The Press Box - Ep. 284: 'ShackHouse' — Arnold Palmer Invitational Winner Marc Leishman and Austin Golf

Episode Date: March 20, 2017

Geoff Shackelford and Joe House welcome four guests in one show, starting with Arnold Palmer Invitational winner Marc Leishman (02:00), then shifting to discussion of the upcoming WGC Match Play and Austin golf with Criquet Shirts cofounders Billy Nachman and Hobson Brown (18:30). Then they welcome Geoff’s dad, former UCLA basketball star Lynn Shackelford, to further discuss the Austin golf scene (34:00) and the 50th anniversary of his first NCAA championship (37:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, channel 33 listeners. This episode of The Ringers Shackhouse, brought to you by Calloway Golf. You know who they are, the makers of the number one irons in golf. Whether it's a big bertha OS irons, you know, the only ones awarded a perfect score in the 2017 hot list or the wildly popular steelhead irons with that great signature shape. Calloway Irons, they're the difference maker with their face cup technology for ball speed forgiveness. They're hot on the tour as well. Of course, Adam had one, our guest last week, one with those beautiful irons.

And of course, this week, Mark Leashman, guess what? That's right, Calloway Irons in the bag. So visit Callowaygolf.com. Click through that iron selector to see which ones with the face cup technology are best for you. It's a really cool online tool. Then go get fit by your professional. Hey, in this episode of the Ringer Shackhouse also has a little bit of request for you, people. You know, we love having great advertisers support our show, but in order to continue doing that, we need your help.

So please go to Podsurvey.com slash Shackhouse. And take a quick anonymous survey that'll let us get to know you a little bit better. Even if you've taken our show's podcast listener survey before, the current one is new and different. So we want to take you over the key details. Once you've completed the survey, you can enter up to win a $100 gift card on Amazon. And again, that's podsurvey.com slash shackhouse. That's S-H-A-C-K-H-O-U-S-E. You know the name by now.

So please, thanks for your help. And now let's get to the Shack House. House, how you doing today? We got a busy show. I know very, we'll keep the chatter short today, Shaq. I'm a little under the weather, so I'm happy that we have a whole bunch of interviews lined up. Let the other guys do the talking for once.

Without further ado, let's talk to Mark Leishman. He's from Australia. He's now a two-time winner on the PGA tour and House. He's a very friendly 66 to 1 at the Masters where he's played very well. Let's talk to Mark Leishman. Hello. Yeah, hello. Hey, Mark.

Hey, this is Jeff Shackleford. How are you? Good. How are you? Good. Thank you. Good. Congrats.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah. Spectacular. It's been a good couple of days. Yeah. It's been pretty exciting finished there yesterday and it's been traveling today. So it's been great. Obviously, you know, he's thrilled to win and finish off the way I did.

Yeah. So, Mark, take us back kind of where your year has been leading up to Bay Hill and kind of where you're, where you're, where your game's been at and what you've been working on and kind of why you feel like now you've had a almost, well, several hours to reflect on the win. What really came together for you? Yeah, I mean, I've been playing pretty well all year.

I've had quite a few chances to win, actually. Just I haven't played great on Sundays. I guess the more you get into that situation, the better you get at it. And, you know, everything came together yesterday, you know, took all these. experiences I had early in the year that, you know, didn't work out and put them to good use and they, you know, finally, finally got the job done yesterday.

Hey, Mark, can you give us a feel for how the conditions were yesterday afternoon? It looked like the wind picked up a little bit, and with you and Rory were kind of the only guys on the back that were really sort of charging ahead. How did you find things yesterday afternoon? Yeah, it was tough. The wind was fairly strong. The greens were, you know, hard and very fast at the pressure of trying to win a goal tournament as well. So it was tough, but, you know, if you could hit good shot, you know, you could make birdies or eagles.

