Subpar - Thomas Detry's unique journey from Belgium to the PGA Tour

Episode Date: March 5, 2024

On this week's episode of GOLF's Subpar, PGA Tour pro Thomas Detry joins Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz for an exclusive interview. The native of Belgium talks how the University of Illinois has become a pipeline for his country, traveling the world as a young amateur and his first impressions of Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas. -- 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

Welcome back to golf subpar with Colt Nost and Drew Stoltz. It took an extra day, but the Cognizant Classic is in the books. And one of our past guests, Austin Eckrope picks up his first PGA tour win. I mean, he put it on cruise control Monday morning and just rolled to a three-shot victory over your new guy, Minwoo Lee. I know. And Eric Van Royne, who played an incredible round on Sunday. Absolutely got hosed by the weather. Yeah, without quite, that's one of the, like, disappointing things about the entire final round is Van Royan was having one of those rounds that, like, you go.

through your entire career, however long on the PJ tour. There aren't many of those where just everything's going right. I mean, 28 on the front, 9 makes the, just came off the huge. The first time he ran into any problems on the 11th, and he makes like a 15-footer for PAR. Sometimes the PAR saves not dropping a shot or bigger than the birdies you're making, and then he stripes it down 12, and then bam, horn. And he's got to go in there, sit around. All of a sudden, he's in the lead.

Everything's changed. He's got to think about it, and he goes back out, plays the last seven. Even PAR. I don't know if he would have won the golf tournament if that thing doesn't get interrupted, but I would have loved to see what he was going to shoot because it was going to be a weird score around a very tough golf course. But shout out to Austin Eckrope, man.

Only his 50th start on the PJ Tour. New resident of Scottsdale, has been in his winners out here. Obviously, he's picked up a few tips along the way, but made it look easy. And it was honestly to get your first win on the PJ Tour, like, to come out on a Monday morning. Not that many people around.

Conditions, perfect, soft from the night before. It was kind of like an ideal world to try to close that thing out as opposed to on Sunday, a little different, all the feels, all the nerves. Sleeping on the lead again, one extra night kind of sucks, but pretty good deal for Austin Nacro to be able to close it out like that and props to him.

Big win for the kid. Yeah, when you're first in greens and regulation and first in driving accuracy, you're going to do good things. And this is a guy who had a great chance to win the Byron Nelson last year. Jason Day shot nine under on him when he went out there and he played great, just came up a little short, got beat that day.

Had the 36-hole lead at the Sony open, got a cold putter on the weekend and struggled a little bit. but this is a guy. I've got to know him over the last year or so. He is so solid. His attitude is incredible. Everyone around him that knows him really well, like nothing bothers this guy.

Like he can shoot 80-80 leading into a tournament at home on the weekend. I'd be like, oh, Austin's probably going to go play well this week. He just, nothing seems to fluster him. It's so cool. Got a great head on his shoulders, great team around him. But he is, we like to say he's a flusher, man. He does not miss the center of the club face very often. No, and he's long enough.

He's not the world's longest, but he's long enough. Hits it out of the middle. He's comfortable moving it both ways. And to your point, the fact that he just, like, nothing bothers. And he kind of reminds me a little bit of Dustin Johnson. Like, there was a guy that could just brush off terrible losses. You know, the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay and things like that. And it never seemed to bother him.

Eckroats kind of along the same lines. When we played that little pro-scratch deal out at the Rock earlier this year, we played the first round together. He made zero birdies. And his amateur made, like, four or whatever. And we played with so many those guys. I mean, how many times they get down on their game when they're not hitting a grade or things like that? And, like, he didn't care at all.

And then he goes out and starts playing good golf. He's the kind of guy, now that he's in these elevated events, you know, he never won on the Corn Fairy Tour, but like the bigger, harder, the more emphasis he put on ball striking, I think the better for Austin Akron. Because if there is an Achilles Hill in there, he kind of goes as the putter goes, but he drives it incredible, irons it really well too.

And when he puts like he did this past week, you see what happened. So I think the bigger, harder golf courses for him, probably playing to his hands more so than the shorter kind of birdie-fest putting contest. Yeah, it was fun to watch, man. I'm so pumped for him. that was a big time win, gets him into all the signature events coming off a really solid rookie season.

Obviously gets him in the Masters as well. Huge for him. Let's talk about the golf course. He can afford another tattoo now, too. Add to that chest, you know, maybe out of sleeve or something. Add to that little, what does he got, like the world on his chest or something? It's not like that. Yeah.

There's no reason for it. He just got it. He's on top of the world right now. Yep. But let's talk about the golf course for a second because you and I, I mean, this is where, you know, basically you say your career died when you went to Q school there. I played several when it was the old Honda classic. All we do is talk about how damn hard this place is. And you can't control Mother Nature.

I get that. It was soft, very little wind for there. But the setup, making number 10 of par five, the rough being way down. What are we doing? Way down. We see so many shootouts on the PJ, or I'm not complaining about golf guy. But like, when you get a course that can really challenge these guys and potentially like single digits under par can win, like, let's do it. I think it's fun.

As a view, like the 23, 2,400 parts, we get tons of those. There's not that many courses unless you get some weather that can challenge these guys. You got one at PG& National. And, like, I was getting messages like, I thought you said this place was hard and all this stuff. It is. Thursday, it was blowing negative, it was blowing zero miles an hour. I didn't even think it was possible for it to blow zero down there. It was soft.

The rough was down, all the things. And you got some, the first day when I looked up at the leaderboard, like, oh, my, what have they done? They changed. They playing different T-boxes? It's like 700, 700, 700, 600, 600, 6th, I was like, oh my God, it didn't used to be like that. Granted, I've never played it when it's been warm and not blowing. It's been cold and windy when I played it, and it's a monster.

But I'm with you. I would love to see them make that setup as challenging as they can. You can't compete with the rain and stuff like that, soften it up. You can sure it's all make the rough long and things like that. That's a fun golf course to watch guys have to go around there and have very small margin for error. Yeah, and as far as relation to par, like Austin Nekro, etc. record, having number 10 as a par five, definitely helped that out. But I heard a lot of the players were complaining that the Florida swing was too hard. I'm like, okay, who cares? Like, one of my

favorite things about that tournament is when NBC would come on air, it was always like just the sound effects of the ball splashing and just seen so many guys. It's got the 15 and just 15 balls in a row. Water. People lose their shit, throw the club up in the air and just freaking out because it's so damn hard. And now I'm like, oh, they said it's too hard. And now we're just going to make it Palm Springs. Yeah. I don't, I don't like that part. No, there's, there's, like, said, there's so many shootouts on the PJ tour. We're like 20 under par now. It's kind of like the number you need to get to at a ton of these different places. Here's a golf course where 10 can be great. Granted, they changed the

par, so it's hard to compare it to years past, but it can still challenge the hell out of them. And I feel like they kind of let them off the hook, and maybe because the field wasn't as strong or whatever. But like, I think as a viewer, you like to see guys make some bogeys. That's why I love the U.S. Open so much or the Open Championship when it gets nasty conditions. It's fun to watch that. We know these guys can shoot 22 under par. uneasy golf courses. When you got the hard ones, make them hard. But we look like idiots saying how hard this place was, and they torched it.

