No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 806: Saturday Players Recap

Episode Date: March 17, 2024

Xander Schauffele leads by one heading into the final round of the Players, as we recap our day out at TPC Sawgrass, Wyndham's chunk, Harman's 65, Scottie's health, some course setup issues, and a lot more from Saturday at the Players. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Music Better than most! Expect anything different? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the high noon live show. No laying up live show. Whatever you'd like to call it. Solly here, Saturday players recap. TC is here figuring out his camera like we didn't have time to do that beforehand. Hello TC. Don't sir me, Solly. Don't sir me. Why do you say that TC? to do that beforehand hello TC don't serve me. Sorry, don't serve Why do you say that TC? Why do I got this shirt on baby? We have new shirt The quote right there don't serve me. Do you want to do a shiny any light on that for those that aren't familiar? No, no

Nest members only only offering this to nest members members only only offering this to nest members sirs and madams brand new setup coming calling in from a hospital it looks like with the lighting but we're gonna make it work mr. Kevin van Volkenberg hello KVV so yeah I'm about eight high noon's deep so yeah that's why I went to the hospital but just soldiering on like Scotty you know heart and neck just making it work you can bring the fiesta anywhere you go with the all new high noon tequila seltzer fiesta pack. It is a variety. A pack. It's got two new tequila flavors, blood orange and prickly pear alongside two long standing favorites,

grapefruit and lime. They are made with real tequila, real juice. Perfect for any fiesta under the sun. Find the all new High Noon Tequila Seltzer, that's a tough one, that's a tongue twister right there. All new High Noon Tequila Seltzer Fiesta pack nearest you at highnoonspirits.com. That's right, if you are looking for a particular pack, they got all kinds of different offerings, you wanna find out a store that has that exact offering.

Highnoonspirits.com's got a great map feature. It tells me, hey, the target and the public's right near you have this, this, and this. It's very, very helpful. So thank you to high noon for supporting all of our live shows throughout the course of the year TC. We spent most of our Saturday out there today. You brought the kids out today. How was your day out there? I did it was good. Yo soy fiesta. Yeah, brought the kids

it was Gustav's first golf tournament. They were watching Keith Mitchell there. I took Freddie to the media center. He wanted to see where I work. So I had him in there and then we walked out. I think Alex and the kids saw you following Max. And Alex was like, hey, Max. I don't think he was playing very well.

No, he just missed a short putt. And yeah, I think Gustav and Alex got iced, unfortunately. I'm sorry to report. Yeah. But yeah, these guys are, you know, they're, they're proud partners of one another. And hanging with, with the proud partners there of the players, uh, went up to 17. Uh, Zach Blair was playing with Sammy Valamaki, which they look like they could be brothers. Sammy and Zach, they're just're just on a different scale.

Sammy's about twice as big as Zach is. Kind of an arms-width thing. Yeah, it was good. It was a day-to-day situation. Yeah, it was very, very nice day out there. It was hot. It kind of felt like May. The May experience versus the March experience. It was the May experience

with Overseed basically. It always blows my mind how fast twosomes work. I mean, today just flew by. I mean, I followed Scottie Shuffler's group for about five holes until I got kicked out from Inside the Robes for reasons that are still unknown. And then tried to catch up with Wyndham's group and by that time, you know, followed them for a few holes. And by that time, it was time to get back and watch the back nine on TV and get ready to catch up with Wyndham's group and by that time you know followed them for a few holes and by that time it was time to get back and watch the back nine on TV and get ready to come on live but not quite the same energy out there today as it had yesterday it felt like I'm not sure exactly why the golf was was okay I think it's we all I gotta we gotta have

a TBC Sawgrass conversation at some point but we're gonna lead with of course Zander Schauffele shot a 7 under par 65 today. Guys this kind of blew my mind. He gained like less than two tenths of a shot total in ball striking today and shot seven under. He did absolutely everything from around the green. He was six of six scrambling fourth and around the green and third in putting gaining almost three and a half shots on the green made 138 feet of putts today. So listen, as a wind to better my little concerned about you know, Xander, you know, coming in carrying the lead coming into Sunday, of course, but sustainability models, I have

to call this into question. This was not a prodigious round of golf ball striking from Xander Shafly. Does it feel sustainable? I don't I don't know. I don't know. I mean, we had a big Xander referendum tomorrow, as DJ called it in our Slack channel. There's been a lot of things said about Xander taking a 54-hole lead in the players.

This feels like something he needs on his resume. He doesn't have a major title, obviously. Obviously, it doesn't have a players either. This would be a nice half step towards lifting one of the biggest trophies in golf. I think this is gonna be, people are gonna remember this if he doesn't go on to win tomorrow No, it's only a one-shot lead, but this feels like a spot. He needs to close the door He hasn't made a bogey yet this week

This whole week. He hasn't that can't be true. That's not true. He made it. Well, he made a double on 11 yesterday So that's your technicality that you're going for here Why why hasn't Sander been able to win more tournaments? You've been a Xander defender. Every time we shit on him, you are a- I don't want him to win tomorrow. I see. Why hasn't he been able to close more?

He's obviously a good player. Obviously, I don't know if I would say go great player, but why hasn't he been able to get it done? It doesn't really make sense. Again, we pulled this up, I think the last time we had this conversation to say like when he's in contention and you know after 54 holes he actually plays better in the final round than his actual normal strokes gain level. Like he it's not like he has bad final rounds. He has won a lot of turns. He has won a big tone thing again. No that was he was unlucky I'm not saying he's unlucky is just to say like he's just been kind of normal

He hasn't closed the door right to win a lot of tournaments You have to go out and do you know go go kind of blow the field away do some things and he just kind of is Always steady Xander and doesn't have those big peak weeks He is like the standard of just a really really freaking good beats the field by two almost every week per round kind of guy and doesn't win a lot of these but I don't know it's it's it does always seem like around 14 or 15 every time he's in one of these spots he's got like a six-foot putt that he should make and it doesn't go in and he ends up losing by one or two it is kind of a big-tone syndrome but I think his records a little better people give him

credit for at the same time it's it's kind of time that he has one big win on his resume. I got live from continuing to play just in case Johnson Wagner pulls some shit tonight. I try not to put the TV on while we're on there. I don't want to get distracted, but I can't miss whatever Johnson Wagner gets up to tonight. What do you think it is? What do you think it's going to be tonight? Well, I think he should go out and try to nail it to dunk Ben Silverman's wedge that he had to make this morning to make the cut I don't know if you guys saw that but PJ tour tweeted that Ben Silverman went out and he had to basically make a

Shot on the nine from 110 yards. And so for like an hour He practiced like 110 yard shots and like they built it up to be like a thing and then he hit it like maybe You know five yards right of the green, like into the deep rough. It was so, honestly, a lot of people were saying it was like a savage, like devastating tweet for the BGA Tour. I was like, no, that's kind of like fun content. Like, I don't care. So I was volunteering on Twitter.

