No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 814: Masters Deep Dives - '77, '80, '89, '11

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

Soly and KVV are back with another deep dive episode - this time we look at four specific Masters tournaments: 2011 - a year famous for Rory's collapse, Tiger's Sunday charge and Charl Schwartzel's closing run of birdies to win 1977 - Tom Watson holds off Jack Nicklaus to win the first of his two green jackets (59:40) 1980 - After winning the Open the year before, Seve Ballesteros goes wire to wire to win by four strokes (1:38:00) 1989 - Faldo emerges as the winner in a playoff after Scott Hoch's infamous missed two-foot putt on the first playoff hole (1:59:45) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. That's better than most. How about the end? That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the no laying up podcast Sally here got a fun deep dive another one with my guy KVV we're going to detail our thought process here but we look back at four different masters we just got to choose two masters to

kind of do a deep dive on we'll explain all that when we get to that part but first got to give a course of shout out to our friends at Robac. You all know Robac. Best fit, best feel. Robac's Azalea collection is back and better than ever. The designs are next level. The products are amazing as always. And we are fired up for these really big events in golf that are going on here in the spring after seeing this collection. The performance poles are moisture wicking.

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for generous 20% off your first order through the end of this week that's spelled r-h-o-b-a-c-k dot com 20% off bottoms q-zips hoodies and more with code nlu spring golf is not the same without rowback. On to the pod. All right KVV we are back another deep dive we are changing up our format a little bit for this in advance of the 2024 Masters. We usually pick a year and look back at a full year's worth of majors. We each cover two of them instead with a little special assignment asked you to go back to maybe a year we may never get to in terms of a majors deep dive and just look at some Masters as we look

forward to our favorite week of the year. Kind of a free for all kind of could decide whatever you wanted to decide what you wanted to look into what you wanted to dig up harder than I thought it would be honestly because once you kind of get down a rabbit hole you're kind of like well I'm kind of committed to this year here we go but take us to what to what you're going to cover today and then I'll uh I'll fill you in on the two that I'm going to cover. Yeah I'm going to go back to 1977 the year I was born uh which I didn't even think of until just this moment. So I don't want to act like that was some grand plan. I have always wanted to do one of these about one of the Masters in the 70s. It's a little bit in some ways, it's not quite as hard as I would say

one in the 60s where the television coverage isn't readily as sort of, you know, extensive, but a super fun era of golf. I I cannot tell you how much I love the outfits. So, I don't know if you realize this but like guys, golfers in the 70s basically are like Brooklyn hipsters rebooted. I mean, you cannot believe how sick some of the the drip is in these guys. I absolutely like Rick Massengale, uh Tom Kite. These guys could fit uh very easily in like Flatbush,

hanging out with some of Neil's bros. It's unbelievable fashion of that era. Well, and if you listen to this in your car, we are gonna have a visual element to this episode. On YouTube, we have a brand new No Laying Up podcast YouTube channel. We're gonna do our best not to, you know, we're gonna flash a bunch of stuff on the screen.

If you can listen in your car, but you may miss out on some of the visual elements of this episode always hard to balance a couple of those things. But I know I got a bunch of images from the ones that I decided to cover, which I wanted to relive 2011 because it was mayhem. It was a very vivid memory for me in my getting back into my love of golf. It was a huge, huge moment for a lot of reasons. We'll uncover a lot of those. And then I also want to do something on Seve. I feel like the only time we end up covering Seve on this pod is when some old timer comes on and relays a story about Seve cheating. And I think there's probably more to the story.

He's a decent player, you know, a little bit. Some total of his skills is more than cheating. I think. So I wanted to dive into the 1980 Masters, which I kind of thought might be more interesting than it was, but there's some, there's definitely some stuff in there to chat about and uncover, but 2011 is going to be the bulk of my, of my deep dive. So we'll, we'll, we'll start getting to that. What's your second year that you picked 1989, the Taylor Swift year of Masters, uh, very excited to bring you some anecdotes from that too. That'll, that'll rack, but wrap us up, bring us home. I think we could do, you know, we can almost do one of these for each, uh, each major championship.

When I mentioned the 2011 Masters, what, what comes to mind for you just off, off the top? This is not that long ago. This is 13 years ago. What comes to mind for you just off off the top. This is not that long ago. This is 13 years ago. What comes to mind? Uh, is this Rory's spelt down? Yeah, it is. That's good that you're at least asking that question. Maybe it's not as vivid as we'd hope because it is one of the most exciting in terms of runs that were made. Final action, hole outs, chip ins and maybe one of the more memorable collapses ever. And it is, gosh, let's just get, well, I'll get right into it. I wrote out to start here

that this is about as close to peak as you can get in terms of Sunday action. Like despite the ultimate winner not being a big name, Charles Schwartzal does win. Sorry to spoil that for people, but God, how dare you. Phil comes in, you know, he's the defending champion of the Masters and he's coming off a win in the prior week at the Houston open answering as fast as you can. I bet you can't guess who the world number one is right now.

Deval. Martin Kuyper. Deval's right out of the game. Sorry. That's going to be a fun, but, uh, Lee Westwood is number two in the world. Uh, Phil is three Luke, Donald four, Graham McDowell five, Paul Casey six. Um, in case anyone has any questions about the official world golf rankings and maybe European favoritism around this time. Tiger Woods is number seven and falling fast. Steve Stricker is number eight. 21 year old Rory McElroy is the ninth player in the world. Matt Kuchar 10th. Dustin Johnson is the 11th ranked player in the

world. Charles Swartz was the 29th ranked player in the world and he opens the week at 101. And listen, I was not covering golf at this time. Be very, very honest. I had not heard of Charles Wurzel before this masters. Had you? No, definitely not. Where were you in 2011? What was, what's going on in your life at this point? I'm 25 years old. I'm hating my job probably in Chicago, but I remember this Sunday so vividly. I remember I was living on Burling Street in Chicago. It was the maybe the nicest April day in Chicago ever. We grilled out stakes on our, on our back little tiny ass patio that we had. And I just remember the sun absolutely beaming and sitting there watching the Masters and my roommate who was not a huge golf fan, like freaking out about

the action that unfolded. A certain player in particular that made a front nine run that is about as memorable of a major championship run as I've had in my lifetime, it doesn't end up working out, which is maybe not the reason that it's as it may be the reason it's not as remembered as maybe it should. I this was this was big. This was just huge for me. I was this we were just starting a fantasy golf league that would ultimately lead to no laying up starting. And I just was starting to watch a lot of golf around this time period. Where were you?

2011, I was also hating my job at the Baltimore sun. I was really, really hoping to get a new job at sports illustrated. I had interviewed at sports illustrated and they were like, yeah, like you can like freelance maybe for us. And I was so excited. I went back to the Baltimore sun and were like, yeah, like you can, uh, like freelance maybe for us. And I was so excited. I went back to the Baltimore sun and I said, like, Oh, you know, sports illustrated said like, I could, you know, pitch them stories. And the son was like, yeah, sorry. Like you're exclusive to us. Like you're not allowed to write for sports illustrated. So I spent most of 2011 kind of moping until ESPN came along and said,

would you like to interview for a job? And so a big moment in my life too. Phil Mickelson does come in as the favorite at six to one tiger is nine to one Westwood 14 to one. Nick Watney, 16 to one. I couldn't figure that one out. I don't really know where that one came from. Martin Kimer, 18 to one. And then Rory may hand Dustin Johnson and Luke Donald are all 25 to one coming in. A little note I found in the BBC's Saturday Gossip column, Graham McDowell and Ian Poulter had been told to curb their prodigious Twitter output by Augustine national officials. McDowell said that's fair enough. Actually that comes from the Daily Express, but I know Poulter had done some stuff around this time. I couldn't find what I think Graham may have done some scrubbing around that time period, but, uh, just found that funny. If I, sorry, a group of officials from a tournament that's run once a year, not a tour, nothing

like that. Just like one tournament is like, Hey guys, you need to calm down the Twitter a little bit. Wow. It did not want to be behind the scenes, master secrets being revealed on G max Twitter. Nine time major winner, Gary player. I believe you've heard of him. It says he has a feeling 21 year old Rory McIlroy could win the green jacket this week.

He said Rory is so talented. I just love the way he plays golf. However, we don't know how he will rise to the occasion if he comes down the line on Sunday and he's leading. Gary player sponsored by DraftKings. You should have been a punter in those days, letting people know what's up. I'm getting word that the question that was asked right

before that was good morning, Mr. Player. How are you? Good morning, Mr. Player, how are you? Good morning, Solly. I heard Graham McDowell is Twitter. It's going all over this morning. Ian Poulter revealing dirty secrets of Augusta. But I like this McElroy fella. Japanese amateur Hideki Matsuyama has taken a last minute decision to accept an invitation to play at Augusta. Can you remember or think back to why this would potentially be a last minute decision for Hideki? And I don't remember this part. He's the Asia Pacific Amateur. Maybe it was just the Asian amateur champion at the time. So he has a master's invite. But thinking back to 2011, do you remember the would have something to do with the Olympics where you're not

allowed to participate as a pro yet? It did not. It was the he's the 19 year old attends university in Sendai an area area that suffered heavily when the earthquake and tsunami struck on the 11th of March, Matsuyama said I've decided to play because so many people have pushed me, the people at my university who have suffered and my teammates and my parents who made me start to play the sport of golf.

Wow. Yeah, I did not remember the world events kind of coinciding with that. Obviously, I think he would go on to win the Masters 10 years later, but around the mid 2010s, I'm wondering if you remember this. I specifically thinking of the Charlie Rose interview that Tiger did, I think in 2016, Tiger started to

downplay his goal of catching Jack Nicklaus. Do you remember any of that about you know, kind of saying it was never my goal to win 18 majors? It was you know, 15 was always my goal for some reason. I do. I wrote a Tiger essay at some point at ESPN that sort of talk references Charlie Rose interview. He was kind of like, sort of sly about it. He was like, no, that Charlie Rose was like,

that's not your goal. And he was like, no, it's never been my goal. My goal is to win more. Like, and he would sort of like, kind of like be a little bit cheeky about it. So I do remember a little bit of that. That he kind of twisted the mythology, I guess, behind and around it.

And so there's a quote in here that from a head of the master says, but woods is still eyeing Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 major championships. It says it had always been my goal to pass Jack from well before I turned pro. That's what I set my eyes on in terms of golf. I absolutely want to do it. The benchmark and gold standard in this sport is 18. So that if you ever tries to deny that he said that that that happened in a sometime right before the 2011 Masters. This is of course just coming off a few turbulent years in the life of Tiger Woods.

2010 was the first Masters, first event he played since the scandal broke. It's kind of a muted reception, does not play very good golf in 2010 and end of 2011. And there's just a bunch of question marks coming into the Masters for Tiger Woods. But there are more players in the Masters field this week than there have been for 45 years as 99 players will see off on Thursday and Augusta National Chairman Billy Payne's as officials will take a close look at their qualification criteria to decide whether a change is required that comes from the Associated Press. Me and some of the boys have been talking about too many people at the Masters, sorry.

Well I looked in the qualification criteria and tried to find the differences. I did not examine this closely, but there was an exemption for the top 30 leaders on the prior season's money list, which I that went away. I do believe that went away, but if you finished in the top 30 now in the FedEx Cup, you do if you make the tour championship, you get in the Masters that went away, but there, if you finished the top 30 now in the FedEx cup, you do, you've made the tour championship, you get in the masters that existed then, but also a top 30 for money exemption. And I believe that is what has gone away. What is the, this comes up in my thing, but now what is the, you get to come back next year.

It's like top 10, I think top 12. I think 12 is where it is now. Yeah. So it used to be top 24, which will come up in mine, which is a lot to invite back just for a high finish. The top 16 in ties in the 2010 Masters. So that has changed as well.

So they did look into that qualification criteria. That was from the Associated Press. Northern Ireland's Rory McElroy is turning into a big American football fan. He has confessed they love for the NFL's. What team? What team is very a fan of the green Bay Packers, the New York jets. Oh my goodness. Rory, there's too many metaphors here for your, your late stage malaise fair to be a Jets fan. He is so intrigued that he brought a bought a football on Wednesday before tossing it around to

kill time before his impressing oppressive opening round. Wow. So I wonder who's tossing around with probably Phil, you know, good bucks. Phil Phil's always warming up like a quarterback, you know, in the parking lot. So Thursday, Rory and Alvaro Kuros shoots 65 to lead by two over KJ Choi and Y.E. Yang. Phil shoots 70, Tiger shoots 71, Charles Schwartzle shoots a 69. And on Friday, Rory shoots 69 to get to 10 under par, open up a two shot lead over Jason Day, who shot a 64 on that Friday.

Tiger shoots 66 and is three back at minus seven. He's paired with KJ Choi on Saturday. He shot a 31 on the back nine. So that Friday afternoon coverage window, he blitzed it with a 31 on the back. This is Jason Day's first Masters and he's going to be in the final group on Saturday. Schwartzel shoots 71 and his six back at four under

heading into the weekend. Missing the cut, Graham McDowell, Martin Kimer, Padraig Harrington and Hunter Mahan were some of the notables that missed the cut. So we get to Saturday, Rory shoots at 70, his lead is four going into Sunday over Angel Cabrera, KJ Choi, Jason Day and Charles Schwartzel. Rory was one over on the day on Saturday through 12 holes,

but birdie the two par fives and rolled in a 30 foot birdie putt on the 17th. Tiger shoots a 74. Adam Scott is in the mix at 700. He's five back. And New York, New York times writes about a moment where Rory pours in that 30 footer on 17 and got a roar so loud that Tiger had to back off in the fairway ahead. And remember around that Saturday evening, it looks like the crowning of a 21 year old Roy McElroy. This looks like, all right, we have a passing of the torch and written in the New York Times says the significance of the moment was inescapable. Woods, a four time Masters champion whose

shots have been have prompted so many similar roars at Augusta had to make way for McElroy, who was poised to become the youngest Masters champion since Woods himself in 1997. This is the first time that no American players among the top three after 54 holes and only the third time since 95 that neither Phil Mickelson nor Woods is in the top five heading into the final round. Again, let me repeat that the first only the third time since 1995 that neither Phil nor Tiger were the top five entering the final round. That's they

that was a hell of a run between seriously. I mean, it's really really awesome golf truly anchored by every single Sunday almost every single Sunday that one of those two was going to be in the mix said patient. This is still Saturday patients has not come easily for the freewheeling McElroy, but it was his hallmark Saturday on a muggy afternoon and his demeanor is so calm and his swing so steady that day a 23 year old who has yet to play, who has played all three rounds with McElroy said he would,

he would be difficult to catch on Sunday. The way worry Rory is swinging. And the shots he's hitting, he can probably go out tomorrow and shoot 70 and win the tournament they said. And if he does win this thing, he'll deserve it. He's played really well. Roy would said a win for me personally, it would be huge. It would be huge. And for the game of golf, it would be nice as well. It would be nice to get a major early and show some of the young guys that it is

possible. I'm going to go out there and play as well as I can and we'll see what happens. Four strokes are not a lot around this golf course. Oh, buddy. Yep. Ain't that the truth? Man, it's so much worse than I remember it. Somehow it's just so much worse than I remember it. But we get to Sunday, Jim Nance welcomes you

on the telecast with news that it's gonna hit 87 degrees on this Sunday. That's 30 degrees to our Celsius speaking friends out there. The first, first shot we see is Tiger Woods coming into the second green. He's got one 64 in with his third, not ideal, but he stuffs it and he goes on to pimp walk that putt into the hole on the second. He's, I mean, it's just a beautiful, beautiful day that read, it was a different Pantone on this day. I don't know why this is just so vivid in my memory, but that's some was just hitting tiger in a different way.

And he had a lot of pimp walking going on going on around this time, but I really loved back when he wore the dark red and not that like pink red that catered to sort of became more his style later, like the dark red, just that's why it worked so well at Augusta. Like it was such a great contrast, right? And it's worth noting Tigers using that Nike putter at the time that kind of not mallet,

but that weird backs putter and he's putting terribly. Like they run a montage around this time of all the shorts, short putts he missed on Saturday, but he gets up there and he drives it up near the third green and flips a beautiful flop up there to short range. Bertie he's seven under five back. Not a lot going on just yet. We get our first look at the young amateur Hideki Matsuyama, skinny looking Hideki, a lot more animated.

