Mailbag: ANGC’s New Chairman, the FedEx Cup, and Walker Cup Selections

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 frid Egg Friday egg, the dreaded Frida Egg Friday, Frida Frida Egg Bride Egg.

Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the course.

Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome back to another edition of the Frida Egg Podcast.

I'm here with Kyle Nathan.

We're going to break down and answer your questions in another mailbag pod.

Kyle, welcome on.

Thanks, Yeah, ready to go do some podcasting.

Yeah, what's the new?

Not too much? Watch some USAM golf last weekend. It was exciting. You got the playoffs underway. Pretty good time for golf here.

Yeah, that's uh, It's it's okay. I just can't seem to get excited about the FedEx Cup playoffs for some reason.

I'm with you.

I'm not.

I'm not a huge fan of watching. I watched this weekend and then once football starts, like gonna really lose interest rapidly.

Yeah. I guess that's why they're changing the schedule.

Mm hmm.

Let's just dive into the questions here.

We got a lot of them, So thank you to everybody who asks them. If you if you're not on Twitter, just email us questions and uh we'll put them in here. So, uh, Tucker Blanket Ship is asking about fred Ridley, the new man at at the Masters in Augusta.

So three things.

You'd like to see fred Ridley change about Masters Augusta National within the first few years as chairman, Kyle, what why don't you start off by telling us a little bit about fred Ridley.

I know he did some research.

Who is Fred Ridley? I was interested to know because obviously that's such a prominent position in the golf world, and I was shocked. He's played in five majors, three of which were the Masters. He's a two time Walker Cup captain and ex president of the USGA. I think in two thousand and four to two thousand and six he started out as an agent at IMG. He managed Hal Sutton and he was handpicked by Billy Payne in twenty eleven to follow him up. And he's only been

Yeah, that's that's kind of crazy.

I actually really like that he has played in a bunch of majors.

I think they'll probably help the tournament.

It might be just like a lot of little things, but that he does, but he knows what it's like to actually play, which I think is always important with tournaments.

Yeah, for sure, it's huge. I mean there's no substitute.

Really.

That's why they always say the USGA events are kind of gonna be bad because they are a bunch of amateurs running around running a tournament.

We do have a lot of USGA questions to get to. But first, what about the rest of this The three things he'd like to see Fred change?

Oh, well, I mean I think it. There's a big trend in the world of golf and golf courses of wiping away changes that any member of the Jones family has done to a golf course and I think that's the first one, getting Augusta back to what it used to be. Even Tiger Woods was talking about it in his most recent book about how much it's changed over the years and how there's you know, the inception of long grass, like you know, the idea of like if you hit a bad drive in the old days, it

Yeah, that's I think that's by far my least favorite part of the Masters is you get very limited coverage, and it's part you know, I think they see it as a prestige thing, you know, supply and demand, and I just I don't think in this day and age, with so many different ways to watch golf and the different ways it's being presented. I mean, you could watch it on Twitter earlier this year. I just I don't think that's a great strategy. People are gonna watch no

Yeah.

I mean I remember, like coworkers, like in an office setting, like even casual the most casual golf fans would have it on like on their computer and be exc I did about the Masters. So I feel like while the wall coverage would be uh would be very cool and a good it would probably be the best first and easiest step of his chairmanship.

Hey do you do you know what happened to golf on Twitter? The live golf? Did it work? Like?

I saw an article? I mean this was months ago, so I don't know how accurately I'm remembering it, but I remember seeing an article that it wasn't going well and I mean barely anybody was watching. So I'm going to guess that they, you know, kind of acts that out.

It's kind of like a tough thing to watch because they were putting it like the first hour of coverage on Twitter during the week which is like when people are on commutes to work. So I'm not surprised that it didn't go well. Like why not put it on Twitter on the weekend or something, Yeah.

Like simulcast it like they did with the Thursday night football in the NFL. Something like that.

Just doesn't seem like it was a well thought out plan there.

I want to see well before we go on. I want to see beer on the par three course. I know that it's a rule there where they don't serve beer or alcohol on the par three course during the tournament on Wednesday, and I'd like to see them do it simply because I think you'll have more guys out there, and it's not like your crowd at Augusta's your riff raff, you know, crazy baba boo yelling crowd, So I don't think there's any danger in letting them drink beer.

Yeah. I've never been to Augusta, but I've heard the security is very over zealous, so I imagine that if you just serve beer during the part three you would let those security go. It's got through a few more people thrown out, which probably would make them happy.

Yeah, they'll execute you if they catch you with a phone. It's weird loophole and Georgia.

Law, you know.

Speaking of Augusta, Pedro asks he saw that there there's a picture of Steve Spurrier peeing at Augusta National that dead Spin posted, and he wants to know, is this acceptable perceptible to do at like a high profile club such as Augusta or you know, any other high profile club for that matter.

I will tell you a story were I was playing in a college tournament at Big Canyon out in California. I think it was uc Irvines tournament. And during the practice round, I guess this kid went on this I think the part three if it's eight or seventeen, I can't remember, sixteen something like that, went towards the houses.

Yeah, I think.

I think My big thing is I always look around, make sure there's no women, no children around before I before I pee.

I mean, you gotta go, you gotta go, right.

I agree, there's nothing worse than playing a tournament and you know the guy you're playing with has like his three sisters and mom and girlfriend watching, and you're like, oh my god, where am I going to go piss.

Yeah.

You know, one one year when I was playing junior golf, I played with this kid and he had irritable bowel syndrome and we were playing this tournament and he turns out he had this problem regularly. He carried around toilet paper in his golf bag. And it was a course that was like a residential development. And next thing I know, he's like, oh, I gotta go to the bathroom. And he went and knocked down a couple people's doors and asked their bathroom.