It's a tough stretch. I mean, you have this week, you lead into Arnold Palmer, which Bay Hills brutal. He's normally pretty tough because it gets so crispy. The player's championship, and Innesbrook is tough. And I enjoy those four weeks. It shows you, like, who the best players in the world are, in my opinion. Like, you can't fake it around these places. And I thought they just kind of went soft on them a little bit this week.

And I was a little disappointed in it. I think Austin Echo could have potentially won by more. if it played harder. He was number one in driving and in Greens and Reg. It's like he did all the things you need to do around BJ National. But I'm with you.

I think the heart of this setup, the more you separate the grate from the next tier down. And we look like idiots that didn't look that hard for the boys. It was hard. Yeah, exactly. But some other news in the golf world.

Anthony Kim made his return. Didn't go great, which I don't think any of us expected him to play well, but shot 76, 76, 74 for 16 over par, he finished DFL by 11 shots. Surprised or no? Surprised maybe DFL by 11th. You know, last week when we were talking about,

I think we both kind of had him in the middle 30s range, if we had to guess, which looking back on it now, maybe a little optimistic for a guy that hadn't played a competitive golf round in 12 years that I think he was going to finish last by 11. No, but I would have been shocked if he would have played good golf. And at the same time, if he would have gone out there and finished, say, 30th, I think the narrative would be like, look, he hasn't played golf in 12 years and he finished more or less.

middle of the pack on the live tour. That tour sucks, you know what I mean? But he went out there, and he's playing against guys that are sharp and playing every, you know, playing a lot of competitive golf. And he looked like a guy that had been not playing competitive. Dude, he took a drop on one hole and dropped it from his shoulder height. Like, he didn't even know the new rules of golf, like drop from the, he's like, what are you talking about? So, I mean, he hasn't played a tournament in 12 years. God knows how long he went without playing any golf. He's clearly not watching. He doesn't even know what the new rules are. It doesn't take away from the luster of Anthony Kim coming back. I'm still interested to see what he does going forward.

I want to see more golf shots. I watched a bit of the coverage this past week, hoping to see Anthony. And it was kind of they just cut to him every now and then for a highlight or something like that. But I think that's part of the cool part about it. It's like the one expects him to be great right away. Let's see the progression. I want to see him play golf. But yeah, it was he's generating some buzz.

And for me, I'm still personally interested in seeing what he does going forward. Yeah, I mean, it's one week. I don't think we need to look too much into it. I am shocked he finished last by 11. The golf swing looked pretty good for the most part. But there's going to be some rust there. It's not like playing at home with your buddies. I actually got a little prop bed offered to me by a buddy.

He wants 30 to 1 odds on Anthony Kim finishing in the top 10 twice for the seasons over there on the list. Twice is 10 events. Two top tens. He's like, dude, his game looked pretty good. I go, he finished last by 11. It's a long road between where he is right now and a top table. Look at the name 10 guys right now that are world beaters over there. You're going to have to go beat all.

He lost Milwaukee Neiman by 33. Yeah. It's right there. It's 11. Dude, his first round, I mean, I think his first hole he had the top three wood. Shout out to Anthony for topping a three wood. Like I said, you're not a real golfer if you haven't topped a three wood in a tournament. Follow that up with a shank.

Like, the dude's rusty. And he knows the whole golf world is locking in on every single shot he hits. His score is going to get scrutinized and all that stuff. It's going to take some time. But, yeah, the swing looked good. Maybe a little shorter than we're used to seeing maybe a little quicker in transition. That's probably just from not playing a whole lot and feeling the nerves. But I'm still excited to see what Anthony,

does. They got one in Hong Kong and then they come over to States in Miami, all right before the Masters. So I expect them to get better week after week after week, but it's a long haul to be in competitive and professional golf from not playing at all in 12 years and clearly not following golf that much with a drop from the shoulder height. Yeah, golf, I mean, golf's freaking hard. I saw a deal where he, 12 years ago was averaging around 174 ball speed. He was down to 170, which with new equipment, faster ball, a little surprising. but hey, you've been out of the game for 12 years. I'm interested to see how he does going forward.

I think he'll get better each round. I still think he's a long ways away from competing, though. Yeah, from like contending and things like that. And he said, you know, I'm here to bust everyone's ass and things. I think he wants to, I think he genuinely, I don't think it was like a money grab. He could have been fine with the insurance policy and just stayed doing what he's been doing. But he wants to play. I think he'll continue to get better.

But from where he is right now to like contending or the top 10 bet that you got like, that's a long haul. That's a long haul. But I want to watch it. That's what's so intriguing about the guy. It's like nobody knows what he's been doing for 12 years. And then bam, here he is on the scene again. I want to see it. Yeah, he'll be teeing it up this week in Hong Kong.

So it'll be interesting to see what he does in his second week back. Some interesting comments from Paul Asinger, who did an interview with Golf Week, sat down with them on Sunday, talking about his departure from NBC. Basically how he said, we got an offer, went back with a counteroffer. They said, see you later. We're done with you. I was also asked about who could possibly be the next analyst. He said Charles Barkley should be there. I just want to let you know

Charles Barkley has a 10-year $207 million deal with TNT. I don't really see NBC paying that much for a golf analyst. Good deal. It's a good deal he's got over there. You're going to have to open up the wallet. It would.

And then went on to say how basically the best players in the world don't play on just the PGA tour anymore. The PGA tour has kind of turned into a feeder tour for Liv, and he doesn't miss broadcasting golf at all and is really sad with everything that's going on in the world of golf.

Yeah, it sounds like a bitter exit with NBC. and then he doesn't miss golf and things like that. I agree with a lot of what he said. I don't think PJ Tour is a feeder tour to live. I think if it was, there'd be more guys jumping ship. I do think they have a lot of great players over there. Some guys that really matter in the game of golf.

But the one thing that you said that I totally agree with, he's like golf is kind of going right now the way tennis has gone. Where it's like the best players show up for the major championships. That's what people watch. They watch Wimbledon. They watch the U.S. Open, French, Australian, whatever. And then in between that, nobody knows what's going on. Unless you are a diehard, like, tennis guy.

I do think that's kind of the way golf's going right now where it's, like, some of these events, you know, that we got leading up to the Masters, whether it's Live or BJ Tour, like, maybe the diehards know what's going on. It can rattle off who's won on the BJA tour prior to that, but more, I think, more casual golf fans are only going to be tuning in for the major championships.

