The Bill Simmons Podcast - The Uh-Oh Sixers, Plus Tiger’s Astounding Return and On-Site Masters Stories With Joe House and Nathan Hubbard

Episode Date: April 8, 2022

The Ringer's Bill Simmons quickly runs through the Eastern Conference playoff picture and the 76ers loss to the Raptors (1:17) before he is joined by Joe House and Nathan Hubbard to discuss their time at Augusta National Golf Course for the Masters Day 1: an inspiring performance from Tiger Woods, observations of the course, Bryson DeChambeau's struggles, Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Smith, updated Masters odds, and more (9:46). Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hope you're checking out the rewatchables. We did Die Hard 2 last week. We have another good one coming up on Monday. It's an anniversary movie. Prestige TV Podcast has been heating up. Severance season finale is coming this weekend as well as the latest episode of Atlanta next week. I think we're doing winning time.

I think the end of We Crash is coming. I think we have Better Call Saul and Barry. So it's action-packed. Subscribe to that now. Coming up on this feed in a little bit, we're talking to Nathan Hubbard and Joe House about our day at the Masters, all the stuff we saw, and something really special from Tiger.

So we'll talk about that in a second. At the top of the pod, though, I didn't think we'd talk basketball at the very top because it looked like the Celtics were punting on the Milwaukee game. They scratched Tatum, they scratched Horford, and it seemed like, you know, watching from afar, kind of a savvy way to maybe get out of a 2-7 game against Brooklyn or whatever. Maybe Tatum really needed the rest and Horford's old and he's played a ton of minutes. They didn't squander the game. We thought at the top, oh, they're squandering that. They had really the best kind of game, the Valiant loss, where they were a little under man, but they got to experiment with three guard lineups. Derek White got some big minutes near the end, so did Pritchard. Got a little Tyson there and Grant Williams, and they just went toe-to-toe with Milwaukee. And in a weird way,

even though they lost, I think there's some stuff they learned probably from that game, some things they tried. The fact that their bench, I think, is really going to be an asset when they get everybody back if Milwaukee is the team they face in round two. It looks like Milwaukee is now locked in to the two seed unless they decide to throw it away. As I've said on this pod many times, I do not think they're afraid of Brooklyn. And they'd probably welcome the chance to play Brooklyn in round one when they know they're not going to have Simmons or Harris. Just go right at them. Now, when we started taping the podcast, which you're about to hear, Philly was up 15 to two against Toronto. They ended up blowing the game. And Toronto, there was no Matisse tie ball. That doesn't explain why Philly lost. Siakam went nuts.

And Toronto has done this over and over again and they've become the proverbial, I don't want to play that team in the playoffs. I don't think they're going to make the finals, but for two weeks, huge pain in the ass. Huge. Little reminiscent, just a weird matchup. Little reminiscent of the 0-3 Pistons.

Not the 0-4 Pistons, but the 0-3 Pistons where all of a sudden that team became a problem and you're watching them and you're like, Ben Wallace grabs every rebound. Chauncey Billups pretty good. Then it became realistic they might make the finals. I don't think Toronto's that good, but huge pain in the ass.

Undersized, but not really. Switch on everything whenever they want. They can hit threes. They have multiple guys to go to at the end of the game that you don't totally trust, but sometimes they can get hot. Really good chemistry. And Philly felt it tonight.

The other thing Philly felt was this Harden trade, which the more you look at this and the more you watch Harden, he's out of excuses now. Unless there's some sort of proof that his hamstring has just been damaged beyond repair or that he needs six months off or whatever. I just think he's getting old. I think he has a lot of miles. I think he played a lot of games from really the first year he showed up in Houston all the way through the 2010s. A lot of minutes, really durable. And he might've just peaked. You know, and you think like, one thing, this isn't the only thing to look at, but field goals made is a pretty fun stat.

I don't know. We've had it for the entire course of NBA history. Here's last seven games. Two for 11, nine for 17, four for 15, four for 10, four for 13, four for 10, three for 12 tonight against Toronto. He had 15 assists, fine.

But the explosiveness is not there. He doesn't get to the rim the same way. He cannot make big guys pay like he used to unless it's like Laurie Markkinen. And when you play a team like Toronto, it's just a terrible matchup for them. A lot of athletes, he's not blown by people. And I'm just seeing a guy that unless he's hitting that step back three is a lot easier to defend than he used to be. That is not

what Philly signed up for. Philly made this Ben Simmons trade. They waited, they waited, they waited. They thought that this was going to not only make them a contender, but make them a finals team. And they are not a finals team. They have the fifth best odds on FanDuel for a reason, because they are not a finals team. And the guy you have to feel for is Embiid, who had an MVP caliber year. We're still in Niagara to talk. We're doing a two-part podcast on Sunday night. We'll dive into who we're voting for and the awards and all that stuff. But you think all the things

that could have turned Simmons into, even if it was CJ McCollum. And look, I think CJ's stock is a lot higher than it was two months ago. But that trade was sitting there forever. And CJ ends up getting traded for, you could say it was 60 cents a dollar, 80 cents a dollar, really expensive contract that not a lot of people wanted. New Orleans

ends up getting him for Jason Hart, who I really like at the contract he got, and a bunch of throwing stuff and a pick that probably isn't going to matter that much. And that's what CJ McCollum cost. Even if Philly had gotten him, even if they had gotten Sabonis and just figured out a weird Sabonis thing, at least Sabonis is good. At least Sabonis has the arrow pointing up. But they went all in on Harden, and they gave up Curry and Drum in the trade

we've talked about in this podcast many times. I can't remember a trade looking worse within an eight-week stretch that was a big trade that was supposed to change a team than this one. So far, it could flip. Maybe he's saving something for the playoffs. I don't know. But man, the Philly fans in my life are freaking out because it's not just that it seems like they've squandered their chance to be a finals team this year when they're getting this just awesome and beat season. But then long-term, you have this extension question and whether they've promised them

something already and whether you could be in this Westbrook situation down the road where it's year three, four, five of Harden contract and you're paying him like 50 plus million and he's not remotely the same guy anymore. He's just shooting threes and keeping the ball moving around and he can't guard anybody. I don't think they realized that it wasn't about him not really trying that hard in Brooklyn.

It was about maybe he's moving into a different phase of his career. That's what I've been seeing for two years now. And there's been excuses left and right and he's been unhappy and his hamstring hurt and all these different things. But I just don't see a guy who beats people off the dribble like he used to, which was fundamentally what he was all about. Beating people off the dribble, step back threes. And he just doesn't do it anymore in the same way. And athletic teams

like Toronto know that they can slow him down or stop him. So this is just heading for one of the weirdest playoffs I think we've had in my lifetime. Potentially, you could have Miami against Atlanta, Charlotte, or Cleveland. You could have Milwaukee against Brooklyn. And if you're the Celtics, you're sitting there playing Chicago, who's been horrendous against all good teams, who has a negative point differential for the season. The Celtics, I'm sure their dream scenario would be three. And then Philly, whose nightmare scenario would be playing Toronto in the four or five.

And that's just the East. We didn't talk about the West, but man, this Philly thing. This is just one of the, this hardened from the moment he decided he didn't like playing with Russell Westbrook anymore and wanted out, which is the season after the bubble near the Thanksgiving range,

to now, 18 months, one of the goofiest stretches of any great player. And this guy is a top 50 player all time. He's an MVP. And now he's in a city where if this goes badly, this is a top three city. I wouldn't want things to go badly.

Especially if I'm making a lot of money and my team traded a lot of money and my team traded a lot and you have another guy on your team that everybody loves, we will see how he responds. Coming up, we're going to talk masters with Joe House and Nathan Hubbard. We are live from Augusta. First, Pearl Jam. project. All right. We're taping this 8 15 PM. We're in Augusta,

Georgia. Joe has this here. Nathan Hubbard is here. You can hear them on the Fairway Rolling podcast where yesterday we accurately predicted some of the things that happened at the Masters. We were at the Masters. We had a great time at the Masters. I was going to save the top of this podcast house

for us to talk about basketball because we thought Celtics, Bucks, and Sixers, Rafters were going to be these pivotal, decide the 2-3-4 in the East. But it looks like the Celtics punted on the game. So as we're taping this podcast, unless that changes, the Celtics are going to be a three-seater or a four-seater, which I guess I'm okay with because they're avoiding Brooklyn, right? But if they catch Toronto, is that desirable?

