Welcome back to another edition of the Frida Egg Podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by our friends over at Smathers and Branson. Guys are probably familiar with Smathers and Branson if you've, you know, at your local favorite pro shop. They make incredible handmade needle point products. This stuff is, you know, one handstitch. They make belts, hats, wallats, really all kinds of different stuff, Christmas stockings, you know, loafers,
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your entire order plus free shipping. That's the promo code is Fridagg and you need to go to Smathers and Branson dot com. That's s M A T h E R S and Branson, b R A N s O N dot com promo code Frida Egg. It's great to have them on board as a partner of the Frida Egg. Today's episode is with the Great Kyle Porter. Kyle is golf writer se probably an editor, a big time title at CBS Sports. You can find all of his writing there. He's also one of the co hosts of the First
Cut podcast. Kyle came on to preview the PGA at Key Island this week, so we did our five things. We each came up with five different things that we're watching this week. We had a little bit of a overlap, but as always Kyle had a lot of great thoughts about the tournament and uh, you know what he's watching this week. So, without further ado, here is Kyle Porter.
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.
Bright egg Friday Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg, Frida Egg, Frida Egg, Brian Egg, Frida Egg brid Egg, Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the hum course.
Kyle, how's it going, I'm good, I'm uh, you know, we were just talking about this. Covering a major from home is very different than being there. You and I switched, so you were at home during the Masters. I was at the Masters. Now you're at the PGA and I'm home for the PGA, And there are pros and cons to both. But I'm excited. I don't know, man, I get I get really fired up from for major weeks.
It's just a ton of fun. You just you kind of bathe in it for you know, eight straight days or whatever, and it's tiring by the end, but it's it's so much fun.
Yeah, Yeah, it's majors are it makes a job so much fun. It's uh, it's like so much work in the lead up and then so much work during the week, and then there's the you know, kind of deconstruction of the major at the end when you're you know, kind of the fallout from everything that happens. But I mean, this is uh, this is legacies and everything. I mean not to be cliche, but this is this is what it all comes down to, right.
How do you I was I was wondering. I always wonder this with other people because I kind of go back and forth, But how do you prepare for like, I'm Major week, are you reading stuff a week in advance, a month in advance, are you like, like, what's your what does your preparation leading in look like?
I mean a lot of what we do is with the golf course, so it's it's focused a ton on that. And then I think it's just I just like watching a lot of golf in the weeks leading up, you know, making sure to carve out time to watch and see what's kind of happening, and it's I think this new schedule kind of makes it a little weird because the guys don't play a ton between the Masters and the like. I feel like we you could really conceivably not see these guys outside of you know, they play Quail Hollow
or they play a valves Bar. But I think that's one of the things with this new schedule, is it kind of month after month after month of the Majors. Is that you know, there's a lot of tournaments in between that don't matter a ton, is I miss? That's the thing I think I like the most about the Masters lead in YEP is how those guys are playing
so much on the West Coast. Then you get the players and you kind of have this really good building, and I think having that PGA one month after it loses that a little.
What do you do well? I agree with you about the lead in. I was singing about that. I think the Players is even better than the Masters because there's so many tournaments that those guys play with Arnold Palmer and I mean there's there's like that six week stretch where you're playing like at like at least four times and most management yeah, and most guys are playing five.
I don't know. Usually I like to read about the course kind of the week before, and I agree with you, like I love looking at data golf and some of the advanced statistics. But but sometimes with and I think that stuff matters for the Masters because of the way the lead in is, But for the PGA, you're like, like, just what happened at the end of February? Is it
meaning for the PGA at Kiowa? I don't know. It doesn't seem like it, So I think it's kind of hard to I think the PJA is a little bit difficult from that perspective to to prognosticate, to kind of figure out. But I just I love the course research. I love like Sean Martin did a great piece. Y'all's fried egg video on on Kiola was awesome because I like learning about the history of kind of the course
and the course architecture. Jeff Shackelford has done some really good stuff with Who's the Who's the architect that redid it? Scott Sherman, Yeah, he had a he had a two part deal on the quadrilat Quadrilateral that is excellent. So I just I love reading about all that stuff leading into uh, into the Major week.
I don't know this is we're doing our five things. So we did this with before the Masters. I think we'll do this before every Major this year. We did with Shane before the Masters. But you know, Kyle's on for this one. But I think this leads into like my first thing and like what I think about this Championship. Obviously, the course has a good deal to do with it.
It's not one that we've seen a ton. Obviously we saw it with Rory but a different time of year, and we saw it at the pgat the Ryder Cup in ninety one. But I feel like this is just a total crapshoot. This tournament. I feel like I I just don't have like a great feel. I don't think
anybody's playing like dominant golf leading in. And that's one of the things I think about with this tournament is just it feels like there's twenty guys that probably could win, and I wouldn't be surprised if any of those twenty guys won. I don't know if you feel the same way.
So my very first I'm not kidding, My very first thing that I wrote down is the top ten lax juice. And what I mean by that is other than Rory uh and his man, I don't know his win at Quilhalla. It wasn't it wasn't super inspiring. It was good. I'm glad he won. I think that when Rory's playing well, that's good for golf. But it was like I didn't come away from that thinking like, oh, Rory's going to go on a you know, just a heater right now.