But, you know, it's a very punishing course. You don't have to be too far off with bogies and, you know, it can make you look silly quite quickly, which I did a couple of times, but, you know, managed to. to make the pots what I needed to and I guess that's what it came down to in the end

was the putting. You know, Mark, on the telecast, Sam Saunders was doing a little of the broadcasting for a few minutes and I don't know

if you heard, but before you had gotten into the lead, he was suggesting you or somebody to look out for on the back nine and the reason he

said that was that you're Australian and he feels like Australians tend to do better on firm, fast greens. And he certainly is not alone in that view. Do you think there's any truth to that?

Is that a product of maybe having played sandbelt golf and being used to that kind of incredible speed? Definitely, yeah. I mean, you know, growing up, playing those sandbelt courses, you know, that's what you play on every week. You're used to landing a wedge 30, 40 feet short of the pin and having to bounce up. So, you know, that's hard to get used to.

And then, you know, of course, we play in the wind a lot in Australia. It's an island nation, and it's always pretty windy. So, you know, I'm used to playing in the wind, used to playing on firm conditions. But it was, you know, you still have to play well and hold the part. So, but definitely growing up where I did. Mark, one of the things you mentioned in describing Sunday was kind of the overall difficulty of the course. And in thinking about the future of this event, I know that this year with the sort of passing of Mr. Palmer,

that a lot of folks wanted to come and pay respects and make an appearance, is there anything about the challenge of the course that would cause players to be motivated to perhaps skip that event in the future? Oh, man, I've been on two or nine years now, I didn't get in it. I'm off my status the first year, but I played it the last eight years in a row. I mean, the golf course was in as good a condition

as I've ever seen any golf course, brutally thick. So I guess it's just personal preference. You know, some guys like certain courses and other guys don't. And, you know, with the amount of tournaments we play now, guys tend to pick the courses that they like and play well at. So, you know, I'm not going to judge anyone

for playing certain events, or not playing certain events, but, you know, it's certainly going to be on my schedule for the, you know, for as long as it can be. And, you know, it's as close to a major as we play all year without being one. So on an awesome golf course, I guess the greens, they readied the Greens two years ago and they've, you know, improved out of the site. So, yeah, I mean, I love the place and, you know, we'll continue to play there.

Are you still working with Dennis McDade? Yes. Yeah, we've been. together for, she's about 16 years now. So it's been a long partnership and a good one. He's a great guy. He's been awesome for me, awesome for my goals. And, you know, certainly not planning on any changes any time soon.

House Dennis follows Mark and other players he works with. And he's always really one of my favorite people to talk to because he's just, he's just, there's several great Australian instructors, as Mark can tell us, but they just have a certain way about how they approach instruction and sort of a gentleness that's admirable. Mark, a lot of our listeners probably don't know about sort of how players are developed in Australia. And you're part of the group of people like Stuart Appleby, Robert Allenby, Jeff Ogilvy, Aaron Battelay, Jared Lyle, on and on. And then there's a very exciting group of young players now, too, who seem like they're on the verge of coming out there and

competing. Can you give people just a little bit of an overview of sort of how that has worked in your life and how it developed you to get to this point? Yeah, there is. There's a Victorian Institute of Sport. So what they do is they basically, with the Victorian Institute of Sport, there's no certain number of people that they pick each year. You know, some years they might, if there's enough guys with talent that they think can make it, there might be eight guys in the program. Some years there's only four. Some years there's two. So they pick whoever they think is got a future in the game.

And then basically they get you ready just so when you eventually turn pro that you're ready for everything that's thrown. A lot of things that people don't, but there's a few things that, you know, can surprise you and they try and see you for that. So there's no surprise of when you do turn pro. You know, you've got that decision of, you know, do I go to college in America? or do I turn pro when it's that decision and make the decision that's right for you

and I felt like a good one for me certainly had no surprises when I did turn pro and I felt like I was I was ready when I turned pro to, you know, to contend at the level I was playing at. So, yeah, it did great things for my golfing out now that on the US Amity last year

they're just about ready to break out and I feel like, you know, there's going to be a pretty big influx of Australian golfers over those next few years, you know, Hey, Mark, I have a very technical question. This was the first year with Mr. Palmer's passing that there was a garment that went along with the trophy. There is the red cardigan sweater.

