I miss the green. For example, I'm already upset.
When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
And when I find my ball.
In a fried egg Friday egg, the dreaded Friday egg, Frida egg, Frida egg fried egg, Frida egg, bride egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off the golf course. Arnold Palmer is the Master of nineteen. He has buddy the last two holes to.
Catch a bet bove ahead of cat that Jory.
What are then say?
This is a races gold?
Anybody has ever seen that?
A play?
Yeah up the hill? Did you ever do one like that?
And I think that's one of the greatest buddies I've ever.
Seen him Friday Night.
Maybe yes, sir, there it is you believe it?
Now?
No? There it is a win for the ages? Is it his time?
Now here it comes? Oh my goodness.
Oh wow? In your life?
Have you seen anything like that?
Hello?
Friends, I'm jim NANTZ. Is my great pleasure to welcome you to the Master's Tournament. I've heard it said before.
It's a tradition unlike any other.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another edition of the Friday Podcast. Today I'm joined by Brendan Porath from SB Nation and we're going to break down the twenty eighteen Masters.
Brendan, welcome on, Andy.
Good to be with you. It's always an honor and a pleasure and pretty exciting week to break down here. Finally back back in the DC area after a full week down south and excited to chop it up.
Yeah, it was tough to get the schedule scheduling, and you know, I needed to. I felt like I needed to go through your agent that you don't have and smart and also Smarten is on the golf course, so he will not be joining us today.
It's like the the Monday media blitz that they send the winner up, you know, to New York. I saw Reid was doing all this stuff, went to the next game MSG. It's like that Monday after. It's just a little little hectic, gotta do all the media blitz.
I just enjoyed sitting and only like really tweeting stuff and not really doing anything. Is the decompression is real on Monday after the Masters?
Yeah, absolutely absolutely. You gotta kind of just start coming up for air right now, you know, back in the grind, taking kids to school and stuff, like that.
So with Reid, you were on the ground, what do you think about the twenty eighteen Masters champion.
I think he's a deserving champion. There's been the Internet being the Internet, There's been a backlash to read winning, and then a backlash to that backlash, and then I think now we're at a backlash to the backlash to the people Matt criticizing Reader saying Reid is a little a little different kind of champion. We'll just use the word different, so that that's that's the way the internet works here. I did not I don't know that I anticipated the kind of explosion of debate and drama around
Pat Reid. But again, I think it's a reminder of the Masters being this this broader kind of pop cultural moment, right, It's not I mean more so than the US Open, more so than all the other majors, obviously ANYPGA tour event.
It's this broader cultural moment. Just like we talked about, the winner goes up to New York, he's on these late shows, he's you know, the green jacket has it's it's it's a different kind of brand, and you know that I guess the winner immediately goes in the crosshairs, and and obviously the winner has some oddity, you know, odities about him and his family situation and his past, and I don't know that he and his family probably anticipated those crosshairs. Fully, I didn't, and I didn't kind
of see this explosion coming. I don't know that we got it with Danny Willett. I mean, I guess the focus then was probably more on on Jordan's speed. But yeah, it's just a reminder of of really how much the Masters resonates beyond just the golf world, and you know, the golf nerds like us that are on the internet all day who know his story so well and are kind of like, yeah, yeah, we know that's a part of the part of the part of the package now.
So yeah, it was it was really kind of interesting to see what's what's transpired here over the last twenty four hours now that we're Tuesday, A week.
After I tweeted something about how Nance came in on the coverage and immediately said like great buddies about Spieth and Thomas, and I uh, one of one of my followers tweeted back at me something about, like, you know, the magnitude of the Masters and how you have millions of it and that kind of clicked with me. I
was like, oh, that is so true. Is that there are you know, like I have a ton of buddies that don't really watch golf, don't aren't really into golf, but this week they watch the every minute of the telecast and they might not know that Spieth and Thomas are good buddies.
So like it.
It is something And I think that's a great point about Reid and his family situation is is that we've known this for years, but not everybody else knew this. And I think, looking beyond the family thing, read deserve to win this. And I think you have to always applaud people on golf when they clearly improve on their deficiencies as a player. And I think that's the greater takeaway if you look beyond on his personal life is as a player.
There aren't a lot of guys that we.
Saw Martin Kaimer try and build his game for Augusta by trying to learn how to hit a draw off the tee and it like kind of killed him. You know, We've seen Luke Donald try and chase distance and that really.
Set him back.
But we see Patrick Reed like really learn how to hit different style golf shots than he's you know, comfortable with. And that's pretty cool to see a guy that like clearly saw what his problem was and went and fixed it. And you know, he's become a really way more complete player since he's been able to start to move that ball left or right and uh and I mean it
just opens up the golf golf course for him. And he's such a great putter, so good around the greens that if he can hit it at all kinds of flags and have some success, I think we're going to see more wins from him.
Yeah, that's that's the thing, like we that's kind of been obscure and all the drama about people figuring out finding out who is who he is, his personality and his background, is that like this guy, I mean, was this that unexpected? Was this like you know, Zach Johnson or Trevor Ellmolman winning I don't know that it is.
I mean, we've seen this guy be like kind of a stone cold killer and some pretty big events, and he's had the pedigree since college and junior days, and like, of course he's not as popular as Ricky and speech and and Justin Thomas and he made He doesn't have all those accomplishments either. I'd say he's got a better career than Ricky for.
Sure right now.
But like he's had the pedigree, he's you know, worked to get better obviously with finding new shots. And we saw the helicopter stuff all all week again, and you know, I don't I think that that's kind of been last unfortunately here in the washout the day after because of all the broader cultural pop culture debates about who he is and what's off and on limits, because this guy is like just nails. He's an incredible golfer. He you know, chips in for eagle when he needs too, he makes
putts when he needs to. He gets maybe he caught a break or two, but every Master's winner catches a break or two. And he beat Jordan Speed, Ricky Fowler, and Rory McElroy. Like this wasn't like, you know, just kind of cruising in. He shot seventy one in his
highest round of the week. But I think if you ask a lot of people on Sunday morning, they thought it'd be over par, they thought it'd be higher, but he made putts in the biggest moments, whether that was Saturday afternoon when Rory was kind of losing his mind a group ahead and shooting sixty five, and then against Sunday at the very end on seventeen at eighteen with Ricky pushing him and knowing that speed had so like, I think we lose sight of fact that, like, the
guy has been really one of the best golfers in the world now for years and this wasn't like that surprising, even if it wasn't as palatable as people wanted it to be.
You know, the putts at twelve and fourteen were just massive, and I think what gets lost is kind of what you said is that this guy's been a great player, and a year ago the story was like why can't Patrick Reid play in majors? And now we're like shot, you know, the general public shock that he won this is he's I mean, he's a world class player, and I mean he's got now six titles.
