No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 662: ANWA and Valero Recap with Rose Zhang and Michael Wolf

Episode Date: April 3, 2023

What a weekend. With Soly having the night off and TC running the show, there are lots of directions to go on this recap podcast. First up, Cody brings us his first-hand report from Rose Zhang's win at the Augusta National Women's Amateur. We have a thorough debrief of the fourth edition of the event and Cody's first visit to the grounds of Augusta (50:00). Then it's on to the PGA Tour where Corey Connors wins in San Antonio for the second time while on the LPGA Tour, Ruoning Yin wins for the first time as she claims the LA Open at Palos Verdes. Meanwhile the LIV boys prepped for the Masters in Orlando at Orange County National. We close the pod with Michael Wolf to recap our first Office Hours video about the origins of the Masters (1:36:00), some reactions to Gary Player's antics and Soly's interview with Patrick Cantlay. We end with DJ's visit with Rose Zhang to relive her win at the ANWA (2:10:20). 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. big week for you. I know. Dream come true. Make a wish week for me over here, man. I appreciate it. And then Randy. Guys, it's been a minute. Haven't been on the Sunday night pod. And quite a while, I know the folks listening have just been lamenting that. So I'm excited to be back. I'm excited to talk about a lot of golf from all across the golf landscape. Thank you for having me.

a lot of golf from all across the golf landscape. Thank you for having me. Lovely, lovely. Well, we've got an eclectic show for the folks tonight. Randy and I are just refreshed, recharge. Cody was boots on the ground in Augusta yesterday for the final round of Anwa and plenty going on in the golf world today between LPGA, PGA tour down at Bolero

and then live down in Orlando. But first, I want to thank first sponsors tonight a PGA tour down in Bolero and then live down in Orlando. But first, I want to thank first sponsors tonight, and that is Foot Joy, Foot Joy the number one shoe in golf, including at the Valero this week, where nearly 60% of the players were in Foot Joy shoes. It's more than half the players at the Masters will also be wearing Foot Joy's. You probably know by now that Foot Joy is the shoe of choice for the best players, including yours truly. I was wearing the the Metalwood collabs during during my trip down to the Southern hemisphere, but Randy, did you know the the premiere series is the actual shoe

That more of them wear than any other shoe. I TCI literally I had no idea until you just told me that. I feel I'm going to be a better person though knowing that. Well, I know you've got those in in the rotation and it's the perfect marriage of style, comfort and performance. They're comfortable as they are beautiful. And foot joy has added more options to the line with the new Wilcox for men and the Isett for women. Some of the women's shoes are just they they're so fresh. Like I wish they made the same stuff. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no the best players in the world. Check out the entire lineup of premier series shoes at footjoy.com. We thank them for the support of both this podcast and a lot of the Thursday LPGA podcasts we've been doing as well. So plenty to discuss this week. I think I think we lead it off with the main event this week though. And that's on. Well, boy, Cody, you were there. I feel like maybe we should get your report first. I mean from television though it was not a for those of us that were wanting to see Rose win, which she did make history just add to what is a sterling amateur career, maybe the best amateur career on the women's side, I think it stacks up with tiger on the men's side.

It was a lot of just uncomfortableness on on Saturday watching that final round. But did you, what was it like on the ground? We can go into your whole, you know, experience at a guest step. But what was the feeling like, you feeling like watching Rose try to close that? It was not what we thought it was going to be. Granted at the end of the day, we got what we really wanted, and I think specifically from no laying up, we're not very shy about it, but we wanted Rose to win, and ultimately that's what we got.

Now the road of how we got there yesterday was absolutely horrible. I did not expect her to start out with a double on the first hole. I did not expect to pull every single drive basically on her front nine and just like clearly just be uncomfortable. But really kind of what started the day is that big. We recorded with her last weekend

before she, you know, when she first got like into Augusta, and she said her dad was not gonna be on the bag. They had a game plan. He was gonna caddy for the first two days out of champions retreat. They're gonna lean on in the Gusta caddy and use that knowledge and experience

to guide her around the final round of the N Anwa. And clearly that was not the case. We know she's made comments about it and you're going to hear later on her comments about it of why and how that decision kind of came to be. And it sounded like honestly, maybe they just got a little bit too comfortable with a very sizable lead. And then that quickly caught up with them as soon as they hit the ground on Saturday morning and kind of a weird warm-up for them with knowing that, you know, t-times were kind of moved around and knowing that weather was going to come in. And honestly, I got there very, very, very early. I was absolutely bummed because I thought that I was only going to be able to experience

a gust of national for like really three hours before the horn blew. And I didn't expect specter patrons to come back because they were worried about the grass. And luckily we did. But honestly, when we came back out of that, the weather delay, I did not expect for dad to be still on the bag. I thought that maybe he would shoot that would be a good like, hey, this is not working out. We're going to go back to plan B or excuse me plan A and and use a local caddy and just go from there. But you know, she held it together. That was truly nuts. If she came out of the randula, she was what on 80? Yes. It was it was one of the by the time that I caught up, you know, long online Trying to get everybody back into the gate. So by the time that I caught back up with Rose

she was on the 10 T box and it was one of the most uncomfortable Like second nines of golf. I've ever seen There was multiple moments within that back nine of what is going on. Okay, we're gonna be okay. We're gonna get through this. We got that birdie on 13. Everything was going pretty good.

We're kind of vibing. 14 was A-OK. We got to 15 hit a good drive left side of the fairway and we got down there and honestly there was a couple moments on the back nine were like you could clearly see like Rosalind or dad just disagreeing on things and the kind of the one of the big culminations of that happened on 15 fairway where they clearly were disagreeing over what club to hit Rose. Adamant wanted to hit three wood wanted to go for the green her dad, obviously knowing the rose is one of the best wedge players.

There is as hey, we can just, you know, wins directly into them. We can just hit it down by the water, hit a pitch up. We'll still give ourself a look for birdie, but we're getting out of here with par. You don't have to bring water into play at all. And it went on for a long time. They discussed this. They're visibly like rose with shaking your hands and gesturing. And a lot is going on.

And I just so happen to be standing by like the Stanford women's golf pod, like their team and seeing them in their body language and how they're reacting in mones and groans and, and oh knows. And what is going on like when she is always so decisive, what is happening right now, that build up to seeing her hit the shot and like as soon as she made contact knowing it's wet. And like, what are we going to do now? Obviously goes up. There's a little bit of confusion on where

she was going to take her dropout. She was confused on angles of her club length of the drop zone. Finally gets it down. It hits a decent pitch up. Mrs. The Putt and walks out of there with a bogey. But man, when she stepped up on 16 T, I was so nervous for her. And she probably hit one of the best shots of the day.

Cody, were conditions a lot easier after the delay than before? Like just softness and less wind? Yes, the morning it was like absolutely howling. Like whipping from changing directions. It's, you know, we talk about it all the time. It's like when you get back in that corner of where 15, 16 and I don't think a lot of people realize that like,

what is that six that six basically goes like over top of 16 green. It's really wild back there. But in the morning when I was back there because I walked the whole course as soon as I got there in the morning, you could feel it. It's coming from all over the place. You can kind of feel it and you see it. Coming and dipping down the trees and kind of running up these little shoots and in valleys of these holes. To when we got back out there in the afternoon, it was just kind of like, yeah, it was kind of breezy, but it wasn't like crazy at all. The greens were, I think, like held up well. They definitely got a little bit softer. But overall, I mean, I don't, it's very hard to put into words. It was definitely one of those things of like, you had to be there. I'm very, very fortunate to like

know people through knowing up through the week in the life that we did on the Stanford women's team and when you're put like in that close-up proximity and they're all like literally going in having body pains watching this back nine like how it unfolded all the way up until watching this back nine, like how it unfolded all the way up until putting out on 18 and like was the year that Rose did the same thing. She was leading the tournament and then made a mess. I think she made it eight on 13. We were standing right there and it was like watching a slow motion car crash where on that one, she pulled her drive left and then kept compounding it.

So it seemed like she conquered demons on 13 for the most part. But, you know, it was like a similar situation on 15 or you're screaming at your TV or screaming at her dad. And, you know, I mean, it sounds like her dad was was on the right side of that one. But there were quite a few other moments where bones and several other people on the on the broadcast were basically like, yo, like he's overcating like crazy. Just like she plays solo in all these collegiate events, just let her play her game and make her decisions, you know. And he's kind of, you know, big and I talked about this last week when we had her on the pod.

And, you know, he definitely, she's the number one women's golfer, you know, in the world for the amateur ring. She's the number one college's golfer, you know, in the world for the amateur rank. She's the number one college golfer in the world. She's won everything that she's ever done outside of Drive Chip and Putt, which was made apparent today. And that's like fake competition. But like her dad kind of, he stands up for himself a lot and questions a lot of her decisions. And it's such an interesting dynamic. And I don't

know how they really do that outside of like they she clearly has like the immense respect for him. And trust his decision making and the advice that she is that he is giving her. And he knows when to step in and when to step out. But it seemed like, you know, it was a little bit like that. Lashar of pine needles and things weren't going completely right all the time, but she always seemed to win out and he would step back and they would just fire away. That was not the case on yesterday. Like, there was multiple times where he was like standing his ground on decisions. I remember I went back and watched it, specifically on four of that part three, standing his ground about club selection. Five, like those back-to-back bogies after starting, you know, starting with double, firing it up, you

know, getting a good birdie on two, but then just like getting to this kind of like lull when the winds whipping around and the weather is really starting to become a thing and you could see the clouds and it started to get really, really dark. And honestly, it's really starting to become a thing and you could see the clouds and it started to get really, really dark. And honestly, it probably like, it might have been better for her if it was blown then, just to kind of get that break. Luckily, when it finally was, she had seemed to even it out a little bit.

But overall, I couldn't imagine what it would be, what it's like for Rose to, to, you sleep on a lead for two nights. There's a day where you don't even get to play golf. And I understand that like normally, I'd be like, oh yeah, you go play golf, you play, you know, you're practicing on a Augusta national, you're kind of doing your thing,

everything's fine, but Rose also is like stacked media on top of that. So she's doing like every journal has possible who's requested media. She's doing multiple golf channel hits. She is doing you know voice over work for Augusta National Social. She's very like very gracious with her time all to get to Saturday morning where it's like the culmination of everything that she has been working for. We all know that this was the final trophy that she kind of has yet to win.

And then to get a pretty long delay in there after a shaky, shaky start to the round. Man, good for her. I'm still happy that she came out on top because honestly, this whole thing about Rose would have changed an awful lot of she would have lost. For sure.

And everybody, you know, she never really came close to shooting around close to par at Augusta National in four times there. I think it would have brought a lot more questions into like where is Rose and what her actual status is in the women's amateur game. Because I know that like, this was just a bad round of golf at the end of the day. That's all this was. And she's had bad rounds of golf before in her collegiate career, in her amateur career, in everything else. And she's just rebound.

But for some reason, she got a demon here. And luckily, she was able to overcome it. Well, it's also refreshing to see her, you know, I mean, you double the first hole. And then you come back and you birdie the second and she, I think she was standing on 3T and she was standing in three fairly still with a six shot lead. So I call it a crowning, but it wasn't because she She created that lead herself. Yes. You know, and then you know bogey four five seven But then played the rest of the way in after the randale in even par right clutch clutch lag putt on on 18 played rock solid in the the playoff as well. So you know, I think the biggest thing for me that is concerning is

that's four rounds at a gust of now. She shot 75 in 2019. She shot 75 in 2021 with the infamous eight on 13, 74 last year and 76 this year. So you'd like to see a little bit of progression there, a little bit of, you know, kind of learning the golf course or, you know, but, but then again, I'm sure this will, you know, this is a great learning experience for her and it'll propel her to, you know, greater glory in the future, even. Yeah, the only thing that I'll say there is, so 2019, that 75 that you shot on Sunday, she's 15 years old. Oh, that's like the inaugural event.

The 75 in 2021, like that makes sense. She was in position to do it. Last year she just, she just did not play well at champion's retreat. She was behind the A ball right away and, you know, put a good 74 together. The 76th issue, I honestly think a lot of it was just nerves. And man, I'm glad you said that it's not a crowning because she worked her ass off and played very, very well. The first two rounds of this competition to put her in that position. Because overall, at the end of the day,

there's only three rounds under par at Augusta National yesterday, three rounds. I mean, she still is better than the field average for the day. It just is not what we expect from Rosang to go out and shoot a 76-4 over on the day. And like, that's just not the golf that she's known for. Totally. I think, I think, any disappointment is due to like her, just the expectations that we have for. Yes. Right?

Like, you know, like she's a sure thing, right? Randy, sorry. No, I think that's exactly right. Like we wanted the Tiger Woods moment. We wanted the Jordan's Speed moment. I was right there with you guys. And it's disappointing. I don't think Cody, like you said, in a few years,

I don't think that's gonna take away in the slightest from the fact that she did win and she will forever be the 2023 on what champion. It just, yeah, I think we all felt a little robbed because we all know we're watching one of the greatest amateurs of all time and we wanted to see her really put her stamp on things. I think with that said, I'm glad you

mentioned, you know, this course was difficult for everybody. It's not like she blew up and people were, you know, shooting 67, 68. It was it was a very difficult test for everybody. And I think the thing that really stinks TC with with what you said about just her track record at Augusta. I mean, this is it for her, right? She never has to come back here. So was somebody like Rory or, you know, take your pick of people who have struggled with Augusta and it's always kind of been a bugaboo for them. Part of that fun is we get to see them every year. You know, they come back and it's can they win this year? Can they overcome those demons and that journey now might end with Rose? I mean, I think, you know, have with her winning this

event, it's she, she like literally doesn't have anything else in the world of amateur golf to win. So I think we're making the assumption she's turning pro. It's obviously nothing that I've heard official and there's no word yet, but if this is it for Rose, then yeah, it's kind of a bummer that she never quite has figured it out at Augusta National, but such is life. I think overall though, a great result for her, a great result for the women's game. And I just think back to like, you guys, you know, all the stuff with her father.

I mean, put yourself in his shoes though a little bit where it's like you have introduced your daughter to the game. Totally. You have nurtured her. You have cattyed her to a five shot lead going into the final round. You get the chance to finish it with her at Augusta National. I mean, I don't really blame him one bit for wanting the bag, wanting to finish that journey with her. I'm just really glad that they did get it done in the end.

