Now, the Shotgun Starting Golf is full of mathematics. There's a lot of a lot of setup work that we have to do in order to make a tournament work. So I'm going to demonstrate to you just exactly how we do a shotgun start here.
And all right, alright, alright, did no man?
Darn your.
Greetings, and welcome to a Thursday edition of The Shotgun Start. It is April ninth, Andy, how we doing, Brendan.
I am doing fantastic. I can I can safely say that I am doing better than Bob McIntire.
Yeah, if you're not a Bobby mac fan, and you know, shame on you. There's no reason to not be a Bobby Mack fan, or at least shown some reasons. He's kind of a poudy. He's a powdy boy out there. The birds were birds were just you know, present at AUGUSTA National. He's flipping off inanimate water hazards more than just apparent curse words. There you go, cheeky U curse words you know, just discussed generally. Yeah, you are doing better than Bob. Most people are doing better than Bob.
He's a motive, I mean, he's got personality happy, sad, angry.
I didn't write this down, but I mean he must have like smashed the ground or done some sort of reaction on at least eight shots coming in. I didn't count exactly, but man like, basically every shot he hit on the bacnine led to some sort of reaction of negativity.
He is t eighty two. He's shot eighty. Not a great situation for Betty Bob. Bratty Bob. I mean a word of encouragement.
You know, nobody, nobody got off hot, and Curtis Strange started shot in eighty and that's true and found himself in the leader exact in the eighty five Masters.
There's time yet for Bob Mack. He's a good he's a good thirteen shots back of the leading pace after round one, set by Sam Burns and Roy McElroy, who each shot sixty seven five under on a course that was firm in the morning or quick in the morning. Fast in the morning. It was firm, firm, but not as firm as it got later in the afternoon. I spoke to someone who's been on the Greens all week and said they showed up today and they were like a different shade. They were just very much a different
shade and they were ready to rock. And you know, the early numbers I guess were mostly there in the morning and it was not it was sort of hang on in the afternoon. Now real wind. It wasn't like dramatically changed when but just kept getting harder and harder. Yeah.
You know, if you if you think about what makes ideal conditions for getting greens really firm, it is when there's no humidity and you have cool nights. And we had a very cool night. Woke up this morning. I was like, it's cold. It was cold in our house. Yeah, you go out and then and then it warms up and there's just still no humidity in there. And it leads to this and it it seems like it's gonna get hot this weekend, but it doesn't look like it's gonna be humid. If the humidity stays out of it,
it's going to be just assuming. You know, I think the Masters and the tournament committee there at the Competition's committee has the course right where it wants it, and I think they wanted they this is the their view is the way to challenge these guys, you know, Ridley, and I'm sure We're going to talk about Ridley at some point, maybe on Sunday Show.
But uh, with the way.
Technology is, these guys having a one dimensional game where they hit wedges into tons of greens. The best way to separate good from great wedges is with greens as firm as they are. And we saw it, you know, we saw it where you know, in particular, I thought the thirteenth hole was illuminating where Woodland and Scheffler kind of hit those like kind of low running shots. Maybe they didn't hit them exactly how they wanted to rolls out over the green.
But they have these little wedge shots.
But then Harris english Comes puts a little bit more height on it, a little more spin on it. He hits it to you know, tap in range. So the shots were out there, but you had to hit great shots. And if you didn't hit great shots, then you're gonna be scrambling. For part it was really like Augusta National at the peak of its powers against the modern game.
And okay, can you use the word peak? Do you think we may be going beyond the peak thing? Because there's three days to go here, and we do know Augusta obviously monitors as closely and can control things as they want. Like there were sixty sevens available, there were also there was also an eighty. There's you know a broken body too. There was an eighty four. But it wasn't like everybody was shooting eighty. You just had to be you can be a slop. Yeah, you just had
to be tidy. You had to be smart.
And I think Rory talked about a ton in his in his post round press conference where he's he said, listen, I didn't hit a lot of good t shots, but I was super patient. I put the ball into the spots where I could then get up and down from. And I think that's the name of the game here. You get get yourself out of position. The number one thing you got to do is get yourself back in position to make par It is. You know, I saw a few tweets out that are talking about the US
Open breaking out. This is you know, this is going to be the most US Open like conditions we've seen at at Augusta National. And it's gonna be it's gonna be fun to watch, and uh, it's gonna be fun to see. I you know, if we get four days of this, we never see players criticize Augusta nationally. But if we got four days of this, somebody's gonna crack.
That's where I was going next. Like, you know, there are places that feel like kind of above beyond reproach.
I'm not suggesting that it's it's you know, you can't criticize the place, but you know, you talk about Memorial Jack's allot to sort of put his thumb on the scale, and Bayhill that has this sort of history, and you know, the US Open has sort of lost it right because they just they went so hard for so long that the players just said, you know, we're done with this and and felt emboldened to say whatever they wanted, even
when they just got maybe slightly hard but fair. But even if they were just emboldened to go, you don't really have that dynamic or history with Augusta. They obviously have the gravitas, weight and sort of authority to to let it rip. And they're in beyond reproach level obviously, so you have to wonder what could be coming. We getting know they lost it. They lost Zach Johnson staring
into the camera. I don't think that's gonna happen, but you know, there's no rain coming and there's no you know, maybe no humidity, like you said, could be interesting. Do we do we get that thing where they push it too far or it becomes sort of a real contentious issue with the players.
I don't think so, because I think Augusta understands like and I think this is an important thing while you watch this weekend, it's your your immediate inclination is going to be if there are is there some run of birdies, is gonna be like, oh they went soft?
Like Augusta always has.
A mixture of setups and they like to create a setup where you know, there can be fireworks. And and the beauty of this is they have the course where they can they can create fireworks still because they have you of these great whole locations that feed in you know, and you can create shots. But you know, one of the nice things when it's firm is that you still have to hit quality shots to get the get the
funnels in. And and then there's also, as we saw today, a a a great opportunity for high variance moments.