On his career.
He's twenty seven, he's got a WGC, he's got a FedEx Cup win, and he's got a major. And it used to be when you hit twenty seven that you were just you know, kind of getting into your prime, and now the way that golf has shifted, it's almost that now is twenty five year prime. But I really think that this generation, there's so many good young players that we're going to see a renaissance of like the
thirty two to thirty five year old prime. It's just you know, it's just taking time for these guys to develop into those players.
Yeah, I completely agree, and we could probably maybe say maybe say the same for Rick. But I mean Rick has all the kind of the popularity and notoriety and brand endorsing stuff, so we know all about him and assume he's already you know, one of the best in the world or a major winner, you know, has of that same class you know, Big three, Big four, all that stuff. But you know, maybe he is just maybe he is as well, just kind of coming into it.
I don't know. I think like Reid has kind of at every stage shown us that he belongs in that kind of that that upper class conversation and isn't really
a one hit wonder or a fleeting thing. Now he gets lost sometimes and you don't hear from him for a couple of months, but you kind of can count on him season in and season out here through the first whatever six years of his career, however, four or five years of his career to at least make some noise every single season, and I think there's something to
be said for being able to do that. And this win was not that big a surprise, obviously, like he's he's a weird dude, and talking to him, you kind of you don't get very far and it's it's a little icy. But you know, if we just want to talk about the golf, I don't think it's that surprising.
Yeah, I mean, he's always been an elite player from inside one hundred and twenty five yards. He's one of
the best around the greens. He's a great putter, and I think where you've seen him go silent for a little while is just is the ball striking is not always there and but when but when it's there, there's few I mean, he's one of the five best players in the world because he's so good around the greens, I mean getting it in the hole and especially on him, we saw it in a Major on a Major championship Sunday.
You know, things don't always go right, and that's where you need to have that game inside one twenty five to really take advantage of when you get opportunities and also recover from you know, the bad shots, the shaky shots he hit when you're not, you know, feeling as comfortable as you did the rest of the week leading up to it.
Yeah, I've read. I think like Ryan Lavner Golf Channel talk to Josh Gregory, former college coach and now performance coach,
whatever that means. But you know, he's obviously like sharp guy with with with the talents, and he mentioned like if just obviously Reid has some deficiencies, but he's like if he if he just kind of if he keeps it between the pines off the tee, like look out, you know, like it's ball striking isn't always the sharpest, but it's a matter of just keeping that that slinging draw, you know, between the pines and it's you know, look out.
He's going to contend as long as that that that when he catches a week like that, and we saw it.
So let's talk about rick You touched on him. What do you take away from Ricky Fowler's performance? Obviously another runner up, another top five in a major. He's twenty nine and what is Ricky Fowler going to get a major?
Oh yeah, I think he's gonna get a MA for sure. I thought this was a different kind of contention for him going sixty seven sixty or sixty five sixty seven on the weekend and come on, that's that's worthy of praise, even if he came up one shot short with a
birdie on the eighteen. I I thought this was like, I also think this was like the perfect spot for Ricky, Like all of Sunday was about Reid and Rory that you know, we're gonna get this like match play thing in the last group, and then it turned to speed and like we're gonna get We're getting the greatest final round of Major championship history and the greatest comeback ever, and Ricky was just kind of there in between those two, slowly plodding the law and then he hit the back
nine and when he shoot thirty two coming in, that's kind of like the perfect spot for Ricky to get a major in my opinion at this stage of his career. Maybe that changes later, Like I don't know if he wants to be the guy one or two up going into Sunday or playing with Reid in that final Sunday pairing right now, and he admitted that after the after the round, he was pretty candid. It was it was kind of a different kind of Ricky. We've seen him on.
You know, he was on. He was he was in tears for all intentsive purposes at twenty fourteen at Valhalla, right he was choked up talking about how like he was close, you know, top five every every major that year. He was, you know, emotional after losing again to Rory and feeling like, you know, his day would come, it's it's gonna come. But this time he was like, this is the first this Sunday, He's like, this is the
first first major. I really really felt comfortable. And I thought that was pretty candid, and we haven't really we don't always get that from Ricky obviously, He's usually pretty straightforward, like I hit good shots, it wasn't there today, that kind of stuff. It's always very cliche and nebulous. But he said, you know, I really felt comfortable. It's the
first major Sunday. I really felt comfortable. And I think that was kind of the spot for him, kind of in between the speed and then the Reid Rory show, and then all of a sudden, it's the eighteenth pole and he's one shot off the lead. So at least that was a sense you get on the grounds. You don't get this holistic a view watching on TV because everyone's darting back and forth between reed and then the speed run, and then all of a sudden, Ricky was there.
So I think that was like the ideal spot for him to really make his run towards the board. And I think one of these days, obviously it's going to happen. There's there are so many kind of just minuscule bounces that have prevented him from winning a major, and if he keeps putting himself in position, he's going to get one.
Yeah.
I think he's become so much more of a patient player over the years, And I think what I look at is last year Fouler was essentially in the exact same position on Sunday. He shot even par on the He was in the second to last group, you know, well within striking distance, just like this year. He shot even par on the front nine last year.
This year he shot one.
Under and then the back nine you could tell he pressed. And it's the worst thing you can do at Augusta National is the birdies are out there, but you can't push it. And he shot forty on the back nine last year. This year he shoots thirty two. He'd really let the course come to him and let the moment come to him by just executing on his game plan. But then you look, you finished one shot out of
the lead. And it's it's a testament to the major championships of having your game plan and sticking to it, because I keep going back in my head, you know, on thirteen on Saturday, he just he goes for the green from.
A bad lie with a fairway wood.
In the right rough with that backpen, and I get it, like, if that fairwywood carries up to the front of the green, it runs right back to that backpen, it could make an eagle. But if you just lays it up, it's such an easy up and down. And I mean he got it up and down for par essentially where he could have laid the ball up to and he makes verdie and he's in a playoff.
Like it's crazy to.
Me how narrow the margin for winning is. And and it the one moment where Ricky really pushed and was a great you know, tried to try to get make something happen in the whole tournament. He it, he doesn't get the good break and that's the difference between winning and coming.
In second or you know, playoff and second.
