No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 802: Players Preview

Episode Date: March 12, 2024

Soly is joined by DJ and Randy for a look ahead to this week's Players from TPC Sawgrass. After Soly sprinkles in a few nuggets from his day at the course we play 'Buy or Sell' on a number of topics around this week's event (the lack of a repeat winner, Monahan's presser and future as commissioner, the event's claim of the strongest field in golf) as well as the prospects for a number of the biggest names on tour who figure to be in contention on Sunday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. Johnny, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different? Better than most. Expect anything different. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the no laying a podcast. Solly here, players championship preview episode joined by my guy, Mr. Big Randall. Hey, big.

Hey guys. Great to be back on the program. Uh, players. Wow. What a, what a week. Excited to talk to you guys about it. Do you have your script? You got to follow your script.

I know you don't live in Jacksonville anymore, but we have our talking points. Let's stick to them, OK? I do, yeah. Mine were just delivered via FedEx. FedEx, yeah, FedEx. I was searching. Good one there.

And I've also got some cross points from Excel that Stiney just wired to me. So I feel like I got my bases covered. Also you hear the laughter of Mr. DJ Pajowski. Hello, Pajman. Greetings, guys. Great to be with you. Dare I say, unironically, turning into one of my favorite weeks of the year.

I love the Pajman. I wish somebody would have come in town. I know. I should have. I've got a little tinge of that going on myself. It's a weird year with Toro sauce edit for you. I know it's just kind of the timeline doesn't work great, but it is. It was nice. I went out and touch grass today and it felt really good. It was. It was good to get out from behind my keyboard and and go see a little

golf talk to some people. This episode is brought to you by friends at Roeback active where you all know Roeback best fit best feel they're fresh off new restocks of our favorite polos hoodies and q zips trust us when we say there's not better gear for when you're out playing golf or just out and about fit the feel the quality it's all perfect. Roeback is fresh off a restock of some of their favorite of some of our favorite performance polos the

material is moisture wicking. It's got great stretch. The collar is crisp, does not lose its shape. They fit so much better than those old boxy polos. Simply put, the best designs paired with the best polos, the performance hoodies, we got three of them on. I always a risk that we're gonna get covered up, but they got so many great options.

I went through their website, guys. I think I do. I think I officially have 85% of their hoodies. I think we're almost, have the full the full gamut Lastly the performance q-zips are back. We love them. They got great classic look soft performance fabric makes them incredibly comfortable They are the definition of versatile They'll have you feeling good and looking good if you haven't already Load up on some row back both yourself and for others use code nl you atback.com for generous 20% off your first order through the end of this week.

That's R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com. 20% off bottoms, Q-zips, hoodies and more with code NLU. Get ready for the golf season with Roeback. I almost had to switch to the polo. I almost had to put the hoodie away and put the polo on. It's 64 degrees here today. Hey, that's warmer than jazz. I know. It's crazy.

I was kept trying to refresh my phone when I pulled up the Ponte Vedra weather because I was like, oh, it must still be shown in Milwaukee. But no, 57 down there. I saw. Did you get a little funny feeling up there, Deitch? A little bit, a little bit. We're now into March, which is good. Playing golf on February 9th was a little, that was a little concerning, but now I think I'm about ready for it. What, apropos of nothing for those watching this podcast, DJ, what is that hat?

Is that a, what do we have on the front of your hat there? I believe it's the El Paso Chihuahuas farm system of Los Padres. I got a buddy who works in the Padres organization who kitted me out with all kinds of gear. I didn't want to wear a Padres hat. I feel like that would have been offensive to you guys, but I felt like this was okay. A lot of confusing messaging going on. And we should say, Randy, you can now watch this podcast if you're so inclined on our new No Laying Up podcast YouTube channel. So if you prefer to see the smiling faces

of the lads, well, that's a new thing we're going to be trying out. We hear for you. We've heard some things and you know, that's now up and running. Available Wednesday. If you're listening to this on Tuesday, it is not available just yet. I do a little movie magic there, but you're right. It'll be coming soon. Not quite, but close. Subscribe there. It's very time consuming, but we're working on it. We, we, as DJ said, we here for you. So, hi, man, busy day for me. I was out, uh, running all around. I'm going to toss the reins to you to kind of keep us organized.

Yeah. Why don't you let daddy take the wheel here for this afternoon. Let's, let's do it. And you know what? The first thing I'm going to do, Solly is I'm going to throw it right back to you. Because me and big, we're just, we're, we're going back and forth on Slack. We're like, God, I wonder what Sally saw out there today. What did he see? Does he have four notes? He could kind of provide to us some news and notes, some nuggets, you know, you were always looking for betting tips. We're looking for insights from the ground and who's who better to have those than our, our guy,

Chris solely solid that info. Sully, we want it hot. We need it hot. This is kind of in the same vein of when we had to take some laps walking the range when we did the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro in this past year. I just got a few little small nuggets, right? Just everything that I caught wind of today that I thought would be interesting to translate. Walked up the putting green, saw Brendan Brendan Todd absolutely grinding on the putting green,

obviously making everything he looked at. This is not where I thought we were going first. No, but- That's interesting. Hopefully they get hotter. Hopefully they get hotter. No, listen, he- This Liffey's car is green.

He makes every putty he looks at. And so I said to him, I'm like, what are you doing over here? Like, why didn't you do practice in that? And he hit me with a line that like defines golf a little bit for us. He's like, you've never got it. You've always have to be working at it. And I was like, Oh, that got pretty serious, dude. I was kind of just messing around. But sure. But that was

an interesting, literally the best putter on tour, I would assume. I think he led the field last week at Bay Hill, and is well known as one of the best putters on tour. It's like, yeah, you've never actually got it. You just have to always keep working. I was like, oh, okay. Well, all right. That leaves me hopeless, but that's really interesting. I love it. What's that? What's that cliche about the rent is grinding over three footers every day for four hours and it's due every... What's that mean? Yeah, something about the rents due every day. Success is leased and the rent is due every day or something like that. I don't know.

You were not close. That's all I know. I think I feel like that's what Brendan was was that's the message he was conveying. And so that's that's noted. Michael Greller works so hard. I saw him out there and he you know, so what do you have to use it? I'm gonna go roll balls on nine. He's like, I got about six or seven hours of work I need to do on like reading greens, like

just run going out to greens and rolling pots, so sick and reading them. Like I remember seeing him do that at the US Open, like the 18th green just spinning like, repeating, repeating, repeating, rolling pots, rolling pots, rolling pots, to make notes to for green reading. I was just like, dude, that is something that just does not show up on camera ever. But how much, everybody knows guys go out and chart courses and do all that stuff. But I don't, I don't know if everybody's caddy is going out and getting that level of detail,

but that was, that one stuck out to me. I remember seeing, seeing bones do that. That's like a sneaky, I know there's not a lot of fans out there on, on Mondays, but if you can ever get into a tournament and kind of early, early week, really before like pro-am day, like seeing some of those caddies go out and just like watching them do their work is like weirdly fascinating stuff. I remember seeing bones doing that at some course that he had been to 35 times and he was still out there doing the same thing. I was just, I, that has always stuck with me very, as a very admirable part of, part of the gig. It's not, not necessarily just, you know,

the old Randy, what is it you say? Keep up, shut up, show up. Uh, it's not really that anymore. And I always say, you know, the, to, to bones and Grellar and, um, you know, you never got it. You always got to be out there. That's good. I talked, I talked, despite the, the tough edit we got in full swing. I talked to knowing a podcast listener, Roy McElroy. He did confirm that he does still listen to a podcast. We're cool, right? Like, you know, we're cool. It must have been like a Thursday or something. I don't know. You know, I listen, I call you after every pod. They,

you know, so I'm like, how you doing? What's going on? He's like, yeah, I've got this incredible feel going with the driver, but that feel is also contributing to a big left miss with irons. And he hasn't like worked through it all the way. And he's like, I get on the greens, I'm fine. Get off the tee is fine.

