No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 65: Adam Sarson

Episode Date: February 14, 2017

Adam Sarson from The Score stops by to debrief Spieth’s win at Pebble, Hideki’s triumph in the desert, CBS, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Sergio, and of course the Ryder Cup. Most importantly, the story... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 65: Adam Sarson appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. I'm not in. That is better than most. Better than most! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No-Lang-Up Podcast. I'm Chris Solomon, joined by our resident Canadian expert or Sergio Garcia Consultant, I believe, Adam Sarson. And we got a little sound quality improvement on the podcast.

Adam, what's going on? Oh, not much, man. How are you doing? It's good to know that I can be both a resident Canadian expert and the, you know, probably the president of the Sergio Fantil. It is, it's me and Tron at this point, but no, it's good to be back. It's good to know that, you know, you finally kicked to the curb, as like Rory and Jordan to get to me. So that's definitely good to hear. I think we probably would have done one of these weekly if our if our schedules ever lined up. But now I've got to record this like after midnight just to just to accommodate your schedule. I'm just saying I'm uh you're you're the one who moved not me so don't you know don't put this on me.

That's actually fair. So is Jordan's beat back? Where did he go? I don't quite understand. Look, I don't know if people know exactly what we're kind of talking about. But so yesterday at some point, after Jordan won, golf week put out a tweet that said, what's my Jordan Speeth is back, which I don't understand this in any way, shape or form? Yeah, I think it, I generally like golf week, I think it was just kind of a one-off little thing. And to be fair, I didn't see it anywhere else.

It's kind of a bit of a straw man thing, I that you know, we saw one person say it was kind of ridiculous That even one person said it but it's not it's not that big of a deal But no, he's been playing like this for a while to see it all kind of come together in one place though It was a little bit it was kind of scary to me and I mean that in a good way and that I mean he he played very Conserved not not even that conservative Sunday, but didn't really get a lot happening. Otherwise, he could have won by a seven or eight if he had anything falling or if he was getting it a little bit closer to the hole. But I know a lot, I threw out a comparison to Tiger and a tweet and I knew I was going to,

I knew, I got the feedback I was expecting and people would not understand that I just wanted to share an interesting nugget that at the age of 23 and a half Tiger had 10 wins in one major. Spieth has nine wins and two majors. I just find that fascinating. I know Tiger, you know, in his first 100 starts had 28 wins. Spieth had nine. I just find it really interesting that this guy took a very different route to get here. Came out at age 19 with no status.

Kind of got a jump start on the PGA tour. a very different route to get here came out at age 19 with no status. Kind of got a jump start on the PGA tour. So yeah, he has more starts, but to have one nine events by a time you're at this age, that's that's not worthy. And it's not meant to be comparison to Tiger. But I mean, that means something, right? No, it absolutely does. I mean, I don't, I mean, like you said, though, you know what you're gonna get when you compare anybody to Tiger, even if it is

just in an off-hand remark, I mean, the fact is that, you know, no one will ever be what Tiger was at any point. But no, it's ridiculous to see somebody this good come along. I mean, the fact is that it's probably because of Tiger that we don't even appreciate Jordan as much as we should to be honest. I mean, like you said, I mean, if Tiger goes out goes out and wins, you know, like you said, 28 or whatever of his first 100 starts, I mean, like, like, it's, he's put, he's put everyone else in kind of a, kind of a bit of an impossible situation to us for us to really truly appreciate. It's the same kind of thing that we go through with, with Rory. Whenever, you know, Rory goes three or four months without a win and, and, and we all, well, a lot of us,

but people like to think that he's gone through some kind of a drought, and it's really not the case. It's just, it speeds him asin, and you're right, though. I mean, what we saw on Sunday, I mean, he was basically playing like a prevent defense and just begging Kelly Kraft to come get him.

And it looked for a little bit like he like Kraft might make a charge, but I mean it was never really endowed at any point. I was a little bit nervous. I don't want to say nervous, but like I I at least kept my attention a little bit. I thought it was a pretty boring Sunday, but again, part of the reason I wanted to make that make that Tiger comparison is at this point going forward, we cannot make it at all because at this age, Tiger spent the next 13 months winning 12 tournaments, including four majors. So I just wanted to get that out there.

This was the last chance to kind of throw in a fun little nugget as to how amazing the start of Speed's career has been. And I think, to a certain extent, it doesn't get appreciated. And just the fact that he won two majors so young. And if he had spread out as two majors, 1, 1 and 15, 1, 1 and 16, we wouldn't have been dealing with the kind of crap that we were dealing with last year. And to be fair, I think overall, people

are being very fair about how he's played recently. And winning in Australia had a very good start to the season in Hawaii. And now this, I think he lands is a very safe prediction. I think he lands somewhere between the 2015-2016 season. Is that fair? Yeah, I thought he's he's talked about how good his 2015 was and you know when he goes out and says things like well you know if I would win two majors every year for the rest of my career like it would be you know be the best player ever. It's not in as long as I can close. He didn't have a bad 2016.

And people, you know, it's really quite unfair to compare the 2016 to 2015 to his identity. He was so good for so long. It was kind of scary to watch him go through a bubble. I mean, his putter was so good. And even yesterday, like he wasn't making a whole ton of things drop. But I mean, the rest of this game was on point too. I mean, he's got every facet of the game going right now, and it's really impressive to watch. And that's the thing. And Porter kind of went off on this a bit that it's not just the putting, like his ball striking is absolutely incredible. It's off to an unbelievable start this year.