He chips in a couple of times on this day and he's just a lot, a very different looking Hideki. Even his grips are like really impressive. He's got, if you can't see on the podcast, he's got like bright blue grips. It's a figure That's sick. So he, uh, he chips in on three and they, uh, you know, they, they make a mention of, of the tsunami and the effect it's had back home and kind of that story that we talked about early on. But I, again, I remember this so vividly because there was just a, I mean, the narrative was just right there in front of you. Like it's the Rory show. It's a lot

of anticipation. He's so young. He's got a four shot lead. We've seen all this happen so many times at the masters. And maybe I just, you know, what's so vivid here is obviously how poorly he plays, but it's just a bad fit. Like it's a really bad fit from our guy. He's got black sleeves with weird stripes. He's got the Jeremiah hat going, you know, the pants just didn't quite fit the same. They just got the loose loose around the waist that the shirt just gets untucked throughout the course of the day. And I, again, it's just all images that I'll sign with how poorly he played on this day. But man, just look, just look at this, this young face,

this young buck who's in the, in the little montage there with, with the baby fat and kind of before his, before his body started to change. But you know what? It's like a different person. Like it's truly like if you, it's like someone went on a makeover show or had like plastic surgery or whatever. Like he just, it's dramatic

how different he looks back then. He also, to race head to the end, he handles it with grace and class. For a 21 year old, it is pretty remarkable like his interview afterward and how everything happened and how kind of to come to terms or how he came to terms with everything but so Tigers burned the first two holes. But he steps up and makes a bogey on three putts the fourth. He kind of blew it way left on that

green but was unable to get down in two, which kind of signals what's ahead of when he would hit do some incredible things. The momentum would just stall out with some crucial missed short putts even on this Sunday. But we got there. Charles Schwarzel misses way right into the first green from the fairway. I mean, from the middle of the fairway, an incredibly bad shot. He's probably 3540 yards right to the pin. Do you remember what happens next for mr. Schwartz? So I do bumps like a seven iron

and rolls and rolls and roll. I mean, he says for, this is not a greenside chip in and it goes in the hole for a chip in birdie at the first, you know, they feature him a little bit there. He's 26 years old. His best finish in a major to this point is T 14, which again, I'm not mad at myself for not having heard of Charles Schwartzle when I was a casual golf fan in 2011, but Rory steps up on the first tee and just jams a drive down there. The hole's only 445 at this point. He's got 132 in and he's just looking like he's going to alpha this golf course. His swing is so fluid in this time. It's really, it's really something to admire. swing is so fluid in this time is really, it's really something to admire. And he hits like just a very nervy shot, he hits a pole that actually gets really lucky and

stays up on the top tier in the back left and he can kind of putt it from green side. But he runs the putt five feet by and misses the comeback or misses it left. And that's kind of a theme of what's going to happen. So thinking in I want to say that's happened in real time, but it might have been like on a rewatch somewhere years later like what is how different is history if that like first five footer goes in because it's pretty close and Like if you just settle down and all of a sudden you've made a par on the first after hitting a pole Maybe he's out of sorts the whole day

But maybe not maybe he just like rips it down number two, and all of a sudden we're off and he does shoot 70 and wins easily. Uh, it's just like one shot can kind of make you feel like, Oh, fuck. Like now it's three strokes. Like that's my lead. And this, you know, it's just a whole different life. I mean, he walks off the first green leads to, I mean, it was, it was for overnight lead is two over Schwarzl after that chip in. We cut to Tiger and he hits a huge sweeper into the front left pin on six. I mean, it starts, he hits the ball and I mean, the broadcasters like, Whoa, like that. Yeah. One of my favorite shots of all time. He kind of, he uses the slope, right? Of like, and I think my memory of this is that Faldo thinks that he's done,

like I made a mistake that he's pushed it right. And instead, like it does exactly. Tiger's like, get left. It just goes right. Yeah. Be perfect. Goes right across the green on like a super underrated shot in the tiger cannon. It'd be like, you know what, I'm going to hit a sweeping draw into this like pin and be below the hole on this shot. You can, you can get a little caught up in the lore of Tiger but reliving this shot in a shot we're going to get to just a couple holes later for how to use the slopes at Augusta. It's not just like hit the ball into that slope because I watched a

bunch of shots come into six later on and no one got the bounce he got but the his shot shape leaning into that slope in it ending up below the hole like that the goal of that shot was to end up to be putting straight up the hill. And you need to get enough momentum off the slope to do that without risking going left of that pin. No one else pulled off that shot on this day. Like no one else hit that kind of style of shot into that front left pin. Take this the slope down there to about 12 feet. Sure enough,

absolute Drano walks in the putt before it's even in the hole just steps it right in. He's getting the crowd going. And I mean, it's, there's some momentum, there's some cheers going on. Like it's, it's feeling like a little something here. This is his third birdie so far of the day. We cut back to Rory, he drives it in the bunker on two and then hits the face of the bunker. But the second shot, he gets in from the middle of the fairway, he pulls his third shot into the left bunker

and the pins all the way back, right? That's not looking good, but he does scramble for par from that left bunker. Maybe he's got some momentum going, you know, he's still got his lead. No, he does not have his lead anymore because one hole up ahead, Charles Schwartzle in the third fairway lays back off the tee,

lands one 12 feet right of the pin, spins it left into the hole for Eagle. Charles Schwarzel is tied for the lead at the Masters after three holes with a chip in on one and a hole out from the middle of the fairway on the third hole. It's so easy to, because of what happens at the end of this round for Schwarzel, remember like, oh man, like obviously he just went and took it. But like some luck went his way like early. I mean, obviously he had two great shots, but you don't chip in on

one from where he was and then hole out on three without just shit being your fucking day. Dude, but it's so bizarre. Skipping, I won't mention Schwarzel for a long time in the middle of the round because already chips in for birdie on one holes out for Eagle on three he bogeys for and then pars five through 14. He made no birdies no bogeys from five to 14 before again, his very famous finish at the very end but it was just such a bizarre day like it

really looking back on it's like man Schwartzle sneak up and steal this how do we not see it coming? And there's a bunch of Megan that happens later. There's a lot of people that came up out of nowhere and almost won this thing. But we skip ahead to number seven, Tiger stuffs it using the slope again. He makes birdie and we've got our first big fist pump

of the day. This is Tiger's fourth birdie of the front nine to go along with the bogey that he made on the fourth hole. And it's just like they're, they're lingering, he's eight under par now. He's three back of the lead, which is tied at 11 under par with Rory and Schwarzl at this moment. Rory settles the nerves a little bit, he hits a really sick wedge into three, but he misses a pretty short birdie putt and Schwarzl goes on bogey four,

but Rory's got the lead back, but he's just, he's just got the hang dog thing going. Like it just, he just has this body language that just isn't all the way there. Tiger hits a great drive on eight and he's got three went in from the left center of the fairway. And he hits what is honestly maybe the most vivid shot of the decade for me. I just I'm

obsessed with this shot and the pin is all the way in the back left on the Sunday and it's 278 up the hill that he's got and he hits this shot and it is even with showing you the image here it is hard to describe how far hits this shot and it is even with showing you the image here, it is hard to describe how far right this shot starts. I mean, he hits a swooper of all swoopers and it gets up there and the key is it banks off the right slope of these of the mounds around the green and doesn't land too deep into this hole. It is a little downwind, doesn't land too deep, but the shape of the shot and the using of the bank of that right side springs this thing all the way to the back left of the of the green all the

way back almost right next to the hole. I mean, it's it's 1012 feet away for Eagle and it's just an incredible shot rolls forever. It's just about it's peak golf shot right there. And again, you watch all the other shots come in in this day. Rory goes long because he he doesn't use the slope to kill it into the bank. He lands it too far into the green. He doesn't have the right shot shape.

And no one else, some of the people that were landing the shots farther left were actually getting kicked right by the left slopes. Like you just, no one hit the right shot coming into that green. Tiger used the ground, used the turf to get that moment. And so if you put it together a list of his 10 most memorable master shots, I feel like three of them would come from this front nine.

Yes, one from the back nine. Yeah, this is such a like, I don't know, underrated is sort of a silly word with Tiger because we, we, we rate the man very highly. But there's so many in the masters that he did not win like shots from this tournament where I'm like, Wow, that's super remember life. I'm not only remember seeing that I've watched it on YouTube about 11 dozen times. Well, it's you know, you always did the Ken Tiger comeback, Ken

Tiger comeback. He's never really had a major comeback on a Sunday in a major like it, you're waiting for that to happen. And again, he's not playing very good golf at this time. Like it wasn't, this is a little bit of a surprise that this was happening. And I just I honestly do vividly remember, like the build up and like the move to the edge of the couch and up to that, you know, put because it was like, holy shit, if he makes this he's within one. And it's like, again, this is

the era of the tiger roars like having an effect on people like this is a very real thing that's happening. So sure enough, he steps up and drains the putt and just lets loose a massive fist bump, the crowd goes absolutely ape shit. He walks off the green and just lets out an enormous fuck yeah, as he gets the ball out of the hole unmistakable, very unmistakable. That's what he yelled. You can tell he's the tiger out of the hole, unmistakable, very unmistakable. That's what he yelled. You can tell he's the tiger getting yoke era too. Like the, uh, the muscles there in the,

uh, in the bicep there and the, and the trapper enormous. His only top 10 of the year coming into this was a T 10 at the Cadillac championship. And his most recent top 10 prior to that was a T four at the us open a pebblebble the prior year. Like it was bad. Like it was, it was not the Tiger Woods that we knew. This is a firing Haney not quite with Foley yet, right? Like he's, I believe he, I believe so. He might be with Foley. I don't quite know for sure.

Where I can remember how long after the scandal, he and Haney parted ways, but it wasn't that long because of Haney was like, pissed that he had to answer questions about the scandal and that what he knew and didn't know and of course, then wrote the book about, or Steinberg says, you're his best friend. And Haney said, what? I'm his best friend. One of my favorite anecdotes. So Tiger scorecard to this point says, par birdie birdie

bogey par birdie birdie Eagle. So he's 400 in his last three holes. He's 10 or part. He's within one and he was seven back an hour and a half ago. Like it is a huge, huge run. The flash lead board Roy's at 11 under Tigers at 10 Schwarzl at 10 Cabrera and day are at eight under par. Dan Jenkins tweets out at this point, Tiger heads passed or caught five continents in eight holes. Rory continues to miss putts left.

He bogeys the fifth and Tiger woods is tied for the lead as Rory walks off the fifth hole. There is no one ahead of Tiger woods on the leaderboard through he's played eight holes and Rory and Schwartz will have played five holes at this point. Somebody to get Rory energy drinker coffee or something hanged on and super hang dogging, hang dogging walking off five to my knowledge, I have not fact

check this but I to my memory and knowledge and please hit me with this if it's wrong. I think this is the only time he ever held the lead on Adam Masters on Sunday and did not win. I'm struggling to think of another time when he would have he didn't he never has the solo lead here today and he is up ahead on the golf course. So there's kind of some birdie holes that sure it's a little bit of an illusion, a little bit of an illusion, but no one is beating Tiger at this point at the

Masters when again, two hours ago, he was seven shots back. It was just it was a remarkable unfolding of events like people were just rushing to their televisions at this point at the Masters and when again, two hours ago, he was seven shots back. Uh, it was just, it was a remarkable unfolding of events. Like people were just rushing to their televisions at this point. He tiger gets up and down from the, uh, from the left bunker on nine to shoot 31 on the front hasn't held a lead in a major since the Oh eight US open that he won, and this is obviously the first time since the scandal, uh, that he's held the lead in a major Rory hits a wedge into seven, but he overspins it kind of hits the wrong shot, but he drains the putt from the front fringe, gets it to 11 under has the solo

lead again, heading to the par five. He's back. We're fine here. We're fine. We're totally fine here. Hits it over the green in two and cannot get up and it's a really bad chip on, on, on the back there. It's not good. So Tiger's plotting along hits this normal shot into the middle of the green on 12 kind of far away from the hole, but just an absolutely devastating three putt. I mean, he misses a putt that it was not a long putt man. Like this is the distance I'll flashed up on screen. I mean, it's a

three foot putt that should just be an easy brush in and a major championship. And, uh, he misses it, misses it left. And just again, just the momentum completely stalls out Cabrera, birdies eight to get within one. He's right there with it with Schwartzle. Um, tiger's got one 87 into 13 and he just nukes a ball long and left, uh, long and green screaming at it to get down and does not get up and down. Does not make birdie on the 13th, uh, from one 87 in KJ Choi birdies, the ninth hole. He's one back, uh, it was a killer for a while.

Huge masters killer. Totally. Schwartz will shoots 34 on the front, despite holding out twice. Rory has a good look for birdie on nine misses it and is just hang dogging again. He shoots one over on the front, but is still leading the Masters heading to the back nine or 10. Oh, I remember like thinking, okay, like, you know, kids, kids, okay. Like he survived the worst part. Like maybe he'll just sell it to par fives on the back. Like he's going to be fine. I think I feel like the announcers too are like, well,

you know, he's, he's struggled a little bit, but he's got the lead and he's, you know, it needs a good swing here and he can win the masters coming back, coming home. So CBS kind of messes up the Rory shot. Like there's no setup to it. It kind of rushes into, into his shot and he obviously pull hooks it straight into the trees. Nobody knows what happens. Rory audibly says, is there out of bounds over there? And Fowler just goes, what? It's a really good moment.

What? Is there out of bounds over there? It's a question that I've never actually known. There can't be because he's in between two cabins. Like he, there's no exaggeration here. It is an absolute shocker as to how far left this ball is. He said, I felt comfortable in that tee shot all week. I just started a little left. and I, having not been there, I, I, or having not been there at that

moment, I, I don't, he, he might be right here. Cause we remember that shot as being absolutely dreadful, but if it really did just start a little left and hit it, I think it hits a tree and ricochets way farther left. Obviously it shouldn't, not many people hit the trees right off the tee. And then when it does, it's kind of overhanging the left side should kick it right in theory, but it takes a horrific bounce and goes backwards to the left. And then the you know, this again, the image that you have of him walking off 10 is what I have for the entire back nine, the back of his shirt gets untucked. And I don't know why this

bothers me so much. But he just looks so sloppy the whole rest of the round and it just goes so poorly. It's hard to describe how poorly this back nine goes for him. Doesn't he get dropped from coverage at one point? He does. Oh, shock like in some shocking moments here that won't cover next image we see is between JP said, yo, get right here. Let's, let's get your shirt tucked back in and let's make a good swing lad. I mean the camera, like it's like a blurry out of focus shaky camera. That's the only look that they can get at him between these two buildings. I went to Google earth to take a look at where it's, but I think it's the two houses here at the bottom of this, which is it's not a hundred yards off the tee. It's not I mean, it's it's it truly is shocking how how short this

tee shot actually went. Apparently, Clifford Roberts used to sit on his porch, which is one of these houses and watch the whole tournament like that was his kind of way of thinking. So there's really see much money. I apparently that was his jam though. He was just basically didn't want to be bothered by people. So he would just sit on the porch and probably bark out orders.

Dan Jenkins said he'd not seen anyone hit it there in the 61 masters that he had covered, which we can just pause on that moment for that number for a moment that guy spent over a year of his life just at the masters. It's kind of crazy, but good life. Yeah. Again, the iconic image of him just squaring up punch a ball back out of the fairway between he's lucky there's not more trees over there, but it's able to get it back into the fairway and keep me to go to that to that spot and stand and just take a picture. Like, I'll maybe perhaps I'll put that on the

list to share for things to take care of. He has three wood into 10 and hits a ball. Again, he's not out. It's not, it's not toast yet. Like if he can hit this ball up on the green or near the green chip up, make bogey. Like we, he's, you know, lost a shot. Remind us to him, but he's still the last group. Like he's got the par fives. It's not over, but he pulls this thing and it, it, for a brief second, it looks like he's about to lose the ball, but then we see it reappear, but it's way left, way down. It goes all the way down the hill at the death spot on 10. Yes it's bad

uh and this time Tiger narrowly misses a birdie putt on the 14th hole kind of his momentum is stalling out a little bit Rory's collapsing and it looks like there's about to be a four-way tie at the top with Cabrera, Choi, Scott and Schwarzel and maybe Rory if he can get up and down for bogey. But his pitch from down low left, it looks like he's got kind of an opening. I don't know how this happens, but it's a pitch and it just nails a tree. I can't tell if it's a branch or if it's a tree limb, but it just hits it. It goes dead left.

He's now like long left hitting his fifth. He barely gets it on any two putts for triple. And now it's like, dude, you're in some trouble here. Now you're two back. And right as this is happening, Tiger stripes it off the 15th tee. He's staring down the flag from the top of the hill. And it's a scene. It is just a sea of humanity.

