No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 826: Chevron/RBC Recap (ft. Nelly Korda & Lauren Coughlin)

Episode Date: April 21, 2024

Nelly Korda joins the podcast (29:30) to chat about winning her 5th straight tournament at the Chevron, what's changed for her, the nerves of the final round, and the jump into the pond on 18. We also chat about the first women's major of the year, Woodlands, get a call-in from T3 finisher Lauren Coughlin (41:45), and discuss the coverage of the Chevron. We check in on the leaderboard as it stands at the RBC Heritage (1:31:20), the bizarre decision not to move up tee times, and other notes from the men's golf side. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. Yes! Johnny, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different. Ah, pretty close. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the no laying up live show

presented as always by our friends at high noon. Solly here back in the captain's chair. Big Randy is here. Hello, Mr. Big. Hello, guys. Let me just say great to be here on this Sunday night. I felt so left out all week. I was down on my girlfriend's brother was getting married out of the country, but really enjoyed the happy hour, the live show Friday.

And I say all that. Sorry, it's wonderful to be here. Can't wait to get into it. Gosh, so much to talk about. It was a wild day of golf. Watched so much golf today. Didn't have enough TVs to keep up with all the golf today. Cody McBride is here as well, running the ones and twos and on the show tonight. He is traveling as well, calling in from the West Coast. Hello, Cody. How are you, buddy?

What's up, guys? I mean, you couldn't draw it up better than this. Randy, I know we missed you for a couple shows last week while you're out sipping my ties and pini peladas on the beach, but man, what a finish. I'm so excited to talk about this because there's haters aplenty out there, Big. I'm finally starting to see you come around on my side. It's the urinelli. Everyone doubted us, man.

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a row leading up into it it just felt like too much it just felt like I mean how how could you possibly run that many in a row? How can you possibly hit the roulette number that many times in a row? And she answered the bell in resounding fashion. And if I may say, Randy, I'm curious your thoughts, that didn't look like peak Nellie, that just looked like pace car Nellie of, yeah, this is kind of what my median game is right now,

enough to win a major championship, her second major championship. And I'm a little frightened as to what's about to come. Oh boy. So many, so many ways we can go with that. But yes, Nellie, 68, 69, 69, 69 was just the model of consistency this weekend. Outside of that double bogey on her opening hole, what was that, Friday?

And we can get into her round today. She did show a couple very small cracks on the back nine, but you're right, Holly. It was just it was it was clinical. It was business like it was. It seemed like it just ho hum, and I say that with all the respect

in the world because coming into this week with all the respect in the world, because coming into this week with the spotlight and the pressure to be able to go out and not only win, but to do it in that fashion where she's, you know, it's not like she made a huge charge on Sunday. She was right around the lead, essentially from the get-go. She was in the tougher of the two draws Thursday, Friday. Just an unbelievably impressive week from Nelly.

And on a tour where it's like, man, as soon as you're like starting to get really jacked and you want nice things, it's like, well, there's a weather delay or there's this or there's that like Nelly coming through this week and delivering on the history of it and giving us that young, biasly saying this American superstar that is doing truly historical stuff.

It's like, this is so awesome for the women's game and we'll elevate everybody and it gives everybody somebody to chase. It gives casual fans a reason to be interested, to tune in, to watch dominance, to watch greatness. It's freaking awesome. Cody, what am I missing? I'm buzzing over here. No, I mean, you said it best. She was on, she got the bad draw and there definitely was a bad draw there. That Thursday afternoon, Wynn was absolutely cooking. You saw LC, which we're going to get to her. Incredible week by our young hitter. It was so so awesome to see I I mean I don't know about you guys but like I had a pit in my stomach this entire back nine like hanging on the edge of my seat

with every single one LC shots and at the same time he got this Nelly stuff going on I was confused I was like root for Nelly all week and I'm like no no stop stop making birdies stop making birdies. Stop making birdies. My friend might win. For sure. It just phenomenal. And to see Nelly go out and like put herself in position on Thursday, I tweeted this midday Friday. I was like, wow, it took Nelly 30 holes to finally climb up and take lead of this golf tournament. Because from the time that she stepped out there on Thursday, it seemed like she was in control and it was just a matter of time. From looking at it then, all the way to looking at it now and giving herself a pretty good gap here to come finish in.

When you saw other people like, what we've talked a lot about Scotty the last couple of weeks, that intimidation factor of like, oh yeah, you know, you hear all the women now being like, yeah, it's just Nellie playing Nellie golf, man. Like she's not gonna give anything away. She just keeps going and going and going and it's so cool to watch. It's like there's been a fair amount of parody, a lot of parody, I think, fair to say in women's majors over the last, you know, basically since we've been doing this podcast.

It's, you know, I don't have, I just pulled the list up in front of me. But I mean, we had, Lily Vu won two of them last year. Minji won two won the 2021 Evian and the 2022 US women's open. Nellie of course won the 2021 KPMG women's PGA and then comes back and wins this one. But there hasn't been the people like running off multiples except for Lily Vu, the the comparison to last year, like it's been a lot of parody. I think that's in a way kind of hurt the women's game.

And I think now we're, I've been screaming for like, we need a superstar, need a superstar, need a superstar. Hello, we got one, five wins in a row. Hey, we've emptied the tank already on things to say about Nellie and Scotty like too early. Cause I don't think this is gonna stop anytime soon either. And that's, you're exactly right.

That's a scary thing. And just going back, I forget what the exact status. I know we were making a big deal out of it at times last year and even two years ago, but something like there were 16, 17 straight LPGA majors without, uh, with like a new champion each time, I forget what I should have found that before we went live. champion each time. I forget what I should have found that before we went live. But yeah, it was just like, God, can we have somebody kind of grab the mantle and, and run with it and,

and assert some dominance against their peers. And we, to be fair, we started to see Lillia do that last year and we'll get into Lillia. But man, what we're seeing from Nellie is a completely different level, just week to week, right? And this being the first major of the year, her second career major, I think the second career major is a very important one for, you know, no matter who you are, right?

And anybody, quote unquote, anybody can win one, but it's like, you gotta get that second before we can start stacking them up. So that's what makes me excited. I know it's eerie how similar the Nellie and Scotty stuff is because it's like a lot of the stuff we just talked about last Sunday with Scotty, like where does he go the rest of the year from here, right? How great can this season become? It's the exact same thing for Nellie, right?

Again, this is the first major of the year. There are four more on the women's side. She already has five total victories. We're truly entering rarefied air. And yeah, it's like, God, I can't wait to see what's next. It's so wild that I did it. I hate doing it, but again, I'm trying to contextualize what's happening with comparing her and Scotty. And I threw a tweet out like combining their records, that I did, I hate doing it, but again, I'm trying to contextualize what's happening with comparing her and Scotty. And I threw a tweet out like combining their records and I realized like Scotty's on the best run we've seen since Tiger.

And I'm dragging Nellie down by lumping her in with Scotty right now because she's won five starts in a row. Scotty got beat at the Houston Open. Like it's, you know, five in a row is truly mind blowing. I went and looked up some Onika stuff. We got a question from from a listener, he said, when was the last from J pop with a lot of peas? He said, when was the last time we had this type of dominant golf stretch on both the men and women's side? I assumed Tiger and Onika, but I wasn't following golf close enough to remember the stats around their era. I was following relatively closely. And I didn't remember the stats around that. Can I trivia question you real quick, Big? I didn't prepare you for this so it's going to be a bit of a blind one. That was the goal. Nothing like showing back up for your first day of working back. Hey, you got a pop quiz too, buddy. Let's go. 2000 to 2005, both of you guys, how many

times do you think Onika won? That's six seasons from 2000 to 2005. Well, I was doing a bit of research. Um, I'm going to guess, what is that? Six, six seasons. Um, whatever it is, let's give her, yeah, I was going to say like 35, 48 wins, 48. Look at this. It's stupid. Tiger one 31 times in that time period. So again, we are getting a Tiger, Annika micro run in this short period. These two made it last for like five years, more than five years. Their careers didn't like perfectly overlap, but for this time period,

there was a level of dominance that was absolutely insane. She won 11 times in 2002 alone. She won 10 times in 2005. Her off year was 2000 where she only won five times. So look at some... This winning percentage is crazy. Yeah. She literally won 50% of her tournaments in 2005 and 2002 as well.

She won 11 out of 22 times. So it is, that's a totally different level. And I don't think we're going to get to that 10 majors. That would put her in Neil category. We can talk about that a little bit later, but it is, it is a, I don't know, again, running out of ways to say it's a very unique time in golf. It is, you know, just in case anybody didn't watch the broadcast today or hasn't been paying

attention this week, I'm not sure if we said it, but, but Nellie's five straight wins are the first time that's happened on the LPGA Tour since Annika. She won four times to close 2024 and then won what was then the ANA in her first start in 2025. So she had a crossover five straight 2004-2005. And then you got to go back to Nancy Lopez in 1978 is the only other time it's happened where a player has won five straight starts. And that's where Nellie is. And I think, you know, obviously she just has, I say just, she just has five wins at this point, but we're still in April and the LPGA season really didn't kick in in earnest until, you know, mid March.

Like Nellie skipped the whole first Asian swing. That's the thing. And those were limited field events. Like she very easily could have won one, maybe two of those had she gone over. So yes, she only quote unquote, only has five wins, but man, we got so much more season left. And that's what's like, holy shit,

where can we go from here? Cause we've seen this with like with Rory where he has these runs, like incredible runs of sustained months long runs of golf that don't overlap with the majors. And that was kind of my fear going into this was like, man, it's just, it's crazy hard to play that long a stretch of golf and you just want it to overlap with one of the at least one of these. And now again, it just enters this

thing of like, yeah, we can there's a lot of games we can play here. Do we want to do this now? Do we how many do we project another major win for her this year? Like if we're over under 0.5 for the remainder this year? I would I mean, that's the easiest over right? Like, I don't know how you could look at one, the venues, two, the way she's playing, three, like listen to her words, right? She's in such a good spot. KVV had a wonderful piece. He pulled some quotes that Nellie's had over the last couple of weeks, but in her own words, like she's in such a good, comfortable place away from the golf course.

words, like she's in such a good, comfortable place away from the golf course. Uh, she talked about, you know, that the, the first major she won was back in. 2021. And she was like, golf, I was on top of the world golf was great. And she said, I quickly got humbled. And a lot of that was injuries. She, she had bad luck with some injuries in 2022 and 2023. Uh, she struggled a little bit with her putting last year. But now she's healthy. She's been like traveling, seeing the country. Not that she wanted to get away from

her sister, but she's been forced to like be away from Jess, which I think is good for Nellie. It's giving her time and space to like find herself and find a rhythm and a routine and what kind of interests her away from the golf course. And then you sprinkle in that by her own admission, like she just loves to freaking compete and loves to win. And hearing her say that is so exciting. So yeah, I don't know how you could take the bet that she won't win another major this year.

I feel like the lower odds should be on that she does. I mean, yeah, we have Sahale for the KPMG Women's PGA, we have Lancaster for the US Women's Open. Of course, Evian is at the Evian Resort, and then we have the old course at St. Andrews. But I mean, this five week run, she's won in all kinds of different golf courses, different climates.

She won a match play event in this stretch. Like I'm not, I think she busts like any course fit thing. I do want to call out- Low-key match play, probably the best golf that she's played this year. And like, just cause it's not stroke play, we don't get the numbers or anything that are going to go back to KPMG performance inside stuff.

But it's all your baseball guy. If you if you're trying to set your lineup in our fantasy league and you're like, yep, this somehow this batters batting 1000%. I'm pretty sure I'd go out on the limit. Yeah, I'm going to give her another major. I think we're okay saying that. It's really fun to I know I'm getting sure I'd go out on the limb and be like, yeah, I'm going to give her another major. I think we're okay saying that. It's really fun too. I know I'm getting ahead of myself, but it's really fun to have that last women's major of the year at St. Andrews. Like I can't help but think of like Tiger in 2000, right? It's the perfect venue to kind of coordinate

a true great. And I'm getting ahead of myself. We're gonna make some official predictions later in the show, but man, how cool would that be to have her put a stamp on a historical season at St. Andrews, like things are lining up. And you have the Olympic shit, you have the Solheim Cup. Like there is a chance for her to make this a special, special season with some opportunities

that don't come along every year. Yeah, it was, the shot in the 17s, the one that's gonna get replayed a lot. It was, you know, a couple shaky moments, had one in the water there on the back nine, and then she hit just a perfect draw into the back left pin, literally banged it, clanged it off the stick.

