I miss a 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 Friday, Frida fridagg Bride Egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the course.
Welcome back to the Friday Golf Podcast. I'm your host Andy Johnson. Today I am joined by the great Shane Bacon, obviously longtime friend of the pod, many many times on the pod, many times guests. Shane soon great work with broadcasting the Corn Ferry Tour as well as a show on CBS Sports Network with Patrick MacDonald and Johnson Wagner.
Uh.
It has been a while since I caught up and talked golf with Shane.
Uh. It was It was delightful. It's always nice to have a real pro on like Shane. He knows how to how to talk, how to how to move conversations better than me, so it was fun to catch up. I we both were on vacation last week. I so much stuff has happened in the golf world. Obviously Anthony Kim winning and and then all the all I mean spent just a banging start to the PGA Tour season.
So we had hadn't kind of talked about this on this pod, and I figured it would be a great week to catch up with Shane and kind of talk about the start of the year. So I hope you guys enjoy Before we get to the pod, Uh, let's talk about our friends at Cobaal. This is a company that I, you know, Frankly, had never heard of before they approached us, and they make an awesome range I have to say I've had a lot of rangefinders in my life. This is the first one that I've had
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it is as a color blind fellow. But this thing with the zoom allows me. It makes it so much easier to find the flag and get the flag right. I've had a couple of moments in my competitive career years ago where I've I've used rangefinder and hit the wrong spot and airmail the green and that's not fun.
That's not fun.
A friend of mine DJ Pyehowski, I played with him at an event. He had a whole one next hole downhill, there's some trees behind it. He's still playing the ball he was playing. I shot it, thought I hit the flag, hit the trees behind. You know what happened, airmail the green, lost the hole one ball. That was a real bumber for DJ. I felt really bad about my mistake. But you know what wouldn't have happened. Wouldn't happened if I had a Cobalt because that optical zoom would have made
sure that I locked in on the target. So this is this is a it has a lifetime warranty, It is sold only direct to consumer, and this is this is an awesome, awesome product. I've I've been incredibly impressed with my rangefinder as I've gotten use it a couple times now on the year. If you use the code fried egg Pod fifteen. That's all one word. Fried egg Pod fifteen. You get fifteen percent off at Cobalt dash Golf. That's just like a dash, it's not like a slash.
Cobalt dashgolf dot com. So that's Cobalt dashgolf dot com. Fried Egg Pod fifteen, you get fifteen percent off. This is an awesome rangefinder. I think it will elevate your ability to get really cleanyardages. Check them out there, super premium product. All right, let's get to Shane. All right, I'm joined by Shane Bacon. I'm excited to talk with Shane. We did our big deep dive on Anthony Kim, but I most importantly I want to check.
In see how Shane's doing. You were you're a midst of blizzard.
You're you're recording this, you know, during a during a you know, horrific snowstorm in the Northeast.
How are you hanging in there?
Yeah, dude, we were. The fan was in the Bahamas last week and you fly home from seventy five on the beach every day to to kind of the dude, it's not just the snowstorm and PJ. I'd love to have you chime in as well. But it's not just the snowstorm. It's the anticipation of the snowstorm that I've learned is just as scary when you live in a cold area. Andy. I know, obviously you dealt with this a lot in Chicago, not so much where you live right now. But it's not just the weather. It's the
four days leading up to it. It's the canceled school emails you get a day or two before. I mean, everything that exists in my town is canceled today. So this is actually a nice break because I was shoveling about forty five minutes ago.
Are you are you?
PJ can't talk on this, unfortunately, he's in the producer share, which doesn't allow him to join in like other podcasts we have.
But the I would agree.
I the thing I dislike the most is that the you can't like the rush to the grocery store like it's an apocalypse. Yep, And I get you don't want to go around, I understand, but the rush to the store starts four days ahead of time, and anybody that does grocery shopping if you shop four days ahead of time so you can get everything you want by the time the snow comes, you're running out of stuff again.
All gone, especially with kids. Like fruit.
Yeah, like berries don't last, no, you know, very long.
Yeah, no, one hundred. It was funny. It's like Hunger Games with the grocery stores. It feels like COVID with the paper towels. And I was just at a resort with the family and they would run out of beach towels around two pm. So I just went from like this hunger game beach towel situation where everybody would like take five to their rooms and just leave them there so they had some for later in the day to
now I'm dealing that with groceries. But I think we went twice in the last day kind of preparing for this. But alas I know people love talking about cold weather. I will say I think there was a jealousy back in the day, like early into living in the Northeast of watching golf and beautiful areas, and now I just love getting to see at least people happy and nice weather like Riviera and Pebble Beach in places like that, even if it's windy and a little bit cold.
I think that is you know, I think you know this could be wen we can move to talking about golf a little bit here. But I think this is one of the things I saw a release last week. I was on vacation also also in the Caribbean. I hadn't been in the Caribbean since my honeymoon. Incredible place for kids. Don't I don't think I'm I'm breaking any
news here. It was like the most rewarding trip I've taken in a long time, in the sense of just seeing the joy of my daughter's face every day of like this the best you.
Know, you know what we could have been banana boat boys. We should have chatted early about h where we're gonna be and maybe we could have jumped out of banana boat and gone like, you know, island to island or something mid trip.
I do think you were in the Bahamas. I was in Puerto Rico.
They're sneakily far away, I think, like I think one of the misconceptions about Puerto Rico, and I think this is because it's you know, it's part of the United States. You think it's like right where, right where Cuba or the Bahamas is, but then you look at a map and you're like, holy cow, it is like, it's like basically South America.
That being said, yeah, we could have.
We could have we could have linked up, we could have figured out, we could have jointly discussed this and both settled on the same place. I was visiting family in Puerto Rico, so I wasn't going anywhere but Puerto Rico.
Andy, let me let me ask you a family vacation question. As a person in the golf world, do you ever play golf on family trips.
I did not even consider bringing my clubs to Puerto Rico. Yeah, I was with it was a shorter vacation because of a couple reasons, and there was no way. I you know, like, I think this is like different though I think it'd be completely different if I wasn't in the golf industry. I think if I wasn't in the golf industry, you
sneak in a round or two. But because I'm in the golf industry and I regularly visit warm places in winter by myself, where I play a lot of golf the thought of and I'm away from my family a decent chunk of time every year, a family vacation is an ultimate no fly golf zone for me, what about you.
Oh, I mean totally the same. I mean not even an ink clean of a thought. I actually emailed I know, the head pro at Albany and I was an a I saw, so I emailed him a couple of weeks ago just to see if he was around, And it was more a thought of midweek on the trip, if I want to get away from the family, we were thinking about doing kids club one day, could I sneak over.
I don't really like playing golf alone, you know. I mean, I'll go play with somebody, but sneaking nine or eighteen holes in right now in my life is not something I'm that interested in. I'm also kind of losing the interest in like ticking the clubs off that was a big part of my life maybe five ten years ago. Is like, I gotta play golf where I go somewhere. I feel like my interest there's kind of waned a bit.
I just want to play with, you know, my friends, or at my club or kind of a relaxing, exciting day or a good competition. So no, not a not a thought outside of an email where it was like I could use rentals, it's thirty minutes away. I'm not gonna do that.
I yeah, I think the best the best golf for me at this point in my life is when you get to do both where you see somewhere really cool with friend.
Yeah, you know, and obviously I think that for everyone is the peak golf.
Yesterday I played a you know, great new course in Florida with a college buddy, and you know, the weather.
Was complete shit. We got poured on like a couple of times. But I'll hold it. It was super windy.