My technical question is, it looked like it was a perfect fit for you. Did they have more than one ready to go? Because, you know, if Kevin Kisner had won, that might have been a little big for you. him but it was a perfect perfect fit for you mark they did have more than one to go uh one ready to go uh thank god they um in the tunnel walking off the 18 so i tried on the the extra large and it looked like uh it looked like a wetsuit on me it's not one of those rashies you put on when

you go swimming not a pretty look but uh yeah they got me the double xl and it's uh it worked great yeah house that's disturbing that you asked that because i had the same exact question in mind. I saw the, there was a getting image of you, Mark, where I think you were, that was the first one you were trying to button, and it was not looking good. And then the photos all I look great. So it's such a cool idea they had of doing that. So last thing we want to talk to you about, obviously this probably gets you in a little bit of a better mindset going to Augusta, where you've played well before. Tell us a little bit about what you think now are your plans for preparing for that and

anything, you know, that's sort of on your mind that you want to resolve with Augusta National based on your knowledge of the place and things you've done well and not done well there in the past.

Yeah, it's, you know, obviously exciting to get back there. I wasn't in the event until yesterday. So that was definitely a goal of mine. I'm playing the Dell match play this week in Austin. So I'll start getting ready for that tomorrow. I won't play the Shell Houston Open. And then I'll go.

great Augusta start to get ready there but you know really you just got to get used to the speed of the greens the undulations and hitting the shapes off the T's I mean there's so many shape you balls come into the hills but it's a lot of draw you know boardline hooks off the T so the way I've been putting I'm you know happy with

that it should do well on those Augusta Greens but the thing is you know you never know things can change in golf when you think you got it down it can jump up a fire so you know can't get complacent and keep working hard keep doing the right things and hopefully get into a position, you know, like I was on the back nine yesterday

and, you know, have a chance to win. But, you know, there's a lot of things you have to do right around Augusta to play well and, you know, process that you've got to go through, and hopefully it's good enough. But, you know, depends how other guys play as well. Do you keep a lot of notes on the course or have an extensive yardage book you go to every year or do you kind of take a fresh approach each year? Yeah, I've got, you know, I'll keep all my old yardage books. I'll put the new information in each year. I've got a pretty good memory with Augusta. A course that you grow up watching on TV,

you know, your whole life, basically. You know, you know every hole. You've seen putts on TV. Just a matter of knowing where you can miss it and be okay and where, like, as if you hit it there, you know, it's got a good bogey or you could make, it's knowing those places, and a lot of those places don't know until you hit it there.

You know, I've hit it in quite a lot of bad spots around Augusta and hopefully learn from it. And, you know, hopefully a few weeks time to play well there and hopefully content. Mark, one last thing. We really appreciate you joining us here on the Shack House today. We have to know,

did your boy finally get the trophy? Actually, he was, so we didn't get to take it home last night. That one stayed. Oh. I guess they post it to FedEx at home. It was pretty shattered last night for a, for a split second, but he'll get his trophy,

and he'll probably live in his bedroom. lives in his bedroom. So I'd say he'll want the new one, and he got it, you know, his five years. Well, it was cool for us, too. It was an awesome moment to see you there with your family and your boys so excited for you. And it was obviously awesome to have, you know, your wife and your younger son there as well. So congratulations. Yeah, thank you very much, guys.

Appreciate it. All right. Thanks again to Mark Leishman, who won last week, not coincidentally with Odyssey Golf's, number one potter in golf and across global tours. It was also an Adam Hadwin's bag when. he won two weeks ago. And of course, for this season, Odyssey, the longtime leader in insert technology has introduced a new way to roll with the microhinge insert.

This insert is designed to promote immediate top spin on the ball, reducing skin and improving accuracy as Mark Leachman showed us quite beautifully rolling the ball so well on those amazing greens at Bay Hill. For those of you who don't like these live reads, hey, guess what? We've got news for you to celebrate the third. 30th episode of Shackhouse, starting today, Shackhouse listeners have an exclusive chance to win an O-Works putter with a micro-hinge insert. And we're going to have some fun doing it, House.