And she just was at, it it was obvious she was at such an advantage because of the height she can hit it the distance she can hit it one I mean it's not a coincidence that this was a really long setup this week and Atlanta Athletic Club was a really long setup that took one walk around that golf course and made her my pick to win that week like when it sets up long when she gets to flex her skills and that's what made it this look easy right if you're wondering why it did look easy,

it's like she can hit it long and straight. She can hit her irons higher than most players. She can stop it. The greens were really firm. It was, I mean, it was jumping off the page when we got the pre-tournament warning from Cody on the firmness and everything. I have one more number,

courtesy of the KPMG Performance Insights. And again, another parallel to Scottie, where it's like they are all of those things. But then just like Scotty is one of the best chippers on the PGA tour, Nelly right now is second in shots gained around the green on the LPGA. That doesn't count this week yet. They haven't updated for what's been going on at Chevron. But it's like, yeah. Look at these numbers. Let's just look at this real quick. And you know, we always say this and luckily we were corrected last week or two weeks actually

ago when we recorded with Justin Ray about her putting and trying to put it all because it seems like there has been a noticeable changes here on her putting. There's still so much room for improvement on her putting. It's crazy. And when you're first in every other category that truly matters, don't need to like, it's nuts. These numbers are insane. Her floor is just so high. Her floor is so high. And then, you know, you start to watch her on the golf course. She looks so calm, so relaxed, like such a good relationship with with her caddy.

her like such a good relationship with her caddy. It just, she's in such a good spot. So yeah, it's like, almost like how can she not top? Like we're starting at a top 10 every week, pretty much. That's what it feels like. And then it's just a matter of, you know, is she gonna dial in the wedges enough? Is she gonna make enough putts? And you know what?

She'll probably win if she does. It's incredible. Again, go back to this, but it's like, I was gonna try to come up with a game for tonight. Am I talking about Scottie or Nellie? And you couldn't ever do it. Like literally everything you just said, it's like, oh yeah, that applies on the other side as well.

And we'll talk some RBC in the back end. Obviously they're in a delay heading into Monday. We are gonna wrap that up because we assume to know what the final result is. We might even have some guests calling in very shortly. I think you might be a very exciting guest if you will. I think you might be able to guess if that is the case. We're waiting out some technical items there I believe on site.

Do you know what the thing though, real quick like got me fired up is obviously Nellie's fifth second major awesome way to start the year, but like the leaderboard that filled in behind her and Everybody's looking like okay We're gonna need we're gonna need some people here that are gonna push us and continue to this momentum I want you to have like young young people like Maya coming up there and absolutely being a dog today and just getting it done LC up there Brooke playing phenomenal golf this, didn't have her best stuff this afternoon but a super long day of golf. And if you just move down the list, like Lydia did not play crazy bad.

Lynn is mixing, Lexi is missing, Charlie is mixing, like all the names that we used to think would always be at the top, Minji, they're not there. And now we have this like fresh young crop that's like, granted, they don't have scar tissue. So they don't really know, like they can't, they haven't learned that they can't touch the hot plate yet. And I love it because they're just firing at everything. Yeah, it is. I thought of this, I couldn't figure out a way to get this, get this tweet off. Maybe it didn't make sense. But I thought of that, that kid that if you ever seen that that video from when Zion Williamson was in high

school, and there's that five foot six kid that's like garden him and he's getting all pumped up to guard. That's how I've felt both of the last two weeks with Max versus Scotty and Lauren, our friend versus Nellie is just like, damn, it's hard rooting against our root for our friends against these two like there is just you don't picture a way around it. You know, I find myself rooting both for Scotty and Nellie in the second it's kind of like,

well, maybe I might prefer this result. It's like, no, they are both hope vanquishers. But man. She is, she is. Just some more Nellie stuff, if you'll allow me. This is her 13th career LPGA Tour Victor. We said it's her second major. With the win today, she earns 1.2 million. She's up now

Just shy of two and a half million for the year The LPGA uses a points based system for like player of the year Which is a big deal because their Hall of Fame system is also points based. But I mean essentially Nellie's pretty much wrapped up player of the year at this point in the season. So if we give her that, like she's earned, I think it's what, four wins, two points for a major one. Like she has seven Hall of Fame points already this year in like three months, where 27 is the career amount you have to earn to get into the Hall of Fame. It just like she is she is packing seasons worth into essentially like five starts. It's just it's mind-boggling. It's awesome. We're gonna hopefully talk

with our friend Lauren Coughlin maybe a bit later but again again, it was we we have a lot to cover with her But the story was well told on there her husband John a good friend of ours as well Has quit his job to caddy for Lauren full-time. He did a three-week internship And it can't be a coincidence if I know Lauren well, well, well, we don't know if he's got the job Well, sorry yet or not. Listen, I was gonna say if I know Lauren well enough she's gonna have to work really hard tonight. It's gonna be a bit grudging of like, darn, I gotta admit, John must have really helped this week here.

Best finish in a tournament ever was a tie for third. I know she's not gonna, I'm joking, of course. She, of course, has a great relationship with her husband, but it's... It's gotta feel a little better, though, for that caddy commission just to go into the family bank account Right for I asked him this when we had dinner I said have you gotten paid yet for me these Thursdays that I haven't seen a dime yet dog. I Was doing the quick math of that final putt I guess it ended

Yeah, it ended up being about a hundred thousand dollar putt at least for her She would have fallen into a tie for fourth with Hayden you if it had if it hadn't gone in but She put it right in the middle after going over the green in two I mean she she put herself in contention on the back nine it got pretty real there for a second and I mean playing with the lead for that long and a whole day on a day like Nelly I mean should wake up shit a lot of holes to play in round three this morning Yeah, the pace was on a very low morning. Oh, yeah

in round three this morning. And the pace was very slow. Oh yeah. Pace was taking forever. Like it was not a done deal that that was gonna be an easy thing to close out and finish. And Lauren put the pressure on her. Nellie of course responded brilliantly. But that was just awesome.

It's crazy cool to see. It was as relaxed as I've ever been watching Lauren because it just felt, it didn't feel band-aided together at all. It was like, it didn't feel like we were relying on an overly hot putter. It just felt wildly consistent. good short game all week. And you know, she had a great opening round,

had a tough little middle stretch there and finished with a final round 68 for a T3 finish. It's just incredible, incredible week. Not to put you guys directly on the spot, to be like, when was this like the decisive moment from today in Nellie's round but it's so hard like she played you know she's had some scar tissues from playing the 10th hole so far this year on Thursday's round she hit her three wood a little bit to the right clipped a tree branch coming down

scrambled ended up making five yesterday same thing up, or a second round doubled it, got through okay on, on her finishing her third round. And then today, realistically played the whole perfectly to that back right pin position. It runs to the back and her standing back there big. It reminded me last year when we played at the international crown with Maya and my was so confident on that chip that she had on 18. And I understand that she saw all of us chip before it, but she literally before she hit it she's like I'm gonna make this and I'm like oh haha like yeah we do that all the time that's how I felt today when Nellie was standing back there and she got a watch one person hit before like almost the exact same chip I'm like yeah there's no way this isn't going in and then she caches and I'm like oh man it, is it done? I'm sorry. It's done.

That, that, I mean, that truly felt like a nail. I even, I, cause I don't want to underplay, uh, just, just making a bunch of pars this morning to close out her third round. I thought that was low key, very underrated. Again, cold, wet, you know, you're getting up early. Very easy to throw one or two bogeys in there, get a little sloppy, but she didn't. She was very steady. She made all pars.

And so she goes into the fourth round trailing Heyron Yu by one stroke, but of course she's in the final round. And I thought it was very interesting just seeing how Brooke and Hey Ron quickly made some mistakes in that final round. And I don't know how much of that is just, hey, shit happens. I don't know how much of that is like final round of a major final group. I don't know how much of that is like, hey, we're playing next to Nelly. We gotta force it 100%. We know she's like the best player on earth right now, but that was the

first time where I was like, oh, some of these players are just kind of making mistakes and getting out of their comfort zone merely from like seemingly being right next to Nelly and Nelly not giving them any cracks, giving him nothing. I hate to do it again, but I was like, there'd be a shot from Brooke, I'd be like, oh, that's the one Morkawa hit at Augusta. And the next one's like, oh, that's the one Ludwig hit into 11, like that's the one that,

like Nelly's not gonna make that mistake. She did make a big mistake there on 15, is it the, where she hit in the water or 16? Yeah, 15. Such a hard hole though. That, yeah, that's such an uncomfortable tee shot. Like you don't realize how far that water like kind of cuts out there. Obviously a mistake, but, um, you guys talking about like Brooke and Heyron, like kind of coming out of the gate after having phenomenal third rounds.

And I said this in like the preview show, I said this when we're on ESPN plus, I think the second hole is the hardest hole that's out there on the golf course. That green is the highest point of the property. It is the firmest green that's out there still. It doesn't, it didn't absorb any of the water when it came down yesterday or today. And you just see how they came out. Like, you know, Hey Ron, bogeys the first first two, Brooke pars one, bogeys two has that unbelievable putt from off the green on three. And then five is just by the time they they

got to the fourth hole, excuse me, that long par five, the wind was completely opposite direction. They hadn't played that wind the entire week. And she did the one thing that you cannot do just rinsed it. Well, and I thought on that fourth hole to Cody, there was, there was a great juxtaposition between Brooke and Nellie. Brooke was in that greenside bunker right into Nellie was a greenside bunker that the other one short of, of four green. And listen, we got to talk about Brooks bunker play, but it was exposed today. But she went from that bunker to the one that Nellie was in. She left it in there. She hits

out. She ends up making double. And right next to her is Nellie, who has that same, you know, touchy, short little bunker shot. Nellie hits it up to about what? Four or five feet and cashes the birdie. And it's just like, Oh, well, like that's why. Yeah. That's why Nellie's going to win. And, and Brooke isn't like that. That was really the point where I'm like, this is over, man. Like, like nobody, like they're just not good enough and Nellie's not going to give them anything. Um, if you go back and watch that, when, when Brooke chipped it into the bunker, Nellie was like watching the ball roll across I was like whoa Yeah, I didn't see that one coming you don't ever see that really from Brooke that was that was really surprising

But just cuz these things are really freaking hard to do. It's hard to make it look as easy as no They made it look this past Yeah, you guys how what was the level of concern though? Cuz cuz I did say, you know Nellie and Nellie said to like oh my god, that was the level of concern though? Cause, cause I did say, you know, Nellie and Nellie said too, like, oh my God, that was the longest, uh, second night of my life. Uh, actually, you know what? I can save that question. We might have some, some better questions to ask a better person.

Sorry. I think we will in a second here. I think they were getting a camera sorted. Uh, I believe we are in the, in the green room. I think we're seconds away. We're working through some stuff. We were trying to break a tradition. We didn't realize, you know, nobody knows if they're gonna jump in that pond or not.

We obviously have concerns with the pond, the animals that live in there, the other bacteria, other forms of contaminants that could be in there. Who knows what is actually going on? And, you know, I think we talked about it on our 36 hole show on Friday evening, but did you think she was gonna go in the pond when Nellie jumped in?

I, at the last minute, I thought Nellie was gonna say hell to the nah. So in the post-ceremony, they're like, Nellie, just one more question, are you gonna jump in the pond? And she goes, heck to the yeah. And I thought she was gonna say heck to the no. And I thought she still could have done like the

funniest thing possible because she brought her team out, her coach or caddy. Who else was jumping in? There were like four or five people jumping in, but it's like she had them all go off first. So she was like, I thought she was gonna have them all jump in and then just kind of chill up on the well well, you know what, big, not to cut you off. Well, yeah, we'll ask her. We'll get to the bottom of this. Solly, all yours.

Joining the show, the Chevron Challenge champion, Nellie Korda, Nellie, congratulations. Has it sunk in yet? Maybe unmute, I'm gonna unmute you. No, I cannot unmute you. Are you able to unmute? There we go. There we go.

Congratulations. The 2024 Chevron Champion. Thank you. I'm freezing. To be honest. You asked me if it's sunken in yet. The only thing that has sunken in is that I'm getting frostbite, I feel like. Are you regretting jumping in? No, gosh, that was so much fun.