I think Johnson Wagner should, we should not be able to have Sunday tee times until Johnson Wagner dunks a wedge for modern 10 yards. Johnson Wagner should try to throw a ball on the green from that tee box where where Wyndham I was gonna say, I got an easier task for him to recreate Wyndham Clark's tee shot on 17 today because that ball traveled 102 yards when it needed to travel. I think 125 was that was the

yards to the pin today. Have you ever seen a pro miss a wedge that badly? I can't remember like someone chunking a wedge quite like that. Molinaria at Augusta right? That was but that that clip the tree right? His on 15 at Augusta. I'm struggling to think of a barely on TV. So yeah, it was barely on TV. So they kind they kind of miss monars, uh, like set up to that wedge. So we're never really sure what happened on that whole sequence.

That was in CBS. I feel like we're burying the lead. We got, I got two things to bring up. Is the blow pig nickname taking off? It seems to be TC. I, you know, I don't want to give my friends too much credit, uh, for this because I think it's going to go to their heads, but I've been seeing a lot of blow pig talk all over Twitter today, which, if you miss me out of the tournament, they're saying, Mr. T C, Mr. T C,

the blow. Please tell me more about the blow pig. If people miss the blow pig nickname last on last night's show, can you, can you fill them in? Kev? Yeah. So, uh, yesterday having lunch with friends, uh, they were like, Kev, what's up with the blow pig? I'm hearing about this blow pig. I was like, you guys are crazy. I don't know what you're talking about. Like, dude, just type in emojis for like wind ham,

like wind and then pig for ham. That's a sweet nickname for Winnem Clark. I was like, all right, let's run with it, man. Like, so I think coming up DJ had this idea. We're gonna try to come up with different emoji nicknames for various players going forward. So the blow pig is gonna get a start us on it started on that track. I don't know what to make of the blow pig at this moment.

He has had some really, really weird moments in big spots. The shank at the 18th hole at the Ryder Cup comes to mind. Dead chunk in a pressure situation granted on a Saturday, but the 53rd hole of the tournament today. Yet he's closed the door on several tournaments over the last year. I can't tell if he, it feels very Spethian to me and that he is, you know, has won a lot but also has this flair for the dramatic in a lot of these spots, but stepped up after the chunk, hit a nice one in there tight and rolled in the bogey pot, big fist pump after that.

You could tell that was a big one for him. He didn't have his best stuff today. Managed to still shoot two under par which was barely better than field average today. Golf course was playing very very easy today but what if you got to take someone between Xander and Wyndham going into tomorrow first of all do you think one of those two guys wins it obviously with Brian Harmon just two shots back of Xander do you think the winner comes out that final pairing tomorrow? I think Harmon wins. It would be awesome. I would be pulling for Harmon. I think that would be an

unbelievably enjoyable victory. I'm going to stick with Wyndham. I said, I think it was thought he was going to win yesterday. I think he's going to pull it off. Do you see your anti Wyndham? I wanted you to like share what exactly you said it's basically everything that's wrong with the modern game. I feel like you should reheat that take for the Saturday listeners. Yeah, I feel like he's just a ball speed imposter. He's a thrower, not a pitcher. He's, he's hitting that 340 yard, you know, aim 40 yards left and just open your hips and let it fire like that's a skill. I just think that skill is to become too valuable in relation to other skills. The whole putting routine is so off putting. It's really, really bad. Like that should be outlawed. Like multiple facets of that should be

outlawed, not just one part of the routine. There's like three egregious things in it. I don't know. I just don't feel anything when I watch him play golf and that I can't put my finger on and I can't I just don't feel anything so sorry I gotta throw up DJ's comment Johnson Wagner he's thrower and a pitcher that's that's fantastic but uh I listen he his iron play has really really really improved it's hard to win the US Open and be a ballspin and ball speed imposter TC I think I mean the ball doesn't spin anymore and so he's just hitting that sendy this doesn't sound like his fault this is this does not sound like his fault he's driving 16 TC was a big dick drive that was started started over the trees basically to say what you know what I'm gonna hammer the shit out of this that was pretty cool he's a really really really good golfer

I have no issue with it I'm just just saying that it would bring me a lot more joy to have Brian Harmon win. Oh, sure. I would agree with that too. Harmon's really fun to talk to, like one of the best personalities, I think, in the game today. So I would love it.

It would make Brian Harmon's resume all that much cooler too. It's so funny to me how golf fans seem to base roughly 90% of what they think of a guy based on his pre-shot routine and his post-shot actions. The pre-shot putting routine is egregious, it's bad, there are multiple things wrong with it, a lot of things that look like they should just definitely be outlawed. People hate Cantlay for a variety of reasons but one of them is his pre shot shuffle. And if you're whiny after your shots, people just won't like you. Winnem's guilty of both of those things. He's a

total delight, a delightful person away from all that. I talked to him a little bit on Wednesday at dinner, and he just could not have been nicer. And it's very different personality than the locked in guy between the ropes. But so much of whether or not people are going to root for you or not root for you is just based on those two things. It kind of goes for basketball too. Like if you're whiny, if you do like the LeBron flops and whine at refs, people are gonna really hate that.

