No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 816: Masters Preview

Episode Date: April 9, 2024

Soly, Tron and KVV fire up our preview pod for the 2024 Masters with a look at what we're most excited for this week at Augusta and offer some darkhorse picks to claim the green jacket on Sunday. We also go through some listener questions, data points for the week, our Who Won't Win picks, the odds sheet, course changes and a ton more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. Johnny, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Lange podcast. Sully here. The best week of the year, Masters Week is finally here. We are coming to you live from Augusta.

And when I say we, that is myself and Mr. Kevin van Valkenburg. Hello, KBB. How are you, buddy? Sully, I'm great. I'm doing good. I got to walk around a little bit got to see some people got to feel the ground beneath my feet today. It's just it's so exciting. Masters week. Published my first piece already. Things are feeling good.

It was it was wild being out there Sunday and then I got nobody out there and then the wave of people today like I kind of forgot about the scale of how many people were actually going to be there. It was it was massive. Also calling in from, the birthday boy himself, Mr. Tron Carter. Hello TC. Hello guys. Hello. Hopefully that ground under your feet was feeling very, very bouncy out there. Yeah. In the most 2024 thing ever, it's 85% chance of thunderstorms on Thursday. And after getting this great weather lead in, I hope, I don't know, I hope it's firm enough under there that it can withstand Thursday,

but maybe it somehow misses Thursday, but it's not encouraging, but we'll see. We'll see what the models say. But I think, I mean, that's not necessarily a 2024 thing. That's like an every year thing. And I know that I was reading in global golf posts this morning that the, the Azaleas, Scott Michaud had a nice piece in there about the Azaleas blooming earlier and earlier. Uh, winter seems to be, you know, there's some kind of warm spots in the calendar now, February, March and Augusta. So taking a little bit of luster off the Azaleas and the dog woods and all that snowing at my house, TC. So I don't, I don't know what you're talking about, but listen, you guys have heard us

talk a lot about it. I'm going to try. I don't think I can get in the camera shot, but I want to give you evidence that I am wearing my Dewar, not my jeans, but you've heard us talk about Dewar jeans, but I'm wearing the no sweat pant. They are my favorite pair of pants of the go-to pants. KV and I got a KVV and I got a party we got to go to tonight. They are perfect for that. They're perfect for lounging around the house. They also make fantastic performance denim jeans. I have them in the rinse color. They're very comfortable. They're great to wear while traveling. And then the no sweat pants, they honestly do work for any situation. So what are the no sweat pants? I don't have this.

I just have the jeans. It's like casual pants. I don't know what you'd call them chinos almost or you know, just flexible enough. I cannot do that. No, no, no. We have the crop view going on YouTube. I don't think I don't think it's good. I don't think anybody wants to really see that, but they, I'll shout out the jeans, the jeans. I wore them on the flight back from Scotland through Germany to New York last week. And they were, they were delightful. It takes balls to wear a, a set of jeans on a 10 hour flight. That is a big endorsement. That is they make stretch performance, denim and lifestyle, apparel for men and women of elevated styles that stand apart.

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I'm wondering, I can't, I don't know if I saw that in the copy and I put that in my head. I really don't remember what the actual percent of chance of rain was, but 100% chance of a partial eclipse here in Augusta today. It was kind of a pretty surreal scene. Listen, I think there's enough eclipse content. Should Sully ask Fred Ridley if he believes in climate change at the Wednesday presser? I'll see what he has to say. Yeah, we'll probably talk privately about that. But all right. I asked you guys to go around. We're going to start tonight's, today's preview podcast

with kind of a draft of some kind. We're gonna go around the horn and just cue you guys up for what you're most interested in, what you're most intrigued by, what is your thing that you're excited to find out about the competitors, the golf course, whatever it might be about the 2024 Masters. What are you looking forward to? What are you anticipating here

when the gun goes off on Thursday, Kevin? Can we have multiple answers or are we gonna go around? Go around and watch one at a time. I'm interested in what the cat is going to look like. We haven't seen him really at all this year. The brief window of Genesis didn't really feel like it counted. I want it, you know, warm weather. It feels like he hasn't played a warm weather tournament for a while. So I don't think he can win, but I do really want to see if he's hitting the ball well enough to make the cut. This would be, he's got 23 in a row.

This would be the record for the most consecutive made cuts at the Masters. I think that's a pretty cool thing to have as a solo thing. So that would be my number one thing that I'm interested in Thursday morning. TC, go ahead. Is Scotty just that much better than everybody else? Like, I think that's the kind of the, the consensus. That's the Caleb Williams pick here, I think for, for my first rounder, you know, we'll see what Rom does.

We'll see, like Victor, we'll get to Victor because that's another one of mine, but Decky's playing well. Like who's going to, who's going to rise to the occasion and challenge Scotty? I think it'd be fascinating if Scotty comes out and lays an egg in round one and then has to kind of work his way back. I think that would be one of the cooler things that could happen. But yeah, I think in any case,

if Scotty runs away with it and wins it, it turns into we're witnessing true greatness in history and probably the biggest dominance since Tiger. And if he doesn't, then it's like a free for all. And it's really interesting to see who else kind of rises to the occasion. Well, it's almost a little all for not, if Scotty doesn't get a major championship and another green jacket out of this incredible run, right? I mean,

if we're looking at this run that he's been on for now over, over almost three years, it is one major is light compared to what he's done on the golf course, what he's done on the golf course, what he's produced in my all beloved strokes game. So it is that that microscope, it's going to be, it can slip. It can be a slippery slope really quickly in terms of that starting to be a storyline of, all right, man, we've seen you do this so many times in all these other places. Like if he doesn't win this one, which is a huge ask, like the odds are he would not win this week, but if he doesn't win, it's just gonna that

pressure is just gonna start building and building and building because he is a better than a better player than to have only one major right now. Colin Moore Kawa has more majors than him right now. And he's Scottie's a lot better at golf than Colin Moore Kawa is very, very, very consistently. So Scott, Colin Moore Kawa has more objective majors, I think subjectively, Scottie has more objective majors. I think subjectively Scotty has more majors.

Okay. I'll, I'll be good. Unpack that, but guys, I'm going to get this in first. We are not going to do it. We're not going to slip up. We're not, uh, you know, you're not going to go 45 minutes without mentioning them. I don't even have any real reason other than it's just, it's snuck up on us way too many times way before he left for live.

Uh, we would do major preview pods and just be like, Oh yeah. Remember Brooks Koepke? Like remember that guy that always wins all of these things. We should probably talk about him because he doesn't play well in between the majors, but shows up and manages to do it. He was runner up last year. He's not sneaking up on me. He still feels a little under talked about is odd. Still feel a little bit light. Like he's plus 1800 to win, which is, you know, I know he came in playing better last year. We didn't really know how to evaluate that with what's going on with live. I mean,

I think Dural probably not a great, great comparison, but it is a championship level golf course needed to not have a good week last week at, at Dural, but he turns it on at majors. I'm done dismissing that I'm done pretending like that's not the truth. And I'm really curious to see if he steps up and does it again, because he did it last year, he did the PGA, obviously, and did it here at the Masters. And I'm just not going to fall for it again. That's my pledge. We'll say about last year, though, he won right before the

Masters last year. So it felt like he was coming. He was coming. So if he plays well this week, it is truly evidence that he is the only person who can flip a switch and just be like, Yep, now's the time to go off to give a shit about, uh, I totally agree. I think he's fascinating. I think I loved, uh, just his refusal to let live kind of like have his sort of maybe over and over. When given the opportunity, be like, is this a boon for Liv? He was like, nah, I mean, it's like pretty good for me.