Yeah. And we've got Rose interview that I think we'll run on them. On the back end of this podcast where she kind of talks about how surreal it was just basically spending the day today at Augusta spending the rest of the day on Saturday there and going him in the pro shop and you know all sorts of things there. Yeah, and thanks, thanks for DJ for jumping on and doing that because I know like we had a whole bunch of stuff going on. It's a very busy weekend for us, no laying up. It's going to be a very busy week for us, no laying up, going into the masters. So I appreciate DJ taking the time and knocking out the interview. And Rose for doing, you know, another bit of media after he's a crazy weekend. I will protest a little bit. Saki Baba. The course was not a big deal. So I think it's not a big deal.

So I think it's not a big deal. So I think it's not a big deal. So I think it's not a big deal. So I think it's not a big deal. So I think it's not a big deal. So I think it's not a big deal. So I think it's not a big deal. So I think it's not a big deal.

So I think it's not a big deal. So I think it's not a big deal. So I think it's not a big deal. A comes out Bogie's three doubles for Bogie's six and then birdies seven and eight coming in. So shot 200 par 70 T five. I'm I continue to just being throught watching her play golf. She's she's such a cool swing and just like just a cool character. Yes. She got everything.

It seems work and man. She there's just no like pulling back from her. It's constantly full throttle. A hundred percent of the time, like totally, totally dig it. Plus her aesthetic is like money. We haven't mentioned Jenny Bay yet, but got to a playoff with Rose. Shot, shot two under 70. She played her last, what, 15 holes in 300 par on Saturday and acquitted herself really, really well. First playoff hole and just got, got steep on one on 10 and was down in kind of the lend Matisse territory

down there left to 10 green. Yeah, it was, I was super impressed with her. I just, her steadiness,, stuff in that shot on 17. Kind of, for me at least, coming out of nowhere, right? Fifth year, Georgia student missed the cut last year at the at the on was. So for her to put together a final round 70 and she was, I believe, the only person to shoot under par all three days. Just an exceptional tournament for her. Kudos to her.

She did everything she could have done and she made life as difficult as possible for Rose. I got to go back and listen, I'm pretty sure that Jordan selected Jenny Bay as her dark horse, really? Yeah. I was on Really? Yeah. Jordan's on it. Yeah, Jordan.

I was like, okay, like, you know, when you start to see that name floating up there and she played really good golf. I mean, 69, 68, 70, even the 70 yesterday, she had what, she doubled three, I think, like was just humming all day long. TC, you know, probably know there's more than anybody, but you know that playoff was tough. There's a lot of Georgia people out there. You know, everybody's out there. You're like, come on now, like just calm down, folks, everything's going to be okay. But a great, great crowd supporting her out there for it. Man, she's a stud. She made every pot what she needed to, like had ice and remains. It just sucks, you know, but one bad swing on 10, just absolutely boned her and then, you know,

couldn't recover from it. There's a, I was thinking about this in the context of just the tournament itself. Like champions retreat, props to them for stepping up and, you know, hosting the first two rounds of this and everything. What do you mean by stepping up? Because I'm sure they're getting a very sizable check. Oh, okay. Yeah, but also they're, you know, it's it's prime time at Gustav. Right.

I'm sure, you know, it's it's, it's, you know, it's good marketing for them. It's not, it's not all altruistic, right? I'm sure, you know, it's it's it's you know, it's good marketing for them. It's not it's not all altruistic, right? But, um, but you know, they're doing a good thing hosting it. I would I would like to see I would love to see this either if it can't go to Augusta for all three rounds. I'd like to see it go. Other places beyond Champions retreat that maybe have a little bit more soul or a little bit more architectural bonafides. Well, what's the relationship with between national and Augusta country club? I mean, there's some overlap with the membership, I think. There's obviously, there's been a financial relationship over the last few years with the land swapping all that.

But yeah, I don't know. I mean, that's a good question as well. Some of it may come down to you would need somewhere that's like overseed it. Right. Like, you know, in order to kind of have two similar grasses as far as fairways and you know, kind of not have it be so, so jarring both for the players and for for, you know, streaming and TV. Yeah. But I'd love to see it at, you know, I mean, there's a number of great local courses. Like, how cool would it be if they went up to Paul Meadow? One of these years, you know, and that's another McKenzie course, right?

Or, you know, kind of kind of somewhere a little bit more steeped and bona fides instead of, hey, the front nine was designed by Arnold Palmer and the back nine by Jack Nicholas, or maybe it's the other way around. At least they don't play the player night. Yeah, right. Which I'm sure. Tough week. Yeah.

We'll get to play her later this this pod. But a couple other shout outs. I thought Swedish young lady Andrea Lignell. She was she was fantastic as well. She's a really good interview. I enjoyed her post-round interviews. She was, uh, she was such a fun mix between Swedish and just very Americanized, you know, college teenager.

It's just so funny. Like every time I picture these very proper Swedes getting dumped into like, like, she goes all miss. Exactly. Uh, you know, some of them going to, you know, or like the French, like when Pullein Roussend-Roussard, like she went to South Carolina, like Madeline going to LSU, Arkansas, I've got a great women's program

with a bunch of Swedes, like FSU. It just, it blows my mind to think of like getting dropped into kind of the rural South as a, know 18-year-old Swedish woman. It's just crazy. Yeah, yeah. I talked to a couple of people falling around. Obviously they saw the no-ling upload. It gave us a huge shout out for that. I didn't realize she's from Gothenburg, which was like, oh, I've been there. That's like really. Yo, tabore. Really cool, man. Yeah, you could talk all about it. One, one other observation I had,

kaiatana, Fernandez, Garcia, Pogio. Like, if you're Spanish and you have the two last names anyway, you can't hyphenate. You can't add a third last name. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's like 13 or 14 syllables. Do you know? Okay. I saw this when I was catching up on Slack the other day when you're going off on it. Do you know why this name is the way that it is? Her name or Spanish names in general? Well, her last name. So you understand, right? They usually have their mother's last name and their father's last name in their names.

Which is totally fine. Yes. So this is saying that her father's last name is whatever Garcia Pogio. Okay. So he has a hyphen last name. So you're asking her to drop one of the names or some perfect family tree. Yes, correct.

Because that's what happens in every other site. Like at some point you have to make decisions. Because what's like at some point is her kid going to be like, let's say her kid marries somebody else that has a hyphenated name. Yeah, well, that's a lot of names. Four last names. Yep. That's fucking crazy.

I think this is one of those things you're going to need a lot of heat on, which I's a lot of it. And you have four last names. Yeah, that's fucking crazy. I think this is one of those things you're going to need a lot of heat on, which I'm going to love it. Listen, I'm very married to a proud, proud, proud Puerto Rican. I understand that, but this is one of those things like, when we were going over what her last name decision is going to be. And I'm like, well, I'm not one of those guys of like, you can take McBride if you want,

or you can figure out a hyphen or whatever else. She's like, no, we got too many last names going to my family anyway, I'm just gonna go with yours and call it a day, which I love. But I think that's what T.C.'s asking for, yeah. We would be in this situation where it would have been three names with a hyphen in there. It would have been tough.

Yeah, I'm not asking, you know, I'm just asking to make a decision. It doesn't have to be one way or another. You just got to make a decision, you know, in general. So a couple of other notes I had, Anna Davis, at the foreshot penalty. That was round one, right? Yeah, yeah. That's a tough way to start the day. It comes out, thinks that it's preferred lies, lift, can't put in place through the whole golf course, fairway and rough. And, uh, which in, in what, my only thing is like, in when I've never played a meaningful golf term of any kind, and I would never imagine it to be lift clean in place in the rough. That's just something that I've never even heard of. Now, what she did say though is that I believe she said that she asked the her walking score.

I think the marker. And he was like, I don't know. I know we're like, you know, playing ball up. And I guess she took that as like, yup, like send it. We're going to do this twice now. But God, what a horrible, horrible stuff. I mean, okay, two thoughts. One, you never rely on a volunteer, right? If you are truly wondering, you have, especially because I don't even think these volunteers have to pay. Exactly. So you, so we have to question

their, their commitment level right from the start, right? And we know that they can't have all the information. And then, too, I would say, I don't know who or Catti was, but what's Catti doing? I feel like that's where, hey, if you want to earn your key for the Catti, let's figure out what the lift clean-and-place situation is. She owned it pretty good, though. I'll say,, you know, ended up shooting 76, but did not let it affect her at all,

had a great rest of her round. She's great. I'm way in. I'm excited to see more of her. Sans Bucket though. I don't know what's going on. She's on team Viser now, on the Weird Viser. She's got to get back.

You know, she's going to be in college. I think she's she's getting cool. And I heard the bucket hat is a high school thing. I still can't get past where or why they decided to go to Auburn. This is not a shot against any universities in the great state Alabama. So I did some digging boots on the ground action. She obviously got offers from almost everyone. But Auburn, I believe from what I've been told, the only university that offered both her and her twin brother, the scholarship. They're very, very close. They play almost all their golf together. They travel together. It's a very tight family unit. And I believe that almost like the whole family is picking up and moving forward. So that's why

Speaking of fun There was a there was a young lady. I don't think we've I did her She was wearing an anime tiger You know graphic shirt in like the the chairman's dinner on the Instagram. They posted. I just thought that was Fantastic, it's just such a flux. Yeah, she was directly behind the chairman's dinner on the Instagram they posted. I just thought that was fantastic. She's such a full ex. Yeah, she was directly behind the red lily. Yeah, and I still, I've went through

and tried to figure out who it was. I can't identify who that is. First time back to Augusta for Miss Kajatani, the 2020 what was that 2021 champ? Yep. She shot 84, 78. So kind of knocking a little bit of rust off I think there.

I was disappointed to see Ingrid Lynnblad, Mr. Cutt, she shot 78, 74. So in our in our previous show, I said, you know, Ingrid will not shoot herself out of this tournament. She is so steady, somebody's gonna have to go and beat her. And what does she do? She doubles the first goal and proceeds to miss the cut.

A great call by yours truly on that one. Amari Avery had a tough, tough final round. 78 for her, I was expecting, she had 75, 71 in the first two rounds. And then she's 29, made the cut, you know, kind of a tough cut to make, to be honest. final round 78 for her. I was expecting she had 75 71 the first two rounds and finished T29 made the cut, you know, kind of a tough cut to make to be honest and you know, just just couldn't get it done on Sunday. But after her performance last year, it was expecting fireworks from her and and Jensen Castle really after last year's NCAA is two.

Yeah, the one the the one I wanted to shout out was Gianna Clemente making her on what debut. She finished tied for 14th. Shouted 76 at a Guest of National on Saturday. But still, I think all in all, a successful tournament for her. And when you consider that she's 15 years old and also Monday qualified into a slew of LPGA events last summer, it feels like she's going to be the next, I mean, I'm not really going out on a limb here, but I think if we're looking for the next like big thing in women's amateur golf, that's that's that's that's your person right there. I think over the next three years, that's the name. We're all going to be hearing. Yeah, for sure. I'm glad you put in there the three year more because I don't I don't think she has any intentions of going to college.

So I think it's right this out play amateur golf at a very, very high level. It seems like until then and then turn pro. Also props to LaTona Stone after last year's tough finish to come back, shot 72 at Augusta, finished solo eighth. I always root for her when I see her. And then top 10 for Megagana as well. Another promising amateur, we'll see plenty more of her in the years to come. So any coverage thoughts, any thoughts on, you know, I saw a brando had some pretty crazy hyperbole.

He said the most baffling decision he's seen in 20 years of covering golf about Rose's shot on 15. And then he also said one of the greatest lagplots since Nicholas in 75 about her lag putt on on 18. So quite the, quite the juxtaposition there. Yeah, I mean, I, the fran, listen, I love hyperbole. TC, it kind of reminded me of our guy Todd Blacklage who declared that one random spurrier drive, the best, you know, the best drive he's seen in how

many years cover covering college football. My big complaint, and I'm not sure if you guys got to see the Wednesday, Thursday action. Like, let me, let me start in very vociferously praise progress. I love that golf channel picked up round one and two coverage from Champions retreat compared to having no coverage.

It obviously is a step in the right direction. I was just really surprised that the telecast felt, I mean, it felt like not even like a top-tier college event, it kind of felt like a sea level college event to me. And we were only getting shots from 7-8-9 in 16-17-18 at Champions Retreat. And I just was very shocked because the Masters, Augusta, everything they touched, they just do such a good job with. And I thought that telecast just the lack of cameras around the course, their lack of ability to follow Rose as she's building a five shot lead. It was startling to me.

And so hopefully next year they can get a little bit more in depth with the coverage and be able to go all over the golf course. But that, you know, nothing to do with the commentators. Obviously, I'm very glad that any golf was on TV, but I feel like areas of improvement that that would be a big one for me for next year. Yes, I think it worked out very well for them in round one. I think it was you got a nice display of who is kind of, you know, positioning themselves in the tournament.

It was absolutely brutal on Thursday watching the second round there. They did not show a shot from Rose, like until she came into the, you know, the camera window. They didn't even attempt to put anything back there. And ultimately, like, if people are the, the, I want to cut crowd and how exciting it is to watch people make a cut, it's stunk. Okay. Stunk. Yeah. No, no, show me your road.

Show me the leader. That's all I wanted to see was like people at the top of the leaderboard. Joe, like, Well, it just defeats the purpose of like telepizing the fucking round. Yes. 100%. Yeah. No, it will get better than two where like, you know, I get it.

It's tough to do two, two different courses, you know, like in the same week for the pandemic, but at the same time, like, it seems like with, you know, based on Joe Beals reporting is fantastic feature and golf digest last week. Or like Augusta has more money than they know what to do with. And they're spending it on all sorts of crazy shit. Just like just foot the bill. And yeah, because it's a compliment to this event. Like this event in what this is the fourth playing in this event.

It's fantastic. Like they've done such a good job with it. It's become must see TV for me. It's one of my favorite events to watch every year. It's probably top three favorite events I've ever attended before. Like the fact that people that people want to watch it like this is a credit to what you've put forward and what you've created. So lean more into that and just, you know, instead of going 80% of the way there, just go 100% of the way there. Yeah, I think that's exactly well said. Like if you're going to put your name on it Yeah, I think that's exactly well set. Like,

if you're going to put your name on it, then I think everybody's rightly going to expect a certain standard. And I felt like the nuts and bolts of the telecast just didn't live up to that standard. I got a couple of bones to pick. I hope you hear me out on this. Not so much coverage, but overall. But if you got some more coverage, take so I'll hear. No, no, no, I don't. Let's get to your bones. OK, there is, and everything at Augusta National is done right. They do, it seems like everything trying

to keep the highest esteem and where they view themselves at their spot in the game. I'm worried with this event because it has become whitewashed as a college recruiting opportunity for multiple universities. It's like they get the best free marketing possible out of it from team unies to team bags to almost everything. It's something that you can quickly see getting out of control unless something is done about it I would like to see more individualism out there like them playing their amateur golf

And I understand that the majority of them if you go watch the the girls junior or the the women's you know Am a lot of them are still rocking their College uniforms and I get that and I understand how proud they are of their program, but it's almost out of control. And the reason why I say it's out of control because some of them just have the worst possible looks ever, okay? We need to figure this out.