Although, I did not enjoy hitting the bottom of the lake because that was very slimy. Oh. You had great form on your cannonball. I will say that. That's good. I saw Jay go in with a cannonball, so I was like, I'm doing a cannonball too. I couldn't do a front flip. That could have been really bad.

Yeah, it's good to know. Yeah, there needs to be a sign in there, shallow end right here. But Nellie, what? All right, you're on an incredible run. We've documented a lot of that. What's different? We've always known how talented you are, but something very serious has changed. And I'm wondering if you could distill it down what you would attribute that to. Honestly, I think just like not worrying about the outside voices and sticking to my process. I know I've said it so many times, it's probably so annoying to hear, I've really really made sure that like I just don't even listen to the outside voices that I have such a great great great team

around me and they're so positive and it's just more about the self-belief what coming into this week with expectations this high how did you manage that right I mean you had to be feeling at least a little bit of extra attention coming into this week. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think after the press conference, I definitely felt a lot of nerves just with the questions that I was getting during during the press conference. You know, they were asking me if I felt like I was a face of women's golf or if I have a duty to it. And I've always said I want to stay true to myself. I feel like a lot of people get maybe lost in the outside voices.

And I'm going to promote the game the way the way the best that I know, and that's being myself. And that's, you know know engaging with the fans and playing golf and showing people that like I love love love this sport because a lot of people don't actually I feel like love the sport of golf they like they just go out there and sometimes it's for them it could be a paycheck but for me I just love competing and I love playing weekend week out against the girls. Nelly, obviously, you know, tuning out the voices like us has, you said it has been very key to what you're doing now.

But I'm curious. Yeah, no, no, no. Believe me, I would tune us out also. I'm curious though, if, if anything, what parts of your game have you really focused on? Have you noticed any big changes in any aspects of your golf game that has kind of unlocked this winning streak? I mean, obviously the confidence, but at the end of the day, it's the putting, getting it in the hole.

I mean, I was always hitting it pretty good. Like, I would always get opportunities, but I'm capitalizing more on my putting. I've worked extremely hard. I know last year, you know, I did read a couple of things here and there about people kind of chirping my putting, but that's just how it is. Like, you're never going to have it all in a sense a sense you're gonna go through highs and lows with each party a game and I really really grinded on my putting and built a lot of confidence up and I feel like now I'm not taking as much time I'm trying I'm a fast player

so you know I always say my first instinct is my best instinct I've not I try not to over complicate anything So when I see it what I see is what I do Typically, so that's why I tend to not Take a lot of time and with my putting I just got a little Bit more in my head. I think the past couple of years and I just told myself I'm just gonna take the same and I just told myself I'm just going to take the same approach I have with my entire game.

Yeah yeah. Okay we were before you joined we were discussing when we all thought you had this tournament won. I'm guessing it was a lot earlier than you thought you had this tournament won. Tell me about that back nine. I heard right after on Golf Channel or NBC, I'm sorry, you were talking about like, oh my god, that was the longest round of my life. Not just for pace, but you know, did it ever get a little like nervy at all down the stretch there? Oh, for sure. I mean, I think after I made that chip on 11, I started really feeling it. I try not to, I try not to look at leaderboards, I feel like my eyes just shift there though.

Because I want to know. But I was really nervous, especially after I hit that tee ball on 15 into the water. I thought it was like, Oh God, did I just give this tournament away? Like, you know, all those doubts started to creep into your mind. And when I hit that shot on 18 on the green, or just next to the green and kind of like the fringe area, I kind of knew that, you know, I got it. I don't let myself get too far ahead of myself, obviously, with being the 18th hole. But what's that, for a fast player like yourself that you mentioned, what is a pace in a day like today like? Well, one, you start at eight o'clock in the morning, seven o'clock, I guess your time, and have a lot of round three holes to play

and a six hour final round in the final pairing and threesomes. Are you, like, how do you, is that experience that allows you to stay patient through all of that? Honestly, I despise sleep. It drives me up a freaking wall. It's just, I just can't stand it. It's probably my biggest pet peeve.

But I kinda knew it was gonna be a slow day, so I tried to not get ready for my like T T shots or my pro shots or my putting until it was quite my time to go. So I made sure that I was taking my time as well, because, you know, if you're ready and you're kind of you're then you're overthinking. And that's exactly what, you know what doesn't really suit me very well, is overthinking on a golf course. Females overthinking, not good. I'm not gonna, I will not comment on that one. None of us are touching that one.

Come on. All right, we're gonna send you out of here on this one. This is a deeper question than you should have to answer a few hours after winning the Chevron. But I just wanna to get a sense of what your career aspirations are. We've heard people like Lydia say, I may not play past whatever age, what do you want

to accomplish in the game? And are you a lifer in this? I get the sense, I'm just starting to get a sense as to how competitive you are. I just kind of want to hear you say it. I'm very, very, very competitive. I, I just want to inspire the next generation. I want to show people how much I truly love the game and love competing week in and week out. And I hope that inspires them. And you know, I hope that I make a difference

in someone else's life. And I hope I can make someone pick up the game of golf. But for my own, I would say until I'm, I'm contending and I'm enjoying myself, I'm I'm gonna be out here competing weekend and we got because I love it. Love that. Well, we're gonna let you go. I know you got a great night of celebrating, you know, ahead of you and we want to thank you for taking a little time in a crazy blitz after after a win to chat with us and congratulations. We'll definitely be pulling for you to keep the streak going. No pressure, but we'll definitely be pulling for you to keep going.

Thanks for coming on. Awesome job. Thanks for having me. Thanks, Nellie. Bye. Awesome. Glad we made that work. We were, we were, We had to stretch it out in the green room for quite some time. We thought we were getting an 810 call in, but we made it happen. I wanna give a shout out. We got some more Chevron to chat about. Wanna give a shout out to our friends at Yeti.

Big thank you, our title sponsor of our LPGA podcast this year. That is Yeti. It doesn't matter if it's luggage, hard coolers, soft coolers, drinkware, you name it, Yeti products perform when it matters most head to yeti Com for their complete product line and more glad we could pull that off Thank you the LPGA for it's really hard to get in front of a winner a night after when they had to do a boot

Fitting she had to do all kinds of stuff. She had to get warm. She had to dry off There's a lot of stuff that happens after a win. So that was not Cody. We thank you food fitting just normal stuff Cody was was the favorite thing or two that you heard there. That was really good. Honestly, big you're asking me at a bad time there. You know, this is when content side of it and producing side of it, there's a lot of things going on that I'm trying to pay attention to. All right. But the last answer I think like, you

know, Nellie's a dog, and she's a competitor at the end of the day, she's teeing it up. And I know that every professional golfer says this, that all they wanna do is win, but like she's grinding every single day to put herself in contention. And when she's not in that, like her golf game isn't in that form, she's pissed. And her saying that is like exactly who I thought Nellie is.

And it's just, it's awesome to hear it from her. I think I heard the most confidence in, here's how I'm gonna inspire these people. Instead of trying to be this person, I'm gonna be myself, I'm gonna win a lot, I'm gonna be really nice to people along the way. I'm not gonna, I think we've talked a lot about what it's meant for her to kind of hold up the mantle

of women's professional golf. It sounded like from what she just said, she's got a vision for how she's gonna do it. She doesn't know if it's the right one, but it's the one that meant for her to kind of hold up the mantle of women's professional golf. It sounded like from what she just said, she's got a vision for how she's gonna do it. She doesn't know if it's the right one, but it's the one that works for her and it probably works for others as well. And that was, there was no doubt in anything that she just said, which was, I don't know,

impressive to have that clear of thought after such an emotional day. And it's something, all that stuff is like, not things that come naturally. Like she's a notorious introvert. Like these are all things that she's had to teach herself over time and that are still a struggle and will be a struggle because man if you're like an introvert and then you're thrust upon the scene and everybody is looking for every everything from you like I couldn't imagine what that feeling must be like it's's nuts. I know. I just hearing her say, listen, I'm going to do it my way.

If that means, you know, earlier this year, the reason she didn't go to Asia, she went over to Prague and hung out for a few weeks, like, do what you have to do to make sure that when you are playing it's your best golf. I love hearing that. I also just love hearing the competitive competitiveness from her. Right.

Because I think she's absolutely right for some people. It's a paycheck week to week, but I think truly she, she wants to win. She loves being in the hunt, chasing victories, hoisting trophies. And like, as far as, you know, who do I want to get behind? Who's going to make me like really tune in? Who's going to get me excited about like, oh shit, like, you know, historical run and watching greatness. Like that's what I want to hear.

So that's, I just love hearing that from her. Well, we've got someone else on the line that also likes to do it their way. And that's our guy TC. He's popping in. He's got a lot going on at the house, but he's gonna chat a little bit with us. But that's not all. We got double barrel action going on in the bullpen. So much stuff going on guys. We also have, as mentioned and as teased earlier, somebody that finished tied for third in this week's tournament. We're hoping to get the full top five by the end of the night. Our friend,

Lauren, Oh, it's Lauren. Oh, it's Lauren. Of course. LC is here. Hello, Lauren. Congratulations. How are you feeling right now? Thanks guys. Yeah, it's still, I think hasn't quite sucked in, but it's awesome. Tell me, take me to the final putt. All right. Take me to the final hole in general. The emotions going on with that. Obviously it's a spot you have not been in yet.

This is your best finish in a LPGA tournament, let alone a major. Are you thinking about when at that point? Are you thinking about second place prize check? What are you thinking about? Like, take us to that whole scene. Yeah, I mean, John kind of had told me that Nellie was at like 16 under

because he was trying to keep me cool. And I was like, I don't really think she's at 16. John kind of had told me that Nellie was at like 16 under, cause he was trying to keep me cool. And I was like, I don't really think she's at 16, but it's Nellie. So like, who knows? So on like, obviously 16 and 17 happened and I kind of had been playing that way all week, you know, hitting it to good spots, not giving myself, you know, tough up and downs until 17, of course, I hit it into like one of the worst spots you could hit it for that pin location. But 18 comes up and yeah, I hit a great drive and I had like 207 to the pin. So I had a really good and it was like dead downwind. I had a really good number to hit on my four hybrid.

And yeah, I hit it really good, just maybe a touch behind it. And so I had like no spin, so I had no shot of holding the green. But yeah, and then I was really trying to- TIO, scummy, backboard, and grandstanding. Just saying. No, but it was like-

But I couldn't have hit one less, because if I miss hit one less it's in the water. For sure. Like I had to make sure I got it over because it was 189 cover. Did you think about trying to bounce one off the platform because we did see that. I did see that. Didn't think that was possible but I guess I could have, you know, next time maybe I'll try that.

Give that one. See if John will let me do that. But I had to hit what I hit or else it just brought in too much. But I did try to make the chip, which is why I didn't kind of hit it. I made sure I got it there because I didn't know. I knew where she was at that point.

