I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset.
When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
And when I find my ball in a fried.
Egg Friday egg, the dreaded Frida egg, Frida egg, fridagg bride egg, Lie, I'm about ready to run off of.
The Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Golf Podcast. I am your host, Andy Johnson, and I am back at home after an unforgettable Masters Uh tournament. I am not sure if we will ever see as thrilling of a tournament for my lifetime covering the sport, however long that goes after this year. I am just so grateful that I was there. Rory McElroy just went through it all.
There were the highs, lows, a lot of other highs, and a lot of other lows on his way of capturing his first major championship since twenty fourteen, completing the career Grand Slam, becoming the sixth player in the history of golf to do so, joining Jack Nicholas, Tiger Woods, Gary player Ben Hogan, and Gene Sarazen and the players that have accomplished that. I was on the grounds and
I followed the final group all day on Sunday. Brendan Porath and I did a long recap of what it was like to be on the ground on Sunday night on the shotgun start. But I mean, I don't know. I have a buzz and I'm not sure I'll lose that buzz. It's just it's a reminder that the Masters is just this unbelievable tournament because of the the players, the history and what it's been able to become with the you know what winning a green jacket and tails and you know that gravity of that, and then the
golf course. I mean, the the golf course is just an extraordinary test. There are no places to hide. Every year going down there, I'm just amazed at how you just have to hang on and in every part of
your game you just cannot hide. There are you know, if you're worried about your chipping, you're going to find yourself in some very difficult locations that you need to hit good chips or else you could make a double or worse from as we saw with blood Big on the eighteenth hole or Rory in the fourteenth hole, like you can be in what seems like a fairly benign position and and everything can get away from you so quickly.
It's just an amazing golf course. You have to put it well, you have to drive it well, and you have to hit your approach shots great. I'm thrilled to be joined by Trevor Emmmelman, master Champion himself lead analyst on CBS. He was doing the telecast with Jim Nantz, which I thought was phenomenal. It was great. I had a long flight home that I was able to sit and sit down and watch the telecast. I thought it
was really spectacular. The team at CBS is doing really great job showing golf and I thought that was a extraordinary telecast and was awesome to watch after being out on the ground. You you know, out there with no phones and you know, kind of a very large patron gallery you are, you're seeing what you see and relying on roars and and kind of murmurs through the crowd to know what else is going on on the golf course.
And uh, coming back and watching the telecast was was just extremely additive and it was a great way to relive what was a sunday I will never forget. Big congrats to Rory McRoy for getting it done, getting across the line, ending the drought, and UH launching what now looks to be a extraordinary major season set up for him. We'll see if he can snag another one or more with with what's coming down the pipe with Quail Hollow just a couple of weeks away. So Trevor, Trevor joined big.
Thanks to him for carving some time out in his busy schedule. I think we will be doing these after every major ME and Trevor, so lock in and enjoy this one. It was great to unpack everything with the UH with the great Trevor Immelman. All right, before we get to Trevor Big, thanks to be Dratty. Be Dratty was our sponsor for the week. They had me scripted out and I got to say, I don't think I've ever gotten so many compliments on what I was wearing
from just random people. People will be like, I really love that shirt vest combination you got there. That's because I am I'm not necessarily the I'm colorblind. I don't I don't always put together the best outfits. So it was great having them coordinate and put together you know, a wide range for weather. That was was delightful. It was. It was always cool in the morning and then it warmed up in the afternoon, so you know, I got
to their full suite of clothes. I think that's the thing that I appreciate about them is they have a awesome set of clothes. The stars really from from this week. I think Brendan and I both wore the shacket. Their shacket's called the Bradshaw out tons of compliments on that. People really really liked that the shacket. If you don't have a shacket, I highly recommend it. It's great for spring and fall. It's just like a nice thing to wear in the mornings and nights, and you can dress
it up, dress it down. It's very versatile. Also, the everyday vest were this almost every day. I think Brendan did achieve the every day Vest challenge. That is just a extremely versatile piece of apparel. And then you know there's there. They're tried and true polos I wore. They now have three different fabrics. All of them are are delightful. I love the original cotton polos. Those are just like amazing on a cool day, on a you know, if you know it's topping out at seventy seventy five. There's
nothing better to wear than those. They have their sport and then also their new cool fabric, which are both really good for when it heats up a little bit more so. A couple of days I had those with a vest. It was it was just great. They have an offer for you if you use the promo code TFE thirty. That's TFE thirty at b dradty dot com, you'll get thirty percent off your order, big chunk of change when you add it up. So go support them. They've been partners with us for years. Great guys and
great great apparel. All right, let's get to Trevor a moment. All right, Trevor, welcome in. I gotta say it had to be. I mean, when you come down from calling that sports event. I watched the telecast on my flight back home. I was out in the crowd, in the with the patrons all day long on Sunday, kind of living with the roars. I didn't realize how much stuff I missed. But you know, that's that's the nature of
covering the masters in person. For you are you have you processed where this sporting event might sit in terms of all timers for golf.
First of all, it's awesome to be with you. Man, saw you from a distance last week, didn't didn't didn't get up to you to be able to shake your hand and say hi. I know, busy you guys were. I was reading all the newsletters and all that kind of stuff, keeping track. But you know, I'm this is the first time I'm starting to think about it. Yesterday went up to congaree and rarely just tried to unplug from the whole thing and not think about it at all.
We did fifteen hours of live golf television on the weekend on CBS, which is it's kind of hard to even wrap your mind around the intensity of that. But as you start to let it settle and let your your thoughts start to fall in line, it's an all timer. You know, you start to throw it up there with
Jack in eighty six and Tiger in twenty nineteen. And you know, Tiger had a bunch of them when he completed the Grand Slam in two thousand, when he was winning those majors by you know, eight, ten, twelve shots all the time you won four straight majors. This is going to be thrown right in there the meaning of it. Look winning a green jacket, And I don't say this just because I'm lucky I've to have done it. You know, it might sound a little weird. That's not my style.
You guys know that, But winning a green jacket is it's such a monumental moment in your life anyway, And now for him, after all these years of like anticipation and build up and heartbreak, for him to get that
done is tremendous in its own aspect. But the fact that he's done it to join this list of five other guys, you know, sort of like a mount Rushmore with an extra little piece on it, with six of them now is it's going to be remembered for a very very very long time and spoken of as you know, where were you on that day when McElroy felt like he choked it away every third hole but eventually ended up winning. I mean, it was a remarkable week. Everything was great about it.
I think something that was telling when he talked afterwards was and I think, like, I think this puts it into perspective a little bit, because everybody was like talking about the time span of the chances at the career Grand Slam you know, and the pressure of coming there, for this was the eleventh year in a row with the chance to win the career Grand Slam. He kind of joked, like, what are we going to talk about next year? But then when you add in what he
added in was like my disappointment since twenty eleven. Yeah, And so just if you looked at just the Masters, it's just this, you know, fourteen years of disappointment and heartbreak. And whether it was one of the years that he missed the cut and bombed out, that's like one type of heartbreak. Whether it's twenty eleven where he had the tournament in his palm on the back nine, and that's
a whole different type of heartbreak. The middle period where he like is resigned that he's so happy that he finished second in a non competitive second, like he's just
elated that he had a good memory leaving there. But then when you add on top of that the last three years of major championship, like the close calls, the not getting across the line at the old course, LACC and Pinehurst, it's just like, I think the thing that I took away from watching the telecast when you were on the ground, you felt you felt the energy and like you you felt these like raw emotions of like in the swings and watching the telecast seeing just seeing
Rory's face. Yeah, and what you could just see the the enormity of the moment, the enormity of the accomplishment, and also all the things that he was trying to get through and get across the line.
Yeah, what was quite fascinating to me. And you know, Jim Lanson, I sit down in Butler Cabin, our little studio, Our little booth is down in the back of Butler Cabin, right next to where you guys watched the presentation. So that's the room we sit in. And you know, I had that line at the end when he reacted and he went down to the ground and you could see he was like so emotional about it, and it almost looked like he was struggling to breathe at one point.
