OverDrive - Faxon on the Arnold Palmer Invitational storylines, PGA-LIV progress and Woods' return to the course

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

NBC Sports Golf Analyst Brad Faxon joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the PGA Tour, the storylines around the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Scottie Scheffler's getting in the groove, PGA Tour and LIV Golf playing together, Tiger Woods set to play in tournaments and more.

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Always love having you on and you know, this is such a cool tournament. You've got Scheffler looking to get back into the winner's circle and it was this time last year right where he got red-hot he never really cooled off the anticipate that that'll be the case again this week it's Scottie Scheffler versus the field yeah I don't know if it's versus the field he hasn't won yet this this year he's he was coming up off a surgery on his hand after cutting himself trying to make some lasagna or ravioli I guess it was but if you ever saw this golf course I walked around today with Rory McIlroy in the Pro-Am and the wind was howling today 25 30 mile an hour winds the greens were

Sunday firm and all the players were talking about how tough it was. And the fairways are the firmest and tightest looking fairways you could ever imagine. So it's world class right now. They were expecting a bunch of rain this afternoon that they never got, which is good because the greens won't be softened or slowed down at all by the rain. Tomorrow the wind is supposed to blow exactly in the opposite direction and be a little bit cooler so it's like yesterday's and today's practice didn't won't make a difference for what they see tomorrow. Yeah this course is it's nasty it's funny how like you look what

happens at Memorial, you know Jack's tournament and obviously Bay Hill with Arnie Palmer and you know that I do the players take pride in that because there was a lot of a lot of you know chatter last week with the 59 at PGA national and was it being played too easy like as as tour players what are what are they how do they balance that facts like knowing that some courses are going to be a real challenge and they're going to burn you and others And you got a shot to shoot 59 every once in a while and maybe the winning total is going to be 22 23 under You're right, I think what we don't want is every week to be exactly the same that for sure

um, and last week was a big surprise In the scores cm jake napfire 59 and of course, it's usually Notorious for high scores, but a couple conditions changed there They had no wind at all and you definitely like I think everybody likes kind of seeing the players struggle with all those water holes at the bear trap finishing and they they over seeded with a Ryegrass that really wasn't that difficult for the players to play out of, whether it was from the fairway or around the greens. But they're not saying that this week.

And I like this prelude, like you guys said, up to the Masters, you've got these two events, elevated signature events. This is a small field, only 70 players. And they actually, they do make a cut to 50 over the weekend. And it's's you know when you get a small strong field like this you'd be embarrassed if you missed a cut here so that's another story I kind of look at but it's the first time Xander Shafly's

played since the start of the year he went out with a little rib injury and I saw him yesterday on the range as caddy said this is as good as I've ever seen him hit a ball and I've had a few players say that the few people said that watched him so watch out for zander uh... you know it will be interesting to see how we start off after missing i think five or six weeks so you've got the top three guys in the world shepherd going out uh... rory's plan with his buddy shane laury today

uh... tomorrow excuse me in the first two rounds uh... and he loves playing with his buddy Shane Lowry today, tomorrow, excuse me, in the first two rounds, and he loves playing with Shane. So I think Rory's up for the challenge of this golf course, and no matter what you do, you're gonna see some silly mistakes. The greens got some speed, and I think this is really the first time this year that they're in perfect conditions,

but you'll have to think about how much these balls are going to break across the greens? There's so much slope Can't wait for with Brad Faxon of NBC and the Gulf Channel down at Bay Hill Arnold Palmer Invitational tomorrow started tomorrow in the players next week There's been a lot of you know chatter in the golf world about you know Brooks Koepke Bryson DeChambeau their deals Could they be up could they return to the pga tour what is your understanding of their situation and you know how how have tempers cooled to the extent where those two guys young guys great players still in their prime

if they were turned to the pga tour uh... will it be kind of by guns of the by guns we move on with life for what do you anticipating on that front? Well, I think that would have been a wish up until a couple of weeks ago and everybody that is in tight with The PGA tour and the negotiations said there was a kind of a lockout Yasser al-Rumanian who's been running the Lib tour for the Saudis for PIFS, he got pretty

upset at Monahan and a couple of the guys on the board, including Adam Scott. And I thought we were really close to announcing some kind of deal. Now I don't know that there's ever going to be a deal. And I think the Saudis, they're in a little precarious position here because all of a sudden the PGA Tour has a little bit of leverage. They've got the better players for sure, the better tour, they're on network television, they've got the backing