Yeah, it's it's sort of that like the razor's edge of like hitting your spot but missing your spot. By two feet three feet and the in the punishment being sort of exponential, right, and that we saw that quite frequently today, is there you know that the recent trend is it for for it to get by scoring average. I'm not saying necessarily by play easier almost each day, but certainly easier by Sunday, easier by Saturday Sunday. So yeah,
I think Augustin wants that to happen. Let's go and you can kind of have fireworks on Sunday, And I think that that they will figure out a way to make this. It's not like we're going from hardest to even more hard hardest, you know, beyond the superlative for the next three days. So I think we'll see a balance going forward.
You know, I just I I I look at the bottom of the leader board and I know this happens at you know a lot of things. But like I gotta say, if you said to me, like, you know, outside of a couple names here who had bad days, like put together the group of the weakest players in the field, they're all at the bottom.
So yeah, yeah, outside of a couple of names, You're right, you know, it's it is John Brown the golf court.
You know, you get John and Bob down there, but like if you if you just said, who are who are the weakest players in this field? Like a lot of the first ones you go to are at the bottom of the board.
It's interesting, I don't know, like.
You could not go out there and fake your way around.
Yeah. I was reading some of the data boys, Data Golf and others like that they've sort of augustus figured out a way to be less bomber, like just most bomber rewarding bomber prevalent. And I watched Jose Maria like for five hours. I was writing that no matter what, I was kind of mad. The story got too hot and everybody came out. I was writing that whether he shot eighty five, seventy five or sixty five, I was
just doing that today. The got and then it got too hot, when I was like, he was too wonder and then he went you know, too many people wanted to watch the potty training.
It felt like it feels like a situation where you know, you parents say we're this weekend, we're starting potty training. Oh my god, and you might have wanted to give up.
Yeah, I was ready to go in there's it was too hot, The story got too hot. Too many people were out there by fifteen. I was like, Oh, this kind of sticks. But is that? How are they doing that? How would you explain that they're doing We're like just bomber prevalence. And we could probably bake this and talk about it more on Sunday, quite frankly. But it is interesting that obviously Jose Maria gets around there because of
his exquisite short game. It's not his distance. You know, people like a Russ Henley like you do not there is penalty I think for not being accurate.
Yeah, I think this is this is a great, great question. I think there's a couple core ingredients to this. There's enough space where precise players can confidently feel like they can hit every fairway. You know, the hardest fair way to hit out there's probably seven. And if you're a really great driver of the golf ball, you go to Augusta, Nashville, and you think, I can hit all fourteen fairways today, and I can get it into the places where I can attack.
Yeah.
And the second piece of that, the places where I can attack or play more aggressively to very severe greens. And what that severity does is it doesn't allow the bombers who aren't great wedge players to just bomb it up there and wedge it to fifteen twenty feet and just be like, Okay, I'm going to roll in a couple of these around. I'm going to take care of
business on par fives. Because I don't know, I haven't looked at the stats on this, but I would surmise that like twenty five foot make percentage at Augustin National is significantly lower than run of the mill TPC course because of the severity of the greens. So that combination where you have to be super precise and actually if you drive the ball really well with precision, then you get the advantage of actually being less having to be
less precise on your second shot, right. Like the the thing about Augusta is like, yeah, I could not be super sharp off the tee, but I still could have success if I'm super shot sharp on my approach shots.
If you're not really sharp on your approach shots, you could still get it around because you could be super sharp around the greens or on and around the greens, and really, like we saw Rory do a masterclass of this, today, where like he wasn't really firing, and he hung in there and didn't make any mistakes per se, and then he got hot and went on a run and took care of business on the part five, ironically took care of business on the part fives without with only hitting
one of them in two, you know, and having to like wedge it full webshots on three of them. So I think that's the thing with Augusta is it gives you some grace where you can, like, if you aren't really dialed in on one area, you can make up with it by being exceptional in another area.
Very insightful, Very insightful. You mentioned Rory obviously, Rory Burns. He's sixty seven six birdies for Rory, all four par fives on Orthodox Fashion nine fourteen Burns, PJ. You were on the Burns beat. He's had another sixty seven. He was out early doing a clean sweep. As what we'll talk about later.
This is the first storyline that nobody's talking about.
We'll do that later. Don't worry about it, PJ. But you know, I did the Burns capsule, and like, there wasn't a lot to suggest this was coming. Now it's one day and you know whatever, by the end we may he's just like his he's kind of okay everywhere, but he's a sublime putter, and that's not what necessarily gets it done at Augusta. And he's not done much at Augusta, and this is his first round. He's not done much this year either. There wasn't like a lot
to show that this was coming. But it's one day. It was impressive. He's a great player. I got a new street. He's not on my real leader board. All right, all right, we'll get there then, I guess the kitty cat Jason Day. It's a great leader board. P Patrick Reid went eagle through eagle, two and eight. I believe on the front nine was the race out leader early on. Word from the ground, as Patrick Greed played like fifteen practice rounds in the last three weeks. There was up
here just living up here. And obviously he has had a strong start to the unsurprising.
You're the only place he has to players across the world, so actually, you know, it might actually he might have been looked at the schedule and been like, you know what, I guess I'll just go to Augusta.
Bunch instead Scotty. Any reaction to Scotty early on it felt like he was back to being the sky working it both ways. Obviously got a little little loose there coming in. Listen.
We talked about this in the lead up. When the golf course is this way, with the green so firm, the skill, the skilled players, the top of the barrel players are going to stand out. The players that know how to hit real golf shots, that can hit the different spins. It's not surprising to see the likes of Rory Xander p up there, Jason Day, like these are guys that have seen the golf course a ton justin
Rose to know how to get it around this. When with the golf course playing this way, I just have a hard time believing that somebody without a lot of golf shots isn't going to be in the mix late and and particularly, I think the thing that is going to play itself more and more throughout the week is the high ball hitters, especially if we don't get a lot of win the Rys, the Scotties, the ability to launch it way up.