I love it. Name names, like what college scripting did you hate? Was it a bag, was it a shirt? Was it a hat? Well, so like TCU is always tough. I think the purple like you're trying to you're tempting to win here. I don't know if purple and green necessarily go together. No offense to Jensen. The Kentucky stuff stinks. It's really, really bad. Like That's probably what pops to like the forefront of my mind. I don't mind the college bags It's always like you're fine. It's just really it's like you can't wear your college shit. I Just think they're being told to wear the college stuff of a place of a place like a gust of national who's like constantly

I mean rose Do you think it was an option for Rose to go put an anewa shirt on for the ceremony? I don't know if you guys saw the ceremony. She went and changed shirts and she came out wearing an anewash shirt. Now Rose has multiple NIL deals and everything and I'm sure that Adidas would have loved that to be in an Adidas shirt, but it wasn't. It was in the end washer. That's my pushback is like on the NIL, for on is, you know, the collegiate stuff goes away.

It's just gonna look like a pro tournament at some point, right? I mean, it kind of is a pro tournament. A lot of these girls are making a ton of money. I mean, it's shit. At some point, we may have the Saudi league, you know, having their developmental programs, all these all these ladies are planning in their developmental program. And then, you know, it's so you've got Ripper GC or Smash GC, you got that, that kid out

there too. I'm surprised golf Saudi hasn't gotten into the unit in a game yet. God, please don't give them any ideas. Yeah, the best argument I've heard is like, I just want to see what kind of style they have. You know, let them feel free to dress however they want. You know, Saki at the US. Saki.

And last year was fantastic. So I could listen to that. I'm on board with you. I don't get it. I just, and the thing that like is that is that I think, it kind of blows my mind why Augusta, it kind of lets them get away with it, because it literally is like the best free marketing for all of these collegiate programs.

You wanna come to my school, don't worry, you're gonna be able to, you'll probably work your way on the starting roster, we're gonna go to, you know, we'll make it through conference and get into the nationals and more than likely your second year here. If you play really well, you're going to go to ammo. I just don't understand how you how you legislate it out. Like, there's like free speech and stuff, right? I mean, well, I mean, if we look at any other organization,

they have rulebooks that cover clothing, you can't wear logos that are of whatever size, you can't wear logos. But that's a member of organization. That's not like a, you know, an amateur event where these, these ladies aren't, aren't a member of true, the organization. Right. So it's like, it would be like the US amateur, the USGA saying, no, you can't wear a titleist hat or you can't wear, you know, a Nike hat like, all right. Who says who? Like fuck off, you know? Yeah, it's a good point. So, but I, I see what you're saying. I see, but they also can like, it seems like they get away with whatever they want. Well, I just, I was gonna say, I hope they're not feeling pressured by their schools to have to wear the school stuff. Why don't I want no pressure? I think they feel pride, right? And that's like really good.

Which is great. And if they feel pride, they should absolutely wear it. And that's fantastic. I think some of the pressure should fall in the schools, like just produce better shit. You know, have better fits. Yeah. Guys, let's take a quick quick break, talk about Omni, real quick. Cody, you've been spending some quick break, talk about Omni real quick. Cody, you've been spending some time at some Omni properties here of late. I am proud partner of Omni, you know, as soon as we kick this off, I was like, why not take advantage of it, right? But I've been able to check out a couple of their properties and honestly, like love it,

man. Yeah, Omni hotels and resorts, they've got courses built by some of the most renowned golf course architects, including Donald Ross, Coren Crenshaw, my man Billy Flynn. And of course, my guy, the FAS, I believe those are the ones that Barton Creek, right? In Austin. Yes, sir. The redo in La Costa right now, Gil's got Gil and Jim have shovels in the ground on that.

They just completed a full renovation of the Keny course at Barton Creek, Iphazio, Little Sandy by Bo Welling opened it on the Amelia Island up the road from me about a year ago, and their host and then CWLate championships at LaCosta 2024, 2025, and 2025, and 26. And we will have an exciting announcement of our own coming up about PJ Frisco here in the NLU. See what they've got to offer. They got Edford Springs, Pennsylvania. They got Mount Washington, Grove Park and all sorts of stuff. Go check them out. Perfect for little short, short vacations this summer. All right, Cody, first time to Augusta. Did it live up to the hype? 100% the hype? 100%. That's really cool. Let me just say that is really cool because so much in life fails to live up to the hype. Yeah, I think it's one of these things, Biggie,

where I obviously built it up a lot in my head and you hear lots of stories and you read lots of things and you watch lots of things and you've watched the Masters ever since you're a little tiny kid. And for me, having this opportunity to go was was absolutely like amazing. So for everybody who doesn't know or doesn't know this, like I took off very, very late on Friday, fully knowing that I only had one badge. We were not credentialed there at a badge for Saturday to go watch the final round of the on-watch. So, you know, being the good family man that I am, I took a late out of Dallas, flew into Columbia, drove down early early in the morning. I think I landed a like midnight, drove down to a gust. I got to bed at like 2.30 and was wide awake at 530, like, rare to go, like waiting to go pick up my buddy Joe

who caddyed for a young woman the first two rounds. They ultimately did not make the cut, but hung out with Joe and I was like, this is gonna be perfect. Like he's, he caddyed at Augusta last year during the annoi. He knows a lot of cool stories and insights and like now I basically have like one of the best tour guides ever. So we get out there and right away I'm looking at whether trying to figure out what's going on and really scared to be kicked out of the course and knowing that they're going to

get a ton of rain and they might not let everybody back in because their number one goal is just finishing the golf. They don't really care about spectators. They do, of course, but like, you know, protecting the courses is, I'm sure at the front of their mind. Patrons. Patrons. Patrons. So I get there and it was like, you know, everybody talks about like Disneyland and like they clearly talk to somebody because they have one of the most like dialed in entry and exit procedures and the way things are done. And everybody is overly nice. It doesn't matter if it's a green jacket or people who are wearing the blue jackets.

I don't really know who the blue jacket people are. Security guards, you name it. Everybody was just overly helpful and wanted to make sure that you were having like a good time. I was shocked when I walked in and I was like, there's this long, long line that I'm like, we're just walking past for a very long time. And Joe was like, oh yeah, that's the line to get into the merch center.

And I'm like, this thing was all the way back almost to the parking lot. And I was like, okay, well, we'll figure merch out later and immediately walked up and walked past the merch center. And you know, kind of when you see the green, you know, dark, lush green grass kind of open up, what is like, right, you know, coming down from one t-box and you walk out there and you're like, realize,

number one, it's, everybody says this, it's a lot, lot, hillier than I thought it was. Like, even though I've been told that a million, million times, that was probably the first thing that I noticed. And number two, like starting to realize the, what like overall by the end of the day, like the size of the greens, like they're a lot smaller than I thought that they were. They obviously have a lot more movement. Like when you're looking at them on up close and personal and the depths of

the bunkers were a lot deeper than I really thought that they were going to be like, I think it's five like those two fairway bunkers on five like you honestly I could like we could stack the three of us on top of each other and you still probably wouldn't be able to see out the top it's it was nuts. What about the gap on 18? What about the gap on 18? Gab on 18. Tight, being able to go and like kind of, you know, look back on 13 and see like the new extended T box. How it's like way back there now and you're like, well shit, like, okay, I kind of get what they're doing,

but like then listen to like what can't we said last week in the podcast? It gets in the way. Yeah, it's like, okay, well, it's like, you know, people aren't really gonna like move the ball from that tee anymore, you're just gonna get it out there and you can basically, you can hit a fade and like be fine. But it was really cool to be able to see it.

And ultimately, it's like, you know, obviously it's a big property, but you don't really realize like how close other holes are to where you're at, because of you're just used to seeing it on TV. So I mentioned earlier, you know, 16, you don't realize that like, the, you know, part three is basically like cutting directly over the top, and you would have never known that just based off of TV angles and everything else like that. The 16 T box, and where you see every year people hitting like these little

skipshots during the practice round, I'm like, wow, there's like not a lot of room and that like bank is pretty severe. I'm surprised like somebody hasn't fallen in like in the fucking water there yet. And overall like, you know, seeing the like the lone palm tree on next to two green, being down, like back in, in A-Man corner and like looking up at the trees, you know, me, I'm like a security weirdo. So I'm like trying to spot out like, is there like a hide side up there? They're tree stands like we're all the fake people at. You definitely saw some weird stuff back there in the trees though. There was a lot more like covert and blended in cameras everywhere. I honestly counted up to a hundred and then I stopped counting.

God, I want to go to I want to go to a gust and do a security assessment. Yeah, it was not even walk around and watch golf just just walk around and and you know, try to try to see what apparatus they have going on. I think it told I saw a camera member if it was three or four over cameras, like just clear security cameras that you can see. Everything else was very well concealed. Unless you're looking for something, you're like, kind of notice what it is. That fact was pretty cool.

The merchandise operations, everything that you hear, outside, you know, for some reason, I thought you'd go in there and you'd be like, oh, there's all this stuff. And like, if you went and you're like, oh, yes, they have Holderness and Born and like Peter Miller and like all these other brands. And it's like, no, you have like Masters Tech

and then you have like this wall that you pick up and like pick your number in the size and like all these other brands and it's like no you have like masters tech and then you have like this wall That you pick up and like pick your number in the size and like keep them moving. It was absolutely like there's so many people in there It's in domestics. Yeah, there's so many people in there. I mean, I don't know how They keep that all managed your stock. It's the shipping operation. Well, that's the thing is it so I ended up I think I's in total You know, I got I got a couple things I got yard a couple things. I got the girls a couple things that just based off of like where they're out in their life and their size they're going to outgrow it like two months which kind of stinks because I probably spend too much money on it but hey you only do it once I don't know if I'm ever going to get back there again but finally check out and

up spending like 500 bucks or something like that and walk out of the building and immediately they're like, oh sir, if you'd like to go to the shipping, it's like right there. Well I flew out, I just had like, you know, my carry on backpack with like two sets of clothes and I was like, yeah, that sounds like really good to me instead of trying to figure out some other luggage things to go in. I think I paid $23 to get all that stuff shipped home. And it was a perfect, perfect process. Thanks to their partners at UPS and, you know, got my tracking number and was out the door and, and quickly heard the horn buzzing then.

And then, you know, kind of a little bit of panic set in because I was like, okay, I walked kind of a little bit of panic set in because I was like, okay, I walked the entire back nine we went and walked up through, you know, starting at 10 or starting at nine so walking backwards when we're done with the back nine so nine eight seven six five until we caught up with Rosa's group. And I'm like, I haven't seen like the whole golf course yet. So I was nervous that we weren't going to get back out there after the weather delay. But luckily we were. So we went and grabbed a bite. He went back out, you know, when, uh, when they opened the gates back up and, and watch

Rose do her best to hold on. And, uh, man, it was an awesome day. It's, it's something that I'll never, ever forget. Because honestly, I never thought that I'd ever be able to go there. I think the ultimate cheat code is getting a badge for the anwa. If people are looking to have this experience where you can go check out the golf course and still be involved and see competition, but have it basically be like free reign of wherever you want to go and not have to like fight crowds or anything like that. Get a badge for the anwo if you can, because that's like the ultimate cheat code. It's the best of both worlds. The crowds are small,

like they keep it intentionally small. It's just a much more intimate experience, but there's there's still everything on the line. It's like the best of a final round. I think the best day to go to the masters is probably Friday. It's the tournament's kind of taking shape, but the crowds are still spread out throughout the entire course. If you go Saturday or Sunday, everybody kind of gets bunched up on the back nine, especially. But yeah, the opposite with online. Just like you can, if you want to follow leaders, you can follow leaders. If you want to camp out on a hole, you can camp out on a hole. You can do a little bit of both. You don't have to plan out your day and have anxiety about,

you know, getting blocked out. So, Cody, I'm really happy for you. Thank you. Thank you, big. And I know like I talked to you about it a lot. And again, you guys made a guy's dream come true. It's something that I'll never forget. Because again, you never know like if you're gonna have that opportunity again and I'm glad I took full advantage of it. Couple weird things. I'll say I've never, you know what I always talk about?

Like oh yeah, the green jackets are like so nice and friendly and they'll do whatever. Like I've had people, you know, accidentally bumping into somebody with the green jacket and being like, oh, I'm so sorry, Sarah. And they're like, oh, no, how how are you doing? My name's Jim. Where are you from? I know you have. Overly nice. Overly gracious with their time that, you know, asked plenty of questions. I was walking down 10 fairway in the playoff, and I was walking behind a green jacket, who was kind of elderly, kind of what I would say, like, kind of overweight.

And why this stuck out in my brain is because I, we were walking down, you know, it's very, it's slip, it's wet still. And it's a pretty steep, steep hill. And I saw him reach down and pick up the smallest little piece of paper that was on the ground. And I was like, wow, you know, you know, these guys are out here. They just love their course, taking care of their course. It was so funny because I'm like, in my head, I'm like, you know, these guys are out here. They just love their course, taking care of their course. It was so funny because I'm like, in my head, I'm like, you know, that guy probably doesn't have a lot of bendovers left in him because of age, because of weight, because of everything. And he's doing it on a slippery downslope just because of where he's at and what this place means to him. It kind of stuck out to me. He respects the supers.