Like I would feel pretty good. And I think that was, I, I have all the people who left, I kind of like respect Brooks the most because? He was like, no, I mean, it's like pretty good for me. Like I feel pretty good. And I think that was, I, I have all the people who left. I kind of like respect Brooks the most because he's been like, yeah, I'm like, I'm doing this for me. Like I just, I took the bag and now I'm going to win his main tournaments. And I don't care. I'm going to be friends with these guys still. And man, you know what? I thought all power to Brooks. Like he played it better than anybody. I think. Well, I don't think you can equate Brooks as major championship success just down to a mathematical formula, but I was of course messing around with the, the approach tool and data golf leading into this. And there's something to

Augusta how you are, you're taking shots from the hundred, 150 range and moving them into the one 50 to 200 range, which I mean, there's every, almost every player in the field is going to expect it to take one and a half to two more shots per round from that longer range than closer range. And Brooks is not as good from that a hundred to 150 compared to his peers as he is from 150 to 200. So that is at least, at least a way of speaking to how he's been able to have such a major championship success. Um, it is that that formula is going to play a lot better than the wedge contest that happened

out in PGA. You sound like Dodo Molinari setting up the writer of course. Yeah. Always been digging. Your boys been digging. He's got a few stats for you guys later on. So if you have them, that might, it might blow your mind. All right. What's next for you, Kevin? I want to know it's TC. You mentioned this. So I don't feel like I'm stealing a little bit of yours, but I want to know what's up with Victor Holland. Like, you know, played really well here last year, obviously searching a little bit has

tried a bunch of different, uh, swing theories, coaches, you know, equipment changes, all kinds of different methods. You know, I don't know. I've been kind of thinking about Victor and listening to some of his interviews over the last few months and the dude might just be a searcher. He might really be have that a little bit of itch that cat had where he just couldn't really ever leave good enough alone. And I don't know if that's great for your golf always. Like if you're, I mean, look, Tiger would say, look, I always figured out a way to get through it and get better, but I don't know. Like, is it really the long-term play for consistency? Like maybe Victor Mikasol looks silly in a year when it clicks for him and he's like, yeah, now I'm actually going to win all these

majors that I came close to winning. I knew it wasn't good enough, but man, it sure feels like he's out in the wilderness right now. Like just hasn't had a good result this year and was an awesome player last year. So good. The PGA last year, he would look, we've seen him kind of Wilton majors and just not really produce when asked. And he did perform at the PGA, the 16th hole aside. And he got beaten by Brooks Kapka. Like there's no shame in any of that. That would look like a different guy, but now he's kind of reverted back into, you know, a more human version. Yeah. My pre-season predictions were like, Victor's going to ascend to the number one player in the world. You drafted him number one in our next six year draft over Scotty I'm taking the positional value long, long term approach here. Coming from a Cliques fan, that doesn't really mean a whole heck of a lot with

the way they've drafted over the years. Do you see what's next for you? A lot of different directions we can go. I was going to go with the what's going on with Victor. I'm really excited to watch Bryson. I miss Bryson. Like he's, he's such a moron and a lot of people are like, oh, I'm going to watch this guy.

I'm going to watch this guy. I'm going to watch this guy. I'm going to watch this guy. I'm going to watch this guy. I'm going to watch this guy. I'm going to watch this guy. I was going to go with the what's going on with Victor. I'm really excited to watch Bryson. I miss Bryson. Like he's, he's such a moron and a lunatic. I just, I mean, even I should look right before we got on. Will Knights tweeted the screen grab of him on live from, you know, with the eclipse glasses on just looking up, looking like it's just a joyful, joyful little kid. And I'm like, man, like that guy, what a goober. And I just, I miss him. And

I think he's going to play well this week. He's, he was playing well at Doral last week. It seems like he's kind of back. He's got that pep in his step again, seemingly. And I don't know, weirdly, I'm looking at Doral as a better indicator of just form than maybe some of the lead up PGA Tour events here. And like between Waco and Bryson and, you know, Maranque, guys like that, I'm just, you know, I'm seeing, all right, well, how did those guys play at Doral? I think Bryson is going to have a good week. I don't think he's going to win, but I think he's going to have a good week and make some noise, do some outrageous stuff.

The only pushback I would say that is he hasn't had a good week here since he was an amateur, right? I mean, has he ever played well here other than that run where he was, I think after two rounds, I think he was in the lead or he was up in the top five. I think, I mean, not the lead, but he was in the top 10. I have to look that up. I do for the, for the YouTube viewers,

I do have a chance to pull up the photo of, of Bryson grinning, staring up at the sky. You see in the comments saying could have used Gary players. So, yeah, I don't know. I just, I miss Bryson, man. It's like, I do too. Yeah, of course.

I, I'm going to disagree with you that he plays well. I just, I miss Bryson, man. It's like, I do too. Yeah, of course. I, I'm going to disagree with you that he plays well. I just, again, diving into what makes success at, at Augusta national today, a little bit. I know you would think he would do really well, but, you know, he's, it's, I'm mad that he never like hit it over on 14, uh, T what he said he was, instead of going down 13, that he was just going to take it up over the trees on 13. Like, why hasn't this delivered all the things that he's talked about? He's crazy. He does that this year, right? It's just like he stopped talking about it. He's just gonna go do it this year.

Not with the new T though. I mean, 13 has gone back since he said he would do that. So I don't think we're gonna see that. My next up same kind of vein is Brooks Koepka. He's Brooks Koepka light and I mean, very light and that he has not won a major championship yet. So I of course not putting him in the same category but in the same way that you cannot look at his week to week PGA Tour starts and results and evaluate what that means for him in major championships. Do you know who I'm talking about yet? KVV? I'm talking about Will Zellatorz. He's a major championship killer. He's finished second and T six in his two masters. He lost the PGA in the playoff and he lost the us

open by one shot. He is just, you know, David golf's got that great chart that shows your strokes gain performance in majors and in regular events. And he is one of the guys that jumps off the page of like, I'm a big Dick player. I don't care about the little PGA tour events, him and Brooks except for Genesis and things of that nature for sure. Well, I think he's an attempted killer. I think he's an attempted. He's premeditated. Yeah. He's manslaughter. Maybe a little bit. We'll see. I'm excited to see if he, you know, you know, he had a good, I forget what, what good event did he have earlier this year? Was that Genesis that he plays really well? Yeah. And I think I declared that he was going

to win a major this year. So I haven't lost track of that one. And I just, he's on my radar, definitely for this week. And I'm really keen to see post surgery and all that he's been through. Like is he still that dude that pops up big time in me? Cause like the odds would say he's not that guy, but, uh, I'm, I'm really keen to see what he's got cooking. They didn't practice on a tiger today. Yeah. He was the guy who was saying, you know what, giving us the tiger report.

Uh, what's next? Look, I keep, I know, what, giving us the tiger report. What's next? Look, I keep, I feel like I'm keeping the old heads here, but I want to see what Phil's going to do. What will Phil do next? I Phil was really fun last year. It was a, he had, he had, I think I joked that he had been sort of lobotomized prior to the masters. And then the masters was like, he woke up finally and was being himself again and he was hitting it in the trees and hitting driver off of the pine straw from down to the two green. And he was, you

know, yucking it up and, and that's having fun with the media for the first time since the live stuff. That was a fun memory for me. And then, and then, you know, I didn't even really get a watch when he went nuts on Sunday because I was out with the leaders, but I want to see if like that dude can still pull off some magic at this place. Look, if he can and getting contention at 53, I think for all the shit that Phil has taken from fans, I think fans will get behind him.

I think that they will wrap their arms around him and embrace him and he will feel like a huge amount of love and support that he hasn't felt in years. I mean, I hate what Phil has done to the game of golf and what it has done to professional golf, but what he was on his run last year. Let's fucking go. There's something about that ball, like that run. And again, I, I have personally found it quite easy to put the brush aside feelings I have towards the live golf product compared to how I think of the players that play on that tour and how they fare in major championships. It just doesn't, I'm not rooting for or against them for that reason. Just because this is a totally different category. So TC, what's next?

I want to see if Waco is for real. I've been really impressed with his globe trotting ways. I think, can he validate the special exemption in, I think he's one of the few guys that I was truly disappointed to see go because he didn't have exemptions into majors due to previous wins. And I think he's, his, his resume is spoken or, you know, kind of foretold, Hey, this guy's a, a prime time player. His performance went in at Riviera a few years ago, kind of wire to wire there and winning down in Australia, all that stuff. I just, I think Waco is a really good player and I don't want to see him kind of rise to the challenge and validate it. And, uh, but you

know, I'm keen to see if, if he can. I was one of the most disappointed in Waco, like his first few months and even year really since moving to live, he fell off about as hard as anyone. I mean, he was, he was a top 20 player in the world. I'm not talking to WGR of course, but top 20 player in the world. And then just kind of fell off the grid and was not playing good golf on live. And then starting from the fall all the way up through now, he's played tremendous, tremendous golf and is easily one of the 10 best players in the world right now. And I am I hope I hope to see him succeed because it was that was a I was most disappointed because I didn't want to see a career like his kind of go the way that it started going when he went to live and now that's back on

track. I hope to see him continue to succeed. It's cool. Yeah, it's cool to see kind of that, you know, going against the grain and maybe improving over his previous like and it should be a great course fit for him to out there. So we know we're we're nine picks into this and I don't think this name has been mentioned yet. And he's probably still the second best player in the world. Mr.

Rom as John Rom. Yep. That was one of your mind. I think he's, you know, he's lost a little bit of his swagger. Um, and I'm just keen to see if this environment brings that back out. Right. It should, it really should. He's the defending champion.

