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 brid egg Frida Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg, Frida Egg, Frida Egg, Frida Egg, Bride Egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off of.
The hump course.
Welcome back to another edition of the Frida Egg Podcast.
It is Masters week.
I'm excited for another major championship at Augusta National. We will be on the grounds. We are credentialed media for the first time. It's very exciting. So we will be churning out a lot of content, lots of articles on the website, some podcasts. The Shotguns Start will be air daily and this is our first preview pod and we are joined by none other than co host of Golf Today on the Golf Channel and you know, really golf
media Extraordinay Shane Bacon. So Shane is also the host of Get a Grip podcasts and you can find that wherever you get your podcasts. I love listening to Get a Grip. He just fired it back up after a little break and he had Scott Van pelt On to talk about the Masters, So I recommend listening to that. And without further ado, here is Shane Bacon. All right, Bacon, you're back. It's another Masters. I feel like we had you on last Masters and then we did the recap
the last time Tiger played the Masters? And how's life with two kids?
You know, it's it's been easier than everybody said it was going to be. And I don't even want to knock on wood or any of that stuff, but uh, you know, people tend to like they project their negative parental experiences on you, and it's a reminder that everybody's experiences their own experience, right, But it's been it's been lovely. Uh. The little little girls nine days old, almost almost double digits, big,
big do you do like a celebration? Is that like a Patton Oswalt birthday celebration when you get to double digit days?
I don't know. You know.
The thing that I always wonder about is like I'm at the I'm at nineteen months. Now, when do I get to drop the months and just go she's one, she's two.
I did it too, I did it too. But the problem is now is my is Henry is almost three. But he's not right there. So do you say two because two years eight months is a lot different than two years one month, right, I mean, it's a completely different child with experiences and what they're doing. And so I least I used to always trash the month thing, and now I at least understand it to a certain extent. Now I don't do it, but I at least understand the people that do it.
I have this whole theory. I think I've said this either here or the shotguns start on time. And why as you get older it seems like the years go faster and faster is because it's a smaller sum of your life, Like it's a smaller percentage of your life a year. So when you're when you're thirty five or thirty you know, I'm just gonna embarrass myself with math, but you know, that's such a smaller percentage than when
you're ten. So months actually makes sense, I think almost until you're probably like four, because it's just a month is such a huge part of part of their life. When they're under two years old, especially.
Three months is a big Yeah, three months is an enormous difference in the child as they're moving Three months along, Like my one of my best buddy's son is exactly three months older than Henry. And as I'm watching you know, their Instagram videos and things like that, I get excited for what comes three months later. You know, Like right now, Henry's been hitting golf balls, by the way, hitting golf
balls lefty, which I'm very excited about. I've got to actually after this, I'm going to the hardware store to buy one of those things that can cut metal, and I'm gonna cut some clubs down and see if he actually will like regrip some little clubs and see if he's actually gonna be a lefty. We'll see.
Wow, that's gotta be exciting. You're you're doing it the old fashioned way. You aren't gonna go get a fancy set of beginner clubs.
You're just gonna cut down some old ones. He's gonna be He's gonna be swinging some hafty swingways.
I gotta So. I went through this phase where I was asking a titleist sent me like a seven eight nine iron in blades because I was thinking about doing a combo set, and I think I'm gonna cut the seven iron blade down. And this kid's gonna have the coolest little kid club of all time, Like a blade seven iron is pretty sweet.
You're gonna be like Tiger. You're gonna be giving your kid blades from.
This very much like sure? Is that the segue? Yeah, I.
Don't even know that.
I didn't even know, so it wasn't professional's it was just dumb luck. But uh, I guess this is what we have to talk about as of this is Friday afternoon. I thought by this time we were gonna know, but we still don't know. He's waited till the very last minute. Uh Tiger Wood, it seems all signs point to him playing.
Seems like that. Yeah, yeah, I think that's so. So I'm I'm bringing back to Get a Grip podcast. I did an episode on Thursday with Scott Van Pelt that's drop it on Monday, and much like you and I are doing here, we basically just talked as if Tiger was in the field, and if he's not, it's going to be an awkward first twenty minutes of the podcast. But it feels like he's going to be doing it, and it feels like he's going to be in the field. It is like I wrote something already about this, Like
I haven't. I haven't posted an article in a year. I mean, it is so bananas to me that this guy is actually going to play professional golf again in any capacity. And then it's the Masters, right, I mean it's his place. He's the modern Masters guy, and he's gonna make the return here. I mean, like, is the week a win? That's what That's what I wrote. I wrote it, the week's a win. No matter what happens, this is a win for this sport.
I think I had gotten to the point with Tiger before this injury where.
I literally nothing surprised me.
Right, if he went out and he finished dead last, I wasn't surprised.
If he went out and won, I wasn't surprised.
I mean, I think we just have to look back to what happened with the FedEx Cup playoffs and a couple of years ago when he wins the Tour Championship and one week later he's the worst player maybe outside of Phil.
At the Ryder Cup. You know it, just.
The Varians. You know this at this point of his career. I just I don't ever know what to expect. I think it's a huge win, no matter what that he's
even playing. I think Brenda por F wrote something on The Frida Egg this week where he compared it to Alex Smith, who obviously came back from a similarly gruesome injury, and he said along the lines, I'm gonna misquote this, but he said it wasn't you know that that first play back for Alex Smith, nobody remembers the results of the play They just remember him.
Being in the game again.
And I think that's the mentality that everybody should take with Tiger, who knows. One of the things I think is crazy is like, when the injury to the leg happened, he was rehabbing another major back surgery, right, and nobody's talking about the back. I put as a subhead for an article that'll be live by the time of this pod, is Tiger's back.
You know, we haven't heard anything about the back.
And I think that's another layer to this that makes this return so crazy, is that he already was rehabbing a major back injury and then he almost lost his leg and he's back playing a little more than a.