I'll hold it probably as one of my favorite rounds of the year, despite you know, getting like it was like it felt like I jumped in the ocean. I was illy prepared, didn't have a ranker. It was like I jumped in the ocean, fully clothed on the golf course.
No matter how good the gear is, right at the zero station, I didn't have anything to knock me off the planet.
I was completely unprepared, didn't have any was it a short stay T shirt. It just got caught in two months soons on the golf course. As soon as I was drying from the first month, soon a second month soon hit me.
But anyways, the uh what I was.
Just gonna say, your comment about the enjoying watching golf in nice places during winter. The PGA tour, it seems like is circling. I saw some headline and I was on vacation, so I did not like click into it, but I was just scrolling social media during a downturn, downtime. I saw the idea of like we want to own summer, and I do think there is a certain appeal. And when I think about, particularly to me outside the golf world, my life before I was in golf, before I did
this for a living. One of the things that the times I watched the most golf was actually during winter when I had nothing to do and you know, there's a blizzard and I can't go anywhere, and oh I can watch beautiful riv Era or I can watch you know, Kapellou is obviously one that always stands out in my mind, and I do think that is like something they need to consider before they do something, do you know, is like do we want to give up because in the summer, your audience is golfers.
They play golf right, especially on the weekend.
I mean that's the key, Like their golf is played on Saturday and Sunday, afternoons, you know. I mean it's it's a big part of their lives, like right now, all my friends, and this has been a brutal winner in the Northeast. It's been the toughest one since I've lived up here. But this is the most golf I watch by far each each year. It's always been my favorite time of the year to watch golf when it's West Coast golf and you're living on the East Coast.
And uh yeah, I mean it's I think it's the reason they're you know, I mean, there's a lot of reasons football is successful, but the most impactful, important parts of the NFL and college football season happen as the weather starts to deteriorate, right yeah.
And I think like the other thing about this, And we just talked about this as is tangential. I did not expect to be talking about this, especially at the top of the podcast. But the other aspect of this that I think, like a lot of people and this is a generational thing. I worked at a country club as a kid growing up. I saw the interaction. The role you know, I predominant golf fan is is male. It's middle aged males, and I will just say this
as someone who witnessed this. I think the role of the father in the family has changed seismically in the last twenty five years. And I think it's a generational thing, are I you know, I'm speaking of our generation, which are like peak parents right now, but also like right in the demo of golf fans, like this is we are the peak golf fan. Also like the you know, thirties, forties,
you know, male is just the primetime golf fan. I will say that we spend more time on the weekends with our children, significantly more time on the weekends with our children than the two generations before us. And I think that's also one of the tricky things about what
they're doing. Also, the predominant golf fans are you know, you probably go southeast, Northeast and Midwest, and in the Midwest, in the northeast, the and obviously you have west coast too, But like in the Midwest and northeast, two huge swasps of populations of golf fans. One of the big things is the weekends in the summer are jammed with outdoor activities, and if you're living in this environment where parents are
spending more times with their kids than ever on weekends. Also, that's when these this subset of fans can play golf. It is an interesting conundrum of you know, what is this the best decision, because like, I don't know, there's like if I'm gonna do it, if I was going to do it, if I was thinking about it from the sense of Brian Rollap or Tiger Woods, who's chairing this competition's committee. The way I would think I'd solve that is like can we just play all summer long
on the West Coast in primetime? Because that's the solution. And I don't think they have.
Enough venues.
Or tournament sponsors that would be able to do that. But you know, you know, you think about the doldrums of the of the PGA tour schedule. It is like July and July in the Midwest, and it's like I don't want to be watching golf, but I have to because I do it for a living. I want to be outside with my kid doing stuff, and instead I'm watching golf. And it's that stretch of like Rocket Mortgage three, I'm John Deere where You're just like this just does not fit the modern.
Parent schedule.
At all.
This is a wrench in the whole thing.
Yeah, I mean it's kind of that feeling. I don't know if you're battling this right now. I feel like I'm battling it kind of in my current position is like where does my time go? Right? So I'm forty two, I've got two young kids, I've got a job, I travel, I've got a family. I also like to do stuff right. I like to occasionally play golf with my friends or
go do whatever I do right. And then I've got these obligations as a parent, and I've noticed that you inevitably start to cut stuff out of your life, and I've lost Like Andy, you and I have been NBA fans for a long long time, and I've found myself watching way less NBA that I've ever watched in my
life over the last couple of years. And that's kind of I felt like being the cutout because that's on at night, that's when I'm putting the kids down, or that's when I'm spending time with my wife watching something. And I think people are inevitably going to start to cut stuff out as they get in the positions you and I are talking about. The interesting thing you said
about the West Coast deal about the summer. I think I've told you this story before, but you know, when Fox had the USGA contract, I was a part of the coverage at Pebble in twenty nineteen, and I remember it went really well. It was our best US Open by far. I mean, we'd had Shinnecock right before it, and I thought Shinacock went well. But Pebble, I feel like when was really really when we were running. You know, we kind of had the two teams and Gil Hans was a part of it, and like the whole team
just felt like we were like great synergy. Everybody was rocking and rolling. And also we had Pebble Beach right which is one of the most beautiful places to present golf in the world. And I remember there was a really high executive. There was a I think we had like the beach club. On Saturday night, they had a party for some people and they asked some of the broadcasters to come by, and I went by and this executive was not a golfer. He had not been a
golfer and knew very little about golf. He knew a lot about TV and business, and he asked me. He said, let me ask you a question. Why don't they have the US Open here every year?
You know?
And of course I kind of explain, you know, the US so Open travels around and it goes to these different venues. But his point, I think, was why wouldn't you have it at the most beautiful golf course in the world that presents this well, that's also on in primetime on the East Coast, And I think to your point, it makes a lot of sense. I guess if your roll aup in the team, the questions are what are we selling? Are we selling eyeballs? Are we selling TV contracts? Are we selling the product?
Right? Like?
What are we trying to sell to the masses? And also business venture people in the background, investors all that stuff, like what's the point of what are we trying to get to here? And if it's to get ten million people to watch golf, then maybe we do this thing. If it's just simply to make the product better, maybe we do this thing. And I do wonder. I feel like golf's kind of been kind of caught in between those two ideas over the last decade or so.
It's it's extremely as you kind of just hit on. It's an extremely difficult dilemma because you know, and I want to be clear, you know, there's like I'm kind of both sides of this. I've for years been like this is insane that we don't have a regular event in Chicago, New York, right, Boston, Washington, d C. Philadelphia, like these peak golf cities that are also major metro markets, major television markets, major you know, huge, huge markets don't
have regular events. So if you want those regular events, they also come with this this dilemma of like what time are we playing golf? And and it's a live sporting event, and it's so oh like well, like I'm not doing something on the weekend outside instead I'm sitting in and air conditioning watching pro golf like that it kind of like cuts against what you want to do at that time of year.
Yet and then and then it's like it's like when you when you're when you're consuming TV in the summer, it's just tough for me. I mean, I have like the TV outside in the backyard. But to your point earlier, there's all these other things you not only feel obligated to do, whether it's play with your kids, or you know, go get away from the house, spend time outside. If
you live in a cold weather area. You know, if you live in Wisconsin, the last thing you want to do on a seventy five degree summer day is to sit inside. Right, You're sitting inside six months out of the year because you have to.
Yeah, yeah, it's I mean, I feel it.
And obviously this is my job, and generally my response to I gotta work is what I say. But you know, it's it's Sunday and it's eighty two degrees and my daughter wants to go to the park and I have to be like, I actually have to sit here and watch golf, and then I have to record a podcast, which like, hey, I'm blessed, I've I live.
A great life.
