Ep. 122 - Brandel Chamblee

He pulled it like that too. I mean, as you would expect, but a lot of fun and we went a long time, so I just want to get right to it. Before we get to Brandle, I just wanted to let you know about the all new pro V one and pro V one X. It's been redesigned for more speed, more precision, more consistency than ever before. If you compare the two, Provo one has a software field, lower flight than the Provy one X. Pro V one X a higher flight with more spin and a firmer field.

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extra cash on the sports you know and love. It's only a game until you bet it at bet d s I. All right, let's get to Brandle and we welcome into the clubhouse a man that said, damn it, I'm gonna do another platform, Randal Shamble, who started the Brandle Shambly podcast with one of the best in the business, him E D s I think you and I both can agree on that it's a podcast. It's gonna be

out monthly. Your first episode, you guys discussed Tiger versus Jack the greatest ever and did you guys come up with a definitive answer. What's your definitive Tiger Jack answer, Brandon, I'll give you an easy one to start. Well, it's it's two questions. So it's who's had the greatest career and and that is by far Jack Nicholas. And who's had the greatest peak, which is five consecutive peak seasons?

Jack and Tiger interesting because they've both had two peaks, but the best Tiger peak is by far the greatest peak in the history of the game. So it depends on how you look at it. Who's played the greatest golf or who had the greatest career? Jack again, by far the greatest career. It's not even close brand by far. Yeah, it's almost two logical. You know, Brandon, you do such an unbelievable job on Golf Channel, one of the lead voices.

You've really made a career out of, uh, you know, i'd say your own research, you know, diving into the golf swing and the approach to the game. And I think that's why, you know, for for better or worse, if you will. I know if people have sometimes said, why did he say this? But of course a lot of fans love the way you approach it. Uh, it's it's really been what I've loved watching you do on the Golf Channel and all kind of all your platforms.

I want to start out with two thousand nineteen. I mean, it's been a really I'll say, it's been an interesting season. I mean the first quarter is something that we're gonna look back on, and I was just gonna ask you how will remember it because we have a schedule change that we're still kind of understanding, not just as fans, but I think as players. We of course have had these rule changes that have have come up here and there, and there's been a lot of controversy off the golf course.

I mean, it's been something that I don't think we're used to see it in golf. This many things happen, and I think what we've lost is some of the results that happened on the golf course. You know, Dustin's had a great year. We've seen Rory step it up with the short game and really starting to produce these results that look like he's gonna have a big season.

So as you look through this first quarter of two thousand nineteen, maybe in three or four years, what do you feel like you'll remember so far from the start of the season. Well, we're not hurting for stories, but you're like the controversy, you know a European event in Saudi Arabia, was the rules, the way they were written, why they were written, What in the heck the USG was trying to accomplish? That's certainly controversial. Phil winning is

is quite something. But more than Phil winning, the fact that he's, at forty eight years of age, been able to add upwards of seven miles in our club head spat over the last two years. Is is one of the great I think mysteries and accomplishments that I've ever watched or had the opportunity to sort of dive into. And then of course there's Tiger Woods. Um, you know, what's what's he gonna do for an encore? Dustin Johnson?

Is he gonna get back to the player he was when he won three times in a row before he went to the Masters and two thousand and seventeen, And where Rory ever again played golf like he did in two thousand eleven, two thousand and twelve, So those are fabulous questions. And then what the heck is going on with Jordan's speeds, So any one of those you can spend an hour on. So to take your pick well, and and and getting into Dustin for a minute, I mean, I want to look at this more than just one week.

Of course, Dustin played fantastic of Mexico and and he was he was head over heels better than the next guy who was, you know, heads down better than the rest of the field. And it was kind of a two horse race there at the end. You talk a lot about the fade, and you talk about how fading the golf ball is the way these guys can manage

the distances. I guess situation now. I mean Phil Nicholson famously won his first major championship where you know, he basically went to the fade and said, I'm not gonna worry about turning the ball over anymore than he wins at Augustin. Of course, he's had a lot of success there.

Just I want you to expand a little bit on what you talk about when you mentioned the drivers of the golf ball, the guys like Dustin Johnson who lean on the fade and use it as a weapon, which I feel like so many times in the past we thought you know the guys that bomb that turned the ball over and it would roll yards, and that's where

they got their advantage. Well, you know, look, most people will say that a fade is much easier to hit in the fairway, and they will pretty much assign all the advantages that a fade gives one to what happens off of the tea. But I would argue that it is much more realized up at the green. The typical green slopes back to front a fade. First of all, most of the time it's it's a higher shot. Most of the time it's produced by a more upright golf swing, so it has a higher apex, so it has a

steeper landing angle. And because it finishes to the right, more times than not, a fade is going to land and stop short of pin high and it's going to finish off to the right. Now that's significant because on a fall line clock, most of the putts are made not only from underneath the whole, but the further right you get. So it from six o'clock, if you're dead even with the whole, you're gonna make a lot more

puts than you are from nine o'clock. But if you're at five o'clock, you're gonna make a heck of a lot more putts then you do at six or seven even, and way more exponentially more than you would at nine, ten or eleven. So over the course of a week,

it's a huge advantage. But over the course of the career, it's no wonder that Jack Nicholas and Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods and Lee Trevino and now Dustin Johnson then really scores of players, anybody that can hit the ball high and fade it has such a huge advantage, and it's it's one of the reasons why we consider these guys the best putters, because over the course of their career they've had far more easier puts than people who hit it lower and people who draw it. And that's

and that's that's the game in a nutshell. Really, are you surprised when you see guys go through swing changes and they're thinking about flipping that. I mean, these guys that are trying to get more distance out of their golf swings, maybe trying to maybe maybe spend a little bit more too much time looking at statistics, and they're trying to turn the ball over when you see those

types of changes going on maybe in the offseason. Is it befuddling to you, Well, it's my it's my argument against a lot of instruction that it wants to flatten golf swings and it wants to resist with the lower body because it just gives you less time. It makes you less creative, It lowers your trajectories, it takes away your power, It takes away your spin even coming into shots because you're not as powerful. It takes away your nuance.