I just like can't, I still got this weird little, little left miss going with the iron. So he's got some time to figure that out, but that's, I thought that is an interesting note. Don't love that. That's, that's, I mean, we saw that. I mean, we know, right. No, totally, totally. That's a, yeah. Huh. I was hoping doctor. I'm hoping to have some better news about, about what Rory was. I had the opposite reaction. I thought it was like, you know, he was working on a left to right win. He's working on both sides of the range today,

working on that shot just with wind off the left and wind off the right. And that made me think like, all right, we can triage this one issue, right? And if we're that good off the tee and that good on the greens, then we're gonna be fine. So. All right, glasses half full.

Last note, I got to spend the afternoon filming something with with titleists with Sahith Tagala, my favorite golfer on the planet. And I'm biased because I was there but it was awesome. It was so much fun. We just like played one whole bunch of different like kind of on repeat up par five and just talking strategy how he's kind of dialed in his swing off the tee kind of learned that you know, he can't be hitting this massive cut everywhere on the PGA tour and

tightened up his dispersion with driver, how he aims from like 275 into a par five, not trying to do the hero shot, like how he plays the odds and picks his way around it versus how he hits like a, the different ways he can hit a hundred yard shot. Look for that video when it comes out on titles channels, I think it'll be out this week. It was fantastic. I just, that dude was so invested in the whole process in the video and like explaining things. And again, it's not gonna surprise people

that he endeared himself quite well to the people. So those are my four nugs from this from today. He's got a little bit of or maybe a lot of of spieth to him doesn't he? Like when you when you get around him just like unbelievably eloquent in explaining how he hits golf shots and what he's feeling out there. And also just like similarly chaotic on in the way that he plays golf, which I think is, you know, has a lot of magnetism for me. I'm very much drawn to to watching those people. But I think as we as we see our guys speath, maybe not quite be the, you know, 2015, 2017, 2018 type of

type of player. I think, you know, many people can take maybe take some refuge in, in saw his get out there and follow him shot to shot because it's a similar experience. I totally agree with that. Very big emotionally, especially it's a, you know, the ups and downs are a lot of fun. So any, anything else golf course wise to note out there anything anything you're noticing anything your models are picking up soft soft soft But I will caution people we got a lot of rain here this past week and it absolutely dumped on Saturday night But they can get this thing firm. They've done it in the past. The weather looks good leading up to the tournament

I remember that one was that two years ago where they had the Monday finish. I mean was that three years ago now? I can't I can't they had the the Monday finish. Maybe was that three years ago now I can't I can't remember but the Monday finish day that somehow was like the greens got firm after just a day and a half of just a deluge. Weirdly the softest it's been was the the COVID year when they had no rain leading up to it and they overwatered the greens. But so I I don't want to like you know all the all the tipsters that are looking for for golf course updates. I don't know if it's

gonna it won't be this soft come Thursday I don't think but it's been a tough winter here. There's a lot of water on the golf course, but I think they can get it sub aired and dried out by Thursday, I would think so. Yeah, weather looks good. Should be should be fun week. Rough stuff. Yep. A lot of rough oversea. It's still thin and kind of wispy ish. It's not like as penal, I wouldn't say as Bay Hill, but there but there's plenty of rough, you know, just off the fairway out there.

Which I think is almost, I don't want to say more fun, but like at least that kind of introduces the element of flyers, right? Like when you start to get rough like that, it's like, just gets harder to judge coming out of there. Whereas like when you get that Bay Hill, it's almost like the big nasty like Northeast stuff where it's like, yeah, it's just gonna go to the bottom and you're just like hacking it out when it

gets kind of like wispy and over CD like that. It feels like it's like, Oh shit, this one might jump or it might not, or it might come out fat, or at least it's kind of a, you know, game within the game within the game type of thing to, to watch on shots or any, what are you laughing about? Oh man, that's amen to that brother. Beautifully stated. Well, I don't think we need to re-litigate Bay Hill,

but the difference in this, too, is also the design of the holes and the green complexes specifically, and the P die elements of all of this, and how the contouring all factors in is like, the missing fairways at the players has a different impact on missing fairways at Bay Hill and there's possibility for recovery in a lot of spots from some of these, but you obviously don't want to be doing that. It's not just beating you over the head on repeat with kind

of the same question on repeat because that's very, very, very, very different situation at a golf course. This one that I'm quite fond of, especially watching the first blood and green surrounds too. If you can't control your spin coming out of those fairways, it's like you're probably coming up, trickling off greens and instead of going, you know, one foot into the shin high rough, like you are at Bay Hill, you're going into some like really tight,

closely known areas and you know, just a bevy of other challenges. So anything else you want to say from your day out there? You want me to open up the markets for a little buying and selling? Lastly, just the comment that Brando made this past week I'm going to take the advice on somebody in the field. That's it. That's the last one I've got. Congratulations. Total vindication. I'm gonna keep poking Brad until he comes back on the pod. Come on, man. I'm going to keep poking Brad until he comes back on the pod. Come on, man. I'm going to keep poking Brad until he comes back on the pod. Come on, man.

I'm going to keep poking Brad until he comes back on the pod. Come on, man. I'm going to keep poking Brad until he comes back on the pod. Come on, man. I'm going to keep poking Brad until he comes back on the pod. Come on, man. I'm going to keep poking Brad until he comes back on the pod. Come on, man. I'm going to keep poking Brad until he comes back on the pod. Come on, man. I'm going to keep poking Brad until he comes back on the pod. That's it. That's the last one I've got. Congratulations. Total vindication. I'm gonna keep poking Brad till he comes back on the pod. Come on, man. Maybe he's just trolling you. That's, I don't think we should throw that out. That'd be good. I'm turning the reins to you. They're all yours. All right. We're going to do, uh, you know, we're always looking for segments on these pods. This is nothing more tried and true than the classic buying or selling.

This has been focus group tested. Yeah. People love this. I know you're a huge watcher of the markets. Solly, I know you're a big diamond hands guy. You're never selling anything, but I'm going to force you to sell some things today. And so I put together a list. These are just kind of the topics that are on the top of my mind as we enter here this the 50th players championship And number one, I'm gonna throw you I'm gonna ask you a simple question Randy buying or selling Defending champions at the players championship. You're gonna hear this stat over and over and over again You probably already are nobody has ever defended a title at the players championship, meaning nobody's ever won in back to back years.

Little bit of a wrinkle this year since the hottest player in the world. Scottie Scheffler is also your defending champion. So, Randy, let me start with you. Buying or selling? What do you think? Is this the year that this age-old, 50-year-old stat goes down? What an incredible stat. Let me start right there. Truly, no hyperbole to think that a tournament that's been around 50 years has never had a repeat winner is pretty incredible. I think... Especially like a super elite tournament where you have like Tiger and Jack and all these guys

have kind of played it. it's a big deal tournament. I think certainly this year is as good as any for that streak to be broken. I mean, state in the obvious, Scottie looked great at Bay Hill, dominant win. We certainly, you don't need me to tell you, you've heard it from others that his his tee to green performance not only this year but several years in the running now is just fantastic. And so if he truly did find something with the putter or if he's a little bit of a hot streak going with the putter, if he if he's got some good vibes standing over the ball, I don't know that this certainly could be the year. I'm not sure if I'm ready to say that I'm picking him to win, but I think we got to look. Is that fair DJ? So I guess, I don't know what am I buying and selling again? What was the question?

I guess the idea that the defending champion can't win. Okay, I will. I'll sell that idea. But you're not looking for like a huge return. Yeah, exactly. You have a safety play. Yeah. So what do you got? This was a bad one to start with as far as the semantics of the game, but I appreciate

you. I'm interested to talk about all these things. I don't know if we need to do a buying and selling, but I think it's like, if you look at every single instinct in my body about the history of the players is telling me like Scott,, he's not going to win this week, right? He's not like it. We've, this is like the one golf course where we point to and be like, people don't really have the same level of course history as they might at other courses. I mean, you can Phil Mickelson famously won this event. And then one time said, how did I ever win here? Like it just because you can have really high peak weeks and you can have

it totally be funnel you. Rory's had a very mixed bag of success here. Like I go to like, of course, look at our friends, data golf. They have a tool that shows like your, your course history and how you've performed versus expectations. Like there's not really many top names that pop out to say they've performed way above what you would expect them to perform. All that to say, like everything we've learned about TPC Sawgrass would say like, no, the guy that you expect to win is probably not going to.