It might not be. We'll talk about that later. We'll see how that goes. Let's talk about something that we loved today. Tiger Woods. He's back in our life. We followed him around. We got to see him on the seventh hole.

We got to see him for the last four holes. We were pretty close. Nathan, what jumped out at you? Well, I think people today are gonna say tiger's back and i got a lot of texts saying he looks great on t he looks great we watched enough of him to know that this round should go down as a heroic effort because his body does not look great in any way shape or form we saw him come up the hill on seven. We watched him limp down the hill on two before that.

We watched him dragging his ass up 17 and 18. I mean, we watched him lowering his right shoulder to take weight. I mean, he does not look right. And I heard the telecast say, well, he looks big and he's got all he's he's got all this energy on the back father saying no this was a heroic round because of the way he just ground out a one under round that could have been a plus four plus five well it also could have been

a minus three or minus four right he left shots out there and i think to your point the thing we discussed this a little bit earlier in the week i think we need to acclimate to the new normal of tiger which is this tiger that's recovering still recovering yeah from a catastrophic car accident the thing that um i felt that that surprised me was a kind of emotion. And it is always that weird phenomena of a sports hero meaning something personal and evoking, eliciting, like an emotional response. But we kind of anticipated that the crowds would buoy him and be behind him.

The experience of every single t that he arrived at was a standing ovation yeah and every single time he arrived at a green it was a standing ovation and it was powerful i mean i i you know felt myself you know both like rooting with all of my being for him to succeed on the holes that we watched. And we caught a ton of it, which was really great. But also just a weird sports satisfaction. You know what I mean? It's just amazing. It wasn't rowdy, though, was it?

No, it's the Masters. It felt almost mothering, though. It's the Masters. As he walked off 18 through that tunnel, the last vision that I have of him is him walking through that tunnel on in 2019 when he wins. And there was just this sort of vortex of energy that carried him through. Everybody out there is just trying to will him to hang in there. Yeah. That was the difference this time because, you know, he's had these different stages of his career, right? Where he's like the young pup. And then he was like the invincible mid, you know, early, mid up till 2008 guy. And then he was the putting his career in

life back together guy, but still had the physical stuff. The guy we watched today, it was really memorable. He really seemed like he had like a broken body in a lot of ways. And I don't know if you could see it on TV. Like could see it in person it was just every because when you're there and i hate to do that when you're there it's so deep but when you're there you can kind of watch these guys when they're not on camera you know and like we were on seven and he got up and down really fast so he put it fast then he kind of walked to the side because there were two putts left and you can see like he can't get comfortable. And I feel like, you know, as somebody who's struggled with bad back stuff over the years,

I can always tell when somebody else is uncomfortable, whether it's a back or whatever. The two things that jumped out, he definitely has a limp. Like you can see that on TV. But watching him walk downhill when you're putting more pressure on like your tibia, like he was clearly not comfortable with that. And then the other thing was his shoulder, his posture was different. His right shoulder kind of dips now. And we were theorizing like, you know, he fucked up his right leg and his hip.

And so your posture shifts. But just watching him navigate this and his house said he shoots a minus one. He left like three shots on the table like even the par set the the whole seven that we were at he had perfect shot and didn't quite stay up and it lipped down but it easily that could have been a birdie but i i actually think he played well today house yeah oh he i he exceeded all expectations in terms of level of play now we were worried he wasn't gonna be be able to walk 8,000 yards. Look, he was 50 yards behind everybody coming off 15.

That's another thing. He was never in the front of the pack ever. Always last. We walked with DJ and Colin Markawa, and we were walking in stride with them, and they were walking faster than us. Those are young guys that were just cruising down the hill. We couldn't keep up because our side was

muddy. Tiger was what house 50 feet behind every single time the whole day. It is funny that in terms of the pace of play, it kind of suited. He did have the experience of being I don't recall him having

to wait at all. And that might have been the function of Bryson and... Casey dropped out. Yeah. Right. So he had a two-man group in front of him, which we felt like, oh, this is good for Tiger. He's not going to have to stand there for 10 minutes.

I can't believe we're going to say this. Each of the last 16 Masters champions has finished the first round at 11th or better. Tiger Woods is tied for 10th. The scenario for him is playing out. It is going to be 20 miles an hour tomorrow, wind blowing, with a high of 66, low of 42. That's in the afternoon.

Saturday, it's going to be 17 miles an hour and high of 58, low of 39. It is possible that these next two days as that course dries out are just straight up survival. And we get into a Sunday sprint when everybody's nervous and Tiger Woods is hanging around the hoop. Can he do this? Well, we thought when we watched him on the seventh, we were at the seventh for an hour and a half kind of waiting for him, watching all these groups come up. And after we saw him walk up, he had were at the seventh for an hour and a half, kind of waiting for him, watching all these groups come up. And after we saw him walk up,

he had to walk up the hill to seven. And then we were just like, oh man, he's not going to be able to last four days. And then we saw him again on 15, 16, 17, 18, looked the same. He's one of the most mentally tough athletes we've had in our lifetime. And I don't think he cares that he's in pain.

He's like, I'm fucking finishing this. You can see it lifetime and i don't think he cares that he's in pain he's like i'm fucking finishing this you can see it so we don't know and honestly maybe he doesn't know either what his um rebound ability is right like right we were talking about that on the way home like what does he do he's probably he's got what he's got like hyperbaric chamber hyper message well can you bring that stuff to augusta i mean he definitely has a massage for he's just in an ice bath what's he doing yeah right but he has the benefit of um time to rest he finished at you know whatever that's true yeah he finished like three o'clock yeah and then and then so he doesn't go off until tomorrow afternoon i mean by the time some people listen to this he might be like plus five.

Who knows? We don't know. We just watched the dude walk 8,000 yards. The round one split favored the afternoon by 0.79 strokes. Which, by the way, we predicted pretty vociferously on fairway rolling yesterday. So tomorrow morning, DataGolf's telling us that the morning wave probably has a half a stroke advantage. But that makes his one under look even better, given what the morning group did. And he also caught some breaks.

Like Cam Smith, who starts out plus two, starts birding everything. And then we're on the 18th watching him, and he just gags it. He hits it too far, comes back, misses the putt. All of a sudden, he's double bogeys plus four instead of plus six. Berger, who the Sharps were on, started to look really good, had momentum, did the same thing coming into 18 at three under. He doubles and falls back. Yeah. So people, what's it? Five is the lead. DJ never, he got up there, but never took off to a place that became unrealistic.

I don't think Tiger can win the tournament. I'm just going to say that. And I don't say that as like a cut this out and put this on social. I just think him getting in the top 10. It's not a hot take that the Tigers. No, no. I don't. I'm just not saying it in a way like, listen, my hands are going like I'm on first take.

From what I saw today, like if he finishes top 10, it's a win. It's an all-time. After we're watching Dustin Johnson and these dudes who are just like fucking beasts. Yes. And Tiger just gutting it out would be incredible. Exactly. Just making the cut. I mean, we went through this a couple different times over the shows this week and our anticipation building for this and tiger on on sunday

arriving and say he's giving it a go and the practicing we're getting some feedback that he reached the 15th green and two like wait a minute and then you know tuesday the press conference arrives and he confirms that he's going to play and at that point, the reasonable expectation is... Well, the first reaction was, what? He's playing? No, we'd had good signs. We'd had a series of good signs starting from the week before. Right, but this is pretty recent in the last three weeks. All inside of a week.

It was not on the radar. No, it was not on the radar. I was betting against it a month ago. But our reasonable expectation was... not reasonable expectation, hope. Our best hope, please make the cut. How cool would it be if he could make the cut? And, you know, he hasn't done it yet, but the first major step towards making the cut was accomplished.