So yeah, I'm I harp against it all the time because I think this is where instruction is really missed the boat. They've fallen in love with an aesthetic ideal, and they've missed the overall point of the game, which is to hit the ball as high as you can, as far as you can, as straight as you can, so that when you get up to the green, you've got a five ft or up the hill for Bertie and not a twenty ft down the hill for Bertie. And and that's that's the whole difference in the game.

And you know that's the difference. I think that's why you know right now, Look, there's there's a lot of great instructors who are very knowledgeable, but I think they have a permanent blind spot and that they have not learned or not played the game at the highest level, so they don't have the practical experience now. I would also argue that players that taught the game eons ago where nowhere near as knowledgeable about the movements of the body. Um so kind of what is happening right now is

that there is coming together of the minds. There is I think a better understanding of the movements in the game, and with the the analytics of how to play the game, guys like Richie Hunt, players are getting and teachers are getting a better idea of strategies, and uh, I expect teaching to improve. It's already gravitating towards you know, less resistance in the lower body, lifting the left heel, and more upright gosswings and and that's that's important. I thought

it was necessary. It's one of the reasons I wrote my book three years ago, and I think that's very important for players to play anywhere near to their potential. Is there an instructor currently that you would consider? I know, we live in a world where we have to say something's the best, but is there an instructor you look at now and say, this guy is hands down the best instructor out there. Yes, Lucas Wald, I think he's the best instructor out there. Now people will say you're

biased because you work with him. Well, I work with him because I think he's the best. When I was let go hand in hand. Yeah, I you know, nobody knows who Lucas wall is. This is you know, it's akin to finding and I never when I would read those rankings of instructors that make me puke, you know, like what were you ranking these on? You know pie in the sky ideas. It's a chrony ism. It's like there's no real criteria to decide who the best teachers are.

Which is which is? Um a glaring oversight. You know, the PGA of America is missing a boat hugely here. There's no way they should just randomly and allow others to decide who their best teachers are. It's just it's ridiculous. Um, you can in this age find quantifying information to decide

who the best teachers are. And imagine if you could find who they really were, who was really having the best impact on players, the world of golf would get so much better instruction, We get so much better, and we beat a path to that guy's door, because I promise you'd be teaching golf in a much more holistic way. But he would also be teaching golf in a correct way. He'd be right, It wouldn't be all this guesswork which

ends up causing um divisive debate. Um. I was researching my book and I read everybody I you know, I go online, I look at everybody's videos. I read everything. I I'm on I'm on the I'm on the computer reading people's ideas about the golf swing all day long. And I found, you know a handful of people who I thought really knew the golf swing. Uh. Look, and Butch Harmon is certainly one of them, no question about

Butcher is one of them. And Butch stands head and shoulders above most of his peers because he has a practical understanding of the game to go with years and years and years of of experienced teaching. But but but what I liked about Lucas was he he put case studies in his teaching. He actually documented progress of of players, so you could see one doctor in particular that he worked with who went from swinging a hundred three four miles an hour thus swinging a hundred twenty miles an hour.

And when you begin to see all the you know he works with this Eddie Fernandez guy and by the name of Fast. Eddie's forty eight years old and he's picked up ten miles clubhead speak uh and and he won last year he won the long drive for his age group. Um. And I've watched the progress with Eddie, and I know what Lucas is capable of. So that's how I found Lucas. That's why I work with him. Now, there's there's a handful of others that I think a terrific and I enjoy their work, but I think Lucas

is the best. I'm assuming you're probably in the same camp as me, considering what you think about instruction. That also ranking golf courses maybe doesn't make the most sense. I love the idea of saying Augusta is better than Pine Valley, and you're kind of going, how is this? How is this possible to think? And as you mentioned, to quantify a Cypress point and a National Golf Links and somebody say this one's four and this one's five right. It's like looking at a piece of art and saying,

you know, that is better than this. It's uh, it's personal preference. I mean having said that, I you know, I have Tom Doakes books. I read them, I certainly learned from them. Um, I would agree that there's I can't imagine how you could improve upon St Andrews or Cyprus point. But to say that one is better than the other comes down to a lot of subjectivity. But it also makes the game funny. Look if everything were purely objective, you know, if everything were then there's no debate, right,

and debate is fun and the subjectivity is fun. Um, you know, there's there's there's good and bad with both of it. Like I enjoy a lot of what gets male players into the Hall of Fame, it's it's it's well a lot of subjectivity. And so that's how Freddy Couples gets in the Hall of Fame. Um is it right? I don't know. He certainly was famous and he was a hell of a player. Um, but it keeps out

on the ladies tour. It's purely objective and and and so they're like, well, there is no debate unless they meet these objective too, they don't get in the hall of the same. I don't know that either one's ideal, but I would rather have a little subjectivity just so that we well help. We need something to talk about, don't we, for sure? And I mean, one thing you did in this same world a year ago was Dustin nearly makes the hole in one Why And you talked

it up. Uh, you talked it up for days, for days on end, and then uh, you know, we did kind of something similar in Mexico. I asked people on Twitter this week the best golf shot they've ever seen in person in the best golf shot they ever saw on TV. So I want to ask you the same question, the best shot you ever saw in person, and then the best golf shot you have ever witnessed live on television. Best shot I ever saw him in person was seventeen

