Subpar - Jose Luis Ballester breaks down his incredible U.S. Amateur victory

Episode Date: August 27, 2024

On this week's episode of GOLF's Subpar Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz are joined by 2024 U.S. Amateur Champion Jose Luis Ballester for an inclusive, in-studio interview. The Spaniard reveals the most nerve-wrecking moments from his triumph at Hazeltine, the key advice he received from fellow countryman Sergio Garcia and what went into his decision to attend Arizona State University. -- Thanks to Ralph Lauren, the Official Outfitter of GOLF's Subpar. The RLX Golf collection is available in select Ralph Lauren stores, exclusive private clubs, and resorts, and online at https://RalphLauren.com. -- Whether you’re hitting the links, the clubhouse, or just trying to make it through that afternoon office slump, we’ve got you covered. From now until September 30, enjoy this coupon for 25% off anything at https://5hourenergy.com/. The best part? It’s reusable and shareable — meaning you and your entire squad can putt yourselves back in the game as many times as you want this summer. 25% off anything at https://5hourenergy.com/.

How we doing, everyone? Welcome back to Golf Subpar with Colt Nost and Drew Stoltz. Before we get going and talk about the incredible performance from the Ryder Cup Captain Keegan Bradley, who's going to be looking great in his RLX, up at Bethpage State Black, because at RLX, Ralph Lauren, timelessness has been at the core since the beginning. Born on the course, but drawing on the tradition of polo, RLX celebrates classic and iconic products that are meant to be loved in during the test of time while focusing on performance-driven design. By blending the sophistication of style with the precision of sports,

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The RLX Collection is available in select Ralph Lauren stores, exclusive private clubs and resorts, and online at Ralph Lauren.com. USA, USA, the chance were ringing through Castle Pines. What a week it was for Keegan Bradley. That was pretty cool, wasn't it? From last guy in, by the way, huge thank you to Tom Kim for the 6-66 finish in Memphis, which got Keegan. Bradley into the field. Now wins fourth going to the FedEx Cup standings. Maybe a little thank you from Keegan to Tommy Kim for that closing in Memphis. But dude, I thought it was an awesome week. I got to be up there. I was there Wednesday. Was there Thursday? Golf course the whole time.

I'm curious what you think. I thought Castle Pines showed beautifully. Fans were great. It was a bunch of them, but not too many. The golf course obviously is a beautiful golf course, but it held up really, really nice. I don't think anybody knew what the winning score was going into the week. I talked to one of the sports agent that reps some guys, been around golf for a long, long time talking to him earlier in the week. He's like 25 under. I was like, no chance, 25 under.

Like, dude, this isn't like, I know it's at altitude, but you got to hit some golf shots around this place. And then 12 under. If I'm one of his players, I start questioning him representing me going forward. I was like 25. Isn't TBC Craig Ranch, dude? He's got to hit some shots around, especially if the wind gets going or something, which it did.

and it got firm and fast, and boom, 12 under. I thought it was a sweet venue. Well, you're slightly biased. Very much, very biased, highly. But no, I pretty much the only golf I really got to watch was on Sunday, and I thought it looked beautiful. Drone coverage has just changed the game of golf as far as watching it on TV. I mean, what they were able to do going down those fairways,

the elevation changes and everything, it was gorgeous. And it once again shows you get a golf course where it bounces a little bit. You got some rough. It gives these guys fits. 13 under par is leading through 36 holes, 12 under par wins. I loved it. I thought, you know, the greens are very severe there. And they got little sections with the altitude and with the wind and how bouncy the greens were.

It got a little tricky, I would say, for some of those guys. But hey, I like it. Altitude is tough. I think that's one of the reasons we saw Scotty Schaeffler kind of struggle was at altitude. A lot of times you don't know exactly what your golf ball is going to do. It depends on how high you hit it. And the best player in the world struggled quite a bit, which was shocking. It's pretty much in every strokes gained category as far as ball striking goes.

This is the first time in two years. He's lost strokes to the field. That's a pretty good stretch. And it was, well, he wasn't the only one, dude. It was driving a lot of guys crazy. There was so much math going on, especially on the weekends. Like, okay, it's 200 on 11, but it's adjusted down, you know, it's downhill, 20 yards. Then you got to add elevation, but there's wind into it.

So I had another 12. I was trying to figure out how far to hit the shot was interesting for all those guys. That's when I said going in. Like, I don't know that this isn't a golf, course, I don't think guys would want to play this style of golf week after week after week, but once in a while, we haven't seen it out there. And for, you know, it's been since 2006, it was out there, but like going back to the international, you got that 17th, which a lot of fireworks can happen. Keegan Bradley kind of put it to bed there with five iron that was just,

to that front left pin, dude, that's a joke to get the ball to stop there. I mean, you said that to the moon. That is so far up there. Those greens are firm and there's no space there. It gets exciting finishes. And I think there was some, it was a, it was a fun style of golf to watch. You saw 400-yard three woods, but you also saw big numbers from some of the best. Yeah, you can see a lot of train wrecks out there. And I mean, you look at Ludwig Oberg, who lost by a shot. He made 23 birdies, two Eagles, 10 bogeys, three doubles. He got 27 in the red.

Yeah. He just needed not to have as many. He's a guy, like, I feel like he's just scratching the surface of how good he is, because that offense is crazy, tightening up the bogeys and the mistakes. I think someone that's just maturity playing out there. I feel like that's a lot easier, but even like, I mean, what he's doing right now, where he is in the FedEx Cup standing, seeing all these places for the first time. And I feel like he hasn't even clicked yet. He's got to be, he and Adam Scott with the putter.

Adam Scott, you go back to Saturday. The front nine missed a ton inside of eight feet. Sunday, the same thing. 10, 11, 12, those bogeys. And he ends up losing by a shot. Even had a chance they had the little miss on 15, too, where he could have really, you know, tighten things up. I'll give Adam Scott credit, though, one of the best bunker shots I've ever seen. on 11. It's unfortunate he didn't pay it off, but he's going to feel like this one probably

he let this one get away. Like he missed five putts inside of 10 feet on Saturday on the front nine. He missed four on Sunday on the back nine. But King and Bradley, tip your cap to him. I mean, to get in, last guy in the field goes out there, freewheels it, got nothing to lose. Probably had no plans of being on the President's Cup team. He was going to be a vice captain. Didn't really have many plans of being at East Lake. He is now in fourth. The standings are done for the President's Cup. He moved up to 10th. I think he's going to be a captain's pick. I think he's on it.

If it's not, it's a huge miss, I think. Now he's got to, honestly, he's got a chance to go out and win the FedEx Cup. I mean, just imagine that. Being named Ryder Cup captain, sneaking into the second playoff event and then possibly winning it, making $25 million, really impressive. And like I said, I don't want to jump too far ahead and say, is he going to be pick himself for the Ryder Cup? That's a long ways from now.

But right now, he's up to 11th in the world. He's one of the best players in the world, and he deserves to be on that team, the President's Cup team. Let's just play the little game that everybody's going to play. Fast forward. Let's just say exact same scenario. He wins the golf term. He moves up to 10th.

But it's next year. It's not a President's Cup year. It's a Rider Cup year. He's said, I won't pick myself unless I get voted in essentially by the automatic qualifiers. What do you think would happen if this was a year from now? I mean, there's so much that to happen, but it's fun to speculate. Well, if the Ryder Cup was three weeks away like it is right now, I think the top six automatic qualifiers and probably number of number seven and eight who are going to be on that team would say, yeah, we want him.