And so I knew I needed for sure to try to get to 11 if possible, just to put any type of pressure. But yeah, it was a great putt coming up. I at least let myself a uphill birdie putt, which was nice, a little bit right to left. And yeah, just made sure I got it there again. And it snuck in high side. Coming into the week, what were your expectations? Did you did you feel like you had this in you? Did anything really

surprise you? I mean, yes and no, I. I've been playing really well all year, just haven't quite, you know, just had about nine holes. Just kind of been all last year too, just like nine holes here there in a tournament where like, man, if I don't have that, you know, I'm, you know, top five for sure, instead of finishing like 20th to like 25th. But I've been playing well all year. And yeah, I don't know. I just like, I felt pretty good about the golf course just given how firm the greens were and just knew that I just had to stay super patient out there, take what the golf course would give me, not try to force

anything by going at some pins that you just can't get to because of how firm they were. And I feel like that's what I did really, really good job of Thursday today, yesterday even to just didn't have it really I didn't putt well on Friday, but other than that, I played great all week. LC phenomenal week, obviously a lot of you didn't listen to the broadcast, but a lot of emphasis put on John how all of a sudden he just quit his job he said enough with real life I'm going out here and chasing the tour but this is something that you guys have been working for towards for a long long time and there's a process that

goes into everything and I know talking to you guys and eating your mom's fabulous fajitas which I think you should have every week now if you're gonna play like this That you you've seen these signs it's been coming you guys talked about in Phoenix how you're like, wait a second Something's different here. You got another new putter and then all of a sudden It's like you fell in love you come out here and I think like to start your opening round with the the score that you shot It was like hello I'm here and I don't know how much you want to get into home game models if those are actually a thing,

but this isn't just a fluke. This isn't a one-time thing. If you could describe, like, this is a process and you've seen signs coming for a long, long time. Yeah, I mean, all since last year, really. There was signs all last year just in terms of my ball striking and progress I had made in my short game, in my chipping and then most recently my putting. But I mean, yeah, I was at ping Monday

of Phoenix week, John was getting fit for a set of clubs for himself and I was just messing around with some putters. Yeah, John went in the beat. Yeah. And so I was just messing around with some putters that they had out and I started putting with the one that I'm now using And my coach like kind of saw me messing around with it and then Tony who was the head Designer of the putters like saw me putting with it and they were all like wow Like you're really stroking that really really good and I was like, well, I guess I can't go Can I take it with me then and go see how it is and yeah I used it that week and I didn't make anything on Thursday that week but I was like man they're really close. But yeah I mean I've been seeing signs my ball striking has always

been my strength and I actually haven't hit it all that great up until the last few weeks and I've actually been putting it really well most of this year. But yeah, I don't know. It's just wild. It's really fun and I think it still hasn't quite sunk in what I just did. By my calculations, John I'm sure he's listing up, 8% of four hundred and something thousand dollars is $34,318.08. I just wanted to throw that out there for John's sake. I don't know what the...

Everyone's going to want to know what the Cate payment arrangement is. Yeah. After I think, after I made the cut on Friday, he goes, well, I guess you're not Monster for Sponsor anymore. Yes, it's catching on. You know, it's a joint bank account. It doesn't matter, guys. Come on. It's a joint bank account. It doesn't matter, guys. Come on.

That's right. That's right. Lauren, from a first round leader at a major perspective, how did you handle that? And then you go out on Friday, you don't make any birdies, you made an eagle on eight, but kind of really gritty round on Friday. You don't make any birdies made an eagle on eight, but you know, kind of really gritty round on Friday. Just walk us through the process of going from first round leader to, all right, I'm in this tournament for the long haul, and I'm trying to win.

Yeah, I think I mean, Thursday was awesome in terms of the golf and everything. But, you know, everybody and their brother was texting me after Thursday, and I just kept being like, I mean, I appreciate it. but it's the first round there's still three more days like a lot of golf to be played and so I was trying my best you know like one oh gosh DJs. DJs chime in saying imagine how many bottles a bourbon John could flip on eBay with that 30k easily turn it into 32k. 30K, could easily turn it into 32K. That's awesome, that's awesome.

No, but I mean, I was just like, man, there's still three more days left, like a lot of golf. I'm obviously very, very happy with where I'm at to start, but there's still a lot of golf to be played. And yeah, Friday, I didn't have my best stuff, you know, I didn't quite hit it as well as I did on Thursday. But mostly, it was just like, oh, I just didn't quite take advantage of the holes for like, oh,

the pin is pretty accessible. You got to take advantage when you can. And that was really the only main difference between Thursday and Friday. And so I was like, and John told me too, we just kept in our process and kept trying to, again, just stay really patient and hit at the fat part of the greens. And, you know, hopefully I can make a putt here or there. And if not, you know, worst case I have a good chip that is really basic chip that I can just bump and

run it and maybe I make it. If not, worst case I have like a two, three footer for par. Yeah. Well I told my mom cause I know she texted, she texted me and Neil to tell us that she texted you. We were like, mom, don't do that. No, it was just texting me all day today too. Lauren, you did really well. I did my best, Lauren, not to tweet about you all week. I didn't say your name until you finished the round on Thursday. I'm the cooler. I know that. But we've had the joy and our listeners have had the joy of following your career from, you know, pretty much from your Epson tour days to now. Sitting here tonight, I mean, you got to have the,

this is got to be the best feeling you've had in your career. Like this has to be so freaking rewarding sitting here right now. This is, this is an incredible accomplishment you had this week. No, absolutely. I mean, just the fact that I won, had the lead of a major after any type of round is pretty surreal. And then today even just, I mean, I knew I was playing really, really good golf and I knew once I made that put on, on nine that I was kind of, kind of doing pretty good. And then, um, just played it safe 10, 11, 12. And then how'd that putt on 15? I know we're getting there. I still don't know how that putt on 16 didn't go in.

I know. GA had a little bit less of a putt on the other side of the hole. Not too far different angle for me. And hers like broke left at the hole, kind of the same thing. And mine like broke right, just missed it. I don't know. It was such a good put it. I don't know it was such a good putt. I you know I wanted to walk it in a little bit because I really thought I made it but I didn't

and I'm glad I didn't. I almost walked in on 14 as well you can't really see it in the angle but I knew that thing was going in like three feet before and I didn't do it. I wish I did but you because I knew it was going in. You can work on that. I was gonna, we're gonna demand a little bit out of you with our sponsorship. I think we're gonna need you saucing it up a bit. I walked in one yesterday.

I walked in one yesterday. It's in my, I have the video clip of it. Yeah. Quick, quick question from Tom Denaway, Harder 18, the Woodlands or Jack's Beach? The Woodlands, but I mean, if it's blowing 40, if it's blowing 40 and raining in 40 degrees, Jack's Beach for sure.

Okay, okay. I'm looking, it's, you know, NIT this year is late October. There's a conflicting event on LPGA over Malaysia. Will you be asking the commissioner for a conflicting event release? I mean, there, you know, it's funny. I have thought about like, man, I really want to go to the n it again this year. And so it's a possibility for sure. I might I might do the conflicting event for sure. Yeah, it's I'll want to go to the NIT again this year. And so it's a possibility for sure. I might do the conflicting event for

sure. Yeah, I'll have to talk to John, you know, he's more my manager. He kind of handles these things, so if he's okay with it, I'm okay with it. Yeah, Elsie, I had a... Speaking of that, not to get too much into the process, but we do know that he is still an intern and he doesn't have a position here. Does his performance this week change anything? Any breaking news? He doesn't change anything. Starting at Mizuho, I'm having Terry McNamara start caddying for me. He caddied for Anika Sorenstein for the last like eight years of her career and then he caddied for Carlota for about five years as well. He has like

77 wins on tour so one of the most winning is caddies. How many you got John? Where are you at on that one John? Yeah so the goal though is he's mostly retired he really only comes out for about like 10 events a year so the goal is kind of to have John kind of learn under him and me learn as much as I can from him as well. Train the trainer type of thing. You gotta put train wheels back on Big John now. Exactly, exactly. But yeah, I'm excited for that just because he's worked with one of the best to ever do it on our side and so I can't wait to see what he might have to say. DJ Chybie is saying DJ Randy John Terry McNamara is a very funny lineage.

Yeah. Elsie, we won't take up much more of your time, but I just have a question kind of on a broader scale, like how. How much does a week like this make you look forward to like the rest of the year's majors? Like are you sitting here tonight? Like God, I can't wait till Lancaster or I can't wait to Sahale. I imagine like this was the most fun Kind of competitive buzz and you just like want that again. No for sure Unfortunately, I'm not in the US Open yet. I have a qualifier in a week and a half up in Seattle

I'm hoping you know, my world ranking will go up, but I won't know for sure There's another deadline The week like literally the Monday of US Open week if you're in the top 75 in the world you get in so kind of to To back-to-back, but yeah, I mean, I'm very excited. I think it's just Those types of events. I mean, I can't wait for the old course at st Andrews, of course Like that's just a dream thing to be able to do in your career to get to play at the old course in a British Open But I haven't ever played in the US Open so that was a big goal of mine to finally get to play in one of those

But I think they just match my game really well. I can control my golf ball extremely well. And those things you just got to be really patient. And I think with my putting and my chipping getting to where they are that it's there those types of events are are made for me. Yeah, I agree. LC, TC and I did ESPN plus coverage on Friday afternoon and we watched a lot of your shots and called a lot of your shots and very cheekishly, you know, we kept talking about with Will of like, yeah, you know, LC has made really big strides and everything and it got to the point where I was like, okay, like, I don't know if we're supposed to say this like on TV but like we sponsor LC and like she's a really close friend and

this means way more to us than like sitting here talking about it on TV and we don't want to ice her we don't want to mess anything up so like can we just enjoy this moment of what's going on but I know the guys are all gonna say it and the community support that they have for you and John and everybody would like wants nothing but the world for you and you proved how big of a rock star you are this week not only on your golf game but honestly like as an ambassador for no laying up and it means an absolute like ton to us for you to rock the way we're drive like logo everywhere you go hell yeah we love it and we know that this is this is just a start and there's gonna be way more Sunday calls like this

in the future yeah for sure you know like Solheim is a big goal of mine this year so I'm hoping this will help a lot of that you know the course is an hour up the road from where I live in Virginia and so that's like that's what I'm looking forward to the most this year. It's your 13th going into this week. I can imagine, unless that's already updated, I don't think that is.

No, it's not. She knows, she knows. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. So echoing everything Cody said, we're gonna let you go LC. Congrats, enjoy the night. Cheers.

It looks like a great night. So happy for you. Can't wait to see what's next and we'll talk to you soon. Sounds good. Thanks guys. All right. See ya. I meant to mention this off the top. I got too excited, too distracted by the Nellie situation which we didn't know when when she was coming in but listen it was a joyful week of golf. We're gonna be celebrating moments of joy brought to you apart by a partner who knows a little something about joy that is foot Joy the official shoe glove and rainwear partner of no laying up TC I don't know if you prepared one because we weren't planning for your pop in to be during this but I'll throw it to Randy first if if Cody has the has the buttons ready for what's your moment of joy here, Randy?

Well, I saw I mean my moment of joy is just Nellie, Nellie winning, just a celebration of Nellie, a celebration of how awesome that is for women's golf. I got a quick peek. Uh, Nike has dropped a new advertisement. Um, just a picture of Nellie with, with the little tagline, the future just made history. And I'll tell you why specifically because Cody, I can remember on a podcast, um, however long ago, specifically talking about the, the, the Nellie sponsorship with Nike and just what

that represented, how big of a deal that was for Nike to, to put such a, a stake in a, in a female golfer and, and the expectations that are naturally going to come for Nelly with that. And just to see her progress and mature and get to this place in her life, you know, as she just told us where she just feels so comfortable and confident and just is ready to compete, it just fills me with joy. So I thought this was a cool tagline, obviously very timely and perfect for this foot joy moment of joy. Well, I don't know about perfect, conflicting brand during a read. But sure, big, if that's the way you want to go, I get it. I agree. You know, it is, you see a lot of people out there wearing Nike clothing, but she is, she doesn't just have a Nike clothing deal.

She's a Nike ambassador. And it's the likes of, you know, the contract that Serena had, the contract that Scotty now has, the contract that that Tiger has, like, that's her. And I'm excited for where that goes, because they don't put that brand on a lot of people. Most of the time they just send them free shoes. My moment of joy, of course, scrambling trying to get all this stuff done. You guys know I spent, I probably spent too much time in the Dominican Republic, but TC when you sent this over, it made me so happy. So happy to see young Billy Ho there with his, I don't know if that's his, you know, cigar rolling shirt. Is he a dentist? Is he a doctor?

Maybe a proctologist? I don't know, like that. And then the hat on top that like probably is sold in the Corrales Pro Shop. I'm like, that's perfect. It literally made me chuckle while I'm sitting here trying to manage everything. All right, Solly. Good for Billy. I'll say my moment of joy this week was tuning in to ESPN Plus coverage and hearing a couple familiar voices,

seeing a couple familiar faces on the coverage. TC and Cody were on the feature group coverage talking live golf from a home setup via Zoom. It was challenging, you guys were fighting through technical issues and things like that, but I want to congratulate you on a fun week of watching you on feature group stuff. I know that was a big bite you guys took this week

and it was a delight to watch. Thank you. I have a lot of joy for that. Foot Joy, the official shoe, glove, and rainwear partner of No Laying Up. Oh, a lot of Chevron coverage into this TC is going to come in here. You watched a lot of golf this week TC. Anything we haven't covered so far that you're talking about? We got to talk.

