Subpar - Arron Oberholser Interview: Competing against Tiger Woods, transitioning from Tour player to analyst

Episode Date: August 11, 2020

On this week's episode of GOLF's Subpar, Golf Channel analyst Arron Oberholser joins former PGA Tour pro Colt Knost and his close friend and on course rival Drew Stoltz for an exclusive, in-studio interview. The PGA Tour winner goes in depth on his amateur rivalry with Tiger Woods, his career on Tour before his injuries, and what it's been like transitioning from playing on Tour to becoming an analyst.

Hello world. Welcome to another week of golf subpar. Colt knows Drew Stoltz coming off the first major championship of the year. And what a week it was, Sleazy. Colin Moracow, your newest major champion. What an absolute beast. And first let me say, Colts, I'm only good at three things, okay? Making bodes and drinking trannies. Okay, I'm not Nick Faldo. I got this. You get it? Did I go over your head? I got to give a little homage to Phil in the booth there when that just went straight over Nick. We will get to Phil in his broadcasting day. debut, but let's get to talk about Colin Morikawa. What a beast. We've talked about him for a long time. I mean, he's a star in the making.

It ain't even in the making anymore. No, it's, he's there. Yeah. The kid was absolutely unflappable, final round 64 to win by two, where it was a tournament coming down the stretch. At one point, there was seven people tied for the lead. I thought we were going to have the largest playoff in major championship history. I was dying for it.

The leaderboard was scrolling on the first page. They couldn't even fit all the names on the, on the guys that were hide for the lead on the first page. I was like, please, God, give us like a six-way playoff going back to 16 because it's the aggregate. It's the three-hole aggregate. It would have been unbelievable, but dude, Colin Morikawa, I mean, we talk about his ball striking all the time. He finally, for the first time ever hits a bad iron shot on the 14th. I was like, oh my God, he's human. Maybe he's getting nervous. What's he do? walks up there and pitches it in, takes the lead, and then the driver on, was it 16? Just, I mean, shot of his life, shot of the championship, obviously, and of course,

he rolls it right in the middle from that point on. It was incredible to see him do that. What a performance 6564 but I was a little bit sad because like as soon as he made that eagle I was like he ain't messing up this thing's done we went from seven guys with a chance to like this thing's over yeah and I actually go back to even just the start of the round on the first hole where so many guys in the last few groups were making birdies it was one of the easiest holes on the golf course it was only 390 yards guys were driving it down there a mile flipping it on the green he missed the green from the middle of the fairway and made a 25 footer for par that I thought just totally settled him down gave him some confidence with his putting if he makes bogey there I honestly

think the tournament goes a totally different way. Yeah, I mean, I've played in tournaments where I got up to a rough start. I almost thought like sometimes when I saved par on the first, if my nerves are going and I'm feeling all that, a par save on the first where I get up and down, especially making a put of that link, like almost calms you down a little bit. We're like, okay, dude, I took the first hit. Let's calm this thing down. And from that point on, I mean, God, dude, watching him golf, it looks so easy watching him play, but he's an absolute monster. Yeah, that first hole gets overlooked a little bit, but that you're absolutely right. If he drops one there, everyone else making birdies he could start chasing quick for sure but i was out early in the day doing some coverage

i was on that back nine and i told everybody when i finished i said this back nine is set up for a very exciting finish they had a lot of very somewhat easy hole locations if you put the ball in the fairway and i really thought someone could go low and i just i love what they did on 16 moving the tee up it makes for an exciting finish and look the best player won last week there was no one that played better he led the he led the field in fairways led the fair way led the field of proximity to the hole and led the field in putting. So I hit it straighter than you. I hit it closer than you and a putter than I make more than you do. That's why he has the trophy at the end of the week. It was just an awesome performance. Congratulations to Colin Morcala. Yeah. And if he's going to go

ahead and start, like we always talk about where's the one weakness of Colin Moracawa. If anything, it's the putter. If he's going to go ahead and start leading events and strokes gain putting, you can just go ahead and start canceling some of these things going forward because he hits it too good to roll it like that too. And when he does, that's what you get. I agree. I mean, He is putting the world on notice. And I think there, no offense to Michael Thompson, I think the world might actually really notice this one. This guy actually is a factor. We can week out.

I think the world absolutely recognized that. But dude, how about you, man? First week in a major television, all that, got to walk with some big time groups. Give us the rundown. Yeah, my first time actually doing on-course commentary was walking with the groups for ESPN. First day had Justin Rose, Jordan Speeat, Dustin Johnson, right in front of Tiger Woods. Just an awesome experience. I had such a blast.

I really feel like I found my comfort zone in broadcasting being out there, being actually on the ground, kind of being able to assess situations, talk like a player a little bit, and throw some little humor in there every once in a while. But it was a blast. I learned so much, and I hope to do a lot more of it in the future. Yeah, that's what the golf like broadcasting world is missing right now. You hear all these networks talking about they want to get younger. They want to have more fun. I mean, here you go. You come in.

I think you're coming in at the perfect time. I know there's some nerves going on early on, but I think you did a great job. and like I think you're absolutely coming into this thing in the right spot with the changing of the guard here coming up soon. Any messups, any weird where you're like, oh shit, shouldn't have said that. Actually, I don't really think I did. The calling shots that were on tape delay was a little difficult, but for the most part, I didn't say anything too stupid, I don't think. That's good. I can't even get through a podcast without doing it.

So get through actual live television props. I'm trying to remember. I try to forget the bad ones. Yeah, short memory. But it was a blast. I can't thank ESPN and CBS Sports enough for the opportunity. but you had quite a weekend as well you worked seven days last week i feel like i need to retire i'm done dude i felt the first full work week of my life and i'm done i don't know how people do it but yeah dude

had a blast you were out there at calling tv so obviously i was uh i was doing the live coverage on serious x him and brought in an old name a very familiar voice on the network we brought in gary mccourt for thursday friday we had three hours a day with him dude you know him well obviously i mean fuck it's so fun with him like the stories we get into there were times where we would go like 30 minutes 40 minutes through like one or two breaks and I'd be like we were just telling stories and just having fun and I was like should we like there is a major going on maybe we should get to that a little bit right now but Gary came on right off the jump and he was watching the coverage on ESPN plus and he was kind of calling the shots he's like oh Phil Mickelson look at this live this is not a good like

and after like one break I was like dude you know people can't see what you're talking like this isn't television he's like oh yeah my like he was kind of just went back into television mode old habits but we had a blast dude an absolute really good time with Gary McCord we can get him back for a little bit more. We'll get him back in the studio too and give a little rundown at some point. I love it. It was a lot of fun. But once again, congratulations to Colin Morikawa, your 2020 PGA champion.

But now it's time to open up the mailbag. Y'all been sending in a lot of great questions. And producer Mark has picked out a few for this week's episode. Yeah, I got a couple questions for you guys this week. The first one's a two-part question. Brett on Twitter wants to know now that Colt is dabbling in some ESPN reporting, will he and Michael Collins become best friends? And the second part is, if that happens, Slees, will you become jealous?

Oh, okay. Sounds like a cult question here. I'll let you fire off on that. Let's just start off Slees. You have no reason to be jealous. I'm never leaving you. Good. Thank God.

You're always there. That's comforting. You know, I think this is kind of like, you know, maybe Michael Collins ought to get a little nervous. Like they're bringing in the younger, better looking guy maybe to push you out, Mr. Collins. So be very, very careful. Out with the old calf in with the young bull. Or reverse that. Out with the old bull in with the young guy.

calf. I'm not an animal guy. Something along those lines. Yeah. So the calf comes before the bull. Yeah, I drank. I just crushed a red bull right before we came on. I'm really fired up right now. That was great. All right. All right. Cool. Next question. And this is again for Colt. As a pro, would you rather make the cut and finish at or near dead last or get the two extra days of rest from the event? See, I think that's it depends on which pro you're asking for me. Like money's good. So making the cuts. The cuts great. If you're one of the best players in the world, And you know you probably can't win, especially at a tournament like the PJ Championship, you probably just like, get me out of here.

I'll go rest up and get ready for next week. But at the same time, you can always learn something during a competitive round of golf, I think. I mean, when you're, say you're, you know, a superstar, you know, number one player. Say you're Webb Simpson. You're not having your best week at the PGA championship. And you make the cut on the number. You go out there and you just freewheel it. Yeah.

And trust everything you've been working on and hopefully find something for the next week. Yeah, I would always say play the weekend. And I've got a lot of experience with both finishing last and missing cuts. So I, but you're right. Like when a guy just greases his way in on the number, it's like two free days. You can't go backwards. No matter what, you're going to make some money. And if you do find something, it gives you two more competitive days to try some things out and maybe something clicks and you take that on to the next week.

Yeah. And the way the money is now, I mean, like making the cut to PGA and finishing the last was 20 grand. Yeah, I'll take a 20 spot real quick. Just a good. Okay. So totally make the cut. Yes. Good questions, though.