And I had a line that I threw out there, something something like you know that that's eleven years of a built up emotion coming out right there. And then he came in and Jim mentioned that to him in this in the presentation, and when he said, oh no, that's actually fourteen years since twenty eleven. I was like, Wow, we when we think of Rory, we think of oh, he's you know, where's his emotions on his sleeve. He's the most open and honest golfer out there. He answers
every question. He tells you exactly how he feels, maybe even at times to his own detriment because he can contradict himself because he's been around for so long and his positions have changed, and you know, people call him a flip flopper, but it's like, hey, this guy's been around for like, you know, almost two decades. He's allowed
to change his opinion as he matures. But what I realized was, man, that even though he had won four majors, since he had won I don't know, what is he like twenty nine PGA Tour events, probably twenty DP World Tour events. I mean, this guy's won all over the world.
I think he's that thirty nine DP World PGA Tour winds Okay.
So even though he's done all of that, that twenty eleven Masters was like a thorn in his side. Man. It was the thing that has made him get up in the morning for the last fourteen years. And that to me was we learned something about him that we didn't know because a lot of people would say, Okay, well he choked that Masters in twenty eleven, but then he went to the next year so open and won by I don't know how many went by six or eight or something like that, and they're like, oh, he's
put the demons to best bed. No, no, no, no, this has been bothering him for fourteen years, bro. I mean that to me was something like, Wow, I just learned something about Rory McElroy. And the atmosphere was so thick and heavy the whole day, all the way through. I mean, he was still super emotional when he came into Butler Kevin, What a day? What a week?
Yeah, the the I think you nailed it. Like the emotions were that, the outpouring of them. I was standing where like kind of in that tunnel where they walk off the green and by the time he got to scoring scoring it look, I mean he was he couldn't control them, like they were like just flying out like it. And it's just like you see like this, and I think like the thing with with golf is people say, like you, when you play competitive golf, you never forget anything.
It's like you can you remember the smallest little details of these innate in these like innocuous rounds of golf. Yeah, but for Rory, I have to imagine that twenty eleven was kind of like the first time that that that sort of he felt, that meltdown kind of happened, that
sensation of that happened. And one of the hard things, and I'm sure you could speak to this much more than I can opine and project, but one of the hardest parts about the Masters is you have to keep coming back to the place that you've you've experienced failure or coming up short. And we've seen it with so many players, whether it's Ernie El's, you know, Greg Norman,
Tom Weiskough, Phil for years. It took Phil forever to get over the line, and now Rory it's like these the year after a year of having to go back to that same place, Like you just have that association and that deep rooted association. You could tell yourself, oh, I'm not I love this place, I'm happy here, but deep down you have those bad memories.
Yeah, for sure. Hey, you can add Justin Rose's name to that list. Now he's had so many close calls. Now had two shots at it in playoffs. I mean, this one was a little bit of a gift. He played brilliant golf, and you know, Rory kept bringing everybody
back into it, but yeah, you're right. And I brought that up on Sunday when they got to the tenth tee, and you know, we realized afterwards that twenty eleven is clearly in his mind, and you know, he had to face that situation again of here I am with the lead nine holes to go, and now I've got to hit this t shirt where it all started to come unglued last time, and he ended up making a birdie at ten this time, And at that point was one of the many, many many times during the week that
I thought, oh, he's got this. I'm not ashamed to say it. I'm sure I'll take some heat for this, but whatever. On Thursday already, when he was what four or five under going to the fifteenth holl four under was.
It and just over the green like he hits that iron shot. It was a good iron. It came out a little flat.
Came out a little flat. He must have popped up his drive just a little bit and didn't quite catch it because he was quite well behind the guys he was playing with, but he's still got an iron in. I mean, we know how high this guy can hit his irons probably, you know.
We saw it the next two days. Yeah, two of the next three days he.
Could probably launch it up, you know, higher than anybody since Tiger. At that point already, I was like, Okay, everything is starting to play out for him to win this tournament. And then he goes double bogey double bogie's seventeen and shoots even power and he's seven back, and you're like, oh, there's another year, another year that he's let slip by coming in in good form. And then he shoots sixty six the next day and you're like, Okay,
he's gonna win it. This is it. He's back, no problems, and he keeps it going on the third day and it's like this is meant to be, and he's got the big lead and then he hits it up the face on the first just completely butchers the hole. On Sunday, I mean takes four to get down from I don't know sixty yards or.
So with a lot of green.
Yeah, yeah, with the whole location all the way in the back and you're like, oh no, it's heartbreak again for this poor guy. He plays the first and second and two over, he's thinking about playing him in one. That's a three shot swing. And then he birdies three and you're like, okay, he's back. There's no problem with me. Birdi's four and you're like, oh, he's going to win again. So from Thursday afternoon to Sunday afternoon must have been ten times where I thought to myself he had lost
it and won it. It was the most volatile mental experience at a major championship that I've ever experienced as a fan, ever had to go through as a fan. You know, by the way, and I will just say this, it's not just Rory that that's happening with. There's so many other players too that are they are up there. Rose shoots the sixty five on the first day and it's the same kind of back and forth, and then he shoots the seventy five on Saturday. Just puts terrible.
He averaged more than two putts a hole.
That was that to me is like one of the like the sliding doors things about this is like the putter on Saturday afternoon just completely abandoned him, Like, I mean, I can't remember exactly which hole he three punted from, like four feet on sixteen? Was it eight or fifteen? He three punted from four feet somewhere on Saturday, and it's just like he was hitting it so close and just getting nothing out of it all Saturday afternoon.
Yeah, do you want to know what's not? So he had three three putts on Saturday, and he had two three puts on Sunday and still made ten birdies on Sunday. But on Saturday he averaged two point zero six putts per green and the field average was one point sixty three. So I mean, he just got absolutely crushed on the greens. So but anyway, I was saying, you go through these ebbs and flows with all these players, the shambo as well.
You know, he would hit two or three good irons in a row and you're like, okay, he's found something. And then he'd have a wedge into a green and hit it twenty yards short and you're like, dude, what is that? You know, the wind's not blown that hard out there. The lie wasn't you know in a first cut or second cut, excuse me? And something that you think could jump will come out soft? The amount of iron shots that he hit off of a tee on a part three and from the fairway there would go
twenty yards long and twenty yards short. If he somehow finds a way to clean that up, he is a problem for these guys. Man, he is a problem.
I uh, I want to get to Bryson. I think like one of the things that I while watching the telecast I was thinking about was, you know, we talked about all the build up of of in the scar tissue of the the from twenty eleven on here also in the round like everybody talked to you know when he talked about Rory before this year at the Masters, like how does he need to get it done? He needs to avoid double bogies or worse, he has to avoid soft boat, like the quintessential soft bogies, and like
you think through it, he made four double bogee. Yeah, he had bogey's like the eighth on Saturday, where you're just like what what how did you make bogey here?
You know, and you think about like the whole totality of the tournament, and it was like he literally had to overcome like every every like obstacle of of like what has snake bitten him at augustin National Ye double bogies, the big numbers, the you know, the soft bogies, and he did it by like what tantalizes everybody about him as a player is just the the sheer explosiveness in his game, the shot making, the ability to come out of the gate with six straight threes, you know, like
being able to go to gear that nobody else in the game can really touch.
Yeah, well, I've said that before in this kind of setting and probably on TV as well, when when Rory is it full flight, He's the closest thing we've seen to Tiger in his prime. There's been other players that are very good, good, good good Hall of Fame style players, major champions, World number one's great players. Tiger Woods is on a completely different level to basically everybody but Jack
and Rory. One of the reasons why it's been so frustrating to watch him over the years is because every now and then he touches that like he dips his toe into those waters. But then he does ridiculous things to where you like it's head scratching moments and mistakes that those two players Tiger and Jack never ever made. But when he's rarely going, when he's feeling it, gosh it is. It's insane when you start to think of the difference in quality the spectrum of shots that Maceroy hit.
Just on the second nine on Sunday, I mean, okay, the T shot of ten, I'm going to do a real quick run through right the T shirt of ten. Perfect. Then he felt the face flip a little on the second shot, but it came out perfect and he makes the putt, so it's like an ideal hole. Then he blows the T shot out to the right, probably twenty yards further right than what he's thinking at eleven. So not a great shot, just an average shot. Then he gets a seriously lucky break on the second that's got
double written all over it. Twelve he plays perfectly. Thirteen he decides to just push the three with down the right hand side, which I have no problem with in that moment. Then he's going to lay up. Then he hits one of the worst wed shots that I've ever seen from a player that is playing well. No, seriously, you know when you're struggling and you're missing a cut or you're not feeling well, you hit shots that are just ranked like horrible. Even the best players in the world.