It's, you know, he, in his own words, he has not played a golf tournament yet this year, because he said 54 holes shotgun start. That's not a golf tournament. So he has not played one yet this year. So I, I, I don't know if he's, you know, got enough reps coming into this again. That's what that's his words. Those aren't my words. I'm just lobbying for 72 holes today too. Or yesterday with the BBC. Well, he wants to start playing real golf tournaments. Yeah. So I think it was the guardian. He gave that interview to the guardian. Do you and Mary the guardian? I want to give out the actual props instead of the aggregators TC. You know, I don't love the aggregators. No, I'm with you. I'm with you. It's all to say, uh, not sure this was the best way to prepare for it, but maybe that doesn't matter. Like maybe

it truly doesn't matter. And it is going to be a different vibe for him. I think this year and, um, I'm very, very excited about it. I'm very excited about it. I'm not sure this was the best way to prepare for it, but maybe that doesn't matter. Maybe it truly doesn't matter and it is going to be a different vibe for him, I think, this year and I'm just very curious. I truly don't know what's going to happen with Ram. I could see him winning by five and I could see him being a total non-factor. So I struggle to make a prediction there. I'll make a prediction. If he doesn't play well, he will be pissed.

He will throw clubs. He will start to really feel like what the hell did I do? Like, and I don't think it's like regrets for live, but just like, did I not prepare? Well, this is the dude who lives for the fight as you said at the beginning. And I think he's going to be mad if he just, if it falls off, like he's, he wants to win. He expects to win this thing. And he hasn't been playing bad. Like he's not been, he's not, he just hasn't been, you know, he hasn't won an event on live yet and has not, you know, dominated like we kind of thought. Can he turn into Brooks, right? Or like, Hey, I'm just going to show up for the majors. I have some

concerns. Is he going to eat too much of the champions dinner? It's an absolute banger of a menu. He's got the, you know, and he's got the Jock Alina for the white wine. He's got the Rio half for the red, just some, some great selections all the way across the board, low key advantage for Rory, not having to be able to go to the champion center and being all food hung over come Thursday. Hey, by the way, guys on the, on the podcast that we did a Sunday night recap, uh, I said that Rory was, was not going to show up until Tuesday. And then we were convinced that I made that up or something. Well, you did tell us about your dreams with top bill. It was very hard to understand what was the dream. What was real? Yeah. But no

Rory Rory, Adam Schupack reported that Rory is not showing up until, until, until Tuesday. I guess Rory was down at, at a seminal playing with his dad all week leading into the Valero. So yeah, we'll see. This is different approach number 17 for Rory coming into the masters. We'll see if this would work. It reminds me of when you're doing science experiments, you're supposed to keep certain things constant, right? And then before you get a sample size and before you can determine what variables to

change up and he changes up the inputs every single year. It's using different baking sodas for the volcano. I, this wasn't even on my list, but like, let's just do that one now. Like second in strokes gain approach last week at Valero working on like a new takeaway thing. I think if there's a path to Rory doing really well at this, this

week, and at the Masters in general, it's with something like that in terms of all right, let's take you out of whatever you get into pre shot wise, whatever mindset you get into. And let's put like a new something in play to like check you guard you up against before you hit the approach shots, which like I'll get into some of this later. It is the approach shots that have cost Rory success at the Masters. If he can hit the ball close to the

hole, I know that sounds incredibly obvious. But if he drives it so well here, if he hits his irons pretty well, he's gonna he's gonna be in the top five, like almost no matter what. Again, I feel like I'm the clown putting the face paint on right now of how I've managed to talk myself into Rory when I've dismissed it, but it just, there is that glimmer of hope, man. I kind of, if you'd asked me a week ago, I said, there's no hope.

Let's not even do this. Let's skip over this part. And there's a glimmer of hope here. I shouldn't do it, but I'm going to at least have a little bit of hope. God, he's showing the telltale symptoms, the telltale signs of dick riding. I think he's going to play well. I'm going to stick my neck out and say I think like he's, I don't know that he's going to win, but I think he's going to finish top 15. I'll say. Yeah, I mean, I would, I would hope so. Well, he hasn't finished. I mean, you know, that hasn't

been like two years ago. Yes. But like prior to that, I don't think he was top 15. Like he, it hasn't been a guarantee in the last, you know, five years or so. You can fact check me there in real time if you like, but I don't look, he's, there's something that's bugs him about this way. What I hope Sally is you're talking about is that he is willing to like mentally stick with whatever this is that he's been working with butch if he hits a bad pole or whatever, because if he just was like coming in here without all that stuff, he was going to hit bad polls anyway. So I don't want him to feel like, Oh, well, I gotta go back to some version of what, because this is, I don't

trust this. Well, dude, like you've got to trust what you're going through because you just had an incredibly great iron play week. So stick with that and ride it and, and just hope for, you know, you can kind of build the momentum throughout the week. So he missed the cut last year was runner up in 22 missed the cut in 21 T five and 20 T 21 and 19. Then he went T five T seven T 10 fourth T eight from 2014 to 2018. So it's been three of the last five. He has not finished inside upgrade. Then I'll say top 10. Oh, stick my neck out a little further than that. So he's, I think he's going to finish top 10 guys. I have an idea. I think Rory should play quota with himself. I hold on. I just, I want to, I want to call out KVV for sticking his neck

out for a plus one 10 bet before he's going to be in the top 10. What, what are those odds updated? I wouldn't have got those. I wouldn't have got those odds. You know, he's plus two 30 for a top five. I don't even know if that's sticking your deck out. That's like there's all the like easy money there. Well, it's small field. It's the top 10 here is not the same as the top 10 the US Open is what I would say. I know.

No one should take my Dean Bermester. No one should listen. That's the caveats. No one should take my gambling advice. No, it's a good bet. Just it's not long odds is what I'm saying here. Sorry, you're saying TC. No, I'm just saying, you know, I'm not going to say it's a bad thing. I'm just saying, you know, I'm not going to say it's a bad thing. I'm just saying, you know, I'm not going to say it's a bad thing. I'm just saying, you know, I'm not going to say it's a bad thing. I'm just saying, you know, I'm not going to say it's a bad thing. I'm just saying, you know, I'm not going to say it's a bad thing. I'm just saying, you know, I'm not going to say it's a bad thing.

I'm just saying, you know, I'm not going to say it's a bad thing. I'm just saying, you know, I'm not going to say it's a bad thing. I'm just saying, you know, I'm not going to say it's a bad thing. I'm just saying, you know, I'm not going to say it's a bad thing. I'm just saying, you know, I'm not going to say it's a bad thing. I'm just saying, you know, I'm not going to say it's a bad thing. I'm just saying, you know, I'm not going to say it's a bad thing. I'm just saying, you know, I'm not going to say it's a bad thing.

I'm just saying, you know, I'm not going to say it's a bad thing. I'm just saying, you know, I'm not going to say it's a bad thing. I'm just saying, you know, I'm not going to say it's a bad thing. I'm just saying, you know, I'm not going to say it's a bad thing. I gotta get points on every hole, but B, I gotta, you know, birdies count like, like a birdie and a par accounts for more than, than, you know, two pars, right? Like it's, it's, is this the setup for that though? Like I, everything I'm hearing and seeing is that this is the setup that causes for the calls for discipline. You know, this calls for, you know, not firing it flags,

getting it on the right tiers and all that stuff. But maybe after Thursday, maybe it'll be a lot softer. Who knows? I mean, it's not screaming Rory set up for me right now. I think it would help him if he on Saturday morning was down three or something to shuffle and was like, are you got to shoot 67? If you want to be in this, he just goes out in 29. You never know before you go to on your next one, KVV, I want to give a shout out to our friends at Roeback. You all know Roeback. Best fit, best feel. Their Azalea collection is back and better than ever. I'm not rocking the Azalea collection, but I was out there today. Got a

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They got Looper shorts, the new Looper shorts. I got a pair, I'm saving them for a big day out. Of course, I'm not wasting on a practice round. They got, maybe with belt loops, that could be worn on and off the course. They're very comfortable. So if you haven't already, it's time to load up on some Roeback for yourself

and for others. Code NLU at ro rowback.com for generous 20% off your order through the end of this week. That is rho bakk.com 20% off bottoms q zips hoodies and more with code nlu spring golf isn't the same without rowback that's 20% off your first order I should say. I just want to say too I was blown away at the amount of of canine you know subtle canine logos that we saw when we were in the UK even tons of them over there. Crazy. I

didn't know they were that big over there. I thought they had quarantine laws and you know, not as big of a dog culture, dog, subtle dog logos everywhere. So it's everywhere. They can't hunt TC. So they don't have the dogs to chase down the birds because that's just totally verboten. What? All right. What's next for you? My last one was roaring. Are you, are you through yours? I'm running low on mine, but I got a couple. All right. I feel like this is Mike tread into some of our long shot stuff. Look every 10 years or so, someone who's in there like late thirties or maybe early forties contends or wins a masters. I think Justin Rose can win the Masters. Whoa.