But I feel like that's the thing that's working against Wyndham the most. DJ had to read the conversation. You gotta bring LeBron into this. Don't bring LeBron into this. I was giving you like a layup in there. No pun intended. Sorry, I will say it doesn't help either

that the broadcast seems to focus when they're lining up putts. No pun intended. Sorry, I will say it doesn't help either that the broadcast seems to focus when they're lining up putts. They spend so much time, I think it's because they're trying to figure out the timing of the two, but we spend an awful lot of time watching Windham and his caddy line up putts. Breaking news, Johnson Wagner is on the 17th tee as we speak. I do not have the audio on,

I don't know what he's gonna go for today. Are they gonna let him hit the shot? He's got a wedge, looks like he's getting ready to hit the I don't know what he's gonna go they're gonna let him hit the shot. He look he's got a wedge looks like he's getting ready to hit the shot. Oh yeah, he's gonna hit you're looking at the chunk mark right now guys. God, I wish I could throw this up on screen. One of the rights issues if we just steal the golf channel speed and just be happy. It's between this and the tour. the tour putting up the Antonio Banderas meme

the other day and you know, there's all sorts of stuff. That Ricky video on Scratch today that you sent over. That was great. So that was great, Cody. If you- The tour's getting kind of cheeky. Again, if you were not paying attention,

sometimes it helps TC to narrate a couple of these things in case everyone does not spend all day on social media like we tend to do. Somebody, Ricky gets the 16T and he's getting ready to hit a shot and somebody's phone like clicks or something that taking a camera shot and Ricky's caddy like says like, hey, turn your phone on silent, whatever.

Ricky gets to the top of his swing. Somebody takes the photo again and Ricky just soldier boys him just, you you like just points and yells at him right away I've never seen a reaction for Rick. I've never seen Ricky react that way But that was probably pretty darn frustrating and then what the guy yell afterwards. I don't know if he did he yell back He did something something I was like you the man Rick Johnson's going over the drop zone right now and I'm not sure why. I don't know if, uh,

I guess he's just talking about illegal drop by the way. I don't know what's going on here. They need to get a role officials out there. Guys, how about our show though? What else did you guys see out there today? Uh, you know what? Something I saw yesterday, it's out there yesterday. We're sitting on 40.

This guy's cell phone goes off three times, like three different calls. And what's Matt Fitzpatrick's, Katty's name? Billy Foster. Yeah, Billy Foster. He's like, sorry, he's bubbling over, he's bubbling over. I almost had to go over and make a citizen's arrest on this guy And I think I took the call and just walked down the hill and took the call right, but I'm like green I was like damn you people Golf turns the gold standard

We should do a segment sometime about caddies You'd least want to get like messed with like Finna would obviously be up very high But like I don't think hair diamond would like scare too many people So like a ranking of like caddies that you most want to fuck with and not all right we got the emojis you got caddies you least want to fuck with we got soli getting kicked out we didn't even talk about that you lend more all right so i have a credential for a season like for the entire season for the pga tour it's why i'm so positive about the pga Tour all the time it's the only way I get to keep that credential and it says like inside ropes like you get full

permission like to walk inside the ropes you have with the understanding that you stay close to the rope line stay out of people's way obviously blah blah blah and I've used it every single day at the players that I've since I've had one of these and walk around and watch a lot of golf and it helped really helps you cut through you know not have to cut the battle the crowds up to see a lot of golf helps you kind of report on things is kind of the point of it. And I'm sitting I follow the first five holes of Scottie's round and I'm on the 16 some security officer comes up to me and says, Hey, do you have a credential for this? I'm like, yeah, right here. It says inside

ropes is Yeah, that doesn't work. Come with me and got walked out and somebody yelled from the tour yelled at me, essentially yelled at me and said, what? He just took me. It's on the rope line. I think somebody in the comments saw this. I believe somebody before we started the show was chiming in about this. But yeah, told me I needed to go get some lanyard, which

I did not need to get. So I'd walk all the way back to the media center and get the lanyard. And they're like, yeah, that was a mistake. Sorry about that. And I was like, yeah, I tried to tell him. And he goes, I'm not going to get. So I'd walk all the way back to the media center and get the lanyard and they're like, yeah, that was a mistake, sorry about that. And I was like, yeah, I tried to tell him. And he goes, I'm not gonna argue with you. I was like, oh, okay, I guess this is only happening to me. Everyone else that doesn't have the orange lanyard

doesn't get this kind of treatment. But that was a bizarre little sequence today. You're a big journalist now. You've been told where to go when you can't go. You're not an influencer anymore. Sorry. I guess not. You should demand a formal apology

and then, you know, have, like basically, you should find him tomorrow and go to him and be like, taste it. That's what, it was unnecessarily rude. That was the part that bothered me. And they've done such a better job in recent years of letting people go where they want to and do their jobs. And that was the part that was a bit shocking today.

Am I being detained? I almost hit him with one of those. I was like, what exactly happened here? This seems wildly personal. I was at a place where I shouldn't have been at the British Open, didn't have one of those things. And a woman was just started cursing me. You know you're not supposed to go there. It's totally unacceptable. And Rory walked right by and I was at a place where I shouldn't have been at the British Open didn't have one of those things and a woman Was just started cursing me. You know, you're not supposed to go that is totally unacceptable and Rory walked right by and I looked At him like he was gonna save me and Rory was like, yeah, he's not supposed to be here

All right, what else we got our guys saw him get in the mix a little bit t6 as he is want to do These days he is driving the golf ball Well, he is not scrambling very well for whatever reason his chipping has been not very good But his irons well and putting well t6 had a nice 67 today including a back nine 31 Not out of this turn is he Lincoln should we do lingering and loitering right now? I mean That's good. What would you classify? do lingering and loitering right now? I mean, where would you classify what Sahith is doing right now? All right, lingering and loitering or how far back is too far back? We gotta play lingering or loitering first. I think that will inform how far back is too far back.

Which, if you're unfamiliar with the definitions, I just learned this, even though we've been doing this for years. But loitering means you're hanging around with bad intentions, like you're a threat tomorrow, and lingering is just like, you're just kind there, like you're there and it's, it's not really going to matter. So, um, all right. I, I'll could start then. I think saw has definitely loitering, but Mavick nearly lingering. That seems about that wedge that Mav hit on 16.