Yeah. I think that's a good point, man. The balance there is so I mean, that's kind of why make what makes golf, you know, so great is when do you try to push down at what day, at what position on the leader board, and do you at all? I think because Ricky he caught some he caught some crap last year, and I thought, rightfully so for the way he played that last round of the US Open, or you know, with he he really hung back and never kind of tried to get aggressive as Kopka took
the lead. Now would it have mattered, Probably not the way Keopka played, and Ricky said as much. But he played extremely conservative golf for being in contention on Sunday at a major and needing to close a gap between him and the leader. And he was conservative definitely at
the PGA, stuck to his game plan. Like you said, I remember following him a couple of days and he was with Rory and different players and Ricky was one hitting not driver off every off the most t boxes, whether it was a driving iron or a three wood or hybrid on a lawn and course, it was always Ricky kind of had his game plan. He was playing pretty conservative golf. He never It's like an incredible balance there with when and where you make a move, or do you make a move, or do you change your
game plan at all? And I think you kind of make the point at Augusta you just you can't do that or you're screwed. And Rory made that same case this week. He's like, I've tried to learn just to be patient. That's the biggest problem I've had here is thinking, you know, because there's birdie chances out there, I need to shoot sixty four and I need to eagle or birdie every you know, part five and then pick up
Bertie's at three and wherever else. And that's been my problem is because the margin there between you know, screwing yourself by getting too aggressive and needing to shoot a low number is kind of what makes golf so great.
Yeah, I think Jeff Ogilvie said something to me once. He said, Augusta's great because if I want to shoot seventy two, I can do it every single time. But the second I try and.
Shoot sixty six, I shoot seventy six.
Yeah, yeah, I mean that's yeah, that's a perfect way to capture it. I mean, what do you think of This seems to be Ricky's approach. This is always and I think it's worth applauding that he never kind of he's not going to change his game plan him in Scavron, just stick to what they do all week, whether it's Sunday,
late Sunday or you know, early Thursday. And I think like he had one stretch this week where he had three three plots I think in nine holes or maybe it was a round and right there, you know, clean that up and you're winning by two shots.
So I wonder how many major champions have taken a penalty stroke.
It's a good question. I'm trying to think.
But I mean Ricky last year of the pg A, he had that triple bogie in the first round, yep, and that like that's the difference. It's just it It's to me, it seems like it's just you know, it's getting to the point where it's just one moment you can almost zero in on every single major with him, and uh, I think he's gonna win.
He's got it. He's just he's so close so often.
You know, I hate the parallels with Phil, but I mean the number of top five finishes and majors is is unbelievable.
I had it in the newsletter. I forgot exactly what it was, but I think it's.
I think it's eight. Yeah, I think it's eight already, and.
With three or four second place finishes, right.
Right, Yeah, there's not all not all top fives are created equal. Yeah, yeah, I think he just keeps giving himself chances. He's going to win one. What do you what do you think best suits his game or is it just kind of it's suitable a multiple?
That's I mean, that's the that's the great thing about followers that he's shown he can play at every type of major championship venue and he's got that all round game. It's a you know, you look at it and you look at different guys on tour and his his game isn't And we just talked about it with Reid. If he if he hits the ball, well he's gonna do well.
But like Ricky is a world class ball striker, world class short game, world class with wedges, and he's a top ten putter in the world, so it's not like he doesn't have it. Everywhere should fit his game. Well, you look at Shannacock, that should fit him well. Carnoustie, I mean the Carnoustie and the Open Championship. Half of it's about catching the right side of the draw, so you know, all of a sudden that field can be shrunk by fifty and then uh and then the PGA
Championship at at Belle Reeve. I mean that should be a good spot for him too. It's it's gonna be wet, it's gonna be soft, it's gonna be long, and it's gonna be it's gonna be tough maybe, but the softness of the golf course should you know, have a lot of It'll be way different than the three courses leading up to bell Reef.
It'll be more of a.
I think it'll be more like a course you see week in week out on PGA tour.
Yeah, right now, I from everything I hear and read and talk to you about, it sounds like that's the case. So yeah, I think you know just what we talked about because he's so adaptable and so good through the bag, you know, best maybe the best sand player in the world, top ten putter, all these things. You know, it's hard not to see him picking up one because if he adapts to every all four kinds of styles, and we know, we know for a fact he can contend that Augusta.
There's no there's nothing at Augusta that that's blocking him out or you know, psyching him out. He knows he can play that course.
Yeah.
I think also you just look at his career and he's getting better, right, and I think.
Yeah, no, no, that's that's definitely the case.
He's more consistent than ever. I mean, last year he had the lowest miss cuts in his career. He had a boatloaded top ten finishes. I think he's getting.
Better every year.
It's not like we're we're talking about a guy that has stopped progressing as a player. But what's crazy We talked, you know, I talked about the margin for winning and losing, and you look at Jordan Spieth hitting the tree on eighteen twice essentially like a one shot penalty twice, I mean, and he misses the.
Playoff by two shots.
Right.
So, I mean, what do you what do you take away from from Speace week?
Oh? It was just.
I mean, obviously the round is incredible. Sunday was so fun to watch. But what I took away is just like like frustration about what could have been. And that's just that's golf, right, That's like you walking off me, walking off the course, saying, oh if I had just you know, I burned the edge on this hole, and I, you know, duffed this one, like I could have shot you know, three strokes better forced. That's everybody, whether it's
you're the best in the world or some chop. But yeah, my main takeaway is just how close we were, and thinking back on you know, he's close at fourteen and the eagle putt at thirteen and I don't know eighteen. I the one earlier in the week, Like that was a yank, right, he like yanked that into those that like bathroom area and all those bushes down on the left.
I thought on Sunday it was just like a slight pole and it just clipped like one little overhanging branch and he was kind of incredulous, couldn't believe it happened. You know, I don't know that that was a bad swaying or the ball was kind of destined for doom, like the one earlier in the week that was just a slight pole that up an overhanging branch.
Yeah, that was not a bad shot.
I mean, if that ball cuts back, I can't imagine it being more than a couple of yards into the rough.
It might even be in the fairway.
And yeah, I thought it was going just for the you know, the usual landing spot in front of the bunkers kind of coming back.
And you look at the way he played going into that, like he hadn't missed a shot since I mean, god know that.
Yeah, Like, I mean.
Every drive was a quick tea pick up, every approach shot was he was like staring down. I mean the one on sixteen I think and No Laying Ups podcast with Bones they did they Bones talked about the adrenaline and I think speeth they took the less club because of the adrenaline and it just came up short, right, and I think but I mean he ended up making the putt. But like you know, like this guy was
locked in. You know, every shot was like right online, right number, like he was It's just so crazy to see a t shot that that happens too.