I think he's like fourth or something in Strokes Gain to approach in the green and that's very skewed so far because there's not been very many events that have tracked it. And even this week only two rounds counted in that stat and whatnot, but I mean, you can see it's popping off the screen as well. He hit, he's hit like 85% of his greens so far this year, which is blowing away the rest of the tour.

And he's converting those into birdies at like a 41% rate, which is second on tour. That's an incredible combination. See, like I think, I think part of it is usually when we see, like so there's no doubt that that that speed is an incredible putter Right, we all know that I think part of what we kind of see from time to time is usually like you get these guys who are so good at One thing right so say Sergio is probably the best example. He is such a good ball striker that you know

Everything else kind of just falls by the wayside and I think people kind of get used to that sort of thing. With speed, you know, he's such a good putter that for whatever reason, it overshadows everything else, and people, we don't see guys like this very often who are so good at every facet of the game, that I think people just kind of assume that, okay, well, it's the putter that's really doing it for him, but in reality, it's a perfect combination of both. Yeah, Porter was mad. Porter was mad at what he wrote today. Porter is always mad at, you know, anyone who comes out, well, just like all of us are.

I mean, anyone kind of comes at, you know, the guys that we like, but, you know, he's right though. He's not incorrect about what he was saying. I read that piece today. It was well-ordered. I mean, he's so good at everything that I think people just kind of fall back on while he's such a great putter.

But no, it's really quite the opposite. He's just good everywhere. They mentioned about 20 times on the broadcast that he looks more fit this year. I didn't really see it, but I was talking to a few people that just had noticed that his swing looks a little bit shorter this year, maybe, that may be able to add to his ability to make a repeatable action. It seemed like he was hitting his irons a little bit further than he normally was. He was at least keeping up with DJ on the

distance of the irons. I was trying to say there were a few times during the round that he put, during one of the rounds with DJ where I was like wow He's actually like he's right. He's right there with them So I mean there could be something to that. I I don't I but I mean real yesterday I don't think we can expect him to compete with DJ, you know going forward at least in terms of distance But I mean it was it's good to see Yeah, and so decent start to the year with the winners. We had so far. Nobody in their 30s has won an event in 2017 at this point.

It's pretty pretty ridiculous. It was funny. He actually, Speed got asked a question about Justin Thomas after winning the tournament. Yeah, and it's say, look, times have changed. He's Justin Thomas. There's no longer Jordan Spees. Good buddy, I guess. I did, you know, part of it is going the other way around though

Yeah, couldn't help but notice that he won an event immediately after taking a picture in a no-langup shirt I'm just saying I'm just saying You're seeing that I should start taking photos in my no-langup here Just just swing by the no-langup pro shop anybody that wants to you know at a little consistent to see their balls striking What did you what do you what do your thoughts overall on the event? 80 overall AT&T pel Beach pro and three courses Everything we get as a fan experience. What do you what do you your overall thoughts? See, I it's it's it's really tough because you know from everything that I know you and I have both heard

Is that it's it's a much better experience for the people on the ground than it is for people watching on TV. From a TV standpoint, I mean, CBS is in a bit of a tough, they're in a very tough position with the play is so slow with all the amateurs and alleged celebrities that end up going to this thing. I get the appeal of it. I certainly get the appeal of what it used to be when people didn't have access to the celebrities and whatever that people do now. It was probably really cool to see Ben Crosby and played all of this. You might not have a chance to see Ben Crosby up close and personal with that any other time.

But seeing Justin Timberlake, I mean, Colt Ford and like these guys, it's not the same as it used to be, that's for sure. Overall, no, look, it's a shame to me that the one time a year that we get to see Pebble is in this event. We don't get to see Cypress anymore. I could definitely do without it, that's for sure.

I get that there's a lot of history there. I really do. I know it's probably way bigger than me as a millennial golf fan and probably this event is not targeting me and it is something You know, we always crave things that are different on the PGA tour and this is a bit of a different event And again, it may be just that just not target for our age group But I you've got to give your fans at this point some kind of option to be able to watch the golf tournament. And that there's got to be some kind of online or something that I don't need to be watching

on a Saturday afternoon. Like you said, Colt Ford and Larry the cable guy pulling a guy out of the audience. It's just not funny. Like I know some people may think it's funny. Like to me and maybe again, we're the minority, maybe the hardcore golf fan really isn't who dominates a CBS or golf channel broadcast on a normal day. But I will say this though,

I will say that CBS was better this year. Yes. Then they have been in the previous years. I mean, they weren't set up on 17 to do interviews with every amateur group that went through on Saturday. We didn't get Peter Costas wasn't analyzing the swing of Gary Muldier, whoever that is. And, but no, I mean, I think it was better,

but I mean, yeah, I think you made a good point of it. I know my parents, for instance, are like my mom, for instance, are, you know, like my mom's, my mom lights watching, does like Carson daily and then whoever else. But no, I mean, for people like us, no, it's not for us at all. Yeah, I don't know who's laughing at this stuff as you know, is the main thing,

especially I know Bill Murray's a legend, but man, that act is just, it's way too tired. I don't know. I'm really too eject on Bill Murray. I don't get me wrong and credibly funny dude great actor but I'm tired at this at this point. For this event yeah without a doubt. Yeah I totally agree that CBS did a much much better job. I swear I think that Jim Nance his comment about on Saturday when he basically came on the air and said how much golf they were gonna be showing.