I've deeply fulfilled, energized and excited to do my job. But it just like I think it just I find the poll and this is I'm saying this as someone who has has to watch this for their livelihood, and like I just put myself in the yeah, and I put myself in the fan perspective of somebody that does not have the I have to watch this for my job, and I think I would be oh, I'm going to the park every single time.
If I'm if I didn't have the this is my job.
And I think that's the tricky thing, and it's you know, it goes to you know, the one of the other aspects of this is I during the week when I have a lot of work calls, when I on Saturday, you know, when I you know, Saturday is my family day. The way I watch golf is I put my kid goes to bed, and I zip through it. If I'm not doing something with my wife, I zip through it
on DVR. So is that the golf that you want, you know, is that the precedent I only foresee with advances in technology doing that viewing type of viewing is going to get more popular, and that's really bad for the business model with ads, you know, the television business model, right is if you see a decline, you know, like I could see like truncated rounds becoming more and more popular. But I think the tricky thing and this is something that the NBA, you know, has had to deal with.
And you know, the NBA has a lot of issues right now. But like people talk about the talk about the sport a lot, but the viewerships in decline, and it's because like carving out the time to sit through and watch it is like versus like I can watch the highlights. It's not a good trend for the state, the traditional model of business. And I just, you know, it's just something with our talk that that got brought up that yeah.
It's and I'll and I'll say this, Andy, I mean, I know we're gonna talk about Anthony kimmin a bit. I think Live does a good job of the YouTube highlight packages they put together. I mean, they're they're a little longer than maybe I want them to be, but there are a lot of golf shots and inside those highlight packages. I do think they could probably you know, cut some of those individual player ones if they don't
do that already. I haven't really seen those floating around, but I do think Live does a really nice job of that. And for somebody that's not going to sit around and watch Live when something substantial happens on the tour, kind of to your point about it being our job, I can go watch the twelve minute highlight package on YouTube and it kind of fills me on on everything I need to know.
You know, one of My favorite, uh favorite things in all of sports is Major League Baseball's app and they do this like truncated game. It's like basically like a ten minute version of the game, and I feel like I know what happened because like I get to see, hey, there's two runners on with one out in the fifth inning, and this.
Is how he got out of that jam.
Yeah, and that's what you miss in the sports center, you know, thirty second highlight package for sure, but you get and it's like, Okay, I feel this and I think I'm not positive with this, but I think that's only available if you're a subscriber, and maybe that's the future of the business model is like hey, we're going to actually go like this is one hundred dollars a year and you get this package and that's how you
make up for the declient. But like all, you know, all things, like I expect to get on here and talk about this, you know, the golf this year has been extraordinary. I was like kind of prepping for this podcast. I wanted to catch up on like the start of the year with you obviously talk about AK and Patrick Reid.
But when I like started to plot out, like my stories of the of the West Coast Swing, which includes uh Hawaii through riv and you know, you have a K and P read which I think are stories one and two.
But then you go down to like the list of stories, like number eight for me is.
Justin Rose who dusted a good field at at Tory And in many years that might be story one, like the ageless Justin Rose can he get a major done? And this year the golf has been so freaking good. It feels like the ratings have been exceptional, and I think just the general interest in golf has never been higher. It's just a really interesting point in golf and where
it goes from here. But you know, golf, you know, I think in our lifetime me and you, I don't think it's ever been so popular in pop culture and general population of the world.
Yeah, I mean, it's it's very interesting. I would say I'd go back to all the way to last year. I mean, I think golf really popped last year. I just felt like last season was incredible. You had these great stories kind of bookended really when you think about it, with Rory at Pebble, then Augusta and then you get the Tommy Fleetwood story to kind of wrap up the PGA Tour season. It felt big. I mean, obviously Scotty gets two majors, it was just kind of like a
cool season. I know you and I love kind of the check marks in terms of history golf, right. I know that's something you and I have focused on a lot in our careers, is what does this mean historically? And I know you and I both root for kind of the historical moments in golf to happen. I mean, no nock to the no name winners, but I like to see guys kind of push their career forward, right, And it felt like last year was a big year
for that, and then on to this year. It also feels like andy kind of the return of the old golfer, you know, I mean, we love the idea of the young stud popping up and golf's getting younger and all these eighteen year olds are going to win majors and all that stuff, and it's just not really happened.
Right.
We saw Jordan Speith get it kind of going early in his career. That's kind of been it. I mean, Scotty took a few years to get going and now he's been incredible. But it feels like golf's kind of gone back to what we used to see where guys got more comfortable and it seemed like got better in terms of understanding their own games. Right now. I mean you mentioned Aka, right, he's forty. You got Justin Rose, what's he forty five? Adam Scott just plays great at
riv Like these guys are are thirty forty six. Patrick Reid is inching towards forty. It's like these guys are not young anymore, yet they seem to be playing their best golf because they're probably understanding their game better and understanding the practice and the time to put in on what they need to put it in. Not to mention Rory, right, I mean Rory's gotten better. I think over the last
five years. He's probably played his best golf of his career over the last five years in terms of the consistency.
Yeah, I think we're.
I think there's part of like there was a huge technological advance in the game between the clubs, the balls and track man and then fitness training what went into it. And I think that that if you you could call it disruption in a way has normalized and we're starting to see the return of the It might be slightly younger, but you know, we want we talk about young guys.
It used to be Matt Wolfe and Victor Hovelin and Colin Morkwe justin Thomas Jordan Speeth at ages of twenty one, twenty two, twenty three, twenty four, coming in and having these herculean seasons and efforts. And now you see, you know, the emergence of Chris godd her Up, Jacob Bridgeman. These are twenty six year olds, twenty seven year olds where they're really starting to break through and become household names on tour. Scotty is at the peak of his powers,
but it didn't happen in his early twenties. It happened in his late twenties. And that feels a lot more normal and a lot more like the.
Golf that me and you grew up watching.
Kind of going down the path, Andy, I mean, that's something I've really thought about in terms of pro golf. Obviously, I cover the corn Faery to and I love covering the Corn Faery Tour because I just find it interesting and exciting in terms of kind of watching those guys, the pock Eaters and the Bridgeman's play through a season on the corn Ferry Tour and then kind of get to the PGA Tour and you really start to understand
the way they go about their business. It feels to me a little bit like in the old Fox days when I got to cover all the amateur golf and the junior golf and you saw the Aux Shays and the thorpe Jornsen's and the Wolves and stuff kind of play their way through junior ams and usams and then you got to see them kind of pop as professional golfers. But it feels like we've kind of gone back to
the model of having to go through the process. I know, I heard you mentioned on the Shotgun start that feeling with Bridgman of you know, this is a guy that had to go through it, right, I mean went through PJ Tour you, which, by the way, I know you gave a shout out to it. I think a lot of the success of kind of that process goes back to the PGA Tour Lean and into PJ Tour you. I think it's the smartest program we've seen probably in
golf in the last decade or so. It just feels like players stay in college longer because they understand the importance of it, and they know that they can go through if they don't get the PGA Tour card. They know they can go through a corn Faery Tour season and potentially earn a card if not get to the corn Fery Tour for a full season that next year.
But I mean, Bridgeman's a guy that went through the process. Scott, He's a guy that went through the process, right, I mean Chris godder Up a guy that went through the process. It feels like guys are now doing that versus let's turn pro at eighteen or nineteen and roll the dice.
It's worked out for some of those guys, but I mean there are plenty of guys that it hasn't worked out for, and all of a sudden they are back to the corn Ferry Tour now at twenty five or twenty six, when the guys that went through the process are advancing to the PGA Tour and are way more polished.