You know why? Talk to me, Shaq. We're going to do some Brackatology. So here's how it works. Go to fantasy. orgat-PGATour.com. Look for the league Shackhouse. I got it set up.

The winner of our WGC matchplay Brackatology will win a new O-Works putter with the micro-hinge. Insert. It's going to be awesome. I like the shack. Are we eligible to participate in this? Oh, we're going to, oh, yeah, no. People got to be able to compare their results to ours. So I expect you, House. I will make you sign up tomorrow. Once we get the players selected in the Bracketology, Tuesday, you got to get on there and fill out it. It doesn't take long.

All right. It's time for our second guest here this week. We have two of them. They're the co-founders of cricket. They're great guys. They are absolutely staples of the Austin golf scene. They're doing great stuff there and making. really, really cool clothes that fit great, look cool. You can wear them on and off the golf course. We're talking about the guys at cricket.

All right, joining us now in the Shack House from their Austin-based clubhouse, cricket. Our co-founders, Billy Knockman, and Hobson Brown guys, thanks for joining us so much on this week when the tour moves to Austin and the spotlight's on Austin Golf. How you doing? And hey, why don't you just give us a little elevator pitch on what you guys do, because I think there's probably some people listening who don't know about cricket,

shockingly. Arnie and make all of our shirts with the golf aspect but also the livestock components for the 19. Yeah, so Austin kind of is infused into your brand, but kind of give us a little more of why that is. You know, are you, is it a Texas attitude? Because I love what you guys do. Your stuff is so well made, and it feels. fits so well. And you do a great job of taking that classic look, but modernizing it in terms of fit and the cottons you source in a responsible way. But kind of give us a little of the,

how the Texas attitude infuses what you do and also what you have down there in Austin in terms of the clubhouse. You know, I think, you know, of Texas, especially in 10 years, it's been and it pairs really nicely on the, they want to look good, just this, you know, on and off course and in a town that, you know, had a lot of 19 poles like Billy was talking about and just, you know, learning something that they can take to Rainy Street or 6th Street, and I think that's where we fit in. Hey, guys, this is House.

One of the things that Shaq and I have really loved about what you're doing, in addition to the clothes, we love the connections, to the community. And one thing that has caught our attention is your efforts and cricket's efforts in connection with Lions Municipal Golf Course, the so-called beloved Muni. Can you talk a little bit about, you know, what's going on down there in Austin with Muni and your efforts? I know there's a party coming up this Friday for anybody that might be in town.

Yeah, so national golf press will be in town as well. And it's a benefit where we're vodka to find. You know, it's the 19th whole party.com is where we're selling tickets. People can learn more if they want to come. It's open to the public. Well, one of the things Shaq and I have also taken note of over the last handful of years in connection with the Muni, maybe the Muni's most important event is the annual invitational. I'm not sure if this is a fight club kind of thing where you're not allowed to talk about it.

But I want to ask, what is the invitational? Described it as the world's, the, the, the world. The only prize we give are we give two prizes and the others for Best Mustache. And those two prizes are playing Lions, 11th year. People love it. And it's also just a place in playing golf and not take it too, you know, and crazy outfits defend by Save Muni, you know, organization here. You know, it can be about having a great time and, you know, really with your buddy. All right, guys.

Well, that sounds great. I'm house was there something you were going to ask because I uh of course you know what I'm going for it go for it you know well first of all we we're going to have a little bracketology here at the shack house so we'd love to know your picks for the match play uh this week who you like to win each of you and then more importantly we want to know your favorite barbecue and favorite text mix spots in Austin I know that's putting you on the spot a little bit you have uh community relations to uphold but we uh we want answers well i would say for uh the match yeah he's doing money on it of course him just right for him yeah i think we're going for the obvious picture i

you know i got to go with with our local hometown hero you know nice product if one of us doesn't but uh hanging out with get them to uh that's right yes yes um as far my let's get to the food Barbecue. You know, I think Austin's a great town. I mean, you know, there's Franklin Barbecue, which is kind of the most famous one. If you have a couple hours and wait in line, that's a good one.

