Subpar - Notah Begay III Interview: His "Shooter McGavin" celebration in Hartford, how he transitioned from playing on Tour to being an analyst

Episode Date: June 15, 2021

On this week's episode of GOLF's Subpar, NBC Sports and Golf Channel analyst Notah Begay III joins former PGA Tour pro Colt Knost and his close friend and on course rival Drew Stoltz for an exclusive, in-studio, interview. The three-time NCAA All-American talks winning the National Championship at Stanford, his Shooter McGavin-esque celebration after winning the 2000 Greater Hartford Open, and how his lifelong friendship with Tiger Woods has evolved over the years.

Hello world. Welcome to another week at golf subpar. It is a major championship week. Sleaves, we got the U.S. Open at Tori Pines. I cannot wait for these boys to get out there. And I have a feeling it's going to play a little difficult for these guys. I hope it does. I hope we get carnage like I always root for at the U.S. Open. I'd love to see even par be the score around there.

They don't got to do a lot to that golf court. It's already big, tough golf course, a couple tweaks, played as a par 71. It's going to be fun. We're going to get into some of our big names later on in the show. But Congri just wrapped up. Gary Kigo, shout out to him, one of the hottest guys on the planet. Three out of his last five events. He's won up to 39th in the world.

But I was watching this week, and I think the highlight for me, Colt, was the little squall that came through. And our boy, Aaron Fleener, shout out to the Big Cat, Fleener. Got caught out there without an umbrella. As a tour caddy, that's a worst-case scenario right there. I mean, especially when you're in the southeast in the summer and it has humid as it, humid as it is. I mean, these thunderstorms pop up everywhere. they might have been the only people on the golf course without an umbrella, and it just happened to be that they were the featured group

and getting shown every single shot. So not the finest moment, I will say. J.T. told him to take it out. If it rains, there's going to be electricity in it. We're not going to be out here anyway, but boy, were they wrong. I was wrong. I didn't have anything. I just took it, but it was so damn hot. You just get pounded?

Yeah, it was so hot. I didn't actually mind it. Yeah. A little rinse off. It is disgusting there, how hot and humid it is. It looks sticky as hell over it. I mean, it's 117 as we're sitting here right now in Phoenix, but down there I was looking at it looks.

It looks tougher. Thursday was one of the most miserable days for me on the golf course ever. First off, my group really struggled. They didn't play that well. So there wasn't much energy. And then it was so humid, I was like, if I was playing right now, I might get casual water relief from my sweat that is getting down. I said you'd get done with those days and you just take your stuff up and you almost

want to just throw it away. Like there's no way I could ever wear this shirt again. But yeah, shout out to the big cat. He caught some heat on Twitter, all that stuff. But him and JT talked about before the round. They decided to leave the umbrella out. But it was just funny watching them just. I mean, JT looked like he had just.

jumped in the pool afterwards. And considering that just a few weeks ago, Aaron Fleener talked about this exact situation on golf subpar and boy, did it backfire. That was my favorite part of the broadcast this week. We've got a young superstar in the making and Gary Kigo, there's no doubt about that. I feel, I feel bad personally for Chess and Hadley. I mean, that's one that he, that one's going to take a while to get over. He let that one get away. There's no doubt about it. I mean, it was, the wheels were spinning coming in and he just, he couldn't stop it. And, you know, He kind of gifted one to Gary Kigo, I thought. Yeah, pressure is a strange thing.

I mean, there's a guy that's looked good all week. I've been the leader pretty much everything. Was he? He was trying to go wire to wire, wasn't he? Then he come out to Gates leading? If not, he was at or near the top of the leaderboard the entire week. Three holes left. Just kick this thing in, two-shot lead.

Bogie, boogie. I mean, damn. I mean, I think if you told Chesson at the beginning of the week, hey, you'll finish second this week. You might have been like, yeah, that sounds pretty good. But the way entering with a four-shot lead, it's just, you just never know what the hell is going to happen down the stretch, especially with a guy that's trying to get his first win in a long time,

and it hadn't been in the best stretch of golf going in. But, yeah, Gary Kiko, and his only second PGA tour start getting on the board. 39th in the world now, now, I guess, of all these young studs out there. There's a lot of them. Shit, they're everywhere. He could make some noise over there at Tori Pines, no doubt about that. There's also another guy that is going to make some noise. He didn't get a win or anything at Congri.

I believe he finished top 15. Wilcoe Nienabber. Yes, the old Nienabur. South Africa. He's 21 years. old he weighs about a buck 40 and absolutely sends it okay i was out on the range with him because i've heard how far this kid did yeah Thursday he registered 202 ball speed on the golf course which you know on the range we'll see him brison get there but on the golf course he's never gotten to 200 yeah this kid

two oh two looks like he's just swinging out at about 70 percent i go out on the range next day i'm standing there with trevor imleman who is the president's cup captain for the international team and i'm like uh this kid on your today you're interested in something like that but we're just watching him hit drivers and I'm like dear Lord I mean the ball it disappears very quickly out there it was something special to watch I mean and it looks like I said it looks effortless this kid I mean this is the future of golf right here these kids swinging at 130 miles an hour Trevor's like I would love to put him up against Bryson and just watch Bryson's head spin out there when this little 140 pound kid is sending it by him yeah not not drinking any protein shakes not getting in the gym just nothing

and it looks like it's just cruiser's like it doesn't look weird when Bryson tries to hit the 200 and he's doing it on, you know, Instagram, Twitter, all that stuff. It looks like there's nothing left in the tank. Wilco swings in it and it's like there's some more in there. Like that just looks like cruiser speed trying to find the ferry. And then it just comes off, bam, it's 200 miles an hour. I mean, it's a joke. Like he's just the next guy that take the baton.

Now he's a 200 and then a couple years will be some guy that hits 205. I mean, it's just going and going and going like this, but he's not even a big dude. And like, I've been hearing about him for a little while and now it's cool to see him in the States because now everyone's going to see him. And he's going to be one name guys, like Wilco. That's all you have to say. He got a special exemption from the USGA for the U.S. Open. So they obviously have taken notice, and it's going to be cool to see. I'm not saying he's going to go out there and start winning major championships,

but it is going to be cool. And if you're in his gallery, maybe bring a helmet because it's going to hurt if it hit you. And bring some earplugs, too, that thing could cause some damage. Going in the U.S. Did you see this yesterday? Shout out to our boy, Billy Horshaw on Instagram yesterday. He posted a story. Some guys were showing up yesterday, getting in there, practicing, putting all that,

goes in the locker room, takes a picture. There's Charlie Hoffman's locker, got the nameplate. and all that and then right above it, a little stuffed seagull positioned perfectly with the pooper right down the front. So it's like a little poop mistletoe. You walk into that, Charlie was going to, you're going to get caught with a little. Courtesy of our man, Robbie Zalznik of the USGA. He's the one who got it pulled that little prank off, which I was very, very proud of. It was perfect. I love it so much. I mean, people are not even know him as Charlie anymore. It's just going to be the seagull. The name has exploded. Like we're getting, you know, Malinger, John Malinger,

shout out John Mallinger. He's the one that coined this back in the day. But we You've been calling them that a lot on the radio show. Now you're out on the broadcast. You're throwing it out there. People, I feel like you're exactly right. Like, anytime he's in the galleries around him, like, you get the, c'c-ca! You get all those coming in. We got some videos from the players.