Again, Tiger is tied for the lead at this point after he walks off the 14th green. We tie with Cabrera, Choi, Scott and Schwarzel. It's mayhem. It's absolute mayhem. No one has any idea what's about to unfold over the coming moments. But Tiger stand at the top of the hill. The sun again, just hitting that red shirt. A sea of humanity on the hill there behind behind 16 behind six, around 15 green. And

I just, again, I've, I've posted the video a bunch of times. I've seen the video. I see that 315 yard drive. He's got two 15 to the flag back, right pin. And he just makes one of the great golf swings ever. It just is a perfectly controlled five iron. And let's lose the sauciest club to this day that I've ever seen. It is just the most nonchalant of like, yep, I've never never had never had a better shot. This is the whole like, no, no, no, this is just a casual casual. He doesn't like president's cup it. It's just a Oh, yeah, that's perfect. Like just a subtle little twirl and starts walking right after it

lands on the green fairtyarity, oh right at it. He never gives up and the crowd is going apeshit. I mean, it's stuffed. It's maybe five feet. And again, Augusta illusion here. He's played the par fives this one. This puts to take the lead outright. This is to get to 11 under par and to have the lead outright. And you hear it as he's walking up.

Rory's triple gets posted and there's a massive groan around that. Oh, I mean, one of the loudest groans you'll ever hear as a reaction to something. They show Schwarzel tapping in for par on another hole. I think it's 11 and Rory's triple gets posted there and you hear another enormous grab. Like it's this whole momentum shifting through this back nine of Rory's triple and again no phones out there like you are waiting for something to get posted to hear that. Roy's in seventh place as he walks off the 10th green after

teeing off in the lead on that hole. We can watermark this so Roy can skip all this part. He can just go right to the 77 when he listens to this pot. It's gonna be a tough to relive. Five footer for Ty. Take the lead. He misses it low right with that dumb ass Nike putter that he just could not make. Just pitched in a lake at this point. That I mean he is walking off that green.

He's five under on the day. He's now in a five way tie for the lead. But even then you're like, dude, you're gonna need a couple more here to finish. It's not good. I remember thinking like, oh, he's so pissed. I mean, I think I'm probably not truly understanding, like the intricacies of what the lead is at Augusta at this point. I'm like, why is he so pissed off? Like he's tied for the lead. Like he all he needs to do is

like maybe birdie one more time. But it's like a fake lead, right? Like the guys haven't played the birdie holes yet. It's, you know, it's truly, he knows that what's come what he missed those opportunities and he knows that he's going to walk to the 16th, having that's completely kind of blown his chance. And at this time, you're probably thinking 12 is a playoff 13 wins. And so if you get to 12 at that moment, you get one more birdie like you probably are going to win the

good chance to win the Masters 12 might be 13 almost certainly going to be good enough. Rory steps up it's a good drive on 11 and back left pin over the water. Don't know why we're taking this one on with how things are going so far Rory but he stuffs it. I mean, you tell me how far how far this ball is away. Is that 12 feet? Maybe I guess probably 10 feet. Augusta zooms can be weird. Some of the angles I think is probably a little longer than it may look

to the eye. But all right, Rory, we're not dead. Steps up. Tiger steps up, almost flies it in the cup on 16, but it skips long left about 18 feet. KJ Choi kind of makes it, he makes a bogey and is kind of losing a little momentum. Rory's got this birdie putt to get back within one, misses it and runs three feet by no, like no big deal. Kevin, he missed the come backer and CPS has gone to commercial and they never show it. He missed a putt of no more than three feet. I mean, I'm not a tap in for par. And so like I would get, I'm watching this shot and I'm looking at the score, the scores in that day.

I'm like, no, he can't make bogey from there. Like there's no possible way. And I kept like scrubbing the, the broadcast, trying to find it. And they come back at IBF is, uh, all they, when they come back, he's like, yeah, he missed a short putt back at 11. Wow. His ball is airborne into the 12th green. And I get it.

He's in seventh now, but it was your way. The leader completely just imploded. Yeah. This is like one of the greatest collapses of all time. Like, can we please show this? I think this was the beginning of my understanding of like how much more painful a final round collapse in golf is compared to other sports. Like I haven't covered any golf at this point. But it is truly like falling

down a flight of stairs for four hours. It's not just in in in football, like you drop a pass and it's like, oh my god, you know, we lost that was our chance or whatever not just in football, like you drop a pass and it's like, oh my god, you know, we lost that was our chance or whatever. But in golf, it's just like you have to relive it in slow motion over and over and over again, every single drip drip drip is just a disaster and just feeling so like much empathy for Rory and even writing something in the Baltimore Sun about it afterwards being like, man,

that that's like heartbreak personified. Yeah, I mean, and they come back from commercial Tigers missing his birdie putt on 16. Cabrera is hitting any on the green on 12. And, you know, Rory hits it to about 20 feet on 12. Right. And it's like, okay, you know, that's fine. Jason Day birdies the 13th hole now Now he's at minus 10 and he's tied for the lead. Again, it's just like I can't even keep up with how often this leaderboard is changing and the names that are changing in there. Rory's got a 20 footer for Birdie on 12. You know, if we make this, we're back to eight under par again, we have to par fives ahead,

anything could happen. Whatever runs it runs a 20 footer about eight feet or I'm sorry, runs a 20 footer about two and a half feet by. No worries. Easy tap in par, right? No. He pulls his two and a half footer left and it goes about three and a half feet by. He misses the comebacker. He misses that right. It's a double from 20 feet. He had no three putts through three days. He four putted this one. He's five under for the tournament, seven over on the day and he's five back. I feel like Ian, didn't Ian Baker Finch have some speech about like how painful it is at this point?

I sort of remember that. Like you could feel the empathy for like a fellow Englishman, I guess in some ways. Like, uh. They're kind of brushing past, he's like a footnote at this point. They're showing his shots on tape delay already. And it's just like, Oh yeah.

He's having a tough day like that. They didn't really linger on it, which I don't blame them. Cause there's so much happening again. It is so much happening. I hate to say we're not done yet with Rory. Um, he famously yanks it left on 13 does the hang dog and it splashes into the creek, the most famous image of his head in his hand, headed in his elbow. Just truly cannot imagine around going this poorly.

A name we have not mentioned yet to this point. Um, again, this is CBS's era of maybe not keeping the best tabs on the golf tournament. Again, this is extenuating circumstances for, for what's going on, but I, I, I didn't go back and double check this, but I think the first shot we see from this guy is a birdie putt on 16. His name is Jeff Ogilvie and it's his fifth birdie in a row and he's tied for the lead now. So,

yeah, sure. Yeah. The guy suddenly snuck up in time for the lead. That might not be totally accurate. They may have showed a couple of those shots, but five birdies at a row to tie the lead, Adam Scott, then stuffs one on to five feet on 14. He takes the outright lead. Jason day was in there even tighter and misses the putt. Meanwhile, Kevin, I will give you a thousand dollars. If you can name the American who in the group ahead stuffs one

on the 15th hole and makes an eagle to get within one back at this point. God. Scabberplank. I don't know. Bo Van Pelt. That's right. Well, no, there's no that's right. You don't remember that.

I didn't. I have I have I have watched this collapse before. So I I'm not gonna like it's sort of like cheating a little bit in the sense I would not have ever pulled both and pelt out of it. But I do remember being like, oh, because they're you know, look, there's a fellow Dutchman there a van I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna catalog that in my brain at some point, me and Scott van Pelt, you know, the van Valkenbergs of van Pelt. So

they're like this, you know, the van Volkenbergs of van Pelt. So they're like this, you know, Speaker 0.(1h 1m 5s): Bo van Pelt is now tied with tiger and one shot back of Adam Scott in the final round of the masters. Luke Donald steps up and rolls into birdie. He's now at minus 10. Oh my goodness. So he's one back and Adam Scott is in trouble on 15 after blowing his second shot way right. Tiger. He fails birdie 17 and 18. Pretty much you know his momentum stalled out after you know, this eagle on on 15 and not making the birdie on 16. He's pretty much addicted to

McAtee in the interview afterward, like, what are you gonna do now? You're gonna hit the birdie? I'm starving. I'm starving. I gotta eat. He just like his very cant lay of just answering the questions. He was super curt to the media at this time after all the scandal and everything. But Adam Scott manages to scramble for par and hits it to a foot on 16. Absolutely stuffs it on 16. Schwartzle birdies 15 to stay within one as Scott taps in right ahead. But Adam Scott has the solo lead at 12 under par and And Schwartz will hits it about 20 feet under the par to the right, 20 feet under the hole to the right of 16.

Scott plays, Adam Scott blows it way left off the tee on 17, ends up in a bunker on seven green. Luke, again, mayhem Luke Donald is finishing up on 18. He's got an awkward stance around the bunker and hits this miraculous shot to the front left pin, takes one off, bangs off the pin and rolls off to off the green front right like horribly it was going to go past the past

the hole but rolls way back down the hill. Roy's been dropped from coverage they pick him back up to show him hitting a five foot par putt on 15 and missing it of course walks off the you know untucked shirt head down walking off to walking off the green there. While I'm Scott surveying his situation on 17 walks off the, you know, untucked shirt, head down, walking off to, uh, walking off the green, uh, there, um, while I'm Scott surveying his situation on 17, Schwartzel steps up and drains his purty on 16 Fern gives it a huge, Oh yes. And he is tied Adam Scott for the lead. Scott goes bunker to bunker hits in the front, right bunker, uh, and hits a pitch out to 1520 feet like not that not that close like kind of a long putt. But the leaderboard at this at this time is showing us Adam Scott and

Schwarzel tied at 12 Jason Day at 11. Tiger pretty much out of it at 10 and already in the house. But who are you pulling for at this point, Sally, when you're sitting in your eating state? I think Adam Scott. I think it's Adam Scott, right? I think that was kind of he was the you know, you're probably just pulling for the biggest name day was not really a name yet. Again, this is his first masters. Scott, a popular player. I'm definitely rooting for him. I don't think.

All right. I think that was true. I definitely was not reading for Charles Horschel. I don't know who was rooting for Charles Horschel at this point, other than obviously respect to my South African friends. So day and day and Scott are playing together. He's got a 40 footer for birdie on 17. And again, he's one back. Do you remember what happens with Jason day? He steps up and drains a 40 footer and starts staring back down the fairway at Charles Schwartzle. Like he sorry, this, this put him at 11 under this put him within one but drains a bomb put in his like fist pumping like those looking back down the fairway unmistakably at at Schwarzl in the fairway.

We still have some echoes in mind. So like, keep, keep, keep it open a bookmark on that. Yeah. So Adam Scott is again, he's sitting at 1200 part tie for lead has this par putt after hitting it in the, in the bunker. It looks like it's going to slip away. I call this an 1820 footer probably for par and he drains it with the long putter huge clutch putt. So he's still at 12 under par. That was a huge moment. I mean, the crowds are really into it. Schwartz was out of position in the right rough but hits this shot down the elevator shaft

barely over the bunker to the back right pin and rolls up to about 12 feet, pours in the pot on 17, third birdie in a row to take the one shot lead. Adam Scott is a board on the 18th green, but about 30 feet right of it. Day stuffs it in there tight, but he's two back of Schwarzl now. Schwarzl stripes it on 18 and Adam Scott has a clean look from just right of the hole. Pretty much the same putt he would have two years later, hit a good putt, but it broke too far to the left and missed. He would get his revenge on that putt two years later. Dave makes his birdie to

get to 12 under par. So now Dave and Scott need Schwartzle to bogey, but he's in the middle of fairway on 18. He's getting ready to hit his shot. And I mean, you know how like cameramen get right behind a guy to film like not not crazy close, but you're going to film from the middle of fairway. He's lining up his shot and he turns the cameraman and like, tells him to backup. Like he's like, and the guy's not close. He's not close at all. He's shooting from pretty far away. Tells him to backup cameraman doesn't so

he like tells his caddy like, get them to backup. It's one time you're like, this dude looks nervous, which of course you would be you got to hit one good shot and you're going to win the Masters. But it was kind of a bizarre scene of a masking the cameraman to move hits it, you know, 18 feet right of the hole, a different putt from Scott. So it kind of rolls back towards the front of the green and it's pretty much over at that point. I mean, he's not, he's not going to three putt that one. You know, they're expecting him to putts for the win.

Only needs one. Charles Schwartzle takes the 2011 Masters, fourth birdie in a row, the first person to birdie the last four holes and win. It's one of those tournaments that you just looked at, like, of course you remember that happening now, but it's easy to forget the level of suspense of what was gonna happen in this.

It could have gone so many different ways and this dude just came up and stole it. When people talk about the roars of Augusta, they're talking about the 2011 Masters like there was just shit happening all over the place. Not the biggest name winner, but he did the damn thing. And he goes in to sign sign his card. I don't know if you can see this in the green in the green room. Hopefully you can't but you'll never guess

who the score is when he walks in into the scoring tent, it's Mike Davis. I don't know why. I don't know why. It's just, you know, I did not see that that one coming. Was he working at, I guess you just maybe, yeah. He's the head of the USGA at this point. And I don't know why he's the one tallying up the scores in there, but I just had to laugh about that one. Rory hits it in close on 18. And of course just cleans up this little

five foot birdie putt. No, of course he did not make this putt, did not go in. He misses it left and shoots 80 80. Again, worth pausing at this moment. It's an, it's a, I mean, it is a horrific ride, but the story for me is that he goes out and wins the next major by eight shots at age 21. Like this could have ruined him and it may have ruined him for Augusto. We don't know. His interview is shockingly classy. Again, for a 21 year old, he said, Look, I got in that moment. He's like, obviously, I'm gonna be disappointed for quite some

time. But I got to look at the positives, the positives were I led this tournament for 63 holes, I'm very disappointed, but hopefully it'll build a bit of character in me. Which I think we can say unmistakably happened to you. This is one of my favorite anecdotes. I do you know how Rory said that he got over this win? I do not. By listening to Adele every day in his car. Seriously? I'm not, I'm not even kidding. There's a I've talked about this at some point. I can't maybe it's on a golfer's journals podcast but

he was asked what tune got you over the hump so that you could win a congressional later. So this is later in the day they asked him. He says it was Adele. I didn't sing it quite as well as her but I played it every morning on every morning in my car so the song was stuck in my head during the week of the congressional. I have never heard that. Not quite the quantity DJs. Come on, come on and write it. Prince is the train, but magic there. Some of the writing that happens after Joe has, uh, Poznanski, uh, said a professional golfer cannot hide. This is both the beauty and cruelty of the game. There's Joe Pasnanski said, a professional golfer cannot hide. This

is both the beauty and cruelty of the game. There's no locker room to duck into at halftime, no huddle in which a coach offers encouragement or a solution. There's only the next shot and the waiting scorecard and the bitterness, bitter emptiness of a golf cup, four and a half inches in diameter. Referencing the one Roy's walking off the 10th always said, McElroy is still only two strokes off the lead, but it is clear that he will not win the Masters sure he tries to convince himself otherwise if you can birdie the 11th hole, but he

misses the seven foot putt and the minuscule par putt to well then if I can birdie number 12, he misses the birdie par and bogey putts a dreaded four putt he said I lost my speed he would say the 13th he snap hooks his drive into the water he drops his head to his chest. And when he finishes the round with an 80 dropping him to 15th McElroy hands his ball to a young fan he hugs friends he answers every question with dignity he said I thought I'd be okay he says trying to find the words that are not there he had his moment he wasn't up to it what words sum that up he wanders under the oak tree in front of the clubhouse all around him are cheers. Uh, one of the things I remember that made me laugh and I think probably made like me

another like reason to be a big Roy fan is someone like tweeted at him like, Hey, thanks for letting me know that there were actually houses on the property at Augusta. I don't think I've, and he like retweeted it and was like, LOL, like crying emoji. And I was like, man, if you can laugh at that and laugh at yourself, like you're pretty grounded, a pretty decent fellow. Oh, all right. This is the same kind of time period. Roy's Twitter's like a Yeager bombs all night with my friend. He's got some funny old tweets that I hope he never goes back and cleans up. But AP says an interesting note, looking back 13 years later, instead

of being compared to tiger woods, McElroy will now forever be linked to, can you fill in the blank ironic name of who he will be linked to? Phil Mickelson. That is Greg Norman. Greg Norman. Wow. The final round score was the worst of a third round leader since Ken Venturi in 1956 that comes from. And then Dan Jenkins, just a footnote tweet from Dan Jenkins said, okay, for somebody asked him for the record, how many more majors does Tiger get? He said a couple maybe if he can get some help from the competition. And I found that quite foreshadowing for eight years from then with all the collapses that happened around him for him to win the 2019 Masters, all the water balls on 12, Molinari getting wet multiple times. I just found that tweet

