Post-Presidents Cup Mailbag

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 Egg, 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 Friday Egg Podcast. Today we have another mailbag episode with Kyle Nathan Draws and Face.

Kyle welcomes up.

Andy.

Yeah, thanks, excited to do it again.

Yeah, man, I talked to you yesterday. You said your your grinding on your game for a member guest.

It is a sad state of affairs.

I wish I was grinding for the mid Am this weekend, but unfortunately I didn't try to qualify it and hurt all year. It's just kind of been a wasted year.

But trying to grind for member guest is.

A new low in my golf career and I just have to accept that what are you doing to get ready?

How do you prepare for remember guests? I think that people want to know.

Well, you have to go to the ATM and get some cash, that's usually really good at member guests, and that's about it. Unfortunately, since I haven't played very much just somewmer, my handicap is still in the range where I actually have to try to play decent or I'll let my partner down. And it's actually down in Houston with my buddy John Hunter and at Carlton Woods, which is a very difficult course. So I could shoot in the eighties there in a hurry if I'm not careful.

You know, the people.

Are coming at golfers like you this week, you know, lots of questions of regarding amateur status and the many tour players former many tour players playing midim events now, so let's get you know, let's get right into it. I got two of them right off the bat. Thoughts on amateur status rules and former pros competing with lifetime ams in state and USGA events from Andy Roderick.

Well, I mean, obviously it's not ideal. I you know, myself, I'm a reinstated AM and I think I probably have, you know, ten thousand dollars in career earning, so I don't think maybe if that you know that might it's not really geared toward me, and I get where a lot of guys come from.

You get some bigger names.

I know Es Daily.

Played well in the MIDAM a couple of years ago.

And from what I understand, it's like thirty five forty percent of the field, and the Midam is often reinstated.

Former professionals.

So the question would be how to combat that, And you know, it's hard to do money.

That's it's money is.

The only logical thing to me that makes sense. But it's hard to do that because in the but you know, pre Tiger, the persons were fairly low. So you know, if a guy's playing the Nike Tour, say and made you know, he could have been playing for three years and made forty grand, which is a lot different than a guy playing six tour events and making eighty.

You know.

So it's just it's hard to put money into the equation because the persons have gone up so dramatically.

What if they did, like a cut of made cuts on nationwide PGA tour.

See that that would be something that's a good idea.

I would be all for that because I think that you know a guy that at twenty two, goes and plays the Mini Tours for a couple of years, and you know, then he's working for eleven years. I mean that's that's an amateur really, and I think they should be able to get their status back. But I agree, if someone makes eighteen cuts on the Nationwide Tour, should they be allowed to get their amateur status back?

I mean maybe, I think they know.

I think they should, but there should be some restriction in some events. Whether it's the US Mid Am or not, I don't know, but there should be some restriction because otherwise it just gets out of hand. Because I mean, could Tiger get his amateur status back if he wanted?

I mean technically, yeah, right.

I think So that's the problem is, like you look at the reps if you I mean, like Jess Daly's a great example. I mean he played professional golf on the PGA Tour, the then Nationwide Tour. I mean it was what ten years, twelve years? Yeah, he played for a long time, like me sitting in a desk chair for ten years versus him playing on Web and PGA Tour events for ten years. Like the reps, the PRAC does the you know, I sound like Tiger with reps, but like that that stuff, like it's not we aren't

You know.

It's one thing for a twenty two year old that goes and tries and you know, might play a couple of seasons on the Canadian Tour and make you know, twenty thousand dollars in their career and come back like that, that's one thing.

But for guys that you know have made.

You know a great deal of money on the on the PGA Tour to the point where like you know, you're you're getting your amateur stats back. But your job is hardly going to be that of a kid that you know works for you know. I think one of the toughest things with Midham golf is like early in your Midham careers, learning.

Like you're a low level employee, you know, Right, That's.

The one thing a lot of people take for granted. I feel like there's a lot of guys.

You know, they they get their status back, and we've seen it in Illinois with some of the players, and they automatically think they're gonna win every mid am or am tournament they play, and it's not the case because it's hard to balance golf and work. It's I mean, it's really hard, especially when you're starting a career like you.

Said, yeah, but when you've made a million dollars on the on the PGA tour, like.

You're not starting your career right right.

You're very You're probably doing quite well, and you you know, you've you've met people in your career that can obviously put you in a position where you're not, you know, grinding for for paychecks.

But I like the cuts made. That seems, you know, of all the options, that seems the best one.

Yeah.

It's uh, you know, we gotta get we gotta get you out of out of mid am events.

That's that's the goal. Had all the all the former pros out, you know, I'd have it. I'd have a fighting chance.

Here's a mid am question.

This is from Mike Wallace. He says, Okay, you're fred Ridley. You decide to give Jeff Knox an invite to the next five Masters. He obviously plays as an am. He plays from the same tease as the pros. How many cuts does he make? How many times does he win low am? How many top tens does he contend in?

All five? Does he win one?

So I think, uh, I think Jeff Knox is like the most overblown story in golf. It's like just overhyped. But he's really good. He's a really good midam. But is he as good as like say Stuart Hagastad or Scott Harvey, Like, No, he happens to play Augusta's his home course, so that's a big advantage.

I honestly think he would make one cut out of five I have.

That's exactly what I think.

To one cut, maybe two, But I mean at the absolute maximum, I'd say makes two cuts and maybe wins low am one time.

Yeah, zero top tens doesn't contend?