And you go down the board of the top ten guys in the world and it's just like, I don't know who JT's kind of hitting it well, but who else? Like what else? DJ, Well, that's the thing you got.
Rom hasn't been great, And obviously I think having the baby's been like adjustment. I think that's something that we've seen some people have these great, surreal performances when right after they have a baby. But like, I think it's a big adjustment. I think Rory went through it too. Yeah, and I think like Rom's going through it. He just was on his press conference talking about like how they've had to, you know, make adjustments since they had this baby,
like that they realized things didn't work. He needed sleep, Like, I think that's one of the things. But like, yeah, yeah, like you said, Bryson's not playing well, Xander's kind of ben Xander. He's super consistent, but we haven't seen the winds pile up.
Yeah, and more, you know.
And then you get Hatton who hasn't really done much in majors and Patrick Reid. Yeah, I completely agree. Top ten. When you think about to last year at the PGA, how much different was we were talking about Brooks and potential three Peete and how different just one year less than a year really makes this feel.
Yeah, totally. Did you see Rom talking about First of all, he goes into some details with his with like his wife and kid, and I'm like, I don't know if I need all of those, maybe just like cut it in half and give me, give me half of it. But he was talking about how after the first month they hired somebody like a night nurse or a night name and whatever you call it. I was like, Oh, what's what's that like? That must be just be a nice little route, a nice little path.
To take you can afford it. It's a good luxury.
To to kind of compound the thing that we're talking about. The leaderboard from twenty twelve is crazy, right. So you've got Rory at thirteen, and then beyond I know you want to talk about the Swedish pancake, but beyond that, it's Steve Stricker, it's Jamie Donaldson. It's all these guys that you're like, what And I was curious if you thought when it gets crazy windy out there, which it did at times in twenty twelve, is that a thing where nobody's hitting greens and so it becomes like kind
of a chipping contest. Is that why you see guys like Stricker and those guys up there.
I think so to a certain extent. But what's interesting about that is that the really windy day was Friday, right, and Tiger and VJ were leading after Friday.
VJ shot a sixty nine on Friday. Oh epic round, I mean, unbelievable. The quotes that from that round are just insane. I wish I had them handy. I researched him for a piece I did for the PGA dot Com. But like the quotes from players about that round, like, you know, like I can't believe. One of the guys was like, you know, if this was if I didn't have to play a term in golf today, I would There'd be no way I'd be out there playing golf, like you know.
But but that see, that's the interesting thing is the board really changed when it was soft and not windy. Yeah, when it was really hard, you had VJ and Tiger at the top, and then it gets soft and and Rory obviously blitz the field. Those guys fade. You know, I think this golf course, it's it's really interesting in terms of and this kind of I think plays into this. I think it's anybody's kind of game. It's long, and everybody's gonna look at the length and they're gonna say,
you know, you need to vombit. But you can't spray it at all, Like when you're off the course. It's not good like out of the corridors. So I think, you know, there's set up flexibility. There's a ton of flexibility with how Carrie Haig can set this golf course up from distances. I don't think it's ever going to play the yardage that is on the card and everybody's talking about, oh, longest major course ever. It's not going to play that way any day. It's gonna be dictated
on the wind. But I think it's a golf course where you have to place it so well. I think it's almost more like sawgrass. It's just a beefier sawgrass in a way.
Yeah, I agree with that because when we think about length, and I was going through kind of the longest majors ever because you know that's gonna be kind of the
hot like phrase or buzzword or whatever. But it's not a It's a very different kind of length than Beth Page or even in Aaron Hills, right, because you're you're almost it's not it's not just like hey see how far you can hit it, and then see how far you can hit it again, and even like wingfoot was a little bit like that because there's no there's no trouble there, right, I mean there's no there's trouble, but
there's not there's no penalty trouble. And so that's where somebody like I think somebody like Bryson and even a rom is gonna have to be incredibly disciplined and patient this week because because you can't, you don't just like take the course on. You have to be so strategic and careful about where you're placing the ball. I think that's kind of plays into somebody like Jordan Spie Sands.
Honestly, I agree like somebody, I think there's different types of great ball strikers, Like I think Bryson's a great ball striker.
Yeah, but you.
Know, I think one of the things he does the way he, you know, is a great ball striker, is he overwhelms golf course with his power. And he did that obviously at wing Foot this golf course. If you if you're a little off, you're out of play. The guy that I kind of think of when he's hitting on all cylinders who could play really well is like Fleetwood, where he's like surgical, where he is that the longest guy. He's plenty long, but he's just Fairway green, Fairway green,
Fairway green. Or when we saw him, moll And I'm not saying Molinard he's going to play well this week because we haven't really seen him. But when I think about, like how Molinari played in twenty eighteen when he won the Open, like that type of play is what I think we'll we'll end up playing really well at this major. Yeah, you want to talk about Speith, That's.
My number two is the Space Slam. We just we just copied each other.
We didn't send these to each other before.
