Subpar - Inside Rocco Mediate's U.S. Open showdown with Tiger Woods

Episode Date: January 14, 2025

On this week's episode of GOLF's Subpar Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz are joined six-time PGA Tour winner Rocco Mediate for an exclusive, in-studio interview. Rocco dishes on going head to head with Tiger Woods at the U.S. Open, the pace of play in today's game and winning the WMPO. -- Subscribe Now to out YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt5ESUx6omMUsMoEKvMTzlA ⁠ Shop The Birdie Juice Collection: ⁠https://fairwayjockey.com/collections/birdie-juice ⁠ Follow Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/golf_subpar/?hl=en ⁠ Follow Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/golf_subpar?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor⁠    

All right, welcome back to golf subpar with Colt Nost and Drew Stoltz. And Sleys, before we get going, just want to give a shout out to everybody out in Southern California, everything they're going through with the crazy fires and everything. I mean, just devastating out there, but thoughts and prayers to everybody out there. I know they're in for a tough road, but hopefully everything comes out okay. Yeah, we got some good buddies out there. I've been talking to them. Luckily, they're missing most of the places where they leave, but they're like, dude,

I mean, cars evacuated on the highway, people just leaving, getting out of there any way they can. And it's a scary, scary deal. Put things in perspective real quick. But yeah, everybody in Southern California, hopefully everything's going to work out okay here and we get this thing under control. Do you see this story with the guy that found his dog five days after? No.

Oh, my God, it's incredible. Dogg made it? Five days after the fire, after he evacuated, thought he lost his dog and then found him. And came back? The video's incredible. That's a good boy. He goes nuts.

That's a good, good boy. But thoughts and prayers to everybody out there. But let's get to some golf here. Shout out Nick Taylor. fifth PGA tour win. I mean, the man has some Cajonis. He is not scared of the moment. I know after WM last year

when he wanted the playoff over the Seagull, he kind of struggled. Didn't have a top 10 after that. Yeah. Was putting so much pressure on himself to make that President's Cup team. He ended up not making it. But I tell you what, he's 3 in O in playoffs. He's won at some big time venues. It is incredible when

it seems like the nerves are the high and the stakes are the highest. He comes through. When you go back and look at like the way he's want. I mean, you got to start putting him in the conversation with like most clutch guy. Who would you want on the final nine or things like that? And I know he's not in contention all the time. Like he said, the last seven months of last year was kind of weird, especially after WM, I'm like, oh, here he goes. He's going to, and we would have bet a ton at that time that he'd be on the international presidents cup team. But that's a, not just a good win and a

playoff against Siegel, but like, it's a big arena to be in up there, Phoenix Open. Biggest one in the States. Canadian Open, I would argue that means more to him than anything but a major championship. First Canadian to win it in years. And I was on the broadcast for that. Probably the coolest moment I've had since going over to TV. Just, I can't not tell you how insanely loud it was when that putt went in. It was like the entire country was there. It kind of reminded me of Shane Lowry's duh over there too. They had like a similar vibe to. But that's as big as it gets for him, basically, outside of a major. And then this one, I think it was, you probably have the stat too.

His odds of winning on the 18th T were like 0.7% chance. Yeah, 400 to 1. Yeah. You could have got a match. Okay, yeah, maybe even less than that then. Yeah. I mean, it was after the misses on, what was it, 15, 16, the shorties. I was like, well, damn, he had a freaking, he had all the chances in the world.

Not going to do it. It really looked like Spahn and Yeager coming down the stretch. And I would have been large sums, like you and I are probably both in the same camp here. JJ Spahn's going to have a phenomenal year. Not that this isn't a great week for him, but I thought he was going to get. over the finish line. I don't remember if I said it on here. I know I said it on our serious XM show. I played with JJ the last day of the pro scratch at Whistbrook and I was like, this guy's coming. And I got nervous about it just because the same thing happened with Chez the year before and

went over there and struggled in Hawaii. But I was like, JJ's game looks incredible. He pretty much did everything. They finished third with his caddy at the pro scratch. I was like his game is looking good. He had a great finish to 2024. And man, he's going right now. But I'm with you. I watched the entire broadcast. And I don't think, anyone on that broadcast or anyone watching thought it was going to be anybody other than JJ or Stephen Yeager. Yeah, they were

holling pucks when they needed a whole putts. It looked like they were just going like there was, I mean, JJ we've seen it for a while now. I truly think it's coming. It almost came to, but like the way he hits it, man, it's been so, he's turning into like, you know, we used to talk about a handful years ago, Chess, and like he just never doesn't hit the middle. Doesn't ever

not hit it pin high. It's perfect all the time. JJ's been doing it and he's got a little more gas off the T to go along with that. I think he's in for a huge year. I was shocked to see him make Boe on 17 and then par on 18 and not get into that thing. But props to Nick Taylor, I mean, holling out,

chipping in for Eagle to get into it. On the 70 second hole. And then big birdies in the playoff in the up and down after the chunky hybrid, straight down win was pretty sweet too. Let me tell you this. As a man who's pitching isn't as great as he would like it to be right now, that pitch shot on the second playoff. Was that putter?

That was not. No, it was too far for putter. I hit a couple nice ones this weekend, by the way. But I think it's probably to do with no booze for 13 days so far. I don't know if that would help or hurt. No, it helps. But I'd say that one Nick Taylor hit, just being there, considering it was 50 yards, Greens are starting to bounce a little bit. It was straight downwind.

For him to nip that the way he did and then get it to spin when Nico Echavaria looked like he was in the driver's seat, back fringe, 40 feet for Eagle. He three putts, and Nick hits it up there to two feet and ends up winning the golf tournament. It was crazy how fast things changed around there. And by the way, shout out to Wilei Country Club. You're looking at a golf course that's 7,000 yards. Love it. The shortest on tour.

Fairways were bouncy. 16 under par wins. Last week, Capilua, 7,500, 3,500 bar wins. Yeah. It seems to happen over. Like, we go to Colonial. The same thing happens. We go to Harbor Town. Kind of the same thing happens.

But yet they're like, we need new course. We need longer courses. Like, no, you don't. No, you don't. Just need some rough, some trees. They got some wind, especially yesterday. It was blowing pretty good. And that golf course is tricky because there's a lot of dog legs.

and we saw like Stephen Yeager trying to hit it over the corner on 16 hits at OB. By the way. Which was shocking. I don't like to like question people's decision making a lot on the golf course. I mean, these guys are the best in the world. But if you watch that entire back nine, what does Stephen Yeager do off the T on every hole? Hit it perfect. Well, he had it kind of all over the place, but he hit big high draws on everyone.

Every T shot he missed left for the most part. Steps up on 18, which he's got the firepower to cover that bunker. I was shocked he hit three wood and he hit right into the lip of the bunker. Yeah, a lot of those, I mean, Nick Taylor was hitting that rifle draw around the corner, which was nice, but that should be a shot that sets up perfect. Oh my God, Yeager, let's send it. And I don't even look at 18 as like a, what he, is this stuff leading up to 18 that I'm like, man, it was just, I was not expecting that. I expected he and JJ to be down the stretch coming home and I did not foresee JJ making a bogey on 17 and then par on 18.

But Nick Taylor, we talked about 400 to 1, center on 18T the first time. I mean, you go to that second playoff hole. He's 40 yards short, straight down win, that pitch shot. Nico's 35 feet, 39 feet, I believe it was. Like, where are the odds there? I mean, to win outright for Nick Taylor on that hole, the odds had to be crazy. Best case, probably you're looking like,

let's get this to another playoff hole. Yeah, but he did it. I tell you what, it was fun to watch. I mean, starting the day, 25 guys within four shots of the lead. Yeah, it was the whole time. It was stacked. It was awesome. It was fun to watch.

All right. Well, our episode this week is rather entertaining. We're going to get some football. We'll do this after the interview. But we got one of the best personalities that's ever come across the game of golf. Finished, most notably, runner-up to Tiger Woods at the U.S. Open in 2008 at Torrey Pines. He's won six times on the PGA Tour.

He's had a hell of a career. And he's just funny. And I love talking to the man. Rocco Mediate joins us on Golf Subpar. All right. It is a privilege to welcome on a man who's been very good at the game of golf for a long time, not to mention one of the true personalities in the game. He's a five-time winner on the PGA tour, six-time Champions Tour winner.

And now, winner in five-day game. different decades. Rockco, mediate in the house. How about that? Hello, lads. Yeah, that's sick. Yeah, that was, think about, it's, it's even more sick that it was me.

Anybody else, okay, but me now, six, five different, yeah, that's, that was cool. It's like I said, I wanted to win in my 60s. And that was, I still can't believe it. It's only been a couple months, but. Did you know going into that event that you won in October? They're like, hey, if I win this, it'll be five decades.

Was that like on your mind? Oh yeah, no, not really. But, you know, what I remember looking back, it wasn't on my mind, but I kind of knew that if I did, that would be 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, which if you think about it, it's just stupid. It's sick. It makes no sense. Well, come on, when we get to 70, let's do it again. Right. Hang on.

Bernard's going to do it. If anybody could do it, Tim, he's, we could spend 10 shows on him. He's, it's silly. It's silly. Who else has done it, though? You know, I don't know. I don't even know the list. I try to look for it.

They didn't have a confined line. It's probably not a huge list, but there is a list. I feel like I'm sure Vino could maybe. He would think. Hale, Bernhardt, obviously. You got to think of guys that just win champions to her. I don't know,

but there's got to be, everyone goes, are you the only one? I'm like, no, there's been plenty, but not a million. Well, you're one of few.

There's a few of us. Yeah. So that's cool. Yeah, it was now, now the age thing, I have a shot. Now can I shoot the 62? That's the goal.

Oh, yeah. You're finally in the running for it. Yeah. You know, the 59, maybe not so much. I think at Hawala, a couple years ago, I'd turned 60. And I was like nine under through like 13 holes. So I had a shot. I think I made a birdie and a bogey coming in, maybe, or maybe one.

Anyway, I think I shot nine under. And it wasn't, I never got close. But I was all my thought, I was thinking about it. I couldn't. Yeah. I mean, you're probably some of the best shape of your life. Yeah. Right now at 62.

It could happen. You still got the energy. Yeah. I got the energy. And it's like my wife always says, what is wrong with all of you that are doing it this long? We're all, you know,

I still do the same things. I still want to work and get better and try to do something. I talk with people about this all the time, like for guys like you, burn hard, like this is all you've ever known. This is what you do. What else are you going to do?

I don't know. I want to teach eventually, but I don't know if I even want to do that because it's like, I think guys that have played for a long time can help. on how to be, not what to be. It's like Mr. Palmer taught me how to be.

Did I do exactly what he asked me to do? Of course not. I made, we all make mistakes. But it's like you can teach them how to do things that you've been in or show them stuff that we never had, you know, Furi helped me a lot. I've spent a lot of time with Trevino, my last couple years on tour,

and then a lot through the Champions Tour stuff. But we didn't have a lot. We kind of figured it out when we tried to and learned and stuff. But now with, I think I help that way with a lot of the guys I talk to about how to do it and what to expect and not, you know,

because you look at some of the teaching out there and you want to pull your hair out. Yeah, I mean, even if you don't have any. Look, you've obviously been doing a lot longer and a lot better than I have, but even like,

I see these young kids now and I'm like, man, because I've been there, I've made tons of mistakes. Yeah. And I would love to just pull some of the young kids. I'm like,

hey, listen, I don't have the ability you do, but I know what you're going through right now, and I think I can help you a lot. Yeah, and you've been there, though, and it's like what they're doing out there on the, and I love the regular tour. I'm not the guy that goes, oh, my God, they're doing it. I love watching these kids play. You don't get to watch them play forever because their bodies will not hold up forever.

You know exactly what I'm talking about to make the club go that fast. Some things have to, but it's just amazing the difference on, I asked Mike McCann, who's the producers, well, all of our stuff, really. Yeah, the great Mike McCann. I remember saying to him, this is last year. I said, give me the scoring average from 1987, which is my second year on tour,

because they didn't have it the first year in 86. He couldn't find it. And give me it now. Now, you would think, and I said, now give me the driving distance average then and now.

And it's 40, 50, 40, 40, 50 yards different. You would think the scoring average would be two, three, four shots different. It's less than a shot. Yeah. Which tells me one thing. It can't play scoring clubs.