I mean, I mean, yeah, like, what direction you guys want to go? You want to go into, you know, episode five of Aon PLC's Defining Decisions series with Zach Johnson being nominated in the branded content category at the People's Tele Awards. That was my moment. That was my moment to join this. Just, you know, his leadership and decision making, youmaking, being nominated for an award there. Well, I know where you want to go, but I think in honor of you, Chef TC, in that amazing menu that you cooked up, brother, we haven't even gone down this leaderboard yet.

No, we have not. The furthest that we've made it is T3, and you can cook this thing up however you want it, man. Oh, let's see here. You can't give them that. Like, you gotta, with a leash here, like, you gotta set some boundaries. Well, let's see. You can't give them that. You got to, with a leash here, you got to get a sense of boundaries. We talked to Nelly, you guys talked to Maya, talked to Lauren.

Brooke, you got to play faster, straight up, as do a lot of the ladies out there. The LPGA tour needs to enforce the pace of play. With there not being that many cameras out there and they can't really flip around much, it was just, it was tough to watch. Like what should have been a great moment in television, the LPGA turned into kind of a slog the last two or three hours there. So do you want to get to that?

And that's a two part issue. Do you want to do this now then? If you, do you want to do it with Darlene or? Well, we might as well. Yeah. I mean, I'll shout out like, you know, not, like not coincidentally, Carlota's up there as well. Um, you know, plenty of time to cook. Yeah, exactly. I thought was slow. It just, people are too slow. I tweeted TC.

Like if the LPGA is looking for an easy way to differentiate their product, that shouldn't cost any resources, enforce a fast pace of play. Like be the tour known for speedy golf. I can't think of a better thing to attract hardcore golf fans and appeal to casual viewers that are tuning in today. And we've talked about this many times

when we talk LPGA stuff, it feels way worse. It's not, I don't think the pace is worse than the men's tour, but it feels way worse when you watch on television because the lack of cameras and lack of other stuff to cut to like it's that's That's just a fact graph something was I mean, it's a production thing But it's a hundred percent a production thing and I get it. It was really really bad today But when you don't have a lot of cameras when you don't have a lot of other things and I understand that NBC prides itself on Not showing shots as they tell us on tape delay even though there's a lot of stuff that's out there that that is taped

they just not aren't going to admit it like I think the LPGA tour is something where they could flex to do that because it provides like I want to know why is the shot so difficult why is that shot in 17 that part tough par 3? Show us the graphic of the green. Show us the wind. Where's all that stuff? Those are all things that come with normal major treatments, and you're just not getting them on the LPGA tour. Oh, totally. I just didn't even understand today. Like, they had, you know, obviously they had a camera with Lauren's group, or they had to scramble into Lauren's group. We're not even getting to see Lauren's playing partners play in that same group. The tower above 17 getting to see Lauren's playing partners play in that

same group. The tower above 17 green looks like it's 600 feet in the air and they're staring directly down like from a drone. It was- It was- It was- It washes out that ridge that played a- Yeah. Like that's the whole difficulty of that shot is like getting it over that ridge. So I think on the leaderboard front, you'll leave me know I want to shout her

out. T9, that was great to see. I know she's had kind of a tough couple of years with her game. Ataya Titekum faded today 76, but strong, strong showing overall in her debut start of the year. Jasmine Koo, wanted to shout her out. She's in high school right now. So that's strong. That's cool. Are you with that USC commit? So just that's Grodd continuing to get tougher. I mean, she's had an incredible run going back this year already between AJGA events. You know, she ended up taking fourth, I think at ANWR. Like this isn't, she's not a player that's coming out of nowhere.

She's one of these young guns that's like, yep, I'm here. I'm just making my decision. Am I going to turn pro right away like Nelly or am I going to go to college? Yeah. Speaking of ANWA, Lottie Wode, T23, had a really good first two days, kind of faded a little bit on the weekend,

but she seems to be the real real deal. And then, you know, just a lot of emcees to like some weird emcees and some some kind of some strange, strange names not there for the weekend. A lot of players running and hiding from Nelly right now run the opposite way. It's it's kind of two things, you know, a tug pulls going in both directions in terms of Nelly pulling away and then a lot of top players kind of vacating themselves. But back on the pace of play thing, I just I I it is a multi prong issue that I honestly think like goes back to the risk they took in not moving up t time Saturday, which is like their one chance to get on NBC on Saturday afternoon, weather blows in, puts them in a delay, sends them off in the morning.

Now they gotta go threesomes for the final round. On a golf course that is really like a nightmare for log jams and pace of play, when you jam in tee times that tight, when you have a finishing par five over water, that's gonna have people waiting for the green to clear, gonna have a long walk up to the green, you're gonna have some people laying up to it, you're gonna have water drops, you're gonna have relief

behind the green behind 18, a par three the hole before, that is literally gonna snake back through the whole course. Brooke Henderson can play as fast, like way faster, she's not gonna have anywhere to go, there's nowhere to go on this. And you guys are, I think when you guys say enforce the rules, I think you're asking for a policy change in pace of play, right?

Like again, the rules are the same on the men's side as I understand it. Like if you're not behind the group in front of you, you aren't getting timed on shots. So you're not gonna get penalized for slow play. So I think the audience can- And I get it's a labor night, like a total labor nightmare to, you know,

hire more rules officials and police that. Like I get all the downstream effects, right? But they gotta do something. I agree, you gotta do something. I don't know what it is, but it all trickles back to like, dude, you gotta get to twosomes. Like it, tournament golf takes a fricking long time to play.

It takes a long time when the greens are firm. It takes a long time when the conditions are hard and the ball's not going in the hole quickly. Like it just, it takes forever. It just shouldn't take six hours and ball's not going in the hole quickly like it just it takes forever You shouldn't take six hours and it shouldn't but like that that's more that's on more than just like the players like that's a true logistical You know what the good thing about it though? When your number one player the most recent major champion says I absolutely hate this. I cannot stand this. What is going on? I'm pretty sure I know I hope they listen to her

Yeah, because if I mean what do you get. I get it that there's a lot more to the LPGA tour than that, but when she's being as vocal as she is about it, I would assume that there's some sort of change or discussions are going to happen. Tanner Iskra And I hope so. Ben Fisk And it helps because Tiger was probably one of the slower ones when he was up top. So, having that change comes from the top, right? Yeah, and props to Nelly for like, just sitting there with nowhere to go. And you got to just twirl your thumbs and wait

to hit the shots. And it you know, it, I don't want to blame the golf course for this. But I do think it does have an impact, right? I think the way those that those final holes finish is just something that's unavoidable, like you just are gonna have Yeah, but they were also like, I think they were like four hours through 12 holes to I mean, it was that's what I'm saying. It snakes back like there's just

nowhere like for the group, you know, the pace of play study, the USGA did is really interesting in terms of like, what what a nightmare hole is for, like for pace. And it is one that not all the field can reach into but some can reach into like that's what where the trickle down effect has and like actually, for like regular golf, which this is not like the unblinked was designed to be a championship golf course like regular golf, those holes are better because most most weak

golfers are getting there in three, and not everyone's waiting for the green to clear. Like the 400 yard holes are the disaster for pace of play for regular golf. And that isn't effective. I think it just, it doesn't need to seep through the broadcast the way that it does.

That's the really frustrating part of just like, it was, I felt bad today because it was like fifth win in a row, huge moment for Nelly. And it was like, I'd have a hard time really convincing somebody like, dude, you missed out if you didn't watch this because dude, it was really tough. It's a long time for most of the even just the opening, the opening intro that they did,

it felt like we were going to like a February corn fairy tour event. I mean, it was, it was the absolute bare minimum. And listen, I feel bad for Morgan Pressell. I feel bad for Terry Gannon. Like it's not the people on screen. It's not even the people doing the production that are to blame. It's NBC, Comcast, leadership, budget cuts, all that stuff. But what I would say is like,

if you have this level of antipathy towards golf at large and specifically women's golf, then just let's figure out a way to get you guys out of the contract. You can go your other way and then we'll figure out a stop, a placeholder that can move it forward somehow because it just leaves such a sour taste in your mouth. And like, Kay Cockrell was on Twitter today, you know, throwing shots at ESPN plus. And it's like, Hey, like, that's my employer dog. I'm an ESPN plus commentator now. All right. If they didn't step up or like do some sort of deal with the LPGA, none of those shots

are shown from anybody. And we're all just being even louder in our complaints. Self-awareness. I know. Well, for people who aren't understanding, like, obviously the, the MBC, Comcast MBC deal is still bar back with the larger PGA tour deal that runs through 2030, I believe. Correct? Well, as crazy as that sounds, okay. Mike Wan just totally sold them out on that.

For sure. For sure. He did. And they're getting like, you know, 90% of even the LPGA is cut. Like 90% of that is going to the PGA tour. It's not even coming back down to the LPGA tour, but they made Mike happy at the time because I think his overall money's that he got went up by like, uh, I think it did go up by like $117 million or something like that. But this is where the LPGA Tour is at with their coverage. And they're so, I don't know if you want to say upset or just not feeling it from their partners. The reason why ESPN Plus is a thing right now, and this is only their second event,

the first event that ESPN Plus did with LPGA Tour was last year at the CME Tour Championship. This is the first event of ESPN Plus for the year. We're gonna be a part of it the rest of the year with I think we have four more events or something like that. The LPGA Tour is paying ESPN Plus to show the golf. It's not the other way around like the other deal. The LPGA Tour is saying, hey we're getting such a raw deal with the current one that we have. It doesn't matter if it's Peacock, NBC Sports, Gold Plus, whatever it's called, Golf Channel, NBC, or any of these other networks that Comcast owns. They won't put our golf on. So we're going to turn we're going to turn around to make sure that we get something out there for our fans and for our brand To make sure that the shots are shown and this is the links that they're going to

And it's crazy and then you hear you know on the the NBC con Comcast side of like oh, but it's the contract. It's their fault. We got to stick to the contract like at one point time Do you do like the right thing? I asked today, I was like, they didn't finish the third round. If this happened on men on the men's tour, you bet your butt that would have been on golf channel or even peacock or something like that. Tomorrow morning, Of course, they would have made it happen. It doesn't matter about hours allocated in a contract. It's about doing the right thing. And like sometimes

that might not come out to be like this massive like gain for your bottom line. But it's like, it's just wild that we're even at this place. I truly don't get it. Not every decision should be bottom like dollars and cents, right? Like it nor should it be treated like a charity. Well, it needs to order for something to grow. You have to invest. There has to be like a goal of like covering the sport, right? There should be like, you want to create shoulder programming. So people are interested in it, like you want to create some

level of investment in it. So like you're in charge of driving the interest in it. This isn't a check the box activity. If you check try to check the box, you're going to leave disappointed. You're not going to make money off of it. You're going to piss off everyone in the process like everybody is pissed off. And you're going to like you literally handed on a platter. Five wins in a row, like attractive, blonde American girl just wins the opening major and like everyone leaves pissed off at you about it like you can't even do a graphic like the LPGA graph they use the LPGA graphic next to their name instead of like the Chevron one like some kind of Graphics difference for a major like if you tuned in to how would you know it was a major today? If you just like tuned in to that you just wouldn't and it's just it's

I do custom graphics for every single one of our shows And it just, it's same as we said last time. I do custom graphics for every single one of our shows, man. Well, and the larger idea, and I am gonna invoke Caitlin Clark, TC, I know you're sick of hearing about Caitlin Clark, but I think we can at least take what has been happening with women's basketball. There are other examples, women's tennis,

but specific to Caitlin Clark, because the thing I heard the most on Twitter, and it's like, well, Caitlin Clark just did this all by herself. It's just Caitlin Clark. It's just Caitlin Clark. Caitlin Clark is very important. Don't get me wrong. She is kind of the driver. But if you rewind several years ago, there was the whole like weight room fiasco with the NCAA women's tournament. You know, there's been a lot of pressure on the starting with the NCAA to raise

the level of their championship for women's basketball. Now combine that with ESPN, who when you tune into a women's college basketball game, does it look and feel different than an ESPN men's college basketball game? No, you get the same studio shows you get the same bumper programming you get the same graphics you get the same Replays you get the same everything looks the same. Okay, so what ESPN has done they've been building this investment So when somebody like Caitlin Clark does come along they are positioned to Caitlin Clark does come along, they are positioned to capitalize on it. Okay.

