Subpar - Chance Cozby explains his role at the WM Phoenix Open, the best locations at the event and how he became a TikTok star

Episode Date: January 31, 2023

On this week's episode of GOLF's Subpar, Executive Director at The Thunderbirds Chance Cozby joins former PGA Tour pro Colt Knost and jicky jack legend Drew Stoltz for an exclusive, in-studio, interview. The budding TikTok superstar talks how he started his '3 Pieces of Pecan' cooking channel, what goes into running the WM Phoenix Open and why Tony Finau once received a sponsor's exemption over Colt.

Hello world. Welcome back to golf subpar with Colt Nost and Drew Stoltz. Sleez, I just got back from San Diego where our man, Max home up, put on an absolute clinic in the final round on Saturday, a little six under par 66, around the, dude, I was there. Tori Pines South is a monster. I mean, you've played it, I've played it. He made it look like a pitching putt. Yeah, if you get anything kind of going off, off track there, especially the driver, it becomes really hard, really quick. He looks so good. We had him on radio this morning.

Talking to him or just watching him yesterday, the first thing I noticed, A, I mean, his golf swing's been perfect. You and I, we talk about it all the time. I feel like we're a little bit vindicated with how much success Max is having. People are like, oh, you just say nice things about your friends. Like, no, dude, this is, this looks as good as anybody I've seen in a long time.

But yesterday, or Saturday, watched him in the final round. He looks so calm. Like, now he's won, now this is his sixth time. It doesn't look like just as much. mannerisms. He's not as fidgety and things. It looks like he's not only comfortable being that situation, but like expects to win now. And if he doesn't, it's not like, oh, I blew my one chance because he's been there over and over and he'll continue to be in the future. He's a stud. I'm so impressed with his game. What him and Mark Blackburn have done, it's truly remarkable. He has,

in my opinion, transformed into a top five player in the world. I think if you put a list of tour players with no weaknesses down, I think there's two people on that list. It's John Rom, and Max Homa. And I know Max hasn't performed the way in major championships that we expect him to or that he expects to, but I think that's coming. Reminder, Max Homa is still younger than when Phil Mickelson won his first major championship. So let's give him a little bit of time here. He's at six wins.

His game just continues to get better and better. In my opinion, I think we could be looking at a future world number one. It's trending that way. I mean, who's been better in the last year, 18 months than Max? Very few. Very few. And now the next step is major championships. He's addressed that.

He knows his, you know, reputation. He was better last year than he's been before. But typically, I mean, the transformation is you got to win some, you don't just launch into winning majors right away. Like, you got to win some other stuff and work your way up. And then now he's in that place now where he's going to go into major championships, Augusta, especially, along with Rom, along with Rory. And it'd be like, all right, now you're a dude,

we expect to start winning stuff. And I think he's fine. Like, that's a privilege, by the way. I'm going to look at this as we're talking because I'm now very interested. But, you know, four of his six PGA tour wins. have come in the state of California. The U.S. Open this year.

Got to start winning in Florida, that is true. Florida and Texas and Nevada. Just a reminder, the U.S. Open is in California. Correct. L.A. Country Cup plays. He once shot 61 at Pack 12.

In college. Yes. So he was 50 to 1 before Saturday's win. He's now 36 to 1. So things are starting to change a little bit. You know, I love him around. I love him everywhere. He has learned.

to hit so many different shots now since he started working with Mark. That's why I even love him over with the Open Championship. He can hit the ball. He can flight it as well as anybody. But first thing is first. He has to play really well in one. His best finish is 13th in a major. So he's got to get past that point.

But look at the golf courses he's won off. That's the vote. Tori finds. He wins on big yards. Quill Hollow. Quill Hollow. Rive. Tori.

They don't get a whole lot harder. Those are three of the hardest courses on PJ Tour. I mean, why not? Exactly. Why not? Why not Max? And just to top it all off, he's the best dude. He always comes on all of our shows, no matter what's going on.

He's just a normal guy that is extraordinarily good at golf. I mean, I went out to the bars with him on Sunday to watch football and celebrate his win. People come up to him left and right. Ask for pitchers just to say hi, congratulations. He's just a normal dude, man. He doesn't walk in there. He doesn't want any velvet rope or anything around his table. He just wants to sit there and have a good time.

And he's the same way he was five years ago when it wasn't going good. And he wasn't one of the best. players in the world. Things were going tough. He was the same off the course then as he is now. I mean, I sent him a text yesterday and he's going to get 7,000 texts. Send him one. First thing he does, how the club championship goes. Like, fine, you know, but that was a sneaky. It kind of pales in comparison to what you're doing here. Like, he's just, it's just genuine. That was a sneaky way of you wanting to talk about the club championship. Well, I lost in the final, so I don't really want to talk about it all that much, if we're being honest. By the way, the guy that you've abused on this show.

Yeah. Making him wear all his TCU clothes. Hayden Wood is the guy that took you down. He had some pent up a graph. I feel like it was personal. Did he wear orange? I wanted him to wear a purple. I was like dude. That still, he's like no, once football season ended it's over. I was like probably fair. But I feel like it was personal. Well, good playing with Hwood. Tried my ass off, beat some good players on the way up. But I'm getting old and washed. You know what it is? But man, it was a it was a great week in golf. How about Dubai? There was some crazy shit going on in Dubai, by the way. That was probably the most drama-filled golf event I've seen in a while.

Shocker. Patrick Reed at the middle of a lot of What'd you think of, let's start with the T flicking at the beginning. That got blown up so much. I'm just like, no secret. Here's two guys don't like each other. One guy tried to kind of squash it. Everyone wasn't have any part of it. Throwing, they said like, threw a T at.

I saw the clip. I was like, the flick in his direction. Like that, I feel like that got blown out of proportion. They actually like he tried to stab him with it. Like this is how much we crave drama and golf. It's like, that's the big blowup. That's a zero. Zero point zero.

I feel like that just got overhyped. However, final round. ball in the tree that gets lost, that he then identifies with binoculars, with the rules official, describes his mark, yep, there it is. However, upon further review,

video replay shows, that wasn't even the tree your ball went into. That got a little suspect. Do we not have ladders in Dubai? Can someone not go out there? And they can plant 500 of them tomorrow. Just cut the thing down and figure it out.

We know how he marks his golf ball. We've seen it, the red dot, over on the right, black line. Let's go in that first tree, dig around a little bit, and let's find one of them sons of bitches. I also just thought, okay, Brando put the whole thing frame by frame, spotlight at the ball. Like, look, this is the tree.

They said they found the ball. And here's the tree of the ball flew into. How does that happen? I was like, why can't you do that during the coverage? And someone would be like, dude, y'all are looking in the wrong tree. Yeah, I'm not sure. That ain't even the tree. You know what I mean?

Like we replayed Patrick Greed ball bouncing at Tori when he said it was plugged 80 million times live seeing it. And they're like, I don't think that ball can plug after a bounce. Why can you go in and look at the camera? I'm like, dude, it's in that first tree, not the third one down that y'all are looking at. That ain't it. So whatever ball you're looking at, maybe it has a similar mark. That's not the ball.

I don't know why they couldn't do that live. It's wild, man. It just seems to never end with him. And now Brando breaking down that video, lawsuits probably up to $1.2 billion. That's at least double, but your kids, kids, kids, kids are going to be paying Patrick Creek. Oh, my God.

I mean, what's going on? And we had Donald and Stinson paired together, too. We got the former president's got, the writer-up guy. I know, but it's just like there was cool shit happening all over. We almost got a Rory Reed playoff. They could duck that pairing earlier. I was like, you're going to have to put them together in a playoff.

I'm a Rory fan. God, that would have been sweet. Yeah, I'm a Rory fan. I want him to play well, but I was sneaky hoping he was going to miss that butt just so they'd have to go to a playoff. Even if you're rooting for Rory to win, be like, still win, just do it in a playoff. Yes. It would have hurt more, too.

