fours where he's got 143 yards into those holes, like repeatedly over and over. And this again, this is the era where if you can hit it straight and hit it in the fairway, like you can contend in US Open's, you don't, no one is like bombing it over all the trouble and the rough is long enough that you can't sort of just ignore it. One of the sort of fun things about this,

US Open is that Nicholas plays in this US Open, but after he's done playing, he comes up into the ABC booth and basically spends the next four hours there. He just, like, absolutely, like, is there for the duration and he's breaking down people's swings. He, you know, there's a lot of like, oh, you know, I had this button in 1980 and back in 1967 and this is kind of what I did with it. I know it goes a little right.

Oh, there it is. Like, this is not how I would play it. And it's quite, it's actually super insightful. You could see how smart Jack is about golf and how he's breaking down. Well, the reason that Neatth and Swing went left there is because he just took it away inside and he lifted his hands up here at the start. And that's what I would do is I'd keep my head real still on this.

You know, it's a lot of like Jack said. And well, the way I would do this is, you know, which, yeah, man, like sure. Like you're the greatest player of maybe ever. And that's probably how you would do it. So he must have done this for a long time. He was in the booth when Norman, I watched the Norman Masters documentary thing, the ESPN thing, and he was in the booth when Norman won his first major at Turn Barrier. I think 80s, was that 86 or around then?

Yes, that's the time. That's the thing. He must have been doing this for a while then. I'm shocked that he loves the sound of his own voice. I'm absolutely stunned by that. If you can get past the meme-me-me-me me, aspects of it, like, it's, there's, it's worthwhile, but it's, it is sort of fascinating here. You know, him be, like, both a total narcissist, but then also be, like, super gracious about, you know, the records are meant to be broken, and I'm just really happy for Lee, and I just

really, you know, I've always said that, you know, with me and Asa Okie, really, we both booked a record at night. There was a prize back then. He's like, just like a grandfather, you know, he's only 50 at this point, but he's like rambling on with all kinds of stories. And then Brett Musberger has to steer and back here and a while we were away.

That's a lot of that. Like I just, so spread this, he actually did it for four years. Then he got de-platformed for two years and then made a firey comeback. You got reinstated. I hate to see a guy get de-platformed like that. I was hoping you would pick up what I was putting down there.

Definitely, definitely. So this is kind of a pillow fight, but ultimately, Jansen sort of takes control, laid it in the term, he chips in on 14, which there's this big discussion, like pain hits it on the green, but Janssen is maybe three feet off the green, and Jack is like,

you know, I would make a pain go first. You know, even though Janssen's much closer, like if I were, you know, a pain, I would say, you know, I I were, you know, a pain I would say, you know, I'm gonna go ahead and putt because I wanna see, you know, lead, say, I wanna see what you do. And then Janssen chips it in, and it's like the whole,

oh, like the whole tournament sort of flips. And he takes the one shot lead and update when like it's been super hard to make any sort of birdies. I don't know if you remember Lee Janssen's other US open win, which comes later, but like, in that final round, like, he hit a shot that was like horrendous and like kicked through

the rough and like bounced onto the grain and it was like a huge break. They got a birdie. Well, there's actually another sort of instance of that that happens in this one on 17, which is like the longest par five in history at this point is like 600 yards. He hits a like big, one shot lead. He hits it fans it to the right. It looks like it's like going deep into the woods. It kicks off like two branches

and goes back into the fairway. So like a, and 17 was playing like over, you know, Bulsarol has only the only two par five to the last two holes 17 and 18. So it was like kind of a survival until you got to like 17 and 18 and maybe you could make a birdie, but 17 was actually playing over a par that week.

So this is how different like the era, the golf ball was in this era, is the Jansen hits on 17 driver and then hits two iron just to be able to carry the cross bunkers in the middle and then still has 146 in to the par five and has to hit eight iron from there. But hits eight iron to about like seven feet and makes birdie, which basically wraps up the tournament. And pain tries to get on 18 and two, but like comes up like a foot short and looks like he's about to like snap his club in half. Pain is wearing the Buffalo Bills colors this day, which early in the broadcast, Musburger sort of hints that he did because he didn't want to offend either giants or jets fans. And so he was trying to sort of split the needle there.