of the Fenway Sports Group or the strategic sports group, so they've got $1.5 billion in fusion, and all of a sudden, I think the PGA Tour players think they've got a stranglehold on Liv because nobody's really watching those guys even though they have Brooks, they have Bryson, they have John Rahm. And I don't think that those guys want to just play Liv. I think they want definitely to play their majors and have their cake and eat it too. Brad, where are you at with Tiger Woods? You know, do you feel that he's just gonna play

in this sim league or is he gonna actually play again? Well, it's funny, Monday was that kind of world renowned pro member at Seminole. I always play with a friend named Tom Ryan who used to run the CBS Pharmacies back in the US. And the caddy that I had in the afternoon, caddy for Tiger Monday morning, and I asked him how was it? He goes, well, it was amazing.

I said, well, how did Tiger look? He goes, well, he was playing with Keegan Bradley of the upcoming rider cup team at Beth page. And he said, tiger drove it out there with Keegan on every shot. He walked 18 holes and was not even a limp. I don't think it's an issue. So he's certainly in condition to play. Um, but he hasn't played in the players in a while. I think, you know, we've seen tiger when he's come out to play say he's not competitive. But if he's going to make the Masters his debut, I would hope he'd come play a tournament

before trying to get his feet wet. And hopefully for us, for NBC, and for all the fans, it would be enough to play his championship. Yeah, no kidding. Because funny, like at the TGL, he's saying, I feel my. Yeah, no kidding because funny like he's you know at the TGL He's saying I feel my age and he's not sure you know, what's gonna happen in the future it's just tough to get a read on the guy because You know, there's so much going on in the golf world He still moves the needle so much and like you said you look at him bomb drives

Even if it's into a screen, it looks great. He's walking around I just I don't know like would it be the fear of a short game that goes arrives He worried about getting out there and you know shooting a 77 78 Do you think that would be in his mentality that he'd be worried about playing poorly and he just couldn't handle that I Think you know when he at the end of last year when he didn't play in the hero of his tournament in the Bahamas I just think he was competitively Not ready to play he had had another surgery and maybe physically it wouldn't have worked But I see Charlie Woods his son lives in the same development where I live in Florida Tiger comes out to play with Charlie

He's been in great moods. When you watch Tiger hit a ball, it looks like the Tiger you'd wanna see. But in the few times we've seen him play, he hasn't potted like or chipped like Tiger of old. And I think that's, it's not from anything that he doesn't know how to do it. That's just from lack of play.

That's lack of competition. And that's why I would love to see him get out there and at least get his feet wet, play some practice around with some of the guys. And so his first shot he's hitting on Thursday at the Masters isn't the first shot he's hit in a year. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, you speak for all of us. I mean, we're banking on that, but it's going to be a fun, fun, you know, a few months. I mean we're banking on that but it's gonna be a fun Fun, you know a few months. Let's call it what it is now that we're at the Arnie Palmer We got the players and the Masters and then the three other majors There's there's gonna be a lot of golf coming up and you'll have it covered like always and it's great catching up with you facts

We appreciate you doing this. Oh Look, I love coming on your show. I feel like I've been doing this forever. And I would say one thing that's kind of maybe goes a little bit unnoticed now, you know, Arnold Palmer passed away in 2016. I think he was 85 or 86 years old. But when you come here to Bay Hill, you feel him, you know, you sent him. And I think he'd be pretty proud right now of what his family, his grandson, Sam Saunders, how this golf course looks because he was a guy that wanted it to be tough.

He was tough himself. And whoever wins this tournament at the end of the week, they'll be a real champion because this place is really, really going to be difficult to play whether it's the T's. Yeah. Yeah. Can't not wait. To play whether it's the t-shirt. Yeah yeah and I love that if you're and being strong out of this rough and being mentally strong because everybody's gonna have some shots go places where they don't want to want to play from but the rough around the greens everything about this thing is the way Arnold would have liked it. It's gonna be awesome enjoy it down there. We appreciate you doing this. Alright Chad, it's good talking to you. There he is, Brad Faxson, long time member of the PGA Tour and Golf Channel, NBC, we saw him in Montreal, right? Yeah. Of course

a personal great catching up with Fax. Women run the charts, lead the conversation, and make history. This International Women's Day, iHeart Radio celebrates them all. Turn up the Women of the North playlist for iconic Canadian artists. Lock out with queens of every sound and take a trip with hits through herstory. Plus empowering podcasts by women for women. Stream now and celebrate the power of women everywhere with the free iHeart Radio app.