We've seen tops, we've seen shanks, we've seen alsot But when you're playing well and you're leading a major championship, what is he leading by three or four at that time?
I think it was three?
Okay, that is? That is it's one of the worst shots I've seen. It's eighty yards he's got like he's got Let's check the whole location. Whole location on thirteen was eighteen on. I think he had like eighty seven. He's got seventy yards to the front edge and.
A ball he was from where he laid it. The other thing, he laid it up into the perfect place. That's amaze, made the hole a ball.
Let me give you a little little reference here. So whole location eighteen on six right, he's aiming over there, he is. He's pushed the shot by between fifteen and twenty yards with an eighty yard shot. I kind of wonder if there was a little huzzle involved there. It was maybe flew a little too straight for some huzzle. But and then he gets to fourteen ah, and it's a couple of goodies. But he makes the bogie there now it makes the bogey because he comes up short
at fourteen fifteen. He then hits a beautiful tea shot and hits yeah, one of the shots will remember forever when we talk about this Masters sixteen sixteen, the great one seventeen, he hits a great one eighteen. He hits the t shot and you're like, okay, he's got it going. And then again with the wedge one twenty three, won twenty four. You know he's missed his target there by quite some margin too. It's it's amazing the the ebbs
and that you go through when when you watch Rory McRoy. I, you know, I got to think about what he kept talking about.
This was a question I wanted to ask that in the press center that I didn't get the chance to. He talked to Bob Rotella. You talked about with Bob Rotella. All what they're working on is finding a feeling and
getting to a feeling when he's playing golf. And I felt like that round was just like a toggle between getting there and being pulled away and having like the most intrusive thoughts you could have as a golfer, Like it was just this constant battle of getting to that point and getting pulled back out of it and getting
to it. And I think there were like these moments where, you know, I think he was very concerned with Bryson as he should have been at the start of the round, and it was almost like this matchplay situation and like once he got done with Bryson on the tenth hole, or you know, really when Bryson hid in the water on eleven, Yeah, I think he knew it was over for Bryson.
Yeah, like you you.
You get out of the moment, you maybe get out of the feeling, and then you have to this you have to re center back into it. And it was just this afternoon in the in the end of it became this like this him just dealing with what was pulling him out of the moment was the enormity of realizing, like I have I'm doing what I'm not I've never been able to do. And I think, like there there's the whole tournament. You saw this like Saturday, it's like
is he gonna shoot sixty two? And it's like, as as a golfer, you get these and I think this is like the heart of these are this is why people like you are freaks of nature. It's for mortals. You get six under or five under through five and you're like, oh my god, like like I'm five under through five. I better protect this sure, And it's like
you can't. It's so hard to stay in the moment or stay keep that feeling of like I think it's like full freaking Maybe it's like something like full freedom for him, Yeah, where he just swings without any thoughts, because that's what it like to me, Like the shot on fifteen. The only way you hit that shot is if you know there's no other option, and and like and it's like you almost say to yourself, well, I've got to hit a great one.
Yeah. I think it's difficult to chase that feeling or even go search for it. I found that the more you search for it, the harder it is to find. It's one of those weird things to where you got to let it come to you a little bit. I believe what he's trying to tap into or what he's
trying to communicate. Sometimes it's hard to put these things into words, but what he's trying to communicate is basically the feeling of playing like a kid yes, playing how playing like you just love the game so much, playing like you are just trying to hit great shots instead of not hit bad shots. And to me, the emotional ride that any Rory McElroy fan was on during that day was you could almost feel the moments where he started to get defensive and not play Rory McElroy golf
like a kid. And then when like you mentioned on fifteen, where he was like, Okay, this is it. You know, my back's against the wall again now, and now I got to make something happen here and go for a shot and just totally free this up and I got to hit a twenty yard draw around this tree and the picture was so clear to him, The moment was so clear to him that he just pulled it off. That's playing like a kid. And it was an incredible ride from that standpoint to see him grapple with all
of that mentally. And I said at the top of the show, when we did the on camera, which was maybe at about two twenty or so on.
Sunday, three lifetimes earlier.
It feels like, yeah, it feels like about three weeks ago. But nance asked me, you know, what are these two players face today and I said, well, it's completely different. For the turvem Rory is fighting the emotional and mental scar tissue of all these close calls, and that's that's the part that he's going to be battling. And for Bryson it's more physical. He's fighting his iron game. He's
distance control. Can he find a way to hit you know, thirteen fourteen greens today and give the rest of his game an opportunity because he was chipping and putting so well and it ended up playing out like that and McElroy he was fighting some demons there on that second nine, and we could see by by the reaction after he eventually made the two foot even up to the last hole, you know, he hits the beautiful drive in regulation and
you're like, oh, it's over. It's so far down name he's got a sand wedge to the green, maybe a chippy gap wedge, another terrible wedge shot way right. That one's probably eight or nine steps from where he's looking, so not a good shot by his standards at all, And you're like, when he's throwing it away again and then he goes for he's got a great lie uphill lie. He can play that bunker shot anyway he wants. He can go direct line with spin, he can go direct
line with chunk and run. He can go up the bank with chunk and run and feed it towards the hole. He's got so many options. And he hits a you know, considering the situation, like an eight out of ten shot out of the bunker, and you're like, okay, here we go. This is right edge, five feet, not a speed problem, slight downhill, just a standard Augusta National putt. And he starts this thing left edge and you're like, wow, I can't believe this. There's just no way that this guy
can rebound from this sort of anguish and heartache. Surely, now all the mojos with Rose, he's made ten birdies. He's been given this gift. You know, when we got two let's call it like seven eighth hole on Sunday, and we've got that mini leaderboard on the right of our screen, the bottom right corner of our screen that has five or six names on it. Rose wasn't even on that. He wasn't even on that leaderboard at that point.
The background was insane.
Okay, all of a sudden, he's like I was way out of this thing. I now I got a chance to win the green jacket. So he's feeling completely different going to the playoff hole. And so now you're like, Macro is no way he is, no way he can rebound from this. The whole week's been a complete mess, up and down all over. This is surely this is this is one too many that he's got to go to the will And he pipes another T shirt down there and stiffs the wedge and you're like, this guy, Yeah,
that's what I was talking about earlier. His great is up there with you know, the best I've ever lived for sure, But he takes us on a hell of a ride. Man, He's got a lot of Jordan Spieth in him.
Well, I think that. I think that's the thing about him that makes him so popular, right, is like he's kind of different than a lot of all time greats. And I think that might be part of why you know, he he is he's gotten to this point where he had these these struggles for ten plus years. Is that if you think about like athletes in his class, they're all kind of crazy people, yeah, right, like insane insane,
insane human being. Like if you think about Tom Brady, you think about Michael Jordan, you think about you know, even Lebron James, Like you know, I say that with a you know, baited breath as a as a Michael Jordan guy. But but you think about these like the the all all timers, like they are they are kind of like insanely driven. You watch the Last Dance and Michael Jordan's making up things that people say to get
them motivated for the game. Like yeah, and you have Rory who's like very normal, like a very normal person that has these like extraordinary gifts, and what what you witnessed on Sunday was like very similar to a normal person trying to close out a club champion.
Trying to break eighty for the first time.
Like you you were watching someone go through it like they got it that they have they have it, they have it that day. But there's no it's not a straight road, like we get a custom I mean, Rory McElroy especially now, is in you know, an all time great category. He's the best player of the post Tiger generation. And I think we could talk, we could unpack that some.
I got Brooks there, you got Brooks up there as well. You got you gotta share some respect there for sure.
I you show some respect. But at the same time, like the the entire portfolio, in the time, the length he's been doing it, you know, yeah, eighteen years.
I'm just throwing I'm just throwing it in there.
For you so you you get your you have him now at this like stage. And it's like the personality types of other set athletes in this pantheon I think are like dramatically different than Rory McElroy. And that's part of it, right, Like there's you know, there's not like this like robotic nature this like you know, I think like what was telling is like Bryson was shocked that he didn't talk to him because he's a nice guy.
