Subpar - Subpar's BOLD predictions for all four Majors, the Super Bowl and more in 2025

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

On this week's episode of GOLF's Subpar Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz give their boldest takes for the biggest events of 2025. -- Subscribe Now to out YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt5ESUx6omMUsMoEKvMTzlA Shop The Birdie Juice Collection: https://fairwayjockey.com/collections/birdie-juice Follow Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/golf_subpar/?hl=en Follow Twitter: https://twitter.com/golf_subpar?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor    

All right, happy New Year, everyone. Welcome back to Golf Subpar. I hope everyone had a nice little holiday break. I know it was nice for us to get away for a couple of weeks, but we're back talking again. Slees, good to see you. It's been a while. Good to see you, too.

Happy 2025. Did Santa come? No. No. And it's not surprising. Yeah, you know, I'm not about the gifts anymore. 39 years old, not quite 40, not a man, but I'm still. You're not a man.

I'm past the gifts. You're not a man. You're not a boy, but you're definitely not a man. Yes. But yeah. Okay. Well, no Santa. It was good. Fun Christmas, fun New Year's.

Just had a little pro scratch out at Whisper Rock. Shout out to David Pooge. Another win for the program. Him and the good doctor, Jamie Stoitz. Got the W. Up there, 18 under par. Pretty impressive stuff. Ted's out who, JJ Spawn?

Scott Harrington. Don't forget about the Lairn. Rob Mangini, former ASU legend. Rob Mangini. Jayne. Right after that. Mark Harris finished third. Good lineup.

We brought in fourth. Myself and Brandon Harkins. You guys came in fourth. we were two back, I believe, of that. Me and Quaid Cummins. Rookie. Rookie. On the PGA tour.

What do we think of Quaid's game? What do we think of Quaid's game? It's good. It's clean. I mean, he's what all these, hits it hard, hits it high. He's a big boy. He didn't put it at his best, but like New Greens hasn't ever played out there before. You can be just fine.

And like, you and I talk to, you know, some other guys that were on the cornfrey tour coming out. And they're like, this is one of the guys that will, this guy will hang around on the PJ tour. potentially went on the PGA tour. He's one of the few that I think, you know, the guys that played with all those said big expectations for. So it was fun. Yeah, but, you know, I feel kind of like a PGA tour player. It's been a nice little offseason, got away,

practiced, worked on the game a little bit, and now we're back to work, just like the boys down in Maui. First off, we also got to get into. This is our 250th episode. How about it? Five years of golf subpar. So thank you all for all you that listen out there every week. Come up to us, make such nice comments.

even the haters on Twitter. Appreciate you as well. But it's been a hell of a ride. It's good to be back for another year. It's great to be back. It's hard to believe, $2.50. But we got the best listeners in the world. We got some good.

We already have some good interviews banked coming up for the next couple of weeks that are going to be great. And we'll just keep them coming. Yeah, but we're going to have a little fun with this episode. We're going to see how smart we are, which will probably be a kiddies. Yeah. But we're going to do some predictions for this upcoming season. Maybe our major winners or maybe a bold prediction. by each of us, and then we're going to get into a little football as well,

which is obviously what we're really good at. Of course. We got Century to recap. We got the PIP, college football play. We've got a lot of shit. Where do you want to start? Where do you want to start off? Let's just get the PIP out of the way because it's ridiculous.

Okay, I'm happy to go in. Tiger won, shockingly. They cut it down to 10 this year. Basically, Tiger won $10 million. Scotty Sheffler won eight. The next four won like 4.5 and the next 4-1-3.5. Yeah. Some of them made more than they made on the golf course this year.

I would say that I've hated this PIP. I've like knocked it from the jump. There's, name me one other competition in the history of this world where no one knows the score until it's over. And then they're like, hey, by the way, at least we get running like they just called this state, right? You know what I mean? And they cheat. But that thing, I'm just like, did you see some of the criteria? One of them is like general public awareness.

And then like golf fan awareness. How are you, what is, how do you quantify that? How do you compare Colin more, how would have? Xander Shaflae in general public awareness. I told you. It's the big, it's the dumbest shit in the world. They take them to a crowd of them all, drop them off and see who gets recognized. Whoever has to take the most pictures, you go higher up on the list.

Yeah. But yeah, it's interesting, man. I believe this is the last year of it. I hope so. Because basically, why don't we just say, look, Tiger, here's a bunch of money. You've changed the sport. We appreciate you. Here you go.

For a tour that needs money, this seems like a dumb way to dish it out. Scotty needs eight more million dollars. Like, by the way, the cornfrey tour could use a little. juice, maybe spend some of this in other ways. I just makes... I think the entire competition is stupid, but the fact that no one knows the score, no one really knows how they keep score, no one knows how it's

quantified, but at the end, it's just like, here's the list. I don't know how you don't ask questions. I believe Tiger teeted up. Max Homanod on it. I feel like he's a pretty visible guy. Tiger teeted up six times. Scotty Sheffler won nine times, an Olympic gold medal, a Masters and got arrested. And got arrested. Was all over every news channel in the world.

Probably thought he was going to win. I mean, if Scotty can't win in a year where Tiger basically doesn't play and he wins everything and gets arrested. It starts to get on channels like CNN and MSNBC that never cover golf. Don't give a shit about golf. I mean, I don't know what you got to do. But another 8 million for Scotty, it's good. Yeah, and congrats to Tiger on winning 10 million.

