OverDrive - OverDrive - August 21, 2025 - Hour 3

Episode Date: August 21, 2025

Join Jim Tatti, Jason Strudwick and Dave Feschuk for Hour 3 on OverDrive! TSN Football Insider Dave Naylor joins to discuss the headlines from around the CFL and the storylines in the NFL. TSN Golf Analyst Mark Zecchino dives into Aphrodite Deng's impressive start at the CPKC Women's Open, Brooke Henderson's golf season and Scottie Scheffler's incredible skills at the Tour Championship and the FanDuel Best Bets.

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Strette's with us on a location, I guess, remote, a remote location. Well, maybe it's not that remote for Stretty. It seems to be his regular spot. Pretty familiar with this spot. Yeah, I've spent a few times, a few hours in here. Coming up very shortly, Dave Naler, NFL, CFL Insider. So I just want to revisit, and by the way, welcome to everybody watching on TSN2. As we closed off on TSN4 at the end of the last hour,

We're talking about the Detroit lines losing both coordinators and how disruptive that could be. And then I threw to defest and Stradi, I'd like your take on this. When we talk about the Marner departure, we're always talking about the guy who plays on that line in that spot. But he had special teams contributions that were notable for sure. But really what the Leafs are looking at is not who plays in that line. Everybody else has to find a different way, don't they? To play? Yeah, I mean, the entire league is.

leaf theme has to sort of reconfigure itself because he's not there yeah you do i mean he 100 points you take 100 points out of the line at least out of one person i know they put some other guys in there that affects the way the things go but i feel like the leaves have you know with the new gym the new coach they're trying to move towards a style that is um and this is not a shot at martin but just more consistent on the whole as a whole as a whole and kind of redistribute some of that money and that talent through the whole lineup, even picking up Dakota, Joshua. There's an example of a guy, Nicholas Swad, and I know that was kind of the trade, but trying to spread it out so you can play four lines and get more action from four lines over that.

Now, the cost of that is money. You can't have a player making, you know, 12, 13, 14 million or multiple of them. You need to spread them out a bit. So I think that I understand where they're going. It's just hard when you see that much talent walk out the door and then, and I can replace them with these three guys. Well, those three guys aren't as good as the first guy. No, there's no way you can replace them.

You can't replace them with one individual. You really can't replace them by committee. But to Tatman's point, I think, you know, when Craig Burebe talked about what sort of was the difference between winning and losing in the playoffs, the word that kept coming up was structure, right? Like, Baroube is a big believer that it's about structure. Now, those of us who've watched this team fail again and again and again

And in the playoffs, we might have a different S word. We might be talking about scoring and the fact that they got four goals in their final four playoff games combined, right? And that, which is a theme that is reoccurred in many playoff failures for the Maple Leafs over the years. But maybe those two things go hand at hand. Like if you're playing the proper structure, maybe that builds in offense. If you play the right defense, that can create the kind of offensive opportunities

you're going to need to win. But let's face it here, they're searching. That's another S word. They are searching for it, and they don't exactly know where to find it because history tells us as much. Well, and maybe to study it, it erases a default, as you say, 100 points leaves, so they're not there. So you can't say, well, you know, we'll get the scoring from this position because they're gone. So you have to find another way. Yeah, everyone's got to do it.

And I look at some teams when you have that scoring from the third and fourth line or at least more, even just time in the offensive zone. You know, look at this, what could be the third line with Wad, maybe, I think I'd have Dakota Joshua in there. And can that line bring energy and wear down and, you know, for sure, Dakota, being physical and wearing down teams the way you play. And then that sets a table for later in the game for someone else to the line to score their goal. I still think, guys, and I don't want to hear this, but I think that they're D, I think they need to take someone out

and put someone in that has a little bit more puck-moving ability. I don't think they have enough of that. They have six guys that are very capable of NHL players, but I don't see that, you know, that puck mover that gets up the ice with the puck or passes it up the ice and can work the blue line. You know, they're an NHL defenseman, that's for sure. But I think that's one mix that when we're talking about, you know, getting on your zone quick, getting up the ice and transitioning quick, that starts with a good pass from the D-Men.

Well, and that's what Morgan Riley is supposed to be his strength, right? Right, but he's one guy. Yeah, he's one guy, but he's an important guy, and he had a tough year last year, and he talked at times about his, you know, needing to adjust to Brube's system and the structure that Brube talks about. And, you know, Berube talked about trying to take some of the risk out of Morgan Riley's game. And I think when you take some of the risk out of his game, he had a hard time sort of doing the things that you're talking about,

is being an offensive threat and jumping into the rush of the right times and having the confidence that you're doing the right thing because I think there was a lot of second-guessing of himself and throughout the season, which showed in his play. But you're right, they don't have another guy like that. They got, they got five other guys who have different games. And I'm not sure there's a lot of movement to make a trade or make a change there, strutty,

because I think they feel like, you know, their 60 is the least of their worries, and they got other problems with this team, but it's an interesting way I'm looking at it. Steady. They're a steady group, right? Those five other guys are steady, and I get that. And I was that. I want to be like them where I try to play that way.