Well, that's aggressive carrying in his own toilet paper, So that that's a bigger problem.

I think, Yeah, that would that would be a severe issue.

So getting into the us GA, we got just tons of questions here about the Walker Cup and the us AM and it seems like it was a big hot topic over the weekend.

People are getting fired up.

Yeah, I'll see which one's the best one to start with here?

Worst move walker from the U s G A Walker Cup, private.

Walker Cup, private selection process, ending pub links, or dropping state team.

For me, that's an easy answer, dropping the state team. It was my I played in the last too, luckily, and I had so much fun. You know, it's obviously a big tournament. They got the USGA red flags, so you feel like you're you know, it's a huge thing. It's always at nice clubs in great shape, and you get to do it with you know, your friends or teammates, and obviously the fields are incredible. So I'm a huge fan of the state team. It was definitely my favorite

So yeah, that's my thing. That's what I was gonna say.

I feel like this, people like especially media crying for like a Walker Cup points list just want it so that they can have like easy content to point to and easy storylines. And nobody really follows college and amateur golf that closely, with the exception of like three people.

Now without state.

Team, there's like literally no reason to play in these events or the state am because you could go play in like a nice invitational instead and not lose anything in the state team rankings.

Right, and you lose, you lose. I mean, there's so many cool experience. I you know, I had the fortunate of being in the final group of the final round in the twenty fourteen state team. I mean, in all likelihood will never be in the last group of a final round of a USJ event again, because I mean it's not really unless you're playing in the Masters. You know, in the Usam finals or in the mid Am finals. But and we played with Alaska, you know, and it

Yeah, friend of the pod now Latino American Tour winner to a star.

Yeah, he's on Star.

He just entered the LO Cinco. He's in the top five.

Now, oh that's big in Narco's tour.

Huge. I'm playing with tomorrow.

Actually, oh boy, nice? What are you guys playing?

Conway?

Sweet?

So it should be good.

Let's see bigger Walk Cup snub John Peterson a few years ago or Sam Burns. Both happened to attend LSU. Both starred at LSU.

Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. Maybe the selection committee members are Bama fans or something, because that seems like a total LSU vandetta. I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say sam Burns, but I know you. I'll kick it to you because you probably probably have some better color on it.

I don't know. It's a tough one. Sam Burns had an unbelievable college here.

But Peterson won Jones Cup and and the NCAAA, so, you know, to a certain extent, like the resume of Braden Thornberry. Maybe not quite as I'm not sure if he won anything that summer, but essentially Braden Thornberry, which was like all lock and Sam Burns had a kind of rough summer outside of his Barbersol when or is Barbersol T.

Six which pretty huge though, yeah.

It is huge. That leads us into the next question. Those last two were from Port Golf. Philip Johnson asked, should Burns have made it over Scheffler? And you know, so that's like the big debate, you know, Scheffler versus Burns when you know, so, how do you weigh Burns T six at the Barbersol versus a T twenty seventh at the US Open.

Which one's more impressive?

I think obviously the T twenty seven probably at the US Open, and for sure in the eyes of the USGA, that's more impressive. And that's really what it boiled down to, is, you know, Scheffler's USGA pedigree versus Burns. I mean, you got a guy that won the Junior Low Am at the Open. I mean, he's one of their own, He's he's they've all spent tons of time around him, and and that that just gives him a clear edge.

He was on that World Amateur team last year too, that right, so, you know, I think, and it's like the other thing about the US Open T. Twenty seventh, there is like going through, getting through local, getting through sectional qualifying.

Also, yeah, it's I mean, it's brutal to make you have to play what seven pretty solid rounds, you know, maybe six six great rounds, five great rounds and two solid rounds were you know, not to take anything away from a sixth on tour, but you know that's four solid rounds. So I'd give the edge to the US Open.

Yeah, opposite field event too, so one of the weaker fields.

And Scheffler. I think Scheffler was the fifty four.

Hole leader at at the NCAA's too, so it's like not like he's like, you know, he he played really well there.

Well, these two are kind of related here is it me? Or as Walker cup discussed and critiqued more than ever? Why is that just golf Twitter? That's from John Willis And then Todd wants to know Sam Bird's robbery. It seems magnified by golf Twitter. So basically is Twitter blowing this up?

Oh yeah, I think all these social networks like prey on outrage, you know, when outrage happens, like you know, like you could be out there throwing around like the most sensical takes on golf and and somebody that just is yelling at the clouds will probably get more attention than you.

So anything that you can stir up drama with.

And allow for people to get outraged about, I think is going to be magnified. And one of the things I find interesting about the Walker Cup is like you get all of these golf commentators, is that pay attention to golf, to amateur golf like three times a year, like throwing their two cent in about you know things because they watched, you know, a couple hours of the US am this this week.

You know, you didn't like Shannon Sharp and Skip Bayless talking golf leading into the Open.

I actually kind of did like that because like forever now we have like Ricky Fowler isn't tall enough to win?

Oh yeah, I was a huge fan of that.

Yeah. I think, I mean maybe now Risillo we could get him. Is it too soon?

No, I think he'd be great.

Yeah, it's uh, what do you I mean, what do you think about that?