Then I get a phone call on the radio station. Well, Rock, hold on a second. Hold on, hold on, hold on. You didn't play back then 500-yard par fours. I said, totally agree. They're at nine-harns to them. They're scoring clubs.

So tell me where the difference is. So then you look at Scotty and you look at all these top guys at play. So let's say, Scotty, this cuts through everything. This is cool. So Scotty's the best Tita Green we have right now last three, four, five years, right? At least last three years.

Oh, yeah. The best. He's the best greens and regulation guy. averages between 13 and 14 greens a day. Let's give him 14 a day. Every single day he plays golf. Well, he's missing 16 a week. How's he beating anybody?

It's not because he's driving good. It's because from 100 yards in, you can't touch him. That's where the game's, is it always been there or not? Oh, yeah, 100%. It's not because he hits four irons 250 yards. It's not. It's because when he missed, that's if he's playing perfect. What if he misses 25 greens?

He's still beating people. The best still be... Doesn't matter what he does. Tiger did the same thing. He's so good with the ball striking that the short game doesn't get the love because it's all like... Look at the strokes game. Like he blows people out and strokes game.

Like, talk about it's putting out. It's not the best, but his chipping. It doesn't need to be, though. It's absurd. It's absurd. All of it's absurd. But I preach and preach the Instagram stuff. I'll pitch a lot, do this and that.

What do you keep doing that for? I say, well, that's where the game is. I said, that's where it's at. If you become exceptional at this, the rest almost does it. What if you get good at hitting? then you kill people. And that's where it's at. You win nine times.

Yeah, I mean, and Tiger did it his whole career. You know, Jack, well, Jack was horrible around the Greens. One million tournaments. Horrible in, you know, the Tiger era stuff. Watson, they all did the same thing. That's why they were the greatest. Yeah, you mentioned, I mean, like you said, the score average hasn't changed that much.

The driving distance has. I mean, I was talking with the people at Calloway one day, and we went back and looked at like 1999, there was one guy that averaged over 300 yards. And that was John Daly. Like 2005, there was like 11 guys. And I believe this was a couple years ago. We go back a few years.

There was like 109 that averaged over 300 yards. I mean, it's everybody now. It's absurd. I watched the telecast yesterday, Moracow and Matsuyama. They're like 90th in driving the ball speed. 172 or 3 miles, 90th. So. Yeah, at 173.

It's unbelievable. So, yeah, it's changed. Hadecki went the whole week. That's a golf course. It's 7,500. yards granted a lot of elevation change and things like that hadecchi didn't hit more than a nine iron into any par four the entire week which for me i'm like i enjoy seeing guys have to hit i feel like the tool bag that you need to be great in the pjutor is smaller now than ever it's like it is hard as oh yeah you can and then hit

wedges but all the other stuff in between is like gone to the waist i feel like six seven eight iron don't even matter anymore it's like can you hit a four and five iron into a par five part three and can you hit your scoring clubs that's right you know riv is my my favorite golf course And back when we played it, and I played some of my best golf there in the early 90s. And I remember being so excited on 18 if I could get a six iron in my hand. I mean, and playing with Freddie one year, he bombed one, of course, passed all of us like he did. And I think he hit a seven iron that day. And I hit a five, I hit a six iron.

I was 20, but hit a six iron into that back pin. And he had a little seven iron. Now they're hitting gap wedges. 30 yards behind where we were. I get that part. Yeah. But it's still like, What happened?

They asked Rory, I think it was last year. Someone asked him, like, when was the last time you can remember hitting more than an eight iron into a par four? And he sat there. He had to think. And he was like, I can't recall one. I can tell one for him. And it's because the wind was blown 40.

He was 18th at Scottish Open. Yeah, that's a lot. It was going 100 miles. You get a weird day. But, like, in general, it'll go through the entire PJ. It'll go to Quail Hollow, Monstrous Golf. And he doesn't need anything but wedges, nines for the most part. So if you live in that distance,

and you're that type of player. These kids are, wouldn't you become exceptional from 150, 10060? Why can't we do this? I mean, Dustin Johnson did. And that's why he became a number one player. And look what happened. Like Roy McElroy, the way he drives a golf ball is absurd. And like I followed him.

It seems like I follow him every single round that I'm out there. And his wedge game, it's fine, but you think it would be so good because that's all you have to hit. That's it. You live there. It's like, how do you ever lose? It's like, make a phone call to tie. make a phone call to Trevino. That's who I'd call.

Say, can you give me a day or an hour? I was going to need his an hour. And it's like, Tiger would probably go, yeah, let's go. Why haven't you asked me before? You know, especially now, maybe 20 years ago, Tiger would I went, and I'll get away from me. But now he probably go, yeah, come on, it's good. Because he was an exceptional wedge player.

Trevino was the best wedge player. You know, he could do things with it. He still can. It's just sick. But you look at Xander's gotten better with his wedge in his hand. Yeah, he'll tell you. It was Xander. I mean, did an interview recently.

He's like, my wedge game was terrible. It was terrible. Yeah, it was terrible. And he kills it now. He's got longer. Speaking of Trevino, so when I lived in Dallas, he would take me out to Dallas National once a year. We'd spend it a whole day.

We'd practice, play, lunch, practice, play. And speaking of what he could do with the wedge, we would sit there on the short game area and around 70 yards, and there'd be pin on the left, pin on the right. And he was able to cut a lob wedge. Like 10 yards to the back. The hook, it's easy. But the cutting and just getting to land 15 feet left and spin dead right up. And this is when he was 77 years old.

I'm like, my God. With the ball that doesn't spin near like the one he did when he was playing. He taught me so much with those clubs and how to, how he thought he did it. His way is, yeah. See, but Trevino's body motion through the golf swing was probably the best of all time. His body was what, the way he swung with the Hogan's was the same way. But no one talks about that because they don't have an, but Trino's body, still, you watch him swing now. It's a genius.

Obviously, it's a little shorter. He's 85. Yeah. But he still moves it. He still does it. It's amazing. He told me, we were sitting on the range one day, just talking about hitting shots. And he's like, it's very simple.

He's like, you want to draw it. Here's what you do. You start with your hands really high because you're a good player. And you know you're going to lower them at impact. He goes, you want to fade it? I'm going to put my hands really low and you're going to stand up through impact. Nope, it's going to open the blade and fade. I'm like, I've never heard of this ever in my life.

How simple is that compared to like some of the shit you did today where it's like, let's look at this and two different angles and draw 500 lines. yesterday and I hit it was at silver leaf I had a little shag bag with a little silver leaf thing on it put it right beside the put a ball literally this far from it I had enough to clear club I saw it yeah so I'm working on path

path path path path and I hit shot and I said this little drill will eliminate all the garbage that's out there I said because eventually after you hit this bag once or twice you'll figure out how to not hit it 100% you're trying to go there anyway so look at what they're teaching, you know, like, what is the word this month? Is it, is it shaffling this month or is it shallow? Shallow has been for a while. I mean, honest to God and heaven. Shallow in turn and

and the rehearsals that some of these guys that don't know anything are doing, they're destroying our game. It's unbelievable. Because it's not that hard to understand. It's just hard to do. So you said, you know, if you weren't playing, you'd be getting into teaching. Like, what would be your style or type? Are you a big on-camera guide? Do you care about what it looks like? No, I don't. Because I've said it, I did a thing the other day, I did an interview at our tour champ at Phoenix Country Club for the Schwab. And they said a few things. And something came up to where, have you ever been, it was either accepted or, I said, well, no. I've never done anything like everybody else.

I've never even tried to. And I said, here's a perfect example. Francesca, my little nine-year-old, just playing a little volleyball, not organized, just learning. play volleyball. We have a little net in the backyard, you know, it's not quite as high, but, so we're hitting, she's hitting them to me and she goes, Papa, you can't hold your hand like that. So what do you mean? She goes, you have to do this. I went, well, wait a minute. Am I getting it back over though? Which, you know, she goes, yeah, I said, if I listen to what everybody else wanted, we wouldn't be here right now. I understand what she's saying. This is how she was taught.

She does it great. I did it a different way and it's worked. So you look, there's no one way You can't, people don't know. And I've learned a lot from the Instagram about learning about that. You can't care what, I always say this. Watch the ball. Just watch the ball and we'll talk about that after. Look at the best player in the world right now. You think they're teaching that footwork?

No. I mean, that's a huge shout out to Randy Smith. Yeah. I know you've known for a long time. I worked with forever. Yeah. Like, that's been the same since six years old. Yeah.

And he ain't ever touched it. And guess what? It happens for a reason. Yes. Randy didn't go. All right. I want you to do this right after you hit it. No.

The force. he creates or cause that. Can he hit balls flat-footed? Probably just fine. But you wouldn't be Scotty Schaeffler anymore. Because the forces of the body create that insane motion that's so good through the ball.

It's petrifying. So, sorry, he's the number one play in the world. And that's Mr. Randy, by the way, for not getting his, that's in his DNA. That's the way he plays. Like, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I feel like there's a lot of older generation guys where if they came up right now

and started getting lessons at a young age, 12, junior golf, whatever it is, they'd be, you might have never heard of them because teacher would like, no, this is how you swing the club. Like Trevino, you'd take Trevino. It'd be an appropriate example. They'd like, no, dude, you got to weaken that grip. You got to do this. You got to do that.

Dustin Johnson, oh, you can't bow like that. How about this? Jim Furrick. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, just the example. If Jim Furrick comes out with what he came out with and goes to anybody else, you'd have never heard of this kid. Yeah. He said, no, no, no, this is what I do.

My dad taught me, and I'm going to win 16 times in the U.S. Open. But besides that, I'm not going to be very good. And I won't last that long. It's ridiculous. So you look at that and go, like, what is normal? Like 20 years ago, okay? I can almost you. You were just a child then too.

But if we'd have seen someone come out on tour looking like Xander or Moracca, we'd have went, well, that's not going to work. Yeah. Well, why wouldn't it? We didn't, that's, you know, we were programmed. You can't ever do that. You can't ever bow your left for rest. What's that?

You know, but you look at back of the old days, Some of those guys did it. We just didn't pay as much attention. Yeah. Now everything gets nitpicked. I mean, Oh. By the way,

go to a teacher now if you're 22 and have the shut stance you do. Oh, God. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You can't do that. Meantime, meantime, speaking to that, you look at some of the rehearsals that are going on today,

the right foot back. Yeah. See, Rick got me into that. Smith got me into that in 86. He goes, bowl the right foot off line, presets the right hit. Get on top of that and that left leg is a post.

And all of a sudden, you see and all of a sudden the back issues go by-bye. The more open we get, the more we have to go backwards to hit it. Interesting. Yeah. See, the more open we get, we go this way. It's harder to turn. So the more, if your toe lines close, hips and shoulders, it's called opposing lines.

A couple guys, Hogan, Sneed. Guys couldn't play it all. They stuck, yeah. And Mickelson, how about this one? Let's get into this a little bit because this is funny. He made possibly one of the stupidest comments I've ever heard in my life. a few might, I don't know, last year maybe. He said, if you set up with your hands, even with the ball, you'll be a horrible striker of the ball.

I saw that, yeah. And then when you see Hogan, whom, driver, handles, the shaft's pointing just behind his belly button. So let me just think about that one for a second. Before you open your mouth, make sure you know what you're saying. Hogan was the one of the, Hogan never had this. We know what, you can have this, no problem. Hogan was right here. A lot of guys were centered.

So when I saw that comment, I'm like, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. And I have a picture, I could show you, but it's funny, where Hogan is with his full driver, handles right here. It's back. Yeah, it's back. He's never. And, like, he becomes, like, the mock, because he's the greatest ball striker ever, probably. But, like, you can't teach that method to everyone. By the way, his clubs were, like, four degrees flat.

He was short. Like, if you get a tall guy, and swing it like, okay. Using him as a template is, like, trying to pit a square peg into a round hole. Yeah, Hogan had the grip 20,000 degrees. open and then he opened it more up there. Whoops, he copped it up there more and then it never went left. I say unhookable close.

I mean, I'm just thinking about guys right now. I would say for the most part, guys do have this shaft leaned a little forward at a dress. Absolutely. Look at Jason Duffner, who's a hell of a ball striker. Straight up and down. So there's more than one way to do it is the point. That's the point. It's like you look and go, you look back at Varden.