We want you to play. You're playing as good as anybody. And then I suggest the idea that you and I go as co-captons, just so he can focus on playing. That feels right. We're big analytics guys. They're going to need those numbers crunched. You want to play with him? Perfect.

You want to play with you? Raise your hand if you want to play together. All right. Go get them. Yeah. Two good golfers. They're going to figure it out. Denver as a whole showed up nicely.

I thought Peyton Manning in the house a lot, by the way, upcoming guest, Brandon Stokely. recurring guest on the bag for Peyton was talking a lot about his caddy skills leading up quote i go out there meet him up meet up with him on the 14th hole after radio see stokely walking down the fairway carrying the bag like a briefcase and i'm like what's going on the strap must have broke on the bag or something get up there by the green catch up with them going inside there's like dude my shoulder he's like i can't my shoulder can't handle it is then an NFL guy by the way he's like and by the way Peyton's hitting it 12 yards on every shot and I got to keep picking it up and putting it down, all this stuff.

So soft as they come from Brandon, don't ever let him forget that when we have him back on. It's just not as tough as he used to be. And not to spoil in the episode, but there was a lot of talk about you and him battling it out on some gin. Yeah. Funny story, last funny story about the Payton deal. It gets up on the first hole.

He's paired with Wyndham, who was like the guy up there this week. Tons of people out there watching, Denver. What's that? They don't have very good taste in Denver. He greeted me, dude, on the tram to the baggage claim at the airport. Like, do-do-do-do-do. Welcome to Denver.

This is Wyndham Clark, and I went to Valor-Cresher. This is my... It was humbling. That used to be John Elway when I was a kid welcoming me. Now it's fucking Wyndham, okay? That one cut me deep. But Peyton gets up there on the first D. A bunch of people around, nervous, obviously.

And he's a single-digit handicap. Like, you can hit it top, cold top off the first. And he plays it off and he's joking. He's laughing. But Stokely's former radio partner was there inside the ropes. Gets it on video. He's like, oh, I'm going to post this. Look, Peyton's just like us, right?

Post it, starts going. People picking it up. PGA tour ends up picking it up. It goes out. We tell him later in the day that, dude, Peyton has found out that you tweeted this out and, like, making fun of him. Like he is so pissed. And this is like, I mean, Peyton is God, you know, more or less to this guy.

And we had him just freaking out for multiple hours, like never coming on the show, boycotting all your shit, thought it was totally uncalled for. And then finally let him in. But it was a good little. That's what friends do. A good little sash for it. He was like, dude, call him. Call him right now.

I love that. I know. I opened up social media when I landed in L.A. The first thing I see is Peyton topping it off the first time. Like, oh my God. He's got to be mortified right now. Yeah. And I think that kind of made him uncomfortable for the rest of the day.

according to Stoke. But yeah, Stoke had to have guest caddies because there's a bunch of people inside the ropes with him, carrying his back for him. So soft as dude on the planet. I'm always on your side, but God, you're being a diva. So soft. But no, it was awesome.

I wish we had more events in Denver. I say the same thing about Chicago, Boston, New York, like these big sports cities. They show up. The crowd show up. The players love playing in front of massive crowds. I mean, look what happens here. Every year at Phoenix.

Dallas used to be kind of like that. Yeah. It's obviously changed. Charlotte's fantastic. I love going to the big sports markets. Like I said, the fans come out. It makes it feel like such a special event. I know the players love it too.

Yeah, and I think, like, I thought it was really cool. In 18, they let the fans walk up. It was very, like, respectful. I don't attend many actual, we go to a lot of golf tournaments, but it's normally like Wednesday practice rounds, and then I don't actually they're on site for the tournaments. I showed up on Thursday. I was like, oh, where's all the people puking and the raging

and what's the fighting going on? Like, this feels very civilized out here. This is a lot different than the Phoenix. open, but Denver as a whole, I thought it was spectacular. And just to reward those fans, like you want golf to stay as popular as possible. There's a lot of people, you know, Texas, we said should probably have a signature event going forward just to get those guys out there in Denver. They loved it. Yeah. It was a big deal out there. Shout out to George Solich, Western Golf Association, the Evan Scholars. They do awesome stuff up there. And they put on a great

show. And I know they'll be wanting to have a PJ tour event back very soon. But we got to give some credit to Lydia Coe as well. who won her third major championship. It's been an unreal three weeks for her. It wins the gold medal, which got her the gold, the silver, and the bronze in the Olympics. Now went to St. Andrews, won the AIG Women's Open Championship by one shot. Actually, I ended up winning by two. Lillivu missed a short one there at the end, but it was wild, man.

The weather was terrible. Seven under one. She birded the 72nd hole. So congrats to Lydia Co. That was really cool to watch. And just another major championship for subpar. That's right. Put it on the wall.

also just at the Olympics with the gold that gave her enough points to get in the Hall of Fame. Boom, she's there. She ain't done. I don't know how long you're going to have her in women's professional golf. And we talked to her, like, look, I ain't going to play for forever. But she's winning a bunch while she's there. They asked her what her goal was after she won the gold medal. And she says, I want to win one more major before I call it quits.

Her plan is to call it quits to retire at 30. She's 27. Well, she just went ahead and knocked that one out of the park real quickly. So she said now, though, she's like, hey, I can step away whenever I want. I'm going to be very satisfied. How about retiring at 30? That's a good goal, isn't it? God.

We're way behind. I retired slash quit and got more jobs. Yeah. Worked harder. Yeah. Oh, my God. Retired at 30. Shout out to her.

Shout out to Gassapines. George Solitz, as you mentioned, a spectacular week up there, and Keegan Bradley. Captain. Keegan Bradley, potentially playing vice captain. That's president's company as well.

You better bring the energy. You got to bring the energy, dude. I'm telling you I was hyped getting back home, seeing all the fellas for the first time. You know why? Because I had my five-hour energy. Special transfusion,

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Transfusions and getting hype at the same time. That's nice. Nice little combo there. I like. And our guest this week might need a little five-hour energy because it's been a hell of a stretch for him. He's got to be exhausted, but he is running on pure a journaling right now. From right down the road, here it goes to Arizona State,

superstar in the making. the newest U.S. Amateur champion, Jose Le Baistair, joins us on golf subpar. All righty, folks. The champ is here. Fresh off his win up at Hazleton. We have Arizona State Senior to be and the first Spanish U.S. amateur champion, Jose Le Baisterre. Good to be with you.

Trophy in hand, too, by the way. She's pretty, huh? She's a beauty. She's a beauty. Say something. You're so cool. I had to talk with her earlier. I was like, baby, you should have been mine.

I'm sorry. You were unhappy back. in 2007. But now she's in good hands again with you. Man, it is a beautiful trophy. It's, I mean, give us your thought. Has this sunk in yet? Not yet. I'm still going to need a couple more days to soaking it in. It's been really, really busy morning. And I think I'm already like realizing what it comes with winning this event, but I still going to need a couple more days to soak it in. What comes with it is a lot of annoying-ass media people. I mean, could be annoying at some points, but man, I wish I could have this problem every day.