For sure. Yeah, it was in phenomenal shape. When we got back out there, obviously you could tell a little bit like we're the Gowr or the patrons walking everything else like that in the Pine Straw area that it was, you could tell the like rain had been there, but it felt like the course and you still heard like thump of the greens and everything else, you're like,

oh, like they just, it's like it didn't even rain here. Yeah. Well, plenty to talk about. I think we will save most of the master's stuff. We'll do a few housekeeping items on the back end here today, but save most of the master's stuff for our Tuesday night, such Wednesday morning preview. Like I know 15 that that slope in front of the green was seemed to be shaved closer this year than than years past. You know, playing it talk about

obviously with 13 and just some other things as well. So all right, time to thank our last partner of the day and that is athletic greens. Randy, you're you're big on AG one. Yeah, I am. And it actually, you know, with Rose winning on what it really reminded me. So I first started taking it like a year ago, really. We were out in Palo Alto filming the week in the life video. And as Cody, I can toss it to you in just a second. But you've always been like, hey, you need to take a multi vitamin. You need to take, you

just need to support your health better. And I was not in a habit of doing that. And so when the opportunity came along to do the AG1 by athletic greens, I jumped at it and it's been really good. I just feel better, right? It's an energy boost for me. And I think in my mind, it's like, well, I know I'm doing at least something to help my gut health,

my immune system, all of that fun stuff. And it's very convenient. And I think that's why it's really stuck for me is I can take a packet. If I'm traveling, I can pack packets on the road. Or of course, when I'm at home, I can mix it in with water or a smoothie. And it's just it's a very simple, nice part of my daily routine. God, I'm happy to hear that big happy man. You know, the best

thing, not only convenience, but as long as you get it into your routine and stick to it, it's like the best thing that you can possibly do. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's good here because I recently started taking it. My wife's been doing athletic greens for like probably over a year now. And she's like, Hey, all great athletes have one thing in common TC. They take care of their bodies. She told me that verbatim. She hit you. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, I've been working out the last, I don't know, maybe six weeks or so and feel better. And I'm trying to take better care of myself. So a comprehensive solution is what you need from your supplement routine. Then athletic greens is giving you a free one year supply

of vitamin D and five free travel packs to go with your first purchase. Go to athleticgreens.com slash NLU.. Go to athletic greens dot com slash NLU. That's athletic greens dot com slash NLU and check it out. We thank them for their support. And Randy, I'm, I'm looking forward to, to tracking you and kneel down on the tennis court, you know, getting my strength. Getting back to my fighting weight.

I can't wait. I was just playing in an tournament this weekend TC Lost lost a hard fought second second round match up in Boulder But it's not it's not your weight man. It's your stamina and your flexibility No, I think if anything I need to gain weight, but that's not their hearing or there. We can take that in a truck draw Valero Corey Connors little little Cory Connors gets it done. Bogey free 68 on Sunday. Well, let me just say this, I think this is significant for me for two reasons.

Uh, I love when people kind of carve out a niche, winning a certain tournament. This is his second PGA win. It's his second time winning the Valero Texas Open. He won it in 2019, as well as just yesterday. And also looking at his master's track record, right? In 2020, finished tied for 10th, 2021, tied for 8th, 2022, tied for 6th. It's very intriguing to see him obviously playing

very good golf here with the masters this week. I think that's a guy you got to look at We got to be looking at him for a T4 right? I that's what you know if if you love symmetry as much as I do like that that would be such a great result I'm saying he's usually just out there looking to make him points man That's all I care I just got to get my points and not worried about these victories, but I'm happy to see, you know, Cory pick up his second win. Happy for Canada. Don't want any shit on this.

But I think the reason why you probably motivated this week because, you know, usually only get like a good three, maybe four years out of a pair of cowboy boots and his were running out from last time. So they hooked him up. I mean, in all seriousness, Bogie free round out there on that course. There's some, there's some weird shit that can happen out there. Like there's all sorts of, there were a couple. I think Thomas D. Trey shot like 67 83 this week.

There's massive numbers out there. T.C. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. I mean, shit, this were a na hit. Exactly. It's 16 or whatever, a couple of years ago, or a few years ago at this point. Yeah, I think somebody else had a crazy,

crazy two round split as well. It's like it never fails to amaze. Corey got out to a fast start, 64 on Thursday. They had some weather roll in and you know just kind of 64 and then he kind of kept it kept it on the rails Saturday, Sunday when it looked like Patrick Rogers. This was his tournament to lose. I mean he was he was in complete control. You know shot 66 67 going out Thursday Friday and then 71, 73 on the weekend. And it just felt like, I don't know, I like Patrick Rogers. I got nothing against him other than his the pace of play down the stretch today on Sunday was, was like absolutely egregious. So I do have that against him.

But it took him 10 minutes to figure out that he was punching out. It was the most obvious call. And then again, it took him forever on the green. And it's like, dude, like Corey Conner is like, he's trying to win the golf tournament and you're four shots back. You're not winning the golf tournament. Step to the side exit stage left, dude. I was going to say, I'm sure the Stanford SID, the marketing folks were looking their

chops with maybe having a rose Patrick double this weekend. Yeah, he's a Mark Madsen getting the head. Mark Madsen. Yeah, exactly. Going to the art tribal. Patrick's an interesting one. I guess I'm more curious of your guys' opinion. You know, he's a guy that's been on tour

now. What this is is 9th or 10th year, very decorated college career. Just has not gotten over the hump. And I think, I guess the only thing that really illustrates for me is like there are just so many guys like that, and and it just I think weeks like this just go to show how how hard it is to win and and really to close on the PGA tour I guess. Yeah he's kind of had a little resurgence here of late it seemed like he was he was in in the wilderness for a while there. He's kind of guy like works as a s off um you know he was down at like I think like low 300s high for or sorry, high 300s, low 400s back 2019 had been in 2020 and it's kind of worked his way back inside the top 150 in the world now. But very much one of those feast or famine type guys to place

a lot as well, like place of ton of tournaments. You know, I think some of the stories of him practicing are kind of legend around Stanford, everything. Just does all the right stuff and just hasn't won, hasn't put it all together. Sure, he's up to 37th in the FedEx cup this year. He's playing good golf and he's playing, he played well in Bermuda, I think. In the fall, he's still kind of feast or famine. Misses a lot of cuts. And when he's in there, it's just just like you just got to convert more of them. So And you got to play faster down the stretch

So what uh, I was I was I enjoyed watching Got to admit hand up haven't seen a ton of Sam Stevens But I enjoyed what I saw I you know, I don't know what is sealing is or what is upside is, what we can expect. But I think he acquitted himself very well. Amen. Yeah. I mean, I know he finished seconds. That's not controversial. It was a pretty like stout finish from me. Hit it. It's like eight or nine feet on 17, eagle bat, and then I had like a, I don't know, eight to 10 footer on. Yeah. Good look on 18. On 18 to, you know, get in in at 15 and see if that held up,

that would have gotten him into a playoff, but miss that. But yeah, I mean, big massive week for him, probably locked up his card for next year, or his 125. But yeah, just a big week for mules all around, right? The so-called mules. It's the mules fest, yeah. This was,-called mules. So it's the mules. Yeah. This was, they were kind of, it was like a mule drive.

You know, I felt like the cowboys are out there just driving the mules across the plains of Texas. Which Sam Stevens, he's an Oklahoma state guy. So cowboys central, right? Yet Sam Ryder out there, he finished T3, Koocher continues his run of great play. He's finished T3 as well. He, uh, he plays really good here. I know it's weird. This is his spot, man. Yeah. I wish I would have done a little prep for our DK. It's funny. DK thing. I did like a bunch of dudes that are

like pretty good iron players like Nick Hardy, Hossler, I don't know who else, Matt Wallace, like guys that just I'm like, all right, like that guy can hit a lot of greens because it seems like if you're pretty straight off the tee, you can get it off the tee into the fairway or be able to not hit a bunch of drivers like if you can just, you know, bump three woods and that sort of thing out there and then hit your mid-iron really well around there. It seems like a great course way. But Chez, T6 for Chez as well, speaking to the mules. Yeah.

What's going on? And Rick, Rick had a good week stuck in with a little T10 there with a Sunday 66. Rick, podrig, podrig at T10. Podrig was, was came out fire in 68 and round one. Robbie Shelton, another guy I'm kind of expecting to heat up here, find around 67 there. Very interesting to see a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, but you know, respectable 68 on Saturday, finish T15. Cody's boy, big text, Jimmy Walker, T22, gets him up to 139th in the FedEx cup on his, on his get out of jail free card, money list exemption this year.

He's got some work to do. I don't know why is my guy, but yeah, we'll take him. I mean, it's good to see him playing, playing okay. If he's going to be in these events, play it. He's doing that. Peter Monotti went 78, 65 on the weekend. Bogey 365 today. Love that. So I don't know.

Anything else. A couple of other notes I had. We had a hairy Higgs sighting. He kind of lost it on the back nine on Sunday a little bit, but good to see him continuing to show some form. Ranger Ard and Nikolai Hoygard locked up special temporary membership. Told you guys, Nikolai was coming.

I told you guys. Hopefully his boy Rasmus is coming as well. Need to get both of them over here, you know, full time. And then saw something air and wise, WD from the Masters. Yeah, he, he decided mental health and I don't know. I just thought that was, you know, sending him all the best and seems like he's, he's been on a tough run, a golf here of late instead. It's just been a lot.

And really respect him. Just saying the, the real reason for why he's taking time off. Yeah. You know, I think that's that's cool. That's important and it you know, it sets a good example that like people can talk about their mental health. So maybe we've been listening to our podcast. It's okay to talk about this stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, no seriously, all the best though to him and hope to see him back out there. He's, you know, he had a great, great season last year and, and you know, seems like a guy that shit need to get him back for, for kind of the Texas swing. He seems to play well. Got in Texas. I got a question for you. Not so much because it's about Aaron Wise, but they kind of, I don't know in my mind, they kind of look the same. What's going on with Book, man, is I see burgers

hitting balls again. Is he healed up? When's he going to try to make a run? What's going on? You got anything from from juke? All the boys live in the juke live? Like, wait, was he just fishing still or what? I've got nothing, man.

I know maybe he's waiting for snapper season here in Florida. That's typically like late June to mid July. It has to begin a little too hot for him down there and he's hit the road, man. I would think so. But yeah, no, it's it was what it was a wrist, a wrist injury. Yeah. So man, if you think it was like the hottest player ever coming out of COVID and just horrible timing. I feel like Bougain, Sam Burns kind of have parallels in their games

a little bit. Just, you know, pretty greasy on the greens. I don't don't know, I, it's, yeah, that's a good point. It's, I feel like the tour is better when he's floating around out there. Can I just say looking at the leaderboard? Sorry, this is nothing to do with that. Uh, I, I, I, I wish him good health. And I hope we see, uh, burger back soon. Jason Duffner, and I hope we see Burger back soon. Jason Duffner, just still doing it. Finished tied for what? Tied for 60 at this week. I don't think he's had a top 10 since 2019,

but man, he's still just teeing it up every week and he'll make some cuts and kind of finishing that 30 to 60 range, just grinding. And I think he's just somebody I've kind of completely lost track of. And so when I go down the leaderboard, I'm like, oh, yeah, Jason Duffner, he's still playing. That's cool. At what point do guys like decide to cut back their schedule? Or like at what point, and I guess he's made enough money in his career that it's not really a concern that like

Well, it might be concerned. We don't we don't know what the prenup was like could be a very big concern, but like, but like at some point Like you're it's like a it's like a week to week investment, right? And you're like at some point if your game's not there, you're throwing You know good money after bad play and you know, it's it costs a couple hundred grand a year to be out on tour. If you're not drawing as a revenue from winnings, and I would imagine that from an endorsement standpoint, he's not a hot commodity these days, missing a bunch of cuts. It's like, you know, how do you justify that?

Or what point do you continue to justify that? Or maybe that's what makes these guys great. They just continue to battle themselves. Yeah, they just always think next week's the week. I don't know. He's 46 now. He's like, he's just the, the stereotypical just counting down the clock to when he turns 50. Oh yeah,

you can get on the champion's tour. You're messed those guys up too. Yeah. Which is crazy because you know, the the Duffer story is fascinating. I think to me because he spent so long on the mini tours just like being traveling around everywhere and then popped really quick. Got a major and then just kind of just kinda did, did, did Duff things. Looking at his results so this year, I mean, he had a, he didn't make it cut until, so he miscuts basically at every single event, starting out for net all the way until farmers

withdrew from pebble and then has played very good sense. I mean, T32 and Phoenix made the cut T74, Honda played in Puerto Rico, T44, Valspar, another T36. I was thinking it was just, no, that's a thing. The Mike Weir thing, like from, you know, eight to 10 years ago where he's just, he's, he's missing like 27 of 28 cuts and, you know, it's not that. I think what fascinates me is I would just think given, you know, he's making about half his cuts, let's say one of these days, he's got a string together a good Saturday Sunday, right?

Maybe nab a top 20 at least, but just his ability to kind of finish in that same, you know, 30 to 70 or wherever that the cut number is, is a little uncanny here over these last several years. Uh, speaking of cuts, James on 80, 74, our our favorite favorite mule. I guess Ryan armor, we are favorite mule, right? Yeah, I mean, everybody can have their own favorite mule. I was gonna say, you know, seeing Francesco ball and Ari down there with James on. There's, you know, man, another guy who had a moment there.

Well, and Ari was playing some decent golf, I think earlier this year. I don't know, kind of keen to see what the next few years look like for him. Shall we talk some LPGA? Yes. Let's do it. Great event this week.

A fun little event. Yeah. Hello, Svaredes, the DIO implant classic, I think, uh, Rancho, hello, it's Verdez. Never been to that area of of LA before. Well, as well, I just got to correct the DIO implant LA open this year,

which they've they've captured the LA open. Set it from from Willshire. Huh. I'm probably not going to pronounce this right. Is it? Oh, I got it. You want me to you want me to say? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Roon and Roon and Yin. Roon and okay. Okay. I have to watch some videos and you just got to say it quick and confidently. That's my whole thing. Roon and Yin. She's Chinese.

This is her first win out on the LPGA tour. Got it done. Honestly had a little bit of a psycho's work car around. Yeah, I know. She had three cars in her first 14 holes today. That's six birdies, five bogies in her first 14 holes. And then part her last four. Yeah. So she comes out, she parsed one and you're like, okay, cool, cool. Bogeys in her first 14 holes and then part her last four. Yeah. Landpartner. She comes out, she parsed one and you're like, okay, cool, cool. We're just going to have a steady, steady round of golf today.

And she goes birdie, bogey, bogey, birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie, bogey. And I say, oh, okay, it's going to be that kind of day. But I mean, Rob's for just like continuing to keep the pedal down. I know. I know. It's incredible because Palas Verde is weird. And there's just enough like elevation changes and just some funky holes out there. I think that that can really throw people off.