I got. I'm shocked that Bryson is shocked.
I mean just in twenty nineteen, Tony Fenow came off the golf course and was like, Tiger didn't talk to me all day.
I I I just throw myself back when I was in that situation. I'm friends with Brent brent Snedteker. I really like Brent Snedteker. I don't know anybody who doesn't like Brent Snedteker. I did not say one word to him until he walked up to me as we were approaching the eighteenth green on Sunday and said, well done, because I was three ahead, and so, you know, everybody kind of knew it was over. We were both up on the green to me this and Bryson knows this
better than anybody. I mean, this guy's a two time US Open champion. He's been in this situation multiple times. There's the focus and the intensity and the anxiety and nervousness and the manicness of a Sunday at a major championship. There's not much so much chatter out there.
Man, what was he going to ask? How is your breakfast?
Yeah? Like, what are we talking? What are we going to be talking about?
Bryce? I love your leaders breaking fifty video.
About you know. To be fair to him, look, somebody asked him a question and he answered it. But I guess if I was in that situation, my answer would have been, well, no, I didn't want to talk to him. He didn't want to talk to men. We're trying to win the Masters here. This is this is not like, yeah, two buddies going out for a twilight nine holes, having a couple of drinks, and a cigar sort of thing with the music going. This is this is playing for legacy.
On one side, you've got Bryson with this incredible major championship record in the last five years, trying to win his third major in five years. I mean, can we just talk about how good that is and how amazing his major championship record is since the win at wing Foot. And then on the other side of the t box, you've got a guy that's literally trying to do something that only five humans have ever done. There's just not going to be a lot of talking on that in
that round of golf. Too much intensity.
Bryson, I saw this from I think the Twitter account was yeah, click clack. I think he would have been the third player. It would it would have been him, Tiger and Jack that had a US AM and two US Opens in a Masters if he had won. So, like Bryson was playing for kind of like a very rarefied error. So not the same as the Grand Slam. And I feel like you can put partition a lot of things together to make these like small little clubs.
But like anytime you get into like a I have three majors and I'm my combination of accomplishments are with Jack and Tiger. You get to this spot, I'm gonna say it.
I'm gonna say it one more. I'm gonna say it again. I've already said it. I'll probably say it again before the end of this pod. He is going to be a problem in the major championships for these other players. He has the mental build up, the toughness, he has, the self belief, he has incredible talents. He has the crowd on his side for the most part. He creates incredible and amazing energy around him, and people are excited to see him and be near him. Ah. He uh,
He's gonna win more Majores. There's no doubt about it. In my mind, man, no doubt about it.
I think there were a couple of things I took away last year. I watched a ton of Bryson a ton, and I thought it was like kind of this like I saw at the Master's last year. I think, like
kind of public opinion shifted on him. Sure, But and then you go and he has the US Open, which was, like, you know, an incredible When it was at a golf course, you wouldn't expect him to play well at And I think like one of the more compelling aspects of the Bryson Rory duel was it it was unfolding at a golf course that both of them has had a very difficult history with. Like we've seen some of Bryson's lowest moments at Augustin National. That's right, and I think, you know,
like it was fun a couple of years ago. You do Bryson versus Larry Mayes. You know, Bryson hitt in at three fifty and Larry Mice hitting at two thirty and plane to draw every year, you know. But the uh what, what I'm so impressed by is how he's able to single out things that he struggles with and you and improve them. Last year it was the lag putting and Sunday the lag putting was an issue. But the first three days he was unbelievable on the greens, and he talked about how he worked so hard on
lag putting. If you watched him on the putting green before the before the round, it was all lag putting work. It was that's all he was doing. He was putting to tee using his yardstick to measure that. I think like this year, if you look at what he said, he said, I have to get better and more comfortable hitting off uneven lies with irons, and I thought it was telling it. I think it was. Jim said this
on the telcast Bryson. Of all the holes at Augusta National, the hole that he's played the worst over his career is the tenth hole. And that's the hole that you have probably the most severe uneven lie without like there's no way to avoid the uneven lie. You could hit it down the left and get a little bit less uneven the lie. But it's like the hole that like kind of illustrates the challenge of Augusta National, I think the most, like all the little factors that go in it.
You have the elevation, it's hard to judge the win there, and then you have this uneven lie like this downhill side hill lie. And I think like his equipment makes that more challenging because they are longer clubs and you know, it's got the big grips, and I think that makes that aspect of it. But like here's the thing, like what you said, he's going to be a problem. Yeah, he has identified what he needs to improve, and throughout his career we have seen this guy, he identifies issues
and he goes into the lab. You know, that was a pun intended, and he he gets after it and he usually comes out a better player.
Yeah. Look, I'm following all these players leading up to the tournament. The research starts about a month before, and he had been he had been talking at the tournaments he was playing. He had been talking about the golf ball and having some issues with ball spinning too much and not being able to control it the way he wanted to control it. And he clearly had the Masters in mind when he was making those comments, trying to
make sure that he tightened all that stuff up. But yeah, he was able to give himself a chance to win even with absolutely head scratching distance control issues the whole week at the Masters. I mean even on Sunday when he was wild, when he was kind of out of it, and he gets to fifteen, hits a great T shirt all the way down there, he's got nothing in there, and he makes this beautiful swing and he's like leaning forward, posing on it, and we've got a great shot of him,
and I'm like, well, he likes it. It didn't even hit the bank. It flew straight into the water in front of the green. I mean that that is, that's a solid ten to twelve steps from where he was trying to land it, And it's like Wow. Normally at the level that these guys are at, which is brilliant, it's brilliant for the most part. They are so good that as soon as they strike the ball they know if it's good or not. Like write at impact, guys like that are like, oh yeah, be right, get in that,
watch this. Watch this is going to be close Bryson poses on iron shots, they'll be twenty yards away from where he's looking. Distance wise, that is something that he's going to have to to rarely tighten up and pay close attention to. And if he finds a solution, he's gonna win a major this year for sure.
Yeah. I think you know, if you if you play this like out, if you game this out to one of the things about Bryson, and you know, at the moment on the teilcast, you thought like at eleven, he had to chase, you know, this guy has to chase.
Yeah, I said that. I said that, Yeah, he had to. He was so far back and Rory just got this good break.
But the reality of what ended up unfolding. Was like, he could have probably just hit the safe shot there and because he you know, he this is playing it out and you know, you can't really do this, but like the reality, I don't. I don't think he was hitting the ball well enough either way to win.
No, but this thing that there's a way though, there's a way though you can you can play aggressively and you can chase and not let that ball get left of the flagstick. What you know, I don't want people to to misunderstand what I was trying to get at the Ordinarily, at eleven, you're pretty much aiming at the right edge of the green. Okay, So what I'm saying is he's got the short club, he's hit a brilliant T shirt, so this one is gonna it's gonna start
turning closer to the hole here. But I'm not talking about letting it drift left of that whole location. I mean, that's like there's no space over there at all. So I'm saying, be more aggressive. Is this needs to be you know, inside twenty feet right of that flagstick. But yeah, still in his mind, he's not thinking ror he's gonna make seventh thirteen.
I mean nobody did though, Like all those I bet Justin Rose thought he needed to get to twelve, you know, yeah to have a chance. I think the thing that I'll take from Bryson is the Saturday finish. And it's like the number of players that would have been able to when they clearly didn't have the stuff lift their
games up. Because he wanted to get into that final group. Yeah, the final pairing, and the built the way to finish with three birdies on those last four holes and like just like move move himself into right where he wanted to be. It is like he manifested I am going to get into the final group and I will get there.
And it just like it's like, you know, to finish that way on Saturday, I just thought was like, I mean, you knew he was not at his at full flight with his with his irons, and to get there was just extraordinary.
Yeah. Yeah, it's just brilliant. And the party made on the lost toll. You drive it into the left Beiwet bunker, quite a nice second shot. The whole locations all the way at the back right and it's about twelve yards up the hill, so there's a lot going on there you can't see the surface of the green, and he gets it onto the correct level and then makes that put with everybody there, It's like the defining moment of the day really is him making that put and getting
within striking distance of Rory. You know, it's interesting because I think back to Macarroy's he's been maturing as well. We've had similar concerns and issues about him and with his wedge plate and his distance control and his ability to rarely be precise with the Irons, and Bryson is in that same slot. But he's so smart. He has incredible discipline, incredible work ethic. He's a thinker, as we all know, He's going to find a solution to this.