You look back at, oh my God. I'll get to come up. A lot of, they're all different. Yeah. the more shaft lead to address, the more backwards we have to go. I don't want to go back there. I want to be up here. So it's like everything.

Trevino even said it too. He goes, if you're this way to dress, you're going to block. I said, well, not if you know how to combat that. There's ways to do it. And you know, and you talk to, talking a guy like him about it, he's like, yeah, okay. Because he, he understands. His way wasn't normal. Who hit it better than he did.

It's true. So. Well, we could talk golf swing for hours. I know that. But one thing, Slee's brought up. at the start is you're one of the best personalities the game of golf has ever seen. And in an age now where we are dying

for some of these guys to have a personality. Have you always been this way since you're a little kid? Like, I've known you since I came on tour in 2007-8. And you were always this way. I was not. Well, I was very shy. Got over that. Apparently. I couldn't look in the eyes.

Mr. Palmer's taught me one thing. And I would sit in his office many zillion times. And he said, you look people in the eye. He said, here's what he said. if they're dumb enough to come out and what you play golf, you better give him something for the money. That's what you say he's busting my ass.

And I'm like, really? He goes, yeah, look at him. Say hello. What's going on? Talk to him. I don't care where you are. Where you are in the event. Say hi.

Just give him something. So I learned to do that. You met Mr. Palmer when you're 19? 19. Yeah. I learned to do that. He was, like I said, he taught me how to be. If he saw the way I dress now and my beard, he'd kill me.

But he's not here. He's probably going, what are you doing? but he can't hurt me right now. So, but I learn more about that than anything. So people, I like, I like being around people. I like when it's crowded. I like when there's noise. Chaos, chaos.

A lot of us like chaos. Guys that didn't like chaos lost, especially when Tiger was around. Because he brought chaos. And I enjoyed that part. I mean, it was so much fun being around him in tournaments, playing with him in tournaments. Obviously, the big one, obviously Phoenix here in 99. It was chaos.

Things happen in everywhere because a lot of guys don't like it, and they've said it. They're going to lose. Yeah. So would you say, you thrived in it? Would you say Mr. Palmer is the reason, like, this personality came out? Yeah. He just, he said a lot of things that just be yourself. And I just love, I was so lucky to still, I'm still doing it, do what I do.

I literally, you know exactly what I mean. We're just, we get to go to the greatest place on earth. play against the greatest players, even still, and they actually pay us, which is cool. And we get people wanting to watch us play. I've always enjoyed that. So we're basically, as you know, we're just showoffs at heart. That's what we're trying to do. I mean, we're trying to show them how good we are.

And the more people were around, the more I enjoyed it. I feel like your area just had more personalities in general. Maybe it's the way golf's gone in terms of like the purse is being so huge. It's more of a business. But like you brought that up because you're going to there. You know, you can go down the list. and name a bunch of, like, big personalities. And now I feel like, is there anyone out there right now

current day that you feel like, yeah, that's kind of how we were? Like, I like that guy's personality. It's hard, you know, have to think about it. But I can't, off the top of my head, who? Who? I mean, I would say the close person, great personality. But not on the golf course. No, not on the golf course.

Oh, on the golf course. I love Max. I love him. I would say, kind of. I would even say Joel Damon, who gets up. Like, he might be the close, but even him playing, like, I caddied for a buddy at Phoenix Open last year. And we played Saturday.

Sunday. On the golf course, Joel's tunnel vision. He's not you going over to the gallery, saying hi to everybody. Like that stuff doesn't exist. I think a lot of that is sports psychologist. Yeah. Right in their ear. Yeah. You know, also that part, and I've talked with Rotel over the years, and he's awesome. I love him.

But he'd always say to me, what did I come over here for again? Because I, you know, you get in a bad way like, Doc, I feel like crap. What is wrong? There's nothing wrong. It's just golf. It's point A to point B as quickly and efficiently as possible. That's the game. I said this to a, I did an outing a few years ago,

and I was helping this man's son in Atlanta. And we're playing. He's, you know, he's a 17-year-old. Nice, nice player. We're just screwing around. I said, all right, I want you to get up on this last T-shot. We're at an Atlanta Athletic Club. I said, hard T-shot, didn't he goes, yeah, I said,

I want you to tell yourself while you're over this ball that you're the worst driver of the golf ball that ever lived. Now his dad's going, I said, hold on. I'm not done yet. I go, I want you to stand there and think that. And then I want you to prove yourself wrong. And his dad goes, I wonder could I use that in business? I want, of course you can.

Put it to them. So how many times have you gone on the last any hole? And you've gotten up, they're going, oh, my God, this is horrible. But I'm going to get this done somehow. So you take the negative and turn it around. No one, that's people go, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. But think about it for just a second. It's true.

How many times have we gotten over a shot going, oh, my God, I have no chance, but I'm going to pull the, I'm going to, I'm going to give it my best shot. And all of a sudden, it comes off a lot. I'll say this. And I use this example a lot, and it's just amazing. And I wish we could do a study on it. But it's Friday afternoon. Okay. There's two different scenarios.

One, you have to make Bertie to make the cut. You step up there and you swing as free as possible and you throw a dart right at it. Two, you have to make par to make the cut. And the steering, I mean, you are just 10 and two, just something. And you fuck it up most of the time. It happens a lot. It is unbelievable. It was the worst.

It was the worst feeling. I miss the cut days because we have like four tournaments where it's cut. That's about it. I don't even know if it's four. But I miss those days because it makes you think about it. You're right. It's almost more important, sometimes harder to win a,

to make the cut to win a golf tournament. Because it's either you're in or you're out. But when you bury the last hole to make the cut, you are God. Yeah. You are the greatest player of all time. And then when you make a bogey to miss, you're like, you're going to kill yourself. I remember I could make bogey on 18 at Bay Hill to make the cut one year.

Got dead center of the fairway. Got seven iron in. Pins like frontish right over there by the water. I pull this thing in the back lip of the bunker plugged. Okay, you have to chunk it forward and then get it up and down for bogey to make the cut. I'm like, you were the biggest loser on the planet. Like if you had to make, if you had to make birdie, you would have stepped up, hit it 10 feet left of it. It had a putt out of it.

All you want is a putt at it's like having the two putt to win. Like the lag puts that you see hit, you're like, dude, he would never in history hit this if this was, you know, yesterday whole five. Yeah. He would have lagged it up stiff. But all of a sudden, like two to make the cut or two to win. It's like he's going to have five and a half feet because it's going to be terrible. This dumbass brain is pretty powerful. Yeah, it is wild.

It's amazing. And you see it, you're out there obviously when you're out there and you see it all the time with it's unbelievable what the people watching don't know were thinking. Yeah. That's why I've begged for years since I've been doing this. I'm like the fact that we don't have, I know we have one on 18, but we're not showing 9 and 18 on Friday. Yeah. The guys who have to make birdie or have to make par to make the cut,

like that stuff's interesting. It's unbelievable because it can change your world. It matters so much. I can go back to last year at the Phoenix Open. Kevin Chappell playing on a sponsor's exemption, needed to make the cut to shuffle up, have a chance to play like any more, it wasn't going to get in hardly anything except the second,

you know, the opposite field events and stuff. It came down like an eight, ten footer. Yeah. On the ninth green, excuse me, the 18th green, and he makes it. And he celebrated like he just won the fucking, and by the way, he went on to play like 18 events or something. Like, legit changes career. And he had some good, he had some good week. Good kid.

I see him at Soverely some. But people don't understand. If you look at the way, like, do you want to go into the changes that have been made with all this? I mean, this is. No, I have. I mean, we could all day. I mean, I'm with you. I hate it.

It's the dumbest thing ever. We bash it. Yeah. But yeah, speak. Say, give your opinion on all of it. You know my fix for slow play. It's, it works. It'll work.

Let's hear 100%. No. No, no, no, no, no. Yeah. Here's what you do. First T, 10th T, every round. You're on the clock. You're on the clock.

You either have the official there the whole day or there's a piece of paper says this group, the mediate group is on the clock starting right now on your first toll. Everybody. First warning? You don't get a warning. Okay. you're on the clock. If you get out of position, you're done for the week.

Oh, wow. Take a walk. That would speed it up. We're done here. So how many times do that happen? Once. Yeah. So can you fine them?

No, who cares about fine? Just here's $100,000. Just keep the change. They reduced the fine this year, from 10 to 5. Yeah, so the slow plate things, as you know, and we all know, it's never changing. It's never changing. And they're catering more. If you can't do something in 40 seconds, now, sometimes.

there's weird things. I get it. You have officials to understand. Occasionally. I understand. But I watch yesterday and I watch every week. I watch somebody on 18 from 10 feet for a minute and a half with all the this crap and all the, what is it called? Aim point. Garbage. Garbage. It's garbage. All of it. Just look and shoot. Okay. So, but he's really going through his aim point routine right now. Really? Really. I wonder how Tiger would have done with AIM point. He might be able to put it a lot better, now, wouldn't he? It doesn't make any sense. So why are they shortening the fields?

Because the players are too slow. But that's not going to figure. You're just going to have less guys still playing slow. Speed your product. I mean, five and a half hours. Like, what are we doing? That's another thing about your generation. We talked about it on the radio show today.

Like, the PJ tour also around Christmas put out this social media post showing the best player caddy conversations before a shot. I'm like, look at those. They're taking almost two minutes. That's not within the, the rules. Oh, it's every single hole. Did any caddy ever go through anything for two minutes with you?

No. No. Bender's on my Bender's was on my bag a lot and when I was on the regulatory is back on my bag now. Pidi's one of the best of all time. Of all time. And it's like boom, boom, we're done here. Boom, boom. There's no like there's no like, well okay, the wind's blowing 12

12 miles now out of the south. We don't know where we just throw the grass up. We'll take a look on the board. It's a close to boat from a north. Does that mean it's going to boat from a north? Not real. So we just react to what we're looking at Instead of everything that's going on I mean it's unbelievable The conversation is take two clubs out of the back

Stand over there with two clubs Give one back I get it when the wins bone 40 I get it It's gonna be weird There are times where you need that But there's guys that have been so good being Just like I look at Dustin Johnson when he was at his peak

Dude he was as fast as they could be Ludwig Oberer right now He was going to win a million times How about that guy? A dream his entire game is phenomenal Like Brooks Keppka One of the greatest major players we've seen.

Because you don't get to see him do anything. He's so fast. You miss him on TV sometimes. Yeah. That needs to change, will it? No. You have to make it brutal consequences or else it's not going to change. And I brought it up for commissioner.

It never happened. It'd be awful. There was a player during the century. Yesterday coming down the stretch. I mean, this is the fourth round. They've played pro-am practice round. And they are on a T with driver, which they've hit every single day, discussing what the target is.

I'm guessing it's probably the same target. It was the last four days. Or three feet left of it, whichever one it's getting. And the fairways are 200. This is on 18. No, this was on like 16. Oh, okay. And the fairways is 100 yards wide.

So pretty much just going back to how it used to be. Like I told him, I watched the replay of the 99 U.S. Open before Pinehurst this year. When Payne won. Yeah, yeah. And Sunday, final round, there you are the leader, Payne Stewart. It's down the fairway on the first hole. Mike Hicks, the great Mike Hicks is on the bag. He's like, Payne, you got 150 hole.

Got a little in off the left. Give me a seven or ten feet left of it. That was the conversation. Done. Yeah. He walked in. hit it. I was like, that's awesome. Yeah, it's like, it's like aim and shoot.

And you can't all change. Everybody can't play fast, fast. But when you're going through those motions like that, I don't know how you can compete. And you said, well, maybe it's because of the purses, right? It doesn't matter. Maybe. But you don't get paid. You don't get paid until Tuesday. Anyway, who cares about

just go play. When we won a tournament in the 90s, what I went to Dorell, $240,000. It was the biggest, person on tour, $242,000 for Dorel. What's the difference? Back then, that was a billion dollars. Yeah, it's good. So you shouldn't be slower because it's worth more. I never understood that. And there shouldn't be 77 people on the range with each player. Oh, my, they'll have an arm.

Oh, my Lord in heaven. The expenses get, I heard this, we got to laugh at this because Scott Pierce told me this a few years back. We were doing an outing together. And the guy in the crowd said, so when you make $50,000, what happens? Well, you know, the IRS gets this and my caddy gets this and travel expenses and my statistician

gets this and I went, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what? What? What statistician? He was like, yeah, we have statisticians. I went, what did they do? He goes, well, they tell me my chance of playing good at certain courses. So they tell you that. You can't figure that out.

