No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 827: Soly Played Augusta National

Episode Date: April 24, 2024

After winning the media lottery, Soly wrapped up his week covering the Masters with a chance to play Augusta National the day after Scottie Scheffler won his second green jacket. After some time to process the experience, Soly is joined by Neil and KVV to relive the anticipation leading up to the round, offer a hole-by-hole recount of his day on the course, and answer some listener questions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

the right club today. Better than most. Better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Waying Up podcast. We promised it. It's a little, it's a week late. Listen, there was a signature event. There was a women's major last week, but we promised you we were going to give you every possible detail of my round of golf at Augusta. This is a dream come true not to play Augusta but to actually

have people curious of a shot by shot of what unfolded in a round of golf for me and I am gonna we're gonna do everyone we're gonna do every shot every question we solicited some questions from the refutes joining me and interviewing as well as Mr. Kevin Van Volkerberg. Hello KVB. So I am so excited I shaved my beard off just to make me more professional this week. Cause I knew that it would call for the most big J of journalism, uh, events here that I had to grill you like I was, you know, on 60 minutes here. So like get ready for that. You're experienced at asking questions about, uh,

to players at Augusta national. So I'm, I'm nervous for what you've got cooked up for me, but, uh, probably pretty, feeling pretty far away from the golf course right now, uh, handling some fatherly duties over the last month. The new father, newly minted father, Mr. Neil Schuster. Hello, Neil. How are you? Good afternoon, gentlemen.

I'm fired up to get a shot by shot. I just want to encourage listeners, viewers to stick around. So I will be giving a breakdown of his fantasy baseball team after this. Uh, and then I want you guys to watch me play video games at the very end. Yeah, so we got a big one on tap for you today. Make sure you stick around to the end, and we'll share the link for that other video.

A bit of housekeeping, if you are a new listener to this show, you can listen to it on anywhere you get your podcast. As well, we have a No Laying Up podcast YouTube channel, which you can watch the video version of this if you're not doing so already on it. We'll have a few graphics little Google Earth images of where some of these shots went. It's very low five, but just wanted to give the

viewers that are watching it on the YouTube a little something to look at as well. You can subscribe to that there. We've got a no laying up YouTube channel where our golf videos go. And then of course, you can subscribe to anywhere you would get this podcast. We are also proud to say season 9 of Taurusauce is presented by our longtime partners at Precision Pro Golf. Episode 2 is premiering Wednesday night at 9 p.m. Eastern Time on the NoLayingUp YouTube channel. This is our travel series where we are filming, we filmed this past year in Australia and you guys know about the

variety of NoLayingUp designs Precision Pro offers on the NX 10 rangefinder they're adding another one to the mix to commemorate Taurus season nine. It's an awesome design with a nod to Australia features the wayward wayward golfer logo on a background inspired by a bar a jar of Vegemite. The next 10 is fast, accurate and reliable rangefinder with all the features you would expect and the added touch of an NLU design. If you have an older Precision Pro model like the NX7 or NX9, don't forget about the have a trade up program. Returning customers get 30% off a new range finder purchase when upgrading to the latest

and greatest that Precision Pro has to offer. They keep getting better. It's a fantastic product. You can use code NLU at PrecisionProGolf.com to get $20 off your NX10 range finder. Support the brands that make content like Taurus sauce possible by going to PrecisionProGolf.com get $20 off your next 10 range finder support the brands that make content like Taurus sauce possible by going to precision pro golf.com shopping for your next range finder today and once again, use code nlu to get $20 off. So are we ready to begin? I think we're ready to begin. I have spent the better part of a week now. Brendan poor hath texted me yesterday just shot me

a message somewhere around 11 o'clock yesterday's like we were on the range a week ago at Augusta national. It has taken me quite some time to kind of put my thoughts down, try to organize it and try to come up with an overall message and take away from from the day that was but I'm ready to dump whatever you guys want to hear. So cute. Whenever anyone asks me if I played Augusta, I'll just be like, no, but I've interviewed a guy who's played Augusta. So let me tell you all about that. All right. Before we

begin this, let's kind of talk through the process of how this came to be. So like, did the masters just like give you a spot in their, their Monday outing is cause you're like a swell guy. How did this come about? That's what a lot of people, including TC will lead you to believe. So for the lottery familiar, YouTube watchers will see me in air quotes saying lottery, not a lot of people, including TC will lead you to believe. So for the lottery familiar, YouTube watchers will see me in air quotes saying lottery. Not a lot of people believe in it's a true lottery. There might be some frozen ping pong balls at Augusta national. That is the common, uh, common criticism that they face. It was, uh, so if for those that aren't familiar, if you are a media member, press member at covering the masters, uh, you can enter

their lottery system to play the course on Monday. I think 28 people win it, won it this year, or there's 28 spots available for it. If you have won before, you cannot enter it again for seven years. I heard a lot of stories of first-time winners that get it. I've heard stories of guys that have applied many, many times and not gotten it. Do you know any guys like that? I did. One of those is Kevin van Valkenburg. This was his fifth time applying for it as well. Five time player of the week. Five time. That's a walk on scrub, Solly.

He gets a star. I'm going to have Brooks flash me or the PJ. Kev, how many times have you tried to be in the lottery? How many media members do you think there are? My guess would be probably 300 or so. And then so you eliminate some people who don't play golf period or you know, just have no interest in doing it. Anyway, some people have quote unquote ethical concerns, which you know what, I don't want to dismiss entirely. Like I do feel like some people who I have a couple friends who are like, yeah, I just don't want to

be like, you know, begging the club for any kind of thing, whatever. Personally, I'm not I'm like, Yeah, man, I'm gonna it's just a round of golf, like I'm ready to play. But if I think when you think about it, like in the larger context, if if you put this up for auction, right, if you said like, hey, there's 20 rounds at Augusta up for auction tomorrow, the bidding would probably go really high, it might even get into like the six figures, you'd sit on a lot of billionaires who'd be like, I really want to play there and I'm

going to just throw as much money down. So it is, it is a privilege in that sense. And to be totally honest, like I entered it with zero expectations. This was my first year covering the masters. So I just, I, I know I run good. Look, I know I'm extremely aware of how good I run. I did not think it's been an incredible start to the year for me. I got to experience a lot of great things. I've welcomed my wife and I welcomed our first child into this world eight months ago. It just, it kind of felt like, all right, I've rolled the dice a lot of times and I keep landing on boardwalk.

Like we've played 28 straight games and I keep getting the best properties. It just doesn't feel like it's going to hit a 29th time. And I was watching, I was not planning on, you know, I wasn't heavily invested in winning this year. And I was eating a hot dog on Friday afternoon, they announced that there was going to be winners and a bunch of people scurry down to the bottom of the stairs to see if the names that are going up there and you can believe me or not. But I was like, I was rooting for the name Kevin van Vonkenberg to come up

there because in because I was honestly anticipating if I did get it, I was anticipating the feeling that I did have which was guilt like when I saw my name up there it was like, man, there's people that applied to this for a lot of years. There's people that don't run as good as I've run and I just won this on the first try like I wasn't overwhelmed with joy in that moment. It was just like, oh my god, like what a frickin amazing bounce. And it honestly like, we can talk about some of this, but I if I honestly like lost

track of the dream of playing Augusta over the years for a variety of reasons which we can get into. But it wasn't like my week hinged on getting to play it or not on on on Monday, like it was such a busy week, we had so many shows I'm running around all over the place. And it was just genuine shock when I saw my name up there. And it was like, holy crap, I'm gonna be playing Augusta on Monday, a couple follow ups to that. Do they do they put it up like a manual

scoreboard? Like they do the other scoreboards? Like it's not it's digital. It's digital behind the information. It scrolls like it scrolls screen by screen. So like there, you know, a few names go up and there's a big reaction amongst a bunch of people that, you know, if your friend got it or if you got it and then another name and you don't know how many screens there's going to be, you kind of lose track. And I saw a few familiar names pop up there and then the, but

the thrill right away was when my name popped up there right next to it was Brendan Porath, who has been a friend of all of ours really for quite some time, a friend of mine for almost a decade now and been on group chats and have covered golf and have a ton of great memories with and it was just like, hey, no matter what I'm going to get to share like this day with Brendan. We've later found out we were going to get paired together, which was

another true miracle. But it was like, a great thrill I had was he was not down there. But I got to go, he was sitting right next to me in the media center or two seats down and just go up and surprise him and say like what you have plans for Monday. And he thought he thought I was messing with him. Like he thought I was total, which would have been a very, very cruel prank and told him that he had hit the lottery and that I had too. It was the shock was shared between the two of us in that moment. So that was my other question.

You don't get to pick who you play with. No, you're assigned a tee time. So they have a meeting on the Sunday, the day before, and they pass out envelopes that say, like, here's your tee time, and it gives you an arrival time as well. So the arrival time is 1030 AM for the 1130 tee time. And I had heard stories of other people that had gone and tried to show up a couple of minutes

early before their arrival time and returned away at the gate. So I went and picked Brendan up on that on that Monday morning. And we went and sat at the there's a Christian life bookstore about 220 yards from the entrance to Magnolia Lane. And we sat there for about we pulled in like 1017. And we sat there for about 1011 minutes talking about something. I have no idea what we talked about. I don't remember what we talked about. It was a super weird

anticipation feeling of like, I can't believe that we're getting ready to do this. We're going to pull up down Magnolia lane and like experience a day at Augusta national. And that's exactly what we got. Scottie would have approved where you guys hung out, you know, just get a little literature that morning. Like think about, you know like think about your place in the cosmos. So I will say just on the follow up on like the finding out process, I have seen a sports writer who really wanted to play,

throw his notebook in anger and storm out of the media center when he did not get picked. And I will say also, I know people who have played, who've been paired with like three other people who don't speak any English. And it sort of like kind of diminishes the whole experience, right? Because if ultimately, you're asking yourself, what is golf about for me, like as a true dream at golf experience about

the people I'm playing with, or the venue that I'm playing at. And I think the right answer is probably like, it's a sweet spot between the two. But if you go to one extreme, where you're like, oh, I'm playing a real shithole with like my friends, I can still probably have a better time in some ways than playing like an elite course with like three people who I can't even talk to.

And I just feel like I'm not even part of that experience. Totally. And it was super additive to play with Brendan. We play, the other guys that were in our group were a gentleman from a local newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, and then a gentleman that worked for Bloomberg in Atlanta. I did not know them prior to this and got to know them. We had a great,

great time with them. But with like, I have a history with Brennan, I can turn to him and like, you know, walking down the 11th fairway and just like, are we seriously doing? Are we doing this right now? Like is this? I remember when we were recording podcasts into my cell phone, like it was resting on my knee after the 2016 Ryder Cup, like, there's just so much added context of like getting to share it with somebody who like it added because he was so excited about it, which made me more excited about it, which brought more out of him.

And it just like kept building on top of it. And that was just another incredible surprise of the day. And the only thing I'll think back on is like, I've caught myself in the past. I've never covered it again, the Masters in person. I've caught myself in the past when people have won the lottery, like a tinge of just jealousy.

And I don't want to say anger on it, but it's just like a tinge of that jealousy. And I've like smacked myself of like, why in the world for people that like you, you know and respect, why would you not like be over the moon for them excited for them, like to play I immediately when Porter won it like in 2017, I think it was there was like 1% of like

jealousy. And then it was like, No, this is frickin incredible. Like you can't be mad at someone or like it's a bad way to go through life like jealous of somebody that's gotten this, this opportunity. And I've you know, Andy's name popped up last year. And it was like, dude, that's gotten this opportunity. And Andy's name popped up last year and was like, dude, that's freaking awesome. Be excited for these people. But that has been something like I had to be conscious of in the past as well. And although I'm sure there's plenty of people out there that were ready to punch me with my name. For the record, the last three rounds that Sully has played are St. Andrews in reverse,

St. Andrews, and then Augusta National, to which I said, what are you, Bobby fucking Jones? Like, come on. And like, I got a kid pissing and shitting all over me at home. I'm like, that's cool, man. That was waiting for me when I got home too, Neil. There was a lot of life waiting for me when I got home. So I will say, I'd be remiss if I didn't say the prosecution does not like the pairings for the, for the lottery here, you know, comfy pairings. There's a thumb on the scale. You know, I would, I wouldn't be surprised if with the pairings, there is a thumb on the scale, but by all accounts, there was a, you know, there is a true reach into something. And the account that I heard was, you know, from somebody that we know

that is doing the polling was like the immediate reaction. They saw my name was like, Oh God, everyone's going to think this was rigged. So either they're really going out of their way to lie about that or, or, or it is a true draw. I'm sorry, but there's like, you may have been totally random. In fact, I believe that you were, there's no chance that the lottery is 1000% like random. There are like, it's just not with a Gus Strykman. It doesn't strike me as an organization that leaves a lot of the chance.

They'd be like, Oh, you know what, let's let's get these four people in and then we'll the rest of it will be random, whatever. So I'll deny that. And also that is their right. Like I don't have any I actually don't have an issue with a thumb on the scale. I get it. The other option could be no one gets to play the whole course. And then also, just so we're clear, if it rains on Monday, they basically just cancel the outing and you don't get to like, oh, I'll just save this for next year.

