Subpar - Brandel Chamblee Interview: Why it's not his job to be friends with Tour players, Tiger Woods not getting the most out of his talent

Episode Date: July 7, 2020

On this week's episode of GOLF's Subpar, Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee 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 discusses why he believes Tiger Woods has underachieved in his career, the complexities of the 'greatest ever' debate, and his own experiences competing on Tour. Manscaped is the official sponsor of this week's episode.  Get 20% Off + Free Shipping, with the code SUBPAR at https://www.manscaped.com/?utm_source=golf&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=subpar&utm_term=prospecting&utm_content=m

Hello world. Welcome to another week of golf subpar, Colton Osten, Drew Stultz. Surprise, surprise, Sleasy. Mr. DeCambo raises the trophy. Yeah, all we've been doing, I feel like the golf world's been talking about Bryce and Deschambo. And then this week, I don't know how you felt, and I was never out there, but like, I have never been happier that I'm not trying to play golf for a living because this dude has turned it into a video game right now. Like, it is, it's weird what he's doing to the golf ball. Yeah, I said it. On our serious XM show, I said it in here. You actually picked him in our in our caddy bet. I picked him in the pick three. I thought he could turn Detroit golf club into a pitching putt by cutting over all the corners. And if his wedge game and putter was on,

I didn't think there was anybody that can beat him. And once in my life, I was right. Yeah. Nice call there. And his putter was right because he led the field in driving, total driving, and total putting. So that's a good combo. He had some unbelievable shots. I said Sunday, the shot he hit on number four out of the left rough, he had 281 yards, couldn't see the ball. out of the rough over trees second shot into a par five thinking he's just going to pitch it out there with a wedge lay up have another wedge in like a normal human take some kind of metal wood out and hits it right over the top of the trees just short a step short of the front edge two putt birdie next hole i'm like uh this this game's not fair anymore it's a problem there's one guy on the planet they can do that how about two of the first three holes out there par four is three ninety nine four hundred whatever and he's driving it up he's literally pitching it onto the greens he waited for the green to clear on sunday from like 400 or something like this is what are we what are we he actually broke the shot link this week because if a shot gets if you're hitting a shot like within I think it's 30 yards of the green they assume that that was your like that's not your approach shot right like you missed the fairway and chipped out or whatever and so he was ranking like dead last and

strokes gained approach because he was hitting it too close to the green that it wasn't registering as an approach which that's different first player ever in the shot link era to lead strokes gained off the t and strokes gained putting a combination not a bad two to have in your back pocket also another record broken longest average driving distance for the week since they started keeping track 40 years ago and he beat it by 10 yards previously it was tiger woods in 2005 at 341 okay and by the way that was at the that was at the open championship at st andrews where it's like concrete you get one downwind i mean you can send it he was doing a detroit there wasn't really any win there was a little bit of balance he average 351 for the week yeah average 351 dude it's pretty good yeah

it's a little different a little different ball game but was the 14th of par 5 the one day he almost hit 200 mile an hour ball speed 199. It flew 3.41 and it went 377 and he hit a nine iron from 200 yards into the par five. I was like, what are we doing here? Yeah. What's, where do we go from here? I have a pretty good memory. And I played there last year and I can remember what I did on most holes.

I remember that hole specifically. One day I laid up with a four iron and another day I laid up with a five iron. It was all. I always laid up. Laying up. And this dude hits nine iron. Nine. Under the green, it makes eagle the first day.

And I'm like, oh my God. Go get them. J.T. Poston's caddy, Aaron Fleener. Text me after the round. He goes, dude, I just watched him at nine iron into this hole. We hit three wood. And J.T. Poston is not short. Yeah.

He hits it fine. He's a different level. So look, man, it's, I think the tour is probably very excited that he's taking this week off. Just go away. So we don't have to talk about you for a week. And maybe we can also win a golf. What do you think the players are thinking, like, real? I don't, I don't, none of them really come out and said it.

But, like, are they at this point? All right, it's been four weeks now. We're pretty, we're still young into this, like, quote, unquote, experiment. But it's working and it's working big time on courses that. in theory, aren't built for what he does? Are they at this point, like, oh, my God, dude. Like, if he plays well, like, I ain't getting him. I don't think it's panic mode yet,

but it's like if this play continues where he's seven straight top tens right now with this win last week, if this continues and this goes into major championship season and he is up there every single week, it might be like, we might have to, you know, kind of figure out what we're doing here, maybe change our ways a little bit,

or we can't compete with this guy. There's no way you can compete with it if he keeps driving it like this. And like, what's the alternative? All right, I'm going to go gain 50 pounds in the off season and work out five hours a day and eat five thousand calories. I mean, I'll do it. Nobody's going to do that or at least be successful.

I'm shocked that it's not shocked that it's working. I'm shocked that it's working this quickly and like this successfully, like winning and top tenning every week. You would think there'd be some feeling out process with this, but there ain't. Well, I'll tell you what. Our next guest, he's got an opinion about this and a lot of other things. One of the most, I would say controversial figures in the game of golf. loves to say what's on his mind, and I love sitting down and talk to him.

Brandel Chambly. Yeah, this is a fun interview, as you said. Controversial, which I love what Brando does. There's so much cliche shit in golf. It's the same thing over and over. And especially analysts that are former players, I think, are scared to say bad things about players because they don't want to affect their relationship. Brandel doesn't care.

And he talks about this in this interview and how he kind of toes that line. But I think he's great for the game. And say what you want about Brandel. You can love him or hate him. Nobody researches and studies more in the game of golf than this guy. And that comes up in the interview, too. And he's really good at using big words that I don't know what they mean. I went home and immediately read a thesaurus and I was like, I hate myself.

I got to get better. But he is awesome to talk to. He stirs the pot and I think golf needs that. Makes it a little more exciting. Yeah, people, whether you love him or hate him, when he's talking, like you're tuning in because you're ready to jump his ass for something that he says that you don't disagree with or you're like, I love this guy. He stirs the pot and I like to hear what he says. But whatever he says, he truly believes this. It's not like a skit bailist who just says stupid shit for the sake of saying it and for getting attention.

I don't think Brandl does that at all. will back up every single thing that he says with stats. I like it. But before we get to Brando Shambly, you have a word from our official sponsor. Yes, I do. Support for Subpar is brought to you by our official sponsor, Manscape, who is the best in men's below the belt grooming. Manscape offers precision engineered tools for your family jewels.

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Use code subpar. All right, we are very excited to welcome on our next guest. A man, you are all very familiar with. He is Golf Channel Super Analysts and owner. of the best head of hair in television, I would argue, Colt, in television, Mr. Brandlchambley. It's definitely way better than mine. Yeah, you have no say here.

You have no say. The Silver Fox. But welcome to the show, my friend. It's nice to be back. And Scottsdale is great to be back with you guys. I've enjoyed listening to your show. I feel like I've been a part of it. But really enjoyed listening to you guys and your other platforms, but as well as this one.

Well, thank you so much. But let's start with that, by the way. You did. You just moved back to Scottsdale. I did. you know, Golf Channel, I think everybody in the golf world pretty much knows now, is moving up to Connecticut. I used to commute back and forth to Orlando from Scottsdale. But once I got married to Bailey, you know, she was working at Golf Channel.

I moved over there full time. But I found out, you know, since they're moving to Connecticut, I get to commute to work. From the time I got that news to getting back here to Scottsdale, it wouldn't have been about a month. So we're very, very excited to get back here. Bailey got her master's degree from the Walter Conkite School of Journalism. She's a golf nut, even more than I am. So she loves to hike, loves everything about Arizona. So it's great being back here.

Love to have another golfer in town here. Another good player, great. Another dude that's going to take, that's what we need is another scratcher better player. Yeah, yeah, it's really hard to find guys that can beat here. One of my favorite stories, really, is the year that Ogilvy won the U.S. Open at Wingfoot, by the way, where he had back to Wingfoot, but he won it in 2006, and he got beat in the club championship at Whisper Rock that year. Couldn't win his club championship.

By our good friend, Jim Strickland, who we've actually both play in the Desert Marlin with. We've each actually won with him. There's one common denominator there, Jimmy Strickland. It was true. Strick clipped him in. That was back when it was a 36-hole stroke play. It wasn't like some fluke 18-year-old, the guy gets hot.

It was head-to-head, looking in the eye, 36-holes, add him up. Well, listen, Strickland was my partner in the straight-down for three or four years. Yeah. And I mean, I knew he was pretty good, but we got over there. And after nine holes, I thought, what in the world? Why are you not on tour? Yeah. And by the way, shorter than me, I mean, I'm 5'9 on a good day.

Oh, yeah. And he's 5'7? You post him up all day. And hits it, and hits it, I guarantee you he flies it close to 300 yards. A hell of a player. I didn't know that was Strickland that beat him. I was Strickland that beat him. The most competitive human being.