Let's get to the century. Hideki Matsiyama put on a clinic, put a set of a PGA tour record as far as relation to PAR, shooting 35 under. Also broke Cam Smith's record at the century, shooting, who previously held the record at 34 under par. How about you shoot three rounds of 65 on a par 73 and a little 62 in there. Eight under, eight under, 11 under, eight under, 35, win by three over Colin Moracawa, who does everything but win at the century.

Now six times for Colin Moracalla at Capulah. Worst finish, tied for seventh. Play's good every time. Just seems to either run up against someone like a decky that's just uncatchable or stubs his toe. But, I mean, dude, 35. Imagine going on shooting eight under every day. And then getting done and being out, oh, I lost by 30.

three. I wasn't even close to win in this thing. I mean, Max Homer tweeted out after one day's like the year is 2025 and 67s are no longer good. Yep. And 67 is six under par around there. That golf course is a resort golf course. It's got the biggest fairways on tour. There was very little way. I get it. They're going to torch the place. But dude, I'm, I'm getting to the point now, like we've talked about this golf ball roll. But I'm kind of for it. Like, Hadecki didn't hit more than a nine iron into a single par four the entire week. Supposedly a long golf course, 7,500 yards, even though there's elevation. Like, at what point, like, that's all these guys do anymore is just hit drivers, wedges,

reach part fives and two, shrink everything. It just feels like so one-dimensional. And that's not knocking anything Hadeki did. That was unbelievable golf, but just as a whole, when you look at this stuff, I think this year you're going to see scoring go, I mean, more often than not, it's going to be 20 plus under. I'm just saying even with the rollback, which, like, I want it to be harder. Like, I don't like seeing 35 under.

I think we're going to see a lot of tournaments have record. broken this year with how good these guys are. But even with the proposed rollback, if they do it, okay, you know what that would have made Hadeki do? Hit no more than an eight iron. Yeah, the proposed, the thing that's potentially common, isn't going to change. I mean, they lose very little distance.

The average guy out there, the average amateur, you're not even going to notice the change in the ball. But I'm talking like, can we ratchet this thing back? Where the long guys, by the way, the biggest, strongest, fastest guys on the PJ Tour will still be that regardless of what ball they're playing. but if we could make it where 300, 310 maybe even, you know, leads the PGA tour like it used to, and maybe see some guys hit a seven iron occasionally, a six iron, five iron.

Like I feel like those clubs, unless it's a part three, they're not even used anymore. I can't remember what hole it was out there, but it was one of, it was either Friday or Saturday, where the average drive on that hole for the day, and there's no way it was, I know it's downhill, I know there's slopes, there was no way it was ever designed this way. The average drive on the hole was 411 yards. Average. Yeah. There's no way when Corrinshaw went back and redid it or whatever.

They're like, you know what? I think everyone's going to drive it over 400 on this. This is what balls will collect here at 410, so we should put a bunker. I agree. That's not fun. And not everyone can do it. Like if the average, if my buddies went out there and played, like they're not driving it down at the bottom of that hill, but they're not the best in the world.

And I get it. We're talking about the 0.1%. Yeah. But 35 under, it's just not that fun to watch. I love to see guys. these guys are the best in the world. I like to see them struggling up like everything that's happened

is making the game easier. The technology with the driver, like that's why none of them don't hit drivers because you can hit it way off center. You know, it self-corrects and gets back in there. And if you do miss the fairway,

it's like, it's not that penalizing. I just hit a wedge from the rough. And there's just like strategies kind of gone, all this stuff. This is Old Man River yelling at clouds here first episode of the year. But I'm kind of to the form. I'm like, yeah, bring the shit back.

I'd like to see some guys hit some mid-irons once in a while. I did see your boy. I didn't see a bogey. I did see a funny tweet. And this isn't a shot at Wyndham, even though it is fun to take shots at Wendon. Okay. But he hit it out of bounds on the drive-able hole, I believe, on Saturday.

Okay, there's a draw-ball. Okay. And the shot tracer was behind it. It was a big high slash to the right that went out of bounce. Oh, right. And someone would have been in the right center of the fairway at L.A. Country Club. Yeah, it's in the fairway at L.A.

Yeah. That's good. Sorry, Windham. Tough break. It'll bounce back. But, yeah, I mean, look, we keep talking about making golf courses longer or whatever. we just filmed an episode with Rocco Media that's going to be coming out in a couple weeks, which is awesome.

Laint doesn't matter anymore. They hit it so damn far. You got to bring it in. Things have got to get narrower. We're going to continue to see the same stuff. You have to have rough. You have to have where fairway is a premium or else we're going to keep seeing records broken over and over.

Like 59? It's great score. It's in the history books. But we're seeing guys shoot 58. We've seen a guy on the Corn Fairy Tour shoot 57. Yeah, wait to the Amex in a couple weeks. They get the normal weather out there. it's going to be sniffed.

Someone might shoot 50-6 at the King to Country Club. Yeah, and it's not any disrespect to like the top guys in the world right now. That's exactly the way you should play the game, the way that it's played right now. And they're all trying to do it. Launch it to the moon. Knuckleballs. Hit it as hard as we can. Hit wedges.