You know, yeah, I think like, so, yeah, what I walk away from is just what could have been a little bit of frustration. But the way golf works is like sixteen was gravy, you know that, I mean, how often does that one go in? So he kind of that's just the push and pull and the give and take of of major golf or any golf. So but again I walked away feeling like grateful to have seen it. I peeled off at seven from Reed and Rory and kind of raced down with a couple guys, Kevin van
Volkenberg of ESPN. We raced down to eleven and kind of watched him in from the approach shot on eleven all the way in, and it was kind of it was grateful to have seen it, but also like what could have been if he just, you know, had the one on thirteen had fallen in or eighteen had fallen it just it would have been amazing to see him shoot sixty three, maybe even sixty two and chase down read. But again, like it's hard to I saw him that that morning, he was like had this forced march like
head down. I was up at the clubhouse and he just like Zoom past. Everyone didn't look at anybody, didn't want to talk to anybody. Zoom passed into the clubhouse and I heard Jeff Shackelford say he talked to dan Zy and Dansey was like, I've never seen him like this before a round. I just think like it was more evidence that we're gonna get speed contending, if not every year at augusta like three out of four years.
And maybe he won't shoot sixty four every time, but he's gonna have like a mid sixties round in there somewhere, you know, and maybe that gets him a top ten. But it's just it's it's too it's his horse. For course, he's gonna be doing it for the next twenty years.
How many green jackets do you think he gets on his career.
Oh gosh, he's.
Twenty four, so it'll be twenty five next year.
You can talk about how he could have four, right or three, you know, twenty fourteen, it wasn't that close. But again that's what the Masters is like, it could be four or he could have shot sixty two, but it wasn't. You know. I think like it's hard to get a green jacket. So I think just based on the fact that he's come close five, you know, for the last five years, doesn't mean he's gonna win five green jackets.
You know.
It's just I think he gets three. I think that's probably on the low side. Most people would.
Say, Yeah, I think.
I mean, I'd probably set the over under on at three and a half. I I mean, I I just the way he plays the golf course, I can't foresee him not joining the four jacket club, you know, yeah.
I know, I know that that seems to be like the Commntional Wisdom, which is a pretty amazing club though, right, I mean, it's just Ronie Jack and Tiger. It's hard to get there, even if you are always finishing. And we saw Phil like two thousand to twenty ten. I don't think he finished outside the top ten. You got
three three green jackets out of it. So I think, like it's it's easy to It's not easy, but you know, finishing in the top five and the top ten, it's a little different than you need to be lucky, you need to be fortunate to also win.
Yeah, I mean, Reid got some really good breaks with the ball on thirteen, hitting the flag on seventeen. You know, you don't win a major championship without good breaks, and you know there's usually unless you just run away. I mean we saw Speeth run away. I mean, keep go. I feel like one at Aaron Hills without good breaks. But for the most part, you got to have some things go your way. And I mean speak sixty six in the first round, sixty four in the last round.
It's what what's crazy.
To me is that on the day everybody took advantage of the course, he just couldn't get it going. I think it almost the weather might have been detrimental to the way speed plays.
AUGUSTA, sure, it's sure.
How did the golf course seem to change from Friday to Saturday to Sunday? From my lens, it seemed like on Sunday there just wasn't a lot of fire in it.
Yeah, I would agree with that. You know, Saturday was just cold and rainy. You know, it went from missing to kind of a light rain, and then you know, you didn't see the sun on the entire day. Sunday was Sunday was chilly, but you know, yeah, it had softened a bit, like it did not have that that yeah, firmness, I think that you always expect with Augusta. And there was a sixty four out there and a couple of rounds of what what Cam Smith's jock sick, Yeah, sixty seven.
So yeah, I don't know that it had that kind of that challenge on the on the pro shots into the green, but you know that's that's not always how how you how it falls out Augusta.
So yeah, yeah, it seemed like the the Aprons were just kind of slow to like the balls weren't weren't rolling off the greens like they would.
It's what happened with Reed's ball. It just stuck on the bank, right, Yeah, I mean it.
It was like a little rough there.
I don't know, I for I don't know if there's been I was really surprised, like I don't remember there being rough there, like which it's kind of I mean, how is that bank not shaved?
And every other bank is shaved right right?
But what you yeah, you know that was that was crazy to me, is like is like how how how is that bank not shaved? And when fifteen we watched their yo put three wet or four wet shots into the water.
There, right right, right, Yeah, that yeah, it makes sense on a par five where going for it is no longer this momentous decision. As Rudley talked about that, maybe that green consort just makes it so you but if fifteen has it shaved, yeah, you're right, I mean why why would thirteen have that kind of extra firewall there? Yeah, I don't know what you said is true for sure that the balls, some of the balls you expect to kind of run out ten twenty yards back down the
fairway or over the back. We're kind of sticking closer to the you know, the apron of the green.
So hey, you know something, I'm kind of surprised with all the money Augusta has and their love to tinker, but I think it would it would require a change in their philosophy. Is like how they haven't sand capped the fairways of the golf course, you know, where they could essentially have a course that if it rained, it's still played firm and fast. But obviously with the way they mow the fairways and Tiger alluded to it a lot in his book, they want the course to play longer.
But I think if it played firmer and faster in the fairways. It would just be a better test because it would separate the guys that are really on their game and being extremely precise more and more.
Yeah, you mentioned that when we were walking around down there on Wednesday, sand cap in it. I think there's obviously a lot of merit to that. And someone mentioned Rory. You know, we always hear about Rory rainy conditions, like if you have to tweet about it, if it happens, if it rains, and Roy's in contention, You're mandatory, You're required by law to tweet about how there's Rory conditions now. But I think you know, he felt like he could just kind of grip it and rip it this week.
A lot more or more often than you know, we see the deficiencies in his game, whether it's wedge play or being you know, being precise. Is with precise with his wedges like you talked about, when it's firm and fast. You know, he didn't always have to do that.
This week. He's he's such a good player with his irons and his long game is so good.
You have to believe that the fact that the ball and technology and everything that goes into this insane distance game that we've had has actually hindered his career because he's the best long iron player on tour and mid iron player on tour, and he just doesn't really have to hit a lot of them. Nobody has to hit a lot of them anymore.
Yeah, his shot on two was incredible from a you know two is not an even.
Lie yeah downhill lie, yeah, side hill lie.
Yep. He was on the left half of the left left side of the faraway talk and then the pins obviously back right on Sunday every Sunday, so he just dropped it right in. That's not a short iron shot. You know, maybe it's not.
What he hit. I think he hit a seven iron, but it's I mean it's a mid iron.
It's yeah, at this point, it's not.
Yeah, it's a DJ only hit one one shot more than a six iron end up Part four or more than a seven iron ended up Part four last year, ah.
Last year. Yeah, So it's not it's not hitting a four iron, but you know, he he he just he is that that on those Part five. Such an incredible ball striker.
Yeah, it's what about John ram best major finish kind of kind of got out of his his his good mood in the back the last few holes. But I mean, this guy's gonna win majors, and I think Augusta is a perfect place for him. Yeah.