And is this in Jersey? And he said, and Musburger was like, we'll see how given the bills, recent history and super balls, that doesn't pretend for bad things. Super bowls and that doesn't pretend for bad things. I got to say, Lee Jensen, two-time major winner, like Ryder Cup stalwart, how did he never get seriously considered to be a Ryder Cup captain? You win two majors and like, striker and paving, and I love these guys get to get to spot in the Ryder Cup

cap and ship, that struck me as a unusual. He's a quiet dude. I don't know if that changes anything. And also like in this era, it was about being a PGA champion. Like you had like that's that's I mean, love one of PGA championship. I know Stricer obviously never did, but like that was a that was a big thing. It always seemed like a big thing. Zinger won a PGA championship. You know, Paven didn't, but yeah, I don't know. It has hadn't really thought of that, but he was only a part of a couple teams though,

I think also, I think just those teams in those years that he won if I remember right, but maybe he was on the 95 team as well. I don't remember exactly, but yeah. He was actually really, yeah, he was 93 and 97 teams. That was it. So that's probably why. We did a podcast with him last year.

Actually, it was a good little good Golf chat not the most you know outgoing person ever but for the golf nerds that was a good little good little golf chat. Now we head to the 93 British. We're basically like in this era as we've said before the world kind of revolves around around Faldo. And a lot of that is because Greg Norman was probably the best player of this era, but Faldo sort of had his number like over and over and over again. And Faldo, you know, would most famously like pick his pocket in 96, wouldn't sort of the biggest

astra, but this is like the first time, and this is, I don't spend too much time on this one because there's not a lot of drama in it, but this is the first time, and maybe the only time that Greg Norman really has, uh, Fowldo's number. Like Norman, this is kind of like the peak of his golfing greatness. Like he just absolutely, uh, stunts all over, uh, St. Andrew, St. Andrew, like he is, you know over St. Andrews and St. Andrews. He is St. George's. St. George is shooting 64 in the second round to take commanding lead.

Everything that Norman is doing that he usually fucks up, like, short puds, like chips, he's grinding his ass off, He's kind of making everything. And, you know, it's sort of like the fates were sort of flipped. When Norman shot like a 64 in the 1989 British Open and lost in a playoff, someone asked him if like, fate had owed him one. And Norman said, hell, fate owes me about four. And so this was kind of like the fact. The writers were like, yeah, it is fact. Like you can hate on Greg Norman all they want, but like he had like several majors that he should have won that were basically

like just kind of like inexplicably robbed. So this Norman is like basically in control in control the entire day on the final day. It's everyone thinks back to the open at St. Andrews when Fowlowe and Norman were paired together and Norman completely collapsed and Fowlowe shot 67 and Norman shot 76. They're this prediction that that's what it's going to be again. And they're not paired together this time, but everyone's expecting Greg to collapse. And he doesn't. He just basically is throttles down the entire day until he reaches the 17th green where he's leading by three. And so it's not like this is super crucial, but it's still a window in the Greg Norman soul. He misses what I would describe as roughly

like a 17 inch putt. It's insane how short it is. It lips out so hard that it's like, it's a 100% longer than the first putt, but it doesn't really matter because he makes that to go by two and then he splits the fairway. He's 14 of 14 fairways the last day, which is pretty incredible. It's hard for me to describe

how bad Greg Norman's outfit is. It looks like like, you know, something that you would buy in a mall that was like a tribute to like Native American traditional dress with a shark on it. It is just incredibly, incredibly bad. It just pulled it up. It's outrageously bad. Yeah. That's captured to all of history. So that, you know, nothing like this is Norman's second major, really, you know, we could have one five or six or whatever pretty easily, but this will be the last major that he wins. And you know, he, I guess he sort of like sobs tears of joy as afterwards to find he feels