Year later, competitively potentially, right. I mean that again, is what is so wild. This is a guy I talked to Van Pelp a lot about Tiger and one of the things I said was, this is the toughest athlete of this generation of athletes. And it's crazy to think
that a golfer can be the toughest athlete. And you know, Scott was mentioning, I mean, there's a difference in toughness in hockey and football versus golf, obviously, but in terms of finding a way to come back from these types of injuries that put people out of the sport forever. I mean, you mentioned the Alex Smith thing with the
poor ath article. You know, I go back to Sean Livingston a lot, and when Sean Livingston had that horrible, horrible injury and the video is like unwatchable, right, and the fact that he was able to come back was so incredible just to watch him be athletic again. Alex
Smith much of the same. The difference being is you're talking about two very good athletes and now you're talking about who I think is probably the most famous athlete in the world, definitely the most famous athlete in the United States to make a return like this after all these injuries and everything he's gone through and what is
this now? Like the third or fourth return for Tiger Woods, and to me, this is the biggest one to this point, considering you know, we were asking a question almost a year ago, is he going to walk again? And now there's a chance that he's gonna walk one of the toughest golf courses on the PGA Tour to walk and
play in a major championship. It's you, guys. I thought you guys nailed it on the shotgun start earlier this week or late last week when you guys talked about this event kind of sneaking up on you a little bit, it just felt like the Masters kind of poked its head and all of a sudden, it's here, and we're getting the story that everybody in the world would hope
to get. Right, So, even though we haven't seen a lot from Rory and DJ and Rom and those types of names that you hope are playing well coming into the first Major, you are getting the biggest story you could ever ask for in golf and outside of golf, and that is Tiger coming back. I mean, who do you compare him to Andy? I mean Brady Serena.
You said when he said he's the most famous athlete. I don't think I necessarily disagree. I think the people that you would put him in it put in that you named him Serena Lebron, Tom Brady. I don't think anybody in baseball gets there. I mean Michael Jordan would be the other guy that he hasn't played in forever that might be able to even I think Michael Jordan would probably be the guy that was the only, maybe the only athlete that's more famous than Tiger.
I keep hoping Tiger fax is the note in like, just find a way to send faxes out, you know, when he makes the actual return like full Goordan just I don't even know who would get a fax, Like would the AP even know what to do if it popped on their machine? But it would just be unbelievable if he just sent faxes out. If Steinberg was faxing out all this information to the world, letting him know that Tiger was back as a true you know, hat tip to mister MJ.
What I mean, we did the recap show after he won in twenty nineteen. What is there any result short of winning that would eclipse that in terms of a sports moment.
I think if he got in contention at this Masters, and again I'm I've said this, I wrote something about it. The week is a win. If he's playing golf on Thursday, he won the week he won the twenty twenty two Masters. To me, if Tiger Woods is actually playing in the field on Thursday, let's say we're actually talking about the golf. If he found a way, and he's gonna need conditions, and I know you and I were going to talk about our five things we're watching.
This is number one. This is the first.
Thing everything Tiger, right, But I.
Mean he's this is the first thing for both of us.
This is all bold, all italicized in like font thirty. But he's gonna need Augustin nationalill cooperated. When I say that, I mean he's gonna need a golf course that could play into his hands. He's gonna need it to be firmer, he's gonna need to play faster. He's gonna need a place that's not soft, and it's going to play into the hands of guys that could hit it three oh five and three ten in the air. Right, But if
it does play like that a little bit. What the forecast looks like for Thursday through Sunday of next week. But if it can play in his hands there and he does find a way to do those old Tiger tricks right, go out and shoot even par in the opening round, shoot one under on Friday, make a little bit of a move on Saturday, and he's just around like Jack was in ninety eight. And to me, that's
the comps. It's not Jack at eighty six, this is Jack in ninety eight, when Jack found a way to finish in the top ten coming off Tiger's win in ninety seven. You know, kind of the one We forget about a lot that Jack actually had a chance to win the Masters in nineteen ninety eight, which is so silly to think about, But that is the comp I would compare it to, is there if Tiger got in contention and was just a storyline simply making the cut
into the storyline on the weekend. I think we will remember this, probably not as much as nineteen, but we will remember twenty two as much as maybe three of his wins at the Masters. I mean, I think ninety seven and nineteen are forever going to be one and two in some way, right with Tiger. And then you probably make an argument that Tiger slam is third because
he one of four straight majors. For goodness sakes, the return is gonna be in those top two three four experiences of Tiger at the Masters, which is crazy to think considered he has won it five times.
It's it's wild the whole thing.
I did not expect this to be a real thing, even like when he was playing the PNC. I felt like we were stealing when we got him playing the PNC, and it's like, oh, there's a PNC gonna be this. But I think we're gonna see Tiger probably from what he said, we might only see him four or five times a year from now on, and it could be just centered around these majors, And I think that's I mean, that's a huge win for for all the majors and everything, but it's a huge win for golf. I mean, the
general interest of this event. If Tiger's playing is spiked so much because of everything that he's gone through, and obviously I think this is a huge win for the Masters, because, like we were talking about, it was kind of it kind of stuck up on us. Everything about golf has been about the Saudi's. The big names haven't been winning golf tournaments leading up to the Masters. I think you made this point on Golf Today a couple of weeks ago about the names of that were winning last year
versus the names winning this year. So you don't have that lead up where you typically like to see you like to see Rory win, knock one off at bay Hill or something, you like to see John Rohm win, but all of them have been kind of mired.
And even I was looking into it, like Klin.
Marcus hasn't been talked about much because he hasn't been on leader boards that much because he's kind of been having a down year by his standards, and obviously it's a small sample size, but the ball striking, which is something you know, the iron play hasn't been there at the level that it had that we come to expect over his short career, and I think, you know, coming into this event, that's obviously you know, Tiger just just shot this thing to the moon when it was one
of the most under hype Masters of all time, is now going to be one of the most hyped.