I think like the patience thing you talked about earlier and learning to get better, progressing like with Ricky, and I think that's gonna happen with Ron, but just faster. You know, he's not gonna be twenty nine like rick There's just there's just a lot of moments where you know, whether it was Friday or Saturday. I watched him for a while on Friday, and it's just sloppy, right, sloppy
with his wedd He's an incredible short game player. Most people just associate with him with being like this big, burly guy who smashes the ball. But I love to watch him with his wedges and putter, and there was just some sloppy shots where there was nine just not getting it to the right level. And I think that's all going to change as he plays the course more. You know, understanding how to miss and where to miss, certainly with your approach shots and with your wedges. But again,
he was for being on the ground. You know, you got what is he the number three player in the world. It was just kind of you just kind of lurking there with Ricky and everyone was focused on Reed and Rory at the start and then speed you know, for the end. So yeah, he had a nice little spot there, just kind of lurking around and not being the focus of the show. But w what do you go? Sixty eight, sixty five, sixty nine.
Yeah, yeah, I mean that fifteenth holes were kind of unraveled. He hit that iron shot.
He was a yard from being absolutely perfect on that right and he found the water.
But I mean that if he would have hit that close, it would have been really reminiscent of Sergio's eagle like a year before, because he I mean it was right at the flag and literally one yard from from perfection, and you know, he gets an eagle there and all of a sudden, it's, you know, a three shot swing, and we're talking about John ram As, you know, a guy that might have won. You know, it's but then in the on.
The flip side, it.
He I mean, if he gets that up and down he I mean that's the thing with ram is his patients and maturity on the course need to get a little better because it just doesn't seem like, you know, I'm okay with these guys getting mad, and you can get mad like and get it out, but with ram it just seems to stick with them like one bad thing and like it just like the rest of his round or like for like a six hole stretch, he's just out of the you know, he's in another world
and and that can't happen in major championships.
I saw that seventeen on Sunday on the Green. He took his fist just like pounded it into the turf like like a you know, a pitcher going back and like breaking the phone box or you know, punching his locker and breaking his hand to being out for six weeks. Yeah, Yeah, he like pounded the terf. Saw him on Friday take his club and wind up to slam it into his bag. Saw him toss his club, not like throw it in anger,
but launch it at his bag. I'm eighteen on Friday, He's definitely like he gets on tilt there and that's not a place you can do that.
Yeah. It with the same thing with Reid.
It is like these guys when they make like I was an idiot when I was twenty two and twenty three, like.
Yeah, of course, right, I'm still an idiot.
Yeah, I'm just not one that people watch every move.
So it's it's uh.
He did get asked about sev and Sergio. It's like required in Jose, Like it's just it's just mandatory. He was asked Saturday night, what what do sev and Sergio mean to you? What did you take from that? It's like, just because he's from Spain doesn't mean you know, he has their game more he you know, I get it's such an easy kind of cliche and fascile narrative to apply to him. But I remember the players last year.
It's like, oh, you know, they made it sound like Sergio had like rocked him from the cradle and brought him all the way up. He's like, no, I never really met Sergio until I came to the States, you know, went to Arizona State. It's not he's like the guy the questioner obviously wanted him to say. You know, they were like hitting balls on the beach together back in Spain when they were you know, little kids. Sergio has
shown him how to play golf. But it's like, no, I never met Sergio and until you know, I was you know, almost twenty. But yeah, that kid's frustrating. Obviously being on the grounds is just always getting the same kind of question.
So we had we're like fifty minutes in and we haven't talked about Tiger and Phil who Yeah, you know, the big lead up, and obviously it had to be is slightly disappointing not to see one of them in the mix. But from my standpoint, just having Tiger playing and making the cut and being relevant is a big win at this point.
Yeah, I mean, shut sixty nine on Sunday, he made the cut, you know, by one.
I don't.
I think we got lost kind of in the hysteria of playing those flat Florida courses and assuming, you know, we've seen him show up, and I count myself guilty for this, Like we've seen him show up in twenty
ten after being in hiding for six months. We saw him show up in twenty fifteen after being hiding in two months, trying to figure out how to chip like and just assume he would contend or not content but you know, be top ten, top fifteen, and you know he's just he's forty two now, He's not that golfer and he hasn't played really in two years, So yeah, I got caught up in that, you know, this is not you know, some flat Bay Hill course, and he
made the cut. I think we need to kind of always shift our expectations and maybe that Florida swaying got us a little off kilter, and making the cut after not playing it since twenty fifteen is an accomplishment, it is, and it was good, just good to have him there, and you know, I wish, you know, we could have seen him more. But the Masters is that kind of event. The Masters is is bigger than Tiger. Obviously Tiger completely
changes the dynamic. But if Tiger's playing early Sunday at the vals Bar, that's like the most important part of the vals Bar, right for for the larger golf or for the larger sports world. But you know, if Tiger's playing early Sunday at the Masters, it's still the Masters, and we're going to care more about what's happening from you know, three to seven o'clock than what how you know,
every shot of Tiger's early Sunday round. So he got you know, a little lost in the shuffle, but it was just good to have him there on the weekend.
Yeah, I think that the difference. I think he just wasn't coming. You saw, it takes time for him to get his competitive chops back on a regular PGA Tour event. And I think it's the same thing with majors, Like you know, Major championship golf is different than week in, week out PGA Tour golf, and it's just something.
He hadn't done in a while.
And I think that getting that comfortable, getting comfortable again and Major Championship golf is just the difference. It's a different level of play and it requires a little bit, it's just feels different. And I think he just was really sloppy early in the week.
Yeah.
I mean, obviously think people talk about the part of five and that was kind of the thing I expected to be there for him, be there for him this week. Was that ball striking, And it wasn't, you know, he said him he put himself in good spots several times on whether it was two or eight, and just kind of you know, yank, these you know, pretty moderate approach shots that we were talking about. The ball striking just wasn't there. But going back to the major thing, I
think the injuries and all that's happened. Kind of obscure that he wasn't the best on the weekend at Major's before he got hurt, right, I mean we saw like kind of in twenty twelve and twenty thirteen, whether it was Mirrorfield or Hill, he wasn't. I mean, things changed for him on the weekend of the Major. And I don't know if that goes back to two thousand and nine, since you know, his everyone kind of got a glimpse into his personal life and that whole kind of the
veneer fell and crumbled all around him. But like he wasn't he was a different player on the weekend at Majors in twenty twelve and twenty thirteen, and he did get sloppy and wasn't as sharp. And you know, obviously we're in how five years removed with a ton of stuff that's happened. But I think that might get lost in this lost in the shuffle of just saying, well, he's just he's been hurt and he's got to get back to play him like he did, you know, when
he didn't have before all the back troubles. So so I don't know that that may be like a lingering, longer issue than simply just coming back from back thirty.