Yeah, yeah, I think he shoots a lot of like seventy six.

Is I'm in agreement.

It's much easier to play when you can just pick your ball up, you know, once you're out of the hole.

Very his you know, beating.

He also always plays with like the guy that just shot like eighty on Saturday.

Right is trying to get the hell out of there.

So like that's the other thing. It's like, oh he beat this guy, but like that guy didn't really care, Like.

They don't Birdy two and three. It's get me out of here.

I'm in last place right now. So all right, let's see.

We got a lot of questions. So do you have any good putting games that you like to play? And this is from Scott du Dick. He's got this game wide, but I'm not going to explain everything involved in it.

We'll explain it. If you don't have any good putting games.

What I do have is the card game. Have you played the card game?

I have not played the card game.

It's kind of fun. So, you know, if you have a foursome. Sometimes it works better if you have a couple of foursomes. But you know, say everybody puts twenty dollars into the pot, and then and then after the round, you start with five cards, you know, out of a deck, and every time you get a one putt throughout the day, you get an extra card. Every time you three putt, you put you know, say five dollars in the pot

You could end up with like a ton of card huh.

Oh, yeah, totally, and someone else is pumping the pot for you too.

So what do you think about fringe and putting. I feel like it should count as putts.

It should.

I honestly usually do count it as putts. When I think about my round and I say, you know, if I put three putts from the fringe or get down in three from the fringe, I always I just to myself, I'm thinking that's a three putt.

Yeah, Like if it's up against the collar and you use putter, like I feel like that's a pass.

It's more of a chip then. But if you're like, if you're like a foot on the fringe, like that's a pot.

I use my discretion.

I mean sometimes I'll get the chili dips go on and I'll put from nine yards off the green.

I don't count that as a putt.

But what uh do you do?

You always pull the pin when you when you've got the h when you're on the fringe.

Uh, yeah, I usually do, I mean almost always.

I know they say, you know, there's no real research. I guess Pell said, right, but if you're downhill, if anything, if you're down, he'll leave it in. Up he'll take it out. I almost always just take it out.

My philosophy is like I make all my putts with a pin out, So why would I keep the pin in and like visually and psychologically have.

A pin in there? Right? Yeah? All right?

With the youth movement on the PGA tour, This from Andrew Vitt, friend of the Witch.

Should the President's.

Cup team reserve two spots for thirty five plus year olds mid am or mid pros.

The old mid pro. Yeah, it's not a bad idea.

We had some other questions about the President's Cup, and I know we talked, we didn't. We didn't spend too much time watching it. I really, in my whole life, I'm not sure I've spent much time watching it.

It just doesn't really appeal to me.

It hasn't been competitive, you know, for what, you know, whatever that reason may be, whether the internationals, you know, they have their little two somes and three somes of you know, countrymen, but other than that, they have no greater you know, patriotism like we do, pull themselves together, and obviously for something like that, motivation is important. But you know, I think they could make it a lot more fun by making it co ed if you had you know, six and six or even eight, eight tour

Yeah, I think they need I think that.

Originally, the idea of like making Ryder Cup points two was a great one, but the execution and like the results thus far have been pretty lackluster.

So shake up something right, right, all right?

I want to get to our first overrated underrated.

Yeah yeah we got you got tons of them.

Joe Mayberry overrated underrated Opening and closing on opening or closing around on a part three, So.

I'm gonna say opening overright. I hate it. Yeah, it hitting like especially if.

It's a long iron, like so brutal.

I had a Usam qualifier like last year, and I was playing really good golf, but I I went into it and I had to hit like a three iron to like a small green on the tenth hole, and that was it was just the worst way to start my round. I hit a bad shot and just got off flustered.

I was like behind a tree.

So I'm out on opening par threes and I just like broke my cardinal rule of like using a personal.

Experience in a tournament. But closing part three is I actually kind of like them.

I think they're cool, especially if if it's got a if it's got a tough green like Glen Floor Country club.

That that green is jacked. That's a good hole.

I mean, like it's hard to make a it.

I think it's a good test of golf because you know, with today's day and age, like it's very rare for people to hit mid.

And long irons in the game.

And uh, I don't mind the closing part three because it's like it's like the final test, like, hey, you got to hit you gotta hit a really good golf shot here with a mid iron, and then you got to be in the right spot to make a putt, like if you make a birdie, you really earn earn it on.

You know. Part three's generally.

I don't I don't really prefer either. Opening is difficult, you know. I feel like whenever you're playing in a shotgun event and you see your first hole as a four iron, you're like, oh God, what a brutal break. And closing, I don't know, I think, you know, East Lake Greenbrier, there's some some out there on tour. I think Congressional did the right thing by switching the finish. You know, eighteen is kind of a whatever Part three, and you know, now it's an awesome Part four, So I'm out on both.

John Hunter, your partner, You've got a question for you. What point should I go pro?

When my handicap finally gets to the zero or after I win my club championship.

I think you wait till after the club championship. You know, once you can consistently beat two and three handicaps under pressure, I think the game is sharp enough to turn pro. So as soon, maybe the Monday after the club championship, you go out that night and have a good time and start your next page as a professional. The next Monday, I.

Have a press conference.

Yeah, for sure, at least a periscope is.

A Friday will start to televised though.

All right, Cody friend of the pod, Cody Sunberg wants to know what is the average tour players handicap?

Do you think plus six plus seven?