to be especially prescient. That's it for 2011. That is longer than 1980. What I have, it's a lot, but it is a fascinating rewatch, fun rewatch, I hate to say with Rory, but it's just, again, that's part of what makes this tournament what it is, is the possibility that that can happen. And it has done that to many people over the years. And it's a fun one to relive. It does make me think about, we talked about this, I think recently,

there's doesn't seem like there's met many collapses anymore, right? Like the, that era was more prone to collapses. And now maybe like drivers are too big or whatever, that it's just harder to, to blow a lead. But like the, the coming of age of your golfing life now maybe like drivers are too big or whatever, that it's just harder to blow a lead. But like the coming of age of your golfing life is like seeing guys like completely fall apart

and thinking that's possible. And now like there's often kind of boring Sundays because you can sort of hang in there and shoot 70 and win majors in some ways. And this is, I'm reaching back for this one. I don't have a lot to back this up with, but the feeling of watching a lot of these putts, I love reaching back for this one. I don't have a lot to back this up with. But the feeling of watching a lot of these putts I love to for somebody to analyze how far

putter technology has come in the last 13 years, because it just seems like these three, four and five footers that I know they're nervy. And I know, like, that's the stuff that these guys seem to be able to brush in at a much higher rate than what happened on this day between Tiger and Rory for the most part. I'm just a Rory had this center shafted putter at the time. Gosh, did it look terrible throughout that entire day? And Tigers putts just did not come off. Yeah, it was is

really surprised. But it just made me think like it I'm wondering if like with modern day mallets or whatever has happened with shafts and waiting and all that. And that's kind of been, again, I might be talking out of my ass on that, but watching this was kind of like, oh, I would not be putting with that at the Masters. That does not look good. I bet people who are designing putters would say,

oh yeah, yeah, putters are way better right now. We all know golf is booming. T-times can be a little hard to get these days. I'm not the best at planning this stuff out in advance. I usually, you know, I'm a day in advance. Maybe we can play tomorrow, but you gotta be organized. You gotta be ready to act quick. You to hit that seven day window if that's what your golf course is challenging you with. And when

you want the best you have to act quickly or someone else will get it instead. It's like if you're hiring for your business, you want to find the most talented people for your open roles before the competition scoops them up. So the best way to do that ZipRecruiter ZipRecruiter finds qualified candidates fast and right now you can try it for free at ziprecruiter.com slash nluse. ZipRecruiter's powerful matching technology takes center stage to identify top talent for your roles. Immediately after posting your job, ZipRecruiter's smart technology starts showing you qualified people for it. Amp up your hiring performance

with ZipRecruiter. Find the best fast. See why four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. Just go to ziprecruiter.com slash nlu again. That's ziprecruiter.com slash nlu. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. Back to the pod. All right, Solly, I want to take you back to 1977, the 41st playing of the Masters. This is

kind of in the era when people are starting to hint that like, Oh, you know, Jack, he's the greatest, you know, there's no disputing that, but maybe he's past his prime, they don't want to come quite out and say it, but they're they're not going to lay down and give him titles anymore, which is really coming off. Then he went in. He went in 75. No 75 was he won two majors, but he didn't win in 76. You know, he's got 14 majors at this point. He's you know, at the

back then they're still counting his am is us ams. So you know, he's got more majors than he gets to count now. But he's sort of feeling like, you know, he's got some other interests. He's already kind of the all time leading major winner having you know, and so he's feeling like, okay feeling like, you know, he's got some other interests. He's already kind of the all time leading major winner having, you know, and so he's feeling like, okay, like, you know, maybe this is a, it's not quite my, my era of dominance anymore. Uh, which is funny because like in 1976 in his down year at the majors, he finished T three, T 11 T two T four in the majors.

I know. So just doesn't, yeah, can't do it anymore. I wish you want to pause here for a minute and talk a little bit about Jack Nicklaus's majors record in the 1970s, which we have talked about, I think many times, but I still feel like is worth reviewing. At this point, Sully into the 1977 Masters, in the last 28 majors, Jack has finished in the top 10 24 times.

I would have guessed higher. In only four majors in the entire first seven years of the 70s, does he miss the top 10 in majors? It's got to be like, I know we talk a lot about the 18 majors and we talk a lot about Tiger's cut streak and whatever. It's just still like the most bonkers stretch of like great golf over sustained period I think ever. Other than if we're getting specific about the Masters from 1963 to 1966, Jack's record in those four Masters were first, second, first, first. Like he didn't finish his, like Porter always does something like his average finish is like 1.3 or whatever of those Masters. In the 70s he won seven majors

during that stretch. It's just kind of like, you know, these are his finishes in the Masters, just the Masters in the 70s. 8, T2, 1st, T3, T4, 1st, T3. So this is setting the stage for what I thought was a little bit surprised to learn in research. People saying like, well, you know, he's not like, he's not quite the dude that he once was. So Hale Irwin says in the pre-lead up to the tournament. Jack's presence is still known, but his dominance is not felt so much anymore. It's not that Jack's not playing well. The other players are just better now. They're not afraid. They don't take a back seat to press releases.

You could put 25 names in a hat and pick any of them out. You'd be nuts to call anyone the favorite. So, you, Jack's not like a shit talker, but he kind of, he kind of hears a little bit of this, you know, he's, I don't know, guys don't think I can play anymore. He's, he's playing a few casual rounds. Barbara, write that down. Apparently, back then, I did not know this, I'm super jealous of this. I think the writers were kind of allowed to like, basically, like, either this or the, either the writers were allowed to walk like with the players during

practice rounds or Jack was like walking to the ropes and talking to the writers while he was playing practice rounds because there's a bunch of stories about how he kind of has like a running dialogue with the writers and he tells this story, Sully, about how he'd come to Augusta a week before to sort of get ready for the tournament. And he's telling a story to Ken Dillinger of the Washington Post, and he says he walked up to the 13th green and there was a live water moccasin on the bank. And he says, and when I got there, there were two more.

I don't know whether water moccasins make love or not, but those sure too sure were intertwined. This is the lead anecdote in a story about Jack Nichols being back at the masters was two snakes making love on the Augusta having poisonous snakes. Apparently I've, you know, I stopped shocked me that maybe they just kind of eradicated snakes period but I've never heard about like, poisonous snakes like hanging out on the corner. Yeah, and Jack and Barbara that they were just you know, snakes snakes love each other. That's great. Nicholas is kind of a little bit amused at the he says to the writers that at the

links that Augusta will go to make Augusta Eden like, including putting blue dye in the water and a special green mixture of sand and dirt that people sprinkle in divots. And he shares a story about how that he thinks the officials are sort of sillier and slyer than they thought because the day before I think this TC will prove this because it fits in with his what he thought the Ryder Cup strategy is going to be at Marco Simone. The day before he says you could hit out of the creek that fronts the green.

This is he's talking about 1976 because there wasn't any water there. Then on the night before the tournament, they damned the green up only they didn't tell us. So guys were going for the green and finding their balls in the water with a wet when they thought they should have been dry, which I'm totally in favor of this in the future. Like this, like practice rounds are like a crap shoot. You don't know what the actual whether the water is going to run through Rays Creek or not. You take your chances. Get your caddy out there

walking the course before. This is another great Dickles anecdote. So this is where I think he's like talking with the writers on the rope line because there's some sort of action. You'll see he's he's doing Jack Nicklaus is doing an impression for all of you hate my impressions. So I know that Jack does impressions too of Ben Wright, the English announcer. And he says, well, it's been right would say he's got a wedge in his hand. It's the weakest part of his game. He's got a tendency to hit it fat. And then Nicholas like takes a big smack and he goes, Hey, you know what? He's right. Self-degrading Jack doing Ben Wright would pay much money for

that. Tom Weiskopf also kind of one of the favorites because he's finished second here four times, but this one he's got the reputation for being kind of a dick like a super cantankerous with the press. So Nicholas I said he was practicing at

Augusta the week before and the press asked Tom why he didn't deploy that similar strategy and Weiskopf said well some of us don't have 10 million in our pocket. So we have to go play Greensboro. the week before and the press asked Tom why he didn't deploy that similar strategy. And Wysock said, well, some of us don't have 10 million in our pockets, so we have to go play Greensboro. So they asked him like kind of like asking, so Jack may not have had 10 million in his pocket.

Exactly. You may have like lost it all and whatever, you know, was a cryptocurrency scheme scam back then. So they asked us kind of asking Wysock like, Hey, how come you're kind was a cryptocurrency scheme scam back then. So they asked, the person is kind of asking Wysock, like, Hey, how come you're kind of a dick? And he's like, I've never been that temper. I've never been temperamental and moody. I'm easy going. It's just when I'm playing bad, I can't stand mediocrity. I care about what people think of me. But the only

person who knows me is me. And I've never found myself to be a temperamental guy, which Wysock then will later like join the broadcast and be a part of like talking about other players, which is, you know, I appreciate like that why scoffs was super honest and kind of a, you know, a truth teller back in the day. I mean, it's well known, but if you if you don't know, the iconic call in 1986 of jack's shot into 16 is from Tom Weiskopf, it is truly, I mean, just a masterclass in like setting up a dramatic moment and

leading right into it. This is your moment. I don't know the exact line. This is your moment. This is your destiny. It's the one of the greatest shots of all. It's bone chilling. It's awesome. So also talked about but not quite as much as young Tom Watson, 27 year old Tom Watson, who everyone at this point in his career is solid calling a-out choker. He is basically like people think if you think that like Xander has it difficult today people saying like oh you can't get it

done on Sundays you have no idea what it was like for Tom Watson in the 70s. I mean he is you will this will come up here as we move along but every single question that Tom Watson gets is basically about like, well, how come you can't handle the pressure on Sundays? And at this point he's already won a major. He won the British open like two years prior, but he's blown. He blew a lead at wing foot on the final day. Um, when hail urban one, he had blown like tournaments coming into this year.

He'd won twice earlier this year, but he had blown the players and heritage after having Sunday leads. And so people were basically like, oh, this guy, like he just he thinks too much. He can't. There's a lot of talk about how the Tom Watson should use his Stanford psychology degree to actually help him think his way around out there, but maybe he thinks too much. So it's just it's very funny to see, um, like just people like just kind of like flat out shitting on him.

Byron Nelson's does like sticking up for Tom. He's like, he's kind of taken Watson under his wing as a mentor. He says, you know, Tom is a good player. Uh, he's like Byron Nelson, like having coffee, like sitting there talking to writers, like, God, I want to, I wish, so wish I had been in this era of like the old timers just kind of hanging out on the patio like, you know, tell telling stories with the press. Dad Jenkins, you know, yucking

it up probably drinking with Byron Nelson. But it says Tom Watts is a good player, but he needs encouragement when he's not playing well. I don't like the use the word choking. That's too strong a word. I don't like that definition because it's degrading. You know, nobody's going to win them all. Also, Lee Elder is playing in this Masters for the second time. He had qualified by winning the Houston Open this year. Much less fanfare than when he played for the first time in 75,

which Lee is like super happy about. He says, I'm Lee Elder, the golfer now and not a freak. Which is kind of a pretty compelling quote. This is also the first tournament, first Masters ever held without Clifford Roberts as the chairman. Roberts retired and handed the reins to William Lane, and apparently was at this point, he's 84 years old, not in great health, could could barely knock it out of bed most days, and so he was watching the Masters from home.

Round one, Hubert Green is our first round leader after shooting an opening round 5 under 67. He would not hang on to lead obviously, but this would be sort of a memorable year for Green. This is of course the same year that he led going into the final round at Southern Hills and was told that someone had called in a death threat. They were going to kill him during the final round, but he ended up winning anyway. Don January and Billy Krasert are tied with three other, uh, Kraser, excuse me, if it's 69 defending champion,

Ray Floyd shoots a 171 and he says afterwards that he thinks because he set the scoring record to the masters the previous year, the tournament committee was really out to fuck him this year. It doesn't use the F word. I'm, but he says conditions were the toughest I can ever remember for a first round Floyd said the pin placements I saw I've never seen

in my 13 years I kept saying to my caddy boy they're after me they're really out to get us the original Patrick Reed Ray Floyd fast forwarding to 1980 is gonna be the next one like the talk was leading up to it was always about the scoring and the record like that there's some stuff that comes up in 1982 of like, ah, that's gonna be so great Floyd is talking about like, I mean, it's gonna be too soft. The record might come come down this year. Like he was clearly very proud of his record that he said it Augusta. Yeah. Nicholas opens with an even par 72.

He's frustrated with his putting Tom Watson quietly shoots a two under 70. In round two, Tom Watson sur shoots a 270 in round two. Tom Watson surges into a tie for the lead with a 69. He's tied with, uh, if I give you this first name, sorry, could you guess his second name? Rod? I would say pampling, but that doesn't work with the timeline. That's the only rod rod. Funceth who shoots a second round 67.

It's not. Yeah, exactly. Gary Nunn of the New York Daily News says, yes, it's two days early, but this is to prepare you for another one of those shocks. The Masters Golf Tournament is so fond of delivering. This is to prepare you for Rod Funceth. No, Funceth is not the disease that grows between your toes. That's fungus. This is Funceth. Funceth, a golfer, a man, a master's co-leader. Can we, can we, so right here's a great point to pause

and just, I struggle with this whole concept of what Nicholas and all these guys did is incredible. But if you want to understand why there's so much yellow in that Wikipedia in the 1970s, this is why the plumbers and fire been era. This is, it's not the same development of professional golf. And it was way easier to stand out amongst your peers in that era of technology, that era of athlete like that.

That's really not debatable really at this point. The money that hadn't floated into the game yet and it was not recruiting the best athletes and it is a plumbers environment era. We have to say that. I don't see any lies there. So Rod Funtzeth is 44 years old at this point and he is not exactly the most apparent person who does not believe that Rod Funtzeth is going to win the masters is Rod. Funfus on sits because he says to the press afterwards, have you heard about the book that I'm going to write? The title is the power of negative thinking. If you're thinking, if

you're thinking bad, consider how wonderful you'll feel when something good happens. Cheer up. Think bad. The mental mess for big Randy. Yeah. Really? Like fun fact is super talented. Uh, it just hasn't paid off that much at this point. I did not know this. This is maybe I should be a the mental miss for big Randy. Yeah. Speaker 3rd-Glenn Yeah. Weirdly, like fun fact is super talented. It just hasn't paid off that much at this point. I did not know this. This is maybe I should be ashamed of not knowing this for a guy who held held these records, but he held the course record at Pebble beach. He held the course record at Riviera and the course record at Muirfield. It doesn't hold

those any of those anymore, but obviously like a pretty talented player to that's a pretty good trio of things. He says, but as after the negative thing, quote, my putter fails me all the time and I fall apart. I always seem to fall apart. I guess in a way it's frustrating to see what you can shoot only to see what you actually shoot. I guess I've just always been a very poor putter.

He says, listen, if I happen to win the Masters, they wouldn't even have a coat to fit me. I'm just going to go out there and try not to embarrass myself. I need to see a picture of this guy. This is fun. Seth. What's his first name again? Rod. So Watson could have held the outright lead after 36 holes, but he bogeyed 18, which led the writers to joke. Look at Tom Watson. He's even getting good at blowing 36 hole leads. He's asked in the press press and afterwards, Hey, does it irritate you to be asked about choking? No, Watson says because

I expect it. It's not true. But I know I'm going to be asked about it. They asked him, who do you fear? What do you fear over the most over the last 36 holes? Myself, Tom Watson says. Only two shots back at this point is Australian Bob Shearer, who told the press after his round that he nearly died a month ago of an acute pancreatitis. He felt ill in Myrtle Beach and a doctor told him you're right on the edge of death. He put me in a hospital. Shearer said I had so many tubes running out of me. I felt like a

dog on a leash. I couldn't move four or five feet a Friday to keep his sugar in his blood. He drank 10 Cokes and eight three candy bars during his rounds. Top level medicine here. I'm sure what athletes these guys are. He also stated that right, right before the round, he got a shot of vitamin B right in the backside. Apparently he said, my pancreas still isn't working. Right. Uh, Nicholas,

Nicholas at this point is lurking three shots back. Another amazing anecdote that I found, and this is what I wanted to bring up. Uh, Arnold Palmer is 43 years old at this point. Uh, it looked like he was gonna miss the cut after an opening round in 76, but he surged back on Friday and he made an eagle to make the cut. He's basically like Tiger at this point.