I like them. Keep them coming. Now it's sleaze. It's time to get to our special. guest of the week golf channel analyst and reporter Aaron overhauser love this guy he is a blast to talk to very well spoken all these TV guys are very well spoken you'll come back well come back pretty soon and you'll start using like four syllable words and things like that but yeah well research and also a guy doesn't get it we'll talk about this in the interview doesn't get enough respect for how

good he was as a player especially coming out of college early pro if it weren't for injuries I mean this guy could have had a you know a much different career than we were looking I still had a good career but injuries kind of took him out of the game premature. Yeah, grew up playing a lot of golf against Tiger Woods, played at San Jose State. When Tiger Woods was at Stanford, they were the one and two players in the country, had a lot of battles with him. But, man, it was a pleasure to talk to and gives us some great insight

into what it was like going against the best player that's ever played the game. Yeah, there's very few people that have this kind of insight, but like playing against Tiger Woods before he was the Hello World Tiger Woods before all that. And how he became the info commercial king. And how he became the man behind the greatest wedge ever designed. which we will definitely talk about.

All right, well, let's get to it. Here's Aaron Oberholzer on golf subpar. All right, boys and girls. We are joined in studio now by a PJ Tour winner, golf channel analyst and the spokesman for the revolutionary XE1 wedge, Mr. Aaron Oberhouser. Good to be with you. That's right.

I knew you're going to get me right off the top of that. I can't believe you don't have the hat on anything. It's very disappointing. No, I'm helping my straight down guys out for sure. I got to tell you, though, before we get into all the other stuff, we're going to get into it. I've been doing some research on this wedge, and I'm about to buy the shit out of this club, because according to the website, it says you get better immediately and without practice.

And I was like, where the hell was this thing? That was pretty much my motto. If you could find 13 other more clubs, you might make a comeback. Exactly. I was like, why are you guys stopping at wedge, bro? The magic bullet. We've got it for you, for sure. I need a whole set of these bitches because my game could use it.

I love it. Well, obviously, the legend at San Jose State. Oh, well, absolutely. Maybe behind Ken Victoria. I don't think people realized how good of a player you were. You and Tiger, I mean, obviously went head-to-head many and many of times in college. 96, you had six titles. He had six titles.

And then he kind of ran away in the postseason. Which he tends to do. Yeah. But in college, obviously, I mean, you're pretty close to each other, San Jose State and Stanford. 20 minutes. Did you all play a lot against each other in the same tournaments and everything? Yeah, we did. I'd have to say more so my junior year, his sophomore year, we did.

my freshman year, or my sophomore year, his freshman year, we didn't play as much together. I think the first time we played together, because Stanford was so good. They were coming off a national championship in 1994. Then they get the same team back, minus Brad Lannning, who is now assistant coach for Casey Martin at Oregon, and they had Tiger Woods. So you tell me, what a swap. What a trade. Well, hey, no offense to Brad.

Brad was a solid player, but you got Tiger Woods. So it was like even at Santa's a state, we're sitting here going, and we didn't return, we returned me and another senior. And that was it. We lost the core of our lineup, really, our two, three, and four guy. I was the five guy in my freshman year. So we weren't going anywhere, but we were thinking sitting there going, Stanford is a juggernaut. But then there's this little school called Oklahoma State. And I think you know them really well.

They're pretty good. And they had something to say about that comes Scarlett in 19. that is a legendary story of as far as college golf. But as far as Tiger is concerned, we played together our first time at the New Mexico course, University of New Mexico. And I wasn't nervous so much. I knew what he'd done. I knew who he was.

I knew how good he was. But I wanted to show him what I could do. And little did I know that the whole team got. food poisoning the night before the final round of regional's in 1995. Interesting. The entire team got, the entire Stanford team. Yeah. So, and so I walk onto the first team and he is sitting there and he doesn't look so good.

And, you know, shake his hand. And as the round goes on, he's looking a little bit more peeked and he's not doing all that great. Anyway, he ends up shooting 72, even par around that place in 95, which I thought was a pretty good score considering the fact he had food poisoning the night before. And I ended up shooting 71 that round, birding the last two holes. And that, unbeknownst to me, because you didn't know what was going on, that got me into nationals as an individual that year,

as my team missed out. That time they took nine teams, three regions, nine teams they take from each region. Now it's a little different, obviously. But in junior year, we played a lot more together. And that was the year that we really kind of, I came in and I won my first three events of the fall season. And a couple in fairly emphatic fashion. And then they really kind of hyped up the fourth event because the fourth event was played at Olympic Club. And it was University of San Francisco's tournament.

And all four Bay Area schools were playing together, USF, Cal, Stanford, and San Jose State. no offense to Santa Clara or St. Mary's, but those were the best golf schools at the time in there, and we all played in foursomes. And it was me and Tiger, and I think he'd won a couple times, and then I'd won a couple times, but they had basically the two best players in the country within 20 minutes of one another. So it was pretty cool in that regard, but I understood it was the first time that I'd ever played with someone in a college of him. where they literally had marshals carrying yellow ropes across the entire fairway because there were a couple hundred people following our group because of Tiger.

And that was unnerving. I'd never experienced that before. And that was the first time that I was truly nervous around him and people watching me very closely because they were literally, even though they had ropes, they're kind of right on top of you, much like they have you do. at a U.S. amateur or something like that. Did he have that same, like, aura and intimidation that he had when he got on the PJ tour in college?

Like, other people playing, like, you know, like, I know it was before he is, who he is now, but like, oh, shit, I'm playing with Tiger. It was, it was absolutely business, especially final rounds. So those are the first two rounds. That was a 36 whole day around Olympic Club in November. That was a tough walk, I remember. But when it came to, we both played, we both didn't play well, the whole tournament. but when we got to the spring semester and I'd win one, he'd win one, I'd win one, he'd win one,

now it's legit. This is the number, and we're separating ourselves from the rest of the collegiate golfers. This is clearly the two best players in college golf, bar none. And we both had the same amount of wins, as you said, as you pointed out, called going into nationals. And I'd get these reports, you know, we'd play one with each other. We played at USC's tournament together. We played at at, um, never played at Positienpo together the week of the Western intercollegiate.

He didn't watch you around now. He didn't want you there. You won that thing. Go ahead. Uh, well, but he whooped me at USC. And to your point, when we got to the final round, I didn't play with them the first two rounds at USC. We just didn't get paired together.

But the final round, our teams were playing well. So we were paired together. We were one. We were playing the best for our teams. We step on to the first tee at North. ranch and that was the first time that I remember getting the the blank stare and we all know the blank stare if we've ever played with tiger and we've come up against him when everything's on the line doesn't matter whether it's a college tournament or you're playing him in tiddly winks he wants to beat you

so I remember going to shake his hand he's always the last on the tea as we all know and we're waiting at god he's going to miss his tea time and here he comes and he walks onto the tea and he's not looking at you. He's looking through you and as he's shaking your hand. Like, you're not even there. And that, to me, was the first time I had really felt truly physically intimidated by another human being. And I had to regather myself really quickly and say, okay, okay, all right, I got a, I got my business to take care of today. I want to win USC's tournament. Well, we do our thing. He ends up clipping me by a couple, I think. I end up finishing third. He ends up winning the golf tournament. But I learned a lot that day, just playing with him. You mentioned that stare, and I'll never

forget this. At the PGA at Bell Reef two years ago, I was out there doing some TV for CBS and stuff, and they sent me down Sunday because Gary Woodland was playing well, and they were like, see if you go get some comments or anything like this. So I'm standing right where the players come from the putting ring to the range, and Tiger walks by. And I've never played with Tiger, so I haven't got to see that. But I was like, good luck, Tiger. And he just gave me a stare. And I'm like, that's to stare. Yeah. Everyone talks about.

And I go back to the compound, I go, y'all better get ready because this guy's bringing it today. And he goes out and shoot 64 and finishes a second. But that stare is just legendary. And I'd never seen it up close and personal like that. That was the first time. It was, it's actually fairly easy to describe, quite honestly, because it's burned into my memory, like a couple of the shots that he's hit in college that I played with

him. But it's, it's late. It's like a deer in the headlights. It's glazed over. It's almost half so. sociopathic, quite honestly, looking like he's going to murder you. Honestly, and I mean, if Tiger hears this, he's probably like, come on, man, it's not, no, it's that bad.

It, it, it, it, it, he means 100% complete business when he steps on that first tea with you, especially final round when he's got a chance to win a golf tournament. Yeah, beyond the physical of what he can do. I think that's what separates him, put that elite, elite, elite outside of golf, just other like Jordan Kobe that. Without it. They want to rip your soul out of your body. Yeah.