And what that has done by making some investments, by, by trying to build the product up, when you have somebody that comes along that captivates a nation, you're ready, you're in a position to succeed. And that's, that's the real tragedy of this Nelly run, because this is, this should be the freaking springboard. This, you're getting a Caitlin Clark moment. You have it. It's right here. But, but, but the infrastructure and the broadcast product has not been built up

or invested in to take advantage of it at all. And it's a real shame. But you just don't understand contracts. That's where I, that's where I, and we talk about, and everybody just say, it's Caitlin Clark and oh, if it wasn't for Caitlin Clark, she's the effect of this. Like there's so much that is the cause that went into building that produced the Caitlin Clark effect. Yeah.

And if you could take that name out of there and you could put anyone else that would have been that next superstar because you had ESPN working in partnership with the NCAA that got it to that point. It's not the single, you know, it doesn't all rest on one single individual. Yeah, Randy, I'm not. TC just wants to see more out of Caitlin Clark. He just needs to see more. I just know in Slack you're saying, oh, God. The reason I said that in Slack was I'm tired of everybody acting like Caitlin Clark is the cause, or Caitlin Clark is the... Basically everything you just laid out is what I'm saying. You

got to have the infrastructure in place. And I don't even think we're... We're not asking them to cover the Chevron like they cover the plate. There is a revenue component and golf is different telecast than college basketball. We're not being unrealistic in saying that, just get a few more fucking cameras out there and send a good crew, do a little bit of shoulder programming, be a little bit more flexible on your scheduling. Let's start there first. Yeah. I get that they're losing their shirt on rights in general and PGA Tour rights and all that. But I would think, all right, you know what? These rights are a lot cheaper. We could fill a lot more hours with these

rights and figure out how to monetize them and probably make that a little bit more cashflow positive than what they're paying hand over fist for on the men's side and taking a bath on. Right. That's what I truly believe. Exactly what you just said. This is, this just seems like such a ripe opportunity at this moment in time where women's sports is, is having a moment. Like, God, it seems like you could invest a little and make some money. Like a little bit more risk, be aggressive. It's okay. You have plenty of time to work this out. And I understand like business one-on-one, I get it. But like Comcast ain't hurting for the cash, man. And I understand that there's different elements

and everything. Well, they're cutting budget everywhere though. That's the issue. Like they're from a stakeholder perspective, they would say we are hurting for the cash and people are cutting the cord and all that. And so I think that's where it's kind of a, he said, she said, then, you know what guys,

don't bid on the fucking rights then. Yeah, true. Literally, contracts are like blood, like they were forced to sign these contracts. Like, or the Little Mermaid where she like looks away and has to sign the contract. Like these are 10 year, nine year deals that you signed up for.

Like you're holding the game hostage. Like this is, I'm so sick of that. And no one going in it, like they're gonna be a loss leader in certain ways too. Yeah. If it just doesn't fit in any kind of strategy. And they're gonna like, they're gonna make the Olympics look awful again this year.

It's just, it's pitiful. And it's such a, there's just zero pride over there and I feel bad for the people that work there honestly or the people that work in the production, not the people that are making the decisions. Yeah, because it's never directed at you. Put banners up. We don't care. You can figure out a way to get some ad revenue out of it. Just try. It doesn't matter. Just, just let's do something just a little bit more Can we we are gonna eventually gonna have to wrap our chevron talk here? Okay, if I can kick off how are we feeling year two overall woodlands chevron first major of the year moving from the

Dinosaur and Palm Springs to Houston How we I gotta run? Okay, but yeah, I just say, I think it was in context of last year, it was a step up. The golf course was better this year. The whole, you know, like they redid the greens course just looked better from an aesthetic perspective. Purse was bigger. You know, obviously the, we had all the TV issues and all that, but I saw they did a champions dinner thing. They're trying to elevate this event. It feels bigger than a week to week tour event.

Does it feel like a major yet? No. So I think on that level, I like the way they set the course up the first couple of days. They tucked pins. Par 5s, you really had to earn your birdie. So I think on that front, it was very much like a, is it a major right now? No. Does it feel like much more of a major than it did last year? Yes, I guess. All right. So I'll leave you with that. Okay. We'll let you go, TC. Thank you for popping on. Thank you for

hearing what you say though. Well, I don't disagree with that. I think a lot of it does go back to TV stuff. I keep coming back to with Woodlands, if you're gonna have a major, it's the same way I feel about Evian in terms of if you're gonna have a major at the same course every year, course needs to slap. Like it needs to, and I watched a lot of the golf this week

and I'd have to strain to like remember what hole is what in specific holes, right? It doesn't really flow. It doesn't it's a Jack Nicholas golf course. I saw it's ranked the 29th best course in Texas, right? I mean, it doesn't scream major chip, like it's more similar to regular events. It's it's a big little feels bigger than a regular event. It's more similar to that than the other major championship venues that are in road us is definitely how I feel about Woodlands to this point.

I was talking to a caddy this week and they said exactly that. They said, listen, it's, it's great. The purse is elevated. We're paying for, we're playing for a lot of money, but it doesn't, it doesn't feel like a major. And so there's still like a branding problem, I think. And I'm talking from fan's perspective, you can definitely list the reasons

why it feels like a major to the players. And at a certain point, that's what matters to the competition. Like if everyone agrees, we're playing a major, when you tee it up, I'm more interested to see who wins. Like that means something, but I'm just speaking from a fan's perspective in that in that way sorry to interrupt no no I I totally agree with you and I also agree with TC that I think this year was

better I think there were little incremental steps up seemed like the atmosphere I don't know if there were more people there but there were at least some bigger crowds around Nellie's group, which is to be expected and honestly, you know, should be. I don't know. It's just like, if we're gonna stay in Houston, I'd rather move it to Memorial Park.

There's just something about the woodlands. It's separated from the city. I know Cody's, I don't know what else is, like I think the thing is like nothing's gonna be like, we're just like, it is what it is, but it is always just kind of feel like an elevated event on the LPGA. Yeah, I have nothing, no disagreements from anything that you guys said.

I think we talked about it, Randy, in our preview of Memorial Park and how cool that would be. And they have some great classic golf courses across the rest of Houston that they could go to. But this is where Chevron wanted to go. And you can't really argue someone if they're going to pay that much money. And I understand that people didn't want to want it to leave the desert, but that event was also dying.

And you know, the history and tradition there, it had to go somewhere. And they're lucky to find a new title sponsor that I think if you take last year and what we said in this podcast last year versus this year, they're completely different. They're not little changes. They're big, big changes. And that started with brand new bunkers and completely new green systems and they resurface every single you know green they're super ridiculously firm like it's hard to

describe and it's going to get better over time and they have this commitment where they're going to continue to make improvements to the overall golf course but you can only dress it up so much it's still a residential golf You know, and there's still a ton of water left. One hole's got water right, which is perfect for their members that are out there because everybody's just hitting little weak cuts anyway. They don't got to worry about that. But when you get these players that are out there, it does things pop up. I do like the fact about the Woodlands is that this is like such an LPGA thing because they like going to these little enclaves of a kind of a bigger you know a metro area because they can they can hunker in there and

they can get a ton of local support and it takes a lot of volunteers it takes a lot from the membership to give up their course to give up all this stuff where Memorial Park's not going to do that because it's a city run course that already had to miss out on like a month's worth of green fees, man. Not only that, I understand that event was already three weeks ago, but I don't know if you guys remember Memorial Park overseated and we talked about turf conditions, not overseated here, baked out Bermuda barely coming through. Like this is what is going on? What is happening People listen on the podcast I think it's a my Apple update or something like that's going crazy But anyway, yeah, it is gonna it's gonna be the way it is

But I think Chevron put more money into the purse awesome And to a lot of people saying hey, it's very easy to spend somebody else's money. What do you think? Do you think it was a better decision by the commission, Molly, to put that money into the purse or to turn around and to invest that into the broadcast? Where do you think at the end of the day that money probably should go? And I would say probably needs to go in the purse. If we started as fans, so like the fan's perspective would be like, honestly, honestly, like, I just want to see entertaining good golf. That's, that's where I can't like on the men's

side, we can't be like, I don't care how much money these guys are making. Then the women's side being like, yeah, but the purse is great. Like they making a ton of, you know, that's where it's like, I'm happy for the women. I think the better investment in the purse will beget better things in general, right? Like when you invest a lot in the purse, you're gonna wanna invest a lot more in the infrastructure. Like that makes sense to me. It's not like I don't think the women should be paid

what they're being paid. That's not at all what I'm saying. It just comes down to like, honestly, I didn't, other than Lauren, a friend of ours, I wanted her to make a ton of money. I didn't care how much money Brooke Anderson made today. I cared about the championship. Yeah, I agree. And I do think that there's easy things that they could do. And this goes back to the greater, like whatever strategic alliance that the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour are supposed to have. I said this great idea.

I think like if you bought a ticket to Memorial Park to watch the Houston Open, why on the backside of that wasn't like the graphic of the Chevron championship and like, oh, by the way, this side of your ticket is free entry for a day to the Chevron. Like you need to get all those people out of downtown and like up to the woodlands for a day to be like, wow, this is awesome. We're going to buy merch. We a day to be like, wow, this is awesome. We're going to buy merch. We're going to eat in these food trucks.

We're going to take part in all this stuff and they might come back. But I just don't see any of that stuff really happening. Not in a course that routes like that, like far away and bat, you know what I mean? There's no community feel to it. People go a lot of weird places to watch golf. I know. It just, it just doesn't feel like a great foundation. My only other ideas suggestion,

which the LPGA is not soliciting, but I would, I think one of the best, most underutilized things maybe that the LPGA has, I would take the founders and I would make this,, listen, if we're going to stay at the Woodlands, we're going to keep it Chevron, this should be the founders presented by Chevron. And it should be a total celebration of the 13 original founders of the LPGA. Hype the shit out of the champions dinner, make it the biggest reunion alumni weekend of the year on the LPGA tour, not just past champs. Like they need to find some identity to attach to it.

And to me, it doesn't make sense where like one of their most interesting branding identities is the founders. Make that the, the, the major that you guys own and operate. Like let's combine those two. I think that would be like, you just need to give people a hook. Love that. And I, as of right now, somebody tweeted this today.

It kind of was like, Alonzo morning jifted. It was like, yeah, it's a major because an oil company said it is. It's kind of like, yeah. I mean, what you described makes me feel a lot more stuff than, you know, just this being the Chevron, but. The exact same thing with Avion. The only reason why is because of the price tag

that's attached to it. Yep, exactly right. All right, ready to move on to the heritage? We don't have a, you know, go ahead, Brandy, sorry. No, I just got one thing, so I kind of teased it. I just want to circle back and say it's a real shame that Lilia Vu got injured and had to withdraw because rewind to the end of last year, we were so excited about the season that Lilia had winning four times, two majors. She's a young American.

We did a podcast with her, like talk about people I loved hearing what they had to say and the things that she said. It just really worries me that it's a back injury. And reading her statement when she withdrew, she's like, it's a back injury. I've been dealing with it. Some days are better than others. And that's not the greatest thing that I'd like to hear.

I think we had Lillia ascending last year. We have Nellie ascending this year. The dream was like, let's get those two going head to head. And now with Lillia's back injury, especially, it's like, damn, that's a tough blow. So it does suck. Best wishes to Lillia, but definitely takes a little bit out of it

that she had to withdraw. Yeah, Lillia needs to take that Nellie timeline and just be like, or we haven't even talked about Titicul that much at all. Like she had an amazing tournament, but like just heal your back. It's done, we can't play these like two weeks on, then you're withdrawn every other week,

like just go get it fixed. All right, so let's talk. I will say, I called the Titicul thing in our Slack when she was putting on a jacket In between shots this morning and they cut to Maya Stark and she was in shorts I said cross off a tie a titicum and she finished Titicum was just riding feels for the first half days the weather break was the worst thing that happened to her. It's that honeymoon Yeah, as we sit here recording this it Scottieaeffler has three holes to play tomorrow.

On Monday morning, he has a five shot lead at the Heritage over Windham Clark, Patrick Cantlay, JT Poston, pound for pound the best golfer in the world, and Sahith Tagala. Windham Clark is the only one that's in the house at 15 under. Cantlay is, I think, greenside on 18, waiting to chip. Yeah, he is 65 feet away from the whole way to chip tomorrow, but it looks like Scotty Shepard is about to win for the fourth time in five starts.