You said something interesting about Tiger's scheduling kind of going forward, and again we're assuming that he's playing right, we're assuming he's going to play the Masters. So then you start to think about when will we see Tiger the rest
of the year. I just finished that great Roger Federer book that came out this year, and I know Federer and Tiger were like buddies back in the day, and I hope Tiger takes a page out of the way Federer kind of spent the last five eight years of his career where it was all about the Slams, but
it was all about the specific slams. I mean, if you remember, Federer would skip the French I mean he would skip clay season even when he was healthy, because he understood his best potential to win was on grass, was at Wimbledon, and was around those types of seasonal events. And I think for Tiger, and you and I have made this point many times, is going forward, Tiger's going to have as good a chance to win and Open
as he is anything else. Right, if he's healthy and can walk on a golf course again, if he can play four days of professional golf at some sort of a tournament level, his best option to win another major championship is going to be the Opens. It's gonna be very interesting if he decides to skip PGAs and decides to skip US Opens at times, understanding that those golf courses and he'll his skill set might not kind of you know, congeal if you will, I mean, it might not work out that way.
How great would it be if Tiger is playing like the Irish and Scottish and the lead up to the the Open Championship.
Not certain majors would be pretty wild?
And it's like, then the Masters he plays, you know, he plays bay Hill and maybe what other and those are his six events of the year. Is like he plays just he just plays the Open and he just plays the Masters, because I think those are the two tournaments over the years that have shown they're not I think this kind of parlays into one of my first
points is the youth movement has overtaken golf. It has been something that we've been talking about for five years and it's now fully realized, I believe with if you look at the official World Golf rankings, it's here, he's.
Not coming anymore.
It is here that it can't get much younger than it is right now. And with that, the two majors that have been the most equitable to older players over the last five ten years have been the Masters in the Open Championship and partially the Masters because of the field makeup, but also because of the golf course and there's a lot of little local knowledge in it. But one of the things that I'm watching this year is in this is years going forward, something's got to give.
There's never been a first time winner at the Masters. We've got a younger than ever top ten in the world, the top five in the world right now, the entire top five is sub thirty years old.
Something's got to give.
There's going to be a first time player to win the Masters at some point in the future.
Could it be this year?
And obviously if we're talking about this year, we're talking about maybe Sam Burns. He's a top ten player in the world and he's never played the Masters, which I don't know. I don't I should have asked justin Ray ahead of this. I don't know if that's ever happened before.
Top ten player coming in and making his debut at augusta National. Yeah, yeah, I mean you got to you gotta go back to Fuzzy, right, Fuzzy was the last player that won in his debut, right, Is that the last player that won.
The last players start. Yeah.
Yeah, Well that kind of parlays into one of my points since we're talking about young players, and obviously we have both spoke on the superstar names that haven't shown up. And I think when you say that, you have to bring up Scotty Scheffler because you talk about you talk about surprising the world in terms of becoming something, and he's all of a sudden the number one ranked player
in the world. It's still even when you look at that, it seems a bit surprising Scotty Scheffler, and I know you and I are going to talk about Justin Thomas in a bit. Scotty Scheffler's major resume to this point is astonishine le good. And again this is the number one ranked player in the world, coming in totally under the radar, you know, three wins, He's played great golf.
But when you're talking about young players that could have major success and win majors quickly, Scotty Scheffler has played let me see here, I got it. He's played in nine majors. Okay, two of those is an amateur. He was low amateur at Aaron Hills at the US Open where he finished and a tie for twenty seven, so that was a top thirty. As an amateur player, he played in the twenty nineteen US Open at Pebble Beach
and he missed the cut. Since then, he's played in six majors, all of them are top nineteen finishes, three straight top eight finishes last year in majors coming into augustin National, this is a guy that has routinely found himself in the top ten on the leader boards, and I think sleeping on Scotty Scheffler at this point is almost an idiotic move from anybody involved in and around golf.
You have to sit here and think that this guy not only has a great chance to win the Masters, but this guy has a great chance just to get himself in contention. He's done it in almost every major championship he's played in. So when we look past the rories, we look past the rams and look past the kep, because there's a guy standing here right in front of us that has the potential to be Colin Morrikowe Calm October of twenty twenty two. Right, we could be looking
at this guy going he won another major. He's number one in the world he now has I don't know, let's say five wins, six wins at that point. But I think Scotty Scheffler is sneaking up on that next guy thing that we have kind of been waiting for. Who's gonna push more kawam.
I mean, you know how few players have won four times in a PGA Tour season. There's I mean, I can't that. The list has to be.
Tiny, yeah lately especially and and.
This guy one more win if he picks one more win off this year, he's got four PGA Tour wins. It's it's wild. And I think the thing about Scheffler that makes him such a good major players you look at him and he nothing in his game. He's plenty long. Nothing in his game is really like excellent. You're not talking about Morico where you're like his iron play is otherworldly good. There's nothing excellent. But also he doesn't have
an achilles heel. Like every player you go down the list and John Rahm has been this player, no achilles heal, but this year the putter has just kind of been disagreeing and you don't want to see that linger too long.
But the players that don't have any discernible weaknesses are always going to be the most consistent and the most well verse when it comes to major championships because it puts such stress on every aspect of your game, and that when you look at Augustin Nasal, I think that's where like the recipe for Tiger to contend is that he's been working on a short game of putting seemingly for a year, right, you know, and that's a place that if you know where to miss, you can kind
of get it around. Jordan Speed does it all the time. He makes these junkie sixty sevens, like you're just so, how do you shoot sixty seven? But Scottie Scheffler is along the same lines of like, hey, this guy doesn't really struggle with anything. He has no demons in a way, because he's pretty good at every aspect of golf and that suits him some suits him so well for different venues and different major championship tests. And if you go back to his amateur career, Scotty Scheffler was a bit
of an enigma. People always wanted more out of him. But if you looked at the big time events, when the USAM rolled around the NCAA, Championship, the Big the Big twelve Championship. You know there's a guy always near
the top of the leaderboard. It was Sky Scheffler, and I think that he's one of those guys that he the professional light has kind of turned on, Oh I do this for money now, and there might be a little bit more I don't think he was necessarily a poor work ethic, but there might be a little bit more focus now that millions of dollars are on the line and it's not just pride and and you know, I don't think it's a fluke. He got to the world. You don't get to world number one and have it be a fluke.