He makes Patrick Reed look like he's unsure if he likes competition. He wants to kill you in everything. He's a fun guy, though. He is, he is. Welcome to Scottsdale. Welcome back to Scotts. Yeah, thank you very much. But let's talk about you, three-time All-American at the University of Texas,

PGA Tour winner, golf channel analyst, obviously. I want to start at the University of Texas, first off. I heard from the moment you stepped on campus, you weren't cocky, you were confident. But a lot of people wasn't quite sure. sure how you would do when you got to when you got to school but you showed up first round of qualifying 69 never looked back wow you did your research good course we're professionals uh yeah you know i um you know i i don't know i uh i i wasn't the number one recruit in the country that's for sure there were a couple others ahead of me and it's funny how fate works uh they were recruiting a player

by the name of Tommy Moore who ultimately went to OSU Tommy Moore has since passed away great guy and a hell of a player. And I guess, you know, I'm fortunate to some extent he decided not to go to UT because when he did, they then recruited me. And UT was a small team. They didn't have 20, 25, 30 player. They had eight players, you know. And I was, you know, I got there and, you know, I had some good rounds early on.

And, yeah, in college, you are cocky. I mean, most everybody, because by the time you get to college, you've won almost every tournament you play in as you did. I wasn't anywhere near as good as you in college. But yeah, I mean, yeah, we had a lot of cocky people on that team. And we had the number one team in the nation. You know, my junior year, we finished the year number one in the nation. We had two players that made first team All-American.

Should have had three. There was another player on the team by the name, Paul Thomas. But they had never had three players from the same team make first-team All-American. And ultimately, we can't put three players. There's only eight or nine players that make first-team all-American. We can't put three players on there, but Paul should have made it. But it was a hell of a lot of fun. We had a lot of great guys and very much enjoyed those years.

Did you go there because you couldn't get an offer from TCRSMU? Hey, listen, I would have gone to SMU and played golf. I wanted to go to SMU, but the Eric Dickerson scandal in the late sort of 70s, it was, they had a, no, they, they, they canceled the golf program. Oh, death penalty. So, yeah, they had death penalty. So I think it was started in, because Payne would have graduated as 200, 79. and I wanted, obviously, to go there, and 80 was the first year.

I don't think they had golf from 80 to, I don't know, pick your year, but unfortunately, I couldn't go to SMU. And TCU did have a heck of a program. But once I went to UT, went on a recruiting trip, spit the weekend there, went out with the guys, came home. I was like, you know, I was looking at several other schools, but that was it, game over for me. And I loved every minute in Austin. You mentioned your old roommate, Paul Thomas. And I don't know, never met Paul Thomas, don't know much about him. I heard he was a hell of a player, but I heard he was even a better guy.

He was the best. Can you share a couple stories with us? I can. You know, he was the derelict of all derelicts. He was six foot five. He was James Bond, basically. He was six foot five. He was a brilliant fella.

Didn't have to study. Made A's. He could not understand why I'd be in their studies. You know, one night I remember in particular he came in. He was like, what are you doing? I said, yeah, I'm grinding. You know, he was like, listen, the test is going to be this. It's going to be this.

It's going to be this. That's it. That's all you need to know, those three things. I was like, how the hell do you think it's going to be those three things only? He was like, it just is. And, you know, it was those three things. And he was absolutely brilliant, good looking. And, you know, he had a hell of a lot of fun there.

You know, he was a big party. A heck of a player. He tied for NCAAs in 19. 1983, tied for him in CAAs, lost in a playoff. But he was the wildest person I ever knew, laughed, partied, drank. You know, he was the kind of guy who'd walk into a bar, and the prettiest woman in that bar would run to him. I get it.

Right, just like you, Colt. It's not as easy as it looks. It's a lot of work. I can see why you guys are tired all the time. Right, I get it. I get it. You guys can sympathize with him. I couldn't.

But he was, he was, he was an aunt. Look, I'll tell you this story because I'm sure you've heard something about it. But years ago when I was, I think a rookie on the PGA tour, I came home from an event and my answering machine and no cell phones in, my answering machine was filled up. And it was, you know, one after another of, hey, you know, we went to high school together. I just heard your name mentioned on Oprah or Sally Jesse Raphael.

or Phil Donahue, it just made the rounds, all these talk shows, of his wedding, got voted, the worst wedding and the history of weddings. And he had been called on to these talk shows to talk about how bad his wedding was. He was meant to marry this girl named Kathy Kane. And, you know, I did not go down to the bachelor party. He got married in Houston. I was in Austin finals. I was taking finals the day of his bachelor party.

So the next morning I got up, he was getting married. that night at seven. I drove from Austin down to Houston. I had to go pick up my tuxedo. And when I went to get my tuxedo, the fellow handed me a complimentary bottle of cognac. And he said, you know, every, every tuxedo comes with this. And I thought, well, of course it does. It falls in charge of things. And I go to the house where we're meant to be. And Paul and all the other groomsmen and best men, they were out playing golf. And they came in and they were schnockered. They had been out all night. And then they went straight to play golf. I'm not sure they quit drinking in there. And he said, you know, put your

tuxedo on. We're going to go to a party before we go to the wedding. And I was the only sober person. So I said, and I had an enormous car. So I said, all right, I'll drive. I said, you guys get in. All of us get our tuxed. And we go to a gentleman's establishment, let's say. And Paul had been in this town for a week. And he walked in, and again, you thought he was James Bond. Every single female in there knew him by name. He knew them by name. They were best friends. They were talking it up. And he's getting married at, let's say, seven. And I'm driving. And I'm, you know, I look at him at about 615. And I said, Paul, we got to go. And, you know, church was like 15 minutes away. And he goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, just a couple more. Just a couple more.

So now it's like 630. And I said, Paul, we got to go. And he was like, just one more drink as a bachelor, you know. And so he has one other drink as a bachelor. And it was a big drink. And I was like, good gracious. You know, now mind you, he's an enormous guy, 246, 5. And I'm, you know, I wasn't keeping track.

I thought he could handle himself, pay attention to his own sobriety. But now it's 640. We're just coming out of this place. And we're getting in the car. And one of the groomsmen decided he fell in love. And, you know, one of them wanted to be his date. And so I'm getting the car and I'm like, no, uh-uh. And there were, I don't even know how many groomsmen there were in this car, but there were a lot.

And they were like, no, no, no, you know, she's my date. I was like, this is a black tie wedding. Anyway, we don't quite make it on time. I mean, we get there like a few minutes late, and as we pull in, it was meant to be a Catholic wedding, the priest and his soon-to-be, or meant to be bride come out with the bride's father, and they are livid, and the priest goes right up to Paul, and he says, have you been drinking? And Paul said, oh, I've had a couple to take the edge off, you know. and I mean he'd be drinking non-stop for 24 hours and so he was a very persuasive fellow charming as hell

paula was and he somehow talked his priest into agreeing with the ceremonies do it but Kathy has just never stopped you know giving him what for she is so mad at him anyway we all we all get in there the priest agrees to do it we all get in there we get lined up and I'm you know I'm one of the groomsmen and I'm standing there and a sort of a V-bri-be- pattern right in front and the priest has got Paul by the arm and they're standing right in front of me and and you know here comes Kathy down the aisle and you know she's still angry and you can hear her you know barking at him under her breath she's she's so mad at him and rightfully so anyway so they come up and they join arms and the and the priest says a few things and then they

go kneel at the altar and you hear the priest say and the lord brought these two together and that and the next thing you hear is, wah! And he blows chow all over the altar, projectile vomits. He stands up and it just covers her. Oh, my dude. Covers her in bomb.

He stands up. Well, before that, as I'm standing behind Paul, before the vomiting evening starts, I'm standing behind Paul. And I see the priest has got him by the arm. And Paul is wobbling, like left to right. And I look at one of the groomsmen. who was a doctor.

And I said, no way he makes it through this. I mean, this is going to take an hour. He's not making it. And oh, he'll make it. He'll be fun. And so anyway,

he blows chow, he throws up all the heart, and then he stands up, and then he sort of teeters around, and then he falls like a felled tree. Okay? And he hit that, well,

I mean, it was, boom! And I thought he was dead. And so he's laying there, and his eyes went back, in his head. And again, one of the grooms was the doctor, and he leans over, and he goes, he goes, we got to get this guy to a hospital. So, but the second he started blowing chow, it got, I mean, deathly quiet in this church. And a guy in the back, you could hear a guy

in the back, you know, it's just, I mean, quiet. He goes, he's blowing! And it just echoes through all the church, right? So anyway, we pick him up, and he's literally, he's just dead weight. And we got to get him to a hospital. So we, you know, march him out, throw him in my car. And I'm driving to Memorial Hospital, I believe it was. Anyway, so I, no, before we get there, we found one of those emergency places, like a dock in the box place.

And we just pull in there. And they, you know, we drag him in. And they're like, well, he's just drunk, you know, he just needs to sleep it off. So we drag him back out. And again, the groomsman who's a doctor, he goes, no, no, we got to get him to the hospital. So we take him to a hospital.