He's playing so bad right now. I know, I know, but that hasn't stopped like people who, of his age, of his pedigree with his course history of like finding it in some moment. Like Justin Rose should have won the Masters when Sergio did. I think this course, it doesn't owe anyone anything, but there's, I think there's still one last glimmer of Justin Rose contending here. I'm going to stick my neck out and say, I think he can

do it. Okay. Is he going to do it? Like sticking your neck out and it would be saying he's going to win the masters. I'm auditing you stick in your neck. We got to, you got to be able to somebody else. I got a neck with short neck. So I don't have to stick it out that far. No, I don't think he'd win. I think Jason day can win the masters. If that is my fallback position. And I think a lot of people can win the masters. I really thought about a lot of those until I started diving into some of these guys iron play and just being like, ah, it's just not

see it's vibes. It's not it. Yeah. On that same note, I'm like every year I feel like Adam Scott. I'm like, you know what? Adam Scott's like this premium player. Adam Scott's played like dog shit. The major six last three years. And I get tricked into Adam Scott being, being this, you know, kind of trendy, really attractive pick. And it just doesn't like that's I've built that up in my head and it just does not match reality right now. So what do you got next TC? Oh, that's a great question. Sali. I'm going to go, you know what? I think I was going to go Ludwig, but you guys don't respect him. So I think I can take him with, with, with my last pick. Yeah. Uh, wow. I'm going to go.

And you know, I was thinking about Hideki. I think Hideki is playing really well. I think he's one of the guys that could truly like challenge Scotty. But the guy that made his debut last year, and I think this is the perfect course for him. And I think that if things break right, Sahith, I think Sahith is, is, you know, just primed to have a really good show in here. Top five or otherwise. KVB is frozen on my screen. I don't know if you're frozen on your screen. I am frozen on my own screen here.

So I'm not sure what... You look absolutely astonished. Whoa! Since you dropped that Sahith pick, TZ, I was like, what? Yeah, yeah. No, but I'm keen to see, you know, it's, it's, it's a place that I feel like you can kind of eliminate one side of the golf course. You can get a little bit wayward with it. You can

scramble a little bit. If you putt well, he's a great iron player. Um, you know, like, uh, I was listening to Andy Johnson a couple of weeks ago. He was saying basically all so many holes out there make you like the balls above your feet and you have to hit a fade or the balls below your feet and you have to hit a draw. And I think when I think of a guy that's capable of stuff like that, I think of a guy like Sahith and I don't know. I just, I feel like he's a shop maker and plays with creativity and I think this place

will continue to bring out the best in him. I like that one. I think that that does everything you said makes a lot of sense there. But for somebody that doesn't make a lot of sense, if it's going to happen, if it's going to happen this week, it's not going to make sense. Like, right. I've I think we're a little removed from the time period of when you could just pencil him in at the Masters.

Like, it's not been the smoothest ride for him in the last five. I mean he's finished fourth last year allegedly, but it's been a little while since we've had a really good speed memory at the Masters. And I think we're gonna see a glimpse this week. I think we're gonna see plenty of glimpses this week. There's gonna be a three 300, you know, 300 through five hole run or something like that. I just have severe doubt in his ability to maintain it for 72 holes right now, like emotionally, I feel like he's still living and dying with every shot. And I still want it to happen just as badly. But I

have to admit, I've lost a little bit of faith on this front. And I just can't picture like, again,'m psyched myself out right before we went on here, like looking at Scottie Scheffler's iron approach play page, because it is mind blowing how much better he is than everybody else. And I just truly Mark Ingram, uh, Derek Henry meme can't picture like speed looking up at Derek Henry and taking him down right now. I really don't, uh, don't see how I hope to be wrong. It'd be wildly entertaining. The speed does it. I think we'll see glimpses, but I don't know if I'm buying it. We'll see.

I think one thing if, if this speed, like sweet seems to be putting better and he has in a while who knows about the wrist, you know, I think, listen, he, he's kind of like Mickelson and that like, it doesn't really matter how he's been playing. He can kind of rock up and play well here. I think a weird X he's kind of like Mickelson in that like, it doesn't really matter how he's been playing. He can kind of rock up and play well here. I think a weird X factor for Scottie might be the mallet putter as far as lag putting on these greens. Speed control gets a little bit more tricky with a lag putter, especially on very, very

quick greens. Like you lose a little bit of touch there. So I think, I don't know, I'm keen to see kind of how that plays out. That could be a little bit of an equalizer. For those that don't have it in front of them, the last five years of results for speed of the Masters are T4 cut T3, T46, T21. And before that it was third T11, T2 first T2. He had, I was looking this up, I was talking about as a supporter before the tournament, he had five years where he could have won the Masters in a row. Like it doesn't seem like, but he, one of those tears, he will think the year

he finished 12th, he started the day like two shots back on Sunday. Like that was truly a crazy for this era, like a Nicholas S sort of run where you like, Oh, every year for five years, I have a chance to win this. Okay. And this is, uh, we got a bunch of great, uh, some stats. I'm going to break down a little, a little bit later. It came from bet spurts golf. They have a little function there called the rabbit hole, which is incredible. But he just to run down, he's over the last five years at Augusta, he is 32nd strokes

gain off the T 19th and approach a second around the greens, but 43rd and putting. So that, and all that equates out to like a strokes game total. He's 15th best over the last five years at Augusto, which is a far cry from like being set. He would have been second best at minimum over his the first five years of his career at Augusta. So it's very different. It's kind of weird. It seems like speed kind of turned his game around and then stop playing well at custom.

I know. Do you guys think that speed could benefit in any way from like a sports psychologist or like a more disciplined like, Hey, maybe don't I just wonder if that maybe that would rob him of some of his gifts where he's like needs to talk through everything and he needs to emote or maybe if it was like worth trying for six months. I mean, I don't know, it didn't work out. But like I do think Justin Thomas trying not to eat gluten

or dairy or whatever that was like, Hey, I don't know, it didn't work out, but like I do think Justin Thomas trying not to eat gluten or dairy or whatever. That was like, Hey, I'm not good enough at this level. I want to try to get better. It made him worse. So maybe it would make speech worse, but maybe it would make him better. We're talking about Hovland, like tinkering and what I sort of wonder if Jordan would might benefit in some ways of being like, yo, what make, what if I didn't talk my way like through every single round, what if I didn't overthink

every single shot, what if I went out and played more just on fields? I mean, Greller is a sports psychologist, right? He's certified now. He's got 10,000 flying hours there. I'm pretty sure. But I also wonder, honestly, without looking this up, but just tossing out Rory, like Rory's clearly the exception here, and I'll download them now. But if I pulled up the world rankings from the beginning of 2015 or maybe let's say the beginning of 2016 when Speed was coming off that crazy year, I know Rory is going to be up there in the top 10. I'm guessing he's probably maybe the only name up there. And I think we all have a tendency to just hang on to these names for a bit too long

when it's clearly not their time anymore. I mean, again, just like looking at at Scotty versus Jordan or like Hovland against Jordan, these dudes are doing it way more consistently. Hovland's not the best example based on what we talked about. But yeah, top 10 the world was Jordan Speed, Jason Day, Rory, Bubba, Henrik Stenson, Ricky Fowler, Justin Rose, DJ Jim Furek, Patrick Reed, then it goes Adam Scott, Sergio, Zach Johnson, Brandon Grace grace, Hideki, Koepka. Like what three of those guys are top players in the world now. I mean, it's probably just more natural than we care to admit for someone

to have fallen off the pace. So it's hard. It's hard to be great for a long sustained period of time. That's what's remarkable. A tiger and Phil. You got any more TC? I had Ludwig's debut. How does it go? You know, obviously kind of way. Like it's, I think it's going to put a lot of pressure on his wedge play on his, on his mid irons there. I mean, he drives it so well. He's, he should be a, like, I think the floor is super high. I'm keen to see where he can go with the ceiling this year, especially. I wanna see some-

Yeah, I'm excited to see it. I'd be surprised if it went really well. Like I'd be surprised if he top 10'd. I think that there's enough to learn about Augusta. I don't know if he's gonna make the putts and hit all the right tiers, like all the stuff that he's insanely good at, like off the tee, driving it very straight and long, like doesn't play that well here. Obviously that plays well anywhere, but

it doesn't gain as much as the courses that emphasize driving accuracy a bit more than this one. You know, but I will say, Sally, on the flip side, everything you said about the long iron play and the 150 to 200, like he's so good at those shots. I mean, he's an assassin from that distance. And I think, you know, whether the stats bear it out or not, I think he would consider that the strength of his game. I see you looking it up right now. He's like, no, no, no, no, no. I'd be shocked if he's not, you know,

well regarded in that facet. But that's where I'm saying, like, I think the ceiling could be, you know, 11th. I think the floor is probably top 25 though. Like I don't see him playing poorly out there either. You know, there's just not that many ways that it can go wrong, I don't think. You are right. The stats do bear that out, TC.

You are off the hook. You've passed the golf challenge. My last one, I'm going to throw a bonus one in here because I do feel like we obligated, we should at least mention that. I think the ceiling could be 11th. PC. You are off the hook. You've passed the golf challenge. My last one, and I'm going to throw a bonus one in here because I do feel like we obligated, we should at least mention this name to this point, but the blow pig, he a little, a little bit

of people falling asleep and forgetting the run that he had been on in the, in prior months. This is his first masters. He is plus 3,300 to win. And he has been at minimum one of the five best players in the world over the last several months. Just feel like that he's getting a little bit sleep on in the same kind of category as Ella Torres. He's been on a ton of leaderboards, made a ton of birdies. His approach play is really, really good.

