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Get there. My goodness, it's been too long.
And Paul Pugmer, I've got to say I was very excited to see you on the rundown, but I knew it was going to hurt my heart to talk about golf as I'm recovering from a rotator cuff injury and the weather is still cold and I'm just pining to get out.
How are you dealing with the cold weather, sir?
I'm grumpy, I'm short tampered that I've been thinking about your spence. I've been wondering how the shoulder's doing. That one is a big suck. That's a tough one, man.
Yeah, it was rough.
Is I just finished my sixth week of physical therapy, and my physical therapist at the start of the process said, you have to make me one promise and I said, what's that. He said, you will not swing a golf club until I tell you that you can. And I said, I promise, And as of today he told me that I can. So I'm going to start swinging next week. I've not swung a club, Paul in probably three months, and it's breaking my heart.
Yeah, get stretched out, get warm, make sure you're warm before you do it. You don't want to re injure that thing.
No, for sure, I want to be healthy when the weather's warm. Here's a question that as the golf expert on the program, you can answer for golfers such as us, with the conditions as they are right now. What's the best way to keep momentum up when you're not able to get out as much as you want to make sure that when you start playing come spring, you're not super rusty.
Yeah. Obviously we can now talk about a wide variety of options and really good options. On simulators. There's there's three or four different kinds of simulators in the market. There's several simulator facilities I'm most partial to t Box. I think they've really cracked the code on marrying all of the different aspects that need to be accomplished to
succeed with golf. They do fitness and training together with golf experience and golf training with track Man, track Man simulators, and so there's a lot of opportunity with the track with track Man and others like it, with the simulators. Now, to really answer your question, get out on the golf course as much as you can. Simulators don't yet replicate well the experience of hitting off of grass, and then one you're there, the key to making it work is
to really tamp down your expectations. You just want to swing and move and hit some shots. Trying to make a score in really tough conditions like this is just a recipe for making yourself feel bad.
That's no fun, Yeah, for sure, for sure.
So I want to ask you, as a result of the you know, the PGA Tour coming to Utah and good players, good golfers coming out of Utah, are we seeing a state that is now firmly on the map. You know, people from around the country planning trips to southern Utah and such as a result of the exposure that our golf scene has received over the past couple of years.
No question. Yeah, and that's a really good observation. Yes, black Desert in southern Utah plays a really big role in that Sand Hollow plays a really big role in that San Hollo already has for the last decade, has been on gosh a couple dozen different best of lists of various kinds, and and so the the the Utah game, but it's players especially, and look, Tony Fenale is leading
the way with that absolutely, but there are others. You know, Peter Quest was the number one ranked college player for most of his senior year that got a lot of attention nationwide. Right now, the junior game in Utah is getting a lot of attention with Lone Peak High school senior Kiakina recently named to the USGA junior national team. And then you know other native Utah players in addition to Tony, obviously Zach Blair, Patrick Fishburne, Daniel Summer Hayes.
We're a time when we have as many native born players on the tour as Arizona does, and so it's it's really it's a very good time for Utah Golf and then it all circles background to Black Desert. And not only the PGA Tour coming, which it did last fall and will again next fall, but the LPGA coming in May as well.
So you reference Tony, I'm pulling up the Genesis scoreboard now and we'll get to where he's at so far. I know he struggled round one, but overall, how would you characterize the start of the season for our guy, for Tony Fino.
The big thing to keep in mind with Tony is that he's coming off a knee surgery. Remember, it kept him out of the Grant Thornton that he would have played with Nellie Corda. It kept him out of the Hero and which is unfortunate. This was a think of it as a stress fracture kind of. It was a MILEG kind of a kind of an injury. There wasn't anything impact or or catastrophic in his getting hurt. He just wore around. And so he's still coming back from
the knee surgery. Obviously the doctors say he can play, but his results are a little spotty. He's had a couple of good showings, he's had a couple of cremy showings. It's really interesting to see how yesterday he really struggled
at Tory Pines. Now, granted Tory is a great and very difficult golf course, anybody can struggle, but it was cold, it was wet, it was really uncomfortable, and there was no joy in Mudviill yesterday down at Tory and Tony did not do well, and I think it had to do with trying to get his surgically repaired knee around the golf course. And today he's playing fine. Today it's warm and sunny and he's playing fine.