He's got huge crowds following everywhere he goes. They really don't care what he shoots. They just want to sort of be, I mean, look at this handsome motherfucker. He is just, you know, the epitome of Americana at this point. But here's the anecdote I love. After Arnie talked to the press about his round. He was leaving the press center and he got stopped by a security guard who

demanded to see his badge being Arnold Palmer. He didn't have one. The security guard grabbed him and started to push him outside and Arnie looked like he was ready to fight at the last second. The guard realized who he was and stood down already turned to the press and said you almost had a hell of a story there with my fist and somebody's nose i would have loved to see arnie just clock a security guard and see how that would play out so ben crinshaw at this point in round three start out three is kind of making himself known he's kind of thought of as like the next jack nicholas at this point in round three, start of three is kind of making himself known. He's kind of thought of as like the next Jack Nicklaus

at this point. A lot of her papers are referring to him as Jack's protege. Everyone loves how he kind of like overpowers courses. He just puts like a dream. I find he's kind of- Crenshaw overpowers all courses. He totally was like an overpowering guy. Yeah.

People are sort of thinking like he's annoyed that he's like kind of a putting wizard. I think actually the historical comp is much better than is, uh, Jordan Spieth because apparently Crenshaw like hits it long and then hits it wild and just gets up and down from everywhere. And he's kind of pissy that people don't think that like he, you know, they think that like his putting magic is going to fade at some point. He's not actually going to be able to hang in there.

Uh, he shoots a 69 to get to seven under to seven under and he's tied with Watson at seven under at the end of the day. Rick Massengale shoots six under and Jim Colbert and Jack Nicholas are at four under. And again, in the press 10 afterwards, we've returned to the theme of Tom Watson choking. This is an exchange that he had with the press on Saturday night. Hey, Tom, wouldn't you rather be coming from behind rather than leading Watson smiled? No, he said I'd rather lead than not be

leading. A minute later, someone said considering you had a 41 on the back nine on Sunday at the the TPC. Don't you think you choked Watson smiled? No, I wasn't swinging well at TPC. Do you get mad when somebody asks if you choke? No. And he smiled just to prove he wasn't mad. What did you choke? No, I didn't believe in my swing. When you don't believe in your swing, you don't have the confidence in your swing, it can break down under pressure. He paused and explained, everybody chokes, I choke everybody does when you're swinging well, you don't choke as

bad as when you're swinging badly. So it's so did he sounds like he talked himself into the fact that he was joking. But everybody jokes, God, I'm probably going to choke tomorrow. So, you know, Crenshaw and Watson are they're tied to lead, right? You'd assume that they would be paired together, right? In the final day, you would be incorrect. Back then, the Masters did whatever the fuck they wanted. All right. They pair Tom Watson with Rick Massengale and then in the, in the blast group and then put Nicholas and Crenshaw into the second to the last group.

So like just Nicholas is actually kind of annoyed about this. Like he says, Ben, it's later in the, after the round, he says, Ben has every right to be upset with the pairing. The tournament is the only one that makes such pairings up like this on the final day by right. Ben should have been paired with Jim Colbert. It was an advantage for me to be paired with him because if I'm paired with one of the leaders, I know who I have to take out along the way not that anyone should be afraid to play with me, but it's harder for some kid to win his first

major when he's paired with me. I feel sorry for Ben, which I kind of like hilarious to me that the Masters could just be. It's gonna be like yeah, whatever we're gonna go ahead and do what we want. We want Nicholas and Crenshaw in a in a shoot out together. I guess it was like the speculation was that it was sort of a made for TV thing because it was like Crenshaw was the up and comer like the next Nicholas and

they wanted us. People wanted to see a throw down. I think that you can't, should be able to do this. If it's a tie, like instead of like defaulting to a tiebreaker of who finished first. Like if you, if you want to make, if you're tied and it doesn't really matter, but I just hate that it goes off of order of when you finished as a tiebreaker. If you want to play God of like these three guys are tied

but man, is it going to be more interesting if Tiger and Phil are paired together in this final round? Like, go for that. That's good entertainment, I think. But what you're describing, but around this time to like, I don't know if they would mess with the pairings, but or maybe this happens even a lot later, like they would move Arnie to like the group behind the leaders to be like, even when he was out of it. I remember one of these we did,

I forget what year it was. I think Oak Hill or something. They put him like the last group behind the leaders and more people were following that than the leaders that just cause they wanted him to play on TV as well. Sick. Let's go. Let's you know what, let's throw the chaos in back to this day. I mean, it just makes me laugh that Crenshaw literally, he was the first in at seven under and didn't even make into the final pairings.

It's just got lapped. So, but at this point, again, back to the theme that Nicholas is not quite that dude. Crenshaw gives a quote that will sort of haunt him throughout the least in the broadcast throughout the day. He said, we, the other players are aware of Nicholas's presence if he shoots when he's capable of shooting,

but he's gonna have to play good on Sunday. We are not as scared of him as we used to be. Venturi will go over this quote about five times during the broadcast of, oh, I bet he wishes he didn't say that. So on Sunday, Jack comes out a fire and makes three birdies on the front nine, but he actually loses ground to Tom Watson and Rick Massengale who make four birdies on the front nine. Watson makes a turn leading by one over Massengale and four over Nicklaus and this is where TV coverage picks up. Back then we are of course only getting the back nine and so Nicklaus hits, I'm not kidding, an unbelievably good shot into 10 and has this birdie putt for, to hit it to that close on 10 is pretty, uh, pretty incredible. He makes that birdie. And so now the margin is just two and

Watson hits his shot into 10 pretty decent, uh, sorry, poor shot into the left bunker hits a really good chip to about three feet, uh, misses the putt. So I cannot like make it all of a sudden, like the choking choking started coming on people are talking about. One of the things that makes me laugh throughout this thing is how much the writers love to talk about Tom Watson and love to talk about how he looks like Huck Finn for some reason. About 10 references about how he looks like Huck Finn. I'm not sure I

know what Huck Finn looks like. I've, you know, read it way back in the day, but not sure why Tom Watson was the person that they compared it to. Is it a fictional character? Like, was it a movie at this point? Or just a book? I was gonna say it's just a book. Yeah, I guess you could just invent what Tom Watson looked like in many ways. Nicholas is really, you know, he's turning on the heat, whatever. He parsed 11, but I want to get to this here. It's literally one of my, I want people to go look at this on YouTube thing because Nicholas hits an unbelievable shot into 12, probably, you know, I want to say it's like seven or eight feet and he rolls in a putt and his caddy Willie Peterson,

this is the era when caddies are so animated. This is what he does as the ball is going in, he is in between the hole of Jack and he's jumping in the air and whipping his towel around. I, you cannot tell me like this wouldn't be an enormous like scandal in this current era if that happened. But this is regular behavior by the

caddies back then and I think frankly we need to go back to this. Totally. It is incredible. So, there's it's not gonna make my story but there's one in in my part in 80 where the caddy is like walking in a puddle in 16 for one of the players. I don't remember who it is and maybe it does make my part but he just gives a whole like, ah, devastated reaction. It's like, God, am I getting that? I'd be a little upset. If you ever want to like have an enjoyable watch and just see like the caddies back then, they had like amazing like Afros and mutton chops and they, they dressed like you could, they are all the way

down like the V neck of their shirts, you know, obviously not wearing shirts underneath because so hot and they would just like like they would sit on top of the golf bags next to things and they would absolutely like pump their fists and jump in the air. It was an incredible era for style. So this is this is sort of a silly thing. But Tom Watson on 11. He had he hits it right of 11. He has like a bug on his ball and he cannot get this bug off. He spends not kidding, like a full 45 seconds or a minute, like waving, just bug away and the bug will not leave. And he just finally was like, all right.

And he just hits the ball with the hits, the bug, like the bug is like, he just squashes the bug against the ball, uh, rolls it up and, uh, and, you know, makes par there. So after Nicholas made his birdie at 12, he's now only a shot back. And so all of a sudden, like the, the, the crowd is going bonkers, like the roars are, you can see every look on Watson's face. Every time Nicholas makes a birdie, the cut to Watson and he's trying to sort of stay cool. For some reason, we, I feel like we need to talk to the Masters about this. The official feed cuts here, so we don't get to see

like Nicholas play 13, 14 or 15, which is like crushing because of what happens. The YouTube feed just cuts back and we're so I think my conspiracy theory in me is because of what happens next. Nicholas birdies 13 while Watson is in back in 13 fairway and Watson. He kind of like puts his arm up. Apparently this is from reading from Dan Jenkins, reading from various sort of things. And we'll discuss later.

Watson thinks that Nicholas is taunting him. He thinks that he is talking shit that he's like, Hey, go ahead and top that. And it just, it makes Watson piss off. So Watson gets the lead back after he birdies 13. He's like fired up at this point. Don't know what shot he hit into 13 because we don't have any footage of it. Nicholas pars 14.

We come back coverage comes back with Nicholas almost chips in for 15 at Eagle. He just did it long, but he hits an incredible chip. It's sort of like a take that been right for making talking shit about my short game. Nicholas almost chips in for 15 at Eagle. He just did it long, but he hits an incredible chip. It's sort of like a take that Ben right for making talking shit about my short game. Just barely misses it. Make us birdie. Now, Nicholas is the outright leader at 11, but Watson punches back at this point. He birdies 15 tied 11. So even the fans who want Watson to win at this point think that he's probably going to blow it because as he says, he's walking to 16, somebody leans over the rope line and says, love you man, but don't choke. It's just brutal. Uh, Rick Massengale pretty stalled at this point.

Uh, he's eight under, but he's kind of out of it. So you don't say, yeah, you don't say on 16, Nicholas hits it into the crowd. Sorry. like just like way left. It lands. It ends up kind of bounces of ping pongs around the crowd lands on some woman's blanket. And there's like a three minute discussion about how what kind of drop he's going to take. And so finally, like they pick up the blanket and have Nicholas do the drop. He does the drop over the back of his shoulder, which I feel like I would love if we could bring back. That was awesome. Uh at

this point, like Ben Chury just keeps bringing up the, you know, he majored in psychology at Stanford and boy, you know, he just, he gotta be able to find his way to think his way through this final round. Did they do the uh the the the sports psychologist go to see him to learn from him? Do they do? Do they do that line? That's one of my favorites about Nicholas. So, Dave Anderson of the New York Times says at this point, perhaps he's writing on this in the sort of Sunday setup from Saturday's thing. Perhaps Tom Watson is too smart. Many of the young golfers on tour never studied anything in college except greens. When they play golf, they don't think they react with his reddish brown hair and freckled face. Tom Watson resembles Huck Finn with a sand wedge and a diploma. and freckled face. Tom Watson resembles Huck Finn with a sand wedge and a diploma.

So Jack makes par on 16, drives it way left on 17. Meanwhile, back on 16, Watson hits a really good shot into 16, but just misses the birdie putt. So tension is high here. It's a match play situation here, as you might expect, even though they're not in the same group, Nicholas hits a really like he pulled it way left, way left of the Eisenhower tree, but he hits a incredible shot to 15 feet from way over there. And he's got a pot, probably about 20 feet that I think like, he thinks that he makes briefly, like he kind of starts to lean forward, but it just drifts a little bit left. And so he's like, all right, still, you know,

tied for the lead at this point, probably gonna get into a playoff. Like, you know, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna have to do anything dramatic on 18. It's a good drive on 18. Watson and Massingale both hit it like pretty similar to each other. This is Rick Massingale, by the way.

I just want you to see this. The absolute trip. It's incredible. And also like this is Tom Kite. Oh my God, Tom Kite. Look at that collar. That's Jerry Colangelo collar. Find a new, that's a normal collar. Find a new, find a new slant. Massengale and Watson are kind of like right even with

each other in 17 fairway. Massingale hits a really shot to about 10 feet. And Watson goes over like literally 20 feet and looks in Massingale's bag to see what he hit. Like, oh, totally okay. Doesn't ask him. Doesn't say anything to him but like, you know, you're allowed to sort of look or whatever. And then Watson hits a really good shot to like, like I think just probably 15 feet right of the pin, uh, pins kind of like left center of the green,

but there's enough space for Watson to kind of, you know, sneak one in there. So Watson's got a tricky putt and he absolutely drips it in and gives this like piss pump, like full, like side uppercut. I'd say it rivals like anything the tiger ever threw in terms of an upper cut. Just absolutely totally pumped up things at this point. Like, okay, I've, I've just basically set back. I mean, he's still pissed off at Nicholas at this point.

He thinks that Jack has been talking shit. So Nicholas later, he says, I, you know, he's on, uh, 18 T at this point hits his drive. And then here's the roar and he says, mentally I was not prepared for it. I did not think Tom was going to make a birdie. So he knows Nicholas now he's one down that he needs a birdie and his original plan from where he was in 18 fairway was to hit like a six iron to the middle of the green or the back of the

green and sort of give himself a putt. But obviously like put himself in position to make a playoff. He decides, OK, well I've got to hit. Now I got to get it close to the pin because Watson just made and sort of give himself a putt, but obviously like put himself in position to make a playoff. He decides, okay, well, I've got to hit, uh, now I got to get it close to the pin because Watson just made birdie. He's kind of in between clubs. He decides to hit a soft six. He hates like, he's like, I hate hitting a soft shot on our under pressure because it

just, and he doesn't have a great lie comes up. I'm not, it one hops into the front bunker. I mean, it is so fat. Uh, you know, we, we think of Jack having never missed like any shots under pressure, but this was not exactly like a great swing down the stretch hits a decent chip out of there, but cannot get up and down. And so he makes bogey on 18. Watson is in the fairway as this is going on, you can see

him turn to someone and say, what was that for? He thinks Jack has just made par because he didn't sort of, and someone says, oh, that was for bogey. And you can see Watson go, let's go. Just pumped up. Really?

Yeah, so Watson hits it on in, you know, just right, right at the pin on 18. It looks like it's totally, you know, Massingale hits it inside of him. But again, this is like a different era of etiquette because Massingale has probably like a 10 footer Watson has a 20 footer Massingale goes ahead and puts out a turn. And then like he leaves himself a three footer and instead of marking it, even though he's tied for third and probably going to make $28,000 or something at this point, if he makes it, he goes ahead and just puts out, uh,

and let's leave, let lets the stage for Tom. And so this is Vin Scully's call as Watson is lining up his putt on 18. He's had to fight off some slurs about the fact that he's choked. This is his answer to all those critics. How do you have a Vin Scully in your arsenal too? You know, it's all like, I just try my best. Did you practice that? Did you do any practice of that one? No, I did not. I may have done this scully in the past amongst my friends. That was really good. Thank you. So we go into the into Butler cabin for the Tom Watson has won the Masters. We go into the cabin for the Green

Jacket ceremony and Chairman William Lane is the new Augusta Chairman. He looks directly into the camera says, I'd like to take a moment to recognize Clifford Roberts, our Chairman of 40 years. Cliff, I know you're watching and at the risk of losing my green coat, I'd like to express to you on behalf of the Masters Committee our deep appreciation for your 40 years of creation, imagination, management that has made the Masters one of the most successful sport events in the world. Watson sits down on the couch.

They've already interviewed Nicholas at this point, and he sort of explained about how he had to hit a soft six or whatever. Nicholas is right next to him on the couch in Butler Cabin. And the first thing Watson says is, I have to apologize to Jack for what I said on 18. I did felt that when he made his birdie on 13, I thought he was waving back at me to say, hey, top that. And I do apologize. Apparently, like Watson, as he was walking off 18 green, and having just like, won the Masters, like motherfuckers

Nicholas at this point is basically like, yeah, like Jack, you should not have done that. That was totally on like uncool. Uh, and Nicholas was like, what the fuck? And Nicholas like very class. Can you believe this guy? I said, I was taunting him. Nicholas said he was waving to the crowd. Uh, after he made his birdie on 13, he was not trying to talk trash to Nicholas. And so he, he slaps Watson on the knee and says, oh, it's okay, nobody.

And Watson is kind of much apologetic. Ray Floyd puts the jacket on Tom Watson and the jacket is like three sizes too big. Like it looks like he is just wearing his dad's jacket. But Watson has answered his critics and no longer as a choker, obviously'll go on to win many more majors, including another Masters. If they would have gone to a playoff, it would have been the first time in Masters

history that they Masters had a sudden death playoff in the playoff hole would have been number one. That's what they had decided pre decided that they were going to play later in this year. Nichols will become the first player to surpass $3 million going to play. Uh, later in this year, Nichols will become the first player to surpass $3 million in career earnings. Obviously like what you get from finishing like, uh, you know, second, uh, at various tournaments this year.