I just want to see with that interaction on the first or on the 18th team when they go back there and then finally when someone wins, how does that go over? It would have been nothing, but we would have, everyone would have blown it up in something big. But they got some nice drama over there in Dubai. And Phil made his return to Twitter, by the way. Oh, my God. Apparently winning on the PGA tour is easy. Those thumbs have peeled up.

He's back. He's back. Well, this episode of subpar is brought to you by the stack system, the most advanced training system in golf. The stack system pairs a single club, which is configurable into 30 resistance levels with an industry-changing app. The stack assesses your speed profile and provides custom programming. So, ladies, I use this thing.

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heart starting to pound out of your chest already look at these these hands i just clam up i drove by it on the way here today and it was busy i was like oh boy it's we're almost here you can smell the booze when i knock about five years off my life expectancy yeah and which is dwindling you ain't got much left i don't think i about four or five left but man you mentioned the stands are up this field is going to be rocking it's going to be such a fun week. And our guest this week, he's the biggest bird of them all. The executive director of the Thunderbirds. So I think that makes him your boss.

Officially, unofficially. I'm so facto, yes, probably my boss. Hard to get fired from a volunteer job, but I can probably do it. His name's Chance Cosby. If you follow him on social media, three pieces of pecan. The thing is blown up. He's an incredible cook. Also runs one of the biggest golf tournaments in the world.

Here he is, Chance Cosby on golf subpar. Okay. We have a very important guest with us here today. He's the biggest bird of all the Thunderbirds, the executive director of the Thunderbirds. He's formerly the main man at Ping and their tour department, not to mention social media phenomenon. Three pieces of pecan or pecan. How do you say? Chatsby is in the house.

Big chance. Yeah, how do you, are you a pecan or a pecan? Pecan. See, I say pecan as well. I mean, you're in Oklahoma guy. Oklahoma, Texas. Yeah. My parents, we're all from Arkansas.

saw and they say anyone that says pecan they like look down on them so i was like okay but some people do say pecan well tell us about that though because that dude that's like a fun thing you started off and now how many followers you got well first off thanks for having me on yes and also before we get to that i got to ask something to me since you are the executive director and my man over here is a thunderbird is he your boss kind of more or less i got to run i got to be i'm on a tight leash here today you know i mean i'm going to keep it tight i'm going to keep it fairly tight a lot of yes sirs and no sirs he is first he is a volunteer Okay.

True. It's hard to get fired from a volunteer job. That's what makes it so awkward. But if anyone can do it. By God. By God. There's been moments, too, where I was like, scoring comms last year for me.

How'd you think the scoring and cons, was there any problem with any scoring or any communications? Well, we got Scotty Shuffler to sign his card right, and he was our champion. I think you did a great job. There you go. Job well done. Thank you, chance.

Well done. Appreciate you. Couldn't happen without you, Slees. Scotty's first win. It's all you. I don't want to say the tournament ceases to exist without. me but there's a chance of thing just vanishes if I'm not there scoring and communicating at all times.

Are you with me? You got your social media stuff we're going to talk about. You got a lot of stuff going on. Your whole story's been incredible. Starting at Oklahoma. I got one bone to pick with you real quick because I just heard this from my man over here. Uh-oh.

Oh, yeah. I have one pet peeve in sporting and going to sporting events. It's you don't wear another team's gear if they're not playing. And I heard at the Fiesta Bowl, you were there in your OU games. gear all decked out? I was. I was. And the reality is I'm a sooner. And I was getting dressed that morning and I was looking at my wife going, what, what am I going to wear? And I'm like, I'm wearing sooner gear. We just went six and seven. Worst year, you know, since probably the early 2000s, late 90s for sure. But I just figured what the hell. I'm going to wear my boomer sooner hat.

But I pulled for TCU because I pulled for the conference. That's right. Since you are the biggest of the birds all out. Yeah, but I don't like it. I appreciate that. The taradac. I go to the Cowboys Giants game and some dudes walking down the aisle in a Packers jersey. I'm like, hey, they're not even playing here. I mean, it's not like wearing, like, golf shoes when you're not playing golf.

It's just. I do love those. I really just taking care. It's a hot look on the hip, too. I love that. Yep, this dude. This dude gets it. Yeah, I mean?

Yeah, if you go out to the, if you go out to Phoenix open and do that, Cajah! Charlie Hoffman and Chance to Turn around. That's the big bird. When is Charlie Hoffman become a Thunderbird? I mean, you got to have a Seagull in the Thundberg. Thunderbirds. He's the only one with actual wings.

Yeah. You know. But let's talk a little bit about your social media stuff between TikTok and Instagram over a million followers, three pieces of pecan. Pecan. But go through it because the story is incredible how all this even started. Yeah. I mean, I would say that I grew up in a great house.

My mom was a great cook and it's still a great cook. So I kind of just grew up in the kitchen when she was making breakfast and dinner and stuff. I would just kind of jump in. and I learned pretty early. I liked to eat good food, and I just kind of took to, like, how to cook. And I cooked a little bit in college, and I would smoke ribs and stuff with my dad. My dad was a golf pro, so he was off on Monday. So in the summer, we always used his smoker and smoked ribs in the summer.

And so my dad kind of taught me how to cook outside. My mom taught me how to cook inside. And then COVID came, and we waited, like, you know, I wouldn't say we waited, but it was late in COVID, my youngest son just said, you know, Dad, I should just start filming you. And I didn't have TikTok on my phone. I'd heard about it, but I didn't know what it was. And I said, well, how would that work?

And he just showed me some videos. And I said, okay, well, OU was playing Florida on New Year's Eve. What was that, 2020? And we were dominating Florida. And I said, well, I'm going to make a little smoked whiskey in the fourth quarter here to celebrate our domination here. And he goes, I'll film that. And he goes, you need, so he started an account that night. And he goes, we got to name it. And it didn't take me long, like literally within 10 seconds. I was like, well, we got to name it three pieces of

bacon after dad. And then it just kind of went. You know, we had no idea we were doing. Nothing. And, but he really helped first few or just to like some music and showing the food. And then he was like, hey, you need to go on camera. People need to see your face. And you need to tell people how to cook. And so we just started. And then it then it just kind of went. You know, I can't explain it.

I think people really truly want to know how to cook easy meals on the weekdays. I've kind of branched into like just, just make meals that families can make. And I throw in the barbecue stuff because that's what I really love. But that doesn't get as much traction. It's more like one pot spaghetti and stuff like that that you can make on a Tuesday night that takes 30 minutes. And it's just kind of gone from there. I didn't, I think it kind of dawned on me that it was going to grow pretty quick when Good Morning America called. That's probably a good sign.

I thought it was a joke. I'm like, hold on, you know, they good morning America called. And they're like, we want to come to your house, film a Father's Day. a barbecue in your backyard Saturday at 5 a.m. You'll be live for four minutes. And I'm like, this is a joke? And we did that. And that's

that week, we made a logo. We made T-shirts and we're like, okay, let's just see where this goes. That's honestly, wow. But the video that really got you going is the salsa one, correct? Salsa, yeah. Okay, can we, listen, we all love Whish Baroque here. Can we get some

some chances of salsa up to Whish Baroque? No kidding. All the clubs around the country by the way or anywhere that's what everyone wants to come in some chips and salsa I kind of been waiting that maybe like a menu item up there I think it you know that would kind of go for it to be something we'll call Greg so what was the first video actually don't don't don't do that don't call Greg you tell him I got a good idea I know which line that goes to when was the first one you start off doing this it started getting a track but when were you like this could actually be like a real thing it was the

one video that just blew up and you're like holy shit uh yeah my like I don't know fifth or six video, I literally made some roasted broccoli and it got like 15 or 20,000 views. And we're like, whoa, wow, that's a lot of views. And then we did a salsa, I don't know, a couple weeks later. And I think what I recently told Dylan was we posted this salsa. And I made a mistake. I called it TikTok salsa. That offended a lot of people because it was a very traditional salsa that families had been making for generations. And I just said, hey, I'm going to make this salsa. I'm going to call it TikTok salsa because I've seen it a lot.