And it was an extraordinary round of golf in terms of how sharp his ball striking was, especially on the par threes. And how vulnerable is the wrong word? How kind of untigery he's seen because he doesn't have that or anymore because he's it's I'm trying to think when this has happened in other sports, right? Like my default is always to go to Larry Bird. Sorry, guys. because he's, it's, I'm trying to think when this has happened in other sports, right? Like my default is always to go to Larry Bird. Sorry, guys. Um, but the last, the last two years of Bird's career when he's wearing the back brace, you know, or like Jordan on the wizards when his knees are shot and he's still putting up 20 plus a game. Like sometimes you see these great

athletes at this advanced stage where now their body's kind of not cooperating with them, but they still have the mental toughness. They still have the hand eye. They still have all these things. They have the experience and all that stuff somehow trumps the broken body. And this, this happens, you know, a couple times a decade, maybe, but this one to me, that's like, that's gotta be one of the most memorable rounds he ever played. You could have told me he was going to stop on the 12th hole and just be like, my leg hurts. I got to pack this in. But he had the same aura and kind of like, he was kind of waving at the crowd, but not really. He was just kind of focused. And he

looked like a guy who was like at the end of a long hike who had you know whose feet are covered in blisters and it's just like i see the finish line i'm just trying to get to the finish line don't talk to me i'm not here to interact not here to socialize just i i see that down there i'm gonna try to get there and it was really cool to watch there are 18 guys under par only the cut line right now is well, top 50 in ties is plus 2. So you double that for tomorrow. Well, in FanDuel, the cut score is

plus 3 or better. It's plus 120. They're saying it's either going to be plus 3 or minus 4, which means... Plus 3 or plus 4. Even 76 he's going to make it. If the win comes up tomorrow, which you expect it to do, that cut line's going to be plus 4. So that means he's got a 77 to make the cut. I don't

want to get into the specifics. I don't want to tempt the golf gods here. House is so weird with this. He is. I don't know why you don't want to talk about the cut line. He eats 17 different sandwiches. Because I gamble on golf. That's why. I get it. We don't talk about these things. We don't manifest them.

We don't speak them into existence. We say to the golf gods, please, we appreciate and respect your favorable light that you've shown down on us today. Could you please think favorably of us tomorrow? And that's it. That's the end of it

as far as what I'll ask for and hope for and count on. He only hit 50% of his greens today. So he can actually play better tomorrow. It was amazing. I'm trying to think. First of all, no Mickelson on the course either. And that was the other thing.

I've only been in the Masters in 2018 and today. Mickelson was always kind of the second most popular guy on the course. Right. I don't even know who the second guy is now. It's the person is 10% of what people cared about. Like we were watching the masses were just following Tiger like he was

the leader on the, you know, on Sunday. What's insane is the way the tea times worked out. All of the guys that would have been natural um guys of interest were so late in the day like jordan speith was at the very end of the day and we were out there after tiger finished and the place was empty yeah people were like let's go get something to eat front of the ropes with dj and morikawa like we walked talking shit we could we walked 10 and 11 um with dj more we could have seen speed

hit 12 we could have been like you know right there for that whatever we wanted i well we got to sit there next to paulina speaking of whatever we saw paulina so tracy wolfson luminous yeah i'd like to use that word luminous um but yeah But yeah, the energy of the course when Tiger finished completely shifted. It did. And I don't know, I was there in 18 and it felt like Tiger was obviously there and doing great, but it also felt that way when Mickelson was there. And we also, at that point, we had some of the old legends were there and those guys are starting to fade out of there.

Let's talk about the course for a second. Hold on, let's take a break and then we'll do that. This baseball season turned Ks into cash and big hits into big wins with FanDuel Sportsbook. Right now, new customers can step up to the plate with a risk-free first bet up to $1,000. I have some fun future bets. As you know, I'm in American League, Keeper League.

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The mustache is back with a vengeance. Look at Travis Kelsey. Before he rocked that Super Bowl ring, he rocked that super soup strainer. Grow a mustache for Movember. You'll do great things too. You won't win the Superbowl, but your fundraising will support mental health, suicide prevention, and prostate and testicular cancer research. And if you don't want to grow a mustache, you could still walk or run 60 kilometers, host an event, or set your own goal and mow your own way.

Do great things this November. Sign up now. Just search Movember. All right, coming back. So I want to talk Tiger more, but it was thunderstorms here last night and we were like, what's going to happen with this course? Obviously, they're the best at this,

but it was a water slide. And the course itself seemed perfect, although it was wet. Everything was just sticking. And then the walking around, which we thought was going to be the muddiest, worst experience ever. Well, honestly, it wasn't that bad. But the course, the morning played harder than the afternoon. I don't know where we go going forward with this, Nathan.

Well, we sat there on seven and watched as the course dried out, right? Yeah. This was the best observation Bill Simmons made of the entire day. This is where I was trying to go. Yeah. Other than that, the house shouldn't have the oysters. That was my other best observation. I had the oysters yesterday.

On the front side, every pin from one through six was exposed to the sun. The pin on seven today was under the trees, under the canopy, in the shadows until, I don't know, basically after Tiger's group came through. So whatever time that was in the afternoon. And for the people listening who haven't been to a tournament, I'm sure some people have, but not everybody. When you stay in a hole, it's amazing to watch everybody make the same mistakes with the putts. Everybody reads it the same way, completely wrong. And we were at seven, the ball kept rolling to one of two spots. And one of the spots was closer to the fairway

in front of the sand trap. And everybody thought the putt was breaking one way and it just didn't. And then they would stare at it completely confused. This has been our experience. Every time we've ever stayed at a hole for like two hours, everybody, and you almost think like, why don't they just ask the gallery, hey man, how's this breaking? Not technically legal. Not technically legal not technically legal but that hole sitting in the shade meant that it didn't dry out and so everybody left it short because the grass was catching so that became a hard hole as soon as the sun hit it you saw the the hole start to change it became faster and when the wind goes up tonight with the subterranean air

and the sun tomorrow this course is going to be harder and faster the easiest it's going to play was this morning well two other holes that we noticed are just different which we mentioned on the uh on the fairway rolling the uh the 15 15 which kind of just a hole now it's well yeah it's everybody lays up on 15 in the old days it was like is he gonna go for it is he gonna lay up oh. It was like, is he going to go for it? Is he going to lay up? What's he going to do? Nobody's laying. We only saw Cameron Young go for it.

The young stud, the kid from Wake Forest who crushed the Corn Ferry Tour. Yeah, and he hit a three wood from the fairway and went in the water. The wind's going to be out of the west from here. It's dead into it. And it played harder. Last five years. So they moved the tee back what 20 yards 20 yards 15 yards and so now everybody's laying up last five years that hole played 4.7 average strokes

to par you know par five this year or this round it was 4.82 that's not a huge move but it's enough to tell you they were having to stay back as opposed to go we saw almost no eagle putts on that hole all day well the point we made yesterday on FedWareRolling was just like, on Sunday when you're watching this and you're thinking, oh man, he's two back, but if he can eagle 15, it's like, I don't know if people are eagling 15. I wonder if they're going to move that tee up on Sunday. You can't change the tee, can you?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The tradition of the Masters is to create scoring opportunities on the back nine. What do they call it? The second nine. Pardon me. Justin Ray helped clean me up a little bit earlier this week. I call it the back. The second nine on Sunday has some scoring opportunities to create that drama.

Well, the other thing we noticed, and we stood right behind where they hit in the 18, they moved that back a little bit too. And... Holy moly. It hosed everybody. I can't tell you guys listening how harrowing that hole is.

And you saw multiple people. Trees. Including Brooks near the end. Speeds. Tiger. I can't... Look, these guys are the best. Ieds. Tiger. I can't look. These guys are the best. I'm always amazed constantly when I'm at a tournament, how they don't, how they aren't

afraid of just hitting somebody who's standing right there, like slicing it into the crowd and killing somebody. You think all these things, like there's people talking, there's people moving, there's people clapping on different holes, the amount of concentration you need to do that at the highest level. And then you look at the 18th hole and it's like, basically, it's like a needle in a haystack trying to hit through that. And you think, imagine the pressure. You're up one. You just one good drive and you're going to get a par and you're going to win the Masters. And just looking straight ahead at that. and those two trees on each side that are kind of bending in it's crazy it's it's extremely intimidating it's disturbing it's like oh my god i'm disturbed well and and and cam smith who made eight birdies today

and i think had the round of the day even even though Sung Jae finished at minus five and Cam only finished at minus four, but he started with a double. He finished with a double. Bookend doubles and still shoots four under. I mean, there does feel like this generational transfer that's happening here. We've known that we've got these young guys coming. We've got Scotty Scheffler.