He was not exactly, I mean,, he scored well, you know, chipped in on that one. But then he like puts off green and chin puts in again that that was was like, well, this is a stitch together round. This is great. I like you. I hope you but I don't I don't see that delivered coming home strong tomorrow. Now he is. Yeah, he is the definition of unsustainable right now as much as I am a big math and I don't know if I don't

know if we're banking on a bunch of chip-ins on Sunday, but yeah, I think that Mav gained six shots around the green, someone in the chat is saying. Yes. He, for the week he has. Today he was four point, he's 4.7 alone today around the greens, because he hauled out from like 40 yards on 14, chipped in on 15.

Yeah, and had a great chip coming in on 18 as well. But saw his T6 with Mr. Scott Scheffler. It looks like they are gonna be paired together. That should be, that's gonna be my ticket tomorrow. That's the group I'll be out following. Scotty did not look like he had his best stuff today. He kind of just looked a little meh, like a little slower with the swing speed.

Obviously battling the next one. I don't know if you'll tell you maybe it was earlier They were saying he was hitting eight irons from like 140 like he was just basically taking like three quarter swings and like did not want to Aggravated further. He was not going at the ball with 100% I watched him on three kind of just hit a little bit of a glancing blow that was just didn't look like the normal the normal Scotty shuffle and and the deliverance at the ball which is understanding if he's if he's battling the neck injury that he is so Scotty wants to talk about hitting an 8-iron 140 I can talk about that all

day like I don't get help him with that I I'll just we can play the game right here TC it's a very clear line of how far back is too far back that's eighth place with Nate Lashley he is too far back and number one player in the world at 12 under I would say is not too far back. That's eighth place with Nate Lashley. He is too far back and number one player in the world at 1200. I would say is not too far back. I thought you were gonna ask me is Scotty hurt or injured by that game? But that I mean, TC, you volunteer that up every single time a person has even a remote injury and I still don't know

what the difference is or why you ask this every single time. We're just just gotta ask the question. Yeah, I think Nate Lashley's in an interesting spot. I think he's actually loitering, but he has no shot of winning the tournament, but he's loitering just because he's so hostile and he hates the pip so much. And he's like, I don't even know how Nate Lashley got into this event, much less is is is solo eighth right now

If he gets up and like starts to get in some of these signature events It could be a wild a very wild change of opinion on uh on what he thinks of the current structure of the pj tour Which would be that would be entertaining which there was also one of those going around today with a big text jimmy walker Who uh, I still don't know what his point was in the article we'll probably unpack that on the show on Sunday night but a little bit of flippy floppy going on. Want to give a shout out to another one of our partners of course that is Omni Hotels they continue to take their golf to another level they have 13 sought after golf destination 28 courses and all from championships designs by our iconic architects

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like a dead handed wedge into number 17. Control the hell out of his spin like it didn't spin back at all. It took one hop and then just kind of snowed up right next to the pin there. It was in this world of ball speed imposters and guys that little boys that can't control their spin. It was really refreshing to see that. I have to pick a little bone with this, right? I mean, we were waiting for Cam Young to win something

and you're calling him not a Paul ball speed imposter yet. Wyndham Clark is racking up all these victories, including a major championship and you're calling him a ball speed imposter. I need some definitions on these. I'm just saying it was refreshing. It was a shot. It was a micro moment where he showed me something. And I'm gonna call upon that next time he's in contention and I'm gonna say cam young showed me something on 17 at the players that one buying Okay, you know what Wyndham Clark showed me something today on 17

He showed me two things today on TC what these capable of hitting the worst imaginable shot and also capable of stepping up And hitting an onion shot with with the third shot Hated you know I take no joy in this you know But you had to try to call me out on this one in slack today as well But the collapse of Hoj coin was something that we could have seen coming as you know the me every meme coin has its day TC and I hated that that hoj had a massive score on the 18th hole to drop him off the off the leaderboard. Well I have to push back there because you said that Hochecoin would drop down the leaderboard on Friday. I just said selling on him. I'm just selling in general. For Friday not for the end of the day on Saturday.

Listen, I'm ready to buy the dip. Hochecoin is going to ride tomorrow. You buy or sell the philosophy behind the coin, all right? You don't try to time it perfectly, all right? In general, I knew that that stock was going down and I have no regrets on that call. But Taylor Montgomery sneaking in the top 10 as well. Hideki T9, JT Poston T9 pound for pound, the best golfer in the world. Doug Gim, what does that put Doug Gim at the players?

He's the one player that is a true horse for course for TPC Sawgrass. It's crazy. He had a nasty up and down from the back of the 17th green today too. Showed me something about 17. Up and down, he hold it. He hold it.

Or hold it, yeah, yeah. Toreyko had a great call on that one too. Toreyko's a stud. Like he makes the event feel bigger. He does. Toreyko's on's. He's a true. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah. I mean, big thing here is I followed a lot of Hideki so far this week. He's T9. I don't think I've seen Hideki like hit any good shots. He's T9. Like it's terrifying. He could be, he could be, he's very much loitering for Augusta. Do you think it's possible he's hit good shots outside your window of viewing or just really that you've seen all his shots?

He shot 69, 69, 68. He's sixth off the D9th and approach. And 65th in putting. I don't think I've seen him be satisfied with a single shot yet though. that's different that's different if you know anything about Hideki That's a total his scale, you know judging shots is very different than the rest of us But I it is madding to watch him putt in person I mean that he just hovers that the toe of the putter and he just stands there re gripping it and the stroke just looks I in ten years. I can't believe that nothing has ever changed with his putting

Your boy Ludwig had a day today. I just want to bring up real quick, we say the exact same thing every time your guy Tony Finau gets up there and putt and that there's, I don't understand why these two cannot just fix something. It seems glaringly obvious that this is something they need to get their hands on. Well, Tony changed it to make it worse. Like that's the part I can't figure out. He made it worse this year and his putting has been awful this year, but he put his toe up even more than he was doing before. I do not know what has happened there.

