OverDrive - Weeks on the Masters Tournament teeing off, Scheffler's buzzing start and Conners finding success at Augusta

Episode Date: April 10, 2025

TSN Golf Analyst Bob Weeks joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the Masters Tournament, Scottie Scheffler's strong start, Corey Conners searching for a successful run, Nick Dunlap's rough performance at Augusta National, the Canadian contingent at the course and more.

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That just happened with Vashi Kapelos. Canada decides 2025. Fresh every Friday. Stream on your schedule with the free iHeartRadio app. Here's our main man, our TSN Golf Reporter, Bob Weeks. There he is, Weeks. See how we feel on day one of the Masters. Pretty good. Kind of like you guys, I'm kind of surprised at some of the shot making and how hard the golf course played for the first day and there's like no wind here at all? It's pretty calm. So I'm kind of surprised the back nine. I think the only hole that was playing over par was the 15th But again some some good scores at the top of the leaderboard some good performances notably Corey Connors Scotty Scheffler. I mean Rory's

Looks like he's finally going to break 70 on the first round. So we'll see, see how it goes. But it's been pretty good day. Yeah. You mentioned Connors, he gets in at four under and he was red hot down the stretch and his stats with the putter really, really significant, Bob. And that's always the story with him. Tita Green, the guy's world class. He's one of the five or 10 best ball strikers on earth. It's the putter, and specifically at this place, I mean, you couldn't ask for a better day one out of Corey Connors. Thank, I think, 55 feet of birdie putts.

So none of the birdie putts were super easy. He had a 24 footer on 17. He had a 13 footer on 18. He switched putters about, just before the Arnold Palmer, his father actually convinced him to try a mallet style putter, and the guys at Ping, he had a little habit of putting up on the ball, so the Ping guys built this putter,

specifically he worked with him, where they had to center shaft it, but they moved the shaft about, I don't know, maybe a half an inch, quarter of an inch behind the face. Sounds very technical for if you're not really a golfer, but now when he's hitting it, he's hitting the ball perfectly in the equator. He says all the balls are starting right on the line

that he's seeing, and when you start filling up the bucket like that, boy, you gain confidence in Ari. What does he gotta do though, Bobby? I mean, is it like the putter it's we all talk about his ball striking Like is he capable of just hanging in there like what what what has what does he have to do to just hang in there? Is that just confidence does he just got a man up? What does he got to do? Yeah, I think I think he might have to I mean he actually said after the round that he didn't actually hit the ball all That well today, so he's obviously got to fix that up.

I think you just got to trust your game. It's getting to Sunday on the back nine and getting yourself maybe to play, you know, to win the tournament, which becomes maybe a little bit different than you're playing on Thursday. So I think he just keeps doing what he's doing. He's got a lot of confidence. We're talking to Mike Weir a couple of weeks ago and he said, you know, these guys are ready. These guys know how to win. They're capable of doing

it. But, you know, the Masters is a big ask. A major championship is a big ask, obviously. So if you're going down the stretch with Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, who've done it before, becomes a little bit more. But I think Corey's got the ability and the confidence in his game right now to do that. He's playing the best golf he's played of his career without a doubt. You mentioned the two big dogs, Scheffler in at four under, McRoy still on the course three under through 11. They're both T5. Which one, Scheffler or Rory, they both finish in that position.

Which one rings out the loudest? Which one would send terror throughout the rest of the players the most? I don't know. I think they're both pretty nasty up there. brings out the loudest which one would send terror throughout the rest of the the players the most or how to know i think they're both pretty uh... they're both pretty nasty up here i mean scott he's done it before right he sees one twice here before uh... rory's probably playing the best of any golfer on the planet at the moment coming into this i would probably say rory would give me the most jitters

especially if he's playing away he's been playing on the front nine here i mean it just sore looks mistake free mixing it look a little bit easy of me the most jitters, especially if he's playing the way he's been playing on the front nine here. I mean, it just sort of looks mistake-free, making it look a little bit easy. And if he can get under par, I mean, he has a bad history of first rounds, right, just terrible first rounds. And if he can get himself in position up near the top, boy, it makes it a lot easier. You don't have to play catch up for the next three rounds, which is tough on this golf course.

So, Weeks, you're talking about guys playing very well, but now we noticed there's a guy who put up a 90, Nick Dunlap. I mean, what do you do there? I mean, is it just you try and regroup, or is he out with an injury? Weeksy, 90's a lot, man. That's a huge number. What are we doing here? I mean, I'd be going straight to Hooters.

