Subpar - Sepp Straka talks his U.S. Open hole-in-one and winning the Ryder Cup in Rome

Episode Date: July 30, 2024

On this week's episode of GOLF's Subpar, Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz are joined by 2-time PGA Tour winner Sepp Straka for an exclusive interview from the Travelers Championship. The European Ryder Cup team member talks their victory last year in Rome, moving from Austria to Georgia at the age of fourteen and his hole-in-one at this year's U.S. Open. -- 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. -- Subscribe Now: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt5ESUx6omMUsMoEKvMTzlA Shop The Birdie Juice Collection: https://fairwayjockey.com/collections/birdie-juice Follow Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/golf_subpar/?hl=en Follow Twitter: https://twitter.com/golf_subpar?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

All right, here we go. Welcome back to Golf Subpar with Colton Nose and Drew Stoltz. Sleys, the Olympics is underway. It has been fantastic so far. And our friends at RLX Ralph Lauren are back and they've been outfitting so many of the athletes. They look fantastic over there. And at RLX Ralph Lauren, timelessness has been at the core since the beginning. Born on the course, but drawing on the tradition of polo,

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for whatever the conditions bring, both on and off the course. We're rocking the athletic wear right now, and Ralph Lauren is the official outfitter of the United States Rider Cup team and partner of the AJGA. Ralph Lauren is proud to continue its sponsorship of golf ambassadors Andrea Lee, Billy Horschell, Davis Love the 3rd, Devin Bling, Doc Redmond, Jonathan Bird, Nick Watney, Sean Foley, Smiley Kaufman, Todd Anderson, Tom Watson, Trevor Werbelow, Troy Taylor the 3rd, Tyler Storffati, and Zach Johnson. The RLX collection is available in select Ralph Lauren stores, exclusive private clubs and resorts, and online at Ralph Lauren.com. The red, white and blue, looking good over there. Saw the boys coming out, a little sport coat, little denim.

looked like the kid at the steakhouse. What did you think of Wyndham? How'd he look? Say what? What'd you think of Wyndham? How do you look? He never looks good and much. You know what I mean? There's not much that works for him. But RLX and Polo does. Kidding. RLX, Apollo, they look good. The whole squad look good. Dude, seeing some of the pictures, it's pretty cool. Like, Dubb with, you know, Steph Curry's, like, taking selfies with him and Morikow.

Like, they're on the boat, and it's a basketball team, and it's everybody, man. What a sweet, like, this is going to be... I'm looking forward to some of them coming back and talking about the Olympics. Because the last time, like, there was nobody there was nobody there. It was a different animal for golf. Let's talk a little Olympics before we get to the 3M because it's been awesome so far. Some people had some mixed emotions about the opening ceremony.

I thought it was weird. I watched like a little bit of it and then I had to go to work luckily. No, you couldn't catch all seven hours of it. I mean, dude, it was a marathon. I had recorded and kind of, I was seeing Twitter and what was going on. And the highlights, it's like, I got to see what this thing's all about. And I thought there was some good.

Celine at the end, by the way. Shout out Celine, all time vocal. She always brings it. She brings, she brought it, especially with what she's got going on physically right now. And then there was some weird stuff, too, that maybe just went over my head. But I was like, this seems odd. But one thing I can say for certain, it's long as shit. Let's tighten that thing up a little bit.

I just thought we like introduced all the countries. They walked through the stadium and it was over, but not in Paris. Not anymore. Not no more. Some of the events that have happened so far, the United States basketball took care of Serbia. Everybody was dogged on them with the start they got off to. They were 14 and a half-point favorites. cruise to victory.

LeBron and Kevin Durant, the two elder fellas took care of business over there. LeBron's been doing it in the exhibitions. We'd have lost two of those things if it wasn't for him as much as it pains me to say. The fourth quarter, he just took over. And yeah, I'm not too concerned

about U.S. men's basketball exhibition games are exhibitions. I'll tell you what I've tuned in for a little bit of that's piqued my interest a bit, that I've never played. Badminton. Have you been watching this? I just told Mark this morning I was watching some of it.

They hit these shit out of that thing. It's the sickest game. I don't know where you go to find a badminton court or badman rackets or whatever but i was watching i was watching singles dudes were flying it's like ping pong like high level ping pong but better what's it called the shuttlecock the what the shuttlecock is it shuttlecock i'm pretty sure that's what the thing's called i don't know much of i'm just getting into the badminton game but but there's things like people have hit it up to 250 miles an hour it's sick it's i mean i know it obviously slows down but it's crazy

the doubles is wild that goes like super fast that's what was on this morning singles they can rally for forever i feel like you ready for my hot take yeah okay so we always Is it badminton related? No, it's not badminton related. We always talk about, you know, which sport is the best athletes. You know, everybody is throwing out there. Okay, go, go. Dude, I've never watched much of it before.

Water polo. Those dudes are some bad sons of bitches. The fact that the water's eight feet deep, so obviously you can't touch the ground. You have to keep yourself above water at all times and swimming back and forth, and people are beating these shit out of you. I couldn't, I was like, this is the most exhausting game I've ever seen. There is no one that you have to be extremely fit. to play that game. The underwater camera, when they are just kneeing each other in all areas,

it's violent and awesome. You're one of those sacks nut pads to get in the pool. I've watched it before, too. It's the same thing you said. They're for sure, I think the most, like, in shape people, because they're resting. Like, if you're resting and there's nothing going on, you're treading water. Like, that's not resting. That's an exercise for a lot of people. And the rules, I can't figure them out. So, like, dude's get in the middle, and they just basically, like, dunk the other guy under and try to, I'm like, it feels like there's no rules.

Try to drown your dude and score. So it's like one whistle is like a minor penalty. Two is like a major. And like they just, the whistles blow at all times. And if it's a minor penalty, like nothing really happens. Oh, sick.