I swear that is directed at the Twitter folks, that's myself. I know Tron has done, Tron has there's a lot of credit for how much criticism, it's weird to say that how much criticism he's given CBS. If anyone out there thinks like we give CBS a lot of grief just out of, you know, habit or out of just fun or just because we're trolls, that's not the case at all. It's like we actually care about the networks to giving a good product to their fans. We think we are in kind of a unique position where we have a decent following and can voice our opinion and kind of get some attention and people, there's no one out there that's reaching out to us and like thinking that CBS's broadcasts are fine.

Like we are just trying to act as a voice for the people. And I can almost, I actually can guarantee, I know for a fact that it has at least gotten on the execs, and I don't know about the exec level, but I know that at least at the production level of CBS, they're aware of the feedback they've gotten from social media on the broadcast. And I, without a doubt, think that at least at the production level of CBS, they're aware of the feedback they've gotten from social media on the broadcast. And I, without a doubt, think that at least factored

into them removing themselves from the 17th hole and not showing celebrity swings and slow motion. But they did limit, it seemed like a Saturday was a ton of amateur golf, but it's Sunday, it looked like they were dead set on not showing the amateurs. Yeah, no, for sure. And you know, you know, every once in a while, I might, my whole thing about showing the amateurs. Yeah, no, for sure. And you know, that's, you know, every once in a while, my whole thing about showing the amateurs

has always been like, yeah, someone does something amazing or, you know, you want to show, you know, the Bob Stoops pro-tracer from the other day where he basically just fired one directly into the crowd on seven to great. Yeah, no, that's great. I mean, look, and to your point about like, what the criticism of CBS,

it's like NBC's golf coverage has been a lot better over the last few years. I've loved everything pretty much that Fox has done. With their USGA stuff, PGA Tour Live is fantastic for hardcore golf fans. The European Tour broadcasts are basically golf shot after golf shot with very little to no fluff every time out.

It just seems to me like CBS has fallen behind even if they were quite a bit better this year than they were last. Yeah, and make no mistake. They're not there yet. We saw some positive steps. I don't want to step on, I think Tron's going to put a piece together. I don't want to step on his toes too much on that, but I think it's worthy, definitely worthy of discussion in that.

We're gonna give, we're gonna continue to give feedback on what we think golf fans want. I think it really, it really does matter. There's enough react. It's, I see it in my mentions every single week when it's, when CBS is on and the amount of commercials and as soon as they can figure out a way to mix in showing commercials during play rather than taking so many breaks please please please find a way to do that I know NBC did it for the rider cup I know it's probably not super easy but man I gotta have some focus groups I gotta imagine more goes into it then just what they what they doing and we haven't even mentioned the 30 minute break, which deprives us every year, a pebble of the leaders playing through the, basically the best stretch of golf in the US. You know, I think Brendan Porath mentioned this, you know, it was Phil last year, who we didn't get to see play basically 6, 7, and 8.

You know, this year was Jordan, like it's just, you know, something, I understand that there's a lot of logistical problems with all this and believe me. I'm not the guy who's gonna be deciding all these things for CBS at any point soon, but like, there has to be a better way than what we've been given. And I've been told, or not just me,

it's out there that the reason for the 30-minute gap is there needs to's big graphics switch over from golf channel to CBS or whatever. But here's the thing, we don't care about the graphics. I get the international feed here so when they go to commercial, I don't know who it is. Sometimes John Swantek, sometimes it's another guy that is just announcing what's going on. He sounds like Swantek. guy that is just announcing golf that's going on. He's down like swan type of

guys. It's hard to figure out who it is or if it's swani or not, but they just show golf. It may not be the most relevant golf, but they show golf. So I know there's cameras rolling out there. I know there's still a broadcast in some way. You got to find a way to give that 30 minutes back to the fans, even if it means going online, which is so less than ideal. They've at least figured out that you can go and watch online if the basketball game runs over, like it runs over every single week. So yeah, there's at least that. Yeah, can you take us 15 minutes longer on golf channel and then bring it in at 2.15 or 3.15 or whatever the time is just to avoid that basketball game, but that's enough on CBS

But progress being made, but please please keep it up the change He got any tiger takes Yeah, I guess I mean look at you look the thing is like Does anyone actually believe that he didn't hurt himself on the flight over there? Uh, I don't necessarily believe that he hurt himself on the flight. I don't know. I don't think it was good for him to fly 16 hours, but I mean, I don't, I think it was hurt.

I don't know what to say. Hurt in the gym, but I think he, the pictures, but what he looked like at the hero versus what he looked like when he showed up in Dubai, it's a different person. Like it looked like he was lifting two times a day. And that's what I've heard from a very, very, very reliable source that people within his team are very not happy

about the way he continues to work out. And I know that it's kind of a double-edged sword here because I tend to roll my eyes at just saying that working out leads to injuries, especially when it relates to Rory, but that's a different topic. At Tiger at that age, at 41, with all the back problems he's had, I just don't think he needs to be in the gym lifting a ton of weights. And that's what it certainly looks like. Despite what Notabagay came out and said that, you know, his workouts look way different,

which sounded like a response directly to what I tweeted. So I don't know if it was necessarily the flight that did it, but I definitely think that he's been doing some kind of activity within that time when he was free swinging and skinnier in December versus what he looked like in Dubai. Yeah, yeah, so I should rephrase. Maybe not necessarily on the flight, but there definitely was a difference between, so like when we were, I'm not sure if you were actually up