You know, just get as close to the hole after the tee ball as humanly possible. But I feel like it's just become one-dimensional. And I think we're missing out on some cool golf because of these courses, man. Like, what are you going to do? Make them longer? it doesn't matter. I mean, I'm sure, I know you were watching, but the showdown at Shadow Creek,

they were talking about Bryson's new driver he's working on right now, where no matter where you hit it on the face, it delivers the same spin rate. Yeah. I was always taught... He's already got his bulge-faced irons to do some weird shit, too.

I mean, he's just going to be bulletproof no matter where he hits it on the face. And I'm not saying Bryson's not extremely talented. He's one of the best players in the world. I just, I want this equipment. I want the game to be difficult. You should have to hit it in the center of the face.

And it would make the guys like Scotty Schiffler, if they shrunk the sweet spot and the ball came back and it spun more and guys, you know, off center hits went astray. Like Scotty would dominate by even more. 100%. Because right now, the line between hitting it on the screws and not, it doesn't really change a whole lot. If it mattered, he'd win by more.

We talk all the time about this. Like the change in equipment over the years, like it really took off in the late 2000s. 2008, 2009, 2010 when things kind of started getting out of hand, if that never were to change, Tiger would have won even more.

Oh, without question. The equipment, the advances in technology with equipment hurt Tiger Woods more than hurt anybody because nobody hit the center of the face as often as he did. It shrunk the gap

between terrible ball strikers and great ball strikers because you're just not as, you're not penalized when you don't hit it in the middle. Anyways, Blazing Star, what else do we bitch about? You want to talk about anything positive?

What else should we bitch about? Should I tell you about that kid in my neighborhood? They got a dirt bike for Christmas that's annoying the shit out of it? I saw him today when I was pulling out. He was just going up and back and up and back. It's so loud.

Somebody needs to. I'm like, I'm about to call the HOA and be like, excuse me. I don't think this thing's street legal. That's when you know you've reached old man river status. When you call the HOA about a kid's toy, say, take this shit away. I was trying to watch some football on Sunday. Maybe take a little nap and all out here. Go on back and forth.

I'm like, dude, are you serious right now? He was gone. A lot of stuff to bitch about here in 2025. Speaking of, you know, if you want to talk a little ball, If you want to continue the complaining, we're talking to your Cowboys. They just missed the playoffs. Well, why do we've got to bring that up?

I mean, I've been out of the Cowboys for a while. Yeah, they stink. Jerry Jones is a much better actor. If you happen to watch Landman, you know what I'm talking about. Just had a nice little cameo in Landman than he is GM. But, yeah, things, I don't know, things aren't great. Mike McCarthy, don't know if he's going to stay or go.

You know, Dax costs a lot of money. Dax. CD, Rich. Micah's going to want to be rich. Got a lot of issues. I'm not too worried about it, but congrats to your Denver Broncos. We did it.

And going up to Buffalo and getting absolutely whipped next Sunday. Or Saturday, whenever it is. Ocontrere. What are we catching? Nine. As it stands right now? So what? Are you taking bills minus nine?

No, but you told me on the radio show you were taking Broncos money line, which is plus 3.30. Of course. I stand by that. Might as well make some money if they're going to go up there. But I don't, whatever they do in Buffalo. Props to Sean Payton. Bo Nix doing exactly what I knew he would do from the moment we drafted him,

turning into a franchise guy. I do owe, uh, Bo an apology for, he's won me over completely. You're a fan? We make some bad predictions on this show. That was won by me. He's been unbelievable. I thought we'd be better and I was hoping he was the guy. I never would have thought we'd make the playoffs.

Whether we win, whether we get boat raced by Buffalo or not, it's cool to have a team that's like, like, we got our quarterback. Now we can go, and I think we got our coach for a while. Like, now we can, now we can. matter for the next thing. Because, dude, it's been eight years since we mattered at all. You're paying Sean Payton 20 million a year, too. You better hope.

Get it done. He's going to be there for a while. Bo Nix, I know the Chiefs didn't play most of their stars or any of their stars. Yeah, nobody. But still, knowing you have to win. It's the NFL. Anything can happen. You have to win to get in the playoffs.

You go out there. You win 38 nothing. Bo Nix, I think, had five incompletions and through four touchdowns. Through 18 straight to start. 18 straight completions. So it'll be fun to watch. It's going to be. Shout out, Bo.

Riley Moss in the house. as long we have him. It'll be a good game. Keep plugging. Up in Buffalo. But let's do a little Super Bowl prediction here. Oh, we're already, okay. We're going to already, okay.

Well, we're talking about the NFL. We might as well stay on it here. Okay. Who do you like? Well, I said from the start of the year, okay? I went Buffalo out of the AFC and I went Detroit out of the NFC. And I'm going to go with my gun. I'm going to stay with it.

I know Detroit is banged up. I thought it was extremely impressive what they did against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday night with everything on the line to get the number one seed, get a buy. I love Dan Campbell. I mean, I've jumped on this train since the Cowboys suck. I've been rooting for the Detroit Lions. I do love Josh Allen.

So I'm going Detroit Lions versus the Buffalo Bills in New Orleans, but it's a little too much. I got the Buffalo Bills winning the Super Bowl. Oh, wow. Denver could throw a huge wrench in this. That could be done immediately. Right off the jump. That's what I said before the season started.