Um, I, I would not be surprised to see the blow pig. Uh, that's Wyndham Clark for those that have not been listened to the pod recently, or there are new listeners to a master's preview. Uh, that's Wyndham Clark. And I, I, I new listers to a master's preview. That's with him, Clark, and I'm excited to see what he's going to do this week. So and last one, again, this one jumped off the page, just looking at numbers, we have to at least mention it, even if we don't believe he's going to win. Xander.

I you know what, that was one of my that I scratched off the last minute. I think he can win the Masters. He definitely can win the Masters. I think that the Masters has had some, you know, people who have knocked on the door a little bit and have come around like he's a, this is the one that I think the, what the major that he's had the most success in, sorry, the one, he had a really good chance to win the 2019 Masters when Tiger won.

2021. So he didn't, right. But you know, some of those things are outside your control. That doesn't mean he won't ever do it though. You know, that's kind of where I think that, I mean, I feel, how much better do you feel about Xander's chances than Cantlay's? That's a great, I was going to say like, who do you, let's say you had to take both of them for the rest of the year. Are you taking Xander or Cantlay? In all events. Is it just all events? And do they all count the same or is it majors count for more? Like this is we'll say, we'll say majors

count double, but all events, all events, I think I would take Cantlay majors all I would 100% take Xander at the heart of the event, I would definitely take, uh, I'm taking Xander Xander is, is underrated on this show. I'll continue to defend him. Maybe just cause he's a strokes a strokes gain, a savant, if you will, but he's like second or third and best player in the world in consistency with how often he just beats the field. I know he

doesn't win enough. I don't, I won't dispute that part, but he, that doesn't mean he's not an unbelievably good golfer. There are some masters, sorry, where you don't have to do like, you don't have to shoot 66, you don't have to shoot 66. Yeah. Right. If he goes out and shot 69, 68, 70, 71, I could win the master some years. Like some guys, you just don't get dragged down by someone who has an incredible out of nowhere week, a Mike Weir, Zach Johnson, whatever. And that's your masters. But sometimes like you're going to get walked down by a special performance. So I think a hundred percent like what we've talked about is he doesn't always close well. He doesn't do that special thing. Sometimes you just

be average and or a little bit better than average in the field breaks your way. The weather breaks your way. That could totally be Xander. Totally Xander to me feels like Justin Herbert. Oh, that's an unbelievable comp. I cannot debate that a little bit. Good job. Tc. Um, I would put him, he seems like Brock Purdy or something. I might say Xander's closer to Joe burrow. Like no Burley's gotten really close. Herbert hasn't even been close. Come on. Burrows been really, really close and it just hasn't happened. I'm, I think that's a little disrepair.

One of my dreams is to have the golfer slash quarterback comp pod. So file that away. Everybody do some research. I know I'm not a ball know where I'd like to be involved in that. I think I could sprinkle that in. Can I, can I hit you guys with a few, a few stats and notes that I, that I uncovered that I think will can inform the rest of the show as we get into, you know, a little bit of odds, making a little bit of stuff on the course. But again, this is from Betts Pertz, the rabbit hole function they have there, which just ton of great course history stuff. Over the last five years, the best putter at Augusta National, who do you think it is off the top of your head? Who's the best putter and strokes gained at Augusta

over the last five years? TC is going to get it. So do they have to play in all five? So I, if you've played in at least two, I'm counting, counting you here. So I did a minimum of eight rounds within this JT Poston. Your boy cam Smith has been the best putter at, at Augusta national and second best again, he's only played in two of them. Will's ala Taurus really second best fast greens. He's had really good, really good putting success in the two masters. He's played different Potter though. I'm still, I'm still wanting to see that long Potter hold up under some pressure. We'll see. Just an interesting note.

I thought the leaders in strokes gain approach over the last five years at the masters. It goes Scotty Scheffler, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Colin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele, Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Cantlay. Ball hitters only at Augusta, but Scotty leads the way and DJ is still second on that list despite not being at his strongest over the last couple of years. You win one of them in there. Solid, very interesting. Like that was the thing every time I go out there, I'm like, man, there's just so many humps and bumps in these fairways. There's just not a lot of flat lies out here

and or there's downhill lie. You got an uphill lie, all that. It's really interesting. We didn't mention Morikawa at all. He's not coming in on any sort of form. If Morikawa wins this week, he's three fourths of the way to the career grand slam. You know, we haven't mentioned DJ at all.

Like I'm keen to see if DJ's got, DJ could be one of those guys like, like Mikkelsen that you know, he can rock up to Augusta, play well and you know, not have to come in in any form. He just kind of summons it, you know. We'll see. I was kind of banking on a little bit of that last year in majors with DJ and that didn't happen. So I would be more, I would be more banking on a little bit of that last year in majors with DJ and that didn't happen. So I would be more, I would be more surprised this year.

I really would. I mean, I thought he would fit that bill last year and he just, he disappointed. I almost feel like DJ last year was kind of like, all right, I'm, I'm turning off for a little bit. I'm, I'm hanging out, powering down this year. It's like, all right, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to try a little bit harder. So, or, you know, I've got my, you'm going to try a little bit harder. So, uh, or, you know, I've got my, you know, it's,

it's year two of kind of these guys routine and figuring out, Hey, what works and what doesn't, you know, what year, how old is he? JC 40 yet? Yeah. He's probably 41 42. So he could be, he could be my Justin Rose category of like a 41 year old, a guy who's had success who could come out and just play wet better than like his current form. Oh, sorry, he's 39. 39 in 10 months, I apologize.

Fake news. Patrick Cantlay's putter at Augusta has killed him. Really? He is eighth over the past five years in strokes, gained tee to green, fifth off the tee, seventh in approach and second overall in ball striking. 60 second in putting. Yeah.

He feels like something that may be able to turn around. Like maybe we've seen his floor there and you know, I do feel like some of the stuff that Cantlay does off the tee doesn't necessarily, like it doesn't get him as big of an advantage as it does at other courses. But his approach play from that long distance is really good. And I don't know, I found that jarring that it was just

basically putting that would keep him from having an immaculate Masters record. What also surprised me Brooks Kepka very similar profile, third in strokes game T to green third off the T 12th in approach, fourth overall in ball striking 56th in putting it is the putter at Augusta that has killed. Now is, is, is that just weighing is the one year just weighing that down for Brooks though? The one year of bad putting had the crawling like an army guy

up the 15th Hill, the screen of 15. I mean, that was, it was like, he was just sticking it to Brando. Like that year is improving. He could play. I do feel like the, we've got some high variants are kind of high variable years stuck in there. You've got the fall masters in these stats, which is a little bit, or a lot bit, you know, on kind of inconsistent with the, with the rest of the sample size. And then you've got last year, which is extremely, extremely soggy and you got all the rain and just the course was playing outrageously soft. So, but he would have putted really well last year to me. He held the lead on going to Sunday.

So he, I would say that the year before when he missed the cut and then also the year when he missed the cut, when he was really hurt. I mean, the injuries, I would think, you know, he put it very poorly in 2022 at the masters and he put it very poorly in 2021 at the master. But I bet in 2019, he put it really well because he, you know, was the leader like with or not the leader, but he was in the mix, like going down to, I don't have that level of detail, but it's worth noting. He's had some not the leader, but he was in the mix like going down to I don't have that level of detail, but it's worth noting he's had some not not he doesn't see it doesn't see it great. Also injury related on putting I would think is the one thing that's kind of like, you should be able to you should be able to

do this if even if you're injured. Rory McIlroy, second in strokes gain off the tee over the last five years, 54th in approach. That's it right there. He does not hit the ball nearly close enough, especially for where he drives it to win or to compete at the highest level. The master per those Justin Ray stats that we were talking about on the preview on the recap last night, that seems like

something that he's keyed in on and is working his ass off on. Yeah, be very keen to see that's just if he hits hits his irons well, he won't finish outside the top three. I don't think there's any formula where he would finish outside the top three if he has a great approach week. But again, this is very different golf shots than the normal stock shots. I think Rory is very good at stock shots. And I he's not shown the ability to hit that fade off a ball above your feet and to have it have the right spin to land and stay on a tier

and I was looking at that back right tier the sixth green today just looks like the hardest cuff shot in the world. And I just don't I don't look at that and think like, Oh, yeah, Rory's gonna hit that totally like he's totally got that distance control and all that dialed it. I see that either be a lot more guys I would pick to take that shot versus him. That's probably where some of the discipline stuff comes in these talk about it, though he has to understand like, Hey,

if I have to hit a fade off of a ball above my feet, maybe it's better to literally just hit it on the left side of the green and try to, you know, instead of short-siding myself, instead of hitting it long, instead of pulling off something I'm not that great at, let me take the safe target. Let me try to lag putt it and, and get around that way. Uh, last one, I'm going to have you guys try to guess this as best you can. There's three guys in the field that are ranked in the top half of the field in every stroke skin category over the last five years, just three of them. So like, I'll give you

a hint. Scotty's not one of them because he's below average on putting at the Masters over the last five years. But three, Ram is one that is correct. Hideki? no way. We I surprised you with Malatow's Zala Taurus is another one and the third one you probably won't get because he's doesn't have the best Masters record. He's just barely above average and everything, so I'll give you. I'll give you five seconds to guess if you really want to, but you're probably not

going to get it. Terrell hadn't kind of close. Okay. Region, not quite the same country, but region. Shane Lauer is the answer. Okay. So yeah, I found that interesting. All right. We got a couple of questions to get to a couple other things to get to before we do that.