But in today's day inchelle, I think you need guys that can move the puck and jump in, jump in off that blue line, create chaos, you know, extend those offensive zone shifts. And I don't see that a lot from, you know, or enough from a guy like TANF. And that's just not who he is. No. Tand of McCabe, jumping in, you know, getting in there, you get below the gold line. And again, that's, to me, it sounds risky, but if you're doing it properly, if your

forwards are filling or back filling for those DEM and jumping in, I think you're prolong your office of zone chances rather than slowing it down. We'll see. That's always the way we sum it up. We'll see. Let's move over to football now. Good, good out, right? Let's bring in Dave Naylor now from CFL and NFL or insider at TSA headquarters. Mr. Naylor, how are you today, sir?

Very well, Pat, man. Good to join you in a different platform. Yeah, different, absolutely. But everything's the same. So here's what I want to ask you. Yes, guy. Here's what I want to ask you off the top. There's many topics that we'll get into, but the young Canadian quarterback, Taylor, Elgersma, with Green Bay, I mean, clearly this guy looks like an NFL quarterback. But what do you think his chances are?

Oh, I think he's in the mix for the number three job, which will probably land him on the practice roster. Most NFL teams keep the third quarterback on the practice roster and only activate him on game days if one of their other two has an injury. But, look, I think that game last week against Indianapolis was really critical because he went in for the final three minutes of their opening preseason game against the Jets, and he was the fourth quarterback in. Last week against Indianapolis, he was the second quarterback in.

Jordan Love didn't play. Malik Willis played the first quarter in about nine minutes, and six minutes left in the first half, Taylor Algisma came in, and he stayed in the game until there was seven minutes left in the fourth quarter. So they gave him a good run. He engineered three scoring drives, two touchdown drives and a field goal drive. touchdown drives. One of them was 14 plays, 80 yards. The other one was 70 yards, nine plays. And on that drive, he completed an 18-yard pass on fourth and three. Had one touchdown called back by a penalty, had one interception called back by a penalty. So that was kind of a push. But I think the big thing, Jim, was he didn't look out of place. You know, and then when I talked to Michael Falls, his coach at Laurier about a month ago, what does Taylor have to do to make an impression on the Packers? He said, the first thing he's got to be able to show he can orchestrate. an NFL offense.

And it's not just stepping up from the OUA to the NFL. It's playing a different game. I mean, the timing, the angles, everything's different. So, look, he's a big stick. I mean, he's 6'5-227. He looks like an NFL quarterback. He's got an NFL quarterback's arm. It's all going to come down to, you know, processing and decision-making.

And but their number three is a guy named Sean Clifford, who played at Penn State. He's a draft pick, fifth-round pick from two. years ago has one NFL pass on his resume and last year he was kind of in line for the number two job and they didn't seem to be comfortable with that so they ended up bringing in malique willis so the competition is not difficult i can tell you this i think a week ago if he'd got in there and sucked and believe me i'm sitting in the press box the very first drop back he makes he gets sacked and i'm thinking oh boy and that's the only sack he took you know from there it all got

better he could have played himself right off the roster last week I don't think there's any doubt about that. But he didn't. I think he played himself into the mix for the number three job. And here's what it comes down to potentially why he could make this, I say the practice roster. I don't think he'd be on the active. Whoever gets the number three won't be on the active.

But here's where he has an edge. I think they know what Sean Clifford is. You know, he played at Penn State. He's been in their system for two years. They obviously haven't trusted him to play at all. Taylor Algersma, you don't know what the high side is. I mean, this kid was playing in the OUA last November. So if you invest in him, you know, what's his potential?

I think that's the intriguing part of him. Well, one player in this league, Nailor, that nobody disputes the value or what they can get out of him is Mr. Micah Parsons. And, of course, his contract situation or lack thereof has been a daily soap operas. It's been a subject of a Netflix special down in Dallas. And there's a new development. We have some new audio. of Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones

discussing the never-ending saga of this negotiation or non-negotiation. Let's play that. Let it go at that. I'll drop this one thing on you because this is... When we wanted to send the details to the agent, the agent told us to stick it up our ass. Oh, wait, wait, wait.

Now, see, I was... Just so you're clear. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What do you mean? So we, like, what do you mean? Because people are going to ask. Mike and I talked. Mike and I talked.