But yeah, she won by one. And I was going to say, I think the story is, man, Georgia Hall, another just gut wrenching runner-up after her runner-up at the drive-on. She missed like a, got on TV, it looked like a four and a half, five footer, which would have tied on 18. She was, she was pretty upset about that. It was one person who's not looking forward to going to Hawaii next week and like, just want, we just need to get to Houston and the Chevron as fast as we can as

Georgia Hall. Yeah. That's exactly right. I know. She's playing really good golf right now. Why is tough, too? Cause it's just, you got to, you got to make like, yes, she like 63, you're right. 63, 64, 63 to like, you know, have a chance in that tournament. It's insane. Big Am so happy that you're going here next. I think the story of the week, honestly, I, I'm prone to hyperbole, but it could be the story of the LPGA thus far, patty, patty,

patty, patty, patty, patty. We certainly hope so. I'm not sure if we're ready to just state flatly that she's back. But man, I tied for third this week, a Sunday 65, just phenomenal. She has struggled with some mechanics. She struggled with some mental health stuff. She has all all the talent in the world. And for her to seemingly be taking these steps, you know, she she followed up a really good drive-on week with a with an exceptional week this week, I think if we look at a macro view, you know, patty T regaining form and inserting herself in the

mix weekend and week out is about the best thing that could happen on the LPJ tour. Amen. Also shout out to Georgia Hall. I think she was in like four or five bunkers today. Got up and down every single time. Phenomenal wedge. It was her second. She said he was nuts, man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Patey, Hujo Kim had a really good thing going. She was right in the mix.

Bogey's on 10 and 12 and 16. Got to her. Carlota kinda entered the mix for a little bit there. I enjoyed, yeah, sorry. Let me just say on, on, Segonda, she was fun on that, I mean, she was frustrated on that second nine, but it made for fun viewing.

She had some club talk, not like tosses, but you know, she would hit it and immediately hate it and like drop the club. I just love seeing her emotion. And when she's on, I think she's got one of the prettiest swings on, on a tour full of like gorgeous swings. She's actually Judy Rankins at it. She's got Spanish hands. She's in the broadcast. She is slow though. Of course. It's so bad. Kind of a non-competitive T5 for Nelly. Yeah. This was probably, you know, I think we said this last week about Jinyoungco, like probably our B minus game, you know, just a nice little T five. Keep moving. Now, I'm in Katsu. Find around 63. Danielle, showing some, showing up on the leader board. Ty, Ty, I just can't bring myself to say Tidakoon. It's, it's Tidakool or Tidakoon. I can't,

I can't, I don't see the M there. I just can't do it. I know you just got to trust it. I think um Megan Kang was up there for a bit um Lucy Lee was up there for a bit She shuts. I know code man. Were you getting ready to stun on people if she kind of fell off on Sunday But I was like ooh Cody might might be chirping at some folks if Lucy Lee has a really high finish. Well, considering, I mean, this is a complete 180 from last week. So yes. That's what I'm excited. It's a, again, you don't, you don't put this whole season together in a week. So we just need something to jumpstart it. And I think, hopefully, this is it. Obviously, comfortable back in California. So we'll see.

But I mean, the pressure that you felt last week, first full LPGA tour event, obviously played really, really bad. But man, it was some promising stuff this week. And the one name ahead of her, I mean, just court it, obviously still trying to get back in there, just getting more reps in, you know, T18, again, for not having all of the full stuff, pretty good week. Lucy Lee's whole aesthetic is rules. Oh, I swirth the trip.

Go to lpga.com and just look at Lucy Lee's profile picture. It's the best. It's, it is so good. Their profile pictures, how they're not like, uh, there's no standardization across any of them. It's like, we did maybe 30 of the women this week. So they have like professional headshots done. And then these like 40 other women over here, like we just took like random headshots off their social media profile. And then there's like this other hundred, uh, group of them who are just like random swing picks.

There's no consistency across it all. I'd be remiss not to just say Liliavu. Yeah. I'd for 11th, I think, you know, she just continues her great, great play to start the year. You can almost right now count on her to be top 15 pretty much weekend and week out. And then I was glad to see Maya Stark. She really, really had a bad week last week at the drive on, but rebounded for a T13, which was more in line with her good play in 2023. We got a good stretch of LPGA stuff coming up. We'll talk about it future weeks, but, like what, they go to Hawaii, which kind of feels bolted on. And then Houston for the Chevron. And then

they go to Wilshire for the LA championship, not to be confused with the LA open. Correct. Yeah, they're going to take a week off for the Masters and then go out to Hawaii, which, you know, whatever, fine. But then yeah, the Chevron, the first event at Carrollton Woods in the Woodlands, eager to see that course. And then it's a dynamite run, Wilshire, the international crown TC from TPC Harding Park. And then people are going to get on you for for calling it Wilshire. What is it? Wilshire? Wilshire. Okay. Wilshire. Wilshire. But no, then the international crown and then the founders come from upper Montclair. The real nice track up in New Jersey. So good times ahead on the LPGA.

Couple quick KFT notes. I thought the venue was sweet this week. I just wanted to mention that. They're down in Chile. Guys who shot four under on Thursday Friday missed the cut. You had to go low. Friend of the program, Ben Cole, ended up winning a playoff over Demetrius Papa Datoos, not to be confused with George Papa Doppeless. Like I love seeing the Cornferri Torgo to unique places. I think it's cool, especially this time of year. And then there was a great social video floating around

on Cornferri Tor's social of Spencer Levine, year. And then there was a great social video floating around on Hornferry torsional of Spencer Levine visiting the Children's Hospital down in Santiago. It had a real impact on him. That was great. I would go seek that out if you're able. So Levine's awesome. He's the man. One other note I had from just the world of golf before we get into live is Ludwig tripled the last hole. So the, the, the, the final hole, the Valspar intercollegiate, and he's still one by one. It's like when David Tom's one, one at Kweilhalla way, way back when it was like the walkovia or whatever, and made an eight on the 18th hole on the 72nd hole and still one by four. That was like one of the all-time goat

moves. So I see, you know, it rose, you know, she didn't win pretty, Ludwig didn't win pretty. Sometimes you just got to, you know, the the the great ones got to find a way even if it's not omniproformance. So good growing pains, growing pains. Yeah, live was down in Orlando. Randy, you got Blandy came out shot 66. Just just came out guns of blaze. Really, you know, solid round for him. The cleaks, I think they finished fifth, huge for them. Brooks got the W. I believe torque one. Anything else you want to talk about from from from live Orlando. I mean, it's I talked to a couple of people who were down there. They said it was it was pretty bleak, you know, Orange County National, not not not exactly a premier venue.

The merch was overpriced. And some concerning things from some of the guys head into a gust of this week. I think that's that was the big thing I just wanted to bring up was it's going to be fascinating to see how the live contingent fares at a gust and whether, you know, as a cohort, if they perform strongly, then I think it silences the, oh, you know, you're just playing silly golf and it's exhibition. But if kind of by and large, they don't perform well, I think it's just going to dump gasoline

on on those talking points. I'm really disappointed. Sorry. Brooks, Keca won. We were C1 Kim away from a Capca bookend. I think it would have been amazing if Chase Capca would have finished DFL while Brooks finished first. C1 Kim has now finished DFL in each of the three events this year and by like not by a small margin.

I think he's just their designated Mule. Like they all need a guy so that nobody takes like dead last. Nobody wants to be in the 48th spot. So they're they just hold them around. Speaking of Mule's like just live have a problem right now with all right. Let me read off like the top 10 to 12 guys on their order of merit or whatever the hell you want to call it. Charles Howell at one and then you line Carlos Ortiz, Sebastian Munoz, Brooks, Danny Lee, Brendan Steele, Matthew Wolf, Brendan Grace, and Brandon Grace, excuse me, and Mito Perreiro rounding out the top 10 with Dean Bermister, and know, Randy, you're a big, big Dean Bermister guy.

At 11. I mean, that's, there's paying a lot of money for guys like, you know, Michelson's 42nd right now, Watson's 41st, Westwood, Varner, Peters, answer, Bryson. Bryson's playing like absolute ass right now. They're all in the in the 30s and the standings. I mean, it took me five minutes just to get to this standings. So find the standings on the website. You know, and then we've got a complete midfield battle.

Like the, you know, the range goats have finished eighth and all three events. Majestics are 11th in the standings. High flyers or 10th. Four aces are first without winning an event yet. It's wild. So the iron heads falling back to Earth, they finished third out in Tucson, finished 11th this week. But you got to be concerned with Ripper. Ripper GC finished last this week. And who's the captain of Ripper?

Cam Smith. That's the Aussie team. What if Cam Smith shows up to Augustine ladies and egg next week? Wouldn't be good. I mean, if you look at like recent performance, that would be good. Yeah. I just stinks. I think that's, yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, he shot just five under. Yeah. You know, 69. Even today. What 68 71? Totally fine. I don't know. I mean, Scott Sergio played like shit this week. There were only five guys over par. Andy Ogletree wasn't even one of them. Nicholson, Ustaz and Ogletree were even. Hulter Garcia, Capca, Chase, Capca,

Mad Jones and Siwan Kim were the only guys over par. Well, kind of reception you think Phil gets next week or this week, not a Galsa. Very, very muted. Very cool. Kind of pretending he's not there. Yeah, for the most part. Yeah.

I mean, shitty, didn't even get a presser, right? No, no. I mean, he's not there. Yeah, for the most part. Yeah. I mean, shitty didn't even get a presser, right? No, no. I mean, he's gonna shoot. There's no way he'd done she like 78 on Thursday, right? You know what, I could see him coming out and having like a, just coming out guns blazing, trying to just, you know, hey man, I'm gonna, I'm really gonna buckle down here.

I had to turn it on. Flip it. Yeah. And then just he doesn't have to stand on it. Go more than like 12 or 13 holes. And then all of a sudden it just falls apart. You know, and then he lays a neck on Friday. Oh, God, it just sucks. I'm not even the least bit excited to watch him in Augusta. And I know that's just a me thing. But it stinks for me. Yeah. Well, there's there's there's 18 of them in Augusta, compared with 22 guys and last year's tourney. And then it feels like it falls off pretty quickly for the other majors this year, where I think I don't think there's 18 because you know, because they've got so many

past champs. Whatever. So even the graphics they used to promote at this week were just, you guys see those? No. The majestic were tweeting out. Oh, a lot of saltwater. You shared, yeah, on our Slack.

Yeah. I saw some about a helicopter too. What was the hubbub with Polter using a helicopter to fly from his house? I didn't see that. Yeah, I guess he was getting shit on it. He basically, you know, because he lives in Orlando, but didn't want to get caught up in traffic

or anything like that. So I think he just chartered a helicopter flight from his house over to the course. I just love his private aviation. Well, I don't know, it's super interesting because their next event is in Adelaide and that one is like by all accounts, it sold out, the build out for its huge. A lot of people down in Australia like, well, they're necessarily excited for live.

They're just excited for guys like Cam and DJ. It's like, I don't blame them one bit. I think, you know, kind of tough to separate the two out, especially after the PGA tour is just done nothing but dick over Australia for the last You know really since last Presidents cup they had down there Yeah, they're saying like 60,000 in attendance each day there. So we'll see what happens Alex Masele had a good piece this week on just a lot of the

The live kind of back office shenanigans going on with saying $180 million either necessary but not approved or unnecessary and completely unaccounted for as far as expenditures on their end. Which guys as as the token and LUCF we don't like it if it's unaccounted for that's what we don't like We also don't like you know necessary, but not approved either right no, but if we're gonna if we if we need one or the other I would I would I would lean I would air on the on the former rather than the latter You know some people were saying hey like know, look at the US government. Like they lose hundreds of billions.

If not trillions of dollars all the time, which, you know, to that I would say yes. But also this is a, you know, sovereign wealth fund trying to get a return on their investment, you know, not a presumably not a war. Yeah, yeah. And then so I think that's what led to our guy Majed and a cost a tool getting forced out now if it is more involved in the day to day ops.

Sounds like some players have read the 10 to 14 tournament rule in their contract differently, believing that they are not required to play in more than 10 events, suggesting that if they play the additional four, they should be compensated for those additional events. End quote, which sounds like, hey, maybe you should button that up a little bit. Team purses are going back to the team now to net up their expenses versus directly into the pockets of the players, as was the case last year. Now, a funny thing there too is live-owned 75% of each team. This

money is essentially just flowing back to live. It's always kind of like a circular money flow. And they are providing the operating capital each team, which will then be paid back to live when each team is sold, which I can't see that happening for great, you know, any great, great pay out there. Allegedly, the penalty to break contract is two to four times the signing bonus, which in certain cases would be three to $400 million. If not more.

And I'm sure that would be adjudicated, but yeah. So if this would be a thing, I'm pretty sure that they're like registered in the UK. Correct. Correct. I wonder what that would actually look like, what, what the legal proceedings would be. And we've seen stuff from expansion from 12 to 15 teams, potentially, have, and then as far as like this year's stuff, one to eight guys on the rankings have a two year exemption, nine to 24 have a one year exemption, 25 to 44 is

kind of their their mules. They're in no man's land, but as long as a team wants them, they're safe. And then 45 to 48 are auto relegated and have to requalify. They believe that the 24 season, if there is one, will have eight to 12 new players spread out amongst the 12 teams and then some turnover by relegation, some by other relegation by free agency. But then like, how do you do it where like guys are signed as it is and you're not going to kick, say Paul Casey to the curb, you're not going to kick, you know, Harold Varner to the curb. you're not going to kick, you know, Harold Varner to the curb. That's why, and then, yeah, then we're seeing teams are starting to ramp up staff starting to

sell sponsorships, but they're trying to staff. And that requires live involvement and approvals and everything like that. And live officials are quietly complaining to that certain teams are not doing enough to sell their inventory. Huh. I feel it's kind of wild. Just always. Yeah. I don't know. Yo, man, you told me you told us you'd introduce us to your bookie man.

Yeah. I don't know. I just don't have much to add. It just always seems like a lot. It seems like a lot. And I just, you know, good luck to everybody. Yeah. I did see the fireballs have signed up a Mexican oil company, Akron, as their corporate sponsor. So good for them.

That's cool. Yeah. You know, getting in with the wildcatters. Maybe our guy, Bunkie will be looking to strike a deal and lift gets to Tulsa here in a few weeks. That's that's the good stuff right there. Let's see here. Well, let's let's shoot it to our guy Wolfie for a sec. We did a little segment with him, bring him on here here shortly to kind of intro or our office hours segment that went live last week. Sounds good. All right. Join now by the one and only Bama Bearcat, Michael Wolfe. What's up Wolfe? Everybody, it's Master's Week. It's the best week of the year. That's why you're here. Yeah, bringing you in to kind of transition

from Valero, Anwa, Diio implant classic week to master's week. Sure. I thought we brought Wolfie in to talk about live Orlando. I know. I didn't get the memo. I didn't. Wolfie, what do you know about it? I feel like you don't know anything about it, Gusta. What do you know about it? I feel like you don't know anything about a gusse. Well, if they had garden nooms, and I might go down to Orlando, I don't know. Or pizza. First things first.