I think about when I play with like Vince India who's on the web, or like T. K. Kelly or Zach Blair, like the times I've played with him, and I need like five shots to make it competitive and a lot of times I still lose. Like so I would say, like I play around like plus one plus two when I'm playing good golf, and.

I would say at least plus seven. What do you think, like A.

Yeah, I like that.

I mean I think that's pretty pretty spot on six to eight plus six to eight. Do you remember I'm sure you know someone you guys can google this, but there was someone wrote an article excuse me, on Tiger Woods's two thousand and one season if you just you know the rounds he played.

Basically he equated like a plus eleven I think it was or something that year. It was just insane golf.

That's That's the other tough thing is like, you know, how do you measure like because we have like the slope and rating stuff is so crazy because like you can't. It doesn't measure wind, It doesn't measure conditions like like I think about it like tournaments all the time, Like what's a PGA Tour set up?

Or like a US Open shooting sixty three in the US Open? Right? I mean, is that is that? Like what's the slope and rating of that event?

You know?

Is that like a plus twenty differential? Right?

I I agree.

I The weather has I mean there's some I hate. I don't really like the handicap system. I don't know if anyone has a good logical fix for it. But you know, there's so many things. You play in a thirty five mile hour wind on a course that's rated seventy two and you shoot seventy four.

I mean that's not that bad of a round, but.

Not good.

You know, the course one of the courses I played this weekend, bally Neil, I loved it, doesn't even have slope and rating. Can euners score from there in the handicap?

Really? Yeah, I don't know that I've ever heard of that.

Well, they don't have T boxes, they don't have T markers. They have T boxes, no T markers. You just pick where you want to play every hole.

That sounds like a fantasy land for you, Oh, spectacular with for days.

Well, it's like when we played this winner, like it was windy and with a couple holes, like you know, a couple holes we wanted to play par five's up, so they were so they're gettable, Like play them up doesn't matter, right, Like why why do we got to be constricted by by entering a score?

I like that approach. My dad to this day like has never kept scores.

Played probably I don't know, six maybe a thousand rounds and he just doesn't keep scores like I would have.

You know, I would want to torture myself.

That's amazing. I care less and less about a score. It's been so much more enjoyable. I think score is overrated.

Score overrated.

I'm with you here, here's one Benjamin McIntyre lunch at the Turn overrated, underrated.

I'm uh, I'm split on this. It depends on your on your time. Sometimes I'm cool with literally stopping and letting like four groups go through and having like a nice luxurious lunch and a couple of beers and you know, having a good time, maybe watching some TV and literally like an hour long lunch, And I'm I love that sometimes. But sometimes you just want to get out of there. And so I think it's solely dependent on the time you have.

What do you think?

So I think it's all based on the time of tioff.

So like if you t off at ten o'clock on a day like, let's let's be real, you're not going to really do anything that day. You know your day's gone because you know, you tea off at ten. If you play a fast round, you're done it. You know, if assuming the course is busy, you're gonna be done at like two or two thirty, so you're right by the time you get home it's like four. I mean the days over so on. At ten o'clock tea off time,

I'm gonna say underrated, underrated, next one, overrated underrated. General thoughts on driving range versus just playing for practice and improvement.

I have I've practiced like once this whole year, so I'm gonna go the driving range is overrated.

I just go out and hit shot.

Yeah, I think you know where I stand. It's overrated as well.

I think that, at least from my own personal experiences, I've played the best golf when I'm barely hitting balls on the range and just playing as much as I humanly can, because I think that you know, that helps you get sharp under pressure, and you know, you get so many different shots you'd never hit on the range.

I'm a big fan of playing to improve.

Yeah. You know, one of my pet peeves is seeing like twenty handicaps just beating balls on a range.

It's like your swing is not.

Like good, So you're just ingraining bad habits Dal, I think it's Duval, Yeah it.

Dovall used to say he never hit.

A lot of balls because when he was hitting the ball well, he knew he was swinging it well. He didn't need to keep hitting balls his swing was grooved. If he was hitting it bad, he didn't want to keep, you know, grinding the bad swing over and over again. So he just said he didn't hit very many balls. I think there's a lot of guys like that. I know Rich Beam said he basically hit wedges and drivers and that was about it.

On the range.

Yeah, this, I think practicing your wedges is underrated and.

And hitting balls in general is way overrated. Free completely with Duval.

I think using like going out and playing with like seven clubs is this way underrated too, because, like I agree, all of a sudden you have to hit like seven iron punch shots from one forty and like, you hit those shots and then the next round you play, you get into the trees and you have you see, you've seen this low shot, you know, right, so then you go out and you can hit that shot. So I would say that's a better way to practice than going to the range.

Yeah, I think Sam Snead had a quote. I think he said, if he'd had to do it all over again, he would only hit.

Under one hundred yard shots and drivers. That's all he would ever practice. And you could probably get pretty good, especially in today's day and age, just doing that.

So here's a question I really liked why it is from Andrew Allen.

Why isn't there more focused on the rookie Reshuffle showcase that in the All in Spring instead of the FedEx Cup standings.

I'll defer this thist to you because I want to know why too.

And I think that you know, your newsletter does such a good job of, you know, previewing the younger guys that for some reason, nobody talks about.

So I think so much of it has to do with marketing. I mean, like FedEx Cup. FedEx pays for the FedEx Cup, but you know.

It's just like it's kind of like, oh, they paid for this, so we have to do it versus bringing them an alternative option.

Be like, we know this is important, but we.