Yeah, I think the thing that was crazy about the old setup, it's like, you know, you just threw these guys out there and you could do the outdoors moments in golf, right and Jordan Speth doesn't hit a bunker shot that goes in at Deer Deer.
Yeah, he had nowhere to play.
Like just done and is like the whole his entire career is different, but like now having some structure of like, okay, this is and one of the dirty secrets. Uh. And you probably you can't say this on air, obviously you cover the corn Ferry Tour, like you know, there are there are things when you you you work for this, but like college golf plays better golf courses that are more representative of PGA Tour golf than the corn Ferry Tour does. And this is just one of the difficult
things about pro golf. It's it's hard to get really good golf courses to commit to basically giving up their course for two weeks. That's the commitment, right of a pro golf tournament, not to mention the decision.
And I'd say we see it on the PGA Tour as well, Right. I mean, you think about the the love for Riviera and Pebble Beach and then you go to some of these golf courses that I don't necessarily think that they propel you to a bigger victory, right, they're just there because they can host the tournament.
Yeah, and so, but these college events they play, you look at like some of these top programs they schedule crazy man god like, and I wish I could just be a college golfer in this era where it's like I wonder if I have eligibility. I don't know if I have the game necessarily, I think I could probably like hack it on a on a on a on a roster maybe.
But you know, you think about like their life. They fly private and play just great golf all the time, and it's like.
I mean it's it's it's the midim circuit too, andy. I mean, this is why these guys like lean heavily into the mid am world. It's like the golf courses are sick.
Why wouldn't you do it?
Amateur golf, college golf. I mean they play top tier, top one hundred style golf courses throughout the season.
And so you think about it and it's like it makes sense that these guys and you know, the big change and I think it maybe is five six years running now. The big change with this is that the PGA Tour, you is this ranking For those that don't know of college golfers, and if you finish in the top five, you know, if you're number one, you get a PGA Tour card.
If you're in the top five, so two through five.
You get a guaranteed status on the corn Ferry Tour, which didn't used to be the case. You you used to just be thrown out in the system and just go to Q School and try and get one of the spots, which like Q School's fickle. You have a bad week, which happens on the on tour, you know, it just happens, like that's the nature of golf. You have one bad week, maybe you could get food poisoning, and all of a sudden, then you don't have anywhere to play golf.
And I think that's you're playing Mini tour golf in Monday qualifiers the whole next year. I mean, you know, when you're not just talking, I mean, ay, you talk about Q School. It's like I've talked to, you know, some forty year old corn Fairy Tour players about Q School. I mean, Q School's expensive, but it's not just the final stage. I mean, these guys that have played pro golf for decades talk about second stage.
A Q school.
You know, they say it's the most stressful event they play in because if you can, if you can get the final stage, at least you have some level of corn Fairy Tour status the next year. But there are guys on the corn Ferry Tour that will skip second stage because it's a expensive and be as you mentioned, fickle,
I think is the perfect word. If they don't play great or you know, like you said, they have a mistake, the alarm clock doesn't go off all of a sudden, you've got kind of nowhere to really play the next season, and you're having a lean on you know, invites or or kind of past win status to get an opportunity to just simply play golf at a place that could potentially propel you to the future of what your year is going to look like that next year.
I mean you think about this from like a layman, like the real world example. Imagine if your career boiled down to like four days a random week, and like all the things that can go wrong, Your kid could be sick, your wife and kid gets sick, and all of a sudden you have to take on all these like household things and it's like, well, I can't do this like my kid, I have to do child like I you know, like you think about all the things that could go wrong in.
PJ has like a bad week in a year in review, you know, episode, and it's like, man, sorry, bro, like you're out. It was December. I know you were. You're a little tired. You know, you're out there watching your team, and all of a sudden, you have a job next year, and in.
This profession, you you just tumble down to the ranks of nothingness. Like I think you could make the case that that PG tour you should be expanded in the sense of, like right now six through ten, I believe get is six maybe six through fifteen, six through ten, get conditional, and then eleven through fifteen get America's Tour status.
You know. Bridgeman's like a really interesting example got her up to in the sense of, like these are guys that were flat out studs, I mean, First Team All Americans, Best Player Conference Players of the Year. I think both of them both didn't get number one status. I think Bridgeman was second. I can't remember what got her up it was he was probably two or three. They go down the corn Ferry Tour they're only there for a year,
you know, just one year right up. But then you get to the tour and it takes like takes a while to work your way up the tour, get comfortable. You're playing golf courses the first time around. You know, Bridgman obviously wins at riv first time around. I don't think that happens if it's firm. Not to take anything away from Jacob Bridgman, but I think if it's firm and fast, I don't I think there's so much nuance there that you probably see one of the veterans around
him win. But that being said, you know, this guy is a tour veteran at this point, he's year three, got her up. We're seeing this breakout, this ascension. He's ranked sixth in the world. Bridgeman's ranked twentieth in the world. You know, you see this ascension happen four years after they pro And I think that's the thing about about pro golf. There's a big transition point of understanding how to be a pro.
You know, yeah, I mean it's very like a line. James Nitties loves to stay on the Corn Faery Tour broadcast, especially with these young players kind of like the right out of college guys. Is this is not a corn Fairy Tour golfer, you know. And I think the point is not to take away from the corn Faery Tour, but his point is this level of talent is meant to be playing on the PGA Tour. And I think
Bridgman was a perfect example. I think he had fourteen top twenty fives and twenty five starts in his lone corn Faery Tour season. You know, I mean it's consistency that I love to look at, right, I mean it's Rory finishing second at riv without his best stuff. You know, these are the things that I think separates you. Winning is tough, and winning it takes skill, it takes luck, it takes chance. But the consistency does it right. That's
just simply ken you ball or can you not? And you see these guys on the corn Ferry Tour especially that are just so consistent, and you know that that means their games are complete because, as you mentioned, with Corn Ferry Tour golf courses, some of them are sixty eight hundred yards right, some of them are hit driver all over the place and get it up close to the green like Utah, it comes to mind. You know, it's a very different golf course they're not going to
see on the PGA Tour. But then you go to Columbus, right, and you play a very difficult golf course. You know that you've got a ball out. You've got to be able to put the ball in the right spots and the fairways and the greens, and they're tricky and they're tough.
I think about the start of the season in the Bahamas, and when I see guys play well at all of those venues, you really understand that this guy can play on the West Coast on the PGA Tour, he can go to Florida and play, he can play the courses in the middle of the summer, and he can probably
play late in the season in muggy conditions. And I think it's a good indication of what you're going to see because when you're consistent on the corn Ferry Tour, it's not easy to do that, and when you're consistent out there, to me, that's typically that's typically what translates to the PGA Tour.
Well.
I think the thing about golf in general is we're all just trying to be more consistent. Yeah, you know, everybody talks about oh, low rounds, and you know you kind of celebrate a low round. But you know, me as a golfer, I just what I what I despise is the high rounds. You know. All I'm seeking is to be more like a metronome, where I know what I'm bringing to the golf course every day. And I think I was thinking about this the other day, and I wonder if you could compile a stat of like
something along the lines. And it's hard because like all these events have different field sizes now and different strength of but I'd be curious to look at just like average finish data or median finished data, or like your middle ten finishes and wonder how like that what the rankings would be.
And it might be something. But this was something I was pondering on vacation. I find it. I love you both off of vacation.
One thing I love about vacation is I don't have to talk about golf, and I just find myself just thinking about random things, yeah about golf, And I was thinking about, like, what would what would the rankings look like if you if you had like middle ten finishes of a per year like that, that ranking of like what was your middle ten And obviously one of the things that golf has is like winning's hard, but there is this outside of the importance of winning, like winning
gives you like crazy flowers. Yeah, Like I think it's super impressive when somebody just racks top twenties, like racks because like playing a playing a competitive it's just hard to put together, you know, a string of like really good finishes.