Yeah. They it's it's tricky. You know, he's the greatest player, the most dominant player of all time. You know, people will always argue about the greatest but and it's it's hard to accept it if he's a different player now because we all remember what he was once was. But it's you know, I think it's a matter of time. I think he will if he is, assuming he can stay healthy the next three to five years, I think we'll see him on a on a Master Sunday and contention, Yeah.
No doubt. No, I think there's no doubt about that. I think he's going to have a late Sunday tea time somewhere in the next three to five as long as he's playing.
I mean, his short game is absolutely insane.
Like he's got shots like he hit that he had a flop shot on eight over the giant mound from the left that just like stopped on a diamond. You sit back and you're like, who has that shot? Like, does anybody really have that shot other than Tiger?
And I don't. I don't think they necessarily do. Phil. You you probably.
Could make an argument, but I mean, the game is coming back. It's it's just you can take two years, you know, essentially like really four years off. Yeah, and he's gonna have some rust. So anybody that disappointed surprise this week for you?
You know, I you know who surprised me as Hendric Extension. Your guy's been pretty garbage at Augusta.
And shockingly bad though yeah yeah.
Yeah, I guess shockingly bad. But I just and he's not been that good this year except for bay Hill, and he finished T five and it was kind of always always lurking. Uh, didn't didn't have that that you know, mid sixties sixty seven type round that that put him put him in the conversation with Fowler and Read and speed. But you know, he had four rounds in the red and finished T five, So I thought that was kind
of a surprise. I don't know who disappointed. I guess Dustin Johnson finished T ten, but it just felt like he was never in it. I guess we we we get spoiled by DJ, you know, eagling every part five and past masters that you know you want that again and you want another sixty six with three or four
eagles on the card. It's not that easy to do. Yeah, I just thought I thought DJ was kind of coming in without a lot of fanfare and would at least be more in the conversation on Sunday, but that said like a bad week or a quiet week, I guess not bad. A quiet week for DJ was.
T ten, So yeah, I was.
Cam Smith is one that jumps out to me twenty four years old, and now he's got his second top five and a major. You know, he finished I think t third at Chambers Bay and now T fifth at at Augusta National. I think he's he's going to be a star. You know, he got his first individual win at the Ossie Open this year and uh or was it the Aussie PGA CPGA he won that Zurich but
kid his nails. I think he's a He's got the type of game that's going to thrive at major champion and chips and he might be you know, everybody looks at you know the different you know, next Aussie guy, and he's gonna be one of them. I mean, they're always this pipeline of great Aussie players.
I talked to some I talked to some ass guys about him. Actually I have some just like a connection to him because he played with my dad in Cleveland at the web event. So I'm kind of like a fan, just random, random fan. But I talked to some Aussie guys and I've talked to his coach and stuff in the past, and like he they worry about him, like he's just a chiller, Like he's not he's the very opposite of reed, Like he would be fine if he
didn't have this incredible golf talent. He'd be fine, just like working at a bar a pub with his buddies back in Australia. And I heard like when he when he got that T five and Chambers, he just kind of like like, oh that was cool and went and now I've got some job security and he kind of went home and just turn out in Australia. I heard like that before the Masters, he was just kind of screwing around and with his friends in Panavidra. I'm not
saying like he's he's being irresponsible or anything. He's just kind of hanging it out, chilling, Like he's the very opposite of read. That may work better for him than being read.
But it like goes back to what somebody said, is like he either got to be like super smart, like like like Phil like where you're so analytical, or you have to be on the complete opposite end of the spectrum like DJ to be a really great golfer.
It's like being in the middle is like the worst ste you can be.
Yeah, I think, yeah, I think he just kind of strolls up to the golf course and he's got so much talent. He's like, that's the way he plays. He doesn't need to be grinding or worrying about every contour. He's got it enough talent to finish TEA five and the Masters.
So I was I was a little disappointed with Rose and Casey, you know those guys. I mean you see Casey shoots sixty nine sixty five on the on the weekend and it's.
Like, ahn, what what was it?
But I think he went in with more expectations than ever before. I mean I forgot who on on Golf Channel was picked him, you know and and live from.
Yeah, but who what's going on with Peters seventy eight MC?
He's young, you know, he's not playing.
Well all year.
Yeah, he's been a little off. I think, you like anything, I mean the crazy thing is like you think about like the Ryder Cup, and like with all these guys, these Euros, like he might not make the team this year, but I think he'll get he'll get it together.
It's he.
He's gonna be a really good player, I think still, and I think, you know, like his his skill set, but like it should shows you got it. You can have a game that's built for Augusta, but you still got to play well. It's not like you can show up and not have your best stuff and contend.
So I got a question. We were talking about Tiger and Phil. Do you think Phil's gonna win another Masters?
I don't know.
I Uh, it's not been It's not been that great since twenty twelve. He had that T two in twenty fifteen, but that I mean that was Jordan Speed was like five six shots ahead the whole time, and he kind of came back and caught rose to finish T two, And since then it's not been that great. I mean he I think he hadn't he hadn't shot below seventy until Sunday this Sunday for since that, for like two or three years, he hadn't broken seventy. I just we we we so often here like, oh, he's gonna win
in his fifties, he's gonna contend into his sixties. It's not been that great since twenty twelve.
Yeah, if you look at where he won too, he.
Wanted chip Chipoltepec, which isn't really I mean, it's not a premier golf course.
Ay.
I think when you I mean when you look down the list, like would you rather you know, like Mark Leishman.
Or Phil year in, year out at Augusta? Who would you take from now? Like going forward?
Kyi Leishman?
So like Leishman, what is he probably fifteen on your list of potential winners? Yeah, ten to fifteen.
Yeah, I mean we know he's got to proven track record of shooting low rounds there.
Would you would you pick at this point Tommy Fleetwood or Phil Mickelson.
For the for the next five years at Augusta?
Hm hmm that's a good one, probably Fleetwood.
Yeah.
So, like you start to go down the list and you're like whoa, Like you know, like he's he's fallen down and you haven't even talked about like a guy like Tony Fenow who finished teach ten and his first Masters with a dislocated ankle. I mean, like I put me now in my sleepers thing, because like his game is just it screams Augusta National.
He's world class, like obviously everybody that goes.
He's the longest player on tour, but he's like top fifteen in strokes gained approach and then he also has an incredible short game. I think he's in the top twenty on the PGA Tour around the green strokes game. So like you look at a guy like that, and all of a sudden, you know, you start adding more and more of these guys, like Justin Rose isn't going
anywhere for the next five years. Louis U stays and it's going to be there, Like you know, like Phil all of a sudden falls down my list to like maybe like the twentieth best pick at Augusta.