Clearly see that it's it's pretty stupid to do here, And why don't we say, like this FedEx Cup up like this FedEx update of the Rookie reshuffle and then all of a sudden, like you know, like the clear reason why you just get FedEx cups shoved down your throat is because FedEx pays the tour ginormous sum of money.

But like you see it so much, is that a rookie.

That doesn't play well in the fall pretty much has no chance of keeping his car because like the next start he gets is at Sony. If he doesn't play well there, then the next start he's going to get is at Pebble Beach, and he might get a terrible pro am partner, you know, and all of a sudden, he's one hundred and eighty fifth and fedec Cup points when he's making these starts and he's like, oh shit, I got to play well. Yeah.

To me, that's much more appealing to follow than you know, the event itself.

Basically, I think that's in every sport. We you know, obsess over rookies, like we are with Trubisky coming up here in Chicago. But you know, there's a focus on rookies where I think the tour kind of lacks that a bit.

But I think I think one of the things that they got I think the Internet has allowed for, Like the tour is still stuck behind what the Internet is and what it can do. Like you know, like Xander Schoffley has become like an overnight star. Wes Bryan came in with like you know starting like, people know who these guys are more so they did fifteen years ago because of the Internet. Like so they're still stuck in like, oh, we need to hype Jim Furick because he sea.

Like when you could you could make a name for.

These guys at a much earlier stage, absolutely because of the Internet. But they still think it takes ten years for somebody to become a big name.

So you brought up Xander speak.

We got a cup, We got a couple of questions on you know who from this President's Cup team won't be on the Ryder Cup next year? Who you know who will be on the Ryder Cup. He was the first name that came to mind that could make the jump to the Ryder Cup next year, you know, not looking at the points, just going from the eye test, But what do you think?

So I would say that.

You got Chapel, Hoffman Kiszner are kind of three guys Like I don't think all three of those guys aren't going to be on the team. You know, like one of one or two of those guys isn't gonna be on the team next year.

Wouldn't you agree with that? Yes? I would?

I mean I I we could throw Phil in there too, Phil, I just.

I don't think Phil. I mean that's a that's a great question.

Is is Phil going to be on the team if he has a year like he had this year next year?

I think probably, but you know I don't. It's by no means a lock.

And you know, then you look at so like Xander Schaffle, it'll be interesting to see what he does this year. You've got Ali Schneider jans.

Had like I think he had like four or five top tens.

Yeah, he was real, he was consistent.

So like you look at a guy that's probably gonna win this year, I think he's gonna Like I always look at guys, is that if I'm gonna look for somebody that's gonna break out, is like find a guy that was in contention like four or five times the year before but didn't win, and they'll probably win the next year, right Like I Adam Hadwin was a perfect example of that last year to this year. So like Ali Schneider Dance, I think is gonna win a tournament this year, So he's one that would be in there.

In mm hmm. Then you've got I mean, Jim Jimmy Walker's down forty seventh in the world.

Which is kind of crazy, but wow, you've got You've got a lot of young guys.

Peter Euline. I don't think he'll get up there this year.

But I would say that Patrick Cantley's got a good chance of getting on that team. And it's really you know, somebody's gonna get hot Tony final.

Right, if history's been in the indicator, there's gonna be one out of left field that you know, wins two or three events next year and gets a spot.

There's yeah, I mean, there's gonna be. There's gonna be. I think there's two.

There's three spots that are interchangeable, those three Kissner, Chapel, Phil and Hoffin. So there's probably eight guys that are gonna be on you. I mean like Dustin Johnson, Speeth, Ricky J. T. Brooks, Coocher read or locks. Right, So how many players of that that's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, seven, So you got seven locks and there's five spots up for grabs, and you could put probably twenty five guys in those five spots and wouldn't be surprised if any of them made it right.

That should be fun to watch.

It'll be interesting to see what the euro team. I think that's almost more interesting what the euro team will look like. Like Westwood's getting old and you've got Fleetwood. You've got a lot of young guys. Like everybody bags on the young talent in Europe, but like Paul Dunn won a tournament. They got this Italian kid, Bernardo put perr Tory who won. He's twenty years old last year.

So Paul Dun is a player.

He is, He's really good. He that's uh, I mean, sixty one to win is pretty good.

He's been in contention to a couple of times and obviously played well in the open.

You've got d Tree to the other Belgian kid that went to Illinois, who's young.

There's a lot of young talent over there.

All right, Let's say you just got back from you know, sand Hills and bally Neil. How would you split ten rounds between the two.

So I've thought about this a lot, and this is like no, no, nothing on bally Neil. I think it's like a world class golf course and a spectacular golf course. But sand Hills is like a whole nother lie level of golf that I've probably never experienced before playing there. It would be either eight to two or nine to one.

Wow. So I really love bally Neil though it's really really great.

It's just it's more of a testament to sand Hills than anything else. Like sand Hills is my my like kind of Nirvana. It's it's got a lot of width, it's all about angles, tons of strategy. Every hole, you know, you can change the pin and that the whole drastically changes you change.

You know.

There's a lot of holes, like I played sixty three holes out there, and there's a lot of holes where I'm still not sure what the right play is, you know, And I've played it like six different ways, dropping balls like in later rounds and trying different shots.

So it's it's that place is a spectacular.

Place that everybody should if they get the opportunity to go out there.

Awesome all right, Overrated, underrated range balls, pre recreational round.

I think overrated. I don't have a lot of range balls. I usually just scrambling to get to the course on time.

What about you, I'm.

Gonna say underrated.