The reason I brought up the Clifford Roberts stuff in September of this year, Clifford Roberts will show up at the club one morning, go get his haircut, get dressed in his new pajamas, walk down by the water where the par three course is and shoot himself in the head. Somehow the gun ended up in an auction for golf memorabilia going up for sale for $15,000 which Augusta quickly bought the gun to keep it off the black market for just weirdos and sickos. Lee Elder finished 19th despite a first around 76 back then

You could get into the following tournament if you worked in the top 24 and then later that summer Of course Nicholas would have his duel in the Sun with Tom Watson where Watson would outlast him at Turnberry Pretty incredible stretch of majors for these two guys as the change in the guard truly would sort of happen as Tom Watson out dueled him not only once but twice Another anecdote that shocked me that I found later this year Nicholas would win the memorial for the first time his own tournament He was so overcome by emotion that he told Barbara that he was going to retire on the spot That he didn't want to these thought that was the best way he could go out that it meant as much, if not more to him as any of his majors winning his own tournament.

Barbara talked him out of it and he would go on to win four more majors. I meant to say this earlier, but like that, I always have to laugh at like, Oh, Nicholas passed his prime, passed his peak. 21 years later, he topped 10 in the Masters, finished like T6 in 1998. Still my favorite fact, whatever, maybe it was T8, whatever it was. 21 years later, he's still somewhat competitive in the Masters. It's just absolutely remarkable. This is Dan Jenkins writing in Sports Associated about what was most different last Sunday was Tom Watson himself. He was just about the guttiest golfer anyone had ever himself. He was just about the guddiest golfer anyone had ever seen. He was the he was under the most

excruciating pressure from the first tee to the next to last putt on every hole standing over every single shot. He was the Tom Watson who was supposed to think up a hook, a slice a shank anything outrageous take himself out of these things. But for four long thrilling hours, all he did was fire a round of golf so unexpectedly brilliant that he not only won the Masters for the second major championship of his career he also scored a clean knockout over Jack Nicklaus. How many Masters did Watson win? Two Masters, a US Open, and then six British Open's.

Just right, five British Open's. We're counting that one. It's like we count those majors for speed. Like we're just gonna write a quick break here to give a shout out to a new sponsor of no laying up that is of course, Mizuho. If you do not know who Mizuho is, they are a top global corporate and investment bank. They are a powerhouse in Japan. The Americas is the fastest growing region for Mizuho globally. They only have institutional businesses in the America.

If you're an avid golf watcher, you might have seen a few of their commercials featuring Michelle Wee West. There's one on the Mizuho's trading floor, Golf Ball Travels illustrating different deals or the one with her caddy. The caddy like Mizuho provides expert advice and solutions to their clients.

They are also the title sponsor of the Mizuho America's Open. They're doing some fantastic things in golf, particularly in ladies golf. This year, May 16th through 19th at Liberty National, they'll be amateurs playing with pros. They've increased the purse of that event to three million dollars. They cover player accommodations. They have a full day leadership summit for young girls. They have a partnership with Girls Inc. That is all Mizuho. So you may not know the name yet. You likely will know many of the name-brand companies. They have helped projects. They have funded events. They support. Thank

you to Mizuho is now supporting our content as well. And for all they're doing in the world of golf. For more information, visit Mizuho Americas.com. Again, for more information, visit Mizuho Americas.com. Now back to the Masters deep dive. All right, Kev, that brings us to 1980. I know this will be a much, much shorter effort for me than the previous version, because I was kind of hoping 1980 was a little bit more interesting than it was. I mean, it does sound like it was interesting. The YouTube broadcast, not so much. We'll get into that. It's kind of lacking on the YouTube channel of what's remaining there. I'm wondering, similar to what you

were talking about in 77, I'm wondering why that is it? Do they not have access to some of the footage or what it is? But we'll get to some of that. As I teased earlier, sprint up the stairs. A lot of lead up hype about Ray Floyd and article is written in the independent record about how now he's a family man. I just found this interesting. They documented of he said, if I had to do it all over again,

this is the way I'd want it said the one time notorious playboy, a swinger more off the links than on it. A bachelor for whom golf was merely a way station in route to the fun set. So after finishing around, he would whiz past the practice T and a rush to change into a tuxedo. He was seen in the smart places. He did the prettiest dolls in town. Hugh Hefner's playboy bunnies, debutants and starlets. He swung. He said, the only time I worked on my game is when I got short in the bank. And that was often, if I hadn't been blessed with some natural talent, I wouldn't have lasted three years on tour.

Anybody who thinks like it's harder now with technology and the press or whatever. Fine. Sure. But like writers back then would just straight up make innuendo about, Hey, this dude's laying pipe all over town. He is just absolutely any, any doll who's coming around his, his motel six at night. They're, they're walking home bowlegged by God. That's the sound is. I mean, the writers just didn't give a fuck. They just say that shit, especially in golf culture. Like even, uh, even some of Dan Jenkins writing it back into the 20 tens was, it was a little bit like, ah, yeah, I don't, I don't know about that. But on the third, on Thursday, Tom Weiss cough makes a 13th on the, uh, and Dan Jenkins writes, Weisskopf at the 12th was a splendid

sight for any recreational player who has trouble with his short irons or wedges. On Thursday, he kept trying to nip a wedge over the creek and the ball kept going into the water. He would hit a shot, then hold his hand out for the caddy to hand him another ball to drop. Five balls went in on Thursday. On Friday, he put two more in the drink. Seve by Steros gets out to tie for the lead with David Graham and Jeff Mitchell. There would be a lot of names, no names, I should say that kind of filter through the leaderboard. A lot is written about that, about the, the troubled state that American golf might be in at this point. As the 23 year old Seve

is going to, is going to romp to a victory here. But on Friday, Dan Jagans writes, one of the more exciting moments occurred long before by a stairs is escapades on Amen corner on Friday. He had the biggest hook in the history of leftward trajectories at the 17th hole and his ball wound up on the seventh green, roughly the equivalent of aiming at Kansas from New York and hitting Mississippi. The result, however, was another birdie for Seve. He took his free drop off the putting surface on the seventh, hit a towering blind iron shot that landed 15 feet

from the flag at the 17th and ran home the putt and threw his cap in the air the way Palmer used to. Like I tried to think of like the logistics of being on seven green from 17T. That is like a 60 yard like dead pole hook like and making birdie. That's Yeah, that's quite the quite the image. Seve is 23 years old at this point. He has it says he's playing in his fourth Masters. His prior

Masters finishes are t 33 t 18 t 12. So he is gaining on it. He's not playing much in the United States at this time. He talks a little bit about not liking playing in the United States a little bit afterward. But the Sunday morning paper, as he takes the lead into the final round, it's you know, he shoots 66-69. He's got a four shot lead after two rounds over Rex Caldwell and David Graham. And then after the third round, he is 13 under par,

has a seven shot lead over Ed Fiore, the gripper. So he should 66, 69, 68. And the Sunday morning paper is singing Seve's praises saying he's expected to establish himself as the new master of professional golf. The lead was the second biggest ever only to Ray Floyd's lead. And then the broadcast on YouTube, it opens up in the first like 46 minutes are with no announcers. It's just like cameras from behind the greens almost like an isolated feed of

some kind no announcers. Part of me wonders like if there's just like commentary that they were not comfortable with having out there at this point I I really don't know what it is and it's you don't see any of Seve's shots until he gets to I'll get to that but basically Seve gets out to a ten shot lead at one point in this round He gets to he birdies the first he birdies the third he birdies the fifth

He's 16 under par and you can't quite tell, you know, who's in second at that point, but it's a 10 shot lead. And he gets to the turn and he bogeys the 10th hole, he makes a double bogey on the 12th and bogeys the 13th and the lead is down to three. So from a 10 shot lead all the way down to a three shot lead, and we'll get into some of that. But just to comment on your camera thing, I noticed that in the 77 broadcast is basically like,

it's clear that the cameras were not allowed to be inside the ropes in any sense. Like, I don't know whether this changed after Clifford Roberts passed away or whatever, but all the shots of like Watson are from either the towers or like they'll shoot like through trees. Like you'll see literally like tree branches in the shot, but you never get any

like super close ups that we get now of like the camera person walking like you talked about with short so like that would never happen back in 77. Well, and some some of the clips I could see from this as well had golf carts out out and about but everything was done via cable like there was no remote sending of a broadcast feed. So there was like a cable like a literal cable tied to the camera that's like strung out from the golf carts to get the cameras around and like, honestly, during this

telecast, somebody is in there just kind of like how we are with our little with our little slides and pictures, just clicking through cameras to get to the right view. Like it's not like a clean cut. It's like, Oh, let's cycle through eight different camera views. And nope, that's a fan. Nope, that guy's still in motion right now. Nope, that's not right. That's not I mean, extended periods of, of some pretty wild stuff.

We're playing with 1980 technology right now. That's, you know, this is the golden era for us. So the broadcast opens up and it's Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus playing together on the 11th green and and Augusta national not looking pure in this time period between the cameras and you know, just the era of agronomy and whatnot, not looking pure. And it opens up with this shot of Arnie hitting a putt from off the green on 11. And look how far

back he takes this putter. I mean, he mashes this putt and my immediate reaction was like, Holy, are these greens? We're only at a five. And the answer is no. He puts it off a green. It puts it into Martinez or whatever. Almost put it into a country club. And then he steps up and actually makes that par putt coming back in Arnie fashion. But continue on with some of the entertainment aspects. I just want you to look at this putting stance. Sorry. Now I'm flipping through images like, like they are. I want you to look at this putting stance. Have you ever seen, I had to work my way back into this, but apparently

this is how Hubert green putted. They don't get, they don't have any graphics for who any of these players are. And man, if you want to test your ability to die, to, you know, to try to find names, like go back and watch some of these broadcasts and try to guess who these people are without the names flashing up on screen. Because again, if you were wondering why Nicholas dominates so much in this time period, this is how one of the best players in the world putted him. His hands are between his knees. Like it looks like he's going to hit his leg when he takes that back. I'm just going to real quick show you. This is going to say,

this is Nicholas's putting stance. I mean, it's like they, I kind of love back then that, that there was just sort of how it was done. They, everyone had their own unique kind of crouch and like this wasn't all this like technical shit. It was just like, Hey, like figure out a way to get the ball in the hole, man. And this is another image of green, green putting. It was just like, Hey, like figure out a way to get the ball in the hole, man. And this is another, another image of green, green putting it's almost like Michelle. We tabletop with the, with the crouch, but it was a bit, a bit of a tough scene. You were green living up to his name there with the green shirt, green screen striped pants, green pants, green collar. Again, some of these aesthetics in this time period are just just incredible. I believe this is Gibby Gilbert, just

blowing smoke out of the out of his nose in the 17th fairway but as he's ripping a heater in the middle of it, I think my pictures are out of order or some kind of pieces together. But the telecast actually begins the announcers don't come in. It's only an hour and 26 broadcast on YouTube and they announcers don't start until the 46 minute mark and it just again, I wanted to choose this, this one because I wanted to see the Seve like collapse here, like that happens here. And the, and the almost choke again with the, the bogey on 10, 11, double 12 and bogey 13. And he had a six iron from one 55 on 12 into

the water short and into the water. If you want to know how far the ball was falling by the back then it's so fun to look like you see these guys be like oh is it one iron or two iron into like 15 like 16 they're hitting often like two or three iron like it's just completely different era of skill test. I want to start this was Jack Newton who was ripping the heater in the in the middle of uh in the middle of 17 fairway apologies to the Newton, uh, family there and give me Gilbert. Yeah. Uh, Seve, Seve was quoted afterward about this collapse that he was having. He said, I say to myself, you stupid, you have comfortable lead. Now you lead by three. You must try very hard.

And you get into the impression game. I love it. Sorry. I mean, you kind of have to, Well, it is written out not with like, how would how would that work? Right? If somebody is speaking in the second language as a journalist, would you kind of fill in some little words that they miss or any of that? Or do you type? Do you like spell out exactly what they said? I think you got to spell out exactly what they said. Like you put something in quotes. It needs to be something that was actually said. They get the important part. And Sevi obviously felt comfortable enough speaking in English, you know, at this point in his career, I think early in his career, he didn't, he just sort of spoke with a translator or whatever. And so, like, I think you absolutely

have to quote what the literal thing is he said. Jenkins would say later when he when asked what he had felt at this point, what he might've been saying to himself, he said, the fight was on the inside for me. What I say was, son of beach. Literally, Jigges types that out, B-E-E-D-H, son of beach. The stalwart, Gibby Gilbert, birdies the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th, and then steps up and stuffs it on 17. Well, which would have given them a look to get to, um, get to, uh, 11 under par.

I apologize. I was not familiar with your game. Seriously. The, the broadcast does not pick up Seve until the very, the 15th hole. And Seve does make a birdie to get to 13 under and kind of get back out to that, out to that lead. But man, they do such a great job. I love watching this stuff of like letting the big moments breathe following Seve as he gets to 16 T zoom in shots on his face like the nervous twitches of, you know, fixing your pants pants and Seve does a cool thing. There's throughout, you know, I'm trying to get I'm trying

to immerse myself in this and try to understand the appeal of Seve, right? There's so many people that speak with such reverence for this guy back, you know, back in this time period, not a lot of his competitors, but fans love this guy. One thing that was interesting is after almost all of his shots, he would take his hat off and just like let his face be seen. And like he would wave to people and like he would not walk, like he'd finish a hole and they're like, take his hat off as he walked. And like, he just,

then Scully is the announcer. He's talking about this guy that has this charisma again. He's 23 years old. He's not that well known to the American audience. And now the great 23 year old Spaniard is coming up waving to the fans. And I know Scully for baseball stuff. So I keep expecting it to be, that's a foul ball down the line. And so he hits a shot in the 16 and it's obviously playing the draw in there. And you hear his caddy and he's kind of goes, eat it up. Be a one. Like I love this call that is getting it goes long. It's the bone shot. It goes long there, but Gibby Gilbert steps up on sick on 18 can't

handle the pressure. It's just rope hooks one. It goes through the woods and on into that old practice area. And it just shows it's just kind of fun to watch Seve pair with this Jack Newton fella who's ripping these heaters coming up. Seve Seve takes a one iron off 18 and they know it's the first time in a Masters history that two foreigners finish in the top two. They call them foreigners. I did that. Just foreigners. Yeah. I love it. Gary, what do you think about all these foreigners finish in the top two. They call them foreigners. I did that. I just love it. I love it. Gary, what do you think about all these foreigners winning the Masters?

After he wins, I'm not going to try to do the impression here, but after he wins, Vince Scully tells a story that his agent, Ed Botterd had been at a luncheon last week in London and he was introduced by the Toastmaster as the manager of professional golfer, Ballerino Sevesteros. Well, they butchered his name a week ago, but no longer, Sevriano Ballesteros. In the aftermath, Arnold Palmer would say, I used to play that way, which you know, you see a gray haired Arnold Palmer, you know, whacking putts off the green out there.

And it just kind of is an interesting quote of, kind of this weird little time period, kind of between the seventies and into the eighties, where, you know, the star power was a bit lacking outside of Sevilla in this time period. Watson does, obviously does a lot in this time period kind of between the 70s and end of the 80s where, you know, the star power was a bit lacking outside of Seve and this time for Watson does obviously does a lot in this time period. But Seve would say after I'm going back to play the European circuit where I have a lot of friends over here, I'm too lonely. That loneliness said

Seve made Masters week the hardest I've ever had. There was a very big pressure this week. Maybe I feel more at home in Europe. And when asked about his up and down play, he said, went up is very nice when down is very bad, which I think should be on a t-shirt. When up is nice, very nice when down is very bad. Well, let's get Casey on that. I think that's pretty great. I would definitely wear. Maybe the favorite fact that I uncovered on this one, Maybe the favorite fact that I uncovered on this one. Seve got a $55,000 check for winning first place. Golf Magazine was offering up an extra $50,000

if you would have broken the scoring record. Almost doubling the per, a Golf Magazine almost doubling the purse if you would have broken the scoring record. And he was 16 under through the fifth hole with three par fives to play. I think the record was either 17 or 18 at this point. I think it was 17. So I don't know if he was 16 under through the fifth hole with three par fives to play. I think the record was either 17 or 18 at this point, it was 17. So I don't know if he was

feeling the pressure on doubling up his money or what, but I just I could not, I could not believe I found the fact that a golf magazine, I'm like, wait, golf magazine, no, no, literally golf magazine was offering up $50,000, which was heck of a lot of money back then. But I'm kidding. It does make you laugh journalistically about like, here's someone we're allegedly trying to cover. Oh, and here's a bunch of money from us for like doing well.