I just would not be. I don't know what to do really. 90 is a big number out here. The only time I've ever seen anyone shoot higher than 90 was Billy Casper when he was about, I don't know, 75 and he was trying to get it around here and he ended up not putting his card in but I think he was over a hundred Weaksy, I was there, man. I was there. On 16, he made a 16 on a par 3. My uncle was sitting beside me, and it was the first time I brought him to the Masters, and the first thing he experienced was Billy Casper putting 6 in the water, and he started yelling at him. He's like, get off!

He goes, just drop one near the green! It was insane. You know, they have this term in golf, it's called ROB. And you see that sometimes on leaderboards, it means run out of balls. So you're running sticks in the water. Man, I don't care. I don't have any to carry. Gary Mdilett's standing right beside me. I don't know, how many do you carry in the bag? Out of broken 80 today, boy. Or 90, that's for sure. Yes, 100% you would have. I think a lot of guys would have met that. Nick Dunlop is a young player, he plays with

confidence. That's just wild. I can't imagine stepping up to a ball 90 times for a professional. Do you think you'll play tomorrow Bob? Never mind today the 90, what about the confidence going to the first tee tomorrow? Well exactly, you get called up like hey here's Nick Dunlap who's eight everyone's snickering in the crowd it's amazing how many guys develop bad backs you know after big scores like that and they they get out of town early big time with Bob Weeks from Augusta National Day one of the Masters where again Justin Rose still on the course six under through 14 Cory Connors shot four under today Scheffler four under McElroy three under he's still on the back nine

What about the other Canadians? What are we what are we looking at here when it comes to? Pendrith and Nick Taylor and Mike we're for that matter You know pen pendrith. I think got the experience of playing on the course of internet conditions for the first time he didn't he didn't play very well by his own admission like where you know is grinding it out there i think he was trying his best three overs not bad he he's he told me before that this golf courses is a bill pretty long pretty long way

big it's a big boys ballpark he has a hit it far enough to really be sitting you know on eleven he was playing it like a par five. He hit driver hybrid and he still wasn't close to the green. He still had about a 50 yards in. So, and as for, you know, as for Nick Taylor, this is just another struggle in the major championships. He's missed the cut in his last nine majors. I'd love to see him put something together

of what, in the finish out, at least at even par or something around here, but I don't know what it is. He should be a lot better than this. He's a really, really good golfer. Just doesn't have it when it comes to majors lately. Yeah. He's two over and still out there. So yeah, it's a grind, man. Outside of Rose, no one's going crazy low. I mean, can you take anything from this and give us a projection on what you think a championship score is going to be on Sunday night? You know, it's going to depend on what they do to this golf course. Traditionally, it's fairly tough, and then on Sunday, they let them light loose on the

back nine. But there's usually a few more scoring holes out here and you know I just didn't see that today. There's really only a handful of holes that looked like they were kind of gettable easy, but as far as a score boy I'd hate to predict, I'd wait to see what happens if there's any win. I mean it's like ripe for scoring today. I would have thought there'd be a lot more rounds that were under par. Maybe that's why they set it up as they did a little bit more difficult, but you know you usually get around 10 or 12 under par. Maybe that's why they set it up as they did, a little bit more difficult. But you know, you usually get around 10 or 12 under par is a pretty good number come Sunday. So we'll see what they do with that. Yeah, there's some gnarly pins out there today,

man. You can see them. They're just some of them are tucked. Some of them are up on levels where you just can't get to it. But that's why it's Augusta National. And that's that's why it's the Masters. What's the tally at? I know, what is it you mash down there every single time you're there, Bob? Is it the egg sandwich? Where are we at with that? Yeah, egg salad sandwiches. I'm up to eight now, but the weekend starts to come.

We can't go very hard until we're at the desk now for basically from eight o'clock in the morning until about 6 at night. So the boys run over and grab us, fill us up from the media center, which is only about 200 yards away from us. And gotta just go for those egg salads, man. It's just, I don't know. Cherry yours at the desk, Bobby. They just throw that thing in the dumpster after the event.

Yeah. If you get a little rough, take a look. Get Duthie and Dillette to sign it and then just light it up. See you later. All right, Bob, get back after it. Make it nine on us. We appreciate you doing this as always. Okay guys, take care.

There he is, Bob Weeks. Hey, who invited climate action to the party? We did. Hey, I'm Shannon Burns. And I'm Sarah Christie. Together we host the Earth Day Party Podcast where the guest list is full of fun, fun, and fun. weeks. We hear from David Suzuki. This is a party where everyone is invited. The Earth Day Party Podcast on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.