I think it's blown up? I mean, obviously I know. One of the questions down the line from our buddy, the angry golfer in glen View, he says, Walker Cup, why do they need two Ams or two mid Ams,

Yeah, I agree. I think it's one spot's enough. I think it's it's pretty fair for one and I don't know how many. Like Hagastad's an example of a guy that like went above and beyond to get like if there were no spots, he probably still would have gotten a spot, right, So I think like he's a rare case where it's like extremely like this team especially, like I think some of the outrage came, but like the reality is that this was probably one of the more competitive and closely.

You know contested Walker Cup, Like there were you could you could have picked twenty players for the last two spots on that team and and nobody it wouldn't have been like we could have made the same case for them over over Burns or whoever you might be.

It could have been you know, John Odo was a guy that had like an incredible.

Last year of golf. But you know, nobody brought him up.

But he like he mondayed into a PGA Tour event. You know, he made it to the final sixteen of the US Am. He was a first team All American. Like, I mean, that guy had a great year too. He qualified for the US Open. So it's like, you know, there's there's twenty guys that could have gotten that last spot.

And I think when when you look at when you compare the next best mid am to that to those guys, it doesn't really compare.

Oh a hundred percent. I mean, I know the guy we're talking about in particular, Scott Harvey, He's had a great, you know, great year. He took to Twitter to vent out some of his frustrations, which I thought was questionable. But you know, you look at like a guy like Nick Hardy or somebody, you know, they you know, they deserve they deserve it over Scott. So I don't I don't know what the what the big hubbub is about that.

Yeah, it's like Nick.

Nick Hardy is another great example, Like until the US Am, he hadn't finished outside of the top ten in uh in an amvent for like the entire summer. It's like it is an it's a whole nother question. Like it is like, how do you value consistency in golf? So like a guy that is a top ten machine, I feel like Kocher gets aligned for it being a top ten machine versus a guy that wins once or twice a year, which which would you rather be?

Oh? God, winning is really fun, but also playing bad is so frustrating. I think you're you would have you'd be happier and live longer if you were the couture of the world getting you know, T nine's all day, but you probably have more fun winning more. I don't know that's such a i'd say. I personally, I probably would rather win and do the old Calcavecia where you play well four times a year and you know you're

Yeah, I think I feel like I think Tiger once said it is like in golf, everybody's just trying to get more consistent, right, So I think that's like the the thing that we all chase, like, you know, that's our crack as consistency is like, well if I could just play like that all the time. Is like what everybody says after they play the best round of.

Their lives, right, it's funny.

So it consistency. I think it just it's just doesn't get enough love. You know, in golf, here's.

A midam cousse. Sorry, oh go ahead.

I was gonna say, how would you if you needed a better selection process, how would you do it?

I mean, I you could do it. I think the obvious answer is to do something similar to you know, the Ryder Cup where you had a points list and it's it's tough though, because then you really cut out the mid AM's because all the event it's the same thing as kind of the world rankings. Why it's so hard for midam to gain any traction there is because you're not playing in the college events, and the college events have to be waited for the Walker Cup because

I think that that the captain.

I didn't even know this until last week, that the captain doesn't actually have any say on the team. And he's the guy like trucking around all spring and all year round, like traveling to.

These events, and he doesn't even get a vote. I mean, that's that's kind of crazy to me.

I didn't know that either. Yeah, that's not even a vote.

I guess, yeah, that's what That's what I was informed last week. I was like, whoa, this is kind of crazy.

I think one solution might be like, hey, like you know how the Ryder Cup, like you get you got the top, you know, say six guys, you just put him on the team, you know before like the last two months of the season and like, hey, these are our six guys were rolling with no matter what, you know, and then and then do the last four at after the USM.

That could be a solution.

Yeah, I mean I think that's fine. But the argument against that obviously is you're you're one through six in this case, in this Walker cup. I mean to tell me if I'm wrong, But those guys are on the team anyway, right, I don't know.

I think like Dylan Meyer would have been on the team and probably burned if you did it.

Wow, I don't know. Well yeah, two months ago, that's true.

It's a good I think it's just fine. Just nobody.

We don't need transparency into this. We don't need to know how all these decisions are being made.

Yep, I agree, totally fine, leave it alone.

Yeah, let's see here.

This was a thoughtful question from Stephen Carroll, an Aussie, and it's it's staying on this mid am golf thing. Sorry for anybody not interested in this, but when did they lower the American mid am age to twenty five and how it affected the true middle aged golfers like me in the thirty five to fifty bracket.

Is there any talk about.

Reducing the age of seniors likewise to forty or forty five like the midam is so in Australia, the midam age is thirty to fifty, not twenty five to fifty like it is here.

You know, I think I'm actually not sure when they lowered the midam age to twenty five, do you know?

And I'm not sure either.

It probably was like twenty years ago, I want to say, maybe less.

And I think it's a fine idea thirty five to fifty or even thirty to fifty. In the reality, you know, when you play in a lot of these tournaments, for the most part, you don't see many guys under thirty. Obviously there's exceptions, like we just talked about Stuart. You know, he won the tournament last year. He was a young kid, barely twenty five, But for the most part, there aren't many.

Yeah, I think one of the things with mid ams is it's tough for most midams to play tournament golf from ages like twenty three to thirty because you're starting your career, you know, and it's like you're you're probably working a low tier job with limited vacation and limited you know, your weekend priorities are a lot different at twenty four, twenty five, twenty six than they are at thirty five.

So I think.

Being a really good midham at at age twenty five is is rare because of like just life, you have to have like the right kind of setup in situation to be you know, a really great midam, and and a lot of them, a lot of the really great players at that age are playing trying to play professional golf.

At twenty five.