You know, right, I've been I've been thinking a lot about Scotty Scheffler this week, and just because I think, again, it's been a little surprising that he just this has happened this quickly, right, And I always go back to you see certain professional golfers that have this stretch where it feels like it's really easy for them, And I always go back to the Goodwill honey moment, you know, where Will Hunting burns the paper right, because you know, f and easy this is for me, And I always
think about that when I think about pro golfers. Dustin had a long stretch of this where Dustin would play golf and it just seems so easy. You know, it seems so easy for Dustin to finish sixth and to finish fourth and to win. Right, I mean, to go out there and win on hard golf courses, easy golf courses, whatever's asked of them. Rory earlier in his career, it looked so easy for Rory McElroy. And there are times with Justin Thomas where it feels like golf is incredibly
easy for Justin Thomas. Now, what's so interesting is there's certain players out there that have made careers out of almost making it look hard. I think Phil Mickelson, throughout his career sometimes make it look really hard. Jordan Spieeth is another one that sometimes you watch him. I mean the great Rory McElroy quote. Right, the last time Rory was really in the hunt at the Masters and he didn't make a burning, he said, how the hell's this
guy beating mirror? How the hell's this guy two under? Right? Is the quote he said about Jordan Speed. It doesn't look easy, but he can kind of junk himself to a sixty seven or a sixty eight, and Scotty Scheffler kind of does both. There are days where you're watching
him and you're like, how is he two under? And there are days where he shoots sixty five and you're thinking that's about his par And I just feel like to have both of those, to have both of those pitches and to be able to kind of play those types of golf courses, and we've seen it this year. I would be surprised if Scotty Scheffler's not in the hunt, just because of the way he's played lately, to your point about the big events, and simply how comfortable he
seems to be right now in his own skin. He's going to go there thinking I got a chance to win this thing, and that's as important as anything in golf, is that confidence in yourself and your game.
The demeanor is really unbelievable for him out there too. Yes, it just he never looks flustered, and that I think is something I haven't seen him really get angry about things like it just it seems like life is just in a good place. And I think that's one of the things golf that it's really hard to play great golf for a long time. One of the reasons is life like life, and what's going on in your life
impacts your golf. Anybody that's ever gone to try and play golf with a lot on their mind about different things probably realize how difficult it was to figure out how to hit.
A golf shot that way.
And I think you know something that's coming to light is golf in your twenties probably is a little bit easier from the sense of you're a little bit more naive, You're not aware of the pitfalls of the sport, and you have less.
Going on personally.
And I think that, combined with coaching and technology, has led to this youth boom, is that it just is an easier sport to play when you're younger, because there's less clutter in your brain. Now for a quick word from our sponsor, Elijah Craig. Did you know that Shane Bacon's good friend and PGA Tour pro Max Hooma is a new brand ambassador for Alive Craig, he will be out of the masters. I feel like he's kind of
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to think wisely and drink wisely. Now back to Shane Bacon.
So we're talking about youth. Can I throw out one of my things that is about the complete opposite of youth?
Yes?
Okay. So when you think of players of age that you feel like will have a chance to play well at Augustin National, of course people love to throw Freddy out, as they should. I'm gonna go Bernhard Langer because Bernard Langer does an age and he's aging and reverse. It's an even It's an even year. It's an even year this year, Andy, and he's had a lot of success recently in even years. Langer twenty fourteen, T eight six T twenty fourth, twenty eighteen, T thirty eight, twenty twenty
T twenty ninth. It's twenty twenty two, baby, this is the year I think Langer gets himself back in contention. I want Langer Tiger paired together on Saturday or Sunday. Let's just completely bulldoze the youth movement with these two guys at Augustin National. It's twenty twenty two, it's an even year. I like his chances of continuing the tread.
Don't make me go down the road of Bernard Longer's not getting the respect he deserves for what he's doing on the Champions Tour.
But I mean, like, think about that eighth twenty I mean three times he's finished in the top twenty nine in the in the last four even year at events at the Masters. Now he's thrown some stinkers in there as well. That's why I didn't include those because those are a load of years, and I'm talking about even years. But I mean to just consistently find yourself in contention. I go back to this a lot. I mean I asked him on Golf Today last year if he'd feel
comfortable being on a Ryder Cup team. He was like, absolutely, I think I'd be a benefit. You know, I mean, who says that, what is he sixty four?
Could you imagine if he had been out there during whistling straight.
But he couldn't have hurt clicking back, but everybody would have pointed to that that would be he would have been the scapegoat and maybe that's the benefit.
Maybe that's the benefit.
If you put him on the roster, you've got your immediate scapegoat.
Bernard Longer shouldn't have been on the team.
So do you like that one? Do you like that?
I like that?
I I personally, you know, there are some people that think that this past champion thing should go away. I love it. I loved Woozy's run last year. I'm disappointed we don't get another Woozy run this year. I love Larry Byes out there hitting at two forty and making cuts. I think he's made three of the last four cuts or something. I mean, he's made more cuts than Bryce
has made in the last four years, I think. And I mean that's another crazy thing is that Bryce is not really a main storyline because he hasn't been really around. I meane, mister Parr sixty seven isn't a main storyline. But yeah, I like that one.
I like that.
It's it's humorous. It's if we if we could ride him to the top thirty. That's a good DraftKings pick baby, it's good, good late pool sleeper.
I can promise you it's not never a bad thing to throw him in a lineup. That's all I'm gonna say. All Right, I see the floor you have, you have one of your five, all.
Right, I'm gonna put Kylin Markaua in here, okay.
And the idea behind Klin Markaua is he would you know, win here. He's Alsodden, the next great major player. He's one away from the career Slam and all of a sudden looks so much more realistic than every other one away from the career Slam content contender that we have. Uh, he has not played great recently. That said, he's putting better than he ever has in his career. And I don't think it takes much to turn on a great
iron player. And if you if you're a great iron player, you drive the ball well enough like he, you know, he drives it really well. Great iron play at Augustin National is about about as good of a skill as you can have. And I mean, Kylin Morrikawa just seems like he's going to win one of these because of that iron play. And I think, you know, in terms of if Klin Morrikawa picks us off, the commentary around Klin Morrikawa becomes rather significant and he.