like the ghosts of all the past fuck ups have been exercised. But you know, as we know from 96, like really the worst of all the past fuckups have been exercised. But as we know from 96, like really the worst of all is still to come at this point. But there's this brief flicker where Greg still thinks, like the existential dilemma or contest between me and Fowl though has not yet been decided. Like I could still be in this. I could still sort of even the score between us

and it didn't quite work out that way. narrator, he did not. It is like we could do a whole pod on Norman's close calls. I mean, they're well documented, but losing in a playoff, the US open in 1984 to Fuzzy Zeller. He held the 54 hole lead in every major in 86. Is that right? Or have that right? The Saturday

slam that was that year. He finished, uh, T2 to Nicholas in 86. He boi's the 18th hole or else he's going to play off, uh, with Jack. He, uh, had a bad final round at the US open, uh, that year, I believe that was Chinatown. Uh, he wins the open championship that year, uh, finishes second to Bob's way, holds the poker shot at the PGA that year. Turns around and finishes T2 at the 87 masters to Larry Mises chip in T3 at the Masters in 89 to Fowdo T2 at the open chip in 1989. And then he goes over and finishes runner up in the playoff of the next major championships that we will get to the 1993 PGA. He finishes second at the US Open in 95 obviously second at

the Masters in 96 and then had that run in 08 the 08 open that like that that that's going to be a fun episode whenever we get to that one is looking looking back at, and he almost pulled a Tom Watson there, which I don't really have as strong a memory about that as I probably should, but. I don't either, I feel like I, I know he didn't play very well in the final day, but it was sort of like, you know, it was 50, I think at that moment, and it was kind of like,

oh yeah, this is crazy that. He was really fun to root for. Like he was really fun to root for. He really was like putting aside everything that's happened since then like I rooted like hell for that guy. I mean, he was just he was part of like what made me love golf as a young kid of just like it's this pursuit that's like almost guaranteed to kick you in the nuts like in some way like that's just it's always gonna golf with watching golf as a teenager and it always The it was a constant

Reminder of how hard it always was like somebody was always in angst watching it and I that was so drawn to that not attracted to it But like just intrigued by that. That's what has always made golf interesting to me. And it seems like it's getting easier for these guys coming on the stretch of these tournaments just with the equipment and the way it goes. But the way I remember it as a kid, it was just sweating over these shots and wondering how you had a golf ball in front of that, many people and no one put it on display

more than that guy did in the 90s and the 80s. I wasn't really comfortable. What I think too is, if you watch the SPIN he has been documentary, he was kind of sort of charming about a lot of it. Like he wasn't, you know, when he blew the lead of the masters, 96, like he came out and sort of like, you know, it's not like I died. Like he was really sort of like, he answered all the questions.

He didn't, you know, hide in the, you know, locker room, whatever. Like the Greg Norman that we have now is obviously this divisive figure and intentionally so in his part, and I think a lot of it has to do with his politics and his insecurities and stuff, but back before all that was still to come, he was kind of relatable in some ways. He had everything, but still, I couldn't quite conquer the things that he almost wanted and he almost felt sympathy for him. And, you know, it's weird how so much of, you know, what is what he became now is kind

of the seeds of it were sort of laid slowly over time of like feeling disrespected or feeling wronged or feeling, you know, not unloved by everyone from his dad to the fans to fellow pros, whatever and like how it ripped apart the golf world. Well, let's just like we've been going a long time. I'm going to actually just zoom to round four of the 1993 PGA championship at Emberness. Again, because the PGA of America has next to no documentation around that these events actually happen.

There is a YouTube of the just the putts of the playoff where you can see it, it get decided. But Norman does have the 54 hole lead at 10 under, A'singer, Bob Estes, Haleur, when VJ, Lanny walk into Tom Watson going for the career grand slam. Gosh, I love to have been taking on that journey with some kind of video for it. I feel like that's got to be some good documentation out there. But a great battle from Norman and Zinger emerges on the back nine. Azinger birdies 12, 13, 14 and 17. Norman birdies 11, 13 and 16.