And that did not go over well. So I spent like an entire night apologizing to people. Don't piss off the internet. Social media is cool about that. But it went, I got a, like it had a million views in a couple hours. And my son said, he goes, hey, we got something. Like, this is crazy. That's real.

I mean, your executive director of the Thunderbirds, I mean, waste management, WM, Phoenix opens coming up very soon. Like, how much time do you start? spend on this, you know, the TikToks, Instagram side first, the Phoenix open stuff and Thunderbirds. You know, I'd say 1% is probably all my food. We've got to a point where like I'll do it. I might post or film a video at night during the week. Sometimes I don't. I've kind of slowed down recently. And then I'll do, you know, one or two videos on Saturday, Sunday. And even if I'm working on Saturday, Sunday on my phone or emails or whatever, I can now knock out a video

on a Sunday like I did yesterday. I made shredded beef sandwiches yesterday, posted it yesterday afternoon. And then I've got a list of like 50 ideas. So anytime I get an idea, I just jot it down and then I think about, and I get new ideas every single day. And now people get me ideas. So it looks like it takes a lot of time. It really doesn't. You know, I can do two to three videos a week pretty easy now. By the way, it's just me and a phone. I know.

It's me and my wife and my son. And then that gets wrong, Good Morning America. You just started messing around. Can we discuss this? This is one percent of his time. This is a lot of our time. And he's had over 200 million views. Yeah.

We suck. You guys need to put some food on the table. Yeah, good point. Very good point. We've got to piggyback off a chance here. Get us on TikTok a little later. We'll do a little dance. Oh, I'll be doing that.

Before you got into all this, though, let's go back to your, because you were the main man at Ping's tour department for a while. But before that, oh, you, obviously, as you're talking about, you're a hell of a golfer, too. That's kind of the whole family led you into, yeah, you come from a nice lineage, huh? Yeah, we were lucky. I grew up in a golf family. I grew up at Hillcrest Country Club just north of Tulsa.

My dad was the head pro there for 42 years. My older brother, Caring Craig, we all, went to OU. One of us was on the golf team for 11 straight years. Greg Gross was our coach. So my parents, they traveled a bunch. They watched a ton of golf. And I just grew up around the game. And I realized, you know, I wanted to play college golf. I never really had this big aspiration to be a professional golfer. Maybe it's because, you know, I wasn't, I knew that I wasn't at some elite level. You know, I didn't win U.S. amateurs and Western amateurs and things like that. probably my biggest title is the Norman City Championship.

But I just grew up around golf, and I was a good number three man in college for OU and was able to play for four years, which was amazing. But I think halfway through my junior year, I realized, like, I'm not going to play golf past college. It was totally fine with that. And I was just kind of dead set on working hard, having a good finish to my career. and then I wanted to be in the golf industry. So I interviewed at Ping and Titleist.

Got to be candid, I thought Phoenix sounded pretty good. And you guys probably know Cricket Mush pretty well. He hired me. And I moved out here and just knew a couple people and figured I'd start here. And the ride at Ping was great. Like, you know, obviously the Solheim family, incredible company to work for

and ended up managing their kind of worldwide tour program and did contracts for all of their tour players from 03 to 2019. That's awesome. And you met some studs. I mean, you had Hunter Mayhem, Bubba Watson,

among many others. Yeah, a lot of great friendships. Our first guest of 2023, Lumpy. Oh, my gosh. A lot of guy.

He always had that pain visor. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He's nice in the visor game. I got a good Michael Allen story. Oh, please do.

Well, you know, I was having dinner at stake 44 last, the right before Christmas with Oliver. And Michael Allen was in there. And I think he was serious.

So he comes over to our table. We said, hello. I hadn't seen Michael in a couple months. And he said, hey, this is a serious question. He said, I think it would be great return for me to come play in the Phoenix Open, the WM Phoenix Open. And he goes, I'm planning the Champions Tour that week. I could get on a flight. It's international.

Da, da, da, da, da, da, or I could stay in my own bed. You could give me a sponsor invite and I can play in the WM Phoenix Open. He goes, what do you think? and I said, you need to book your flight. Yeah, you need to go to one. And he just said, fair enough. And I said, well, there's two good answers in life. Yes, and a quick no.

I just gave you one of them. I love that that was serious. I think he was serious. I've been thinking about this. I'd be a good guy to play in the $20 million event. By the way, every person that's not in the world that has held a golf club is applying for his sponsors. Yeah.

Okay, give me just a rough guess. How many requests do you get for sponsor exemptions a year you think? I got two on the way here on the drive over in the car. Right now I think that we're at about 52. Okay. I think some people just realize it's probably not going to happen. It's like 50 to 70, I would say. And most of them are PGA tour players, a lot of guys on the corned ferry tour.

And then we have a handful of guys in college this year. And then there's just a few that write an amazing letter that don't have status anywhere and tell us why they'd be a great pick for the WMF. week's open and and then you know obviously Pat Williams are tournament chairman. That's one of the key jobs of the tournament chairman among running the whole event is those five spots are Pat's. And it's a hard job. I've had conversation with it.

Like where do you draw the line? Because there's always kind of like a local element to it. Right. Preston Summer Hayes got one. John Rom got one when he was coming up. You want like there always seems to be Scott Harrington's gotten one right. Like there's always a local kind of piece to it. And then it's like, all right now, especially now that it's elevated. It's like where do you draw the line?

Like these guys we have relationships with, they're local, we want to do that. However, there's another huge pool of, like, writer cup captains and things like, who moves the needle. Like, it's a big, that's a tough gig to do. Yeah, you got guys that, you know, have struggled over the last couple years, might be getting a little older. Like, we're joking about the Seagull, Charlie Hoffman, like, he needs a spot. He's sponsored by WM. I mean, I'll just go out on Lemp, probably say he's probably going to get one. But it's like guys like that you don't ever even think, like, oh, I'm going to have to give this guy a sponsor exemption at some point.

That's a tough job. Well, and I, you and I have a little bit of history. And I, I respected it and I felt awful. In 2015, we came down to our last spot. And it was between Tony Fee now and yourself. Terrible choice. Terrible choice. But we were, you know, you are obviously a great player.

We're all very close friends. And 2015, the spot ended up going to Tony Fee now. And I was driving you out to the Monday Pro Am, which you were playing in. And you didn't love it. And that's the hard part because you know, you want to say yes to everybody. And there's a lot of great players, but you've only got five spots. It's tough. I remember I was told at the time it was down to three of us for the last two, Justin Thomas, Tony Feenow and me.

I'm like, well, it looks like you. So I'm a shoeing. In the long term, you all made the right decision. I'll let Tony and Justin down easy. I probably would have won that year. And I wouldn't be having this media career. So thank you. Yeah, you're in favor.

You're welcome. And then there's like deals like, all right, who's playing well right now. I mean, last year was a home run. So Hiff got one. And they went out there, you know, Doc went out there and flew to San Diego and presented it with it. He had no idea. And damn near, without a bad bounce on 17, might have won the thing outright. Yeah, we do.

We tell every single agent and every single player, whether we talk to him or to email or text, to say, hey, we're going to watch Sony. We're going to watch Amex. And we're going to watch Farmers. You know, we gave Sahith the spot Sunday after he finished. And he was playing good. And Doc Golding, our tournament chairman, last year, he's like, I want to give the spot to somebody that's in form.