I really do believe he'll He'll find a solution to be able to tighten that up.
The I think, like you just hit on something I wanted to touch on. Is I do think, like you know, Rory's talked about, I'm the most complete player I've ever been. Yeah, And I think this year we've seen Rory take his his golf game to whole new level with the you know, you take away like some of the Irons late on Sunday and I thought that was the most complete iron performance we've ever seen from him in terms of distance control.
You know, I think that's been the thing that's kind of plagued him at Augusta is like maybe the iron play wasn't exactly where it needed to be to you know, hit a lot of shots, pin high hit, you know, avoid getting in places we saw Bryson get into when you have distance control issues, Yeah, where you get above
the hole on four right. So he I think he's pushed, he's gotten to this place, and I think, like I'm not you know, I don't know if this is true or not, but like, to me, like one of the things that might be a reason why is Scotty Scheffler.
I think Scotty Scheffler clearly taking the top spot in the game of golf last year by stranglehold where you know, even Rory McElroy, and I've said this before on this podcast, I wonder how many times in his career Rory McElroy has just been like, yes, Scott, he's the best player in the world. Like, how many players has he said that about? You know, maybe never, Yeah.
He's fled out, said, he's fled out, said in the media. He wants to play more like Scotty. Yeah, and what he's trying to communicate there is less of what we saw on Sunday. He wants to be more consistent, uh, you know, more disciplined, more strategic, because that's how Scheffler is. You know, Scheffler is just ordinarily so clean with the way he plays. Let's take a look how many double bogees Scottish Scheffler made. How many do you think how many he didn't have his best week?
Maybe one?
He ended up four, finishing fourth. Scottish Scheffler had zero double bogies last week. So that's kind of what Rory means. And I do think that he is he he's taken that to heart because they've got them placed together so much. And when you start to unpack the twenty twenty four season for Scheffler and winning nine times around the world, and Okay, how's he gotten this done? What has he done in order to be that great for such a
long period of time. Yeah, that's that's the thing that if Rory can find a way, that'll be.
So I think with this iron play, like he's leading the tournament in strokes gain approach through three rounds and something I was I jotted down is like it is Rory the most complete player in golf the way he's been hitting his irons this year, because like you start to look at him and there's no deficiency, right, the putter can get is is streaky, right, but when it's good, it's really good. Yeah, And when it's bad, it's not
it's not really bad. And I think, like you start to look at it, and it's like Scotty's probably is a better iron player, right, Rory's got the ability to hit a thirty past Scotty yeap, you know, and drive the ball a little bit with a little bit more explosiveness. Scotty short game is probably a little bit better, but Rory short game is really good too. And at the with the putter, you know, Rory McElroy is a better
putter than Scotty Shuffler. Like I think you he's got He had this moment last year where he's like, I'm not the best player in the world anymore. To me, it feels like he that has motivated him in taking his game to hold another level.
Yeah, it sure has, And that's why he tells the story of basically locking himself in a simulator and making the changes to his swing for a couple of weeks in the fall that he made was because he knew that there was something missing technique wise in order to be able to have that consistency and be able to be on the level to compete with Schefler week in and week out. If we go with recency bias, which is always such a heavy thing to weigh, then yeah,
Rory is the most complete player right now. But I think we just got to pump the brakes and remember last year. Remember the golf we saw from Schefler, Remember the golf we saw from Zander. It's been a bit awkward to start to the season with those two guys being injured. You know, they're rarely not gosh. I don't even feel like Xander's out of second gear yet this year. He's still figuring things out. Scotty is Scotty's Scotty's out of second gear, but he's not in He's not in
sport mode yet like he was last year. And if Rory can maintain this level, I mean, think about the places he's won Man Augusta National, Pebble Beach and the Stadium Course, that's.
Think about where think about where we're going the next next three Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. But if if Rory can maintain that and then those guys can get back up to their level, we're gonna have a lot of fun. You start to add in Bryson, you start to add in John ram I spent quite a bit of time with John Rahm in the locker room last week. Uh. He made a brilliant ten footer on Friday afternoon late just to make the cut, and then played some really good golf on
the weekend. And if we rewinded a couple of years before, I mean, he was the Scottish scheffler in in you know what are we talking twenty two to twenty three times? He was the guy that was super consistent, being in the top ten all the time. We've got five or six guys. I'd love to throw Oberg in there. I'd love to throw more Kawa in there. That if we get to a tournament where they all bring their best, that's going to be a fun run.
To me to be with Rom He needs to get to a level of I think maybe happiness. It's hard to play great golf when you're unhappy, and it seems to me that some of the joy if you if you juxtapose twenty twenty two John Rahm and the way he talked in press conferences. You know, the questions and a lot of the answers were centered around his love
of the game, the history of the game. And now you you flash forward three years later, he made a very interesting decision with where he would play his golf and and now he is seemingly fighting a battle of feeling irrelevant, and his answers are are are short, they're snippier, and I just think like, at the end of the day, playing golf unhappy, like when you're personally feeling dissatisfaction of some aspect. It could be anywhere in your life is a near Playing high level golf with that is one
of the hardest things to do in the world. And to me, like with John rom he just has to get to some level of acceptance, like accept that, hey, you know what, like, no matter what you do on live like, nobody's going to, you know, give you the credit you feel like you deserve. And look at Bryson
as an example. Nobody gave Bryson credit for the work he was doing until he won the US Open and now people are like, wow, look at Bryson, Like look at this guy, Like, listen to this conversation we just had. He is a problem. Like he's going to be a problem. He's going to win more. And that's came. That came from what he did at major championships because he you know, nobody was like, you know, look at what he's doing on live and this is what he's doing. And John
rom just has to accept that. Where I play golf right now, nobody is going to, you know, say that I'm playing great because of the nature of the league.
Yeah, I mean that's an opinion for sure. Uh. He seemed in good spirits to me last week. I would agree with you that the style of questions that he gets asked now is different to what it was a few years ago. And the fuse maybe one of the things that makes him fun to watch is he has a short fuse. Yes, and he's like he's a unit man. He is. He's a big dude, a big, strong, forceful, like he's got presence about him.
There's there's a physicality yeah to his game.
Yeah, and you just you you know that he's there and when when you have that presence and you have this this this temperament that can just get caught on fire at any moment. It makes it fun for us to watch. Now. To me, the shuse is just to touch shorter than what it always was. Maybe a little less patience in there, but there's no denying the skill set and the ability that he has to beat anybody
in the game. So we'll have to see if if now with the schedule that they have at Live, you know, it may be a process of him still figuring out the best way to come to major championships in his best form, and we'll have to see how he deals with that. Bryson has very clearly figured it out. He knows exactly the formula that is needed. Five of the last seven Majors now he's been in the top six
with that one win. You know, he knows the system that he has to run, the routines that he needs to have with the schedule, with his playing schedule, how to be shop coming into the Majors. And it just appears that John hasn't quite figured that out yet. When you bake in last year's major performance and then sure a great weekend here, but was never really in it he was a ten foot away from missing cut had a great weekend seventy sixty nine to finish tie for fourteenth,
So a bit of a backdoor action there. So in my opinion, super super, super good, but needs to figure out what he's got to do to be ready to come into the PGA Championship. Yeah.