Sung Jae and Cam Smith finished tied for second here before. But this feels like now the validation that they're ready to step up and be that guy. Not just a guy who wins Travelers and the Amex, but steps up and actually contends in majors. Well, wait a minute. It's a pretty rich leaderboard, right? It has a combination of Masters winners in the form of Dustin Johnson and Danny Willen. Oh, now you're giving

credit to Dustin Johnson, the bubble Lakers master. You wouldn't even let me bet on Dustin Johnson. They've had a stat today is the best score since 2015 at Augusta after today of anyone. I don't know why you guys are talking shit at me. I'm just talking about like it's not time yet.

Not after Thursday. We're not crowning anybody. To confer to the younger because you have you have Kevin Naha sitting here, you know, top top 10 going along with. Yeah. And Jason Kokrak, his best finish in this thing is like I think he has a top 50 finish, but that's the best he's ever done in the Masters I just think that those guys

Scheffler, Cam Smith Sung Jae and you're right DJ had the best rounds of the day the other rounds were grind amounts those guys left a bunch of strokes out there there were two heroes today though

Tiger Woods and Varner, who bogeyed four of the first nine holes and somehow finished minus one. He had an eagle that Nate and I were watching on 13 that looked like it had a chance to be an albatross. It was approaching the hole. We were like, get in the hole!

It was such a great shot. Another sort of iconic pine straw shot, potentially. Varner's like Jordan Poole in a Warriors game. He's just like, I'm sitting three. He's airballing. What's this guy up to? Look, Cam Smith today had 5.4 shots gained approach. That was 2.3 strokes better than anyone else in the field. Taylor Gooch was second. And the other thing, watching like Cam Smith and some of these other young guys and then watching Tiger and you're just like watching these guys. I cam smith could have played 54 holes today yeah tiger could have played 18 holes today and probably really like 14 holes it was interesting to see dj and cam smith there you and i talk about this they're kind of the same side of the coin in terms of

personality obviously different countries but they play amnesia golf they're not men of many words you know who also fits that is scheffler right yes just this quiet mind there's these guys with this quiet mind kind of uh uh approach it seems that that it certainly makes sense in the context of the masters i i want to we're going to do more we should probably talk about the leader at some point. Well, Sungjae, he's super high quality. I mean, he tied for second at the Masters in 2020 in November. I'm just saying. We're at the 21-minute mark.

We haven't mentioned yet. He's minus five. By tomorrow, who knows? He was steady the whole day. Yeah. He's finished second here before. High quality. Let's see him finish this one out.

And we said he's on the correct side of the draw. He caught the he's part of the late draw. Now he gets to go play in the morning before the winds really get whipping and ripping. Yeah, that seems like such a big advantage this year. He's also, by the way, a dispassionate golfer in the same way that Cam and DJ and Scheffler

are and that he doesn't seem to get too emotional. You've never seen him slam clubs down. That's right. But on that quiet mind point, do you guys think that there is any possibility that Tiger would have tried to go play in any other tournament other than the Masters at this stage? I do not. It's just the Masters that he would be even willing to try in terms of this stage of his recovery, right? I think you're right.

I mean, we can speculate that maybe he would have gone and done St. Andrews. I mean, look, I just think back to... Well, he could and done St. Andrews. I mean, look, I just think back. Well, he could still do St. Andrews. I'm just saying like. Yeah. I mean, look, he won the U.S. Open on a broken leg. I keep thinking about that. I'm not sure.

We're talking about that on the course because you were like, I can't believe this guy's doing it. We're like, well, he has a way of like just whatever kind of pain he's in. He can kind of compartmentalize. I think this might be worse. Oh, it's worse the way he's holding himself this is ben hogan after ben hogan this is you know that right that analog makes perfect sense like you know he almost died in a car crash i mean it was interesting watching him just stand when he wasn't putting right and he would always put his weight on the other leg

which you know and that was it he wasn't like standing straight. He didn't seem happy ever. And he was just kind of doing what he had to do to keep the, keep the round going. It's four and a half hours. You're standing all the time. You're walking 8,000 yards. You have to stop. You're going to, you know, swing 72 times plus all the practice stuff. He's got to do it three more days.

Did anybody play themselves out today? We got Morikawa and Raul. Let's talk about Beefy Bryson. Because I think you guys were saying all week, this is a cross-off. I bet on him not to make the cut, which was plus 155, and you were like, he's a mess. Even Bryson said

I'm 80%, and he shot a 77. He has to shoot even par better tomorrow. Can he do it? The thing that is so surprising to me, and it is a function of his lack of practice that is a direct result of his inability to practice because he's hurt, but the touch that Tiger had,

like has Tiger been secretly practicing for three months? His approach on 18, the way he saved par on 18. That up and down on seven was ridiculous. No glove. I didn't understand. Yeah. But that touch and Bryson had none of that. Bryson just is so rusty still.

It's not any one aspect of his game that's letting him down. He was good at tattling the sand off when the sand shot on the green. He was the best. All the guys we saw. There's some guy that comes out on these holes because if you hit it out of the sand trap, the sand goes on the green.

Splashes onto the green. And we called it like this. What did we call it? The splooger? You called it the splooger. The guy with the splooger would come out and it was this really long thing and he would just kind of whack the sand off and i was like i want this for my

house it's like so they hit my kids with it it's like a crumb comb right is the way when you're sitting at a fine where do i buy this the bread the bread crumb comb and there were multiple sploogers that came out well anybody who was the course anybody that went in the sands necessarily splooged yes it led to the best thing we saw when we spent an hour and a half at the seventh hole which was matthew wolf for some reason just we didn't even know he tried he broke a club on like the fourth or fifth hole yes um trying to putt out of a sand trap for some reason doesn't get out yeah hits it he seems like he putt out of a sand trap for some reason. Doesn't get out. Yeah.

Hits it. He seems like he's mad at his caddy, but then for some reason tries to unsplooge the sand. And Mackenzie Hughes is trying to putt. And Mackenzie Hughes kind of gets mad at him. Not kind of. And then Matthew Wolfe kind of got mad that Mackenzie Hughes got mad.

And then he just got super mad. And then he made his thing and he walked out. He kind of walked off, kind of stomped off through his club at the gray. It was very strange. They, you see some strange things when you're there in person. I hope that the Netflix show is going to capture all this because there was a

lot of drama on the course today to say the least, but yeah, Matthew Wolf, uh, who, who did not play well today is carrying some darkness and i say that not laughingly because because he's working on stuff he's having some issues yeah you could see it on the course yeah he got in here because of his sort of out of

nowhere performance in the pga but uh but then that darkness seemed to be infecting colin morikawa at some point as we were waiting for him to go. We thought it was like it follows or just jump from Wolf to Morikawa. And this is where I'm sort of looking at the leaderboard going, did somebody play themselves out of it? Because there are guys who aren't in the top 11. Bryson did. But nobody ran away with it today. Bryson's not shooting a minus 13 the next three rounds to get back in.

Yes. Because what is minus 10, minus 11 is going to win? Morikawa and Rory are at plus one. Rahm, Spieth, and Xander, who, by the way, had no birdies today, are at plus two. Kepka's at plus three. Are they out of it? I mean, they're only seven back.

No, I would say anyone plus two or better is still in this. Yeah. You know, the winning score, Fando has a winning score bet. Minus 11 or better is still in this yeah you know the winning score fando has a winning score bet minus 11 or better minus 120 i don't know if we see a minus 11 this weekend either with the wind yeah well the the real um question always comes down to the behavior of the weather on sunday yeah and right, the forecast is extremely favorable. It's gorgeous. So if there's somebody in there in the range of like,

if they just get to like 7 or 8 on Saturday. They could drop a 66 each. Yeah, exactly. Somebody comes out and drops a 66, and then you're at the traditional Masters kind of number between 12 and 16 under. That's a Masters winner. One, talking about people physically and how they look,

I thought Brooks looked really good. Yeah. Physically, he looked great. And he also looked poised to go run away with it. But he completely fell apart on the back. What was the streak for Brooks on the back? He made bogeys on 11, 12, and 13, and then 17 and 18. He was five over on the back.