On the PGA Tour, Yeah, I was.
I was doing CB like the we do like these h Q hits before the coverage gets going. And on Saturday at Riviera, I was doing one of those where you kind of talk about the leaders and you know, it's kind of generic golf talk, if you will, about what's going on in the tournament, kind of fill people in. And I was doing it with Patrick McDonald and I'm just kind of looking at the leaderboard. You know, we're talking about Bridgeman, and we're talking about Aaron Raye and
you know, Scottie and all that stuff. And I got off. We're probably on for twenty minutes, and I got off and I called Patrick and I just said, man, Rory is so freaking impressive man. Like I was looking at his stats on the week, they weren't that good, you know, the putter. This putter stats were better than he was putting at the time. Obviously put a terrible on Sunday outside of the long win at the last, but just the fact that he can roll out of bed and
finish second and third in these golf tournaments. I know winning is important, but I've been on this for a long time. Andy. It's like we used to do a segment of Golf Channel called Winners that didn't win, you know, and it was about the players that had a great week or a great final round to hop into the top top ten. Scotty's been doing it this year, obviously with a great weekend play, but just staying committed to golf tournaments too, Andy. I mean I think about that
a lot myself. If I play in a big amateur event or a big man at minim event and I make the cut, then what's my goal? Right? Because my goal is always to make the cut. So what am I trying to do in that final round or final two rounds to push myself forward? We're not getting paid, right, top twenties not do It's not like I'm getting invited into some other golf tournament. So where's that level of motivation?
And on the PGA Tour, maybe it's financial, but Rory doesn't need money, right, So the fact that he's still committed to keep pushing, Scotty's pushing for a top ten or top fifteen, it just shows their level of competition and competitiveness internally and probably why they're different than so many other players.
I guess this is a moment I want to be. We both have vacation. People are gonna be but I plan to talk about layout and talk about athletic Kim. At the top of this podcast, we'll get to ak.
I want to talk to p Read.
Another another topic I wanted to bring up here was Scotty Shuffler, and I think we need not enough marvel is given to Rory and Scotty's consistency.
As you're hitting on with Rory, like the idea like.
Riv he played okay, putted bad, probably should have won the golf tournament when you think about like the way he putted and poa poa has this way, especially POA that you know isn't it has been rained on a lot has a way as someone who who spent some of their life playing Rancho Park late in the afternoon. There's a period of my life. God gets terrified in the late afternoons. But I've never I've never felt so shook and like bent over, like one and a half foot pot speaking like I don't.
Know if I could make this pot.
I mean the Rory putt on four on I like they had the worm gam and you see it come off the blade and you're just sitting there, going, well, there's no way that's not going dead center. And then it's just snaking, snake and snaked and misses right, and you can see it on Rory's face, like I don't know what to do in this situation to make a twelve footer.
So, you know, the the consistency of these guys is extraordinary. But I think one of the big stories of this, this big story after after Palm Desert, after the Amex, is like, man, Scotty, Scotty might win ten times this year.
Yeah, Like I think you know he he.
Played he played pretty mediocre at at Amex and just ran away with it and and you you got to this level, and I think it might have been the peak because it's his first event of the year. After this dominant to your stretch, this peak the highest moment of like this guy is unstopped. And then sure enough we have this this thing the crazy thing about golf. Right, it's not, you know, nothing cataclysmic has happened to Scotty Shuffler, but all of a sudden we're seeing first round struggles. Yeah,
and it's a weird thing about golf. Like you think these things are going to last forever. And I think the likely thing is Scotty's going to come out after a week or two off at Bayhill and probably play great first round and it's going to be right back to normal. But I will just say this is how weird things happen in the sport, and how what you think will never end sometimes just end.
And it's random.
But these are the things that can slow down a generational player. We never ever expected in twenty fourteen that Rory would just not win a major for eleven years, right, But like, you know, what Rory had struggles at one point in his career was specifically at majors, getting off the bus, getting off the bus and starting the round. And I brought this up on the Shotgun Start, but
it originally aired on this podcast. Jeff Ogilvie talked about stroke play, and he talked about stroke play versus match play. He obviously had an exceptional record in the matchplay tournament when it existed, and he talked about the thing about stroke play. It's a different type of tournament. And we were just talking about this you're building he called. He compared it to building a house, which I thought was like, it's the best way to think about about a four round,
seventy two hole stroke play tournament. The first two rounds you're laying the foundation, you're getting the frame of the house up, and if you screw that up, you're just not gonna win.
And we've seen some herculean.
Efforts from Scotty that, like you know, Pebble, where he almost wins the tournament despite just you know, a mediocre start to the tournament where he's spot in the field.
This week at rip.
He's ten, he's five over through ten and he almost he almost gets into the top ten of the field after being dfl through ten holes in the first round.
So I think like.
These little things, these little shreds of doubt, are the things that can derail a historic run.
Yeah, you know, I've always thought, and you know, you've talked so much about the Sandy I think it's one of my favorite points you always bring up is kind of that five year window. And I don't think we're there yet with Scotty, but that five year window is a massive thing that you know, You've discussed a lot with a lot of pro golfers. They have that kind of dominant run, and then that dominant run starts to go away, and then all of a sudden, people are
wondering what went wrong. And it's hard to be this great for the long, right. I mean, Scannie's been the best golfer in the world. I mean I kind of forgot that he's one Player of the Year, I think three straight years. You know, that's such an easy thing to sleep on. I mean, you know, nobody's done this right.
It's just crazy to pull something like that off. But you know, I always I always went back to Tiger at the Masters, right when he would win those Masters, and he'd go out and shoot two under in the opening round, like he was just trying to shoot under par round level, right, And I think Tiger was the best of all time at building the house. To your point, in terms of stroke play golf, like Tiger would would would think of the golf tournament as seventy two holes, right.
He didn't need to play great on Thursday. He didn't necessarily need to play great on Friday either. He just wanted to continue to set himself up and keep putting the bricks on top of the bricks so that when he got to Saturday and Sunday, when everybody got nervous and started to freak out, he would start to play his best golf. And I find that with Scotty as well.
I go back to the PGA last year. He played pretty bad that first nine holes right on Sunday, Yeah, and then it was like he got to ten, flipped it on and all of a sudden he was running, and you knew he's gonna win the golf tournament. Like it was inevitable that he was gonna win that golf tournament. And I know the slow starts have happened for Scotty, and I'm sure he will figure it out. But that doubt is such such an interesting thing in your head
in terms of being a competitive golfer. Is the moment the doubt creeps in. When you're a couple over on the front nine on Thursday, all you can think of is here we go again. We saw it with Rory and the Majors, right, You saw it with I go back to St. Andrews a lot with Rory. You saw miss couple of putts early, and you just kind of saw it in his body language, Oh, here we go again.
I'm not gonna make any more puts on a Sunday again when I got a chance to win a major championship, right, And and that kind of led into lacc as well. A man, I guess I'm just not gonna make putts again when I have a chance to win a major. And finally he made some putts at Augustin. That was a big reason why he propelled himself to a point of potentially winning there.