So the Speed Slam is and people keeps it. So I got to get this off my chest because one thing that bothers me is people keep saying, well, this is his best opportunity since twenty eighteen. First of all, he played Quolhalla in twenty seventeen with an opportunity to win the Slam, right right after he won Birkdale. Yeah, and that was actually his best opportunity because that was as well as he's ever played, I think as a professional. I heard him on the No Laning Up podcast two
weeks ago. He's like twenty eighteen, I was just kind of lost. I think he was actually talking about the pgat where was it Bell Reeve and twenty seventeen was actually his real, like hey, career Slam opportunity. But I do agree. I do think I actually think this course sets up well for him, and I think the excitement
for me with him is in whatever. The Byron Nelson is not a great test of like where your game's at, But for him to come out and hit it like he did, I felt like completely validated everything that led up to the Masters. Because we see these guys go on runs where they'll play great leading up to the Major, they'll play great at the Major, and then they'll just fall off, like they'll just kind of have a dip after that. It's a very normal kind of progression in
PGA Tour world. And he hasn't. He's still hitting it like the best player in the world. So I don't know. I think there's a ton of reason. Is he gonna win this week? I have no idea, but I think there's a ton of reason to be excited about his chances.
Yeah, I agree. I think one of the things you hit onto earlier is it's a golf course, especially when it gets when if it gets windy, and I think it's gonna be have some good wind out there, like you're gonna have to scramble because people are gonna miss greens and nobody he just has. He's like the guy that you look up at the end of a basketball game and you're like, how did he get? Like, you know, how does he have twenty five points? He didn't even
like look like he did. Like he shoots sixty seven and you're like, how did that? How do you shoot sixty seven?
I always think it is that like Tim Duncan.
Tim Duncan would be a perfect comparison, Like it just goes about it in such a like fundamental way. It's not like pretty, it's not rory, but it's just the way he scores.
He just scores.
He gets the ball in the hole so efficiently. You know, he might not have the prettiest swing, but he's just nobody scores better than him out there. And obviously he's been playing so well. And I think I always like when guys play well the week before and are in the mix, but don't get it done. Like I think that's like the perfect way to head into major is to play well the week before, but not great because then it just kind of clicks in the next week.
Do you worry about him, or really anybody out there having to work it both ways off the tea, Like, how much do you have to? Because I definitely think you have to with some of your approach shots. But is there a necessity to work it both ways off the tee?
I don't think that much out there. I don't think there's like a super big need you know, a few t shots that it could be helpful. Yeah, but one of the things, you know, and where it could be helpful is with crosswinds. You know, just being able to hold stuff against the wind is kind of where it might be most helpful. I don't think it's that big of a deal out here. The fairways aren't that wide. Also,
they don't they don't move that much. I mean, there's definitely preferred shot shapes, but I think a lot of them moving moving that left right's fine. There aren't a ton of draw holes out there. Yeah, there's only a couple draw holes where you would say, oh, you want to hit a draw here. So I think that that's good for him because that squeeze cut is kind of his go to shot.
Yeah, yeah, it definitely is. Yeah. I just think about well, I mean I think about Sawgrass where it's whatever the third or fourth hole where you you have to hit a draw off the tee or you hit it.
There's nothing like that out here, yeah, just because you know, they don't have those like trees.
Yeah, like that.
It's it's just wide open. So they have bunkers that make you hit shapes, but they aren't anything like Sawgrass.
Man, I am so fascinated by and this is always true, this is actually more true of us opens. But I'm fascinated to see how guys strategize their way around on the course, because you know, the thing you keep hearing and I think you guys might have touched on this on your video, is like it looks like it should be a Lynx course, but you've got these almost Pinehurst type greens where it's it's their bowls and their or
their upside down bowls, their volcanoes. You know. I think I saw a quote from it might have been twenty twelve somebody that was in contention saying like it's it's very unlike a links course where you can't run it up there. You have to hit a really high shot, and the problem is you've got a twenty five mile
an hour wind knocking down that shot. So I'm just I'm I'm really intrigued to see how guys kind of handle that, especially if you know, like Rom said, it's playing pretty fast and firm as it is early on in the week.
Well, I think that's what the really neat thing about about this tournament. And I think that's why when I when I thought about the majors, I thought this was probably going to be one of the maybe the most
compelling one. You know, if you take out the Augusta every year, you know, the most compelling one was just because it's like the most opposite of driving range golf, like that idea of like the simulation golf where everything's a perfect setting, flat lie, no wind, and you're just hitting balls at a target like this, this golf course you're gonna have. And one of the neat things is it's easy to look at six through thirteen and you
say they all play in the same direction. But what it does is it just kind of wiggles different directions and the way die orients these holes. If you look at it closely, you'll see that the t shot will go one way, the approach shot will go a little bit different way. So the wind, while you're playing the same general direction for a large stretches of these of the golf course, you're always playing a slightly different angle,
which makes it just very uncomfortable. So really, like, you know, they got the rangefinders, but if it's blowing out there, the type of golf where the number really doesn't matter, you're you're standing there trying to figure out how many extra clubs or you know, what's the wind gonna do.