Plus three somehow. He was looking good when we saw him. Yeah, he looked like he was going to pull together. And physically good. Fleetwood looks as fucking handsome as ever. What a handsome guy. Do you have a vote on the Victor pants from today? Oh, hovland

he had a horror show yeah he was he hit in the azaleas at one point yes well it depends on whether you want a glass half full or glass half empty with hovland because he ended up even and he was all over the the joint uh you know he he can tell you a lot about the woods hovland ended up at even yeah he double bogeyed 11 with a three putt from like you know uh what what was it you know four feet yeah exactly yeah he missed a couple shorties but here's the thing and and i really wish somebody in in these camps his sponsors or whatever needs to go and say in the history of the fucking masters nobody has showed up in in fucking stripe jogging pants that that that you know um stop at your ankle and drew and pink jogging pants and and won the goddamn golf

tournament in the history of this fucking tournament you can't show up a weird design on his butt what are you doing yeah that you you're not you can't show up on thursday and like oh i'm going to i hope to win this golf no no motherfucker you are not not dressed like that not at this golf tournament by the way i forgot to tell the audience drunk house is here um i thought that way about Higo. It just made me so mad. Higo looked like he was dressed by somebody's grandfather belatedly

to go play golf. You didn't like his shirt. I didn't like his shirt. That's in style. You liked his finish. Higo was alright. We were talking about who's going to be the hot young golfer this year. Meaning hot like all of a sudden they're one of those one of the last three out of the nowhere kind of you know unexpected name yeah that you would higo is on the list

let's uh let's take a break we want to talk more about um the experience of being at the masters what does possible sound like for your business? It's having the spend to powers your scale with no preset spending limit, more cash on hand to grow your business with up to 55 interest-free days, and the ability to reach further with access to over 1,400 airport lounges worldwide. Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply. Visit

amex.ca slash business platinum. Alright, so I said this the last time, I'm going to repeat it. I did a lot of self-evaluation the last two days at Augusta. Because you have a lot of time,

you're just kind of hanging out. Just killing time, especially like we're on the, we're on the seven pole for an hour and a half, we're on 15 and 16 waiting for Tiger to come down for an hour and instinctively you wanna look at your phone. Like I'm bored, nothing's happening for this minute of my life. What's going on?

I'm gonna see if I got a text. See, oh, somebody emailed me. I gotta look at my phone, for this minute of my life. What's going on? I'm going to see if I got a text. See, oh, somebody emailed me. I got to look at my phone. I got to look at my phone. The Masters is like a detox center. They take your phones before you even get on the course. Nobody has a phone. Nobody has anything. And you get used to it after about an hour, but during that hour, it's like coming off heroin. I'm touching my back pocket every 30, 40 seconds because I feel there's nothing in there. It's alarming. So I guess my question is, is technology ruining us? Because it takes me an hour to just feel normal again at a golf tournament to not have my phone for an hour. I'm completely discombobulated. Like, what does that say about me? I think you're the same as

everybody. What does that say about us? It's enormously refreshing. It is such a weight off the shoulders. And, you know, the only thing that you have to be careful about is making sure that all the people in your life who've grown accustomed to kind of instant feedback know that you're going to be off the grid for some period of time. But that's just a close circle of friends and loved ones, business folks. And you can let them all know.

They know where you are. You're... You know what? I'm starting a new thing. What is it? I'm just... I'm not going to take my phone places. Good. Like go to a quipper game. We always have this thing. I need my phone. Got to have it. What if something happens? It's like, well, we were just at the Masters for eight hours. We got out, gave the lady the check, got the phone. Yeah, I had a bunch of texts. Some work

stuff happened. It was fine. I caught up in 10 minutes. Didn't need my phone for those eight hours. It reintroduces moments of serendipity. It's like going to college in the 90s. That's one of the best. Yeah, we ran into friends. Yeah, you just have to. We ran into our guy Vino from CAA. It was like, yeah, Vino! You have to pick physical landmarks

where maybe we'll meet. Like, I left you guys to go to the bathroom at the Par 3 contest. Hey, we didn't know if we'd see you again. We might not have seen each other until dinner. And that was okay. It was okay. We were going to be fine. Nathan, text us when you get out of the Port-A-John. I'll be waiting for your text.

I have my ringer on. This is a tour of like, you know, a path down old guy radio. It's not old guy radio. This is everybody's life right now. I'm just talking about the old days of us in college where we look back and say, it's a goddamn miracle that we ever saw each other. I know.

How do we do it? It did feel like a miracle when we did see each other. It's like, hey, it's house. But we were saying, what would happen if we took our three sons to the Masters? And it became a conversation of who would have the biggest meltdown and who would want to leave first because they didn't have their phone and it's like what we're doing something wrong just in in in life and i'm gonna really make a concerted effort to not be on my phone the masters it's like going to rehab yes they try to

uh help addictive personalities by replacing the technology with alcohol and egg salad sandwiches. Right. What happens is I'm going to weigh 300 pounds because I'm going to eat and drink every day, but I won't be on my phone. It'll be great. We can't do that for our son. So, yeah, it's a conundrum, but it has been refreshing and wonderful, and I wish more of life was like this. Did we really miss anything today? What happened?

I'm barely a third of the way through the text of the email so i don't know but it doesn't feel like it it was like anthony davis was saying there's some story about hey i don't know maybe i'll get traded but you know i had two fluke injuries and it's like all right i didn't know about that story for eight hours was i okay yeah probably the lesson is everybody should experience the masters once in their life i think more more events should just like, don't take your phone. We're taking it. You don't go like, like concerts should, I mean, I know I'm preaching the choir on this

one, Nathan. Music concerts, you just shouldn't have your phone. Watching these people video, now I sound like an old guy. Watching these people videotaping the person on stage or just watching the person on stage is one of the weirdest things that's evolved in our society since we've been alive i think i don't know i it is a conundrum because you know you guys in the entertainment business the authenticity of folks participating in those events right you feel like you have to be in the conversation and then you know it is a fun way to connect with people like oh they posted something oh you they went to that

show that's cool and then it made you read text hey i saw you at the like in fact i got texts but guess what at the masters really fun to just watch the golfers versus like hey tigers there i'm videotaping it with my phone for sure you didn't have to deal with those people there is something different to the energy of a crowd when everyone is focused on the same thing. We are all sort of chemically wired to be together. It's what creates that energy of a crowd. And it gets diluted sometimes when people are distracted by their phone. I'm actually less bothered by the capturing content of it because at least the person's focused, than I am when half the people are distracted. Today, on that 18th green, as Tiger was grinding out one final par for an absolutely heroic

round, every single pair of eyes in that place was on the same thing. And there is something wonderfully connective and human about that. That's what makes the Masters great. It also does both the genteel civility of the crowd. Everybody knows how to behave. Only one asshole the entire time yelling, get in the hole.

He had to be over my fucking shoulder. Seriously, bro. Fortunately, I had not had enough vodka at that point to make a conversation. I yelled at out a couple tigers after he yeah because everybody was yelling out tiger when he did successful things oh and i yelled at morikawa hey get your fucking shit together we have a lot of money on you what are you doing no

we didn't say that we're very supportive we college. Yeah, we walked with him a couple holes just to show our faith in him. He's got to bounce back around to them tomorrow. He's got to bounce back around to them tomorrow. I know it. Yes. I love the civility that Nathan mentioned. I like the fact that we were all locked in on one thing

instead of scattered on a million things. I liked having conversations with people. The conversations would naturally end without somebody looking at their phone and then maybe they would pick up again a minute later and there's no performance that was the other thing i wanted to talk about like nobody's trying to perform for their phone or perform for you know right whatever their audience of friends it was also nice post-pandemic just to see a lot of faces although there was a couple pandemic moments like we were in a big crowd once and somebody coughed

and it was like a deep kind of deep recesses of the lungs cough. And I was just like, I'm getting away from that person. It wasn't just one cough. Yeah, it was. So there's still like that residue. Come on. It's still weird when you're huddled with people

that like, oh, this person's right behind me and they don't have a mask on. And then it's even weird when you're when you're huddled with people that like oh this person's right behind me and they don't have a mask on and then it's even weirder when somebody had a mask on like what are you doing i thought we're okay here yeah we're outdoors anyway um food oh boy are we starting oh no are we starting with a midnight pizza order? No. So House, Jacoby was texting us and he asked House,

what are you eating and drinking? He made the mistake of asking that. I didn't put any drinks in. I didn't want to put that in writing. House texted back, last 24 hours of eating. This was at 6.30. This is true because I witnessed all of this. BLT and egg sandwich, shrimp cocktail, oysters, gumbo,

steak sandwich, banana foster, bread pudding, sweet pepper gnocchi, wedge salad, tenderloin and scallop, blueberry cheesecake, pepperoni extra cheese dominoes, short rib quesadilla, egg salad sandwich, pimento cheese sandwich, and a chicken Caesar salad. You didn't have the strawberry shortcake? I didn't get a bite of it. Sorry about that. No, you offered it. We go to a really nice dinner with our

friends at FanDuel last night. Multiple courses. I definitely felt like I was stuffed at the end of it. We get home and House is like, we got to get pizza. We order Domino's and he decides he can't decide between Brooklyn or Thin Crest and just orders two pizzas.