They don't want to just beat. you. They want you to feel pain when they beat you. They want you to quit the game after they get down with you. Exactly right. And I got nothing wrong with that. I love that. Because we all want that. We all want to be that way. And if you don't, then you're in the wrong sport. What's your relationship with him now? Like you guys obviously had kind of the, I don't want to call it rivalry, but you guys were very, you know, toe to toe in college a lot. There's no rivalry. Did you guys talk? Yeah, I don't want to call like a rivalry. I don't

know if anyone's Tiger's rival. But like, are you guys friendly now when you're out there, do you see him and talk to them? Yeah, we're friendly. The last time I think we actually talked face to face in person was a couple years ago at the, actually I just posted something on Twitter a few days ago about it when he was playing in Memorial, I think. I wanted to say something to the effect that we were talking on the fourth hole, the Torrey North, and I was following his group for Golf Channel. And I was, you know, I was astounded at his ball speed and that after his fusion that he'd come back, he was swinging at 128, 129 miles an hour, and his ball speed was up around 180. I was like, dude, the big man's back.

And he's got all his faculties. And, you know, so he came up. We kind of chit-chatted a little bit. And, oh, we were talking about Finao. That's what I posted about Finae, how Fianos got the fastest ball speed on tour. Deschambo can't touch Fienau if Fianau really wanted to let it go. And that's when we were talking about that. We were just, you know, chit-chatting about, you know, how the kids, family, you know, how's your body, so on and so forth.

Just simple stuff. I mean, we're acquaintances. I wouldn't say, we're friendly. friendly acquaintances, but he's not calling me on the road going, hey, Oberholz, you want to go to dinner? Yeah. He's not doing that. I don't think there's a lot of those people in the world. No, there's not a lot of those people in what I understand. No. We're, I mean, obviously, this is about you, but you have a special relationship with Tiger, so it's fun to talk about him. Being one of the top players in college golf, going head to head with Tiger Woods a lot, would you, would you say you were

surprised at the amount of success Tiger had or not, not at all? I read where you said when he, when he won the Masters in 97, you, you were quoted. just saying something like, okay, I can't do that. So, yeah, so exactly right. So when, you know, we're all confident. I mean, you want a U.S. Amateur. How much confidence does that give you? A ton of confidence, right?

So you think you're 10 feet tall and bulletproof when you can do that kind of stuff. Well, even if you play against a guy like Tiger who's won three U.S. amateurs in a row and you beat him a couple times, it's going to make you feel like, okay, you can do the things that he can do. You can win too. Well, when he won his third U.S. amator in a row, and then he turns pro, does the hello world thing, goes out and you're still in college going into your fall, I'm going into my fall semester of my senior year now.

And I'm the preseason number one ranked player in the country. And I'm sitting there going, okay, I felt a lot of pressure to live up to what he did, not just what I did the year before, but what he did the year before, which is hard to do. And now I watch him go win Vegas beat Davis, beat Davis Love, one of my idols growing up. in high school and then go watch him win Disney back to back. And I'm going, you know what, I can, I know I can do that. I can do that. I can win on the PGA tour.

I can do that. Then fast forward about four months from then, now, then, and you go into now he's playing at La Costa at the Tour Championship. I just happen to go down there to watch him. And I'm standing, it was so surreal. A year prior, I'm playing with him talking to him, and he's just a normal college kid and now I'm outside the ropes watching him hit balls with the best players in the world winners only and I'm the guy I'm in the gallery and I can see we make eye contact he sees me

he kind of gives me that kind of sly stare rye half smile and then goes right back to business and work but I know he saw me I know he saw me because he looked right at me and we both kind of give that rye smile and then he goes back to work and doesn't come over and say anything to me but then he goes off I think it was a three round tournament because it got washed out and him and Lehman going to a playoff and he knocks it like that

that famous shot on the par three knocks it like that and beats Lehman and I'm still going I can do that and then he goes and does the Masters thing and that's when I looked at my roommate and I said I said I can't do that

I can't win the Masters by 12 shots right now I can't do that so that mess with your psyche at all Here's a guy doing things nobody's ever seen before the world. The fact that you can't do that you wouldn't think would be like a mess up, you know, the way you think about God. I think what what Tiger did to all of, to me,

I can't speak for the rest of our, for the rest of our generation of guys who are now in there early to late 40s and the guys that we played with in college. It pushed me, but knowing my, knowing my personality, it pushed me so hard. It almost pushed me too hard to do things I was physically and mentally not capable of doing.

And I had to kind of regather. It almost broke me as a player trying to keep up with what he could do. And I'm not saying that that didn't happen to other players. I'm sure it did. It happened in the gym. Other players broke themselves in the gym, trying to keep up with him physically. I tried to keep up with him to a certain extent, not physically,

because I knew I couldn't do what he could do physically because I'd watched it. just had to play my game, but I knew I could be as good as him mentally or thought I could be as good as him mentally. And I knew I could be as good as him strategically, even though we played two kind of different games, I could try to get into the same headspace that he could get into. That was really hard to do. And it kind of, it messed with me for a while until I could finally calm down and to say, okay, you just got to be you, man. You got to quit trying to live up to this. So you turned pro after your senior year. And it took you several years to get out on the PJ tour.

Do you think part of that was because of all that? I think to a certain extent. Yeah, I think so. I think that that had a little bit to do with it. I also had some technical flaws. I had some technical flaws in my golf swing. I had some technical flaws in what I did. I was a very athletic player.

I was a very target-oriented player versus, you know, you got guys that play in the box, and you got guys that play outside the box. I was a complete outside-the-box player versus, like, let's say, a Nick Faldo was more of an insubes. inside the box player. Let's get all my stuff in order and then, okay, now we can go. Versus a guy like me, it's like, okay, how am I getting it? It's like a Bubba. I was, I played more like Bubba in college, quite honestly. Yeah, I was, I was a shot shaper. I hit it low.

I hit it high. I moved it around because you could actually move a golf ball with my speed back then. Now you can, now you can't. Um, so I played it. I played a very fluid game and I was a, I was a momentum player. Well, I didn't have enough really good technical savvy for the PJ tour to be ready yet, and I needed more seasoning. I knew I had the drive. I knew I had the desire. I knew I had the short game. I knew it was a great putter. I knew I was really good around the greens.

But I didn't, from T to Green, I had a long way to go to get me to where I needed to go. I want to go back to 2000 because you came out, you turned pro. He played a couple years in Canada where you played really well. and your second on the order of merit up there. But then you go to Q School in 2000, get all the way to finals, miss your tour card by one shot, which is probably the hardest thing in all of golf

to have to take on as a player. What did that do to you mentally at that point? Like, just talk about how hard that is for a guy and how you reacted. It was very difficult. It was very difficult for about two hours after that round. I was really, really dejected, especially the way I did it,

making double on my 107th out of 108, hole out of 108 holes to miss by one shot. And I was the first, you know, you go through the stages of grief. I was angry for a long time. But after the round, two hours, I was furious, furious. And then they, I can't remember when exactly they had me on golf channel to, because it was televised to have an interview because of what I did. And I realized that within that, that two hours when I was calming myself down, I realized that, hey, look, before this, I never had any status on any tour other than the Canadian tour. And this is before the Canadian tour did anything, got you anywhere. The Canadian tour did nothing for you. Now you

have a chance, obviously, on the Canadian tour to get to move yourself up the ranks. And so I took it as a positive. I just, I turned a negative into a positive. I basically said, look, I didn't have anything now I have full basically full corn fairy status and I can go out and do what I need to do and I'll get my card to the corn fairy tour that's a professional analyst right there he refers to it as the corn fairy tour even though at the time it was not it was the buy dot com yeah it's been a lot of names it's hard to keep up with all the names it is you like I want to get your opinion on that do you like the fact because like when all three of us were playing at times there was tour cards available at Q school now there's not you can only get to the corn fairy do you like the way that the system is now

Do you wish that there was some number of PJ tour cards available right off the bat for guys at Q school? Wish. Yeah. Well, first of all, I wish for two reasons. I wish that I think that I think it's hard to tell a 46-year-old guy who's played 15 years on tour or 20 years. Hey, you got to go back to the Corn Ferry Tour for a year. Dude, I haven't lost my card in 15, 20 years. And now you're going to tell me I don't have a chance to just get right back out there where I've played my entire life.

I've had one bad year in 15 or 20. So that's reason number one. I understand it's a merit-based game, but that's reason number one. Reason number two is now that I'm in television and you understand this, dude, it is great drama. The best. There's nothing like...

Unless you're a part of it. Unless you're not... And then you want to stab your eyes out. Unless you're me and you're coming down the stretch and Jerry Fultz was following my group that day when I dumped it in the water and made double. And he... I'll, you don't, you want to be, I'd rather be Jerry than me at that day for sure.

But, but it's great drama. It's fantastic drama. Look, the same year that I did that, Joe Daly had a, had a putt bounce out of the cut. That was that year? I played with Joe, Joe did that the fifth round. He and I played together when I dumped it in the water in the sixth round. Some bad juju. Bad juju, bro.