Yeah, he is.
I just saw three under today and hopefully he'll make the Cotton play through the weekend.
Let's stay with the Genesis.
You know, I've heard Paul in the past a lot of players talk about this is one of their and I think maybe even Tony at some point talked about the Genesis as being one of his favorites, and a lot of golfers saying, as far as non majors go, they really look forward to this tournament.
Can can you help us understand why it is?
It is a one of the world's great golf courses. It'll be in the top twenty of most any list of the top courses in the world. I'm talking about the South Tory South. There's thirty six holes there and it has hosted a couple of major championships. US Opens there won by Tiger Woods and then John Rahn, so of course brings out the best of the best in the best tournaments. They It's a place where the Tiger has won eight times in the rotation when it goes
through there each year on the Farmers. It's right on the cliffs overlooking the ocean that is spectacular. It also gets real exposure to weather. It's a terrific design. It is simply a great golf course with great history, and it's a place that people like to come and play. And then also they like being in San Diego when they're making a visit there. It's a pretty spectacular venue.
And you know, last last year I was there in person, and the way things accidentally worked out, I ended up with twenty twenty five minutes just sitting talking with Tony while he was waiting for something to happen, and we ended up kind of talking like teenage kids, geeking on how cool toy is. And it's very clear Tony loves this place.
Very nice.
So let's dig into the start of the season for some other players here as the genesis right now is being led by oh, you know, Scotty. Of course, I just I just looked. I just look because I know
Danny was up after round one. So Scotty Scheffler, let's let's dig into his his game a little bit, because of course he's coming back from a really a historically successful year last year and be a really weird one where my man got arrested and then cut his hand like cooking, and so you know, we have seen him back on the court for a couple of different tournaments, and every time I'd watch, the analysts would say, look, he's still getting you know, he's still kind of getting
his form back, and once he does, we're going to see Scotty do Scotty things.
And here he is leading the tournament.
So what's your take on the start of the season so far for the world number one golfer Scotty Scheffler.
Well, apparently the ham surgery worked for him. He seems to be okay.
And you know this, this is.
Exactly the kind of golf course where Scotty scheffer game works. He Scotty is so good at not giving away shots, at not putting himself in a position where he's got to be a magician to just hold serve. And that's what he's been doing today. I've been watching some of it today and he just hole after hole is putting himself in the right position. And then he gets to fifteen and it's a par five, knocks one in out of the bunker for a three and picks up two
shots and Bam is tied to the lead. He Scott Scheffler's game is built on the not spectacular, which you know, good Land Nicholas did well with that approach to it, Hogan did well with that approach to it, Tiger did well with that approach to it. And Scotty is the number one player in the world right now by being smart and not getting shopped away.
So tied for third is where we find young, well not so young, but Rory McElroy was young once upon a time.
He's still a young dude, but you know, you know the deal.
And it's been interesting, Paul to watch Rory to start the year because he is on that wild major you know streak where he hasn't won a major in a number of years and he nearly did it, you know, a couple of times, and missed some putts last year. But he wins at Pebble Beach, he wins the AT and T Pebble Beach Pro Am, and he's off to a phenomenal start to the calendar year. It's only a month. Do you think this is the year Rory gets it
done in a major? And what do you make of the start of the season for Rory McElroy.
Well, first of all, I really hope he gets it done. Rory is so easy to cheer for, love watching him play the game. And look when his wedges are solid, that's where he gives away strokes normally. When his wedges are solid, he's going to do great things. However, I did have to grimace and laugh at the same time a moment ago he missed a four foot downhill left right slider, which was exactly the putts he missed on a seventy second hole at Pinehurst in US opened last year.