And he didn't know him. And so he introduced himself after the tournament, gave him a spot, and then he almost won in Phoenix, which is, that's what we want. Like, we want to,

we want to impact somebody's career in life, but we want to see him play good. And that was a magical. I would say, correct me if I'm wrong, but like for y'all, like, I don't know if you're supposed to root for someone,

but you're rooting for those sponsor examples. Like, you want to make y'all self look good for picking those guys, but that's such a cool story. when guys like that are up there in the mix. You're looking at your five guys. Of course.

And all the tournament chairmen of the past, they're looking at how their five guys played. So Danny Callahan in 2015, it was literally Justin Thomas, Tony Fienow, Daniel Berger, Padraig Harrington, and John Rom. So he wins. When Rom was in Am and like top five, or whatever he did. Yeah. Yeah. You want your boys playing.

Of course. You don't want to go O for Five and be the guy. Like there's some kind of feel good. stories like let's give this guy one but there's something like we need to do to i think i think three of three of my guys miss the cut and the guys tell me about it all the time yeah and he had a nice i mean look at that pool that he had to pull from like you got some dudes you're pretty sure are gonna be studs coming out but now as the executive director like for you wm phoenix open i mean it's it's nuts so we just drove by there on the way i mean everything's pretty much all the way up

it's it's a party for you what's the most stressful part of that week oh that's a really good question like you know hotel rooms are stress right now i talked to a couple agents this morning hard time for players finding a hotel room with super bowl in town um and then you just want everything to go well um it's been a year's worth of planning um and that brings a lot of stress so you a you want to have the weather be good uh you can't control that but you got to adjust if there's a problem and then you want the player experience to be amazing and then everybody that comes our tournament, we want to have a positive, you know, impact on them from the minute they get out of their car. And with that many people, that's a challenge. So I actually, the whole week,

I'm in the tournament headquarters in the parking lot. I've got a security radio with our operation and I've got the PGA Tour radio. And I sit at the desk. I watch the coverage. I have both radios. Really don't leave that trailer very often. I'll go up to number one and number 10. make sure announcing is going well or go through player dining make sure things are going well if we had any issue on the golf course I'll try to greet that player

when they get to player dining you know and at least chat through whatever happened good or good or bad and you know for me during the tournament it's really kind of all business and you know people are like I didn't see on the 16th hole

I'm like well I was never on the 16th hole during the tournament I'll go out there Wednesday for the shot at glory but after that you know it's too much time to get out there and come back that's why we have we have venue chairman everywhere so if i need something on 16 i just call a couple people that are on 16 to deal with fix whatever problem that there may be sleaze is always available for 16 i'm always available you need a great 16th club too by the way bay club also if he needs somebody slide in there maybe a fill

in he's got so much stuff that he juggles like he said he's in that he's in that headquarters like virtually the whole week you hardly ever see chance but i think one of the challenges i would say just talking with other people, it's like, all right, this is the biggest show in golf, non-majors, right? But in terms of like the production of an event, this dwarfs everything else. But people expect it every single year. How hard is it to keep adding stuff? Like, all right, we don't want to stay the same. We want to go to the next without it getting like, all right, out of hand.

This thing has just become spring break. Yeah, I mean, we definitely, you know, we have some barriers that we won't break. A lot of people say, hey, you need to go three levels here, three levels here. When you're standing on 18 Fairway and you look at the venues around there, you can't even imagine those venues going up another level. From an engineering standpoint, like we would never do it. But we just have really good people around this. I mean, to be candid, the Thunderbird staff is incredible. We have vendors.

I could list off three or four vendors that have all been running the Phoenix Open for us for 20 plus years. And then you have the Thunderbird organization. and all that's kind of our secret sauce. You know, we have 300 Thunderbirds that are volunteers, and their only job is to make the venue better than it was the year before and do your best to stay under budget. And then by the time things get to me, you know, eventually it has to come across the desk at the office

and we'll either do it or we won't. We are willing to take risks. Like we make quick decisions. And after we think it through, and if it doesn't work, then we don't do it. the next year but it's pretty impressive there's just so many people around the event that make it a success not to mention 5,000 volunteers Scott's Del PD and you can just go down the list fire department everybody and the PGA tour and our title sponsor you know it's just it's a big

big group about a bunch of people that really are passionate about the tournament and that's it's hard to find before we get back to our interview with Chance Cosby, need you to get over to the golf.com pro shop and pick you up one of these beauties. For those of you listening, it is a gorgeous green birdie juice hat, white riding going to fit in perfect at the WM Phoenix Open, especially on Saturday sleeves, which is green out day slash get amongst the day. Both, and that's the universal sign for I like to get after it. You see someone in those? You say that's a friendly face and a man who understands. Or woman, by the way. Go get yours today. Proshop.golf.com. Pick up your

yourself a green birdie juice hat now back to chance Cosby last year was the debut of the concert at the Coliseum which was so good I'm very I love working for CBS I was at pebble the weekend before so I didn't get to go but I heard it was just an absolute home run that was the new thing last year do we have anything that's going to be new this year for the WM Phoenix Open well the concert in the Coliseum's coming back we got Walker Hayes opening for Maroon 5 so that's going to be another great kind of second year event and kudos to Scotty Jenkins and Michael Golding, who that was their vision to put that event on. So cool.

And we have a huge fan zone. You know, I know that it might not be something that's crazy exciting until you get there and see it. And that's where our general admission go to get food and get drink. We made a huge capital improvement. That's a really congested area. And so the fan zone area is going to be very, very cool. And we've built out desert oasis a little bit deeper into the golf course.

A lot of people don't even. know what that is, but that's been a growing venue out to the left of number five. And once you get out there, like people are now coming to go to the desert oasis. It's like craft beer, Little Miss Barbecue, and, you know, they're going to have smokers out there. So you're going to be smelling that barbecue around the course all week. So every, basically we built everything that we built last year. And our entrance is going to be very different because there's going to be a new draft king sports book. And so things will look, you know, a little bit bigger, a little bit better, a little bit cleaner.

Courses in great shape already. And the field's going to be the best we've ever had. The field's going to be, that's ridiculous. It's going to be, let me ask you this, though. Say you're a guy, you went a ticket lottery and you get to pick any spot to go out and enjoy the Phoenix Open. Where would you recommend they choose? That's a great question. You know, like 16 is obviously great.

Then you built the Bay Club. A lot of people love the Greenskeeper. In my opinion, I'm interested in. Like, Bay Clubs would be my spot. Bay Club is, you know, it's hard to beat. You know, the sweets are a little bit bigger, not as congested. So if I've never come and I win the lottery, I'm going right behind the T on 16, and I'm going to watch that all day.

You know. You never been. That's like a bucket list called thing. Saturday on 16. You know. I mean, you know, you know, it was. The energy and vibe on 16 is just, you know, it's unmatched. And so if I had to just do it one day, I'd sit right behind the tea.

I held the quiet please sign for a few other. There's a couple buddies coming through. I was like, yeah, I'll hold it for them. They offered it up. So I did it. I was like, hey, I don't want to, you know, it's a cool deal to be out there on the 16th. I was like, hey, thanks guys. You know, I'm going to head back up.

Like one group. I just barely made my way up there. And then the Samrider Ace happened. And it felt like an earthquake. I never experienced, and I would never will again, the, like the wildness of that on a golf course. Yeah, that was just one of those moments. It kind of was like a Tiger-like moment, and that obviously it was 25 years ago

when Tiger made his ace there. But I was in the tournament trailer like I always am, and I remember I had my phone charging, and it was in my hand, and we have a TV right above us. A few of us were in there, and it goes in, and I threw my phone against the wall, and we're all going crazy. And then about 30 seconds later, I go,

oh we got a problem and then we're on the radio like all hands on deck on the 16th hole all hands on deck and we had to get that hole cleaned up as quick as we possibly We've lost contain I mean on 16

Listen it's something that doesn't happen every week on the PJ tour like I think players know the WM Phoenix Open it's party it's fun And we don't want anybody getting hurt By hit with bottles or anything or anything to disrupt the condition of the green but my God what a scene that was I mean when the when the GA section over

on the right all through their drink when it went in. Like that was so cool. Yeah, I mean, you obviously had a first row seat with Amanda. And I've watched that clip a hundred times. It was just, you know, I don't know if you'll ever see that reaction again because the beer cans are gone. Yeah. You know, we're going to have beers and cups.