Yeah, that's a very good way of capturing it of just how much there now is, how much he would need to beat to get another green jacket, and and you know he's not really contended.
It's well it's not and it's not so much about Phil. Like if Phil plays at his high level, at a high level, like he's gonna have a shot, but like, what are the chances of these other twenty guys not playing at a high level? Like there's just so so many great players right now that it's hard to imagine.
All of them.
You know, Like if if Fowler, Spith, or let's just say, we'll say Speith, Rory, JT or DJ really has their A game, Phil has no chance. Yeah, right, So like that's like the thing that I think sticks out is like Phil not only has to have his A game, his A plus game, but he also needs these other guys.
Not to not to play. Well.
Yeah, I think that's right, And I think like just it's easy. It's an easy talking point that he's gonna win again and an easy kind of thing to say he's gonna contend forever. But maybe not.
You got anything else you want to hit on here?
Not?
Not really? I mean, it was a fantastic week. My favorite moment was encountering a middle aged man and a Marvin Harrison Jersey Colts jersey walking around Augusta. Wasn't a shot, wasn't Speech's pott on sixteen? Just this guy in the Marvin Harrison Colts jersey with this rain jacket tied around his waist and some like old school playing new balances, And I was just thinking, like, what's what's the thought process? What's what's the thought process? In the morning, I'm going
to the Masters. I'm gonna put on my colts Marvin Harrison Jersey.
That is what I was thinking, is like you know the head he had it planned, you know it was it just scripting. It's like, no, I'm going to the Masters, but this is what I'm wearing because I love this thing.
It makes There was no Marvin Harrison wasn't around. I don't. I was just so confused.
I was what do you think about Nike putting the kaibash on Read with the Sunday Rat.
I don't think apparel companies should be depends that depends on who you are. Obviously, they pay these guys a ton of money. This thing's gotten more pub and attention than it deserves. But I don't I think Read should be allowed to He's leading the damn Masters, and he should be allowed to wear.
What he wants.
Hey, you know Augusta made his wife take off her Cappelloua hat also and put on an Augusta hat.
Is that true? I hadn't seen that.
Yeah, she was like holding her other hat. Wow.
I hadn't heard about that. But that's not surprising and maybe not the most defensive thing about her Sunday outfit.
But the Reeds were just getting bullied on their their apparel. Maybe maybe Patrick will now wear Sunday pink.
Sunday isalea pink.
Yeah, it's the thought. You know, it worked. I don't think he's really superstitious, though, is he?
No? I don't. I mean, I think the red thing was just an homage to Tiger and he's stuck with it. Yeah, well, you know, maybe he is. He doesn't. He use like the old ryder cups a bunch of that stuff, like the yardage book and all sorts of stuff.
Yeah, he's uh, I'm uh, I'll be I'm really interested to see what happens with Reid after this. I think he's a guy that obviously is you know, no shortage of confidence, and this thing's gonna put him through the moon on it. You know, Patrick Green might just be becoming a you know, top top five player, like he proclaimed.
It's good for me, good for content. You know, He's just I think as he gets better, you know, as he gets accomplishes more and more and gets more cocky. Might might lead to some friction or some drama. So it's good for me.
All right, let's do some overrated underrated. Yeah, the eighteenth hole.
That's this is this is your wheelhouse. I think it's I think it's it's overrated.
I do.
And I'm coming off this piste off about Speed getting robbed if by that overhanging limb. I think it's. I think it's too narrow and too difficult to make h make a birdie. I think it's overrated. I I find it frustrating, but I'm I'm very My opinion is colored by watching Speed's round come undone, speeds Chase at History come undone there.
I think, uh, it's I think they just got to do a little tree trimming. It's always been a shoot.
It is the one thing but that you know, obviously they they lengthened it and move that back tea back, so like the shoot is a lot different now than it was when there was originally designed. I think, I really really, I mean everybody that reads my stuff will know this.
I really dislike bunkers on the outside of dog likes. Yeah, right right, I just I can't stand them now.
Granted, like the hole does not play at all the way it should because of you know, the distance, and you know, nobody expected these guys to be able to hit wedges into a four hundred and sixty five yard hole uphill, but that's what it's become.
I just I so overrated.
Yeah, and then the greens like way smaller than it used to be, But I mean, I think it's it's a cool I like the idea of having a hole.
The seventeenth gets a lot of flack, and I think that it should be wider because they planted all these trees, which are bad and it's negatively, but I like that you have this stretch of birdie holes like thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen are all gettible, and I don't want it to be like a driveable part four coming in like you got to it's a major championship, Like make these guys hit tough golf shots coming in and yeah, seventeen eighteen
do that. So I think they just need to do a little bit of tree work to just give it. It's still claustrophobic back there.
Yeah, I kind of love watching the seventeenth green and then bounce it over the eighteenth t. I mean, I know, yeah, seventeen catches some crap for being I don't know, just having not a ton of character. But the green is really fun. It's fun to watch prouch shots in there and watch them pun on that green.
Yeah.
I mean, like last year is a perfect example. Justin Rose hit a bad shot and he found that front bunker and he didn't make it.
You know that that was it. You know, if it if it's a you know, gettible hole like that doesn't happen. And he had to hit a.
Good two good shots. You got to hit two good shots on seventeen. I mean read almost the same thing almost happened. Like he had a really bad approach shot and I mean he got a good break by hitting the hole on that like one hundred foot putt, but we almost saw another bogie there.
Could I just say, you were talking about trees here for a minute. On Wednesday, I had my camera It's like, I don't know, ten years old, crappy camera and about every I don't know, twenty yards, Like give me that camera and you would start taking pictures of nothing but a tree because you were pissed off because they were they looked too young, and they were obviously too new. They just planted them. How long do you think that's
been here? You just taking pictures. I think people were walking by looking at you like you should be in a straight jacket hauled off, Like you're zooming in on just one specific under a tree, taking pictures of these trees.
Then you know, one day I might looking at you like you were insane.
Well, they got dead trees out there, they do. They've got like dead maple trees and groves of pine trees.
It's like, what just cut it? Cut it down?
You know, like I don't know taking zooming in on a tree. Everyone else is trying to get these like vistas and usual spots down an amen corner. You're just like running into these woods and taking close ups of a single solitary tree.
It's like you said on Wednesday, everybody's taking pictures of one thing.
I'm going to take pictures of completely different things. Everybody's zach.
I just love the looks you're getting as people are like, what's that guy doing he's taking a picture.
Of Yeah, I mean people people probably thought I was I was crazy. It's overrated, underrated, Augusta Merch.
Again, I'm coming out of this car. You know how you're not to wear the T shirt the consert, the T shirt to the concert, right, You're not supposed to wear like the Rolling Stones tour, you know, T shirt to the Rolling.
