No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 822: LPGA Chevron Preview with Justin Ray

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

Randy, TC and Cody are back with an LPGA preview pod as we gear up for the first major of the women's season with the Chevron Championship. To help us set the table for the week ahead, we call upon friend of the pod Justin Ray for some statistical research with his ten favorite stats from the dominant run of Nelly Korda who enters play this week winning her last four events. After our chat with Justin we look at the schedule for the week, some of our favorite potential storylines at the event and close the show with our favorite dark horse and outright winner picks. 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 in? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different? better than most. Expect anything different. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome into the No Weighing Up Golf podcast. I am Randy.

I am joined by Tron Carter and Cody McBride. And we're talking Chevron. It's Chevron. It's a major week on the LPGA Tour. Awesome tournament last year. But let's start here. Cody, how are you this morning, man? You were just telling us before we hit record, you're a little chilly. Very cold.

I don't know what's going on with the air conditioning today in our house. It's only like 62 degrees outside. And my wife set the little thermostat on. I think it's like 66 degrees right now. I'm absolutely freezing. Bundled up in here, Biggie, but I'm excited to talk. Houston golf with you and our colleague TC.

I know you guys are like the Houston experts in the No Laying Up Squad. So I'm excited to break it down. That's right, TC. It seems like just yesterday, you and I were down at Champions for that US Women's Open. How are you doing? H-Town.

I'm good, man. I'm good. Always good to be talking about the Space City. Cody, I see you got, I would say, if you're watching this on Spotify, great work getting our stuff up on Spotify. Well, I don't think I'm gonna put this one up on Spotify. Oh, okay. I think that's reserved for live shows,

but this will be on YouTube, so all the people watching on YouTube. I saw this space. I saw the space logo. So space gets me excited. Lots going on in space these days. And so it's perfect to be going down to Houston for the Chevron championship.

Although I found it pretty ironic last year that all that gas got siphoned out of the NBC broadcast truck when it's a Petro company sponsoring the tournament. So we can get into some of that. You know, speaking of space, speaking of Houston, speaking of rocket ships, Nellie Korda, guys, she is on a rocket ride, having won four straight starts for her, including three in her last three weeks on the LPGA tour she comes into this week. The overwhelming favorite, we have a whole segment dedicated coming up with

Justin Ray, just breaking down Nelly and putting her run in somewhat of a historical context and talking about what she's doing with her game that has led to this success this year. So we're gonna get there. Before we do, Codeman, let's knock out some sponsors. First up, our good friends at Yeti. Yeah, you're talking, leading us off there with Nelly and this incredible run that she's on. She's beeni. Yeah, you're talking, leading us off there with Nellie and this incredible run that

she's on. She's been, you know, uber durable playing in a lot of different weather, different weather conditions. She's clearly stood up to the test. So those maroon, uh, maybe burgundy, uh, you know, pants that she's been wearing because the weather's just been crazy. And you know what else stands up to the test all the time? Every product from our friends at Yeti, the presenting sponsor of all LPGA content for this year, year 2024.

Big thank you to them, of course. Doesn't matter if it's luggage, hard coolers, soft coolers, drinkware, dog beds, buckets, you name it. Chairs, luggage, they got it. Yeti has products that perform when it matters most. Everybody please head over to yeti.com for their complete product line and more. I was doing a little dabbling on the website this morning. They have a great customizable section that is built out now for Mother's Day.

I think that's the next big holiday coming up. People are interested, please go on there. And we're finally working forward, we're gonna get some some Yeti no laying up co branded stuff in the Pro Shop. So be on the lookout for that. Thank you to Yeti. Not only for their support of our LPGA products, but of golf in general, we talked about it last show they're announcing that their new partnership with the caddy network they're sponsoring caddies both on PJ tour LPGA tour it's awesome to see and

again check them out yeti.com Biggie what do we got he's got a personal personal sponsorship with Yeti on his packing cubes never seen somebody rock packing cubes as hard as he does they're awesome I feel like we we got some Earth Day erasure there with Mother's Day being the next holiday. What's Earth Day? Earth Day. Monday, April 22nd. Go plant a tree. That's what Arbor Day is for. Yeah. I think, you know, hey, if you want to plant a tree a couple times a year,

I think that's good. We've got them down. We don't need them. Well, thank you very much. Thank you to our sponsors. As I mentioned before, guys, before we get into this Nelly segment and anything that we need to talk about, TC, we didn't really get your reaction. What what are you feeling right now? Listen, as a fan of the game, I'm pro Nelly. I'm I'm rooting for it.

She's she's earning the title. We talked about it a little bit on the Sunday recap this past Sunday after she won. And it was just very much putting her money where her mouth is and rising to the occasion and stacking up more wins than she's had the last three or four years combined. It sounds like Nellie's never really wanted to be crowned either. Like she wants to earn it and she wants to go take the title and just play golf and compete instead of being anointed this next big thing or all that. She's 25 now, winning four starts in a row is heady stuff. So keen to see if she can keep it going. And listen, I keep saying keen in all of our podcasts. People are all over me. It's because I got Joaquin Nieman on the brain, man.

It's an easy word too, that once it gets in your brain, the people that are on the podcast with you start picking it up. And I think that's where it's not just you. I know exactly what show you're talking about because Solly picked it up and he said, he said keen probably like five or six of those episodes. Hate that. So don't, you don't have to carry the weight of that just on your shoulders, TC. Right? I think of Houston Biggie, I think it's somebody very

famous proud to represent Houston, Texas. That's obviously my girl Beyonce. And I believe she had a lyric in one of her songs said y'all haters corny with that. All right, TC, y'all been corny with this hate for Nelly. You doubted her at the beginning of the year. It's the year Nelly Korda. I'm not going to stand by this slander and you skirt skirt and out of the raised her. That is not enough. You can't you can't flip it now because you have probably rightfully so, had very lofty expectations for her. And I think a lot of that is very young phenom, tried, did not decide to go to college, came out and she's just kind of been thrown at us from

a lot of brands that we are supported by as well. And it took a long time. And I wonder if that is like her golf game maturing. Is that Nelly maturing or is that just, is it finally just happening where both of those are coming together? Well, not to answer for TC, but I would even sprinkle on full health too. Right. It could be, it could be all of those things. Yeah, I would say, I mean, Cody,

it's not that I didn't like Nellie or didn't, I just felt that the expectations didn't match the production. She'd won eight times prior to this year, Turn Pro in 2018, so we're, you know, one major. Which is a disappointment, I'll say that. Totally. So, so that's, that's where I've been coming from. And you know, it's more like, Hey, let's talk about the people who are winning. But I think part of it was on

the LPGA tour, there's, there's been so much parody of, right. And there hasn't been anybody ascend to that, that kind of superstar throne. So they've almost had to create some. And I think this year, even beyond Nelly, I think you look at how Lydia's played. She's got three top tens, one win. You look at Patty. Leona is starting to play well again. Celine keeps playing well. Like there's, there's consistent names. There's consistency at the top as far as the stars are actually playing like stars consistently for the first time in really the last three or four years, I think. It

seems like it's like kind of what needs to happen on the PGA tour right now too. I think you're right on the parody of the LPGA tour. I think it's kind of weird. I went back and tried to think of like, okay, why wasn't Nellie? And you're like, okay, obviously we're looking for a kind of an American superstar to come and take this place. And I'm like, but where was the vacuum kind of created?

And it wasn't even just on the American side. I think it was on the LPGA Tour as a whole. And you saw the like, when MB kind of got at the end of her run, there's really been no player since her that's like, Yep, this is it. Like I own this. And I think it doesn't matter where you're at. Like that's what we've been searching for. And I would just say, like, it was a little strange because Jin Young Ko flashed, like elite, elite world class ability. But the thing the thing was, you know, she wasn't necessarily

doing it in the majors, which are the biggest weeks of the year. So Nellie hasn't done that yet this year. And I think that's part of what makes obviously the Chevron and we'll make all of the majors this year that much more interesting. But yeah, I totally agree with both of you guys. Nelly played well here last year. Yeah, I'm sure you get into

it with with Justin. But you know, solo third here last year like this was Chevron last year was a banger of a tournament felt like, you know, truly all right, this is, you know, it didn't necessarily feel like it the vibe on site felt a little muted and coverage was bad, but the finish was great. And, you know, it felt like it kind of truly catapulted the LPGA tour last year into, all right, you know what? Like, this is going to be fun.