You know, Brian Harmon was playing with Sam. And, you know, I, you know, I'm reading the body language of the players on the coverage. And I'm like, I probably need to go see. Brian Harmon. And so I saw him in the parking lot and I said, hey, how you doing? He said, it was amazing. He goes, just put the beers in cups, man. And that's all that we needed to hear. We certainly heard from the tour pretty quick. But, you know, we made the decision quickly that we're going to put the beers in cups and there'll be green commemorative cups. And, you know, we're going to, obviously, we do not want anybody throwing anything on the whole. But if that was to happen, you know, that's

going to hopefully eliminate any issue. It was incredible because with TV, obviously, every shot is not shown live. And so I'm sitting right there by the tee. And when we're not going, like I'm watching the guys and I'm watching Sam Ryder's live. And then all of a sudden it goes in and then they say down to 16. I'm like, oh my God, like I'm getting drenched with beer trying to make a call. I can't even imagine.

It was, I mean, it was awesome. It was so much fun. And then I'll never forget Brian Harmon's sitting there. Sam Ryder comes over, gives us a high five and all this. And one of the officials goes to Brian as they're. kind of cleaning off some of the beers and he goes do you want to wait or do you want to hit he's like do i want to hit like yeah talking quiet get the guy with the quiet get the quiet please up he's like absolutely silence he goes i'll sit here and wait and it was a little bit of a delay but it's a

it's a moment i don't think we'll ever forget yeah there was another there's another part of that day obviously for about 20 minutes that day you know everything was electric the radios were going crazy and everybody's trying to get the 16th hole cleaned up and then about an hour later like the radios were dead silent. And I called our head of security on his cell phone. And I said, hey, is there something you're not telling me? Like, why are the radio is quiet? Like this, it's Saturday afternoon.

And he said, no, he goes, everything's under control. Everybody's having a good time. We don't have any issues. It's just a Saturday afternoon. And, you know, that's what, ultimately what we want. And, you know, that the Sam, Sam Ryder, he put his stamp on the WM Phoenix. Oh, he'll be a member. We were talking to him down in a combo.

He's like, you know, he's like, I'm the whole and one guy now. Like, people that he didn't use, he wasn't the biggest name on the PJ tour. Now, like people were, you got them, like, I know the bottles thing is a thing and that's been rectified quickly. But you also got like a moment, a moment that will, you can't replicate, probably won't be replicated again now. That's always going to live on 20 years from now. They'll be showing that.

Like, look at what happens on 16th. You know, I talk to players and they're like, you know, Saturday's so nuts there. But I was like, y'all do a great job. You move it up to 125. put the pin front left, very getable. And some players are just like, I just want to get out of there. I'm like, dude, you realize if you do something like Sam Ryder did, you are remembered forever.

I was like, you hit it into the bunker because you went at it and make bogey, they'll boo you for a second. I promise you the next day you come through, they're not going to remember. Like, is the juice worth the squeeze is kind of the saying. You'd do something cool there. I mean, Harry Higgs, Joel Damon. That was juicy. But they're going to remember for that forever.

They left their mark. And you think about, I mean, And, you know, Sam obviously probably monetized that. He's more valuable because of that moment. Skyrocket. Like you said, he's like, dude, I'm the whole and one guy now. Yeah. You know?

He can go tell that story for the next 25 years. Yeah. His name's going to be on that beautiful plaque. That's right. I guess it's not a plaque. It's bigger than a plaque. Yeah. But, I mean, he'll be on there forever.

That's just. It's cool. It's so cool. I know you don't release the numbers, but just to give people an idea of ballpark. Like, what do you expect? This is a Super Bowl year. It's the biggest year you can have. How many people in and out of TPC?

Scott Stale during the week? Yeah, we don't announce our attendance and we're like, you know, I like to talk about this because we, you know, last time we announced our attendance was 2018. I think it was around 700,000 and change for the entire week. But we found ourselves like just kind of chasing our own number. And I've been a part of the Thunderbird since 2010. And in no meeting ever have I heard a goal of like attendance of how many people were going to have at the event. And so we just shifted our focus to our charity number. But, you know, it's going to be, you got to think, in that range. But we're not going to necessarily have more people. I think the level of VIPs and NFL players, you know, just already, the amount of people that want to

come on Friday and Saturday that are in town for the Super Bowl is off the charge. We've, we've had some NFL organizations by some, you know, hospitality on the golf course, which normally doesn't happen. So I think Friday and Saturday, if you're, if you're into kind of the who's who crowd of sports, if you keep your eyes open, there's going to be a lot to see. You might just walking around, you don't know who you just go like, oh my God, is that so-and-so? You know what I mean? And like, yeah, that is. They're just out there. I was working Will Call a couple years ago, like busy time on a Saturday. And we'll get a note on our WhatsApp, everybody go to Willcall, everybody go to ticketing, because the line is so long,

and we all kind of go there, and you just work Will Call, and you just say, ID, and you're taking the next one in line, and I grab an ID, and I go, Max Scherzer. And I look up and he goes, that's me, and he's all by himself. And I went and got his ticket, and that guy ran off like a kid in a candy store. That's awesome. And so it's just a, you know, it's a cool environment. Last year, I was just walking around randomly and some friends of friends like kind of connected me on a text like hey I won't even use their names like these guys are out there they're NFL dudes and you know who they are right they're like can you help them out or whatever I was like walk over there they are we end up hanging out like the entire day I'm like these like there's like shock and no one said anything like they

had the hats on and stuff like that but no one said a word I'm just like you don't get this and they wanted to go everywhere they wanted to see everything you know I mean like they're into it they're not just there to kind of because they got to be if they were normal people probably not I was that piss off I got some famous people over here there you I love it. One last question. I know you're very busy, man, so we can't be here all single day. But one of the questions I get asked the most is, why do they not leave the stadium on 16 up all year round? And I actually never have heard the truthful answer. Yeah, I get asked that a ton.

As a starting point, it's federal land. And so you've got, it's federal land that's managed also by the BOR. You've got the city of Scottsdale involved. It's TPC Scottsdale. We just use it for seven days. And then, you know, it pencils out to build it and take it down is the answer after all of that. And once you build a permanent structure, you better get it right. Yeah.

Because we make tweaks and changes every single year and we make it better every single year. We always don't, you know, we don't think we can. But you've got somebody out on the 16th hole, there's three different Thunderbirds that work that, chairman, assistant, and second assistant. Once you're named the second assistant, you've got two years to figure out how to make that hole better. We're not going to go up. Like it's already at its max height.

But every year that tournament or that chairman on that on that hole finds a way to make it better. And if you do a permanent structure, you know, it's just complicated. It's expensive. And then you can't make changes. That's fair. It's just crazy because people go there that. play and they've if they're there when the stadium's not up they're like wait a second this is a nothing hole yeah it's normally looks like well that was one of our motivating factors during 21

during COVID is that if the tour's going to allow us to have fans we are building the 16th hole we're just going to build at one level we're closing it in because the reality is it's a nine iron with a couple bunkers but you put that around it and it's not a nine iron with a couple of game changer if you get a chance like average go out there while it's up and you can just envision it It's a different animal out there. Before we go, I know you got, you're busy, but we talk a lot about the Thunderbirds. I feel like people in this town know who they are,

but for a lot of the listeners, can you just explain who the Thunderbirds are, what they do? And then you mentioned the charitable giving. Like, what does the Phoenix Open bring in? What does that do for the local charities? You bet. So we are a civic group that started in 1937.