I'm not gonna ride for that. Don't try to play this like I've given some double standard here because I do not ride for Big Tone's putting at the moment. No, no, I'm saying one in the same. It's ridiculous. I don't know. I guess going down this leaderboard,

I just get a little bit sad because it's just, there's not a lot of teeth out there with the way they've set the golf course up. And it's really frustrating. I didn't want to start negative tonight, TC, but it was, you know, watching kind of Xander just sprayed all over the place today and just pretty easily get it up and down from

Every spot that you know possibly even when bogeys were somewhat entering the picture it just was away right away was just like this is just not how this Course is supposed to play and it just The consequence the part of reason I really enjoy this course and like it is there is Consequence for missing in the wrong spots for hitting erroneous shots like it usually leads to bogey in some way. I can't even count how many shots is in or got away with in just the last several holes drives it into the bunker on 15. That was no problem.

Uh, you know, getting that up and down, uh, drives into the pine straw and 18 easily gets that up. That was actually a really sick chip, uh, to that back pin on 18, but it just, the fact that they've gotten rid of this precision air system, not using it in the greens, they're supposed to be this soft. All the chipping just becomes that much easier and it becomes a bit of a chipping contest. And it's just 17 under leading through three rounds

and a scoring average close to 70 today is just, that's just, I don't like it, I don't like it. Do you guys think it's purposeful? I got two of the biggest sort of setup critics here in all of golf media. Do you think that it's purposeful? I got two of the biggest sort of setup critics here in all of golf media. Do you think that is a conscious decision by the tournament setup community to make it softer, to make it not hard so they don't complain?

Or do you think it's like the people are saying, look, we can't push the course to this level or whatever. We just don't, it's too wet, it's too rain, it's hurt us. I'm really curious because I don't know enough about setup stuff or Florida golf in general to sort of say one way or another, like, oh, it's purposely easy. They could make it harder.

Do you think they could make this harder? Yes. I mean, A, one thing they could easily do to make it harder is cut down on some of the collars that are holding balls on the greens, basically. It hasn't rained in a week at this point. And the greens are like guys are still getting mudballs out there. Like I talked to a few players that were getting mudballs today.

It hasn't rained in a fucking week. And it's just I don't know. They to me, it just feels like it's it's in the high 70s. And it's not that windy. The winds and like the winds changed a few times. It changed pretty much all directions yesterday. It was doing the same thing today. So there's definitely some... But it's not like they have to worry about it getting up to 95 degrees and the greens completely burning out. That's Saturday when Ken Duke, you know, put himself in the hall of fame. It's like this is,

this is as benign as it can possibly be. Like you have a license to do whatever you need to do the golf course. I would be surprised. The greens are fast. They're just not. Abandon the precision error though, like because they didn't want to, I bet it's broken or something. And it's like, Oh, this is going to cost $15 million to dig up and redo it. I got to think that they wouldn't just be like, yeah, we're good, man. We're not going to turn this on. Like it's got to have some like structural problems with it for just to think my thing is you've got all these casual fans, right? All right. So Monahan talks in his presser on what Tuesday about, you know, full swing and how the game's growing. You got all these casual fans and all that.

And then the flip side, ratings are down. People are fed up or whatever, but you got all these casual fans out there on Saturday, both watching on TV and at the tournament. It's a concert atmosphere on 17. It's awesome. It's great. And I tell you, 20% more balls in the water on 17 would equate to a heck of a lot more excitement. And those casual fans being like, there's a difference between an okay shot and

a very good shot. And you have to hit a very good shot to get it anywhere close to that green on 17 or anywhere close to that pin on 17. And yeah, I don't know. I just think that would, that would juice things up a little bit more. Like the most exciting moment of the day was, was, you know, Windham chunking in the water and that's not a setup thing, but I don't know. I just pro is set up equals product. Sure. I'll push back a little bit though.

I think it was really exciting for an hour in the stretch in the middle. And like my 15 year old daughter is downstairs like watching it and she's like texting me like dad, so like everything's like crazy. Mavick nearly just chipped in and saw me at an Eagle. Like she's not a diehard golf fan and she was sort of into it. So I don't think that there was no excitement today. The, that was entirely set up dependent. It's not that there's no excitement.

I just think there could be a lot more. I think there could be, you know, in recovery shots are supposed to be dynamic and are supposed to be, it just feels like there's way too much, like there's not enough downside risk. I mean, they showed that that stat on 16 of guys laying up versus guys going for it. It's like, 0.75 easier going it, scoring average-wise. And some of that's because it's a tough layup shot or whatever. But it just feels like it's gone too far to bomb and goug it up there and then figure it out kind of thing because there's little escape ramps and there's little off ramps to kind of save you. Well, it just feels like, well, it just feels like there's there's almost no spot anybody hit it today, like for the whole day that I watched is like, oh, that's dead there. Just because you can you can kind of scramble from anywhere right now, which kind of defeats the purpose of so much of, of it just like, you keep like pulling all this back. And it's like, all right, oversee, you're gonna have it in March, which means they have to overseed, according to them, because they want to look green

on TV. I'm not saying they do have to, but they think they have to overseed, which is going to take a lot of fertilizer, a lot of water, all these things. And I just harder to get the overseed greens to dry out. It certainly seems that way, especially if you don't have anything to suck out the the the moisture within them, right? Like they're just still so moist, muddy and balls just backing up on it so it's just it's a it's a whole like kind of have to play God this has to be the greenest

weirdest place ever with grass and it it trickles down into the setup and the consequence of a lot of the golf shots look some people a lot of people tune in just and want to see birdies and want to see close contest and don't really care about some of this stuff but of course our our commentary on this has been well documented over the years to say like this course has that capabilities It's a bit wind dependent like if they'd have gotten more steady wind I think the greens would have dried out Brian harm had a really interesting comment on the happy hour Yesterday said that they kept getting an east wind which is bringing in the sea breeze Which is what's you know keeping moisture on the greens. But if you get a West wind,

that's what's gonna dry stuff out. I've lived here six years, never thought about that. But I thought that was an interesting note on how it all plays out. But- It hasn't been a humid, wet East wind at all though. Today was humid. Push back on that.