Now all of a sudden, Brooklyn and Thin Crest. By the way, the Brooklyn style was delicious. With extra cheese. I was very surprised how good that was. This is not a Domino's plug. As people listening know, I'm very surprised how good that was. This is not a Domino's plug. No, well, you know. As people listening know, I'm a Domino's defender. And our friend Dave Chang, who we felt like we immediately FaceTimed him to show him our Domino's.

Yeah, we had to. Every time I have Domino's, I think of Dave. Yeah, he was really proud. He really was. So you had a full dinner and then Domino's. And this was after we ate and drank all day. I don't understand how you do it. So did you.

You had some. Nate had some. Honestly, I don't understand how you do it. So did you. You had some. I felt bullied. Honestly, I felt bullied. Everyone was having pizza. I felt bullied. I loved it. It was really good. Great way to go.

And I didn't even mention all the drinks you had. There were wine and there was. Well, the one thing that I'm surprised by is the rate. How can I have two Bloody Marys tier one every time? Every time we sit down. I don't understand how you drink the Bloody Marys that fast. I like to savor the Bloody Mary. It's like a delicacy and you drink it like

you know why? Because it's like it's food. Right. And it does, it drinks like a meal. That's why it goes. I was like still putting horseradish in mine. Mine was gone. And I was ready for the second. I've talked about this before, but the horseradish is so important to me.

You did a great job. I like it to be like a little pinkish, like pink yellowish when you go. Nathan was, I mean, you have nothing to be ashamed of with your performance either. You mean the fact that I had to wake up, go for a run and go to the bathroom in the woods? Yeah, we did tweet that out this morning. Yeah, Nathan went jogging this morning and had an issue and had to go in the bathroom in the first yeah we did treat that out this morning yeah nathan went jogging this morning and had an issue and had to go in the woods it was gonna be a very positive day for having to do with all woods anything having to do with woods tiger woods nathan in the woods

we knew it was going to turn out i sit in the woods right yeah when bryson kept going in the woods we were saying he was pulling a Nathan. Anytime we saw him. Yeah. So we had, I don't know. It's the, there's people are super nice here.

It's almost not. Every time I come to the dominoes time, every time I come to the South, I'm always like, they just, they figured some stuff out here. The air feels nice. Southern spring.

Hey, fever, not awesome. Everyone should experience the masters. Yeah. All right. We'll take one more break. All right. So Fando put the Masters odds for the rest of the weekend, and we're going to try to figure this

out for you, the home listener. Cam Smith favored right now. Five to one. I guess he has to be. Yeah. Because of the eight birdies. But man, is he going to have another round with eight birdies? Eight birdies is a lot of birdies. Last time we saw him he was winning the players. So he's beaten all

these guys. He won in Hawaii. He's beat the best guys twice this year already. It's a good number for Cam because of the ball striking number that Nate mentioned, coupled with what we know he's capable of putting-wise.

He literally is one of the best putters at Augusta that I've ever had the pleasure of watching. He does seem in complete command for a fairly young guy. So Cam's 5'1", Dustin's plus 650, Sheffler plus 750. M is plus 950. Cantlay's 13-1. No.

Neiman's 7-1. No. Conor's 28-1. It goes down. Rahm, 31-1. Zalatoris, 34-1. Daniel Berger, 44-1. I want to see Willie Z.

What happened to Willie Z? Why is he all the way down to 34? Well, because he made some bogeys down the back. Just at the end, we were very bullish on his performance. He had a day. And Morikawa is 37-1. That was 40-1, so there's been some action on him. You don't like Danny Willett at 55-1?

No, I don't. At all those guys, I gotta say, DJ really jumped out to me today. It's the number. You said it. First of all, plus 650. His family were there, which we saw in the 10th. Everybody just seemed in a great spot.

He seemed super confident. He seemed physically perfect. Eye test wise, we think like basketball, I think the big eye test sports, basketball, tennis, golf, baseball, when you're, when you're actually just kind of, you can really check out. He just jumps out. If you knew nothing about golf, you would just assume you'd stare at him for 30 seconds. You would watch him hit a couple shots and you'd be like is that one of the best guys that has to be right let me ask Nathan what would

have to befall DJ over these next three rounds what has to happen to knock him off of the confidence stride and and by confidence stride i'm talking about being in complete control of his game even the bogey on 17 he's like i hit a good shot yeah it went over it was a tiny the tiniest of misjudgments but it's like i didn't even hit a bad shot the only thing for me is in every interview we've heard he's talking like he's on the ascent and that he knows he's been digging it out from a lower place, which tells me that he isn't at a hundred percent confidence level. He says it's getting better. It's starting to get into shape, which I think he trusts that process very well because he's DJ. But that's the only piece

is if he, if he regresses a slight bit, cause it's a two step forward, one step back process, always for most golfers. You just, That's just in terms of a confidence notion. Yeah. I mean, if the game slips just a little, you could see him take a step back. But I think right now, I mean, what is he to top 10 for crying out loud? Well, it's going to be – we've got to pay juice, I'm sure. Is there a chance that he doesn't? Finishing positions?

Yeah. He's plus 115 to be top five. I mean, he's minus 195 to be plus 10. I have a theory on this too, because we get to watch all these different threesomes today when they're going. We probably saw, what, 20 threesomes? Yeah, over the course of our time.

And it's always interesting to me how they interact or how they don't interact, right? Like with Tiger, first of all, Tiger was 50 feet behind everybody at all times. So there wasn't a lot of interaction, but then you see the other ones, like we saw, we mentioned the Matthew Wolf thing that happened. Yes. There's other ones where they're just, they're not talking at all. Like Cam Smith and Bryson, not a lot of like story time for either guy there. They're just doing their own thing. It was like watching two people, like two ships passing by.

Yeah. I mentioned this because DJ was playing with Morikawa and Billy, and they had kind of an energy to them. They were almost like photo little rider cuppy. They seemed like they were buddies. We watched DJ and Morikawa walk down 10 together and talk the whole time,

and they get to play together tomorrow is my point. He just seemed really comfortable even with the guys he was playing with. They got paired at the Ryder Cup. Yeah. And kicked everybody's ass. Right. They are Adidas. They are tailor-made.

If DJ has friends, it's Colin Morikawa on the golf course. You could see it. Great draw for DJ in that respect, right? Not that there's anybody that that i think would could possibly get under dj's skin no that's the most well then everyone loves billy too because so and billy talks yeah best dj had an approach on 10 which we got to watch and it was hard to tell whether it stayed up or not because it was a friend thing and if it didn't stay up it was going to roll down and billy was up ahead because he'd use driver and he turned around he's like it stayed on like he was kind of excited for

him and i was like oh you guys all like each other like we just watched all these people who don't talk one and billy's walking down now we were up right up against the ropes and some um fans you all know go go billy you know go go gators he's like thanks guys yeah he seems like top five coolest guy on the tour just from watching from afar. It's just a reminder of what a bonding experience that Ryder Cup really is. Because I think Colin Morcal saw DJ do 100 shots

that night after they won. They've been partners twice. They kicked everybody's ass. And here they are. And it's helping them through a major. See, I think that the reason that DJ is a great value right now as a potential winner is because he is past all of the things that gave him a hard time in terms of the technical aspects

of getting around this golf he knows the golf course he's so comfortable in it and he went out and shot 20 under on it in this in nove. Yeah. And just, you know. I thought you said that one didn't count, House. It counts. I thought you put that next to the Lakers bubble title. No offense. House is like, I don't acknowledge that title. It counts in reps.