The Phoenix Chamber of Commerce grabbed five business leaders and said, we need a group to promote the Valley of the Sun through sport. And those five were asked to go get 10 of their friends, and that's where the number 55 started in 1937. And Bob Goldwater was the father of the Phoenix Open. It was his idea that we should have a golf tournament. We should host a golf tournament.

I think he was a tournament chairman the first 18 or 19 years. And really that's what got our organization off the ground and running. And now we're about to host our 88th Phoenix Open. But at the end of the day, it's a group of local, successful people that have time to give back, give their time, give their energy. And it's a charitable organization that, you know, our only driving force is Thunderbird Charity. So how we work is we spend all year putting this golf tournament on. And then our fiscal year ends at the end of May. we take all the proceeds from our tournament.

They're moved over to Thunderbird Charities, and then we have a 15-person board with community leaders on that board that decide where all of that money goes. We have two grant cycles, one in the spring, one in the fall, and we've given over $176 million as a direct result of the WM Phoenix Open, and I think our economic impact last year

was like $438 million. that we help bring money to the valley. And so at the end of the day, like, we've honed in on a golf tournament. You know, the Thunderbirds are not a golf tournament. The Thunderbirds is a charity organization that funds Thunderbird charities that ultimately helps organizations and people in need in Maricopa County and just outside. 99% of our money stays right here. So that's kind of the feel-good story of everything that happens.

and the community supports this event in such an amazing way. None of this is possible if you're not selling skyboxes and selling suites and having hundreds of thousands of people come out and enjoy the tournament in the bird's nest. Then we wouldn't be able to give back and go do things like the Patriot, All-American that we were a part of this last week or Phoenix Children's Hospital and Boys and Girls Club and just on and on and on. and we help hundreds of organizations with their annual funding. And, I mean, we are a very, very small part of this, but our event, the Larry, which we are doing.

Yes, the Larry. Part of our proceeds are going to go to the Thunderbird Charities, which we're very excited to help out with. We are as well. Food just called me on that a couple hours ago. That's awesome. Well, we can't wait for it. But we got to get to the E9 real quick before we got to go.

Very, very busy, man. Uh-oh. Nine fun ones. Doesn't take long. All right, we ask this to everyone. You can be anyone for a day, dead or alive. Walking their shoes for a day. Who would you be?

Tiger Woods. Good. Not a bad choice. What day? Two thousand. Sunday at Augusta? 97? The boat race?

That'd be good. 2000. I don't know, pick five of them. Yeah, you got a lot of good days. That'd be good. A lot of good days there. Okay with that. I like that.

All right, you just mentioned the birds nest, okay? Which is a big venue where we have concerts every night. It's spectacular. The biggest names come through. Small little names. Give me the Chance Cosby one night dream lineup at the bird's nest. You're picking them. It's just for you.

Forget what everyone else likes. Oh, it's just for me. This is just for me. This is your favorites. I like this. I would probably have, I'm going to go old school and some new school. That's for you. I'm going to have Jim Reeves open for, not familiar.

Open up for Robert Earl Keene. How do you think that's ticket-wise? Ticket-wise, it would struggle. We have 12 people. Jim Reeves is like my dad's favorite singer, and Robert O'Keene was like the first concert I ever went to. He's just, you know, Oklahoma, Texas, red dirt country. I like that. Slick, why don't you give us yours real quick?

Mine? I'd have to go. Oh, God. I know your main event is. Eminem? I thought it was going to be, you're all about post Malone. Oh, yeah, that's what I wanted.

You're talking like, right, who would I put if I'm doing the bird's nest or who, is this just for me? Your dream night. You got an opening act. My dream night, I'd have to go. I've never seen Eminem in concert. He's been my favorite for forever. I'd have to go. This is tough.

I can only have two? I'd have to go Jay-Z too. But I'd also, can I get a Whitney hologram like they did two pocket? Got to have Coachella. Whitney hologram. Just let her go. Forget an opening act. There is no opening act.

Whitney's just going to spin for three hours. How many people that are listening are Googling Jim Reeves right now? Probably a lot. If I wasn't sitting right here, I would be too. Who is this guy? I like that, though. That's what we wanted to hear. All right.

Well, we've obviously talked about your three pieces of pecan. A master's champion calls you. It says, chance, I want you to cook my champion's dinner at the masters. You get to pick the menu. break down the menu for me? You know, I feel like I'd have to go barbecue, you know, just so I would probably do a solid, you know, 20-hour smoke on a big prime brisket, you know, salt and pepper, maybe a touch of garlic, but have a perfect crust, more Texas brisket. And I do all the sides that come with it. It'd be beans.

It would be coleslaw. It would be potato salad. Probably be some collard greens, some mac and cheese. And I would just inundate them with barbecue. As a Texas boy, you're hitting my heart over here. People would like that. Yeah, that'd be a popular one. All right, you've done Good Morning America, which is pretty much the pinnacle.

But I'm assuming you watch all the other cooking shows and you know who the big names are. If you could be a guest, featured guests on one of these cooking shows, come in. What's your white whale show you'd like to be on? That's a good one. You know, I watch the Food Network a lot. And so, you know, Food Network, it would be cool to go. I'm pretty good friends. I grew up with, you know, she has a kingdom now, a pioneer woman.

Rie Drummond. So she grew up in Bartlesville. So we're very close with her family. She still lives there. And she actually grew up on the, I guess, seventh hole where my dad was a pro. And so to do a show with Rie would be pretty cool. I bet you can make that happen. You'd be the pioneer man.

Three pieces. of pecans three pieces of pecan right now change the brand here things already all right next one I'm not asking for a name but as executive director what's the most ridiculous request you have received from a tour player the week of the Phoenix Open oh yeah nice this is one of my favorite things with the salesmanship guys in Dallas who I'm very close to to ask for the request and they actually don't care they just throw their liaisons in here and we can go through we don't have the name names and just hear the looks I've heard some of them I'm like are they out of their minds yeah I think the one that uh that uh that

probably got me when I was player liaison. And I think it was Saturday night, like advance week before the tournament, I got a call from the wife of a player that had just driven their RV into town. And they were at their RV location. And they didn't know how to get their septic tank pumped from their RV. And they're calling me at 9 o'clock on a Saturday night before the tournament week. And wanted me to, like, call somebody, get it scheduled. and so on and I was just like I mean it's your RV this isn't really my job yeah I mean

you you need some tickets I got you I don't know so I think we ultimately figured out we have the right title sponsor for that but I was a little shocked that they were love that yeah good okay I'll go to your your heart here your alma mater Oklahoma boomer sooner they've sold out on the big 12 turn their backs on their history and now they're headed to the SEC how many years until they win their first SEC title. Three. Oh, that's quick. A little rebuild.

Yeah, I mean, I think Venables is good. And I think that, I mean, I think the Big 12 is shown well. And, you know, look at what TCU just did. Exactly. Right? Everybody gives, everybody's always hard on the Big. Speak on. Everybody's hard on the Big 12.

And the reality is we were watching the game and my wife looked to me. She goes, maybe we weren't that bad. Maybe TCU is just that good. And so I think. I think Venables is a great hire. I think he'll do a great job. And you just look at the history of OU. Like, we are an incredible program.

Yeah, they've been pretty. I think y'all's, this season, you went six and seven. I think you snapped the longest, but you had the longest run of winning seasons in a row. Yeah, it's good. We'll be fine. Three years. But I'm not saying it. I got a lot of worries.