And then we were going to send it over to the agent. And we had our agreements on term, amount, guarantees, everything. We were going to send it over to the agent. And the agent said, don't bother because we've got all that to negotiate. Well, I'd already negotiated. I'd already moved off my mark on several. areas. And so the issue, very frankly, is we've had the negotiation in my mind. And the agent's trying to get his nose in it right now and try to come in there and improve off the

mark that we'd already said. It's the mama daddy deal. You go into mama and she won't do it. And she's the boss. So she won't do it. So you run into daddy. Daddy says do it. And then you go back in say mama daddy said it was all right so mama daddy did we've all been there and done that well we've got this thing resolved in my mind for the dollar scound boys what do you make of that nether great reality tv or reality audio or whatever it is i mean it's you know he's he's trying to do divide and conquer right like and the basically tried to try to cut the agent out of the process or make the agent the villain in the process but the point is the agent is hired by the player

and that's I'm not telling you guys anything you don't know that's how this works but you know look I saw the comments recently you know from Schottenheimer about that he thinks Michael Parsons will play in week one now you know again his issue

may be with the Dallas Cowboys ownership and not with the head coach and I don't think Schottenheimer would come out and say that unless he had some indication or reason to believe that that's true and you know the history of guys missing regular season games in situations like this is pretty limited. I mean, there was a ridiculous Leveon Bell thing that ended up basically ending his career

with the Steelers a few years ago. You go back 30 years ago when Emmett Smith sat out a couple of games, and fortunately for him, the Cowboys went 0 and 2. You know, the danger is if you do it and they keep winning, you know, your leverage goes away and it costs you money. And even on a fifth year of a rookie contract for a guy who's a first round pick, you're talking about significant amounts of money. So I expect that Michael Parsons will play.

Look, I expect that actually he'll get signed because this is just the way Jerry does everything. He takes it right to the edge. He inflames the situation and then he pays the guy. That's the history. So I think probably eventually that's where this will go. Now, so when you look at some of the young players in league rookies, you know, Cam Ward, what would your expectations be for him this season?

it's a real tough one because you got you know you got new new everything and new head coach knew so much in in Tennessee and I think there's a you know a kind of the quarterback class this year was was weird right it wasn't like the class where everybody felt that there were these kind of pro ready guys you know there wasn't a Caleb Williams you know there there there wasn't a Bryce young as as much as he's kind of struggled in the NFL when he came out he was considered sort of those guys were you know very highly graded And Cam Ward was, I don't say he's a one-year wonder, but he was a guy who kind of really elevated his stock last season.

And he moved around a little bit in college and things like that. So I think it's very difficult to kind of project him, just with all that, given the place he's going. And I think one of the things that's happened, I think is there's this expectation that whoever the top quarterback is in the draft, you know, that guy should be pro-ready. And it doesn't necessarily work that way. And I think we've seen a lot of cases even of guys who were considered higher graded than Cam Ward who weren't necessarily hitting the ground running and then kind of on the back side, it was another opportunity, whether it's a Sam Darnel or a Baker Mayfield or somebody like that. You know, these guys still have it.

They just didn't have it coming right out of college. So I would have tempered expectations for Cam Ward in year number one. Nails, let's go to the CFL, and clearly Saskatchewan at 8-1 is the class of the CFL in the first half. Is there anybody that you could see emerging in that second half that could take a run at that? Yeah, the team they play this week, the Calgary Stampeders. I mean, look, Calgary's lost three games, and they beat, they're the only team to beat Saskatchewan. That's something the most important point I'm trying to make. But even Calgary's losses, like one of them was in a monsoon, you know,

it was one of these ridiculous games where the wind was blowing, the rain was blowing, there's no passing yards, they lost to Ottawa in that game. They lost another game to Ottawa starting PJ Walker in his first CFL start. And PJ Walker's a guy who's, I think he had, you know, a dozen or so NFL starts and he played the XFL, he's not a kid, but CFL football is different, and Ottawa defensively played that game really well. They took away the run and forced PJ Walker to throw it, and he threw three picks,

which is about what you'd expect to be a first-time starter and you take away his running game. You're going to get three picks. They did. So they lost that game. And then the other game against Montreal, you know,

like Bernard Adams went out of. So, you know, this team doesn't really have an honest loss on its resume. And they beat Saskatchewan. And the thing that's just so surprising is, like, you know, look, the development cycle for a roster

in the CFL is faster than it is in most pro sports leagues because there's more fluidity, there's more free agency, all those kinds of things. But you usually don't see a team go from like the absolute bottom of the league, which Calgary was without a doubt a year ago, you know, to what they've been this year. And particularly on defense. I mean, they've just, they got a whole bunch of horses on defense, guys that were on

practice roster last year or played, you know, limited starts. And they've, they've really, it's not like they went and got a bunch of retreads from elsewhere around the CFL. These are new players to the league that have really, you know, had a strong presence. And, of course, you know, the other thing. Calgary had, as most teams don't get, is when you're at the bottom of a rebuilding cycle, there's usually not a Vernon Adams Jr. in his prime available, which he was because of the weirdo situation with him and Nathan Rourke in B.C. I mean, it was the greatest time ever to start