watching that first round from Dubai, I know that a few of us were, but were I'm not sure if you were actually up watching that first round from Dubai I know that a few of us were but yeah so when when he was it was so obvious watching that first round in Dubai that something was wrong you know he the first swing I mean it was basically just a duck hook 260 yards left and it was it was a horrible swine. He winced horribly again pretty much right after he had it. You know he made he made getting in and out of the bunkers in Dubai looked like a much

bigger chore than they actually were. Something definitely changed from from that from either from hero and from Tori to to what it was in Dubai. Now I know that like when I was following along on Twitter during that first round in Dubai, people were kind of just saying, oh well it's the new normal like you walked a little slower and this and that. And I was like, yeah okay, I can understand that. But there was a big difference between

a new normal of Tiger walking a little slower and looking like he was in pain the entire way. And for him to say after the round that he was completely fine, I mean, look, maybe he did spasm at some point after the round. I'm not even going to suggest that he hasn't re-indered it entirely, but it's something definitely seemed up in that first round and I find it a little difficult to believe that he was fine the entire way. I don't know what this means going forward. I mean, look, he's obviously not playing this week at RIV and he's not playing the Honda

after that. If he's actually, that's one hell of a spasm if that's what that is. It's clearly not, they're not totally transparent with what happened and really it just I wonder if yeah He got locked into you know when he said no, it's not painful after that press conference and then had to withdraw He basically kind of put Steini in a little he sent Steini out to deal with it much like Bubba would have done with Ted But no, yeah, I mean, I don't know, man. I was very hopeful about this comeback. As soon as I saw him swinging though at Tori, it just looked way different than it did in Bahamas.

And I think he was wearing sweaters and stuff down there. And you couldn't really see the muscle. The muscle that was back on it. It just looked different in Dubai. And it's not his carry, his fighting weight, I would say. So I'm concerned about the comeback. I think it sounds like he will be back for Bay Hill. He's not ruled that out.

Yeah, when I had heard that he was going to withdraw, I heard it was out for four weeks and I went and looked at the schedule immediately and saw that it lines up with Bay Hill. Look, my thought has always been that if he could get himself healthy for a decent amount of time, like not, but he's never going to be 100% healthy, like he's admitted as much to everybody who has asked him, my thought has always been that if he could get himself to a point where he could just play, say even for just a year straight without having to pull out of any event, that we do owe him some time to figure out this new swine and to figure out what he's doing to get himself back in the plane shape.

And I would have thought that if he could keep himself healthy, that he would probably win again, maybe obviously not to the level that he was winning 15 years ago, but at the very least, win an event here and there, contending a few majors on the weekends and everything. But obviously, you know, that's all entirely dependent on his health. And right now, it's not looking anywhere near positive. Did you think we see him at the Masters? Yeah, I do. Unless he's actually re-injured that, you know, the nerve problem that he had that caused the surges in the first place. I can't imagine that he's going to take the masters off. I don't know what we're going to see. I mean, look, he's a there's no safer bet in the world than him missing the first fairway left on on Thursday. But I mean, outside of that, I have no idea what to expect from him.

He'll probably top ten it for all we know.. That's enough on Tiger. I just felt like we had to at least address it, but I didn't get a chance to recap the waste management last week. We don't have to go too far in depth on it like we did AT&T, but I feel like it's definitely worth mentioning what Hadekimatsu Yamaz done so far this year. But would you judge me if I said I don't enjoy watching Hadecki play. I've heard you spelled off this take in spurts from time to time. You're going to have to walk me through it though. Outside of the fact that I will admit he does play a little slow. And by a little slow I mean glacial, like outside of that, I don't know what the issue is really.

I'm not, it's not even his pace, it's just the whole, the whole tour sauce of acting up said it every shot was like, it was kind of funny for like a while. I let it go for a really long time. And then I think more people started to notice it and chime in on it and I know Tron's been on the same path too. Like, I just, I kind of wear me down. I'm kind of like, I don't enjoy this. Like, I, come on.

Like, you hit the ball eight feet left of the flag and you act like it's going OB. Like, they got, they got old really quick. And he's ruining your brand. Yeah, a little bit. I take you a very personal. No, I, I always go. He's the only one who does that though, like in fairness.

He's the worst though. He is. No, I agree that he does. It's exaggerated to a point. But yeah, it's not as, that doesn't bother me so much. To be honest, I don't know. I just, I guess I kind of looked at it and I just, I love someone who, I mean, as you can sure you can tell based on my affection for Dazzle at Sergio,

I just love Dazzle who are such high quality ball strikers that I can't get on board with this. I really can't. It's not that I dislike him. It's just I'm annoyed by it to the point where I'm right there with you. I love watching like good ball strikers just, you know, stuff it and pimp it, you know, like with confidence and I hate that he ruins it every time It's a good shot. He ruins it by acting like it's terrible I it's not that I dislike him at all I he's just kind of falling into that Jason Day category for me where it's like I don't really enjoy watching you play And I don't think that it's my

American bias, but it might be and I'm just not self-aware enough to really understand it. But it just does it does it have anything to do with the fact that we made that bet about three years ago that I haven't been able to pay you back on yet or is it? I'm not allowed to comment on bets that have not been paid because I obeyed in like so many hot dog hamburger or whatever pizza's whatever. I don't even remember all the things we bet on But I lost three in a row to end the season. I have they able to pay any of them back, but Yeah, do you owe me one or two rounds of golf because of that we bet speed or months of yama to win a major first? Yeah, I can't remember what we decided I don't have to go back and look at the tweet

That was probably about three or four years old at this point But yeah, no, I definitely did say that Hedakhi would win a major before speed, but you know, I'm not convinced that Hedakhi won't have more majors than speed at some point in the future, either. So I'm very bullish on his game. Just, you know, he's got a lot of work to do, obviously, but he's so good. And I, like I say that I can't. I'm not fully, you know, Sean Martin level in the bag for him, but it's nowhere in here as bad as you're making it out

to be, I don't think. Never go full Martin on my field. But I'm not making it out to be that bad. I just, I hate when people, you know, when somebody is succeeding really at a really high level and coming in with like a bad take. It's a bad, I'll admit, this is a bad take of mine, but I can't.