Well, I want to get into that. So just for run a show for folks, we have about a 30 minute conversation with with Houston's own Justin Ray, very topical this week, he's he's gonna tell us all about Nellie Korda, again, put her run into historical context and kind of dig into what's driving her play so far this year in terms of you know, is it the driver? Is it the putter? Is it you know, her approach play, et cetera, et cetera. And then on the back

end guys, let's we'll reconvene and let's get into Chevron, the venue, the tournament last year, and we can make some picks. So without further ado, here is our conversation with Justin Ray. Mr. Justin Ray, if you're not following Justin Ray on Twitter, you are missing out. He is the go-to for any type of stats, historical tidbits. I love just throwing stuff to him every now and again. Justin, thank you for joining us.

I can't think of a better person to help us contextualize the Nellie Korda run that we are in the midst of. So let me first start with thank you for joining and what's going on in your world. Yeah, thanks for having me. Nellie is certainly making it easy with as well. All the stuff she's doing, she's given me plenty of fodder to dig through

and try to contextualize. When there's not a lot going on, that's when my job's hard. When this stuff's going on, this is the fun and easy part contextualize. Like when there's not a lot going on, that's when my job's hard. When this stuff's going on, this is the fun and easy part of it. Absolutely. I mentioned Justin Ray on Twitter. He is head of content for 21st Group. He's a lead data analyst for KPMG Performance Insights.

He's previously worked at ESPN, at Golf Channel, tons of different interesting stops. But Justin, one thing I wanted to ask you about, you were very involved with the U.S. Solheim Cup team beginning last year in Spain and will be again this year in Virginia. I was just curious if you could kind of walk us through both what you are doing with the U.S. Solheim Cup team and also how that came to be? Yeah, well, you know, a while back, Stacey Lewis, you know, learned about all the different analytical approaches that the U.S. and European Ryder Cup teams have been able to implement over the last several years.

It's kind of a staple of a Ryder Cup or a President's Cup now is having a stat squad behind you. And that's what Stacey wanted to implement too. And you know, our work developing the KPMG performance insights and helping tell those stories week in and week out kind of made us a perfect fit to try to go in there and help out, try to put players in the best position possible from a statistical standpoint, whether that's odd

even holes, whether they should tee off or, you know, pairing the right players together to get the best possible outcome. It was easily the biggest thrill of my career so far. It was so much fun to be a part of. I like to say we were a half point away from a perfect week. That sweep in the first session and the alternate shot was something, a feeling I'm never gonna forget the rest of my life. So yeah, and we're back at it this year.

I'm actually headed down to my hometown at Houston next week for Chevron to go talk to Captain Lewis and meet with one of our new assistant captains, Brittany Lintzikum for the first time. So fired up to get going on that. We have a WhatsApp chat that is just on fire all year round. It's been really cool to see that develop. And, you know, every time I come up with something that's whether it's good or if it's good, it gets shared with the player is kind of like a motivating thing in terms of numbers. But, you know, trends I'm finding and ball striking and putting and whatever it might be. If it's interesting about somebody

that could be potentially a member of the US team, I share it in that thread and I get feedback from major champions is always pretty cool. So it's exciting. I can't wait to be part of it again this year. The only thing I'm going to change is we're going to leave with that trophy. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. What are you dealing with the information and stats that you have access to? How much of that is proprietary? How much of that can people find through the KPMG Insights page? Where do you get the information, the data, if you will, to help do your job?

Yeah. Well, almost all of it is available on the KPMG Performance Insights main page. It's easy to find through the LPGA site. But look, we've got a non-traditional, we don't have lasers on every golf course in the world. So the caddies and the players are a big part of calling this information together. But yeah, what I'll do is mid-tournament

in order to help out the broadcast or help tell some of those more detailed statistical stories. I'll actually comb through PDF scans of scorecards and piece together like why this player is putting better from five to 10 feet. That's why she's succeeding so far or approach that proximity from a certain range. So it gets pretty nitty gritty. But when you go week in, week out and the stuff that's going to be most interesting and useful for fans, it's all available on the KPHB performance insights website.

Awesome. I know Cody, you and I, or at least I did. I remember last year before the Solheim, you know, we had heard about, oh, we found that that Lexi, she's hitting the ball great. And I know I was dubious, but damn, if by the end of the week, if that didn't prove true, Justin, you guys sure nailed that one. I have to imagine that was pretty satisfying for you. It was a testament to what we saw in what Lexi had been doing the weeks leading up to the Solheim Cup. She didn't have a great year on the golf course for the first six, seven months of the year in 2023, but we always knew what the underlying talent was and some of the underlying metrics were a lot better than her scoring results were. And then she got to Spain and it's a testament to the faith

that Stacey and the assistant captains put in us and put in the data. We tracked her strokes, gained information in the practice rounds as well. And Stacey even mentioned it in a press conference before the first session. And she was through the roof, like the best ball striker on the team.

And we were like, okay, I think we can ride this. I think we can take this and use it to our advantage. I remember, I hope Stacey won't get mad at me for saying this, but see, when Stacey told Lexi, you're going off first in the first session. And I told Lexi, and you're going to drive the F in green. And I don't know, I was just so fired up. I blacked out. I don't know. It's too excited.

So I probably could have kept that to myself, but it ended up being a good, you know, portend for some good stuff for the week and proved us wrong, proved us dead wrong. Jay Ray certified in your absolutely justified and being doubt and doubting what we were doing. I totally got it. I mean, it didn't, on the surface, it didn't look like it made a whole lot of sense, but we had confidence in our strategy. We had confidence in the players and in our assistant captains.

The whole approach we had the entire year going into this. I mean, the amount of data we poured through and the work we did with Stacey and with the assistant captains, myself and my whole team with TFG, we were really confident in the process and we're going to be even more so when we get to the DC area later this year. I got one question for you.

A phenomenal investment by KPMG getting the performance insights not only up and running, but we talked about kind of how bootstrapped it is. And it's getting better. And I think that's because more people on board, not only players, caddies, but everybody sees like what this can actually provide to every level that is around, definitely the LPGA tour. But what, I guess my question is with the USGA's investment last year at the US Women's Open and bringing ShotLink there,

like how much did that help out your job? And having like, okay, well, we have our caddy fed insights that we're getting from every single round, but here is the no crap data that lasers as official as it can possibly be. It was a good comparative tool for sure, because we didn't have anything to go up against. My company, before I even got here, implemented the same process on the DP World Tour for years. That's the thing that doesn't get talked about a lot is that, you know, they still don't have ShotLink type technology on every course around the world

on the European tour. I mean, they do in mainland Europe, but they don't have it in some of the more far flung locations. So they still use the process that, you know, my company had in place for years and years before a new partner joined with them. I will say that the growing pains are really reflective of a lot of what we saw in the beginning of the ShotLink era for the PGA Tour. For a lot of the years of ShotLink data in the men's game, it's Alice the retired teacher

with an iPad walking around. Look, there's still even moments now where I'll be watching a golf tournament, whether it's in person or on TV, and the in tournament shot link data, but that's not a three foot putt, that's a nine foot putt. It's not perfect. But look, the goal is to take, that's not a knock on shot link at all.

It's incredible technology, and has allowed us to tell the best stories that we could possibly think of in the sport. It speaks to the fact that this is not a perfect process. Data is not a perfect, you know, magic bullet. It takes a lot of work and dedication. Like you said, it is getting better. We're really confident in the growth we've shown and the accuracy of the information. But like you said, people see the value in it. Everyone from the last player on the Epson Tour's swing coach to the commissioner of the LPGA Tour sees the value in this information. And that's kind of the, it takes time. Everything takes time. The example I use, I worked at ESPN in the very dawn of when strokes

gained putting was being rolled out. And I remember at the 2011 Masters, I think it was, I tried to get the strokes, strokes again, putting graphic into a sports center hit. And you would have thought that I had four heads. Like the way that the people in the truck looked at me, it was totally alien. And now, you know, you just go a few years later and it's ubiquitous. It's everywhere. It's what we all, you know, you're going to hear it on the Masters broadcast here later this week,

you know, throughout, you know, so these things take time. And look, there's nothing more exciting than data and patience. So it's just something that reps and time was going to only make the process stronger and the data more and more reliable and people are going to see the value. Yeah, I feel like it's a direct attack on my personal philosophy of hot takes and eye tests. So well, there's a place for everybody. It's I'm not, I'm not a robot. You know, I've got takes too, but there's a place for all of it.