rebuilding your roster because you could start with a guy who's, you know, an absolute A1 quarterback and also a culture center. I mean, that's, he's a real, Vernon Adams is a leader. So, you know, you're able to bring him in. He gives you stability of the most important position, help set your culture and you know the stamps absolutely i think can challenge Saskatchewan in the west well you talk about the weirdo situation in bc nailer we just had nathan rourke on the show and and we were just pointing out that hey you know they're five and five and and he's had his ups and downs over the past couple of years you know with his dalliance with the nfl and coming back from that and then various injuries but

but since he came back from this oblique injury july 5th they're four and two and and he's starting to look like the old nathan rourke he's the reigning player of the week in the He and Kean Hatcher becoming a really intriguing dynamic duo. What do you see out there in BC as a potential third party in that Western fight? Well, I think the Winnipeg Blue Bombers should be nervous. I mean, Winnipeg's finished first four years in a row in the West Division, and they've been in the Great Cup five years in a row. But they got a half-game lead over Edmonton,

and so much in football, you know, when you're trying to project what's likely to come ahead, a lot of it has to do with schedule. and Winnipeg, they've got Montreal tonight and a very depleted Montreal team but after that four of their next five are against either Saskatchewan or Hamilton so they got a real tough schedule over the next sort of five weeks after tonight

and BC is kind of the opposite like they got a bunch of games left against Ottawa and Edmonton and Hamilton I think five of their remaining of their nine remaining games are against those three and none of those teams have more than three wins and the Argo's defense

particularly past defense, has not been stopping anybody of late. And when you watch the way Nathan Rourke threw the ball last year, look, I think Nathan, I think Nathan Rourke can still be the most outstanding player in the league. You know, and I, you know, there's such a thing of coming back in the NFL from midseason. I mean, you've been in a different league. You've been in a different game. I think there's an emotional disappointment when your time there ends. And for Nathan Rourke, it's probably not ever going back just based on, you know, looking at history and the way this stuff works.

and, you know, dropping him into BC in mid-September last year, or whenever that was late August, it just didn't work. But I had absolute confidence that he would have a good season this year. And, you know, you're right, since he's come back from the injury, he's looking a lot like the guy that we remember for 2022. So, you know, I think BC can take Winnipeg in the standings. I think they can do some damage. And look, if you get Nathan Moore rolling here, I mean,

look, with all due respect to Bo Levi Mitchell and Vernon Adams and Trevor Harris, who's having a great season. End of game, final few minutes. I'm not sure there's a quarterback I would trust more than Nathan Rourke, but just particularly because of the dual threat thing. If somebody's not open on that big field, he can tuck it and run and get you those yards as you want in the clutch. So, no, I've been really impressed with what I've seen with him the last of a while.

It's taken a while, but it looks like the Elks are starting to get the momentum they want with their new coach and Treyev and President and all that stuff. So is there enough runway left for them to actually take a run, up the standings and maybe challenge some of those teams for further up the lineup in the Western Conference? Well, and they know they could be the crossover team, right? That's the

why the CFL brought in this rule like 25 years ago so you don't get screwed over by your division right? If you look at it, I mean I think Hamilton should run away with the East but after that, I mean Montreal is starting quarterback number four tonight

right? And number three is done for the year two is out for a while and one they're afraid to bring back because the last time they brought them back off a hamstring injury re-agravated it and if you do that again you might not see them again this year so Montreal's got big problems

the Argos obviously have big problems I still think Ottawa is a better team than its record but they're just one of these teams that seems to find a way to lose every week and Drew Brown their quarterback's not expected to play this week he's been in and out of the lineup so yeah there is a runway for Edmont all that money they spent on defense on the front seven is finally starting to show up. That took a while.

You know, I mean, they were for the first half dozen games of the year. I mean, almost statistically impossible, especially on a, you know, what was on paper, a pretty good roster. But, I mean, I went through the league, you know, the different rankings, different defensive categories. It was, I never seen anything like it. Like, there's this statistically the worst defense I've ever seen in my life. And I've been doing this for a while, but the first six weeks of the season. But they've started to come along. And a quarterback change has been massive, right?

It's just, like, I feel bad for Tray Ford because everybody wants to see him get the opportunity. But it's not like the guy who was sitting in the wing sucked. Like Cody Vajardo was the betting favorite to be an outstanding player in the CFL until October of last year. And if they hadn't fallen in love with Davis Alexander, who's, you know, 26 years old and they're going to lose him to free agency, I mean, he didn't lose his job because he wasn't good. He lost his job because they just had to make a choice on a guy who they saw a very bright future with that they could hook their wagon through for 10 years. So Cody Fajardo pops free.