You think about Bryson and rom They're like pretty diametrically different people. And to me, John John thrives on the kind of like the iron sharpens iron, yeah approach where you know, like him being him playing, Like you just think about the lead up and think about, like how how Rory wins this year. You know, he wins. He
plays a bunch of top flight fields. He wins two big tournaments at at Pebble Beach and the Players, and you can't not believe that that, especially the Players experience, helped him extraordinarily in the with the Masters, where he had the you know, disappointed, he was disappointed he was even in the playoff at the Players. He had to feel similarly at the Masters. And then you have Bryson on the other hand, Like I think Bryson he's kind
of introverted. I think one of the things that things with Live is like it's been really good for him to be away, like away from the public eye. It allows him time to work on things, and he's not
working on things in front of people, right. I think that's always was the thing that struggle with Bryson struggled with was like the cameras and the attention and the weekend week out of the tour where he was working through whether it was personal things, whether or whether it was things in his game, you know, was that day in day out, week in week out attention was not
good for his game. I think the opposite is true for Rom where that that was how that playing against the best players in the world constantly have measuring yourself against them was what pushed Ram ahead, you know. And I think, like it's just hard, you know. I think
if you if you were playing like play. I used to play a lot of basketball in my twenties and I'd play, I'd play pickup ball on the weekends and then we'd play in the league and like the you know, the league with refs and everything, and you know, I was playing a ton of basketball. And I always was amazed how I could play hours of pick up basketball.
But you get into a league game, like a real game, the real competition, and this is not real competition of you know, like a major or even you know, any sort of organ You get in a league game and you play like six minutes and you're like spent. You're just like, oh my god, Like I'm just like I can't, like I'm so tired, because that intensity ratchets up, and if you're not playing that regularly, you just you can't play long minutes in a in a in a league setting.
And I think it's something similar going on with rom right now, is like, you know, like not having anything that even comes close to replicating the intensity of a major championship, and they're just being dropped in there. The Olympics, he had that great performance that was what two weeks after the Open Championship.
I'm not exactly, but it wasn't that long after years. I'm not exactly sure, but it was pretty close where he had the lead and then yeah, kind of threw it away on the Sunday with Chefler shooting sixty two. As well.
You think about his year last year, it was like a ramp up, like almost every major got a little bit better.
Yeah, because he played better. He finished tie for seventh at the Open. After he went he was forty fist at the Masters. He missed the cut at the PGA at Valhalla, and then he had the toe issue at the US Open and couldn't couldn't compete at Pinehurst.
But like there's a ramp up because he was getting acclimated to games. You know, in another sport, you'd call it game speed.
Yeah, yeah, Yeah, it's just.
I think that's the challenge for a guy like rom. I don't know, you know, it's just like you always struggle on golf when you just get dropped into something that you're you're not necessarily ready for.
Yeah, and look, talking to the LIV guys last week, they seem to be I would say that they are for sure still trying to find a way to tweak their schedule to where it's dialed in for the majors, not just when they're playing, but where they are playing as well, to where you know their game is been able to be worked on in competition, needing the style of shots that they're going to need for that next
major championship. So I think they're still trying to get that, get that figured out and dialed in in a way that they want and their intention is to do that. I would say that's a fair statement.
Who's one player we haven't talked about. Uh yeah, that that you want to touch on here let me see here.
You know, Oberg continues to show that he's he's got what it takes.
It's something else.
Look disastrous finish. I mean just in a in a stretcher the last two holes. I mean he's gone bogie triple bogie to finish the tournament.
Make it triple a without without a penalty of stroke.
Like I said, this is this is the first time I'm really sort of thinking back and I'm starting to get some memories of the whole week. Like I said, you know, I have breakfast with John on Sunday morning. You run into Bubba, you run into Sergio, you speak to all these different players, you know, Rory during the week, Cheffler during the week. Uh and and so I'm starting to just recollect different conversations that I had. And we
just mentioned that triple bogie. On eighteen, Oberg had a putt on the sixteenth green to take the outright lead and missed it, and then it went bogie, triple bogey.
I what terrible, terrible bogey at seventeen that was a terrible three pot.
Seventeen is it's a hard hole man.
Fourteen and seventeen are so sneaky. This is something I had in my notes from watching the telecast, is like, if you think about fourteen, Rose, Rory and Ludwig all hit bad t shots. Ludwig got the up and down.
Yeah, mclarroy too. McRoy was to the right on fourteen and kind of couldn't get it there him, him and Oberg were in a similar spot and Rosy's short short right there.
Yeah, and they all like it. It's just like it's amazing, Like all the hoopla goes to and right lely so to like thirteen and fifteen. But like if you can play, if you're in the in the mix, and you can, if you can power fourteen and seventeen, you know, like you you're gonna pick up half a shot, maybe a full shot on everybody around you because those holes, like they just always trip people up.
Yeah, the golf course.
Golf course is amazing, so good.
It's magnificent. It's so magnificent. Every there's just there's no there's no sleeper holes. You know, the the third hole is a lot easier than when it was in my day, right because hardly anybody, I mean a few guys could maybe, but you have to rip one to cover that front, that bunker on the left at two eighty like rip one, and you would have been like, Okay, they've moved the tea a little forward, and maybe I got a little help on the southwest winds, so now I feel a
bit better about carrying that bunker. For the most part, players would lay up and then it's a tough web shot. But even if you drive it down to the front of the green where these guys are hitting it, you still you could still make a make a mess of that.
All you know, the green is it's such an interesting, intricate green with tiny little fingers, you know, in the back and in the left, with enough slope to them to where it catches your attention with enough danger if you miss them that even with the technology change, three is still a hole you've got to be aware of and be careful of. But every single hole is just so good, so difficult. You have to be so precise.
But when I say difficult, to me, the beauty of it, the beauty of it is you get rewarded for playing the way you supposed to play, And that to me is is how how a great golf course should be.
Every hole is achievable, yes, like every hole, every hole. And I was looking at driving stats on this was on Sunday morning, and I think this is part of it is there's guys like Zach. I think it was Zach Johnson and Aaron Raye. We're leading the field and driving accuracy.
Shout out to Zach tie for eighth at forty nine years old.
Incredible performance, Like I like, honestly amazing performance. He's gonna be a menace on on pj's Champions.
True, Bernard better retire before Zach gets there. The uh, Zach is gonna be a problem.
So they're there, are there are driving stats they're at like ninety plus percent, it was like ninety one percent. Yeah, and when like so if you play well, like I'm gonna be hitting from short grass into every one of those greens. And you know, they do an amazing job with course set up where there's this give and take, where there are you know every day. You know, they
have this amazing ability to change a hole. You know, I can't think of many courses in the world where you can move a whole location on almost every hole out there and change the scoring average probably close to half a shot.
Yeah, from a bergihill to a burnial.
And they so they have this amazing versatility. And one day you go up to to fourteen and you're thinking, I got to make a birdie, and then they can move the pin to the you know, into one of the positions that's really hard, and then it becomes like, well, I better hit a good t shot if I want to make a bar because if I'm not in the
right spot. So you know, there's just this like amazing versatility to it, in variability where you're around the cadence of that, Like you settle into a tournament and you're like on most courses you know what's coming like and your week goes is like, okay, like birdie, this is the stretch, I go get it. This is the stretch I gotta be careful of out there each day. The cadence is a little different based off how they set it up where certain holes are going to take from you.
It's just disrupting that flow a little bit. But have you ever been at a bar where they do, like a German bar, they do the mug hold where you have to like hold the mug out, you hold the mug out, and it's just basically like holding a weight and keeping your shoulder extended. And you see people just quivering, ye like, and they're shaking and you can see when they're going.
Yeah.
I think that's the way I think about Augusta Nashell, particularly on the weekends. It is like everybody's just trying to hang on, you know, and these guys are playing there. We saw just such an extraordinary level of golf at times. Yeah, and they're just trying to hang on, and inevitably the golf course just cracks them.
Sure at some point, Yeah, some quicker than others, but at some point. Yeah. The intensity of the week is uh, it's quite something to deal with, you know. You and players, you know a lot of a lot of people. You want to get in there Saturday, you want to get in there Sunday, coming early. Man, But it's it starts to get to you. There's just so much going on, you know, think about I was thinking the other and I never realized this when I was playing, but it
kind of dawned on me this year. I was eating lunch with my wife up on the balcony as the leaders were coming out to the first tea, and I said to wow, this is kind of like the Kentucky Derby, or you know when you go to those big horse races and the horses are like walking out as they're showing them and then they go out onto the track.
It's what it's like. It's what it's like at Augusta National because the players are coming from the practice area and then they walk through, you know, under the in the tunnel at the clubhouse, out under the big Tree, and everybody's just there dressed up, you know, fancy hats on jackets, and the players have to make their way through, and I was like, wow, even even that moment right there, like it's it's it's an intense environment.
It's so intense.