You've got to pay somebody money to tell you, well, they plug in all the, whatever those are called, the numbers. Like the metric, like the stats? Yeah, they plug in the stats and they tell you your chance of playing good. I said, well, what if they say you're going to miss the cut? What do you do? What are you talking about? Why don't you say, well, you know, my wedge game sucks. I'll work on that this week.

Or I'm not driving it good. I'll try to drive better. We've got statisticians now. I haven't feel in those statisticians probably wouldn't say Tori Pined. is the greatest fit for Rocco Media. No, they said not even to go. Yeah. They said, go.

What are you going for? You can't play there. It's impossible. So if you look at those things going, you can't figure this out for yourself. It's just all, they all want the money. You know, it's like teachers asking,

like if I ever taught, I'm not teaching for a percentage of anything you do. You're going to pay for my time. You can pay a lot for my time. I feel like they're all on percentage. No, if you want to say to me, if you win five times,

go, hey, Rock, here's a bonus, beautiful. I ain't expected it. You already paid me for my time. I'm just trying to help you. See, so it's like the kids, there's so much money out there, which is a little different,

but it's still, totally different. I don't get it. I want this, I want that. No. Go back to the stat thing. Like, I mean,

they basically tell these guys, you know, what flag sticks they should attack, you know, from what yardage and all this. And as a player, it's like, okay,

if I have 1, 55, which is a perfect number, and this thing sets up Great to my eye. I'm all over that. Yeah. Why the hell am I going to aim 25 feet right of it? Yeah, I'm all over it.

And if I miss, my short game's so good that I'll probably get it up and down. That's the thought you have to have. I remember when the Phoenix Open, I remember this like yesterday when I won in 99 because it's Pete Bender where I got a six-shot league going to Sunday. I got Tiger in the last group again after we played Saturday. This is the greatest time ever. I'm dying. Okay. old rena TPC here at Scott was on the middle right and that bunker on the right over there's dead you're making five out of there

And Pete looked at me and he goes all right listen So the only time I'm gonna say it today if you hit this ball at that flag stick I'm dropping the bag and I'm going right to the club balls I went okay you know all right I hit it 20 feet left almost made Bernie but there's only certain times But we didn't know this we don't have our guy in the bag going dude don't shoot at the flag it's stupid yeah Pete calls him sucker pins. And there's a million of them. But every once in a while, you go, and I got this one. But sometimes we can't figure that out ourselves. Hey, that apparently. That pin 17 at Sawgrass on Sunday, don't go right of it.

No, don't hit it right. The numbers say right is bad. Don't hit it right. That'll be $50,000. They can figure it off. I was talking to a buddy. I can't stand it. I said, for every dollar you make on the PJ tour, how many people participate in that dollar? Yeah. It was five. Wow. I feel like every dollar. Does that count? the IRS? That's a lot. No, I don't even count.

Old Uncle Sam was taking a shit pot. Yeah. He was splitting at five. It kind of depends. It was like an agent. It was one of them. But that depends on if it's a, you know, earnings or a deal or whatever. But anyway, so there's basically five people on the payroll.

I never understood all. I don't understand all that. I mean, I understand teachers that help their players should get paid money. Of course. That's their professionals. But you don't get anything of what I do in the golf course. It's not going to happen, ever. Because you didn't do it on the golf course.

You showed me how to play good. Great. I've paid you your money. I'm not going to do any. There's no percentages because that would drive me. I remember when IMG used to charge a percentage of your earnings. Remember Mr. Palmer said, you've got to give him this. I'm like, well, I'm not doing that.

I never did. Why would I do that? On the course, that seems. Yeah, why would I do that? They were out there guiding you through the rounds? No. Yeah, it's definitely they got you a contract. And I don't understand that when the team aspect came into play.

When do we have teams? Big team game now. My team and I talked over, really? Yeah. You talked over your future. Don't you know what you want to do? I mean, I understand you have people helping you. Of course you do.

Yeah. But there's only you. But it's an army now for these guys. Oh my gosh. The range is just a mob. And obviously it works. We're not even, I love watching these kids play golf. I do.

It's so much fun. It's crazy. The numbers they put up and the speeds and the distances and like what we would do. It's like you can't even, it doesn't make any sense. And you see it close up. You got to be, what the hell is going on? Since I've switched to doing TV, like, I mean, I played eight years. I played out there quite a long time.

Yeah. But watching Rory, John Rom, Ludwig, Scotty Schaeffler, like, every, like, I'm not following the guys that are in 60th. No. So it's always the big dogs. And they're still really good at 60s. But I'm just like, at what point did I ever think I could beat that guy? Right. Like, keep.

Oh, wait, this game looks really easy from up here, too. Oh, yeah. You look at it and go, it's amazing how, how they can control that ball with the speeds they put on it. it's amazing on the courses how they're because the courses are a little longer now than they were but not tons yeah some of the courses they had to make but as you know length doesn't stop no link they can do whatever they want link as long as there's no rough you'll love this my second year on tour is 87 my dad had come out and watch a few events this is 40 years what almost 40 years ago right yeah so we were back in greensburg at home and PA and was sitting down and he goes son let me let me tell you

something what I've learned watching ago what's that dad now I live in Greensburg, PA, which is 30 miles east of Pittsburgh, right down Route 30. He goes, if there was a par three from Greensburg to Pittsburgh, one of you guys would make it too, I went, yeah, we'd figure out how to bounce it down Route 30 on the green and make, it doesn't matter. Lank doesn't stop him. Yeah. This does.

Making it smaller. Making it smaller. And they won't do that. Yeah, we talk about it all the time. We had Johnson Wagner on the show today. Like, even when I first started playing on the PJ tour in 0708, like, there was rough. There was rough. A lot of us.

I walk and I'm like, cool, you can see your ball from the T. Yeah. In the right rough. And 30 yards offline. They're like, well, people want to see these guys smash it. I'm like, cool. Well, if they smash it and they hit the fairway, they're going to be rewarded. Oh, big time.

But if you don't, let's punish him a little bit. Yeah. The only stat was we liked watching the fairways hit. That doesn't mean shit anymore. Yeah. And I never understood until it doesn't mean anything. It's like you look at the fairways hit. And it doesn't matter.

But when you're flying at 3.30, hard to hit fairways. Yeah. I mean, right? Yep. It's like you look at Rory going, well, he's not that straight of a driver, but he actually kind of is. Oh my God. But when he misses, it's because it's flying 330 yards a couple centimeters off center.

Yeah. And it's a lot. And some of him, I think he doesn't even care. He's like, I'm hitting driver on this line and it'll probably go on the rough, but it's going to be a wedge. So who cares? But you get one of the stats that people don't pay attention to a Scotty is, like, they have the stat distance from the center of the fairway.

Oh, yeah. So like who misses it by the least amount. Oh, I never. I see. Okay. Scotty misses fairways by the least amount compared to anybody else. And he smashes it. Wow. So when he misses a fairway, he's a foot in the rough or two yards in the rough.

And the box is immune to death. And I'll never forget, Brandl said this on golf center. He goes, guys like Scotty don't lead that stack. Guys like Coltonose lead that stack. And I was like, thank you, I guess. That's back. Yeah, but it's a compliment. I'll take it.

But it's incredible. Like, that's how good of a ball striker he is, that at his distance, he's missing fairways by the least amount. It's genius. And if they made it hard like we're talking about, the fairways grew up the rough and stuff, I would argue that Scottie would win more. No, I totally agree. You know what I mean?

Because now of a sudden there's a penalty for the guys that are hitting it past him, but in the rough all the time, he'd still be playing from the fairway. He's still the best iron player and chipper. It's definitely a different game. The curve, you know, there's a few guys can move it around, but it's mostly sliders, right? The clubs are built to do this. They're built to go left to right. It seems like, and that's everybody hits it left to right.

Who said something the other day? Fade's the only way to go, which is, not true, but for the equipment now, it's much easier to fade. I said for a modern day game right now, I had Bryson at Valhalla. He's the only top player that I can think of that draws the golf ball.

That's like the problem. Like, Vori's still with the drive-after-right. Yeah. He's still most of the up right. Like, Bryson sets up down the right every time. And I get it. I get it with the equipment and the ball doesn't spin as much. But with their speeds you're creating, it will spend.

Yeah. You know, but you look at the difference in the curvature. There's not, you don't see a lot. It's pretty cool. It's like all the shot tracers don't like move. Yeah. Yeah. I mean they're sitting high knuckle balls. Yeah. It's what they're trying to do. And it's hard to turn over a high knuckle ball. Yeah. I tell

people I said, I need 26, 2,700 RPMs. What? Yeah, well, I curved right to left. I better have some stuff. It's got to fall. What do you should be at 2000? I went, yeah, but I want to continue to play. It'll carry 220 or old today. Maybe, maybe 220.

No, it's not going to work. So it's different. the way they set it up. It's pretty cool. But, you know, when you're creating that speed, the ball will spin plenty. But like you said, there are 2,000 spin at carrying a three. It's gone. Launching it at 17. It's gone.

It's sickening. Well, we got to talk about the 08 U.S. Open. Yes, let's do it. Remember that one? Yeah. Remember that one? I remember all the week. I actually learned something.

I never knew. I just learned from your caddy that week. Maddie. Talk to him the other day. I love Maddie. I didn't realize your gamer driver broke. Yeah. Right before the U.S.

Open. Yeah, on Sunday. I pulled it off a bag and I went I was up on the first thing I went Oh my God He goes what I just took the head and took it off It snapped just above the you know traveling or something Yeah

And then we Now I'm losing my mind because I was driving like stupid good And Calloway happened to be there And I said we got a and they found a shaft I mean if I had my gamer drive rider one by 10 12 shots It's easy Wow I mean maybe 15 Yeah

But no I I drove fine with it But it was a scary. Panic. I mean, because I had a backup, but I didn't like it as much. But I would have used it. But we found a shaft for the same thing, and it worked fine. I'd love to blame it on something else. That's tough.

But it was bad. That's scary. You have to deal with that. And then you have Torrey Pines. Which, what was your, like, what was your relationship like with Tori Pines? Obviously, played the Buick there. I never loved it, not because of the golf course, because it was so soft and cold all the time. Gotcha.

I'd be worried. Yeah, that's a good point. I like what Reese did. A lot of guys didn't. I'm a Reese Jones fan of his redos. I like hard and difficult. That's what he made. But when we got the tour, it was like this tabletop.

So I'm like, well, if I drive straight, I got a shot at it because I was playing good. And I knew that if I drove good, I'd have a chance because, yeah, I knew PARs were good. Yeah. And that's all, you know, the U.S. opens usually are like that, usually. And that week it was because would we, Tiger would we shoot one under for the week? So PARs were good. So you had a good feeling going in, though. Yeah.

You know you were playing well. I know that was going to happen. Well, of course not. Yeah. But yeah, that whole week was, I'll never, I remember the whole thing. It's like people would like say, can we talk about it? Yeah. Yeah.

Now, if I had three putted the last hole from four feet to lose, maybe we wouldn't be talking about it. Maybe I'd be over because that could ruin people, right? But the way that had happened, it was only, yeah, it hurt. But it didn't end the world. I mean, I was definitely sad for a while. Of course. I wasn't like, I don't know how to explain. I was just sad.

I wasn't like moping around. I was just like, you know, I'll never have that chance again. That's easy to say. But I wanted to do something else after that, and I snuck fries in on them to have another. I didn't want that to be the last thing. But if it was, that would have been fine. When you were a 12 foot.

A little validation. 16 feet straight up. Well, you had one to win, and then you could have dodged one from Tiger from 12 feet. When he laid up in the right rough. Yeah, I mean, he's Tiger, you got to assume he's making bird. But when he laid up in the right rough, realistically, we're like, dude, there's no way to get that close.

Like, I'm going to win this. Yeah, I remember I was sitting back in there in the deal, the scoring thing. When you laid it up, I was like, first of all, I was in shock. I'm like, how in the hell did he do that? And then I'm looking going, well, he's going to have a pot, but, you know, I didn't think anything. You know, Westwood's got a shot. He had a pretty shot in there. And anyway, what happens, leaves it short to tie, then Tiger makes the pot, which I wasn't surprised.