And the Elks did something that you don't see very often, and maybe this is why you don't see it very often, their quarterback situation in training camp was not a competition. And that's very rare. Usually, you go to camp with Beau Levi Mitchell. He's your start. But when you've got a guy like Trey Ford, who's never held the number one job for a very long period of time,

to make him your number one. And, you know, Farhan Lodge, I reported this, that at training camp, if it had been a competition, Cody would have come out of camp with the number one job. And, you know, they wanted to give Trey the runway and the opportunity, again, all new staff. They got a long leash. There's not pressure right away. But, you know, I think looking back, they certainly would have been better off to come out of camp with Cody Fajardo. He's given a much better level of play at quarterback.

And it's, and you can see the confidence of this team growing. So, yeah, I think it's nice to see, right? Even if this is just a building year for Edmonton, for a while it looked like it was going to be a lost year. And there's a big difference between a lost year and a building year. And now it looks like it's going to be the latter. Dave, that'll bring us to the Argos, who's at 2 and 8, and if BC does what they're supposed to do, that'd be 2 and 9. So the ultimate question, sort of twofold, is what do they do about that and how much of this is on the absence of Chad Kelly? Well, I think some of it is on the absence of Chad Kelly, but you've got to go back to last year and say, well, wait a minute, these guys,

dealt without Chad Kelly for a different reason for the first half of last season. So what's the difference? The difference has been, actually, I think they're getting better quarterback play out of Nick Arbuckle this season than they did out of Nick Arbuckle and Cameron Duke's last year. So the offense has actually been better without Chad Kelly this year than it was a year ago. What hasn't been better is defense and special teams. And those really picked up the slack. It was sort of classic complimentary football for the Argos last year.

In fact, it felt like every week, You know, they were getting a Janarian grant return touchdown and a Winton McManus pick six. You know, and you get a defensive and special teams touchdown every week, one or both, you know, you're going to win some games. And that's really what picked up the slack. That hasn't been happening this year. They've been bad on special teams.

The defense has been getting shredded. You know, they've been able to put some pressure on the quarterbacks, but the secondary has really been vulnerable. And I say, I actually think Nick Arbuck was playing quite well. I mean, unfortunately, he's doing the opposite of kind of sometimes what you want to see your quarterback do, and that is, you know, if he struggles all game in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter, you know, he's money. He's out a few games where he's been really good for three or three and a half quarters and just hasn't played his best football in the fourth quarter

last week being one of those. But I think we're getting near the time, guys, where the Argos are going to punt on Chad Kelly till 2026. And I think here's why. The thinking, like this season is what it is. I don't think the Argos are going to do a great U-turn on their season and make a run here. Chad Kelly missed training camp in 2024 because of the suspension. He missed training camp in 2025 because of the injury. And the last thing they want at this point is Chad Kelly to miss training camp in 2026. So I think the idea of like, hey, let's give Chad Kelly a year and a half off that injury, as opposed to rushing him back at the end of a dead season and risk him.

And obviously the injury has some complications. because they thought he was coming back a month ago, and now it's now indefinite. But I think there's a point where Ryan Dinwood is thinking about the priority for Chad Kelly becomes training camp at 2026 as opposed to this season, and I don't think we're that far away from that. Wow. Well, what a change, what a difference a year can make.

Dave, thanks very much. Appreciate it. Hey, my pleasure, guys. Thanks so much. Thank you. Dave Nealer, CFL NFL Insider. At TSNN headquarters. Up next, our golf guru.

Mark Sikino, Golf Talk, Canada. TSN Golf Analyst will join us and you on Overdrive. TSN 2, TSN1050, and live on YouTube. Overdrive is brought you by Fandall, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. Jim Taddy Jafest, Chuck in studio. Streddy is with us on remote, and also with us is Mark Sikino,

our golf guru here at TSN headquarters. Speaking to us from Golf Talk Canada headquarters, Marco, how are you? Oh, he's not there yet. Okay, sorry. Okay, play some more music. Yeah, whatever. All right.

He'll be here shortly. Yeah, I think he's just having a conversation with Dugie. There you go. Dugge's trying to sell him some cologne. Out of the back of his truck. I mean, Dugie's cologne supply is just off the charts. I mean,

this guy, he's got a blend. Yeah, it never stops. Just, like, you would think maybe in the summertime, a little more moisture in the air, like a little warmer temperatures, maybe he sweats it off, but you come down that hall. You know Dugge's,

you know Dugge's in the booth. I just hope the insurance company is aware of what he's doing with the blending, because that could be a bit of a problem. You ever have a teammate, Struddy, that was a Cologne addict? Because Dugie's got a problem. Yeah, I've heard about it. I haven't actually smelt it myself.

No, Kevin Weeks, a teammate of mine and, you know, a pretty, very popular broadcaster, he had a black leather bag, and he called it the black bag of beauty. And there was ointments, lotions, cologne, shaving, pot. It was crazy. He'd be like, what do you use? I'm like, whatever's on the counter. Like, I've got nothing, but his skin was incredible. I touched it.