Hey, they don't interview the guys that mismatch play. You're right. I can attest. It's factual. That's factual. You said it's been, what, 48 hours since you won this thing? Walk us through it. What's it been like from the time you got that trophy, Avermeyer?

Well, we had that quick ceremony outside on the parting green and then signing many autographs. And then one inside, talk to some media. I think I finished around five. and then I left the golf course on 8.30. Oh, like, ceremony inside. I think I've never signed as many autographs as I did on Sunday. All the flags, all the yardage book posters, everything. Body parts I was told also.

This is funny. I signed two foreheads, one cheek, one arm. And I told my caddy before the championship, that I was one victory away to sign a tit. Hell yeah. That'll like, love that. One more I get booby. That's beautiful. You finished all that up. Obviously, adrenaline rather high at the moment. What was the rest of the night? Like, did you eventually just crash? I was super exhausted. I had a couple friends over there, my caddy, and another guy that came to watch me play. So I just spent the night with them. I went to a place to grab some food and then had some rest.

because I didn't sleep very well the day before the championship match, but I did sleep very good after I won the tournament. Well deserved, too. I mean, it's a long week. I don't think people realize them. It's so much golf. I mean, you have six matches, two stroke play rounds, a practice round. I mean, it's, you earn some much-deserved sleep after that.

And also coming from Spain because I wasn't here. Okay. I was supposed to get to the state, the eighth, well, get to Minneapolis, the eight. my flight got console so I had to reschedule everything and then I ended up coming the ninth and practiced on 10-11th and then tournament began.

Wow, that's pretty impressive. Take us through leading end of the week because we talked about it. We had you on our serious X-XM radio show earlier today, but you're the 10th ranked amateur in the world at the time. Rankings haven't come out yet. You're going to move up?

You're going to move up a little bit, I think. But there was a lot of talk about one, two, three in the world. They grouped them together. There you are the 10th. in my opinion, one of the favorites going in. But where was your confidence at going in? Did you believe your game was in a spot where you could win at the end of the week?

Definitely. I was hitting the ball, coming in really, really good, practicing with my coach, Victor. And he said to me that he had never seen me practicing as good as I was doing. We all know that practicing competition are two complete different things. But yeah, I hit it really well as well in the practice rounds and made it to my. match playing and you know it's a completely different event over there so I had the chance to keep hitting the ball well and and win my matches did you feel overlooked at all given like Luke Clanton doing what he's done on the PGA tour you know

pressing severhays Jackson Coyvin Gordon Sarge all those guys get a lot of the attention here you are 10th in the world and like you weren't really talked about until you got later into matchplay did you feel overlooked uh maybe I mean the guys that you mentioned definitely deserve the attention that they were getting I'm a great amateur by having accomplished or I hadn't accomplished the things that they have done in the past few months or years. So they definitely deserve the attention that they were getting. And I feel like I was in a good spot of I'm a great player. Maybe I'm not getting the tension that I should, but I'm in a good position to do something great.

Yeah, you make it to match play. You start rolling. You had to beat a guy named Tiger, though. Yeah. That can be a little intimidating. A little bit. To be fair, though, talk a little bit about him because he's a hell of a player. He is, yeah, he's really, really good player, good ball striker.

I mean, his name is Tiger, perfect swing. So it's like, it could be a little bit intimidating, especially after playing a good stroke playing a big stroke player and beating Gordon Sargent. But again, I beat Ben James playing really good golf, so I felt confident enough that I could win against him. Yeah, your road to the finals was interesting. because you had Ben James, who was very good. Your fellow countryman, who was a hell of the player as well. But then you got two mid-ams there in the middle.

One, State Farm Insurance guy that he runs a branch up in West Virginia and Christian Brand, and then a personal trainer and Bobby Massa. What was it like playing those two? Because I feel like going into most matches, when you're one of the best in the world and you're playing college golf, you kind of know, okay, that guy's good, I got to deal with him, that guy's good, I got to deal with him. But then you come across two mid-ams. What was kind of the mindset going into playing them?

It's definitely quite different because it's been the first time. that I played in an event of this magnitude against two mid-ams. But it was kind of cool because you couldn't get lazy or relax. I knew I had to bring it. And if they were there, it was because they were playing really good freaking golf. So I had the chance to keep doing what I was doing and win both of my matches. But it felt a little bit different. And you're normally one of the longest guys.

I mean, you don't play with many guys that hit it farther than you. But you go against Bobby Massa who can smash it. I mean, have you seen his arms? Yeah, I mean, he's a personal trainer. He works out. He's a trainer. He works out with Derek Henry. I mean, he can swing like 130 miles an hour.

Yeah. I mean, it was impressive. I used to say that I hadn't play in college with the guy that hits it longer than me. This week, I play with a couple of guys that drove me multiple times. So it was quite interesting. One of them was 36 with a job. I mean, that dude was smashing. Be honest, though.

Like, if you're at the USAM, if you lose, one of the top ranked amateurs, like a guy like yourself, like, okay, you know, they're good players. But there's a little more pressure, I feel like going against the mid-am when it's like, yeah, this guy's an insurance salesman. Like, I know he's playing good golfer. He wouldn't be where he is in the US amateur, but. Well, I feel like the good thing about it is that, yeah, I knew that there were mid-ams, but that was it.

I didn't know anything else from them. So I think that also helped me of, okay, just do your thing. Not like why you sell the insurance thing or whatever. I didn't know that. Then about Christian, my catty Alberto did some research and we figured out that he played in the cone ferry for a little bit. So, yeah, I mean, I feel like I was in a good position going in against them because I was playing good golf and I didn't know much about them. So I knew that most likely if I play my game, I should beat them. Yeah.

You talk about your distance. Like what kind of ball speed can you get it up to? My highest ball speed ever has been 201. Okay. That's cool. What do you cruise playing a golf tournament? I would say like high 80s, low 90s. Yep.

That's nice. That's pretty cool. I feel like that's advantageous. You know, I've played Hazeltine a few times where he drove, but I was like, this course doesn't really look that hard from here. Yeah, dude, I saw a few show. There's like a part five, a blanket on what hole it is, but it was like, oh, 258 here. Like, or you hit the five iron from 250 on the par three, eight iron from 200 on the part of the part of the three.

Especially long this week. Oh, I hope. Three clubs long? No, yeah. You're right, but it was going. I mean, we don't know how far it goes here in Arizona. But surprisingly, it was going pretty, pretty far. It was pretty hot out there.

The driver off the deck, there was a driver off the deck, if I'm not mistaken, like 315 or something. There was one on whole three against Christian. I mean, I got to talk you through the other drivers of the deck that I hit before that one because I felt like every time I was in a driver of the deck, it was better than the previous one. I had won the stroke play on 11 with a mini driver. like a high smooth cut center of the green, then I proceed to three pot. Nice. And then the following day against Ben James, my first match playing on 11,

I hit another driver of the deck from 280, drove the green, two-pad and won the hole. And then the following day in round of 16 against Christian on hole three, I had 2.92 meters sliding into the wind. I couldn't even see the pin because I was on the right side of the ferryway. And I talked to my kind, I'm like, let's send it. I mean, why not? Early in the round, feeling good. Why not?

And as soon as I hit it, I just could hear the guys following my mom. It's like, wow. Oh, my God. No way. And I just looked back and sound like the face. What? And I got to the green. The ball was like 12 feet from the pin.