I mean, I think we can just kind of cut and paste everything we said about Nellie on the front half of this, including the major involved in this, but I tasked you guys with coming up with a different way of describing, of talking about Scotty's greatness. I'm wondering if you have anything you can hit me with. You look like you have some prepared notes, Randy. Yeah, I was jotting down notes.

You know, I think the thing, and it merits a larger discussion, which we probably don't have time for here, but I don't care that Scotty is somewhat of a boring person. I think his greatness is interesting enough on its own, which tells me it's like true greatness. Like it's greatness that matters. It's got to be a pretty high bar to clear when like personality wise, eh, he's, he's not like the most interesting guy off the course. He's, you know, give or take what you feel about religion.

And, and certainly I'm not diminishing that, but I think that his greatness is such that it's still like, I have like, you guys know me, I was the biggest skeptic, the whole eye test, like the whole nine yards, right? But like this week, I'm like, I need to watch Scotty, like what he's doing right now and watching him try to win this tournament at Harbor town. Of course that I love it. I just want to do that. And I think, I don't know if I'm describing his greatness, but I guess I'm describing how it affects me and it's like clear to bar that is not insignificant. Yeah. The only thing that I would add there is, is, uh, you know, I got swept up

like a lot of young men in the early 2000s, Yankees Red Sox rivals. Okay. Tex was a big Yankee guy. And I was not a janky fan. I'll say that. But you know, you had this feeling every single time there was a big moment. And big poppy David Ortiz stepped up to that plate. And you're like, this, this is gonna happen. Like, no matter what it's gonna happen. That's

how I feel every single time. Scotty Shepard, like steps up on the go like any tournament, you're like, Yep, he's here to play. He's just gonna compete. and he's going to win. He's going to do everything that he needs to do. And he's going to put his team on the back and like, he just doesn't make mistakes. He's a big time player. And I don't know, like we could look at stats and break that down. But like he just has it. And whatever this run that he's in right now, like that

might not happen or extend for, you know, who knows how much longer this is gonna go, but it's really damn cool to see it while he has it. I came up with this thing of like describe a better way. And I don't think I did the job here because I'm just gonna spout off some stats. I don't think we've spouted off yet. I mean, you could, I tweeted this out earlier this week.

He is first in strokes gained off the tee approach and around the greens first in each one of those categories individually over the last three months over the last six months and over the last 12 months like there's no spurt in there where he hasn't been the best at all three facets I did use a minimum of 20 rounds involved in there using ShotLink because some of the guys that don't use ShotLink, their numbers can get really skewed but like that is that blew my mind. Not only that, he's won four out of five starts assuming he goes on to win tomorrow. Tiger was the last to do that. Okay, Jason Day did

win four out of six in 2015. The last person not named Tiger to do this Vijay went five of six in 2004 Tiger this is all the different times that Tiger has done this. I think I got all of them He did four of six in 2013. He did four of six in 2009 Tiger did five of six to finish Oh seven and he won seven in a row to end 2006 and he won four out of five in 2001. So he's done a lot of times, he's still not Tiger, but it's like the best golf since Tiger. But also Tiger's calendar was way more curated to exactly his course fits.

Still this week after a major that he won. I know. Which I gotta read this, I hope he doesn't mind me, but Thursday morning, DJ and our Slack, uh, sent a note to the group that said, quote, depending what happens, I wish we could throw this week out for Scotty Bush league that he's got to go back to back and pretend this event is important. Going to diminish his run.

And then a little while later he said, he's also probably going to win. Like here we are Sunday night. He's got a five shot lead with three holes to play. Like, come on, man. I mean, it's crazy. I know people were expecting a lot of him this week, but could anyone have predicted four wins and a major and be like positive in strokes, game putting? Like, could anyone have predicted that coming into the year? I got a video actually on that. Let's go to the uh the season preview uh if you will if you'll allow me for a quick second. I'm not I'm not following you that he's going to lift and separate from Scotty because Scotty is going to win four times including a major and have positive strokes gained putting

in 2024. So I think uh I think we bottomed out on the putting. I uh I like it. Yeah it's a lot that's a lot of predictions wrapped up in one. Yeah, it's a big same game parlay. Wow. Did not think I'd be able to stunt on that one before April was over. But yeah, that was listen. Sorry, I feel that every week to me. We're just hand in hand. I guess I'm gonna have to start pulling my tapes to Mr. TC Mr. Miranda, you know, they're bad guys out there. Phenomenal poll and producer note. I did not pull that Chris is pulling his own tapes. Okay, I just want that on the record. I'm laughing because I was wearing the same exact sweatshirt that I am now. I'm in a completely different house slash

apartment. No, sorry, that's one, a great call. And two, I remember some of the West Coast events, like I wasn't bringing it up like it was gonna happen, but I remember us just chatting about like, hey, what if like, what would Scotty have to do for him to have, you know, one of those like VJ like seasons or like, how could he break through stuff that's Spieth and JT and in ROM and like what's going to elevate

this season for him beyond what we've seen in the last like 10 years, 15 years, non Tiger. And I mean, he's, he's doing it. He's on his way. I'm not going to do any like that. I specifically did not pull any strokes, gain stats in terms of the different ways to describe him. Cause I could bore you with, he's improved by almost a full shot from last year like three quarters of which I could say that I'm not saying that right because I don't we're not doing strokes gain here tonight like we've done that one that's well documented. Final round 65 got in before all the weather. He had two iron into 18 18 was playing absolutely sick by the end of today Rory

Had a hundred and ninety nine yards in after a hundred and eighty three mile an hour tee shot that went 264 yards his approach shot came up 37 yards short he needed 199 it went 162. That's how hard the wind was blowing I saw JT Poston can't lay everybody hitting full metal into 18. I think it's going to be a little bit more benign tomorrow, but what an own goal by the tour. Go ahead, sorry, any. Oh no, I was just saying

Harbor Town is so good when the wind blows. Like it's it's in my opinion, major championship worthy when when the winds blowing. It's such a difficult test. I I love the it's it's such a departure from that place see most weeks. I know.

I love it. And I think that's a testament to Scotty that he can win just like, you know, we talked about with Nellie again, making these comparisons. But the variety of courses that he does this on, right, is just so impressive. I still can't get over the fact, like the is on a what is it after day 39 40 41 consecutive round under par streak like he it's just It's it's stupid Is it right am I saying this right that he's on pace to have the lowest scoring average in PGA Tour history this year

Yeah, but like a shot, I think on like harder not insignificant margin. Yeah, like on harder golf courses than like longer and more difficult golf courses than what Tiger played equipment's gotten better since Tigers insane run but and he's not a great putter. He's he's better but he's like imagine if he was a great putter. Gosh, guys, was there any way to avoid this thing going to Monday? I mean, who could have possibly seen this storm coming up? Of course, the tour tweeted out the weather

report for today, showing a chance of massive storms hitting the island this afternoon. And of course, they got hit with it, got crushed with it, said they were going out at six, weren't able to get back out until 7pm and the final groups were not able to get their last three holes in. I'd be, I don't know, if you're a player, like would you be pissed? I feel like I'd be pissed. Like man, why do I, like most all these guys are coming from Augusta, you know, they're dog tired.

Like let's just get the tournament in so we can go. Yeah, and when they restarted, hurry the hell up guys. What are you doing? Like they should have made a gentleman's agreement in the locker room. Like guys, listen, we'll split it. We'll figure this out. Hurry the fuck up. Like what are we doing, man? Let's just put off for it the second place bunny. This is this is coming from our internal communications from a Mr.

Tron Carter. I want to know if Randy would finish the hole on 18 at Harbertown or hit the shot and mark it like Pat or not even hit the shot and just wait till morning. I would for sure, I would do everything in my power to finish that round of golf so I didn't have to get up at an ungodly hour in the morning. You know the answer to that one. I'd have my own iPhone out like lighting my own path. I don't care I want to finish. Which I think isn't a Harvard town. I'm pretty sure that's where they filmed the Legend of Vagrant Vance. Is that right? That sounds right. I'd be like, print the lighthouse for me,

get that light down here on 18. I thought they might sprint for it. It's Savannah, but it's actually there. I thought they might sprint for it today, I really did. I mean, I thought with that much of a lead, nobody wanted to wait. Once I saw that the wind was up, I was like, there's no shot.

If the wind was calm, I could have seen those guys just slingshotting, and as long as you tee off on 18, really it would have enough to sep To keep going because scottie was going to win no matter what but god That's why the tour should have like a funny rounds be like all right guys You can only go out with six clubs sunday bags. You gotta play speed golf. We gotta get this thing in man it uh, but is that like um

So the reason we heard, who knows, but apparently they didn't want to move the tee times up because that was going to hurt TV ratings. Like, what's, I mean, look back at things that make me nervous. Well, I mean, you look back at what happened with Pebble, what happened with Waste Man. They've had so much bad weather luck this year.

Like they're probably willing to roll the dice. So like, did we have asked RBC for how much money if we move up, this is what the ratings are going to be another bash of headlines as we're trying to re up sponsors of how bad the ratings are like, let's roll the dice. If we have a Monday finish, we have a Monday finish, but like this will at least maybe save our Sunday rate. I don't know that that had to be part of the conversation. There's like, you know, 80%

chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon, and you don't move up t times to finish before that, like that's 100% tied to you're trying to get in that TV window. There's no, you know, 80% chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon and you don't move up T times to finish before that, like that's a hundred percent tied to you're trying to get in that TV window. There's no other way. Which I think is just maybe just portends like the shit ain't great, which we've seen with the ratings. So that's why Golf Channel wouldn't move that third round replay from this morning either

to put the women on there. They had to get those extra numbers, man. The pressions go a long way. I get it. Quick May call on my part two. It wasn't a Hilton. It was actually Kiwa Island. That's okay. That makes sense. Good recovery. We ran a little long on everything. I don't know what you guys want to prioritize here for a Merit-age, but I tasked you guys as well with what did you learn this week? And I'll kick this one off if we can. I the PGA Tour threw up an awesome graphic, which I hope they do more of this because I was some of the follows the

game very, very closely. I was stunned by this one. When they threw up a graphic of the 17th hole, I think at Harbor Town showing an image of the average dispersion from a Tor Pro, average dispersion from a scratch player or an average dispersion from a 10 or 15 handicap. And my takeaway was a scratch player is closer to a 10 and 15 handicap than actually a Tor Pro, which like, again, a lot of people give me shit online for being a shitty scratch player.

And I wanted to scream like, scratch isn't that good. You might think scratch is, it's not that good. And that it showed like a scoring average of three would be at 3.7 for the 17th hole. And the scoring average for a 10 handicap would be like a four. And the scoring average for a tour pro was like a three. So you're closer to a 10 handicap

than a tour player as a scratch. That was awesome illustration. I hope they do more stuff like that. The, yeah, the scratch is shit line, right? My good my good buddy, Tom coin from from one of his books. Yeah. So you know what I learned too? Thanks to a on activating the shit out of out of themselves this week. It at Harvard town, okay, one of the tightest courses you'll ever find. It's in fact, it is in fact, thanks to Aon.

It's better to hit it in the fairway with an angle to the green than it is to play outright and block yourself out by the pines. So that was certainly something I learned this week. Thank you. That was, that's fantastic. That was, I don't know what happened with it, with the Aon risk reward,

but they were onto something there and it's gone. It's just a tough course to activate that, right? You know, some courses that that's great information. I don't mean to belittle them because like on wide open courses, that is cool to see like, Hey, should I play at the left side? Should I play up the right side? Harbor town so narrow, like dog. There's only one way to

My favorite thing about harbor town for somebody who's is yet to play that course Uh incredible performance all week from scotty, of course, uh ludwig how like ball strikers paradise around there obviously had some mistakes earlier today, but uh scottie's performance on this golf course on something that probably isn't like the best course match from him is only matched like my enjoyment watching it uh compared to when Randy and Goodbar went out there in like 2000 for a part of a media day and I was brand new at the company and Randy was like I have to do an Instagram story but I don't know how to do it.

So I'm just gonna send you 9,000 pictures. Will you put it together for me, please? I'm like, okay, cool. I didn't know who Goodbar was at the time, nor had I seen his golf swing, but oh my goodness. I believe I beat Goodbar's ass that day too. I'm sure you did. Thank you, Cody, I appreciate it.