Toll shaut a Nougat classic. I got paired with this rather rather tubby fella who I had never heard of before, um, who was cutting corners and doing all kinds of crazy things, and all day long, I kept, you know, I was, I was like, who is this guy? Where in the hell did he come from? And on the seventeenth totally. He had two sixty seven to sixty five. As I recall, um, you know, I I couldn't have smoked a three wood

and gotten it there. And he hit a tour and that just went, you know, into the stratosphere and came down a foot from the home and stopped. And I was like, Okay, game changer. This is gonna be the greatest golfer who's ever lived. And it was John Daily. Uh. I had never heard of him, never seen came from nowhere and I had I've never seen anything like that. You know. I played with Tiger a few times and

he had similar shots. But I knew, I knew when Tiger, I just saw a Tiger coming, all right, I expected it. But I was just absolutely flabbergasted at watch him Daily do that the greatest shot I've ever seen on TV. Well, gosh, I think I've made that pretty clear. I m, you know, to drive the DJ hit on the twelfth hold at Copplea. You know, at the time, I said it was the greatest shot I've ever seen, you know, And I guess

it's morphed into the greatest shot. The only reason I say it's the greatest shot ever hit is because I'm I'm using objective criteria to define that. Um, there's certainly more important shots that have been struck and the moment made them more significant, no question about it. But from a purely objective criteria, UM. As I recall, the average approach shot hit into the twelfth screen that day was

something like a hundred forty yards. So to see a hundred and forty yard disparity between what someone that just did and what everybody else had to do. UM, by the number one player in the world on Sunday on the back nine, UM for almost a tap in eagle, which almost all on one UM was a tap in eagle. I just thought, I've never seen a better shot than that. So, uh, statistically quantified, I've never seen a better shot than that.

So I've seen I've seen him hit you know, the drive he hit on two, UM, what was that on Saturday at Mexico was was stunning as well, but it was nowhere near the drive that he hit on twelve. Okappela on Sunday, I want to go back to the daily story real quick. Was that one of those moments where I always say, you know, I played mini tour

golf for a little bit. I played with with a guy who who just played really well in the PGA Championship last year named Ben Kern, and he short the shout the course record one day when we were playing a playing a practice round and I was going, oh my god, this guy is in a different league. Was that a call your family moment after? Where you went? I don't know who this guy is, but make sure you remember the name John Day definitely. You know, I

played with him Thursday Friday. You know, I think he shut sixty sixty four, maybe sixty sixty six, but he was leading after thirty six holes, and I you know, went in the locker room. I said, I've just seen I've just seen something. I've never never even heard of anything like this. I've never I've never seen anybody do what he just did. Um. And so you know, when he won the p g A Championship, everybody else thought it was out of the blue. I knew exactly what

was coming. Uh. You know, I didn't know that he had so many demons off of the golf course. And if he you know, if he didn't have those demons, um, there's no talents what he would have done. But it's significantly more than his win total in his two major championships. Yeah, when Tiger Woods says, um, if if you, if I had your golf game, I wouldn't have to practice, that's pretty much as good a compliment as you're gonna get. That's what he said about daily. I tell this story before.

My buddy was playing a tight Lies Tour event one year in my by. He was a great player. I mean he was a great collegiate player and had ever all the tools outside of the putting to make it on tour. And uh, he played with this lefty and said he was hitting this goofy cut, you know, forty yard cut that went three tin and he had a pink shafted driver. And he called his dad after and said, remember Bubba Watson. He said, just remember that name. That's all you gotta do. And and sure enough, you know

that's that's what's happened. So it's it's definitely there's been steps in this world through professional golf ranks where you go, oh, all right, well that guy is probably gonna make it. I wanted to ask you on the tour now, is this the most talented the tour has ever been? Or is this the most knowledgeable players have ever been about their own specific games. Well, this is uh, the youngest

and best the tour has ever been. Um, you know, I I absolutely believe in the sabor metrics of a fellow who recently put a book out called The Whole Truth. And you know, he's able to quantify by using standard deviation and uh peak years of players going all the way back to the professional golf in eighteen sixty and and the the average peak of players right now. I mean, you know, maybe they maybe they exceed their play right now,

but that is very rare that anybody would. But the average peak age right now is over the last nine years has been twenty five years of age UM. It was upwards of thirty years ago, thirty four years of age UM. And and typically in golf it's it's been you know, thirty to thirty four years of age and now it's it's drastically, it's almost a decade different. So we have younger stars, and I you know, I think you could argue that it's because the game is primarily

about power and powers. A young man's game and experience matters less less when it becomes more about power. Um, do they know more about their golf swings. Um, I think I think it's a very m it's a somewhat yeah, I mean it is. They should know more about their goss wings. But they relye on teachers, UM a lot. You know they and I guess you know they can afford it. They and being on the tours lonely, so they hire a posse and they all come out with them and it makes the tour less lonely, I said,

more enjoyable. And I get it. If I if I was making ten million dollars of your playing golf, I'd probably have my instructor out there all the time too. I probably would, Um, but I don't know that that's best for you. There are a lot of disappeared one of the reasons, I'd argue, And even if Bill Felber were here, the man who put the saber metrics out, I would also argue that the reason there's unprecedented a youthful accomplishment in the game right now is because there

are major disappearing acts for middle aged golfers. M I said this the other night on the show. You know, if it's not disappearing, it's it's a decay. But you know where's Anthony Camp, Hunter May and Nick Wattney, Michelle we Yanni fan Lydia co Um. You know there is numerous players thirty five, Luke Donald, I mean, just on and on. It goes that that they just, instead of continuing on in this trajectory, have just disappeared. And it's because I would argue of an over indulgence of instruction.

