No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 781: Sony & Dubai Recap with KVV and Shane Bacon

Episode Date: January 15, 2024

With the boys off filming the latest season of Tourist Sauce, KVV steps into the captain's chair along with our pal Shane Bacon for this week's recap episode. After a special cameo in our show open, we start with the Sony where Grayson Murray wins in a playoff over Keegan Bradley and Ben An. We talk through Murray's play in Hawaii and his personal struggles in recent years, plus Carl Yuan's....... interesting...... TIO ruling on 18 (32:40) and Gary Woodland's emotional return to the tour after brain surgery in September (47:00). Then it's on to Dubai (50:30) for Tommy Fleetwood's dramatic birdie-birdie finish to beat Rory McIlroy by a shot. We prognosticate on the rest of 2024 for both Tommy and Rory and then look at the off-course news of both Martin Slumbers and Keith Pelley stepping away from their respective roles at the R&A and the DP World Tour. We wrap with some thoughts on the end of Tiger's Nike contract (1:21:00) and the numerous legends across other sports - players and coaches - who have recently retired or are reaching the end of their competitive careers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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That is better than most. Better than most. couple weeks here. I am what we like to think of as the designated survivor while the boys are off on tourist sauce. If you don't know where tourist sauce is yet, you should just kind of tune into our NLU socials. I think the location will be popping up soon enough. You know, designated survivor, if you're not aware of what that is, I think your history, your government teacher probably failed you a little bit. That's sort of a cabinet member who is supposed to stay behind during the state of the union and not at 10, just in case something tragic happens.

I hope we're definitely gonna hope that nothing tragic happens, but I'd like to think of a maybe, just kind of filling in as a guest instead of, you know, sort of waiting around for a bad shit to happen. Kind of like the dukes of hazard when Koi and Vance Duke like filled in for Bowen Luke. And so I decided to call in one of my best, you know, possible dukes out there. Mr. Shane Bacon, Shane, how are you this good day?

I'm doing great. Little cold. I gotta be honest with you up here. I know it's cold pretty much everywhere in the country. Might not be cold with a boys are going. I'll just say that, but uh, chilly where I exist right now. And um, I was like trying to get my son into three layers this morning. He was not happy about that. But I'm, I'm good to go. Hey, do you know, do they, do they put out who the designated survivor, whatever the term is? Do they put that out into

the ether or is that hidden information? They do. It's usually like the secretary of agriculture or something, you know, something kind of out there. I think there's like a show. I've never seen it where the keeper Sutherland is like the, you know, the second like, deep area of education. And there's a big terrorist attack. And then he becomes the president running the show. So who knows? Maybe that's the only way we'll ever get a president who's not like 78. Uh, uh, let's just, you know, if we can jump into politics early in the pod, I think the NLU, uh, the other NLU boys will be really happy with our existence. So that's the smart way to go, I think. Uh, she ate some results from around the world, a golf, uh, today, uh, you know, as

few of you, if you were caught up in football last night and you didn't actually pay attention, Grayson Murray wins the Sony Open in a three way playoff over Keegan Bradley and Ben On. And then out in Dubai, our own guy, Tommy Fleetwood. If you might have heard in the intro, called TC up to sort of crow about halfing. One TC was of not in Dubai, of course. I can testify to the fact that tourist losses

not headed to Dubai, but time with wins wins. Birdies the last two to beat Rory Mackle Roy. Stay I want to start with the Sony open because I think a lot of craziness kind of went down in that last hour. Grayson Murray birdies the first hole in the playoff. I think you and I thought that we were going to be up until midnight basically unable unable to get going because that playoff was going to drag on and then all of a sudden, you know, a total switch of rue situation, you know, Keegan Bradley hits it up into the grandstands, gets it drop, hits a shitty chip, bent on, hits it close to the green, hits a good chip, and then Grayson, you know, rolls in a bomb, probably 40 footer, and then Ben on Mrs. Shorty and all of a sudden, it's like, Oh, well, I guess

that happened. What's what was your takeaway of just washing that all in full? I'm with you. I think there's times when you're consuming a sport and you're expecting to be sitting around for longer. I mean, you know, I think about the, and I don't want to bring this up for cowboy fans, but I think about the Romo hold, you know, where you're like, okay, I got to go refill my drink. I got to prep myself for another half hour of football. And then that's that situation happens. You're like, oh, this thing's ending. It's not going to continue on. I felt a little like that in the Sony, you know, you're kind of going, you're looking at it, you're thinking about the results. I'm one of those people that always roots for playoffs, like no matter if I have skin in the game or not, I just like seeing sports extended. And even if that means you're going to be recording it, you know, 10, 30, 11 PM at night, that's okay. And I think I sent you a text like here we go, we're going to be doing this for much longer. And then

the pike goes in for Grayson, you know, and then Ben on doesn't touch the hole. So it was, it was another great example of why sports aren't written until it's over because I think you and I probably had penciled and keegan to win it in regulation. That obviously didn't happen. Then we pencil Ben on to win and play off. That obviously doesn't happen. And then of those three names, it's the guy that we didn't pencil in at all that ends up winning. And I mean, Grayson has been over the last six, eight months. And I know this has been floating around on social the whole exchange with Roy McRoy at the players meeting about, hey, Grayson, play better, you know, and they kind of went after a little bit. And I think it was at least the way it was reported. I think they were kind of into the exchange. I don't think it was like really

menacing between the two guys. But this dude has played great golf. I mean, he won the Simmons bank. I was doing that for Cornfairy tour, birdied four of his last five holes there on the Cornfairy tour, late in the season, couple wins last year, and then, you know, picks up a second PJ Tour win, pretty impressive stuff considering the way he closed the regulation hole out in 18 and then obviously with that long putt in the playoff. I don't think anybody's ever doubted Grayson's talent. I mean, this is a dude who was a really good player when he was very young. You know, got that first win early and everybody kind of thought like, oh, maybe this guy is going to be the deal. And really then became more known for his social media, griping. It's funny to think about

in that playoff. I was thinking about, oh, you know, he had been on actually had a thing back in the, you know, going at each other on Twitter about Grayson basically saying the European tour was garbage and, you know, and basically saying, all the PC people are going to, you know, drive me off Twitter, really struggled, I guess, with his place in the game. I agree. I think that I'm happy to give Rory credit for Ben on's, you know, for Grayson's performance this week, you know, maybe motivated him just enough, but you're right. I think that that was seen as sort of a sick burn

and I think that they were basically just kind of ribbing each other a little bit. You know, I, look, I think we can sort of drill down on a lot of the stuff. You hear the narrative over and over. Oh, like he's decided to give up alcohol. I do think that's important to sort of share. I have to imagine that that's going to like be the thing that's kind of, you know, Grayson's storyline over and over and over again. I wonder, it's hard, gotta be hard sometimes for some of these two players to share something vulnerable and then have it become like their entire narrative. So they become, I mean, it's brought up consistently and constantly. I mean, I think about

even the Windom Clark story last year at the US Open, right? And I mean, it seemed like when there was a lull in the conversation, oh, let's bring up obviously, you know, a tragedy with this family, right? And then I feel like that just becomes who you are. If you have anything to attach yourself to, I wonder, is it... there's not a lot on the player, so you lean into that. Or is it... do we need to do a little bit more research and homework on who these guys and girls really are? I'm wondering where that lands because I don't feel like it happens

as much in other sports KVD. I mean, you've covered plenty of sports in your days. I know we will bring things up at times, but it's not exactly who they are. If they've given up alcohol or if they've you know, had tragedy in their lives, it's not exactly who they are. I remember I did a podcast after Nate Lashley won a few years ago with Nate and I intentionally didn't talk about the family tragedy with him because I know he has to answer those questions and every interview he does, right? I wanted to just talk about some of the other stuff who Nate is, his time at Arizona, things like that. And it was like, I know he gets these questions that every press conference he goes to.

So maybe avoid it. It feels like right now with Chris Kirk and now Grayson, that's what is talked about with these players, you know. It's funny because I was covering the Ravens when Michael Orgott drafted. And every single time, like a media person from outside of Baltimore would come to town, it would be like, hey, man, can we talk about the blind side. And you could tell like he was willing to play along in the beginning for the local media. And then it was like, oh man, like I got to talk about this again. And then that's real recent stuff has come out.

Like it was obvious that that story was a lot more complicated than it made it seem. And so, you know, I'm happy for, I guess Grayson, he has been a controversial figure to say the least, but I do think it struck me as interesting, Shane thinking last night about, think about all the guys who were sort of the rogue, the black hat who left and went to live, you know, some ways like it was surprising

that Grayson wasn't one of those considering sort of his reputation. And now, like, Grayson could play like a really valuable role for the PGA tour going forward. Like if you, or if Grayson going to be like a more consistent player, you could either root for Grayson, and you could say, like, I accept that this is a redemption story, or you could basically say, I don't buy this change,

and I think he's still kind of a jerk. And I want to root against him, and that's a super important kind of narrative to have on your tour, instead of like, everybody's a great guy. I mean, we love watching everybody shake hands and laugh together. Yeah, I mean, like, you think about what we saw in the DP World Tour, right? And it's like Fleetwood and Rory. And it almost felt like at the end, Rory is rooting on Tommy Fleetwood. And you read some of the quotes after, I mean, how close they

are, how important Rory has been to Tommy Fleetwood success. He talked about that a bit after the victory. And to your point, I'm trying to think of players that are currently on the PGA tour that might have skeletons, that might have demons, that might have issues, quote unquote, in their past that might bring up, like you said, a bit of a heel and who they are, their character, and they're not a lot on the list. It's hard to kind of even find one. And so if that's who Grayson is, I'll say this, dude, as we get older, there are stuff people cut out in their lives and there's stuff that we understand don't work, right?

I mean, digestively, you know, I mean, you might be, I'm not a milk guy anymore, you know, I drink all of them and look there, things that you have to make changes to personally about yourself. I feel like for Grayson, the alcohol stories talked about, he was not a Twitter guy. Twitter's not great for Grayson Murray. And the fact that he deleted that took it away from his phone and he's not into it anymore. I mean, it was emotional.

I felt like after the putt went in and obviously the been on miss. I thought that moment with this fiance was beautiful. I mean, just you could just see it was two people just sharing silence. You know, they probably talked about this moment a hundred times and they just had a moment together. It was a little bit more elongated than I feel like we see usually when the wives or fiances come on the green. I actually thought it was a great moment

between Grayson and his fiance and then what he talked about. I mean, this is a guy that needed to make changes in his life and he understood it. And I mean, it's not easy to do. It's not easy to make changes as an adult. Grayson's a 30-year-old man, but he has obviously made some changes to,

you know, further who he is more importantly than furthering his career. And he talked about that after I said, you know, I mean, this isn't about my golf. This is great for my career, but for me as a person, there's way more important things going on. Yeah, I have a quote here. I think it was pretty good. I want to read it just, he said a lot of hard work pays off. It's not easy. And I wanted to give up on myself, on the game of

golf, on life at times. And you just persevere and you get tired of fighting, let someone else fight for you. It's a lot from my career, but I knew today wasn't going to change my life. My fiance, she changed my life, but not this. So I think it's pretty vulnerable. Like I think it's a beautiful thing to say. I mean, that's a beautiful, I mean, you and I, listen, I'd say this KVV, you and I, I mean, I know you personally, I know you well, like your wife changed your life for the better. And the same guy said, like, my wife makes my life better. You know, I mean, be having her as a person in my life and as a partner has improved what I exist in. The bubble, the world I live in is better. And it sounds like Grayson lives in that same vein. And I always say this, like, that's all I exist in. The bubble, the world I live in is better.