It's got a chance. You've got the one seed on the NFC. You've got the two seat on the AFC. The Chiefs, I know all they do. do is win and they're at home field throughout but i think this is the year buffalo can go in there and take care of business everybody count out the chiefs which sucks because they've been good for forever we're finally closing the gap a little bit but how you're going to bet against team they lost one game with their actual team i know they had a lot they could easily lost five but they didn't

and the last game they played with everyone they looked incredible when they click it's and i feel like you know you got to make the play but for a while they've known they're going to the playoffs as like after you've won multiple Super Bowls, I feel like your juices don't get going. I can't not bet on Kansas City just because until someone shows they're better than them, I got to keep going. I'll take Philly. Not the NFC. They seem to be rolling.

I'm just trying to do like contrarian, you know, not be like the most popular picks in the world, but Philly, KC. Chiefs winning. Chiefs winning three in a row. I mean, until someone proves they're better than them, and as long as they got Patrick Mahomes under center, yeah, I'll probably keep picking them. I mean, he's just miles better than anyone else at the game. You know, for him to take last week off, and then with the bye week,

I mean, so it's going to be like 20 days in between games for him, which is huge because his ankle was banged up. The question is, is, you know, rusty over reps and all that. But with Patrick Mahomes, I don't worry. I think a healthy Patrick Mahomes is all you care about. If he's, yeah, I mean, as long as he's playing. But the Eagles. Pretty much put anybody in the skill, I mean, Kelsey, obviously,

but you can throw any wideouts out there as long as they can catch, they're going to be in good spot. But the Eagles, make me. puk. Yeah, I don't, I mean, I feel like they're not getting a lot of hype either, even though they're just keep, what are they want, eight in a row or something like that? I think 10 now. And they just keep winning and no one seems to talk about them.

It's all Detroit. It's all, you know, Minnesota getting a little bit now. Anyways, that's my, whoever is playing, then tackle Seiquan. Yeah, good luck. All right. My leg twin, Sequan. Yes. Yeah.

We're the same species. That's cool. Identical. That's cool. All right. Just to recap, our Super Bowl predictions. I'm going with the bill. versus the Lions with the bills winning.

Sleez's got the Eagles versus the Chiefs with the Chiefs going for the three-peat. I look forward to neither of those playing out. No, both the All-Brygin eliminated. There's a nice preview into picking major champions and bold predictions. Oh, by here's a little. We still have college football to do, too.

We got college football too. Yeah, all right, let's go to college right now. Okay. Some other things, too. So this week, by the way, this is an incredible stretch for football fans. Thursday to Monday, all playoff games. This is glorious.

Only three college football games. games left too, though, which is a depressing time. I know, but it's going to be three good ones. And 245 days until the next NFL Red Zone, by the way. Scott Hanson, you're the man. We're about, yeah, shout out to you on another banner year. We got the semifinals. Yeah.

Coming up Thursday night, your father's, Notre Dame, fighting Irish, going up against the Penn State, Nittany Alliance. Who are you going with? Irish. Your dad would disown you. Penn State's had, not that they're a bad football team, but they've had the easiest road to the final four that you could possibly have. Got lucky against that really been challenged.

Although the Boise game was closer than that score indicates. If they could have just punched it in a couple times down in the red zone, not turn it over a bunch of times. That game would have been close. It looked like it was a little bit more of a blowout than it was. But I still think Notre Dame takes them after playing Georgia. If they can out physical Georgia, they can out physical Penn State. Low scoring, Notre Dame advances.

And then on the other side. What's the over under? 17? Yeah, it's not going to be high. It ain't going to be high. I'm actually going with the Irish as well, which pains me to say I'm not the biggest Notre Dame. fan in the world. Penn State, I just, I hate that they had this easy road. I mean, I'll hate on

my boys here, but having to go to SMU and then Boise State. It's like, really? Yeah, that'll be rectified next year when they changed the seatings. Like, Boise shouldn't be getting no knock on Boise. Ohio State goes Tennessee, Oregon. I mean, Oregon's, Oregon just got dirt naped. Yeah. Hard. Hadn't lost all season. By the way, like, they got blown out worse than some of the other, like, small schools that didn't belong. And no one's like, why is Oregon in the playoffs? You know? Well, they were undefeated. That could be a good reason.

Yeah, exactly. But all it matters is if you get your shit kicked. Yeah. And the playoffs, people are like, oh, shouldn't have been in. All right. So we're both going with Notre Dame. That's kind of terrifying. I got Ohio State.

The big one here, Texas, Ohio State. At Jerry World in Dallas. So basically a home game for Texas. Ohio State does travel, though. Texas catching six and a half. Yeah. You want me to give a bowl, you want me to do a football bowl prediction? Okay.

Ohio State beats them up. Really? Yeah. by like how many more than 12 i'll probably yeah as weird is that if they're even keep a semblance of what they've been doing the last couple weeks they're gonna well i mean they ain't slowing down if you're feeling froggy i'll take texas and 11 what's the line six and a half i'll say i'll give you the vagus line i'm just i'm making a bold prediction i would like seven i'd like an even number seven i will give you six and a half okay well we'll talk about it all fair as concluded listen i've been a

Texas fan my whole life growing up. That's where I wanted to go to school. My second choice was obviously SMU. I'm happy to be there. I can't believe you put an SMU down a pay. No, I wanted to go there. Coach Fields, then I wasn't good enough. They did. They did. And I thanked them. I think them. But I'm just saying as growing up, I was a Texas Longhorn fan, okay? Huge Colt McCoy fan, Vince Young. You're named after him, were you? I think he's younger than me. But anyways, I'm possible. I'm going with the horns. With the upside, I think Sarkeesian is going to get these boys rolling. They played a bad game against Arizona State. It was an incredible game.