I fully agree with them on that, which sucks because, like, you know, we want the best guys playing against the best guys, but the fact of the matter is we don't have that right now. I think it's extremely sad if that's what it gets down to, where all that matters is the major championships and none of these other great events get any attention. I mean, the ratings have not been good on the PGA tour.

I said, if we get to the Masters, and for some reason they fall, golf's in big trouble. I hope that doesn't happen, but, man, it is, things are not good right now. It feels like for the Masters, you know, it's going to be good, and then you get the best guys on live, best guys on the PJ Tour, boom, this is the first time we get to see them every single year. But it feels like more now the hurdle for golf viewership,

It's more like, let's get the people back that haven't been tuning into the other stuff that used to be here. It's not like, how do you go? Like, they're a long ways away from gaining new fans, people that don't tune into golf on a weekly base. It's more like, how do we get back to people that we've lost? Because I think they are losing people, just friends of mine that are casual weekend golfers or things like that. And the kind of the narrative is, yeah, call me when it's, call me when it's April. I'll watch the Masters. But I don't know what's going on in Mexico or it live or, you know, the cognizant or things like that.

I think you're losing the casual fan. I mean, look, the leaderboards have not been the most attractive so far this year on the PGA tour. Yeah, I mean, we've had three guys with better than 100 to one odds win so far on the PGA tour this year. It's just, it's crazy what's been going on week and week out. The weather's been horrendous. You know, we've had a 50, the one event that I thought could create a lot of buzz was going to be Sunday AT&T, Bellw Beach Proham, where you had Wyndham Clark and Ludwig Aidberg possibly battling it out in the final group. And then we get winded out.

and we had no football to go up against and therefore no tournament, 54 whole event and it's over. That sucked. That's a bad break. But I do think things need to change quickly or golf is going to be in a lot of trouble. We need to get everybody together,

figure out some way for these guys to play because we've said it many times on here. Golf is not big enough to be divided. Yeah. So let's put this thing back together, figure out a way, check your egos at the door and let's get this thing back where it should be.

The biggest favorite that's won on the BJ tour this year is Jake Knapp, who is a rookie who's never won before, was 40 to 1 at Vodonta. Like the stars aren't doing star stuff right now, and you need star. People are attracted. Like you watch football, like you want to see Patrick Mahomes.

You want to see Joe Burrow, whoever it is, right? Like right now the stars in golf aren't being star. Look at Rory. I mean, this week he was a massive favorite at the cognizant when he finished like 16th or something like that. It's like stars haven't been doing star stuff and we need to have some stars because we don't have any superstars,

I don't think. Really they'd like draw people to watch golf who otherwise wouldn't watch other than Tiger Woods. And to create those, they got to win golf to become that. You got to win golf tournaments. And the guys that can do that aren't doing it right now. And that's why it's so split. All right.

Well, let's get to our guest this week. He's rising up the ranks rather quickly. It had a really nice start to the year on the PGA tour. Been close to winning a couple of times. Did have a little six wiggle. It can happen. He made us look good. The golf course is hard.

Six pups or five from four feet, I think. Props. But, man, this was a lot of fun. We sat down with Thomas Dietrich just a couple of weeks ago. here he is on subpar. All right, folks, we have the owner of one of the prettiest golf swings in all the game with us today. Playing in his second to full season on the PJA tour, currently 29th in the FedEx Cup standings, 70th ranked player in the world, and without question, top five in the official World Golf Hair rankings.

Thomas Dietrich's in the House. What's going on, brother? So, guys, how are you? Thanks for having me. Yeah, thank the hair. Thank you so much for joining. I mean, looks good, bud. I'm guessing the hair.

It's talked about a lot. I mean, you rival Robert Rock for best hair in golf. Yes, you're right. I mean, in college, one of my really good friends and teammate, Nick Hardy, actually, his father used to call me Callender Boy, because I don't really know why, but he was just a big fan of my hair. And he told me one thing not to do when I turned pro is not to get a hat deal, but watch the money talks and you know, I had to hide it.

But if and when you're a member of the European Rider Cup team, I got to assume, without question, you're 100% no hat guy at the rider cup. Oh, 100%. I let the hair flow go. 100%. No hat, no hat for the rider cup. All right. Well, one thing we have to address is I don't know if you've looked at your Wikipedia page ever, but the pitcher might need to be updated, Thomas. It needs a bit of work indeed. I mean, that picture was taking, I'm not even, I don't even know who took it, but I think it was a journalist in 2009. I qualified for the KLAM open, the Dutch Open on the DP World Tour. And it's been there ever since. And that's what I look like.

like when I was 16 years old. That was the Beaver influence. Yeah, that was, yeah, there was a Beaver influence. It was like, you're right.

It was, it was quite something. Yeah, you mentioned that was in 2009. In 2010, you played the Junior Rider Cup. And there was a couple of guys on the American squad

that I think some people have heard of. You went up against Justin Thomas and Jordan Speath back in 2010. What was your first, like, memories of them back then? So the first time we actually play with JT and Jordan was at an event called the Aviongion Masters, which was the week before the Avion Masters in France.

And they just put up that tournament. It was some sort of world championship for under 14 years old. And Belgium was paired with America. It was actually really cool. And we played, I think I played with JT for two or three days in a row. it was great. And that was actually my first experience playing with them. And obviously a couple years later,

Janeo Rida Cup got there. Didn't play against J.T. or Jordan, but they were there. I think I played against Danny McCarthy, because I was on the PJ Tour now as well. So I was with these guys. It's just great memories, to be honest. It was my first time playing on the big stage. And, you know, we played Agling Eagles.

And after that, we played Celtic Manor right behind all the big pros, right behind Tiger and Ricky and Rory. And it was, you know, back in the days, it was just for, I was 17 at that time. And it was just a dream country. It was really cool. Was J.T. a cocky little shit talker back then, too? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

He was. And, you know, it's going to sound a little bit bad, but he was, he was a little cocky. And I remember him spitting a lot for some reason. He was just out there. Like, he was a 14-year-old kid just spitting around on the golf course. I was like, what are you doing? We're Americans. That's what we do.

Yeah, exactly right. I was like, okay, well, that's what Americans do, I guess. When he's the 14 years old. And was Jordan still the nicest guy in the world at the time, I assume? Yeah, Jordan has always been great. Justin is great as well. I mean, I get along really well with him. And Jordan is just still Jordan.

I mean, he's like you say, he's one of the nicest guy in PJ, Jordan. He was exactly the same back then. Yeah. That's a good track record, by the way, for that tournament. identifying the next stars of the world. But I want to get to your living situation because we were talking before we came on air. You make your home base in Dubai.

You spend some time in Europe still, but you're playing pretty much full time on the PJ tour. You don't have like a home base over here. Is that right? How do you live week to week? It's a little bit of a mess. I mean, right now we're living out of a suitcase. You know, we're pretty much living week by week.