There's no fouls. You don't get like five fouls. You just get to keep fouling. I don't know. It was wild. But I watched. Draymond Green should play water pole. He'd be sick.

It is, it is an interesting sport though. But it's been, it's awesome. I can't wait for the track and field. To get going to swimming has been fantastic. Also one other complaint. Round two of the men's tennis is.

is it just, by the way, it's over now. Nadal versus Joker. Like in round two. How does that? I don't know. Like how the scenes work? But Joker ended up beating the straight sets. Yeah.

Well, it would have probably taken this, the slam that Ocaraz just got. I saw Ocarus and Nadal playing doubles. I don't know how they did, but that seems like a tough team to beat. And I'll give you my hot take on. You're talking about who's the best athletes. And I also haven't watched a lot of this,

but I've seen some on lately. Dude, the gymnasts. But the vaulting, the running, jumping on the thing doing, I'm like, that's a joke. Their little floor exercises, like their basic tricks are like, oh, he does three flips and two twists and then he lands and sticks and all this stuff. The uneven bars or whatever, that's a joke, too. I mean, I think they're all like five, three and super jacked, but they are what they do.

That's, they got to be in the running for, they do some gnarly shit. I don't think I'm cut out for the pommel horse. No, it feels like a tough one. Dangerous. God. How do you think you practice the pommel horse? Just rack yourself like 40 seven times. Great. You can try out for the palm of horse.

But, man, it's fun. It's going to be a lot. If Team USA basketball doesn't just cruise to the gold, I don't know what we're doing, but track and field's going to be awesome. I'm not sure who, like, the badass is now. Like, it was always, I mean, when you had, Usain Bolt is like must-see TV. Like, you just, it was electric.

I think it's no allows. American said he's winning 100 and the 200. Okay. It's supposed to be, like, world's fastest man right now, I think. Well, I love it. The swimming. He says he is, by the way. Yeah.

He's not lacking. And confidence. The swimming has been awesome. The men's 4x100 relay was sick. Katie Ladecki finished. She ended up getting a silver against Tittmiss from Australia, who she is very good. Old Tidmus.

Tittmast. You got a lookout for her. She's sharp. Can't wait for the Olympics to continue. Let's get to the 3M championship. Johnny Vegas breaks a seven-year winless streak, played some incredible golf there at the TPC Twin Cities. I'll tell you what.

Saturday, I was out there obviously all day. The wind's going 25 to 30 miles an hour. And four guys shot 63, like in the last few groups. What is happening here? Like, this place isn't that easy. Same thing we always say. You know, normally say, like, you need some wind. And then even in that situation, like, it didn't change it.

The scores are sickening. I'll be completely honest with you, Colt. Didn't have Johnny Vegas on my pre-week radar being seven years since he won. Like you said, I think it had been, I'm not mistaken, two years since he's had a top 10. Yeah, well, he was out for a while because of shoulder surgery. Yeah, he's been banged out. He's had injury. and things like that.

But like in a game right now in a state where I feel like we come on every week, like here's a new young guy that's awesome. Here's another young guy. He's going to win a few times. You know, he's a stud. Like now you got like the old guard still showing. I mean, seven years since he last one and the way he kind of handled it coming down the start. The drive on 18 was after wait.

Dude, he waited for, how long do they wait? 20 plus minutes. Okay. 11. Felt like forever. Yeah. I feel like they was seeing them back there. Step up there at that BB cut down there.

Pulled the iron. As soon as they hit the iron on front level, I was like that. That's three-wheel. Vegas never closes, man. Yeah, true. The place is always jumping. True. No matter how long you make Vegas wait, they're going to show up.

True. And that, yeah, the two-putt at the end, I was like, that's for sure, three-putt, a hundred-footer. I guess it wasn't quite as crazy, you were saying, you know, I just saw 100 feet. It was, to win, he was going to rejack that. It was 96 feet. But where the pin was over on the right side, like, you obviously have to judge it really well, but there was a slope about 20 feet short of it. And then on the other side of the hole, there was another slope where it kind of went back uphill.

So it's like, as long as he got it over the slope, I thought it was going a feed down there within five or six feet and obviously he had a better put than that he had three feet thank god because it was a five o'clock finish and i had a six 45 flight and i was trying to get home so i could do podcast and radio there was like this could be like a this could be a four-way five there's a potential five way in there with all the different stuff that could happen on 18 guys were trying to force a playoff there at the end it didn't work out for a couple of them but johnny vaguen like what do you go from 170 something to 66th on the fedex cup list i mean life like legit like a life changer for him.

He's been good for a long time, man. I remember in college when the Nike Sasquatch came out, remember that bad boy? And listening to Johnny Vegas hit it, he was one of the few guys at the time that was weird long. They're all like that now. But the sound of that thing,

like it was like a gunshot. Well, he hit one on number six. I mean, he's turning 40 years old next month. He had 189 mile an hour ball speed on the six. Hit it like 357 or something like that on the part five way. It was absurd. 40 years old almost often, like had injury.

things like, I mean, he's always, he was one of the guys in college. I was like, I mean, it's, I'm not even in the shouting distance of it. So I asked Coach Fields how he found Johnny Vegas and got him to Texas, said he was out recruiting Casey Wittenberg like every college in the world was. And they're out junior worlds. And there was this kid from Venezuela that no one knew about. Saw him play. He was in like third place going last day, finished top 10.

He goes, didn't get, Casey Wittenberg decided to go to Oklahoma State. I'm home. He goes, I'm so stressed. out about it. I was so upset that I didn't get him. And I see, like, I'm watching back some videos and I see this Johnny Vegas. And there's this guy, I think, Jeff Clouk,

who was a stud at Texas, walked in the office as he's sitting there in that video, he goes, who is that guy? He's like, his name's Jonathan Vegas. He's from Venezuela. He goes, get him. Good call. It worked out great. I was like, I mean, you're out there to see somebody else. You randomly stumble upon this kid. Spoke no English

when he came to Texas. Took 21 hours his final semester. at Texas and played golf. Wow. Yeah. I don't even know that was a thing. Yeah, everybody told him it was impossible and he did it. He's been good, like, since he got to college.