Yeah, it's, it was, it was really interesting. But yeah, I mean, those are phenomenal stories. And I think that if you just did five cards. Is that the number? Five, you think five. I think five. Just something. Just something. You've got, you've got, you've got, however many starts you can get to get what you get, but five. You got five cards that you give the guys. I totally agree. And you put it on TV and it would be epic. Four rounds, you don't need six rounds. You don't need six rounds. I agree with everything you say. And I also, to add on to that, I think it's so cool and say like a kid that's a caddy at Whisperock can go from being a caddy at Whisper Rock to playing on the TV. Kevin Streelman. Exactly. I think it's so. I think it's so. I think it's so. I think it's so. Great story. And by the way, I've been in the same position as you. I double bogey the 108th hole to think I missed by one.

And I ended up making it on the number because Mark Anderson and Roberto Castro finished ahead, but they already had their tour card. They were trying to improve their position. Oh, my gosh. So I was told on 18, I souped it at PJ West. And I had no idea. I thought I was comfortably in. And I'm walking up there to drop.

And my catty goes, you have to make bogey. And I'm like, oh, my God. So we're finishing on the necklace course, which is the water's down the right. It was a terrible T-shot. Yeah. The only fairly missed the whole week probably. This whole life. Yeah.

I had to drop like 280. Okay. Oh. So I had to lay it up there, up there in that neck and I wedge it to like 10 feet and lip it out. And I thought my life was over. So my friends are always like, oh, Monday's my favorite,

Monday of Q school is my favorite thing to watch on TV. And I was like, you guys are sick. And then I was actually a part of it. Oh my God. It's the worst thing. I can remember watching that unfold with you. And I was like, had my phone rate.

I was like, pull back. Don't text. No congratulations. Just yeah. But like it's the best drama in terms of just pure drama and golf because it's legitimately, there's not many things you can say this about, a life-changing moment right there.

Without a doubt. Without a doubt. I mean, I think we use the life-changing moment a little we go overboard with it. Right. It's said for things that don't. It has the chance to be a life-changing moment. It has a chance. Exactly right.

But Q school, if you get a card, if you go from, if you go from, let's say you go through the stages of qualifying school, I don't know how they would work it to get to however many number of guys to get to five. That has to be thought out a little bit. But, you know, back then, it was truly, you could go from being just a mini tour player to the next year you're playing in the same groups, potentially if you make the cut on a Saturday with Tiger Woods. And the year prior, that same time, you were playing in the poeunk open. I had multiple friends that did exactly that.

And I think not even from a drama perspective for TV and how great it would be, there are guys also coming out of college that are ready to go right now. And in every other sport, they get to go straight to the league as soon as they're age eligible. Why not in golf too? Well, I think to a certain extent that we're there, to a certain extent, I think Drew with that, because you've seen Colin Morcao do it, you saw Matt Wolf do it, you've seen Victor Hovlin do it, you've seen John Rom do it in the last few years. So the sponsor's exemptions that these guys get the seven that they get to prove themselves,

it's not a lot for sure. but if you're truly great like those guys are, then you should be able to get it done to get yourself special temporary membership up to that point. And I think that they're trying to separate the good and there's lots of good PGA tour players out there from the great coming out of college. I get that totally.

So I'm okay with that, but I would still would love to see five spots. There's still players that aren't going to get PGA tour exemptions that finally do make it to the PJ tour and kill it their rookie year. Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, that's why it's just always so cool if they could have that chance.

Yeah, you got to be a big name player to get those sponsors. Yeah, there's only a couple of them that they're given to college kids every time. Well, and how many, I mean, how many guys are taking, you know, because of what's going on with COVID now, are taking that year. I mean, John Ogdenstein's a hell of a player,

a phenomenal player. But I'm sure that John sees all these other phenomenal players and he's like, God, I'm not going to get, I'm hardly going to get any starts, man. Yeah, it's tough. I mean, there's only so many spots available. There's only so many spots available, you know, same with all the other seniors that are coming back that, that have the opportunity now to come back and they're doing it. Well, let's talk a little bit about more, more about your golf game. So I reached out to your colleague, Brandlchamble this morning. First of all, just like a simple little two-line text. And of course, I get a book back,

filled with stats about Aaron Oberholzer. Yeah, that's right. Okay. I can't wait to hear this. He starts with. Yeah. He was a far better player slash ball striker than anybody ever realized. So then he proceeds to give me some stats. Okay. Let me support that. Yeah.

So finished 13th at the 2004 PGA while leading the field in Greens and Regulation. Okay. Finished fourth. That was wrestling straight. Yeah. Finished fourth in Greenser Regulation at the 2007 PGA and finished fourth in the tournament. It's amazing that he has all this by that. Yeah, exactly.

He is amazing. He's got. Yeah. It's finished 14th and 16th in the 2006 Masters in U.S. Open respectively. and you were like 12th in Greens and Regulation. And then finished ninth at the 2005 U.S. Open. He goes, this guy's had so much better of a career than people give him credit for.

It's unbelievable. He raves about your ball striking. And then he goes on to say this. I love this, by the way. Crappy bunker for it. No, this is about you as an analyst now. When a tour event is on, he looks at the TV the way a radiologist looks at an x-ray. He goes, he's in a very intense viewer.

Wow. Because we share the same room. And I am sitting there, I'm not kidding you, at Golf Channel, in our, in our analyst room, they put these desks. I don't know why they did this, but they did, they put these desks, this little desk like this. And then they've got these massive 50 inch screen TVs. I've been there. So two side by side, and I'm sitting there like this, you know, just jotting notes, but the TV is like right here. So, and Brandl sits back in the chair, and Brandl's like, Brando's like this.

Arm, legs up on the desk. Oh yeah. And just chill as can be. And just chill as can be. And I'm sitting there. And that's just, that's his personality. That's my personality. I'm a little more high strong. I really like his analogy though. Yeah, yeah. Of course Brando's going to come with someone now. It was like a radiologist looking at an x-ray. There's no doubt. I mean, I've loved working with him since day one. We had our, we had some, I had to get used to it and, and in who he was and understand him more. In the beginning, it was, it was tough at times, quite honestly, working with him. Because, He is quite honestly, as far as golf analysts, there's, I mean, he's the Tiger Woods, quite honestly. I mean, you love him, you hate him. He's polarizing. But you can't deny the work the man puts into the game. And he has taught me a lot about how to do my job and do it well. And I've leaned on him sometimes about, hey, how would you go about this?

How would you go about this? And he's always been really cool with saying, hey, what let's try looking at it this way try looking at it that way and looking at it from different ways and that's what makes him so good is that he will he will he he he will cover 98% of his bases and the 2% he misses um are probably the 2% that don't matter really they's like that that really doesn't matter but he's going to cover all his bases and uh i don't see quite honestly uh another one like him coming along anytime soon for golf change So I hope Golf Channel runs him ragged until he's worn out.

We had to cut him off because he might have gone for four hours. Yeah, we were starting to get into philosophy and some deep shit. He was losing, I was referencing, like, authors and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I'd be like, uh, yeah, but what's a book? Totally agree, dude. I want to ask you this, though, because I thought this was a very interesting perspective from Brando.

I asked him about, like, is it hard to give honest critique of a player being that, like, you have relationships with some of these guys? And he quoted, I'm going to paraphrase here, but he basically said, like, I'm not trying to be friends with these guys because it makes it tougher for me to be honest in my analysis of them. Do you agree with that? Or do you find yourself, like, going out of your way to not, like, develop close friendships, quote-unquote, with the players because you know you have to be honest? I, luckily, a lot of my, what are guys that I consider close friends on the PJ Tour are on their way out or they're not playing as much anymore. So I don't, and they're not up at the top.

so I don't have to critique them. But I think those guys, if they ever got there and they goofed up and I had to critique them, they understand what I do because they are my close friends. They understand what I do. They understand what my job is and what I have to do and what Brandel has to do. But, yeah, I think that that is hard. However, what makes it even harder, I think, for me versus Brandel in a way, is that I'm kind of like the, you know,

you know, well, I'm going to make a 1980s baseball reference, Jose Akindo, remember Jose Akindo? No, not at all. Oh my God, you guys. I was talking about 85. Oh my gosh. You guys were killing me. So Jose Akindo played for the,

played for the St. Louis Cardinals. And the dude played, I want to say in one game, he played all nine positions, he even pitched. So that's why I feel like, to a certain extent, I am for the golf channel. I'm like a, I'm a utility guy. Oberholster, we need you to go here, we need you to go here, we need you to do live from here, we need you to do a stand up here, we need you to do live golf here, we need you do holes,

we need you do on the ground. And I think it's important to be able to do all that stuff, whereas Brando gets to focus on one thing and he can be great at that one thing, whereas I'm kind of in a Frank role where Frank did everything. Frank was live golf, Frank was lead analyst, Frank was holes, Frank even did some stuff with CBS on the ground a couple times. Rolled balls across the green. Yeah. I love that.