And yet everything that based on what we just witnessed would say, of course he's always going to win. But honestly, if he's plus 550 to win, which is decent odds, I'd say, and it makes me want to not pick him to bet. If he was plus 300, I would be like, I don't know. I think that probably makes it more likely that he would, but I don't know. I'll say this. I don't think he's winning this week. I'll say this. I think he is winning this week. I am either buying or selling, whichever one makes more sense on this one. I think, I don't know, it's going to be, it's going to take a while to unsee what we saw at Bay Hill.

And again, I said it on the recap pod. Like he doesn't need to putt, like he putted great at Bay Hill, anyone by a million. He doesn't need to putt great. He just needs to put average. And I just have a feeling that that feel is going to lead to at least average putting. We know the ball striking is going to be there. The one thing about the players, it's kind of interesting and how it's, it's evolved, I think, and maybe we'll get to some of this in a little bit is it wasn't like, I think some of that fluke enos has, has gone away over

the last four or five, six years where like, yes, it used to be this kind of tournament where it was like, Oh, like some years it was like, Oh, tiger. Some years it was like, Oh, Tim Clark. That's crazy. Oh, here's KJ Choi, see who Kim Martin, Kymer, Ricky Fowler. Like it was kind of this weird grab bag. It has been like top 10 players the last four years that have won this tournament. And so I feel like it is getting much more top heavy than it has been in the past. And I I'm going to, I'm going to ride that trend. I'm going to think, I think Scotty wins again this week.

Scotty's history here, cut T55 win. Just figured it out. I find that interesting. I also look, if you look at the 2022 results, I don't have the list off top of my head, but the best returning player from 2022 is Keegan Bradley who finished fifth because the top four guys have all got to live from 2022. And then yeah, JT one in 2021. Obviously there wasn't a 2020 winner. Rory one in 2019, web Simpson one in 2018. So, so I don't know. I'm, I'm put me down. I think he's winning. Okay. It's going to take, it's going to take a lot to move, move me off of that. I think the putting changes. Okay. It's going to take a lot to move me off of that. I think the putting changes is very real.

It feels like a lasting thing. But it's just interesting to note for how golf works. He's data golf's got him 12% chance of winning this week, which is like- Which is also like pretty astronomical for- It is, but that, yeah, it is, but it's hard to picture him losing and they're saying his odds of winning are 12%.

Like that's just how golf works. Randy. So let me ask you this. If Scotty does win and we've now established that is a large if even for the best ball striker in the world. If he does win, okay, are we looking at a Scotty Scheffler potential season that could be on par with maybe one of the more dominant seasons we've seen since Tiger was in his heyday. Are you guys buying or selling that Scottie has a Tiger like dominant 2024 in him? Do you want to

throw any numbers on what that means? We're talking like, we're talking four wins and we're talking like 12 wins. Can we say not tiger-like? Can we say a dominant 22? Yeah. Ignore the tiger part and just like, is he going to be dominant this year? Like, do I think he could win five times this year? Yes.

Well, I guess what's the threshold then? Like how, cause for me it's wins, right? Like I get it. You can ball strike it to death and you have this many top tens and top fives, but like a lot of lay people, it usually boils down to how many times did you win this year? So what, I guess, what would, to be in the same conversation as a tiger esque dominant season,

like what does that even mean to you guys? Maybe we should start there. Somebody, I forget who on the preview pod to start the season predicted he would win four times this year in a major. So that sounds like a dominant. That's a dominant season to me in today's day and age. Like that's a player of the year. That's not a Tiger dominant. That's not.

Yeah, that's kind of standard fair player of the year material right there. I don't think he's, no, I don't't think he's gonna do a tiger thing. I would agree with people just don't do that anymore. There's a reason why I don't know. I don't want to say I also don't want to say like the best season since Tiger like Patrick Harrington won two majors in a year like it, you know, some weird shit can happen. But do I think he can win multiple majors this year? Yeah, of course. Like I, this is lining up very, very, very, very well for him.

Look, I'm gonna throw this out there. I'm gonna give you one more. I'm gonna throw this out there. I'm gonna throw this out there. majors this year? Yeah, of course. Like I, this is lining up very, very, very, very well for him. I'm going to throw this out there. I'm going to give you one chance to either refute it or not. Solly, the, the ROM grand slam thing turned into a huge joke last year, which was very, very fun. Are you getting any of the same whiffs? Are your models even like blinking a little bit on this? No, they're not. They're not quite just because I'm concerned that he's going to maintain the putting. Whereas Rom just truly looked like he had a cheat code of not going to ever hit a golf ball offline

again. But I was only like a little bit joking when I threw the great Scott. He's been doing that for like, I know that's where I'm kind of at is like, dude, I feel like we've seen the base. I mean, listen, of course, like ball striking and drop off and you get a different feel like you just heard Rory talking about it, right? Like, you know, you were relaying what Rory was saying where, like, you get a weird feel and things change and they evolve over a season. But like, Scotty doesn seem, I don't know, man, he's been the only guy

that's kind of been exempt from that over the last like three years. And like there's such a consistent floor on like the ball striking stuff that it truly has been the putter that has been holding it back. And if again, if that just gets to like an average point, it feels like we're cooking. The only nit I can pick with Scotty's like resume as a whole, a teeny tiny bit of a horse for course. And like, you know, I mean, he's won the Phoenix Open twice and he's won Arnold twice so far. Right. And his other wins all come in this time period, right? He's won the match play. Remind you that he won the players last year. March 2022. Defending champion. He won the players championship last year and of course he won the Masters in April. He won the hero in December last year, which a lot of

people don't really count, but all of his seven wins have come in February, March, and April. So he has not sustained it through the summer to be able to go and bury people and win tournaments. That's the only net I'll pick in his resume. That's really interesting. It is. Big, what do you think? Well, I was just looking. I think to answer my own question going back a little bit, I think to consider it, to elevate a season and to get it into the conversation of like a Tiger Woods-esque season, I think you got to win at least six times. PGA Tour wins. So regular events, majors.

Because that's, you know, going back, you know, Justin Thomas won five times in 2016-17, Jordan Spieth won five times in 2014-15, Jason Day won five times in 2014-15. So that's kind of like, hey, that's been done. But once you get to that six or above number, like going back to, you know, Tom Watson won seven in 1980. But besides that, it's all Tiger Woods. And then you have the VJ Singh 2004 where he won nine times. But you know, Tiger won nine times in 2000, eight times in 2006, eight times in 1999. So I think that's the standard. Do I think Scotty can win six or more times? I do DJ for the reasons you said. Like if, and we've seen he's starting to make some changes. I mean, going from a blade to a mallet,

like maybe it's not that big of a deal, but I think it at least signifies like, hey, he's starting to make some changes. I mean, going from a blade to a mallet, like maybe is not that big of a deal, but I think it at least signifies like, hey, he's willing to try, really try some new things to address what have been some putting issues. And so I think that's a fascinating stat though about his wins all kind of coming in that January through April timeframe. I don't know what to make of that. It's a little reminiscent, I think, of like Phil Mickelson. I feel like

without really going into the numbers, I feel like that was a lot of Phil. He used to, you know, really pile up wins in that same timeframe. So I don't know. I guess I'm not sure. I think it would be, listen, I'm on the record saying Scottie doesn't pass the eye test. I think it would be, listen, I'm on the record saying Scotty doesn't pass the eye test. I think it's a good take. I stand by the take. I think it's a good take when you, when you really stop and think about it. But I think it could be good. I think it could be good for the game.

I think it could be good for the game to have a truly dominant season and to give guys like, Hey, this is what you're chasing. Like this is the standard because as we'll get into with some of these other guys, I just feel like we're nothing standing out and golf is really boring when nobody or nothing really stands above the pack. Uh, if it helps the conversation I'm counting last year from this point on, he made 15 starts. So I'm assuming he year from this point on, he made 15 starts. So I'm assuming he'll play a similar schedule in this coming year.