But, you know, just deliver to you. You know, it's a crazy line. Just pull up with a six-pack of a tall boys. And that's a... All right, Tex-Max. Yeah, there's the spot right outside Austin Country Club.

And then Ben Crenshaw took me to the, I guess, the original. and is there a difference between the two? Yeah, the one of Lake, it's right by lions. Yeah, so that's where it's... Well, guys, thanks so much. We really appreciate it. We love what you do.

It's cricket.com, C-R-I-Q-U-E-T, correct? And then... Atcom. That's right. I just type cricket into Google, and it always comes right up. And you got some beautiful new stuff for the spring that people need to check out. And it'll get 20% off, so.

Oh, beautiful. You know, hopefully we've got a chance to bump into you all this week. And how your mustache is coming for the invitation or not well. Well, wait, wait. I want to know, what do we have to do for the invitation? I thought it was so exclusive. I was going to get on my knees for this thing. Offline, offline.

That's where all the good things happen, boys. All right. Well, thanks, guys. Have a great week at the match play. I'll be down there through the week and look forward to bumping India, hopefully. And especially great luck with the, the cause to save lions, which is really a noble and important one. All right.

All right. Big thanks to Billy and Hobson. That was awesome. Hey, Shackhouse, pals, the Masters, as you know, is fast approaching. And Seat Geek is the smartest, easiest way to get to Augusta National this spring. With Seat Geek's seamless mobile experience, you can buy and sell tickets in just two taps. Seatheek helps you find the best tickets at the best prices, fully guarantee. Make 2017 the year that you finally make it to the Masters and let Seat Geek help you get there for a great value.

I have the Seat Geek app on my phone and by far the easiest way I found a shop for tickets. Just a couple taps. I can instantly find seats. I have been using Seat Geek to buy tickets to the Washington Nationals professional baseball team here in the DMV. Brain training is almost over. Opening days right around the corner. or you can bet I'm going to be seat geeking for some tickets to see the Nats. Seekkeek's designed to make your ticket buying experience easier than ever.

They save you time and money by searching multiple ticket sites to compare prices and find amazing deals. So you get the most bang for your buck. They grade every ticket based on value to help you immediately identify the best seats. To get $20 off your first Seat Geek purchase, download the Seatgeek app. Go to the Settings tab and click Add a promo. code. Enter promo code House. That's H-O-U-S-E House. Seekek will send you

$20 after you've made your first ticket purchase. Download the Seatgeek app and a promo code, House today. Make Seatgeek your go-to ticket source for all things PGA and beyond. And now I'm very happy to

turn to our third and final guest, Lynn Shackleford. We can't wait to talk to you. All right, joining us now. I'm going to call him Lynn for the purposes of the show, but he's my dad. He is an Austin resident, diehard golfer, and this is the 50th anniversary of the first of his three championship NCAA winning teams under Coach John Wooden taking the title. And I believe that makes you one of only a few players to have won three NCAA titles. Is that correct in basketball?

Yeah, of course, that's a dying breed with the way the players stay now. Yeah, I think one day I calculated there were about eight or nine guys who played at UCLA on three championship teams, but I pride myself as being only one of four who were starters on three championship teams. One of those you can probably guess. Yeah, yeah, we'll get to him in a minute. All right, well, so thank you again for being on the shack house. And the reason we do want to talk a little basketball. But first, with the tour going to Austin,

we really love highlighting these cities and what goes on in the towns. You've been there now, how many years? Five and a half. Yeah, wow, amazing. So give us kind of your impressions of the golf scene there. You know, we've talked to the guys from cricket about the Lions situation a little bit. But kind of give us, you are a long time, Southern California. What's the golf scene in Austin like?