And it sounds like Grayson lives in that same vein. And I always say this, like that's all I hope happens to anybody I know in my sphere, right? It's like, can you find a partner, you make their life better and they make your life better? And if that's the case, then you guys are gonna have a good life. And I feel like that's what at least what it sounds like

from Grayson Murray. And I'll say this, dude, it's easy to back on the guy. It's easy to bring up all of the negatives, you know, in the course of his career up into this point, up into the last year, year and a half, two years. I find myself rooting for Grayson Murray. I found myself kind of behind the scenes rooting for him at the Simmons Bank when Nitties and I were calling that action

because again, it feels like true redemption, right? This doesn't seem like, you know, it's a journalist getting a couple quotes and running with them. It seems like a dude that really wanted to make changes in his life. So I find myself rooting for anybody that's trying to make themselves better.

And it feels like Grayson's trying to do that. Hey, man, we'll see, you know, hopefully it sticks. And if it doesn't, you know what, you're welcome to root against. That's exactly right. That's what makes sports great. But that's what makes life great, dude. I'd go, I'd expand it past sport, right? I mean, I'm sure you've got friends in your

life that have had to change things about themselves and you kind of sit back and you talk to your student or the other, your best friend, you go, I'm hoping sticks. But like that's all we can do is hope that people get better. And if they do get better, then it's a win for everybody. I was, I listen, I'm sure you've seen this floating around, but there was a Nick Saban clip that has kind of gone viral. It's a couple of minute clip. He was asked about a player that he'd had to deal with. I think that it gone through some issues. And basically the question from a journalist was about, you know, why do you bring it back? Or, you know, what are you going to do with this person's character and saving like, stop the interview? And he was like, let me talk for a minute. Let me get on the soap box for a couple of minutes

and talk about what I see in young people. And now he's talking about 19, 20 year olds, not a 30 year old player, but I still think 30 is extremely young, especially for men. I mean, it takes us a long time to grow up. But Sabin's point was when people screw up society seems to go, that's who you are, we're done with you, the end period. And Sabin was thinking to himself, why do we do that to people? Why not give them an opportunity to come into a better

situation or to improve on themselves? And wouldn't you rather see somebody improve versus basically burn out and fail? And I thought the clip was great. The more clips I see KVD of Sabin, being honest and talking about this stuff, the more I like him as a human being, I can't believe I'm staying up. As he's obviously walked away from football, but I mean, obviously great coaches have a way of, looking past some of the bullshit and trying to see good and whoever you are

and whatever you do. And I almost feel like if you ask Sabin today, what are your thoughts on Grayson Murray over the last year? He'd probably have glowing things to say. So it was interesting to watch and I hope you said it sticks. Yeah, I had a chance to interview Sabin one on one a couple of years ago for NSP and the magazine story.

And we talked about some of those similar themes. I think it was Moussian Muhammad who he was talking about back in the Michigan State who he started had. Everybody wanted him kicked out of school and saving was like, you know what, know what, I'm going to take the heat for this, I'm going to keep him around, I'm going to basically say, like, I'm going to help this kid be better. And then he was like, you know, in his speech, he kind of said, now that guy, you know, he's all pro, he's a father, you know, it's a business.

He's like, all that could have been different if I'd sort of given in and changed, you know, basically like been willing to, you know, feed the angry people who were like, this guy doesn't ever spot on the team. I think structure for people who struggle is certainly like really important. And you know, it's a great kind of point about, you know, if, if Graven, Grayson had been sort of booted out a golf, would he have turned out to sort of, you know, hopefully turn his life in a different direction? Like, I think the chances are much lower than he would have. And so, you know, I would remember

Grayson, you know, on one of his Twitter rants kind of being frustrated, the PG tour, basically saying, you know, I'm an alcoholic, I have a problem and the PG tour didn't give a shit about me. And Phil Mickelson of all people was like, you know, I'm sorry that that happened, and I would love to talk to you, and I'd love to help you. And, you know, like, we've shit on Phil a lot and fills, it's certainly like earned his reputation as being a polarizing person in the game. But that was pretty cool moment.

I don't think that was disingenuous by fill. I think he really did care. And it was like, you know what, there should be structures in place. There should be, you know, attempts to kind of help people who are struggling because it's freaking hard to be a professional golfer. Like the world that you live in, you know,

Chris Kirk talked a lot about that on our podcast. Like you miss a cut, you go back to your hotel room, you're full of anxiety, you're full of doubt. And you know, the easiest way to turn your brain off for a little while is to have a few drinks. Totally. You know, that might help for a little while. It might help for a month, might help for six months, but man, it is not a good long-term solution. And I can't tell you how many people I've had in my life who, you know, kids from high school, kids I went to college with who were just like, you know, used to be like good-time charles and now are like, hey man, like I just don't drink anymore. Like I, nothing on you, like it's,

you're welcome to sort of have a drink in front of me, but it's not me anymore, I just can't do it. It's better for me to sort of steer them away out of that. And I'm always like, man, that is, I'm really proud of those people because that is not an easy decision. Yeah, I mean, KVV, I haven't drink it for years. I mean, I stopped drinking when my son was six, seven months old. I mean, just again, it was kind of that looking at yourself and who you want to be and who you want to be as a father and things like that.

And it's like, it just didn't, it wasn't jiving well with where I sat. And I was like, this isn't probably something I want to keep doing. Let's take a break and see how it goes. And it's been four years. and I can guarantee you this. Me as a human being is better off without it. And I love drinking. I love drinking.

I love having fun. You and I've had plenty of nights where we stayed up well past our bedtime, you know, having cocktails around a fire. Do I miss those days? Sure, I miss it. But the one thing I have learned, and if anybody's ever going through this,

I'm gonna say this, first miss it, but the one thing I have learned, and if anybody's ever going through this, I'm going to say this first of all It is way easier in 2024 to not drink the not alcoholic options out there like things like athletic Absolutely, and it's like absolutely. They're like true IPAs. I mean Guinness has an in-a now that's unbelievable Corona's got one. I mean these are all un unpaid sponsors, just but I mean, these beer companies all have options out there. There's non-alcoholic. Why now? I know there's some mixers and non-alcoholic alcohol out there as well. But it's also not nearly as scary as you think it's going to be. People, the most insecure I think you get as someone that used to drink and stops drinking is when you go out, you think people care. And it's important to understand that nobody cares.

The only people that truly care are the people that are extremely insecure with themselves or potentially think they might have an issue. Why are you not drinking? Why don't you have a beer? You want a shot? Is everything okay? I remember I stopped drinking in November.

My big buddy's trip, KVV is January. And I remember being really anxious and really uncomfortable going into that and I remember at the end of it I went home my wife's like how did go I'm like nobody cared literally like a couple of buddies like you're not drinking I'm like now I'm not drinking. They're like all right cool man, and they like order beer right like they don't care And I'm seeing more of my buddies go this way as we've gotten older Maybe it's a healthy. Maybe it's just not wanting to feel like crap in the morning when they've got work and they've got young kids. But it is if you're thinking about potentially giving it up in any capacity, if it's drinking, if it's drugs, if it's cigarettes, if it's

whatever, just understand that the most insecure person in the situation is going to be you. And everybody else that's involved isn't going to care nearly as much as you think they're going to care. So shout out to Kirk, shout out to Grace and shout out to anybody out there that decides to take a hiatus on these things because it's not easy, but I guarantee you if you're thinking it, it's probably going to be better if you stop. Sure. You know, speaking of people who gave stuff up, Keegan Bradley has certainly turned around his game for, you know, giving up basically sugar and carbs and everything and this kind of crazy diet. I don't know. I don't really want to focus on that because I feel like that's sort of been covered.

But, you know, Keegan playing pretty well. I, you know, I think we both thought that he was going to sort of win there. I've, it's funny. You know, this is the first time I've hosted the podcast solo. I've always been a pro-Keegan guy. You know, candidly, the rest of my colleagues are not particularly pro-kegen. Keegan has sort of rubbed them the wrong way. And we always kind of joke about how, you know, I'm the lone sort of voice in the pro-kegen contingent. And now, if I was really hoping he could win, because, you know, there's no way that like TC and Sully could rip the controls out of the back of the computer to let me on my schedule. He kind of let me down a little bit in that chip there.

I look, I really wanted Keegan on the Ryder Cup team. Sally and I had a good sort of back and forth. I'm so a couple of our Ryder Cup pods about, you know, look, like you can tell me that like this stroke's gain and that wasn't quite working or maybe you didn't play all that well in the one Ryder Cup in Medina when they sort of fell apart, but, you know, I can't care so much about the rider cup. I was basically like sitting on my couch thinking, oh, man, this is it. This is the first step to Beth page. And then he kind of just fans that, you know, hybrid into the stands late. You know, he had a chance to win in regulation

with a putt on 18. But then, you know, really that chip, Shane, I've hit that chip before. You got it, you know, you got to carry that little ridge there. You just catch it a little too heavy. It's a hard shot to pull off under pressure, right? It's grainy. You know, the lead nedge wants to dig so bad and you've got to avoid the dig. So you either want to intentionally hit it a little bit thin, right? And carry it a little deeper, or you kind of do what Kegan did, night quite catch all the ball. And the thing is like the Ben on chip shot, there was so much room for error right out of the rough. I mean, he had green to work with. If that had been short-sighted, it would have been a brutal

shot, but he had a lot of green work with. So Ben on shot was much easier. Kegan's over there, takes the drop, gets that grainy lie, and he's still trying to kind of back foot, you know, drive that shot low in with some spin, and he just didn't hit a very good golf shot over there. And, you know, all of a sudden, you leave yourself 25 feet and you're not the champ. But the, I mean, he had the chance of regulation, like Keegan had the opportunity to win there in regulation. Wasn't able to get it done.

And, you know, it's so hard, dude, like golf is so weird in the sense that Grayson Murray is going to leave the Sony with a with 10 times the competency came in. I think he was 350 to one to win. It's with the number I had it into the week. And you think about the dudes that lost in a playoff. Ben On's going to be thinking about the four footer for, I don't know, next two years of his life. And then Keegan, I wonder if you think he's walking away optimistic about what happened or do you think he's walking away bummed out that he wouldn't able to get it done? I think bummed out.