They came out fire, and I thought they were going to run them out the stadium. Arizona State, shout out to them. They played extremely hard and easily could have won that game. But I think Texas bounces back. I think they're going to upset Ohio State and go in and play Notre Dame, Texas, Notre Dame, two of the biggest schools in all the land, going at it for the national championship. And Texas is back. They win the national championship for the first time since the 05-06 season. Is that right? Wow. That would make them back. They would be officially back if that happened.

I don't see them. I don't have them going to the national championship game. I have no, like, hate for Ohio State. Like, they're not at a conference with TCU or anything, like Texas and stuff. I wouldn't want to see them win because I have some friends who are Ohio State fans, and they are just brutal. They quieted down after that Michigan, and now they're piping back up again. I just think if they play how they've been close to how they've been playing,

they're the best team in the country. and I got them beating Notre Dame in the championship, which would suck. And you're out of the will. And it would be an unbelievable thing for Michigan fans because they can just be like, oh, yeah, it doesn't count. You didn't even beat us, you know? We won the national championship. We sucked and we beat you off again.

And how about Ryan Day going from like, we're going to burn your house down, leave town, we need a new coach, to he would be King Dingling up there. I saw some Ohio State fans say there would be an asterisk next to this because they lost to Michigan, even if they won the national title. That's how much that game means, which is awesome. but, I mean, at the end of the day, what's the whole point? They are. If they play the way they did against Oregon, I mean, they're going to be trouble for anyone.

That was unbelievable. But how about those two fan bases? Ohio State and Notre Dame. They played a couple years ago, too. They played the home-and-home, and they've had good games. Good games. All right, well, we'll see what happens. You got Ohio State winning it all.

I have Texas. Let's get to some golf. Okay? We're going to predict the major championships this year. Can I ask you one thing before that's maybe arguably bigger than the major championships? What? That debuts as this show comes out. Oh, tonight.

The TGL. We got the New York Golf Club going up against the Bay Golf Club. Which bay is it? San Francisco. But they're from the Bay. The San Francisco. Is it that bay? Yes, it is.

What are our thoughts? What's the golf world in store for? Listen, before I judge this, I'm going to sit back. I'm going to watch an episode. Okay. I know episode two is what they're really going to for because it's going to be Tiger Woods and Roy McElroy right after the Monday night playoff game. and they want everybody to stay on and lead into that.

The first one's not that exciting, but I will tune in. The stadium looks sick. Will it be fun watching golfers hit into a screen? I don't know. I have my doubts. I'm going to need these guys to show a little personality, actually a lot of personality, if they want to keep this thing entertaining. Like if it's a must-see TV thing every week.

How many matches have we had? How many vintages of the match have we had? Nine or ten. Has one have you come away from being, wow, that guy's personality was awesome. Justin Thomas as an on-course announcer. There you are. And you didn't even play. But otherwise, I'm like, we keep doing the same thing, and it keeps not working out.

You're asking these guys to do something. They're not really accustomed to doing, and it's very hard to do. And now we're like, let's make a whole league around that thing. And by the way, it's not in real golf. It's on a monitor. So, like, everyone that likes golf. I'm going to be watching tonight and see what it looks like. I just, I'm hesitant to think that it's going to look any day.

different and have more juice. I think there'll be a novelty to it at the beginning where people want to see it for the first time, especially when Tiger gets on the screen ever, people are going to want to see it, right? Then you add Rory to the mix too, but like continuing this and like, all right, episode three, you know, and four, like do you watch beyond that? I don't know. I think it's a tough, I think it's an uphill climb. Yeah. Like I said, I'll tune in. I believe they're expecting like 1,600 people in the stands. I don't know what's going to happen. Like the announcer, Scott Van Pelt, one of the best to ever do it. One of my favorites.

Matt Barry, Marty Smith, fantastic. Will they be interacting with the players? Can the players hear them? I have no idea. If it's just, here we go, these guys are going to call the shots and the players can't hear them and then we're just going to tune in

and see what the players are saying. I don't really see how it's going to be that great. But if Scott Van Pelt can get these guys going, talking some trash back and forth and having some fun, maybe it has something. Like I said, we're just going to sit back and wait to see. Maybe. I mean, we've had Barclay at virtually every single match.

I mean, he can stir the pot. get you going as well as about anybody, and it's still been slim pickings. Basically the highlight of every match. Yeah, slim pickings, which it shouldn't be. But we've been hearing about this thing for a long time. They spent a ton of money on it. These guys that are on these teams are making a lot of money for it. So we'll see what kind of show they put on.

All right. Yeah, we'll be tuned in 9 p.m. Eastern on ESPN. Can you gamble on this? Can you can? You can? Yes, you can. That makes it. That's better.

Now I'm interested. Now I'm invested. All right, well, let's get to the majors this year. See if one of us can pick a winner here in the four major championships. We're going to start it off with the Masters, which I cannot wait to get to Augusta this year. And Slees, no one has gone back to back since Tiger 2001, 2002. There is no doubt who the best player in the world is.

There is no doubt who the best ball striker in the world is, and it's all about second shots at Augusta National. This man is hands down the best iron player in the world, and he's going to go back to back. Give me the world number one, Scotty Sheffler, to pick up his third green jacket in four years. This is going to be super boring, and I didn't, I tried everything to find somebody else

that I liked over him, but I have Scotty too. Wow. I mean, this is a place where, like you said, second shots. He's so far above everyone else in that category. He's already gotten it done around there a couple times. He has experience, I just, it's hard for me to see him not playing well. And if he puts at all, like we say at a lot of places, I mean, he's won comfortably, you know.