Yeah, the excitement and the the noise, the buzz, it's a love for a player to have to deal with throughout the week.
I wrote this down in my notes. I don't know if you caught this. Do you know what numbers Rory and Bryson's caddies were wearing. So there was ninety six players in the field last year. For listeners, your number is a caddy number one goes to the defending champion. Every number after that goes in order of arrival.
Yeah. So Bryson was eighty nine?
Was he eighty nine?
Yeah?
Correct?
And Rory was eighty one? Was he?
Yeah? I just like you saying, like the intensity of the week and everybody wants to get in on Sunday and do their work. Like I wonder if there's something to you know, I think both of them arrived on Monday night or Tuesday morning.
Yeah. I Uh, if I was getting ready to play in the mastas, I would make the trip two before. I would spend you know, two to three days there, just getting comfortable with all the strategy, hopefully get to play the course in two different wind directions. Uh. And then I would I would come in Monday night and I would at some point Monday get some body work, maybe have a workout, have a great meal, and then nine Tuesday, nine Wednesday, let's go.
The jack used to didn't he show up a lot of times on Wednesday?
So what he told me that he would do is he would play the tournament the week before. So he would always go and this is why he had an issue with the Memorial being the week before the US Open last year, because he was like, I would never have played my own tournament then, because I always took a week off before major. Uh, and we're going to see that move for this year. So he would go the week before and he would play four rounds, count every shot, so he would play the tournament against himself,
against the court. That's what he was doing and everywhere and every major championship. And the reason he did that now at the Masters, this doesn't really come into play, but he said, you're talking about the Open, the US Open,
the PGA Championship. The rough would always be longer the week before because they're still going to be growing it in and then probably given it that final cut the weekend before, and the greenswoar was firm and fast, and he felt like he rarely got to test himself and understand the challenges that he was about to face, and then he could figure out the strategy going into the
real tournament. It's quite clever, but professional golfers, you know, it's it's evolved so much now it probably would be hard for players to do that, but maybe you could find a gap at some point to be able to
go there. With enough time, I think you can get it done in two or three days and really get your homework done to where you don't have to do you don't have to There's so many stresses on the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of a major championship and then the tournament, you just don't want to add anything to that during those final moments you want to be trying to It's like one of my close friends as won three medals swimming in the Olympics, name is Roland Schummer, South African swimmer,
and in their sport, they talk about tapering to where they do all this crazy training, but then actually coming up to the races they taper that down to be able to have the appropriate recovery and mass and stamf and all that kind of stuff. It's almost like you need a little bit of that coming into mages.
Yeah. I think that's I mean, that's the thing you have to It's almost like you have to treat yourself well before a major, yeah, because you if you come in with stress, like it's so much of is in particular Augusta Nashal, I feel like it's the most stressful place to play a tournament because you have the knowing that you can score. But but then if you don't hit the shots, everything becomes extraordinarily hard. It's just and it's like you just so rarely see people leave stuff dead,
like you leave putts dead. Hind you never it's it's the whole, it's the course that you might have to hold the most three to four footers.
Yeah, I mean, you can hit a nine out of ten putt from twenty feet and you got to get the coin out of the pocket and you got three feet coming back, and you're like, I mean, I've just hit this pot. Okay, it didn't go in, but I've hit this pott as good as what I possibly could, and I'm still got to fight to get out of
here with the pie and that stuff. Yeah, it piles up, and by the end of the week you are I wonder if Rory's even working up yet, any of these guys, I mean, Rory Rose read how about Reid holding out one bouncer on seventeen.
You weren't there. This was amazing. I was. I was standing there at that point. Nobody cheered, nobody saw.
It because it just disappeared so fast.
No, because they were the scoreboard was changing.
Oh, I gotcha and we and we were, we were. We showed it and he didn't. He had no clue. He actually said to his caddy, where is that.
He had a little blockie. It was a little blockie. Did he go in one.
Bounce all of a sudden? If he hauls it out on eighteen, he would have gotten into the playoffs.
Can we talk about his three foot three putt from three feet on thirteen?
Yeah, that is unusual for him. I mean, he's such a great short gamer putter. He said he had struggled with his putting in the first couple of days, but then started to figure it out on the weekend. But yeah, great, finish third on his own, and then Scheffler does nothing the whole week, finishes fourth, does nothing the whole week, and it's still got a chance with nine holes to play somehow. After Rory's hiccup, I.
Got a couple of rapid fire questions before we go. Yeah on here, I'm kind of shooting from the hip here.
Don't worry, I've been doing that the whole time.
Shot You'll remember the most Oh, I.
Don't have one I don't have one.
Because that's why it's a hard question.
Yeah, Microroy's two shots into fifteen on the weekend were and I mentioned this on the broadcast. They reminded me of Jack and Tiger. You know, you see all those great clips Tiger wearing black pants or red shirt Jack various different times. But the one that jumps out to me is two that jump out to me. He's nineteen seventy eight, excuse me, nineteen seventy five. He's got the white pants, the green and white striped shirt. In eighty six he's got the yellow shirt and he's got like
plaid gray pants. Kind of a deal. And they make these swings with long irons from the top of the hill and immediately start charging after the ball. It's like.
Said earlier, they know it's perfect.
You know what was mind boggling to me about Bryson because he's staring these shots down and then they they're nowhere near, but immediately, even though it's ten yards down the hill, the wind swirling, when they make contact with the ball, they're like, this is it. This is it? The club toils from Tiger. You know Jack, he's always like he's got that shoulder move that he always used to make, and Rory did that with the sixth iron on Saturday, and then the seven nine on Sunday does
jump out to me. NANCE called it the shot of a lifetime, which was amazing. But I gotta say the wedgend of thirteen on Sunday, I have to remember it. It will go down as one of the poorest shots that McElroy will hit in his curreer.
It's kind of eerily similar to the speef chunk from the drop area. Yeah, yeah, right, Like if it had gone the other way, it would have it would have been that.
I kept thinking to myself throughout the whole and I know you said it's supposed to be a rapid fire, but I kept thinking to myself the whole way through that Sunday, the the moment that McElroy is dealing with, like the magnitude of this situation, the outcomes are so polar opposite. He's either gonna win be remembered for the rest of time or he's going to lose and it's gonna be the worst day of his life. Yeah, Like,
there there's no in between. Like we talk about these other guys justin forty four years old, another great opportunity, cementing Hall of Fame status read great third place, Scottie Okay, solid, Xander eighth Oberg getting it going. There's there's like a middle ground for every other player, but for Macroy, it was either going to be one of the six greatest names that will be remembered forever. Oh, this is going to be the worst day of your life. There was zero action in the middle at all.
And I think that's why you just saw it on his face and he saw I think that's why you saw just the wide range of outcomes we saw throughout his round. Yeah, was just that that enormity of the situation. Yeah, you know, but so they can't even imagine how it felt.
Oh, there's so many shots though. You think of the t shots at one and two that he hit in the third round. You think about some of the up and downs that Bryson made. Bryson shot sixty nine on Saturday and he hit nine greens.
All time scoring round. I think I said this on the shotgun start, But like Bryson gets called all these things, and at the end of the day, like I think, what his superpower is is he just knows to score of the golf ball. Like he just he's one of those players that like just gets the ball in the hole really quickly.
Yeah, he's tough man. He doesn't quit. He's tough.
And with that guy, yeah, I would hate to play I'd hate to play him like in a mat like you know, like he's just never out of it. He's got some super superhuman talents, right, But at the end of the day, the guy like he makes big putt, he has a knack to make putts when he needs to make putts, and he has a knack to hit shots when he has to hit shots. And it didn't work out on Sunday. But like the situation, situation or swing that you'll remember the most, Like swing in in in the tournament.
Oh swing in the tournament.
Yeah, like like like moment is so situation or like moment grand moment.
It has thirteen. You know we thought, I think the whole world when he hit it on the green on twelve. Everybody, you don't have to be a great golfer to no Augusta National, just if you love golf. We've all watched it so much. We know where the pitfalls are. And on eleven, when he was standing on the tee and they were waiting. They waited quite a lot. On the second nine, I kind of foreshadowed. I was like, Okay, he's now birdied nine and ten. He's got this big lead.