But a year later, I asked him. A year or so later, I haven't talked to him, but twice since. then maybe. I said, all right, tell me about the shot on 18. I said, you got to tell me,

you can't stop that ball. He goes, you kind of looked down and he went, it was an old divot. I went, of course it was. Because it's spun. It's fun. It's fun.

Yeah, it's stop. It's Kikuyu. It's SOS pad. It's green. That's what Kukui is. So Kikilia, Kikuyu, what do you want to call it? That's,

so it was in an old divot, he said, and you can get the club on it. Wow, I never knew that. Now, if it wasn't, he may have been able to figure a way out I'll put it on there too. This is the greatest player of all time. But when you saw the shot, when it hit, I saw Atlanta.

I'm like, uh-oh, and then it grabbed. And I'm like, wait, what was that? I was up there watching it. I'm like, how'd that do that? How'd that do that? How'd do that? And then the rest, of course, he was going to make it. That wasn't like, oh, my God, I can't believe you made it. So I remember telling somebody back before that sometime, oh, that maybe that year or the year before. I said, I'd like to have one more shot at him because I had him and I got him at Phoenix, which was cool. Yeah. Number one player in the world. I just I'm out of back surgery three years. I don't care how many shot lead I had.

I'm dying going out there with him, and he was great and played on Saturday. But I want one more, and I got it. Yeah, I got my shot. And it was the most fun I've ever had, ever. You did as well, paired with tigers probably anybody. I mean, most people scoring average goes through the room, especially during that time. That was peak.

Yeah, I played some of my best with him all the time. That's cool. I remember he beat me pretty good at Capilu in 2000. I played with him the first round. I played awful. It was windy. He played, you know, perfect. But every other time I play.

play with him, I was right with him. We played the last round at Pinehurst. I think he beat me a shot on Sunday. 71 or 72 I shot or he, whatever. I finished fifth or sixth. He finished second or third, I think. But I always loved playing with him because... You like the chaos. I like the chaos

and I think, can I beat this guy today? Probably not, but can I get, can I beat him today? Yeah. And everyone always looked at me like, well, that's a weird attitude. I want, what other attitude is there? Yeah, if we play 10 days in a row, he's probably going to win. Nine, what about that other one? Maybe I could sneak one in on them.

And the same thing with the U.S. Open. I told people a million times. When I woke up Monday, I knew in my heart that I could beat this kid. I knew it because I had him through the air big time. And I still did. So I knew if the only one that could stop me was not him, was me.

It's a fact. And you were leading on the 16th team. That's a fact. That when I got to 16, I was like, this is exactly what I wanted. It wasn't like, oh my God.

You know, now the pot I made on. 15 was kind of a shocker because if it didn't go in. It was moving. Okay. So, but so was his. Okay, but what we don't talk about is that putt, so I make the putt. Lawdest Roy I've ever heard.

Coolest time, I never kind of went like that and walked over. So he missed his, same line. He missed, he missed his. And it was four or five feet by. And I looked over at Maddie. I said, not that this is going to happen. But if he misses, games over. Because I'm not giving it up on the last three holes.

It's not going to happen. And of course, he made several that day that week, like we all do. But he always did it. It was genius. I mean, you could miss that pot so easy from six feet to stay one back. He was too back. It's not over. Because it's just amazing what he did.

But I said, he's not going to happen. But if he does, it's over. And he poured it was beautiful. You think you look back at his career. Oh, my God. Name a put on 18 that he had to make. He didn't. Yeah, there was one on 17 at Medina that I remember.

I have it on my phone to stay one up or something. Yeah, just six, eight footer. And he hit him with pay. He was unbelievable from that. The pot in the play, the putt in the 90th hole. Yeah. In our tournament in the U.S. Open. He hits up, you know, it's a good five iron.

He mishitted a touch because we were standing. I heard it. He had a little, it just covered. It might, you know, I'm thinking, oh, my God, no. He's inside. Anyway, he puts it by five, at least five. I just watched it had it on the other day. and I watched the last hole because I don't like to watch it

because I've seen it a few times but I already know what happened so I don't watch but I watched the last hole again and they showed it and it putted it by I'd say four feet oh yeah okay and I then I have then I got the pot I'm like all right and I just hit it a little too hard three feet by so now we're both got issues one of us we both have to if we both make we go to the next hole

his put hammered the back of the hole It didn't like go in. It just slammed in the beautiful pot. So now I got the, no one talks about that. I got the three footer. You had work left. Oh my. Matthew goes, what do you think I said?

It's just got to go in. I have no idea what's going on here. Would you have gone good, good if you could have? Yes. I would have went, yeah, pick them up. Let's go to the last. That's okay. It can't end like this.

It can't end like this battle. And I made it, but I don't remember anything about it. I don't remember. But he won, he was going for a six, five footer, a hundred. Yeah. Beautiful. Right in the heart. That's what he does.

He did so many. That's what he does. That's what he does. It wasn't surprised. I want to ask you a question about that Monday because you mentioned earlier like, you're a people person. You like people. You like to talk. You like to be engaged.

You like to interact with the crowd. And then you got Tiger at that time who is polar opposite. I mean, it is blinders on, go about his business. Doesn't even look at you. It looks through you. Did you try to have conversation with Tyga? And did he? Yeah.

He was great. He did. And I didn't overdo it. I wasn't going to be that guy. I just was my sense. I talked, Matthew and I talked a lot. Matthew does, he's great. He did a great job too.

He still does. But, no, Tiger, I kept looking up going, what is wrong with you? I remember the shot he hit on 15. So in the playoff on Monday, I drive perfect down the middle. I got a 500. He drives at 50 yards right of center line in the fairway bunker on 9. Now, I don't know this because the crowd is here, and I'm in a fairway. Yeah.

So I had this ridiculously, maybe the best swing I've ever made for the five iron in my life, right up a perfect 15, 20 feet behind the hole. I'm like ecstatic. And we're walking up and Matthew goes, where's Tiger? I have no idea. There's a million, you know. So I hear the, we hear the, and he goes words. And I said, well, apparently just watch the hole.

And it rolls up inside the one, I don't know that he was in the bunker. When I saw the replay, I'm like, are you kidding me? He's standing on his head like this and just hit, this little draw up on the green inside. And when he walked out, I went, what is going on? He just kind of smiled and looked down. A lot of people did that. We didn't talk too much.

Yeah. Because you're like, what do you, what, what just happened? It was amazing how much fun I had with it. And even Mike, Mike Davis, who's the USGA, he kept going, you do realize this is the US Open playoff. I went, yeah, why? Like what's- And that's beautiful how you handled it.

And I think that's why it's very often that it's not 99% pulling for Tiger. Oh yeah. I mean, Oh, no, no. They were, they were wanting something. Oh, yeah. Because when it turned,

then all of a sudden, they're like, wait a second, what this guy, this guy, see, I remember when I, when I,

three, when I didn't get it up and down on 10, I, I had a chip from here to the wall. Perfect. And I hit it this far short, pitiful shot. Miss hit it.

He makes a 22-footer out of the, just off the fringe for par, I miss, of course. So I'm three down. It's over. Walk into 11. And I looked at Matthew and I said, there's no way he's beating me today. If I can do what I know I can do in these last seven, eight holes,

we can beat this guy. And Matthew's like, and you're three down. Okay. And I hit this four iron. He was up first and he hit it in the bunker. And I hit this four. I think he hit a five or six.

I hit this four iron and looked like an eight iron. It went straight up right. right at it about 20 feet behind the horn. I'm like, aha. He didn't get up and down. I make par. Then I kept doing the same thing. Perfect, two shots in the 12th hole,

driver in a hybrid. He drives right, bogey, par. I almost hit the green and two. He does hit the green and two. Up and down to the bunker, Bertie, Bertie, Bertie 14, he misses. The only party he missed all day,

about a six footer for Bertie. So now we're even going to 15. And I'm like, perfect. Here we are. So I wasn't like, in shock. And I was where I wanted to be. But, you know, the tournament, you know,

hand in those three putt in nine and missed it short on 10. You know, you can't do that against him. The one thing I got to ask is it's one of the greatest U.S. opens of all the time. It was so fun to watch. Like, even now it comes on. It comes out of all time.

I keep losing. But answer me this. How the hell? And I kind of have an idea of whether they're going with this, but you got all the people on 18. And I talked to Maddie about this. Got all the people on 18. You tie after 90 holes.

You could have gone to one, which T-Box is right there. You could have gone back to 18, but now we're going to go over to seven. We're going to go to seven. Which I get if you go seven and then you can go eight and then 18 again. Yes, that sounds kind of pretty weak. Because I also heard like in the practice round on seven, you stepped up, you hit one right, then you hit one left. You're like, forget this T-shot.

Yeah, I just can't. And then I played it okay. I think for the week. I've made a bogey and a bunch of pars, I think, except for the playoff. And I did something on that T playoff that I haven't really talked about that. So I'm obviously a drawer of the ball. I love to draw. But I also like to hold shots too.

And I did a couple that week, too, the kind of start left and stay there or maybe fall to the right, but they won't hook. So I'm up on this playoff ready to go, and I'm like, I'm just going to hold it right off that bunker. I hit it dead straight. And I looked up and I'm like, God, because if it just does what I wanted to do, it's fine.

But it didn't. And that's where I took a shot instead of trying to sweep one over the thing. I felt like if I did it in the bunker, I got a chance, but I got it up that little thing behind that left. and I was dead with a six iron.

I almost pulled it off. I didn't quite. But if it was anywhere else, I got a shot to the grate. But it just went too far. It was bad. It was a bad T-shot, but I tried something I probably should know.

I don't know who does that, but I didn't. But in my opinion. My opinion, I mean, the golf course is hard as shit. Oh, my God. The worst hole for Rocco Media

on that golf course is that one right there. I thought I just run it back. I mean, 18 is probably in his favor too. And everybody said, they picked that hole for tie. I'm like, wait a second. Wait, wait. First of all,

sudden death, really, after 90 holes? 91. Probably not. Probably didn't. It was just a way, they picked that hole the year before. If we were in a sudden death playoff, we'll go to 7, 18 green. I get it. I get it. But, yeah, that whole day, I remember things from that day that just the smells, the people, the, you know, Tiger's reaction to all the stuff. I noticed one thing he didn't do that no one's talked about that you'll love this. So, you know, he's obviously with the fist pump stuff he's done his whole career, which is great.

He had, I figure, five or six shots at that on Monday in the playoff. Not one time. They do it. And I know why. I swear to God, I know why. Because he knows I didn't care that it was him. Interesting. I love that it was him, but I didn't care.

I wasn't like, oh my God. I had a chance. No, I did think this. I got a chance to beat the man, broken leg or not. in the biggest event of my life, what the hell else could I ask for? He knew, I think playing with him over the times, where I played good.

I played nicely. I think he knew that like, well, that's not going to do anything to him. He doesn't give a shit. I just got to do my thing. And he did. So I looked at that because you see, you know what he does.

Not one time. It's interesting to look back at his career and think about the guys that pushed him at major championships. Bob May, Chris DeMarco, you, and Wai Yang got him. Yeah,

why ain't got him. I mean, it's just crazy to sit back and think those are the guys that pushed him to the balls. And it's like, you know, the 18-hole playoff thing was a whole different animal to where I couldn't wait to wake up the next day. I was, yeah, of course. Could you sleep? I slept pretty good, but I couldn't wait to get up because I wanted to get going.

It's like I think all majors should be 18 holes. I don't care about the TV part. 18-0 playoffs? Yes. I think so. They're that important. Wow. Obviously, no one thinks about that because there are none anymore.

They never will be probably. But, you know, it's like, it's such an important event that it should be in other 18-0als, whether TV likes it or not. But I get it. I understand. There's so much money involved. But it really shows that, I don't know, it's just the way it should be. That's the way it always was before. I mean, they were all 18-0 playoffs at one time.

I'm pretty sure. A damn TV. I get it. I get. Everyone wants to see a winner on Sunday. I get it. But in majors, it should be different because people tuned in that Monday. Oh, God, they tuned in.

Oh, people were skipping them. And I can assure you it wasn't because of me. It was because of who was playing and all of a sudden the me was still there. Trust me. You had a big part in that. It was fun. But you look at it now, it's like, who's going to do what Tiger did? Well, we know no one is.