That is a bad take. I can't help what, how I feel about what I watch it. I mean, it shouldn't be the lead story, definitely when it comes to Mount Siyama, but the scary thing is like, he still hasn't really figured the putting thing out. I think, and I'm not looking to set i think he won with negative strokes game putting in feinis

no he did uh... it's remarkable yeah no what he's he's got he's got a lot of uh... he has a lot of work to do don't have your own i just you know i i don't i don't quite get the uh... the the hatred for that's all it's not hatred don't put get the hatred form. That's all. It's not hatred. Don't put words in my mouth. He was actually not.

I'm looking it up right now. He wasn't a negative short stand putting, but he was a barely positive. Like, if he could put at and this isn't a shot at Roy's putting, but Roy's not known as like a top putter in the game. But if he could put even Roy's level, I think he might be the best player in the world. He already might be the best player in the world, but he can get to number one in the world with a win this week. I know. That's deserved though. I mean, the guy is lost to like two people in the last three months or something like that. Is that still, is that streak still active? It's well, I mean, he didn't do so well at Sony and Farmers, but outside of that, yeah,

it's been ridiculous. So I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do this year in the majors, that's for sure. Me too. I'm fully on board. I love it. I love it. I'm in big support of this, just to make up for my off-letake. But John Rom is terrifying, by the way.

Yeah. If we've been talking about John Rom, it seems like for like probably over, God, probably almost two years now, he's the reason why the European Ryder Cup team should have changed the rules. The fact that what I understand that it's not that bit of a deal to play for European tour events, but like John Rom is a game changer for that European Ryder Cup team and you should be absolutely terrified to see him play against you guys in France.

I'm terrified of him. I'm still not afraid of France at all for the record just throwing that out there. I'm going to be steadfast in my... This is my France in general or the European Ryder Cup team in France? European Ryder Cup team I'm not scared. Still not scared. I mean, is Bubba going toba gonna make the trip over there? Like is he like what's the deal with him in France

at this point? Like, I mean, he if he doesn't make the team, but there's no way that he's going over there as an assistant captain in France, right? Does he still have a passport? I have no idea. But yeah, no, like you don't need to be scared necessarily, but you know how sick local these things are,

and you know how volatile match play is. Like, you know, you get a couple of guys who are running hot like you guys had a few months ago, and it's a completely different story. Yeah, and it's a long way out to be talking actual results, but no, Ram, has he taken up Euro Tour membership? I should know this, but has he?

Not that I know of. I believe the last thing that I read was that Thomas Bjorn was apparently going to be talking with guys like him and Paul Casey and Russell Knox and David Wynne Murth and all these guys to try to get them to play at least enough events to be eligible. They, but yeah, I don't think any of them have actually taken up membership yet. I have a hard time believing that cases go into after each other, so just stand against it a couple of years ago.

He wouldn't have to do it this year anyways, right? He just has to be next year, right? Yeah, I believe so. I don't think he has to do it just yet. Well, they lack the rules at least a little bit. I would think that there was some consulting there with some of those guys that kind of like a hint like, here, we're doing this for you.

We made this easier for you. They wouldn't have done it if they didn't think it was going to make a material effect, which they should have done. I'm glad they did it because as much as I want the US to win it every year, I want the tables. Or I want it to be the best possible teams. And it doesn't feel right that Sean Casey would. Sean Casey would have been a hell of an addition to that.

A throwback there. Yeah, he should have been on that team. And I don't want to run into the same issue. You brought up the Ryder Cup for the record. I just want to put that on the record. And we've got to be talking like I was the one who brought up the Ryder Cup for the record. I just want to put that on the record. And, yeah, we've got to be talking. I was the one who brought up the Ryder Cup. Do you have any thoughts? I know you're not as heavily invested on this from the US side as I am, but do you have any thoughts on the changes the US team made to qualification

and selection? I don't. The one that Fierrick made where, you know, changing out the point system for basically, for non, for winners of events and not like that doesn't bother me so much. I mean, I don't think you should be putting as much value on people winning tournaments versus a top five in consistently, but I don't think that that matters so much. What I don't understand is why on earth they change the Final pick to not be after the tour championship I told I understand like I know they're kind of saying that it's it's travel travel based and all that But like there is not like they're going over there on like a horse and buggy like they're it's it

They're going over there on you know on on our I assume, a pretty quick flight from Atlanta to France. It's not like they need to, you know, this isn't that big of an issue. It's like the same thing that we saw when one of the reasons they didn't move it previously the under Tom Watson in 2014, they're like, well, we don't really know what we're going to do with the official team sweaters and then there's different sizes. And this, and it's just like, you're making excuses for no reason. we're gonna do with like the official team sweaters and then there's different sizes and this and this. It's just like, you're making excuses for no reason. It should, you should be doing everything in your power

to make sure you have the best team. I get that there's a little bit of logistics problems that go with it. You can't tell me that you can teet up worse logistically than you did the lap in 2016 where, you know, the rider cup week is basically starting in like six hours and you don't know who the final player is on your team and you're able to get them out there in a uniform and get his picture up up on all the boards and all this stuff.