You just go back into the pool and you don't get it. So another seven years. Oh, you got to wait for seven years. That's your, that's your pick. That's what I've heard was that is, I think it's if you don't get a play that you actually just go back into the pool, you can just get picked heard was that is, if you don't get a play that you actually just go back into the pool, you can just get picked again the following year, but you don't, you don't, you don't actually have to wait a seven years if you don't get to play. It's like, once you step on the property is like, Hey, there's no rain checks. Like

once you're, once you're here, but if you don't actually get to go, then you're good to go. All right. So like what, what was the first time you consciously can remember thinking, man, I'd like to play Augusta someday I Mean it had to be some time in the late 90s early 2000s Like when I really started to get into golf I think I can first remember watching the Masters in 1996 like huddled around the TV in the kitchen watching Like we were all rooting really hard for Greg Norman and the Faldo thing, of course happened and the Norman thing happened on that day But I remember my whole family just-

Look at all the places life has brought you. Really pulling for Norman. And from there, like my, you know, all this kind of builds up into realizing what it was gonna be like to play Augusta. And I'll get into some of like kind of losing track of that aspiration throughout the course of the years. But it is like the only place that is going to have the layers of context

that we're getting ready to talk about, the layers of memories and the layers of like shaping my golf fandom. Like this tournament has had a huge, huge, huge impact on that. I've learned a lot of that from like reading the books several years ago, making them of the masters of like learning what it's like to have the branding around this event and the television product and what it has become to this this this thing that like means so much to so many people like for so many people. It is a dream to set foot on this product this property to attend one practice round day right

like it took until 2016 for my dad's dad to ever go on the property for the first time and go to the par three contest get an epic photo of Gary player making a hole in one on that day running around like getting lost from my dad and my uncle in that day and like you know, somehow finding their way back together without their phones. It's the only place where my grandfather followed Jack Nicklaus on the back nine in 1986 and and was there as part of all of those memories is the only place that like I sprained my ankle when I jumped up in the air when Tiger Woods chipped in

and when I was in the dorm in 2005. You know, right? Your ankle doing everything. I get hurt a lot, dude. It was, it's really, really bad. Again, there's all of these layers of like, I played this course in the video games and it just, it hit me way too late in this, that like, this is this course in the video games, and it just, it hit me way too late

in this that like, this is a one of one experience, like there's no other course or first experience at a course that's going to go into this category. The closest I could come up with was the old course, like watching so many open championships and that feeling so far away and like walking onto that tee for the first time. The difference between that is like that is an open public golf course. Like this is something that fell into my lap the day after the Masters Sunday pins with ideal course conditions. I mean, it was one of the best course conditions conditions we've ever seen for the Masters. And I got to got to be there in person for all week of that and then roll on there

and play it on that Monday. It was it just like it was an overwhelming feeling eventually it hit me later than it should have and I'm glad because I stayed busy obviously through the weekend and it just snuck up on the Monday how much this was gonna like hit me and how crazy cool this experience was going to be. Well, there's one thing I'd add there, kind of to first point you were making, I was thinking about this this year with with

Augusta or with the Masters and it feels like there's not a lot of, and maybe this is just like a Twitter take, but like almost like every tradition and thing in society, like now has somebody that's like shits on it. And I feel like the Masters and the Superbowl are like the last bastions, like maybe in sports where it's like, like even like the MLB, baseball is boring, you know, or like the NBA playoff, they're too woke or whatever. It's like, the Super Bowl, like with it, what works and all like the Super Bowl has its problems, you know, you could probably criticize Augusta National and the Masters

for some stuff. But like, if you do like a Twitter search for any other topic, you'd find like a bunch of people just being like, this fucking sucks. Like you're a loser for liking this. And it's like the one thing that like even non golf fans like, oh, it's the Masters week, like this is awesome. And I just, I'm almost like waiting for the year that's not the case. And this year is not that year. And I think that's just worth pointing out, which then makes you want to go and see why in person. And I think that's just worth pointing out, which then makes you want to go and see why in person. And then, you know,

the next step of that is to play. And the place is like a theme park. I've heard the Disney World comparison for a long time, and it really hit me, but it was more like it's kind of more like Jurassic Park, in that it's a just freakishly manicured place. It is this- Holy fucking shit, it's a dinosaur. I mean, the level of infrastructure within it,

the size of the industry around this thing and this once in a lifetime feeling around so much there. So many people that are there on the Monday, the Tuesday, the Wednesday, it's their first time going and this is their chance at making the memory there. Like so many people that are there on the Monday, the Tuesday, the Wednesday, it's their first time going. And this is like their chance at like making the memory there. And a question there, Sally, sorry to cut you off, but did you feel like you were being watched? Are there actually USB ports in the trees? Did you see cameras in places you didn't expect to see cameras? Well, I was at, I asked like, Hey, am I, are we led to like, can we go, can we go pee like in the woods? Like, Oh yeah, absolutely. I was like, Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know if there was cameras or whatnot in there. They're like, Oh no, there's cameras in there. But like, can we go pee like in the woods? Like, oh, yeah, absolutely. I was like, oh, sorry, I didn't know if there was cameras or

whatnot in there. Like, oh, no, there's cameras in there. But like, yeah, everybody just goes and goes and pees in the woods. It's like, oh, okay, well, cool. But yeah, it every now but I noticed this like walking on the mat like the masters there's you just walk by a tree and like there is a there's a cable running up this tree. And I don't know why I don't see a light up there. I don't see I don't see what the purpose of this cable is, but

there's something going on in all this and it is a little bit. It's too much. It's it's over. It's incredibly over the top, but that's a big thing of what people love about it. The mystique around this whole thing is is a part of the branding. I would love to I'm sure there's been tons of it done like I'd love to like read, like just a branding like case study of this tournament, like the line for the merchandise, that doesn't just come because the logo looks cool. Like it

comes with a entire experience and like a strategy to how they do absolutely everything, which there's plenty you can critique about all that. Yeah. And like, that's part of where my I again, like kind of lost track of how cool it would be to play this was like, the more we've explored golf and explore different cultures and explore different types of golf courses, the less the manicured and manufactured part of golf feels appealing. Like honestly, Lynx golf is not on overseated rye, Heathland golf is not on overseated rye, it's not massively green experiences. And like when I was 22, that

was all I would have ever cared about. And like, getting to go experience different kinds of golf and types of golf courses, like the style of golf course that Augusta is, has become less of a desire to me, for a lot of reasons, which led to me like miscalculating like how freaking cool it would be to actually play the shots from the masters. No, it's like you do. I'm glad that not all golf and golf is trending away from that type of golf. But like, it's awesome that that version exists. It's how I felt when we played like a

dare manner. I'm like, Oh, well, I know, I should like the soul of Bally Bunyan more. But yeah, sometimes it's just awesome to play a dope manicured course with sub airs. And like, there's a there's like a magnetic magnetism to a places that spare no expense. And there's a lot of criticism that goes along with that of like, Oh, I can't believe you guys are wasting all this money on such a, you know, pointless thing if you're an outsider, but it's but it's, you know, it's like a pleasure maybe

that you're like, Oh my God, that's incredible. You know? Totally. And that's where like I underestimated again, how fun the golf shots would be. Like all the things that I love about a golf shot, the challenge of like, hey, if you execute this properly, you got a great chance at birdie. And if you miss by just a little bit, you can easily make a par if you hit it right here. But if you want the birdie, you're going to have to play it like this.

And if you miss it, you're probably making bogey. That happened so many times over the course of just 18 holes, even from the members tease that I was like, I was when I walked off 18, the overarching feeling was like, I want to go do that 15 more times. Not one, not two, not five. I want to play to that pin. I want to play to that pin, I want to experience that shot, can't believe I wasted my shot on that one. It was, I didn't walk off Pine Valley with that feeling, you know, of saying like, I want to go do that 15

more times and unlock this puzzle. But Augusta brought out like all of the mind stuff that activates my brain about golf, part of like the main reason I love golf. All that puzzle solving was on 150% when I walked off the 18th green, which I just again, I just wasn't really expecting. Pine Valley members take note. Yeah. And good luck in 2031 for when you get to tee it up again at Augusta. Yeah.

All right. So let's we'll move this along here. What were the next 48 hours like after you got picked? So what? Why did the conversation go with Hannah considering it was a her birthday? Which is there? And B an extra day away that you'd be on the road after spending like 12 of the last 14 days away from home while she was watching a toddler. I got ahead of this one and said like, all right, I made a reservation for Monday night, but listen, honey, if it's like a five to 10% chance I'd win this lottery. If I do, you know, pick something out.

And if it hits, this is your bonus birthday present. I've already got you a birthday present, but you get a bonus present and we'll go out to dinner on Wednesday. And I mean, she definitely understood the once in a lifetime nature of all of this. And that's what you had going for you because it is the one thing in golf that non-golf fans understand. Totally. Totally. That's like, that's it. You know,

if it was honestly, if it was any other course, it'd probably be like, yeah, the old course, I don't care. Right. In that public. Why do you want to play an old course? Yeah. So it was when I called her and told her the news, she was more excited than I was. It was, so it was not as hard of a sell as you might think. She was obviously a very understanding and loving person. Massive shout out to Hannah. Hannah, if you're listening.

She certainly will be in massive, a hundred percent. Aspirational wife. Hats off to the wife on this situation. I made it home by 10 o'clock that night, I think. So we at least, I got to wake up my daughter the next morning still, so that was good. Daddy played the mask. All right, so what'd you do?

Did you go hit some balls that week? So how's your swing looking and going into that outing? So this was, did a quick back of the napkin calculation was like, oh, okay, this will be like 13 days between the last time we played at St. Andrews and picking up a club for the first time back stateside. Honestly, but the first thought was like, Okay, how am I going to get from Friday to Monday without hurting

myself in some way because my back is teetering. It's always teetering. The lower back issues are there. I swear, within 30 minutes of seeing my name up there, it started to just bother me just a little bit like in one wrong move could have been could have been, you know, one of the great all time own goals of all time of my life. So I went and hit some balls on Saturday and Sunday mornings got up a little early just to just to get some feels, hit some balls over at Forest Hills, off some mats and just like, all right, that way, when I get on property, at least won't have been the first time I've touched a club.

But also, like in this time period, I got a lot of advice from people that had done it before, but I got ahead of the mental part of like, you have got to not care about what you shoot. Like the only way you're gonna have a bad time is if like you start out poorly and you're obsessed with what you shoot and you don't experience the rest of the round. I got put to the test very, very, very early,

which we'll get to. But that was like, dude, have some feels, but like go into this round with a goal of like experiencing each shot experience just because a putt is, you know, 10 footers for double doesn't mean like you're not going to get to hit that left to right putt again on this green. Take it seriously, like, you know, go enjoy it, go get the experience out of it. So I will proudly say I got myself in the right right mindset for that. Because I'll tell you my score at the end of it all when we go through the hole by hole. But you know, it wasn't great, but truly will not have an impact of how I look back on

this day. All right, other than giving me like a half naked hug in the hallway as I was headed out to get put as much distance between you and me as I could. And my jealousy, what'd you do that morning? Did you eat breakfast? Did you, where did you hook up with poor? I went over, got a smoothie, got a coffee, cleaned up the Airbnb. You know, the time did sneak up on me. Sorry. I just, sorry about leaving the mess behind for you. I just figured that that was your payment. That's within the expectation of, uh, of what needed to

be, what needed to be done before in Augusta T-time. But it killed time as much as possible, but it was like, I'll go over there. I'll pick them up around this time. And then it was like, well, if there's 85 roads closed between here and there, that could be a problem. So I'm just going to get there early and then we can get to the parking lot early just in case. Let's just get in front of the gates.

And what's funny is we pulled out of that lot at like 1029 and we sat at the light for what felt like 15 minutes and it was probably two, but like we didn't get up the drive until like 1032 and I was already like, oh, bad start. Just wasted two of our minutes at Augusta national. And then, uh, yeah, sure enough, you know, you hand them the invite and like the security barriers that are there go down and then sure enough, you're driving up Magnolia Lane. All right. So what's it like to drive down Magnolia Lane? Frosty Walrus on the refuge wants to know what kind of music did you put on?

I panicked. I didn't know what to do. I knew what I was going to play on the way back down the drive. And if you listen to the 1997 Masters deep dive, you can probably guess what song that's going to be. I didn't know what to do other than like when I got, when it kind of set in on Friday, I just texted my dad and was just like, hey, I'm thinking of you today

and like just wanna say thank you for like bringing me into golf and I just didn't afford like an incredible opportunity next week. And like, that's where my mind went today. And it was like, thought about again, my grandfather and he grew up in West Virginia. My whole family grew up in West Virginia. And I was just thinking about my family at that time, I put I

had to do it, put on john Denver country roads for the drive up Magnolia Lane, and probably was playing a little louder than I should have been probably going faster than I should have been. But again, I want to get to the range when get to the shop, I wanted to get to get moving and pulled up valet the car clubs went out to the range. And then it was yeah, you kind of got to get shoes changed if you want to do shopping in the Augusta pro shop that has the Augusta national gear, not the Masters

gear. You got to do that then and then out to the to the range and hit some putts and ready to go that the time can go really, really quickly in that time period. Whose locker did you get assigned in the champions locker room? I got Craig Stadler and Craig Wood. That was our whole force. I've got that one. How about that? Frosty Walrus? Getting over Walrus's locker?

That's good stuff. Craig Stadler is kind of like my spiritual avatar for the world of golf. So big, big fellas with facial hair. So I like that. Got changed. At this point, I should probably take a break and give a shout out to our friends at Roeback. Roeback activewear, you know Roeback, best fit, best feel. It is spring.