Notches on the belt. It counts in reps of him going around that golf course feeling very, very comfortable. Like nothing that he's going to confront is going to knock him off his stride. Tiger's post round interview today, he said he warmed up horribly. And then he said, but my dad always said,

did you accomplish the goal? The goal was, did you warm yourself up? And the answer is yes. And he said, so I just said, I know where to hit it. Go out and do it. DJ, when he gets on that first tee, he knows where to hit it every time. Well, you think he's 37 years old.

He's only won two majors. I say only, even though a lot of people haven't won any majors. But US Open, he won once. Masters, he won once. He's DJ'd a few. Bubble Masters doesn't even really count for house. This is right around the time you guys start adding some titles. I would say mid to late 30s for a golfer,

this is like the last wave. You hit your 40s, body starts changing a little bit. You're a little older. Young guy's coming up now. I still think he's the most... You guys know more about golf than I do. I still think he's the most talented golfer that we have. Well, so his single biggest...

Not counting Tiger. His biggest accomplishment since winning the Masters in 2020, he hasn't won on tour since his. But he did go five and oh at the Ryder Cup. Right. The first time. Like the the other countries like that's the guy we're afraid of. Yeah.

And he put it down. Yeah. And, you know, the thing as I size up his his fortunes and look at this list of guys, the only guy that I'm kind of concerned about... Yeah, let's play this game. Who are you kind of concerned about if we bet on DJ right now? It's Scotty Scheffler. He just seems...

Yeah, he's just... He's like one of those annoying pitchers that just strike one, strike two. Oh, I fouled that one off. You're just on the defensive constantly. He's just steady. That's a great comparison. I think that's exactly right.

He just knows where the two sides of the plate are, and he's going to nibble on the edges when he needs to. He'd go right down the middle when he needs to. He's a sneaky big guy too. Yes. Scotty just beat him in Austin, head-to-head in the match play. Exactly right. And so that's the guy to look out for.

The only other, you know, look, we got all excited about DJ's Sunday round at the players. Well, guess who won the players? Cam Smith. So I really think it's those two guys who are going to represent the real threat in the end. Well, we're talking about top five bets on FanDuel. There's just the odds

that jump out to me. Connors at plus 360 and Zalatoris at plus 410. Both of those guys seem really steady today. Zalatoris even, he almost double bogeyed the last hole.

Made a great putt. We weren't there for this part. We saw it on TV. But really made, I mean, to double bogey that and lose all the momentum like Cam Smith did, and he saved his own ass, but he seems pretty steady.

More cow plus 550 for top five. Berger, we didn't talk about him. Our friends at FanDuel, I don't think they'll mind us saying this. I think they will mind. Well, that's fine. That's fine.

They said there was something from a lot of places. Right. That there was the sharps all over the place, like two people, Berger and Hatton heading into the tournament. And Berger was like minus three at one point. And we were like, well, he was minus three on the 17th. Yeah. You know, walking off of 17 and on the tee on 18, he was minus three. And then he hit it in trees.

Yeah. So I don't know. I'm marking him down. I would be shocked. Tiger's sixth and one to make the top five. I would honestly, if he makes the top five, I think that would be more amazing than anything he's done in his career. Yeah. That's a fact.

That's right. And I say, just don't do that. Let's not. Let's let him make the cut. Don't nobody mess with that. Just let's get what we his career. Yeah. That's a fact. That's right. And I say, just don't do that. Let's not. Let's let him make the cut. Don't nobody mess with that. Just let's get what we get here. Exactly right. If Tiger makes the top 10, which is plus 260, that would be one of the most amazing moments

Totally agree with that. Yeah. So top 10, Cam Smith's minus 280, Shuffler's minus 200, and DJ's minus 195. Is there anybody lurking? If we had to bet on one person in the plus one, plus two range where the narrative on Sunday would be like, they had a tough Thursday,

but since then they've been lights out guy. I would have Morikawa plus one. I honestly think Rory. There is something. Here's why. His historical performance in majors.

His first day was the problem. And it continues to be the problem. He was on his way to an under par performance today. Choked on the bit a little bit coming in. He's plus one. He's plus one heading into Friday.

What's his top five finish for? 7-1. He is the king of a backdoor top 10. Top 10, he is plus 2 seven yeah so that would be one where i might consider it because you guys feel good about speed today i didn't

no we saw none of the things we the we were bullish about his potential for two reasons because he had an unbelievable final round in texas on sunday in terms of his ball striking prowess. Tita Green gained 11 strokes. Exactly. An amazing Tita Green performance. In that tournament. And the Augusta mystique that he just channels it and funnels it and it runs through his body.

It courses through his veins. And he was out there just chatting away and discontent all across the board. Yeah. A couple other Fando bets I like. I'm just doing this in real time. Top USA player. Right. Right now, DJ's plus 330 and Sheffler's plus 310. But to finish first, you get...

Just beating the USA. Those are pretty good odds. Right. Plus 330? DJ's plus 650. Sheffler's plus 750 to win outright. Right. So why not bet the... Exactly.

It's a little bit of arbitrage. Yeah. There is an arbitrage. So you like that or you don't like it? I'm not smart enough on the math to do it, but Scheffler at top American and DJ to win. He's a nice way to hedge. Any countries you want to know the top guy for?

Well, it looks like, you know, I like Cam Smith odds as top Australian now. Oh, well, he's minus 450. Jesus. Corey Connors is top Canadian. Looks pretty good. Top European is really the one that you should get in where it's still in anybody's game.

A total jump ball. Yeah. Top European. Because if Victor shows up in similar pants tomorrow. He won't. He's leading the board at plus 380. You got Rom right behind him at 500 and Rory at 650. So, Nathan, give us a winner.

From what you saw today, both in person and the stuff we watched on TV and how we digested the tournament for the last three days. Who's winning this tournament? My heart says DJ, but I think my head says Cam Smith. Interesting. House? I say DJ, heart, and head.

Scotty Sheffield's going to stuff it up for us. I think it's DJ. You do. I think it was fitting that we ran into, I mean, we didn't talk to them, but that we saw his family on the 11th and it just, I don't know. Felt like that was a sign. It was a sign for me to go bet on DJ.

Oh, okay. Just the whole thing that we, you know, and by the way, kudos to us, the Masters veterans now, our second tour. My second tour. How many times have you been, House? A lot.

I've been a bunch of times. How many times have you been, Nathan? We understand it now. We just owned where to be. I was really proud of ourselves. We own that. One of the things with the Masters, and I think with any golf tournament, is you got to be ready to audible from what you thought you were going to do if an opportunity strikes up, right? That's how you play the Masters, and I think with any golf tournament, is you got to be ready to audible from what you thought you were going to do

if an opportunity strikes up, right? That's how you play the Masters, too. It's true. We're walking by the seventh, and there's a nice spot, and the green's right there. Shade. And there's shade, and we're like, that seems cool. Let's do that.

Let's just stop here for a minute. Let's stop there. Then it turned 90 minutes. Yeah. Now we're waiting for Tiger. Because it turned out to be a beautiful spot it was like uh temperature wise because of the trees and the way the breeze was coming in it was very comfortable and we were very close yeah i need reconstructive knee surgery now okay well and then we parked between 15 and 16 we got to see tiger finish 15. We got to see him get on 16 and

birdie it. Bryson and Cam came through in front of that. Do I get credit for calling that or no? I adamantly called that he was going to make that. You did. You did say it. We felt the energy and agreed, but you were the first to say this is happening. He seemed locked in all of a sudden. 30-footer. And he hit

the best shot into that green of his threesome. A lot of guys were hitting good balls into that green of his threesome yeah a lot of guys were hitting good balls into that green his threesome we didn't appreciate it because both cam and bryson put it in super close yeah and both of them made their birdie in front of so he makes the birdie and we hightail it up to 17 to the green and we get to see him putt on 17 in time. And then we hightail it again down 18 and we get to see his approach shot. And the love. Par saving.

An amazing par saving. I'm so proud of us. I really thought that was a masterclass. You know what? To me, what it delivered for us, the three highlights of the day for me were the three Tiger roars. The Tiger roar.