And I believe. I think he does it as weird as that is to say, how much expectation can we put on Scotty Shepard? I don't know how you can't. I won't bet him because his odds will be stupid, but I think he's going to win. And I believe, if he does get it done, that'll tie Ted Scott for the all-time caddy wins at the Masters.

Oh, really? He's currently in second. He's got four at the moment. I believe five is the all-time record. Two with Bubba and two of Scotty. Pretty cool for Teddy. I mean, he might win. I mean, they keep going the way they're going.

You're going to beat that thing. The way that's hard to see him not play well there. 100%. I mean, we said it about Georgia Speath back in the day when he was off and rolling with his short game. And by the way, he didn't get near enough credit for how great of an iron player he was back when he was really going. Scotty, his iron game is as long as he didn't cut himself or anything.

What's he doing in the kitchen? Yeah. Hey, stay out of the office. There's broken glass. Somebody else do it. Yeah, so here's a bunch of plastic Tupperware from now on. That's why I keep my ass out the kitchen. Exactly.

It's dangerous up there. All right, let's go to the PGM and let you pick first. I have a feeling we might be on the same page for the PJ championship. I know where you're going probably. I think the whole world will be on that. Although that same guy gets a lot of hype every April as well. Going to the PJM and go to the guy that's played really well around this golf course and is probably the second best player in the world right now.

Zander Shafle at Quill Hollow. What do you think about that? He went to battle with Wyndham. He's been in multiple times. He went into a battle with Wyndham two years ago, was in the final pairing, was with Rory this past year in the final pairing at Windham, and this is where the whole Doddy Pepper

is my kryptonite thing started because of this tournament right here, or this golf course right here. That's right. He shook that, though. Not today, Doddy. Not today. DP. You know I love Zander.

I mean, in my opinion, the only guy in professional golf with zero weaknesses. The problem is, there's a man named Roy McRoy that is going to be in the field, and he kind of likes Quill Hollow a little bit. He's only one there four times, Slee's. In 13 events, he has 10 top tens. I mean, he makes this golf course look like a pitching putt,

some of the lines he takes. They keep moving that bunker back on 16. He keeps shipping it over it. There's just something to be. He's an honorary. The more they do that, the more it favors him. He's an honorary member of Quill. He loves Charlotte.

I know this might be the only tournament where Scotty Sheffler is not the favorite. And they might be tied, actually, because Scotty is that good. But I know the whole world's going to pick Rory to end that major drought. It's been since 2014.

But I think Rory gets it done at the PGA this year. Which is the reason I'm not picking him because he's had 10 plus years now of every April. It's like just the year. It's a grand slant. He always has the expect day,

especially at Augusta because they're like should be in theory. perfect golf course for him. Now Quail is, because he's done it there, what, four times? Four. Is that you said? And he shrinks that place. But it's also like, I mean, it's, you're going to have a lot of, a lot of all the things

that you just said about him being talked about that week. And it's just kind of like, man, it's tough to live up to those expectations. And until it gets one, it's been a long time. People call for him every year to win major championships and just hadn't been happening. Look, I followed his group on Sunday this past year when you got it done. And it was just an absolute clinic. what he did around there. I was like, this golf course is hard,

and he makes it look so easy. By the way, four wins. He's also lost in a playoff when Ricky Fowler won his first PJ tour event. That's right, back in the day. Him and DA points. That's right. Oh, yeah, Lego Belt. Yep.

Lego belts. Rory at Quill Hall is like a perfect prime example of what I was talking about, what we were talking about at the opening. Like, I don't like seeing Quill Hall. You know what I mean? That's supposed to be, all right, this hole goes out here, and then you hit a long iron in and stuff. And it's not like Rory's doing things that very few people,

people on earth can do, but I'm kind of like, man, it'd be nicely that golf course kind of play the way it's supposed to, and not hit just wedges and nines around that monster. But if you can do it, you do it, but it'd be more fun to see guys have to create some shots. I have a feeling Kerry Hague and everyone involved in the PJ Championship, they're going to bring that place in a little bit, make it a little more narrow, get some rough. I mean, back in the day, when it used to be the Wachovia Championship, but you remember when David Tom's made eight on the last and still won, hacking it out of that left. I mean, the rough used to be six inches long.

Like, it was auto chip out. If it's like that, that could cause a little problem for Rory, but still, he's got too many good vibes around there. That's one of the tournaments I'm most excited for this year because Charlotte is an incredible city. They love their golf, and that place will be going nuts all week. And Quail brings out, like, good winners. I feel like it's a hard to fake it around that golf course. You go back and look at it like Ricky, Rory, Windham, Matt. So you can kind of go down the list, JT.

Like, and the closing stretch is phenomenal. Hopefully we get a tight one coming down the stretch. But, yeah, I mean, Roy's going to have all the hype leading into that based on what he's done to that golf course. But I'll take, you know, Zander might be getting slept on us. A guy that won two majors last year, maybe flies in under the radar unless he goes and wins it, I guess it, which he also could. Yeah. The scene on 18 there at Quahalo, about as good as it gets. Great town.