I mean, today was just hot and sticky and humid, but like, there's just not that much grass on the greens either. I think that's the thing. It seems like there's this weird layer of mud. And, you know, whereas like I went to my club yesterday afternoon and played greens were absolute lightning and they were crazy firm and they don't overseed. And it's like, man, like what a delightful surface to play off of right now. Kind of the semi dormant, you know, grass is really starting to grow though. And it's, that's on Bermuda and the riots just so boring. I'll give you guys this,

it could get to 20 under tomorrow, pretty easily, I think. You know, three under that's what it is. It's only ever been 20 under once before. 1990, Greg Norman shot 24 under. It blew up the course after that. Yeah. Yeah, and so it's, I mean, it's, Scottie won last year at 17 under,

but prior to that, Tim Clark at 16 under, Davis Love at 17 under. So, I mean, that does lend some credence to like, hey, maybe we should be a little harder. Like, I don't really want us flirting with 20 under every year. I just don't I don't get why and again I'm not agronomist I don't get why you need to oversee the greens like just let the Bermuda greens play out I get wanting to have green grass

everywhere else not having divots and whatnot but it just it just seems like an unnecessary complication with the greens but it's hard. I'll say one reason why Solly so they they when do they shut down this course from public play? In order to like final prep for the tournament three weeks like middle eight February. Yeah, okay So if they didn't oversee the greens the green the putting surfaces There'd be no way that they could have them putting like and have normal rolling Tournament conditions for them because there would be no growing. I mean, the graph, the Bermuda is dormant. So you just roll them and roll them and roll them.

And that's why they oversee the greens. Now it takes a ton of water to keep this to keep it green. And I think that they're six times more seed. Yeah, they, they, they focus on aesthetics than overall playability because of the overseed process. And that's just the way it is. You guys could have not had that rain, whatever it was last Saturday,

and it wouldn't have rained in the last month. It doesn't matter because there's still water in it. They gotta keep it popping. It's hard. Like you drive home down Solana Road just outside of TPC and there is still just building up on the side of the roads water that has not drained. Like there is still just so much water from this one of the worst winters, second worst winner since I've been here in terms of wetness

and water. Like it just has not, I don't know. Not seeing that. Drive down Solana it's just like literally piled up on the side of the road. Like It's there. It's just, it's not great. Alright, what is what it is? TC, does Ludwig have a chance tomorrow? I mean, he's what? Eight back? Nine, yeah. So, that's too far back. I think that's too far back. I mean, he would have to go out and shoot 62. Yeah, that's tough. Which, you know, then you'd have to put an

asterisk on that. It would tie Hoagie for the for the course record, but you have to put an asterisk on it because Gooch isn't in the field. The conditions are really easy. Thank you. So no, I think that's that's too far back. Like, does Scotty have a chance tomorrow? For sure. At the real stout, what does Scotty have a chance tomorrow? Five back. For sure.

For sure. At the real stout, what does Scotty have to shoot to go take it and why is Xander gonna shoot 73 tomorrow? I mean, Xander's probably gonna shoot 73. I, it's like I gotta see it before it happens. I just, I cannot, I love Xander's swing, I really do. And I just don't know why he isn't better. I know that like you tell me, oh, he's he's scoring averages better than the field, whatever. Yeah.

But also like you got to go out and win. So like, I just, I'm only going to believe in my dude until he actually does it when he actually does it. So yeah, in his, uh, uh, let's see, it's, it's funny if you pull up Scotty's, Scotty actually has a much, much worse fourth round when in contention ranking than Xander does, which he just is there so freaking often that he's matched Xander's career win total. But going all the way back in his career, when he

started the final round, he started the final round in somewhere between first and fifth he started there 35 times and he has gained two shots on the field in that in as an average of those 35 times which is the data golf says point three shots better than expected as in what he's expected to produce in those rounds so he's expected to win six times, you know, with his percentage chances going into the final round, and he's won seven. So he's just kind of like, kind of just right in line for you know, you know, what would be expected for him, considering how often he's put himself in contention. I don't know how else to shake it out. Maybe if it does feel

different, I'm with you. I just can't like back it up with numbers to say that it's validated or that he's a choke artist or anything like that. Just doesn't. Who would it do more for? Brian Harmon or Xander winning tomorrow for their kind of rep? I think Brian Harmon. Brian Harmon's older.

I think it would give him, you know, he's got the British open when it would give him another like, it would put Brian Harmon on the doorstep to the Hall of Fame, which is kind of crazy. Like it's a to win two majors in I don't remember how it works exactly now, but two majors in a players I think gets you in almost automatically or no one that's ever won both or all three of those says hasn't Hasn't ever got in but he is such a dog. I I really enjoyed he was in contention If you remember at this tournament, I forget what year it was and he stepped up to 17 and just like wrist there's you know before this big explosion in cash He just he bet it all he bet everything he had on getting after that right pin on the 17th green, stuffed it in there.

I think he made the birdie putt as well. But I just remember thinking like, dude, that guy didn't care one bit about like, you know, isolating second place. He like absolutely went for it in that moment. So I'm expecting the same thing from him tomorrow. I mean, he shot even par in round one and has shot himself up the leaderboard

with two incredible rounds, rounds two and three, and he could easily win this thing tomorrow. Good round from Sam Burns today, 65, kind of finished with the whimper there down the stretch. Adam Schenck continues to play some good golf. I want to shout out Joel Damon. Came in 171st in the FedEx Cup. Shot 74 in the first round. He's 67-67 in the last two days.

Absolutely stunting on people. Actually to the point where I went to go get a Joel's Juicy Lye today. That's his whiskey. This is scotch whiskey or not scotch whiskey Irish whiskey and pineapple and grapefruit Drink and they were out of both pineapple and grapefruit out there because so many people were ordering Joel's juicy lie So just shout out there and then he's lost some weight too. Like he looks like he's down 20 pounds I saw I watched him tee off on one today and like it is kind of it is kind of wild to see the fans how they treat Gino and Joel now like Gino walks up to the T and like Gino got like an ovation when he got there. There's women in the crowd yelling Gino. And it is I don't think I've really have seen that in person since the Netflix stuff has happened.