Yeah. So I showed up. That was the first day I covered your matches. And I showed up and I got there. I think when you're on six green. And I had 10 people in the gallery come up, like, you're not going to believe this shot he hit on three. And then I seven's the par five,

and it was down win that day. Yes. And you sent one over the corner. I think you had like eight ironed like 12 feet. Seven iron? Yep. I said eight iron, so I made it sound a little even better.

I was guessing. Five 85. It was like five, 85 driver seven iron. Pretty ridiculous. I know. And it was quite interesting because we played the course with all the possible wins. And you could tell, I mean, you saw me in that whole hitting driver seven iron, but the final match I was sitting like,

almost mini driver. So it was quite fun to play Heseltine that different. We had to made some adjustments, but it was cool. And yeah, it's nice when you have a seminar into a part five. The three matches prior to the championship, I believe you trailed at some point in those three matches. At what point, any of the three did you look at it? Like, where was your level of concern the highest? Both of my matches against the midams were pretty, similar. I felt like the front nine I was out bullet striking them by a mile, but I wasn't really making those paths that make you start like three out of six, which I could have easily done. And a couple of mistakes made me to lose the lead and actually be one down at a certain

point. And the semifil final against Luis, he started playing really good golf. and we both did. So I was one down, but I was playing great golf. Yeah, y'all were trading some birdies early on there. And then we get to the finals. You're playing Noah Kent of Iowa. There was a slight bias towards him, I would say. I mean, the crowd was definitely on his side.

A lot of Iowa people out there, a lot of Caitlin Clark T-shirts going on. Take us to that because you got off to a Dream Start. You're four up through the morning 18. Yeah. It was a weird feeling because as soon as I finished those 18, I was kind of down emotionally. I felt like if I potted a little bit better, I could have almost closed the final match over there.

I feel like I could have been seven up at the torn. I was hitting the ball really good and he wasn't really doing that grade in those first 18. And yeah, I took advantage, but I didn't take the advantage I thought I could have taken. And yeah, they delayed the second match, 30 extra minutes. We had a long break. So just trying to stay loose with my headphones, trying to be with my caddy. We played this machine.

I don't know what's the name, the one that it's like a golf machine. And you had a... Golden tea. Yes. Yeah. We play that. Made four birdies in five holes who felt confident for the... Oh, good plan.

Good plan, dude. So felt confident for the second round. had a nice warm-up. He'd the bowl much better than what I did in the morning in the warm-up. And yeah, I started off nice, but he started off

incredible. I told Siles, I mean, we were out there. That's when we came on TV, was right at the start of the afternoon match. That chip in, the roar, for the amount of people there, I don't know if you could be any louder. It was like a circus.

That was nuts. Did that added any, like, fuel to the fire, put a chip on your shoulder? I mean, I'm sure you're locked in, but you'd know. notice the difference in cheers you know he did that second shot it flew the green uh didn't hit my approach shot that well um and i'm like okay he's gonna struggle to make up and down from there and i was almost thinking more like going five up than being three up and that was almost like a

wake up call saying okay man this guy's gonna bring it and his people is here so you better you better play good if you want to if you want to win this because it's gonna be it's gonna be hard yeah let's go to the 18th there because you had a four-up lead with few to play he gets it down to one with one to play and here you are on 18 at hazel team it all comes down to this what were the nerves like standing on that 18th t i was surprisingly come i don't know why but i think it's because i've had a hard time um lately which is uh with some personal stuff uh when i came back to spain and And it's when I realized that golf isn't everything and it's pretty cool to be in a position to win a championship like this. But I'm like, okay, I still have some shit to figure out when I finish this event and it's not related to golf.

So I think that mindset coming to the week really helped me to stay calm in the pressure moments. And again, I knew that I had lost three holes in the last few holes, but I was confident with the situation what I was. Feeling really confident with my swing, and I was pretty calm. The drive was beautiful. The second shot, I got to think you hit that within a yard probably of where you were looking, right? Given he was in the bunker, tough try, like, look, make him make three. Yeah, exactly. It was a hard number.

169 meters playing like 183, 185 yards, slightly into all the ride. I knew I was just, I mean, it's kind of funny, but when I have that pressure, I feel here in my forearms. I feel like the blood is pumping way more than what it does normally. And in those situations, I usually like to hit the last club and go after it. But the way I was feeling I was feeling calmer than usual and how good I was hitting my knockdown shots all week and how good I was feeling with my tempo

I'm like there's no reason why changing and hitting the short club just drives your knockdown shot, trust your tempo and hit the shot and came out so nice. It was perfect and I'll say this. I was out there all week. Because it was windy for the most part.

Nobody controlled the spin on their, wedge is better than you. It wasn't even close. Like you hit so many cool shots. It looked like you hit pitching wedge a few times from like 105 yards back into the wind. It was beautiful. Thank you. I mean, something that I've worked so much since the day I got to ASU. I've always been a mediocre wedge player growing up. And I knew that if I wanted to take my golf to the next level, that's the thing that I needed to improve the most. And it's nice to see people noticing that in the biggest stage of amateur golf. So that was pretty cool. Yeah, the wedges were good. The link that obviously gets all the attention, I thought.

And when he and I kind of broke it down, I was like some of the short game shot, your bunker game especially. Like I'm hard pressed to remember one where it was like not great, where it wasn't like most of the time you were kicking them in. If not, you're getting as close as you possibly could. I thought the short game in a few spots where you needed it to kind of keep the mo in the round.

It showed up every time. Yeah, a short game was so dull all week. I found a couple of things in the rough because you've got some interesting lines in that rough. And I found something that really helped. Well, we'll know that the most important. thing when we have that thick rub is not decelerate through the impact and I was doing that really well but something that helped was lowering my hands a little bit more and the ball was coming

like pretty high and smooth and in the bunker again I felt super super confident I felt like the bunkers were easy um I don't know if you noticed but the way they were raked the way they rake them yeah yeah it was only like in the middle the ball could only stay in the middle um so that made it a a little bit easier. I knew that every time I was in the bunker, I was in a good position. So I took a bunch of it. Yeah, it's like that's not how they rank them in Australia, right? Yeah, yeah. But you get flat live, actually, every time. You can get, you can get some clumps behind it, though, the other way they all rake it in the middle. But yeah, your bunker game was amazing. Your short game was just fantastic all the way around. I want to talk a little about, I mean,

just you, everyone I talked to, your freak athlete, freak talent, your parents, both Olympians, which is just unbelievable. Have you always just been, like, you? really good at sports your whole life a little bit yeah growing up this isn't the show to be humble yeah it's like I'm fucking sweet at everything not like that but I was I was pretty great at tennis growing up I love tennis and I still do my dad was a swimer so I had to swim I hated it I never liked it and then golf I was really good at golf and I had to choose golf because I was a little bit better than tennis. And yeah, probably the genes from my parents also help a little bit growing up.

Yeah, I mean, your mom had never heard of Carlos Akoraz, you know what I mean, if you stayed with that game. Do you have any relationship with him? You heard from him? I met him once. He probably has no clue who I am. But I met him right before he got famous. When he turned 18 and he was the first time that he played Raffan Adol in Madrid,

he was coming from that event and I've met him at an airport because I was with Sergio Garcia's brother and his good friends with his coach, Juan Carlos Ferreiro. And I had the chance to have like a snack with him and chat with him for a little bit

but that's all I know from him personally. That's awesome. Yeah. It's coming. By the way, your mom won a gold medal in the Olympics and field hockey. Pretty cool, huh? That is ridiculous.