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With code NLU, spring golf is not the same without rowback. So I just want to point out that all the way up through, I think about the Hootie Johnson era, unless you were like Dan Jenkins, and like Ben Hogan could bring you there all the time. Sports media was not allowed to hit balls, either on the tournament range or the members range, they had to go off the 10th T. And they got themselves a little box lunch basically to carry with them. So I think you can thank Chairman

Billy Payne for your much warmer experience. He was sneaky, one of the more progressive chairman at Augusta national and said like, no, we're going to treat the media like they are actual members. So I say that as a prelude to say, what was it like to hit balls on the tournament range, which even members are not allowed to do? It was pretty surreal. Again, it's one of those things where like you've got, you know, maybe 50 minutes once you get parked and changed of like, how are you? It's kind of like a shopping spree in some way. Somebody said you can go into this electronic

store and you got this much time. Get as much get as much in as you can. You know you wanted to hit enough balls to get loose and but without obsessing over your swing or anything like you want to hit some chips, you want to hit some pots, of course, the greens are very unique at Augusta. But yeah, I mean, it was like the coolest best range you've ever seen. I mean, the greens were like real Augusta green. So you're hitting wedges into them and like, seeing how much it actually spins. I don't know if I've ever hit range balls. And you know, you're

obviously hitting Pro V ones on the range and watching them spin as they landed at the greens, a bunch of different pins that you can kind of practice. All right, this is kind of like the shot that's going to be in the number three. This is going to be maybe the shot that will be in the number five and watch it spin and react on the green. It was really cool. It was really, really nice. Again, all of it felt... It just, from that moment on, I just felt like I was floating. Like honestly, it would just... You're walking into this setting that you're so wildly familiar with, but you've never stepped in those actual spots. That's one thing

that's different about this course as well compared to other ones that we get to go visit for golf tournaments is like, anywhere else we can walk inside the ropes, we can go to the range, we can, you know, go to all these places. And Augusta, like a bunch of the spots you end up standing in the fairway, like I've never stood in this spot and never will. And it just all looks so different. So when you're there and Jose Mareal Othabo was for some reason standing where they,

where you pick up your range balls and grab a water. And you're just like, yeah, yeah, I'm here to play. I'm here to play Augusta. Of course, of course this is where I'm supposed to be today. Do you get assigned to caddy? Did you think at all about texting bones and saying like, Hey, man, are you free Monday? Is there any way you could come along here and do a loop? I could, I could pay the regular rate assigned to caddy. He was waiting for me at the range. I had a younger guy out there and I get poor. I had gotten a recommendation from a member to take his

specific member caddy. But I had one random randomly assigned and I didn't think to ask bones. I would have, I'm sure he would have loved to have been out there with me. That would have been sick. All right, so now we have arrived. What was the feeling like as you walked to the first tee? Did you think about like when Rory hit one out on Washington Road in 2018 for his opening tee shot, his nervy opening tee shot? So it was like not being dramatic. Like in that walk, we kind of got a shuttle over to this little breezeway where you go kind of past the golf shop and past the clubhouse

and you walk out there that in that walk, it was like, that's when it got real, because that was the first time crossing over from you know, the side of the clubhouse onto the golf course. The you know, the pads are worn out from where the patrons have been walking the the leaderboards are still up, but all the names are stripped out, all the ropes are gone. And there's a few people from Augusta there,

they're waiting on that first tee to send you off and a photographer. And it was like, again, the excitement of the group and everything was like kind of talking to each other, like, holy shit, here we go. And like looking back on it, and I got approval on this one to say this before I do say it.

Like the only feeling that I can compare that to was like anticipation wise, was like waiting for my wife to walk down the aisle, like at our wedding, it was like a, this is all gonna happen once like this is this is it like, how do you slow down time? How do you take like photographic memories of this? How do you capture this moment? Like you could take a camera out there, you can take photos, you can't post them or share them anywhere. But like it was not even I have some photos from

the day, but I don't like even care about them because I was just trying as best I could to just etch all of the details into my memory as tightly and as closely as I possibly could and just like cherish it. But it was like, Holy shit, dude, this is your first your only time playing Augusta for the first time. This is a round you've you've waited for for your whole life. You wanted it really, really badly when you were 22. But like it wouldn't have hit the way that it's

about to hit like you wouldn't have the appreciation for it. You wouldn't, you know, back then you just wanted to tell everyone about how you played Augusta. Listen, I'm probably talking about it for two hours telling everyone about it. But like, I'd be fine if nobody ever asked me about it. And I never had to, you know, never needed to talk about it just because it was like a very cool, just personal experience to have. Full please now on the tee, Chris Solomon.

What was your first swing like? I thought I'd be really nervous and I got some great advice. I will say some from one trusted hearty journalist, Kevin Van Valkenburg, which was to say like you can't, you can't treat this like you can't treat every shot. Like it's your only chance you're ever going to have to play Augusta. Like it might be you very well need to be aware that this is probably an all likelihood, the only chance you're going to get.

But if you do that on every shot, like you're going to strangle the club and you're going to freak out and you're going to miss out on some of the experience. So I was really not, I have lots of great advice by the way, for someone who's never played, just having talked to a number of people. But it was really good advice, but I wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be. So for those that don't know, you do play the member tease. Everyone's assigned the member tease and there are definitely a variety of skills of players that are out there on this day. And it's not, I wouldn't classify, it's not a very formal round of golf. It's not like, you know, they're not passing out scorecards.

There's no competition. There's any of this, it's like, dude, you go enjoy your day. Go have fun. Closer to like a hit and giggle than it is like something that's really, really formal. So it wasn't, I did not hit 18 cups for a variety of reasons. God, that's so disappointing.

Wow, I hope Randy's not listening to this. You have to let me get through some details of this and you got to give me some leeway here. And then some things that are outside of my control preventing that at times. But that's still disappointing. You know, I understand. We'll wait till that as it may,

there is a pace of play expectation. And in regard to, to the day, that's that's sure. Well, that's, that's true here as well. So 40 minutes in, we are now about to begin. Your first drive, where does it end up? So again, this is the part where we have a few graphics here to show here, but again, from the member T, which the member T's at Augusta are,

I'm looking at the card right now, 63, 65, compared to 75, 55 from the tournament T's. So 1200 yard difference. It's a vast, vast difference. That's so sick. I don't think, and there's nothing in between. There's no option in between for anyone that ever plays it. So I'm certainly in the small- You go all the way back to the back of the member tees or you just have to tee up right? Just tee up where they're telling you to tee up from was kind of my method. I would love it if

there was a 6,900 yard option. There's a lot of, there's obviously the highest ranked tournament or whatever you want to call it, one of the most prestigious tournaments and a lot of member play. There's not a lot in between for about my level play. Back tees would be too long for me. Wouldn't be that fun. Member tees are a bit short at a lot of spots. We can talk about that, but if this was any other hole, I probably wouldn't have hit driver but I wanted the biggest clubhead for the first tee, of course, had massive flashbacks to how Tiger started so many masters with a ball that was supposed to cut, could he fade, could he my fade

and hit one directly into the left trees kind of near that bunker, just couldn't get it good, Benny. And look, when I got up there, I was like, man, that was not the biggest landing area for driver. I don't know if I would have done that all over again. So we're a little behind the eight ball but I got a little gap. I can get one to the front right part of the green if I really hook like a seven iron from 130 yards but I kind of chunked it but it was fine. It got out to the middle of

fairway. I had about 86 yards in from the middle of Fairway to a back left pin that had four yards behind it. And the first hole is one of those greens that you walk around and see. And like when you're watching the tournament, you're like, dude, this can get out of hand really quickly. Like, I don't know how to execute these shots. The mounds, the contouring,

everyone knows about the elevation change at Augusta and how it looks, you know, it's different on TV, but getting close to the internal contours, the small contours around the green, it gets really visually intimidating very quickly. So I knew on this wedge was like, dude, long is going to be a lot of trouble for you. Like let's hit this 58 degree flight it down when it's a little bit in.

And I hit a really solid 58 degree towards that back left pin that was like that is all I can do. That's all I want to get out of it. It's not going long. It's going to land on that upper tier. We're going to be fine. Greens have been really firm the whole tournament and you know, we watch balls bound and you know, haven't watched a whole lot skidding and sucking back. And I must have clipped this ball absolutely perfect because it landed back left, ripped off the back left down the tier in the middle of the green down the front of the green off the front of the green. It rolled for probably 30 seconds. So immediately my reaction is OK media day. They have watered the greens. The

greens are soft like it is not the tournament that we just saw. So I get up to this chip. I'm now chipping my fourth shot with a 54 degree hit a little skitter. You know that I'm expecting to go into the soft green. Nope, they weren't that firm. I must have just hit the this chip. I'm now chipping my fourth shot with a 54 degree hit a little skitter, you know that I'm expecting to go into the soft green. Nope, they weren't that firm. I must have just hit the perfect spin on that first shot. It skids all the way over the green goes down a slope. Now I'm chipping from long up a contour to a short sided pin

with my fifth shot. Heart racing at this point, a little bit like you know, there's balls flying, there's ping pong and balls flying all over the place. It already feels like a little bit rushed. Hit a 58 degree, didn't clip it very good. It rolls 25 feet by now. I got a 25 footer back up the hill for double on the opening hole. Things are moving very quickly. It did not go in. I triple the

first hole and my theory of like, alright, how are you? Don't let a bad start like ruin the rest of your round was put to the test very, very early. Seven on the first. Everyone's going to hear about that. Hey, you're freed up, man. You know, when do you want to make triple? Solly, what do we always say? It's a difficult game and it breaks everyone eventually. Your heart pours out for him. So yeah, it was, it was, you know, that was a tough start, but honestly, that's as fast as a triple bogey has ever just left my system.

It just didn't matter. Got up to the second tee and I get- Oh wait, we're gonna pause just here for a second. I wanna just as a history lesson, Neil, I wanted to quiz you as part of this. What would you think of as like being some of the most famous moments on the first green? Is there anything that come to mind?

It has to be Ernie Els, right? Yeah. I mean, that's, and that's probably the only one I've got because I think this one is similar to 17. My favorite stinky nandina of like the broadcast doesn't do it as much justice as severe as the green is. But I think that Els sequence was a good indicator. I guess ROM four putting in 2023 also is something that comes to mind. Schwartzl chipping in came for me,

Roy blowing it off the planet in 2018, all the tiger doubles that he's had there. There's a lot, there's a lot for every hole, but it is a freaking one. One has more history than I thought about as I was thinking through it. So that was the Schwarzl chip in, I think is probably the most like famous good moment

of intro to master's winner chips in to sort of start his day and announced that he's gonna be in it. But I was there for the L's six button, which is one of the more brutal meltdowns in public. All right, let's on to number two. So flipping over to number two, again, a lot of these, the member T is just gonna be a very different look.

I forgot I had this, the whole- God, these graphics are great. I'll just give us shot tracers. This is fantastic. I wanted to see that quickly. After that triple, Sally's gotta be thinking about his Hertz reservation down left of number two.

Maybe I'm just going to WD from the media day. If you're not aware, we renamed the Delta counter, which is what Dan Jenkins always said was left on number two is the Hertz counter. No one really goes to the Delta County more. They just change on the app, but you still have to go to the Hertz counter if you want to change up your rental car situation, fight over the insurance and the, all the fees nailed. They throw on those rental cars. You ever looked at the damn fees, like a recovery fee? How is it a recovery fee?

Airport, airport fee, tax, all of it. And then, you know, on top of the like, guilting me into getting the insurance, like the five different types of insurance, I don't know. Is it covered? I don't know. It's up to you. Anyway, solid back to you. Luckily, I prepaid all that on the first hole. So I was freed up. I can return it with no gas in the tank when we got to two. Got up and again, there's certain shots I've always looked at at Augusta and been like the seventh team. I don't know what to do with that tee shot. That just does not fit my eye. There's all kinds of shots that don't fit my eye. Two is not one of them. I've been drawing driver for a couple of years now. This was, it got there.

It's pretty wide and you know that from that members to you can get it past the bunker and just get it way down there. All I had to do was get one moving left and I just lambasted a ball around the corner. This is probably the purest shot I hit all day. Got all the way down there. I ended up having 176 into the second green, the par five,

which again, I've watched this shot, the approach shot so many times. I know where you're supposed to land it. You're supposed to land in that front tongue of the green to get to chase all the way back there to that back right pin with a ton of severe slope around it. And we got kind of caught in between because you know, you're realizing to something I was battling throughout the course of the day is watching having watched so much of the masters, they're playing a different golf course. So they're hitting way different clubs into it. And the trajectory and the ball the way the ball is going to roll out is very different than what I have

from like 176. So I was going to hit nine iron is a little helping wind off the downslope, I just needed to cover like 155. But my caddie was a little worried about with a nine iron loft, like it actually hitting the front of the green and running back to that back right corner. So we ended up hitting eight hit a great shot but had moving a little right to left was hoping to land the middle green and it just air mailed the green. It was an Icarito ball. It went way over the green and ended up on the back hill.

It would hit the Patriot. It would have crushed people in the crowd if there was a crowd standing there. Went pretty far tiger Ray Floyd told tiger to hit it into the patrons on that hole. Right? You get a good good chop to chip from there. Right? Ray Floyd told him to hit to the right patrons to chip back up the hill. That was so where I hit this ball was like, dude, oh my, you have watched this tournament for how long you know not to hit it right where you just hit it like that is you could watch one

day of the golf tournament there and know that's not where you're supposed to hit it and I fell right into the trap like how how did that happen that again goes back like I want to hit that shot again with nine iron like that why did I hit eight iron that was not the right call. And how do you fuck them? And that's not what I made the decision. Listen. Don't try Don't you put that on me. What's that?