Stones, especially that tour.
Yes, oh well, that's yeah, particularly egregious. Why doesn't that apply to golf? Like the last thing I'm gonna wear, I have some Masters thing. Last thing I'm gonna wear at the Masters is the Masters stuff. And I don't know, I think it should apply more to golf. It's it's like going to, you know, a Colts game or an Eagles game and everyone's in their jersey. I don't know. It's just a little bizarre to me. I just it was too ubiquitous, and so I'm kind of out on
Master's March. Again. I'm very biased, having come from a week at Augusta National. It's just it's too much. It's it's too ubiquitous. It's too I don't know, it's two blows a day at this point. And that's kind of crazy for me to say, because you can't get it anywhere but the merch shop. But I'm kind of I'm kind of out on Masters here right now.
You know what gets me is like the jersey thing. It is like people like people that put on their jersey to watch a game at home.
It's like what what, Like, Oh, the Blackhawks are playing, let me go get my black Hawks jersey out and sit on my couch. Like that's something that's never clicked in my head, like you know, or the Bears are playing, I'm going to go put my Beers jersey on and watch it on my couch.
Like I don't get it.
I don't get it at all, Like it's something that really actually bugs me, Like nobody's around, but I'm putting on this jersey.
That's a valid point. I think people probably spend money on jerseys. It's not a thing you can wear often, and so they put it on to sit on their couch.
Well, you could wear it, you can wear you can wear it to the to the Masters, you can wear your market.
Maybe that's what the guy was doing. He didn't want to wear a Masters gear, so he put on his colt's jersey.
He's sticking out. I mean, I applauded him. This was just so bizarre.
What about fred Ridley? Overrated?
Underrated I think he's underrated.
Now.
I thought, you know, so much of what I kind of my framing of him was about twenty thirteen, and the portrayals weren't particularly kind, particularly Alan Hipknucks breakdown of what happened with Tiger's drop, and it kind of portrayed him as kind of a bumbling rules guy. So I think, you know, the framing of him wasn't the best coming into this, coming into his chairmanship. But I think he's
super underrated. And it's not just the amateur thing that the women's amateur stuff, which makes a ton of sense and everyone seems to be on board with. I just I thought he was hit all the right tones. He seemed kind of engaged on the right things. He seemed so. I was watching close circuit TV of the Green Jacket ceremony up on the putting Green and Reid kept calling people fans like all y'all, and Ridley was right in
the shot sitting down behind him. He just looked so pain He did not look like he wanted to be there anymore. He did not look super happy with Reid's speech. He was looking up at him just like with this like painful grimace on it. On his face, and so I thought I found him amusing. That part amusing, But I think he's underrated. I thought he hit all the right tones and he seems like could be a good person to be the next chairman.
Yeah, I'm I'm very optimistic with the fred Ridley era a. You know, the hair is just spectacular, right, But beyond that, he asked the best question I've heard post round in a in Butler cabin. He asked read about his bouncebacks. And I mean, this guy is the last guy to win the US Amateur that didn't turn pro.
It's I mean, it's exciting to.
Have a guy that really really gets golf as the chairman, you know, like it's not like just some schmuck member, like and not saying any AUGUSTA members are schmucks, but like we aren't.
Talking about like your fifteen handicap. That's like, oh, you know, this is what I think we should do. That's calling the shots.
So you know, you got a guy that was a Walker Cup captain, a US am winner, Like, you got a guy that really really knows golf. And I'm excited. I think I think he's going to do some good stuff. And you know, it would be apropos though, for him to just disappoint on every level. So that's why I'm cautiously optimistic.
That was the one thing I took away. It's like, it's such a change of having a guy with such a golf background and as an excellent player now in control of so many important things that are just the game.
Yeah, all right, last one, walk up music. Gosh, if anybody doesn't know, zer A Classic announced that it would have walk up music this year to the first tea.
I think it's incredibly overrated. It's just a dumb window dressing. Like I don't it's it doesn't bother me, like I'm not going to be angry that it's happening, but it's incredibly overrated. It it resonates more in the content now than when you actually get there, and it's like it just falls flat every time. No one cares about it. They maybe care about it for the first guy for five seconds it plays, and then you forget it's even happening.
There's no content, there's nothing funny, there's nothing interesting, there's nothing worthwhile that comes out of it. It's not offensive. I'm fire like, I don't think like the game is being going to be ruined by it. But it's just incredibly overrated. It's like it's just window dressing of like, oh we're gonna be young and hip and different and cool, and it's it's it. It has no impact on anything, and we should stop talking about it.
Yeah, I would agree with most of your points. I think it would.
It does add a great wrinkle to the fan experience for those that get to sit on the first tea because like it would be way more interesting sitting there, you know, I mean, what what is what is Grayson Murray's walk up music?
Gonna be.
Uh proud to be an American? Lee Greenwood, I would guess. I mean that course, that course is not interesting at all.
I think it gets a bad rap just because it's it always rains in New Orleans, like it's always soft. It's like it's just I mean, it's like the tour going to Memphis and in this in August, you know, with a WGC, like you're just setting them up for failure, Like it is gonna be a miserable event. No media wants to go to Memphis in the summer, like like it like nobody wants to go there in the summer.
It's gonna be hot, it's gonna rain, It's gonna rain a lot, like it's gonna be thunderstorms all the time.
Like you're just setting it up for failure. And I know FedEx is the guy, the people that really like write the checks for the tour, so I get why it's there, But like, you can't tell me that the event in Memphis is gonna do more for FedEx's sponsorship than if they rotated around to like fifteen great golf courses in the country, Like that would do so much more for FedEx because it would have so much more fan interest and greater interest across the world than playing
an event at a garbage golf course in Memphis in August.
People in Northeast Ohio not happy. Oh I've heard about a few last few weeks. They're not happy. Yea, But I hope people have their fire stone takes and I don't disagree with them. But nic back community event.
All right, man, Well we will talk to you soon. And uh another masters in the books. I was a little depressed on Sunday night, realizing that everything's downhill from here.
We're gonna we'll get out to Shinnecock, right, I mean we might might take a tour around there in June and got the players coming up.
So Shenny Jenny should be fun. That'll be a lot of fun.
We've got a good major year coming up. We're just strapping in. It'll be fun.
It's a three major year.
Well, yeah, that's true. That's true. So I can't wait. I can't wait for the knives to come out on Bellery. I'll tell you that though. That'll be fun.
I don't know.
That's another thing. That's a that's another example, like Saint Louis in August is the worst place in the world.
Alright, I'll talk to you soon, all right, so Andy, thanks for having me. Yeah later. You've been listening to the fried Egg podcast. We do the digging for you.