Enters a stratosphere.
He's already in a crazy stratosphere, but he enters all of a sudden, like where could this go from here? When the golf courses are hard and they separate good shots from a great shots from good shots, there's you know, him and John Rahm are the two guys you want.
I am. I'm looking at Morikawa as year and we'll see how this plays out in terms of majors. And I love that you brought up the putting because the putting is drastically improved in terms of the statistics. And you said it, I mean the ball striking will be there either now or eventually sometime this season. It's not like he lost the ability to be the generational iron player, right. I go back to Louis last year. Ye you know, Louis is an unbelievable ball striker that at times could
have a baalky putter. Last year he putted great and look how often he was in contention in the major championship. So if Colin Morrikawis shows up and has a relatively okay week putting, and what's all of a sudden say he has a great week putting like he did when he won his two major championships. He's going to be there, He's going to be around the he's going to be around you know, the lead, and he's going to be
in contention. And I always go back to thus Tazen because I just feel like last year the ball striking and the golf swing has always been very impressive from Louie and the fact that he was literally leading the PGA Tour in terms of putting was the reason he was finding himself contention at different golf courses, at different majors and different situations against different people, right, And I feel like there's a chance we're going to see that
from Colin if that putter continues. And what I keep saying about this guy is he's won two majors basically leading the field and putting. He didn't have to leave the field and putting. He needs to finish twentieth or twenty fifth. I was looking at JT's putting stats, and JT wins when he's around fortieth in strokes game putting. You know, he didn't have to be first, he didn't
have to be second. But if he's fortieth, if he's just better than average with the flastic, he has a really good chance to win, and I feel like Calin more Cow was much of the same. When he's one hundred and ninetieth, it's hard to win, but when you're thirtieth or fortieth you might have a chance.
Something that everybody talked about the Greens books, and I'm very guilty of this and how they could hinder players. Right, maybe Kalin Moricau has been helped by not having a Greens book. Maybe it's made it more athletic and more natural, and he doesn't feel like he needs to look into a book to read Putts, and that could be as
simple of a thing as you know. I hope you're friends with Brad Faxon, and you anytime you hear Brad Faxon talk about putting, it's always about being athletic, being natural, being in the moment. And I can't think of something like a somebody who who literally can just sit there and dial up irons to half yards and all he has to do is, oh, one fifty two and a half. Here you go, you know, here's my three yard fade.
Right, Getting onto.
A green and looking into a book seems like the complete opposite of what you should be doing on the green.
And maybe removing the.
Green books has helped him with just becoming a natural putter. And it you know that made the statistic. That's all it is.
I got one for you as I'm kind of looking at five things, so I figured we'll get into Rory at some point. For Rory, it's stopping the opening round blues in terms of major championships seventy three, seventy five, seventy six, and first rounds in his last three Masters, including twenty twenty where everybody was going crazy low. But this is a guy that just is not allowing. Kind of like what you talk about with Colin morri Coowan
freeing yourself up on the green. Rory McRoy is approaching these majors and doing the complete opposite of what Tiger used to do in majors. Tiger would use the first round to feel out his game, the golf course and how this was going to play. Because majors are different, right, They played tougher typically, especially at Augusta National. It's asking different questions than every other tournament is asking. And the first round shouldn't be a place where you feel like
you need to go out and get it. You need to go out there and not shoot yourself in the foot, and Rory has consistently shot himself in the foot. And for Rory, even parr should be the goal. Man like even par one under. If you shoot two under, great, but don't shoot seventy five. Man, if you shoot seventy five, you're probably not gonna win. And that has been the formula that has doomed him as of late, is he just can't get off to even a remotely okay start.
You know what Rory's first rounds have shown overthinking a guy that knows he's going up against history.
It's nerves.
I think that's the telltale sign of nerves is slow starts. If you think about what you've struggled in tournaments or struggled in qualifiers, it's usually off the getting off to the blocks and then you have great back nines that can save him sometimes. But nerves is just getting out of the gates. And obviously, if you go through all his actions, all his quotes over those times, you see a guy that's trying to figure out a way to
cope with something that's mental. On that first round, what you said is kind of true, like seventy two, and if you talk to any pro about Augusta nastional. The thing they say is it's easy to shoot seventy two. It's really hard to shoot sixty six. And when you start try and shoot sixty six, you break seventy six in So maybe his goal should be to go out there and shoot seventy two. It's just because if you look at what he does after the first round, it's amazing.
He'll it's almost a guaranteed backdoor top ten after he shoots the seventy six or the seventy five or whatever it is in the first round. So yeah, with Rory, I don't know. I don't know what it is. Maybe he needs to go have a bottle of wine, drink a bottle of wine himself the night before.
I don't know.
Maybe he should come into it a little blurry. Maybe he shouldn't take a touch of club the entire leading up and just go out and play, because like, there's no there's no way. In twenty fourteen, if you said this is what Rory's gonna do in the first round of Majors for the next eight.
Years, You've lost every dollar.
It's it's nuts, it's utterly nuts what his performance has been.
And I don't know. It's got to turn around, right.
I love what you said about the like if you're Rory McRoy with how talented Rory is. Right, if I said to Rory on any golf course on the planet on any day, hey, I want you to go, I'll bet you a million dollars that you go out and can shoot even par like, just shoot even, and I mean just post seventy two. There's no way he couldn't do that anywhere in the world. He's too good not to even part to your point, even par is attainable. Now,
shooting three hundred augustin ashell is not always attainable. Sometimes the course is playing really tough. Sometimes you just don't have it. But even when somebody has talented as Rory is doesn't have it, he should still be able to get it in It's seventy two. Just get off the blocks.