I think, where the where that that situation of the miss putts on Sunday, You know that it becomes just the theme. You know, he doesn't make the putts where he broke that was Pinehurst, and he made some on the middle of the back nine of Pinehurst, and then it comes down at the end and he misses a couple shorties and it's like it's so it's such a
freaking hard game. And I think the thing that we don't talk enough about is how Scotty Shuffler's had this like kind of charmed existence and that's been a huge part of his you know run here, is that he's never had a moment of scar tissue. He's been he's
kind of just like floated through here. And when you get these minimal these just like little shreds of doubt, they compile and I'm I'm really fascinated to watch this kind of next stretch of Scotty Shuffler in the sense of like last year, the slow start was very clear
the hand. You know, this year, though you know he played Palm Springs, he wins, and I'm you know, he's just set this absurd standard, absurd standard where it's kind of surprising when he doesn't win or he's not like right in the mix and in this first round thing. These are things that can wear on you.
Yeah, and I mean you start to think about it. I mean, you know, I know you've done this in tournament golf. I've sure done it in tournament golf where you're in one of those rut runs of playing competitive golf, and all you're trying to do is get out of
the gate. Right, You're playing a qualifier and all you're trying to do is be even par through four holes, and you bogie the first or you miss a four foot or on two, and you're just sitting there looking at yourself, going, I can't believe I'm doing this again. And then there are times where you're playing great golf and you're not even worried about the start. You know you're gonna get out running and play some solid golf, and that like, when you have it, you're never gonna
lose it. When you don't have it, you feel like you're never gonna get it back again. I don't think God, he's right there. Obviously he's played some really good golf despite those bad starts. But I'll be very interested in the body language and the way he goes about his business. If he's won over through six at the Players on Thursday, right, or if he shoots thirty eight, you know, on the opening nine at Augusta on a Thursday, Like, where does he go from there? Because to your point, you start
to think, is this who I am? Now? And golf does that man, even to the best in the world. It does it. It did it to Tiger, It's done to Phil, it did it to Ernie, right. I mean, all these guys that are great during our era of golf had moments where it wasn't as easy as it looked, right, and as easy as they made it look when they were rocking and rolling.
I say this to my friends who are eighteen handicaps, twenty handicaps. Anybody I'm beat that tells me, well, I suck at golf, I say, well, good news. Everybody in the world, even the best player in the world, thinks they suck at golf. The freak beating of the sport. It's what it gets you to do. And that's the issue with like having a stretch of where you play bad first rounds, you begin to say to yourself, I suck, yeah, yeah, And what's that keeps in.
It's it leads to just issues.
And I'm I think Bayhill, the players fascinating subtopic is just Scottie Shuffler in the first round is almost must see TV at this point.
Yeah, and Andy, I just want to say on Scotty, you know, I'm very interested and I said this to start the year. I'm always interested in the guys year after the year. You know, Xander had a couple of years ago then obviously, I mean he battled a lot of stuff last year. What do you do the year after your year? You know Rory's year was fourteen, right, when when's two majors? Like, what are you going to
do the next year? Because you had that year the Pinnacle season where you did all this crazy stuff and you you kind of won the events. She hadn't won yet.
With Scotty's case, obviously wins two majors, this is the year after the year, you know where you going to pick up another two majors Because if you do that, now we're talking about top three, top four all time, right, And if you don't do that, now you've got to go another year where you got to start to think about the major championships and you start to think about
the drought. So I'm very interested in Scotty in the big events this year, the majors and the players to see what he can do if he picks up another even just one this year, I think is huge for the progression of of If Scotty's going to get to seven, eight, ten, majors in his career, but it's always the year after the year.
Expectation management sneaky killer with golf is how do you keep your expectations low when you've had immense success at any level, any level of golf? And this is so often I think you talk to so many just recreational players. They tell you about their best round ever, and then how they shoot their worst round in months the round after all this under like, how do you keep your expectations low when you've had a run of success. It's so challenging, But the key to golf is not to
have expectations. All right, Let's take a quick break and talk about our partner, Good Walk Coffee. Good Walk Coffee another year. They are continuing to fuel our team. Here at Frida Egg Golf. We've got two blends. We've got the Frida Egg Golf Blend, it's a medium light roast. We've got the Shotgun Start Blend, which is a medium dark roast. In my household, we are a split household. If my wife's away, I get to indulge in my favorite light roast. When she's around, I make the concession.
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and provide me and our team with awesome coffee. So check him out. Let's get back to Shane now, all right. Anthony Kim discourse.
I I think.
I understand he's a polarizing figure if you follow his Twitter feed. Obviously a lot of his struggles in life have been self induced. But that's what we're all trying not to do, is get ourself in trouble. And we all all step in the mud in various ways, and and that is like kind of one of the challenges of life, like you're you're going to cause yourself problems. Anthony Kim had a wide rave problems and and you know it caused him to step away from the game
for a long period of time, twelve years. Shane, me and you, we we are the age that we saw. We've seen the full arc of Anthony Kim. We saw him burst onto the scene, this charismatic, swashbuckling player who just had all the shots, this charisma, this energy, this excitement to the downward spiral, wondering where he was. You know, much of our professional career was fired and well if Anthony Kim ever came back, he comes back to Live. You can have a lot of opinions about Live. You
can have a lot of opinions. I'm not saying any of these opinions are wrong, but I'm going to say that this is one of the most remarkable comeback stories in all sports. He takes twelve years away, he does, you know, things that just destroy your body, your mental capacity, and he comes back and he wins Live Adelaide, their kind of flagship event. And it's not like he beat Charles Schwartzel aged Charles Schwartzel or.
Won and who was going to get the bullet there by the way.
It's not like he outdueled Lee Westwood. Down the stretch he plays, he starts, He starts five shots back of John Rahm and Bryson de Shambeau, who unequivocally, if you ask somebody, ask people the rank golfers are top no worse than top seven, two top seven golfers in the world.
I don't think you could get them lower than that, no worse than that.
He starts five shots behind two top seven players in the world and absolutely dusts them, kind of like has a ceremonial procession to finish down the closing stretch of golf. Whereas like I, you know everything, you can say whatever you want about the broadcast. They we make a lot of fun of the live golf broadcasts. But I don't know how you don't almost get out over your seas with this story.
This is I just.
I can't. We did the pod when he came back, and we talked about how like this is going to take a lot of time. I did not have this anywhere in the realm of possibilities of happening in twenty twenty twenty twenty six. What were you thinking about with the Anthony Kim whin.
Yeah, I mean I think, you know, I think there's a lot of young people that listened to the Shotgun Start and Fried Egg and they probably.
Watched your show with Patrick McDonald.
Yeah, I mean, they probably don't don't quite understand like who Anthony Kim was to people like you and me, you know, I mean, he's two years younger than me. I just missed him in turn of the aj G A circuit, I was a little bit more like James Vargas Casey Wittenberg era of AJGA. But we all had heard of this guy, and he was so impressive and he was so good at golf. But I think the key here was so different, you know. I mean Tiger
came on and made golf quote unquote cool. I think Anthony Kim pushed it even further along in terms of how cool golf could be. He was very different. The way he swung, the way he played, even the way he held the golf club looked different. And you know, Anthony Kim was the Rory before Rory. You know, Anthony Kim won, you know, he won it at Wells Fargo or Truest whatever you call it now. He won two years before Rory famously won there. You know, I mean
this was our guy. Really when you think about our era's next up player, man, I think obviously that, Yeah. I mean the the the Ryder Cup, you know, was a big part of that as well. I've been lucky enough to talk to Paul Easinger a lot about that, that Ryder Cup, you know, where he kind of put him out there and he was an energy guy and you know, paired him up with the guys he paired him up with, and he just loved AK and he
loved the energy. Famously ak walking off the green in his singles match, not really letting he'd even won the match, right, That's how kind of dialed in Anthony Kim was. But to see him go away and to come back, I think he nailed it. I mean, never in my wildest dreams that I think he's gonna win a year into this project. I mean, winning any professional event is tough. His finishes were very, very bad, right, I mean he didn't have a top twenty five. I don't think on
liv to the point before he gets the victory. And I think you said it as well. The way he did it, shoots sixty three, makes putt after putt down the stretch, the reactions, you saw, the emotion. I mean, this is why we watched sports Man. We watched sports because we want to see greats or we want to see redemption stories, and we got to see one. And
I think you called the broadcast out. I know it was easy to kind of laugh at at some of the Ben Hogan comps and things like that, But if I'd have been in the chair, you know, wrapped up in that moment, getting to call a moment like that, understanding what you were seeing in real time, I would have probably gone down those roads well, because that's how
big it felt. And if you're a golf fan the last twenty years, Anthony Kim was like one B two way to be in terms of the most popular figures in golf for probably a five year stretch.