I'm way long and I know this little section of the green is very small to this pen and it's like I've got a ton of fringe to cover and it's like the goal was like if we can get this third shot to creep onto the green as slow as we possibly can. That is the best chance of getting this close. The only chance of getting it close. It's going to go past, you can leave it on the fringe pretty easily and if you get it going with any speed, it's going off the green, may go into that bunker. It's a really tough shot. So this is the part that I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed chipping around Augusta because you can land it off the green

and it will bound on like it's not that's what I hate about playing Florida golf. If you land it into the green on Bermuda, you're not getting a very predictable bounce. And like, so you end up taking everything lofted wise and you can get into some really big hit chipping heebie-jeebies because you know, you're trying to use the bounce, trying to get spin on it, all that. But this is like, dude, you can be creative around these greens. You can loft the ball up onto them if you need to, or if you need to go down to a 46 degree, which is what I did, and find the right spot to land it. If you land on a down slope or an up slope,

it's gonna behave differently. And this is where it was like, all right, now I'm seeing where I want this ball to finish on the French. Now I'm seeing where I need to land it to do that. I need this to land in the hollow, kind of where the patron hill slopes down into where it hollows before it goes back up around the greens. And that's even having watched a lot of this term. I didn't have the appreciation for how the fringe plays into the greens like, you know, almost sand belt courses have bunkers that cut into them.

But a lot of the holes have got to have fringes that kind of cut into the greens that drive a ton of decision making. Right. It drives a lot of that barrier between birdie and bogey with the approach shots. And it makes your shots from around the green that much more interesting. It's chipping off short grasses and emphasize skill at Augusta. And it was like, Oh, Oh, so this is what they're talking about right here. Cause this is a really hard chip. There's probably so many spots where you have to balance. Like I'm probably only playing one time in my life. So I want to hit, one time in my life so I want to hit

I want to chip it I want to hit the shot but like man I should probably putt this. Well and that's another thing that was Bryson was doing all week. The fairways are not tightly mowed like that was another takeaway as well like they are not like they're pure but it's closer to like a very semi-rough than it is like a pristine bent grass fairway, if that makes any sense. So it does. You're not incentivized to puddle out of them, right? And I've always watched that and been like, why? Guys don't puddle out in the Masters either, and I can understand more of that having seen it. So I grabbed this 46 degree and I hit, and again, going back to how much I've,

how much reverence I have for this tournament, I've watched the 1997 highlight film from Tiger's win so many times. And Chris Schenkel is the narrator of those things. And I can read the lines back to when they go through Tiger's round. And this happened on the eighth hole. Tiger misses one way left,

but he hits this pitch that goes into the hill, sprinkles up there and goes to five feet. And he says this line that says, Ben Crenshaw said you could hit a bucket of balls and not hit one that close. And when the ball landed at the hollow of the fringe and rolled up onto the fringe and onto the green, I literally was like replaying that in my mind. I was like, that is the bucket of balls shot. You give me a bucket of balls, I will not have a ball roll onto the green at the speed that it did. And like the, you

know, the, the groups kind of scattered, everyone's kind of playing up and the ball gets on the green. It's rolling so slow and the caddies start getting hyped. They're like, Oh shit. Oh, here we go. Here we go. Cause it's rolling and rolling and rolling. It rolls for 12 seconds. It felt like 45 seconds, but it just barely gets over the hill. Rolling, rolling and rolling. It rolls for 12 seconds. It felt like 45 seconds, but it just barely gets over the hill. Rolling, rolling, rolling. They're getting hyped. Other group, they're screaming for so long

that other groups are starting to like watch and like root this ball on. Going, going, going. It is in the center of the hole. I took my 46 degree wedge. I walked it in, walked it in towards the hole, lipped out on the low left side. Oh.

At a crawling pace, it was just like, oh my god, I could not ever do that ever again. Finished 12 inches from the hole, did go up and tap that one in to make sure that hit cups. And it felt good to walk off the second green knowing I was not going to get blanked. God, the 7-3 start would have been pretty solid. We'll take birdie. We're on the board. All right. Quick history lesson here. Neil, how many times would you say the

Tiger has made eagle at number two Augusta? Oh man, I'm I feel like he's had a I don't know. I don't even have a guess. Maybe I'm going to say five. Can I guess zero? I'm gonna guess zero. So you are correct. The answer is zero. He has played the second hole 100 times in his career and has never made eagle. So that is all the more reason why I wish you had made that

chip because you could sort of walk around and stunt on the cat. With my 176. I was gonna say, I don't have a lot of memories of Tiger on two compared to the other par fives. The one the memory that does stick out to me is, is it it was it the mattress King with the Albatross? Yes. Who stays in? Yeah, that was I remember that

shot like yesterday. Truly the most memorable I think shot on that hole the the Albatross. Alright, so I onto three onto three. We're only two over at on to three. On to three. We're only two over at this point. We're two over. We're like, all right, who cares? We got that, you know, a lot of scoring opportunities ahead.

Winn is kind of in off the left on this one. And I wish I could have this shot over just because we didn't really go through a process. I don't know, I'm not saying, we weren't like behind pace already, but it was like, it was, you know, I was handed, I forget if I hit four or five iron, I forget what it was., it was, you know, I was handed, I forget if I hit four or five iron, I forget what it was. And I didn't feel

comfortable over it because he didn't want me to hit driver because of where the pin was, which I did not disagree with. Like if I ended up with like that 65 yard shot to that front left pin with the greens as firm as they were, it was going to be a really challenging shot. And with the wind coming in, I don't think I could have got it up close to the green to be able to kind of bump one up into the hill, like a lot of the guys, the Masters players were doing. So I ended up with the yardage from

the member teeth. Like it is 340 on three, you're only up 10 yards. So it's not that much shorter. And I think it was either hit either four or five iron and he told me it could not reach the left bunkers, but I didn't trust it. Like it was not, he put the right club in my hand, but I just didn't trust it. And I bailed way right and I hit this, which is like the dumbest feeling hitting like four iron straight into the trees when you're trying to like lay up. And it was it was a really bad shot. That feeling well, it's a very, very tough feeling. got up there and I'm in this pine

straw and I've got 115 flag but I've got like this weird gap that would maybe with a draw put me on the right side of the green. But it's gotta go up and it's gotta go through a specific window. And so I just grabbed a 46 degree and is it 40? Yeah, it's a, what do I have? I have 48 degree, why do I keep saying 46?

48 degree. And I hit it so fricking flush through the window with a draw. And so then you're just like, gosh, I hope it takes the right spin, hope it takes the right bounce. And it somehow did the graphics here do not do not show you much other than I hit the middle right side of the green, about 45 feet right of the pin, which was best case scenario from where I hit that I was probably where you're aiming if you have the 60 yard

shot to probably to Yeah, you're exactly right. Some guys that ended up in that spot hitting their third just had no shot at that pin and it was just very, very awful. It's Oh, it's so good. So then I had the putt like from that upper part straight down the hill. And again, just kind of that appreciation of the slope and the feeling I hit the putt a little too firm as you might expect it rolled about eight feet by I had a putt coming back

there's about a ball outside of the left coming back up pure the putt right in the center save par on three we're very happy about that we've righted the ship. Oh yeah. Yeah. We're doing fine. We're playing fine. And the key here is like I'm experiencing the shots right it was out of position on three it was like how can I leave this in the best possible spot to somehow save par like I know

short left is going to be trouble going long is going to be trouble. Like let's just hit the front right part of the green, see what happens and figure it out from there. Try to lag it close. It was just like way the shots worked on top of each other. Every shot had consequence and starting my brain started to get pretty activated here pretty early. History lesson pause. What would we remember for famous shots on the third? I would immediately Scottie's chip in when he won the Masters the first time jumped to mind and after and I want to note the disgraceful TIO I still think that it's BS at the scoreboards count as those things look so

permanent. Permanent scoreboards right? I know I've got so many notes that all they take them out when the tournament's not going on like I don't care those things are hunks of metal like you can't hit it there. That's that TIO bothers, bothers me to this day, but that's what I had to KBV. Schwartz will also of course, hold out on this whole. So I do remember what happened to Jeff Maggers leading the masters. Hit in the bunker and then hit him, hit the lip and hit himself and got penalized

for it. In the chest. I always remember him turning to his playing partner and putting up like touching his chest and putting up two fingers be like, yeah, I just add two strokes to my shot because that are to my score because that one just nailed me in the chest was many of the shots and different strategies that we've seen of this pin with the different winds and how that hole changes every time from day to day, from where the pin is, where you want to drive it and how the greens are reacting. It's just a really exacting shot. I can't picture a world where I could have gotten after that pin anyway, so I was thrilled to walk off with four on that one.

We come to four. One of my least favorite holes on the course. TC and I were grumbling about this a bit during the week. Got a little bit of pushback from some of the, the masters junkies who say, Oh, it's one of the only hard par threes. You really get, you got to love it. But tell me, it's like, what are you hitting here going into the fourth? So the member T yardage says one 70, I believe we had one 76. Yeah. We're back into a wind now and the wind was humming pretty good. I was between seven and six iron I ended up committing to the seven and swinging hard. Hit a really

good shot but got caught up in the wind a little bit came just drifted a little bit left landed on the green on the edge but trickled off to the left just past the left bunker. The pin was kind of back left middle. If that makes any sense, not all the way in the left but I had about a 30 footer straight up the hill from just off the fringe. And this was a clear like you can put this one because you got to hit it hard anyways, put it up there to about six inches or so and had an easy tap in par. So

we're good on this whole. Yeah, good job. Yeah, you didn't. Yeah, go Phil said you could just hit it at the grandstand there and be fine. Right? Because that in the year, you know, he's not leading the Masters when this happened. Sometimes get it confused. It believes 2011 is 12. He aimed kind of between 12, kind of between the grandstands and the bunker there basically thought he could get up and down regardless. Well hits the rail the grandstands goes into the

bushes has to play two right handed shots to get it into the bunker. hits's a pretty good bunker shot, but it's not able to make the putt. It makes six pretty much plays himself out of the Masters. It loses the finishes in second by two shots or out of the playoff by two shots. I feel like I remember, Bubba hit a hit a crazy shot in here one of the years he won. But I don't really have a ton of

memories of like, I don't really have a ton of memories of, like, I don't know, this hole just lacks, it's not a bad golf hole, just lacks a little bit of personality. Spieth briefly in the year that he was chasing Bubba had made a birdie on this hole, I believe. And it almost, it felt like it was sort of flipping the momentum between them where like,

it was like, oh my God, Spieth's coming. Like this 20 year old kid might win the Masters. And then it completely like, uh, on, on the nine, 10, 11 stretch, like speed, just completely. I think I'm like, but with that one, one of those years, he, it was like a display of how well he could work the ball because I think the wind was doing something and because he was a lefty and he was able to like sling one in there,

he was like the only person that could like get it back to the stick with, with any kind of spin. I can't remember the shot specifically, but something, there's something in my memory bank about that. Spieth was leading by two when he, when they left this green in 2014, he went on to bogey the fifth and bogey eight and nine and Bubba made four birdies. He birdied, but Bubba also birdied number four at this. Did he? Okay. I just, I remember feeling that this was like, I was like, Oh my God, like this kid just like hit an unbelievable shot made birdie here. He's gonna he's gonna do it. He's gonna take down boba. Thank God. No, it did not happen. All right. On to the fifth, which Dan Jenkins once said that no sports writer had ever seen the fifth hole because it's the furthest away from the clubhouse slash media center. So the fifth is kind of unmemorable. but I would curious to hear what did you hit from a much different

hole from the member tease? It is a much different hole. This was a grab your driver, your drawer, just hit it hard up there. And it's why Augusta is pretty wide. This is this is one of the more awkward shots again, one that, you know, you should, in theory, the design of the hole, like the bunker should be right where I want to hit it, right. And that's where that the you know, the critique I would have on the on the member teases just like a lot of them are just very easily carable, carable for a

lot of different players, but just pounded driver way up there kind of felt like it. At times, I was kind of wondering like should I just hit six iron here and like experience the long iron into this green but I just didn't feel like the right way to go about the round. You don't need to spot the course or anything. I'm sure it's going to sneak up on you. I just want to note that you're a drawer, not a painter. It might be something I use in the future.

I wonder if any of the members are kind of sometimes like a little bummed out, like they were who are like a stick, you know, say you're like you saw like a scratcher plus, you know, handicapped, who just feel like, oh, like I have this great golf course and I can't actually experience it in the true way it is because I'm not allowed to play from further back. You could make a pretty fun hybrid set out there. I think there's there's several holes where I would you can play the back tee, right? I mean, seven would make more sense from the back tee. I think. I don't know, seven would make more sense from the back tee. I think, I don't know, that'd be a fun way to do it.

Maybe that's, we can explore that in a future episode. But pounded driver down there on five, drew it around the corner, got up there. I had one 15 in or one 10 in, back right pin. I wanna hit this shot again. There's no reason I should have ever missed a wedge where I did. But if you get if you landed one just right of this pin, there's a slope to the in the back right part of the green, it's going to take you right

down to the pin. The smarter decision would be to play just left of it and you're putting straight up the hill for birdie from 25 feet, whatever it was, but I tried to get this one close, pushed it just a hair it lands on the top right of the ridge and just sneaks off the green up above the hole, about three, four feet. Just, you know, if that landed a foot and a half farther left, it might have spun down right next to the hole. But again, this is where that thin line is. And now I've

got this awkward putt, I putted this one, carry just a little too much speed through the fringe and rolled about five feet past got kind of caught in between on my read. I knew it was breaking right didn't play enough break and missed it on the low side for a sloppy three putt bogey from the fringe. Not technically a three putt whatever but it was like dude that should have I had one 10 in on five I should not be making five on this one but got caught with my hand in the cookie

jar. Just couldn't make any pots. This if if you're listening, watching the Masters, is where Scottie Schelter basically stole Colin Markow's soul from him on the fifth, because Scottie hit seven iron, and Markow was trying to get into this hole with five iron. Neil, do you remember any memorable moments in the fifth over the history of time?