He's also, I think his golf game is like a way you'd love to be on the BJ J-J-2. Like, his good's really good. He's won't, this is fourth win. It's hard to, four-time, winning four times in a career, not a lot of guys accomplish that. He's done it. Now he's on that list.

If you'd ask me even after the week, like name four-time winners, he probably wouldn't be a name I would mention. But his goods really good. It's like win, contend. He seems to do it every couple years. And then he misses, you know, his bad golf. He goes home or doesn't play as great a golf. But when he's on, it's very, very good.

I think while that goes with his driver. And he's such a great dude. Like, you'll not hear one person say a bad word about Jonathan Vegas. Yeah, like a gentle giant. He's great. So congratulations, Johnny Vegas. Also, Max Grazerman, who played an awesome. He said it wasn't that hard of a shot, but the shot he hit on 18 from the trees.

And I'm going to get into this a lot on radio today, and I'm sad you're not going to be there for it. because there are guys, I mean, to win big, you have to take chances. And that was a, he took a risk. Whereas there are a lot of other guys, in my opinion, I feel like I'm not going to name names right now that kind of play safe when they get in those spots. It's like, it's so hard to win on the PGA tour. You don't get yourself, most people do not get their self in that position that often

where they have a chance, and a lot of them play safe. I mean, this dude was in the left trees, had it had a hook four iron from 250 over water. And he's a rookie on tour. It's not like he has, like, locked up. I mean, he's had a decent year, but, like, that was ballsy, man, and I loved it. That was what was, well, two things. One, when they went, when they paned to his shot, I was like, oh, he's done. And then, like, he's going for it.

I was like, no, what is, what are we doing? Yeah, like, you're fine. You can just wedge it out and, you know, pitch it out and hit a wedge on and it'd be fine. But like you said, he's a rookie. He's not, he doesn't have, he hasn't won a bunch of times. He's not exempt for, I think winning gets easier after you got, like, one in the kiddy, because you're like, okay, I'm good for two years. job security as a rookie, especially now,

with the way the FedEx Cup playoffs are, only 70 getting there. I mean, most of them are going to have to go back to the fall series and play decent in that thing to keep it. I thought it was, showed a lot of balls by him. Like, it kind of speaks to the type of competitor he is, but when they first pan to it, and, like, he's got four iron here. What was it, what was it actual 250?

26, like 240 front, like on the angle it was. He's got four, and he's going. I was like, what a, this is just Kamikaze mission. But, God, I mean, he pulled it off, and it, like, Yeah, Johnny closed it out nicely, but I was like, that deserves getting him a piece to pull that off. Because I can go make a big number, drop down, all those points matter big time for rookies. But always a lot of fun up in Minnesota. I survived Fernie.

Thank God. I hid the last couple of nights. My whoop was impressed the last couple of nights. Yeah, how's that thing right now? You can tell the days I hung with Fern and the days I didn't. Chill out. Water, drink one. You're going to die.

Yeah. Shout out Fern. A lot of fun. All right. All right. Speaking of great guys, our guest this week. He's a rider cupper. He's an Olympian. He'll be teeing it up over in Paris. He's 55 to 1. We got Scep Straca joining us, who is another gentle giant. They nicknamed him Ox. Ox. I like that. Big boy. Doesn't have the crazy weird power you might expect from somebody of his size, but I've said this a million times.

He's playing good a lot, a lot, a lot right now. Probably doesn't get as much love as a lot of other guys because it's kind of like similar to Xander before all the wins. He doesn't win all that much. He wins, but it's not over and over and over. But his golf swing is about as simple. To me, it looks like about as simple as a golf swing as there is out there. A little bit of, in my opinion, like some Jason Gore back in the day. I was like, there's not a lot that can go wrong with that thing.

And his accent for being, I don't know that's how Austrian's talked. No, it's crazy. Yeah, it's different. Here's SEP Straka on Golf Subpar. All right, it is time to welcome on a very special. guest here live from the Travelers Championship, two-time PJA Tour winner, University of Georgia, Bulldog by way of Austria. Stepstraka's in the house. Good night. So, guys.

It's your native tongue, yeah? Yeah, sure putting a shrimp on the bobby. Yes. By the way, the man was just coming to look for some underwear down here at the Sacks tent, and we happened to talk him into a podcast. Yeah, needed some behind on laundry, so, yeah, it worked out nice. We got you. Yeah, we got you.

Take care of the Sacks for you. Sacks, take care of you real nice. By the way, you've been playing some fantastic golf, man. It's basically the players championship. You've been on a roll. It's been a good run. Yeah. Just trying to not jinx it, I guess.

Keep doing the same thing. Yeah, that swing looks like it gets a little quick sometimes. Yeah, it does. Definitely not fast, but quick. You got one of the pretty swings out there. No bullshit. I think it's one of the simplest moves on the PGA tour. It makes total sense that you're playing as good as you are right now.

But when it does get out of whack, like watching it on TV, I'm like, dude, there's not much that can go wrong. What are the things that you fight? My main tendency is to just be able to slow with my body going back. Hands kind of get out behind me. And then from the top, I just have to kind of get out in front of it. So it's a thin push generally is my miss. A slight push from what I've gathered. I want to go back to the U.S. Open because you got one of the worst breaks ever there on the third hole,

which led to a triple. But then you followed up with an ace on the 9th. How cool is that to make a whole one at the U.S. Open? Yeah, pretty much sums up golf right there, doesn't it? Hit a pin, go in the bunker, make triple, and then make a hole. one three holes later, four holes later. So yeah, that hole in one was sick. I was, if it got on six feet past the hole, I'd probably made another triple. Yeah, dude, there's like one option there. But yeah, I was just telling it to sit and I ended up going in.