So I think that age is fine, and I agree it's it's the uh, it's the former PGA Tour players that are Midam's is the bigger problem as far as lowering the senior age, Like I think you'd have to lower the senior tour age, but that's not that bad of an idea given where the tour is going. I mean, I think it's only getting younger, and you're going to see a lot of guys at age thirty eight who have been off the tour, who had good careers for three or four years without anything to do until fifty.

So that that's a problem that's going to happen.

I think that's also gonna I mean they're going to get if you take if you're not playing competitive golf from thirty eight to fifty, I mean you're going to probably lose the drive to play a little bit and your game is going to be nowhere near you know, in good enough shape I think to compete at fifty. So that is an interesting point. Yeah, I think they definitely need to do something. I mean, forty five, do.

You see like a thirty eight year old tour pro in ten years like going and playing on the Dakota's Tour because he's got nowhere to play Because of how many young kids are in the game.

I don't know. I think that, yeah, that would be that would be a stretch.

I could just see him hanging out in a casino.

Chad Campbell, Yeah, playing the E Golf Tour this week.

You know, Zach Blair is playing the Utah State Open.

I did see that. That's funny, it's.

Kind of amazing.

All Right, We're gonna have a news segment this week to the pod where we have to pick sides. I feel like we're very agreeable, so so we're gonna we're gonna run down three topics and we're gonna each pick a side and argue for the side. We're gonna start with Kyle. Should Rory be playing or resting this week or the whole playoffs really the rest of the year.

For me, that is an easy one. I think he should be playing. As we mentioned earlier, you know, you're playing for a significant amount of money, ten million dollars, so you should you should give it, You're all you know, they always say, you know this guy plays hurt in golf. I agree, it's not the greatest thing, but he seems healthy. I don't think if he was hurt he would have been playing. He wouldn't have played in the PGA. You know, he's probably very rusty. I think that injured and you know,

Right, Well, I'm going to take the other side. He's had a rough year.

Sometimes you just need to just need to close the book and start fresh. He's aid, uh, you know, new caddy. I guess you know, he's trying out new caddies. He's got some deep selection process, he's got new equipment in the bag. But the biggest problem is, like I heard that his like left arm goes numb sometimes from this rib injury. So like, get healthy, you know, start fresh in twenty eighteen or whenever you want to start your season. Enjoy life is a married man, Yeah, just just take

He probably hasn't even touched the ten million dollars he won last year and come back in twenty eighteen, werefreshed and go win the Career Grand Slam with thop Masters.

You know, maybe you should just move to Augusta and just hang out down there all winter, be.

A nice little life. Okay. Next one, should Maverick McNeely turn pro.

I'm gonna go with no, because if he had, he's he's announced this week he's turning pro. But if he had, he could have become the greatest amateur to play the game since Bobby Jones, like his dad's worth a billion dollars, you know, he doesn't need money, and frankly, I think if anything, you know, like he could find professional golf to be very difficult and hard and and he might.

Have instant success.

But I don't think he's gonna have instant success and he's going to be strong. I mean, he'll obviously get a lot of sponsors exemptions, but I think in three to five years he'll get tired of it and go back to regular life. But and that'll just tarnish his opportunity to be this generation's Bobby Jones.

I'm gonna say he should turn bro. Like I mentioned with Rory, you have a chance to be. You know, I know his dad, and he's got more money than he could ever spend, and you know that whole argument. But it's not all about the money. Sometimes it's about, you know, creating a legendary spot for yourself. And he clearly has a ton of talent. You know, we've been hearing his name for so long, and I just think, out of a out of an interest standpoint, I want

But but here's the thing.

Couldn't he be more legendary if he was actually different? Like you know, let's just say Maverick McNeely turns out to be great, like really great and wins a major.

What if he did that as an amateur? So I would say in our world of you know, avid Gulf fans. Yes, he would be more legendary, but I think in the broader, broader world he would not because I think that you know, I just you know, pop culture legend status. You know, he could win seven majors as a pro, you know, and I think eventually people are going to be like, look, turnpro, turn pro, turn pro. And I just think as an as a as a professional, he can accomplish more towards being a legend.

He wouldn't be able to play in like the Ryder Cup. In the PGA, he could. I bet he could play in the Ryder Cup, could you that.

I'm interested to know that.

Actually, he wouldn't be able to play in the President's Cup, that's for sure.

So Ryder Cup is open to anyone, huh, I.

Don't think so.

Actually, I think it's it's only open to pros now that I think because it's run by the PGA of America. So if you can't play in the PGA, you probably can't play in the Ryder Cup.

So that's you're missing one of the you know, the casual golf fan or the non golf fan, you know, that's one of the events they.

Watch yeah, but think about winning the US Opener, the Masters is an amateur?

Yeah, I mean I think I think you're you're you're It's a little bit. You know, you picture an amateur winning a major, and you immediately picture a kid, and so you're like, oh my god, this kid won them won a US Opener, This kid, you know, finished second in a tour event, blah blah blah. But I mean, if you're saying that when he's you know this, you know, older than the guys he's playing with, It's like, Okay, why is this guy not you know what's going on here?

Yeah? I don't know.

You could do a lot of cool stuff with all that money. I feel like golf, being a professional golfer would be a waste of a life.

But that's just me.

I'd have I'd have more fun doing other stuff, you know, starting stuff and listen to cool ideas.

All right, do do blimps deserve a place in the game of golf?

Since you are now Twitter's blimp expert, I'm gonna give you this question to answer first. I'll let you pick your side. No, and I think I.

Need They don't. They don't at all. They just are a nuisance. I mean, look at what the what the blimps have been doing this year. At the Players, it was flying really low and you know, buzzing around and and then you know that's where blimp gate started. You know, it was like it seemingly was flying lower in the.