Man along the same lines is like getting off to the fat start. The other thing with Rory, it just seems, and I think Bryson's kind of the opposite. I've noticed like this penchant with Bryson when whenever he whenever something's kind of rocking and he's got a big putt, he makes it. It's wild like he rolls in a twenty footer for par where he always makes that eight footer for bogie when it looks like he might make a double.
With Rory, it's things.
Are going good, things are going good, and it's just like a terrible bogeye. And there are just these speed bumps that he always seemingly hits that just stop and kill momentum.
And it's so so.
Easy to see it, Augusta, because you know the course, you know the scoring opportunities, and they always happen like along those tracks he hits one left on their or you know he has swimming the water out fifty. It's just like you just can't give one away on sixteen with a funnel pin.
You can't make a bogie there, right.
Like, take do what the course is asking of you, you know, don't try to do too much, don't try to do too little. Just make the birdies on three of the par fives and don't make a stupid six with a wedge, and then we'll see where you are on Friday afternoon. But that's my Rory point.
I will say this though, with Rory, and everybody loves to be like, oh, Augustus Taylor built for him. And I think this is this was a take that was founded when distance was so king at Augusta. But now everybody gets over the hills, so it's a little bit less of a separator, right, you know, there's that area to clean clear that was like the big thing, and Rory was one of the early big ball a big
long drive guys. Now I think Augusta the under emphasize point is the importance of short game, you know, And and when it comes to getting up and down like short game of putting, like Rory's not on my list of guys that I'm like. And Rory misses Missus greens, you know, he has those bad misses in the back and and I think it it kind of I don't think Rory's perfect for Augusta.
Right, Well, I would go a step a step further than what you said there. And because you brought up putting, and I have contended that you don't have to be a great putter to win Augusta National. You need to be a great lag putter, but you don't. We've seen a lot of putters and even bad historic putters. Think about Adam Scott, think about Sergio Garcia as of late that have won there. You know, even Hideki, who is not a great putter historically, right, I mean he's a
guy that has struggled on the greens. I think the number one skill is pitching the golf ball. The number one skill is using your wedges to your advantage. And there's a reason Zach Johnson winted Augusta Nashal was playing brutally tough, and there's a reason Tiger won a lot there and Sebby's had success there, and players that are so good with their way.
Deeckie and Sergio are like two of the greatest pitchers that no he talks about.
Yeah, and Jordan's so good at that as well. And I mean when you look, I mean Cabrera, I mean think about Cabrera's hands in his prime and how good he was at pitching the golf ball. And Phil Mickelson. All of these players that have different skills, set and hit the ball different distances and use different putting styles and sometimes completely different putters, they all are awesome around
the greens with their wedges. It's not necessarily about making the five foot or it's about finding a way to wedget to five feet to give you that opportunity. And Rory, I'd say that's his worst skill set, right. I mean, I think for Rory that's the part of his game that he struggles with the most, and he struggled with the most throughout his life. Is the creativity goes away around the greens for Rory McElroy and it has to
be so locked in for him to have success. And typically when he's won majors, going back to twenty fourteen, he's just ball struck the place to death.
Speaking of the great pictures of the golf.
And I knew you were gonna do this. I knew you were going to do this.
I think I would pay an unreasonable sum of money to watch just and Thomas in like an eighteen hole match play of like I get a pick where I dropped the ball him and him and Cameron Smith, and like who can get it up and down? Like I would love to see a tournament like that, like crazy up and downs match play between guys.
And Justin Thomas, he's so fun to watch.
Everybody talks about the ball striking and how fun the variety of shots, but around the greens, he's so fun to watch he hits. He has such a wide array of shots, like the bumps, he hits those bump and runs. He hits the high pitches like he's he has every shot in the bag from T two green. And you know I just said Rory is at Taylor Made for Augusta Nashville. You know who is Taylor Maade for Augusta Nashville,
justin Thomas Hell. Yes, wide array of shots shapes. He's great chipper of the golf ball, you know, one of the five best iron players in the world. Plenty laws and he's a little crooked, which isn't that big of a deal at Augusta National. And you know, up until last year we hadn't seen him really contend at Augusta and coming out from around the court like growing up around there, I'm sure there was a lot of pressure coming into it. He's never putted really well there, but
last year he got into contention. Obviously didn't go his way on the weekend. But this is a guy I expect to be there on Sunday. He's played exceptionally well this year without winning. Nothing's come together. He's had rounds where he's putted well or determinents he's putted well and the ball striking hasn't just been up to his level. And then the weeks that the ball striking has been there,
the putter just hasn't been there. And maybe these things burry up, but it just seems really cheap and really ridiculous that Justin Thomas only has one major to his name as of NOWT and that happened six years ago.
I'm with you. I mean, he's my pick to win it. I picked him a couple weeks ago. I said he's going to win the Masters in twenty twenty two for me, and I had Justin Thomas on my list as well. Andy. For me, it's time for Justin Thomas to be Justin Thomas at Augusta because this is a place that should
make so much sense to him. We've talked so much about Jordan's speed, and everybody loves to bring up the buddy buddy thing, But as much as Augusta makes sense to Jordan's speed around the greens, it should make that much sense to Justin Thomas in terms of the ball striking. I love what you said about his underratedness around greens too. You know, when you watch those old videos, and people on Instagram post these a lot the old videos of Tiger. You know, Tiger in his prime. What I'm always in
awe of is how soft his arms are. You know, he'd hit those just it felt like the club's moving the same speed on the way back and the way through. And JT is that modern example of that. There's a reason Tiger has kind of brought JT into his camp. There's a reason Tiger travels to Augusta with Justin Thomas is because I think he sees so much of himself in his game when he was in his twenties. I
think he sees a lo lot of JT there. And I feel like it's time for JT to kind of step up because he needs to do it now or he's going to truly become the forgotten major player, which is sad. He doesn't need to be that. He doesn't need to be the guy that has one major when he's thirty five years old. This is the place that needs to start happening. He needs to go on one of those Earnie runs or Phil runs where it's six or seven straight Masters where he's in the top seven.