We know that. You know, Scotty's stuff being, you know, what he did last year was very Tiger-like. But now he's got to keep doing it for six or seven more years to be in the same echelon. Can he do it? I don't know. Doubtful? Because things happen. Even if it does, like his impact on the game, no one will ever, his impact on the

total game of golf, and the people playing, exposure, the increases in the purses, like no one will ever sniff. No, sniff that. The percentage of wins. And, you know, think if he didn't get hurt. Oh, my. Yeah. I can't even imagine the numbers.

Well, if he didn't get hurt, he might still be the guy. Yeah, I would say, because he watch the way he swings the club now. It's genius. Yeah. I don't think he swung better ever. I mean, you know what I mean? Yeah, as far as technically. Yeah.

It's genius. But yeah, it was fun growing up, growing up in that era. I was on my way out there over the years. And hopefully I get to see him next year on the Champions Tour because he's coming. Oh, he's coming. It's going to be awesome. I can't even imagine. Because, you know, a lot of the guys out there, some of the guys that just got out there or qualified,

they don't even know. They've just seen him on TV. Stephen Hawkers never played golf what Tiger was. And it's like people, I remember the kids a few years ago on the tour going, we want Tiger, how he was, you don't. Now, you do, but you don't. Because it's cool to watch, but he's going to kill you. He's going to decimate everything that you know that is holy to you.

That's what he does. The guy on the documentary, he said, when he said, you know, these kids, like, I wish Tiger was in his mind. And he says, the fuck you do. I was like, that's the greatest, that's the most accurate line. That's so true. But he made the whole world better. Oh, no, he elevated the game crazy.

I mean, I would sit back and watch him hit balls. He never saw me watch him at balls. I would sit back in my bag for an hour, just watch him do things. Just because why wouldn't I? He was the best guy. And then playing with him. Fitness. How about that?

People didn't usually do all that? You know, but I mean, now everyone does. Yeah, and they've got, that's, we don't even need to talk about that stuff. But he kind of set the tone for, but, you know, the power game and then the short game. No one ever had that both of us. He had it all. There's no doubt. We could,

like I said, I talked to you before. We got four hours. We got to go for four hours. We got to get to the United. Because I'm curious, have you ever, have you and Tiger ever sat down and like rehashed it,

like gone over that and been like, dude, what a battle. That would be the most fun and the most satisfying thing that I could ever do at the end of my playing or now, but it's never happened. And I never understood why. Tiger, you're listening.

That would be a great. He will know, never do. I had one other idea that you'll love about the commercial, the PJ Tour. Remember back PJ Tour production did commercials, the PJ Tour. I had an idea. Yeah, that's a good ones. This was genius.

So Johnny Miller, love Johnny Miller. He says something on the telecast. Damn it. I have it saved. Go ahead. Okay. He says something on the telecast. A guy named Rocco is going to win the U.S. Open.

He sounds like someone should clean Tigers pool. Okay. Later that year, I'm going to do the Italian-American American sportsman of the year in New York City. Mr. Trump has accompanied me that year, too. He's been a friend for a long, long, long time. And I get, I'm driving home after the playoffs over. I'm driving up to L.A.

And I pick up the, you know, the phone, obviously. Pick the phone up. And there's a message from John. He goes, Rocco, Johnny Miller here. You need to call me. I said, well, shit. So I wait the next morning. I call it.

I go, what's the matter? and he goes, well, I said something. He said, let me tell you what I said. And I went, yeah, so? I said, I'm okay with this. He goes, yeah, but they're yelling. I said, I'll take care of it. So the Italian-American people are going,

we're going to get them fired. I said, if you guys do one thing, I ain't coming. Not that they would have cared, but I'm not coming to the thing. It's fine, okay? No problem. It's not anything against the Italians.

That's what they're thinking, right? I said, it's not against us. It's just Johnny's being Johnny. I'm okay with it. So long story short, two things and then if we have to go we'll go but this is great so i said to the i had an idea of a commercial so tiger goes and supposedly has knee surgery whatever with broken leg surgery whatever that was and we'll see tiger sitting in his living room watching the replay of the u.s open

his leg up he's watching a replay and he's kind of looking at and smiling because he's tiger and it says roco media raco guy like raco wins the u.s open he should be cleaning tiger pool and the tiger at that moment goes like this it gets up with his crutches and he walks out and I'm over there shorts, bare feet, white beater's shirt on a little mud on my side with the

net in the pool and I'll look up sorry Mr. Woods to be done shortly end of commercial. Be beautiful. They said no. He said no. He said no. Tiger said no or

PJ said no? No, PJ Toad have lost their mind. Think about that commercial. Emmy. I had that in our E9 that wonderful quote. I had it. You look more like the guy that should clean tigers pool.

I was going to say, if you could describe Johnny Miller what he looks like. Right. I don't know. Johnny's, Johnny looks like somebody from Utah,

I guess. I would say. Perfect. Hey, you're exactly right. So he invites me at the end, Johnny invites me to his event in Utah,

a pro scratch. So I bring Bradley Shaw from LA Country Club who's a dear friend. He's a beauty. This is good here. This gets crazy. So I get there

and there's a big gala the night before. There's a thousand people, this gala. So I go to the guy, I said, right, and listen, I need you to do me a favor. I need you to go to the hardware store. I need you to buy me 10 feet of the black PVC pipe. I need you to buy me a pool net, cleaning net. What do you mean?

Just do it. Trust me, it's worth it. So he does it. So I get up and I said, the guy said, all right, have Johnny. Johnny's doing all the introduction. He said, have him introduced me last. He goes, all right. So I go back and I pull my pants up.

I have my khakis on, pull them up to my knees, shoes and socks off. Take off my shirt, wife beat her t-shirt on. Wrap the black PVC pipe around my body. Take the net out. And our last player professional is rock community. May you've seen him, blah, blah, blah, blah, the USO and all that crap. And as he's talking, I'm walking. And they're losing it.

They're like, they're like screaming, yelling, and Johnny turns around. And he goes, oh my God. And I walked up to the microphone and I said, you want to tell him you want me to and he goes that was the greatest comeback he's ever seen and we had a ball and we had a ball it was fun because I got him back a little bit

so it was fun love that that commercial would have been good they've lost their minds yeah it would have been great yeah they don't get it I'll be done in a minute they'll never get it they should have done it they'll never get it let's get to the E9 we'll do this quickly because I know you got to go film your serious show and this was part of the worry with you is it was gonna go four hours

we're good um All right, we asked us to everyone. You can be anyone for a day. Be in anyone's shoes for a day. Who would you be? Dead or alive? I'd say, Mr. Palmer. I figured that was going to be the answer.

Or Hogan. Just want to feel that a couple of times. Back in the drinking days, who could take down more vodka? You or Mr. Palmer. Oh, he had me. There's stories. I do have to tell you this last story. So Bay Hill, NOM, 2007.

So I did some announcing in 07. Yeah. I did the first couple weeks of the first FedEx. I did Kepalua. I did Wai. They yelled at me too because I pulled my pants up and walking bare feet the whole time like the wines. They lost their mind. But I did it anyway. And they didn't find me. You don't like shoes. No. So I go and I'm doing the announcing at Bob. But I'm going to be, you know what? I can still do this stuff. I was hurt until I was six. I feel fine. I'm done. So I go. I'm going to play at Rive the first time. I'm going to come back at Rive and play because I'm still exempt. And I'm at Riv staying with Shaw, and I get a phone call. Mr. Palmer says, Mr. Palmer, says, yes, sir. Yeah, I know I didn't commit for Bay Hill. I'm not in Bay Hill. I know you'll give me an exemption. I don't want one.

You've already given me enough. Okay, I'll tell you what, I'll make you a deal. If I play good in next couple weeks, if you think I'm worthy, I'll come. I finished seventh at Riv. I was shocked, right? So I get up to the house that night. Phone rings. Yes, sir.

Thank you. I love this place. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Tuesday morning, Bay Hill, practice run, done. So I go play Bay Hill. Come out of the blocks leading the event. Shoot 73 or 4 on Saturday.

Birdie last. And I'm like three or four back going into Sunday. And I post 67. So now I'm leading in the clubhouse. VJ's got like a four shot lead with like four to go. Three or four to go. Four or five to go. So I go in Doc Giffin's in there.

He goes, boss wants to see it to cabin. I said, yes, sir. So I'm my thing, down to the cabin. Himself and Dick Ferris are sitting there. Bottle of McCallin, 18. It's 85 degrees.

I haven't eaten anything. That whole day. I never liked to eat when I play, right? You can't do that. Now you have to be all nutritious, but I still don't eat. So he comes in, he goes, great play.

And he said, wonderful, it's good job, and he pours a, you know, a scotch thing about this much of scotch in there. I haven't eaten all day. I'm drinking it down.

V.J. Bogies 14. So I drink that one down in like five minutes And he's drinking and they're drinking And he pours another one And I drink that one down like 10 minutes VJ Bogie's 16 Two up with two to go As he pours the other one

I'm looking up going Oh shit And he hits it on the green on 17 And two putts I'm about halfway done with this And he drives it in the right rough on 18 Two shot late Well you know what could happen

No yeah Something is either two Anyway my point is So it's either two or three shot lead, but he's in the right rough, he's got a layup. And I look, now I'm three sheets. I've had this much scotch twice. And Mr. Palmer, he's in there.

And I go, I go, I go, look what's going on here. What, what do you drink in that for? You know, now he's yelling at me, right? So he's pouring. I'm like, because I, I said, let me ask you a question. Can you drive me to 18T if we have to go into a play? If he goes,

I'll get that done. We'll VJ. hits an on, green, and three, two puts and wins, but I was out. That's hilarious. out. Yeah. So that was just some of the stories. I could play good back then with all that going. You probably made a birdie.

That went away. Yeah, that went away. But yeah, we did a lot of that fun stuff. He was the most fun person to be around. We had a lot of fun. And he watched me at balls for hours at Laurel and La Trobe and just sit in the cart. How good was that? Beautiful.

Yeah. So I was lucky. I was lucky. But he set up what we do. Yep. He set up what we do. One of one. Yeah.

As good as they come. question about that hard to be hard to be like them yeah without question um all right give you a little history lesson here you want your first pro event tour event 91 yes 1991 can you name the number one song in america oh god in 1991 i couldn't even come close give me a clue it's a romantic song give me the band brian adams oh um summer 69 everything everything you do remember that one yeah summer 69 was good i do remember that yeah you want to know number two though i'd rather have been some kind of metal song instead of my that's. I feel like you're number two.

This was on the charts. I want to sex you up by Color Me Bad. That was number two. You probably remember that one. I don't remember that one at all. Oh, yeah. That was a rock and roll guy. Maybe dig that one in.

I want to sex you up. I want to sex you up. We used to name songs cool shit like that. You are a big rock and roll guy. Yes. TPC, you blare some crazy shit. I love it. I enjoy it.

I don't play it. I just, I know a lot about it. I have a lot of music that I have on my phone that I, that's mine. And I, I love, you know, I've gotten to be very close with Alex Lice and Rush. Alice is a good friend.

I've got to meet a lot of cool people because of what we do. And I just love music, but I don't play it. I just listen to it. All right. Next one. Yeah. What's the craziest thing you've ever worn on stage with Alice Cooper? Oh, my God.

What have I done with Alice Cooper? I heard you wear a costume maybe one time? Oh, Lord in heaven. So he says to me, we're TPC playing in 2002, and that's when I was drinking. And he's been sober 40-some odd years now, I think, Ellis has. We go out to Ruth Chris and have dinner, and he has a show that night. We're playing TPC the night next night. He goes, hey, you want to be in the show tomorrow?

I'm like, sure, I'll be in the show. I have no idea what I'm, what, what, so I get up the next morning. We're playing. I said, you know, I don't really want to do that. He's so, no, no, we're all set. So get down there. And I got 10 of people with me. And they have no idea that I'm going to do anything.

I didn't tell them. So he goes, come backstage at this time. So I go up and watch him change. getting character, what she does, getting character. He's Alice on stage only. Nowhere else. Alice hates golf. He's not Alice on the golf course.

So I go up and they go, all right, you're going to be President Bush. We're going to put you in a President Bush mask. And you're going to put on a coat, a tie with blood running down the middle of the thing. I said, all right, great. And you're going to have an American flag. You're going to come out. One of my favorites of Alice is called Elected. And that's back after the 2001.