And then one of the other things that can be really nasty out there is you're hitting these elevator greens and you get a wedge in your hand is downwind, that wind can knock the ball out of the air, and with the greens elevated, it just hits into the front and it's gonna end.
Up at the bottom.
You know, the player that wins this week is going to have to, you know, have all his senses like on high alert. And that's what I think it's gonna be so fun to watch. And that's where speed, that's what going back to speak, that makes speak so much sense because he's he's that type of player.
I heard Rom talking about how the wind is is it's a different kind of wind than other courses because it's so dense right by that, like so humid right by the ocean. And as soon as he said that, I was like, Oh, Bryson's gonna play like seven hour rounds. This is gonna be a just an abomination. Like how long he's gonna be out You're.
Trying to feed this out air density. I mean, he's gonna be maybe he's got a win guy. You know, Kyle, I played a junior tournament at the Ocean Course years ago, and it was it was in the middle of January, and I'll never forget just sitting in my car before the round. It was like seven am and it was it was like thirty five degrees out with like a twenty mile an hour window coming off the ocean. I
just didn't want to go outside. Yeah, And that's the thing the Ocean Course is just it can be just so you just don't want to hit golf shots in the wind, even like calm days are windy out there.
That's the quote that you guys started your video with was it's of course you want to play again next year but not tomorrow. And I feel you that's such a like you just want to kick the can down the road a little bit, which is such a good, good description of it. You want my number three here? Yeah, okay, So we touched on this a little bit earlier, but for me, it's it's what strategy does Bryson employ on this course? And this is sort of a not I'm
not just talking about Bryson. I'm talking about all the bombers, but I think we always run to Bryson for like, oh, what's what's he gonna do? And I've got a stat here. He is two hundred and fifth on tour in proximity to the edge of the fair away. And so what that means is like when his when he misses, he misses by a lot, right, Like his misses are huge. And that makes sense because he's, you know, the longest guy in the world. Like if he's off by a little bit, it feels like a lot more than that
because he's so far out there. So I'm just intrigued by it. I wonder if he hits a bunch of irons off the tea. I wonder if he tries to carry some some spots where other guys I don't know. I'm just really intrigued by kind of how that plays out going into the week.
Yeah, I think, you know, when you think about what he set out to do when he added all the speed, added all the weight, it really was a reaction to Beth Page. Will Gray had that got those great quotes from him talking about Brooks, and it was all a reaction to Beth Page. And then it it bore out that he won it wing foot of similar setup thick rough yep, you know where if you just hit it far, you can then gouge it out of the thick rough. This that doesn't work here because if you hit it
far and you're offline, you're out of play. And I think that's where, Yeah, I agree with that take it. I don't know how he's gonna play it. I think there's a lot of holes. That's kind of the luxury though. You know, he can hit his iron as far as some of these guys that you know, like Matt Matt Fitzpatrick hits his driver.
Yeah, he has options where other guys don't. Like Matt Matt Fitzpatriy doesn't have an option. I mean he does, but I mean, he's gonna miss a cut if he if he chooses some of the options that are that are you know at hand and Bryson has a bunch of options and and got and I don't know. I I think that's why. And we don't need to get into like a distance deal. But that's why. So like the majors, especially PGA's and US Opens are won by six guys, right, is they have so many options at
their disposal for the way these courses are played. And you know, not to take away from like you have to have a great short game, you have to hit your wedges great, but it is it does give them so much more wiggle room whenever they're they're playing courses like this.
Yeah, if you look at the distance rank of the the last ten or so winners of the PGA or of the US Open, they're really power players. It's a power players championship versus the masters in the in the Open Championship, they have a lot of balance. You see guys all over the board win those in terms of their you know, associated distance rank. This golf course, I think is going to play more like like a sagress.
Like one of the things that Pete Die Pete Dies golf courses longevity wise, have held up so well to distance, and it's because of just the little angle, angular tweaks that he makes. Yeah, I think that that make it so uncomfortable to hit driver in certain places for long hitters. So yeah, I think that's a that's a great point.
I want piggybacking off of that and looking, We've talked a little bit about the twenty twelve leader board, but I think this could be a week where we it really favors veterans and and part of that is playing in the conditions too, where these guys have seen a lot. When it gets Wendy, experience matters, like you have to
have a lot of different golf shots. And I think I think we could see a week where, you know, we might have some guys that are in the mix that you know, are looking to bag that last major that adds a ton to their legacy.
So you're so you're talking about Europeans that have that are great ball strikers that have a bunch of it feels like a trojan horse.
The one thing I'm worried about with Westy is is the chipping around the greens yeah, that's what I'm a little right, but he's not really. I'm also talking about like Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia.
You know, Sergia. Yeah, Sergia is interesting, I think. And Rory talked about this right with twenty twelve where he's like, I've never been my shore game's never been that good, and I think that is like really instructive for how to think about this week. So we run to like, oh he was. I talked to Jim Nance about this and he was like, I was pure poetry off the tee, and of course it was. It always is. But your shot game has to be unreal this week, I think
to be able to win this golf tournament. So yeah, that's where the Westy think my.