I actually play a ton of rounds without hitting range balls, and I always get pissed off on like the third hole when I'm two over, I'm like, why the hell didn't I hit balls?

So I'm gonna say underrated.

Yeah.

I don't really care about my score and recreational rounds either, so that's that's part of why I think it's overrated.

What do you think on overrated? Underrated? On trees in the fairway.

Way overrated?

I trees in the fairway are I mean, I know how you feel about trees in general, but trees in the fairway are terrible. There's a golf course. What's the it's in, dear Briarwood. Is it Briarwood in Deerfield Green, Well, briar Wood both of those Revene Green too, but Briarwood. It's like seventeen great holes, and then you get to the eighteenth hole and it's a dog leg left with a tree in the middle of the fairway, and you're like, Wow, this is the worst wall I've ever played. This course sucks.

Yeah.

I you can occasionally pull off a tree in the fairway like that. It's okay every once in a while, but it has to be the right spot.

But like where you got an example, I.

Mean, like swings Cove has one that I don't mind. It's like by the green and it's like a short par five. So like if you're not going like if you're going for the green, it acts like you know, you're you're.

Probably coming in and the ball is gonna roll up there, you know. But if you.

Don't, then you have to hit to a certain side of the fairway that's like eighty five yards wide to set up your angle into the green.

You know.

It just like emphasizes like they're kind of emphasizes like that, Okay, this fairway is eighty yards wide. The worst place I can be is in the middle of the fairway because I have no chance to get around this tree.

So it pushes people to play.

To the edges of the fairway where there are bunkers and you know, there's the property lines on the left.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, but no, that's okay.

But like it's eighty yards wide versus like something that's like twenty five yards wide and you have a tree in the middle.

Like, that's not acceptable.

Agreed, all right?

Here, what's your most helpful putting tools or drills that you use from Luke Smith?

Yeah, I don't have too many dramatic drills. I kind of stick the two t's in the ground, you know, put between them. I saw most of the guys do that the last time I was the Masters, and I was like, well, if they're doing it, I might as well do it too, So I I do that quite a bit. That's probably the only I guess drill I do.

How about you?

I carry a yard stick around with me. I have like this. It's called the perfect putting aid.

If it's not like a real yardstick, but you can just go to home depot and get like a metal yard stick and I just put down a yard stick if you can put it, I think like a yard without it rolling off either side. You're hitting, You're rolling the ball perfectly.

It is amazing how hard it is to do that, right, Yeah, Like it's amazing. You're like, what the hell I can't hit a putt a foot, you know, without rolling.

It's it's crazy.

It's like when I'm putting really well, like I if I use it a lot, I start putting really well.

But I've used it.

Like twice this whole year, so that's probably why I'm putted well all year. But like I try and do like ten or twenty in a row, and like it's really hard. The last couple You're like, You're like, please, please, just you know, and it puts a little pressure on it, which is good.

And uh Luke Smith.

Also, do you have any recks for Fort Myers or Naples?

You know, not, not really, I'm not sure. What's uh is a corkscrew?

Yeah?

I think I think that's public.

I don't know. There's not good golf there really that's public.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure corkscrew is public.

Other than that, you know, someone else asked us what's the best way to get on private courses? And you know, sometimes you can just call and say, you know, you're in from out of town and you know, blah blah blah. I mean it probably works less than forty percent of the time, but you can't hurt to try or have your pro call at.

Your local golf court. You know, I I think cork.

Screws public a good way.

If you like you're if you're authentic, like I've I know that a letter sometimes works.

Mm hmm. So if you're very.

Authentic and you like explain why you want to see the golf course, like it would help if like you knew some stuff about the golf course that was why you wanted to see it, Like, you know, I love architecture, Like, don't make it about your personal quest to play the top one hundred courses, but you know, I love architecture. I you know, I understand that this course is so and so, like I'd love to see it.

Sometimes that's a good way to get out to some of these places.

And it probably won't work all the time and everywhere, but if people people are looking to help you, if you if you do things the right way, and if that happens, like sending a nice thank you note that kind of stuff, like.

It'll help you. Let's see.

God, Hey, so this is going back to like President's Cup, Ryder Cup. Which player that wasn't on the President's Cup would you be most excited to see in the Ryder.

Cup Xander going back to him, I just you know, the way he played in in big events at Aaron Hills and then in Atlanta, was was pretty cool to see.

I I'm I would be very excited to see him play.

You're in on ax I am x going and give it to you.

You've you've You've pushed all your chips and this is why we need the stock market.

Yeah.

I think in the previous podcast I mentioned I would buy I would be all in on uh Xander stay.

In Florida, and this is we could go, you know, without public or private, so we could do private and public here.

What are some of your favorite courses in Florida? Hersh from Hers.

I like lob Lolly.

I like.

The TPC Stadium course. It's so far north, it doesn't seem like it's in Florida.

You know.

Public. I like World Woods. That's always a fun place to play.

Yeah.

I think you can play thirty six holes for like one hundred bucks and it's really it's really good. Trying to think where else Jupiter Hills. I haven't played Seminole, but obviously that would be at the top of any list.

John's Island, Oh.

Yeah, John's Island's amazing. Forgot about that too, And then there's another one there. There's a couple of courses in Zero Orchid Island is good.

There's a lot of good courses. There's a lot of really good courses. Not a lot of great courses.

Yeah, it's a stream song. Courses are good. They're they're expensive, but they're really good. Winter Park is super cool. You played Winter Park?

I did.

That was a lot of fun.