Frank, Frank to me is the greatest five tool player in television. He can do anything and he does them all extremely well. So that's kind of my role. Well, between all the roles, when you're doing live golf, you know, that's when I think you're the most exposed as an analyst. And you have to think on your feet the quickest. you have to be ready with something the fastest, and you can get yourself in trouble the most

with a player by being too critical, too quick, without thinking about what's really going on in front of that player at that time. I think that's why some players didn't like the way Johnny Miller did it, because they thought he was too critical. And I remember even when I played, he's like, oh, Miller's never made a mistake, obviously. he's never he doesn't know what you know when of course johnny knows um but when you're in studio now you're separated quite a bit from the players that at that point that's a different job now you've got to

dive deep you've got to go way deep you have the opportunity and the time to really dive into a player's background statistically and build a story on that player and prove your point as to why a player is doing something well or not doing something well. Whereas you don't have that time. So if you just kind of come off the top of your head with something kind of outrageous on live television and it gets back to the player, that player's going to

probably have a word with you or likes you up pretty good. That was my question. Have you ever had a player confront you about anything you've said? Not as of yet that I can remember or I'm blocking it from my memory. One of the two. But I don't I don't ever recall someone coming up to me on the range as I'm

walking the range at an event that I'm doing live golf at and saying, bro, what the hell are you talking about? I mean, you said this and that has nothing to do with what I was doing. And I'm like, well, I haven't had that happen yet. I'm sure it's bound to happen that you get questioned as an analyst. And that's fine. Hey, if I make a mistake, I want to know that mistake. But, dude, if I come to you and I ask you as a player, what are you working on?

And you don't give me an honest answer. it is my job to make my own assessment and my own best guesstimation based on my experience as a player. So in my humble opinion as a player, just give me the information I'm asking you for unless it's like seriously state secrets, you know? Is that the hardest thing to do though in your profession is like tow that line between like, hey, I want to give the listeners something that's unique and authentic and honest, but also like I got to be very careful about the way I say things because like you said, when it's live TV, hey, come up with something quick, bam, it can come off. the wrong way and guys are like what the hell Aaron? Yeah you just you really have to you really have to be careful with how you say it what you say it and I think that in this and that's the hardest part I think to your point true that now I think that people are especially our avid fans at golf channel they they are just hungry for so much information they want as much I think a lot of them

want so much information that you want to provide it but at the same time you're like God I the the player asked me not to say this I'm not going to say it if they asked me not to say it If they say, hey, A.O., I'll give you this information off the record. It's that simple. You say off the record? It's off the record. I'm not going to bring it up. And which I ask them, which I always ask him, like, I'll tell you what. Now it comes to me. I'm on the ground. I'm on the ground. I won't name the player. I won't name the coach. Well, that's no fun. Well, well. No one listens to him. Give it out. No, we'll speculate and name off like six or seven names. So this player is struggling right now. And his, yeah. I know. It could be anybody.

And has been struggling for a few years. And I'm at Dallas at the new course. Trinity Forest. Trinity Forest. Thank you. No trees on it. No trees. Yeah, exactly. Some forest.

And so the forest is around it. Right. And we're in a rain delay. And this player's been struggling with a certain part of his game. And his coach is there. And I go up to his coach during the rain delay as we're coming, getting ready to come back out from the rain delay. And I asked the coach, I said, what have you guys been working on?

Is everything copacetic? And he goes, oh, we were working on this and this and that and this. And I'm like, gold, Jerry, gold. And I'm just, that's what I'm thinking in my mind. Oh, I'm using this on the broadcast. As soon as I'm going to follow in this group and da da da da da da da. And so just out of courtesy, which I think is always important to do as a broadcaster when coaches or players give you that kind of information, especially when it's one

on one like that. Hey, can I use that in the broadcast? May I sit? No. well, this is the stuff people want to know. Why can't I? Just no, you can't use that. And I was like, and to this day, I'm just like,

I won't approach that coach on the range anymore, ask him for anything. Because I know I'm going to get, I know I'm just going to get like this. I wonder who that could be, by the way. It's that player's birthday today. We're not going to talk about it. Right.

Exactly. I don't know who you're talking about. Yeah. Nobody could possibly know. Look up which PGA Tour player's birthday is July 27th. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's him. But let's talk about 2006 was your best year on the PJ tour. You absolutely killed it.

You win at Pebble Beach, which I want to hear about. You shoot 60 at the Byron Nelson. Make the Tour Championship. Missed a 15-footer for 59. Well, that was stupid. You should have a hoop-thous. Because there's no list that says players that shot six. That had a putt for 59.

Exactly. But how cool is it for you to win, being a NorCal kid at Pebble Beach? First off, you won by five. It was awesome. Yeah, I mean, it's funny. I was on Twitter this morning, and we were talking. I was talking with a guy, a guy would you take longevity because my career was so short with five and a half years on tour because of the injuries.

Or would you take 20 years on tour with no wins, but you never lose your card? Or would you take the two, one of the wins I have is unofficial? Would you take the two wins you have in the five and a half, five and a half years, especially when you had Pebble Beach is one of the wins? That's a hard decision. Yeah. Because Pebble is such a special place. And it's not a long list of guys who have won at Pebble.

Beach. So I'm, I'm torn because I value longevity in this game. I really look at guys like Charles Howell. And amazing, just amazing. 96 top tens. Unbelievable. Oh yeah, we're going to, I'm, hoping television has like a like a faux like a fireworks display on the TV when he gets his hundredth. Which will be in like five more events. Yeah. Probably. See Mark Kalka Veckeviki chimed in. Calkeviki said he has like 142. Yeah. Calcake has 142. Yeah. Calca has 142. two top tens. Yeah, but he's played like 700 and 800. Still, though, that's pretty strong.

Oh, it's incredible. I don't give a shit either way, but it's unbelievable. And that, just off topic, but that's another guy that I don't think it's as much credit for how good CalC. Calc was amazing. And when he was good, when he was on, he was real, he was not unbeatable, but he was winning. No one was catching him because he was making 30 birdies a tournament, you know? I mean, he just out birdie you. So, but say your win wasn't at Pebble.

Yeah. Would you take the longevity? Yes. Yeah, without a doubt. I mean, that's got to be special. When you had all your family and friends? Yeah, it was really cool. It was very cool.

And how about to walk up 18 with a five? Five is a nice number to have on 18 at the bubble. Yeah, I remember that final round it got tough. It was, it rained early in the week, shocker at bubble. It rained early in the week. The golf course was soft, but it stopped like after Monday or Tuesday, and the golf course kind of progressively, you know, clay base there.

It just drains off and the sun comes out and just bakes it. And it just progressively got firmer and firmer and firmer as the week went on, which that's, in my favor, I believe, with the way I used to hit the ball. So when Sunday rolled around, man, it was just like the Greens. I remember the low score that day was another Bay Area native, Todd Fisher. He shot River Fish. Legend, legend.

Oh, his nickname is Soup because he always ate soup, so we called him soup. I would always order the soup, didn't matter. And so love you, soup. And he shot 68 and the Greens were like this. Yeah. I mean, you could play basketball on the greens at Pebble that day, I remember. And I remember playing with Mike Weir, who was one of my favorite human beings on Earth and still is to play golf with in competitive rounds. One of the most incredible people, I think, in humans as just far as just a great gentlemanly competitor.

He wants to beat your brains in, but he is the nicest guy that wants to do that, or at least back then on the PJ Tour. And he was wonderful to play with. And we, I mean, we had a nice time. I don't think he had as nice as time as I did, obviously. Yeah, he struggled. And I know that's one. He had a nice time. He had a nice time.

I had a nice time. I had a nice time play with Mike. I don't know that Mike wants to play with me anymore at Pebble Beach. But it was, it was a nice walk with him. I felt very comfortable on the golf course that day, that final round, knowing that two years prior, I was in the final group with VJ. when Vijay was basically a de facto number one player in the world because Tiger was working on his swing with Haney and still hadn't kind of figured it out

and Vijay was just on a tear. And he, I remember my coach coming up to me and I played terrible because I thought I had to be perfect that day and my coach comes up to me and he says, he goes, I don't worry about it. I go, what are you talking about? I shot 76 and absolutely choked like a dog. You know, with one of the greatest players in the world,

I feel like an A-hole. And he goes, dude, if you had 65 today, he would have had 64 and still would have beat you by a shot. shot even though you were about seven clear of the field. Yeah. It didn't, it wouldn't matter. That's how good VJ was. But that taught me a lot going into when I was facing weird because, you know, you're up

against another major champion and those guys don't make a lot of mistakes usually. So, um, so I learned a lot and it was a, it was a great round. I felt very in control until about 13 or 14 where I think the wheels got a little wobbly. Um, but, um, it was very special. I'll always remember that walkup 18. Yeah, for sure. And when you were healthy, You were playing good all the time.