And, you know, after we get him in there for a bit, they take him back. A doctor comes out and he goes, is his next, you know, his parents here? I said, actually, they're not. They're not here. And they didn't really like her. So they didn't want to come over for the wedding, which is just shocking to me, but they didn't. So I said, well, I suppose I'm the closest thing to Ken that he has. And I said, well, we need to talk to you.

And I said, really? And they said, yeah, you need to come back here. So I get back there, and they're like, there is a good chance he's going to die. And I'm like, what are you talking about? They're like, well, we've never seen a blood alcohol level this high. And, you know, it was some ridiculous rate. Anyway, they had him on, you know, they're pumping his stomach and all these machines to do what they needed to do. And, you know, up to that point, I thought, you know, this is typical Paul.

he didn't die but the next morning when he wakes up his first words were did I do it am I married and I'm like and I said Paul you didn't make it two minutes through the ceremony his eyes were

all black his face was all black because he'd hit the floor so hard anyway believe it or not they obviously they did not get married and they tried one other time to get married and that one fell through not as not as catastrophically as that one.

I mean, I don't know if you can top that. Well, the podcast is over because we'll never get a better story than that right there. That's a hell of a precedent to set going into your marriage. I did hear his blood alcohol was somewhere around 0.44. Yeah, it was, you know, it was, you know, it's a little foggy because it was a long time ago. But the way it was described to me was the doctor said, you know, at this blood alcohol level, you're drunk. at this you're obscenely drunk at this you're catatonic at this you're dead and he's like right there wow and and uh did i do it did i do it no dude you're still single probably it will be for a long

no you know and i don't know you know paul and i still keep in touch he he was rookie of the year actually the very next year on the european tour and he his father was a very very famous fellow um and traveled in the in the peter alice sean connery world and and And, you know, I went over there once to play golf. And that, to me, is one of the funnier stories, if you want to hear that one, involving Paul. We'll have to get to that one. I do want to hear it. I do want to hear it.

We have, like, one of the great brains of golf here. I feel like we should take golf. But I can just hear these Paul stories all day. I love this, man. I heard where he is. We need to get him in studio. But, but I feel like, all right, so we got Texas. Colt mentioned here, three-time All-American Texas.

You come on, you get on the PJ tour. You won on the PJ tour. tour. I think you had six years consecutively where you were inside the top 100 on the money list. Like by all criteria, a very, very good run on the PJ tour as a professional golfer and an amateur golf as well. Do you feel like you don't get enough credit as a player? Because I feel like so many times you'll make a comment and a bit, hey, you only won one time. Like, would you know what I mean? Like, is that fair? Well, no, I mean, look, people use it to to criticize me in an effort to invalidate my opinion. And I,

I find it comical personally. One, I don't care what people want to, how people want to categorize my career, I would, by almost any standards, call what I did in golf extraordinary. Not by Tiger Woods standards, not by Jack Nicholas, not by, but just to make it to the PGA tour,

you have to be an extraordinary golfer by professional golfer standards. There's 10,000 people trying to play professional golf. So you have to be very, very good to get on the PGA tour. And then to stay on the PGA tour for any period of time, you have to be disciplined. You have to be very good. And, you know, I'm quite happy with my career. And I, you know, it doesn't bother me when people try to. I, the only thing I really think when people try to criticize my career to make less valid my comments is that you just haven't done your homework.

And you don't really understand what you're talking about. You know, I got to 57th in the world. Now, you know, in a world where there's 10,000 people trying to play professional golf, you choose any profession in the world and find me the 57th best at it in the world, whether it's the legal world, any profession. I don't care what it is. Surgery. They're extraordinary what they did.

Absolutely extraordinary. By any standard, they're extraordinary. So I find it somewhat comical when people try to criticize my career. I haven't said that, I mean, was I a great professional golfer? Not by any stretch of the imagination. But I was an extraordinary golfer, and there's a nuanced difference there. Yeah, I feel like it's such a bullshit thing. We had Charles Barkley in here a handful of weeks ago.

He gets the same thing in the NBA, right? Like, oh, you didn't win a ring. You can't have this conversation. It's like, dude, what do I got to, you know what I mean? I'm one of the 50 best players of all time. You had an incredible career on the PGA tour. It's like, you can't comment on my golf swing because you didn't win a major. I just thought that to be such horseshit.

But yet, you know, they, you know, I've said many, many times how much I think about Butch Harmon's teaching. But Butch Harmon, Hank Haney, David Ledbetter, Sean Foley, Chris, you take the players or the teachers whose job it is to talk most fervently about the golf swing to the best players in the world, and none of them had a career on the PGA tour. The closest you can come is Butch Harmon. And Butch Harmon, again, Butch Harmon had more. more rounds in the 80s on the PGA tour than he had rounds in the 60s on the PGA tour.

And some people will say that he won. He won an event, the BC Open, one round, he shot 68, and it was canceled after one round. And they, you know, they gave him the trophy. My point is not to denigrate Butch Harmon as a player. He was clearly a good player, clearly a good player. But it does not invalidate the fact that he knows what he's talking about when it comes to the golf swing. When you look at most great coaches or analysts, they came from a place where they struggled competitively, so they were forced to dig in deep to understand the nuances

of the game. And so I think that impacts and informs their ability to communicate their ideas just a little bit better. They've had to work much, much harder for it. Of course, there are exceptions. Romo comes to mind. He was an extraordinary football player, and he's an extraordinary analyst. But it doesn't take very long to find people that were great coaches and great analysts who struggled somewhat reaching the higher echelons of their sport. Yeah, I mean, it's exactly right. And I like that you say, like, you know, they try to take your career to kind of bring down your opinions a little bit. And you had a great quote that I read that you said, you said, because you do a lot of homework. You study more than anybody. I've ever seen everyone that you work

with that I ask, they said no one worked harder than Brandl-Chambley, has legal pads full of notes and all this, backs up everything he says. And you said, quote, I wasn't at the Boston Tea Party, but I can tell you everything about it. And I was like, you know, that's a good point. I mean, just because you didn't win major championships doesn't mean you can't talk and know what these guys are going through. Well, again, I mean, you have to dig deep. You know, I love to study. And I say all the time that I do not study to back up my opinions, I study to discover my opinions. I'm, you know, if, if I have a whole day where I'm not technically on the air, I am probably researching most of that day. You know, I'll break away to go do something outdoors, but I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a

that will, I think, help our audience, understand the game a little bit better, a little bit better, and I hope, You know, I was on the computer all day long trying to find things that I just had never occurred to me. You know, I'll give you one this morning. I tweeted it today because I could not believe it. Ben Hogan missed the cut in the 1938 U.S. Open. The next missed cut he had was the 1957 Masters. Now, that's 226 events that he went without missing a cut.

And yet, Tiger has the record at 142. And the question is why? Well, the record keeping from the PGA tour was a little foggy back then, and he did have a DQ in there and a WD along the way. But the fact that we talk at nauseam about Tiger Woods streak of 142, and we never really even bring up the fact that Ben Hogan, by PGA Tour record standards, he only missed five cuts in his entire career on the tour. Can I ask you this?

Like, why did you even start to look into that? Well, because I'm constantly asked is Tiger Woods the greatest player ever. And so I'm always looking at another way to come full circle on that debate. You know, so Tiger Woods has a 22% win percentage right now. He's about to turn 44. And people will, you know, and I've been guilty of this. You know, you start to look at his win percentage and you're like, that's it. Game over.

He won by the most shots. He has the highest win percentage. But again, when you look at, you know, Jack Nicholas's win percentage, if you look at it, is 12%. But it got watered down because of post-50 golf. But if you look at what his win percentage was when he was 44 years of age, it was 16%. So 6% difference. And that sounds like a lot. But not really when you start to look at who his competition was versus who Tigers was.

Tigers, the three biggest competitors were Phil, Ernie, and Vineland. VJ. Now, Phil's win percentage was 7%. Ernie's was 3, and VJ's was 5. So you put that together, that's a 5% win percentage of the three biggest players that he faced. Nicholas faced Palmer at a 10% win percentage. Casper at a 9% win percentage. And then you start to go player who had a 6% win percentage. Trevino Watson. You add all that up, and he had five or six players who had a win percentage that far succeeded the win percentage of Tigers' three biggest competitors. Tiger did not have the competition that Jack had, just didn't have it, did not ever face as dominant of players, as strong of players, both in terms of win percentage and in numbers

that Jack had. So again, I think the gap gets a little narrower there. But then... I'm sorry. But then I was just going to say, but then once you start looking at Hogan, Hogan, Hogan then comes into the argument in a much, much bigger way. I mean, the idea that only majors defines who the greatest players are is a ridiculous argument. Hogan only won nine majors. He only played in 58. Jack played in 164. Tiger played in 84. Who's going to win more majors, the guy who plays in the most? But Hogan was, I think, handicapped, obviously because of the injury and because, let's just say, World War II interrupted things. So, you know, I'm trying to always look at different ways to, because that's a debate that's never going to end until Tiger ends his career.