It's not going to be easy. It's not one of them. Yeah, it's not one of ours either. Okay. All right. Next one. Comes out each year. The list of most followed people in the golf.

industry on social media and believe it or not Tiger Woods does not lead that actually it's page sporadic so how long until Chance Cosby who you got over a million now she's got just over three million until Chance Cosby passes Page Sparantic on most followed on social media in the golf world that would be unbelievable oh my god you imagine Chance Cosby page sparrantic Tiger Woods I'm gonna need I'm gonna need a lot of luck for a lot of reasons so I'm a million followers between TikTok and Instagram Boy, it's going to be, it's going to take me longer than it's going to take OU to win an SEC championship. Fair, fair, good answer.

I like that. You got to change those outfits a little bit. I know, a quick way to ramp that up, dude. We've been talking about doing it too, you know what I mean, just showing a little more. It's fair. I always laugh because it's her and then obviously Tiger and like Phil and Rory. Stuart, Stuart sinks always in there too. But imagine just at some point if your name's on that list.

That'd be so cool. Just the random person, like they'd put it out on Instagram or whatever, but Chance Cosby. You know, I know Tiger. I'm pretty familiar with Paige. It's been fun. You know, I'm just kind of enjoying the ride. You're killing it. It's so cool to say. You should give you a sponsor's invite.

No. You know what I mean? You might get in that PIP program. Monday pro am. I'd be good for that. There you go. All right. Last one from me.

Take Sam Ryder out of the equation last year. What's the wildest thing you've seen? Could be good or bad at the Phoenix Open in your experience? I would say one of my early years at Pingoff, watching Mark Calkevica break the scoring. record. I think it was 2000 or 2001. Mark Calc and the weather was terrible. It was cold. It was sleeting. It was raining. And I think he shot, what was the number back then, 256 or 254. It was amazing. And he just boat race the field. And so I, you know, I got to know Calc really well when I worked at Ping. And when he

felt good, like nothing stopped him. And he got in a rhythm and just, he put the pedal down for 72 two holes. And I walked, I think, the last 54 just in awe of what he was doing. I loved when he went. God, he was funny. He could go unconscious. Like tie draws all day. Yeah, just a lot of right to left. Well, like Kenny Perry. Oh my gosh. But every pin back right and just see what calc shoots. You know, I have one calc story. You know, when you, when you work on tour at a young age like I did and you were a golfer, there were a few moments of like regret of like, why didn't I just try? Like it's pretty cool out here.

And my first year at Ping, we're at the Players Championship, and I get to TPC. I'd never been there. And I walk on the course on Monday. And I'm like, wow, this is amazing. Maybe I should have tried. I knew I wasn't good enough. And Calc reached out Monday night, and he said, hey, meet me on the T on 10T at 6 a.m. tomorrow.

And I walked the back nine with Calc and Tiger on a nine-hole practice round. And I affirmed that I, should not play golf for a living. That's why I didn't try. I mean, they were so good. They were so good. And I mean, obviously, they're the best players in the world. But that was a cool memory that I don't know if Calc did it on purpose, but it was nice

to him. I mean, I was just, you know, not even a year out of college and to get to go. And Calc was in his prime. Yeah. So side note to that, you know, you've worked with a ton of players. And when I first came out of college, I was at Tidelist. and Philip James always told me he goes the only person I've seen come comparable

to hitting it in the middle as often as Tiger was Jamie Lovemark. For you, was there a player that stood out over all the years you worked with him that were like, my God, that was impressive. Well, Bubba's impressive. Bubba's just shot making. It's unbelievable.

It's like nothing we've really ever seen. So besides Calc, Calca was just that streaky. Like when he went, he went. And I would say Bubba and, man, Louis Eust Eisen was fun to watch. It still is. And, you know, just his rhythm was so good. For Bubba, like, TV doesn't do it justice. Like, how much he moves it.

Like, dude, he's moving to nine and 30 yards one way or another. It's cool. Until Shot Tracker came along, like, you didn't have any idea. I've seen some of the guys, like, the tour reps, when guys would come in, they would send me, you know, pictures of things. I saw some pictures of Cam, before Cam Champ was, like, out. Like, this kid's in college. Look at these numbers. and I was like, are you out of your brain?

Like, what are you guys juicing the track man or something? Like, I couldn't believe they were like, never seen anything like it. Because he doesn't even go at it, like on the golf course. But at factory, they were like, send a few. Bubba's rookie year at the Sony Open. He played with Mark Calkevacia, I think, on Saturday. Cald called me Saturday night and said, what is this Bubba Watson? And he said, like, on the third hole, he hit an eight iron,

and he hit like a 60-yard cut. and Calc grabbed him off the team he's like what are you doing? Like this is not like it's not a joke out here and he's like no that's just how I play and Calc was just his mind was blown never hit a straight shot never hit a straight shot and they say you can't move the ball

then ball doesn't move he can move it. It can move it compared to what it used to no I can vouch for that. But it is it I always enjoyed playing with him because it's just I and I swear for Bubba it's like he doesn't know which way he's going to shape it like he kind of moves around like Trevino kind of looks both He's like, okay, that's the one.

I'll do that. And then he goes. He can do anything. It's really cool. All right, last one. We're going to go on like a high school grading scale, A to F. A to F. A to F, okay.

My man, Sleeves over here. You can see, I've heard a lot of E-9s in my day. I knew this where this was going. He's been a thunderbird for a couple of years. Give me the grade for Slees is a thunderbird so far. I will butcher this Wednesday program with the wrong answer. This thing won't even, no one will even tee off if this. I'm kidding.

Go. I'm going to say, Slees is a rock solid B plus. Okay. That's good. Great. Wow. That just shows you how nice he is.

I got room for improvement, but I'm solid. Cs get degrees, right? Cs get you all the way through. I can attest to that too. You know, we, everybody has different challenges. And when we ask a lot of Slees, so we ask things to Slees that we don't ask of other members of the group. And we all know Slees is special.

You're doing a great job. Special. I like that word. That's a hell of an answer, my man. I mean, you could have spent a little more time in the scoring and communications compound last year. But, but, you know, we're, we had a good year. And so, you know, you got a big job the next couple of years.

In my defense, I was taught by Ben Hay. I worked under Ben Hayes during COVID. I was like, what do we do? It's valid. Literally. Literally, we're just. I'm actually very upset because I heard most rookies like, they get like the parking lot or something like that.

Like maybe since it was COVID and he didn't get the experience that. We swing him back through the parking lot at some point over the next couple years. It's still possible. He's young. get demotive quick. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. By the way,

parking is important. Parking is... The experience starts when people get out of their car. It ages you like five years too. It does all the stress, the near-death experience. Chance Cosby,

three pieces of pecan. Thank you so much for joining us, man. Keep it up, dude. And thanks for all you do for this tournament and this community, man. You bet. I appreciate it.

I'm a loyal follower of the show. And when you asked me to come on, that was a quick yes. So thank you very much. Awesome. We love you, bud. Thank you.

Cheers. All right. Well, that was the man himself. Chants Cosby, the biggest bird of them all, man. What a, he's got, is it, do you think it's like a stressful job? It's one of the coolest jobs. It's a great job. And he left Ping.

He was like the head of player, you know, their player relations out there to take this job. And I think people like from the outside looking in like, oh, it's a one tournament a year. It's a week. Like, what do you do the rest of the year? There's always shit to be done. And chances on top of it, like, now that he's in that position, I couldn't imagine some, his really, because he also knows a ton of the players from before working at Ping.

It's a big it's a fun job, but like there are so many moving parts out there venues this carts that all the stuff that goes into that thing I mean it is a The build out is massive it takes months and months and months and months of planning and it's a lot of stuff that goes into it to hopefully have one like we had last year You got that moment with Sam Ryder you were there on the call how about the clip making it did you see this the clip made it on a Joe Roe I mean that's the biggest show in the world made it on a Rogan show Rogan was like that's the best golf that's what golf should be we've actually extended an invite out to Rogan to come. Don't know if he's going to make it or not, but if he does, I'd like my new job to be Joe Rogan's personal bitch for the week.