I've got obviously my wife and my kids traveling with me as well. So it's not that easy, but we make sure we get great houses. But we're thinking of getting something. And obviously everything came really quick. You know, I got my PJ tour card in summer 2022. And then, and suddenly I was like, okay, what do we do? I just moved to Dubai then as well. I moved to Dubai in 2021.

I was kind of settled there as well. And then suddenly I'm like, okay, well, now I'm spending pretty much nine months in the year in the US. So do we get a place? Do we stay in London? My wife is from London as well. So we have a place in London. Do we, what do we do?

So right now we're kind of still in a transition period. We're trying to figure it out where is the good place maybe to live. Scottsdale, I loved it. A little bit far away from home, but it's a great place. And probably Florida. We've tried out of the Caribbean as well, but it's not that easy to get to. So I think next year is the year where we'll definitely commit something, hopefully moreover here or find somewhere else.

We'll see. We're not quite decided yet. It's good to be Thomas Dietrich. Got a lot of options. Let's talk about Dubai for a second because I made my first trip a couple years ago. it was still kind of the COVID situation going on. So I didn't get the full, full experience of Dubai. But tell me a little about what you loved so much at Dubai,

because I thought a place was incredible. Dubai is amazing, honestly. I went to Dubai the first time in 2016, and the way he has changed from 2016 up to now, it's something unseen of. I mean, I don't think there's a place anywhere else in the world. Like, that's changed that much. Golf courses are unbelievable.

Well, weather is great. It gets a little bit hot in the summer. So if you move there, try to find a way to kind of get out of there from May until October. I think that's the best way to do it. A little bit like Scottsdale, I want to say, you know, like weather gets a little bit hot. But Dubai is great. I mean, service is great. People are nice.

It's fair international. Probably 85% of the population in Dubai, they'll come from all over the world. You have very few locals. So it's just an easy place. to live. Everybody speaks English. There's obviously the Muslim culture, but it's, they're very, they're very liberal, they're very open

to everything. So it's a great place to live. Great place to practice. The weather's great. Traveling is easy. So it kind of ticks every box. Yeah, I absolutely loved it. I actually went out in the dunes, did the whole SUV through the dunes, did some dunes which people are talking about it to this day, how incredible

it was later of the sand is what they call them. I shredded. Yeah, shreds. Shred's the only word you could use. Dubai, good for a lot of reasons. I've heard people rave about this place. Great for tax purposes as well. But do you have other golfers over there?

There are many professionals that make their home out of that you can play with, practice with when you're in town? There's a ton of guys. Tommy Fleetwoods just moved fully over there. He's got his kids and family over there. They go to school in Dubai. Thorbjorn Olison, who is DP World Tour, who's just got his car on the PJ Tour.

He lives there as well. There's not a Belgian guy, Nicholas Colt Sarks. Obviously, you guys know Nicholas Colt. I know you know. Nico lives there as well. And then there's tons of mainly DP World Tour players. I'd say Tommy Fleetwood is the only full-time PG tour player that really lives there.

But all the DP World Tour, it just makes so much sense because it's very central when you play. If you look at the DP World Tour schedule, goes to South Africa, goes to Asia, obviously goes to Europe in the summer. But it's kind of a great hub for the full season. And it's easy to travel to as well. Emirates Airlines, one of the best airlines in the world, in my opinion.

So it's, yeah, like I just said, it ticks every box. That's what I flew over there, and there is nothing better. That 15 or 16 hours flew by all. That was amazing. Honestly, like, when you, you know, you know the standards of Emirates Airlines, and then when you go back to America and you fly with these old United Plains or American Airlines. I mean, no offense to them.

They, it's good airlines, but you, you just can't compare. And then you're like, you're like, what are we doing here? Where's my mattress pad when I'm laying down? Come put it down, American Airlines. Where are my pajamas? You know, I wore my pajamas.

I wore my pajamas. I was a kid supposed to sleep without some PJ. The bar in the back? The place is heaven. Yeah, I've heard that emmer's air. But you've been, I heard when you were young, I mean, you traveled the world basically to play golf, much by yourself, right? Yeah, pretty much by myself. I mean, I was only child.

Right away, I pretty much gone everywhere. You know, the Federation, the Gulf Federation sent us pretty much everywhere, which is great as well. You know, you learn, learn speak English, learn to play golf, learn different cultures, learn different people, different grass as well. So I was sent to Florida many times. Obviously, all over Europe. We went to Asia a couple times as well. And then 18 years old, obviously went to college, and that's where I grew up as a man, I think. As a man, that's right.

Thomas Peters, you know, at the University of Illinois, Illinois seems to have a monopoly on the Belgian talent, but how much of an influence did Thomas Peters play and you eventually ended up at Illinois? I mean, Peters definitely created, I want to say, some sort of pipeline. I mean, there's got to be some sort of pipeline now between Illinois and Belgium. Obviously, I follow them. Always nice. You know, I was, when I got recruited,

a couple of different universities that were interested in me, but then obviously Coach Moe, having a great contact with him, and then Peter's being there, all that made it easy for me to just say, okay, I'm just going to go there. And then after that, just more and more Belgians kept coming. So Adrian now, who just got on his PJ to a card, Adrian Dumont got his PJ to a card.

He's a great guy as well. And I think there's a couple of more Belgians coming over as well in the next couple of years. Where else were you looking to go? I was looking at, I think back in the days, maybe Northwestern, if I remember well, and Florida State. At Florida State looking to me as well, I went to see the campus, which was great. Be honest, I visited, it's quite funny because I visited those campus. I went to Florida State in October, November, and it was beautiful, 75 degrees, girls running around, people playing back. basketball and football outside and everything.

And then the next week I went to Illinois, and it was zero degrees, and there was a blazer blowing through. But I still chose, I still chose, I still went for Illinois. I still went for Illinois. But, yeah, the weather was definitely not what made me choose Yuvai. But I guess I'm pretty happy with my choice to be honest in hindsight. And they got a hell of a program. We play for the legendary coach small up there.

Having a coach who still plays and can still beat his players on occasion, is that good for motivation or just a crushing blow to the confidence when a coach can go out there and beat the starters? We used to play. I remember my first spring break. I was still young spring break. We went to Scottsdale and coach just kicked his ass. I mean, he just kept shooting like 66 and 65s and 64s. And we were just like, all right, coach, well played. I mean, we literally couldn't do anything.

But it's great to have a coach because it gives him credibility, you know, when he coaches you, when he helps you technically as well. He knows what he's doing. He's been a player. He knows what he takes to be on the PG tour. Yeah, I mean, he's an overall a great person. You know, I went over to America. I went over to Illinois on my own pretty much. And having someone like him that you could trust a group pretty close to him as well.

It was nice to, it was very nice to have someone like coach, someone you could rely on and someone that could help you, especially when I was on my own out there in the U.S. Yeah, he's one of the best coaches to ever do it. The program he's built up there is incredible. But I mean, you were the freshman of the year, player of the year one year, a multiple time, All-American. And you also graduated from the business school,

which is a pretty damn incredible accomplishment. How the hell did you, coming from two guys who didn't balance it too well between school and golf, how did you do such a great job? Speak for yourself. This coach definitely helped. Coach definitely helped. I got in trouble a couple of times, but coach definitely helped. Yeah, you know, it was, it was, I had to be organized.