We're never going to stop debating who was the best player. And as I go in, I said it one time in an interview. I was talking to a fellow. I was just about to go on the air. And he said, what's the hardest thing about your job? And I said, the hardest thing about my job is trying to say the same thing every day in a different way. I'm about to go on the air, and I did the math. And this was five, six years ago.

I said, I'm about to go on the air and do my 5,000 Tiger Woods breakdown. And I mean, I hate saying the same thing twice. Hate it. Do it, but I rage against it. So I'm always looking for a different way to say something. Well, A, that's incredible that you have all those stats. I don't think any other human in the world could rattle that off off the top of their head. B, I want to play devil's advocate here. But what do you say to the people that would say like, all right, you're referencing Jack Nichols's biggest rivals

and their win percentage versus Tiger Woods's biggest rivals and their win percentage? What would you say to the guy that says, yeah, the fields were deeper, went. Granted, there was a handful of guys that won at a bigger clip during Jack's era, but maybe there's more guys spread out that even won 2% that couldn't have possibly won in the Nicholas era with those guys. Yeah, I mean, it's a fair point, but I think it gets watered down when you dig a little deeper because all you can do is be a product of your own generation.

So in other words, if you separate yourself from your generation, you've dealt with the advantages and the disadvantages of that generation, and everybody there is a product of that generation. That's why I think that you only, the only really good way to compel, pair one athlete from one era and an athlete from another area is how dominant they were within their era because within that era they are a product and playing against people who were a product so if it's if it's harder to separate yourself well you are more extraordinary if you do so you know i i i understand that argument i've i've even made that argument a time or two

but I think the best way to, and again, it's, there is no right answer here. And that's why they're fun. Who should be in the Hall of Fame? Why should they be in the Hall of Fame? Who are the greatest players? I've heard people say that it's ridiculous to compare errors. Perhaps it is. But that doesn't mean it's not fun.

Yeah, you can still do it. This is like Jordan LeBron. I mean, that's on every talk show sports across the world right now. There's no right answer. And people sometimes get upset because when you say somebody is the best, you're demoting somebody's general to colonel. No, I'm not doing that at all. I'm trying to highlight the strengths of all these players.

And by debating who was the best, we bring those players full front. You know, nobody has benefited more from Tiger's career than Jack Nicholas. Nobody, nobody, because we talk about Jack Nicholas like he is still playing. And rightfully so. I mean, not only is he arguably the greatest player of all time, he is one of the greatest gentlemen who ever played the game, one of the most appropriate people in terms of how they dealt with the media request and the people around the game of golf. And nobody handled themselves with more class.

So these are the people that we should law it and talk about and keep their career alive to whatever extent we can. That's incredible. I mean, I think after the show, Slees and I should have to do a test on all those numbers. I got it. I got them, mark, make up a few questions. I got them locked. Here's the three things that are going to be on the test. I'm like Paul.

Yeah, you're like Paul. Exactly. You got it. Shorter and uglier. But I talked to your buddy, Frank Noblo over at the Golf Channel, and I said, give me something to describe Randall Shambly. And he would say that you are misinterpreted. Do you agree with that?

Well, yeah, I do. I, you know, I, personally, when I played the tour, you and I didn't overlap, although I played my last tour event. I know. Did you beat him? I don't know. I can't remember. I would tell you one thing I remember.

remember for that. I played terrible. I got a spot in Pebble. Oh, we both missed the cut. We got a spot in Pebble 2008. We played together and I hit it terrible all week. And we're finishing on number 18 at Spyglass. And I finally flushed one. And he goes, ladies and gentlemen, that's called the club face. That's what Randall said to me. First time you met him. First of all, who's this asshole I'm playing with right here? I don't know. I felt like he was a fun loving guy. He can take some shit. Don't worry about it. I do remember that was your last tour of it? Yeah, that was the, believe it or not, I, I drove

to that event with my three kids, just me and my three kids, and I had two very young kids then, and my oldest was, let's do the math here, 12, so he'd have been 11. And I, you know, I went up, I found a nanny to take care of my younger two for two days, and my older one came out with me. He played Pebble Beach with me a few holes

we were playing, but so I went up just to, you know, one, Pebble Beach is my favorite place in the world, world to just bring my kids up there. And I was great for a spot. But, you know, you and I, I'll never forget that. I know exactly who I played the first tour event I ever played with. I played in 1983 Colonial. I got paired with Mike Donald Jim Thorpe. Those are the first two people I played with and you're the last person. Wow. What a book in. So from 1983 to 2008, there's 25 years. Yeah. But yeah, I feel like it. I, you know, when I played the tour, I love people. I enjoy people.

I enjoy laughing and a joke. I try to defer to other people's opinions. When I played the game, I listened and I enjoyed that. I was on the advisory committee, but I would never say that I was a controversial person. I certainly don't think I was opinionated. I certainly enjoyed good conversation, and I wasn't afraid to speak.

But, and I, you know, people love to say that I'm a tiger critic. I feel like I'm Tiger's biggest fan. See, that's what I was going to say. I was like, you do say some things about him that some people don't like, but you also rave about him at the same time. I think, you know, I think 500 years from now, they'll be talking about Tiger Woods the way we talk about Shakespeare, you know. And you just can't, you can't sum the guy up.

You can't. You know, I started in TV, I started golf channel 2004. So from the time I started until present, but basically from 2004, straight away when I started working a golf channel, Tiger Woods was changing his golf swing. Now, you think about that. In 2000, he played the greatest golf that's ever been played. 2001, same thing. 2002, pretty similar.

Beginning in 2003, he started changing his golf swing as we find out now. So from the moment I sat in a chair, I was being asked, why is Tiger Woods changing his golf swing? So you think about that. I mean, that would be like Michael Jordan, 1998. exciting to change the way he shoots free throws or plays the game. You know, the dream of every athlete is to dominate and be consistent. Nobody had been more dominant than Tiger. Nobody had been more consistent to Tiger.

And he abandoned that. That made no sense to me. So people thought that I was not a Tiger fan just because I was being asked constantly, why is he changing his golf swing? Why did he do that? Why isn't he hitting it as good as he did in 2001? So constantly, you know, every two minutes, someone was asking me a question. And I thought, well, you need to have a good answer.

And the better answer you have, the more bulletproof an answer you have, the more riled up people get. Yeah, but I don't understand how anyone can sit there and say, oh, yeah, leaving Butch Harmon and changing golf swing was a really good idea. Like how old are you? You weren't winning enough or buy enough with that swing. You should rebuild that. Well, here's where it does get a little foggy, though, because his win percentage with Hank Haney was higher. So here you are sitting there on the stage, and I've sat with analysts before who came up and said, you know, Tiger's not as good.

And you're like, well, I hear you. He didn't win by 15. He didn't win four majors in a row, but his winning percentage is higher. But all things being equal experience should make you a better player when you still haven't had some physiological decline, which shouldn't really happen in golf until, I don't know, 32, 33, 34. But, you know, so misinterpreted, I think, from the aspect that, you know, I feel like I am a player's advocate. You know, players get mad at me because I will sometimes criticize their team. And I do that after a lot of research because I feel like the most dangerous place on the PGA tour is the driving range.

more careers die there than are salvaged there. And we mostly just talk about the best players who are having a good run. We don't talk about the ones that no longer have a chance to play golf because they were ruined by others' ideas. So having been the player, I can remember it Clear's Day. 1983, I was one of the best players in the world as an amateur. I wasn't you got to number one as an amateur, okay? I wasn't there. I got ranked fourth.

Week fields. Yeah, right, right. There was nobody. Yeah, I saw who was on your Walker Cup team. He was beating me, Branlow, there was nobody out. His Walker Cup team had Dustin, Johnson, Billy Horschell, Ricky Fowler, Webb Simpson, Tripp Keeney. I mean, Chris Kirk.

Jamie Love Mark. Jamie Love Mark. I mean, arguably the greatest Walker Cup team ever. And you guys won. And you were playing against Roy McElwell on the other team, along with others. But I wasn't that good, but I was one of the best. and I remember standing on the range and I was in Austin, which was a mecca for teachers.

And they just stood behind me. And they all wanted to talk to me about my golf swing and change it. And look, I listened to them. I was curious. And they were well-intentioned. They didn't have malicious intent. But to the degree that I changed my golf swing, I became somewhat impoverished as a player.

I never again, even all the years I played, on tour hit it as high as I did when I was in college. I certainly didn't sniff any as far as I did in college. I mean, I was, I once got to 49th in driving distance on the PGA tour. So, you know, at my best, I was not short, but I was one of the longest in college. And that's the reason I was so good. I mean, you know, you were good because nobody could hit it straighter than you. but I feel like I'm an advocate for the players and I'm you know I I wouldn't think that many players would think that

is like on the one hand hey here you are on on TV give us some unique perspective give us an original thought don't say the same cliche crap that everyone else is saying but on this other hand don't cross the line and don't criticize tiger woods because then people are going to come for your throat like there's so hard to tow that line it is but you know I've asked all the time about you know you get upset when players get upset you're like No, I think my job is incompatible with being friends with tour players. It's not my job to be their friends. It's my job to analyze them. And honestly, I don't want to get to know them.