I thought, Rory, I think that might be a rich vein to mine to pick up some shots there. I would love to see Rory do well. The big difference with Rory this year so far is. He has said that he is disengaging going he's getting off the field of play in all of the politics and organizational issues of the game. He's simply going to be a golfer. And you can see what he can do. You see, I saw that at a pebble and what a great what a great win to put on your resume Pebble Beach.
When he's focusing on his game, that's what he does.
Let me let me ask you about Tiger and his mother who passed. You know, a lot of the attention, you know, historically when Tiger was becoming Tiger, and then when he was dominating pro golf, and then when he became a global icon, was the SoundBite you'd hear from Earl, his dad, who when Tiger was a kid, he'd say he's going to have an effect on the planet.
That's a kin to Jesus and things like that.
And you know, Earl was the one who was front facing about who Tiger was and who Tiger was going to become under his watch. But when I read the biography then watched the documentary, it's clear that Tiger's mom certainly had a very very big influence on him as well. She has passed and Tiger elected not to play this
weekend after we thought he would. So can you illuminate us a little bit on just what this relationship entailed for Tiger Woods and your thoughts on her passing and what this could mean for him.
Yeah, it was sad to see her pass away, no question. I think she was remarkable. I think she's one of the great women of our time. She knew that she was raising a genius when he was two years old. She knew that she was raising a kid who had potential to be certainly the best in the world and among the best of all time by the time that he was an early teenager. And she did it. And I think that's a really difficult place to be. And she stepped up and she did it. Earl Woods enjoyed provocation,
He enjoyed rattling the bells and getting response. And Clofita Wood did. Woods did not. She was very averse to attention to the spotlight. She did her great work behind the scenes and in a low key fashion. But there's no question all along when you read about Tiger's upbringing, you when you know about Tiger's him becoming Tiger and I love the way you said that, It's not just him becoming Tiger when he's at Stanford or a young pro or whatever. No, it starts when he's two years old.
It's him as a five year old winning eleven and twelve year old tournaments. It's him as a teenager getting to tee it up in the Genesis. It's those are the years he really was becoming Tiger Woods. And those are the years when his mom, cale Tita, really had her big influence and her big impact. And I think she was a great person.
So what do you and look at?
I know that Tiger is far past, you know, being who he once was, but he still is that dude, right, So yeah, do you think we're going to see him much at all this year?
And what are you hearing about how healthy he is?
Well, he's not that healthy, we know that, but yes we will see him. We will see him because a fire burns in that man like burns in no other. And he is by many statistical measurements, he is the most transcendent athlete of any sport. And you just don't keep that kind of greatness down. Now. The reality is he is now I lose track forty eight or forty nine, I think forty eight years old, and his body has been just beat to smotherings. But if anybody can find
a way, it's Tiger Woods. And I've said this before, Tiger's not done until Tiger says he's done.
Yeah, No, I'm with you. I'm with you.
So you reference that Rory McElroy has elected to just kind of hone in on golf. Well, he still is talking about what the future of pro golf could be, and he believes, like a lot of people believe, at some point, this live PGA thing.
Has to just happen. I've kind of tapped out of all the updates.
And I'm just more of like, all right, just let me know when this is going down.
But there are a.
Lot of really good players that are on the live tour that I just miss watching play. And their overnight rating for the last tournament came in and nineteen thousand people watch live golf. That is the same rating that a show called here Comes Honey Boo Boo pulled in twenty sixteen at one am on Turner. So people are just not watching it, Paul, and I don't know what they're going to do to try to gain traction because they already have the players that they thought that they would.
Need in order to draw eyes.
So it's not working on live. But I mis watching those guys play. I wish we could get this done just before we get to some local stuff what you're understanding of as far as where we're at in the process of maybe finally some sort of reconciliation.
They're getting closer by all by all outward appearances, and look, j Monahan doesn't call me and ask me what I think or given the updates, which is annoying, but it's it's the way it is. But I do follow it, and I'm totally with you. I miss seeing these players. I miss seeing Jen Ram where Tory Pines this week. This is where gen Ram got his first tour victory and where Jen Ram won a US Open. And he has said that he really misses a lot of the PGA Tour and the most especially he misses Tory Pines.