And kind of how would you characterize it? Well, if you're going to play golf here, you have to play in hot weather, which they do in the summertime. They adore their tradition like a lot of other Texas cities and their heritage with Harvey Pinnock and Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite. And there's dozens of Ben Crenshaw stories about what he did in his youth. He was a real prodigy. By the time he was 13 or 14, he was probably better than anybody on the University of Texas. Texas golf team. So it's great to hear those stories. And there's a large number of other avid public amateur golfers. And a little known secret is that they get together every year on December

26th, and they have a little putting contrast, the contest at Lyons Municipal. And so they love their tradition and they have great pride and what they've done down here. And of course, University of Texas is usually pretty solid in golf year-in, you're out. So give us a couple of the golf courses down there that you play at Austin Golf Club, which is Ben's course, very private, but give us kind of some of your favorite places you've played besides that if somebody's going down there and places they should check out. Jeff, a little bit like you. I think I'm partial to those old inner city muni courses, and they have a couple of them here.

Of course, you are well aware of Lyons Municipal, known as Muni. They have a great tournament there every year called the Firecracker. It's on the 4th of July weekend. Kite and Crenshaw have won it. You kind of go in this old clubhouse, and you see that up on the wall that they won many years ago. And it's just fun to play. It's not a long track, but you've got city sounds and traffic on all sides. It's been a good location.

and you just feel like you're playing something that, well, many played there, including Ben Hogan. And then the other one is Morris Williams. That used to be the home course for the University of Texas years ago. And a guy named Jeff Willie, a local guy, came in and re-did it a few years ago. And so the conditions there, unlike Muni, and in the city's defense, they only got a couple more years on the lease there with the university, so it's not well-maintained. But Morris Williams, by contrast on the other side of town, is well-maintained,

and it's all brand-new state-of-the-art irrigation. And Jeff Willie did a nice job architecturally. It's on rolling hills and terrain, brand-new clubhouse, and I think it's like $26, maybe $15, if you're a senior, to play. And again, inner city, ear traffic noises, airplanes, landing sometimes. And it's great. And the snack bar is good inside, but Jeff, you'd like this. About a mile away from the golf course is an in-and-out.

So you can hit that before or after the round. Wow, nice. I didn't know that in and out of Maynott, Austin House. That's another reason to go. Yet another reason. Look, I'm chopping at the bit here, Shaq. Lynn, I can't, this is the first time we've had a real accomplished basketball guy. Look, it's not every day.

We have one of only four players in the history of college basketball to have started on three NCAA championship teams. I mean, I know Jeff kind of gave you a soft pedal. Let's get it out there, right? I mean, so we're on the 50th anniversary, 1967 really got it going. Tell us a little bit about that 1967 Final Four. Well, of course, freshmen could not play varsity. So we had four sophomores, Lou El Sender, Kenny Heights, Lucius Allen, and myself in the starting lineup, and a junior, Mike Warren, who was, they didn't call him that then, but our point guard and our captain and our leader, and he was our, he provided the stability.

And of course, we came in to the final four unbeaten, and even though we were the youngest team to have won a title then, and still may be for that matter, I don't know. And nobody really knew what was going to happen. So we beat the University of Houston and Elvin Hayes in the semifinals. And then if you got a second, I'll tell you a quick story. So back then you played Friday night and Saturday night. We're playing at Freedom Hall. And we're staying in this old downtown Brown Hotel and downtown Louisville. So North Carolina is upset in the other semifinals by date.

Don May went for like 36 points, game of his life. and so at about 2 a.m., the North Carolina players, and their season's basically over, they're running up and down the hallways, probably some beer involved. They're rolling out the fire extinguishers in the hallways. They're making noise. None of us could sleep, and we've got a championship game the next night. At breakfast the next morning, Coach wouldn't mention it, and he was irate, and I knew he was upset and had not slept.

So, and by the way, you stayed mad at Dean Smith for that for many years. But anyway, so the next night, here I am, MCA championship game, 19-year-old sophomore, we're 29 in all, and I'm going to have a pregame speech by the great John Wooden. I think this is really going to be something. So he comes in the locker room, he writes on the blackboard, okay, this game's on national TV, and so they're going to introduce you in the starting lineups, and here's where the camera's going to be, and here's where you need to face. That's very important.