Morning on Thursday than it was on on in the afternoon. It was clearly had a vendetta against one of the early morning players. And uh, then you know, one crashes at the US Open and talk about craziness.

We're just lucky that nobody got was hurt. And then uh, and.

Then at the at the PGA, people are complaining about it, like you know, players are complaining, players are stepping off balls, it's casting shadows over the greens, like you know, it's a nuisance of the game that can easily be solved by like modern technology, like you could fly a drone up and do the same exact thing as a blimp.

So drones and blimps obviously. I so that you just stole one of my arguments. I was gonna say, you got the great views, which I love. I think, you know, that's always a cool sight to see how the golf course kind of fits together and you know, the routing, and you get that view from a blimp, which I like so much, just to kind of get a standpoint where you are and all that. Plus you get nance and is a oh what a fantastic view. Ill here is San Antonio. You know you'll miss out on that.

You know, you missed a big part of that argument. Four blimps is the marketing dial of dollars. Yeah, true, good Year, good beer, Good Year. My arch nemesis is the Goodyear blimp. This guy's had to had to tweet at me on their way out of town last time.

Just speaking of vandetta as you have one against blimps.

Yeah, blimps. Blimps need to go. All right, Let's uh, let's move back to the questions.

Sounds good, All.

Right, here's a good question. Changing the subject. Chad from Deer Park back again. What's worse someone telling you about their fantasy football roster or someone telling you a shot by shot detail of their round?

Chad from Deer Part It's funny. I have a friend Chad, and he always tells me about his fantasy league and it is super annoying. And so is the shot by shot. I think they're both like unacceptable. They should you should be arrested if you do either one. What's the worst golfer is the one that says I shot seventy four, but you know I should have birdied these six holes where I was twenty feet and I just barely missed a twenty footer, So really, my seventy four should have

You know, I think the shot by shot detail is worse because like legitimately you're the only one that cares about it, and there's like no common bound, no common bond. Like if somebody's telling me about fantasy football, which is equally it's that it's it's egregious.

You shouldn't be talking about your fantasy football roster.

But you might have the same player and you could say, oh, did this guy score a touchdown? You know, or or that's great, but like you telling me about how you made a four on the seventh hole and like the details of every shot, like I could care less, Like I almost don't like when people tell me about their hole once.

Like like that that's funny.

That might be the only acceptable shot to tell about talk about, Like I don't really care.

Yeah, I only I only like hearing about like consecutive holes you've holed out. Like if you get a nice string of like three hole outs in a row and a three hole span, then you can tell me about it. I'm excited. But fantasy football, that's a good point you made. There's somebody else in the world that feels your pain. You know that Odell just drop the past. You know you don't know him, probably, but there's a guy in Biloxi who's so upset because he just lost his fantasy

Say, I would say, also, like the oh I should have shot thirty one, or I should have shot thirty two, like or seventy one instead of seventy five. Like that's golf, Like everybody, nobody. You never finish a round of golf where you walk off and say, oh, you know, I didn't leave any shots out there?

Have you ever done that? No?

Zero time? I mean the only way you do that is he shot fifty four, right.

Yeah, only that.

By the way, speaking of fifty four, you told me Louis Ustazen was three under through three, so potentially on the next podcast we'll be discussing Louis fifty four.

He bogied four, so damn it, it's gone.

So that's too bad.

King Louis. All right, Uh, journeyman, you'd most like to see win a major? Uh?

Jerry Kelly. I think Jerry Kelly is he plays well with the players these days, you know, every now and then. It probably hasn't been for a few years, and I'm probably just selectively remembering his successes. But he seems like a great guy, Wisconsint guy. Wisconsin people are such good people. Seems like, you know, he gets angry, lets his emotions show. He's put in, you know, years and years of work on the tour. I would love to see him win a major.

You know what would Monty count.

Monty's got three majors. I don't know what you're talking about.

That's true, I'd say, you know, I'd like to see a man.

You're not gonna go with Zach Blair.

He's I don't think he's a journeyman yet.

No, not yet. He's too young. I'm just kidding.

He like got to the tour right out of college, so that doesn't count. I'm gonna go over thirty.

Ken Duke, Oh yeah, for sure.

Did you see that, uh that swamp ass display he put out there last week?

I didn't have to google it.

Oh my god, he.

Was Ken Dukes swamp ass.

He was. He was wearing like cloth khakis. It was it was. It was honestly like he like he like took a seat in a.

Pool that's legendary.

Yeah, I mean, it only.

Seems fitting that the man that played the greatest round of golf ever wins a major.

I agree. I'll agree with you on kin Duke, but I'm still Jerry Kelly is slightly more than kin Duke.

But Stricker would be cool too. But I don't know if he's a journeyman.

Yeah, I don't consider him a journeyman. If you captain of President's or Right Cup team, you can't be considered a journeyman. Okay, let's go best way to ensure the top players participate in early events without the tour requiring it, or just best way to improve the playoff.

Oh so, like I think like the early events almost have become too popular and it and it kind of limits the events that these young guys can play. That like they get their card from the web dot Com Tour.

It's like, oh, congratulations, you have you have three starts in the fall, and if you don't play well, you might not play again till Pebble Beach.

Yeah right, here's your card. Now get on a plane. You got a tournament in three days.

Yeah. And then and then if they don't play. Like one of the most important things when you come.

Up from the web dot com is is playing well in one of those three starts. Like if you don't, like you're kind of shit out of luck because your next starts coming in, Like you know, there's a low field. So like what's happened is those fall events like the veterans have seen, Oh my god, this is a great time to just rack up FedEx cup points because none of the star players are playing, so they all sign up and play, and it limits the amount of starts of.