So four more, do I think he can win four more times the next 15 starts? Absolutely. Especially, you know, if a couple of them are, you know, the Dallas events who plays the Byron Nelson, he plays colonial, which are going to be non-elevated events. The rest is going to be like, again, last year he played the, obviously there's no match play. But there's the majors, there's RBC heritage. Um, there is travelers Scottish open. He played last year and then, uh, the three playoff events. That's pretty much going to get them through the end of the

year. I may call on Scotty depending on how the next couple of weeks, I may call on him to enact the big tone protocol. Go into Detroit, Minneapolis, start fucking up some of those guys. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Just go get some scalps, you know, winnings. No matter where you do it. All right. Let's, let's move on. We're going to move on to that before we do that. I got a report. I have another report from the ground guys, my Dewar pants and jeans. They're getting some run. They're getting some run.

I've been wearing these things everywhere. You wear them out to dinner, you wear them while traveling, you can wear them to meetings. What I love the most about my Dewar pants, they're wildly functional. They can be both dressy and casual. They're very comfortable. I've always struggled to find that category, right?

I feel like a pair of khakis can feel a little bit too formal and then a pair of khakis can feel a little bit too formal and then like a pair of jeans isn't formal enough like that in between pant. The no sweat pant from Dewar is fantastic at that. I wore their jeans this past weekend. They're crisp. They are really strong color. I have the rinse color and those you're going to want your own pair of their stretch performance denim and lifestyle apparel is designed for all day comfort and durability. I have

the goal in the no sweat pants, which is, I can, I strongly, strongly endorse. Then, but again, the jeans are a fantastic pair of jeans as well, they got styles for men and women that can be worn all year round. The denim is antibacterial, means less washing. It's made of temperature regulating fabrics for moisture management.

It has Coolmax technology, keeping me cool and dry in any weather. And Dior clothes are sustainably crafted. The last will be a staple in my closet for years. It's always a good thing. When you're buying a nice pair of clothes, you know it's gonna last a long time. The only pants or clothes I've regret buying

is cheap stuff that does not last very long. So I love my Dior jeans. I know you will too. You can check out Dior's flagship stores in LA or Denver. I believe we have a guy out there. Or you can shop online at shopdouer. I know you will too. You can check out Dewar's flagship stores in LA or Denver. I believe we have a guy out there. Or you can shop online at shopdewar.com slash nlu right now our listeners can get 20% off site wide when you use our special URL shopdewar.com that's shopduer.com

slash nlu don't wait to get 20% off shopdewar.com slash nlu. Brandi, you should swing the the Dewar flagship store in Denver do some activations like blocky at that Raising Canes bring your bring your jeans in Randy I'll sign them for you I think that'd be nice either this Tuesday afternoon from 11 to 1 pm yeah come through come on through through uh all right we're gonna we're gonna go down then the uh I don't know, I was going to make some financial thing. We're going to keep the markets open here. We're going to the next buyer sell. I'm pushing the buyer sell thing through. I don't give a shit what you

guys think. It's your money where your mouth is. Next one, Joseph J. Monahan. We're going to hear from the commission this week, Randy, for the first time in quite a while. As that already tickled you into a laughing fit, I'll just start with you. By inner stones, Jay regain any kind of momentum this week. No, not for me. I don't.

There's the free fall continuing. I was thinking about this this morning when I was brushing my teeth. I just, to me, to me, I think the Jay Monahan ship has sailed. There's literally nothing he could say that would curry his favor in my eyes to make me say, you know what, this guy, I understand that. I respect that.

I think he's the man to lead the PGA Tour and the PGA Tour enterprises for the next however many years, just because I cannot take him seriously anymore. Once the hypocrisy of the June 6 agreement came about after he had invoked the 9-11 families and talking about how the guys should be proud of the tour they play on. The January 6 framework agreement was not something that the players or the membership was behind.

It is not something that Jay was forced to do by his constituents. A lot of players were behind the Jan 6 movement. Let me just clarify that. Sorry, the June 6. Sorry. The June 6 movement. Let me just clarify. Sorry, the June 6. Sorry, June 6. I just think that day, Jay lost all credibility for me. Like there's there's literally nothing he can say to unwind the blatant hypocrisy and just poor maneuvering if that's what it was that was on display. And so my personal opinion, I think it'd be much better for golf at large and the PGA Tour

if they made a change of leadership and had somebody that could come in with a fresh voice and say, hey, mistakes were made, level set with the public, level set with the membership, level set with every constituency that you need to. But I just don't think Jay Monahan, given the timeline of events and what we know and his actions and other actions,

I just don't see it from him. I'm sorry, there's nothing he can do to redeem himself in my eyes as a commissioner for the PGA Tour. To buy or sell, I guess to sell you have to be holding some of the stock, right? Or I guess, can you short it too much into it? Yes.

Thank you. I mean, it's obviously sell for me. I still just like don't know where my instincts point on this because I'm trying to castanza this thing almost of like common sense, I can clearly, like in my head clearly see where things should go. Like we need to get the golf world back together. Like I can't get much more obvious to me. Yet. Common sense has not driven 98% of the things that have happened in pro golf over the last

several years other than people wanting to make a lot of money that's really about it so I just don't know what the plan is I don't know if there is a plan I don't know if that plan is gonna be best for any of us sitting here as golf fans to like I have no hope that that there is a plan that's gonna appease all of us right cuz again Monahan serves the players right and? And I don't know, I just can't figure out where the players or the leadership is at in terms of trying to bring PIF back into this thing to bring it back together or still trying to figure out this out on their own with SSG. And like, my gut is telling me that they're shutting PIF out or not. They're trending

more towards the other way, which as much as I still believe all the sports washing stuff and don't need to get into all that, like I think the best path forward for golf fans is going to be getting the golf world back together and giving up the hostage situation that the PIF has the PGA Tour in. But I don't know, man. I don't know what the plan is. So there's absolutely nothing I can hear this week that's going to like make me be like, oh, hell yeah, let's go.

Because unless everything comes back together, it's all kind of a waste. Yeah, I don't kind of a waste. Yeah, I don't have much to add. As you were describing that, what popped in my head was my white socks of just like, yeah, I know you put a shortstop back on the field, but there's no plan here. What are we doing?

What is the long-term vision for where any of this stuff's going? And that's where it's like, you know, am I buying or selling? It's like, yeah, I guess I would buy if there was like a, if I thought that there was like, they were going to pass out a, you know, some like packet to every member of the media and just be like, Hey, okay, sorry for all the confusion. Here's, here's the point. Here's where we're going. Here's where, here's the beats of how everything's going to go. Here's how all the dominoes are going to fall. Don't worry. I know it seemed like we didn't know what we were doing,

but we totally got it under control now. And like, yeah, I just don't think that's probably going to happen. And instead it's kind of like, no, I think we're just going to finish fourth or fifth in the central for the next like six years. Like there, I don't know. I mean, yeah, I guess we got Louise Robert Scheffler, but like, I don't know. Well, that's not fucking doing us anything. You know, I don't know. That's where I get to is just like, in my view, of course, you just need a different mouth to communicate things like they could have the best plan in the world, the tour, you know, and hey, we're going to solve this in the next 18 months. And I just wouldn't believe it coming from Jay's mouth because of the harm and the reputational damage

that he inflicted on himself seemingly. Casale, he said he's there to serve the membership and he's doing what the players. Like how did the June 6th, like every single player was blindsided by that. That's where I'm like, I just can't square this circle, no matter how many different ways I look at it. Like, like the thing that makes the most sense to me is we they desperately need new

leadership in a new voice. And that's the person that has to sell this reconciliation of sorts, because I don't think it's ever going to maybe the players trust him and maybe it'll be fine. But I think public relations wise outwardly folks like us golf fans like we're never going to have that respect and trust level of Monahan. I mean we don't I don't want to litigate all this all over again but I would say like the best case scenario for June 6th was like I know you guys are going to be pissed but I think this is going to be the best possible thing I've ever done. And I think that was the best thing that I've ever done. And I think that was the best thing that I've ever done.