You got into the top 25 of the official world golf rankings. When you were healthy, you were playing great, but you ran into like a stretch of injuries there. Is it more frustrating to like, as a golfer, to being healthy and not being able to play well? Or being, I can play well as long as I'm healthy, but I can't play because I'm hurt. Oh, boy, I'll tell you what, my wife could probably answer that question immediately because she's had to live with me through this. but I would say that the most frustrating part for me is being healthy now, even though I'll never be able to play the way, I'll never be able to put the load on this hand that I once did and to do the work to play, knowing that my brain still works really well, my swing is as good as it's ever been,

even better than when I was winning and I was a top 25 player in the world. My golf swings gotten actually better. I'm still hitting at the same distance thanks to technology, but I can't do it days in a row. I can't do it weeks in a row. That's super frustrating. When I go out to my home club and I know it's country club golf, and I go out and I shoot 66 and I bitch about leaving shots out there.

And I go, I don't care if the rough is four inches, I'm still going to shoot 66 because I'm hitting it so well. So that's frustrating. At the time, Drew, it was very frustrating to have to deal with all that stuff. And knowing that at the time I was the 22nd ranked player in the world and I was playing with a broken hand and didn't know it was broken, which didn't help things because it got misdiagnosed a couple times, all the way through from when I broke it at the Byron Nelson in 2007 in early May,

and I played all the way, all the majors after that and through the FedEx Cup playoffs with a broken hand not knowing it. And yeah, it just hurt. I just took Advil. So it was a broken hand. Just pop a couple of ad bill. Well, it was like, some dirt on it. It was about three or four around.

So it was three or four every day. I was, I was killing my kidneys and my liver. It's good for your intestines. We kill our livers in different ways. Yeah. Did they ever find it? Because it was your left hand that you battled for so long. Was there ever something they said like, this is what's causing it?

It was just like a bad luck in that your hand. No, it was a blunt force trauma injury. I was in the, I've overcooked the drive on 18th, second round, Byron Nelson, down by the pond. I was in a weird stance. I remember like it was yesterday. I had a 162 to a back right hole location. I had to grip down to the steel because it was almost like a baseball swing. I grabbed a six iron, gripped down to the steel, open it up.

I saw a big clump of grass in front of the ball about yay high. And I said, but it was a clean look at the back. So I'm thinking, I'm just going to blow right through that. And it stopped on impact full speed. And I felt this like someone drove an ice pick right through my wrist. That was it. That was like the one thing. And that's what led to all the troubles.

Yep. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. It was yesterday. Okay. Well, let me ask you this because I saw an interview from when you were still playing around 2005, 2006. You guys did your homework.

Oh, we don't. We're professionals. Everyone is so surprised. Everyone's like, holy shit. You're like, you do actually your homework. Yeah. Well, I've watched the podcast. I'm like, how the hell do these guys know all this?

We did. Big D. We have... Wait till the end of the show. We haven't even asked the deep stuff. We haven't even asked the deep. This stuff's about you. Yeah.

This is right. So I saw... I can't remember the guy who was interviewing you, but he asked you about the Champions Tour. Yeah. And you kind of misunderstood him. You're like, no, there's no way. He was asking if you'd play on the Champions Tour when you turn 50 and you go, no, there's

no way. But there will still be a Champions Tour, obviously. And knowing you're a big family, man, do you somewhat think maybe that hand injury was a blessing? Because now you get to stay home with you? your family a lot more and you're excelling at your analyst job, which is awesome. I appreciate that. Do you kind of think maybe that was a little bit of a blessing now that you don't have to travel around and play nonstop or do you still wish you were playing? Oh, brother. That's deep. That's deep, bro.

I might have stole that from Brandel Shevley. You know, you know, what's funny is that I, I, Brandel and I have had this discussion. We had this discussion four or five years ago when we were working together in the analyst room because I asked him why he stopped and and he told me very honestly and you know another reason why I love the guy um he's like I never saw myself playing golf the rest of my life I always wanted to do other things and I was like dude that is really that's cool I mean I respect that he's honest with himself and I'm going to be honest with you guys and said I never saw myself doing anything was what I told him other than playing golf I mean that's it that's what I loved It's what I told my friends when we used to gather at our lock, at one locker of this one guy in high school when I was 15.

I'm going to be a PGA tour player. I'm going to play on the PGA tour. I'm going to win the career grand slam. I would say that stuff out loud like an idiot. But it was something that I believe so deeply and I loved the game so much and I was so passionate. I wanted to work so hard at it that everything that I did, everything that I sacrificed was to get to those goals. So when it was taken away from me, it was, it was very difficult to deal with for a long time, for a long time for years. Yeah.

I want to let you miss it right when you got out of it. Like, you slid right into your analyst job and you're great at what you do, but like was a part of you like, dude, I belong out there. My left hand just. Oh, without a doubt. Oh, I was pissed. I'd see guys that I could, I know I could beat like a drum. And they're winning golf tournaments. I'm going.

And that's what. That's got to be tough. In all honesty, that's what kind of made me a little salty as an analyst when I first. first got when I first got to Golf Channel, probably made me a better analyst, quite honestly, because I valued, I felt like I was a fairly consistent player. I didn't do anything poorly, statistically. I had a good game for the major championships. I kind of tailored my game around major championships. Excuse me. And when I see guys play 28 events a year and make eight cuts and win three times, that pisses me off. Yeah. I mean, just to be honest,

That pisses me off. The most envious in the same way. When I see these guys miss a million cuts, win, get the two years, take another year off, win again. I'm just like, dude, they're bad 90% of the time, but they're going to play for 20 years out there. God bless them. And you know what? That's how they play. And that's what I had to get over.

That's how they play. That's what, that's just who they are as players. And everybody's going to be different. And I'm different. And I valued consistency. And that's how I built my game. I wanted, I didn't play a lot. But the times that I played, I wanted to get.

myself the best chance and I'd lived and died with every swing that I made because I wanted to win every chance that I that I played. And that's kind of that's how I played the game. It wasn't like, oh, there's an there's another chance next week. I would say that. But it's like, no, this is it. This is this is my chance. I want to win this week. Does that suck as an analyst when you're sitting there talking about a shot that a guy's playing? Like, if my left hand didn't hurt, I would beat this guy's head in right now. And you got to, meanwhile, you got to like break down a shot. Is I got 150 from the intermediate cut here? What I think what, what, what upsets me is when, is when it, there's the obvious, there's

the obvious smart play when you're in a, when you're in a situation. And the guys just, they don't make, they don't make the right decision, you know, okay, well, what is the right decision? And then you got to ask yourself as an answer, what is the right decision for this player, you know, sometimes, especially when I'm on the ground falling a guy and I'll walk up to a lie and I'll be like, okay, I know the guy's speed. I know that he's strong, but this lie is just dumb. You're not getting it out of here. And yet I'm watching him going, and I'm sitting there going, I don't think he can get it out of this lie. I don't think, and boom, in the water or something like that. I'm like, dude, I mean, I can see that. And I haven't played in seven years. Why are you

trying to hit that shot, bro? That's the kind of stuff that frustrates me with certain players. when I know that certain player, whoever that certain player may be, a young player in their 20s or late 20s now that has a massive future in front of them potentially, but they just don't seem to make very good course management decisions. That's the kind of stuff that kind of drives me, Batty, more than anything else. All right. That's awesome stuff. Well, now it's time to test you a little bit.

Oh, boy. It's time for emergency nine. Okay. We do this with every guess. Nine fun questions. Let's do it. To learn a little bit more about you. So, Sleaves, would you like me to start it off?

Sure, you can fire. Go ahead, Colty. All right, we ask this to everyone. This is recurring one, this first one. Movie about the life of Aaron Oberholzer. You can pick any actor, dead or alive. Who plays you? Oh, gosh.

And we each get to choose as well, by the way. And ours matters more. Yours are correct. Yeah, ours are right, because we're directing. Exactly. Matt Damon. Oh, wow. He's a popular pick.

Every guy thinks he looks like Matt Damon. John Daly picked him, which I'm failing to see him. that no i someone else picked him too uh let's see matt damon or um you got a better chance than john daly of damon josh damelle oh jemannes he's a handsome well i played with him at you fancy yourself a handsome individual obviously actually the guy i picked is freaking handsome too so you got uh jake jillen hall yeah yeah i picked paul rudd i'd rather be funny anything good looking there you go Paul Rudd Paul that was mine that's that's fantastic can he be

salty sure I'm he can be whatever you want dude he's an all-time act that's a good point that's a good point he can be whatever you my kids obviously aunt man they love him he's great he does everything it's fantastic all right second question here's a little research for you are you the only person to ever wd from heat exhaustion in the state of Rhode Island where did you find that dude I dig deep bro this ain't I told you this I told you that yeah 1995 Northeastern Amateur. Yes. What a place.

Want a moister. Here is a pasty NorCal kid. This is great. Going to Northeast, the Northeast and basically, you know, not expecting hot weather in the Northeast because it's my first time playing golf, pretty much playing golf there. NorCal guy. It never gets over 62. No.