And look, we want to give you the fuel that will help your help your takes and maybe justify that eye test. So maybe if it doesn't justify the eye test, just do it. Most analysts do and ignore that part of the day. Just pretend it doesn't exist. That's exactly what you need to make it work. But no, for real, there's a place for all of it, man. You can have your eye takes are important. We're all human. Yeah, for sure. And I think just to touch on what you said, it's such a valuable tool to help tell

stories. And I think that's, you know, in the business that we're in, and especially with women's golf, it's so nice now to have more information and more data. And as that data just keeps getting better and better, it allows us to tell better stories and to contextualize things a lot better. And so that's massively, massively appreciated. And, and that's kind of why we wanted to bring you on today because I know this is a Chevron preview and we're going to get to the Chevron, but we'd be remiss. We have to talk about what Nellie Korda has been doing. She enters Chevron on a four tournament win streak, including a run of three straight wins in three straight weeks prior to this week off. She's unbelievable.

She's up to 12 career LPGA victories. She's obviously Justin, somebody that you would have worked with and dug into last year for the Solheim, obviously we'll be working with again for this year Solheim. And so I had tasked you after she won two weeks ago, her most recent victory out in Las Vegas at T-Mobile. I shot you a message and I said, Hey, Justin, would you be willing to come on and just share

like your 10 favorite Nelly Korda stats tidbits? And so graciously you said, yes, here we are. You have 10 prepared for us. Cody, I think we just count them down, maybe reverse order, Justin, if that's all right with you. Can you just take us from 10 to one? I'm happy to. So it's not gonna be the 10 by my favorite,

but I think 10 most impactful maybe in that order. What I tried to do is give you five or six to explain why she's hit this sprint speed in terms of her success, and then some historical stuff and some really cool names that she's brought herself with. So- Beautiful, awesome. You can get any virtual drum roll for number 10, but I'll fire when ready. historical stuff and some really cool names that she's brought herself with. So,

any virtual drum lol for number 10, but I'll fire when ready. Yeah, we don't have that sound graphic built in. That's okay. I didn't expect it. So let's get started with one of the biggest reasons why she's having this much success this year. She's gone from above average with her approach play to elite. In 2023, she gained two-tenths of a stroke per round with her approach shots. That's well above average, 56 on the LPGA Tour. This season, she's gaining nearly a full stroke per round, and she's ranked in the top 15. So that was never the strongest point of her game. Obviously, her performance off the tee, and she's a better putter than people give her credit for, but she's turned into an elite approach player, and that's really unlocked this kind of next you know, next, next levels attired

euphemism, but to take this next step in terms of being, you know, forced consecutive wins on winning at this historic clip. Okay. I did not expect you to lead with that. I thought for sure you're going to go putting here, but you're, you're a hundred percent right. I guess for some reason we always, why have we always imagined that she's just been like an absolute like crusher of stroke training approach. Like it seems like she flags everything. I know, I think it's gotta be golf swing bias. It's such a good golf swing. Yeah, that's true.

I think people naturally think, oh, you must hit your irons fantastic. And not that she was hitting them bad as Justin. No, not at all. I think too people often stick to the first statistic that comes to your mind when you characterize a player like Denny McCarthy. He's a great putter. I mean, yeah, he's a great putter, but he's also getting good at other stuff.

Nellie for years and years, she's top five on the LPGA Tour and driving distance. So she's driving the ball. Great. That's the strength of her game. It is the strength of her game, but now she's basically mirroring what she's able to do in stroke, skate off the team with what she can do with strokes gained approach. All right. Love that. Yeah. I'm excited where we're going to kind of dovetail nicely with that.

Nellie is the only player on the LPGA tour this season who is ranked in the top 15 in both strokes gained off the T and strokes gained approach. She is the only one for good measure. She's also in top 15 strokes gained around the grade. She's second. So no one's got the first two and she's got three. Let me ask you this and it's maybe an impossible question, but how much of this do you think is like her new true skill level? How much of it is just a very hot streak that she's on?

I imagine the answer is probably somewhere in between. But I guess, what do you expect from her in terms of approach play and keeping this elite kind of driver plus iron play going deeper into the season? You're right. It's a little bit of a mix of both. I mean, you'd be remiss if you didn't say this is a little bit of catching fire in the moment to hit this kind of crazy streak she's on. But, you know, I think that, look, the numbers, the number of rounds that she's been gaining strokes with her approach play going back to the end of last season suggests that this is more of a, I'm not going to

say a permanent, she's like a win every tournament she ever plays, but it's more of something that's more sustainable than she got hot with a putter one week or something like that. This has been a repetitive, consistent thing to where I think it was, I looked up the other day, she's gaining at least a stroke with her approach play in twice as many rounds as last year. And that's a really significant increase and a pretty consistent block of time to look at in terms of seeing that improvement. And you can only take her word for what she says that this is truly one of the first times

going back to like her rookie year that she truly feels like she's playing injury. Like she doesn't have, she's not bumped up. She doesn't have any weird pains or anything. So maybe this is truly like she's just swinging her swing for the first time in a long time. Finally healthy. So yeah. All right. So number eight, next up. This season, when Nellie hits the fairway with her drive, she's hitting the green regulation 83% of the time.

That's an obscene fact. It's the highest rate of anyone with at least 16 rounds on tour. It's more than 10% better than the LPGA Tour average. After a missed fairway, she's even better compared to Rappier. She hits the green 65 percent of the time. That's 14 percent better than the LPGA Tour average.

Good Lord. Yeah. That adds up quick. I think, you know, specifically thinking back, well, let's just look back to the finals match this last weekend and Leona's coming in with, you know, high hybrids and Nellie is 50, 60 yards ahead of her and coming in with a pitching wedge. And you're like, well, okay, that that kind of makes sense there.

So when you couple strokes, gain overall driving coming off the tee with the power, it's going to feed into approach. And we did not rehearse this, but that goes perfectly into the next fact. On approach shots from 100 to 125 yards this year, which she gets a lot of because she's able to drive the ball further than her peers, Nellie has an average proximity to the hole of 15 feet. The LPGA tour average from that range this season is about 20 feet. So five feet doesn't sound like a lot, but when you add up the rate of putts made from 15 to 20 feet versus 10 to 15, 20 to 25, whatever it might be,

it adds up to more birdies and Fred Elliott's added up to four straight wins. I was going to make a joke in there before the last one. You could put me, I don't know, Cody, what, 40 yards, 50 yards away from the green and I literally don't think I would hit 83% of the greens with a little pitch shot. I know that's not a shock to a lot of people listening, but it's just unbelievable. Maybe the shocker big is, yeah, I think the shocker is the fact that most people think that they're going to hit 100 percent

of it. Like most amateur golfers are like, Oh, of course I'm going to hit the green 100 percent of the time. They don't realize how difficult it actually is. Yeah, for sure. All right, so carrying on and this is this is going to be a terrifying fact for the rest of the LPGA Tour. Nellie can actually get better. This season she has made a lower percentage of her putts from five to ten feet than the LPGA Tour average. She's able to overcome some mistakes here and there. You think about some of the a few of the air approaches,

but some missed putts she had in the match play, with the fact that she's able to just make a zillion birdies as well. But if she actually improves her putting from five to 10 feet to maybe like a little above the LPGA tour average, and keeps this ball striking going, I realistically think she could win eight or nine times this year.

How much, this is a great segue to ask you, Justin. We saw Nellie, Cody I'm thinking specifically of the AIG Women's Open, Solheim Cup certainly had examples. Hell even going back to last year's Chevron. Justin how much of a issue actually was Nellie's putting last year or how much of it was like she's such a good ball striker, she's going to have more opportunities to putt and we also see more of her putting, you know, that bias where like we see her a lot more on the greens than we would other players. I guess what I'm asking is how much of an issue in your opinion was her putter last year? Yeah, it's that adage where if you're a top player and we're watching you in rounds one and two, you're like, man, this player is not making anything.

But really, it's just, yeah, I can't make a putt to save his life. But then the truth is 95% of professional golfers, you're only seeing them when they play their best. So you end up with a little bit of a jilted perspective. She actually was 47th in Stokes game putting last year, which is above average. Stokes game putting this year is actually down from that a little bit. That speaks to the last stat I shared about the makes for 5 to 10 feet. I wouldn't call it problematic. In the shadow of everything else she does, it's not been her strong suit.

Like I said at the very beginning, she's a better putter than people think from 10 to 25 feet away. Yeah. It's a lot easier when those 10-footers are for eagle, you just brush in your birdie and keep it working. That's right, yeah. Absolutely. All right, I think I'm on number, is it six?