There's enough people that work at Golf Channel and in the TV business that can speak for the players. There's enough of them. Their voice is very well represented. I feel like my job is to be, because if I get to know them, I may like them or may not like them. And I don't want to like or not like them. I want to feel indifferent about them so that when I go on the air that I'm speaking from a place of information, from a place of objective. Equanimity.

And that I, because, look, I joke all the time. Rory makes my job difficult. Because how in the world could you not love Rory McRoy? I mean, he's the most thoughtful, brilliant, honest, engaging superstar you'll ever come across. So, you know, when Rory struggles in opening rounds of majors or when he says things that are, I think, personally, I think he might walk back about his comments about the Olympics. You know, and I'm asked to talk about those things in a critical way,

the fact that I know I like Rory puts a governor on my comments. And it's like, you know, I try to put aside the fact that Rory is a great guy, and I just wanted to speak directly to these events. So it's better, at least from my perspective, if I really don't feel one way or another about the player. I do my best. I read their comments. I go online.

I read what they say to all their questions and answers and get a feel for who they are. So that kind of leads into this. I want to ask you quickly about this because you echoed something that Gary McCord said, and we had him on the show, and he's also said on the radio show and other places as well. But he says when it comes to social media,

like that's another thing that's changed from when you were playing to current day. Now there's a platform for everybody with an opinion. They can get it all out there. I want to make sure I get this right. But Gary McCord said you echoed it. He said a lot of network decision making is based on social media. Social media tends to lean left, young, and negative.

And so with that being said, like, do you pay attention to any of that? Or maybe he stole it from you. I don't know. He stole it from you? Gary, you're stealing son of a bitch. Well, he's not stealing. I mean, I love Gary. Gary and are friends.

But that data is easily found. And it's not even debatable. But I set it on the air to Rich Lerner, and he basically got apoplectic about it. And I understand that. But if you do the data, it's easy to find that data. It's skews left. It skews negative, and it skews young. So this particular time when I was talking about that data, it was relevant to a conversation about digital minimalism,

which is what Rory is reading, and it informs the way he prepares for events. He tries to stay off social media, has to stay off his phone. And I said, the reason I think it's important to understand the biases inherent on Twitter, and even the CEO of Twitter will admit to that. And it's not an opinion. It's easily found in data.

And to go even deeper on that, only 20% of the people really are on Twitter. Yeah, okay? And of those, 10% of those produce 80% of the tweets. So when you think you're going to Twitter and thinking you're getting the overall feeling on an issue, you're not. You're getting a very small biased opinion on it. So I thought that it was pertinent to the discussion on Rory because, one, as an athlete,

if you go on Twitter, you're going to inherently, you're just going to be drawn more to negative comments. And if you're in golf, you're perceived to be politically right. Whether you are or not, people just assume you are. So given that Twitter skews left and skews young and skews negative, it's a bad place to be if you're a professional golfer. You have to have some pretty thick skin. So you see people on there like Billy Horsesel who navigates himself pretty nicely

and several other golfers do a pretty nice job on there. But by and large, if you can go on there, you're going to get some, the most disgusting vitriol directed your way. You're 100% right. Even for me, like I'm a nobody, but I go through there. and people, five guys in a row can say the nicest things about me within that one negative one. I'm like, that's son of a bitch. Right.

I'm coming to him. I'm going to respond to him. Right. Which is just what sucks about social media. Yeah, we all have a negative. Because I don't sit there and take the time to say thank you to the guys to say nice things about me. Right. Right.

Because you feel like, and there's no reason, by the way, that you shouldn't acknowledge the nice things. I have always said, and I try to live by this, but it's hard. But you should be able to be complimented and criticized and feel indefinitely. different to both. You shouldn't let either affect you. Because if you're in this business, and Tariko said this to me, you know, the first year I was doing TV was 2003, I worked with Toriko, which is a, you know, a blessing. There's nobody better than that guy. And he said something along the line of, look, if you do your job right, half the people will like you and half the people will hate you, that's not to say that there's not, there's not a benefit from

criticism. You know, everybody, everybody needs humility. Everybody needs, you know, If you read enough criticism, there is a thread in there of correction, right? You should never be above criticism, but you shouldn't let it get right to you, you know. So it's just good to keep, you know, at least a constant check on where are my comments coming from. And also on Twitter, I can't play that game. I'm not going to get on Twitter and insult people. I can't do it. And I have always said that Twitter is like a party at my house.

You can come in and disagree with me all you want. But if you start breaking dishes, you've got to go. And that's why they make a block button. That's very well said. But back to that, how difficult it is being in this position now. We had Charles Barclay on, and he said when he went into TV, obviously he lost one of his best friends, Michael Jordan, because some comments. Have you ever lost a friendship because of anything you've ever said on air?

Well, you know, when I played the PGA tour, I would have said the people that I enjoyed the most were Colm Montgomery and Frank Nauvel. So I would not describe, you know, I thought it was a gift getting to work with Frank. But I wouldn't describe us as great friends. You know, we're not dinner companions. We have a very professional relationship no longer because he works at CVS. I felt fortunate to work with him. I didn't agree with all. He and I didn't agree a lot, but I could not wait to hear what he had to say because, one,

I think he's incredibly bright. And two, he's as passionate about research as I am, but he just looks in other areas. So he would bring an opinion that I either hadn't thought of or never came across. You know, and I remember in particular in 2013. when Tiger Woods made the drop on the 15th hole on Friday at the Masters. I, you know, the second I saw it, I knew it didn't look right. And I pushed to run it, you know, that night. But all of the information wasn't quite clear.

So in the middle of the night, it sort of blew up. I was on the air Saturday morning, I believe around 7 or 7.30. So I started that morning our shows. Frank wasn't scheduled to come in until noon. Okay, he wasn't going to be on the show till noon. So I was on that show straight from 7.30 to noon talking almost exclusively about that drop, that issue, the larger impact of what it would mean if he plays, if he doesn't play. And every other thing you can think about with rotating guests in and out, from Nick Faldo to Noda Brigade, Justin Leonard, you name it, Trevor Emelman, in they came. and when Frank came in and sat down and he started talking,

I remember thinking on the air, hadn't thought of it, good point. And I often did that with Frank. But so, you know, our friendship was better when we played golf than it was when we, when we worked together. Having said that, you know, once I got, once I got into TV, the people that I, you know, I went to TV when I was 40, roughly. And by then, most of my peers had sort of already left the tour. There were a few.

Tom Lehman was still out there. Andrew McGee was still playing a bit. Willie Wood kind of a little bit. Mark Brooks still a little bit. Brian Henninger a little bit. But they were kind of on their way out. And my friendships with them never, ever suffered. Never.

I mean, I love those guys now, all of them. You know, they're still marvelous friends of mine. But, you know, I think there's guys that I would, I feel like if Tiger were sitting right there, and I feel like I'd really like him, I really do. I don't know that because I look at his friends and there's the nicest people in the world. I mean, Noda Begay, there's not a nicer human being alive than Noda Begay, not a sharper one. John Cook, Steve Stricker, you find me three nicer people than that. Mark Olmeir, these are his buddies.

He's like, how can Tiger Wood be anything but a fun guy to be? I feel like I'd like Tiger. But I'm quite happy not to know him. You know, I got to do my job. It's probably better for your job. But you bring up Tiger Woods, you know, you had your back and forth with him or the comments that were made about what you said. And then you had Brooks Kefka,

where there were some things that caused the big stir too. Like, I got to give it to you. When you go at somebody, you go at the top dude on the totem pole, you're tugging on Superman's cape. Does golf channel support you throughout all this? Like in terms of like, hey, dude, maybe don't go, Maybe don't say anything controversial about the top guys. Maybe pick number 22 or whatever.

Are they always behind you? Well, mostly we're talking about those players. You know, if they're superstars, we're talking about them. If we do a, you know, a two-hour show, I mean, we start the top of every show with whoever the best players are. So you talk about every single issue involving those players. The Kepka comments, and again, this is to your point, cult, about being drawn to the negative comments. I'd done nothing but lied Brooks Kepka from 2014 U.S. Open at Pekka. Hineshurst to the Rider Cup in 2016, all the way through that, you can go through there and find

a video on me saying, before he did what he did, this guy's a cage lion. When he gets out, he's going to rip this tour to shreds. Those comments, I said them all week at the Ryder Cup of 2016. At the Masters last year, I was asked by Rich Lerner, I'm sorry, the year before, I was asked by Rich, does he have a best mind on tour? It's the strongest mine on tour, assuming because he'd won, had such a good run in the major championships. At that point, I think he'd won three or two in a row, that he had the best mind in the game. And look, we have such an urgency to bestow originality

on whatever's current, or bestow unprecedented greatness on whatever's current. We're all guilty of that. And the way I remember it is, I said no. I mean, as long as Tiger Woods is in the game, nobody gets that spot. And by the way, the argument that I made was he'd won on very similar golf courses that allowed you to drive it.