It was perfect. But yeah, shout out to the boys at the USDA for, for getting that done, making it feel welcome. Hometown kid, you got to make them do something special. I love that kind of stuff. All right. Well, this week, one of my favorite people in the golfing world, arguably the nicest man on the planet. Not a big A. the 3rd joins us in studio. Yes.

Noda. The four-time PJA Tour winner-turned-broadcaster comes in. We get some Tiger stories. We'll get some stories from his playing days. Talk about them double-hoop earrings that he used to wear. The only guy had to really successfully pull off the double-hoop in my opinion in PJA Touring, in my opinion, hard act to follow up. You're a double-hooper coming up. I'll tell you know him as Tiger's friend. They know him as a broadcaster now. They don't realize how good of a player this guy was. Like you said, four-time PGA Tour winner won twice in his rookie season and wasn't even rookie of the year. Remember of the President's Cup team with Tiger? Tell some great stories about that. So let's get to it. Here's Notabagay the 3rd on golf subpar. All right. Well, before we get to our guide, Nota Bagay the 3rd, I want to tell you about Taylor Maid's Tour Response Golf Ball. Slees, every Tour Pro on Earth squares by Eurothane

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All right, here's our guy, Noda Begay the 3rd on golf subpar. All right, the man sitting with us here today knows a thing or two about the game of golf. He's a four-time PJ Tour winner. Golf analyst extraordinaire. Albuquerque, New Mexico's finest. Noda Baguay, welcome aboard, my man. Hey, great to be with you guys. Thanks for having me.

Great to be sitting next to my good buddy Colty. I've been given a hard time for the last 20 years. So I'm going to do a little bit of more of that. One of the people, he always calls me Colty. Colty. Colty. You always know who it is when I'm coming around the corner, right? You've been called worse names than that.

Way worse. Yeah. Colty ain't too bad. Let's talk a little about New Mexico. What was it like for you growing up trying to play golf in New Mexico? It's hard. I mean, it's certainly, yeah. I mean, let's be honest.

It's not Dallas or Texas or California or Florida where you see a lot of real, you know, flourishing junior golf circuits and tournaments, good players. I mean, there's more cows in New Mexico than there are people. So that gives you. Is that a real statistic? Yeah. So it, you know, just trying to work your way into. being seen by coaches was difficult.

And it wasn't easy. Certainly didn't come from a wealthy background. You know, my parents did what they could to get me a great education and the equipment I needed to play. The only way I was able to really break in was I asked for a job at a local public course when I was nine years old.

And the head pro gave me a job in exchange for practice privileges. Nine years old, going to work. I was out sweeping. cleaning trash cans, picking up baskets, and driving. The best part about it is when you're nine, you think driving carts is cool. So I got to park the carts and pull them out, pull them out early in the morning. And I've just practiced all day. And that's kind of how I started to develop a game and then just started playing more tournaments and winning.

And then before I knew it, I was one of the top juniors in America and got a chance to go play at Stanford, which was a great, great opportunity. Yeah, we're going to get into Stanford here in a minute. But one thing I did not know about you until today, we're going to get into a lot of golf, we're going to dig into the weeds on golf. But you led your team in high school to back-to-back state championships and basketball.

How does that not give up? How did I just find out about that today? Probably because it was New Mexico, and there's more cows in New Mexico than there are people. I heard that. But it was great. I played for a gentleman named Mike Brown at a school, the Albuquerque Academy.

and was a captain of the basketball team. And we just, we had a nice group of players. We had a couple guys played Division I that came from our team. And it was a great experience, got to play in the pit, the famous pit in Albuquerque, and ran off a couple state championships. And it was just quite an experience. And I think an interesting thing, we just mentioned Stanford and Albuquerque, the pit, you know, big things in my life.

but my coach at Stanford Wally Goodwin never saw me hit a golf ball until I got to campus. He actually came and watched this play in the state championship basketball tournament in Albuquerque. That was his home visit to come watch this play. We won the state championship, and then he's like, well, if this kid's is half as good as he is on the basketball court, I want him on my golf team. So that was probably one of the more intriguing stories of my recruiting. experience before I ended up on the farm. Wow, that's rather interesting.

Give me the note of a gay scouting report. All right, state championship game, other team there in the locker room. All right, no, this is what he likes to do. What was it? Great shooter, loves to shoot. Not a great defender. Perfect. Can't jump, not very fast, but a great teammate.

So that's kind of, that would be the scatterer report. Just don't leave me open. Don't let me open. I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid, yeah. I mean, I'm being honest. I mean, I always, when we went through our scouting report of the other team, two of my good friends on the team were great athletes,

and they're like, okay, this guy's, he's their best player, you take him, and then they assign all that. Whoever was left over, that's who I do. He sucks. No, no, you got him. Right. And my teammates really gave me a hard time, because one game, they, the opposing team from Santa Fe had a player with one leg

that was shorter than the other. And that's the guy guarding and he had his best game of the year that night. So it just kind of gives you an indication of my defensive skill. So I'm an offensive guy. I get it. You know that.

I do. What else do you do in high school? Just Jack three and play no deed. So that's how you do it. I played soccer. I was an all-state soccer player as well. Oh, shit? Yeah.

Wow. So we had a wonderful soccer team. My senior year, we were ranked seventh in the country. And we had a couple, we had quite a few guys from that team. playing division one. My good friend was a captain at North Carolina, and he's now a doctor in Nashville speaking. We were talking about Nashville earlier, but that was back in the era guys where you played every sport, right? Like now specializations become a thing, and I think for a lot

of kids, it ruins their youth sports experiences because it forces you to go down a path that you're not necessarily know that's going to end up somewhere that you want to be in 10 years. And I just think that I encourage, and my kids do it, I encourage as many kids as possible to play as much as they can just because you get so much benefit from playing other sports because your body moves in different ways, the strategies, how your mind factors into certain things. And so when I got to college and was playing in the team concept, an individual sport, I was already used to being on teams. And so I was very much a rah-rah team guy trying to get the guys to focus on being held accountable at practices and things like that, which I think is important now in the team game. Yeah, and I mean, you get to Stanford and win the national championship at 94.

I mean, pretty star-studded team. Who are some of those guys? Well, I mean, it's cool looking back on it because I'll give you an interesting story. So Casey Martin, who was my teammate, who came in with me in that class of 1990 to Stanford. It was the first time the program had ever gotten to recruits that were both ranked in the top 10. And we were lucky to turn the program around, but we had gotten to a point where we were very good, and we won national championship in 1994. And we had four juniors on that team and one senior, and our senior was the fifth best player on the team.

So he was not, you know, a great, great fifth guy. He was okay. So we replace him with Tiger Woods the following year. And so we're about, fast forward a year later, we're about to head to Nationals. We're a month away from going to play the Nationals again. And I'm sitting with Casey. We're just sitting on the range. It's a beautiful spring afternoon in Palo Alto.