And I think that was the best thing that I've ever done. And I think that was the best thing that I've ever done. And I think that was the best thing that I've ever done. And I think that was the best thing that I've ever done. And I think that was the best thing that I've ever done. And I think that was the best thing that I've ever done. And I think that was the best thing that I've ever done. And I think that was the best thing that I've ever done.

And I think that was the best thing that I've ever done. And I think that was the best thing that I've ever done. And I don't think you're sitting here feeling any better about the situation than we did on June 6th. But anyways, Dodgers just got more money, man. It's fine. All these guys have. All right. Moving on. Let's go to the size of the field. That's been a hot button issue. I feel like the last couple of weeks.

How big should these fields be? Randy, we were talking about it today. Signature events are 697075 guys and all of a sudden the players championship is 144. We would buy in that or not. Sally, I'll start with you. How do you feel about the field size? Uhm, I like it and I don't know. I'm starting to marry that up with like my thoughts on the on the signature events, which I am in

favor of the smaller fields for those. I do think this event has to be different than the signature events. And so having everyone here to be able to play for the biggest person on the PGA Tour, I think is a good thing. If you're asking me to like, to marry that up with my thoughts on like eliminating a bunch of people from the field for the signature events, I can't know if I can fully explain that other than it would feel weird to shut a lot of players out of the players. It is called the players like it is the players tournament. It's not. We didn't say which players it's not

called the administrators championship. Some players, some players, popular players championship. So yeah, I'm fine with that. And I don't know if I can explain why on why that's different than the signature events. Oh, then it just needs to feel different. Brandy shrink the game for me. Come on. What do you, what do you got? You want, I, I, yeah, I don't have as a strong of opinion on like 144 players being good or bad. I more was coming at this like it is interesting to juxtapose the players against the signature

events which are limited fields. I don't know. I've really tried to get worked up one way or another. Like I just I don't know. I maybe just don't know. I like I've really tried to get worked up one way or another. Like I just, I don't know. I maybe just don't care. Like maybe we split the difference and call it 120 players or something. I, I, I'm not sure what the right answer is. Can I hold maybe I'm holding. Can I, can I, I think I can back into it a little bit, thinking about it a little more like this is a bigger tournament than signature events.

Right. And like, I don't hate that there's 156 players in the US Open, like, give me all the US Open golf you possibly can British Open, like, play all day, like, I want everybody in this all kinds of storylines. Like, do I feel that way about Bay Hill? Do I feel that way about Wells Fargo? Like, I don't I don't need to see all that much golf. I do think they should make that feels like a regular PGA Tour event that there's been a change to to make it better. Let's give you all the best guys

are going to play on this course. It's kind of taking WGC and putting it on a familiar golf course because the WGC has always felt out of place. Players has enough reputation and enough going for it that like having everyone in the field and playing it. It's not a major, it's never going to be a major. And I'm not saying that. But it's as close as a tour event is to a major. So having'm not saying that, but it's as close as a tour event is to a major. So having a full field for that makes sense

in that way to me. Yeah, I think that's fair. I think what I keep coming back to is kind of what you were saying, Randy, like maybe middling this a little bit. And I kind of like the hundred player number that Rory and Wyndham Clark were talking about last week. And I know other players have been talking about before that, but I think it still comes back to something I was saying on,

I think it was the happy hour for Bay Hill, but like just getting to a point where you're, you're calling a spade a spade and you're just kind of being honest about the fact that there's two tours, you know, I just think it's really confusing when you go week to week. And to your point, Randy, like the, these fields being so dramatically different, like just is confusing for everybody. I feel like, and getting to a point where it's like,

you make the signatures a little bit bigger, you make this one a little bit smaller and it's kind of a, Hey man, there's a hundred PGA tour players is it feels, and if you're not one of those hundred, then you're not getting into this event or Bay Hill or Memorial or Riviera. And I don't know. That's that's kind of how I feel. But I certainly am not worked up enough to linger on this topic any any further. So we're going to keep going. Just the only thing I'll add is like a big a field, a big field this time of year. Again, we got daily savings now makes it a little, you know, days are getting longer, whatever.

But like you throw weather in and it exposes the flaws in it. Right. I mean, it's, it's harder to get all the golf in. It really is. And it's, you're going to have time starting weird. Your TV windows get messed up. Like there is something to a smaller field, getting everybody through the golf course. Like there is, there are benefits to a smaller field. So just throw that out there. We've kind of talked to Rory a little bit, just a quick, you know, we, we talked about this on the pod last night too, but it's one thing when it's, you know, winter golf, hey, try some shots, make some eights, do what you're going to do. We're kind of rounding into, all right, it's time to play some real golf here before the Masters. Randy, buying or selling the rib? At the Masters?

No, right now. Right now? This week at the Players. No, right now, right now, this week at the players. No, I'm, I'm selling somebody told me, yeah, he's got a big left miss. I've heard he's got a great feel on the driver, but it's causing some big left misses with the iron. So for that reason I'm out. No, I just think, listen, he just looks very sloppy. He looks inconsistent. This is going to be a great clip when he just looks very sloppy, looks inconsistent. This is gonna be a great clip when he wins by the way, but I'm selling, he just hasn't really impressed me. Doesn't seem like he's in complete control

of his golf ball, which is, I don't know. It's just a feeling you get when you watch people like, you know, Jordan, we haven't felt Jordan's been in control of his golf ball for years. I just feel like Rory just makes too many big mistakes to win a big tournament. I feel like Rory places like you can usually see his best golf coming. You know what I mean? It doesn't seem like he's close to his best golf right now. I feel like you tend to see in the weeks leading up like, Oh shit, Rory's Rory's starting to put the foot on the gas.

And then he goes and rattles off some victories. And I feel like we're not all that close to that right now. So I'm, I'm selling as well, Randy. I, I, when you started the question, I was getting ready to sell and I've, I've somehow talked myself into buy here, right? If he's liking how he's putting, if he's liking how he's getting off the tee, I almost feel like, and this might be just looking at this wildly optimistic and just totally missing what's right in front of me to try to, you know, invent something in my own head. I almost

feel like TPC can push you towards being more conservative. Like there's not a ton to gain by being hyper aggressive to a lot of these pins. So if you got a left pin, like dude, aim, just aiming more conservative can address so many of your issues. So if you got a left pin, like dude, aim just aiming more conservative can address so many of your issues. If you're rolling a good, you're coming in from a nice distance, like, hey, just don't make the big mistake. Just don't do that. And like, yeah, your big mistakes are going to get punished really hard out there. But you can play this golf course conservatively. And I

don't know, it feels like he might kind of be building towards a little something. He's shown flashes of playing really good golf. He played pretty darn well the cognizant other than making that triple. It was I you know, he made massive numbers at Bay Hill, he obviously had the great nine holes on the back nine on Saturday. There's a little bit of signs there. And if he's hyper aware of it going left, I can work two ways, right? He's like, I know how to address this or I'm just gonna hit shitty

shots both ways if I've got to go and left. But I don't know, I'm gonna talk myself into buying, which I'm surprised I'm there. I'm surprised even to myself that I'm that I'm there that's an interesting thought because Yeah, I'm with you on sawgrass and that like it is not a subtle place It's almost like the decisions are so obvious when you are taking on a really big risk It's not like you're really gonna put your hand in the mousetrap all that all that often. That's a really big risk. It's not like you're really going to put your hand in the mouse trap all that often. That's interesting. Let me ask you guys, because you guys know more than I do about sawgrass. You know,

Rory's statistical profile right now is he's first in shots gained off the tee and like 152nd in shots gained approaching the green, gain. Uh, which, which would you rather do really well at sawgrass? Would, would you rather drive the shit out of the ball and be very shaky in approach play or the opposite? I think the opposite. I think you would rather be like the best iron player in the world, which like, huh, wonder, wonder who that is. So I don't know. I, I, yeah, I don't see it for, I'm still selling Rory. You're making perfect sense, but I'm just totally, I'm going against logic here.