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All right. Speaking of connecting, I just realized I don't have my ethernet cord plugged in. I'm just, just straight WiFi through my internet router. And it's still working extremely well. So, you want to talk a little odds for a second or you want to get into some questions? What's next? Let's talk some questions and then we'll get back to odds and some underdogs. The haters are always saying you don't take questions. I always sneak one or two in at minimum to, uh, to, you know, all right, we got one from Wilkes-E93 who winning would

be the quote worst thing to happen to golf. I'm, I think I'm going to direct this one to TC. Oh man. Uh, we're at this seminal moment. I would say it's team Rose, right? Cold water on the momentum of like, all right. Like, you know, team Rose just, you know, like leading after round one and then gets it done. And it's like, what are we doing? Come on, TC. Come on. You know what? I'm going to interject and say the worst thing that can happen to be if Sergio was a two time masters winner, because Sergio would be so smug and so like arrogant and shitty about it. I that's way worse than Justin Rose. Is Sergio going to rock up wearing his, his outrageous fireballs gear? They were wearing some provocative stuff last week. I mean, I think it's a little bit more of a, it's a little bit more of a, it's a little bit more of a, it's a little bit more of a,

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it's a little bit more of a, it's a little bit more of a, it's a little bit more of a, it's a little bit more of a, it's a little bit more of a, it's a little bit more of a, it's a little bit more of a, it's a little bit more of a,

it's a little bit more of a, it's a little bit more of a, it's a little bit more of a, it's a little bit more of a, it's a little bit more of a, it's a little bit more of a, it's a little bit more of a, it's a little bit saying, you guys get out there tomorrow and, and you know, it's true. Some tracking, right? I want to know if, if, if, uh, Moran is wearing his Clique's gear. Maybe like, I feel like that purple, that purple and gold,

that specialty kind of, you know, that alternate uniform that the Cliques have would look really, really good with, with a green jacket, you know, the city, their city connected uniforms. Albino blue sheep. I'm going to, I think I know who to direct this one to is tree gates. Still an issue. Have they checked all the trees on the course? Kevin, I don't know why I'm gonna throw this one to you. And I gotta be honest, like all the people who make that joke, like, fuck you. Like people almost died last year. Those trees came down and they did actually go out and make sure that no trees were going to fall.

You're right. I think it's hilarious because I asked that question and you tweeted it out. Like you were the brave one that tweeted out and you got dunked on by a bunch of idiots. You were exactly right on this. That was a freaking crazy thing that happened. But didn't test all the trees on the golf course. A ton of the soil around it. We had people tell us that they absolutely did. They wanted to make sure they, liability wise, they had to do it. They couldn't like sit here and be like, well, who cares if a bad luck absolutely dodged a complete bullet here that this didn't kill anyone that literally two trees fell on both sides of like a woman

and almost killed her. And we completely are going to just roll back out of the masters. If you know, they get killed, there just must be a woke idiots. No, like they actually were concerned that more trees might come down. They had to cut down a few trees that they were worried about. But it was hilarious. How are you? It was very much a tree. Oh, man, I agree with you, Kevin, but I'm not wading into these waters.

You're gonna fight this one on your own. Can you imagine if they would have postponed following around for like a whole day or two days? If people had been killed, wouldn't they have? I mean, there's no way they could have. No, but if they didn't, if people weren't killed, but if the testing didn't go well and they're like, we tested them and, you know,

these conditions, it's like the eddy you know it's like it's like hey we're not we're not holding the event because the conditions aren't right you know that would have been wild it was not stormy enough for those trees to fall and that was the thing it wasn't like take shelter this is a dangerous enough storm like for trees to have fallen that was the part that was free and they have like at augusta i think uh one of the guys alan bastable wrote a piece about this for digestic they have like at Augusta, I think one of the guys Alan basketball wrote a piece about this for Digest. They have like a horticulturist and a tree expert on staff at Augusta who came out and was like, oh shit. And they

basically said they like the wind tunnels on the holes make for wind tunnels. So that's why like it windier than it seems with like normal conditions. You're laughing at me because you're still trying to explain this way. But they have a horticulturist. You don't understand you idiots. Do they also is part of it? And I'm not sure if the trees that fell like they're like constantly like moving full sized, full grown trees.

Right. That's part of that. Ever really playing God a little bit of that. Yeah, they're not. It won't say whether those trees were like ones that have been replaced there from from what I've seen. Um, if you could, uh, magic city golfer, if you could make one change to one hole at Augusta national, what would it be? TC I'll throw this one to you first.

Um, a specific one would be, I would bring 16 back to the original with the creek and the other side. Yeah, I don't know. I just think 16, like it was kind of a mirror image of, of what 12 when they first built it and the creek was going through it. I don't, I just don't love 16. I don't love the pond. I don't love what that greens turned into. of what that greens turned into. That's my one whole kind of answer. I would say the other thing,

just walking around out there the other day, just get rid of that second cut. There's no reason for it whatsoever. It's not punishing. It's not, if anything, it's actually bailing these guys out a little bit and keeping them from running into the pine straw. And it would just look clean and delightful all around. I think it's, you know, no more second cut, abolish it, especially on the third hole.

About that. I'm going to take, uh, my answer is different than it was this morning, but I did a little walk today. I really disliked the trees left of 15 And I get why you had to do it. Like you had to make that shot. Like you may have to make that tee shot have some consequence. Like there wasn't any punishment really for missing left.

But if you took the trees out left of 15 and just made it a huge bank that is gonna run down like into pine straw or something down there, or come to, like I'm thinking of that. Like the hill on five is so dramatic. Like if you miss short of the bunkers on five, the ball is above your feet and you have 240 yards into a par four and it's a really, really,

really challenging shot. If you could somehow simulate, I know the terrain kind of goes more towards the 15 green than compared to number five, but if you could somehow similar to 13, give a ball above your feet, a shot that's gonna be really, really hard to execute over the water, hold the green, withdraw

spin and all of those things. If you could make that punishment left instead of just the trees, it's cause a punch out. That would be really interesting. You give somebody a chance like if you're down three with a few holes to go like you might try the hero shot. Whereas now you have no chance to try the hero shot if you miss way left. There's a bunch of examples of trees that can come out and adding contouring to make it a little bit more interesting rather than just, you know, I don't love the trees out there and the second

cut in a lot of ways. But that one came to me today, I'm sure that's probably way harder to do than how I described. But if anybody can do it, it's Augusta. So that's one I'd like to see change. I would blow up for and start all over. I don't like for just requires one shot. It's really hard to even a good shot to make a birdie. If you miss long, you're totally screwed. If you miss left and the pin is left, you're completely screwed. That's I mean, I just it's not a very interesting call to me. Like even the par threes. I can

sort of take your leave in some ways that I got Augusta and I would just love to see four be something different. Even if it was like a, you know, a two tiered but like instead of like a front to back tier, like a left and a lower tier so that you could somehow use the slope somehow to get to some pins you had to take or you had to take on that bunker if you were going to go at the pan on the right, but you weren't completely, you know, dead. If you missed it, I just it's, it's bad. Counterpoint, I think the it's maybe one of the shots that favors a fade at Augusta and you kind of need need that a little bit. But I totally agree. I think the length of the hole and the shape of the green are kind of out of balance now. And they've changed that the fourth green is they've added some depth behind on the back part of the fourth green is I

mean, I walked around and saw it today and I don't know Augusta well enough detail in person to like notice the changes. I know somebody kind of pointed them out, but it does look like a more doable shot now and I think what I don't love about the four or five stretch is just kind of hard for the sake of hard. Whereas kind of a stopper after the dynamic second third holes, you're adding down the hatches.

And then six is, depending upon where the pin is on six. I really think six is an underrated hole, but that's getting more and more hang on for your life as we go along here. Totally. That Jenkins, our guys used to say, and it's the fifth hole, which no sports rider has ever seen. He wouldn't know is the farthest away from the class. No one would walk all the way out there.