I'm like, can I touch your skin? He's like, and it was so soft and smooth. I am jealous. I wish I would look after my skin better like he had, but he was the All-Star, like the Hall of Fame member, for looking after his skin and the various sense. So for now, for more grooming advice, let's go to Mark Sekino from Golf Talk, Canada, headquarters.

Markle, welcome. Do you have any grooming advice? It seems to be going around. Hold on, guys. This is TSN Sports Radio, right? I just wanted to double check. Actually, Jim, you know, as a pizan, I've got many grooming issues, and they usually have to do with unwanted hair and unwanted in areas.

Oh, God. Oh, guy. That's a book title right there. As you're seated at Golf Talk Canada headquarters, what's your goal? What is the golf story today? Is it in Mississauga or is it in Atlanta? Well, it's tough for me, right? because, you know, I'm getting pulled in many directions

because obviously Golf Todd Canada is on our women's championship, but I know Bob's been out there all day. Adam and I were out there earlier this week. But in the same breath, you know, I work for the PGA tour and I've been covering the tour all year, been to 20 plus PGA tour events already this season and have three more to attend. So for me, I was kind of covering East Lake a little bit more intently.

I'm just amazed and in all of what Scotty Sheffler's been able to achieve this year what he's been able to achieve the last couple of weeks and I just I keep waiting to see if he can keep it going, keep it going and he even does and he did it again today and for me I mentioned earlier this week to Adam I said I'm not calling this a run you know I said Jordan Spieth was on a run

Dustin Johnson was on a run we've seen guys on runs this is the Scotty Sheffler era. It's different. This is something everyone needs to get used to because it isn't going away, it is in a run. This is the next six to 10-year window of what professional golf looks like. So let's go a little closer to home here, Mark, before we get too deep into the PGA tour

at the big tournament, the CPKC, Canadian Women's Open out at Mississaia Golf and Country Club. And big story is 15-year-old Aphrodite Deng, who became the first Canadian to win the U.S. junior not too long ago. She finds herself at five under par through the first round, a 66 out there in a tie right now one shot off the lead with about five other players. But she's 15, Mark, and, you know,

what do you make of this incredible, incredible performance by an amateur player, obviously, who, has dominated the junior ranks, but is now, you know, among the world's best players. Pretty, pretty fun to watch, isn't it? What an amazing story. And, you know, it's even crazier when you think about it. Obviously, it's a bigger story for us, a little closer to home, the fact that she was, you know, born and raised in Calgary.

So, you know, there's the Canadian aspect to it as well. But it's funny when you think she's trying to become the second 15th century. year old to do this. I mean, Lydia Toad did this, right? Over a decade ago, right? It's like the LPGA tour, and the PJ Tour is catching up to a certain degree, not to the same extent, but certainly catching up with players coming off of PGA Tour University, and we saw Nick Dunlap, you know, win as an amateur, amateur, Luke Clinton, look what's happened with Ludwig Goldberg. So we're seeing, like, obviously, the PJ Tour and the men's game get much younger than it ever has been. But the LPG Tour was really ahead of this curve.

with teenagers, right? And it kind of reminds me to going back to a couple things. One, the younger players are so much more prepared now. You mentioned how she's dominated junior golf, and that's crazy. We're talking about a 15-year-old, but if we look at a bigger picture of what they're doing in NCAA and what they're doing in college and whatnot, and the people they have around them, when they come out and they turn professional, they are so much more prepared to win. Coaches, mental coaches, fitness, understanding what their body and equipment, do and how they work together.

It's just, it's more of a team concept and the team has that individual male or female ready to win at such a younger age. And this is another prime example of that, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. In fact, I think it's just only going to keep getting younger on both the female game and the men's game. And the other part of this that, you know, made me think of when I saw her score today and I took a look at some of her numbers is that it's that old thing. It's a cliche, but the golf ball doesn't know who's hitting it, right, guys?

I mean, it doesn't know where you are, right? It doesn't know what tournament you're in. It doesn't know what tour you're on. It doesn't know. And if you believe that you can hit the shots and you believe that you belong and go out there and commit the shots, the rest doesn't matter. She hit, you know, a ridiculous amount of fairways today. She had 13 to 14 fairways. Hit a bunch of green.

She putted lights out. She's not the longest in the field. It doesn't seem to matter. She's going to get longer. She's 15, so she don't have to worry about that. What an amazing story. And that's why I want to take it, just her age. And, you know, she's very fit lady, but just maybe doesn't have that strength yet.