Yeah, I think this is six or five. This is number five. All right, so the gap- We trust you. Don't worry. You're not doing record keeping over there, Keith. The gap in strokes gained total per round between Nellie and Lydia Ko number two, who was unbelievable, obviously, the first two tournaments of the year is a

half a stroke per round. That is larger than the gap right now between number 10 and number 30. And that's it's not like Lydia is just hacking it around. Like she won and nearly beat Nellie in that and she had that amazing hectic final hour in Florida the second of the end of the year. But that just speaks to what she's been able to put together early in the year to be half a stroke better than anybody else.

Well Lydia got beat by the eye test. I mean there's too many, you know, you had production, you had all the media people getting the Hall of Fame bouquet of flowers and everything. I mean I felt bad for that too. But that's incredible. I know. Half a shot over number two is gigantic.

Number two. Yeah. And I think too, it would be even more staggering if we weren't as golf fan seeing what Scotty's been doing statistically and been familiar with it. I think it'd be even more of a holy crap. What are we looking at here? But yeah, I know it's pretty profound.

All right. Keep going. And she can still get better. Yeah. Yeah. She it's pretty profound. All right. Keep going. And she can still get better. Yeah. Yeah. She can still get a little bit better. Yeah. Number four. All right. We're getting to the historic stuff now. Only three players since 2000 have won four or more consecutive starts on the LPGA tour. Lorena Ochoa, Anika Sorenstam twice and Nelly Korda. We don't see this very often. I mean, this is

the tour where there's several years last year, both Celine Boutier and Lillia won four times, but there's been several years last five, six seasons where no one's even won four times the whole year. So to do four in a row and have those kinds of names, all world number ones, all, you know, Nelly probably multiple major champion, winter careers done to go along with, you know, two of the legends of the game, Lorena and Annika. Yeah, it's we don't see it too often. Goat status.

That's right. Speaking of goat status, and I'm just firing away. So tell me to slow down or stop if you want me to but only two American women in the last 50 years have won four more consecutive starts on the LPGA Tour. Think about the examples I shared, Lorena, Annika, think about Sayri Pak, Enby Park, R.H. Tandegar, these are all players from outside the US. The only other woman in the last 50 years to win from the United States to win four more straight tournaments is Nancy Lopez in 1978, and that was her crazy historic nine-win

rookie of the year play of the year season. This is Nancy Lopez in 1978. And that was her crazy historic nine win rookie of the year play over your season. Unbelievable. That is, I don't think we're talking about that this year because nine wins is so much. I think we definitely take that for granted. Just like we're taking this streak right now that's going on completely.

I was gonna say, I mean, think about, shit. The very, very good American golfers. I mean, somebody like Stacey Lewis, Lexi Thompson, Julie Engster. Meg Mallon, players who are really gone for years and years. Dottie Pepper, like, you know, you go back another, you know, as you mentioned, Julie, like you go back further and you get into the, between the, you know, as you mentioned, Julie, like you go back further and you get into the between the, you know, the big international wave, except for players from like Australia didn't really come along until Sari Pak really. I mean, you know, you have Harry Webb and everything. So the last 25 years, yeah, it's more of an international flavor to the biggest champions

of the tour. But before that, it was all pretty much all American players. So to think that we have only we haven't seen this, you know this only once in 50 years is kind of crazy. Well, and it's really cool. You know, Cody, you and I have spent the last year and a half I feel like talking about and Justin, I would be curious your opinion, but it just feels like to your point, like it feels like women's golf, the LPGA is as deep now as it has ever been really, you know, the depth and the quality of fields. And so for her to go on a run

in the midst of that right now is it's, I mean, you just run out of adjectives, right? It's like, there's only so many times you could say it's super impressive. Yeah. Cody mentioned that, oh, we'll probably not see nine wins. Really the LPGA tour season doesn't really get going till now. She didn't even play in Asia. I was like, wait a second. We haven't even gotten to a major yet. She took seven weeks off and then she missed the entire Asian suite. The cadence of the season too, they play more significant events after their last major of the year than the men do. There's more left to come, more and more to chew on here as the

season progresses. But I've got another crazy note that invokes another goat of the game. Nelly is the first American player to win four of her first five starts in the season since Kathy Whitworth in 1969. All in all, with all due respect, Kathy Whitworth was facing very different fields than Nelly Cortes. Exactly. Of course. But it is so hard to win. And I think that's like the numbers and everything they tell us, I think at the end of the day, like that's my driving factor that I keep thinking back to of what's going on right now is that

it's so hard to win the talent pool, the depth is clearly there. And the, you know, Nellie forever, we used to joke, we called her like potential dome golfer, track man golfer, because she, you know, she's not really, we used to joke, we called her like potential dome golfer, track man golfer, because she, you know, she's not really known to be a mutter. She's not, she doesn't play very good in adverse conditions at all.

And so far this year, everything's been adverse. Every week's different, every week's different setup, a different flow she's gonna knock off, different weather, different grass. Like it's totally throwing that dome golfer thing away. I mean, it's been. And to maintain the consistency that she has, it's crazy just to think about.

Yeah, for sure. I will just say too, real quick, just Kathy Whitworth, if people aren't all that familiar, I mean, won 88 times, but I think almost more amazingly, finished runner up 93 times. So she had 181 top two finishes on the LPGA Tour, which is just insane. So that's, it's like a, yeah, like Sam Snead, Byron Nelson type resume in terms of consistent

success on her tour. All right. So this is the last one. And this is probably, probably my favorite cause it spins us into this week in my hometown of Houston. Nelly will enter the season's first major coming off four straight wins. Obviously the only other player in LPGA history to go to a major coming off four straight wins was Anika at the 2005 then Kraft Nabisco now Chevron. Anika won by eight. So you're up Nelly. Bar's high. Play hard. Play hard.

Good luck. No, I mean, it's crazy that it not happened at any other point. A lot of these win streaks, you look back, surely Inglehorn has won in 1970. Like when Aria went on, it's kind of between majors. None of them entered a major championship really. There's some that include a major on the front or back end, but not like this in this way where you're coming off four straight wins and headed to one of the game's

biggest events. Oh my God, the potential is just there. And I think that's what's most exciting, just being a fan of the game, of the sport, right? We all get to witness this weekend potentially something really historic. And it would be, I mean, talk about validating, not that she needs to validate the streak

that she's been on, but to cap it off with a major championship would just be, I almost feel like we're talking about going to another level, which your stats say we would be. It just is, it's very exciting. And I think that's a fun place to be heading into any major championship. Yeah, you're talking about a run where you're comparing yourself like I did here to Whitworth, Nancy Lopez, Mickey Wright, Annika Sorenstam.

This is the best players in the history of the women's game. That's it. That's all you have to compare her to at this point in terms of what she's doing right now at this moment. So I don't know if she'll be able to do it this week. It's obviously an enormous thing to ask. I remember watching her interview with Grant Boone and Karen Stupples after she won in Vegas and she was like, yeah, I'm looking forward to my bed.

I'm going to go to sleep now. You can imagine just this, the consistent psychological strain of being in contention over and over and over again and playing stressful rounds of golf. Stressful rounds, something we track for the Soul Wamp Cup as well is, is something that's going to weigh on you and hopefully she's going to be well rested for the first major of the season. I was going to say we, we heard Scotty talk about that after Houston, right? Just the strain and pressure. He was trying to win three straight weeks and he talked about it just is, it's a lot.

So yeah, I almost, it's nice that there's this built-in off week for Nellie. I think it'd be a different animal if she was rolling right into Chevron. So yeah, hopefully she's able to get home, get some sleep in her own bed. And God, I can't wait. Justin, let me put you on the spot. What do you hope happens? But more importantly, what do you expect if you had to make a prediction for Nelly specifically? Well, I'm a little, you know, a little biased as a paid member of the US Solheim Cup team. I would love to see the defending. I thought you were a volunteer. I probably would volunteer to do it, to be honest.

It's so much fun. Don't tell that to KPMG. I would love to see the defending champion and the hottest player in the world duke it out in the final round. I mean, that would be incredible. We got basically in Vegas, I don't know if you could script a better final getting, you know, the Solheim Cup assassin, Leona McGuire, and the hottest player in the planet going to that championship match and be a lot to ask to get it again. But there's so many unbelievably talented

players. And we got that playoff last year with Lillia last year at the Chevron. Minji Lee is an unbelievable ball striker and has shown it in major championships. I would love to see Alison Corpuz, the reigning US Women's Open winner in the mix. But I will say I can't pick against Nellie Corta. I can't. I'm going to say I can't. I'm gonna I'm gonna it's so hard. I'm gonna say she trails by three entering the final round and comes back and wins her fifth in a row. I don't know. I mean, I mean, I'm obviously I'm I'm biased, but it's so difficult or just read you all the reasons why she's been so great. And this built in off week, like you said, Randy, I think is really helpful to think that she played the three stroke play rounds and then three matches having to go straight to the next big event would be a little too much to ask. But I think this week is going to really help. So yeah, why not? Let's keep it rolling and let's keep betting on Nelly Cordo. Hell yeah. I hear you there. I think the one thing is that last year the Chevron first

playing it obviously at the club of Carlton woods, but she played awesome. And if it wasn't, she just didn't really, you know, put herself in great position through 54 holes and didn't really have everything that she needed on that final day. And I think that the changes in her game that she's shown from last year to this year, there's absolutely no reason why your prediction should not come through. I am absolutely shocked you called out the defending champion there. I 100% agree with you on that.