He mentioned from Austria, moved to Valdosta, family moved to Valdosta, Georgia when you were 14. Is there any similarity between Valdosta and Austria? I've never been to Austria. It's not much, especially since I was from Vienna. So Vienna and Valdosta are nothing to like. but both awesome places. So, yeah, I was very fortunate. That's got to be a pretty, you're 14, you've got to be a pretty big culture shock. You're not a grown man, but you're pretty well developed by 14,

and then all of a sudden you're like Valdaastra, you know. Yeah, I mean, completely different cultures, especially school-wise, completely different. But I had spent a lot of time over here visiting my grandparents, my mom. We'd come visit in the summers, some winters. So I'd spend a lot of time, so I kind of knew what I was getting into.

And then Georgia, was that always, I mean, it's the school for golf, probably more guys on PJ2 or more wins, all this stuff, but was that always like the dream? Was it Georgia or bust? It was always my dream. I was always a Georgia fan growing up. But I wasn't very good in high school. I wasn't a very good junior player. So it kind of took my brother to get them to notice us a little bit and put me on the map there. Yeah, your twin brother, Sam, right? Yeah. He was a hell of a player, he was a better player junior golf for sure. Not no more. Not no more. He still thinks so, though. Does he? You take any recruiting trips, pretend to be him? You know what I mean? Here I am.

Not that kind of 20. He was about 100 pounds lighter at me than me at the time. He was tiny. I want to know, because you played college golf with two guys out here, Keith Mitchell and Grayson Sig, who I like to joke, Grayson Sig is one of the few guys that actually looks up to me out here. It's always a fun joke to say. But Keith, Cashmere Keith. Give us a little idea what he was like in college.

I mean, the same, you know, the same exact person. Yeah, boozy. I mean, except he didn't have it back then, you know? Now he's got it, so it's just probably magnified a little bit. But yeah, I mean, he hasn't changed it all since college. He likes the finer things in life. He does. Yeah, I respect that, but isn't he kind of like the one-off?

Georgia, think about like Harmon, Kisner, a bunch of these guys got like outdoorsmen hunting, fishing, all this stuff. And then he throw Keith in the mix. And it's like, four seasons, Gucci loafers, massages. Private Jets. Two phones. He's a one-off on Georgia dudes. Yeah, he doesn't really fit in well there. But, I mean, we all, I mean, but we were a bunch of different people.

I mean, it was me and my brother, and then the other freshman was from Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Nick Reach. So we had a bunch of different guys, but everybody kind of got along with each other, and we had a good time. I got to ask, I mean, you had a really solid career going, but then Kevin Kisner took a little time off, and you brought on his caddy, Dewey, who's a legend. By the way, it seemed like things kind of went to a whole other level once you brought him along. What's that relationship been like? It's been awesome. Yeah, Dewey's the man. Everybody who knows him, all the people out here, they just love Dewey.

I love Dewey. He really has. I mean, I feel like my game was trending in the right direction going into that. And then adding him to the mix. I mean, just made me so much better at playing the game. You won John Deere the first week, right? First week, John Deere, then second week was the open, finished second. Useful.

Sorry, kids. You're out. Sorry, bud. I wasn't really, I wasn't even planning on, you know, I was just playing on having him for a little bit until Kiz came back. And then Kiz texted him and was like, hey, if you haven't given this any thought, like you should just go ahead and jump on Sepp's bag. Is that how it went? Because I was going to ask you like, that's a, it's delicate, right? I mean, it's a guy's caddy and he's taking a little time off.

Like, hey, I'm, you know, can I use him for a little bit? But then that happens. Yeah, definitely. Kiz was like the one who instigated it. Yeah, he definitely was. I wasn't, I wasn't really going to just kind of steal, still Dewey from him because I, I know they've been together forever. And, yeah, no, Kiz definitely, he reached out of doing it.

And it was like, hey, this seems to be working pretty good. I was obviously very happy about that because it's worked well since then too. He probably was, too. Yeah, I mean, y'all went on a hell of run, led to your first Ryder Cup team, which slapped one of the fellas around over here. It might be over here in the corner, one and only Wyndham Clark. We'll get to him. Are you going to ask him by the Ryder Cup, too?

No, we're not interviewing him. We interview him enough. He's just here. He's a fan. He just wants to learn more about seven. something for him. But tell us about the Rider Cup going over there. That experience. Rome was incredible. We were there. And also, I got to know, for Dewey being an all-American guy, like, is it kind of weird for him to have to root for Europe? He was all in. He was singing O.A. in the

locker room. Yeah. But before going into it, before I'd been picked, he had a USA yardage book cover, and the other caddies were giving him pretty hard time. And they were like, you got to get rid of that before the Rider Cup weeks. No, we had a great time. awesome experience and to do it in Rome Rome is pretty pretty special venue so yeah it was a great time that's a different dynamic for everyone not just the caddies but you like all right all the european guys more or like have a house or have a home in the states but like you grew up here like went to college here not all of them did that like it's got to be kind of a weird feeling for you too being i got to think a big party it feels american yeah i mean i always tell everybody i know i'm

100% american 100% Austrian like i live there until i was 14 my dad's Austrian and I feel like I'm fully Austrian, and then my mom's from here. 14 moved here, did high school college here. So I feel like I'm kind of a mutt in that way. But, no, it didn't feel really weird. It really didn't feel weird. It was awesome experience. Shane did joke with me.

When we first got to the golf course, he said it's going to have to make sure he steers me towards the European locker room that I don't stray into the American one. But, yeah, no, it was awesome and a good time. The only European with a Georgia accent to ever play for the school. squad. Yeah. Olae, Olae, Olae.

Who'd you team up with over there? It was me and Shane and alternate shot, yeah. Oh, my God. You're Shane and Dewey? Yeah. The heavyweight championship of the world. I know.