We were standing on seven. Yes. Waiting for him to come we heard an enormous roar on six right enormous so we're like in nate's immediately like tiger that's a tiger roar we forgot to talk about this this is one of the best parts of being with the master is trying to guess what the roar was yeah and it's like did it come from six or did it come yeah and so you're doing that and then the tiger roars are always different so it's like, did it come from six or did it come? And so you're doing that. And then the tiger wars are always different. So it's either tiger did something or somebody just had a hole in one or an

Eagle. Those are the only two options. That was the conversation we had. I think if Mickelson had been out there that he could have rivaled the roar a little bit, I think pre all the shit that happened. Absolutely. But then once you figure out through the math and the starting times and where the groups are in position that it's a tiger roar

then we have to start betting did he hole a shot or did he just get close put it close or was did he just make a putt and then when the second one comes then you know the the putt yeah yeah so he stuffed one and then he made a putt because we got two of those. And then so that we were away from the hole for a tiger roar. Then we got to be in the tiger roar ourselves and participate in it on 16. We roared. Legit roar. And then we got to, on 18, watch again.

Every time, the whole day. Every time he approached the green. every time he approached the tee box, standing ovation. Everybody's up. And we got to watch him walk up, get that standing ovation, execute that approach unbelievably well, validate it by making the putt.

Again, a giant enthusiastic response. And then when he's walking off the green. And that's the appreciative one. The place where he hugged Earl. The place where he hugged Charlie. It was so great. It's like sacred ground.

It's a home game. Until we saw Roger Goodell like five minutes later. It was such a nice moment. And then saw Roger Goodell wearing a green jacket, by the way. Yeah. He's like, oh, man. This guy, really? He's got to be here?

He's a member. Yeah. There's two other noises that happen at the Masters. One is the... Where it's like the... Where it's like either it's a long putt that almost goes in or a long chip or an approach shot that spins back.

Yes, yes. It might go in. Yeah, yeah. And then there's a roar we were worried about hearing is if Matthew Wolfe tried to kill the guy he was playing with today. And it was like the... back yes yeah you might go in yeah yeah and then there's a roar we were worried about hearing is is if matthew wolf tried to kill the guy who's playing with today and it was like that oh like if you just started hitting the guy with the day that was who's tasing no oh yeah or who's tasing right any of the golfers melting down we're trying to figure out what would it be like if they

just took an eight iron and just hit their caddy with it or something, what the gallery sound would be. And I think it would be like, oh. There's a lot of respectful silence, so when you hear the disappointment, you know it's really bad. Respectful silence is usually not a good sound at the Bastards. That's usually the, we appreciate that you're

here, but that was pretty embarrassing. Let's all just move on. Ustazen had one on the 18thth he hits an approach and almost kills somebody like yeah he put it into a woman's chair yeah and and then she was in it yeah she was in that chair and they had to clear all the chairs and then he chips out and the chip sucks and he like whips his club against the back and we're like oh no this could be the, oh. That was fun. Yeah, I'm with you.

So we think there's three Tiger Warriors? Well, and just the experience of the day for us, that was, you know, the third one when he was leaving, that's when I got emotional. That's when I was like, wow, we just saw something. Yeah. That feels like a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. Like, I don't know why I'm feeling emotional, but I am.

That was like the second time we'd seen you like that because the first time was when the Brooklyn Domino's pizza came. And it was the same kind of emotion. I gave the delivery person a gigantic tip, I assure you. All right, any other last thoughts before we go? Well, what have we not seen that we're going to grab tomorrow? Tomorrow we feel like we need to see a little bit more of the front right oh yeah where we course experience wise we hit virtually everything except for one through five uh in terms of our our scope and our strategy today yeah so we'll go up i really want to get

up to the back of one i think that's such a cool vantage point yeah it tends to be a little bit less um congested up there and you can see we need sarah grove ballyonis yeah we got to go find her amanda yeah but miss miss miss ballyonis renner mrs ballyonis renner one last great thing happened to me today um because you run into people at the masters obviously you never know who you're gonna run into guy at the masters. Obviously you never know who you're going to run into. Guy, guy yells my name. I turn, I told this story in a podcast a while ago that, um, when I was going to high school in Connecticut, I was playing golf one day and they had all these IDs for people who like left stuff on the course, like driver's license, different things. And I saw this driver's license and the guy had brown hair and kind of looked like me. And I was like, I'm just going to pretend that's my license because that guy's 21. And now I'll have a fake ID from this.

Wait, did you work at the golf course? No, I was just playing there. So I pretended. You were playing at a golf course. And I was in the pro shop after. And I was like, I left my license. As a teen. No, I was like 18 or 19. Yeah, that's what I'm asking. I was in the pro shop after. And I was like, I left my license. As a teen. No, I was like 18 or 19.

Yeah, that's what I'm asking. I was probably 19. And they give me the ID. You pilfered the lost and found. And his name was Bart Osmond. And I had gone to high school with him, but he was ahead of me. And I became Bart Osmond. And that's how I bought liquor for us at Holy Cross.

Did they give you that ID by accident? Or did you ask for that ID? No, I told them I left my ID and they gave it to me. So I became Bart Osmond. Did Bart know? Bart didn't know, but Bart was like five, nine. So every time I bought drinks, I had to like spread my legs out. So I seemed shorter. And then one time at the state liquor, which is where we bought a lot of, lot of liquor in Worcester. At one time I saw the lady kind of eyeballing me. And this was like only a couple of months before I turned, it was probably like four months before I turned 21.

And she was eyeballing me. And then she's like, do you have any other identification? I was like, no, I don't. I just have that in my credit card or money. I didn't even have a credit card because it wouldn't match. No, that's all I have. And she's like, I'm going to take this. And you have that moment where kind of the jig's up. I'm like, okay, that's too bad. So that was it. I stopped being Bart Osmond.

But I mentioned the story and he loved it because he had a bunch of friends. So I'm like, hey, listen to this podcast. The guy was Bart Osmond. So anyway, I got to meet Bart Osmond. So I got to thank him in person. Today at the Masters. Today at the Masters for the 16 months, I got to be Bart Osmond.

Well, I'd like to thank him as well because I was a third-party beneficiary of a lot of that. Bart Osmond bought us a lot of liquor in college. Well, we're almost out of tequila in this house. We don't need Bart Osmond's ID, but man, oh man. Anyway, thanks to Bart. It was great to see him. I think we're wrapping this podcast up,

but of course the basketball is getting a little wonky house. What's going on? So we have the Bucks are only up three against the Celtics with 11 minutes left, and the Raptors are beating the Sixers. I'm assuming we won't have... We should probably just end the podcast here, but if anything crazy happens, we'll do another bonus basketball segment. Otherwise, I'll talk about

it with Rosillo on Sunday night. Sunday night I think is going to be a two-part podcast for me because we got the Masters, we got all the basketball stuff, then late night we'll have all the matchups. I think we're going to split up into two parts. You guys are going to be a two-part podcast for me because we got the Masters. We got all the basketball stuff. Then late night, we'll have all the matchups. So I think we're going to split up into two parts. You guys are going to be doing fairway rolling right after the Masters.

Yes. We'll be fired up, ready to put on our own green jackets. We'll be talking about Fando stuff. We were scouting this because next year, we're going to come back for Fando, and we're going all out. We're going to have video. We're going to have nephew Kyle will be here. He wanted to come this year, but it didn going all out. We're going to have video. We're going to have nephew Kyle will be here. He wanted to come this year,

but it didn't work out. Next year, he's coming. A lot of people will come. It'll be a whole FanDuel extravaganza with video. Maybe we'll have show. Maybe we'll have celebrity guests. We could do that. Live at the Masters.

A lot of celebrity guests. Presented by FanDuel. Yeah. Who knows? Who knows what that will bring? I know what this year brought. It brought some tears, some emotion,

and about a combined 20 extra pounds for the three of us. Well done, boys. Good to see you, Drunk House. Good to see you, Nathan Hubbard. Thank you, Bill. Thank you, Bill.

All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Nathan. Thanks to House. Thanks to Kyle Crane for producing, as always. Thanks to Dylan Berkey. Thanks to Fandle for helping us get to the Masters. We had a great time.

I will see you on Sunday with the two-part podcast with Priscilla. Looking forward to it. I don't have feelings within on the wayside I don't have feelings