I think at this point in his career, he knows that wins are what matters. And I think he knows too that he has to stack up wins over the next two years to get back to that Ryder Cup. Like I obviously, Kagan would love to win a major, but I do think that the Ryder Cup stuff for him is very genuine, that he really truly wants to, you know, be on that Ryder Cup. Obviously, Kagan would love to win a major, but I do think that the Ryder Cup stuff for him is very genuine, that he really, truly wants to be on that Ryder Cup team and be a part of something bigger than himself. We made jokes about the suitcase, he was an unpacked, whatever. I thought it was like, kind of really honest moment when he actually was like, yep, I still

have an unpacked the suitcase. It's literally been sitting in my garage. And I was like, oh, damn, this isn't, maybe this isn't quite as funny as I thought. I kind of thought maybe, oh, yeah, definitely unpack that suitcase. Nope. That baby is just sitting in Kiggins garage. Probably has moved a couple houses, you know, by now. I mean, I don't know. I just can't help but pull from him. I've told this story a number of times before when my, when my ex-wife is pregnant with our second child, was right around the time the king won the PGA. I was like, man, king is a really cool name.

What if we didn't know whether it's gonna be a girl or boy? And I was like, what if we named our kid, Keegan? And she was like, yeah, I really like that. If it's a boy or girl, you never know. And it turned out to be a girl. And we were like, you know what, Keegan really fits. And I'll tell you, my king and she loves her name. She just absolutely was like, nope, I don't want to be a girl and we're like, you know what, Keegan really fits. And I'll tell you, like, my Keegan, she loves her name. Like, she just absolutely is like, nope, I don't want to be named anything else. Like I asked her a couple of times. Do you ever wish you had like a more

girly name? Nope, not one bit. And so whenever he's like on TV, she's like, am I named after him? I'm like, no, no, definitely not named after him. She's not listening to the pot. But a guy, it got in my head. It got in my head. That's right. Yeah. I did say that. I did say that to him once. I was like, you know, hey, you know, I've My daughter's named Kagan and you know, it's kind of right around the time you won the PJ and And you know, I hope this isn't weird. He was like, yeah, I get that all the time like a lot of people say that to me. I was like, oh, it's okay. Cool. Like that. That's fine Dude, he's 16th and I don't know if we still talk about world rankings, but he's 16th in the world rankings right now, KVV. I mean, that is not something to bat your eye out.

I mean, that's pretty for what he has done over the last year and a half. And when you look at his results, it is extremely, extremely consistent. And I know like you said, he'd rather pick up some victories, but I hope that come Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, whatever the case may be. I hope Keegan is looking back on the Sony insane. Okay, another great finish, played great golf, hit some great shots, had a real good chance to win, because you know, I mean, Keegan has bad a desire

at another major over the last couple of years, and it'd be very interesting if he keeps this role and what he could do is we get closer to, I don't know if he's a fit for a gust of, but as we get closer to PGA and US Open, where I think he might have better success or better chance of success, I'll be interested to see what Keegan can do in the big ones. I can see Vahalla being a good fit for his game.

I mean, I'm sure Rory is going to be the whole story when we come back to Vahalla. No, no, no. People don't love to talk about Rory in majors. That doesn't seem like it. That seems like a big way off. Let to talk about Rory and Majors. Let that doesn't seem like that. That seems like it'd be way off. Let's talk a little bit about Ben on. Ben, I've obviously planned some golf this year. Fourth of the Sony comes out here and really, you know, I don't think much throughout Sunday that people think he was going to win, but makes an incredible eagle, absolutely just stripes a three iron in regulation to, you know, have

a chance there to win outright makes a birdie, you know, just barely misses that eagle putt. And then it's a great drive on 18 in the playoff. And I kind of thought like man, there was like shocking to hear that Benion does not have a fairway wood. I love it. I love it. He just hits nukes. And so, you know, he had one iron. I got it's got to be, I know that Doug Ferguson

is the AP reporter who's been around the golpe forever. He's a evangelist for the one iron. Still carries one iron in his bag. It's like the club he hits best. And he always tries to keep track of, you know, the one iron's gone. It's basically off the tour. But awesome to see Ben on bringing it back.

You know, Ben on hits the shit out of the ball. I mean, he just, he pounds it big time. I'd be remiss though if I didn't sort of bring this up. Like it is a little bit strange to, you know, Ben on was suspended last year for four months for, you know, testing positive for a band substance. He said that, you know, came from some cough syrup that he over the counter cough syrup that he got in his sort of native career.

And I think people are like, oh, yeah, yeah, like that's understandable. Like, you know, who knows what's going on over there at the pharmacies in Korea? Is it sort of an Americanized view of things? I do feel like a little bit though that if it in another sport, if a player tested positive for PEDs and then came back and was still a guy who was like, nuke and the shit out of the ball, people might be like, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, what's going on here? Are we sure this was cough syrup? Like, I, look, I don't really, I'm not one of these like PED evangelists and sort of, I think very bond should be in the Hall of Fame. I think many of you are

mirrored should be in the Hall of Fame. But I do think it is a little bit strange how engulf we're kind of just like, oh yeah, no big deal. Like, you know, I mean, without his tiger, would people like, or roaring would people make it a big deal? Like, yeah, you're a bit your ass, they would. So I don't know, should we do a little bit more digging on a bit on type situation? Or is it just kind of accept that his, you know,

it's truly a cough syrup situation? Yeah, I mean, it seems like the tour wants zero drama with the players that are on their tour, right? So I mean, they obviously suspended him. I think that ended the early December of this past year and they just were like, let's not bring this up and let's try not to talk about this and let's avoid it. And I mean, you know, I don't know how much digging

they do into this stuff. I mean, do they dive deep? The old, what's so wild is to your point about, like if it was Roy or stuff, I mean, do they dive deep? What's so wild is to your point about, like, if it was Rory or Tiger. I mean, the only other instance of this happening that I think most people remember is VJ. And I think the only reason people think about it is because the absurdity of the term, right? Dear antler spray is just insanity when you think about it. Like, what the hell does that even mean?

I think that's the reason that was popularized, not because it was BJ saying. I think it was because people are like, dear antlers spray. Is that like from dear antlers, right? I mean, golf just doesn't really deal with this much, right? I mean, who knows how often this is popping up and drug test or are providing any sort of information when players have to go through that, but we don't hear much about it. And when we do hear about it, I don't feel like it's brought up more than this player suspended for x, y and z, you know.

Yeah. Well, in the positive side, Ben, on obviously, it's found a little bit of something with that long putter, you know, his career is so wild KVV. I mean, like, oh, nine amateur, you know, and everybody's like, oh, crap, this dude is talented. And then it's just like he randomly pops up. You know, he wins on the challenge tour and then he wins a big event in Europe in 2015. Haven't seen him do a ton on the PJ tour. Now, Oh, and three in his career in playoffs, which again, when you think about like who are you as a player, you know, you go Oh, and three and then you start to kind of, you start to at least enter a Khrinshaville,

you know, in terms of the playoff world. So it's just, it's a weird career. I'd say for Ben on to this point. Major success has been brutal. I don't think he has a top 10 and a major considering how complete it feels like the bag is. So I think the question right now is who has been on, right?

Like who are you as a player and who are you gonna be? He always, he does make me laugh. He kind of won me over. You know that Sam Harup, the guy who writes the piano, sort of the parodies of stuff. You know, he wrote a sort of tune to Penny Lane of like, Benion, he putts like he's got no eyes. And Benon like retweeted it and was like, this is good.

Like you're dead on on this. And I was like, man, that's awesome. You love to see it when players are willing to make fun of themselves, especially like in our weird, in time of actual player enters the weird morass of golf Twitter, I'm like, man, credit to you. And not in like a shit talking way like Grayson did it, but like, you know, you're participating,

you know, sort of Michael Kim max homie. Yeah, I mean, you mess up and you make bad swings like Dax saying that after the Cowboys game, like I suck tonight, I always appreciate what athletes do that because so many athletes will push it off on whomever else. And I think that's part of being a great athlete. I think you don't actually look at yourself negatively in any capacity, at least openly. You don't say I was terrible tonight. You don't hear that I can help negatively in any capacity, at least openly, you don't say, I was terrible tonight.

You don't hear that a lot from great players and for Dak to stand in front of the podium and go, I, because he did suck, like he sucked in that Cowboys game. But to stand up there and say, I sucked and I'm the reason we lost and don't blame Mike and don't blame XY and Z, blame me, I always very impressed

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All right. So speaking of golf Twitter, in the midst of the NFL stuff, the one thing that could sort of capture golf Twitter's attention during an NFL playoff game is the TIO situation that occurred with Carl Yuan late in the game. The honestly, it's China. This is one of the most egregious TIO situations. I think I can remember. I know that like in the midst of my guys flying over the ocean that they were watching this on the headsets and and saw me evolve, you know, was live at TC was live at they wanted me to make sure it expressed like how fucking absurd the situation was. If you missed it, Carly one, he comes to the 18th hole hits his drive into in a bunker.

He's going for the green and two just kind of hammers. I mean, Karl hits it a long way. Hammers it with a hybrid. And the ball in the broadcast looks like it either hits on top of the grandstands or the sort of hospitality there and bounces over or carries it in entirety. It definitely does not look like it goes inside the grandstands through the sort of window in the front there. It's a lot of confusion about like what's going on, you know, is he goes up there kind of can tack it. The rules official comes over, you know, Hicks is confused.

This is like asking like, what I don't know what's we not sure what. And I can't be I don't think they I don't think they had a rules person in the booth, right? So, you know, normally a lot of the broadcasts will have rules officials in the booth, but I don't think they had one in the booth. So there was nobody to kind of balance these questions off of, right? Yeah. Yes. So eventually we get sort of, you know, Todd Lewis kind of, I think talks to

Kent Aguette and we get sort of a relayed report that they're virtually certain that the ball has gone into the grandstand and that it has disappeared. They do not find the ball. So off of like one of the most horrendous like second shots, you could imagine, Carl gets a drop, you know, probably 60 yards from the green chips it up there and is able to make a par. It just seemed like kind of bonkers.

It seemed crazy to me that Taylor Montgomery, who's one of those playing partners, was not like, yo dude, like seriously. I mean, I think named that there was some people in the stands and be like, oh yeah. Like that thing was rattling around in here. Like I'm not quite sure the credibility of a bunch of people who've been, you know,

drinking my ties for the entire day, like sitting in the grandstand, so putting it on their corporate. You can't ever trust sports fans that are on-pro. I mean, they have no idea. I don't know where anything is. They don't know how far any ball goes, like, especially golf fans. They've just the fact that, like, you ask any, any average regular golf person how far any shot goes, no clue. They don't know how far they hit it. Yeah. Yeah. But we did learn the term virtually certain, which is part of the model local rule, I guess, when you know, our friend Kyle Porta tweeted that out rule F23D, you did not have to technically find your ball. F20 CTIO relief, as long as you are virtually certain that it

disappeared into the stands. Shane, is there there's a lot of things in my life that I could claim to be virtually certain about. I'm virtually certain that when my daughter is ready to go to school in the morning that she will not wear a coat and I will have to have like a tug of war fight with her every morning. I'm virtually certain that, you know, LeBron is going to sort of, you know, make it about himself occasionally here and there. You know, he's going to, I love LeBron, but I also love the way they kind of courts drama. I'm virtually certain that Cowboys are going to shit the bed every year in the playoffs and that Cowboy fans are

going to completely forget like Groundhog Day, what happened the previous year and it's going to happen out all over again. Jay, what are you virtually certain of in your life? I'm virtually certain when my kids are being quiet, it's, they're up to no good. I know that. My kids are loud, they're young, they make a lot of noise. If there's any moment where it's silent for more than five seconds, I'm virtually certain bad things are happening.