In the air.
Jason Day and his heyday, this was kind of you know, he had a high trajectory player, because like you have to be able to hit those shots too to get it into these precise locations.
Jose Maria did not have that, and we'll watching today. Are you So what I'm hearing is your bullish onm Brian Campbell top ten after the first round. You're a fellow line I one under. You know he didn't make my board? All right? Okay, maybe not then? All right, so we've hit on most of the leaders. Let's talk a few other notables real quick. Jordan Speith, we all know you've come to become a agreement. You're full agreement that he would be the best possible story would be
him winning. That would put the biggest charge into the grounds, would be Jordan Speith winning. So I'm glad we all agree with that.
Uh.
I don't know. I think Rory might have just overtook him today.
I feel like it was kind of like a weird situation where nobody really like it was the least, you know, I get it, like we didn't have.
The Rory buzz. We peaked with Rory last year, but like that doesn't mean time, Yeah doesn't mean like it would be bad, that would be underwhelming if he won again. Is that where you're getting like you and.
I feel like it just was like kind of like tossed aside, like you know, looking around, you're looking around at experts. I was talking to Paulo Yughetti out there on the golf course who works for ESPN, and we were talking because we're watching Rory coming down the stretch just you know, and uh, and he's like, you know, it's crazy, like nobody on our entire staff picked, you know, and it was just this weird situation with obviously the back injury that we didn't see him at all any
any But at the same time, it's it's crazy. This is this would be an amazing story of a guy that didn't couldn't get it done until his seventeenth appearance and then guess it's done in successive years becoming what is it, the third fourth player, Yeah, fell Nicholas and Tiger, Yeah, fell Nicholas and Tiger and like all of a sudden, going from the most snake pit snake bit of participants in the Masters tournament to joining like a a great list of Masters champions. You know that that's to me
the obviously Spieth's winning would be this surprise. It would kind of feel like a pill or a Tiger moment, you know, Phil at Kiwa or Tiger at ut in twenty nineteen, where you just kind of this unexpected, you know, great player that maybe his prime was in another generation. But that Rory storyline is, I mean, that's ripe story.
Ridley putting the code on on on Rory. There was a funny to that point. There was a funny tweet I saw earlier in the day, Ryan noonan fellow by the name of Ryan Noon, and said with a picture of Scottie and Rory kind of cracking up at last
year's jacket. Sermon said, they said it's quote more wide open this year, and the vault are howling laughing at He's like, you know, you can kind of just talk yourself into the most obvious and simple like storylines and talk yourself out of the most obvious and simple storylines in front of you.
Well, I saw p Pee and his presser. He said, there's like ten to twelve guys that can win this.
Yeah, I mean he's spot on. They basically are all right. There is Jordan Speed one of the ten. I don't think so he's even part a very just Jordan Speed kind of place to be even right now.
I mean where he is is great. Like if you if you're if you believe in speak, yeah you you should, you should feel great.
I just don't see it. For seventy two hole he was. He was moderately interesting and competitive to watch, certainly in the afternoon. I have a question for you. Can I ask you a question? Yeah, I was watching read a little bit. If you had told me in like twenty sixteen that this would be a real question, like who will be relevant for longer out augustin National Jordan Speith
or Patrick Reed? If you'd asked me that in twenty sixteen, I would be like, that's like, that's the most preposterous question. And the mckreed was a very, very very elite player in twenty sixteen. Jordan Speeth was the master's whisperer and all that. But I think that's like a pretty easy answer now. In twenty twenty six I mean, he finished third, kind of nuts that I could see Patrick just sort of kind of making his way around here for a long time, and I don't know, you just hasn't done that.
You would never especially twenty sixteen, Spee sat the top of the game, and his ball striking numbers are incredible. He's got the short game, the putting, he's got everything, every intangible that you would look at, you know, and he's got this like beautiful record there. And Patrick Reid the iron the inconsistent iron play throws you off the scent, but and the and the not great driving throws you off the scent. But the guy hits it right to left.
That's an advantage, right, And then the magical short game. And I think, like you know, Patrick Reid has done a lot of got himself into a lot of questionable situations throughout his career, questionable work.
Yeah, you know where we really want to play, questionable.
Questionable situations that he has thrust himself into throughout his career, which I think obscures that you could make an argument and just based off of skill set like this guy is, here's this guy is, Here's a guy I'll tell you this guy.
All right, sorry, go ahead, this guy Patrick Reed.
Is. I think he's probably the golf savant of the generation.
He's so like that was the thing. He was such such a cover your ears kids prick so many times that obscured how beautiful it was to watch him play golf and work the ball and get up and down. He's incredible. So maybe this is a new era of Patrick Reed. We'll see where he's going. He's in line to certainly be in contention.
Yeah, he's he's gonna hang around. I mean, like, if you start to look at this leaderboard, it's super early. You got just like some amazing if you if we got if you know, everybody's gonna clamor for the Scottie Rory showdown right, Yeah, but then you could also have like the the Read Rory re Ducks. Oh yeah, you know, you could have Jason Day and you could have an old man y m c a game with Jason Day and Rose backing each other down, you know, with the knee pads on.
Jane Lowry's in the mix. Right now, you got on your real leaderboard after after hanas year after Honda. I just I last year's Masters too. I mean, I just can't. I don't think you can be trusted.
I don't think the Honda was like the you know, I don't want to see him on the back nine.
I go after I saw him at the back nine of Honda. We'll get to your real leaderboard. In a second, not in contention at the minute, but but certainly not in the hunt. Maybe maybe certainly not out of the tournament just because there's fifty four holes to play. Are the two pillars of live hope? Bryson and Rob Bryson shot seventy six, Rom shot seventy eight. You know, we're not at Sentosa anymore, John, and I don't know if this is like, you know, the non conference schedule and
you're playing South Directional State University. I know he's wanted Augusta. He's an elite talent, but that was a shocking seventy eight for a guy who's played well this year, and you know, was one of the most trendy picks, you know, for good reason. He's you know your guy, Yeah, my pick shot seventy eight alarming for both. Bryson's irons were horrible. He's hooking the ball. He's like another hook again. You know,
is he's in the bunker on eighteen? Did you want you want a little scuttle butt?