Fall apart part completely. I mean I think also like you look at like Patrick Reid a Web Simpson, if they can have one of those special ball striking weeks, then all sudden everything falls into place for them because of how good they are. But also Paul Casey Louiu stays in you know those types of players where they've seed it all, they've played in everything. Yeah, and this is a type of golf course you can play perfect and then a big number can just come bite you.
I think I think Furick made like an eight on thirteen in twenty twelve, and he was playing just like a basically didn't miss a shot all round and then makes makes an eight.
The guy that I really want to pick because he doesn't have any holes and because his short game is really good is somebody who's missed like five cuts in a row, which is Patrick Cantlay, and I can't. I can't. I can't pick him because he's playing terribly, or at least he's he's not playing like he doesn't have any momentum, but his like his sort of statistical profile to me, fits a place like Kiowa, so well, I don't know. I think, like I don't know if you agree with this.
I think Kiwa is going to play as a PGA championship a lot different than we've seen over the last five or six years. Definitely different than a Beth Page, but also way different than a Bell Reeve as well. I just I think it stands out as it's not a I think you're right. I think it's a little bit like a players championship, and we've seen big numbers. One of players we've seen small. We've seen, you know,
lesser numbers one of players. I think it's gonna be and even in talking about who's gonna win, it feels a little bit like that of like this feels wide open, and that's what we say every year around the Players Championship as well.
I think it's going to be like a hybrid of the players in an open because you have the weather aspects and we could see, like I'll never forget walking a practice round with Jordan Speith at Aaron Hills and the group was talking about just a what's the easiest major to win, and it was just immediately open Championship because the weather can eliminate half the field, and that's
what could happen here. I don't looking at the weather, it doesn't look like that could happen, but you never know, Yeah, that's something that could happen here. And I think that's the it's kind of a mix between the players, but with with those elements that you have to overcome, this is a This is going to be a mentally exhausting tournament for players, Like you get off the golf course, you're gonna feel like you just played thirty six holes, not eighteen yeah for sure. Now for a quick word
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Okay, my number four knees whose knees are going to hold up knees? Knees? Brooksy, Oh bad knee gimping around DJ. I don't know what's going on with his knee. I think he just didn't want to play Byron Nelson.
I think he probably looked at the weather. It's like I don't want to go.
Yeah, I'm good. Uh but but yeah, those are two guys that are in that group of six. I mean DJ has been beaten by two players in the last two PGAs. So you got to be by by Colin Markabbo last year and he got beat by Brooksy the year before that.
That's it, I mean his did Brooksy? Did Brooksy beat him? Or did Austin beat him with that overclub like.
A phill at Marion situation? Uh yeah, that's a good point. So I don't know. I think I think Brooks this this should be a Brooks week, But I have no confidence in it because he can't He can't even squat down to read a putt. I think he I think he'll make the cut because his ball striking is so good that it'll just it'll be he'll, he'll he'll be able to ride that into a made cut. But I just have no confidence. I don't really have any confidence
in either of them winning this golf tournament. So I'm interested to see just kind of you know, I'm kind of using the injury as a little bit of a trojan horse to talk about those two guys, But I think that's a storyline going into the week.
It's so it's just amazing how golf changes, right like, and how quickly it changes, because yeah, think about it in November at the end of that Masters in November, ever thinking that DJ might not be in the your top five favorites for this week, and yeah, like here we are, Like he's on the fringe of the top five favorite and it's just you know, he can. He makes it look so easy. And I think that's the
thing too with Brooks is this golf course. When you were just talking, it kind of reminds me a little bit of Aaron Hills off the tee and the fact that like there's plenty of space to hit the ball, but when you get outside the space, the ball's gone. Yeah, And we saw that at Aaron Hills, where like there's plenty of places to keep it in play, but the second you get off that in play, they're big numbers everywhere. And we saw I think DJ missed the cut that year.
I think that's right.
Yeah, and then you know, Jason Day missed the cut. There were a lot of big names. Rory might have missed the cut.
Rory missed the cut, yeah.
But that that's the type of golf course. And if those guys are driving the ball, well, it just has a bummer with with Brooksy and the knee, you know, I feel like we're missing out on like some really prime years of his golf because of this knee, Like just for the last you know, five six majors.
Yeah, and I don't know his his whole stick whenever he was number one in the world and winning all the time. At the time, it was like, Okay, this is fun and cool and funny and there's like, you know, kind of a levity to it. But at the same time, during that time period, I was I was thinking like what about when this goes the other way, like it's not gonna be that funny anymore. It's going to be kind of like annoying or just grating a little bit.
And that's kind of what it's turned into, like his whole like I don't care about golf, but I'm also the best player in the world. I don't know. I just I have not enjoyed the last year and a half of kind of the Brooks stick because you never know when he's healthy, you never know when he's injured. He's just I don't know. I just as a as a consumer of golf, it has not been enjoyable.
Brash works really well when you're playing really.
Well, when you're the number one player in the world.
But as we've seen, you know, and this was the thing is like over and over again, and it just shows how much Tiger spoiled us, because like the holding on to that top spot is so such a fragile thing like it and it's fleeting like it. You know, DJ is still number one in the world, but you know, not by the margin he was six months ago. And it seems like that might come to an end in the near future.