That would be truly amazing. And somebody who was in the final group that threw it away on that back nine who's just coming back from injury who played lights out in Vegas, Angel Yin did not see that. Maybe the best putter in the world men or women. If I were looking for all the details of the six.

I was gonna say, Angel was hitting some very confident shorter putts in Las Vegas. And she honestly pushed Nellie maybe as much as we saw anybody push Nellie in that match play. So, yeah. I pulled up what Nellie did at Chevron last year, 25th in strokes gained approach. It was probably her biggest deficiency in terms of, and that's not bad, but if you're

comparing her to the players who ended up, to Lilia, to Angel, and to think of how much better she's gotten in that facet of the game now making a return there. I don't know, man. I kind of like it. So I'm excited to get the opening round going on Thursday. Well, Jay, you're joining my side. It's the year of Nellie. I crowned this at the beginning of like it. So I'm excited to get the opening round going on Thursday. Well, Jay, you're joining my side. It's the Urinelli. I crowned this at the beginning of the year.

Randy's a hater. He's been saying all this bad stuff about me and my compatriot in TC, these bad guys that I have around me. I'm happy to see that somebody else is on the side with me. We're going to do it, man. Just to caps off the Urinelli drinking champagne out of the Solon after we win Sunday night. That's the thing that's going to bring me the most joy for sure.

But yeah, it's a treat to watch and to just be an ancillary, even just as an observer is an awesome thing to experience so far this season. It's been the biggest story for my money in golf so far in 2024 has been what she's doing. Yeah. Awesome. Cody, you and I will make artificial predictions later in the show. We have Justin's.

He is Justin Ray. He's Justin Ray Golf, at Justin Ray Golf on Twitter. Phenomenal follow. Justin, you are the man. We would love. We'll have to check in with you as we get a little bit closer to the Solheim. We can talk some Solheim later this summer

and into the fall. But thank you very much for the time. Yeah, guys. Thanks for having me. It was a lot of fun. A quick message brought to you by our friends, the title is the number one ball in golf and the top choice of players this week at the Chevron championship. This year on the LPGA tour, 75% of players are trusting the Pro V1 or

the Pro V1 X golf ball that includes includes Jin Young-Ko, Megan Kang, Alison Lee, they all play the Pro V1, while Lilia Vu, Celine Boudier, Lydia Ko and others, they all play the Pro V1X. Choosing the right title is golf ball is all about flight, spin, and feel. In comparing the Pro V1 versus the Pro V1X, the Pro V1 will fly lower and spin less in the long game, while producing similar greenside spin and softer feel. The Pro V1X, it flies higher and spins more in the long game and will have a little bit firmer feel. The best players in the world are playing a golf ball

that's fit for their game. You simply cannot play your best golf otherwise. Head on over to Titleist.com to start the fitting process and find out which Pro V1 is right for you. Now back to the show. Great stuff from our guy, Justin. Randy here again, TC, Cody. Yeah, when you hear the goats that Nellie has put herself, I mean, Annika, TC, your

girl, Lorena, Kathy Whitworth, it really drives home what she has done, what she could still be doing. It's truly very, very rare. She's putting like a great player now too. That's the thing that I think, going back to our conversation before the Justin segment, was just how poorly she's putted over the last couple of years, especially towards the back end of last year. And it was like, all right, like this is unbecoming and you're not gonna win majors. You're not gonna win golf tournaments potting like that.

So glad to see she's come a long way towards fixing that. And I think it's just like the frustration, right? You never really wanna see the best, like want to see them intense, you want to see them competing, you want to see them showing emotion, but when they start getting frustrated and down on certain parts of their own game, that's never a good sign. I think that's certainly what we saw at times with Nelly and her putter last year. So anyway, one thing, one thing that I want to give a quick shout out to is that obviously thanks to Justin for coming on.

A phenomenal follow, but really KPMG, their investment in performance insights. I mean, we wouldn't have, you know, I understand we give them grief a lot of times because it's not perfect. We talk about that with Justin, but it's a lot better than nothing. It's a lot better than it used to be.

It's continuing to improve. And I didn't realize that, you know, we're kind of poking holes at it. And when he was like, yeah, that's actually, you know, not every tournament on the DP World Tour has ShotLink, and they're still doing this with caddy surveys and everything else. I was like, oh, that's a great point.

Okay, so we're not that far off here, that's a, that's a great point. Okay. So we're not, we're not that far off here, but thanks to KPMG for doing that. And I brought it up in that segment, but it just makes me appreciate everything that the USGA does for the U S women's open and getting shot link there. And how like that data that you know, is a fact or the best that a volunteer can do, but a heck of a lot better than caddy surveys. Makes me appreciative of it. Yeah, well said.

And I also will just compliment KPMG. The website, the KPMG Insights website is getting much better as well. And it's, you know, you can go by player, by year, by tournament, it's... Works like a website. Yeah, yeah, which is rare in the world of golf. So, guys, one... Well, guys, I'm gonna go down. On Tuesday, I'm going down to Chevron.

I'm gonna spend a little over 24 hours down there. I'm actually gonna play in the Pro-Am, which is crazy. The fact that there are still Pro-Ams on the LPGA tour but I understand that money makes this whole thing go round so you got to keep the sponsors happy. I'm gonna try to corner the commish, Big Commish Molly and talk about the LPGA app because it is not good. It's at all. It's, it's very archaic. It's almost impossible to move around the functionality of it and just see like where that's at in overall LPGA is things, lists of improvement, because I

understand it might be an oversight to some, but to everybody else who is trying to follow this, it this it's is not good That's how you connect with the fans, right? Like that's how a lot of it, especially when you're TV You're not on TV all that much. Oh sure. Yeah You're on the app and the website a lot looking at scorecards and tracking stuff. Yeah, Cody We'll be eager for a full report Hopefully you can talk to Molly about that guys one, one more one more sponsor to thank. It's our good friends at Mizuho. All right, we started our last

episode, we introduced them, they're going to be a partner of ours all year. For anybody that doesn't know Mizuho Americas, they are part of the Mizuho Financial Group, the 15th largest bank in the world. Mizuho Americas is a corporate and investment bank serving corporate and institutional clients. They advise and fund businesses looking to go public, raise money, expand operations, or connect with large investors.

They also help finance large infrastructure projects, TC, that promote civic improvement. We love that. So while you may not know the name Mizuho, you likely know many of the name brand companies they have helped or the projects we have funded. One of their big initiatives, and we're going to see it in May, they are sponsoring the Mizuho America's Open.

It's at Liberty National, just outside of New York City. And Mizuho is dedicated to celebrating and featuring women, not only on the golf course, but they also do it internally in their organization. In fact, two out of the three revenue producing divisions at Mizuho are run by women. And so guys, I thought this was a natural kind of segue to talk about another woman in golf that was recognized last week and that is Judy Rankin. She is, in my opinion, she's up there with like Johnny Miller. It's like Johnny and Judy is like the goats of golf broadcasting growing up. Judy was honored last week at the annual Golf Riders

Association of America dinner, which they do Masters week. And she received the PGA of America lifetime achievement award in journalism. And that's a big deal because she's the first woman to receive the award. And I wanted to just take a couple minutes to talk about Judy Rankin and highlight the work that she's done. She's a living legend. She still broadcasts four tournaments-ish a year on the LPGA tour, which are just fantastic. But quoting Judy from the dinner last week, she said, the fact that it's for journalism means a lot to me. In television,

you do tell a lot of stories and you try to get those stories correct. I think if you share them correctly it really helps the viewing audience to get the insights into people and I think that does a lot to give people an emotional involvement where they want to watch and become fans of a certain player or two. Whether they're men or women. I think that's a little part of the job in television. It's to get people to know players well enough that they care about tuning in again. And like that's it. And I feel like Judy has been at the forefront of that in the women's game for decades. And it's something that, you know,

we're trying to do, right? And in our own small little way, but I think that's it exactly. She was talking about that. Of course, all her colleagues, glowing things to say about her, as you might imagine. Friend of the program, good friend of ours, Grant Boone. I love this quote that he said about Judy.