Sure?
I love scuttle butt. Little little I've in the notebook here in a minute.
I you know, Bryson, he had that three D printed five iron in the bag yeah, was it just like one single three printed iron? I mean, I don't know anyways, I uh, brice it to Shamba equipment coming to stores soon, oh, branded single length, Like I don't know why anybody will watch when he does it a gust with his iron play and be like I want that?
God dude? Is that what we really need? More equipment? I mean god blossom, I mean whatever, go get it feels like a.
That's that's what's coming. That's what's coming to stores near you. Do we need another hard goods like entry. I'm just trying. This is this is just this was a juicy scuttle but that I didn't even have to write down to remember there's some good there.
We've gotten a lot or saving the big stuff maybe for Sunday anybody else. You want to talk about specific players we get maybe hit on the course. Let's what. It's easy to do this in retrospect. But rom is most disappointing. Can I just put that out there? Rom Ron? Yeah, for day one, most disappointing. And we know other guys shot bad rounds, didn't have great round ro was the most shocking. Golf is a game iron sharpens iron.
I feel like I'm stealing that from our friend on Live, from Paul McGinley. That line that feels like something he'd say iron.
You know that also like Live doesn't play real golf courses.
Yeah, I agree, they don't play we beg on PGA Tour courses. Live courses are like floating between corn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour.
That Hong Kong one that's really short, right, Sis Sentosas and whatever was going on in South Africa and Rio and the the whatever adelaide the top of the top of the barrel for it. Yeah, looks aesthetically pleasing. I don't know if it's challenging, but.
But anyways, these guys play these just the effect of pitch and putt golf courses. It's gonna be a just a total shock to the system when you tee it up and a golf course just gets like I think Wednesday, you know, I started to hear Wednesday. I heard a ball hit the green on Part three and I kind of like turned around. I was like, whoa, Yeah, but like that, that golf course got turned up two nachs overnight.
And if you have not been playing really.
High level golf courses, this is like a shock to the system.
And you see this all the time.
Like the way I would compare this is you see this with kids who qualify for their first USGA event and they're used to playing you know, junior setups, and then they go play a us AM and they just get completely blown out to see and it's not like talent.
There's obviously a huge moment, but there's.
A lot of times just a shock of what the golf course severity in the in the level is and I, you know, I don't know those guys weren't ready to get off the bus though.
They weren't they got popped. But there there's you know, there's plenty of time to certainly make the.
You know, you know who was ready to get off the bus this morning we got were early.
Not the not the the you know, figurative bus, not the literal bus, the figurative bus, which for us is quite stylish, quite luxurious and comfortable. We are riding to the course in a Mercedes GLS down here in augusta Mercedes all week. They offer a wide range of SUVs from compact to full size. We were with Loodi Ludwig last night. What was his favorite SUV the GLS not favorite Mercedes Coop sorry, g L Coop favorite Mercedes. He was a GLI Coop guy, you know.
In prep, you know, for this week, I went to a dealer and test of a bunch of cars.
The g L prep for this week feels like just sort of a fun out and you know prepes that work, did you you know you know what that was on office hours?
Just Coop has some Gideo. Yeah, it is a very nice car. I uh what I said? When I went in testro they put me in a V eight with the AMG. I mean the thing was like a rocket.
There were some nice looking cars, some good ones.
I love the you know this is that we went to a great mersides dinner last night and they had all you know, the show ponies were out.
Yeah, that's right. They had the Maybach ones out front.
I love the old school the front ornament that's elevated.
Out Yep, that's a good one. Uh. The GLS comes with Burmister three D surround system that creates an immersive acoustic experience. Did I get that right? I think? So what's the giggles? PJ?
I just mean Dean I tried to Yeah, I know experience the power, precision and versatility of Mercedes Benz s u vs with the innovative m b U x ai learning capabilities that could recognize your habits and driving preferences to create your unique driver profile.
Been quite an experience. Uh, being in one of those this week a real, real pleasure. You can learn more by going to m b U s A dot com slash the Dashmasters n b U s A dot com slash the dash Masters. I think you had a friend who was test driving SUVs and it was going to wait, wait, wait, into the g L S waters.
I think, yeah, he said, well, he said, he said, he said, we're adding adding Mercedes to the test drive.
We wish we had a promo code to give you, but we can't recommend it high enough for your friend. No, there we go. Thanks to them for for helping us out, supporting us this week, our coverage, these live shows you're watching and listening to. Thanks to them. All right, let's do a couple awards. Can we do awards? Real quick, rapid fire, Good Guy Jerry Award. We have a good Guy Jerry Awards, which is so let's let's give the backstory.
Please go do you want, you want to do it. So, yeah, this goes back four years ago maybe, yeah, probably four years ago.
You know, Rory's playing, you know, he's doing his typical Rory mind Thursday routine back in the day where you know it was not pretty. You know, it's a bad day, spirits are down trotten.
I watch it. I see Jerry walking.
Across father Jerry McElroy yeap on fifteen and there's like this tiny little piece of cell phane that's way out of his way and it's in the fairway at eas sandwich right. No, No, it was like a little piece of plastic like hardly's visible, okay, And he walked over, picked it up and then walked like one hundred yards back down fifteen through the through the plastic out. So there's that was the birth of the Good Guy Jerry Award. That yes, an act of good service.
We were what we were doing, made up awards every night, and we like we created the good Guy Jerry Award. So our first award winner this week, we'll try to do this nightly daily. Uh is to Mike, another father, another father of one of the better great modern pros here in this current moment, justin Thomas, Mike Thomas. This was from Wednesday at the par three. A media official not a green jacket, was trying to fish a sandwich wrapper out of the pond on the par three course.