Yeah, I feel like you got to get issue a mech culpa of sorts. Apparently I do. Yeah, I will be out of gusto on Thursday and Friday. Anybody who sees me on the grounds, I'll be wearing this hat. I'll look like this. I'll buy a nice, peach ice cream sandwich. All right, I'll be wearing this hat. I'll look like this. I'll buy a nice peach ice cream sandwich All right, I made a little mistake there. I was maybe the victim of a pretty elaborate practical joke by some former friends of mine. We'll call him at this point. Oh, no, that's what it was. Well, I'm not a complete roof, right?

I do check my sources and my second sources. These these fine gentlemen were folks that were in let's just say they were in a position to play a joke like this because of the color of some of their clothing. So yeah, they got me. I'm glad was the other way right to be worse if I told everybody they're going to be pre-chized green sandwiches and there weren't peach ice cream sandwiches. So I'll be out there on Thursday and Friday. If you see me, I will be more than happy to buy everybody a peach ice cream sandwich. I'm as happy as everybody else are coming back. I apologize. Into my friends, you'll be here in front of me soon enough. So. Well, how convenient that you tell everybody what a hat you're wearing.

And we're on a podcast and people can't can't see you. Oh, I didn't saw it in no. Yeah, anyway. In green hat. If you're green hat. So I'll be the only guy there on Thursday and Friday with a green hat on. So the berry flavored sandwiches, I was kind of excited for those. Well, I had one up a little bit.

I did have one today and it was delicious, but unfortunately it was a one off, I think. It was funny. You were saying, yeah, nobody, nobody in Georgia's growing peaches anymore. It's all, what, what'd you say peanuts and soybeans or something? Yeah, that part is true. I guess it's all blueberries. No, peaches are way down and it's all blueberries, but they rangled up enough to satisfy everybody for their year.

So sorry about that folks. Well, anybody who didn't see our YouTube channel this past week, we released the first iteration of office hours with Michael Wolfe. Kind of hard to look at angles of golf course history and different themes of tournaments throughout the year. This is the first of many to come. So thrilled for Wolfe to be doing this and for Holderness and Born to Sponsor. So check that out if you haven't already. And Wolfe, we've got a couple other things coming out this week too, right?

Yeah, we do. So if you like to office hours, which was obviously the Masters in the Gusto National and how it got to be where it is today, we're also going to do some, you know, little shorter slices. One of the next one up is going to be about the Part Three course, evolution of the Part Three course. If you haven't heard, they've got a new Part Three course this year. It's the third or fourth iteration they've had and there's been some really cool backstories over the years with Potential par three courses that some got built some didn't get built some were gonna be public courses Some were gonna have be tied into the ptf America and be a hall of fame

Just a lot of cool backstories with that little piece of land over With the par three courses and then yeah kind of an interesting history of the par three tournament itself So it'll be much tighter version. It's going to be a three or four minute version bite size, not the full, the full off sourced treatment, but looking forward to sharing that with you. Randy loves Parthory courses. It's this thing.

Well, the Gusus Parthory course too. Wolfie, I hope you can really dive into the history of all the funnel pins out there and just out disgusting a lot of those pin placements are. That would be much appreciated. Be more than happy to. All right, thank you, sir. And then, Shay, follow at Bam and Bearcat on the socials for all sorts of just cool fun facts

throughout the week as well. Yeah, and a big thanks to you, Tron, and to DJ, and especially to Matt Holden, that did all the editing. You know, one of our really goals for the series, whether it's talking about a person, a place, an event, is we want to, you know, not just do the same old, same old, right? When they go to, when they have a US Open of Mary, and then they talk about Ben Hogan's shot in 1950, you know, in 1950, or they go to Carnivist, and they talk about, you know, 1950 or they go to Carnegie and they talk about, you know, what happened in 1953 or whatever. We want to show you guys kind of the next story and the second story and the third story and the fourth story at these places and about these people. When Matt and DJ did a great job of helping us dig up some of the old photos and stuff

you haven't seen before. So even though a lot of office hours subjects are going to be subject you've heard of and something that you think you know a little bit about, we're going to some news some new tricks and some new things about some places that you already Think you like and we're gonna tell you even more about them. So So your name's too. Yeah, Pimble Crusher. People crusher sure count. Ego about that Want to do a quick segment with you tonight about something that you'd change about August the National or the Masters or just just kind of that ecosystem in general. So you want to lead us off? I would. So one of the things that we didn't cover in that

first one about, you know, the Masters, we talked a little bit about the rough start and the salt and the if you go into that office hours on YouTube and you see the how small the crowds are in the videos we show you up to what it is today, it's amazing the transformation. But they worked hard on it. It was not just all luck or money or power. They kind of grind on it. And one of those things I found fascinating is they do like a complete 360 review. Neil would like this. I think they, you know, the week after the tournament or a couple weeks later, they get every department together, whether it's a gronomy or merchandising or competitions

or rules, and they do like a deep dive and look backwards on like, what can we do better next year? And it started all the way back with Clifford Roberts and Bobby Jones, they've done that. So the challenge for us today, I think, is to do the same thing. So I love it. I have a really hard time finding anything I don't like about it. But if I had to pick one thing, I would say just watching the Women's Amateur event yesterday, it does still feel a little bit like a college tournament. I don't understand why they can't at least loosen up the exemption categories a little bit. They don't give an exemption, for instance, to the US mid-ameter champion for ladies. That seems like a big missed opportunity. You know, the good one to the men,

you know, the men have already got things like the crump, and the coal men, and plenty of fantastic places. If you're a good 25 year old golfer, and you can hit it in your enameter, believe me, you got a pretty good busy full schedule, they got the room, and it doesn't seem like it would be that tough to let in the U.S., you know, and maybe even the British mid-ameter, maybe even the senior

amateur. I play a lot of golf with a former Curtis Cup player in a lady that won the mid-ameter, you know, a while ago, and she gets in around just fine from 6,000 yards and you know, would she compete and win in the tournament this weekend? Probably not, but you know, she can get in around, she ain't gonna hold anybody up anymore than the mid-ameter is that's playing the gust of this week. So that'd be mine. Be interested in what yours would be. One change, anything that you could change.

One thing. I'm on record already. For the last few years, other than fixing seven or taking out all the trees on 11 or that, it's the 14 and 15 year old division of the drive trip. But, you know, it was on again today, the kid that won, yeah, props to him, but like, he's a scratch. He's like a point one handicap, like go play real golf. Like, you know, like nobody watches the pony league world

series, you watch the little league world series. The kids are 12. And then they, and then they graduate out of that and they're 13 and nobody, nobody gives you shit anymore. And they go play high school baseball and, and try to play college baseball and all that golf should be no different. That's my soap box. I totally agree. Wolfie, I'll, I'll pick up the torch from you just for the onwa. I just wish all three rounds were at Augusta. I hate that they split it between champions retreat and Augusta national.

I mean, I get the reasons, right? But if we're purely, hey, what's the change I would like to see? Play all three rounds at Augusta national. I think it would be more meaningful as a tournament. Why do you think it's trying to protect the course? Why do you think, Wolfie, just wear and tear? I think they got a lot going on. I believe they play their big member

of Jamber's Tournament the weekend before the Masters. And I mean, just staging of all the stuff they got to bring in all the tents. There's a lot going on. And I think it's just a, you know, it's a, there's no win. You know, what if you get weather? I think there's a lot of moving parts. I agree with you. I think it's worth the stretch. I mean, I think it's worth doing. Let me put

it this way. I think they're smart enough people that if it was that easy to do, they would have already done it, right? I think they've done enough good in recent years that I'm willing to now give them the benefit of the doubt that I don't think they do it because like they only want the girls to be there one day There's got to be more to it than that. Yeah, no, I don't think it's Necessarily malicious on their part, but it feels a bit like hey, we're gonna have our cake and eat it too You know, we're gonna give them one round at at the national and and kind of soak up this whole tournament in our orbit. But, oh well.

Yeah, I agree with that. I agree with the anewa and the collegiate event side of it. I'm gonna, well, I talk about this a little bit, but Wolfie, I was just shocked that Augusta lets them rock the amount of collegiate apparel and team uniforms as it was. It seems like they're, it's basically, probably just like a collegiate apparel and team uniforms as it was, it seems like they're, it's basically probably just like a collegiate showcase for a lot of these

like big programs of, you come to our school, like it's ultimate like recruiting piece for them. I'm just shocked that there's that many of these women that are out there that are still rockin' their team gear. And I understand being proud of where you're at in the program and the support that they provide you, but it was just kind of wild to me. It's basically, unless you had an NIL deal

from Coway or TaylorMade, you are just rocking your team gear. And some of it is absolutely like horrible to look at. Yeah, well, I would say, I mean, even more than the, you know, I don't think that's an Augusta thing as much as like for the young ladies like man showcase your personality you know I mean that's that's for for better or worse like you're you know you know show showing off your sense of style to people the first time they see you on a big platform is a pretty powerful tool and kind of a missed opportunity for them, I would think. But the flip side, maybe the NLI, they're viewing their association with the university as their best chance towards the NIO money.

And I can understand that too, where they feel like they just got to ride hard for whichever know, they're hoping to pick up the backing of, you know, well, see alumni or whatever, I can get that too. But yeah, I got to agree. So that scripting is tough. Plus, you know, a lot of the actual members that Augusta went to these same schools. You know, you got, you got, you got, you got talking to the Rose or, you know, you got, you got a bunch of South Carolina and Georgia and Vandy people, you know. I will say being up close and personal. I know you've been there before TC, but Connie, I mean, she works the crowd. She talks to everyone. I mean, it's not just a a deference to Stanford players that are out there. I mean, she, she's all over the place. It was

actually very like, it was really cool to see up close in personal. Condi and Jenny Romney. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's, it's definitely like they're, they're on duty. You know, I know this has been mentioned before. I'm always amazed at the, you know, being the chief security officer of ProTradge holdings, I'm amazed at everything that I've heard about Augusta National and the security protocol that they have and, you know, guys out in the Gilly suits and I only saw a couple of actual like over security cameras, but I know there's pinholes and everything all over the place. What blew my mind is the amount of people leaving Augusta National while others were walking in the morning of anewa with like six bags of shit from the merchandise.

I don't quite understand, I understand. I get it's, they're all that stuff's there to make money, but there has to be like limits on some of this stuff. It just blows, blows my mind. And the other thing is, is that it was such a madhouse in there. I wonder, I wanna know, I wanna them to release like their blotter of how many people were like arrested for what? Like, what was their offense? Where, where, where is

all this information at? Because that would be absolutely riveting information to me. So you need to, you need to start following the Bam and Berkette, to arrest all of last year, both for public intoxication, both of the, if you read the, you know, reports of the incidents, both people given multiple opportunities to just, you know, proceed to the gate and refuse to do so. So they, I don't think they're looking to, you know, make their presence felt, but two folks managed to get arrested in Masters week 2022. That's impressive. Wolfies got contacts within the Pinkerton's, none of them were none of them were related to Gary Player. I mean, that's I feel like that's the biggest upset. Yeah. The merch I would agree

though is it seems it's kind of bizarre like to waste your time. I mean, you know, wait until the afternoon, we're ever going to happen. Like yeah, the people are buying this stuff and bulk seems a little now a quick story for you that I I do know that like at one point, the reporters, feel with the credentials, they were allowed to, like on Sunday nights when they picked up the credentials, they were allowed to go over and have first choice. And the masters had to cut it off because not name and names,

but all the cheap British reporters would go over and stock up on all the limited edition Scotty Cameron putters and the hats hats that were like one-offs and The master salad on the open market like the next morning that beyond eBay and the master's finally like got hired of You know they were like yeah, you guys can wait in line with everybody else on Monday now no more no more Sunday merchandise tent for the reporter So kind of funny Well Wolfie. Thank you, man. We'll I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, I'm a philanthropist, out like that on video, I know it's very, very difficult, and you did an awesome job. Curious for you before you get out of here. What's the feedback then for you?

The feedback's been pretty good. There's people that want to talk about the pluses and minus of Augusta National and things I don't like and everything else. We're trying to make this entertaining at the same time insightful. It's got to be a blend there. We're going to get to things believe me. There's plenty more to come on. Clifford Roberts and, you know, Jack Nicholas and Tiger Woods and all kinds of stuff, great stuff. But, you know, we're working on 18 minutes for the first one. So we're good stuff to come.

And I would be remiss too if we didn't thank Holderness and Born for, you know, their support. They're taking a chance on me and I know they're good partners with you guys, but, you know, their support. They're taking a chance on me and I know they're good partners with you guys, but, you know, thanks to them for, you know, supporting a piece of golf that I like. You know, I think a lot of people out there like based on their reaction and it's nice to have the time and the, you know, the support of somebody to hopefully do it right. And that's what we're going to keep doing.

So thanks. Wait till people find out that Oak Hill is not actually on a hill. Right, Evil's Mons are gonna be blown next month. It was. It was. It was not anymore. So, well, thank you, man. Thanks, you guys.

All right, and looking ahead to Masters, we can cover most Masters stuff next week, especially preview stuff, core stuff. I did want to say, I saw the thing about Augusta National prohibiting thirsty journalist media members from taking pictures of their workstations. I was thrilled to see that. What? Why are you thrilled? It's just like the, you know, it seems like kind of a, a right of passage for the thirsty as the monks does to kind of take a picture and show their bonafide.

Hey, I'm, I'm posted up in the media center at Augusta. Yeah. You know, show the whole thing and, and yeah, they're, they're cutting down on the thirst. I thought that's fine. I guess that's fine. Let me just say master's week, Low Key, maybe like the Thursday's week on Twitter. It's one of the toughest on Twitter for me. I've been trying to really pair back my Twitter the last couple of weeks and I might have to keep that going this

week. Randy, I'm right there with you, my man. I've, I've, I've Randy, I'm right there with you, my man. I've slashed my intake to like four to five minutes a day. Yeah. Yeah. Max, 10 minutes. It's been like the most refreshing thing that's happened over the last three. I just got back from New Zealand and Australia and I was like, holy shit, like I don't need to be doing this every day.

It's so poisonous. Why? Yeah, that's exactly. That's exactly right. Let me ask you, what do you think of what do you think of Scotties champions dinner menu? Uh, I think it's pretty leaves a lot to be desired kind of reminds me of something something my my six year old Freddy would would would pick out for himself. would pick out for himself. Well, so for those that are listening and haven't seen, it goes as follows, the starters

will be cheeseburger sliders served Scotty style. What Scotty style is, is anybody's guess? You got to kick out of that one, right? Firecracker shrimp, which sounds just like your, you know, your typical bang, bang shrimp, tortilla soup, which listen, fine. And then the, the entrees are either a Texas rib-eye steak or a blackened redfish with family style mac and cheese, jalapeno-creams corn, fried brussel sprouts, and seasoned fries,

and then we're gonna have a dessert of warm chocolate chips, skillet cookie with milk and yeah just milk and cookies I guess for dessert. Milk and cookies ice cream. Oh, I like it cookies and cookies. Okay. Not the most adventurous menu. I'm sure everybody will I'm sure the food will be good and it will be a good meal. It's fine. It's fine. Like I'm not going to, you know, nearby steak and black and like I love redfish. I love to I love everything on this menu.