You know, I really don't. But it's the one hole I've been to practice around long, long ago. And it always sticks out to me as a, I really like this hole. And that changed when I saw it in person and saw how difficult the green is being there on site. It's also like where I remember walking in as a patron through that gate. There's like a gate back there. And so Dan Jenkins in the media doesn't see that, but I think a lot of people, it's almost their first one of the first holes they do see when they walk on. Probably if you get a Berkman's pass, that's right over where

that is too. But I actually don't. Yeah, it's like I enjoy watching this hole during the tournament, but I don't have any iconic moments from it. So I need to check out for you. Just guys just struggling with it. Nothing in particular, but just watching the balance of guys trying to get after pins and ended up in that back bunker. Always felt like Rory

did something dumb on this whole approach wise that that always sticks out to me. Tiger always felt like struggled with this whole and you know, some masters runs just kind of got bogged down. I think it's four or five and six. Like, you know, they're not the most exciting. They don't have the most personality, but it really is a place where the ball strikers separate. Totally. So the longer I watch this tournament, the more I'm like, I, you know, on Sunday, I feel like Max hits such a good iron shot in here. And you're

just like, it kind of shows you like, all right, we're four, five, six holes in, like, who's got it today? And like, you can just like, man, that's a high level golf shot to the middle of the green, you know, it almost takes a ton of context to appreciate it. Hmm. For sure. In 1995, Jack Nicholas made Eagle here twice over the weekend on Friday, a holdout with a five iron from like 185 yards. And then on Sunday, hold out with a seven iron. It's only been four Eagles, I believe, uh, in master's history on this whole. And Jack Nicholas has two of them. In the same year.

In 1995. In the same year. Yeah, in the same year. It was, what, 55 when he did that, probably? I believe it's 57, right? Because there was 90. 86, he was 46. It was when he was 50.

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heard you do. Holy moly. Hall of Fame. Hall of Fame disclaimer performance. God, that gets me fired up. That threading the needle tighter than seven fairway to Augusta right there. That was a one slip up was going to really mess me up. Here we go. We're on to number six. We're on a number six. Uh, this was a, uh, just a cool spot and time in the round. We got a second to breathe up on this tee and standing up on that tee. Look, you can look down on 16 from there. You look down again, appreciation for how much elevation changer is between that tee. Uh, you can look down on 16 from there. You look down, again, appreciation for how much elevation change there is between that tee. The shot looks freaking impossible to that back right pin and the new area that they

have down there. The RT was up near the front of the box. It was 169 yards to that back right pin. I pulled nine iron on this one and hit a really good shot. One of my best shots of the day. It landed just on the right side of the green and hung barely on the fringe, pin high right, maybe 15 feet from the hole, about as close as you could have hit one without it being on the green. It was a little extra element on the putt, which was way outside the hole on the right. It was a sharp breaking putt. It was hard to get the speed right. Coming off the fringe, hit a little too firm, went through the break, went about three and a half feet past, came back with the comebacker, just a little left to righter, but poured that in

for an easy par. Any par to that back right pin, I was quite proud of. Still a little frustrated from letting the bogey get away the hole before, but was happy with a par on that hole. So are you reading putts for yourself on this? Is you asking the caddy for help? Are you?

Getting help from the caddy. I'm trying to lean a ton on like what Max was saying though about putts breaking more than you'd thinkdy? I'm trying to lean a ton on like what Max was saying though about putz breaking more than you'd think. And I kept wanting to play more break and you know, it was without the actual experience on it, you know, trying to go back and forth with the caddy on what the reads were it was at times we were not quite getting on the same page on how much break there was or how I like to read

putz or how I hit him and but yeah, we're we're talking about each and every one and, you know, he's picking out spots for me and I'm trying to follow as best I can. Neil, I think I know it's always answer this, but any shots memorable that stick out to you on the sixth hole? Honestly, no, until I listened to y'all's deep dive and the, the one that tiger roped in there was that 2011.? 2011? Yeah, 11. Yeah.

Which I did when you got when I was listening to that pot. I did remember that shot but nothing else. nothing else jumps out to me like a you know momentum changer. Yeah. The only thing I would say is DJ hit a really good shot in there leading by one in the 2020 Masters, which may have occurred on a green screen. Totally whether that happened or not. I can't say alright on to the seventh on to the seventh. This is a hole that I looked at on the map before we played and I couldn't quite

figure out what to do on this. There's a case to be made for just hitting driver and trying to get all the way up on that upslope. But with where the Sunday pin is, you just kind of need one at the bottom of the hill and you can flip a wedge up there and that should funnel down there. Shout out to Randy. So it's kind of unnecessary to give yourself that awkward pitch. He asked me if I wanted to hit the two or the four iron more and I said two I'd rather

just kind of hit a little flighted tragedy two iron. I just smothered it though I had awful shot. I mean this this you're just you really are awkwardly up on this hole. And the fairway slopes from left to right and I was trying to hit a little draw just so it didn't leak into the right tree line just smothered it right at the trees. Had like 115 in from over there, was gonna have to hit a hero hook 54 degree. I was just trying to get up in that bunker but didn't quite catch it. A

little fat again, a little slippage in there and then I left myself about a 30-35 yard pitch on that upslope. I was right in the spot where I could have chipped it right in between the bunkers and run it up but I decided to go aerial with it and try to get it up there and knowing if I got right in the spot where I could have chipped it right in between the bunkers and run it up, but I decided to go aerial with it and try to get it up there and knowing if I got it past the pin, it would come back. But whatever, for whatever reason, however I clipped it, it just kind of went past the hole and stayed up there. I had about a 20 footer coming back down the hill for par and missed that one and made bogey on this one. So kind of unforced error. This was a birdie opportunity hole. And when I, this is one

I'd love to have over again, because really just got to get one in the fairway and it was an easy flip wedge and pretty doable hole. This hole kind of stinks, if I'm being honest. It's just like, it just doesn't pop. It's a place where, you know, with all the coverage of the Masters, this is where I go like running it, take the dog out to pee or, you know,

it's like, all right, we're through, like, it's just like, I don't want to miss like, all right, we're through like, it's just like, I don't want to miss eight. So seven, you're just like, whatever. Tanner Iskra Yeah. Nothing in my research. I've never really found a truly memorable shot on seven. Byron Nelson apparently drove the green in the second Masters that ever took place here, which annoyed Clifford Roberts, Bobby Jones enough that they lengthened it immediately 25 yards. They added all the bunkers in, but this is one of the holes they've never quite gotten right. It's never really for all the history. There's never really been a less somebody out there is listening

can remember a truly momentous like or infamous thing that happened on the seventh. I'd love to hear it. But as far as I can tell, I couldn't find it. Tiger what hold one out in 2009. I think the first year after the scandal or 2010, sorry, 2010, he hold one out on Sunday and the Sunday red and he was not quite in contention. He ended up finishing fourth, I think that year, but he kind of, you know, threw the club up and like, Oh, finally got one. You know, because he was, he was, yeah, I remember this stuff in the

world. Yeah. I do remember this whole for like Sundays of like, man, if you're hitting the ball well, and you hit this fairway on seven, like, oh, here we go edge of the seat, like this is a good birdie opportunity, you can get one here, you can run, then you flip over to eight. So there's something to it, at least to that Sunday pin. But I mean, this was originally designed as like a pitching putt hole, like a driving pitch hole. And now it's 450 yards from the from the back tee and like the most

narrow fairway it was like wide open and kind of choose your own adventure, but modern technology is kind of ruined this hole. And they've kind of banded together for several years and it just has kind of ended up at something that's just kind of there. All right. On to number eight. So what's, we're at, what, we're three over at this point in the round? No, we're four over. Four over.

Four over. Okay, bogey on five and then a bogey on seven. That's right. Yep. Four over seven one eight really easy tee shot honestly from the member T pretty wide fairway bunkers not in play hit a hit an okay drive to kind of smothered a little bit and up on the left side of the fairway past the crosswalk and you get up there and you are on the like an up slope like it always this is always one of the holes that I'm like, dude, how are they that must must look easier in person

when you get up there because these guys just send it up near the green and are able to get 280 up the hill. They always get it up there. I don't know how. And no, you get up there, you're like, dude, okay, all of my fears about this hole are accurate, especially from that left side. I didn't have a great angle and it was, you know,

you get flashes of all, everyone that's always missed left over there. Like there's nothing good. So one time hitting the shot, there's a tower back there that ends up being what you're trying to aim at or trying to get it at with the right to left shot shape to be able to get it up the front of the green and get chasing back there. And I had 195 way up the hill and I hit a six iron and I just didn't

trust enough to flip it over just because I was fearing going left and it kind of scored just a little bit right on me and got past uh ended up past the big mounds and far enough past the pin the pin was kind of in that back left that I didn't have to pitch over the mounds but I was well over the green and had a pretty lengthy shot in which kind of gives you like a 40-yard shot that was like okay do I land this with a 58 degree all the way up on the green with some spin now rolling downhill to this pin or do I try to bump one up through? What do we try to do here? A lot of elements end up going for the 58 but all day long on this shot that I tried

to use the open face use the bounce and really clip it. The ball traveled way farther and with less spin than I was expecting. And I just was not able to ever hit that nippy pitch caught it just a little heavy maybe or a little thick and it just trickled all the way down to the back French and probably had 25 feet coming back up the hill for birdie. So you think it was a missed opportunity, you know, for the birdie but we had the right to left there up the hill. Drano

right in the cup. Birdie on the eighth. Get back to three over par played the last seven even after, you know, that opening triple. So film playing pretty normal, regular golf side in that first hole. Yeah. Truly just a disaster on that. Just could make some putts. I'm a little sad you didn't get to hit the tiger slingy draw that we've admired over which so many different podcasts.

New appreciation for that too. Like with how much like your, your shoulders are tilted this way. I mean, you are truly on this upslope. And again, granted, remember to you, I'm way up past where they're hitting shots from, and I was on a more severe part of the hill. And if I'd hit it farther right where I should have, I'd have been on a less severe part,

but that was just a really hard shot to picture slinging one with the ball just sitting that high above my feet. Which I want to call out Scottie's shot from Sunday from over on the left side when he, I think he hit like a two iron, like roped one over the trees. Like I thought that was among the best golf shots I've seen in the last 12 months, if not longer. It was incredible. If you didn't listen to our deep dive about the various, like where we picked out four

masters, Tiger hit one of the most, that's what we're talking about. Tiger hit one of the most awesome, like just absolutely ropey hooks, used the mounds, got it all the way back to the back left pin and made eagle there in an incredible, I think shot 30, Sally, on the front nine that year, 31. So go look that up if you've never seen it One of the great shots in the Tiger Cannon in doing a little bit quick research in here In 1986, which obviously we know from Jack's victory Tom Kite and sevi by serif's were paired together Yeah, and I think it's the final group because sevi led going to that day

They both made eagle on this hole. They both chipped in. It was not on television. Oh God. I went literally back and watched this morning the 1986 YouTube footage, whatever. And they're like, Oh, just let you know, Seve Ballesteros just chipped in and Tom Kite chipped in right after him. Like, I mean, we complain about the broadcast sometimes now. Imagine that, back to back Eagles. That's probably why it's not more famous because there's no highlight of it. It gets replayed over and over. I will say this was a whole, having played,

I've always loved this whole, even more appreciation for it. It is a puzzle. It is so many awesome elements to it. Those mounds around the green dictate everything. Your shot shape leading up into the green, the shape of the green too, just that ridge that runs through the middle of it and how precise you have to be. It's not one you can just hit up near the green and figure it out. Like that's, after having played it, I wish I would have just bombed one long left. There's grandstands back

there and you're basically kind of chipping back up the hill from there. But again, that was, this was around this part of the round. I'm kind of like, God, I totally see why guys with experience went around here. You have to have played. It's not something you simulate in a practice round, you had to have played like a Sunday at the Masters to know and hit it in the wrong spot to know exactly what you're dealing with and where you just get there. Like, gosh, I wish I was right there. I wish I was right there. And

how guys like Tiger always talk about missing in the right spots around there and how integral all that was. It was like, Holy shit, I'm like walking in there. I'm doing, I get to do all of this. I get to like act all of this out. It was just, it was very surreal. And that was just what made it just took it to this whole level of fun. Like I keep falling back on that world fun. Like it was just awesome. It was weirdly fun to get like punched in the mouth. Like when you didn't execute one of the shots, just be like, oh, that was my fault. But that was fun. I really liked the balance of that's a good

doctor special. Totally. All right on a nine on a nine in on the first nine, not the front, not a front nine, but first nine, again, pretty relatively easy shot, especially with a little bit of the wind help that we had on nine to get it past all the trees. And I just pounded one down the middle and it actually got up to the upslope and came back into the walkway. And I was left with 91 yards into that front pin. Again, a shot I've seen way too many times come up short. Your boy

was not going to be coming up short into that one I hit a little a little what did I hit in there 54 degree in there. I clipped it perfect. It was like I wanted to hit about a 98 shot or something like that to the 91 pin but up the hill. Just because there's so much slope in there that it's going to rip back like you're expecting to rip back and we can't see what happens up there. You don't know what happens and it just ends up in the middle tier. I really thought I had stuffed one in there. While I was down there, I was waiting like, please don't

rip all the way off the front like you did on one. Please don't rip all the way off the front. Got up there. Had a really, really tough putt 30 feet above the hole, but I just had to hit one basically the top of the mound, watch it trickle down to kind of give me distance and had walked off with an easy par on nines for a front nine of 39 with the triple on the first and feeling pretty good about things honestly. For sure. That's all you mentioned. The shots ripping off there. Norman in 96, one of the most memorable sort of things. In fact,

that was where he was like, oh shit, like I might be in real trouble if you watch the ESPN documentary shark about it. Shout out to Scheffler. I think this probably, you know, second masters hits it to six inches on Sunday. I was standing right there, so I haven't actually seen it on TV, but certainly seemed kind of like a hell yeah moment for him. But another one I wanted to call out, two more actually, shout out to our guy, Adam Sarsen,

who used to have this as one of his gifts. Have you ever seen the tiger gif of him where he hits the huge big hook around the corner from the trees? That's on nine and where he kind of shuffles sideways, almost like a football player doing like warm up slide drills. That's a famous shot on nine. And in 1986, Jack Nicklaus hit it to 12 feet on this hole and he heard some cheers going on in the eighth green and he turned to his son and said, why don't we try

to make some noise ourselves or to the gallery at least, and then rolled in a birdie putt to get him to three under lead at that point was eight. And then of course, Jack obviously stormed back and won the masters. I also kind of want to like to nominate a tiger popping is dislocating his wrist and popping it back in a place that happened here on nine really in 2019. I think 2019, didn't he?