Uh And I you know, if it's if if if you've got people around all the time, and those people are always learning and going to new theories, and the problem is is that, Look, I've been to these classes that they go to, and the theories are not completely flushed out right there in the embriodic stages. And you go and and they listen and they hear, and they remind me of like young Christians, you know, who are

just ready to go out and save the world. And they haven't and they haven't been checked, you know, by modernity. And and some of these teachers haven't been checked by by a practical knowledge of of of understanding the game and playing the game. And they pass that information onto these players and it impoverishes them and before you know it, they're gone. And so who's left it's not wisdom, it's not experienced, it's just youth. Um. So you know there is um. You know, I'd say the tour is more

dangerous now than it's ever been before. The driving range is more dangerous now than it's ever been. I think that's the most dangerous spot on the PGA tour. Um. You know, it might as well be filled with lions and tigers and bears. Um. I mean, you go out there and your game could be get killed in a very short period of time. Let's take a quick break to let you know one thing, and that is do

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That's clubhouse dot robin Hood dot com. All right, back to Brandon, Yeah, it's it's you. You brought up Butch Harmon And one of the things I loved the story he had in the Latest Golf I just about Sevy and Sevy was getting all technical and uh, he basically said he wouldn't stood, you know, twenty feet in front of Sevey and said hit cuts and draws around me, you know. And he goes, no, Butch, I'm gonna hit you. And he goes, no, no no, no, hit a cut around

me right now. And he did it because it was, of course, that was his talent. He let his talent play through. And one thing I find so interesting about golf, especially the current landscape of professional golf, is golfers forget that there are times where you're gonna go in a slump. That's just the game that we play. It's like if they have a month of bad play, they're gonna change clubs.

They're gonna change putter, they might change caddy, they're gonna change instructor, they're gonna try to do something different instead of just reminding themselves that at some point, if you're in a massively talented player, you'll probably get it back. And I mean, I think that's the good thing we're seeing with Rory this year is Rory actually changed good

stuff in his life. I mean, he changed schedule and he knew he was gonna get backlash for it, and he's basically playing events that he hasn't played before, maybe to get a little bit of a fresh start. And we're seeing a Rory that's playing golf like we saw Rory play to at least to to to the B plus a minus level when he was the most dominant player in the world. And uh, And I do find it interesting that it does seem like if it's three or four weeks of bad golf, I gotta fix something

right now. That didn't seem to be the case, you know, when you were out there playing guys. I feel like, for the most part, understood that it'll it'll change. At some point, something's gonna flip and and I'll get it going. That's good point, really good point. You know. It's players are you know, look, if you have a negative thought, it's terrible. It's like no, no, that's not terrible. Negative thoughts are normal. Um, They're absolutely normal. They come and

they go. Um. Obsessing over them is abnormal and wrong. Um, you know it's it's it's you know, just let it go. You know, it'll it'll, it'll take care of itself. It'll it'll just evaporate on its own. But if you obsess about it and then it's it's it's less likely to evaporate. Here, you're not you're not being you're not being zen. Um to get a little eastern on you. But but but yeah, as it relates to golf swings, I do think that there is a um, a hyper reaction. You know, there

are helicopter teachers everywhere on the range. They're helicopters and their their hovering and I get it, you know, there's they've got a lot to gain from success, um and not much to lose. The tour players have everything to lose. Um, so you know, and it's it's it's much harder to work things out on your own when you're used to just turn in and go and what what did I do there? Um? You know, so you know, look, it's it's it's not like I'm saying the good old days

were better. I'm just saying that the golf swings were better. You were pretty critical about you're pretty critical about Tiger last week with his approach to the golf course, and

I agreed with you. I I felt a little like we were watching what a lot of us thought we might see with Tiger when he made this latest comeback a year and a half ago, where uh, you know, the driver had always been as Achilles heel and maybe he'll just lean on long irons and just get the ball and play and and hope that his amazing iron play will will kind of save him. Um, that was a little of what we saw last week. And were you surprised? Was the most surprising part that there wasn't

a flip at one point? You know, your six seven, eight shots back going, I better start beating driver, because who cares if I finished? At least my take on it was a tiger, was spoiled by the success that he had in a generation that was nowhere near as complete as this one. You know, when he hit iron

off of the tea and one at hoy Lake. Um the players that finished closest to him where DeMarco El's fury can guarcie it, And none of them we're even close two complete players, They were nowhere near the driver's the golf ball that Dustin Johnson and Rory McElroy are. From the beginning of the strokes gained era two thousand and four to two thousand and eleven, the average leader of strokes gained off of the tea gained point eight

seven six five strokes around. Okay, the average leader. Since two thousand and twelve, the average leader has gained one point one seven strokes per round. You're talking about thirty better, thirty a third more strokes gained with the driver. Now, those that these drivers that I'm talking about, they're also phenomenal iron players, and they're better putters. Garcia was not a good player good putter. Excuse me, he's a great player. He's not a good putter. Okay Umi wasn't a great

driver of the golf ball. Els wasn't necessarily a great drive over the golf ball. He had a fabulous short game, and but from time to time, and he wasn't a great potter, certainly wasn't a two thousand six DeMarco, wasn't a great driver the golf ball. But Tiger could beat them because they were not complete players. In this era, the players are complete. Dustin Johnson is a fabulous putter. M Rory is miles better driver than anybody that Tiger would have faced, miles better. Uh, And he has the

potential to be a miles better iron player. And he's putting better now than he ever has. So when you start to consider who Tiger is playing, he cannot. One, he's older than he was in two thousand and six. He can't play an iron game against this group of players and expect to succeed. Uh. And the fact that he was hitting irons off all these holes one it told me two things that he had no confidence in his driver, which is fair enough, right, if he had

absolutely no confidence in your drive, why hit it? Okay? Because it's a very tight golf course. Um, all right, So I tried to get my arms around that. But I thought now, it looked to me like a genesis. He drove the ball beautiful. Um, you know, he hit marvelous drives. It's like, I don't know where the lack of confidence would have come from. It seemed to me he had every reason to have a decent amount of

confidence and his driver. The golf course was extremely tight, and I you know, I in my mind, why else would he be hitting an iron unless he thought he gave him his best chance to win. But there's just my point was, he's got no chance to win because the people of top Dustin Johnson and Roy McElroy can drive the ball miles better than Tiger ever drove it, by the way, and miles better than anybody that Tiger would have ever faced in his generation ever drove it.