I mean, I grew up on, I grew up at, I grew up at, I grew up at Crystal Springs. I don't know if you guys know that, that golf course, but it's right off the 280. If you're going, if you're driving south. in San Francisco. It never gets above 85 and it never gets below 55, but it's still, it's more towards 55 than it is 85. And there's not a ton of humidity. So I get to the, I get to the north, and then obviously playing at Cal Club a lot,

that's just basically, you might as well be in Wisconsin when you're playing a Cal Club in the wintertime because it's so cold. So I get to, I get to the Northeast Amateur, and I can't remember which round I withdrew it. It might have been the first round. but I get out there and I'm practicing. I'm like, God, dog, dude, what is, I mean, it is hot as hell. I wasn't ready for it. Rhode Island, it was my, it was my, it was like, it's Rhode Island.

It was my first, it was my first trip to a major, to a major, like, massive amateur event that I got invited to as, after my sophomore year in college. And I, I, I was completely blown away, unprepared. And I was. Denny Glass probably never invited you about. I luckily they did thank God and I learned how to deal with heat a little bit better directly after a four putt if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, because I couldn't because I couldn't see. That came directly from your boy Bryce Mulder, a good friend of years.

He's like, make sure you ask him about the Northeast Amateur only guy to ever withdraw in the state of We might have played together actually. Rhode Island heat exhaustion. That's great. All right. All right. Number three, you mentioned it earlier. Yeah.

A couple shots of tigers from college to get in your mind. Give me the best shot you ever saw a tiger hit. Can I do two? Sure. Okay. So that same year, 1996, Tigers coming off a three putt at on the back nine. I can't remember exactly at North Ranch Golf Club.

The first par five on the back nine kind of goes up and over the hill. If I remember correctly, there's a massive oak tree down like 150 yards, 100, 150 yards of him the creek. And then there's like a canyon. I mean, out of about. downs, death, gone. You're not fighting your golf ball. And so he was last to hit. So me and Mike Miller from UCLA, we hit, stripe it down the middle. And Tiger gets up there. And I remember looking at Mike, and we're looking at him. And I go, dude, now, where the hell is he going? And he's got

his feet. If this is the fairway, he's got his feet over here, 30, 40 yards into the canyon. And I'm like, this thing, like a rocket, cuts 30, 40 yards. back into the fairway and flies our balls by 20 yards. He hits seven iron in. He makes two putt birdie just like that coming off of a three putt in the hole before. And I was like, oh shit. We should have done that. So you know how guys hit flat cuts today?

He hit flat cuts with a 43 and a half inch steel shafted driver. And a ballada. Yeah. I mean, and I mean, he did with a ballada golf ball back then that all the powerful dudes now can do with the solid cord ball. It was, it was a different ball game. The next shot was, how about this? First round at Olympic club when we were playing together. Again, he's not playing well.

He doesn't have a swing in order. We get to seven, the short uphill, dog leg right, par four. All of us lay up off the tee with two irons when guys played two irons. And tigers sit there with driver waiting for the green clear. We're like, yeah, right. Come on, 288 yards uphill into a slight breeze. Just go. 55 degrees outside in the morning.

He goes, one hands it, next it, pin high. I'm just like, dude, this dude, I want to know the planet this guy came from. I love the Tiger Story because everyone tells the best shot and there's, we haven't heard one overlap yet. It's just basically his entire career. It's ridiculous. And then I didn't, I only played with them once as a professional, if you can believe that. We played together in the mat, we played against each other in the match play down in Tucson, the world match play. And he toyed around me with me for, I think.

You made it longer than a lot of people thought, I think. I think six, yeah, probably. Three and two. Yeah, three and two. Yeah, I think I made it to 16 and or 17. You did better than Stephen Ames. Yeah. Yeah.

You shake his hands, say, sorry about pasta. You'll never have pasta tempo, bro. I don't think he's missing that. All right, next question, a little less serious of a golf question. Have you ever sustained a serious injury while during an ugly sweater Christmas tennis party? F you, Molder. That's got, that's Bryce is brutal. This one's not from Bryce.

It's from a different one. I'll tell you. Parker. Yeah. Yeah. My man Parker. Your boy Parker McLaughlin. He said, ask him about this.

I love both those guys. A little calf injury. Yeah. So background on that. I did a 50 some odd mile bike ride that morning. And I pushed it pretty hard. Well, that cycling's kind of my thing now. That's what I compete in hard and kind of go out hard since I can't do it in golf.

So that's where my, that's where my energy goes to get better and to, to try to be that type A personality that I was on the golf course. So I did a 50 mile bike ride that morning. Well, not being well versed in what I should do with my, as well versed as I should have been at the time, but what I should do with my body to break, to kind of, you know, relax and recover very quickly, knowing that I was going to have to go out and consume fairly decent amounts of alcohol, and play tennis that night, I did not do those things. And I went out there and I consumed a little,

yeah, I consumed, I had some Uncle Tito, treated me well, a little too well, and I ended up popping my calf that day. A little six weeks. Six weeks, and I was sweating it because first event back, that was Christmas, and I'm sitting there going, going to my PT, dude, I got to walk Torrey Pines for my job.

Am I going to be ready? He's like, when is that? Five weeks. He's like, no. It's going to be close. Thank God. Three days a week, I was busting my butt just so I could do my job and not have to call my boss and go,

I can't walk, Tori. Drunken tennis. It ain't for everybody, bro. Drunken tennis is not for everybody. One more serious golf one, number five, 10 years from now, who has more wins from this date right now? Who wins more?

Rom, Rory, Justin Thomas. God, dog. They're all listening. I tell you what, recency bias is a tough thing because Rom's obviously won the most recently. JT, what? JT's got 13. Rom's got Rory's up there. 18.

Don't count the past ones. From right now, say they're all zero. Oh, from right now, they're at zero. Starting at zero. Well, in that case, I think you've got to give it to the youngest dude and world number one right now. I think that that's... They're all successful. I mean, they're all...

Yeah, I think my money's on John. That's a hard... From right now to have the most wins, yeah. Hard guy to argue against. Yeah. All right, this one I'm very interested in. This is not serious golf in any way, shape, or form. All right, I'm a golf club buyer.

I walk into a store. I want to buy a new wedge. I need you to sell me on the XE1 wedge in 20 seconds or less. Go. Do you hit it fat? All the time. Do you hit it thin? All the time.

Well, they're cousins. If you can take away one, you'll take away both of them. XE1 does that. Here's my routing number. They sell to me for whatever you want, dude. I pay you a million. So I hit it fat and thin? Yep, sure do.

Kind of staying on the same topic. here several years ago it was well-known tiger woods borderline had the chipping yips did he ever reach out to you and ask if you could hook him up with an xc1 wedge that is he's the perfect candidate because i know he's too cheap to go buy one that's a massive negative that's a massive negative but that would have been epic and i guarantee he would have signed had me sign an india he would have been the perfect candidate you get an xc1 in tiger's hands but you know what this funny thing is that at phoenix that year when he had all those issues um i didn't I didn't believe the fact. I didn't believe that it was a release. He was messing with his release

pattern. I thought that was Tiger Speak just trying to try to throw a smoke screen on us. I'm just sitting there going, dude's got the yips. Yeah. And I actually said it on air and I was wrong. It was a release pattern issue. Interesting. I still think it was a smoke screen. He's not a little bit talented. I think he can figure out the release pattern. All right. Number eight. All right. This is a good one. Who has more money right now? Jeff Bezos or your physical therapist. That's a coin flip. That's a good one.

That's a coin flip. I'm telling you what, if there's a physical therapist in the valley, that is, you know, a good one that's seen multiple professional golfers that doesn't know me, I want to know the guy's name. Yeah. Because they all know me. They're lining, they're sending Christmas cards over to the overholds of residence. I'm telling you what.

I have, I have in 134 events or something, I think. I played on tour before I had to stop. I think I have 13. I'm pretty sure I have 13 WDs. That's not a good percentage. I was hurt a lot. I was hurt a lot. And in fact,

one of the guys from Titleist, when I was with Titleist for most of my career, they nicknamed me hangnail because they thought I wouldn't play if I had a hangnail. Little do they know I played with a broken hand for half of you. Yeah, you had a broken hand. Jason Day might be chasing you down here pretty soon. I feel my heart goes out to Jay Day, man. I know what that's like.

All right. Last one. Think about this, okay? Who takes longer to do their hair and makeup? Your wife, Angie, or Brandel Shambly? Brandl. That is awesome. My wife, hey, my wife, she's played on the LPGA tour.