I love it. All right. Another guy. Look at us. Who would have thought? Another guy. I moved him above the fold here guys, because I think he deserves a spot in this, in the BDP section these days. The only guy that's really like when the lights have gotten brighter, his

game has gotten better and that's Wyndham Clark. I just want to, he's currently 15th down the odd sheet right now and I can't really wrap my head around that. I think if you're in a legal betting state, Wyndham Clark at 40 to 1 is provocative and interesting. That was at least courtesy of our friends at the Draft King Sports Book. So I would give that a really long, long look. And that's a long way of saying like, I'm going to keep buying the Wyndham heater. I like it, man. I think it's a very different golf course, but he also freaking won a Pebble Beach, which is a very different golf course. So I've liked what I've seen from him and it's pretty clear that he looks like somebody who's taking the leap. For what it's worth, he is sixth worst in

course adjustment on data golf for TPC Sawgrass. But I say that noting a guy two spots worse than him is Rory who has one here and a guy just a few spots above him is JT who has also won here. So I don't know how good the course fit tool is here, but it would tell you this place emphasizes driving accuracy greatly and he's not the most accurate driver of the golf ball. He's long and he's good iron player, but does he have to hit that many drivers though? No. I feel like it's kind of one of those places

where it's like you're hitting, I don't know. I mean, I know it's not an auto fairway if you're hitting less than driver, but like it still is, I don't know. It emphasizes accuracy a lot more than a PGA Tour, a normal PGA Tour course. It is, it sticks out, it really does. The relative importance is very strong as well.

So, and it gives boost to guys like Zach Blair, Ryan Moore, Aaron Rye, Brendan Todd, Chez Reeve. Again, it doesn't mean they're those guys are going to win that they just want to compare it to an average PGA Tour course, those kind of guys are going to get boost, which is kind of why we see different names all the time up on the top of the leaderboard at TPC Sawgrass because it just it is not the driving, you know, distance prerequisite. Randy, any Wyndham Clark thoughts? I'm buying Wyndham overall. I'm with you. I feel like

he's just gone about his business. He's played quite well at a plethora of different courses. Just looking at who's ahead of him in the betting markets, and I know that's not like power ranking one to you know, whatever, but You know Ludwig who do I trust more Windham or Ludwig? That's Windham easy speas ahead of it Like who do I trust more Windham or speath right now? It's Windham easily good test You know guy like Shane Lowry is is less odds than it. I just I don don't know. That's a little bit of confusing one. Windham O'Rourke. I kind of like, I think Windham, you know, Windham kind of emerging as a guy, capital G, a guy.

Like again, it's good. We need people like him. So I guess I'm rooting for his ascendancy. And if that means a player's championship, all of a sudden, he's got a super compelling resume over the last year plus. And I think, again, that's a good thing for golf. And I think what's so interesting about that is how much it underscores, like, man, all that matters is good play at the end of the day.

Right. Because remember getting to that Quail Hollow, you know, when he won a quail hollow and he, he wins, like these big elevated events are just kind of starting and Wyndham Clark picks one off and everybody's kind of rolling their eyes at like, Oh God, Wyndham Clark, this isn't what we needed at all. And then it's like, man, you just keep rolling and you kind of turn into one of the dudes, you know, it's, it's a true, like ball, don't lie situation, Randy. The dudes got to come from somewhere, you know? Exactly.

We need it. We need to cultivate dudes. I think that's what we're doing. A couple age olds, you know, these are, these are, these have been in the portfolio for a long time. You've heard these questions before. We're just checking it. We don't need to linger.

We're just checking in fifth major conversation You know solid you alluded to it earlier the players. It's not a major It's trying to buy a mate, you know being a major it's throwing FedEx cup points I think it's 750 is what you get for winning both the majors and now the players as well The purse is as big as anywhere. Where do we stand on this? So you kind of made your feelings clear earlier. Randy, is there any movement here on the fifth major conversation? No, I don't recognize this as a major, just a good PGA Tour event. The players has the strongest field in golf. I think it is the fifth major championship.

No, I mean, it's the event that has been hurt the most by everything that's happened. It is, still greatly performed this week. This used to be the best field outside of any tournament, like truly of the year, even including the majors. It was the top, all the top players in the world play this event. And that's obviously not the case anymore.

It is, the signature events have gotten a lot better with like, hey, we're this event. And that's obviously not the case anymore. It is the signature events have been, I've gotten a lot better with like, hey, we're gonna get the best that's left on the PGA Tour and get them all together. All right, we're gonna do that. That's as elevated those events. What made this event special was everyone played in it. And it was, gosh, going to this trip, you just couldn't, I had the hardest time deciding who I wanted to go watch when we would go to this tournament because of how evenly spread out it all was.

And it's just definitely not the same without the guys that have left in this one. This is the only event that had all of that, right? And it's it's definitely taken a hurt from that. Here's what I'm gonna say. I have rolled my eyes at the fifth major conversation for a very long time. Let me get out in front and stay. I still don't think it's major. I still don't think it should be a major. That's my one or zero. That's how I feel. However, I think that they've been moving

the chess piece forward on this one. I do think it keeps getting better and better and better and better and better. I think the note that I put in here is like, man, the only thing that matters is the majors. And this week kind of feels like it matters to me. Maybe that is just because I have a lot of memories of the players, because I love watching this tournament, because I love the golf course. But I'm not saying it's there. I'm not saying we need to rewrite history or anything like that. But I do think the chess piece is moving forward.

And if the world of golf comes back together and all of a sudden you have all of the everybody's back together playing this event. You have SSG and the PGA tour buying up all kinds of golf properties. You have like, you know, this, this does kind of sort of become like a centerpiece event. And I'm just saying, watch this space. I don't think we're there yet, but it's just, it's interesting. I think, I think it's, it's ticking up in my portfolio right now.

I like what I'm seeing and I'm holding onto it. I've thought about this so much and I can't figure out how, and we're gonna do a podcast about stuff like this in the near future, just about improving the product, if you will. They need to figure out a way, and again, I do not know how, to make this the championship. This should be like the finale of the PGA Tour.

It doesn't make sense in August in Florida. It really does not. And I don't, so I don't know how you get there, but like that would help define it. Like make it its own. I don't know. I got it. I still think it's true, but it should be like the championship. I fully agree. I think the tour championship either needs to be here or Pebble Beach. I think that has been like the problem with the, yeah, there's a whole other conversation, but it's, I think there's a lot that you could do with a small amount of, of like tweaks and moving stuff around. I don't know, man.

I think that chess piece like keeps moving forward and keeps inching closer to, to major status. Could you play, could you play the players in January or would that be ridiculous? Daylight is tough. I mean, just for if you want to ever want to play it, you know, it's really... I think it makes more sense in like September, October, right? I guess maybe like hurricanes and football and stuff. It's hard. I thought it. Before like the tour championship.

I guess in my mind, I'm looking like let's end golf at the tour championship, right? When, when football season kind of begins and taking a page out of tennis, right? They, they, you almost start the year with a major at the Australian open. I, I'm just wondering if like, what if we kicked off a new golf year with the players, you know, and, and it can be like this huge tournament that kicks off the year. I'm not sure, but it's interesting. My only pushback to that would be like this huge tournament that kicks off the year. I'm not sure. But it's interesting. My only push back to that would be like, it seems like a golf course where like you just have to be so freaking sharp to play well here.

And like first week of the year, it might be a little tough. Well, I'm into it, Randy, right? Make a note. Make a note. Yeah. Let's get let's keep reworking this schedule. We'll take that offline. Very quick one here, by yourself. 16, 17, 18 is the best finishing stretch on tour.

Agree, disagree. I'll say yes, because I can't think of anything else at the moment. I retain the right to if something else comes to me. I don't know what else would even be in the conversation. I know. That's where I get to. My natural inclination is like, oh, no, no, no, no.

But then it's like, yeah, it kind of is. Yeah, I don't have an alternative to throw out. If 18 was better at Scottsdale, I mean, 16's not a great hole, but it's a great environment. 17 is a great hole. 18 is kind of what it is. That finishing stretch is always really, really exciting.