I'm virtually certain we see Bella check coaching again. I'd say that. I think that's a good virtual certain virtually certain. I'll give you a golf win. I'm virtually certain when you're looking for your golf ball and nobody's saying anything. It's not going to be found. I mean, I know that not to pile on Carl and the crew there, but I know personally, it's like if everybody's looking around a lake and nobody's saying words, I'm virtually certain. We're not finding that golf ball. That's for damn sure. I mean, you've played a lot of, you know, amateur competitive golf. I can't imagine this situation comes up too often. You don't have like giant grandstands in your way often.

Well, I mean, I, I, I, I will say this about Taylor Montgomery. I know you brought him up is like a plane partner and this goes back to the players. I believe it was last year with Joel Damon, right? It is, it is not easy as a competitor to want to bring up questions about a ruling, about a drop, about a line, right? Because at the end of the day, it's not really on the competitor. Now it's on you to quote unquote, protect the field. But golf is about you and you being honest and your morals and what you believe is true and not true and I think when when something pops of I remember one time I was playing on an enormous golf tournament probably one of the biggest events I ever played and I just absolutely block shit this driver 50 yards left going out of bounds for certain, no doubt about it. And I was playing like crap and it was just frustrating.

And I retied a ball and I didn't call it provisional. I just, I was like, that ball's 100 yards out of bounds, right? And I remember I piped one down the middle of the fairway with my provisional. And as we're walking up, my buddy who's catting for me is looking over, he's like, yo, you're up over there. Because it hit a roof of a house and kick back from bounds, right?

And the guys I was playing with are like, dude, you can play it, it's fine. And I'm like, yeah, I mean, I know it's quote unquote fine, but it's just not the rules of golf. The rules of golf state, you've got to, do I think having to state provisional is absolutely insanity, absolutely. But it's also a part of the rule of golf.

And it's on me, not them, to say, I'm not playing that ball, I gotta take the provisional because I didn't announce it. And I think this is a similar situation, like Taylor Montgomery's word about Taylor Montgomery's world, right? And for him, having to go over and call out Carl Uon is something he probably doesn't wanna do.

And so I think it all falls on the shoulders of Carl and the rules officials there. And golf is such a weird sport in that in that in that space, right? It's like such a strange sport that when it's all said and done, it's kind of on you versus it's on who you're playing with. Even if the person you're playing again, this competing against you and competing for your money. Hey, look, when they break down the stands, or whatever, I want that ball found. I want it. Let's some Discuss.

It was like at the bottom of the grandstands. It's it's rattling around in the crudite and there. You Brings up on the bar, you know, if you break the grandstands down at the Sony and you see that golf ball, please, for God's sakes, post it on Twitter and tag us. Well, I will say, I mean, look, to Taylor Montgomery, like, I don't want to shoot on him, because frankly, like, it's 10 can, can't tack it too, who has to sort of make a call. Totally, totally.

And if he's sitting there saying that that will look, the fans say that it rattled around in there, I mean, I don't know how like, that's necessarily becomes part of the testimony, but obviously it is. I, you know, these people do this for the living. They know the rules far better than I do. It just makes me laugh to think about like, you know, I mean, I, you know, those like whiskey like big pieces of ice, like a single, a big cube. You could just like throw one of those around in the stands and whatever.

And be like, oh, I think that was the ball. I think we're good. Somebody drops their cell phone when the ball lands. If people like, I heard, I heard it bang around in there. Where was this, you know, reasonable shit when Phil was trying to close out the virtual certainty when Phil was trying to close out the, the US open at Wingfoot and feel like that, you know, we could have, oh, yeah, the ball definitely was, you know, it's right here. I got a clear line to the green from here. There's no way it's in that trash can. By the way, have you played, have you played

Wingfoot ever? Okay. Have you ever walked over and looked where Phil hit that T shot? Like just generalized like areas. Dude, it is like 50 yards. It's so far left. It's on the other golf course. Literally almost on the other golf course. It is so far left. Anyway, yeah, it's left. He's still a lost baby. That's one of our, that's one of our things we all can do. I mean, the thing that honestly like shocks me when you stand on the back teal air is how like tiny that window looks like all those trees lining. I mean, it's like hitting it through like a bus terminal. It's way tighter than 18 of Augusta. And you know, like that, I always, one of my favorite

sports illustrated covers ever was when Tiger won the Tiger slam. And it was that picture of him teeing off on 18 and the shoot right. I don't know who to get it. It was it was on real photo. And it made 18 look really tight. And then when you go see it in person, the higher you go, obviously, the wider 18 is. But yeah, wing foot from the back T's from the back back T. I mean, you've got to hit it on a string. If you want to even just get it out of the shoot. Well, the people who in theory, this might have cost actually are the other players who are sort of, you know, if Carl makes a bogey there, Carl maybe a double. Essentially that placing it, you know, it costs Russell Henley, almost $50,000, JT Post in $40,000, Immanuel Grillo, Nick Taylor, $10,000, and it made Carl you on another extra $40,000, I'm annual Grio, Nick Taylor, $10,000, and it made Carl you on another

extra $180,000 by getting that favorable ruling. So look, it's not nothing, but I, like if I were JT Post and someone had taken $40,000 out of my pocket, basically nuking it over at the grandstands and everyone was like, yeah, that we're good there. Like, it's just, it's sort of baffling to me. The TIO situation, I don't feel like it ever will be addressed, but it's just a maddening deal for like fans to think about. Like, you can just hit it so far off the map and things that wouldn't be an issue

on the regular golf course view and I are playing it are suddenly like a huge advantage. It is truly like, you know, when you go bowling with your kids and you haven't set up the little lanes so that they can't throw it in the gutter, it's just kind of the rails that bounces off. That's what sometimes pro golf can feel. Dude, I say this all the time, but I mean, if you took out the nerves of playing an PJ Tour event, I think playing a PJ Tour event to me versus me playing a regular round of golf at my club or wherever. I think it's two or three shots easier to play tour golf. And when I say that, I mean, conditions ideal, greens are perfect, not super fast.

Rough isn't crazy deep anymore because they always cut it down. But also, it's nearly impossible to lose a golf ball with fans out there and spotters and things like that. You hit a wayward shot. They're going to find the ball. They're going to find where it crossed. You're going to get everything plays in the players favor, right? The rules of officials are there to almost help your score and prove in a weird way and that's not a knock at the rules officials.

That's just how it's presented these days with golf and I was not I'll say this. I was not surprised that Carl got the favorable ruling there, you know, versus I mean rarely when is the last time you saw ruling and you're like, Oh, wow.

This didn't go the players way, you know, it just doesn't ever really feel like a pops up anymore. Pretty darn rare. I will say Carl's a pretty good story. Uh, you know, only got into the field because John Rom went to live. And so 125th player basically getting eligibility and would have been the first Chinese born player ever to win on the PG tour is only the third guy to ever try to born in China to get his card. So, you know, a good story. But obviously, like hits a long way, pretty, you know, he kept sort of emphasizing his wife, one in a national championship at UW. So, you know, kind of a cool thing. Hopefully, Carl's be someone to watch and continue going forward. Just a couple more. Maybe on Carl's just one last

thing. If you're going to a tour event as a fan, he's a great dude to go watch. Very entertaining hits it forever. You kind of charismatic in the way he walks. So I would say outside of maybe the your favorite player or superstar that you want to see Carl's an awesome watch. And I think Niddy's and I were both big on him last year and obviously he didn't produce on tour, but non-surprised if Carl won, you know, once or twice this season, that's the level of talent he has. Definitely fun to see him like lean it on some of his legs. Oh, like fling.

He's got great charisma. I'll say that. He's kind of captivating to watch play. I recognize a lot of myself in that and some of those like, oh, no, no, okay, that chips by. That's terrible. Oh, it's close. Perfect. Thanks. Just a couple more minor Sony notes. I have a take Shane. I think is Russell Henley, the most underrated ball striker and overrated putter in golf because every time you see Russell like competing in internament, you'll hear like people on the broadcast be like, you know, Russell, apparently like one of the great putters on tour.

Man, Russell Henley is like 150th on tour and putting. Like Russell Henley has not been a good putter for quite a while, but it's like a sneaky really good ball striker. Like is absolutely someone who you would love to have as a stroke's gain perspective. Like he just, he drives in the fairway. He hits good iron shots. He had an unbelievable shot on 13, late in the round. It was like out of the deep prof from it, 184, you know, bounces like sneaks right over the edge of the bunker through two sprinkler

heads and crawls to a few feet and helps them make kind of a key birdie. I just, I'm always just laugh, whatever I hear, what a great potter Russell is because now man, like the stats don't back it up. I mean, crazy career for this guy. When you think about Russell, Henley as a player, I mean, he's mid 30s. One is first event. You know, that was the Sony back in 2013, picks up two wins early. And then it's just kind of been that you, I don't know what happens for these non, you know, exceptional players and professional golf.

What happens when you're just going through the grind week to week of professional golf and PJ tour golf, but just kind of hangs around and now has four wins. I mean, you know, four wins is not nothing. And it's, it's kind of impressive when you think about the quote unquote average pro, I mean, I think Russell Hindley probably falls in that That being said, not great in the majors, one top 10. And it was last year. So that's a, that's his career. First major he played 2010, US Open. He finishes T 16. And I think he has two finishes better than that in his career since then. So low AM honors at 2010.

And since then, it's not been great. All right. Well, we'll put Russell Henley on notice then. I'll see if things can get better. Just one last thing I want to touch on the Sony stuff. Did you see the Gary Widdlin in there? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, really moving. I hope people, if anybody out there didn't see it, you sort of seek it out. Gary Widdlin, it's pretty public now, knowledge by now, but ended up realizing the doctors that he had a brain tumor, started feeling pretty crappy after Augusta last year. It said he would like kind of wake up in the middle of night with like just these jolting like almost seizures.

And he sort of progressed into feeling like this overwhelming sense of fear. Like he just felt like he was gonna die. Like you know, whether he was not gonna wake up or the plane that he was gonna be in was gonna crash or car was gonna crash. And so you know, it went to some of his buddies, kind of talked about it, talked to his wife,

and they were like, oh, maybe you need to get on like some anti-exxiety medication. So he talked to his doctor, and the doctor was like, look, I can't give you any of this stuff without giving it MRI first. And when they had an MRI, they sort of found out that yeah, he did actually have a brain tumor.