It's not you know, it's not gonna be hard, like it is kind of hard though for how it's short. It's like twenty what twenty six or twenty four hundred yard nine hall course.

It's just weird.

It's so it's it's one of a kind. You're not used to hitting.

You know, the greens are big and undulating or not, you know, not so big, but they have big undulations in them, and you know, the bunkers are well manicured, and it looks like you're playing you know, you know, major golf course and you know.

You're hit it's two sixty. You're like, wow, what a weird. It's just it's it's it's a lot of fun though. I love that place. I plan on playing there again too.

Yeah, that I that's like a it's such a cool spot. I played.

Atlantic Beach Country Club up in Jacksonville's cool, cool little spot.

They did the same kind of idea.

It's that you know nothing property and they and they had the Web finals there last week.

But they made it wall the wall fairway. It was cool.

A place that I didn't get a check out was which I turned Tron and DJ onto is called Hyde Park and it's a in Jacksonville. It's a originally a Stanley Thompson design that they think is a a they say is Donald Ross, but like supposed to be really good. I go, I gotta see it next time I'm down there.

I'm not sure on the price.

The price kind of fluctuates there some times it is pretty pricey, which kind of turns it off. But you know, Orlando doesn't have a ton of great options. It's it's it's decent and they did a really good job with what they had.

To work with there.

I don't think Tampa lost that. Bellevue builtmore the Donald Ross course there. I guess some guy bought it from I don't know how that happened. They bought it from the municipality, and.

He's Commisia and Tampa's really cool.

And then of course I want to go see tim Iquana another one.

There's a there's not a ton of Maurial we left off that list.

Yeah, all the Memorial is a good one too that I haven't seen. Florida.

Yeah, good, good, not great. Lots of lots of courses though, mm hmm.

Let's see how.

About this one.

Speeth was so wrong on the penalty he was given on Saturday at twelve. He acted like a spoiled little millennial. Does this bother you? That's from Bill who is at dj D Johnson Swag.

So I think you just didn't under I mean it's like the perfect example of like the the rule is the ruling was right, but the situation, like the ball wasn't going like picking up the ball in motion you shouldn't do, but like the given the circumstance, you.

Know, right, Yeah, it's tricky. No, No, I've been a lot.

I've been critical, as you know about on speech at times for carrying on and this and that. But I don't think he was in the wrong with his questioning and you know, hands in the air, and I probably would have been the same way because yeah, it didn't affect the whole one bit whatsoever. I get that, you know, it could hit a meteor and bounce back and.

Go on the hole.

I guess I get why they called it. It's just one of those things you have to deal with, I guess sometimes in golf, just you know, it is what it is.

It's it's a bizarre It was bizarre, and you know that's why you saw kind of the exasperated looks of Tiger and Jordan, where you know they there's not much you can do. It's just kind of a it's just up to.

The rules official and you know you got to play it, call the rules the way they are, and just unfortunate, you know what.

It's kind of like it's.

Kind of like in the NBA when guys go for the intentional foul and the guy just like shucks up a shot.

Mm hmm.

It's kind of like that, like, you know, the guy isn't going to make that shot, but if like you just can't do it, you know, right, it's.

You know.

Another interesting question we got was from Brendan Porath regarding Stymy's if they should be back into match Bay. I mean, this is a great, great question. I kind of I kind of am in on Steymy's.

I think I'm When I first read the question, I was like, absolutely not, and then I started thinking about it more, and it would just be you'd have to develop a whole new skill, right, because it would be it wouldn't just be you wouldn't be playing the same way and just being like, oh shit, there's a ball in my way, you know, but you'd really you'd have to really playing your way around and come up with

I think one of the things is, like you'd golf like stroke play that's beaten down your throat. Is like you're not playing the field, you're playing the golf course. But match play, you aren't playing the golf course. You're just playing the man. You know they're your opponent.

So the idea of you know, hey, I hit this out.

Abounds and now I can kind of like I'm not out of it because I could stymy this guy.

I guess you'd still be kind of screwed.

Can you imagine being like, I don't know, six inches out of someone's line on a putt and just kind of going up there and one handed tapping your ball right in the middle of his line, Like what a disrespectful move.

It's kind of amazing, though, Okay, it.

Adds some drama. Now the more I think about it, I'm in.

Then you could make the putt and they'd have to play away from the hole, and maybe instead of having like a foot they have like three feet, Like it would eliminate the ability to just like cozy the ball down into the hole.

I just picture a golfer literally, you know, just going through his pre shot routine, tapping it like a foot and then taunting the other guy.

Yeah, I mean I'm excited.

Yeah, I think I think Stimeys are. We might have to get Stems into something we just tested.

Right mm yeah, I think one silly season event.

What's your favorite PGA Tour event that's not played in the States.

I get is, do you count the British Open?

Uh, let's go go No on that. I guess there's not that many. Yeah, I don't. I'm I don't know.

I'm not really in on any of the Asian events.

Yeah, I haven't really watched much of them. I know Malaysia has has a lot of good golf courses, you know, and obviously Shin's in, But yeah, I'm not I'm not not not all in on them either.

Remember last year the Hero when Tiger came back and looked really good.

Yeah, he was like almost holding out, spinning the club and everything.

He was back. That's like depressed.

I can't believe that was not even a year ago. That's crazy, isn't it.

He looks so good that week, that damn flight, it had to be that flight. But I guess you know if if that was the case, it would never have held up.

And right through the riggers of the season.

Do you use the plumb bob? This was a question from Jeff W.