But I don't think he can beat 16, 17, 18 here. All right, couple more players. We can move through these guys quickly here. Randy, I'm gonna start with you. Vic, what, I mean, Guy looked like he kind of solved golf last year, which again, I think just, you know, I think illustrates how impressive Scotty's like three year run has been. Uh, cause Victor did it for a good, like two months and looked like the best

player to ever play golf and now looks incredibly mediocre. So how do we feel about Vic as the players approaches? I don't love them. I don't, I don't, I haven't liked what I've been seeing. I guess where I get with't, I don't, I haven't liked what I've been seeing. I guess where I get with Vic is he's still, he hasn't quite made the leap up into the upper echelon for me. I think he's a players or certainly a major, like I feel like he's just not quite there yet. And I know everybody was hoping this would be the year that solidified his greatness. And it still could be for sure. But I don't know if I'm playing armchair analyst and totally

guessing, which is one of my favorite things to do. It seems like he's probably distracted, right? We heard a lot of Vic Liv rumors going back the last couple months. We know he split with a short game coach. It just seems like there's a lot going on there that has to be somewhat of a hindrance to his play on the golf course. I hadn't really thought about it like that until you said it, but there's got to be something to be said for like playing

extremely well, like extremely great golf for the first time. Right. And like getting, like having that big first breakthrough, like almost exhale, like, Oh my God, this is what I've always been capable of. It's gotta be really hard to sustain that for the first time. Like you remember that with speed, right? Where it's like 16 was so much different than 15 and there's gotta be a, you know, a little bit of a like, okay, hold on, let me catch my breath and then I'll get back to what I was doing, which is where I'm, you could convince me to buy, you know, my financial analysts could say that that's a good time to get back in. Maybe buy the dip here, but I don't know. So where are you at? I just kind of looking kind of on in the opposite direction of Scotty in terms of You know, this has not been his part of the season in the past

He did finish t3 here last year at the players, but you know t42 t20 t10 going up into this last year I mean better than this past year, but nothing crazy for what what happened shortly after that this year t22 t58 t19 t36 so definitely worse, but he finished T3 the players last year, T7 at the Masters, then went T2 at the PGA, won the Memorial, won the BMW, won the Tour Championship. Like is he more of a summer golfer? Like different grasses? And that's just a, that's something to consider. Maybe it could clue. He's used to that 24 hours of darkness this time of year. I was going to say, yeah, the natural rhythms of his body, still he's in hibernation mode.

And he's kind of now aged out of or played himself out of all these resorts. He was like the resort king. He's like the Margaritaville golfer, just going and beating up all these resort tournaments. He's too good for them now. My theory is not very good because yeah, the year before he won, he won in December twice, uh, including the hero. Then one of the, he wanted to buy and then was T four T two T nine and that, uh, same stretch in 2022. So maybe not, I don't know. All right. Next guys, I'm going to count these guys as one guy, Xander and,

or Cantlay. Uh, solid. Where are you, where are you at with these two? Kind of a, you know, Randy, I think maybe when you were saying earlier, like, you know, nobody's really doing anything. Uh, sorry. Where are you at with these two? Kind of a, you know, Randy, I think maybe when you were saying earlier, like, you know, nobody's really doing anything. Uh, I think that could be the poster poster boys for them. Although, like Xander sneaky playing really good golf and it's probably always through always, but what does it really mean? It's even better. It's even better than it usually doesn't actually mean anything. I don't, I don't know what that means.

I think it's- Well, no, it gets back to my Scotty. It gets back to the point I was trying to make with Scotty. Like, yes, if you are a hard, hard, hard, hardcore PGA tour or like golf sicko, and you're like, dude, well, Xander, you know, look at these top tens, look at the ball striking, look at the strokes gained. Like, that is impressive. And, but I like go tell that to my buddies, look at the strokes gained, like that is impressive.

And, but I like go tell that to my buddies, like, wait, what, like what's he won? Like, no, he's not, like you just gotta win at a certain point, I hate, I don't hate it, but actually I love it, but you love it. It has to distill down to like winning and big wins. And that's what I get with Xander and Cantlay, like I just, I'm good,

I'm selling, I'm sold off. I hold no positions until one of those guys does something and truly wins an event that matters. All right. Let me give you this between you two. You got to, you're trying to pick a winner this week. One of you gets Xander and Cantlay, and one of you gets JT and Spieth. I'm taking Xander, Cantlay. Great, I'll take JT and Spieth. Yeah. It's a good question. I don't wanna eliminate Spieth from that,

but like the JT part is intriguing to me. I can't. It kinda feels like they all might finish T8. I can't see J, Spieth maintaining something for 72 holes right now. I've made that part clear and Xander. I don't know, man. It's he's literally the second ranked player like a data goal. Like it's number two to Scotty Scheffler. He just doesn't have the peak weeks, which is like, if that's your criteria,

I totally a million percent get it. Like you'd rather trade like, you'd rather have Hovland's run, uh, than, than Xander's consistency for sure. But I think it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it totally a million percent get it. Like you'd rather trade like you'd rather have Hovland's run than than Xander's consistency for sure. Like that's that's just how that works. But man, it's just I'm trying to look at I'm trying to look at is he a bad final round player? Like I don't think he is.

His pressure tool rankings look pretty darn good. You know, he outperforms what he's expected to perform. When he's in contention, it just doesn't go ape shit. And you got to go ape shit to win. You really truly got to go ape shit to win. All right. Another guy. Let's move down my big board here.

I thought this was interesting. Rob Bolton does his power rankings every week. Had this guy number two behind Scotty Scheffler. That's the pro Max Homa. This feels like a great golf course for him. Just feels like a place he should win and just get in the cash booth and hoover up some dough. T13, T6 in his last two starts here. I think he finished T eight last week at a sleigh Hill. I am buying the pro.

It seems like a really nice week for him. It could be, you know, it seems like a great fit for him. Where you guys stand anything I'm missing on, on max. I seems like a great fit. Of course. I feel like when we say that it doesn't work out for in Max's favor. Like he kind of sneaks up on me and says, Hey, I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm missing on Max? Seems like a great fit, of course. I feel like when we say that, it doesn't work out in Max's favor.

He sneaks up on us more than it is like, gosh, that should be a great course for you. Go dominate it. Pushback would be Riviera. Totally. Yeah. I mean, I guess we've learned that to this point. But I don't know. But I'm always, again, this is the biggest cop out ever.

But I always get tripped up with, this is what makes sense for TPC sawgrass, but just weird shit happens at this tournament every single year. And what's your gut telling you, man? What's the I-test? My gut is telling me no, because I love to be pleasantly surprised. But he wins every time that I'm like, ah, he's like our friend. Like, he's not like, he's not actually that good. Like, you know, he can't be and he wins all the freaking time. But so that's ready. Where you at? Listen, put your name on one here. Who might have disagree with Rob Bolton? When I look at my portfolio, the portfolio is not full of things, but we got some stuff in the portfolio that, you know, it's more of a heart play than a head play. It could be a brand I like or, you know, somebody's doing something that has my attention. And so I think Max Slot's in there. I'm willing to buy a little bit. You know, we like supporting good companies.

Is he your Dogecoin? I'm not dignifying that. And so yes, you know, I saw he said he is a friend of ours. I root for max So, of course, I want him to do well Did you see those total head? Say one of those are hard eco-friendly portfolios where you're trying to really like support green companies You know, why can't we have a win-win? Yeah Okay, a couple more on the way out here

Randy your guy Colin Morikawa Don't give me the olive pants. Will you apologize? Well, yeah, what's going on? How does it, how unbecoming was that to go out and shoot 80? Supposed to be one of the best players in the world. And I feel like everybody's just kind of like, eh, eh, whatever. That's disgusting. I was trying to come up with something in slack. Gross. I was trying to come up with something in slack. What's a, what's a sporting equivalent to like a player of that caliber going out

and just shooting 80 and everybody just like, nobody really cares. Like quarterback, like quality quarterback going out and just throwing six interceptions or something. It's gross. And then nobody gives them any hard questions. Nobody, nobody cares. Everybody just kind of like, Oh, I guess, you know, golf's hard. I guess we're on to the next week. It's gross. It is gross. I know I hate it. I hate that I'm in a position where it's like, am I supposed to apologize for Colin? I feel like Colin should be apologizing to me. I've stuck my neck out for him. I'm not getting any returns. You know, we thought we at least get a modest

dividend for, for what we've been doing. I don't know. Colin's a tough one. Every fiber of my being wants to be in on him. He won two majors early. That's exciting. But man, it's just there's something that's just missing. And I can't quite put my finger on it. I don't know what it is.