And the tumor was pressing on the part of the brain that essentially controls the fear function in your brain. And so I'm able to give them some kind of anti-seizure medication to stop with the kind of the seizures and the jolting, but the fear stuff just really didn't go away. In fact, you know, I got worse after it sort of briefly kind of went away. And so they knew they kind of had to go in and give them surgery and I mean credit to Gary player or to Gary Gary. Gary with them for yeah I know you want to go. You want to go. Gary player so bad. We're not going to do it. I do. I do. We're not going to do it. Uh, it's Gary for for telling all this story when we talked about going into surgery and like there being no guarantees that, you know, this wasn't going to result in, you know, paralysis or he was going to lose his

vision. And so they went in there, they were able to clean out a bunch of the tumor, but they couldn't quite get it all. I think they kind of cut off the blood supply to the tumor. And when he woke up, and he had, he could still see, he had, you know, movement on his left side, he was like this relief. I'm like, okay, like maybe now things are actually going to be able to be okay and get better. And slowly gradually, things have been able to get better. He and his wife talked about it for a long time, decided that, yeah, they didn't miss like being on tour and seeing a lot of their friends. And then this was his job. This is what he felt. It's his love, his passion. And so decided to come back and play the Sony shot 71 71 and the two rounds didn't make the

cut, but I think that was totally a secondary type goal. It was just, can I be back out there? It just was a really like an emotional vulnerable moment for him to sort of sit up there and talk about that. I was just really kind of impressed. I think we're all going to be rooting for Gary Woodland going forward. Such a nice dude. Yeah.

Easy dude to root for. One of the, one of those kind of guys that nobody has anything bad to say about. When you talk to anybody in professional golf around the sport, just a good dude. And I hated to hear what he's been going through, but obviously rooting for him, health stuff so scary. You know, you're healthy. You don't think about it when you're not healthy. It's all you can think about.

So, rooting on Gary, hopefully, he's going to kind of come back to, to full strength and can rock and roll this year. Yeah. Uh, let's pivot to Dubai here. Uh, you know, Tommy Fleetwood wins the vacation. Can you be? Let me ask you. I gotta ask you. Tommy Fleetwood question. So, yeah, Ron flies, you know, this insane trip last year at the open and he doesn't win. So Fleetwood wins this event in dramatic fashion with those light purers on 17 and 18. So now I feel like Tron just can't go to events anymore when Tommy's in contention, right? Like it didn't work. So just Tron, I mean,

is it like a Mulligan situation? Does Tommy not want to see Tron's face? Great question. We may have the duct tape TC to a chair to prevent him from using his millions of miles to fly to wherever Tommy is if he's ever a contingent of a major. I will say TC said to make sure to convey this that he said he, I can't fly to everywhere that Tommy is going to win this year because I would go broke, but I do intend to fly to all the majors. Okay. Okay. So it's a major. I got it. TC may have predicted that that Tommy is going to win like three majors maybe four. It's hard to say. Maybe five. Maybe five. But he did get a little help in

this. Jenny did birdie the last two holes, but our one Roy McElroy kind of had control of this tournament. Actually stood on 18T with a one-stroke lead, I think we both sort of felt like, well, you know, this kind of got this in hand. I mean, I didn't watch it live, but I was sort of watching them catch up on the highlights, trying not to spoil it for myself. And Yikes, big snapper-ru hook over there into the water.

I will say credits to those people who were lining the fairways there. They did not like dive on that ball like a live grenade. They basically would just like, didn't move, let it sort of end up where it is. It gets into the water. I do know I got to think our guy, Kyle Porter, would have like thrown himself in front of that like a huge, you know, like a lineman, a pulling guard coming down the road. Just laying into the curveball. It's fine.

Just getting the shoulder. I'll take first place. Roy did say that he was trying to hit the proper shot there on. Which was the cut, right? He was actually, he wanted to turn it over and try to carry the bunker on the right side. So if he hits a cut there, you know, it certainly doesn't go into the water, but he said, basically, I feel like in that kind of situation in the future, I need to be able to trust that I can hit a draw, even if there's trouble on the left. So look, you

can sort of look at this two ways. Like did Bory throw away a win in an tournament? Yes. Did he, you know, hopefully gain some experience like doing it the proper way. You know, hopefully that in his mind, like doing it the right way is going to benefit him in the long term. Yeah. The way I look at it is just this dude's floor is top five golf right now. I mean, it's just incredible that every tournament it feels like, listen, the field of this event, I mean, it's not exactly the players 2.0 or the P.J. Championship 2.0 for goodness takes. I'm a little bit. If you want to tell me that like live events deserve world golf ranking points, I would look at the divine invitation. Well, as a great example, like,

ah, you might have a pretty good point there because pretty bleak field here. Like if Rory and Tommy are not, you know, coming down the stretch fighting for this title, then something's up with one of their games. I mean, this is like a Greg Norman's got the field list like Bulletin board next to his office. You know, it's like this is the golf tournament. They're all looking at it. It's like these guys are getting points and we're not. Are you kidding me? But so all you live boys, I know you're listening. I know you're you're you're hate, you're hate listening. I'll throw you this one. This is the kind of thing where like, you know, I can understand your argument here. But let's before we focus too much on Rory, you know, I just think is this going to be a really a big year for Tommy. Like I think, you know, these are good signs, right? He finally closed out a win, had a little help, but sometimes you need a little help. Sometimes you

just need that confidence. What's are you buying or selling Tommy Flew with this year? I mean, I'm not going to go four or five majors like Tron, but when you look at the way Tommy's played over the last couple of years in the majors, feels like he's there. If not, you know, not getting more comfortable in the

situation in the moment, whatever the case may be. Obviously he's got the game, the complete game at that. And I think that's what you see at these majors, the complete game guys show up and the guys that normally have a hole in the game, you know, where the ones like Russell Henley who have one top 10 in their career in the major championships or been on who has not. So when you look at Tommy Fleetwood, I think absolutely, I think beating Rory is enormous. When you look at the players Fleetwood has had to beat in his wins. There's not a lot of Rory McElroy's on that list

of runner-ups. So I just think you gain a shit ton of confidence when you take down Rory and you birdie the last two holes. The way he did, I mean those puts were bombs. It looked like Ram at Tori and that US open, the puts he made over the last two holes. So yes, I think gonna take the confidence from the Ryder Cup, gonna take the confidence from this win. And I think if you're going to lay down dough

on a major winner this season, I think Tommy Fleetwood is probably a good bet to throw a couple of a couple of bucks at. Roy, look like he was rooting for Tommy Fleetwood more than he was rooting for. Roy, like Fleetwood more. Ab, so lootly. I mean, almost a bigger fist pump than Fleetwood more. Ab. So, Lutley. I mean, almost a bigger fist pump than Fleetwood had on the last screen. What did it went in? Roer is playing the long game here. He's getting Tommy Fleetwood ready for for Beth Bage. You know, he predicted that they're going to go in and take that rider cup on four and so for the first time. So, you know, just, you know, playing poker, deep, going deep into the count trying to, you know, I don't know. I mean, I don't, I will say Shane,

I think Rory deserves credit for raising his floor a little bit. Like first tournament out of the year, like not playing like unbelievable, made some sloppy mental errors. Like, you know, he three putted from two feet, essentially on 13 when he could have, you know, gone up to there,

or I think maybe it's two or three at that point. Not like a thing, I think, to sound any alarm bells where at a bunch of people kind of when I had a call out for questions about like, you know, a lot of people like, this seems like a bad side for Rory. I actually think when you're competing in a tournament, when you're not playing that great, it's probably like a true indication of like,

what Rory's become over the last few years, which he didn't use to be the case. I remember sitting when I first started writing about him back in 2015 going to the US Open at Chambers and him saying, like, I've just realized that I'm a pretty volatile golfer. Like I'm going to miss three cuts in a row. And then I might win a couple, you know, tournaments. And that's just how I'm accepted to.

I mean, he's not that person anymore. It's basically like, yeah, I'm more well, well rounded all around. And, you know, so if he can figure out a way to do that, you know, play even like three just okay rounds and one great round in a major, that's how this drought is going to end for him. Yeah, I mean, you know, I mean, it's first of any of the year had a quad on a par three in round two. You mentioned the three putt, which I'll say this, I like seeing in a weird

way. I kind of like seeing guys do that at times because it means they're hitting the first putt with a lot of confidence. I mean, if you're hitting a three footer and you're running it by four feet, that's what good putters do. They hit those putts with a lot of speed, knowing that if they do miss, they're going to have to hit a similar putt back if not longer. And when you look at great putters, they normally will have three puts from short distance at times because you kind of live with it. You know, you go, I'm going to hit these. I think I saw a stat. He was like 99. Something percent inside of three feet last year. Again, that's because he hits these putts and takes the breakout. And Rory is a very underrated putter. It's a very underrated short game player in general. I think outside of kind of the full wedges that's always been an issue with the Rory

Macroo game over the years. The putting and the chipping has improved dramatically. I'd say over the last three, four years and it's become a weapon, not a bit of a curse to the long game and the driving. So I have no issues with it. I'm excited for Rory's year. I think it becomes into this weak field and finishes 11th or 15th or 25th. You'd sit there and go, what was going on with Rory? But I mean, he opens with 62, you know, I mean, again,

he made, I think he made, made the quad in one bogey the first three rounds, made three bogeys on Sunday. But again, I think Rory's leaving going, all right, he'll probably win this week. Honestly, I bet he wins this week. I mean, I know the odds are probably stupid to throw on, but I would, I would probably, I would be surprised if he's not a victor on Sunday. Roy draws a lot of attention, positive, negative, a lot of criticism, a lot of praise. And you know, sometimes like you see the people ripping him and you're like, man, like, I guess you're welcome to your opinion, but you know, you look at it, like when you see a shot, like you hit it the rider cup with that back foot, little skitter.

What is it? What are you talking about? How would you describe that? I think it is. It calls it a fizz or so good. Yeah, you're like, dude, this is, there's just no one who is as talented as him in this sense. Like, look, Scotty's frickin' great.

Scotty's, you know, the best ball striker in the sense. Like I look, Scott is frickin great. Scott is, you know, the best ball striker in the world. But like when you took it like total package, like the ability to hit those kind of crazy shots. Like that's just, that's what makes him a draw. All right. So, KVN, I got a, I got a, I got a rory thing for you. I don't know if it's, this is, this is true. I don't even know if I believe it. But I was thinking about this yesterday. I grew up in East Texas. I was a big cowboy fan in the 90s. I mean, why wouldn't you be? Right?

I mean, I'm a kid. I think this first super blow was second grade. I was a starter jacket guy into the apex when they switched. I mean, that was the team that I rooted for. Not been great since 1995. I mean, I don't think we have to tell the golf fans out there that the Cowboys have struggled since 95. Yeah.

Is there a Rory Cowboys comp here that we're missing? Oh, man. Is that it? No, again, I think Rory is way better than the Cowboys have been. I mean, Rory, if you know the Cowboys, what do they win like one or two playoff games in the last 25 years? They hadn't made, obviously, I've made a Superl. I don't think they've made an NFC championship against the 95 and Rory's been in plenty of final groups and major championships.