Who is who is your number one? Who's the number one? Player in the world in your mind right now, it's hard.
See, this is where I think it's just that's what's leading into this wide open thing. I think if I if I was gonna have to pick one player, I'd probably pick Justin Thomas right now.
What about you? I think it's Speed, which sounds just insane.
It is insane.
I mean it would have sounded like like a crazy person three months ago. But his numbers, the consistency that he's shown over the last and and if you pull back that time frame past three months, you can't say Speed. I think it's it's j t Or or it might be Bryson for me if you pull it back past three months. But yeah, I think if you look to two, three, four months, it's probably Jordan Speed.
It's crazy. He's so good again, it's just it's amazing. See, it's great for golf to have him back. Yeah, I think he's Legitimately. I'm in this major draft thing and with a bunch of buddies and you pick, you get like a random order, and you pick, you get you know, it's a draft order. And I got the first pick and it was I had I was picking between Rory and Speeth. I picked Rory. I'm probably gonna Yeah, I'm not happy yet. I don't know why I picked him.
He's gonna shoot seventy five. This is this is one of my things. Can Rory get off the good start? He does needs to not shoot seventy four in the first round.
So I wrote about this. I wrote about this for cbsports dot com on whatever to whatever today is Tuesday. He like people, there's gonna be a through line this week where people are like, oh, twenty twelve, Oh just one Wells Fargo. And that's true, and that's fine, but like I mean, think about the seasons that he had that he has had from twenty fourteen to twenty twenty one, and how few, like what are his major even opportunities to win in that in that period of time?
Nothing?
Eighteen Masters? Is that it?
Yeah, that's it. It's it's crazy and he has all these high finishes, but it's all because he can't he can't get off to a good start.
And it makes me feel like it's something.
Yes, there's such an importance, and we've seen it with the press conferences, like how he talks about, oh, it's just another week. Oh I'm juggling. Oh you know, like this everything revolves around this week. You can tell that he's trying to change is the way he preps for these majors because he knows something's off.
Yeah, the juggler, I forgot about that.
Uh it is the best one, the juggling, and it's gotta be it.
It's got to be infuriating for him because it's infuriating for us to watch and for him to know, Like, hey, I'm I had the third best strokes gain season of all time in twenty nineteen, and I was just a no show, not a no show, but like I was not really in contention to win any of the four tournaments that really matter, right, And that's that is emblematic
of what the last seven years have been. And so I think people are gonna get worked up about Kiowa and qual Hollow and oh this is it, and maybe it is, but I just the evidence, we have seven years of evidence that just points to like he's got some sort of mental even if it's tiny, it's some sort of hanging up at these majors. And that's a bummer. Like I want him to win his fifth I want him to win six, seven, eight, but I don't know.
It's just not at least he hasn't proven it over the last few years that he's in the right spot mentally to be able to do so.
And it's crazy that we're doing this. He's got twelve top tads that time frame, I know, but they're top.
Yeah, yeah, they're there. It's it's empty calories.
You well, I just want them. I want him to win, get back on on the because that's the thing is like he's still he's still.
Only like what thirty one, thirty just turned thirty two. Yeah, by the way, I think KOA was his best major.
Yeah, it gets lost because he was all out of assault. But how hard it was, even though it was in the most docile conditions. Yeah, he lapped the field and it covers up that, like only a few guys were under parts A par seventy two. That's the thing too, yes, par seventy two, and the scores I anticipate this year, like scoring is gonna be below ten, is going to win you know, probably on a on a par seventy two.
Yeah, yeah, well part of the social construct. Uh you want my fifth one? Yeah, okay, so my fifth one is can Colin Marikawa repeat. And the reason I want to talk about him is because I think he has the most to gain in terms of the changing the way we think about a player this week. So what I mean by that is, if Rory wins, it's great, but it doesn't really change a ton about the way
that I think about him. If Xander wins, okay, like, it doesn't change a ton about the I always thought he was probably gonna win a major, maybe two, something like that. But I think Marikawa, if he wins, and that would be five wins in his first like forty five starts, including two majors, all of a sudden, I think that changes the way that I think about him to where it's like, wait a second, is this a
Rory Speith level of talent? Because I don't quite think of him like that right now, and maybe I should, but I don't, And so I think he has the most to gain with a win this week.
I think, Yeah, I think I'd throw Rom in there too. If you look at the win percentage of Rom and Morikawa, and if you include European Tour wins for Rom, because he's won a lot of Rolex events, you know they haven't been like the a lot of puff, you know, little tiny events like that, they've been at least the big ones, Like if you throw those in their their win percentages are the ones that stack up with the
pills and the ernies. They aren't Tiger. Nobody's going to get to Tiger level win percentage, but those are guys that early in their career look like they could be that. You know, they win ten percent of the time they're in a field maybe yeah, you know, eight eight to ten percent, which is really really freaking good. So I would say I throw Rom in that bucket too. With with Morikawa in terms of a win here would Rom kind of like sneaky. He's starting to get a lot
of major starts. I know there aren't a lot of majors every every year, but you know it's for a player of his level. With the wins he's had, I think, you know, the clock's gonna kind of start to tick on John Ram.