Can I ask one question? Going back to the golf tournament, Colt and I discussed this and we kind of drew a blank on it? 16th hole there. Toughest drive on the golf course, right? It can play 400 yards. It can play 385 yards.

It is a short par four. You guys that are playing it hit it 350 yards regularly. What was, and I saw guys hit it in the lake, saw guys hit in the creek over the creek. What kept guys from hitting iron off that tea and then you could still have a wedge? I feel like the fact that almost nobody hit irons is that you're not guaranteed to hit that ferry with an iron. And the angle of the second shot with an iron, especially to the mid back pins, it's challenging, especially if you have that wind coming off the lake. You don't want to have like an a iron to a back pin over the water again after hitting a tough tee shot.

So it took me a while to find the way of how to play that shot. I hit a really nice minute driver on the stroke play. But then I hit one in the creek and another one. left of the creek. Over the creek was it. That one worked out. That was a good shot. Yeah, she just blow it over that thing every time.

And then I kind of found the shot. I was hitting pretty straight and because I didn't want to aim far the right. And then I started trusting a little bit more my cut. Aiming almost to the creek and trust my my cut. And it worked out pretty well. And I would almost say that even that final driver on the championship match, it was a great drive. He did the last branch of the tree and I got a terrible lie. Yeah, that was tough.

And then somehow I went over there and looked for your golf ball. When it was in the tall stuff, the building, I didn't see it. And then you whacked it out of there. But how to look at four on that, which would have been just, I mean, if you're Noah and found that, and hack it out, make the 40 footer for far. Like, that would be just devastating. Yeah, it would have been the end of it. You're very close with Sergio Garcia.

You mentioned your coach Victor earlier, which is Sergio's dad. Tell us a little bit about your relationship with Sergio and what kind of advice was he giving you throughout the weight. Yeah, well, I've known the Garcia family for seven, eight years. I grew up in a small nine-hole golf course close to my place, but when I turned 13, I started playing better at the national level. I moved up to this other golf course, because it's just better conditions, bigger and better facilities. And that's how I met Victor and his family. And growing up, I had a chance to play with surgery multiple times and especially got really close with him in the past few years.

And yeah, it was pretty nice to have him following really closely all week and getting his messages after every match play. He called me the night before, give me a couple of advice, especially how to deal with the crowd, because, you know, he played the Raticap over there against field one of the greatest single matches, if not the best, ever in the Rada Cup. So he kind of told me that the best way you can shut them up is playing your golf. Yes, no doubt. He was involved in one of the best matches, can give you some great advice.

I actually talked to him some the night before. Okay. And told me about the mini driver. So the head was actually victors. And then the shaft was his. And it has the scores from his 2017 Masters win on it. Yeah. That's sick.

That's pretty cool. And this comes from the British Amateur because I lost in the, 64 round of match play against this guy that was using a mini driver. And before that, I used to play a five wood that I barely used. I used it more for chipping than for actually hitting it. And I mentioned that to Victor, and he was like, okay, let me think about it. And he gave me his head and in his office with all the shafts and class he asked, he pulled out this one.

And an interesting fact about this is that Sergio, I don't know if he still does this, but for a very long time, he used to play with extra lead on his grip. So if you grab the shaft by itself, the feeling is pretty weird because you only feel the grip. So I had no expectations at all when I use the club. I'm like, man, this shaft is no way it's going to work out.

It's meant for him. I'm going to use it, but we're going to have to find another one. First two shots ahead, it just came like like this. And I'm like, look at Bigger, I'm like, damn, this is nice. Following week, I played the European Amateur Championship. I was the defending champion. And it was unbelievable the way I hit the club. And it made me heed my regular driver way better.

Because I feel like I needed that club really badly because the way the courses are designed, they're not designed for a guy that hits a 350. So I felt like especially in college, many many courses I had to go straight from the driver to the three iron because I didn't want to hit the five wood of the tea so where I put my driver was pretty tight and then I had to put it to the water side and then I was losing my advantage of the distance compared to the other field so now I have this club that goes like 20 yards less than my driver and then I can hit confidence enough

confident enough that I'm going to put in the fairway farther than my three iron So it's been a good discovery for sure. Worked out okay. I hate these courses that don't set up for $350. That's my fucking issue, dude. Yeah, exactly. They're not building them. They're not building them for me.

Arizona State. Did John Rahm have anything to do with you coming here? Not really. Didn't know John that much when I came to ASU. Or obviously, it was more like the Spanish culture of ASU, right? Alex Leigh, David Pooch, Alejandro Canisarius. Um, I'm sorry, Carlotta. So it was more like all of them knowing that they are having success on tour and they had

success at ASU. So all of that and also that I, as soon as I visit as soon as I visited ASU, I love the place. Um, nice scenery. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So beautiful. Beautiful campus.

I mean, well, fortunately, I don't, I don't go to Debbie campus. I actually go to downtown. She's kind of sketchy. You go to the downtown campus? Yeah, I hate it. Oh, my God. Why? That's unfortunate.

Why? I mean, what are you studying? Because I do sports science. And the College of Health Solutions is in downtown. I mean, I used massive. So they got to kind of distribute to other places. And I wish I could go to Tempe campus, honestly. Yeah, maybe do it remotely like from the rec center.

The workout facility. Last year, I had one class at Tempe Campus is kind of funny. I had yoga class at 7.30 a.m. Yoga is a class? I bet that's a pretty. Did you get Did you pass? You get through that

Once again It's proven. Yoga's a class. Hey, but it's not that hard to pass that class because 90% of the greatest attendance if you don't go to class. Dude's got to show up.

Stretch it. 7.30 a.m. Tuesdays. Wasn't that easy. Downward dog is your final. I used to, I learned how to do inversions like these kind of like things

you put your head in the ground against against a wall. That was my thing in your class. Nice. So you passed. I passed. That a boy.

Well, Well, we can talk about this. Sleez wouldn't know anything about it, but when you win this beautiful trophy, you get some invites to some rather special tournaments, the Masters, U.S. Open Championship, if you stay amateur that long. But we had you on our serious X-M show earlier today,

and I said, imagine you're going to be at the Masters next year, teen it up alongside the number one player in the world on Thursday and Friday and the defending champion at the Masters and Scotty Sheffler, and you had no idea. No clue. I mean, I was really excited that most likely that I'm going to be playing the practice around with John, Sergio, and Alainzaville.

And then as soon as you said, I'm like, oh, my God. Yeah. I'm going to have more people watching than what I had a couple days ago. Slightly. So that's super cool. I better be ready to at least compete with Scottie. Yeah, that is. I mean, he's probably shitting bricks right now, too, dude.

Don't sleep on that. You can send him a message right here. You want to look in that camera tell you coming to get him. That's one of the cool traditions. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah, I didn't know that. But now, now when you said that, I thought, but I'm like, of course, yeah.

I mean, Sam Bennett played with him and with Brooks, right? Well, I don't know. I can't remember who the third was. I don't remember who the third. Is it sometimes they do the Open Champion, I feel like? Sometimes, like last year, I believe, because Nick Dunlap actually was playing as a pro because he earned a spot. So he changed out.