You know, let's start to think about the places that it can come undone. Okay, we've got what's the water holes. It's eleven, it's twelve, it's thirteen, it's fifteen, And then I said sixteen. He doesn't have to worry about too much because with the whole back right, we'd have to be a pretty rank shot to get to the water. And so I sort of foreshadowed that. And when he hit it on the green on twelve, everybody on the planet must have been that's it. That's over. Now he's
got tupop. Yes, it's normally where he feasts. He's made all these eagles and birdies throughout the week. And then he keeps it out of the water on his first and he's second on thirteen, and then it all just went completely sideways. I mean, that's what I remember, big swing.
I said this on the shotgun start, but I felt like it was it's so easy to play Monday morning quarterback. But I thought it was a mistake to take the foot off the gas on thirteen because I thought it it changed the mindset of how he was playing golf.
Yeah, look, he plays better when he's being aggressive, but we need to be careful how we frame aggressive. Aggressive does not mean stupid. Yeah, aggressive means a confident, committed swing.
With conservative targets. That's the best way to play last.
And so I have zero problem the strategy on thirteen. Zero problem. I don't mind him, you know, turning it into a three shotter. But to hit that sort of a shot from eighty something yards is it brought It brought four or five guys back into it. And the fact that we haven't even paid reference to the three two shot swings in the first four holes shows how dramatic that thirteenth toll was.
I mean, this round will be talked about forever because there's so many micro moments, like little advantages that happened early in the Bryson Rory showdown segment of it where Rory got Rory made putts first that put the pressure on Scottie. I thought that were like huge, huge moments, you know, whether it was three or nine, you know, him getting the putt first in both those like to me that that nine was kind of a knockout punch for Bryce. That was where he he was like, Okay,
I can't, I can't, I can't beat this guy. Maybe today when he got to putt and it looked like Bryson was pacing it out like he thought he might have been trying he was trying to hit his putt first.
Yeah, they were, they were watch it. They were within inches of each other distance wise, But that that was it was a big moment right there. And then for Roy to birdie ten. I'm just looking at his scorecard here. I mean, the guy made six birdies and shut one over. Yeah, he doubles in one round.
It was it was the full experience, the full Augustin National Rory experience through the years. All right, real rapid fire and then we'll we're gonna get you out of here because I know you got your you got harbortown responsibilities here over under six point five majors for Rory McElroy.
They're not that easy to win, by the way.
No, we're seeing he does got off and eleven year side here.
That means he's gonna win two. More so I'm gonna go yes, all right, I listen, go onto my X profile. Earlier in the season, before everyone started playing, I said what I thought was going to happen, shadowed Henley winning the E one Arnold Palmer, I four shut at McNeely. He's now playing really well and he's going to make third championship. I said McElroy was going to win a major championship. That's happened. I've said on TV. The venues this year for him are like totally in his wheelhouse.
We're going to next he owns Quail Hollow, owns Quail Hollow. It's gonna be the favorite coming in there. Oakmont. You gotta hit one ball like a missen so that suits him. We know he's turned into a good putter. And then I mean he's going home. He's going home for the Open with the green jacket. He's going to be celebrated and received there like maybe nothing we've ever seen before. And that's just this year, never mind the next. He seems to be fit, he seems to not get many injuries.
What is he thirty five years old? Now, you've got to think he's got at least another five years And in the way he's looked after his body and been so disciplined with his health. I'm giving him two more. I'm giving him two more, and I tell you why that will be special. He said last year that he has three goals left in his career, winning the Masters, winning an Olympic medal and winning an away Ryder Cup.
I would add one more for him. He scratched one of them off this last weekend with winning the Masters. If he gets to seven Majors, he is, without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest European player ever to live. He's got to get pass Faldo at six, but if he gets to seven, to me, it's unquestionable.
I'm doing rapid fire.
I can't do rapid fire. Hey listen, let me just tell you something. In my job, I'm rapid fire.
I know, I know I have.
Two seconds to say something, three seconds to say something. When I come on one of these, you get the full experience of how I have all these thoughts in my mind and I have to like edit it down to five words on TV. So now you're getting the whole apologize to the listeners.
I don't think anybody's anybody's upset. If anything, people are upset with me. All right over under three point five majors for Bryson.
Yeah, I'm going over on that as well. He's their one, super strong and yeah, he's gonna figure the Irons out.
I think i'd be and that I'd agree with both of these. So far over under three point five green jackets for Scottie.
Okay, I'm gonna take the under on that one to change it up. He'll win another one. He'll win another one.
It's mind boggling how he did nothing and finished fourth.
Yeah, he'll win another one. He's uh yeah, him and Rory on one A and one B right now.
All right over under zero point five green jackets for Ludwig.
I'll take the over on that one.
He seems perfect.
His game fits anywhere, anywhere, everywhere, demeanor ten out of ten, seems to frame things up the right way. I actually said on the broadcast that he's like a mixture between Adam Scott and Roger Federer. Yeah, he's got like that classy, tall, look, beautiful swing like Scottie, supremely talented. So yeah, I'm going over on that. He's great.
I'm worried. I'm already worried. About what we've seen with scar tissue. Now with Ludwig, just two close, two kind of close calls. It's not good when you start racking up the close.
Calls there, Okay, I feel differently.
I don't. I don't. I'm not saying I'm gonna go under. I'm just this is. This is a brief area of concern for me.
His first two Masters starts, he's gone second and seventh.
Seventh with an asterisk.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, take the lead with two holes to play.
Yeah, all right, Trevor, thank you so much. Kill her job this weekend with coverage and look forward to hearing you the next couple of weeks the next major. Well have you so can't wait. Thanks for having on.
Right back at you, guys. Appreciate all the social media stuff, the whole team out there, the newsletters. You know, I would once I got done with all my work, I'd be back the house at midnight, you know, early mornings, reading all the stuff, making sure I was up to date with everything that was going on out on the grounds. So yeah, well done to you guys. We all need a couple of days off and then we get back on the horse. It's great to be I haven't.
I haven't seen my daughter yet, so I'm going to run in and see her for ten days. She's apparently apparently requesting my presence.
Yeah, same thing. Mine is actually on spring break this week and arrive here at Hilton and off an hour, so I'm looking forward to.
All Right, thank you for listening to another edition of the Friday Golf Podcast. That was fun. I don't I don't think we're gonna be done talking about that major for a long time. Big thanks to Trevor again for joining and we'll be back next week. One of you know, Rory Winning, was really happy about that. But other big win of the week was our great photographer videographer Cameron Hurdis who logs tons of hours when he goes to Gusta National photographs from basically sun up to sundown all
day every day. Also is you know, a huge part of all of our videos on YouTube. He won the Media Lottery. Cameron is a architecture nut. He's actually won the Leedo Competition, the Golf digestin Mackenzie Society, Lido competition where you design a hole three times. His band from the competition, so he's so into golf. Architecture, and he is a good player, and he has spent more time roaming around those grounds the last three years than really or last two years, than me or Brendan, really any
media member I know of. He's basically out there every hour, every minute he can be during the tournament. He got to play Augusta on Monday. So next week I think we are going to have him for about thirty minutes or so talking about his takeaways from playing and another segment on the show. So we're not done with Augusta content. A little slow burn here as we kind of come off this incredible high from that tournament. I mean, so many different angles of it. I think I could talk
with Trevor for two more hours about it. So big thanks to PJ Clark, who was on the ground. He was not he was. He was kind of in and out of the in and out of the grounds at Augusta when we could find scrounge up a ticket, but he was manning down the house and and producing all of our shotgun start pods. And big thanks for him for hopping on and producing this one at a moment's notice. So PJ gets some rest, and thank you all for
the support. It's a it's a dream come true to get to go cover golf tournaments like the Masters, and none of this would ever happen if if you guys didn't listen, and it's uh yeah weeks. Weeks like last week are the ones that make me want to make me pinch myself and and really eternally grateful forgetting to do what I get to do. And thank you guys for all the support through the years, and that's made it possible for us to UH to get out there
and cover these events the way we do. And we hope these are the best years of covering majors and our coverage just continues to get better, I hope in the coming year. So big thank you to everybody for supporting the podcast, supporting the UH, the company that we've built. We'll be back next week and I hope you guys all have a great rest of your week.
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