But is there a level here that the Cowboys and Rory could be compared to each other? God, that's a sobering thought to think about. say most popular team in sports, definitely the most popular team in the NFL. I think Rory is easily the most popular professional golfer right now. When Tiger isn't playing or when Tiger is not around us consistently as we were expecting Tiger to be at this point in his career, there's a lot of focus on Rory at every major championship. There's a lot of focus on the Cowboys when they get to the playoffs and what they do in the regular season, yet it never leads to that post season success. So I think that what I would say is the Cowboys haven't really gotten regular season, yet it never leads to that postseason success.

So I think that what I would say is the Cowboys haven't really gotten close at all. And Roy has been totally the old course. And the problem with it. LACC, maybe like the 49ers are a little bit better of a comp because 49ers have been really good and have been close. Obviously, maybe you're throwing out some of the popularity stuff where I do think that it might work is like, is, is, is, are the Dallas Cowboys like Roy's Masters? Because every year, we tell ourselves, it's different every year. There's this big build up. Every year people are like, you don't get it. Like he's going to win. It's different this year. It's different. He's got a different

men's. I coach new approach, new, you know, I, so funny. I've like, after we did our trap draw, uh, what we talked about, like, we're not going to talk about Dak. We're not going to talk about the press, the, the cowboys until after the season, we're just not ready to have a conversation because it doesn't matter until after playoffs. I had this like several cowboy fans in my DMs being like, man, you don't get it. This year is different. You completely wrong whatever. And then literally after the game, they're like, I'm sorry, I take it all back. Like this is rock bottom. We're fucked. This is so frustrating. And I feel like that's a little bit sometimes

with Rory and the masters. It's like, you can tell me it's going to be different every single time, but until it changes, like it's what it is. I almost feel like maybe the comp is cowboy fans and Rory fans, right? Where you see the success in the regular season, you see all these wins and non-major events. Rory's talked about it. I've won everything, but majors, you know, over the last 10, 11 years. And for cowboy fans, you go, you know, they keep winning 12 games. They keep, you know, hanging around the NFC East to win the, win the division, you know,

they, they're, they're floating around the one and two seed a lot every single year yet. They get the postseason and they're down 27 nothing to the youngest postseason team since 1977, who comes into your building and beats your ass. I mean, it wasn't, I mean, how many playoff games, how many playoff games are over in the first quarter? I feel like NFL, it's, there's always an opportunity to come back. And there was just no opportunity to come back in this game. They were done so. Yeah. Well, I mean, I want to talk anymore about Rory. I feel like we're just given the

live dorks. Like, I'm talking about the Cowboys anymore. You good. So I'm talking to Cowboys. One last note from Dubai, a little bit of proof of life from Francesco Mallonari, shot a final round 63. Uh, Shane, any chance we're seeing in a resurgence of, uh, Frankie, I'm going to need a little bit more than the divine invitation. Well, that's what I'll say. I hope I hope it. I'd love to see it. But I don't think the divine invitation was going to be my mark on your back or your not back. That's fair. That's fair. Well, you know, Frankie and Tommy Fleet would wear a great fit in the Ryder Cup. You

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me some of those bottoms because it's getting cold here in Baltimore. Chain, a couple of things are running around the golf world that just want to kind of hit up. Martin Slumberz announced that he was stepping down from the RNA at the end of the year, said when he started that basically his term was going to be longer than five years, but shorter than 10.

I think this will be nine years that it'll end up sort of having served. So Martin Summers is pretty, I didn't realize this until I kind of read through Jeff Shackleford's newsletter, which the Guadalato, which is just a great, a great value. I think if you haven't subscribed to this, you definitely should. But he's kind of the best value in golf media is the quad. It's really great. He, he, you know, there's some newsletters that are shit and there's some that are absolutely worth it. And I would 100% put Jeff's newsletter.

It was, it was, it would go to my spam folder for like six months. So I'd have to, I didn't know how to change it. Like I couldn't figure out how to get it out of the filter. I'm sure somebody's listening, like, rolling their eyes at how dumb I am in terms of this. But I ended up, I had like that unroll me deal on my email and somehow it stopped working, which you would think would be brutal because now you're going to get all these emails that you enrolled from in theory. But it's actually been kind of nice because now the shack, the quadrilateral, comes right

to my inbox. So now I don't have to go search in the spam. So I had to unsubscribe from 250 emails, but I got Shax back in the main inbox. So it's a win-win. Worth it. Just a check kind of listed off, you know, some of Martin Slumber's accomplishments, which I think, you know, specifically with like, you know, the introduction of more emphasis on the women's game, I think, was super impressive. So one of his big, you know, I guess, what is the right word? One of his big emphasis was to sort of have make upgrades to the Women's Open Championship, which was a huge one. He established several new events, including the GD4 Open for the world's most talented

golfers and disabilities. You know, the African-American Championship, the African American Championship, the African Amateur Championship, the Women's Amateur Asia Pacific Championship, the Women's Latin Amateur America's Championship, they're sort of made it so there were exemptions from the Asia Pacific Amateur into the Open Championship, as well as the Latin Amateur, working essentially with Augusta National to sort of make those things,

which is also the case like working with the USDA for exemptions in the US Open with that. Aggressive modernization, upgrade of commercial aspects of the Open. He modernized the Open brand, you know, which sort of made it still kind of with the iconic stuff of the Claire jug and the other scoreboard, but made the Open, you know, actually like feel really like it, it moved forward in a lot of way. You look, if you ever looked up stuff on the internet and tried to watch final rounds, you can't do it with the PGA championship, but to sure can with the open championship, which is funny to think about how stuffy and like old the open championship seems compared to the PGA.

And yet like the open championship is just way further. Super successful open championship at Royal Port Rush was the first time that it was not held in the island of Great Britain since 51, and they're going to go back to Port Rush soon. Just multiple efforts to bring forth more women and girls and golf, including the launch of the Women in Golf Charter, and then of course the Champions Challenge, which was a big part of the beginning of the open where not only that's been around for a while, but having women kind of be involved in that former women's

open winners. You know, that was a really cool thing to see, you know, this the past year with St. Andrews, where, you know, you get, you know, Rory McElroy and Mo Martin playing together, or, you know, you get, you know, on a cup playing around. It's just super fun. I mean, one of the things I think I really do love is the open challenge. I remember years ago, the first open championship

that I ever covered, seeing Phil Mikkelson, kind of just in awe of Peter Thompson, which, you know, I can't remember how old Peter was that year, but like, that was such a kind of neat connection to like the history of all things, right? Phil got to be a part of that because he won in 2013. And here we was, you know, standing next to someone who he certainly never seen play, but had read and heard about it would won five open championships.

Just a kind of a cool way that history connects one and to include women in that, I think is really an awesome. You think about what Marty slumber's did in his career. And I think if you break down work in general, it's when I entered this position and I left this position, did I make it better? And I think he, one million percent can say, I made things better. I mean, he was obviously trying to, you know, bring more women into the game. I mean, though the women's open championship was basically not even a major championship, you know, 12 years ago. What would it even go? I mean, what would it even go? Literally big games in American play.

It almost was like old-school PJ Torgolf, you know, in the 70s and 80s. And so to establish that more impactful in terms of women's golf and to make some of these golf tournaments in parts that aren't the US and aren't the UK that are extremely important in terms of qualifications and up in the stage for those types of events. I mean, these are all huge things.

I mean, Martin Slumber's grew the game, you know, we love to grow the game. This dude did it. He did it. He checked off whatever box you're trying to check off and plenty more. So kudos to him. It's not easy to, I'm sure, come into positions, especially with the RNA, as you said, a bit stuffy, a bit old school, all those things. And to try to modernize it, I can only imagine it was met with plenty

of challenges. And he just plowed through those. So shout out to to Mr. Slumers. Now, we'll say with the USGA, you know, with Mike one, picking a little bit of fight with professional golfers and distance stuff, I guess if you're going to offer any sort of criticism, you could say, like, look, like this is a huge monumental change in the way that things are gonna be going forward in terms of distance. You basically said, yeah, this is what the RNA is going to support, and then basically said, all right, good luck to you guys, like figuring this out in this fight. That's, you know, I don't think it's probably in like the first or second chapter of the distance stuff in terms of you know, how it's going to look when it's was gets implemented in 2028 for, you know,

the professional players in 2030 for amateurs. So, you know, who knows, but look, I'm sure that they have a succession plan in place. I'm sure that whoever sort of takes over is going to be supportive of that thing. Next speaking of picking a fight and not sticking around for the end of it, Keith Pelley announced that he is out at the DP World Tour. Going back to Canada, baby. I love Canada. I love Canada.

It ain't like going back to Cali because Ella Coote said all those years ago, but going back to Canada to take the position of the president and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, the parent company of the NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs, the Toronto Raptors, as well as the city's MLS and Canadian footballing franchises. Shane, I got to say, look, this is apparently Keith Pelley's dream job. You would think that maybe having been a big part of like standing up to live and now like having to negotiate the future of the DP World Tour, that you, on this little part of me that kind of wishes like maybe like the Toronto, the Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment could have said, all right Keith, like we want you, but we'll wait another five months

because you really got to figure out, you got to get this to the end of the line here with, you know, the PJ tour and live and what the future all is going to look like. But when news also came out this week that for the first time, Yasser and Jay had like a lengthy phone conversation, I believe the telegraph report of this, since like June, I don't know what the frick they've been doing all this time. Like why haven't they been on the phone weekly talking about the future of this? There's a part of it. One is to keep Ellie was like, yeah, look, you ain't ever going to figure this out. And I'm like the, you know, the fourth child going on a vacation in the discussion like

as I'm like Kevin McHallister of this. I'm getting left behind in this. So I'm going to just piece out on this. You guys can figure this out. I, you know, I think you've probably been a positive force for a DP World Tour. I know or not everyone would agree with that. And I know our friend Brennan Porat is going to be happy about never having to name everything.

And I mean, dude, I don't, I don't fault him at all. I mean, that job has got to be brutal right now. I mean, we can bag on Jay and we can bag on Keith and how the things have gone with live in the PJ tour and DP World Tour and all those things. These are people, they're humans, they got to live life, a lot of public criticism, a lot of eyeballs on them last couple of years. Seems like this gig is going to be way chiller, which is wild to say, considering how massive

this is and then around Toronto, right? But just get the hell out of this, man. I mean, this dude's got to go on TV all the time and answer these questions and and try to figure out his tour. It feels like if anything the DDP world tour and all of this has been the tour kind of left behind, right? I mean, it seems like the PJ tour and now live or trying to partner and figure out a way to make this makes sense is Keith even in those conversations as Is he, is he phone her in? Is he conferencing in on these calls? Is he like jumping in a face time, trying to get a little time with Jay? Like who the hell knows?