And we're watching Tiger Woods hit balls about 50 yards away from us. And we're just kind of sitting there watching him. And Casey looks over to me, he goes, you know what? Tiger is a top 100 player right now in the world. Right? And I'm just like, oh, whatever, man. I'm like, I could beat the guy. And I'm not a top 100 player in the world, right? I just always had that inner confidence back then. And so that was in May, early May of 1995. So you fast forward two years later. And all of a sudden, this guy sets the world on fire and wins the masters by 12 shots, less than 24 months later. And I'm thinking,

when I'm watching Tiger put the green jacket on in 97. I'm like, well, you know, Casey might have been right about that. You might have a little better after talent than you. Right. Yeah, that's why he's a good coach. You know, he coaches at University of Oregon, but just an interesting eclectic team. I mean, Tiger goes on to do what he does on the golf course. Casey Martin got to argue his court, got to sit in the U.S. Supreme Court,

fighting for Americans with Disabilities Act and getting, you know, pushing those issues. forward and myself just sort of advocating for youth on the Native American front with all of our issues related to trying to just enable more Native American youth to have better opportunities and understand health and and fitness and those sorts of things. I just think it was a pretty special team to be on, not just for the golf stuff, but for what everybody did outside of the golf. Yeah, that's cool. That's one thing obviously I didn't look at. But that team, I mean, you mentioned Tiger comes in and takes your fifth guy's place in 95. After you already won, I mean, did what people? People kind of like, okay, well, everyone's playing for second. This isn't even fair. That's really what it came down to it. And then when we lost, I blame Tiger completely. As you should. As you should.

And to this day, I still say he made us worse. Which is something, yeah, we always still have a chuckle about it all the time. And he always, you know him, Colty. He's got, always got, has a great comeback for you. He's not not short of trash talk. but yeah that was that was some pretty pretty special time for me up at palo alto and coming all the way from albuquerque so all right tiger walks into the first team meeting you never met him i assume you didn't know him before because you were a handful of years apart what first impression of tiger

was when you meet him first time uh well i've known tiger since he was nine oh so you know we've been friends over 40 years now and i met him at the what was the optimist junior roles back then in San Diego because he was in the same age group as my younger brother. So I went to watch my younger brother play and then I hear this Tiger Woods is winning every tournament by 15, 20 shots. I'm like, who is this guy? So I went and I watched him finish out and he won again and I went up and I introduced myself and I just said, hey look, it looks like we're going to be playing against each other for the rest of our lives. You know, let's be friends essentially. And so we became friends at that point. So when he did come to Palo Alto, we'd already been friends for almost 10 years. We've been

traveling around. Earl was always great about looking after me because my parents couldn't travel with me, but Earl was always there with Tiger. And so Earl would make sure that I had ride from the airport, ride to the course, that I had something to eat at night, just all the little things that kind of slipped through the cracks when people think about elite level junior golf. You know, you got to get to the venues and all the logistical things. And, you know, I kind of became like a second son to Earl. And, um, and that's why. why Tiger and I are so close. And so when he came to Palo Alto, it was like my little brother was coming to campus to join our team. And the first meeting that we ever had together,

I kind of pulled a line from Charles Barkley when I said, hey, you're going to be the strongest freshman in the country because you're going to carry all our bags when we go to the airport and we go on trips. And because it was four seniors who already had national championship rings and one freshman who didn't. So he was the bottom of the barrel. He was going to do. He was going do all of the odds and ends that none of us wanted to do. And he did it. It was great. But then it came to it, Eddard. Yeah, it came to it pretty quick. How much of an influence did you have on him coming to Stanford? You know, a little, I'd like to say our friendship was what sort of attracted him to the university. But, you know, Tita was always such a huge proponent of

education. You know, Earl was always looking out for the golf and the business stuff, but Tita was always, always wanted to make sure that Tiger pursued a really high level of education. And, you know, he got great grades. He was a 4.0 plus student in high school. And so the education wasn't the issue. It was just what was going to be the right fit for him. And I never told Wally Goodwin, who was the coach at the time, but when Tiger came on his recruiting trip, there's two great stories I'll share with you around that. The first of which is, when he was a coach, When he was about to go to the airport to go back home after his two or three days on campus, I asked to have a private meeting with him in coach's office.

I closed the door and I just said, hey, look, I don't really care if you come here or not. And I was sort of lying because I did really care because I like to win. Reverse like home. Yeah, you can't make him think you want him too much cold, you know? Just kind of. And I said, you do what's best for you. Do you go where you are going to have the best? fit, the best feel, and I hope it's here. And then I just, I kind of walked out the door.

And eventually, you know, he decided to go to Stanford, which was awesome. So I'll tell you, two days prior to that, Tiger, you know, when he did come on his recruiting trip, it was the big recruiting weekend for Stanford Sports. So it was the weekend that all of the teams got to bring in their top recruits. There was a big breakfast planned at like 8.30 in the morning, on like a Saturday morning. Excuse me. And so coach wanted me there.

But I was out all night. Drinking, partying, you know, just raising hell like you're supposed to in college. You know, I was, you know, the first one to charge down the lane doing that and I woke up about 815 for an 830 and I probably smelled like about a 32 pack of beer and smoke and you know anything else and I went straight to the breakfast and I was out way too late and Tiger and I had known each other for so long Tiger shows up and he comes up you know to kind of give me a hug he goes oh my gosh have you shower and I'm like no man I I go, you got to help me. You got to do me a solid here today. And he goes, okay, okay,

I go, whatever you do, and I look at him right in the eye, and I have my hand on his shoulder. I'm like, whatever you do, do not let coach sit next to me today at this breakfast. He goes, okay, okay. So, coach comes in. It's a typical banquet tables. They're round. They got 10 seats, and there's name plates everywhere. And it was like, as soon as coach came in, I went to the opposite side of the table. And I'm like, and I'm giving Tiger the eye signal. Like, you go over there and he's how, oh, coach, you know, why don't you come sit by me on this side? And as coach moved around closer to me, I would move on the opposite. And if he moved back the other way, I would move a few steps over. There was no way I was getting in within six feet

of that guy. I was well within social distancing back then, right? So nonetheless, that's kind of the extent of Tiger and I's relationship. It's been like that for 40 years through the highs, through the lows. And, you know, we've always been there for each other with things that are just so far outside of golf that, you know, we're family. And, you know, he's a very special person in my life. Yeah, no doubt about it. You gave him the nickname Urkel. I did. How did that go over with that? I've got to think most dudes that might be the number one nickname. You know, he was a great sport. You know, you talk about somebody that comes on campus and he was the number one. recruit of the century basically and everybody wanted him but he ends up on campus and i just felt

like it was important for him to know that we were already good without him and so i gave him the nickname urkel because tiger at that time this was before lacyc surgery were contacts i wore contacts a lot of people wore contacts back then before lacyc became such a big thing and he at night would take his contacts out and he had these thick coke bottle glasses and he was you know six foot one but he weighed a hundred pounds he looked like urkel so i just started calling him urkel and it stuck in the more that he fought it the more you know that's just that's the worst that's yeah that's yeah that's you can't fight it you can't fight it and he fought it and it stuck Casey martin william agasawa Steve burdick um Jerry chang all our whole team just latched on and you know Conrad was was a freshman

at the same time as well. And so Conrad was just happy it wasn't him that was getting the nickname. It was, you know, Tiger that was doing that. And we would make Tiger carry our bags to the van, load them up, load them in the carousel, take him from the baggage claim to the rental car, like, and he was a great sport. And on road trips, we'd get three rooms, one for coach and two for the players. And so there was an odd man out, and Tiger always took the roll away caught. He's a freshman.

Put the rook in the rollaway. And so we did. And so he kind of about two, three events into it. It was like, man, this really sucks. And I couldn't blame him because it did suck. He had to carry the bags. He had to sleep on the roll away. And he got, you know, no preferential treatment whatsoever.