I know it's kind of, it is kind of nitpicky especially. I just wanted to be on record discussing this when it actually came out and not get second guess for when I criticize it when it inevitably becomes up. When the Horser rule came out, I was in big fan of it. I thought it was a great rule. I thought the way it played out in 2014, it would have made a lot of sense. It's the schedule lines should line up the exact same ways it did in 2014. And they screwed up the timing of it. What is the point of making your picks on September 3rd, your first three picks on September 3rd, and then the final pick on September 10th? What's the B&W going to tell you that you don't already know on September 3rd?

Yeah, no, the thing is, they're big points. You can talk about the fact that it's only one guy, but if the one guy like Ryan Moore I believe played what three matches in 2016. If you those out and loses all three of those matches in a tighter event, like that, those are important points. Like every, you know, sure, as he is important as Patrick Reed who's going to be playing all five matches, he's not, but I mean the fact is, is that those are important points. I don't, I'm trying to, trying to limit yourself like this, I've never understood. Um, and like, I know you and I have talked about this before. It's like, you know, you and, uh, I believe Rory mentioned it on, on your podcast with him the first one that, you know, if it was up to him, like, he would just take the top 12 in the world ranking and then just go from there.

Um, that, that would certainly take a lot of the entry out of what they were doing. Or I mean, look, it was up to me. Like, I'd want total control. Like, let me pick the whole team. But I mean, that's obviously not going to happen either. I mean, I just, I don't understand. Like, it just seems like they're limiting their options for no real sufficient reason.

Yeah, and just to clarify, I wrote about this on the website, too. But just to clarify what I mean is that if you're gonna save this last pick Like save try to hold open for one hot guy Waiting till after the tour championship should leave you plenty of time because unless there's a buy week between the BMW and The tour championship the tour championship is gonna end on like the 17th and you have a Entire week off before you even leave for France. It's not like the timing, it doesn't like the, again, there's a chance that they put a buy week in front of the tour championship. Right.

If that's the case, I still would rather just pick all four picks after the Dell technologies or whatever that now the Deutsche Bank Championship is going to be. Well, there's only, and there's only 30 dives in the field at the tour championship, right? Now, some of them are obviously not going to be American. There's going to be a bunch of them that aren't American. And you'd like to think that the ones that are American are probably on your team already. So I mean, like, the chances of this, like, it's just,

it's kind of silly to me that we're even, that we're even talking about this. Like, they, they, they definitely don't need to do this the way they're doing it. And I don't, I just don't understand why. Here's to hoping it doesn't matter because it didn't end up mattering in 2016, but I felt like when it happened that it really forced Love's hand and he had no choice but to select more after what

happened. If he makes that pick before the tour championship, he probably takes, I know for a fact, he would have taken Bubba. So again, it didn't end up mattering, but that's kind of using hindsight and a results-based formula to say it didn't matter, didn't hurt him when it could have. And Moore was not a great fit for Hazeltein. He ended up playing very well. And you can't take that away from him.

But Bubba would have been, as much as I just like Bubba, would have been a much better fit for Hazeltein, his style of play, with the way how far he hits it, with no rough, and just able to bomb it out there But again, it didn't end up mattering but let's let's just what are your what are your thoughts on? You know what happens if after the BMW like fear it doesn't really have any real good options and you just picked himself Like that It could happen. It could oh it really could I don't think you'll pick himself

I think he should have taken himself out even if he was gonna qualify on points. Just because, I don't, and people, yeah, it's already a narrative, it's getting floated. I talked about this with Porter too. It was just like, I don't wanna do this for a year and a half. It's gonna be easy clickbait for everyone. It's gonna be a distraction.

I know it's kind of just silly. You know what though, it's kind of what like, what bones what bones I think bones said it to you as well about how like Phil doesn't even want to consider it until he knows that he's done. Yeah, and that's kind of what where I'm at with Fear it. It's like I totally understand how like you guys don't want fear on this team and that's completely understandable. But like if he goes out and he's clearly one of the best guys available and he can't pick himself he does he's obviously the of the best guys available and he can't pick himself He does. He's obviously the captain It's like it just doesn't make any sense just as a player

I don't understand why you put yourself up to it if if you still think there's an outside chance that you might be on the team yourself Yeah, I just stand by that the fact that Furek has had many many great great great stroke play seasons and not played well in the Ryder Cup. Enough times that it's done for me. He's been on the team nine times and had a losing record in eight of them if I remember right. I just wanted to bring this up just to you. I know. I hate having to do it. I'm more upset. We didn't even talk about the point system,, they still don't include the fall events, which makes, make them count for 50%. Make them at least count. How can you say the fall events count for nothing for qualification?

I remember when that first came in, I guess that was ahead of the 2014, I think, right or top that they started putting that in. And I was actually in favor of it, because I thought it made some sense. And then I started to think about it. And I'm like, no, this is stupid. Like, it doesn't, you know thought it made some sense. And then I started to think about it, and I'm like, no, this is stupid. It doesn't, you know, it's just completely diminishing the events of, of what, three or four months. It doesn't, that doesn't make any sense at all, either. Yeah, it doesn't add up, but that's enough Ryder Cup, I think, you know, whatever, 18

months out from the actual event, but it's never too early to talk Ryder Cup. Any other topics before we move to questions, because we've got a lot of them. If we have a lot, let's do it. Let's do it. My good friend, I'll go ahead and say it. My best friend, Frank Tedesco, wants to know if playing single-length irons and putting side saddle, he says, a stupid hat is optional. If it saved you five strokes around, do you switch? Probably.