He had like an epic lag putt from the back of the green. It truly did. One of the best. That stands out to me as a memorable shot to this hole is awesome. This green is awesome. There's just so many elements to this shot. And it is one of those, like you kind of almost need to watch shots come in from up top to learn how to play it like, and, uh, another one with experience that would just drive so much of your decision-making. I got to throw our friend Brendan under the bus on this one. He he was

up on the front French. He got kind of lucky with where his ball ended up. It kind of sucked back off the front right and stop on the front fringe. And I think he ended up making like a seven because his shot did not get up the mound went all the way down the slope came all the way back into the fairway. That happened a couple times. It ended up making a mess of it. A memorable mess of it, I would say, of like, ah, that's what can happen

at Augusta really, really quickly. I was not upset to see somebody else fall into that. Not me. If anybody doesn't know, he can pound it off the tee. He played crazy. He was hitting balls. And he, but he often says of himself, I have the touch of a blacksmith

around the greens, like just a little bit of a stone hands. It was it's just again, a wild reminder of this of the slopes and how that can play there. So turning over onto the back. There is a lot of questions about this. There is a little bev cart up there by 10 t with everything you could want body armor and Gatorade and snacks and all that. So you know, you get a little break, you're standing up there by 10T with everything you could want, body armor and gatorade and snacks and all that. So you know, you get a little break, you're standing up there and really the wind really does whip at this part of the property and like we had a relatively windy day. I mean, it was relatively strong. So I'll get up to the member T on 10 and Katty asked what I want to do

on it. Three-Witter Driver. It was back into the wind. So I was like, just give me the driver. Let's go hit driver. I can move that one right to left. We can get one way down there. And he cautioned me is like, if you want moving too far, you can end up in the first cut on that left side. And there's a tree down there. So like, you know, you don't, you've heard the adage of like, you can't go too far left here, like you with driver here could go too far left. What I heard was let's hit driver as far down there and as far left as possible. And I just I kind of smothered it just a little bit and overcooked it just a little listen, not as far left as possible. And, uh, no, I just, I kind of smothered it just a little bit and overcooked it just a

little bit. Not as far left as possible because I think when our guy Rory showed us that there's far further left as possible, then you get it past the first tree limbs. The tree limbs are not much of an issue from number T it is wide, but it is a one shot. I've always pictured hitting and I always wanted to hit that draw down there. I just honestly hit it like too good. And there is one perfect tree there that like, all of a sudden I've got got that that Mackenzie bunker that's

left there in the middle of fairway that nobody ever hits it into when you need to punch under a tree is in a really perfect spot. So I'm in this first cut. I'm 130 yards, there's a big dip in the fairway and a big mound going back up to the green like, I didn't know what to do. Like there was a very thin gap. I could hit it over one of the branches in front of me and maybe under the next one. But like I just couldn't picture a shot carving through that perfectly. So I grabbed like a

five iron and tried to just punch one under the tree and proceeded to hit the war. One of the worst shots I will hit hopefully this year. I mean it was like a a smother top pull directly into the base of a tree directly under that shot directly under a bush. Like it was the most immediate I didn't the ball even done rolling and I was like, Oh, that's an unplayable and I had to take you know, take two club links from the

unplayable spot drop in the pine straw now hitting four from left of this green. And I tried to carve in a 48 degree from under there but the pin is front left and I missed it in the front this green. And I tried to carve in a 48 degree from under there, but the pin is front left and I missed it in the front right bunker, which got a good you know, immediate from the cat like, Oh, that was gonna be tough from there. And at this point, things are moving a little quickly. But I'll say I got up there and just like kind of play a little out of turn

because we were scrambling a little bit this point and just splash this 58 degree out like just over the mound, kind of right of the hole and it took the slope and rolled and rolled and rolled and rolled and rolled and got all the way down there to three feet. I had a three foot tap in for a double bogey on 10. So again, started both nines in just horrific, horrific fashion played the first two holes of each side and combined five over which was really

frustrating. So I'm glad you didn't have the Scott hook putt from above the hole, Sally, which as we reviewed, could have won the Masters. Hope you thought deeply about that. Any other moments on 10 historically that stand out, Neil? I think Bubba from the trees, Lori, Adam Scott, you know, there's a lot of playoffs that end on 10. So I feel like there's a, there's a bunch of them to choose from, but Adam Scott and the rain is pretty iconic. It's diabolical green when you stand on that green, man. It's

smaller than you maybe think it would be. The slopes around that front edge are a lot more dramatic. It's a tough little hole, man. It's uncomfortable. I wish I could have come into it from the fairway and had that tee shot over with. But got a reminder of how difficult 10 can be. So let's do 11. Yes. This is one where the get the difference between the back tee, the tournament tee and the members tee is massive. I mean, it is a 120 yard difference on the card. You almost like you're like, oh

yeah, it's five 20 from the backs and 400 from the ups. I mean, you turn on it's like almost a pitching wedge. I feel like 11 has gotten out of hand. It was like, I feel like during the tournament, it was, it was too hard that there wasn't really any strategy to it. The guys, it's just like, I mean, you know, I guess Scotty was, he hit the green and Max hit the green. And those were awesome, awesome golf shots. But it was just like, nobody's even thinking about it. Like that's like a happy accident. They're all just trying to bail right. And it's playing almost playing like a par five.

And you know what, Neil, I'm glad you said this, because like, so much 99.9% of how we all view this golf course is through the lens of the players that play the Masters, right? So the way the game is trended with technology, and I'm not going to do a full technology bit here, but like it is caused Augusta to do some stuff that is not good for the golf course, but probably necessary for the highest level of competitive golf, narrowing stuff, making it lengthier, stretching things out and just trying to keep some scale of the shot value involved in it. And I've not loved how that's trended for reasons that are not Augusta's fault, more technology's fault, but like that is what was also contributing

to a somewhat died down anticipation or expectation of playing the golf course, right? It was just like, gosh, honestly, like the hipster me would say, I'd love to play the 1997 golf course. Like that would be the most fun. And the reality is though, for like a player of my level that is not a tour prior, not even,

obviously not even close is like the challenges and all the things within it and the exploratory nature and the contouring plays really, really well, like better than I was expecting it to. The scale is still a little off. I think for just the distance I hit it, I'd love to play this hole at 460. It'd be a really great hole deciding how much to take on around the corner, but that that's just a reality. So step up on 11, it was into the wind. I hit the probably best tee shot I hit all day because I actually cut it around the corner a little bit. Yeah, that's got to feel good. This this to answer KVV's

questions earlier, this is the shot or the hole that I've pictured playing more than any other, which might sound weird. But I almost think about it more as like the start to the next five bangers, you know, like getting to that, that top of that fairway and having that shot in it's like, let's get off to a good start here, man, because we got a lot of good ones coming up. Opening,

opening song on a great album. Exactly. Flip the cassette and you're like, Oh, let's go. I love, I love that. That's why I said disappointed with how it played this year in the tournament cause I love this whole and it just feels like they've tricked it up too much. And that's where honestly, the the the layer upon layer upon layer upon layer of how many epic golf shots are to hit on this course helps you with each one because it's not like going to TPC sawgrass where it's like, dude, what'd you do on 17? Like

that's the one shot. I got so many questions since then. Like, hey, what'd you do on this hole? What'd you do on this? Like there's just so many that you don't stand over shots and freak out about them. Because, hey, if I mess up 11, I get to play 12 and 13 next and then you go to fit. Like, there's just so many awesome shots that while you're in it, again, it's just like the I just keep saying about I was just like you're floating. You're just like in this. It's like you're in a live

painting or you're in a movie, like as it's being filmed. Like you're just seeing it in like a fourth dimension that was just such a surreal feeling. So I got up there, I had one 17 into this one back into the wind, that is kind of a tough tweener for me. I tried to take a little off the pitching wedge but didn't want to take on the left. Didn't want to hit that some other ball,

blocked it a little to the back right part of the green. Had a downhill putt to there that as soon as I hit it, I was like, ah, that's too fast. That's too fast. We under read the putt coming back. The eight footer coming back up the hill and I missed that low. So bad three putt. 117 in. I know. That's yeah, that's like it. That's not quite the same hole. Yeah. Yeah. It's I do. Yeah. Yeah.

Because they Faldo hit a four iron into this hole when he won in against Larry Mize or excuse me against Scott Hoke. Well, and I had Larry Mize listed as, you know, kind of the iconic shot. But I do want to shout out a cut who I think was the guy from New Zealand this year that first time I've almost seen somebody put it in Rays Creek. He like Foxy. Yeah. Yeah. Like hooded a freaking like three iron and I was like, Oh my God, I've never seen a ball back there

before. It is when you round this corner. That was another one of like, Oh God, I have never looked straight down 11 fairway and seen like 12 in the background. Like I've never seen that angle. Different parts of the property. You feel like you've kind of been to that area. I've been around one green. I've been around three green. I've been to all sides of a lot of these holes. This is when you realize like, Oh, no, no, no, the rope is there. I've never been to 12. And when you flip over to the other side of Rays Creek, eventually here, like, Oh my god, oh my god, I can't believe I'm standing

here. I've never I will never get to stand here ever again. That was the most surreal part is the part that's up come. The other thing in this more of a general take, but looking on screen here at the, the coolest thing about this part of the property and just some of the aerials of Augusta is it reminds me of when you see like a really, really nice house on like Zillow. I've been doing a lot of Zillow-ing now that I'm a dad.

And you see like when there's like a really big kitchen and there's like a nice big countertop, but then there's just like 20 feet of space. Like you know, you know, like there's just this like the way this T box on 12 is just surrounded by like 30 yards of just dead like grass that's almost pointless, but it just serves to like, it's like a style thing. I don't know if that take makes any sense, but it just, it's so aesthetically pleasing to see how much space that things get. They're not cramped in any way, especially back here on Amen Corner. A few things in life live up to their billing, but Amen Corner is one of them standing there

at this area where 11 green, 12 T, 13 T, like it's pretty awesome. And then so we flip over to 12 after making the bogey on 11, I'm three over on the side, I'm six over on the day. And like, I kind of had told myself like, hey, if you've got a good round going on 12, let's do the tiger shot. Let's do the tiger shot. Like let's hit it over the bunker. Let's two putt it. Let's not get out of hand here. I'm six over, probably the only shot I'm going to have into 12. And we get up there, it's pretty long wait, everyone's taking the pictures on the Hogan Bridge and it's the longest wait we've had

and the wind is whipping at this point and it's into, it's 149 yards. And again, I've played this shot in my head so many times, I've played this shot at Golden Ocala, they have an unbelievable replica of this hole. But I've hit it enough to know like, all right, if you're going at the pin, it is probably a different club than if you're going to the other part of the green. And if you're going to the other part of right, if you're going at the pin, it is probably a different club than if you're

going to the other part of the green. And if you're going to the other part of the green, you have to ignore the pin entirely, you got to pretend it's a you know, kind of either over the bunker or left of it. And it's probably nine iron. And back into the wind, 149 was like, dude, if I hit a hard nine at that pin, the harder I hit it, the more it's going to balloon. And if I'm one smidge right of where I need to be, it's going in the water. And then like, you're gonna make a big number on this

hole. So I was like, I think it's eight iron, but I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna hit the shot. I'm gonna choke it a little bit, but I'm gonna hit it relatively hard. I'm gonna hit it, you know, and try to get it up in the air and try to get the spin on it. And I made it up in my head, I made it up in my mind, like, we're gonna, we're gonna go for the shot. It's it's eight iron, right? The winds in our face. And I'm like I said, got nervous over the shot. But like my senses just kind of went away by the time I stood over it. I

wasn't nervous to hit the shot. I was really excited to hit it had a great picture for it a great feel for it. It was like, let's step up and hit the shot on 12 at Augusta. It's time. And I don't know if I didn't feel it or if I blocked it out and just didn't notice it but the wind was not the same and I hit the shot I look up and the ball is sailing five feet left of the pin couldn't have been better like if it was flying right at the pin I'd have been nervous but it's like, alright, that's not going in the water. Hell yeah, dude, you

executed the shot like you hit the shot to the back right pin on 12 at Augusta. Let's watch it float. All right. Where you at wind? Where you? Oh my God. Is there no wind right now? Is there absolutely no wind right now? And like, holy shit, the maybe the one adage about Augusta is how much the wind swirls down an amen corner. Now you don't know what it's doing on 12 and it's perplexed every player that's ever played it. And it's flying. It's fine.

It's fine. I'm like, Oh no, get down, get down, get down. And it was close. It landed on the back fringe and bounded into the back right bunker. Um, so back right. Yeah. Like it was, it was on an aggressive line. Like it was, uh, a well executed shot and, uh, you know what? Hell yeah. What? For way to go for it. Sorry, I don't want to hear this. Some of this like, oh soft, like, oh, let's just play it safe.