It was more of a weight-listing contest than it was a chess match, wide open, fairways with very little penalty. I said at the time, I'd like to see how he plays when there's thick or rough, more strategy involved, and the game is meant to be more cognitive than it is meant to be more physical. And look, the Vatmasters people are like, he finished second, he proved wrong. And I'm like, okay, that's the opinion you want to take. But if you listen to what I said, I said, look, he's made physiological changes that I think will affect his touch.

He three putt it five times that week and he lost. I would say his touch was affected, in my opinion. And I would say that Tiger Woods made the better decision off the 12th T on Sunday than Brooks did. Again, my opinion is Tiger was better mentally. I would say that the week validated what I said. What he heard, and probably what he read, was Brandel says, Brooks isn't strong mentally. Never what I said. If you make it to the tour, you're unbelievably strong mentally.

You're the most tenacious, dedicated, persistent, unbelievable athlete if you make it to the tour. Now, if you get to where he was, of course you're mentally strong. But Tiger Woods is another level. This is like comparing Cormac McCarthy to Shakespeare. Cormack McCarthy is an exceptional writer. Maybe the best there is in the world right now. But he's not Shakespeare because there is no other Shakespeare. Tiger is Shakespeare.

You know, Brooks may be Cormac McCarthy. And so Brooks got mad at me, you know, and said whatever he said. I don't care. Again, I felt like I was just doing my job. I think Brooks is a bright guy. I enjoy his comments, the entertaining, him throwing darts at my face on a board. I thought it was funny. It's good for you.

It's funny. It doesn't bother me one bit. When he posted a clown, I put a clown nose on my face and shot a picture back to him. That's the right way. I think he's bright. I enjoy him. I think golf is better off with him around. And he's a strong player with pretty strong opinions, as we're finding out.

That's good for golf. What's your favorite Cormac McCarthy piece of literature just off top of your head? Well, good news is we don't have time for that because we have to get to. Well, that's such a long discussion. We can debate that all day. But like that, we could talk with you all day about the game of golf. We could. I love this.

Great. For sure. But we always do this with every guest, emergency nine, nine fun questions to get to know you a little more. And our first one's always the same. And I'm going to let Sleeze start it off. This is the first one. This is given to every single guest right now. But I want to know, the movie is being made about the life of Brandl Schambly.

Who do you want to play your role? Wow. Yeah, think this. Think hair. It's got to be good hair. No, I mean, honestly, you know, my wife and I talk about this, you know, my favorite. My favorite actor is probably Denzel Washington. You and Gary Woodland are going to have to battle Gary Woodland because that's...

You know, I don't know how you get any better than Denzo Washington. He's going to change his hair. He's incredible. You know, Anthony Hopkins, you know, if you're a movie geek, you go to the last 10 minutes of Amistad. That's as good acting as has ever been put on. on a screen in my opinion. You are a movie geek, aren't you? See, he goes way deeper than every other guest.

Every other guess like, oh, some of the... Brad Pitt and Troy. I'm Brad Pitt and Troy. You go deep. I'm super yoked Brad Pitt. But, you know, I watch scenes of movies a lot. Go back and just watch them just for the... Just to try to figure out how they were able to...

The nuances of it, again, just to go back to Anthony Hopkins in the last 10 minutes of Amistad, you know, if you're not familiar with the case, but it was... it was before the spring court, just the nuances of it. The way he taps the table, the way he stops and takes a drink of water, the way he were, I mean, it's just incredible. You know, acting, you know, we owe so much to the arts. And good dialogue, great acting. It's, you know, it definitely influences my life.

You are an appreciator of the arts. Colton, who'd you have Peg for him? Because we're like, if ever. I can't go anything. I can't follow that. I can't go. Go ahead and give your super deep opinion. I was just going to go with one of his University of Texas alumni, Matthew McGahnhead.

Hey, that's a term. Yeah, I mean, look, you have to take a shirt off a lot. You go to his scene in Wolfo Wall Street where he starts going, oh, now the way I understand it is that was improvised. But, you know, I mean, Leonardo DiCaprio is off the charts as an actor, too. Off the chart. I have a good buddy of mine who's very well connected in Hollywood. And when I go over to L.

He's best friends with Jack Nicholson. So when I go over to L.A., you know, we'll go to dinner with Jack, we'll play golf with Jack, and then all those people come around us. And, you know, just to hear them talk about Leonardo DiCaprio and his talent. I've heard directors will finish a scene, they'll stop and they'll turn to each other and go, like, have you ever seen anything like that? I mean, that's, I mean, you, I mean, you know, just in Revenant, you look at his work in the Revenant, And you think, my God, what a talent he is.

But, no, Matthew McConaughey, you know, he's a, you know, I mean, to be that handsome and to be that dadgum talented. I get it. You know, it's right up your hour. You're going to need a lot of shirt. I put a lot of thought into these, Brandel. I take this question very seriously. I had you pegged for Richard Gear. Well, I'm a, I like what you're.

In Chicago specifically. Yeah. In the musical rendition of Chicago. I, I'm a big Richard Gear fan. You know, I, I like his work a lot. I think he's talented. You know, I just, you know, my wife teases me all the time when I go get a haircut. She's like, you know, would you just grow it out the same length as Richard Gear?

I'm like, well, you know, when you work in Florida, you know, if I grow it that long, you know, it puffs out, you know. You get the chia pet look. Right. Like carrot top or something, you know, it gets too thick. Well, if this movie's ever made, we own 10%. That's also running. All right, number two, I hear you have, well, you just move, so it's probably not up yet, but you have one picture of a golf hole in your house.

I mean, you'd do your own work. Can you please explain to me what hole it is and why? I just actually put this picture up last night. Oh, good. It's a picture of the eighth hole at Augusta National. I was playing well at Augusta, the only year I played in 1999. I had the lead after the first round and was, you know, okay positioned after round two. But I was warming up Saturday, and you know this.

You guys both know this. So warming up, and I didn't miss a shot, you know, I was, you know, any shot I, I mean, I was like, for an hour, I was Ben Hogan on the range. You know, it was just absolutely flushed it, draws highs, trajectory, everything I had. I had it. I was like, good God of my. But often you don't take that to the rain, the course. And I went over and I just flushed the first shot exactly, and it just didn't stop. wasn't missing a shot, you know, and I was 200 par through seven holes.

And I was two back, maybe one back, walking to 8T. And it just hit me. I thought, nobody is going to beat me this week. It's like, I'm going to win the Masters. And this is Saturday. Maybe the earliest anybody's ever thought they were going to win a tournament. Saturday, walking to AT, and I thought, I'm about to hit the longest drive on this hole. And I'm going to, you know, I was like, I couldn't wait to hit that T shot, you know.

and I mean I smoked it you know just I mean exactly where I wanted to hit it you know just right at the right edge of that bunker right out there I could get there easily and I couldn't decide back then you know it was a one iron a zoom was what it was a zoom or you know a three wood and I thought well I'll try to take a little off three wood and I fat hooked it over in the trees up welded you know and it took me two to get it away from this pine tree and I you know made double boggy you And I remember walking off that green to the 9th team. I was like, you've got to be the dumbest son of a bitch that ever lived to allow that sort of energy to invade your body and disrupt what you were doing. You know, and I just thought, no, I'm without question. I'm the dumbest human being that's ever played golf. And I remember walking over and I just had that existential debate as I was walking a nine. And I was so mad at myself, I was like, regroup, whatever.

But, you know, I wasn't the same player the rest of the day. And needless to say, I was like, you know, I'm going to buy that eighth hole just to remind myself, not that I need any reminding of just how big an idiot I am. That is the worst. But by the way, you definitely weren't, you didn't look ahead the earliest. Slee's part of the first hole at the midam qualifier one year and thought he was winning three. I'm taking sponsors on the 70s. Okay, you beat me then.

I was going to say dumbest guy. Took you Saturday, the Masters after leading the first round to think about winning the Masters. I'm writing victory speeches on the plane two tournaments after that. Okay. All right. All right. Thank you for me. Number three,

it's got to be good. All right, here we go. I know your big book guy, huge reader. If you were to write an autobiography, what would the title be? Maybe he is.

He doesn't want to spoil it. Oh, yeah. Are you writing one? That could be the next question. I, well. And can we write the preface? What would the title be? Gosh, I don't know.

What would the title be? The Silver Fox. It would, no. An autobiography? Um, you know, I don't know. It would be... You're a writer.

You might have had this in the works, I thought, maybe. Well, you know, I have a second book going right now, and I have a third book going right now, simultaneously second and third book. And I will write a book eventually about the time I've spent at the Golf Channel. I don't know if an autobiography would be appropriate. But what would it be?

Gosh, I don't know. This is a tricky question. It would be... You're the only reader. we've ever had on the show, so this is the first time we've ever asked that question. Yeah. Appar guests can't even read. Yeah, there's a, I'd say more than half.