I strokes around a lot. Why do it's around is too much. I mean, let's put in the caveat as well. That I am very clearly nowhere near going to be at any point, turn in pro. Watching me swing is not something that anybody should ever be subjected to. But if I can go out there and save five shots around yeah, I'm absolutely going to switch and I and I It's the hat is definitely the least reprehensible part of this whole thing. There's no doubt about that

Let's make it two strokes. Let's make it a question two strokes. Are you switching for two? Probably not to be honest, I mean, again, it kind of depends on how good you are and what you're kind of doing, I guess. I mean, when I do out and play it like, if I, you know, my goal when I do out and play is to typically on the courses I do out on is to do out and shoot between say, you know, 82 and 85, something like that. That's the plan. I mean, does that ever, does that happen often? Probably about half the time. That's not worth two shots. The Single Link Thorns doesn't bother me at all. People wouldn't even notice really. People wouldn't even notice? Yeah, I'm not worried about that. Side saddle, it wouldn't be worth

the ridicule, I don't think. So if I can get one shot from the Single Link Thorns, I'd do it, but I don't think I'd do another shot for the side saddle. Always protecting those mentions, man. I like it. We butchered that, or I butchered that question by making it way more, by simplifying it, but we'll go on. You might know this guy. Craig Sarton, there must be an inside joke, but Craig Sarson wants to know to make par. How many fairways is too many fairways to the left? So, preggs my brother, and this is absolutely in reference to God. It was around the golf that we played. I'm going to say seven or eight years ago, and it was me, him and my dad, and we're playing on a...it's a dog-led left,

and I've never played this course before up until this point and Not only did I miss the fairway I was on and The fairway adjacent to it on the left. I missed the next fairway and I was like it is it is actually impossible to understand how far left I actually was at this point and I had no idea what I had for a yardage and I took out, I honestly don't even remember what I hit and I basically hit it over a bunch of trees and got it right in front of the green, chipped on and made my par and I believe my brother made par as well, you know obviously the traditional way of you, in the fairway and then on the green and two pots, but yeah, that is why he asked that question.

I had a buddy, my buddy, Lave, when we played in Scotland at car news to a couple years ago, I'm not joking that he missed for the majority of the day, he was too fairway left or right, and most definitely not making par from that. He had a great time though. I gotta give him a lot of credit. He's a lot of credit. Car news to you, I can understand being a little wayward and not matching par. Oh my God. Of course, the course item plan is definitely not

car news to you, love it. That's for sure. It was tragic, it was tough to watch. Trevor Risky has a great question that all of us wanna know. If any listeners don't know about Adam's famous Sergio Giff, we'll all include it in the show notes on the website. But Trevor wants to know, how is the Sergio Giff uploaded?

Like, is it an organized folder? Is it right on the desktop? Or do you just always have it ready to go? So because of, if anyone who knows me knows that I'm very organized with all of my stuff on my computer It's just kind of like an OCD thing and so all of my gifts that I have are actually organized by player and then by year that I made the gift So for Sergio he is he has his own folder just like everybody else and then from there It's the the title of the gift is just stare.

Like there is nothing else. I saw it randomly doing a random YouTube video search, shows you where my life is at at certain points, but I was doing a random YouTube video search and I saw it come across and I was like, okay, I have to grab this. And yeah, and the upload is basically I just search for the word stare and it shows up and that

That's how it gets done. How fast can you get it up if you need it? Where are we talking about gifts? Regular stuff regular stuff five six seconds, you know Well played I did not see that would come me seconds, you know? Well played. I did not see that with coming. Jay Rigden wants to know, if we get four first-time major winners again this year, but none are Sergio, will you just give up on golf or life even? The deletion of my Twitter account might have to come in to play at some point. Only just explain the Sergio thing to anyone that's not that familiar with it. Because I don't even know at this point. Yeah.

So I actually, so I did a mail-byad post last week and most of the questions, as I'm sure you can imagine, were about why, were about Sergio in general, to be perfectly honest. The Sergio love didn't actually start right away. I was actually, when I first started watching golf Like I was probably I was one of those people who you know wasn't in love with Tyder and Phil for whatever reason, you know, and and I probably I feel a little bad about that at this point for not really truly appreciating like how good they actually were And I'm sure that a lot of people feel that way now My favorite guys to watch were actually like David DuVall and John daily

field that way now. My favorite guys to watch were actually like David DuVall and John Daily. And I didn't really get hooked on Sergio until like I started to know a little bit more about the actual game itself. Like, you know, he's just such a good ball striker. I'm always going to gravitate more towards ball strikers than anything else. And, you know, even though he's obviously, he's done some things in the past that are definitely way offside, both either on the course and off the course, especially as it relates to Tiger. It just seems like he's a real and genuine person. The whole like the tragic figure that he has like lag for days, so much trash. Like, he's the perfect guy to watch, really, if he asked me. Yeah, it's kind of a, just a,