He said, she has the toughness to tell the truth and the tenderness to say it kindly. And in my opinion, that's like one of the biggest compliments you can give somebody. Uh, and one more. Yeah. One, one more for you. PGA of America president John Lindert talking about Judy Rankin. Judy has delivered insightful commentary as a broadcaster for nearly four decades. She has made an everlasting impact on the broadcast industry as she paved the

way for countless women to follow in her footsteps. On behalf of the PGA of America, I congratulate Judy for an unrivaled broadcasting career and this well-deserved recognition. So guys, I wanted to use our segment today, of course, brought to you by Mizuho, just as a celebration, a thank you and a congratulations to Judy Rankin. Awesome. It's a big feeling. I miss her having her in the booth more often, but understand.

Yeah. She's had a long, long career. And you've highlighted, obviously, her broadcast career. But going back and looking at her as a player, you know when she ended up retiring, it wasn't because of retiring from competitive golf is because she had a bad back. She was still pretty young

she batted battled back issues for a long time and then kind of went away but Solheim Cup captain through the 90s. This honor of course she's already in the LPGA Hall of Fame is in the veterans category. I think she's in the World Golf Hall of Fame as well. She's in the World Golf Hall of Fame as well. It's awesome. Yeah. So well done to Judy.

Well done on the PGA of America for recognizing Judy. And thank you to Mizzouho for not only sponsoring our podcast, but all the work they're doing in women's golf. So guys, we've been talking about it. Chevron week. Let me just run through the broadcast schedule for folks. We are Golf Channel, Peacock, and NBC with, with, I will say sprinkled in. We're going to get some ESPN plus feature group additional coverage. The TV times for Thursday and Friday are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern.

That's going to be on Golf Channel and Peacock. And then they come back from 6 to 8 p.m. Eastern, again on Golf Channel and Peacock. Check, we're recording this a little early, but ESPN Plus will have some additional feature group coverage both of those days. And then on the weekend weekend it goes to NBC. I think you're burying the lead here. Is there any other news? What else is going on? Well, I think we, rightfully so,

we tend to have a lot of takes both on this podcast, the main podcast about the broadcast, things we think, improvements that we feel could easily be made. We're excited because we've been writing for additional streaming options because at the end of the day, we just wanna watch the golf. And that's the biggest thing when it comes to the LPGA Tour.

Well, we're very, very lucky. And I'll say that next week at the Chevron, as part of ESPN pluses coverage, you will see myself and Mr. TC, Big is going on vacation. So I don't know if he scheduled that on purpose or whatnot, but he's going to somewhere for the week. We're gonna miss you, buddy. But we

will be there on ESPN plus Thursday and Friday before we got to move on to the next assignment. And you're gonna see us the rest of the year. So I think we're signed up for four events in total, if I'm if I'm speaking correctly. So it's the rest of the year. So I think we're signed up for four events in total, if I'm speaking correctly. So it's going to be the Chevron, it'll be Founders. We're going to do the new LPG event in Boston, and then we're going to finish things off at the Tour Championship down in Naples. Very, very excited about it though. And I promise I wasn't meaning to bury the lead. I am super excited to see and hear you guys on television. I'm going to be down in Mexico actually. I've never really been to Mexico.

It's a little elopement. No, it's actually my girlfriend's brother is getting married. So while it is a vacation, it's not really, you know, I didn't have much say over it. I've never been to Mexico either. Yeah, yeah. We're flying into Cancun and then I think it's like an hour drive. But anyway, people don't care about that. I will, I should say I'm going to get back Friday night. So I will be on the podcast Sunday. But

yes, good luck gentlemen. I was going to say that the TV windows on the weekend outside of the ESPN plus coverage are three to 6pm. And that's going to be on NBC. And you can also watch it on Peacock if you so choose. So there's your broadcast schedule. On top of that- While you're down in Mexico, please. Hold on, before you guys go down to Mexico. On top of that also, it is a women's major and we will be there, our normal Friday evening live shows

at the end of 36 holes. You'll find us live on YouTube, X normal things, and then as well live Sunday show for Chevron RBC Heritage recap, you can find us wherever you get knowing a podcast. Back to Mexico talk. Randy, I was gonna say while you're in Mexico, if you could please talk to Grupo Salinas. We need a women's Mexico championship or a women's Mexico open.

And let's take it back. What was the course in Mexico City? Yeah. Yeah. Let's go right there. Yeah, that'd be awesome. I will do that, TC. Guys, we talked about last year's edition, the Chevron,

the first time they played the Woodlands. The golf course, I found it interesting. I remember last year hearing that they were going to work, the golf course. I found it interesting. I remember last year hearing that they were gonna work on the golf course. And in fact, I thought like shovels were going into the ground the Monday after the tournament finished. I don't think it was like major work, but it seemed like maybe some tee boxes,

some work around the greens. It's funny, I haven't read or seen a single thing, Cody. I know you checked like the official website. They don't have anything. So truly, I guess we'll all just find out together if and what changes have been made. The club at Carlton Woods, hopefully the build out behind the 18th green is a little bit set a little bit farther back as well. Yeah, Lily, of course, last year defending champion, Lily of who she jumped into the pond. I don't know if you guys remember the weather was really kind of nasty, uh, cold, windy, rainy, hopefully better weather this weekend that that would

certainly be an improvement. But I think the thing I'm like most curious about it, it just seemed like last year, anecdotally didn't seem like the tournament really got out of the woodlands and reached into the wider Houston area. And so I just hope that this event can kind of become a Houston golf event and not just like a little woodlands enclave golf event. So I'm curious to kind of see the crowds. I'm hoping the weather will be better and that should help. But I think we the weather will be better and that should help.

But I think we got some areas of improvement. And from the broadcast standpoint, you know, would love to see some bumper programming. Would love to see Golf Channel, the talking heads, you know, discussing this tournament, giving it major treatment, right? I think that's something that we often get frustrated with on the women's side.

So I guess we'll see. I'm hopeful. My aunt and uncle last year said like, so they live in the Woodlands. They said they didn't even know about the event. They found out about it and they're like, oh, that's sick. Like we would have gone like two or three days. Wasn't there, didn't you say last year that the Woodlands had like their, it's the same weekend or something like that as like their spring marathon?

Yeah, they had some like race or something. And people were in town like more excited about the marathon than realizing that there's like a major championship being played in their backyard golf course. The other thing that I was thinking too, and we talk about like greater partnership and strategic alliances, and the fact that the Houston Open on the PGA Tour played a couple of weeks ago, moved obviously to the spring.

I know they're very happy about that. I know Texas Children's Hospitals and the Astros Foundation is a proud sponsor there. I wonder why, or even if it's possible to be like, you know, part of this PJ tour LPGA tour, handshake agreement, whatever that actually means. But like, if you had a ticket to the Houston open, like I want why I wonder if there was like Chevron graphics on it or even like free admission, like you go

to the Houston open, Come back in a couple weeks We're gonna be in the woodlands or just something to get the greater word out there more just because I know you know Houston From what I know is they're very into their golf I don't know too much outside of like Memorial Park and all the country clubs that seem to cost way too much money down there but you know, there's a lot of wealthy people down there, a lot of people that are super into the golf and I don't know. I just want to see bigger crowds. And I feel like that there could be way more going on to amplify this.

Could be a good chance too for Chevron to flex on Valero a little bit because Valero is the one that kept the Houston event from being in the spring, got punted to the fall there. So Chevron could fight back a little bit there, but that's neither here nor there. Cody, I think that's a great point. You have a captive audience at Memorial Park. You have however many thousands of people. If there's not at least signage or something to be like, hey, if you like watching

golf, we have another very big event in a couple weeks, just up the road. That's yeah, I don't know the answer. Maybe hey, when you talk to Molly, another another thing to post a big commission. T.C. Was this I thought for some reason, I thought this was the Shell event. Valero is San Antonio. No, I know. Shell used to sponsor the Houston Open, but Valero is the one that muscled into the spring with San Antonio and kicked Houston to the curb. You're right. You're right. That final week before the match.

Can't sit well in Houston. For sure. We need the big petrol. Big petrol waters in golf. Guys, let me for this next segment, I wanted to go around and just discuss in everybody's opinion what would be, you can take it either way. Either like the biggest quote unquote, the biggest storyline that could happen at Chevron this week,

or maybe it's like your own personal like favorite thing that could happen. But let me start here. Are we aligned that if Nelly were to win, that has to be like the biggest possible storyline coming out of this week, right? Like that's... I think so. Is that settled? Okay. I think that's unequivocal. Yes. So with that in mind, why don't we do this? Tron, taking Nellie out of it, all right?