They just pick them up coming back down seven. It is very sorry. I think other things that I'd change just not like kind of to run with this. I think seven, I don't know. I think seven should be almost awkwardly short. Like I wish seven was back to being a little, if it's a flip wedge, that's fine. But I think even make that green more severe and make it tough to control your spin in there. And then I think the other one is nine. I think nine green. I wish that was back to like that original boomerang shape. I think there's nothing more.

Provocative and eye catching and golf than like a cool boomerang green. Uh, format change. Please. I want the, I want the playoff to start on 11 and then just be sudden death from there. 11, 12, 13. You keep going until some guy gets eliminated. So get to like aiming corners, beginning of a playoff. That'd be sweet.

Why not just start on 12? You could start on 12, but I think like that second shot into 11 is really cool. It would be weird to finish on 12 with no crowd around the green is the only thing. Yeah, that's true. I don't know. You came with that close to, I can't get that close to some of the greens as it is. Like they've had playoffs to finish on 10 and like the way the crowd is, it's like way far removed back from in the behind the green or you can't get it close. I don't know, but how cool would it be to like, I don't know.

You're right. The crowd wouldn't, if it's on 13, like if it ended there, crowds not at all anywhere near that green, but like the best holes at Augusta, like 11, 12, 13, you know, they get all the way to 15. Imagine that. I'd say 15 would be 15 into 16 would be awesome. Like there's, you can fit so many people around that. If you go 15, 16, 17, then that'd be, you know, I don't love 17. Can't go. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I stuff we got to cover before we get into cross country holes in the playoffs at Augusta. It's as great as I appreciate. Let's do this now. Who won't win? This is a game we always play before majors.

It has to be a relatively, a person relatively high up on the, on the, on the leaderboard to, to, uh, to justify the pick that you got to, you're gonna really stick your neck out. I know here, KVV here in a second, but who won't win? Uh, Justin Thomas. I know here KVV here in a second, but who won't win? Justin Thomas. We give them passing grade on that. He's a top 20 player. We just looked up his results. He's finished what in the top 40 to one to win. What was our what's been our our minimum in the past? I mean, it's a it's an eye test kind of thing. All right,

Hideki won't won won't that counts. Wow. That counts. Disrespectful to the Japanese. I just about a man, an entire culture. You know, I love the, where's TC going to go with this? I am a, first of all, Taylor Gooch will not win. Okay. Are you sure? I am. I am. And then Xander will not win. I'm just going to do it. It's I'm putting my money where my mouth is. Rory won't win. Wow. He's trying to double reverse. Yeah, I am. I mean, listen, I would totally eat that. I would be very, very happy to eat that on Sunday night if it's not the case. But I know I'm not going to get invited to block party, but he will not win. Let me run through the odds. Just

so we haven't specifically listed them, but I did find some interesting notes in all of this with Scotty is plus 400. The biggest favorite, the lowest favorite, however you want to say it since tiger in, I forget what year, but it's been lowest, lowest odd since tiger Rory's plus 1000 Ron plus 1200. These are brought to you by the fan dual sports book, by the way, Xander Shafi odd subject to change. Of course, Xander Shafli plus 1400, Kepka plus 1800, Hideki plus 2000, speed is plus 2200 Ludwig and Neiman are plus 2500, Victor Hovland plus 3000, the blow pig Wyndham Clark plus 3,300. Can't lay Zala Taurus and cam Smith are all plus 3,500 JT plus 4,000. Bryce and DJ Tommy Fleetwood and Matt Fitzpatrick plus 4,500 big tone and Shane Lowry plus 5,000 cam young and Colin more Kawa plus 5,500.

Wow. It's more kind of Sam burns. Max Homasahit Tagala plus 6,000. Tyrell Haddon plus 6,500. Russell Henley and Jason day plus 7,000. Brian Harmon, Min Woo Lee, Patrick Reed plus 7,500. That's 75 to one. You didn't put the cat on here. Sorry. 20,000. He's plus 20,000. Yeah. Whoa. I might throw a tenner on that. According to the two are the fan duel. That's what I'm looking at right here. I usually they've kind of thrown me into like 50 to one even a minimum of like, all right, well, I know a jillion people are going to bet this no matter what.

Get rinsed if the cat has incredible weak. What sticks out to you among all that TC? I always liked to play in that plus 2,500 to plus 4,000 category. I just think there's value there. I think. Who would you pick in that? Yeah. So who would you pick in that? I think Zala Torres at plus 3,500. Blow pig? Can I talk into the blow pig? Yeah. No, you really can't.

You can never, ever talk to you. See if the blow pig again. Again, Homa, Sahith plus 6,000. Like I think that's, there's some value there. Russell Henley is coming in in really good form. I think Russell Henley at some point is going to Like I think that's, there's some value there. Russell Henley's coming in in really good form. I think Russell Henley at some point is gonna

like maybe run one of these things down if things break, right? He's plus 7,000. Can I confess? I've sprinkled multiple Russell Henley bets over the course of the last several months for him at Augusta. Like he's the name that like sticks out to me

of like data golf, approach play, like all of these things of like, I don't get why he's not under 50 to one for what he actually produces. I know he doesn't necessarily win a ton of these big events got decent course history at Augusta. Just seems like he's kind of jumping off the page is a decent value down the page. So yeah, I'm with the zell Taurus blow pig section is what I'm looking at really closely. I got it. I got to say one hour and six minutes into this almost as we're recording here, TC,

we're looking right at a list. I just said the name and you like breeze past it. Didn't even mention it. Not doing it, not doing it. We're just, we're going to, we're going to slow play. Are you talking Tommy? I am, of course. I'm glad you knew who I was referring to, but you're just ignoring him completely. And, and, uh, you know, not going to ride for him this week. You're off the bandwagon. Wow. Oh, I'm not off the van wagon at all. He's, he's in some of my, my plays on the fan dual stuff. I just, it's, I'm trying to, I'm trying to be cool. Okay. And you're, you're kind of blowing up my spot.

I'm just trying to get you, you know, you can't celebrate it. If you don't, it's called on the preview show. You cannot celebrate it. Come Sunday. That's for sure. I think if you can stomach it, that Patrick Greed is good. No, no, can't stomach it. Can't stomach it. I'm just telling you, I'm not saying you're wrong. You, you put a hypothetical out there that I can't stomach. Is Min Woo Lee good? We don't know. We do not. We are still collecting data from the crash. We don't know what he has. He's unstable. Um, there are some course changes this year. There's a new T on the second hole.

It has moved back into the left. Shout out to our guy, Danny McCarthy, Rory kind of downplayed the, the, the impact of this one. But, um, I went back there and tried to see, you can't really get a good view of it. Um, I don't know if you got a better view than I did when you were there TC, but, uh, not really. I mean, it's, it should suit Rory's eye. That's for sure. Yeah. It makes a little hard to get down the hill and it puts, you know, woods and long irons back into guys' hands, trying to, trying to get to it. And I think some of the shorter hitters can still, depending on the wind and the firmness, but can still hit it at the bunker and not get there. So I think that was kind of part of what I think was a little disappointing or underwhelming

about it to Rory, I think. But yeah, that's one of the biggest changes that we'll see. And some changes to four green and changes six green as well, right? To the back right of six green looks a lot more challenging now. Yeah. And then even two green, I guess. Sean Martin had some great stuff on this. He got some great intel.

I guess they've softened the back side of some of these bunkers where you could lag putt into them and basically use that slope on the backside of the bunker, especially on two there to use it as a backstop. So I think on two, that should be a little bit more, a little bit more dynamic of a whole location there. So yeah, we'll see. I mean, shit, you know, can't let me maybe doing a Delta activation down the left side, down at the Delta 360 thing

down there on the left side. Yeah, you can use the app for that stuff these days. I just don't know how much you guys need to really visit the counter, but question from JMCCAA03, over under on tiger shooting 71 in round one. That's a good, good middle pick there. Cause I would've, yeah, probably gone like seven right on 71, right? Yeah. I think, I think over, I think over as well. And that's weather related.

If there's a curve ball in there, I just don't think with his health, you know, when rain, whatever's coming on Thursday, maybe who knows, maybe he doesn't think with his health, you know, wind, rain, whatever is coming on Thursday, maybe who knows, maybe he doesn't have to play in any of it. But if it was going to be good weather. Yeah. And we're supposed to get wind on Friday too, right? And then kind of calm down on the weekend.

If he can scrape around a 72 though, and then the wind comes and he's like one of the few dudes who can hit really good iron shots and handle it. That'll be fun. I hope he doesn't get like a late early so that we get some time to recover for him, you know, get it, get the specialists in there and just work on my body. But yeah, I'm still, I'm still not willing to give up hope that he could be, I don't think he can win, but no joke reports were today that he was striping it around the back nine, like hit some really, really good shots. So a couple of,

I've ran a couple of buddies of mine out there. They were like, dude, he stuffed it in there on 16. Like hit some, he had a couple of really, really good shots on the back nine today. And now it's, it's Monday, but that's, you know, it's a good sign. Good, good, good thing to hear, at least in terms of what we're trying to expect from Tiger. I think he goes under 71. I'll take the under there. And then I think he, you know, he just gets tired as the week goes along and kind of, kind of devol expect from Tiger. I think he goes under 71. I'll take the under there. And then I think he, you know, he just gets tired as the week goes along and kind of, kind of devolves from there.