Yeah, we had some weight in that group. Darren, Shane's caddy definitely brought that back down, that average. Can you just describe, like, the nerves on the first T in your first Ryder Cup compared to, like, a major championship or even trying to get your first win? It's hard to describe. It's not, it's more than any nerves I've ever felt, especially because I was standing on the tea and Shane's trying to call me down.

You know, he had been there. He's pretty emotional guy, though, and right in front of his Victor chips in from off the green to start out the session. And I mean, next thing you know, Shane's running circles around the tea box going crazy and then I just, my heart was pumping. I mean, I couldn't even, it was hard for me to pull the trigger. But snap hooked him the hay and went on from there and had a pretty good day, yeah. You weren't the only one, by the way, I was glad to make contact. Other than winning the trophy at the end, winning the Ryder Cup, what was the highlight of the week?

Well, Hatgate, I guess, was definitely out there. That made it interesting for a while. It made it interesting for sure. But for me, the highlight, just the times in the locker room, just hanging out with the guys, especially some of the older guys that were telling stories. And, yeah, it was just so much fun. I got a question about that locker room,

because the big topic, I guess, going in was like, all right, you got Westwood, you got Poulter, Stinson, all these guys that have been like the pillars, the leaders in the locker room, the vet dudes of Europe, and they're not there anymore, not even on a captaincy side. Yeah. Either who were the guys that took over that locker room and be like, all right, now I'm the elder statesman.

Yeah, Luke did a great job. He had some vice captains there. Eduardo, Francesco, being from Italy, you know, they were very involved, and it was so great to see them there in Italy being a part of the Ryder Cup, you know. I know that had to be a special moment for them. And yeah, they're two of my favorite guys, too.

So they definitely kind of stepped in there. Well, I know you were getting ready to go, but hopefully you saw the video. Nicholas Colstarts on the first tee, the first morning getting the crowd. Like, he had the crowd in the palm of his hand getting them going. It was so cool. Yeah, I felt like he was kind of the hype man that week. He was just all over the place. And, yeah, it was awesome.

I got to see the video before I went out and made me even more nervous. but yeah that was a pretty special scene that first team was awesome i didn't know he was like that but he got out there i was like god damn this dude this dude's built for this right here he's a legend he really is it's a long ways in the future but this is what we do here next one coming up that bet page what would that mean and what would you expect from the new york golf fans they're so accommodating they'll probably say a lot of nice things you know easy people to please you know new york sports crowd it'll be it'll be like easy environment, right? No, I mean, obviously you don't want to look that far ahead. You've got to play some really good golf to get there, but for whoever's there is going to be, it's going to be

pretty tough. But I think it'll be a great environment there too. You know, it'll be a lot of fans out there that love golf and they want to see their team win. So I think it'll be, it'll be fun in a different way, though. Yeah, it'll be, it'll be rocking. I mean, I'm legit, like, I think there's, it's going to get. You think it's going to go over that. I think it's going to be, hopefully, I want it to be like that, right? I think it's going to be, right? I think It's a different event in golf. I think that's what makes it the coolest. Yeah, for sure.

I want to be right on the border. Yeah. Just don't go across it, but like, dude, you felt it over there in Europe? Absolutely. It's a huge advantage. Yeah, 100%. It is a big advantage. And that's why it's one of the hardest things in golf is to win a way rider cup.

I mean, nobody does it anymore. I think Rory said that afterwards. The hardest thing to do right now golf is win a rider cup on foreign soil. Yeah. It's been a minute. Had you, were you on tour when we played Beth Page at all? I never played Beth Page. It's pretty easy.

Yeah. And the fans, they're just, they're really nice. Yeah, that's what I heard. Real complimentary. It's great. They let you know what they think a little bit. Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun. I'll obviously hope you're on that team again.

It's going to be really cool to see. You got you a little Diet Coke ready. You're a connoisseur. I am. Diet Coke. How many will we go with a day? I'm right around, average around 4 or 5. 4.5?

Yeah, it's a nice round number. No, it kind of depends on what's going on. You know, if I just have an off day and I'm just sitting around at home, it could get out of hand a little bit or going to watch a movie or something. What's an out-of-hand day? 8-9. Are we hitting double digits? Double digits is tough.

That's a lot of just liquid. I know I've hit him. That's a lot of just liquid. Can you drink beer like that? You don't drink a lot, dude. Not often. No, but generally, yeah, I enjoy beer. I love beer, but not that much, yeah.

Yeah, Valdaqa. Did you tie one on at the Ryder Cup at least? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I couldn't hold up with Shane, and Shane and Tyrell were down there when I was leaving for the airport the next morning. I'll tell you else looked like he was going. I only saw the videos.

I saw the picture of Tiro, like, Last Man Standing, I guess, with the glasses on and all that. But Bobby Mack. Oh, yeah, Bob. Yeah, he's a legend. Yeah. That guy's a legend. He's awesome. He's awesome.

He's like people, I feel like everyone, especially the European side who see him a little bit more, know him better, all, like, rave about him. Yeah, I think Bob's probably my favorite guy on that team. Really? Man, he was awesome. He's just a good dude from Scotland. And, yeah, half the time I don't really know what he's saying. But, uh, they're different, dude. How cool is that having his dad on the bag when he wanted Canada?

That's got to be up there for one of the best wins of the year right there. I mean, yeah, that was awesome. I was actually on a flight from New Orleans to Dallas, and he was like two people in front of me, and the guy in between us was a huge golf fan. He actually knew who I was. That's how I knew he was a huge golf fan. And Bobby Mac has got his like Forsyte backpack on.

And the guy goes, do you work for Forsy? And Bobby's like, no. And he's like, I've been looking into getting one. And, like, how much do they cost? He's like, oh, I don't know, like 10, 12 grand or something like that. So he's asking all these questions. And I'm just laughing. And the guy turns around, he's like, what?