In your opinion, what would be the next best or biggest storyline like what like in terms of like a winner if it if it's not Nellie? Lydia for sure she's already won once this year if Nellie's won four times Lydia's won twice but one of them's a major an alleged major that that makes it super super interesting as we go into late April into major season made June Yep, and she'd be walking into the Hall of Fame. Yeah, which I Understand that I think I think I'm the I'm going to reserve the right to no longer discuss the Hall of Fame until the Hall of Fame is reached because I think that quick caveat for some reason Maybe it's just my own internal psyche,

but like she knows what she has to do. She's got to win. And I think every single time that that's caveated there, it's, I don't know. I hope it's not playing any sort of mental games with her, but it's pretty obvious that it is. I think Hall of Fame's are like, wildly overrated personally. So I'm just gonna abstain from talking about Hall of Fame in general. But when it's a clear cut like point system and it's purely performance based,

I do think it makes it a little bit more interesting. And I will say Nellie's first win in her current streak, she was three shots down with two holes to play, two Lydia, and literally has kept her out of the Hall of Fame by by coming back and beating her in a playoff, which is kind of sick. I would also say that you know, she kind of choked out away, like no, you should not have won that event.

Two sides to the same coin. Besides Lydia Cody, what else what what's your next best scenario for this week? Lily Vue kind of had a shaky start to the year defending champion. We're looking for somebody to kind of be up there to go pound for pound with Nellie. I think she's got a great feeling. I know there's a lot of things to go with

being a defending champion, but she's always seemed to kind of just shake things off. So hopefully she comes in healthy, ready to go. I think that would be a tremendous, tremendous storyline. It'd be a delicious dichotomy, right? Like Nellie, your week to week regular tour wins are cute, but this is my third major. Yep.

Very Brooks like. Yes. For sure. Yes. That's TC. Thatlike. Yes. For sure. Yes. That's TC. That's a great call right there. I think taking those two off the board, which

were first and second on my big board, I kind of think it's Angel Yin maybe. And I could be that's speaking from personal bias. I love Angel. But for her, if she could exercise her demons and break through in a major championship, I love Angel, but for her, if she could exercise her demons and break through in a major championship, kind of continue the momentum that she had in 2023.

She came back shockingly last event in Vegas and looked good on that foot. I'll go with Angel Yin. I think, again, another young American major champion that's going to be a Solheim cupper. That would be an excellent thing. We'll go one more round. We'll see if we can show this. The best personality on the LPGA Tour, she would do more to bring it to everybody's forefront. She would be the first person that's like, when people are like, oh, we need you to do social. She's like, yep, I'll do it. Oh, we needed

to go on TV. Yep, we'll do it. And like, she's just a true joy to be around now. Having said that, that would be amazing. But like, that's absolutely crazy to say, Randy, she's literally played in one LPGA Tour event. So far this year that was at the T-Mobile match play. We were shocked that the performance that she had there making it as far as she did. There's got to be some sort of honeymoon period here where like, you know, you just don't have the reps to hold up for that. Or if that's not going to

be the case, that's goes against everything that we're saying about like the depth of what the current LPG tour is. True. Yeah. Good points. Good points. TC, one more from you. What would be next up on your list? Cody, I'm glad you mentioned the match play. The match play was awesome. Turning into one of the highlights of the entire season every year now. I hope they, we talked about it. I hope they don't mess they don't mess with the format too much either. Like it's, it identified the best player for sure. We could go with Lynn Grant here. We go with Brooke Henderson here. So many different, I hope she found a gym. Gaby Ruffles. I think Gaby Ruffles winning would be awesome. I think she's a star in the making, but I'm going a different direction guys.

making, but I'm going a different direction guys. The home of the space program, NASA, NASA. She's playing nice golf right now for like a long time now, the last few years and the winds aren't stacking up. But her game, she's, she's kind of got a Tommy Fleetwood thing going in the majors a little bit. And what a better way to what a better place to win and get it done in Houston, right down the street from NASA. I love that one. I'll go a step further, TC. I think if she were to win, like, let's get her in a spaceship up into space.

Right. Like, I think that should be a perk for for NASA. That wouldn't be NASA. That would be Blue Origin or, you know, Cody's guy. Yeah. All the all the independent contractors that are out there. We have private space. Come on now. All right, Cody, one more. What would be next on your list? I we've we've shouted her out a couple times this year already. She hasn't won yet, but it's very hard to win.

Of course, when Nellie wins everything, she has four top tens on the year. And that is Sarah Schmezl. She did not play good here last year, barely made the cut, ended up taking... I think she finished like T75 or 76 or something like that because a ton of people made it through. But her year so far, like you want to talk about overall from round one to round four performance, nobody has finished higher than her outside of Nelly. And when you see these things and you start to see momentum start to pick up, and again, I know I'm caveating this

with like, I know there hasn't been a win, but it's awfully hard when Nelly is doing it. Something's happening here with Sarah's game, and she's proven that she is no longer the player that she'd been in years past, and that she is operating at a much higher level this year. Yeah, in a Solheim Cup year too. We can't argue with that.

I know sneaky, sneaky little season. Randy lot of value on the board right now. I know a lot of us do when you go here. I'm sure all our international listeners are apoplectic. You know, we haven't, haven't mentioned many, many foreign names. Well, I mean, this is, this is is the thing I understand that TC shout out Lynn. I floated it out there, but I think I shout out six, six or seven Lynn's like Lynn's prep is, is like, Lynn's not going to do it because her prep's all, you

know, gobbly gooped up now because she couldn't find a gym during their off week. I apologize on behalf of Texas. I guess she couldn't find the exact gym that she's looking for. And, and ultimately like, Lynn's not playing good. I touched on it last, last time she went from playing a predominantly right to left ball flight. Now she's trying to hit these cuts everywhere.

Uh, she's working through some things. So we'll see what the long game is here, but the Lynn that we were kind of expecting to see this year just isn't really happening yet. And you can say that for almost the majority of the foreigners that we really enjoy. Now, the one person that shocked the crap out of me at the match play, which kind of, I understand this fits her mojo, was Carlota. And Carlota in Houston would be a very dangerous thing because man, you would just like, she'd just be dragging this plow around everywhere, just slowing the entire tournament down. She's one of the slowest players in the world, but nobody is as deliberate as she is.

God, that final stroke play around of hers was just what a car crash that was. Yeah, guys, maybe the best value on the board is somebody that finished third the last time she teed it up. And that was back at the Ford Championship. She hasn't won a major in going on 10 years. She hasn't won on the LPGA since I believe 2019. What if Lexi were to win? What if this resurgence could ultimately end up in a major championship? I don't think it's gonna happen. Listen, you guys know me. Am I saying it's gonna happen? No. But if it were to happen, right? If it were to happen, I think that would be huge. I'm not sure for who, not necessarily for me,

but I guess for the game. I don't know if this is a big time event enough for Lexi. I mean, I don't know if she considers this a major. She might not show up. That's true, that's true. Yeah, I'm gonna abstain from the Lexi stuff. You know, I've written hard for it. I just, that is a, that's a stretch. I don't hard for it. That's a stretch.

I don't see that coming, but sure. I'm happy to be surprised. A weird way of just being there and then as we've seen, not getting it done. Do you know who I want to know? Yeah. Where's Allison Ben? Where she won US women's open like come on Allison Corpus like let's let's show up here

Yeah, you know who else Celine what's going on? I? She always plays so good at the beginning part of the year. She doesn't have to travel She's I mean I saw her up at all this other day grinding her tail off. But like, what's going on? I would throw ruining in into there, right? She hasn't really been playing that well this year. You could say so. We're here last year. Are we ever going to get more from Yuka?

What's going on with Charlie? She hurt. She withdrew from. I think she was sick. Arizona. Yeah. I think she was sick. Because I know she's not hurt because like every day she's working out on Instagram. So I know she's not hurt.

I think she had bad flu. I thought about her, you know, I think Charlie getting a major would be wonderful for just golf. It would be awesome for just golf. It would be awesome. Where'd she finish last year? God, this leaderboard last year was so good. Lillia, Angel, Nellie, Allison Corpuz,

A-Lim Kim, Titicum, Valenzuela, Yang, Kang, and Jen Young-Ko. And Corpuz was in the driver's seat. She shot 74 final round, finished two back and kind of, you know, got a snatch from her. So let's make some official predictions and then we'll get out of here. We have three categories. Let's talk about a favorite quote unquote favorite that will not win or who you don't think will play well.