Yeah, it's I mean, I think like it.
Just again, I want to like reiterate, I you know, I think I don't really agree with Anthony Kim's world views in a lot of sense just strategic from his Twitter page.
I do, I do, just I think this the performance moved me.
I was sitting in an Airbnb in Chicago by myself, glued to the TV late at night, and it made me just like think about.
All the things, like.
You know, the the idea of like not giving up, and I think they're there was such power to it, like where you get in certain points in life and different things, and this is where for me the moment kind of transcended golf and it was a life moment, a reminder of Hey, like so it's so easy to look back, regret and almost give up when you feel like you missed an opportunity. Anthony Kim, he he has to have these these thoughts and have had these thoughts of like I wasted my talent, I wasted.
A something that people would kill for. And the fact that he clearly put the work in.
You just can't. And we saw this like he took twelve years off, he came back, he was flat out awful at golf. But like that was not I'm not saying that as like I was expecting him to be good. I knew he was going to be bad, but the work he put in it just it just resonated me so much with a life level of Hey, we all look back and regret like missed opportunities, but that doesn't mean that it's over. It doesn't mean that it's over. You just have to keep your mind on the present
and working towards where you want to get to. And here Anthony Kim, who like flushed a good part portion of his life down the tubes. You know, I think he like drugs, obviously alcohol. He came out and has rededicated himself to golf, his family, living a sober lifestyle, which I think, you know obviously is big for him.
And he has been able to overcome like all the things that would haunt so many people in terms of like the idea of wasting his talent and it's just I just can't It was extraordinary, extraordinary, feat extraordinary win. And if he misses, if he finishes fiftieth the rest at the rest of his career, at every event on LIV, I don't care. That was one of the greatest moments in golf in the last three decades, him winning that event, and I just I'll never forget it.
Yeah, I mean, you know, for people, I think sometimes you forget how long ago Anthony Kim was relevant as a professional golfer. Let me read you the players that finished the runner up to him and his wins back when he was like a PGA Tour player. He beat Ben Curtis, Freddie Yakubsen, who I called on the on the Champs Tour last year, Von Taylor, and Sean O'Hare. I mean, like, I mean, that's that generation, right, like
that that's the generation before this generation. So I mean Hunter Mayhan as well beat him in a playoff like this was that era of golfer and the fact that now he's got to win over John Rahm and Bryce and the Shambo at this point in his life. To your point on all the obstacles he's overcome. It Like this stuff doesn't happen that often in sport. You know, you don't go away and come back and all of a sudden win. You know, you might come back and
show up, you know. I think we get into this this idea of Tiger still winning a major championship, and I think you and I both understand physically he's probably never going to be able to play four days of competitive golf and be able to be physically, you know, sound enough to compete at that level. Plus obviously the rust with the golf game. I know there's a lot of people online that are like, oh, Tiger's come back
to the Masters, maybe I'll win. I just don't think that that's feasible considering all this stuff he's gone through physically, not necessarily with the rust on the golf game, but the fact that this guy can depart from from the game. And I think one thing with Anthony Kim we forget about is it's not just to you went away from golf like he disappeared from life. You know, you'd hear these reports of people that had that had seen him
in Dallas. I remember trying to get him on my first ever podcast for years, you know, just just hounding people that I knew, kind of knew somebody that knew him, you know what I mean. It was like radio silence anytime you'd bring that up. I mean, it was Anthony Kim and Ty Tryon for me, Like those were the two guys that I was always very interested in because
those were our guys growing up. But the fact that he's now back in twenty six a winner in professional golf, to your point over the two names like this, it's it's astonishing, it's impressive, and I mean, you've got to love the story. Just to your point about resilience and a comeback story, we love that stuff.
Yeah, I you know, there's gonna be a lot of like where does he go from here? Can you play his way into majors? And I just cares forever be amazed at the to climb the mountain again after dealing with so much and and it and everybody's gonna point out it was majority of it was self inflicted. But that's one of the challenges of life.
Is that you probably the hardest challenge in life is if you do it to yourself.
Yeah, and and like that that that's what life is.
It's like trying to avoid doing it to yourself like that. Yeah, yourself is often the thing that gets in your way the most often.
And I just am it's it's amazing.
It is is a truly unbelievable story. And you know, I don't I don't know what to expect going forward for him, but he will. I I just find it hard to believe that there will be a bigger story in golf this year.
Yeah, I'm with you, I'm with you.
It was really cool, and he's overshadowing the other big story in golf, which I wanted to talk to our boy Patrick Reed.
He all came, I'm gonna win the Masters. I'm just saying that right now. He's gonna be my pick if he didn't fall completely off in the next month and a half to be my pick.
This is extraordinary.
He you know the arc of this for those that haven't followed, He's he's playing that like opening kind of hit and giggle DP World Tour Event, European Tour event, and he just like points out that he doesn't have a signed contract for live and he doesn't know what's going to happen. Then he He's like, I'm not going back to live. I'm gonna play the DP World Tour in hopes of earning my card. Since he's done that,
He's played three deep World Tour events. Uh, he's finished first, he lost in a playoff, and then he finished first again, so he's lost too.
And I.
Another polarizing figure in golf, extremely polarizing I but I just sit back and I'm marvel at the competitive spirit here.
Andy. I find myself rooting for Patrick Reid, which is a very strange feeling. I don't know if you feel the same sensation.
But the exact same way.
I'm waking up early, Like I always joked that Rory was the only guy that would make me wake up early. And Jordan's probably in there as well, but he obviously didn't play as much DEP World Golf. But I'd say I'd wake up to watch Rory play a European Tour event, like I'm always going to wake up to watch him play. And I'm like waking up earlier than my kids to watch these random European Tour events to watch pe do his thing.
He the thing I think about Patrick Reid that he's done, He's had this like crazy career, yep. And he is like living in this era of power, you know, you know, great drivers of the golf ball, great iron players, and I think Patrick Reed is a is a very good iron player, but the way he gets it done is so anti that of every other top flight you know, and we're getting work. We're past ten years of Patrick Reid. Like again, we talked about the five year window, the
ten year window. I mean, Patrick Reid is going to be a twenty year very good player when it's all said and done. I think he's going to get to twenty years of high level play. Now he's never he's some of the things is like his his traits, his tools, his you know, his inability to drive the golf ball exceptionally well, you know, prohibits him from winning at certain places. Although I point out he won at Bethpage Black. You know, now there's obviously even wild there's obviously the Bunker thing,
you know that happened there along the way. He's had all these tribulations, but god, is this guy is not one of the most fascinating careers of our lifetime. It is. It is extraordinary and at the end of the day, like you got to like it. Just admire the sheer competitiveness of this guy.