I don't want to say I was the smartest kid out there, but, you know, I did all right. That's cool, I guess. And golf helped, you know, when you play good golf, it always helped for grades. That's the way I saw it. So it was, no, but it was, joke aside, it was nice to have a degree. You know, it really was something that I wanted to do. You know, you never know what can happen with golf. You could get injured.

You could, something else could happen. And getting a degree four years out there was pretty big and I'm pretty happy I got it. But luckily, I haven't had to use it yet. I heard someone asked you one time, what's the difference between you and Thomas Peters? And you said, I'm going to graduate. That's right. You're right. Yeah, he hasn't graduated.

I mean, sorry? I just said about two points on the GPA. That's probably the difference. Yeah, yeah. Peter's got in big trouble his first year. He almost got kicked out of the school because his GPA was too low. Probably shouldn't mention this. Probably should have mentioned this year.

What's the biggest culture shock when you come from Belgium? You come over here to the States to live full time. What's the biggest thing that is a shock to the system that you don't have that we do have over here. I'd say the food, what is it? I mean, overall, pretty much everything, to be honest, it's not one thing, but definitely the food is different. You know, in Europe, you've got all these kind of

small, like, boutique restaurants and all these out of here in America, it's just a chain, you know? Like, you go to, you go to, whether you go to Illinois or California or Florida, it's just the same five guys burger, you know? Belgium's got probably these different, I'd say these different neighborhoods and these different, these different vibes,

different restaurants. So that was, that was the biggest culture shock, shock, sorry. And then, I mean, you know, I was just playing golf. So to be honest, it didn't bother me that much,

you know, golf is, golf is my think, and I got a head down, and I was just playing good golf, you know. All right, before we get back to our interview, a quick break to tell you,

If you haven't done it yet, go check out our YouTube page. It's golf underscore subpar. We've got some new content coming up at the ASU facility. We're going to have some more stuff coming out as the year goes on. So if you haven't yet, go to YouTube, subscribe, golf underscore subpar. And now back to our interview. I was researching like some of the popular things Belgium is known for. And number five on the list was peeing sculptures.

What? And there's a picture of this dog. Pink of fire hydrant. Yeah, like pissing. Yeah, that's that's the, the emblem of Brussels. Literally Brussels, the capital of Belgium. Nice. I like that.

Literally has a small statute. I mean, when you actually look, see it on pictures, it looks like it's about four, five, six feet tall. The statue is literally two, not even two feet tall. It's like this small statute of this little man just taking piss. It's actually, and he's the legend. knows that Brussels, there was Brussels fire and he extinguished the fire, peeing on the fire. That's how he's safe Brussels.

So that's not being too big of a flame of the little two-footers. The story must have grown. That's unbelievable pissing statues. Did not know that about Belgium. I learned a lot today. Becoming more culture. Yeah. You also speak four different languages, right?

Yes, I do. Yeah. Like lucky or unlucky or all right. So I speak French, Spanish, Dutch, and English. I mean, sort of English. What's the hardest one to learn? The hardest one to learn. I mean, to be honest, I consider myself really lucky.

I learned languages when I was just literally one, two years old. So, you know, at that time, at that age, should soak up languages like sponges. So I've never really had to work very hard for languages, lucky enough. I mean, I guess English is probably my, I don't want to say my worst language, but maybe Dutch now because I don't really practice it that much. But I'm fluent in Spanish. My grandma is Spanish. I spoke Spanish at home with my dad, French with my mom, and in Dutch at school. And in English, I learned it later playing golf and at uni at university college.

So, damn. That's a great. It's a bit of a mix in my brain sometimes. You know, I'm like, okay, which language do I think? language do I how do I you know when I speak with Peters for example sometimes we just go between Dutch and French and Dutch and French and sometimes a bit of English in there and you know as long as as he understands me it's fine yeah are you all still really close you'll talk a lot yeah yeah yeah we probably won't talk as much as we used to obviously I mean we used to see each other every single

week you know he's gone to live now so he's got his own family now so you know keeps us busy I've got my as well. So we don't talk as much as we did in the past, but we still great friends. Yeah. My question was, obviously, I mean, the popular topic in the world of golf is Live and the PGA tour. How has he enjoyed his time over there? You know, I haven't really asked him that much about that. I think he's really enjoyed it, to be honest. I think he, you know, for some reason, Liv is kind of designed for him. I think he's happy with it. Obviously, he made a, I think he made a good chunk of money out of it as well, like most of the guys. But he, he enjoyed his time out there.

Well, he still does. And hopefully he hasn't really had the results that he wanted to, but hopefully he'll get his best, his best golf coming in the next couple of weeks and months. Yeah, Thomas, let me ask you, since you're a guy that, like, you've been across the world, you played golf everywhere. If you take money out of the equation, where's the place you enjoy playing golf? of the most. The most, I'm going to be really honest.

The most I would play in Europe. Let's say the money would be the same everywhere. I've played the DP World Tour. Just because obviously it's close to home. You know, we get every single week you go to places like Dubai, London, Spain, Rome, Paris, Czech Republic, Prague. And it goes on. I mean, it's really close for the PGA tour,

but just the fact that it's that close and you have this big variety of different cities, I think I would choose Europe over the PGA tour. It seems like the golf course is over there on the DPP World Tour. You might play links one week, and then the next week you're playing in Dubai, and it's completely different. There seems like there'd be a wider variety of styles of golf

that are played over there compared to the PGA tour where it's more or less, you know, similar. Yeah, exactly right. I mean, there is definitely this wider aspect, the different, like you say, different courses. You know, we play up in Scotland, these courses, Parkland, a bit of everything. I mean, people who are love it as well.

I mean, it's incredible. The West Coast swing, which we just did, this is one of my favorite swings I've ever done, you know. It's so much fun. Palm Springs, Torrey Pines, Pebble. I mean, what else? I mean, it's the best of the best as well. So I definitely love playing out here, but let's just say,

the money was exactly the same. I think I'd still just about go for Europe. Interesting. I get it. That's home for you. You've played, I believe, 47 events on the PGA tour. What's your favorite stop so far? I'm going to have to say RIV.

I think Rave was pretty cool. Unfortunately, he didn't play two weeks ago. I played it last year. RIV was definitely one of the top stops, the best stops I've done so far. So far out here. In Sawgrass, players is pretty amazing. I love the courts at players. I think players are really pure.