I don't think I've really have seen that in person since the Netflix stuff has happened. Austin Akro, playing some golf. He's T17 right now, 716968. I had a funny story from today where we're following, or we're just walking in from, Freddie wanted to go to the pro shop, get the big chain. Damn it TC.

Freddie, you suck. I wanted to surprise, I wanted to pull a surprise with this. I put both your chains on. I spent like $70 on these chains. This is the sign of the top of the economy. This is like the NFTs, because these things were $40 that I bought one strictly to wear on the live show and then to give to Freddie afterward.

But I did not know you bought one as well. Two chains in the house. Yeah. God. It's like we're walking. Awful. Oh, Freddie and Gustav have like four of them from the Jags games too.

They got them in every color, gold, black, teal. So yeah, anyway the Walking in walking down 17 Peter Monotti has one super close and everybody goes nuts Who's whose top goes that? Are we winning the game? Hey man Gustav, that's a really complicated question. We're not winning the game. He's one of the player directors.

He's talking, you know, he was struggling. Very funny interview with Peter today, like at the after, you know, his round shot 66. We should point that out. Peter was golfing his ball out there today is yellow golf ball. But then not a sponsor exemption this week. Afterwards, they're talking a lot about everything and, and then one of the you know, he was one of the media people was like talking about team golf and said, you know, he Peters kind of laughed at it. And he said, Oh, you're not a fan of the cliques. And then another reporter was explaining, oh, well, you know, it's the important part of the revenues, you know, thing for live just TC, still these teams. I laugh my cliques. Okay. And Peter, Peter very straight with like, you know, deadpan was like, Oh, so it's like the like the commanders and like the Steelers like that. Is that the equivalent of what these teams

are? It was like such a great, like summary of how like ridiculous is the idea that these live teams are worth a billion dollars, you know, that this not quite the same evaluation. Thank you. So Peter, shout out to Peter for that. Billions Peter gonna be involved in TGO. No, that was also a part of that too. I'm gonna break up that video because there's a ton of other things that he touched on

he he kind of mentioned he's like, oh, so this team golf, that's kind of like what we have the TGL thing. Is that like what they're doing? So the team golf is just gonna be played inside in a dome. That's cool, I guess. We can do that in the fall, but I'll break up that press conference and we can, there's a lot of other things that he kind of mentioned on with the potential watermen meeting

and everything like that on Monday. TC, you're going down the leaderboard there, doing a pretty good job. You mentioned Adam Schenck, you said that he continues his good play. I'm questioning where you're pulling that fastball from. He has like three missed cuts this year, the best finish is a T17. Just wondering if you can expand upon that take real quick for me. Yeah, I happily in Adams made $401,000 this year Yeah, he finished t17 at the Phoenix open t25 at the at the farmers need I say more

You know, he's clearly flushing off both Adam and his wife are both electrons as well So I got a special place there it is. There we go. That's what we need Thank you. Thank you for that. I bet he wins I bet shank wins next week, but he always plays well I think he always plays well at Valspar and I I don't know I'm gonna have a I'm gonna have a wager on Adam shake next week That's tradition Rory we haven't mentioned him today kind of a ho hum three under par around today

I caught a little bit of the beginning of that one but not a whole lot to whole lot to write home about on that one he tried to exonerate him there were some additional information has come to light evidence on area I'm sorry exonerate myself I got yelled at for like there's no way a ball could land below that line and I took a picture today of what it looks like from the T of how much space there is below that rather I don't know if we need to relitigate that. I just I like nobody loves a rules controversy more than you. I love it. I genuinely appreciate how much you love the rules. I don't even like know them

that well. It's the rules and the mules. I find myself in these rules controversies that I do not ask for but yeah Thankfully nothing crazy has happened over the last couple days, but I bet I bet weighted across Twitter will come back I thought we're gonna get it a little bit today with Wyndham There first of all they're showing Wyndham shot on 12. He pulled it immediately into the water left easily made par Don't worry TC. He got a big punishment for that miss brilliant hole left easily made par don't worry TC he got a big punishment for that miss and they're looking at the view from a plane trying to figure out where it

crossed and I'm like guys that is we have no idea what angle that plate is coming in from there's no possible way and I you know they're like I think it's got to be right in front of the markers or the the bulkhead and it was almost like they were critiquing where he dropped it then they're like, I think it's got to be right in front of the markers or the, the, the, the bulkhead. And, uh, it was almost like they were critiquing where he dropped it. And then they're like, that's exact. It's, he's in exactly the right spot. He's in the right spot. It was like, Oh, thank God. We do not need to create an internet controversy on this one's. He thinks on a rated Rory a little bit today. He said in his interview that he thought Rory was some drop was fine. So just, so it's just, so we're clear.

He said, he said very different things in the fairway yesterday that were picked up on the microphones. I'm not reporting that. That was a very much a. He said you. I think he sees the no-win situation of continuing any farther down there, as do I. Guys, I think we gotta address Nick Taylor.

He got fucking blown out to sea today. I think the Canadians need to apologize. I was gonna say I would just leave that to the Canadians. They say we don't talk about the Canadians enough. I'd like to hear from them for apologies for when when when their player gets vaporized. What did he shoot today? 76. Oh, God, Corey Connor shot 73 today as well on a very benign day

to fall back to t 24. That's Mackenzie Hughes shot 69. He's T44 right now. Three Canadians. I feel a little bit bad that we're like just grouping the Canadians in general. How often do we like be like, oh, the Swedes are terrible. The Swedes should apologize.

Well, the Swedes don't yell at us. I mean, Sally attacked Noren for years. Noren, yeah, Noren's playing fine. Ludwig's playing fine. Don't worry about it. TC gets it. Canadians are passive aggressive. I don't know that they yell at us. They just make know they young they get very upset TC only play that shook my hand on the first

T today guess who was Peter my Alex Norrin. All right, we're great friends. He agrees with my my takes on the OWG our we have we've long buried the hatchet And we get along great He's a delightful way if you really want to piss some people off, Saliq, can we talk about the, who is the low Irishman from today? You want to talk about Shane and Seamus? Oh, he got ejected. Oh, I thought you were sucking piss people off like reclassifying Rory as Irish, like that is that?