They had no luck and everyone is staring at it, debating, flummoxed how to get this loose piece of detritus and floating away floatilla. All of a sudden, Mike Thomas, the father of Justin, springs into action, goes belly down, you know, reaches on his tummy, you know, gets you know, down on the stomach, slides down the bank a little bit, extends his arm into the water and grabs the wrapper. The messenger of the witness says, a good guy. I
can't think of a better one. Good guy. Jerry Ward loved that runner up tonight for me goes to Jose Maria Oloft, the ball who just won my heart in many ways, but one of them was and he walks onto the t box the marshals who waved the flat. He shakes their hand. The other guys he was with the young pups, which is no, this not customary. They just go to their t shot. He shakes the hands of the volunteers waving the waving the all clear flag. I think he could win it for the week.
He could have won it for the week if he had just gone and put his arm around Potty after he bleated one of his chips across the green and said, son, we'll straighten this out, all right.
So that's a good guy. Jerry Warren, let's go. Quote of the day. I need you, PJ please to join in on this. Andy. I need you to guess this comes from Cameron Hurtis who heard it uttered by a fan or a patron. I should say early in the morning or not early in midday. I don't want to give it away.
Oh boy, the.
Quote is fifteen years ago. That was the next Tiger. Who do you think the subject of this quote was about? From a patron? I just want to suggest Cameron's bit this week is how funny some of the most absurd things he hears from fans.
I hate that that PJA told me this quote this morning.
I did not Kevin did. I unfortunately know the answer.
I know the answer as well. It was not.
It was not me who shared it, actually shared it. Actually it was not Kevin either. It was Kyle Porter who shared it.
Porter now that I'm thinking of it. Damn it all right, So I was already to see you guys up for the audience fifteen years ago. That was the next Tiger is a quote that was uttered today by a patron about Keegan Bradley roll Storm. Did that happen? Was there a moment when we said it was the next title? Oh? Okay? Good won the twenty eleven PGA fifteen years keek and.
Bradley was like, I can't believe this guy played golf in Saint John's.
In his winning major major a major.
Hey, listen, yeah, you know who he wasn't Who he wasn't Chad Campbell.
Jack Campbell was a cover of us the High with the smoking iron, right.
Know what I said to somebody earlier this week we were talking about Patrick Reed, and I said, p P stands for problem. Might be he might be an all caps problem.
He is shot of the day. Could I give you a quote I heard? Overheard, overheard?
You know, there's been a lot of lamenting the uh I guess like you know, Kevin Hart showed up at the part three, We got we got Kelsey on the broadcast. You know, we got a bunch of stuff that's just maybe a little bit a lot of blowback, a little bit different than normal, you know, the Kevin Hart. I can't imagine the Kevin Hart situation is going to and I think it's gonna end and maybe probably like a stipulation about who who can and can't caddy.
For you thurs not welcome at the part three.
Yeah, yeah, apparently Sunday had like Gabby Herzig uncover this Sunday had like a Korean actor in sir Oh. It's like I apparently like, yeah, so he was he was doing he was our farming, just like Bryce.
Okay, okay, it's continental a farming going on.
So anyways, there's been a lot of lamenting about about uh about the the Masters and some of the Master's traditions maybe maybe being washed away with the times. One of those that on the ground is undeniable is is the skipp of culture and the.
Lead up to the Masters on sixteen. This is a little more traditional than aur a farming caddie like this has been sort of a Master's practice round tradition.
I think it's kind of like gotten a little a little too high here. I'm not a gatekeeper though, I'm not trying to be a gatekeeper, go to a golf furm and do whatever you want. But anyways, go up in the stance and I just go to peak my head to see if there's a there's a good seat for me to sit in and watch Rory come through. I didn't see anything I liked, but I did hear something that then just tickled my heart. The security the security guard, unnamed security guard that's work in the stands.
He's talking to a patron and he goes, I'm just so glad. The skip it part is so hopefully nobody's trying that.
Now.
Think about that sober, sober security guard. It's just there working. Just can't handle skip a culture. I like that best shot of the day, Peach, you were on this one burn You were on Burns Beat today, you were on Sammy Burns Beat. What was your best shot of today?
I was I will just say my number one pick in the Tea Time draft got relentlessly mocked and ended up with the first round leader. So show me something Tea Time cash.
Cash it.
Peach told me he made an air strike two a m. He can't gamble down here, He texted his buddy. He puts some puts some uh put him in the morning, just you know, going through data with the morning puts in an air strike this morning, seth buddy who phoned a friend who was available to play the bat for him for FRL first round leader. For those not in the gambling community like us, Sam Byrn, no way does a tie count. I'm not used with thanks worry for that,
but there you go. Split it will refund you. Are you sure at two am you were?
Were you? Did you go back to the CIA party? Hain Elephanta. I think that's so you went back to close down the seat last night.
Shot of the day Sam Byrd's on two puts from three hundred and ninety two yard drive two hundred and thirteen yard six iron to ten feet makes an eagle to effectively really start the.
First really good worst shot of the day. We can't show it. Look it up, go find it. The t shot of the Japan Open winner Naoki Kadaoka tea shot at twelve golden bell notable. Part three does not have you heard of it? Cross the hazard, nice little layup make of four. Please go look at this shot track that's first shot of the deck.
Certainly look at.
Hold on, hold on, injection. That wasn't that shot wasn't worse than Potty's Chip on one Oh that?
Yeah? God, you know we called this after contact.
If everybody go watch the Aldrich Pott Geeter, that's who we you know, we lovingly call Potty.