JT is sneaky, T6, sorry, go. JT is sneaky T6 sorry go ahead. No no no I was just gonna shout out a few guys uh JT Poston is playing the 18th hole right now as well uh Sahith he's got three holes to go uh he's sitting at T2. JT a sneaky little weekend 68-65 uh to get up to T6 uh Ludwig Oberg uh struggled, tough final round. He's only one under par in the final round. Put one in the water when the wind picked up there on the 14th hole. Patrick Rogers siding. He's sitting there at T6. Morikawa, little iffy day on Sunday. He's one over par, but right back in contention after being in contention at the Masters. I'm going down the leaderboard like TC.

By the way, Morikawa got a little whiny there after the restart. The wind was up, obviously. I can't remember what hole it was where he hit the berm though, and it came like ricocheting back. Had to hit that nasty little downhill pitch. Don't like it.

Obviously, I don't think the guys were real thrilled that they had to go back out there with like only an hour of daylight left. But at the end of the day, like it's your job, man. Like just go do it, get through it. But he was definitely salty out there. Scotty made things a little interesting towards the end by putting one in the water,

trying to lay up on the 15th hole. And it really affected him because he also made par on the hole. Also, he came back out with a crispy white long sleeve on. What was going on early in this round with this black vest that legitimately looked like a bag of trash? Like it was one of the worst fits I feel like I've ever seen. It kind of just feels like what Adam Scott does at times of just like punting one back to the field guys like, hey, I got a lot of stuff going in my favor in my life over here.

I'm not gonna stunt on you guys with my fashion on the course. That's what it felt like a little bit like Scotty, you know, babies on the way, I'm winning everything I look at, I'm at least gonna dress like an idiot today. I mean, it had like a flap in the back, like it was so bad. You know how hard it is to look a vest,

to make a vest look bad? Like that's- I know. My only question was, is this the package that was supposed to go to Nelly and it somehow ended up with Scotty? It was like strangling in the neck. Look how much higher the neck is on that

than the actual collar of his polo. Like it- Seriously, it does look like a trash bag. I used to cut weight like this. When I first saw it today, I thought it was on like backwards. Yeah, it's it is a little high in the neck. It's weird.

Tough scene. It was black with blue the blue pants. Like I don't I don't really know what what we were going for there. Brian Harmon, he gave a great interview after a tough interview, I should say after his round on Thursday, just not in a mood, highlighted by, can you walk us through that last hole there? Brian Harmon, no, and walked off after that. So he was like, all right, we good? All right, we're good. Very quick 45 second interview.

Loved some return of some picture in picture. Like they had an ISO cam on Scottie's footwork when he was playing the second hole, that was great. ESPN Plus even had some like, you know, camera on the player's face as the ball's in the air. I think that's weirdly additive and like really, really good for coverage. Should keep going.

Was this the first week we were getting the reverse tracker too? That's what I was gonna say. That new tracker is sweet. Is it? It's fine. I mean, it's pretty cool. I don't need it.

It's not, you know, like, but I think it looks really cool. Yeah. Yeah. And, and just real quick, Brian was the only person I think that they said that, that shot everybody else that came in for media afterwards, either shot rounds of two under or better. He was the only person who came in he loves that event was the first PGA Tour event that he went in or that he got a Sponsors invite to and asked the questions when he didn't have to it was a local journalist who asked him to go in there of course the dudes pissed because his round got ruined by that double but You know, I saw a lot of people being like, okay, some pampered fucks out there, but I think he handled it okay. Either way, I think it's fair to be asked. I think obviously the emotions are raw when you walk off.

For sure. And he may have been asked to come in, or they had a request in when he was four under before playing the last two, and finished bogey double and whatnot. But man, $20 million purse. Somebody's gonna stand up and ask you some questions. I'd probably smile and laugh.

Yeah, yeah. Easy for me to say. Anything else from Heritage? Soon we're not gonna have any drama tomorrow. I'll be up watching it, I'm sure, but. No, it seems a foregone conclusion. I can't imagine Scottie. How long is this gonna go?

I mean, we're a six foot putt away from him being at a playoff at Houston and probably beating Steven Yeager and this being five in a row. Like I don't- Well, I think it will go until the baby comes. And then I think dad life's gonna knock him off. Well, if it doesn't, it's like, holy shit.

But if a kid can't knock you out of sync, I don't know what we're doing. You know, and you know, so you've went through this when you're like, oh yeah, you get comfortable like the, after the first week and you're like, I think I might be able to sneak out and like go hit some balls or something like that.

The events are coming back to Texas, ride around with this baby. You think Scotty is going to be like, I'm going to pop out. I got to go up to Las Calinas real quick. I hit a Craig T. Ranch. Oh, I'm going to drive over to Fort Worth. Don't worry. I won't be there all day, but I'm going to hit up to Schwab. Who knows? Scotty has made, as of tomorrow, like $16.3 million in the last like 43 days, he should have like six nannies, like right? I don't think they're going to be, I think he could hire as much help as he could possibly need and just be there for the flood parts. Would be my advice. That'd be my dad's advice as somebody that, question for you guys, who's going to make more money this year, Ted

Scott or Shohei Otani on course on field? Oh, hasn't Ted Scott like already passed him? Teddy will be at about by my calcs be at 1.7 million by tomorrow, assuming they win. So that's 10% for win eight for top 10 6% for everything else, which is usually standard fare. I think he's at one point, it'd be 1.7 million by tomorrow. Sheesh. It's April. It's April.

Why is Ted's gonna stun on him? That would be in the top 40 on the money list with a period of all these massive checks being hit out. Ted Scott would be in the top 40. Prosperity, gospel, SZN. All those prayers we sent up for you Ted have been answered. You have landed yourself in the right spot I want to shut up who's gonna make more money though the the translator or Ted Scott

Huh, let's do a head there. It is there it is. I'm sorry 15 year old miles Russell made the cut this week on the corn fairy tour He shot a 66 in the final round to finish t20. He's a Jacksonville guy Every report I've heard about this guy as he is the truth calm in the final round to finish T20. He's a Jacksonville guy. Every report I've heard about this guy is he is thetruth.com. He is the guy, Steve Weecroft, who's a friend of the program,

he was a longtime PGA Tour and Corn Fairy Tour player. He caddied for miles in a US Open local qualifier. And like, Steve is a tough guy, can be a tough guy to impress. He was like, the kid was 13 at the time. He's like, you should see, you should see this kid. Like he is, he's it. He's the guy.

Like he is the guy. Like he had a fucking PGA tour player walking off to see a 13 year old and being like, yeah, this is the guy. And he's top 20. So he gets into the next event. He's in the, I don't know if he can get that much time off school,

but he is in the next event next week on the corn fryer tour with the top 25 It's exciting yeah, that's Insanely hits it far hits a good puts it like he does it all he's a jacks kid, right? You need to go have a game with him. I don't think I need that right now Randy And I was joking on Twitter, you know, you know, if you're a journeyman just trying to break through on that corn fairy tour and it's like 15 year old kid rolls up and I don't know

man that that would make me maybe start putting in some job applications. Billy Horschel as you mentioned mentioned, won in Putucana. Very happy for Billy. He'll be back, that'll bump him up quite a bit, I assume, into some bigger events. Looking ahead to this week, we'll have episode two of Taurus Sauce will air on Wednesday at 9 p.m. Eastern on our YouTube channel.

We are headed, where are we headed? Cody, we're headed to Royal Adelaide for episode two. Heading out from Sydney and heading west and south to Adelaide, we had an to Royal Adelaide for episode two, heading out from Sydney and heading west and south to Adelaide. We had an awesome, awesome time there. So I guess I'm real quick. Do we owe Neil an apology? You know, he's, we've made this kind of going back to Nellie and Chevron, but we didn't really get a chance to touch on that. My guy Neil's got to be feeling a lot better about himself today. Yeah, he's one better about himself. We got a long way to go, buddy.

If she wins all five of the majors this year, like we'll start to have the conversation. Because Neil said she was gonna win 11 majors. She's got dos. No, he set the over under at 11, as in like 50% chance she wins over 11, 50% chance she wins less. Well, you know, I'm just looking out for my guy.

Of course. That would be the all-time stunt. I don't know what we'd have to do if that would come true, but gosh, we'd have to eat a lot of crow on that one. We've got Zurich Week coming up, Live Adelaide this week. A lot of people down under are very excited about that. And a lot of bots online as well. Got a sneaky weird field at Zurich. Rory and Lowry are playing.

Wyndham, I forget who Wyndham's playing with. My notes got cut off there. But Blowpig will be there. Fitzpatrick Brothers, Xander and Cantlay pairing up. Sahith and Zala Taurus, I love that squad. The Hoygard twins are playing together. Joel Damon and Keith Mitchell of Ivy team. So listen, not my favorite week on tour,

but a little more interesting than it has been in the past, I think. You know, Sal, I'm also, I'm pairing up this week too. I'm out here at Omni Lacoste again. They'll check out this new golf course. Somebody who's a major contender. We're playing a little all chop, man. Not gonna tell it who it is yet

till the teasers come out, but I'm real excited. I'm excited to see that, I'm excited. And do we, sorry, did we mention the LPGA is going to Wilshire? LPGA cracks onto Wilshire and Nelly will be there to go for six in a row somehow, I don't know. It's a really good course. So if you're looking and it'll be primetime East Coast,

like it's one of the better non-majors of the year. So it's, I would recommend. Maybe even better than some of the majors, too big. Sorry, I had to give that up. In the woodlands for sure. Anything else before we wrap? I got one thing, a friend of the program that we've kind of gotten to know up here at Frisco

Zucati at Frisco at the Omni property there, but his son actually, Luke Colton, he's the one who Shane played with in his US Open qualifier, US Am qualifier last year. And Shane raved about how good of this kid was, he was 14, 15 years old at the time, made it deep in the USM Actually just won today the terracotta invitational down in Naples see these young bucks doesn't matter if they're corn fairies who are you know higher level amateur events they're coming man, and it just feels like They're just getting like younger and younger It's ridiculous to see this is coming after like two or three weeks of having the Sage Valley Invitational seeing all the amazing junior players

there and then annual week and you're like man golf is in a really good spot in the junior ranks and I don't know like for everybody who's always down like it's not because of play because there's a ton coming man it's awesome. I do wonder, we're two hours into this podcast. So not the time to have this discussion, but something I was thinking, are we seeing the shift in kind of the, the, the optimal age for PGA tour players? You know, it used to be like nothing mid late thirties, early forties. I'm just wondering if we're starting to see that trend lower

Too early to tell this will be a thing, you know 10 20 years But it just feels like the men's side is starting to get we'll get younger and younger I'm sure if you task the data golf guys to look into that they come up with some interesting stuff But you got to believe in the data when you see it Randy can't just be an eye test look into that they come up with some interesting stuff but you got to believe in the data when you see it Randy can't just be an eye test. Listen if you're two hours into this pod chances are you might like some bonus content we've got some bonus content surrounding our travel series ToraSauce no laying up comm slash join if you join the nest we got special videos every week showing

some behind-the-scenes stuff some extra commentary picture it like the HBO commentary you might see at the end of a Game of Thrones episode listen not comparing Taurus aus to Game of Thrones but I think I just did but you know just look a little some bonus nugs some funny stuff in there that couldn't make the final letter for whatever reason and a lot of laughs and stuff like that so check that out no line up comm slash join if you are looking to support the show in any other way we want to thank high Noon, Yeti, Footjoy slash Titleist as well for supporting all of our content.

Thanks to Nelly Corder for calling in, Lauren Coughlin. Yeah, it's awesome. TC called in. It's amazing. Incredible. Everybody at the LPGA that helped organize that. That was really, really appreciated. And everyone for tuning in for a two hour recap tonight.

Your boy needs some sleep. It's been a long couple of weeks, I know. We've been doing a lot of content, excited to keep it going. So tune in on Wednesday, Tora Sauce. We'll have, for those asking, we'll have my recap of my round at Augusta. We'll be out, I believe sometime Tuesday night into Wednesday.

And we'll have that video podcast. Subscribe to our No Lying Up podcast, YouTube channel as well. And subscribe to the No Lying Up YouTube channel. There, that's all my plugs. That's it, bedtime. Good night everybody. Thanks for tuning in.

Good luck Cody, have fun. Have fun, good luck. Take care, big Randy, thank you for all you put into all your coverage of women's golf as well. That's it, good night. Cheers. Cheers.