There was no Spanish press at the Masters. They had all these foreign credential people and there's no one from Spain that came. This was Seve's 25th professional win at that age of 23. Dan Jiggins wrote, the Masters was Ballesteros second major championship. He won the British Open last July. Never did he deserve to lose it

for he had simply lapped the field. When he went to the last nine holes on Sunday with a 10 shot lead on everybody, it raised the question of whether the American pros are spending too much time getting rich off their eighth place finishes. Ballesteros is not only immensely talented having both length and style, but he's obviously hungry.

Anyone can stumble into one major championship. It takes a rare ability of one kind or another to win two of them. Bias there seems destined to take many more majors. Consider what his game combines the length of a younger Jack Nicholas, the boldness of a 1960s Arnold Palmer and the putting touch of Ben Crenshaw. Dan's pretty, everything I stumbled on in the last couple days researching this Dan stuff is pretty prescient and

predicting out what's going to be if he doesn't call, he didn't call you a future star if you didn't, you know, if you called you a future star, you probably ended up being one. Dan, you know, like, there's some stuff that historically like, you know, I love about Dan, but I love so much about him that it's like, you know, you just kind of maybe write it off to some of the era But man, what a what a great like observer of the game What a sort of smart and you know when he wrote about you and said you were gonna be great It you know exactly what you said it usually came true because he had seen you know

He had been covering the game since Hogan and he knew who had the look and who was the deal. Uh, shame. He never quite wrapped his arms around tiger. And in fact, I think like when he put his like top five of all time, did not include tiger in it because he was sort of still annoyed. The tiger never quite, uh, got what Jen Jenkins was about. But yeah, a fun read and all these going back. Could have been some other stuff going on with that as well. That maybe maybe wasn't the highlight of day Jenkins. Again, not a whole lot in this. I was hoping for for a more out of this

one, but I found an interesting article that was kind of circulated everywhere by the Associated Press, which was TV looks for quality golf. And I just found a lot of the nuggets within this article. Very interesting. This was 44 years ago, talking about a golf has always been a little unique and the other major sports athletes compete for more points runs or goals golf alone believes that less is better. Similarly, golf looks at its declining television ratings, and explains that although less may not be better, it isn't really worse.

It's the quality of the viewers, not the quantity. No sporting event is more reflective of this elitist philosophy than the Masters, which begins today and will have its final two rounds on CBS Saturday and Sunday. It's an invitation tournament with only a select few playing and only a select two advertising Cadillac cars and travelers insurance. You won't see any shilling for beer, soda or small cars products for the masses on the Masters. You will see half as many commercials as normal because the Masters is very picky about interruptions,

but CBS won't lose anything. It just charges twice as much per commercial and the two sponsors don't seem to mind. They're just happy to be there. Quote, you buy the Super Bowl for the numbers, we buy the Masters for its high and special demographics, said Dick Simon, director of corporate TV for Darcy McManus, the ad agency that buys half the Masters commercial time for Cadillac.

It's the higher income male we're trying to reach, said Simon. This is golf's lot in life. With so much sports on the tube every weekend, golf is never going to be top rated programming. Golf is alive and well there's just very effective counter programming against it said Frank Cherkinian the executive producer and director of CBS coverage. This will be CBS 25th consecutive masters and Cherkinian has skillfully pulled off pulled the

strings on 22 of them. He would famously go on to do every Masters through 1995. So another 15 years after that. At the tournament players championship in March, the big names came out of the pack to stir things up. Lee Trevino won it by beating challenges from golfing greats Jack Nicholas and Gary Player. All that was missing was Arnold Palmer hitching up his trousers. Although ratings were down in two thirds of the 1979 tournaments and were also were televised, they were also televised in 1978. Advertisers are not deserting golf. They know that at thousands

of private country clubs around the country, they're watching golf, not boxing. Trichinian said the top rated golf events in 79 were Bob Hope and Bing Crosby because they are celebrity tournaments that attract the fringe fan. And in recent years, NBC and ABC has understood this better than CBS in the past. Trichinian has opted for more pure golf instead of an occasional quickie feature or interview for Chikinian is changing his tune a little. The drooping ratings have something to do with it. So does the fact that CBS is doing 20 tournaments this year. So CBS is jazzing

things up by putting microphones on players at the heritage golf classic with Tom Kite told the nation that John Schroeder was playing the course in slow motion, miking up players in 1980, 44 years ago. I did not have that. I, this whole article, you could almost print again in 2024. Like none of it's kind of seems dated or anything other than at that time, 20 tournaments seemed like a lot. They thought they were oversaturated with 20 tournaments. Try 48 that are on television now. And, but the model of, yeah, fewer, less interruptions. We don't care about the declining ratings.

It's getting reaching the right people. The high income people. I just found that to be very, for almost a half a century old article, that to be a very interesting. One of the things I read in the Clifford Roberts piece was that he, for the entire time that he was the chairman, told CBS four minutes of commercials per hour.

That is it. That is no more than that. And that was the standard forever. And at the US Open, they would have 10 minutes, 12 minutes, and all the other majors, they would sort of jam their commercials in. But Clifford Roberts was basically like, if we're signing a one-year contract every year because we want to be able to walk away from it if you ever violate the terms of this we you will not get to broadcast the masters and we don't care if the ratings are lower

we're going to have the product that we want on television and that's part of what made the masters the masters totally i mean you read the making of the masters the david owen book that is you know popular read this time of year it It details all of this. Their philosophy in 1956 was like the right way to build the profile of a tournament. It was not about the short term commercial gains. It was like we're going to do everything to make this a great experience for viewers, attendees, everything. And look at where this tournament is now in 2024. All right. So I got sorry that was like, I know. That's okay. Yeah. Yeah. Uh we're gonna go back to 1989. We're gonna spring forward a decade and I

will you know skip some of the early tournament preamble here uh as we sort of get to because the ending of this is really what's the the meat of 1989. The defending champ is Sandy Lyle uh of Scotland. Uh the favorites coming into this Masters are Greg Norman, Seve, of course, Tom Kite, and young Mark Kalkoveckia. So it is cold as F this year. This is going to be a miserable slog of a Masters. Jenkins is writing, the Azaleas are practically frozen. There was wind and rain blowing hard all week. But guess which recent NLU podcast guest is our first round leader?

Kenneth Green. Not quite. Although Kenneth will appear later. Lee Buck Trevena at age 49 is the solo leader after a first round 67 Trevino of course memorably hated the Masters for many years changed his shoes in the parking lot swore off of ever coming when they made one of his sons pay $15 for a badge was just in general Clifford Roberts once sent him a note saying you know I'd like to meet over coffee and have like a discussion about why you won't come to the Masters Trevino wrote back, I don't drink coffee and ignored him. That's how sort of annoyed he was.

But at this point, Lee is sort of softened a little bit. He is at 49 years old. He has a new baby. As you can imagine, Sally, what you're going through the exhaustion of having a new baby at 37, 38 years old and what it would be like for Lee at 49. But Lee is, you know, in in the muddy windy weather is sort of making it so that everybody's tee shots kind of get hung up. They're not a lot of rollout. So this surprisingly gives an advantage

to Lee who says I'm a mutter. I can get around this course now. Of course Lee is super colorful. They bring him into the press 10 afterwards and they say can you take us through your shot by shot? Mr. Trevino. And he says, man, I'm a Mexican. I can't remember all those shots. They say, were you, I don't even, that doesn't even make any sense. So someone with a wife who's Mexican. I don't know what to say about that. Was he emotional when he finished the press to ask them? He says, I'm not an emotional individual when it comes to my family. Yes, but golf. No, when I'm finished,

I'm just looking for a beer. How are the Greens out there today? Mr Trevino? Well, they're fine in practice rounds, but when the tournament starts, they put STP on him and they get real slick. Why did he think so many years that he couldn't play here?

He says, well, you know, Jack Nicklaus told me I could always play this course and I said, Jack, I'll play you in $1000 Nassau. If you play my tee shots and I get to play yours. He didn't say anything after that. If Jack had to play my itty bitty tee shots, he would have quit the game and opened up a pharmacy in Ohio. Trimino talks a little bit about his tortured history of the masters. He said he no longer changed his shoes in the parking lot,

sitting on the trunk of his car because quote, I've upgraded to a van asked to be heading to your grits about hating Augusta so much. He said, sure. I always have regrets when you talk as much as I do, you're going to put a shoe in there every once in a while. He said that a man walked up to him before the tournament and looked at his swing and said, you know what, buddy, you won't break 76. And he said, I wouldn't have taken a quarter of that. And

I'm a gambling man. Uh, Trevino had dropped 22 pounds this year before the tournament and said that, uh, he was feeling great, but also said that, uh, if I'm leading on Saturday night, I might not even show up on Sunday. I'll probably have a heart attack in my hotel. Interesting enough that, uh, writers at the previous year, you know, this point is 49. He's still into the masters on his five year exemption from winning the PGA in 1984, but in the masters the previous year had shot 83, 81 to miss the cut.

And in the parking lot, the writers caught up with him by his car. And I'm going to a bit proximate as quote, because the writers use bleeps in this instead of the actual swear words, but I think I'm gonna try to use what I think the actual swear words are. So if you're driving in your car, listen to this with your kids, you know, put this on mute or tell them to cover their ears. I hope to shit these fuckity fucks don't fucking bother to send me

another fucking invitation next fucking year, Torino said after missing the cut last year, but he's changed his tune and he started loving the masters this year. One of the columnists, Larry guest of the Orlando Sentinel said that Trevino leading the masters at 49 was as improbable as George Bush doing fundraisers for the Democrats or Willard Scott squeezing into a leotard for a performance of Swan Lake or Princess Diana whipping up a batch of chitlins. get tired for a performance of Swan Lake or Princess Diana whipping up a batch of chitlins. Do you think they had like a sheet, like a traveling sheet of, of like, of phrases like

this, like, I'm going to work this one in there. I haven't used that one yet. No, I've yes, I've been used that one in three years. I can use that one. The, the Willard Scott is fat. Jokes are very prominent during this, like the, the political cracks are, uh the political cracks are there was no stick to sports back then you could just make kind of like cracks all the time so Nick Faldo is a shot back at three under and Scott Hoke who has not won a tournament in five years in the PGA Tour is at two under conditions are even more brutal on day two but guess which recent NLU podcast had the round of the day. Kenneth Green, Ken Green. That's right. He shot 67 on a day when the average score was 75.8. Faldo and Trevino are tied at three under.

Trevino kind of hangs in there despite a 74. Seve and Crenshaw and Scott Hoke and Ken Green are all kind of hanging two strokes back. Green is the talk of the press tent for some of his previous antics. So I think he covered some of these in the Ken Green interview, which I hope everyone will listen to. But in case anyone didn't, he admits during the press interview afterwards that he called Magnolia Lane ugly previous years. Those trees just don't do it for me, Green said. I was talking with my caddy about it on the range today and I said, I think there's, I still think they're ugly. Sorry. It's just a drive with trees.

It's the press says, why don't you like Augusta? He says, I guess I'm just more of a down to earth person. I have a hard time understanding their ideas. For example, the average golfer has no chance to play this course. They ought to do something and let the average Joe play here. Maybe a national raffle. They'd love it. It would be one of the biggest thrills that I'd ever have. They'd raise a lot of money. This was, of course the year that he was sneaking his buddies in through the gate, because he only had four tickets that his ex-wife was withholding from him. So he's sneaking them in not only through his trunk,

but he's like telling them to like sneak around back through the, like where the driving range is a couple of them get nabbed by the Pinkertons. He says, maybe I shouldn't have said that, that they were sneaking in because my guys couldn't get in at this point. He tells the press that his goal is to throw a putter in every water hazard on the PGA tour before he's done with his career.

He's so far, he's up to eight putters thrown in lakes. Does when putters are good to me, they're good. But when they're bad to me, they have to die an ugly death. Speaker 0 4 1 2 3 I have to report since the podcast episode, he's a detailed story where he threw one in the water, I believe off the 10th green at a Pebble beach or at some point like hooked it from decent carry from the beach. Then that somebody went diving for it. Whoever that was emailed me is after the podcast episode was like, I'm the one that got the putter like I have the putter that I pulled out of there was amazing piece of golf

memorabilia. Gary None of the daily Dayton Daily News said that green was about another one of these about is out of place on the PGA tour as Madonna would be in a covenant. God I hope hope that in 20 years, people aren't dunking on my writing. We duck on some of these columnists from newspapers. A lot of people think of me as a rebel or a Maverick Green said, I just don't fit the mold. I'm just not polite all the time. I couldn't fit the mold even if I wanted to. What's the mold of a golfer anyway? A stone face

guy who's all polite all the time and doesn't say what he thinks? I can't do that. He had to sort of recount, he flung his wedge at his bag during his round to where he saw 67 and the crowd booed him. And Green got sort of pissed at him. He had actually been fined earlier that year

for flipping off a woman who had sort of booed him. He says, I was in no mood for that. And Green said, this is about the Masters again, after he flung his wedge and got booed. If those people did something wrong at their job and I booed them, they'd be mad too. I hope. Well, you know what? If they'd have kept it up, I might've gotten it into it with them. We would have had a big Masters brawl. This is the whole hood of damn people. Go back to shit.

Maybe Arnold Palmer would have joined in on the brawl. Just start beating Masters people's asses. The weather still stinks in round three, but Ben Crenshaw is able to surge out to a four stroke lead before play is called because of the weather. Trevino stumbles badly at this point and is on the way to shooting 81 when play is called when they're on 13th green. Faldo finishes five shots behind Crenshaw. He's just all over the place.

He kind of thinks he's basically blown his chance. He shot a 77, uh, he's five strokes back and he basically goes immediately into thing and, and tosses away as a lot of talk of putters. This was, he throws away a putter and, and picks out one of the other seven putters that he's brought from England at this point. Uh, Seve is lurking at even par and guess who is back for more pain and suffering. Solly is Greg Norman who surges up the board with a 68 to get in contention. Everybody is miserable out the weather. Can we can we pause on that to say like biggest takeaway from this whole all of our deep dives is the longevity and the major

championship prowess of Greg Norman and just the constant nature of him being in the thick of it. An unbelievable, like not only an unbelievable dick, but obviously an unbelievable golfer. In more ways than one. Oh, damn it's soft. I walked into that one. Um, walk on the beach. Never did I imagine in my professional life would I be podcasting at 46 years old about another man's giant penis or whatever. The

pinnacle of my professional life clearly. Um, so anyway, so everybody's still miserable about the weather at this point. When a van drove out to pick up Faldo and Trevino, they hopped in and the van ran out of gas immediately. And apparently Trevino went ballistic on the guy because they had to get out of the van and sit there in the rain and wait for another van to come. And Faldo was asked what Trevino said and he said it's simply unrepeatable

again choking is sort of like a prominent theme here like everybody all the people are part are pointing out whether you know Crenshaw has the stuff to hold on even though Crenshaw is one of masters at this point, whether Norman has the right stuff to finish off on Sunday, whether Faldo has the stones to finish. Faldo, even though he's won a British Open at this point, has sort of been gaining the reputation among the English press, especially that he cannot close on Sundays, that he will wilter, you know, wilts under pressure. Was Big Randy the one just running the press center at this point?