And then secondly, he goes, you know how to play the game. You know what you're supposed to do out there. But I just want to warn you that Louisville is one of the fifth, most immoral cities in the United States. And I'm more concerned about what you do after the game and how you behave after the game than I am about what you do during the game. Now, let's get out there and go play. So we're out there doing pre-game warmups for our. our national championship game doing layups, and we're trying to figure out what the other cities are

that are the other four most immoral cities in the United States. That's incredible. Well, that was very typical of John. And House, I applaud and appreciate your enthusiasm, but I did have some good teammates and a pretty good coach. So I was at the right place at the right time, wasn't it? Well, I'm not going to let you, you know, shun too much of it. Your prowess from Deep is renowned.

I wonder how much you, to your own self-think, boy, if we had a three-point line when I played, what might my numbers have looked like? I'm going inside the three-point line. You know, they went back a few years ago at LSU and recalculated Pete Marevich's point total by looking at game films because he shots from so far out. Yeah, that'd be kind of a fun thing to do. Coach Wooden told me, we used to get together with him for Baxos when he was in his 90s, and we said, well, what about the shot clock and the three-point?

He goes, we would have been better. He goes, I would have put four guys at the three-point line and would have put Kareem Abdul Zabbar underneath and just let the defensive team on defense decide what they're going to do. Now, House, you wanted to grill him a little bit about this year. Because the game has changed. That is about how some of the teams play. But have at him.

He's watching the Bruins. You were the honorary captain for a game against USC that UCLA took care of business. What's your impression of this year's UCLA team? I think they have the best offense in the country. And having said that, I'm not sure they're going to win a national championship. They've got a chance to. But their offense is so good. They have a lot of good players, but Lonzo Ball,

I'm not sure the country realizes how good Lonzo Ball is. I think they're starting to, after seeing him against Cincinnati. I don't think anyone's had a triple double in an NCAA tournament game. He might do that. He has that capability. And so you just can't stop this team. you can slow them down, but with the shot clock and everything, it's hard. I mean, if you didn't have the shot clock, you'd almost stall against this team to try to play slowdown.

Now, somebody is probably going to be able to do that, a Wisconsin or someone like that. And UCLA's defense is a little lacking. It's not as good. Gosh, I watched the Wisconsin-Belanova game. Those two teams play such great defense. And so I think that's going to be a problem for UCLA. I thought Wisconsin looked pretty good. Hey, I do have to tell you one thing I love about the tournament.

Two things. The first day, I love watching Bucknell and Princeton. I mean, these are old-fashioned, slide your legs on defense, work the ball around, and a guy makes a super play, and he doesn't end up scoring the basket. He makes a pass to somebody who scores an easy basket because of his superb play. I love watching those teams. Princeton could have beaten Notre Dame so easily.

But the other thing, what you have to realize about the NCAA tournament, even though I guess the Wichita State Coach's wife would disagree, you get the best referees in the tournament, and the games are well-officiated. And I don't think people realize what that means to a player that if he thinks he can make a good defensive play and not be whistled for a foul, then he's going to do it. And you can make a great offensive play, and if they do foul, you're going to be rewarded with a foul.

I don't know if you noticed the end of the Kentucky game. They blocked two, three-point shots. Now, I don't think you would coach a player to do that, but these players had such confidence in the officials that if they knew that they blocked it cleanly, they wouldn't get whistled. And I just think that's so cool about the NCAA tournament. and we used to talk about it after the games in the NCAA. Golly, what great officials.

It really makes it different. All right. Well, with the match play, something tells me you're not quite as passionate about the brackets in the match play. But we are still going to ask you to make a pick for the week. And the event, you know, really, I think you would agree living in Austin was a home run last year and maybe the biggest home run on the tour all year in terms of a new event and nobody knowing what they were going to get. And it turned out to be a massive success, didn't it?

Yeah, I think the players were pleasantly surprised, didn't know anything about the course. I think they thought it was okay. The complaints will probably start maybe this year or next year about things they don't like about the course. The members of Austin Country Club loved it. It brought attention to them. Yeah.