No, no, no, he stayed in it. He stayed in it because he was the USA Amateur champion. It's the second time ever, I think, the Am champ has played as a pro. Okay. But he was with obviously John Rom and I thought Matt Fitzpatrick. Yeah, they always put another major champion. Damn, they're going to be a good one. He won't be a scrub.

You'll be playing with another big time. How do you decide which teammates or who in general comes to practice rounds for Augusta, which you get to start taking at some point? Or which podcasters. Yeah, or just friends that kind of, you know, been there from the jump before you were going to say. Auction it off? Yeah, I mean. Bribes.

I don't know if he knows everything works yet. I mean, like, once the course opens, like, you can go play pretty much as much as you want. I mean, I honestly don't know how much about it. I mean, obviously, growing up is the first tournament I ever watched, but the only thing I know is that Wednesday is a part three, so that's pretty much it. Yeah, once you get you. This is sick. We're breaking news right now to him too. You get to go there, play.

You get to play with Scotty. That would be sick. Yeah, once you get the invitation, like, and the course is open, I don't know how far in advance you have to call ahead. There are certain rules, like you have to take one of their patties. stuff but you can go start playing practice rounds later this year that'll be that'll be pretty sweet yeah we'll be available just let us know i've one trivia question to get to before we go to the e9 here you got it you're three-time all-american okay at asu you have the chance to become

only the fifth four year all-american at asu can you name the other four john rome yes phil mickleson correct um one i feel like you'll get i'm sorry for the two i don't Yeah. There you go. Gennazaris. The last one is if you get this, then you're like a student in the game. Although he's a great dude still in town and you should meet him. I'll just give it to you because if you don't know, you don't know it.

Todd Dempsey. How about that? Todd, he's playing champions tour, Q School with Persimmon Golf Club just for fun. So that's an elite list, dude. Four times. It'll be pretty cool to join them. Yeah. Go do it.

You're well on your way. All right. Now it's time for some fun. We're getting to the E9, the fun questions. All right. Let's do it. And you're young fellas, we're going to ask you this one. We mix it up sometimes our first one.

Celebrity Crush. Okay, and it's always been Margot Rovey. Oh, God, damn. I mean, think about it for a second. Competition is stiff for Margo. She's about about and 75% around here. Everyone, everyone in a variety of ages. Yeah.

You're probably the youngest. We've had some older gentlemen that like her as well. Good pick, though. Let's see where I want to start here. All right, when did you decide? have Colt's twin brother as your caddy. That was cool with you. That's funny because who was that guy? I saw him on the screen. I was like, holy shit. One of my best friends for a long time. He's helped me a lot. He's from the same place where I grew up. He worked for the Valencian

Federation. So he traveled with me to many team events growing up, a good friend of mine. and he well he lives in Spain but in August they spent like a month in San Luis because his wife is from San Luis so yeah I just oh hey I don't have anybody to look for me this week are you available and he's always available so he's always available that's nice kind of and it was funny because then I saw some parts of the broadcast and there was like a moment in which they kind of come yeah well he texts to me I was like what the fuck's going to You're in two places at once. A bunch of social media people are like,

how are you broadcasting and caddying? And so I mentioned it on air. And then they put that side by side. And I showed him the picture after y'all wanted. He started dying laughing. Pretty funny. Good looking man, in my opinion. Once I heard him going in Spanish, I was like, all right, it's not you.

All right. Rumor has it you can fall asleep anytime, anywhere. Give me like the craziest place you've ever woke up. You're like, oh, my God, where am I? Even though your teammates say you claim you don't sleep at all. I mean, I just take a banish of the dead times, right? If there is nothing to do, well, I'll take a nap. I don't think I have that many weird places where I fall in sleep,

but all the car drives, you can imagine planes. I don't have any issues to fall asleep in planes. That's why I barely, I never, barely or I never have jet lag, which is something pretty cool. When I go out, then I can fall asleep perfectly and I'll be fine the following morning. So, yeah, it's like a super power, I guess. So jealous. Keep that.

Smart man. All right. Next one. You've been roommates with Preston, Somerhays for a while. Give me the worst trait or thing that annoys you the most that Preston does as a roommate. Oh, he's the nastiest roommate you can have. He's really nasty. What do you mean?

I mean, he's very messy. But the thing is that he's organized in his mess, but his mass is very messy. One of the things he does the most, and when he takes a shower, he starts, like, leaving his dirty clothes in the bathroom on the side. And it could be like two weeks, and the pile of clothes is like this tall. To the moment that I'm like, please, dude. I mean, just do it for me. I mean, not for you.

Do it for me? Take them to your room, Preston. You got a laundry machine? Who's doing it? Come on, boy. He's such a button-downed. I feel like he'd be like the OCD. Once last year towards the end of season,

her mom had to go into the house to clean it up to get it livable. Damn, I wouldn't have expected that from Dittie. Barth's a saint, though. Yeah, she'd do those kind of things. You know, I'd have a talk with Boyd. But I feel like many great players are pretty unorganized, like outside golf.

So I think that could be why he's that way. All right, good. That worked out nicely. It's hilarious. Good answer. You mentioned tennis. You love it. People might say you get a little more fired up playing tennis than you do golf.

So have you broken more tennis rackets or golf clubs? Tennis Rockets. More than tennis rockets because, I mean, I don't play tennis that often, but I've broke many ping pong titles, like many because I'm good at tennis, especially because all the guys in the team suck. So every time I play with them, I get worse, so I don't play tennis because of that. But in ping pong, I'm not that great. And yeah, I've broke many paddles.

Actually, one of the routines that I had this past week, after playing every single day, I went into the USGA room there was in the hotel, and we played some ping pong, me and Alberto. Even the day after the 36th whole match and everything, straight to the ping pong to kind of like bring all my, emotions out and we were both sucking this week at ping pong so broke a couple puddles um through a puddle almost broke the tv got kind of love this got kind of lucky that there were not any cameras inside that room because i probably would have been kicked out of of it almost kicked out of the tournament maybe no but but yeah um i'm pretty pretty chill inside the golf course um don't really Very chill, I thought.

Yeah. Also, I think it depends on the situation. Last year I got a couple of warnings of bad behavior because I'm not proud of what I did, but in Pac-12s, a desert forest, I kind of lost my swing and the final run. We were in contention for the championship and it started double, par, triple. And I hit like four shots out of bunker and I couldn't put on the green. So as soon as I hit that shot, I look straight to the desert and did like a 50-yard-hundred helicopter straight into the desert. But I was hearing it so bad that I had to do the walk

of shame and record my watch because I knew I was going to miss greens. Of course it's hard. It ain't like an eight iron or you get this like a finesse. As soon as that happened, the referee came to me. Hey, this is a warning. What you did is not accepted by the NCAA rules next time you're the Q and I'm like, damn. Yeah. Lock it up. Well, that ruins my next question because I was going to ask you if you were like, if you had to prove your Spanish heritage being that you don't break clubs and freak out out there but i'll go to something different than uh well another related to this another funny thing about this last week on the on the stroke play i finished a stroke play at hazelton and and i was two over in the day even uh total and i was pretty close to the cut line and on

half 15 spend that win and i bombed it i had a five final eight on 15 oh yeah and and i hit the worst five five impossible and i put it to the 40-yard bunker the one on the right. And the pin was all the way by it was the hardest shot I could leave. And I just got pissed and you know how you kind of like a squat and kind of bend the club. But I did it for like five seconds really hard. But then I forgot about it. And I gave my my club to Alberto.