I don't want to say sad tale, is it's not, I mean, he's that incredible career, but he's almost viewed as like a sympathetic figure at this point. Most people, it's hard to really dislike him at this point, I think. Some people still do do but he's done really anything in the last you know aside from like the 2013 players has he done anything in

the last five years that really deserves scorn from anyone. No I don't think so I mean like the again the the the tiger fried chicken remark aside not as best not best. Not his best at all. But no, I don't see what the what the hatred is for him now aside from people hanging on to whatever they didn't like about him previously. He's getting married this year, apparently, and he looks like he's in good spirits. I mean, that's obviously really good for him and trying to get that first major so. Alright Brad Repplinjer wants to know of all the gifts you've you've collected created over the years which one is your all-time favorite and why. It kind of has to be the Sergio one I think. I figured I was going to let you

answer that but then I want to know your second favorite. Oh, God There's no there's no one A in this category. It's it's really it's really tough to There's so many like all the tiger things that I've done Over the years the other one the only actual one that I can think about the top of my head 2013 president's Cup, there was a gift that I made of Amy Metalson getting Lindsey Vaughan's Dolphcart out of some mud. And the only reason why I burned this up is because it wasn't broadcast live on TV in the US for whatever reason. Again, we can get back to coverage conversations, but for whatever reason. Again, we can get back to college coverage conversations,

but for whatever reason, I can't remember why, but it wasn't being broadcast live on TV in the US, but it was in Canada. And so like I was getting these gifts, and I was just like everyone, you know, no one, everyone kind of just knew that it had happened, but no one was seeing any visual proof of it. So I put it out there,

and that was actually one of the gifts that kind of took off for me because of it. Do they like the wags in Canada more than they do the states? Oh god no. That cuts. No, we have a little bit of class up here, to be honest. Alright, alright. You made it pretty far into that before you took your first big shot. But, um, Jeff B wants to know what would you want to see carried over to the PGA tour that the Euro tour is currently testing?

They are doing a lot of different things that the PGA tour to learn from, obviously. The number one thing is that they are cracking down way more on slow play than the PGA tour ever has or probably ever will. You know, they've got their monitoring penalty situation, which I know was a big deal last year. I mean, they actually put out press releases of guys who have been penalized in the past under this new rule. That's the one for me that I'd like to see them implement more often. And then obviously any of the stuff, but even this week in Australia, they've got that combination stroke play match play event

that's going on. Anything that kind of changes up what we see on a weekly basis would be nice, but it's the slow play thing that I would love to see more than anything. Yeah, your tour is just, they're drunk over there. They're just doing it. They're, literally, I think they're getting drunk though like listing a bunch of crazy ideas up on a board And then like the next morning figuring out their best ones and then going for it. I love it

They should they should open up like a portion of their website to just solicit feedback for like you know crazy ideas for people Like us to just email them with them and thank you I want to I want a part-time consulting job. I got some ideas. Yeah, no kidding. Oh, man. And the social stuff can make its way over to the states anytime soon. That would be fantastic.

They had a lot of fun over there. The awkward reporter was great. They're always coming up. They got something up their sleeves. I don't even know you know what's coming next. I spent some time with Jimmy Kennedy down in South Africa, actually. They got something come up their sleeves like I don't even I don't even know. You know, it's what's coming next I got I spent some time with Jimmy Kennedy down in South Africa actually and they got some There's no account is just so good. Well, there's nothing and to be honest like the BJ to work out is not bad It's just you know, they're pretty much just gonna stick to you know, whatever's happening on the course

And that's fine, but like you know the European tour is just so good at managing all their social stuff. Yep, by biting tongues on all that. So let's see. There was one funny one here. Oh, a AMN. It's, uh, can't even read the Twitter handle. Uh, worst putting stroke at the pro AM and why really only accepting Chris Berman, but how he lives in Hawaii. I just thought that was funny.

Chris Berman is, I think it was either Will Dre or Ryan Lavender who tweeted it out this week. There was a list of handicaps. It actually said that Chris Berman was a 16, which, I mean, if Chris Berman, like I said, the Ryan on Twitter, if Chris Chris Merman's a 16, like I'm a four-time major winner, like he is so bad and I don't understand, like he plays a lot of D'Auth, like and it's, anyone, like his swing is terrible, his putt and stroke is awful, like it's, there's nothing positive to say about what he does on the course. He's the poster for what is wrong with the AT&T. But we're gonna get you out of here on this friend of the podcast, Sarah Indakot.

She just sent this in, I just got this now. Given the option, would you take a Sergio Major or a Phil US Open in 2017? It's a lot of responsibility. It is. I love Phil. I don't think he's ever gonna get a US Open. I just, I'm Phil. I don't think he's ever going to get a US open. I just, I'm concerned. I actually wrote a little bit about it today. I'm concerned about what we're kind of seeing from him.

He is, he's always been prone to these like blow up holes and all that kind of stuff, but like it's just It's not, it's not, there's a lot of inconsistency right now. And, it could just be a stretch of the last few weeks, but he's had some issues there. But as much as I love the dialogue, the answer is always going to be Sergio, but there's no, someone asked me my mailbag last week if I would rather have a Sergio major or someone from Canada, when a major for the first time since Mike, we're one and oh three and the answer there is still Sergio. So there's no there's no getting around that it's definitely him. You have shown where your loyalty's lie you're willing to turn your back on your country like that it's at a time like this that's coming from a guy who left his own country to live somewhere else it's a went to go scout okay scout the talent in Europe and see what I could bring back all right so

All right, let's end it on that with you professing your love for Sergio Garcia and There's anything we missed no, I think we're good Yeah, we're safe Adam Sarson. Thank you for your time and we will do it again Let's try for this summer again. Sounds good. Cheers, man. Yeah man. Beat the right club today. Yes!

That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Better than most.