So I get that, and I miss seeing John Tory Pines. And I want to see Koepka and Des Shamble. I want to see Patrick Reid for having's sakes. I like watching him play, as polarizing as his personality can be. I would like to see some kind of resolution. The source of the money remains so deeply distasteful, just if not outright offensive, but it is what it is, and a lot of that got taken away when the PGA
Tour said they would take Saudi money as well. But I think that there have been so many, so many boundaries crossed in a positive way, so many steps taken in a positive way over the last two years, that even though they haven't got it done yet, they're on the verge of getting it done, and I would be unsurprised to see a reconciliation come here shortly. I was really intrigued with what Rory had to say about it, Even though he said he's going to get out of
the politics of it. His last point was we've all got to just start from zero and let the past be what it is. That's going to be a hard thing. I think for everybody. What he's saying isles Folcus on the golf and I want to see Kopka and day Chambeau and play against McElroy and Scheffler at Tory.
Pines Ryder Cup back this year, so the US Ryder Cup team will have revenge on the mind before we get to the local stuff. Just handicap the chances that you believe Tony has of making the squad.
First of all, his chances are enhanced by his history with it. The whole system of the Ryder Cup is comfortable with picking Tony f now, so if he's around the bubble, there's a history there and people are used to picking him. And part of the reason that that history will be enhanced is because Tony's got a solid record in a national team play both Ryder Cup and President's Cup, and so he's a reliable dude. You can you can roll him out there and know that he's
going to be in the game. He's not going to get blown out, and he's going to compete and he's going to win points. And so that's really to his advantage. The big thing is he's got to get his knee strong so that he can get quality repetitions so that he can build points. He knows that. I do think getting into the warmer part of the year will make a difference for that with Tony. We're still so early
in the year. There's a lot of there's gonna be a lot of Joscelyn in the Ryder Cup standings, and I expect Tony to be a big part of it.
All, right, Paul, before I said you lose the latest on the Utah golf scene, what you have your eye on here locally, and what our listeners can expect coming up on Utah Golf Radio.
There's a college tournament going on in Hawaii as we speak after it's called the John Burns. After the first round, the University of Utah Utes were in first place. UIU is in fourth place. And part of the real fun of this is that Sergio Himenez the a sep on the hill for the Utes. In the practice round he threw down a slipt little five to nine, A fifty nine action for Sergia, I know, right. So the Utes
are ranked number sixteen in the country. It's the highest they've ever been ranked in the history of the school, and they are showing it this week. It's a really deep, strong field at the Burns. Of course, everybody wants to go to Hawaii in February, right, and the youths are spanking them. So yeah, we're going to be looking at
that on the show Saturday. We're going to spend some time talking with Al Riddell, who is Patrick Fishburne's new caddy, And we're going to get to get to know Patrick Slooper. That's going to be a lot of fun.
Well, Paul, my friend, you've been coming on the show for over five years, so you know, February means it's time, you know, to really move on from this whole cold weather thing. And I'm ready to swing a club. So I'm trying to be more of solutions. We need snow for the ski resorts, but I'm ready to be out of Bonnie on Saturdays.
I'll tell you that much.
I want to be there right there with you. I hear you, brother, my man.
Thanks for the time, Toda, have a good weekend.
Okay, thank you, Paul pug Meyer, Utah Golf Radio always appreciate Paul's time. It's time now for you and to golf. PGA Tour updates courtesy of our friends. At you went to golf, You went to golf couple of different locations. Check out their new tailor made set up. The new tailor made q I thirty five woods are the fourth generation of the carbon wood technology. This driver unlocks a new level of distance. At you went to golf, so
definitely check out their locations. We're really close to one right now actually, And as I reference with Paul, the Genesis Invitational going on right now. Scotty Scheffler is your leader at seven under par Tony Fen now three hundred today to get back on the right side of the cut line.
We'll see if he can hang during moving day tomorrow