And then I'm making most beautiful up and down ever from that 50-year bunk shot, landed short of the pin, skip, check to like this far. And the following day against Ben James, I was one up and whole four, it was time to hit the 500. I hadn't hit it since. Oh. Pulled out of the back. Ben? The worst bent.

Oh, my God. Al Perthar didn't notice that when you handed it back to him. I'm like, hey, dog, you brought it. And I didn't even hit it in the warm up. So, and it was not the nice band. I mean, I know I couldn't hit that club because of the rules. But you guys know how there's like this eight iron that has the band to kind of. So you laying the shaft.

It was the opposite. Ben. Oh, see what I had to go. Yeah. That's my moving impact. Yeah, that's like that's what I do. So it would add loft. I'm like, man, I kind of hit this. I lost that hole because of it because I don't know, I kind of got, I lost focus for a little bit. And then I asked the, I asked the referee, hey, I don't know when this happened. Can I do something? May put it back to position and play with it. And he didn't really know the rules. So I'm like, let me check with with the superior or whoever. And by that time, I look at it and I bend it back. I'm not even using a towel. You know, if you friction the towel, you can move it easier. But I just put it that way. I did it

like this. Look at it. I'm like, it looks pretty good to me. And I couldn't play it that day, but I used it for the rest of the week. You're able to be just like that? You have no new shaft or nothing? Well, I had the ping brought me a new club for the following day, but it looks so damn straight. Then I'm like, okay, I'm just going to keep playing. And I hid many good shows with it. Oh, wow. Nice.

Okay. All right, that answers mine. On to me. All right. Let's see here. Would you say you're better at driving the golf ball or a car? It has to be driving the golf ball. Preston said out to you.

I don't know what you're talking about. I don't reveal my source is hard to say. I'm about to start my fourth year here at ASU. And I've said since the beginning of my soft, year that I was going to get my license at some point and we're still in that process of starting to get my license so a golf ball um so yeah probably golf ball um it's something that i got to do at soon as possible but hey do you just take uber to class yeah how do you get you go downtown phoenix for your class uber sometimes i go to the bus stopping tamping then take

the bus um yeah but many ubers uh there's something funny that i say to my people especially back in spain because i i don't have the license in spain either i say hey no worries i'm I'm going to go straight from the shotgun to having a personal chauffeur. Yeah, I was going to say, you're on the way to just have a driver. You don't even ever have to worry about getting it. You should take the Habemeyer on the bus stop down to South Phoenix. Probably real safe. Hey, guys, stopping on Van Buren.

Yeah. Okay. All right, last one for me. I've been told to ask you what music you listened to and what outfit you wore on your recruiting trip to ASU. Damn. Yeah. My dad got so pissed at me at that. right now I listen to reggaeton

pretty basic music but for me it's enough and I'm Spanish and I like the the music in Spanish I'm pretty open to any kind of music but that's what I listen most of the time and I know Thurms

told you this because I played little pump on his car in my recruitment visit apparently he said hey you got in the car he's like yeah you i want to listen you know therm is trying to get him to put on and i put on what you want to listen to you know i'll listen and he put this on and he was like what's it called little what little pump the dude named little pump yeah i mean check him out you'll i feel like you'll enjoy him it's a lot like uh and then after i yeah with the time after i get a chance to know thurms the way he is how um religious he is and everything like

damn how did i even do this and i went to this dinner with my dad and couple of teammates, a couple guys that were on the team back in the day in Thurms with this shared that said like insane death and like a school here I mean it was... That's what you are. Egy. That's what I wore. Egy as I'm told.

Yeah. We're going to sign this kid. Good choice by the way, Thurham was like it was the most vulgar song I've ever heard in my life. But I mean I said to me that I mean this is who I am if they don't want me. Yeah, I don't know. It's true. I mean, that's what happened. I've had some interesting how'd I say

not habits but some interesting um damn it how do you say situations experiences no interesting moments of my life as soon as I finish high school I don't know why I started doing magic

with cards I got pretty good at it for like three four months I got pretty pretty good at it for like three or four months I got pretty good at it it. Everywhere I went, I used to have a deck of cards in my pocket. There was a moment that I used to paint my nails too. I mean, a dark moment in my life. But, yeah, like many, many funny things that you wouldn't imagine of a golfer.

Yeah, that's fascinating. And now one of the things, one of my hub is now more serious that I like and I kind of enjoy is cooking. I spend some time in the kitchen kind of forget about what I've done in the day. and I love eating so much that if I don't pay attention to cooking, I'm going to be pissed because I'm going to have to eat it and it's going to be bad. All right.

That's a nice roommate to have, by the way. Two things first. The magic. You think he can compete with Harrison? I was about to say, we got a trick that'll blow your fucking mind. We had Harris English on, who was just so proud of his magic trick.

It's the dumbest thing you've ever seen. Okay. And it's the easiest trick ever. And he was so proud of it. It was great. Back to the cooking thing. We're going to look ahead. You win the Masters.

Obviously, the champion's dinner. What are you going to have? I'll bring my grass. for the cooking and I'll make her design the menu. Some Spanish delicacies for sure. What's your favorite as far as like a Spanish food? One of my favorite dishes is like this chickpeas soup that my grandma makes. Quite different to any other kind of dishes.

But it would be something like classic Spanish tapas with a nice dessert and like a main. I'm not sure about the main, but. Yeah, that's awesome, man. Well, dude, we're so proud of you. Thank you so much for coming in, bringing the beautiful trophy. Congratulations on winning the U.S. Amateur. Thank you guys for having me. Thanks for the time, man.

That was awesome. All right, that was a fun one with the U.S. AM champ. Really cool having the Havemeyer here in the building. What a stud this kid is. $195 ball speed, just cruising around, good-looking Spaniard. I think he's got a decently bright future. We might need to do like a DNA check to find out if he's actually really Spanish because he's the most calm Spaniard I've seen on the golf course.

in a long time. Very mellow, unlike some of the other fellas, uh, with Spanish blood. But dude, his game is impressive. We got into it, like the 250 yard five irons to the moon. He's the modern day, the modern day kid. And, um, I loved his some of the stories. Thurman, shout out Coach Thurman at ASU for giving some good stuff. His recruiting trip, apparently. When he got in the car and Thurman was like, oh, it's a recruit. I'll let him listen to what he wants to. And he puts the little, little pump, which you need to dive into that, uh, if you have it and he was like, dude, it was the most flagrant, like, outrageous thing. I was like, that's pretty big balls for a recruit to come in.

Like, yeah, I'll throw this on. I think I'm going to stick to my country music. Yeah, George Stray or a little pump. A little pump. I'm out. By the way, press and sun rays, clean your damn room. Clean it up a little bit. How about that?

Would you have ever guessed that? Kind of. Actually, kind of. He's so, like, buttoned up and all the stuff. Like, he's always put together nicely, you know? I wish we would have had the live reaction because when we were on our serious X-XM show, and I told him, I was like, hey, you're going to be playing with the number one player in the world, the defending champion at the Masters, and Scotty Sheffler.