And I think that's fair. I think he would say that's fair because he again, he's somebody you look at his top tens like I remember a Will Gray tweet from Pebble in twenty nineteen and he was like this this t three I think he finished T three from Rom is going to look a lot better on Wikipedia than it did in real life. And it's like, yeah, I don't I don't even remember him. He wasn't in contention. And that's the thing. It's like, when has Rom really
been in contention at a major championship. I don't even know if he has been. Maybe maybe a Master's one year kind of. I don't know if you have to start winning majors, but you at least have to start contending for.
Some What if Tony Fina wins, would he fall into the bucket of most perception change? I mean, I guess perception change.
Maybe it would. It would almost be so shocking we wouldn't even know how to comprehended.
He played great at the last PGA. That was like, this is the thing. He played really well, he executed the shots, he made putts at the at Harding Park, and Kyl Morikawa just beat him.
Sometimes I feel like with him and Xander and guys talk about how uncomfortable it is to be in or near the lead. Sometimes they'll get near the lead and there's hit, like a really bad shot, like even Xander on sixteen and Augusta. You're like, man, that is that's not even close, And so I do want that. I wonder if there's like a mental thing there. But I think generally we overrate that storyline of like, oh, he
can't get it done. I think so much of it ninety percent of it is luck and situational and that it'll eventually happened.
My fifth thing was kind of piggybacking off of Morikala. So this was a big breakthrough for Morikala last year. Obviously, he he's won a bunch, but winning a major that young in a career is a huge deal. And I kind of I circled some some other guys. Unfortunately, your boy Matt Wolfe is not on this list, not here, and that's that you think about last year's PGA and to this year and how much things can change. But Scotti, Scheffler, holand Haveland. This is great venue for Haveland, especially now
that he can Chip. Joaquin Neeman, sun dam xel Taurus. You know, there's a bunch of other names you could put in here, but all these guys I think would fall into the bucket of like all of a sudden becoming, you know, potential superstars with a major Oh Sam Burns too.
I love Zala Taurus this week, and maybe that's heat of the moment, like I'm just reacting to the way he's played over the last couple of months, But I just I love the way he hits the ball, and I don't know, maybe he doesn't keep it him play enough off the tee to really contend here, but his iron play is a joke. It's so so good.
Xell Turus and Morikawa are really really similar, or when you start to look into their games and how great of iron players they are. They are both top five on tour right now iron players.
And I think what's so interesting about them is they both stayed in college. Correct me if I'm wrong. I think they both stayed all four years.
Zelle tourist left with a semester to go.
I think, okay, so close to it. But there's an interesting more Kawa interview or conversation on Golf Digest right now where he talks about how he actually he purposefully stayed in college to kind of prep for the PGA Tour, like almost as a in lieu of playing the corn Ferry Tour, which is not how he said it. But
it's kind of how it came across. And I thought that was really really interesting because most of the time we think about guys that are that good from Teita Green is coming out after a year or two years, somebody like a JT. But those guys stayed almost the entire time, which I think is interesting in like in terms of how we view amateur golf.
Well, I mean, like think about Maricow he finished, he finished runner up, he lost it a playoff at a web event as a freshman after his freshman year, Like, how many kids would go back to school for three more years after that.
I wouldn't.
No, I wouldn't either. I don't. Yeah, they're definitely it gives them a maturity. Yeah, for sure, you could go both ways, right because like Speith and JT didn't do that.
Yeah, but you could argue that like Speith, I mean, if he didn't hit the stick at the John Deere, maybe he' didn't like maybe none of this happens, which is like that's a crazy thing to say. But if you're that good, if you're Xalatorus or Morikawa good, I don't think it is like hurting you necessarily to stay in college. Because those guys were already working on things that they needed to do to become great pros. It's different if like they're just in it, they're already in
a different class. So I don't know you could argue it both ways, but I thought that I just thought that was an interesting nugget for morcow.
Yeah, who's your pick?
I am? I am going back and forth between U dB vibin and UH and speed. I don't I don't know who to pull the trigger on.
That's a good dB vibe in course too.
Yeah, pretty much.
I'll like I could talk myself into anybody in the top twenty. I could honestly talk myself into honest Abe.
I don't know if he hits it far. He's like one hundred and seventieth in driving distance, but he's so good.
He's good at everything else.
I don't. I don't tell me this. How does somebody like him contend at quail Hollow? Cause he's just so freaking good. That's a great analysis.
There, but it's just he's good at everything else, like everybody, every player, you know, when you think about it really deep down, like every player has a deficiency right right now. It makes it what if your deficiency is driving distance, it makes it tougher because as you start every round behind. But you go down the list like JT's deficiencies. Putter right, yep, DJ I'd say probably the putter can be a little
dicey Rom. I don't know what if Rom has a deficiency to be honest, you know, but you go down the list that you know Bryson could get a little squirrely off the tee and his short irons aren't great. Yeah, more Kawa Putter Rory, I mean pick pick the day of the week what you want. Rory's coming out, wedges or putter.