But I don't fault him at all. This seems like it's been brutal last couple of years. And to go maybe take a job that is a little less face forward seems like it'd be way more up by Allie. And I could only imagine this up his alley as well. And it's gonna be way more fun and you get out of this when you can. So I don't fault him, and Maybe as much as you're faulting

them for wanting to get out in the middle of it. Yeah. In one other news, there's sort of a, you know, a minor, but funny thing, I think to us, can weigh, excuse me, can weigh in these director. This is the, this is the Jordan golf club guy. Michael Jordan's director of golf at club 23. He wished he shot. He wished he would shot club 23 at this event. Yeah. Ken, Ken Wand was a sponsor's exemption into the Dubai. And he opened with an 87 in the opening round.

He followed that up with an 82 and then another 82 and an 86. Obviously no cut tournament there and Dubai. I think, you know, what was this, you know, Tommy finished what in like 19 under. I don't know what the gap is between. I think it was 72 shots between 72 strokes between last and first. I didn't notice it on Ken's Twitter bio,

that he said, I'm just trying to get better every day, which, you know, you did it mostly for the first three days. You just, you know, set the bar pretty low and then got a little better. But that 86 coming home was a little tough. Look, there's no way that I could shoot these numbers in a tournament. So it feels a little bit silly to throw stones.

But you could, Jane, I think definitely like, you certainly, you played in the USAAM this year. You didn't shoot any 87s, but we'll say like, how tough is like a professional golf setup? We did say as, you know't shoot any 87s. But we'll say like how tough is like a professional golf set up. We did say it was, you know, early in the show, we said, you know, it's two or three strokes easier than things. But, but that doesn't include like the pressure of playing. I mean, I think it's it's taken away, you know, what you're going to feel in that first T. I mean, again, I'm not bagging on anybody that shoots a high number at these

golf tournaments. I qualify for the amateur and shot two rounds in the 80s was not expecting to do that. Had been playing great golf up until that. And then the mind does weird things when, you know, the gun goes off per se. So it is like, I don't know why he's in the field. I don't know why he was there. I mean, it's weird to have him a part of this who the hell knows what handshake that involved. But listen, I mean, scratch golf for shooting the 80s. I when I played so KVD when I played mini tour golf back in like the mid 2000s, the best

player on the tour I was playing at, he would win two to three times a year and he made a good living. He'd make like 150 K a year, you know, for his family playing mini tour golf. I remember I one time looked up how he played in PJ Torvents that he qualified in. He'd never not shot around in the 80s. Every time he played a PJ Torvins that he qualified in. He'd never not shot around in the 80s. Every time he played a PJ Torvins, he shot in the 80s. It's just different. And I'm sure this guy, I'm sure our boy Ken is a scratch golfer at the grove.

I'm sure he shoots plenty of good rounds there. I know Michael squeezes it in at 305 or whatever. So maybe Ken's like a 265 driver and can hit every fairway, but it feels different when you're playing with a caddy and bib and fans out there and you look over across the fairway and you see Rory and Tommy Fleetwood. So it's just part of it. I mean, you can't you can't you can laugh at it, but I'm definitely not judging them because I've done the same thing. Maybe it's because Jordan plays, you know, in a cart and plays his rounds in an hour and 40 minutes where he just gets to

zoom through everyone. Maybe he can't let him get a little better. He's gonna get a six footers for bar too. If that up, that's good. That's good. I'm the fuck up. Big it up. Who's going to the next? Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. The best way I press. I press. Yeah, he wants them to get the pie. Yeah. We did have a reader saying, uh, uh, J J Sugg said, could any of the NLU guys have shot better than Ken Wayne did, uh, did Dubai this weekend? Uh, and does the T.B. DP to World Tour get credit for doing what NLU has been asking for a long time, having a random person in the field as a marker to show how good the pros really are. Uh, Shane

any chance that any of the NLU boys, certainly not myself could have broken 86. Yeah, I mean, I'd say I'd probably put the number at four. I think it's probably a fair number. That's good. I mean, I think I think Tron breaks what did he shoot? He shoot 53 overs. I would have was 53. Yeah. What's the number?

Got it 54 or 53 over. 53. Second to last was 14 over. God. Nearly 40 shots worse than 59th place. That is crazy. But yeah, I think four guys for men. You including Tron.

I think Tron with the way he's been playing and how straight he's hitting the golf ball off the tee. Could get it in at better than whatever 53 over. So that's my number. Okay. Well, shout out to, uh, to those big dreamers. We'll see, we're going to have an NLU festival this summer where we basically a club championship where we show down. So we'll see, is that is that going to be? Everyone does. What's the, what's the plan there? It's, it's just gross. Like no strokes. Nothing. You got to show up and play. Are you going to, are you going to do match match players that going to be just stroke play for four or four rounds or whatever?

We're thinking, you know, it's going to be 36 holes. So after 18, we'll have a cut. You know, so your boy here would would just be hoping to like even have a chance to make the cut. That would be my, you know, I've got to have like, you know, DJ and Randy have like a tough day, I think, for an order from because they have a lot more like match experience, particularly on camera than I do. So Casey and I are working hard to make you give ourselves a chance. I mean, this has been a, I mean, obviously, I mean, what are you a year and change in

to work with in LU? Is playing golf in front of a camera, one of the hardest things to do in terms of this position? Because I mean, obviously, like you said, it's something you never really had to do with before. Yeah. I definitely did not expect it to be quite as like nerve-racking, particularly if you like start to read the comments and you're like, Oh, like let me see what people are saying. Oh, that's not very nice. Oh, wow. That's, that's, again. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of like, there's no fucking way this guy's a, you know, a nine or a Nate handicap or whatever. I mean, I will say like, you only shoot to your handicap and the world

handicapped system, like 25% of the time. And so like, if you're going to show up on camera, all of a sudden, you're, you're asking to like, hit those numbers, plus have the added pressure of it. You know, like, you've, you've played with me, like, I'm not horrendous, but, you know, like you've played with me, like I'm not a horrendous, but you know, I don't look at currently like an eight or a nine on camera just because you can't help sometimes with getting in your head. And so that's a, it's a weird feeling. I want to see the first comment on social media where somebody actually thinks a certain person is the actual handicap because I feel like everybody's not the handicap that they

present right on social, like comments and tweets are always like, this everybody's not the handicap that they present right on social like comments and tweets are always like this guy's not two. This guy's not a zero. This guy sucks, right? I mean, nobody's ever like, you know what? I think he's like a six like that's never the thing. He's a properly rated. Yeah, great. You know what I might start doing.

I might jump on YouTube and just start commenting on like good, good and clubbed us for it to just be like, that's actually this guy's handicap. They look like an eight. That's what I think they are. KVV eight. Boom. Come in. And in other news, making a tiger parting ways with Nike, we knew this was kind of in the works for a while. I was actually, you know, TC who sort of first, you know, put it out there. They heard this was happening, made it official this week. I'm curious, you know,

did this make you feel anything? I mean, this is a brand breaking up with a player or a player breaking up with a brand, uh, but also like kind of an iconic pairing and, and part of our lives as golf fans for a long time. Yeah, it's, I mean, it's the biggest, I'd call it breakup, if you will. I don't know if it's, it seems like everybody's pretty happy with it. It seems like the Tiger Camp was fine and Nike was fine, but it feels like the biggest brand break up in sports history. So I think in that vein, yes, sure, it makes you feel something just because it's going to be so

weird to see Tiger and something else. That being said, I think after the first round, we'll never think about it again. It's almost going to be like when they change the grooves and the wedges and we were like, oh my god, this is a huge deal. And then it's like three rounds and you're like, whatever, nobody cares, it's fine.

We're going to move on. But're like, whatever, nobody cares, it's fine. We're gonna move on. But yeah, I mean, I think about Federer, was with Nike forever. And obviously when he departed, it was strange to see him in uniguo for a few tournaments. Then it just became normalized again. I think maybe the strangest golf one that I can think of is Dustin Johnson

wearing foot joys is just strange to see because he was such an adidas ambassador for so many years and I mean there's a reason these companies pay athletes so much money because you recognize a player as a quote unquote you know blank brand I mean you think about Steph Curry right I mean what do you think about with Steph Curry right you think about underarmour you know when you think about Dustin and Sergio for so many years you thought about a Didas golf and for Tiger, I mean, Tiger was Nike golf. I mean, before Tiger, there was the savvy visor Curtis Strange wore Nike a little bit, but I mean, outside of those, you know, short and small instances, I don't really remember Nike being a particle.

I remember KVV, you know, you'd collect golf balls with logos and you had like the, I don't know if you have those, but when I was a kid, I had one of my room. I remember having a swoosh golf ball because Nike didn't make golf balls and I remember having finding a Nike golf ball like a ball with a Nike swoosh on a one time and it being a part of my collection. I mean, that's how little they were involved in the sport at the time before Before Tiger, obviously joined the tour in 96. So I I mean, strange. I did, I did think the social reactions were a little overblown. It's almost like somebody died or something. It's like, oh, RIP, the swoosh. You're like, that's still going to be on a lot of people. Yeah, it is, it is the exact kind of thing that like old deadspin defector would like have totally made for us, like people crying over brands. That said, how many people have ever tried to juggle a ball on their wedge?

One of the most influential commercials of all time was just Tiger basically fucking around between takes and the director saying, wait a minute, can you do that for 40 seconds? And Tiger was like, yeah, and I think it took him four tries to do it and then at the end of it, he hit it up in the air and hit it like a baseball. And just truly one of the most memorable iconic commercials in the history of advertising. Any other of those commercials that stick out to you?