Yeah, and I think the thing about him there is that he can play mediocre in top ten at AUGUSTA. Yes, it's just a matter of if he's striking it really well, he's going to be in the mix. And if his putter, like you said earlier, is just above average, it just has to be above average, and he's he's got as good a chance as anybody to win. So it's JT, this is time. How many how many you got left?
I think that's it. I think I ran through mine.
You got through here. Okay, so my last one, I've got to change it.
I was going to talk about the course, but I've talked about the course on this podcast already, and the course j are obviously going to be a big story and something that a lot of people talk about. But one of the things I wanted to talk about is just how many potential winners there are. If you look down the official World Golf rankings, anybody in the top twenty five, maybe the top thirty, exclude a couple names
out of the top thirty. Of the top thirty, I'd say that twenty five of the guys in the top thirty.
If you told me they win this year's Masters, I'd.
Say, oh, that's not that big of a surprise, and I think that talks about the depth of golf right now, the depth of talent. There's so many good players, and you know, I think if I was going to go through the list and say, like, this guy isn't gonna win at the Masters, it would be the highest ranked player would be Billy Horschell at thirteen. Then it would be Terre o'hatton. Obviously Harris English isn't playing because of injury.
But then you get down it's like Matt Fitzpatrick's playing as good as anybody on the PGA her right now and has played really well at Augusta National. I wouldn't be that surprised. But then you get down it's like Kiszner and Kevin Not. I don't think those guys necessarily have the horsepower to get it done. But outside of that, anybody else in that top thirty, and will Zel Torris is there at twenty nine. I mean, if the putter is halfway decent, he's got a great shot.
And Andy it has been a long long time since we've had a non big name win a major championship. I mean even Gary Woodland at Pebble. I would say, Gary Woodland was a known name. People knew Gary, they'd known what he'd been able to do. Everybody kind of knew about him as the long driving guy, you know, earlier in his career and he kind of changed his game.
But to me, you kind of go back to Danny Willett as the last player that kind of shocked the world and that guy was almost a top ten player in the world when he did it, right.
Because did you he finished? Did he win?
Durrelly finished third? He was a top ten player I think in the world when he was.
He was either top ten or just outside when he won that. And I mean you look at him, and you've got Jimmy Walker, who I think now when you look at it might come off the page a little bit when you go through the recent major winners, but I mean at that time, Jimmy Walker was a big name in golf. It's been a long time.
I mean since we've had up until recently, nobody had led the FedEx Cup more than Jimmy Walker.
There you go, there you go. You got it in. I was waiting to wondering if you'd get it in on this podcast, but no, I mean, it has been a long time we have been blessed on the men's side of golf in terms of the winners of major championships, and it's been a long time. And again I don't say this is a bad thing when a Tom Hogy gets it as a chance to win a major championship.
But come Sunday, if one of those lesser named players takes home a green jacket, I think we're at least getting closer and closer to that inevitably being the case at one of these majors this year next, because it's been so long since we've had it, and we've seen so many big names win majors recently.
To go along with the first timers. Hogy's on that list, Cameron Young, Taylor Gooch. I think Gooch would be an example of a guy that like nobody, you know, no cat visual fan really knows how good Taylor.
Goose right, it's great point.
Sensational tee to green player. And obviously, like I even a guy like Max I think like he's he's got a lot of mainstream appeal because of his good uh his social media you know, uh presence.
But Max Homa wins it at really good golf courses.
Seeingly tough golf courses.
Yeah, yeah, And I think that's like a demanding golf course. He's a great iron player, and that's like, this is a golf course that I think he could play well at. But like, that's the thing with the Masters is, especially with this type of talent that's now on the tour, there's so many guys that hit the ball at such a great level, and if any of their putters get hot, they're gonna be right there. And I I just this is what makes the Major special is this is what's
different than the Wells Fargo. This is what's different than you know, the the Honda. Is that you get to the back nine on Sunday and you're not you're not playing the best player. You're not just compete against the best players in the world. The history and the gravity of the moment becomes immense.
You mentioned Max. I mean, I think he's primed for a big Major year. I just he's playing better and better. He's playing more consistent. He plays tough golf courses and tough tournaments as good as anybody out there. I mean, go look at how he's played the Bay Hills and the rivieras and win conditions have asked those questions of you. He's had a couple of years now of major experience. I would be non surprised if Max has like three top tens and majors this year. I mean, I just
feel like his game is getting to that point. He's worked so hard on the short game over the last eight months that I just feel like he's getting to a place where he feels like he should be getting himself in contention of majors. And that was a little bit of what we talked off the top. You know, you bring up the history of these things, and I always say about the Masters, it's the easiest and hardest
golf tournament in the world to win. It's the easiest in terms of it's the least amount of great players you have to beat, and it's the hardest golf tournament in the world to win because it's the one they want to win the most. And there's so much that comes with it. And if you take this thing off at twenty five or twenty eight or thirty two, and you understand that for the rest of your life, you're
a part of the most elite club in sport. That's a lot to take on when you're standing over that shot on thirteen or you got to hang in lie on fifteen, Right, I mean, there's a lot more that comes into your mind than I'm trying to make egal here. It's I'm trying to win the Masters here. And that's what makes this so important. That's why these Majors are going to get bigger and bigger each and every year
going forward. Because with all the money in the Netflix and social media and PIP and all these things that we laugh about at times in and around sport, the one thing that's constant is the history. And there's no more history in sport than Augusta, Nashvill and the Masters. And it's such a fun thing to be a part of and to get to witness because every year, you know, I always think about this getting to Monday. Every year on Sunday, somebody's life's going to change, right, every year,
a life has changed forever. No matter how how rich and how important and how cool you are, your life forever will be changed. If you play four good rounds of golf.
Yeah, and I think you hit on something that I was thinking about the other day. And I think with the Masters it's more so than anything else, is when your mind is allowed to think about what you get when you do something on the golf course, and when you get into the moment where it begins to creep into your mind. Hey, I get to come back here every year for the rest of my life. I get to host the Champions dinner like once these guys.
I think.