I just yeah, it's all great. I just don't know if this would be my, my premiere choice if I happened to one day when the masters. That's exactly right. Yeah. Like this is what I serve the girls. The girls would be like, yeah, I want some of that bang bang. Should I have them like y'all? I'll be two of these. This is like a Wednesday or a Thursday night, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. And especially on the heels of, you know, Hadecki's tour to force performance last year, right? With the sushi sashimi nigiri, chicken skewers, the miso glazed black cod with the Dashi broth of wacky swaggy ribeye with mushrooms and and Dicon ponzu Japanese strawberry shortcake. Like that's that's some that's some cultured shit right there. My man. Listen, for all we know that also could have been Hadecki's Wednesday night menu. Like who knows what he's eating on the road. That's true. Yeah. That's very

true. What would be on your menu, Cody? Oh, I mean, I'm thinking of bang bang should have brought it now just because I'm hungry. We've been on this podcast for a little bit, but I don't know. It would probably be some like some tuna or fish starter. My soup would probably be like some sort of bisque, I'm a big lobster bisque guy. Oh, yeah. Yeah, probably. Probably go with a little bit like 100% grass fed free, Montana beef, just in line with Scotty. The sides look great.

I'm not a big mac and cheese guy, surprisingly. The Halapeno cream corn sounds delicious. Russell sprouts, not my thing. I probably go like a bean option or a spare yes or something like that. And fries that just, yeah, fries are delicious, but like, we don't need them. Yeah, yeah. And then my dessert would probably be, not a lot of people are going to know this, but we call it a Montana mud pie. It's not a mud pie what you're thinking it is, but it actually is like basically I can an Oreo crusted pie that has coffee ice cream and like a whipped cream on top. It's my all-time favorite dessert.

That sounds delicious. Randy, what about you? Well, T.C., we would start with, I don't know if we could ship in Skyline or if we count on the Augusta chef to do a faithful representation, but we would start with just little skyline cheese conies. We would have mustard and onion available as people like to dress them up. It's tough going from that to anything else, but we got to fill out the menu. Cody, I'm like you, I love a good bisque. Something like shellfish, whether it be lobster or God, I had a butternut squash

Bisc with like lumps of crab meat this winter That was phenomenal. So something like that. I love a good Caesar salad None of this makes sense, but like my favorite meal would be like a just dynamite pasta something like sense, but like my favorite meal would be like a just dynamite pasta, something very Italian. And then you would you get the big old block of cheese out there and be. Oh, shame that. Oh, yeah. Just flambatied everybody. Yeah. It's a shame that Parasana top. It would be sending one of the one of the live meals around it. Yeah. Yeah. for everyone.

Yeah. And then I think we'd finish it really simply with a nice selection of greater ice cream again. Oh, paying homage to my Cincinnati roots. I think mine would be pretty similar to Hedeckys last year. Yeah, I think I think the other one that sticks out to me is I think you go full Korean. You'd be like, I. Look Korean, I feel. Yeah. Or Vietnamese. Vietnamese.

You see, he got so many choices. Like VJ did a really good job when he won. He had Tamarind from Atlanta. Like it's a tie restaurant in Atlanta. He had them cater it. And it was supposedly like one of the better ones of all time. So yeah, a lot of different directions. You could go with that Oh, man. No, man. So

Let's rifle through a couple of quick things here. Most of this can we can save most of the master stuff I put in here for the preview pod this week. I do want to talk about about Mr. Player though talk about about Mr. Player. No. First of all, he tweeted out just an insane picture of he and Jack, just laughing like absolute ghouls. Yeah, the moments, moments with friends like this never grow old, even if we do decades of countless memories, Jack and I can reminisce about, especially on the heels of Master's Week and I cherish our friendship so deeply. We will see you

in Augusta Gulf World GP. Let me just say it seems like Gary, you know, Gary's what, 87 and certainly doesn't really give a fuck about much these days. And it seems like he's just going to go out guns blazing with a gust. Yeah, he told the daily mail this week that the masters is is fourth for him in terms of the majors. You know, very, very, the cipherus on that one, so it just doesn't have the history to compete with the other majors. Apparently, can't get a practice round at Augusta with his grandkids. None of the members will take him out.

Which, hey, you know, I wonder why. Right? I know. You know, if I'm being honest, like, I don't, it's going to take a lot for me to forgive Gary for that stunt that his kid pulled on the first tee when they're honoring Lee Elder. That just was the tackiest shit I've ever seen. Yeah, he said, I've played my role. I've won it three times. I was in the top 10, 15 times. I made the most number of cuts in a row ever. Yeah, here we are struggling to get around. That's one of the reasons why I rate the open number one. If it wasn't for the players,

Augusta would just be another golf course in Georgia. This is from an interview with Tom Kershaw in the Times. There's all sorts of other, like it's a fair point, but a moot one. Tom says, player hasn't actually competed, completed a full round of golf for over a month now, because he's had a hand injury while riding a horse on the beach in South Africa. Let's see here. And before that, he was playing a lot with DT. He said, Mother Teresa was one of the most inspiring people I've ever met Gandhi Nelson Mandela President Trump I admire

Admire his principles tremendously. He describes golf as a game of contradictions and Let's go. He's taking that to heart. Yeah. He did pick Rory to win. Rory's got the best best swing on the planet. And while claiming most live golfers were right to take the money and run, he admits that he still can't comprehend Cam's misdecision. Well, also be still being an ambassador for those side. Like the conversation that the conversation then veers to the youth of today's love of cannabis, Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine, whether history teachers still covered Julius Caesar and the Trojans and finally Sir Winston Churchill. My greatest all time hero says player, which spoiler as I was reading the article,

I'm like, oh, yeah, please bring it. I want to hear Gary go off on on marijuana. I want to hear Gary like I can't even imagine what his takes are on the Russia Ukraine situation. Unfortunately, it doesn't really get into that in the article. So spoiler there, but sure it was a hell of a conversation. It gets into some of the anti-apartheid protesters wanting to kill him, throwing ice in his eyes and phone books in his back. Gosh, all sorts of just, you know,

I would encourage people to read it. It's truly, truly wild. I like to do like hook up a KVV narration of this interview like on old fans or something like that, from limited time to see if people would be down to it Nespod The way that he phrases the whole thing to a lot of people assume that I have those privileges, but they're wrong If I want to play a practice round with friends

I can't just call the pro shop and make those arrangements. It makes you wonder how welcome are we really as past champions? Like, God, what a bad guy. Like I just want to hit him with like, yeah, welcome to the party, man. I can't call it the pro shop either. Be cooler if I could. Yeah, any reaction to the can't lay pod this week. Sally's interview with can't lay. Let me just say I just am disappointed because I think I mean can't lay a pod this week. Sally's interview with Cantley. Let me just say, I just am disappointed,

because I think, I mean, Cantley is a smart guy, and I think it was like around the writer cup last year, he gave some interviews where I'm like, damn, I would love to, he just hear Patrick, you know, expand on certain topics, and I think he's well thought, and I just felt like not much of that came across at all in the interview and that's not Sally's fault. I just feel like Patrick for whatever reason

was just not really given much and so he's just disappointing for me because I think he's smart and he could say a lot of interesting things whether I agree with him or not. because I think he's smart and he could say a lot of interesting things, whether I agree with him or not. He kept saying to like, it was all about setup. It's all about setup. It's all about setup. Meeting, then meaning like, you know, and it was like he was, he was mixing up setup and architecture. I think a little bit. Yeah. And they, they've just making all sorts of false equivalencies and saying like, well, they would never move to T up or whatever. You know, like, it's like none of these courses that have ever expanded or are going to move to T up. It just, like, it just came off as like really lazy,

closed-minded and like, like, I think there's, there's certainly like anti-rollback arguments to be made. I just don't think he made the right ones. Yeah. Again, big kudos to Sali though. It's one of those rare interviews were like it honestly it felt like a disposition or a deposition.

Yeah, excuse me, felt like a deposition or I would even go as far as like an interrogation of just like getting no feedback from it. Honestly, I kind of chubbed around like this is one of the rare occasions where I wish we could post a video version of an interview pod. Just so people get like the full feeling of what was going on because he was just, it was not given anything. There's no wiggle room. It's all he did a hell of a job trying to pivot and get more out of it, but it just wasn't happening. Actually, Jeff Shoggleford had a really thoughtful piece

in Lynx Magazine about the limitations in here with the Augusto only having two sets of teas, too. I thought that got back to someone can't lay stuff as well. But some other PGA tour stuff to close it out that I had on my list. Lany Joaquin said some great comments that Luke Kirtanine pulled up from the mid 80s

where he's basically calling like point blank calling Gary McCord and 80 it and like like essentially like a mule before like the mule term was, you know, he was like Dean Beeman's one golf tournaments. I've won golf tournaments. Gary McCord has one shit. He's the one that came up with this whole like fully exempt tour thing. I thought that was really interesting. I would recommend people. People go look at that one. Also, real quick, sorry. I thought just the question was, but essentially around the fact of like, hey, a lot of guys are just have their eye on like, hey, top 125, keep that card. And Lanny just goes, well, I've never viewed the tour as a place that's out here to provide a living for 250 people. I'm like, oh my god, preach it brother. Yeah. Well, it's crazy too to think

about like Lanny was saying that and McCord was like one of his colleagues for like a decade. Yeah. But you know, on CBS, speaking of loud voices in the room, I got to kick out of the shotgun star guys, running down big J's, meeting that he had down at Poon Takana with, you know, the guys that like that tournament probably shouldn't exist in the first place. And I guess only like a dozen guys showed up. And then DA points and Robert Garagas were the most vociferous of the bunch allegedly. It's just so on the nose, it's perfect. Yeah. So yeah. Um, and then yeah, Eddie Pepperel sounded off on the strategic alliance.

I thought that was interesting. I think try to get him on here in the next, next couple months. Uh, and then Bryson said, said Tigers cut off all communication with him. Who does that? Welcome to the club, Bryson. You're not the first. Not just cut off. He didn't reply to his happy birthday text. Very out of character form. Well, you know, you know,

kind of went against everything that he said. You also like led to his face. You are now involved in a lawsuit like against everything that he's standing for. Like what do you expect, man? now involved in a lawsuit against everything that he's standing for. Like, what do you expect, man? All right, housekeeping notes. And then we'll send it over to DJ and Rose on the back end here. Kind of recounting good 25 minutes on her Augusta National experience the last few days, some cool, cool anecdotes as well.

But we've got KVV on site, but Augusta all week this week. Look for plenty of written content from him. We'll have our preview share recording Tuesday night. I think we're doing our Tuesday afternoon. And that'll be up overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, Eastern time, US. We'll have our high-new live shows Thursday to Sunday. Love the ice watch and full effect in the Yeti since this is a real major. And TBD check meals accounts

for the Rory Block Party details as well. And then, yeah, Randy, we're chopping it Tuesday as well. We are. Yep. In a minute. Yeah, and then, yeah, we've got the aforementioned Wolfy extra credit. Thank you. And I think some video, I won't I won't say anything more, but some I think some video folks will like as we get further into April past Masters week. Interesting.

Interesting. Well, well, guys, you guys pumped for this week. I'm stoked. Of course. I'm so happy. Last year, this was last year. This time, this is one of the most stressful weeks that I had. All you chuckleheads were over in the UK playing golf.

That's right. I'm trying to coordinate the live shows. It feels like 10 years ago. For some reason, you guys thought it would be perfect timing. If you could play golf all day long, then watch coverage, then do a live show like two to three in the morning. And it just, it was madness. So I'm happy that this year is setting up a little bit better. I was we're a little bit bigger than our stomachs last year, but actually, you know, I love a trip and ended up being a hell of a trip. It wasn't a bad decision because it wasn't a decision. That's initially made the decision to go in 2020 before you had lots of, you know, so anyway, we, yeah, enjoy the week, fun,

chopping it up and a lot of a lot of good stuff coming this week. So appreciate everybody checking out the podcast and check out the website, definitely follow KVV's writing. Love it. Cheers. Cheers. All right, shifting gears a little bit, DJ, taking over here to talk with someone. You guys might be tired of hearing about on this podcast at this point She seems like she's on just about every week now, but of course we're talking about the now reigning on what champion Rose Zhang rose good afternoon Where where we catch you need today?

I am right now at Augusta National in a small little meeting room and it's just been a dream. I'm walking inside the ropes, out of gusting national and I'm not playing a tournament here. So it's finally all over and I really get to soak in the beautiful nature of the course. What is today been like? Have you just been hanging out? I drive chipping pot is going on.

Have you doing a bunch of media stuff? What's it been like? I you just been hanging out? Drive chip and pot is going on. Have you been doing a bunch of media stuff? What's it been like? I've been doing all of the above. I want to go see the drive chip and pot little kids. I was in a little media session with a couple reporters. And I was on golf channel. So I was doing a bit of media, had a really good lunch, and you know, the food is always good at Augusta National, so it's been very solid. I've even gotten to see

the library. That's at Augusta. It's just spectacular. It's such a good view of the whole golf course, and there's so much history behind it. So I think I'm just I'm just really living life right now. I also bought and splashed a lot in the August national golf shop and it's gonna hurt my bank account a little bit but that's all good. It's all for friends and family. Yeah it feels like memorable memorable items to grab. I feel like that's a good week to a good week to unlock those down. All right, I want to start here. So obviously a lot of people are going to be familiar with your your background, one the USAM, one the US junior, one the NCAA's, one just about everything. Number one in the world. However, has this tournament been lingering over

your head now that it's behind you now that you have the trophy, what's your relationship been like to this event before yesterday? It's been incredible. I mean, I played in my first inaugural Augusta National Examiner back when I was 15. And when I was watching Jennifer Cupchow and Maria Fossi, that was kind of the definition of woman's amdrogulf that I really envisioned and ingrained into my brain. With Jennifer holding up that trophy, it's been so incredible to see how her career has flourished and this is Auguste National. This is master's venue and the prestige and the entire event itself is so incredible.