But yeah, RIV is definitely up there. I thought you're going to say Pebble, given the week you had out there. I know a little bit of a disappointing finish. Your lead going into Saturday and then the final round is getting canceled. But you're only, what, three back, I believe, if they had had a few. final round? Yeah, that's right. Three back. I think so. Yeah, three back. Yeah, it was, it was a good chance. It was definitely a good chance. But, you know, on the other side, you know, finishing fours, I'm not guaranteed in all the elevated events. And, you know,

locking up the top five at the elevated events was big as well, you know, start of the year. So it was pros and cons. I mean, I was dying to go out there. And last round, I tried to, try to win this thing. But, I mean, PG-tortigather was just so good. I mean, so win them Clark, I don't know, or shooting 10 under it. I was just out of this world. That was just incredible. So it's just tough, you know. So still, you know, it's still nice to have security a good result and hopefully I put myself

in a good position again and give enough chance to win a tournament. Yeah, that was a great finish. And Wyndham Clark's 60 was unbelievable. I mean, for you. That's Sunday. I mean, I was there. I have never seen wind that hard. for that long ever in my life.

Have you ever, I mean, it would have been comical if y'all would have had to go out and try to play in that. It would have been, it would have been dangerous. I mean, it literally would have been dangerous. We were on Saturday night, we were like, obviously my two girls, two little girls, my wife, we were in the house with no electricity, no hot water.

We were waiting to hear back from the PJ tour, okay, what's going to happen? It was getting dark, nothing to give them about. no machines to heat up the milk, just nothing. We were just running out of internet, running out of batteries. I had to run in the car to charge up the milk machine and to charge up my phone as well just to be connected, you know? It was a weird, weird weekend.

I mean, yeah, there was no chance we could have played, not even close we could have played. Although it would have been quite funny. Some of the guys put on Twitter, it would have been quite funny to play whole number seven into that wind. I mean, I think it would have been close to your three were a driver to hit the green that day.

Yeah, Tony hit driver just for fun earlier in the week when it wasn't blown near like it was on Sunday. And he had driver with like, what, 170 ball speed or something like that and hit it to like the back fringe. Just hit it up in the end. I mean, it was just a joke. It was incredible. Yeah, it was wild.

I've never seen anything like it. But it's been a really good start to the season for you, like Slee said earlier. You're 29th in the FedEx Cup. what is the one part of your game you think you need to improve to make it into the window circle? I think iron play. Iron play definitely needs a little bit of work. When you look at it a little weak-like pebble, it was obviously soft. I was driving a great.

My wedge game was solid, so it was good for me. I would say long errands, you know, I struggled a little bit last year. I've been working on my game. I've been working to get my misses a little bit. a little bit smaller. And we're definitely getting there. You know, we're definitely getting there. My putting has been good as well.

Short game curve is he always improved. But I think that's one part of the game right now that obviously are showing in my stats as well. But I think there's one part of a game that I can definitely meet irons can definitely improve and keep improving. Are you a beginning of the season, like a goal setter, Thomas?

Like you write down this is what I want to achieve this year. Do you just kind of let it play out the way it plays out? not really. I kind of let it play out the way it goes because it's it's so tough you know for me for example start the year obviously not guaranteed all the majors and how do you want to you know like obviously got off to a great start things things are changing it was like it was same thing for me for example two years ago I got off to great start as well you know when I got on a PJ tour my goal was to keep my card you know got off to a great start and suddenly like okay well goal is to finish top 50 goal is to get to a championship, you know?

So I think the goal kind of shift as the season goes on, as you start and as you play. So I kind of let it happen and wait and see and then try to have some short-term goals, you know, like right now one of the short-term, very achievable goal, I think, is to make it to Augusta. So that's my short-term goal. And then we'll see what happens. If I make it, I make it. If I don't, I don't.

And then hopefully I can keep. playing good golf and make it to a true championship. Have you ever been to Augusta National? I've been to Augusta National. Yeah, we used to play at Augusta State Tournament in college. So we went there every year. And every year after a tournament, we went on Monday as well to Augusta. So I know the course.

I'm familiar with it. You've never played it, I'm guessing. I've never played it. I've never played it. That got that 120 mile an hour cruiser speed or whatever you got, that's a good place for it. There it got the national. Is it?

I mean, with those new T-boxes, it looks brutally long, honestly. Some of those holes now are like, wow long. I mean, 13 now with that new T-box, which hole, whole, whole number four. Am I getting confused? A little number four, is that right? R3. Four or five. So whole number five, right?

Five is a month. Five is an absolute monster now. I mean, with that green. So, yeah. driving will be key. Are you surprised at all with the great start you got off to this year, considering you got beat by one of our loyal

listeners, Hayden Wood out at Whisper Up? Oh, wow. Hayden Hayden took a lot of money out of me, and it hurt. It hurt. You know, at the start of the year, I hadn't made any money, and it was like, there, like, just taking my money, showing me, he wasn't even telling me where to go.

I was just pretty much hitting blind, you know. On this new course, I've never played. He wasn't giving me any advice. And he was just making burdens for fun. No, just kidding. You know, Hayden was great. But he played unbelievable that day. I was like, he just told me he quit as well.

He didn't want to turn pro anymore. And I was like, dude, what are you doing? I mean, you're playing incredible golf. Keep going. You just got a new gig. Yep. In fact, you're looking for a nice property down in Mexico or the Caribbean. You mentioned he can help dial you up.

Oh, really? We'd die. Yeah, selling real estate now. Oh, wow. Look at that. Look at him. Going for golf, a really state. Beauty of golf, you know, it gives you some good connections. Don't worry.

Next time you come back to Westbrook, he'll ask you for two a side as well. Yeah, I'm not surprised. You probably will know him. I love it. All right. You want to get to the E9? Yeah. Let's get into the E9, Thomas.

Nine fun questions to get to know a little bit more about Thomas Dietrich. Which one should we go with? Do the early one, the childhood. Okay. who you could be? No, no, I'll just ask you right here. All right, Thomas, I know you got children. You're married.

You're happily married, I assume. But childhood crush. Who was it? Celebrity crush. My wife is right there on the other side of the door. He's probably hearing me. Childhood crush. Let me think about that.

She had some too. Yeah, yeah. It was probably Thomas Dietrich. But, you know, dreams come true. I'm just trying to think now. What's that girl in friends? I'm just, you know, she's lost it. Yeah, exactly.

Why did I just do this? I can't believe I didn't remember any. Jenny for Ernestyn. Yeah, she's popular. I thought we might get a spice girl out of the mix or something like that over in Europe. You know what I mean? David swoop out. Yeah, I don't want to piss back them off.

Yeah, I don't want to piss back them off. Smart move, actually. All right. All right, I'll give you my first one here, Thomas. Like we mentioned, you speak four language fluently. Out of the four, which language is the most fun to go on a cussing rant after a bad shot? French, 100%. Yeah, it's nice.

French, I can, yeah, I can be pretty wild in French. I'm trying to be better now that I've got two girls, you know. They obviously listen to everything I say, but French can be pretty wild. it's got to be nice in the States. You can do that and nobody knows what you're saying. Exactly right. One language. Maybe Spanish, we might pick up on a few words, but French, dude, you're safe.