And so he finally came to Casey and I, who were the captains, he's like, hey, he's like, if I win a tournament, can I stop doing all this crap? absolutely yeah you you can do it because i just beat him in in the organ event by a shot and so i'm like i can still beat the guy so i'll be able to keep this under control and he went out he won the next tournament i mean that doesn't surprise you guys right like yeah no but i mean while we're on tiger i like at what point did you know like okay he's something different you know i it's it that's a tough one you know because we've been so close for so long so many practice rounds tournament rounds We played the Walker Cup together.

So leading up to that, it was like I looked at him as my equal appear versus on a pedestal. And so it took quite some time for me to actually say, you know, this guy's better than me because I never wanted to admit that anyone was ever better than me because that was kind of my edge as a player. But it was, we played in the old, the Disney event down in Florida. the two courses where you got to play with an amateur, and then you got to play with your buddy. You know, you got, so Tiger and I would play together, and it was the first round, and, I mean, he couldn't have hit it worse.

He could not have hit, I mean, we were looking for, if we didn't have 10,000 people following us, we would have lost, like, six balls. But every hole, he had 10,000 people looking for his ball, and he found every one. I mean, there was one hole, the 10th hole, I believe it was on the Magnolia course down there. He hit one 50 yards,

left of the fairway, and the next one he hit 50 yards right at the fairway. Obviously, we found the first one he hacks it out somehow, makes par. So I'm playing as good as I can play that day. Like, as good as I can play, I shoot 63. I think I'm tied for the lead or one shot out of the lead. And I have his scorecard. So we go into the score, and I'm like, oh, I just, I just totally abused Tiger today. Like, he was, you know, I was all over him today, right? So I'm adding his card up, and it was 67. I just, I was so mad. And I kept looking because I think I missed a hole.

I'm like, I had to have missed the hole. There's no way he shot. I beat him by, I felt like I beat him like 10 shots, you know? And I walked out of there. I go, you know what? This guy's just better than I am. First off, that's an incredible story.

But I love that it took till the PGA tour. Are you to realize? I respect that. I'm no quitter. That's fantastic. Everybody else knew when he was nine. Yeah. Once he got to the first time I saw him hit balls.

I knew it, but you took him all the way to the tour. Is there anything that he's done, obviously, he's done everything in his career, but is there anything, like any accomplishment that's somewhat surprised you? That last year's 2019 Masters was probably the most impressive thing I've seen any athlete do just because I was there within a couple weeks of the first back surgery. I went to visit him down in Jupiter. he couldn't get up, he couldn't get up under his own power. I had to help him out of a special chair that he had to sort of take pressure off the back

so he could watch TV and still sort of stay entertained, but, you know, alleviate pressure. And, you know, that was, he was watching the kids that week, so he had to go pick him up at school. And he's like, hey, will you drive me? I'm like, yeah, sure, sure. And I don't know if you remember that old Monday night football. game where they're taking Kelton Winslow off the field. That's literally how I had to get Tiger to the car. Put his arm around me and he had a cane in the other hand and was like putting a lot

of his weight on my shoulder just to get him to the car and I had to lay the seat back and drive really slow and make sure not to hit too many bumps. And we're sitting in carpal and just kind of laughing at just how things had changed, how life has kind of just come full circle in a sense, and we both had two kids, and he's got a back injury. Back injury is what sort of ended my golf career, but also chuckling that we're sitting in carpool

waiting to pick up our kids with all the other moms, you know, in the carpool line. And he's always had a great disposition about that. But to go from that and me sitting there, two feet from the guy, and in the living room slash dining area that's where all the major championship trophies get a really nice like four level and they're all displayed there and I'm just looking at those throughout the course of the week that I was there and I'm just like gosh that's it like I'll never

there won't be another one added to this just because there's no way a human can yeah because covering it and Colt you see this as well as much as I do now that with your role with CBS is that you see it and it's not even familiar to me anymore like what the athletes can do out there now and the shots and the speed and the finesse and just everything that they're capable of creating in some pretty interesting circumstances and to know that Tiger was going to have to go up against that and the guy couldn't literally lift himself out of a chair with his own power to see him win the tour championship and then go on to win the masters the following year. It's just a completely remarkable, surreal

experience for me as a friend and someone who is very close. Last Tiger question for me, but you mentioned earlier how you said you view him as a peer and you know, you viewed him as a peer when he came to Stanford and things like that. You have probably the most special relationship with Tiger of anyone that I'm aware of. Do you still view him as that as like a peer? And maybe that's why you guys have the relationship to this day that you do? Because you don't put him on that pedestal? Yeah, we're family. I mean, I give him honest feedback. and, you know, through thick and thin, through all the controversial things, through all the great things. I've just tried to always be consistent and supportive like a friend would,

not to turn my back on him when things were bad or he was being perceived in the public, being perceived by the public in a negative light. I just, that's not when you turn your back on your friends. That's when you go there and you express and make sure that they know that you're there to support them and hear their side of the story and not pass. judgment and just try and be a good friend. I just think that's what the definition of a friend is. It's unconditional support, and it's really been a great relationship these past

40 years. That's something really special, no doubt. But we've got to talk a little bit about your golf game. I mean. That'll take about three minutes. No, but I don't think people realize how good you were. Because, I mean, you've done a lot of incredible things. National championship team shot 59, four times, won four times on the PJs.

tour, played a President's Cup team. And by the way, those four wins all come within like 10 months of each other. Yeah. So, and it was 99, 2000, I believe, when your certain friend was also doing some pretty cool things. So was there some chirping going back and forth during that little bit. There was a lot of chirping, but I think that's why, to a certain degree, it got overshadowed, Colt. I mean, I was winning four times in 10 months when Tiger was winning 12 times in 10 months. And so my, if that would have happened now, it would have garnered a lot more attention. I mean, we're going crazy when Joe's Jason Cochrak. wins twice and 17 starts. I won four times in about the same amount of time. But that's fine. Like that wasn't why I got into the game. I got into the game to pursue excellence, to win, and to push myself as much as I could. And, you know, sometimes athletes break down. I broke down. You pivot, you do something else. And now I'm lucky and fortunate to be in television doing things from a different perspective. But yeah, I had a great run there to be on the Walker Cup team

and represent my country as the first Native American on that team in history to play alongside my good friend Tiger was the first African American on that team. Those are significant accomplishments that sort of go overlooked at times, especially as we're trying to grow the game. We're trying to reach more people to show them just how special this game is and what it means to us. that have been able to enjoy it at the various levels. I mean, you and yourself, a very well-decorated junior golf

or amateur golf professional. And it's still giving you so much in return in terms of all the opportunities that it's created. And it's just, it's an amazing thing. And he's a big part of, you know, we're so entangled with my history with Tiger that you just sort of try and, I don't take it for granted.

I should just say. No, I mean, you got to 19 in the world. I mean, you were a stud. Not many people do that. Not any accident. When you're in that stretch, you go off four wins in the 10-month stretch, which is wild when you look at it. When you're in that moment, are you realizing to yourself at that time, like, man, this is

some crazy stuff going on right now? Does it take some time to pass and kind of get out of it to look back and reflect and be like, oh, wow, what I did, that 10 months was special. Yeah, it's taking me about 20 years to actually appreciate it. I'm a slow learner in that regard. You're just getting it. You get in these modes where you just, you find like this is, this is how it's supposed to work. Like you work your whole life to create this, this game where you can, you feel like you can go out and just kind of somewhat almost control what's happening.