No, so come on. If you'll remember a tiger hit it there in, was it 2020 and hit it into the water and made a 10. You get back there, you take your photos. Like it's just surreal. It's a group photo on the Hogan bridge. That walkup was incredible. And then you do crossover and you're like,

oh God, I've never been over here before. I've never experienced this. Wow, it's a thin green. Wow, it is like walking into a painting into a dream. And yours look at this shot. It's a little on the downslope. And it's like, Oh my god, there's no, there's no alternative here. Like this is either I don't even, I don't even enter it didn't really even enter my mind that like you could pull off a miracle shot here. It's like this has to go in the water. Like I don't know how you stop

this shot with it as firm as it is. I dug into that that bunker opened up the face of a 58 degree I pulled back on like I remember watching Madeline Sagstrom hit this shot the Solheim Cup in 2021 at Inverness and like I couldn't believe how open you could it looked like she like was just had the hosel addressed at the ball and she hit the sickest little bunker shot and it was like that taught me like hey you can open the face up you know in a really dire situation you know thinking about keeping my weight forward all the

lessons that hubert gave me about bunker shots but the club had passed in the hand tony fienel his lesson about rocking the baby on the way back just held this thing open as aggressively as i could the baby on the way back, just held this thing open as aggressively as I could. And I hit the bunker shot of my life. It was the perfect smack. It was like the ooze and odds from the caddies of like, nobody was, everyone was expecting this ball to go in the water, landed in the hollow just like it did on two, like not quite on the green, trickled onto the green and rolled up to three feet. And I, I could have, I could have sprinted across race Creek to get it back on the other side. It was the, one of the most thrilling golf shots I'll ever hit in my entire life. It was better than stuffing the shot from the tee. It was just like, Holy crap. Got up there, had seen that putt so many times

over the years. I've watched guys miss this putt low too often, played the putt outside the hole from three feet and poured it in the center. Got up and down from the back bunker on 12th. It was highlight of the day. I'll hear that sound of that bunker shot. It's the one, a lot of the questions of what's the one shot you'll remember. That's the one that was, that was, I still can't believe that that ball came out the way it did, and it landed the way it did and it stopped the way it did. And I'll have that one forever. Cause it was going to be six or more, Like a couple groups waiting back on the tee. I was going to have to go the other side of Ray's Creek to play it.

Like it was going to be embarrassing if that ball went in the water and luckily we cleared that hurdle. So, hell yeah. Flip over to 13, a shot I've maybe been the most excited to hit of any shot. You can probably say that about four or five of these, but the up tee is really far up. It's 465. It is

right next to the green on 12 and stepped up and hit a three wood and hit the shot I pictured hitting for so many years. Kind of towed it, wrapped it around the corner, rolled on the low part and got out there. Had 173 yards in after wrapping the three wood around the corner. Had is it so wrapping it around like is it does it get down to the flat spot down there? Like is it by the creek? It was kind of like past the flat spot even it got so far around the corner that like this is where I'm playing kind of my my second shot from there and it kind of was in the middle of the fairway it wasn't like along the left. And it wasn't until I addressed the ball here

that I realized how far above my feet it was, just still how hard that shot is. I mean, the pin is back. You got the Faldo 2 iron into that green. It was 8 iron. But like with older ball, older technology, like him talking over with Fanny in 96 and all that, like one of your favorite, you know, sort of back and forth. I know that well. But it was so, it was so exact to how I've pictured the shot so many times for years. Like, dude, how do you aim this one? Like, do you aim it at the creek, knowing it's gonna draw?

No, you can't do that. Then you're gonna hit the Bransonettaker shot. Like, do you aim it at the middle of the green? Well, no, you can't do that because you're just gonna smother it and go left. And I ended up aiming kind of at the pin, which felt like middle of the green and hit the eight iron, kind of smothered it a little bit, landed up on top of this left ridge and stayed there. It was kind of at the pin which felt like middle of the green and hit the eight iron kind of smothered a little bit landed up

on top of this left ridge and stayed there. It was kind of lucky. I kind of thought I was going to trundle down over the green. And this is the same putt that Scotty had on that on Sunday. And it was a really tough putt. I had to aim it, you know, almost back between those two bunkers up there and just get the speed right and let the hill take it and I hit it too hard. And it went above the hole and passed it about six, seven feet, I'd say maybe eight feet coming

back for birdie but a fast downhill putt outside the hole I hit it. As soon as I hit it. My caddie was like, Oh, sit, sit, sit, because I I firmed it. But it went right in the middle of the hole. Had the two putt birdie. And but the honestly like the biggest, the biggest thrill of this was like what Porath hit a great tee shot on this one as well, hit a great approach and he went long,

a little longer left than I did into the hollow, kind of on the down slope. And I've watched guys struggle with that shot for a long time, you know, do you chip it? Do you bump it? Do you flop it? Do you putt it? And he pulled out a putter on this one and whacked it and hit a great, awesome putt up over the ridge, got up there to maybe five feet and he poured in the birdie as well. Like he's, uh, I don't know what poor has handicap is. I think he shot somewhere somewhere in the nineties or something on this day,

but he birdied 13 and we like, we didn't like want to do a full writer cup celebration of like Spieth and Reed, but we kind of like kind of like chest bumped each other and like gave a little awkward high five, like held hands, like walking off the grid of like, Holy shit. Did we just birdie the 13th hole at Augusta? Like set for life on memory for that one. I mean, it's gotta be the easiest hole from the member T I think out there, but it doesn't matter. That's the shot I've been wanting to play my whole life. And to have it go that way was, was just awesome. It was great. Great. The rest of our WhatsApp group never got that far in our dreams. So way to, way to live for us. All right. 14, 14, one again, that like, I was kind of hurt by watching too much of the masters.

And I know what a good line is off this team. I know what a bad one is. Did not appreciate for how far up we were that I needed to really wrap one around the corner, hit a great tee ball, but it ran through the slope of the fairway, took it down the right, went down in the pine straw, got kind of a lucky break that I had a little window down there. Had 104 yards in. Sounds like ROM in 2023. Yeah, you got the ROM.

Well, but it was no, it like went past the initial tree line and like way down, ran down the pine straw and was again kind of had a little lucky window out there and caddy gave me great advice like miss this left miss this left. I didn't listen. Missed it a little bit right onto the fringe at an awkward little putt. We ended up putting this one but it was kind of up the hill. It was going to rip a lot off the fringe but kind of an inconsequential just 25 footer from the fringe and roll it up

there and had the two putt birdie could have I could have got close from that angle I if I'd hit the shot that he was requesting but it just kind of scored a little bit. Oh, he to put part of this part to put part to put part Yeah, I got it there in two and then yeah to put to put part on that one. So Neil, you mentioned the wrong thing. Other sort of famous moments Phil Mickelson back to back Eagles so 2010 he eagled 13 and then eagled 14 on this hole that it really took the ridge there were two rides down from the

left to right pins. Cool green, cool hole, cool green. A lot of really cool hole locations and we got to play this the Sunday pin on this one was just a total thrill to play. So 15 again and up tee but like this one again match the like, man, that looks kind of narrow there. Like this this tee shot looks really narrow for the pros and stand on that on that hole, I needed to hit a ball that was going to move a little left to right to like hold it in

that gap. And it was like, it's a tough tee shot. This was one that maybe so this on I think I've already said this twice, but maybe the shot I wanted to hit the most of Augusta was the one from a top that hill coming into it. And I just smothered one, just not a snap hook, but like it just was moving left. And as soon as it was moving left, like the fairway slopes that way, and it was going to go into those trees and I was toast. So I knew I wasn't going to get the shot in the top of the hill. But honestly, like the hole I think back on the most is like everything that happened from this point forward. Like if I can encaps honestly, like the whole I think back on the most is like everything that happened from

this point forward. Like if I can encapsulate, like unlocking Augusta and what made it so fun and what made it such a thrill was like, all right, well, here's where I am in these trees. Here's what I got to figure out for this layup. Here's where the pin is. I watched guys really struggle with this pin. It's on a ridge. And like if I lay up down the right, I got more room to come in from the right front of this green and that, you know,

I don't have to worry about the ridge left of it, but I'm more of a down slope over there. And I've watched that shot. I remember this guy chunking in the water. I've watched this guy go long. So I ended up hitting it to the Francesco Molinari spot. I hit like a little punch seven iron down there and hit an awesome shot, got all the way to the flat part.

And even from there there I'm almost hitting up the hill a little bit to this pin like and from straight on and so I've got 86 yards and I'm in a great spot. And I kept watching guys hit this shot I watched Sam Burns I think it was Sam Burns you know rip one into this green and rip it all the way back off into the water. And so like I'm approaching I'm coming into this shot 86 yards and I'm like I'm sorry 83 yards. And I'm I'm approaching, I'm coming into this shot, 86 yards, and I'm like, or I'm sorry, 83 yards. And I'm like, Okay, if I hit the shot, I hit on one, this

might rip all the way back off into the water. If I don't, then I might be going over the green and having the impossible up and down that all the best players in the world couldn't make yesterday. So a perfect balance of like, hey, if you execute a great shot here, you're gonna have like a tap in birdie probably there's a little ridge behind this hole, you can spin it off the back slope. And as long as you control your spin and hit the right shot here, you've got this and hit the shot. And I

thought I hit a perfect 58 degree and it lands just past the hole takes the skid, but does exactly what I watched a bunch of guys do. And it just holds up in that fringe. It did not rip back off that fringe. And nobody made that putt all week. And it was just far enough that was like, dude, it's so delicate from past there. I can't flop this on the green. So I got to putt this and it's one of those I needed to roll one revolution

onto the green and it's going to end up next to the hole. Hit it and it just got caught up in the hairy part of the fringe and it stopped on the fringe. And now I'm still above the hole putting for five when I was like a revolution or two away from it ripping back and probably being a relatively short birdie putt. And I've got the putt. It was an easy putt from that next one.

I just lagged it up close to the hole and made bogey on 15. So I was felt like I executed and unlocked it, but I just was a little off. And it was just all that exacting nature of how the fringe cuts into the green, how that's going to affect the shot, the stuff that I don't think I had full appreciation for until you, until you go do it. But I think back of the shot I won't over again, I want to hit that one again, because it was just an awesome, super engaging 83 yard shot, which you can't say that about every 83 yard shot. So I'm sorry you didn't get the Sergio chance to hit eight iron in there to that, uh, to

kiss it off the pin or Norman falling to his knees in 96 when he, uh, lipped out the Eagle putt that essentially let him know the masters was over the tiger five iron twirl from the top of the hill in 2011 that was that that would have been, and I got this question too. I forget who asked this from the refuge. But, you know, did you drop balls and hit shots from anywhere on there? And honestly, I didn't. It was not. Like the thrill of this round was doing the shots within the course of your round,

right? I could have dropped on from the top of the hill on 15 and I wouldn't have felt anything if I had hit in the water, been like, who cares if I'd hit it to five feet, who cares? Like it wasn't your ball. Like it wasn't your ball in play. I honestly was not that incentivized or encouraged to, you know, reenact famous shots or anything like that. It's like, dude, this thing was just meant to be experienced in the course of your round. And I thought about it from staying on the top of the hill. Like, should I do it? Should I do it? And I was like, you know what? No, you didn't hit it there. You didn't earn it. Like you, maybe someday, maybe someday you'll get, you'll get to do that again. But no, you

got to figure out your way in from there. All right, the famous 16th. We're coming to the last stretch here. We don't even need much advice from the caddy. We know what to do here. We know where this pin is. I will say from the tee, it looks the pin, either the pin was farther left this year, or that thing is more tucked than it looks like on TV, because it just looked like a harder one to get to that bunker look likeed like it was more in play. Water looked like it was

more in play. It was 145 yards from the up tee. It measures 170 from the back tee, but it was back into the wind, had up to 152 to where I could use the slope. Hit a nine iron, hit it right at the TV tower. Felt pretty perfect. I said sit to it and I should have said go because it needed to get a little deeper hits the mound there and funnels down but it was about 20 feet under the hole and didn't get to rip around the slope didn't have the right shape to get in there and get tight. It was not quite the way I wanted to hit it but hit the nine iron to there and

had had the putt we've seen many times over the years. No regrets on this one. I hit a good putt just a bit firm. It probably missed a cup and a half on the high side but it was like a just a good strike good effort just not the right line for the speed that I wanted to on that one and tap and par on 16. And that was that green standing on that green was one of the more surreal places to stand as well of just like a little smaller than you might think it just feels pretty

quaint and intimate in that spot with all the grandstands and all the TV towers around that one. And just the energy down there was something that that one is one I'll remember as well. And in your life, Sully, have you ever made a par like that? You start to smell the next hole there too, on that green. You know, as you approach the 17th tee. I thought of you. Stinky. When I got to Nandina, Neil, stepped up. It's a pretty benign tee shot.