So he had no chance to win. Zero, absolutely zero. And people said, well, he still led the field and strokes gained approached, so his strategy works. I'm like, you guys have completely lost your minds if you think he hit his irons anywhere near as good from two hundred yards out as he would from a hundred yards out, if he's the greatest, if he was the best iron player there that week, I just imagine how good he would have been from a hundred yards out, which is

where Dustin and Rory were. Perhaps Tiger would have been able to overcome a poor putting week for him. But and again people are like, well, it was his putty, And I'm like, no, no, his driving was worse than his putty. So, you know, and I'm saying this, and Tiger finished him. Look, he's playing great. I mean, it's

good to see. But his stated goals of beating Jack or winning more majors or you know there, it's it's important to sort of put into context the the struggles that Tiger is going to have to beat the game's best players. Right now. Um, you know, right now, from what I've seen, he can't get to number one in the world because I don't you know, Rory looks like he's trending in a great spot. And I don't see Dustin going anywhere but by getting a lock on number one.

And and you know, if he if he wears some sticky socks in Augusta so that he can get down the socks then or get down the stairs, good grip on the bottom. For goodness, snakes, they gotta make one of those the yoga socks. Yea yoga. I'm with you. I with you. Get a sponsorship, you can put that on the other sleeve of his shirt. I'm down for it. Let's let's make sure he is healthy. I mean, what's

what's interesting about your point? You bring up with Tiger and driving the golf ball, and I go back to what I was saying, is I believed this was a little of what we were gonna see with Tiger because he was struggling so much off the tea the last time we saw him out before he took a break. Why would you go play? And I know it's a w g C event, I know there's no cut, and I know it's important for all of the reasons that

these guys care about that. I don't think the general public really cares about world ranking points and and in the early season FedEx stuff. Why would you go play a golf course like this knowing that if you're not confident with the driver and you're not going to hit driver everywhere like some of these other guys are, you really don't have a chance to win. And that's been

a stated goal's entire career. Well, that's a good question. Um, you know, I look at what he did at the Tour Championship and I think, I don't know what he did at the Ryder Cup. I don't know where that came from. I don't know about the Tiger Phil fiasco um and a hero you know who knows. All I know is he drove the ass out of it at the Tour Championship. I mean, he absolutely Uh it was. It was just about as good as I've seen him drive it in fifteen years. So I thought that that's

that's that's the game that I would see. Wasn't quite there at Farmers it was. It was he drove the ball nicely at the Genesis. Uh, he didn't drive it great. It wasn't at the top of the food chain. It wasn't Bubba Watson or Dustin Johnson Rory, but it was it was. It was good enough for him considering how good his iron play is. And from a scheduling standpoint, you want to play. I would imagine you'd want to play two weeks in a row, because that's how you

can really test how good your game is. You know, you've you've practiced for a while, you get there the first week, you you get out of practice mode into playmode, and by the second week you're fully into playmode. Um. So it makes sense to play two weeks in a row. If he did skipped Mexico, that means he'd had what two weeks off before he goes to because there's no way he was gonna play Honda and then go play bay Hill and the players he wint to play three

in a row in the run up. Um. So you know, it made sense from a strategy standpoint, It made sense from a scheduling standpoint. But you're right, it wasn't the best golf course for him, um, given his reluctance to hit driver. Um. You know, I mean you did think that. You'd think though he could look at that event. Statistically it's been one out of the rough. The first year of Dustin Johnson, you know, wasn't particularly straight. Phil Mickelson

wasn't straight. Um, And you'd have thought he would have been more aggressive, just based upon you know what the stats have said. The golf course allowed not exactly the start you want. Though, if you're Tiger the first swing of the of the week and hit out of bounds, maybe you get it. Maybe those demons even are hard to leave the greatest, maybe the most dominant player of all. And that's a that's a tough start. That is a tough start, you know, I uh, you know, I think

he caught Tiger golf guard. I mean, I don't even know if he knew there was o b over there, because you know, it was like he'd probably played practice around and just zipped it right up there around the raene, and you know it wouldn't have thought the shot was very hard. It was a bizarre though, the the introduction that Tiger got. Um, look, I'm I'm I'm I'm giving Tiger Woods a past because I feel like the introduction that he got were so off putting. It was so

off putting, the announcer screaming Tiger, Tiger, Tiger wool. I mean, it was like Tiger laugh right. It was funny. I'll give the announce to that. It was clearly funny. The guy knew what he's doing, He had great boys. It was fun to listen to. But it didn't quite work out because Tiger laughed. Everybody laughed. Never seen Tiger quite like that, maybe other than the masks or the Tour championship where Phil said, alright, alright, alright, I was trying

to think when you said that. I would love to remember and I can't remember. I would love to know where Tiger hit that t shot when Phil stopped the announcer as he was as he was going through Tigers yearly after, Well, I can dig it up pretty quickly. Um, you know, I I can find it pretty darning quickly. That was the Tour Championship. I think it was. I'll find that. I'll get back to you. But but you know, his golf swing was so much better than um, you know.