Yeah, I'll take it. I'll take it. I did see it. A buddy sent it to me. He's like, uh, your voice is on Joe Rogan right now. I'm like, holy shit. That's cool. I wish they had to show me clapping like an idiot.

Yeah. That'd have been, that would have been even better. But chance man. He is, he is the man. I mean, having to deal with these diva tour players that we know all about. He was very diplomatic with that answer because the word trickles. Like, who's the guy. If you're the player liaison, your job is to handle basically every player gets your number and they're like, this is what I need.

This is what I want. That's what I want. And the stories that that guy can tell at the end of the week, like, you won't believe. And it's not the biggest name dudes that it's not the name them, you know, Scotty Sheffler. It's not the top name guys. It's the other guys and the stuff they want. You're like, are you out of your brain? Like me.

I need 50 tickets. I need this. I need shuttle everyone in and out. Like, you ain't the only dude in the field. I would text Medley just the most random request. Oh, yeah. I need a peanut butter and jelly and three Advil to the 14th. which is the farthest place away from the crumb house.

Safeway, yeah. At all the water. Yeah. But man, he does. It's a big job. It's awesome. But now he's got the cooking,

the three pieces of pecan that it's just over two million followers. He's running up on page sporadic over here. He's coming. That thing's moving fast. I hear people like, sometimes people recognize him from three. They have no idea what he does. He thinks he's like a TikTok guy.

And it's like, oh, you're three pieces. I'm like, yeah, he also has a job too. But that thing's just exploded. Exploded for him.

It has. I mean, I'm very happy for him, for all of y'all, the Thunderbirds. I mean, the WM Phoenix Open. It's the biggest tournament on the PGA Tour in my, as far as attendance-wise and everything, but gets the most exposure. And now, with it being a designated event, it's going to have the best field it's ever had. It is going to be one hell of a week. You need to get an IV every single day leading up to it and probably go to bed right now.

Get them during the week. I got to start prepping now because it's a long week for us out there. But, I mean, what are you going to do? Rest up for success. You can't take a knee during it. And then you got the birds' nest after that at night, which you'll be out there some for that. Chance did list off his dream bird's nest. I'm not sure I knew one single artist that he named.

It was like, yeah. Wouldn't be the biggest bird. But that's for you. It's for a chance. It's bird nesting do what he wants. But bad really enjoyed sitting down with him. And I cannot wait for the WM Phoenix Open. Please, someone make a hole in one again so I can get drenched in beer.

It was so much fun. Cops only though, bud. That's fine. You're safe. You're safe this year. It's fine. Yeah. Still get the liquid.

Safety first. And it could still be an avalien. an avalanche of beer coming down. All right, well, let's make some picks this week. I'm heading out to the AT&T, Pebble Each Pro Am here very shortly. It's going to be a lot of fun as Pebble Beach is. The weather's getting better each day, which I'm very excited about, because last week, it looked awful. It looked like it was going to rain and be freezing every day, which Pebble's a beautiful place.

But when it's like that, it is not that much fun. Coldest place on planet others sometimes. The wetest, coldest, it's freezing when that wind gets going. We've got Jordan Speath, Tined it up, Matt Fitzpatrick, Victor Hovlin. decent field but this one's a lot of fun with all the celebrities that are playing Jordan Spieth obviously playing with Jake Owen my buddy just called me he goes Josh Isner who's playing as an AM in the event he goes I have one request like what he goes you've got to introduce me to a lenium a linium yeah I mean Josh has got big into the

DJs and I don't even know that is he's one of the biggest DJs in the world he's like you got introduced me to him like cool well I don't even know what he looks like yeah so you point him out and I'll go I'll go snag him yeah yeah Yeah, forget Aaron Rogers. Josh Allen. Josh Allen's teaming it up. Playing with our boy Keith Mitchell. Keith, Jeff, Kevin Mitchell.

So can't wait. We're going to get out there. Let's see if we can pick some winners this week. Might as well try. I'm going to go with a guy who played well here in the U.S. Open when they had it. He won the United States amateur on this golf course. He's going off at 10 to 1. Victor Hoplin.

I love Vicki every single week. Yeah, kind of space about the U.S.M. out there. But time for him to start rattling some off. be a good place to get it going. I'm going to slightly further down the board. Again, 16 to 1 here on this man. Maverick McNeely. We know he plays well in California. That's been pretty well documented. But if you look at his start to the year, he's only finished out of the top 20 twice in his last he missed the first cut of the year. He's made his next seven. He only finished out of the top 20 twice. I've been quietly playing really good. Now he's going back to what I think is his favorite place on

planet Earth in Pebble Beach. I think he's worth a roll of the dice. It should be his favorite. He grew up there. He lived on the 15th hole. Yeah, it's good. It's a nice place to live. 16th all. Sorry, 16th off. Check out some properties while you're up there.

They're going pretty cheap. Yards sale out there right now, I think. Let's buy Nancy. Some bargains. Some bargains up there on the coast. Before I get to my dark course, we've got to give a shout out to Charlie Belgian. Yeah.

Who won himself a jickey jack after he came on subpar. You come on subpar, you play good. It's pretty much a rule. Nice little jick, too. 20 racks for him. There was a former tour guys in that thing down at McCormick Ranch. the site of the Monday qualifier for the Phoenix Open. By the way, if you're in Phoenix and you can't make it to the actual Phoenix Open,

go out there on Monday afternoon, and it's damn near off-field PJ Tour event. Here's Phoenix Open Light. Yeah, exactly. It's a nice mix of people that are on that thing. Anything over 65, just pack your bags. Bogie One, just say, see you later. Somebody's shooting low. All right.

For my dark horse at AT&T, past subpar guest. He played pretty well the week after, but not what we expect. we expect huge things from our guests. 70 to 1 as well. Absolutely smashes it. Great ball striker. Starting to get more and more comfortable on the PJ tour.

Will Gordon. Seeds. Seeds. He might have a little delayed reaction to being on the show. It could be a couple weeks later. Yeah, I always like picking a former guest. I'm going to go with another former guest.

So I actually saw this week. He's in town getting ready. Weather was terrible back home. Came out here to practice a little bit. Kiz. Kevin Kisner going 65 to 1. So should be rested. Hasn't played since the QV.

but he has it so straight if he can get the putter going. I feel like that's a place at 65 to 1. I'm like, that's a pretty good name. I have it 65 to 1. So Kiz will be teeing it up in the Larry which is one week away. Greyhawk Golf Club Monday, February 6, 11 a.m. shotgun. You can still sign up golf.com slash the larry. But Kiz, he texted me the other day.

We're talking some golf. He's talking a lot of shit to me as he usually does because he's coming to play in our event, which he should because I helped him out with his event. But wearing me out about it. and he goes, by the way, I keep pitting it the way I am. I'm going to be taking your job soon. So if they can be some confidence. Perfect.

Perfect. Perfect. Yeah. I was like this week at the Rock. He was very nice about the Georgia game. Didn't give me too much shit about that. A little bit of shit about my golf game when I was out on the course. But I feel like he got out here and got some good working.

It was cold. It was windy. Tough conditions for him. Should be dialed. I was like, kids, why are you got to take my job? Why can't we just work together? Good to hear he's confident going in right after I picked him. Things can change quick, Mocks.

All right, well, make sure you go to golf.com slash the Larry and get one of those last couple spots left and join us out at Grey Hot Golf Club. It is going to be a lot of fun. We're going to be getting amongst it. And that's going to do it. Yes, sir. Next week, WM.F. Phoenix Open, baby.

Please, God. Thoughts and prayers for me. All right, we'll talk to y'all next week.