I'm not ready to apologize for him, but we're nearing that point. Just unable to sustain a outrageous start to a career ball striking wise. His iron play just dipped like a little bit, not a lot, but his driving has dipped more so. And I mean, the putting was never a strong suit. He had to hit it really, really, really freaking good. And yeah, it's kind of, I keep falling back on this one,

but kind of a Derek Henry, Mark Ingram meme, like when you put Scottie next to him now, it's like, well, Scottie drives it farther than you, is accurate, and hits his iron, it's like way better than you now. So yeah, I don't. I don't. I'm not seeing the path really. Maybe unfair to compare you to the top player in the world, but it's been a while since he's kind of been the dude. I

know he won the Zozo allegedly in October, but yeah, it's not not not been great. I mean, weren't we talking about Morikawa's maybe being the best iron player in the world? Maybe the best since Tiger was. was that a conversation? Did I hallucinate that? What that was happening though? That was a real thing. He was, he was outrageously good. And that has, that has not been sustained. I mean, he's still good. He's still like way above average, but like it, you know, it is, it is falling back. I mean, he's still good. He's still way above average. But it is falling back. I mean, from mid-2021, he's like 50 round moving average

was 1 and 1 half shots per round better with Irons. That's six shots better than field average over the course of a tournament. That's massive. That is close to Tiger level. But yeah, now it's down kind of more at the one range, which is a 33% drop. That's a pretty big fall off.

Here's what I'd like to know. I'd like to know what piss is calling off. Like, like what's, does he have any dog in him? Have we ever seen him upset visibly on a golf course? Like what is he after? I guess those are questions I don't know the answer to. And so I want to think he's, you know, wants to win four or five, six majors and be the player of the generation and, and all of that. But I don't know. That's where I get to with a lot of these guys. I, I don't know. We're just dying for people to like elevate themselves above and away from the pack and Collin.

I feel like you're going to end up rooting for Scotty. I think you're going to end up like a huge Scotty fan. I think I really do think you are. The flip is going to be glorious. Like everything you're asking for, I think might be about to happen. Be interesting. Yeah. Speaking of guys that go out there and just take it, Sully, how's our guy big tone looking these days? Because it seems like Mr. Relevant had murdered his name. I was told he was the best player of the world. I was told Steph Curry is not a good shooter. Are we going to see the let's get it mode anytime soon? I'm just checking in. I made a note to circle back on this a year from last year. I'm just checking in how we do it.

Hey, I'll take anything from you Deeds. You actually paid off your mutton chops bet and Check it in how we do it. Hey, I'll take anything from you. Deeds. You actually paid off your mutton chops bet and, uh, you know, and acknowledge that you lost the bet in grand fashion about whether Fina would win. I lost track. How many times he won since we had that conversation.

Um, he stopped playing televised events. He was just playing it like, you know, awful pro abs in the Midwest. Big tone made a putting change. Uh, you know, may somehow made his putting stance look more awkward and it has not served him well. That's a, it's a pretty big problem. He's not really been threatening much. I walked a couple of holes in them today. He's of course, his delightful normal self. But I don't have a good read on it right now. He's not, he goes on great heaters.

And when he does get on those heaters, he does look like the best player in the world. He's, he's still hitting the ball really nice and his, his And his iron play has still been very, very good. But the putter has been quite an issue. He's a little under the weather. I don't know if. For like six months. I mean, come on.

He hasn't been that bad for six months. He's finished T13 in Mexico, T19 in Genesis. He's got top 10 this year. It's not been great. But that's what you're looking for. That's the standard. No, I'm looking That's six wins. His six wins since you guys whined about him not winning much. Uh, yeah,

he did it six times since then. So, all right. Last one for me, just, you know, hard play here, Cincinnati reds, we buy it or sell it. How out of the boys feel it? The stock is high. Wow. God, that is not what I was expecting. I'm buying the plan. I'm buying the plan. Dej, I don't know if 2024 is it. And I'm, I'm comfortable with whatever happens this year. I still want to see some development. Uh, I still don't know if they know what they have. It's an imperfect roster. They got a lot of depth, but you know, they kind of overachieved last year and some comeback on a lot of fronts, some batting average on balls and

play regression, some regression that is to be expected. So I'm not like, jumping off the screen of like, yeah, these guys are going to run the central because I just don't think their ceiling is that high. But there's a lot of things to be excited about a lot of players to be excited about. I'm just really, even if they only win 70 games this year, like I'm going to be heavily intent on following so many guys career in their development

that has me tied in. So I think they can win 82. I think I'm expecting 82 win season again this year. Ben, you miss anything? I couldn't disagree with my associate more. Put your name on something, have a take. The Reds win the NL Central. They're winning at least 88 games. This team is coming. They are, Ellie De La Cruz is a

superstar and waiting. Matt McClain's a multiple time all-star. They're strong up the middle. By all accounts, they have a truly a wonderful clubhouse. Guys enjoy the company of other guys. I think it's a great environment for these young kids to come along, to find their footing. I think they play with joy, with passion, and the Cincinnati Reds, that this will be the beginning of a rebirth of the Big Red machine.

I think we're already in the rebirth, right? I mean, I agree with everything you said. I just don't know about 2024. I heard a little bit of news today too that I don't think is on top of Noel V. Marte getting suspended 80 games. And another thing I heard today has me just a little apprehensive on how the season's gonna go.

But I believe in the crawl, I believe in the vision. I will say that. I think they're set up for for a they have a huge window. It's a really big window right now. So well, guys, that that hereby closes the markets. Thank you for thank you for playing along. And I'm ready for a big fun week at the player championship. I think it's going to be great.

Thanks for everyone submitted questions. We didn't get to any of them today, but we'll save them. We never do, but they do inform a show. And we'll save. There was a good one. Yeah, sorry. We'll save. I know which one you want to save. Real quick answer. I thought this was a good one. Would you rather consume, what would you rather consume as a viewer? Great players on a mediocre golf course or mediocre names on a great golf course? I thought that was a great well said from our guy, Velvet Steve on the Refuge, waiting in the Velvet Steve.

It's a good question. Like Sunday, probably the great players on a mediocre course, like Thursday through Sunday, I'd rather watch the mediocre names on a great course. I agree with that. But if it's a one or zero, I unfortunately am going to probably say, I would love the hipster take of like, oh no, just give me horrible golfers that I've never heard of on a great design. Would love to be somebody who actually believes that. Yeah, come on. I don't actually believe that. I think give me good names

on a bad golf course. Yeah. Yeah. I like a great, I think a great golf course good names on a bad. Give me the entertainment. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like it great. I think a great golf course would win out for me. Hell yeah. That's going to send us towards the end here. Thank you, everyone. We will save some of the questions. We'll have a Wednesday happy hour show,

mostly reacting to, I'm assuming, Monahan's Presser, a lot of other pressers. And then we'll have live shows presented by friends at high noon Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. What's that big? Are we making picks here? Are we doing that on the happy hour? Got to tune in Wednesday. So much can change too, between now and then. I know. I know. Or Scotty gets suspended like your boy.

But if I get more Brendan Todd nuggets, you never know what's going to happen between now and Wednesday. Hey, the rent's due tomorrow, big. I need you to clock it in. I'll be, I'll be out there. I'll be getting it. That is it for us. Thank you for tuning in.

We'll see you Wednesday. Cheers. Be the right club today. Better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Crowd cheering. Expect anything different?