Whenever you were describing like, uh, you gotta you gotta hold wedges against like a cross woman, I was like, Rory's Rory mind, that's the cut.
I mean he hits some of the worst shots of a top ten player every like with the wedges. It's it's jarring. It's jarring to see a top ten player in the hunt hit a wedge ten ten yards over the green, like that shouldn't happen.
That's not a hitting wedges from like let's say one hundred to one forty. That's a you can learn that, right, That's not like an elite skill.
I don't know. Well, it's just think about like your your elite skill is the driver that gets you all these wedges and then just not being all hit the wedges.
Maybe you should just play up, like play back, just hit five irons in.
The other thing about Rory is like the equipment stuff. Like so I had heard that he was when he switched to tailor made, he was having to get new wedges for every round because he couldn't get the spin on the ball that he wanted, you know, years ago. Yeah, and then now we're talking the other day's talking about he can't drive draw the ball because of the driver. It's like, what get the guy some clubs that he can play.
I mean, I thought they said he didn't. I thought you said he didn't want to draw the ball.
Yeah, I know, but like he just like said he can't draw the ball. He tries to hit that push draw and it just he drew it on eighteen at maybe been more than a draw. But but this is like an epidemic with with golfers, like notoriously, like Jack played that golf ball that he made that for a couple of years that was just like not a good golf ball. Norman played bad equipment for a while, like
what what's with golfers? And like you get to the top of the world and then all of a sudden you have like your you self sabotage yourself with equipment decisions, like because of money, Like guess what, You're gonna make more money if you just win big tournaments, So get equipment that you can win, Like that's what. One of the things I think that was so underrated about Brooks's run was no oem yeah, you know no. Like but but like with Rory, like what why are we It's
twenty twenty one. Why are we dealing with this? Like what like get the guy, get the guy a driver the can draw so you can hit his little push draw.
Give me three uh dream final pairings on Sunday. So Rory Speith is probably one, right.
I mean Westy Rory Ernie's not in the field. Well, it would be remiss to not get Hideki in one. The one guy that can still win the Grand Slam is as I would say, I think rom rom would be one that I'd like to see. I mean it's hard to I liked having I like having contrasts with styles, right, Yeah, so I kind of like the old guy young guy if you if you went with like a a rom Rom Westy Rom Scott, you know, I think Morikawa defend would be really neat.
Yeah. I think Bryce and Ram would be great because there'd be so much just angst and anxiety and frustration and tension. Yeah, like Hatt and Ram, the you might, yeah, just blow a gasket on the back nine.
What about hatton this week?
You know, he hadn't played well at Majors, He didn't play well at Majors in twenty twenty, and then he finished t eighteen at the Masters, And I think that he is somebody who's I mean, his iron game is so good, it's so so good, Like his approach plays is excellent, and I think that, Yeah, I think I worry about him a little bit when it when I mentioned the words discipline and patience earlier and it comes to talk about him winning, you, I think there's a
little bit of concern there. But I think him and Matt Wallace are both really good. Kind of Wallace is more of a sleeper pig, but they've both been been playing really good golf.
I mean, he's he's got He's got a T six and a T fifth at the Open. He's won the Dunhill Links Championship a couple of times. Like Elements, he seems to play pretty well in Elements.
You know, I love Matt Wallace this week. I think he is. I think he's like one hundred to one or something, and to me that's just I mean, he's he's been a top five or six ball striker over the last three months. So it's like Spith Hovelin, JT and Matt Wallace. I think. I think Webb and Web and Corey Connors are up there, but Matt Wallace is and he's got a top I think he finished T three at the twenty nineteen PGA. I think him and Speath tied for third at beth Page.
Matt Fitzpatrick could be a sneaky one too.
Yeah. I feel like he's We've talked about this on on the First Cup podcast over at CBS. Is Fitzpatrick's the guy that like how he's not going to compete here and then he just keeps doing He keeps doing it. He did it at Mirfield Village, he did it, He's he does it everywhere and he just is he's really good. Like I don't know, Like I finally just kind of accepted that he's a really good Top twenty type guy.
Yeah, he's just been really good for a really long time too, at all at all stages of his career.
He's great pedigree.
Yeah, what do you What do you got going on this week on First Cut and CBS.
Yeah, so we've got We've got previews all week. We got our big preview on the First Cut coming out on I think Tuesday night, and then CBS Sports HQ. I'll be doing videos from my little shed here in Dallas, Texas. So yeah, it'll be a fun week. I mean, I just I could sit here for two more hours and talk about this with you. But it's just so fun to talk about the majors and legacies and just all this different stuff. I love it. I eat it up. It's a ton of fun.
Yeah, you could read read Kyle obviously wonderful words. Uh, watch them and and listen to them. You're you're hitting all platforms.
I know, I'm I got. I started doing this and it's like ninety writing and now it's like am I am I still a writer? Do I still write? Or is it just all the other stuff.
I know. That's why I never I'm going to try and get the keys, get the fingers working. This week a little bit so great. Look forward to great PGA and thanks for coming on and everybody check out Kyle. He's on on Twitter too easy to find their great follow and uh on everything else.
Thanks Andy, appreciate it, man,