We'll identify a dark horse or two and then we'll make a winner prediction. So TC who's a favorite that you don't think will play well? Is Angel considered a favorite? She took second here last year. Yeah, I give it to her. Yeah, I don't think it pains me to say I don't think, it pains me to say, I don't think Angel's gonna play well this week, just for the reasons that you mentioned earlier, Cody. I think it's kind of, last week was that honeymoon phase

of the season four, and now it's like, all right, like you gotta put in the work to get the results out, and get healthy, get right, and let's go from there. But, you know, expecting her to do good things later this summer, but it just feels like there's some, she's kind of relying on a little bit of smoke and mirrors and magic a little bit right now. Yep, I think that's fair. I think that's fair. Cody. Yeah, I'm gonna go with defending champion. Lileva just

hasn't shown me much of anything really this year. I think it's very safe to say her Rolex ranking is still very, very high, obviously, and deservingly so, but got to see some. She's just not going to do it. I'm selling off on Minji and I hate doing that TC. I hate doing that. I just think hasn't been playing the best golf. I was expecting her to come out like fire in this year. She said she was kind of burned out after last year and kind of reset, refreshed and just hasn't happened yet. Yeah, she's only, I mean, she's played five rounds state side. Didn't play poorly at the match play though?

No, I didn't play poorly. Finished tied for though. No, I didn't play poorly finished tied for 15th, but missed the cut at the four championship. Like she shot 76. That was, you know, that was like the easiest setup. I think they're going to get all year. So I'll sell off on Minji this week. She also had, she was in that crazy draw though. When the wind was absolutely whipping

and it was freezing cold. And okay, that's fair. I'll say this, the same thing happened to her last year at the chevron too is that she played really good in her opening round went out fired 70 and then had her round two and three 75 and 77 which is when she was a part of the group that was on the course off the course on the course. Okay, they finally pulled everybody off. And then it just dumped rain

and she had to go out there and like just mud it up and ended up firing 75, 77, then comes back around on Sunday and shoots fine around 69 when it was just overcast. But luckily majority of the moisture is off the course. So I would say that there's more there from Minj that meets the eye, but definitely not, I think, where we expected her to be this year so far.

No. More fun category. Cody, who's a dark horse or two that you like? Yeah, just who I called out. I think Sarah. I think it would be a phenomenal story. Her play this year so far has truly been incredible. Let's see what you can do at a major championship.

TC. Gosh, I think either I'm gonna say Gabby, just because I think Gabby is on the verge of big things and got into this event via current year money list. Otherwise, she's not exempt into it. I'm picking Gabby. I think she's a hunk of a shit right now too. I think she's like, like, I think not only is she a dark horse to win, I think she just wins.

Yeah, like my pick to win. That'd be awesome. God, I would love that. I don't know. Megan Kang's probably not a dark horse. Cody, I'm gonna go with your girl. You know, she's she's had some good weeks. I don't know, Megan Kang's probably not a dark horse. Cody, I'm gonna go with your girl. You know, she's had some good weeks. I call her your girl because you took a very bullish stand on her last year. Lucy Lee, I don't know why, but my reasoning is she made the cut here last year at Chevron. So she knows the course. She's had a modest bit of success. She's been making, she's made all five cuts and all five events she's played this

year. A couple of those are no cut events, but a couple top 10s. I think this could be a week where it's like, oh, shit, Lucy Lee on the front page of the leaderboard. So let's get winners and we'll get out of here. I have one honor roll mention that I want to put on there because nobody else touched her as Dark Horse. Of course, I'm going to go with our own young hitter. LC has spent a ton of time in Houston, specifically in the Woodland. She's very comfortable around there. It's a home game. Now, also, I'm afraid that those home game models might overweigh some things. The other thing,

caddy concerns. This is this is Big John's first major championship that he's carrying the bag in. I hope he doesn't get nervous. I hope they're vibing and what they've been doing so far is continues to work out. I know he's like on a six, I think a six event trial period right now, trying to prove his stuff. But I mean, I don't want to say a winner here, but like top 10 in the major. Let's go like all day long. I think she's 13th or 12th right now in the Solheim Cup list. Keep going. Let's go.

Yeah. Time, time to get on the horse for the Solheim Cup thing. I was walking around with Lauren and in one, uh, at the Augusta national women's AM on Saturday. He was telling me all sorts of stories from the caddy yard out there. God, he must be loving it. What a fun new adventure. They treat him like a rookie.

Hey, go wet my towel for me. Yeah, they were trying to and he was pushing back. Like, fuck it. I'm a manager, too, man. I don't have to do this. Guys, is it is it too cute just to say Nelly's going to win? Is anybody TCR? are you taking Gabby? Cody, are we taking Nelly? I'm taking Gabby.

You're taking Gabby. I'm taking Nelly. I can't get anywhere else. It doesn't make sense to take anybody else. Yeah, for sure. Not only based off current form, this week off leading in is huge for Nelly. She's enjoying beach time, time with her nephew. What a week to recharge. forum this week off leading in is huge for Nellie. Enjoying beach time time with her nephew like what a week to recharge. I hope she doesn't pick up a bug though you know those kids carry everything around.

We don't need that. But and also like it's not just control though. Yeah true. It's like the most harmless you know just got to sanitize after every touch you got to say it's just one of those things it's not just like all the wins that she's had so far this year in the current form. She also played really good here last year, you know, put herself in the right position, didn't have what she needed to on that final round.

I think she's going to learn a ton from that and come in with a refresh game plan. I was shocked when J-Ray shouted out, not her putting, but her, her ball striking and proximity to the hole as like her key to success. And from what I remember of the club of Carlton Woods, like there wasn't a crazy amount of danger out there. She's gonna hit her ball straight off the tee. And if she just flags it all day

and continues to putt the way that she's been, I don't know who's gonna stop her. Seems like a good recipe. I think too, I've just been so impressed by her press conferences as well. You know, after match play, she was well, we heard her after Palace of Air Days talking about embracing the elements and playing with creativity and artistry. And then after match play, somebody was asked, I forget what the line of questioning was, but but N, somebody was asked, I forget what the line of questioning was, but Nelly was

saying, I love this game, and I love to compete. And I love to be out here going for titles, going for championships. And it's like, shit, man, that's all that's all I want to hear, especially out of the best player in the world. And I don't know, it just seems like everything's kind of clicking. We go back to what we said earlier, is it her maturing?

Is it her golf game sharpening? Is it health? It's like, I think it's probably all of that. And she seems to be in a good place mentally. I cannot envision a world where she's not on the first page of the leaderboard. And Cody, to your point, if she just goes about her business,

she's gonna be awfully tough to beat. So. I didn't realize I gave Delta a hard time after her Ford press conference, because I'm like, we can't get the girl airplane tickets anywhere, because she was talking about how much she was driving. I guess she did this very much intentionally.

So she took those seven weeks off, she went out to Palace Verde's, flew into LA, and got a rental car. And it's just been her solo driving from LA to Arizona and then up to Vegas because- Love that even more. Yeah, because she never really had a big solo road trip before in her entire life.

And she just wanted to do it. And she's like, these three weeks line up perfectly and and why not and I'm like you know what kudos for her you know you want to do a little discovery mission and go out and have fun and be Joshua Tree yeah beat up the open road like why not I think that's so cool looking back on it now overall sleep and everything she probably could have used a couple hours here and there, but I mean, you're only young once, right? Go live your life. Well, thank you guys. Thank you everybody for listening. Enjoy the Chevron. Just as a reminder, watch Tron and Cody,

catch them on ESPN plus feature group coverage this weekend. It's going to be awesome. And we will be here with a live show Friday evening at the conclusion of play and then again on Sunday. So happy major week. It's going to be an awesome week. Thank you, boys. Jerry. Randy, enjoy, enjoy Mexico. Please put a bug in Ben Hamid's ear. Randy, what's the, what's the beach drink of choice for you while you're sitting around the pool, whatever it is, what are you hitting the cabana with for?

Great question. I think, God, beach drink. You a- Daytime, I like something frozen. Give me a daiquiri, give me a heck, I'll even dabble with a pina. Yeah, and then come night time. You know, then come night time, I'm a dark and stormy guy. Oh, all that sugar. Yeah. And then night time, you know, then come night time. I'm a dark and stormy guy.

Oh, all that sugar. Whoo. Enjoy, buddy. You deserve it. Thank you. See you boys. It's like club. Be the right club today. Yeah. Johnny, that's. Better than most.

How about in? That is better than most. better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different?