The young guys get.

And it's like, especially like the guy that finishes twenty second on the web dot Com Tour money list, like he's like at the very bottom of the total poll and he just there aren't any.

Starts, right, I'm gonna rope this into a question that Golf and Whiskey asked us if I can find it, Oh, here we go. Should the PGA Tour add more Monday qualifying spots? Thoughts of the Tour Championship being match play for ten million dollars thirty two spot bracket winner take af so I mentioned that because I think I kind of like where that's at. We talked about in the last part we did about the PGA Championship possibly being

Yeah, I like the idea of match play a lot. Also, I think it, Yeah, it would cool. Like you get you're in the final thirty or thirty two guys, Like you know you're in the final thirty now, Like it's kind of boring to watch a stroke play event. And you know, one of my pet peeves is also is like when people include, like, oh, you finished t twentieth at the Tour Championship, It's like, well, there's thirty guys.

In the field, right, you can't finish worse than that thirty nail.

Yeah.

So it's like, from a perspective, I like the idea of match play in some some sort of format.

Nine hole matches would be really cool too.

It would be crazy, I mean, but you'd risk getting some crazy results or even doing it. I mean, if you wanted to get real crazy kind of a six hole thing like.

The the golf sixes, Yeah.

The golf sixes like the Euros are doing.

That'd be cool.

I feel like there should be some more alternative formats in the Fall, like talking about like ways to Spye, like there should be some crazy like the stroke play all year round, Like stroke play is the best because like it identifies the best players you know, like you, But I'd like to see some different formats in that Fall series and you know, get some excitement. I mean, it's gonna be it's gonna be so dead come twenty nineteen.

I agree, I think I one hundred percent agree and think about it, like, you know, I think most people would agree with us. They'd like to see different variations of golf. I mean, I don't know, the sixers is kind of crazy, but you know, you get more a little more stable for a little more match play. And the people we talk to and we are like, you know, the most avid golf fans, So exactly who is against this?

Let's do it, yeah, dude.

And then like the other thing is adding more opposite field events for those bottom guys, you know, like if you don't qualify for the top sixty event, that's some crazy format. Like you know what play you get to play in the the Barber Cell Championship somewhere else. It's like the you know, the the Shick Championship in somewhere somewhere.

I don't know. I just was pulling another shaving product out.

Of my my ass.

All right?

Does Neil Smith wants to know Hendrick Stenson Hall of Fame worthy career. He got a major of players a WGC two playoff wins, nineteen worldwide wins, also a FEDEPX Cup win.

So I put Louis on the fringe last time of a Hall of Fame spot, and I think Henrick's career is better. So I'm gonna have to say, yes, he's a Hall of Famer. I mean, you know, if you count the players, is a major, you know, major, half, a major whatever, he basically has a Major and a half and a WGC and a FedEx Cup, So there's no I mean it's almost in pop plus it's he's

Yeah, I think he's His career probably if you match it up to Jim Furick, looks like really similar, So you got you gotta be he's gotta be a Hall of Famer.

I agree. All right, here's our first big Cat question with the hacked picks of Big Cat surfacing online. Will seventeen at the redesigned Jackson Park hole be named renamed the Tiger's Tale.

I haven't heard much about the the Jackson Park project lately.

I think that they hit a roadblock. But I would I would hope, I hope, you know.

I feel like Tiger in his older age has been able to embrace humor and like the humanism of life, whether it be like the mac Daddy Santa, and I think he should, he should take this in stride and and and be proud of.

Be proud. What are you trying to say?

And uh, you know, and and I think you know, it'll make him more uh more approachable by the common fan.

That question, by the way, it was from our friend, our good friend, David Horlander, which so this reminds me of a story. I was at the eighth grade dance and I was standing in the corner like most people do in eighth grade dances, and I'm talking to a girl that I was friends with her dad, and the movie Boogie Nights had just come out, and we're kind

Yeah, nobody, nobody's gonna know what it is, right, Steve Messner. He he asked a great question about ideal breakfasts a couple of weeks ago. Now he wants to know what we're eating during the round.

I'm gonna go mine's pretty simple. I really eat a lot of like trail mix. I mean to be honest, I I wherever you know, you go to Walgreens or CBS and pick up one of those big bags. And I don't even know why. I probably read it in like a nineteen ninety nine Golf digest with Duvall on the cover that it said you know, eat trail mixed during your round, but that's what I do. It's pretty much all you eat.

I'm a I'm a big fan of cliff bars. But then, you know, I realized later this year that a cliff bar isn't healthy. It's like actually like a candy bar. Somebody informed me, and that's probably why they're so good.

I know, right, it's just a miss missed. They're misleading customers, I think.

Uh, I don't know. Beef Jerky seems like a popular one.

One of my buddies who's a complete health nut, and you know, he grills up chicken breasts and he'll just open his bag up and he's got chicken breasts.

In it, which is seems unhealthy.

I feel like that's gonna catch up to him one time with like like equal eye or food. Salmonilla, Yeah, salmonilla, Like it can't be good to have in your golf bag for eight hours at a time.

Jesus, if I saw somebody pull out some pre made chicken breast during the round, i'd probably I did not speak to that in the rest of the round.

Funny story is we we played once and he had him and then we went to Chipotle after and he ordered a burrito bowl without chicken, and then put his extra chicken breast in the burrito bowl.

Now I know who this is. You're welcome for not sharing your name. Buddy.