They both finish at 12 under par and are headed to a playoff. They're both behind by as many as three shots actually on this Sunday. VJ had the lead for a while. Fowdo's in the mix as well. Fowdo finished one shot out of this playoff. Again, Fowdo just a total, total constant in this era. This is from Sports Illustrated. Both arrived at the 18th green in twos in the playoff and Norman prepared

to put from 18 feet for birdie. Not a dozen yards from where he stood, Tway had hit this shot that sent Norman on a seven year spin. Now if there was any justice, this putt would drop. It was symmetry. It was poetry and Vernus Odom. And when it paid up, maybe he would throw that hat into Tway's trap and let it land softly over the spot, from which his thorny vine of troubles first sprouted.

Magnificently, Norman's putt did go in. And then it came out. It went down into the hole, took a nice long look, hung a moment, and then spit itself out in a 270 degree loop. Just Norman's luck. He had found the only golf ball in the world afraid of the dark. Zinger would... I would encourage people to watch this

because I watched it maybe six months ago or something. And you cannot believe how violently that it was, you know where it was? It wasn't on YouTube, it was actually on golf channel. They were like, and so when I say, I would encourage you to watch it, like, good luck finding it. But it was like, they were re-broadcasting golf greatest rounds.

And I think the 18th hole played at like, 331 yards, because it's like such a hard dog leg, so they couldn't actually like hit driver there, so it was like, they're hitting four irons, whatever. But Norman's put, like, it truly is exactly what Gary writes, like, it is exactly what Gary writes, like it goes halfway down and violently lips out. Like you cannot believe, and he's like just,

he cannot believe, and it's like a big breaking putt, too. He read it so well that you just can't even grasp, like oh my God, like this dude was an incredible golfer. Like he knew exactly how to hit the putt, and then Fates were just out to screw him. Yeah, and then A'singhers got a seven foot birdie putt to win on the second playoff hole and he lifts it out. Norman has a four foot putt to extend the playoff and it breaks across the hole. Mrs. a four footer to extend it. And that is it. Vern is in the booth making the call. Actually, and they send it down to someone to do the interview

With Paul Azinger on that green the 10th hole at Emberness. Who do you think is doing the interview right there on that green to give out a major championship? Oh my god Judy Brankin I know I do it Jim Nance Do Jim Nance on the course on the ground doing the interview He's also with the president of the PGA. And this is right after Norman missed that putt. Like, I don't know if Norman had raked the ball yet. And they go to present him the trophy right away immediately. I mean, they must have been way over their time limit with the playoff or whatever it was.

Incredibly rushed ceremony where they get the want to make or an A's in his hands. A's in your said, looking at putts, my heart was beaten so hard. was incredibly rushed ceremony where they get the wanna maker and Azinger's hands. Azinger said, looking at puts, my heart was beating so hard I could see my eyeballs flashing. Rick Riley wrote, you should have seen Azinger who was wondering who had shut off the town's oxygen supply. His lungs wouldn't compress, his fingers tingled, his head was throbbing, and his heart was about to throw a rod. It was beating like a hummingbirds and every time it it did, Flashball was popped in front of his eyes.

He had spent the day trying to remind himself to do breathing exercises. Inhale, count for, exhale, count for. Here he was on the rim of the biggest tournament of his life. And he's running a LaMaz clinic. And yeah, it's a good, Rick. It is pretty good. It's Norman Sixth runner-up finish in a major. He played eight straight major rounds in the 60s.