Like we called this on the previous show Jose Maria, Like it's like the Michelin star chef trying to play with Applebee's with the ship. I talked to somebody who was there, like an instructor. He was like, I felt so bad for You could see his face, like a twenty year old old kid who looked like he was like naked out there with everybody looking at him, and like golf is a game of just controlling, managing your demons and that we all have. And it was right there on one and it looked like I felt so
bad for the kid with everybody looking. But that was I mean, he bladed through the green to the back, to the to the Grand State leachers. Yeah, maybe you should have gone driver. Check out the Japan Open Winter Not Kadoka is shot on twelve. Bird of the Day goes to Bobby Mack, which we've already noted. Those are some awards all right, what else you want to do while we're here?
Yeah, do you feel like you need to apologize for Bobby mac I acting like a you know, whiny boy out there.
Absolutely unequivocally rebuke the actions of Bob mcattire on fifteen, especially today. I will not distance myself from my guy. I will still plant the flag, but I hope he gets a good night to sleep and comes back ready to attack the field tomorrow.
All right, let's empty, I'm going to empty my notebook real quick. Jack. We went up and did the honorary starters, saying. I found that quite frankly moving and powerful. I know, there's like a lot of pomp and circumstance and some you know, master streakle that makes people roll their eyes. I find that powerful, Like how many times do those
guys make public appearances together alone at all? And certainly swing a golf course at a golf club at you don't know, a moment of this kind of prominence and significance. I don't know, Like it's not It can get macab to think about, like how much more time do we have? But he's eighty six, he's struggling to walk. I just found it powerful to see him swaying the club and
be there in present. I found an amusing that they take bags full of clubs too, but you know what kind of clubs make the bag and carry that out. But that was that was quite frankly being up there. I'm glad we've got up and we're there for it.
Quite frankly, I mean, the zest of life of GP Gary player.
I loved the high kick always sure. Yeah he bolted. He got out of there quickly.
Yeah, yeah, you know, but he wanted to get get it, get that first burst of fanfare.
Yeah, going first, the first one round of applause, go first.
It seemed like Jack was pretty emotional there, kind of like, I, you know, if it's the allergies, you know this, I didn't guess see it with like, but it looked like he was fighting back tears.
Yeah, yeah, it's it was. I'm very glad we went up there. I don't know, you never know anymore. You have left Tom Watson. Great to see him. Is there somebody else that would be like sir Nick was out there? He is he could he be the next honorary Sorry, that's always I got a guy who I'll tell you about. This guy woozy. I mean, I think you gotta win more than one, right or maybe not. Let's get with je Sarson never won more than one. He was a starter. Other notes. I saw I met ray Lewis in the
hole every running back's worst fear. I was going through this tunnel of people to get across from the front from the first nine to the back guy behind the tenth tee. And I look up and it's just me and ray Lewis in this tunnel. It's ray Lewis coming at me. I did not try to break through the tackle side step. I was like, oh my god, Lewis all that talk about Ravens And it was literally literally met him in this talk while.
We're here, you know, p J and I had a theory of of of what to what could explain John Ram's pour around? What is that somebody met him in the hole with with Haft and Burrell. Chris got her up, meets John Ram in the hole, and and just senses top and and and rom encountered a force that he hasn't seen yet, you know, and and realized, you know what he just got matched with with with Haft and Burrel.
Other quick notes, This came out and Golf Week Calcavecchia booted for phone former major winner thrown off the grounds for having a phone offense. Like that's crazy, but you know the rules of rules and gusta.
What's the threshold of number of majors that you think that you don't get thrown off the like?
Apparently and definitely not above it.
Like, here's a question if if this happens to DL three, is he thrown off the ground?
I don't think so. Definitely not. He feels like more of a like a state promise, Yes, the statesman of the game. That's interesting, that's an interesting hypothesis.
Definitely, there's definitely a level of player that does not get thrown off like definitely.
And then one more romantic little bit of emptying the notebook. This came from Brentley Roman in front of the program at Golf Channel. Uh, Charles Coody, who's you know getting up there struggling to move around. You know he's using as a cane standing out over the first hole, a person with the persimmon wood the grip in the in the ground using the an old persimon club as a cane. I just found that kind of cool image of him standing out looking over Augusta and using a persimmon wood
as a cane. So that's those are odds and ends random Thursday notebook stuff. I got, I gotta, I gotta.
I saw a kid eating ca andy bar, young kid seven, the new Master, obviously all the rage.
I asked for a review. What do you say? So it's okay? He said? He said, well, where's the stack up?
He goes, you know, it's definitely no Snickers bar, but it's better than a plane.
Hershees, bar. Okay, okay, that's where it's where it's sitting. And can't and talk about the candy bar. PJ is going to do an on camera review at some point. The candy god over there. We'll do it, do an on camera review.
I will say I had a Snickers today.
It was great.
I still have not touched the Master's candy.
All right, we'll do it. We'll do it on the Instagram story.
I don't I don't know what's going on with the with the with the with your agenda here.
Where the storylines. Nobody's talking about.
My active People want the PTI sidebar and the pt what did we miss side We're just We're just going all over the place.
I can't keep up. You know, the moment that the show comes from script is the moment we quit. I agree, just might as well fire us in the sun.
All right, we won't be scripted except by that's just I'm not going off.
That was incredible, incredible.
I gotta say, I lost my scripting. So I'm just wearing one. I'm not actually.
Being scripted, all right. Storyline one that nobody's talking about.
I'm worried about the olds. I'm worried about the olds out there. It appears that there is a there's a widow maker on the golf course. I think i've I've started to identify this is where the olds lose their round. We saw two stringing together miraculous rounds today and sure enough, here comes the fifteenth.
It is the widow maker. I'm a golf course. The olds were getting popped there and.
They were ready nine. I believe that was a question in the will Knights f e pool was over eight and a half for highest score this week, which has cashed already.
Oh wow. You know this is the thing. If they hit a good drive, they don't have the option to go for it.
They have to go to this miserable layup, which nobody wants to lay up because it's just a it's a super hard webshot, and then you know they don't have the opportunity to do this, which I heard on the telecast, which I loved, you know, and this is why.
They should abolish.