I mean, look, we've all lowered the bar. I mean, it's Tiger Woods, and we're happy to see him playing. But you know, I know Tiger wants to swing the club like he did. Well, okay, he's not gonna swing it as fast, but he's still pretty close. But he's still he doesn't swing the club anywhere near like he used to. You know, he's still he just hangs left and he slides and it's just nowhere near as good. It's a good iron swing, but when you want to a driver, man, you gotta get behind the ball. You

gotta give yourself room to move into it. Well, the thing is, he doesn't ever get behind it and his back swing with a driver or three wood or five wood, and so he when he slides into it, the club drops under and he's got a flip, and that leads to all kinds of you go, look at the disparity between his strokes gain off of the tea and his strokes gain approach. And I don't know how it hasn't occurred to him that it's like, Okay, the move I have with my driver does not work. What do I

need to do? And all he needs to do is move off of the ball, get behind it so that he can move into it without being past it, so that he can he can move into it and rotate. Now he moves past it, and he stalls, and it leads to all kinds of chaos. And you know, for the life of me, I don't know why he doesn't do it well. Brandon. I want to ask some personal questions. You just moved to Florida from Arizona. As I'm looking

at on the just a beautiful Arizona morning. By the way, I don't want to I don't want to rub that in too hard, but I want to ask give me, give me your your pros and cons the pros about moving to Florida and the cons about leaving Phoenix, because I don't want everybody to hear this, but living in Phoenix is really awesome, by the way, just people. I don't think people know that. So give me a couple of your pros that things you're excited about, and maybe

a couple of things you'll miss about Arizona. Know you'll be backers. First of all, I'd love to meet the person that called Florida the sunshine state. I mean, that is the greatest days. It rains every day, every day it rains here, So it is much much harder to practice. It's much harder to predict that you are going to practice. Can I tell you how many times I've driven to the golf course, get there and lightning storms just descend upon the place in biblical fashion, and you sit there

and you're like, well, I guess I'll go home. Shine state with Arizona is the sunshine state. You could say that Florida. I don't know what Florida is. It's the it's the humid state. Let's call it that. Florida, believe it or not, has warmer winters than Arizona. So if it's not raining, which is rare chances, or it's gonna be it's gonna be much more warmer than it is in Arizona, so you can get out early in the morning here in practice a little bit. Um. What's great

about Florida. Florida you get wind, which is it's good to practice him. You know, the weather was almost too good in Scottsdale when I lived there. I go out and practice and I think, look, I mean, anybody could hit beautiful shots at here. And I think that's one of the reasons why Arizona in general has produced so few great golfers. Um if any I mean you know, I mean Billy Mayfair and Heather far Um. Other than that, Yeah, tour pros after they've learned the game, moved there because

of the weather and the lifestyle. But Arizona in general produces almost no great players. The weather is too good. Um. You know, Florida's produced pastles so great players, so has Arizona. I mean, uh, Texas, not Arizona. So it's Texas places where it's windy. So it's a much better place to go out and test your golf game. Because you know, I played the other day that win was going thirty.

It's like, good gracious, you gotta pay attention. It's like, you know, I mean, you've got a shape shot, you get him down, hit him up. I mean, it's it's a mean place to play golf a lot of the time. So, um, that'd be my take. But yes, you're talking to a man who represented Scottsdale for about five or six years as the best place to play golf in the world. And when they when they came to me and asked me to do it, I was like, there's the easiest

job I've ever had, because that's the absolute truth. You're gonna pay me for this. I'll just tell you. I'll just tell you this, right. And I had to go make these commercials and they're like, you know, we have this script, and I'm like, I don't need a script. Just throw the camera and I'm gonna tell you how great this place is. It's seventy four and no wind, and the greens are perfect. Yeah, this is a decent place to golf. Right, it's the same temperature in your

living room. And by the way, the winds blowing the same speed in your living room. It's it's and the grass is green. And the I mean, it's so green and it's perfect. Mean it. I miss the hell out of Scottsdale, I really do. I miss it so much. H And when I go there, I just I can't get enough of it. You know, we will hike in the morning, play tennis, will play golf, hike in the evening. We'll go to our favorite restaurant and eat too much and get home and go. I can't wait to get

up and do it all again tomorrow. You bring up by the way, I know, I know you're a guy that deep dives into deep dives into stats. Something that I think would be interesting hearing you talk about Florida and the wind is how pros games have changed moving to Florida. You know, you get a lot of guys internationally that moved to Florida, and I wonder if it's if it's improved the way game. Well, it's interesting again,

to grow up here is one thing. Um. But you know, if you're a historian, you'll know that Nicholas moved here in and his game kind of fell off in sixty seven to seventy and I you know, I mean, there are a lot of circumstances that that were involved there, but his golf swing changed a little bit. Um, he was he snapped his left leg from sixty two to sixty seven sixty six, he uh, you know, he was much I would I would imagine much much faster through the ball because he was behind it and he snapped

his left leg. But beginning of sixty seven, almost exactly when he moved to Florida, he had more sag in his left knee and more slides of the ball. And I suspect it was to keep the ball down because he was probably practicing when he was practicing in Florida as windy as hell, and you just get beat up. That's an amateur theory of mine. Um. But but yeah, you're right, there should be. Um, I should do a little work on the games. Do they get better? Do

they get worse when guys moved to Florida. Um. In general, I'd say, you know, it's it's a it's a good place to prepare to play the tour because it does for you know, it does get you ready for all the conditions. Um. But if you if you want to work on your golf swing, I can't think of a better place in the world than Scottsdale, because there's nothing out there that makes you go, I gotta hit a shot. It's like, let me just make a pretty golf swing here. Yeah,