No, no, no, I don't want to touch that one. That's a Parma parmy thing for me, for the Australians. Well, I do think we got to give a shout out to our guy Max for the nine he made on 14 today while still shooting 74. Like I'm extremely impressed by that. Yeah, Seamus Power is holding down the dead last spot as of now. Who's the marker?

Is there a marker out there? Or is he just playing by himself Is there an odd number of players? There's an odd number of players That's a good famous power Solo off one tomorrow at 735 got it. David Lipski was off solo At 825 this morning. The second tee time is an 830 I've never seen five minute tee time apart But I guess when you got a solo in front you sent them off as fast as you possibly can I will say this I

I've further thought we talked about going into the week like there's 144 players make sense for this tournament I I think I'd like to revise I was kind of like okay with that I'm gonna revise it down to a hundred and I'll tell you exactly why I Think everyone should play this course in order and I think the 18th hole should be your last hole the day I don't think anybody should ever start on the back nine like you need to come to 16 17 18 play that in sequence I I truly think that this course of among Of any course should be that everyone plate goes off the front nine I think there's enough daylight to do it. You could play threesomes for the first couple of days and

That's just something I thought about getting 17 early in the morning with soft green, you know, kind of, you know, soft greens or whatever, versus most people having to play it later in the day. I think that there should only be guys teeing off the first hole at TPC Sawgrass. I like that. I hate, hate when they can't finish because of darkness. Oh, it's insane. Last year was brutal This year was a little better, but I I'm in on that thing Jimmy Walker's gonna be pissed

Is he cuz it's cuz he kind of flip-flopped on both of these things He wants less. He wants less events, but more playing What did he say about Wyndham Clark there? Like how dare you start barking or something? I think we're saving we're saving the Jimmy Walker takes for tomorrow. We're trying to we're focusing on the last I checked Jimmy. You and you and Wyndham have the same

amount of majors. Actually, I think Wyndham's got more Wyndham's in the current green screen. Unlike Jimmy Walker's as far as I'm concerned. Anything else we got before we wrap and look to tomorrow? I hope we get some fireworks tomorrow. Today felt just a little lacking in the juice compared to the first couple days. I don't know why exactly. It just didn't feel like a ton happened there.

Until Wyndham put it in the water, There was nothing that really made, uh, made, made Twitter pop off today. Let's get off Twitter. So it was pretty fun in the lab for an hour there. I think I'm going to keep pushing back on that. I had an exciting stretch there. DJ had a good take personally the other day. He was like, you know what? Tried like watching an entire like back nine without any Twitter. Just like lock into the golf so that you're like not like looking down at your phone every few minutes. I think that's a pretty good, I'm gonna lock into that.

Tough, tough ask of me that's in charge of little or no laying up to your account. That's a tough ask. You're giving a pass on that, but I'll, I think I'm gonna go lean into that more often because sometimes I can be buried a little bit too much in like who's saying funny shit or whatever and actually miss the joy of golf.

And I wanna say one more thing. My kid played in a no laying up roost today. She finished fourth. And I was like horrible, but she kicked ass and I was really excited about that. So I just wanted to show that shout out to her. Congratulations. Congratulations to her. Oh yeah. Sally who's going to win tomorrow? I'm sticking with my Wyndham bet. Do I feel it in my core?

I'm not great right now. I'm hoping that was the one bad round we needed to survive. You know, the sustainability models should have pointed this out last night. I was blinded by the dollar signs I was seeing in the hopes that he would win as a 50 to one ticket. You know, he came back a little bit to earth today and you know, about kind of the same kind of ball striking

he's had to this day. It was worse today with ball striking, but, um, I hope it's Wyndham. I'm, it's, I, it's going to be an interesting, interesting, uh, situation tomorrow. The whole Xander thing, the Wyndham, is he a true killer kind of in this situation? TC, I think he upgrades the killer with three signature wins and a major within a 12 month period. I think he upgrades the killer with three signature wins and a major within a 12 month period I think you gotta that's dog. I think that's that's a certified dog killer is a whole nother level man

So there's there's no killer killers don't chunk it into like the middle of the fucking lake Wild dogs might though. Maybe like an unleashed dog exactly. Are there any killers then you are there just no killers? I dog exactly are there any killers then you are there just no killers I mean tiger well I think Scotty at this point's a killer I think he's pretty big of you certified Scotty has won a major in the last 12 months like Wyndham has Rom's a killer sorry he is I've Rom, I'm from Scott a whole whole legion of killers Okay TC who's gonna win tomorrow Brian Harmon KVV win them Alright, I think that's the bull pick. I must say I I thought I had Ten bucks on Brian Harmon all week as another bet and I like saw him rising up the board

The whole day and I'm like, oh, yeah, that's a good backup play here check But slip don't have one did not put one in didn't hit submit on it I was so upset because that would have been a good one. He was pretty far down the odd sheet, but It's unfortunate. Anyways, we look forward to a fun Sunday here at the players TC going out tomorrow. I Am I think I'm gonna go out tomorrow kind of watch some guys warm up a little bit walk the front nine a bit who are you gonna follow tomorrow you're you're doing Scotty that one was kind of jumping off the page of two guys I really like to watch play golf him and

saw hith I'm assuming that's the pairings tomorrow is that right? That's correct. Yes. I have the it's are playing tomorrow as Scotty is playing with Nate Lashley. How did that happen? They're both I don't I never I never figure out how the tee times work. They're both tied for six also one sixth and one seventh. I see. So I messed that up. I mean, I don't know. I really do think the winter probably comes out of that last group so I'll probably watch that one for the front nine head home and watch watch the end and we'll be back here to

do do the live show on Sunday night so bring your ropes pass on I will bring that in the lanyard to make sure I don't get you put your you should put your credential on the chain I thought about that I'm just gonna wear this not even gonna bring the credential tomorrow I'm just gonna wear this. Not even gonna bring the credential tomorrow I'm just gonna wear this and see if see if I can walk her out tomorrow. So thank you as always to Hainoon, thank you to Omni, thank you to Cody running the ones and twos KVV TC. We look forward to an exciting finish to our local tournament here and we'll see everyone back here tomorrow. Crack on. Old Sermy.