He goes, he goes, this is somebody in. And I go, yeah, the dude played on the Ryder Cup team a few months ago, man. He was so embarrassed. It was great. But Bobby Mac just went with him. Yeah. He's awesome. I wish I would have been right there next year.

That would be pretty fun. You got a discount? You got a discount code or anything there? Are you a sales guy? I get you a sale real quick. Where is your, all right, documented Austria at Georgia, Devald Austin, the end of the University of Georgia. they're diehard about their ball, the football in Georgia.

Did you slide right into that? Are you like that with, you know, with kids and Harmon and Harris? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm a huge dog fan. I grew up a big Georgia fan, so I was always a Georgia fan, and right now is a good time to be a dog. Yeah, it's a fucking good time for you guys. Of all the dogs out here, who takes a Georgia,

it doesn't happen very often, but who takes a Georgia football loss the worst? Yeah, who took not making the playoffs the hardest? Oh, I got to be up there. You're up there? Yeah. I know Harry gets into a lot. I mean, I'm sure kids, he probably had a few beverages and he wasn't too happy about it, I'm sure. But he was already, he's negative, so he's probably already preparing for it.

It's probably talking shit to Kirby. Like, what are you doing? Yeah, probably. It softens it a little when you make the playoffs every year and win national title most of the years, but that was a tough one. Being that how good they were. Yeah, you got to let, like, you know, in Florida State, too, same thing. We just laid an egg in the SEC championship, you know. We just didn't play good, and we shouldn't have been in, I don't think.

But I think Florida State should have probably got in that. I mean, undefeated ACC champions is tough to leave them out. Yeah, and then y'all did what you did to them. Yeah, that happened. Remind me of the TCU game. It was painful. Yeah. I had PTSD watching that.

That's what they do. Keep finishing on games like that. I wouldn't mind it. Looking ahead to this year, Georgia football, obviously, you got Texas coming to the SEC now. I mean, it's getting... Schedule's tough. We got at Texas. You'll go at Texas.

At Bama, at Ole Miss, I believe, too. Yeah. What we're thinking? It's tough. I think we're going to whip everybody, personally. That'd be so fun to say, dude, for your team, you know what? And you have it be real? I just think we're going to be the best team on the field, no matter who we play.

Ohio State looks like they're going to have a pretty good squad. If we can make it to the playoffs and play them, that'd be awesome. But, yeah, I really do think that we're going to be pretty hard to beat. That's a hell of schedule. Who do we got all from Texas? You got Boas, you got Jordan, you got Scottie, you got who Doug Gim, who else are the Texas? Who would Georgia, Texas, y'all win? Who are you most looking forward to, like, talking shit to?

Um, probably Scotty because I can't do it in golf. Yeah, that's one thing you got on him. That'd be nice. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, he's probably my number one on my list. How about him looking human though last week? Is that a thing y'all watch? Okay, he's maybe the best to be doing it, at least in this stretch since Tiger.

But look, it even happens to him. I mean, it's golf. I mean, that place is just, it was hard. It was really hard, and that can happen to anybody. So, yeah, but it is nice to see that he's not going to win every tournament he plays in. For you out here, I mean, obviously competing against him and this run he's been on, what's it like for y'all as players, just like looking up every week and, like, there he is again. Yeah, I mean, that's pretty much where it is.

Like, you know, even if he has, I remember Harbortown, he didn't have a good round in first round after when the Masters, understandably, flew home, came in, like. And then after the during the second round, I think I played in the afternoon. I look up at the leaderboard and he's right there. So here we go. We're back. Do you think it was the haircut and the shave? I mean, I'm not that much of a superstition guy, but like if I'm running like that,

I'm probably not changing a damn thing that I do ever. And he got trimmed. He might have gotten a little comfortable. You know, he might have gotten a little comfortable. He's like, I'm going to cut this short. It was snug. But yeah, I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have messed with it. But it'll be right back in a week or two.

so yeah enjoy why you can enjoy it while you can a couple years ago we're in minneapolis minnesota having a little dinner at manis you were over there on the side of the bar i was with sir charles barclay legend y'all y'all end up meeting exchanging phone numbers he's a big alabama guy spent some time in burgham have you got a chance to play any golf with him i've not played with him i feel like every time he's in birmingham uh i'm out of town every time i'm home he's he's not there so but he's man he's awesome he's kept up with me text me every time something and, you know, I do well or even when I'm not doing well. And what a great guy he is.

He might be up there as the guy that watches more golf than anybody. He is addicted. He must watch it all because he'll watch me. He probably knows like your last three finishes. Yeah. I mean, dude, he loves it more than anything. Goes and does a show. Comes back, golf every single day.

He goes and does a show. I mean, if you play like that and you still play, you know, you got to love it. And by the way, God bless him for what he went through, like to where you're playing left-handed. All he wants to do is go out with the boys, be able to gamble, maybe win a few times, lose some times. He doesn't give a shit. And he wants to have a time. And then his brain got broken, and then God bless him, got it fixed. And now, dude, I played with him in a member member, and he hits it.

I get to try to get together with him in the fall and play when I have some off time. He joined Wishbarok and, like, the next week won the member member with Dan Marley. By a thousand. By a million. They won by 13 points. Took the trophy on NBA on TNT. He was so excited. Is that the best show in television right now, by the way?

And it's over, isn't it? After next year, most likely. It's so devastating. Brutal. We need that in golf, by the way. I would love that. Former dude that just yuck it up. But that show, like, they're going to try to replicate it.

I don't think they're going to get these guys to all go because Ernie ain't coming no matter what. Yeah. That's going to go down as like the one. Yeah. Everyone will try to copy it. And be like, man, those were the days watching that. I don't even watch the NBA that much. I don't watch the game.

Half time. freaking out of budget. Pacers versus Nats. That's half my Instagram role is just Charles and Shaq. How about the one other day where he got the bracelet from the dude in the sauna? I made.