The first player to lose all four majors in playoffs. Holy shit, man. That is incredible. Like four other majors were no one beat him over 72 holes that counted for absolutely nothing for him. Four months later, Aisinger was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in his right shoulder. And he had referenced how he had trouble lifting the watermaker and they kind of cut away before he tried to lift it up. And so we didn't get to see that. But to close out this era, the world rankings

go Fowdo, Norman, Langer, Price, Aizinger, Couples, Wuznam, Jose Maria, J, jumbo, Ozaki, and Tom Kite. So not a lot of turnover in this three year period, but that is the major championships from 1991 to 1993. Any other takeaways from this era that we haven't covered? No, just a lot of fun, like John Daly anecdote, some less funny than others, but like Faldow, like really just the sort of son that everything was orbiting around in this point, right? Like whether he was rebuilding a swing or challenging Norman or trying to hold off people or motherfucking the press or whatever, like Fowler was that dude. Yeah.

Couple takeaways ahead. One, how much being two shots out of a major championship earns you like maybe a mention on a podcast three decades later. Like it's just one bad swing and your name is not written in the history books. Dan Forzman, I'm sorry. Like it's just no one's's gonna mention you when they talk about that that masters at all It's just remarkable how thin the margins are Really wild to see old sports pages from the 90s like just super nostalgic you see you know current events with Pete Samperous and Monica Celis and I saw Michael Jordan's dad dying in this time period Jimmy Johnson talking about the cowboys just all very nostalgic And just made me thankful to have sports like it's just been an enormous part of my life from basically four years old where I would retype up the box scores from the previous days baseball games for some reason like it.

I couldn't tell you why that was but I just I truly don't know what my life would be like without sports. And I enjoy, I enjoy looking back at these. It's weird. Sports Illustrated was mega mega clutch, particularly John Garrity and Rick Riley as resources for this. And it's wild to think, you know, there's going to be way more media available for the majors that we're covering. But, you know, maybe 30 years down the road,

the Sunday live show from the old course, you'll have might be a resource for some takes on Cam Smith, ruining our Rory dream down the road for some future podcasters or whatever it might be, but it was kind of, I've been doing this almost 10 years now and it's like, oh, we're kind of like, we're a part of this scene. Like we are part of like, documenting history now and that was a weird kind of realization to reach. But shout out to the Eugene Register Guard. They are big hitters and people to majors all around. I think hitters.

One of the first papers I ever wanted to work out was in college. Really? If I could just be the Eugene Register Guard's like, you know, Oregon B-Retter. Even not even football, but like basketball or something. I could just work my way up through that. But a little bit, I know.

Big comes out clutch. So yeah, you just showed you like from this era, how like actually describing what happened was like an important part of like writing a game story then. It wasn't just, you know, you didn't have the assumption that literally everyone would sort of, you know, had seen what happened. I thought about that actually at the US Open this year when, when Fitz hit that shot out of the bunker.

And I was standing right there. I was like, I'm gonna describe literally everything that happened in this moment because that feels way more important than the feelings surrounding it. Someone's gonna wanna look back and be like, what happened on that US Open? Well, the student hit an incredible bunker shot to behind the pin and won the US Open,

you know, in a clutch moment. And, you know, that's a lot of that is important. You're right, like there is some value in history of like, you know, here's, let's recap what actually happened. Let's run down the leaderboard. It's just, it's fun to reflect on this stuff too. Like, honestly, like I don't think a lot about fits a shot that he just hit this past year, right? Which like, you cover the major and it passes by Fun to reflect on this stuff too. Like honestly, I don't think a lot about Fitzgerald's shot

that he just hit this past year, right? Which you cover the major and it passes by and you don't really talk about it again. And that's what these kind of episodes give us a chance to look back on different times golf and learn a lot. I mean, I'd say 98% of what was said today, either through preparing for this or things you said, I did not know.

And I imagine the same as for the listeners, which was what makes that very fun. So thank you for the effort putting the preparation for spending almost three hours with me tonight. Thank you to listeners for tuning in for this one. And we back with the regularly scheduled programming when you typically find it. So KVV have a wonderful evening slash morning. We are at 12.30 in the morning as we wrap this my, my bourbon's quite warm, but it's bedtime. So thanks so much, bud. You're ready, time. Cheers. Right club. Be the right club today.

That's better than most. How about it? That is better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most.