Well, he asked the question greater than under an alias. I think it was about the Walker Cup.

Though I didn't write it down. Actually it wasn't good enough.

By the way, this is another food question. We people had a lot of follow up coffee questions and now we got ideal round food. We may have to have a guess nutritionist on at some point we should I answer hard hitting questions.

I think a lot of people actually asked us to do some more coffee talk, and unfortunately we haven't done any research.

We'll maybe get on it for the next edition.

Yeah, we need some you know, is three coffees too many? Is eighteen course lights too many during a round? We need some really good, good answers to the nutritionists.

Yeah, all right, Uh, let's do.

All right, this is a good question. I forgot to write down who asked it. My friend looked up from the range at Liberty National and saw himself alone there with Jordan Speed.

What do you do in a situation.

Like this, Oh man, I guess you just walk up and say, hey, you know, nice to get. I assume that it's his home club, so you know, I would say, you know, hey, you know, how's it going? Blah blah blah, I hope you like this week? Can you know? Do all that. I wouldn't ask for an autograph or anything like that, but I would definitely I think it would be cool to say, hi.

You know, I had this thing.

I think the cooler thing to do, Like when you think about autographs is like, Okay, you get something autographed and then it's there and like it's gone, like you know, you don't really care about it as an adult.

Really no offense to anybody that does care.

But like, I think the cooler thing is just simply knowing, Hey, I could have gotten an autograph now, but I didn't want to bother them.

I didn't want to be that guy. I would just I wouldn't.

I may might not even say anything, you know, maybe just a good like a hey, good luck in a couple of weeks here, hope you enjoy it.

But like I would just treat him like a normal guy. I think that's what everybody wants.

Right, right, yeah, I hope you like the course, enjoy yourself, and you know, let me know if you need anything. You could throw one of those in there too.

Let's see that.

Was Scott do Dick. I missed like the whole back half of this question. Oh Derek from Matt too? Another repeat A question asker should the champion of the Canadian Midam get an exemption into the Masters?

He's asking for a friend.

Well, Derek, I hope you're playing well at the Canadian Midam this week and if you win, I would like to change my answer on this to yes, but I'm gonna say no because I think that, unfortunately for the Canadian Midam, there are a lot stronger fields where guys are probably more deservingly deserving of a Master's invitation.

I don't understand how an American and can go up there. I think there's only a couple in the field. But you know, isn't there a better tournament to play in America?

Well, you know you get the reason. So there's usually a lot more. This year, it's literally in the middle of nowhere. I think it's like an hour from moose Jar or so, you know, one of those moose Head one of those funny sounding Canadian towns, and I think it's like you fly somewhere and then it's like a

Ah, do you have to qualify? Like how do you get into that? No?

I think it's just resume another event that would actually be cool.

I mean I have to look at and see where they're playing. Let's see, Will Knights, this is for you, Kyle as a past I.

Eighty champ, aight am champ. It's a local amateur tournament in Chicago.

That should get an invite to the Masters, that should what percentage of the time do you go for it?

On number five at Sanctuary?

And is it the most architecturally sound hole in America?

Thanks? Will, So, I will so those of you that probably many most of you don't know the fifth hole. It is literally the worst hole I think I've ever played in my entire life. It's like a five hundred and forty yard par five, and just to put it in a perspective, I'm almost certain it was like three years ago. There's a Skins game. You know, there's out in the field. It's pretty good. I mean, it's all the good Illinois amateurs and I want to skin on the hole with a birdy four. That's how bad of

It actually is a good future post.

Maybe I will I'll write something about the worst golf alls in America.

Yes, I would. I would love to love to read that.

Yeah, that's an early contender for number one.

Worst two holes before that is not much better. But yeah, that's that's another story.

You want to do.

Overrated underage, Sure, let's get after it driving irons.

Driving irons for good ams and average joes. Ch Yes, what do you think? Over right under it?

Oh? I'm all in on driving irons.

I got I have the titleist one that MTMB or whatever it is. And I used to hit a hybrid and the hybrid would go left like it. I never liked the way hybrid is set up. They always seem to look close to me, and i'd when I missed it, i'd hook it. And since I've picked up this iron, I don't think I've ever hit it left.

And my life quest is never hit the ball left.

I'm with you on that. I I can't stand hybrids. I finally got one that I is decent, but before that I was always using irons. I mean, I'm not a very long player by any means, but I would much rather have a two iron in my bag than you know, a hybrid that went too forty.

I just I have.

Trouble because they do go left. You know you can miss them both ways, where as you know with a long iron, you know your your misses are much more controllable. So I am I'm also all in on driving irons.

I think for the average Joe. It depends on who you are.

Not to get any advice here, but like, if you hit the ball like high and far but just kind of suck at other things, I would say driving irons are for you. But if you have trouble hitting the getting the ball in the air like and that's an issue, I would use a hybrid because it's easier to hit high.

I'm with you, all right, Zoija, Fairways Porter Golf, Overrated, underrated.

You know I've played.

I played once on a dormant and Zoija and it was like the best thing ever. It was like the ball was on a tee all the time. So I think I'm gonna go with underrated.

I'm gonna go with overrated only because I obviously grew up on bent and I'm more used to that. But honestly, I don't spend too much time worrying about it. I probably should, you know, knowing how the ball reacts, but unfortunately I don't. So it's not my pre preferred grasp, but it is what it is, all right. This one's for you too. Stream song Overrated, Underrated.

I think it's uh, it's underrated. Actually, I think it gets ah, it gets a it's a little underrated. I think that Red Course is really really good there. I think the Blue Course is pretty good and overall it's the other thing is it's like everybody compares it to abandoned but like stream songs, at least like somewhat close to reality, you know, and so that that's got to have something to do with it.