Yeah, I mean thirty five years old now, I mean you think about kind of it feels like right now, probably in the prime of his life. Wins his first event. You talk about staring players down, right, he wins for the first time on the PGA Tour over Jordan Speed, like jordan'spiece. The guy in golf right, beats him in a playoff, wins is his lone major alongside Rory, you know, which is like the figure that you don't want to play against. I mean he's taken down Bryceon and Ricky
and these Xander, these big time players. I think there's an argument to be made that there might not be a more confident golfer in the world over the last decade than Patrick Reid. Like you talk about believing in your elf and believing in your game, and I mean, you nailed it. This is not the modern player that you expect to be this good. He's got nine wins
right on the PGA Tour. Obviously, he's won the Masters you mentioned, you know, kind of these random events he's won at, but he's won all over the world, Like he's won on the DP World Tour. I mean he's one, you know in Dubai. I mean he's one on Live now, He's won in China. Like, this guy's kind of won all over and he feels more hungry now than he's ever felt to continue this push. Like he's gonna play Australia, right,
He's gonna play the Australia Swing. He's gonna play all over the world, and like, almost like Rory, I feel like he's interested in taking down national opens and seeing how his game kind of stacks up in Japan and in Australia, in South Africa. Like he's kind of like what you want in a pro golfer in that sense.
Yeah, And obviously, I mean controversy follows him, maybe not as much now, but early in his career there's the number of controversies surrounding him.
But I think like that it's like a whole other podcast that has.
Like kind of muddied the water, made it Ina unable to see at the core of this guy. He is very clearly a golf savant on like so many levels, like maybe one of the greatest golf mines. That's the only way to explain how he's been able to hack together, which he's he's bumping up on a Hall of Fame career in an era dominated by power and like the you have to be able to drive the ball far and straight to have success or at least far. This guy drives it short and crooked, and he's putting together.
I think he's going to get to a Hall of Fame career.
Yeah. I mean he's won right now on the PGA Tour. He's a win away from ten one at Augusta National. He's won two FedEx Cup playoff events, he won two wgc's, he's won at Tory, like ran away at Tory. You know, he's been very, very impressive at Augusta National. Maybe not so much outside of the Masters. He hasn't been great at US Opens in his career. I think he's got one top ten at an Open Championship as well. But I really think he's going to have a second Green
jacket before his career's done. He's finished in the top ten at Augusta four of the last six years, obviously finished third alone last year. But the game, it just makes the most sense of that golf course. He can miss some fairways and get away with it, but the short game. The pitching, chipping is his strength and you got to do that as well as anybody around Augusta National. I'd be shocked if he doesn't win a second time there at some point.
Yeah, I don't know if I go that far.
I wouldn't say shocked, because just crazy things happen there and it's so freaking hard to win. But you're spot on. You think about the guys that have been just like that, maybe you say would like outperform. You know what your expectations are of them at Augusta, Patrick Red, Jordan Speith, you know, in the sense of like Scottie Scheffler, these guys all are just exceptional around the greens. It's the underrated skill of Augusta, Nashville.
And Rory and Rory.
I think it's the most underrated part of anybody's game and professional golf is the fact that we don't give Rory enough credit for how good he is around the greens.
Decki, Sergio, all these guys, I think, the the ability to have the confidence to not take the bait at Augusta and just dump it to safe spots to chip and know, hey, I can get up and down from over here, even though it's like it's not a very challenging chip for somebody that is not, you know, really confident there. I mean that is the superpower of Augusta is like the ability to have the confidence to know that you don't have to take on shots that you
don't want to take on. I am I'm so excited to see kind of the rest of the year for Patrick Reed. Is this just a hot run or is he really like top ten player? Is it? And I think he's going to be. You know, it's amazing you have Rory and Scottie. Is he story see at going into the Masters? Is that where he's at?
That's wild? I mean my opinion, it's just yeah. I mean it's like it's because again, when you think about the other characters, right, Bryson's not been playing really great golf basically since his early run last season. I feel like Xander's still a question mark. Colin whatever we can get into. I mean, Collin's played well at Augusta National. Obviously getting the win is big, but I feel like
the usual characters aren't quite there. And so to your point, I think Patrick, I think cap he might be right there, man, get him, get into the storyline. Does he get the press conference earlier in the week is the question. I think he does.
I think he does too, because he hasn't been in front like he needs the press conference, because he hasn't been in front of you know, like the mainstream golf media, and you know, he's been kind of playing these small DP World Tour events and you know, the you know, the only thing that I would say that could magnify the hype going into this year's Masters, do we get a speak win? You know it seems like Tiger might
come play. Is if we got a speath win in the lead up and we had Rory defending best player since Tiger, was Scottie best run we've seen since Tiger, and then we get a Speak win, you know, pe doing his thing, and then we get Tiger coming back. I mean all time Masters lead up.
Yeah, and I mean you and we've talked about two earlier in the show. We talked about two guys in their forties. I mean, Rose already with the wins, play great at August and Adam Scott just had an awesome week of Riviera, which is kind of to me, you know, about as good a barometer as you can find in terms of pre Master's golf courses. I mean those guys, I mean Rose feels like he should at some point be a Master's champion. And then you got Adam Scott
who has obviously played great there before. I feel like there are some interesting storylines outside of maybe the guys that haven't won at the Masters and kinda Xander call and JT though at that crew.
Yeah, yeah, it's it's ramping up. Shane. Thank you for coming on. This was the most serious chat.
We've ever done, but we typically are like laughing half the pod. We talked about real golf stuff. This time I'm in talk.
About life stuff too.
We talked about parenting and I didn't expect the start of that pod, but always great to chat with you. People can find your work. Obviously, you'll be on the d on the corn Ferry Tour broadcast again. I've been a banging start to the corn Fairy Tour. Actually, right man, I James Nicholas, great stories there. You also have a show on CBS Sports net Work. I know people that were recording the shot and start have been getting it.
It's fat on your dvr. I told him a couple of times I'm hoping at some point they they switch it off. Yeah, we're on CBS Sports Network Tuesday's noon Eastern for an hour Johnson, Wagner, Patrick, myself, and that's also on YouTube. I'm still doing the Ping Proven Rounds podcast as well that I do with Marty Jertsen and
we got some players coming up. Had a really good chat with Victor in Phoenix that I thought was interesting, just to kind of talk about the swing stuff he's going through and where his confidence levels at.
Did you broach aliens are hot?
I asked, I did ask I asked because I did it with him and his caddy, and I asked if his caddy is interested in that space as well, and yeah, he was like yeah, I kind of. I kind of like chatting with that with with with about Victor. But it's crazy. They were just such unsports fans.
Guys.
That was before the Super Bowl and neither knew who was playing in Super Bowl, Like they do not care about sports. Man, It's wild.
That is nuts.
That's nuts, Like the idea of a professional athlete that doesn't care about other sports.
Yeah, like the early we don't even know who's playing. I'm like, wow, man, that is crazy, like I'm I feel like I just am. You know, I'm getting up early to watch the hockey game on Sunday, and I don't you know, I don't care about hockey. I don't watch any hockey, but I mean I can't not watch the sporting event that matters, you know.
Yeah, yeah, all right, Shane, thank you so much. People go check out Shane's work. He's has always been been doing a great job for a very long time in the golf space.
Thanks Shane, appreciated, Andy and PJ. I know we didn't get the chat, but I loved watching you on.
You all right, big thanks for listening to another episode of the Friday Golf Podcast. I hope you enjoyed that kind of rambling conversation. It always is a rambling conversation. I don't know where it's ever going to go. I have a plan, and oftentimes I'm quickly deviating from the plan, like we did today. So big thanks to Shane for coming on. And we'll be back next week. I hope everybody has a wonderful week.