So, you know, the lack of distance, how is she, you know, compensating, whether it's 10, 20, or 30 yards off the T, what is she doing to compensate for that, you know, playing against ladies who have been, you know, working out and are that much more physically immature? Well, 20-6-putch will fix a lot of things. Really? I better write that one down for my own game. She had 26 putts today. She just lit up the greens and that'll obviously help a lot of other areas of your game. But that being said in a bigger picture, I guess you can't really expect to go out every week, every day, every turn of it around and be the best putter in the field. But that's unrealistic. You can be a great putter and you can make up a lot on the greens.

over a season, over a four-day tournament, certainly on the Greens. We've seen players do it in the past. We've seen Jordan Spieth. Brian Harmon, a couple of years ago, the Open Championship, who was 55 of 55 inside 15 feet that week. I mean, that's crazy to think that you just don't miss a put all week inside 15 feet. That's just mind-boggling stuff. So it's not like it can't be done or hasn't been seen.

But I think the recipe for her moving forward until the strength and the speed comes and maxes out is you're going to have to be good on the greens. is going to have to be better with your shorter irons. And we've seen this time and time again, listen, Trevor Emelman and Zach Johnson won Masters in 07 and 08. This is in the middle of the Tiger Woods and Bubba Watson and Phil Mickelson. And like, I mean, bombers were winning at Augusta left, right and center. And these two plotters who are giving up a ridiculous amount of yardage go out and win, you know, back-to-back masters by just being incredible from 120 yards in and making a large bucket of putt.

So that's the recipe. If you're going to average 242 yards off the team, which is what she averaged today, which is likely somewhere in the neighborhood of about 20 yards shorter than probably some of the longer players in the field could be as much as 30, you know, talking about the Nelly Cordes of the planet who, you know, played on the PGA tour last fall, was hitting at 300 plus. I mean, if you're going to give up that kind of number off the team, be dialed in with your wedges

and make sure you're starting those putts online. Mark, I want to vehemently dispute something you said. When I stand over the golf ball, it knows I'm going to hit it, and that's why it acts the way it does. And yesterday was a prime example. Well, we'll leave that alone. Here's the business angle I want to throw at you. I agree.

It is the Schaeffler era on the PGA tour, and if you go to any golf course, they'll talk about how great a golfer he is, and that's totally warranted. The ultimate comparison, though, goes to Tiger Woods, who was not only a great golfer, the best of his time. There's no question about that. Maybe the best ever, but he was this big package of driving technology forward and developing revenue streams as he played. This individual, Scotty Schaeffler, does not do that, but he is, you know, the best golfer that's on the tour today.

And the reason that I go to the personality part is because Liv took a lot of those names away. How does this project in terms of growth for the PGA Tour sport? How does that move forward under Scotty Sheffler? You know, none of it makes sense, Jim. Like, if we go back to 2024, TV numbers were down. And people were, you know, hitting the panic button, and there were conversations on, you know, top floors of towers in Manhattan and Pointe of Hedra Beach

and all parts of the world, USGA, et cetera. And there was concerned. And, you know, people trying to figure out, you know, okay, where do we go next? What's next? blah, blah. And a lot of people are going to point to Scotty Schaeffler

as the face of this tour in the face of the game because you are a thousand percent correct. Yes, he is the most dominant player in the game. Yes, he is the number one golfer in the world, and this is likely for a long time. But he's not the same marketing package, Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods was, you know, slightly more dominant, did it for a long period of time,

but did it in a different way. There was fire in the belly. There was fist pumps. There were red shirts on Sundays. You open the door to the game to a lot of people that would normally not be introduced. Obviously, you know, there was a barrier there that he smashed through. There's a lot of things like that that you got with Tiger.

You're not getting with Scottie Sheplehrer. Scottie Shepler is ho-hum, A to B, It's brilliant more in its simplicity than anything else. But unless you're a golf purist, it's a real hard thing to package and sell and put something tangible dollars. Then you turn around this year and coming off a year of his dominance, where he continues to be dominant, and everything is up. All the TV numbers are up. And it's not just in places like the Masters where Rory Mac where it completes a career grand slam. It's not just the easy ones.

Evening numbers were up at the one-flight Myrtle Beach classic opposite field event for a playoff that had Ryan Fox, McKenzie Hughes, and excuse me, but the third player in that playoffs escaping me, but none of us would know them if we hit them with our car, so it doesn't matter. It actually proves my point. Why are the numbers up?

How is this working? Because it's a complete opposite to 2024. So it's going to take a lot smarter people to figure out how to packages, to your point, Jim, the one thing I do know is it'll be by committee you don't replace Michael Jordan you don't replace Tiger Woods you you do it by committee and the good thing for the PG 8 tours they have a lot of young very exciting talented players coming up they still got Rory in his prime they've still got really recognizable names on classic venues with heritage and history behind it so the overall

package has never been stronger but yeah you can't go one-to-one with Woods and Sheffler. Zikino, you talk about the women's game and it getting younger. It was 10 years ago last week that Brooke Henderson won her first LPGA tour event at age 17.