That's so good. That was just, he's like, yeah. These guys just gave me ice in the sauna. I told him I like his bracelet. I'm like, this guy is just unbelievable. You know that bracelet? It's called like Fire and Ice or some shit. Have you seen it?

If you've ever been to a 7-Eleven or a Quicken go anywhere in the country, when you go to checkout and buy your funnions, whatever you buy, it sits right there. It's like fire and ice. It's sand from the Himalayan. and water from Mount Everest or some boys. It costs 75 cents.

Speaking of his love for golf, though, I watched David Letterman's, my next guest needs no introduction. He just did an episode of it. Have you seen it? No, so they actually, David follows him to NBA on TNT, goes on the set with him,

but they're behind the scenes in the green room. They got all these TVs, got the games on, and Charles is like golf's on this one. And he's watching golf over there instead of the basketball. He loves it. That's amazing. I mean, he's it. He is it.

That's all he loves. One twice on the PJ Tour, second at the Open Championship. What do you got to do to get that first major championship? I think just keep doing what I'm doing. It's got to keep improving in my game. There's a few things that need to be a little bit better. But, I mean, overall, I think my game's good enough to win a major. It's just, you know, it's kind of got to come together,

come together for me right now. But hopefully I can improve some things and get a little more consistent where I can put myself in that spot a little more often. Out of the four majors, which one do you think sets up the best for you? Probably the Open, yeah. I would say probably the Open. Obviously, it depends on the golf course because they rotate. But generally, I like playing in wind.

I don't hit it as high as some of these other guys. So don't hit it really far enough for Augusta. But, yeah, I mean, even Augusta, I mean, if I have a good week, there's definitely a chance. but yeah Open is probably my number one And you use the Tuttle Putter Yeah I think so Yeah dude the throwback

The Tuttle is incredible Shout out to my man from the Travelers Championship brought on He's lost Somebody must have pulled it on one He's a big step fan He's like is that really him Is that really him

Windham was just in here Are you in any Talked about your golf swing I think it's one of the best On the VJ tour Or the most repeatable I should say Are you in any chase at all

With the way the game's going To do I need to get longer Yeah there's definitely A little bit of that So the last couple years has kind of been trying to get a little more consistent. And all that's been is just trying to get the ball in the fairway because my iron games improved a lot last couple years. So the more I can put myself in the fairway, I feel like the better chance I have

because my irons are really strong. Driver's been awesome this year. I've been hitting a lot of fairways, but ball speed is 170, 71 maybe. Hey, no shame. Yeah, that's, you know, it's fine. It used to be pretty good. Yeah, it's different. The last like five years, it's changed.

And I do. I played this social. media thing yesterday, these good, good guys. There's some boys out there. I mean, we're talking 198 ball speed. It is absurd. Yeah. How does it don't play for real?

Don't even play for real. Absolutely, wow. If you went all out, what ball speed do you think you get to? I can get the probably high 70s. Yeah. Yeah. If I did. So club head speed, what are you talking with that?

I've got, normal stock is like 112. Yeah. So when you ramp it up, are you one 15, 16? I can get it maybe 17. Yeah. But do you get what's your dispersion do at that? Yeah. Is it worth it?

No, definitely not worth it. Because some guys don't. You know, like Stephen Yeager was just like, I'm going to hit as hard as I can. He trained on it and stuff, but like he doesn't hit it any less straight than he used to. Yeah, so the thing is, yeah, like, Yeager's a great example. Like he wasn't exactly very accurate before. I feel like that was always kind of his Achilles. So instead of him, instead of scaling back and trying to hit more fairways, he was like, screw, I'm just going to hit it farther.

And he's done unbelievable at it. I mean, this year, I feel like he's played better than not I've seen. and play. And, yeah, there's definitely different approaches you can take. He's a cutmaking machine. Yeah. He used to be a pretty volatile dude. When he got hot, like he could rid, that's why he wins so much on the corn fairy, right? Exactly. But it was like miscut, miss cut, miss cut win, miss cut. Now it's just, yeah. Yeah. No, he's played some great golf here last year or two, yeah. Yeah. Well, a few weeks ago on CBS, you actually, we had you sit with Amanda Ballion. It's called a little golf. Yeah. What'd you think about doing that?

It's hard. Yeah, you got different voices in your ear and, and, and, yeah, Yeah, it's a lot harder than, you know, I always rag on the announcers, but... You were good at it, though. You know, they made it easy for me. Stick to playing golf, though, okay. Yeah, exactly. Play as long as you can. Yes, do not come over here.

If I asked you, you could have dream pairing on Sunday. Final pairing, you can pick anybody. Who's your favorite person to play with out there? Oh, that's a good question. I love playing with Harry. Harris English, that is. I had a good record with him for a while there. I was shooting like 65 every time I played with him.

So you don't, Harry. That's the... Well, he played good, too, but... It's not that good. It's good energy. I mean, how about those two swings in one group? Yeah. That's nice.

Yeah. And then, honestly, J.T. posted, and I feel like the last... We were joking with that. I played with him last Thursday, Friday. Yeah. I made a hole in one. And I had three hole in ones the last 14 months, and he was there for all of them. So, no shit.

Gotta throw him in there, right? That's wild. All on tour? No, only one in a competition. One was in the Part 3, and one was at Augusta in 12 in the practice round. Oh, that's right. You can make one on 12th.

That's still sick. Even if it's a practice round, you got an ace on 12 at August. That's definitely my best one. What's the damage like at a US, it's probably better. Damage like at a US Open, you make a hole in one.

Do you buy for all the media? Do you got to buy anything? What do you do? They made it easy on me. Like nowadays, there's already beer in the media tent. So all they did was just put my name on a cooler with beer. A bunch of alcoholics. A bunch of drunken media people.