Like, he was completely shocked. He had no clue it was happening, so to bring it up there, but it was a really cool moment on our show with him. That was awesome. I was like, you know, he didn't know that? You didn't know that? It's like, this is kind of like a known thing, dude. Anyone that wins it, you get paired with the champ. That's Scotty.

He was freaking out. It was awesome. But he's got a lot of shit going on in the last, now he's got to get ready to go back to school, which that's got to be a bit of a lot down, but I wouldn't worry about it too much. Things are looking pretty good. By the way, very good. We've had college guys on before, and they're all great, but he was very well-spoken.

I gave great answers and things like that. He's going to be very marketable. He spent all weekend Hazelt team with me. I trained him up? Yeah. Yeah. You're a little twin brother looping around for him, too, by the way. Shout out.

You've been hiding that brother from me. Been getting a lot of steps in. I've been hiding that brother from him. Now, speaking of the great quotes and being good at speaking, did you hear one of them Clark's quote after the old, I'm going to show. I've got to get this. I can't believe you haven't talked about this more.

I forgot about it totally in the first time in June. On the happy hour, smiling, right? Yeah, with smiles, dude. He had a beautiful shot into 16. Came up just a little bit short. And he was asking about it. He's like, yeah, man, I just wish I had eight more inches in me. Straight face.

Oh, my God. I taught him so much, but I'm so far to go, dude. I've taught him so much. But we have so far to go. Suffice it to say, he's getting a lot of texts about that quote, which will live on for forever, by the way. but the internet is forever. Eight more inches, dude.

You know what I mean? Be helpful. All right. Well, he's had a deist like, as is the best 30 on the PGA tour from this season. Justin Thomas, your last guy in the field after Brian Harmon made double bogey on the 70-second watch, by the way. But now, J.T. I put out a great little Instagram from dumb and dumber saying, you're telling me there's a chance. Going in 10 shots behind Scotty Sheffler.

I love you, J-T, but I don't like your chances of giving Scotty 10 shots. Can have to go off your ball. And Zander 9. who's eight pretty dee's sorry eight who's pretty deece around east lake all right well let's uh let's make some picks this one's yeah in my opinion not the most fun to bet you can bet it a few different ways you can bet how the strokes sit going in the staggered start you can also bet um without strokes just who's going to win the golf tournament gross wise which zander shafley normally does around east lake but it's a revamped east like Andrew green went in totally redid it they took out the water

on the driving range so no more chipping in there to start your day but look i think Scotty Sheffler has had the lead going into East like the last two years. Hasn't been able to get the job done. I think now is the time. Third time is a charm. Last week, I don't even pay attention. I think it's a fluke.

I think he'll get back. Be on sea level and be ready to go. Be dialed in. Be the best ball striker on the planet. And he's going to lift the FedEx Cup this year. You like Scotty. This will be a really cool segment for everyone. I'll go with Xander.

Yeah, cool. He was two back and the best player it is like we've had historically for a long time. So there we go. How about those two guys? I mean, honestly, that's why betting this thing. And we'll get into some of the guys we think, you know, if you started at level or guys that can make the biggest move. There's 30 guys, but like, I mean, at least half are basically just trying to win more money.

There's not that many guys that can actually win this thing. If one of the guys at the top plays well, then there's hardly anyone that can win. I would love to see it revamped where some sort of final round, top, you play 54 hole qualifier or something, top four guys, boom, one round for all the marbles to actually add some drama. Like they're going to do it, the creator classic, by the way. way, which is going to go off on Wednesday. You'll get to see the back nine of Eastlake,

where Fat Perez will be in the house. Shout out FP. Go get that thing done. And we got some honorary stars, which I couldn't believe when I thought it was fake news when I heard it. But Riggs, Trent, and Frankie from Foreplay will be hitting the honorary shots, just like Nicholas Palmer and player walking onto the first tee at Augusta. It's very, very similar to that.

I hope there's shot tracker on this. We may have to get some wagers on, distance and accuracy on that. But yeah, Riggs go out there and hit a seat. And by the way, FP, let's go, baby. Shock the world. As far as going down to someone who I think could make a big time move and it's not going down too far,

he's the fourth betting favorite at 18 to 1. But Ludwig Oberg with all the birdies he made last week, not as much trouble at East Lake. Unless they added some ponds that I don't know about, but for the most part, not a ton of trouble. Hard to make really big numbers. I just, he just keeps getting better and better, in my opinion. I haven't heard much about the knee lately,

which they came out and talked about. I know around Memorial time, but he is, his, he's, that golf swings is as good as it gets. Just limit some of the mistakes, and I feel like he could win every week.

He's already one of the best of the world, and I feel like we're just, like he's just figuring it out. Like, he's just learning to swim. I think what he's going to do is going to be special. There will never be a golf tournament

where I don't like Ludwig Oberg going in. I'm going to go with a guy, if we're starting everyone at level. I love his game around this place. Similar a little bit to Zubbush, Zander Schaupley, maybe not the same pop off the T. Colin Morcow, you got to hit Fairways at Eastlake with that gnarly Bermuda Ruff. It gets really tough to hit good shots out of that.

He's one of the, I think, top three in driving accuracy and one of the best iron players, I think Colin Morcowah. If you're looking for a guy that's not in the top five, let's call it, starting off, to make a push for it, he'd be my pick. Yeah, it's going to be tough, though. I mean, you're giving Scotty Schaeffler and Zander Shafley. We talk about Scottie's consistency. Zander has been just an absolute joke since Quill Hollow in May this year,

has his worst finish is 15th. He has a 15th and a 13th. Everything else is inside the top 10. It's been really special to watch him. And he's probably going to the golf course, for the most part, over his career. He's had the most success out. Yeah, I mean, he's been an absolute monster at this thing. And I feel like he's been this good.

I feel like for a few years now. But he was just doing the same thing he's doing now, but without the wins. And to get two of them as your bow that major championships, like, boom. Now that's how you're judged ultimately. And I feel like now is where he belongs in terms of the hierarchy. and the conversations when you have, like, who's the best? And it's been, I mean, dude, a few months ago, we'd have been like, I mean,

who's going to touch Scotty Schaeffler? Now we actually have a debate for player of the year, potentially. Yep, it's going to be a lot of fun to watch. FedEx finale. There at East Lake, the Tour Championship, someone's going to walk away with $25 million. Can't wait for this thing to get started. Also, special shout-out,

Bel Air Country Club, played the member guests there this past week. Had a blast. How did we do? We didn't win, but we had a fun, good time as usual. That's what we do. Now, can you give another congratulations to Chandler Parsons on his eighth consecutive flight win in the member guest's second? By the champion, he's a champ.

He was also a late ad, I believe, as of the morning of. Oh, my God. Yeah, got in and just took over. Probably a financial deal. You know about this economy. I don't have to tell you about that. And also shout out to my SMU Mustangs, who currently have the best record in all of college football. Football season is here, seriously.

We didn't even touch them. I hate them all the time. I double hate them. Can you cover 14 against Nevada? the seller-dweller-dweller of the Mountain West in the second half. We're a little rusty start now. I missed the two-point conversion in my hatred. I was just like, they're already dead to me.

Let it go. You can fire out another game here very shortly. I will, but I got some making up to do now. All right. Well, enjoy the FedEx finale and enjoy football because it is officially back. We'll talk to you on next week's subpar.