So the window one was always kind of my sneaky favorite. You know, when he breaks the windows, I don't really know much of the backstory on that. I don't know if he actually broke the windows or if that was, you know, post or whatever the case may be. Obviously, the audio is, because the audio was so great when he cracks them. Love that one and love the Tigret St. Andrews one, you know, when he was a kid and they super

imposed him on the greens. And then obviously you have the moments at the open and at the old course, you know, I mean, I just the creativity wise, I always wanted KVV. I always want him to make. I remember when Jason Gore had that run up the US open, he was an Ikea athlete at the time. I always wanted them to make a commercial where, like Tiger woke up in the morning at 5 a.m.

and went to the straight to the gym and was sweat and pour and sweat and lift in a whole bunch of weight. And then they flipped to Gore and he's like waking up at 8 and he's having a big breakfast, he's having his coffee, he's chilling. And then you know Tiger go, and this is no, by the way, this is no knock to Jason Jason Gore, love Jason Gore, but you know,

just different, they were in different walks, I guess at the time, and like, Tigers going to the range and then whatever, but I just wanted to see like two Nike athletes go about their business so differently. And then at the end of the commercial, they like meet on the driving range, and they both hit it close, so they're on the first tee, and they both bomb at 300 yards. Just to remind people that not every athlete is the same. You can do it either way. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Well, I was thinking about this just as sort of the things unfolded and there may be come a time when Roy is no longer an Nike athlete either. But the the the ripples ad where I think it was in 2015. It was right when it seemed

like Rory was the next Tiger, right? He's coming off winning two majors. It's debuted right before the Masters. It's, you know, of him playing as a little kid and he's watching Tiger Woods, you know, footage on TV. And it's like, he kind of gets a little bit older and he's still watching Tiger. His dad is closing down the bar

and you know, Rory's coming in there and saying, like, oh, Daddy's three under. And, you know, then you get R playing in the rain and you'll finally in the last scene, it sort of comes together where actual real life Roy McElroy and Tiger Woods like are on the first tee and they're, you know, it flashes back to like everything that came before it. And Tiger, you know, hits his shot and then Roy hits a shot and they're walking on the fairway and he says, you don't do

good shot, man, good shot there, man. And it's like, you know, that's the closest to me, like a commercial has ever come to being like ours. It just was like a such great storytelling. And it was really, I thought, an interesting moment because Tiger was willing to kind of hand the torch to someone else. It was essentially saying, like, yeah, as long as I kind of get credit for like having inspired you, I'm okay with saying that you're like the next one who's deserving of this title. And for ever Tiger was, you know, in that time in 2015, he was really sort of stuck in like, I don't know if he's ever gonna, you know, be great again. And so for him to say, like, I think

Roy is like the next dude, and I'm willing to appear in a commercial with him as an equal, not just as like, oh, these, all these guys like want to be me and they're never gonna make it, blah, blah, that, you know, that very funny me and they're never gonna make it, blah blah blah, that very funny commercial where they're all dressing up like Tiger, pretend to be Tiger, it's like Stuart Sink and some of the other guys. I just thought that was a kind of a cool moment. Whoever the ad director of that was,

was awesome. The other underrated Nike one was the Symphony one where Tiger goes to the range and all these hacks and all over the place and then they all start hitting it together like perfectly in the moment he leaves, like the balls go everywhere again. I always thought that was a great commercial too. A lot of great Nike Tiger commercials.

Somebody should just like somebody at Nike should cut them all together and put them up on YouTube and maybe like 45 minutes of viewing, and we would all watch it. Every golf nerd would watch it. The problem with a lot of those commercials is you watch them, somebody like filmed it off their phone on a TV. On a TV.

A year ago, and it's got like a half a million views ago. Can we just get like the professional look at this? It'd be great. Yeah. She and I want to close with one sort of thing that you sent me a text really this week. And we were talking a little bit about like this era that we are living in the sort of the the era of a lot of ways like goats and legends.

And you said something interesting in the text, I want you to kind of expand on it. Like what does goat mean to you? Because in the last few years or even months, we've said, you know, seen the end of serenewaliums and Roger Federer and Nick Sabin and Bill Belichick and Tom Brady and Peyton Manning and Raf on the doll. And you know, we're getting close to Tiger and Phil and LeBron kind of stepping off stage. And I just kind of curious like, I almost feel like are we appreciating enough what we are living through as sports fans in this moment? Yeah, I mean, I think as a kid, as I grew up, I just expected that every year, every many generation, every generation

would over you want to call it, I just expected it was going to be better than the previous one, right? And so, you know, you think about obviously Bird Magic, and I'm going to lean on basketball because it's, you know, my favorite sport outside of golf. But I think about Bird Magic and then you get, you know, MJ obviously, and you have the Black Creek Rockets team and then it was Shaq and Penny and that arrow was great for basketball. And then Jordan leaves and basketball kind of suffered a bit, right?

But then you think about sports post Jordan. And I've just been thinking about the quote unquote goat generation. And I'm wondering if it is coming to an end. Because again, I thought when I was younger that it would just get better every year. And we would just see better athletes and better players pop up.

And I think it's been the quarterback play over the last couple of years that has made me start to think about this because for so many years, we didn't appreciate how many great quarterbacks we had. I mean, obviously it's easy to lean on Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, but I mean, rivers was so efficient, so good for so many years. Rathas Berger, even Prime Flacco and Eli, these guys, they could win Super Bowls literally on their own talents, right?

I mean, what Eli did and those Super Bowls was incredible. So yeah, you mentioned a few of the names, but I was thinking post Jordan. So we've had Brady LeBron, Tiger, Federer and Adolf Serena, Ladecki Phelps, Messi, Peyton, Sabin, Belichek, Tiger Phil, Steph, Onica, Novak, Simone Biles, like when you dive into the list of those names, they're all like the best at what they do. And I think when people think about quote unquote, goat, they think about the greatest, I look at it a little bit different. I think about like the greatest of all time, like a, like extended to a kind of a smaller pool of players, like, you know, cream and wilt and bill and MJ and bird and LeBron, like they can all kind of be goats of

their era. I mean, magic you could throw in there as well, right? Kobe's the name that floats around Tim Duncan, like there are so many goats. And I'm just wondering if a little bit like we saw in golf, you know, post kind of 2010 with Tiger and Phil, you go in a slight Lowell, right? I mean 2011, 12, 13, 14 kind of before Rory became Rory. Golf didn't really have that that goat playing the sport. And I'm just wondering if right now if we are going to go in a little bit of a Lowell, you know, all these great coaches are leaving, all these great players are retiring, are we going to see people take those positions in places? Tennis is struggling with it right now,

golf might be struggling with it very, very soon. The quarterback position, I think we're struggling with it as well, and I'm just wondering if when this generation from basically 2000 to 2024 goes away, retires, whatever the case may be, are we going to miss that group? Because I think we always just expected somebody to feel in the spot.

Yeah, it's funny. It's like that quote from the office that Ed Helm says in like the final, you know, maybe think of that as like, I wish someone would have told me that, you know, I was living in the good times while we were still in it. So I could have appreciated it in some ways more. I wife and I were talking on the other day

and she was like, you know, who's the next Tiger Woods? Like she doesn't really follow, you know, sports. I was like, I'm very interested what you had to say here. I said, you know what? It's probably a kid who's been born who's like seven years old, right now. And we're not going to be introduced to that kid for another, you know, at the earliest seven, eight years, you know, when this kid gets into the USAM

and it's like tearing it up, you know, it's possible that the kid is like 11 right now and we're closer to the cusp of it. But if you think about like the time between when Jack Nicholas's prime ended, it was like 1981 somewhere in there, you know, that last kind of gasp in 86. But that between that and what Tiger before Tiger came around, it was like, you know, 11 years before Tiger emerged on the scene. And so, you know, there's a very real chance that we're going to experience like a lull in golf. And there isn't going to be. Okay, if you that's my commission, is it not just golf? Like, is this sports? Is this not? Because again, these great soccer players are leaving.

And it's like, who's going to fill in the role? Right? Who's going to become the face of soccer? Who's going to become the face of football? Who's going to become the face of golf and face of tennis and face of basketball? And it's just so interesting that all these people that I feel like, you, okay, if I said who's the best shooter of all time,

you'd say Steph, right? You know, who's the best shooter of all time, you'd say Steph, right? You know, who's the best basketball player of all time? You're going to say MJ or LeBron, right? Who's the best golfer of all time? You're going to say Tiger likely. Maybe you say Jack, I just feel like the best at what they did, the best at a specific skill, the best female swimmer of all time, LeDeckey, the best male swimmer of all time, Phelps.

Like all these people were in the same era, if you will. And I'm just wondering, is, are we gonna get 10 goats pop up in the next 10 years that are pushing those names for greatest of all time? Or is this gonna be, like you said, between Jack and Tiger, 10, 11, 12 years before those types of names emerge again? Yeah.

I'm gonna think people like in football would say, well, like, you know, Patrick, my home has a chance to be better than both Brady or Manning. Like he's young enough and is successful enough. Like who knows? My homes could go on a tear and win a Super Bowl this year. And, you know, we don't know that person is engulfed, but, you know, it might, again, it might be some kid who's born in India and is like 16 year old right now. I think our, like our parents probably thought like, oh, it's not going to get any better like this. Like, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, like those are the the best players who have come along with most entertaining. They basically made the NBA what it was, you know, or people probably thought,

you know, what about, even about baseball players are like, oh, you know what? Like, Derek Jeater, so that, you know, Alex Rodriguez, like those are the best short stops that could possibly come along. Hallfamers right there. There's no way that, you know, like over time, like shit just continues to evolve. I think there are, there are always gaps in like those things.

And I just do think your point is super valid is that we have not appreciated what we have just lived through in some ways of across the whole spectrum of the man I it would stun me for a long time if we got another gymnast who was better than Simone Bites. I went to see Simone in the US trials with my my daughter and it was like holy shit like you've even seen this in in person. This is amazing or like when you watch Rory McElroy drive a golf ball in person, you're like, this does not live up to what TV is.

Same with watching Federer or Hit Grounds trokes. You know, I saw him play Agacy in the US Open. Wow. Final. So, literally, Federer was, I think it was maybe his second or third major. So he was still just up on the upcoming and it was Agacy's last gas. But I was like, huh, this guy's awesome, obviously, but like, is he ever gonna be like as good as Andre Agashe?

Like, yeah, I think he did okay there. Like, he, you know, not only did he surpass him, but then he got surpassed in a lot of the same. So, I don't know, man, I just, I would, I hope so, like, I hope that my kids get to experience like their own generation of goats. But I do think we gotta, you know, raise a glass of non-alcoholic

something to all of what we've seen in the last 10, 50. I guess it's just, yeah, across the spectrum is wild. Like when you really think about across the spectrum, Coach Kay and Bella Check and Pete Carroll, and you know, all these people leaving around the same time. I mean, it's gonna, when you look back on this era, it's gonna be like a six year window where the best it almost ever respective sport

leaves, quits, retires, just, that's so crazy. Yeah, truly. Bang this was super fun. You wanna do this again next week? I'm into it. I'm into it. Let's do it again. I'll change my hat.

It's good to go ahead today. I'll change my hat. It's good. Good hat today. I'll change it next. Good. Thank you all for, you know, I know that your, your favs will be back eventually, but we're piloting the ship now for, for two, three weeks here until the boys get out and film some tourists.

Anyway, you can still find we'll have lots of pods coming in the, the coming weeks. I got a really good one of a narrative pod that I was working on for quite a while. Might be a subject that's familiar with me doing silly impressions of. So look forward to that in about a 10 days. We got a Brian Harman interview coming up that's all he did before Sony, before century that I think is really, really good. KVV, we didn't talk about the Brian Harman video. Did you see the video of him take?

I did not see it. T.C. was, was, was live it about this thing. It was like 15 practice chips. He went up and down, had to have been seven, eight, nine waggles. It was wild. It was wild. I watched it a couple of times and kept watching the flag to make sure it wasn't somebody just looping it. Somebody looping it. It was just, it was wild.

That is that, that was, that was the video of a man that did not want to hit that golf shot. And he did a great golf shot. I was not surprised by that. All right. Well, we'll, we'll, perhaps we'll be more Brian Harman commentary next week. But thanks, Megan. You know, I always love sitting and talking to you and about literally anything with you. So I appreciate you sticking up and, and you know, fighting through some technical difficulties here with my brain shot some technical difficulties here. We're here, baby. I'll talk to you next week. Give it a big blow. Be the right club today.

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