A bunch of drunken fucking bumps. Just waiting for somebody to make a whole one once. They get house before they write their article. Thinking a shit serious. That's pretty good then. So nothing basically. I'm sure I'll have to buy next time I'll go out with JT. You have way better friends than I do.

I made one at Quail Hollow when you're on tour. And my club in Dallas opened up my tab. I'm like, that's nice, guys. You weren't even there. I called in and just ordered a polo. I just want a shirt. put it on cold stab. I had $600 worth of charges, and there was a cheeseburger on there.

And I told the gym, I go, I'm not paying for the cheeseburger. That's bullshit. I'll pay for the drinks, but the cheeseburger's out. That's awesome. That's great. Well, dude, man, we really appreciate you sitting down with us. You're one of the classiest guys out there. You're playing some great golf.

Keep it up, and thanks for joining us. Appreciate you guys. Keep swinging at that exact same way. Thanks for coming on, man. Appreciate you. No dogs. All right. That was Seth Straka, joining us on Subpar.

We filmed that back when we were at the Travelers Championship at our Sacks activation. Yes. But a lot of fun. down with the Diet Coke connoisseur, Sep Straka. Kid gets after it, doesn't he? He ain't joking around. People that get addicted Diet Coke get addicted Diet Coke, like heavy. Now it's like, I drink two.

No, it's like, I drink eight. Yeah, they put some stuff in there, bud. Or whatever. It makes you feel good. I mean, what's daily's, like, average consumption? A million. Something weird. Yeah.

Something weird. Just give me a whole case. Scott that belt, 11 a day, he says? Yeah, these Diet Coke people are crazy. They just pump them in there. I tell you what, he's not a bad. play at the Olympics. Lay Golf National,

ever heard of it? It's where we got our heads kicked. That's an understatement. Big time. We got everything on us with. 2018. 2018 got stomped out over there. Kind of like not a European-style golf course.

A lot of water. It's pretty much all through air. There is water everywhere. And I'm interested to see how they set it up because at the Ryder Cup there was insane rough, which was obviously good for the European team because they actually lay back and hit irons if they need to. Our guys were just shipping it. into the tall stuff and got just worn out.

But I'm with you. I'm interested to see how they set up. But with as straight as he hits it, if it's set up like that, I love Sapsraka. It's only 71.50, like, distance-wise, doesn't really move off of that. A whole lot. It's not long. He's not one of the longest, but he's straight. I think they'll have the rough up, maybe not quite, like, Ryder Cup, where there's, like,

kill the Americans if they missed the fairways, which they did. But he's a good play over there. And we got, you know, the U.S. guys coming in there. Luckily, none of them were on that team on the U.S. side that'll be playing over there. That feels like ages ago. Went back and looked at that team from 2018. It's like Captain's Picks, Tiger, Captain's Pick, Phil Mickelson, all these. I was like, things change.

Bryson, right? Bryson, yeah. Yeah. Correct. Well, let's pick the top two favorites are both Americans, Scotty Sheffler, Zander Schaulay, then Roy McRoy. Let's pick who's going to win the gold medal. All right. You want me to fire it off first?

You got something you do the honors. I'm going to go just a little bit down the board. 10 to 1. Still not great. out. There's only 60 guys in this thing, so it's not a big field. Should be 61. Juiced. Juice. Lute. Not Yost. Not Joost. Juiced. Juiced. Yeah. Free juiced. They need to be some t-shirts around that place. We got just absolutely pimped by his own nation in terms of going over there. But I'm going with John Rom, 10 to 1. Just one on live for the

first time. I think it's later than a lot of people would have expected. I know you and I had him. I was like three and a half wins for him this season on live. I thought he would go over there and just kind of have his way. He has. But he got that first one. Still hasn't finished outside the top 10. And I think it's just kind of like sigh relief. Like, okay, at least I can put that question to bed. Like now I've won over here.

Everyone get off me. And in good form, clearly got a little help from Tyrol on the last hole with a little. A little oopsie. A little oopsie. Helped his teammate John, Ron, Legion 13 guys out. John does not like drones or the people in the crowd over there. Because, I mean, these clips of him just giving it to these. I mean, they were giving it to John.

and he was just giving it right back him and Adam Hayes's Gaddy. I feel like there's a clip every week that they play of someone just losing their shit. I've come to like, look, I'm like, what's going to, like, dude, Abe Anser had a club throw recently. It was one for the record books. I feel like there's a good club throws. Rom seems to have something virtually every week that he teased it up. Something's pissing him off. And then Tyrol is like the one.

I haven't even seen him freak out that much yet. They did a gold, silver, and bronze medal of club throws this year on their broadcast. Oh, wow. Who got the gold? The gold? It had to be Abe. No, Abe got the silver. Joaquin Neiman got the gold because he threw it into the middle of a pond.

And then I can't remember who got the bronze. Respect. Like Rory at Bay Hill back in the day. He gave it a nice fling. But yeah, dude, there's something going on over there all the time. I actually, I'm like, yeah, this will be sweet. Let me see somebody lose their brain. All right, for me, he let me down at the Open Championship.

But he's going to bounce back for me. He went four and one at the Ryder Cup on this golf course. So obviously he's had a lot of success. He's 22 to 1. Tommy Fleetwood. Back to the well. Come on, Tommy. Back to the well.

To me, tell me. No, no. Didn't play the weekend at the open, which was shocking. Tons of people loved him over there. It seems like his game with Taylor-Make. My picture. My picture.

I think of it. Plays good in the wind. I was one up at Chinnock when it was blowing a million. Tommy Fleetwood. His game's always good. Yeah, it's a fun one to watch. Fun one to watch.

Well, I'm looking forward to the closing ceremony. I see how they top this bad boy. You got enough time? I don't. No, no, but I'll find it. I'm going to wait for Twitter to blow it all up and then go back and watch the highlights. All right, well, best of luck to all the Olympians over in Paris.

Special thanks to RLX for coming back and joining us. We'll talk to y'all next week's subpar.