You can say whatever you want. Correct. I won't be fine by the PGTor. Yeah, that's smart. I took three years of French in high school and I know nothing. How you doing? I believe, I believe, jehmet-touch means I touch myself. That's cool.

Is that right, Thomas? That's very good. Yeah, that's good. You can remember. Three years, baby. Three years. He still used that daily. He still used that daily.

That's why I ever take. That's great. I love it. All right. Well, I heard you like to enjoy a nice glass of tea every now and then. Is it true back home you actually have a special chair that you drink your tea out of? No, no, no. That's not, I don't drink tea.

I drink coffee. You got that wrong. Oh, coffee drinkers are dead to me, but is it true you have some fancy chair that you enjoy your coffee in? Oh, dude, I've got, I bought that chair. I bought a chair that's worth $16,000. I probably should say, smart. I probably shouldn't say that. But yeah, it's a beautiful chair.

It's some of a famous designer and everything. And my first paycheck, I mean, the first time I made a little bit of money my first year, I decided to buy a chair. I don't even know why. But it's a beautiful chair. And yeah, I do drink my coffee in that chair. Barn rat by sports cars. Thomas Street buys chairs.

Watches, cars, maybe shoes. I buy chairs. Just a really classy chair. Fantastic. Exactly right. A good ROI on that bad boy. All right. but it's coffee not tea

no it's coffee yeah I'm a big coffee drinker yeah our sources are shit by the way they're normally wrong on everything all I give you one here good friend Nicholas Colsartz got the nickname the Belgian bomber okay which is a great

nickname from Belgian you and Thomas Peters pissed at all that he took that nickname before it could go to one of y'all not really I mean he deserves it you know give him something you got a bomber too great nickname

I mean we we do bomb it But Nico was, Nico, obviously, he's in his 40s now, but like 10 years ago, he was a proper missile center. You know, he was, he was some striker. I like that, proper missile. Missile.

You could talk to Jean-Claude Van Damme, you're a very fit individual, and take over the muscles from Brussels. You know, I've got two nephews. That's what they call me at home, muscles from Brussels. Yeah. I've already got that one.

I've already got that one. Screw. Perfect. All right. Speaking of Colsarts, do you think you would have focused on being a tennis professional if it wasn't for all the beat downs? Colsarts gave you on the tennis court back in the day.

Beat downs. We played one game, and it was a doubles game. It was a doubles game, and I played with a really shit burner, and we lost, and I was fucking pissed. I was freaking pissed about it,

but, oh, I love you. Dump the part. It's what I do for pickleball every time. I'm a partner shit, dude. It doesn't count. He also said, I'll get so mad just because we get a big word.

I'll play Nico right now and I'll beat the shit out of him. I guarantee. Guaranteed. I love it. Are you nice? Do you still play a lot of tennis? Are you good? I play a lot of tennis.

I mean, not often enough, but when I get home, I'm obsessed with it. I usually don't even touch clubs and I play tennis pretty much every day. So, yeah, I do. I do love tennis. I like that.

I like that. I like that a shit partner. He's a shit partner. He's fucking trash. All right. When you get your first win on the PJ tour, which will be soon. Give me, if you could do it, throw the party in any city in the world. Where would you want it to be?

And what professional golfer do you want running the festivities for maximum fun? Oh, wow. Festivities. For maximum fun. All right. City, I would go London because London is pretty amazing city to go out. And then guide to organize for the festivities. Wow.

I mean, I've never actually gone out with Nico, but I know that Korsar is pretty good. He's had some experience in the past, you know? Going out was with his thing when he was in the past. So I'll probably go with him because I think that he would organize a couple of good DJs and know a couple of good nightclubs in London. He knows how to have a good time. I've experienced those evenings.

Exactly right. He is a future guest here on Subparts. You have a chance to get him back with some dirt. We will talk about this. We will consult you. Yeah, so we can get some good stories. I'll definitely think of something that you could throw on him. Next one.

Well, for example, that tennis thing. I mean, right now, the next time, we'll play one-on-one next time I'm in Dubai and I'll kick his ass. He's fired up by this. I love his fitness. I want to fly in for this. All right, I want you to go back in time here. Okay. We're going to French Lick, Indiana.

Ooh. The Big Ten Championships, 17th hole. What comes to mind? Oh, Coach Small, grabbing me about an edge. Is that what it was? Yeah. That's it. Well, you know, I was kind of cussing in French.

That's what I was doing. I was kind of going, well, I'm not going to say the words, but I was just going crazy. I just hit, I was playing great. It was, I think it was third round, playing great. I hit it left in the bunker. I was having a run of the day. Hit it left in the bunker against the lid.

Couldn't do anything. Tipped it out. Start throwing my clouds, annoying all this stuff. And coach said, stop, stop. And I just wouldn't stop. And coach just grabbed me by the neck and literally lifted me up like this and say, Thomas, you're just going to shut up and hit the green right now, make five and birdie 18.

That's exactly what I did. Shut up. He told me I went on to win the tournament and y'all's championship pitcher like you had some buttons missing off your shirt. your shirt. Probably, yeah, probably. I'll have to look back at the picture. But yeah, it was, it was that kind of grabbing. It was, it was pretty. I mean, I deserved it. Fully deserved it, to be honest, you know? Hey, you got to know how to get your players to respond. It was a great coach. Shocked it worse. That's right. And you went out there and sacked up and made tweet on 18.

That's right. Yeah, that's what you do in the great city of French Lake Indiana. Shout out Larry, Bird. All right, this last one for me, Thomas. This is more for us and the listeners to benefit from than really actually asking you, because you're a big finance guy, right? Redd, you like to keep your eye on the global markets. Okay, so give us one stock pick that we should invest in very aggressively. That you think going to the moon. Um, higher on. All right.

Are you looking at crazy gains or just like long term? Stupid sick gains. Gain them over Elon Musk gains. Like, I'm going to give you two stocks. I'm going to go one arch terrorist PRPetics, which is NASDAQ, Arcturis, A-R-C-T-U-R-U-S-therapetics. And that's on the NASDAQ. It's traded on the NASDAQ. And then the other one is Palo Alto networks.

I think Palo Alto is going to go through the roof as well. It's a cybersecurity company. They are pretty solid. Those are my two picks. This is the best answer we've ever got. If this goes to shit, you will be hearing from my attorneys. You'll make a lot of money. You're my guy.

I'm going to call you about them taxes, too. I need to know how to skirt most of those, by the way. Okay. My last question is definitely not as serious as the stock tips. I'm rich. I don't even care what you're asking anymore. All right. When you got to college, what did you struggle with more?

Your short game or the girls on the track team? I've never, you know, weirdly enough, I've never been good with girls. So 100% the girls on the track team. That is, I do not believe that. I heard they threw themselves at you. They love Thomas. Yeah, but yeah, but I didn't know how to handle them. That's probably.