The thing that I'm always most astounded by is how good at staying in the moment these guys are. But they even have slip ups, and that's what golf cannot be any harder. Then the moment you start thinking about what you get if you just keep doing what you're.
Doing, you bring up like I've had these conversations with players. I mean, I remember talking to Curtis Strange about nineteen eighty five one time. I mean, you're talking probably thirty five years later when we had this conversation, and it's like it was yesterday. I Mean, you think about the great Wiscough line, right, about how good the green jacket's
going to look on me? And you think about Kenny Perry and he's almost to the finish line, right, He's one step away from completing the marathon, but he didn't quite finish it off, and he finishes bogey bogey, and then of course the green jacket's taken from him, and it's you gotta finish it. I mean, even Tiger in nineteen, like, you got to make five on eighteen to win the Masters, and he wasn't the easiest five in the world that
he made, but you got to make that five. And it is the one place that does not let up, and it is the one place that continues to ask those questions and imagine standing like for you and I who've played competitive golf, standing on eighteen to t haven't hit that drive to win the Masters, and then haven't hit the second shot to win the Masters, and having to navigate the putt. Oh my goodness. I mean, it just seems so stressful. Now I'm sitting in my basement
thinking about it. I can only imagine what it's like for these guys. But those are those are my five. I wanted to hit on Rory. I wanted to hit on Scheffler, give him, you know, the praise he needed. And I know you and I both wanted to hit on j T.
Yeah, and we didn't hit on lots of red meat. We didn't hit on rom obviously. Uh, you know, I think not much to say about him other than he's exceptional golf. And then Kepka, Kepka's going to be my pick.
Wow, just feeling it, Huh, you know, I.
Just he's gonna be around, is by all. I all I'm looking for is somebody that's going to be around. I feel like his recent when he wins at majors, he plays well the week before or the week two weeks before, Like it just always happens where he plays really well. I don't think you want to get to the final four at at at the Austin Tournament.
I think the best way is to bow out before that.
And I think that Kopka, he he's done everything but win it and Augusta and It.
If he wins, that'd be something else.
I mean, is this like I know that it's so easy to say this is your favorite week of the year if you're a golf person, But the wait from major to major, the anticipation and the knowledge of the golf course and understanding of the history of it. I love the Open, obviously, I mean I love the US Open and kind of being a part of the broadcast side of things. You know, I respect the PGA for what it is, but getting to this week, it just
always feels like we made it. You know. Every time we get here, it's like, ah, Okay, here we go. Now we're going to go on this run.
Yeah I put it. Lately, i've been I love the Open.
I think as a spectator in America, I love the Open, and partially I love it also because of like work life balance. It's been like I love that the Open are these hectic major weeks where I still have an afternoon where I have a life, but these the every other major week, it's the entire day for an entire week is just gone. But I think the Open and the Masters to me, are the clear tops of the pedestal.
I mean, this is I love the US Open too, but I think they're the style of setup has become a less appealing to me over the years.
Well this is I mean, you know, getting go down there. I know we're gonna go down there and watch the basketball earlier in the week and have some food and just hang out and talk about this. But I just had a baby ten days ago, you know. I mean, there's not much stuff that's gonna get me excited to leave home. And you know, I mean, I know I'm gonna miss Charlotte. I know I'm gonna miss the fan when I leave. But I pinch myself every time I get to go to walk around that place and get
to be a part of it in some capacity. And I can't wait to do it again. Man, I mean, and I'm so pumped it. It's gonna be like it was. What was it three years ago? Right? Three years ago? Is that right? My goodness? So it's gonna feel like a bit of a of like we're all returning as well in a capacity. So I'm looking forward to it. I have one last golf question before we go. I have to. I wanted to say this to the end of the podcast. I'm playing in a one club golf
tournament tomorrow, one club only. What club do I take out?
How long is the course? How long?
Not overly long? Not overly long. It's probably sixty four sixty five hundred from the backs.
I think it's six iron.
Yeah, I was six or seven, is what I'm really between. I want to take three wood. I want to just take three wood just to be an a hole and because there's a couple of par fours. I could dry with my three wood, but.
Then you'd be around the green. What would you do around the green?
You just bump and running? Man, just go go, you know, kind of go a little Todd Hamilton like, you know, just hit the little runner. I mean, you can't do that. You gotta go with something with a little bit aloft. But I think it'd be hilarious to go three wood.
With a six or seven iron. You can still get out of a bunker. Yes, you get the three wood in there. You're what are you gonna do with the three wood?
Do you do you blamee the putts? Or do you d like do you do the d loft putt?
I like you have to blame him. You have to blame him.
Okay, right, I don't know. I'm gonna I'm gonna go out there early tomorrow and hit a couple of putts.
Maybe you could go writy and use the back of it.
I thought about that as well. I've thought about hitting backwards as well, But I almost think the d lofting And maybe people think I'm crazy here, but I almost feel like on longer putts I do back on my foot dl loft and just kind of like almost try to meet it with zero offt.
I like that. I think for longer putts.
I think you go, Phil, you have two methods.
And there and there it is our our Michelson mention of this point.
You notice the ball was in a slight depression. So I switched switched claw last.
Minute to win, to pop it out.
To win the PGA. I changed my putting stroke on the seventy first hole. Wild stuff. But yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It's gonna be a lot of fun.
All right, everybody check out, get a grip.
Uh.
They may they might hear you on some stuff.
I you know, I know that all cahoots and quiet, but they might hear you if you're if you're tuning in to coverage, they might.
I don't know.
And uh, we look forward to a great week down at UH in Augusta.
Man, I appreciate it. I'm looking forward to it as well. And anytime you need me, just let me know.
Thank you for listening to another edition of the Fridagg Podcast. Today's episode was edited by the wonderful Meg Atkins.
Thank you Meg.
As a reminder, as I said at the top, it's Master's week, so we will be on site. It's a great time to sign up for the newsletter, the Fridagg Newsletter. It is sent out daily during Master's week. Will and our entire team will be contributing, but mostly Will Will Knights and he does.
A great job with it.
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