I know you're never in controlling golf. And you'd be crazy to think that you were. But you just find this, this space, this creative space. And I found it. I found it. And I was playing just amazing golf. I mean, there was a stretch of tournaments there where I just didn't feel like I could lose. And I ended up getting my first top 10 in a major, which is Tiger 1 at Valhalla.

And then that qualified me for the President's Cup. And then Tiger and I went out and four straight matches together. And we went two and two. But the thing that I remember the most is that, you know, we took on Ernie Else and V.J. Singh, who were two and three in the world at the time. Tiger just come off. And this is the one thing that blows me away, Colton, you can appreciate this, is I didn't realize it at the time. And it just dawned on me about a month ago because I was just looking at the Riter

Cup races and having covered President's Cups and things. But I just don't know why I didn't realize this even then is that when I was playing with Tiger, he had just won three majors in a row. So I was, like it didn't. Like, I was just like, oh, it's great to play with my college buddy. This is cool. But I'm like, I just thought about it a few months ago. And I'm like, he'd want three me.

Like, that was like the greatest golf we'd ever seen played. And I was just, I was lucky enough to sit along and play with this guy when he was playing this, this amazing level of golf. I mean, when we were going from certain holes that were over water, myself and Vijay and Ernie, we used the bridge and Tiger just walked on the water right over to the, the green. That's how good he was playing. But you'll love this story, Colt. So we're in there, and we're playing against V.J. and Ernie, and it's an alternate shot, which is a format that has more to do with chemistry than how good you are at the actual game. And Tiger and I's

chemistry was so good that we are a couple holes up with, I think, three or four to play. And Tiger was playing so good, he was in this zone that he was just basically invincible. And so he drives it on a par five, I believe it was like the 14th or 15th tall. And I go over, I can't reach the green. I go over and I ask him, hey man, what number do you want me to lay you up to? He wouldn't even look at me. He just put his finger and he point. He goes, just lay it out there somewhere.

Just lay it. I kind of scratched my head and I'm like, this is the presence cup. Like this is a big deal. I want to win. So I go back and I'm like, seriously, man, what number do you want? And he still wouldn't look at me. He just kind of points down the fairway and kind of gives it a little wave. He goes, just put it out there, man.

We'll be good. Right. So I'm like, okay. So I go back to my caddy. I'm like 90 is his worst number at the time. 90 was a number he was not happy with. Some might tell my catty, give me 90. Oh, my God.

Okay. This is true. You can ask Tiger. himself when you see him. And so I lay him up to 90. And what even made it better was a little bit of a downhill and a little bit of a bear patch. It was thin grass, right?

He gets up there and he looks at it. And I'm kind of just standing onto the side kind of chuckling because I hit it perfect to a, it was the terrible shot that he had. President's tough. Right? And he blades it over the green into the back. bugger and I'm loving it right I'm like okay this is I'm going to I'm going to put the guy like settle him down a little bit right so I go up there and I chip it in there and they get you know we have

the hole and he kind of looks at me walking off he's like because he knew that he messed up and I said hey man like I don't really care who you think you are but when I ask for you for a number you better give me one he looked up to me he goes yes sir that's awesome I love that you knew like what number he hated yeah Yeah, I mean, but that's how good are friends. We have a good laugh about that. We have a good laugh about so many things in terms of your college days. He loves Stanford University and everything that it gave him and did for him.

And so we always have some great things, and our kids are basically the same age. Sam, he had a daughter first, so did I. And then he had his son second, and they're about the same age. And so we just kind of been going through a lot of these different levels together, which it's a great thing to share with someone that you care so much about. That's cool. That's really cool. Beautiful presence.

What do you want? It was his fault. If he would have given me a number, I would have laid it there. I want to later. From 250 and in, I'm pretty good. Anything but 90. All right. Well, obviously, I mean, it was very unfortunate your career ended as quickly as it did

with your back problems, but it led you to TV, which you're doing an incredible job at. Is that something you ever thought, like, I'm going to end up in TV one day? Never. Never. I mean, I never thought in 100 years. Because athletes don't think about the end of their careers. They only think about the beginning. They only think about, wow, this is what I'm going to do when I get to the NBA or I get drafted or I get to the PJ tour. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. I'm going to make money, win tournaments and buy a house and cars and whatever people have in their dreams. They don't see like, wow, what's going to happen when my back goes out and I can't play anymore? I don't know. and it just you know I have to give Matt Haggerty rich learner who was the first guy to say hey you know you should really think about doing this and then of course Tommy Roy at the NBC broadcast team for giving me a chance to get in one to one of those roles because I mean you know it as well as I do it's not easy it's certainly not easy to be able to get in in the spotlight and talk about golf and articulate what's going on, be creative, be entertaining, informative,

know when to talk, no when to shut up. And I've just learned a great deal, and it's allowed me to do a lot of really neat things outside of golf in terms of my nonprofit work and the National Junior Golf Tournament that I started a year ago. So it's really been a blessing in my life and a wonderful opportunity to get good at something that you never sort of, you don't really know if you can do it until you just put the headset on and you press go because there's been some people that I thought would be good at it that haven't made it and vice versa.

Was there ever a plan like your career, you stop playing and then you go into broadcasting? Was there ever like, all right, if my career does end, let's say broadcasting wasn't on the table, I might think I might want to get into this or something else. How do you even explored that when the time came or was just broadcasting thrown on you? and you're like, oh, that sounds good? Well, it's been great. I'm always looking for entrepreneurial opportunities in terms of investment, creating new companies, things like that.

I just think this country is wonderful in what it makes available to people that have good ideas and are willing to put the work into them. And some of the coolest things have come up from some of the simplest ideas. And I've always just been very interesting. intrigued and interested in just trying to create things that make people inspired and provide purpose. And so I don't like to put my time into things that sort of are one-dimensional.

I like to have a broader impact in a variety of different areas, you know, social change, create new pathways for people to achieve things beyond their wildest dreams, because that's just a reflection of kind of what my life is. I mean, I grew up on the reservations in and around Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I'm proud of where I come from, and I've always been proud of where I've come from, but to this day, there's never been a full-blooded Native American on the PJ Tour again, and I hope that that can change over the next 20 years. By passing on what I've learned to young kids, you know,

we just started a national Native American youth golf team this year. So we've got 15 competitive golfers in New Mexico that are interested in becoming better at tournament golf. And so I get a chance to pass on these unique experiences, playing alongside the number one player in the world, possibly the greatest ever, firsthand getting to see these amazing things that Tiger has done and hear from his, in his words, in his mouth, what he felt in those big moments and then pass those things along. That's what intrigues me about life after golf. And I think the longevity you can have in golf is a blessing and a curse because I think it prevents talented people from doing other things because you can play into your late 40s and then transition to the champions tour.

So you just, whereas other sports force you out in your mid-30s. Like if you're 35 and you're still in the NBA, MLB, or playing professional soccer, like, you're lucky. And so those athletes at age of 35 or so, they're forced to do something else. Like, they have to become broadcasters or entrepreneurs or going to private equity or other sorts of things because their sport doesn't want them anymore. Whereas golf, like, it used to be you didn't hit your prime into your mid-30s, but now these kids, now it's like you're an old man. Yeah. No doubt. In this game at 35.