We shall see. Anything else you guys want to cover here before we wrap? Solid, good, good question from Brock Kinzer. Who will be the memorial or the ceremonial first tee participants at the hundredth playing of the Masters, which what iteration of the Masters is this one?

89th or 88th, something like that 20. 1934 was the first one. So 100th would be in 2035. Then I think yeah, or something like that. 135 mid mid 2030s. Yes. I tried to think about this a little bit today. And I mean, Tom Watson, obviously would expect to be there. Um, a hundred. So he'd be 80. 11 years from now. No, he's not.

It's 67, 68. So he wouldn't be 89. 11 years. I mean, I feel like Gary players still going to be there. He probably will be there. Yeah. It probably be younger by then. Watson is 74. So in 11 years, we 85, will he still be hitting? Yeah, I think so. I think so. Um, I think Gary will hit one into his nineties, like deep into his

nineties. I think he will want to go. He will go as long as they will have them. Have you'll have to like with a cane, like they used to get Gonzo off the stage of the Muppets. They like to pull a great player off the stage to not hit the ceremony. I kind of, you know what, sneak, I'm not, this is not based on Intel. This is not based on anything other than a hunch.

I think there's a chance that this is Jack's last ceremony at T-Sign. And he'll be surprised. He'll do it and then he'll say in the press afterwards, it's just, I think that's enough for me. Like I'm blessed, I love this place, but I'm not gonna do it. It's a great question though,

cause I don't know where I go next. I mean, Faldo's a three time champion. It's kind of, I mean, yeah, do they want, do they want that? Like I could, that's where it's like, is it a popularity contest or is it recognizing past champions? Crenshaw is super interesting. He's won twice then, but if you're inviting Crenshaw, do you invite Jose Mariella Fable like he won twice in the nineties, like when does. Then it starts to feel like, all right, well, I don't know if Jose Mariella

Fable should share the same stage as Jack Nicholas as well. So do you need to have then like, when do you have the Phil conversation? I don't think Phil may live forever though. Right. So he may be playing the long game. Honestly, he might, he might do you have the Phil conversation? I don't think Phil may live forever though, right? So he may be playing the long game. He might do it for the 200. If he gets on that Bryson plan, they lived to 120. I can see Phil, maybe they've been talking about that. But I think you're going to run into an issue that they haven't

run into. I don't have the full list of ceremonial starters. But like Sam Snead was a three time champion. He was a he was a ceremonial starter. Obviously, Byron Nelson, he was two time champion and he, he was one of them. But Jimmy demerit ever a honorary starter? I don't know the answer to that one was Hogan ever. So I don't know. I don't know how you guys that have won it two, three times. I don't know how you choose from that list.

I think the speed will get a chance to do it for Phil does. I don't see a scenario where Phil gets to be the, unless something changes dramatically in the next 10 years or so. And when does tiger become one of them or will he ever want to? I think he probably will, but I think he's going to hang around, you know, for a while doing this tournament. Yeah. Despite what he said about, I'm not going to play if I'm just a ceremonial guy. I think he'll, he'll like it too much to. Yeah. I got it. One last replenishing the coffers as far as, cause there's nobody really in the field right now that you would think for 12 years from now or 13 years from now, you know?

Yep. I got one last question. If Scotty wins, are we on grand slam watch? Let's say he wins by four. Like it's a clear, if that's the case, we're on grand slam watch now.'s say he wins by four. Like it's a clear decision. That's the case. We're on grand slam watch now. Okay. Right. I mean, I think the question is, are we on grand slam watch right now? Are we? For sure. For sure. Good. I think he's going to win the grand slam. Of course not. But like, it's a totally different level. It would be extremely surprised. I mean, if he won two this year, it would be an

incredible accomplishment, but I mean, he might, if he does it, he might win them. But if he does, he probably wins them like all by at least four. I think he might truly go run away and hide if he, if he actually does it. Like I, uh, I dunno, I think there's, there's absolutely reason to think that there could be a grand slam. It's his open championship record is a little mixed. Isn't it? I feel like that might be the one sort of where maybe I wasn't quite figured out the intricacies of that, but also like he's just truly the best ball striker

to come along and long time. So he could probably figure it out like very easily. I don't know. It's been, has he contended in an open championship? He was close at he was TA'd in 2021 at Royal St. George's and it cost me so much money. He missed a footer because I would have won a lot of money on a fancy pool. Anyways, he's T21 in 2022, T23 in 2023. So definitely his worst, his worst major to date.

But I mean, yeah, it's like more than one in 300. I guess it's a extreme long shot. I'm sure you could probably bet it at 100 to one or something like that. He's the only guy we can have this conversation. If you have I said, Oh, Rom is gonna win it. I mean, I know that some people may be in this podcast. So I some of them were 25% right last year. That's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying. Nobody was making fun of it. Fun

of it after the managers last year. But yeah. It's interesting. Cause it's, I feel like we've got some pretty agnostic major venues for the, kind of for the remainder, especially with Pinehurst and Trune. That yeah, should suit Scotty. I mean, I don't think there's anything that doesn't suit Scotty, but yeah.

I don't know. The Grand Slam is unlikely, but like there's a very decent chance we get a pursuit of one. I mean, think about it like 2015 speed obviously did not win the grand slam, but like that was a very real pursuit of the grand slam. That's obviously a much more of this realistic result than him winning it. But I think we, I mean, we are talking about it and believing it truly in 2015. I think we can get there this year as well.

I mean, let's do it. All right, first of all, we haven't mentioned Brian Harmon's name. I don't think, like, I think he's gonna make the cut. I don't, you know, I don't think, like, it's, I don't think this place suits him all that well, but like, we just had to, like, he won the last major. So I feel like we just have to mention his name.

Of course. Thank you. Just to, just to remind ourselves here. We did mention his name at plus 7,500, so. Okay. Do we think any of the amateurs play well? I haven't thought about that enough. If I can totally go to an opposite direction of your question, CC, just to make sure a name that I really wanted to get in here. Corey Connors. He's got great long iron play. He's got a great course history at Augusta. I think he's plus 8,000. I don't know if he's necessarily going to win, but if you're looking for somebody to fill out a fantasy team

of some kind, I think Corey Connors is jumping off the page as a name down the, down the board. So I think, uh, I think if there is an amateur is going to play well, I could see Stuart Haggis dad coming in and playing while he's in the field again. I think, and then I think that Neil Shipley I was going to mention him, a buddy of mine texted me today and said, Neil ship was a stud. Should I lay some money on Shipley? And I was like, literally I'm not the first master bedding, but I did ask Jordan about it. And she was like, Oh yeah, he's kind of stud. Like he seems very, like very intelligent, very small, very switched on. So I'm setting aside my buck tech. I was going to say, this is a big endorsement, huge endorsement.

Some other guys that I, you know, like, I know it's, I think cam Davis is a sneaky, sneaky good, like, Hey, if you're, I think if you're looking to fill out a, you know, fan dual kind of, you know, a kind of fantasy lineup, I think somebody like him, I think this place, I think Ecrote's game matches up everywhere. Obviously he's a, this is his debut. Another guy that I'm really, really fascinated to see, this is kind of the first time he's played since he had his big resurgence, Lucas Glover.

I am keen to see Lucas Glover play well. You want to talk about just an exceptional iron player and someone that should be comfortable around these parts. He's gotten plenty of starts here. You know, sep Straka, you've got Steven, Chris Kirk names now. I'm liking the Georgia guys, man. Okay. You know, the Georgia or kind of sec guys, you know, guys that grew up in the southeast. Okay. All right, that's going to bring us to wrap. That is the end of our Masters preview podcast we will have a live show 4pm Eastern on Wednesday kind of, you know, we call it our happy hour

brought to you by our friends at high noon we're going to chat about some of the developing storylines make final picks all that kind of fun stuff. This is just something to get the week started. We'll have a fan duel video preview out that'll come out on Tuesday as well. And we'll have live shows after the end of every round of play, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, you can find live on our YouTube channel, live on Twitter, or now known as the X app. And, and yeah, we have a lot of content to come this week. We'll have some writing coming down with just, we're very, very excited. We'll, we'll be, Kevin and I will be here all week covering it. I'll be kind of taking it in for my first time as a, as a press member.

And I'm very, very excited about it. So it's going to look a little different this year than it has in years past, but we're very excited about it. We thank you for spending the best week in golf with us and for supporting our content. TC, Kevin, we will see you guys here on Wednesday, 4 p.m. Eastern. Thanks so much for tuning in. Cheers.

Crack on. Be the right club today. Johnny, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different?