You don't think a lot of it. It does really narrow up there, but it really did look like I could get it past all the trees with driver the way the wind was a little helping. I pounded a driver up there, got caught up in the trees a little bit on that right side, but did get past everything, but stopped in that second cut. And this one, I was not in the second cut very much on this day, but like this one did, it made me appreciate the role it plays just a little bit more because I had, what did I have in? I had 104 yards in to the front right pin over the bunker. And it was like, Ooh, man, I wish I was in the fairway for this one because I got to judge a little flyer here. It's firm. Even though this is going to be a lob wedge in. I got to think about how I'm

going to land this and stop it somehow. And I did not hit the shot again kind of hit that little, little fatter a little bit too solid shot out of the rough that had no spin, land in the middle of the green went all the way over the green. And was kind of a disaster spot. I little more appreciation for 17 after playing this one that green does run away a lot more than it really shows on TV. And just a little bit more considerations around all these that's never really been fully brought to life on TV. Sorry to report Neil. Listen, you can, I have no issue,

the architecture of the hole. I'm here for all that. It looks better in person. It's more severe, all that. I just don't like where it falls in the round. I feel like it's a very anticlimactic hole and it's a letdown a lot of times towards the end of the Masters for me. It's a better version of seven, you know? That's fair and I have a problem with both holes, so that makes sense to me. Yeah, again, hit the same chip that I struggled with

the whole day of not being able to clip the 58. It runs all the way off the front, off the false front that I was desperately trying to avoid with my second shot. So now I'm chipping, you know, chipping four from the front right, but did clip a nice 58 up there to maybe three feet and rolled in the bogey to head to the last. Now I'm seven over on the day and I need to par the last to break 80, which I didn't, I had not thought about at all until I'm there. I'm like, ah, come on, you got to break 80. Like, I know you didn't care about your score, but you got to break 80, which I didn't, I had not thought about at all until I'm there. I'm like, ah, come on, you gotta break 80. Like I know you didn't care about your

score, but you gotta break 80. The upt is way up and the caddie was like, you're gonna need with drivers gonna need to fade this a lot. Like you're gonna need to really get one moving right. But with how far you can hit it, you can kind of get it past all the trees. And I hit a big fade and he was exactly right. I did get past all the trees and ended up in this weird kind of gap. There's one isolated tree that you can kind of see up there on the right side.

Um, that I got, I hit it in the fairway between the trees that line the right part and that one tree. So it was in a really great spot. I think I had 98 yards into the front left pin from over there, hit a, hit a 58 degree, threw it up in the air. Um, little left to where I wanted and it's flying. It's risky. It's risky. It's risky. And it bounces on the, on the front left fringe and kicks down in the air. A little left of where I wanted and it's flying. It's risky. It's risky.

It's risky. And it bounces on the front left fringe and kicks down towards the hole. We can't, obviously can't see it, but all the caddies were loving it and said, that's going to be really good. Got up there as four feet away from the hole, just short of it. Almost in the Tiger spot where he made the putt in 1997. And I've now got a four footer to birdie the 18th at Augusta and walk off. And I don't want to throw my guy into the bus. I don't want to throw my guy into the bus on this one. But I've seen this putt a ton of times like it's Tiger had played outside the

hole and I'm a little left of where Tigers was but you know, it's an outside the putt breaks right I could not have been more convinced it breaks right. And could not have been more convinced it breaks right. And I was convinced that it was going to be dead. He's like, don't mess with it. It's four feet, like just play it straight, play it straight. And it's like, I can get on board with that. I don't want to invent the break here. It's a short enough putt that like, let's just jam it into the

back. Hit a dead straight putt and it veered off to the right and then and lift out on the on the low side on the right. So miss miss my 79. 79 missed the sour taste to leave in my mouth to miss that miss that shorty on the 18th hole. And I did miss like three putts low low on the right side on the left to writers that I just wish I'd just hit with a little more oomph and kept in and entrusted the break on but shot 79. Kenny Perry situation there. Yeah, a little bit. Miss put on 18 to miss the playoff. I hate that for you. Yeah. I don't know if 79 or 78 would have got me into too many playoffs. So not a score

I'm proud of. I did play the first and 10th holes, five over par, the rest of it, two over par, a bunch of sloppy three putts and missed, missed easy par opportunities. But man, it was, you know, we did the walk up to 18. I took my hat off, did the wave to the crowd, like did the, well, you have to do it. You have to do it when you're walking up 18 and you know, kind of sun's starting to set a little bit on the day and you're just wasn't his day, but he'll be back. Maybe, maybe not. You know, it, it, we did just kind of, kind of float in from there. It was exhausting. It was, you know, a hot day. It was, you know, you got to wear pants out there. It was 85 degrees. And it just, a lot of emotional energy spent, you know, in that whole

experience. And it was, it was really added to by getting to play with Brendan and just like, experience that with, with a friend and just to watch him get excited and the and Brett and Jay that we play with were or I'm sorry, Jordan, we play with we're really excited about about the day in general, everyone just had huge smiles on their face the whole time. Katty's are taking pictures, they knew how special the day was for everyone. And it just, it was it was surreal. It exceeded the hype, I would say,

and helped by the fact again, that it kind of just snuck up on me, how cool it would be being so busy leading up into it and kind of distracted leading up into it definitely helped. But I just don't think I'll ever, no matter what, I won't get a chance to ever play Augusta for the first time again. And that's truly like,

there's nothing else on a bucket, I've not played every top golf course I want to play in the world, but there's nothing else that is going to compare to that. There's just no, there's 0.0% chance there's ever enough context around any other golf course in the world that would have added so much to the experience. And I'm just forever grateful and thankful that I got the chance to do it. And yeah, it was a true dream come true. It was honestly a little bit of emotional experience. That's fantastic. I have one final question for you and I'll kick it back to KV. Give me one thing that you noticed out there being able to walk, you know, inside the ropes among

giants, whatever you want to say. Like, did you notice any like, oh my God, there's a bird feeder back here on 13T or something on the periphery of the course that you could only see if you were a competitor. And maybe there isn't, but I'm just curious if something stuck out to you. Not necessarily. You almost notice that more when you're like walking the grounds, you know, outside the ropes, but it was like, I was stunned how much it flipped over from the Masters to like, I felt like a member's course and overnight. Like it was, you I was stunned how much it flipped over from the Masters to like, I felt like a members course and overnight, like it was, you know, the benches are

back out by the tee. And it just felt like an incredible place to go hang and play golf and enjoy other people's company. Like it was, other than the scoreboards, like you just would not have been able to tell that the Masters was just there. Like it was eerily quiet. And it was weirdly felt just like a normal day out there. I never experienced a normal day out there. I've never been there outside of the Masters but it just began it felt rather routine relatively quickly in

terms of how quick they're able to turn it back into a member's course. The benches were really cool. They have wooden benches that are that are out there that waiting at all the members members tease that were we enjoyed some nice leisurely, leisurely sits from type of time. Well, oh, sorry, last question. What was the pace you're trying to hit? And did you hit it? Because it seems like that was important.

I mean, you're trying to keep up with the group in front of you, right? I mean, they have a lot of media people that are out there playing TV people out there playing and you just don't want to be the be the group that is slowing things down. So I know concept of time, I don't remember what it was when we got back in the car. You obviously don't have your phone on you. It's wild how like, you just, how much of our lives are based around screens

and how you walk onto that ground. And I never looked at one screen the whole time that I was on the actual green grass of Augusta. Like I'm back in the press center there were those, but on the golf course, no jumbotrons, no phones, no television screens, no nothing, like nothing at all. And so you're just like, it's just a raw, just in-person experience. Like you're not tempted to ever look at your phone cause it's not there. And that part really did stick out to me.

All right. So you're leaving the property, you get back to go one more time down Magnolia lane. What's on the stereo for your sendoff here? When Tiger Woods won the 1997 Masters Tournament, he and his friends loaded up into their car, probably a bunch of Arby's rappers on the ground of the car as they went there after every round that week. And they played the Quad City DJ's hit song,

"'Come On and Ride It, parentheses the train. I had to do it, I told Brennan, I was like, I'm sorry I gotta do this, and blasted it, probably getting louder than I probably should have, but went back down Magnolia Lane playing, Come On Ride the Train, headed off the ground. Headed off the grounds, back out to Washington Road,

and back to the rest of everyday life. ["Come On Ride the Train"] road and back to the rest of everyday life. I don't know if it'll ever be the same after that, but it was just a, uh, if I never get to play it again, I'm it. I don't want to say I'm fine with that. Other than to say, like, it was such a tremendous experience that, uh, you know, I feel extremely, I don't want to say accomplished by it, but it feels enriched my soul, enriched my golf soul. It was a just a tremendous, tremendous life experience. And I'm extremely, extremely

thankful that I got to do it and enjoyed it as much as I did. Because I've had I've had rounds at really great golf courses that just have not hit my soul and haven't you know, then you end up walking off of them and feeling like, why am I not feeling as high as I should right now? And this was just opposite end of the spectrum. And again, maybe that should have been way more obvious to me way earlier than it was. But it was a true true thrill. And I'm very, very excited. I'm very

excited. Somebody got to listen to me talk about it for two hours as well. No, it's good stuff. I was curious. I'm glad I waited to get the full breakdown. So proud of you. Thank you, everybody for listening. Thank you for tuning in. I think we'll hopefully someday somebody else in our group will get to play Augusta. Maybe I'll just keep bringing in all you members to Augusta and like Neil, maybe you'll get to play next year. I'll just, I'll be over six and possibly you get

Deitch there over seven. I can just keep racking up L's while people, and I don't know, definitely won't be jealous or have my feelings hurt at all in any way, shape or form. No, I'm all, all this respect. So I'm very excited that you got to do it. I'm very proud of you for building this, this company that would make this even possible. So congrats. Well, couldn't have done it without everyone's support and a lot of the hard work that's gone into it over the years and yeah, feel very blessed. I do want to, before we wrap Kevin, we got a lot of great questions from the refuge. If I could sprinkle just a couple in there, we got Dgolfman6228 wants it over under three and a half temps. It successfully skipping the pond on 16. I did attempt the skip shot on 16 and I hit a really nice flush shot into it. It just like skipped too many times. It didn't like hydroplane. It made it all the way, but hit

the lip of the bank and came back into the water. So I did not know that was allowed. Well, yeah, that's good to hear. My caddy suggested it. I would not have done it if he had not suggested it. But PJ Sutherland, how many strokes different do you think your score would have been from the championship tees versus the member? I'd say probably six shots worse. I mean, I probably played about an 85 round from championship tees. I don't think it would have been much worse at like 6,900. I don't think I gained a ton of advantage other from the tees other than a couple of the par fives where you know eight irons into them are very different than hitting five irons into them. But I was gonna say any hole you have a better appreciation for now that you played it and

the guy that's Tchap80 is asking that. That'd be 15 of watching those guys drop that shot from the top of the hill again is always amazes me when I see that green and even more now and watching how firm it was like and just the different obstacles you got to avoid on that one. It's a tightrope, like it really is a tightrope and they've made that hole look really really easy over the years and it did not feel easy at all. But it's all it's again all those like fringes that just kind of encroach on the green a little bit and just drive so much of your decision making with something I'll always remember and appreciate just a little bit more and why you see guys with great short games usually do

well in this golf course. But yeah, just last few questions here, like, you know, any any tournament tease that you look back at and we're like, Oh, my God, like, that shows you like just how ridiculous it is some of the lengthening of the course that has had to be undergo with technology. Yep, ridiculous it is some of the lengthening of the course that has had to be undergo with technology. Yep. Holes five, seven, eight, 11, 13, 14 and 18 were the ones that I'm like that is a massive gap between these two, two T's that completely, completely, completely changes the whole and, and that was, yeah, that gosh, 11 is insane. I get, it is just

almost like off the property. It's insane, so. What was your off course experience like? Did you get to do, did you get any stuff from the pro shop? Did you get to have any lunch? What was that? So lunch, breakfast was offered up, but I didn't want to waste time with any of that

when you get to your one hour of lead up time. So skipped out on that, did go to the pro shop. They didn't have much Augusta National gear out. I got a belt and a sweater that had Augusta National on it. And a few ball markers. The rest was all still master stuff. But again, didn't try anything on I was like, hope this fits. Thankfully, I did end up fitting when I got home, but did a brief bit of shopping. But again, that was going to eat up into my range and practice time also. So Kayfish, did you

travel with your clubs in case you were selected? Or did you have to play with a set from lost and found? I did. I had a wedding in DC the week before I loved my clubs all the way to DC, then logged them to Augusta just in case I hit the 10% chance that I would hit the lottery and it happened to have hit. So glad I did that. Almost lost my clubs coming back from Scotland. So that was, I was lucky that they made it back in time. So Trey Lockerbie – Any hole you have a better appreciation for, I guess, I mean, you said 15, but I wonder,

just standing on any of those tee boxes, any sort of special feelings that you got that you wouldn't have thought otherwise about any certain holes? Other than, man, it's such a really good test to do each of these holes four times. For the course of Masters Tournament, I have four different pins to do it four different times,

different wins, and it's not going to be the same every time you play it. It just never is. Just a way more appreciation for all that. And it's not going to be the same every time you play it. It just never is just look away more appreciation for all that and it's not stock golf shots. It is a feel your way around it. It's a golf course inspires a lot of creativity and shot making and different skills and it again, just tell me if this sounds dumb. It's just so fun. It was

just so fun to hit the shots like it. Again, I don't want to Pine Valley is a bad one to pick on but like I wouldn't walk off some of these courses and just like Marion was a very fun place to play that I wouldn't describe like every shot I hit is super fun. You know what I mean? It was incredible experience but like these this is closer to how I feel at the old course how I feel at Pinehurst to how I feel it sweetens of like you just want to keep hitting it like in

the way it punishes you is weirdly fun. And you always got a shot with the next one. And I don't know, I, I was pleasantly surprised with how much fun I had. Again, that may sound incredibly obvious, but it was just that much of an enjoyment. So I, I'm probably repeating at this point, I think it's probably time we wrap, because I think two hours is the quote of I people probably already want to punch me But listen, that's that's my that's my brain dump from probably the best golf experience I've ever had and I thank all of you for being being willing to be entertained by it. I was very much entertained Thank you for for sharing it along with the way with me. All right

Thank you all for tuning in you can subscribe to our podcast anywhere you find it. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Check out Tour sauce coming out this Wednesday. Subscribe to our podcast YouTube channel as well. We'll keep putting up video podcasts and we'll see you back here next time. Thank you for tuning in. Cheers. Back on.

Be the right club today. That's better than most. That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different?