Yeah, well, you're doing some incredible things. No doubt about that. All right, should we get to the emergency nine, Sleece? Yeah, let's hit that. All right, this is no doubt that we do nine fun questions to get to know you and tell some better stories, even a little better. Okay, we're going to start out. We actually just, you're our first guy to ask this. We've always done, you know, in our past episodes, a movie about the live of you who would play you.

But we're switching it up. If you have an answer for that, feel free to throw it out there. But we're going to go with, if you could be anyone else for a day, who would it be? Oh, my. my gosh dead or alive doesn't matter um i'd be prince interesting nice i would not have guessed why because the wardrobe no you don't guess you know number one the guy can dance okay number two he he was like uh savant like every instrument like he was studio level player with like five or six instruments. I just want to know what that feels like. He's a crazy talent. Who we have on?

Larry, wasn't it Larry Fisher? We had him on and he was like going to meet Prince for the first time. Oh, really? It didn't go so long. I bet. It was like his draft party. He was coming on. I didn't say I wanted to meet Prince. You wanted to be right? You wanted his talent for it? I don't think I want to meet him. Yeah. I just want to be him. You can have a hell of a closet to choose from or whatever you want to wear on day one being Prince. All right. All right, next one. Which gives Tiger Woods more problems. Nick O'Hern or barbecue joints you take him to in Albuquerque. Oh my gosh. Nick O'Hern, I think he would love to have those matches back. Oh my God, that guy had his number. Even wrote a book on it. I mean, I didn't read it. Was it any good? I have no idea.

I didn't even know he wrote a book about it. Beed Tiger a couple times and write a book. You should write five books. But the barbecue joint in Albuquerque. Is that a real story? I heard it was it regional's that. That's a real story. Yeah. No, that's a real story. be the only thing that could stop. Yeah, no, no, no. And it was the only thing that almost stopped them. So we were at regionals, and obviously, if you don't make it through regionals, you can't get to nationals. We were defending national champions, number one ranked team in the country. And both Casey Martin and Tiger came down with food poisoning the night before, the final round. And so I'm getting ready to, we're getting ready to leave. And I go into both their rooms and they're just throwing up and sick as a dog.

And I just said, look, one of you, I just literally went, one of you has to go. I don't care which one it is. One of you has to play today, because we need four scores. So Casey's like, I just can't do it. So Tiger's like, okay, I'll go. So about every three holes, he would have to walk to the side and throw up on the side of the T-box and then make a run for the bathroom on occasion. Because it was coming out both ends.

And the best, the best memory I have of that is there's a long par three, and it was the eighth hole, long par three back then, you know, I mean 240. He's about to hit his T shot. He steps back out, goes over the side of the T, throws up, wipes on his towel on his bag, goes over and back, lines up, hits the ball on the green, and he goes in two puts. I think you shot a couple under that day. Like, you play great. Why wouldn't?

I just thought he would have shot the course record. And looking back on it, having a sick stomach in contrast to having a broken leg was like an easy thing for him. So was that U&M's course? Yeah, it was university. And you took them to that, but it was not like your spot. That was your like your barbecue spot. Like, yo, you got to go here. I was fine.

Like we had three out of the five were fine. I just those guys maybe might be a little. You got a little bit more susceptible to that cold. What do you think? He's soft. They can't handle that. Soft. Local barbecue.

The only thing that could stop him. All right. Next question. Your guy over at NBC Golf Channel, Brandl Shambly, he's seen a lot of celebrations, a lot of putts made to win tournaments. He said, by far his favorite is your double guns at Hartford when you made the putt.

And we tried to find it. We couldn't find it. So I need you to reenact it. Because he said it's better than any tiger fist pump, anything. I Googled in YouTube the hell out of this. I couldn't get it. Wow. It's great, you know, because I'm a huge.

I'm a huge soccer fan. And you know, when they score in soccer, it's just like the greatest, you know, because they'll go 90 minutes and zero, zero, and then finally somebody scores, right? So you always see, oh, we see Ronaldo or Messi or Maradonna or whoever, you know, they run to the side and then they like point to the crowd or they blow kisses to the crowd. Well, I did both. I double gunsed it to the crowd and then I blew him kisses. Right?

I double gun. Well, let me tell you why. I was shooter McGavin before shooter McGavan. But it was great. You got to find it. If not, we'll find it. Right, right. So it was my second week, it was my second win in a row in consecutive weeks.

And it was a walk-off win. So I was in the last group with Mark Calquevecchio. and we came, we were tied going into the last hole. Calc hits it up there two inches from the hole nearly goes in. I actually thought he made it. He goes and taps in, so I had a 22-foot putt. There was nobody on the course. I was the last person that hit a ball in the tournament

and I knock it in. When do you get a walk-off? Never. You got a double-gun. I was just thanking the fans who I knew were happy to not have to watch a playoff. and I double guns them for it. Did you have that prep? Was that like,

you know, next time I win, I'm double gun on them? It was just all, it was all off the cuff. That's just kind of how I roll, right? Oh, that's beautiful. The double guns, you were shooter before shooter. I mean, it was great. You should get royalties from that movie. You should get a little something.

Well, here, let me just go with another one, then you do two to a row because this thing is perfectly since that was from Brandl. Describe Brandliannebly in four words or less. Oh, that's not many words. Prepared, ruthless, but fun. There you go. Perfect.

That's four. That's way nicer and I was hoping you're going to be. That's that standard education. That was exactly four words. Gosh. I was hoping for something. It's got to mean.

You said four words. We'd have to queue the tape up for another hour if you want me to go on that one. Four words. That's tough. That's well done. All right. Next one. Okay.

Mine. Here we go. More intimidating on the first tea. Tiger in his Sunday Red or Young Noda with the pop collar, face paint and the hoops. that was oh yeah i was i was uh i was intimidating back then let me tell you just how intimidating so it was the first a jjGA event i ever played up in denver colorado and i was paired with tripp keeney and he had a four-shot lead going into the last day i showed up with the collar

the hoops and the paint on my face and i had a two-shot lead at the turn was that the first time you did the paint well that was the first time in a big tournament but yeah yeah actually, you know, just to kind of clarify that for everybody, you know, Pueblo Indians, when they're about to embark on a strenuous test, they take red clay that you harvest from the land on our reservations, and you say a prayer, and then you dab the clay under your eyes as just kind of testament to sort of bringing the best out of yourself through this test. And I always looked at a round of golf as a test, and it is a test. And so it was just my way to kind of maintain, you know, my traditional beliefs in accordance with how my grandmother and my mother raised me to sort of never lose sight of where I come from.

And I stopped doing it because through the media, it was kind of became more of a focal point. They were talking more about that than they were about my golf game. And so, and then it sort of led into stereotypes and things. And I just, that's not what I wanted to perpetuate through my career or my game. I wanted to perpetuate sort of a different version of what people perceive Native Americans to be. I wanted them to see me as somebody that, you know, that does the right things, makes good choices, most of the time, Cole. But also, you know, other kids from, could look up to and sort of, you know, try and at least model some of the things that I do. Beautiful.

Love it. All right. Next question. I'm going to try to help you make some money here. Can you please explain the difference between the T-Lis driver and a three-wood? I need to hear this. Because I don't get it. Well, when the T-Lis driver, when the ad goes on, I make money.