No.

I don't understand it. I've never understood it.

I uh, yeah, I know.

I guess I know how to do it, and I'm not really sure. I guess if I'm really either putting horribly or completely stumped.

I've tried it, but I mean, I'm not going to make a good stroke generally if I'm putting on a plumb bob reed, because I have no idea what's going on.

Yeah, I's that's a great point. It's like, if you don't know what's going on, you're not going to hit a good putt. That happens to me a lots why I hit a lot of bad putts.

Here's one for you.

You've been to La recently, favorite public course in LA and overrated, underrated off season for golf in La.

So I lived in LA for a little bit, so I identify with this. I played a lot.

Less golf than I play in Chicago. I completely agree with what sal Hutton said here. He said since living in La, I golf way less than in Canada. I don't know what it is, like you all of a sudden do more stuff. You're used to the weather being nice, so you kind of play it less.

Favorite public course, Rustic Canyon, is really good.

It's a course that Jeff Shackelford and Gil Hans designed together.

It's like it's about an hour away. It's cheap.

It's like I think it's like sixty bucks to walk on the weekends. It's walkable, which is rare out there in the city.

I like, I have. I love Rancho Park. I used to live.

Like like a four blocks from it, so I'd play there all the time. It's slow, it takes forever to play. It's in bad condition, but it's cheap and it has like a ton of potential. It's got like you have to hit really good golf shots there because.

It's got, you know, good land. It used to host the LA Open. It's a really good If that that's to be my one course.

I think we had another question about what course you'd want to Oh, that was in Chicago. That's a good question too. We'll get to that one next. But Rancho Park I really love too. But I would say Rustic Canyon is the best one in the Greater LA area. So I I'm not a big fan of oak Meadow. So just it's in Chicago that just went underwent a renovation. So, Kyle, of all the courses in Chicago public courses, which one would you like to see get a renovation done?

And then we can also expand it out to the country. So two answers, Okay, Chicago.

I'm gonna go a little far from Chicago and say the General at Eagle Ridge in Galina. I think the topography is pretty cool out there, and that golf course is just bad, and I feel like it shouldn't be. So they have the land, they have the you know, rolling hills and all that, and water. I mean, they literally have everything you need to build a good golf course,

Why don't you go?

So I would say, in Chicago, there's a course called Big.

Run that Oh yeah, I love Big Run.

I like love playing there. It's so fun.

Fun, it's a really fun layouts.

It's on like a crazy piece of land for Chicago, and the course is always in just horrendous condition, but it's so much fun to play. There's way too many trees, but I don't think you need to do that much there to make it really good.

And so i'd say Big Run.

Would be my place that I would I would go in and take a knife too, if I had, you know, five million bucks, and then or even ravslow. I just it's done a renovation, but I just like chopped down a ton of trees. I take down every tree and make it really firm and fast, And I think that place would be crazy fun. But then across the country it'd be between Sleepy Hollow in Cleveland and and and jeezus, I'm getting old. I can't believe I just Rancho Park in la I can't believe I almost just forgot that.

So those would be my two.

I don't know that I really have one for the country. I guess you know somewhere in Florida, I'm sure are somewhere.

What about the course that you live on, oh right, right right, Hare and Bay, Yeah, that would actually be a good one. It's a the lands flat, but you know they used to have the Honda here, and it is a huge golf course. I mean it's like seventy three hundred or you know, I play as long, it might even be seventy four hundred. And it's just in the shittiest of shape, like I mean, real bad. And it's a nice community. They just they stopped caring about

What what do you think do you think? Here's from Neil Smith.

Overrated Underrated at golf pencils with erasers.

Underrated because when I'm when I'm keeping track of Scotch, I sometimes make mathematical errors and then you add it up and you realize it doesn't equal zero, and then you have to go back and you know you're already keeping score and money.

So it's you need an eraser in case you make an error.

Which I'm I'm I'm pretty absent minded, and I like forget I like keep score for three holes and then I forget to write down scores for five holes, and I need an eraser because then a lot of times write my score in the wrong spot.

I have flip flop scores with other players.

You don't want me keeping score, Yeah Jesus not a good scorekeeper, But so I need I need a pencil with an eraser.

Here's a.

How about this one? What's the best caddie you've ever heard? Who's the best, what's the best caddy.

You've ever had? Or who.

You know?

I've got my cousin caddies for me a lot, like in the summer, if I'm like in the stadium, and he's a high school baseball coach and he used to be a he.

Played like pro baseball for a lot while he's.

A pitcher, and I think pitchers like get golf because it's it's not like every other sport is reactionary for the most part. In golf is the only place where you have to think about it and a picture has to think about it too, and so he kind of gets the mental process of it.

And he knows, you know, he's he's a coach, so.

He knows how to like talk to people, talk to you in moments I think that is the and he doesn't. He doesn't try and tell me what to do. Like I don't like when caddies read putts for me unless I ask, because like, how do you know how hard I'm going to hit the ball?

Right?

You know? Like so much of reading a putt is dictated on how you're going to hit it in a situation.

Oh yeah, there's three there's three different reads for every putt, right. M hm.

So I think like a caddies that, I think the best caddies are the ones that understand how to communicate with you.

What do you think?

I agree with what you said? This made me think of my worst caddy experience ever. So I was playing in the Western Junior. I was probably seventeen years old, maybe sixteen. It was a it was at Sea Island. I got randomly assigned a caddy and you know, I meet him on the first t the first round and he seems like an okay guy, you know, cool guy, probably twenty five, enjoying the uh, enjoying the walk for the first holes we get to, Uh, I forget the hole.