And obviously since then, she's become the winningest pro golfer in our country's history. She's got two majors, 13 wins. She's got plenty of money in her resume. And yet lately she hasn't been able to find her game. I think it's the longest slump of her career.

here without a win going on two and a half years and today she shoots an even par 71 out at the CPKC Women's Open at Mississauga four bogeys, four birdies kind of, you know, an up and down round for an

up and down year where she's only had one top 10. I wanted to get your theory. What do you think is ailing, Brooke? And why are we not seeing what we have seen from her in the past? Well, first I, you know, a little bit of a victim of our own success, right guys? I mean, just a tremendous career, the most successful

professional golfer our country's ever produced, so the bar's very high for her. But you're right, this has not been a good year. Today, again, it was the same thing that's been bothering her all year. The ball striking, especially with the irons, the irons have really been a problem this year, abysmal. Coming in and this week, she was outside the top 100, I believe, was 112th in stroke skate approach on the LPGA. And this is for a player who's lived inside the top 20, inside the top 10 with the irons. So this is a real fall from grace with ball striking when it comes to Brooke Henderson. Now, that's off to her today.

That round could have been completely lost. She finished strong with, you know, three birdies coming home to scrape it back to respectability and stay in this golf tournament. We've got a long way to go. It could have really easily gone the other way through, you know, nine to 12 holes, and we're going to really put her behind the eight ball to make it to the weekend, but she fought through because she wants to do well for this crowd. She loves the support.

She's done great under pressure. Remember, we all celebrate what Nick Taylor did 23 at Oakdale, but Brooke Henderson did it before Nick Taylor did it, right? She's been here. She's done that, so she knows how to get it done. I'm in the belief, and I'm not close enough to this to know. But I have been close enough to situations like this before to have an opinion. And if I look at the data and strictly go by the numbers and watch the performance,

and it's been a bit of an 18-month kind of progression to where we are now, it might be time to start hearing some information in a different way. Change it up in the camp, have a different set of eyes, maybe you reach out to a new instructor. I'm not necessarily suggesting that there's an overhaul change and we rip apart the golf swing because I've never been a fan of completely rebuilding your swing. I think that's a trapdoor that have ruined so many professional golfers.

But I do think that hearing information in a different way and getting a new thought or a new set of eyes, something fresh could not hurt her. And it's funny to go back to our original conversation about our 15-year-old near at the top of the leaderboard, a lot of us forget that Brooks been out there a very long time and successful in a very young age. And you've got to wonder when you start that young in the ladies game,

is there a burnout? You know, as you approach 30 or get around 30 or get into your early 30s, you know, in the big picture, in your late 20s or whatnot, we're all sitting around guys like us. We think that's super young. We're like, wow, I mean, you got your life ahead of you. But when you've been playing competitive golf at that level for 10 plus years, that takes its pound of flesh.

Marco, thanks very much. Appreciate it. Have a great night, guys. Thanks for having me. Mark Sikino, live from Golf Talk, Canada headquarters. Summing up the PGA tour, the OPGA event going on in Mississauga as we speak. Coming up next, Best Betts, Overdrive continues live on YouTube, TSN2 and TSN-1050. Beautiful intro. Final segment, Overdrive for Thursday.

By the way, we will be back tomorrow for Mail It in Friday. Redefining Mail it in Friday. Today's best bets are powered by Fandul. Make your picks and assemble the same game parlay in seconds. on the Fanduil Sportsbook app. Doogie, what do you have? Do you have anything surgical? Oh, yeah.

Here we go, boys. The Red Sox at the Yankees tonight. We're going to go with the Yankees on the money line. Pair that with a John Carlos Den 2 plus bases bet, and Aaron drives to record a hit. That totals plus 282 on the Fandual Sportsbook app and a massive matchup. 1.5 games apart in the AL Wildcard standings.

It's going to be a dude. Today's best bets are powered by Fanduil. The first inning means as much as the ninth. When you bet baseball on the Fandual Sportsbook app, please pay responsibly 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. A doozy, a surgical

doozy. By the way, that Red Sox Yankees game is on TSN4 tonight. Although it sounds like Doogie's going to be rooting for the Yankees, which may not go over well with the Blue Jays fans. Yeah. Not entirely true. It's just a good bet. They are mashing, but I mean,

When you're betting on them, it kind of means you're kind of cheering for them. Isn't it, do you? Are you just that cold-hearted? Dave, I'm looking for some entertainment here. I think this rivalry will be reignited. Okay. Thanks, Doug. You're just absolutely used up all our time.

We've got like five seconds. So we'll be back from Millardin Friday tomorrow. Join us then and enjoy your night. Seasoned gamer or just video game curious. This week in gaming is the podcast for you. We break down the latest in the world. video games from basics to beyond the hottest gaming news insight and industry leaders and more weekly join me naomi kyle and stay ahead of the game with all the latest updates even if you're a total

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