That's after 9-11. I go, then what do I got to do? He goes, well, you're going to wave the flag around while I'm singing the song. I went, you think I can pull, now I'm dying. Now I'm sweating. I'm nervous. I can't. I've never, there's 15, 20,000 people, right?

I don't do this, but I got the mask. So I'm okay. No one knows it to me. There's two pinholes in a mask, though. There's only pinholes. So not pinholes, but little holes. So now I've got to walk. I said, it's what he told me right about now.

He goes, all right, go. So I got to walk over the water. I can't see. So now I get out on stage. It's lit up. So I got to wave the flag as President Bush and Alice is singing elected. He's over there and nudging me and stuff and busts me. And the people are going crazy.

But on the back of my shirt is written Ben Laden socks on the back of my shirt. So he goes, soon as I hit you, again, I want you to turn around. So I'm waving. It's a 10-foot flag. I'm waving this flag like an idiot, right? But I'm having the time because no one knows. and I turn around and we've heard roars before

but I swear this one moved me back on stage it was so loud and then he's trying to come and grab me and take the mask off I dropped the flag and run off stage go back down and sit down and my guys go who the hell was that idiot

up there running around with the flag I said no idea what are you guys talking about and about a two years later I told him that that was me because I showed him the pictures that's beautiful so I was a rock star for like

a minute, but no one saw me. What a life, though. What a minute it was. It was so much fun. He wants me to do, we're going to do something to get on stage. I want to say something in one of his songs that I like called Gimmie, but it will see if that works out. I'll choke.

I won't do it. There's no way. It's like you get people out of their element, they can't, they don't know what to do. It's like pro ams. You get these guys that never play and pro ems are losing their mind. I get it. I'm not doing it. Fair.

You have a mask on though. I had the mask. It was huge. They're like a mascot. But I'll do it. I'll do it. whatever, but yeah, that was rock and roll guy. I like, all right, I like that.

You've answered a couple of my E-9s already just throughout, so I'll go with this one right here. Give me average cigar intake on a tournament week. Well, do you lead the champions to her? No, believe it or not. Miguel? Well, Miguel just destroys. If I go, I can make a cigar last a day or two.

No. See, I don't light them a lot. Oh, you chew on? Sometimes I do. But not like everyone's like, I said, a couple a week, really. Oh, really? A couple of weeks.

Miguel, he'll go deep. They're in your mouth a lot, but it's not always lit. Not always lit. So I just, I don't know. I quit chewing and I changed. Good for you. But yeah, no, not as many as you would think. Everyone goes, how many, well, a couple a week.

Well, you say three or four a week, I'd say you go through. When I'm home, I'll have them out back, but they're just sitting there. I don't know. That's just a habit. It's just a habit. Yeah. I'll pay attention when it's lit and when it's not. Yeah, alcohol was a habit, got rid of that.

So just a habit, though. It wasn't anything. But other than that, not as many as people think. But Miguel is like, oh, shit, I'll go through a box a week. I'm like, whoa. And he's been doing it for a long time. And he's absolutely a beauty. Yeah.

All right, next one. Get asked this a lot. And we all know, like, certain guys, during a rain delay, there's always those guys that are holding court. You always want to be at that table because they're telling the best stories. You are not, you can't pick yourself. Okay. Who would be the guy you would want to go sit with during a rain delay the most?

Yeah, I wouldn't do. Because I usually go in the car. I'll go with Bender. I'll go to where the caddies are. Who would I want to be? Actually, believe it or not, I like hanging out with the caddies a lot because you'll really hear some stuff.

I can't believe he's doing that. How come he's acting that way? He's got everything by the balls and he's complaining all the time. I just love it. I love hearing the real. You get the real. You know, because I don't mind.

I even tell Pete, I went, you do talk about me. He goes, I don't have a lot to say, but sometimes I'll bust. I said, good. I just want to make sure we're. So I don't know. Player-wise, you know,

You know, I like sitting with Ernie. Ernie's just got, just listening to him talk. Just the way, you know, there's so many good, our tour, just listening to Watson talk. I get to do that. Well, he used to, he doesn't, he's not out there much anymore. Obviously, Trevino, can you imagine? Oh, shit.

Yeah, you just want to help it never start again on the rain delay. Just listen to him talk. But, yeah, we get the best guys, the oldest, most famous people on Earth that I get to hang with still. That's cool. So I don't even know why we're not, we're not, um, sold out every week. Watching these legends out there

and I don't put myself in that situation. I've just played a long time. It looks like the most fun to her. It's fun. It's fun. I'll give you the next. What's harder to accomplish? Finishing 600 at the World Series of Poker,

as you did. Or making a 10 on the 12th at Augusta. What's harder to pull off? God, you were in contention then, too. I know. I don't want to bring up bad memories, but I kind of want to hear out. And that was 06 when the back went by,

by a nine, that was a ninth fair way that happened. Remember with, Brandon was candid for me. I said, I don't know if I can make it. And anyway, 10, 10 was pretty easy to make. The hardest part about it was I only had one ball left after those three went in the water.

So I was almost like, and I knew it. I looked at B and I went, there's only one more ball left. We got problems because I couldn't swing. Yeah. There's a lot of water coming home. Yeah, we got lay up a 13, away from that. That was easy once I got out,

because I had that ball, and then another one. So I hit the next one on the green and made a 10. And then the funniest thing, though, at the end, who does this? So I get up there,

and I'm, in Miguel, I played with Miguel that round. He was actually in tears on 18 because I finished. I was dying. It was awful. So I go up and everybody's waiting because I want to hear about the car wreck, right?

And I'm fine with it. I walk up. I said, only one question before you ask is I only have one question. Is 10 the highest score on that hole? and they said no 12 and I said I wasted all that time to get nothing on it they lost their head then they started asking questions and I answered I mean I actually know 12 uh I know who it is it'll come to me probably right as we finish this is it wise cough um I'll look at him as we're

12 but yeah it killed me tiger made it 10 yeah wouldn't eventually just go up to that and clip one on the back or back bunkers but you know the the thing about that is if I had thought more I'd have went as far left as I could and dropped it instead of so far back. If I'd have thought about it. It's a tough dropping. The guys that hit it in there,

like sometimes there's been like speed had a crazy, I'd drop it right by the water. And then hit in the, and chip it up there somewhere. Just hit it over the green, make a five. Yeah. Or six, better than 10.

So you still can survive. Right. If I had a thought more instead of walking back to 70 yards like an idiot, I think I'd have made less than 10. Yep. Maybe. But you're in the books with a 10, though. I got a 10. But not 600 in the World Series poker. That's nice, too.

Not really. It's not a record. I mean, you're going to make a number. There's like 5,000 people in that thing. There was 10 that year. There's 10 every year. I mean, that's pretty good. I got lucky. I didn't know what I was doing. If I knew, I'd have lasted a little longer. Well, I believe it's actually a 13. 13. 13. By Tom Wisecrop in 1980. Oh, wow. That might stand for a long time.

I wasn't even close. I mean, all that. You got a lot of shit happened to get 13. I made that six foot or for 10. I should have three put it if I'd have known. You need a lot of. Paul is two to get you a 13. Okay. Tell the true story about the red shirt on Monday at the U.S. Open. I'd be happy to.

You just actually had just one red shirt. I never ever one time thought about it. This is a safe place. Yeah, no, I, everybody says that you do. No, I promise you, I never, ever thought about it. It's the last shirt I had, because who packs that much? It's the last vest I had, and it's the last pair of pants I had, black and red. Wow.

It was destiny. And I never. And when Tiger, when I walked over. And then Tiger dressed like you. Yeah. I know he dressed just like this Monday. Monday, he does your own thing. Sundays.

If it was Sunday, I wouldn't have red on. And I walked over, I said, I walked over to say hello that morning. And he said, nice fucking shirt. First thing he said. Not good morning. Yeah. How are you doing? Nice playing.

So I'm going to kill you, but nice fucking shirt today. Yeah. But yeah, that was funny. Everyone thinks that you tried to get in and said, yeah, that would have worked. Yeah. Yeah. I always thought it was intentional. No.

No. No. No. I'd promise you. I promise you it wasn't. I'd be happy to go, yeah, I'd put that on to see what he would do. No, that's all I had. You'd break his brain.

Yeah, I would have really, you know that tiger brain. He's fragile up top. It would have really bothered him. It would have made him matter probably. All right, last one for me. Got to Audible again. If you could, all right, you could choose to be, you're one of the best golfers in the world for a long time, right?

If you could be one of the world's best in any other profession in the world, not golf, what would you want to be? Lead guitar, lead singer. I had to be a music thing. Simple is that. Lead guitar. Or lead singer. Which one, though?

Do you want a singer? I'd go lead singer. And I can't sing at all. I'd go to singer. Or, you know, watching Lipson play guitar all these years and up close a lot. Maybe lead guitar, because he just commands the genius. It would have been so much fun. I'd trade in a second.

People tend to like the lead singer a little more. Yeah, they got nice perks. Yes. All right. Last one, let's go out a little fun here. Can you please share, I've never heard this. Okay. The Mule Dick joke.

Oh, that's Alice. So Alice tells me a joke And see, Kirk Triplett tells a lot because he laughed so hard And he said, so Alice goes, this is a good joke He said, tell us to your amateur partners. He said, so Cletus and, I don't know, think of another subtle name. Cleavis and Bubba sitting on the porch.

You know, Cleetus, we just sit around here all the time and we don't do it. Let's play us a game. You know, Bubba goes, all right. He said, I'll tell you what, I'm going to think of something. You get to ask me questions. You get to ask me a couple questions and see if you can come up with what I'm thinking about.

And he goes, all right. Well, can you eat it? Cletus goes, I suppose. He goes, is it mule dick? So Alice said that. I literally fell off the cart because who's coming up with that? First guess, can you eat it? Yeah.

What was it mule dick? So yeah. So Kirk Triplett always comes up to me. And he goes, I told the guy's a mule dick joke again. That's a joke. That's it. So I see Kirk every morning. Yeah.

And I go, you got anything for Rockwood? He's like, just asking him the mule dicklet. dick joke. I'm like, what is? He's like, I can't tell it because it won't be as funny. It's all that's all it was. Alice said, we're thinking about me, just, we'd get three guesses, first guess. Is it mule dick? Yeah, that's it. It's the only logical answer. Yeah, it's only logical answer. All right, last one. Just let's go out real quick. Since you got to see it up close and personal, will Tiger Woods win again. I say yes, because if he's healthy, he will. What I saw on the, the PNC, everyone looks at me like I'm crazy when I say that, but we're talking about

him. When I saw it the PNC, albeit what he was, but you see the golf swing and the speeds he was creating. If he's healthy, he can beat these guys. And he walked. He can beat these guys again. Absolutely. 100%. Yeah. You know, like he said, he said, I'm not even close to tournament ready. And he's not.

But some of the shots he hit, listen to what the announcers were talking about, the numbers, he had to put it in the air with this one. They're still there. Can he get around? Is the only problem. And if he can get around, yeah, I think he can beat him. We'll find out. And if not, it'd go to the Champions Tour.

And you get to run it back. You know, you get to run it back with him. Well, last story, last Tiger's story. A couple years ago, we're at Stricker's event. And I said to Strick, we were in the rain delay for the pro M. And I was in the equipment trailer. And I said, I wonder if we change the rules for greed aspect. Could we get Tiger out here at 48?

He goes, well, let's find out. So he texts him. Tiger, would you come out? play the championship store, if we change the age to 48, he goes, F, no. I said, ask him why. Why? It comes back. All the records in the championship store started when the guys are 50. Why would it change for me? He's already thinking about it. But that's Tiger, though. If you called me, I went, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll come out.

Yeah, I'll be right there. I can start right now. Every 48-year-old on the PG&T or way. I'll be right there. But he said that. He said, no, all the records started at 50. why would I want that to change? He's got to want that U.S. Open. Of course he does. Yeah. It's not going to come out to hang out. He's going to hang out, but he wants to kill people again because he can.

Brick a red shirt back out on his ass. Yes, I will. Every day. I will. You are a beauty, man. Thank you so much. We appreciate you. That was an absolute ball.

Anytime. One, my brother. All right, that was Rocco Mediate, joining us on subpar. Slaid's, they just don't make him like that anymore. That's a man that beats to his own drum, and I respect the hell out of it. He ain't trying to conform.