They should get the next renovation at Augusta Nashville should be removing the right bunker, which is unoriginal, the right bunker on the green. I will continue to yell this at the top of the top of the mountain for everybody to hear. Trevor Immelman, great great, great color guys, Champion Masters, champion analysts, because this is on the broadcast.
Sometimes when players are between clubs on the fifteenth, they try and put it in that bunker the bail out and he goes down to be like I love that play, you know, like great strategy, and it's just it's a spot. It was put in there to be like a hazard, and it's turned into just a place to bail. And that shot would have so much more cinema if there
wasn't that spot to bail. Like how fun was Gary Woodland's ball, which like he hits it and it's like, oh my god, he just flagged that great round by Woodland by the way, awesome, awesome round and then it and then it goes over and it's bounding down.
It's like that. It would just be so much better without them. Counter Would they start bailing out into the grandstands right and just shipping balls into the fans standing and then putting dropping in front of it. Then they could take out the grand stand. I guess yeah, then that's easier to remove. Then you'd even just take out the whole grand stand. That would be cinema. Would you get a bad bounce off the grand stand? Would it stay? You know?
Maybe it's actually the thing is they could angle the grand stand in a way that it shoots him back into the water.
There you go, that's a good one. Whittle Makers. Too bad for Maria. He was coming for a red round there and got popped.
Okay up next uh the pass rush our offensive line pairing. They just couldn't get off the ball this morning, Lamachi, Cabrera and Fridge.
I was in front of them, following the group, and I just kept looking back how the hogs doing the rough day? I saw like midway through the through the turbine. That are all the big pluses.
I'm not sure where they all figured it finished, but but that was tough.
We're opening up holes for the run game, all right, Okay, they couldn't run the ball there, just could never establish the run. Today up next, nobody talking about we've got uh.
This is a case of manifesting not working out. Our and p says he's gonna go win the par three competition and the Masters. I think he said to plus seven second plus five seven, that's not gonna happen. Didn't win either.
Well, I mean he could win the Masters, it would be incredible, I guess, but.
He's not gonna win. Follow this morning.
And then uh, and then we got we got the clocked man, he got the front road. It was Aldrich Pater is so lost. I felt replaced. Come back with a new model next year because this this isn't gonna work out, clog.
Serious issues.
I was told that they Aldrich pot Geater has the largest team in golf by note. It was like the team being you know, whatever, guy who gets your meal, dietitian, no stretch guy, all these things. I saw his dad on He's got a big team people.
Dad's still wearing the matching scripting.
Yeah. Uh, you know, I think we sort of had this one. We sort of called this one early. You know, if you're just if you're just speed demon and your speed demon is not playing well, you know in this season. You know, unfortunately for Potty too, we like this sort of saw this coming, and you know, he was so wild with the driver, just left, left, left, left the whole way, or at least for the front nine that I watched that part, he was just a mess, a
total mess. Obviously, the bladed chip to start the day is not going to put you in a good mindset when that's already a weakness of your game. Potty is clogged, it's just overflowing. We have a total mess on our hands. DFL eighty four the Beauty.
Though he's a young player, this kind of experience can harden him and he could come out of the other side a better player.
Any other storylines no one is talking about. Final one.
Yeah, did the sheriff send out the deputy for a tactical sweep?
The Savans team went out.
Depe Sam went out this morning, swept area, made made made sure it was safe for the sheriff to come through. I will say, Sheriff's got to do kid.
He can't be getting into any accidents out there. He needs some help from his boy to make sure the land mines were put down.
I gotta say the sheriff, he played it. That was an impressive afternoon round. I would be uh, I'd be frightened. I would be frightened if I'm in the field that he goes out tomorrow morning hangs a number. And we've seen this from Scotty here where it's like that second and third round he just goes and all of a sudden, it's like, all right, well I didn't expect that to be that quick. So Scotty, Scotty there, I will point out for Sam. You know, this could be a storyline
later in the week. There is there a promotion in the works. I think he's been eyeing the lieutenant positions. What where does he need to finish in this field to get the get the lieutenant bars.
He needs the top five, top five. Top five is fine. He doesn't have a lot on the resume yet. Top five will get him there, and then we're starting to work our way up. There's many ranks to work your way up. All right, do we do your real leaderboard?
Now?
All right, let's do We're gonna close it out. Andy's real leader.
You don't even remember who's on it.
I'll do it just I'll do it live.
Look he has a graphic. All right, right, I got it, I got it. I gotta figure it out. He's leading at five hundred. This is no surprise. He's alone at the top.
He made it. Huh. Alright, he's alone at the top.
All right, this is the first in a while that Sam doesn't exist there.
I'm sorry, all right, I have to see you more. Okay.
The good news for Sam, he's not gonna encroaching any uh you know, standing water here we go, yeah, right up next, you know, you know it's not on the leaderboard.
Was shot this morning.
When I saw his name jump up on the leaderboard, I was like, what is going on?
He's a great tee and green player gets a little sideways sometimes. But okay, up next, we got Jason Day. All right, so we go, Rory Ja Day on your board. Honestly, this would be a great, great story.
Yeah, sure, I I I love I've been a long time Jason Day. Yeah, you know, he's played this is it's not in the same vein of Rory. But you look at like the first five years of Jason Day's career and you're like, this guy is going to win a Masters, and there's so many times this happened in the history of golf. Then they just don't do it, and it would be so awesome to see.
Him get it done at age thirty eight. I think that sounds about thirty eight would be amazing, he would be. It would be great. He was sort of an icon for us the last last decade coming up and not as well, you know, knowing maybe this decade, but you know, by next week we could all be blowing in balloons before rounds. That's the bird watching year. Yeah, exactly.
Up next p he stands for problem. He Reid is on the board. We're gonna skip over Shane Lowry. Uh the Honda, the Honda experience.
Shane Lowry We've never discussed at all. I was stunned to see he's in the top ten.
I mean he does this. He does this though.