But when someone just puts some other random three-wood in, I don't make any money. So I'm a big proponent of the T-Lis driver. Perfect. But let me tell you this. That's a good answer. You know, that's a great economics back explanation. But, and I'm not kidding. So, Garen Rife, who's the guy that developed the T-Lis driver, is it really,

really smart about these clubs. And so we were filming the commercial and you do these, you believe them because they work. And they do work. They allow people to get the ball in the air. So he goes, I want you to hit one out of the fairway bunker. He goes, there's no way this thing will not come out of the ferry bunker. And then you've been there as a player. I've been there as a player. You hear the reps talk about their products. You're like, this is complete BS. It's not going to get out of this fairway bunker. So I put some balls. this Faraway Bunker about 10 yards away from this pretty high lip. I'm like, I'm just going to rifle these ball.

I'm going to hit straight down on this ball. I'm going to rifle it right into the lip of this bunker so this guy will shut up. Okay? I swear to God, Colt, this thing just went straight in the air. And I'm like, I was a believer. You're selling it right now. I was a believer. I'm about the log.

I was a believer in the T-list driver. That was incredible. I really was trying to put it into the face. I couldn't do it. It went straight in the air on the green. Go buy a T-Lis driver. How many times you would have won with a T-Lis in the bed? You got four.

You would have a grand slam. Yeah. T-Lis. I might have wanted a few more calls. All those 260-yard fairway bunker shots. All right, we talked about T-Lis driver. Your good friend, Aaron Oberholz. They're also endorses a wedge called the XE-1 wedge.

If you've hit it, I need the peer review from Noda-Begay on your thoughts on the XE-1 wedge. I've never hit the XE-1 because I'm a good chipper. Yeah, you don't need. But it's unchung-chuncable, dude. It's a marginal short game. I mean, maybe in 10 more years, I'll call Aaron and go take one out of his garage. I actually had dinner with Aaron the other night. It was great, great storyteller, because you don't have to do any of the talking.

You just do all the listening. I agree. That's fair. That's fair. We've had him on. I texted him about asking that question. I kind of tweaked it a little bit. But you come out next tournament with an XE1 and a team of driver.

You're winning about 12. I don't care who you are. All right, I got one more. All right. So we talked about this. You rock the hoop ear and. on tour. That was a look. That takes a special dude to pull that off. Give me one guy on tour right now that you think has the juice to pull off the double hoops. Well, maybe not right

now. John Pock does. Oh, he's coming up. Yeah, he's rocking it. He's got the ice. He's got the real. He's got the ice in there. He's still in college or C's. If they're real, when he's going to the big show, they're going to turn into real 20, not 24 carrot. What is, that's gold. What is it? It's still carrots. Three, it's like three Ds or whatever. Three Cs. They're four Cs, five Cs. It's like when you cut clarity, all the, all this stuff. Yeah, yeah, carrot, wait, all that. I heard he's, when you get married, when you get married, call me, Cole.

Hey, next, stay on, stay on topic here. Tell them about the diamond. Tell them about the diamonds. I'll get you the three Cs. We need to know what current tour player. You got to pick someone other than John Codd, dude that got the juice for it. Oh, man, that's a good question. You got to have a little bit of Moxie to pull that one off.

A lot of them. I had one I thought you would say. I got mine. Hold on. I don't tell you who you guys gotta tell me who yours are too because okay um god

you're putting me on the spot here I guess that's the whole point right yeah it's the E9 dude yeah um golly it ain't tiger let me tell you that you don't got it no you don't got that he don't got

he don't got the game to go the double hoops um let me see he got the game he ain't got it like that it ain't a golf game he can't pop that collar either Who would it be?

I know there's some guys out there that could do it. I just can't think of one off. Keep going. You tell me. I know who. There's some juicy dudes. Do you think you know who I know who I think thinks he could, especially back in his earlier years, is Gary Woodland back when he had the one pant leg rolled up.

He had the LL Cool J, the valour. 100% Gary thought about it. There's no way Gary didn't have an arrow where he had some Csies in there. He might have thrown an earring or two back in the day. Who'd you have? Well, I just thought of another one off the top of that. My guy Barnrat could pull it. My guy Barn rack could dress up like a telituby and pull that off.

But I was going to say, Boog. Daniel Berger? Might have the juice to do that. Bug might be able to do it. Yeah, he might be. HV3 might be able to do it. He's got a little swagger in his game. Or Webb Simpson.

I'm very, yeah, Webb Simpson. I'm very, I'm pretty certain. I don't know. Well, that ain't for him. Bug has his ears pierced. I'm pretty positive about that. be flabbergasted if book didn't have the era where he had both double i'm pretty sure he's single doubles that's a that's a that's a whole other game that's j t that's like in sync you got to 98 degrees

you still can you still have yours yeah you're closed yeah no i got him could you still put him yeah i'll suit up right right after the show maybe for a major bring those back out you know live bro just here got a note out double i go down the note of bling my first live room i had them i had a completely shaved head and double hoop earrings Like, I'm surprised Golf Channel didn't shut down after that. You've got to bring that back. Find the right time and debut those babies. All right, last one, this is kind of more serious.

Will we ever see another Tiger Woods in the game ago? No. No. No chance. No, not for 100 years. I think there's, I think there's so many things that people don't understand and don't appreciate that he did, that he brought to the table with regard to

how he saw the game. and what his personal relationship was with the game and just really how much he sacrificed to get every ounce of productivity out of his body and out of what he could do on the golf course. You know, when we played in the 2000 PGA that he won at Valhalla, I called him the next day at 10 o'clock the Monday after, and he picked up the phone, and I go, what are you doing?

He goes, well, I'm out practicing. I'm hitting balls, and I go, you just won the PGA. It was 150. degrees and sweltering heat out there. I was like, why don't you take a couple days off? He goes, no. It's like, I'm playing great. I want to keep this going.

And I think that's what is missing. I think there's other players in our game that have the talent, but who's going to continue to push and push and push to the point of breaking, which he did? But then rebuild, put Humpty Dumpty back together and keep pushing forward even harder, which is, I think, probably one of his greatest attributes. when there's nobody pushing him. There wasn't a fill there that was competing with him on a regular basis. Ernie wasn't competing with him.

There wasn't anyone there that was pushing him to be better. He had to push himself. I think that was inherently one of his greatest gifts that I think goes over to look quite a bit. That's awesome. That's his DNA. Well, note up, my man. Always fun sitting down and chat with you. That was fun.

Thanks, guys. I really enjoyed it. Bring those hoops back one time. Yeah, next time. You got it. You got it. Next time we're in. Awesome.

All right. Well, that was Noda Begay, the third, joining us. Sleys, I mean, probably the nicest guy we've ever had on. Adam Thielen, Noda Begay. It's a toss-up. Yeah. But how about this? I asked him when he realized Tiger Woods was special.

They've known him. He's known him forever. They're basically brothers. He says, oh, we were playing the tour event at Disney. And he shot 67, and I thought he shot 75. I'm like, so he was professional. Yeah. I thought he was going to say when he was four and he was breaking par.

That would have been a good time. be like, yeah, I think this kid might have some. But no, he's already turned pro. I already won everything, won all the junior amps, all the U.S. amps. And then like, you know what? I got a feeling about this kid. He might, this kid might have a future in this game, by God. But it was great.