She knows how to get ready quick. There's no doubt. Brandle does not. No, Brandl, well, it's a production. He has to have that. He's got to have the quaff just right, man. It looks like he wakes up like that, but there's a whole chemistry. Hell, the damn thing has.

its own Twitter handle, so you know it's serious. It's good point. It looks nice. It's working. Whatever he's doing. We're all envious of it. That's right. Well, Ayo, it's been an absolute blast, man. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. It was a lot of fun. Appreciate it. Absolutely. And that was Aaron Oberholzer joining us on golf subpar. Slees, I love talking to him about the Tiger Woods stories. Like there's, it's hard to get

someone to really open up about a relationship with Tiger. And here's a guy who's known Tiger for a very long time, was very, like, obviously competed a ton against him, played with him a ton and to know that he's kind of always had that that stare that intimidation factor since such a young age yeah i feel like any guy that we get on the pj tour just in golf we ask tiger stories about but they're so hard to come by because tiger's a closed book most of the time he was a guy that knew tiger before he became the big name that he is today obviously and i thought it was very interesting getting into like you know erin was always comparing himself to tiger that was the standard obviously but he felt like he compete with tiger and then tiger goes and does what he did at the 97 masters while

Aaron's still playing in college and all of a sudden he was like, dude, I can't do that. For the longest time, I thought maybe I could do what he's doing. I can compete a little bit. Then he goes and does that and he totally changed his perspective on playing, which that's the power of what Tiger Woods does to people mentally. Just you reevaluate like, holy shit, this guy's a different type of guy. Yeah, here's two guys battling it out for a college player of the year and they're both destined for superstardom.

And then this guy goes off and just does non-human things, winning the master's by 12. And you're sitting there in college watching and all of a sudden it affects with you, when he's not even there anymore. Yeah. A year ago, you were one and two in the country battling until regionals and nationals and all that stuff. You guys were neck and neck for player of the year. Then he obviously wins both and he goes on a win.

But you were competing with him for a good part of the year. And then all of a sudden, Hello World Masters Champion, all that. And then the floodgates open. And speaking of Tiger, I cannot believe he did not reach out for an XC1 wedge. Yeah. When he was shocked, when you are the face of a wedge of that caliber and you see a guy struggling, especially your boys struggling with some chipping, slide one of those in the bag quick it's unchuncable I mean dude

unchungable unknifable yeah it's the best club to ever be created I don't know what he was doing I also love the fact that he withdrew from heat exhaustion in Rhode Island that's that humidity will get you up there in the northeast yeah dude Martha's vineyard you's tough to handle that and now he lives in Scottsdale yeah exactly so it's all come full circle but he's a great conversation knows a lot about the game it's amazing how much these guys at work on TV2 can like remember and like stats and all that type of stuff it's wild just rattle it off he knows a lot

about the game of golf and is a great broadcaster. I love listening to him, but can't thank him enough for sitting down with us. But now, it is time. You know what? You know, they say never leave Vegas on a heater. Never leave golf subpar studio on a heater because I'm on one right now, Slee's. This thing, just started. Just see what how it was looking good for a while and then it all took a shit on Sunday.

I delivered the winner. Producer Mark, let's go. Read off those beautiful numbers. All right. Colt did it brought you Colin Moracawa for the win, which that prize was in damn near $2 million, bringing the lead now to $2.3 million. Colin, you talented bastard, you son of a bitch, just one week. I've been rooting for you all week and this weekend I was like, wouldn't be the worst. If you just slid into like eighth, you know, maybe lose by a shot.

And then Webb Simpson was actually right there in the fray going into Sunday moved backwards a bunch. and Xander, I still was loving where Zander was. Dude, especially on the front nine on Sunday, he made him move quick, part of the easiest holes. All the guys were birdying, and I was like, I've never seen you so defensive. This is good. No, this ain't defensive.

This is just, I just Sunday, I could feel the tide's turning. I was like, Colin's going to win this thing. I'm going to be down a grids. And I am. You are. But you know what? We got four events left. We got the Wyndham Championship and three FedEx Cup playoff events,

which are big purses. So this thing is far from over. I'm staying focused. Remember the Alamo. Yes. Yeah, that's my mantra. I'm going with all new lineup this week. All right.

Yeah, you threw away all your guys. Throw away all my trash players. I'm going to tell them all. You did this. Okay, they're good. They need to know. All right. We are at the Wyndham Championship this week.

Another very good field, by the way. And the last regular season event before the Fed Cup playoffs starts, guys have to get inside the top 125. So a big week for a lot of guys out there. And since I do have the honor, I think this is no surprise. I can't even believe you wrote this guy's name now because you know I was going to take him. This guy dominated. around Sedgefield.

Finished second last year. Got his first tour win here. First tour win of his career in 2011 here. You got to go low. Webb Simpson goes low. Web Simpson's 11 to 1. He's my favorite this week. Yeah, I started writing his name down,

and then I jotted a few stats. I was like, what am I doing? There's 0% chance Colt doesn't take this guy, so I just stop. That's obviously the pick to go with. I'm going to go with another guy that's got a pretty good track record around here. He's got a win.

He's coming off a good week last week, 13th at the PGA. Friendly or driving course this week so he doesn't have to hit it perfect, but I love how he putts the ball in general, especially down here in the south. I'm going with Patrick Reed. I think the first time I've ever rostered Mr. Reed.

So top shelf for the sleighs, Patrick Reed. Beat the Golden Child for his first ever win. If I'm being honest, it's going to be hard for me to root for him too hard. But if there was ever a week, this is the one. I got to go full blitz. So Patrick Reed, that's my top tier. We'll take it down in this 26 to, excuse me, yeah, 26 to 50 to 1 odds. I'm going to go with a man that's, I thought this was disrespectful.

He's going off at 33 to 1. He's a two-time winner on the PGA tour this year. 15th at the, excuse me, 17th at the PGA last week. One of the shortest hitters on tour, which I thought it made even more impressive that he was able to play well last week. Brendan Todd, man, 33 to 1. I mean, he's been hot. It helped to put the ball in the fairway last week.

It'll help to put the ball in the fairway this week at Sedgefield. I mean, I like that pick. I wasn't surprised to see him play well last week. I thought it was just impressive. Like, he seems to be playing well all the time, but that golf course being a big boy yard. I thought it was really impressive what he did. Okay.

All right, for my second pick, going with a guy that's 45 to 1, finished fifth at the Wyndham Championship last year, shot four rounds in the 60s last week at the PGA to finish tied for 13th, one of my favorite dudes on the PGA tour. You know who I'm going with? I think I got a feeling. Si Wu, shaking that ass, shaking that ass. See, Wu, Kim, let's go.

I love it. The guy can get super hot. He can get super cold, but it looks like he's pretty hot right now. Yeah, you're 100% correct about that. He goes up and down. I mean, it's either 65 or 80s. It seems like. You could just, you go to two spots on the leaderboard.

The first page or the bottom page. That's where you're going to find Seawoo. Top page this week. Top page this week. Coming off a nice little week this past week. All right. I'll keep a rolling third with my third choice. Going with a Carolina boy.

Went to the University of Clemson. All right. Really can strike his golf ball. Had a very impressive last three days last week. Opened with three over par. Ended up finishing at three under for the tournament. T-29th PGA. He makes me nervous around the greens a little bit, but this is a little bit of the flyer, 66 to 1, Doc Redmond.

Yes, he was on the list. I like that. I like these guys going back home to the grass they're familiar with and places they've played well. So that was a good pick. I actually had him on the list. I'm going to go with another Clemson guy going off at 66 to 1. Very similar in the fact that T to Green, 0.0% concerns for this guy around the greens. You kind of don't know what you're going to get, although it's been better, but that is Mr. Lucas Glover going off at 66 to 1.

So, yeah, similar theme. I like guys going back home. week. Good. So that was my first one. Did you leave that one off? Yeah, go ahead. Whatever you wanted.

All right. Yeah, I'm stuck here. I thought I was going to be picking second. I was going to go with whoever you didn't go with. I got the defending champ written down here. I'm going to pull an audible right now. Another guy going back home. Also 66 to 1.

A guy who will most definitely be a future guest on this show, one of our favorite guys on the PJ tour, Mr. Harold Barner. 29th last week. Last three rounds were par or better. So good for him going back home, East Carolina grad. Would love to see him pill and off, especially down in his. neck of the woods. Harold Varner. How do you not root for Harold Varner? If you don't root for Harold Harold, there's something wrong with you. Well, I just realized we got a lot of Clemson Tigers this week.

Lots. Routing for Daboo. Daboo. Daboo. Daboo. I like Daboo. I like Daboo. Okay. Dabu Sweeney. All right. This guy's going off at 80 to one. Last two events. He's been struggling this year. T32, T12. He's 130th in the FedEx, so he needs a big week. This guy plays very well when his backs against the wall. Kyle Stanley. is my number four pick look for him to do big things this one i like that a little bit of a flyer in that but his good golf he could go win and he also not played great i look i can't believe we have three clemson tigers on there i got a lot i got a big home field advantage theme on my on my squad all right well good luck everyone that's it for us we'll talk to you on next week's

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