Xanderschofle up next at two under with Justin Rose. Great round from Rosie, I mean battling late in the day you know he's got the first round Magic Sky Scheffler at two under and uh, and we're gonna wrap it up with uh, do we go Bridgeman, Tommy Scottie and then Bridgeman Bridgeman, Bridgeman, Tommy's Tommy's probably there.
There's only seventh spots on the board, Tommy and Bridgeman at one. You'll went to the Bridgeman before Tom. Okay, all right? That one great finish for Bridgeman. Yeah.
I would just say anybody that's plus one or better has to feel really good.
Okay, what do you think? I agree with that?
What would be your like number where you feel okay with?
You'll find I think it depends on the talent.
You know, who's is balented at plus one?
Who's that?
Yeah?
Is fits feeling okay at two over? I think I would throw him in the like you're okay? I don't think so all right. I don't think he's got the horsepower.
I just think, you know, like with so, like with Cameron Young, he shot forty on the front nine. I wrote about Cameron Young and Rory for the newsletter Watch that group.
At this point.
He played that round and he's got to play just and he played a sensational back nine to get himself back in the mix. He's got to play that way the rest of the tournament. He can't afford to have kind of another lull. You can afford to have one bad stretch of golf in a tournament and win. Rory dabbed in four bad holes last year, which you know equates like one bad stretch.
This is not to suggest like anyone beyond one is like completely toast, but you're saying in a good spot, feeling good, like you think Bryson's toast at four over.
I don't foresee away with the board there, with McElroy, with Scottie, with Justin Rose, with Xander who's you know, been playing exceptional golf, with Patrick Reid, you know, Tommy, you just I just don't see a way where though, like all these guys that are like super world class players and absolute menaces at Augustin National, I don't see a way where all those guys kind of fall off. But if you do something absolutely spectacular, you know you can get back into it, you know, just a side note,
and I don't think a lot of people will. This sucks for Colin Morrikawa Yeah, he absolutely sucks. He's like so wounded. I was listening to him. He's like, I want to sco at it, but I can't because my legs don't trust that. Like I can't fire because my legs don't.
And he's hitting it.
He's hitting little poofballs out there. He's still at two over. But you're talking about a guy playing as good of golf as he had ever as he's played in a really long time in the lead up. The back injury hurts, and this is a course that he has played so well on.
It's awful. It's awful. It would have been him on the four or five favorites for sure had he proceeded without the injury. It's it sucks quite frankly. All right, I think that does it for this Thursday Night Live episode. Anything else you want to throw out there? Yeah? One other, one other thing? Okay, low am, low am. Watch. Yes.
I think like Ethan Fang gets some flack even from his peers.
This is we heard it on Tuesday about how he hit slap cuts from certain college piece.
He is not like a track man golfer, like you're never gonna be wowed by his numbers. But This was a day where where you got to know how to golf golfer ball and if you don't have those TrackMan numbers, you got to be a real, real golfer ball er. This guy is a real golfer. He is awesome at
playing golf. I don't know what he's gonna if he's gonna have a great professional career, but you look at the you look at the way he plays, the way he hits the golf ball, and then you look at what he's done in his amateur and collegiate career, and it is he is so impressive for the way when you watch him t off and it made me think.
It gets across the lot.
Yeah, and it's like, I I hope he gets it done because this is the setup that just favors somebody that knows how to play golf doesn't know how to you know, you don't have to know how to you just have to know where to leave. And this is you know, the whole point with Ali, Like you could get around that golf course if you knew where to leave it. And I thought that's the biggest thing that stood out to me with Rory's round was like he did not play well, but he left it in all the right places.
Ali. If you go on eighteen, go watch Olie's.
Round like you will, you will see the exact spot to hit the ball and when you know you're not gonna hit the green all right, the exact spot to hit the ball, to get up and down.
Yep, it was. It was awesome. I've wrote about him today. You can read that on the Friday Golf website. We are churning out a lot of writing, social videos, journals with Ryan Gerrard, firsthand journal as a rookie with Joseph Almania, a great project he's been working on. We're busting our butts. We appreciate all the support. We're only doing it because people listen and watch and read and all these things.
We're very fortunate. We're gonna be doing it daily. Thanks to Mercedes be Tratty for supporting our work, kind of enabling us to come down with that amount of people to produce that work. We'll be back Friday night after play another daily nightly recap. We're gonna have cutwatch miss Cut Fellas. Go ahead, check out the website.
This is a second You know, we have such a wide array this year that's you know the best part about you know, so many people have stopped being asked me like, you know, it's gotta be great watching This is what I love about you know. Where we're at now is like we can create a wide array of stuff. KVV wrote a great article this morning about Jack. Yeah, Jack and a longtime golf writer. That's like, it's just not something you're gonna read. It's not a gamer's ever.
You can read it tomorrow morning when you wake up. It's so good. And then and then Joseph's stuff with Ryan Girard is really cool.
It's been great to get to know Ryan.
He is just like such a golf yeah chat, and but yeah, thanks thanks to everybody on our team and everybody behind the scenes on our team that's helping get all this stuff out the door.
We will be back Friday night, same place, about the same time, probably seven fifteen is seven thirty on YouTube. Obviously, will be in your podcast feeds thereafter. Thank you, mister PJ for producing a lot of a lot of compliments about all your fancy graphics. I heard you. I heard his story. Yeah that that.
You got that someday came up and said, oh my God, PJ, I love your work. And you two were together.
I don't know, and and you Yorks to do her together.
And then the guy turned and asked you to take the guy who said something along the lines I love the shotgun start and then asked you to take a picture of him and PJ.
I don't think that happened, but I would love it if it did, with both of us. And BP was just like, no, just take it with him. Yeah, I would say, is the star. I think this has got lost. That's totally fine. We just want to elevate PJ as much as possible, as often as possible. Please keep me out of it, all right, enjoy your Thursday's Friday mornings. We'll going back to you and talk to you on Friday night.
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