Yeah. Great time. All right. Let's go to the U.S. Open at Oatmont, the hardest course in the world. Place is absolutely impossible. It's long. The greens are insane. I think it's going to test every aspect of your game.

and like I said just a little bit ago, nobody in professional golf has zero weaknesses, in my opinion, other than Xander Schaulay. And if you look at his U.S. Open record, okay, he's played eight of them. He has seven top tens in eight U.S. opens. His worst finish is a T-14. He is built for a U.S. Open.

It would shock me if he doesn't win one for his career is over. I'm going with this year at OPMont. You can't disagree with that. I mean, I love the guy. I cannot wait to see what. Oakmont looks like. They take a lot of pride in that golf course being the toughest test in all of golf. Hopefully it doesn't rain leading up to that thing and they can bake it out, grow the rough,

and we can see these guys get challenged because it's so hard to do that. Now, based on all the things you said about the golf course and what it's going to take, I'm going with a guy that I think is going to be a popular, I don't know if it's at this tournament or just majors in general, but it's coming. Then I'm going to go with Ludwig O'Ber. Probably if he's not the best driver in the world right now. He's in the mix, and we'll continue to be like that for a long time. He's just U.S. Open seems perfect for him. The way he drives it on a string, iron plays great. There's nothing that's not set up for him, but I love him at the U.S.S. The harder to the golf course, the more I like him.

I like him at the American Express. I like him at the U.S. Open. I like him with a golf club in his hand. But the harder of the golf course, the more it penalizes bad shots, he hits very few of them. I take Ludwig. I saw Max Homa on Smiley's Happy Hour during the century, they were showing him. He's like, I mean, this guy's built in the lab. He does everything perfect. And you hear that from the best players in the world say that about Ludovic, right? That's kind of when you know, when you hear it from the, like, dude, this guy's different, this guy's special. Like, that's all you hear from him. He's barely been out there. And then he's figured it out pretty quickly. Now he's played in the biggest stages, biggest arenas,

his Riders'Inty winner. Yeah, he's coming. He's played four career major championships. Yeah. Did he finish runner up at Augusta? At Augusta, yeah. His first trip? Yeah, I mean, dude, he's just. grouped it on 11. Could have been right there. He's just, he's special. All right. So let's move on to the Open Championship. It returns to Northern Ireland and Royal Port Rush, where last time an Irishman won. Shane Lowry won by six. It was the sickest. And had one of the greatest celebrations of all time. I think it might

still be going. That was one of the cooler scenes in like recent major championship. Walking up 18. And for him to like, dude, you get your career could in tomorrow. Like, cool. I did it. That's as good as it's ever going to get. It's right up there with him finishing seventh in the PIP. Right. It's right. Shout out to Shane. I forgot about that.

Three and a half mill. Shane's everywhere in the news all over social media, dude, of course. Who are you going with for the open? I'm going with John Rom. Okay. I feel like he's not, he didn't have the best major performance last year, right? Went to live. People are kind of like sleeping on all this type of stuff.

You and I see him around here all the time. I think his motivation to win major championships is as high as ever. He hears the narrative. He knows about it. I think he wants to prove everybody. wrong. He's probably one of the most competitive guys that we know in golf. And the way he drives the golf ball, the windows he can hit at low, high, short game, all that. I just, I like him at a bunch of different major championships, obviously. But I feel like an open championship is a place

where he's going to get it done eventually. Why not this year? Okay. Um, what do you think? I almost picked Tommy Fleetwood. He was my runner up. Love Tommy Flewley. He was my runner up. Like, can Tommy get one? Let's get Tommy a major. He is. so good. He's been close to the Olympics. He's been close at majors. He just, come on. He's technically never won a PJ Tour event. He never won a PJ Tournament. Golf Swings incredible.

Everyone loves him. I would love to see Tommy. He also finished, I believe, ninth in the PIP. That's right. Yeah. Big year for Tommy. His general public awareness is pretty high for Tommy Fleetwood. All right. Obviously, love John Rom every single week. For me, I just think this is going to be

a massive year for this guy. Last time the Open was here, he started out with a little eight on the first hole. He was all the talk going in. He's from Northern Ireland. It was the hometown favorite had the weight of the country on his back and proceeded to hit two balls out of bounds to start the tournament. I have a feeling he's out for revenge when it comes back to Royal Port Rush. I have Roy McElroy picking up his second major of the year.

Wow, ending the decade-long drought with two in the same year. At the two places where the pressure will probably be the most extreme for him. Big time players make big time plays and big time moments, Sleason. That's right. There's been a lot of them. There's been a lot of big time moments over 10 years. And I'm basing this all off his performance at the showdown at Shadow Creek.

He looked great. He looked really sick. He looked really good. Yeah, beating the hell out of Bryson and Brooks. So you got Rory winning two times. I mean, Rory comes up on everyone's list every single year for the last decade. It's not like I'm going on any limbs here. I mean, Scottie, Rory, Zander, Rory.

I wanted some like contrarian type of thing. Yeah, I got Scotty, Zander, Ludwig, John Rom. Yeah. Like, I wanted to go. go out on a limb and pick some sleepers, but I was like, no, I don't think they're going to do it. All right. Well, we'll see if we are right at the end of the year. But let's do one last thing to get to.

Let's do a bold prediction for the 2025 golf season. I got a bold one. Let's hear it. It's bold, okay? The probability of it probably low, but I think it's feasible. Okay. I'm going to take, for my bold prediction of 2025, Luke Clanton playing on the U.S. Rider Cup, Wow.