He's not trying to conform. He's not trying to be like everybody else. He does things his own way. And it's worked for a long, long time. And when we got into the discussion for a while, but Rock was a guy you could point to him, like he had a long, when he was healthy, when his back wasn't completely messed up,

he played good golf for a long time. Would he be able to do it starting now? Probably not. Probably not. He's one of the shorter guys out there at the time, and now it's gone through the roof. It's good enough to win on Champions Tour. Still, though.

Five straight decades of winning at the highest level. It's been good for a long, long time. And yeah, just sitting down them, though, like, it's fun to get the guys that played in different generations kind of takes from A when they were coming up and B, like, what do you think about it now? He's a good one, dude. They should have made that commercial, by the way. I agree. Good idea with the commercial. The Tiger commercial, brilliant.

But, man, in today's golf world where we're just starving for some personality, it's like, hey, Rocco, go pull some of these kids aside. Because he said he was pretty shy growing up. And then his relationship with Mr. Palmer kind of changed everything for him. And I'm glad it did because he's. hilarious. He was one of my favorites to get paired with, play practice rounds with. I mean, there's nonstop chatter with Rocco, and I love it. Yeah, he's like silence. I don't do well. Yeah. I don't do well with silence. And as he's gotten older, I feel like he's, he dresses like a Bieber backup dancer right now on the chain. So things have changed. It used to be like

sweater vests all the time, the pleats, remember all that stuff? I mean, he was known for that sweater vest. And now it's like hoodie, Jordans, joggers, untucked, all the stuff. Every color that doesn't match the other one. I mean, it's, it's, just chomping that stag the whole time. But a lot of fun with him, man. We're going to have to have him on again because I know he's got a million stories. But let's get to some football here.

You were correct on college football. You'd pick Notre Dame in Ohio State. I went with my heart a little bit. I wanted the Longhorns to pull it out. They ended up losing 28 to 14. That was kind of devastating there. It's a big scoop and score, depending on which side you're on some bets,

especially second half. I mean, how state's playing real good. They're scary right now. But Texas is at every, dude, Was it second in goal from the one? They had it first and goal from the two. Second and goal from the one. Yeah.

Toss backwards. Something out. I don't know. Anyways, they end up with the scoop and scored. And it could have easily been tied up. We're going to be in for a classic. Steve Sarkesian is one of the best coaches in football. There's no doubt about it.

But I think if you look back at that, it was either first and goal from the one or the two. They run it straight ahead. They get stuffed. And I'm just, I think, in his mind, he thought, okay, remember back to the Penn State game, when they stopped them four. straight tries. They're like, okay, we can't run it right up the middle. I think he panicked,

and he decided to go try to get their speed out there. And I mean, he tossed it to the, I mean, when he caught the ball was on the nine-yard line. Yeah, it was back. I mean, and they got a bit. That's the only way you can go backwards is doing something like that. You go back earlier in the game. It was fourth and one. They bring in Arch Manning. He runs for eight yards. I know he almost fumbled. But that's kind of what he does. They've done it all year. I was shocked. Arch didn't come in that situation. But Ohio State's rolling right now. Probably saving Ryan Day's job. But, um, that was, you make it to the natty and let's just say they lot.

And you get canned. That's like, what do you want? Where are you going to go get? And it's better than that. And Texas, yeah, did the play calling, like college teams especially I've noticed. Like, once they're inside the five, I feel like most of them, unless they can just line it up and push it done. Like, if they're the bigger team, it's so hard getting it in the end zone these guys. But like, for whatever reason in college.

And by the way, if I'm on the one, I'm saying, hand it off. Every single. Don't throw. I hate when they throw these spades and stuff from the one. I'm like just run. But they were stuff. it. I don't know. It's one of those if they call a play action bootleg and then throw it and score, you're like, oh, what a beautiful call, you know. But all you got to do is get in.

And, man, it was, it ended up not looking as close to it was. But that was a good game. And then, both games were in. Notre Dame. Yeah. Notre Dame, Penn State came down to a game winning field goal. I know your pops had to be going crazy. I could hear him from South Scott still. I could hear him in North Scotts still. I mean, he's on cloud. And I'm still like, not all the way. He's like, oh, we got to things. We got to clean up. We got to do this and that. But I'm like, how about your boy on the other side, Drew Aller, putting it in the air with 30 seconds left? Throwing a, I mean, if you're going to throw it, okay, it's fine. But like, if it's even close to not there, you think you just eat it or take off with it.

When they pick that, I was like, oh, my God. I mean, I couldn't believe it. That poor kid, man. I love Greg McElroy. I mean, broadcasting is very difficult. He had a rough, like, three minutes there where I couldn't understand why he was saying if Notre Dame breaks one, they shouldn't score. I'm like, no, dude, you, you score. They're going to score.

They're going to have 20 seconds left when they were first driving. I was like, you score. Instead of leaving it in the hands of a college kicker. And then the Penn State quarterback, he's like, he never throws into trouble. The last thing we'll do is put it at risk here. Yeah. I'm like, I could, I don't care about Penn State. I have no hate or love for them.

I feel bad for that kid. That's going to be a tough one to go home too, just when it's like, worst case, you think like we're going overtime. And then for that to happen. And the kicker to make it too, which it looked wide right. And then old touchdown, Jesus. just gave it a little puff right back in there. So we had good games, though.

Yep, we got really good games. We got Ohio State, Notre Dame. That feels like a nice national title game. Ohio State minus eight and a half. Ohio State, Penn State. Like, they're just getting a Big Ten regular season matchup. This is better. But the last time the spread has been this large?

TCU Notre Dame? Correct. Excuse me, TCU, Georgia. And we saw what happened there. And I don't even think you got off the plane. You landed. They were down 42 nothing and you came back. I saw the national anthem.

And then my guy said, let's go. Yeah. So hopefully it's a good game. Looking forward to it next Monday night. NFL. By the way, can I give one thing? Sean McDonough, he's so good at games. Give the guy all the game.

I love him. He's so good. He's knowledgeable. By the way, he does everything. Hockey's got to be the hardest. But never makes it about himself. He's just like good. But he's okay to like question calls.

Oh, yeah. He doesn't bite his tongue when it's like, no, dude, that's holding. Yeah. Like when they're like, ah, you could call that either way. And he's like, nope. No, he's... That's cheating. He's one of the best.

Yeah, I love listening to Sean on the broadcast. He is, yeah, it's... He makes it look very easy. Yeah, he pops around. He might be the guy that gets, like, the least credit for all this stuff. It's like they send him to hockey, which is, like, going an entire shift. He loves hockey, I mean, and it's a hard thing to call. He's really good.

He's a big hockey guy. Let's get to the NFL quickly. Eagles took care of the Packers, 2210. Bills. Sorry, ran over your Broncos, 317. 7-0. It was hype, though. You had to be a little excited with that.

first drive. And then the fake punt, too, even when we're only down 710. I was like, we're going to punch it now on this. What's your punter's name? Do you remember? No, what's our punter's name? I don't know, but McAfee. Dixon. Dixon, yeah. So McAfee had a great tweet. He's like, arguably the greatest drive in the history of a punter. He threw a first down on a fake punt, and then they ended up having a punt it, and he nailed it down to the one. He's like, can't have a better possession for a punter than that right there. Give him part of Dax money. Ship it on over to our boy. Don't bring the Cowboys into this, okay?

I'm just thinking who's the most overpaid guy. It's no knock on the Cowboys. All right. We got the Ravens taking care of the Steelers, 2814. The Ravens are a problem. Steeler's offense, you suck. Y'all should get Russell back.

That makes me feel so much better, by the way that they looked, the way they looked the last five weeks of the year. I was like, yeah, this is what you get. I think the biggest surprise probably of the weekend was the Texans just destroying the Chargers. Justin Herbert throwing picks all over the place. I actually watched the game with Joe Scover. It was his birthday.

Oh, how'd that go? His birthday. And the Chargers just laid an egg. He was losing it. Sorry, John Malinger. Sorry about the bolts. No. Eat shit, John Mallinger.

I love that they lost because of that. I don't know. He looks great at times. And there's not like that. I think the whole world, me included, were on Chargers going in that game. That's why I've been looking good. And it makes you scared of it.

But then when it hits, you're like, oh, I should have bet it. So I did and I lost. But I was, that one was the surprising one. I believe now for going back quite some, time during the wild card playoffs home team get underdog is now like 21 and nine against the spread is that right yeah interesting you got a home team dog to be in it every year yeah pretty much and also i believe it now makes sean payton uh yeah is is he he's 30 and 13 now against bald 30 and 12 against bald he's now 30 and 13 trending bald is beautiful and back that's a shame because

we had an and you read next mm-hmm you know so So, but, and then the game of the week, in my opinion, commanders, buccaneers, what a, what a battle. I feel horrible for Baker, that fumble late in the game when they seem to be in control. Jane Daniels is a stud. Scary Terry is a monster, but that was a lot of fun to watch with the commanders hitting the last second field goal off the dock that went in. Yeah, for a franchise, it's been needing something to cheer for for a long time. That was a shocking. I know everyone knew Jane Daniels was good.

I don't think anybody knew he was quite this good, maybe even though it was the Heisman trophy winner, as weird as that sounds. But he came in and made it look like he looks like he's just in full control as a rookie, which doesn't happen. Probably a safe bet for that offensive. I was going to say, Rook of the year.

I think your man, Bo Nix, is probably going to finish second. Runner up is not a bad. I would take that. All right, well, let's make some picks real quick. Obviously, we don't know who the Philadelphia Eagles are playing because we're recording this on a Monday. And tonight we got the Rams and Vikings right down the road here in Glendale. So we got Kays.

hosting Houston, KC minus eight. I want to take KC for everything, but when was the last time they won by eight? Doesn't happen very often. They haven't won a game by more than a thousand eight since last year. Basically, they've rested all their main guys for two and a half weeks now. At Arrowhead. At Arrowhead.

I still, I mean, Houston's a nice team. I don't think they're at the level of KC, the back-to-back Super Bowl champs. And the favorites have been doing very well this year in the NFL. I'm going Chiefs. Favorites and unders. I'm still riding with the Chiefs. Chiefs to win the Super Bowl until somebody proves they can beat them, especially at Arrowhead. God, and that next week's going to be an unbelievable matchup, no matter what it is.

No matter who is. No matter what he wins. Detroit hosting the commanders, Detroit minus eight and a half as it's opening up. Obviously, their defense is very banged up, but they did get a weak arrest. Their defense looked great against Minnesota in the last game. You know, I'm all about Dan Campbell. I've jumped on this Detroit line bandwagon since the Cowboys have sucked. I really hope they take care of business against commanders.

I think they'll take care of eight covering, what, eight and a half? Is that you said? Yeah, it's a big spread for playoffs. But they're the type of team, too, like, who scores 40 more than they do? They can get in track meets and just run away. I'm big time rooting for Detroit. Eight and a half I'll probably stay away from, but I'm all on board with Detroit. Don't be soft. Fire away.

No, I'm going to fire. I just don't know which side it'll be on. All right, Philly, don't know who they're hosting yet. They'll be hosting either Minnesota or. or the Rams, and then the game of the weekend. Buffalo hosting Baltimore. Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson. Currently, Buffalo is favored by a point at home.

I mean, this is going to be, I know Baltimore smashed them in the regular season. It was at Baltimore. I think this is a different Buffalo bill team. They looked fantastic against Denver. This is going to be, this is a heavyweight matchup right here. This is it. I mean, this is MVP. This is the only two really getting tossed around.

Yeah, I got a bills minus point five in Buffalo. I just, in these type of games where, I mean, it's a coin flip, basically. I like to take the home team. So I feel like Josh Allen's been so closely. They just running up against, you know, what was it, when my homes have 13 seconds and they go down. That was one of the greatest games of all time. Which is one of the most horseshit losses of all time if you're Josh Allen. But the overtime game, like just crazy stuff.

I feel like they're kind of on a mission. I'm going to go with the bills in this thing as good as Baltimore's been. Look, I pick the bills from before the season started. So I'm going to keep them rolling here. I can't wait for this game. I hope it lives up to the hype. It's going to be a lot of fun. But, man, football's been great.

The sad thing is, it's almost over. I know. One more college football game. That's painful. All right. Well, congrats to Nick Taylor. Fun to watch. Congrats on your fifth PGA Tour win.

That's going to do it for us. We'll talk to you on next week's subpar.