What would it be? It would be, I'm not a hater, you know? I'm not a hater? Because people, you know, people. What about misinterpreted? Misinterpreted is not a bad one, you know. I'm interested why Frank thought I was misinterpreted because no doubt he'd have a deep opinion. But I don't know, I'll get back to you.

I'll tweak that out. When does this show air? Tuesday. Tuesday, and we own 10% of the autobiography. All right. Tuesday, I'll tweet out what I would name my autobiography to answer that question. Perfect. People will be ready for that.

All right. All right. All right. Number four, do you still stick by this one quote you said about Tiger Woods? Yes. Before you said. Yes. I know what it is.

What? You're going to ask me. Get him. That he is the biggest underachiever. Pretty close. Go ahead. You're good. Go ahead.

But you didn't know you didn't get your own quote right. All right. I would argue that he's got the least out of his. talent of any player baby in history. That's right. Yeah. And I don't disagree with you. Yeah, not only do I stand by it.

I mean, there's math involved in that. You know, if you extrapolate from his win percentage when he decided to change his golf swing from 97 to when he started winning in 99, do the same thing in 2003, 2005, and then do the same thing yet again from 2010 to 2012. And you start to look at the majors that he would have won then. I can't think of another player in the world that you could have so definitively said left 10 majors minimum on the table

and left and left 20 to 30 upwards of 30 events on the table. I cannot think of another player that you could definitively say that about. And again, this is why people that love to say that I'm a tiger hat. It's like, no, it's just you'll never get past. finding him an enigma. Why would you change a golf swing that won the Masters by 12? Why would you change the golf swing at one of the U.S. Open by 15?

So, yes, that's where those... But when you put that in headlines, people are just like, well, that's the dumbest thing ever said. It's like, listen, you just... No, I agree with you. I just wanted to know if you still stood by it. Yes, I do. I like that.

All right, next question, why do you hate Tiger so much? That's good, Dr. That's good. All right, here we go. Next question. This one's serious. Who is more likely to win a championship next? You on the Champions Tour?

or the Texas Longhorns and football. Texas Longhorns and football. Oh, wow. No hesitation. I found out... You'll win before then. I don't know. I found out very quickly last year how hard the game was.

Not that I didn't know that, but... You know, to play the game well, you need to work your ass off and you need to have full-time devotion to it. And, you know, the most I can give to this game is a week here or a week there. I tried my butt off last year. to play, write, and do TV. And it left almost no time for anything else in my life. But I'm going to keep playing.

I had planned on playing six, seven, eight events this year. Obviously, the pandemic has interrupted a lot of different lives in different ways. But I still plan on playing. There were, at least in my view, signs last year that I could do some things that were pretty good. But I'm not going to go out there and scare Bernard Langer. or, you know, Ernie Ells or Fred Couples. But, you know, I'm hopeful. I'd like to get in the hunt again.

It'd be fun. A week here, week there is all the Longhorns give you anyway. Kidding, Brandel. By the way, SMU beat TCU last year. Relax. Very nice. Once a decade. Very nice.

All right, I'm going to give you three players that are not at their best right now. You've got to buy stock in one of them for the next 10 years. All right. Jason Day, Ricky Fowler, Jordan Speef. I'd go speak. Why? Yeah, I'd go spieth. Because he's still young enough.

He's still passionate enough. He's uninjured. And I think he is philosophical enough to find his way free from this downturn he's in. I have said, you know, I'm a big fan of all three of these players. But I have said, you know, eons ago that Jason Day, you know, you start to look at play There's that swing very fast who have short golf swings and they'll have short careers. And their 30s and 40s are going to be very tough for them. And that's proven to be true with Jason Day.

Ricky Fowler is an amazing talent, an amazing kid. I guess he's not a kid anymore. I guess he's a man, young man. But when you're 57, soon to be 58, everybody seems to be a kid to you. But I just think what Jordan Speath has done is next level stop, you know, to have won the amount of majors, to proven that he can handle leads, to widen leads, to win wire to wire, you know, his ability to make putts, deal with distractions, deal with criticism, and handling it in an exceptional way he does.

I mean, there's, I, you'd be hard-pressed to find a bigger fan of Jordan's beat than me. Fair enough. That's the man right there. All right, you're going on a, mine's a little less philosophic. If you were going on a 10-hour road. trip who would you rather have in the passenger seat David Faradie Gary McCord or you can just drive the car either way it's going to be a river and just end it either way it's going to be a hell of a ride you know like I'm both of them are extraordinary people I at one point I toyed with doing the 50 best things that happened to golf in the last 50 years prominent on that list would have been Gary McCord I think he's I think he was one of the best things that's happened to golf and

People, I think, really underestimate just how talented a guy he was and how much of a genius he was. He can talk about anything, but he is also just a really nice guy. He'll listen. He's done so many extraordinary things. I mean, all exempt tour is his idea. You know, he brought a form of television, this levity. Everybody tried to copy him. David Faraday is extraordinary in his own right, and I enjoy being around David.

I've grown up and been good friends with Gary McCord, so for ages. Just love Gary. You get no argument here. A lot less flatulence with McCord as opposed to from what I'm doing. Which is a big deal in a 10-hour car. You'll get that with Faradie, for sure. You'll get that. All right.

Brandl Chambly is the commissioner of the PGA tour for a day. First thing you change. First thing I change. I change the ability to get an exemption having finished. in the top 25 or top 50 career money. I think that's ridiculous. Never understood it. Golf is meant to be about what you can do, not what you did.

And the idea that players develop some sort of status and have a fallback of being able to use the top 50 on the money list or the top 25, they get two if they're in the top 25, is absurd to me. And I would, you know, look, you don't get to be an autocrat. You've got to run that through a board. but if I had that power, I would get rid of it immediately. I would also change the way T-times are created. The idea that you're a rookie going off last is a disgusting idea, in my opinion.

The T-Times should be drawn out of a lottery. I understand that there should be some preference giving for stars for TV, but the first-off T-times are an advantage over last-off. And it wouldn't take long to draw out. And again, of course, there would be a discrepancy owing to established players playing first-off versus last-off. But you could devise a metric, I'm sure, that would prove what an advantage it is to play first-off Thursday, Friday, versus the very last-off groups.

So I think all T-times should be pulled out of a lottery. Okay, you can get paired with people within your status on the PGA tour, but just because you're an established player doesn't mean you should get to go off at 6.45, and the other player, because they're not established, goes off at 9.45, which means they're going to play with greens that are the worst. They're going to be the most chopped up, and the conditions are going to be the windiest, because they're going to be playing the latest in the afternoon

when there is the least amount of people out there, the least attention from the marshals, the most beat-up greens and the most windy conditions on Thursday and Friday, you know, I feel like there is inequity in both of those aspects. I like that. That's good. I never heard that, and that's a huge difference going off first off. I remember clear as day.

I made a put on the 18th hole at Atlanta, my second year on tour, I believe, maybe my third year on tour. Money wasn't like what it is now. And I remember at that time when you made $250,000, you got put it. into the first off tea times. Before that, I was last off. The next event that I was first off at was the Byron Nelson. I got to the Byron Nelson, and the greens were as smooth as his table.

There was no win, and there was nobody on the golf course. And I think I shot 68 or 67. But I remember walking off thinking, that is a two-shot difference. That's how easy, that's how much easier it is to get out there and play under prime conditions with no distractions and very little win. Exactly right. That's a unique answer. I haven't heard that one.

That's really, really sharp. All right. This last one, though, this is a thinker. Oh, I'm sure it is. Put your cap on right now. I'm about to send you for a ride. All right, here we go. Get your brain ready.

Out of your two golf channel colleagues, Mr. Aaron Oberholzer, Mr. Noda Begay, who endorses the bigger piece of shit golf? A T-less driver, the XE fucking six, nine, untrothable wedge. Which one of those pieces of trash is worse? They're both making a killing on those things. I tell you what, I have good fun with teasing both of them about it.

And when we get off air, I will tell you a story along those lines that I pray you guys won't share. But the tealess driver does crack me up. I'm like, isn't that a three wood? He's fucking brilliant. I mean, whoever thought or call it. As a matter of fact, the next time I do a show with Noda and I see someone tee off with a three wood on a par three, I'm going to say, using a teeless driver here. your club. Right. It's a teeless driver. Otherwise known as a three wood, by the way. It's unbelievable.

No, I'd have to go with the teeless driver on that. No disrespect. Not although those wedges sound promising. But really, we should do that. We should all, like, go play golf and invite Aaron overhaulser out. Like, unbeknownst to Aaron, like, go get all the wedges that he's, I don't know, he sells like every wedge in the world or he promotes every wedge, whatever all his garb is, right? It'd be worth spending the money on it and put it all in the bag and not tell him. And just, uh, And just see how long it takes him to catch on. I tell Aaron's a heck of a nice guy. And he is, I've really enjoyed watching him grow on the golf course as a commentator.