Trust me. Trust me. How was it the track team? Do you guys work out with them or something? Dude, you guys are, where do you guys get your sources from? This is smart girls on the track team. You guys just, there were a couple smart girls on the track team. Yeah, you're right.

I mean, there are a couple of smart girls on the track me, good-looking ones as well. But, yeah, like I said, I just didn't know how to handle them. I mean, I think we worked out with them in the morning. Like, the six-sand workouts, that's where the magic happens, you know? I got to meet the mother. It saw that hairdo on Wikipedia and said, that's mine. Love it. Muscles from Brussels.

Thomas, we appreciate the holiday, man. Thank you so much for spending the time. Keep up the good play. We definitely look forward to consulting you when we have Nico on. We'll get you, you can just lay it out for us. 100%. Yeah, man, best to love to season two. Keep up the great play.

Thank you so much, guys. Thanks for having me. And invest in those stocks. You'll make a lot of money. Done. I love it. Consider it done. I love you.

All right, that was Thomas Dietree, joining us on subpar. A lot of fun sitting down with him. It's incredible how Coach Small over there at Illinois has just recruited half of Belgium, it seems like, to come over and play for him. And they're all really good. Yeah. And he can beat him up and they still just go out play good for him. You know what I mean?

That's when you know you're the guy. But, dude, I enjoyed getting to talk to Thomas. Like, if you watch him swing the golf club, dude, it's like he's everything you think a young, talented dude should be on the BJ tour. He has bombs off the tee. The swing looks flawless. I kind of expect, like, bigger things from Thomas teacher going forward. Shout out to him for throwing the little six piece, the six wiggle in at PJ National. Somewhere Danny Lee was watching that and smiling.

Missa, miss, miss a miss, miss a miss, miss, miss a miss. Yeah, exactly. And shout out to him. him because I'm going to be a billionaire soon. Oh, yeah, your stock tips. Palo Alto, and you did a little research on a stock tip, and Nancy Pelosi bought it recently. So that's all that needs to be said. This thing is going straight to the fucking moon.

I'm going to be on the first thing smoking with him, and this could be one of my last shows, depending on how Palo Alto goes, because if that thing blows up, Daddy's done. I started dying. I was throwing through Twitter that comes across Nancy Pelosi in trouble for investigating into Palo Alto or investigating it. The government's signing some sort of massive cybersecurity deal with Palo Alto right now. Thomas D. Chu is the smartest human being we've ever had on this show. So that's going to the moon without question.

Shout out to Thomas for that. I know how to get him fired up, too. Just say that Nicholas Colchard beat his ass in tennis. Oh, my God. He was ready to jump through the screen. Yeah, that was complete bullshit. We need to get Colsarts on and justify some of this dude. He was a monster at the Ryder Cup, get the fans fired up.

He's got a lot of juice to him. Apparently a pretty good tennis player as well. but that was fun. Like, that's the guy. I hadn't even, like, seen a whole lot of interviews with Thomas Dietrich getting to know him. And that's, those are one of the, those are some of the fun ones, like for us when it's like, yeah, I'm genuinely learning about this guy for the first time, too. Yeah.

Thanks to him for joining us. Obviously, he approved my French. It was incredible. Yeah, all those years paid off. Shout out Pilot Point, public education for that French that you dab my boy up with. All right. Let's get over to the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Signature event on the PGA tour, a loaded field at a brutal golf course. I was really good at making the cut and finishing like last round there.

Also, sight of the worst pro-am experience of my life. I'm going to throw the guy on the butt. The guy who had the man turned the weed eater off in his backyard has ballard him during the pro-am. Yeah, yeah. Dude, it's a pro-am. You got to be buttoned up. Oh, my God. Didn't he have the unies on too?

Didn't they have the full gear? Yeah, but he was the only one playing. Him is caddy and family in the gallery had all the same unit. They had all the same gear. That way you know. Pink shirt, black knickers and pink socks. Yeah, just loud. Just loud.

That'd been lined up for weeks. Played with earplugs then. Smart? Focus. Smart. Yeah, you've got to lock in. You're working, dude. All right.

Well, none of that is going to happen this week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Kirk Kiddiyama is your defending champion. I mean, this place normally gets crazy firm, crazy fast. I mean, we've seen anywhere from 400 to 10 under win around here. I hope that happened. I like that again this year. I love when this place gets really brown and dried out. And it tests these guys.

Normally have a lot of rough as well. Scotty Schaeffler, favorite, shocker. Want to bet him, but dude, he's six to one. I know. You can't. He's unbeddable right now. So for me, because we listen to everything that people say. What they say?

I was at Wishbrook on Saturday, playing behind Max Homa. He turned in 29, and there was a little bit of win going on. It was good enough for me. He's going off around 25 to 1, depending on where you get him. Give me Max Homa. Okay, fair enough. 29s are good. Played with them on Saturday.

Guess what? Swing looked good. You got surprised you? No. Yeah. Look good. All right. I'm going with guys.

I'm throwing out, like, current form, I'm going with just games that I think suit well with Firm Fairways, Firm Greens, Parr is good, things like that. So my favorite, and he's all the way down at 30 to 1, and he's been hanging around the hoop for a while. I'm going Tommy Fleetwood. I feel like the time is coming for him. He's just been right there on the brink too many times.

I think this type of golf, you look at his U.S. Open performances and things like that, good for him. So I got Tommy Fleet, 30 to 1. It is time. For my Dark Horse 50 to 1, which, I mean, Dark Horses are all that wins. This is where we're winning. We got Jake Knapp earlier.

So, like you said, golf course very hard. When I think a hard golf course is where ball striking is so important, not many hit it better than this guy. If he can just make a couple of puts, I think he'll have a great chance. He loves his golf course. Going Keegan Bradley, 50 to 1. Okay, beautiful. I heard very good things about him coming up in the new full swing on Netflix.

So there's going to be a lot of new Keegan Bradley fans out there on that deal. And that's coming soon. Yeah, it comes out Wednesday. day. But man, that episode where I guess the crew shows up when he finds out he's not on the Rider Cup team. Thought it was going to be a you're getting the nod call. And I guess they handed it like a champ, which we'll see coming up to full swing.

We might need to change the segment to dark horse and darker horses. The favorites aren't doing their jobs right now. But I'm going to echo basically everything you said, ball striking, blah, all this stuff. Corey Connors. I haven't picked him in a long time, my guy, but Stripe show after Stripe show, the harder it plays, the better for Cory Conner's. 65 to 1 for double C. Sprinkle.

Yeah, just tap that with my Palo Alto gains. I got a lot of money to mess with right now. I mean, I might hit the whole damn field. All right, well, make sure you go over to our YouTube page, subscribe, like, all that, golf subpar. We've got some cool stuff coming y'all's way. But that's going to do it for this week's episode. We'll talk to you on the next subpar.