I don't like their their their hotel. It looks like a an office building in oak Park, Illinois or Oakbrook. So I think it's underrated in general.

All right, I haven't played yet, so yeah, I'll take your word for it.

Hey, winning the FedEx Cup overrated, underrated.

This is a tricky one because you get a ton of money, which is awesome, but I would I guess excluding the money, I would say overrated because there's no way I could name the last five FedEx Cup winners, and I could probably name the last five major winners in each major, so I would say underrated. Excuse me, overrated?

Yeah, I would say, Actually, I'm gonna go with underrated just because of the money. Okay, And it's actually kind of cool when you think about it, like it it doesn't have like all of the best players.

Because some people don't play in it.

But like like a major, you're the best of one week, like the FedEx Cup, you kind of have to be the best of like four weeks plus a year.

I feel like I need to pay. I mean, I like I said, I think whether it was it was today or the last one. I get so into football, I forget to follow the last couple of tournaments. But I mean, does it really matter those four weeks how you play? I mean, I know you can play okay, you know, I feel like you can play okay the first couple pretty good, the third, and then you win the Tour Championship. You win the fed X Cup, right, I think.

You have to play like I think you have to play pretty well, Like there's anybody could win, but it requires like the guy that's in like the first, like anybody.

In the fish like seventh or something.

Yeah. Yeah, I think it's if you're in the top five heading into the Tour Championship, if you win, you win. So I think I think it's I actually think it's underrated.

I think what the they just I feel like what happens is people get.

So turned off about the FedEx Cup because they show those damn standings like eighty five fucking times a telecast, Like the second week of the year, it's like, oh, we're at We're in Las Vegas for the Shriners, and here's your FedEx Cup update.

It's like, I don't that's the last thing I want to think about in the middle of October.

I'm with you, what do you think about fiddling with a putter? Choice to improve putting as a pro from Justin Anderson.

So there's two schools of thought on this. One is that if you're practicing something you're not gonna use or don't intend to use, you're just wasting your time. If you know, if you're putting with a putter that you don't use, you literally be better off, you know, going for a bike ride or something. And the other the other, the other school of thought is that which I kind of agree with. An old golf teacher told me this, that you immediately get ten percent better when you get

Yeah, he's not a candidate for like having a signature putter for sure.

Right.

I don't never switch equipment, and I never try new equipment, so I'm like the worst person when it comes to equipment. Like the driving iron is the most recent.

Change in my back.

Actually I changed butters recently too, but that was after like three years of using the same one.

So all right. Andy's titles for Frida Egg Newsletter way underrated. Speeed's third leg was epic. That's from Tom and I'm also gonna say underrated. I'm a huge fan of the headlines. You've had some real creative ones, which I'd like to know, what's what's one you didn't use that you wish you did, or some good ones.

I can't remember one week, I'd have to go back and look through them. One week, there was some you know, there was I was trying to decide between two of them, and I thought both of them were like incredibly good. But you know, I picked one of them and everybody loved it. You know, I think my favorite, you know, the speaces third leg happened. I was it was at the end of me watching all of the first two rounds of the uh the Open Championship.

I'd slept like.

Three hours in the last three days, and I was sitting at LaGuardia and my flight was delayed for like three hours and then it ended up getting canceled. But like during the delay, I was like semi delirious, having a couple of beers, and I just went with that and I said, you know, anybody that doesn't understand this will just be like, oh yeah, it's third leg of his major. And anybody that does understand this will be like, we'll just laugh out loud.

So that's how I try and do a lot of them.

Is if the people that, you know, one of my other favorites was Hot Charle, you.

Know, charl I don't remember that one. That is a real good one.

Yeah, that's always one of my favorites because you know, everybody's like, Oh, he's just a he's hot.

You know, we're gonna need a Sanchez guy to win.

Yeah, I don't think there are are any Sanchezes, but yeah.

The the newsletter headline actually like takes me the longest of anything to do that.

I do.

Like sometimes it will take me four hours to figure out what I'm gonna go with. And when you see really bad ones, like it's just because I couldn't think of one or was really tired.

I don't blame you. It's a pretty big part. I feel like that's like right when I get my you know, look at my emails in the morning, I'm like, I wonder what it's going to be, and then I see hot charl Yeah.

I liked Redman's method the other day.

That was pretty good.

Actually, gonna give it to you. It's probably the best one of all time. I don't know, though, it's Uh, what do you think about vertical scorecards?

I'm okay with it. I think it it's a cool, little different thing. I Uh, I think it's easier on a horizontal scorecard to keep track of, you know, if you're doing a Scotch game or points or whatever. I find it's somewhat easier, just because the way the eyes work and how we've learned to read. But I'm cool. I don't mind it. It's different. It's usually I mean, it's rare to see a vertical scorecard in a bad golf course, right, so I think I associate it with a pretty nice experience, So I'm.

Cool with it.

I hate the big horizontal scorecards.

Oh, the giant ones.

Yeah, yeah, that like you like can't walk with like it would be impossible to use walking. I think like smaller better to a certain extent, you know, because you do need space for bets and stuff.

I agree, smaller the better. Yeah, right, I don't need a pamphlet anything else.

You want to talk about?

What do we got? No, I mean that was it's pretty good. We got a questions.

Yeah, we got a couple of the mm hmmm. And then and that done answering questions.

You've had enough, Charles.

Yea, all right, I'll talk to you later.

All right, we'll do We'll see you guys.

Peace later