I love the story about when they played together at the President's Cup, alternate shot. He was trying, they had to lay up on a par five. He's like, Tiger, what do you want? He's like, I don't care. He goes, well, I knew he didn't like this yardage. So I hit it to that. And then all of a sudden, a little skinny one.

We saw why Tiger didn't like that yardage. A little skinny one from 95 yards? Like 90 yards or something? Yeah, I mean, you would think, I wouldn't think there would be any problematic shot for Tiger Woods during that time. He's like, I like it 2.30 hanging lie back, left pen. Give me one of those. I mean, there's nothing there.

He also, maybe the only guy to figure out how to, you know, be the kryptonite for Tiger with laying up to that yard. And then trying to poison the, poison in the damn Stanford golf team, and they were the best team going into regionals. And Casey Mark couldn't even play the final rounds. So Tiger had to come in there. He was puking on T-boxes and stuff and still got through. Yeah, but, man, it was so much fun sitting down with him.

He's great, you know, great on the TV. obviously is I just it still baffles me like he doesn't get credit for being such a great player four wins I mean should have been rookie of the year yeah in my opinion also we didn't even get into it but only guy to win on pj tour putting from both sides I mean like he was a hell of of of talent I mean this guy this guy did a lot of great things in that game and now you just kind of know him as noribay the broadcast but he's got a massive career yeah he and it does a lot of good things for junior golf just really really enjoy spending time with him all right well time to get to the gambling portion of the program.

You had a chance last week to make up some good ground. You know, I mean, last week was just, it's a tough week. It's kind of a crap shoot I thought. Who do you take? I mean, you could take Dustin Johnson. You don't want to use them there. Brooks Kepka misses a cut. Kind of throw a flyer out there.

I took my guy, Keith, Jeff, Kevin Mitchell. Miss cut. Don't worry. Gave him a little FaceTime Friday night. Or actually, he facetimed me because I was hating on him. And I let him know that I was very disappointed in his performance this week. How do you handle it? He was pretty drunk, so he was okay.

I bet he was feeling, oh, sorry about that. I'll talk that up in the Who Gives a Shit folder. But you had Harrison English who was making a run, was in the final group Sunday. I was out with the group starting out Sunday. I had him the first four holes, and I'm like, this guy's going to win by five. Watching him the entire week, like he was just hanging around, hanging around, but he looked so calm. I mean, his golf swing is so good. It just looks like nothing can go wrong with it ever.

He was calm. The putter was looking good. And then when he starts the day, four behind, and he erases it in no time. I'm like, this thing's done. Like, he's going to keep going. people are going to go backwards it's a walk away then i was out of town i had to drive home next thing i look i'm looking on the scoreboard i'm like where in the hell are you six over on his last 13 so i don't know what you did if you got there and slip something in his drink or whatever but that's the

kind of shit that happens dude it just changes like this jesson adley bogey's last three harris english looks like he might run away with this thing playing perfect six over in his last 13 40 on the back side a little double bogey on the last just to just you know shrink that check just a little bit. Yeah. So even when I make good picks, we can't get to the crib right now, but I'm going to rectify that this week. All right. Well, let's get to the standings. Producer Mark, I know he made up a little bit of ground. Yeah, but not as much as he would have liked. I think there's a lot of Twitter users out there that were jinxing him early Sunday, late Saturday night, making him feel way too good about himself. But he did pick up $125,925,925. Leeds still over a million, $1,178,662

heading into the U.S. Open. All right. Well, it's a big week, and I have a feeling I know who you're going to pick. Nothing in it. Nothing in it. So a lot of golf to be played, move the sticks, all that shit. Yeah, and I'll just end the suspense. I'm going John Rom.

Been just waiting for him this entire year, get him to Torrey Pines, U.S. Open. Then he goes out and plays probably the best golf that's been played on tour. At Muirfield, has the W.D. I was going to pick him regardless, but I don't know if, like I said before, a pissed off Spaniard. He's a dangerous Spaniard. He's a beast around there. I mean, I've just been saving him for this week.

So I got a lot of big dogs coming up. I'm going to start unloading, starting with John Rom this week. Eight to one, eight to one or ten to one, depending on what. Are we sure you haven't picked him? Not entirely, but I'm going to use them anyway. I mean, you say you have a lot of big dogs left. I'm like, well, you picked a couple of them twice. I picked, who did I pick twice?

Adam Scott. And you want to use Zander. Patrick Cantley. You know, I got that many big dogs. I got, I got DJ Brooks, Deschambo. I mean, I have like more than half of the top ten probably. Well, starting with this guy. Hey, you're normally the,

kiss of death so keep on you're used to i'm used to not too often you see the tournament favorite have maybe go a week without hitting a golf ball before a major championship and still be the tournament favorite yeah exactly well i'm going off the grid a little bit you know i'm involved in a lot of these and i'd like to strategically try to figure out where i want to place these guys and i need to make up a little bit of ground in this big pool i've got going on and i think this guy he's going very much under the radar which kind of surprises me it's going off at 40 to one which for a u.s. open i feel like i'm taking a risk here but i like you know i like to live on the edge a little bit bit. But this guy tied for seventh at the farmers at this golf course. One of the best ball

strikers on the planet has a very steep angle of tack, which is good out of the long U.S. Open rough. And he's had a nice running majors of lately. Will Zalotaurus. Skinny Will. Yeah. Skinny Willie. You know, it's going to be, I saw the weather. Looks like 75 degrees. No rain, sunshine every day. Place you get firm. You got to hit it to the moon. And that's what my boy Will Zalotauras does. He does it. I feel like that golf game is built for me, especially at U.S. Open. I mean, Tita Green. Animal putter whatever, but he hits it so good. He doesn't have to hold that means.

Yeah, it's such a difficult golf course. Like, and I was talking with some people earlier, like, who putts good at Torrey Pines? Yeah, other than Brantznetic or nobody. Exactly. So poignant's like kind of neutralizes the putter almost. This is late afternoon tea times. I mean, half of its luck. I feel like you make one over 10 feet.

You get the perfect put and it just wiggles around. So yeah, I think it's, I think it's just typical U.S. Open tea to green, see what they do with that rough, but how much they graduated and stuff like that. But yeah, skinny Willie. I like it. Strong to quiet. Well, it's going to be an awesome week. out at Torrey pines no doubt about it i mean u.s. open i believe you're going to be there correct

yeah Thursday friday i'll be out in the building your first major first major i'm gonna probably be standing on the first tee see if anybody comes down with the shoulder maybe get out there you know walking score potentially what is your course record you know no i'm just doing radio out there we're going to be doing the live coverage um four hours a day Thursday friday saturday so i'm out there on the ground walk the golf course get a little feel for the point you're walking with a group no we're not walking with a group i'll be i'll be like the you know command center or whatever calling shots and things like that but i will get out and walk the golf course I want to see it I want to see what it looks like go watch a few guys and get

some inside scoop laid down a few wagers you know the deal it's gonna be awesome the weather looks fantastic which is obviously good news I mean you have to think even par around that joint we saw it back in 2008 with Tiger Rocco mediate I mean what was a one under and that was a playoff I mean it's gonna it's gonna play very very similar to that I would imagine I would think they don't have to do much in that place just grow the ruff up a little bit firm up the greens a little I mean the it's already there the beef's already there it's a big boy golf course and I don't think they got to trick it up too much all right well everyone enjoy the

u.s open and we'll talk to you on next week's golf subpar