I wouldn't want to miss it for the world. So being able to win here is something so special and it holds a special place in my heart. For those that don't know, the format is a little strange in that you have two tournament rounds and then a day off and then you go play the final round. At Augusta, you had a record breaking first two days, kind of lighting the field on fire. I'm curious, what were those two days like and what was that break day like? I mean, was it was it weird to have, you know, 36 hours on such a big lead? What did that feel like? For sure. I think that this tournament is very unique in that aspect where you play two rounds of tournament play and you have this cutoff where you sleep on your position for two nights and then you play the final round last day should you make the cut and in my opinion I think it's kind of like too many tournaments in one because you're playing on two different golf

courses, Champions of Tree and Augusta National and there's this entire break in between so it definitely is very challenging for me at least the last couple years I've never really performed too well at Augusta National and it really shows how difficult the golf course is. And I'm just super grateful to be able to even participate in this kind of format. I think it's super neat. Regardless of what happens, everyone gets a chance to play at Augusta and that's kind of what we want out of this special week of Women's Amrugoff. What do you think it is about Augusta?

Not to focus on any kind of the negatives, but it seems like you've burned down just about every golf course in the country. And what has it been about Augusta that's kind of giving you a little bit of a struggle do you think? It's super difficult. From the club selection alone, the winds are always swirling. You never know what's going to happen. And even when you do feel comfortable in the golf course,

one minor slip-up can be magnified into something so great that you might triple, quadruple, as we've seen in previous masters weeks and previous annual events. Myself included since that's what I did in my second year of Anwo. But I think that it's just so incredible to see this kind of venue and see all these top-owner players be out here competing for this trophy. And I don't know, it's just this place is so special in the aspect. What what was that day off between champions retreat and the final round

like for you? What did you do during that that practice round? Was there anything different? How are you you must be getting to know the golf course fairly well at this point? But what's that prep look like? Yes, the prep was definitely directed towards my tournament play and trying to figure out a game plan for possible pin placements that have been here the previous years I've remembered almost every single pin position on every hole so I was basically just hitting darts towards those pins rather than hitting towards the pin positions that were in the practice round.

And that kind of enabled me to understand, oh this is the club selection today. This is where my ball landed and this is what the ball would happen. How the ball would react to different kinds of slope-scent wins in this kind of condition. So the prep work was more directed towards just me trying to have a game plan for the next day. Because I do have a big lead and it's something that I want to make sure that I do in terms of like playing under pressure because game plans are always important, especially when you're in the zone. And how is the game plan changed?

Because I mean, NCAA is kind of the same thing. If I remember right, you had a big lead going into that final round. And I mean, did you shift the game plan at all? Or is it is it foot on the gas? I'm curious how you attack those kinds of days. I think that it depends on the golf course Augusta National you can never have your foot on the gas and be super aggressive because once you do that you're putting so many things into play and if anything you go pin hunting and you would end

up probably 50 yards away from the hole if possible. It's just something that you can't really do so that's a little bit more different compared to the national championships that I was a part of this past year. I don't know these big leads are certainly very difficult positions. I still need to, I believe that I have so much more room to improve just from this one event and this performance, which is really, really relieving for me because it allows me to understand that my journey isn't over, like I have so much to work on and being in big leads and kind of faltering is something that I really want to work on regardless of you know even though I may not be the most nervous when I'm out there with that big lead

it's still necessary for me to capitalize on every single goal shot that I have when I'm out there. I think I read something from Beth Ann Nichols, maybe, about going around during that practice round with the local caddy that caddy for Jennifer Cup Show, the year that she won. I know there was some talk about maybe taking a local caddy in the final round, and you ultimately went with your dad. I'm curious if you could tell me about that decision

and how that came together. Yes, I was thinking about it. Prior to coming to this event, my dad and I were pretty set on getting an Augusta Catti to Catti for me in the final round. But you know, when you have a big lead and stakes are high and the first two days were working pretty well for my dad and I, it just made sense for him and I to kind of be on the bag, trying to go after the trophy and it's a really cool experience to get to share with him, especially with being on the final day at Augusta National. So it was an element of comfort and kind of, yeah, I would say just being

comfortable is something that played a huge factor with him being on my bag. And yeah, I mean, Brian was amazing. He gave me so much inside of the golf course, told me a lot about Jennifer Cupcho's different golf shots when she was winning, and it was all so so cool. But I feel like I would have played really well with him on the bag as well. It's just really special for my dad to be there. So we're getting into the final round, obviously not the start you were looking for with a double on number one, which is going to happen at Augusta and kind of all the ways that you're describing, right? You miss by a little bit, wind up in the bunker and things start to move a little quickly,

bounce back with a birdie on two, and then it kind of seems like maybe some driver struggles and some pitch outs leading to bogies. Take me through that stretch kind of before the weather delay. Yes, it was just a wholeness by my definition. I was hitting it left. I was hitting it right. I really didn't know what I was doing and I wasn't hitting my shot solid at all. And I knew that it wasn't just nerves at that point because I truly believe that there was something that was so much school, but

definitely changed the entire way that I played my game compared to the last two days at Champions retreat. And I think I really had that changing moment on 13, where I really did find the problem. And it was just a simple minor adjustment to my grip. And from then on I was hitting everything pretty rock solid. I was able to hit some great iron shots into 14, 15 was a little bit of rough, 16 was a great iron shot, 17 was great, 18 was solid. It was just I was getting on the green and giving myself chances.

And with my driver not falsering me as well. How hard, it's gotta be so hard to try to play a golf course like that in a situation like that when you're also trying to figure out what's going on with your swing. Are you usually a self-diagnosed your swing fixed on the fly type of person or are you typically kind of stick to the process and kind of, you know, stick to what you know?

I think it's actually both. I believe that. I know my swing super, super well. I train myself to know every single part of my golf swing. So what I am having slight mishaps on the golf course, I really try to think about what I know and my fundamentals on the golf swing before I make any quick minor adjustments. And I think I always know that my game's there. It's just there may be something that's kind of holding me back Whether it's my setup whether it's my shoulder line. It is just all of the above like whatever small detail that you might I might miss Could lead to huge

Errors when I'm on the golf course, So I feel like my consistent play has always been because I was able to self-diagnose and kind of adjust really quickly on the golf course when I'm needing to. So the weather delay hits when you're on, I think number eight, fairway, or something like that. Was that kind of, was that a gift or a curse for the weather to roll with it? It was such a that kind of was that a gift or a curse for the weather to roll?

Such a gift. It was such a gift. I was 4 over through 7. I was boiling inside. Not just nerves. It was just more of frustration because I've had a really really good couple rounds at champions and I had never really had. I only had one bogey and it wasn't because I was, I was doing anything too crazy, it was just a wrong club selection, a poor bunker shot, but this was, this was much, much more serious where it was pulling drives, I was getting in bunker and just punching out, trying to say for bogey. It was just everything gone wrong and once the weather delay hit it really allowed me to scale back a little bit and understand, hey, it's fine, take this little break, get some lunch, talk to your friends

and then come out here with a fresh mind and get going again. So what do you do during the break? Is it just to eat lunch and kind of try to forget about things or are you obsessing over what's going on with the golf swing? No, I wasn't obsessing at all. I felt like if I took a little breather, it will naturally come to me in terms of my feel. We had a long enough range of delay to where we were able to go in the range a little bit and practice. So I was just hitting golf shots and on 8, 9 and 10 it was just I was still getting a feel for it. I never had that comfortable feeling again until 13 hit and that allowed me to really kind of switch around my golf round. What do you think was the biggest shot kind of coming in on that back nine? It was most certainly 13

13 has been a double to me in the past but That was the same whole that got me back into the actual tournament. I was able to birdie against some confidence, game some momentum, and from then on I was able to kind of stabilize myself and maintain the round the rest of the way, which allowed me to get into the playoffs because 17 and 18 are very hard holes close out and Playing with Jenny during the playoffs. It's definitely very nerve-racking But I trust in my game and I trusted that little adjustment that I made which allowed me to hit the ball straighter and

More solid. I'm sure you've been asked about it a couple times in the last 24 hours But you got to ask about 15 talk talk to me about that decision a little bit. It's not a smart decision. And as everyone saw on TV, back home in real life, it was probably the dumbest decision that I've ever made in my golf career. And yes, everything turned out well, but at the same time, it could have been everything that cost me. So I generally do think that it's just more room to grow and understand that. Like, yes, mistakes are fine, but there's a certain time in place for them, and anything is possible. So I really kind of keep things into perspective where yes everything went my way but at the same time you kind of need to

minimize these kind of mistakes. But I did go for it and went in the water, big splash, could have easily laid up and everything would have been a lot better. But I guess it helped because I had a six footer for Boey coming back, I blasted my pot by and that once I made that pot it gave me confidence to be like this the next hole. Just go to the next hole and try to reel yourself back into it again. Six feels so different than seven on that hole, right? And it's always hard on this here, nilling up podcast to say, yeah,

maybe just knocking eight iron down there. That's all we need to do. But what was driving that decision? Obviously, you're figuring something out, you're starting to stripe the ball again, is it just confidence in trying to maintain a lead or how did you kind of get to that position? Yes, it was more confidence in trying to maintain the lead, but also I really, like that and I were talking back and forth about it.

I wanted to lay up for a little bit and we were talking about, because I went for it into yesterday or the day before, and then the practice round, and that allowed me to kind of understand, yes, I can reach it, and I reached it with a five wood. But today, circumstances are different. Low lies, not the greatest, how to three wood in my hand, which will go low if I don't hit it really, really pure. And even if I do hit it pure, it's probably going to go sailing over the green. So all not great things

to have in mind. And yeah, ultimately I got, I got a confidence or sense of reassurance that this is going to be a smart play. But was not the smart issue. There's going to be a lot of, but was not the smart. There's going to be a lot of people listening to this podcast that could relate to the, ah, well, you know, it'll probably be fine type of. It'll probably be fine. Yeah.

Yes, when you second guest yourself, just think about it. We think about it before you evaluate what you actually should do. So really solid golf after that. Great shot on 16. Great shots coming in 17. You know, awesome two pot on 18 and get into a playoff. Did it feel feel like a total reset? Did you feel like you had the momentum?

Did you feel like you're chasing what was kind of the mindset going into the playoff? You seem kind of beaming actually coming off of coming off of 18 green and seeing your teammates and seeing coach Walker and all those people on TV at least. You looked pretty happy coming off 18. Yes, I wanted any opportunity for a playoff. If anything, I feel like me performing in that final round, not par, is, you know, it's a wide open window for other players to climb up the leaderboard, which is exactly what Jenny did. And I just wanted a part of getting to play and to play for the show fee.

So with the sudden death playoff, it gave me a sense of reassurance where I was like, no matter what happens, I made it to a playoff. And I was able to grind it out regardless of the outcome, which really set me in a good mindset. I saw all my teammates, I saw my coach, and it was it was a motivation for me to just be the best that I can. And it just was history from there. I know obviously people who are familiar with us have probably seen the film that we made last year about you and the team. And I don't still think it can kind of be touched on enough, but you were such a good player coming out of high school that clearly could have turned pro and could have

gone that route. I'm curious now it's been a year and a half, almost two years. Talk to me about college golf and truly like what that kind of system has meant to you because you could tell how much you were just getting emotional seeing everybody yesterday and what it's meant to have them around. It's incredible. I would have never imagined my teammates coming to support me and it's the lifelong relationships that I've built at school that really allowed me to be the person that I am today. I really wanted to find my own independence, find my own space and community outside of

golf. And even though they are my golf teammates, we don't talk about golf at all when we're off the golf course And in a sense even more practicing we don't talk a lot about golf. So I think just having that balance and Seeing these people that I love and cherish be there to me. Rachel flew in from Tennessee to support me and she's been incredible with everything that she's gone through. For her to be selfless and come wash me, it just means the whole world and I think that that really pushes me to really just have that mindset of you are doing this not only for yourself but you're doing this for everyone. You're a basic representation of their personalities and I really just am so lucky to have them. And college golf has treated me so well.

I've been living every single moment, playing for my team, and I'm just super grateful to represent. Well, last question, I'll get you out of here. So I think people kind of have a bit of an idea of what happens when a guy wins the Masters Butler cabin, green jacket, ceremony, all of those things. What happens when you win the on what? What was it like after the trophy presentation yesterday? Allers cabin is a check mark. We have probably two to three hours of interviews, which is also a checkbook. And we got to take ceremony pictures once

an immense corner just by ourselves, very private. And it was just a good time. The sun was setting perfect time for photos. And it was just such a fun time just hanging out and we were on that green we were on that bridge for a good while before we ended the day but we had a hilarious story yesterday no one can really say that they got locked in Augusta National. And that's exactly what me and Rachel, the Excel fam, we were all stuck in Augusta National. The gates closed on us. We had to call security and it was absolutely hilarious. It's something that I'll never forget because who can say that they got locked

in the actual golf course? Good thing you had your phones. You know, most people would have their phones. Oh, no, I had four percent left on my phone. So I was scrambling to get a call. Uh-huh, that's great. I guess actually, one more I just thought of. But how much of kind of a golf, like a pro golf dork are you?

I mean, it has Augusta always been just, you know, kind of this like far away place that you can't believe you're seeing in real life or have you kind of stuck to your own game. What's what's what's where do you feel on that? I'm just thinking about like taking pictures in AIMN corner and having the whole entire property to yourself is like pretty story book unbelievable stuff

for for any kind of, you know, golf nerd. It's so unbelievable. I can't believe it that this it felt like a private backyard. Not actually backyard, but it's just that's essentially what it felt like because we were the only people there at Augusta. And we were there to look at the sunset. Despite all the weather delays we had, it was just perfect pink skies and that's just the glory of the golf course. I was, I don't know, it was just, there's no words to describe how beautiful this place is.

And I really just realized that it's a special day, special moment, and you don't get to relive this at all. So I was taking every opportunity I can to just enjoy the moment. Okay, this is my last one. What was, you said you spent too much money in the merchandise, Tannin, what was your favorite thing you bought? I bought this little mug.

This little mug, it was like a latte mug, but I'm obsessed with matcha lattes. So I plan on making matcha lattes in my little dorm and sipping on them while I'm doing the homework. So that was my favorite thing. That's, that's got to be a pretty good look down and have your coffee. Oh yeah, I've ever done that. Ever had a wedding guest?

Oh, that was pretty cool. I've never really did there. Yeah, I have a master's mug to fit into that. Awesome. Well, Rose, good to catch up. Congrats again. Good luck at NCAAs and everything else you got in front of you. And we'll I'm sure we'll, if you keep winning, I'm sure we'll have you back soon. Thank you so much. That is better than most. How about in?

That is better than most. Better than most.