I got an amateur. Still an amateur. Making it to Beth Page, okay? That's bold. That's bold as shit, by the way. Like I said, the probability of this, light. But given what he's done on the PJA tour this past year, he's going to get some starts,

he's going to get some opportunities earlier this year. He's probably going to win the PJ Tour you, and then be on the PGA Tour. If he goes out there... He's actually technically not able to win the PGA Tour U. He can get the accelerated program because you have to be a senior to win the PGA Tour. Yeah.

All right. Well, he could just decide to turn pro or whatever. He's going to be on the PJ tour in May, I believe. And I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility. He goes out there and wins something. It won't be in the signature events. He's going to be playing, you know, the other events. I mean, based on what he's done.

He's close to having done it already. And I think if he goes and wins once and contends and plays well, like, dude, this guy is going to be on the team going for, like, can we get a guy? When it comes that 11-12 spot, why wouldn't you slide a guy in there? Huge firepower. hits bombs, puss it great. Got a lot of energy too much I like. That Beth Page, you need guys that chip, not that very many of them don't anymore,

but that's my super bold prediction for that. It's bold? It's not impossible, but it's, it would take some special, special stuff. It's bold, and I like it. He will be, I would be shocked if he doesn't win the Hogan Award, which will give him the final three points he needs to get the PGA Tour U Accelerated program, which is 20 points.

That'll make him a member of the PGA Tour. I expect him to turn pro after NCAA is in May. Get going. He'll get, obviously, play everywhere. He can get sponsor exemptions into the last couple of signature events. Hey, I'm here for it. Stranger things have happened. Stranger things, it's not like he did it one time last year.

I mean, he was top 10 and half of the events he played and he contended. He had chances. Look, he came down to the last hole. I mean, he could have one right now. Yeah, he bogeed the 72nd hole at Sea Island, ended up losing by two. I mean, Nick Dunlap won twice once as an am. wants as a pro is to say Luke Clanton can't do it. He's had more runs at PJA Tour events and more success than Dunlap had at the time he won.

All right. It's bold. I like it. Here's mine. And look, 2025. Roy McElroy to win a major? No. 2025, I want to be the year positivity.

Good things are going to happen. It's been a rough few years for golf. So my bold prediction is there's going to be an agreement made. We are going to see live players playing in PGA tour events before the year. is over. I'm not saying it's going to happen right away, but before the season is over, we're going to see John Rom. We're going to see Brooks Kepka, Dustin Johnson, playing on the PGA tour. Everything's going to work out. Everyone's going to be happy, and it's going to be a great 20-25 for the game of golf. Everyone's going to come together and all the guys

won't want them to pay any fines or anything like that. Just kumbaya, we are the world type stuff. It is bold. By the way, everyone wants, that would be fantastic. I'm rooting hard for that. I'm sick of all the noise and the bullshit. Let's just get them all back and start playing. Who cares if they got paid? Tough break. Could have got it if you went over there. And we can get rid of these live bots on social media. It'll be great. I mean, just everyone come, like, that's why as shitty as it's been for a couple years, like, with the, you know, talent spread out. That's why the majors have gotten like a tick up,

in my opinion, because now it's like, ooh, now we get them all in the same place at the same time, which you used to get all the time, but four times the year. Can I make one other minor bold one? Okay. Less bold, also Ryder Cup related, David Pooge on the European team. Yeah, I like that one. I actually think that's going to happen. Do you think that's probable? Yeah.

Probable might be high, but I think he's going to go do big things on live this year. He also props to him. He goes over and plays in Asia. He does all the things where he can get World Golf ranking points. And dude, he's, I mean, he's freak show talent. I mean, with the subpar effect, we've seen what it does. I think him coming on here is probably all he needed to get Luke Donald's attention. He's probably going to be on there.

I mean, if you look, by the way, we didn't even talk about this. but the subpar effect. Our man George Burge got the number one song and country music right now. Congratulations to you, George. Cowboy songs, one of my favorites out there right now.

The world took notice. Once again, thank you subpar. George, come on back. You're welcome anytime. You're on another smash. Another smash hit. He was great, by the way. I've personally started

and ended the walk-on program at Texas. Yeah, so good. I got one of my star players punched in the face the first week. That's beautiful. But going back to your David Pooch thing, yeah, especially coming off the big win at the pro scratch at Whisper Rock.

Yeah, that's what sold me on it. Yeah, I think that really did it. Nothing else. I wouldn't be one bit surprised to see David Pooge up at Beth Page as part of the European Ryder Cup team. Europeans got some good young guys coming. Not that the U.S. doesn't, but they got Ludwig, Huygard, Pooge coming. He still got Tommy Fleetwood.

Yeah, and they still got their vats. Roms in his prime. Victor Hodlin? It's going to be, that's going to be a show. It's going to be fun. That's going to be that. That's the one I'm looking forward to the most of 2025, that thing. I think it could be a mess, by the way.

And we'll be there for it. But damn, it's going to be good. It's going to be fun. All right. Well, what a way to get 2025 going? Can't wait to see if we're right or completely wrong at the end of the year. But it's going to be a lot of fun. Thank you all for tuning back in.

We're going to have a hell of a year here on Subpar. Next week, we've got one of the best personalities in the game of golf joining us. Rocco Mediate is our guest on Golf Subpar. We'll talk to you next week.