Like, oh, okay, give me the driver.

So I hit driver, snap hook at in the marsh, make double on the hole, and I'm like, Okay, that sucked with an asshole. And a few holes later he's like, oh, so Chicago, huh. I'm like, yeah, Chicago. He's like, ah, man. One of my best times I've ever had I was on a bunch of acid at Wrigley Field.

It was awesome. I was like, oh god, I just fucking listened to this guy. Are you kidding me?

So be careful listening to Caddy's advice is what I would say, you make the final decision.

I had a great Caddy in in the in the Radics Cup this year. He didn't say much. He was he was quiet and he just delivered. Like the best moment of maybe my gulf of the of the summer was you know, we were I think we were one down in our match and we were on this or two down. We were two down and we were on the fifteenth hole, and you know, I busted a drive and I knew I need it was a short part five.

I knew I needed like a BIRDI er an eagle, probably an eagle, you know.

So I turned to him and I go, all right, we need to make a big bird here. And he looks back at me and he was real quiet, kid, and he goes, not big bird, jumbo bird like albatross.

But yeah, I only made a regular bird. But it was good enough to But it was I mean, like I just burst out laughing.

It was like gave all the looseness you needed.

Yeah, you know, it's you know, a good cat. He does it. It's like you got to pick your spots.

You can't talk too much, but like when you talk, you know, make make sure it's worthwhile, don't you know, don't talk my ear off. But you have some good have some good clips, you know.

All right, here's another question. Can you explain again why par is just a number and how that may or may not make a golf hole a bad long part of three versus a great short part four.

Yeah, this is I mean, the perfect example of this is like Riviera, where the first hole is five hundred yards downhill par five, and the second one is like four eighty par four coming back up the hill.

It's like, okay, so like one of them is a par five and one is a part four.

But like in reality, like a lot of the second hole a lot of times plays tougher than the first hole, so like it, you know, it goes part five, part four, but really in actuality it doesn't really like if you get make nine on the two holes, like you haven't

Everybody's gonna be bogie in that hole. Does that make sense to me? It does?

Yeah, I completely I follow and agree, I think.

And also like when we look at like the US Open, like this is I think where most people were clapping at me when I said par doesn't matter, and everybody's like I don't get it, Like the game's fundamentally changed with like equipment, So like why are we holding on?

Like why don't you just make the par sixty eight.

Right, Like don't put associate pars to holes and just say this is a par sixty eight. You know, like this course of bally Neil has no has no slopan rating and they unfortunate. I was kind of disappointed that they had par, but like why not just take par off golf courses?

Yeah, it literally means nothing. It means you don't need it to play in a handicap match. I mean you just need a handicap for that or handicap poles, I should say, but I mean, it literally bears nothing on.

The day because you could play great and shoot even par, and you could also play great and shoot four over par. But that day, clearly the par wasn't even par, right, Like it wasn't seventy two, seventy six.

Like that's like the thing that I think is the problem with it.

It's like it's you're you're associating a number that doesn't tell the whole story, like that number doesn't apply every day. And it kind of goes to this greens keeper revenge question. We got what do you think about like hard course days and days where you you know, the greenskeeper gets to put pins in crazy places.

I think they're fun. I always enjoy playing in them. It's amazing how hard they actually are. You think like, oh, it shouldn't be that bad, you know, shamble or scramble, whatever format you decide to play.

You're like, oh, it won't be that bad, and then you get out there and you're like, holy shit, this is impossibly hard. So I think it's cool to just just to see how hard a golf course could play if you could put the pin anywhere and you know, tease back all that.

Yeah, it's I kind of like, I like a Big Cup days with Crazy Pinned.

If you have you ever played the Big Cup at glen Woody, I haven't. Oh god, that is the most insane thing. I mean literally, we you can.

It's a big cup which is the size of a sprinkler, and you know we had I've played with really good teams where we had four guys that were you know, plus three plus four and you.

Make doubles on holes. You put it right in the water, right in the bunker, right in the water.

I mean, it's insane.

Then scramble too, right, it's a four man scramble.

Yeah, it's uh, it is crazy. It's it's cool experience if you if you're around there. It's in October in Chicago, glen Woodie, go play it, just to be like, what the hell?

How do we just make triple and a four man scramble?

Yeah? I think the I think just alternative formats.

I'm all, I know.

I think golf should just you know, you should do different ship with it. I don't know. This is about it for me.

Here.

You got any other questions you should do?

I'm good.

Yeah, well, uh you're gonna watch any of this? This tournament this week Silverado.

I actually probably will you know.

I've been to Silverado a bunch of my my parents are big NAPA fans, as they're big wine fans, and we used to always go to Silverado.

And I love the golf course.

I was shocked a few years ago when it got a tour event because I always thought of it as a extremely fun golf course, but I didn't really realize it was going to be a tour event golf course.

So it's cool.

I like the golf course a lot.

Yeah, I actually I get more excited about these fall events than I do about like the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Which is yeah, I'm with you on that.

I like I like the I like the fresh blood. It's like it's like what we talked about earlier. I like seeing the new guys. I like seeing you know, it's a fresh slate, like a lot of guys that struggle, like you get you survive, you get the new season and it's like, oh, if you're like new life. And I'm a big fan of the fall events and so but yeah, well we'll talk in a week or two. Thanks for all the questions, Yep, thank you guys.

All Right, bye,