Was it just like, if you hadn't won six majors, majors like oh, you must be a little boy like guys that win Yes, a little bunch of little boys out there. Maybe it's kind of hard to close these things That might be the truth here other than like I would say modern game like speed who obviously has a bunch of majors Is there anyone who has won majors who people are like? Oh, they just there I don't trust them at all like we could close in a way. I mean, it's a great, maybe Phil, uh, but Phil has sort of, you know, turned that reputation around in a lot of ways. Like if Phil was leading by three strokes that the master is in a month, you know,

there's no way that I would think like, Oh, Phil's totally gonna blow it. I'd be like, well, Phil's probably gonna win yet another major. Like this is, of course he's going to hang in there. Is it roaring the answer to that? That's a good question. I, you know, a boy doesn't in the, I mean, that's a good question because he, it's not like he blew the lead in St. Andrews. Like he got walked down. He was, you know, really never,

he didn't even make any screw ups at LACC when we, in, uh, when them won, it's, I feel like Rory's not going to blow a lead at this point, but he's probably not going to go out and like just blow the doors off anybody or hit those shots that are going to get everybody. You need the one shot in both of those. You need to really just not hit the bad wedge at LACC and really just hit one ball close at some point at St. Andrews and you would have greatly improved his chances. So on Sunday, they have to finish up the final round on

Sunday morning. It's the first time in like, you know, maybe 10 years or something, they've had to finish the Saturday round on Sunday, Crenshaw comes back to the pack a little bit. And so Faldo kind of starts out just like blazing the front nine, four birdies on the front nine. On the back nine, he makes on 16, one of the prettiest putts that you'll ever see see just a curling like downhill

18 footer. He says afterwards that there, it was kind of like on the fringe. He couldn't mark the ball. They had mud on it. So it was even more impressive that he made the putt with mud on it. And then on 17, he rolls in a 40 footer that hits the cup going like Wyndham Clark speed, uh, just roll. I mean, it goes dead in the heart. And so but if he venturi thinks that if he had missed it, it might go off the green and fallow says later, like I, I hit just a two like totally fluky putts during the day, like I, you know, so like, again, like fate playing a pretty like obviously skill takes it to make the putt, but you know, a little difference here can make a big difference. So his only mistake of the day is that he bogeyed 11,

but he had birdied 13, 14, 16, and 17 to shoot 65. It's all in this miserable rain. I'm like, I'm gonna show you here. This is later in the day. They're squeegeeing the greens in between groups. That's how, and every drive that they hit, They're basically saying, Hey, there's casual water where I'm hitting and they are allowed to drop. I didn't really know this, but like with casual water, they basically are like, go find a dry spot. So when Faldo in the playoff later, he gets to move his ball like 20 yards

right on 11 and get like a way better angle into 11 where eventually like wins the Masters. I was like, wow, like the casual water rules are I'm not familiar with that at all. It was kind of a shock. Yeah, it's anywhere you if you're you have to get clear of water coming up from your shoes, where you're standing, which yeah, that I've seen. Yeah, 20 yards. That's not that surprising. The drainage probably wasn't nearly as good then as it as it would be now. And yeah, that I've seen, yeah, 20 yards. That's not that surprising. The drainage probably wasn't nearly as good then as it, as it would be now.

And yeah, you can get some massive, massive relief drops from that. So he finishes at five under he's in the clubhouse, like 40 minutes before the leaders come in. He should have been joined by Greg Norman who was at five under, but came and was in the middle of the fairway on 18 and hit a five iron that came up short of the green and could not get up and down and he bowied to what was eventually missed the playoff. Norman. Yes, yes. Seriously. I'm today years old. No, I'm today years old learning about

an 89 missed call from Norman. I did not. Yeah, he should have like if he makes par on 18, he's in the playoff with Falbo and Scott. Oh my god. Later, he's Norman says afterwards, I think this is like a week later because he stormed off and didn't talk to the press, but he eventually says, I hit the best five iron of my life. I thought I was about eight feet from the hole and it just spun back. I'm really disappointed, but I did a good job of hiding it. Scott Hoke, who I barely talked at all about plays really well.

And this is kind of a shame that he's going to go down as one of the biggest chokers in history. Still now people joke like what rhymes with choke Scott Hoke, uh, because he gets to six under through 16 holes with no bogeys on a day when it is miserable. I mean, it's like 4850 degrees. The rain is the guys have umbrellas or whatever, but on 17 he's kind of over on the right side in like where the mounds are. There's it's a little different now, but there's, you know, there's trees now,

but he's got an open, but uphill shot to the green and just full at Corito 20 yards over. Like it hits the back edge of the green. It just goes zooming down the hill. And Venturi is like, he's dead. He's making five or six right there. I think he's in serious trouble. I don't think he'd make way more sixes than he'd make fives from down there.

One of the things that's awesome about Venturi is he calls, like he doesn't, it's subscribed to the rule of like, don't call the ball when it's in the air, the shots up and he's like, Oh, he's, he's in big trouble. This is bad. This is really bad. And you see it like land and it's like, Oh man, Kevin, sure. He knew his shit. Like he was sweet. So ho kids, he's got like this really nippy wedge off of very wet grass from like,

but it were from behind 17 green. So it's like right of 17 green. But from our perspective, like the pin is, is upright and he's way down left hits the nippiest wedge that you couldn't possibly imagine. I mean, it is as good as a wedge as you would see hit by anybody today. Venturi, like while it's going, it's like, Oh my God, that's brilliant. And the ball almost goes in. I mean, it like rolls right over the edge of the cup and like comes out to five feet. Coke later said it was like the best chip

that he'd ever hit in his life. He's got a five footer, but Ben Crenshaw, who's been struggling kind of all day, he's made a couple bogeys, he's not, drips in a 25 foot putt before Hoke has, you know, Hoke is waiting to sort of for his par putt. Crenshaw gets to five under with this 25 footer and the crowd was pulling for Crenshaw clearly goes nuts.

Crenshaw does the speed thing. He doesn't even take the ball out of the cup. He takes off his visor and he's like walking, strutting along the rope line just completely. Like the crowd is going bonkers. And you can tell like, hook feels like a little bit rattled because of what has gone on because now he has to make this putt to hold the lead. He doesn't know think at this point what Faldo has done. So he's thinking like, Oh,

shit, like, oh, crunch on are gonna be tied. Pulled like, an awful like little pole that nips the edge of the cup. It's it's painful to watch Faldo and Hoke and crunch are all tied at five under Faldo is obviously into in the clubhouse. They both drive it like right down the middle. Crenshaw and and hope they're absolutely like position a just right of the bunker. Crenshaw hits. He goes first hits a terrible iron shot. I mean, when the ball in the is in the air, Manjuri says, Oh,

no, not there. Not there. ends up in the left bunker. He he hits a decent like chip out from there, but it's not like, not great. It's probably 1011 feet. hook hits an unbelievable, not unbelievable, a pretty good five iron to be right of the pin. He's got maybe 20 feet and he rolls in a real rolls. A putt that just probably Mitch's by like two, three inches. I mean it is a really good putt.

You feeling like alright, Scott Hooks going to be in a playoff. Crenshaw has a part putt that I like. You think they're saying this putt is going to go in. This is the best putter in the world. They absolutely been Crenshaw has a part putt that I like you think they're saying this putt is going to go in. This is the best putter in the world. They absolutely been Crenshaw. This is the moment he kind of lives for. I would think this is one's going to go in. Doesn't even hit the hole like Crenshaw is like shook like he cannot believe that he just pissed away a chance to be in a

playoff of the Masters. So Hogan Faldo in a playoff. The playoff is it starts on 10. The hook has never been in a playoff at this point in his entire career. Faldo has of course lost the playoff to Curtis strange in the US open prior to this. So he has sort of weathered a little bit of a playoff stuff. It, the drive that Faldo hits on 10, he goes first because he gave, they do the flip of the T and fellas. It's horrendous. I mean, it is probably it probably goes to he's using a persimmon at this point. And

Hocus has a metal driver. It probably goes to 3240 off the T it sits up on the top of the hill and he's got 235 into the holy shit. Yeah, it doesn't even make the hill. Hoke hits a beautiful like rope draw down the hill. Probably he's 40, 50 yards past Faldo. Weisskopf on the broadcast says, you know, it's virtually impossible for Faldo to hit the green from here. And he's right, Faldo like dumps it in the right bunker. He had a stance where like his left, it was kind of downhill, his left foot was lower than his right. So like to be able to get Faldo's, Weisskopf basically said it's impossible to hit the green from there.

I mean, Nick father could maybe do it, but I don't see hoax only got one 90 left. He hits a really good shot. He's probably 18 feet below the hole. When I will show you the pick here, you think like I'll take this, uh, you know, to sort of like, you know, what looks like could be two putting the masters any day. Like this is, you know, this is where he, you know, what looks like could be two putting the Masters any day like this is, you know, this is where he's got basically always called this. This is probably closer to 30 feet. Like this is not it's Yeah, it's not you expected to put in that situation though, for sure. This

is what Faldo does when he chips out of the bunker. He's got this to make par does not make it. And so 1820 footer for those of you listening. Yeah, yeah. So then we come to hook hits. What I would say is not the worst like putt, but immediately again, Venturi is like, Oh boy, that's no gimme. That is no gimme. You know, I it's me like right here. It looks like, oh, like, it looks like a gimme. You just tap that in, right? It's they keep saying it's like way more downhill than you would look. I don't know that 10 green is super severe. So you know you think so. Hope gets up to this ball and look at how he's lined

up here. I mean I wish I could draw like lines on this but look how his foot line is and where the putter is aimed. I mean, it is just like it's almost like he's playing it like it's going to break like uphill to the right or something. It's it's just like, I don't know, it's kind of bonkers. So as you may know, Scott Hope misses this putt to win the Masters. I mean, he had taken, I would say at least a minute and a half, maybe, maybe a little bit more before he set up to hit this putt. And everybody is like, you know, oh, man, like just too long. Apparently Crenshaw was watching on TV from the interview room, and was like, Jesus hit it, like to saying, you know, that he was taking

too long. Hook throws his putter in the air. And, you know, as the famous shot, like he catches his putter, and then goes over to kind of just walk and just be like, Whoa, like, what have I done? He's got longer coming back, he's got like a three and a half footer just to avoid losing the Masters with a, you know, with a four putt on. He does make the one that comes back, but at this point like he's he's sort of shook. He keeps looking up at the sky again.

This is where there's like so much casual water. They both hit pretty darn good drives. Again, Hoke is probably 20 yards longer than Faldo and Faldo has to take like a. He gets a kind of an advantageous drop because he hits it in the middle of the fairway and gets to go way right on 11 and hits. I would say one of the most cold blooded shots that you will ever see. I mean, he has to sort of like flirt with the water certainly has to flirt with it like kicking left into the pond, but hits to an unbelievable like probably a 25 foot on 11 is this point is playing like 485 with persimmon woods, you know, coming into this. So he I think he hit like three iron into their. Hoke steps up does not hit a good iron shot. It sort of

flails way right. It's just off the green. He chips it to four feet, but he of course never gets a chance to have put again because Faldo rolls in a 25 footer to win the Masters. I don't have a shot of it, but raises his hands up in the air sort of looks at the sky is just like almost kind of in shock. And and Scott Hoke has to sort of like, you know, gives him a quick handshake has to reckon with like, Holy shit, like I just missed a two foot pot that would have won the Masters said he couldn't help

but think about the gravity of it all Said that when he went to go and putt he said well, this is for all the marbles to himself For this is for immortality Probably not the best thought that's token the press can afterwards Do you think you took too long over the putt and he says? He pauses for a little bit He says yeah uh, too long over the putt. And he says, he pauses for a little bit and he says, yeah, if they took, if we took that long on, if they gave us that long to put on tour, we would

probably have eight hour rounds. Valdo says he held the door open for me and it felt like destiny. You'd sit there. It's tough. You sit there and you're thinking, well, he's got that to win. I wasn't really thinking anything. You never pull against a guy, but well, he missed it. Hoke says I wasn't nervous over it it was strange maybe there was a split

second of indecision where I stood over it and how to play it but I knew what I wanted to do but between my brain and my hands they didn't get the message and then as Hoke sat down with the press as he's offered one of the darkest quotes I think I've ever seen he said all I've got to say is I'm glad I don't have a gun right now. Oh my god. Yeah. It could have been said in jest. Yeah. I think probably was like but still like it's a pretty dark joke to make. Yeah. Hook was not the most popular guy on tour which I did not

know at this point in time. There was actually a poll that was he was named the least popular golfer on tour a bunch of tour players by the Dallas Times Herald, the assistant managing editor Charles Cooper sent out this poll. He pulled 147 tour pros and 50 of them returned ballots and Hoke got the most votes. Hoke and his agent Dick Madigan declared the poll bogus declaring that only three players had actually written his name.

But, uh, the editor of the times, Harold said that, uh, hoke got the most votes and it wasn't even close. This kind of bugged, uh, hoke for awhile. Again, he was sort of thought of as like, Oh, by the way, that's that putt on that 10 is only three part of the entire week. Yes. Yes. People thought that he just was sort of a pretender. I mean, he was 33 years old at this point.

He won the Varden trophy in 86 with a scoring average of 70.08 critics complained that Hoke had not won the PGA Tour event that year and he had lowered his average by entering marshmallow events. The ancient and honorable Varden trophy is in danger of becoming a joke. Thomas Boswell wrote in Golf Magazine and that rhymes with Hoke. Rick Riley wrote in a really beautiful column a couple years later. What people didn't know about Scott Hoke is that in 85, his son was, I think his 3 year old son was kind of limping around. And they took his son Cameron, they took him to the hospital to sort of get, make sure you're checked out.

They thought maybe he had a sprained ankle and they had x-rays and they thought maybe they had cancer, had bone cancer. And so they did all these tests and on his fever and he turned out he had like a spot that was sort of a rare disease, but it wasn't cancer. It was called congellicin, congana, I think it sounds pronounced medication got better, but he had to stay in the hospital for a while. And during that time in the hospital, like they got to meet all these other families with all these other kids. And so they bonded with a bunch of these people and all these other kids kept

dying. Like when they would sort of have to like, you know, hear news of like, Oh, there's people we met in the hospital. Like our son ended up passing away. And it's sort of like haunted hope for a long time. And between like that and the missing of the part of the masters, he had determined years later after his son had left the hospital, I want to win a tournament because I want to make a donation to that hospital. I want to want people to know that like their medical bills can be covered if they can think. And so he kind of just

like sort of kept himself at this not a lot of fans but this sort of hung on him because he was kept like saying to his wife like he felt this pressure because he wanted to like make a donation to this hospital. He said after the Masters he this is all from the Riley column he packed himself Cameron and his daughter Katie and that treasonous putter into their Plymouth Voyager and drove to the next stop on the disappointment trail at Hilton head along the way, the magnitude of the miss sunk into his brain and settled in his heart. I feel like I've let you down.

He told his wife as they drove. I feel like I let you down and when my, my parents and your parents and your friends, but more than that, he felt like he had let down the hospital. I couldn't sleep for two nights. Hope said my dad couldn't sleep chip back who's his best friend couldn't sleep. I guess when your friend has just blown the thing that you yourself has dreamed of winning, it's a little hard to take. This is

Riley still choking on tour is considered something of a disease and the general belief is that it's contagious. Hope became to any gathering of tour players what Charlton Heston was to the Red Sea. He would walk up and they would part. Some guys would see me and they would feel so bad they wouldn't know what to say and they would sort of duck. Hoke sought out Ed Snead who had needed one par putt over the final three holes in the 1979 Masters to win and bogeyed them all. He lost in a playoff to Fuzzy Zeller and

has only won one tournament since back in 1982. Just be patient with the media's need told him because they will never allow it to die. So two years later, Hoke won a tournament in Las Vegas and it was a winning sort of purse was like $200,000 huge huge purse for that time and he announced in the trophy ceremony that he was donating $100,000 to the hospital that he was basically the difference between first and second place, plus another

$10,000 is that thank you for what they did for his son. And so Riley, the closing line of Riley's column is, Hey, how about we take that poll again of like who's the least popular player on tour? So wow. Yeah. I wouldn't expect in that journey then that one, maybe that that you made me want to go back and watch that one, by the way. That was that describing that action was like, holy shit. That's it was surprised me. All I had ever really heard of was like,

Oh yeah, Scott, hook missed a short pop. And I'm certain I'd seen the replays. But when you really like watch the broadcast, and at this point we're getting like three and a half hours of broadcast on the thing. Like it's sort of, you know, we're getting a full, this is like kind of the masters is really, I feel like coming of age as it's broadcast product. It's just the images you flashed up there. The golf course too matures a lot of nine years from 1980 because that they got bent greens at this point and it's a totally different experience because that I don't want to tell people not to go back and watch 1980, but there just wasn't a whole lot there to react to. And yeah, this is starting to get in the area era when the masters becomes this

massive television product. Also, I don't hate this split screen here where we show the guy, the guy who's about to get, uh, you know, they do that a lot in this era of like, uh, we'll show the player what's happening. And then we show his opponent and he's like, has to eat it. Totally. And gosh, I hate the zoom in on a putt as it's in motion, like keep the player in the frame so we can see their reaction to it. Yeah, that's coverage takes it for anything. So, all right, KVV, that's going to bring a wrap to our historical

masters deep dive. I called this one for fun masters. I think that kind of fits the fits the fits the description of a description fits for what we covered here today. But we're super amped to flip the calendar over here into Masters week next week as of the time of this airing will be on site. Lots of live shows, lots of coverage of any kind, lots of writing, lots of social content, you can find it pretty much anywhere. You can find our content and we look forward to the best week of the year. So thank you for your time and efforts researching these and entertaining us with your stories and impressions.

Thanks to everyone for tuning in and everyone have a great master's week. Next week. Cheers. You too. So thanks. Be the right club today. Better than most. How about in? That is better than most.

Better than most! Expect anything different?