I was. I was at dinner last night with with a buddy of mine, UH and his wife and my wife, and we were talking about Arizona and we were talking about I was mentioning I grew up in these Texas and I was mentioning this tornado situation. I was in one time where my parents just didn't wake me up, and Uh, this huge tornado blew through and I was kind of just par for the course because we had him a lot. And I said, there's there's no natural

issues in the state of Arizona. You might get a dust storm, you might have to clean your pool like twice in the monsoon season, and outside of that, You're all thumbs up. You you gave it a go last year on the Champions Tour. You you played in the Senior Open. You mentioned late last year you were going to try to go six events or so this year. Is that still your goal? That is? Uh? In addition to you know, I'm I'm trying to get in a handful of events, but I'll try to qualify for the

US Senior Open and the Senior Open. UM. So the Senior Open should be quite quite interesting because I'll finish covering the Open in Ireland and I've got to get to Scotland by the next morning to play in the Senior Open. Qualified. Now, I think I can do it. I think I've figured out how to do it. Um. But but if everything goes right, you know, if everything

went just right, I'd play eight events this year. Um, which means I am going to be sore and sleepy because I kind of burned the candle at both ends. I stay up late doing research, and I get up early to go practice and get golf balls and go to the gym. Um. So I don't know how long I can maintain is it's lifestyle. But but but it's it's fun, you know. I I you know, as soon as I hang up with you, I'm going to hit off balls. And um, you know, I hadn't hit any

until yesterday. I hadn't hit any in over a week. And I was a complete shop yesterday early on and then and then I you know, I got I got going all right. But now I have in my mind all these things that I need to dress today, so I can't wait to get out and get after it. I'm gonna get you out here. Then I'll let you get to your rangeballs here in just a couple of minutes. I got two more things we're gonna do, and then I'll let you go the first thing. And you mentioned

it to start. I just I just want you to give me a couple of minutes on Jordan's speed. And what I'm gonna ask you is and I mentioned this last week with Jeff Shackelford speeds in the world. Now, he's had just one top ten worldwide since the Masters last year, and and he's making The problem I'm seeing more than anything is is the big numbers. You know, when people make a lot of big numbers, that's a

red flag for me. I think he's made nine doubles or worse this season, including two or more in four straight events his last four events. This can't just be ball striking with Jordan's speed at this point, right, I mean, at some point it's a little bit between the years. No, it's ball striking. It's his golf swing as golf swing is. Look, it's stripped of a lot of the athleticism that he had. You know, he used to have a great trigger moved to get the golf swing going. Uh, his trigger moves

almost non existent. Us golf swing is much much shorter h than it was, so he doesn't have the time and transitions of the things gather. Um. You know, he's he's he's not as deep into his right the golf swing is not in the same spot at the top of the club's not in the same spot at the top. It doesn't hang it used to. Um. It used to have a little just a hint of the cup in his left wrist at the top, and the club hung beautifully right down the line. Now it's it's more laid off.

He's got a bow and his left wrist, which puts his right arm at a more acute angle and in a bad spot to begin the down swing. I mean, you put all those things together. I mean, look that they might have happened to him incrementally, um, but I mean that's that's how people go broke incrementally, and then one day they wake up and they're broke. It's like and so you know, this has been an incremental slide in the in the wrong direction, and all of a sudden.

Now then he's got he's got you know, four or five things that are look. I think he could fix them in an afternoon, I really do. But but in my opinion, his golf swing has just been stripped of of the athleticism that made it. I've always thought his golfman was one of the best on tour. But it's not now, not at all. And it's uh, it's look. I mean, you can still turn it around, but it's it's it's three alarm fire right now. I mean it's it's warning time for sure. All right, last thing I'm

gonna do, I'm calling this get to no Brandle. Okay, are you ready for this? He's a rapid fire questions you have to spend some time on him. I've got about five or six something. They're kind of all over the place, So prepare yourself. Okay. I feel like, I mean, this is this is right up your alley. You're you're your wits so great, you're so quick. I think you'll be able to handle everything. All right, here we go. First one, who's your favorite non golf athlete you've ever watched? Nice? Nice?

I think we're in agreement. One for one I like it. Federer my favorite ever. You know, I've never seen that would be Earl Campbell. But yeah, I've never seen Federer play tennis live, and I've decided that's my twenty nineteen goal is to go see him play live tennis in person somewhere, because it's I feel like I'm I'm ashamed of myself for doing this being such a tennis fan. Yeah,

there's so much I enjoy about Federer. You know, early on he did have a bit of a temper, but but he overcame that and the grace and the ass that he exhibits, and um, you know, I I play tennis pretty much every day these days, and I'm online looking at his methods and his strokes, and um, there's so much I admire about that guy. Unbelievable and uh and I also believe he's one of the athletes that's

probably been written off the most of anybody ever. I feel like this first so bit was like he's still still out there beating people up all right, Favorite Girl Scout Cookie brand, a favorite Girl Scout cookie of choice. God sin mints. I mean, I gotta eat my weight in thin mints. Um, And I you know, I'll buy three hundred dollars worth of Girl Scout cookies every year, and uh, you know after you know I've run out of insulin um because you know I need a shot

every day. I'm not a diabetic, but I mean he eats a damn any of those. It's like, you know, I'm gonna sugar high every damn day. It's like, um, but sin mints followed by the peanut butter um, those little coconut little things with the with there. Those are not bad. I mean, if they're doing a pinch, still doing a pinch. Um, but again, the thin mints unbelievable. A sporting event you've never attended but hope to attend someday. Wimbledon.