Now they're starting to complain a little bit about not having access to the course. So anyway, it was very, very well received. The mayor was out there, you know, for the photo ops. Michael Dell was out there. He thought it was really good for Dell. And so they got it a few more years. And as you know, Austin doesn't have any professional sports teams. So this is so great with its tradition and golf with Harvey Pinnock and everything to have this event,

the enthusiasm level still remains high. Anybody you like from what you remember from last year and who's playing well this year? Because we're going to have a little bracket, a little shackhouse bracket that we are encouraging people. Yeah, they had a big story today on Jonathan Vegas, and he's really excited about being in it. And this, yeah, I'd love to give you some long shot. But, Jeff, I am going with Jordan Speed. Last year, he got knocked out fairly early, much to the disappointment. I mean, this guy could be governor of Texas.

He is huge down here. It's huge, I'm telling you. And he only spent one year at UT. But he's playing well this year, and in match play, remember the old saying, a guy who can put is a match for anyone. And I think if you're playing him in match play and you know he's a better putter than you, I think he's got an edge.

The weather, Jeff, is going to be good, but we are going to have some wind. Thursday night and Friday morning, it's going to be stormy and windy, and then Sunday, even though it's hot, mid-80s, the wind's going to pick up again. So, again, Speed is a Texan, so he knows how to plan to win.

I'll see anything else for my dad before we cut them loose here. Yeah, you've been down there just long enough to have an opinion on the barbecue scene down there, Lynn. I got to hear what the best barbecue. Where do you get the best brisket? Okay. I'm going to mention a place called Opies, which is out near where I live in Spicewood, which is where he'll be Nelson has his ranch. Okay.

Dirt parking lot, a lot of pickup trucks. You walk in, they give you a tray, and they put a piece of paper on the tray, and then they say, what do you want? Okay, I want my brisket, wet or lean. Oh, I want it wet. And then sausage, plain or jalapeno. It's all been smoked.

It's all really good. Then you go get your side, your tater tots, and your coal flaw. Then you sit down. Then you go over to this big table, and you get your big old glass of barbecue sauce and your pickles and your onions and your baked beans. And then you sit down in this restaurant, and you kind of look over and there's a bunch of old guys walking with their sore backs

and their old denims and their cowboy boots on and their Blackberry cobbler's probably slipping out of the side of their mouth or whatever. I mean, it is really a Texas, an authentic Texas theme. I love it. I love it. I can't wait to get down there and try that one. That's a new one to add. All right.

Well, we appreciate your time. We wish your Bruins the best of luck going forward. I think they've got a couple of possible wins here coming up, but we shall see. And I look forward to seeing you down at the match plate. It should be a great week. Yeah, look forward to seeing you this week. Bye.

All right. All right. Well, we thank everybody again for listening to us and listening to all of our great guests today. And, you know, one of the great storylines in golf this year is Michelle Wees' hot start to the season. She's back. She's playing great.

Posted another top five finish. Pears to have found a really great groove with her new putter grip, her swing, everything looks awesome. She is going to be the guest on this week's Callaway Live, which is going to be recorded right down the road from the Kia Classic this week, one of the better LPGA tour stops, and a big, big build-up event before the A&A inspiration. And, you know, Michelle's one of the great figures in golf.

Really fascinating. She's an artist. She's got a scientific side to her mind. Stanford grads. There's just a lot going on there. And if that's not enough house, the great golf architecture-loving iration will be making a special musical appearance

on that Callaway Live. Of course, they're Hawaiian-born, their Ilovisa-sculpted, California reggae sound that is enhanced by their love of going and seeing some of the world's greatest golf courses and tweeting about it. So check out Calloway Live this week.

And of course, don't forget, fantasy.pgatour.com. We're going to give you a great Odyssey Pudder. Go play the Shackhouse Brackatology for the WGC matchplay. Enjoy the matchplay this week. It should be an awesome week in Austin. House, anything else?

Play the bracket to win yourself a putter from the Shack.