He's, he's good at what he does. It's a very good job and never chunks a wedge. No, apparently, I don't think, I don't, you know, you give it Mark back there producing. He wouldn't chunk it either. Apparently, that's what it, you don't chunk them. It'd be top 20 strokes going around the green. Can't chuck them. Can't chuck them.

Can't chuck them. Can't chuck them. Can't chuck them. Yeah. Brilliant club. Brando, man, that was an absolute blast. Thank you so much for joining us. It's a real pleasure, Drew, and Colt.

Congratulations on the success of this show. You guys are great. And I really do enjoy listening to y'all. Y'all keep it fresh and entertaining. Well, we appreciate your time, and we will definitely have you back on. I'm not hating Tiger so much. Yeah, right. All right.

I'll give a shot. All right. All right. Well, that was Brando Shambly. Slaid's eye to blast talking to him. He is so smart. He is very smart, as it's very well known, when he's bringing up, like, philosophers and shit like that.

like Brandl you got to bring it back you got to know what show you're on dog this ain't this ain't the place for philosophy but also just the stats that he can just rattle off the top of his head it's like you look back in 1964 they wanted six percent of the like how do you memorize all this stuff that is a guy that just his desk has to just look like stacks of paper with stats and then a thesaurus that I love that he just sitting there and all of a sudden he just starts researching like this ben hogan bin hogan statistics first tiger was I'm like first of all why did you ever want to know that and what made you dive into it but he's fascinating I absolutely love it by the way One of my favorite things he said, it was about the quote I asked him about,

about how Tiger Woods has underachieved more than anybody in the history of golf. And I love that that he came out, because he got ridiculed for that. Sure. But he's 100% correct, in my opinion. Well, yeah, when you look at what Tiger was doing in the Butch Harmon era and the clip he was winning at, and then he's like, oh, this isn't good enough. I don't like winning majors by 15. Let's go ahead and start over.

Like the time that it took to get that next swing where he then went and won at a very high clip too, but it's like, what if? What if he just didn't switch? What if it was good enough with Bush? I don't know if that was a clash of egos or what, but you could argue that it could be weird numbers. I mean, it's already weird numbers. It could be really weird numbers we're looking at.

Yeah, and lastly, Paul Thomas, if you're listening, call us. We'd love to have you on the show. Oh, my God. This guy's just unreal. I heard more about you off the air, and I really need to meet you. I think you need to come sit in the hot seat. Yeah, the wedding story, tough one to be. That's awesome. I love it.

Well, thanks to Brandel for coming on. But now we've got to get to the real serious part of the show. Yes. The gambling picks. You're on a little bit of a heater right now, Sleaz. I'm not cold. I told you. I just need a little reset, a little 20 second time out with my boys. I've been coaching them up and we are getting results. Producer Mark, where do we stand after this last week? Well, after you had the winner in Bryson Des Chambot, a top four in Adam Hadwin.

Check. And a T12 in Ricky Fowler. Triple check. Those are your three best finishes ever in the history of golf. Yeah, they're right. It's the first one we've had since the first week when Colt had sung J.M. at the Honda. but that lead has been standing since then and now Drew you've taken it you're now up 1.2 million what a swing from down 2 million to up 1.2 million but for the record to defend myself since y'all made this bullshit rule change where whoever wins gets to pick and you can't copy the favorite pick I had brys and shambo last week as well and wasn't allowed to pick him you copy this ridiculous rule change well I would have had sung jay the week he won too because

you didn't pick him every week you didn't pick him I would have picked him that was before the Cheating overruled. You got to get the T. Keep making. Well, you don't have Bryson to pick this week, so you'll probably. I'm taking him anyways. And by the way, you've already, I know who you're picking first, and it's the same guy I have too, so I have to change again.

Yeah, well, you just got to get the T. Just make one tweet. You get the T off first. With that being said, I will go ahead and launch my first pick on Team Sleys this week. And that will be Mr. Patrick Cantlay going off at 14 to 1. I'm surprised that you said you were going to take this guy. I thought you were for sure at Justin Thomas or John Rom, but 14 to 1, Patrick Cantlay. I think this is a second shot golf course.

This dude never plays bad. I was looking back at it. He hasn't finished worse than 17th in his last five events. He seems to never play bad, and he's fifth in strokes-grained approach. I like big boy courses for him, and this week is won. That's who I was going to go with. He's actually, in the last 10 years, he's first in scoring, first in birdies, first in pretty much every stroke game category.

His stats are unbelievable around here, and he has a win. So I really like him around this week. But unfortunately, since y'all make these rule changes, which is absolutely stupid. A lot of complaining. Sleeze was getting him. getting his dick kick everything was good until he started losing oh no we we make this game and then you get your dick kicked you're like oh this is a fair i i want to pick the same guys and so you change the rules so i can't pick him so i'm going to go with justin thomas the tournament favorite 11 to

one uh miss cut at hartford took the week off last week should be rested normally when when he misses cut it really fires him up um i did have an interesting phone call with him saturday night though he didn't look like he was working too hard um but i think he'll be ready to go around meerfield village this week so i'll take Justin Thomas at 11 to 1. The betting favorite? Yeah, it could be worse. Yeah, I didn't leave you with the scraps. No, but it's a ridiculous rule change, but that's the topic for another day.

With the number two pick, anyone from 26 to 1 to 50 to 1. I'm going to go with a guy who backed Ordomal. He finished 12th last week at a very nice weekend. Coming off two straight miscuts. Ricky Fowler, a guy who's played well here. He's just never finished it. I remember the one year he was in one of the last groups with Tiger Woods and had a really rough day, but he knows this place very well.

He's 25, and he's 28 to 1, sorry, 28 to 1. I'm going to go with Ricky Fowler, my number 2nd. I like that pick a lot, and I will not complain because that was the guy that I had. I know how the rules work, and you have first rights to Ricky Fowler, and I wish you the best of luck. I'm going off the board here. Has it shown a lot of great forms since the comeback, missed the cut last week, which is rare, but I think he's another guy, like you mentioned with Justin Thomas.

When he misses a cut, I think it fires him up. Patrick Reed 33 to 1. He's 64th in strokes gained approach to green, not the best, the world. I just think he's a guy that he wins on big venues and I think this is a place being that it's Jack Spot and things like that. I like him. Eventually he's going to start playing great golf because he does. That's what he does. So I'm going Patrick Reed 33 to one for my middle tier. You would be team Reed. That's cute. I'm team winning. All right. Third pick. This is our this is our dark horses. Anyone outside of 50 to one. My first guy I'm going to go with

biong-un-on, otherwise known as Ben-on, 66 to 1, ball-striking machine for top 25. around Muirfield Village lost in a playoff two years ago to bryson de shambo i believe and uh i like him to do big things this week i love that pick actually kudos to you colt for picking on that for picking up on that and i will then audible into a guy also not showing great for you're allowed to pick the same guys in the outside of 50 to one oh we are well i'm not going to just out of principle even though he is right there on the sheet i'm going to go with a guy you love who's not been playing very well of late but i think part of that there was a little injury in the mix there's a little tweak that he had. And I don't think the golf course that he'd

been playing suits what he does best, but that's Scotty Sheffler, 66 to 1. Big long hitter, high ball hitter, big advantage at Meierfield. Eventually, he's the same type of way. Going to snap out of it at some point. I think this is up, of course, where he does it. All right, very interesting. And in the final pick, I'm going with one of the biggest hitters

in the game. Showed up last week, Thursday morning for a 210 tee time. The tour let him play after several negative test. I'm going with a guy 70 to 1. He's won twice on the PJ Tour. Cameron Champ. Big hitter. Smash.

Big hitting cam. On a big ballpark. Yeah. Did you like the fact that he got a little bit of pushback that he tested positive and then multiple negative tests later they let him back? I think it's good. I'm perfectly fine with it. He took, he had four negative tests in 72. He took, yeah.

He had four negative tests. He had no symptoms. He's like, this is ridiculous. I think my first one was a false positive. I have no symptoms. Took four tests over 72 hours. Everyone come back negative. Let's go.

Yeah. Got a word. Couldn't agree more letting him back in. Some of those things come up false positive from what I've read. So good that they let him back in. I'm going to the board with my last pick, guy that I've been high on all years since we came back. Speaking of ball striking machines, Corey Conner's. He's 66 to 1, same as Scotty Sheffler, 18th in strokes gained approach this year.

He's like top 20 in total driving. Teeter Green, he's awesome. The plutters is the only thing that really gives him an issue. But I think this is more of a ball striking emphasis golf course. I'll go back to well, Mr. Corey Connors, the Canadian for the last pick. You have a big man crush on Cory Conner's. I've been able to figure out lately. I just real recognized real type of situation.

I'm Ball Striking Machine. He's Ball Striking Machine. I respect it. Yeah. Okay. Anyways. To recap, I have Justin Thomas, Ricky Fowler, Ben on, Cameron Champ. Team Slees, Patrick Cantlay, Patrick Reed, Scottie Sheffler, Corey Connors.

All right. Best of luck, everyone. We'll talk to you on next week's golf subpar.