Uh went once try to get tickets. It was gosh, it was um trying to remember who was in the dead come final. It was I was trying to go to the women's final. I kind of remember who heck it was, but anyway, it was forty dollars a ticket. There were two of us, and on the way there, I thought, how much will I pay? Literally how much will I pay? Because I was like, I know the tickets are gonna be ridiculous, so I was like, all right, I'll pay three thousand dollars a ticket. And I got

there like, you know, almost ten grand. And I thought I can do a lot of crazy stuff for ten grand in London. Um, I try to watch it, right, I'm gonna watch it on TV and a really nice pub and I'm gonna have really nice pints and it's gonna cost me a hundred pounds. That's exactly right. I think that's say in a really nice hotel in London that night. All right, what's your go to game you play with your friends on the course. Uh, well that's

a good one. Um go to game when I do well, I give I give aim and Lynch twelve shots around and and and beat him every single round for by now hundreds of times. You never asked, Well, I try, but he won't take. He gets indignant when I say, look, I'll give you a shot a hole. Um, he gets indignant. Although we're playing this next Tuesday and he is taking a shot a hole and if he beats me, which will not happen, I told him I could give him

two shots a hole now and beat him because he's terrible. Um, he's he wants me to shave because he hates uh the four day growth I've been wearing on TV, which, by the way, my wife likes. That's all. That's the only thing that matters. By the way, on TV, what do you what do you want? What do what do you like that I have on my time, my shirt, whatever's sombrero. If my wife liked it, I'm right there with you. You know. It's like, you know, what do you like? Bailey? All right? I'm sure I'm here to

make you happy. Um, I give, I give, I give my wife, I give her. I think I give her twelve shots to uh. And we were just playing at Kapalua and she was playing really really well. I wasn't playing particularly well and on the sixteenth so I looked at her was like, you were playing great today, and she was like, how do you stand? And she looked at me and she kind of smiled and she goes, you're beating me by one shot because she was she was four over par and I was like, holy cow.

She didn't make a tan on the next sol though, by the way, listen, better players have done it. Tell her that every time better players made one time on TV, so it's happening all right, when you when you try when when Brandon Shamblely travels, I must have blank with me. Books always them, lots of them. Yeah, I travel with three or four. Uh. My briefcase might be close to fifty pounds. I'm not sure I could get it on

a plane without having to pay a h N up charge. Um, it's a it's a it's a bear to get my briefcas if you come over and try to pick it up. It's full of full of books. Um. I'm a serial reader, but I always have three or four with me. All right, I'm assuming I might know the answer to this considering what you just said. But what's your most opened iPhone? App? Uh? Probably notes the notes APP? Great app? The notes APP?

I am? I am? You know when I read, I'm I'm looking for ways to think about everything, you know, different breakdowns, things that could be applical, And if it strikes a chord with me, then I'll carry it out to a to a player, or to situation or to an idea, and then before I forget it, I write it down. Um so on a phone on the plane. You know, I do most of my reading when I'm

on planes, and I'm I'm forever. It's like you do your best thinking when you're on a plane because you don't have your phone off and it's quiet, and it's like all these ideas just come flying through. So it's like you do get your phone out just to put um the notes in there. So that's something I learned. Paul Easinger is a big notes guy. He writes down his his kind of theories and thoughts in the in the Notes app and I started to do a little bit of similar stuff. So I'm trying to learn from

that makes sense. And Brandles simply those are the guys. It makes sense. I'm a huge polizing and fan. I think he's fabulous. Well, Brandle, I appreciate it. When is the next when's the second episode of the Brandle Shambley podcast with himI DS coming out? You know it's gonna come out probably the next week. We just taped it, and uh, I'm not sure the powers that be when they put those things out, they always have some strategy.

In my probably in our run up to the Players Championship, I think we have some big things going on next week with the Arna Palmer Invitational. Um, you know, so NBC has got I don't know, a buffet of events running up in a row here, so um, it'll come out pretty soon. Uh. It's it's a treat for me to get to work with Himie. I've I've been reading Himie forever. I've always thought he was, if not the very best, certainly one of the best writers in the game of golf. So it's it's a real treat for me.

This particular It's funny, this particular episode is much like what we just did, the five questions that you've rattled off at me him. He was like, can I just try to get to know you or get inside your head and ask the questions straight for an hour about you? And then that way our audience will know who you are. And I was like, are you sure you want to do that? Um, But anyway, that's that's that's what the

next episode is about. So from from pretty much all the stupid things I used to do on horseback to some of the crazy things I do now on TV. Well, it's it's it's always entertaining. I always am. Uh. I'm impressed with your ability to to lean on all the research you do to provide a different look into the game and I think what you do at the Golf Channel and what you continue to do kind of with the game is is great for all of us. And uh and I always love when I see the pros

get a little rattled. It's my favorite thing. That's when they bring your name up. It always makes me laugh. It's like he did his job correctly this week. If Phil Nicholson is calling brand all out, Brandle, I really appreciate it. Always a great time chat with you, my man, Shane. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me on. Real pleasure. Look forward to seeing you out on the road somewhere. It looks like I'm arect It's big thanks to Brandle

for joining me today. Just a reminder, the new pro V one in prov you one X and Yellow available in March. In March, thinner cover and a larger casting layer creates the fastest Provy one and pro V one X yet. Check that out. I'm excited for the yellow ones to come in. I'm gonna be playing them the moment I get them. The pro V one In pro V one X from titlist the best ball in the world, best ball I like the one I play all the time.

Just to reminder, Bet d s I this week, I like Sergio Garcia, get that and if you can plus fourteen D I mentioned how well he plays. Use that offer code Bacon at bet d si dot com. You get bonus match using that promo code that's more than double your money to start winning today. I hope you guys have a great week. Hope you enjoyed the podcast. Will be back next week with more fun and more golf chat here